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Category: Protests

  • Protesters Urge Boris Johnson To Take Climate Talks Seriously

    Protesters will fill London’s Parliament Square on Friday morning, calling on the prime minister, Boris Johnson, to make the climate crisis his top priority, as the UK prepares to host UN talks that will determine whether the world tips into environmental catastrophe this decade. Giant alarm clocks will show time running out, while 100 protesters chant that Johnson and his chancellor, Rishi Sunak, are “missing in action” on the climate crisis.

    The post Protesters Urge Boris Johnson To Take Climate Talks Seriously appeared first on PopularResistance.Org.

    This post was originally published on PopularResistance.Org.

  • Israel: Racist, violent policing is at the heart of apartheid

    Police made sweeping arrests of Israel’s large minority of Palestinian citizens after protests rocked the country in May during Israel’s 11-day attack on Gaza. Officers were documented beating demonstrators, and in some cases torturing them while in detention. Police also failed to protect the Palestinian minority from planned, vigilante-style attacks by far-right Jewish extremists.

    This was the damning verdict of an Amnesty International report published last week. The findings indicate that Israeli police view the country’s Palestinian minority, a fifth of the population, as an enemy rather than as citizens with a right to protest.

    The report echoes what Palestinian leaders in Israel and local human rights groups have long said: that the default policing of the Palestinian community in Israel is racist and violent. It reflects the same values of Jewish supremacism seen in the Israeli army’s brutal treatment of Palestinians under occupation.

    The contrast between how police responded to protests by Palestinian citizens and supportive statements from their leaders, on the one hand, and to incitement from Israeli Jewish leaders and a violent backlash from the Jewish extreme right, on the other, is stark indeed.

    More than 2,150 arrests were made following May’s inter-communal violence. But according to reports cited by Amnesty, more than 90 percent of those detained were Palestinian – either citizens of Israel or residents of occupied East Jerusalem.

    Most face charges unrelated to attacks on people or property, despite how their demonstrations were widely portrayed by police and the Israeli media. Rather, Palestinian protesters were indicted on charges such as “insulting or assaulting a police officer” or “taking part in an illegal gathering” – matters related to the repressive policing faced by the Palestinian minority.

    ‘Torture room’

    Amnesty cites repeated examples of unprovoked police assaults on peaceful protesters in cities such as Nazareth and Haifa. That contrasts with the continuing indulgence by police of provocations by the Jewish far-right, such as their march through Palestinian neighbourhoods of occupied East Jerusalem on 15 June, during which participants chanted: “Death to Arabs” and “May your village burn.”

    Amnesty also documents testimony that Israeli police beat bound detainees in Nazareth’s police station – setting up what the local legal rights group Adalah has described as an improvised “torture room”.

    In addition, a protester in Haifa appears to have been tied to a chair and deprived of sleep for nine days, using torture techniques familiar to Palestinians in the occupied territories.

    In contrast, Israeli police were alerted in real time to messages from Jewish far-right groups about precise plans to smash up “Arab” shops and assault Palestinian citizens on the street. And yet, police either ignored those warnings or were slow to respond. An investigation by Haaretz has further suggested that police subsequently failed to use film footage to identify these Jewish vigilantes and, as a result, made few arrests.

    This picture of police turning a blind eye to planned Jewish violence echoes scenes from the time of the protests. Footage showed police officers allowing armed Jewish thugs – many bused in from settlements – to wander freely around Palestinian neighbourhoods during a curfew on the city of Lod. There was even footage of police and Jewish far-right extremists conducting what looked like joint “operations”, with police throwing stun grenades as Jewish extremists threw stones.

    Jewish politicians who incited against the Palestinian minority – from Israel’s former president, Reuven Rivlin, and Lod’s mayor, Yair Revivo, to far-right legislator Itamar Ben-Gvir – have faced no consequences.

    Charged with ‘terror acts’

    Instead, police arranged what amounted to a provocative, entirely unnecessary assault by special forces on the home of a Palestinian community leader, Kamal al-Khatib, to arrest him. The deputy head of the northern Islamic Movement was charged with supporting terrorism after he expressed pride at what he called the minority’s solidarity with the people of Gaza and occupied East Jerusalem.

    And last week, apparently too late for inclusion in the Amnesty report, Israel’s racist policing moved in new directions.

    Small numbers of Palestinian citizens suspected of attacking Jews were charged with “terror acts”, in some cases without any physical or DNA evidence tying them to the crime. In several cases, the defendants were indicted based on confessions made after prolonged interrogation by Israel’s secret police, the Shin Bet.

    Israel’s legal system is treating inter-communal violence as an act of terror when Palestinian citizens are involved, and as an ordinary law-and-order issue – assuming it is dealt with at all – when Israeli Jews are involved.

    Underlining this distinction is the decision to place Palestinian citizens of Israel under administrative detention, jailing them without charge and not allowing lawyers to see the supposed evidence against their clients. This draconian move – with one such order approved last week by Defence Minister Benny Gantz – is usually reserved for Palestinians under occupation, not Israeli citizens.

    Settling scores

    In its report, Amnesty pointed to public statements from Israeli police commanders indicating that the current harsh crackdown is really about “settling scores”. And in part, that is true.

    Nearly two decades ago, a judicial-led public inquiry concluded that Israeli police treated Palestinian citizens as “the enemy”. Nothing has changed since. Police regard it as their primary job to protect the privileges of the Jewish majority by keeping the Palestinian minority crushed and obedient, as a subordinate community inside a self-declared Jewish state.

    The eruption of protests in May, which caught police off-guard, was implicitly a sign that they had failed in that role. Police interpreted the demonstrations as a public humiliation for which “deterrence” needed to be urgently restored.

    Israeli politicians, including the then-police minister, Amir Ohana, as well as the Jewish far-right, viewed the protests in much the same light. They argued at the time that police were being held back by legal niceties, and that it was the job of Jewish citizens to back police by taking the law into their own hands.

    Yet, the “settling of scores” with the Palestinian minority relates to a separate matter. External observers, such as Amnesty, tend to notice Israel’s racist policing only when direct violence is used against Palestinian citizens. But the Palestinian minority’s experience of discrimination from police is much broader.

    For years, the minority has been taking to the streets in large numbers to protest against not only the violent policing of dissent, but a complementary near-absence of policing towards Palestinian communities in Israel when it comes to tackling crime.

    The harsh repression seen in recent weeks contrasts strongly with police inaction as a crime wave has swept Palestinian communities, with each year bringing a record number of violent deaths. Both Palestinian and Jewish criminal gangs have exploited the policing void in Palestinian towns and villages, knowing that they are free to act as long as the violence is “Arab-on-Arab”.

    Even during the Covid-19 lockdowns, Palestinian community leaders kept up the pressure, leading go-slow convoys of dozens of cars along Israel’s busiest roads to draw attention to Israel’s racist policing priorities.

    These presented a different kind of humiliation for police. Unusually, commanders were forced onto the back foot, swallowing unrelenting criticism and condemnation for failing to deal with crime in Palestinian communities. It even became one of the top issues for Palestinian parties in Israel’s string of recent elections.

    Now, police are having their moment of revenge. “You want more active policing? We’ll give you more active policing. See how you like this!” seems to be the new message of the mass round-ups.

    Jewish supremacism

    The reality is that both kinds of policing towards Palestinian citizens – the violent policing of dissent, and the lack of policing of crime – are rooted in the same, ugly ideology of Jewish supremacism.

    This is the same supremacism highlighted in a report early this year by the Israeli human rights group B’Tselem. It broke new ground in the human rights community by explicitly identifying Israel as an apartheid state, one that treats Palestinians as inferior, whether in the occupied territories or inside Israel, and Jews as superior, whether in Israel or in the illegal settlements.

    The new Amnesty report is the latest snapshot of a society where everything follows that apartheid logic, including policing. That should surprise no one, because apartheid is, by definition, systematic.

    Most Jewish Israelis, whether they identify with the left or right, have shown little interest in the lethal crime wave that for years has washed over Palestinian communities near their own, despite the regular protest campaigns by the Palestinian minority.

    And now – through their silence – most ordinary Jewish Israelis and their politicians have demonstrated that they support, or are at least indifferent to, the current crackdown by police on the Palestinian minority. The deeper causes of May’s protests, and the violent backlash from the far right, appear to have provoked little self-reflection.

    The Israeli Jewish public seems equally unconcerned by the fact that Jewish far-right thugs have chanted “death to Arabs” on their streets, that videos show police cooperating with those thugs, or that police have been making mass arrests of Palestinian citizens for weeks on end, while failing to search for the Jews who were filmed attacking Palestinians.

    Belligerent occupation

    The truth is that Israeli police get away with racist, violent policing because wider Israeli Jewish society approves. Police regard themselves as defenders of a Jewish supremacism that many ordinary Jewish citizens see as their birthright.

    The Palestinian minority hoped that it had opened a tentative conversation with Israeli Jews both about the responsibilities of police in a state claiming to be a democracy, and about the right of Israel’s 1.8 million Palestinian citizens to personal security.

    There was much fanfare at Mansour Abbas’s United Arab List becoming last month the first party representing Palestinian citizens to enter an Israeli government coalition, ousting former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu from power. Like other Palestinian parties, Abbas put changes to the racist police culture in Israel at the top of his platform.

    But any signs of progress have been all too readily snuffed out by a reassertion of Jewish supremacism by police and their Jewish far-right allies, and by the silent complicity of wider Israeli Jewish society.

    Israel had a chance to address its racist policing policies, but that would have required the difficult work of examining the much wider apartheid structures that underpin them. Instead, most Israeli Jews are happy to reassert the status quo – oppressing all Palestinians under Jewish rule, whether they are subjects of a belligerent occupation or third-class citizens of a Jewish state.

    • First published in Middle East Eye

    The post Israel: Racist, violent policing is at the heart of apartheid first appeared on Dissident Voice.

    This post was originally published on Dissident Voice.

  • Railway Workers Strike In São Paulo Amidst Wave Of Transportation Struggles

    A strike by São Paulo railway workers last Thursday, July 15, shut down an important section of public transport in Brazil’s largest city over the demand for higher wages. More than 40 stations and four railway lines of São Paulo’s Company of Metropolitan Trains (CPTM), which carry about one million riders daily, were affected by the strike.

    The post Railway Workers Strike In São Paulo Amidst Wave Of Transportation Struggles appeared first on PopularResistance.Org.

    This post was originally published on PopularResistance.Org.

  • Don’t Use Cuba Protests to Justify US Intervention, Say Activists in Mexico

    Students demonstrate their support for the Cuban Revolution in front of the Cuban embassy in Mexico City, Mexico, July 17, 2021.

    Mexico City, Mexico — Singing songs of revolution and chanting slogans in support of the Cuban Revolution, hundreds of demonstrators gathered outside the Cuban Embassy in Mexico City on Saturday, July 17, in an expression of solidarity with the Cuban people and their right to self-determination.

    The jubilant demonstration, organized by both Mexicans and Cubans, came as Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel grapples with a destabilization effort by right-wing opponents and U.S. politicians seeking to topple his government.

    “We believe that solidarity is the essence of humanity,” Francisco Rojas from Va por Cuba Mexico, one of the organizations that organized the demonstration together with Association of Cuban Residents in Mexico and the Mexican Movement in Solidarity with Cuba, told Truthout.

    A concerted misinformation campaign has been put into action by opponents of the Cuban Revolution after genuine protests broke out in Cuba earlier this month, with people taking to the streets in various cities to express their discontent with the government over real issues such as food shortages and electricity blackouts.

    A demonstrator holds up a sign that reads "Cuba Yes, Blockade No" during a demonstration in solidarity with the Cuban Revolution in front of the Cuban embassy in Mexico City, Mexico, July 17, 2021.
    A demonstrator holds up a sign that reads “Cuba Yes, Blockade No” during a demonstration in solidarity with the Cuban Revolution in front of the Cuban Embassy in Mexico City, Mexico, on July 17, 2021.

    Longtime critics of the Cuban government such as Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Florida), along with many U.S. politicians from both sides of the aisle, have sought to exploit the July 11 protests to drive a false narrative that those demonstrating took to the streets in protest against the communist system in Cuba.

    With Cuba relying heavily on the income derived from tourism, which has all but dried up as a result of travel restrictions, the country has experienced an economic contraction of 11 percent in 2020, according to Economy Minister Alejandro Gil. Protesters made a diverse set of demands and criticisms, questioning the country’s slow COVID-19 vaccination rate and specifically asking for action by the government to mitigate the economic impact on those disproportionately affected by the fallout from the pandemic. In response to demands made by demonstrators, the Díaz-Canel government lifted restrictions on the amount of food and medicine travelers could bring into the country.

    U.S. President Joe Biden, despite presiding over a thaw in U.S.-Cuba relations when he served as Barack Obama’s vice president, was quick to issue a statement, saying the protests were a “clarion call for freedom” and employing Cold War-era tropes about communists enriching themselves at the expense of the population.

    White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki went on an anti-communist rant, blaming the Cuban government and its “ideology” for the shortages of medical supplies in the country.

    Aided by corporate media, those seeking regime change in Cuba have gone to extreme lengths to sell this narrative to the public. During a segment with Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), Fox News ran images of a protest in Cuba alongside the interview, but blurred the messages on the signs held by people in the photo. Internet users tracked down the unaltered image, finding that it was in fact from a pro-government rally, with the signs carrying revolutionary slogans.

    Rojas told Truthout that these sorts of misinformation campaigns are nothing new, and drew comparisons to the experience of the U.S. war in Vietnam, the U.S.-backed coups in Chile and more recently in Bolivia, but argued that what is new is the use of social media toward this end. Experts on social media manipulation tactics found that there was evidence of inauthentic behavior surrounding the use of hashtags such as “SOSCuba” — which is being widely used by opponents of the Cuban government who call on the U.S. to directly intervene in the country.

    “This distortion is done in a harmful way, very cunning, very manipulative, to try to sell a framing that does not correspond to reality,” said Rojas.

    Despite this deliberate effort by U.S. politicians and mainstream media to depict the protest in Cuba as being driven by a unified, specific desire to completely end the communist system in Cuba, those at the demonstration in Mexico City argued that many joined the protests to demand their basic material needs, such as food and medical supplies.

    Supporters hold signs in defense of the Cuban Revolution during a solidarity demo in front of the Cuban embassy in Mexico City, Mexico, July 17, 2021.
    Supporters hold signs in defense of the Cuban Revolution during a solidarity demo in front of the Cuban Embassy in Mexico City, Mexico, on July 17, 2021.
    An artist performs a song for the crowd at the Cuban embassy in Mexico in front of a banner that reads "No More Blockade" on July 17, 2021.
    An artist performs a song for the crowd at the Cuban Embassy in Mexico in front of a banner that reads “No More Blockade” on July 17, 2021.

    During the pandemic, while Cuba was developing vaccines to eventually donate to low-income countries and sending doctors to heavily affected countries, the U.S. blockade was preventing the delivery of coronavirus aid from philanthropist Jack Ma, the co-founder of Alibaba Group and one of the wealthiest people in the world.

    “The Cuban people are aware of their needs; we do not deny them. There are shortages of food, medicine, transportation, gasoline — but we are besieged, a media siege but also an economic, commercial and financial siege,” Luis Ángel León López, a Cuban from Camagüey living in Mexico, told Truthout.

    “We want the world to know there is a blockade,” said Yvonne Guerra, a Cuban woman who also attended the rally at the embassy.

    Echoing calls by Cubans who took to the streets inside Cuba after President Díaz-Canel called on supporters to demonstrate in defense of the revolution, Guerra emphasized the need to respect Cuba’s sovereignty and rejected U.S. intervention.

    “It is fundamentally about this: a call for Cubans to decide what needs to be decided in Cuba,” said Guerra.

    A woman holds up a picture of Latin American revolutionary Ernesto "Che" Guevara during a demonstration in solidarity with the Cuban Revolution in front of the Cuban embassy in Mexico City, Mexico, July 17, 2021.
    A woman holds up a picture of Latin American revolutionary Ernesto “Che” Guevara during a demonstration in solidarity with the Cuban Revolution in front of the Cuban Embassy in Mexico City, Mexico, on July 17, 2021.
    A speaker reads a statement to the assembled crowd during a demonstration in solidarity with the Cuban Revolution in front of the Cuban embassy in Mexico City, Mexico, July 17, 2021.
    A speaker reads a statement to the assembled crowd during a demonstration in solidarity with the Cuban Revolution in front of the Cuban Embassy in Mexico City, Mexico, on July 17, 2021.

    Guerra also pointed to an infamous 1960 memorandum from U.S. Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Inter-American Affairs Lester D. Mallory to the Assistant Secretary of State for Inter-American Affairs Roy Rubottom Jr. that calls for creating hardship and need for Cubans in order to prompt regime change.

    “That is the goal, to create need, but they miscalculated, because among our needs, there is a need for dignity; the people of Cuba have dignity,” said Guerra.

    José Eduardo Crespo, a Cuban living in Mexico for over 12 years, referenced a recent vote at the United Nations General Assembly, where for the 29th consecutive time, countries overwhelmingly rejected the U.S. blockade of Cuba by a vote of 184 to 2, with only the U.S. and Israel voting against it.

    A demonstrator holds up a sign that reads "I am Fidel" during a demonstration in solidarity with the Cuban Revolution in front of the Cuban embassy in Mexico City, Mexico, July 17, 2021.
    A demonstrator holds up a sign that reads “I am Fidel” during a demonstration in solidarity with the Cuban Revolution in front of the Cuban Embassy in Mexico City, Mexico, on July 17, 2021.

    Rather than alleviating the embargo, U.S. policy makers have actually tried to use the fallout of the impact of the pandemic to tighten the screws on Cuba. Former President Donald Trump implemented nearly 250 new measures against the country in an effort to increase suffering as Cuba reeled from a loss of income from tourism. Biden has refused to lift even these measures, including the ban on remittances to Cuba.

    “This is nothing new; they have been trying to overthrow us for 60 years,” said Crespo, who pointed to the United States’s decades-long foreign policy toward Cuba that has consistently fomented dissent.

    The U.S. has long funded counterrevolutionary activities, both on and off the island. Writer Alan Macleod revealed how the National Endowment for Democracy (NED), a foundation funded by the U.S. government that works to advance U.S. foreign policy interests, has recruited Cuban artists and musicians, some of whom ended up playing a key role in promoting recent protests for right-wing ends.

    Meanwhile, Miami Mayor Francis Suarez said the U.S. should consider bombing the country.

    Luis Ángel León López was strident in his criticism of the press coverage of protests in Cuba, arguing that media outlets have tried to craft a story and drive an interventionist narrative, rather than report on what is actually happening.

    “They want to depict Cuba as a failed state, as a government that has failed, a process that has failed, from a political point-of-view, from an ideological point-of-view, from an economic point-of-view,” said León. “They lie, they shamelessly lie.”

    A young boy strikes a piñata emblazoned with the term “gusano” that is used by supporters of the Cuban Revolution to refer to counterrevolutionaries, Mexico City, Mexico, on July 17, 2021.
    A young boy strikes a piñata emblazoned with the term “gusano” that is used by supporters of the Cuban Revolution to refer to counterrevolutionaries, Mexico City, Mexico, on July 17, 2021.
    Students from the National Federation of Revolutionary Students demonstrate in support of the Cuban Revolution near the Cuban embassy in Mexico City, Mexico, July 17, 2021.
    Students from the National Federation of Revolutionary Students demonstrate in support of the Cuban Revolution near the Cuban Embassy in Mexico City, Mexico, on July 17, 2021.

    While voices calling for U.S. intervention in Cuba have been amplified, other perspectives have been smothered.

    Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador expressed his solidarity with the Cuban people and rejected interventionism and violence. He also dispatched his Foreign Secretary Marcelo Ebrard to New York, where Mexico used its position as a member of the UN Security Council to call for an end to the blockade of Cuba.

    José Eduardo Crespo expressed gratitude for Mexico’s position, calling it a “dignified” and “principled” stance.

    The same voices calling for U.S. intervention in Cuba have also made demands to open a so-called humanitarian corridor, a concept that has been rejected by the Cuban leadership as a Trojan horse.

    “Some in an intentional and manipulated way adduce the need to implement humanitarian corridors, humanitarian intervention,” said Ernesto Soberón, an official from Cuba’s Foreign Relations Ministry. “[These] are concepts and terms related to situations of armed conflict, serious violations of international humanitarian law, which in no way have anything to do with what is happening in our country today.”

    The Cuban leadership has shown it is open to aid from abroad, so long as the motivations are truly humanitarian. Cuban Foreign Relations Minister Bruno Rodríguez expressed gratitude for a recent donation of 800,000 syringes by the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States, which is presently led by Mexico as president pro-tempore. Organizers of Saturday’s demonstration also said they were engaged in a grassroots effort to donate supplies to Cuba.

    This post was originally published on Latest – Truthout.

  • Cubans Take To The Street In Defense Of The Revolution

    Thousands of Cubans took to the streets in defense of their revolutionary government on Saturday as President Miguel Díaz-Canel vowed to defend the country from outside interference.
    “We are going to put our hearts into Cuba — together we can — because Cuba is love, peace, and solidarity,” he said.

    The post Cubans Take To The Street In Defense Of The Revolution appeared first on PopularResistance.Org.

    This post was originally published on PopularResistance.Org.

  • Immigrant Leaders Shut Down NJ ICE ‘Black Site’

    Immigrant leaders and immigration justice organizers chained themselves together and blockaded the entrance of the Newark SAC office in response to escalating abuses by ICE. Protesters are calling this unidentified office located in a desolate industrial neighborhood in Newark, NJ an “ICE black site”; and are demanding #ReleasesNotTransfers as detainees continue to be transferred out of New Jersey jails to detention centers across the country and away from their families.

    The post Immigrant Leaders Shut Down NJ ICE ‘Black Site’ appeared first on PopularResistance.Org.

    This post was originally published on PopularResistance.Org.

  • Why Many In Colombia Embark On New Strike

    Social organizations called new strikes for Tuesday, Colombia’s Independence Day, to demand that Congress passes legislation on economic policy, peace and human rights.

    The post Why Many In Colombia Embark On New Strike appeared first on PopularResistance.Org.

    This post was originally published on PopularResistance.Org.

  • Journalists harassed, obstructed while covering home demolitions in India

    Washington, D.C., July 19, 2021 — Indian authorities should cease harassing and obstructing members of the press covering protests and demolitions in Khori Gaon, in Haryana state, and ensure that they can report freely, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today.

    On June 30, and then repeatedly in mid-July, police have threatened, harassed, and obstructed media workers covering protests and demolitions in the village of Khori Gaon, in the Faridabad district of Haryana, according to news reports and seven media workers, who spoke with CPJ in phone interviews.

    On July 14, government authorities began demolishing homes that were allegedly built illegally in Khori Gaon, and police have arrested local residents opposed to the demolitions, according to news reports.

    “Journalists have a right to cover the ongoing demolitions in the Indian village of Khori Gaon without facing threats, harassment, and intimidation for their work,” said Robert Mahoney, CPJ’s deputy executive director. “Authorities must ensure that the media can report freely on the demolitions and all matters of public interest without fear of violence or arrest.”

    On June 30, multiple police officers repeatedly and aggressively told Sumedha Pal, a reporter at the news website Newsclick, to stop filming a group of villagers who gathered to share testimonies about the planned demolitions with the media, according to Pal, who spoke to CPJ, and videos of the incidents, which CPJ reviewed.

    A senior police officer ordered another officer to confiscate Pal’s phone while she filmed police attacking the demonstrators with batons, according to those sources. When an officer attempted to grab her phone, Pal stopped filming and fled the scene, she said.

    On July 15, police again repeatedly told Pal to stop filming at a protest site in the village, she told CPJ. A police officer attempted to block her camera as she filmed, as seen in a video she posted to Twitter that day.

    Also that day, police forced Mohit Kumar, a Newsclick camera operator, to leave a crowd of protesters and move to another location, placed a baton between his feet to stop him from moving, and threatened him, saying, “we can do anything to you,” according to Kumar, who also spoke to CPJ. Police then told him to leave the area, and he complied, Kumar said.

    Multiple police officers also threatened to break and confiscate Kumar’s camera and delete its footage on July 15, according to Pal and Kumar, who both said that they carried their press identification cards and repeatedly identified themselves as members of the press to police.

    Also that day, two police officers armed with batons approached Hrishikesh Sharma, a reporter at the YouTube-based news channel Mojo Story, while he was filming a home that was about to be demolished, and threatened to break his phone if he did not stop filming and leave the area, he told CPJ. Sharma continued to discretely film in another area, he said.

    Multiple police officers threatened to break the camera of Prabhat Kumar, a freelance journalist who filmed demolitions in the area, Kumar told CPJ, adding that an officer threatened to arrest him if he did not stop filming. Police also locked Kumar in a building after he had ascended to a terrace to film a protest, he said, adding that local residents opened the door and allowed him to leave about 15 minutes later.

    On July 16, police officers armed with guns and batons threatened to arrest Naomi Barton, an audience editor with the news website The Wire who was reporting on the demolitions, if she did not stop filming at a demolition site, she told CPJ. Barton showed officers her press identification card but they insisted she leave the area, and she complied, she said.

    Also that day, an unidentified individual in plain clothes approached Nikita Jain, a freelance journalist, and told her not to take pictures at a demolition site, and threatened to inform the police if she did not stop, she said.

    A group of about 10 police officers surrounded Jain as she attempted to leave the village, and a senior officer told her that press coverage was prohibited in the area, she said. When Jain asked that officer to show her an official order prohibiting coverage, he refused and instructed Jain to show him her phone and delete its footage, she said, adding that she refused to comply.

    That officer then instructed a group of female officers to escort Jain to another area, and told them to beat her if she resisted; the officers pushed Jain to another area, where a police officer threatened to break her phone and others ordered her to enter their car, she said. Jain told CPJ that she refused to comply and left the village on her own.

    Yesterday, two police officers approached Sumit Yadav, an independent journalist who operates The Tsunami, a YouTube political news channel that has covered the demolitions, while he was interviewing local residents, escorted him out of the area, forcibly confiscated his phone, and deleted footage he had taken, he told CPJ. They also threatened to investigate him for attempted murder in retaliation for his coverage, he said.

    CPJ emailed Faridabad Police Commissioner O.P. Singh for comment, but did not receive any reply.


    This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by Committee to Protect Journalists.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • Americans Are Calling for Freedom in the US

    The hashtag #SOSUSA became one of Twitter’s top political trends this weekend, as thousands of Americans posted calling for freedom in the United States and protesting poverty, police brutality, and a lack of free healthcare.

    Many of the posts were in response to videos of a Los Angeles Police officer shooting a protester in the face at close range with a rubber bullet and attacking other protesters with clubs.

    The post Americans Are Calling for Freedom in the US appeared first on PopularResistance.Org.

    This post was originally published on PopularResistance.Org.

  • My Heart Aches for Cuba — and I Yearn for More Solidarity From the Global Left

    A man is holding a sign during the demonstration in support of Cuba organized in Amsterdam on July 17, 2021.

    My mother is 68 and is now alone in Havana, Cuba. Since the beginning of the pandemic, we have met every night thanks to WhatsApp. For a long time, these brief, daily conversations allowed me to check on her, alleviating her loneliness from the COVID-19 lockdown. But our routine was abruptly stopped a few days ago, in the afternoon of Sunday, July 11, when the Cuban government started to restrict access to the internet. We are now incomunicadas, like almost everyone else on the island. Only pain and sadness linger, as an invisible link between all Cubans.

    The shutdown of the internet was the first muzzling measure. It was imposed just a couple of hours after the outbreak of the popular protests that have rattled the whole country for several days on the week of July 11. As Cubans live through the deepest socioeconomic and political crisis in decades, thousands took to the streets, peacefully asking for food, medicines, the acceleration of vaccination against COVID-19, freedom of speech, economic reforms and political change.

    The habitual shortage of food and first aid products and the energetic deficit have been aggravated by the stagnation of the tourist industry due to the pandemic and the U.S. government hindering of the flow of remittances sent by Cuban-Americans to the island. This year, the Cuban government introduced a series of economic reforms that triggered inflation resulting in popular discontent. In the last weeks, Cuba has also known a cataclysmic COVID wave: Cases skyrocketed, placing the island as the fifth country with most daily infections in Latin America. The globally recognized Cuban Health System has been a source of pride for Cubans, thus the COVID crisis exacerbated became a powerful source of disillusionment. Movements like San Isidro and 27N, protesting police brutality and for more civil liberties, have been particularly active during the last months, increasingly support among the youth and intellectuals and artists.

    On July 11, the people’s demands weren’t received with attentive listening, as one would expect from the leadership of a Revolution “of the humble, with the humble, and for the humble,” as Fidel Castro said in the Socialist Declaration on April 16, 1961; instead they were met with scorn, vilification and, worst, violent repression. In recent days, Cuban people have been brutally chased through the streets by the police, regular military forces and undercover agents. Even squadrons of the Special Units, with their black uniforms, threatening weapons, and unmuzzled dogs, were deployed into the streets. Also known as the Black Wasps (avispas negras), the elite combat commandos of the Revolutionary Armed Forces (FAR) are highly skilled and purposely trained to defend the island from military offensives.

    However, in the rare and shocking videos leaked despite internet restrictions, anyone who dares to watch could see the patrolling troops running, threatening unarmed people and beating them. “We are not afraid,” many in the crowd shouted. After three days of protests, an estimated 200 Cubans are considered disappeared, presumably arrested. The killing of one man has been officially disclosed.

    Violent confrontation between Cubans was explicitly incited by the president, Miguel Díaz-Canel, when he announced that “the combat order [was] given,” inviting “the revolutionaries” to fight in the streets. Lurking behind these words, there is a rhetorical — yet crucial — confusion.

    Who are the Cuban people — the “revolutionaries” — here? Are they the middle-aged, light-skinned men comfortably sitting in a well-climatized salon in the Palace of the Revolution — or “the Palace,” as the president calls the government headquarters — to discuss the destiny of the lives of the humble, of those protesting in the streets, the lives that none of these men share? Or are they the protesters — Cubans of all races, genders, and ages, sweaty and depleted, shouting their frustration in a desperate effort to gain some control over their own lives?

    They are not a politically monolithic group. A multitude of people struggling week by week to make ends meet includes Cubans of diverse ideological and political positions. In the crowd were members of the Cuban left who criticize certain aspects of their society while defending the gains of the Cuban Revolution, such as the young Marxist Frank García Hernández. He was arrested as he participated in the demonstrations in Havana, along with LGTBQ activists Maikel González Vivero and Mel Herrera. Also detained was the dissident artist Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara, leader of the “San Isidro” movement, who recently held a hunger strike in protest of state censorship. In the protests, some participants clearly voiced their thirst for freedom and desire to put an end to the Castroist regime. Others articulated their anti-government sentiment as explicitly anti-communist. Everyone, regardless of their ideological choice, seemed to share the same exhaustion and deprivation, drowned in an intolerable feeling of asphyxiation.

    When the Cuban government responded with violence to the claims of the people whose interests they are supposed to defend, it acted like any other government anywhere in the world, rather than following the socialist character that once defined the revolution. For some, this is a difficult truth to accept.

    I understand how hard it could be for the global left to process these unprecedented events. Aspects of Cuba’s original revolutionary project have for decades fueled leftist imaginations. Perhaps this is what has drawn some on the left to focus so single-mindedly on discussions of the U.S. embargo’s huge role in creating the economic desperation driving the protests without also wrestling with the complexity of the protest movement and the painful reality of the state repression that the protesters have faced.

    I understand them, I insist, because for me, a Cuban woman born and raised on the island between the 1970s and 1990s, it’s even more devastating to see the Cuban troops intended to protect the country against its enemies instead beating their neighbors. Does this mean that the masses of Cuban people who are protesting are now seen as the enemy?

    Like me, many Cubans have been sleepless lately, viscerally perturbed by those images. We are suffering, for our people in Cuba, for ourselves, for the future of the nation. Dreadfully, uncertainty looms over our days.

    But, still, I understand. I can understand that, for the global left, if Cuba fails to cast the image of the socialist exception, where is then hope to be found? On what grounds to build utopia? The current situation in Cuba brings up uncomfortable emotions, steered by these questions.

    Thus, many on the Left are hesitant to listen to the claims of Cuban protesters over the state’s official tale. This saddens me, even though, as I continue to make clear, I can understand the political — and existential — crisis behind their fears. But I think the Cuban people deserve better. More solidarity, perhaps. Solidarity with the hospital workers and doctors who have attained Cuba’s profound medical achievements and saved lives throughout Latin America. Solidarity with the Cubans that barely escaped death when fighting in Angola in a bloody, long civil war, whose end propitiated the termination of South African apartheid. Solidarity with the state-owned hotel employees that regularly serve contingents of European, Latin American or Canadian tourists; with the maids, cooks, gardeners always smiling, entertaining their tropical fantasy. They or their children, their neighbors and friends were the people protesting this week. Cuba’s Abdala and Soberana, the first COVID vaccines developed in Latin America, weren’t invented, fabricated and administered by the bureaucrats in the “Palace.” The Cuban people, those that took the streets to change their lives and were repressed by the government, are the ultimate generators of Cuban wealth.

    Lifting the embargo would considerably contribute to the improvement of Cuban’s lives. It would also help hold the Cuban government responsible for truly providing for its people (since it would no longer be able to attribute all problems to the embargo). The terrible impact of the almost 60-year-old embargo, and particularly the tough sanctions implemented by former President Donald Trump during his tenure, is undeniable. These restrictions and sanctions must be lifted. But to limit the solution to ending the embargo is rather simplistic.

    The Cuban situation is far too complex to involve only one factor. Not all its “mysteries” can be solved by removing the embargo. There are other, domestic problems, and those are the problems fueling the frustrations that launched multitudes to the streets. The government’s response to the popular upheaval unveiled some of them: If they insist that there’s no money to buy food and medical supplies, why are there enough resources for military training and to acquire the weaponry and equipment exhibited by the Special Units and deployed against people in the streets? Why is there money for weapons and not for syringes to complete the vaccination of the very same people that developed the vaccines Abdala and Soberana?

    In the end, the disruption of the internet that makes my mother lonelier and more vulnerable has proved to be a successful strategy for the government. It is a twofold weapon, keeping Cubans uninformed of what is happening in their own country — as they cannot know where the demonstrations are being held and how they were crushed by the authorities — and simultaneously making it nearly impossible for outsiders to know what is happening on the island. The lack of knowledge and disinformation are certainly some of the reasons precluding the global left from realizing that it is possible to choose humanitarian internationalism over a small-minded nationalism. State violence must be denounced everywhere, even in Cuba, the last rampart of leftist hopes.

    Acknowledging the mass nature of the protests in Cuba and explicitly condemning the state’s repression of the protesters does not require lessening the vehemence of their calls for the U.S. to end the embargo, or muffling their adamant opposition to U.S. intervention in Cuban politics. But it does mean that more people within the global left must make a real effort to gain an understanding of the realities on the ground in Cuba.

    This post was originally published on Latest – Truthout.

  • Documents Point To US Hand In Cuba Protests

    “For those new to the issue of Cuba, the protests we are witnessing were started by artists, not politicians. This song ‘Patria y Vida’ powerfully explains how young Cubans feel. And its release was so impactful, you will go to jail if caught playing it in Cuba,” said Florida Senator Marco Rubio, referencing a track by rapper Yotuel.

    The post Documents Point To US Hand In Cuba Protests appeared first on PopularResistance.Org.

    This post was originally published on PopularResistance.Org.

  • Palestinian Feminists Are Resisting Colonization By Fighting Sexual Violence

    Earlier this summer, several news outlets reported that the Palestinian American Community Center (PACC) in New Jersey, where Palestinian Americans gather for community organizing, civic engagement and humanitarian relief efforts was “bombarded with threats for 7 hours.” Yet perhaps due to the patriarchal culture underlying the U.S. media, the news reporters did not give much focus to the highly gendered and sexualized nature of these threats

    The post Palestinian Feminists Are Resisting Colonization By Fighting Sexual Violence appeared first on PopularResistance.Org.

    This post was originally published on PopularResistance.Org.

  • Demonstrations In Bloomington During 300-Mile “Walk For Licenses”

    Undocumented immigrants, immigrants and allies of the community passed through Bloomington Thursday on day six of their seven-day, 300-mile “Walk for Licenses” through Indiana, according to a press release from Cosecha Indiana.

    The post Demonstrations In Bloomington During 300-Mile “Walk For Licenses” appeared first on PopularResistance.Org.

    This post was originally published on PopularResistance.Org.

  • Animal Extinction Protesters Blockade McDonalds Factory

    The ‘animal and climate justice’ movement said that around 100 protestors set up a blockade using trucks, tents, bamboo structures in the early hours of Thursday morning to stop the facility from distributing burgers. Trucks with the sign “McMurder” stood outside the factory while police vans encircled the area.

    The post Animal Extinction Protesters Blockade McDonalds Factory appeared first on PopularResistance.Org.

    This post was originally published on PopularResistance.Org.

  • Oklahoma Natives Shut Down Governor Stitt’s Anti-Sovereignty Forum

    On Tuesday, July 13th, Indigenous peoples from many nations shut down Oklahoma Governor Kevin Stitt’s anti-Indigenous “victim impact” forum, which had no tribal representation and was intended to incite fear among the public in Stitt’s continued effort to subvert and overturn the 2020 McGirt Supreme Court decision. Jordan Harmon, Mvskoke/Creek citizen and tribal attorney described it as “a room literally packed with Natives from all different tribes in unified anger and with a very clear and direct message.”

    The post Oklahoma Natives Shut Down Governor Stitt’s Anti-Sovereignty Forum appeared first on PopularResistance.Org.

    This post was originally published on PopularResistance.Org.

  • Lake Erie Advocates Launch Billboard Against ‘Factory Farms’

    “Nothing happens until we start talking about it, and that’s why we’ve kicked off this campaign to start the conversation about banning factory farms,” Mr. Ferner said. “When enough people demand that, it will happen, thousands of farmers will be able to go back onto the land that they’ve been kicked off of by this industry to produce the meat, milk, and eggs that we need just like they did a mere 20 years ago.”

    The post Lake Erie Advocates Launch Billboard Against ‘Factory Farms’ appeared first on PopularResistance.Org.

    This post was originally published on PopularResistance.Org.

  • Canada, Ground Your Plans for 88 New Fighter Jets

    From rock stars to scholars, 100 public figures tell the Trudeau government to spend $77 billion some other way.

    The post Canada, Ground Your Plans for 88 New Fighter Jets appeared first on PopularResistance.Org.

    This post was originally published on PopularResistance.Org.

  • DAPL Saboteur Jessica Reznicek Sentenced to 8 Years

    On Wednesday, June 30, Jessica Reznicek was sentenced to eight years in federal prison after she admitted to sabotaging the widely opposed Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL) in 2017. Reznicek previously had pleaded guilty to the charge of Conspiracy to Damage an Energy Facility. She is also ordered to pay over 3 million dollars in restitution and to serve three years of supervised release.

    The post DAPL Saboteur Jessica Reznicek Sentenced to 8 Years appeared first on PopularResistance.Org.

    This post was originally published on PopularResistance.Org.

  • Journalists detained and harassed, internet disrupted amid Cuban protests

    Miami, July 14, 2021 — Cuban authorities should immediately and unconditionally release all detained journalists, stop disrupting internet access in the country, and allow the press to cover protests freely, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today.

    Since July 11, protests have erupted in several Cuban cities, with demonstrators calling for the end of the country’s communist government and protesting an economic crisis, worsened by the COVID-19 pandemic, according to press reports, which said they were the biggest demonstrations in the country in decades.

    Authorities have disrupted internet access in the country, and police have detained at least seven journalists, according to news reports and statements by the Cuban press freedom organization ICLEP and human rights organization CUBALEX.

    “Cuban authorities have responded to the country’s largest anti-government protests in decades with expected hostility and aggression to members of the press and disruptions of internet access,” said CPJ Central and South America Senior Researcher Ana Cristina Núñez. “Authorities must release all journalists from detention immediately, restore regular access to the internet on the island, and cease their desperate attempts to hide popular discontent from Cubans and the world.”

    On July 11, authorities in the province of Camaguey arrested journalists Henry Constantin, Iris Mariño, and Niefe Rigau of the independent outlet La Hora de Cuba, and authorities in Guantánamo province arrested Niober García and Rolando García, both journalists with the independent news agency Palenque Vision, according to ICLEP and CUBALEX.

    CPJ could not immediately determine the circumstances of their arrests or whether they had been formally charged. According to data from ICLEP, which CPJ reviewed, those journalists’ whereabouts are unknown.

    Also on July 11, police beat Ramón Espinosa, a correspondent with The Associated Press in Havana, according to news reports, which featured photos of the journalist bleeding from his nose and face.

    On July 12, state security agents detained Camila Acosta, a correspondent for the Spanish daily ABC and the independent news website Cubanet, at her home in Havana, and Cubanet reporter Orelvis Cabrera in the province of Matanzas, according to press reports and Cubanet Executive Director Hugo Landa, who spoke to CPJ via messaging app.

    Authorities are holding Acosta at the Fourth Station of the National Revolutionary Police in Havana for alleged public disorder and disobedience, and Cabrera’s whereabouts are unknown, according to those sources. CPJ could not immediately determine the circumstances of Cabrera’s arrest or whether either journalist has been formally charged.

    Acosta had been reporting on the protests since July 11 for ABC and on her Twitter account.

    Authorities have also intermittently blocked dozens of reporters from leaving their homes, including 14yMedio reporter Luz Escobar and at least 26 ICLEP reporters located throughout the country, including in the provinces of La Habana, Matanzas, Pinar del Río, Mayabeque, Sancti Spíritus, Artemisa, and Guantánamo, according to Normando Hernández, ICLEP’s U.S.-based general manager, who spoke to CPJ via messaging app, and a tweet by Escobar.

    Authorities have also sporadically shut down internet access on the island and restricted access to social media and messaging platforms, including Facebook, WhatsApp, Signal, Instagram and Telegram, according to news reports and tweets by NetBlocks and the Open Observatory, two organizations that track internet shutdowns.

    Cuban authorities regularly block access to independent news websites. Social media networks are normally accessible to internet users on the island but are often interrupted during times of unrest, according to news reports and CPJ research.

    One local journalist, who spoke to CPJ on the condition of anonymity, citing security concerns, said they were able to use VPN software to evade the censorship of specific websites, but were often disconnected from the internet entirely.

    “It is hard to confirm information inside Cuba at this time, because of the blocking of the internet,” Hernández said.

    CPJ emailed the National Revolutionary Police, the Ministry of the Interior, and ETECSA, the Cuban telecommunications regulator, for comment, but did not receive any responses. 


    This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by Committee to Protect Journalists.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • Pfizer Is Upholding Global Vaccine Apartheid. Today We Risk Arrest to Stop It.

    Priscilla Robinson (middle) takes part in a collective blockade outside the Pfizer headquarters on E. 42nd Street in New York City on July 14 to demand that Big Pharma stop prioritizing profits over global access to COVID-19 vaccines.

    Pfizer is getting away with murder by only allowing rich countries to get the lion’s share of its COVID-19 vaccines. Today, I am putting my body on the line to stop this gross inequity.

    With COVID-19 cases on the rise again due to the dangerous Delta variant, it’s becoming clear to many Americans that the pandemic’s toll on the U.S. is far from over. But for much of the rest of the world, because of corporate greed, the pain and loss from COVID is set to rage unchecked through largely unvaccinated populations.

    In my rural community of Little Egg Harbor, New Jersey, many are still at risk of contracting COVID-19. As in other parts of the United States, those most at risk are those who refuse to be vaccinated. But the rest of the world doesn’t have this luxury: Billions of people still haven’t received their first dose not due to personal hesitancy but due to their inability to access a COVID vaccine.

    Roughly 85 percent of all COVID shots administered have been in higher-income countries, and unless pharmaceutical makers allow greater access to their formulas now, many millions of lives will be lost that can, and should, be saved.

    Yet in this moment of incomprehensible global tragedy and crisis, Pfizer is spending millions to block more manufacturers from producing these desperately needed, lifesaving vaccines. Why? So that it can lock in as much profit as possible.

    Here’s how it works: Under the World Trade Organization’s (WTO) intellectual property rules, the private producers of the COVID-19 vaccine are given monopolies over their product. They can charge sky-high prices, while keeping the supply limited. A TRIPS waiver, which has been proposed to the WTO, would change all that and open the door for more doses to be produced at a lower cost for developing countries.

    Recognizing the severity of the crisis and our shared interest in a global solution, this waiver would allow producers around the world to start manufacturing the vaccine, increasing the supply and lowering prices to make critical medication available to everyone. Putting their own profits over peoples’ lives, Pfizer is fighting tooth and nail to prevent a waiver, even if it means exacerbating the global vaccine apartheid.

    President Joe Biden, after months of grassroots organizing and pressure, announced his support for the waiver this May. But he can also often be found by the side of Pfizer’s CEO and Chairman, Albert Bourla, at photo ops thanking the executive for donating pitiful amounts of vaccines to poorer countries.

    Meanwhile, Germany’s Chancellor Angela Merkel is opposing waiver negotiations so that the German firm BioNTech, which helped develop Pfizer’s mRNA vaccine, can continue to reap billions in profits while the world suffers. Pfizer and BioNtech are not the heroes in the COVID crisis they claim to be.

    Our demands are realistic and achievable today. Pfizer can stop blocking the waiver today. Pfizer can voluntarily share technology with the World Health Organization today. Chancellor Merkel can support the TRIPS waiver today. We can save lives today. This is not a question of science; this is a question of political will. Will politicians find the courage to fight against Big Pharma?

    That’s why I joined hundreds of other demonstrators, led by Justice is Global, Health Global Access Project (GAP), and more, in a mass demonstration in New York City today calling to end vaccine apartheid and save lives everywhere. Starting at the United Nations, we took our demands to the German Consulate, where we called on Chancellor Merkel to stop blocking the waiver in advance of her upcoming visit with President Biden this week.

    Today, I am one of the hundreds who are demonstrating outside Pfizer’s headquarters with signs reading “Pharma Greed Could Kill Us All,” and chanting “vaccine apartheid, no more.” Hundreds who, like me, are tired of seeing corporate greed put before human lives. We are health activists, doctors, clergy, union members, members of impacted diaspora communities, and more. Together, we linked arms, sat down, and blocked access to the Pfizer building. We are currently on E. 42nd Street in New York City, blocking the road that leads to the Pfizer building as well. We just got notified by police that they plan to take actions to remove us. You can watch the direct action on Facebook Live right now.

    When it comes to COVID, corporate greed and political delays are literally killing people no different from us, except for where they live. That’s why I am risking arrest right now. Because I know a better world is possible. At this very moment, we have the technology to save countless lives. We have the knowledge and the resources to end the pandemic for everyone, everywhere.

    This post was originally published on Latest – Truthout.

  • Thousands in Cuba Protest Amid Deep Economic Crisis and Ongoing US Blockade

    Thousands in Cuba Protest Amid Deep Economic Crisis and Ongoing US Blockade

    We go to Havana, Cuba, to look at what is behind protests that brought thousands of people into the streets of Havana and other cities in rare anti-government protests denouncing the island’s economic crisis during the COVID-19 pandemic. Cuba is facing its harshest phase of the pandemic with skyrocketing infections, and people are scrambling to cope amid shortages of medicine, food and other resources due to catastrophic U.S. sanctions. Thousands of others in Cuba led counterprotests in support of the Cuban Revolution and President Miguel Díaz-Canel. Cuban journalist Daniel Montero, a journalist with the independent news organization Belly of the Beast, says many people were demanding an end to communism on the island, but the protests were not entirely driven by ideology. “We just want more food. We just want medicine. We just want the basics,” he says many protesters told him in interviews.

    TRANSCRIPT

    This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.

    AMY GOODMAN: We’re beginning today’s show in Cuba, where demonstrators have taken to the streets of Havana and other cities in rare anti-government protests denouncing the island’s economic crisis during the COVID-19 pandemic. Cuba is facing its harshest phase of the pandemic with skyrocketing infections. People are scrambling to cope amid shortages of medicine, food and other resources due to catastrophic U.S. sanctions. Meanwhile, on Sunday, thousands of others led counterprotests in support of the Cuban Revolution and President Miguel Díaz-Canel.

    This comes as the BBC reports one man has died during the protests in Cuba, and Amnesty International says more than 140 Cubans have either been detained or their whereabouts are unknown. During an interview on live television Tuesday morning, a Cuban YouTube star who was discussing the arrests said government security forces had come to detain her and take her to a Havana police station.

    In a minute, we’ll speak with Cuban journalist Daniel Montero, who is a producer and journalist with the news organization Belly of the Beast. First, this video featuring him narrating what’s happening on the ground in Cuba.

    DANIEL MONTERO: Thousands took the streets this Sunday in the biggest protests Cuba has seen in decades.

    PROTESTERS: [translated] No more communism!

    DANIEL MONTERO: The chants focused on civil liberties and the political system, but scarcities were the biggest factor fueling the demonstrations.

    INTERVIEWER: [translated] Why have so many people come to the streets?

    PROTESTER: [translated] Because of everything. Because of hunger, not enough medicine, the lack of everything. All this mixed together. Power shortages. All this mixed together.

    DANIEL MONTERO: U.S. sanctions, intensified during the Trump administration, triggered Cuba’s economic crisis. But the protesters took their anger out on the Cuban government.

    PROTESTERS: Díaz-Canel, [bleep]! Díaz-Canel, [bleep]!

    DANIEL MONTERO: The 60-year-old U.S. blockade against Cuba was created to deny “money and supplies to Cuba … to bring about hunger, desperation and overthrow of government.” The Trump administration expanded the economic war against Cuba, strangling the island with more than 200 sanctions, like an oil blockade and restricting remittances and flights. During the pandemic, these sanctions escalated, hindering Cuba’s response to COVID. Rollout of Cuba’s vaccine was delayed because U.S. sanctions prevented raw materials from being imported, according to the Cuban government. Even now, as COVID cases in Cuba rise to their highest levels since the pandemic began, Joe Biden has done nothing to lift the sanctions. His response to Sunday’s events did not mention the embargo.

    PRESIDENT JOE BIDEN: The United States stands firmly with the people of Cuba as they assert their universal rights. And we call on the government, the government of Cuba, to refrain from violence, their attempts to silence the voice of the people of Cuba.

    PRESIDENT MIGUEL DÍAZ-CANEL: [translated] Isn’t it very hypocritical and cynical that you, the one who is blockading us and carrying out the policy that has most violated human rights of the Cuban people for more than 60 years and who intensifies it in the midst of a situation as complex as the pandemic, now wants to appear as the great savior? Lift the blockade.

    DANIEL MONTERO: In Miami, Cuban American hard-liners have circulated a petition calling for a U.S. intervention.

    MAYOR FRANCIS SUAREZ: [translated] The intervention may be something with the international community to provide help, or it may be something military. All options must be on the table.

    COUNTERPROTESTERS: [translated] This street belongs to Fidel! This street belongs to Fidel!

    DANIEL MONTERO: Hundreds of government supporters took to the streets in response to the protests.

    GOV’T SUPPORTER: [translated] The U.S. government’s aggressive policies and the blockade intensify every day. The previous administration applied more than 240 sanctions. All that and the pandemic have exacerbated the country’s situation.

    DANIEL MONTERO: In Havana, the government’s response to protests was mixed. In the neighborhood of Regla, protesters marched for hours peacefully, without a police response. In downtown Havana, encounters with the police were frequent and violent. Cuban musician Yomil tried to convince protesters to carry out a peaceful sit-in.

    YOMIL: [translated] This is a historical moment for our community. We have to be smart. This is not about violence.

    DANIEL MONTERO: But his appeal was ignored.

    PROTESTER: [translated] The police can’t handle us! They don’t stand a chance!

    DANIEL MONTERO: Government security forces detained dozens, possibly hundreds, of protesters. Protests ended Sunday night. The streets are calm, for now.

    AMY GOODMAN: For more, we go to Havana, Cuba, to speak with Daniel Montero, Cuban journalist with the independent news group Belly of the Beast. He narrated the report you just heard.

    Daniel, welcome to Democracy Now! Can you —

    DANIEL MONTERO: Thank you for having me.

    AMY GOODMAN: — start off by continuing to describe what’s happening in the streets? In the United States, the corporate media here says that just anger at the Cuban regime has blown up and that thousands are marching everywhere. And then you have, in Miami, people marching, as well. Can you give us your perspective on what’s happening? And were you yourself detained?

    DANIEL MONTERO: Thank you so much for having me.

    Well, first of all, what happened this July 11th was historical. There’s no denying that. I mean, not since 1994, thousands of people had taken to the streets. And back then it had to do with another major economic crisis we had, that one caused by the fall of the Soviet Union.

    The thing is that right now a big number of things have combined. Like, we are not only going through the hardest moment of the pandemic in Cuba — we had been doing very well in the pandemic so far, but in the last months things have not been well. We have thousands of cases. At the same time, there’s big lines people need to do just to acquire the basics. There’s no medicine. So, all of these things have come together. And at the same time, I would say that everything people are seeing on media, especially media based out of Florida, that people now — everyone has access to internet in Cuba — I would say that the picture they’re painting to their audience is that one of a country falling to pieces and that we need help from wherever we can get it. So I think that when all of these things came together, then this happened.

    Several cities across the country, people went to the streets. And of course the biggest ones happened here in Havana. I was in downtown Havana. I saw thousands of people there. They were calling for the end of communism. They were calling for a change. But the combination is interesting, because when you hear the things they’re saying when they sing together, it’s all about the politics of it. But when you talk to them — we were doing interviews in the streets. When you talk to them, they were just like, “We just want more food. We just want medicine. We just want the basics.” And I think that it’s quite an interesting combination.

    There were violent encounters in the streets. In the area I was — I was in, there was a lot of violence, I would say, and a lot of people got injured, both from the protesters and from the police. There were arrests. I was arrested myself while we were filming. I was released later that night. So, that’s kind of what happened during that day.

    Now, what’s worrying for us is that the picture that’s been painted so far is that people are still in the streets by the thousands and that the country is a complete chaos. And that is not what I am seeing here. Yes, Sunday was worrying, but it has — it’s more calm since. I would say it’s very tense, you know, because — precisely because it is almost unprecedented. So we’re all just worried, basically. But things are a bit calmed down.

    JUAN GONZÁLEZ: And, Daniel Montero, could you talk a little bit about the generational divide in terms of the protests, in terms of who is participating? And what happened after President Miguel Díaz-Canel called on supporters of the Cuban government to come out into the streets? Was there any — because, obviously, in Cuba, those people who have covered Cuba in the past know that, at times, the government can call millions of people out into the streets when it wants to support a particular public manifestation.

    DANIEL MONTERO: Yes, yes. After the anti-government people took to the streets, in the afternoon, President Miguel Díaz-Canel went on national television and called on his supporters to take the streets. And there was a lot of [inaudible] people that also took to the streets. And in some cases you would have, you know, in the same places, anti-government and pro-government people having it out, yelling at each other. And I didn’t witness it myself, but I do know that I have seen reports that some violence in some cases unraveled when this happened.

    In terms of a generational divide, I think it’s very much real. You know, I think the younger generations, like mine, we’re less worried about the ideology of our political system and more about, you know, just having things work, and work for [inaudible]. And, of course, an older generation, I would say, my parents’ generations or my grandparents’ generation, it’s different. You know, they sort of built what we’re seeing now, what’s called the Cuban Revolution. So I think they have more of an ideological commitment to government. And that is what we saw on the streets. You know, most of the people that went out, anti-government people, were younger. And then, the pro-government people, you could say, belong to a bit older generation.

    JUAN GONZÁLEZ: And I wanted to ask you about the impact — this mention of the over 200 new sanctions that were imposed during the Trump era, that the Biden administration has so far not yet rolled back, and also the COVID situation. There has been a resurgence of COVID, or a, actually, new surge in COVID in Cuba, but it’s still relatively small, from what I can tell. For instance, there have been about 1,600 total deaths since the pandemic began in Cuba, a nation of 11 million. New York City alone has had 33,000 deaths since the pandemic, and New York City actually has less people than the Cuban population. And so, I’m wondering: How big an impact has been this surge of COVID? And also, could you detail a little bit more about these sanctions? What were the kinds of sanctions that Trump imposed that did not exist previously?

    DANIEL MONTERO: Well, first of all, the Trump administration, what they did in terms of sanctions on Cuba, first of all, it came as a shock, because we had just come out of [inaudible] in those last couple of years of his presidency, and, you know, we were all very hopeful that this reengagement policy — because it was having very good consequences on our economy, especially when it comes to tourism. And then, tourism is one of the first areas in which we can see the consequences of what the Trump administration did. They basically rolled out all of the policies Obama was adopting, and they started applying more than 200 sanctions, like tourism, if they ban cruise ships. They forbid flights to other cities than — to other cities that wasn’t Havana. That had a toll on our tourism revenue.

    Then, the other sanctions, like they applied an oil blockade. At some point in Cuba, we had a major oil crisis because the United States was stopping the oil that came into the country. And not just that, like, what the embargo as a whole means is that it is harder for — in many cases, impossible — to do business with other countries, with companies. So that makes it very hard to access food, medicine, the basics.

    Now, when you bring that into a pandemic, in which the Trump administration did not slow down at all — they actually increased what they were doing — this causes even bigger harm, because then the COVID response of the country was harmed by the policies of the Trump administration. And it is very important to understand that this war that the United States has been waging against Cuba, just because Donald Trump is no longer president, it doesn’t mean it’s no longer in place, because even though Joe Biden is six months into his presidency, all of the sanctions that Trump applied are still in place. So that is very important to understand.

    AMY GOODMAN: I wanted to —

    DANIEL MONTERO: Now, when it comes to — yeah, yeah.

    AMY GOODMAN: — go to Secretary of State Antony Blinken speaking Monday about Cuba.

    SECRETARY OF STATE ANTONY BLINKEN: Over the weekend, tens of thousands of Cubans took to the streets on the island to exercise their rights to assemble peacefully and express their views. The protesters called for freedom and human rights. They criticized Cuba’s authoritarian regime for failing to meet people’s most basic needs, including food and medicine. In many instances, peaceful protesters were met with repression and violence. The Biden-Harris administration stands by the Cuban people and people around the world who demand their human rights and who expect governments to listen to and serve them rather than try to silence them. Peaceful protesters are not criminals, and we join partners across the hemisphere and around the world in urging the Cuban regime to respect the rights of the Cuban people to determine their own future, something they have been denied for far too long.

    AMY GOODMAN: So, that is Secretary of State Tony Blinken. Daniel Montero, if you can respond? And also, do you know what happened with the person who died in the protests, those reports of that?

    DANIEL MONTERO: Yes. Well, first of all, with what secretary of state just said, well, I think, you know, he’s being very polite, but I think it is — it is always, in a way, uncomfortable for us, as Cubans, to listen to any American politician wishing us the best, while at the same time applying a policy that’s exactly the opposite, you know? Sure, who can oppose to the idea of a government listening to its people and the idea of everything working out for the better? Sure. That is ideal. But at the same time, it’s a bit hypocritical to not mention the biggest problem to our economy. We’re talking about a moment in which we’re living in crisis. People are taking to the streets because we are in a crisis. And that crisis is largely due to the United States sanctions. So, to come out and just support people, no. I mean, the biggest support the Biden administration could offer to the Cuban people is to lift the sanctions, especially during the period of the pandemic.

    Now, when it comes to the protester that died, I think a lot of details have not been released. I think I would say I am not surprised that it happened, because I was on the streets and I saw that, in several cases, things got out of hand. I would not justify the behavior of the police at all in the cases where it got wrong. I would also say that I also saw protesters who did the same. It was a, actually, very hard thing for me to watch. You must understand, we are not used to seeing this in Cuba. This is historical, as I said. This has never happened during my lifetime. I’m only 25 years old. So I was shocked to witness this, you know, Cubans fighting Cubans. And sadly, I’m not surprised that it happened, although, of course, I’m sad that it did. But a lot of details have not been released.

    JUAN GONZÁLEZ: And could you comment about the reaction of Cuban Americans in the United States, especially in South Florida? At times, there seemed to be bigger protests in Florida than there were in Cuba in terms of actual people in the streets.

    DANIEL MONTERO: Yes. Well, look, you know, the Cuban Americans in Florida, in many cases, can be blinded by some of the coverage that they have. I would say this. Look, I can accept any comment, and I think that the idea of all of the Cubans, the Cubans here and the Cubans abroad, coming together and discussing the issues of the country, I think that is an amazing idea and something we should all go for. But what has shocked me the most is to have Cuban Americans in Florida asking for a military intervention. This is like — this is some of the most colonial behavior I have ever seen in my life. It’s like, because if you have any understanding of what a military intervention is, like, how can you call for another country’s army to invade your country? That, for me, is simply outrageous. I don’t know how else to describe it. Sorry if I — it’s not most professional, but it is my country.

    AMY GOODMAN: Well, Daniel Montero, I want to thank you so much for being with us, Cuban journalist with the independent news organization Belly of the Beast, joining us from Havana, Cuba.

    When we come back, we go to Washington, D.C., to speak with Texas state representatives. Why are they in D.C. and not in Austin? Well, they led the movement of Texas state Democrats to leave what they call the “suppression session” to fight for federal voting rights legislation and to stop a voting rights bill from passing in the Texas Legislature. Stay with us.

    This post was originally published on Latest – Truthout.

  • Burger King Workers Resign In Protest

    Burger King workers in Lincoln, Nebraska quit en masse when their general manager Rachael Flores gave her notice after months of mistreatment from higher ups. On the way out last week, Flores put up a message that went viral on social media, using the Burger King sign to announce: “We all quit. Sorry for the inconvenience.”

    The post Burger King Workers Resign In Protest appeared first on PopularResistance.Org.

    This post was originally published on PopularResistance.Org.

  • Elbit Tamworth Shut Down For Third Time

    Palestine Action activists have stormed, dismantled, and are currently occupying the Elbit Systems Elite KL site in Tamworth, Staffordshire. Activists are preventing operations and the production of drone parts, used by Israeli forces in the surveillance and bombardment of Palestinians. After two activists stormed the factory and smashed windows and property, another two have begun occupying the roof, spraying blood-red paint across premises

    The post Elbit Tamworth Shut Down For Third Time appeared first on PopularResistance.Org.

    This post was originally published on PopularResistance.Org.

  • Frito-Lay Workers Strike Over 84-Hour Weeks, Meager Raises

    “Nobody I know loves Frito-Lay enough that they want to live there,” said Monk Drapeaux-Stewart, a box drop technician, responsible for keeping the plant’s machines supplied with cardboard. “We want to go home and see our families. We want to have our weekends off. We want to work the time that we agreed to work—and hopefully not much more than that.”

    The post Frito-Lay Workers Strike Over 84-Hour Weeks, Meager Raises appeared first on PopularResistance.Org.

    This post was originally published on PopularResistance.Org.

  • Gas Bill Strike Is Underway To Protest The North Brooklyn Pipeline

    The No North Brooklyn Pipeline coalition is encouraging fellow community members to join a National Grid gas bill strike in the face of potential rate hikes meant to fund the aforementioned fracked gas pipeline.

    The post Gas Bill Strike Is Underway To Protest The North Brooklyn Pipeline appeared first on PopularResistance.Org.

    This post was originally published on PopularResistance.Org.

  • The Tokyo Olympics Are In Peril

    In a sane world, the Olympics would have already been postponed. But money has trumped all other concerns, and that’s what Yamaguchi is referring to when she says the country is “damned if we do, and damned if we don’t.” Japan has officially spent $15.4 billion on the games, but government audits reveal that the actual cost could be as high as $30 billion and climbing. At least a portion of that lucre needs to be recouped, and it won’t be if the gleaming new facilities are shuttered.

    The post The Tokyo Olympics Are In Peril appeared first on PopularResistance.Org.

    This post was originally published on PopularResistance.Org.

  • Community Members And Businesses Show Support For Frito-Lay Workers On Strike

    Going into the second day of the first strike outside Topeka’s Frito-Lay plant in nearly 50 years, a local relief fund had been set up to cover some union members’ utility bills, as area businesses showed support for those on the front line.

    The post Community Members And Businesses Show Support For Frito-Lay Workers On Strike appeared first on PopularResistance.Org.

    This post was originally published on PopularResistance.Org.

  • Arrested In Rocking Chairs, Grandparents Protest Chase And Pressure Biden On Climate

    “Because the bank management chose to avoid arrests at its front door, our group eventually took our rockers and banners and moved into the street in front of the bank. There we were arrested — Michael Bagdes-Canning, 67, was shoved into a police car and Padma Dyvine, 71, became the first to be loaded into the police van. We were held in frigid cells for some hours before release with an expectation that we would be summoned to court at a later date.”

    The post Arrested In Rocking Chairs, Grandparents Protest Chase And Pressure Biden On Climate appeared first on PopularResistance.Org.

    This post was originally published on PopularResistance.Org.

  • NYC EMTs, Paramedics To Boycott Parade Honoring COVID First Responders

    Thousands of city frontline workers — including paramedics and emergency medical technicians — plan to boycott Mayor de Blasio’s Hometown Heroes ticker tape parade Wednesday.

    Members of FDNY EMS will not be marching up the Canyon of Heroes unless they are on duty and working, union leaders said Tuesday.

    The post NYC EMTs, Paramedics To Boycott Parade Honoring COVID First Responders appeared first on PopularResistance.Org.

    This post was originally published on PopularResistance.Org.

  • The National Strike In Colombia: A Trade Union Perspective

    While the beginnings of this strike were directly tied to popular discontent with the government’s proposed tax reform bill, it was also a resurgence of the huge protests that enveloped Colombia from November 2019 to February 2020. But more than just a spontaneous reflection of the broad social crisis that has gripped Colombia for decades, the present context portends a much deeper, wider, and momentous social explosion.

    The post The National Strike In Colombia: A Trade Union Perspective appeared first on PopularResistance.Org.

    This post was originally published on PopularResistance.Org.