American rapper Tyler the Creator cancelled his Australian tour following a campaign by feminist grassroots activist group Collective Shout.
Pemberton Music Festival/ Mark C Austin
Arts activism isn’t new, but online activist movements are changing the way it gets done. In this anonymous virtual landscape, does activism democratise social relations, or nurture inequality?
If only we could all get this excited about tackling climate change.
EvaRinaldi/flickr
There is a wider social, economic and cultural context in which sex work occurs. The criminalisation of consensual adult sex work does not prevent violence – it exacerbates it.
Caspar Bowden, privacy advocate and campaigner.
Rama
From the perspective of conservation scientists, the government’s inquiry into the tax-deductible status of environmental groups is a bad idea wrapped in naïveté.
New forms of creativity are proliferating – with the help of technological advancement – and building new activist communities.
David Shankbone/Flickr
Can creative activism change the world? In 2015, we are seeing seismic shifts in the functions and forms of creativity – and technological change is amplifying its social role.
Proposed laws requiring covert footage of animal cruelty to be handed promptly to authorities would make in-depth investigations much harder.
Animals Australia
Proposed laws requiring immediate reporting of animal cruelty sound like a good idea. But in practice they will make it harder to mount comprehensive investigations like the ABC’s greyhound expose.
Faith Bandler will be remembered as a tireless advocate for the rights of South Sea Islanders in Australia.
AAP Image/Jane Dempster
Mrs Faith Bandler has died. We mourn our loss and honour her life. Her death on Friday marks the end of an era. At the age of 96 years, she outlived all the other black political activists of her generation…
Artist Ben Quilty at last night’s I Stand For Mercy vigil for Myuran Sukumaran and Andrew Chan.
AAP Image/Dan Himbrechts
The prospect of the execution of Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran has polarised Australians. While some argue the young men should suffer the consequeneces of importing heroin, others take a different…
In 1984, British LGBT rights groups worked on behalf of striking miners.
Flickr
The film Pride, which won the Queer Palm Award at this year’s Cannes Film Festival, is based on the true story of what seems to be a rare occurrence in human history: two oppressed groups (in this case…
Groups like Stonewall have become big players in the workplace.
Linzi
A key event in the British employment calendar is the publication of the Workplace Equality Index each January. It is a ranking of the top-100 “gay-friendly” employers by Stonewall, the UK’s main campaigning…
No tech here…
Stack of hands image via shutterstock.com
Foundation essay: This article is part of a series marking the launch of The Conversation in the US. Our foundation essays are longer than our usual comment and analysis articles and take a wider look…
Protestors demand answers over undercover policing in 2011.
John Stillwell/PA Archive
The Metropolitan Police has agreed to pay more than £400,000 to an anonymous woman who unwittingly entered a relationship with an undercover police officer investigating her. The woman was left traumatised…
It’s easy to sneer at people for protecting their backyards, but what if there’s a compelling reason to do so?
Mickey DeRham photos
Foundation essay: This article is part of a series marking the launch of The Conversation in the US. Our foundation essays are longer than our usual comment and analysis articles and take a wider look…
Who yarn bombed these trees? There are many reasons knitters take their work to the streets.
jenniferworthen
Who exactly is behind the knitted bike rack cover that you walk past at the local park? And what is it that drives someone to cover a tree with intricately knitted creations? Yarn bombing – the practice…
Australian rugby star David Pocock is among the international sportspeople supporting the Principle 6 campaign – citing the Olympic Charter – against Russia’s anti-gay laws.
Twitter/@pocockdavid
What happens off the field stays off the track and the dais but plays OK at the press conference – that is the rather convoluted message from International Olympic Committee (IOC) president Thomas Bach…
Facebook has recently tried to close down the popular Anarchist Memes page on its site in the latest of a string of crackdowns on political online activism. It’s just one more example of the social media…
For those of us who were around when the HIV pandemic started in the west, How to Survive a Plague, a newly released film about AIDS activism in the US and the fight for more research is an especially…
A Palestinian farmer and Israeli soldier clash in an olive grove. Can academics in other countries affect this situation by boycotting one side or the other?
AAP/Abed Al Hashlamoun
The news that famous physicist Stephen Hawking has decided to join the academic boycott of Israel has attracted some heated commentary. Hawking pulled out of attending an Israeli conference in June, explaining…