#occupy.com

ANNOUNCING OUR GLOBAL ROUND-UP SERIES!

You may have noticed a few changes recently at thepeoplesrecord.com: we’ve changed our layout, added pages, switched over to our own domain and are starting to get more organized. Along with all the new changes, we’d like to introduce our Global Round-Up series. Previously, we've done a few Global Round-Ups for Occupy.com, which you can see here. At the end of March, we posted our first global round-up covering the most notable international protest news month of March. We regret that we did not put one up for April at the beginning of May. But better late than never! Here it is, and look out for our Global Round-Up at the first of every month because sometimes it just helps to see just how much those of us fighting for a different kind of world do in a month. Call it Occupy or the Arab Spring or the Maple Spring or call it whatever you want. Connect the protest movements with international solidarity and the size of this list tells a very compelling story. I invite you to look back through the month of April with thepeoplesrecord.com and see how amazing it was! April Global Round-Up 1st

Massive protests continued across Canada and protests in Montreal produced thousands in the street.

Occupy.com launched!

Cities and towns across the United States continued to conduct hoodie marches to protest the racist killing of unarmed young black teenager Trayvon Martin on April 1, 2012.

Police officers arrested protesters during a peace activists action aimed at entering NATO headquarters in Brussels April 1, 2012. More than 400 people were arrested at the action entitled ‘NATO Game Over’.

2nd

Dozens of occupiers from San Francisco were arrested this evening after taking over a vacant building belonging to the Archdiocese of San Francisco. The group was working on turning the space into a “into a social center, shelter and food bank for the people.”

Several hundred indignados, culture jammers and occupiers from across Europe swarmed the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) headquarters in Brussels in a bold attempt to shut it down.

3rd

About 100 students protesting a plan to offer high priced courses at Santa Monica College demonstrated at a meeting of the college’s Board of Trustees and were pepper-sprayed and brutally removed.

4th

Out of retaliation to growing protest movements in Morocco, the Moroccan government announced that it would restrict pay from protesting employees.

Student protesters overturned a table filled with croissants and orange juice prior to the National Bank Financial Group annual general meeting in Montreal, Canada. Media reports stated the police arrested about 50 students on Wednesday as they continued their protest against tuition hikes in Quebec.

Occupy Boston & Occupy MBTA hosted a “People’s Assembly” at State House

5th

Hundreds of members and supporters of janitors with the Service Employees International Union rallied along El Camino Real near California Avenue in Palo Alto.

6th

Workers from the Athens central groceries market clashed with police officers during a rally in front of the Bank of Greece as anti-austerity protests continue to intensify.

7th

Occupy protests continued to hold “spring” related demonstrations.

8th

Hundreds took the streets of Moscow to the Red Square wearing white ribbons, a Russian symbol of resistance, to protest Prime Minister Vladimir Putin’s rule.

9th

Students organized a sit-in blocking the doors to the Sandford Police Department demanding justice for Trayvon Martin.

The Syrian government continued to fire on its own people, and the potential for a ceasefire is threatened by the government’s aggression.

10th

Oddly, we couldn’t find any notable protest news on the 10th of this month!

11th

Real Food, Real Jobs held a demonstration and march in Chicago.

12th

Syrian cease-fire deadline passes. The fighting continues.

13th

Hundreds of thousands took Cairo’s Tahrir Square denouncing military rule of the country and united to ban Mubarak-era cabinet members, including a spy chief from running in the upcoming presidential elections.

Protests in Palestinan Village Nabi Saleh were violently supressed.

A Palestinian protester runs as Israeli soldiers fire tears gas during clashes at a demonstration against the expropriation of Palestinian land by Israel in the village of Kfar Qaddum, near the West Bank city of Nablus.

14th

More than 500 people protested against the education loan scheme PTPTN as well as for free education in the streets of Kuala Lumpur.

An anti-government protester speaks to a riot police officer after being asked to leave as she marched towards the British embassy, during an anti-government protest in support of Bahraini human rights activist Abdulhadi al-Khawaja, in Manama.

More than 2,000 protesters marched the streets of Montreal to protest proposed tuition hikes that would impose $325 more per student per year for the next five years. The march was part of a nine-week protest throughout Quebec.

15th

1,600 Palestinian prisoners in Israel begin an organized hunger strike.

About 150 Occupy Portland protesters finish their weekend of protest in Washington state against nuclear war, nuclear energy and nuclear waste.

16th

Four occupiers arrested at OWS sleep-in by Stock Exchange.

Israel denies entry to 1500+ activists on Day of Action in solidarity with Palestine.

Left-wing protesters in the Philippines splattered paint on the seal of the U.S. Embassy to demand a pullout of American troops taking part in annual war games.

Supporters of the All India Mahila Sanskritik Sanghathan (AIMSS) protest violence and political attacks against women and girls in Kolkata, India.

17th

Thousands of sign-wielding union workers angrily protested Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker’s speech before business leaders in Springfield.

Government employees protest in Srinagar, India. Police respond over-zealously.

More than 5,000 marched in Bahrain on against the human rights injustices of the Bahraini government.

Hundred attend anti-pipeline protests in Victoria, Australia.

18th

Badass protester strips naked as a form of protest against TSA at Portland International Airport.

A museum in Italy started burning its artworks in protest against budget cuts which it says have left cultural institutions out of pocket.

Greenpeace activists staged an hour-long rooftop protest at computer giant Apple’s European headquarters.

Occupy New Haven camp is evicted.

Lakotas launch hunger strike against tar sands pipelines.

Palestinian political prisoner and hunger striker Khader Adnan was reunited with his children in Jenin.

An environmental activist wearing a polar bear costume is detained by police officers while protesting outside the venue hosting the Russian Arctic Oil and Gas business conference.

19th

19 students from various on-campus groups including United Students Against Sweatshops and Occupy UT-Austin were arrested for occupying President Powers’ office, demanding that UT apparel become sweat-shop free.

Tuition hike protests in Santa Monica escalate.

Shanty town residents burn bus during a protest over the shooting of an unarmed 10-year-old girl in their impoverished community in RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil.

Anti-government protesters confront riot police blocking their way in Manama, Bahrain.

Hundreds of Egyptian demonstrators briefly blocked a main Cairo bridge over the Nile.

20th

Russian courts rule that the three female punk rockers who mocked Vladimir Putin in a surprise protest inside Russia’s main Orthodox church in Februarty will remain in jail.

The revolution does not stop in Egypt. The global spring is alive and well as tens of thousands of protesters protest continued military rule in Egypt.

Police arrested 151 people in Gatineau Thursday after busloads of student protesters arrived from Montreal as part of provincewide demonstrations against the Quebec government’s proposed tuition-fee hike.

Protests sweep Syria amid shaky U.N. negotiations. Syrian troops fired tear gas and bullets on thousands of protesters who spilled out of mosques after noon prayers

21st

Protesters march opposing union-buster Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker in Chicago.

Protestors at Jantar Mantar broke earthen pots full of milk to demonstrate their anger at the government’s apathy about corrupt corporations and profiteers.

Space Needle employees and about 100 others spent the structure’s 50th birthday demanding job security & protesting poor working conditions & low wages.

22nd

Hundreds of thousands, including more than two dozen Czech unions and activist groups took part in rally through Prague, the third (and largest) major union protest in the past year against unpopular budget cuts and tax hikes that are coming at the expense of workers.

Zainab al-Khawaja protested alone in the streets of Bahrain against the arrest and detention of her father, Abdulhadi al-Khawaja—a revered human rights defender—who entered the seventieth-day of his hunger strike. She was arrested by Bahraini security forces shortly after this photo was taken.

23rd

More than 15,000 protesters from labour unions and community organizations across the province rallied outside Ontario’s Legislature to vent their fury over the minority neo-liberal government’s austerity-focused budget.

Sanford Police Chief Bill Lee officially resigned as a direct result of pressure applied by grass-roots activism around the Trayvon Martin case.

More than 250,000 students packed the streets in one of the largest demos in Quebec history.

Thousands march for Salah Abbas in Bahrain.

Thousands of people in Bamiyan staged a protest against the inhumanity that continuously targeting Hazara nation in Quetta City.

24th

Demonstrators marched and blocked a side entrance to Wells Fargo shareholders meeting in San Francisco.

Medical students protest in solidarity with striking public doctors in La Paz, Bolivia. Police respond brutaly.

25th

A Detroit community of protesters staged a rally & a game of dodgeball to oppose General Electric’s $4.7 billion government tax breaks.

Greenpeace activists and local people greeted the Japanese Economy, Trade and Industry Minister Yukio Edano outside the Fukui Prefecture Government offices with sings and banners reading: “EDA NO” (no nuclear). The activists were protesting against the government’s push to bring two reactors at the Oi Nuclear Power Plant back online - against public opinion and the recommendations of numerous experts.

American Airlines and American Eagle employees marched to U.S. Bankruptcy Court to protest against American’s plans to cut jobs and labor costs .

A Palestinian woman holds a portrait of a jailed loved one at a protest outside the Red Cross offices in Gaza City. She’s calling for the released of Palestlinian prisoners held in Israel.

Students barricaded in Montreal as the student movement continues to protest against tuition hikes for higher education.

A naked member of the activist group Liberate Tate lies on the floor of Tate’s classical sculpture exhibit room drenched in an oil-like substance to protest Tate’s ongoing partnership with BP.

Bradley Manning supporters demonstrate at Fort Meade.

Occupy DC protests get underway, dozens are arrest.

Occupy Wall Street holds street-theatre demonstration against student debt.

A young woman was voluntarily tortured in full public view to try and end animal testing in London.

Chilean student protesters suffered disturbing police brutality at demonstration.       

26th

Chut Wutty, a prominent Cambodian anti-logging activist, who helped expose a secretive state sell-off of national parks, was shot dead by police in a remote south-western province while guiding journalists to the scene of illegal logging.

Bahraini anti-government protests continued and escalated.

27th

More than 80,000 people demanded free education, in a rally in Santiago, Chile.

A demonstration turned to violent police/military brutality perpetrated against supporters of prisoners on hunger strike in Ofer prison, between Jerusalem and Ramallah.

Activists demonstrate in Yemen and shout slogans calling for the prosecution of former president Ali Abdullah Saleh and his aides.

Protesters demanded election reform and suffered from police brutality at Dataran Merdeka, also known as Independence Square, in Kuala Lumpur.

28th

Austin activists organize and host a rally against the war on women.

About 85 protesters were arrested after police fired at the student protests in Montreal with tear gas.

Thousands took to Tahrir Square in Cairo to demand an end to military rule in Egypt.

29th

At the height of its second recession in three years, thousands gathered in Spain to protest cuts to education and healthcare. Half of all Spaniards under 25 are jobless.

30th

Student protesters in Montreal have forced Quebec’s Liberal Party to relocate its convention out of Montreal. Students have flooded the streets by the thousands opposing tuition hikes and increasing national debt.

Students at six Cal State universities have announced they are going on a hunger strike until universities agree to a tuition freeze, free speech rights on campus & administrative pay cuts.

Engagement

Data collected in January from an ongoing custom survey research project administered by Hector Cordero Gusman at Baruch College at the City University of New York showed that 69.6% of 1,538 respondents strongly agreed that they support the protests.  The research also showed that only 9.2% out of 1,541 of the same respondents strongly agreed that they regularly participate in the Occupy Wall Street Protests.  This suggests that there is much potential for the numbers of people who attend OWS actions to dramatically increase.  Data collected by Facebook insights provides us with clues as to how we might go about encouraging this.

Photos from tumblr blog posts of creative actions created by Revolutionary Games have been more likely to go viral within Facebook than have YouTube clips of the same actions.  The most viral post I’ve yet seen came from the Occupied Stories Fan Page.  It had 114 people talking about it out of a reach of 302, a virality score of 37.75%.  (The next best closest score on the page was 9.46% virality for sake of comparison).  It was picture posted March 22nd with the following caption…”The latest from Union Square : No Performing, rallying, and engaging in commercial activity, except by permit!  I hear our resident hula hooper plans to make this evening in Union Square quite interesting!..”  It generated 52 shares, 28 likes, 51 comments, with some of those comments getting additional likes.  Comments in response to the post as well as the post itself, demonstrated that first hand trusted news of suppression of expressive activities, performance, rallying, etc actually led to Facebook users to reply to the notice with similar complaints about not being able to skate or play kickball, as well as similar desires to directly challenge this irrational encroachment on our basic rights to leisure and play, which need be constantly sacrificed and abstained from by the working masses in order for capitalism to function.  

OWS affinity groups such as Revolutionary Games, the Puppet Guild, the Plus Brigades, have been preparing and rehearsing various forms of street performances all winter and it seems as if the NYPD will be just as likely to attempt to suppress this new round of artistic tactics every bit as much as they attempted to suppress the occupations during the fall of 2011.  However the analytics suggest that any attempt to suppress creatively expressive actions will likely only encourage more individuals to creatively express themselves in direct defiance of transparent oppression, just as the occupations tended to grow after every time protestors were brutalized in October and early November of 2011.