Stories about Protest from July, 2011
Egypt: Building a Nation in a Square
Egyptian blogger Sandmonkey wrote how the sit-in in Tahrir square turned out to become exercise in building a small nation from scratch within the boundaries of the square.
Bangladesh: Sexual Assault By A Teacher Triggers Student Uprising
The recent protests at the Viqarunnisa Noon School and College (VNC) in the Bangladesh capital Dhaka, has stirred much buzz in the Bangladeshi blogosphere. After a three-fold campaign via Blogs, Facebook and street protests authorities were forced to sack and arrest a teacher accused of sexually molesting a student.
Tunisia: Police Brutally Disperse Peaceful Protesters
Tunisian police brutally dispersed protesters outside the headquarters of the Cabinet yesterday (July 15). The protesters were calling for reform and were planning to launch a third sit-in at Kasbah square, which is the epicenter of protests in the Tunisian capital Tunis.
Peru: Transportation Strike in Lima: A Campaign Against the Mayor?
The mayor of Lima, Susana Villarán, has experienced an outpour of all kinds criticism at the six month mark of her term. A strike by transportation carriers on July 13 is the Mayor's most recent challenge. Bloggers and Twitter users shared reactions, reports, images and analysis throughout the day of the strike.
Germany: Rocking the Wall of the GDR
James Shingler at The View East writes about East German rock and pop music and its subvertive role in changing society during the 1970s and 1980s.
Morocco: A Personal Tale of Protest
The Moroccan pro-democracy movement known as February 20, struggles to communicate with the public amid a government-led campaign to discredit it. The movement primarily uses the Internet to explain its position and ideas. But it is the personal account of its own militants that impacts the wider public more starkly. Here is the moving story of one activist, Younes Loukili.
Malaysia: Facebook Netizens Want Prime Minister to Resign
A Facebook page demanding the resignation of Malaysia’s Prime Minister has gathered almost 200,000 supporters a few days after it was created. The campaign was initiated on the same day when thousands of people marched in the streets during the Bersih 2.0 pro-democracy rally which was violently dispersed by the police.
Russia-Middle East: Comparing the Fall of the Wall and the Arab Spring
Dr. Sean's Diary compares the difficulties of area studies in handling the fall of the commnist bloc in Central and Eastern Europe in the 1990s with that of the current Arab spring, against the backdrop of a recent Foreign Policy article.
Belarus: Vkontakte Social Network Blocked by the Providers
Update: Access to the Vkontake site is now restored. Vkontakte, Russian social network, is unavailable for Belarus Internet Users. The network hosts “Revolution Through the Social Network” [ru] group used to organize non-violent protests, telegraf.by reported [ru]. Individual Belarus-based users told GV that the page loads only header but the...
Russia: Wednesday Clapping Protests Organized Online Spread from Belarus
Anonymous Facebook group RusFlash (@RusFlash) [ru] that copies Belarus model of non-violent clapping protest has been created, Echo Moskvy reported [ru]. Organizers invite everyone to come out to the central squares of their cities every Wednesday at 19:00. “We're fed up. With thieves and crooks! With lies and lawlessness!” So...
Macedonia, Tunisia, Egypt: Comparing Experiences
SlavicaI compares the features of Macedonian protests with those in Egypt and Tunisia, based on shared experiences by participants of the Summer University at Universitat Rovira i Virgili (Tarragona, Spain).
South Korea: Skin Problems Occurred by Tear Gas Solution
More than seven thousand protesters clashed with the police on July 10 in a rally against unfair layoffs at Hanjin Heavy Industries. The Wiki Tree site consolidated photos of protesters who reported skin problems after exposure to tear gas solution the police fired at them.
Senegal-Chad: Is Habré Extradition a Political Diversion by Wade?
Commenting former Chad president Hissene Habré's extradition to his homeland, makaila.over-blog observes [fr]: “Many Senegalese analysts are already questionning whether this is just a diversion by the Senegalese embattled president. The opposition and civil society organizations were planning for a massive gathering on July 9th”. The rally was ultimately banned by...
Spain: More Information on tomalaplaza.net
The website tomalaplaza.net [es] now offers sections (labeled with the names of cities) with information on all the local civic movements that have developed in Spain since last May 15 (15M).
Syria: Bloggers Rally for Anas Maarawi
Anas Maarawi is the latest Syrian blogger to have been imprisoned. He was detained on Friday July 1, 2011, in his neighborhood of Kafarsouseh in Damascus, and nothing has been heard of him since. Bloggers are rallying for his release.
Malaysia: Bersih Rally on Social Media
More than 1,400 people were arrested by the police in today’s Bersih 2.0 rally which was organized to push for electoral reforms in Malaysia. Police used teargas to disperse a crowd which reached up to 50,000 according to the organizers.
Greece: Journalist suffers total hearing loss from police brutality
Greek journalist Manolis Kypraios has suffered total hearing loss from injuries sustained while photographing the general strike protests of June 15, 2011 in Athens, Greece. In his testimony [el] posted on Exandas Documentaries, he says he was fired on with a stun grenade at point blank range by a riot police officer, after...
Brazil: #ForaMicarla as Protest Against Corruption in Natal
Since 2010, denunciations of corruption [pt] concerning the mayor of Natal, Micarla de Sousa, have led Brazilian citizens to mobilize in protest via Twitter with the hashtag #ForaMicarla (Out with Micarla!). The movement [pt] has grown from the web to the streets.
Egypt: Why July 8?
Egyptians are back in full force in Tahrir Square, the epicenter of their revolution, once again today. But why are they still demonstrating now that their revolution is over, Mubarak is not in power any more, and many pillars of his regime are behind bars?
Belarus: One-way ticket to the west
Kyle Keeton of Windows to Russia ridicules Belarus president's, Lukashenko, proposal to send all political prisoners in the country to the West, if Europe will have them.
Belarus: Guilt by association?
LJ user budimir claims [RU] that Michail Myasnikovich, Prime Minister of Belarus, has announced that employees will be fired if they or members of their family participate in protests against the Lukashenko regime – a measure the blogger “supports”.
