Protest and resistance

"The Theses LVI belong to a series of hitherto unpublished early manuscripts of the Dutch humanist and jurisconsult Hugo Grotius (1583-1645) that were acquired by the University of Leiden in 1864. It is not certain when the Theses were written, but preliminary research on the physical manuscript and the sources cited indicate two possible windows. The first is around 1602-1605, that is roughly at a time when Grotius was also working on his Commentary on the Law of Prize and Booty (De Iure Praedae Commentarius). The second dating places the genesis of the manuscrbipt around 1613-1615.
In the context of Grotius’ writings, the Theses LVI assume an important position for several reasons: They raise questions about state formation, the duty of citizens to the state and the right of political resistance in far greater detail than in any other work of the celebrated Dutch humanist. The Theses LVI also feature important reading notes that yield priceless insights into the sources that Grotius directly consulted and their influence on his ideas. The manuscript grants modern scholars a unique glimpse into the working mind of its author. Evidence points not only to the ferocious haste with which Grotius wrote his works, but also the occasional sloppiness of his reading and research habits.""""

""International conflict coverage as intercultural communication
Intercultural communication occurs when large and important cultural differences create dissimilar interpretations" (Lustig/ Koester 2010: 52)

If this problem focussing definition of intercultural communication seems familiar to the reader, it could be reasoned by the occurrence in the last weeks’ media coverage according to the Maidan protests in Ukraine reaching its peak in the beginning of March with diplomatic threats and bilateral accusations. Hilary Clinton is, perhaps not without a reason, comparing Putin’s strategy of ‘just securing Russians in Ukraine’
with Adolf Hitler’s annexation of Czechoslovakia (Robes Meeks 2014 and SZ 2014h), Putin and Yanukovych claim the protesters as fascists putschists (SZ 2014k), German leftists scent a counterrevolution of bourgeois and fascist forces (Arbeitermacht 2014, indymedia 2014, MLPD 2014, SZ 2014b) and German mainstream media celebrate the folk’s victory. These differences in interpretation occurred mostly in the end of January when the before 2 months lasting mainly peaceful protests converted into riots and radical fascist fighters appeared more frequently in media pictures. Here, a weakness of modern protest and conflict communication became aware.
Transnational communication and delivery systems now facilitate the internationalization and even globalization of some protests […] and today’s complex media ecology […] offer unprecedented opportunities for the wider dissemination of political protest and dissent – from the local to the global

(Cottle 2008: 855) While, according to Simon Cottle, news coverage has been getting more direct and international and, therefore, foreign protest movements and revolts are omnipresent in today’s media, intercultural differences are often ignored. Hence we may misjudge these movements mistakenly since we have fundamentally different senses for categories like
in- and out-group or power distance or analyse all happenings in relation to us and our value system driven by an enormous
eurocentrism  ignoring cultural asymmetry and identities. For analysing these problematic reinterpretations of international protest, I use a biased quantitative analysis of German print media online coverage assessing the frame of news transported via linguistic elements and support this with a qualitative analysis of a few chosen exemplifying articles by quoting some parts of them. I will mostly use articles of "Süddeutsche Zeitung" since this is one of the highest quality newspapers in Germany, not too left or too right for providing an exemplifying picture and was endeavoured of being objective. Both analyses, qualitative and quantitative, are embedded into the following chapters which each pick one of the mentioned intercultural communication categories as core."

The anarchist project, as it has been developed over the centuries, has been to expand human freedom and reduce misery, toil and coercion throughout society.  As political thought has developed since the 18th century, anarchism has sought to expand this sphere of the included subject to advocate for women, people of color, the working class, and nearly from its inception, non-human animals.  In the modern arena, anarchism and anarchist direct action movements have struck back at capital and the State with the aim of reducing animal exploitation, financially paralyzing abusers, and raising radical awareness.  This chapter seeks to explore the myriad of ways in which the anarchist revival of direct action, which followed the 1999 anti-WTO demonstrations in Seattle, have engaged with this fight.  Through an examination of contemporary anarchist tendencies including the Greek insurrectionists, the international militants of the Informal Anarchist Federation, the Mexican eco-anarchist bomb tossers, the US Queer network Bash Back! and others, we will examine the inseparable link between those that oppose State power and those that seek to strike back against speciesism, ecocide and domestication.  Drawing primarily from movement communiqués, the chapter explores a discourse on the inherent linkages between the anarchist struggle, and that of animal liberation as told through the words of a clandestine, globally-dispersed network of attackers.

"L’article explore le champ sémantique de la protestation et des termes similaires, mettant en évidence les tensions socio-culturelles et idéologiques qui le soumettent à pression et le transforment : pourquoi des phénomènes sociaux sont-ils étiquetés par les médias, et plus tard aussi par le discours social partagé, en tant que « protestations », tandis que d’autres phénomènes similaires sont stigmatisés comme « révoltes », « émeutes », « tumultes » ? Cette catégorisation et ré-catégorisation continuelle des manifestations de protestation, à travers le langage et les narrations, se produise-t-elle spontanément ou à la suite d’idéologies et logiques communicatives spécifiques ? Qui manipule le récit de la protestation, avec quelles stratégies rhétoriques, et à la poursuite de quels objectifs ? Piloter la représentation de la protestation, en particulier dans un monde envahi par les médias, est-il peut-être tout aussi essentiel que la construction de la protestation en elle-même ?
L’article cherche donc à identifier et décrire les quatre noyaux sémantiques de base de la protestation ; ce domaine sémantique inclue des phénomènes et des formes de signification en apparence les plus disparates, de l’assemblée d’étudiants qui se plaignent de la qualité de la nourriture dans une cantine jusqu’aux flash mobs des nouveaux groupes situationnistes Américains ; et pourtant , en dépit et en dessous de cette étonnante variété, peut-on peut-être identifier des caractéristiques communes, des lignes similaires, des mécanismes communs ? L’article répond par l’affirmative, et cerne quatre caractéristiques essentielles de tout phénomène de protestation, en en caractérisant ainsi la structure sémiotique profonde : objectivité, antagonisme, expressivité, et asymétrie des agentivités ; mais l’article met en garde aussi que cette structure abstraite doit être remplie avec des études de cas réels, qui peuvent confirmer ou démentir ce schéma, mais surtout en corroborer ou réfuter le potentiel heuristique.
Enfin, la dernière partie de l’article énumère les objets d’une sémiotique de la protestation, à savoir les types de signes, de textes et de discours qui en construisent la manifestation sensible, et conclut en indiquant l’horizon de la recherche sémiotique, qui se situe entre l’esthétique et l’éthique. D’une part, c’est à la sémiotique qui revient de décrire en détail les différents langages que les groupes sociaux fabriquent et adoptent pour protester contre le statu quo et préfigurer un état de choses alternatif ; d’autre part, cependant, c’est également la tâche de la sémiotique de développer une réflexion sur la distinction, toujours problématique, entre la signification et la violence, entre protestation communicative et protestation coercitive."

""Following up to the fruitful and interdisciplinary discussions At the first „Riot!“ workshop in  December 2013, where we discussed a broad range of research projects (MA and PhD  theses), engaging with the topic of riots and rioting in different geographical and historical  contexts, from squatting movements in Potsdam in the 1980s and 1990s, to urban uprisings  in Manchester, Paris and Stockholm, to food riots in Burkina Faso and 18 th  century slave  insurrections in the Caribbean, we are glad to announce that a second workshop will take  place in late February. 

If you want to present your own work, please indicate the topic so we can include it in our  programme. For all presentations, please prepare a handout or a draft paper and send it to  us by the 21 st  of February, so we can circulate it among all participants. Presentations and  handouts can be in English or German. 

In case you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact us.  We are looking forward to hearing from you! 

Janna Frenzel (jannafrenzel@gmx.de)
Philippe Greif (phi.greif@googlemail.com)  ""

What do the different forms of unrest that have proliferated in Europe, North Africa, the Middle East, and Latin America have in common? Recently, Judith Revel and Toni Negri published The Common in Revolt, one of the more lucid and penetrating essays analyzing recent and current social protests, revolts, riots, and street politics. A characteristic of such provocative essays is that they demand responses and help shape public debate. This is an important historical moment when commonality needs especially close analysis.