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Inspiration Is Contagious!
Original Peoples, Workers, Climate, Food and Torture Activists, and a Polar Bear
by Margaret Flowers / April 4th, 2013
A group of Indigenous women are walking the length of the Mississippi river — 1,200 miles — to raise awareness about pollution. They carry a 1½ quart bucket of clean water from the headwaters of the Mississippi which they plan to pour into the mouth of the river to show the her what she can be.
Climate Justice activists may be more powerful than we realize. The French energy company, Total, sold its 49% ownership in the Canadian oil sands to the Canadian energy company, Suncor, for a $1.65 billion loss. Why? The cost is getting too expensive and profits are going down. With all of the highly publicized tar sands spills recently in Minnesota, Arkansas and other states, people are seeing the environmental risks. Since we know that the Alberta Tar Sands is the tipping point for climate change, shouldn’t corporations be held accountable for the climate disasters that will inevitably follow? Protest pressure is building.1
The hunger strike continues. Solidarity protests were organized last week by Witness Against Torture against the Guantanamo Bay prison. Guantanamo is an example of criminal injustice. The trial against the NYPD’s Stop and Frisk program is exposing the practice of racial targeting by New York police. This week, one of the commanders caught on tape settled a lawsuit against him for $78,000. We wrote an overview of the abusive criminal (in)justice system, “A Forest of Poisonous Trees.”
In New York City, low-wage, fast food workers walked off the job today in the largest-ever strike against the fast food industry which has virtually no unions. Workers are demanding that chains like McDonald’s and Wendy’s raise their wages to $15 an hour and allow them to organize a union without retaliation. More than 400 workers, from 50-some stores, will participate in the surprise strike, doubling the size of their previous walkout and potentially shutting down several fast food restaurants for the day. Waging Nonviolence published an article that explained what it takes to organize a workplace.
Climate Justice activists may be more powerful than we realize. The French energy company, Total, sold its 49% ownership in the Canadian oil sands to the Canadian energy company, Suncor, for a $1.65 billion loss. Why? The cost is getting too expensive and profits are going down. With all of the highly publicized tar sands spills recently in Minnesota, Arkansas and other states, people are seeing the environmental risks. Since we know that the Alberta Tar Sands is the tipping point for climate change, shouldn’t corporations be held accountable for the climate disasters that will inevitably follow? Protest pressure is building.1
The hunger strike continues. Solidarity protests were organized last week by Witness Against Torture against the Guantanamo Bay prison. Guantanamo is an example of criminal injustice. The trial against the NYPD’s Stop and Frisk program is exposing the practice of racial targeting by New York police. This week, one of the commanders caught on tape settled a lawsuit against him for $78,000. We wrote an overview of the abusive criminal (in)justice system, “A Forest of Poisonous Trees.”
In New York City, low-wage, fast food workers walked off the job today in the largest-ever strike against the fast food industry which has virtually no unions. Workers are demanding that chains like McDonald’s and Wendy’s raise their wages to $15 an hour and allow them to organize a union without retaliation. More than 400 workers, from 50-some stores, will participate in the surprise strike, doubling the size of their previous walkout and potentially shutting down several fast food restaurants for the day. Waging Nonviolence published an article that explained what it takes to organize a workplace.
Full Article and Links: http://dissidentvoice.org/2013/04/inspiration-is-contagious/
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Sweet news round up.
Dr Flowers is right as usual. The TPP has potential to unite alot of different groups: labor, environment, fair trade, consumer protection, human rights, and more. "Stop the TPP" is a great banner to unite under.
Also loved this:
