Tunisia Topless Protest: Jailed Activists Apologize

#Jailed #activists #apologize for #topless #Tunisia #Protest http://t.co/XPFMO9Uvll pic.twitter.com/vjU9CgstQX

— Occupy Tampa Bay (@Occupy_Tampabay) July 22, 2013

Three European women with the radical protest group Femen, jailed in Tunisia for baring their breasts, apologized at their appeals trial on Wednesday and promised not to repeat the protest. “I regret this act and I apologize,” Josephine Markmann, the German member of the group, told the judge, who said Muslim law prohibited such acts. “We didn’t expect to shock Tunisians to this extent. It is out of the question that we would do it again,” said Pauline Hillier, one of the two French women also appealing a four-month prison sentence for their demonstration last month in support of a fellow Tunisian activist. The three women appeared at the court of appeal in Tunis dressed in the traditional Tunisian veil, or safsari. Lawyers for a number of Islamist groups angered by the protest, who are seeking to participate in the trial as a civil party, asked for another delay to the appeal to allow them to consult the file. But the judge rejected the request and ordered them to argue their case. One of the lawyers, Seifeddine Makhouf, demanded a “symbolic dinar for injury,” and condemned the “exceptional pressures on the prosecutor to arrange the hearing in the shortest time possible.” French defense lawyer Patrick Klugman said “the [Islamist] associations have had ample opportunity to study the file; it is part of their strategy to prevent the case from ever being resolved.” Like other lawyers defending the women, he argued there was nothing sexual about their protest. “You cannot pervert the message of Femen. Their breasts were visible to the public but they were carrying a message you can’t ignore. Stop looking at their breasts... and listen to them,” Klugman told the court. He added that the women believed they would be safe staging their protest “in a country that has just risen up for freedom.” The two-hour hearing was adjourned at 1200 GMT and the judge was expected to announce his verdict later in the day. The three were arrested outside the main courthouse in Tunis on May 29 during their topless protest in support of Amina Sboui, a detained Tunisian activist with the same “sextremist” group. They were jailed for four months on June 12 for indecency and an attack on public morals. Before Wednesday’s hearing, one of their lawyers told AFP the defense would reject any new delays to the appeals trial, which has already been put back once, and hoped to see the women freed by the end of the week. The four-month jail sentences handed down to the defendants have been criticized as harsh by international rights groups and European countries. On the eve of the appeal hearing, three topless feminist activists in Brussels jumped on visiting Tunisian Prime Minister Ali Larayedh’s car, demanding their jailed comrades in the North African country be released. Also on Wednesday, radical Salafists gathered outside the main courthouse in Tunis to protest against hardline youths being prosecuted under anti-terrorism laws. http://english.alarabiya.net/en/News/africa/2013/06/26/Jailed-activists-apologize-for-topless-Tunisia-protest-.html

Occupy Wall Street Trying To Shut Down Global Commerce: West Coast Ports

Thousands of demonstrators forced shipping terminals in Oakland, Calif., Portland, Ore., and Longview, Wash., to halt parts of their operations Monday.

At least one outside observer who has followed political movements for decades said the port blockades were an indicator of the disruptive activities likely to continue for months and right until next year's presidential elections.



The movement, which sprang up this fall against what it sees as corporate greed and economic inequality, focused on the ports as the "economic engines for the elite." It comes weeks after police raids cleared out most of their tent camps.

Protesters are most upset by two West Coast companies: port operator SSA Marine and grain exporter EGT. Investment banking giant Goldman Sachs Group Inc. owns a major stake in SSA Marine and has been a frequent target of protesters.

Demonstrators say they are standing up for workers against the port companies, which have had recent high-profile clashes with union workers. Longshoremen in Longview, for example, have had a longstanding dispute with EGT, which employs workers from a different union to staff its terminal. The longshoremen's union says the jobs rightfully belong to them.

In Oakland, some 1,000 protesters vowed to at the port overnight, but the crowd had shrunk to around 150 by 9:30 p.m. Monday, the San Francisco Chronicle reported Tuesday.

While the protests attracted far fewer people than the 10,000 who turned out Nov. 2 to shut down Oakland's port, organizers declared victory and promised more demonstrations.

Occupy Oakland: Raw Video

Ever since Occupy Oakland was evicted, the movement has been stuck in the mud. Efforts to find a new site for the camp have been less than successful, while the general assemblies have been alternately racked by controversy and sparsely attended. Shutting down "Wall Street on the Waterfront", as they've called it, is an effort to get some of their momentum back. And so far, it looks promising: perhaps a thousand community members gathered in West Oakland at 5.30am yesterday morning, marched into the port of Oakland and prevented port workers and container trucks from entering. Busloads of riot police were on the scene, but there was no riot and they went home. By late morning the port of Oakland was officially shut down: port officials cited "health and safety risks" and sent workers home, leaving container ships loaded at the docks.



Officially, the longshoreman union is not sanctioning the blockade. But then, given how firmly its hands are tied by anti-union legislation, it would be shocking if it had. While longshoremen are under no obligation to cross a community picket line, they are forbidden by law from striking except during very specific circumstances (say, during contract negotiations). If the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) had endorsed the blockade – even unofficially – union officials and stewards could face jail time. And so, ironically, while occupiers across the west coast are blockading ports in the name of labour – in particular Los Angeles truck drivers (non-unionised) who were fired for wearing union T-shirts and ILWU workers engaged in a labour dispute against EGT in Longview, Washington – labour has little power to speak in its own name here, except by refusing to cross a community picket line.

Occupy Protesters Block Many West Coast Ports: Attempt to Shutdown Shipping

Thousands of Occupy Wall Street protesters blocked access to several major West Coast ports Monday in synchronized demonstrations that fell short of a complete shutdown of West Coast shipping:



Anchorage,AK
Oakland, CA
Long Beach, CA
San Diego,CA
Portland, OR
Longview, WA
Seattle, WA

In many cities, protesters targeted terminals operated by SSA Marine, a shipping company that is locked in a labor dispute with some port truckers, and is partly owned by Wall Street investment bank Goldman Sachs.

Organizers said Monday's actions were also an expression of support for union workers in Longview, where the International Longshore and Warehouse Union has been fighting to ensure its members get jobs at a new shipping facility.

But Monday's protests were not endorsed by ILWU or the other major unions operating at the ports. A spokesman for ILWU, Craig Merrilees, said the union has specific rules about when it can agree to support a protest. "This was not a picket line under the legal terms of the current labor agreement," he said.

Still, the union's president said dockworkers agreed with the goals of the Occupy protesters, who assert that the economic system benefits the richest 1% of Americans at the cost of the other 99%.

Occupy the North Pole

Police Raid Occupy San Francisco: Dozens Arrested (55)

Dozens were arrested in a raid Occupy San Francisco for illegal lodging on Sunday



Police have arrested dozens of people during a raid of an Occupy San Francisco encampment outside the Federal Reserve building early Sunday.

San Francisco police Officer Albie Esparza says that around 4 a.m. officers arrested about 55 people for illegal lodging.

No officers or demonstrators were injured, but Esparza says some officers were spit on and one officer was pushed by demonstrators during the arrests.

Esparza says that before police moved in on the encampment demonstrators had been warned on an hourly basis over a 24-period that they were subject to arrest.

The arrests Sunday come after at least 85 people were arrested Wednesday when police cleared a separate Occupy encampment in nearby Justin Herman Plaza.

Occupy Palm Beach Protestors Move Encampment Prior to Noon Deadline

The Occupy movement locally has had minor problems with West Palm Beach officials and police, compared to larger cities like Oakland, Calif., and New York City. They may be minimalist on hygiene, but the Occupy Palm Beach protestors prefer their methods to the conflict elsewhere that has involved violence and arrests.

"We strive so much to remain non-violent, non-confrontational. It's easier to maintain an established presence here," Allison Bannon of Loxahatchee said while struggling with tent poles just moments after relocating her "gingerbread house" a block. "This isn't about violence or negativity, it's about being part of the community."

While demonstrators are concerned about space to place more tents when or if the encampment grows, the grassy areas flanking a cement courtyard near old city hall have just enough room for the current crew. The city offered protestors an alternative site when they told them they'd have to move from the grass at Narcissus and First streets where a circus performer is scheduled to offer trapeze lessons.

"We worked out a deal with the city," said Mark Schall, who serves on several committees for the Occupy group although he only sleeps at the encampment on the weekends due to his 34-hour-a-week job. "If you look around the country, we're being treated pretty good."

Bannon, a freelance geneologist, moved the tent she shares with Aaron DuBois still fully assembled, so the block and a half walk looked something like the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade balloon crews, as the wind luffed the canvas. The mostly cloudy but warm morning was accomodating. A city maintenance crew kept up a roar at the street while working out of a manhole, and a block down Olive, St. Ann's Catholic Church parishoners strolled toward services.

The new location gives protestors a presence on Olive, where many people move to and from county offices and other businesses. The old location was within earshot of the waterfront.
Frazier Williams, who moved his "Indian reservation" tent over well before the deadline, said he was happy to move away from the waterfront.

"We can continue to protest in peace," said the West Palm Beach man who has a full-time job at a local florist. "That's all we're looking for, peace and justice."

Staff writer Alexandra Seltzer contributed to this report.
emily_roach@pbpost.com
http://www.palmbeachpost.com/news/occupy-palm-beach-protestors-move-encampment-prior-to-2025688.html