More than 30,000 people took to the streets of Athens Wednesday after two of Greece’s largest trade unions organized a nationwide strike to protest austerity measures aimed at reducing the country’s public debt. But the largely peaceful rally of disgruntled workers was unfortunately disrupted by a group of violent youths who clashed with police.
Hundreds of rallies took place across the nation on Wednesday—the eve of President Obama’s White House Health Care Summit—and over a million signed a petition sent to Congress urging lawmakers to “finish the job and pass real health care reform.”
Hundreds of students from several Jordan, Utah district schools walked out of their classes Thursday morning to protest announced budget cuts that could slash teacher ranks, increase class sizes and impact extracurricular activities.
Nine days after an off-campus student party mocked Black History Month, UC San Diego went through a day of protests, on Wednesday, drawing attention to the small number of African American students enrolled at the beachside campus.
Classes at a secondary school in Midland, Ontario were disrupted Wednesday morning when nearly 200 students walked out to protest rumoured cuts in programming.
Thousands of civil servants have marched through Athens, the Greek capital, as they went on a 24-hour strike in protest against the government’s plans to freeze wages, gather more taxes and reform pensions. The action left flights grounded and many schools and government offices closed, while public hospitals were expected to only take emergency cases. A two-million-strong federation of unions will also start a general strike Feb. 24.
Ikea offered Wednesday to meet with labor union leaders after strikes shut down several stores in France — but only if six workers end a sit-in at its Paris office first. Workers walked off the job starting Saturday in protest over pay.
In Iran, numerous opposition figures reported police harassment on Thursday, including the firing of tear gas and paint balls at protests in the capital Tehran.
Also in Tehran, workers of Tohid Tunnel gathered in front of the entrance of the tunnel they work for in protest of unpaid salaries. The gathering resulted in the closure of the connections between north and south Chamran Freeway from Milad tower to the entrance of Tohid tunnel.
Tomorrow, citizens of Florida and Destin will have the opportunity to show their opposition to oil drilling off Florida’s coastline. Hands Across the Sand encourages Florida residents concerned with pending drilling legislation to gather on beaches at noon and hold hands forming lines in the sand against oil drilling in coastal waters.
Hundreds of Notre Dame University students and faculty members gathered on campus yesterday to demand more equality for LGBT students. The protest was in response to an anti-gay comic strip which appeared in the student paper a few weeks ago.
Climate activists in South Lanarkshire closed down one of Scotland’s main coal terminals yesterday when one of the protesters chained himself to a digging machine. This led to 11 coal trucks queuing at the terminal’s gate and prevented a coal train being loaded.
Dozens of people gathered in front of Camp Phoenix, an ISAF military base in the eastern part of Kabul, to protest the death of a civilian by NATO forces. They blocked the road that links the Afghan capital to eastern provinces.
Hundreds of students and alumni packed the steps of the Mississippi State Capitol in Jackson yesterday to show their support for higher education funding and their opposition to proposals that call for merging some Mississippi universities.
About 1,400 construction workers defied a court order to end their strike at the $13 billion liquefied natural gas project in Western Australia. The strike started Jan. 22 to protest Woodside Petroleum Ltd.’s plans to make the workers change accommodation every month instead of providing permanent housing.
Five concerned parents barricaded themselves inside a primary school in Glasgow this week to protest proposals to shut down the school. It was the latest in a series of school occupations which have taken place over the past year.
A 150-strong group of Belgian firefighters sprayed foam from 20 trucks over a main road in central Brussels, blocking traffic in an effort to press for speedier promotions. Government buildings, including the Minister President’s office, were targeted.
Police and a specialist evictions team began a major operation to end a six-month occupation of an opencast mine site in Scotland this morning by arresting 10 Climate Camp protesters chained to tree houses and make-shift forts. There are about 40 climate campaigners now occupying tunnels, tree houses, and homemade barricaded huts.
About 2,000 photographers gathered in London over the weekend to protest stop and search methods by British police. The photographers say they’ve been unduly targeted by Section 44 of Britain’s Terrorism Act 2000, which was designed to give police greater powers to fight terrorism.
Hundreds of protesters in southern China donned masks to protest a planned incinerator plant, the latest grassroots initiative to target polluting projects in the region.
Greek farmers have been blocking roads in Greece for more than a week to protest the government’s current agricultural policy, which threatens to put 50 thousand people employed in agriculture and livestock out of work.
An Australian peace activist named Sheik Haron (pictured to the right) was recently charged with writing hateful letters to families of fallen soldiers. Jarrod McKenna reflects on this incident as a reminder to activists to “love the enemy”:
The world is ready for an activism which loves its enemies. As A.J. Muste put it, “There is no way to peace — peace is the way.” The early Christians were called “people of the Way” because they lived the way of Jesus. If the sharing of our faith is to have any integrity, Christians who say “Jesus is the Way” must embody “the Way of Jesus.” The same is true of peace activists (Christian or otherwise). As Dr. Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. would often say, “Peace is not merely a distant goal that we seek, but a means by which we arrive at that goal.”
As a human being living in a time of tremendous challenge to the earth’s resources, I am quick to apply this message to the issue of sustainability. According to nonviolent principles, just as we love the soldiers and their families, we must also love those who pollute and degrade the earth. When we stand up for the earth, we might remember that most of us have polluted, and still pollute, in some ways, such as fossil fuel transport, using plastics, and heating our homes.
At this time, quickly and urgently, we are needed to build systems in which we can coexist with each other and with the earth. Sustainability is a form of peace–peace for our biosphere. Along the way to that lofty goal, when we refuse the pollution, still we may love the polluter. That love may be motivated by the vision of the reconciliation when we all will live together in peace on a healthy earth.
A pro-Kurdish demonstrator flashes a victory sign during a sit-in protest in central Istanbul on January 3. Hundreds of Kurdish women gathered in central Istanbul to protest against a ban on the pro-Kurdish Democratic Society Party.
More than 100 demonstrators were detained Tuesday evening at a rally in downtown San Francisco held by hotel workers who have been without new contracts since August, police and rally organizers said. Unite Here Local 2 President Mike Casey estimated 1,300 demonstrators took part in yesterday’s action.
More than 2,800 Chuquicamata and Mina Sur miners in Chile did not report to work on Monday to protest the wage and bonus package offered by Codelco, which is the world’s largest copper producer.
In Manhattan yesterday, about 100 people protested the detention of Jean Montrevil, a Haitian who has had a green card since 1986 but, owing to a drug conviction for which he served time in the 1990s, has been subject to supervision and was detained by U.S. Immigration authorities on December 30. Ten protesters were arrested after failing to heed a police order to disperse as they blocked traffic.
Angry farmers wearing broad-brimmed hats and cracking kangaroo-hide whips rallied outside Parliament in Canberra on Monday as one of their colleagues, sheep farmer Peter Spencer, entered his 43rd day on a hunger strike to demand compensation for Australian climate change policy.
A two-day strike by Kenya’s matatu minibus taxis, which had stranded thousands of commuters, has been called off after government intervention. Matatu operators agreed to go back to work after the government promised to deal with their grievances.
Some 40 activists with Rising Tide Newcastle shut down the railway line leading to Australia’s biggest coal export facility for six hours yesterday to protest the failure of global climate change talks in Copenhagen. 23 people were arrested after police removed them from the human blockade.
Two Greenpeace activists got past security at a formal state dinner at Christiansborg palace in Denmark where Queen Margrethe II hosted world leaders on Friday. They waved banners saying “Politicians Talk – Leaders Act,” in the reception hall of the palace before being evicted.
Greenpeace declared the US Chamber of Commerce headquarters in Washington, D.C. a “climate crime scene” on Thursday to protest the business federation’s continued dismissal of global warming. Activists scaled the Chamber’s building and draped it in yellow crime scene tape, while simultaneously surrounding it with vehicles designed to look like police units and ambulances marked “Climate Crime Unit”.
Thousands of people took to the streets of southern Yemen on Friday to protest a recent military operation against suspected al Qa’eda militants which claimed the lives of dozens of innocent civilians.
Several hundred women, many holding pictures of murdered relatives, took to the streets of Kabul to demand that President Hamid Karzai purge anyone connected to corruption, war crimes, or the Taliban from his government. In a rare display of men allowing women to lead, about 500 men followed the protest group in support. (Photo: Tony Perry / Los Angeles Times)
Over 20,000 members of the South Africa Commercial, Catering and Allied Workers’ Union (Saccawu) are planning on taking part in strike action against listed retailer Pick n Pay today, to protest alleged racial discrimination at the company.
More than 400 Queensland Rail workers walked off the job in Rockhampton on Wednesday to protest against the State Government’s decision to publicly list the company.
On Tuesday, “Hungry for Justice at Vassar College,” began a hunger strike aimed at getting the school to reverse planned job cuts that have or will hit 13 support workers. Also, the Campus Solidarity Working Group held a sing-in at the main building for the same cause, that was followed by a vigil.
World No. 1 copper producer Codelco said an indefinite union worker blockade that began on Wednesday has halted mining activities at its massive Chuquicamata mine complex.
Around 200 people blocked the entrance to the Parliament House in Canberra Australia this morning to press Prime Minister Kevin Rudd to secure a strong, legally binding treaty at the upcoming UN Climate Meeting in Copenhagen. Police arrested approximately 150 people taking part in the nonviolent direct action.
Four people were arrested yesterday morning after they walked into Fort Benning during a protest against the activities of the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation, which has a record of training some of the most brutal Latin American military officers. This year marked the 20th annual protest at Fort Benning, which was sparked after six Jesuit priests were massacred in El Salvador in 1989.
Hundreds of clergymen, congregants and reform advocates lined the sidewalks outside Independent U.S. Sen. Joe Lieberman’s Stamford home Sunday night in a show of support for universal health care.
More than 5,000 people packed the streets of downtown Chicago yesterday morning, chanting, marching and rallying outside the American Bankers Association conference on the third and final day of what was billed as the "Showdown in Chicago."
In Jordan, around 200 people staged a one-hour sit-in on Sunday at the Professional Associations Complex to protest against an assault on veteran opposition leader Leith Shbeilat by anonymous individuals earlier that day.
Catholic schools will close across Queensland today as teachers take to the streets over a pay dispute. Their 24-hour strike follows a rally by state school teachers outside Parliament House yesterday over their pay campaign.
All local trains of Mumbai on the Central and the Harbour lines were running behind schedule as motormen went on strike in protest against overwork and fatigue.
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.
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.
Around 30 Greenpeace activists scaled the roof of the famous Palace of Westminster in central London, unfurling several yellow banners reading: "Change the politics, save the climate". The action was intended as a greeting to MPs returning from summer break. After 28 hours the activists came down and were arrested.
28 people between ages 50 and 88 finished a five-day, 25-mile march to protest mountaintop removal mining when they arrived at a Massey Energy coal complex yesterday.
Five people were arrested and charged with trespass after scaling and fastening themselves to a conveyor belt used to load coal in Illawarra, Australia on Sunday. The action was part of a Climate Camp in the area attended by over 400 people.
Thousands of Guineans stayed at home yesterday to protest the massacre of at least 150 people who were among thousands demonstrating against the country’s military rulers two weeks ago. The strike brought the capital city to a standstill with banks, shops, markets and offices remaining closed.
30 Greenpeace activists entered Total’s oil refinery site, in Normandy, France on Friday to protest its involvement with the climate-changing tar sands in Alberta, Canada. They hung banners on a huge tank and two 75 meter-high chimney stacks that read “climate crime” and “Total invests in sustainable destruction.”
Ahead of Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper's first official visit to the White House, a small team of climate activists rappelled from the US observation deck at Niagara Falls and dropped this vivid 70-foot banner against tar sands.
A strike by a citizens’ “pressure group” Monday partially paralyzed work in cities across Bangladesh and issued an ‘ultimatum’ to the government to roll back its decision to award contracts to foreign firms for oil and gas exploration in the Bay of Bengal.
Staff at the University of Melbourne will hold a rally today during a “24 hour strike” action planned by the National Tertiary Education Union (NTEU) to protest continued job cuts. Union members at 16 universities across Australia will launch similar actions at their schools.
Security forces in Madagascar fired tear gas on Friday to try to disperse hundreds of supporters of ousted President Marc Ravalomanana who had gathered for a rally in the capital of the Indian Ocean island.
Following a recent militant attack on government officials in Manipur, a state in India, local residents staged a sit-in protest at Kongba Bazaar in Imphal appealing for an immediate end to violence.
Protesters armed with banners saying, “Our Blades, Our People”, got in to Empress Dock in the UK, and attached themselves to cranes to stop wind turbine blades being loaded on to a ship. They were calling for the reinstatement of sacked Vestas workers and government intervention to protect wind-power jobs. Four were arrested.
Around 7,000 Coptic Christians gathered at the Father Kyrillos church on the outskirts of Cairo to pray for an end to “discriminaton” during the celebration of the Egyptian Coptic New Year this weekend.
In Missouri, abortion opponents held a rally Monday to launch a 40-day campaign that will include prayer and fasting, a peaceful vigil and community outreach.
A huge police presence, with officers on trail bikes, horses and in helicopters, spent yesterday afternoon defending Australia's Hazelwood power station from about 500 environmentalists, 22 of whom made individual attempts to infiltrate the plant. All were subdued and arrested.
Austrian dairy farmers are on strike to protest falling milk prices and are planning separate actions such as tractor drives and milk giveaways also planned as well.
Dozens of fire trucks from the Israeli Fire and Rescue Services in Tel Aviv drove slowly in a convoy yesterday morning toward the Prime Minister’s Office in Jerusalem to protest poor working conditions and a lack of equipment.
Four people protesting Massey Energy’s mountaintop removal mining practices were arrested Wednesday morning after linking their arms together with plastic pipe and duct tape, briefly blocking a private road to the coal company’s office in southern West Virginia. The protesters are affiliated with Climate Ground Zero and ranged in age from 22 to 81 years old.
A trio of activists from the environmental group Avaaz.org disrupted a press conference yesterday in Washington DC held by city officials from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, who were attempting to highlight the city’s role as the venue for the G20 summit later this month. The activists held a sign that read, “Why is the greenest city silencing green voices?”, before being escorted out.
Hundreds of AT&T workers in Danbury, Connecticut went to work wearing t-shirts saying “prisoner of AT&T” to protest the expiration of their contract. Bosses sent them home without pay, but the workers are threatening to file a grievance with the National Labor Relations Board over arbitrary suspensions.
On their first day back to work, US Senators were greeted by 40 climate activists, who built miniature windmills and made mechanical noises in the middle of the Hart Senate Office building until interrupted by the Capitol Police. At that point, a 50 ft banner dropped demanding that the Senators “Get to Work” for “Green Jobs Now”.
More than 270 faculty members from the University of California have signed an online petition in support of a walkout later this month to protest budget cuts.
Union workers for Kaiser Permanente picketed at the Kaiser Roseville Medical Center in Sacramento, California on Wednesday to protest company plans to slash 1,350 jobs statewide to offset enrollment losses and declining margins.
An Australian peace activist named Sheik Haron (pictured to the right) was recently charged with writing hateful letters to families of fallen soldiers. 
