World Social Struggles Newswire Archive

Yo I'm reposting this great letter to a Chancellor at an American university from someone on her staff (or how much longer is an open question I suppose).
For all it's problems, at least the Occupy is bringing out the contradictions inherent in repression of peaceful protest .. and I guess that's good.
Context -  http://www.salon.com/2011/11/20/the_roots_of_the_uc_davis_pepper_spraying/singleton/

Today, seven judges of the Kuala Lumpur War Crimes Tribunal sat to hear formal charges against former President of the United States George W. Bush and former United Kingdom Prime Minister Tony Blair for Crimes Against the Peace.

But before the actual proceedings could get underway, Defense Counsel Team Leader Jason Kay Kit Leon charged one of the Judges with bias. Prosecutors characterized the allegation of bias and request for recusal as a "surprise" attack for which the Court had not had the opportunity to prepare.

November 17, 2011

As I begin to write this, Occupy Oakland circulates in a by-now familiar pattern: forced from the camp at the break of day, the occupiers reconvened as they have done before on the steps of the Public Library. Later, they will attempt to close a repeating circuit that stretches a short six blocks along 14th Street between City Hall and the Library.

This circuit, moreover, is one which draws its familiarity not only from recent weeks, but also from the early moments of what is a single cycle of struggle spanning years: it was down 14th Street that Oakland Police pursued us during the first rebellion, on January 7th of 2009, that greeted the murder of Oscar Grant. And it was in front of the same Public Library that I crouched behind a bush as an armored personnel carrier sped past, only to sprint off as heavily-clad militarized police-troops dismounted to chase myself and others on foot.

It has become all too apparent that the Occupy Movement is under attack, and that even my title is wholly insufficient: this war is not “coming,” this war has already begun.

December 1 – December 31 2011

Everywhere!

Join us in December for a month of protests, actions and demonstrations against poverty pimps Atos and the condem government’s Welfare Reform Bill.

 http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=122853381158514

Remember, remember, the second of November -- and what needs to be done a lot better the next time around...

The sickening November 15 police raid on Occupy Wall Street, complete with videotaped beatings,cries out for payback. Late afternoon the same day, Occupy DC stormed into the Victor Building on 9th st, housing the DC offices of Bloomfield Office properties, "owner" of Zucatti Park the home base of Occupy Wall Street.

Occupy DC's arrival seemed to take Bloomfield by complete surprise, as the door was unlocked, allowing protesters to swarm into the building, reinforced lead banner and all, until no more would fit in the first floor hallway. I do not know if anyone tried to get upstairs or otherwise further into the building to the actual offices of Bloomfield Office Properties.

Billy Bragg spoke and sung a few songs at Occupy Sheffield on 14th November 2011.

Groups of Palestinian Freedom Riders will attempt to board segregated settler buses heading to Jerusalem through the occupied West Bank this Tuesday November 15, in an act of civil disobedience that takes its inspiration from the US Civil Rights Movement Freedom Riders aim to challenge Israel’s apartheid policies, the ban on Palestinians’ access to Jerusalem, and the overall segregated reality created by a military and settler occupation that is the cornerstone of Israel’s colonial regime.

One thing the papers seem to be as one refusing to comment on or even report, is the fact that an unelected group has been handed control of the country. Economist and new ruler of Italy Mario Monti has not been elected to rule and the Italian public has in no way endorsed the technocratic model, Monti, or his cronies.

Translation of an article by Jaime Martínez Veloz, originally published in the Mexican daily newspaper La Jornada.
Governments give everything to the transnationals again.

Simon Kirby mp covers up Sussex Police Corruption. Simon Kirby mp said he would help a 76 year old man who is very sick who expose a major case of Police Corruption

Among others .. extreme right wing .. members of the Greek national Front LAOS are appointed ministers in the new Greek government of the 'appointed" banker Mr Papadimos as prime minister

A diplomatic, economic and military noose is being steadily tightened around the Islamic Republic of Iran.

On the diplomatic front, the U.N.'s nuclear watchdog International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) is about to release its latest report on Iran's nuclear program, a program Iran insists is solely designed to produce electricity and not atomic or nuclear weapons, as is claimed by the United States and other Western powers.

According to a Nov. 6 story by the Reuters news agency, the report is tentatively scheduled to be submitted to IAEA member states on Nov. 9. That report “is expected to give fresh evidence of research and other activities with little other application than atomic bomb-making, including studies linked to the development of an atom bomb trigger and computer modeling of a nuclear weapon.”

Such “evidence” would give the U.S. ammunition to pressure the U.N Security Council to impose a fifth round of economic sanctions against Iran, or even help justify a military attack by Israel, the United States, the United Kingdom or all three countries, all of which have developed contingency plans for just such an attack.

Day of action against capitalist urban development and gentrification

What we are seeing is a well-orchestrated clampdown on alternative culture. Again. By the Tories. Again.

We need to keep our eyes peeled.

This is a message to the revolutionaries on Tahrir Square from a rainbow warrior in Europe. You might doubt whether there is something useful to say from that position, but so did I before I found myself in the middle of the struggle for the freedom of our hearts and minds. You might also question whether there is anything worth to be squeezed through the prisoner dilemma that is between all of us, but so did we before we took up our last battle against the regimes we had found in our lives. Please take the time to listen to a few words from the deep woods – because as the old poem goes, after the oppressors have spoken the oppressed are going to speak.

There is now grave concern for the health of a group of indigenous people who are on hunger strike and fast in prisons in Chiapas, SE Mexico. They believe they are innocent, and their convictions false

The native people from Tzalbal, Guatemala recently discovered that their land has been nationalised in 1984. At that time during the counter-revolutionary war their region was struck by genocide. The article explains how through laws and violence the state appropriated indigenous land.

Focussing on Canada's Tar Sands this week, we examine the murky reality of 'free trade', and interference by the Canadian Government in the European Climate Change legislation. Who makes and enforces these agreements, and who benefits? We look at how the SPP is being revamped for re-introduction after concerted efforts to kill it by citizens' action groups.

The jailed Egyptian revolutionary Alaa Abd El Fattah has written a secret letter from his prison cell, accusing the country's military rulers of murder and lamenting what he views as the army's hijacking of the revolution.

The letter, produced covertly from inside Bab el-Khalq prison where Abd El Fattah is being held, was handed to his pregnant wife, Manal, during a visit on Monday. It is being published in Arabic by the Egyptian newspaper al-Shorouk and in English by the Guardian, and is likely to intensify the growing divisions between Egypt's increasingly repressive army junta and pro-change activists on the street.

Abd El Fattah, one of Egypt's most prominent anti-regime voices and a former political prisoner under the Mubarak dictatorship, was taken into military custody on Sunday evening following public criticisms of the army's conduct on the night of 9 October, when at least 27 people were killed during a Coptic Christian protest in downtown Cairo.

Like many other activists, Abd El Fattah accused the army of direct involvement in the bloodshed, a claim that appears to be supported by extensive witness reports and video footage. He was charged by military prosecutors with "inciting violence against the army", and is being held initially for 15 days – a detention period that can be renewed indefinitely by the authorities. His arrest has provoked outrage across the Middle East and beyond.