cafebabel.com

Activist András Istvánffy on ‘Hungary's permanent protest culture since 2006’

('Andras Szirko',) — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 18:48:55 -0000

While the Hungarian government has been closing popular venues, the 4K! or fourth republic! movement has been attempting to reclaim public places through flash mobs and other actions. We meet the platform's coordinator

Activist Ahmed el-Senussi: Libyan prince and human rights hero

Mon, 26 Dec 2011 15:34:01 -0000

Currently a member of Libya's national transitional council, the prince was in solitary confinement during his imprisonment and did not speak to a single person for nine years. We meet in Strasbourg where the former prisoner of conscience was one of five Arabs to win the Sakharov freedom of thought prize for 2011

Ukraine, Belarus, Egypt...free the online activist in you

('Ilona Nuk\xc5\xa1evica',) — Wed, 11 May 2011 15:03:17 -0000

Ukraine’s ‘Day of Wrath’ against its president on 14 May has been organised online. Belarus’ internet is the only escape from regime propaganda. The Arab world reported its transitions online. Amidst these examples, Peter Ludlow, cyber rights activist and philosophy professor at Northwestern University in Illinois, emphasies that politics can be influenced in bottom-up solutions. Interview

Green Rome’s periphery: get thee to the Casale Podere Rosa cultural centre

('English language version of cafebabel.com',) — Wed, 27 Apr 2011 17:00:00 -0000

On the urbanely disfigured periphery of the Italian capital, activists have spent the last two decades using tools such as squats, organic food markets, film projections, solar panels and the idea of Italian environmental memory to promote a more convivial and environmentally friendly way of life

Berlin citizen power: GreenLeaks, Stuttgart 21 and water privatisation

('Nabeelah Shabbir',) — Mon, 14 Mar 2011 16:08:22 -0000

One of Europe's most politicised and strictly environmentally-ruled cities is home to a green-themed Wikileaks spin-off, run by an Australian documentary maker. The mood for disclosure is also celebrated in the annual film festival, which has incorporated the city's first successful referendum into its programme

Moldava youth: one year after riots, we vote!

('Madalina Pierseca',) — Fri, 26 Nov 2010 17:30:00 -0000

Moldavans are called to vote this Sunday for crucial parliamentary elections. For 18 months, this small country - the poorest in Europe – has been functioning without a president, blocking any ambitious political initiative. Two days before the election, it is impossible to know who has the best chance to win. The only certainty is that young people have played and will play a decisive role. This major political force which has become indispensable and wishes to make itself heard is back on the rise

'Eco hippies' on carbon-neutral weekend in the Vosges, France

('Lindsey Evans',) — Fri, 30 Apr 2010 10:00:00 -0000

Four months on from the Copenhagen summit, the failure of a global climate change policy hasn't crushed or reinvigorated the motivation of environmental activists. In the Vosges region of France, Elise's carbon-neutral weekends indicate that changing our way of life may be key to saving the planet

Generation(s) AIDS

('Helen Swain',) — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 11:00:00 -0000

As World Aids day is marked on 1 December, it's an opportunity to think of the human immunodeficiency virus, aka HIV, an illness that has killed more than 25 million individuals in less than thirty years

Moby: free Europe concerts for climate change

('Waldemar Ingdahl',) — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 10:33:36 -0000

'Play4Climate.eu' raises awareness among Europe's youth before the December UN summit in Copenhagen. We chat to the American musician/ activist

Clermont-Ferrand – where are the right-wing?

('Laura Eid',) — Tue, 17 Feb 2009 11:51:12 -0000

How and why has the French city been obstinately socialist for 60 years? We look at its challenge for the 21st century

Youth in Estonia: no country for student activists

('Helen Swain',) — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 10:00:00 -0000

Talking politics to Estonians is more likely to make the temperature drop than the Baltic chill, whilst Europe is remote from students' daily concerns

Photos: Prague Spring, forty years on

('Nabeelah Shabbir',) — Fri, 22 Aug 2008 12:30:00 -0000

On 21 August Prague commemorated forty years of it’s famous democratic ‘spring’, which ended revolt in the capital this past century. The spontaneous protest caught the world by surprise, before it was reprimanded by the Soviet regime. Images

4x4s: urban penis substitutes

('John Smith',) — Wed, 16 Apr 2008 12:00:00 -0000

As night falls across cities in Europe, including here in Lyon, 'eco-guerillas' deflate four-wheeler car tyres in a revolt against a lifestyle which they find scandalous

Bike traffic: return of the scorchers

Tue, 15 Apr 2008 12:00:00 -0000

Environmentally conscious cyclists regularly battle errant cars in European cities

International Roma Day: Aladár Horváth on reality TV in Hungary

Mon, 07 Apr 2008 12:00:00 -0000

A leading activist denounces ghettos and the media-created ‘exotic trash’ images of Europe's biggest minority of eight million people, who celebrate their day on 8 April

FREEZE! by the Eiffel Tower in Paris

('Sophie Paterson',) — Fri, 14 Mar 2008 00:00:00 -0000

On 8 March 2008, 3, 000 people suddenly stopped dead in their tracks and froze like statues at the Trocadero Square 'because we usually spend all day long running around like lunatics'

Feminism in France: the Rose Revolution

('John Smith',) — Wed, 23 Jan 2008 12:32:00 -0000

May 1968 was a turning point in world history, but it was also a rupture for women's history. Feminists of yesterday and today tell us about their war

Lux Voor: the changing face of politics

Mon, 28 Aug 2006 14:00:00 -0000

Neither coalition nor legal organisation, the ‘Lux Voor’ movement, founded in March 2006, radically questions contemporary Dutch politics. We take a look at this flourishing network