Congressional Action Training – MoveOn.org and Wellstone Action from Karin Moveon on Vimeo.

Regardless of what you call it, one thing seems to be certain here in England: Everyone is talking about the protests! Some people begrudgingly argue that the militant protesters were rightfully outraged, were but a small segment of the protest, or were unrelated youth out to get their kicks.

But those militant protesters are probably the reason anyone is talking about this protest.

Last December, a group of over 40,000 people marched against climate change in London. The news covered it but sparsely. Discussion after the protest was minimal. I doubt the extra 10,000 people in the latest tuition fees protest is what’s making the story viral. Rather, it the “violence”.

The story doesn’t end here. What is the news and debating all about? Well, mostly the violence. Case in point: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-11729912; http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/haveyoursay/2010/11/how_should_the_police_deal_wit.html.

But there is some underlying talk of the substantive issues. No news article ignores it and rarely do I hear a debate sticking entirely to the topic of the violence. Perhaps I’m in a biased atmosphere, I’ll admit that much.

But take a look at this:

BBC’s Have Your Say, on the topic of “How should the police deal with protests?”

(http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/haveyoursay/2010/11/how_should_the_police_deal_wit.html?page=8#comments)

Its already got over 700 responses and many many people are talking about the fees even when the question is not directed toward the substantive issue (thanks a lot media). There’s so much talk of the tuition fees people have posted responses like: “Yes lets focus on the ‘violence’ instead of the reason the protest was on in the first place”!!

People are talking and they are talking about the issue. It seems like at this point real discursive democracy might require a few broken windows.

SANTIAGO, Oct 29, 2010 (IPS) – Protesters ranging from prisoners to government leaders have resorted to hunger strikes in Latin America in recent years to press their demands. Behind the growing use of the extreme protest measure is a lack of institutional responses, according to experts.

No longer is the hunger strike only a radical measure resorted to mainly by prison inmates. Workers, peasants, indigenous people, businesspersons, students, nuns, priests, legislators, judges, reporters and teachers in the region have been fasting for different causes in countries governed by political forces of all stripes.

In Bolivia, the president himself, Aymara Indian Evo Morales, declared a hunger strike in April 2009 to press for passage of a law.

And opposition to another law prompted a group of around 30 journalists to fast this month for 14 days in the eastern Bolivian city of Santa Cruz.

In Costa Rica, a group of environmentalists have been on a hunger strike outside the presidential palace since Oct. 8, to protest an executive decree declaring that an open-pit gold mine in Crucitas, in the north of the country, is in the “public interest,” thus allowing the project to go ahead.

And in the northern Chilean region of Coquimbo, Cristian Flores, spokesman for a group of 11 residents of the town of Caimanes, told IPS that “In 10 years we have never received a response from the state.”

He was explaining why the group decided to declare a hunger strike on Sept. 27, to demand the removal and clean-up of a nearby mine tailings deposit.

A much higher profile hunger strike in Chile came to an end early this month after 82 days. A group of 34 prisoners belonging to the country’s largest indigenous group, the Mapuche, were demanding fair trials.

They called off their protest when charges against them under a strict anti-terrorism law were withdrawn and the government of rightwing President Sebastián Piñera promised they would be tried under standard criminal law.

Although they are not a new phenomenon, hunger strikes are “symptoms of something more serious: that there are segments of the population in Latin America who are invisible and are not being heard,” José Santos, at the Institute of Advanced Studies of the University of Santiago, Chile, told IPS.

On Jul. 23, laid-off members of Mexico’s Electrical Workers Union (SME) lifted a hunger strike in which both men and women participated for different lengths of time, ranging between 34 and 90 days, as part of a struggle to get their jobs back after a state-owned power utility was closed down in the capital.

The protest ended when conservative Mexican President Felipe Calderón agreed to high-level talks to address the demands of the workers, several of whom were in critical condition.

Santos, a philosopher and academic, disagrees with the idea that the peaceful pressure mechanism has become “fashionable.”

He also said there was a difference between indefinite hunger strikes and shorter fasts joined to support a specific cause.

José Aylwin, co-director of the Citizen Observatory, a Chilean NGO, said hunger strikes in the Southern Cone country occurred because of the state’s “serious limitations” in guaranteeing “the exercise of political rights.”

One of these limitations, he told IPS, is Chile’s electoral system, “which excludes not only indigenous people, but also different currents of opinion or thought, from legislative decision-making.” Another is “the tightly controlled access to the media,” he added.

In both Cuba and Venezuela, protesters have died as a result of hunger strikes.

In Venezuela “the hunger strike is no longer just a tool used by prisoners; it has been used by oil workers and workers in other industries in the hands of the state, as well as other segments of society,” Marino Alvarado, coordinator of the Venezuelan Programme of Education-Action in Human Rights (PROVEA), told IPS.

In July 2009, the mayor of the metropolitan area of Caracas, opposition politician Antonio Ledesma, fasted for 130 hours to protest a move by the government of socialist President Hugo Chávez to take over many of the mayor’s duties and offices by creating another post.

And in September, university students fasted to complain against alleged political persecution by the Chávez administration.

Jesuit missionary José María Korta, 81, used the same mechanism Oct. 18-25 to press for the release of three Yukpa indigenous men in prison on murder charges, respect for native forms of justice, and a large uninterrupted Yukpa territory instead of several smaller disconnected ones in northern Venezuela.

The only Venezuelan to die as a result of a hunger strike was Franklin Brito, a 49-year-old farmer and schoolteacher who died on Aug. 30 after fasting for five months, demanding respect for his property rights over his land. In the last few years he had held several previous hunger strikes.

“The protests have not only grown in number, but have also become more radical and coordinated, and people are increasingly defying the state” in Venezuela, Alvarado said.

In Cuba, hunger strikes are used by dissidents protesting against the government of Raúl Castro, which considers dissident groups “mercenaries” at the service of the hostile U.S. policy towards the socialist island nation. According to the independent Cuba Archive, 12 people have died in hunger strikes since the 1959 revolution.

The demands set forth by the hunger strikers have been better prison conditions, recognition as political prisoners, and release from jail. Orlando Zapata, 42, died in prison on Feb. 23 after refusing food for 85 days.

“The government deliberately let Zapata die. It was a death foretold,” Elizardo Sánchez, head of the Cuban Commission for Human Rights and National Reconciliation, a dissident group, told IPS.

The government denied responsibility.

Political dissident Guillermo Fariñas was internationally renowned for his repeated hunger strikes. After Zapata died, he declared his own hunger strike on Feb. 24 in his home in the central Cuban city of Santa Clara demanding the release of 26 prisoners with health problems. He called off his protest on Jul. 8 when the imprisoned dissidents began to be released.

Hunger strikes are “a legitimate recourse in extreme situations, resorted to by racial, gender or other minorities,” said Sánchez, who added that “hunger strikes will continue to happen as long as people lack other means to defend their rights.”

Alvarado said “The hunger strike, an expression of desperation and civic protest in which people risk their health and life, is a sign that the game between government and the governed is stuck, that people are not finding a solution to their demands, and frequently not even institutional responses. It is a negative symptom, dangerous to society.”

Now we will be covering the International Politics Mechanism which discusses the importance of the international arena in facilitating social change in a given country.

The International Politics Mechanism (p. 89-92)

Kolb suggests 4 ways in which the international arena can be used to benefit activists in achieving their goals:

-  pressure on global markets (boycotts)

ex.     – International boycott against aparthaid South Africa

- putting pressure on international orgs and treaties which commit member states to rules              they may be violating.

ex.        – Civil Rights movement appeals to the UN regarding descrimination

- informing individuals and advocacy orgs in other countries to put pressure on your         government.

ex. –    Amnesty International’s human rights campaigns try to inform all countries                                   of specific human rights violations.

- the international political situation can be taken advantage of by the movement.

ex. -      the Cold War was used by the Civil Rights Movement as the Soviet Union                                  used racism in the US to win over countries of color and the Civil Rights                                  Movement argued desegregation and voting rights would hurt the USSR

Kolb does not go into more detail regarding this mechanism but certain ideas come to mind regarding activists abilities to use the 4th process of social change listed here – using the current political context.

Internal security is supposed to be a key policy point regarding international relations since Sept. 11.  Activists can use the argument that war, torture and Islamaphobia are increasing the likelihood that another attack is going to happen on American soil.

Activists in Venezuela have (so far) successfully used a hunger strike to gain an audience with President Hugo Chavez regarding the release of 3 prisoners who were convicted of murder in the state court rather than the indigenous courts as promised by the new constitution.

Since the new constitution was based on the concept of indigenous rights, the public views Chavez as a crusader for the indigenous community.  This allowed a hunger strike to be successful since hunger strikes are tactics that are to be used against those who support you.

Hunger strikes were popularized by Gandhi but the use of them is frequently misinterpreted.  Many believe that his hunger strike was a way of pressuring the British to give India its independence but actually Gandhi used hunger strikes to protest the violent riots between Hindus and Muslims.  His hunger strike was a way of asking the Hindu and Muslim people who were his devoted fans to be nonviolent.

The story regarding the hunger strike in Venezuela is reprinted below:

http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=53290
Hunger Strike Off as Gov’t Agrees to Talks on Native Demands
By Humberto Márquez

CARACAS, Oct 25, 2010 (IPS) – An 81-year-old Jesuit missionary in Venezuela ended a week-long hunger strike Monday after the government agreed to high-level talks to negotiate the release of three indigenous prisoners facing murder charges and to discuss land claims by Yukpa communities.

José María Korta told journalists outside Congress in Caracas, where he was holding his fast, that in “the dialogue that we have held with government leaders, the main reason for our hunger strike has received a response.”

In the company of two young activists who joined him in the hunger strike over the last three days, the elderly missionary said he felt fine and that he could have “continued the strike, and may still take it up again.”

Korta called off his protest after Vice President Elías Jaua promised to meet with him to listen to his concerns and seek solutions to his demands, along with leftwing President Hugo Chávez, who returned from an 11-day international tour Sunday.

“We hope the dialogue and negotiations with representatives of the government and other branches of the state will bring about the release of Sabino Romero, Alexander Fernández and Olegario Romero,” three indigenous men in prison for murder since a year ago, Lusbi Portillo, with Sociedad Homo et Natura, an environmental group that has been involved in the Yukpa cause for 25 years, told IPS.

But “We also need a road map to overcome the underlying problems, like the defence of indigenous forms of justice and the handing over of ancestral indigenous land occupied by cattle breeders or granted to mining companies in concession,” he added.

Sources in Congress said legislators are working with Supreme Court judges on measures in favour of the three indigenous inmates.

During his hunger strike, Korta told IPS that “Since 1999, when the new constitution –which is very beautiful but has hardly been enforced — was approved, indigenous people like the Yukpa have been awaiting the demarcation of their territories.”

The constitution, which was rewritten under Chávez by an elected constituent assembly that included delegates of indigenous organisations, requires the demarcation of indigenous territories. It also stipulates for the first time that the legislature must include representatives of native groups.

Korta said the Yukpa “are victims of the colonialist viewpoint that predominates among many officials.”

The Yukpa, a Carib-speaking Amerindian population of around 12,000, are one of the five native groups living in northwestern Venezuela, between the Sierra de Perijá mountains, which mark part of the border with Colombia, and Lake Maracaibo.

While some Yukpa leaders and communities have accepted land and other aid distributed by the government, more radical groups led by Sabino Romero — such as the Chaktapa village, of which he is chief — continue to demand legal recognition of a larger, continuous Yukpa territory, instead of areas granted to separate communities.

They are demanding a territory of 285,000 hectares located between the Sierra de Perijá and the fertile plains from which they were gradually driven in the 20th century by the expansion of cattle ranching and oil prospecting.

They don’t want to end up “like ham in a sandwich,” Portillo said, referring to tracts of land offered by the government that are wedged between border areas reserved for military use and the plains along the lake, which are covered by ranches.

Some of these groups have come down from the mountains in recent years and occupied idle land on cattle ranches that they claim as their traditional territory.

Wayúu, Yukpa and Barí communities living on the Venezuelan side of the Sierra de Perijá, from north to south, are also opposed to the coal-mining concessions granted to companies in the area, and maintain that the government is delaying the demarcation of indigenous territories because it would hinder plans for mining activities and the construction of railways and ports.

The Yukpa communities led by Romero are asking the government to pay ranchers compensation for the improvements they have made to the land occupied by the indigenous protesters, such as houses, barns, fences, artificial lakes, dikes, electric wiring, rural roads and fixed machinery.

The ranchers have agreed to give up the land if they receive not only compensation for the property itself but also for the improvements.

But in its agrarian reform effort, the government argues that landowners must be able to show an unbroken chain of land titles that can be traced back many decades, and refuses to pay for improvements to expropriated rural property if the owners cannot do so.

There is thus a political stand-off between the Chávez administration and the cattle breeders along the shores of Lake Maracaibo.

On Oct. 12, 2009, the government handed over communal land titles to 41,600 hectares to three of the more than 100 Yukpa communities.

The next day, a violent incident broke out between Sabino Romero and several of his family members and friends, with people from the community of Guamo Pamocha, led by a rival chief, Olegario Romero.

The heated argument over land spiralled into violence, and two people were shot and killed — Sabino’s son-in-law and Olegario’s 16-year-old pregnant sister — and several were injured.

The courts ordered the arrests of Olegario, Sabino and Alexander Fernández, a member of the Wayuú community who is married to Sabino’s daughter.

They were first held in a local military garrison. But when pressure mounted from the indigenous groups and organisations that back their cause, the three men facing murder charges were transferred to a prison in the city of Trujillo in the country’s western Andes highlands.

This year, Homo et Natura has been fighting in the courts for the three men to be returned to their communities and tried under indigenous criminal justice systems, which were recognised by the constitution.

Article 260 of the constitution establishes that “The legitimate authorities of indigenous peoples can apply in their territory forms of justice based on their ancestral traditions (in cases) that only involve members of their communities, according to their own customs and procedures, as long as they do not run counter to the constitution, the country’s laws and public order.”

The Yukpa justice system is based on reparations rather than punishment. For example, it requires the offender to work several years for the victim’s family, Portillo explained.

According to Sabino Romero’s defence attorneys, the evidence of what happened on Oct. 12, 2009 was altered; the interpreter used in the trial was not fluent in the Yukpa dialect spoken in the village of Chaktapa; and the chief is being held in a cell with evangelical inmates who press him to join them in prayers and rites that differ from his own beliefs.

The Spanish-born Korta is known as Ajishama, “the white ibis who shows the way” in the Ye’kuana language, by students at the Indigenous University he founded.

There are some 600,000 indigenous people from 36 different ethnic groups in this South American country of 28 million people. Just over half live in communities in border regions. (END)

The Judicial Mechanism

2 basic benefits of sing the judicial mechanism is that you could win the case (1) or the government could make concessions in order not to lose the case (2).

However, the effectiveness of the mechanism has been debated.

Those who think that it is a good means of political change argue that the judicial branch of government is generally not counting on public opinion since they don’t get elected to office (the Supreme Court for example).  Therefore, issues that are not supported by the public can won in court.  Courts must also hear all arguments and the case itself could raise public awareness.

Others (in particular Gerald N. Rosenberg in his book The Hollow Hope: Can Courts Bring About Social Change?) say there are 3 big reasons why courts don’t work well for social movements.

1) Normally – the argument made to the court must be regarded to the denial of some rights that already exist in law.

For example, the California’s current battle of same-sex marriage is about overturning the popular support for the ban with the argument that it is unconstitutional because it breaks with equal rights – rights gained through social movements.    Had those rights not previously been won, their would be no argument to overturn such legislation.

2) The judicial branch lacks independence

While it is relatively independent from public opinion institutionally, it rarely makes decisions that go against public opinion.  If they do, the Congress can also overturn their decisions.  Even the selection process for cases that are to be heard is influenced from beyond the judicial branch.

3) Perhaps most importantly, the judicial branch does not have much power to implement their decision.  Lower level courts have some say in how the decision plays out and other elites who are accountable to the public (and therefore must factor in public opinion into their decision) play a role.

While the Brown V. Board of Education decision was favorable to the Civil Rights Movement, the implementation was a slow and painful process that really relied on public support before real change could be seen.

For each problem there is a (slow) solution:

To overcome the problem of nonexistent rights – precedence must be won at some level and in some way.

To overcome the lack of independence – support for the president or from Congress must be won.

To overcome implementation problems – a fairly large part of the public needs to support the cause, or the general population must have some small support for it + at least 1 of 4  things:

1- incentives for implementation

2- costs for avoiding implementation

3- the implementation is done through the private sector

4- the courts protect individuals who support implementation but fear the political ramifications

The Political Access Mechanism (p. 80-5)

This mechanism suggests that victories can be achieved by social movement actors by playing within the mainstream political arena.  There is a simple 2-step process for achieving this:

1. Entering the arena (at whatever level is best suited for your needs)

2. Influencing the agenda once inside (this step suggests that victory may take some time between when access to the political arena is gained and when actual goals are accomplished.)

Kolb focuses on two specific ways this can be achieved:

- Gaining the right to vote (as in part of the Civil Rights Movement)

- Electing the groups own representatives

The first case Kolb looks at using this mechanism is African American during the Civil Rights Movement.  Many African Americans were disenfranchised in the South – movement efforts to increase voter registration in those areas challenged parties to struggle over appealing to new constituencies.  This led to significant reforms national as both the Democratic and Republican parties appealed to African American voters who were (after Roosevelt) much less tightly fastened to the Democrats than today.  This undecided voter factor gave them leverage as both parties were supporting civil rights legislation nationally until the Republicans realized they were loosing too many Southern conservatives.

Once African Americans got the vote, they steadily voted for African American politicians who in turn pushed for laws regarding race issues more so than white politicians.

Again, it is important to look at limitations.  Gaining the vote, de jure (by law) or de facto (in practice) becomes an important political tool only if there is enough new voters to be able or appear to be able to make a difference in the outcome of an election.

Groups need to also be cohesive in their voting to increase the impact.  But again, the more the group changes from one to the other year after year, the more they are catered too by political parties.

If the group doesn’t share the same goals and values, it will be hard for politicians to make concessions to the group as a whole.

Once your group is in government your representative should try to push the median policy preference of the body they work for in order to make a change since their ideal position is likely not to be approved by enough members.  Also, the representative needs to be as high of a leader and on as many decision making bodies as possible to make the greatest contribution.  Also, the minority representatives should work across chambers to help pass laws where as working within only 1 chamber may be only enough to block unwanted legislation.

In his book, Kolb analysis this mechanism using the Civil Rights Movement.  I would suggest reading it for more detailed examples and information.

The article that follows can be found here:

To Feed the World, Gov’ts Break New Ground with Civil Society
By Marwaan Macan-Markar

BANGKOK, Oct 15, 2010 (IPS) – For over a decade, seasoned activist Sarojini Rengam’s efforts to storm the bureaucratic barricades at global food security meetings in Rome hardly produced any cracks. The tightly structured agenda at the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) gatherings she went to were unequivocal about where activists stood – in the margins.

The likes of Rengam, the executive director of the Asia-Pacific branch of global green lobby Pesticide Action Network, were given limited time to air their concerns towards the end of the annual Committee of World Food Security (CFS) meeting. Moreover, this virtual postscript to the conference came after government policy makers had already drafted a final document.

“Civil society organisations were often seen as environmental terrorists,” said Rengam of how groups like her Penang-based non-governmental organisation (NGO) and others from the global South were viewed by government officials who dominated the annual event hosted by the U.N. body in the Italian capital.

But not any more.

In an unprecedented nod toward civil society organisations, this year’s annual FAO event to shape global food security policy rolled out the welcome mat to some 150 activists who took part in the just-finished meeting – on equal footing with government delegates.

“Our inputs were not ignored, as in the past,” Rengam said during a telephone interview from Rome. “Our views were noted down, such as on land acquisition, which is a major problem in Asia. This was a big jump.”

Other activists like Marlene Ramirez are also basking in the new spirit of inclusion that was on display at the FAO’s headquarters, where this year’s high-level intergovernmental meeting of the CFS ran from Oct. 11-15.

“It was very empowering. We had opportunities to intervene simultaneously since we were there as co-equals with the governments,” said Ramirez, secretary-general of the Asian Partnership for the Development of Human Resources in Rural Areas, a Manila-based regional grassroots network. “It has made a major difference for civil society.”

This week’s debates on finding solutions to food security were influenced by “the voices of many civil society sectors,” she revealed during an interview from the meeting site. “Governments got to hear alternative solutions and the need to explore alternative ways.”

Rengam and Ramirez were among 150 civil society representatives from across the world that took part in this week’s groundbreaking meeting. These groups, of which 30 were from Asia, represented regional and international farmers’ organisations, herders associations and indigenous organisations.

This break from the format of conventional U.N. meetings – where civil society groups are accorded marginal, or at times only symbolic, space – is winning early praise from some government delegates, among them the representatives from the Philippines and Argentina.

“It is very important that finally, member governments have recognised that NGOs and CSOs (civil society organisations) have a role to play institutionally,” said Noel de Luna, current head of the CFS, during an interview. “It serves as an assurance that the voices who we have excluded in the past are heard.”

“CSO are directly in contact with the people going hungry and living in poverty and were able to bring that reality to the discussions,” the delegate from the Philippines added. “In the past, all we heard were only statements by governments.”

The first hint of this push for CSOs to be included in the CFS emerged between 2007 and 2008, as the world was grappling with the confluence of the food and fuel crisis, followed by the global financial crisis.

“There was gradual acknowledgement that food security and food availability issues cannot be solved by governments only,” said Thomas Price, head of FAO’s branch that works with activists. “Governments wanted this body (CFS) to be the lead body on food security issues.”

The outcome, with civil society groups at the policy table for the first time, is “a radical, if not revolutionary change,” he told IPS. “They have been affecting the discourse at the plenary sessions and submitting documents at other proceedings.”

At the same time, he conceded: “Some governments are hesitant and resistant in having CSOs at the table, while others are facilitating civil society participation.”

The FAO’s ready embrace of civil society activists in shaping food security policies echoes in the Asia-Pacific, home to two-thirds of the world’s more than one billion people who went hungry every day in 2009. The region saw the number of people in chronic hunger rise from 609 million in 2008 to 658 million in 2009.

This figure dampens the praise showered on the region known for high economic growth. “Economic growth has benefited the rich and the middle class, but didn’t benefit those living below the poverty line,” Hiroyuki Konuma, the FAO’s regional head, told IPS. “They are the ones who have suffered as the food crisis hit, and then the financial crisis.”

This disparity is widening and gatherings like the CSF help address “not only problems about increasing food production, but the access issue – how farmers could access food to reduce poverty,” he added. “If we are to change the politics, the people in each country must influence the policy direction of new agriculture programmes.”

“Food security issues cannot be solved by U.N. agencies alone, or by individual governments alone,” Konuma added. “We have to build solidarity with different levels of people, including civil society.” (END)