Reports Of Arrests And Pepper Spraying At Wall Street Protests

pThere have been multiple reports of arrests and pepper spraying of protesters on Wall Street tonight. According to the Guardian, “there’s a flashpoint on the intersection of Broadway and Cedar Street, with reports of a number of arrests. Police have deployed orange netting to contain protesters. Subway trains have been ordered not to stop at […]/p

via Reports Of Arrests And Pepper Spraying At Wall Street Protests.

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Kochtopus: 2,000 Protesters Marched On Koch Industries’ D.C. Office

2,000 Protesters March On Koch Industries’ D.C. Office

Think Progress Mobile- April 4th, 2011 at 3:03 PM by Alex Seitz-Wald

Though they don’t want you to know about it, the billionaire Koch brothers are bankrolling a massive campaign to roll back progressive achievements, and today, labor, civil rights, and climate activists turned out at dozens of rallies across the country to demonstrate against the Koch’s secretive influence in American politics and to stand up for labor and civil rights.

In Washington, D.C. today an estimated 2,000 protesters marched on Koch Industries’ Washington D.C. offices and attempted to give Charles and David Koch an invitation to come out and speak with the protesters. Not surprisingly, the building’s doors were locked and no one was allowed inside. However, a representative from the real estate company which managed the building told an handful of organizers who attempted to deliver the invitation, “I’d be here with you guys if I wasn’t working right now.” Noting that he works for the building, not Koch, he said, “I don’t want to be here.”

The events were scheduled for today because it marks the 43rd anniversary of the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. in Memphis, TN. King traveled to Memphis to support a strike by the city’s sanitation workers, and was an ardent supporter of workers’ rights. Dr. Earl D. Trent Jr., the senior pastor at the Florida Avenue Baptist Church in Washington, told ThinkProgress that if King “were alive today, he would be right here at the forefront, no doubt.” “And that’s why we have to carry this out.”

Watch ThinkProgress’ video report:

Last Thursday, tea party activists rallied on Capitol Hill to pressure Republican lawmakers to cut government spending. Crowd estimates ranged from “dozens” to “fewer than 200,” yet the event attracted dozens of reporters and significant media interest, producing hundreds of stories in local and national press. At today’s rally, which was ten times bigger than the tea party one, ThinkProgress spotted three reporters — none from mainstream publications.

SOURCE

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Rep. Kucinich Fires Up Madison Workers’ Rights Rally

From: UpTakeVideo Mar 12, 2011

Representative Dennis Kucinich, (D- Ohio) attacks Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker for his trashing of workers’ rights. The Governor signed a bill that eliminated most collective bargaining rights for public employees. This “Speak Up For Workers’ Rights” rally happened after a massive protest at Wisconsin’s state capitol.

Kucinich on Obama: “Where is he?”

From: UpTakeVideo | Mar 13, 2011

Rep. Dennis Kucinich spoke with The UpTake after a forum for worker’s rights in Madison, Wisconsin. Asked about President Obama’s absence in Madison, Kucinich said: “He should be here. Where is he? He made a statement that he’s standing behind the workers – he should be standing in front of them. He’s the President. Lead. Show people you’re dedicated to worker’s rights.” Filmed at the Barrymore Theater in Madison, Wisconsin on 3/12/11.Interview by Jacob Wheeler for The UpTake

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Common Sense

By Kathy Malloy | OpEdNews | February 21, 2011 at 18:26:30

There’s a lesson to be learned, Truthseekers, from our former countrymen in Great Britain. The media here isn’t covering this, for obvious reasons, but England is experiencing a very different kind of Tea Party uprising and we would do well to take notice.

Unlike the bizarro backward movement here, where otherwise normal Americans are taking to the streets to protest policies that would further cut their wages, benefits, health care coverage, and public services they rely upon, in England the protests are against (gasp!) the corporations and pro-corporate government policies that are ravaging their economy.

Now, doesn’t it make more sense to speak out against tax-evading Big Corporations who have created the recession than attack the very progressive policies that attempt to improve our standard of living?

Johann Hari thinks so, and that is the topic of his very thoughtful, very important article How to Build a Progressive Tea Party, which appears in the current issue of The Nation magazine. Please read it. In light of President’s Day, Thomas Paine couldn’t have said it better himself.

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Bahrain Security Forces Launch Brutal Assault On Sleeping Protesters, Including Women And Children (VIDEOS)

Bahrain security forces launch brutal assault on sleeping protesters

Crooks & Liars By scarce

February 16, 2011 08:26 PM

More unrest in the Middle East is met with state-sanctioned savage brutality, this time in the smaller but militarily significant (it hosts the U.S. Fifth fleet) country of Bahrain. The video above is just as the police attacked. Two have been verified to have been killed, with hundreds more injured.

via The LA Times:

Security forces in tiny but strategic Bahrain launched a brutal assault early Thursday against at least 1,000 defiant anti-government protesters, including women and children, camped out in tents in the capital’s Pearl Square.

A barrage of tear gas canisters thundered across the square about 3 a.m. as dozens of police cars, armored security vehicles and ambulances converged on a makeshift tent city in the center of Manama that was beginning to resemble a smaller version of Tahrir Square in Cairo, where Egyptian protesters this month were successful in overthrowing their president.

Most of the protesters in Pearl Square were asleep when the assault began, witnesses said, noting that no steps had been taken to guard the area against the security forces, even though two people had been killed in earlier clashes with them.

It’s been speculated that by attacking in the middle of the night there would be no foreign journalists around to record and document the event. ABC News’ Miguel Marquez was there and was beaten, as were hundreds of others. Here is his audio account:

MORE HERE

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Open letter to President Obama on behalf of citizens of Bhopal, India

AP

From a protest in Calcutta

‘Reverse The Out-Of-Court Bhopal Settlement’

Activists write to the US President: ‘Whose ‘ass’ should the citizens of Bhopal kick if governments selectively shield their corporations and officials from legal accountability?’

Abdul Jabbar, et al, Outlook India, June 14, 2010

Mr Barack Obama
President,
United States of America

Dear Mr President Obama,

With a great deal of interest, we have been following your tough stand against BP for the oil spill in the Gulf Of Mexico, particularly your demand to know whose ‘ass needs to be kicked’. We think your demand for corporate accountability for causing huge environmental damages is worthy of emulation by other governments around the World.

May we draw your attention to a bigger disaster that took place in the city of Bhopal in India in December 1984 that has officially killed over 15,000 people (about 25,000 people unofficially) and seriously injured nearly half a million people by now (the situation after twenty five years is attached for ready reference). This disaster was caused by another mega corporate entity called Union Carbide, headquartered in the United States of America, unlike BP whose parent company resides in Great Britain.

Continues >>

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Falk: Israel criminally accountable for the murder of humanitarian aid activists

By Professor Richard Falk (UN Rapporteur for Palestine)

Countercurrents.org, May 31, 2010

This incident should serve as a wakeup call for a complicit international community. There are three political imperatives that need to emerge with a sense of urgency: condemnation of the Israeli attack and an accompanying demand for the immediate end of the Israeli blockade of the Gaza Strip, appropriately by a decision in the UN Security Council; an authoritative launching of an investigation of war crimes allegations against Israel by the International Criminal Court; the widest possible endorsement and strengthening of the already growing worldwide boycott, divestment, and sanctions campaign directed at Israel’s occupation policies in Palestinian Territories.

Continues >>

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Protest Against Arizona’s Sheriff Turns Violent

Thousands protest sheriff’s immigration efforts

Via Raw Story- By The Associated Press
Saturday, January 16th, 2010 — 10:31 pm

PHOENIX (AP) — Ten thousand immigrant rights advocates marched in front of a county jail in Phoenix Saturday in a protest that was aimed at Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s immigration efforts and was marked by a clash between a small group of protesters and police officers.

Organizers say the protest was meant to show officials in Washington that Arpaio shouldn’t handle immigration enforcement, and that Congress and the Obama administration need to come up with a way for immigrant workers to come to the country legally.

The three-mile walk that started in a west Phoenix park ended by afternoon at the Durango Jail Complex, a collection of five jails, where officials played music, including a record by singer Linda Ronstadt, to drown out noise made by protesters. Ronstadt took part in Saturday’s protest.

Protesters chanted “Joe must go” as they approached the jail complex. One person carried a sign that said “We are human” and bore a picture of a lawman with a wolf’s face. A family of five wore T-shirts saying “Who would Jesus deport?”

For his part, Arpaio said he wasn’t bothered by the protesters and that they should be directing their frustrations at Congress because it has the power to change America’s immigration laws.

MORE HERE

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