When the AIDS activist movement ACT UP was formed in New York in 1987, 50 per cent of Americans wanted people with AIDS quarantined, while 15 per cent favoured tattoos. An interview with Sarah Schulman on her film United In Anger: A History of ACT UP.
The word 'refugee' conjures up images of rows of tents, barefoot children and saddened faces. The reality is more complex. My research shows that Afghan refugees have developed lives alongside Pakistani nationals in Karachi's poor katchi abadi areas: marrying, working, loving and learning together
A new world requires new stories, but people will only listen to them when they themselves are included in the storyline. This requires a ‘gear-shift’ in conversations about radical action.
Is spending time alone an escape from reality or a gateway to more effective social action? A walk can be transformative when no one is babbling in your ear.
Can the new Aam Aadmi party transform Indian democracy? Or will high expectations be dissipated as the party's promises are challenged and its weaknesses are tested? Either way, other movements for social and political change should take heed.
I was at the anti-fracking protest at Balcombe in the UK when another activist said austerity is "a beast bigger than all of us". Then I started to see monsters everywhere.
Illegal firearms, mostly smuggled in from the USA, are fuelling violence in Mexico. In response, thousands of guns have been transformed into gardening tools, musical instruments and public art.
