Around 200 workers from the Tanta Flax and Oils Company staged a demonstration outside the Ministry of Manpower and Immigration in Cairo yesterday, marking the 80th day of their strike, demanding the re-nationalization of their company. Hundreds of their colleagues back in the Nile Delta have also announced their intention to launch a hunger strike as of tomorrow.

• Hundreds of Richmond community members joined climate change advocates, public health experts, local government and labor leaders today in a colorful march, protest and non-violent civil disobedience at Chevron’s Richmond refinery. Thirteen people were arrested.

• In Bangladesh, over 1,000 former workers, retrenched from Mongla Port due to new labour laws in 2008, began a non-stop sit-in protest Monday morning demanding the reintroduction of the call station booking system and payment of arrears.

• Sixteen employees at 4Home Superstores in Co Cork, South West Ireland, staged a sit-in protest for more than 24 hours after being told that the outlet was to close the next day and that they would only receive statutory redundancy, despite many of the workers having been with the company for more than 25 years.

• Around 55,000 auto-rickshaws in New Delhi went off the roads yesterday as part of a two-day strike to protest the government’s crackdown on drivers operating without permits, licenses and pollution control certificates.

• Frustrated by historically low prices at the peak of the shrimp season, several hundred shrimpers will converge on the Louisiana State Capitol steps today asking for someone to investigate a downward price spiral they say threatens the industry’s livelihood.

• Around 50 Dublin Port workers and their supporters picketed and distributed leaflets in the International Financial Services Centre (IFSC) outside the offices of Deutsche Bank – a major shareholder in the port business. The dockers have been on strike for six weeks over plans by the UK firm Marine Terminals to axe 37 jobs.

• Coordination of Right to Life for Erol Zavar began a five-day hunger strike with a press confrence in Ankara to draw attention to serious health conditions of political prisoners in prisons.

• The Chinese government has been forced to cancel the privatisation of a steel firm after 3,000 workers protested last week, the country’s state-run media has reported.

• No fewer than six workers of the Lagos State government Bus Rapid Transport (BRT), including two women, who yesterday embarked on strike and protest for improved welfare and conditions of service, were arrested by men of the Lagos State Police Command and taken to unknown destination.

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When a private security company launched an experimental floating surveillance camera over Port Huron, Michigan two weeks ago, Canadian activists opposed to the invasion of their privacy quickly organized a “moon the balloon” protest. The action occurred on Saturday and saw around 300 people gather at the St. Clair River international boundary, drop their pants, and aim their rears skyward.

Unfortunately, the high tech camera, which is “capable of identifying the name on a ship 12 to 15 kilometres out in Lake Huron,” was apparently grounded at the time of the protest for repairs. But that news didn’t discourage the protesters.

“If the balloon’s sitting on the ground or it’s in the sky, the fact is that they’re still using it,” said Eli [one of the organizers].

“It still needs to be said that we don’t think it’s necessary, that we think it’s a potential invasion of privacy and of sovereignty.”

Sierra Nevada Corp., the makers of the balloon, have said they are only conducting tests and that “the transmission will shut down anytime it passes a building.” Of course if their tests succeed, Sierra intends to sell the technology to the US Department of Homeland Security, which doesn’t exactly have a good track record when it comes to avoiding the temptation to spy on its citizens, particularly peaceful antiwar groups.

Sierra also has a rather interesting history working on technologies that are planned for use against non-combatant civilians. Aside from its work on the Air Force’s Predator Drones, the company has also helped develop a “non-lethal” device known as MEDUSA (Mob Excess Deterrent Using Silent Audio) that has the ability to make people feel as though their skin is burning.

The Pentagon has been as up front as to say that it will be tested on “American citizens in crowd-control situations.” But a 60 Minutes segment that ran last year, showed rather shockingly what is meant by “crowd-control.” Military personnel posing as peaceful protesters—carrying signs that read “Love for All” and “World Peace”—were the demonstrated target.

It doesn’t appear as though the bare-assed Canadians were aware of these connections when they staged their “moon the balloon” protest. But that’s all the more reason we should be watching their backs.

Various campaigners have united to oppose plans for a partially constructed dump site in the Canadian Township of Tiny, just north of Toronto, in Simcoe County. The campaigners who are opposing these landfill site plans have focused on the water contamination that would result from dumping waste on an underground aquifer that runs into the Great Lakes. Provincial and county officials have situated the dump site on the Alliston Aquifer—which otherwise would serve as an exceptionally clean water source. The indigenous inhabitants at three nearby reservations are among the potential victims whose water would be contaminated if the landfill site is completed and used.

The Native Women’s Association of Canada has stressed how the potential dump site “is in close proximity to three First Nations reserves; Rama, Georgina Island and Beausoleil, and it is also the traditional harvesting area of the Métis Nation. Aboriginal peoples have not been consulted about the development of this garbage dump site.” In May, Vicki Monague—an indigenous campaign leader—wrote that:

We have been receiving the support of well over 40 non-native local community members all weekend long who have taken part in our Water Ceremonies and our Songs from the Drum. To my knowledge, this is the first time in Canada that the Non-Native People and First Nations have taken a stand in this region, side-by-side, against the levels of Government. We will continue to stand unified with our White Brothers and Sisters against Site 41.

Our voices have also been heard by Native Elders in Utah and California and we are quickly gaining support from other First Nation communities. Our Sacred Fire has been lit and will continue to burn until our demands are met. We are now inviting all First Nations People in Canada to come and take part in our Peaceful Protest of Site 41. Your First Nations Women need your support. We are going to protect our Heritage Land! Read the rest of this article »

• About 100 people dropped to the ground at Salt Lake City’s Gallivan Center on Thursday as part of a flash mob to protest climate change. The event was organized by Peaceful Uprising, a new organization launched by Tim DeChristopher, the University of Utah student who famously disrupted a Bureau of Land Management auction of oil and gas leases last December.

• Around 60 gay-rights supporters attended the “Kiss-in for Equality” in San Diego on Saturday to demand the right to legally marry in California. Similar kiss-ins were staged in more than 50 other cities throughout the nation.

• Over 30,000 past or current employees of 29 companies are on strike in Serbia to protest layoffs, unpaid wages, overdue severance packages, and a variety of other government policies.

• Hundreds of Iraqi journalists marched through Baghdad on Friday to protest against government censorship and intimidation.

• Dozens of Gazan fishermen called for an end to Israeli attacks on fishing boats and an end to the siege on the Strip in a protest outside of the UN headquarters in Gaza City Thursday.

• Twenty-one Georgian citizens are on hunger strike in a refugee camp in Poland to protest bad treatment by representatives of the border service.

• Video of Danish police officers beating Iraqi refugees last week sparked a demonstration by thousands who demanded the Iraqis be allowed to stay in Denmark and led to a hunger strike by some of the refugees.

• A flotilla of 16 speedboats, yachts and a commercial salmon troller sailed up the Sacramento River to the State Capitol on Sunday to protest plans for a “peripheral canal” that they believe will destroy the Delta’s ecosystem.

Residents of New Zealand’s capital city were caught off-guard earlier this week when an iceberg was spotted floating in Wellington Harbour. As speculation began to mount regarding its authenticity, a group of anonymous artists claimed responsibility via email, saying:

We are not affiliated with any formal group. We’re just people who care, people who have children. This is an appeal to every New Zealander who sees this artwork to stand up and take action. It’s time to really do something about climate change, before it’s too late. We didn’t just talk, we did something. What are you going to do?

It seems as though the stunt has been met with favorable reaction from the city, which plans to let the iceberg remain until the end of the week. The public reaction, however, is somewhat inconclusive. The only published opinion I’ve seen is by a blogger for New Zealand’s Dominion Post, who—despite claiming to be a fan of public art (a la Banksy) and a supporter of climate science—said he liked the stunt, but was a bit turned off by the artists’ email:

It was all so holier-than-thou… There was no concept of nuance, no sense that some people might be more worried about paying the rent right now than keeping the Arctic shelf together. There was no feeling that the best solutions for this complicated problem were probably larger, more structural, than an individual light switch. And there was definitely no thought that the message might be undermining the artwork, which was message enough on its own.

Perhaps he has a point. Most public art is so direct as to not require an explanation. If it’s done right, the work should inspire or elicit the desired reaction. There’s a reason these artists chose a visual form. They clearly believed it to be the most powerful medium for their message. It probably would have been best to stick with it. Nevertheless, they deserve points for style.

• Copperbelt University (CBU) students in Zambia resolved to go on a three-day class boycott and staged a demonstration on Wednesday to protest the government’s failure to address their welfare and the recent shooting of their fellow student, Cornelius Mwape.

• On Wednesday, Honduran police fired tear gas at thousands of people in the capital Tegucigalpa for the second straight day. Police also occupied and closed off a teacher’s college where protesters have gathered. At least sixty protesters have been jailed over the last two days.

• In Richmond, California, environmental activists will march to a Chevron oil refinery and engage in civil disobedience tomorrow.

• The Maoist student organisation in Nepal called for the indefinite closure of high schools countrywide to protest against the oldest university in the republic deciding to phase out examinations.

• Eighteen Ukrainian sailors aboard a ship off the Greek port of Piraeus have gone on a hunger strike because the crew hasn’t been paid for a year.

• Seventy-four Polish women have staged a sit-in at a Netherlands strawberry farm, in protest over working conditions.

• Thirty-seven patients at the Ndola Central Hospital (NCH) male orthopaedics ward in Zambia have gone on hunger strike in protest against alleged ill-treatment and negligence by hospital management.

• Nine prisoners have embarked on a hunger strike at the Mangaung Correctional Centre, near Bloemfontein, in South Africa.

Humanitarian aid worker Walt Staton, who was convicted of “knowingly littering” in a U.S. District court by a jury in Tucson for leaving sealed, gallon jugs of water along migrant trails on the Buenos Aires National Wildlife Refuge, received his sentencing on Tuesday.  Federal Magistrate Jennifer Guerin ordered Staton to complete 300 hours of trash pickup on public lands within a year while he will also be on unsupervised probation. In addition, he was banned from entering the BANWR during that time.

Volunteers with organizations that put water along the trails, like the Samaritans and No More Deaths, are fond of saying that much of the garbage that litters the beautiful Sonoran desert belongs to the government, not the migrants or humanitarian workers.

It is puzzling to try to understand the government’s use of resources in prosecuting and demonizing people like Staton.  It is not uncommon to hear from law enforcement officials that the humanitarian organizations are well-meaning, but their efforts to place water in the desert is misguided and contributing to illegal immigration.  But the reality is that it is failed border and immigration policy that forces people into the deserts, not gallons of water along the trails.

Outside a Joan Baez concert a couple nights ago in Idaho Falls, four Vietnam veterans  protested the show with signs reading: “JOAN BAEZ – SOLDIERS DON’T KILL BABIES, LIBERALS DO” and “JOAN BAEZ GAVE COMFORT & AID TO OUR ENEMY IN VIETNAM & ENCOURAGED THEM TO KILL AMERICANS!”

Rather than ignore the protest, which would have been the easiest thing to do, or get into a nasty argument with the men about their signs, Baez choose to engage them in an exemplary nonviolent fashion. According to Daily Kos:

Joan was informed that the men were protesting her concert about an hour before it was due to begin and she immediately walked out onto the street to talk to them.  When she approached, one of the first things they said was “We appreciate the work you did on civil rights and women’s rights.”  They wanted to make that point clear.

She listened closely as they discussed their views.  Primarily, they wanted to express the way they felt betrayed by anti-war protesters when they returned from combat.  Joan assured them that she stood by them then and now.  They had mixed reactions as she explained her actual positions and her support for all veterans, across the board.

The protesters at first were hardened in their position, and it sounds like at different points the conversations did get quite tense. However, Baez’s calm, nonviolent approach to the conflict had an effect:

…Joan’s continuing acceptance of their stories and her willingness to hear them out began to melt their anger.  In a twist that seems hard to fathom, they then asked her to SIGN THEIR POSTERS!  She replied that she would sign the back but not the front of “those horrible things.”  Incredibly, the man with the baby-killing sign replied that he would take her name off the poster if she would sign it.

She did end up signing them, and also getting copies of her book for each of them, and offering tickets to the show, which they did not accept.  She signed the back of the poster about her encouraging the killing of American soldiers – “All the very best to you, Joan Baez.”

[...]

During the concert afterwards Joan dedicated a song to the protesters and said “You know, they just wanted to be heard.  Everyone wants to be heard. I feel like I made four new friends tonight.”

While I don’t know anywhere near as much about Baez as I would like, she seems to really embody nonviolence and understand what it’s all about. Her approach to this potentially ugly situation is something that we should all take note of, especially as the right wing steps up its protest against health care reform and government action on climate change.  It can be extremely difficult and won’t always work, but love, respect and a sincere openness to engage the opponent in conversation is the only way we will ever be able to win over those we disagree with.

To read a wonderful and humorous story that Baez wrote about nonviolence, click here.

A column of about 10,000 anti-coup protesters marched into Tegucigalpa on Tuesday to demand the return of ousted President Manuel Zelaya. An additional 4,000 Zelaya supporters gathered in San Pedro Sula, the country's second largest city. (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd)

• A peace rally of some 26,000 people brought the New Caledonia capital Noumea to a standstill on Wednesday to protest against recent violence between striking workers and police in France’s South Pacific territory.

• In Washington state, more than 80 people participated in a vigil and nonviolent direct action against the Trident nuclear weapons system at the Bangor nuclear submarine base on Monday to mark the 64th Anniversary of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Nine were arrested.

• In Wisconsin, nine peace activists were arrested this week at the US military base Mount McCoy. The activists had completed a three-day walk to protest the occupation of Iraq and Afghanistan and the US nuclear stockpile on the anniversary of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

• For the third time in the last week, faculty members of the Government College in India boycotted classes on Tuesday and staged a demonstration against the delay in the implementation of the revised pay scales recommended by the University Grants Commission (UGC).

• On Monday, four protesters entered the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection (WVDEP) and locked themselves to the office entrance. They demanded that the agency hand over control of key programs to the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and Office of Surface Mining, Reclamation and Enforcement (OSMRE) and that WVDEP Secretary Randy Huffman resign.