Tag Archives: Activism
Futile Political Gestures: On the ‘Futility’ of Provocation and the Micro-Revolutions in Angola
Ruy Llera Blanes
These videos were recorded in August 2019 in Luanda, Angola and were sent to me via WhatsApp by Hitler Samussuku, an activist from the so-called ‘Revús’ (short for Revolutionary Movement), a civic movement that emerged in the aftermath of the Arab Spring and has since consistently staged a protest route against the Angolan regime, markedRead more
Futile Political Gestures: Performing Futility: Post-Truth and the Politics of Insincerity
Natalie C. Morningstar
‘Invisible and free!’ So begins one of the more chaotic scenes in Bulgakov’s (1997[1966]) The Master and Margarita. After being granted the gift of flight, Margarita embarks on a euphoric rampage through Moscow’s city streets. Unleashed but unseen by her targets, she revels in mostly harmless mayhem. An absurdist account of life under Stalin’s rule,Read more
Futile Political Gestures: Futility and Revelation at the Million Mask March
Vita Peacock
From 2011 onwards, a protest has taken place in London each year on November 5th now known as the Million Mask March. Having been conceived by a handful of activists who sought to playfully re-create a scene from the film V for Vendetta, by 2015 the march was attracting some ten thousand protesters from allRead more
ATC: On Solidarity: Solidarity and Democracy: Lessons from Social Activism Under Austerity in the UK
Shana Cohen
The normalization of far-right politics and racist rhetoric in Europe and the US has led, unsurprisingly, to the rapid growth of a literature examining the potential return of fascism and the concomitant decline of democracy (e.g. Albright (2018); Temelkuran (2019); Bonikowski (2017); Rooduijn (2017); Inglehart and Norris (2016); Albertazzi and McDonnell (2015, 2008); Moffit (2016); MuddeRead more