Human Rights

From Gandhi To Occupy: The Story Of Peaceful Protest

October 27, 2013 Jamie Merrill, www.independent.co.uk Strategize! Freedom of Speech and Assembly, Human Rights, Occupy, Police abuse, Video

From battles to end racial segregation to local struggles to protect rare habitats, the captive crew of the Greenpeace ship Arctic Sunrise is following in a rich tradition of peaceful protest. But according to one of Britain’s foremost experts in civil disobedience, the nature of protest is changing. David Mead of the University of East Anglia’s Law School said that over the past 30 years there has been a radical shift towards protest and campaigns aimed at rogue corporations, not governments. “The mass protest march isn’t quite dead, but it’s very much secondary,” said the author of The New Law of Peaceful Protest. “Instead, protesters are more likely to engage with particular groups or organisations they dislike, whether they are polluting firms, oil companies or arms manufacturers.” Brian Fitzgerald, the head of mobilisation at Greenpeace International, agreed. “Corporations can be more responsive to pressure than many governments. Brent Spar and the campaign against Shell in the 1990s was a great early example of this. It was Shell that buckled over sinking the Brent Spar oil rig in the North Sea, not the UK government.

Video, Photo Essay & Samples Of News Coverage #StopWatchingUs

October 27, 2013 Staff, ww.PopularResistance.org Resist! Freedom of Speech and Assembly, Government, Human Rights, NSA, Privacy, Surveillance

Thousands gathered by the Capitol reflection pool in Washington on Saturday to march, chant, and listen to speakers and performers as part of Stop Watching Us, a gathering to protest "mass surveillance" underNSA programs first disclosed by the whistleblower Edward Snowden. Billed by organizers as "the largest rally yet to protest mass surveillance", Stop Watching Us was sponsored by an unusually broad coalition of left- and right-wing groups, including everything from the American Civil Liberties Union, the Green Party, Color of Change and Daily Kos to the Libertarian Party, FreedomWorks and Young Americans for Liberty. The events began outside Union Station, a few blocks away from the Capitol and ended in front of the US Capitol Building.

Elderly Family’s Eviction Fuels Housing Rights Movement

October 27, 2013 Christopher D. Cook, a href="http://www.alternet.org/hard-times-usa/elderly-familys-eviction-fuels-growing-san-francisco-housing-rights-movement?paging=off¤t_page=1#bookmark" target="_blank" >www.alternet.org Resist! Finance and the Economy, Housing, Human Rights

On a glaring-hot, near-cloudless day in San Francisco Sept. 25, an elderly Chinese American couple, Gum Gee Lee and her husband Poon Heung Lee—and their disabled 48 year-old daughter Shiuman Lee—were about to be physically removed from their home of 34 years by deputy sheriffs following a court order to carry out yet another Ellis Act eviction--enabled by California law that allows landlords to take housing off the rental market and sell it. Landlord Matthew Miller, who bought the 1506 Jackson Street building (along with neighboring units) in 2012 for $1.2 million, demanded the Lee family vacate the property so he could turn the units into upscale tenancies-in-common and turn a huge profit in San Francisco’s searing-hot real estate market.

Russell Brand And The Resonance Of Revolution

October 26, 2013 Jerome Roos, By, www.roarmag.org Educate! Freedom of Speech and Assembly, Government, Human Rights, Media

Russell Brand predicted a revolution on BBC Newsnight. With a rapid spitfire of cunning rhetoric he reduced Jeremy Paxman — the establishment’s private pitbull — to a cowering heap of journalistic fluff. The video instantly went viral. My newsfeed lit up with activists waxing poetics about the coming insurrection. All the major social movement pages implored their sleepy audiences to rise from their slumber like lions and reactivate that unshaken belief we all seemed to share just two years ago: that revolution is nigh. The extreme joy with which the left (from liberals to Marxists to anarchists) seems to have embraced Russell Brand as a spokesman for the revolution is, in the first place, an indictment of our own failure. We are just so happy to see our concerns, criticisms and claims reflected in the mainstream media by a charming, articulate and . . .

Russell Brand May Have Started a Revolution Last Night

October 24, 2013 Neetzan Zimmerman, www.gawker.com Educate! Freedom of Speech and Assembly, Government, Human Rights, Media

Actor-slash-comedian-slash-Messiah Russell Brand, in his capacity as guest editor of the New Statesman's just-published revolution-themed issue, was invited to explain to Jeremy Paxman why anyone should listen to a man who has never voted in his life. "I don't get my authority from this preexisting paradigm which is quite narrow and only serves a few people," Russell responded. "I look elsewhere for alternatives that might be of service to humanity." And with that, the first shots of Russell's revolutionary interview were fired. Over the course of the following ten-or-so minutes, Brand and Paxo volleyed back and forth over subjects ranging from political apathy, to corporate greed, to gorgeous beards. Throughout the interview, Brand repeatedly dodged Paxman's efforts to trivialize his message — at one point Paxman literally called Brand a "very trivial man" — until finally, even the entrenched newsman appeared to relent against the rushing tide of Brand's valid arguments.

On Revolution: “We No Longer Have The Luxury Of Tradition”

October 24, 2013 Russell Brand, www.newstatesman.com Strategize! Freedom of Speech and Assembly, Government, Human Rights, Occupy

The overthrow of the current political system is the only way I can be enthused about politics. I don’t vote because to me it seems like a tacit act of compliance; I know, I know my grandparents fought in two world wars (and one World Cup) so that I’d have the right to vote. Well, they were conned. As far as I’m concerned there is nothing to vote for. I feel it is a far more potent political act to completely renounce the current paradigm than to participate in even the most trivial and tokenistic manner, by obediently X-ing a little box. Total revolution of consciousness and our entire social, political and economic system is what interests me, but that’s not on the ballot. Is utopian revolution possible? The freethinking social architect Buckminster Fuller said humanity now faces a choice: oblivion or utopia.

Fund For Pakistani Drone Victims Going To US-Based NGOs

October 23, 2013 Medea Benjamin, www.mondoweiss.net Educate! Criminal Justice and Prisons, Drones, Government, Human Rights

The peace group CODEPINK recently discovered that every year for the past four years, a pot of $10 million has been allocated for Pakistani drone strike victims. That would make a total of $40 million, quite a hefty sum to divide among a few hundred families. But it appears that none of this money has actually reached them. The Pakistani Civilian Assistance Fund was modeled after the ones that exist in Iraq and Afghanistan, where money was allocated to help alleviate the suffering of civilians harmed by US military operations as part of a strategy to “win hearts and minds.” In the case of Pakistan, where the CIA operates its drones, the money is supposed to go directly to the families of innocent drone victims, or for needs like medical expenses or rebuilding homes.

U.S. Court May Allow Suits Against Guantanamo Forced Feeding

October 22, 2013 David Ingram, www.reuters.com Resist! Guantanamo Bay, Human Rights

A U.S. appeals court showed a potential willingness on Friday to allow Guantanamo Bay hunger strikers to sue over being force-fed, a practice the Obama administration says is necessary to keep order but that critics call inhumane. At a hearing of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, two judges on a three-judge panel asked skeptical questions of a government lawyer who argued that the courts have no jurisdiction over conditions at a military prison such as the U.S. Navy base in Cuba. While the judges stopped short of agreeing that forced feeding is inhumane, they suggested that Guantanamo detainees might be able to get around a 2006 law that bars them from suing over living conditions in extreme cases that might include forced feeding. A decision is likely to be weeks or months away, but the skepticism appeared to be a fresh challenge to the administration's control over how it treats Guantanamo detainees.

The Affordable Care Act–A System That Doesn’t Make Sense

October 21, 2013 Helen Redmond, www.socialistworker.org Educate! Corporatism, Health Care, Human Rights

"With my part-time, pretax salary of $30,000, the exchange recommended that I purchase the bronze plan offered by Blue Shield of California. Here are the numbers--annual deductible: $5,000; primary care co-pay: $60, specialty care co-pay: $70, urgent care co-pay: $120, generic medication co-pay: $19, brand medication co-pay: $50, lab tests: 30 percent co-pay, x-ray co-pay: 30 percent, maximum out-of-pocket: $6,350. The total cost of the monthly premium is $512. My share would be $213, and Blue Shield would get $298, courtesy of U.S. taxpayers. Cha-ching! What a great deal...for the insurance industry. On my salary, there's no way that I can afford a monthly premium of $213, cover the outrageous $5,000 annual deductible before insurance kicks in, or pay all those co-pays. I'll have to opt out and remain uninsured--and for that, I'll be penalized by the IRS on my tax return. If I get sick, medical bankruptcy is a real possibility." On my salary, there's no way that I can afford a monthly premium of $213, cover the outrageous $5,000 annual deductible before insurance kicks in, or pay all those co-pays. I'll have to opt out and remain uninsured--and for that, I'll be penalized by the IRS on my tax return. If I get sick, medical bankruptcy is a real possibility.

Let’s Get This Class War Started

October 21, 2013 Chris Hedges, www.truthdig.com Resist! Finance and the Economy, Freedom of Speech and Assembly, Human Rights, Worker Rights and Jobs

Class struggle defines most of human history. Marx got this right. The sooner we realize that we are locked in deadly warfare with our ruling, corporate elite, the sooner we will realize that these elites must be overthrown. The corporate oligarchs have now seized all institutional systems of power in the United States. Electoral politics, internal security, the judiciary, our universities, the arts and finance, along with nearly all forms of communication, are in corporate hands. Our democracy, with faux debates between two corporate parties, is meaningless political theater. There is no way within the system to defy the demands of Wall Street, the fossil fuel industry or war profiteers. The only route left to us, as Aristotle knew, is revolt. It is not a new story. The rich, throughout history, have found ways to subjugate and re-subjugate the masses. And the masses, throughout history, have cyclically awoken to throw off their chains.

Protect The Right To Protest: Stand With Moral Mondays

October 21, 2013 Staff, www.southernworker.org Resist! Freedom of Speech and Assembly, Human Rights

Petition to demand that you stop the attacks on our Constitutional rights to petition and protest the government. I am concerned about the conviction of Saladin Muhammad and the prosecution of all the 940 Moral Monday campaign arrestees. These courageous people were standing against the move to enact anti-worker and racist laws as part of a national corporate financed campaign to eliminate vital social programs and basic democratic rights. Muhammad, a founding member of Black Workers For Justice, led the organizing as an Organizer of the national United Electrical Workers Union (UE). and the North Carolina Public Service Workers Union-UE Local 150. UE Local 150 has been a leader in the campaign to repeal the North Carolina state ban on collective bargaining rights for public sector workers. This campaign included getting a ruling from the United Nations International Labor Organization (ILO) finding North Carolina and the U.S. out of compliance with international laws and treaties by its denial of public sector workers collective bargaining rights.

This Week In Pictures, October 14-20

October 21, 2013 Staff, www.popularresistance.org Resist! Food and Agriculture, Fracking, Government, Human Rights

This week we saved pictures of a variety of resistance actions that took place all over the world to give you a glimpse of the global movement for peace and justice. Workers from McDonalds and Walmart went on strike for better wages, conditions and to support co-workers who were fired for organizing. Blockades were ongoing in Argentina to stop Monsanto and in Canada to stop SWN Resources from fracking. Thousands protested in Rome, Italy against high unemployment and budget cuts. In Hamburg, Germany, they protested high rents and in France, students protested in solidarity with two Roma students who were expelled. Farmers in Guanajuato, Mexico blockaded the highway in protest of corn and grain prices and in Spain they gathered to call for "cambiar todo." In the Maldives, people protested for voting rights. In Fort Edward, NY, people came from all over the continent to stand in solidarity with workers protesting General Electric. One participant said that every type of union was present. Thousands gathered at PowerShift, and thousands protested around the world for the Global Frackdown.

One Year Anniversary Of Occupy Sandy

October 21, 2013 Staff, www.occupysandy.net Create! Environment, Finance and the Economy, Housing, Human Rights, Poverty, Racism

As the one-year anniversary of HurricaneSandy approaches, folks in the New York & New Jersey area are taking time to reflect on the strength and resilience of our community this past year. Occupy Sandy began as a spontaneous effort by a group of people who felt compelled to act in response to disaster. None of us were comfortable sitting by as others suffered. Your contribution helped improve immediate and long term circumstances for many affected by the storm. Each individual’s role was essential in building our collective power; whether working on the ground, contributing financially, baking a lasagna, supporting our information infrastructure, or sharing the Occupy Sandy story.

End Of Impunity? Indigenous Guatemalans Bring Mining Co To Court

October 20, 2013 Arij Riahi, www.dominion.mediacoop.ca Educate! Corporatism, Human Rights, Indigenous Rights

For the first time, a Canadian mining company will appear in a Canadian court for actions committed overseas. Hudbay Minerals, Inc, will be standing trial for murder, rapes and attacks committed against Indigenous Guatemalans by security personnel working for Hudbay’s subsidiary, Compañía Guatemalteca de Níquel (CGN). The court case is proceeding thanks to a precedent-setting decision from the Ontario Superior Court of Justice, which ruled this past July in favour of the Mayan Q'eqchi' people of Lote Ocho, near El Estor, Guatemala. “It is a massive victory for our clients and for human rights,” Cory Wanless, an attorney with the Toronto-based Klippensteins law firm, told The Dominion. “Before this decision, no claim brought by individuals that had been harmed by Canadian mining abroad had ever gotten into Canadian courts at all. They didn’t even have the ability to forward their claims.”

Success! Palm Restaurant Withdraws Support Of Urban Camping Ban

October 19, 2013 Janet Matzen, www.popularresistance.org Resist! Freedom of Speech and Assembly, Government, Housing, Human Rights

The Boycott the Urban Camping Ban Coalition is pleased to announce that The Palm Restaurant has officially withdrawn support for Denver’s Urban Camping Ban Ordinance passed in May 2012. On May 6, 2012, Occupy Denver held their first Boycott in protest of the Urban Camping Ban at Snooze A.M. Eatery.1 It was attended by not just members of Occupy Denver, but activists from Denver and surrounding areas who were concerned about the treatment of their fellow human beings, the homeless. The “Urban Camping” Ban Ordinance was passed by the Denver City Council on May 14, 2012, at which time an ongoing weekly protest lead by Janet Matzen and Occupy Denver began at Snooze A.M. Eatery and later attracted coalition partners. On April 5, 2013, Snooze issued a statement reversing their position in support of the Ban.2 On April 26, 2013, the Boycott was moved to The Palm Restaurant Denver and a weekly Friday night boycott began.

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