Protests Around The World

Maple Spring: Nearly 1,000 Arrested As Mass Quebec Student Strike Passes 100th Day

Yes good work brother, Let's stop the banks, sperad the knowledge. Their main weapon is secretcy, so our main weapons must be knowledge! LEARN EVERYTHING YOU CAN ABOUT POLITICS YOU WIL BE SUPRISED!

Gives new meaning to the words "public servants"...

We don't make peace... we keep peace.

The Montreal Protests, 4 Months In
http://www.theatlantic.com/infocus/2012/06/the-montreal-protests-4-months-in/100315/

If you want to change something ythen you are the one who has to take the initiative.

Mexican Spring: coming soon?

July 10 News: Canada’s Prime Minister Faces Revolt By Scientists
http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2012/07/10/513480/canada039s-prime-minister-faces-revolt-by-scientists/

“The largest protest the world has ever seen” in Mexico
http://wayseernews.com/news/the-largest-protest-the-world-has-ever-seen-in-mexico/172/

Did you read about this in the mainstream news? Not likely...

https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/german-farmers-block-roads-highway-ramps-protest-subsidy-cuts-2024-01-08/

Nationwide German farmer blockades heap pressure on Scholz
By Andreas Rinke and Miranda Murray
January 8, 202411:17 AM ESTUpdated 18 hours ago

BERLIN, Jan 8 (Reuters) - German farmers kicked off a week of nationwide protests against subsidy cuts on Monday, blocking roads with tractors and piling misery on Chancellor Olaf Scholz's coalition as it struggles to fix a budget mess and contain rising far-right forces.

Convoys of tractors and trucks gathered on roads in sub-zero temperatures in nearly all 16 federal states, while protesters clashed with police and leading politicians warned that the unrest could be co-opted by extremists.

The protests have forced Scholz's unpopular government into a tricky balancing act, trying to keep a lid on the unrest while sticking to fiscal discipline after a constitutional court ruling in November threw its spending plans into disarray.

"No beer without farmers," read one protest banner, while another tractor had a poster from the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party that read "Our farmers come first."

Vice Chancellor Robert Habeck, whose return from holiday last week was disrupted by furious farmers trying to storm the ferry he was on, warned in a video message on Monday that farmers' right to protest could be exploited by fringe groups.

"Calls are circulating with coup fantasies, extremist groups are forming and ethnic-nationalist symbols are being openly displayed," said Habeck.

Farmers called the protests in response to the government's decision to phase out a tax break on agricultural diesel as it tries to bring its 2024 budget over the finish line while complying with the constitutional court ruling.
"For a farm like mine, I would lose about 10,000 euros," said a farmer from Bavaria, Ralf Huber. "For our businesses, it's a catastrophe."

The far-right AfD party, hoping for major gains in a string of state elections this year, backs the protest, using it as proof of Germans' dissatisfaction with current leadership.

Hermann Blinkert at the German Institute for New Social Answers (INSA) said the government was in a bind because it looks bad if it backtracks completely on cutting farm subsidies, but also if the dispute continues.

Earlier backlash from farmers prompted Scholz's coalition last week to make unexpected changes to the budget. But farmers say this does not go far enough.

"The government has the problem that it has already gambled away the trust of the population," Blinkert said.

"Only one in three voters would currently elect one of the three governing parties."

The protests add to the challenges facing a tense coalition that has seen the climate-friendly Greens fighting for different budget priorities than the pro-business FDP and centre-left Social Democrats as the country struggles with a recession.

The AfD is currently polling at 23%, according to the weekly INSA poll, comfortably ahead of Scholz's SPD and his two coalition partners, the Greens and the Free Democrats.

PROTESTS SPUR WARNINGS

Ministers and a domestic intelligence chief have warned that the right-wing extremists could try to exploit the protests.

According to German media outlet Spiegel, members of several right-wing extremist groups, including The Homeland and Third Way, were at a rally in Berlin, as were AfD members. In Dresden, a video on social media showed people carrying flags from the Free Saxony right-wing extremist party clashing with police.

Stephan Kramer, head of the domestic intelligence agency in Thuringia - one of three eastern states where the AfD looks likely to make gains in elections this year - said right-wing extremists' strategy was to hijack protests.

In the past, they have "constantly and consistently tried to infiltrate every form of legitimate civil protest," Kramer told business daily Handelsblatt, pointing to the 2015 migrant influx and the COVID-19 pandemic as examples.

Police said roads and highway slip roads were blocked in multiple locations nationwide, including several border crossings with France, causing traffic jams most of the day.

The protests brought Volkswagen's production lines at its plant in the north-western city of Emden to a standstill, a spokesperson for the carmaker said.

Farmers say that government plans to end two tax breaks - which currently save them about 900 million euros ($980 million) per year - unfairly burdens them and will drive them out of business.

($1 = 0.9152 euros)

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https://www.aljazeera.com/amp/gallery/2024/1/9/farmers-stage-tractor-blockades-across-germany

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I recommend looking at this article on the current German protest by farmers and the one by Reuters, posted previously.

The Al Jazeera article is rich with context, pictures, and fleshed out cause and effect for the farmers and citizens of Germany. Reuters continues to return to the warning that the protest *could be used by hard right groups* in a transparent effort to squash the protests or cast them in a nefarious light.

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Note governments increasingly opposite of the needs and desires of the people they were supposedly elected to *s e r v e* and their paid stenographers who’ve replaced what we used to know as journalists.

The pen is most def mightier than the sword.

https://efe.com/en/latest-news/2024-01-14/non-essential-staff-evacuated-from-white-house-amid-gaza-war-protests/

Washington, Jan 13 (EFE).- The United States Secret Service ordered the temporary evacuation of non-essential White House personnel on Saturday towards the end of a mass protest in Washington against the war in Gaza, evacuated journalists said.

Protesters attend a rally in solidarity with Palestine outside the White House, in Washington, DC, USA, 13 January 2024. EFE/EPA/WILL OLIVER
The vicinity of the presidential residence was filled with demonstrators protesting against the bombings in the Gaza Strip.

However, President Joe Biden was not at the White House, but at the Camp David presidential retreat in Maryland,

The media have reported considerable damage to the temporary fences around the White House during the protest calling for a ceasefire in the conflict and an end to US support for Israel.

According to the protest’s organizers, some 25,000 people were expected to have taken part in the demonstrations.

Since the war began, more than 23,000 people have been killed in the Gaza Strip by Israeli bombings and more than 1.9 million people – 85 percent of its population – have been displaced.
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https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/large-protests-break-out-yemen-after-us-british-attacks-2024-01-12/

DUBAI, Jan 12 (Reuters) - Tens of thousands of Yemenis gathered in several cities on Friday to hear their leaders condemn U.S. and British strikes on their country in response to attacks by Houthi militants on Red Sea shipping.

The U.S. and Britain carried out dozens of air strikes on Houthi military targets overnight, widening a wave of regional conflict unleashed by Israel's war in Gaza.

"Your strikes on Yemen are terrorism," said Mohammed Ali Al-Houthi, a member of the Houthi Supreme Political Council, referring to the United States. "The United States is the Devil."

After Gaza's Hamas rulers attacked Israel on Oct. 7, triggering Israel's assault on Gaza, the Iran-aligned Houthis began attacking shipping lanes and firing drones and missiles towards Israel, saying they would not stop until Israel's offensive stopped.

The Houthis, who rule much of Yemen, said they would target all ships heading to Israel, more than 1,000 miles away, and warned international shipping companies against using Israeli ports.

The Houthis are one of several groups in the Iran-aligned "Axis of Resistance" that have been taking aim at Israeli and U.S. targets since their Palestinian ally Hamas killed more than 1,200 people in Israel on Oct. 7. The groups hold the U.S., Israel's closest ally, partly responsible for the crisis and the scope of Israel's massive response.

"We did not attack the shores of America, nor did we move in the American islands, nor did we attack them. Your strikes on our country are terrorism," said Al-Houthi.

"They are terrorists and they are amazing at lying to the people of the world, but the awareness of the Yemeni people is a different awareness. Do you, Yemeni, think that America is defending itself or is it a terrorist?"

The Iraqi militia group Harakat al-Nujaba, also aligned with Iran, said that American interests and countries allied to the U.S. would not be safe from now on. In Sanaa, protesters stamped on Israeli and American flags.

U.S. and allied forces have been attacked at least 130 times in Iraq and Syria Since Oct. 17, according to Washington.

The United States has no plans to deploy more forces to the region, Pentagon spokesman Patrick Ryder said.

Additional reporting by Doina Chiacu and Ahmed Rasheed; Writing by Michael Georgy; Editing by Kevin Liffey

https://amp.dw.com/en/why-germany-has-gone-into-protest-mode/a-67957380

Why Germany has gone into protest mode
Sabine Kinkartz
01/14/2024January 14, 2024

Striking train drivers, angry farmers, a government losing support and a far-right party soaring in the popularity ratings. What is happening in Germany?

The former German chancellor Angela Merkel had a reputation as being a steady hand at the wheel. In her 16 years in office, she was famous for sitting things out rather than taking action. Her pledge to voters was that their lives would continue in peace and affluence and that they had nothing to worry about.

That has turned out to be a fallacy, but past expectations live on.

When it came to power in December 2021, the current center-left government of Social Democrats (SPD), Greens and the neoliberal Free Democrats (FDP) promised progress without the need for any belt-tightening. Nobody was prepared for the war in Ukraine and its knock-on effects.

Then the government planned a €60 billion ($65 billion) injection for a pain-free transformation to a carbon-neutral economy and society. The money had been left over from an emergency government loan approved during the COVID-19 pandemic, but unexpectedly not spent. Yet Germany's constitutional court declared this budgetary maneuver as unconstitutional in November 2023.

The government was faced with the task of plugging a hole in the budget while the economy is teetering on the verge of recession and price hikes for energy and food have had an impact on the living standards of a large part of society.

Under these circumstances, tax hikes and subsidy cuts are regarded by many as a complete imposition. While some people are tired and resigned, others are furious at the government.

Pent-up anger

Farmers who are facing some subsidy cuts are particularly angry. They have been blocking highways and intersections, driving into cities in their tractors and bringing traffic to a standstill.

In northwestern Germany, farmers — allegedly supported by far-right extremists — tried to storm a ferry in which the Economy Minister and Vice-Chancellor Robert Habeck was returning from a vacation.

The dramatic scene was reminiscent of protests during the COVID pandemic when crowds gathered repeatedly outside the private homes of politicians protesting restrictions they felt were overblown.

In 2016, the Germans appeared to be the least receptive to populist policies, according to a YouGov survey of European Union states. Things seem to have changed.

According to political journalist Albrecht von Lucke people are shifting to the fringes of the political spectrum, and he sees trends towards social division and dissolution. Germany, according to von Lucke, is turning away from consensus and constructive debate.

"Dispute is essential to democratic culture," Lucke told DW. "But if this dispute is no longer accompanied by a willingness to reach compromises, and instead every political interest group tries to extract the maximum, then democracy is eroded, then the government loses all authority and, ultimately, positions drift more and more to the fringes."

Political analyst Ulrike Münch, Director of the Academy for Political Education in Tutzing, does not see it quite as dramatically. "I don't think we should talk about society splitting into two equally large halves, but I see that the fringes of society are growing," she told DW, referring to those who express strong discontent and carry out protests like the farmers, but also the train drivers' union.

Both groups of protesters have the power to paralyze large parts of the country. For Lucke, the farmers' protest illustrates that everyone looks out only for themselves at the moment. "The farmers have almost managed to get all the measures reversed and yet they still fight on to get the very last one reversed, too," Lucke says.

Ursula Münch believes that the farmers felt ignored because neither they nor their representatives had been consulted in advance. "They felt pushed to the margins and that their significance had not been recognized."

2024: A watershed year for Germany?

The intrusive state

Farmers frequently say that they cannot deal with the pace of reform and new regulations in environmental and animal protection. Smaller farms, in particular, say that they are being given too little time to adapt to EU policy changes.

It is a feeling that is familiar to other parts of society. When the news emerged in 2023 that the government was planning to phase out fossil fuel heatings quickly, this prompted a big public outcry. Robert Habeck, in particular, came in for a bashing, but the coalition parties all declined in the polls.

Münch said: "Up to then, people said we understand that things have to change a little. But that they would feel it so directly in their purses and wallets, their own basements and garages, that is the actual change that made people see this state as intrusive all of a sudden."

Hardly anyone in Germany really needs to feel overburdened, according to Münch: "We are a country that has a lot of resources, that is a welfare state." Understandably, people have concerns, but "we shouldn't let ourselves get carried away," she says.

But far-right populists beg to differ. The party that is profiting from all this is the populist far-right Alternative for Germany party (AfD). Its approval ratings have continued to climb. In the eastern German states of Saxony, Thuringia and Brandenburg, where state elections are taking place in September, it is polling as the strongest party by far.

The AfD is fueling polarization. "At the moment, I believe that there is a threat only because a part of the population may be easily instrumentalized." There is a growing number of people who say they are only being fed a pack of lies, according to Münch.

Journalist Albrecht von Lucke is expecting 2024 to be a year of protest votes, especially as the problems within the coalition government show no sign of ending. "The quarrels will continue, frustration will grow in the country and we will be faced with protest votes."

This article was originally written in German.

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Omg.

I just saw footage on Instagram of what must have been a thousand farm vehicles with lights flashing; German farmers protesting.

I’ll see if I can find an article.

https://apnews.com/article/germany-farmers-protest-subsidies-scholz-government-5d917d65267c8442f6373d2354662bd9

BERLIN (AP) — Farmers clogged Berlin streets with their tractors on Monday, honking their horns in protest at a plan to scrap tax breaks on the diesel they use, the climax of a week of protests that has tapped into wider discontent with Germany’s government.

Columns of tractors rolled into the capital ahead of the demonstration at the landmark Brandenburg Gate. Over the past week, farmers have blocked highway entrances and slowed traffic across Germany with their protests, intent on pushing Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s government to abandon the planned cuts entirely.

They’re not satisfied with concessions the government has already made. On Jan. 4, it watered down its original plan, saying that a car tax exemption for farming vehicles would be retained and the cuts in the diesel tax breaks would be staggered over three years.
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Solidarity with the farmers.

This story is likely not written about the specific event I mentioned at the top of this post, but very likely is the correct context for the series of recent protests by German farmers.

This has probably rarely happened in Germany: a demonstration that has to be cancelled - not because individual participants become violent, but because the demonstration is simply too successful. Because more and more people from the side streets are pushing their way to the venue and because at some point it becomes too dangerous for the organisers and police.
The photos sent out by the news agencies from Hamburg in the afternoon show a Jungfernstieg completely taken over by people. The organisers had registered 10,000 people, but it quickly becomes clear that there are significantly more.
The media report up to 100,000 participants, almost more than at all other of today's anti-AfD demonstrations that took place anywhere in Germany today.

These demonstrations are nearly every day in numerous German cities and towns: in view of the radical meetings of the AfD and well-known right-wing extremists and the revelations about the secret meetings, there has been more than one demonstration somewhere in Germany every day for days, especially last weekend and now even more (see above) this weekend.

Hundreds of thousands of people (actually more than 300,000 today) took to the streets in demonstrations against far-right extremism in cities across Germany.
Rallies were expected in more than 100 German cities and towns over the weekend.

"Voting AfD is so 1933."

This afternoon, police broke up a rally against right-wing extremism (AfD) in Munich due to overcrowding: according to the organisers, up to 200,000 people took part in this large demonstration against right-wing extremism on Sunday alone.

Do you think the media is trying to reframe a farmers’ protest against the government into a protest of ‘right wing extremists’?