Category: Daily News

Developing your goals and ‘Vision of Tomorrow‘ is one thing, focussing public attention to the underexposed issue you are fighting for might be as important. How does one bring attention to a public risk that affects millions of people?

In Greenpeace’s battle against nuclear energy, the organisation published a new report on the danger of fuel storage pools at nuclear facillities in France and Belgium. The report by independent experts, submitted to French and Belgium authorities earlier this week, questions the security of several nuclear facilities and points at their vulnerability to outside attacks. “While these pools can contain the highest volume of radioactive matter in a nuclear plant, they are very poorly protected,” according to Greenpeace. “Rather than wait for the worst to happen, let’s address this issue and take action.”

The report, however, was not the only action this week!  Early on Thursday, Greenpeace activists broke through two security barriers at EDF’s Cattenom nuclear plant in northeast France, reaching the reactor’s nuclear zone to within a few tens of meters of the nuclear installations. Several activists launched fireworks inside the grounds of the French nuclear plant, to highlight the vulnerability of the plant to attacks. Using drones and on the ground activists to register their actions, the fireworks made it all over the news.

Greenpeace reports might only reach a secluded group of people, but the issues they report on concern a much wider audience. Getting their attention, even for a brief moment, is part of building a bigger movement, and mobilizing people for your Vision of Tomorrow.

For footage of the Greenpeace action, read the full Reuters-article here.

Photograph: Greenpeace Luxembourgh/Twitter

According to the latest Freedom House index, the denoted territory of Tibet is right at the bottom of the ranking, in the good company of countries as Syria, North-Korea and Eritrea. “Yet the situations in Syria and North Korea get far more media coverage, thanks to the crises’ threats of terrorism and nuclear war,” writes Josh Rogin for the Guardian, late last week. Tibetan leaders lament that their nonviolent movement is ignored while violent movements and violent regimes succeed.

The (in this case Chinese) surge of nationalism and the retreat of human rights and democracy promotion, should be seen as global trends, according to Rogin. Although the Tibetan issue has moved to the background of world-politics over the last years, their nonviolent movement is at a crossroads, facing increasing Chinese oppression. Loss of visible support from the United States and the rest of the international community prompted the Tibetan government-in-exile in northern India to convene the ‘Five-Fifty’-conference last weekend to determine its path forward.

The Five-Fifty-forum refers to the bilateral goal of the conference: chart a five-year plan for pursuing a return to dialogue and negotiations with China, or, alternatively, plan for another 50 years of resistance to China’s occupation, systematic repression and attempted cultural genocide in Tibet.

Guiding Tibet’s quest for a sustainable solution is the so called “middle way approach,” which seeks limited autonomy within the Chinese system, and not ethnic purity or even an autonomous state. The middle-way approach is a nonviolent, but more importantly very pragmatic approach to conflict-resolution, in which genuine dialogue conducted with a spirit of openness and reconciliation are the most important values. Where the Dalai Lama has held the Tibetan movement to a strict policy of nonviolence for decades, that commitment could perish when the 82-year-old spiritual icon passes on.

More on the Chinese-Tibetan conflict, and the role the United States could play as an international power can be found in Rogin’s complete opinion-article for the Guardian – here.

Photo:  United States President Barack Obama meets with His Holiness the Dalai Lama in the White House on 18 February 2010. While President Trump may not prioritize human rights or the viability of nonviolent movements, supporting Tibet could also be in the United States’ national interest, according to Josh Rogin. Photograph: WikiMedia

A new chapter in the US-campaign, in which NFL-players try to play their part in raising awareness for racial injustice in America. The protests during the anthem by NFL players, almost all African American, began last year when the then 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick kneeled in protest against racial injustice and police brutality. 49ers players have been prominent among those kneeling this season.

Though Kaepernick had knelt to protest against unpunished police killings of African Americans, the president and the White House insisted that protesting during the anthem showed disrespect to the flag and to American troops, veterans and first responders.

On Sunday, after at least 20 members of the San Francisco 49ers were kneeling during the national anthem, US Vice President Mike Pence decided to leave the stadium, staging his own little protest. Pence announced his departure from the Lucas Oil Stadium on Twitter. A White House statement followed, with a tweet from President Donald Trump which confirmed the walkout was not spontaneous.

“I will keep doing what I feel is necessary to use a platform that I have to make those changes. It is just really disheartening when everything I was raised on, was to be the best person I could be to help people that need help. And the Vice-President of the United States, is trying to confuse the message that we are trying to put out there,” said 49ers player Eric Reid.

Read more about the campaign and Eric Reid here.

Photograph: Michael Conroy/AP (www.theguardian.com)

FOLLOW-UP POST!

Late last week, CANVAS wrote about the ‘Monopoly-man’ protest. Activist and consumer protection advocate Amanda Werner performed the stunt to raise awareness about forced arbitration clauses and their effects on consumers. Vice Magazine contacted Werner and gave her a platform for a more detailed explanation about the message behind the method.

Werner’s aim was to achieve more than just a laugh with her actions. “Equifax and Wells Fargo are using these arbitration clauses as a way to [to use another Monopoly reference] get out of jail free, and deny consumers justice,” she told VICE. Before her appearance in the hearing went viral,  Public Citizen and Americans for Financial Reform already distributed mocking “get out of jail free cards” on Capitol Hill, symbolizing how forced arbitration lets banks get away with wrongdoing.

Werner describes how she needed to find a balance between catching the camera’s and not crossing the line of what was still acceptable surrounded by Equifax execs and representatives. “I was getting a lot of dirty looks, and folks were very uncomfortable with the fact that I was in the room,” Werner told VICE. “I think honestly they kept waiting for me to do something that was going to get me kicked out, but luckily I did my homework, I knew what I was allowed to do and not do.”

Where her attendance made a big impact, kicking her out in the middle of the hearing might have raised even more eyebrows. Dilemma-action in its prime! Read the full Vice Magazine-article here.

Photo: Amanda Werner/ Twitter – via www.cbc.ca

Who doesn’t know the top hat wearing, mustached man covering the popular board game “Monopoly”? Pictures and videos of a person dressed up as this well-known figure in a US Senate hearing appeared on the Internet throughout the last days. Protesting financial company Equifax’ behavior after a data breach had become known, activist Amanda Werner from Public Citizen and Americans for Financial Reform wore the costume during former CEO Richard Smith’s hearing at the Senate.

The data breach that first became public in September had possibly exposed data of more than 145 million people. In the following, “Equifax offered a credit monitoring service that required consumers to accept arbitration to settle disputes, something it has since removed”. Americans for Financial Reform declared in a statement this week that “Forced Arbitration Is a ‘Get-Out-of-Jail-Free’ Card for Banks That Cheat Customers”. Such “Get-Out-of-Jail-Free” Cards were also handed out during the protest.

Making her appearance at the hearing in the costume, the activist used Laughtivism, a powerful and humorous form of nonviolent action and activism. Through this, she drew attention to the case and issue, triggering widespread reactions on social media.

(Photo: Reuters / BBC)

Many places in the world commemorated the International Day of Non-Violence on Monday, October 02, Mahatma Gandhi’s 148th birthday. The UN had set up this day to spread the message of nonviolence, and promote peace and tolerance. On Monday at the 72nd Session of the UN General Assembly it was celebrated for the tenth time.

Some others have chosen a very creative way to make statements on the topic, creating art projects conveying messages against violence, weapons and war: Making artwork from bombs and bullets on the streets of Douma, Syria, or using images from popular movie scenes in which weapons are replaced with a Thumbs Up. The creators believe that “real tough guys don’t need guns, they just need a positive, can-do attitude”. To learn more about their projects and others, consult the following blogpost on artists turning weapons into “powerful messages of nonviolence”.

(Photo of Chewbacca and Han Solo: Preston E. / Thumbs&Ammo)

Right on time for the three-year anniversary of the mass demonstrations in Hong Kong, writer and activist Kong Tsung-Gan published his book “Umbrella: A Political Tale from Hong Kong” in September.

The book does not only examine what happened during the occupations, how they began and what they were about. But it also provides an assessment of the movement and gives an outlook for Hong Kong’s democratic future. Besides sharing his knowledge on Hong Kong and its people’s democratic struggle, the author offers a global perspective, drawing from his experience in many parts of the world.

Learn more about the content of the book and how to order it here. The limited copies in Hong Kong whose proceeds are donated to four pro-democracy organizations, have already sold out. However, you can still order it internationally.

Photo: AP / stuarte.co

 

Last Thursday, at an address held by US American Education Secretary Betsi DeVos on school choice, a group of students staged a mainly silent protest, displaying signs and raising their fists. Only occasionally they cheered or snipped their fingers in support of other protesters.

Signs held up by the students addressed various issues, featuring slogans like “White Supremacist”, “Protect Survivors’ Rights” or “Our Students are not 4 Sale”. DeVos did not react to the protest during her speech, however she did take some questions afterwards.

The Education Secretary’s speech addressed the topic of school choice for parents and students which is supposed to offer alternative options to local public schools, like charter or private schools. Critics have claimed that the options of charter schools take important budget needed for public schools as well, and that school choice is used by large corporations ‘to make money off the backs of students’. Besides this issue being part of the students’ motives for protest, DeVos’ had recently revoked the Obama administration’s guidance for colleges on handling cases of sexual assault. She demands new rules on campus sexual assault to be ‘fair to all students’, the victims and the accused.

The demonstrations have not only been covered in articles online, but parts of DeVos’ speech and the ongoing protest have been recorded in video footage as well.

Photo: Reuters / Mary Schwalm (www.nationalreview.com)

Laughtivism in Zimbabwe! #HomwePanze or the #PocketsOutCampaign is the latest nonviolent protest in Zimbabwe. Today (Friday), citizens all over Zimbabwe made a statement about the nearing economic crisis. To show the world how the current economic challenges have made many Zimbabweans poor and broke, one only has to do three simple things: 

1. Wear clothing with pockets 
2. Pull out your pockets
3. Proceed with your daily routines! 

“The state gets terrified! For a silly thing like pulling out your pockets. The raided the offices of the rural teachers-union today. That is ridiculous! It shows the kind of police-state we are in. But there is nothing they can do to an ordinary citizen. Because there is nothing illegal about keeping your pockets out, right?” stated Zimbabwean activist Doug Coltart in a little video on his Twitter.  

The campaign comes in a week in which Finance Minister Patrick Chinamasa stated that the government will tighten control over use of social media. In the light of the latest developments in the Mawarire-case, authorities blame social media for fueling shortages of basic commodities and bank notes in the country. By making ‘false’ claims over social media, the minister claimed, ‘faceless saboteurs’ caused panic in the country. Government maintained the position that the Zimbabwean economy is in a sound state. 

Photo: Twitter/Patson Dzamara 

Picture: HongKongFreePress/P.H. Yang

Three years after the origination of the Umbrella-movement, pro-democracy activism in Hong Kong continues. On the third birthday of the movement, several protests and gatherings are organized. Not only to remember the harsh crack-down by the authorities three years ago, but also to continue the fight for more democratic rights in the autonomous territory. The repressive government reaction on the protests have had  a chilling effect on peaceful assembly and freedom of expression. “Three years on from the start of the unprecedented 79-day protest in late 2014, scores of protesters, who were arrested for their involvement in the largely peaceful protests, remain in legal limbo, uncertain if they will face charges,” Amnesty International reports.

This, however, does not withhold Hong Kong activist to organize a new range of protests around the three year anniversairy of the movement. Civic groups are to host a rally outside the government headquarters on Thursday to commemorate the birth of the pro-democracy Occupy protests. They will stand still for three minutes at 5:58pm – the exact time tear gas canisters were shot at protesters. “Although the Occupy movement was forced to stop, Hong Kong people’s demand for genuine universal suffrage will never stop. We hope Hong Kong people will continue the spirit of the Umbrella Movement,” Citizen Charter 617-activist James Hon said.

Read about the other creative protests that will be organized in Hong Kong during the next weeks here.