Nonviolence in Theory and Practice

This article maybe a little old and at times make you reminise, but I think it gets to the point at the end. It is about the U.N.'s Fourth World Conference on Women in China during 1995. A parallel conference was organized by NGOs but many women seeking to attend found their visa had complications and/or blocked. The Chinese Government took precautions against expected protests, including naked protests. The bug spray I thought was a nice touch.

Section: INTERNATIONAL
China: Shutting out critics at the women's forum

China was ready for the feminists of the world. Taxi drivers were advised not to pick up any naked females who might try to flag them down. Hotels were issued cloaks to throw over the legions of strippers who were expected to arrive. Security guards, many of them fresh from the farm, were issued bug spray so that they wouldn't catch insect-borne AIDS from visiting lesbians. Welcome to China. ladies.

Delegates to the unofficial women's forum, which opened last week, knew they were in for a hard time. "We're expecting bad conditions-no work space, no computers," Isabel Stramwasser, a Canadian delegate, said before the conference began. "But we're also expecting 40,000 women who've gone through hell and high water to get there." As it turned out, there were plenty of difficulties at the conference site in Huairou, 90 minutes outside Beijing (when the promised buses were running, which wasn't often), and lots of high water. caused by torrential rain. But thousands of women never got there. With a combination of bureaueratic paralysis and deliberate political suppression. the Chinese government managed to exclude many women whose views it found inconvenient.

Western diplomats estimated that 15,000 to 20,000 delegates had been shut out. Many never received hotel confirmations, without which they were not allowed to pick up their visas. "This is more than a bureaucratic accident," charged Bella Abzug, a former congresswoman from New York who was allowed to attend. "This is an intentional, indirect way to limit our numbers."

The Huairou conference was the one China didn't want, an eclectic gathering of nongovernmental organizations, or NGOs. The other meeting, which starts this week, is the official United Nations Fourth World Conference on Women, a plum for the Chinese, who campaigned hard for the right to host it. That meeting starts on a happier note. Hillary Rodham Clinton leads the U.S. delegation, reflecting a slight warming of relations between Washington and Beijing. Agreeing to disagree on the many issues that divide them -- human rights, nuclear testing, arms sales, the status of Taiwan--the United States and China were at least talking to each other again. Beijing promised to send back its ambassador, who was withdrawn two months ago when Washington allowed the president of Taiwan to make an unofficial visit. A summit was in the works for President Clinton and Chinese President Jiang Zemin, probably next month at the United Nations.

But there was nothing the Americans could do to get China to open its doors to all of the NGO women. "We can only cajole and plead," said a State Department official. China excluded the entire delegation from Niger, one of the few countries to have formal relations with Taiwan. More than 20 Taiwanese and Tibetan groups were denied access to the conference. American actresses Jane Fonda and Sally Field reportedly were unable to get visas.

Low turnout: So many delegates were kept away from the conference that many seminars and workshops had to be canceled for lack of participants. (The most popular discussion group appeared to be one on the O. J. Simpson case, held in a crowded tent.) The delegates who made it to Huairou found the Chinese imposing rules to restrict the expression of unwelcome opinions. Demonstrations were officially confined to an area grandly described as the "Parade Ground," an asphalt slab smaller than a basketball court.

But the women refused to be put in their place. One group showed a videotape about Tibet, and when Chinese security men seized the cassette, enraged members of the audience took it back by force and spirited it away. The opening keynote address was another videotape, brought into China by stealth, containing a message from Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi, the Burmese dissident who has stood up to a military regime that is fast friends with Beijing. "It is not the prerogative of men alone to bring light to this world," she told the delegates. Defying their Chinese overlords, nine exiled Tibetan women staged a protest in Huairou, their mouths gagged with scarves to represent the repression of their homeland. Dozens of delegates chanted their support. Posters appeared honoring Phuntsog Nyidron, a Tibetan Buddhist nun imprisoned for her support of the exiled Dalai Lama. WANTED; FREEDOM, it said--an idea China's leaders apparently could neither grasp nor stamp out.

PHOTO (COLOR): Beyond the confines of the official 'Parade Ground': Exiled Tibetan women wear gags to protest Beijing's repression of their homeland

~~~~~~~~

RUSSELL WATSON with KATHARINE CHUBBUCK in Huairou and CHARLES S. LEF, in Washington

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Posted by adams504 at 1:48 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I thought that this article was interesting because it I found it in the Christian Science Monitor online, which I wasn't expecting. I didn't really know what the CSM talked about, but I assumed christian beliefs, I didn't expect to see in it an article advising the people of China how to protest their government non-violently.

Boston - Chinese citizens have generally been a submissive people. What is extraordinary is that tens of thousands of protests are taking place in China every year.

Not long ago, one such protest in China was brutally shut down by the Chinese government. Once again, the world looked on as China provided another example of how it thwarts basic human rights.

The protest took place when the police of Weng An County released a suspect who had allegedly raped and murdered a teenage girl. It is believed that the suspect is a relative of a local police officer. The victim's relative went to the police station demanding justice; instead he was badly beaten by police. This then led hundreds of thousands of people to the street. But the official crackdown on this lawful protest spurred tragic violence.

And it is widely known that many such protests for basic rights are beaten back.

No matter how hard the Communist Party tries to cover up their crimes with all kinds of celebrations, its true brutality is constantly being revealed by the crackdowns on peaceful protests, a carte blanche to destroy citizen's homes, and a flouting of laws and trampling of rights. The party is dictatorial, squeezing people both economically and politically, like a criminal organization.

Enough is enough! Citizens must unite and utilize their own power. It only takes a few people to proclaim their rights, to encourage and awaken the rest of the country to those rights and lead the way.

The people in Weng An did the right thing to demand their rights. It is important that all people in China work against oppression, exploitation, and corruption and to fight for human rights and democracy.

But the way to gain the upper hand – and ultimate peace – is through nonviolent tactics. That is not just a moral principle, but a sound, successful strategy used by democracy and human rights activists around the world. And it would knock the government off guard.

The Communist Party is adept at violence, but their well-equipped police force is not necessarily strong at suppressing peaceful protests.

When citizens retaliate with violence, it only provides an excuse for government to crack down on the democracy movement, ultimately weakening citizen power. Nonviolence will put the party in a morally vulnerable position and soften it. Such a tactic will also help win over citizens who are hesitant to act against the government.

Nonviolence doesn't mean nonaction. There is the kind of nonviolence in which people refuse to cooperate or participate in any political activities with the government. Such active refusal speaks volumes. This action includes refusing to implement Communist policy or to give lukewarm attention to government. Or it can mean not participating in any government celebrations, communist festivals, communist TV or newspapers. It means staying away from any communist promotion of their "shining models," abandoning the communist jargon, and ignoring unconstitutional decrees.

Active nonviolence includes organizing prodemocracy movements, such as protests, sit-ins, school or factory strikes, fasting, seminars, open funerals for victims, gatherings in someone's honor, and refusal to pay evil taxes.

For active nonviolence, demonstrators need a tangible goal so that they can eventually pressure the Communist Party into a compromise.

But before that compromise comes, both passive and active nonviolence will likely result in more crackdowns and persecution.

The key to success is persistence.

Attempts at peaceful protests in China in the past, and an effort by the Dalai Lama to encourage peaceful demonstrations, are a strong foundation from which to work forward.

The best way to develop a protest movement is to use places such as schools, unions, associations, churches, or clubs to rally people. Chinese citizens can even create some new gathering points to draw activists.

Meanwhile, the more citizens utilize communication tools such as the Internet, the bigger the power base will be. By searching for information, we can find ways to get around Web firewalls and other obstacles to end isolation. Each addition to the cause will create a chain reaction and multiply citizen strength.

And it is important to recognize that the tragic death of Li Shufen, the teenager who was found in the river in China, should not go unnoticed. By persistent, nonviolent action we gain moral ground and protect our children from being the next victims.

Citizen power based on peaceful nonviolence will eventually conquer the power of the Communist Power. Let's start today.

Yang Jianli is founder of Initiatives for China, dedicated to empowering the citizens of China for a peaceful transition to a democratic China. A PhD, he is a research fellow at Harvard University and a former political prisoner in China.

Posted by fitzg126 at 9:45 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

This article is interesting because it is not about a specific incident of nonviolence, but rather it is an advocacy of the use of it in China, while citing instances as well as reasons for it. It is an attempt by a credible source to give validity to the movement.

Peaceful protest is the way citizens will gain the upper hand.
By Yang Jianli

from the July 8, 2008 edition

Boston - Chinese citizens have generally been a submissive people. What is extraordinary is that tens of thousands of protests are taking place in China every year.

Not long ago, one such protest in China was brutally shut down by the Chinese government. Once again, the world looked on as China provided another example of how it thwarts basic human rights.

The protest took place when the police of Weng An County released a suspect who had allegedly raped and murdered a teenage girl. It is believed that the suspect is a relative of a local police officer. The victim's relative went to the police station demanding justice; instead he was badly beaten by police. This then led hundreds of thousands of people to the street. But the official crackdown on this lawful protest spurred tragic violence.

And it is widely known that many such protests for basic rights are beaten back.

No matter how hard the Communist Party tries to cover up their crimes with all kinds of celebrations, its true brutality is constantly being revealed by the crackdowns on peaceful protests, a carte blanche to destroy citizen's homes, and a flouting of laws and trampling of rights. The party is dictatorial, squeezing people both economically and politically, like a criminal organization.

Enough is enough! Citizens must unite and utilize their own power. It only takes a few people to proclaim their rights, to encourage and awaken the rest of the country to those rights and lead the way.

The people in Weng An did the right thing to demand their rights. It is important that all people in China work against oppression, exploitation, and corruption and to fight for human rights and democracy.

But the way to gain the upper hand – and ultimate peace – is through nonviolent tactics. That is not just a moral principle, but a sound, successful strategy used by democracy and human rights activists around the world. And it would knock the government off guard.

The Communist Party is adept at violence, but their well-equipped police force is not necessarily strong at suppressing peaceful protests.

When citizens retaliate with violence, it only provides an excuse for government to crack down on the democracy movement, ultimately weakening citizen power. Nonviolence will put the party in a morally vulnerable position and soften it. Such a tactic will also help win over citizens who are hesitant to act against the government.

Nonviolence doesn't mean nonaction. There is the kind of nonviolence in which people refuse to cooperate or participate in any political activities with the government. Such active refusal speaks volumes. This action includes refusing to implement Communist policy or to give lukewarm attention to government. Or it can mean not participating in any government celebrations, communist festivals, communist TV or newspapers. It means staying away from any communist promotion of their "shining models," abandoning the communist jargon, and ignoring unconstitutional decrees.

Active nonviolence includes organizing prodemocracy movements, such as protests, sit-ins, school or factory strikes, fasting, seminars, open funerals for victims, gatherings in someone's honor, and refusal to pay evil taxes.

For active nonviolence, demonstrators need a tangible goal so that they can eventually pressure the Communist Party into a compromise.

But before that compromise comes, both passive and active nonviolence will likely result in more crackdowns and persecution.

The key to success is persistence.

Attempts at peaceful protests in China in the past, and an effort by the Dalai Lama to encourage peaceful demonstrations, are a strong foundation from which to work forward.

The best way to develop a protest movement is to use places such as schools, unions, associations, churches, or clubs to rally people. Chinese citizens can even create some new gathering points to draw activists.

Meanwhile, the more citizens utilize communication tools such as the Internet, the bigger the power base will be. By searching for information, we can find ways to get around Web firewalls and other obstacles to end isolation. Each addition to the cause will create a chain reaction and multiply citizen strength.

And it is important to recognize that the tragic death of Li Shufen, the teenager who was found in the river in China, should not go unnoticed. By persistent, nonviolent action we gain moral ground and protect our children from being the next victims.

Citizen power based on peaceful nonviolence will eventually conquer the power of the Communist Power. Let's start today.

Yang Jianli is founder of Initiatives for China, dedicated to empowering the citizens of China for a peaceful transition to a democratic China. A PhD, he is a research fellow at Harvard University and a former political prisoner in China.

http://www.csmonitor.com/2008/0708/p09s02-coop.html

Posted by vinkx004 at 7:46 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

First Steven Spielberg upset China's internet users after resigning as adviser to the Olympics over Darfur. Now Björk is under attack after shouting "Tibet! Tibet!" at the end of her song Declare Independence at a concert in Shanghai.

First Steven Spielberg upset China's internet users after resigning as adviser to the Olympics over Darfur. Now Björk is under attack after shouting "Tibet! Tibet!" at the end of her song Declare Independence at a concert in Shanghai.

Her remark was not reported in official media, but led to criticism when it began to circulate on the web. While China's 58-year occupation of Tibet remains controversial abroad, most Chinese see Tibet as a part of their country and regard calls for its independence as intrusive and divisive.

One fan said it was "disrespectful" and "very selfish" to raise the issue while visiting China.

The Icelandic singer first dedicated Declare Independence to Greenland and the Faroe Islands, which still have formal links to Denmark, and the song's video shows her in clothing bearing their flags. She dedicated the song to Kosovo while performing in Japan last month.

Its lyrics include: "Don't let them do that to you. Raise your flag!"

Matt Whitticase, spokesman for the London-based Free Tibet Movement, said it was delighted by her remarks, contrasting them with Gordon Brown and David Miliband's "shameful" decision not to raise the issue publicly on their recent visits to Beijing.

"Speaking out while in China has shown it is perfectly possible to make a high-profile visit and raise the ongoing plight of the Tibetan people," he said.

Björk's representatives could not be contacted for comment last night.

Foreign Ministry spokesperson Jiang Yu said last month: "Tibet has been an inseparable part of Chinese territories since ancient times, which is universally recognised by the international community."

Posted by bucke011 at 10:32 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

BEIJING — Chinese security forces were reportedly surrounding three monasteries outside Lhasa, the Tibetan capital, on Thursday after hundreds of monks took to the streets this week in what are believed to be the largest Tibetan protests against Chinese rule in two decades.

Monk Protests in Tibet Draw Chinese Security

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By JIM YARDLEY
Published: March 14, 2008

Correction Appended

BEIJING — Chinese security forces were reportedly surrounding three monasteries outside Lhasa, the Tibetan capital, on Thursday after hundreds of monks took to the streets this week in what are believed to be the largest Tibetan protests against Chinese rule in two decades.
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Crackdown in Tibet
Crackdown in Tibet

The turmoil in Lhasa occurred at a politically delicate time for China, which is facing increasing criticism over its human rights record as it prepares to play host to the Olympic Games in August and is seeking to appear harmonious to the outside world.

Beijing has kept a tight lid on dissent before the Games. But people with grievances against the governing Communist Party have tried to promote their causes when top officials may be wary of cracking down by using force.

Qin Gang, a spokesman for China’s Foreign Ministry, confirmed Thursday that protests had erupted in Lhasa, but declined to provide details. He described the situation as stable.

“In the past couple of days, a few monks in Lhasa have made some disturbances in an effort to cause unrest,� Mr. Qin said Thursday at a news conference. “Thanks to the efforts of the local government and the democratic administration of the temples, the situation in Lhasa has been stabilized.�

Tibet was taken militarily by China in 1951 and has remained contentious, particularly because of the bitter relations between the Communist Party and the Dalai Lama, the exiled spiritual leader of Tibetan Buddhism. Sporadic talks between China and the Dalai Lama’s representatives have produced no results, and Beijing continues to condemn him as a “splitist� determined to sever the region’s ties to China. The Dalai Lama has said that he accepts Chinese rule but that Tibetans need greater autonomy to practice their religion.

China plans to have the Olympic torch carried into Tibet over Mount Everest — a route that has brought protests from many Tibet advocacy groups. Fearing more demonstrations, officials said they would prohibit climbing on the north face of Everest until after the torch ceremony.

The defiance reported this week in Lhasa is highly unusual. Security is heavy there, and the penalty for protesting is harsh. News of the protests has been censored in the Chinese news media, and Beijing does not allow foreign journalists to travel to Lhasa without permission. But accounts from Tibetan advocacy groups, from the United States-financed Radio Free Asia and from tourists’ postings on the Internet suggest that protests emerged from three of the most famous monasteries in Tibetan Buddhism.

Robert Barnett, a Tibet specialist at Columbia University who has communicated with Tibetan exiles, said the initial incident occurred Monday when about 400 monks left Drepung Loseling Monastery intending to march five miles west to the city center. Police officers stopped the march at the halfway point and arrested 50 or 60 monks.

But Mr. Barnett said the remaining monks held the equivalent of a sit-down strike and were joined by an additional 100 monks from Drepung.

“They were demanding specific changes on religious restrictions in the monastery,� Mr. Barnett said. He said monks wanted the authorities to ease rules on “patriotic education� in which monks are required to study government propaganda and write denunciations of the Dalai Lama.

On Tuesday morning, the Drepung monks apparently agreed to return to the monastery.

But another protest was under way in the heart of the city, outside the Jokhang Temple, the most sacred temple in Tibet. About a dozen monks from the Sera Monastery staged a pro-independence demonstration, waving a Tibetan flag. Police officers arrested the monks. Foreign tourists posted video on the Internet of officers shooing onlookers away.

The arrests set off another protest on Tuesday. Witnesses told Radio Free Asia that 500 or 600 monks poured out of the Sera Monastery, about two miles north of the Jokhang Temple. They shouted slogans and demanded the release of their fellow monks.

“Free our people, or we won’t go back!� the monks chanted, Radio Free Asia reported. “We want an independent Tibet!�

Witnesses said the police fired tear gas to disperse the crowd.

A protest was reported on Wednesday at the Ganden Monastery, 35 miles east of Lhasa.

Radio Free Asia reported Thursday that two monks at Drepung had attempted suicide.

The protests were timed to coincide with the 49th anniversary of the failed 1959 Tibet uprising that forced the Dalai Lama to flee to India. Mr. Barnett said they were the largest in Lhasa since 1989, when protests by monks from Drepung and Sera led to a bloody clash with Chinese security forces.

He said he doubted that the protests were coordinated, though he said the small group of Sera monks arrested Monday must have anticipated a confrontation. Their photographs have already been forwarded to Tibetan exiles in India and posted on the Internet by groups that support independence for Tibet.

He said that Chinese troops seemed to be more restrained than in the past, even as the protesters took the bold step of waving the Tibetan flag.

The Olympics also have emboldened protesters outside China. Tibetan exiles in northern India who vowed this week to march to Lhasa over six months to protest China’s control of their homeland were arrested Thursday. They then began a hunger strike that they said would go on until they were released.

Heather Timmons contributed reporting from New Delhi.

This article has been revised to reflect the following correction:

Correction: March 15, 2008
An article on Friday about Tibetan protests against Chinese rule referred incompletely to comments by Robert Barnett, a Tibet specialist at Columbia University, about the last major protests in Lhasa, the Tibetan capital. Mr. Barnett pointed out that the protests continued into 1989; he did not say that they took place only in 1987 and 1988.

Posted by bucke011 at 10:29 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Locals hold Chinese national flags as they shout slogans outside a Carrefour supermarket in Qingdao, Shandong province

China Frowns on Patriotic Protests
By AUSTIN RAMZY/BEIJING Monday, Apr. 21, 2008
china nationalism demo flags
Locals hold Chinese national flags as they shout slogans outside a Carrefour supermarket in Qingdao, Shandong province
Reuters

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It's tough being a hot-blooded nationalist in China these days. Your online rants about treacherous French hypermarkets get censored, and by the time you can organize a protest on the street, those protests aren't so welcome anymore.
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Since late last week the official press has been signaling that the recent outburst by Chinese bloggers outraged over anti-Chinese protests that have dogged the path of the Olympic torch must be wound down. Some Chinese have been calling for a boycott of the French retailer Carrefour, which has more than 100 outlets in China, after pro-Tibet protesters gave the torch a rough reception in Paris and the city council raised a banner on City Hall that read "Paris defends human rights all over the world."

In recent days the front pages of state-run newspapers carried stories saying the best way for citizens to defend their country's honor is to build the economy and warning that, in today's globalized world, boycotts usually backfire (most of the good on sale in Chinese Carrefour stores are produced locally). Even on the Chinese Internet, where nationalist sentiment has been free flowing, posts calling for consumer action against Carrefour and videos of protests have now been blocked.

Still, many are ignoring the government's call for calm. Beijing police on Saturday reportedly turned away a small group of demonstrators outside the French embassy. Carrefour stores in several mainland cities also saw large protests. Carrefour CEO Jose Luis Duran has been forced to deny accusations that his company has been a supporter of the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama.

China's surge in public displays of patriotism — which has blossomed after the rocky reception of the Olympic torch in Europe and the U.S. — is a dilemma for Beijing. The government relies on patriotism to bolster its support now that socialism has disappeared as a unifying ideology. But expressions of strong nationalist sentiment can also lead to people protesting against the central government. "In crisis periods what often happens, and has happened throughout the 20th century, is that these foreign problems very quickly become domestic problems," says William Callahan, a China expert at the University of Manchester in the U.K. "People ask why the Chinese government isn't reacting more strongly to what is seen as foreign provocation."

China has experienced similar spasms of public outrage following the accidental bombing by the U.S. of the Chinese embassy in Belgrade in 1999, and the collision of a Chinese fighter jet with a U.S. surveillance plane near Hainan Island in 2001. "What's different this year is how the people are much more involved," says Callahan. "I don't think this necessarily shows that it's a grassroots thing or a more genuine or more spontaneous thing. I think Chinese people have more access to express their opinion because of the rise of new media, blogs and bulletin boards and e-mail. What's happening is that Chinese people are recycling what they've been taught in school through patriotic education and also what they've been taught through China's broad-based propaganda campaigns."

But protests are occurring beyond China's borders. Overseas Chinese, whose patriotism in the past may have been dulled by distrust of the Communist Party, are also demonstrating in support of their motherland and the Beijing Olympics. In Los Angeles, thousands of ethnic Chinese gathered outside the offices of CNN Saturday to protest what they call media bias and remarks by network commentator Jack Cafferty, who recently called Chinese "goons and thugs." The network later said that his comments referred to the government of China, not its citizens.

The biggest risk for the Chinese government is that the protests simmer until the Beijing Summer Olympics begin in August. The authorities hope to show the world how China has changed in the three decades since Deng Xiaoping launched economic reforms. But it will be difficult to present a friendly, progressive face to the world if citizens are indulging in anti-foreign antics. "The world is shining a light on China in the year leading up to the Olympics," says Susan Shirk, a former deputy assistant Secretary of State during the Clinton administration and author of the book China: Fragile Superpower. "The timing is terrible." China has always feared embarrassing protests before the Games, but Beijing probably didn't expect them from its own patriotic citizens.

Posted by bucke011 at 10:26 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Post your entries on China by 5pm on Mon, Oct 13th.

Posted by ashuster at 6:52 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

This is an organization that blogs about violence, one particular article i found about the Philippines.Recently a village on the island of Mindanao in the Philippines was under threat by two armed groups who had come within 200 meters of each other. The village elders called for help from the Nonviolent Peaceforce stationed there, who intervened and by communicating with all sides persuaded the armed group to back away. Thanks to mediation, no violence erupted, no lives were lost.

Legends relate that Buddha stopped a war between two kings who were quarreling over rights to a river by asking them, "Which is more precious, blood or water?"

Could ordinary people use the same kind of wisdom – and courage – to check the impulse to fight wars today – over oil, water, or identity? Mahatma Gandhi thought so. He created teams of civilians called the Shanti Sena or "Army of Peace" and deployed them in various communities around India where they could avert communal riots and provide other peacekeeping services.

Over the past 25 years nonviolent peacekeepers have been going into zones of sometimes intense conflict with the aim of bringing a measure of peace, protection, and sanity to life there. Rather than use threat or force, unarmed peacekeepers deploy strategies of protective accompaniment, moral and/or witnessing "presence," monitoring election campaigns, creating neutral safe spaces, and in extreme cases putting themselves physically between hostile parties, as Buddha did with the angry kings in ancient India.

Civilian unarmed peacekeeping has had dramatic, small-scale, quiet, and unglamorous successes: rescuing child soldiers, protecting the lives of key human rights workers and of whole villages, averting potentially explosive violence, and generally raising the level of security felt by citizens in many a tense community.

Recently a village on the island of Mindanao in the Philippines was under threat by two armed groups who had come within 200 meters of each other. The village elders called for help from the Nonviolent Peaceforce stationed there, who intervened and by communicating with all sides persuaded the armed group to back away. Thanks to mediation, no violence erupted, no lives were lost.

Why haven't you heard about this exciting work? Because it is terribly underfunded, for one thing. There is also a prevailing prejudice that only governments or armed forces – including those of the United Nations – have the responsibility or means to contain conflict. While the UN Security Council has often authorized "all necessary means" to maintain peace and prevent violent conflict, in fact, the UN has not systematically considered large-scale civilian unarmed peacekeeping.

But the biggest obstacle by far is the widespread – and rarely examined – belief that political power grows out of the barrel of a gun. It is the belief that there is only one kind of power; threat power, which in the end can be relied upon to get others to change their minds or, failing that, at least their actions.

That may change. The failures of war-fighting for peace, most notably now in Iraq, are getting ever more costly – of life, material, and our civil liberties.

The new global norm of "Responsibility to Protect" (R2P) should inspire the use of civil society and nonviolent means. While it includes military interventions, R2P is based on emerging international human security and human rights doctrine that aims to avert further failure by the international community to prevent and stop genocide, war crimes, ethnic cleansing, and crimes against humanity.

It may yet dawn on the world that these courageous nonviolent peacekeepers are not "unarmed;" they are armed with what Gandhi made bold to call "the greatest force mankind has been endowed with" – nonviolence.

Nonviolent Peaceforce is working to bring this kind of peacekeeping to greater prominence, with the goal of increasing its current 70 field team members to a cadre of 2,000 by 2012. For a recent deployment, Nonviolent Peaceforce had applicants hailing from 55 countries for every position available.

Well-trained unarmed civilians are saving lives and protecting communities under threat in some of the world's most violent places. They are growing. Recently the Geneva-based Centre for Humanitarian Dialogue issued a study documenting how and why this type of "proactive presence" works.

People are ready for peaceful change and they're willing to dedicate their lives to create it. Civilian unarmed peacekeeping could be the way to recognize and help develop the vital protection role global civil society may credibly, effectively, and legitimately play in human security. For the benefit of children and women in armed conflict, for refugees, journalists, human rights defenders, peacefully protesting monks, aid workers, or election campaigners – for all of us. Because ultimately, none of us is secure until all of us are.

Posted by lars3089 at 11:02 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

i found this article on a blog called global voices. It seemed very interesting and it provides a good view of how the media in china limits what is and is not shown on television.This news about 40 parents petition in Beijing for their missing children has been censored by the mainstream media and major news portal in the Internet in China. Beifeng re-posts one of the parents' first person account of the petition in his blog and urges readers to spread the news.

On Sep 25, I was in my Hotel in Beijing. Mr. Pang knocked at my door early in the morning. I introduced him to a missing person blog earlier on, and this time he came to Beijing for a visit petition. He was helpless and I couldn't give him much support. When we talked in the hotel lobby at 8:30 am, someone was monitoring us.

I gave the phone number of Liu Xiao-yuan, a human right lawyer to Mr. Pang hoping that Liu could give him more advice. However, within an hour, Mr. Pang was arrested.

Below is what he had written to me, an account of their petition experience in Beijing. I hope readers can help to spread the news on the Internet.
Parents failed to find their children and helplessly pay petition visit to higher authorities in Beijing

In recent year, there are countless number of children kidnap cases all over the country. Criminals are becoming more violent, organized, professional and international. In order to find our missing children, we traveled across the country and many of us are now in debts in addition to the tremendous emotional stress we have been suffering. Some of the parents have turned crazy and sick… Due to man-made factor (here, I don't want to attack our public security department), we have lost much time for saving our dear children. We could only file our case when our children found lost for 24 hours. Such regulation has provided the human traffickers time for their crime, reminding them to smuggle our children away within 24 hours. We have no choice but to seek help from higher authorities. Six months have passed and now it has been one year, parents are living in agony. Some parents were forced to give up due to all kinds of reason. In the process of searching for our children, parents with similar fate come together and share our bitter story. By chance, we came across an article about rescuing kidnapped children from Henan. We wonder how our Premier Wen got to know the case, and with his instruction, a 8 months hanging case was resolved within 8 days. The article gives us hope in seeking for our children. We believe that if Premier Wen knows about our situation, he can definitely help us to find our children. With this hope, we decided to visit Beijing together and hand in our petition to Premier Wen. In order to avoid having negative impact on our national image, we decided to petition on Sep 22, after the end of Olympic and Paralympic Games.
Displaying missing person poster at the Birdnest

In Sep 22, missing children parents from all over the country arrived at Beijing. We found a cheap hostel (a dungeon) to settle down. Some of them were sleeping in the Beijing railway station as they couldn't afford hostel spending. Later we decided to share the cost and let them stay in the hostel as well. We discussed and decided to display our missing person posters outside the Birdnest stadium. There were in total more than 40 parents coming from 10 provinces. On the day, all of us gathered outside the magnificent building which all Chinese people are so proud of. However, we didn't have the mood to take a good look of this Birdnest. We walked to the east gate where there were more people around and displayed our missing children posters on the spot. We wanted more people to know what happened to us and remind people to protect their children from traffickers. Many people felt sympathy with us, some even bought us water. Some parents became emotional and voiced their grievances to pedestrians. A university student approached us and wanted to help us to spread the news. An American reporter proposed to interview us, but we rejected the interview as we felt that this is a Chinese matter and should be dealt with by Chinese government. Moreover, we didn't want to internationalize the issue. We decided to collect our posters and seek help from Chinese media — CCTV.

Posted by lars3089 at 10:56 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

This is a blog that outlines various forms of protest that have taken place in South Korea. It is an interesting and unorthodox take on the world of protesting, which I found to be pretty interesting.

http://www.who-sucks.com/people/the-exciting-world-of-south-korean-protests

Posted by vinkx004 at 8:40 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

About 30,000 people march in Manila calling for the President's impeachment and resignation. The President was accused of corruption in gambling. This article is not about overthrowing their government but just about not trusting her anymore. I also that it was interesting that the President was a woman. I guess I view the Phillippines as "old scool" traditions still and not too modern to the idea of a woman in power. I wonder if these accusations will harm other women's chances of being able to be President.

07/13/2005

About 30,000 people march in Manila calling for the President's impeachment and resignation.

Manila (AsiaNews) Around 30,000 people have marched in the Filipino capital of Manila, calling on President Gloria Arroyo to quit.

Ms Arroyo faces allegations that she is involved in scandals tied to the gambling world.

Renato Reyes, one of the organisers of the march, said that "it is clear what people want: the President's immediate resignation".

He explained that the anti-Arroyo forces have raised 25 million Filipino pesos (about US$ 450,000) to get "a million people into the streets by Saturday".

The Bishops' Conference of the Philippines after a recent meeting released a statement distanced itself from the ongoing situation.

The organisation is known for its internal divisions as clearly shown by the contradictory views of bishops calling for Ms Arroyo's immediate resignation.

Despite this, the prelates agree that an impartial commission must be set up to investigate allegations of corruption made against the President.

The Armed Forces have by contrast reiterated their absolute neutrality even though AsiaNews sources in Manila have spoken of "massive military presence in the streets of the capital".

Army officials have declared that the deployment of troops is designed to prevent "infiltrations" among the people taking part in the rally, i.e. Islamic rebels of Communist insurgents.

Posted by dahls044 at 7:11 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

QuickPost | System Overview | Movable Type Publishing Platform

This type of article really inspires me to try to change policy. This is a unique form of non violent action. Warning this story is not for the faint of heart. View at your own discretion. I would post a picture but I dont know how. Yeah can somebody help me with that anyway.

I really want to see some blog feedback on this one so please let us discuss this one. Tell me what you think. for some time I have been researching this topic.

LEts Blog amigos and amigas!

November 3, 2007 (Japan Times) Opponents of Japan's annual dolphin slaughter have taken their campaign to a new level of confrontation by paddling into the bloody waters off a western killing cove to comfort animals moments before their deaths.
Dave Rastovich, a champion pro surfer from Australia, on Monday led a group of fellow antiwhaling activists into the waters off Taiji, Wakayama Prefecture, where 30 or so captured pilot whales — adults and calves — were being held in a netted enclosure for butchering, according to Richard O'Barry, of the United States, who helped coordinate the event. Pilot whales are a variety of dolphin.
Local fishermen shouted threats and brandished propeller blades and a long wooden pole to chase the activists away, said Barry, 68, who once captured and trained the dolphins used in the 1960s hit U.S. television series "Flipper" about a family and their outdoor adventures with a dolphin, before becoming a celebrity dolphin-rights activist.
"The reason we surfers were there was to share the water, stained red with blood, at eye level, with our ocean kin awaiting their execution," Rastovich said.

Peaceful Protest Against Japan's Dolphin Drive Hunts

Japanese embassy location

Japan Dolphin Day, Wednesday, September 3, 2008

JAPAN DOLPHIN DAY

A peaceful protest to stop the largest remaining dolphin slaughter in the world at the Japanese Consulate, a worldwide protest against Japan's killing of over 22,000 dolphins.
..............................................................................................
Japan Dolphin Day, WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 3rd:

To protest the slaughter and speak out against mercury poisoning.
................................................................................................
WHERE: Japanese Consulate office. 601 Union Street, Suite 500, Seattle, Washington 98101

WHEN: 12:00pm (NOON), WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 3rd.

WHAT: An international day of protest will be held on September 3rd to call on the Japanese authorities to ban the brutal slaughter of dolphins, porpoises, and other small whales.

Orca Network and others will be at the Japanese Consulate in downtown Seattle for the protest. You are welcome to make up your own signs and banners to let people know what the protest is about. Please use non-threatening language. Please stay on the public sidewalk in front of the building. If you want, bring a red flower to lay at the edge of the sidewalk to represent the blood of the dolphins slaughtered by Japan.

WHY: On Japan Dolphin Day, September 3, 2008, Seattle will be one of many cities participating in a global protest to call for an end to the needless killing of dolphins and porpoises off the eastern coast of Japan. In spite of the international outcry against it, the Japanese government still condones the largest remaining dolphin slaughter in the world.

Most of the Japanese people do not know this slaughter takes place due to a media blackout in Japan about this horrific event.

The Japanese government is knowingly exposing their people to toxic levels of mercury in the dolphin meat that is consumed. Mercury causes severe birth defects and brain damage. Japanese officials are forcing children to eat mercury-contaminated dolphin meat in school lunches. Not only the dolphins, but the innocent children of Japan need our help.

The dolphin drive hunts destroy defenseless, highly intelligent, self-aware mammals in the most brutal way imaginable. These socially complex mammals witness the screaming slaughter of their close family group in a sea turned red with blood, but won't abandon their pod. Some of the survivors are captured and sold to dolphin traders. These dolphins are then transported off to live the rest of their lives confined in pools as "entertainment" in captive swim programs and dolphinariums. The hunts would not be economically viable without the sale of these live dolphins to unscrupulous dolphinariums. The killing of defenseless dolphins and other small whales by the Japanese drive hunts is condemned internationally by many scientific and conservation organizations.

Help us send a powerful message to the Japanese dolphin hunters and their government: STOP THE DOLPHIN SLAUGHTER NOW. STOP EXPOSING YOUR PEOPLE TO MERCURY. We need to let them know that these crimes against nature are unacceptable to the rest of the world.

For more information about the dolphin drive fisheries, their connection to the captive display industry, and toxic mercury exposures in Japanese children at: Save Japan Dolphins

Orca Network
www.orcanetwork.org
(360) 678-3451
1-866-ORCANET
Nancy Morris (206) 533-6155

"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful committed citizens can change the world. Indeed it is the only thing that ever has!" -- Margaret Mead

Every year more than 20,000 whales, dolphins and porpoises are hunted and killed by Japan. This includes around 16,000 Dall’s porpoises killed in hand harpoon hunts.

Over 1,000 dolphins are killed each year in dolphin drive hunts in Japan. Pods of tens or hundreds of dolphins are driven into shallow coves and butchered in the most brutal way imaginable for their meat, which is sold for human consumption, often mis-labelled as 'whale meat.' Between October 2004 and March 2005, 1,165 dolphins were slaughtered in drive fisheries.

Unscrupulous dolphinariums financially support the hunts by buying live dolphins - usually young females - from the fisherman to be used for captive display. These animals witness the screaming slaughter of their close family group, in a sea turned red with blood, before being transported off to live the rest of their lives confined in pools as ‘entertainment’. Between October 2003 and March 2004, 78 dolphins were captured during the drive hunts and sold to dolphinaria.

Click on the link at the bottom of the page to find out more about the dolphin drive fisheries and their connection to the captive display industry.

WE NEED YOUR HELP TO STOP THIS

Orca Network has joined a group of over 55 organisations around the world who are opposed to this slaughter. All the groups are supporting a day of peaceful protest in cities around the world, including London, Paris, Washington DC, New York and Brussels, to let the Japanese Government know that dolphin drive hunts are simply not acceptable to the international community.

The protests will take place outside Japanese embassies around the world on September 25th; after the drive hunt season in Japan begins.

Please join us on the day and help us make a stand against this senseless slaughter!

Posted by runi0008 at 5:43 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

This was extremely interesting to me because it is in the form of a blog, and I haven't read too many blogs before. I chose this as East Asia instead of China because Tibet wants to be its own country, and doesn't consider itself China.

Everyone is talking about the uprising in Tibet. A producer from the CBC called me to be a guest to discuss the subject on the early morning radio show “The Current.� He paired me up with an animal liberation activist, Jerry Vlasic, who was chosen specifically because he supports the use of violence. Maybe he wanted me to attack this guy, but I thought he defeated himself without any help from me.

Still, I was surprised at the initial question that the host, Anna Maria Tremonti, asked me: “Some of the critics of the Dalai Lama say that his tactics are not good enough — that nonviolence is not getting them anywhere.�

“I think you have to acknowledge, � I replied, “that they haven’t made much progress. On the other hand, the use of violence is bound to be suicidal in that situation. In the long run they are going to be crushed. I wouldn’t say that the strategy that the Dalai Lama has used is the most promising. But he’s both a religious leader and a political leader. Mixing up politics and religion is problematic. He may be right when he says that he will step aside as a political leader – in fact, he says he’s semi-retired anyway from his role as a political leader.

“But they do have a prime minister and a parliament. The Tibetans in exile do have a democratic government that they could be using. That’s where I think there could be more leadership. There hasn’t been the kind of leadership that could be done if they had really good strategic planning. That’s what’s going wrong now because there had not been any effort to organize a strategic nonviolent campaign.

“You have to think of it as equivalent to a war. It’s a long-term effort to accomplish certain goals. If you go about it in a very strategic way — deciding what your goals are, and identifying the sources of power that the Chinese regime depends upon so as to hold other people in place (for example, the military, but there are other sources of power that they use too), identify the places where changes might be made to overcome those sources of power, then you have the possibility, over a long term, of making a real difference.

Anna Maria asked: “You’re talking about strategic actions, but still nonviolent?�

“Absolutely nonviolent,� I said. “What is going on now in Tibet is an expresssive outburst. It’s not coordinated. It’s not organized. Nobody’s in charge. People are simply fed up and they’re going out an doing random activities that kind of get their tension out of the way, express their feelings, but that’ not useful. In the long term what you need is carefully developed strategy, which would require people to get together and discuss what their goals are – and it’s quite possible that right now they would need to change their goals. Originally the goal was for independence, then autonomy...�

At that point Ms Tremonti brought Vlasic into the conversation, asking him whether he thinks it’s time to bring violence into this. He replied that there has never been a successful nonviolent movement, for the oppressor never gives up his power. He insisted that we love violence: the bludgeoning of baby seals proves that people are willing to use violence. “But,� he said, “there can be no moral objection to the use of violence for self-defence or for the defence of children, animals, or peoples such as the Tibetans or Palestinians. Violence is a necessary strategy in every successful liberation movement. There’s always a Malcolm X behind every Martin Luther King. In the case of Mahatma Gandhi, there was plenty of violence going on in the background in the struggle for Indian independence. Every one of these liberation movements has required the use of violence in self-defence. The Chinese are using massive amounts of violence. The Israelis are using massive amounts of violence against Palestinians.�

“Let’s talk about that,� interrupted Anna Maria. “because I don’t see an Israeli-Palestinian solution coming from the violence on either side. Metta Spencer, do you agree that there has been absolutely no place where nonviolence has worked?�

“Oh, sure,� I said. “There are lots of places. The point is that lots of times nonviolence is taken up by people in situations just because they can see that they have no opportunity to use violence. It’s not necessarily an ethical decision. It’s based on the fact that they don’t have any weapons or something of that kind, so they have to resort to nonviolence. But that doesn’t mean that it doesn’t work. Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn’t.�

Anna Maria asked, “Can you give us some examples of where it has worked?�

“Take 1989,� I replied. “All around the world Communist governments simply walked away. They said, ‘Here are the keys. You take over!’ Sometimes there wasn’t a drop of blood shed. In that case, these were street demonstrations, which spread around the world. We could watch it in one country one night and then the next night people in the next country would imitate it. It went like dominoes toppling over.

“So, yeah. Lots of times nonviolent methods are used in situation where violence absolutely would not work. And they vary in effectiveness. I think the main thing to realize is that an expressive action – just going to the streets and setting fires or standing in front of a tank — that’s really a rare thing, to stop a tank. Mostly the tanks will run over you. So to plan a real resistance, a real revolution from the people, you have to coordinate them.

“And sometimes it would be smarter instead of going out and having a demonstration, to tell people to stay home that day. They are much less likely to get killed and it will make a big impact. People will see that there’s nobody on the streets that day.�

That’s as far as the conversation got. Anna Maria ended it before I had a chance to give any examples. I had meant to talk about the way certain strategists had planned their movements astutely — such as in Ukraine’s Orange Revolution. Long before the people gathered in the city square to protest against the rigged elections, the organizers had been calculating ways of undermining the sources of power on which the authoritarian regime depended.

The main tactic was to talk the army into supporting the opposition movement instead of the government. There were two especially brilliant innovations that Anika Binnendijk described in her study of the movement. First, the “Pora� organizers approached some former military officers who had been discharged. One respected admiral, in particular, was disgusted with Kuchma’s regime. He was glad to join the opposition movement, and to recruit his old colleagues who were still in the military.

Second, a year or two before the rebellion, the organizers went to the wives and mothers of the officers and persuaded them that their cause was just. Then, when the people were summoned to the square to protest against the fraudulent election, these women came and joined them. During the first week, those women were there, serving tea pleasantly to everyone. No wonder their husbands and sons were unwilling to obey orders and fire on the crowd!

That’s strategic planning! Probably the Tibetans cannot copy these particular tactics. For one thing, they would not succeed with a nonviolent protest in a city square. There will have to be other methods — probably mostly symbolic ones at first. For example, under the Communist regime, the Polish Solidarity movement did such things as create their own postage stamps to put on letters. And they organized “flying university classes� in private homes, which met in a different home each week to keep from being attacked. Sometimes they would have people put a candle in their front window on a given night, just to show each other how numerous they were. On one occasion, they commandeered the electric scoreboard of a soccer stadium and during the game flashed their own message in bright lights to the people. They did not pit themselves against the military, but they showed the Soviet bosses that the regime was not considered legitimate. Eventually the unnerved Communists gave up power without a struggle.

And to accomplish any kind of progress, The Tibetans need to analyze the vulnerabilities of the Chinese and the resources that are available. A nonviolent movement, like a violent one, needs the leadership of a brilliant strategist. A revolution is not an amateur sport. You need a good coach. I hope they find one.

Posted by fitzg126 at 6:20 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

This article initially caught my eye because it's about kids getting involved with nonviolence, but it's also interesting because it's a direct protest about the war in Iraq, and then talks about the strengths and weaknesses of that approach.

Look at the strengths and weaknesses of non-violent conflict resolution.

Learning aims

* Benefits of non-violent conflict resolution

* Limitations of non-violent conflict resolution

Icebreaker

Draw a flow chart to show the stages of the war with Iraq.

Start with "Al-Qaeda decide to attack America" and continue the story from there.

Feedback loop
At any point where violence is used you can draw an arrow that takes the path back to the start of the flow chart. The idea is to show how just one angry individual can mount an attack that starts a new cycle of violence.

Vicious cycle
The longer you continue the story the more arrows you will have going back to the start, this increases the chance of further conflict. Explain that this 'vicious cycle' is one reason why some people favour non-violent conflict resolution.

Main activity

Strengths and limitations of non-violence
Through discussion or by preparing a poster or essay students weigh up the pros and cons of violence and non-violence in conflict resolution. Some possibles are shown below.

For each bullet point they should think of an example to show why it is a strength or limitation. The first three have already been done:

Strengths of non-violence
# No human life lost (hospitals bombed)
# No destruction of property (cities in ruins)
# No civilians involved (refugee crisis)
# No damage to environment
# Breaks the cycle of violence Limitations of non-violence
# No rapid response to a threat
# Negotiation can take years
# Wrongdoers may go unpunished
# Non-violence may be seen as weakness
# Irrational people will not negotiate
# Looking weak may prompt more violence

Extension activity
Students produce two cycles, one vicious (downward cycle) and one 'virtuous' (upward cycle). They are to be based on violent and non violent resolution to a conflict from their school life or local area.

Plenary
Recap on the main teaching points and discuss any consensus reached.

Teachers' Background

Click here for our Iraq special section

* Over 500 pupils marched to 10 Downing Street in London and held a sit-down protest, blocking the gates.

Click here to watch our debate on Iraq

* Arabs and Israelis have fought five wars in the last fifty years.

* 3500 people have been killed in Northern Irelands 'troubles'.

* Between 60,000 and 200,000 Iraqi troops were killed in Operation Desert Storm in 1991.

Turn this into an assembly

* This would work well with readers standing in a circle to physically represent the stages of a vicious cycle of violence.

* The action moves anticlockwise getting worse for a couple of rotations as violence produces more violence.

* Then positive actions are used to halt the cycle and reverse its direction, this time positive action fosters an air of trust.

* To keep the cycles relevant to young people it would be best to use fictional events from the daily lives of children in Northern Ireland or Jerusalem (not political events).

Posted by fitzg126 at 6:16 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

This article is good because it discusses a movement printed about in 2005, but the movement talks about its aim in the 2008 presidential election.

Moscow, 15 April: The new democratic and anti-fascist youth movement, Nashi, intends to eliminate the "regime of oligarchic capitalism".

Speaking at a congress of initiative groups to set up the movement, Marching Together leader Vasiliy Yakemenko who was today elected one of the new commissars or leaders of the new Nashi movement, read out its manifesto, which states: "The elimination of the regime of oligarchic capitalism is a necessary consideration of further modernization."

The text of the manifesto says that the "regime of oligarchic capitalism was created by the previous generation of political, administrative, economic and cultural leaders".

"Our generation does not intend to preserve it. On the contrary, we must eliminate it since this regime is in essence not fair or free and lacks solidarity. It maintains a weak and ineffectual state that is incapable of protecting the country's national sovereignty and the safety and rights of its citizens. It destroys social solidarity and enshrines inequality of opportunity for specific social groups," the manifesto says.

At the same time, the document says, "the first person to issue a genuine challenge to the regime of oligarchic capitalism by strengthening the state was Vladimir Putin". "Putin was first to state Russia's claims to world leadership in the 21st century. However, the impulse engendered by Putin encounters rabid resistance from opponents at home and abroad. At home it is supporters of the regime of oligarchic capitalism and political feudalism who are stopping the modernization of the country and abroad it is impeded by opponents of the country's gaining economic and politic strength in the global arena," Yakemenko said, quoting the manifesto.

"In this situation the Nashi movement will support Putin. This will not be support for Putin as a person but support for his political line which aims to preserve the country's sovereignty, implement its economic and political modernization, ensure its stable and non-violent development and its achievement of future global leadership," the manifesto stresses.

The movement's activists believe preserving the country's sovereignty and integrity is another important condition of modernizing Russia.

"We see Russia as a society where people are able to unite to solve common problems independently but without coercion or quotas. Freedom, justice, cooperation - these are our ideas about a future Russia," says the manifesto read out by Yakemenko.

Among the Nashi movement's tasks is the formation of a functioning civil society as well as the prevention "of the expansion in the country of the ideas of fascism, aggressive nationalism, religious intolerance and separatism that pose a threat to Russia's unity and territorial integrity".

Yakemenko also said that the movement intends to be one of Russia's main political forces in the 2008 presidential election. "We will take part in the presidential election as one of the main political forces and as for the parliamentary election, we'll just wait and see," he told a news conference during a break in the constituent congress.

In addition, he said that Marching Together would hold an election of a new leader in the next two weeks. At the same time Yakemenko let it be known that Nashi and Marching Together will not merge into a single structure and Marching Together will continue with its existing programme.

Speaking of the possibility of turning the movement into a party, Yakemenko said: "If it's necessary, then yes."

Posted by fitzg126 at 5:57 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I found this online blog site that had an online petition asking bloggers to sign up to formally denounce the Japanese government's harvesting of whales for research purposes.

This is my version of a blog petition.

I hope to get 1000 bloggers to add their blogs to the 1000 Blog Protest Against The Slaughter Of Whales campaign.

If you find this photo distressing then please add your blog. At the very least you will get a link back to your site.

No strings. You do not have to a write a post pointing to this post (although any promotions for this campaign would be welcome).

To join this campaign just leave a comment with the blog URL(s) you want linked. Please also leave your country so that I can sort all the blogs into regions.

Join the Blog Against Whaling Campaign

By adding your comments to this page you are agreeing to have your blogs URL placed on the Blog Against Whaling Blogroll.

By adding your comments to this page you are supporting the call to stop all harvesting of whales in the name of research by the Japanese government.

By adding your comments to this page you condemning the slaughter of this baby whale along with all other whales.

Posted by hardx006 at 7:13 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Eleven Jewish souvenir sellers staged a small demonstration on the border between Rome and the Vatican State last Saturday in protest against their expulsion from St Peter’s Square after many centuries.

ROME (EJP)---Eleven Jewish souvenir sellers staged a small demonstration on the border between Rome and the Vatican State last Saturday in protest against their expulsion from St Peter’s Square after many centuries.

Waving an Israeli flag and some small banners, the street vendors asked to be again allowed to sell their momentos within the territory of the Holy See.

After negotiations with the Italian and the Vatican police, three of the vendors decided to picket the entrance to St Peter’s Square for a few hours.

The Vatican prefect pledged to meet with his Rome colleague in order to tackle the vendors’ requests.

Of the existing 113 licenses that allow souvenir selling in Rome, 112 belong to Jewish vendors.

The profession dates back dates to the pontificate of Paul IV (1555-1559).

While confining the Jews to the Rome ghetto, the pontiff allowed them to exercise minor street trades.

When Italy unified in 1870 at the expenses of the Pope’s temporal power on Rome, Jews turned into souvenir sellers after obtaining ad hoc licenses from the Italian civil authorities, while some were granted such right directly from the Vatican authorities.

The "urtisti" – literally those who bump into the tourists -, deal in small plaster statues, crucifixes, rosaries and pictures of saints and Popes still nowadays.

Until December 2007, the Jewish sellers were allowed to work on the entire territory of Rome, and part of them directly on St Peter’s Square.

A week ago however, the Vatican City governor, Cardinal Giovanni Lajolo, banned all traders from the Baroque Bernini columnade, upsetting the Jewish sellers who claim to have been licensed by a Pope many hundreds of years before.

Lello Zarfatti, chairman of the ‘urtisti’ association told the the Italian daily Il Corriere della Sera: "I have been selling my souvenirs in St. Peter’s Square in the last 50 years thanks to an oral permission then granted by a Vatican prefect. On December 8, 2007, they told us we can no longer sell within the square, but we are only asking to keep working honestly."

Riccardo Pacifici, Rome’s Jewish community spokesperson, took a public stand in favour of the souvenir sellers explaining that "of the 9,000 Jewish families living in Rome, at least 400 hundred engage in street selling activities.�

He added: “Therefore, any restrictive measure taken against this kind of trade may become a great tragedy for our community.� T

The city’s chief rabbi, Riccardo Di Segni, is reportedly also backing the "urtisti".

Around 15,000 Jews live in Rome

Posted by hardx006 at 7:01 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

This article outlines the problem with old growth logging in Scandinavia and also outlines some efforts environmentalists are taking to stop it.

https://webapps.d.umn.edu:2443/login?url=http://proquest.umi.com/pqdweb?did=592394831&sid=7&Fmt=3&clientId=3285&RQT=309&VName=PQD

They Speak for the Trees: Finnish Environmentalists Work to Stop Relentless Old-Growth Logging

Copyright Earth Action Network, Inc. Jul/Aug 2000

By appearance and reputation, Finland is resplendent in its verdant natural beauty. A flat country with expansive marine clay plains, low plateaus and small hills, fully 76 percent of the nation is covered by dense forest and woodland areas. More than 180,000 sparkling lakes and nearly as many small islands dot the picturesque landscape.

Nature, it has always seemed, has been high on the list of Finland's priorities. The oldest nature protection areas were established 60 years ago, and the environment itself has formed an integral part of Finnish national pride.

But Finland's reputation as an environmentally responsible country--and as a bona fide pioneer in sustainable commercial timber production--has been tarnished amid the accusations that most of its old-growth forest has been chopped down in a frenzied pursuit of logging dollars.

The heavy toll that state-authorized old-growth forest logging has taken on the biodiversity contained within Finland's unusual boreal and hemiboreal ecosystems has sparked mounting public outcry, and has generated ongoing campaigns from a wide array of Finnish and Scandinavian environmental organizations.

"In Finland, many species have become extinct and more than 700 old-growth, forest-dependent species have become endangered as a result of logging," says Mila Hulsi-Heathfield, a Finnish campaigner with Greenpeace Nordic in Stockholm. "Regardless, the logging of old-growth forests continues. Only roughly five percent of Finland's old-growth forests are left, and half of that is at risk of being logged right now." According to the Worldwide Fund for Nature of Finland, threatened animal species include wolves, bears, lynx, otters, flying squirrels and forest reindeer.

Much of the remaining old-growth forest is situated on land owned by the state-owned Metsahallitus, or Forest and Park Service (FPS), which has managed forests in Finland for the past century. Responding to a public outcry, the Finnish Council of State designated a new old-growth forest protection program in 1996. This program now covers a total land area of 850,000 acres, according to the FPS. But half of the remaining old-growth forests were left outside of the protection program, says Matti Liimatainen, forest campaigner for the Finnish Nature League (FNL).

Not so, counters Juha Makinen, director of communications for FPS. "All old-growth forests are protected," he says, adding that the battle now is over "second-class" forests that are lacking the ecological characteristics that would designate them as old-growth.

The FPS itself is split into various departments, including its Forestry Unit (which oversees forest management and logging), and the Nature Protection Unit, which has often worked in concert with environmental groups.

"One in 15 of Finland's known species is threatened," the FPS Nature Protection Unit says in its own materials. "Almost half of these species are threatened because of forestry practices." Finnish environmental groups have responded to the crisis with demonstrations (including one organized by the ad hoc Artists for the Old-Growth Forests), civil disobedience, letter-writing efforts and multilingual Internet campaigns.

A sparsely populated, headstrong republic that won its independence from Russia in 1917 and suffered through its share of subsequent national struggles, modern-day Finland--a nation slightly smaller than the state of Montana--can boast of a stable parliamentary democracy (with a female president) and social welfare programs. The nation's highly literate, cellphone-dependent, computer-savvy population numbers just barely above five million.

Urban dwellers typically make annual treks to commune with nature during the warm, luminous summer months. The strong connection that Finns appear to feel toward their environment has also been evidenced by the long-standing popularity of recycling, low-impact hiking and camping, and a preponderance of natural, non-toxic household cleansers and unbleached paper products.

But as the nation recovered from a deep recession in the early 1990s and embarked on an upward climb toward a new-found affluence, some of those common-sense, environmentally friendly consumption patterns have lost ground. In addition, the historically government-subsidized forestry industry is credited with helping to build Finland's national economy. Today, that industry generates a significant portion of the nation's $43 billion export economy. Currently, over 50 percent of FPS' annual timber yield is sold to two dominant Finnish-based forestry corporations, Stora Enso and UPM-Kymmene.

Recent merger acquisitions have pointed to the fact that these corporations are aiming for a more heavy global presence in the forestry industry.

Earlier this year, Stora Enso acquired a rival North American papermaker, Consolidated, for $4.84 billion. In another trans-Atlantic forest-industry merger, the Finnish company UPM-Kymmene acquired the U.S.-based Champion International for a record-breaking $6.6 billion.

But a decreasing number of jobs in the timber- and paper-producing industry in some rural, economically stagnant towns have left many citizens blaming forest protection efforts rather than increased mechanization, cost-cutting corporate decisions and other factors affecting local economies. "The local people are very tired of the pressure from forest activists," says FPS' Makinen. He was speaking in particular about Kainuu, a fiercely contested northern region of Finland where environmentalists have tried to expand protected forest areas.

Environmental groups in Sweden and Norway are facing similar challenges to those faced by their Finnish counterparts in halting logging in unprotected old-growth forests. "More than 90 percent of the forest land in Norway, Sweden and Finland has been converted to intensely managed secondary forests," says Ola Larsson, information coordinator of the Taiga Rescue Network. The Swedish group represents an international network of environmental groups and indigenous peoples working for the protection and sustainable use of boreal forests.

Environmentalists in Scandinavia stress that the devastation of old-growth forests in boreal regions (Canada, Scandinavia and Russia), feed a non-stop demand for paper products in the developed world. A large proportion of the global trade flow of wood, pulp and paper goes directly from these boreal forests to the three main consuming regions: Western Europe, the U.S. and Japan. Put together, their inhabitants constitute only one-fourth of the global population, yet they consume roughly three-quarters of all the world's paper. CONTACT: For more information about the campaign to preserve species biodiversity and halt old-growth logging in Finland: The Finnish Nature League, +358-9-68-444-20, www.luontoliitto.fi/forest. For more information about logging and other threats to the boreal forests of the world: Taiga Rescue League, +46-(0)971-17039, www.snf.se/trn.

Posted by vinkx004 at 1:46 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I have chosen this article because it covers a topic that i have not posted about and i think i may use it as my reserach topic for my paper. The entry is also about 28 years old so this will provide a wider range of years covered in my total blog. This article is about the first non-communist trade union in a communist country. In the 1980s it constituted a broad anti-communist social movement.

The breakthrough in ending the political monopoly of the PZPR came in 1980 with the emergence of the Interfactory Strike Committee, which rapidly evolved into the Solidarity mass movement of some 10 million Poles. Guided by Lech Walesa, the Interfactory Strike Committee won historic concessions from the communists in the Gdansk Agreement of August 31, 1980. The PZPR granted recognition of the basic right of workers to establish free trade unions, but in return the strike committee agreed not to function as a political party. The workers promised to abide by the constitution and conceded the leading role in state affairs to the PZPR.

Despite the pledges of the Gdansk Agreement, Solidarity did not remain simply a trade union movement. It rapidly changed into an umbrella organization under which a broad range of political and social groups united in opposition to the communist regime. At Solidarity's first national congress in the fall of 1981, the political nature of the movement became explicit. The congress adopted a program calling for an active Solidarity role in reforming Poland's political and economic systems. In the following months, outspoken radicals urged their leaders to confront the communist authorities, to demand free elections, and to call for a national referendum to replace the communist government. The radical challenge precipitated the imposition of martial law on December 13, 1981. Solidarity, now illegal, was forced underground until the late 1980s. Within six months after the start of the Round Table talks in February 1989, Solidarity not only had regained its legal status as a trade union, but also had become an effective political movement that installed Eastern Europe's first postcommunist government.

During its underground phase, Solidarity lost much of its original cohesion as tactical and philosophical disagreements split the movement into factions. The radical elements, convinced that an evolutionary approach to democratization was impossible, created the organization Fighting Solidarity in 1982. Ultimately, however, Walesa's moderate faction prevailed. Favoring negotiation and compromise with the PZPR, the moderates created the Citizens' Committee, which represented Solidarity at the talks in 1989 and engineered the overwhelming election triumph of June 1989. Led by Bronislaw Geremek, a prominent intellectual, the newly elected Solidarity deputies in parliament formed the Citizens' Parliamentary Club to coordinate legislative efforts and advance the Solidarity agenda.

The stunning defeat of the PZPR in the June 1989 parliamentary elections removed Solidarity's most important unifying force--the common enemy. By the time of the local elections of May 1990, Solidarity had splintered, and a remarkable number of small parties had appeared. Because any individual with fifteen nominating signatures could be placed on the ballot, an astounding 1,140 groups and "parties" registered for the elections. In the local elections, the new groups' lack of organization and national experience caused them to fare poorly against the Solidarity-backed citizens' committees that sponsored about one-third of the candidates running for local office.

Despite the success of the Solidarity candidates in the local elections, serious divisions soon emerged within the Citizens' Parliamentary Club concerning the appropriateness of political parties at so early a stage in Poland's democratic experiment. The intellectuals who dominated the parliamentary club insisted that the proliferation of political parties would derail efforts to build a Western-style civil society. But deputies on the right of the political spectrum, feeling excluded from important policy decisions by the intellectuals, advocated rapid formation of strong alternative parties.

Posted by lars3089 at 11:46 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

QuickPost | System Overview | Movable Type Publishing Platform

Most thought that there would be violence but peace provailed as thousands marched on a US base in Italy. Most were outraged that a foriegn army is still able to occupy the state. The other side is that the base provides jobs and a strong economic incentive.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/low/world/europe/6370671.stm

Posted by runi0008 at 10:06 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

QuickPost | System Overview | Movable Type Publishing Platform

I thouht this would be really interesting, since today we briefly touched on something about educational policies, and how they affect each of us. I don't know for sure since i didnt catch the first part of the discussion. IF only we were motivated enough, or mad enough (convictive enough) about something, mabey we could organize to change or educational policies, written at the top only to be passed down with out input. This is an excerpt from another blog in which I found this article.

"Right, Bill. For some reason, Americans seem to think that politics has to be left to the experts after the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November. Policies have consequences, and the French have a long tradition of manifesting their reaction to the policies, even if the experts say it is right."

I believe this man has said everything in the smallest of words.

http://chronicle.com/news/article/3403/student-protests-build-in-france-against-new-higher-education-law

Posted by runi0008 at 9:29 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

This blog did not discuss Scotland in much detail but I thought it was an interesting form of protest coordinated in a complex manor. What they did was clog up highways with large trucks traveling at very low speeds to protest the high gas prices. This article also discusses a pan-European movement to protest high gas prices. Apparently 70,000 Spanish haulers also took part in this go-slow clogging the border with France.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/blog/2008/jun/10/fuelprotestsspreadacrossth

Hauliers across Europe are promising a summer of coordinated fuel protests. We will try to monitor those that are taking place and those that are imminent.

If, inside the cabins of the lorries, any of you hauliers happen to have a laptop and pass a stray wireless internet signal... get in touch (not that I'm encouraging Wi-Fi banditry. Only use the free stuff, of course).

Today brings a fuel protest in Scotland: 100 lorries are crawling along the M8 from Glasgow to Edinburgh.

Earlier this morning, five times that number did the same in Hong Kong: 500 minibuses, lorries, garbage trucks and coaches staged go-slows, or "snail protests", in different parts of the city.

(It's obvious, I know, but in the interests of jargon-busting, both these mean driving vehicles in a convoy of hundreds at a speed of around 10mph. Can you think of a better name?)

Hong Kong's politicians recently scrapped wine duties (in February, it recorded a budget surplus and so enacted some generous but targeted tax cuts). Demonstrators want to know why the goverment can scrap duty on booze, but not on fuel.

The Nepalese have also been protesting today: students in Kathmandu have burned tyres and blocked traffic to protest against a hefty increase in fuel prices.

What's interesting here is that "many" of them (according to a Reuters report) are actually quite keen on a fuel price rise because they hope it will mean "smoother supplies".

Yesterday, the story was the emergence of a pan-European coordinated move against higher fuel prices. About 70,000 Spanish hauliers took part in a go-slow.

It started with Spanish lorry drivers blocking motorways at the border with France - the main routes through to Catalonia and the Basque country - causing 12-mile tailbacks around Madrid and Barcelona.

The Spanish blockade prompted the French to follow suit and as many as 200 French hauliers gridlocked Bordeaux. This particular go-slow caused 20-mile tailbacks.

In Lille and Toulouse, farmers on tractors converged on their respective cities.

This afternoon it emerged that hauliers in Seoul, South Korea, plan to strike over ful prices on Monday.

These protests have not come from nowhere - hauliers and pedestrians alike have been demonstrating in different cities around the world for three weeks already. Where next?

Monday: France will see "open-ended action".

End of June, early July: Italian lorry drivers to strike.

July 2: A mass rally in London.

Here's a map of fuel protests that have taken place over the last three weeks. If you click on the blue tab, you'll get a (short) explanation.

Posted by glass095 at 7:35 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I was drawn to this article because I am very interested in the topic of healthcare and attempts to reform especially in the United States. This mass protest which took place across Russia was to protest welfare cuts by the Putin government. It was very interesting because it mentioned that St. Petersburg was especially important in this protest. As it has been the "birthplace of three Russian revolutions" in the past, St. Petersburg appeared to be keeping up with tradition when as many as 13,000 protesters met at rallies in St. Petersburg.

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2005/jan2005/russ-j27.shtml

Since the beginning of January, a growing wave of protests has developed in Russia against the so-called monetarisation of social security benefits.

Last year, President Vladimir Putin signed several laws which effectively eliminate social security benefits for forty million Russian citizens. These laws have now come into force. Instead of receiving their former subsidies and benefits, those affected—pensioners, the disabled, war veterans, war victims and many others—now receive payments in cash, worth substantially less.

The last three weeks have revealed the profound social discontent which prevails amongst broad layers of Russian society—not just pensioners and the underprivileged, but also students, military service conscripts, and others. The protests give the lie to claims that the population of Russia is passively resigned to its fate and paralysed by official propaganda.

Protests and demonstrations took place over the past week in dozens of cities in different regions of the country. Some 1,500 took to the streets in Pensa, 1,000 in Stavropol, 3,000 in Bijsk in the Altai district, and 1,500 in Novosibirsk. Demonstrations also took place in Kazan, Blagovechensk, Orjol, Kaluga, Tscherepovez, Pskov, Krasnoyarsk and many other cities.

The slogans called for a reversal of the government’s plans for monetarisation, but overt political demands have also become increasingly prominent. There have been calls for the resignation of the government and President Putin, as well as a reversal of all recent social “reforms.�

Developments in St. Petersburg have been characteristic in this respect. This city, the birthplace of three Russian revolutions, saw the largest protests. On January 15, demonstrations and rallies took place at different locations in the city. Up to 13,000 participated at some of the rallies. The demonstrators blocked central roads for a time, including the approach road to the Smolni, the city’s town hall and residence of the governor of Petersburg, Valentina Matvienko, who was elected last year with support from President Putin.

Protesters shouted: “Restore Our Benefits,� “People, Arise,� “Putin and Matvienko Should Resign� and “Hitler Deprived Us of Our Youth, Putin of Our Old Age�. The protesters demanded the abolition of the law for the monetarisation of social security benefits and an increase in the basic pension from 650 to 3,000 roubles (from 20 to 90 euros).

The attitude of many demonstrators was characterised by gritty and desperate determination. Many of those taking part blocked traffic. One journalist reported from St. Petersburg’s most prestigious high street on an exchange between a protesting pensioner and the driver of a street car. “I do not care where I die,� the pensioner shouted. “You can run me over if you want! I do not want to quietly starve to death in my little room. I would rather die in public under a streetcar!�

On the same day, a 79-year-old “worker veteran,� Alexander Aijol, was run down by a car during a protest demonstration in Moscow. “Worker veteran� is the official title for those who have had to carry out particularly hard work. Prior to the new law, they were able to claim additional benefits.

The government was surprised by the extent of the protests and the determination of the participants. It initially tried to deny any responsibility by blaming regional governments, which the central government claimed had failed to correctly implement the laws.

Later, the government responded with a few small concessions. On January 15, Putin came to Petersburg and met with Matvienko to discuss the situation. The same evening the government assembled for an extraordinary cabinet meeting.

The minister for health and social development and driving force behind the new law, Michael Subarov, promised after the meeting to introduce a reduced monthly travel ticket for all pensioners. He also declared that the Treasury would explore the possibilities of equitable financing at the expense of the central government’s budget.

A short time later, the government decided to raise the basic pension from February 1 by around 15 per cent. The government’s original intention was to increase pensions in August by 5 per cent. In addition, the government promised to adjust payments in line with inflation from August instead of starting from January 2006.

These token measures will do little to improve the situation of the poverty-stricken masses. The president of the northwestern federal district, Ilya Klebanov, indicated that from February 1 living costs will rise between 30 and 40 percent. Rates for gas and water will also rise. There is, moreover, little doubt that the government will take the first opportunity to reverse all the promises it has currently made under the pressure of the demonstrations.

The government lacks even the means to realise the concessions it has announced. The central and regional budgets for the year 2005 were finalised on the basis of the law on monetarisation, which had been decided on last summer. Drastic changes in the financial relations between the central state and the regions were bound up with these budgetary measures.

Social security benefits were divided into two categories: central and regional. There are about 14 million persons entitled to payments centrally and 20 million on a regional level. On this basis, far-reaching cuts in social and welfare payments were made in the central budget. Given that 70 per cent of regional households are financed by the central government, it is clear that newly announced concessions will enormously increase expenditures from the central budget.

Minister of Finance Alexei Kudrin reckoned that the additional expenditures would total 100 billion roubles (3 billion euros). At the same time, he explained that payments from the central fund for the reduced monthly travel ticket could be financed only if the regions bore 70 percent of the costs. The majority of the poor regions are utterly incapable of raising the necessary finances. This can only mean that the government’s promise to introduce reduced travel costs cannot be fulfilled.

A further concession announced by the government was the withdrawal of a provision, announced last December by Secretary of Defence Sergei Ivanov, requiring students to serve in the army. This is being withdrawn because the government fears that students could join the pensioners’ protests.

Army conscripts and their families are also significantly hit by the monetarisation of social privileges. The army high command fears that the new measures could lead to a massive exodus of officers and a sharp decline in the number of those training to be officers.

General Vladimir Schamanov, advisor to the head of the government on the social problems of army members and the former governor of the Ulianovsk region, expressed his fear that soldiers might also follow the lead of the protesting pensioners. He suggested postponing the monetarisation until a “political decision has been made in each federation�.

Schamanov, well known for his toughness during the Chechnya war, suggested that dissatisfied soldiers should refrain from protesting and simply leave the army. He had nothing to propose, however, for the thousands of former soldiers who have been disabled in Afghanistan or Chechnya and are now to be denied access to medicine and treatment in sanatoriums and health resorts.

The protest wave has provoked a political crisis. Some parliamentary groups—including the Communist Party and the Party “Rodina� (Homeland)—demanded the resignation of the government. But this demand, should it come to a vote, is condemned in advance to failure. The majority in the parliament is controlled by parties supporting the president.

President Putin has refused to fire any cabinet members. The government has tried to play down the significance of the protests while slandering those who have taken part. In his customary unrestrained and cynical manner, Prime Minister Michael Fratkov explained that the discontent of most of the protesters was due to their “problematic psychological state�.

Economics Minister German Gref said the monetarisation of social benefits was being carried out by means of “the mildest measures which are available to us.� He added, “Every big change in any country is always painful.�

For their part, the deputies of the Kremlin’s governing parliamentary group “United Russia� explained that “only a handful of dissatisfied people expressed displeasure in the protests. That is a minority. The majority of the former beneficiaries support the law to monetarise privileges.�

Meanwhile, “free market� liberals are exerting pressure on the Kremlin to refrain from any concessions. In a January 20 commentary entitled “Rendezvous with Pinochet,� the Internet newspaper Gaseta.ru accused the government of “weakness�. As a role model, the article cited the government led by Yegor Gaidar at the beginning of the 1990s, during the period of “shock therapy.�

Some prominent commentators, such as Liliya Schewzova of the Moscow Carnegie Centre, observe “accumulating signs of a systemic crisis� and note the sinking popularity of Putin in opinion polls.

An inquiry conducted by the Levada Centre reported that 52 percent believes the country is headed in the wrong direction, while just 35 per cent believes it is on course. In 2003, the percentages responding to the same questions were reversed.

The government fears that discontent could grow, demands could assume increasingly radical forms, and further layers could follow the protesters and take to the streets. With increasing regularity the government and police have been arresting the most active pensioners and members of different parties and organizations taking part in the protests.

On January 15, the correspondent of the newspaper Citizen’s Voice, Alexander Laschmankin, was arrested and brutally beaten up by police in the city of Samara. He is accused of “violating the law of assembly and distributing leaflets�.

The public prosecutor of the Samara region, Alexander Yefremov, explained to journalists: “We will undertake a criminal prosecution on the basis of the organization of non-authorized demonstrations.� The head of the regional government, Sergei Sytschev, described all those who called on citizens to demonstrate as extremists and urged that the authorities not “give way to their provocations�.

Also on January 15, ten representatives of political parties and organizations supporting the protests were arrested in St. Petersburg. Two of them were not arrested at demonstrations, but much later, in the proximity of their dwellings. In Perm, three people were arrested; twelve in the Moscow suburb of Chimki; and seven in Gatschina, in the Leningrad area. These are only the arrests that have been reported in the press.

In the autumn of last year, parallel to the new laws on monetarisation, the government passed a law substantially tightening rules for demonstrations. Utilising this new repressive legislation, the Kremlin is responding with batons and detentions to the entirely justified demands of Russian citizens for an increase in wages, pensions and other benefits. This can only serve to strengthen the resolve of the masses to fight for their interests.

The current social protests reveal characteristics that are new for post-Soviet Russia. They are taking place independently of the direct influence of the Stalinist parties; the majority of the protesters do not support openly nationalistic slogans and they are supported by social layers which up to now have not been directly involved in oppositional political activities.

Posted by glass095 at 7:14 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Post your entries on East Asia by 5pm on Weds, Oct 8th.

Posted by ashuster at 6:50 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Why rioters in France burn so many cars: It vents anger -- and attracts the media.

Mark Landler, Craig Smith, New York Times

Sunday, November 13, 2005
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The last time France was convulsed by rioting as serious as the current bout -- the student revolts of 1968 -- the symbol of the insurrection was a paving stone, which the protesters dug out of the streets by the hundreds to hurl at the truncheon-wielding police officers.
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This time around, it is a burning car. More than 7,000 vehicles have been set ablaze since the civil unrest began in the suburbs of Paris on Oct. 27, 2005.

Unrest continued to percolate through poor, predominantly minority neighborhoods across France on Saturday, though there were no signs that the arson attacks would reach into the heart of the capital, as had been feared.

Police have invoked emergency measures in Paris, banning unauthorized gatherings until this morning. Officers fanned out across the city to guard landmarks such as the Eiffel Tower and the Champs-Elysees and to patrol subways and trains.

The precautions were taken after police intercepted calls for "violent actions" in Paris that had been posted on the Internet or passed by text messages to cell phones. Emergency measures also were invoked in other cities, notably Lyon and its suburbs.

Since the wave of violence started, the daily damage report posted by the French police has been a car owner's nightmare: 502 burned on Friday night, 463 the previous night, 482 the night before that, and so on.

No other country in Europe immolates cars with the gusto and single-minded efficiency of France. Even during tranquil periods, an average of 80 vehicles per day are set alight somewhere in the country.

"Burning cars is rather typically French," said Michel Wieviorka, a French sociologist who has studied the phenomenon. "The last two weeks have been unusual, but it is more common than people realize."

The practice, he said, goes back to the late 1970s, when the suburbs began to seethe. Parked cars made an inviting target for gangs of young men nursing a grudge and hungry for attention.

"It is very easy and quite spectacular," Wieviorka said. "Set a fire, and the whole world watches you. It calls the attention of the media, and when the media comes, the politicians follow."

Today, the image of a car in flames is emblematic of France's restive suburbs, with their disaffected populations, predominantly French of African descent.

But wrecking cars speaks to more than a simple urge to deface property or demand attention. Cars offer -- and symbolize -- mobility, Wieviorka said, something that the residents of poor housing projects lack in French society.

Still, burned cars are a fraction of the cost of the mayhem. The French insurance industry estimated the total damage so far at $235 million, of which only $23 million was damage to cars.

As a 26-year-old of Senegalese descent who gave his name as Djibri noted, burning a car is less harmful than attacking people, and besides: "What else are you going to burn?"

This article appeared on page A - 19 of the San Francisco Chronicle

Posted by dahls044 at 5:34 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Here is a blog from H. Alan Scott, a self-proclaimed pro blogger. He talks some about how France uses its right to protest so much and so spiritedly, he wonders why America does not use the right to protest in the same way, for example, burning cars.

By halanscott | May 7, 2007

When the French protest they don’t hold anything back. In fact most countries protests are much grander than what we consider a protest here in America. Yesterday after the election of the new French President, Nicolas Sarkozy, protestors were very vocal against the results. The police reported that at least 400 cars were burned. 400 cars burned!

In America we burn flags, bras, even draft cards (FYI - check out the new book by Christopher Buckley, Boomsday. In it the main character, a blogger with immense power over her readers, suggests for them to burn their Social Security cards in protest against the Baby Boomers eating up the Social Security money. Great read, check it out.), but to actually burn cars? Looking at footage from other foreign countries we see them burning all sorts of stuff, tearing down statues, even killing people. Why are we, a country that relishes in the Constitutional right to protest, so tame when it comes to protesting?

Our right to protest is such a given and we jump at the chance to protest just about anything. Here in New York City the Rev. Al Sharpton has a protest at least once a month. Union Square, the meeting grounds between the East and West Villages always has some sort of protest happening (however it’s usually in a foreign language, which frankly kind of ruins their chances of having much of an impact on the majority of the English speaking New Yorkers passing by). The city hands out protest permits as often as parking tickets.

I love that we have the right to protest, I do. But we’re so stuck on a “peaceful protest� that I just long for a good car burning, you know? I guess it’s true, we always want what we can’t have. C’est la vie!

Send me an email at TheScottBlog@gmail.com

Posted by dahls044 at 5:29 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Post your entries on Western Europe by 5pm on Mon, Oct 6th.

Taxis in Paris block the streets

Critical Mass Die-in in Paris

Posted by ashuster at 6:48 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I thought it was interesting to compare the movements in South Africa with the situation in the Middle East. A way to compare how similar methods work differently in different places.

http://www.iht.com/articles/2004/08/31/edcook_ed3_.php

Posted by gaje0013 at 4:11 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

A girl was attacked for wearing a miniskirt. In response there was a wave of women support of the girl causing protests and marches.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/7276654.stm

Posted by gaje0013 at 4:08 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Nothing like cartoons to get people up in arms. I enjoy that the show is so contraversial globally.

http://digg.com/world_news/Crowd_Protest_in_Russia_Against_Banning_of_South_Park_PICS

Posted by gaje0013 at 4:04 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I found this and thought I'd let everyone know. It's the same day as the homecoming games.

"OCT. 11 PLANS: Our next big protest will be on Saturday, Oct. 11. The plan is to gather at the Leif Erickson Park on London Road in Duluth before noon. From 11:30am to noon we'll have music for those assembling, then at noon we'll march to the MN Power Plaza for a rally with speakers. We voted to invite Frank Boyle, Mike Jaros, Kathy Heltzer, Chelsa Nelson and a laid off Duluth librarian as the speakers. Bob K. will be the rally MC. We also adopted a flier for the event. If you would like to help distribute fliers send an email to wainosunrise@yahoo.com"

http://northlandantiwar.blogspot.com/

Posted by adams504 at 1:12 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

I chose this article because this article is a good example of corruption that occurs daily in countries around the world. This article is about a group of 50 men who where sleeping in the main square and police beating the protesters with batons to break up the protest.

NAZRAN, Russia, Sept 2 (Reuters) - Police in the southern Russian region of Ingushetia used batons to break up an anti-government protest on Tuesday, two days after an opposition leader died in police custody.

Ingushetia lies next to Chechnya and North Ossetia at the heart of Russia's north Caucasus. Bombings, murders and police crackdowns have wracked Ingushetia over the last 12 months and analysts say the instability could spread.

Magomed Mutsolgov from the Ingushetia-based human rights group Mashr said police arrived at around 5.30 a.m. (0130 GMT) to disperse a crowd of around 50 men who slept in the main square in Nazran, Ingushetia's biggest city.

Police declined to comment.

The protest started on Monday during the funeral of Magomed Yevloyev,

The authorities have tried this year to close the site -- one of the few unofficial sources of information.

Yevloyev died in police custody on Sunday from a gunshot wound. Police said he was shot after lunging for an officer's gun, but his supporters and human rights groups said they do not believe that explanation. (Writing by James Kilner in Moscow; Editing by Catherine Evans)

Posted by lars3089 at 4:34 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

This article outlines protests of President Putin that took place during one of the 2007 elections in Russia. It is interesting for a few reasons. The activists were only a few hundred strong and did not receive much press coverage because of the lack of support they have. But, they pursued their cause nonetheless, despite apparent random beatings by police and also many arrests.

Protests, rallies and arrests: Russia gears up for election

By Shaun Walker in Moscow
Monday, 26 November 2007

With a week to go to Russia's parliamentary elections, police have detained a host of opposition activists and politicians at a series of protest rallies in Moscow and St Petersburg.

A few hundred metres away from where the Bolsheviks stormed the Winter Palace in St Petersburg and set off the October Revolution 90 years ago, a group of opposition activists gathered yesterday in Palace Square to call for a new revolution against the rule of Vladimir Putin. But these would-be revolutionaries have little support among the public and almost no access to the Russian media to put their message across. Only a few hundred people turned up to the Sunday morning march to shout slogans of "Russia without Putin!" and of these, more than 100 were detained, according to reports from the scene.

The small number of dissenters didn't stop the authorities from taking a harsh, seemingly disproportionate response. The protesters, as is usual for such events, were outnumbered by riot police, who dished out apparently random beatings.

Those arrested included Nikita Belykh and Boris Nemtsov, both leaders of the Union of Right Forces party (SPS), which is the only liberal party with even the faintest hope of breaking the 7 per cent barrier required to make it into the next parliament. Mr Nemtsov had been nominated on Friday as the party's candidate to stand in presidential elections in March.

That SPS was taking part in the march at all shows how much the Kremlin has stifled mainstream political debate in the run-up to the election season. Many leading figures in SPS were members of the reformist cabinets of the 1990s, the policies of which many Russians blame for economic hardships.

Mr Nemtsov himself was once deputy prime minister of Russia, and Anatoly Chubais, another SPS leader, is head of UES, the state-controlled electricity giant. Recently, the party has become more critical of the Kremlin, but it is only now that it has started taking to the streets.

The party has reported crushing pressure from the authorities in the run-up to next Sunday's vote, with its candidates threatened, and campaign material seized on suspicion that it may violate "extremism" laws.

A spokeswoman for Yabloko, the other major Russian liberal party, told Associated Press that several party members running in next Sunday's vote had been beaten and detained in St Petersburg.

Notable absentees from the march in St Petersburg were the leaders of the Other Russia coalition, Garry Kasparov, the former world chess champion now one of Mr Putin's harshest critics, and Eduard Limonov, who heads the banned National Bolshevik Party. The two men were detained at a similar rally in Moscow on Saturday. Unlike SPS and Yabloko, Other Russia is not even on the ballot for Sunday's elections, having been denied registration.

Mr Nemtsov was released on Sunday afternoon, but a spokeswoman for Mr Kasparov confirmed late on Saturdaythat the activist had been sentenced to five days in jail, for taking part in an illegal demonstration. Other opposition figures were detained at the Moscow march, where there were reports of police violence.

The crackdown on opponents comes amid a concerted Kremlin effort to promote the elections as a referendum on Mr Putin's time in power. United Russia, the party he now leads is expected to win an overwhelming victory. Mr Putin is constitutionally barred from a third consecutive presidential term but is expected to continue his influential role in Russian politics.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/protests-rallies-and-arrests-russia-gears-up-for-election-760493.html?service=Print

Posted by vinkx004 at 5:09 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

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Hundereds march for the first time. I find it interesting that the story starts out with the story of a man who had never before challenged Russian policy. As a vetren it would be safe to assume that he was a loyal socialist. This is why i perhaps believe that he chose to protest against the elimination of many socialistic programs. It shows a deeper current below the free Russian system which shows people are still socialist and not yet willing to let go of a promising old system.

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/01/16/international/europe/16moscow.html

Posted by runi0008 at 1:17 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

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Police beat protesters as they protest the killing of a man by police wildt in police custody. Goes to show all those who protest are not always protected from absolute state abuses in power.

http://www.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idUSL264063120080902?feedType=RSS&feedName=worldNews

Posted by runi0008 at 1:04 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

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My last blog entry was on a hunger strike. I thought to my self that it would be somewhat ironic and well funny if there has recently been a hunger strike with in the country of Hungary. I did find one story, and it highlighted the importance that one individual alone can have by hunger striking, and how failure is a part of the civil movement for change.

Doctor's hunger strike fails to win funds
http://www.bmj.com/cgi/content/full/316/7125/91/b

Posted by runi0008 at 12:50 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

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My last blog entry was on a hunger strike. I thought to my self that it would be somewhat ironic and well funny if there has recently been a hunger strike with in the country of Hungary. I did find one story, and it highlighted the importance that one individual alone can have by hunger striking, and how failure is a part of the civil movement for change.

Doctor's hunger strike fails to win funds
http://www.bmj.com/cgi/content/full/316/7125/91/b

Posted by runi0008 at 12:50 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

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My last blog entry was on a hunger strike. I thought to my self that it would be somewhat ironic and well funny if there has recently been a hunger strike with in the country of Hungary. I did find one story, and it highlighted the importance that one individual alone can have by hunger striking, and how failure is a part of the civil movement for change.

Doctor's hunger strike fails to win funds
http://www.bmj.com/cgi/content/full/316/7125/91/b

Posted by runi0008 at 12:50 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

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I really wish Americans would have banded together against unfair electoral counting like the Madagascarians had. Mabey we would have been better off for the past eight years. The people of Madagascar turned of in the millions to protest a corrupt government power grab by an incumbent presidential canidate.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/1801649.stm

Posted by runi0008 at 12:21 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

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It is truely amazing that police in South Africa would feel threatend enough to open fire on protestors demanding that the government do more to help in fight against AIDS. The main issue here was antiretroviral treatment for persons with HIV/AIDS.

http://www.hrw.org/english/docs/2005/07/13/safric11326.htm

HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH. ORG

Posted by runi0008 at 12:09 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)