World Feature Archive

On Wednesday 26th June during demonstrations in Buenos Aires the police shot in the head and killed two young men in an execution style murder. Tear gas was also used against the anti-government protesters in the worst riots since the government was toppled last December.

On the following day thousands of people took to the streets outside the National Congress Building to protest over the deaths, and calling for President Eduardo Duhalde to resign. At the same time teachers and state workers also went on strike against the government's repression and Argentina's worsening economic crisis, brought on by the austerity measures imposed by the IMF. On Friday 29th the governor of the State of Buenos Aires ordered the arrests of two policemen and suspended over 100 others after a newspaper published photographs which showed the police shooting one of the demonstrators in cold blood.

A statement from IMC Argentina said "We just received notice that one of the murdered piqueteros is Dario Santillan, 21 years old, a friend from the La F Neighborhood. Dario, part of the MTD (Unemployed Worker's Movement) in the area, was a bricklayer who worked every day in a factory making bricks for a new community hall. He lived on land taken a few months ago, on a vacant farm. All of us participating in Indymedia had the fortune of sharing with him several pickets, assemblies and unforgettable conversations. In these moments we don't have words to express our pain and our anger. His murderers will pay for having stolen from us this beautiful friend."

Read reports discribing the huge mobilisation of homeless people, workers, assemblies, students, and leftist parties that took the city center for several hours. The roads were again blocked and travel was impeded in Neuqu»n, Salta, Jujuy, Mendoza, Ri€ Negro, Chaco, Tucum∑n, Santa Fe, Catamarca, La Pampa, and various parts of the country. Media coverage of the events was also criticised for serving the powerful's agenda. "The crisis has caused two new death", was the title in the local newspaper as if the crisis had shot the bullets without resorting to the services of the police. Right after that, amounting to the intimidation campaign, the same daily said that today "they will try to march to the Plaza de Mayo", as if this were an exploit, rather than a right.

[ Argentina IMC | Argentina IMC in english | Summary of Available Photos & Audio]

On June 26th and 27th two days of action took place in Ottawa as the leaders of the G8 countries met in the secluded mountains of Kananaskis, Alberta. Protesters took the streets of different Canadian cities to oppose the destructive agenda perpetuated by the G8.

While representing a small proportion of the world's population, the leaders of the G8 nations control the majority of the world's economic resources, thus imposing a neo-liberal form of development that benefits the rich and powerful elites and leaves the rest behind. The G8's support of FTAA, the IMF/World Bank, and the WTO, results in the privatisation and corporatisation of the planet, with Africa being one of the continents most affected through the G8's sponsored NEPAD. On the other hand, the self-serving "war on terrorism", orchestrated by the leaders of the G8, continues to militarise and brutalise countries and communities in every continent, while cynically making appeals for civilization and freedom.

In Kananaskis, the executive board of global Capitalism met for photo-ops and to push forward the G8 agenda. In Ottawa, Calgary and Alberta thousands of protesters loudly declared their opposition to the G8, and showed their solidarity with the people criminalised and marginalised by its policies. The days of action, titled Take the Capital, involved different types of demonstrations, popular education, a freedom festival, civil disobedience, squatting (pics), direct action, caravans, a Critical Mass and a 1000 flags of Resistance demo under the banner "No One is Illegal!".

On the 23rd in Calgary, the closest city to the summit, five thousand people marched through the streets. On the 26th and 27th thousands took the streets of Ottawa despite heavy police and army intimidation photo | Ottawa protests photo links.

Latest updates and timeline of events:
Breaking news Ottawa-IMC

More information:
[ Ontario-IMC | Alberta-IMC | Montreal-IMC | G8 resistance | G8 resistance in Ottawa | radio coverage | blast furnace radio ]

Seville hosted the EU summit of 20-21 June, marking the end of Spain 's EU presidency. The main subjects of the Seville summit were the strengthening of "fortress Europe" and the toughening of immigration laws. Meanwhile, the Seville Social Forum, unions, disobedients and many groups within Spanish civil society called for two days of action against the Europe of Capital and War that concluded with a 200.000 strong demonstration in the streets of Seville.

- Saturday 22nd, Day of solidarity with immigrants: The focuss of the day's actions, workshops, debates and demonstrations was to highlight issues related to emmigration, social exclusion and the casualisation of labour.
See IMC UK Breaking News for more detailed information and the day's timeline of events. Photo gallery and photos 1 | 2 | 3.

- Friday 21st, Day of Disobedience: Although people gathering in Seville were consistenly searched, identifyed and prevented from moving freely around the city by police, actions still took place all over Seville.
See IMC UK Breaking News for more detailed information and the day's timeline of events. Photo gallery and photos 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5.

Trade unions across Spain also called for a General Strike on Thursday 20th in protest at the Popular Party government's reform of unemployment and workers' rights laws. The strike was widely followed all over the Spanish State with reports of up to 85% stoppages in some areas, affecting the manufacturing, transport, private and public sectors.
See IMC UK Breaking News for more detailed information and the day's timeline of events. Photo gallery and photos 1 | 2 | 3

See the extended major report for full coverage of the EU-Summit and the General Strike.

More information:
IMC-Barcelona | IMC-Madrid | La Haine

On June 20, a Dutch court ruled that Indymedia.NL has to remove links to mirror-sites of German magazine Radikal, in a lawsuit initiated by German railway company Deutsche Bahn. Deutsche Bahn demanded that Indymedia deletes an archive page with links to sites that link through to two notorious articles on blocking nuclear transports, originally published in German magazine Radikal.

The links Indymedia.NL has to remove are part of reactions to an article on a previous lawsuit by Deutsche Bahn against Dutch internet provider XS4ALL, which hosted the Radikal page. Interestingly, only the two articles are illegal in the Netherlands, not Radikal as such. But since XS4ALL was not able to remove the articles only, it was initially forced to take down the whole site. Indymedia.NL is the first victim of the new Deutsche Bahn campaign that targets hyperlinks to the many mirror sites that sprung up after the XS4ALL case. Google and Altavista have received letters to the same effect.

The ruling of the court states that linking directly and indirectly to the illegal articles is not allowed, a worrying novelty in internet litigation. Prohibiting indirect links like this attacks one of the basic principles of the internet and severely limits the freedom of speech.

More info and updates on IMC Netherlands.

Monday 24th was the start of the World Bank meeting in Oslo, Norway. At the same time a counter-conference called 'South meets North' took place in the city. This was organized by Oslo2002, a network of organizations and communities demonstrating against the World Bank during its academic conference (ABCDE) in Oslo.

Former Zambian president Kenneth Kaunda and Philippino organiser Lidy Nacpil were amongst the speakers during the "Open Forum" of the counter-conference. Their criticism about the very existence of the Bank, as well as its policies was strong and factual, specially taking into account that they represented two countries that are directly affected by the WB's programms. A counter-festival was also held in a relaxed atmosphere with stands, music and workshops. The Norwegian Adbusters network launched their 'VB' spoof newspaper, plagiarising the country's largest tabloid ("VG") with critical articles on the World Bank.

Repression and surveillance had increased in Norway during the days prior to the WB meeting, as police used scare-propaganda tactics to frighten off people from attending the protests. People's identity was checked by immigration officials when arriving at Oslo airport, so those who had been registered in the Schengen Information System were arrested and some immediately deported.

Despite police tactics and repression, the protests opened on Sunday evening with a party and concert at the Oslo YaBasta! collective center. The colourful and peaceful demonstrations on Monday were attended by 10,000 people, including a pink bloc and a samba band. Immediately afterwards, there was a Reclaim The Streets party (pics1 | pics2) that ended with the squatting of two disused houses in central Oslo. "Our message here is that people need houses and houses need people", said one of the squatters.

More information:
IMC Norway | IMC WB radio stream [offline now]

The Argentine Neighbourhood Assemblies, born in early January 2002 from the December cacerolazos, have been going on for almost half a year. Though the individual assemblies are smaller in attendance than they were in January, and some are still beset by problems in organizing and finding common aims to work on, these 200 plus groups of neighbours continue to be an important force making "politics without politicians" in Buenos Aires and other major cities of the country. Read more.

Meanwhile, protests against neoliberal economic policies are erupting in other Latin American countries. Thousands of people took the streets of Paraguay last week to protest the process of privatization of state companies. The announcement of a general strike caused the government to suspend the auction of the telephone company. Read more on the global IMC site.

The legal aftermath after the demonstrations against the EU summit and Bush visit to Gothenburg/Sweden last summer display serious evidence of violation of human rights and makes new precedents in Swedish legal history. According to Swedish legal practice, the sentences are ten folded longer and harsher then it's precedents, clearly showing it is a matter of political trials and political prisoners:
- 102 trials, 52 sentences of civilian citizens, 450 people are identified as suspect and awaiting investigation.
- Excessive long incarcerations of the accused people with up to 3 months in isolation cells.
- Sentences of up to 2.5 and 4 years (many of the prosecuted are minors with no criminal records)
- The High Court has, to this date, not tried an appeal of any of the cases pertaining to the occurrences in Gothenburg.
- No enquiries into the police conduct (live ammunition shootings into the demonstrations - leaving a person fighting for his life - neither to the siege of the schools Schillerska or Hvitfeldska and the manipulation of video evidence.

An international day of action in support for the Gothemburg prisoners was called on Wednesday 5 of June. Reports from Moscow and Warsaw.

More info and call for justice | Solidarity Campaign in Sweden contacts. | Indymedia Sweden

GERMANY: PROTESTS AGAINST BUSH VISIT 21-23 May 2002

Resistance has been flaring up against George W. Bush�s visit to Europe. Tens of thousands of people protested in Berlin, Germany, against the US government�s appalling human rights record, their "war on terror" and their disregard for international agreements. Moreover they were protesting against Bush as one of the most prominent representatives of neoliberal capitalism, which is tied to big business and is spread around the globe by violent means.

Actions started with a 70,000-strong peaceful demonstration on Tuesday May 21st and continued with colourful and creative demonstrations and street-parties moving all over downtown Berlin on Wednesday and Thursday. In response to dissent on the streets, Berlin saw the biggest deployment of police since World War II. Police repeatedly and violently charged crowds but did not manage to provoke the large-scale riots predicted by the mainstream media.

Read the full story (with links to loads of pictures) here!
Find detailed accounts of events on Indymedia Germany
Picture

CAMPAIGN OF HARASSMENT TO INDEPENDENT MEDIA

For the second time in a very short period, the Israeli police have begun an investigation against Indymedia Israel. The first investigation was instigated by the Israeli Ministry of Communication two months ago. The present one is in reference to an article tittled "Israel Starts Up Factories of Death" dated on March 29, and which had been deleted from the website newswire the same day by one of the Indymedia Israel volunteers. The current complaint being made to the police, and followed up by Israel's "National Unit for Computer Crimes", can be seen as part of a wider campaign being carried out by certain right-wing private and governmental interests, against both the democratic right to free speech and the right to privacy, with the broader intent to quash any form of critical dialogue.

Full report and an interview with a volunteer from IMC-Israel here
More info: IMC-Israel | Picture

DUTCH RIGHTWING LEADER SHOT DEAD 8 May 2002

On Monday May 6 Pim Fortuyn, the Dutch right-wing populist leader, was shot dead. Fortuyn, notorious for his racist views on asylum policies and Islam, was predicted to take next week's parliamentary elections by storm. Police have arrested a 32 year old Dutch man, working for an environmental organisation, near the scene of the murder. No statements concerning his possible motivation have been made.

The atmosphere in the Netherlands was tense and confused. Several hundred of Fortuyn supporters rioted at the parliament square, chanting racist slogans and throwing stones. Clashes with immigrants were reported. Critics of Fortuyn did not seem to know how to deal with the death of a man they had hoped would leave Dutch politics as quickly as he had entered it.

Although environmental and 'non-mainstream left' groups immediately distanced themselves from the murder, the affair is taking a distinct anti-left turn and is playing in the hands of extreme right. Fortuyn supporters as well as leaders of Belgian and French extreme right parties claim that the "hate campaign of the left" is responsible for the murder. Anarchist collective Eurodusnie among others, has come under physical attack.

More info:
IMC Netherlands | IMC Belgium

RESISTANCE TO IMF, WB, PLAN COLOMBIA, WASHINGTON DC 19-22 April 2002

Massive protests against a variety of issues took place in Washington DC and many other US cities last weekend. On Saturday, demonstrations against the Israeli occupation of Palestine linked up with the large Stop the War march to protest against all forms of war and terrorism, highlighting especially the US-led so-called "war against terror". A large convergence for Global Justice against the IMF / World Bank meeting taking place that very weekend in Washington, and demonstrations against Plan Colombia complemented an unprecedented weekend of protest. The different causes brought together widespread anger at both military and economic violence, and particularly the role of the Bush administration in this.
Solidarity demonstrations also took place in San Francisco, Houston, Hamilton (Ontario), Salt Lake City, Portland (Oregon) and Duluth (Minnesota)

Full coverage, updates and timelines of events: Washington DC-IMC
More info: Seattle-IMC | San Francisco-IMC | Germany-IMC

THREE DAYS THAT SHOOK VENEZUELA

In a stunning reversal of the pro-business coup that ousted him from power on Friday, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has returned to the presidential office. Mass protests had erupted in the Venezuelan capital of Caracas immediately after the coup. Thousands of people stormed the presidential palace, 'interim-president' Carmona fled and was later arrested. Read more.

On Friday morning, the Venezuelan army forced President Hugo Chavez to step back from power and put him under arrest. The president of the business council Fedecamaras, Pedro Carmona Estanga, was appointed to head an interim government.

The coup followed days of strikes and mass protests which had been initiated and organised by business councils and business-friendly trade unions. For several months, the national oligarchy opposed to the planned social and land reforms, had provoked civilian opposition to the Chavez-led government. The US-government and international financial institutions had also criticised Chavez for his non-compliance with their demands and had made clear that they would support his removal. Read more here and here.

Background info from:
NarcoNews | Zmag | Schnews

BIODIVERSITY SUMMIT IN THE HAGUE 8 - 19 Apr 2002

On Monday April 8 the 6th Conference of the Parties (COP6) of the Convention of Biological Diversity (CBD) opened in The Hague, the Netherlands. Until April 19 government delegates, technical experts and business lobbyists are contemplating the state of the world's biodiversity resources, as part of a global review process of the UN Rio Earth Summit in 1992 and its impacts. Concurrently, NGOs and pressure groups have joined environmental activists and farmers for a parallel gathering Resistance is Fertile! that calls for protection of farmers rights and a stop on the spread of GMOs and the plunder of natural resources for profit.

Full article | IMC Netherland | Logo

WOOMERA, AUSTRALIA: BORDER CAMP Mar 27 - Apr 2 2002

On March 29th protesters at the Woomera border camp broke through the outer two fences guarding the refugee detention centre while detained refugees dismantled other fences from the inside. More then 40 detainees managed to escape, although most of them were recaptured later. Full story | BBC pictures

Over the whole Easter weekend, people have protested the imprisonment of refugees from all over the world at the Woomera detention centre in Southern Australia and have demanded the freedom of movement and freedom from arbitrary imprisonment for everyone. The border camp outside the detention centre had started on Wednesday March 27th with a large demonstration, following massive protests against the restrictive Australian asylum policy in Melbourne and other cities the weekend before. Pictures and videos from the first day of the camp.

Woomera is located in the middle of the desert, 500 kms from the nearest city of Adelaide. Conditions of imprisonment are unbearable and have repeatedly triggered uprisings by imprisoned refugees. Last December, several buildings were set on fire by prisoners. There have been hunger strikes, many prisoners injured themselves or comitted suicide.

Read more about Woomera and the border camp | Woomera 2002 campaign website | Indymedia Melbourne | Indymedia Adelaide | Fence Foto

Latest updates IMC-Palestine | IMC-Israel
Click here for coverage, reports and timelines of events.

After an escalation of suicide bombings in its cities, and using the pretext of 'self-defence', Israel launched Operation Protective Wall on 29 March 2002. What started with a raid on Arafat's Ramallah HQ has turned into the most intense and bloody assault on the Palestinian population of the West Bank since the state of Israel was declared in 1948. The world, by remaining silent, gave Israeli prime-minister Ariel Sharon a green light to inflict as much terror and destruction as deemed fit . And there seemed to be no limit to his capacity for terror. Tanks, bulldozers and APC's rolled into every West Bank city, while missile-firing helicopters lurked overhead. Thousands of Palestinians have been arrested; untold numbers, well into the hundreds, have been murdered or maimed, and cities have been reduced to piles of rubble. Now, the battered and traumatised survivors of this massacre wait for the invasion to stop and for the world to help them.

Urgent Call to Action:Come to Palestine | Electronic action against the occupation | Appeal fron 'internationals' inside PA's compound


Images: The War on Palestine | Recent photos from Ramallah
Video: Tanks & activists in Beit Jala | "Internationals" demo in Bethlehem
Maps of the Occupies Territories.
Article "IMC-Palestine: Be the Media".
Report from inside the masacre in Jenin
Reports from a British international inside PA's compound: 26/04 | 26/04</ a>
Life under curfew by IMC-Palestine. Contact IMC-Palestine on 011-972-2-277-7558
IMC-Italy dossier on Palestine (En)
List of destruction and vandalism of Palestinian installations and infrastructure by the IOF.
Regularly updated compilation of Palestine solidarity protests worldwide.

On Saturday March 23 up to 2,000,000 marched in Rome against the proposed abolition of art.18, an article of the labour law preventing workers from being fired without valid reasons. The demonstration went ahead despite calls from the Berlusconi government to suspend it in the wake of the killing of Marco Biagi - adviser of the Minister for Welfare - on Tuesday 19th in Bologna.

The Italian Police deemed 'credible' a document published on Thursday 21st March on the website www.caserta24ore.org in which 'The Red Brigades Combatant - Communist Party' claimed responsibility for the murder.

The killing of Biagi has been widely condemned by the institutional left in Italy which quickly moved to use today's demonstration as a show of opposition to terrorism and as a call for "national unity" that in the 70's established the premise for a crackdown on social movements.

COBAS, Disobbedienti and the social centres movement have condemned the murder as a 'pro-regime homicide'.

The timing of the murder, and the way in which it was quickly linked by the Berlusconi government to the Left, raises memories of the 70's and of the 'strategy of tension' which saw state sponsorship of terrorist acts which were then blamed on the left.

A general workers strike against the reforms of the labour law will go ahead at some point during the month of April. Indymedia Italy | Foto

STRUGGLE FOR INDEPENDENT MEDIA March 16-22

On March 16th, a 20,000-strong Street Party took place in Rome to support Radio Onda Rossa and Italy IMC for free and independent information. The street party was called after four Italian social centres, allegedly housing Indymedia centres, were raided by the police on Feb 20th. During this operation the police seized audio and video material referring to the anti-G8 actions in Genova last summer, and confiscated computers, archives, and equipment needed by hundreds of Italian activists for daily cultural and political activities. In Italy the attack on independent information has also concerned Radio Onda Rossa - an independent radio station in Rome. On January 22nd, the ministry of communications officially notified that its broadcasting license will be revoked.

Report | Pictures: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | Indymedia Italy | Radio Onda Rossa | Foto

INDEPENDENT MEDIA IN US March 22

A coalition of media activists was gathering Friday, March 22, in Washington, D.C. to confront the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and the increasing monopolization of the US media. A colourful crowd, many dressed in angels costumes, demanded democratic access to communications infrastructure and an end to corporate control of information and communication.

The FCC has recently abolished a legal rule limiting the size and scope of media that one company can own. This opens the door for a new wave of mega mergers in an industry that is already characterised by massive largess and self serving cross ownership -- which threatens the publication and distribution of independent information.

Background info 1 | Background info 2 | Latest news on Indymedia DC | Video | Foto

BARCELONA: MOBILISATION AGAINST EU-SUMMIT March 9-16

In the culmination of the events called by the Campaign against the Europe of Capital, up to 500,000 people marched through the streets of Barcelona on March 16 to protest the summit of European leaders. Protesters were confronted with widespread police violence including the use of rubber bullets and tear gas, which was reportedly provoked by police infiltrators in the march.

Evidence of agent provocateurs: Video | Photos 1 | 2 | 3 | 4.
See BREAKING NEWS SATURDAY | Pictures: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4

The previous day up to 20,000 people took part in decentralised actions all over the city. See BREAKING NEWS FRIDAY.
Photo library of the weekend's mobilisations.

The week of protests had started with 3000 people holding a reclaim the streets party on Sat 9th, and included a 100,000 trade unions demonstration on the 14th. 400,000 People also protested on the 10th against the further privatisation of the water supply, and the re-routing of the biggest river in the Spanish State planned under the the National Hydrological Plan.
RTS party: Report 1 | Report 2 | Photos 1 | 2 | 3 | 4
Water demo: Report | Photos 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 and "the waters"
Trade union demo: Pictures 1 | Pictures 2

The EU Summit focused on areas such as the liberalisation of the electricity and gas markets, the integration of financial markets to further Europe's financial power, developing more flexible labour markets, privatisation of education and training programmes, widening the definition of terrorism to include many social movements and forms of protest.

As during previous protests, the Spanish Government had suspended the Schengen Treaty of people's 'free movement' within the EU for several days, so that more than 20 buses were turned back at the French/Spanish border. Border report and photo here.

For more info, reports and timeline of eventnts see:
IMC-Barcelona | IMC-UK special Barcelona Feature

INTERNATIONAL MOBILE INDYMEDIA PROJECT Feb 25 2002


The international Indymedia Caravan is currently in Buenos Aires (Argentina) after having been in the World Social Forum of Porto Alegre (Brazil) Indymedia volunteers from Argentina, Peru, Brazil, USA, Germany and Italy are present in the Caravan. The objectives of this project are to help strenghtening the alternative media networks in Latin America, and to co-operate in the building up of a sustainable network of independent media projects in the area. It is also closely working with activist networks in Latin America to create a space for the exchange of skills, resources and information.

This mobile Indymedia project will be in Buenos Aires for two weeks documenting the political and social process in Argentina, after the popular revolts of the 19 and 20 of December when hundreds of thousands of people took the streets of every major city in the country to protest against the current economic crisis, aggravated by the Structural Adjustment Programs imposed to the people of Argentina by the IMF and the World Bank. The Caravan is also taking active part in the project "Argentina Arde"; a counter information initiative that brings together different alternative media groups of Argentina. The next stop of this 35-day Caravan will be Bolivia. Read more...

- Indymedia Caravan website Moblile-((i))
- Indymedia Argentina
- get regular video updates from Argentina by the German video collective Kanal B