Engage

Engage

Volume 41, Numbers 3 & 4, Fall/Winter 2013
Amy Herzog, Joe Rollins
Excerpted from the Editor’s Note

As we write these introductory notes, massive protests in Egypt’s Tahrir Square have succeeded in effecting the military ouster of President Mohammed Morsi, attended by counterprotests and martial response. Recent actions against public transportation price hikes in Brazil have increased in scope and demand, with millions taking to the streets to call attention to broader issues of inequity and corruption. In Turkey similar grassroots demonstrations have taken place, having originated in Taksim Gezi Park in Istanbul when the ouster of a group opposing the demolition of this public space sparked widespread antigovernment protests (and a violent backlash). Recently, the U.S. Supreme Court issued several landmark decisions that affect long-standing political movements and that have unleashed passionate public response; two of these decisions bolster the right of same-sex couples to marry and claim federal benefits, and a third decimates the Voting Rights Act of 1965. High-profile legislative attacks on reproductive rights are currently being waged in multiple states, seen most dramatically in a special legislative session in Texas, where a highly restrictive abortion bill was blocked by a grueling eleven-hour filibuster staged by State Senator Wendy Davis.