Tag: Collective

Political parties often say they aren't able to find women candidates, but activists say it's an "insult" to scores of women party workers who support them. Scores of people from all walks of life gathered in Bengaluru’s Freedom Park on Thursday, demanding that the Election Commission make political parties give 50% of their tickets to women in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections. This was organised by non-partisan political collective Shakti, which was formed to enable more women to join politics. Tara Krishnaswamy, the co-convener of Shakti, said, “Our parliament has a dismal 11% of women, and [almost] 90% are men. These men are sitting and passing laws on what should be the tax on sanitary napkins etc. But the typical question that comes up is -- you know, we are not able to find women candidates. But suddenly when it comes to giving tickets they don’t find any women at all? The event also emboldened people who wish to get into politics, but are afraid to do so. 20-year-old Shalom Gauri, who will be voting for the first time in the upcoming election, says that an event like this gives her the confidence to speak. “I’ve always been interested in politics, and Shakti has given me the confidence to speak about it openly because it was always a bit scary before.

Better Together, the nonprofit advocating for the consolidation of St. Louis and St. Louis County, is tackling problems as would businessmen, who might be good at making money but don't know politics, said former city and county official Mike Jones, in an interview on the Inside the Post-Dispatch podcast. "For me, going to the business community for political guidance is like going to a goat for wool," said Jones, a columnist and member of the editorial board for the African-American paper the St. Louis American. "Every now and again you'll find somebody who knows how to do something besides vote. But that's not usual." "You're going to see protests in the streets," Jones said. "I'm saying if there's any testosterone left in black politicians, you will have a collective boycott of everything that happened. Better Together staff have argued in the past that the proposal would represent black communities well. They have also said that they believe it will pass in the city and county, a point the nonprofit repeated on Wednesday night.