Activists

Black Activists Targeted By The Colombian State

April 27, 2018 Zoe PC, Blackagendareport.com Resist! Activists, Afro-Colombians, Colombia, Repression

On April 20, Colombian human rights organizations in the south-west of the country denounced the mass arrests of leaders and human rights defenders in the departments of Nariño, Cauca and Valle del Cauca. The organizations pointed out that people who were detained had attended sessions of the National Liberation Army (ELN) peace talks held in Quito, Ecuador, and they would probably be charged with rebellion and be accused of having links to the guerrilla group. Human rights organizations have not been able to identify all of the 30 people who were detained in the operations due to the irregular circumstances under which the legal proceedings took place. Many of those detained belong to the Afro-Colombian organization Proceso de Comunidades Negras (Black Communities’ Process - PCN)...

Protesters Fight Back Against Deportation Of Human Rights Advocate

April 24, 2018 Staff, Fightbacknews.org Resist! Activists, Deportations, Human Rights, Protests, Repression

New York, NY - Over 30 people gathered for an emergency rally held for Jerome Succor Aba, a Filipino peace activist who was denied entry to the U.S. and sent back to Manila after being tortured at the San Francisco airport. Aba was scheduled to speak on the “Stop the Killings” speaking tour to expose the Duterte government and its U.S. backers. The rally took place in front of the Department of Homeland Security. The crowd chanted and gave speeches demanding “Justice for Jerome.” Michael Garrovillas spoke on behalf of Anakbayan New York. “As youth and students and beyond, exposing and opposing the fascist U.S.-Duterte regime, for a truly just and lasting peace in the Philippines, the militarized state here in the U.S. to the Philippines will continue to try any methods of fear and intimidation.

Charlottesville: Anti-Racist Activist Corey Long’s Trial Delayed

April 18, 2018 Creede Newton, Aljazeera.com Resist! Activists, Charlottesville, Courts, Repression

Charlottesville organisers pledge support of African Americans on trial for 'self-defence' at white nationalist rally. The trial of Corey Long, an African American man who was allegedly shot at by a white nationalist during last August's "Unite the Right" Rally in Charlottesville, Virginia has been granted a continuance. Community organisers gathered outside the courtroom on Tuesday morning wearing all black in support of Long, whose lawyers asked for the continuance. Organisers told Al Jazeera they believe the trial will take place in June. Long has been charged with misdemeanour assault and disorderly conduct related to his use of a "flamethrower" at the rally. Long's lawyers asked for the delay after being offered a plea deal, which they did not accept, activists said. Organisers feel Long was unjustly charged after white nationalists present during the August 12 rally told law enforcement they were assaulted.

Activists Build Small Longhouse Blocking PSE Headquarters

April 9, 2018 Staff, Investorideas.com Resist! Activists, Environment, LNG, Protests, Treaty

April 2, 2018 (Investorideas.com Newswire) As Puget Sound Energy continues to build a Tacoma Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) facility despite widespread concerns, Native and environmentalist opponents of the project have constructed a small longhouse replica blocking the main entrance to PSE's corporate headquarters in Bellevue early this morning. PSE has not consulted with the Puyallup Tribe (the historical owners of the land), and lacks key permits, including one from the Puget Sound Clean Air Agency, which recently ordered that a Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement be completed before they would consider the permit. Nevertheless, construction continues. The activists say that they, too, have requested a permit for their structure; they are awaiting approval from the Bellevue Planning Department.

Disability Rights Activists Occupy Park Near FDA Chairman’s Home, Demand End To Electric Shock ‘Torture’

March 16, 2018 John Zangas, Dcmediagroup.us Resist! Activists, Disability Rights, FDA, Occupation

Washington, DC — A group of disability rights activists from around the country are urging the FDA to release new regulations that will permanently end Graduated Electronic Decelerator (GED) at the Judge Rotenberg Center (JRC) in Canton, Massachusetts, an education facility which specializes in habilitation of severely impaired persons. The activists have begun an indefinite occupation of a small park near FDA chairman Dr. Scott Gottlieb’s home, claiming he is delaying the release of regulations that would end the JRC practice of using GED shock therapy to discipline residents. About fifty people from the disability rights group ADAPTstarted the park’s occupation, which is being live-streamed across the Internet to thousands. They say they will not end their protest until the regulations ending GED are signed and enacted by Dr. Gottlieb.

Brazilian Rights Activist Marielle Franco Assassinated In Rio

March 16, 2018 Staff, Telesurtv.net Resist! Activists, Assassination, Brazil, Human Rights, Repression

Part of a generation of young Black Brazilians who are becoming increasingly vocal inside and outside statehouses, Franco was elected to office in 2016. A resident of the Favela da Maré, an impoverished community in Rio, she was one of the main defenders of human rights in the country. Franco was shot dead in a car on Joaquim Palhares Street, in the Central Region of Rio, at about 9:30 p.m. on Wednesday, Globo.com reports. The driver of the vehicle, Anderson Pedro Gomes, was also fatally shot, and a passenger, Marielle's adviser, was struck by shrapnel. Investigators at the Homicide Office told Globo.com that the main line of investigation is execution. The day before she was murdered, Marielle complained about the violence in the city in a post on her personal Twitter. In the post, she questioned the action of the Military Police.

Empty Shoes, Empty Schools: U.S. Gun Law Activists Begin Two Days Of Theater

March 14, 2018 Ian Simpson, Reuters.com Resist! Activists, Guns, Youth

Mauser was one of a handful of gun control activists and volunteers who braved a frigid March morning to lay out about 7,000 pairs of shoes on the U.S. Capitol lawn as a makeshift memorial to American children killed by gun violence. Their aim, like the thousands of students across the country who plan to walk out of their classrooms for 17 minutes on Wednesday morning, was to put more pressure on state and federal lawmakers to tighten rules on gun ownership. “There’s nobody in those shoes, it’s like the emptiness in our hearts from gun violence,” said Mauser, 66, of Littleton, Colorado. The memorial, organized by Avaaz, a U.S.-based civic organization, and the National School Walkout, organized by the activists behind the Women’s March in Washington, are part of a grass-roots movement that grew out of the killing of 17 students and staff at a Florida high school a month ago.

Activists Say ‘Frack No’ To Proposed Pipeline As Cuomo Makes Renewable Energy Investment

March 13, 2018 By Ben Brandstein, Bedfordandbowery.com Resist! Activists, Environment, Fracking, Pipelines

Environmental and community groups gathered outside New York University’s Kimmel Center this morning, rallying against a natural gas pipeline proposed by the Williams energy company. Meanwhile, inside, Governor Cuomo announced a $1.4 billion commitment to renewable energy programs. It’s said to be the biggest by any state in US history, but some protesters continue to say that Cuomo isn’t doing enough to stop fracking off the coast of New York City and elsewhere. Armed with signs and illustrations depicting the various projects they disapprove of and the organizations they stand with, protestors condemned the Williams Northeast Supply Enhancement Pipeline as unnecessary, expensive, and harmful, chanting, “When New York harbor is under attack, what do we do? Stand up, fight back!”

Victory Against Ecocide In Guatemala

March 10, 2018 Jeff Abbott, Towardfreedom.com Resist! Activists, Guatemala, Nestle, Palm Oil

Nestlé, the world’s largest food and beverage company, announced last month that they would stop purchasing palm oil from a Guatemalan producer tied to human rights violations, environmental destruction, and corruption. The move was the result of years of pressure from Guatemalan and international activists. Nestlé’s decision to end relations with Reforestadora de Palmas de El Peten S.A. (REPSA), stems from the company’s role in the contamination of the Río Pasión river in northern Guatemala, and the corruption and impunity that followed. “Nestlé’s decision to cut ties with REPSA is a step in the right direction and a victory for all the activists who have fought for years to bring REPSA’s actions to light,” Jeff Conant, Senior International Forests Program Director at Friends of the Earth, wrote in a press statement.

Activists Storm Washington, Demanding Protection For All Immigrants

March 8, 2018 By Sarah Jaffe, Truthout.org Resist! Activists, Immigration, Undocumented, Washington DC

On March 6, a Maryland District Judge rejected a challenge to the Trump administration's termination of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, giving the administration a symbolic win after two federal judges had previously halted the attempt to end the program. March 5 was the deadline set by the Trump administration for the end of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program protecting young immigrants. The deadline came and went without Congress acting, and around the country, migrants and their allies held demonstrations demanding legislators take up the issue. Today we bring you a conversation with two young organizers from the Seed Project of Movimiento Cosecha: Maria Duarte, who is undocumented and came to the US at the age of five, and Omar Cisneros, a US-born ally.

Latin America Poised To Agree World’s First Legal Pact For Nature Defenders

March 6, 2018 By Arthur Neslen, Theguardian.com Create! Activists, Environment, Latin America, Repression

Latin American countries are poised to agree the world’s first legally binding convention to protect environmental defenders at a conference in Costa Rica. Land activists and indigenous people were killed in record numbers on the continent last year, with more than two nature protectors murdered every week. Now, after two years of negotiations, UN and diplomatic sources say it is very likely that an environmental democracy treaty offering them legal protection will be agreed at the summit which ends on 4 March. Constance Nalegach, Chile’s lead negotiator at the UN’s Economic commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (Eclac) meeting, said that a legal pact was now “the most probable result and [also] a political gain”. “A legally binding instrument is the most useful agreement to ensure human rights,” she told the Guardian.

Berta Cáceres Murder: Ex-Honduran Military Intelligence Officer Arrested

March 3, 2018 Nina Lakhani, Theguardian.com Educate! Activists, Berta Caceres, Honduras, Latin America, Military, Repression

Honduran authorities have arrested a former military intelligence officer for masterminding the murder of the indigenous leader Berta Cáceres, who was shot dead exactly two years ago today. David Castillo Mejía, the executive president of the company building a dam which Cáceres campaigned against, is the ninth person arrested for the murder, and the fourth with ties to the Honduran military. Castillo Mejía is accused by arresting authorities of providing logistical support and other resources to one of the hitmen already charged. He is the first person to be charged as being the “intellectual author” of Cáceres’s murder and the attempted murder of Mexican environmentalist Gustavo Castro. Cáceres was shot in her bedroom just before midnight on 2 March 2016, a year after winning the prestigious Goldman Prize for leading a campaign against the Agua Zarca dam on the Gualcarque river considered sacred by the indigenous Lenca community.

Durham Activists Want City To Become First In U.S. To Condemn Exchanges Between Local Cops And Israeli Security Forces

March 1, 2018 Sammy Hanf, Indyweek.com Organize! Activists, Israel, Occupation, Police

Durham’s last two police chiefs have participated in these exchanges. Former DPD chief Jose Lopez attended a national counterterrorism training program in Israel through the Anti-Defamation League, and current chief C.J. Davis helped to establish and coordinate exchanges through the Atlanta Police Leadership Institute before she came to Durham. Wil Glenn, the DPD’s public affairs manager, says the department itself has not participated in these exchanges, and Lopez went to Israel independent of his role as chief. But Noah Rubin-Blose, a Triangle Jewish Voices for Peace member who has been working on the demilitarize campaign, says that is misleading because most of these exchanges happen through groups like the Anti-Defamation League or the Jewish Institute for National Security of America, not the actual police department.

Meet Frontline Activists Facing Down Global Mining Industry

March 1, 2018 Staff, Redpepper.org.uk Resist! Activists, Mining

Leaders from the frontlines of mining struggles in the Philippines, Colombia and Uganda travelled to the UK this November to expose the true costs of the UK’s extensive ties to the global mining industry and oppose the Mines and Money Conference in London- a global hub of mining finance and power. Advertising itself as an event where ‘deals get done’, the express aim of Mines and Money, which brings together thousands of mining companies and investors in the UK capital, is to match-make big money with big mines. ‘Thought-leaders’ like Brexit financier Arron Banks and former UKIP leader Nigel Farage, gave keynote speeches at this year’s conference, advising companies on how to exploit Brexit and Trump’s rise to continue extracting wealth, especially from the global south.

Disability Activists Crash Congress To Stop Bill Undermining Their Civil Rights

February 17, 2018 By Mike Ludwig, Truthout.org Resist! Activists, Congress, Disability Rights, Legislation

Anita Cameron remembers the Capitol Crawl like it was yesterday. It was the spring of 1990, and Congress was dragging its feet toward a vote on the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), a landmark piece of legislation protecting the civil rights of people with disabilities. To call attention to the bill and the accessibility challenges that people with disabilities face on a daily basis, Cameron and dozens of other activists left their wheelchairs and walkers at the steps of the Capitol building and crawled their way to the top before filling the rotunda with their chanting voices. Cameron and more than 100 others were arrested that day. The protest had an impact: President George H. W. Bush signed the ADA into law a few months later. However, the ADA has not been a magic bullet and is now under threat.

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