tagged w/ Hunger Strikes
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Japan islanders oppose proposed nuclear plant, year after year
For decades, residents of Iwaishima have taken an aggressive stand, turning their backs on negotiation. Graying residents, mostly in their 70s, have allied with young antinuclear activists.
By John M. Glionna, Los Angeles Times
May 4, 2011
Reporting from Iwaishima, Japan—
For centuries, Yoshiaki Hashibe's ancestors have chiseled out a natural, no-nonsense existence on this tiny island where farmers and fishermen ride to their labors by bicycle.
Tradition matters here. At 69, veteran fisherman Hashibe does things just like his great-great-grandfather once did, each day venturing out to sea to haul in seaweed, octopus and red snapper.
He barters his extra catch for vegetables from a farmer who lives so close in their town of meandering back alleys that Hashibe can smell his nightly dinner. Villagers are proud of their tightknit camaraderie and historical harmony with nature.
But a utility company plans to build a nuclear power plant just across the bay, at the tip of the Kaminoseki peninsula. After receiving compensation, several nearby communities have hesitantly embraced the project.
Not Iwaishima. Many residents are convinced that the twin reactors will threaten not just their way of life but the long-term survival of the Inland Sea, a national park known as Japan's Galapagos for its range of sea life.
The utility insists that the project is safe, but residents worry about radiation leaks caused by human error. They say the plant's warm water discharge will raise sea temperatures, altering the ecosystem.
So for three decades, since the Chugoku Electric Power Co. unveiled its plans in 1982, islanders have taken an unusually aggressive stand, turning their backs on efforts at negotiation. Graying residents, mostly in their 70s, have in recent years formed an alliance with young antinuclear activists.
Together, they have staged hunger strikes, picketing and sit-ins, using a flotilla of fishing boats and kayaks to block company construction cranes from reaching the site.
As he carved up a fish on the deck of his 40-foot boat, Hashibe said he would continue the fight until he dies.
"There's a graveyard up on the mountain where I'm planning to finish up," he said. "But I won't be able to sleep gently if they build that power plant."
Not everyone is opposed to the plant. About 50 of the island's 500 residents say the plant will bring money and jobs. So much tension has risen between the two camps that many residents here no longer speak to each other.
Then on March 11, a mammoth magnitude 9 earthquake triggered a tsunami that damaged the cooling system at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant along Japan's northeast coast, spilling dangerous radioactive isotopes into the air, soil and sea.
The disaster accomplished what activists couldn't. The utility temporarily suspended plant construction after local officials expressed safety concerns.
Prime Minister Naoto Kan has suggested a possible nationwide freeze on Japan's plans to build 14 or more nuclear power stations by 2030. The nation already has 54 nuclear plants, which supply 30% of its energy.
It remains unclear what effect the Fukushima incident will have on Japan's nuclear future, but other communities — stunned by the continuing nuclear fallout from Fukushima — are looking to the Iwaishima battle as a possible indicator.
"Without our protests, that plant would already be running," said Masue Hayashi, 59, who began her opposition to the project when she was 30. "Those people near Fukushima could have been us."
No nuclear plant project in Japan has ever been stopped outside the voting booth, solely by community activism and protest. This one, Hayashi says, could be the first.
*Japan islanders oppose proposed nuclear plant, year after year
For decades,... more
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Meet Iris Tamara Pérez Aguilera. She is 38 years old, and a proud mother of a 14-year old boy, and she is about to become Cuba's newest Prisoner of Conscience.
That is, unless you save her.
Her crime? Interceding on behalf of a young Cuban named Milquiades Hernández who was being brutally beaten by police on the streets of Placetas in Villa Clara province. Specifically, Iris asked that he be taken to a hospital so he wouldn't bleed to death.
Her humanitarianism was rewarded with violence and racism: "Pick up that black monkey too!" shouted the Cuban Revolutionary Police officers, and Iris was slammed into the patrol car and hauled away.
"We just need an order to kill all these f------ blacks who stick their noses into everything," they said.
Iris was charged with the spurious crime of "contempt for the proper authorities" and ordered to pay a fine of 500 Cuban pesos, equivalent to three months' salary.
But she committed no crime, and refuses to pay the fine. She feels it's a kind of blackmail to keep her in line, because black Cubans are supposed to be loyal supporters of the Revolution, not peaceful advocates for freedom and human rights.
Iris and 15 other activists sent a letter to the Prosecutor General of the Republic of Cuba stating her refusal to be punished on a trumped-up charge. Iris appealed to her right to free expression, Article 19 of the UN's Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
Iris went on hunger strike. Ten days. No food.
The local authorities didn't respond. They seemed happy to watch her waste away and die.
So she went straight to the top. Fainting repeatedly on her clandestine journey from central Cuba to Havana, Iris finally arrived at Revolution Square, formerly the Civic Square, to protest with nine other activists. Peacefully.
Because she committed no crime.
State Security agents fell upon Iris and the other activists in a rain of blows. They were arrested, and officially warned they might be tried and imprisoned.
Then bundled away to their hometowns, so they wouldn't make any more trouble.
A local official finally visited Iris when she was dumped back in Placetas. He had a response.
Iris's trial is set for August 20.
Her husband, Jorge Luis García Pérez "Antúnez" spent over 17 years as a prisoner of conscience for saying Cuba needed a peaceful transition to democracy like those in Eastern Europe in 1989.
That was considered "oral enemy propaganda."
She ended her hunger strike. She needs all her strength to win the coming court battle.
And she needs your help. You can save Iris. But the clock is ticking.
Make a phone call. Sign a letter. Write and send one yourself.
Take a second to help Iris. It all starts here.
Iris Tamara Pérez Aguilera, a Cuban human rights activist faces trial on Wednesday August 20, 2008 on charges of with "contempt for the proper authorities." If imprisoned, she will become Cuba's newest prisoner of conscience. She is married to Jorge Luis García Pérez "Antúnez," a former prisoner of conscience who served over 17 years in Cuban prisons for calling for a peaceful transition to democracy.
Iris faces this spurious charge for interceding during a brutal police beating on behalf of the young victim and refusing to pay a 500 peso fine, the equivalent of three months' salary.
Iris was violently arrested when she asked the Revolutionary Police officers to stop beating the young man and take him to a hospital as he was bleeding profusely. She was called a "f------ black," and a "black monkey." The officers said that what they needed was "an order to kill all these f------ blacks who stick their noses into everything."
She went on hunger strike for ten days and submitted a letter signed by 15 other activists to the Prosecutor General of the Republic of Cuba, stating her innocence of any crime, refusal to pay the fine, and demand for a response.Meet Iris Tamara Pérez Aguilera. She is 38 years old, and a proud mother of a... more
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The vast rebuilding effort in New Orleans following Hurricane Katrina led the US government to permit recruitment of foreign laborers who were accorded "guest worker" status for the duration of their employment but apparently not the same rights and protection that domestic workers are guaranteed under US labor laws. Lacking safeguards, the foreign workers are ripe targets for exploitation and abuse by contractors.
Some 500 Indian workers caught in what they claim is a human trafficking racket have asked the Indian government to protect their families in India from vengeful recruiters even as they filed a class action anti-racketeering lawsuit in the US against their American employer.
Additionally, hundreds of Indian workers will return to DC next week to launch an indefinite hunger strike to demand the federal government investigate the guest worker program and abuse of post-Katrina Gulf Coast workers.
In late 2006, the workers mortgaged their futures – and $20,000 – on false promises of fortune and green cards by recruiters from marine construction company Signal International. But when the workers arrived in the US to work on post-Katrina reconstruction, they only received guestworker visas and were forced to pay Signal $1,050 a month to live in a trailer with 23 other workers.
The hunger strike will specifically call on the Department of Justice to prosecute Signal International and for Congress to hold hearings on the guest worker program in the post-Katrina Gulf Coast.
The vast rebuilding effort in New Orleans following Hurricane Katrina led the US... more
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Pakistan's cricket idol-turned-politician declared a hunger strike in protest of the state of emergency in Pakistan, and Musharraf's seizure of the judiciary. Khan's strike was made public hours after a panel of judges hand-picked by Musharraf dismissed legal challenges to his controversial re-election in October. Khan is reported to stay on the hunger strike until an independent judiciary is restored.Pakistan's cricket idol-turned-politician declared a hunger strike in protest of... more
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Two men on a hunger strike to protest the governments hydro-electric projects on sacred land in Sikkim. Check out this article.Two men on a hunger strike to protest the governments hydro-electric projects on... more
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(This is an improved version of the video at www.current.tv/studio/media/256173 , which had 85 greenlights when we uploaded this new version. Version 2 has been edited further and includes additional footage from Day 22 of the protest. This video has been compressed more than most because of the length, but the original picture and sound are broadcast quality.)
Four days after Cindy Sheehan began her vigil outside President Bushs ranch in Crawford, the rumor was that she and her supporters might soon be arrested. We went to Camp Casey the next day to help document the protest that may prove to have been a turning point in the tide against the Iraq war.
As Sheehan said when she announced the vigil, [t]he opposite of good is not evil; it's apathy.
For more info or to help, go to Crawford Peace House at www.crawfordpeacehouse.org , Gold Star Families for Peace at www.gsfp.org , Code Pink at www.codepinkalert.org , Veterans for Peace at www.veteransforpeace.org , Military Families Speak Out at www.mfso.org , or www.democraticunderground.com . To contact your governmental representatives including the White House, go to
www.congress.org . To contact various media outlets, go to http://www.democraticunderground.com/cu/cu.php?az=blaster .
(This is an improved version of the video at www.current.tv/studio/media/256173 ,... more
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bbgun
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added this
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6 years ago
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This is the youtube video of the two men on hunger strike in Sikkim to protest the hydro-electric projects.This is the youtube video of the two men on hunger strike in Sikkim to protest the... more
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