On Sunday, the Toronto Star ran an interesting review of Philip Carr-Gomm’s new book, A Brief History of Nakedness, in which he offers “a sustained mediation on the spiritual, cultural and political implications of being naked in public.” The book includes numerous photos, including this image of 50 women posing nude as part of Baring Witness, a group in West Marin County, California, that used nudity to protest the impending Iraq war in November 2002.

As Carr-Gomm argues, “Nakedness makes a human being particularly vulnerable but in certain circumstances strangely powerful, which is why it has become so popular as a vehicle for political protest.” According to Carr-Gomm, by disrobing, protestors demonstrate that they are both fearless and have nothing to hide.At least, that’s the ideal situation. Sometimes the political intentions of being in the buff can get lost, as happened during the recent expressions of G20 activism. “There’s a naked guy at Queen and Peter,” @one_more_night tweeted. “I think he’s protesting clothes.”

Contrary to what you might first think, it is not only hippie types that have used their naked bodies to protest. Carr-Gomm tells the story of one religious group that employed this tactic:

A radical sect of Ukrainian Christians, the Doukhobors (which translates into “spirit wrestlers”) were considered heretics by the Orthodox Church and generally irritated the Russian government. So in 1899 the Doukhobors were encouraged to move their troublemaking to Canada, where they were promised 65 hectares of free land, a bracing climate, equitable laws, peace and prosperity. More than a third of the population (nearly 8,000) said yes, but by 1903 they were unhappy, and an extremist faction called the Sons of Freedom emerged, inspired by the Quakers and Leo Tolstoy. As Carr-Gomm notes, the Sons of Freedom “decided to mount a sustained campaign of protest against the government, whom they believed had reneged on their promises regarding land rights and were enforcing compulsory education in government schools.”

In May of 1903 over 45 Doukhobors protested by marching naked, were charged with “nudism” and sentenced to jail. Naked skirmishes between the Canadian government and the Doukhobors continued into the 1970s.

As I have argued on this site before, I still question the efficacy of nude protests. While taking off your clothes definitely can draw a crowd and the attention of the media, the focus generally seems to be on the fact that the protesters are naked rather than the issue they are campaigning around. And as a rule of thumb, activists want to avoid tactics that deflect attention from the cause they are fighting for.

At 1am this morning, Democracy Village – the antiwar protest camp on Parliament Square in London that began on May 1 – was finally brought to an end. According to witnesses, it took about 60 bailiffs, with the assistance of police, to remove the remaining protesters after a few tied themselves to scaffolding.

The activists involved, however, do not appear discouraged. According to the AFP:

“People from ‘Democracy Village’ are going to carry on with this protest. We’re not going away,” said Pete Phoenix, a 36-year-old protester with blond dreadlocks and sunglasses.

“Lots of areas around the city are going to be taken over in the next few days and weeks.

“Our spirit is stronger after this eviction,” he told AFP, saying the camp had “raised awareness around the world” about Britain’s involvement in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The BBC is reporting that some are even planning on returning to their makeshift camp on Parliament Square once the fences that have been erected are removed.

While Democracy Village was started by antiwar protesters, they were over time joined by an eclectic  mix of climate change activists, pro-democracy campaigners, anarchists and the homeless.

According to Maria Gallastegui, who has run a vigil for Gaza in the square for four years, in its 11 weeks the camp changed from being “from 100% activist to 30% activist and 70% homeless.” This led to many activists focusing more of their energy on helping those in need than direct action.

The eviction order will not affect Brian Haw, the most well-known protester at Parliament Square, who has camped out there since 2001 to protest Britain’s involvement in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Apparently, Haw was never a fan of Democracy Village, calling the protesters “deliberately unreasonable, even depraved and outrageous.”

While it was probably not a wise move strategically to include activists pushing so many different issues in the camp, or to allow alcohol and drugs on the premises, they were no doubt fighting the good fight.

As a New Zealander, I was both delighted and concerned to discover that my country is considered the most peaceful in the world by the 2010 Global Peace Index (GPI), a publication developed by an international panel of peace experts in collaboration with the Economist Intelligence Unit and published by the Institute for Economics and Peace.

On one hand, I think the world needs initiatives like this. The study’s founder, Steve Killelea calls the GPI “a wake-up call for leaders around the globe”, and I hope he is right. But, given the factors it examines—such as levels of violence and crime within a country, plus military expenditure and wars—the GPI unfortunately glosses over some interesting realities.

First, if you do believe peace can be achieved at the end of a gun, it unfairly vilifies countries like the United States who, though they account for 54 percent of global military spending, tend to use this spending to ensure the “peace” of their allies and neighbors. So countries sheltering under the military wings of a world power can happily slide up the index by letting the US (and the other top spenders like Russia, the UK, France and China) slide down.

Being a strong believer in nonviolent solutions to conflict resolution, I commend the GPI for bringing people’s attention to the scale of military spending by these countries. Most of the time I think what the US would call “ensuring peace, freedom and stability,” is just another name for exploitation and empire-building. Unfortunately, the beneficiaries of this so-called “peace” are never challenged about their complicity in global conflict.

A New Zealand soldier with the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan's Bamiyan Province on July 8, 2008.

And complicit we are.

The New Zealand government sent troops to support the US-led invasion of Afghanistan immediately after the September 11, 2001 attacks. They have been there ever since. According to Jonathan Steele of The Guardian between 20,000 and 49,600 people may have died of the consequences of the invasion. It is estimated that in Afghanistan there are 1.5 million suffering from immediate starvation, as well as 7.5 million suffering as a result of the country’s dire situation.

No matter. The NZ government uses rhetoric about “security” and “fighting terrorism” as a justification for the continued involvement of the NZDF (Defense Force). The language used by the government creates the image of altruistic action by the military. Soldiers are “peacekeepers” sent to do “reconstruction”—which obscures the reality that the Afghani government was installed by the US for economic reasons. It was only after the media revealed that the NZSAS (Special Air Service) was there that the government admitted to their involvement. They loudly trumpet the “reconstruction team” as “humanitarian aid” when in fact they are there to prop up the US military occupation.

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For the last nine years, Brian Haw – an evangelical father of seven – has camped outside of the Parliament in London to protest his country’s foreign policy, particularly the ongoing wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. According to an interesting profile in In These Times, Haw has persevered through many difficulties:

Haw has been the target of many attempts to suppress a critical voice. Council chiefs, the police and the government have all tried and failed to evict him from this prime piece of real estate. His placards have been confiscated. He has been arrested several times. He has suffered a number of assaults and broken bones. Parliament even passed a specific piece of legislation aimed at ridding Parliament Square of his presence.

Haw has fought and eventually won every attempt to have him removed, though his encampment was once much larger than it is now. In 2006 police raided the site and confiscated most of its contents. They also imposed a limit on its size: 3 meters by 3 meters.

In addition, Haw has apparently managed to generate significant media coverage and debate, even earning the admiration of many in the UK, through his dedication and personal sacrifice.

The media have described Haw as irascible, irritable, embittered and angry. Some he has worked with consider him self-righteous, pedantic and a control freak who suffers from a bit of a God complex. But many hail him as a peace-loving hero and a champion of free-speech.

[...]

In 2007 he won Channel 4’s most inspiring political figure of the year — beating out the prime minister, the leader of the opposition party and the head of the army. And, while his Parliament Square protest site has been called a “grotty eyesore”, a “squalid encampment” and a “national embarrassment” by members of Parliament, it was faithfully recreated in a show titled “State Britain” inside the Tate Britain Museum and resulted in the artist Mark Wallinger winning the prestigious Turner Prize in 2007.

Haw’s protest reminds me of Concepcion Picciotto, a Spanish women I met last year, who has camped outside of the White House since 1981 to protest nuclear weapons. Anyone know of any other long-term protest encampments worth mentioning?

Sixty Catholic Workers and friends from the Midwest held a demonstration to contrast the Works of Mercy and the Works of War outside the Federal Building in Chicago, Illinois on April 26, 2010.  The nonviolent protest was the culmination of a weekend gathering known as the Midwest Catholic Worker Resistance Retreat that happens every spring and ends in nonviolent direct action.  This year’s retreat, “The Cost of War: At Home and Abroad” had over 200 people in attendance from all over the country.

The Midwest Catholic Worker Community is representative of a nationwide movement of Catholic Worker houses which have practiced the works of mercy since the movement was founded by Dorothy Day and Peter Maurin on May 1st, 1933. These works include providing hospitality to the homeless, feeding the hungry and practicing simple living.

Civil resistance is a part of our tradition and one rooted in hospitality.  We take to the streets because people are hungry and homeless because of an ever-increasing U.S. military budget.  At 9:00 a.m. Monday morning, seven activists sprawled out in front of the building–dramatizing the human costs of war– while twelve others, in shirts reading “Stop Funding U.S. Wars”, entered the building and refused to leave.  Seventeen Catholic Workers ended up being arrested. Others handed out food and offered coffee to passers-by to engage in the Works of Mercy and educate about the devastating effects of U.S. militarism.

Through our witness, we hope to highlight an alternative vision for building society that is based on a philosophy of personalism and works of compassion.  We are calling for an end to the wars in Iraq, Afghanistan and U.S. military aid to Israel.  Let us replace the Works of War by practicing the Works of Mercy.

While the recently released footage of a US air crew callously killing a dozen innocent civilians – including two Iraqis who were working for Reuters – from a helicopter in Baghdad in July 2007, is a horrifying glimpse of what modern war entails, there is at least one glimmer of hope from that tragic attack.

In a powerful act of nonviolence, two US soldiers who were members of Bravo Company 2-16, the unit that was involved  in the shooting, recently published a moving “Open Letter of Reconciliation & Responsibility to the Iraqi People,” that is worth quoting at length. In it, Ethan McCord and Josh Stieber, both former specialists in the US Army, write:

There is no bringing back all that was lost. What we seek is to learn from our mistakes and do everything we can to tell others of our experiences and how the people of the United States need to realize what [we] have done and are doing to you and the people of your country. We humbly ask you what we can do to begin to repair the damage we caused.

We have been speaking to whoever will listen, telling them that what was shown in the Wikileaks video only begins to depict the suffering we have created. From our own experiences, and the experiences of other veterans we have talked to, we know that the acts depicted in this video are everyday occurrences of this war: this is the nature of how U.S.-led wars are carried out in this region.

We acknowledge our part in the deaths and injuries of your loved ones as we tell Americans what we were trained to do and carried out in the name of “god and country”. The soldier in [the] video said that your husband shouldn’t have brought your children to battle, but we are acknowledging our responsibility for bringing the battle to your neighborhood, and to your family. We did unto you what we would not want done to us.

More and more Americans are taking responsibility for what was done in our name. Though we have acted with cold hearts far too many times, we have not forgotten our actions towards you. Our heavy hearts still hold hope that we can restore inside our country the acknowledgment of your humanity, that we were taught to deny.

Our government may ignore you, concerned more with its public image. It has also ignored many veterans who have returned physically injured or mentally troubled by what they saw and did in your country. But the time is long overdue that we say that the value of our nation’s leaders no longer represent us. Our secretary of defense may say the U.S. won’t lose its reputation over this, but we stand and say that our reputation’s importance pales in comparison to our common humanity.

With such pain, friendship might be too much to ask. Please accept our apology, our sorrow, our care, and our dedication to change from the inside out. We are doing what we can to speak out against the wars and military policies responsible for what happened to you and your loved ones. Our hearts are open to hearing how we can take any steps to support you through the pain that we have caused.

To sign on in support of this letter, click here.

I write this article just a few minutes walk from the district court here in Wellington, New Zealand, where I was delighted to witness the jury’s unexpected “not guilty” verdict in the trial of the three Ploughshares activists in Wellington District Court last week. Adrian Leason, Father Peter Murnane and Sam Land—the three men who were charged with intentional damage and unlawful entry at Waihopai spy base in Blenheim, New Zealand—were acquitted of all charges against them.

At the conclusion of the trial, Father Peter, Sam and Adrian said they felt privileged to have helped uncover the true nature of the spy base. “Our actions in disabling the spy base and stopping the flow of information helped save lives in Iraq,” added Adrian.

“What has been humbling for us to realize is how our witness has impacted on so many people around the world and at home,” said Sam.

Father Peter Murnane speaks to press

“We did not try to avoid the consequences of our actions, because we respect the rule of law although we do believe we are ultimately accountable to a higher authority. We damaged property at the spy base in order to save victims of war and torture. It’s all about Jesus’ command for us to treat all people as our brothers and sisters,” said Father Peter.

Commenting at the conclusion of the trial Waihopai Ploughshares media spokesperson Graham Bidois Cameron said this Ploughshares action is part of an ongoing tradition: “The practice of non-violent resistance and direct action in the cause of peace has a long history in this country—the peaceful resistance to the invasion of Parihaka, and non-violent direct action against nuclear armed warships entering our harbors being just two examples.”

“The actions of Waihopai Ploughshares also need to be understood in relation to an international movement for disarmament and peace,” said lawyer Moana Cole, herself a Ploughshares activist. “Adrian, Sam and Father Peter are part of a rich history of activism in support of those without a voice and the movement is certainly growing.”

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• Thousands marched through the nation’s capital on Saturday to urge immediate withdrawal of troops from Iraq and Afghanistan. At least eight people, including activist Cindy Sheehan, were arrested by U.S. Park Police at the end of the march, after laying coffins at a fence outside the White House.

• Activists with Rainforest Action Network erected two 20-foot-tall, purple tripod structures in front of the Environmental Protection Agency’s headquarters in Washington to pressure EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson to enforce the Clean Water Act and halt mountaintop removal coal mining. They stayed on the tripods for 32 hours before deciding to leave.

• 130 people took part in the two-hour Melbourne World Naked Bike Ride in Australia yesterday to protest oil dependency and highlight bike safety.

• More than 1,000 union members, workers and activists gathered in downtown Philadelphia on Friday to challenge the nation’s six largest banks to pay for their bailouts by contributing to job creation and doing their part to restore the economy.

• More than 100 workers gathered outside the Department of Water Management in Chicago on Friday to protest forced furloughs.

• Around 500 protesters marched through the town of Bideford in south-west England to “reclaim” it from rising street violence.

• More than 60 Harlem middle and high school students walked out of class on Friday, while another 50 chose to stage a sit-in to protest the planned dismissal of about 150 teachers and staff members.

• More than 7,000 protesters made their way through Togo’s capital on Saturday to protest presidential election results.

• British Airways employees began a three-day strike on Saturday to protest a pay freeze and proposed changes to working conditions.

Where were you on February 15, 2003? If you were a part of the biggest global demonstration in history against war, which took place that day, I’m sure you remember well.

I was in the streets of Castellon, a small town on the Mediterranean coast of Spain, where I was studying for a master’s in Peace Studies, with some 20,000 other Spaniards protesting the impending war against Iraq. It was really very moving to be a part of such a large gathering.

Now a team is working on a full-length documentary, called “We Are Many,” about that historic day. Although it’s not set to come out until late 2011 or early 2012, they have already completed a very nice trailer for the movie (above).

While I’m all for commemorating that important event, I also think it’s worth looking at critically. Yes, millions of people around the world came out to protest a war that had not even begun yet. Nothing like that has ever happened before. As Noam Chomsky has said, it took years for any comparable protest to develop during the Vietnam War. And there is hope in that.

Nevertheless, it didn’t stop the invasion of Iraq. Bush brushed off the demonstrations with ease. To let the protesters influence his decision to attack Iraq, he quipped, would be like saying “I’m going to decide policy based upon a focus group.”

And unfortunately, when the war began a little more than a month later, many who took part in that global day of protest felt deflated. Afterwards, it took months to build the momentum for action back up and it’s my sense that many people stopped demonstrating against the war for good. Perhaps they felt that it was of no use, since the massive protests before the invasion didn’t apparently bear fruit.

However, the hard truth is that we never should have expected one day of protest, no matter how big, to stop a war. That’s not how nonviolence works. If we actually wanted to stop the imminent attack on Iraq, we would have had to come back the next day, and every day after that, until the administration listened. Almost all nonviolent campaigns that have been successful against such a powerful, determined opponent required this type of sacrifice and perseverance from participants.

Protesters would also have needed to try other, more aggressive tactics – like civil disobedience or even a general strike – that more directly disrupt business as usual. If millions of people indefinitely refused to go to work, blocked roads around the country and filled the jails, then Bush may have perhaps faltered.

Rather than simply celebrate February 15, I would encourage the filmmakers to include some discussion along these lines, so that their very promising documentary can contribute to the building of a more effective movement in the future.

• More than 250 Washington State University Vancouver students staged a “mass walkout” to protest budget cuts to academic programs, the elimination of crucial financial aid, and continued tuition hikes.

• Canadian anti-Olympic protesters are promising a series of protests starting this weekend, culminating in a march on the opening ceremonies Feb. 12.

• Anti-US demonstrations in several Iraqi cities coincided with Vice President Joe Biden’s visit this week.

• Chinese artists have been staging flash mobs to protest the bulldozing of their studios.

• Chinese activist Feng Zhenghu ended his 90-day sit-in at Japan’s Narita International Airport on Tuesday when Chinese officials finally agreed to let him return.

• Customs officials and tax inspectors in Greece are holding a two-day strike to protest government austerity measures, including wage cuts.

• Workers at Fiat plants across Italy held a four-hour strike on Wednesday to protest plans to shut a factory in Sicily.

• Life remained crippled for the fourth day on Thursday in the Kashmir valley due to a general strike protesting the death of a 13-year-old boy by police on Sunday evening in down town city.

At the end of November, just before Obama announced the escalation of the Afghan War, members of Iraq Veterans Against the War (IVAW), with the help of World Can’t Wait, staged a unique and powerful protest at the Westlake Center in Seattle.

As a form of “street theater,” the veterans from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, dressed in their military uniforms and pointing imaginary guns, stormed through the crowd, tossing other protesters – who were disguised as innocent civilians going about their business at the shopping mall – to the ground and arresting them.

The Seattle Post Intelligencer explains the reaction from the passers-by:

But many people were caught off-guard by the unorthodox scene… where lines of young kids waited their turn to ride the carousel and shoppers hurried by with their bags.

As the “soldiers” screamed profanities at the “civilians” on the ground, many frightened young children were asking their parents what was going on. Meanwhile, some adult shoppers walked by – seemingly oblivious to the freaky scene.

Dubbed “Operation First Casualty,” members of IVAW first carried out this unusual type of protest, which gives onlookers just a small taste of what war is like for ordinary Iraqis or Afghans, at various locations in New York City back in 2007. After getting significant media coverage, IVAW took their show to Washington, San Francisco, and to Denver during the Democratic National Convention.

Since I first heard of this idea, and saw pictures and videos of these actions, I thought they were a brilliant and shocking way to dramatize the ugly reality of war for the average American. They also provide great opportunities for those of us in the peace movement to work closely with veterans to resist the ongoing wars.

My only regret is that these types of protest cannot be more widespread. If ordinary people were simply to dress as soldiers and carry out this street theater, critics could legitimately argue that that they don’t really know what war is like. And I wonder if it would offend sympathetic veterans, who are or could potentially be our allies. Any thoughts?

A new coalition of antiwar groups called End US Wars has organized an emergency rally at the White House this Saturday, December 12th, from 11am to 4pm, to call for an immediate end to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and the drone attacks (and covert ops) in Pakistan.

Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-OH), former Rep. Cynthia McKinney, former Sen. Mike Gravel, Nobel Peace Prize nominee Kathy Kelly, Chris Hedges and a host of antiwar leaders will take part and speak at the demonstration.

If President Obama does not meet these demands, the coalition promises to step up opposition, which will include supporting real antiwar candidates in the next election.

(One group that seems to be planning more dramatic action beginning this March is called Peace of the Action. Their site says participants will “bring forward a historic escalation of Peace Activism like we have not seen in the United States in a long time.” Without getting more specific, they plan to disrupt “business as usual” by committing “courageous deeds of civil resistance [on a daily basis] until our demands are met.”)

If you live in DC or can make it there, the protest this weekend will be a good opportunity to voice your opposition to our never-ending wars. And if you can’t get there, organizing a rally in your local area in solidarity with this action would be just as important.

Click here for the Event Guide, including map and transportation arrangements.

Get regular updates here as a Facebook fan of End The Wars.

Click here to read the Open Letter to the President.

As the President mulls over how many additional troops to send to Afghanistan, in a recent article for Truthout, Jeff Leys wrote that the antiwar movement seems to have gone missing over these past several months. Apart from the action on October 5, in Washington and other antiwar events around the country on October 17, he unfortunately seems to be right.

Nevertheless, we can and must step up the pressure. For those interested in taking action, Leys suggests joining the Peaceable Assembly Campaign (PAC) – the latest effort by our good friends at Voices for Creative Nonviolence to challenge the militarism that is so pervasive in our country.

From January 19 through February 2, the PAC will maintain a two-week vigil at the White House and engage in regular acts of nonviolent civil disobedience, starting on the day President Obama enters his second year in office, continuing through his anticipated State of the Union address to Congress, and concluding on the day he is to submit his budget for 2011 to Congress.

Then after February 2, the Peaceable Assembly Campaign will focus its work upon Congress. Similar to the Occupation Project effort of 2007, the PAC will organize lobbying – both legal and extralegal (i.e., civil disobedience) – in the home offices of representatives and senators who do not commit themselves publicly to oppose additional funding for the wars and occupations in Iraq and Afghanistan as well as the occupation of the Palestinian territories.

You can become involved with the Peaceable Assembly Campaign at www.peaceableassemblycampaign.org.

A recent AFP article looks for answers to this question by talking with activists from the Vietnam War-era and students involved in opposing the current wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

There are of course many reasons for the decline of activism at universities, which have historically been a hotbed for anti-war activity.

Mounting economic and academic pressures on today’s youth, intimidation by authorities, online distractions and conflicted views about the “good” war in Afghanistan, not to mention other causes such as health care and slashed school budgets clawing for attention, have conspired to snuff out anti-war activism on campus, experts and students say.

Tom Hayden, one of the founders of Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) in the 1960s, pinned it squarely on the privatization of conflict.

“Students were the bulwark of the anti-Vietnam war movement because students were being drafted, full stop,” Hayden said. “Ending forced conscription radically diminished the possibilities of future student anti-war protests.”

The article also points out that young people today are “marching with their fingers instead of their feet.”

Some, including myself, question how much pressure this type of activism really puts on those in power to change course.

Stanley Aronowitz, a Vietnam anti-war organizer, insists online petitions do nothing but entrench users in the “anti-reality” of Internet activism.

“I don’t believe petitions do anything,” he said. “They are what middle-class people and intellectuals do to convince themselves they’re getting somewhere.”

Aronowitz, now a sociology professor at City University of New York, acknowledges that new social technologies on the Web — Facebook, Twitter, YouTube — have mass mobilization potential.

“But they also privatize people’s lives to much more of a degree than when people had to go to meetings and act collectively.”

A student who runs the Student Peace Action Network also suggests that the use of new “non-lethal” weapons, like the taser, keeps some from taking to the streets or speaking out.

If that is the case, however, I think it simply reveals the lack of conviction of young people today, because activists in the 60s often risked their personal safety to challenge to the war in Vietnam.

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.