Financial institutions across Andalusia are under percussive attack from Flamenco Flash Mobs. Guerilla performances of these indignados flamencos are political demonstrations, expressions of anger and frustration at the Spanish economic crisis.Like this performance in a branch of Bankia, they’re choreographed by the anti-capitalist group Flo6x8.
More:
“Los “indignados flamencos” Flo6x8 arrasan en Internet con su bulería contra Bankia,” Vertele.com
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On March 3, 1013, the day before Woodrow Wilson’s Inauguration, American women paraded on Washington’s Pennsylvania Avenue and demanded the right to vote. They didn’t get it until August 18, 1920.
Berlin has seen a rise in the use of police surveillance video, Closed Circuit TV (CCTV). And Berlin being Berlin, not everyone is happy about this, thinking it an invasion of privacy. One response has been the game of “Camover,” in which teams of young activists compete for points by creatively trashing surveillance cameras. The team with the most points by February 19th wins. That’s when the Europäischer Polizeikongress (European Police Congress) meets in Berlin.
“The Million Puppet March — a political rally against Mitt Romney’s debate remarks about Big Bird and cutting funding to public television — may not have actually been a million puppets strong, but furry monsters came from far and near in a post-Halloween parade of support for PBS on Saturday.
The march to the Capitol set off from Lincoln Park shortly after 11 a.m., with the participants singing the “Sesame Street” theme song, and the Muppets’ “Mahna Mahna.” They were asked to keep to the sidewalk, but the hundreds of marchers soon spilled into the street, requiring a police escort. They chanted:
‘Power to the puppets! We can save the Muppets!’
‘Whose street? Sesame Street!’
‘What do we want? Cookies! When do we want them? Now!’
‘EL-MO! We won’t go!’
–”The Million Puppet March: Fighting for public broadcasting, with felt and fur,” Maura Judkis, Washington Post
Three members of the feminist Russian punk band Pussy Riot were found guilty of “hooliganism motivated by religious hatred” and sentenced to two years in prison. The criminal incident in question: On February 21st, the band performed a “punk prayer” protest in Moscow’s Christ the Saviour Cathedral as part of the demonstrations following the disputed re-election of Vladimir Putin. Some feel the Church is too politically tied to the Putin regime.
The prison-bound band members are philosophy student and mother Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, mother and Greenpeace activist Maria Alekhina, and artist and computer programmer Yekaterina Samutsevich. To mark the occasion, the band released a new recording (above), and it’s not a statement of remorse. The song is called “Putin Lights Up the Fires”(путин зажигает костры).
More:
“Russian band’s sentencing shows punk’s power,” Randall Roberts, Los Angeles Times
“Is Vladimir Putin Richer Than Carlos Slim?” Worldcrunch
“They’re inside in the afternoon, tapping at laptops and nursing lattes. They send emails and organize protests, chat with friends and warm their hands. It’s been two months now, and no one shows any signs of leaving. It’s undisputed and undeniable: The Starbucks at 15th and K has been thoroughly Occupied.”
– “Starbucks near protesters’ compound thoroughly Occupied,” Aubrey Whelan, Washington Examiner
Occupy Wall Street protesters in Manhattan’s Zuccotti Park had their gasoline-power generators confiscated by the NYFD as potential fire hazards. How to power life’s basic necessities, computers and cell phones? Bicycle-powered generators.
Hundreds of thousands of middle class Israelis began protesting a huge jump in dairy prices this summer, resulting in the largest demonstrations the country has ever seen. These soon became protests about widening economic inequalities in the small nation.
The protests are getting results. The Israeli cabinet has just approved a new tax plan reducing taxes on low-income wage earners and raising them for the rich and for corporations. Other new policies include cuts to the defense budget.
The Occupy Wall Street movement has few clear principles but four chief tactics: urban camping, chanting, drumming, and hula hoops. Drumming can be effective, but it’s dangerous when practiced by amateurs. We inadvertently auditioned the NYU contingent last month, and there were clearly no music majors among them.
