After a year of Earth First! campaigning to end the proposed timber sale in the Globe Forest, part of the Pisgah National Forest, the Forest Service has announced that they plan to remove the 40 acre old-growth section of the Globe Forest Timber sale, forcing them to change the project to a stewardship sale.
In Kazakhstan, a threatened hunger strike by 48 workers building the Almaty subway has succeeded in getting them three months’ back pay. The workers, all from one shift, went on a general strike for three days last week, refusing to work until they got their salaries.
Women bared their breasts to fight for the same right to go topless as men, during protests in Venice Beach, San Francisco, Chicago, New York, Denver, Miami Beach and Seattle on Sunday.
About a hundred net neutrality activists left their laptops at home Friday afternoon to gather at Google’s Silicon Valley headquarters to protest the search giant’s perceived betrayal of the movement for federal internet openness rules. The protest group’s ranks included eager young activists, long-time technologists, first-time protesters and the ever-present Raging Grannies, who led anti-Google sing-alongs set to classic Americana songs.
About 50 people turned out Saturday for a protest of the new Target store in Chicago, on Broadway just north of Montrose. They were calling for a boycott of the store because of a recent $150,000 contribution to a fund, Minnesota Forward, that in turn gave that money to right-wing conservative Republican candidate Rep. Tom Emmer in his race for Minnesota governor.
In Haiti, dozens of protesters held a sit-in at the National Palace Thursday to oppose the forced evictions of thousands of displaced residents from makeshift camps. The Haitian government has been urged to issue a moratorium on all forced evictions until alternative shelter options can be provided.
Two Korean priests are publicly fasting outside a government building in the latest protest against the highly controversial Four Rivers project, which they believe will be detrimental to the environment.
Iranian opposition members in Germany are staging a two-day hunger strike to demand a stop executions and an international investigation of prisons in their home country. A group of 20 on Friday chanted slogans such as “Stop stonings” and “Free political prisoners” on Berlin’s most prominent public spot at the Brandenburg Gate, two days after the purported TV confession of an Iranian woman facing death by stoning on adultery charges.
On Saturday, all the taxi drivers in the provincial city of Dégolan in Iranian Kurdistan went on strike parking their taxi cabs by the Bolbanabad terminal to protest a 20 day interruption in the compressed natural gas supplies.
This past Friday, in Bryant Park in New York, Medicare celebrated it’s 45th birthday with a flash mob of over one hundred singing and dancing protesters that warned President Obama’s newly created Deficit Commission to keep their hands off Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security.
A group of families of political prisoners gathered in front of the office of the General Prosecutor to protest the lack of information about the situation of their loved ones, especially those political prisoners who went on hunger strike in Tehran’s notorious Evin Prison last week. Meanwhile, it was reported yesterday that anti-riot units and Special Forces barged into the facility after learning of prisoners’ mass hunger strike.
Police arrested 37 people for entering a Tennessee nuclear weapons plant on Monday during a demonstration marking the anniversary of the landmark Plowshares protest in 1980 at a missile plant in Pennsylvania, where Dan and Phil Berrigan were able to get inside the General Electric facility, damage a missile nose cone and pour blood on various documents. Four of the original “Plowshares Eight,” each of whom served time in jails or prisons for their actions participated in the protest: John Schuchardt, Molly Rush, Anne Montgomery and Carl Kabat – as well as Liz McAlister, Phil Berrigan’s widow.
Merchants in Tehran’s main bazaar gathered in protest on Tuesday to protest a government plan to dramatically increase taxes on their businesses. With threats of a general strike looming, authorities were forced to back down.
Hundreds of people staged a demonstration in Rome on Wednesday to demand help from the government for the reconstruction of places damaged by the April 2009 quake.
Religious and immigrant rights activists gathered outside the White House yesterday to urge the Obama administration to approach immigration reform and voice support for the Justice Department’s recent challenge of Arizona’s hardline immigration policy.
Four Earth First! protesters were arrested today after they temporarily stopped a semi-truck carrying a 140-foot wind turbine blade to Kibby Mountain in Maine. The protesters oppose alternative energy projects that profit corporations at the expense of sensitive ecosystems.
The New York Timesran an interesting piece about the power of protest music in Iran earlier this week, saying:
Since the Iranian authorities have cracked down on the demonstrations that rocked the country after a disputed election a year ago, a flood of protest music has rushed in to comfort and inspire the opposition. If anything, as the street protests have been silenced, the music has grown louder and angrier.
The authorities have also tried their hardest to crack down on the spread of this music, shutting down sites where music can be downloaded and arresting musicians, but, as the Times puts it, “clamping down on music in the digital age is like squeezing a wet sponge.”
Protest songs are downloaded on the Internet, sold in the black market or shared via Bluetooth, a wireless technology that Iranians have adapted to share files on cellphones, bypassing the Internet altogether. Fans have also made dozens of homemade videos, setting montages of protest images to music and posting them online.
Since there are no functioning music charts in Iran, it’s hard to know how huge this phenomenon has become, but according to the Times:
An opposition Web site has posted about 100 protest songs recorded since the election. About two dozen of them honor Neda Agha-Soltan, the 26-year-old teacher shot at a protest in Tehran in June who became an icon of the opposition after her last moments were captured on a video that has since been widely circulated.
The Week in Green with Hamid Dabashi, a weekly broadcast supporting the civil rights movement in Iran, recently conducted an interview with Cornel West. Using his characteristic soulful intellectualism, West called the Green Movement, “the most significant and exemplary movement for justice in the world today” and encouraged its leaders to “try to make some connection to those on the inside of the system.” He also addressed the importance of economics and involving the poor and working people of Iran.
Waging Nonviolence is participating in a teach-in on Iran at New York University’s Tisch School this Sunday, May 2nd. The event begins at 1pm with an introductory panel on the current situation in Iran. Then at 2pm, Eric and I will be taking part in an hour-long workshop on the politics of the Green Movement. I will be talking about strategies, tactics and ways for the movement to gain new traction, while Eric will confront the issue of economics within the movement and the importance of preventing a neoliberal agenda from taking hold. There will then be a short break with refreshments, followed by a keynote from Iranian historian Ervand Abrahamian. For more information or to register for this free event visit the Platypus Affiliated Society.
Tens of thousands of people are gathering for a sit-in in Bangkok as anti-government protests continue. The red-shirted Thais, whose action is seriously affecting the city’s economy, show no sign of retreat after they returned to peaceful methods this week.
Residents outside the San Cristobal mine in Bolivia have been blocking rail access to the silver/lead/zinc mine all week, demanding that the government provide electricity, among other things, to the area.
Strikes and marches occurred throughout the United States in the last few days, as hundreds of workers, students, and community members rallied against labor rights violations committed by national food service company Sodexo.
A hundred people, including Aboriginal elders, marched on Mumbulla State Forest in Australia on Wednesday to protest logging. Logging continued, however, throughout the day, on land that is home to a koala colony.
Food and poverty activists are staging a sit-in in India in response to a Food Security Bill currently facing Parliament. The activists say the bill does not go far enough to protect poor families.
Argentine meat-industry workers marched to the labor ministry in Buenos Aires yesterday, protesting anticipated lay-offs.
American Airlines employees picketed at the Dallas/Fort Worth airport on Thursday in protest of high executive compensation. Rallying against corporate greed has become an April tradition for the airline workers.
A New Zealand man locked himself to a silo for a day this weekend in protest of factory farming. Police cut him down from the silo at a pig farm while animal-rights supporters watched.
In Hollywood on Sunday, protesters marched for Social Security benefits for gay couples. 700 people marched and were ultimately told that legislation would be introduced to equalize benefits.
Workers and people with physical disabilities continued protesting outside of Cairo’s parliament yesterday. The sit-ins, which have lasted between 4 and 58 days so far, are in response to the closing of factories and Egypt’s lack of provision of handicapped housing.
Dock workers in Iran protested after their company was privatized and their jobs were jeopardized. Several hundred people gathered in front of a central building and in prayer spot to protest the change.
About 25 people gathered in Asheville, North Carolina on Saturday to protest racial profiling done by immigration officials against Latinos. They said they want their city to become a “sanctuary,” where people who work and pay taxes are in no danger of deportation.
On Tehran Bureau, an interesting new blog on PBS’s website about Iran, an Iranian friend of ours - writing under a pen name – published an important article last week with some sound strategic advice on nonviolence for the Green Movement.
The goal is to erode the pillars of support for the regime until loyalties shift, practical power begins to drain away, and the regime starts crumbling from within. Civil disobedience is thus not primarily aimed at demonstrating the moral superiority of the opposition movement — though that is admittedly one objective — but rather to disrupt the “normal” flow of commerce, politics, and everyday life. Clearly, a violent struggle against a much stronger foe has little chance of disrupting “normal” conditions except for fleeting moments, since violence gives the state license to stamp out its opponents with the full range of instruments at its disposal.
Moreover, violence he argues would only cede the religious “center,” which includes most clergy and millions of everyday citizens, to the hardliners. He then enumerates several critical strategic principles, including:
Just over a week ago, I was fortunate enough to attend a conference at The New School called “Iran: Politics of Resistance.” Many great scholars on Iran, both American and Iranian, took part in three panel discussions throughout the day. I was only able to attend the first one—which focused primarily on the Green Movement and whether it can accurately be called a full-fledged revolution—but the others looked to be just as fascinating. Fortunately, they are now all online.
Three activists began an occupation of Marfork Coal Company’s main offices in West Virginia yesterday. Marfork is a subsidiary of the coal extracting giant Massey Energy. The protesters plan to present a citizen’s arrest warrant and list of violations on the Marfork processing plant.
About 400 demonstrators gathered in Aldermaston England on Monday to block the entrances of the Atomic Weapons Establishment, where warheads for Trident submarines are made. Twenty-six were arrested, including Nobel Laureate Mairead Maguire.
Greek customs workers announced 48-hour rolling strikes yesterday—the day that was supposed to be the last of a three-day strike to protest government austerity measures designed to pull Greece out of a debt crisis.
Belgian train drivers went on strike Tuesday to protest safety conditions after the collision of two commuter trains left at least 18 people dead.
About 300 protesters, mostly doctors dressed in white coats, chanted “the health-care system is in danger” and waved soccer-style red cards in the direction of the building where Algerian Prime Minister Ahmed Ouyahia has his office.
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.
Blurred Vision, a Canadian band comprised of two brothers originally from Iran, just released a cover of Pink Floyd’s “Another Brick In The Wall, part II” with a slight lyrical twist that changes the song’s antagonist from controlling teachers to the repressive Iranian regime. The new chorus supports the many young people who protested Ahmadinejad’s reelection by demanding, “Hey Ayatollah, leave those kids alone.”
The music video goes a little further with its message, showing a fictional young Iranian woman on the run from what appears to be the Basij militia as she tries to upload footage from a protest on her iPhone. The video is inter cut with actual footage taken by Iranian protesters, depicting protesters getting beaten by government forces.
While it’s hard to criticize artists who clearly mean well and care more about their political message than their commercial appeal, there are a couple popular misconceptions being forwarded by this song and video. As we’ve written about before, the role of social media has been greatly overstated—not only does it provide questionable information from a small segment of the Iranian population (wealthy, educated city dwellers who dislike Ahmadinejad’s social welfare programs) but it’s also not a reliable way to organize protests given the government’s penchant for internet crackdown.
Like everyone else trying to follow Iran from afar, the members of Blurred Vision may be (pardon the pun) blinded by their desire to see Iranians win greater freedom and civil liberties to the point where they are overlooking and distorting key facts. In a CNN interview they refer to the June elections as “rigged”—something even the mainstream magazine Foreign Policy says is untrue, citing a recent report from the Program on International Policy Attitudes at the University of Maryland.
It’s important to point out these misconceptions because if furthered they could lead to several undesirable consequences, such as the justification for a US intervention or the installation of a new president without the fundamental changes to Iran’s political structure necessary for real change. As discussed in previous posts, the only way the Green Movement can hope to be successful is to support radical reform that incorporates not just the social reform everyone in Iranian society desires but economic reform that meets the needs of the poor.
Residents of cities in southern Yemen on Sunday staged a general strike to protest what they termed government oppression as well as action taken against a daily newspaper, activists and witnesses said. The strike was almost total in the southern provinces of Dhale, Lahaj, Shabwa and Abyan as all shops were shut and transportation ground to a halt,
In Iran, more than 100 police and plainclothes officers broke up a gathering of the Mourning Mothers in Laleh Park Saturday afternoon. The group — formed by women whose children have been killed in recent anti-government protests — gathers every weekend at the park to call attention to the deaths.
Hundreds in Hong Kong ringed the city’s legislature on Friday as public frustration mounted over government attempts to bulldoze through a high speed railway, an issue that has also catalyzed a fresh push for full democracy.
Unionized workers of South Korea’s third-largest carmaker Kia Motors Crop. will hold a partial strike for four hours a day this week in a protest against wages.
About 300 Egyptian workers at the fishing boats of Nea Michaniona (a village near Thessaloniki, Northern Greece) continue their strike, which began on Christmas, after blockading the small port of the village last week to protest a severe decrease in their income over recent months.
Just over a week ago, I was fortunate enough to attend 
