Articles tagged solidarity
Posted 11 years ago on June 21, 2013, 2:24 p.m. EST by OccupyWallSt
Tags:
greece,
turkey,
brazil,
solidarity,
nyc
The plan of the Turkish state to demolish Taksim Gezi Park, one of the few green and non-commercial spaces in the capital, sparked protests all over the country.
The rise in public transportation fares in Brazil was soon followed by mobilizations in the country’s biggest cities. This served as the spark for a protest over the destruction of public services, like health care, education and transportation, high costs of 2014 World Cup and political scandals like PEC 37, a proposed amendment to the constitution of Brazil that gives impunity to politicians.
The closure of the National Radio & Television Broadcaster in Greece, was followed by the occupation of its headquarters in Athens and protests all over the country. This decision by the government, with the support of the nazi extremist party of Golden Dawn, has been in line with the harsh austerity measures set by the European Commission, the International Monetary Fund and the European Central Bank.
These global uprisings are not reduced to a reactionary response of the privileged. They are characterized by a multiplicity of participants, ideologies, political views and forms of action.
During the last weeks people of various descents supported the actions initiated from the Turkish, Brazilian and Greek communities in NY. This co-presence addressed the similarities and what is shared with other struggles from different parts of the world: the criminalization of protests, human rights violation and media control, the ties between the weakening of labor rights and real estate speculation in the US as well as how police brutality and structural violence
mark the everyday experience of the NY neighborhoods, from the Lower East East side and East Village to the Bronx, Flatbush, Bedstuy and Brownsville.
This call is not only a symbolic solidarity action, but aims to create a common space of resistance.
Saturday, 6/22/13, 2pm AT LIBERTY SQUARE (x zuccotti park)
#NYCSOL #VemPraRua #occupygezi #geziparki #passelivre #brazilianspring
https://www.facebook.com/events/405718132879430/
Posted 11 years ago on April 4, 2013, 9:47 a.m. EST by OccupyWallSt
Tags:
solidarity,
labor,
strike,
nyc
via 99pickets.org:
Today, Thursday April 4 , over 400 fast food workers across NYC are starting a second wave of strikes for better wages and a union, marking the 45th anniversary of the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr.
Like the sanitation workers that Dr. King marched with in Memphis, these workers are standing up for dignity and respect for all workers.
Will you support these courageous workers by mobilizing your friends, family and colleagues to come out today and Friday?
1) Join a picket line starting at 11am. Key locations:
Wendy’s in midtown Manhattan, 259 34th St.
Burger King in Harlem, 154 E. 116 St.
Wendy’s in downtown Brooklyn 425 Fulton St.
2) Come to the Fast Food Worker Justice rally at 5:30pm in Marcus Garvey Park (124th and Madison). RSVP here
3) On Friday April 5, walk the striking workers back to work. Collective action is protected under U.S. labor law, and the workers are asking the community to be on-site at fast food locations around the city to support them as they return to the job. Sign up here; shifts are available throughout the day.
Post your photos and videos to Facebook and Twitter:
fastfoodfwd
Posted 11 years ago on March 23, 2013, 12:24 p.m. EST by OccupyWallSt
Tags:
solidarity,
chicago,
nato
via nato5support.wordpress.com
We are calling on comrades around the world to help raise awareness of the NATO 5 cases and support funds for the defendants on the one-year anniversary of their preemptive arrests. Please read the call-out below and start planning your action or event today!
On May 16, 2012, Chicago cops raided an apartment in the Bridgeport neighborhood of Chicago in an all-too-common attempt to scare people away from the imminent protests against the NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization) summit. With guns drawn, the cops arrested 11 people in or around the apartment and quickly disappeared them into the bowels of the extensive network of detention facilities in Cook County, Illinois.
After a few days, a few things started becoming clear: 2 of the arrested “activists” were actually undercover Chicago cops who had targeted the real activists for arrest, 6 of them were illegally held and released at the last possible minute before court action could be taken to force their release, and 3 had been charged with trumped-up, politically motivated terrorism charges. These three—Brent Betterly, Brian Jacob Church, Jared Chase—are now known as the NATO 3. They were ultimately charged with 11 felony counts, including material support for terrorism, conspiracy to commit terrorism, and creating Molotov cocktails. They face up to 40 years in prison and are expected to go to trial in September. Their lawyers recently filed a motion to dismiss the terrorism charges for being unconstitutional.
Two other Chicago-area activists—Mark Neiweem and Sebastian Senakiewicz—were also preemptively arrested. Mark was arrested in a spectacular snatch-and-grab as he was leaving a restaurant. He was charged with soliciting materials for an explosive device and is facing up to 30 years in prison; his trial date has not yet been set. Sebastian was arrested in another spectacular house raid and charged with falsely making a terrorist threat for allegedly claiming that he had explosive materials and wanted to use them during the convention. Facing 15 years in prison followed by deportation to his native Poland after serving his sentence, he took a non-cooperating plea deal last November. He was sentenced to 4 years with a recommendation of 4 months in boot camp. He is expected to begin his immigration proceedings immediately after completing his sentence.
As the one-year anniversary of these preemptive, politically motivated arrests draws near, we are calling for a week of solidarity actions and fundraisers for the NATO 5. All five defendants have been incarcerated since their arrests last May. Being held hostage in jail is extremely expensive for prisoners, as they are forced to purchase all their hygiene products, writing supplies, additional food to supplement the starvation portions given to them each day, and other basic necessities from the jail’s commissary at exorbitant prices. The legal defense costs for the defendants is also mounting, as their lawyers are working hard to help them win their freedom and there is a ton of evidence to sift through and other preparations to make.
This May, stand in solidarity with the NATO 5! Organize a house party, bake sale, silent auction, cabaret, raffle, rally, noise demo, art auction, street theater performance, concert…whatever you and your friends want! Send us an email at nato5solidarity(A)gmail.com to let us know what you have planned and then send us photos afterwards! You can also write the defendants to let them know what you have planned (https://nato5support.wordpress.com/contact/).
The NATO 5 cases are linked by a few common threads. People around the world have come together to protest NATO’s role in worldwide military expenditures and operations, the organization’s penchant for wantonly killing civilians for the benefit of its member nations—particularly the United States—and its disregard for human rights. Additionally, undercover Chicago police officers targeted and entrapped the activists because of their politics, which is part of a broader pattern of state repression against political activists, in which charging activists as terrorists is one of many strategies being used to silence dissent and dismantle activist communities. Other recent cases in which activists have been targeted include the Cleveland 4 (http://www.cleveland4solidarity.org/), the Green Scare cases (http://www.greenisthenewred.com/blog/), and the Pacific Northwest Grand Jury resisters (http://nopoliticalrepression.wordpress.com/).
Many of these prisoners need your financial support and solidarity as well. The Pacific Northwest Grand Jury resisters are calling for a week of solidarity actions from April 24–May 1 (http://saynothing.noblogs.org/call-for-coordinated-week-of-solidarity-actions/) and the Tinley Park 5 are calling for a day of solidarity on May 19 (http://www.anarchistnews.org/content/one-year-anniversary-arrest-tp5). And don’t forget about June 11th, the International Day of Solidarity with long-term anarchist prisoners Eric McDavid and Marie Mason (http://june11.org/).
Make this spring and summer a time of solidarity for the NATO 5 and all targets of state repression!
Posted 12 years ago on Dec. 18, 2012, 4:20 p.m. EST by OccupyWallSt
Tags:
solidarity,
europe,
slovenia
WE DEMAND THAT THE IRRESPONSIBLE AND THE UNPUNISHED GOVERNMENT OFFICIALS, BANKERS AND CEO’S WITHDRAW FROM THE DEMOCRATIC PROCESS WE ARE CREATING AT THIS MOMENT IN SLOVENIA.
We know exactly what we don’t want. Let us speak to each other what we want; what we desire as individuals, what we desire as a community. We need to open all the possibilities, all channels, all flows to talk about pain, oppression, violence, as well as hopes and visions. We need to listen to each other and to know that we are able to take the steps and enter the path of building such a democratic society, where even the weakest voice is heard, and one’s pain everyone’s pain.
Violence, injustice, intimidation and arrogance can no longer find refuge in our country. Theft and economic looting must be punished, and undue oppression of the people put to an end. We have to put the concepts of equality, reciprocity, fairness and dignity into action. Only through action and activity we can find our way to where we want to go and how to get there. Strategy and vision development can not be generated or delegated by the few; we must all make an effort to determine our collective future.
We have risen! We have conquered fear. In exactly two weeks, Slovenia has had a total of 54 uprisings in 28 cities: Maribor, Ljubljana, Ptuj, Gornja Radgona, Jesenice, Kranj, Bled, Koper, Nova Gorica, Novo mesto, Velenje, Ajdovščina, Trbovlje, Celje, Dravograd, Ravne na Koroškem, Krško, Brežice, Izola, Murska Sobota, Bohinjska Bistrica, Lendava, Trebnje, Slovenske Konjice, Litija, Kočevje, Radenci. Over 77,500 people took the streets, according to reports from all over Slovenia, though of course media, police and politicians counted our numbers several thousand less. They trivialize our fight and they will continue to do that. They can’t hide our numbers, because the streets belong to those who care about the country and want to change what has been forced upon us over the last 20 years. In order not to lose the future, we have to take back the freedom and power of our votes!
Repressive authorities have detained 254 people in Slovenia, some of them still remain in custody. Young people are locked in jail because Minister of Interior Gorenak claims they will return to the protests. Thousands return regardless, for we are not all in jail! We are the mothers of the arrested children, we are all the friends, families and supporters who will return to the streets and participate in the uprisings until we achieve change. As long as there are children confined, no one is free! Young people can not be criminalized by the very people who have stolen all the prospects of their future, by those that violently choke the protests that are the only channel available for the people to express their collective will. The never ending violence of capitalism goes unchecked, and meanwhile the attacks of rulers and marshals continue in impunity, without responsibility or accountability. What they call riots have emerged from the state of fear and poverty, into which we as citizens were pushed. We demand tears of joy, not tear gas!
Read More...
Posted 12 years ago on Dec. 10, 2012, 5:36 p.m. EST by OccupyWallSt
Tags:
solidarity,
labor,
michigan
Update: 12/11: This is what Lansing looks like this morning as around 15,000 people have converged on the capitol:
“In our glorious fight for civil rights, we must guard against being fooled by false slogans, such as ‘right to work.’ It is a law to rob us of our civil rights and job rights. Its purpose is to destroy labor unions and the freedom of collective bargaining by which unions have improved wages and working conditions of everyone…Wherever these laws have been passed, wages are lower, job opportunities are fewer and there are no civil rights. We do not intend to let them do this to us. We demand this fraud be stopped.” —Martin Luther King
Last Thursday, nearly a thousand union members and supporters gathered inside the Michigan capitol building in Lansing to protest lawmakers' decision to ram through "right to work" legislation. The day ended abruptly when police began assaulting and pepper-spraying protesters, provoking an evacuation and lockdown of the capitol building. The protests have continued, and at least eight people have been arrested. This Tuesday, thousands more will descend upon Lansing to protest the 1%-backed "right to work" legislation, the most extreme anti-union law Michigan has ever seen. Nurses, teachers, autoworkers, service sector employees, iron-workers, and many other workers (including the unemployed), plus their families, allies, and communities, have already spoken out. Many have also received training and are preparing for nonviolent civil disobedience.
Occupy stands staunchly in solidarity with these days of action. The unfolding events in Michigan are the latest assault on workers' rights in the U.S. and across the globe. Government policies such as the cynically-named "right to work" legislation will lower living standards for the 99% and benefit the elite who profit from our labor. In the face of these blatant attacks on low-income and working people, we must show sustained and escalating resistance. Together, we can defeat the Wall Street, corporate agenda of consolidating wealth in the hands of the few at the expense of the many.
Therefore, we call on all Occupiers in Michigan, the Midwest, and beyond, to join in solidarity and Occupy the Capitol. Now is the time to activate the networks we've created and begin organizing for mass action. The lesson of Wisconsin's failed recall vote was that election politics are not enough — we need to put everything on the table: sustained physical occupation, mass civil disobedience, even the option of general strike. From the Flint Sit-Down Strike of 1936-37, to the West Coast Port Shutdowns of 2011-12, history has shown time and time again: direct action gets the goods.
RSVP for Tuesday's Day of Action on Facebook
Twitter hashtags: #saveMI #NoRTWMI
more facts on why 'right to work' is wrong for everyone
"light brigade" solidarity message from Wisconsin
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