Archive for the ‘repression’ tag
G8 repression
In the run-up to the series of summits, over 40 people were arrested in pre-emptive sweeps of broad left and anarchist groups.
On May 29th, 38 people were arrested at Hosei University in Tokyo at a political assembly against the G8. These large-scale arrests were carried out by over 100 public security agents after the students staged after a march across campus protesting the summits. All of the arrestees are still jailed, and among them are apparently some leadership of the Chuukaku-ha Leninist organization, one of the largest organizations of its kind in Japan.
On June 4th, Tabi Rounin, an active anarchist from the Kansai region, was arrested on accusation of having his address registered at a location other than where he was living. When arrested, his computer, cell phone, political flyers and more was taken from him; these items were used when detectives interrogated him, asking him about his relationship to internationals possibly arriving for the G8, as well as his activity around Osaka. He would be the first obviously political arrest masked as routine police work.
On June 12th, an activist from the Kamagasaki Patrol (an Osaka squatter and anti-capitalist group), was arrested for allegedly defrauding lifestyle assistance payments. This person has been constantly followed by plainclothes police and even helicopters during demonstrations. Clearly, his arrest was planned with the idea of keeping him away from the major anti-summit mobilizations and he will be held without bail for the maximum of 23 until the summit is over. The office of an anarchist organization called the Free Worker was raided in order to look for ‘evidence’ in this comrade’s case.
The same day the Rakunan union in Kyoto was raided, with police officers searching their offices and arresting two of their members on suspicion of fraudulent unemployment insurance receipt. One of these two arrested are accused of funneling money received from unemployment insurance to the Asian Wide Campaign, which was organizing against the economic summits.
Many activists and representatives of Internation Non-Governmental Organization and independent media organizations have been interrogated for hours and denied visas at the airport in Japan, a clear sign of discrimination against political activists.
repression in austria
from indymedia.org:
At around 7:00 am on May 21, 2008, members of the Austrian elite police force (WEGA)
stormed several apartments across the country. Some of the residents were woken up
in their beds at gunpoint. A total of twentythree (23) apartments, houses and offices
were searches in Vienna, Lower Austria, Styria and Tirol. In many of the apartments
the WEGA kicked in the doors. The officers stormed the apartments like in bad
Hollywood movies. Only after the residents had been intimidated, ”secured” on the
wall and/or put in handcuffs did the police start the searches.
All the arrestees are active in the animal rights movement in Austria.
The offices of at least 4 animal rights group were search by police.
The 10 people, a few of which are currently on hunger strike, are
still in custody. On a bail hearing on June 6th, the judge decided to
keep them in jail for at least 4 weeks further.
There have been solidarity demonstrations in Austria and around
the world to demand the immediate release of the activists and
for the authorities to drop the charges.
U.S. Prison Population Hits All-Time High: 2.3 Million Incarcerated.
The Justice Department has released a new report showing the nation’s prison and jail population reached a record 2.3 million people last year. A record 2.3 million people were in the nation’s prisons and jails in 2007, according to a Justice Department report released on June 6, 2008.The report notes that in the 10 largest states, prison populations increased “during 2006 at more than three times (3.2 percent) the average annual rate of growth (0.9 percent) from 2000 through 2005.”The new report from the Bureau of Justice Statistics found that in the first half of 2007 the growth rate slowed, but prison admissions growth outpaced the number of prison releases. The report provides a breakdown, noting “of the 2.3 million inmates in custody, 2.1 million were men and 208,300 were women. Black males represented the largest percentage (35.4 percent) of inmates held in custody, followed by white males (32.9 percent) and Hispanic males (17.9 percent).”The United States leads the industrialized world in incarceration. In fact, the U.S. rate of incarceration (762 per 100,000) is five to eight times that of other highly developed countries, according to The Sentencing Project, a criminal justice think tank. Locking up these prisoners comes with huge economic costs. The Sentencing Project estimates that cost to be $60 billion per year for federal, state and local prison systems.
palestine solidarity co-founder still in israeli detention
After being arrested from his home in the middle of the night by Israeli forces on April 11th, Mousa Abu Maria, co-founder of the Palestine Solidarity Project remains in administrative detention, being held without charge or trial. PSP is a peace and justice organization that advocates and agitates for popular unarmed resistance to the occupation, and works on projects to increase Palestinian self-sufficiency.
If you’re in the cities, you may have seen Bekah Wolf, another PSP member speak at Macalester. Mousa is Bekah’s longtime partner and friend. She appears in the video below posted on the PSP site which gets a little schmultzy and sentimental, but is still worth watching.
Two ways to help:
1. By contacting your governmental representatives to demand that they inquire into Mousa’s unjust detention with the Israeli foreign ministry in their respective country.
2. By holding a fundraiser, benefit, or personally donating to PSP and to Mousa’s legal fund via the website:
http://palestinesolidarityproject.org/donate/
or by writing a check made out to PSP-NY and mailing it to:
PSP-NYC
P.O. Box 721234
Jackson Heights, NY 11372
domestic anti-war arrests on the rise
from infoshop.org/inews:
“There have been over 15,000 arrests for resistance to war since 2002 in the United States. There were large numbers right after the run up to and invasion of Iraq. Recently, arrests have begun climbing again. Though arrests are a small part of anti-war organizing, their rise is an indicator of increasing resistance.
The information comes from the Nuclear Resister, a newsletter that has been reporting detailed arrest information on peace activists and other social justice campaigns since 1980. Felice and Jack Cohen-Joppa, publishers of the Nuclear Resister, document arrests by name and date based on information collected from newspapers across the country and from defense lawyers and peace activists.
Since 2002, the Nuclear Resister has documented anti-war arrests for protestors each year:
- 2002 – 1800 arrests
- 2003 – 6072 arrests
- 2004 – 2440 arrests
- 2005 – 975 arrests
- 2006 – 950 arrests
- 2007 – 2272 arrests
- 2008 – 810 as of May”
agent provocateurs at FTAA Quebec
Palestine Solidarity Project Co-Founder Kidnapped at 4AM
from the PSP website (palestinesolidarityproject.org)
This morning, Friday April 11, at 4 am Israeli security forces (Shabak) raided the home of Mousa Abu Maria and kidnapped him. Mousa co-founded the Palestine Solidarity Project and has been a supporter of non-violence for several years. Mousa was last in the custody of the Shabak in 1999 when he was held for more than 3 months and tortured after which he spent more than a week in the hospital. His current location is not known but we will send updates as soon as new information is available. Please consider making a donation to PSP to cover his anticipated legal costs.
A Little Bit of So Much Truth
Last night I saw
Un Poquito de Tanta Verdad, a documentary on Oaxaca 2006-2007 which is produced by Jill Irene Friedberg who made Granito de Arenas about the history of Oaxaca teachers strikes, and This is What Democracy Looks Like about the WTO 1999. Friedberg spoke after the screening. More later.
WTO
Everyone’s probably already seen this stuff, but whatever.
