Note: In the spirit of Arab Spring and the Occupy Movement’s Western Fall, we are going to show a music video a day until this weekend from the prolific songwriter and singer, David Rovics. Rovics has been compared to the late Phil Ochs who attacked the establishment with his words and music. Today’s video is about the beginning of the uprising in Tunisia. Thursday and Friday we will post music videos about Bradley Manning and John Brown. We hope you enjoy David’s music. Some of us have known David for years. In Rostock, Germany during the G8 in 2007, David, Morrigan Phillips and GJEP’s Orin Langelle were a three person affinity group during the first mass march. We could say more, but we’ll leave it at that. We hope you enjoy the videos and music of David Rovics today through Friday.
-The GJEP Team
Tag Archives: protests
Music Videos from David Rovics for the Occupy Movement: Tunisia, Bradley Manning and John Brown
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Filed under Corporate Globalization
In Celebration of Guy Fawkes Day and Night [videos]
Remember, Remember the Fifth of November…A post for the Occupy Movement in Oakland, Wall Street and everywhere to those struggling for freedom!
Note–Most of you are familiar with the mask on the left especially since Occupy Wall Street began. In fact I took that photo at Occupy Burlington. They are showing up all over the world at various Occupations. Also it is one of the symbols used by the Anonymous hackers’ collective.
It’s a Guy Fawkes mask. Below are two videos, one embedded and the other a link to YouTube (it’s worth it). They are from the movie “V for Vendetta” which already is a classic in many circles. Go ahead and enjoy– it is Guy Fawkes Day and Night!
–Orin Langelle from GJEP
Brief Background: The Guy Fawkes celebration’s history begins with the events of 5 November 1605, when Guy Fawkes, a member of the Gunpowder Plot, was arrested while guarding explosives the plotters had placed beneath the House of Lords.
The Gunpowder plot was to blow up the House of Lords during the State Opening of England’s Parliament on 5 November 1605, as the prelude to a popular revolt… Fawkes became synonymous with the Gunpowder Plot, the failure of which has been commemorated in England since 5 November 1605. At that time, his effigy was burned on a bonfire–primarily by people in Great Britain who disagreed with him.
Now many people who oppose neoliberalism, fascism and other injustice celebrate November 5th for Fawkes’ spirit of revolt and for freedom against tyranny with a bonfire and fireworks.
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Filed under Actions / Protest, Climate Change
March & Rally in Solidarity with Oakland General Strike in Burlington, VT
Photos by Orin Langelle for Global Justice Ecology Project
Burlington, VT–Several hundred people marched and rallied in support of the Oakland General Strike, while expressing their outrage at the current state of affairs in Vermont and elsewhere. The march was led by unions along with Occupy Burlington participants, students and supporters. The march left from the Occupy Burlington encampment in City Hall Park, stopping at the University of Vermont (UVM) library, where the AFL-CIO and the Industrial Workers of the World met up with United Academics. The group then invaded the UVM’s administration building where a coffin was placed in the halls at the Day of the Dead altar, representing the death of the soul of UVM, whose last president received hundreds of thousands of dollars when he left the university after his wife was involved in a sex scandal. UVM has a history of letting high level executives go with giant severance packages while UVM employees and teachers salaries stagnate and student tuitions go up – exacerbating the debt load on graduates.
Protesters then marched back to City Hall and held a speak-out on its steps adjacent to City Hall Park where the Occupy Burlington encampment is. There was a unanimous call for solidarity with the Oakland General Strike and in protest of last week’s police brutality in Oakland, including the injuring of Iraq Veteran Scott Olson. The failure of capitalism was strongly critiqued by the speakers as a failed system where workers suffer to make the rich richer. There was talk of a potential occupation of UVM as this crisis escalates.
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Filed under Actions / Protest, Corporate Globalization
OAKLAND GENERAL STRIKE TODAY
Video from Al Jazeera about the Oakland Occupation below
NOTE: GJEP stands in solidarity with the Oakland General Strike. Shut it Down. We will provide coverage today, including photos and commentary later in the day from GJEP’s Communication Director, Jeff Conant, who runs GJEP’s Oakland office. Of course that depends on what occurs during the General Strike and Jeff’s access to upload to Climate Connections. Last night GJEP’s Anne Petermann and Orin Langelle did a Non Violent Direct Action training for Occupy Burlington. Occupy Burlington will have a march and rally today in solidarity with the Oakland General Strike. It will be an interesting day. The video below is from Al Jazeera English:
Protesters in Oakland, California are planning to try and shut down the city’s port – the fifth-busiest shipping container port in the United States, in what they are calling a general strike on Wednesday.
The protesters are part of the ‘Occupy’ movement sweeping the world in which people are rallying to stop, amongst other things, corporate greed.
Al Jazeera’s Rob Reynolds reports from Oakland.
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Filed under Actions / Protest, Media
“Blood on the Tracks”: Brian Willson’s Memoir of Transformation from Vietnam Vet to Radical Pacifist from Democracy Now!
Note: Waking up this morning to Brian Willson being interviewed on Democracy Now! had great meaning for me. Many years ago, around 1996 or so, I received a letter from Brian urging that the group I then worked with, Native Forest Network, to please get involved in the effort to stop the destruction of Nicaragua’s Bosawas Rainforest which was, at that time, the largest intact rainforest north of the Amazon. We did become involved and I’ve been to Nicaragua many times. In 1997 we had a major victory for the Bosawas jungle when we worked with Mayangna People to stop a 150,000 acre illegal logging concession on their ancestral lands. Thanks to Brian, I became so active in the region that I co-founded a new organization: ACERCA (Action for Community and Ecology in the Regions of Central America) in 1998. I first met Brian in La Realidad, Chiapas, Mexico where the Zapatistas held the “First North American Encuentro” in the spring of 1996. GJEP’s Anne Petermann and I have visited with Brian many times since then on both coasts of the US–though not recently. It was great to see Brian again today, albeit via satellite dish. I encourage you to watch this interview and learn of Brian’s remarkable journey of personal discovery and resistance to the dominant paradigm–including the infamous incident in 1981 when he lost both of his legs after being run over by a train that he was blockading. The train was carrying munitions to the Contras in Nicaragua in a US-backed attempt to overthrow the Sandinista revolution that had ousted the long stranglehold of the Samoza family’s regime.
Orin Langelle for the GJEP Team
Click here for today’s Democracy Now! interview with Brian Willson
Also, Climate Connections featured Blood on the Tracks: The Life And Times of S. Brian Willson on June 17, 2011.
Filed under Actions / Protest
Urgent: Occupy Oakland Brutally Repressed – Please Take 1 Minute to Send a Letter to Mayor Quan – more photos added
Note: We just received an email from a friend asking to please sign a petition to Mayor Quan protesting the police violent raid of Occupy Oakland and subsequent attack of last nights protest. We’re not too much on petitions, however this will send an email to Mayor Quan:
http://www.change.org/petitions/demand-mayor-jean-quan-stop-the-police-repression-of-occupy-oakland
You can also call Mayor Quan at 510.238.3141 and express your outrage. As of 10 am eastern time her voice message box was filled. I was going to congratulate the Mayor for following in the footsteps of the late Mayor of Chicago, Richard J. Daley. Daley’s police violent actions against people protesting the Viet Nam war during the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago helped turned an entire generation against the established order. I watched on TV as the police brutally attacked demonstrators, turning the streets bloody. “The whole world is watching!” chanted the people on the street. That changed my life. Yesterday in Oakland chants rang out as some of those arrested were taken away: “Let them go! Arrest the CEOs!” So hat’s off to Mayor Quan for helping turn another generation against the established order.
-Orin Langelle for GJEP
Please see: Riot Police Fire Tear Gas at Protesters in Oakland, CA-Occupy Oakland- (Dramatic videos, photo & reportage)
Also from earlier yesterday: Occupy Oakland Violently Evicted…for Now (article and photos)– Report and photos by Jeff Conant (GJEP’s Communications Director)
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Filed under Actions / Protest
New Trial Begins Against Copenhagen Climate Activists
Note: Stine and Tannie are good friends of Global Justice Ecology Project. We got to know them through the year and a half of organizing meetings under the “Climate Justice Action” umbrella in preparation for “Reclaim Power” action at the UN Climate Conference in Copenhagen in December 2009. We deplore the fact that they are being scapegoated and charged under Danish anti-terrorism laws. Stine and Tannie are participants in our New Voices on Climate Change Program. We stand in solidarity with Stine and Tannie and echo the demand that all of their charges be dropped. We will post updates and action alerts as we receive them.
–The GJEP Team
From the Climate Collective
With the beginning of the new trial, Climate Collective expresses once again its solidarity and support to the climate activists Stine and
Tannie that are facing charges in relation to the ‘Reclaim Power! Pushing for Climate Justice’ action that took place during the protests
against COP15 in 2009. Stine and Tannie acted as spokespersons for the Climate Justice Action (CJA) network, communicating and explaining the Reclaim Power! action to the media. Reclaim Power was built and planned on consensus in open, international meetings that took place before and during COP15 in Copenhagen. Climate Collective finds it outrageous that two activists are made responsible for the actions of an entire movement.
After being sentenced to four months on probation, yesterday the appeal case started at the second court level. Climate Collective support Stine
and Tannie’s position and demand once again for all charges to be dropped. The trial will continue until mid next week and it is not yet
clear when a final verdict will be announced.
Updates on the court case will be posted on climatecollective.org in the coming days.
More info on the previous court case can be found at these links:
http://www.climatecollective.org/post/118
http://www.climatecollective.org/post/151
In solidarity,
Climate Collective
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Filed under Actions / Protest, Climate Justice, Copenhagen/COP-15
BP executives brace for a stormy meeting with shareholders
Note: Check back in with Climate Connections later today to listen to Suzanne Dhaliwal, co-founder of the UK Tar Sands Network, speak on KPFK Radio’s Sojourner Truth program about today’s protests.
–The GJEP Team
_________________
Cross-posted from the Independent
Scores of people plan to protest today at the oil firm’s AGM
The Deepwater Horizon oil rig burning after last year's explosion in the Gulf of Mexico
By Michael McCarthy, Tom Peck and Sarah Morrison
Annual general meetings are sometimes stormy affairs, but the tempest swirling around the London AGM of the oil giant BP this morning looks unprecedented.
At least half a dozen vociferous and angry groups are set to lay siege to the British Petroleum board and its American chief executive, Bob Dudley, when they go through the annual ritual of facing their shareholders at the Excel convention centre in London’s Docklands.
Fishermen and women from the Gulf Coast in the United States who were hit by the oil spill that followed the explosion of BP’s Deepwater Horizon rig will be joined in protests at the meeting by indigenous communities who are angry about the company’s involvement in tar sands extraction in Canada.
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Filed under Actions / Protest
