Issue 5:
RESISTANCE
Introducing Demos issue 5: the editors take a look into what it means to resist and affect change.
Decolonising the University: Lessons from Oceania
In October 2013, students and staff at the University of Hawaiʻi painted this mural on their campus in Honolulu. The mural was painted in protest of the University’s involvement in plans to build a thirty-metre wide telescope on Mauna Kea, a very sacred place for...
from
it took a cutting of my skin by a mouthful of teeth– from two places [it came] fixed margin by margin; hold cities under breast neither could swallow it like the daffodils; rising their heads in late winter bursts with colour when they grow tired...
Kashmiriyat
Sometimes resistance is not violent. Sometimes, it is reinforcing what is peripheral to a culture because the roots of it are still in the homeland. The Kashmir Valley, at the foot the of the Himalayas, endures both kinds. My family, as far back as we can trace, are...
Biocide Resistant Crops and the Capitalist World-System
Readers be warned: bringing up genetically modified organisms (GMOs) at a dinner party could just be the 21st century equivalent of bringing up feminism or conscientious objection in the early 1900s. I have committed this techno-era faux pas and it did not end well....
Suppressed in Solidarity
Sumithri Rekha Venketasubramanian. Soo-mi-three (roll the r, short vowel sounds for the first two syllables) Ray-khaa (aspirate the k a slight bit) Veng-cut-uh-soob-ruh-mun-yun (pretty straightforward). Or Sumi (Soo-mi) for short. Not Sue-mee, keep the vowel sounds...
Three Poems
Soul You have not earned the right to use this word, a white professor said to the Persian girl as he ran his eye over her poem. And filled with shame (at her own presumption) she scratched out four letters that she had not earned the right to use. The word...
Slow and Quiet Resistance in Yangon: An Analysis of Daniel Zvereff’s Album ‘Chinthe’
Much of the discourse surrounding Myanmar discusses its struggles with identity formation as an obstacle to its otherwise huge potential for growth and development (Dittmer, 2010) (Perry, 2007). After decades of isolation, Myanmar emerged out of its cocoon only to...
Our girls
The radio alarm this morning leaked a slow dark stain. Some deaths are quick and almost fine. These have caused the stars to reel in pain. Take my morning cup of Earl Grey tea, take the slow swell of quiet sun through the autumn glass. Take the polished surface of the...
Knowing More, Knowing Less
Understanding resistance, and social phenomena more broadly, has traditionally been the domain of the social scientist who stands above the everyday to bring to light what was previously unknown about our own lives. However with the emergence of affect theory, which...
How to Live: 1. Learn to Die
Learning to Die in the Anthropocene: reflections on the end of a civilization. By Roy Scranton. Published 2015 by City Lights Books, 142 pages. In Learning to Die in the Anthropocene, Roy Scranton sets out from a concept that will be familiar to those concerned about...
Golden Ticket
She learns shame when she’s 11 years old. When their cackles echo through her nightmares and snarl to the rhythm of the 8 o’clock bell. -ding- dong-ding-dong – Her eyes follow the herds as they reluctantly pull apart – pushing and shoving, teasing and hugging – and...
Humour as Resistance: “Star Wars first, the Sacred War can wait”
Last December, the leader of the Islamic State posted portions of a call-to-action on Twitter intended for Muslims around the world. The words were cut from an audio recording, in which Adu Bakr al-Baghladi declared that taking up arms and “joining the fight” urgently...
Resistance and Resilience in a Portland Abortion Clinic
Resistance is a battle cry. Resistance can move mountains. Resistance, in many ways, has defined the shape and limits of the modern world. But what occurs within its contours? In his book Alter Politics and Radical Imaginary Australian anthropologist Ghassan Hage...
Resisting the Logic of Fear in the Age of Terrorism
In July of 2016 four violent attacks in three different German cities claimed the lives of 13 people. The first anti-terrorism policy draft published in the aftermath of the attacks suggests increased surveillance, more police and more thorough background-checks on...
The Role of Radical Publishers: An Interview with PM Press founder Ramsey Kanaan
– Ramsey Kanaan interviewed by Odette Shenfield PM Press’ Stall at the World Social Forum At the 2016 World Social Forum in Montreal, I sat down to talk to Ramsey Kanaan, founder of PM Press. PM Press is a radical publisher based out of Oakland, California. I first...Past Issues
