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November 2013

December 1, Rosa Parks Human Rights Day

Annual Rosa Parks Human Rights Day Event- Ceremony and Reenactment 11-30-13 Providence RI- TOMORROW at 12:30PM, the Rosa Parks Coalition and and Peoples Assembly remember the day in 1955 that Rosa Parks started the next phase of the freedom movement that eventually ended segregation in the south. This is part of the build up to International Human Rights Day on Dec 10th. December 1, 1955: Rosa Parks arrested in Montgomery: December 1 marks the 55th anniversary of a notable event that occurred in 1955 when Rosa Parks was arrested for refusing to give up her seat on a bus in Montgomery, Alabama. Her quiet defiance resonated down the corridors of time...

Occupy and Community Organizing

There is a new Occupy initiative called Occupy - Grassroots (OCGR). Occupy and specifically Occupy Grassroots (OCGR) is part of an organic movement of "people of good will" uniting to impact our culture through organizing, direct action, education, and facilitated communication. The mission is to awaken the hearts and minds of citizens, to create sustainable communities, and to face the critical issues of our day such as climate change and the corporatization of democracy. The ultimate authority in our democracy rests with "We the People". OCGR organizes to awaken our fellow citizens to this reality. OCGR meets via a free conference call the first and third Tuesday of each month at 9:00 pm eastern - 6:00 pm Pacific. . If you would like to join us, please sign-up at the following link: http://myaccount.maestroconference.com/conference/register/YRIC5KXIZZCW6XV8 Our goal is to empower people through local group organizing and strategic action. This is achieved by developing a relationship between the Occupy Movement and the local community organizing model developed by the Wisconsin Grassroots Network (WGN).

Troubled Youth Prison Company Wins Even More Contracts

Despite voluminous evidence that inmates have suffered violence, sexual abuse and neglect inside the facilities of a private juvenile prison operator, the state of Florida has in recent weeks awarded fresh contracts to the company. Since late October, Florida has granted Youth Services International two new contracts to operate youth prisons, while signaling that YSI is in line to win a third contract to run a facility near Miami. The decision came after The Huffington Post published an extensive investigation that documented more than two decades of abuse at the company's juvenile and adult facilities. Florida's Department of Juvenile Justice has continued to award tens of millions of dollars worth of prison contracts to YSI, despite a civil rights investigation by the Justice Department and probes into negligence and violent conditions by authorities in at least five states.

Protest Arts: Puppets To The People!

We are the People’s Puppets of Occupy Wall Street, a collective of artists, musicians, and performers who have come together to use the potent and exhilarating vehicle of radical puppetry, by the People and for the People, to raise social and political awareness, build community, and offer a means of engagement in a more participatory democracy! So, we’re asking YOU to participate! By making sure we continue to have access to the space and resources we need, to do the work we do (and hell, you can even join us in it!). We build large-scale puppetry, toy theater, cantastorias, and perform throughout New York City’s public spaces, streets, subways, and parks. And we amplify the voices that need amplifying. We collaborate everywhere possible, wherever a group’s mission stems from a shared thirst for social justice. We’ve created visuals and performances with and for organizations such as the Black Institute, the Robin Hood Tax, the Coalition of Immakolee Workers, the Lakota Grandmothers, 350.org, Move to Amend, among others… We aim to carry on the extraordinary lineage set by radical puppeteers throughout history, from Bread & Puppet Theater, to Great Small Works, to the Puppetistas of the Anti-Globalization movement.

Israeli Police Attack Large Anti-Prawer Protests In Haifa

Hundreds of protestors participated in a large demonstration in Haifa on Saturday against the Prawer Plan as part of a global "Day of Rage." Many protesters were detained as Israeli police violently dispersed the crowds in the northern Israeli city, and clashes continued into the evening. Protests took place on both sides of the Green Line as well as worldwide, as Palestinians, Israelis, and internationals protested in Israel, the West Bank, Gaza and in at least 14 other countries in Europe and the Arab World against the plan to forcibly relocate tens of thousands of Palestinian Bedouins. Israeli forces dispersed protesters in Haifa with water cannons and detained many others after Israeli police claimed that protesters threw rocks at them.

Honduran Election Results Contested By International Observers

These elections were regarded as pivotal for Honduras, as the administration of the ruling National Party has done little to combat the country’s poverty rate which stands at over 60 percent. Instead the National Party has been focused on opening up the country to multinational corporations. This is best demonstrated by the National Party’s passage of a new mining law that would remove the moratorium on the granting of new mining concessions put in place by former president Zelaya in 2008. The new mining law, which was passed earlier this year, was drafted with the help of the Canadian International Development Agency. The law effectively allows for a return to destructive open-pit mining practices that have been linked to numerous human rights abuses and widespread environmental destruction.

Tear Gas, Stones, Clashes In Cairo Amid New Anti-Protest Law

Police fired tear gas and used batons to beat back stone throwing protesters in Cairo on Saturday, as Egypt's constitutional panel began voting on a new constitution's final draft, amid fears that one of its laws may curb the right to peaceful protest. The clashes erupted between riot police and protesters a few kilometers away from Egypt's constitutional committee headquarters where the 50 member panel had begun debating the final recommendations for changes to the 2012 Islamist constitution. The demonstration was to condemn the detention of 24 activists who were arrested on Tuesday after taking part in an unauthorized protest. Among the protesters arrested was Ahmed Maher, who was one of the leaders in the 2011 uprising that ousted long serving president Hosni Murbarak. One of the changes to the constitution includes a law enacted last Sunday which allows security agencies to ban protests, which have not been previously reported to the Interior Ministry. It also sets high fines and prison terms for protesters who break the law.

The Mightiest Nation

Once upon a time there was a country that was very small and, on the whole, very good. Its citizens were proud and independent and self-reliant and generally prosperous. They believed in freedom and justice and equality. But, above all, they had faith. They had faith in their religion, their leaders, their country and themselves. And, of course, they were ambitious. Being proud of their country, they wanted to make it bigger. First they conquered the savage tribes that hemmed them in. Then they fought innumerable wars on land and sea with foreign powers to the east and west and south. They won almost all the battles they fought and conquered foreign lands. It took many generations, but at last the good, little country was the richest, mightiest nation in the whole, wide world -- admired, respected, envied and feared by one and all. "We must remain the mightiest nation," said its leaders, "so that we can insure universal peace and make everyone as prosperous and decent and civilized as we are." At first, the mightiest nation was as good as its word. It constructed highways and buildings and pipelines and hygienic facilities all over the world. And for awhile, it even kept the peace. But . . .

Mike Roselle Arrested For Asking Governor To Test Coal Dust

Mike was in his 6th day of a hunger strike and vigil at the WV State Capitol. After repeated attempts to deliver these jars of dust at the Capitol, Mike hand delivered it to the Governors’ residence on Thanksgiving Day. Studies have shown that this dust is toxic and it blankets nearby homes. These toxins are causing very serious health implications and ultimately an early death for us all. Every day more than 5 million pounds of explosives are detonated in WV and KY. There is currently a bill, HR526, the Appalachian Community Health Emergency Act (ACHE Act), that can end mountaintop removal. When this bill is passed it will save countless lives. This house bill currently has 45 co-sponsors. Mike Roselle and Climate Ground Zero is helping to support the work of numerous local community members and local organizations to pass HR526 and END these very real caused health problems we are seeing. Sitting idly by as communities and people die is not something anyone should be willing to do.

Documentary Gezi Park Chat With Filmmaker And Protesters

Tonight at 5pm eastern is 12am in Turkey. Come in & CHAT w/protestors & filmmaker @GeziDoc http://www.livestream.com/activistworldnewsnow … The Gezi Park protests which began on May 28th, 2013 was one of the biggest uprisings against neoliberalism and a conservative Turkish government that was encroaching on secularism. The protest began when plans were announced to develop the park, one of the last remaining green spaces in Istanbul. Sparked by an aggressive police action against the revolt, subsequently protests and strikes spread across Turkey raising a wide range of concerns, at the core of which were issues of freedom of the press, freedom of expression, freedom of assembly, and the government's encroachment on Turkey's secularism. Below are two movies on the Gezi Park revolt in Turkey.

Sailing Winds Of Freedom With Kids From Gaza

The effects of the blockade on children in Gaza will be described by speakers representing different civil society organizations in Gaza. This mini-Ark action focuses attention to the devastating conditions for children living inside the Gaza Strip, as fuel to run their basic needs and other essentials have been denied to them. Baroness Jenny Tonge writes from Westminster, U.K. “The children of Gaza are trapped in a horrible and life threatening situation through no fault of their own. They do not have enough food, the water is undrinkable and they wade through sewage to and from school, now that the sewage pumps no longer work, due to the mean and cruel actions of the Israeli government.” U.S. playwright Naomi Wallace adds: “As historian Howard Zinn noted, All wars are wars against children. The Mini Arks are sailing to honor the rights of children, that they may live in peace and safety. May the strong winds of justice fill their sails.” Gaza's Ark and our supporters around the world stand with the children of Gaza today and as long as it takes to end the blockade.

Masked RCMP Continue To Enforce Violation Of Treaties

The RCMP turned out in full force again friday to protect SWN Resources corporate interests, stopping traffic on Highway 11 near Rexton due to the ongoing anti-shale gas protest. One person asked, Is this Canada? where cops protect the corporations that the government is literally paying to steal our resources and put the people who are standing up for their land…..native and non-native in jail. Is this the Canada our grandparents and great grandparents fought for? And why are the RCMP wearing masks when it’s illegal for demonstrators to do same? This man was arrested after standing on the side of the road with his sign that reads, Dear government Alward, you are allowing the children of Kent-North be used as laboratory rats. Have you no shame?

Pack The Courtroom For The NATO 3 On Monday, Dec. 2

The arrest and continued prosecution of the NATO 3 is a gross example of political repression, meant to be a message directed at anyone who protests the U.S. Government’s agenda of austerity and violence. We must stand together with our fellow dissenters in the court room and let the state know that we will not follow their order to remain silent in the face of global warfare. Everyone who can be present in court is needed to show our friends that the people are with them as they quickly approach their day in court. Moreover, lawyers for the People’s Law Office and the National Lawyer’s Guild representing the 3 continue to bring to light new disturbing revelations about the surveillance program unleashed against multiple political groups in Chicago, an invasive operation involving the Chicago Police Department’s Field Intelligence Unit, the FBI’s counter-terrorism task force, Homeland Security, and the Secret Service (just to name a few).

Monsanto Hires PR Firm To Fool Public, Combat “Most Hated”

Monsanto is the agriculture world’s prince of darkness, spreading its demonic genetically modified seeds on fields all over the earth. Or at least that’s the case if you believe the likes of HBO talk-show host Bill Maher, the hazmat suit-wearing activists in Occupy Monsanto or any of a growing number of biotechnology haters. For years the St. Louis-based company has ignored such critics. But now the biotech giant is attempting a public relations makeover. In recent months the company has shaken up its senior public relations staff, upped its relationship with one of the nation’s largest public relations firms and helped launch a website designed to combat the fallacies surrounding genetically modified organisms. And, most importantly, it is recognizing biotechnology has a public image problem.

The Prawer Plan: Ethnic Cleansing In The Negev

In 2011, Yaron Ben Ezra, the director of the settlement division of the World Zionist Organization (WZO) stated that the purpose of building new Jewish communities in the Negev is "to prevent the continued invasion of state lands by the Bedouin and to prevent the creation of Bedouin or Arab [territorial] contiguity." (The Bedouin are effectively regarded as foreign invaders by Israeli officials even though they lived on their ancestral lands in the Negev for centuries before the creation of the state of Israel.) Along with the Jewish National Fund (JNF), the quasi-governmental WZO plays an important role in government efforts to “Judaize” the Negev and other parts of Israel.
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