tagged w/ Civil Disobedience
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Long before the OWS protesters were planning their actions on how to bring to the nation's attention how inequities have brought this country to its knees, local police forces were planning how to protect themselves from their fellow citizens.
Perhaps they were meeting in "war rooms" around the country devising ways to counter any civil disobedience that rears its head.
Funny how our military have become the police force to the world and our own police have morphed into a paramilitary force against us!Long before the OWS protesters were planning their actions on how to bring to the... more
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If the 1% want their politicians to cut our benefits, bankrupt our treasuries, take our homes, destroy our rights, and make us beg for what's left, we will stop the machine by occupying the key mechanisms of their wealth. We will shut down the trade routes and hit them in the only place they feel: their pocketbooks.
http://livestre.am/14fwQIf the 1% want their politicians to cut our benefits, bankrupt our treasuries, take... more
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The United States called Friday on both Russian authorities and protesters to remain peaceful as opponents of Prime Minister Vladimir Putin prepared major weekend demonstrations against his rule.
Putin has angrily accused the United States of inciting the protests after Secretary of State Hillary Clinton raised concerns about the fairness of parliamentary elections that Putin’s party won but with a reduced majority.
State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said that the United States supported the right to peaceful protest in Russia as it does “anywhere in the world.”
“We expect that those demonstrations will remain peaceful on behalf of all parties, whether they’re the demonstrators or whether they are those keeping social order,” she said.
“So our expectation is that if there are protests, that they will be peaceful and that they will be allowed to proceed peacefully,” Nuland said.
The State Department earlier denied Putin’s allegations that the United States has funded Russians so that they would challenge him, saying that Washington supports groups that work for democratic governance in general.
Russia’s opposition is organizing rallies in at least 15 major cities including Moscow, where the demonstration is expected to draw some 30,000 people under the slogan “For Fair Elections.”
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2011/12/09/irony-alert-u-s-calls-on-russia-to-respect-peaceful-protests/The United States called Friday on both Russian authorities and protesters to remain... more
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I made a 15 minute documentary about yesterday's civil disobedience at the Occupy Wall Street temporary encampment at Canal & 6th when a few protesters took over a privately owned lot. I got lucky and things unfolded right around me.
It follows the civil disobedience action from the initial announcement and excitement through the inevitable appearance by the NYPD. Along the way, it turns out the organizer of this action was not who he seemed to be and there is even a confrontation with an undercover NYPD officer.
I hope you get a chance to check it out. Please feel free to share it. It is registered as a part of the creative commons.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zgWeeA1cRXs&feature=shareI made a 15 minute documentary about yesterday's civil disobedience at the Occupy... more
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Proof that not much has changed since this time for all of our supposed progress. The same problems with income disparity, class war, unemployment, and those who think problems can fix themselves or "trickle down" to others. And this is because we are still doing things the same way hoping for a different outcome. The same two party system, the same greed, the same campaign rhetoric, the same empty promises, the same catering to the 10 who can buy the country rather than keeping their oaths to the millions who make it work.
I posted this because I thought of the Bonus March after seeing Mayor Bloomberg's actions in NYC regarding the Americans occupying Zuccotti Park and the actions of others. Their Hoover mentality also reflects a time when we saw high unemployment, homelessness due to failing mortgages and the corrupt greed of those who then took advantage of the less fortunate. **That is why Americans are out in the parks now for those who seem to have forgotten their own history.**
This is not a just society. This is not a society that strives for equality. This is a society that thrives on the needs of the many being sacrificed for the wants of a few. And it is failing all of us, especially our children and all of us have had a hand in it because we continue to place trust in those who do not care about anything but continuing to cater to those 10. So we now see Americans taking a stand to make it right and hold those who will not take responsibility for their corrupt actions accountable. Just like veterans did when they held their Bonus March on Washington DC and built their shantytowns in the Capitol. And it was the right thing to do then and it is the right thing to do now.
So to all of the mayors in all of these cities, to the jackbooted Homeland Security Dept., to this administration that is silent on this, to those from the last USSC appointed administration who precipitated this and to all those who think that you are on the right side of history... history has already proven you wrong. Shame on you all for forgetting that.
We won't.Proof that not much has changed since this time for all of our supposed progress. The... more
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The 99 percent rally against the 1 percent.
"We will not allow this day of Martin Luther King Junior's Memorial to go without somebody going to jail." - Doctor Cornel West.
Special thanks to the D.C. Metropolitan Police, The U.S. Capitol Police and other Officers for their professionalism, decency, patriotism and respect. They are part of the 99 percent.
Respect for people, not corporations.The 99 percent rally against the 1 percent.
"We will not allow this day of... more
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This is made for the people! Please share... the music was composed by my son years ago and when I heard it... it broke my heart to know that at 23 he was feeling the depth of a ticking time bomb... his world as he knew it then was certain to fail. He used the sound sample from the movie Network and electonically altered the message... I found myself glued to the images on the internet and was compelled to make this video. Power to the people! Connie M. JohnsonThis is made for the people! Please share... the music was composed by my son years... more
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"What we need is massive civil disobedience or a general strike, if we're going to get anything more than crumbs off the rich table or end the U.S. government's serial wars of choice.""What we need is massive civil disobedience or a general strike, if we're... more
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Cabal
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On August 19th, Alexa Ross ’13 and Lang Center Research Associate George Lakey ’67 had the charges resulting from civil disobedience dismissed in a D.C. court. The two were arrested last September when they participated in non-violent direct action in Washington D.C. to protest PNC Bank’s funding of mountaintop removal. Lakey is also the Former Lang Visiting Professor of Issues for Social Change.On August 19th, Alexa Ross ’13 and Lang Center Research Associate George Lakey... more
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The largest act of civil disobedience by environmentalists in decades began outside the White House saturday morning, as more than seventy activists were arrested at the north gates during a protest against the Keystone XL pipeline, which if approved by the administration would carry 900,000 barrels of oil per day from Alberta, Canada to the Gulf of Mexico.The largest act of civil disobedience by environmentalists in decades began outside... more
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y Kevin Zeese - Posted on 20 August 2011
The U.S. media is not reporting it but the largest civil resistance action in history for dealing with climate change begins today. At issue is a pipeline that would bring oil from tarsands in Canada into the United States. If it occurs it will add a massive amount of carbon to the atmosphere that will put the world over the tipping point. The decision on whether to build the pipeline is up to President Obama. Congress has no role in the decision making.
Massive protest at White House against Alberta tar sands pipeline
Campaigners say the two-week protest will be the biggest green civil disobedience in a generation
By Suzanne Goldenberg, US environment correspondent.
The Guardian, guardian.co.uk,
August 20, 2011
White House
The White House Photograph: Ron Edmonds/AP
A protest at the White House against a pipeline from the Alberta tar sands is emerging as the biggest green civil disobedience campaign in a generation, organisers said.
Approximately 1,500 people signed up to court arrest during the two-week action outside the White House, which begins on Saturday morning.
The campaign is seen as a last chance to persuade Barack Obama to stop a planned 1,600-mile pipeline that will carry oil from the tar sands of Alberta across rich American farmland to the Gulf of Mexico.
The State Department is expect to produce its final environmental analysis of the pipeline by the end of the month. Obama will then have 90 days to decide whether going ahead with the project would be in the national interest.
The Keystone XL project has been a major focus of environmental protests. Greenhouse gas emissions of tar sands crude are 40% higher than conventional oil, and the open-pit mining has devastated Alberta's boreal forest.
Recent pipeline accidents in Michigan and Montana have also deepened fears about potential dangers along the pipeline's route through prime American farmland.
The veteran environmentalist Bill McKibben, who is leading the protest, describes it as the biggest civil disobedience action in environmental circles for years.
It also puts Obama on the spot to make good on his promises as a presidential candidate in 2008 to act on climate change.
Congress failed to act on the main plank of Obama's green agenda – climate change legislation – and pressure from Tea Party activists has forced the Environmental Protection Agency to delay or weaken regulations on dealing with climate change.
This time though, Obama has freedom of action – or at least that is McKibben's hope.
Obama must personally sign off on the pipeline, if it is to go ahead. "We think we may have a chance because for once Obama gets to make the call himself. He has to sign – or not sign – the permit," McKibben said.
"As environmentalists this is the one clean test we are ever going to get of Obama's real commitment to climate issues."
The protest will begin at about 11am on Saturday morning when a first group of 100 activists will gather at the gates of the White House, an area that is supposed to be kept clear, and wait to be arrested.
Unlike other campaigns, the next fortnight's actions have geographical reach – with protesters descending on Washington from areas along the pipeline's route.
One group from eastern Texas, has hired an RV to make the journey.
The campaign against the pipeline has steadily been gaining in momentum amid concerns about pipeline safety.
The pipeline route crosses rich farmland and important aquifers.
Campaigners argue the thick heavy tar sands crude could do far more damage than conventional oil, and that the State Department has rushed through its environmental review.
The oil industry, meanwhile, pushed back with a study this week claiming the pipeline would create 20,000 new construction jobs.y Kevin Zeese - Posted on 20 August 2011
The U.S. media is not reporting it but the... more
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Skittish at first, then wide-eyed with delight, the women and girls entered the sea, smiling, splashing and then joining hands, getting knocked over by the waves, throwing back their heads and ultimately laughing with joy.
Most had never seen the sea before.
The women were Palestinians from the southern part of the West Bank, which is landlocked, and Israel does not allow them in. They risked criminal prosecution, along with the dozen Israeli women who took them to the beach. And that, in fact, was part of the point: to protest what they and their hosts consider unjust laws.
In the grinding rut of Israeli-Palestinian relations — no negotiations, mutual recriminations, growing distance and dehumanization — the illicit trip was a rare event that joined the simplest of pleasures with the most complex of politics. It showed why coexistence here is hard, but also why there are, on both sides, people who refuse to give up on it.
“What we are doing here will not change the situation,” said Hanna Rubinstein, who traveled to Tel Aviv from Haifa to take part. “But it is one more activity to oppose the occupation. One day in the future, people will ask, like they did of the Germans: ‘Did you know?’ And I will be able to say, ‘I knew. And I acted.’ ”
Such visits began a year ago as the idea of one Israeli, and have blossomed into a small, determined movement of civil disobedience.
Ilana Hammerman, a writer, translator and editor, had been spending time in the West Bank learning Arabic when a girl there told her she was desperate to get out, even for a day. Ms. Hammerman, 66, a widow with a grown son, decided to smuggle her to the beach. The resulting trip, described in an article she wrote for the weekend magazine of the newspaper Haaretz, prompted other Israeli women to invite her to speak, and led to the creation of a group they call We Will Not Obey. It also led a right-wing organization to report her to the police, who summoned her for questioning.
In a newspaper advertisement, the group of women declared: “We cannot assent to the legality of the Law of Entry into Israel, which allows every Israeli and every Jew to move freely in all regions between the Mediterranean and the Jordan River while depriving Palestinians of this same right. They are not permitted free movement within the occupied territories nor are they allowed into the towns and cities across the green line, where their families, their nation, and their traditions are deeply rooted.
“They and we, all ordinary citizens, took this step with a clear and resolute mind. In this way we were privileged to experience one of the most beautiful and exciting days of our lives, to meet and befriend our brave Palestinian neighbors, and together with them, to be free women, if only for one day.”
The police have questioned 28 Israeli women; their cases are pending. So far, none of the Palestinian women and girls have been caught or questioned by the police.
The beach trip last week followed a pattern: the Palestinian women went in disguise, which meant removing clothes rather than covering up. They sat in the back seats of Israeli cars driven by middle-aged Jewish women and took off headscarves and long gowns. As the cars drove through an Israeli Army checkpoint, everyone just waved.
Earlier, the Israelis had dropped off toys and equipment at the home of one of the Palestinian women, who is setting up a kindergarten. The Israelis also help the Palestinian women with medical and legal troubles.
snip
The beach trips — seven so far — have produced some tense moments. An effort to generate interest in a university library fell flat. An invitation to spend the night met with rejection by Palestinian husbands and fathers. Home-cooked Israeli food did not make a big impression. And at a predominantly Jewish beach, a policeman made everyone nervous.
So, on this latest visit, the selected beach was one in Jaffa that is frequented by Israeli Arabs. Nobody noticed the visitors.
Dinner was a surprise. Hagit Aharoni, a psychotherapist and the wife of the celebrity chef Yisrael Aharoni, is a member of the organizing group, so the beachgoers dined on the roof of the Aharonis’ home, five floors above stylish Rothschild Boulevard, where hundreds of tents are currently pitched by Israelis angry with the high cost of housing. The guests loved Mr. Aharoni’s cooking. They lighted cigarettes — something they cannot do in public at home — and put on joyous Palestinian music. As the pink sun set over the Mediterranean, they danced with their Israeli friends.
Ms. Aharoni was asked her thoughts. She replied: “For 44 years, we have occupied another country. I am 53, which means most of my life I have been an occupier. I don’t want to be an occupier. I am engaged in an illegal act of disobedience. I am not Rosa Parks, but I admire her, because she had the courage to break a law that was not right.”
More at the linkSkittish at first, then wide-eyed with delight, the women and girls entered the sea,... more
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More than 100 environmental activists from across the country descended Tuesday on the Montana Capitol to demand Gov. Brian Schweitzer rescind his support for the Keystone XL oil pipeline and ExxonMobil's megaload transportation project.
Approximately 70 of those activists filled the governor's reception room, where they pounded homemade drums and chanted slogans such as: "No pipeline, no oil, the Big Sky State's too good to spoil."
Two activists also scaled the flagpoles in front of the Capitol and strung up a banner that read "Pipelines spill, Exxon kills. Big oil out of Montana."
Six activists from the environmental groups Earth First! and Northern Rockies Rising Tide, including one activist from Great Falls, locked their hands together within a mock oil pipeline made of PVC plastic pipe and said they wouldn't leave willfully until Schweitzer met their demands.
Law enforcement officials cut the activists out of the pipes. The group of activists dispersed late in the afternoon after police arrested two men and three women who refused to leave and were chained together.
Group members said earlier in the day that they would not leave until Schweitzer, a Democrat, gave up his support for two major projects related to oil sands development in Canada: the Keystone XL pipeline that would transport Canadian oil sands crude to the Gulf of Mexico; and the "Kearl Module Transportation Project," which would ship about 200 massive Korean-built oil sands processing modules across Montana highways to the Kearl oil sands region in northern Alberta. That megaload project is slated to start later this year.
Schweitzer met with the activists for nearly 20 minutes in the reception room of his office, but ultimately refused their demands.
"I'm not prepared to do that today," Schweitzer said.
Members of the group told Schweitzer that last week's rupture of ExxonMobil's Silvertip pipeline — which poured an estimated 1,000 barrels of crude oil into the Yellowstone River downstream of Laurel — is a prime example of why Schweitzer should "toss big oil out of Montana."
"We feel the Silvertip pipeline disaster on the Yellowstone is just a preview of what's to come if you continue to cater to big oil's interests and turn us into what would essentially be an energy extraction colony," said Missoula resident Max Granger of Northern Rockies Rising Tide, a group that has led protests against the Kearl Oil Sands project and the development of the Otter Creek coal tracts in Eastern Montana.
After listening to the protesters complaints and demands, the governor said he hoped the environmental activists would put their passion toward ending the nation's addiction to foreign oil.
"I will say to you that this country uses an inordinate quantity of hydrocarbons. I would say to you that 25% of all the oil that's consumed in the world is consumed by us — you, me," Schweitzer said.
Protesters cut off Schweitzer several times during the 20 minute meeting before one activist began playing a honky-tonk tune on a piano in the reception room. At that point more than a dozen protesters jumped onto the large meeting room tables and began dancing and chanting.
In a news release, Northern Rockies Rising Tide criticized Schweitzer for publicly chastising ExxonMobil while continuing to promote the construction of the Keystone XL pipeline, megaload shipments bound for the Alberta oil sands and other "extreme fossil-fuel projects" throughout the state.
more at the linkMore than 100 environmental activists from across the country descended Tuesday on the... more
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Last week, eleven veterans of the environmental movement issued an open letter to Canadians and Americans inviting them to participate in a massive public protest of the proposed Keystone XL pipeline expansion.
The letter’s signatories, which include David Suzuki, Bill McKibben, and Wendell Berry and climate scientist James Hansen, say that the time has come to move from letter writing and petition signing to something that’s more likely to get the government’s attention: civil disobedience at the nation’s capital.
The invitation can be read in its entirety at tarsandsaction.org, but here are a few choice excerpts (emphasis and links added):
As you know, the planet is steadily warming: 2010 was the warmest year on record, and we’ve seen the resulting chaos in almost every corner of the earth.
And as you also know, our democracy is increasingly controlled by special interests interested only in their short-term profit.
These two trends collide this summer in Washington, where the State Department and the White House have to decide whether to grant a certificate of ‘national interest’ to some of the biggest fossil fuel players on earth. These corporations want to build the so-called ‘Keystone XL Pipeline’ from Canada’s tar sands to Texas refineries.
The pipeline crosses crucial areas like the Oglalla Aquifer where a spill would be disastrous—and though the pipeline companies insist they are using ‘state of the art’ technologies that should leak only once every 7 years, the precursor pipeline and its pumping stations have leaked a dozen times in the past year. These local impacts alone would be cause enough to block such a plan. But the Keystone Pipeline would also be a fifteen hundred mile fuse to the biggest carbon bomb on the continent, a way to make it easier and faster to trigger the final overheating of our planet, the one place to which we are all indigenous.
And Secretary of State Clinton has already said she’s ‘inclined’ to recommend the pipeline go forward. Partly it’s because of the political commotion over high gas prices, though more tar sands oil would do nothing to change that picture. But it’s also because of intense pressure from industry. The US Chamber of Commerce—a bigger funder of political campaigns than the RNC and DNC combined—has demanded that the administration “move quickly to approve the Keystone XL pipeline,” which is not so surprising—they’ve also told the U.S. EPA that if the planet warms that will be okay because humans can ‘adapt their physiology’ to cope. The Koch Brothers, needless to say, are also backing the plan, and may reap huge profits from it.
So we’re pretty sure that without serious pressure the Keystone Pipeline will get its permit from Washington.
This won’t be a one-shot day of action. We plan for it to continue for several weeks, till the administration understands we won’t go away. Not all of us can actually get arrested—half the signatories to this letter live in Canada, and might well find our entry into the U.S. barred. But we will be making plans for sympathy demonstrations outside Canadian consulates in the U.S., and U.S. consulates in Canada—the decision-makers need to know they’re being watched.
Twenty years of patiently explaining the climate crisis to our leaders hasn’t worked. Maybe moral witness will help. You have to start somewhere, and we choose here and now.
Read more: http://www.care2.com/causes/environmental-leaders-encourage-civil-disobedience-to-stop-keystone-xl-pipeline.html#ixzz1R0IzA3Vn
more at the link
I say, hell yes.Last week, eleven veterans of the environmental movement issued an open letter to... more
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Dancing in the Jefferson Memorial last weekend got a group of people arrested, so now they’re planning an even bigger dancing event for Saturday as a point of civil disobedience.
The group claimed to be protesting a recent court ruling that says expressive dancing is considered the same as picketing, marching and public speaking, all of which are banned in certain areas of national memorials, according to a report on myfoxdc.com. They are hoping Saturday’s event will draw a big crowd and are using social media to push the event. More than 2,700 people are said to be attending, according to group’s Facebook page.
The video above shows the arrests last weekend.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8jUU3yCy3uI&feature=player_embeddedDancing in the Jefferson Memorial last weekend got a group of people arrested, so now... more
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Activists Savitri D. and the Rev. Billy Talen showed up, child in hand, to Friday’s protest against the acquittal of two New York City Police Department (NYPD) officers, ready for action. The long-time activists had, until recent weeks, been disappointed by what they say was a lack of protests in the nation’s largest city.Activists Savitri D. and the Rev. Billy Talen showed up, child in hand, to... more
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"Free Bradley Manning" Rally, Quantico, Virginia. A.N.S.W.E.R. Coalition, Veterans for Peace, Code Pink and others protest outside of the Marine Base at Quantico, Virginia. Film by Rupert Chappelle."Free Bradley Manning" Rally, Quantico, Virginia. A.N.S.W.E.R. Coalition,... more
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Aside from its rain and coffee, Seattle, Washington is known for many things subversive, from Grunge music to the activist driven WTO riots. This region of America raised the likes of Jimi Hendrix and Bruce Lee. Today, there is a culture here that is only represented anonymously in the reclaimed public spaces of the city. Images dot the urban landscape in the typical street mediums that are used across the globe; spray paint, stickers, paste-ups, stencils, wheatpasting, posters, video projection, art intervention, guerrilla art, flash mobbing, installations, post-graffiti, mosaic tiling, murals, wood-blocking, LED art, reverse-graffiti and yard bombing.
You will see that these are not commercial enterprises or vandalism graffiti, but individual creative statements... something we can all relate to. Street art as a medium has been popularized internationally by the likes of Shepard Fairey, Banksy, D*Face, Paul Insect, Swoon, Twist, Neck face, Faile, Space Invader and WK Interact. It can take on many purposes and sometimes involves activism, phenomenology, repetition, attention capture, culture jamming, direct action, guerrilla messaging, propaganda, subvertising, decoration and territory claiming.
The following is a small window into this temporary world that's constantly being revised in a flux of new symbols. It's a snapshot of work on the Seattle streets over about a 3 year period, a visual capsule in time, not a comprehensive representation of Seattle street art and the people involved over the years. Some of the work only existed for a day before it was written over by other artists or removed by the city... a reminder that nothing is permanent, and control is an illusion in the chaos of a city. Enjoy.
http://seattlestreetart.com/Aside from its rain and coffee, Seattle, Washington is known for many things... more
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"Today, the event culminates in real action -- thousands of those activists are now taking to the streets to confront Congress and the White House on climate inaction. They're also stopping at the US Chamber of Commerce -- the nation's biggest anti-climate lobbying force -- and BP headquarters to call out the oil giant for filing a multibillion dollar tax refund on its spill cleanup expenses. Check out some amazing pics from the front lines of the march:
Amazing photos of the event are streaming in from activists using Twitpic, and these are just a few. Follow the #powershift on Twitter for more.""Today, the event culminates in real action -- thousands of those activists are... more
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