protest

‘Police Are Throwing Bodies in the River,’ Say Native Protesters

LIMA - There are conflicting reports on a violent incident in Peru's Amazon jungle region in which both police officers and indigenous protesters were killed.

The authorities, who describe last Friday's incident as a "clash" between the police and protesters manning a roadblock, say 22 policemen and nine civilians were killed.

But leaders of the two-month roadblock say at least 40 indigenous people, including three children, were killed and that the authorities are covering up the massacre by throwing bodies in the river.

Posted in Indigenous peoples, mining, oil, protest, Peru

Peru: Police, Indigenous Indians Clash in Protests Over Resources

Up to 20 people are thought to have died in the Peruvian Amazon during clashes between police and indigenous Indians protesting against oil and gas exploration on ancestral lands.

Indigenous leaders told AP news agency that 15 protesters had been killed in the unrest, while officials told local radio that five police officers died.

The confrontation apparently began before dawn on Friday in Bagua in the rainforest where companies want to develop oil and natural gas projects, media reports said.

Posted in Indigenous peoples, oil, protest

Big Oil Meetings Draw Activists, Some Protest Votes

SAN RAMON, Calif./DALLAS - Chevron Corp shareholders rejected a call for an environmental protection report on its operations, disappointing activists and funds worried by a $27 billion damages claim against it in Ecuador.

The closely watched proposal at its annual meeting on Wednesday, for a report on protection of people and the environment in countries where it operates, had 7 percent support from shareholders, the oil company said, citing preliminary results.

Posted in oil, protest

Amazonian Indigenous Protest Provokes Peruvian Government Reprisals

LIMA, Peru - After more than six weeks of protests by Peru's Amazonian indigenous groups that have included blockades of major roads and waterways and the shutting down an oil pipeline pumping station, the Peruvian government has begun to crack down.

During the past two weeks, the administration of President Alan Garcia has declared a state of emergency in the country's Amazon provinces, issued a decree allowing the military to help the national police maintain order there, and charged the protest's leaders with crimes against the state.

Posted in deforestation, Environment, Indigenous peoples, oil, protest, Peru

Afghan Students Protest Against Civilian Casualties

$University students shout slogans against US and foreign troops during a demonstration in Kabul. Hundreds of Kabul university students labeled the United States \"the world's biggest terrorist\" Sunday as they protested against US air strikes said to have killed scores of Afghan villagers. (AFP/Massoud Hossaini)$

KABUL - Chanting "Death to America!" and weeping as they prayed, hundreds of Kabul university students marched on Sunday in protest against U.S. air strikes last week that Afghan officials say killed more than 100 civilians.

Washington has acknowledged that some civilians were killed during a battle in which its aircraft bombed Afghan villages.

U.S. forces have not said how many people they believe were killed and have blamed Taliban insurgents for firing from the rooftops of homes where civilians sheltered.

Posted in civilians dead, protest, Afghanistan

Where was Tikkun Olam at the AIPAC Conference in DC?

This past Monday morning as I walked briskly with a mass of well-dressed, mostly Jewish people headed into a huge auditorium room, I felt as if I could have been one of a horde of Jews rushing to get into our synagogue to pray on Rosh Hashanah. On any other day, I may in fact have seen the same people at synagogue, but on Monday, we were headed somewhere very different: The 2009 AIPAC (American Israeli Public Affairs Committee) Policy Conference at the Washington Convention Center. Once inside the big room the synagogue-going feeling disintegrated.

Posted in aipac, protest, Israel/Palestine

Health Care Activists Disrupt Senate Finance Committee Hearing

Health care activists disrupted a Senate Finance Committee hearing Tuesday, standing up one after the other as Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.) tried to restore order.

As soon as police escorted one protester out of the room, another would stand up, criticizing the committee for convening a panel of 15 experts and excluding witnesses who support creating a Medicare system for all Americans. About eight were led out of the hearing.

Posted in healthcare, protest

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
May 2, 2009
7:16 PM

CONTACT: Peace Action

Jonathan Williams, Coordinator, Student Peace Action Network (SPAN), (443) 474-8919 cell, SPAN@peace-action.org
Pat Elder, Peace Action Montgomery County, 202-210-3467
Paul Kawika Martin, Political Director, 951.217.7285 cell, pmartin@peace-action.org

Seven Arrested at Philadelphia Mall Over Military Recruiting Practices

300 Veterans, military families, religious leaders and voters rallied, marched and closed the "Army Experience Center" to decry the Army pilot program that entices teens with violent video games

PHILADELPHIA - May 2 - Several hundred demonstrators from a coalition of 30 national and regional veteran, youth and peace groups, including the Iraq Veterans Against the War, Veterans for Peace, BuxMont Coalition for Peace Action, Student Peace Action Network, protested what they claimed were unethical military recruitment of teenagers at Franklin Mills Mall in northeast Philadelphia.

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Founded in 1957, Peace Action (formerly SANE/Freeze), the United States' largest peace and disarmament organization, with over 100,000 paid members and nearly 100 chapters in 34 states, works to abolish nuclear weapons, promote government spending priorities that support human needs, encourage real security through international cooperation and human rights, and support nonmilitary solutions to the conflicts with Afghanistan, Iran and Iraq. http://www.Peace-Action.org

Peace Action Education Fund's, Student Peace Action Network (SPAN) works with students on over 100 campuses nationwide. http://www.StudentPeaceAction.org

PeaceAction Montgomery, Coalition for Peace Action, Peace Action of Staten Island and BuxMont Coalition for Peace Action are all affiliates of Peace Action and helped organize the protest.

Posted in direct action, military recruiting, protest

May Day Protesters Clash With Police in Turkey, Greece and Germany

$Union members carry banners and flags during the traditional Labour Day march to denounce the government's economic policies in Marseille , May 1, 2009. The banner reads \"They are the crisis, we are the solution.\" (REUTERS/Jean-Paul Pelissier)$

May Day protesters clashed with riot police in Turkey, Greece and Germany yesterday while French unions led their biggest ever Labour Day demonstrations amid growing public anger in Europe at unemployment and the handling of global economic crisis.

Posted in Economy/Trade, labor, protest

Accused BLM Bid Monkey-Wrencher de Christopher Pleads Not Guilty

Tim DeChristopher pleaded "not guilty" Tuesday to disrupting a Bureau of Land Management oil and gas lease auction in December and pledged to use his prosecution to attack policies he says are allowing climate change to careen out of control.

About 200 supporters rallied for the 27-year-old University of Utah student at the downtown Salt Lake City library and marched with him to the federal courthouse, where he was arraigned and his weeklong trial was scheduled to begin July 6.

Posted in Activism, protest