Overnight rally in Brisbane beginning at 4:00PM, May 30. See the press release for details.
Byron Bay Where: Drumming Circle, Main Beach When: 4PM onwards, May 30 Resourses: Facebook event page
Canberra Where: Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, Sydney Avenue, Barton ACT When: 12PM – 2PM and 4:30PM – 6PM, May 31 Resourses: FoWL poster Contact: Twitter: @wirnpa
Denver Where: Lincoln Park (Occupy Denver) When: 5:30PM, May 30 Resources: FoWL poster Contact: Twitter: @Kallisti
Honolulu Where: Australian Embassy, 1000 Bishop Street When: 11:30PM - 2PM, May 31 Resources: FoWL poster Contact: Twitter: @HawaiiFOWL
New York Where: U.S. State Department, 799 United Nations Plz followed by Australian Consulate, 150 East 42nd Street When: 1:00PM, May 30 Resources: FoWL poster Contact: Twitter: @WikiLeaksTruck
I’m never going to forget that experience. Just walked out of my house banging a pot, then everyone else on my block appeared at their balconies and doors doing the same thing, so we decided to go for a walk. Turns out everyone else in the neighbourhood was also banging their pots, so we all got together and walked around for a few hours. Finished the night with a few beers and some new friends.
This is what democracy looks like.
Again last night, Quebecers and people around the world showed their indignation for corruption, undemocratic practices, and debt slavery by joining their communities in a thunderous clanging of pots! In coordination with Occupy Wall Street and other groups, people in the US and Europe also started banging on pots.
Our traditional methods of communicating - through our media, our politics, our business - are corrupt and unusable, so we will get our message out with pots!
Let’s build a global movement!
Last year, the strength of Occupy Wall Street created the foundation for a continent-wide movement through the occupation of public squares and parks.
This spring, la Belle Province of Quebec has built the momentum, strength, and opportunity to be a launchpad for new North American occupations. Occupons Montréal was evicted from la Place du Peuple, but now we’re occupying our entire city on an epic and unimaginable scale. Real change is in the air.
Take advantage of our momentum! This is your chance!
NATO Signs $1.7 Billion Deal To Build Global Surveillance System
As part of NATO’s planned multi-year and multi-billion dollar investment in an increased global surveillance capability, building what it calls an ‘Allied Ground Surveillance (AGS)’ system, the 28-nation military alliance penned a deal with defense contractor Northrop Grumman on Sunday for a fleet of unmanned aerial drones along with the requisite command and control base stations needed to operate them.
The signing of the deal took place between Northrup executives and NATO officials in a quiet room away from the boisterous street protests taking place outside the NATO summit on the streets of Chicago, where citizens voiced their opposition to NATO’s continued military presence in Afghanistan and it’s increasingly violent role in world affairs in recent years.
NATO has relied heavily on the use of drones owned and operated by the United States in its recent military operations in Afghanistan and in Libya, but this acquisition will allow it to have a vast capability all its own. The system will cost close to $1.7 billion dollars, with billions more needed to maintain and operate the system over the next two decades.
Ten Palestinian prisoners participating in a mass hunger strike in Israeli jails were placed under medical supervision as their conditions worsened, officials said Saturday.
The ten men are among 1,500 to 2,500 Palestinian prisoners on hunger strike to demand better conditions and an end to detention without trial.
Although Israeli officials and Palestinians give different numbers of hunger strikers, it is still one of the largest prison protests in years.
It involves a quarter to a half of all Palestinians held in Israeli jails, estimated at some 4,600 people. The reasons for their detentions range from throwing stones to killing civilians in brutal militant attacks.
Most them began refusing food 19 days ago, but a smaller core have been striking longer, from periods of time ranging from 40 to almost 70 days.
The demonstration authorities of the city of Frankfurt announced in to the press on the afternoon of May 4, 2012, that they are prohibiting all of the actions planned by the Blockupy Frankfurt alliance from May 16-19. The legal notifying party for the more than fifteen actions was directly informed about this decision with regard to only one case – and even this was delayed by one day.
This decision completely prohibits the protests against crisis policies that profoundly affect the lives of millions of people in Europe. The alliance is planning protests during the action days against the austerity policies of European governments and the Troika (ECB, EU Commission and IMF) and had applied to the city for permits for some of these protests as demonstrations, rallies, pickets and demonstrative assemblies, as is legally required for demonstrations.
This ban is an open breach of the constitutional right to demonstrate. We insist that the protest against the crisis politics can take place in the Frankfurt financial district and at the ECB headquarters, as it complies with the existing jurisdiction of the German Federal Constitutional Court.
All democrats can only be extremely appalled by this illegitimate and undemocratic action and demand an immediate abandonment of this total ban. What was possible at Tahrir Square in Cairo, at the Puerta del Sol in Madrid or in Zucotti Park in New York must also be possible in Frankfurt am Main!
Chicago Prepares For Evacuation In The Event Of Riots During NATO Summit
As concerns about security grow in the run-up to the NATO summit, it’s becoming difficult to separate myth from reality. Are there plans in place for a mass evacuation of downtown in the event of riots on May 20-21? A Red Cross memo out of Milwaukee indicates that there is.
Officials there have been asked to make plans to assist residents in the event of a mass exodus. Chicago officials say the plan didn’t come from them. The U.S. Secret Service isn’t talking.
There also are reports that a heavily armed security team will start making a very public appearance around federal buildings in the Loop this week. Officials with the Chicago NATO host committee were completely in the dark. They had no reports of any such plans.
A source told CBS 2 that security forces in full battle gear would not be seen this week. As for the Red Cross plan, CBS 2 News has obtained a copy of an e-mail sent to volunteers in the Milwaukee area.
It said the NATO summit “may create unrest or another national security incident. The American Red Cross in southeastern Wisconsin has been asked to place a number of shelters on standby in the event of evacuation of Chicago.”
According to a chapter spokesperson, the evacuation plan is not theirs alone. “Our direction has come from the City of Chicago and the Secret Service,” she said.
Great News: Chicago Won’t Enforce Controversial Eavesdropping Law During NATO Summit
Chicago police “do not intend to enforce” the Illinois eavesdropping law during next month’s NATO summit, the city’s corporation counsel said in the city’s first public acknowledgment of the logistical difficulty and potential legal pitfalls of trying to bar people from recording police officers.
The decision is the latest blow to the statute, one of the strictest such laws in the country, and comes just weeks before thousands of demonstrators carrying smartphones and video cameras are expected to descend on the city during the May 20-21 summit.
Some people who plan to protest had said they were worried that police might use the law to arrest protesters who otherwise weren’t breaking any laws. They also were concerned that many protesters, especially those from other states, wouldn’t be aware of the law.
The law, which carries sentences of up to 15 years in prison if a police officer is recorded without his or her consent, has been under fire in courts and the state Legislature in recent months. Uncertainty about the law’s future and the difficulty of enforcing it during summit protests contributed to the city’s decision, said Steve Patton, the city’s corporation counsel.
Kelly Edwards, 54, who was laid off 4 years ago, holds a sign at a street corner in Pasadena, California April 25, 2012. Edwards has resorted to handing out resumes at street corners and accepting money from strangers to provide for his family.
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