whlw: no. 251

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what happened last week

• Recommended: Island of Shame: The Secret History of the U.S. Military Base on Diego Garcia by David Vine is a good start if you want to read more about the history of the Chagos people and its fight against the military base. 
• You should know about Chagossian activist Aurélie Marie-Lisette Talate. Read more about her here.

• Did you know that euthanasia is only legal in three European countries, Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg? 

• Good to know: He's conservative and a Catholic though. And was just reelected last week.

This week, tens of thousands of farmers and their families got on their tractors and drove into India’s capital New Delhi to show solidarity against the controversial farmers’ laws that they believe are going to make their lives much, much harder.

Why this matters: It was one of the biggest anti-government protests in months.

What happened then?
When they got there, violence broke out between protesters and police when a group of protesters stormed the Red Fort (a really, really famous structure built in the 1500s). 

We spoke to Bhupender Chaudhary in New Delhi – a Sikh farmer who says this wasn’t supposed to happen.

This is an excerpt of that conversation, translated from Punjabi. 

What happened on January 26?
Most of us just wanted to protest peacefully. But there were other protesters who were planning to escalate things when we got to the Red Fort and choose a different path. We were telling as many people as we could to stay calm and not break away. But things got out of control.

Tell me more
Well, we stayed on the path. At the Red Fort, there were barricades. Some people jumped over them*. Unfortunately, that’s what a lot of the media unfortunately focused on. But then, the police fired tear gas, beat us. We all got hurt**. 

*Chaudhary says he believes some of the protesters who started the violence were told by the government to do so in order to make the protesters look bad. We don’t have hard evidence of this. It’s also important to point out that these protesters have been feeling frustrated and very angry for months. 

**Hundreds of people were hurt, including police officers. 

Are you worried they’ll come after you now?***
They can’t go after all of us. We are just too many. 

***I asked this question because there is a history of anti-Sikh violence in India and I was being told that people were afraid Sikhs would once again become targets of more violence. Remember what happened in India in 1984? 

What now?
Most of the protesters were disappointed by the violence on the 26th. But we are still united. It’s a bigger movement than just the farmers’ leaders’. It now matters to all of the people.

Last week, the ‘Black Lives Matter’ movement in the United States just won Sweden’s human rights prize (the cash prize is US$100,000) and was also nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize (by a politician in Norway) in the same week. 

Why though?
For promoting "peaceful civil disobedience against police brutality and racial violence” across the globe. Also, because about 26 million people had taken part in Black Lives Matter protests in the United States alone (millions more around the world) after the death of George Floyd on May 26, 2020. 

Why this matters: It's the highest humanitarian recognition you can get.

How did the movement begin?
It was ‘just’ a hashtag in 2013. #BlackLivesMatter was started by three Black women after the man who shot and killed Trayvon Martin (a Black highschool student who was walking home from a store) was set free. After that, it became the go-to group for many voices and groups all fighting racial injustice around the world.  

Recommended reading:

• Books such as Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates and I can’t breathe by Matt Taibi 
• BBC article: How Black Lives Matter went from Facebook post to global movement by Aleem Maqbool

Last week, thousands of women in Poland took to the streets (again) to protest a new law that makes it almost impossible to end a pregnancy (except if you have been raped or if it is putting your life at risk).

Why this matters: Every year, at least 30,000 (the number could be much higher) women die from abortions gone wrong around the world. There’s a huge and very dangerous black market for abortions in countries that ban them.

What now?
It’s important that Polish women keep showing up on the streets to express just how angry they are but… here’s the thing: the ban can’t technically be appealed until there’s a new government. So, their only choice is taking it to the highest levels; think, the European Court of Human Rights and the United Nations. Some members of the European parliament are like, ‘Poland, seriously, this could get out of control.’

• Did you know that Malta and Northern Ireland have even stricter laws on who gets to have an abortion or not?
• Fun fact: Some protesters are wearing green bandanas, a shoutout to women in Argentina who were fighting for the same thing and just won.  
• Want to help? Check out  https://abortion.eu/ and http://aborcyjnydreamteam.pl/.
• Follow photojournalist Kasia Strek. She’s been all over this story for years.

On a funny note