Natalya Vasilyeva is a court clerk and press secretary of Khamovniki Court, the unexpected last-minute venue of Khodorkovsky’s second trial. Disillusioned by “ordered justice” and political pressure, Vasilyeva today broke ranks in a sensational interview. She confirmed what many had already long s
Mubarak's totalitarian control of opposition parties and civil society organisations largely delegitimised them. 6 months is a short time to build-up of the essential fabric of democratic organisations that will allow the promise of the revolution to be realised
In the ascendant in Egypt is the socio-political power of a new national-development-oriented coalition of businessmen and military entrepreneurs, as well as the decisive force of micro-enterprise and workers’ organizations consisting of women and youth - a force that portends well. First publishe
It is the deeper process of social transformation which should spread from one country to the other and not just some hollowed out ‘pro-democracy movement’.
A “palm revolution” in the Gulf? Political upheaval in the desert state of Bahrain: there have been calls for a Day of Rage in Bahrain to replace the celebration of 10 years of constitutional monarchy on February 14th which is set to split the country in two
Maybe the US won’t change its course until the Arab world changes. It is amazing how instantly possibilities present themselves when the people, en masse, demand their own interests and rules of the game.
The uprisings sweeping across the Middle East portend a political transformation as significant as those of 1989. The economic stagnation of the region, the failures of corrupt and repressive autocratic regimes, conjoined with a disenchanted youthful population wired together as never before, have
In thinking through the issues we were struck by how often failures happen at the level of the national state nowadays and remedies, responses, the making of solutions… all tend to happen at more local levels, from cities and villages to translocal networks and neighbourhoods.
The leaders of the United States have this time dropped the ball.
The neat division we assume between the well-regulated economy and the informal, underground economy is not the neoliberal way. Today our laws, norms, regulations and above all our ‘beliefs’ are no longer viable.
