Feature Archives

In a day of protests in Egypt, hundreds of thousands of people marched in the streets on January 25th, facing down riot police, water cannons, baton charges and tear gas. The people are chanting for freedom and an end to the corrupt administration of Hosni Mubarak, in power for 30 years, with the demand that he join the Tunisian dictator Ben Ali in Saudi Arabia.

On January 28th, hundreds of thousands of protesters took to the streets again as the government cut access to internet and phone service for much of the country. By the evening, government buildings on fire and many protesters dead and wounded from tear gas canisters and live ammunition. As the army took to the street, replacing the police, and initially not attacking protesters, many thought the revolution had achieved its goal but Mubarak appeared on state television in the early evening to say he had fired the rest of the government but intended to stay in power.

On February 1st, millions took to the streets of Cairo, Alexandria and other Egyptian cities to demand an end to the Mubarak regime. Mubarak responded that he will not run for re-election in September but demonstrators will not let him steal another rigged election for his military junta; a protest is scheduled for Friday February 4th to march on the Presidential Palace in Heliopolis and force a change in regime.

On January 29th, hundreds took to the streets in San Francisco to stand in solidarity with the protesters in Egypt.

Last week Rainforest Action Network's Change Chevron team asked people to call Chevron CEO John Watson and congratulate him for being inducted into Corporate Accountability International's Corporate Hall of Shame. The same day, Rainforest Action Network activists teamed up with the Raging Grannies, boarding a biodiesel bus to deliver an enlarged Corporate Hall of Shame certificate to Watson at his home in Lafayette, California.

As the Obama administration moves closer to introducing the NAFTA-style Korea-U.S. Free Trade Agreement (KORUS FTA) to Congress, on January 14th, 2011, citizens and activists joined Kim Kyung-Ran, Director of External Relations for the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions, in a rally at San Francisco's new Federal Building to oppose the deal. Labor, faith, environmental, fair trade, and family farm organizations called on Minority Leader Pelosi, Congress and President Obama to stop pursuing the KORUS FTA, an agreement expected to cost American jobs and grant corporations in each country rights to subvert public interest laws.

After web host Amazon and DNS host Dyn Inc. terminated service to WikiLeaks.org earlier this week, San Jose-based PayPal announced late last night that it has "permanently restricted" WikiLeaks' account. In a statement released on its blog, PayPal accused WikiLeaks of violating its acceptable use policy by "encourag[ing], promot[ing], facilitat[ing] or instruct[ing] others to engage in illegal activity." WikiLeaks has struggled to stay online after initiating the slow release of over 250,000 leaked US diplomatic cables known as Cablegate, and is now available on several mirrors such as wikileaks.indymedia.org.

During an anti-IMF protest in Athens, Greece on November 15th, a U.S. anarchist was brutally beaten by the Delta Force, a special police division for anarchists and immigrants. Although she suffered serious injuries and was hospitalized for several days, she is expected to fully recover. In the following days as more protests continued in Athens marking the anniversary of the Junta, several Greek demonstrators have been brutalized by the Delta Force. On November 27th, protesters in San Francisco expressed solidarity with comrades in Greece.

On November 8th, more than 50 people protested at the San Francisco Consulate General of India against India's banning of Richard Shapiro. Since 2006, Shapiro has regularly traveled to Kashmir, and interacted with various human rights defenders, scholars, and youth to bear witness and to learn from their experiences. Friends and Allies of Richard Shapiro point out that when academics, writers, and journalists are banned, such actions speak to the intent of the Indian State in maintaining impunity, and in deliberately isolating Kashmiris from the world, and the world from Kashmiris.

On the morning of September 22nd, settler security personnel in Silwan in East Jerusalem shot and killed Samir Solhan. Solhan, a father of four, was a well known figure in Silwan. The Palestinian residents of Silwan rioted in the following days protesting the murder. Although the police readily accepted the settlers' security personnel's version that he was in fear of his life, testimonies and video tell a different story.