Freedom of Speech and Assembly

Global Protest Grows as Citizens Lose Faith in Politics and the State

June 23, 2013 Peter Beaumont, www.guardian.co.uk Educate! Brazil, Finance and the Economy, Freedom of Speech and Assembly, Government, Human Rights, Solidarity

If the recent scenes have seemed familiar, it is because they shared common features: viral, loosely organised with fractured messages and mostly taking place in urban public locations. Unlike the protest movement of 1968 or even the end of Soviet influence in eastern Europe in 1989, these are movements with few discernible leaders and often conflicting ideologies. Their points of reference are not even necessarily ideological but take inspiration from other protests, including those of the Arab spring and the Occupy movement. The result has seen a wave of social movements – sometimes short-lived – fromWall Street to Tel Aviv and from Istanbul to Rio de Janeiro, often engaging younger, better educated and wealthier members of society.

Chicago Protest Against U.S. Intervention in Syria

June 21, 2013 Staff, www.answercoalition.org Organize! Freedom of Speech and Assembly, Wars and Militarism

Protesters gathered at Federal Plaza in Chicago on June 18 to oppose U.S. military intervention in the Syrian war. "Hands Off Syria! No More Wars!" was chanted loudly by the participants during a 2-hour long picket and rally. The protest was joined by members of the Syrian community who came out to say that the U.S. government has no right to threaten or overthrow the sovereign government of Syria. They also opposed sanctions, no-fly zones and spoke out against the allegations of chemical weapons use being used by the Obama administration to make their phony "humanitarian" case for escalation of the conflict. They carried signs that read, "President Obama: Syria is our Red Line!"

Protesters Confront George W. Bush

June 21, 2013 Staff, www.answercoalition.org Organize! Freedom of Speech and Assembly

Organized over a short period of time by dedicated activists, the demonstration lined the road leading into the casino. Favorite chants included “George Bush, you can’t hide, we charge you with genocide!” and “George Bush: war criminal!” Protestors gathered outside the Casino Morongo in Riverside, Calif., to protest the presence of war criminal and former President George W. Bush. Bush was paid a huge sum of money to speak at a “leadership conference” of mostly local officials.

More Than One Million Protest in Brazil, Rousseff Calls Emergency Cabinet Meeting

June 21, 2013 arco Sibaja and Stan Lehman, www.ap.org Resist! Brazil, Freedom of Speech and Assembly, Government, Human Rights

More than a million Brazilians poured into the streets of at least 80 cities Thursday in this week's largest anti-government demonstrations yet, protests that saw violent clashes break out in several cities as people demanding improved public services and an end to corruption faced tear gas, pepper spray and rubber bullets. Despite the crackdown, protesters said they would not back down. In Brasilia, police struggled to keep hundreds of protesters from invading the Foreign Ministry, outside of which protesters lit a small fire. Other government buildings were attacked around the capital's central esplanade. There, too, police resorted to tear gas and rubber bullets in attempts to scatter the crowds. President Dilma Rousseff called an emergency meeting with top advisers for Friday morning. "This is the start of a structural change in Brazil," said Aline Campos, a 29 year old publicist in Brasilia. "People now want to make sure their money is well spent, that it's not wasted through corruption."

Brazil Explodes in a Furious Feast of Democracy, Protests in 100 Cities

June 20, 2013 Jerome Roos, www.roarmag.org Resist! Brazil, Freedom of Speech and Assembly

Burning cars in Rio. Violent clashes between police and protesters in Salvador. Security forces desperately trying to keep the angry masses out of Congress and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Brasilía. A riotous mob looting stores in Porto Allegre. But also smiley faces and a festive atmosphere in São Paulo and dozens of other cities, as people finally encountered each other in the public sphere again — struggling for the right to be heard and for the dignity of ruling their own destiny. Struggling, in other words, for real democracy. These were just some of the images emerging from Brazil on Thursday night as the country witnessed yet another explosion of popular outrage following Monday’s groundbreaking and historic demonstrations. With millions marching peacefully in over 100 cities, Thursday’s protests were most certainly Brazil’s biggest in decades.

Turkey Announces Plans ‘For Gas’ and Cyber Security

June 20, 2013 Staff, www.rt Organize! Freedom of Speech and Assembly, Human Rights, Türkiye

Turkey has announced plans to purchase 100,000 gas bomb cartridges and launch a central cyber security agency, local media report. This comes after protests across the country which also saw a series of attacks on government’s websites. The order for the 100,000 new cartridges will be accompanied by an order for 60 water cannon vehicles, the daily local newspaper Milliyet reported, also stating that the excessive use of gas bomb cartridges meant that Turkish riot police used up some 130,000 units across the space of a mere 20 days.

Three Things About the TPP You Need to Know and Share

June 20, 2013 Dennis Trainor, Jr., www.acronymtv.com Organize! Freedom of Speech and Assembly, Government, TPP

The Obama administration is brokering a secret global deal that combines all of the worst elements of NAFTA and Citizens United, shoots them up with steroids, sprinkles in a speedball and codifies these principles into a trade agreement that is in fact much more than a trade agreement. The trade agreement is the Trojan horse to bore you and put you to sleep so that when you wake up a global corporate coup will be in place creating a parallel system of justice where three private attorneys would oversee a kangaroo court set up to defend corporate interests that the laws all countries signing on to what is known as the Trans Pacific Partnership would be subservient to.

Wearing a Mask at a Riot or Unlawful Assembly is Now a Crime in Canada

June 20, 2013 Meagan Fitzpatrick, www.cbc.ca Educate! Criminal Justice and Prisons, Freedom of Speech and Assembly, Human Rights

A bill that bans the wearing of masks during a riot or unlawful assembly and carries a maximum 10-year prison sentence with a conviction of the offence became law today. Bill C-309, a private member's bill introduced by Conservative MP Blake Richards in 2011, passed third reading in the Senate on May 23 and was proclaimed law during a royal assent ceremony in the Senate this afternoon. The bill is meant to give police an added tool to prevent lawful protests from becoming violent riots, and that it will help police identify people who engage in vandalism or other illegal acts. The bill is something that police, municipal authorities and businesses hit hard by riots in Toronto, Vancouver, Montreal and other cities in recent years, were asking for.

Afghan Peace Volunteers Call on Whistleblowers to End War

June 20, 2013 Dr. Hakim and Afghan Peace Volunteers, www.ourjourneytosmile.com Create! Freedom of Speech and Assembly, Human Rights, Wars and Militarism, Whistleblowers

We human beings are capable of living together without war. Billions of human beings all over the world live daily without killing one another, even when dealing with the most troubled or difficult of family members. We are capable of an impossible love. We can establish global norms of resolving all our problems through understanding and dialogue, and exclude war from the negotiation table. To do so, we should exclude from the UN charter the use of war as a last resort. We should disband the UN ‘Security’ Council. Of course, accomplishing these actions hinges on us, on climate change citizens, Arab Spring citizens, Occupy citizens and the ‘awakening’ citizens of every country to free ourselves from the unequal dominance of corporate governments with their laws and weapons of self-interest.

U.S. Military ‘Power Grab’ Goes Into Effect

June 20, 2013 Jed Morey, www.longislandpress.com Educate! Freedom of Speech and Assembly, Wars and Militarism

But the focus on the DoD regulatory change obscures the creeping militarization that has already occurred in police departments across the nation. Even prior to the NDAA lawsuit, journalist Chris Hedges was critical of domestic law enforcement agencies saying, “The widening use of militarized police units effectively nullifies the Posse Comitatus Act of 1878.” This de facto nullification isn’t lost on the DoD. The DoD official even referred to the Boston bombing suspects manhunt saying, “Like most major police departments, if you didn’t know they were a police department you would think they were the military.”

When Will The Police Learn? Pepper Spray Builds Protests

June 19, 2013 Kevin Zeese, www.popularresistance.org Educate! Freedom of Speech and Assembly, Human Rights, Police abuse

Pepper spray has replaced the attack dogs of the Civil Rights Movement. Today, as people challenge corrupt government that is working on behalf of the wealthy and not the people; an unfair economy the sends wealth to the top while most people struggle to get by, the image of government abuse of citizens has become pepper spray. The use of the spray has produced consistent results -- iconic photographs and videos that lead sympathy for protesters, criticism of police and a bigger movement. In every incident, it has been nonviolent protesters -- and their nonviolence is critical to the growth of the movement -- attacked by police without justification.

Rage and Ruin: On the Black Panthers

June 19, 2013 Steve Wasserman, www.thenation.com Educate! Criminal Justice and Prisons, Freedom of Speech and Assembly, Police abuse, Racism, Surveillance

Two scholars, Waldo Martin Jr., a historian at the University of California, Berkeley, and Joshua Bloom, a doctoral candidate in sociology at UCLA, after more than a decade of work, offer a corrective. They demolish the canard that the Panthers were anti-white. What distinguished Newton and Seale’s approach was their refusal to go along with the narrow cultural nationalism that had appealed to so many African-Americans. They fought tremendous battles, sometimes turning deadly, with those who thought, as the saying went, that political power grew out of the sleeve of a dashiki. Bloom and Martin rightly emphasize the Panthers’ steady embrace of a class-based politics with an internationalist bent. The party was inspired by anti-imperialist struggles in Africa, Latin America and Asia. They began by emphasizing the local but soon went global, ultimately establishing an international section in Algiers.

Take Action Support Release of Attorney Lynne Stewart Today

June 18, 2013 Staff, www.lynnestewart.org/ Organize! Criminal Justice and Prisons, Freedom of Speech and Assembly

Lynne Stewart, age 73, is suffering from stage fourth cancer in her lungs. The cancer has metastasized rapidly to her lymph nodes and shoulder. She has lost 60 pounds and her condition is deteriorating rapidly. Stewart’s condition is well-known and medically documented. As Poynter explains “Lynne has passed all of the legalities of compassionate release and qualifies for release as the bill was written. The prison warden at Carswell in Fort Worth, Texas, has signed for her release, and so has the director of the Federal Bureau of Prisons, Charles R. Samuels. Probation officers charged with inspecting Lynne’s future residence approved her housing. All that is required by the statute of compassionate release has been done. Yet Lynne is still in jail. Every day that her release is postponed makes treatment of her cancer more difficult.”

Justice American Style: The Obama War on Dissent

June 18, 2013 Nick Egnatz, www.intrepidreport.com Educate! Chelsea Manning, Criminal Justice and Prisons, Freedom of Speech and Assembly

The International Court of Justice in 1996 unanimously interpreted the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty as, “There exists an obligation to pursue in good faith and bring to a conclusion negotiations leading to nuclear disarmament in all its aspects under strict and effective international control.” Yet the Obama administration’s Justice Department threw the book at three peace demonstrators who took part in a peaceful demonstration to abolish our nuclear arsenal at the nation’s Y-12 nuclear bomb making facility in Tennessee. Their non-violent action was entirely in the spirit of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty that, as a signed and ratified treaty, is deemed the “supreme law of the land” by none other than the U.S. Constitution. They were convicted of sabotage and could be each sentenced in July to 30 years in jail.

King Center on Nonviolence, First Summer Session

June 16, 2013 Staff, www.thekingcenter.org Educate! Freedom of Speech and Assembly, Organizing

The King Center will hold the 2013 “N.O.W. (Nonviolence Opportunity Watch) Encounter: Kingian Nonviolence in Action” summer camping session on its campus from June 17-21 for 120 participants, including 94 students ages 13-18 and 30 adult chaperones, it was announced today. The King Center will teach participants techniques for leveraging Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s philosophy of nonviolence to resolve conflicts in their daily lives and empower them to serve as ‘ambassadors’ for nonviolent social change. King Center C.E.O. Bernice A. King explained “The 2013 N.O.W. Camp will provide an action-packed, fun-filled and life-changing week, which will challenge and engage young people to use the power of nonviolence to help fulfill my father’s dream.”

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