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Why Women Are Leading the Fight in Iran The heart-wrenching death of Mahsa Amini in police custody on September 16 and subsequent outbreak of protests in cities across Iran, have stunned the world. Amini, a 22-year-old woman from Iranian Kurdistan, was arrested for improper veiling by morality police while vacationing in Tehran. As spectacular as the demonstrations have been,… Continue reading Why Women Are Leading the Fight in Iran

Iran’s Women-Led Protests: What It Means for The Islamic Republic Interview with Ladan Boroumand Protests are not abating in Iran since the death of Mahsa Amini. Two months after the young woman passed away, Ladan Boroumand, historian and co-founder of the NGO “Abdorrahman Boroumand Center” puts the recent events in a historical context. She discusses… Continue reading Iran’s Women-Led Protests – What It Means for The Islamic Republic

Eurovision in Liverpool Two Ukrainian girls celebrating Eurovision 2023 in Liverpool. Photo by the author, used with permission. On Saturday 13 May, I joined a group of pro-Europeans for the last day of Eurovision. The team had started handing out thousands of flags during the previous two days. The same group distributes the blue flags… Continue reading Eurovision in Liverpool

Inleiding Deze speech is geschreven voor de 1 mei-viering van de DGB Kreisverband Kleve. Dat is een lokale afdeling van de Deutsche Gewerkschaftsbund (DGB) in Nordrhein-Westfalen. Met die afdeling heeft de afdeling Rijk van Nijmegen van FNV een goede samenwerking en uit die afdeling zijn ook leden actief in de Internationale Vakbondsraad (IVR) Rijn-IJssel, een… Continue reading Speech over het thema “Ongebroken solidariteit”.

Historian Timothy Snyder teaching at Yale U., July 2017. Photo German Green Party. Licensed under CC Attribution 2.0 Generic licence. Timothy Snyder’s book On Tyranny, a short guide to 20 strategies for citizens to defend democracy, began as a Facebook post after Trump’s election. Many Americans were anxious when Trump’s ideology and style resembled those of 1930s fascists… Continue reading On Tyranny by Timothy Snyder: a book review

General election in a foreign country is a type of news only a few pays attention. But it shouldn’t be so, especially when Europe is frailer than ever – weakened by the pandemic, wounded by the war in Ukraine, confused in the middle of an energy crisis – and a drastic shift in the policy… Continue reading General election in Italy: what is at stake?

Update Thank you for your tremendous support, we will be leaving with 187 drones! For safety reasons we will not send live reports of our trip. As soon as we are back in Holland we will show you all the details of our trip. Meanwhile the preparations for sending the next load of drones will continue… Continue reading Eyes on Ukraine – Please donate to help us gather information about warcrimes happening in Ukraine

In ons land wordt – terecht – geklaagd over de lakse houding van de sociale media zoals Twitter om haatberichten, beledigingen en valse informatie aan te pakken De wetgever is te sloom om het probleem aan te pakken. Het kan wel. Zie Duitsland en Frankrijk Wat kunnen we doen? Duitsland kent het Netzwerkdurchsetzungsgesetz (NetzDG). De… Continue reading Twitter moet openheid over aanpak haatberichten geven

Hungary’s Progressive Alliance Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s official residence in the Castle District of Budapest. Photo by author Progressive Alliance to Challenge Orbán’s Government A very unusual progressive alliance in Hungary plans to fight FIDESZ (Hungarian Civic Union), the right wing ruling party of Orbán Viktor, in the next election on 3 April 2022. I… Continue reading Hungarys Progressive Alliance

Bulgaria’s election spiral: what does the future hold?– Radosveta Vassileva – In an earlier article for the FBPE Blog, I raised awareness of the mass protests against the corruption of Boyko Borissov’s government and General Prosecutor Ivan Geshev which marked the year 2020 in Bulgaria. For months citizens were demanding both the resignation of the… Continue reading Bulgaria’s election spiral: what does the future hold?