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Thousands of rural workers in Honduras have occupied land as part of a dispute with large landowners and the government.
The coordinated invasions took place in several locations across the country, activists and officials say.
Farmers groups say the areas taken over are public lands where poor farmers have the right to grow food under Honduran law.
The government said the seizures were illegal and targeted private holdings.
The director of the National Agrarian Institute, Pedro Ham, said the coordinated occupations were politically motivated and aimed at destabilising the government of President Porfirio Lobo.
Violent disputes over farmland are common in Honduras, with dozens of rural workers killed in recent years.Organisations representing rural workers say successive governments have failed to fulfil promises to distribute farmland using agrarian reform legislation.
They also accuse the authorities of acting in the interests of large landowners.Thousands of Honduran farm workers Wednesday launched a coordinated land occupation, squatting on 12,000 hectares nationwide and fueling new tensions over land rights, authorities said.More than 3,500 families started squatting on 29,652 acres of farmland in the departments of Yoro, Cortes, Santa Barbara, Intibuca, Comayagua, Francisco Morazan, El Paraiso and Choluteca on Tuesday — the International Peasant Day of Struggle.
Leaders of the farmers in the impoverished Central American nation say they are worried authorities will violently kick them off the land they are occupying.National Agrarian Institute chief Cesar Ham blamed leftist lawmaker Juan Barahona at least in part for the land use tensions.
Thursday, April 14, 2011
Embattled Honduran Radio Station Reaches First Birthday
Global Revolution brings you live stream video coverage from independent journalists on the ground at nonviolent protests around the world. The channel officially started on September 17, 2011 with occupation of Liberty Square in downtown Manhattan, NYC and was the first livestream channel to cover occupy wall street protests. Since then the global revolution tv collective helped start countless of live streaming channels in all the
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Live video coverage of worldwide revolution for equality. from #tahrir to #15m to #ows Join us live & support our work bringing live resistance video from the streets to the entire worldspreading around the world.
Sunday, April 15 2012 Occupy Wall Street First they silenced our uprising with a media blackout… then they smashed our encampments with midnight paramilitary raids… and now they’re threatening to neutralize our insurgency with an insidious campaign of donor money and co-optation. This counter-strategy worked to kill off the Tea Party’s outrage and turn it into a puppet of the Republican Party. Will the same happen with Occupy Wall Street? Will our insurgency turn into the Democrats’ Tea Party pet? Tactical Briefing #29 – Battle for the Soul of Occupy
Alright you jammers, occupiers and Springtime dreamers,
It’s up to you to decide if our movement goes the way of Paris ’68, the dust bin of could-have-been-insurrections, or something more daring, more inspiring, something not yet dreamed.
Will you allow Occupy to become a project of the old left, the same cabal of old world thinkers who have blunted the possibility of revolution for decades? Will you allow MoveOn, The Nation and Ben & Jerry to put the brakes on our Spring Offensive and turn our struggle into a “99% Spring” reelection campaign for President Obama?
We are now in a battle for the soul of Occupy… a fight to the finish between the impotent old left and the new vibrant, horizontal left who launched Occupy Wall Street from the bottom-up and who dreams of real democracy and another world.
Whatever you do, don’t allow our revolutionary struggle to fizzle out into another lefty whine and clicktivist campaign like has happened so many times in the past. Let’s Occupy the clicktivists and crash the MoveOn party. Let’s #DEFENDOCCUPY and stop the derailment of our movement that looms ahead.
for the wild, Culture Jammers HQ
OccupyWallStreet.org / Tactical Briefing #25, #26, #27 and #28 / Check out Oakland occupier Mike King’s take on MoveOn’s 99% Spring
P.S. For Adbusters #102, we’re looking for intimate portraits of life inside art/activist/visionary communes worldwide. Also, a lucid, incisive critique of the continuing anti-Palestine bias at the NY Times. Plus inspiring, strategic takes on the future of Occupy. Send to editor@adbusters.org.
Según apuntan algunos medios, como ElPaís.com , el rey podría haber sufrido el percance mientras se encontraba “cazando elefantes”. Si bien este aspecto no ha sido confirmado por la Casa Real, las fuentes consultadas reconocieron que “en esos sitios suelen realizarse esas prácticas”.
Además, es conocido el interés del monarca por la caza. En 2005, se supo que Juan Carlos de Borbón estuvo de caza en Botsuana unos días después de que 17 militares españoles fallecieran en Afganistan tras estrellarse el helicóptero en el que viajaban.
Esta mañana, los términos ‘Botswana’ (nombre en inglés del país), ‘el rey’, ‘borbones’ y ‘Casa Real’ ya son Trending Topic en Twitter . Se da la circunstancia de que el nieto mayor del Rey, Felipe Juan Froilán, se encuentra también ingresado en otra clínica a consecuencia de un accidente con una escopeta.
Gran aficionado a la vela y la caza
Otros fuentes señalan que las heridas no eran del todo ‘accidental’, dado que el rey se cayó al huirse de su victima. Otros comentarios en Twitter señalaron que la caida fue causado por un elefante blanco que casi se alcanzó ea ‘Rey matador’ al agonizarse,
El elefante es un especie amanezado y en principio protegidocontra la caza ilegal en Botswana.
La vela y la caza son las dos grandes aficiones de don Juan Carlos tras abandonar el esquí después sufrir una aparatosa caída. El Monarca está considerado como un excelente cazador y posee varios récords. Durante años ha acudido a los cotos de Alberto Alcocer, Samuel Flores, Isidoro Álvarez y Florentino Azuaya. En los últimos tiempos es habitual que acuda a La Encomienda de Mudela, en Ciudad Real, donde la especialidad es la perdiz roja.
Tras su últimas lesiones y para poder soportar las largas jornada de caza, se ha hecho fabricar un silla especial ergonómica con respaldo y brazos para que pueda descansar.
El ‘accidente’ occurió en el anivertsario de la Repúblic Española
El rey tiene una espléndida colección de escopetas. Su marca preferida es Kemen.
Desde hace varios meses el rey acumula varios contratiempos por sus problemas de salud, que han provocado todo tipo de comentarios sobre su continuidad .
En las próximas horas, se hará público un parte médico más detallado”.
Se da la circunstancia de que el nieto mayor del Rey, Felipe Juan Froilán, se encuentra también ingresado en otra clínica a consecuencia de un accidente con una escopeta.
Away from its busy capital city and famous canal, Panama is one of the world’s most ecologically diverse nations.
Yet huge new hydroelectric dam projects now underway are seeing pristine rivers damned and virgin rainforest flooded. The government says it is vital for economic growth, big business is cashing in and even the UN has awarded carbon credits on the basis that the resultant energy will be ‘sustainably’ produced.
But for the indigenous Ngabe people – whose homes are vanishing under water – it is a catastrophe. So they have been fighting back. Filmmaker Glenn Elis went to Panama for People & Power to find out more.
”This is awesome. It shows when the people DO STAND UP they have more power and win against the corrupt bankers and politicians of a country. Iceland is forgiving and erasing the mortgage debt of the population. They are putting the bankers and politicians on the “Bench of the Accused.” Which means I assume they are putting them on trial for corruption.
Now the rest of people of the world need to start doing the same thing. We all need to stand up and against all the corruption and fraud of the banks and politicians that are puppets of the banks and corporations.” Sherrie
The country’s banks forgave loans equivalent to 13% of gross domestic product, according to a Bloomberg article Richard cites. The equivalent in the United States would be about $1.95 trillion of mortgage debt writedowns. Icelandic banks agreed to forgive all mortgage debt over 110% of a home’s value. “I think I may have been one of the first commentators with a wide audience to point out how relatively well Iceland was doing.” What he didn’t mention, though his commentator “iInfoliner” did, is that the credit rating agency Fitch upgraded Iceland’s debt to investment grade last week. Moreover, according to the Business Week story, the country can now borrow in U.S. dollars at a mere 4.77%. Compare this to Greece at 35.98% and Portugal at 12.77%; even Spain and Italy are a little over 5% (the FT link has no rates listed for Ireland, which has no 10-year bond).The moral of the story is that a different approach to dealing with the banks is necessary. http://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/02/24/1067831/-Iceland-Solves-Banking-Crisis-by-Indicting-Bankers-Forcing-Mortgage-Relief
C0rrection., Iceland had to forgive just a part of mortgage debt
The romantic view on Iceland
There is one misunderstanding apparent when Iceland and Ireland are compared. People seem to sometimes think that Icelandic people said “Oh, hell no! We’re not going to save your arses, you just have to go bankrupt and that’s the end of it” to the banks. Some people make a gesture to Icesave referendum to justify that point of view. Furthermore, the “splendid” 110% debt write-off that was passed by the parliament is considered to a fantastic success and shows on top of that the will of the people to simply get the banks to understand that debts that cannot or should not be repaid, won’t be repaid.
Sorry, there is a bit of romanticism in this story.
First, the Icelandic government tried absolutely everything it could possibly do in 2008 to save the banks. It was Iceland’s “fool’s luck” to have allowed the banks to grow up to 1,000% of GDP that made the government rescue impossible. There was no other choice than to let the banks go bankrupt, even though it has been painted in the foreign media as “Iceland chose to let the banks go bankrupt instead of shoring up their broken pieces.”
Second, the Icesave agreement was forcibly passed through the parliament by the government. It was the president that stopped the bill to become a law after the world of bloggers had been on fire for months while the public anger against the government ascended day by day. More importantly, the Icesave dispute had nothing to do with Icelandic “banksters” as they were called by that time. It was and is an international quarrel regarding how to interpret the EU/EEA treaty concerning deposit insurance schemes and passport-banking within the EU. Icesave wasn’t and isn’t a question of bailing out the banks.
Third, the 110% debt write-off that was introduced by the government hasn’t been that successful and certainly not very influencing in the overall scheme of things.
Hanged-Man-Project! :-summary of the Icelandic revolution: -resignation of the whole government -nationalization of the bank. -referendum so that the people can decide over the economic decisions. -incarcerating the responsible parties -rewriting of the constitution by its peopleHave we been informed of this through the media? Has any political program in radio or TV commented on this? No! The Icelandic people have been able to show that there is a way to beat the system and has given a democracy lesson to the world ...See MoreWall Photos ICELAND. No news from Iceland?… why? How come we hear everything that happens in..
By: RePeace
ICELAND. No news from Iceland?… why? How come we hear everything that happens in Egypt but no news about what’s happening in Iceland:
In Iceland, the people has made the government resign, the primary banks have been nationalized, it was decided to not pay the debt that these created with Great Britain and Holland due to their bad financial politics and a public assembly has been created to rewrite the constitution.
And all of this in a peaceful way. A whole revolution against the powers that have created the current global crisis. This is why there hasn’t been any publicity during the last two years: What would happen if the rest of the EU citizens took this as an example? What would happen if the US citizens took this as an example.
This is a summary of the facts:
2008. The main bank of the country is nationalized.
The Krona, the currency of Iceland devaluates and the stock market stops. The country is in bankruptcy
2008. The citizens protest in front of parliament and manage to get new elections that make the resignation of the prime minister and his whole government.
The country is in bad economic situation.
A law proposes paying back the debt to Great Britain and Holland through the payment of 3,500 million euros, which will be paid by the people of Iceland monthly during the next 15 years, with a 5.5% interest.
2010. The people go out in the streets and demand a referendum. In January 2010 the president denies the approval and announces a popular meeting.
In March the referendum and the denial of payment is voted in by 93%. Meanwhile the government has initiated an investigation to bring to justice those responsible for the crisis, and many high level executives and bankers are arrested. The Interpol dictates an order that make all the implicated parties leave the country.
In this crisis an assembly is elected to rewrite a new Constitution which can include the lessons learned from this, and which will substitute the current one (a copy of the Danish Constitution).
25 citizens are chosen, with no political affiliation, out of the 522 candidates. For candidacy all that was needed was to be an adult and have the support of 30 people. The constitutional assembly starts in February of 2011 to present the ‘carta magna’ from the recommendations given by the different assemblies happening throughout the country. It must be approved by the current Parliament and by the one constituted through the next legislative elections.
Debt write off was only partial
The 110% debt write-off was simply a measure that was offered to over-indebted households. It was very simple on the surface: if your mortgage was higher than 110% of the estimated market value of the property, you could have the debt written off down to the 110% mark.
The total debt that was written off based on this jubilee was 43.6 billion krona. On top of that came 6.2 billion due to “special measures”. In comparison, the debt that was written off due to illegal foreign-exchange-linked loans was 146.5 billion krona. In September 2008 (the last point in time where it is known how high the face value of household debt was) the debt of households was 1,890 billion krona (128% of GDP). The government induced debt write-off has been roughly 2.5% of the total debt of households. Is that meant to be a huge turning point? Give me a break! The indexed debt of households has in the meanwhile risen by a rough estimation of 200 billion ISK due to rise in consumer prices since 2008. This is not a typo.
Longer term view
The debt dynamics in the Icelandic economy are scary! The mortgage and financial system is built to collapse, it is an unmissable feature of the organisation of the system.
Shit on the system! Tögg: englishWhen Elections took place in Iceland one voter decided to use his rights to vote. Showed up at the voting station and literally took a dump on the political party system, the power abuse and the general democracy distortion, wiped his ass on the ballot, neatly folded it and slipped into the ballot box.HEHEHEThe video is here http://aftaka.rusl.org/tag/english/
“Femicide is an act of fear, of hate, of incompetence, omission, of cowardice and abuse. Not one more.”
Agnes Torres, a transsexual psychologist and gay rights activist, left her home in the central Mexican state of Puebla on her way to a party. The next day, her body was found in a gully, naked from the waist down. Her throat had been slit.
“Agnes’s case had major repercussions because she was an activist involved deeply in the struggle for our rights. But there are many other cases that no one has ever heard about,”
Torres was 28 years old and in the process of changing her identity in Mexico City, the only part of Mexico that has passed progressive laws such as the decriminalisation of abortion, same-sex marriage and a gender identity law http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=51861 allowing transgender people to change their gender and sex, under the left-leaning Democratic Revolution Party (PRD), which governs the capital.
Big demo against homophobia and femicide
…….The protesters, who according to news reports numbered between two hundred and one thousand, filled the central square with pictures of Torres, art, candles, and signs that read “La homosexualidad no es una enfermedad, la homofobia sí,” (Homosexuality is not a disease, homophobia is.) Members of the crowd also taped signs to the walls of the buildings that border the central square: “Exigimos justicia,” (We demand justice) “¿Cuántas más?” (How many more?) “No somos todas; faltan nuestras muertas,” (This isn’t all of us; our dead are missing.)
The crowd chanted “va caer, va caer, la homofobía va caer.” (It will fall, it will fall, homophobia will fall.) Instead of a minute of silence, the demonstrators had a minute of applause to remember and celebrate Torres’ life. After filling the square for two hours, the group marched to the state government offices in downtown Puebla.
Word of Torres’ death spread quickly through social media, allowing the protest to be organized within about 24 hours. On Monday night Twitter users were writing about plans for protests and memorials in other Mexican cities such as Xalapa and Guadalajara.
“People should know about her. #AgnesTorres she was a daughter, she was a friend, she was a professional, she was human being. She is no longer with us. She was murdered”
-@mtorch on Twitter
Messages were directed at politicians such as state governor Rafael Moreno Valle asking him to take action to prevent hate crimes in the state. Tweets expressed a range of emotions from grief to anger and indignation.
Angry comments on Twitter also centered around a user who tweeted that Torres had deserved to die. The account purported to belong to Juan Pablo Castro, a young man who had earlier in the week been forced to apologize for using a derogatory slang word for homosexuals at a political event for young people in the congress building in Mexico City. However the account tweeting about Agnes Torres contained a slight variation in spelling from the real Juan Pablo Castro’s account name (substituting a capital i for an l) leading many to believe that it was a case of stolen identity. The fake Castro account continued to tweet negative comments about Torres throughout the evening. Perhaps in response to the backlash against “Castro,” other politicians took to Twitter on Monday evening to condemn Torres’ murder.
Image
“Femicide is an act of fear, of hate, of incompetence, omission, of cowardice and abuse. Not one more.” Photo via @feminicidios on Twitter.
People attending the protest also tweeted that the body of César González Martínez, a gay man, had just been found in Momoxpan, Puebla, at 2 PM that afternoon. Some news outlets reported that including Agnes Torres, there had been three murders attributed to homophobia in Puebla so far in 2012; activist groups, some represented by Ibrahim Zamora and the organization “De Ser” (To Be), claimed that there have been six homicides of members of the gay community in Puebla so far this year.
According to the autopsy performed by the coroner, the cause of Torres’ death was hypovolemic shock caused by beheading with a sharp weapon. The autopsy was performed as part of the preliminary investigation into case number AP/406/2012/Atlixco. News reports also stated that part of the body had been burned.
In addition to working as an activist, Torres was a psychologist specializing in gender identity. She was 28 years old.
Thousands of rural workers in Honduras have occupied land as part of a dispute with large landowners and the government.
workers Wednesday launched a coordinated land occupation, squatting on 12,000 hectares nationwide and fueling new tensions over land rights, authorities said.More than 3,500 families started squatting on 29,652 acres of farmland in the departments of Yoro, Cortes, Santa Barbara, Intibuca, Comayagua, Francisco Morazan, El Paraiso and Choluteca on Tuesday — the International Peasant Day of Struggle.
The Free 