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Protests In Peru Against Copper Mine Project Leaves One Dead

May 7, 2015 Robert Kozak, www.wsj.com , , ,
Protests against a proposed copper mine in southwestern Peru continued this week, leaving one protester dead and two more wounded Tuesday, the national police and the office of the nation’s ombudsman said. Since late March, farmers, anti-mining activists and local politicians have blocked roads with rocks to impede traffic and held marches, aiming to forceSouthern Copper Corp. to cancel its $1.4 billion Tia Maria copper project. The national police force has responded by trying to open roads and keep order in the province of Islay. The nation’s ombudsman said that Jenrry Checya Chura, 35, died Tuesday in a protest, although the cause hasn’t been clearly established so far. Since the protests began 44 days ago there have been two deaths, and 111 police officers have been injured alongside 75 civilians, the ombudsman said in a statement. A 61-year-old man died last month after being shot in the leg during a protest.

How Black Women Can Rescue The Labor Movement

May 6, 2015 Kimberly Freeman Brown And Marc Bayard, www.theroot.com , , , , ,
The roles that African Americans play in their families and communities, on the job and in their unions are acts of resistance against the staggering inequality they face on a daily basis. The statistics regarding African-American wealth and wage inequality, unemployment, mass incarceration, police brutality and poverty are daunting. To cite just one, as of March 2015, the black unemployment rate (10.1 percent) was more than double the white unemployment rate (4.7 percent). Second, this report is our love letter to the labor movement—offering sometimes tough, but always unflappable, affection. We know what some may have forgotten: that if you are concerned about the economic advancement of black women, families and communities, you must think twice before you dismiss the value and importance of the labor movement.

Organized Labor Should Spend 2015 Training Workers To Fight

May 6, 2015 David Goodner, www.inthesetimes.com , ,
While the labor movement is in some of its more dire straits in over a century, 2015 is also shaping up to be a big year for unions. The “Fight for $15” strikes held in over 200 cities on April 15 indicate that a mass movement for worker justice may be on the verge of exploding, one that blends the best of organized labor, community organizing, Occupy Wall Street and #BlackLivesMatter. Oil workers, truck drivers, and dockworkers also went on widely publicized, confrontational strikes this year, and LA teachers at both public and charter schools are preparing to take action on the job, as aregraduate students at the University of Washington and several other campuses. Today, May 1, a Bay Area local of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union shut down its ports to protest the racism and police brutality against black and brown people, providing a classic example of what “social movement unionism” looks like in practice.

Homes For All

May 6, 2015 Homes For All, www.homesforall.org ,
The time is ripe to build a mass tenants’ movement in this country. The Renter Nation includes 23 million families and households and is growing everyday. The movement is beginning in our communities and cities through fighting against displacement and high rents. Rooted in our hardest hit areas, predominantly working class and communities of color, we are organizing for just cause eviction, anti-speculation taxes and other basic renters’ rights. We are growing in power to win Renters’ Bill of Rights, rent control and a mass expansion of affordable, community controlled housing. In 2015, Right to the City’s Homes For All campaign is supporting 15 cities/regions to hold Renter Nation Assemblies to galvanize impacted residents and allies locally to win anti-displacement and affordability campaigns.

Make The Rich Panic

May 5, 2015 Chris Hedges, www.truthdig.com , , ,
We have to organize around a series of non-negotiable demands. We have to dismantle the array of mechanisms the rich use to control power. We have to destroy the ideological and legal system cemented into place to justify corporate plunder. This is called revolution. It is about ripping power away from a cabal of corporate oligarchs and returning it to the citizenry. This will happen not by appealing to corporate power but by terrifying it. And power, as we saw in Baltimore, will be terrified only when we take to the streets. There is no other way. “The rich are only defeated when running for their lives,” the historian C.L.R. James noted. And until you see the rich fleeing in panic from the halls of Congress, the temples of finance, the universities, the media conglomerates, the war industry and their exclusive gated communities and private clubs, all politics in America will be farce.

In Baltimore We Need Protest In All Its Forms, Even Joyful Ones

May 5, 2015 Steven W. Thrasher, www.theguardian.com , , , ,
Spots of joy are necessary and needed in the seemingly endless fight for justice. In Baltimore on Tuesday night, as the city reeled from how the death of Freddie Gray exposed the violence of a decades-long police occupation of the black population, I didn’t experience many moments of sweetness. But one came in the form of a parade of young girls and sashaying boys shortly before nightfall, who made it their business to fill the intersection outside the now infamous burned CVS in West Baltimore with dancing. The dancers fearlessly responded to the acute violence of the previous night’s events by prancing and voguing. These flamboyant young men and women used energetic dance and music to turn the void of black death into a space filled with black life - their spines were straight in defiance of a broken spine the police had severed.

Baltimore’s Injustice Not Just Police: Prosecutors, Judges & Prison

May 2, 2015 AbZimet, www.commondreams.org , , , ,
So much is broken here - the system, economy, community or any faith in so-called law and order in a city that takes more seriously the bustingof cars than the breaking of necks. When Allen Bullock turned himself in, his stepfather said it proved "he was growing as a man and he recognized what he did was wrong.” But he was aghast at the state's response, allowing as how "They're making an example of him and it is not right.” His mother said her son was out protesting because "he said the police were hunting and killing, not serving and protecting." As to smashing cars, she said, “He was dead wrong and he does need to be punished. But he wasn’t leading this riot. He hasn’t got that much power.” Word.

Five Movements Igniting Change For The Earth

May 2, 2015 Jocelyn Mercado, www.pachamama.org , , ,
Today, in 2015, we live in a time of rapid transformation. Some say we are on the verge of a great shift in human consciousness. Growing numbers of people are looking at the way they live, the way humans operate on the planet, and deciding that we must change our course. Once a paradigm has shifted, there is no going back. We emerge on the other side with a completely renewed perspective, unable to return to our old way of thinking. Many great movements have emerged in recent years, pushing us to leave behind old beliefs, reimagine the map of the world, and open our eyes to a brilliant new future. The theme of Earth Day 2015 is “It’s Our Turn to Lead.” Here are five movements that are leading the way in creating paradigm-shifting change for the Earth:

The “Longue Durée” Of The Québec Spring

April 30, 2015 Pierre Beaudet, www.socialistproject.ca , ,
This new “Québec spring” is neither a marginal nor a momentary reaction to any particular government's policy. In 2012, there certainly was the specific trigger of the tuition hike prompting a major student strike. But a closer look at what happened shows that several steps in the prior decade allowed for the movement to gain strength. In 2000 for instance, the Québec women's federation (Fédération des femmes du Québec, FFQ) organized a very important movement for advancing the condition of women. In 2001, the “Americas People's Summit” in Québec City and the protests against the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) promoted by the Canadian and U.S. governments led to the renewed wave of protest across the hemisphere, and the eventual defeat of the FTAA.

Sister Rice Goes After The Bomb

April 27, 2015 Peter Weiss, www.otherwords.org , ,
On a summer’s eve in 2012, they made their way to the federal Y-12 Nuclear Complex in Oak Ridge, Tennessee. There, the Department of Energy warehouses the enriched, weapons-grade uranium used in the manufacture of nuclear weapons. Armed only with bolt cutters and small hammers, the three defendants cut their way through a number of fences to reach the storage building. In a series of symbolic gestures of protest, they poured some of their own blood on the outside of the building and hammered away a tiny piece of one of its corners. Then they prayed, sang hymns, and waited to be arrested. They caused no functional damage to the building and didn’t attempt to enter it.

The Yes Men’s Plan To Crowdfund A More Creative Revolution

April 25, 2015 Kate Aronoff, www.wagingnonviolence.org , , ,
“Kind of like Kickstarter, but for creative direct action!” So goes an explainer on a new project from The Yes Men, a troupe of political pranksters, and Beautiful Trouble, a multimedia “toolbox for revolution.” The Action Switchboard, or A/S, as it’s called, was appropriately birthed from a successful crowdfunding campaign last year by The Yes Lab, a creative actions platform founded by The Yes Men — otherwise known as Andy Bichlbaum and Mike Bonanno. Now, A/S seeks to put the informal networks among activists — of trainers, photographers artists and more — to work. Traditionally when people think of protest, the images that come to mind are of massive mobilizations: the World Trade Organization demonstrations in Seattle in 1999, or last year’s People’s Climate March and Millions March NYC.

14 Year Old Rallies People Around World To Protect Planet

April 24, 2015 Vanessa Black, www.ecowatch.com , , ,
Xiuhtezcatl Martinez is not your average teen. At the rebellious age of 14, he has given a Ted Talk and spoken twice at major United Nation’s forums. President Obama awarded him the Youth Change Maker of the Year Award and he is a member of the Presidential Youth Council to advise the president on youth views and policy. He is the youth director of Earth Guardians, a non-profit environmental organization that is committed to protecting the water, air, Earth and atmosphere. To reach young people, Xiuhtezcatl and his younger brother Itzcuauhtli started an eco-hip-hop duo in the namesake of their non-profit, “Earth Guardians.”

Six Environmental Heroes Honored With Prestigious Prize

April 22, 2015 Sarah Lazare, www.commondreams.org ,
Six "grassroots environmental heroes" from around the world were honored this week with the annual Goldman Prize for their role in defending the earth, "often at great personal risk." Selected by an international jury, this year's recipients hail from Kenya, Myanmar, Scotland, Haiti, Canada, and Honduras. They will be bestowed with $175,000 "to pursue their vision of a renewed and protected environment," according to the Goldman Environmental Foundation. An award ceremony that took place in San Francisco on Monday will be followed by another in Washington, D.C. later this week. The winners' stories are captured in the short descriptions and videos below, all of which were provided by the Goldman Environmental Foundation.

How To Deal When Protests Disrupt Your Day

April 22, 2015 Jesse A. Meyerson, www.rollingstone.com , ,
Your "normal" may consist of a commute or a meal, activities ranging from acceptable to pleasant, so the disruption of that routine annoys you. But the protest happens because someone else's "normal" is intolerable. It consists of routine injustice, exploitation, and even violence – sometimes lethal violence. For these people's "normal," disruption is a vital exercise. By and large, people only take to the streets reluctantly, after a situation has become so fraught that it compels them to protest. In hundreds of encampments across the country in 2011-2012 could be found debt-overburdened people chucked into a painful, hopeless economy by a bailed-out billionaire financial class.

Marijuana: The Gateway Plant To Urban Farming

April 22, 2015 Ellen Choy, www.movementgeneration.org , , ,
Released this week in honor of 4/20 and Earth Day (two holidays important in their own right), “The Gateway Plant” provides a unique glimpse into MG’s theory of resilience-based organizing. We know that when people work together to directly meet their needs through shared work, democratic self-governance, and confronting unjust policies, they build a critical foundation for ecological restoration and self-determination. “Our farm is about community resilience and black liberation,” said Karissa Lewis, one of the Full Harvest co-founders. “Whether we’re dealing with gentrification or food deserts or racist policing, in America it always comes down to land and power. So we’re taking the land back. And that way, we can start to take our power back as a community.”
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