George Galloway at Defend Democracy - Solidarity with Tower Hamlets
Support the Petition Here - Respect our democracy treat councils equally! - http://chn.ge/1xyLf8x 12.11.14 - George Galloway speaking at a Rally in solidarity with the community of Tower...
By: mswithacause
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George Galloway at Defend Democracy - Solidarity with Tower Hamlets - Video
The 25th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall is a good time to reflect on the dimming regard for democratic government at home andabroad.
Nov. 9, 1989, the day that East Berliners scaled the wall and embraced their fellow Germans from the West, marked the zenith of global faith in democracys promise, shortly before the communist empirecollapsed.
I was lucky enough to witness East Europes democratic uprisings firsthand. In November 1989, in East Germany, I watched tens of thousands of peaceful demonstrators in Leipzig roar for a united, democratic Germany, in a series of
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The 25th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall is a good time to reflect on the dimming regard for democratic government at home andabroad.
Nov. 9, 1989, the day that East Berliners scaled the wall and embraced their fellow Germans from the West, marked the zenith of global faith in democracys promise, shortly before the communist empirecollapsed.
I was lucky enough to witness East Europes democratic uprisings firsthand. In November 1989, in East Germany, I watched tens of thousands of peaceful demonstrators in Leipzig roar for a united, democratic Germany, in a series of Monday protests that helped seal East Germanysfate.
In Czechoslovakia, I heard soon-to-be President Vaclav Havel, at Pragues Letna Park, urge a massive crowd to strike for free elections and the right to think freely. I hurtled around Gdansk in a van driven by the legendary Polish labor activist-dissident Lech Walesa, who shouted out his hopes of building the country we dreamed of. Soon, communist systems collapsed in all threecountries.
The fall of the wall not only ended the Soviet empire in East Europe, but also led inexorably to the collapse of the Soviet Union two years later. Third World countries turned toward the American capitalist model in hopes it would deliver the prosperity that socialismhadnt.
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Democracy is on the defensive - Wed, 12 Nov 2014 PST
Max Halupka with museum director Daryl Karp at the Power of 1 exhibition at the Museum of Australian Democracy at Old Parliament House. Photo: Rohan Thomson
The perception of young Australians as apathetic, lazy, and unlikely to engage in political discourse is inaccurate, mad and dangerous according to the authors of a new study on Australian democracy.
The study, undertaken by the University of Canberra's Institute for Governance and Policy Analysis in conjunction with the Museum of Australian Democracy, compared how different generations perceived our political system and what they would change about it.
Max Halupka, a research fellow at the Institute for Governance and Policy Analysis, said the survey indicated a "changing of the guard" with young people feeling disenfranchised with politicians but still supporting democratic values.
"A lot of people see political party membership and engagement as the hallmarks of democracy but what our study did was ask a broader repertoire of questions to see what other ways people engage in politics," he said.
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"We found that Gen Y [born between 1980 and 1995] comes out really strongly in other forms of political engagement as they have moved away from tradition party politics."
Mr Halupka said Australian youth were more likely to engage in politics via social media and online petitions and these trends should not be seen as temporary fads but fundamental changes.
"These mechanisms are a by-product of the internet and an aspect of the everyday so the political system has to adapt to them otherwise we may see an even greater disconnect among younger demographics," he said.
Lead author Professor Mark Evans said negative stereotypes of younger generations were "mad and dangerous for the health of Australian democracy".
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Gen Y bashing 'mad and dangerous' to Australian democracy
An Egyptian court has sentenced 23 pro-democracy activists to three years in prison each for holding an unlicenced protest, after international calls to free the defendants.
The rights activists include Yara Sallam and Sanaa Seif, described by Amnesty International as 'prisoners of conscience.'
The Cairo court also ordered each of the 23 defendants to pay a fine of 10,000 Egyptian pounds (about $A1,500).
Some of the activists had supported the military's overthrow of Islamist president Mohamed Morsi in July last year which unleashed a deadly crackdown on his Islamist supporters.
They had since turned on the new authorities as it extended a crackdown on all protests.
The verdict, one of several against secular-leaning activists in recent months, may be appealed.
The defendants were accused of holding an illegal protest on June 21 calling for the release of detainees and the annulment of a law that bans all but police-sanctioned demonstrations.
'The ruling is political, it has no legal grounding,' alleged Ahmed Ezzat, one of the defence lawyers, after judge Abdelrahman al-Zawary pronounced his verdict.
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Egypt jails 23 pro-democracy protesters
PBP receives Brown Democracy Medal
The Participatory Budgeting Project received the Brown Democracy Medal from the McCourtney Institute for Democracy at Penn State.
By: PSLAalumni