[Onthebarricades] Discrimination-related protests

[Andy]

*  INDIA:  Delhi women students protest sexual harassment

*  INDIA:  Uprising over racist remark about Pop Idol winner

*  US/INDIGENOUS:  Columbus Day protested in Denver

*  SWEDEN:  Muslims protest cartoon in Orebro

*  US:  People with disabilities take aim at state

*  US:  Cancer activists demand funding from rich company


http://www.hindu.com/thehindu/holnus/002200709232166.htm

DU students protest rising incidents of sexual harassment
New Delhi, Sept. 23 (PTI): Scores of Delhi University students and their 
parents today staged a protest here against the rising incidents of sexual 
harassment in the campuses and demanded enhancement of security in colleges.
Students, parents and representatives of NGOs and RWAs, under the aegis of 
'United Students', assembled at the crowded Central Park in Connaught Place 
this evening expressing concern over the rise in sexual harassment cases.
They demanded the security at the campuses should be enhanced.


INDIAN IDOL CONTROVERSY
DJ'S RACIST REMARK LEADS TO RIOT
October 02, 2007

 FANS of Nepalese Prashant Tamang were elated when the former policeman 
became the surprise winner of the Indian Idol singing contest.
But the happiness quickly turned to anger after an allegedly insulting 
remark made by a radio DJ towards Mr Tamang sparked off a riot in Siliguri, 
West Bengal, on Friday.
Indian troops were called out to keep the peace after more than 30 people 
were hurt in clashes between police and fans of the 24-year-old Idol winner, 
wire agencies reported.
The violence erupted after nearly 2,000 supporters of Mr Tamang marched to 
lodge a protest over a radio jockey's derogatory comments about the Indian 
Idol winner.
The marchers were upset DJ Jonathan Brady referred to Mr Tamang as a 
'Gurkha', or guard, one of the jobs frequently held by ethnic Nepalese, who 
live in areas that were once part of Nepal or have migrated to India.
During a live broadcast, Mr Brady said: 'Shopkeepers will now have to make 
their own security arrangements as Gurkhas have taken to singing.'
Most ethnic Nepalese are economically marginalised.
Although Mr Brady later apologised for the remarks, fans took to the streets 
to protest anyway.
The Indian media reported that the violence was sparked off when the 
marchers were passing by the Siliguri Zilla Hospital. The mob was said to 
have blocked an ambulance that had tried to make its way through the crowd 
into the hospital.
The marchers then allegedly assaulted everyone inside the ambulance, 
including the patient it was carrying.
Protesters also threw stones at the ambulance and set a police jeep on fire.
When residents in the area protested the attack on the ambulance, the 
marchers reportedly became angrier and vandalised shops in the vicinity.
'Nearly 2,000 fans of Tamang marched in a procession and submitted a 
memorandum to the office of (the) subdivisional officer in Siliguri (town),' 
state police inspector general Raj Kanojia said.
'The clashes snowballed into violence. Shopowners downed their shutters and 
the streets were deserted.'
The mob also clashed with police when they arrived on the scene.
Police fired shots in the air after teargas did not work. One person 
sustained bullet injuries.
Eleven people, including some policemen, were hospitalised.
CURFEW
A curfew in Siliguri was imposed, and hundreds of soldiers and border 
security troops patrolled the streets as people stayed indoors. As of 
yesterday, soldiers were still seen patrolling the streets.
Mr Tamang's supporters also called a one-day strike on Saturday in 
surrounding areas of Siliguri in Darjeeling district, which has a huge 
ethnic Nepalese population. Shops and businesses closed in response, 
witnesses said.
Police said Mr Tamang's fans also set fire to the residence of a police 
official, but the flames were doused before they could cause much damage.
On Friday, Mr Tamang publicly appealed to his fans to end the violence.
'I urge you all to maintain calm, otherwise I may not be able to concentrate 
on my career,' Mr Tamang said in an appeal on a private TV channel in 
Bengali and Nepali.
He added that he would take legal action against the DJ for his slur.
The state government has also ordered the radio station, Red FM, to explain 
itself by this evening.
'The remarks are in violation of the programme code,' the Ministry of 
Information and Broadcasting said in a statement, which also branded the 
station 'racist and insulting'.

http://www.reuters.com/article/domesticNews/idUSN0625722520071006

Columbus Day protest in Denver leads to arrests
Sat Oct 6, 2007 6:26pm EDT
By Keith Coffman
DENVER (Reuters) - About 75 protesters, including American Indian activist 
Russell Means, were arrested on Saturday after blocking Denver's downtown 
parade honoring the Italian-born discoverer Christopher Columbus, an event 
they denounced as "a celebration of genocide."
Police loaded protesters onto buses after they refused orders to disperse. 
Most will be charged with obstruction of a roadway or disrupting a lawful 
assembly, Denver Police Lt. Ron Saunier said.
Police delayed the parade's start for more than an hour as they tried to 
head off confrontations.
American Indian groups and their supporters have disrupted the city's annual 
Columbus Day parade every year for nearly two decades, leading to clashes 
with Colorado's Italian-American community over the century-old celebration, 
the longest-running such commemoration in the United States.
Columbus Day, marked this year on October 8, is an official holiday for most 
U.S. federal government workers, many public schools, state and local 
agencies and the U.S. bond market. It recalls the October 12, 1492, landing 
of Columbus in the Americas on his search for a naval route to India, an 
event that spawned an era of European interest in the New World.
Means, talking to Reuters before his arrest, said Columbus was the "first 
trans-Atlantic slave trader" after landing in the Americas in 1492. He said 
Columbus started centuries of oppression of native peoples.
"By all accounts, Christopher Columbus was personally responsible for 
thousands of deaths of the original inhabitants of this hemisphere," Means 
said.
Parade organizer George Vendegnia of the Sons of Italy said his group would 
honor Columbus' legacy until the U.S. Congress changed the holiday's name. 
Some cities including Berkeley, California, have already changed the name to 
"Indigenous People's Day."
"It's a day for us to celebrate our heritage," Vendegnia said.
Parade opponent Glenn Spagnuolo, an Italian-American, said Columbus' legacy 
should not be celebrated.
"To honor someone who, by his own writings, was a slave trader, is immoral," 
he said. "I don't see any of my Italian culture in celebrating the 
occupation and destruction of native cultures."



Swedish Muslims protest publishing of blasphemous cartoon
STOCKHOLM: Scores of Muslims staged a demonstration on Friday against a 
Swedish newspaper and demanded that its chief editor apologise for 
publishing a blasphemous drawing.

The rally outside the Nerikes Allehanda newspaper in Orebro followed formal 
protests by Iran and Pakistan in a brewing conflict over the cartoon made by 
Swedish artist Lars Vilks.

Sweden's prime minister called for mutual respect between Muslims, 
Christians and nonreligious groups in an apparent attempt to avert a wider 
conflict. Last year, fiery protests erupted in Muslim countries after a 
Danish newspaper published 12 blasphemous cartoons. Islamic law is 
interpreted to forbid any depiction of the Holy Prophet (Peace Be Upon Him) 
for fear it could lead to idolatry.

About 300 people rallied outside the newspaper's offices, demanding an 
apology and saying the cartoon was insulting to Muslims, the news agency TT 
reported.

Nerikes Allehanda editor-in-chief Ulf Johansson met with the leader of the 
demonstration, but refused to apologise for the cartoon, which was part of 
an August 19 editorial criticising several Swedish art galleries for 
refusing to display a series of such drawings by Vilks.

"They say they are offended and I regret that, because our purpose was not 
to offend anyone," Johansson told The Associated Press. "But they are asking 
for an apology and a promise that I never again publish a similar 
image...and that I cannot do."

The editorial defended "Muslims' right to freedom of religion" but also said 
it must be permitted to "ridicule Islam's most foremost symbols - just like 
all other religionss' symbols."

The paper said Vilks' drawings were different from the "rotten" cartoons 
published by Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten.

Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt commented on the dispute for the first time 
on Friday, saying Sweden was a country "where Muslims and Christians, those 
who believe in God and those who don't believe in God can live side by side 
with mutual respect".

"At the same time we are anxious to stand up for the freedom of 
speech...which is about not taking decisions politically about what is 
published in newspapers," Reinfeldt told TT. The government has not 
commented on earlier protests by Iran and Pakistan.

Vilks asked AP, "Why can you not criticise Islam when you can criticise 
other religions?" Vilks said he expected protests locally against his 
drawings but insisted he didn't mean to insult Muslims. "My images are art. 
I don't have a xenophobic attitude. I'm not against Islam. Everyone knows 
that," he said. ap

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-0911adapt_websep12,1,7988613.story?ctrack=1&cset=true

After AMA, disabled take aim at state
2nd blockade protest shuts down Thompson Center
By Mary Owen | Tribune staff reporter
9:59 PM CDT, September 11, 2007

A group of disabled protesters staged a blockade within the State of 
Illinois office building in the Loop for more than five hours Tuesday while 
their leaders and state officials negotiated issues of concern to the 
disabled.

About 3 p.m., approximately 200 protesters from the advocacy group ADAPT 
blocked the three main entrances and exits at the Thompson Center, wedging 
their wheelchairs into revolving doors. Earlier, they blocked escalators in 
the building and turnstiles and vending machines at the Clark/Lake Chicago 
Transit Authority station in the center.

Several state employees trapped inside the center looked over balconies to 
watch the protest. Meanwhile, people outside couldn't get in to shop, eat at 
the food court in the basement or visit any of the state agencies in the 
16-story structure.
The protesters began blocking elevators and escalators in the building 
around 11 a.m. At that point, four ADAPT members went to Gov. Rod 
Blagojevich's office on the 16th floor seeking a meeting with him. They did 
not have an appointment, and Blagojevich was out of the office all day, 
state officials said.

The blockade ended about 5 p.m. after ADAPT leaders met with Matt Summy, 
Blagojevich's deputy chief of staff, and Grace Hou, assistant secretary of 
the state Department of Human Services. The activists obtained promises that 
the governor would meet with the group before Oct. 17 and that he would not 
reopen the now-shuttered Lincoln Developmental Center.

During his first gubernatorial candidacy, Blagojevich vowed to reopen the 
state-run compound for developmentally disabled adults in central Illinois 
but later conceded that it might not be a good idea. The center closed in 
2002 after numerous problems of abuse, neglect and mismanagement.

ADAPT activists staged a similar protest Monday, blocking the entrances to 
the American Medical Association building for more than three hours.

mowen at tribune.com
More articles

http://www.suntimes.com/news/metro/553003,CST-NWS-adapt12.article

Disabled protest again
THOMPSON CENTER BLOCKADED | Gov OKs some demands
September 12, 2007
BY NORMAN PARISH AND JIM RITTER Staff Reporters
After a protest that eventually closed the Thompson Center Tuesday, disabled 
activists and Gov. Blagojevich's office agreed on plans they say will help 
move the disabled from nursing homes to community settings.
Protesters initially blocked elevators and escalators inside the building. 
By Tuesday afternoon, more than 200 demonstrators shut the building down 
completely by blocking doors with their wheelchairs. The blockade ended 
about 5 p.m. when the governor's representatives agreed to some of the 
group's demands, which included proposals Blagojevich's office said it had 
already planned to carry out.
Activists want the state to spend less money sending disabled people to 
nursing homes and other institutions. The money saved, they say, should pay 
for assistance programs that would enable disabled people to live in their 
own homes.
Blagojevich's office agreed to set up a meeting with ADAPT, the group that 
organized the protest, by Oct. 17. Officials also ensured that the troubled 
Lincoln Developmental Center in Lincoln would not reopen. Officials also 
said ADAPT would be part of a committee to help with a $58 million program 
to move the disabled from nursing homes and institutions to the general 
population.
Hundreds of visitors were inconvenienced during the protests. Tacara Juarez 
couldn't get her driver's license after taking the day off to come downtown. 
Robert Lozano couldn't give blood. Lesley Perrin missed a workers comp 
arbitration hearing.
Monday, ADAPT activists blockaded the American Medical Association building 
for nearly four hours.
Copyright 2007 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not 
be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed

http://www.bostonherald.com/business/real_estate/view.bg?articleid=1029647

ACORN activists stage protest at Lehman's office
By Jerry Kronenberg
Thursday, September 6, 2007 - Updated 32d 2h ago

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Some two-dozen activists stormed Lehman Brothers' Boston offices yesterday 
to demand that the financial giant help a Dorchester cancer victim avoid 
foreclosure.
"Lehman Brothers has (so much) money that they could wrap me up in dollars. 
What do they need that little bit of money they're trying to scruff me up 
for?" said Deborah Redrick, who's in default on a mortgage Lehman purchased 
from the lender that originally underwrote it.