The US PEPFAR initiative has brought HIV medication to millions of people globally. Behind this progress are the activists that pressured politicians and companies to put patients over patents.
Many grassroots Black Lives Matter activists are demanding more accountability and transparency from the movement’s increasingly centralized and well-funded leadership.
Tayfun Coskun/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images
Like many social movements before it that began at the grassroots, Black Lives Matter is becoming a more conventional organization with top-down leadership.
Protesters seeking relief from lockdown restrictions, like these in Missouri, are being marshaled and egged on by conservative political operatives.
AP Photo/Jeff Roberson
Marc Ambinder, USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism
Research and investigative journalism call into question the authenticity of – and actual public support for – recent protests demanding governments lift lockdowns and ‘reopen’ the US economy.
Oukasie residents protest over poor service delivery in 2010.
Jaco Marais/Gallo Images/Getty Images
A readable and important new book on the struggle for justice in South Africa’s Oukasie township does not go far enough to question the feasibility of grassroots resistance.
Mobilising and organising large numbers of voters makes for a powerful political force, and as a tool for change in democracies. Its use is not limited to ‘elites’.
Started with high democratic ideals, how does the U.S. Patent Office work for the 21st century?
StreetsofWashington
Founded in 1790, the Patent Office aimed to put innovation and entrepreneurship within reach of every citizen. Now, 10 million patents later, critics say an out-of-touch system is doing the opposite.