We really need to stop buying into the argument that #ClimateActivists are "radical" or "destructive". The opposite is true: the nature of the protests have been peaceful and, on the whole, pretty tame.
The idea that, say, sitting on a road is "radical", "extreme" and "criminal" came from a bunch of #FossilFuel aligned think tanks, parroted by the media.
Reject them.
The framing needs to be: Fossil fuel companies are radical, extreme, criminal.
Several countries are adopting measures for peaceful demonstrators that are also used against organised criminals. These include early morning raids by counter-terrorism units and the use of undercover police to infiltrate groups."
A new Netflix documentary, Power, examines why “Violence Is Part & Parcel” of U.S. Policing.
"The thing that police want to do more than anything else is contain & control threats to order,” says Ford.
What we still see in the U.S. & globally, from the Black Lives Matter movement to the campus Gaza solidarity movement, is “the use of police as small militaries whose job is to suppress dissent.”
A new Netflix documentary, Power, examines why “Violence Is Part & Parcel” of U.S. Policing.
"The thing that police want to do more than anything else is contain & control threats to order,” says Ford.
What we still see in the U.S. & globally, from the Black Lives Matter movement to the campus Gaza solidarity movement, is “the use of police as small militaries whose job is to suppress dissent.”
On the publication of Article !('s latest annual report on freedom of expression, executive director Quinn McKew summarises the situation:
'At no point in the last 20 years have so many people been denied the benefits of open societies, like the ability to voice opinions, access a free media or participate in free and open elections' (quoted in The Guardian).
And you'll note that the UK ranks 33rd in their report on freedom of expression.
@ChrisMayLA6
The photo is from #Kenya where #policebrutality is all too common and endorsed by the government. Protests? There’s no peaceful protesting here, precious.
In a new investigative report, AP finds: "In hundreds of deaths where [U.S.] police used force meant to stop someone without killing them, officers violated well-known guidelines for safely restraining and subduing people — not simply once or twice, but multiple times."
"For its investigation, AP catalogued 1,036 deaths over a decade’s time after officers had used force not involving their guns. In about half, medical officials ruled that law enforcement caused or contributed to the deaths, but they usually didn’t mention whether policing best practices were followed."
#Fortson’s death reflects a continuing pattern seen in countless other cases where innocent #BlackPeople have been killed by #police in their homes in recent years, often by officers responding to the wrong address or using #deadlyForce inappropriately.
So..It’s time for a change…
Raise your voice to the air
It’s time for a change
Revolution is here
This is our song,
our rights now expressed
There’s power in our voice
There’s strength in our words
When the whole world is silent,
Our voice must be heard.
This is our song #Revolution is set
For the festival of the #oppressed https://yt.artemislena.eu/watch?v=9F_coLFmerg
Seen the rubble, the buildings,
the mothers and the children
And all the men that you murdered,
and then we see how you spin it... https://yewtu.be/watch?v=fgDQyFeBBIo
Going through my social media, it seems like Gaza doesn't even exist.
It's all about student protests and police brutality in US.
In the mean time, the stories of Maas Graves, mass execution of healthcare staff and mutilated bodies of palestinians in Khan Yunis have all but disappeared from the news.
No news about starvation.
No news about murder of aid workers by IDF.
No news of bombing tent cities with fire bombs.
No news of Netanyahu ignoring the peace proposal.
No news that Biden keep sending weapons and money to Netanyahu.
I guess it's good that we see the student protests are spreading, but it should not be forgetting WHY they are protesting and what over 2 million Palestinians in Gaza are forced to live every day.
"More than 1,000 people have been arrested in crackdowns on #UniversityProtests across the United States. Facing #PoliceBrutality, arrests, and attacks from counter-protesters, what will #StudentProtesters do next?"
Ho lee shit.
The AP has found that the number of deaths caused by the police in the US is SIGNIFICANTLY higher than thought because they're not always reported as being "officer-involved."
❝
The investigation found that between 2012 and 2021, more than a thousand people died after police use physical force that was not intended to be lethal. That includes batons, stun guns, physical restraints, and chemical agents. The oldest victim was 95 and the youngest 15.
Only 28 of the officers were charged.
The Police role was only cited in about half of the cases, meaning that many more Americans have died at the hands of the police than was previously known.
❞
Today in Labor History March 30, 1930: Hundreds of thousands of unemployed workers demonstrated in thirty cities. 35,000 marched in New York City and were violently assaulted by the police. At the time, there was virtually no formal aid available for the unemployed or poor. The ruling elite feared that workers would choose the dole over work if given the choice. So, they opposed unemployment insurance. Even the AFL opposed unemployment insurance because it saw itself as the representative of skilled workers only. It didn’t care about unskilled factory workers. The demonstrations were organized by the Communist Party, with the goal of overthrowing capitalism.
Today in Labor History April 2, 1903: Mexican police fired on more than 10,000 protestors, killing 15 and wounding many more. People had been protesting the reelection of General Bernardo Reyes as governor of Nuevo Leon, who was aligned with Mexico's brutal dictator, Porfirio Diaz.
“There was a time in the history of France when the poor found themselves oppressed to such an extent that forbearance ceased to be a virtue, and hundreds of heads tumbled into the basket. That time may have arrived with us.”
A cooper said this to a crowd of 10,000 workers in St. Louis, Missouri in July, 1877. He was referring to the Paris Commune, which happened just six years prior. Like the Parisian workers, the Saint Louis strikers openly called for the use of arms, not only to defend themselves against the violence of the militias and police who were sent to crush their strike, but for outright revolutionary aims.
The Great Upheaval was the first major worker uprising in the United States. It began in the fourth year of the Long Depression which, in many ways, was worse than the Great Depression of the 1930s. It lasted twenty-three years and included four separate financial panics. In 1873, over 5,000 business failed. Over one million Americans lost their jobs. In the following two years, another 13,000 businesses failed. Railroad workers’ wages dropped 40-50%. And one thousand infants were dying each week in New York City.
By 1877, workers had suffered four years of wage cuts and layoffs. In July, the B&O Railroad slashed wages by 10%, their second wage cut in eight months. On July 16, 1877, the trainmen of Martinsburg, West Virginia, refused to work. They occupied the rail yards and drove out the police. Local townspeople backed the strikers and came to their defense. The militia tried to run the trains, but the strikers derailed them and guarded the switches with guns. They halted all freight movement, but continued moving mail and passengers, to successfully maintain public support.
Please do not think that Israelis are a monolith standing behind what is happening in Gaza with unwavering loyalty. Do not let Netanyahu, Ben Gvir, or the mainstream Israeli pundits speak for us.
Today in Labor History March 29, 1948: Police attacked striking members of the United Financial Employees’ Union and arrested forty-three in the “Battle of Wall Street.” This was the first and only strike in the history of the New York or American Stock Exchanges.