Protesters against Guantanamo in Washington, D.C., on January 11, 2008. Photo by Keith Ivey, via Flickr.

In a world full of injustice—from battered women to clubbed seals to the Club of Europe, from neglected children to nuclear weapons to mountain top removal, from torture at Guantanamo to torture at Bagram to torture in Chicago’s prisons to the torture of the death penalty, from famine in Somalia to deforestation to families being broken by Arizona’s immigration laws—how do you choose what to work on?

Most people choose what affects them most personally, what they feel like they can change, what breaks their heart. Some people choose what seems most strategic: if this small thing changes here, it might move all these other things along in the right direction. Some people race from topic to topic to topic, needing to be everywhere and in the middle of everything. Some combo of the first and second stance seems like the right place to be, right?

I start with all this because I have been thinking about Guantanamo. The notorious and often forgotten gulag is in the news again this week because the Senate voted on Tuesday to retain a provision within the National Defense Authorization Act that would allow the military detain terror suspects on U.S. soil and hold them indefinitely without trial. In addition, the measure—which passed in a bipartisan show of fear-mongering and brutality—would close the door to civilian trials for terror suspects and place restrictions on resettling the dozens of men at Guantanamo who have been cleared for release.

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“Somos una América, we are one America,” chanted the thousands converged at the gates of Fort Benning to protest the School of the Americas (SOA) during the annual rally and vigil in Columbus, GA. The weekend of teach-ins, speakers, concerts, films, art, and social action is organized by the School of the Americas Watch and, for years, has been the largest annual convergence for justice in North America. Graduates of the SOA have been linked to horrific human rights abuses in Central America—torture, disappearances, executions, rape, coups—for many years. The recent coup in Honduras was orchestrated by graduates of the SOA and Time magazine recently reported on some of the school’s notorious alumni.

Crowd estimates from organizers for the Sunday morning “presente” memorial vigil were around 5,000—much lower than years past, where attendance once peaked at 20,000. The Columbus Police Department reported 3,007 people. But that does not mean the movement to close the SOA and resist militarism is waning. “We can’t get caught in the numbers game,” said SOA Watch field organizer Nico Udu-gama. “This is an anti-imperialist struggle that has ebbed and flowed over the years and is part of the movement that is waking up around the world.” SOA Watch has changed over the years but a few things have remained consistent in one form or another: direct action, solidarity across the Americas, and a view towards the long haul.

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September 11, 2001 was my friend Diana’s 30th birthday. I planned on meeting her at the Oyster Bar in Grand Central Station after work. Instead I walked across the Manhattan Bridge in a cloud of ash and crumbled concrete, looking back at the hole in the skyline. We all walked across the bridge. It was packed with people wearing business suits and sweatpants. I remember seeing a man on a bicycle riding towards Manhattan with a camera slung over his neck. “You’re going the wrong way,” I wanted to shout. Who takes pictures at a time like this? I remember there was a man in a yarmulke handing out bottles of cold water as we left the bridge on the Brooklyn side. I was so grateful.

I was uninjured. I had an apartment in Windsor Terrace that I was walking towards, but that sense of uncertainty—what will the future hold? What will change? When will I go back to work?—loomed large.

In the days that followed, I saw the best of America in New York City—my home. Real mourning, deep soul-searching, amazing altruism and self-sacrifice, and vigorous but respectful debate about why this tragedy happened.

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• Hundreds of foreign exchange students walked off their jobs at a Hershey’s chocolate plant in Pennsylvania to protest low pay and physically draining work.

• Latino activists held a protest outside President Barack Obama’s 2012 campaign headquarters on Tuesday to ask him to end a criminal deportation program they say is snaring large number of illegal immigrants who have not committed crimes.

• Syrian security forces fired at thousands of protesters who poured into the streets throughout the country Friday killing at least two, activists said, a day after the United States and its European allies demanded that President Bashar Assad step down.

• Indian activist Anna Hazare began a public hunger strike in the country’s capital Friday, accompanied by thousands of cheering supporters, who want to see stronger anti-corruption measures in India.

• Hundreds of striking Verizon workers held a candlelight vigil outside their CEO’s Mendham, New Jersey mansion Thursday, hoping to draw a stark contrast between the contract demands of blue-collar workers and the quality of life enjoyed by the company’s executives.

• What began as the latest public hearing organized by a U.S. Department of Homeland Security task force to address deportation policy concerns ended in the arrest of 10 immigration reform activists Wednesday evening in Chicago.

• Protesters gatecrashed a mining and exploration conference organised by the New South Wales government in Australia yesterday, abseiling off the balcony of a Sydney hotel to unfurl a banner against coal seam gas.

The still-smouldering Carpetright store in Tottenham. (Photo: Guardian)

Rioting and rampages spreading across English cities have caused severe property destruction and raised public alarm. Writing in London’s Guardian, community organizer Stafford Scott describes how he was among the group that on August 6th sought information from the police in Tottenham, a poorer section of London. They wanted an official statement on whether Mark Duggan had been killed by police bullets, as had been reported in the news.

All we really wanted was an explanation of what was going on. We needed to hear directly from the police. We waited for hours outside the station for a senior officer to speak with the family, in a demonstration led by young women. A woman-only delegation went into the station, as we wanted to ensure that this did not become confrontational. It was when the young women, many with children, decided to call it a day that the atmosphere changed, and guys in the crowd started to voice and then act out their frustrations.

This event is what most media accounts have identified as the spark that set England on fire, which has caught the world by surprise. Yet, says Scott, “If the rioting was a surprise, people weren’t looking.”

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In a Paris metro station, United4Iran and Move4Iran organized a silent flash mob (video above) on June 9, to commemorate the second anniversary of the elections in Iran and raise awareness about the continuing human rights abuses in the country.

And in New York, Where Is My Vote – NY held a candlelight vigil (video below) at Union Square to show solidarity for those in Iran who are continuing the struggle for self-determination.

• On Friday, nearly 100,000 Yemenis protested in a main square of the capital, demanding the president’s ouster in the biggest rally since Ali Abdullah Saleh left for Saudi Arabia after he was wounded in an attack on his palace.

• Thousands of Shiite Bahrainis rallied Saturday answering a call from their largest opposition group, Al-Wefaq, in the first demonstration since a mid-march crackdown on Shiite-led pro-democracy protests.

• Thousands of Syrians demonstrated all over the country on Friday, especially in smaller cities and rural towns. Some 7000 came out in downtown Homs. Troops fired on crowds and responded with brutality against protesters.

• On Sunday, Pakistan Tehrik-e-Insaf (PTI) staged a sit-in in Quetta to protest against the safe passage allowed to NATO supplies through Pakistan.

• On Sunday, at least 15,000 Greeks protested in front of parliament over the government’s economic policies and called for mass participation in a general strike this week.

• In Peru, Aymara activists announced on Friday that they will resume their strike civil strike indefinitely, and thousands immediately joined roadblocks on the main highway to Bolivia near the border town of Desaguadero.

• On Friday, thousands of college students and supporting citizens continued a protest, which has brought people to the streets every night over the last month, demanding South Korean President Lee Myung-bak fulfil his presidential election pledge to cut tuition fees by half, and provide solutions for youth unemployment.

• About 20 pro-independence demonstrators have kept an all-night vigil at a colonial fort in Puerto Rico to protest during President Barack Obama’s visit to the island.

• Some 500 Indian inmates ended a two-day hunger strike at the CRS No. 5 prison in the southern Mexican state of Chiapas after officials granted their demand for better conditions.

• On Monday, 21 activists were arrested after hundreds occupied the Department of Interior’s headquarters in Washington D.C. to call for the abolition of offshore oil drilling, coal mining and tar sands extraction.

• On Monday, Tax Day protests were held in some 300 cities. Many protesters focused their attention on Bank of America, Wells Fargo and Google for avoiding to pay their full share of taxes by using tax code loopholes.

• The Syrian government has passed a draft law to end emergency rule after 48 years, but protests are continuing across Syria. On Monday, more than 5,000 anti-government protesters in Syria took over the main square of the country’s third-largest city, Homs, vowing to occupy the site until President Bashar Assad is ousted.

• In Yemen today, gunmen on motorcycles sped by and opened fire on hundreds of demonstrators camped out in the early hours in the Red Sea port city of Hodeida, killing one and wounding several.

• In India, police opened fire on hundreds of protesters Monday at a demonstration against the construction of a new six-reactor nuclear power station. One protester was killed, and more than 20 people were arrested.

• Vigils were held in the Occupied Territories over the weekend for the slain peace activist Vittorio Arrigoni, who was killed last week after his capture by extremist Palestinian militants.

• Trade unions at the Polish coal company Jastrzebska Spolka Weglowa (JSW) in southern Poland launched a one-day strike on Monday morning and threatened to block the transport of coal from the mines to protest government privatization plans.

A group of 28 peace activists from the US and Australia, including Waging Nonviolence contributors Simon Moyle, Jim Haber and Jake Olzen, has just arrived in Afghanistan. They immediately connected with the Afghan Youth Peace Volunteers, a truly inspirational group of young people who I had the good fortune of getting to know during my trip there in December. As Voices for Creative Nonviolence co-coordinator Kathy Kelly explains in an article that was widely published today:

Last evening, they showed us photos of an unusual walk they’d held in the streets of downtown Kabul that morning.  Dressed in white, with the young women wearing sky blue veils and the young men in the same color neck scarves, the Afghan Youth Peace Volunteers carried sky blue and white banners proclaiming that Peace is a Pre-Requisite for Progress. They are seeking an end to wars in their country.  “Why did you choose sky blue?” I asked.  “Because it shows that there is just one sky over all of us,” Chahara replied. Although they came from different ethnicities and various provinces, they walked shoulder to shoulder, 40 of them, on a bright, warm day.

The delegation’s itinerary over the next few days is jam-packed. Kelly writes that:

On March 19^th, in Kabul, Afghan Youth Peace Volunteers will hold a candlelight commemoration, remembering the children recently killed in Afghanistan.  Following  this ceremony they will plant saplings as a symbol of their dedication to a nonviolent future. Their compassion extends beyond Afghanistan to young people in other lands, some of whom they will connect with through a “Global Day of Listening,”  a 24 hour Skype communication which they’ll host on the first day of spring [March 20], Afghanistan’s “Nau Roz” (New Year’s Day) holiday…  (see:  www.livewithoutwars.org and www.ourjourneytosmile.com or email globaldayoflistening@gmail.com to arrange participation for yourself and/or your community.

Hopefully over the next few days we will be running the dispatches from our contributors on the ground, so check back for updates on the work of these courageous activists.

• Several hundred nuclear energy opponents formed a human chain around a German nuclear storage site yesterday to protest transports of radioactive material.

• About 100 animal rights advocates gathered at a bear check station in New Jersey on Saturday to protest the last day of the state’s first bear hunt in five years, which killed nearly 600 bears.

• Hundreds of people gathered in Moscow on Sunday to call for the resignation of Prime Minister Vladimir Putin.

• A group of about thirty people came out to the City of Vancouver’s first candlelight vigil on violence against women, which was held on Friday to coincide with International Human Rights day and the end of 16 Days of Activism on Gender Violence.

• In a protest apparently assembled largely through a network of banned cellphones, inmates across at least six prisons in Georgia have been on strike since Thursday, calling for better conditions and compensation.

• Hundreds of environmentalists in the Philippines completed a four-day 150-kilometer march-caravan rally on Friday to protest areas where large-scale mines will operate.