Activism

Beer Revolution: Protesters Gather to Protest Proposal That Favors MillerCoors at the Expense of Small, Craft Brewers

"This is the Wisconsin revolution, and it's powered by beer!"

John Nichols, associate editor of the Capital Times and Washington correspondent for The Nation, gave a rousing introduction to Friday's "Save Our Craft Beers" rally, held on the State Street side of the Wisconsin state Capitol at 5:00 p.m. Protesters gathered to unite in opposition against a measure added to the budget by the Joint Finance Committee that effectively bans brewers from purchasing wholesale distributors and, according to the Wisconsin Positive Business Alliance, requires new wholesalers and breweries to secure 25 "separate, independent retail customers before a wholesale license can be granted."

Wisconsin Judge Declares Walker’s Collective Bargaining Bill “Null and Void”

On May 26, Wisconsin Judge Maryann Sumi ruled Governor Scott Walker's "budget repair bill," which would eviscerate collective bargaining rights for most public workers in the state, "null and void."

Sumi ruled that lawmakers clearly violated the state's open meetings law in their rush to pass the bill at the height of the capitol protests, and that the public interest in the enforcement of the state's open records law outweighed the public interest in sustaining legislative action.

CMD Opposes Effort to Gut Whistleblower Protections

The Center for Media and Democracy, Common Cause, the AFL-CIO, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, Public Citizen and other organizations have signed onto a letter to members of Congress opposing a draft bill by Rep. Michael Grimm (R-NY) that would weaken whistleblower protection and award programs at the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CTFC). Grimm's bill seeks to strip newly-enacted protections for whistleblowers who face retaliation for contacting enforcement agencies. It would also remove incentives for corporate insiders to inform regulators about wrongdoing, hamstring enforcement at the SEC and CTFC and give lawbreaking financial firms a way to escape accountability for their actions. The programs Grimm's bill is trying to gut are based on America’s most effective anti-corruption statute: the False Claims Act, which has returned more than $27 billion taxpayer dollars since 1987. The programs were created under the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act to help the SEC and CTFC monitor securities and commodities markets and help avert another Wall Street collapse. Under the Dodd-Frank Act, the CFTC and the SEC can compensate whistleblowers whose disclosures lead to enforcement actions with penalties of $1 million or more. Such programs help  protect taxpayers by encouraging insiders with critical knowledge of large-scale corporate misconduct to come forward and report it. You can read the letter and see all the groups who have signed onto to it here (pdf).

Harold Camping's Global Apocalypse PR Campaign

End of the WorldThe world is scheduled to end on May 21, 2011. At least that's the hysteria being spread by Harold Camping, the 89 year-old fundamentalist Christian radio preacher and president of Family Radio, Inc., based in Oakland, California.

Camping claims to have calculated that on May 21, Jesus Christ will return to Earth and save his true believers. The unsaved will be victimized, he says, by a world-wide earthquake that will "throw open all graves." The "saved" will then rise up to heaven and the unsaved will be left to rot. A subsequent, massive tsunami will wreak five months of havoc upon those remaining on Earth until finally the entire Universe blows up on October 21, 2011, according to Camping.

Two signs that indicate the end is near, according to Camping's website, are the arrival of same-sex marriage and Israel gaining nationhood in 1948.

Robin Hood Storms Chase Castle and M&I Execs Get Piggish

On Tuesday, the shareholders of Marshall and Ilsley (M&I) Bank of Wisconsin "voted" to give $71 million in bonuses to failed executives as part of an acquisition deal. "Voted" may not be the right word, since CEO Mark Furlong opened and closed the meeting within the span of five minutes, allowing no discussion and no questions from the dozen or so shareholders in the room. Furlong has apparently learned Robert's Rules of Order from his friend Governor Scott Walker and the rest of the gang in the Wisconsin Capitol.

Wisconsin Protesters Weather Pessimism at May 14 Rally

Protesters took to the Wisconsin's capital once more on May 14th to prove neither pessimism nor weather could dampen their enthusiasm.

In-state tuition for allAn estimated 10-15,000 Wisconsinites gathered on the State Street steps equipped with new chants and signs protesting Walker's collective bargaining bill, education cuts, Badger Care cuts and immigrant rights. Summing up the feeling of many, one protester held a sign saying "Too Many Bad Bills for One Sign!"

The Wisconsin protests have yet to become redundant or uninteresting and continue to reinvent the very notion of protesting. The May 14 rally, sponsored by unions and the Wisconsin Wave, wasn't any different.

Phil Neuenfeldt, President of the WI AFl-CIO, warned that even though the collective bargaining bill was tied up in the courts, Gov. Scott Walker "is attempting to ram through the legislation attacking workers by incorporating it into an already extreme budget proposal."

Death Threats in El Salvador as Mining Company Asserts Corporate "Rights"

While a transnational corporation asserts its "right" to extract gold from El Salvador under the Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA), a grassroots anti-mining movement fights for self-determination and its leaders are turning up dead. In recent weeks, death threats have also been sent to radio journalists at Radio Victoria, the sister radio station to Madison, Wisconsin's WORT-FM.

Peabody Coal Company Spoofed in "CoalCares.org" Website

Submitted by Anne Landman on

Spongebob Squarepants InhalerPeabody Energy, the world's largest private-sector coal company, says it is the victim of a hoax after a website, www.coalcares.org, sprang up offering free "Puff-Puff" inhalers for kids with asthma who live within 200 miles of a coal plant. The site allows kids to select the free decorative inhaler of their choice: "My First Inhaler" with a picture of a duck on it, or inhalers with pictures of My Little Pony, Harry Potter, Spongebob Squarepants, Justin Beiber and more. Each inhaler, the site boasts, in made from "sustainable, eco-friendly recycled plastic." The site offers a $10 coupon towards the cost of actual asthma medication and a free charcoal pencil with every order. Other links include the "Kidz Koal Corner" featuring word games for children ages 4-12, like a word puzzle called "The Good Coal Does" where children can hunt for words like "clean," "dependable," "jobs" and "natural." Another page has a photo of birds flying into a wind turbine's spinning blades, and explains the dangers of clean energy technologies. The text says, "Wind turbines can kill up to 70,000 birds per year, or 4.27 birds per turbine per year. Coal particulate pollution, on the other hand, kills fewer than 13,000 people per year." The site says it is sponsored by Peabody Coal. The activist group that created the site is unknown.

No
Main Source: 
TIME/Environment, May 10, 2011
Topics: 
Activism
Children
Environment

Voter Suppression Bills Sweep the Country

Let the people voteA wave of voter suppression legislation is emerging from newly elected GOP governors and Republican legislators that would make it much more difficult for traditional Democratic constituencies to vote -- just in time for the 2012 election. About a dozen states are are actively considering legislation that would make voting much more difficult for college students, minorities, the elderly and the disabled.

Pages

Subscribe to Activism