Experiments with Truth

Waging Nonviolence’s backbone: a round-up of protests and civil resistance actions around the world among people fighting for peace and justice.

Thousands take to the streets in Spain and Greece, Russians continue Putin protests, Puerto Ricans oppose pipeline

  • Several thousand banner-waving protesters staged rallies in Athens and Thessaloniki to protest budget cuts as Eurozone ministers prepare to approve a new 130-billion-euro bailout for debt-crippled Greece.
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Iranians silently march, Venezuelans block roads, Indonesians protest extremism

  • In Cambodia, more than 500 employees at a shoe factory in the capital’s Dangkor district went on strike on Wednesday morning after managers failed to respond to a list of workers’ demands.
  • Outside the White House, hundreds of people rallied on Tuesday to protest China’s treatment of Tibet, ethnic Uyghurs and members of the Falun Gong. Alim Seytoff of the Uyghur American Association urged President Obama to pressure Chinese Vice President Xi Jinping on alleged human rights abuses.
  • Six Greenpeace protesters were arrested after unfurling a sign in front of the Duke Energy building Wednesday morning, protesting the company’s recently-approved rate hikes.
  • Flight attendants and ground workers at the Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport marched in picket lines Tuesday to protest American Airlines’ plans to outsource jobs and cut pay and benefits under a bankruptcy reorganization.
  • Thirteen people were arrested inside the lobby of the AT&T building in Atlanta on Monday during a sit-in to stop the company from laying off 740 union workers across the southeastern United States.
  • Some 200 Indonesians converged on a Jakarta square on Tuesday to denounce an Islamic vigilante group known for its armed attacks on minorities and moderates.
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Portugese and Greeks protest austerity, Bahrainis march, Japanese demonstrate against nuculear power

  • In Portugal, as many as 300,0000 packed Lisbon’s Palace Square on Saturday in the largest rally against austerity and economic hardships since the country resorted to a European Union-International Monetary Fund bailout last May.
  • In the largest protest against the government in months, thousands of opposition supporters marched through Manama’s streets today on the one-year anniversary of the beginning of the pro-democracy demonstrations in Bahrain.
  • Thousands of Japanese joined a march against nuclear power on Saturday as worries grow about the restarting of reactors idled after the March 11th meltdown disaster in northeastern Japan.
  • Brazilian authorities claimed Saturday to have broken up strikes by thousands of police in two states after arresting labor leaders, but other police and firefighters had not quit their protest over pay.
  • Thousands of Egyptians marched to the Defense Ministry on Friday to press demands for the generals to hand over power, a day before the first anniversary of President Hosni Mubarak’s fall.
  • Hactivist group Anonymous took down the CIA government website on Friday.
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Bahraini prostesters attacked, Peruvians march against mining, New York students walk out…

  • Bahraini protesters were attacked by government forces on Thursday amidst their 10-day sit-in in Moqsha.
  • At least a thousand Peruvian activists and provincial politicians marched into Lima on Thursday to protest billions of dollars in government-backed mining projects proposed by foreign firms.
  • Hundreds of New York City students walked out of school on Wednesday to protest planned education budget cuts.
  • Thousands of protesters rallied outside Athens Parliament on Tuesday, as the nation held another 24-hour strike against austerity measures.
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Russians hold massive anti-Putin protest, week-long sit-in in Bahrain begins, thousands across Europe march against ACTA

  • Over 10,000 Bahrainis gathered on Sunday to begin a week-long sit-in protest in Meqsha, north of Bahrain, ahead of the one year anniversary of the revolution.
  • Hundreds of flights in France were cancelled today, including 40 percent out of Paris’ Charles de Gaulle Airport, as unions ratcheted up pressure on day two of a strike over labor rights.
  • At least one activist died, and another 39 were injured on Sunday after police tried to break up a protest by indigenous groups—who have blockaded the Pan-American Highway for days—against the recent approval of mines and reservoirs in their region.
  • At least 11 Occupy D.C. protesters were arrested Saturday just blocks from the White House as the U.S. Park Police evicted activists who had been sleeping in McPherson Square since October 1. On Sunday, police also cleared a second encampment at Freedom Plaza.
  • Some 20 residents of Khirbat al-Tawil village, south of Nablus in the occupied West Bank, went on a 24-hour hunger strike on Friday to protest against Israel’s occupation of their lands.
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Yemeni-Americans protest Saleh immunity, mass demonstrations continue in Bahrain and Syria

  • Protesters defied a heavy security presence across Syria on Friday to commemorate the 30th anniversary of a deadly crackdown on Islamist opposition in the city of Hama, but were effectively prevented from turning out in the capital, Damascus.
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Occupy DC pitches ‘tent of dreams,’ Belgium goes on general strike, and anti-government rallies continue in Romania

  • Just after the National Park Service’s noon deadline Monday, by which protesters in Washington’s two Occupy D.C. camps were required to decamp, protesters fought back by stringing up a giant blue tarp in the middle of McPherson Square, which they called the “tent of dreams.”
  • Last Sunday, dozens of Detroit’s undertakers drove a motorcade of hearses through the city’s most violent neighborhoods to protest the high murder rate.
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Egyptians protest military rule, Polish demonstrate against ACTA, Kyrgyz prisoners on hunger strike

  • Egyptian activist groups on Thursday launched an open-ended strike in Cairo to pressure the country’s military rulers  to expedite the transfer of power to an elected civilian  administration, a day after 100,000 Egyptians came out to Tahrir Square to mark the anniversary of the first massive protest that led to the overthrow of dictator Hosni Mubarak.
  • Nepalese students chanted anti government slogans during a torch rally to protest against Nepal Oil Corporation’s decision to hike prices on major petroleum products, including petrol, diesel, kerosene and LPG in Kathmandu on Tuesday.

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Yemenis demonstrate against immunity for Saleh, nationwide protests in US challenge Citizens United

  • Thousands of Yemenis protested on Sunday against an immunity law protecting  outgoing President Ali Abdullah Saleh from prosecution and demanded he be put on  trial for offences they say he committed during his 33-year rule.
  • More than 50 students from Tuscon High School walked out of class on Monday and marched toward Santa Rita Park in protest of the recent ban on Mexican American studies at TUSD schools.
  • In Egypt, dozens of employees at the state-run Nile News TV Channel started an open-ended strike Sunday at the Maspero building, as they protested policies still in place since Mubarak’s rule.
  • Truck drivers across Italy went on strike on Monday against increased fuel prices, while taxis also held a national protest over government reforms to increase competition, causing disruptions nationwide.
  • In Lebanon, severe electricity cuts fueled several protests Friday as residents and  lawmakers staged a sit-in in the mountain town of Aley and small groups of protesters blocked roads in the south of the country.
  • Beginning last Tuesday, about 100,000 teachers from 24,000 non-government primary schools in Bangladesh held a three-day strike to demand that they be brought onto the government’s payroll.
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Zimbabwean civil servants strike, orphans in Jordan sit-in, Kyrgyz prisoners begin mass hunger strike

  • A five-day strike led by transportation workers, farmers and fisherman to protest Prime Minister Mario Monti’s cutbacks and the excessive rise in fuel costs that has paralyzed the Italian island of Sicily since Monday will end tonight.
  • Some 40,000 people were out on the streets on Thursday in various provinces across Turkey to commemorate Armenian-Turkish journalist Hrant Dink, who was shot dead outside his newspaper’s office in Şişli on Jan. 19, 2007.
  • Air traffic controllers in Cyprus walked off the job for four hours on Wednesday to protest a two-year government worker wage freeze and other deficit-reduction measures.
  • Inmates in 13 Kyrgyz jails started a mass hunger strike on Wednesday to support inmates in detention center No. 1 in Bishkek, where security troops violently quelled a prisoner riot on January 16.
  • Women employees at the Palestinian Women’s Affairs Ministry began a “hunger strike till death” on Tuesday to protest against corruption and harassment.
  • The teaching fraternity in Ranchi, India carried out a sit-in rally on Tuesday, to protest Maoist atrocities against them.
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