When this hinge-point in human history is remembered, there will be far more sympathy for the people who took to the streets and rioted than for the people who stayed silently in their homes. Two global crises have collided, and we have a chance here, now, to solve them both with one mighty heave - but our leaders are letting this opportunity for greatness leach away. The protesters here in London were trying to sound an alarm now, at five minutes to ecological midnight.
Eleven arrests were reported before a tense standoff developed between rows of police holding batons and a surging crowd close to the Bank of England.
One man, bleeding from the head, was repeatedly seen to apparently goad officers, who did not respond.
At one point, a black-clad masked man in the crowd struck an officer with a long pole. The officer was pulled away by colleagues and required treatment at the scene.
Crowds reacted to rumours of police movements in an attempt to avoid being encircled, causing more surges in large numbers of people.
Protests dominate the news as world leaders gather in London for the Group of Twenty meeting. War, the economy, corporate globalization and grass-roots opposition to financial bailouts are at the forefront.
Executives receive golden parachutes while workers and unions are forced to make concessions. President Barack Obama has inherited a slew of deep, interlocked crises, yet elicits broad global hope that he can be an agent of change.
On March 12, just one week before the sixth anniversary of the
war in Iraq, Iraqi journalist Muntadar al-Zaidi was sentenced to three
years in prison for throwing his shoe at George W. Bush. CODEPINK
co-founder Medea Benjamin talked about the incident with Hero Anwar
Brzw, a Kurdish Iraqi woman who is getting her master's degree in
conflict transformation at the Center for Justice and Peacebuilding,
Eastern Mennonite University.
Protest and direct action could be the only way to tackle soaring carbon emissions, a leading climate scientist has said.
James Hansen, a climate modeller with Nasa, told the Guardian today that corporate lobbying has undermined democratic attempts to curb carbon pollution. "The democratic process doesn't quite seem to be working," he said.
All of the significant movements for nonviolent social change must at one point cross a line where its goals become aligned with the power of truth. In the incipient movement against climate destabilization and a destructive and dirty coal industry, I believe that line was successfully crossed on March 2. Its significance far surpasses the symbolic victory of blockading the entrances to the Capitol Power Plant.
The great snow storm has passed. The clouds are parting. The sun is
breaking through. Those tiny ripples of hope, that Robert Kennedy once
invoked, are beginning to gather near Capitol Hill.
The Capitol Power Plant: It was built at the same time the first
Ford Model T cars rolled onto the streets. A century later, the Capitol
plant will finally end its use of coal in the age of the iPhone and
Blackberry.
WASHINGTON, D.C.—Just blocks away from Capitol Hill, a new conversation is sweeping the streets. Within the crowded sidewalks and cafes along H and 7th Streets, certain words likely will catch your ear: environmental sustainability, green economy, direct action, colonization, coal power plants and capitalism.
WASHINGTON, D.C.—Just blocks away from Capitol Hill, a new
conversation is sweeping the streets. Within the crowded sidewalks and
cafes along H and 7th Streets, certain words likely will catch your
ear: environmental sustainability, green economy, direct action,
colonization, coal power plants and capitalism.
