NightBlogger

The last time fishermen stopped fishing to make a point about low lobster prices was 18 years ago. Most of the boats came in but some stayed out, so they anticipate confrontation among fishermen. A representative for fishermen said fishermen can’t pay their bills at these prices. To break even, they need to get between $4 and $5 a pound. In an attempt to keep more lobster from heading to market, the protesting fishermen asked buyers not to move trucks carrying lobster out of the area until talks take place. More

AFP
WHEN Hank Paulson, America’s treasury secretary, let Lehman Brothers fail in September, he surely did not consider the damage the investment bank’s collapse would inflict on elderly savers a continent away. In Hong Kong, Singapore and Taiwan, thousands of people have taken to the streets to protest against the implosion of a series of retail securities which resulted from the bankruptcy. Banks and regulators were taken off guard and are only now totting up the damage. Singaporean authorities estimate that 11,000 residents held duff securities with a face value in excess of S$530m ($347m). In Hong Kong, 43,700 residents held HK$20.1 billion-worth ($2.6 billion). In Taiwan, 51,000 people had tainted holdings of NT$40 billion ($1.2 billion). Some Taiwanese are expected to stage a mass protest on November 29th. More

Chicago NBC affiliate covers End The Fed rally on 11/22/08

Crisis Chronicle
While leaders in Peru grapple with the financial fallout, Americans angry at the multi-billion dollar bailout plans are protesting in Washington. They say the U.S. Federal Reserve, far from helping solve the financial crisis, is taking money out of their pockets. Today is National End The Fed day, and a number of U.S. citizens concerned with the country’s fiscal policy have gathered in 39 cities nationwide at each Federal Reserve building saying that they are sick and tired of being robbed. “What bothers me about the Fed - they’re so secretive about how the monetary policy is done. They just keep on printing more and more money and everyone knows you can’t run a printing press and create wealth,” a protester in Washington said.

End The Fed Rally in New York

Some Americans are calling for a sound monetary policy and an end to bailouts. They claim that the Federal Reserve system is at the very heart of the current economic crisis which these days might be beating out of control. Debbie Krueger is a former marine, and a mother of five. She helped to organise the protest. “The Federal Reserve is monopolising our money system and I know people that are working at three jobs and still can’t make ends meet. It’s just sad and disgusting that we don’t have the same quality of life that we used to have. The way that they are using the money is a disgrace, all the foreign wars that they are fighting for no reason are based on lies, and the Federal Reserve is based on lies,” she said.

Another marine, young Adam Kokesh who served in Iraq, has been a vocal critic of the war since leaving the U.S. Marines. ”I think that the Federal Reserve is the driving force for corporatism in America and the military industrial complex which of course is driving out imperialist foreign policy and often they have no regard for human morality, or life, or decency,” he said.

Hundreds of milkmen gather in Bhubneshwar, India, to protest over price cuts which they say have made milk cheaper than water. Farmers say they aren’t making enough money to feed their cattle.

Meanwhile “…hard times are back on the American farmstead. The price paid for crops is dropping much faster than the cost of growing them. The government reported this week that the cost of goods and services nationwide fell by a record amount in October as frantic businesses tried to lure customers. While lower prices are good for consumers in the short run, a prolonged stretch of deflation would wreak havoc as companies struggled to stay afloat.” More

Thomas Black
(Bloomberg) — Thousands of Mexicans plan to march in more than 60 cities across the country this evening to demand government action against a wave of violence that has claimed almost 3,000 lives this year. The protest has been spurred by incidents including the kidnapping and killing of Fernando Marti, the 14-year-old son of a Mexico City businessman, the discovery of 12 decapitated bodies in the state of Yucatan and the arrests of police officers accused of running kidnapping gangs. “It’s incredibly bloody out there,” said Federico Estevez, a professor of political science at the Autonomous Institute of Technology of Mexico. More

Source: Thinkprogress.org
American and Iraqi officials are no longer optimistic that a long-term security agreement will soon be reached because “negotiations are complicated by political currents in both countries.” AFP reports that “large crowds of Shiites” gathered yesterday to denounce the security pact that the Iraqi government is debating:

“No, no to colonization! Out, out you occupier!” the crowd shouted in the centre of Sadr City where fierce battles raged in March and April between Shiite militants and US forces in which hundreds of people were killed. […]

In the central town of Kufa, protesters chanted anti-US and anti-Israel slogans. “No to America! No to Israel! We reject signing the agreement with the occupation,” shouted devotees.

In the city of Karbala, an aide of revered Shiite cleric Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani urged Baghdad to refrain from signing a deal that would compromise national interests.

“If the government signs the deal it has to preserve the interests of the people, not compromise sovereignty and not permit Iraq to be used as a base for attacks on neighboring countries,” said Sheikh Abdul al-Mahdi al-Karbalae.

SEOUL, South Korea - Tens of thousands of people demonstrated in South Korea’s capital Saturday against U.S. beef imports, as a pro-government group staged a counter rally calling for an end to weeks of sometimes-violent protests. It was the second-largest rally in a series of near-daily protests held for the past two months prompted by concerns over the safety of American beef imports. A rally on June 10 drew a crowd estimated by police at about 80,000. More
Also see: 40,000 march against US beef in South Korea

FARMERS and activists from around the world have gathered in Japan to protest soaring food prices, kicking off a major rally ahead of next week’s summit of the G8 nations. Thousands of people are expected to take part in today’s protest amid tight security, with some 21,000 police officers on guard near Toyako, the northern Japanese lakeside resort where world leaders will meet from Monday. More

LONDON (Reuters) - Hauliers drove into the centre of London on Wednesday to lobby parliament over the cost of fuel and to plead for a cut in diesel duties. Trucks from across Britain were escorted by police convoy into Westminster in the third lorry fuel protest this year. The drivers want Chancellor Alistair Darling to abandon plans to raise fuel duty by 2 pence a litre from October. They say rising oil prices are threatening to put many hauliers out of business and are seeking a 25 pence per litre cut in the cost of diesel. More
Also See: 4 Million truckers in India protest fuel costs

Nearly four million trucks have gone off India’s roads after their owners began an indefinite strike to protest against rising fuel bills. The soaring global price of crude oil has forced the Indian government to cut subsidies and raise prices. Truck operators say they have been hit hard by oil prices which have risen by 40% since the beginning of the year. Trucks carry food and other essential commodities in India. The strike is likely to push up their prices. Analysts say this will add to the double digit inflation and slow down growth in the country. A similar week-long strike in 2004 slowed down the annual growth in industrial output to 7.9% from 8.4% in the previous month as the strike disrupted shipments. More

Swedes may cherish openness and transparency, but not enough to accept a new law giving the government the right to snoop on all e-mails and phone calls crossing the country’s borders. Outrage over the statute has led to 2 million protests — filed by e-mail. The online petition drive comes as other European Union countries consider granting authorities unprecedented spying powers over their own citizens amid fears of a mounting terror threat. More
Also See: Swedish law allows spying on every citizen

In South Korea, a new form of democratic expression has emerged via the internet. Its followers call themselves ‘Netizens’, and when demonstrating against the government, they carry their laptop to broadcast the event live. Almost every evening for the past month, thousands of people have been gathering at Seoul City Hall square. They don’t like the new President’s policy and they want to show it. And in these gatherings, laptops are a must have. Some people carrying computers film the crowd with their webcam and broadcast live videos thanks to high-speed wifi connections. “People who live in Seoul can go on the streets”, one of them says, “and some of those who do not live in the capital-city can come all the way here. But people who cannot, can at least see what is happening here live, through the internet.” More

Journalists in the Gaza Strip held a symbolic work stoppage as part of a protest to demand that Israel explain why its troops killed a Reuters cameraman in the Palestinian enclave two months ago to the day. The demonstration, during which journalists laid down their cameras, came on a day when UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon will unveil a memorial dedicated to journalists killed while reporting on wars around the world. Reuters Middle East Managing Editor Mark Thompson said: “We are deeply disappointed that the Israeli army has failed to provide an account of the circumstances in which Fadel Shana was killed by a tank shell on April 16, nor any evidence to support its claim that they could not identify him as a journalist. More

On Friday members of Code Pink and Breasts Not Bombs bared their breasts to passing vehicles and pedestrians in front of the Marine Recruitment Center at Shattuck Square in what members said was a protest against the true indecencies in American society. “We do not abide by your definitions of decency,” said Sherry Glaser, the founder of Breasts Not Bombs, the protest group that bares their breasts against the war. “War, genocide and death are indecent.”

The women carried signs and pairs of balloons on sticks that protesters said were supposed to represent breasts. After hearing a speech from Glaser, the women removed their tops and displayed their breasts. For the duration of the protest, Berkeley police officers stood positioned around the demonstrators, surrounding the group of about 20 women and a handful of men on three sides. As soon as the women disrobed, the police ordered the women to put their clothes back on. “Being nude in public is against the law in Berkeley. Please put your clothes back on or you will be cited,” said a police officer to the protesters. The protest resulted in one arrest, although the detained woman was fully clothed at the time she was handcuffed and taken to the Berkeley City Jail. More

In the largest protest so far, 80,000 demonstrators [photo] waving candles gathered Tuesday evening in central Seoul, according to police, who blocked roads with shipping containers to prevent the crowd from marching to the nearby presidential Blue House. Some 21,000 riot police were deployed to keep order, the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency said. “President Lee hasn’t listened to the voices of his people. We still don’t have a genuine democracy in our country,” said Jang Dae-hyun, a spokesman for a civic group that has organized protests.

The rally coincided with the anniversary of pro-democracy protests in 1987, which intensified when a student activist died after being struck by a tear gas canister fired by riot police. The protests eventually led the country’s military-backed regime to introduce direct presidential elections. More

aljazeera.net
Thousands of Thais have continued to protest on the streets of Bangkok in defiance of government threats to use force to end a week of demonstrations. More than 1,000 riot police were involved in a tense standoff with about 6,500 anti-government protesters on Saturday as the government demanded the crowds disband.

In a nationwide address, Samak Sundaravej, the prime minister, had said that police and soldiers were prepared to end the protests. “You have broken the law. I have a duty to deal with you,” he said.
But the promised crackdown never came despite the passing of two deadlines for the protesters to disperse. “We will not be using force as long as the protesters remain peaceful and they conduct themselves within the law,” Chalerm Yoobamrung, the interior minister, said later in the day. More
See: Thai protesters angered by PM vows to shield former PM from corruption charges

WSWS
TENS of thousands of Iraqis protested in a number of cities Friday against the proposed agreement between the puppet regime of Nouri al-Maliki and the Bush administration that would codify a long-term US military occupation.

In a secret videoconference last November, Maliki and Bush signed an agreement, a cynically titled “Declaration of Principles for a Long-Term Relationship of Cooperation and Friendship,” which outlined plans for the establishment of permanent American military bases and preferential treatment for US energy conglomerates and investors to exploit Iraqi oil reserves. The full details of the pact, including the general dimensions of the American occupation force, were to be worked out by July 31, 2008. More

Hundreds of trucks rolled into central London on Tuesday to jam a major route into the capital to protest the rising price of fuel.

BBCNews
Hundreds of lorry drivers protested in London and a two-mile line of lorries crawled along the M4 towards Cardiff. Hauliers say diesel prices topping 120p a litre, plus the planned 2p fuel tax rise, will drive firms “to the wall”.

Meanwhile, ministers said Alistair Darling was “listening” to fears over plans to raise vehicle excise duty. The government is planning to increase road tax on older, more polluting vehicles, and next week the chancellor will meet Labour MPs opposed to the plan. More

Footage from the May 10th Anonymous raid on the Church of Scientology in San Diego, California. Protesters demonstrated against what they call “Fair Game”, a term used to describe various aggressive policies and practices carried out by the Church of Scientology towards people and groups it perceives as its enemies.

According to Wikipedia:

As early as the mid-1950s, Hubbard advocated taking a punitive line towards the perceived enemies of Scientology. In 1955, Hubbard (COS founder) told Scientologists that “the law can be used very easily to harass … The purpose of the suit is to harass and discourage, rather than to win – if possible, of course, ruin [the target] utterly”. Read more on “Fair Game” here.

Photo Azrainman

Today is April 15th, Tax Day, a day when tens of millions of Americans scramble to file their income taxes on time. It’s also a day when people across the country are planning to protest the use of tax dollars to fund war. A recent study shows that more than 40 percent of every income tax dollar in 2007 went towards military spending. We speak with Pat and John Schwiebert, a Portland couple who have refused to pay their taxes for the past thirty years to protest military spending.

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