Civil Disobedience

Occupy Central In Hong Kong Begins Civil Resistance Campaign For Democracy

August 30, 2014 Peter So, www.scmp.com Resist! China, Civil Disobedience, Democracy, Hong Kong, Occupy Central

Occupy Central co-founder Benny Tai Yiu-ting says the movement’s supporters will gather on Sunday – after Beijing officially lays down its framework for political reform – to mark the beginning of a “continuous and long-term” civil disobedience campaign. Tai promised the campaign will be peaceful and rational. “If the campaign begins to lose control or violent acts occur, I will stand at the front of the crowd to stop them,” the legal academic added. He told RTHK on Thursday that the finer details of the movement’s “final resort” – a mass sit-in on Central streets – were still under consideration after Beijing on Wednesday laid out a restrictive draft framework for the city’s first popular election of its leader in 2017. But Tai said weekly protests would be held as part of the civil disobedience campaign, and he will shave his head to show the “spirit of sacrifice”. Thousands of university students are expected to boycott classes in mid-September, said Alex Chow Yong-kang, general secretary of the Federation of Students.

145 Arrested In #FightForFamilies Immigration Protest

August 29, 2014 Aaron Sankin, www.dailydot.com Resist! Civil Disobedience, Immigration, Protest, White House

Police arrested dozens of people at a protest in the front of the White House Thursday for engaging in an act of large-scale civil disobedience. The demonstration, which was dubbed Fight for Families, denounced the deportations of undocumented immigrants that separate children, who are often born in the United States, from their undocumented parents. A protest organizer pegged the number of people arrested at somewhere between 200 and 300; however, U.S. Park Police said in a statement that 145 protesters were arrested. The demonstrators were taken into custody for sitting down on the sidewalk in front of the White House and refusing move when ordered to do so by police. Calling the protest an act of ‟civil disobedience,” the arrests were intentional on the part of the demonstrators. “The folks who sitting there today were willing to get arrested and spend the day in jail to say that the immigration system splitting up families is wrong,” said Chita Tanjabi, a vice president at the National Organization for Women, who participated in the protest, but was not arrested.

Profiles Of War Tax Resisters

August 27, 2014 NWTRCC, www.nwtrcc.org Resist! Civil Disobedience, Taxes, Wars and Militarism

Cathy Depp (August, 2013) had her first run-in with the IRS as a direct result of refusing the federal excise tax on telephone service, which was increased by President Lyndon Johnson to help pay for the war in Vietnam. Although LBJ said we could have guns and butter too, we would have to pay for both. My husband and I were University of Illinois graduate students, living on next to nothing anyway but both determined our tax dollars should fight a different kind of war — the “war on poverty” Johnson had promised to wage. As conscientious objectors, we were part of a growing movement to resist the war through refusal to fight for it and refusal to pay for it. [read more] Aanya Adler Friess (June, 2013) has been resisting war taxes since the 1960s. At age 86, she no longer attends meetings on a regular basis, though she lives below the taxable income level. She discusses war tax resistance with activists from the organizations that make up Albuquerque’s Peace and Justice Organizations Linking Arms (PAJOLA), of which she is a founding member. [read more] Andrea Ayvazian (February, 2013). When asked about who I am, how to introduce myself, I fumble around and use some or all of these words — I am the proud mother of Sasha Klare-Ayvazian (now 24); I am a woman of faith, a long-time activist for peace, social justice, environmental sanity, and an anti-racist world; I am an ordained pastor in the United Church of Christ, a former Quaker, a singer, songwriter and poet. [read more]

Protestors Lock Selves To Pipeline Trucks

August 26, 2014 Michigan Coalition Against Tar Sands, www.michigancats.org Resist! Civil Disobedience, Michigan, Protest, Tar Sands

At about 7:30am this morning, two men locked their necks with bicycle U-locks to a pipeline construction truck, immobilizing it, as it was exiting a Precision pipeline storage yard at 3565 East Lakeville Road. This action has resulted in a back-up of trucks that have been blocked from exiting the pipe yard. At the time of this writing, there is a police presence around the two persons locked to the truck as well as dozens of other supporting protestors. Precision Pipeline, who runs the pipeline storage facility, is hired by Enbridge to expand Line 6B. In 2010, Line 6B ruptured in Marshall, MI spilling over 1 million gallons of toxic tar sands and diluents into Talmadge Creek, impacting 40 miles of the Kalamazoo River. Four years later, Enbridge states that the Kalamazoo River is the cleanest it has ever been while dragging its feet in clean-up efforts. Simultaneously, Enbridge states that the river will never be completely clean, and has meanwhile been expeditiously expanding the 6B pipeline system to carry a higher capacity of tar sands oil. Acting to disrupt Precision Pipeline, 20-year-old Duncan Tarr and 21-year-old Dylan Ochala-Gorka, both Michigan residents and organizers with a group called the Michigan Coalition Against Tar Sands (MICATS), demand a halt to Enbridge’s expansion of line 6B as well as restitution for those still suffering from effects of the 2010 tar sands disaster.

Canadians Arrested At Blockade Of Enbridge Dam Line 9

August 11, 2014 Michael Butler, www.canadians.org Resist! Canada, Civil Disobedience, Environment, Pipeline, Water

It had been a busy couple days on the on the 'Dam Line 9' site near the Thames River. Gardens and chicken coops had been set up, a concert was held, media requests taken, and even some time to for play. Council of Canadians chapter members from Guelph, London, Toronto, Hamilton, and Niagara have all been out to the site in solidarity with the blockaders. But, this afternoon a platoon of police showed up and served an injunction to the land defenders blockading Enbridge's Line 9 work site. While reports vary this is what is know. It is reported that the local landowners association came by to hand deliver a report against LINE 9 to the police serving the injunction. Two land defenders have locked them selves down on the site. "This is first and foremost a colonial issue. We are here in solidarity with Indigenous peoples protecting the integrity of the land and water." - Wolfgang, one of two activists currently locked down

Opponents Of KXL Pipeline Fear Worst For Water

August 5, 2014 Brian Brown, www.nbcnews.com Resist! Civil Disobedience, Indigenous Rights, Keystone XL, Pipeline, Water

IDEAL, South Dakota – Facing the sunrise on a frigid morning, Rosebud Sioux tribal leader Royal Yellow Hawk offered an ancient prayer in song, his voice periodically muffled by the whistling prairie wind. Behind Yellow Hawk was a cinematic scene from another century: 30-foot-tall tipis arranged in a half circle, quickly brightening in the morning light. This tipi encampment was erected this spring to be a visible and ongoing embodiment of opposition to the proposed Keystone XL Pipeline, which, if constructed, would hug the reservation’s territory in transporting diluted bitumen oil 1,179-miles from Canada’s tar sands to Steele City, Nebraska. The Keystone XL is being built by the Canadian energy company, Trans Canada. This fourth and final phase of the project—still awaiting approval by the Obama administration—will cost an estimated $5.4 billion. Other segments of the Keystone–at an estimated cost of $5 billion—have been in operation since 2010, bringing the tar sands oil from Hardisty, Alberta, to refineries in the American Midwest and the Gulf Coast.

Assault On Gaza Fuels Civil Disobedience Surge

August 3, 2014 Alex Kane, www.mondoweiss.net Resist! Civil Disobedience, Gaza, Israel, Protest

When Israel pounded the Gaza Strip in 2008-09, activists across North America occupied Israeli consulate buildings in protest of Operation Cast Lead, which killed an estimated 1,400 Palestinians, the vast majority of them civilians. Now, as the death toll reaches Cast Lead-like levels, with over 1,000 Palestinians slain by Israeli forces, activists are once again ramping up their tactics in an attempt to pressure the Jewish establishment and corporations to cease their support for Israeli actions. A wave of civil disobedience actions has spread around the U.S. in recent weeks as Israel’s pummeling of Gaza continues apace. The activists, many of them young people, including Jews, are putting their bodies on the line in an attempt to draw attention to how the U.S. is implicated in the conflict in the Gaza Strip. And with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s announcement that the assault will continue for days ahead, it’s likely that civil disobedience will increase in the U.S.–in addition to the protests around the country that have erupted in response to the war.

Two Year Anniversary of Transform Now Plowshares Action

July 28, 2014 Ellen Barfield, www.PopularResistance.org Resist! Civil Disobedience, Criminal Justice and Prisons, Nuclear Weapons, Wars and Militarism

When I took Megan's first call from jail and heard her elation that they had gotten to exactly where they wanted and done all they had planned, it was clear the blessings of God or the universe had again supported the work of disarmament, as so often has happened with plowshares actions. This was evident too in the fact that they were found by a long-employed guard with prior experience with peace activists at Rocky Flats, so he knew that he faced no physical threat and did not use violence. The video of that meeting we later saw in court was touching; MGM bowing and holding out their hands in friendship, offering bread and flowers, and the guard's calm demeanor in response. What a shame that plant management fired him for doing his job so well. His union continues to support his claim of wrongful dismissal, as well they should. So then the media frenzy began. . .

Middle School Students Called “Terrorists”

July 9, 2014 Dan Johnson, www.mintpressnews.com Educate! Civil Disobedience, Education, Student Activism, Terrorism, Youth

A group of Georgia middle school students decided they had enough of the school dress code and would violate it together in an act of civil disobedience. The school, Cowan Road Middle, found out about the plan and suspended the students for…terrorism. What? According to WSB-TV (emphasis added): “To me it was just a bunch of 13-year-olds acting crazy,” said Christopher Cagle, the father of a suspended honor roll student. Cagle said the principal called the students’ actions terroristic threats. He said the principal was too swift and severe with the punishment.” Violating the school dress code is indeed a violation of school policy, but to elevate it to a level where one could be indefinitely detained, without charge or trial, is going way too far.

Spain’s ‘Robin Hood’ Swindled Banks To Help Fight Capitalism

April 22, 2014 Ashifa Kassam, www.theguardian.com Resist! Civil Disobedience, Finance

From 2006 to 2008, Duran took out 68 commercial and personal loans from 39 banks in Spain. He farmed the money out to social activists, funding speaking tours against capitalism and TV cameras for a media network. "I saw that on one side, these social movements were building alternatives but that they lacked resources and communication capacities," he said. "Meanwhile, our reliance on perpetual growth was creating a system that created money out of nothing." They call him the Robin Hood of the banks, a man who took out dozens of loans worth almost half a million euros with no intention of ever paying them back. Instead, Enric Duran farmed the money out to projects that created and promoted alternatives to capitalism. After 14 months in hiding, Duran is unapologetic even though his activities could land him in jail. "I'm proud of this action," he said in an interview by Skype from an undisclosed location. The money, he said, had created opportunities. "It generated a movement that allowed us to push forward with the construction of alternatives. And it allowed us to build a powerful network that groups together these initiatives."

Video: Protesting Illegal in Australia?

March 19, 2014 Dennis Trainor Jr, www.PopularResistance.org Resistance Report Civil Disobedience, Protest, Protestors Arrested, Resistance Report, Sean Bedlam, Tunnel Picket, Video

Sean Bedlam (interviewed here) is a comedian, artist and activist based in Melbourne. An active member of Occupy Melbourne and other social justice campaigns, Sean states “activists in Australia are reaching out to people all over the world, particularly in America, because Australia is a client state of the United States (while at the same time) we are reaching out to the Indigenous people of Australia, the first nations, and that has become a burning central issue. Now, the powers that be know that if we are making contact with the powers that be around the world and if we are making contact with indigenous Australians, you’ve got an incredibly powerful network, and they don’t want the network to form."

Dozens Arrested At Healthcare Protest In Atlanta

March 19, 2014 Samantha Lachman, www.huffingtonpost.com Resist! Civil Disobedience, Health Care

Thirty-nine people were arrested at the Georgia state capitol in Atlanta Tuesday as a coalition of organizations under the "Moral Mondays" banner urged state legislators to allow Gov. Nathan Deal (R) to expand Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act. A bill under consideration by the Georgia state Senate on Tuesday aimed to reinforce the state's rejection of the Medicaid expansion. According to The New York Times, just as the session started, five people in the Senate gallery shouted and unfurled a banner that read “Medicaid expansion now!”

Do Judges Mean What They Say?

February 22, 2014 Ralph Hutchison, www.orepa.org Strategize! Civil Disobedience, Nuclear Weapons, Occupy, Wars and Militarism

We’ve heard it from the bench in Oak Ridge city courtrooms and from state judges in Clinton, Tennessee. And on February 18 we heard it from a federal judge—there are two variations. The first: There are plenty of ways for you to protest and deliver your message without breaking the law. The second: If you people would just put this time and energy into working for the change you want in the political system, you might get the change you seek. Both sentiments are either disingenuous or naïve. When things are really messed up, really—like a nation that preaches nonproliferation to others but is busy building bombs and bomb plants—and no one in power wants to do anything about it, and most people in power actually have disincentives to do anything about it—what is a responsible citizen to do? If the mess up is obvious enough, and distant enough, and done by someone else—trains full of Jews heading for Dachau, for instance—we know what a responsible citizen is to do, and judges and prosecutors, too. We wrote the Nuremberg Code, we the US. But God help the citizen in the United States who sees a terrible wrong being done by the government and tries to raise the alarm.

Transform Now Plowshares Hearing Postponed, Packed With Supporters

January 29, 2014 Staff, www.transformnowplowshares.wordpress.com Resist! Civil Disobedience, Freedom of Speech and Assembly, Nuclear Weapons

The courtroom was full of supporters, and a second courtroom was pressed into service; that room filled and there were reports of people sitting on the floor to view the proceedings on a big-screen TV. As the judge prepared to begin the hearing, Bill Quigley asked if the handcuffs could be removed from the prisoners for the proceedings. The judge conferred with the US Marshals and the cuffs were removed. The judge eventually ruled the TNP trio would not be given downward departures for acceptance of responsibility. In the ensuing discussion about various cases and how they were interpreted, Judge Thapar in every instance chose the view most favorable to the prosecution, denying the defendants any benefit of the doubt, and stepping in to help the prosecution when it stumbled. Kathy Boylan took the stand in support of Michael Walli. She said, "In our world, our gas chambers are nuclear weapons. They are ready for use. The whole world is the concentration camp, prepared for omnicidal weapons unless we transform this reality. Michael is trying to save our lives. Your life, Judge Thapar. Your life, Mr. Theodore. All our lives." The courtroom was still for a long minute.

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