Politics

On June 19th in Madrid, as in many other places, people gather to denounce and express their rejection of the many situations of economic violence they are being subjected to: the euro accord, cuts in health and education, corruption … The demonstration was cheerful and enthusiastic like all other multitudinous events of the 15M movement.

The resounding victory of “yes” to the referendum to repeal the privatization of water, the nuclear plants and a shameful law “ad personam” which would allow Berlusconi to not present himself at trials against him under the guise of a “legal impediment” was an act of civil disobedience, which involved 27 million Italians.

Here we publish a summary of the measures repealed by great majority during the Italian referendum.

Nuclear:

The repeal of the rules on nuclear power has prevented the installation of new plants in Italy, preventing a return to a kind of energy that had already been rejected in the referendum of 1987, shortly after the Chernobyl accident.

New Yorkers are escalating protests against austerity measures contained in Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s latest budget. In a major protest Tuesday, thousands of New York City union members rallied at City Hall demanding an end to layoffs and cuts to social spending. Sam Coleman is a third grade teacher at a public school in Brooklyn.

In a referendum vote held on last Monday, 95 percent of Italians voted in favor of blocking a nuclear power revival in Italy. The vote comes less than a month after Germany announced it would phase out nuclear power over the next decade. Italians also voted against water privatization and against Belusconi’s special privileges.

More details have emerged today about the Obama administration’s plan to wage a secret war inside Yemen. In what the Wall Street Journal describes as a major expansion of the United States counterterrorism efforts in Yemen, the CIA is preparing to launch a complete secret program to kill al-Qaeda militants in the country.

A caravan of Mexican anti-violence protesters arrived in the United States over the weekend. Mexican poet, Javier Sicilia, led the traveling protest, which began last week south of Mexico City and ended in El Paso, Texas, on Saturday. Sicilia demanded the United States end the Merida Initiative, which provides training and support for the Mexican army in its “war on drugs.”

Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan’s AK Party has scored a third consecutive election victory. In a victory speech, Erdogan pledged to work with opposition parties to rewrite Turkey’s constitution.
Soon after the Turkish election results were announced, a bomb exploded in southeast Turkey, injuring eleven people.

Newly released government data shows the Obama administration approved $200 million in military sales to Bahrain last year just months before the Gulf nation launched a violent crackdown on pro-democracy protesters. Part of the military sales involved the sale of rifles, shotguns and assault weapons. There have been a number of developments in Bahrain.

Last Sunday, **los Indignados** who remained in the most representative camp of the 15M movement, simply because of being there first, agreed to dismantle the Sol camp after debating the proposal to postpone it until the 15th and turn it into an itinerant camp. A reconstruction party is planned with an orderly work plan which includes removing the camps and cleaning up