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Tag: demonstrations
At Least 9 Slain In Deadliest Day Of Three-Month Ukraine Crisis

At Least 9 Slain In Deadliest Day Of Three-Month Ukraine Crisis

By Victoria Butenko and Carol J. Williams, Los Angeles Times

KIEV, Ukraine — At least nine people were killed Tuesday in the deadliest day of the 3-month-old Ukrainian political crisis as security forces clashed with demonstrators and later stormed their encampment at Kiev’s Independence Square, local and international media reported.

Live television coverage carried by the Russia-24 news channel and nine live-streaming video cameras at the protest site and relayed by Ukrainian opposition broadcasters showed fiery explosions illuminating the grimy tent city in the capital after demonstrators ignored a warning from police to clear the square.

Clouds of smoke from fires and tear gas could be seen wafting over the chaotic scene, eerily backlit with an orange glow from the multitude of blasts, burning sandbags and smoldering debris.
Security forces began moving against the protesters’ camp with water cannons and stun grenades after giving them 15 minutes’ warning to leave.

But thousands of protesters remained in the square despite the caustic gas engulfing the nerve center of the uprising against President Viktor Yanukovich.

Opposition leaders told journalists in Kiev that they had requested negotiations with the government to defuse the escalating violence, and that Ukrainian leadership had agreed to meet with them Wednesday. However, police continued to set fire to the protesters’ tents and barricades well into the night.

Anti-government protesters have besieged the capital and key government buildings since late November, when Yanukovich unilaterally abandoned an association agreement in the works between Ukraine and the European Union in favor of maintaining close economic ties with Russia.

Opposition leaders had reported three deaths among protesters before the square was stormed about 8 p.m. An Interior Ministry report issued late Tuesday said two policemen had been killed in the clashes, as well as an official of the ruling Party of the Regions and six protesters.

Opposition lawmaker Oleksandr Bryginets reported three more protesters dead as a result of the later police attack on the square, although there was no immediate government confirmation of that higher toll.

Kiev officials appealed to protesters to stay away from the square “to avoid casualties” and authorities closed metro stations providing access to the area.

The surge in violence followed a short-lived amnesty agreement fulfilled over the weekend when authorities released the last 234 detained protesters and promised to drop criminal charges against them. In exchange, the opposition vacated Kiev City Hall and removed some barricades blocking traffic to the streets around the Supreme Rada, the national parliament.

Still vowing to press on with their demands for Yanukovich’s resignation and parliamentary action to curb presidential powers, protesters marched toward parliament Tuesday afternoon to press for restoration of the 2004 constitution that was amended after Yanukovich was elected in 2010.

The demonstration turned angry when the Party of the Regions postponed debate on the legislative changes demanded by the opposition and police tried to block the estimated 20,000-strong procession from entering the parliament building. Some managed to penetrate the security cordon around the legislature as well as the Party of the Regions headquarters, Kiev’s Channel 5 news reported.

Marchers pulled cobblestones from the streets to hurl at police, who tossed tear gas back at the protesters, Associated Press photos and BBC news coverage showed. Russia-24, which, like other Kremlin-controlled media, has cast the unrest in neighboring Ukraine as the actions of radicals, showed the escalation of violence under headlines proclaiming “revolution” and “massive disorder.”

The short-lived easing of tensions during the amnesty apparently fell victim to renewed signals from both sides that they intended to press on with their fight over the future of Ukraine.

AFP Photo/ Viktor Drachev

What Can Wall Street Protests Do Next? Debt Counseling

Here’s a new idea for “Occupy Wall Street,” as the demonstrations conclude their third week: the protesters and their allies should set up booths where people can get debt counseling, or help from a foreclosure lawyer (or any lawyer), or assistance in dealing with a health insurance company. It is increasingly clear that the wave of demonstrations across the country stem from a sense that the system isn’t working for the “99 percent” — and that some version of solidarity is vital.

There’s no reason for people to go it alone, without help, when they are trying work through the bureaucracy and paperwork of banks, health insurance companies, or even government benefits offices. And there’s a very good reason to offer such help within the context of broader demands, as Christopher Hayes once pointed out in an essay – published three years before the 2008 crash – that noted how many families were suffering under massive debt and foreclosure threats, and how liberals had failed to reach them.

Now there is another opportunity and a far greater need. Rather than just a mass airing of grievances, the “Occupy” demonstration sites could become an open-air help center – a place of practical protest. People who empathize with the crowds but can’t stay overnight, or think drum circles are silly, or just can’t stand big crowds of “liberals,” could use their skills and smarts to assist other people in dealing with their piles of debt or hidden bank fees or unfair insurance decisions. (Organizers and volunteers could also provide free primary health care, as an insurgent Democratic Senate candidate did before and during his primary campaign in Arkansas last year.) Even college kids could just offer time to print out a necessary document for someone – like everyone – who feels bewildered by one of the many corporate or public bureaucracies that sometimes seem designed to screw ordinary people.

As unions and other progressive groups join the march, it’s worth remembering why these ragged bands of amateurs have drawn so much attention: Frustration with a broken system is not the sole province of liberal activists or even just liberals, as the early Tea Party manifestations showed. And it’s not just “fatuous liberal journalists” (as one conservative writer put it) who are taking the crowds in the street seriously. But that would be much clearer if the demonstrations were resembled something more than a concert for change.

In an essay recently published on the Washington Post website, labor organizer and historian Richard Yeselson wrote that in order to become involved in political action, people must “think that the movement connects to their everyday lives, that if it succeeds, those lives will be changed in an obvious and better way.” His point deserves to be taken seriously, especially by labor leaders who must decide whether and how they can support the “Occupy” movement.

As unions and other progressive groups join the march, it’s worth remembering why a ragged band of amateurs in downtown Manhattan has drawn so much attention: Frustration with a broken system is not the sole province of liberal activists or even just liberals, as the early Tea Party manifestations showed. And it’s not just “fatuous liberal journalists” (as one conservative writer put it) who empathize with the crowds in the street. So I confirmed during an afternoon spent speaking with the people who own and work in the shops around my Brooklyn neighborhood – the laundromat, the deli, the icre cream shop, the hardware store — rather than in Zuccotti Park with the activists, as I had originally planned.

Sam and Alonso, working at the Late Night Stars deli down the block, were all for the protests. A young immigrant from Yemen, Sam said, “We’ve been waiting for them to say something all this time. Their conscience is awakening,” he added, noting that the events of the past year in the Mideast proved that anything can happen. Alonso, who moved from upstate New York in hope of opening a bagel store, agreed, adding that banks and big corporations do everyting “in tiny print.”

Our conversation was interrupted by a middle-aged Italian-American named Frank, who owns a nearby paint store. He scoffed at the demonstrators as “trust fund babies.” But soon an 85 year-old World War II veteran in a sweatsuit walked in. Asked what he thought of the protesters, he said wistfully, “They’re beautiful people, but there needs to be 50 million of them and they need to march on the White House.” Explaining that he doesn’t like the president (“not because he’s black”), he suggested talking with his friend Mike, who owned the ice cream store down the block.

In his early 60s, Mike had a theory about the demonstrators, suggesting that they had been inspired by the writings of radical Saul Alinsky and “self-proclaimed communists” like former White House adviser Van Jones.

But “of course they have merit,” he said of the demonstrations, when the discussion turned to national “You get frustrated blue in the face,” said Mike. “Regular working people around here are all for it until the [protesters]do cuckoo things like trying to walk across the Brooklyn Bridge,” where hundreds were arrested last week.

Although Mike didn’t like the stimulus or social welfare programs, he said it’s impossible for small business owners like him to deal with banks and insurance companies.

I floated my idea to turn the demonstration sites into places where people could work together to solve problems. He was more enthusiastic: “Everybody needs help gaming the system! Big corporations and big government do it all the time,” he exclaimed. “But they’d need a permit.”

They could probably get one – and they might attract people like the alienated citizens on my block if they did.

‘Occupy Wall Street’ Organizers: We’re Loud, We’re Here, We’re Deliberately Unclear!

It’s lunchtime for the occupiers of Wall Street.

The activists who have been camping out in Zuccotti Park in Lower Manhattan since Sept. 17 to protest the power, wealth, and indifference of America’s major financial institutions need no help organizing their meals. Enormous submarine sandwiches and dozens of pizza boxes line the makeshift outdoor cafeteria they’ve built, and things move with impressive efficiency, the line never growing long and none left hungry.

Right now, they’re focused on sustaining the demonstrations, not building an agenda or articulating support for any particular policies.

“We don’t have official spokespeople. There’s no leaders of this group, no organization with an umbrella over this thing,” said Justin Wedes, an organizer with the New York City General Assembly and U.S. Uncut. “The groups that have been driving the organizing, New York City General Assembly, U.S. Day of Rage, U.S. Uncut. They’re grassroots people without the influence of major unions or NGOs. As more people join, we try to remind them that this is a collection of individuals. You leave your institutional baggage at the door.”

But it might be hard to leave that institutional baggage — and financial support — at the door, as thousands of union members and establishment progressives from New York’s Working Families Party are poised to join the protesters in a solidarity march on Wednesday and more traditional liberal groups hash out their strategies on how to respond to what enthusiastic boosters have dubbed an “American Spring.”

“The Wall Street demonstrations, whatever criticisms people may levy against the style, certainly speak to issues that our members feel,” said Maida Rosenstein, president of the United Auto Workers (UAW) Local 2110 in New York. She anticipated the national arm of her union, and also the SEIU 1199, the most powerful local in the Northeast, formally jumping on board this week.

Faced with increasing attention from the media — and scrutiny from the established left — the protest organizers have said they will roll out a set of demands in the coming days. But for the time being, they seem to prefer to keep things vague.

“One of the biggest attacks against what we’re building here is: ‘OK you’ve made your point, go home,'” Wedes said. “But we’re not done, we’re just getting started.”

The organizers come from outside the traditional political channels — the two most prominent early sources of support for the protest were the Canadian magazine Adbusters and the hacker community Anonymous. And the local activists that have organized the crucial first nights of camping hail mainly from community groups that formed to protest New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s budget cuts; many camped out in “Bloombergville” earlier this year.

By holding back from specific policies, the protesters are driving home the point that harnessing popular frustration with big banks and Wall Street into a sense of action is a bigger priority than details of what progressive change on Wall Street would look like.

Despite the ad hoc aesthetic at the camp itself, there’s a sense among progressive activists and policy wonks that there needs to be more of an agenda to turn the cultural spark into political momentum.

“Wall Street’s irresponsible actions wrecked our economy, and the anger felt across America is now making itself visible,” said Adam Green, co-founder of the Progressive Change Campaign Committee. “Congress should pass a spree of Wall Street accountability legislation — including a resolution expressing congressional support if the Justice Department sees fit to throw Wall Street bankers in jail. Congress should also pass a Wall Street speculation fee — which would raise billions — instead of even thinking about cutting Medicare, Medicare, or Social Security benefits.”

The emergence of the protests — which have spread to cities across America — coincides with many state Attorneys General balking at a proposed settlement that would ask a lump sum of $20 billion or so from the nation’s biggest banks, in exchange for freeing them from future liability for the mortgage crisis and illegal foreclosures.

“It’s the last way to really affect things,” Mike Konczal, a research fellow at the Roosevelt Institute, said of the settlement. “It’s not a cosmetic thing. It goes to the core of what went wrong. And what continues to go wrong in damaging peoples’ lives.” (Konzcal also has laid out a three-point list of demands for the protesters to adopt.)

Activists promise to continue into the winter, and their energy, though it wanes at the start of each work week, seems to increase each weekend.

“This is a growing thing,” said Wedes, a recent college graduate who has emerged as one of the de facto leaders of the organizers, despite the unanimous distaste for hierarchy among the participants. “There’s a dialogue happening across the country about the effects and symptoms of Wall Street greed and corporate dominance over this political and social spectrum.”

Which basically means the next few weeks are crucial.

“Right now, this Wall Street venture is somewhere between a moment and a movement,” said Todd Gitlin, a professor at Columbia who was president of Students for a Democratic Society at the beginning of the 1960s protest explosion. “Frankly, I’m amazed it took this long for there to be any protest, however hazy or diffuse, directed at Wall Street, given what the country has been through the last few years.”