Tag: protests

I’ve been riveted all day to the news coming via Twitter about Iran.

I seem to recall an election in the US in which there was a similar dispute about who had won.  I don’t recall millions going into the streets.  I don’t recall the “defeated” candidate calling on people to bring on non-violent, silent protests and mass gatherings.  I wish that had happened in the US. But, sadly, it didn’t.  And look what the next 8 years brought.  The Iranian people unlike the US seem to understand the significance and the consequences of a stolen election.  And they appear to want to do something about it.

So it appears that Iran has at this moment a time of both intense risk and enormous opportunity.

As I type this, hundreds of thousands of people are in the streets across Iran because they know that their election was stolen, that their votes were not counted, that the election was a sham, that their democracy has failed them.  They are angry, and they want a restoration of their democracy.  And they are going to demand a fair election and a fair counting of the votes.

How do we in the US support the Iranian People’s Protests?

I turn to you for the answers, for the tactics, for the approach.  The Iranian People’s Protests deserve our support.  Let’s put our heads together.

Here are two small examples of what we’re looking for. Twitter users are being urged to change their location to Tehran and their time zone to GMT +3 to give protection, however slight, to those in Iran who are reporting the news who are being followed by the authorities.  A second example:  Twitter was scheduled for maintenance this evening.  That would have shut off the Iranian news tweets.  Twitter re-scheduled its maintenance.

And now I ask again: what can we do to help?

Update: 6/16/09, 8:40 ET: Green icons for twitter are a click away.

Given what we are seeing with the little Teabaggers the Dog thought that today would be a good day to talk about effective protest and persuasion. There are many tools which we as activist can use. The critical thing is recognizing what works, when it works, why it works and choosing the ones which will achieve our goals most effectively. Today we have seen a failure of epic proportions which will do more damage to the Teabaggers causes (whatever the hell they are) than it will to advance them.

Cross Posted at Square State

Sorry to say, those 3 million people are in France, not the US. Why is it that the French hit the streets while we Americans don’t?  Like the writer of the piece says, “France is France.” I wish Americans hit the streets more often. It might not fix anything in the long run (though it just might), but it sure beats huddling in front of our teevees and just “taking it,” which is what we’re all doing now. If the AIG bonus nonsense was happening over in France, I guarantee there would be about 1.5 bazillion pissed off frenchies outside the corporate HQ setting up Madame Guillotine. As to why we Americans don’t get out there like the French do, I suspect it’s a side effect (a planned side effect?) of the whole “rugged individualism” myth, that toxic, retrograde aspect of the American character that says: I got mine, screw everybody else, and anyway “solidarity” starts with a “s” and so does that there “socialism”, so it’s gotta be bad fer ya.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/eur…

Why is it only in France that such demonstrations are taking place?

After all, it is people the world over who are bearing the brunt of the recession. But they are not on the street.

The answer is simple. France is France. It has its own political and social codes, forged in the Revolution and over the course of two turbulent centuries.

Original article by Christian Wright via counterpunch.com.

Subheaded: And You Should Come Join Us!

cross posted from The Dream Antilles

Mothers’ Day isn’t celebrated in Nepal.  Modern Mothers’ Day began as Women’s Day of Peace.  In  fact, NPK today has posted the stirring 1870 Proclamation.  So it’s a synchronicity that hundreds of Tibetan women in Kathmandu including Buddhist nuns chose today as an all-woman protest against Chinese occupation of Tibet.

Reuters reports:

Nepali police detained 562 Tibetan women at an anti-China rally in Kathmandu on Sunday, the first all-women protest against Chinese rule in their homeland, officials said.

Some shouted “We want free Tibet” while others wept as they were dragged along the road to police vans and trucks and driven to detention centers. Many were wearing black armbands and had their mouths gagged with cloths.

Nepal considers Tibet part of China, a key donor and trade partner, and has been cracking down on protests by the exiled Tibetans against Beijing.

Police said the protesters would be freed later.

Nepal borders Tibet.  More than 20,000 Tibetans have been living in Nepal since fleeing their homeland after the recent failed uprising and China’s crack-down.

“We are not against Nepal. Our protests are against China. So why are they arresting us?” asked a 70-year-old protester who gave her name as Chinjhoke, tears rolling down her face.

According to BBC Nepal

cannot allow Tibetans to demonstrate because it recognises Tibet as an integral part of China.

But the UN says the mass arrests are against the spirit of a society governed by the rule of law.

Today’s protest in Kathmandu followed yesterday’s in which

A group of Tibetan protesters chained themselves together in front of the Chinese Embassy’s visa office in Nepal’s capital, Kathmandu, on Saturday.

Sixteen protesters secured themselves to each other with chains and padlocks at the Chinese embassy in the heart of Kathmandu, and were joined by dozens of other Tibetans who chanted ‘Free Tibet’ and ‘We want freedom.’

Police official Ramesh Thapa says 120 people were detained for defying a ban on demonstrations against China, Nepal’s neighbour to the north.

I don’t think it can be argued that arrests for that reason comply with an acknowledgement of human rights.    Evidently, it’s important to Nepal to mimic Chinese responses to peaceful protest.

I watch all of this with increasing frustration.  I am astonished by the courage of the Tibetan protesters, that they risk so much to bring to the world’s attention their grievances about the occupation of Tibet.  But I don’t believe that what they do will result in action that will change things.  That belief brings me despair.

All I have to offer on this Mothers’ Day is this Metta prayer:

   May all beings be well and safe, may they be at ease.

  Whatever living beings there may be, whether moving or standing still, without exception, whether large, great, middling, or small, whether tiny or substantial,

  Whether seen or unseen, whether living near or far,

  Born or unborn; may all beings be happy.

  Let none deceive or despise another anywhere. Let none wish harm to another, in anger or in hate.”

Just as a mother would guard her child, her only child, with her own life, even so let me cultivate a boundless mind for all beings in the world.

Let me cultivate a boundless love for all beings in the world, above, below, and across, unhindered, without ill will or enmity.

Standing, walking, seated, or lying down, free from torpor, let me as far as possible fix my attention on this recollection. This, they say, is the divine life right here.

May it be so.

Not that this occasion really calls for a present….

However, I would like to take this time to share a video I made this evening from photos I collected from around the tubes…

If you have any you would like to add, put the photo/s in comments.

This is my contribution to the FOW project.

(You may use this video anytime, anywhere, any blog-if you’d like)

Via Raw Story:

Iraq war protesters arrested at IRS headquarters

Police arrested more than a dozen people Wednesday morning who crossed a barricade and blocked entrances at the Internal Revenue Service building, the start of a day of protests marking the fifth anniversary of the U.S. invasion of Iraq.

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Via Docudharma! We’re going to shut down the IRS! MARCH 19, 2008 by: OPOL

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