Category Archives: Protest

Strike action over Macron’s pensions plan brings major disruption to France

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Hundreds of thousands across transport, school and energy sectors rally against government scheme to raise retirement age to 64

Hundreds of thousands of people have taken part in street demonstrations across France in a second round of coordinated strike action against Emmanuel Macron’s unpopular plan to raise the retirement age to 64.

Transport, schools and the energy sector were hit by strike action on Tuesday. Local buses, trains and trams in cities from Paris to Nice, as well as regional and high-speed trains across the country, were “very significantly disrupted”, according to rail operators.

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Peers deliver several blows to government’s anti-protest bill

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House of Lords votes against flagship public order bill on day when Extinction Rebellion protesters disrupted proceedings in chamber

A government bill aimed at cracking down on protest has suffered a number of setbacks in the House of Lords, setting the stage for a tense showdown between parliament’s two chambers.

Peers inflicted a number of defeats on the wide-ranging public order bill, which is aimed at curbing guerrilla tactics used by protest groups.

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Hongkongers in UK ask Suella Braverman to ditch ‘repressive’ anti-protest bill

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Exclusive: Letter to home secretary says bill echoes ‘dangerously broad laws’ that result in jailing of protesters

Hongkongers in Britain have called on Suella Braverman to reconsider controversial measures in her public order bill, which they likened to the repressive measures used to crack down on democratic opposition in their home city.

In a letter to the UK home secretary, aspects of the bill were described as “repressive measures that threaten to paralyse entire social movement” and posed a threat to their right to protest in Britain, including against Chinese communist repression in Hong Kong.

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‘We’re tired of being beaten’: protesters across US call for justice for Tyre Nichols

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After video of the brutal beating was released, people gathered to decry the violence and abuse of power

  • This article contains video depicting physical violence

Protests took place in multiple US cities late Friday after police released footage of Tyre Nichols’ fatal beating at the hands of Memphis police.

The video released late Friday shows several Memphis officers kicking Nichols repeatedly in the head, punching him in the face, and hitting him with a baton.

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US protests begin after police release footage of fatal beating of Tyre Nichols

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Demonstrations in Memphis and other US cities follow release of video and request from Nichols’s mother to ‘protest in peace’

Demonstrations quickly began Friday evening as Memphis police released footage of the fatal beating of Tyre Nichols.

The video released Friday showed Memphis officers kicking Nichols repeatedly in the head, punching him in the face, and hitting him with a baton. It also showed officers and medical personnel failing to intervene as Nichols could not sit upright after the assault.

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Celebrities call on UK banks to stop financing new oil, gas and coalfields

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Stephen Fry, Emma Thompson and Mark Rylance add their voices to Richard Curtis’s Make My Money Matter campaign

Famous names including Stephen Fry, Emma Thompson and Mark Rylance have joined activists and businesses in calling on the UK’s big five banks to stop financing new oil, gas and coal expansion.

Make My Money Matter, a campaign set up by Richard Curtis, the screenwriter, director and Comic Relief co-founder, has written to the chief executives of HSBC, Barclays, Santander, NatWest and Lloyds to urge these banks to “stop financing fossil fuel expansion”.

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Huge protest in Israel over rightwing government’s judicial changes

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Estimated 100,000 people took to streets in Tel Aviv in what protesters described as ‘fight for Israel’s destiny’

An estimated 100,000 people took to the streets of Tel Aviv on Saturday night in what protesters described as a “fight for Israel’s destiny” over sweeping judicial changes proposed by the new far-right government.

Israel’s longtime prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, returned to office last month at the helm of a coalition of conservative and religious parties that make up the most right-wing government in the country’s history.

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Police violently raid Lima university and shut Machu Picchu amid Peru unrest

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Students say they were beaten and thrown out of dormitories as authorities crack down on protests against president

Scores of police raided a Lima university on Saturday, smashing down the gates with an armoured vehicle, firing teargas and detaining more than 200 people who had come to the Peruvian capital to take part in anti-government protests.

Images showed dozens of people lying face down on the ground at San Marcos University after the surprise police operation. Students said they were pushed, kicked and hit with truncheons as they were forced out of their dormitories.

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Turkey condemns burning of Qur’an during far-right protest in Sweden

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Event in front of Turkish embassy will further inflame tensions between two countries

Turkey has condemned a demonstration involving the burning of Qur’ans in Sweden on Saturday, further inflaming tensions between the two countries amid Stockholm’s Nato bid.

The protest in Stockholm, which took place under heavy police protection in front of Turkey’s embassy, gathered about 100 people and a crowd of reporters, Agence France-Presse reported.

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Thousands march across Dartmoor to demand right to wild camp

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More than 3,000 people protest on estate of Alexander Darwall after his court victory ends right to wild camp in England

More than 3,000 people joined one of the UK’s largest ever countryside access protests on Saturday on the Dartmoor estate of a wealthy landowner who won a case ending the right to wild camp in England.

Groups of walkers, families, students and local people arrived by foot, shuttle bus and bike to the small Dartmoor village of Cornwood throughout the morning and then thronged for hours along moss- and ivy-draped lanes up on to the rugged, boulder-strewn moorland owned by the Conservative party donor and hedge fund manager Alexander Darwall.

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Iran: fears grow of security crackdown in Zahedan as anti-regime protests persist

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Checkpoints have sprung up and armed police flood the streets in the restive city where dozens of civilians were killed last year

Protesters say they fear Iran’s security services may be planning an assault in the city of Zahedan – the site of a deadly attack on civilians last year – as reports emerge that there are thousands of armed police on the streets.

Fifteen checkpoints have been put up in the past week across the city, the capital of Sistan-Baluchistan province, and several people have been detained by security forces.

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‘We feel betrayed’: Peruvians on anti-government protests

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Peruvians speak up about inequality as President Dina Boluarte declares state of emergency in Lima

Daniel, 32, an indigenous mine worker from the city of Abancay in the southern-central Apurimac province, did not participate in the mass protests that swept over Peru in 2020, after president Martín Vizcarra was ousted.

“But I did take part this time, in my town, to support my people, Indigenous people, who have been treated like garbage for centuries by the ‘elites’.”

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More than 1m march in France amid strikes over plan to raise retirement age

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Arrests at biggest march in Paris while train services halted and many primary schools close for the day

More than 1 million people have taken part in demonstrations across France as transport, schools and refineries were hit by strikes in protest at Emmanuel Macron’s unpopular plans to raise the retirement age by two years to 64.

The interior ministry said 1.12 million people protested nationwide on Thursday, with 80,000 taking part in the biggest rally in Paris. Trade unions said the figure was even higher.

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Iran to execute mentally ill man for allegedly burning Qur’an during protest

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Rights groups say Javad Rouhi, who was sentenced on charges including apostasy, was tortured so badly he can no longer speak

A 35-year-old man from a small village in northern Iran has been sentenced to death on charges including apostasy for allegedly burning a Qur’an and “insulting holy things” during the early phase of the protests triggered by the death in custody of Mahsa Amini.

Javad Rouhi has not been entitled to a lawyer of his choice in court and suffers from a severe mental illness. Human rights groups say he was tortured so terribly in a detention centre run by the feared Revolutionary Guards that he lost his ability to speak and walk, and became incontinent.

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Hong Kong police arrest six for selling ‘seditious’ book at lunar new year fair

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Six people accused of publishing book relating to 2019 protests in move critics say has spread terror

Police in Hong Kong have raided a lunar new year shopping fair and arrested six people for selling a “seditious” book related to the 2019 anti-government protests in a move critics say has spread “terror” just days before the celebrations.

National security officers accused three men and three women, aged between 18 and 62, of producing and publishing “a seditious book about a series of riots that occurred in Hong Kong from June 2019 to February 2020”, and selling it in a lunar new year stall in a shopping centre in Mong Kok, a bustling shopping district.

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Climate activists vow to take to streets to stop fossil fuel extraction

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‘Cease and desist’ letter signed by over 650,000 people sent to oil and gas CEOs follows removal of Greta Thunberg from coal protest

Hundreds of thousands of young climate activists have said they will continue “protesting in the streets in huge numbers” against fossil fuels, a day after Greta Thunberg was removed by German police from a condemned village atop a massive coal deposit.

In a cease-and-desist letter to the CEOs of fossil fuel companies, youth campaigners accuse them of a “direct violation of our human right to a clean, healthy, and sustainable environment, your duties of care, as well as the rights of Indigenous people”.

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Police to get new powers to shut down protests before disruption begins

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Plans aimed at preventing tactics such as ‘slow marching’ are part of Rishi Sunak’s public order crackdown

Police are to be given powers to shut down protests before any disruption begins under Rishi Sunak’s plans for a public order crackdown, which aim to prevent tactics such as “slow marching”.

Sparking outrage from civil liberties campaigners, the government said it would be laying an amendment to the public order bill to toughen its crackdown on “guerilla” tactics used mainly by environmental protesters.

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Health workers in Zimbabwe dismayed as law curbing strikes is passed

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Controversial bill to stop industrial action criticised as an already struggling sector fears losing more staff in a damaging brain drain

Zimbabwe’s health workers have criticised the government for passing contested legislation that outlaws any industrial action, saying it will worsen the sector’s already damaging brain drain.

The new Health Services Bill, which came into force on Tuesday, forbids health workers who are classified as an “essential” service from striking for more than three days. Those who do not comply face a fine or imprisonment of up to six months.

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Security tightened in Brazil amid fears of new attacks by Bolsonaro supporters

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Far-right activists loyal to ex-president have launched what the government called a botched coup attempt

Security has been stepped up in Brazil’s capital amid concerns that hardcore supporters of the former president Jair Bolsonaro were planning to mobilise again, three days after thousands of extremists launched what the government has called a botched coup attempt.

Reports in the Brazilian media said far-right activists had summoned “a mega nationwide protest to retake power” on Wednesday afternoon. On Tuesday night, members of the national public security force in black SUVs could be seen taking up position along the esplanade leading to Brazil’s congress, supreme court and presidential palace – the three buildings stormed and ransacked during Sunday’s turmoil in Brasília.

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Protesters gather at Iranian prison in attempt to stop ‘imminent executions’

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Alarm raised after two men found guilty of running over police officer are moved to solitary confinement

Protesters have gathered outside a prison near the Iranian capital in an attempt to prevent the rumoured imminent execution of two young detainees found guilty of running over a police officer in a car during protests in November.

Footage posted on social media showed the mother of one of the men, 22-year-old Mohammad Ghobadlou, pleading for her son outside Rajaei-Shahr prison in Karaj, a satellite city west of Tehran. She said it had been established that her son had not been at the scene when the police officer died.

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