Experiments with truth: 5/18/11

The Editors May 18, 2011

Thousands of people took to the streets in Spain on Sunday to protest against corruption, precariousness, unemployment, and a political structure that favors a two-party system. The demonstrations were followed by a peaceful sit-in with hundreds camping at Madrid’s main square la “Puerta del Sol.”

More than 170 Greenpeace activists dressed in business suits and carrying brief cases blocked the doors of a conference center in Brussels where delegates of the European Business Summit were meeting this morning. Only those representing businesses that support a 30 percent cut in Europe’s climate damaging emissions were allowed entry.

Two activists supporting Rainforest Action Network unfurled a 35 foot banner across The Walt Disney Company’s two-story entrance arch in Burbank, CA that read “Disney: Destroying Indonesia’s Rainforests.” Dressed as Mickey and Minnie Mouse, they then blocked the main entrance gates, preventing Disney’s executives from arriving to work.

Hundreds of protesters flooded the streets outside of JPMorgan Chase’s offices in Columbus, Ohio on Tuesday morning to protest the number of foreclosures issued by the bank since receiving federal bailout money.

Syrian protesters gathered in the suburbs of the capital and the central city of Homs on Monday, following reports of the discovery of a mass grave containing the bodies of anti-government activists.

About 100 students at Cobb County’s Pebblebrook High School left class early Tuesday to protest Georgia’s new immigration law, which authorizes local and state police to investigate the immigration status of certain suspects and arrest undocumented immigrants and take them to federal jails.

Brazilians in Sao Paulo held a communal barbeque last week to protest the neighborhood elite who squashed plans for a subway station out of fear that it would have led to the arrival of “drug addicts, beggars, a different people, promoting the degradation of its sacred streets and increasing the number of police incidents.”

Tags: Blockades, Climate change, Corporations, Experiments with Truth, Marches, Protests, Sit-ins, Transportation, United States

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