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This week's editor

A revolution for our times: Rojava, Northern Syria

Travelling in Rojava is to witness a revolution experimenting with a form of stateless, direct democracy with women’s liberation, race and class equality at the heart of it. Part 1.

Choosing a new UN Secretary-General who will champion human rights

A new UN Secretary-General must champion human rights – and that means a more transparent, inclusive and merit-based selection process. EspañolFrançais

Havens of the one percent: a video interview with Harold Crooks

Harold Crooks’ film The Price We Pay (2014) explores how tax havens are changing the nature of the modern state. From the Open City Documentary Festival. Archive: July 7, 2015.

The high stakes of the EU referendum

Four weeks ago we launched the Brexit Divisions project to explore the strategies and stakes of the upcoming EU referendum. Looking back, this is what we’ve learned.

Smuggling as social negotiation: pathways of Central American migrants in Mexico

Migrants travelling north from Central America employ guides and coyotes to facilitate their journey, but their time together is characterised by continuous re-negotiation.

Beyond common-sense notions of human smuggling in the Americas

Once mainly a sending-country of migrants to the US, Ecuador has become a transit zone migrants from all over the world as they seek to reach new destinations.

COAL: the Vagina Monologues of climate change

Culture change takes us to some dark and painful places, yet art and music remind us that love and beauty are vital for social transformation.

Britain and the EU: a gulf in understanding

The UK's differences with the European Union can be found buried in her legal systems, and what they teach her about how to treat rules...

Democracy, 25 years after Yugoslavia

Just how democratic are the former Yugoslav countries today?

Bleeding heart liberals and the war on terror

Demonisation is used by the right to prevent the left actually opposing the war on terror with more than platitudes; criminalisation is used by the state against those against its crimes.

A History of BP in 10 Objects – the British Museum’s unexpected exhibition

As the new director of the British museum starts work, communities from around the world have sent objects to symbolise their oppression by the museum's sponsor, BP.

Short skirts and short tempers: Italy's media and Islamophobia

How did a tiny, inconsequential bit of local news in Amsterdam get picked up and made a major discussion topic in Italy's media?

Book review: Oleg Kashin’s “Fardwor, Russia!”

Oleg Kashin’s new novel blends a resurrected Soviet-era sci-fi with some robust political satire, but for what audience?

 


Fear and loathing in Ukraine: a very “European” protest

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A new type of mass mobilisation on the streets of Ukraine shows how society is being divided along lines all too familiar to EU citizens.


Will Osborne’s Manchester 'devolution' fall flat on its face?

Today, Manchester becomes the first English region to “take control of its health spending”, supposedly. But what do patients, NHS campaigners and junior doctors think? 

How an underground hip hop artist and his book club threaten Angola's regime

This week 17 Angolan activists received jail sentences for participating in a book club. Here's why. Português

Latin America 2000-2015: an interim assessment

The great shortcoming of the messianic leaders was their failure to understand the root of their so Latin American stance: cycles exhaust themselves inevitably. Español

When international agendas trump the people’s demand for reform, no one wins

As Sri Lanka moves on a new constitution and transitional justice process, it must prioritize local concerns of deepening economic inequalities over an international focus on war crimes.

In defence of personal health budgets

The roll-out of personal health budgets to growing numbers of people has alarmed many campaigners. Here one of their pioneers tells openDemocracy why he’s still a keen advocate.

Underpaid in the UK? The state probably isn’t going to help you

The government spends nine times more investigating benefits claimants than it spends probing employers who pay below the minimum wage.

Flesh Vs Fossil: Let’s shut down the UK’s largest opencast coal mine in May

In May, thousands will gather in Wales to shut down an open cast coal mine.

Is capitalism destroying feminism? An interview with Dawn Foster

Many assume that women, at the top, will act in the best interests of their gender. Nobody asks if people like Margaret Thatcher and Theresa May, wouldn’t instead act in the interests of their class.

How the Democrats created a 'liberalism of the rich'

How has the doctrine of 'entrepreneurs first' become holy writ in a party dedicated to the welfare of the common man?

Bernie wins big, but does it mean anything?

The American voter is being offered a much more informed choice than if Mr. Sanders had simply gone back to Vermont after 'Super Tuesday'.

The west's shadow war

The expanding use of special forces to combat ISIS risks repeating the abuse and failure of the campaign against al-Qaida.   

Here’s how we mutualise the BBC

Two MPs proposed this week that the BBC become a mutual organization. Dave Boyle sets out how this could be done in practice.

The final frontier for privatisation: schools

As in the NHS, the government’s structural changes to schools are just the start of a massive privatisation process.

UN CSW: debating women’s reproductive rights or a “culture of death” ?

In a cynical ploy, conservative religious groups based in the Global North now frame reproductive rights advocacy in the Global South as the neocolonialist imposition of a uniquely western value system.

UN CSW: engaging men and boys in ending violence against women as allies not protectors

Without a feminist lens, the expanding efforts to work with men and boys to promote gender justice are often patronizing and reinforce the idea that women need protection by men.

UN CSW: ending impunity for gender-based crimes against women refugees

The CSW has called on UN member states to "address sexual and gender-based violence as an integral and prioritized part of every humanitarian response". Civil society groups expected more.