MetaFilter posts tagged with activism and democracy

The Anarchist Revival

homunculus — Sun, 05 May 2013 23:15:41 -0800

David Graeber’s “The Democracy Project” and the anarchist revival. "Is the current arrangement of our democracy unstable? Should we start thinking about what might come next?"

How to Hack the Dictatorship.

storybored — Thu, 17 Feb 2011 19:11:55 -0800

How to Hack the Dictatorship. "Gene Sharp is an American intellectual whose ideas can be fatal to the world's despots. For decades, Mr. Sharp's practical writings on nonviolent revolution — most notably “From Dictatorship to Democracy,” a 93-page guide to toppling autocrats, available for download in 24 languages — have inspired dissidents around the world, including in Burma, Bosnia, Estonia and Zimbabwe, and now Tunisia and Egypt." His fame is spreading.

India's law to promote access to political information has sad downside.

maiamaia — Mon, 27 Dec 2010 12:13:12 -0800

India's freedom of information act martyrs.

Repression in Burma

homunculus — Sun, 09 Dec 2007 09:21:40 -0800

Crackdown: Repression of the 2007 Popular Protests in Burma.

Gift Hub

stavrosthewonderchicken — Tue, 13 Apr 2004 23:01:16 -0800

Gift hub - Connecting Funders, Active Citizens, and Advisors. Phil Cubeta, who is known to many as the weblog world's Happy Tutor (et al.), wants to stop just talking about philanthropy and actually do something. Now this a Corporate Guy that I actually respect. He's recently decided to 'go from satire to sermon, from noting problems to working for solutions,' and brought together some other smart and influential people to talk about philanthropy, activism, volunteerism, charity, social movements, civil society, and emerging democracy, and is one of the people organizing an Open Space for Giving Conference in Chicago. Can a webby philanthropic bridge be built between the chaotic, emergent ferment in the wired world and the world of corporate wealth? I don't know, but I wish him luck.

Keepin' it real with Granny D!

moonbird — Sun, 27 Apr 2003 18:26:47 -0800

Meet Granny D. She's walked, talked and cross country skied across America for campaign finance reform, sucessfully derailed a plan to open-air test the H bomb in Alaska, and she used her 93rd birthday party as a venue to protst the war. This week she's on the road again with Jim Hightower, Eric Alterman and others for the Rolling Thunder Democracy Tour. Arrest won't stop her... nothing will. "Fight like hell for your values and our common dream of brotherhood and sisterhood on this, our garden Earth."

Bloggers campaign for human rights

BubbaDude — Sun, 16 Feb 2003 23:20:06 -0800

Campaign for Democracy and Human Rights in Iraq! Some hundred or so bloggers are sporting logos supporting democracy and human rights in Iraq, just twenty-four hours after a campaign was kicked-off by Dean's World blog publisher Dean Esmay. The campaign is supported by the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies, an activist umbrella group of pro-Democracy Iraqi organizations inside and outside of Iraq. It's a groundswell that will hopefully counter the anti-democratic and anti-Iraqi spirit of recent ANSWER demonstrations, and notable here because it's at this point strictly a blogworld phenomenon, but one that might actually have an effect in the real world. We'll see. Cyber-activism up until now has mainly been ineffective, and the feeling of many activists (cf. Barlow) is that it's more a distraction from real-world activism than an aid. Pro-democracy bloggers are a different breed from many traditional, trend-driven activists, and this might be the difference.