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 consequeences, 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.

• Hundreds of London Underground maintenance workers went on the first of a series of 24-hour strikes Friday morning in protest over new roster arrangements. They will continue to cause disruptions at the same time every Sunday from February 14th until the dispute is resolved.

• Dozens of Yemeni journalists, civil-society activists and members of parliament protested on Friday in front of the attorney general’s office in Sana’a against increasing harassment of journalists.

• The entrance to Kaiser Permanente’s Moanalua clinic in Hawaii was briefly shut-down on Thursday when protesters from Local 5 staged a sit-in. Kaiser employees and Local 5 members came to rally for a new contract that they say won’t out-source union work.

• In Calcutta, senior citizens staged a hunger strike on Saturday to protest against the skyrocketing prices of essential commodities.

• In Pakistan, political and social organizations continued a country-wide strike and protest this weekend against the deadly blasts in Karachi.

• Cuban police harassed and briefly jailed some 35 political dissidents last week in the eastern city of Camaguey, a Cuban human rights group said Friday.

• On Saturday, hundreds of Bahrain Petroleum Company (Bapco) staff and their families staged a protest outside the company’s refinery in Ma’ameer over pay and working conditions.

• In Oslo, a thousand taxi drivers of Muslim background went on strike late Friday, early Saturday moring in protest of the publication of cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad in the Norwegian newspaper Dagbladet.

• More than 200 overseas Filipino workers (OFW) in Saudi Arabia have stopped working since Saturday in protest of alleged unfair labor practices of their employer.

Vredesactie (Peace Action), a “movement that radically acvocates a society in which conflicts are settled without violence or the threat to use violence,” posted this video on YouTube on Monday of a group of Bombspotters sneaking into the Kleine Brogel Air Base in Belgium, where they say around 20 NATO nuclear warheads are stored.

According to their website:

April 3rd will be a European Day of Action to ban nuclear weapons. Mass actions will take place at every European NATO nuclear weapons base in Germany, The Netherlands, France, Italy, Turkey, United Kingdom, and Belgium.

To learn more about the history of Bombspotting actions, which involve widespread “civil disobedience by trespassing and inspecting military bases and headquarters,” click here.

The news from Pakistan seems to be getting worse by the day. On Wednesday, a massive bombing in the Lower Dir district killed 7, including 3 US soldiers disguised as Pakistanis, and wounded at least 130 others.

The day before, the US launched the largest coordinated drone strike inside Pakistan to date. According to Pakistani authorities, 9 drones fired 18 missiles, killing at least 31 people. This strike was the latest in an unprecedented wave of recent attacks. Just last month, for example, there were a record 12 strikes in the country, a nearly threefold increase over last year.

To protest the increasing use of drones in war, a group of activists with Peace of the Action unfurled a banner last month (video above) at a military unmanned aerial vehicle exhibit in the Smithsonian Air & Space Museum in Washington, DC, reading “Drones Kill Kids.” This action is but the latest in a growing campaign against the drones, which we’ve been keeping close tabs on.

• 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.

One of our good friends, Sr. Anne Montgomery told Kairos – a local peace group that I’m a part of in New York City – at our last meeting about this great satirical video that the Seattle Times made about the Disarm Now Plowshares action that she participated in, along with four others, at the Kitsap-Bangor Naval Base in Washington State.

For a brief recap of their action:

They entered the base in the early morning hours of November 2, 2009, All Souls Day, to call attention to the illegality and immorality of the existence of the first strike Trident weapons system.  They entered through the perimeter fence, and walked through the base for four hours.  During that time they made their way to the Strategic Weapons Facility – Pacific (SWFPAC) where they cut through the first chain link fence surrounding SWFPAC. They then walked to and cut the next double layered fence, both chain link and barbed wire, and entered the grounds of SWFPAC.  This bunker area holds the largest nuclear weapon stockpile in the United States.

As they walked they held a banner saying…… “Disarm Now Plowshares: Trident: Illegal and Immoral”.  The Plowshares activists knew that they were in a shoot to kill zone, but they also remembered the many people who live in shoot to kill zones all the time because of US occupation of their country.

The unarmed activists were then held on the ground face down, handcuffed and hooded for over three hours. They were carried out, still hooded, through the very holes in the fence that they had made, and questioned by FBI and NCIS for several hours.

Although they gave only their names, they were given Ban and Bar letters and citations for trespass and destruction of government property.

The last I’ve heard on the status of their case is that the misdemeanor charges were dropped, but the government is currently exploring whether it should file felony charges against the group. To learn more about their action, follow their case as it develops or show your support, visit their blog.

A ground-based interceptor launched Sunday afternoon from Vandenberg Airforce Base in California.

One of the most infuriating retorts I hear from police, guards and counter-demonstrators is that we, as demonstrators, must be at least somewhat grateful that we live in a society in which we can come out with signs and banners and espouse our views without being shot. Somehow, we are a testament to the freedom they are stifling. They see themselves as protecting our right to assemble and speak freely, even as they are not letting us speak, arresting us or worse. And they do it all capriciously, creating and then ignoring designated protest areas on a whim. They don’t let us talk to “the opposition” even when they are acquaintances. They don’t even respect their own lines and fences.

At Vanbenberg Air Force Base (VAFB) in Lompoc, California there is no longer any pretense of the right to peaceably assemble. Last Sunday, eight members of Vandenberg Witness were arrested for a “Violation of Security Regulation” and three more were given “ban and bar” notices even though they never entered the base. In fact, they stayed in the designated protest area and identified themselves as instructed. They were simply carrying letters of opposition from six different international organizations.

When asked why she was given two tickets, longtime organizer MacGregor Eddy of Salinas, CA was told by an arresting officer, “One is for showing up and one is for being here.” Another woman, Jude Evered of Goleta, CA, was held on the ground by two security guards, despite being in her eighties, with a soldier’s knee in her back. Her booking was interrupted because she had to be taken to the hospital in an ambulance (notably, without police or MPs) for a shoulder injury she sustained after she was in custody.

Such harsh action against protesters at military bases has been on the rise, largely because there has never been a court ruling on whether the military can take obstructive action outside the fenced area of the base. Furthermore, no prosecutor or ACLU lawyer has taken any such case to court.

I won’t argue that demonstrators, even elderly ones, should engage in nonviolent direct action and act like they should be immune from the brutality of the state. But being in uniform should enhance one’s sensitivity to the force needed to make someone comply rather than be an excuse for wrenching frail arms out of sockets. I gasp when I hear other activists start down the slippery slope of racial profiling by feeling that somehow arresting officers should know that they are not going to receive blows from us and that they don’t need their riot gear. We are dangerous (to the status quo). We are a threat, if not a violent one (to those exercising unjust power).

The treatment at Vandenberg also brings to mind how the Navy wanted to ignore the fact that five Plowshares activists managed to infiltrate Naval Base Kitsap in Bangor, WA, in November. They cut through three fences to one of the largest stockpiles of nuclear weapons in the country. At first, they were ignored. Then, when security personnel finally took notice, they were made to lie down for several hours on the cold ground wearing hoods before eventually being charged with misdemeanors and released. Recently, however, the government reversed the charges to felonies, realizing, perhaps, that the public heard about the break in and was concerned about the security of the nuclear arsenal in their neighborhood. But their initial inclination was to be harsh on site, and then pretend that no action occurred.

This trend toward severe sentencing and leaving cases in legal limbo, as well as ignoring breeches of security and manufacturing alleged violations may be a sign of disorganization and uncertainty among military base commanders about their legal right to obstruct demonstrations. Whether or not there is a concerted effort to keep action planners guessing, the focus needs to remain on the issue being raised first—putting an end to missile tests—and being ready to argue when authorities put a chill on free speech and association that what they say they’re defending (the Constitution) is already stained and shredded.

According to the Teamster contract, the city is obligated to employ a workforce and pay them when there isn’t any work. The trouble started at Chicago airports, where plow drivers are accustomed to getting paid even when there isn’t any snow, and thus no work. This cost-cutting measure would reportedly save the city $1 million annually.

The issue here isn’t about money. When looking at the overall financial picture of Chicago, $1 million is loose change. It’s the $20 debt your friend asks you to repay while your house is being foreclosed. The city’s finances are grim, and $1 million isn’t going to help it.

In 2009, Chicago reported a deficit of over $500 million. Not only that, but the payments for Daley’s $86 million loan to purchase the decrepit Michael Reese hospital (slated to be converted into an Olympic Village—so much for that) are about to kick in, and the billion that was brought in through the absurd parking-meter deal to cover the city’s massive shortfalls is already dried up.

But it’s easy for Daley to point fingers at these workers and get the public behind him. They are, after all, getting paid good money to not work, while so many are laid-off.  Daley can work his spin and divert the attention from what a strike would truly represent: an organized challenge to Daley’s limitless power.

Last week, Daley said that “these are very difficult times and we all have to share in that pain.” True, yet it’s hard to recognize what Daley is doing to alleviate this pain.

In the coming months, the Chicago Transit Authority will begin running fewer bus lines, a result of the city’s bus driver layoffs. Again, the city tried to pin the blame on the workers; CTA employees were asked to take salary cuts, and when they refused, the onus fell on the shoulder of union officials. Yet there was no mention of the systemic problem of an abundance of management positions the city has been doling out like candy over the years (as one union official pointed out, stations that had four managers 15 years ago now have over 20). These are positions generally reserved for city insiders, friends of friends, relatives and the like. People with clout.

Perhaps the most frightening thing about this rift with the city truck drivers is the door Daley may be holding, ready to open it when the time is right. If a strike does occur, Daley’s case for privatizing yet another city service would drop into his lap. Thus far there’s been no speculation, but Daley likes to handle these things like a jungle cat; Meigs Field was bulldozed (by private crews) in the middle of the night, and the parking meter deal was pushed through the city government before anyone knew what was happening.

At this pace, Chicago is a city without a future, and that will be Daley’s legacy.  As the city’s budget woes deepen and Daley continues to refuse to address the systematic failures of the city’s operations, the only choice will be to continue auctioning off whatever isn’t nailed down. After all, as Daley once said, “there’s only so much a government can do.”

David Myers, the director of U.C.L.A.’s Center for Jewish Studies, spoke gracefully on the evening’s subject, saying that “the potential of the archive is not merely to preserve, but to liberate.” His belief is that through the dedicated work of archivists, it may be possible for Israelis and Palestinians to “craft a shared history that honors, with self-critical honesty, both traditions.” As possible inspiration, he cited “Histoire-Geschichte,” a history textbook about post-war Europe co-authored by French and German experts.

Columbia’s Rashid Khalidi, though a shade or two more skeptical than Myers, was nevertheless insistent that preserving the records of the Palestinian people was a critical step in the peace process, particularly in the ongoing absence of a Palestinian state or even a centralized archive. Vital as it may be, preservation often takes a back seat to more dire needs, said Khalidi. “There always seem to be more pressing needs elsewhere.”

We don’t have an “Archiving” category here at Waging Nonviolence, and certainly not one under “Actions.” But something like this is an important reminder that not all nonviolent, self-sacrificing acts for the sake of justice come in the form of direct protest. Take, for example, the dangers of archival work in post-invasion Iraq:

Previous “Archivist of the Year” honoree Saad Eskander proves just how dangerous—and how urgent—the work of an archivist can be. The former Kurdish fighter returned to his native Iraq in 2003 to work as director of the Iraqi National Library in Baghdad. In a captivating online diary, Eskander chronicled his brave efforts at reclaiming his nation’s history from a variety of threats: mold, car bombs, Baath loyalists, Muslim fundamentalists. The blog provided a window into the bipolar demands of his job, from mundane administrative questions, like where to install new air conditioners, to the virtually unthinkable—snipers, death threats, and even the kidnapping and murder of two staff librarians.

Though, for now, we do so under less mortal danger, this act of archiving is a form of activism that all of us who read, comment, and contribute at Waging Nonviolence undertake. We document, we remember; we insist, against the distraction of violence, that nonviolent struggle is at work in our world too, and more powerfully than the alternative.

There were a number of comments after the original article, and the discussion has continued in the letters to the editor.  Two objections were raised in Monday’s newspaper, and two responses to the objections appeared in Tuesday’s paper.

It’s a rare event when nonviolence (let alone Christianity!) gets a run in the mainstream media in Australia.  This was a source of great encouragement.

It also made clear just how far we have to go in explaining and communicating nonviolence.  Two things in particular frustrated me.

1. It doesn’t seem to matter how often you say that nonviolence is not passivity, people will continually object on the assumption that nonviolence is passive.

2. It might seem pedantic, but the pervasive editing of the correct ‘nonviolence’ to the incorrect ‘non-violence’ is a demonstration of the kind of misunderstanding nonviolence receives in mainstream culture.

Have a look and see what you think.