[Onthebarricades] Anti-capitalist and anti-corporate protests

[Andy]

*  US:  War resisters disrupt militarist conference in Santa Barbara, 
effectively shut it down
*  SWITZERLAND:  Police repression hits Davos protests
*  CANADA:  Unrest on police brutality march as police attack
*  BELGIUM:  1000 protesters "close down" NATO, climb fences
*  US:  Billboard Liberation Front target AT&T over wiretaps
*  CANADA:  BC premier's office paintbombed by anti-Olympic protesters
*  US:  Local group resists McDonald's, plants crops at site
*  THAILAND/FRANCE:  Activists oppose ending of cheap drugs
*  BAHRAIN:  Protest over mall building
*  MEXICO:  Lopez Obrador back on the streets leading oil price protest
*  EGYPT:  Food price protests foreshadow revolt
*  INDIA:  Protesters blockade Dow plant in Pune, win temporary victory
*  PHILIPPINES:  Farmers protest appointment to ministry, demand land 
reform, end to land grab
*  GLOBAL:  Bloggers delete accounts in protest against MySpace
*  US:  Surfers protest and sabotage wave cams, blame for crowding
*  YEMEN:  Attempt at pipeline sabotage defeated

Publicly Archived at Global Resistance: 
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/globalresistance

http://la.indymedia.org/news/2008/02/213851.php


350 War Resistors Blockade and Disrupt UCSB Army/Industrial Conference - 3 
Arrests
by Not24601 Wednesday, Feb. 13, 2008 at 11:05 AM
ztk2006 at gmail.com
350 anti-war activists converged and clashed with police to disrupt, 
blockade and shut down the ICB Military/Industrial collaboration conference 
at UCSB this past Tuesday, February 12th.
ISLA VISTA / SANTA BARBARA, Tuesday, February 12, 2008

About 350 anti-war activists met to rally at Pardall Tunnel, where they were 
addressed by speakers at an open microphone, including a man from Iraq and a 
former Marine-turned-organizer. Emotions ran high and alternated between 
intense anger against the war, sadness over the loss of life, and hope, joy, 
and optimism for the future. At times, feelings were tense, and the police 
helicopter circling overhead made an ominous presence. The demonstrators 
shortly proceeded to converge on UCSB's Corwin Pavilion with the goal of 
shutting down the 2008 ICB (Institute for Collaborative Biotechnologies) 
Army-Industry Collaboration Conference.

Police attempted to barricade the event against the approaching students, 
but the crowd forced itself through police lines and dismantled blockades. 
Police appeared helpless to stop the flow of demonstrators, who proceeded to 
occupy the courtyard in front of the pavilion, where collaborators, some in 
business suits and others, more honestly, in military fatigues, had been in 
the midst of a lunch break.

While the crowd went wild in their occupied space, the entire area was 
redecorated using chalk and marker. A space previously reserved for war 
makers was soon covered in anti-war, anti-government, pro-peace, and 
pro-freedom slogans, as well as peace signs, hearts, circle-A's, and the 
now-infamous Anarchy Heart, a common symbol amongst today's growing 
anarchist movement. Also present were anti-police messages and web addresses 
for sites like crimethinc.com and indymedia.org.

While most were encouraging the act of reclaiming space, some present felt 
hesitant about the property destruction, especially police, as it 
represented a physical blow to the military conference they were protecting, 
rather than simply a symbolic one.

At the same time, several black-bloc anarchists grabbed open trays of food 
from the conference and distributed them amongst demonstrators, police, and 
collaborators alike. "Cookies for the Revolution!! As Free and Beautiful as 
all of you!" were the words of one masked young man as he carried around a 
liberated tray of sweets.

At this point protestors locked down, keeping some military collaborators 
outside, and some locked in. Police attempted to pull some students away 
from the doors forcefully, but were met with heavy resistance.

Solidarity amongst the students and other demonstrators seemed to be the 
best it's been in Santa Barbara since the late 1960's. When two young men 
were grabbed by the police without apparent cause, the crowd leaped upon 
them and attempted to secure their freedom. As police brought out batons and 
pushed back against the crowd, the young men were dragged away. At this 
point, a large portion of the crowd charged and cut off the police, 
surrounding their cars, sitting down and linking arms, refusing to allow the 
police cruisers to leave until the eventual release of the young men had 
been negotiated, despite the threatening presence of armed and dangerous 
riot cops. The only charges ever filed against these young men, as 
justification for their arrest, were one charge each of 'resisting arrest'. 
So much for freedom of speech; welcome to America.

As the battle raged on, occupations and blockades of the war collaborators 
inside their conference continued. At some points, demonstrators who had 
snuck into the meeting managed to burst through the doors, and students and 
police both rushed to get in first. It was always the police, who would 
quickly drive the peace protestors back with batons and raised cans of 
pepper spray.

At one point, one of the meeting doors was wedged open and kept that way 
with the help of a couple plastic bottles jammed in the crack. A megaphone 
was placed up against the open crack and every tactic imaginable was used to 
raucously disrupt the proceedings inside. Several resistors fought police 
away from the opportunity the crack presented until the crowd rushed in to 
push police back.

One policeman, a certain Officer Stern, grabbed and twisted a young woman's 
arm in apparent frustration at his impotence in removing the bottles jammed 
in the doorway.

Disruption, speeches, songs, and acts of defiance continued as the sun was 
beginning to set.

Suddenly, there was an opportunity; the doors were unlocked, and, while riot 
police managed to secure two doors, a third was forced open and the protest 
rushed inside.

The meeting was just about finished, but as the march moved into the 
building, the same young woman whose arm had been twisted previously was 
grabbed around the throat from behind by two and then more police as she was 
removing posters from the walls of the conference. The crowd rushed to her 
defense, but was beaten back by riot cops with batons and pepper spray, and 
she was beaten, slammed into a glass door, and forced face down on the 
cement before being dragged away.

The conference had been successfully disrupted, but there would be another 
act of resistance. The crowd beat the police to their cruisers and another 
standoff took place as they locked down once again to prevent the removal of 
the young woman. It seemed as if the police were more agitated then before, 
having failed to prevent the disruption of the Army's conference. In 
response to accusations of brutality from the crowd, police made nervous 
excuses, claiming to have been attempting to secure the 'free speech' of the 
war makers, or to have been 'only following orders'.

Organizers addressed the crowd, reminding them that the police did not have 
a legal leg to stand on, and that these senseless acts of brutality in 
defense of war had no legitimacy, and therefore, the entire law enforcement 
apparatus present had no more legitimacy in the eyes of the war resistors. 
The sitting crowd, arms linked in solidarity, managed to remain locked 
despite attempts at forceful dispersal by the police present, and they faced 
down the riot police yet again, until it was clear that the young woman 
would be cited and released, at which point demonstrators allowed the police 
cruiser to beat a hasty retreat. The young woman's current condition is 
unknown to this reporter.

UPDATE: Word has been received from an anonymous source amongst the catering 
team working at the conference that the Military has been successfully 
forced from UCSB, and the second day of the 2-day conference is to be 
carried on downtown at an undisclosed location. To those who chanted 'UCSB, 
Military Free!!' this means a dramatic success; the removal of 
representatives from the most powerful military institution the world has 
ever seen from their University. Despite this victory, protestors will meet 
at Corwin Pavilion today, Wednesday, February 13th, at 12 noon, to celebrate 
and discuss the next steps in uprooting the roots of imperialism from the 
soil of the Santa Barbara community.

http://sbindymedia.org/story/ucsb-students-against-war-disrupts-collaborative-biotechnology-military-research-conference

UCSB Students Against War Disrupts Collaborative Biotechnology Military 
Research Conference
Tue, 02/12/2008 - 23:07 — Anonymous
Today more than five hundred UCSB Students Against War disrupted the 
military Institute of Collaborative Biotechnology conference to demand an 
end to UC complicity in illegal weapons research designed to kill Iraqis in 
an illegal war.
Students and supporters of peace and demilitarization marched directly into 
the Corwin Center Pavilion where the ICB conference attendees were having 
lunch between their Army-sponsored research sessions.
Speakers for the march made it clear that students support scientific 
research but when research is done for military paymasters it makes campus 
scientists into war accomplices at a time when the U.S. is occupying foreign 
lands in internationally condemned wars of agression.
For example, A UCSB researcher worked on technology for a new type of bomb 
which was dropped on an Afghan wedding, killing 40 Afghanis gathered to 
celebrate the love between two people and their families. U.S. officials 
denied responsibility for the bombing until camera footage made it 
impossible to deny. To the researcher's horror, his teammates working on the 
bomb expressed no remorse for the innocents killed by their invention. 
Instead, they celebrated the news because the bomb worked as they intended 
it to.
Protesters reminded ICB attendees that scientists have moral responsibility 
for the consequences of their actions and when they work for the military, 
the consequence is that people die, many of them innocent civilians. One 
speaker gave numbers on just how much money is being funneled into military 
research:
"UCSB rakes in 50 million dollars a year for following the Army's orders. We 
came here to get an education and make valuable contributions to the world, 
not to help conquer it. This is not a military base, it is a university. 
It's time to demand an end to UCSB's participation in the war machine."
There was a heavy police presence but protesters were not intimidated and 
conducted their non-violent direct action against UCSB war profiteering with 
courage and determination. Police arrested three protesters. Eyewitnesses 
said there was no justification for the arrests and hundreds of people 
chanted "Let them go! Let them go!" and laid their bodies on the pavement 
around police cars as a human shield demanding that the peaceful protesters 
be released. The arrested protesters urged everyone to return to the ICB 
conference to finish what they came to do and protesters returned to the 
Corwin Pavilion peacefully to continue disrupting the ICB.
Students Against War Santa Barbara declared victory as the ICB conference 
was disrupted, military scientists were informed about the consequences of 
their actions and a message was sent to UCSB officials that students will 
not rest until UC complicity in war ends.
UPDATE: The ICB conference was shut down and did not continue its second day 
sessions. This constitutes a major victory for UCSB students in the campaign 
to demilitarize UCSB and the whole UC system.

http://www.swissinfo.ch/eng/feature/Second_anti_WEF_protest_to_go_ahead.html?siteSect=104&sid=8666915&cKey=1201272975000&ty=nd

Second anti-WEF protest to go ahead
The Bern authorities have approved a demonstration by an anti-globalisation 
organisation protesting against the World Economic Forum's annual meeting in 
Davos.
Last Saturday over 200 members of the "Alliance for Global Opposition" were 
detained in the Swiss capital for carrying makeshift weapons and throwing 
firebombs.
The trouble came after officials revoked permission for a planned 
demonstration by the group.
The leader of the anti-capitalist group, Giovanni A. Schumacher, has 
promised a peaceful demonstration this weekend.
City officials granted permission under strict terms. Organisers have 
promised to carefully monitor the demonstration using mobile telephones and 
will be held responsible for any violence that occurs, according to police.
Some politicians had been opposed to granting permission, while others said 
the protest ought to go ahead, as it was an important part of the public 
debate.
Bern officials decided to ban last weekend's demonstration after comments 
made by Schumacher in a television interview.

http://www.swissinfo.ch/eng/front/More_than_200_detained_in_Bern_demonstration.html?siteSect=108&sid=8642821&cKey=1200837189000&ty=st

January 19, 2008 - 9:46 PM
More than 200 detained in Bern demonstration

Image caption: Police were out in force during the demonstration (swissinfo)
Police in the Swiss capital, Bern, have used tear gas and rubber bullets 
against leftwing anti-globalisation demonstrators taking part in an 
unauthorised protest.
The event, which comes four days before the annual meeting of the 
Geneva-based World Economic Forum in the alpine resort of Davos, had been 
banned after fears of violence.
The organisers of the demonstration, the "Alliance for a Global Opposition", 
had said they would not respect the ban, with their leader, Giovanni A. 
Schumacher, explaining the group wanted a march that was calm and without 
violence.
The group, which criticises "the World Economic Forum, the capitalist system 
and repression" had originally been allowed to demonstrate by city 
officials, but the authorities reversed their decision after remarks made by 
Schumacher in a television interview
Schumacher was among more than 240 people reported to have been detained 
temporarily by police. Several hundred are said to have taken part in the 
demonstration.
The head of the Bern cantonal police, Stefan Blättler, said the first people 
held in the morning were carrying baseball bats. According to Swiss law, 
those detained can be held for up to 24 hours.
Police – who turned out in large numbers from both Bern and northwestern 
Switzerland – carried out a number of identity checks in the city, including 
on young people arriving at Bern railway station.
Bottles and smoke bombs
Problems began in the late afternoon with police using tear gas and rubber 
bullets against activists, some hooded, who threw bottles and smoke bombs. 
Skirmishes followed, although damage to property was said to be limited.
There was confusion in the old city for a time as demonstrators repeatedly 
regrouped at various places. However, the demonstration petered out after 
6.30 pm.
Bern authorities have been wary about allowing demonstrations in the city 
after violence that erupted when extremists attacked a rally by the 
rightwing Swiss People's Party before October's parliamentary elections.
At least 20 people were injured and dozens detained for questioning after 
extremists went on the rampage.
St Gallen protest
In a related development, about 120 anti-WEF demonstrators in the 
northeastern city of St Gallen protested peacefully on Saturday afternoon.
The city authorities had authorised the event but police were also out in 
force for the march.
The demonstration, organised mainly by the Greens and centre-left Social 
Democrats, was noisy but passed without incident.
Protestors, who were fewer in number than last year according to local 
police, called for global solidarity and for people to fight neo-liberalism.
http://tinyurl.com/226jnr
Police and protesters clash at anti-brutality march
by David Parker
News Writer

Montrealers caught downtown near Berri Square and Place des Arts
Saturday afternoon were witness to violent clashes between police and
protesters during the 12th annual International Day Against Police
Brutality.

Despite mass arrests, property destruction, and incidents of police
brutality, organizers said the event was successful overall.

“There have been mass arrests at this event in past years, but people
aren’t afraid to come out in big numbers to denounce the brutality,”
said Francois Du Canal, a member of le Collectif opposé à la brutalité
policière (COBP).

About 300 protesters assembled at Berri Square, including a troop of
dancing clowns and a 10-piece anarchist marching band. Approximately 100
police officers were already stationed around the square by the start.
Officers filming the crowd refused to reveal to journalists why they
were filming, prompting a protester to grab the camera and throw it to
the ground.

Members of Stella, a sex workers’ rights organization and one of the 22
organizations endorsing the march, spoke to the crowd at the start of
the protest.

“Sex workers are criminals in Canadian law. Police harass sex workers
who can’t get legal protection from abuse because they are constantly
evading the law,” said Jenn Clamen, a member of Stella.

As the crowd wound through the streets towards Place-des-Arts, a Sûreté
de Québec helicopter followed the protest from above -- which Du Canal
pointed to as one of many police intimidation tactics.

“They struck protesters with batons, performed illegal searches in the
metro before the march, filmed the crowd, used pepper spray, intimidated
the crowd with rubber bullet guns and ... and made arrests in civilian
clothes,” Du Canal said.

Marching down Maisonneuve, protesters with covered faces smashed signs
and windows of commercial stores including Starbucks, McDonald’s and
Bell Canada. Police, passersby, and other marchers were forced to dodge
hurled snowballs, ice, rocks, and wooden sticks.

Participants paintbombed police cruisers and vans and firebombed a car.
When a handful of rioters smashed in the window of a police van, 30
police in riot gear descended from vans and rushed the crowd.

At about 4:30 the police announced that the demonstration was illegal
and ordered the crowd to disperse. Within seconds, officers in riot gear
charged the march from Ste. Catherine and forced the demonstrators up
St. Denis, cornering dozens of marchers.

Police pushed and shoved them in the ribs with batons.

Damon Van Der Linde, a former editor of Concordia’s The Link, was
arbitrarily arrested and assaulted by a police officer.

“When getting put into the group, I was hit in the ribs a bunch of
times,” Van Der Linde said, adding that he had not been protesting when
he was arrested.

“I was just standing on the corner when I was rounded up. I just
happened to be there,” he added.

Many were put in police vans, detained, searched, and then let go.
Others were charged with unlawful assembly and “failure to move.”

“It’s mostly the same people being arrested,” said Montreal police media
relations officer Olivier Lapointe. “Some people arrive ready for war.”

COBP organizers said that 42 people have been killed by the Montreal
Police in the past 21 years. In December, 38-year old Quilem Registre
died several days after being tasered six times by police following a
drunk driving infringement. In 2005, Mohammad Annad Bennis was killed by
police officers. No officer has been formally charged for his death.

Other incidents include police assaulting three women at a march for
last year’s International Women’s Day, and police inciting violence and
using batons at August’s Security and Prosperity Partnership Summit in
Montebello.

http://www.themuse.ca/view.php?aid=41066

MUN grad witnesses Montreal riot
Police and protestors overreacted, says bystander
By Katie Hyslop

A protestor defaces a McDonald’s sign at this year’s march against police 
brutality. [Photo: Ion Etxebarria/CUP]

John Matchim just wanted to return his library books in downtown Montreal on 
Saturday, March 15, but instead he ended up in the middle of an anti-police 
brutality protest gone wrong.

“I was in the eastern part … of downtown, and was returning books, but 
everything was closed down. All the security at the Université du Québec à 
Montréal and [La Bibliothèque Nationale], they were all going off their 
fucking heads about something,” said Matchim, a MUN graduate and former Muse 
submissions editor.

“I couldn’t piece together what the problem was, and then, I’m walking down 
the street and one of the main streets in Montreal … there’s about, I’d say 
700-800, a nice crowd, of people marching against police brutality.”

March 15 marks the International Day Against Police Brutality, an annual 
event since 1997, to mark the beating deaths of two Swiss youth, ages 11 and 
12, supposedly at the hands of Swiss police officers on March 15, 1996.

Matchim says when he returned from the library and saw the downtown core 
crawling with police, and being monitored by a police helicopter, he assumed 
the protest was over and headed for home.

“By the time I had [left] the university and the library … there were riot 
cops, a good 20 riot cops there, and what they had done is they had cornered 
in about 50 or 60 people, and were basically chasing what amounted to a 
bunch of kids, running them down the street, trying to dissipate the crowd,” 
he said.

“This is so scripted, when you actually see this in person you understand 
how foolish this type of tactic is – it’s just one side wants to provoke 
another side: The cops hate those kids, and the kids thoroughly dislike the 
cops.”

Finding his way home blocked by riot police, Matchim sat on the sidelines 
with other observers to watch the events unfold before them. But he quickly 
found himself the subject of police attention.

“They were … chasing everyone, I mean everyone, just pedestrians on the 
street … trying to chase them into one direction,” he said. “This small 
group of five or six riot cops come up, and they’re basically like ‘I want 
you to get out of here now. Move!’… One of them gets a hold of me and pushes 
me, says ‘Get the hell out of here,’” he said.

He tried to oblige, but found he wasn’t able to move fast enough because of 
the icy streets, and was literally pushed down the street by police using 
their riot shields.

Thinking he had gotten far enough from the crowd to wait it out, Matchim sat 
down in a doorway, but was again intercepted by a police officer.

“This cop comes up – and this is the same guy who basically had his way with 
me – comes up and he basically lunges at me,” he said.

“This guy lunges at me, hits me somewhere between my shoulder and my 
cheekbone, and basically says ‘Get the fuck out of here.’”

According to the Centre for Media Alternatives Quebec’s website, this year’s 
protest also focused on the recent Taser deaths of Robert Dziekanski in 
Vancouver, Claudio Castagnetta in Quebec City, and Quilem Registre in 
Montreal.

As well, a Montreal police officer, Lt. Michel Masse, was accused in 
February of being paid by Taser International and Taser France to promote 
Tasers to police forces in Europe and Canada.

Matchim doesn’t place sole blame on the police officers, saying protestors 
threw garbage cans, set the front of a car on fire, threw snowballs at cops, 
and reportedly threw a Molotov cocktail.

“I thought that the protestors acted very foolishly – I don’t see really 
what they proved. I understand the reasons why they had to get out there and 
let these issues be known, but putting a garbage can through a Desjardins 
doesn’t exactly make a lot of sense to me,” he said.

“There were no leaflets passed out, or anything like that, it was basically 
just screw you police.”

According to an article on the Canadian Press website, there were 200 
protestors, some of whom reportedly threw beer bottles, snowballs, and 
chunks of ice at passersby and members of the media – 20 arrests were 
reported.

Matchim says he witnessed protestors throw objects at cops, not pedestrians.

http://quebec.indymedia.org/en/

Callout for March 15th, 2008 : 12th International Day Against Police 
Brutality (IDAPB)
COBP, Tuesday, February 19, 2008 - 00:22 (Communiqués | Repression)
Image:

First paragraph (Teaser):
Since 1997, the Collective Opposed to Police Brutality (COBP) has organized 
a protest in Montreal on March 15th to highlight the International Day 
Against Police Brutality (IDAPB). This day of action (decreed after the 
violent beating of two youths, ages 11 and 12, in Switzerland on March 15th, 
1996) has been highlighted in numerous cities and countries around the 
world. On March 15th, 2007, protests and other events took place in 
Montreal, Trois-Rivières, Toronto, Belleville (Ontario), Guelph, Winnipeg, 
Calgary, Vancouver, and Oaxaca, Mexico.
This year, COBP once again invites concerned groups and individuals to 
participate in the 12th International Day Against Police Brutality in 
Montreal, on the 15th of March, 2008, at 3pm at Berri Square. We also 
encourage you to organize an event in your city and to endorse this callout 
if you support our demands.

http://www.indymedia.org/en/2008/03/903165.shtml

1000 activists close down NATO
24 Mar 2008 16:54 GMT

About 1,000 people from 17 European countries went to the NATO headquarters 
in Brussels on the 23rd of March to take part in the international 
non-violent action NATO GAME OVER. 5 years after the start of the Iraq war 
and 10 days before the Bucharest NATO summit, peace activists from all over 
Europe demonstrate that preventing war starts in Europe.
TIMELINE: | Photos 1, 2, 3, 4 | Video 1, 2
NEXT ACTIONS: March 29-30: Stop the Shield! | Słupsk, Poland [1] [2] [3] [4] 
| Czech
April 2-4: Anti-NATO Bucharest | Romania
NATO agreements make European countries into logistical hubs for the US 
military. Through our ports, airports and highways the US war machine is 
transported to Iraq. And our own military is involved in Afghanistan as 
well. Iraq was invaded and Iran threatened because they are supposed to 
have, or to be developing weapons of mass destruction. Meanwhile NATO has 
350 US nuclear weapons deployed in Germany, Italy, Belgium, the Netherlands, 
the UK and Turkey. According to international humanitarian law these weapons 
are as illegal here as elsewhere.
As from the beginning of the afternoon, peace activists walked in big 
numbers in the direction of the NATO and tried to get inside the site in a 
non-violent way. There was a huge contrast between the non-violent attitude 
of the peace activists and the aggressive behaviour of the police forces, 
who where massively present and used dogs, horses, pepper spray, sticks, 
water canons, etc... Around 500 people were arrested. Despite this, more 
than 50 activists were able to get inside the military compound to close it 
down.
NATO GAME OVER is not only about preventing a crime, but also about 
restoring a piece of democracy. The peace activists were faced with a huge 
amount of police, preventive arrests, kilometers of barbwire, etc... This is 
a pity. When citizens commit a crime, they are punished and their crime has 
to be repaired. But now that our own authorities are committing a crime, 
they use the police not to stop the crime, but to keep it in place.
Without NATO the war in Iraq and Afghanistan would not be possible
5 years ago the war in Iraq started. All over the world anti-war 
demonstrations are taking place. With NATO GAME OVER we target the military 
structures which make the war possible. In Afghanistan, soldiers from 
European NATO countries fight in the US-led war on terror. NATO agreements 
make European countries into logistic hubs for the US military. In 2003, 
54,000 Europe based US military personnel were deployed or worked in direct 
support of the war against Iraq. The US Army was deployed out of Germany and 
Italy, while bombing flights departed from UK bases and aircraft carriers in 
the Mediterranean. In 2006, two thirds of the Europe based US military were 
deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan, preparing to depart or had just returned. 
Without Europe, the Iraq war would be impossible.
NATO is creating more problems than it solves
NATO is discussing its future. Ten days after NATO GAME OVER the NATO-summit 
and protests against it take place in Bucharest. In a lot of European 
countries a large amount of the population disagree with the choice of world 
leaders to use war and military threats to solve conflicts. Missile defense, 
nuclear weapons, new military bases, soldiers to Afghanistan, ... the people 
do not want it. But governments do not listen to these wishes; every time 
NATO stands in the way. NATO is creating more problems than it solves.
NATO GAME OVER: an international action day
On the 22nd of March, activists from 17 European countries nonviolently 
attempted to enter NATO HQ, Brussels, in order to close it. Action groups 
from all over Europe give the signal that nuclear weapons have to disappear. 
Activists from Germany, Italy and Spain make clear they do not want new 
military bases or infrastructure. Czech and Polish peace activists find 
missile defense installations with a NATO flag as unacceptable as with a US 
flag. Croatian, Macedonian, Finnish and Swedish activists do not like their 
country joining NATO or developing a narrow military relation with NATO. 
Also from the Netherlands, France and the UK comes a NO against the war 
policy.
homepage:: http://www.vredesactie.be/article.php?id=506

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/7310077.stm

Arrests at Belgian Nato protest

Police in Belgium have detained about 150 demonstrators as they tried to 
climb security fences outside Nato headquarters in Brussels.
Organisers of the protest said they wanted to draw attention to what they 
called Nato's role in promoting war.

Water cannon was used to dislodge those who tried to get over the fences, 
some using mats to cover the barbed wires.

Police were prepared for the protest and had cordoned off a wide security 
perimeter around the Nato buildings.

Organisers Bombspotting and Vredesactie (Action for Peace) said about 500 
protesters took part in Saturday's demonstration in the suburb of Evere to 
mark the fifth anniversary of the Iraq war.

They claimed Nato was the tool of US policy in Iraq and Afghanistan.

http://www.justseeds.org/blog/2008/02/blf_strikes_again.html

BLF Strikes Again
Posted February 28, 2008 by jmacphee in Political Art
I've long thought that the Billboard Liberation Front, beyond being one of 
the longest running billboard alteration groups, is also one of the 
smartest. Rather than simply playing off corporate logos, they often are 
able to use billboards to create a critique that cuts a little deeper, and 
yesterday they put up a good one in San Francisco. Here is an extended 
excerpt from their press release:
The Billboard Liberation Front today announced a major new advertising 
improvement campaign executed on behalf of clients AT&T and the National 
Security Agency. Focusing on billboards in the San Francisco area, this 
improvement action is designed to promote and celebrate the innovative 
collaboration of these two global communications giants.
“This campaign is an extraordinary rendition of a public-private 
partnership,” observed BLF spokesperson Blank DeCoverly. “These two titans 
of telecom have a long and intimate relationship, dating back to the age of 
the telegraph. In these dark days of Terrorism, that should be a comfort to 
every law-abiding citizen with nothing to hide.”
AT&T initially downplayed its heroic efforts in the War on Terror, 
preferring to serve in silence behind the scenes. “But then we realized we 
had a PR win on our hands,” noted AT&T V.P. of Homeland Security James 
Croppy. “Not only were we helping NSA cut through the cumbersome red tape of 
the FISA system, we were also helping our customers by handing over their 
e-mails and phone records to the government. Modern life is so hectic – who 
has time to cc the feds on every message? It’s a great example of how we 
anticipate our customers’ needs and act on them. And, it should be pointed 
out, we offered this service free of charge.”
Commenting on the action, and responding to questions about pending privacy 
litigation and the stalled Congressional effort to shield the telecoms from 
these lawsuits, NSA spokesperson [REDACTED] remarked: “[REDACTED] we 
[REDACTED] condone [REDACTED] warrantless [REDACTED], [REDACTED] SIGINT 
intercepts, [REDACTED] torture [REDACTED] information retrieval by 
[REDACTED] means necessary.”
“It’s a win-win-win situation,” noted the BLF’s DeCoverly. “NSA gets the 
data it needs to keep America safe, telecom customers get free services, and 
AT&T makes a fortune. That kind of cooperation between the public and 
private sectors should serve as a model to all of us, and a harbinger of 
things to come.”

http://www.canada.com/topics/news/politics/story.html?id=c9ae3ba5-6f55-456a-9798-2fad5691a7d5&k=92583

B.C. Premier's office paint-bombed in protest
Vancouver Province
Published: Thursday, February 21, 2008
VANCOUVER - B.C. Premier Gordon Campbell's Vancouver office was paint-bombed 
by anti-Olympic protesters on Thursday afternoon.
Anti-Poverty Committee spokesman David Cunningham said four protesters went 
to the premier's Vancouver office armed with "gallons of paint in the 
colours of the Olympic rings."
The protesters, three women and one man, were wearing white painter's suits 
and face masks. One was carrying a digital video camera and recorded the 
event.
constituency assistants, said he could see the protesters through the blinds 
of his door, plastering posters outside the building.
Marsh said they tried to enter the building but he prevented them by closing 
the door as they were coming in and locking it.
The group then threw paint on the storefront window and door. The paint was 
removed within two hours of the attack.
The committee has staged several protests against the Olympics, including 
paint-bombing Vancouver's Olympic countdown clock and hijacking an outdoor 
Olympic promotion.
Several committee members work for the provincially funded Downtown Eastside 
Residents Association.
B.C. Attorney General Wally Oppal said it was disturbing that the activists 
were government workers.
"But they are entitled to protest like any citizen," Oppal said. "We 
encourage peaceful protest but they are intimidating people and acting like 
thugs."
Vancouver police spokeswoman Const. Jana McGuinness said police will attempt 
to identify the culprits and press mischief charges against them.
"A group may take this action and think it's funny, or think they want to 
make a statement. But this is, bottom line, a criminal act," she said.
Cunningham said the committee will continue its anti-Olympics campaign until 
the government's budget surplus is spent on social housing, community 
centres and student tuition.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/1/story.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10496209

Anti-McDonald's protest takes root in southern town
5:00AM Wednesday March 05, 2008
By Jarrod Booker

Protesters planted flowers and vegetables on the site.
A true grassroots protest has occurred on the proposed site of a McDonald's 
restaurant as residents of a small town fight to keep the fast-food giant 
out.
Consent has been given for the restaurant to be built on the site at 
Motueka, near Nelson, but a group calling itself Uniquely Motueka is 
standing in the way.
The group says McDonald's will add only unwanted health, trash and traffic 
problems to the town of about 7000.
The proposed restaurant site was dug up into a "community garden" on Sunday 
night with a variety of flowers and vegetables planted "to represent the 
diversity in the community that McDonald's never will", said Uniquely 
Motueka spokeswoman Tara Forde.
A 1000-signature petition against the restaurant has also been given to the 
local Tasman District Council.
"I don't think it's as easy as winning or losing," Ms Forde said.
"It's about showing McDonald's they are not welcome in a lot of small towns 
around New Zealand, and the tide is turning on their business as people 
become more socially aware."
Residents in the Auckland suburb of Balmoral are fighting a similar battle.
A McDonald's spokeswoman said the company was "relatively surprised" at the 
level of opposition in Motueka.
"But it's important to understand that generally people who oppose things 
will be the loudest.
"We feel that part of the community are supportive of us."
The Motueka McDonald's restaurant is due to be built by May. The Mayor of 
Tasman District, Richard Kempthorne, said it was "absolutely a done deal", 
and the matter could no longer be influenced by the council.

http://www.essentialaction.org/access/index.php?/archives/118-Paris-protest-against-ending-drug-licensing-Threats-of-retaliation-overblown,-they-say.html

Paris protest against ending drug licensing: Threats of retaliation 
overblown, they say
Friday, February 22. 2008
by Achara Ashayagachat
Published at Bangkok Post

Foreign activists and academics have lent their support to the struggle by 
the Thai civic sector to save compulsory licensing (CL) of patented 
medicines. Health Minister Chaiya Sasomsab is pushing for a review on the CL 
of three cancer drugs, which was approved by his predecessor Mongkol na 
Songkhla.

On Wednesday, members of the group Act-Up staged a peaceful protest in front 
of the Thai embassy in Paris. On the same day, activists and academics from 
various institutions issued a letter to Mr Chaiya, urging him to resist 
pressure from foreign pharmaceutical firms to abandon CL.

''Thailand's review of compulsory licences on three high-priced cancer drugs 
should not be distorted by groundless threats of potential trade sanctions 
from the brand-name pharmaceutical industry,'' the letter said.
-----
The Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA) said this 
week it would push the US Trade Representative to impose trade sanctions if 
Thailand implements compulsory licensing and imports low-cost generic drugs.

However, activists said the threat has no basis in law or political reality. 
A WTO mission had found that Thailand's policy was legal, said a letter 
signed by Essential Action, American Jewish World Service, the American 
Medical Students Association, Global Aids Alliance, Health GAP, Knowledge 
Ecology International (KEI), Oxfam America and the Student Global Aids and 
Trade Justice Campaigns.

They said that PhRMA always asks for more than it has any hope of achieving.

In 2006, for example, PhRMA asked that Canada and Germany be designated 
Priority Foreign Countries, a request the US Trade Representative rejected. 
Threats that PhRMA would push for Priority Foreign Country status were less 
significant than they may seem, activists said.

They said leading US presidential contenders should take a more critical 
stance towards the pharmaceutical industry than US President George W Bush.

Both Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama of the Democratic party have endorsed 
poor countries' rights to affordable, quality-assured generic drugs for 
important health needs.

John McCain of the Republican party has not issued a policy on the matter, 
but he has been critical of the brand-name pharmaceutical industry, recently 
characterising the companies as ''the big bad guys''.

Regardless of who is the next US president, it is certain that the next US 
administration will be less responsive to pharmaceutical industry interests 
than the current administration.

It was also likely that the next administration would support efforts in 
developing countries to speed up the introduction of generic competition to 
make essential medicines available.

A senior Thai diplomat told the Bangkok Post that there was only a slight 
possibility that the US would petition the World Trade Organisation (WTO) 
over Thailand's CL implementation as the stakes were too high and the case 
might damage the industry if Thailand won.

Taking legal action at the multilateral level needs careful consideration - 
in this case trade issues relating to public health are a sensitive topic 
worldwide and if the chance of a US win is not 100%, it should not take the 
risk because there are several developing countries which might benefit from 
the ruling, he said.

Mr Chaiya yesterday said he expected a final decision on CL would come in a 
month.

He confirmed that the permanent secretaries of Health, Commerce and Foreign 
Affairs agreed that CL on cancer drugs be kept intact.

He said he would discuss the matter with the commerce and foreign affairs 
ministers before forwarding any proposals to cabinet for approval.

http://www.gulf-daily-news.com/Story.asp?Article=208843&Sn=BNEW&IssueID=30333

Protest over BD22m mall

Residents of areas in Arad and Hidd, near the Muharraq Club, yesterday 
continued their weekly protest against the construction of a proposed BD22 
million mall near the club, saying it will be a threat to the "beauty" and 
"serenity" of the area.
They gathered waving banners and raised slogans against the proposed 
project, saying it had been given the go-ahead despite their protests.
Residents are also going to court in a bid to halt work after a 
ground-breaking ceremony went ahead last week.
The people of the area have been protesting since October last year against 
the mall, being built on land previously owned by the Royal Court.
They claim the acquisition of the land by the Muharraq Club was illegal and 
that it will spoil the area, earmarked for a new walkway.

http://www.reuters.com/article/bondsNews/idUSN2424787620080224

Mexican leftist back on streets in oil protest
Sun Feb 24, 2008 3:30pm EST
Radical Mexican leftist claims party leadership win
17 Mar 2008

By Catherine Bremer
MEXICO CITY, Feb 24 (Reuters) - Eighteen months after he crippled the 
capital with protests over a 2006 election defeat, Mexican leftist Andres 
Manuel Lopez Obrador was back on the street on Sunday to protect the state 
monopoly on oil.
Obrador, who says he was robbed of the presidency by electoral fraud in July 
2006, mustered thousands of protesters outside state oil firm Pemex's 
52-story headquarters to slam fledgling proposals to allow private 
investment in oil.
The firebrand leftist told the crowd that if rallies did not work, they 
would take over the Mexico City airport, highways and the stock exchange and 
hold a national strike.
"We do not accept anything to do with privatization of Pemex or sharing oil 
profits," he told a cheering crowd.
Lopez Obrador has seized on a planned oil sector reform as a new rallying 
point for protests against President Felipe Calderon's conservative 
government.
Calderon wants to pass an energy law by April that would give Pemex more 
autonomy and possibly allow joint ventures in deepwater oil fields that 
straddle the U.S. maritime border. Mexico, a top three supplier of crude oil 
to the United States, saw oil exports slip last year to their lowest level 
since 2002.
Public support for Lopez Obrador's new cause could determine whether the man 
whose presidential ambitions rattled Wall Street in 2006 still has a 
political future and could also set the tone for Mexico's rudderless left 
for the next few years.
"We're against privatizing Pemex. Lopez Obrador is the only one who can 
fight against this," said Saul Monsalvo, a graphic designer who arrived at 
the protest by bus from the neighboring State of Mexico.
Lopez Obrador's resurgence into the limelight after a year licking his 
wounds comes three weeks before his Party of the Democratic Revolution, or 
PRD, will elect a new leader, with an eye on the 2012 presidential election.
Sen. Jesus Ortega is seen the favorite to win but Lopez Obrador's oil 
protests could boost the standing of his candidate, Alejandro Encinas, a 
former Mexico City mayor.
SYMBOL OF SOVEREIGNTY
Pemex says alliances with experienced foreign oil firms could speed its 
entry into deepwater oil.
But the PRD objects to tampering with the constitution, which gives Pemex 
sole drilling rights in Mexico. It says allowing foreign alliances smacks of 
privatization.
"Alliances with foreign firms, under the pretext that we lack technology, 
are privatization," Lopez Obrador told the crowd.
Mexicans view the oil industry as a symbol of sovereignty since it was 
expropriated in 1938. A newspaper poll this week showed half the country 
opposes foreign investment in oil.
"They want to sell it to foreign companies but we're not going to let them," 
said Hester Palma, 48, selling hotdogs at a stall. "We're going to defend it 
with our blood."
Still, faced with declining output and reserves, Mexico's other main 
opposition, the Institutional Revolutionary Party, or PRI, has softened its 
opposition to energy reform.
PRI Sen. Francisco Labastida, the head of the Senate energy committee, said 
this week Lopez Obrador was opposing something that had not even been 
suggested. "It's a movement against ... the ghost of privatization because I 
haven't seen anyone who wants to sell Pemex," he told La Jornada daily.
Even after his defeat was confirmed by an election tribunal, Lopez Obrador 
supporters blocked Mexico City streets for weeks with sit-in camps. Today 
Lopez Obrador calls himself Mexico's "legitimate president" and refuses to 
recognize Calderon.
(Editing by Bill Trott)
Memories of 1977

http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2008/881/eg5.htm

Do public protests about the increased cost of basic commodities
have overtones of the bread riots more than three decades ago, asks
Mohamed El-Sayed

Egyptians are generally not rebellious people though when their
stomachs are empty the government should beware. That, at least, is
the feeling of many commentators who felt a sense of déjà vu when
looking at the demonstrations that hit the streets of Cairo, Port
Said and Mahalla in a week when the public finally began to protest
against increases in the price of basic commodities.

Memories of the bread riots that broke out when President Anwar El-
Sadat attempted to cut subsidies on a range of basic foodstuffs were
never far away when, beginning last Thursday, the Egyptian Movement
for Change (Kifaya) attempted to stage the first demonstration in
Cairo's Sayeda Zeinab Square. Security forces arrested around 50
Kifaya members along with a number of journalists covering the
event. While those detained were held in Central Security trucks the
rest of the protesters headed to the Press Syndicate to continue the
protest. The heavy-handed approach adopted by the police towards the
protesters prompted the Washington-based Human Rights Watch to
criticise the Egyptian authorities. "Egyptian authorities are taking
every opportunity to signal to citizens that when it comes to
peaceful criticism of government policies forget about exercising
your rights," said Joe Stork, deputy director of Human Rights
Watch's Middle East division.

On Saturday, the Ghad Party organised a demonstration in the
Mediterranean city of Port Said, about 220 kilometres north east of
Cairo. Blaming the government for the increase in prices of basic
foodstuffs they carried bread and cooking oil bottles and warned the
government against removing subsidies on basic commodities.

A day later 5,000 people attended a demonstration in the industrial
city of Mahalla, Gharbiya governorate, 123 kilometres north of
Cairo, organised by Wafd, the Nasserist Arab, Ghad and the frozen
Labour parties and the Muslim Brotherhood. Raising anti-government
and anti- National Democratic Party slogans, protesters accused the
government of failing to raise salaries to keep pace with inflation.
They warned government officials that another bread uprising could
be in the offing.

The same governorate was the site of another demonstration by 300
people protesting a shortage of flour at the only bakery in the
village of Kafr Hassaan.

"The government is scared of another hungry riot," argued Kifaya
general coordinator Abdel-Wahab Elmessiri, who was forced by a group
of plainclothes security personnel into a van and then driven with
seven others to the outskirts of New Cairo. "They prevented our
protest because we raised slogans that were closely related to the
livelihood of people."

The prevention of peaceful demonstrations calling for a reduction in
basic commodity prices, Elmessiri continued, could lead to "a
populist uprising in the form of catharsis that could destroy
everything". He had hoped that the government would be more rational
in its response to such protests and work on reducing basic
commodity prices. "This [rebellion], if it happens, will not be to
the benefit of any party, the people, the government or the
opposition."

Elmessiri concedes that skyrocketing commodity prices are a global
phenomenon but insists that the sufferings of ordinary Egyptians are
compounded by government corruption.

But could Egypt really see a repeat of the January 1977 bread riots?

"Since the 1977 bread riots political awareness among the people has
been in decline. However, they have been restoring it step by step
of late," says Elmessiri, citing the series of labour strikes that
hit the country last year. "Even [Egyptian] pilgrims organised sit-
in strikes during the pilgrimage season in Mecca, and strikes have
been organised by civil servants, unheard of in Egypt's modern
history."

While opposition leaders are using an alarmist tone, Mohamed Kamal,
member of the ruling National Democratic Party's Policies Committee,
told Al-Ahram Weekly that the warnings against potential riots are
exaggerated.

"Egyptian society is going through a period of political and
economic mobility. Our society is witnessing an unprecedented degree
of freedom of expression, and it's normal for societies in a state
of transition to experience what's happening in Egypt."

Kamal dismisses the notion that Egyptian society is on the verge
of "social upheaval" and defended the government, arguing that the
rise in prices was a global phenomenon. "The government continues to
subsidise basic foodstuffs, and at the same time increases salaries,
the problem is that the increase in salaries hasn't matched
inflation."

The string of protests still sounds alarm bells for many
observers. "The atmosphere that prevailed before and during the 1977
bread riots is similar to now, especially in that there is no
confidence in the government," Ammar Ali Hassan, director of the
Middle East Studies and Research Centre, told the Weekly. "The
desire to protest has overwhelmed a large sector of society."

That said, Hassan argues that although current living conditions
are "much worse than 1977, the ordinary Egyptian nowadays is unable
to stage wide protests because he has become fragile. Egyptians in
1977 were more politicised than now and the regime's security grip
was less strong," he said.

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/a35318f0-fb80-11dc-8c3e-000077b07658.html?nclick_check=1
Unrest grows in Egypt as food prices soar
By Heba Saleh in Cairo
Published: March 26 2008 22:29 | Last updated: March 26 2008 22:29

A wave of discontent has been sweeping through Egypt in response to
mounting food prices and the return of long queues in front of
bakeries selling subsidised bread – the only food item that has not
recently risen in price.

Civil servants, industrial workers and even groups considered
privileged such as doctors and university lecturers have been
staging strikes and demanding higher pay to meet price increases of
up to 50 per cent for some basic foods.

State university lecturers have gone on strike this week, bringing
many classes to a halt for a day. "Faculty members in Egypt are
normally a very conservative group who do not want to expose
themselves to trouble," said Hany Al Husseini, one of the strike
organisers. "But now the economic situation has become so bad that
people are prepared to do anything."

The starting monthly salary for university staff members is $115
(€73, £57), while those nearing retirement take home about $675. The
lecturers are demanding the doubling of their pay and a fund to
boost pensions.

Although unlikely to meet this pay demand, the government is mindful
of the potential for social unrest sparked by economic hardship and
has begun to address some of the workers' grievances.

It has promised to raise the pay of 5.6m civil servants from July,
and there are moves to revisit the minimum monthly salary, which is
$50. The government is also spending more on food subsidies and
adding millions of families to the list of people eligible to
receive subsidised sugar, rice and oil.

Yesterday Mena, the state news agency, reported the government had
banned rice exports for six months from April 1 in an effort to hold
down local prices.

Although most Egyptians are too young to remember the bread riots of
1977, since then successive governments have made it a priority to
support the prices of some foods to pre-empt any boiling over of
popular anger.

"Of course officials are worried [about social unrest]," said Samir
Radwan, an economist commissioned by the government to look into
raising the minimum salary. "You can judge by the number of cabinet
meetings they have been holding to deal with the price rises."

Almost everyday official pronouncements about the government's
concern for those "on limited incomes" vie for space on the front
pages with the latest on the bread queues, in which a few people
have been killed after fights erupted.

Hosni Mubarak, the president, has ordered the army and police to use
their bakeries to put more cheap bread on the market to reduce
queues. More people have turned to the subsidised loaves as rice and
pasta have become more expensive.

In a bread line in Imbaba, a poor district in Cairo, Ragaa Abdel
Hakim, a mother of five, says she gets up at 6am to buy bread
because the two bakeries in her village sell off their flour
illegally and produce little bread for the public.

"Rice and oil are now too expensive," she said. "My husband is an
agricultural labourer who makes 10 Egyptian pounds a day ($1.80,
€1.15, £0.91). Is this going to be enough for seven people? What
about my children at school – they need clothes and food. If we
don't pay the teachers for private lessons, they fail them."

A fifth of Egypt's 80m people live under the poverty line of $2 a
day, and a sizeable proportion is only just above it.

Mr Radwan has recommended that the government increase the minimum
salary to $112. "We should be worried because food prices are rising
and they will continue to do so for the foreseeable future. So how
do we foot the bill? Ultimately, that will depend on increased
exports and increased tourism. Otherwise the situation could become
tragic."

http://www.schnews.org.uk/archive/news621.htm

A blockade by villagers in India is in its sixth week - halting plans by US 
giant Dow Chemical to build a new 100 acre research plant in Pune. Since 
January 16th, the road which passes through Shinde - the only way to access 
the site - has been dug up and occupied by locals and supporters, including 
500 women from the local Bhamchandragarth Bachao Warkari Kisan Sangharsh 
Samiti campaign group (how’s that for a snappy name). There have also been 
several other demonstrations at the site and elsewhere, and this Saturday 
(23rd) sees a mass demo in central Pune.
The campaign has gained a lot of national support, with memories still fresh 
of the 1984 Union Carbide chemical catastrophe in Bhopal - the worst 
industrial disaster in history (see SchNEWS 523). A leak of methyl isocynate 
killed 20,000, injured millions more and Union Carbide bailed without 
bothering to clean the site site up. Dow Chemical took over Union Carbide in 
2001, but they refuse to accept any responsibility for Bhopal.
Not only are the protesters worried about something similar happening in 
their region, they also want Dow – a company worth $54bn - to accept 
liability for Union Carbide’s corporate mass murder and compensate for the 
1984 disaster. At a meeting held near the site on February 2nd, Rasheeda Bi 
from the Bhopal Group for Information and Action said, “We are still 
suffering in Bhopal as Union Carbide has not yet cleared the toxic waste. It 
is the right of the villagers to know what kind of unit is coming up in 
their village. We never knew what was coming and we suffered a lot.”
Dow claims the centre will work on energy conservation, molecular research 
and even low-cost housing! But while they say they won’t manufacture 
chemicals, the plant will experiment with volatile chemicals. It is one of 
three new R&D labs, the others will be in Shanghai and somewhere in Europe.
* On February 20th, Bhopal survivors began an 800km walk to Delhi to 
confront Prime Minister Manmohan Singh about the promises he made two years 
ago concerning economic, social and medical rehabilitation, and provision of 
clean drinking water, which are yet to be met.

http://www.schnews.org.uk/archive/news623.htm

Protesters have had a dramatic victory (for the time being), at the site of 
the Dow Chemical’s proposed new chemical plant at Pune, 150km southeast of 
Mumbai in India.
Since January 16th, villagers and other supporters have occupied a road – 
having dug it up with bullocks - to blockade and stop construction work on a 
new Dow Chemical research lab.
Last week things came to a head when armed police were sent in to break it 
up. Initially they arrested twelve women from the BDBWSSS group after a 
massive protest rally on Feb 28th, but things got lairy when another group 
of 50-100 women actually surrounded the 200 police and held them hostage, 
demanding the release of the arrestees. Back-up police were called in but 
after the ensuing barny it took until after midnight before a further 143 
were nicked. By morning, the protesters had built up numbers and ferocity 
once more - and the authorities started to take the threat seriously.
After the intervention of a Judge all arrestees were released 
unconditionally, and it was agreed to stop building work until the 
government committee submits its report.
For the time being the road blockade is still on, and going into its eighth 
week... See www.bhopal.net

http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/breakingnews/regions/view/20080212-118333/Laguna-farmers-protest-Pangandaman-appointment-at-Senate

Laguna farmers protest Pangandaman appointment at Senate
By Julie M. Aurelio
Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted 12:56:00 02/12/2008
MANILA, Philippines -- Over 150 farmers from Calamba City in Laguna marched 
to the Senate Tuesday morning and lit 103 candles to protest the appointment 
of agrarian reform secretary Nasser Pangandaman.
The farmers, who belonged to the Hacienda Yulo Farmers Association, were on 
the fifth day of their 14-day march to protest the government's failure to 
place the 7,100-hectare Hacienda Yulo under the Comprehensive Agrarian 
Reform Program (CARP).
“We cannot ignore this [Senate hearing on Pangandaman's appointment] because 
right under the leadership of Pangandaman, the Yulo farmers continue to 
suffer,” said Roli Petate, HYFA president.
The marchers, who came all the way from Calamba, Laguna, marched to the 
Senate on foot to coincide their protest with the Commission on Appointments 
(CA) hearing of Pangandaman.
Outside the Senate's gates, the 174 farmers also demanded for Pangandaman's 
resignation.
“Pangandaman appointment tutulan! Nasser resign! I-reporma at balasahin ang 
DAR! CARP ituloy at repormahin [Protest Pangandaman appointment! Nasser 
resign! Reform and reshuffle DAR! Reform and continue CARP!],” the peasant 
protesters said.
The 103 lighted candles symbolizes their 103-year fight to have the Yulo 
land, Petate said.
“We have been here since 1905 even before the Yulo family owned the land. 
But because they are rich, they were able to gain the titles for the 7,100 
hectares. Now we are being driven out of the land we have tilled for years,” 
the HYFA official explained.
In 2006, the farmers filed a petition to nullify the 1992 exemption order 
for a 943-ha Yulo landholding because the order had not been complied with 
for over 15 years.
In December 2007, Pangandaman denied the petition on the ground that it had 
been filed “out of time or too late.”
But the farmers claimed it was the duty of the DAR to monitor such exemption 
orders and that it was Pangandaman who was “out of time.”
“Who is 'out-of-time' really? Isn't it the DAR? Isn't it its duty to monitor 
the compliance of exemption orders? Why did it have to take 15 years and why 
did we farmers have to stand up and complain?” Petate asked.
The 7,100-ha agricultural land in question is owned by the family of Jose 
Miguel Yulo Sr. and is spread over Calamba City, Sta Rosa City, Cabuyao and 
Biñan in Laguna.
The 14-day march also protests what the farmers called the government's 
failure to stop to unabated efforts by the Yulos to convert its 
7,100-hectare land into commercial and residential businesses.
Petate claimed the landholdings were part of the target for redistribution 
under the CARP.
“The issue of reclassification involving the Yulo lands is just one of the 
issues that corroborate our call against Pangandaman's appointment,” he 
added.
The HYFA is a member of the Pambansang Ugnayan ng mga Nagsasariling 
Organisasyon sa Kanayunan, a national federation of local peasant 
organizations.

http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/breakingnews/regions/view/20080209-117853/Laguna-farmers-begin-protest-march

Laguna farmers begin protest march
By Jerome Aning
Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted 21:05:00 02/09/2008
MANILA, Philippines -- Some 200 farmers from the old Hacienda Yulo in Laguna 
have begun a two-week march to Manila to appeal to the government to stop 
the conversion of the land they are tilling into commercial zones.
On the second day of the march from Calamba, members of the Hacienda Yulo 
Farmers Association (HYFA) on Saturday denounced the establishment of Eton 
City on 1,000 hectares in Sta. Rosa, which its developers have dubbed the 
future “Makati of the South.”
Eton City was part of the extensive Hacienda Yulo owned by the late Speaker 
and Supreme Court Justice Jose Yulo Sr. His descendants have broken up the 
hacienda and have sold, leased, or are developing the land which straddles 
Calamba, Sta. Rosa, Cabuyao, and Biñan.
Some 2,600 farmer families are claiming 3,811 of the 7,100 ha that comprise 
the Yulo estate.
Chanting "Land use plan, irebisa, irebisa (Revise the land use plan),” the 
marchers said the project had marginalized hundreds of farmers as it was 
established right in their farms.
HYFA president Roli Petate said the Sta. Rosa City mayor should be held to 
account for the project, claiming the developers had failed to secure a 
development permit from the mayor's office.
“Mayor Arlene Arcillas-Nazareno needs to act immediately on the illegal 
project as it runs counter to the intent of our government and agrarian 
reform program to distribute lands to the legitimate farmers and provide 
them with support services,” Petate said.
In 2006, HYFA filed with the Department of Agrarian Reform a petition to 
nullify the exemption order granted in 1992 for a Yulo landholding covering 
943 ha on the ground that it was not complied with for over 15 years.
Last December, the DAR denied the petition on the ground it had been filed 
too late.

http://www.news.com.au/technology/story/0,25642,23142807-5014239,00.html

MySpace accounts deleted in protest
By Chloe Lake, Technology Editor February 01, 2008 10:32am
UP to a few thousand people deleted their MySpace accounts as part of one 
blogger's symbolic protest against the social network.
Simon Owens, 23, declared January 30th "International Delete Your MySpace 
Account Day" (IDYMAD). He made the announcement two weeks ago on 
Bloggasm.com, his personal blog about online media.
"After months of only visiting my MySpace profile in order to delete spam 
friend requests from half-nude women, I’ve reached the end of the line," he 
said.
Mr Owens, a newspaper journalist from Virginia, posted instructions to help 
readers delete their MySpace accounts.
He estimates "between a few hundred and a few thousand" people deleted their 
MySpace accounts on January 30th.
"It's incredibly hard to calculate how many people participated," Mr Owens 
told News.com.au.
"Hundreds of people either emailed me or wrote in my comments that they had 
deleted (their MySpace account)."
Rebekah Horne, vice president of Fox Interactive Media and MySpace in 
Australia and New Zealand, commented on the event last week.
"This Delete-Your-MySpace day is just about being controversial," she said.
"MySpace is the biggest social networking site in the world."
A few thousand deleted MySpace accounts would not have a great impact on 
MySpace numbers.
"We are still signing over five thousand users per day," Ms Horne said.
Mr Owens started IDYMAD in an attempt to move people over to his preferred 
network, Facebook.
"I've had a Facebook account longer than I've had a MySpace account - since 
college. And I plan on keeping the Facebook account."
Mr Owens launched Bloggasm as a hobby in 2006. He receives revenue from ads 
on the site, "but not enough to quit my job".
Global traffic to his blog has peaked at almost an 18-month high since the 
anti-MySpace declaration.
There have been similar anti-MySpace movements organised through forum 
communities, but none have gained as much widespread coverage as Mr Owen's.
Ms Horne was not concerned by the controversy.
"Some people love social networking, some people don't," she said.
"Some people find their natural fit with other sites."

http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2008/01/27/surfers_protest_wave_cams/

Surfers protest wave cams
They're blamed for crowding hot sites
By Corey Kilgannon
New York Times News Service / January 27, 2008
EAST HAMPTON, N.Y. - Ever since Jimmy Minardi mounted his $8,500 video 
camera last summer and aimed it at the Atlantic Ocean, the surfers here have 
been complaining.
more stories like this
The camera streamed video straight to Minardi's website, letting surfers 
check the waves without having to pack up their boards and wet suits and 
heading to the beach with fingers crossed.
These surf cams, or wave cams, which have gained in popularity in recent 
years, help advertise lesser-known beaches to outsiders who are looking for 
new surfing spots.
But the cameras have also caused problems in the territorial world of 
hard-core surfers, many of whom blame them for leading crowds to 
once-secluded beaches. Today, there are perhaps a dozen cameras along the 
South Shore of Long Island and another dozen along the Jersey Shore, surfers 
said.
Vandalism is common enough that the operators - from surf shops that run a 
single camera to large surfing-related companies that own dozens of them - 
keep the locations confidential. Officials at Wavewatch.com and 
Surfline.com, two of the larger surf cam sites, said they tried not to pick 
spots where the regulars would be riled.
Still, Jonno Wells, the chief executive of Surfline.com, which operates 
about 100 Web cameras at beaches from the Hamptons to Hawaii, said his 
company regularly received angry e-mails from "squawkers blaming cameras for 
crowding."
Rafael Patterson, the brand manager for Wavewatch, which operates 18 cameras 
nationally, said his company also received complaints, but tried to be 
sensitive in selecting surf cam locations. Wells said several of his 
company's cameras had been damaged; Patterson said he did not know of any 
vandalism. Minardi, 45, a native of East Hampton, is a fitness instructor 
whose celebrity clients include Jerry and Jessica Seinfeld. He said he 
shrugged off the complaints he received - until someone ran off with his 
camera last month.
The East Hampton Village police are questioning local surfers in search of a 
suspect.
Was it the actor and surfer who sent Minardi an e-mail message saying that 
as a member of the Screen Actors Guild, he would bill him at union scale 
every time he appeared on camera? Was it the person who threatened to block 
the camera by putting a sign in front it?
The camera was planted just east of the Georgica Jetties, a good wave break 
that does not attract the big crowds that flock to better-known surf spots 
like Ditch Plains in Montauk. But the problem, said Matt Norklun, the 
surfer-actor who sent the e-mail message, was that the camera attracted too 
many surfers to the area, many of them neophytes (known to experienced 
surfers as groms or kooks).
As a result, there were jokes among the tight-knit surfing community here 
about how to block the camera. But after its disappearance, Norklun said, 
not even a whisper surfaced about who might have taken it. Or why.
Minardi said the camera could simply have been stolen for its value.
An outspoken critic of the camera, Norklun said the police questioned him 
after it disappeared.
"I don't know who took it, but whoever it is, he's a folk hero around here," 
he said. "The police asked me, 'Would you tell us if you did know?' And I 
said, 'Probably not.' "
As for his demand to be paid union wages, he said, "A lot of guys were angry 
with Jimmy, and I wanted to drive the point home that the camera was a 
nuisance."
Minardi received permission to install the camera on the oceanfront property 
of advertising executive Jerry Della Femina, in the rarefied Georgica Pond 
section of East Hampton, where Steven Spielberg and Mortimer B. Zuckerman, 
to name just two, have large summer homes.
The camera was mounted on a wooden post, tucked between two juniper bushes, 
that was cut down cleanly, perhaps with a power saw.
Della Femina said he was unhappy that someone would cut down the camera on 
his property.
As for the surf cam controversy, he said, "I find it incredible that there 
are surfers who think they have the right to a spot in the ocean."

http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2008\02\25\story_25-2-2008_pg4_2

Yemen foils attempt to bomb oil pipeline
* Officials suspect saboteurs linked to last year's pipeline bombing

SANAA: Yemeni forces have foiled an attempt to blow up a crude oil
pipeline in the Marib province and arrested a number of "saboteurs",
the official Yemeni news agency Saba said on Sunday.

"Interrogations are under way, but the initial results indicate that
this group is linked to the terrorist bombing of the pipeline last
year," Saba said, citing the head of security in the province. In
November, tribesmen blew up a pipeline that carries crude oil from
the Marib oil basin to storage tanks at the Ras Issa terminal for
export. No one was harmed in the bombing, which took place in a
desert area in the eastern Marib province.

Officials said at the time that the perpetrators were not linked to
militants. Tribesmen sometimes kidnap holidaymakers and foreigners
working in Yemen to press for better schools, roads and services or
the release of prisoners. Yemen foiled two suicide attacks on oil
and gas installations in 2006, days after Al Qaeda urged Muslims to
target Western interests. Al Qaeda's wing in Yemen claimed
responsibility for the foiled attacks and promised more strikes.

US ally Yemen is a small producer of oil with output of around
330,000 barrels per day (bpd) and exports of about 200,000 bpd. It
has one large oil refinery at Aden with a throughput capacity of
about 100,000 bpd. Yemen has been widely seen in the West as a haven
for militants, including Al Qaeda supporters.

It joined the US-led war on terrorism launched after the Sept 11,
2001 attacks on the United States and has been battling Islamic
militants for years. In 2002 militants bombed the French oil
supertanker Limburg off Yemen's coast. In 2000, a suicide attack on
the US warship Cole killed 17 US sailors. reuters