Democracy Now!
I find myself in a rather strange situation. I am in the midst of approximately 300 people at a demonstration in the Northern Iraqi city of Sulaymaniyah. Massoud Barzani, president of the Iraqi Kurdistan Region, had just signed the demonstration law, which parliament sent to him for approval. The law makes spontaneous demonstrations or assemblies
One World South Asia, December 20, 2010The murder of environmentalist Amit Jethwa for campaigning against forest encroachment exposes the urgent need for legal redressal to protect the voices of whistle blowers in India, who are risking their lives ...
DW World, December 17, 2010Most asylum seekers in Germany live below the poverty line, with around half of them housed in overcrowded hostels. In Bavaria, asylum seekers are on hunger strike to highlight the conditions they have to live in.
From asharq alawsat By Waleed Abdul Rahman Cairo, Asharq Al-Awsat – A fatwa issued in Egypt calling for the death of Dr. Mohamed ElBaradei, former Director-General of the International Atomic Energy Agency and Egyptian political opposition figure, has stirred religious and political controversy across Egypt. Al-Azhar scholars have described this Fatwa as being “reckless” whilst
Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and rightdoing, there is a field. I will meet you there. When the soul lies down in that grass, the world is too full to talk about language, ideas, even the phrase each other doesn’t make any sense. — Rumi Toward the end of Homer’s Iliad, a formative work for
Militaristic types with zero connection to the human emotional content in conflict scoff at the notion that anything except violence can keep us safe from the Taliban. A derisive snort would be the best one might hope for from those folks. Their attitu...
Over 150 peace activists and members from the group Veterans for Peace have been arrested in front of the White House in an attempt to bring public dissent to the forefront regarding the wars and dehumanizing actions of the US government., including Code Pink, World Can’t Wait, and Dan Ellsberg. These direct action demonstrations are
Posted first on HuffingtonPost.com Though outgoing Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi has insisted that there just isn’t enough time for the lame duck Democratic-controlled Congress to consider much of the progressive legislation on the docket prior to the Republican takeover early next month, she and other Democratic leaders did find time last Wednesday to pass a resolution condemning efforts by Palestinian moderates to seek recognition of a Palestinian state alongside Israel.
While delegates at the UN climate conference in Cancun were busy saving the 20-year climate negotiations from imminent collapse, climate activists set about reminding the moribund media of what’s at stake if politicians continue to drag their feet. As the Los Angeles Times wrote last week: In Cancun, if the delegates negotiated behind closed doors,
Around 10,000 of Thailand’s “Red Shirts” gathered in Bangkok Sunday to mark seven months since a deadly military crackdown on their anti-government protest. Up to 40,000 opposition activists rallied in central Minsk on Saturday to call for longtime authoritarian leader Alexander Lukashenko to step down. By late Sunday, police had cleared Independence Square of all
Corporations have taken not just the right to influence lawmaking—with fifty-six paid lobbyists now in Washington for every elected officeholder—but even the right to initiate and organize lawmaking to benefit them.--Frances Moore Lappé, Democracy...
By Rebecca Wexler in JakartaGlobe The furor over the purloined cables released by WikiLeaks has now produced the first global Internet civil-disobedience movement. The online picketing of business Web sites like MasterCard and Visa has not only shown the power of online volunteers, but also the contradictions in Western democracies that preach press freedom abroad while
People power v money powerWhat happens when representatives from grassroots movements actually impress their opponents enough to do what Dr. King named as the purpose of direct action, that is, to get to the negotiating table? Do they then play hardbal...
If you’re interested in taking part in the Global Day of Listening to Afghans with the Afghan Youth Peace Vounteers, you can listen to a live broadcast on Afghans for Peace TV above, which is steaming now. It is a unique opporunity to hear directly from the Afghan people about what they want and how
In an unprecedented ruling, a Danish judge has told police to pay activists tens of thousands of pounds. Bibi van der Zee, Guardian.co.UK Danish police have been ordered to pay tens of thousands of pounds compensation to hundreds of climate protesters, after a court ruling today. The unprecedented ruling coincides with the release of an audio
At the New York Times City Room blog, religion reporter Paul Vitello writes about a new ad in the middle of Times Square: Into that bazaar of mass preoccupation, half a dozen members of an organization called Muslims for Peace fanned out Friday, smiling and offering their wares. They belonged to a sect, the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community,
