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This paper aims to provide an insight into how trade union activities in the Czech Republic have developed in the 15 years since the “Velvet Revolution” of 1989 and discusses some of the important political, economic and cultural factors which have influenced that development.

The author shares with us his fascinating experiences as an activist in Czechoslovak and latterly Czech politics over a period, which spans some of the great events in the History of the Czech Lands. As an activist in the trade unions he was at the center of the events known as the Velvet Revolution of 1989 and for the 15 years that followed he has been President of Typograficka Beseda (the Print Trade Union) – and has lead the union through the troubled waters of reconstruction, transition to a market economy, democracy, privatisation and EU membership. This first hand account provides a welcome insight from an important “player” in the events that re‐shaped the system of employee relations in that region.

The paper compares the myth of democratic trade union institutions and workers rights under Communism with the reality of the Czechoslovak industrial relations system under the old regime where the trade unions were restricted to dispersing welfare and holiday club benefits. The author explains the major problems which faced the new democratic trade unions which were set‐up in the aftermath of the 1989 Revolutions – in particular the haemorrhage of members, the loss of experienced leaders to politics and business, privatisation and the general distrust of the trade unions which were still perceived by many as still being run by and in the interests of the Communist Party.

One of the main strengths of this paper is that being a player rather than a mere observer its author provides a study which is based on being at the center of the events that moulded the new democratic trade unions that emerged after Communism collapsed in the former Czechoslovakia. The frame work within the article provides a challenge and points the way to further research into the internal and external environmental factors which the author argues are the key to understanding the changes and which determined the political, economic and social structures that the Czech trade unions adopted.

The paper's main value is that it provides primary material – a first hand account of the events that are normally written by people who were not even born when they took place. These are the reflections based on actually being in the place at the time seeing hearing smelling and sharing the feelings of those who were there.

Disaster relief workers experience psychological and physical needs as a direct consequence of their disaster involvement. While this impact has been acknowledged, relatively little is known about the nature of the psychosocial demands generated by prolonged exposure. Developing both comprehensive preparatory and support programmes for relief workers will require that the nature of these demands, their impact on personnel, and their implications for disaster management are documented. Describes the experiences of a group of nurses who provided relief care in Romanian orphanages in the aftermath of the 1989 revolution in that country. Suggests that prolonged disaster exposure creates specific personal demands and operational problems. Problems were described in relation to operational practices and national issues (e.g. political and cultural factors). Describes the implications of these factors for relief worker wellbeing and relief operation effectiveness, together with suggestions for managing these demands.

The communist political system in Eastern Europe rested not upon consent but upon coercion. As an ‘important centre of administrative repression’, the secret police proved vital in ensuring the survival of the regimes which they served. In the earliest phase of communist rule, during the late 1940s and 50s, the secret police were primarily employed as instruments of political and social change. Their task was to intimidate the population as a whole into accepting the fact of communist party rule. Once the communists had consolidated their power, the task of the police altered and became one of ‘political maintenance’. In this second phase, which lasted right up until 1989, the secret police no longer acted as agents of change but, instead, as guardians of the status quo.

Describes something of the history and geography of Czechoslovakia before describing, with photographs, some of the most interesting and important buildings in the country. Points to some opportunities (as at 1991) for west European property developers.

The purpose of this paper is to expose librarians, scholars and other interested parties to the numerous films available concerning the 1989 and 1991 European revolutions. The films that are discussed can potentially be used as ancillary sources that will lead to a more in-depth understanding of these topics.

This paper is a literature review examining films relating to the 1989 and 1991 revolutions in Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union. The findings are presented in the form of an annotated bibliography.

A total of 24 films from eight countries are presented in this annotated bibliography.

In researching this paper, the authors have been unable to find any similar works, which makes this work of particular value to those wanting to learn more about this period of change in Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union.

In writing a paper to honour Professor Clem Tisdell, it is apt to focus attention on the environmental and human costs of commercial agricultural production, especially the Green Revolution technology in South Asia during the last few decades. This is an area where Professor Tisdell has done much research, amongst the multitude of other research interests he has pursued in his very illustrious career. Modern commercial agricultural practices involving chemical inputs such as fertilizers and pesticides have been associated with huge increases in food production never witnessed before and, in the case of cereal production (especially wheat) under Green Revolution technology, recorded spectacular growth. As statistics show, production and productivity have increased. However, the high chemical usage of fertilizers and pesticides to bring about these spectacular increases in food production is not without its problems. A visible parallel correlation between higher productivity, high chemical input use and environmental degradation and human health effects is evident in many countries where commercial agriculture is widespread. This paper discusses the environmental and health effects/costs arising from the high use of chemical inputs to increase production and productivity in South Asia, with a field study carried out in Sri Lanka to show the health costs arising from direct exposure to pesticides during pesticide handling and spraying on farms by small‐scale farmers.

The monograph argues that American racism has two colours (white and black), not one; and that each racism dresses itself not in one clothing, but in four: (1) “Minimal” negative, when one race considers another race inferior to itself in degree, but not in nature; (2) “Maximal” negative, when one race regards another as inherently inferior; (3) “Minimal” positive, when one race elevates another race to a superior status in degree, but not in nature; and (4) “Maximal” positive, when one race believes that the other race is genetically superior. The monograph maintains that the needs of capitalism created black slavery; that black slavery produced white racism as a justification for black slavery; and that black racism is a backlash of white racism. The monograph concludes that the abolition of black slavery and the civil rights movement destroyed the social and political ground for white and black racism, while the modern development of capitalism is demolishing their economic and intellectual ground.

The aim of this paper is to identify the different values that were communicated through the visuals of the Egyptian revolution of January 25th, 2011 with reflections on those that were communicated historically in Germany to highlight how these visuals can act as tools of informal education and social marketing campaigns to citizens of a country.

The current research paper takes a qualitative exploratory approach. The method that was utilized is content analysis, with the sub‐method used to analyze the content of the street visuals being semiotic analysis.

The main social and religious values communicated between citizens in Egypt and Germany were about freedom, peace, unity, and victory. These street visuals help in communicating social and religious values to citizens of a country at the time of the revolution and recording them keeps their messages for future generations to come. Accordingly, these visuals help in informally educating citizens and act as social marketing campaigns from and to the people.

The results here should not be regarded as conclusive results as they are of a qualitative nature and should be followed and tested by future quantitative research.

The main contribution of this research paper is to fill the gap in literature by blending all the different research domains about informal education research, social marketing, graffiti and street art papers, and the historical revolution accounts. There was no prior research conducted with either a similar aim or under all these previous domains.

This paper aims to analyze the Egyptian revolution as an anti-systemic movement. It illustrates how Egypt’s position in the world-economy has affected its political economy orientation and led to the marginalization of critical masses, who launched the revolution.

The paper follows Wallerstein’s world-system analysis focusing on the anti-systemic movement concept. The paper analyzes the Egyptian case based on Annales school’s longue durée concept, which is a perspective to study developments of social relations historically.

The Egyptian revolution was not only against the autocratic regime but also against the power structure resulting from the neoliberal economic policies, introduced as a response to the capitalism crisis. It represented the voice of the forgotten. The revolution was one of the anti-systemic movements resisting the manifestations of the capitalist world-economy.

This paper aims at proving that the Egyptian revolution was an anti-systemic movement; which will continue to spread as a rejection to the world-system and to aspire a more democratic and egalitarian world. The current COVID-19 pandemic is exacerbating the crisis of the world-system.

Attempts to find answers to such theoretical questions as the character of Soviet‐type societies and the major tendency of their development. Argues that, as long as the analysis is conducted in convenient and extreme terms of “either capitalism or socialism or communism”: as long as the yardstick for the comparison remains capitalism of laissez‐faire; and as long as the general trend and the particular forms of the world economic development are ignored ‐no satisfactory answer to the nature and fate of such societies can be found. If, however, one looks at Soviet‐type systems as socio‐economic and political structures destined to solve the problem of the industrial revolution and modernization of backward and peasant nations under the conditions of the twentieth century, then the enigma disappears. Soviet‐type societies become what they are in reality: a variety of capitalism that, having fulfilled the “archaic” act of industrialization, is moving into its post‐industrial era.