All News Feeds

Marjorie Taylor Greene among US public figures hit by threats and swatting

The Guardian | Protest -

Congresswoman said hoaxer tried to trigger police response while Colorado justices who ruled against Trump face threats

The political became personal over the Christmas holiday as the homes of politicos and judges were targeted by threats, protests and “swatting” hoaxes by pranksters who call in fake emergencies to authorities in the hopes of prompting a forceful police response.

A swatting hoax targeted the Republican congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene. Authorities said they were investigating threats against the Colorado supreme court justices who ruled that Trump could not appear on the state’s ballots in the 2024 presidential election because he incited an insurrection on the day of the January 6 attack on the US Capitol.

Continue reading...

New breed of climate protesters vows to take fight to ‘cowards’ of US politics

The Guardian | Protest -

Climate Defiance, trying to make the climate crisis a top issue in 2024 election, isn’t afraid to anger ‘cowards’ and ‘criminals’

A climate protest group backed by a cadre of Hollywood film-makers is preparing to take action against “cowards” and “criminals” of all political stripes as the 2024 election approaches.

Climate Defiance, which disrupted events featuring a string of Biden administration officials this year, and targeted Darren Woods, CEO of ExxonMobil, in December, will consider protesting at events staged by both Democrats and Republicans on the campaign trail after concluding that its “very disruptive” action was bearing fruit.

Continue reading...

Tuesday briefing: Why 2023 was a watershed year for the climate crisis

The Guardian | Protest -

In today’s newsletter: The last 12 months will be remembered for record-breaking temperatures, but also for government-backed clampdowns on climate protesters

Sign up here for our daily newsletter, First Edition

Good morning.

Record after record has been broken this year. Antarctic sea ice hit “mind blowing” lows; greenhouse gas levels and global temperatures hit record highs, as did ocean temperatures, and there has been unprecedented mass coral bleaching. Another alarming record was hit on 17 November when the Earth briefly hit 2C of warming above pre-industrial levels for the first time.

Continue reading...

‘We’re tired of being good girls’: Russia’s military wives and mothers protest against Putin

The Guardian | Protest -

Female-led movements are challenging the official narrative that mobilised troops are required for war against Ukraine

Against a backdrop of snow-capped birch trees, a group of women wearing white headscarves blend into the Russian winter landscape. In a country where public dissent is rare, their blunt message to Vladimir Putin stands out: bring our men back from Ukraine.

“We want a total demobilisation. Civilians should not be engaged in the fighting,” says one of the women at the start of the nine-minute address this month. “There are many of us, and our numbers will only grow.”

Continue reading...

Brooklyn (NY): Skull Squat defense ongoing

House Occupation News -

For the past week, squatters and friends have defended Skull Squat in Brooklyn from shady developers and their goons attempting to break-in, lock out residents, and demolish the building. After forcing entry three days in a row with hammers and angle grinders, the developers have been turned away for the past two days by dozens of punks, anarchists, neighbors, and friends. The building has been squatted for six months by six black, brown, and white transgender anarchists.

The developers, two persistent and violent Israeli-American brothers, do not own the building. They forced long-term residents out years ago, allowed the building to deteriorate, and are hoping to reclaim it once it is foreclosed upon. They convinced the police of their claim to “management” with dubious work permits, who allowed them to break in and hurt those trying to defend the squat. Both their purported lease and permits have been found invalid by several civil authorities.

An affordable housing cooperative owns the three-story rowhouse and abandoned it years ago. It’s in a neighborhood we aren’t supposed to be able to afford. But we found it, did a little work, and live here. And we aren’t leaving it without a fight.

By defending our home, we directly confront the development machine that wants to take this building, raze it, and build another condo. The underfunded city agencies tasked with preserving affordable housing have long neglected to protect the building, so we’re doing it ourselves.

Last week, squatters at Skull woke up to construction workers in their living room. The equally startled workers called one of the developers, who called the pigs. Officers who showed up determined we are residents – and thus, that this is a matter for civil court – and turned away the developer and his workers.

Several days later, the other brother arrived with a new crew of goons. They shoved and kicked squatters and forced their way into the first floor, which they locked up. The pigs determined they had a right to be on that floor and stood by as they assaulted us with pipes and hammers. After they left we removed their locks and reinforced the building but on the very next day they again forced their way in. As the police again watched on, they demolished the first floor with sledgehammers and attempted to break water and sewage pipes in the basement. After they left we took the whole building back again, and spent all night strategizing and constructing barricades.

The following day, over sixty friends and supporters turned out on rapid response after break-in attempts resumed.

Today, they again tried to breach the front door with angle grinders and after a few moments they gave up and moved on to grind the lock off the bulkhead hatch to the basement. In the forty-year lineage of New York squatters, they were met with piss jugs emptied on them from the window. They gave up trying to force entry.

As I’m writing this friends from the local info-shop are laughing and talking around a grill and folding tables of food and drinks. Yesterday, squatters from a neighboring city played cards on the sidewalk before quickly linking arms to defend the doors from arriving goons. Old friends and squatmates have reconnected on the barricades and new connections have formed between comrades across subcultures and generations.

Tonight is the winter solstice. The goons had not yet left as the sun set. Tomorrow the sun will rise and the days will get longer and Skull Squat will still be here and will be for much longer.

Groups in the US: https://radar.squat.net/en/groups/country/US
Events in the US: https://radar.squat.net/en/events/country/US

Protest in central London calls for Gaza ceasefire and boycott of brands

The Guardian | Protest -

Demonstrators in and around Oxford Street campaign against retailers they say are linked to Israel

Hundreds of people have marched along Oxford Street in London calling for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza and a boycott of “Israeli-linked” brands, as traffic in the busy shopping district was brought to a standstill days before Christmas.

“There can be no Christmas as usual while a genocide is happening,” the organisers and activist group Sisters Uncut wrote on social media on Saturday, calling for the boycott of brands including Puma, Hewlett-Packard and Axa.

Continue reading...

2023 was the year governments looked at the climate crisis – and decided to persecute the activists | Owen Jones

The Guardian | Protest -

Around the world, the people fighting for the survival of our planet are being shamefully silenced and villified

Injustice is easy to oppose after it has receded into the past, and there is no cost to imagining yourself as a hero long after the event. Everyone celebrates the suffragettes now, but at the time they were vilified as hateful spinsters and terrorists. McCarthyism is a pejorative political label on right and left alike now, but at his peak, more Americans approved of Senator Joseph McCarthy than frowned on his witch-hunt. Most people would like to believe they’d have stood up against the homophobia of 1980s Britain – yet, by 1987, only 11% of the British public believed same-sex relations to be “not wrong at all”.

Which takes us to climate activism. This year has seen a global onslaught against people agitating for more action to mitigate the worst effects of the climate crisis. Courts can issue stern judgments, but so can history, and you have to wonder its future verdict on how the persecution and silencing of those raising the alarm only escalated when the scientific evidence had become so cast-iron, and when extreme weather events hammered home the imminent danger facing the human species. Here in Britain, a government which is reneging on its climate commitments – not least by expanding oil and gas licences – is simultaneously introducing repressive legislation to silence those holding them to account.

Owen Jones is a Guardian columnist

Continue reading...

Surveillance Britain: where police are quietly trying to access 50m photos for one mass lineup | Katy Watts

The Guardian | Protest -

A sneaky provision in the criminal justice bill seeks to extend the use of deeply intrusive facial recognition technology

When you send off your details and photo to the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA) for your first driving licence, you’re probably thinking about being able to do things like taking friends on a road trip, dropping the kids off to school or helping elderly relatives get around. Few of us, I imagine, are willingly signing up to join a massive police lineup.

But that’s what new powers that the government is trying to sneak through in the new criminal justice bill mean. The measures – not referred to explicitly in the bill – will allow the police to run facial recognition searches on a database containing 50 million UK driving licence holders, to compare the biometric data contained in their photographs with images captured by CCTV or on social media. This new sweeping power should worry anyone who cares about the fundamental rights to privacy and free expression.

Katy Watts is the lawyer at Liberty

Continue reading...

Javier Milei’s radical economic policies for Argentina met with protests

The Guardian | Protest -

New libertarian president accused of drawing up a ‘battle plan against working people’

Thousands of protesters have poured on to the streets of Buenos Aires after Argentina’s new president announced a far-reaching emergency decree containing dozens of controversial economic measures – a move one prominent critic compared to the actions of an absolute monarchy.

Javier Milei, a radical libertarian economist who was inaugurated less than a fortnight ago, won power promising a dramatic shake-up of Argentina’s moribund economy amid rampant inflation and widespread poverty. On Wednesday night Milei appeared on television, flanked by 12 stony-faced ministers and top officials, to unveil a decree he claimed would haul the South American country out of “the economic hell we are now living through”.

Continue reading...

Environmental campaigners filmed, threatened and harassed at Cop28

The Guardian | Protest -

Indigenous campaigners, human rights defenders and climate activists say they are being silenced by fear of reprisals

Incidents of harassment, surveillance, threats and intimidation are creating a climate of fear at UN events including the recent Cop28 climate conference in Dubai, experts have said.

Indigenous campaigners, human rights defenders and environmental activists say they are increasingly afraid to speak out on urgent issues because of concerns about reprisals from governments or fossil fuel industries.

Continue reading...

The necessity of joy in times of sorrow

Waging Nonviolence -

This article The necessity of joy in times of sorrow was originally published by Waging Nonviolence.

This is an excerpt from “Your Heart Was Made for This: Contemplative Practices for Meeting a World in Crisis with Courage, Integrity, and Love.”

I grew up on the East Coast, where forests of evergreen, oak and maple soothed me. I loved spending time in a great old white pine. I’d climb into her arms, as high as her branches would support me. Near her crown, I would wrap one arm around her trunk and look out over the trees. When the wind picked up, the great tree would sway gently, rock­ing me in her arms. Her sap stuck to my skin for days, reminding me of the vast, quiet space she gave me, near the sky.

Just as a plant withers without adequate water, our hearts lose buoyancy and brightness without joy. Doing work — especially the work of service and social change — requires both external and internal resources. We need resilience to face pain, strength to persevere through challenge and joy to lift the heart.

Joy is a feeling of great pleasure, characterized by satisfaction and deep connection to self, other and the moment. Joy comes in many forms: from a quiet, contented happiness to a rush of warmth, to waves of pleasure. Joy may spring from personal circumstances, from the happiness of others and even from deep presence.

We experience joy in countless ways. My heart lifts seeing our son laugh; my heart warms recalling my child­hood dog, furiously wagging her tail. Joy has roots deep in our biology: puppies and kittens play with infectious joy; dolphins leap with delight. To be touched by life, we must be willing to let it in — to open and receive. This receptivity emerges naturally when we slow down as I did, held in the arms of that pine: when we close our eyes, feel the sun on our face, or lean in to smell a flower.

Though joy is innate, conditions complicate our ability to ac­cess it. The author and neuroscience educator Sarah Peyton notes that our nervous system only experiences joy and play when we feel valued and safe. Trauma, violence and structural oppression rob us of joy by depriving us of these needs. Ongoing grief or mar­ginalization alienates us from joy. After significant loss, we may need time before feeling joy again. Mourning requires feeling grief, rather than papering over hurt with false well-being.

Train yourself to enjoy small moments of beauty and good­ness in life: a flock of birds overhead, sunlight cutting through a window and shimmering on a glass of water, ordinary time with a loved one. How much joy do we miss in life because we’re moving too quickly? If your life feels overwhelming — perhaps raising children or working multiple jobs to make ends meet — acknowledge that you face external challenges. In this way, you might create more internal space. By honoring the pressures you experience, you may find renewed capacity to open to joy.

When my friend Miki and I walk together, we begin by taking turns sharing things we want to appreciate or celebrate, building our capacity for joy. In his work on resilience, Rick Hanson offers a two-part process called “taking in the good.” He invites us first to notice something nourishing, beautiful or uplifting (or invoke it through memory or imagination), then to linger with that ex­perience for at least 20 seconds. This nourishes us somatically, creating new neural pathways, etching the quality into our brains, and making joy easier to access in the future.

Beware of two traps along the path to joy. One trap equates contemplative practice solely with calm, peace or pleasure. This trap, common in secular mindfulness practice, leads us to avoid anything heavy or painful or to put a falsely positive spin on every experience. The second trap, more common in Buddhist circles, associates spirituality with seriousness and suffering. We may fear healthy pleasure, disengage from life or avoid joy, worried it will stir cravings. In fact, contemplative practice neither cuts us off from the world nor suppresses anything. It teaches us to feel all of life, hard and joyful, suffering and celebration. The Bible teaches that there is a season for everything: sorrow is the shadow that brightens our joy.

We suffer deeply in our world. Experiences of profound iso­lation, news of hate crimes or police violence, the spread of war, failure to act on the climate crisis — these take a toll on our hearts. Sometimes I read the news and weep. In the face of suffering, joy nourishes the heart so we have the resilience to open to pain and anger, feeling them, rather than shutting down or turning away. Joy creates space so we may respond to difficulty with skill. Joy strengths our spirits so we can sustain courageous action.

#support-block_352f07a5e6a9bccf392270f166343682 { background: #000000; color: #ffffff; } Support Us

Please donate so that we can continue producing stories like this in the new year.

Donate

Con­sider the Black civil rights movement, which resounded with uplifting songs of joy for years. In the midst of struggle, the movement for Black freedom consistently celebrated the collec­tive joy of acting wholeheartedly in a noble cause. The sustaining power of joy rings through the life and writings of the formida­ble anarchist and feminist activist Emma Goldman, whose work connecting sexual liberation, creativity and social revolution has been paraphrased in the popular slogan, “If I can’t dance, I don’t want to be part of your revolution.”

Joy protects the heart and nourishes courage. The author and social justice leader adrienne maree brown argues, “Joy is important. It’s not a guilty pleasure, it is a strategic move towards the future we all need to create. One in which our children are laughing, our children are free.”

Joy is sweeter when shared. Consider how good it feels to rejoice in a friend’s unexpected good news. When the heart is open, it’s natural to celebrate another’s good fortune. Years ago, a friend sent me a video of their toddler in little pink boots, puddle-jumping in the rain, and I still smile, remembering it! I’ve been moved to tears by couples’ figure skating. Envisioning the long years of training, we can join in their joy and pride as they execute an impeccable routine.

Of course, it’s easier to feel happy for others when we don’t covet what they have. (You’re unlikely to happen across me in a televised figure-skating competition anytime soon.) Do you contract a little when others succeed? Jealousy blocks apprecia­tive joy, inhibiting our celebration. We may compare ourselves to others, judge them or think cynically, “I’d feel better if you weren’t so darn happy!” We may think happiness is a limited resource: the happier you are, the less happiness for me.

Thank­fully, appreciative joy dispels such notions, recognizing envy but discovering that our hearts are big enough for it all. We can celebrate others and still pursue our goals. As the Dalai Lama has quipped, “When you count other people’s happiness as your own, you have billions more chances to be happy.” Cultivating appreciative joy dissolves the boundaries between self and other. Your happiness becomes mine and we enter an expansive, inter­connected space.

#newsletter-block_696e93a5bb0844903217b2a14fc8609b { background: #ECECEC; color: #000000; } #newsletter-block_696e93a5bb0844903217b2a14fc8609b #mc_embed_signup_front input#mce-EMAIL { border-color:#000000 !important; color: #000000 !important; } Sign Up for our Newsletter

Opening to joy, you may encounter a new challenge: feeling its fullness. Despite the collective heartache of the past few years, I’ve also known tremendous joy. After eight years of partnership with Evan, I felt overwhelmed by joy in the weeks leading to our wedding. The prospect of standing before our community and taking vows connected me with the depth of my love for her and devotion to my path. I worked to expand my capacity to feel that joy. I spoke with friends, explored my thoughts and feelings, and created a larger container for joy by relaxing and breathing. When I finally stood at the altar before Evan, our family and friends, I felt solid, clear and open. In turn, this experience pre­pared me to welcome our son into this world with a full, strong heart.

Connecting with life as it is — blessings and hardships, alike — brings deep joy. This joy does not depend on getting what we want. Feeling the full range of human experience — the joy and the sorrow — ennobles the heart. It’s not what we experience but how we relate to it that frees us. When we engage all of our being, we encounter a holistic satisfaction. When we are open, curious and kind toward all that arises in us, the sincerity of our presence offers its own reward: the joy of connection to truth.

Action

Every morning for a week or more, set an intention to notice small moments that nourish you or bring you joy. Slow down. Taste your food. Notice the flowers or trees. Look at the sky. Call a friend. Spend time in nature and allow your heart to be touched. Begin by noticing what is uplifting, letting it register in your heart. Then let your attention linger there. How does this experience feel in your body? Soak in any sensations of happiness or pleasure, how­ever subtle.

If you have difficulties

You can’t force joy or control its presence. In the face of grief or stress, joy may not be appropriate. Honor your feelings, invit­ing tenderness toward your experience. Explore the difference between resisting your feelings — fighting, fearing or avoiding them — and allowing yourself to open to them. How does it feel to accept an emotion even a little? Notice any movement from contraction toward well-being or ease. Relax into that shift; savor it, though it may be small. Consider that this could be a kind of bittersweet joy, the joy of knowing the truth.

If you feel stuck or low, engage your imagination. Not as an attempt to escape the present, but as a way to nourish your heart and bring more inner resources to what you are facing. Recall a time you felt well. Imagine a person or place that brings you joy. Let this become clear in your mind’s eye, noticing as many details as you can. Absorb the goodness of this memory. When you’re ready, let this image fade, but retain its nourishment. Bring this back into your present circumstance: the seed of joy is already within you.

This article The necessity of joy in times of sorrow was originally published by Waging Nonviolence.

Protest Song review – grief, rage and a singalong in Occupy movement drama

The Guardian | Protest -

Arcola theatre, London
This timely revival of Tim Price’s monologue about a rough sleeper drawn into activism leaves little space for vulnerability

‘Got any change?” asks a man with a woolly hat and a can of beer. He appears on the side of the stage with the look of a genuine rough sleeper seeking succour from the cold outside. He waits for an answer and it is harder to look at our feet or tell him we haven’t anything to give him when he’s standing in this intimate space.

It is a compelling beginning and an apt moment to revive Tim Price’s drama of homelessness, given the approach of winter and its rise of fatalities among rough sleepers.

Continue reading...

US officials monitored pro-Assange protests in Australia for ‘anti-US sentiment’, documents reveal

The Guardian | Protest -

Previously classified papers detail how the US embassy in Canberra responded to WikiLeaks’ release of embassy cables in 2010 and ‘sensationalist’ local media

American officials monitored pro-Assange protests in Australia for “anti-US sentiment”, warned of “increasing sympathy, particularly on the left” for the WikiLeaks founder in his home country and derided local media’s “sensationalist” reporting of the explosive 2010 cable leaks, previously classified records show.

Documents released by the US state department via freedom of information laws give new insight into how the US embassy in Canberra and its security team reacted to WikiLeaks’ release of 250,000 embassy cables in late 2010.

Sign up for Guardian Australia’s free morning and afternoon email newsletters for your daily news roundup

Continue reading...

Extinction Rebellion co-founder who broke window at HS2 protest spared jail

The Guardian | Protest -

Dr Gail Bradbrook found guilty of criminal damage to Department for Transport building in 2019

An Extinction Rebellion cofounder was spared jail after causing thousands of pounds worth of damage to a government building.

Gail Bradbrook, 51, was found guilty by a jury of breaking a window in a protest at HS2 at the Department for Transport in October 2019.

Continue reading...

Climate groups begin legal actions against Rosebank North Sea oil project

The Guardian | Protest -

Greenpeace UK and Uplift are seeking a judicial review in the Scottish courts to stop opening of huge new oilfield

Climate campaigners have launched two separate legal challenges to government plans to open a massive new oilfield in the North Sea.

Greenpeace and the campaign group Uplift argue that the decision to press ahead with the Rosebank development – the UK’s biggest untapped oilfield – is incompatible with the UK’s legally binding climate commitments, and say ministers’ original analysis ignored the devastating impact of burning oil from the site.

Continue reading...

‘Prison or bullet’: new Argentina government promises harsh response to protest

The Guardian | Protest -

President Javier Milei and his allies are preparing new security guidelines in anticipation of protests against currency devaluation

Human rights activists in Argentina have expressed consternation over new security guidelines to crack down on an anticipated wave of protests after the incoming government of libertarian president Javier Milei devalued the country’s currency by more than 50%.

Protesting individuals and organizations will be identified with “video, digital or manual means” – and then billed for the cost of sending security forces to police their demonstrations, said Milei’s security minister, Patricia Bullrich, as she announced the new protocol on Thursday.

“The state is not going to pay for the use of the security forces; organizations that have legal status will have to pay or individuals will have to bear the cost,” Bullrich said.

Continue reading...

Pro-Palestine rally leaders credit public ‘pressure’ with Labor’s shift on Gaza

The Guardian | Protest -

Change of heart on ceasefire shows ‘collective action is working’, Sydney protest speaker says

Speakers at Sydney’s pro-Palestine rally have said public outcry against the war in Gaza has pushed the Albanese government to shift its position and back calls for a humanitarian ceasefire, while criticising Labor for not calling for a permanent end to the conflict.

On Wednesday Australia joined 152 other nations in voting in favour of a humanitarian ceasefire in Gaza and an immediate and unconditional release of all hostages in an emergency session of the United Nations general assembly. The move followed Australia’s decision in late October to abstain from casting a vote on a similar motion.

Sign up for Guardian Australia’s free morning and afternoon email newsletters for your daily news roundup

Continue reading...

Pages