The window cleaners – who are part of a master-contract that includes three companies (Columbia Building Services, Final Touch Commercial Cleaning and Apex North) – won major improvements in their new contract after holding strong on the picket lines and organizing several large rallies and actions in the Minneapolis area over the course of the strike.
Protesters in Trafalgar Square waved XR flags and chanted “Extinction Rebellion” in between speeches from various XR activists. Speakers spoke about the need to end investment in fossil fuels, an industry which accounts for almost 90% of all emissions, and many noted the disproportionate effect the climate crisis is having and will continue to have on poorer countries, which often are countries which have been devastated by colonialism.
This summer, the ocean burned, an ashy haze covered much of North America, and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change released a report confirming what we already know: Capitalism-induced climate crisis is here. Yet approvals for oil and gas drilling permits on U.S. public lands are on pace this year to reach their highest level since George W. Bush was president. The Biden administration declined to withdraw federal permits for oil company Enbridge’s Line 3 pipeline, a proposed expansion to a 1960s-era line that would bring nearly 1 million barrels of tar sands oil per day from Edmonton in Alberta, Canada, to Superior, Wisconsin.
In the midst of corporate and governmental facilitated environmental destruction, Water Protectors — a term used to describe those who defend the Earth’s water from pollutants — have been forced to take matters into their own hands, and are facing harsh state repression as a result. Trumped-up charges, police violence, excessively high bail and intensive aerial surveillance are becoming the new normal in Minnesota, where Enbridge employees are working 24 hours a day to complete construction of the pipeline.
Most arrests stem from demonstrations and from direct actions called lockdowns, in which people chain themselves to equipment at construction sites. As construction nears completion, organizations such as Honor the Earth, an initiative that supports Native grassroots environmental groups, are calling on more people to join action camps on the front lines and asking for legal support donations. Roughly 2,000 people rallied at the capitol on Wednesday, August 26, to oppose the pipeline. Hundreds have been camping out on the premises since the demonstration.
Prosecutors and police have become increasingly repressive over the course of the struggle, according to Mollie Wetherall, a legal support organizer with the collective Pipeline Legal Action Network (PLAN). In late July, police tear-gassed Water Protectors, shot them with rubber bullets and cracked an individual’s head open. During July and August, prosecutors have charged an estimated 80 Water Protectors with felonies, according to PLAN’s data.
“It’s clear that they really are in a moment where they want to intimidate people as the construction of this pipeline winds down,” Wetherall told Truthout. In spring 2019, she participated in a lockdown action at a construction site and was charged with a misdemeanor. “Fast forward two years later,” she said, “and 20-year-olds are being charged with felonies for potentially the same act or something even less than that.”
Some felony charges are highly unusual in a protest environment, Wetherall said. In late July, two defendants in their early 20s were charged with felony assisted suicide, felony obstructing legal process and misdemeanor trespass after allegedly crawling into the pipeline while locked into a “sleeping dragon,” a device typically made with PVC pipe intended to make extraction difficult. According to the complaint, the pipeline was an estimated 130 degrees and lacked oxygen. The complaint alleged that defendants “did intentionally advise, encourage, or assist another who attempted but failed to take the other’s own life.” Felony assisted suicide carries a 7-year prison sentence, $14,000 fine, or both. In total, if convicted, the defendants face 13 years behind bars.
Prosecutors are also charging Water Protectors with felony theft, felony obstruction and felony assault. “All of the counties have started charging felony theft pretty unilaterally and consistently,” Wetherall explained. “So the fact that that charge came up and it was consistent across many counties within a month, to me indicates a level of coordination among prosecutors.” Felony theft carries a maximum prison sentence of 10 years and/or a $20,000 fine.
The state is also setting increasingly high bail for Water Protectors. Bail for most felony defendants has been set at $5,000 for conditional release, meaning a defendant may be placed on travel or other restrictions, and $10,000 for unconditional release. In early August, a court in Pennington County set bail at $40,000 with conditions and $500,000 without conditions for an individual charged with felony assault.
Sunset, a defendant who asked to be identified with a pseudonym to prevent retaliation, was charged with felony theft and misdemeanor trespassing after locking themself to construction equipment alongside more than a dozen other Water Protectors at two work sites on July 1. Construction at the work sites was halted for the entire day.
They told Truthout that the healing, supportive atmosphere at the action camps inspired them to take action, in addition to their longstanding appreciation for the environment and support for the land back movement. “The pipeline is big business for everyone involved,” they said. “And the people and the land pay the price.”
Enbridge has already released 10,000 gallons of “drilling fluid” (a combination of water, clay, minerals and proprietary chemical solutions) into the environment during construction — contaminants that are potentially harmful to aquatic life and can poison drinking water. The spills are considered violations of the law, yet police, who have been reimbursed nearly $2 million by Enbridge, have not arrested or charged any company executives.
While locked down to a tractor on July 1, Julie Richards, a member of the Oglala Lakota Nation and founder of Mothers Against Meth, told independent media collective Unicorn Riot that the fight against the pipeline is a continuation of ancestral Indigenous battles. By pushing forward with construction, the Minnesota government continues its long, genocidal legacy of breaking treaties on stolen land. After the Minnesota government broke the 1851 treaties of Traverse des Sioux and Mendota, a war ensued and the governor put a bounty on the scalps of Dakota men, women and children, according to Dakota/Lakota Sioux writer Ruth Hopkins.
Oil pipelines in northern Minnesota violate 1854, 1855 and 1867 treaty areas by threatening Anishinaabe tribal members’ constitutional rights to “make a modest living from the land.” Oil spills could potentially contaminate 389 acres of wild rice — or manoomin — in 17 wild rice waterways, which have long been sources of sacred and life-sustaining food for the Anishinaabe people. “For Ojibwe, wild rice or manoomin, ‘good berry’ in the Ojibwe language, is like a member of the family, a relative,” Mary Annette Pember, a citizen of the Red Cliff Ojibwe tribe, writes. “Manoomin is more than food, it is a conveyor of culture, spirituality and tradition.”
Faced with a government that is breaking its own laws in the middle of an urgent crisis, some Water Protectors see direct action as one of the few tactics that produces quick results. Tara Houska, Ojibwe from Couchiching First Nation and founder of the Giniw Collective, an Indigenous-women, 2-spirit led frontline resistance to protect Mother Earth, told Democracy Now! that she started her career on Capitol Hill. “I worked in various offices, including the White House, when I was out there,” she said. “And it is so clear to me and to the many young people who are part of not just this movement, but movements across the globe, the Indigenous people who are leading the struggle to protect the last beautiful sacred places, that it is simply not working fast enough.”
As Enbridge continues to construct the pipeline despite pending legal challenges against the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources, lockdowns could help Water Protectors bide their time for the courts to side with Indigenous people. Continued delays may also dissuade Enbridge from moving forward with the increasingly expensive project.
Line 3 Defendants Go to Trial
Most Line 3 defendants are still waiting for their day in court. Some misdemeanor trials are scheduled throughout the coming months. Most felony trials have yet to be scheduled.
On August 6, Assistant Hubbard County Attorney Anna Emmerling prosecuted the first Line 3 pipeline defendants in front of an all-white jury after striking a Native juror during jury selection with a “peremptory challenge,” which results in the exclusion of a potential juror without need for any reason or explanation. Brock Hefel, who was an activist serving as an intermediate between police and demonstrators at a protest in a ditch near a highway on June 15, was convicted of misdemeanor public nuisance. Judge Eric Schieferdecker, a former prosecutor who is up for reelection in January 2023, ordered Hefel to serve 30 days in the Hubbard County Jail — twice the amount of time Emmerling recommended.
Schieferdecker’s stated justification, according to Hefel’s attorney, Bruce Nestor, was to deter others from defending the land. “The Judge wanted to send a message,” Nestor wrote in a statement, “to the dozens of Water Protectors who showed up to support Brock: Protest Line 3 in Hubbard County — either with signs, chants, or direct action — and [sic] you will go to jail for a far longer time than people convicted of other misdemeanors.”
During a call from Hubbard County jail, Hefel told Truthout his lawyer was “astonished” that they took him straight to jail upon conviction. “Normally, with such small charges,” he said, “they won’t do that. They’ll wait until sentencing.” But Hefel didn’t seem to regret participating in the struggle. “We’re in a climate crisis,” he said, “and people need to take action. And when you have privilege and ability to put your body on the line, it’s something that anybody who has privilege should do, in my opinion. And that’s why I’m up here.” Hefel was released early after performing manual labor for the jail, according to PLAN.
The harsh repression is also an attempt to discourage people from taking their cases to trial, Hefel said, since the court isn’t equipped to handle hundreds of trials.
Accordingly, 123 Water Protectors have pledged to refuse plea deals and take their cases to trial, Wetherall told Truthout. “If the State continues to criminalize and punish people protecting the land and water, yet ignores the harms to our community perpetuated by Enbridge/pipeline company and the State,” a group of defendants wrote in a pledge. “The Water Protectors will stand united in our desire to be tried individually by juries of our peers.”
For Sunset’s part, they plan on asking for a speedy trial and are organizing with their co-defendants to, hopefully, beat the charges.
“It’s all one big machine — it’s all the same machine — and it’s cranking away, and we have to do what we can to get in its way and get ourselves out before we get crushed,” said Sunset.
Dozens of pro-Palestinian demonstrators rallied near the White House on Thursday to denounce a visit by Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett to Washington. Protesters rallied near the White House lawn to call for an end to US military and diplomatic support for Israel, citing Israel’s human rights violations against Palestinians.
Above Photo: Mondelez International employees and supporters picket outside of a Nabisco plant in Northeast Portland on Wednesday, August 18, 2021. Therese Bottomly). A strike that began at the Nabisco bakery in Northeast Portland on Aug. 10 has spread to five other facilities across the United States and gained national attention with both politicians and […]
The kids are mad as hell—and so are teachers who want their California teacher pension fund, CalSTRS, to join 1,000 other institutions collectively divesting $14.5 trillion from the fossil fuel industry that threatens climate catastrophe. The retirement fund divestment fight
Around 40 cleaners are on strike, representing about half of the city’s entire work force in the specialized industry. They are members of SEIU Local 26, a vocal and politically active union with 8,000 members in the Twin Cities. Though the window cleaners are few in number, they have been able to generate outsized attention locally thanks to the union’s well-honed ability to pull off visible strikes in and around Minneapolis.
When Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau touched down in the Vancouver area on Tuesday as part of his election campaign, a group of protesters against old-growth logging in the Fairy Creek watershed were waiting to greet him at his downtown hotel. A mix of Liberal supporters and protesters, numbering about 150 people in total, stood outside the Marriott Pinnacle Hotel where the leader was expected to spend the night.
Tonga, a devout Christian, said the campus pastor and athletic director called a meeting with him last week in which he was berated over his sexual orientation. Tonga said the school administrators called his gayness “a danger” to the school and children and commented that “parents pay too much” to attend the school for their children to be coached by a gay man.
CODEPINK’s letter, with nearly 4,000 signatures, calls on PBS to stop censoring Peter Getzels’ and Dr. Robert Lawrence Kuhn’s documentary film Voices from the Frontlines: China’s War on Poverty. The letter addresses how PBS is depriving its viewers of opportunities for learning about collective harmony and equality by censoring this documentary and its insight into China’s life-saving policies, which took 100 million citizens out of poverty, at a time when poverty, food insecurity, and houselessness are all at record levels in the United States.
BCTGM International President Anthony Shelton issued the following statement in support of members of BCTGM Local 42 (Atlanta, Ga.) who are on strike against Nabisco in Norcross, Ga.: “Early this morning, members of Local 42 at the Nabisco distribution center outside Atlanta joined their Brothers and Sisters in Portland, Ore., Aurora, Col., Richmond, Va. and Chicago, Ill. in striking Nabisco. Nabisco […]
After more than three weeks on strike, mechanics in the Chicago area, members of the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAM) Local 701, are being kept in the dark about negotiations and isolated from their brothers and sisters in the same local and the wider working class as a whole.
The cops are the army, are the industry, are the government, are the predator, are the enemy, and this is nothing if not a war for our very survival… BC’s perennial “war in the woods” is not just a catchy, metaphorical brand. We hold the enemy accountable by defending ourselves, and fighting back. We are accountable to ourselves when we realize that there is no such thing as justice, only liberation, and do whatever is necessary to make it happen.
A giant pink table inviting Londoners to “come to the table” and discuss climate change has been erected by Extinction Rebellion protesters near Leicester Square.
Nabisco bakery workers in Chicago, Illinois, have joined a strike of plant workers across four states against brutal working conditions, low pay and a proposed two-tier health care system demanded by management even as the company rakes in record profits. They join workers on strike in Portland, Oregon; Richmond, Virginia; and Aurora, Colorado.
The US government has placed further delays on a proposed multibillion dollar plastics plant in south Louisiana, marking a major victory for environmental activists and members of the majority Black community who have campaigned for years against construction.
Religious cults have always seemed weird to me. Political cults, equally bizarre. But I’ve never encountered anything quite as dangerous or strange as the current medical cult of eugenicists running wild upon the earth. A nihilistic death machine masquerading behind a mask of health care. But peel back the thin veil and it’s all really just a sick joke. Get it?
I always wondered how in the world people like Hitler, Stalin, and Mao could have ever risen to power and been provided with the opportunity to unleash their systems of methodical human extermination. But the mainstream “pop” culture of the modern era has put all doubt aside in my mind regarding that question. Because I now realize perfectly well how it happens.
The psychology of the general public allows it, even cheers it on, even joins in to parrot all the propaganda they’re fed from the approved authoritative sources, mouthpieces, and talking heads.
Fascism and communism are no longer far-off ideologies being implemented by adversarial forces across the pond that we can point toward and warn about as being slowly approaching threats. They’re now staring us straight in the face on a regular basis in the newfangled form of technocracy, transhumanism, and globalism. It’s called the New World Order, darling, and its tentacles are sinking deeper by the day.
The part about this whole ordeal that shocks me the most is just how well-coordinated and effective the suppression of free-flowing information has been in the public sphere, despite the fact that everyone connected to the internet has access to and the ability to find the truth if they only put in the effort of seeking it out.
Partly, the problem arises from the fact that a certain percentage of people don’t actually want to hear the truth because once knowing it they are then presented with having a larger responsibility to actually do something about it in their lives. So it is much easier for them to just keep a low profile and flow with whatever the consensus bias happens to be at any given moment and simply go along to get along without causing any disturbance or drawing any unwanted attention to themselves.
Of course, we’re all familiar with the quote from Thomas Gray, “Ignorance is bliss.”
Well, there’s another quote from Thomas Jefferson that I find appropriate for those who want to keep their heads buried in the sand:
The amount of tyranny you get, is the exact amount you put up with.
In that vein, the more insidious, draconian aspect of this corrupt situation doesn’t involve people’s willingness to set aside their critical thinking, but rather is a direct product of the censorship being enforced by the corporate media, social media, and government institutions. Basically, anyone who tries to speak out and raise truth up to the surface level gets their voice silenced and online presence axed out of existence.
We’ve watched it play out with the thousands of doctors and nurses who bravely touted the effective nature of hydroxychloroquine and Ivermectin as treatments for the virus. They were swiftly demonized by the system and banished to realms not easily observed by the mainstream. Now we’re witnessing the same basic theme repeat with people like Dr. Robert Malone, Michael Yeadon, Dr. Peter McCullough, and so many others who are warning about antibody-dependent enhancement and the adverse effects of the mRNA spike protein.
Regardless, the data is still readily available and provided directly from different governments’ own systems. It can be accessed by anyone. The most alarming statistics are found in the weekly reports released through VAERS in conjunction with the CDC here in the US which shows that from December of 2020 through July of 2021 there have now been over 12,000 reported deaths and 545,000 adverse reactions (of which over 70,000 are serious injuries).
It boggles my mind that more people are not aware of this information, but it just goes to show the type of stranglehold the Beast System has over the public discourse and narrative. It’s unfathomable, really.
One of the great ironies and tragedies of human psychology is the propensity of our minds to facilitate behavior that is self-destructive and irrational in its nature.
And so, when a mistake is made, it is common that a person, instead of assuming responsibility and altering their course appropriately to avoid the same pattern from being repeated in the future, will, rather, shun such responsibility and project blame outwardly on others or on the world at large or on God or on nature or on any other force that can be raised up in their consciousness to point at and target as a scapegoat.
And, instead of viewing the situation from a logical perspective, they will enter into a state of cognitive dissonance, denial, and learned helplessness that allows them to block out the problem and not have to deal with it. A sort of Stockholm Syndrome where they begin to subconsciously identify favorably with the very circumstances that have caused them harm to begin with, thus entering into a vicious loop where the oppressive energy remains in control.
Basically, the concept is that upon realizing they are in a hole, instead of climbing out when it is still relatively shallow, they continue digging even deeper, hollowing out the space for their own potential grave.
This is why it is not unusual that people are unable to alter their lifestyle until they have reached rock bottom. I happen to have learned this lesson repeatedly in my younger years so I speak from experience.
The theory doesn’t only apply to individuals, though. It can be extrapolated out to better understand collective organizations as well. And we are, indeed, at that point as a society and a species.
It is now a matter of life or death in the eugenics-based Beast System of the New World Order. Those who do not realize the implications of continuing along in obedience to its methods of persuasion and propaganda will wind up wandering straight off the edge of a cliff. Those who resist, assume responsibility for their own destiny, become fully informed, and make wise decisions will at least stand a chance of surviving and making it through to the other side.
Not the cheeriest message I’ve ever delivered, but certainly the most somber and realistic.
We are – to weave another metaphor into the thread – in the belly of the whale. So one can either curl up in a fetal position and wait to drown in the abyss or muster up a bit of courage and begin to claw their way out of the monster to then swim back up to safety on the surface.
There will never be a more welcome and peaceful breath that purifies the lungs than that first inhalation after breaking loose from the shackles of tyranny and escaping the grasp of the technocratic transhumanist agenda to fully embrace the blessing of true sovereignty as renaissance reignites upon the earth.
Humanity can only be submerged for so long before survival instincts kick in and start working on overdrive to make up for lost time. Such are the signs being seen recently as concerned citizens take to the streets to protest in France, Italy, Germany, Australia, Canada, and the UK. A beautiful sight to behold as massive waves of hundreds of thousands of people point the way toward a great awakening here in the age of Revelation.
Well, I say the signs have been seen, but only by those who are actively seeking. Because footage certainly isn’t being served up on a silver platter by the corporate media or Big Tech oligarchs. The truth about reality on the ground is still kept hush-hush in those circles. But the control mechanisms of the corrupt Priest Class are breaking down at an increasingly accelerated pace and so they won’t be able to keep the lid on this boiling pot for much longer. The scenes are, however, being broadcast widely on platforms that remain free and open to transparent communication. I’ve been feasting on a steady diet of late, and my digestion has never been smoother.
Despite all the lunacy underway in this world right now, honestly, I’ve been having the time of my life so far this year. When you were spit out of the womb with a rebellious streak slashing straight through your soul, existence tends to take on a heightened sense of meaning and more purposeful intensity once the chaos really starts ramping up. These trying times are just a test of character in the end. So, as I continue to say, walk steady with a sturdy spine in good spirits. Hallelujah.
Guatemalan Ancestral Indigenous Authorities and advocate groups took to the streets on Thursday to demand the resignation of President Alejandro Giammattei Attorney and the General of the Public Ministry (MP), María Consuelo Porras.
On August 14, protestors in Canada toppled a statue of John A. Macdonald, the country’s first prime minister. Macdonald was responsible for some of the most atrocious crimes against Indigenous people. This includes instituting a policy of starving Indigenous people in order to clear lands where they lived for building the Canadian Pacific Railroad.
A strike that began at a Nabisco factory in Portland, Oregon last week has now spread across the country to Nabisco facilities in Aurora, Colorado, and Richmond, Virginia, where Oreos, Ritz crackers, Chips Ahoy, and other popular cookies and crackers are baked and packaged.
The federal government deliberately targeted Black Lives Matter protesters via heavy-handed criminal prosecutions in an attempt to disrupt and discourage the global movement that swept the nation last summer in the wake of the Minneapolis police killing of George Floyd, according to a new report released Wednesday by The Movement for Black Lives.
Palestine Action have returned to Elbit System’s drone factory in Braunstone Town, Leicester, and have once again disrupted the production of killer drones used for repressive purposes by Israeli forces. The factory – ran by Elbit-Thales joint venture UAV Tactical Systems – has been blockaded by Palestine Action activists. Two activists in a ‘lock-on’ and one activist who had D-locked their body to gates have been arrested, after placing their bodies in the way of Elbit’s drone manufacture operations.
New Zealand police are out again today enforcing the rules of the level 4 lockdown concentrating on dealing with any illegal gatherings, ensuring all travel is essential and providing reassurance patrols at places like supermarkets.
Yesterday there were eight arrests at anti-lockdown protests in Auckland and Whangarei and drivers across the country were checked to ensure travel was for essential purposes only.
Police Commissioner Andrew Coster said the delta variant was different and needed a firmer approach because any gathering was problematic.
He said so far police had been pleased with people’s compliance with the rules.
“Very good, we’re really pleased with the way things are going, you know it always takes a couple of days to settle down into the rhythm of this, but the vast majority of people have been doing exactly the right thing, so we’re very happy,” he said.
Coster said yesterday’s anti-lockdown protests were disappointing and although police respected people’s right to protest now was not the time to be gathering.
He said they expected that further protests could be a possibility and police would take a similar approach to yesterday when arrests were made.
‘We need to knuckle down’
“You know people are entitled to express their views but we really just need to knuckle down and get through this and the more we do that the shorter this lockdown is likely to be.”
Coster said about 40 percent of police staff were vaccinated but they would like that to be at 100 percent.
“Clearly they’re out protecting our communities and obviously their risk level is higher as a result of doing that.
“They’re all wearing protective equipment but we’re working as hard as we can to speed up that vaccination rate dependant on the ability to access vaccines and get it done.”
Coster said the police internal vaccination programme would start up again tomorrow and it looked like they should be able to speed up the rate of vaccinations.
He said today police would be focusing on any gatherings to ensure they were dealt with quickly, ensure that any movement on the roads was only for essential purposes and then reassurance patrols in areas such as supermarkets.
Infected cluster could reach 120 RNZ News reports the number of people infected with the delta variant could grow to 120 before the outbreak is brought under control, according to expert estimates.
New Zealanders are being warned to expect more cases of covid 19 over the next few days, but a mathematician says the numbers depends how long it has been spreading undetected.
This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.
“Earlier today, members of Local 358 at the Nabisco Bakery in Richmond joined their Brothers and Sisters in Portland, Ore. and Aurora, Col. in striking Nabisco. In all three locations, our courageous members are speaking with one clear, strong voice. They are telling Nabisco to put an end to the outsourcing of jobs to Mexico and get off the ridiculous demand for contract concessions at a time when the company is making record profits.”
A series of demonstrations in the West Papua region today have been forcibly stopped by Indonesian police.
The protests were organised by a network of 111 civil organisations behind the Papuan People’s Petition (PPP), formed to reject Jakarta’s plans to renew Special Autonomy in Papua.
Demonstrators have also been protesting against racism, and calling for the release of political prisoner Victor Yeimo, a leading figure in the West Papuan pro-independence movement.
Yeimo, the foreign spokesman for the West Papua National Committee (KNPB), was arrested in May and faces numerous charges, including treason and incitement, for his alleged role in anti-racism protests in 2019.
Demonstrations have been taking place today in cities and towns across the Papuan provinces including Jayapura, Wamena, Manokwari and Timika.
In Jayapura, police forces backed up by water canons dispersed demonstrators at numerous locations. Several Papuans were injured, including the KNPB’s chairman Agus Kossay.
West Papua National Committee (KNPB) chair Agus Kossay shows his head wound from a brutal Indonesian police attack. Image: AWPA
One demonstrator was shot at a rally in Dekai, Yahukimo, a remote highlands regency, while eight people were reportedly arrested.
Even a vigil march this morning in Jayapura led by the West Papua Council of Churches’ moderator Benny Giay was stopped by security forces.
As with their crackdown on Papuan demonstrations last month and in May, police have said that due to the covid-19 outbreak in Papua, they would not allow public events such as demonstrations to proceed.
The Papuan People’s Petition is reportedly supported by more than 700,000 people who have signed the petition rejecting Special Autonomy, and demanding the immediate release of Victor Yeimo without any conditions.
“Victor Yeimo is not a perpetrator of violence or a criminal. He is the victim of widespread structural racism of the Indonesian colonial state who continues to persecute Indigenous Papuans,” said PRP National Spokesperson Sam Awom.
Protestors in Abepura area shouted “bebaskan/free (Victor Yeimo)” repeatedly in defiance as they were running away from police water cannons. pic.twitter.com/b8O7cBTPM9
Indonesian security forces raise national flags on the road between Tembagapura (near Freeport mine) to Banti, Kimbeli, and Opitawak Villages in advance of Indonesia’s Independence Day. Image: Veronica Koman
Early reports according to social media and local media indicated up to 50 people had been arrested and two had been wounded, said the AWPA in a statement.
In a Twitter posting by human rights lawyer Veronica Koman, she said: Indonesia’s annual obsession to ‘Indonesianise’ West Papua in the lead-up to Independence Day tomorrow, fully armed soldiers hoisted red and white Indonesian flags along the road from Tembagapura (Freeport) to Banti, Kimbeli, and Opitawak Villages.
Not a week has passed this summer that activists haven’t used their bodies to stymie construction of Line 3, an oil pipeline that would deliver energy-intensive Canadian crude from the tar sands of Alberta to the Midwest. But those efforts don’t appear to be stopping the project, which has steamrolled forward since obtaining its final permits late last year. All but the Minnesota section of Enbridge Energy’s 1,031-mile pipeline has been finished, and now the Canada-based energy giant says that that remaining work is 80 percent complete.
This week marks the 40th anniversary of an illegal strike by the Professional Air Traffic Controllers Organization (PATCO) that was decisively broken by President Ronald Reagan. If the strikers did not return to work within 48 hours, he announced, they would be “terminated,” fired and permanently replaced. The vast majority of strikers defied his order, and at 11 AM, Eastern time, on the morning of August 5, they were fired.
A Family Dollar store in Lincoln is back open Monday, after having a sign on its door the previous day indicating everyone had quit.
The store located near 48th Street and Leighton Avenue was closed on Sunday with this message posted on the entrance: “We all Quit. Sorry for the inconvenience.” This is now the second business to have a situation such as this one. A Burger King in Lincoln back in July saw all nine employees quit.
Activism came to Hazar Kolancalı like a thunderstorm, at first a rumbling in the distance and then upon her all at once. The constant — and often violent — oppression of LGBTQI+ people in Turkey, a country that is increasingly hostile toward them, manifested suddenly for Kolancalı in a brutal arrest at the hands of Istanbul police. “I knew trouble was coming on the day I saw smear campaigns against us being pushed by pro-government media,” she told Truthout.
Despite her attempts to avoid conflict with police, government-executed violence and oppression is always lurking just around the corner for queer activists in Turkey.
On January 30, 2021, such government oppression was waiting for Kolancalı just outside the gates of her university campus. “We exited the campus and right away there were police everywhere, cars, sirens, and they were screaming our names. I was shocked. They came for me immediately and then there was chaos. The police used brutal force against us.”
Kolancalı, 22, a psychology student, artist and openly bisexual activist, found herself on the front lines of Turkey’s struggle for LGBTQI+ rights.
Two months prior, situated in a grassy field on Boğaziçi University’s campus, solidarity-seeking students mingled at an art exhibition of anonymous contributions organized by Kolancalı and fellow artist-activists. The exhibition was part of the protests against President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s appointment of a pro-government party member as rector to their university and the subsequent closure of the school’s LGBTQI+ student club. One piece of art, however, caught the disapproving eye of a passerby, and soon, the eyes of top Turkish officials, who demanded punishment.
After her arrest, Kolancalı spent 12 hours in a jail cell opposite her lover, she says, unsure of what fate awaited them. She was then placed on house arrest and left to await trial.
“We are creative because we are repressed. When you’re repressed, you have to find alternative ways of expressing yourself,” Kolancalı says of how her activism necessitates her art and vice versa. She pulls up a video on her laptop of her standing in a lineup with the other arrested students at the police station, looking somber. She then holds up her phone showing a lineup of four parallel figures, looking psychedelic and confident, which she drew to cope with the traumatic memory.
Video of Kolancalı and others’ line-up at police station with art inspired by the event.Hanna Dosenko
Despite such setbacks, the government rescinded its decision without explanation, removing the appointed rector on July 15, 2021, via a midnight presidential decree — a major success for the protest movement based in LGBTQI+ inclusion and representation. The university’s LGBTQI+ student club, however, remains banned.
Erdoğan’s dramatic shift is part of a larger effort to secure support for his party from conservative religious circles. As AKP support has decreased, Erdoğan has made increasingly clear his willingness to utilize homophobic rhetoric and action in pursuit of new voting blocs.
When asked whether she felt connected to Turkey, Kolancalı said “yes” but not without qualification. “It is a toxic relationship, but we are connected. I’m only 22 years old, and this conservative government has a history of 19 years. So, I didn’t realize that my destiny was being shaped by these conservative monsters.”
“I am tired,” said Kolancalı. “I want to escape like everyone does. But I love my university. I love where I am living. I love the psychology department. I love my professors. I don’t want to let [the government] ruin this beautiful country. I love my country too, you know.”
Artwork of animals dancing ecstatically hanging on the wall of Hazar Kolancalı’s living room.Hanna Dosenko
Queer Kurdish Struggle
Unbridled creativity seems to be a common theme among LGBTQI+ activists, and none encapsulates such unabashed artistic self-expression more than nonbinary designer and internet personality Çağlar Almendi. “I want to dress [Istanbul Mayor Ekrem] İmamoğlu. He should be wearing Almendi,” they tell Truthout.
Almendi not only hopes to design a colorful costume for suit-loving Mayor İmamoğlu, a potential opposition challenger to President Erdoğan, but also to start their own design brand.
Çağlar Almendi holding their cat, Spot, in front of a set for popular YouTube videos.Hanna Dosenko
In addition to their queer identity, Almendi is also Kurdish, a minority ethnic group which the Turkish government often links to terrorism, using language similar to its strategy with regard to the LGBTQI+ community. “[Kurds] are the same as queer people. Their rights were stolen from them. They know how to survive and they can understand suffering. I think we are on the same road together,” Almendi says.
This cross section of identities can be seen throughout their artistry, from party planning to visual artwork. “At my parties, I use lots of traditional Kurdish music. So people are coming to my parties to dance and getting used to Kurdish people, getting used to drag queens, getting used to queer people. It becomes this center. It is all a protest.”
Regarding how these two facets of their identity relate, Almendi says, “There is queer blood in my veins. There is Kurdish blood in my veins, and I just want to let it explode everywhere. My anger and passion should be seen and felt.”
Çağlar Almendi with their art piece of a Shahmaran, half-woman, half-snake, and a traditional quilt.Hanna Dosenko
Almendi then retreats to a room in the back of the apartment and emerges with a framed piece of glass puzzled together with red fabric. Upon the glass is a painted Shahmaran, a Kurdish mythological creature, half-woman, half-snake. An Istanbul earthquake knocked the glass painting off the wall the year prior, after which the piece took on a new meaning.
“I put it back together mixed with a traditional quilt. The Shahmaran is dangerous, but she wants to be loved. I feel for her. I have my lover, and I feel like this is our family portrait. Because I am dangerous and broken, but he is keeping me together.”
Nobody Is Safe
Like Kolancalı, Almendi also found government oppression lurking around every corner of life.
“I got shot by the police with plastic bullets. We were in the streets, and they told us to go home. So, I did. I started walking toward my house, and they began to run after me. They chased me all the way to my house for like 10 minutes. Once I reached my door, they shot me in the back five times,” they told Truthout. “I couldn’t do anything. I just hid in my house because I was alone. I went to the police station to file a complaint, but they wouldn’t even let me give a statement. They just said, ‘You were at a protest. You deserve it.’”
Such experiences — including an ongoing lawsuit filed against Almendi by an AKP supporter for “disrespecting Islam” by wearing a headscarf in a YouTube video, years of school harassment and countless stories of friends’ experiences — have left Almendi and others feeling increasingly unsafe in their country and their communities.
“The government is becoming more Islamist, and they’re changing things. They’re taking more and more rights from us,” Almendi says. “Maybe tomorrow they will pass a new law in Turkey making gay people illegal. I don’t know what they could do. I don’t feel safe, and it’s getting worse.”
Oppression Breeds Resilience
Regarding how queer Turkish and Kurdish people cope with the worsening state of affairs in Turkey, Almendi says, “We’re all creating something. We’re not just living. Everyone is sad. Everyone is out of work. But we come together and help each other. We talk every day because every day is something new. We wake up and hear that one of our friends had been hit or shot or killed, and we can’t just keep silent.”
In a country where rule of law has become virtually obsolete, for Levent Pişkin, a self-described “queer struggler,” human rights defender and lawyer, fighting against systems of oppression via legal channels has become next to impossible.
“The relationship in Turkey between the law and the LGBTI+ community is not one of ignoring anymore,” Pişkin said. “The state’s policy has started to be based on hate toward the LGBTI+ community.”
“I Practice Law, Which Doesn’t Exist”
Sitting at his desk in the home he lives in with his two sisters, Pişkin pulls out a package of nicotine gum and talks about how acupuncture helped him quit smoking. “They put one right here,” he points to the middle of his chest, “It felt like clouds.”
About his work as a human rights lawyer, however, Pişkin takes a more somber tone.
Levent Pişkin sitting in his home office.Hanna Dosenko
“I practice law, which doesn’t exist,” Pişkin said. “Your role in the courthouse is nothing. Sometimes you feel like an actor in a play, but not a lead actor or even a supporting actor, maybe the fifth or sixth actor.”
Despite his reputation in human rights advocacy circles, Pişkin, an openly gay man, has also run into a great deal of LGBTQI-based discrimination. In 2014, he was sued by the government for defamation after using the Turkish word ‘ibne’ (Turkish slang for gay) and President Erdoğan’s name in the same tweet. The case is still ongoing. “Of course, I don’t feel safe,” he says.
Pişkin was also detained via a home raid in 2016 and put into an isolated jail cell for three days in connection with his legal representation of imprisoned Kurdish politician Selahattin Demirtaş.
“The relationship between the LGBTI+ community and the law has always been complicated because no laws have ever existed in Turkey to protect the LGBTI+ community,” Pişkin says. “But we try to find legal holes to protect people.”
Regarding his history of advocating on behalf of LGBTQI+ activists, he says, “I have something in common with them. We are defending the same thing. You can speak for them and for yourself at the same time.”
Kolancalı on Trial
Pişkin’s role as a lawyer is of increasing importance as he represents more and more LGBTQI+ activists, including Kolancalı.
He represented Kolancalı at her hearing at Istanbul’s Çağlayan courthouse on March 17. Demanding her immediate acquittal, he argued the charges against her for “inciting hatred and insulting religious values” were not substantiated.
Pişkin, leaning against his impossibly full bookcase, gives his final prognosis, “Change is not a quick thing. It will take time. It will cost lives. But it will change. Not tomorrow, but maybe in two years. Maybe in 20 years, it will change. We are building a house, and it is my role to add one stone, just like everyone else.”
“The reason protests are dominated by LGBTI+ people is because we are having fun while we are there. We are going because we want to. It is not like a job. LGBTI+ people just know how it’s done,” Kolancalı says. “What we do is always peaceful, because we are humans, you know, we are humans with pure hearts, and we like what we are doing. We are very loud! We know what love is!”
Regarding what she sees on the path ahead, Kolancalı is even more optimistic and enthusiastic than the others. She sees the Erdoğan-controlled government’s grip on power as quickly diminishing and believes this recent homophobic turn will be ultimately unsuccessful in achieving their desired aims. This belief is supported by recent polling trends that indicate support for Erdoğan and his party is dropping, with AKP support having fallen to 36 percent most recently.
“The government’s only weapon right now is hatred, and they’re trying to provoke people to be hateful against some kind of ‘other.’ This year’s ‘other’ is the LGBTI+ community. It is so obvious,” Kolancalı says. “But we are the writers of history. So, even though they make these aggressive decisions, we are going to be the ones who tell this story.”
This is why concerned citizens—including landowners, youth activists, and community leaders—have been fighting the project for years, pointing out how it would devastate lands, waterways, and wildlife, while further fueling the climate crisis. (MVP doesn’t deny the harm it’s already caused: To date, it has agreed to pay millions in penalties for more than 300 water-quality violations in West Virginia and Virginia.) Community members have also witnessed the pipeline’s owners seize land via eminent domain from dozens of residents along its route, upending lives and livelihoods, and adding insult to injury.
