Activists

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.

Climate ‘Hero’ Gets Three-Year Prison Sentence For Shutting Down Tar Sands Pipeline

February 8, 2018 By Jessica Corbett, Commondreams.org Resist! Activists, Climate Change, Pipelines, Prison

"It doesn't matter if I'm sitting in jail. What matters is stopping the pollution," Foster, a 53-year-old mental health counselor from Seattle, declared after his sentencing in North Dakota on Tuesday. "If other people don't take action, mine makes no difference," he continued. "And if they don't, the planet comes apart at the seams. The only way what I did matters is if people are stopping the poison." Although others who participated in the multi-state #ShutItDown action two years ago have been allowed to present a "necessity defense"—or argue they believed their act was "necessary to avoid or minimize a harm" that was "greater than the harm resulting from the violation of the law"—Judge Laurie A. Fontaine rejected such a defense for Foster and Sam Jessup, who filmed Foster's action and received a two-year deferred prison sentence with supervised probation.

Standing Rock Water Protector Reaches Non-Cooperating Plea Agreement

February 6, 2018 Water Protectors Legal Collective, Nativenewsonline.net Educate! Activists, North Dakota, Standing Rock, Water Protectors

MANDAN, NORTH DAKOTA – On Thursday February 8, Michael Giron will appear in federal court in Bismarck for a change of plea hearing as per the terms of a non-cooperating agreement with prosecutors. Mr. Giron, who is known as Little Feather, was charged with Civil Disorder and Use of Fire to Commit a Federal Felony Offense, arising from events of October 27, 2016. Under this plea agreement, the Use of Fire charge – which carries a mandatory minimum sentence of 10 years and the possibility of up to 15 years in prison – will be dropped entirely, and Little Feather will take responsibility for aiding a civil disorder. Subject to the acceptance of the plea agreement by Judge Daniel Hovland, who is presiding over the case, prosecutors and the defense will jointly recommend a sentence of 36 months on the Civil Disorder charge, although the judge does have the authority to go as high as five years.

At Least 197 Eco-Defenders Murdered In 2017

February 6, 2018 By John R. Platt, Therevelator.org Educate! Activists, Environment, Murder, Repression

The deaths included farmers murdered by soldiers while defending their ancestral lands from coffee plantations in the Philippines; an indigenous leader allegedly killed by rebels in Colombia; and wildlife rangers slain by poachers in multiple countries. One of the most infamous cases was the January 15, 2017 murder of Isidro Baldenegro López, an indigenous activist in Mexico who had earlier won the Goldman Environmental Prize for standing up to illegal logging. Mexico is now the fourth most dangerous countries for land-defenders, with 15 murders in 2017, according to Global Witness. Latin America overall was considered the deadliest part of the world for activists. Brazil had the highest number of murders, 46, followed by Colombia with 42. The Philippines was a close third with 41 reported homicides.

Native American Activist Followed Mother’s Footsteps To Standing Rock.

February 3, 2018 By Will Parrish, Theintercept.com Educate! Activists, Repression, Standing Rock

AFTER SPENDING A YEAR in jail awaiting trial, Oglala Lakota Sioux activist Red Fawn Fallis pleaded guilty last week to two federal felonies related to her arrest while protesting the Dakota Access pipeline. As part of the plea agreement, prosecutors dropped the most serious charge against her, which would have carried a 10-year mandatory minimum sentence with the possibility of life imprisonment. Fallis was arrested on October 27, 2016, during a large-scale law enforcement operation to evict pipeline opponents from a camp alongside North Dakota Highway 1806. After officers tackled Fallis and pinned her on the ground facedown, they allege that she fired three shots from a revolver underneath her stomach, which did not result in any injuries. Last month, The Intercept revealed that the gun in question belonged to a paid FBI informant who was in a romantic relationship with Fallis.

“This Is An Era Defined By The Rise Of Women”

February 1, 2018 By Angelina Giannopoulou, Transform-network.net Educate! Activists, Sexism, Women

In Athens, in a crowded room of 600 people, which proved very small for such an incredible woman, Angela Davis started her lecture by expressing her gratitude. She thanked all the Greek political prisoners who, back in 1970-1972, when she was facing the death penalty, joined the international solidarity struggle for her release. International solidarity, as she highlighted, must today be demonstrated towards the Palestinian people who relentlessly fight for their rights and their lives. Angela Davis’s feminism was born through Marxism, and through theory and collective struggles as well. These two steps opened the road for a feminism that includes poor and black women, standing out against mainstream white, bourgeois feminism. It is not even possible to speak of a white feminism anymore, not only in the USA, but also in Europe. Europe is no longer a white continent.

Net Neutrality Activist ‘Throttles’ Street Traffic Outside FCC Building

January 31, 2018 Tristan Greene, Thenextweb.com Resist! Activists, FCC, Net Neutrality

While the rest of you were crying into your cruelty-free glasses of vegan pond-water over the repeal of net neutrality, humanitarian and activist Rob Bliss was restoring freedom to American roads. Instead of allowing traffic to rely on government regulations and oversight, Bliss decided the street in front of the FCC building in Washington D.C. needed a fast lane. So he created one. Using his bicycle to ‘throttle’ a lane of traffic, he offered commuters the opportunity to pay a simple $5 fee to take advantage of the newly created “fast lane.” Bliss, like Ajit Pai, isn’t a professional engineer or expert on the flow of traffic, but that didn’t stop either of them from “fixing” problems only they could see.

Gene Sharp, Godfather Of Nonviolent Revolution Dies At 90 Years Old

January 31, 2018 Ruaridh Arrow, Howtostartarevolution.org Educate! Activists, History, Nonviolence

The Albert Einstein Institution has announced that Dr Gene Sharp passed away peacefully on the 28th January at his home in East Boston. He had recently celebrated his 90th Birthday. For almost seven decades Gene dedicated his life to researching and writing on nonviolent means of struggle that might replace violence and war, his central thesis, that political power is held, not by rulers themselves, but by the willing consent of the people and institutions that support them. By studying techniques to undermine these institutions and pull them over to the democratic side, the ruler could be left powerless. Born on the 21st January 1928 to the Reverend Paul Sharp, a traveling minister and Eva Sharp a school teacher, Gene studied first at Ohio State University where he received his undergraduate and masters degrees in political studies...

Julian Assange’s Health In ‘Dangerous’ Condition

January 29, 2018 Ewen MacAskill, Theguardian.com Educate! Activists, Julian Assange, Whistleblowers, Wikileaks

Julian Assange’s long stay in the Ecuadorian embassy in London is having a “dangerous” impact on his physical and mental health, according to clinicians who carried out the most recent assessments of him. The pair renewed calls for the WikiLeaks publisher to be granted safe passage to a London hospital. Sondra Crosby, a doctor and associate professor at the Boston University’s school of medicine and public health, and Brock Chisholm, a London-based consultant clinical psychologist, examined Assange for 20 hours over three days in October. In an article for the Guardian, they wrote: “While the results of the evaluation are protected by doctor-patient confidentiality, it is our professional opinion that his continued confinement is dangerous physically and mentally to him and a clear infringement of his human right to healthcare.”

US Attorney Drops 129 Trump Inauguration Protest Cases, 59 Still Face Decades In Prison

January 19, 2018 Staff, Unicornriot.ninja Resist! Activists, Courts, Repression, Resist J20

Washington, DC – A legal filing submitted today by the US Attorney’s Office (USAO) indicate that the federal government has drastically reduced the scope of the prosecution of people mass arrested during Donald Trump’s presidential inauguration on January 20 , 2017 (J20). The government will no longer bring charges against 129 of the almost 200 people previously indicted based on their presence at an ‘anti-capitalist and anti-fascist’ march that was violently herded into a police trap. 59 people still have trial dates scattered throughout this year and face charges carrying up to 60 years in prison. The motion filed by Assistant US Attorney Jennifer Kerkhoff claims that the smaller remaining group of defendants still face charges due to their alleged involvement in “identifiable acts of destruction, violence, or other assaultive conduct.”

ICE Detains Immigrant Rights Leader Ravi Ragbir, Sparks Manhattan Protests

January 13, 2018 By Nicole Brown and Lauren Cook, Amny.com Resist! Activists, ICE, Immigration, Protests

Hundreds of protesters gathered outside of an Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention center on the Lower West Side Thursday, chanting “ICE out now” and demanding to know the whereabouts of a prominent immigrant rights leader, just hours after two city councilmen were arrested during a similar protest in Foley Square. City councilmen Ydanis Rodriguez and Jumaane Williams were among 18 people who were arrested during the Foley Square protest sparked by the arrest of Ravi Ragbir, the executive director of the faith-based immigrant rights group New Sanctuary Coalition of New York City. Ragbir was detained when he showed up for a check-in with ICE, organizers of the rally said. Outside of the ICE building at 201 Varick St. Thursday night, former City Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito said she stands with Ragbir as well as her former colleagues who were arrested.

Activists At Washington State Capitol Launch “Climate Countdown”

January 9, 2018 By Andrea Germanos, Commondreams.org Resist! Activists, Climate Change, Protests, Washington

Demanding "bold action" from lawmakers in Washington state on Monday, activists and indigenous leaders rang in the start of the 2018 legislative session Monday with the launch of an initiative to urgently tackle the climate crisis. "On the Peninsula, we're already seeing signs of a future we won't be able to live with—winter floods, summer droughts, wildfires, coastal devastation, acidifying seas, poisonous algal blooms," said Ed Chadd, a member of Olympic Climate Action. "If we don't act now, our orcas and salmon are goners...and then we will be. Climate change is not going to wait for us to get our act together." "We're showing up in Olympia today to demand that the legislature acknowledge not just the reality but the unthinkable urgency of climate change."

Can Tiny Houses Halt Expansion Of Trans Mountain Pipeline?

January 6, 2018 Ayşe Gürsöz, Colorlines.com Resist! Activists, Indigenous Peoples, Pipelines

“We thought we’d only spend a few days at Standing Rock. Instead we were there for months,” recalls Kanahus Manuel of the Secwepemc Nation in British Columbia. “That’s the story of thousands of Indigenous peoples who touched down there at Oceti Sakowin camp. I know the same thing is going to happen here.” The “here” Manuel is speaking of is the Tiny House Warriors Resistance camp in what is now known as Victoria, Canada. The 10 homes, which Kanahus says were inspired by the camps at Standing Rock, will be strategically placed to block Kinder Morgan Canada’s proposed expansion of the Trans Mountain pipeline. (The Canadian company is a unit of the eponymous Houston-based corporation.)

Ahed Tamimi Stood Up To Israel While Rest Of The World Bows

January 5, 2018 By Miko Peled, Mintpressnews.com Resist! Activists, Israel, Nationalism

NABI SALEH, PALESTINE (Op-ed) — One can barely go for half a day on social media without seeing new iconic images of Ahed Tamimi. Everyone who ever posed with her for a photo is posting, and some very creative art is being made of her almost by the minute. But the truth is that we all failed her. Even those of us who regularly visit the village of Nabi Saleh and march with the people of the village to protest the Israeli oppression, though we cough and gag from the tear gas and we stink from the skunk water, and though some of us are arrested from time to time — we have all failed her. We failed Ahed, just as we failed her young uncles Mostafa and Roshdy who were killed; and her cousin Mohammad who was shot in the head a week before her arrest, and miraculously survived;

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