Slaughter's Notebook
I write at The Indypendent, The Public Record, others. Follow me @DustinSlaughter. Photojournalism at The Slingshot: http://thedavidandgoliathproject.tumblr.com/
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Photo reblogged from The People's Record
June 12, 2012 - Thousands of people gather in Moscow challlenging Putin and the government’s anti-protest bill, a Draconian measure to restrict people from freedom of assembly.
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Photoset reblogged from The People's Record
$28 cabbage, $65 chicken, and other insane food prices in Northern Canada
June 11, 2012It’s not just food, either — necessary sundries like diapers and sanitary napkins are also outrageously expensive. According to one comment on the Facebook group, it’s often more cost-effective to fly to Edmonton, Alberta, do your shopping there, and fly home. (That alone is a pretty good indication that shipping costs are not exclusively to blame.) Meanwhile, a family of four on social assistance in Nunavut would get about $275 to $325 a week for food.
Nunavut residents protested outside their local stores on Saturday, and some are reporting price changes as stores have been shamed into cutting back on their price gouging — at least temporarily. One resident reports on Facebook: “Bought an avocado for 1.99,(was 5.99 for one) green onions 2.19, cranberry juice 4.99 from 18.99.” We’ll see how long that lasts.
There’s a Change.org petition about addressing food insecurity in Nunavut, if you need something to do with your impotent rage, and the Iqaluit food bank is probably taking donations.
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Photo reblogged from The People's Record
Filipino activists don masks of US President Barak Obama (L) and Philippine President Benigno Aquino III (R) during a burning of a mock American flag during a rally against USA’s presence in the country, outside the gates of the US embassy in Manila, Philippines, 08 June 2012. Members of militant group BAYAN MUNA flocked to the US Embassy to denounce the presence of American troops in the Philippines. The protesters in their statement condemned the visit of Pres. Aquino to the United States which further reaffirm Philippines-US ties.
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Photo reblogged from The People's Record
28 protesters arrested near Grand Prix in Montreal
June 10, 2012Organizers of this weekend’s Grand Prix festivities in downtown Montreal saw their worst nightmare play out on Saturday night as protesters and police clashed for two hours along one of the city’s busiest thoroughfares, trapping thousands of revelers in the middle of recurring episodes of chaos.
Police reported a total of 28 arrests.
The night began peacefully around 9 p.m. as a group of about 600 protesters set out from Émilie Gamelin Park near the Berri-UQÀM métro station and made their way west, walking at a brisk pace until they ran into a line of riot police that forced them to turn south. A game of cat and mouse ensued, with officers from both the Sûreté du Québec and the Montreal police force continually blocking access west and pushing the demonstrators further and further south.
At 9:45 p.m., however, the crowd finally managing to dart up toward Ste. Catherine St. W. and into the heart of the Grand Prix party, which at that point was in full swing.
Within minutes, all semblance of order along the already bustling street appeared to collapse.
Traffic ground to a halt and the crowds – party-goers and protesters alike – flooded into the roadway.
Projectiles were thrown at officers and several police vehicles had their windows smashed or were otherwise damaged at the intersection of Ste. Catherine and Crescent Sts.
Police were seen making several targeted arrests within the crowd.
At one point, pepper spray was deployed and a line of riot police advanced on the mass of people who had gathered to watch the confrontation unfold. Panicked, the crowd fled both east and west away from the chaotic scene. One woman was seen cowering behind a jewelry stand. Others could be heard screaming.
Many people, including several children, were overcome by pepper spray that wafted through the air.
Over the next hour, police pushed the crowds back, only to have them advance again several times, ending up right back where the first clash occurred at the entrance to Crescent St. – traditionally the busiest spot downtown during Grand Prix weekend.
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Link reblogged from The People's Record
— A Tunisian journalist said Tuesday he launched a hunger strike on May 28 to defend press freedom after military police seized the cameras he used to film the trial of ousted leader Zine el Abidine Ben Ali.
Ramzi Bettaieb, who works for Nawaat, a collective blog, said his cameras were confiscated on May 21 when he filmed the trial of Ben Ali and 22 co-accused in the northwestern town of Kef over their role in crushing anti-regime protests.
“I am on a hunger strike to defend press freedom, our sole gain in the revolution,” the 36-year-old told AFP.
Ben Ali, who fled to Saudi Arabia after being toppled in a popular uprising last year that sparked the “Arab Spring” revolts, is being tried in absentia.
His co-accused are ex-senior officials being prosecuted for the deaths of at least 22 people during the January 2011 pro-democracy protests in the towns of Thala and Kasserine. Many of the victims died when security forces fired live rounds.
Five other bloggers have joined Bettaieb in the hunger strike.
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Quebec has now sat languidly through weeks of students in the streets, riot cops standing guard here-and-there, smoke-bombed metro tunnels and now envelopes showing up full of baking soda (of terror!)
As the simmering frustration of this past winter pushed through to a spring outright…
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Photo reblogged from The People's Record
Here’s What’s Happening Now in Israel!
June 02, 2012
Today in Israel, thousands took to the street in at least three of Israel’s largest cities, another sign that the energy and organization of last year’s broad protest movement in Israel is reigniting. More than 5,000 took to the streets in Tel Aviv, Saturday’s largest protest.
Protesters were seen holding signs with messages like “Capitalism isn’t kosher,” and “The people demand social justice!”
The 2011 Israeli Social Justice Protest Movement
From July to October of 2011, hundreds of thousands took place in regular protests in Israel often referred to as the “2011 Israeli social justice protests.”
In August and September of 2011, exploded with much larger protests and public support with their tent encampments. The protests paralleled the Occupy Movement and are sometimes included in the movement, referred to as “Occupy Israel,” and “Occupy Tel Aviv.” Whatever the title, the movement expresses the same kind of dissatisfaction with capitalism, the status quo and institutionalized social injustice.
2012
Like the Occupy Movement, things have been quieter for the Israeli Social Justice Movement in 2012 than they were in the second half of 2011. However, over the last month the movement has conducted several coordinated protests, each gaining momentum and progressively getting larger. Today marks the largest coordinated protests from the movement since October of last year.
-R.Cunningham
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See on Scoop.it - Peoples’ Movements and Protest Culture
Everybody is now talking about the student debt crisis, but nothing is being done about it.
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Among the more troubling portions of the training materials are warnings of activists using the Freedom of Information Act, engaging in non-violent civil disobedience, and gathering in coffee shops.
