What We Need to Learn About Gender Parity in Turkey’s Kurdish Municipalities

Turkey (Conversation) – The last regional elections were held on March 30, 2014, and resulted in the victory of the governing Justice and Development Party (AKP), which won 43% of the votes. While this year’s elections once again marked a victory for the AKP, with the AKP-MHP (Nationalist Movement Party) alliance taking 51.6% of the vote, it also shook the foundations of the AKP’s enduring rule. A significant breakthrough made by the opposition alliance, CHP (Republican People’s Party) and the Good Party (İP), which took control of big cities like…

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Share with Caution: How Social Media Fuels Moral Panic over Drug Use

US (TD) – Viral posts on social media are spreading false and stigmatizing stories about people who use drugs, further marginalizing vulnerable groups. In March 2019, a Facebook user in the US recently posted an image of a toilet paper roll in a public bathroom with a few red dots on it, warning people that someone had stuck a used needle into the roll in an attempt to clean off blood. The post implied that the blood could contain infectious diseases, which could then be picked up by someone who ended up using…

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How Challenging Masculine Stereotypes Is Good for Men

United States (Conversation) – A man sits in a doctor’s office after months of his wife’s increasingly desperate pleas for him to seek professional help for his constant coughing. In the end, she was the one who booked his appointment and even drove him there. Another man is meeting with his manager, anticipating derision and mockery when he mentions he needs to reduce his workload to accommodate the birth of his first child. A third man has a violent encounter outside a pub, fuelled by binge drinking and machismo. He…

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Feeding Farm Animals Seaweed Could Help Fight Antibiotic Resistance and Climate Change

United Kingdom (Conversation) – Demand for food is increasing rapidly – the global population is expected to reach 11.2 billion by 2100. To keep up with the additional mouths to feed, intensive farming practices have maximised production, but often at the expense of the environment and human health. Livestock is reared to maximise economic returns, which often means animals are kept in close confinement with each other, increasing the risk of disease. As a result, antibiotics are often used to treat animals destined for human consumption, but relying on them…

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Mass Line Report: Marcos From Brazil

This interview was conducted and submitted to Pontiac Tribune by Jae Carico of The Fifth Column. This is an interview series with folks living in every country around the world. This second report from Brazil is with an activist named Marcos. Jae: What are the major organizations doing positive liberation work in your area? Marcos: Hard to say… In my specific area, I know none. I live in the countryside, and I know there are antifascists around, but I don’t know who they are. In Brazil, in general, there are some…

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Why Cabinet, Rather Than Parliament, Is the Centre of Power for African Women

Africa (Conversation) – How do we know whether women are achieving equitable levels of political representation? For many years, scholars have focused on women’s representation in legislatures. But in many African states power is in fact concentrated in the executive branch. In most African countries heads of state and cabinet ministers enjoy significant discretion over resource distribution and policy agendas. This means that it’s important to pay close attention to who holds executive posts when trying to work out the role of women in a particular country. Ethiopia and Rwanda…

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Raising Children Under Suspicion and Criminalization

United States (Conversation) – Many were horrified by the viral video of New York City police officers ripping Jazmine Headley’s one-year-old from her arms as she cried out, “They’re hurting my son!” On Dec. 7, 2018, Headley was waiting in a Brooklyn, N.Y., social services office when guards asked her to leave because she was sitting on the floor of the overcrowded office. She refused to leave. She was waiting to speak with someone about assistance for childcare for her son, which had just been revoked. Headley needed the childcare…

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