Portraits from the frontline of global protests

Climate change, inequality, corruption – these are just some of the reasons why demonstrators are taking to streets across the world

Tom Westbrook
1/11/2020

Portraits from the frontlines of global protests
  

Umm Mahdi, 66, an Iraqi demonstrator, during the ongoing anti-government protests in Baghdad, Iraq

“I come to protest for rights and against illegitimacy. The government is illegitimate, there are no jobs, no housing, no services and the protesters have a good cause. I should be with them because I am like a mother to them,” Mahdi said. “If the government provided jobs or housing or services to citizens the youth would not be protesting and sacrificing their lives. My message to the protesters is: I am with you until the last day of my life, I support you – keep your peaceful protests going until you get your rights,” she continued. “I will not back down from participating in protests until our youth get all their rights from the corrupt and unjust. Any people who protest do so because they have been oppressed.”

Axel Buxade, 18, a student, holds a Catalan flag during a protest at University Square in Barcelona, Spain

“We’re here, mainly young people, outraged by the sentences and the inability of politicians to talk,” said Buxade. Referring to Hong Kong, he said: “There have been acts of mutual support, if they reach their goal we'll be very happy.”

A protester nicknamed Liberty Girl God and her boyfriend nicknamed Little Brother, both 15, during a protest in front of Lennon Wall in Hong Kong, China

“We want the government to finally respond to our demands and to make changes quickly,” said Liberty Girl God. “In my opinion (protesters in other countries) have the same demands as us. This may be a hard way to achieve our wish but I believe we will win.”

Hiba Ghosn, 36, who works in the fashion industry, poses as her friends sit in the afternoon sun on Martyrs’ square, as people gather for a demonstration during ongoing anti-government protests in Beirut, Lebanon

“They are thieves, every single one of them. They’ve been robbing us for 30 years,” she said. “The new generation should come in and politicians that are more like us, and see what we see. I think it’s gonna take a very long time to reach there ... but we will. I think we’ve woken up the dragon. (Globally) people have had enough. I think they are all asking for those basic rights.”

Protests swept the globe in 2019, with people engaging in rallies from Catalonia to Colombia, and Haiti to Hong Kong – and continuing in the same vein into 2020 so far.

Each movement had its own trigger. Some were fed with corruption and entrenched elites. Others wanted democracy or independence.

Some called for reforms and others opposed them. Worries over climate change and environmental destruction also galvanised activists the world over.

The frustrations were sometimes similar, from inequality to powerlessness.

And often the protests turned violent, with security forces killing several hundred people in Iran, Iraq and elsewhere. Volleys of tear gas became a familiar sight in traditionally peaceful and stable Hong Kong.

Teacher Andres Felipe Vargas, 52, at a protest during a national strike in Bogota, Colombia

“The government that is currently in Colombia is an extreme right-wing government that wants to take away more and more of our rights... it is a government that only wants to encourage inequality, Colombia is the third most unequal country in the world,” Vargas said. “Throughout history it has been seen that things don't just happen, things change with revolutions ... with the French revolution, with the industrial revolution. Right now we are in a stage of awakening and we have to take advantage of that.”

Yet amid the gunfire and clouds of teargas, there was a feeling of solidarity as demonstrators drew on each other’s determination and strength.

“Right now we are in a stage of awakening and we have to take advantage of that,” said Andres Felipe Vargas, a professor joining an anti-government strike in Bogota, Colombia.

“What is happening in our country, and these injustices that generate inequities, are the same injustices that are destroying the planet,” he said.

Reuters photographers in more than a dozen countries documented the depth of feeling that linked disparate movements.

Amiri Yacine, 26, a student, poses for a photograph during a protest rejecting the December presidential election and against the country's ruling elite in Algiers, Algeria

“I am protesting against injustice and dictatorship,” said Amiri Yacine, 26. “People are protesting around the world. In Lebanon, Iraq Chile, France, Hong Kong and Haiti, because of injustice and corruption.” Yacine, who has joined rolling demonstrations since February in opposition to the shadowy elite that has controlled Algeria since independence in 1962, feels his demands are universal. “We want to build a new Algeria ... we want free media and a total respect of human rights. Also, we want jobs and infrastructure,” Yacine said. “My message to protesters is just be peaceful – be wise and keep calm. Fight the system with good ideas, because they don’t have ideas.”

“I am protesting against injustice and dictatorship,” said Amiri Yacine, 26, holding a poster depicting the world’s protests as a blossoming flower, packed amongst hundreds of mostly young demonstrators in Algiers.

Yacine, who has joined rolling demonstrations since February in opposition to the shadowy elite that has controlled Algeria since independence in 1962, likewise feels his demands are universal.

“We want to build a new Algeria ... we want free media and a total respect of human rights. Also, we want jobs and infrastructure,” Yacine said.

“My message to protesters is just be peaceful – be wise and keep calm. Fight the system with good ideas, because they don’t have ideas.”

 Jasper, 27, who works in a retail bank, during a demonstration in Hong Kong

“This is a universal demand for democracy and fairness,” said Jasper, who joined a downtown protest at lunchtime. Like many protesters, he declined to give his surname and wore a surgical mask to conceal his identity. “Every country in the world faces the same situation. This will not be an easy road, but we all know we are doing the right thing.”

Summer has turned to winter in Hong Kong, where demonstrations against a controversial extradition bill turned into a push for greater democracy.

The Beijing-backed government has refused to yield, while the protesters have gathered in vast numbers, turning shopping districts into a sea of black-clad people.

“This is a universal demand for democracy and fairness,” said Jasper, a 27-year-old bank worker, who joined a downtown protest at lunchtime. He cut a suave figure, in a sharp suit, red-and-blue striped tie and pocket square, standing on Pedder Street in the city’s central district.

Like many protesters, he declined to give his surname and wore a surgical mask to conceal his identity.

“Every country in the world faces the same situation. This will not be an easy road, but we all know we are doing the right thing.”

The movement has invited comparisons with protesters pushing for independence for the Spanish region of Catalonia, where the sentencing of separatist leaders to long prison terms led to renewed and sometimes violent protests.

Amiri Yacine, 26, a student, poses for a photograph during a protest rejecting the December presidential election and against the country's ruling elite in Algiers, Algeria

“I am protesting against injustice and dictatorship,” said Amiri Yacine, 26. “People are protesting around the world. In Lebanon, Iraq Chile, France, Hong Kong and Haiti, because of injustice and corruption.” Yacine, who has joined rolling demonstrations since February in opposition to the shadowy elite that has controlled Algeria since independence in 1962, feels his demands are universal. “We want to build a new Algeria ... we want free media and a total respect of human rights. Also, we want jobs and infrastructure,” Yacine said. “My message to protesters is just be peaceful – be wise and keep calm. Fight the system with good ideas, because they don’t have ideas.”

“We’re here, mainly young people, outraged by the sentences and the inability of politicians to talk,” said Barcelona student Axel Buxade, 18, holding a Catalan flag at a demonstrators’ camp on a city street.

Referring to Hong Kong, he added: “There have been acts of mutual support, if they reach their goal we’ll be very happy.” 

Alex Munoz Fuentes, 47, an accountant, holds a Chilean flag in Santiago, Chile

“People in the world are tired of injustice,” said Fuentes. “I don't want anything given for free. But I know that in Chile the institutions, the law and the constitution are made to abuse the working classes. I want a new deal. Hong Kong is similar, the authorities are not thinking about people’s wellbeing... I have a fraternal hug for them, and all my solidarity from Chile. Please don’t give up.”

Economics, and in particular inequality, has also proved potent fuel for protests in Lebanon, Chile, Ecuador and Iraq.

“People in the world are tired of injustice,” said Chilean Alex Munoz Fuentes, a 47-year-old accountant, standing before a burning barricade on a Santiago street.

“I don’t want anything given for free,” he said, the national flag in one hand and a pair of goggles to protect him from teargas in the other.

“But I know that in Chile, the institutions, the law and the constitution are made to abuse the working classes. I want a new deal.

“Hong Kong is similar, the authorities are not thinking about people’s wellbeing. I have a fraternal hug for them, and all my solidarity from Chile. Please don’t give up.”

Reuters

What is it about a black princess that provokes such anger in the UK media?



Black Britons believe Meghan Markle's black roots are responsible for the negative portrayals of her in the tabloids.

Britain’s Duchess of Sussex Meghan Markle and her husband Prince Harry have withdrawn from senior royal duties setting off shock waves in the British media.

The move comes amid stirrings from the royal couple over media intrusion in their personal lives and in particular negative coverage of the princess.

Markle became the first person of African descent to marry into the British royal family, and the couple’s son, Archie Harrison Mountbatten-Windsor, is the first descendant of a ruling British monarch to be of African descent.

Given the superlatives, many have questioned whether the media’s coverage of Meghan has something to do with her ethnic background.

In recent years, the British media has been accused of targeting several high-profile black celebrities with an arguably more critical slant than their white counterparts.

Examples include England and Manchester City footballer Raheem Sterling, who has been the subject of critical tabloid articles over his performance on the pitch, his spending habits, as well as his choice of snack.

After suffering racist abuse while playing for Manchester City against Chelsea, Sterling hit out at the media for fueling the phenomenon.

In a recent New York Times piece, writer Afua Hirsch described the ways in which coverage of Markle had similarly been racialised in the British media.

She pointed to headlines, which described the princess as “(almost) straight outta Compton” and another incident where a BBC presenter was sacked for comparing Markle’s son Alfie to a chimpanzee.

There was no shortage of people on social media who agreed with that theory.

One Twitter user named Nick wrote: “I'm not a royalist. I think they are an unaffordable luxury and outdated but I liked Megan. She has had nothing but abuse from the press because she is mixed race. They just couldn't accept her. I hope she and Harry have a happy life! #meganandharry”

Writer Philip Pullman wrote: “Of course Meghan Markle is attacked by the British press because she's black, and of course Prince Harry is right to defend her. What a foul country this is.”

Debates surrounding race have become increasingly frequent in the UK with many criticising the country’s reluctance to accept that racism was an issue in the country or to deal with its colonial legacy.

Singer Stormzy was most recently the focus of controversy for suggesting racism was still an issue in British society.

How Meghan is treated is how Black people are treated in the UK all the time. Shut up, take any treatment meted out to you, be grateful. It’s stupid using successful Black people as an indicator of how this not racist the UK is. Racism can intensify. See Stormzy, Sterling etc.— Uppity Failed Whoopi Goldberg 🇩🇲🇧🇧 (@thetwerkinggirl) January 9, 2020

Source: TRT World

Islamophobia is being defined as a form of racism. Why?

Should the term 'black' to describe people of African origin be retired?

PUTIN'S PRIVATE ARMY KEEPING UP WITH THE BLACKWATERS OF THE WORLD

The Wagner Group: a private military company that's not exactly 'private'


ARUUKE URAN KYZY
1 DAY AGO

The Wagner Group is Putin's most potent weapon in advancing Russian policy objectives while maintaining plausible deniability.

The so-called Libyan National Army, warlord Khalifa Haftar's force in Libya, yesterday refused to honour a ceasefire proposed by Turkey and Russia. Haftar's forces have been carrying out an offensive to capture Tripoli from the UN-backed Government of National Accord based in the capital.

Turkey recently sent troops to Libya to defend the GNA and accuses Russia of supporting the GNA's main rival, Haftar, through the use of 2,500 mercenaries and other military support.

So who are these mercenaries and are they controlled by Russian President Vladimir Putin?

The Russian private military company (PMC) Wagner Group – a shadowy band of mercenaries exercising deadly force on behalf of the Kremlin – seem like something from Leo Tolstoy’s novel Anna Karenina.

In the novel, the main character Count Alexei Vronsky leaves to Serbia as a volunteer to fight against the Ottoman Empire as a part of a squadron he formed at his own expense. Pervasive in Russian literature these militias were used by tsars to pacify internal unrest and to achieve directed military and policy objectives.

Today, Russian foreign policy has embraced many of the same ambitions that were born out of a need for “plausible deniability” in Kremlin’s military operations abroad.

Moscow’s PMCs have a unique understanding of service - “kill or train others to kill” - by providing intelligence, training, logistical assistance and infrastructure security. It is essential to highlight that ambiguity and confusion are unique features of Russian PMCs. Such companies are illegal under Russia law.

Moscow denies any links to Russian PMCs like the Wagner Group, which operates in active war zones. Like many other PMC’s, the company is used as a proxy by the Russian government to reduce both political and geopolitical “fallout”.

What is often left unmentioned, however, is the administrative and financial control of the company. With the Wagner Group commonly being used as a “bogey-man” by some outlets due to the group’s ostensibly private nature, it is imperative to question the degree of control the Kremlin exerts over this group.

In other words, how 'private' is this private military contractor?

The story of the Wagner Group has primarily been told as the story of an influential businessman Yevgeny Prigozhin who bears a resemblance to Tolstoy’s protagonist Vronsky. He is an influential figure with close ties to President Vladimir Putin.

Prigozhin’s role in the country’s foreign policy has set off international alarms. A US court has charged him with setting up an internet “troll factory” that attempted to influence the 2016 American presidential elections in favour of Donald Trump.

As one of the most successful caterers in the country with the moniker “Putin’s Chef”, he owns several companies that have lucrative contracts with the Russian Ministry of Defence and public school catering, as well as several construction deals since the mid-2000s.

While real monetary connections remain elusive, leaked documents and investigations paint a portrait of Prigozhin’s private structures pursuing Russian state interests and bolstering Russian diplomatic flexibility in war-torn Syria and Libya, as well as other hotspots in sub-Saharan Africa.

Simply put, the company’s presence in geopolitical hotspots illuminates coordination between Prigozhin’s commercial ambitions and the Kremlin’s pursuit of its national interests.

Through Wagner, Russia offers “information warfare” strategies in return for political influence and capital, opportunities for geostrategic expansion, or resource concessions.

Its first mission was to support the disarmament of Ukrainian military installations during the annexation of Crimea in 2014. By spring 2015, Wagner started to prepare for its next campaign: to become a crucial asset in support of Bashar al Assad in Syria.

Surprisingly, in June 2019, Putin admitted the presence of Russian PMCs in Syria, emphasising that they are not connected to the state. However, Russian online investigative newspaper Fontantka provided evidence that around 500 pro-Syrian fighters – most of whom spoke Russian – played a pivotal role in the efforts to seize Palmyra and Deir Ezzor in 2016 and 2017. Leaked telephone conversations revealed Prigozhin himself ordered the assault.

It seems that much of Wagner’s operations in Syria have been financed by deals between Prigozhin’s companies and the Syrian government. One such example is that Prigozhin owns a Russian company called Evro Polis in St. Petersburg, which signed a contract in 2016 with the Syrian energy ministry to receive a 25 percent share of natural gas and oil produced in Syria’s oil capital Deir Ezzor.

Much like in Syria and Ukraine, Russian foreign policy in Africa is also designated as defence cooperation in return for resource extraction. Concurrently, as Russia increases its diplomatic involvement in Africa, Wagner operations have expanded into Sudan, Central African Republic (CAR) and Libya, where it protects Prigozhin’s investments.

Researchers from the Stanford Internet Observatory uncovered evidence of Russia-linked influence operations in Africa’s cyberspace through Wagner Group and Prigozhin’s suspended networks.

Similarly, the company M-Invest, which Prigozhin is rumoured to own, has an interest in Sudan’s gold deposits and Libya’s oil-rich east region, presumably secured by offering various military services in exchange for natural resource contracts.

Wagner’s influence might go even deeper. Proekt Media, an independent Russian news outlet, produced four lengthy reports unearthing a CAR government mining contract with Prigozhin’s conglomerate Lobaye Invest.

It finances the training of army recruits in the CAR by some 250 Russian mercenaries. Attempts at scrutiny became even more complicated when three Russian journalists investigating Wagner’s activities in the CAR were murdered under mysterious circumstances in the summer of 2018, and two additional individuals who tried to investigate their murder were poisoned. Unfortunately, details on Wagner’s deployments in CAR are scarce, but based on what can be gleaned from sources available, they follow a similar pattern.

Amid this complex background, the secrecy around Wagner- including its origins, ties to the Putin regime, political and economic drivers - makes it difficult and even dangerous to determine how the Kremlin is using obfuscation in their relationship with states to sow confusion and chaos among Russia’s opponents.

It is a clear fact that the Wagner Group can be considered a private military company only to the extent that it feeds the wealth of a private individual. In reality, it bolsters Russia’s strategic interests while increasing Russia's plausible deniability.

The group does not offer the Kremlin entirely new ways to wage war or build influence. However, it is imperative to question how Wagner’s existence – regardless of its intricate networks of extraction, security cooperation and geostrategic benefit – will be used to further Russia’s geopolitical goals.

Disclaimer: The viewpoints expressed by the authors do not necessarily reflect the opinions, viewpoints and editorial policies of TRT World.

We welcome all pitches and submissions to TRT World Opinion – please send them via email, to opinion.editorial@trtworld.com

AUTHOR
Aruuke Uran Kyzy
AruukeUran
Aruuke Uran Kyzy works at TRT World Research Centre. She has a degree in International Relations, English and Literature from Istanbul University. Her current area of focus is Russian and Central Asian studies.

SEE
https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/2005/01/war-whats-it-good-for-profit.html

In Mexican capital, red shoes protest killings of women

There are 10 women killed daily on average across Mexico, and only one in 10 such crimes are solved.

A portrait of Eugenia Machuca Campos sits amid women's red shoes placed by activists to protest violence against women in the Zocalo, Mexico City's main plaza, January 11, 2020. (Christian Palma / AP)

Activists placed hundreds of painted-red women’s shoes on Mexico City’s sun-drenched main square on Saturday to call attention to gender-based violence in a country where, on average, 10 women and girls are murdered each day and less than 10 percent of the cases are ever solved.

As residents and tourists milled about the plaza or Zocalo — the historical, political, cultural and religious heart of the country — demonstrators marched to the massive front door of the colonial-era National Palace and placed five pairs on the paving stones as a uniformed guard looked on.

“Not one more killed!” they cried to the beat of a drum.

“The shoes represent absence, visualizing absence,” said 60-year-old artist Elina Chauvet, who first realized the piece of performance-protest art in 2009 after her sister was killed by her husband in a domestic violence case in the northern border city of Juarez. “The red is for the blood that has been spilled, but it is also a work that speaks of love.”

The performance was the latest in a string of public demonstrations in recent months over violence against women, including angry anti-rape protests in which demonstrators tossed glitter and defaced monuments; thousands of women in blindfolds chanting the feminist anthem “A Rapist in Your Path,” a viral phenomenon across the Americas and around the world; and more low-key marches and even knit-ins.

The common thread running throughout: authorities’ inability to solve the problem of gender-based violence in one of the world’s most dangerous countries to be female.

President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, who has been in office a little over 13 months, and allied officials have pledged to make femicide and other gender-related crimes a priority.

In November, Mexico City Mayor Claudia Sheinbaum declared a gender violence alert for the capital, meaning that 20 of Mexico’s federal entities have now done so. Sheinbaum said the measure would raise awareness of the problem and deliver better results.

But for those at Saturday’s protest, little to nothing has been seen as far as results.

There were 3,662 femicides, or gender-related killings of women, in 2018, before Lopez Obrador took office, and the rate continued apace in 2019, though there are not yet final figures for the year.

Elizabeth Machuca Campos holds the portrait of her sister Eugenia Machuca Campos amid women's red shoes placed in the Zocalo by people protesting violence against women in Mexico City, Saturday, Jan. 11, 2020. According to Elizabeth, her sister's ex-boyfriend is serving time in jail for her Oct. 2017 murder in the State of Mexico. (AP)

“On the contrary, they keep on killing us,” said Elizabeth Machuca Campos, a 39-year-old artisan and women’s rights activist from Ocoyoacac in the neighbouring State of Mexico, whose sister was murdered there in 2017. She said a suspect was detained and sentenced, but at the last minute the charge was changed from femicide to homicide — something that activists and groups such as Amnesty International say is frequently done by Mexican governments at multiple levels to juke the stats on gender violence.

Machuca brought to the Zocalo a photo of her sister and the shoes she was wearing when her body was found.

“Those pairs of shoes are missing their owners,” she said, fighting back tears. “The women who have been torn from us.”

The capital’s new chief prosecutor, Ernestina Godoy Ramos, acknowledged Friday that she faces an “enormous” challenge in delivering public security for the city and promised justice in femicide cases.

“May it be heard loudly and from afar: There will be no impunity in the matter of femicides,” Olga Sanchez Cordero, Lopez Obrador’s interior secretary, said the same day.

Women's red shoes are piled up in the Zocalo where they were placed by people to protest violence against women in Mexico City, Saturday, Jan. 11, 2020. (AP)

Violence against women is a problem that well predates the current government. In the 1990s and early 2000s, Ciudad Juarez was notorious for the unpunished killings and disappearances of hundreds of women and girls. Today activists often point to the State of Mexico, the country’s most populous, as a flashpoint for femicides.

Voices of Absence

Sacrisanta Mosso Rendon wore a T-shirt with the names and photograph of her 17-year-old daughter, Karen, and 12-year-old son, Erik. Karen was raped and murdered at their house in Ecatepec, State of Mexico in 2016, she said, and Erik was also home at the time and was strangled.

Mosso, who now leads the activist group Voices of Absence, said the killer was caught, but sentenced to just five years. She called for tougher sentences in the few femicide cases that are actually solved — the near-total impunity for killings of women reflects a broader pattern of crimes generally going unpunished in Mexico.

“Unfortunately women are not safe anywhere,” Mosso said. “Governments come, governments go, and we remain in the same situation because there is no progress.”

But Chauvet, the artist, said that even if concrete results are scant so far, this and the other demonstrations are turning what was once a taboo subject into an issue of national public concern.

“Even though it would seem there is no immediate change, I think there is, or rather that eventually there will be,” she said.
Source: AP

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Climate and Environment

‘We’re building an army’: Jane Fonda caps off weeks of climate protest in D.C.

Actress Jane Fonda leads a march to join the “Fire Drill Friday” climate change rally at the U.S. Capitol in Washington. Fonda was joined by Golden Globe winner Joaquin Phoenix and Academy Award winner Susan Sarandon and Martin Sheen. (Shawn Thew/EPA-EFE)

By 

Sarah Kaplan 

Jan. 10, 2020 at 3:13 p.m. MST

Clad in her signature red hat and coat, clenched fist raised high, Jane Fonda saluted the sea of chanting people who had gathered for her final “Fire Drill Friday” this week. She cheered as 147 of them were arrested on the steps of the Capitol building. And then she marched down Pennsylvania Avenue to the Chase Bank branch at the junction of Seventh Street SE where environmentalist Bill McKibben and about two dozen fellow activists had staked out in protest of the bank’s financing of oil and gas companies.

“Move your money, Chase, or we’ll move ours,” the outside demonstrators shouted, as Metropolitan Police filed into the bank to apprehend McKibben and nine others. “Fossil fuels have got to go!”

It was a climactic end to the two-time Academy Award winner and longtime activist’s weekly protest in Washington. But it was also the start, organizers said, of broader movement and a more aggressive push against financial institutions’ ties to the fossil fuel industry.

Since October, each Fire Drill Friday installment has featured a rotating cast of experts, activists and Fonda’s celebrity friends giving speeches on environmental issues. And each one has ended the same way: with Capitol Police strapping zip ties around participants’ wrists and charging them with obstruction.

'The world is at stake’: Jane Fonda moves to D.C. to fight climate change

0:21 / 1:58

Inspired by Greta Thunberg and millions of youths, Jane Fonda said she has moved to the nation’s capital for four months to rally against climate change. (Luis Velarde/The Washington Post)

But, fueled by the power of Fonda’s celebrity and a growing sense of urgency about the warming planet, the campaign has exploded in size and scope. Barely two dozen people attended Fonda’s first protest. On Friday, at a rally targeting the financial sector, she spoke to what looked like 500 protesters: mothers carrying infants, college students in pink hats, octogenarians like Fonda who brought their own stools to sit on as they shouted “Green New Deal” into the chilly January air.

“We’re building an army, folks,” Fonda proclaimed.

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During the rally, actors Joaquin Phoenix and Martin Sheen spoke alongside indigenous activist Tasina Smith, community banker Kat Taylor and writer Naomi Klein.

“Fire Drill Fridays has created this entry point, an on-ramp, for people sitting in their homes desperate to do something,” Klein said.

Among the crowd was Fran Cohen, a 68-year-old fan of Fonda’s who spent her youth marching for various political causes. But she hadn’t attended a protest in decades — until she began attending Fire Drill Fridays.

“That Jane moved here to do this, I had to come to say thank you to her,” Cohen said. “And now I want to keep doing it.”

All told, organizers said, more than 1,000 people have attended the weekly events and roughly 600 of them have been arrested for the cause, including Sheen, Phoenix and Klein this Friday.

“We didn’t know what to expect when we started,” Fonda said. “But I think people were waiting to be given something do, and [Fire Drill Friday] was the right thing at the right time.

“We wanted to move people who were concerned but not active into the activism column, and I think we succeeded,” she said.

Protesting fossil fuel companies, activists stand on the U.S. Capitol steps during Fire Drill Friday on Jan. 10. (Jim Watson/AFP/Getty Images)

Fonda flies back to Los Angeles this weekend to begin filming the seventh season of her Netflix show “Grace and Frankie.” But her protest will continue in a new form, Greenpeace Executive Director Annie Leonard said. The group is helping to organize monthly rallies in California, and it is about to roll out a website with resources to help people organize events in their hometowns.

When, during her “Late Show” appearance on Monday, Fonda promoted a helpline that people could text for assistance planning their own climate protest, she got more than 3,000 responses.

Meanwhile, McKibben’s organization, 350.org, along with Sierra Club and a slate of other environmental groups, is launching a campaign calling on financial institutions to stop funding fossil-fuel projects. According to a report by the Rainforest Action Network, banks have provided nearly $2 trillion in financing for fossil-fuel projects since 2016. JPMorgan Chase was the largest contributor, providing $196 billion for coal mining, fracking and oil and gas projects from the deep ocean to the Arctic.

McKibben’s group has a list of more than 1,000 bank branches they aim to target in the coming months. “This marks an escalation of Fire Drill Friday,” he told the rally, speaking over a phone line from inside the Chase branch. “We’ve got to be here because ... they are the ones paying for the carbon bomb.”

“The two centers of power in this world are political and financial,” he said in an interview later. On Friday, he said, climate activists took their fight to both places.

Actress and activist Jane Fonda, right, cheers other protesters outside the U.S. Capitol in Washington during a protest on climate change on Jan. 10. (Jacquelyn Martin/AP)

Fonda has activist credentials that go back to the 1970s, when she rallied for working mothers and marched against the Vietnam War. But she has said her climate awakening came after reading about 16-year-old Swedish activist Greta Thunberg, whose weekly strike in front of her country’s parliament sparked a global youth movement.

“She realized what was happening and that this was barreling at us like an engine,” Fonda told The Washington Post in October. “It rocked me, because I knew that Greta had seen the truth. And the urgency came into my DNA the way it hadn’t before.”

She moved to Washington and got a permit to protest on the Capitol’s southeast lawn. She reached out to leaders of Black Lives Matter and the Sunrise Movement and began lobbying her Hollywood friends to fly out. She organized online “teach-ins” at which scientists would explain various aspects of climate change.

And she knew she wanted to get arrested, because nothing else seemed to be working.

“We’ve been petitioning and writing and marching and begging the government and they don’t hear,” Fonda said in an interview with Stephen Colbert on “The Late Show” earlier this week. “That’s why we’re engaging in civil disobedience.”

Fonda herself has been detained five times for public disturbance. After her fourth arrest — when she was held overnight at D.C. jail — she said an officer told her, “There‘s gotta be better ways to call attention to your cause. Don’t come back.”

“I think she’s right,” Fonda told The Post at the time. “My bones hurt.”

Nevertheless, on Dec. 20, the day before her 82nd birthday, she was detained again.

Washington’s young climate activists, many of whom have been protesting on Fridays for more than a year, say they welcome Fonda and the influx of older demonstrators who have followed her.

“It’s nice to see so many parents and grandparents,” said 17-year-old Jerome Foster II, who is in his 11th month of striking outside the White House. “People who can make a difference.”

Although young people hold the moral authority on climate issues, he added, it’s helpful to be joined by activists with bank accounts, driver’s licenses and the ability to vote. “And it’s cool they can get arrested,” he said with a grin.

Sarah Kaplan

Sarah Kaplan is a science reporter covering news from around the nation and across the universe. She previously worked overnights on The Washington Post's Morning Mix team. Follow

These Women Organised A Protest & Chanted Outside Of Harvey Weinstein’s Trial
MEKITA RIVAS 11 JANUARY 2020

CHILEAN WOMEN PROTEST RAPE CULTURE

Legal proceedings against Harvey Weinstein are now underway, and one group of women wanted to make it clear precisely what the disgraced film producer is standing trial for. On Friday, donning all black, protestors showed up at the New York City courthouse where Weinstein’s long-awaited criminal trial is taking place.

“It’s not my fault — not where I was, not how I dress,” the women chanted, as seen in video captured by Refinery29. “The rapist is you,” was another rallying cry.

The flash mob was inspired by feminist Chilean group LasTesis and was intended to show support for and allyship with the women who have come forward against Weinstein, in addition to the millions of sexual assault survivors across the world.

Based out of Valparaíso, Chile, LasTesis wrote the song “Un Violador en Tu Camino (A Rapist in Your Path)” that quickly became a protest song for anti-sexual assault demonstrations everywhere, from New York City to Mexico to France.

Weinstein faces five counts of predatory sexual assault, criminal sex acts, and rape. He could potentially receive a life sentence if convicted of the predatory sexual assault charges. It’s also legally significant because the prosecution would be able to establish a history of predatory behavior that goes beyond the two women in this specific case.

Before the trial began, prosecutors introduced a motion in a closed proceeding to include the testimony of three unnamed women who have accused Weinstein, which would be in addition to the two women named in the indictment.

That was a critical development because while the most recent count of Weinstein’s accusers totals more than 80, a majority of those claims fall outside the statute of limitations.

Several women have chosen to sue Weinstein in civil courts to possibly reach a settlement and to avoid the media scrutiny that tends to come from these high-profile criminal cases. In addition to the charges in New York, Weinstein is currently facing multiple sex crimes charges in Los Angeles.

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Women staged a flash protest outside the courthouse where Harvey Weinstein is being tried

By Ryan Prior, CNN "It's not my fault — not where I was, not how I dress," a female flash mob chanted outside a Manhattan criminal court on Friday.

Friday, January 10th 2020, 7:50 PM EST

By Ryan Prior, CNN

"It's not my fault — not where I was, not how I dress," a female flash mob chanted outside a Manhattan criminal court on Friday.

Inspired by protests against sexual violence that emerged last year in Chile, dozens of women, clad in black with glints of red, gathered outside the courthouse where former film producer Harvey Weinstein is being tried for allegedly raping a woman in 2013 and sexually assaulting another woman in 2006.

"And the rapist is you!" they chanted, before going on to point fingers at police, courts, judges and President Donald Trump for contributing to a culture in which sexual assault survivors feel their voices are don't matter.

Weinstein has pleaded not guilty to two counts of predatory sexual assault, two counts of rape and one count of a criminal sexual act. The trial is still in the jury selection phase.

'Un Violador en Tu Camino'

Friday's demonstration in New York was inspired by a Chilean protest chant that went viral around the world.

In Spanish, the chant is titled "Un Violador en Tu Camino," which translates to "A Rapist in Your Path."

Lastesis, an all-female art collective from Valparaso, Chile, posted videos on its Instagram page of massive groups of women chanting the protest anthem on Chilean streets in late November and early December.

When hundreds of women performed the chant in the streets of the Chilean capital of Santiago, it caught the eye of New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who tweeted in solidarity with the protesters.

At the New York courthouse on Friday, in choreographed motion to a driving drum beat, the women chanted in both English and Spanish.

Patriarchy is our judge that imprisons us at our birth

And our punishment is the violence you don't see

They repurposed the Chilean chant for an American audience, protesting the man whose alleged transgressions helped launch the #MeToo movement and an international reckoning about issues related to sexual assault.

"We're at this location today because it's very symbolic of everything that's happening in our justice system," said one of the protesters in a video interview obtained by CNN.

She goes on to say that "Harvey Weinstein and what he represents is so indicative of powerful men who feel like they can do anything that they want."

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Why the time to protest climate change is now

Scott Carbines January 11, 2020

All week, climate change protesters who planned on attending rallies across the country were demonised by authorities, commentators and other members of the public, but the time for action is now.

The horrendous, tragic and unprecedented bushfire crisis continues, with communities and emergency services facing more dangerous conditions the day that many protests were planned in capital and regional cities across the country.

Of course keeping people, animals and property safe and supporting those who need it most was, and is, the number one priority. That’s a given.

MORE OPINION: Scott Morrison is on a hiding to nothing over bushfires

Both the government and police said peaceful protests calling for urgent action on climate change, better funding of firefighters, and greater accountability from Scott Morrison should not go ahead.

In Victoria, North West Metro Region acting assistant commissioner Tim Hansen said the Melbourne rally planned for 6pm on Friday would deprive bushfire affected communities of police resources.

Climate Change protesters gathered in Melbourne following

 a catastrophic bushfire season. Picture: Ian Currie

“The timing of this protest probably could not be worse if we are serious about supporting the communities impacted by fire,” he said.

It’s the police and government who prioritise where to send their resources, though. And the truth is that they don’t want these protests anytime. Those before them have also been demonised.

It’s never the right time for a protest in the eyes of the establishment – especially when the masses are most angry and mobilised.


And as many pointed out on social media, neither the police or the state government asked people to stay at home on New Year’s Eve at the height of the crisis, cancel the cricket – or ask the casino to close, all of which required significant police resources, especially New Year’s celebrations in the city.

MORE OPINION: How good is Australia? Not good enough for a holiday, apparently

Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews shared the same view as the police during the week, saying during an interview with 3AW, “I know the science stacks up, so I don’t disagree with them on a range of different points they’d make. But, I tell you what, you lose me and you lose a lot of other fair-minded Victorians who believe in climate change when you have a protest when you’ve been told point blank you are diverting police resources … That’s how you lose people who formerly were with you, who actually believe in climate science and believe that some of the challenges we face these days are because of climate change.”Information about police resources was mixed. Picture: Ian Currie

But on Friday – the day of the protests – it was reported that, in fact, no force members would be pulled back from the bushfires to police the protest.

Again, of course keeping people safe amid awful conditions is the priority. No one is saying it shouldn’t be. But “lose people”? “Jeopardise support”? Really?

Lose people from what? They will become climate change deniers?

Jeopardise support from whom? The public, for real action on climate change? The government? They won’t take proper action?

This is how we’ve found ourselves in this mess.

MORE OPINION: Social media has changed the way we see bushfires forever

Political journalist Barrie Cassidy tweeted a video of the comments with his own take: “Yes. The protesters’ hearts are in the right place but their heads are not. The timing of this is counter-productive and plays into the hands of those who criticise them. So why do it now?”

Because people are angry now.

Because the world is watching now.

Because we need action on climate change now.

Climate protesters took to the rainy streets of Melbourne on Friday. Picture: Ian Currie

The critics will always be there, no matter what, and authorities will always attack protests.

If they hadn’t demonised protesters in the past, maybe they’d listen. If they took the science seriously, maybe we wouldn’t be in this position.

A lot of decisions led up to these protests; those made by the powerful in this country.

Protests are all people have when elections couldn’t be much further away.

This one isn’t a choice.

Australia has become the apocalyptic global example of climate change and the catastrophic natural disasters we will continue to see with increased frequency and scale if drastic action isn’t taken.

MORE OPINION: Politicians have no place on the frontline of bushfires

It shouldn’t take multiple deaths, losing more than a billion animals – unknown numbers of which are now extinct or facing extinction, thousands of homes lost, and immeasurable trauma and devastation for society and its leaders to wake up and take this seriously. And it’s still not clear they will.

Authorities don’t want protests. They don’t want international attention and criticism. But this might be what it takes for the end of the world as we know it to finally be taken seriously. And that’s the fault of the powerful attacking the protests, not the everyday Australians who have had enough.

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