#protest camps

[newsdock]

Hong Kong's Umbrella Movement gets computer game makeover

How do you defend yourself against scores of tear gas wielding police while manning the barricades at Hong Kong's protest camps? "Yellow Umbrella" has been downloaded more than 40,000 times from Google Play's store since its release on Monday, the game's developers told AFP, although it has yet to receive approval from Apple and is noticeably absent from Google's online store in mainland China. "They (the protesters) like Guan Yu very much because they want to resolve the problem but they don't know how to do it. Source: AFP

[newsdock]

Shiite Huthi rebels clashed with Yemeni forces in a Sanaa suburb Wednesday as tensions ran high in the capital where they have set up protest camps, security sources and witnesses said. On Tuesday, seven activists were shot dead as Huthi protesters attempted to storm government headquarters, while thousands blocked main thoroughfares in central Sanaa. Source: AFP

[newsdock]

Talks with Shiite rebels, who have set up armed protest camps in the Yemeni capital, have "failed" after they rejected a proposed government of technocrats, the president's negotiating team said on Sunday. The rebels "rejected all the proposals presented to them," the team's spokesman Abdulmalek al-Mikhlafi said. The envoys of President Abdrabuh Mansur Hadi had been holding talks with rebel commander Abdulmalik al-Huthi in Saada since Thursday in a bid to persuade him to abandon the protests organised by his supporters in a bid to oust the current government and reverse fuel price increases. Analysts say that the rebels are seeking to establish themselves as the dominant force in Yemen's northern highlands and win a bigger share of power in a future federal government. Source: AFP

[newsdock]

Venezuelan authorities demolished four protest camps and detained 243 people early Thursday, striking at the remaining bastions of a months-long and at times deadly anti-government protest movement. Riot police swept through the camps in surprise raids that began at 3 pm, Minister Miguel Rodriguez Torres said, claiming the sites occupied by students were \"being used by more violent groups to commit terrorist acts.\" Lawyer and human rights activist Elenis Rodriguez said \"very few young people were able to escape the onslaught.\" Over the past month, the protest movement has largely been concentrated in Occupy-style encampments in Caracas, with the main one set up opposite the office of the United Nations Development Program in an upscale part of town. Source: AFP

[anonmedics-blog]

Protest camps: Brian Haw

Protest camps are a longstanding institution, by no means invented by Occupy. It's easy to lose sight of this fact amid recent events, but camps have been used as a means of petitioning a government or other entity for many decades before now.

A friend was kind enough to write up the story of one such camp, and one such camper: We present the story of Brian Haw.

Brian started camping in parliament square in June 2001 to protest against sanctions against Iraq. Before 9/11 if you can believe it. In October '02, Westminster city council tried to evict him under the Highways Act. Section 137 of that act makes it an offense to obstruct the highway. Should be a slam-dunk case, you'd think, but whoever in Westminster was in charge of the Haw case decided to instead use section 329, which they used to charge him with causing a 'nuisance'. When the case arrived in court, the council's evidence that Brian was causing a nuisance was covert photographs taken of him picking up litter. The case was thrown out.

Brian continued to piss off Tony Blair enough that in 2005 the Labour government put a special clause into the new Serious Organised Crime and Police Act specifically to kick him out. However they messed up the wording so it said demonstrators had to seek permission from the police before protesting in Parliament Square. Brian successfully argued that this did not retroactively apply to his protest, which had started 4 years previous. Another case thrown out of court.

Brian stayed in Parliament Square, only ever leaving to attend court, right up until May 2010. On the first day of the new Tory parliament, Brian was arrested just before the Queen's speech "on suspicion of obstructing police".

Sadly, Brian was diagnosed with lung cancer in late 2010, and early last year left the square to seek treatment in Germany. He died a goddamn fucking hero in June 2011.

In solidarity with Brian and the anti-war movement, 'Democracy Village' took over Parliament Square in May 2010. Despite having faced several evictions they continue coming back, and will hopefully continue to do so after their latest eviction tonight (16/1/12).

Occupy: 10 years young and still going!