Daily Archives: October 11, 2020

2020-10-11: News Headlines

RT (2020-10-10). Belarus' Lukashenko meets JAILED opposition activists, talks constitutional reform. rt.com Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko has paid an unexpected visit to a detention center in Minsk, meeting incarcerated members of the so-called 'Coordination council of the opposition'. | The unusual move was reported by local media on Saturday, with a short video from the meeting emerging on social media later in the day. | Members of the opposition 'council' were detained over calls to overthrow the government amid the unrest that followed the contested August 9 presidential election. The activists are currently being held at the pre-trial detention center of the Belarus State Security Committee (KGB) i…

Loretta Graceffo (2020-10-10). What activists who fought the AIDS crisis can teach us about organizing during a pandemic. zcomm.org More than 30 years after ACT UP was founded, their bold activism in response to the AIDS crisis offers critical lessons for those mobilizing around COVID-19…

_____ (2020-10-09). Amazon Expects Employees To Operate Like Fast-Moving Machines. popularresistance.org For Sean Carlisle (a pseu ≠do ≠nym) a 32-year-old grad ≠u ≠ate stu ≠dent and native of California's Inland Empire, the last three years at his local Ama ≠zon ful ≠fill ≠ment cen ≠ter have been an edu ≠ca ≠tion. As a stu ≠dent of urban plan ≠ning, he stud ≠ies how built envi ≠ron ≠ments shape a community's behav ≠ior. As a pick ≠er, he packs items at a break ≠neck pace amid stacks of inven ≠to ≠ry and snaking con ≠vey ≠or belts while del ≠i ≠cate ≠ly prac ≠tic ≠ing strate ≠gies to raise his cowork ≠ers' polit ≠i ≠cal co…

Evo Morales (2020-10-09). We're Still Fighting the Multinationals Who Drove the Coup. zcomm.org The period since the military coup in November has been marked by repression, massacres of dozens of trade unionists and indigenous activists, and attempts to ban MAS from standing in the presidential election…

Alex MacDonald (2020-10-09). Turkey's Mount Ida: The frontline between mining giants and local people. middleeasteye.net Turkey's Mount Ida: The frontline between mining giants and local people | Activists and local residents are mobilising against mining ventures they say will threaten the region's outstanding biodiversity | Fri, 10/09/2020 – 11: 44 | Local activists hold up a banner reading 'Mount Ida is more valuable than gold' as they protest Cengiz Holding (Kazdagi Association) | Turkey is a land of outstandi…

Mohammad Ersan (2020-10-09). Under US pressure, Jordan hit by furore over Palestinian ex-prisoner's deportation. middleeasteye.net Under US pressure, Jordan hit by furore over Palestinian ex-prisoner's deportation | Hamas member's attempt to appeal to King Abdullah for her husband creates controversy when her line is cut on the radio | Fri, 10/09/2020 – 14: 37 | Ahlam Tamimi speaks to reporters upon her arrival at Queen Alia international airport in Amman on 18 October 2011 (AFP) | The Jordanian government and a popular rad…

RT (2020-10-09). Margaret Atwood and Stephen King sign open letter supporting trans rights amid J K Rowling transphobia row. rt.com Authors Stephen King and Margaret Atwood are among hundreds of writers who added their names to an open letter in support of trans rights, following other artists' defense of JK Rowling, who was targeted by trans activists online. | The

Alastair Crooke (2020-10-09). Ep 187 Don't Avert Your Gaze From the Abyss feat Alastair Crooke. thealtworld.com

Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor (2020-10-09). Philly Activists Reclaim 50 Vacant Houses. zcomm.org Activists create a Model for Organizing as Mass Evictions Loom…

_____ (2020-10-09). Russia's Strategic Intervention in Syria Five Years On — An 'Unpardonable Blow' to U.S. Empire. strategic-culture.org Five years ago this month, Russia began conducting fateful military operations in Syria at the request of the government in Damascus. It was a momentous "turning point," as More than salvaging Syria from a nearly decade-long war — vitally important though that was — Russia's pivotal intervention also marked the strategic setback for a Western-b…

Eliza Egret (2020-10-09). 'This is not just about a railway': meet the women at the forefront of the battle to save Jones Hill Wood. thecanary.co After nine days of amazing resistance by activists, the battle to save Jones Hill Wood is entering its final phase, with nine people arrested on Thursday 8 October. Jones Hill is an ancient woodland which will be destroyed imminently to make way for the HS2 high speed railway, Activists have spent most of this year making a home in the special woodland, building and sleeping in…

MEE staff (2020-10-08). Egypt using special terror courts to silence dissent, UN experts say. middleeasteye.net Egypt using special terror courts to silence dissent, UN experts say | Cairo accused of 'gravely endangering' activists and infringing on their fundamental rights by imprisoning them during pandemic | Thu, 10/08/2020 – 18: 39 | Egypt has jailed more than 60,000 dissidents (AFP/File photo) | UN experts have accused Egypt of using special terrorism courts to imprison human rights defenders and silence dissent, w…

Yasmina Allouche (2020-10-08). Algeria hands Hirak activist 10-year sentence for 'inciting atheism'. middleeasteye.net Algeria hands Hirak activist 10-year sentence for 'inciting atheism' | Sentencing against Yacine Mebarki the harshest of any activists convicted since the February 2019 protests began | Thu, 10/08/2020 – 16: 10 | Algeria has seen an increasing crackdown on activists, opposition figures and journalists (AFP/Ryad Kramdi) | An Algerian activist has been sentenced to 10 years in prison and fin…

Sarah Lazare (2020-10-08). US Military Bases Are Key Pieces of the Global War Machine. globalresearch.ca We don't hear about them very often, but the estimated 800 US military bases around the globe have played an essential role in turning the whole world into a bloody battlefield. Any effort to roll back US empire has to …

Arundhati Roy (2020-10-08). India's Hindu Right Are Willing to Bury Democracy. zcomm.org While India's rulers downplay the brutal murder of a Dalit teenager by an upper-caste gang and acquit Hindu nationalists guilty of historic crimes, Arundhati Roy argues, they are concocting another show trial of Muslims and progressive activists to intimidate dissenters…

_____ (2020-10-08). Activists Who Fought The AIDS Crisis On Organizing During A Pandemic. popularresistance.org During the peak of the coronavirus pandemic in New York, Avram Finklestein was inundated by the blaring noise of ambulance sirens outside his apartment. "Just day and night … it was constant," he said. "Even though I've been social distancing, I have not been able to escape this pandemic, not for one second." | For Finklestein, a 68-year-old artist and activist who lives in Brooklyn, witnessing the U.S. government stand by as the death toll climbs to over 200,000 is especially painful. As a survivor of the AIDS crisis, the current pandemic has been what he calls "a revisitation of suffering that can only be tri…

Peoples Dispatch (2020-10-08). Students organize amid fresh pandemic outbreak in British universities. peoplesdispatch.org Over the past few weeks, there has been a surge in COVID-19 cases in universities in the United Kingdom. Student activists talk about the challenges they face and the kind of organizing that is happening…

pip.hinman (2020-10-08). Activists push back against incitement charges. greenleft.org.au

_____ (2020-10-07). Protesters Block Highway Near Border Wall Construction. popularresistance.org Tucson – Activists and allies of two O'odham groups protesting the construction of a border wall along ancestral tribal lands in southern Arizona temporarily blocked the highway leading to construction sites in the Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument. | Members of the two groups, the O'odham Anti Border Collective and Defend O'odham Jewed, and non-Indigenous allies set up early Monday morning what they described as a "soft blockade" of State Route 85, using caution tape and canopy tents to stop traffic, some of which also was headed to the Lukeville border crossing with Mexico.

_____ (2020-10-07). Drop All Charges Against Activists And Protestors. popularresistance.org I add my voice to the millions here in our country and throughout the world who call for an end to fascist-driven police violence and repression in Black, Latinx and Indigenous communities. | Whether we call for community control, defunding, or ultimate abolition of the police, we are united in our demand for an immediate end to the state-sanctioned racist violence that routinely claims the lives of so many of our people. | Although many of us have protested, demonstrated, and organized over the decades to end racism and all its inequalities, injustices and collective pain, we have never experienced anything like…

Joe Piette (2020-10-07). Philly protesters demand 'Stop racist police murders!'. workers.org Hundreds of activists gathered at the "Rocky Steps" in Philadelphia on Oct. 3 to hear speakers from Black Lives Matter Philly, Black Philly Radical Collective, Black Alliance for Peace and Mobilization4Mumia condemn the racist police murders of Breonna Taylor, George Floyd, Mya Hall and countless others. March leaders used the . . . |

Brett Wilkins, staff writer (2020-10-07). San Francisco Activists Sue City Over 'Illegal Dragnet Surveillance' of George Floyd, BLM Protests. commondreams.org Such practices by police are "completely at odds with the First Amendment and should never be allowed," said an ACLU lawyer on the case. | www.commondreams.org/sites/default/files…