On Tuesday, seventeen people were arrested at the New York offices of the insurance giant Aetna. The activists linked arms and chanted slogans “People Not Profits, Medicare for All.” The action was the first in a campaign by the group Mobilization for Health Care for All to hold sit-ins at insurance company offices nationwide.
The World March for Peace and Nonviolence kicks off today in New Zealand, marking the start of the world’s first six-continent peace march calling for the elimination of wars, nuclear weapons and violence of all kinds.
Stores, schools and other establishments were shuttered on Thursday in predominantly Arab communities in Israel, including the Biblical city of Nazareth, as 90 percent of the Arab Israeli population took part in a general strike to protest what organisers called “racist” policies and to mark the ninth anniversary of demonstrations at which police killed 13 Arabs.
On Wednesday, the Ecuadorian Police staged a violent raid on a group of indigenous people blockading the bridge to protest proposed new war and land rights laws. The attack has left at least one confirmed dead, a teacher and member of the Shuar nation, and some 49 civilians and police injured.
In India, over 10,000 engineers and account officers of state-owned telecom firm BSNLwill go on hunger strike today on Gandhi Jayanti Day demanding absorption of officers on deputation and pay revisions, nearly one and a half months after engineers struck work for four days.
About 150 immigrants from Pakistan, Bangladesh and India who had been living and working for years in Greece began a mass hunger strike on Sunday at the airport in Athens after being detained.
In Vermont, four women were arrested earlier this week after blocking entry to a nuclear plant in the town of Vernon. The four members of Vermont Yankee Shut It Down Affinity Group entered the plant housing the Vermont Yankee reactor and sat down on folding chairs. The group includes the ninety-year-old peace activist Frances Crowe.
A group of migrants from Iran, Afghanistan, Sudan, Palestine, and Egypt, began a highly visible hunger strike on Wednesday in France that they plan to continue until Western countries co-operate to offer them asylum.
I’d be interested to hear anyone’s opinion on the world peace march.
It’s difficult to get a sense of what’s happening internationally — since there’s so much to look into — but I’ve made a little effort to explore this.
In some cases (if only a minority of cases), it looks like the ‘peace’ that the march is for and the ‘violence’ that it is against aren’t defined enough to be very meaningful. (Is there anyone out there who would say that they are against peace?)
Evidently there is more substance to all of this though.
I certainly appreciate sections of this document - http://www.worldmarchusa.net/materials/20091002_Wellington%20RafadlR_final_en.pdf
(For instance, I appreciate a statement about how “humanity should have sufficient resources to take a gigantic step guaranteeing all human beings sufficient food, water, medical assistance, adequate housing, and a dignified education. This is possible with the measureless resources used to develop weapons, and in militarization.”)
Why is this blog titled so? Experimenting with the truth?
Toban Black, I went to the Interfaith Blessing Ceremony that kicks off the World March for Peace and Nonviolence in New York. The goal of the march is certainly ambitious, and Rubia is right that much more could be done with the fraction of the cost of making nuclear weapons. How effective will it be though? They have endorsements from some impressive leaders, celebrities and activists. It is important that it gets more media coverage. It would be important to see the progress of the marchers. I blogged about the event and took some pictures – http://tiny.cc/8VJZa
I’d be interested to hear anyone’s opinion on the world peace march.
It’s difficult to get a sense of what’s happening internationally — since there’s so much to look into — but I’ve made a little effort to explore this.
In some cases (if only a minority of cases), it looks like the ‘peace’ that the march is for and the ‘violence’ that it is against aren’t defined enough to be very meaningful. (Is there anyone out there who would say that they are against peace?)
Evidently there is more substance to all of this though.
I certainly appreciate sections of this document -
http://www.worldmarchusa.net/materials/20091002_Wellington%20RafadlR_final_en.pdf
(For instance, I appreciate a statement about how “humanity should have sufficient resources to take a gigantic step guaranteeing all human beings sufficient food, water, medical assistance, adequate housing, and a dignified education. This is possible with the measureless resources used to develop weapons, and in militarization.”)
Why is this blog titled so? Experimenting with the truth?
Toban Black, I went to the Interfaith Blessing Ceremony that kicks off the World March for Peace and Nonviolence in New York. The goal of the march is certainly ambitious, and Rubia is right that much more could be done with the fraction of the cost of making nuclear weapons. How effective will it be though? They have endorsements from some impressive leaders, celebrities and activists. It is important that it gets more media coverage. It would be important to see the progress of the marchers. I blogged about the event and took some pictures – http://tiny.cc/8VJZa