Archive for the ‘Stories’ Category
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Women of the Left: Djamila Bouhired
25 Feb 2013
Djamila Bouhired, the only daughter of her Tunisian mother and Algerian father's eight children, was born in the Al-Qasaba area of Algeria in 1935. An active revolutionary in the National Liberation Front she was arrested after a bombing and tortured in detention. Her trial and conviction drew international condemnation. After her …
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Review: 2050 Flashback – The System Changes
13 Dec 2012
In November 2011, the Embros Theatre in the Psiri district of Athens was reopened by a collective of artists frustrated that such a valuable resources was being left to decay. Ran as a radical arts space for over a year, on the 27th November 2012, the Greek Ministry of Public …
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When Marx died
23 Oct 2012
When Karl Marx arrived at the Pearly Gates, St Peter had a problem: Marx was on the guestlist, but God wasn't a big fan. St Peter gave God a quick call to explain that Marx had turned up and what he should do about it. "Marx?!" said God "How in …
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Review: Madonna – MDNA
23 Jul 2012
Madonna was the backdrop to my salad days. From her first appearance on Top of the Pops as a slightly chubby, yet vibrant young woman, I followed her closely through my youth. Like many others, I puzzled over "Like a Virgin", wondering if people (read men) could really tell; …
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Women of the Left: Meena Keshwar Kamal
21 Jul 2012
Almost universally known by just her first name, Meena Keshwar Kamal was born in 1957, two years before Afghan women gained the right to appear unveiled in public. Women's rights in Afghanistan were in the ascendancy with women gaining the right to vote in five years later, as increasing …
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Fifty Shades of Misogyny
18 Jul 2012
Fifty Shades of Grey is the summer bestseller. Endlessly and earnestly debated in the broadsheet press as to its appeal and what the phenomenon means to modern sexual relations and attitudes, almost no-one can not have heard of it by now. Fifty Shades of Glasgow is a facebook spinoff. Started, …
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Afghan women and Western values
07 Jul 2012
Afghanistan is the world's most dangerous place for women. Following the 2001 invasion by the US and the UK, the UN established the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF), control of which was assumed by NATO in 2003. The pretext of the invasion was to find Osama Bin Laden, a comic …
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Women of the Left: Funmilayo Anikulapo-Kuti
10 Jun 2012
Funmilayo Anikulapo-Kuti, born in 1900, was the Nigerian daughter of a returned slave who lived in the Yuroba Region. Well educated with a colonial education and a Christian background, she was radicalised through the actions of the British occupation of Nigeria: its racism, sexism and economic violence. Traditionally, Yuroba society …
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Women of the Left: Helen Keller
29 Apr 2012
I first heard of Helen Keller in Primary Four when I was around eight years old. I can't say I was awful impressed with her. I mean yes, of course it was good that she had overcome her naughty ways, no longer broke her toys in anger and very clever …
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Booty Call: A feminist review
14 Apr 2012
I ended up at The Garage's "Booty Call" last night, following an outpouring of fem-rage across twitter and facebook at the advertising campaign shown on the left. A woman out in Glasgow one night had spotted the flyer and become upset at the objectification of the women in the advertising …
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Women of the Left: Juana Belen
12 Feb 2012
The Mexican Revolution was a remarkable period in the country's history, and the stories of the women within it well worth a retelling. Many remarkable revolutionaries emerged through this period, including Dolores Jimenez y Muro, a political advisor to Zapata and Hermila Galindo, who advised Venustiano Carranza on womens rights. Yet one woman still stands …
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Thatcher: A Feminist Retrospective
13 Jan 2012
With the Iron Lady released in cinemas last week, prompting protests by some of her victims, there has been a wave of renewed interest in the evil cunt, including attempts to portray her as some kind of feminist icon. Thatcher was no feminist icon - she had no feminist principles and once …
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The Skeleton: A Cautionary Tale
31 Oct 2011
It had all been a mistake she knew that now. It seemed so obvious back then. It was her first wart that had made up her mind. She had known it was coming; she could feel it emerge, but it wasn’t until a devil pointed it out that she realised …
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When Marx met Bakunin
09 Oct 2011
Most Marxists and Anarchists are aware of the historical tensions which led to the collapse of the First International at the Hague Congress in 1872, there is however a very interesting story behind the schism. In August 1872, Marx was aware of the tensions that were emerging between groupings in …
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Ada Lovelace Day: Donna Haraway
07 Oct 2011Today is Ada Lovelace day, a day to celebrate the achievements of women in Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths. As a former mathematician and a bit of a geek, I remember feeling both surprised and pleased when at eleven years old I discovered that the ADA computer language was named …
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The Proper English
03 Jun 2011As a young teacher in a multicultural school in West London, with a reasonably serious level of interracial conflict among the children, I was asked to deliver a programme of anti-racist education to 13 year old children. As with much of the material that was produced at the time, it …
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Experiences of Dissent
30 Jul 2005I don’t exactly know how I got in touch with Dissent, but emails kept appearing in my inbox. Mainly they were meeting announcements, but then the news came through that they had managed to persuade Stirling Council to use a tract of land at the back of the stadium as …