Jun 2008
G-8 protestors clash with police in Tokyo
29/06/08 08:31
TOKYO—Protesters clashed with police in Tokyo Sunday during demonstrations against an upcoming summit of leaders from the Group of Eight industrialized nations.
Read the rest: Boston Globe
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Scores hurt in S. Korea beef protests
29/06/08 08:11
SEOUL, South Korea (CNN) -- Thousands of protesters battled riot police in downtown Seoul early Sunday morning after a rally opposing South Korea's decision to import U.S. beef turned violent. More than 100 were wounded, the state news agency reported.
Read the rest: CNN
Berkeley tree-sitters hanging on, 18 months in
28/06/08 08:10
Michelle Locke
BERKELEY, Calif.—In December 2006, protesters angry about campus expansion plans clambered into the branches of a threatened oak grove at the University of California, Berkeley.
Since then, Democrats have chosen their first black presidential candidate, the housing market has taken a dive and gasoline prices have boomed.
Still, the tree-sitters continue to sit.
Read the rest: Boston Globe
Anti-India protests paralyze Kashmir
26/06/08 08:34 Filed in: International | Protest
Aijaz Hussain
SRINAGAR, India—Tens of thousands of Kashmiris filled the streets for a fourth day of protests Thursday, after police killings during earlier demonstrations enflamed their anger over the transfer of land to a Hindu shrine in this Muslim-majority region.
Read the rest: Boston Globe
Farmer-Turned-Activist Plants Seeds of Reform
26/06/08 08:32
Edward Cody
BEIJING -- Back in 1998, Lu Banglie remembered, he was just another farmer trying to get compensation for the pumpkins and cabbages ruined by floods that engulfed his little field in central China.
But one thing led to another, and then another. In the decade since the flooding, Lu, 36, has been transformed into a man with a mission. The wiry, plain-talking peasant from Hubei province is now a thorn in the side of the Communist Party, a self-taught activist using the law to protect China's farmers from the pressures of development encroaching on their land.
Read the rest: Washington Post
Feeling Good about Subversion and Throwing Bricks
26/06/08 08:22 Filed in: Movies
War, Inc. is one of the sharpest satires of U.S. foreign policy to hit movie screens since The Tailor of Panama. Unfortunately, the film has been getting tepid reviews from critics who apparently don’t appreciate comedies that hit so hard at the American way of war.
Read the rest: Dissident Voice
Read the rest: Dissident Voice
George Carlin: American Radical
23/06/08 13:41
JOHN NICHOLS
I think it's the duty of the comedian to find out where the line is drawn and cross it deliberately. -- George Carlin,
The last vote that George Carlin said he cast in a presidential race was for George McGovern in 1972.
Read the rest: The Nation
I think it's the duty of the comedian to find out where the line is drawn and cross it deliberately. -- George Carlin,
The last vote that George Carlin said he cast in a presidential race was for George McGovern in 1972.
Read the rest: The Nation
Facebook is new face of young people's protests
22/06/08 07:49 Filed in: International
TIM ROGERS
MANAGUA -- A new brand of subversive is being born in a country with a history of traditional guerrilla movements: clean-cut youths who wear Hollister shirts and conspire on Facebook.
Read the rest: Miami Herald
Corporate Espionage Detailed in Documents
22/06/08 07:48 Filed in: Activism
Jenna Johnson
They scavenged through trash and tailed people for hours. They used undercover operatives to infiltrate private meetings. The targets were not agents of foreign powers but advocacy groups that had been critical of corporations.
In the 1990s, a Maryland-based private detective agency composed of former CIA agents and law enforcement officers spied on such activist groups as Greenpeace, the firm's records show.
Read the rest: Washington Post
They scavenged through trash and tailed people for hours. They used undercover operatives to infiltrate private meetings. The targets were not agents of foreign powers but advocacy groups that had been critical of corporations.
In the 1990s, a Maryland-based private detective agency composed of former CIA agents and law enforcement officers spied on such activist groups as Greenpeace, the firm's records show.
Read the rest: Washington Post
At a Roadside Vigil, an Iconic Voice of Protest
DENNIS GAFFNEY
WAPPINGERS FALLS, N.Y. — Pete Seeger pulled his black Toyota Highlander into the Staples parking lot here and plucked some signs from the back seat, including one with “Peace” spray-painted in large orange letters. With that, he slung his banjo over his shoulder like an old musket and marched toward the intersection of Route 9, a bustling six-lane thoroughfare, and 9D, the “Hudson Valley P.O.W.-M.I.A. Memorial Highway.”
Read the rest: New York Times
Standoff
21/06/08 07:35 Filed in: International | Protest
Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej said on Saturday he will not resign just because anti-government protesters have put Government House under siege. The People's Alliance for Democracy said the siege will continue until Mr Samak resigns.
"The demand [to resign] is unreasonable," said the premier.
"We will continue camp out here [at Government House] and protest until this Thaksin puppet government is gone," said core PAD member and spokesman Suriyasai Katasila.
Read the rest: Bangkok Post
On the Factory Floor, an Activist Is Born
21/06/08 07:33
Emily Wax
DHAKA, Bangladesh -- With a rush of rain cooling the steamy night air, Nazima Akter, 33, hurried through the muddy, narrow alleyways of one of Dhaka's many slums. Without knocking, Akter, a trade union activist, strutted straight into the cramped home of a sewing machine operator.
Read the rest: Washington Post
The Ambiguous Legacy of ‘68
20/06/08 08:10
SLAVOJ ZIZEK
In 1968 Paris, one of the best-known graffiti messages on the city’s walls was “Structures do not walk on the streets!” In other words, the massive student and workers demonstrations of ‘68 could not be explained in the terms of structuralism, as determined by the structural changes in society, as in Saussurean structuralism. French psychoanalyst Jacques Lacan’s response was that this, precisely, is what happened in ‘68: structures did descend onto the streets. The visible explosive events on the streets were, ultimately, the result of a structural imbalance.
Read the rest: In These Times
Drop Whatever You're Doing And Hit The Streets
20/06/08 07:18 Filed in: Protest
chris rice
The Bush administration is writing a new Constitution & Bill of Rights for our nation. All of the old rules about search & seizure, due-process and the rule of law have been tossed out, for our own safety, ostensibly.
Why bother having checks & balances or a court apparatus for its enforcement, the Bush administration can simply claim national security and avoid review?
Congress has refused to police even the most blatant illegal and unconstitutional actions of the Bush administration.
After the Supreme Court ruling in 2004 that said prisoners held at Guantanamo could challenge their status in court, the Defense Department (DoD) stopped the flow of men into the facility and started diverting them to a more secretive prison in Afghanistan.
Read the rest: OpEd News
The Bush administration is writing a new Constitution & Bill of Rights for our nation. All of the old rules about search & seizure, due-process and the rule of law have been tossed out, for our own safety, ostensibly.
Why bother having checks & balances or a court apparatus for its enforcement, the Bush administration can simply claim national security and avoid review?
Congress has refused to police even the most blatant illegal and unconstitutional actions of the Bush administration.
After the Supreme Court ruling in 2004 that said prisoners held at Guantanamo could challenge their status in court, the Defense Department (DoD) stopped the flow of men into the facility and started diverting them to a more secretive prison in Afghanistan.
Read the rest: OpEd News
Tibet protesters missing, Amnesty says
19/06/08 05:54 Filed in: International | Protest
BEIJING, China (CNN) -- More than 1,000 people who were detained in Tibet for protesting against the Chinese government three months ago remain unaccounted for, a human rights group said Wednesday.
Read the rest: CNN
Farmers' revolt hits tourist industry in Argentina
17/06/08 10:12 Filed in: Protest | International
James Marrison
On March 11 Argentina's President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner announced a series of taxes on farm exports such as soya and wheat. Aimed at curbing inflation and improving Argentina's ever worsening fiscal balance, it was the second major agricultural tax hike in just four months. The announcement proved to be the final straw for thousands of Argentine farmers who, incensed by the new taxes, blocked every major highway in the country. The blockades have continued now for over three months during which time supermarket shelves have slowly emptied and prices for foodstuffs have rocketed.
Read the rest: Guardian
French Truckers Protest Fuel Price
16/06/08 12:11 Filed in: International | Protest
ALAN COWELL
PARIS — After weeks of protests across Europe, French truckers attempted to block roads across the country on Monday to demand government measures to offset the soaring price of diesel fuel.
Read the rest: New York Times
PARIS — After weeks of protests across Europe, French truckers attempted to block roads across the country on Monday to demand government measures to offset the soaring price of diesel fuel.
Read the rest: New York Times
Protesters clash with police in attempt to storm Whitehall
16/06/08 06:49 Filed in: International | Protest
Cahal Milmo
Police wielding batons clashed with protesters last night when a demonstration against George Bush's farewell visit to Britain turned violent a few hundred metres from where the US President was dining with Gordon Brown.
Read the rest: Independent
What do we want? George Bush. What do we get? A no-show
15/06/08 19:50 Filed in: International | Protest
Duncan Campbell
Big crowds habitually turn out in Britain for the farewell tours of famous Americans and yesterday was no exception. There were thousands of people in Parliament Square hours before the big event and plenty of T-shirts and memorabilia on sale.
But despite nonstop chants of his name, the star of the show made no appearance in front of the crowds.
Read the rest: Guardian
Nude cyclists protest car pollution in Brazil's Sao Paulo
15/06/08 06:55 Filed in: International | Protest
Some 200 semi-nude bicycle riders snarled traffic in downtown Sao Paulo to protest car pollution and dangerous riding conditions in the city.
The demonstration drew the attention of motorists and passersby alike with no incident reported other than the arrest of one of the riders who had decided to take all his clothes off, city traffic officials said.
Read the rest: Hindustan Times
The demonstration drew the attention of motorists and passersby alike with no incident reported other than the arrest of one of the riders who had decided to take all his clothes off, city traffic officials said.
Read the rest: Hindustan Times
Purple Water Cannons
13/06/08 22:00 Filed in: Protest
Jacob Leibenluft
A photo on the front page of Wednesday's Wall Street Journal showed protesters being doused with colored-water cannons in the Indian city of Srinagar. Why would police spray protesters with purple water?
To identify and arrest them later.
Read the rest: Slate
Brazilian indigenous groups block roads, demanding health care
12/06/08 07:53 Filed in: International | Protest
Some 400 people blocked two main highways in the southern Brazilian state of Parana to demand the resumption of medical care services, local media reported Wednesday.
The protesters, who were members of indigenous groups Caingangue and Guarani, used trucks and buses to block the roads BR-373 and BR-277. Only ambulances were allowed to pass through the barrier.
Read the rest: People's Daily
The protesters, who were members of indigenous groups Caingangue and Guarani, used trucks and buses to block the roads BR-373 and BR-277. Only ambulances were allowed to pass through the barrier.
Read the rest: People's Daily
CZECH REPUBLIC: U.S. Radar Makes Some People Hungry
12/06/08 07:15 Filed in: International | Protest
Zoltán Dujisin
PRAGUE, Jun 12 (IPS) - Both opponents and supporters of the U.S. radar to be built on Czech soil have turned to hunger strikes to voice their opinions, with some politicians following suit.
The U.S. administration wants to enlarge its missile defence system to Central and Eastern Europe by building a radar in the Czech Republic and a missile base in Poland that will allegedly protect Western countries from missile attacks by 'rogue' states in the Middle East.
Read the rest: IPS
PRAGUE, Jun 12 (IPS) - Both opponents and supporters of the U.S. radar to be built on Czech soil have turned to hunger strikes to voice their opinions, with some politicians following suit.
The U.S. administration wants to enlarge its missile defence system to Central and Eastern Europe by building a radar in the Czech Republic and a missile base in Poland that will allegedly protect Western countries from missile attacks by 'rogue' states in the Middle East.
Read the rest: IPS
Italy greets Bush with anti-war protest
12/06/08 07:09 Filed in: International | Protest
ROME - President Bush can look forward to a hearty welcome from his old friend, the Italian Premier Silvio Berlusconi, and Pope Benedict XVI during his visit to Rome. That's not what could be found on the streets, however, where anti-Bush sentiment over the war in Iraq still lingers.
Read the rest: MSNBC
Spain's car plants shut as fuel protests mount
11/06/08 13:48 Filed in: International | Protest
Emma Pinedo and Ben Harding
MADRID, June 11 (Reuters) - Spain's car industry came to a virtual standstill on Wednesday because of a nationwide strike by truck drivers angry at the soaring price of fuel.
The car makers' association Anfac said all of Spain's 18 car factories, which produce 13,000 vehicles a day and account for about 5 percent of Spain's GDP, would be out of action by Thursday because of a lack of parts and fuel.
Read the rest: AlterNet
MADRID, June 11 (Reuters) - Spain's car industry came to a virtual standstill on Wednesday because of a nationwide strike by truck drivers angry at the soaring price of fuel.
The car makers' association Anfac said all of Spain's 18 car factories, which produce 13,000 vehicles a day and account for about 5 percent of Spain's GDP, would be out of action by Thursday because of a lack of parts and fuel.
Read the rest: AlterNet
Shaken Korean Leader Promises New Beginning
11/06/08 13:16 Filed in: International | Protest
CHOE SANG-HUN
SEOUL, South Korea — President Lee Myung-bak pledged a "new beginning" on Wednesday as he contemplated reorganizing his unpopular government, which has been shaken by the biggest anti-government demonstrations in two decades.
Read the rest: New York Times