Zainab al-Khawaja protesting alone in the streets of Bahrain against the arrest and detention of her father, Abdulhadi al-Khawaja—a revered human rights defender—who entered the seventieth-day of his hunger strike. She was arrested by Bahraini security forces shortly after this photo was taken.
More on Abdulhadi al-KhawajaSo much love for the Khawaja family.
More than 15,000 protesters from labour unions and community organizations across the province rallied outside Ontario’s Legislature Saturday afternoon to vent their fury over the minority Liberal government’s austerity-focused budget.
“We’re sending a signal to Dalton McGuinty that the budget he’s introduced is grossly unfair,” said Sid Ryan, president of the Ontario Federation of Labour, the group responsible for organizing the “Day of Action” event.
A sea of flag-toting protesters arrived by the busload early in the afternoon to demonstrate against the proposed budget, a belt-tightening fiscal blueprint that calls for wage freezes for more than a million public servants and pension plan changes as a way to rein in the province’s multi-billion-dollar deficit. - Thousands Descend on Queen’s Park to Protest McGuinty Budget
Space Needle employees and about 100 others spent the structure’s 50th birthday demanding job security & protesting poor working conditions & low wages on April 21.
While I think all puppies and kittens are cute, I have a special place in my heart for retrievers.
250,000 students pack the streets in largest demo in Quebec history.
The strike has been supported by near-daily protest actions ranging from family-oriented rallies to building occupations and bridge blockades, and, more recently, by a campaign of political and economic disruption directed against government ministries, crown corporations, and private industry. Although generally peaceful, these actions have met with increasingly brutal acts of police violence: Student protesters are routinely beaten, pepper-sprayed, and tear-gassed by riot police, and one, Francis Grenier, lost an eye after being hit by a flashbang grenade at close range. Meanwhile, college and university administrators have deployed a spate of court injunctions and other legal measures in an unsuccessful attempt to break the strike, and Quebec’s premier, Jean Charest, remains intransigent in spite of growing calls for his government to negotiate with student leaders. - The Biggest Student Uprising You’ve Never Heard Of
Children are the often invisible victims of the foreclosure crisis. Mortgage records do not tell how many children are in owner-occupied homes, and it is even harder to estimate the number of children in rental properties. Yet foreclosure affects not just the homeowner or landlord, but also the children living in the foreclosed properties.[…]
Foreclosures affect not just owner-occupied homes, but also rental properties, including single-family houses, small (two-to-four unit) buildings that may house both landlord and tenants, and large apartment buildings housing many families. About 25 million children, or approximately one-third of all American children, lived in rental houses and apartments in 2010, signaling the large number of children that could be affected by foreclosure of rental properties. [SOURCE]
STRIKE NOW! WAYS TO BUILD UP AND PARTICIPATE ON MAY 1ST
Propaganda: Download and print posters, fliers, zines, and more at http://occuprint.org/ and http://maydaynyc.tumblr.com and post them around your neighborhood; give them out to your friends, family, and co-workers; or bring them to community based organizations or local businesses and ask them to post them in their windows or leave a visible stack for members or customers!
Social Media: Social media is the first stage of creating a sustainable alternative media environment. Support user-generated media sources by creating your own media/art on YOUR terms, not corporations! Tweet using the hashtags #GeneralStrike #MayDayNYC & #M1GS. Submit to various tumblrs (http://whyistrike.tumblr.com/ and http://maydaynyc.tumblr.com/). Invite your facebook friends to the May Day festivities: https://www.facebook.com/events/327486667289414/
May Day Arts/Call to Create: On May 1st, 2012, everyone in New York who leaves their house or looks out their window will see public art as part of an historic MayDay celebration. Some of the projects underway are the 1,000-player guitarmy, Occupy Dance, and OWS Poetry. Visit http://call2create.org/ for details about where you can see them and how you can participate in their creation.
99 Pickets: Got a particular loathsome corporation in mind that you’d love to see shut down on May 1st? From 8am-2pm, up to 99 marches will leave at scattered times from Bryant Park and hold pickets in front of various government or corporate headquarters. Contact mayday@nycga.net to view a list of targets in midtown or come to an Action Spokescouncil, Sundays at 7pm at 50 E 7th Street http://atrium.occupy.net/mayday/node/114
Free University: The Free University is an open invitation to educators around New York City to participate in May Day 2012. During the day, lectures, workshops, skill-shares, and discussions will be held — all open to the public. University professors will bring their classes to the commons. http://maydaynyc.org/freeuniversity
Really Really Free Market [RRFM] & Food: RRFMs are temporary capitalism-free, self-sustaining zones instituting the gift economy as an alternative means of resource distribution. Bring clothes, books, toys, tools, and other usable things for the market! For the food tables, bring food, water, coffee, or any eating utensiles (including paltes, napkins, etc). Also, volunteer at Bryant Park or Union Square to help run the RRFM or food tables and remind folks that the items are really, really free.
Jail Support: It is reasonable to expect a massive amount of arrests on the days leading up to and on May 1st itself. During the 7 months (which included thousands of arrests) of Occupy Wall Street’s existence, only a handful of hard working organizers have dedicated themselves to doing jail support. Jail support includes communication with the National Lawyers Guild, tracking comrades in the legal system, and greeting released arrestees with food, water, cigarettes, and support.
Mutual Fucking Aid: Wherever you go on May 1, 2012 bring and share your skills (like haircutting or medical knowledge) and services and offer them up to folks for free! If you can’t come to the RRFM in NYC, open a free store in your neighborhood or somehow otherwise explore the excitement of mutually beneficial, voluntary exchange!
Embrace Autonomy!: During a general strike, we withdraw from capitalism and instead spend our lives exploring the creative and liberating aspects of a culture of resistance. Once you’ve taken the day off, spend your time doing whatever it is that you love to do and make it an act of protest! The options for various autonomous actions are endless– organize a banner drop, employ a fare strike, disrupt consumerism in the act. Use your creativity to decide on a symbolic or instrumental action that you and friends would invest a portion of your day into executing!
The Day NASA Almost Lost Discovery
With Discovery safely out of NASA’s hands, a former flight director and program manager has spoken about how the shuttle was almost lost during the first flight following the 2003 Columbia accident.
