Since February 1, Myanmar has declared a state of national emergency following a merciless military coup. Government leader Aung San Kuu Kyi and associates were arrested, pushing the hope of a future democratic society into the background.
Throughout the country, strong protest movements turn against the brutal regime of the army. The military is trying to maintain their power by arresting and torturing political activists, students and youth involved in the protests. Violence is not shunned; guns, tear gas, water cannons and physical violence are frequently used. Detainees are kicked, beaten and shot. Over 60 protesters have been murdered and thousands are arrested in an attempt to weaken the movement, according to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners advocacy group.
The military and police have targeted political and social organizations, activists and news media. Telephone, internet and some television channels are constantly shut down, making news about the situation in the country difficult to access.
In addition to the protests, a major strike action by the Civil Disobedience Movement has largely halted public life. Meanwhile, military oppression is intensifying. The concurrent arrests of prominent political activists and human rights defenders sends a chilling message that the military authorities will not tolerate any dissent amid today’s unfolding events.
To ensure the safety of the protesters, we cannot mention any names of action groups. We can, however, report that we have supported various actions within the protest movement. The financial contribution of Het Actiefonds supports the protesters who take to the streets every day against the violent regime and fight for their freedom.
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The groups No More Morias, Amsterdam City Rights and SOS Moria have joined forces to organize ‘Lopend Vuur Amsterdam’ (Running Fire Amsterdam): a creative direct action against the inhumane migration policy in the Netherlands and Europe.
On the 17th of February 2020, the Alarm Phone sent an open letter to RCC Malta, MRCC Italy, authorities in Libya, Frontex, UNHCR, IOM, Moonbird and Aita Mari in order to request information about the potential shipwreck of a rubber boat with 91 people on board. The Alarm Phone have not received any reaction or information from relevant state and EU authorities.
In contrast to this institutional silence, several relatives and friends of the missing have been in regular contact with the Alarm Phone. They have collected several testimonies from friends and relatives, including names and pictures of the missing people, who all embarked on a black rubber boat in Garabulli, Libya, on the night between 8 and 9 of February 2020.
Posters through the city
Alarm Phone wants to draw attention to this horrible event with a confronting poster campaign. They want to denounce the continuing deadly situation in the Mediterranean and the continued inactivity and silence of the authorities. The posters feature pictures and names of the missing people, a QR code that can be scanned for more information on the subject as well as family testimonies. The posters are distributed by various action groups in the Netherlands, in different cities in public spaces. In addition, Alarm Phone makes a video in which activists mention the names of the missing people and in which they demand answers from the authorities.
SOS-calls
Watch The Med Alarm Phone was initiated in October 2014 by activist networks and civil society actors in Europe and Northern Africa. The project established a self-organized hotline for refugees in distress in the Mediterranean Sea. Their main objective is to offer boat people in distress an additional option to make their SOS noticeable. The Alarm Phone documents the situation, informs the coastguards, and, when necessary, mobilises additional rescue support in real-time. This way, they can, at least to a certain extent, put pressure on the responsible rescue entities to avert push- backs and other forms of human rights violations against refugees and migrants at sea.
On February 9 this year, the victims and their families were commemorated. In solidarity with all refugees worldwide. #BordersKill
Read more about Watch The Med Alarm Phone on their website.
The Wilczyce is a grassroots movement for the protection of the Carpathian Forest in Poland. On January 3rd, the group started a forest occupation to protect the forest from planned logging. At the time of writing [February 14], the blockade is still standing strong.
The Polish forest 219a has a rich history –the average age of the trees there is 140 years– and a unique degree of wilderness. This forest is home to several protected bird species and mosses, and wolves, bears and lynxes live here freely. The forests in this area [Bieszczady] are extremely complex, sensitive ecosystems that are indispensable for the country. Mountain streams feed rivers and the excess water is stored by the forest. Thus, the amount of water in the country depends on their condition. Forests, especially the old, natural ones, play a key role in climate protection; they protect the whole country from droughts and floods. As one of the activists stated: “If they continue to be massively cut, we have no chance in the fight against drought in the country, floods, not to mention the climate disaster.”
The State Forests institution consistently implements plans to destroy forests in areas that are eligible to be included in national parks, and willfully cease to protect them. All the critical decisions about forest management are taken behind closed doors, without public consultation. At the moment, over 30% of the forest is planned to be felled.
In response to these plans, activists moved in to the forest on January 3rd to block the access road and prevent the trees from being cut. They set up a camp, built blockades and skypods and started with their task to protect the forest on site, because petitions and blockades of the forest management company were not enough.
The activists see it as their moral duty to defend our common good, and in the face of planned logging in one of the most valuable areas in Poland, the direct blockade of entryways is the only way left to do so. The rough forest exposes the activists to low temperatures, snow, wind and rain. They protect themselves with camping cloths, sleeping bags, and climbing equipment. As a symbolic sign of solidarity with the forest, they wear artistic wolf masks throughout the action.
“We stand up against the devastation of wildlife and the exploitation of valuable forests as wood inventories.”
In addition to defying the elements, Poland’s current political climate makes this action quite the challenge. The discrimination and threat against all types of civil disobedient actions is greater than ever under the current conservative government. Nevertheless, the Wilczyce continue their blockade, and have been able to keep the machines out of the forest for over a month.
After this extensive period of direct action, the group expects newcomers to be ready to get involved into the actions. They plan to extend their activities to other endangered forests in Poland. Stand up for the forest!
Read their full statement here and follow their ongoing actions via Twitter and Facebook.
The Municipality of Amsterdam wants to build a business park in cooperation with airport Schiphol, on the last piece of fertile land in the city; purely for speculation and investors. For years already, Platform Behoud Lutkemeer has been fighting for the preservation of this unique piece of land, together with the neighborhood and various other organizations. Because greenery and food production are indispensable for the city. Business parks? We already have plenty!
Het Actiefonds has supported Platform Lutkemeer from the start. Among other things, the activists want to set up a local food shed, where organic and responsible food is grown for local sales. Cooperative, in collaboration with and for the neighborhood. With their earlier action campaigns (“Camping in the Lutkemeer”, “Sowing for the future”) they’ve put the preservation and protection of the biopolder on the political agenda.
In 2021, Platform Behoud Lutkemeer wants to focus on informing local residents about the corruption and the disastrous actions of the municipality. Next to that, the group starts a claim procedure against project developer SADC and they actively block construction preparations on the site.
Amsterdam Alternative is a bi-monthly newspaper distributed throughout Amsterdam (for free). The collective wants to publish their next issue (March-April) in a higher circulation and distribute it house to house. In this issue – called ‘The City of Solidarity – the political program of the so-called “left” Amsterdam city council is evaluated.
“A lot has been promised but little has been delivered,” says Amsterdam Alternative. With their newspaper, the group wants to offer a counterweight to the growing right-wing propaganda, also in the context of the upcoming parliamentary elections.
Amsterdam Alternative was founded in 2015 and wants to call for action by publishing articles. Themes and subjects are gentrification, housing, climate, sustainability, (anarchist) activism, squatting, collectivity and solidarity. The group is also setting up a so-called AA Academy: an initiative to to look at certain social problems in a group context and to try and find creative solutions for them. In addition, the collective property project “Vrij Beton” (“Free Concrete”) will start this year. The aim of Vrij Beton is to collect money to buy buildings together: collective properties that may serve as new free places. These can offer a permanent space for experiments and alternative concepts that do not fit in the current commercial circuit, because they are not driven by making profit.
With this special high-circulation edition of the newspaper, the AA collective wants to ensure that a large group of people is reached. They want to inspire people and make them aware that there is more than the commercial mainstream, the hollowed-out neoliberal system and the misleading (extreme) right-wing alternatives to it.
“We argue for diversity instead of a monoculture for the highly educated with a lot of money. We believe in the power of the collective and we propagate that in all our activities. ”
Het Actiefonds supports this special edition of Amsterdam Alternative. Read more about the collective here!
Uganda’s current abortion law punishes women and girls who choose to end a pregnancy and criminalizes the health workers that offer them legal post-abortion care.
With women lacking access to safe and legal abortions, many of them turn to unsafe abortion practices, such as self-induced abortions. This has costly consequences; around 5 million Ugandan women annually are injured or otherwise disabled as a result of abortion-related consequences.
“Every woman and adolescent girl has a right to make informed decisions about their reproductive health”
CSOs have worked extensively in Uganda on the human rights implications of lack of access to legal abortion and modern contraceptives. Many protests, workshops and talks have culminated into reports that have recently forced Ugandan Parliament to call for a revision of the old abortion law. This is due in February 2021, but the expectations of the conservative government are low.
To pressure the need for legalized abortion, Voluntary Efforts for Rural Development (VERDE-Uganda) organized a consensus building campaign among human rights activists, journalists, parliamentarians, human rights lawyers and health practitioners. The campaign included a solidarity march in Kampala City, an interactive radio discussion with the public and a petition to be taken to the speaker of Uganda Parliament.
VERDE-Uganda will continue their campaign in the four regions (Central, Western, Eastern and Northern) to further advocate for legalizing abortion in Uganda.
VERDE-Uganda was established in July 2004 to empower, advocate and build in rural communities, with their main focus on vulnerable women. Their social goal is to protect the rights of women, sexual and reproductive health rights being first on the agenda. They use activism to bring about social justice, which is highly needed in times of growing injustices and oppression under the ruling social-political order in Uganda.
The social, environmental, economic, political and cultural conflicts latent in Colombia have been aggravated by the Covid-19 crisis. The social inequality of the country deepened.
Caldera Gráfica Crew started an artistic protest by taking over public space through ‘Contra Cultural assaults’ (murals, posters and neighborhood projections). Thus creating a strong public visibility to motivate mobilization and outrage among civilians and highlight community values such as empathy, solidarity and organizational skills.
The project is aimed at highlighting the strength and persistence of the people of the neighborhoods that motivate organizational processes to face the Covid-19 pandemic as a community. Through their efforts they try to secure fundamental rights such as health, food, education, housing and a dignified life in general. They secure the basic needs the government fails to provide.
The group painted four murals throughout the city center of Florencia and the neighborhoods Malvinas, Ciudadela Siglo XXI and San Judas. They printed large amounts of posters and spread them with a team of volunteers and screened several video’s on subjects as solidarity, care and organization in publicly accessible places.
The organization sees their project as a beginning, a push to invite other people and collectives to start thinking in an organized way, to understand the power and importance of social mobilization in the times of Covid-19. After the pandemic, they plan to organize new mass actions and interventions.
In the Masingo slum, 700 householders are vulnerable to water borne diseases because of illegal trenches dug by land grabbers, directing untreated and polluted water from overflowing sewage systems into the slum’s fresh water sources. The Renewed Hope Group aims to mobilize local residents for a protest walk, pressuring the responsible authorities to take action.
Masingo is the largest and densely populated slum around Kakamega town; with 700 poverty-hit households, who earn an average income of less US$1.25/ household and rely on river Masingo and Masingo open spring well for all water needs and livelihoods. The slum has a market called Masingo that serves as an economic hub for at least 400 low income earners from slum’s 700 poor households, who primarily depend on smallholder enterprises on the market for an income.
Land grabbers have been digging trenches directing untreated polluted water from sewage systems into the slum’s open water sources, mainly the nearby river. Moreover, many residents with overflowing pit-latrines ask children from the street to empty their latrines at night by carrying their feces to the trenches or the river. This puts the Masingo market at great risk of closure and collapse, not only because of the threat of Covid-19, but because of increased cases of waterborne diseases among Masingo slum’s dwellers affecting at least 77% of its residents yearly. In 2019, three people died of Cholera and left others hospitalized. Attempts to address these issues to the authorities failed.
The Renewed Hope Group (RHG) aims to end the pollution of Masingo’s water sources by advocating for permanent blockage of illegal trenches from sewage systems to open water sources; eviction of land grabbers that are responsible for diffing the illegal trenches. Together with the Masingo market’s governing committe, local businesses-groups, environmentalists, and leaders of key active social groups, among others, the RHG aims to organize a range of mobilization activities over a period of 2,5 months, to engage at least 200 individuals from Masingo slum’s 700 households. Activities will include door to door visits, social media campaigns, and public gatherings.
Following this period of mobilization, the RHG will organize an official protest walk, during which face masks and colorful protest signs will be distributed. The protesters will walk through the larger town of Kakamega to catch people’s attention, and will head to the offices premises of various governmental authorities. Finally, protesters will sing, shout and walk to grabbed lands where illegal trenches have been dug, blocking them with stone-mud walls.
Recently three innocent people have been killed by police shootings in Malawi. The police denies any wrongdoing. Human rights’ organization Zenith for Young Women Achievers aims to fight this outright police brutality.
On New Year’s eve, 23-year old Blessings Nyondo was shot by the Malawian police, suspected of being one of the muggers that he was actually running away from. He battled for his life after being shot 8 times, passing away a week later. Four days after the shooting, the police denied any wrongdoing. The shooting of Nyondo follows another recent shooting, where two men were killed in cold blood by a police officer.
The unlawful police shootings are symbolic of Malawian police brutality, threatening and ending the lives of innocent citizens, while the police has a duty to protect people. Zenith advocates for the immediate arrest and prosecution of the police officers who shot the three victims. What’s more, it is insensitive and incoherrent of the Malawian police to adhere to a narrative that the victims were robbery suspects; even if the suspects were criminals, the police officers broke the law and denied the suspects of their right to remain innocent until proven guilty.
Zenith and other human rights organizations in Malawi are mobilizing and soon aim to hold public protests against police brutality. The protests will include a solidarity walk in support of families of victims of police brutality.
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