• Building on the largest opposition rally in years Monday, Russian protests spread to more cities on Tuesday as demonstrators denounced federal election results—resulting in hundreds of arrests.

• On Tuesday, thousands of young Yemenis in Sanaa continued their sit-in, despite President Saleh’s signed agreement that he would step down, declaring that their revolution is far from over. This followed demonstrations which erupted on Sunday, as residents of Taiz marched in protest of immunity provisions given to the outgoing President.

• Greenpeace activists infiltrated a French nuclear plant Monday and hung a banner on a reactor building in an attempt to expose nuclear national security weaknesses.

• Dozens of Occupy D.C. members were arrested late Sunday in an act of civil disobedience when they refused to dismantle a structure that they were building for shelter.

• Thousands protested at the UN Climate Conference in Durban, South Africa on Sunday, calling for a strong international plan to address climate change.

• Animal rights advocates in Taipei, Taiwan gathered by the hundreds on Sunday, condemning the conditions of animal shelters throughout the country.

• In India on Sunday, thousands marched and several began a hunger strike to show their support for the decommissioning of a damn in the interest of protecting local farmers.

• Kashmir witnessed protests and sit-ins on Saturday as residents of Srinagar decried the police’s use of pepper guns in breaking up demonstrations the day before.

• On Saturday, secular Tunisians held a counter-rally in front of Parliament, opposing a group of Islamists who were calling for female university students to wear a full-face veil.

• Thousands in India blocked train tracks Saturday, agitating for compensation to be given to victims of the industrial accident at Bhopal in 1984.

• A few hundred protesters marched on Waikiki Saturday as leaders of Pacific Rim nations gathered for a summit to discuss free trade agreements and other issues. During the gala dinner, renowned Hawaiian guitarist Makana spent almost 45 minutes repeatedly singing his new protest ballad “We Are the Many” instead of the expected instrumental background music. Over a dozen heads of state, including President Obama, heard Makana’s message that included lines such as “The lobbyists at Washington do gnaw…. And until they are purged, we won’t withdraw.”

• Police confronted an estimated 1,000 protesters in Portland, Oregon, on Sunday after clearing parks occupied by demonstrators for weeks. 50 were arrested after refusing to leave one of the parks. The demonstrators regrouped in the streets, blocking traffic for hours.

• Twenty-seven “Occupy St. Louis” protesters were arrested early Saturday morning after defying an existing park curfew.

• Portuguese civil servants and soldiers staged an anti-austerity protest in Lisbon on Saturday, a sign of the rising social tensions in debt-hit Portugal over deep cuts in spending.

• Thousands of demonstrators rallied in Rio de Janeiro on Thursday against oil legislation that could cost the port city and surrounding state billions of dollars in revenues.

• Angry over a range of environmental issues, about 250 protesters erected a mock coal-fired power station on the steps of Australia’s Parliament House before marching backwards to Treasury Gardens, arguing the government’s policies have taken Victoria backwards.

• More than 350 people linked arms to form a “human chain” on the Stirling Bridge in Fremantle, Australia on Sunday to protest the live animal export trade.

• About 100 peaceful marchers sent a clear message Sunday to vandals who torched cars and scrawled Nazi swastikas in an Orthodox Jewish neighborhood of Brooklyn. The march included about 25 people from the Occupy Wall Street movement in Manhattan, which put out a statement condemning the vandalism.

• More than 2,000 students marched through London last week to protest cuts to public spending and a big increase in tuition fees.

• Thousands of residents of the Northeastern Chinese port city Dalian took to the streets on Sunday to demand the relocation of a petrochemical plant that threatened to spill toxins into the city last week when a typhoon breached a nearby dike. Chinese authorities have complied and ordered the closure of the plant.

• Hundreds of thousands of Yemenis poured into the streets of major cities and towns across the country on Friday, keeping the pressure on the nation’s embattled president to step down.

• About 100 people participated in a two-mile march in Santa Cruz, California on Sunday to demand a halt to construction of 32 homes on what is believed to be a 6,000-year-old Native American burial site.

• More than 1,000 people led by the poet turned activist Javier Sicilia have joined a march in Mexico City to protest the government’s strategy in the fight against drug gangs.

• Tunisian security forces used tear gas and truncheons Monday to disperse several hundred protesters in the capital demanding that the government step down for failing to prosecute supporters of the ousted president.

• Thousands of people turned out at rallies across Australia on Sunday to call on federal MPs to support a ban on live animal exports.

• Thousands of people took to the streets of Dublin yesterday to demand civil marriage equality.

• Tens of thousands of people gathered across Israel on Saturday to call for lower living costs in an effort to show the government their protest movement has countrywide support.

A battle unfolded on the high seas last weekend just north of Libyan waters. The engaged parties belonged neither to NATO nor Gaddafi’s forces. They were instead Tunisian fishermen and the crew members of the US-based Sea Shepherd Conservation Society. Fighting broke out when Sea Shepherd, which is on a mission to defend the extremely endangered bluefin tuna from illegal fishing, attempted to inspect the catch of five fishing boats.

Despite the justness of Sea Shepherd’s cause and the sincere bravery of the crew, the following report from the Associated Press reads like a how-not-to guide for waging nonviolent struggle—from the activists’ use of water canons and stink bombs, which hurt the chance of gaining widespread sympathy for the cause and increase the likelihood of fatalities, to the complete indifference toward the Tunisians. These are people who, after all, just overthrew a dictator, in part because of a jobs crisis. Is it possible these fisherman were fighting Sea Shepherd more for job security than for a terrible industry that’s going to send the fish to some expensive Western sushi restaurant anyway?

The Sea Shepherd environmentalists – who have no official enforcement powers – deployed a small launch to inspect the cage, while the Tunisians suddenly scrambled two, then three small dinghies to protect their net. Others tried to cut off the Steve Irwin [Sea Shepherd's ship] or chase it away.

Fishermen in the larger boats threw heavy links of chain at the environmentalists – hitting no one, but eventually forcing the dinghies to retreat without being able to determine if there were tuna in the cage.

A larger Tunisian boat pulled along the port side of the Steve Irwin and the crew pelted the environmentalists with chain links. The crew of the Irwin responded with water from fire hoses and stink bombs containing, they said, rancid butter.

A Tunisian dinghy also towed a rope in front of the Steve Irwin, hoping it would get tangled in the propeller and disable the ship.

Meanwhile, the cries of the Tunisians could be overheard radioing the French military for help, saying environmentalist divers were in the water trying to cut their nets.

That was not the case. However, the Sea Shepherd volunteers are prepared to do exactly that to free the tuna, if they determine the fishing to have been illegal – and they have done it in the past.

The Irwin’s officers deemed sending in divers at this point too dangerous. The Tunisians were aggressive, and they had deployed divers to protect their cage – which could have led, in effect, to hand-to-hand combat in the sea.

A French military jet appeared on the scene in short order and flew over the area at an altitude of a couple of hundred feet as the drama unfolded below.

Eventually, the Steve Irwin broke off contact so it could continue to research whether the fishing was illegal.

Despite Sea Shepherd’s hostile tactics, founder and captain Paul Watson believes his organization to be nonviolent. In a recent interview with the San Francisco Examiner, Watson used the term “aggressive nonviolence” to describe Sea Shepherd’s tactics, adding, “We don’t break laws and we don’t hurt people.”

There are several problems with that logic. First off, breaking laws is oftentimes a nonviolent act, particularly when the law is unjust or not doing its job, as in the case of allowing the illegal fishing of bluefin tuna. So, there would be no shame in Sea Shepherd breaking the law if it were done for the purpose of saving a life without endangering another.

That brings us to Watson’s concept of aggression. Many nonviolent activists would argue that nonviolence is aggressive—certainly in respect to being forceful and going after something with the intent to win. Aggression ceases to be nonviolent, however, when the opponent’s health and safety are threatened. It may be that Sea Shepherd has never physically harmed anyone, but their tactics seem to be ever-escalating in that direction—especially with the revelation that they possess non-lethal weapons.

So why does Sea Shepherd insist on calling itself nonviolent? Perhaps it rightly understands that nonviolence is the most widely accepted form of resistance. What it doesn’t seem to undersand, however, is that beyond the veneer are proven strategies and tactics that also make nonviolence the most effective form of resistance. Rather than make up its own rules and engage in actions that defy the very dynamics that make nonviolence work, Sea Shepherd should actually study what it proclaims itself to be.

After its seeming victory over Japan’s whaling industry this year (as evidenced by the forced cancellation of this season’s whale hunt in the Southern Ocean), the controversial anti-whaling group Sea Shepherd has set its sights on bluefin tuna poachers—in the waters off Libya, no less. The activists will be equipped with bulletproof vests and backed by a helicopter. According to MSNBC:

Sea Shepherd will send two boats into the war zone — the 190-foot Steve Irwin, named after the Australian conservationist, and the 115-foot Gojira — said Paul Watson, founder of the group based in Friday Harbor, Wash.

Watson said he’ll captain the larger boat, which has a helicopter and was recently repainted in blue/gray/black camouflage colors. The smaller, faster boat will act as a scout, looking for targets.

The boats will carry divers ready to cut the nets of fishing boats to free the tuna. Last year, Sea Shepherd cut the net of one boat in the area, freeing about 800 fish, Watson said.

The crews plan to set sail from Cannes, France, around June 1.

Given the extremely dire condition of bluefin tuna stocks—which, by some estimates, have plummeted 80 percent in recent years—aggressive tactics such as net cutting may perhaps be justifiable. But, as is always the concern with Sea Shepherd, does its cache of sophisticated battle-ready gear—which at times has included non-lethal weapons—inspire the opposition to use greater violence and ultimately undermine its ability to gain public sympathy or change destructive cultural habits?

In regards to whaling, an argument could be made that since Japanese whale meat consumption has dropped significantly over the last several decades, the culture war has already been won. Therefore, Sea Shepherd’s responsibility isn’t to engage a Japanese public that largely already understands the perils of whaling, but rather to snuff out the last remaining vestiges of the industry.

Even if this logic is sound, it overlooks why there is still a whaling industry in Japan. As Howard Schiffman, professor of International Environmental Governance at New York University, recently told me, “The government subsidizes the ‘research’ hunts and some meat goes to market, but I think Japan is hanging on to whaling for nationalistic reasons.”

If that’s the case, there is still important work to be done on the societal and cultural level. Hostile, if not violent, conflict on the high seas has the propensity to impede that work by making Sea Shepherd look less like protectors of endangered marine life and more like a threat to Japanese identity. Furthermore, since Japan is the world’s largest consumer of bluefin tuna, Sea Shepherd really should have an interest in running a campaign that garners sympathy for the cause (which could lead to conversion), not hatred (which might lead to further entrenched nationalism).

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• Environmentalists in Armenia gathered outside the new dolphinarium in Yerevan’s Komitas Park on Friday to protest the cruelty of keeping dolphins in confined spaces, as well as subjecting them to unsuitable winter temperatures.

• A few thousand people gathered in Moscow on Sunday to protest ethnic violence and to call on the authorities to refrain from crackdowns that would curtail Moscow’s diversity.

• Nine French activists were arrested on Sunday during a pro-Palestinian demonstration at a major Israeli checkpoint in the West Bank.

• Hundreds of villagers in Cambodia’s Kampong Speu province staged a sit-in on Friday to prevent the clearance of land they say is being grabbed illegally by tycoon and ruling party senator Ly Yong Phat.

• Hundreds of Israelis and African migrants marched down Tel Aviv’s main boulevard Friday to protest a government plan to build a detention facility to hold those who enter the country illegally.

• A group of New Jersey animal rights demonstrators showed their disdain for slaughterhouses yesterday by protesting outside a live poultry market on Bergenline Avenue in West New York.

• 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.

• Thousands of Red Shirt protesters blocked a major intersection Bangkok on Friday to mark six months since Thai security forces crushed a 10-week-long protest in the same area, resulting in more than 90 deaths.

• In Georgia, thousands of people protested Saturday outside the gates of Fort Benning to call for the closure of the military training center formerly known as the School of the Americas. 26 people were arrested including a news team from the international TV network Russia Today.

• In Sri Lanka, more than 8,000 fishermen, with their wives and children, protested for ten hours on Thursday against the Sea Plane project, a plan to attract tourist to hard-to-reach places. At the end of the day, the government backed off, and halted dredging work.

• On Saturday, thousands participated in a protest in London against the war in Afghanistan.

• Around 1,000 fake shark fins have been assembled on Rio de Janeiro’s Copacabana beach in protest against the slaughter of sharks around the world.

• Four Greenpeace activists took action today, occupying the deepwater oil rig “Centenario”, off the coast of the State of Veracruz, in Mexico. The activists scaled the rig early this morning to call for an end to deepwater drilling.

• Approximately 100 people gathered on Friday at the square in Lumpkin, Georgia to make the 1.7 mile walk to the Stewart Detention Center (SDC) where 2,000 immigrants are held. The demand of the demonstrators was to bring Pedro Guzman, who has been housed at Stewart for one year without bond, home and shut the detention center down.

• Demonstrators stormed the Milan office of the Egyptian airline company, EgyptAir, protesting the Italian government’s decision to deport two Egyptians who participated in demonstrations organized by irregular immigrants.

• Workers at Empresa Nacional de Petroleo’s Bio Bio unit, the largest Chilean oil refinery, went on a 24-hour strike on Friday to protest layoffs.

• Over a period of approximately 92 hours and 26 minutes the CASTOR nuclear waste transport in Germany faced more resistance and peaceful direct action from the local population and their supporters than ever before.

• At least 600 people were arrested in India on Monday for opposing the construction of the world’s largest nuclear park in Jaitapur, and hundreds more voluntarily risk jail.

• As of last week, some 20,000 Sahrawi protesters were gathered in provisional camps outside the cities of El Aaiun, Smara, Dakhla and Bujador, to oppose the Moroccan occupation. The massive protest action started in a smaller scale almost three weeks ago.

• Hundreds of Indian workers employed to manually clean non-flush toilets have protested in Delhi against their working conditions. The demonstrators began their protests a month ago by criss-crossing the country to highlight their demands.

• On Sunday, in New Zealand, opponents of mining in the Coromandel launched a new protest after discovering a company drilling for gold and silver in a forestry area.

• Opposition supporters have held protests in several parts of Tanzania at the slow pace of announcing the result of Sunday’s general election.

• One day before Halloween, environmentalists wore costumes of dead waterfowl during a protest to show their disdain over the latest tailings pond tragedy in northern Alberta, which has led to the deaths of 350 ducks.