The authorities have stopped 500 vehicles outside the French capital ahead of an anti-mandate protest

shared via RT, Al Jazeera…

French police say they intercepted around 500 vehicles trying to enter Paris as part of an anti-mandate ‘Freedom Convoy’ protest on Saturday.

❗️Paris now: tensions high as thousands protest COVID restrictions, Freedom Convoy reaches the French capital. pic.twitter.com/065gbLY488

— RT (@RT_com) February 12, 2022

#France 🇫🇷 From every corners of France people are joining the Convoi de la Liberté en route to Paris.

#TruckersForFreedom2022 #FreedomConvoy2022#ConvoidelaLiberteFrance #EuropeConvoy #ConvoyFrance pic.twitter.com/ceyAkWm7ku

— European Freedom Convoy 2022 🚛 (@EuropeConvoy) February 11, 2022

12 Feb 2022

Al Jazeera…

French police fired tear gas at demonstrators on the Champs Elysees avenue in Paris on Saturday shortly after a “Freedom Convoy” protesting against COVID-19 restrictions made it into the capital.

Cars carrying protesters managed to get through police checkpoints in central Paris to snarl traffic around the Arc de Triomphe monument.…

It’s not just in France that such protests are brewing. Dozens of trucks and other vehicles, from tractors to a car towing a caravan arrived in The Hague on Saturday as part of a “freedom convoy”, blocking an entrance to the historic parliamentary complex.

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Ahead of the planned protest, police deployed thousands of officers, water cannons, and, for the first time since the Yellow Vest protests in late 2018, armored personnel carriers. An order was issued prohibiting the protests in Paris over fears that the demonstration could result in “public order disturbances.” Courts sided with the authorities, rejecting two appeals against the ban.

Paris Police Chief Didier Lallement said the authorities had dozens of tow trucks at their disposal that would help “put an end to any blockage.” Speaking to France 2 TV on Friday, Prime Minister Jean Castex warned that the French government would be “very firm” should the protesters “block traffic or if they try to block the capital.” Castex added that while the “right to demonstrate and to have an opinion are a constitutionally guaranteed right in our republic and in our democracy,” that right does not apply to blocking traffic.

#France 🇫🇷 Freedom Convoy 🇫🇷
🇫🇷 Convoi de la Liberté 🇫🇷

Motorhomes from the freedom convoy are escorted by the The Motorized Violent Action Repression Brigades (BRAV-M) out of the Champs-Elysées to then be fined.#ConvoidelaLiberte #convoisdelaliberte #ConvoiFrance2022 pic.twitter.com/e2FNs5jITI

— European Freedom Convoy 2022 🚛 (@EuropeConvoy) February 12, 2022

The protesters insist they did not intend to obstruct the roads, and were merely planning to join Saturday’s anti-mandate protest. One activist told France 24 that the order infringes on their right to demonstrate.

Modeling their movement after the Canadian truckers who have been protesting against vaccine mandates in downtown Ottawa for nearly two weeks, hundreds of people from Lille, Strasbourg, Chateaubourg, and other cities set off for Paris, with hundreds of cars, motorhomes, and vans joining the convoy. A total of 3,300 vehicles are believed to be taking part.

READ MORE: Paris braces for ‘Freedom Convoy’ (VIDEOS)

The protesters are calling on the French government to ditch the vaccine passes, which people are required to present if they want to access public spaces. Rising energy prices are another hot topic with the demonstrators.

Speaking to Ouest-France newspaper on Friday, President Emmanuel Macron acknowledged there was “fatigue” over the Covid restrictions. Macron said he “understood and respected” the anger felt by some sections of society, but called on his fellow countrymen and women to exercise the “utmost calm.”

via Human Wrongs Watch By Angelo Louw*

2 February 2022 (Greenpeace International)* — When Namibia declared its independence in 1990, it officially marked the end of colonialism on the African continent. But, while most African nations have been free of European rule for a number of decades now, it seems that the power dynamics have only really changed in principle.  

School children in Ghana look over plastic waste © David Tesinsky

In 1960, the United Nations (UN) General Assembly adopted the Declaration on the Granting of Independence to Colonial Countries and Peoples, known also as the Declaration on Decolonization.

This resolution solemnly proclaimed the necessity of bringing colonialism in all its forms and manifestations to a speedy and unconditional end.

Herein lies the problem. The assumption that statehood is the be all and end all to decolonisation is short-sighted and stifling to any real progress. Granted, a country’s independence is a massive milestone, all considered; however, it simply cannot end there.

see also> While Exxon Touts Net-Zero Lies, its Huge Plastics Complex Goes Online in Texas Jan 2022

The continued exploitative relationship between countries in the global majority and their former colonisers erodes the foundation of their liberty. There are many “forms and manifestations” in which colonialism still lingers right here on the African continent.

Be it the fact that 14 African countries continue to pay a form of “colonial tax” to France, or that Spanish fishing vessels see nothing wrong with looting our waters. These old colonial habits are very hard to break; the convenience of the West always seems to take precedence over ours.

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Take, for example, the way that countries like the United States (US) scrambled to dump their plastic waste in Africa and other Asian countries after China pulled the plug on their ludicrous arrangement of shipping almost all of its waste there for decades.

Continue reading “#PlasticTreaty: Stop Exploiting African and Other Global Majority Countries with ‘Waste Colonialism’”

Freedom Convoy Truckers Vote to Defy Justin Trudeau — Government Threatens Arrests — LIVE-FEED VIDEO – Nwo Report February 11, 2022

Source: Jim Hoft

The Freedom Convoy Truckers voted on Friday to defy Justin Trudeau and the government’s 7 PM deadline and will continue their protest on the Windsor Bridge.

The government is threatening to clear the bridge, fine the truckers and take their licenses.

Ottawa temps to drop to -22C tonight

The Daily Mail reported. .. Protesters blocking the Ambassador Bridge on Friday night decided to defy a deadline of 7pm to clear the route, setting themselves up for a showdown with police after Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said that ‘everything is on the table’ to end the Freedom Convoy demonstrations after speaking directly with President Joe Biden.

Canada Live Updates: Injunction to Clear Key Bridge at U.S. Border Takes Effect

A Canadian court on Friday issued the injunction to end the blockade at the key bridge connecting Windsor, Ontario with Detroit, setting up a potential showdown between police and protesters when the 7pm deadline arrives.

Ontario Superior Court Chief Justice Geoffrey Morawetz granted the injunction on Friday evening, which will last for 10 days and means that blocking the bridge is unlawful.

Despite Court Order, Canada Protesters Are Still Blocking Key Border Bridge

New York Swines

Doug Ford, the premier of Ontario, earlier on Friday said his cabinet will enact orders to make it illegal to block borders and highways and will impose CA $100,000 ($78,000) fines and prison terms for those who defy them.

Protesters seemed undeterred at critical bridge to US hours past a deadline set by a Canadian judge

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Trudeau claimed that the protest is being fueled by political activists in the United States, and said that more than 50 percent of donations to campaigns to support the protesters came from the U.S., which he referred to as ‘foreign financing’ of the protests.

TRENDING: ’80 percent of serious cases are Vaccinated’

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https://liverpoolanarchist.wordpress.com

Contents: Cost of Living | Food Co-ops | Bread Riot | Community Cupboards

The Cost of Living Crisis

Featured in Issue XIX – February 2022

In Britain, the working class is being attacked on all sides. From rapidly rising inflation rates and energy bills, to benefit cuts and the rise in the National Insurance tax. Locally, the Labour-run Wirral Council is implementing severe austerity measures, targeting libraries, leisure centres and park maintenance.

This problem is global, a crisis of capitalism. This is just one reason we don’t think a change in government is a viable solution. Instead, the way to turn the tide is through a mass movement of resistance. Clearly no such movement currently exists in Britain, but we saw oil workers’ strikes turn into a revolt in Kazakhstan in January, demonstrating how quickly things can change.

Such a movement could emerge around three tactics. Firstly, we could see a mass non-payment campaign, like the Poll Tax rebellion of the 90s or student rent strikes in more recent years.

Secondly, we could see a campaign of direct action against those responsible for these attacks on our class, using similar tactics to Extinction Rebellion, Palestine Action or Insulate Britain, but focused on businesses, and demanding a reduction in prices.

For example, the Stanlow Oil Refinery, run by Shell in Ellesmere Port, has been the site of several blockades due to rising fuel costs since the early 2000s.

Finally, and most probably, we could see a strike wave, in an attempt by workers to keep their wages in line with inflation. Large and successful strikes can have a domino effect.

In the absence of any of these campaigns, the rest of this issue is focused on direct action and mutual aid regarding food.

We certainly don’t think these things will reverse the trend of falling wages and rising prices, nevermind bring us much closer to transforming society, but it might help people survive, and rekindle a sense of solidarity in our neighbourhoods.

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11th February 2022

‘Freedom for the builder is jeopardy for the residents. Freedom for the boss is exploitation for the worker. Freedom for the driver is death to the pedestrian. Freedom for the food business is sickness for the consumer. Freedom for the water company is rivers full of sewage. Freedom for the oil company is an uninhabitable planet’.

It’s not us the government intends to liberate. It’s the asset strippers, money launderers, property developers and oligarchs on whose behalf it operates., published in the Guardian 2^nd February 2022

To adapt Ronald Reagan’s adage, the nine most terrifying words in the English language are “I’m from the government, and I’ll set you free.” Every time this government says freedom, it means freedom for someone other than you.

Seeking to distract us from his own pursuit of freedom during lockdown, this week Boris Johnson announced what he calls a Brexit Freedoms Bill. Its purpose is to accelerate the removal of EU rules from our legislation, and to “cut £1 billion of red tape for UK businesses”.

Prime Minister pledges Brexit Freedoms Bill to cut EU red tape – GOV.UK

This announcement happened to fall on the first day of the final stage of the inquiry into the Grenfell Tower catastrophe, which will investigate the role of government. It will explore the long history of “cutting red tape” that is likely to have led to this disaster.

Continue reading “‘Freedoms Bill’ in UK is for bosses, asset strippers, money launderers, property developers and oligarchs -By George Monbiot”