The People's Record

So far the month of June has been the busiest month in 2012 yet for global protest-movement news.

June 18, 2012

For the last few months, thepeoplesrecord.com has been doing monthly summaries of global protest news. Every month the list seems to get longer, the movements more powerful and plentiful, and the main-stream-media news coverage more disappointingly  biased. As the seeds of dissent continue to blossom, we’re finding it more and more daunting to fit a month of movement news in a single post. And so henceforth, we will make an effort to do our global roundups twice a month.

JUNE 1-14 GLOBAL ROUND-UP
Now that the first wave of enthusiasm for the Occupy Movement has been in decline for some time, “progressive” pundits, leftish-celebrities like Bill Maher, liberals everywhere, and many various frustrated groups of radicals have formally distanced themselves from the “Occupy Movement”. Enthusiasm in the American left is in a lull, and much of the enthusiasm that does exist has been sucked up by the Democrats and churned back out into the same cycle of support for neoliberal politicians, their consistent dissolving of civil liberties, and their imperial wars. And yet there are those in America who continue to lay the foundations for a broader protest movement, continue to make connections with parallel struggles around the world, continue to resist oppression, imperialism, exploitation and capitalism. And around the world, protest movements are in full bloom. Below we’ve captured some of what has happened in the first two weeks of June. Canada, Mexico and Chile each have seen continued growth and resurgences in their student movements, the Israeli social justice movement has re-emerged, anti-austerity movements continue to shake Europe and a great deal more has gone on around the world. Here’s a little bit of what has happened in June so far:

June 1

• Thousands of Jordanian protesters stormed in the streets in Amman demanding the government lowers prices for everyday necessities, such as food & oil & political reforms.
• 43 activists were arrested during a rally against education cuts in Auckland.
• In Syria, a rally was held to condemn the massacre of more than 100 people in the town of Houla.
• The FBI labeled the Occupy Movement a “domestic terrorrist” organization.
• A mock organization of “billionaires” protested outside of a Romney fundraiser in Newport Beach, California.
• Another surge of protests on Tahrir square ignited and gained momentum.

June 2

• Ex-President of Egypt Hosni Mubarak was sentenced to life in jail for failing to stop the killing of protesters during last year’s massive revolution.
• Occupy Buffalo convinces the city of Buffalo to withdraw $45 million from JP Morgan.
• A heated demonstration is held against the expropriation of Palestinian land by Israel near the West Bank city of Nablus.
• Hundreds of Japanese anti-nuclear protesters gathered outside the prime minister’s office on Friday, beating drums and chanting slogans against the planned restart of reactors a year after the world’s worst nuclear disaster in 25 years.

June 3

• Thousands of people took to the streets of Istanbul to protest against plans by Turkey’s prime minister to bring in a new law on abortion, a practice he called “murder”. Women of all ages held aloft banners with slogans including “My body, my choice” and “I am a woman not a mother, don’t touch my body” as they marched to the city’s Kadikoy Square.
• Thousands continue to rally in Montreal after failed tuition talks.
• Tahrir square erupted as thousands of pro-democracy protesters called for another revolution. This came immediately after the verdict that Hosni Mubarak’s two sons would be acquitted of all charges and set free.
• Also, check out this day in wikileaks.

June 4

• Hundreds of young settlers began marching from a West Bank outpost to Jerusalem on Monday to protest over plans to raze five homes built on private Palestinian land.
• More than 500 environmental and activist groups in Canada shut down their websites for a day to protest Canadian government policies that will make it easier to build pipelines to transport oil from Alberta’s vast tar sands.

June 5

• Police detained some 20 brave activists who were protesting outside Russia’s parliament where deputies debated a Kremlin-backed bill to hike fines for violations during rallies, a proposal the opposition says is aimed at smothering dissent.
• The “Dream Walkers,” undocumented youth who are walking from California to Washington DC began a sit-in at Obama’s Colorado campaign headquarters that would continue for days with the students implementing a hunger strike into their protest two days later.

June 6

• A march protesting unpopular Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker was attacked by violent police officers on horseback, ready to silence dissent and violate human rights.
• A hunger strike that had been taking place by Algerian union leaders reaches one month.
• HIV-positive Occupy Wall Street protester Jack Boyle went on hunger/medicine strike to protest trespassing charges against activists who were arrested at New York’s Trinity Church on December 17, 2011. The strike included his withholding from eating and taking medicine that is vital to his health.

June 7

• Thousands of protesters spilled into downtown Montreal, many of them naked or barely clothed, as police used stun grenades and truncheons to prevent them from confronting Montreal Grand Prix Formula One parties.
• In a protest, pro-Palestinian protesters burned an effigy of Premier Ted Baillieu opposing Israeli apartheid.
• China forbid international tourism to tibet indefinitely amidst a long series of self-immolating activist-monks.
• Occupy Wall Street activists and members of New York’s 99% delivered giant bags of cash to Governor Cuomo, hoping that a two million-dollar bribe will secure a long-awaited increase in New York State’s minimum wage.

June 8

• Taiwanese activists staged a protest in Taipei on June 08, 2012 against US beef containing the feed additive ractopamine ahead of a parliamentary vote on a controversial bill to allow such imports.

• Following a wave of protests in Rome, hundreds of citizens protested the adding of landfills to their neighborhood.

June 9

• Protesters from the Anonymous India group of hackers protested against laws they said gives the government control over censorship of internet usage in Mumbai
• AT&T workers in California and Nevada walked off the job to protest a memo that impugned their work performance.

June 10

• More than 5,000 students marched in the streets of Chittagong, Bangladesh to protest education budget cuts & poorly funded universities
• People in Pakistan once again took to the streets in protest against intensifying US assassination drone strikes.
• Filipino activists donned masks of US President Barak Obama and Philippine President Benigno Aquino III during a burning of a mock American flag during a rally against USA’s presence in the country.
• Thousands participate in a march organized by Bahrain’s leading opposition society.
• In athens thousands of angry Greek citizens marched against the neo-nazi leader of the Golden Dawn Party’s evasion of arrest.

June 11

• Man conducts hemp protest inside a cage on the sidewalk near the White House.

June 12

• Tens of thousands of Russians marched through Moscow amid a stream of banners demanding Putin step down and challenging new laws designed to curb protest against his strongly centralized rule.
• Protests against budget cuts in California saw 10 arrested.

June 13

• Spanish coal miners demonstrated with their headlamps by the thousands in a massive coordinated demonstration.
• Thousands of Australian workers rallied outside Parliament to protest against expected cuts to the state’s WorkCover scheme.

June 14

• Nine workers fanned out along the Lincoln Avenue overpass of the 57 freeway in Anaheim, California to bring attention to the crises of unemployment in America.
• Demonstrators flooded the Sacramento Capitol rotunda in California on June 13 to protest cuts to home care for the elderly and disabled. Police arrested 43 people.
• Massive protests break out across Bulgaria, and are met with severe police brutality.
• One of the most important developments of June has been the explosion of the Mexican Student Movement. We’ve posted several times in June already about massive, historically large protests in Mexico while the mainstream media continues to ignore the situation developing there.

Everyday the list of movement news seems to get longer and longer. I am continually amazed by how many movements are currently laying the foundation for an eventual much larger super-movement. We are still in the earliest phases of 21st century protest - with the type of connectedness that allows for unprecedented solidarity and coordination. Everyday the incredible multitude of these stories keeps me excited about what I might see in my lifetime.

-R.Cunningham

Compare the first fourteen days of June to the last few months and track global trends in protest movements by viewing our other “Global Round-up” posts.

Photo 1: Egypt’s ongoing revolution
Photo 2: Mexico’s student movement
Photo 3: Spanish miners strike
Photo 4: Undocumented students protest