Latest news with #youthActivism
RNZ News
07-07-2025
- Politics
- RNZ News
Teen cycling North Island to deliver letter supporting Māori wards to parliament
A 15 year old school boy is cycling his way down the North Island this school holidays to deliver a letter in support of keeping Māori wards to parliament. The Whakatane High School student is due to hit the capital on Wednesday but the PM has declined to meet him when he arrives. He has been on the road with his letter for eleven days now, but it is not his first time - delivering a petition in support of Māori wards to the steps parliament when he was 10. Jack Karetai Barret spoke to Lisa Owen. To embed this content on your own webpage, cut and paste the following: See terms of use.
Al Jazeera
02-07-2025
- Politics
- Al Jazeera
Palestine Action is a moral compass. That's why the UK wants it banned
In the coming days, the United Kingdom government is moving full steam ahead to proscribe Palestine Action – a movement of young people with a conscience – as a terrorist group. Some of its members are already behind bars; others face trials or await sentencing. Yet, despite the 'terrorist' label and the threat of imprisonment, tens of thousands across the country have taken to the streets chanting, 'We are all Palestine Action'. If the government's goal was to intimidate people into silence – to ensure British complicity in genocide continues unchecked – it has badly miscalculated. A recent poll found that 55 percent of Britons are against Israel's war on Gaza. A significant number of those opponents – 82 percent – said Israel's actions amount to genocide. Something fundamental is shifting. There is a gaping disconnect between the media's narrative and the views of common people, who reject ministerial spin and the framing of resistance to tyranny and fascism as terrorism. Like the defiant youth of Palestine Action, I too was once branded a terrorist. In 1981, I was a member of the United Black Youth League. We knew building petrol bombs was legally 'wrong', but we believed in our right to defend our community – even by armed means – against fascist threats in Bradford. Arrested alongside 11 others, I faced terrorism charges carrying life sentences in what became known as the Bradford 12 case. While our struggle was against local fascists, Palestine Action's fight is nobler: exposing and halting a genocide in Palestine, carried out by Israel's neo-fascist regime with British support. And unlike us, they have not taken up arms. Where we built crude weapons in self-defence against immediate violence, Palestine Action has used only nonviolent direct action – spray-painting warplanes, occupying factories, and disrupting business as usual – to confront British complicity in genocide. I recognise their rage – I have gone hoarse screaming about genocide myself. How many burning children must we see to know it is wrong? How many starving families must be slaughtered to sustain an apartheid state? The pain is sharper knowing the weapons murdering Palestinians are made in Britain. It is worse watching hypocritical politicians twist words – from Keir Starmer justifying genocide early on, to now hiding behind hollow phrases like 'Israel's right to defend itself'. But as United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Occupied Palestinian Territories Francesca Albanese and many others have repeatedly clarified: 'Israel has no right to defend itself against those it occupies.' If the UK government succeeds, anyone associated with Palestine Action will be branded a 'terrorist'. During the Bradford 12 trial, we were painted the same way. Like Palestine Action activists, we had, in our own time, fought for a more just and fairer world. Palestine Action emerged from the failure of endless protests demanding an end to never-ending wars and justice for Palestine. As they state: 'Palestine Action is a direct action movement committed to ending global participation in Israel's genocidal and apartheid regime. Using disruptive tactics, we target enablers of the Israeli military-industrial complex, making it impossible for them to profit from Palestinian oppression.' We, the Bradford 12, were born from the police's failure to protect us from fascist violence. We took armed self-defence into our own hands in an organised community defence. To do nothing would have been the greater crime. Similarly, UK complicity in genocide demands action. Disrupting the war machine is not criminal; it is a moral necessity. At our 1982 trial in Leeds Crown Court, tens of thousands mobilised to demand our acquittal. They saw through the state's lies – they knew convicting us would unleash repression against youth movements, trade unions, and anyone fighting for justice. The jury faced a pivotal question: What kind of world do you want to live in if you acquit these men? I testified that, faced with the same threats, we would do it all again. That question echoes today; if Palestine Action is criminalised, we risk slipping into a lawless world where genocide becomes the norm, not the exception. We were acquitted, establishing a legal precedent for armed community self-defence. Palestine Action needs no precedent to justify its cause, because its actions are already grounded in legality, morality, and nonviolence. It is not a threat – it is a moral compass. The UK must follow it, not ban it. The views expressed in this article are the author's own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeera's editorial stance.
Irish Times
11-06-2025
- Politics
- Irish Times
Questions over who gains from Mongolian prime minister's downfall
Soon after the start of the demonstrations that led Mongolia's prime minister to resign last week, Enkhbadral Myagmar noticed masked figures following him when he left home. One day, after he received a call from an unfamiliar number, a man on the street asked to use his phone and when he was finished, Enkhbadral saw he had called the same number. The 32-year-old sociologist was one of a small group that organised the protests, which followed reports of lavish spending by former prime minister Luvsannamsrain Oyun-Erdene 's 23-year-old son. The others had noticed suspicious behaviour too and all had been subject to aggressive trolling online. 'We kept it quiet because we didn't want to scare young people away from joining the protests,' says Enkhbadral. The daily demonstrations in front of the building on Ulaanbaatar's Sukhbaatar Square that houses the State Great Hural, Mongolia's parliament, began on May 14th with just 40 people. But by the time the prime minister announced his resignation last week, thousands were coming to the square every day. READ MORE 'It was started by a group of friends who all knew one another and had collaborated on things before. I am the oldest, the others are in their 20s,' Enkhbadral said, adding that none of the group had any political party affiliations. 'It was building up over time, the frustration over how freedom of speech and media freedom, and civic space, was shrinking. It was all building up and the outburst was this protest. As soon as the news about the lavish lifestyle of the prime minister's son came out on social media, frustration really peaked, and then they started to contact each other.' Oyun-Erdene, who became Mongolia's prime minister in 2021, rose to prominence as an organiser of mass demonstrations against corruption and presented himself as a politician in touch with ordinary people. But when his son's fiancee posted pictures of an expensive Dior bag and boasted of helicopter rides and luxury cars, it was not clear how the couple could afford such a lifestyle. The demonstrators demanded an explanation from the prime minister but for weeks he declined to address the issue. Even when, on the eve of his resignation, Oyun-Erdene and his son submitted financial statements to anti-corruption authorities, they offered no public account of where the money came from. With 3.5 million people living on a landlocked territory between Russia and China, 22 times the size of Ireland, Mongolia is the most sparsely-populated country in the world. Rich in copper, gold, coal and other minerals, it is still a lower middle-income country where 30 per cent of the population live below the poverty line. A communist state with close ties to the Soviet Union from 1921 until 1990, Mongolia has been a parliamentary democracy for the past 35 years. International monitors have consistently approved the country's elections as free and fair but the political system has been dogged by corruption, much of it linked to the mining industry. 'After 70 years under a socialist system, the first accumulation of capital was only possible in mining and real estate. And this was of course misused by people close to decision-making,' said Jargalsaikhan Dambadarjaa, an economist and policy analyst who runs the DeFacto Institute in Ulaanbaatar. 'Because of this unequal distribution of wealth there are groups which support political parties above or under the table and certain interests prevail.' Mongolia's then prime minister Luvsannamsrain Oyun-Erdene bows after losing his position in a vote on June 3rd. Photograph: Byambasuren Byamba-Ochir/AFP via Getty Images Oyun-Erdene's government, a grand coalition including his Mongolian People's Party (MPP) and their usual opponents in the Democratic Party, commanded 94 per cent of the seats in parliament. Last April, it passed a long-anticipated law establishing a sovereign wealth fund that allows the government to take a 34 per cent stake in 16 mines judged to contain strategic mineral deposits. 'That's why this guy paid the cost. He finally wanted to really accumulate money in this wealth fund,' Jargalsaikhan said. 'Out of the 16 mines, seven are state-owned, which means they can give money to the wealth fund. But the other nine are owned by private individuals, nine families really. They don't want to, because this new law says that 34 per cent of the deposits of the strategic mines come to the state and will accumulate into that fund. You can imagine what big money we're talking about.' Jargalsaikhan believes that the new government will leave the sovereign wealth fund law on the books but that it will not implement it. So the state will simply not move to take its 34 per cent stake in the privately-owned mines. Enkhbadral agrees that the private mining interests are probably happy to see the back of Oyun-Erdene but he rejects any suggestion that they orchestrated or manipulated the demonstrations. And he argues that strengthening Mongolia's democratic culture is essential to make politicians more accountable and their links with moneyed interests more transparent. 'To maintain the legitimacy of the protest and to protect it from interference from outside interests, we formulated three demands,' he said. 'The first was that the prime minister should resign. The second was an end to the grand coalition and the return of a parliamentary opposition. The third was that there should be no constitutional amendment to allow the president to run for another term in office.' Oyun-Erdene claimed he was the victim of an 'organised campaign' by 'major, visible and hidden interests' but when he failed to win a majority in a confidence vote on June 2nd, he resigned as prime minister. His MPP announced the end of the grand coalition, putting the Democratic Party back into opposition. Mongolia's president is directly elected and is limited to a single, six-year term. Although the office has few executive powers, the president appoints the chief justice and nominates other members of the judiciary and the chief prosecutor, chairs the national security council and can veto legislation. Demonstrators demanding the resignation of then prime minister Luvsannamsrain Oyun-Erdene earlier this month. Photograph: Byambasuren Byamba-Ochir/AFP via Getty Images There has long been speculation that Khürelsükh Ukhnaa, who took office in 2021, would attempt to seek a second term and to change the constitution to give the president more powers. But the president confirmed last week that he had no intention of seeking a further term in office, conceding the demonstrators' third demand. 'All the protests and demonstrations before this one, they were never successful in the end, or they were used by the government. But this protest achieved its demands,' Enkhbadral said. 'Since 2008, any kind of demonstration was not a way to change anything. They were all very unsuccessful. This one not only won the three demands, but also culturally, it set a new standard. Every day we had agendas, every day, whatever the protesters were doing was transparent and announced. The organisers were young people from media backgrounds and from civil society and they brought a new approach to democracy. It showed a new era of democracy emerging in Mongolia.' The MPP this week nominated Zandanshatar Gombojav, president Khürelsükh's chief of staff and a former party general secretary, as prime minister. Enkhbadral is optimistic that the Democratic Party will resume its role as an opposition party in holding the government to account. New legislation regulating political parties and requiring greater transparency on their funding should come into force after a year-long delay. And a change to the electoral system means there are now more members of parliament, a portion of whom are elected in individual constituencies rather than as part of a party list. 'Ever since the Covid pandemic, we have had what we call a PR government that tried to buy the media and control the information that the public received,' Enkhbadral said. [ From Mongolia to Dublin: 'Coming to Ireland was a blessing. It was a great move for my life, I have no regrets' Opens in new window ] 'And their attitude was, we're going to make you think what we want you to think. So the outcome of the demonstration is not about one person or one government, one coalition. Its effect is to break this PR government that has been in place since the pandemic until now.'
Yahoo
09-06-2025
- General
- Yahoo
The Craic with Petesy Carroll Friday 20250613
14-year-old from Change Islands named N.L.'s first Ocean Hero of the Year Brody King received the trophy at a World Oceans Day event Saturday morning in recognition of his quick action when he spotted and reported an invasive species on the shoreline of his home island. 1:50 Now Playing Paused Ad Playing
Washington Post
28-05-2025
- General
- Washington Post
Supporters of Bangladesh's ex-premier Khaleda Zia rally to call for a general election
DHAKA, Bangladesh — Tens of thousands of students and youths from a leading Bangladeshi political party rallied in the capital, Dhaka, on Wednesday, calling for a general election in December as discontent grows with the interim government appointed after the ouster of former prime minister Sheikh Hasina in August. Activists from three groups linked to the Bangladesh Nationalist Party, or BNP, headed by former prime minister Khaleda Zia gathered on the streets outside its party headquarters, under heightened security.
