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The quiet resistance of domestic workers in Lebanon

The migrant women working in Lebanese homes have little in the way of protection or rights, but they find ways to carve out normalcy for themselves nevertheless.

openDemocracy.net - free thinking for the world

The quiet resistance of domestic workers in Lebanon

The migrant women working in Lebanese homes have little in the way of protection or rights, but they find ways to carve out normalcy for themselves nevertheless.

openDemocracy.net - free thinking for the world

This week's editor

“Phoebe

Phoebe Braithwaite is openDemocracy’s submissions editor.

Call for participants: Syria, Middle East Forum

يبحث موقع openDemocracy عن مشاركين لمنتدى الشرق الأوسط  لسوريا.

openDemocracy is looking for participants for the Middle East Forum for Syria.

Call for participants: Egypt, Middle East Forum

يبحث موقع openDemocracy عن مشاركين لمنتدى الشرق الأوسط  في مصر.

openDemocracy is looking for participants for the Middle East Forum for Egypt.

Bahrain: “Undeclared Martial Law”

The outright militarization of the security apparatus has infected more and more sectors of Bahraini society. In fact, it’s now been written into the country’s constitution itself.

Frenemies forever: Iraqi Shi’a after Mosul

In Baghdad Iraqi Shi’a political parties and elites are returning to patterns of infighting habituated by decades of coalition- and relation-building in both the pre- and post-Saddam Iraq.

Using the Sustainable Development Goals as a weapon against populism

The Sustainable Development Goals could give activists the rhetoric they need to hold the Trump administration accountable. A contribution to openGlobalRights’ debate on Trump and Human Rights.

 

Is the Philippines really the best country for female social entrepreneurs?

Social enterprises have helped empower women across the Philippines – but they need support to thrive.

The lamentable tri-color

Trump, Brexit and Le Pen - a trio united by their tri-colors, and an enemy that just won't ever go away

Why French progressives should vote for Macron

The second round of the French presidential election is not about voting for the lesser of two evils. It’s about bringing progressives together to vote against evil itself.

‘The contraption’ and the future of social democracy: the government experiment in Portugal

Something relatively obvious took too long to be explicitly acknowledged in Portuguese democracy: that there are more points of convergence than of divergence among the leftwing parties.

UK immigration rules vs. the best interests of children

The UK Supreme Court has accepted the principle of a minimum income requirement for bringing family members into Britain, but hope remains for British families split by borders.

Trust in our own strength: the African Movement of Working Children and Youth in Senegal

The working children of Senegal have long organised to educate, support, and protect one another from the everyday violence of life on the streets.

When meditation isn’t enough

For someone with a traumatized nervous system, sitting in silence isn’t always the right response.

The Turkish referendum and Bild

A tale of two deep states?

The Second Amendment and democracy

Could our democracies be on the wane and our rights under attack because we are less willing to take up arms to die and kill for our country?

Making the future possible again

The twentieth century began with two major models of progressive change in society, revolution and reformism, and the twenty-first century begins with neither.

100 days of Trump — and resistance from grassroots women's groups

The multiplicity of harms can feel overwhelming. But with thoughtful coordination we can support each other to resist this administration's agenda and its global impacts.

Virtue-signalling as a route to social status: instances from the semi-periphery

Two Budapest-based activists give a vivid account of the ideological constraints they are working under, not helped by certain fashionable forms of ‘intersectionality’.

Towards an inclusive and pluralistic citizenship in Syria

Talk about building a new form of citizenship in Syria might seem unrealistic today, but in fact, it should be seen as a long-term strategy.

Setting the EU scene: a management crisis, not a refugee crisis

The EU can and must show leadership in managing refugee movements effectively in accordance with international law.

A nuclear peril, and its silences

The true history of Britain's nuclear-weapons policy should be discussed frankly, not buried in evasion and smear.

Those who want more, do more? A view from Bulgaria

The idea of a 'two-speed European Union', proposed by Jean-Claude Juncker, ignores the actual problems which are causing this to be discussed in the first place.

The stunning disappearance of candidate Trump

Trump’s rapid surrender exposes what we all knew to be true: that his populism was a posture, not a policy. He has no interest in taking on the establishment.

Trump’s first one hundred days: corporate rights trump human rights

Trump's administration has disdain for all rights, except, of course, the rights of corporations. Over the past 100 days, he has taken this enduring tendency to new extremes.

Russian authorities ramp up repression against anti-corruption protesters

The Russian authorities are pressuring protesters and protest organisers ahead of further anti-corruption protests. Русский

Participation and foresight: putting people at the heart of the future

The demise of the Commission at the stroke of a Minister’s pen demonstrated the fragility of such bodies. So Welsh Government set out to incorporate the Commission’s function within legislation.

Society becomes a network

A common perspective facilitates larger social and political understandings that support needed reforms, improving governance and political understanding. Interview with the former Chilean Minister and proponent of foresight.

A letter from my future self on citizen foresight, why and how?

Keep doing what you do with discussion cards, interactive videos and futures games, which are far more effective in communicating futures to people in the street.

How Rojava-inspired women's councils have spread across Europe

Could this little-known system provide a way forward for real democracy – from the bottom up – in our failing neoliberal political systems?

Brexit, free movement and children’s rights

Children living in the UK under EU rights are at risk because of Brexit, but they are often unable to solidify their footing on their own. Others must help them do so.