Experiments with truth: 6/22/11
- Union workers at the Hyatt Regency Chicago staged a one-day strike on Monday at the hotel to protest working conditions and outsourcing.Some of the nation’s top CEO’s were also holding a closed-door meeting at the hotel, while 5,000 angry demonstrators outside chanted, “You got bailed out, we got sold out!”
- About 10,000 Moroccan people rallied in Casablanca on Sunday to argue that the constitutional changes proposed by King Mohammed VI are not enough.
- Tens of thousands of Yemenis took to the streets in Sanaa on Monday to demand removal of the ruling regime.
- Syrian anti-government activists put red paint in the fountains of squares in central Damascus on Monday to symbolize the blood shed in the uprising.
- Computer hackers shut down the Orlando Chamber of Commerce’s web site for most of the day Monday and posted a “boycott Orlando” message on a major theme park’s Internet page to protest Mayor Buddy Dyer’s restrictions on feeding homeless people in public parks.
- Two breweries in Madison, Wisconsin have stopped selling Miller Coors beers in favor of local craft beers to protest the corporation’s support for the state budget.
- A group of about 20 artists snuck into the Boston Museum of Fine Art last night with their works and turned the bathrooms in the new Art of the Americas wing into a make-shift gallery to protest the lack of attention on local artists.
- Saturday marked the second International Day of Action Against the Tar Sands, as people in twenty US cities took action to expose the companies driving demand for the world’s most destructive industrial project and carbon polluter, such as fruit producers Dole and Chiquita.
- An estimated 1,000 farm workers marched in Sacramento on June 16th to urge Gov. Brown to sign a bill that would protect farm worker safety. On Friday, the day after the bill went to the governor, a number of farm workers and their allies began a hunger strike.
Of all the nonviolent actions taking place around the world today, two of the most outstanding are missing from this report:
1. The villagers of of Gangjeong Village on Jeju Island in the south of South Korea are waging a very valiant struggle against the building of a navy base on their island which is a UNESCO heritage site and a popular tourist destination because of its extreme beauty, including coral reefs. One man is back on a hunger strike after a previous 55 day one while he was in prison. Another protester is awaiting trial. MacGregor Eddy of the Global Network Against Weapons and Nuclear Power in Space was just there and reports that villagers daily impede construction work, including attempts to pour concrete in the water on the reefs to build the base from the sea to the land. See http://nobasestorieskorea.blogspot.com/ or keepspace4peace.org for updates
2. Pakistanis in the 10s of thousands are sitting in, blocking NATO/US/ISAF supply routes from Pakistan to Afghanistan in protest against US drone strikes on Pakistani targets that are killing many civilians and violate Pakistan’s sovereignty. http://www.asiadespatch.com/2011/05/imran-khan-inspires-anti-drone-protesters-at-karachi-dharna/