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U.S. expresses outrage over `assault' on Cuban blogger Yoani Sánchez » The U.S. State Department has told Cuba it deplores last week's ``assault'' on blogger Yoani Sánchez, one of the toughest of several expressions of support for the Havana writer.Sánchez and fellow blogger Orlando Luis Pardo said they were beaten Friday by presumed state security agents to keep them away from a ``march against violence.'' Blogger Claudia Cadelo and another woman were detained in the incident, but without violence.``The U.S. government strongly deplores the assault,'' said a State...
Police or people power? » THE balancing act between individual freedom and social order goes to the heart of democratic societies. And while there are rights on both sides, the exercise of those rights often involves trade-offs and compromises. Which is why politicians in Western Australia must take care with pending legislation that would increase police powers to stop and search citizens.Such law and order policies make for easy politics, especially among middle-class groups unlikely to be directly affected. But street...
The next wave of health care sit-ins begins today » As the debate in Congress continues over health care reform, activists are continuing to put the pressure on. In a new article at The Nation, Peter Dreier writes that momentum for reform is growing, with groups like Health Care for America Now (HCAN) and MoveOn having organized hundreds of protests in front of insurance company offices around the country, at the homes of insurance company CEOs, and at the annual conference for America’s Health Insurance Plans (AHIP) in Washington, D.C. over the ...
Ethiopian Opposition Says It May Boycott Elections » An alliance of Ethiopian opposition parties may boycott elections scheduled for May 2010 unless the government releases imprisoned opposition leader Birtukan Mideksa and others they say are political prisoners. “Birtukan is the spearhead of these political prisoners,” Gizachew Shiferaw, a member of the Unity for Democracy and Justice party and vice-chairman of the eight-party Forum for Democratic Dialogue opposition alliance, said today in Addis Ababa. “Unless we take some sort of remedy toward ...
Non-Violent Resistance » What is Non-Violent Resistance?Non-Violence is an alternative to either armed resistance or passive acceptance of the status quo. It is both a strategy and a philosophy which rejects violence as a means to promote change, and instead aims to change power relations through assertive acts of omission (refusal to do something) or commission (actively challenging the status quo). It is a method by which to change the minds of both the oppressor and oppressed so that a new reality can be built upon d...
Dissidents' wives protest outside Cuban prison » Female relatives of jailed political dissidents held an unprecedented protest outside Cuban prisons, angry that the island's communist government has not met its pledge to release 11 political prisoners.Meanwhile, some 50 political dissidents were briefly arrested late Thursday and early Friday in different parts of the country to prevent protests on International Human Rights Day, said rights leader Elizardo Sanchez. "These are preventive detentions, lasting just a few hours, but stillunaccepta...
Anti-Israel Demonstration in London » Out side the BBC a Demonstration against the bombing of Palestinians, Saturday's air strikes by Israel are the worst in living memory. Israeli fighter jets fired at Gaza from morning to evening, spreading fear and chaos. Targeting of the strikes where Hamas infrastructures, government buildings and police stations, Most of the dead were policemen, The dead in Gaza include women and children. Medical sources suggested up to a third of the casualties could be civilian. Gaza is one of the most over...
Documentary Showcases Women's Role in Ending Liberia's Civil War » Liberian women from all religious and academic backgrounds played a courageous role to end the country's bloody civil war which lasted from 1989 to 2003. Wearing only white T-shirts, the women took on the warlords, including Charles Taylor and nonviolently brought peace to Liberia.  Well, their strength and perseverance in stopping the country's brutal civil war is the subject of a documentary – "Pray the Devil Back to Hell". It is showing in over 200 cities around the world, and tonight (Wednes...
Iran accused of blocking opposition communications » The US has accused Iran of seeking a "near-total information blockade" to silence anti-government protesters. The allegations came after opposition supporters clashed with security forces as Iran marked the anniversary of the 1979 revolution.The US government said it had information that the telephone network was taken down, SMS messages blocked, and internet communication "throttled".China and Burma have also been accused of blocking internet communication.Analysts say some governments make str...
Can Nonviolence Move the Next Century? » I just returned to New York after visiting Belgrade, where I interviewed (among others) Srdja Popovic, a leader of the nonviolent Otpor movement that overthrew Slobodan Milosevic in 2000, and now a lively, witty, imaginative advocate for nonviolent struggle against dictatorships everywhere. There’s a fine narrative of Otpor’s progress, and Srdja’s approach to spunky nonviolence, in Tina Rosenberg’s new book, Join the Club:  How Peer Pressure Can Transform the World. Excerpts from my intervi...