UN Condemns Syrian Use Water Cannon

The United Nations and the United States have criticized a crackdown on protesters by Syrian authorities in which at least four people are reported to have been killed.

The violence occurred on March 18 in the southern town of Daraa, when security forces were reported to have opened fire to disperse hundreds of protesters.

It was one of several protests in Syrian cities on March 18 calling for greater political freedoms in one of the Middle East's most repressive states.

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said the use of lethal force against peaceful demonstrators and the arbitrary arrests of demonstrators was "unacceptable," and urged Syrian authorities to refrain from violence.

The White House National Security Council said the Obama administration "strongly" condemned the violence, and called on the Syrian government to allow demonstrations to take place peacefully.
Carl in Jerusalem

Labor Union Resuirgence

This time around, we don't have to take it. In Wisconsin and beyond, we're witnessing a progressive groundswell unlike any in decades, as working people speak their minds, organize recall campaigns and take to the streets in protest.

As this movement gains steam, many mainstream media outlets are doing their best to marginalize and dampen it, protecting their advertisers, corporate sponsors and political allegiances.
Truthout

English Defense League betrayed by Brit Police

The horror of what the EDL encountered yesterday was no accident.

Here is another account from an attendee (or attempted attendee) at the EDL protest in Dudley yesterday. It bodes most ill if the police are working in tandem with the Islamic supremacists. This was not just sabotaging the demo, but deliberately putting good folks in harms way. This is the the stuff of a police state, an Islamic police state.

I removed the profanity................. (hat tip Roberta)

We were on the Bolton coach and we got caught up with the locals we had some on our coach. I was sat next to cutter and some of the ones on our coach were wankers, we kicked them off after half a mile and they gathered up with their own local groups. The police provided three coaches for the locals and took them straight to the demo. They came back for the rest and filled them again with all locals who they took to the demo. About two hundred went on foot and marched in.

The real EDL had about three coaches and three mini buses that had been separated from the rest of the EDL coaches and we were run around Dudley at about 10 mile an hour and taken everywhere but the demo. I got off the coach and told the senior officer the truth. I said .......if you think we are going to be [jerked] around like this you have no chance. He told us they would take us straight to the demo now. He did take us to the demo but the wanker took us to the wrong one he took us to the UAF [the fascist group of Muslims and leftists-Atlas] demo site.

Three coaches emptied in a flash as they tried to turn the coaches around. We got back to the roundabout and they tried to take us back to the Harrier pub saying it was a quick way round. Our driver pulled over and let us all off as he said the police are just running you around. We went back to the roundabout and I approached the inspector there and informed him we have women and children in our group and we have picked up a lot more EDL families who had been left roaming the streets by the police.

The police sent us up the dual carriageway saying it was that way we had to go even though he was aware of the muslims ganged up at the top. We got less than 150 yards away from over 50 old bill in riot gear as well as traffic cops when we were attacked by over 200 muslims. The old bill watched it happen and did nothing.

The bastards left us to fight off 200 Muslims with less than ten lads. We were fighting head to head on the grass banking six of us from Bolton against 200 Muslims and we could not back off or they would have bricked the women and children. They left us like this for over half an hour and did nothing. They eventually sent two riot police on to the grass bank to stop it. It was only the arrival of 40 EDL who charged the Muslims that made them back off. And the old bill still did nothing.

The Muslims were still there at 6:00 when the old bill told us we had to go back down the same damn road to get to our coach as they were not letting the coaches in to pick us up. We mobbed up to go down the road and the old bill did nothing. I spoke to a senior officer and told him we had to go down the road to get the coach and it was full of Muslims smashing cars and attacking people and he said its not our problem you should not have come. WEST MIDLAND WANKERS I HOPE HE FINDS OUT ONE OF HIS KIDS HAD GONE TO THE DEMONSTRATION. SORRY TURKEY SHOOT. This is not policing, this is nothing more than political destruction of the EDL.. They must have been told to take this stance against us by upper level government because the police have to respond to violence not stand by and watch it happening.
Michael

Previous Atlas coverage here and here.

UPDATE: As Davod pointed out to me back in May: Dhimmi Cameron wasn't kidding or playing politics when he made those disgusting statements about the EDL.

UPDATE: After having read the above reportage from an attendee, watch how the police in the UK handled violent Muslim protests last year:[Previous post on Israel and Beyond]

Every Democracy Makes Choices

The people voted for officials who reflect their values and interests. It looks like the USA will be in Afghanistan a few more years. Our military and CIA fight the Taliban for control of the lucrative heroin trade.
Our leaders have decided to forgo green jobs, proper health care, clean energy, decent schools and rebuilding the infrastructure.
If the population is upset by this state of affairs, they can buy guns and march on Washington. The Tea Baggers do this regularly. They get what they want because they care about their issues.
At West Point a few lonely souls protested the President's obscene policy. Where were the other 320 millions?
In the 1960's much smaller crowds threw the godless Democratic Party out of town tarred and feathered in disgrace.
Dr. Martin Luther King taught us the white power structure was unwilling to give up anything to us. We had to take it.

Facebooking the Struggle

Facebooking the Struggle

Egypt: Facebooking the Struggle

Banners from Egyptian Facebook groups calling for the May 4 Strike.

After little less than a month following the April 6 strike in support
of the textile workers in Mahalla City, during which a number of
prominent Egyptian bloggers and internet activists were arrested,
preparations for the next round of a planned general strike to mark
the 80th birthday of President Hosni Mubarak, on May 4, 2008, are
currently spreading all over the blogosphere and the Internet. And
like the preparation for the April 6 strike, the internet has a vital
role to play in mobilizing for the upcoming protest. SMS, email,
blogs, Facebook, YouTube, Twitter: almost all of these outlets are
used by Egyptian Internet activists in their campaign the May 4 event.
We’ve even seen a Facebookist Movement to Overthrow Mubarakbeing
created. Another group entitled “We don’t want Muslim Brothers” is
calling for the strike but without participation of the Muslim
Brotherhood, who recentlydecided to join May 4 protest.

Logo of the Egyptian Facebook group “Facebookist Movement to Overthrow
Mubarak“

This approach of politicising the internet is not taking place without
concerns being raised not only by pro-government and state-run
newspapers (who recently waged a campaign against web 2.0 services
like Youtube, Blogger and Facebook used by online activists) but even
by opponents of Mubarak’s regime and outspoken bloggers. And while the
Al-Gomhuriya daily called for a “boycott [of] Youtube and Facebook
websites” and the weekly Rose El-Youssef portrayed the former website
as “a secret room aimed at running Egypt”, blogger Hossam el-Hamalawy,
an outspoken Egyptian blogger, wrote, in \ a blog post titled “I do
NOT endorse the May 4th General Strike Call” criticizing what he
described as a call “coming from the cyberspace by bloggers, “Facebook
activists” and the Islamist-leaning Labor Party whose leaders have
declared themselves more or less as some “provisional govt” in cyber-
exile”, that:

> We, the Egyptian bloggers, have always prided ourselves on the fact
> that we have one foot on the ground and the other in the cyberspace…
> But this time, it seems some have thrown both their feet as well as
> brains in the cyberspace and are living some virtual reality,
> mistakenly believing (helped by the media sensationalist coverage of
> the “facebook activism“) that they are the ones behind the events in
> Mahalla…

Blogger and activist Nora Younis was kind enough to agree to this
interview over email. Nora shares some of her ideas with us about the
role of Internet in Egypt as a platform for political activism.

Sami Ben Gharbia: What was the role of internet in mobilizing Egyptian
citizens to participate in the April 6 strike and do you believe that
the kind of Facebook Group, with its 71,200 members, has an effect on
the street?

Nora Younis: Internet was the main tool in mobilizing for the 6 April
strike. It’s true a tiny fringe of Egyptians have access to Facebook
but the 70,000+ members of the group acted as strike advocates in the
society and took the debate from PC screens to taxis, workplaces,
dinner tables and breadlines. This forced the topic on the independent
main stream media. The second tool in mobilizing for the strike was
SMS. People I have known for years with no relation to politics or
public participation were circulating messages advocating the strike.
The word “strike” has never been uttered and repeated that much in
Egypt during my lifetime. However, we should not forget that what gave
April 6 its weight was the labor movement uprising and their struggle
for a dignified minimum wage. Internet alone, without the popular
base, wouldn’t have led to the successful strike we witnessed April 6.

Sami: we’ve seen an anti-strike Facebook group formed to counter the
pro-strike group and it seems that the political battle is taking
place on blogs and on social networking websites. How do you describe
this new development and do you believe that the Egyptian government
or the ruling party is behind the aforementioned group?

Nora: Young members of the ruling party have initiated blogs and
Facebook groups to polish the regime’s image and counter the call for
dissent. Such pages are probably encouraged by party officials,
because when it comes to content they lack the passion. Furthermore,
they remain unable to attract members and visitors.

Sami: It seems that the Egyptian regime is trying to calm down the
situation. During the last week many of the previously arrested
activist and bloggers have been released such as Khaled Hamza Salam
the editor-in chief of Ikhwanweb, and blogger Mohamed Sharkawy and
Esraa Abdul Fattah. How do you assess the situation in Egypt at this
stage?

Nora: The Egyptian regime took preemptive measures to abort the April
6 strike by arresting activists early morning from their homes, and
taping their calls days before. After the day was over and with the
rising riots in Mahalla measures were taken to contain and calm the
situation, as a way to weaken the planned May 4 strike. A government
delegation headed to Mahalla, met some 2000 textile workers, and
promised bonuses and privileges. Government statements have alienated
Mahalla workers from the riots. Popular bloggers-activists have been
released. All seems to be in attempt to calm the situation before May
4 - the president’s 80th birthday.

Sami: The use of web tools has caused the arrest of some of those
activists, but it also helped release the American student James Karl
Buck who was arrested while photographing the 6 April demonstration.
His Twittered message ‘ARRESTED‘ through his cell phone alerted the
world about his arrest. Who do you believe is going to win this new
kind of battle information?

Nora: On April 5 the number of my Twitter update followers was 90. On
April 6 it was 130, and today it is 180. Only because I was Twittering
strike and detainees updates. James Buck gained wide support through
his Twitter SMS. More people are joining the blogsphere, Facebook, and
Twitter by the hour. I don’t think this could ever be reversed. There
is a techie, passionate, frustrated generation now on the
playground….and one could only expect more to come. In few years time
there will be no need for registration of political parties. Like-
minded people will organise and will be heard.