Protest

Opposition To Coal Exports Continues In Pacific Northwest

June 7, 2014 Brett VandenHeuvel, www.ecowatch.com Resist! Coal, Protest, Washington

Wyoming Gov. Matt Mead visited Longview, WA, yesterday to sell his dirty coal, but local community members did not roll out the red carpet. Instead, 60 Longview-area residents protested Gov. Mead’s visit, delivering a bucket of Powder River Basin coal that activists had gathered from the side of railroad tracks, spilled by coal trains. The Governor traveled west to promote a massive coal export terminal in Longview that, if approved, would receive nine full coal trains every day from Wyoming, and ship 44 million tons to Asia every year. Gov. Mead tried to convince folks that coal is good for them. The protestors weren’t buying it. Armed with megaphones and signs, protestors greeted the Governor when he toured the proposed coal terminal saying: Governor, keep your coal in the ground. We don’t want it here in Washington. “The benefits the Governor seeks for Wyoming are dwarfed by the damage mining and exporting coal would bring to his own people, the people of Longview and the rest of the world,” said Reverend Kathleen Patton of Longview. There is tremendous opposition to coal exports in Longview and across the Pacific Northwest. A record 200,000 citizens submitted comments on the Longview coal terminal and 2,000 showed up to testify in person.

Whole Foods Union-Busting

June 6, 2014 Chris Lehmann, www.inthesetimes.com Organize! Chicago, Labor, Protest, Unions, Whole Foods

Don't look now, but Whole Foods seems to be interpreting the “whole planet” part of its corporate branding as a Manifest Destiny-style call to market conquest. In an exhaustive Fortune magazine cover story this April, “Whole Foods Takes Over America,” Beth Kowitt explained that the high-end grocer has quietly bulked up into one of America’s leading retail food chains, with plans to operate 1,200 stores over the next few years (counting stores in the UK and Canada). The chain has seen its revenues double and its profits triple since 2007, Kowitt reports, and has lately taken to launching new stores in low-income shopping areas, such as Detroit, Newark and the South Side of Chicago. On one level, it’s heartening that more choices to purchase quality, non-industrial food have penetrated into lower-income neighborhoods. However, Whole Foods is far from a model of progressive values. Founded and run by John Mackey, a recovered hippie and especially dogmatic libertarian in the Randian grain, the chain has notoriously lowballed health benefits and campaigned to crush anything resembling a union organizing drive among its more than 70,000 employees. “The union is like having herpes,” organic baron Mackey infamously announced. “It doesn’t kill you, but it’s unpleasant and inconvenient, and it stops a lot of people from becoming your lover.”

Greens ‘Frack’ At Cameron’s Cottage

June 6, 2014 Eoin O'Cinneide, www.upstreamonline.com Resist! David Cameron, Fracking, Greenpeace, Protest, United Kingdom (UK)

UK Prime Minister David Cameron’s country house has been turned into a mock fracturing site as Greenpeace steps up its anti-fracking campaign ahead of the Queen’s speech to Parliament on Wednesday. The environmental watchdog is protesting against a reform measure set to be brought in by the Queen, as she opens Parliament, that will allow fracking firms to drill under people’s homes without gaining prior permission. Early on Wednesday morning, a group of protesters descended on Cameron’s constituency home in Oxfordshire, a period cottage in the Cotswold hamlet of Dean, to cordon it off for presumably imaginary drilling operations. The protesters in hard hats and high-visability jackets sealed off the properties front gate and erected a sign reading, “We apologise for any inconvenience we may cause while we frack under your home”. Another group of campaigners also attempted to deliver a “lottery-style over-sized cheque for £50 [$83] – the maximum compensation ministers are willing to pay to individual home and landowners for allowing companies to drill under their property,” Greenpeace said. Greenpeace was later forced to abandon the protest after police ordered them off the site.

Brazil Readies ‘RoboCop’ Riot Squads For World Cup

June 6, 2014 Jon Queally, www.commondreams.org Resist! Brazil, Police, Protest, world cup

As Brazilians opposed to outrageous sums of public money spent on preparations for the upcoming World Cup protest with marches and strikes, the nation's government and its police forces are boasting that they have planned for all contingencies ahead of the games, including plans to clamp down on dissent and disruption by establishing "security zones" and deploying armies of riot police in uniforms described as something out of a sci-fi movie. In San Paulo on Wednesday, an estimated ten thousand people marched on the Arena Corinthians Stadium, where the international soccer tournament will begin next week, as they called for better treatment for the city's homeless people as well as increased funding for public transportation, health services, and low-income housing. Anti-World Cup demonstrators take part in the so-called "World Cup without the people, I'm in the street again" protest in Sao Paulo, Brazil on June 4, 2014. (AFP Photo/Nelson Almeida)Watch: In addition, as of Thursday, the union of metro workers in San Paulo announced it was going on strike to protest low wages. A famously congested city to begin with, a worker's strike during the World Cup—as international tourists pour in—would wreak havoc. And last week in the capital city of Brasilia, indigenous protesters clashed with riot police on horseback as they voiced their anger at the dissonance between money spent on the games and the lack of resources available to the nation's consistently neglected and disregarded populations.

Frack Waste Trucks Blocked From Injection Well Site

June 6, 2014 Appalachia Resist!, www.earthfirstjournal.org Resist! Fracking, Oil, pollution, Protest

An Athens County resident has barricaded the gates of a frack-waste transfer station near the rest area off of HWY 50. No trucks can enter or leave the site, and K&H injection well operations are effectively stopped for the business day. Crissa Cummings, age 42 of Millfield has locked herself to the gate, charging that the recently drilled K&H 2 injection well is operating unsafely. Cummings noted that ODNR reports show that more than 12 tons of contaminated soil and water have been removed from the site since January, and that 410 feet of cement casing has been lost down the injection well shaft, signifying a potentially dangerous situation. “In light of the recent studies that have linked fracking chemicals to birth defects, I feel sick when I think about all the babies and the pregnant friends that were protesting at this site in February, a couple of weeks after the brine spill,” says Cummings. A banner has been placed over the gates that reads “12 TONS OF SOIL AND WATER CONTAMINATED. K&H2 NOT SAFE”. Supporters wearing white hazmat style suits and ventilator masks are gathering, holding signs and chanting. Cummings herself is wearing a ventilator, noting that at least 4 workers have died since 2010 from exposure to frack waste, which contains high rates of benzene and other chemicals that can sicken people and be fatal when inhaled. Cummings says, “When a community says it does not want injection wells because we don’t believe they are safe, and our public servants ignore the desires of the public and our locally elected officials, the only recourse left to us is to use our bodies to stop the toxic frack waste from being injected into these dangerous wells.”

ABQ: Choatic Protest Intensifies Campaign Against Police Violence

June 5, 2014 Rory Carroll, www.theguardian.com Resist! Albuquerque, police brutality, Protest

Activists in Albuquerque have vowed to continue confronting city authorities over police shootings a day after they occupied the mayor's office, prompting chaotic scenes and 13 arrests. The arrests and detentions on Monday night marked a hardening response by authorities to a campaign which has demanded radical reform of the New Mexico city's trigger-happy police department. About two-dozen activists staged a sit-in at the office of Mayor Richard Berry, triggering acrimonious exchanges with officials and the suspension of a city council meeting before guards and police hauled them away. It was the third time in recent weeks that the city council has been disrupted. “We're going to be in this administration's face until we feel safe in our city,” Ken Ellis told the Guardian on Tuesday. “This community is in fear of its police.” Ellis' 25-year-old son was shot dead by police in 2010. The arrested activists spent the night in jail and were charged with criminal trespassing, unlawful assembly and interfering with a public official or staff.

Protesters To Bring Longship Into British Museum

June 5, 2014 Creative Resistance, www.creativeresistance.org Resist! Arts, BP, Creative Resistance, Protest

Theatrical protest group the Reclaim Shakespeare Company have announced plans for a mass “Viking invasion” of the British Museum to challenge BP’s sponsorship of the popular Vikings exhibition. The public are invited to join the protest, planned for Sunday June 15th at 3pm. According to the group’s website: “We are planning to bring a longship into the Great Court of the Museum, in order to give BP a Viking funeral. This is obviously completely impossible, but we’re going to do it anyway.” Anyone wishing to join the protest is invited to email info@bp-or-not-bp.org for more information, or to sign up to the Facebook event. Over 100 people have already committed to joining the June 15th “flash-horde”. This announcement is the latest in a series of performance protests by the group, who have also made a spoof Viking film based on the exhibition’s promotional trailer, launched a petition calling for an end to the British Museum’s BP sponsorship deal, and invaded the Museum itself three times whilst dressed as Vikings and Norse gods. The largest of these performance, on April 27th, was watched by hundreds of Museum-goers and was the subject of in-depth coverage by Channel 4 News.

Commentary: Why I Marched On McDonald’s

June 5, 2014 William J. Barber, www.washingtonpost.com Resist! Civil Rights, McDonald's, Moral Mondays, Protest, Religion

Recently, I marched with McDonald’s workers from three dozen cities to the company’s corporate headquarters outside of Chicago. After they refused to leave the corporate campus of the fast-food giant with its $5.6 billion in profits last year, 101 workers were arrested. I knew I had to come when the workers invited me to share some of the lessons we have been learning in North Carolina about civil disobedience — and moral support. I watched my new friends sit down. I watched the police gather. I prayed with the McDonald’s workers as the police looked on and then slapped plastic handcuffs on more than 100 of the workers and arrested them. I could not help but think of the historic arc of the civil rights movement. For all the gains we have been making, the treatment of low-paid workers by some of the most profitable corporations in the world ranks high in the more significant causes of the growing inequalities in the U.S. I have helped lead the fight against backward laws passed by an extremist group of legislators that, three years ago, took power in North Carolina. Last year, national media discovered us, calling us the Moral Monday protesters.

Fighting The Corporate Dictatorship In Michigan

June 4, 2014 People's Tribune, www.peoplestribune.org Resist! Corporatism, Democracy, Michigan, Protest

Dear Readers, Benton Harbor, MI has become ground zero in the struggle against the corporate dictatorship sweeping across our country. Rev. Edward Pinkney has been fighting the take over of Benton Harbor by the Whirlpool Corporation for years. The community’s latest battle is the recall of Mayor James Hightower, a puppet for the Whirlpool Corporation. Rev. Pinkney is under house arrest and faces 25 years imprisonment on false “vote fraud” charges. Fellow resident James Cornelius also faces lessor vote fraud charges. What appears on these pages are statements from some of the movement leaders across America in support of those under attack in Benton Harbor. Take this message out! Donate to the defense at BANCO, 1946 Union Street, Benton Harbor, MI 49022 or visit bhbanco.org

‘Hunger Games’ Salute Used As Protest In Thailand

June 4, 2014 Jake Coyle, www.washingtonpost.com Resist! Arts, Military, Protest, Thailand

The three-finger salute from the Hollywood movie “The Hunger Games” is being used as a real symbol of resistance in Thailand. Protesters against the military coup are flashing the gesture as a silent act of rebellion, and they’re being threatened with arrest if they ignore warnings to stop. Thailand’s military rulers said Tuesday they were monitoring the new form of opposition to the coup. Reporters witnessed the phenomenon and individuals were captured on film making the raised-arm salute. “Raising three fingers has become a symbol in calling for fundamental political rights,” said anti-coup activist Sombat Boonngam-anong on his Facebook page. He called on people to raise “3 fingers, 3 times a day” — at 9 a.m., 1 p.m. and 5 p.m. — in safe public places where no police or military are present.

99Rise Leads California March To End Corruption Of Money In Politics

June 2, 2014 Eleanor Swede, www.occupy.com Resist! Corruption, March, Money As Speech, Occupy, Protest

The last time I had been to Los Angeles City Hall was at night. Chalk dust rose off of asphalt and cops in military combat gear stood opposite tents surrounded by handmade signs. Occupy LA fizzled but the conversation it changed gave rise to countless grassroots initiatives and shifted the focus of many political non-profits and organizations. The new aim: End corruption. Get money out of politics. One such organization is 99rise, co-founded by Kai Newkirk in 2012, which touts an impressive and continuing campaign of civil disobedience. The group's goal is to “build the nationwide movement waging nonviolent struggle to get big money out of American politics.” From arrests at Bank of America protests in downtown LA to rallies in New York, 99rise activists put themselves in visible, controversial places knowing full well they may attract attention not just from media and onlookers – but from the police as well. And that's the point.

June 11: Support Marie Mason And All Political Eco-Prisoners

June 2, 2014 Creative Resistance, www.creativeresistance.com Organize! Creative Resistance, Environment, Political Prisoner, Protest

This article is from our associated project, CreativeResistance.org Artist and musician Marie Mason is a loving mother of two and a long-time activist in the environmental and labor movements. In March 2008, she was arrested by federal authorities for charges related to two acts of property destruction that occurred in 1999 and 2000; no one was injured in either of them. One was on an office at Michigan State University where research into genetically modified organism (GMO) crops was being conducted by agribusiness giant Monsanto. The other attack was damage to commercial logging equipment. She accepted a plea bargain and was sentenced on February 5, 2009 to just under 22 years. She is now serving the longest sentence of any “Green Scare” prisoner. The “Green Scare” is the name given to the recent arrests of animal rights and environmental activists who have been charged with acts of economic sabotage. Federal authorities have sought outrageous sentences (often Life in prison) and have publicly and legally labeled the activists as “terrorists” – despite the fact that no one has been killed or injured in any of the acts.

Turkish Police Violently Assault Gezi Anniversary Rallies

June 2, 2014 Revolution News, www.revolution-news.com Resist! Gezi, police brutality, Protest, Türkiye

May 31st. saw thousands of people gathered peacefully in several cities across Turkey to commemorate the first Anniversary of Gezi park protests. Much like the last year of struggles, the people were overshadowed by the excessive, unnecessary, unprovoked police violence that for over the past year has become synonymous with thoughts of Turkey. What began a year ago as a protest to save a community park from destruction has been transformed by a year of repeated police assaults into a struggle for the people of Turkey to have the basic rights to free speech and to peacefully assemble. The heavy handed aggression used by Turkish Police to stifle the voice of the people since the first days of Gezi Park has evolved over the past year to a thoughtless, indiscriminate, citizen punishing machine. Combined with the unrelenting state media propaganda that’s constantly villainizing the youth of the nation to enable this type of brutal aggression to be permissible in the public eye, would make the most repressive regime’s jealous and take note.

Protest Lock-Down Continues At Maules Creek Mine Site

May 31, 2014 Front Line Action On Coal, www.frontlineaction.org Resist! Environment, Mine, Protest

Protesters at the Maules Creek coal mine construction site have maintained their blockade overnight, and the site remains in lock-down as protest action escalates over clearing in Leard State Forest during wildlife hibernation. This morning, a protester has attached himself to a truck on the main access road to the forest, blocking the road. Other activists remain in place in the forest, determined to prevent any further clearing after the body of a dead bat was yesterday discovered by one of the protesters. Leard Forest Alliance spokesperson, Helen War, said, “Winter begins tomorrow, but we have already found evidence that Whitehaven’s clearing in this forest at this time is killing wildlife. This should be all the evidence that the NSW Environment Minister needs to take action to stop this cruel and unnecessary bulldozing in Leard State Forest. “We will not give up.” Yesterday afternoon, Greenpeace Australia Pacific joined the blockade with an elaborate tree-top protest in the area threatened with clearing, which has remained in place overnight.

Idle No More Closes Trans-Canada Highway

May 31, 2014 The Canadian Press, www.ctvnews.ca Resist! Canada, Idle No More, Protest

An aboriginal protest closed the Trans-Canada Highway near Espanola, in northern Ontario, for about three hours today. Ontario Provincial Police say the demonstration at the junction of Highways 6 and 17 was part of the "Idle No More" protests. The OPP monitored the demonstration and say it was peaceful. First Nations have been protesting against the policies of the Conservative government, and more than 1,000 held a day of protest Friday in Ottawa. They have also been urging Prime Minister Stephen Harper and Gov. Gen. David Johnston to meet with Theresa Spence, the chief of northern Ontario's troubled Attawapiskat First Nation, who is on a hunger strike. Spence has urged Harper and Johnson to start a national discussion about First Nations poverty, saying communities face impoverished conditions.

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