Archive for May 2, 2012

May Day Merde

12
1 year ago
by Michael Weiss in

Occupy Wall Street protest yes­ter­day in Union Square, Manhattan

Yes­ter­day was May Day. In most of the world, it’s Labor Day, the day for cel­e­brat­ing the work­ers (in the United States, we wait until early Sep­tem­ber to cel­e­brate Labor Day). Occupy Wall Street returned to Wall Street in an attempt to renew inter­est in the move­ment, par­tic­u­larly now that the weather bet­ter sup­ports 24-​​hour activ­ity. Many other cities orga­nized sim­i­lar Occupy protests.

Yet yes­ter­day turned into less of a cel­e­bra­tion and more of a bat­tle in some places. The Occupy move­ments in sev­eral cities turned vio­lent. In par­tic­u­lar, about 50 pro­test­ers in Seat­tle smashed win­dows of down­town retail­ers. In Oak­land, police and pro­test­ers once again clashed, and police attacked with tear gas. Across the San Fran­cisco Bay, pro­test­ers got an early start, van­dal­iz­ing busi­nesses and a police sta­tion on Mon­day night; yes­ter­day was marked by more van­dal­ism, par­tic­u­larly focused on the police and Wells Fargo bank branches.

It’s unfor­tu­nate that these sto­ries get as much atten­tion as they do, since it dis­tracts from the broader story that is still worth air­time: the income gap con­tin­ues to rise in the United States.

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Your War Bad, Our War Good

12
1 year ago
by Monotreme in

Chen Guangcheng. Source: Chinaaid/​European Press Photo Agency

Last week, Chi­nese human rights activist Chen Guangcheng escaped bru­tal house arrest and beat­ings and fled to United States pro­tec­tion in the Amer­i­can Embassy in Bei­jing. News sources within China report that Chen has now left the embassy with a guar­an­tee of safe pas­sage and will remain in China. Chen’s escape from house arrest coin­cides with a visit to China by Sec­re­tary of State Hillary Clin­ton.

With the state visit, Repub­li­cans have amped up their pres­sure on Pres­i­dent Obama to force China to stop beat­ing and har­rass­ing Chen, his fam­ily, and his sup­port­ers. Pre­sumed Repub­li­can Pres­i­den­tial nom­i­nee Mitt Rom­ney Sun­day called on Pres­i­dent Obama to “take every mea­sure” to pro­tect Chen. Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Chris Smith (R-​​Trenton, NJ) said, in a press release,

Over the next few hours/​days, what­ever it takes, every­thing dis­cussed in China between Sec­re­tary Clin­ton and Pre­mier Wen, as well as their staffs,  must be through the prism of the strug­gles, tor­ture, escape and jus­tice over­due Chen Guangcheng, his fam­ily and other human rights activists in China.

Chen and his fam­ily are being per­se­cuted by local offi­cials (with the appar­ent col­lu­sion of the Chi­nese Gov­ern­ment) for the “crime” of speak­ing out in defense of women who are being forced to suf­fer unwanted med­ical pro­ce­dures, forced abor­tion and forced ster­il­iza­tion. For exam­ple, Chi­nese women have had an intrauter­ine device inserted with­out their con­sent, and those try­ing to stop local offi­cials from doing so have been beaten.

The left and right of the Amer­i­can polit­i­cal spec­trum are united in call­ing for Chi­nese offi­cials to leave women’s bod­ies alone, and give women the choice to refuse inva­sive pro­ce­dures. But accord­ing to Rep. Smith and other Repub­li­cans, it’s per­fectly fine to insert vagi­nal probes into women against their will, sim­ply for hav­ing the temer­ity to seek a legal med­ical pro­ce­dure. (more…)

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