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Experiments with truth: 11/17/09

Original article at http://wagingnonviolence.org/2009/11/experiments-with-truth-111709/

Eric Stoner
November 17, 2009

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In Syracuse, more than 150 picketers protested Sunday afternoon at the New York Air National Guard base against the use of unmanned drones in Iraq and Afghanistan, which will be flown from the base starting next fall. (Mike Greenlar / The Post Standard)

Human rights activists protesting torture being carried out by the United States marched to the main gate at Fort Huachuca Army Intelligence Center in Arizona on Sunday. Five crossed into the base and were taken into custody.

In Finland, 750 Finnair pilots went on strike on Monday after weekend negotiations over a labor contract between the airline and the pilots’ union failed. The industrial action on first day grounded at least 215 international and domestic flights, which would have carried about 15,000 people to destinations.

The prominent Western Saharan human rights activist Aminatou Haidar, dubbed the “Saharan Gandhi,” has launched a hunger strike at a Spanish airport, accusing Morocco and Spain of preventing her from entering Western Sahara.

Eighty-seven Tamil political prisoners in Sri Lanka began a hunger strike protest from Saturday morning demanding that their lives be better protected following an attack on fellow Tamil prisoners Friday by Sinhalese prisoners in the presence of prison officials.

Last Thursday, several dozen SEIU 1021 members and staff occupied San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom’s office, while hundreds more cheered them on inside and outside City Hall. The action was to highlight the solutions 1021 has been proposing over the mayor’s latest attempt to decimate public services.

In Lebanon, Zahle residents, backed by MPs from the capital of the Bekaa as well as popular and student delegations, on Monday staged a daylong sit-in outside the government Serail in protest against increasing armed robbery and assaults in their city.

More than 40 Kurdish political prisoners are continuing with their hunger strike to protest the execution of Ehsan Fatahian.

Students took over the Science and Engineering Library at the University of California at Santa Cruz Friday night to keep it open that night and Saturday — as had been the case before budget cuts limited its hours.

In Sri Lanka, the petroleum sector trade unions vowed to continue their strike, which began on Friday, after politicians threatened to take action against the protesting employees.

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Eric Stoner is an editor at Waging Nonviolence and an adjunct professor at St. Peter's College. His articles have appeared in The Guardian, Mother Jones, The Nation, Sojourners and In These Times.