The streets of Iraq : protests, the public sphere and democracy

Since the invasion of Iraq by Coalition forces in 2003, much attention has been paid to the violence ravaging Iraq’s streets, so much so that they have become synonymous with bloodshed and chaos. This paper begins by countering this prominent view with a brief outline of some of the more positive scenes that have played out on Iraq’s streets, including the successful elections of 2005 and 2009. The bulk of the paper builds on this discussion to detail the various protest movements that have emerged across Iraq since 2003, including those organised by Shia clerics, minority movements, women’s organisations and Iraqi worker unions. This paper concludes by arguing that the willingness of normal Iraqi citizens to exercise their democratic right to protest indicates the degree to which democratic ideals are taking hold in Iraq and represents a fundamental step towards a more peaceful and inclusive future.

The Iraqi Federation of Oil Unions : protests and public power in post-Saddam Iraq

Since the democratic elections held across Iraq in 2005 and 2010 much attention has understandably been paid to the new Iraqi government. Unfortunately, it has become increasingly clear that much of Iraq’s political elite are practising the type of governance referred to in the literature on other Arab states alternatively as ‘liberalised autocracy’ (Brumberg, 2002), ‘semi-authoritarianism’ (Ottaway, 2003) or ‘pluralised authoritarianism’ (Posusney & Angrist, 2005). That is to say, that the Iraqi government actually utilises (and controls) nominally democratic mechanisms such as elections, media freedoms, political opposition and civil society as part of their strategy to retain power. This is perhaps best demonstrated via the nine month political stalemate that followed the March 2010 elections and PM Maliki’s refusal to step down despite having narrowly lost the election. Not surprisingly, the Iraqi people have become increasingly disillusioned and critical of their political leaders – hence the mass protests that have swept across Iraq in the context of the popular Arab Revolutions of 2010-11.

However, these latest Iraqi protests are only the most recent and overt sign of the hidden geographies that are agitating towards democracy in this deeply troubled and increasingly authoritarian state. Since the invasion of 2003, a complex array of political, religious and ethno-sectarian factions have formed civil society movements; uncensored news has been consumed across the nation; ordinary citizens have taken to the streets to protest key government decisions; and various local councils have been formed, deliberating on key decisions facing their immediate communities (Davis, 2004, 2007). Given this context, this chapter focuses on the specific case of the Iraqi Federation of Oil Unions (IFOU), Iraq’s largest and most powerful independent workers union. The IFOU has repeatedly taken the Iraqi government to task over their poor pay and the dangerous nature of their work, as well as the government’s initial kowtowing to US plans to privatise the entire Iraqi oil sector. To do this, the IFOU have utilised a variety of very democratic mechanisms including peaceful strikes and protests, media campaigns and political lobbying. Such moves have met with mixed results in Baghdad – at times the central government has pandered to the requests of IFOU, but it has also gone as far as issuing arrest warrants for its senior members. The IFOU therefore serve as an interesting example of public power in Iraq and may well pose one of the greatest challenges to rising authoritarianism there.

Social media's impact on journalism : a study of media's coverage of anti-corruption protests in India

The year 2011 was memorable for many in India – for those who participated in numerous anti-corruption protests, and for those who witnessed these protests via all pervasive mainstream news media. This paper will use inter-media agenda-setting discourse to explain the Indian media’s coverage of the so-called ‘Anna movement’. It will outline how the use of mobile and social media platforms by the ‘India Against Corruption’ organisers and the educated middle class influenced the mainstream media’s coverage of the protests. The paper will consider the implication of this coverage, in the light of the unique position of power the Indian news media has in this transitioning society.

The streets of Iraq: protests and democracy after Saddam

This chapter seeks to document and examine the Iraqi people’s exercise of their right to protest and the influence these protests have had on the political landscape of the post-Saddam era. Since 2003, the Iraqi people have frequently taken to the streets en masse, to air their concerns about everything – from the ongoing US-led occupation to the government’s failure to provide basic security and infrastructure and to the airing of ‘indecent’ programmss on Iraqi television. This paper concludes by arguing that Iraqi citizens who play an active role in their own governance and participate in democratic mechanisms such as elections and mass demonstrations are helping to create a more robust democracy.

Adult education and radical habitus in an environmental campaign: learning in the coal seam gas protests in Australia

Summary: This paper examines the adult learning dimensions of protestors as they participate in a campaign to stop coal seam gas exploration in Gippsland in Central Victoria, Australia. On a global level, the imposition of coal seam gas exploration by governments and mining companies has been the trigger for movements of resistance from environmental groups. They are concerned about the impact of mining on their land, food and water supplies. In central Gippsland a group of ‘circumstantial activists’ comprised of farmers, tree changers and other local residents are campaigning against coal seam gas exploration. This unlikely coalition of environmental action groups has made effective use of a variety of community education strategies. This paper commences by outlining some of the key literature on learning and activism drawing on the education tradition of adult learning. We then draw on key concepts from Bourdieu’s writing on ‘habitus’ and ‘field’ to analyse the data from this research. We outline some of the learning practices of activists; through their involvement in this campaign, and the knowledge and skills they gain as they develop a feel for the game of protest. We argue circumstantial activists learn both formally and informally in the social environment of campaigning. Of particular interest is the role of more experienced activists from Friends of the Earth (FOE), a non-government organisation (NGO), as they pass on knowledge, experience, tactics and strategies to the novice and less experienced activists in this community campaign. We explore some of the contradictions of the protestors’ identification as activists using Bourdieu’s concepts of ‘doxa’ and ‘Ilusio’. The paper concludes by arguing learning in activism is a rich tradition of adult education and practice. However, Bourdieu’s writing on field and habitus makes an added contribution to interpreting the learning that occurs in the social space of a campaign or social movement.

Unravelling Woomera : lip sewing, morphology and dystopia

Presents a gendered interpretation of reports of protests in 2000-2002 among asylum seekers held at Australia’s recently closed Woomera Detention Centre, discussing instances of lip sewing that evoked strong reaction from the Australian Government, people and press. Suggests that an Irigarayan gendered reading of lip sewing assists in understanding these examples of self-harm, supplementing feminist readings of craft, and calling attention to local enactments of gender in both refugee studies and in organizational development and change.

Overcoming barriers: black African chartered accountants in 1990s South Africa

This paper examines the experiences of black Africans in South Africa who became Chartered Accountants in the 1990s. Building on previous work on marginalized groups within the accounting profession, the study relies on interviews with 22 of those who overcame steep educational, economic, racial, cultural, and political obstacles to join a profession that had fewer than 1% black Africans as members. The interviews indicate that those black Africans who did manage to become CAs in the 1990s shared many common characteristics and experiences. They and their families placed a high value on education and made tremendous sacrifices to meet the requirements to earn the CA certification. Many overcame extreme poverty in their childhoods and attended poorly equipped schools. All were exceptionally accomplished academically, most qualifying for scholarships offered only to the very top black African students in the country. Most faced educational disruptions due to boycotts and political protests that shut down schools and many black universities in the years immediately prior to the bringing down of the apartheid regime. All faced racial discrimination in housing and education. Few had ever met a chartered accountant before enrolling in university; many had never heard of the certification until that point. In the 1990s when they entered some of the major firms to meet their training requirements, they were typically not given the same opportunities as their white peers. Now that they have become Chartered Accountants, and the government has changed and instituted affirmative action policies, most find that they are often offered jobs outside of public accounting. Still only composing about one percent of all chartered accountants, in a country that is 75% black African, most believed that the main road towards overcoming this disparity is through radical efforts to equalize educational opportunities in South Africa across racial lines. Most make professional decisions based at least in part on the opportunities a given position offers towards contributing to the black community.

Iraq and the Arab revolutions : protesting the failure to democratise governance

As the Arab Revolutions swept across the Middle East and North Africa in late 2010 and into 2011, Iraqis were confronted with the failures of their own democracy to deliver on the many promises made to them since 2003. This led to weeks of scattered protests across Iraq, culminating in the “Day of Rage” (February 25, 2011) in which thousands of protestors took to the streets in at least 17 separate demonstrations across the country following Friday prayers. On the surface, these protests shared much in common with others across the region: the use of Facebook and other social media to promote the protests, and the focus on corruption, unemployment and poor public infrastructure. Also similar was the reaction of key Iraqi political figures such as Maliki and Barzani who met Iraqi protests with a mixture of brutal suppression and modest political and economic concessions. However, as this paper will demonstrate, upon closer inspection the Iraqi protests are in fact very different to others across the MENA and are therefore among the most significant for the future of democracy in the region. The Iraqi people were not protesting against an autocratic regime or an entrenched monarchy that had held power for decades, but a relatively new – and supposedly ‘democratic’ - political elite who had been brought to power in the wake of the US invasion. Indeed, while protestors across the region called for more democracy in the form of a written constitution, free and fair elections, a robust media sphere and the rule of law, Iraqis were protesting against the failures of the Iraqi government to democratise such mechanisms of governance (all of which they more or less have). They felt routinely disenfranchised by a state that has manipulated the very institutions and discourses of democracy to retain, rather than diffuse, power.

The Dresden firebombing : memory and the politics of commemorating destruction

The firebombing of Dresden marks the terrible apex of the European bombing war. In just over two days in February 1945, over 1,300 heavy bombers from the RAF and the USAAF dropped nearly 4,000 tonnes of explosives on Dresden's civilian centre.Since the end of World War II, both the death toll and the motivation for the attack have become fierce historical battlegrounds, as German feelings of victimhood complete with those of guilt and loss. The Dresden bombing was used by East Germany as a propaganda tool, and has been re-appropriated by the neo-Nazi far right. Meanwhile the rebuilding of the Frauenkirche- the city's sumptuous eighteenth-century church destroyed in the raid-became central to German identity, while in London, a statue of the Commander-in-Chief of RAF Bomber Command, Sir Arthur Harris, has attracted protests. In this book, Tony Joel focuses on the historical battle to re-appropriate Dresden, and on how World War II continues to shape British and German identity today.

Giving a state a bad name? Kyrgyzstan and the risk of state failure

The article discusses the possible state failure of Kyrgyzstan and the implications of the label of a failed sate. A brief history of the events that have led to failed state status include the Tulip Revolution in 2005, political protests, presidential election protests, and ethnic violence. The response of the U.S., the European Union, and Russia to the events and the national interests of labeling the state as failed are discussed. It is suggested that instead of establishing security other countries have labeled Kyrgyzstan as a failed state which has led to a lack of political legitimacy, an expansion of neoliberalism, and has dangerous implications for the success of the country.