Riot Cops Fire Stun Grenades, Rubber Bullets at World Cup Workers

Riot police fired tear gas and rubber bullets to break up the World Cup’s first episode of crowd unrest – by stadium staff.

Officers wearing helmets charged at least 400 stewards protesting about low wages.

The clashes came after workers refused to leave the ground at the seaside resort of Durban last night, following Germany’s 4-0 win over Australia, claiming they had been underpaid.'

Read more...

Pledges on Protest Rights Overshadowed by Moves Against 'Peace Camp'

A pledge to safeguard the right to protest as part of the "new politics" promised by the coalition Government will be undermined today as a legal challenge begins to remove peace protesters camping outside Parliament.

As part of a Queen's Speech that vowed to restore lost freedoms and civil liberties, David Cameron's administration said it would allow "members of the public to protest peacefully without fear of being criminalised". However, The Independent understands that No 10 was aware of a plan by Boris Johnson, the Mayor of London, to use the courts to remove protesters from Parliament Square.'

Read more...

Anti-war Protester Brian Haw Arrested as Police Clear Parliament Square Ahead of Queen's Speech

Anti-war protester Brian Haw was arrested today as police carried out security sweeps ahead of the Queen's Speech. Mr Haw was seen being handcuffed by police as they cleared the area outside the Houses of Parliament before the monarch's visit this afternoon.

He and other peace campaigners have been camping there and maintaining a 24-hour peace vigil.

Police with sniffer dogs moved in this morning to search the ragtag collection of tents in what Scotland Yard said was a 'standard' security operation.

Mr Haw, who was wearing a grubby T-shirt declaring 'IRAQ 2,000,000 DEAD, 4,000,000 FLED, was allegedly trying to stop them when he was arrested.'

Read more...

Massacre in Thailand and Obama’s Foreign Policy Stance

When the White House is quiet as protestors are butchered in the streets of Bangkok Thailand, suspicions are raised. Silence often equals complicity. One can only imagine what the U.S.’ response would be to a Venezuelan government slaughter: the U.S. media and Obama would loudly condemn such an act, in contrast to the muted response to Thailand’s blood bath.

The history of U.S.-Thailand relations explains why. During the Vietnam War, the U.S. used Thailand as one of the main “anti-communist” bulwarks in an area that included China, Vietnam, Burma, and other countries that were challenging capitalism.

Thailand was thus transformed into a U.S. client state and given money, guns, and U.S. government intelligence to battle Thailand’s “communists.” This relationship has equaled numerous Thai dictatorships that have a very bloody history, including the shooting of untold numbers of protestors that the Thai government named “communists,” or their modern equivalent, “terrorists.”

Read more...

Kyrgyz Opposition Seizes Presidential Building

Protestors have seized the presidential administration building in the capital city of Bishkek and installed their own "people's government," a key opposition leader says.

"Opposition leaders are already in the government palace where a new people's government has been formed," said lawmaker Temir Sariyev.

Sariyev added that Roza Otunbayeva, the former foreign minister has been appointed as the head of the new government.'

Read more...

French Workers Threaten to Blow Up Factory Facing Closure

Workers at a factory facing closure in France have threatened to blow up the plant unless they are given better layoff compensation.

About 50 workers at Sodimatex, which makes car rugs, have been occupying the site in Crepy-en-Valois since Thursday. They are pressuring the company for better compensation.

The employees have placed petrol bombs near a large gas tank and are threatening to set them ablaze.'

Read more...

It's Time to Throw the Golems out with the Bathwater

Now I’m hearing about some kind of national protest for mid-April. That hits right around tax time so I suppose it has something to do with taxes. I don’t know who is arranging this and I don’t know what the intention is but I do know very well that if this protest does not include certain things then it’s a big waste of time.

You want to protest? Do not elect another Zionist to any political office; cut off all funds to Rothschildlandia. Make every lobby connected to ‘chosen people’ interests have to register as agents of a foreign power. Do not elect or allow to be elected, anyone... anyone who is representative of ‘chosen people’ mentality to any government office. Do not pay your taxes at all. Throw a monkey wrench into the system if you are employed in a position to do so. Do not fucking salute. Do not bend over. Do not vote for the new guy who sounds like Chuckie Schumer and who is being pushed on all the sold out alternative news sites as if he were some kind of answer. He works for the same people. He sounds like the same duck that walks like a duck and you had better duck. What’s his name? Peter something. He’s the same garbage acting like the answers. Obama was no different.'

Read more...

Los Angeles Police Beat and Detain British Activist Protesting New War in Yemen

The brief protest occurred near the Federal Building in Westwood, Los Angeles (not on federal property) but within a few minutes LAPD officers had quickly arrived and while not resisting arrest, the activist refused to let go of the red placard that read "No New War In Yemen" and while attempting to exercise his right to freedom of speech, the officers decided to bash his head against the hood of the car and attack his legs with batons.

The activist is a student at UCLA on a scholarship and is currently being threatened with deportation and his family has requested that he not release his name at this moment in time.'

Read more...

The Ongoing Repression of Palestinian Protesters

On a pitch black early December night, seven armored Israeli military jeeps pulled into the driveway of a home in the West Bank town of Ramallah. Dozens of soldiers, armed and possibly very scared, came to arrest someone they were probably told was a dangerous, wanted man - Abdallah Abu Rahmah, a high school teacher at the Latin Patriarchate School and a well-known grassroots organizer in the village of Bil'in.

Every Friday, for the past five years, Abdallah Abu Rahmah has led men, women and children from Bil'in, carrying signs and Palestinian flags, along with their Israeli and international supporters, in civil disobedience and protest marches against the seizure of sixty percent of the village's land for Israel's construction of its wall and settlements.'

Read more...

Copenhagen Talks Tough on Climate Protest Plans

At an abandoned beer warehouse in this city’s Valby district, law enforcement officials have constructed an elaborate holding facility with three dozen steel cages to accommodate more than 350 potential troublemakers during a United Nations climate conference that gets under way here on Monday.

Critics call the holding pens — and a variety of other security preparations made as thousands of government officials, heads of state, environmental groups and assorted anarchists descend on the Danish capital — over the top. The police say the reactions of the critics are overheated, if predictable.'

Read more...

Israeli Delegation Met by Protesters in Melbourne

A high-level Israeli delegation to Melbourne has been greeted with raging pro-Palestinian protesters, forcing the Australian hosts to use an alternative side-entrance for their safety.'

Read more...

Student Protests Continue at California Universities

Student protests at University of California (UC) campuses against the sharp tuition increases continue as university officials threaten police intervention.

Dissident students carried on their demonstrations in Santa Cruz on Saturday after talks with university administrators over the planned tuition hikes failed.'

Read more...

British Soldier Faces 10 Years in Jail After Being Arrested During Anti-War Demonstration

A soldier facing charges of desertion for refusing to return to Afghanistan has been arrested and charged with five further offences after joining an anti-war demonstration.
Lance Corporal Joe Glenton led a protest in London last month against the continued presence of British troops in Afghanistan.
He was already facing a court martial but according to the Stop the War Coalition the new charges carry a maximum of 10 years imprisonment.'

Read more...

Pictures of The Estimated Two Million People on the Washington Protests

See here...

Town Hall Meeting with U.S. Congressman Brian Baird

Canadian Military Quell Staged Protests In Martial Law Training

The Canadian military has taken over a city for three weeks as part of an urban warfare drill that is seeing convoys of tanks rolling down streets, “hollywood” style explosions, and scenarios involving simulated terrorist attacks.

According to one report out of Medicine Hat in Alberta, Canada, the army is also using actors to pose as civilian protesters, who are described as “an environmental insurgency” involved in ” insurgent attacks against the city and military, which the Provincial Reconstruction Team needs to address.”

Read more...

Are You Kidding Me?

I watched closely all the tea parties all over the country Wednesday. What a showing of national pride and solidarity. What a showing of subservient compliance and casual indifference. What a joke.

In Lafayette Park, Washington D.C., of all places to protest, the plan was to dump one million tea bags in the park, but the brave dissidents never did it because they forgot to get the proper permits. Are you kidding me? What is civil disobedience without civil disobedience? They even went so far as to say that they were willing to put down plastic tarps and clean up after themselves.

That’s like saying we don’t agree with your oppressive, unconstitutional despotism of our nation and to show our ire in no uncertain terms we’re going to break public law and disrupt the peace so take that, nah- nah-ne-boo-boo. But don’t worry because we’ll put everything back when we’re done as if nothing happened cuz we don’t want any trouble!

Read more...

Georgian Protests Expand on Fifth Day of Rallies to Oust President

Thousands of Georgians moved their protests to the presidential residence on Monday to press on with demands for President Mikheil Saakashvili to resign.
Opposition leaders said protesters would stay in front of the residence in central Tbilisi day and night until Saakashvili, criticized for last August's war with Russia and authoritarian trends, stepped down.

Read more...

Police Round up 114 Eco-protest Suspects Ahead of Power Plant Demo

Police made more than 100 arrests yesterday in a swoop on environmental protesters allegedly planning to sabotage one of Britain's biggest power stations.

Scores of officers in 20 vans descended on a private primary school and nursery where demonstrators had gathered ahead of what police suspect was a planned mass attack on Ratcliffe-on-Soar power station in Nottinghamshire.

Detectives recovered specialist equipment which they said suggested the group represented a 'serious threat' to the safe running of the coal-fired station, which protesters say is Britain's second-largest producer of carbon-dioxide emissions.

Read more...

Protesters Storm Stage and Interrupt Larry Summers for Conflict of Interest Payments