Activism

Protesters Occupy University Of Birmingham After Pair Banned

July 29, 2014 Matthew Cannon, www.birminghammail.co.uk Resist! Activism, Living Wage, Protesters Arrested, Student Activism

A group of protesters are occupying part of the University of Birmingham today in response to the institution’s decision to ban two pupils last week. The protesters acting under the name of Defend Education Birmingham say the demonstration is needed to defend the “democratic right to dissent on campus”at all English universities. Last week, one month before they were due to graduate, Simon Furse and Kelly Rogers were suspended from their course until March next year for their part in an eight day protest at the ceremonial Senate Chamber in the Aston Webb building. The pair were demanding the living wage be paid to all staff at the Edgbaston-based facility. University chiefs also handed former guild vice president of education Hattie Craig a six-month suspended sentence after the completion of a lengthy nine month disciplinary procedure. Today’s activists have released a list of demands they want to see met before they will leave the grounds.

First Nations Activist Receives International Peace Prize

July 28, 2014 CBC News, www.cbc.ca Resist! Activism, Canada, Environment, First Nations, Peace

A First Nations rights activist from Grassy Narrows is getting international recognition. Judy DaSilva received the Michael Sattler Peace Prize from the German Mennonite Peace Committee this week. In a news release Lorens Theissen van Esch of the German Mennonite Peace Committee said: "We want to award the prize to Judy DaSilva in order to honour the nonviolent resistance of the Grassy Narrows First Nation against the destruction of nature and for the preservation of their Indigenous culture." DaSilva travelled to Germany to receive the honour and couldn't be reached for comment, but a First Nations councillor from Grassy Narrows said the community is proud of DaSilva for standing up against clear-cut logging. "It wasn't that long ago that I think our people started realizing that we did have rights and that we're equally parts of Canadian society," Lucille McKenzie said. "I think that she enforces that in the work that she does." But McKenzie says there is still work to be done, as the government is making plans to resume logging in the First Nation's traditional territory — against Grassy Narrows’ wishes.

The Political Objective And Strategic Goal Of Nonviolent Actions

July 24, 2014 Robert J Burrowes, www.dkeenan.com Strategize! Activism, Direct Action, Nonviolence

All nonviolent struggles are conducted simultaneously in the political and strategic spheres, and these spheres, which are distinct, interact throughout. I have discussed this at length elsewhere.1 Despite this, only rarely have nonviolent struggles been conducted with a conscious awareness of this vitally important relationship. Gandhi's campaigns were very effective partly because he understood the distinction and relationship between politics and strategy in nonviolent struggle. And the failure of many campaigns can be attributed, in part, to the fact that most activists do not. To illustrate the distinction and the relationship between these two spheres, and to highlight their vital importance, this article discusses them within the simpler context of nonviolent actions.

India: Leaked Intelligence Report Calls NGOs Threat

July 12, 2014 Paromita Pain, www.occupy.com Resist! Activism, GMO, India, National Security, NGO

What do oil and reports have in common? They can both sometimes leak and cause great unrest. In India last month, a furor erupted over a leaked intelligence bureau (IB) report which claimed that NGOs and civil society organizations like Greenpeace were a threat to national security. Other organizations named in the report included the Indian Social Action Forum, Coalition for Nuclear Disarmament and Peace, Popular Education and Action Centre, Alliance for Sustainable and Holistic Agriculture, India For Safe Food and Navdanya. Not surprisingly, all of the organizations are involved in mobilizing Indians to demand a GMO- and nuclear-free future. The Navdanya GMO Free Campaign, for example, is leading the country's movement against the planting of GMO crops in the country.

SF Bay Residents Organize Healing Walks

July 12, 2014 Pennie Opal Plant, www.greenpeaceblogs.orgs Resist! Activism, Oil & Gas, San Francisco

The following is a guest post from Pennie Opal Plant, member of Gathering Tribes & organizer of the Refinery Corridor Healing Walks. Prior to organized healing walks in the San Francisco Bay area, many residents had not been aware of the five oil and chemical refineries along the Bay. In 2012, the Chevron refinery explosion in Richmond, California which sent more than 15,000 people to the hospital raised the profile of these refineries. The organized walks called the Connect the Dots: Refinery Corridor Healing Walks heightens awareness of the refineries and unites activists. Each walk begins by the Bay with local community speakers and Native American prayers. Participants then proceed with Native American elders, community members and those wishing to remain in prayer leading the way. We then “circle up” along the way at the refineries and toxic sites where it is felt that prayers are needed. Some local critters will often join including deer, squirrels and a hawk.

Protest Against Police Suppression Of Protests

July 8, 2014 Matt Hopard, www.facebook.com Resist! Activism, Brazil, Protest, world cup

On June 29, in Rio de Janeiro a silent march took place to call attention to the suppression of protests, and deaths in Favelas by the UPP (Pacifying Police Unit). As with any other march this one also made clear the angst in Brasil was against FIFA and the World Cup, not Soccer. To portray the censorship they have experienced protesters wore gags around their mouths. To exhibit the loss of life from efforts to pacify Favelas, protesters carried signs with the names of activists and "-1" Some protesters also carried signs with another idea for how to pacify favelas... "Mais educação. Menos caveirão." "More education. Less military police."

Lessons In Dissent From Hong Kong’s Youth

July 7, 2014 M.A., www.economist.com Educate! Activism, Hong Kong, Student Activism, Youth

HONG Kong’s youth are scarcely known for being political animals: little wonder, given the example set by their pragmatic elders. Doing well at school, finding a decent job and getting their hands on the latest iPhone tend to be higher priorities than politics. Yet a breed of young activists is challenging the presiding apathy, riding a wave of political activism that is sweeping the city. An unofficial ballot on electoral reform that ended on Sunday drew almost 800,000 votes, while an activist threat to “Occupy Central”, the main business district, hangs in the summer air. The annual July 1st protest march drew a large turnout; though peaceful, it ended in over 500 arrests, mostly of students. A timely documentary, now showing in Hong Kong, portrays two of the young rebels. Joshua Wong is a “rock star” among young activists, as Li Ping Kong, a producer of “Lessons in Dissent”, puts it. In 2011, at 15, Mr Wong founded Scholarism to fight against the government’s proposed “Moral and National Education” curriculum. With their allies, the secondary-school protest group (pictured above, in 2012) decried the government’s plans as an attempt to peddle patriotic, pro-Communist party propaganda through, for instance, teaching a distorted version of history.

Most Patriotic Float: Activists, Whistleblowers And Muckrackers

July 4, 2014 Rivera Sun, www.PopularResistance.org Resist! Activism, Democracy, Revolution

Activists, whistleblowers, and muckrakers received an unexpected honor when Love-In-Action Taos marched in the Arroyo Seco Fourth of July Parade. Love-In-Action's Unsung Heroes procession, joined by members of CODEPINK Taos, featured five giant puppets of Rosa Parks, Sadako Sasaki, Amy Goodman, Dolores Huerta, and Winona LaDuke; over seventy prayer flag banners honoring those who work for social change, large banners and signs, and informational fliers to hand out to the crowd. To the marchers surprise, they were awarded a prize for "Most Patriot" by the Arroyo Seco Merchants Association - a decision that brought whoops of joy and tears to their eyes. It is rare that activists, whistleblowers, and muckrakers are acknowledged for the important roles they play in our society. As the Rolling Rebellion for Real Democracy kicks off, Love-In-Action Taos was honored to march in support of the long lineage of change makers who have stood up for democracy and social justice throughout US history.

Activist Arrested In Blockade Of Oil Terminal To Halt Crude-by-Rail

July 1, 2014 Rising Tide North America, www.risingtidenorthamerica.org Resist! Activism, Climate Change, Oil, Oregon

This morning climate justice activists with Portland Rising Tide shut down the ArcLogistics crude oil terminal in Northwest Portland resulting in one arrest. Portland resident Irene Majorie, 22, locked herself to a 55-gallon barrel filled with concrete that was placed on the railroad track leading into the facility. Train cars enter from a nearby yard to offload oil into 84 storage tanks, before it is piped onto oceangoing ships bound for West Coast refineries. Over a dozen supporters joined her at the site. Majorie's arm was locked to a piece of metal rebar embedded in the concrete. She was cut out of the barrel by the Portland Police and arrested after successfully blockading the tracks for four hours. Immediately after her removal a train engine approached oil cars nearby on the tracks demonstrating the effective blockage of the oil transport during that time. “This is about stopping the oil trains,” said Majorie. “But beyond that, it is about an industry and an economic system that places the pursuit of profit before the lives and relationships of human beings seeking survival and nourishment, and before the communities, ecosystems, and planet of which we are a part.”

Generational Struggle Needed To Re-Make The South

June 24, 2014 Chris Kromm, www.southernstudies.org Strategize! Activism, Civil Rights, History, Organizing, South

This month marks the 50th anniversary of Freedom Summer, the massive organizing project that brought more than 1,000 volunteers to Mississippi and drew national attention to the ongoing civil rights struggle in the South. Freedom Summer was launched as an assault on segregation and inequality on many fronts. Activists set up 30 Freedom Schools as an alternative to the state's underfunded and segregated education system. The Medical Committee for Human Rights offered free health clinics. While Freedom Summer went beyond electoral politics, a key focus from the beginning was breaking down voting barriers and harnessing African-American political power. Mississippi was chosen in part because less than seven percent of the state's black voters were registered in 1962, according to the Congress of Racial Equality, and Freedom Summer built on ongoing voter registration efforts. Organizers launched the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party as a rival to the white-controlled state Democratic Party, and Freedom Summer helped pave the way for passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

Activism Gives Hope, Energy And Direction

June 23, 2014 Maude Barlow, www.rabble.ca Strategize! Activism, Climate Change, Environment, Future, Water

Maude Barlow received an Honorary Doctor of Laws from York University in Toronto yesterday morning. Here are her speaking notes for the Convocation ceremony. Chancellor Gregory Sorbara, President Mamdouh Shoukri, the Senate of York University, and all the graduation students, It is a great honour to share this convocation with you today. I am moved by your grace, energy and hope on this lovely June day. In the few minutes I have to share with you I would like to urge you all, no matter what your education specialty, what vocation you choose, or where you live, to give some of your precious life energy to the great environmental challenges that face us today. Every generation faces a unique political reality and set of concerns it needs to tackle together and yours is the multiple threats to the earth itself from over-exploitation, pollution and the growth imperative. From the diminishing life in the oceans, and the destruction of old growth forests, to the clear limits of a fossil fuel economy, our Mother Earth is suffering, as are countless millions around the world.

Albuquerque Activists Hold ‘People’s Trial’ Of Police Chief For Brutality

June 23, 2014 Rory Carroll, www.theguardian.com Resist! Activism, Albuquerque, Police, Protest

Activists in Albuquerque have held a march and a “people's trial” of the city's police chief, to protest dozens of fatal police shootings. Hundreds rallied in the New Mexico city on Saturday, some carrying fake tombstones, to denounce what they called a culture of police brutality and official complicity. It was the latest event in a vocal campaign demanding reform of a police department which has recorded 40 shootings, 26 of them fatal, since 2010. Reforms are expected to be announced in coming weeks, following a Department of Justice report in April which detailed a pattern of excessive, unreasonable use of deadly force against residents. Marchers said they needed to continue to pressure local authorities to prevent more officially justified shootings. “They say ‘justified’! We say ‘homicide’!” they chanted, as they gathered at Roosevelt Park.

A Living Laboratory Of Self-Management

June 22, 2014 Jordi Blanchar, www.theoccupiedtimes.org Create! Activism, Community, Cooperative, Democracy

The CSA Can Vies has been an Autonomous Social Centre (hence the acronym CSA) since it was squatted in 1997. It is situated in Sants, a predominantly working class district away from the cleansed and tourism-centred areas of downtown Barcelona. The building itself and the land where it sits are property of the Metropolitan Transport of Barcelona (TMB), a company owned by the city’s Council. Throughout its existence Can Vies has had a strong link with workers organisations, first as an outpatients clinic for the municipal transport workers, and then as the headquarters of the local branches of the CNT and CGT anarcho-syndicalist unions. In 1997, as a continuation of this historical legacy, the building was taken over by an assembly composed of squatters, activists and local neighbours, with the aim of setting up a self-organised social centre that would have deep roots in the local community

Rising Tide’s Continental Gathering, August 22-24

June 19, 2014 Rising Tide North America, www.rtna.live2.radicaldesigns.org Organize! Activism, Appalachia, Conference, Mountaintop Removal, Rising Tide

Save the Date! Rising Tide North America Announces Our Continental Gathering! August 22-24 near Whitesburg, Kentucky Join us for the 2nd annual Rising Tide North America Continental Gathering, August 22-24 in eastern Kentucky. You can RSVP at http://bit.ly/1ihEyxn This year, Rising Tide North America’s network of activists and allies from around the continent will be converging in Appalachia at the tenth anniversary of Mountain Justice to learn from and support the struggle to stop mountaintop removal, connect with climate justice activists from around North America and strategize about how we want our movement to expand and grow. Additional details will be available soon..

Reporting Saudi Arabia’s Hidden Uprising

June 17, 2014 Safa Alahmad, www.bbc.com Resist! Activism, Journalism, Protest, Saudi Arabia, Violence

Even inside Saudi Arabia, the protests in the coastal region of Qatif hardly ever make the news. It's nearly impossible for journalists to operate here. But I travelled in under the radar. I know the area well, as I was born and raised nearby. I visited the Eastern Province several times in the past two years without the knowledge of the Saudi authorities. I wanted to find out why activists from the country's Shia minority were risking their lives to demonstrate against the monarchy. How had frequent protests rumbled on without being silenced? The Eastern Province is home to most of Saudi Arabia's Shia Muslims. They make up less than 15% of the population, and many claim they suffer sectarian discrimination. The demonstrations in Saudi Arabia began in early 2011, when protesters demanded the release of nine men held for years without trial. They were emboldened by the Arab uprisings sweeping through the region. But in this conservative monarchy, dissent is rarely tolerated.

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