In his latest comic for World War 3 Illustrated, Ethan Heitner, a student at the School of Visual Arts in New York City and a member of Jews Against the Occupation (JATO-NY) and Adalah-NY: The Coalition for Middle East Justice, describes the reasons that he supports the boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) campaign against the Israeli occupation.

Last year, Naomi Klein wrote an important piece for The Nation in which she counters several arguments that are often made against this campaign, that is well worth a read. She argues that BDS is the “best strategy” in the ongoing struggle for justice in Palestine, and that surrendering these nonviolent tools “verges on active complicity.”

To learn more about how you can get involved in the campaign in your community or on your campus, click here.

After more than half a century of intransigent injustice, the Palestine/Israel “conflict”—or “disaster,” or whatever you want to call it—only seems to get worse. In the last few years, Israel has pummeled both Lebanon and the Gaza Strip with devastating impunity and, especially in the Strip, forcibly prevented its victims from making any kind of meaningful recovery. Meanwhile, pro-Palestinian activism in Israeli civil society is reportedly on the decline. But, in one of a series of events since returning from the partly-thwarted Gaza Freedom March, a group of activists spoke of their experiences on Thursday at Judson Memorial Church in Greenwich Village, telling a packed room of more than 200 people, “We are here to celebrate an achievement.”

The Egyptian government didn’t let most of the over 1,300 protesters from around the world into Gaza for the planned march, but those at Judson said that they witnessed a new stage in the emergence of a global movement, facilitated by the Internet, that may well be poised to end the international support that makes Israel’s policies possible. The linchpin of the movement, the Cairo Declaration of the Gaza Freedom March, was drafted by would-be marchers while they waited in Egypt. It includes commitments to:

Palestinian Self-Determination

Ending the Occupation

Equal Rights for All within historic Palestine

The full Right of Return for Palestinian refugees

The Declaration also calls for comprehensive boycott, divestment, and sanctions against Israel and the interests that enable its occupation. Read the rest of this article »

• Supporters of the German Pirate Party assembled in nearly naked groups at airports in Berlin, Frankfurt and Düsseldorf on Sunday afternoon to protest the controversial “naked” scanners planned for security checks.

• British Airways cabin crew are routinely pouring vintage wine served to First Class passengers down the sink to protest staff cuts and a two-year pay freeze.

• About 200 people gathered for the kickoff of an 11-day series of events in Washington DC om Monday to raise awareness about the Guantanamo situation. About 100 people nationwide will participate in a liquids-only fast, while others planned to join in prayer and reflection through Jan. 22, the one-year anniversary of Obama’s executive order.

• Nearly 100 auto workers and labor activists demonstrated in snowy, blustery conditions near the North American International Auto Show on Monday, calling for a federal jobs recovery bill, a national single-payer health system and a green industrial policy.

• Around 150-200 inmates at Stillwateter Correctional Facility in Minnesota refused to return to their cells after a meal on Sunday afternoon to protest the operational rules of the unit, such as the amount of time they are allowed out of their cells. After almost two hours they complied with orders to return to their cells peacefully.

• Dockworkers at France’s top container ports in Le Havre and Marseilles staged the second 24-hour strike in as many weeks to protest government reforms.

• Around 1500 children in the villages of India’s Gujarat’s Sanand block have stopped going to school to protest the Gujarat government’s plans to acquire their parents’ farmland for industrial purposes.

Last week, Ariana Huffington and Rob Johnson announced a new campaign to challenge the big four banks – JP Morgan/Chase, Citibank, Bank of America, and Wells Fargo – which took hundreds of billions of dollars of taxpayer money during the bailout while cutting lending and paying millions to defeat any substantial reform of the system. When Huffington and Johnson contrasted the behavior of these mammoth institutions over dinner with friends before Christmas:

…with the efforts of local banks to show that you can both be profitable and have a positive impact on the community, an idea took hold: why don’t we take our money out of these big banks and put them into community banks? And what, we asked ourselves, would happen if lots of people around America decided to do the same thing? Our money has been used to make the system worse — what if we used it to make the system better?

In response, they launched a website, Move Your Money, that includes an extremely helpful tool where everyone can “plug in their zip code and quickly get a list of the small, solvent Main Street banks operating in their community.” In addition, Eugene Jarecki, the award-winning filmmaker behind Why We Fight, a great film about militarism in America, made a video (above) to go along with the campaign.

The idea is simple: If enough people who have money in one of the big four banks move it into smaller, more local, more traditional community banks, then collectively we, the people, will have taken a big step toward re-rigging the financial system so it becomes again the productive, stable engine for growth it’s meant to be. It’s neither Left nor Right — it’s populism at its best. Consider it a withdrawal tax on the big banks for the negative service they provide by consistently ignoring the public interest. It’s time for Americans to move their money out of these reckless behemoths.

It could also just as easily be described as a boycott of these big financial institutions.

While some have argued that the math for this campaign simply doesn’t add up, others have come to Huffington’s defense. Reuters’ blogger Felix Salmon wrote an interesting response to critics, in which he pointed out that even though many who would likely participate in this boycott wouldn’t have huge bank accounts to close, they could still have a serious impact. Banks earn tens of billions a year simply from overdraft fees and the like, which are primarily paid by their poorest customers. Therefore, as Salmon notes:

If the people with modest-sized checking accounts started leaving the big four banks for community banks and credit unions, that fee income would fall much faster than the banks’ deposit bases. That’s where the pressure from this campaign would really be felt.

• Hundreds of activists with the Gaza Freedom March are staging continued demonstrations and sit-ins in Cairo to protest the Egyptian government’s refusal to allow them to cross the border into Gaza. Organizers say an offer by Egyptian authorities this morning to allow just 100 members of the group to go to Gaza was not sufficient.

• A ‘day of mourning’ was observed across Sindh on Tuesday, including a general strike in Hyperabad, in protest against the killing of over 40 people in a suicide attack on the central procession of Ashura in Karachi on Monday.

• The National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (Numsa) has called on consumers to boycott Coca-Cola for four hours a day in support of soft drink workers picketing in Pretoria. This follows a march by 700 Amalgamated Beverage Industries (ABI) workers, affiliated with the Food and Allied Worker’s Union (Fawu), at the company’s Pretoria plant on Tuesday following collapsed talks with management. 3,500 Fawu workers are already on strike, and may soon be joined by an additional 4,500 workers.

• Journalists in Mauritania held a protest on Monday in Nouakchott to call for the release of the jailed editor of a leading opposition website.

• Several Jordanian families began a hunger strike on Monday and said they would appeal to Amman’s governor through the Arab Organisation for Human Rights (AOHR) to erect a tent in front of the Iraqi embassy in Amman to call for the release of their family members who are imprisoned in Iraq.

Last June was the 27th anniversary of one of the largest protests in history, when upwards of one million people gathered on the Great Lawn in New York’s Central Park to rally against nuclear weapons while the UN held a Special Session on Disarmament. Two days later 1,600 demonstrators were involved in acts of civil disobedience at the consulates of five countries.

One of the seminal figures of this movement was author Jonathan Schell, whose 1982 book The Fate of the Earth reinvigorated the anti-nuclear movement with its rallying call for a nuclear freeze. Though still very much focused on the issue today, Jonathan has started to pursue climate change with a like-minded passion, which is fitting given the similarities of the two movements. (Something about protesting outside a UN meeting sounds all too familiar right now.)

I met him at the Brooklyn Bridge March for Climate Leadership, which was one of 5,000 plus actions that took place on October 24, the 350-organized International Day of Climate Action. Although very little came of the march, it ended up being a great opportunity to hear Jonathan trace his interest in the issue back to when his good friend Bill McKibben first started writing about global warming two decades ago.

Not long after that, we sat down for a more formal discussion of climate activism. Drawing from his deep knowledge of nonviolent movements–which was the focus of his 2003 book The Unconquerable World–Jonathan offered tactical suggestions for climate activists, compared the threat of climate change to nuclear war and spoke of the general mystery surrounding the rise of mass public movements.

Bryan Farrell: Why has it taken so long for a climate justice movement to emerge.
Jonathan Schell: We just haven’t seen all that much in the way of social movements recently. We had the anti globalization movement in late 90s which flared up and died away. We also had the antiwar movement against the Iraq War but that also has kind of died away. There just hasn’t been much energy in social movements. Why that is is a very deep question. It’s a crippling disability when it comes to changes in policy that are on a deep and fundamental level, whether that’s changing the economic system or opposing these wars and the whole imperial mindset behind them or addressing global warming. If you just look historically, it’s very hard to find fundamental change in policy that wasn’t preceded by a very powerful social movement. So if you don’t have that card in your deck, I think it’s incredibly difficult to get fundamental change. In terms of public awareness [climate change] has been stronger than some of the other movements. Certainly it’s been longstanding and there are lots of strong organizations. Read the rest of this article »

The Bay Area Campaign to End Israeli Apartheid just put out this helpful top ten list of companies that make products that directly harm Palestinians – either by exploiting labor, developing technology for military operations, or supplying equipment for illegal settlements – that should be boycotted this Christmas. Here is a sampling from their list:

1. AHAVA

This brand’s cosmetics are produced using salt, minerals, and mud from the Dead Sea — natural resources that are excavated from the occupied West Bank.  The products themselves are manufactured in the illegal Israeli settlement Mitzpe Shalem.  AHAVA is the target of CODEPINK’s “Stolen Beauty” campaign.

2. Delta Galil Industries

Israel’s largest textiles manufacturer provides clothing and underwear for such popular brands as Gap, J-Crew, J.C. Penny, Calvin Klein, Playtex, Victoria’s Secret (see #10) and many others.  Its founder and chairman Dov Lautman is a close associate of former Israeli President Ehud Barak.  It has also been condemned by Sweatshop Watch for its exploitation of labor in other countries such as Egypt, Jordan, and Turkey.

3. Motorola

While many of us know this brand for its stylish cellphones, did you know that it also develops and manufactures bomb fuses and missile guidance systems?  Motorola components are also used in unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs or “drones”) and in communications and surveillance systems used in settlements, checkpoints, and along the 490 mile apartheid wall.  The US Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation has launched the “Hang Up on Motorola” campaign.

4. L’Oreal / The Body Shop

This cosmetics and perfume company is known for its investments and manufacturing activities in Israel, including production in Migdal Haemek, the “Silicon Valley” of Israel built on the land of Palestinian village Al-Mujaydil, which was ethnically cleansed in 1948.  In 1998, a representative of L’Oreal was given the Jubilee Award by Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu for strengthening the Israeli economy.

To check out their full list, visit their website.

• American Indian activists marked Thanksgiving by holding a “Day of Mourning” in Plymouth, calling Plymouth Rock a monument to racism and genocide. Members of the United American Indians of New England have been holding the annual protest since 1970.

• 12 Greenpeace activitsts were arrested on the Indonesian Island of Sumatra yesterday after shutting down four cranes at a port run by one of Asia’s biggest pulp and paper groups.

• A dozen Chinese women related to some of the 104 miners killed in a recent blast protested outside the mine’s entrance on Monday in an effort to demand answers.

• 16 protesters who staged a sit-in at Canadian Labour Minister Rona Ambrose’s office in Edmonton to demand action from the federal government against climate change.

• More than 250,000 public sector workers went on strike to protest government plans to cut their pay, resulting in the closure of schools and limited hospital access.

On The Daily Show last week, there was a funny, but ultimately dismissive and wrong-headed segment on the logic and effectiveness of boycotts.

In his comedic way, Wyatt Cenac made the case that liberals shouldn’t stop shopping at Whole Foods simply because, as he describes it,  “the CEO of a company had the audacity to express his personal opinion about health care in writing.”

Why not? If the head of any company is doing something that you think is morally wrong or advocating for a policy that you think is going to hurt a lot people, why not publicly refuse to give him any more of your money by shopping somewhere else? It makes perfect sense.

Cenac did make a valid point, however, by arguing that it’s nearly impossible to buy anything in our capitalist system and hold on to your morals, because of how interconnected everything has become.

For example, he pointed out that Toyota, the maker of the Prius – the hybrid car that is so popular with those concerned with the environment – also recently sponsored a reggae concert that included an artist with homophobic songs that encourage killing gays.

I think of how the metal coltan, which is at the heart of the brutal civil war in the Congo that has left more than 5 million dead over the last decade, is also in virtually all of our electronics, including our cell phones and laptops. We are truly all complicit.

Nevertheless, while many boycotts go nowhere, others clearly have helped build a more just world. In a recent article on Counterpunch, John Macaray discussed a few examples of effective boycotts:

Read the rest of this article »

• In San Diego, three single-payer health care supporters were arrested Monday after protesting outside the Mission Valley office of Blue Shield of California. Three others were arrested at a sit-in yesterday in St. Louis outside of Anthem Blue Cross & Blue Shield as part of the same campaign, organized by Mobilization for Health Care for All.

• Five peace activists were arrested Monday for entering a naval base in Bangor, Washington as part of a Plowshares action. The activists cut a hole in a fence to access the base. As they walked onto the grounds of the base, they left a trail of blood and hammered on the roadway and fences, and scattered sunflower seeds throughout the base. The base is used to service Trident nuclear missiles carried by US submarines.

• Following a landmark referendum, students at the UK’s Sussex University in Brighton this week voted to boycott Israeli goods.

• In the UK, 1,500 Unite union members at Fujitsu have voted in favour of striking in protest at planned cuts to jobs, pay and pensions.

• A union of workers at Greece’s largest commercial port has called a strike today and tomorrow to protest a concession to the Chinese company Cosco Pacific, saying the deal will lead to job losses.

Two climate activists were arrested in Brisbane, Australia yesterday for shackling themselves to a coal conveyor belt and briefly halting the loading of coal onto a Taiwanese vessel. Meanwhile 16 kayakers attempted to block the ship before being escorted away by four police boats.

• Four climate activists chained themselves across a haul road on a strip mining site in Kanawha County, West Virginia yesterday to protest mountaintop removal mining. Four more joined them to unfurl banners. All were arrested.

• Protests took place outside BBC offices in half a dozen cities throughout the UK yesterday over the appearance of white-supremacist leader Nick Griffin, head of the British National Party. In London over a 1,000 people attempted to prevent him from entering BBC headquarters for an interview, but were stopped by police.

• The AIDS Healthcare Foundation and Pink Cross Foundation have organized a boycott of Marriott hotels to protest the chain’s selection of adult films that feature sex without condoms. They’re calling the protest a “Porn In.”

• More than 500 union members and health care activists gathered outside a meeting of the giant health insurance lobby group, America’s Health Insurance Plans (AHIP), to protest its efforts to kill reform.

• Seven busloads of union members from around New Jersey lined the streets near the entrance to a recently opened Walmart in Raritan on Tuesday to protest anti-worker and anti-community practices by the national discount chain.

• A group of ministers are planning to protest in a church across from a soon-to-be-opened Larry Flynt’s Hustler Club in Lincoln Park, Michigan. They’re aiming to counter the bright lights of the strip club with their own light show when it opens next week.

Tens of thousands of people, including journalists and media rights activists, gathered in Rome's Piazza Del Popolo Saturday to defend press freedom, accusing Premier Silvio Berlusconi of trying to silence critical voices, but the media owner magnate, Berlusconi dismissed the accusations as a "joke". (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia)

• Students on 25 campuses across the United States will protest eight long years of war against and occupation of the people of Afghanistan today.  Students for a Democratic Society (SDS), a nation-wide student organization committed to activism for peace, justice and equality, are organizing the protest.

• France Telecom workers launched a two-day strike and staged street protests on Tuesday to protest working practices at the firm following a wave of staff suicides.

• A total of 38 Honduran farmers arrested by the putschist regime began an indefinite hunger strike, demanding their release and the return of institutionality. The farmers were arrested Wednesday when police and soldiers ousted 55 people from the National Agrarian Institute (INA).

• Thousands of people in Turkey poured into the streets and held a protest rally, condemning Israel’s closure of the al-Aqsa Mosque in al-Quds.

• In Nigeria, Medical Workers’ Union commenced a nationwide strike to protest alleged unfair treatment by the federal government on Monday.

• 19 new companies whose ads aired recently during Fox News Channel’s Glenn Beck program have asked Fox to stop their ads from running or pledged to not to run ads on the show going forward, which brings the total number of companies boycotting Beck to 80.

• Zambian police on Friday detained nine protestors, including two opposition lawmakers, for blowing car hooters against the graft acquittal of ex-president Frederick Chiluba.

• More than 40 musicians took part in a flash mob protest at the Oakland Whole Foods on Friday to protest CEO John Mackey’s recent comment that health care is not a human right. They gathered in the back of the store and began performing a take off of Toni Basil’s 1982 pop hit “Hey Mickey”, only changing the lyrics to address Mackey.

• A group referring to itself as the “Greenwash Guerrillas” dropped a banner that read “UN: Cap + Trade is a Dead End” over Manhattan’s 42nd street bridge on Friday, which halted a caravan of police-escorted limousines and SUVs carrying UN delegates. The group then dropped leaflets onto the stalled traffic articulating their demands

• Following vocal public protests and Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick’s threat to have state employees launch a boycott, Hyatt Hotels has agreed to offer new jobs with health coverage and the same pay to the nearly 100 housekeepers it laid off at three Boston hotels.

• The Pennsylvania Association of Staff Nurses and Allied Professionals held a rally outside Temple University Hospital Monday to protest what they are describing as the health system’s “bad faith approach” to contract negotiations.

• Around 20 demonstrators in Edinburgh, Scotland blocked garbage trucks being used by private contractors for the third time since last week to protest the use of nonunion workers by the city.

• More than 1,000 hotel workers and their supporters rallied in San Francisco on Friday to campaign for a fair contract. Over 100 were arrested while participating in a nonviolent sit-in.

About 300 protesters attempted to march toward the Pittsburgh convention center where the G20 meeting was taking place yesterday afternoon, but were met with roaming squads of police officers carrying plastic shields and batons. The police fired a sound cannon that emitted shrill beeps, causing demonstrators to cover their ears and back up, then threw tear gas canisters that released clouds of white smoke and stun grenades that exploded with sharp flashes of light. It is believed this is the first time a sound canon has been used publicly. About 20 people were arrested.

• Four Greenpeace activists attached to a massive banner dangled from a Pittsburgh bridge Wednesday to protest the G20 meeting. The 80-by-30-foot sign took the style of a road sign, reading: “Danger: Climate Destruction Ahead. Reduce CO2 emissions now.”

• More than 350 transit workers took to the streets of midtown Manhattan Wednesday morning to protest the MTA’s refusal to accept a pact that would raise hourly pay rates by more than 11 percent over three years, which an arbitration panel awarded.

• Honduran police fired tear gas at a crowd of thousands on Wednesday, who were trying to reach the Brazilian embassy where ousted president Manuel Zelaya has taken refuge. Two anti-coup protesters were killed.

• More than 200 Black-owned newspapers are joining the NAACP economic boycott of South Carolina to protest the Confederate flag atop the State House and inside the House and Senate chambers.

• Dozens of people gathered in Hamburg, Germany for a flashmob protest of Chancellor Angela Merkel. They yelled an ironic “Yeahh” after every sentence she spoke. The video has become a viral sensation in Germany in the run up to Sunday’s election, with more than 280,000 views so far on YouTube.

• Members of the Westboro Baptist Church showed up in Fort Green, Brooklyn yesterday with signs that said “You’re Going to Hell,” while simultaneously dancing and shouting anti-gay slogans as they stood on the street corner. But they were quickly outnumbered by 200 students from Brooklyn Technical High School who came to counter protest their message of hate.

• About 200 union and hospitality workers in Chicago were arrested yesterday afternoon as they demonstrated their support for ongoing labor negotiations with major downtown hotels and to show solidarity with fired hotel workers in Boston.

British environmental activists dressed as suffragettes left a steaming pile of horse manure at the mansion of BBC car-show host and climate-change-denier Jeremy Clarkson, who has called bike-riders "Lycra Nazis," suggested great white sharks should be eaten to extinction, and joked that global warming would get rid of Holland.

• At the annual conference of the Trades Union Congress yesterday, British trade unions representing 6.5 million workers agreed to support a boycott of goods from “illegal” Israeli settlements and called for an end to arms sales to Israel in protest at the military strikes on Gaza, in which 1,450 Palestinians were killed.

• University of California police arrested 14 raucous protesters who briefly shut down a regents meeting in San Francisco where a proposed tuition hike was being discussed. Faculty from every University of California campus are planning to walk out on Sept. 24 “in solidarity with students and staff to protest the defunding of public education and the UC administration’s mishandling of the budget crisis,” according to ucfacultywalkout.com

• Tamil political prisoners languishing in Magazine Prison and Colombo Remand Prison (CPR) for many years without being produced in the courts launched a hunger strike from 6:00 a.m Thursday.

• Belarussian police on Wednesday beat opposition protesters and detained 30 of them during a demonstration marking the 10th anniversary of the disappearance of opposition members.

• Angry residents arrived at the home of Coun Richard Brett, the head of the Leeds City Council, on Wednesday and left 16 bags of garbage on his doorstep, each bearing a poster stating “Solidarity with striking Leeds refuse workers.”

• Some Beijing students burned their uniforms in public and refused to endure the drills for the upcoming Oct. 1 parade celebrating the Chinese Communist Party seizing power.

• Dealers negotiating a union contract with the Caesars Palace hotel-casino for almost two years are planning to protest outside the Las Vegas Strip resort to highlight lack of progress on a deal.