police state

North Africa

Moroccan feminist arrested for ‘blasphemy’

Prominent Moroccan feminist Ibtissam Lachgar was arrested by the kingdom’s Judicial Police after posting a photo of herself on social media wearing a t-shirt with the word for God in Arabic (Allah) followed by the English words: “is a lesbian.” This reference to the international feminist catchphrase “God is a lesbian” won her “blasphemy” charges from the Rabat prosecutor’s office. The charge carries penalties ranging from six months to two years’ imprisonment or a fine of up to $20,000. The penalty can be increased to five years if the offense is committed publicly or electronically. (Photo via Twitter)

Europe

Mass arrests at Palestine Action protest in London

London’s Metropolitan Police Service (MPS) reported that 466 people were arrested for displaying support for activist group Palestine Action at a protest in Westminster. The MPS added that an additional eight arrests were conducted, including five for assault on police officers. Police said they invoked Section 60AA of the Criminal Justice & Public Order Act of 1994, which grants police officers the authority to demand the removal of any signs or clothing “expressing support” for a “proscribed group.” Palestine Action has been designated a “terrorist organization” by the UK government, following a series of “direct actions” (targeted vandalism) against arms manufacturers believed to be supplying weapons to Israel. (Photo: Cary Bass-Deschênes via Good Law Project)

East Asia

Macau activist arrested under national security law

Human Rights Watch called for the immediate and unconditional release of a former Macau lawmaker and pro-democracy activist following his arrest on “national security” charges. The arrest marked the first time Macau, a Special Administrative Region of China, has invoked its sweeping Law on Safeguarding National Security. Au Kam San was arrested after authorities accused him of violating Article 13 of the national security law, which carries a maximum penalty of 10 years imprisonment and criminalizes “links with organizations or groups” outside Macau to “conduct activities endangering national security.” This presumably refers to Au’s work with the Macao Union of Democratic Development, which for years organized annual commemorations of the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre. Members have repeatedly met with threats and harassment from the authorities. (Image: Macau police block annual Tiananmen vigil, June 2020. Credit: Choi Chi-chio/United Social Press via HKFP)

New York City

Trump Justice Department sues NYC over Sanctuary City law

President Donald Trump’s Justice Department filed a complaint against New York City, its Mayor Eric Adams, and other officials over the municipality’s Sanctuary City laws, charging that they are unconstitutional and violate federal immigration enforcement statutes. In a press statement in response to the complaint, Adams distanced himself from his own city’s sanctuary laws, saying they “go too far when it comes to dealing with those violent criminals on our streets.” He said that he has “urged the [City] Council to reexamine them… So far, the Council has refused.” (Photo via TripAdvisor)

Africa

Protest police repression in Angola

Angolan police used excessive force and carried out arbitrary arrests during a peaceful protest in Luanda, Human Rights Watch charges. According to reports, officers fired tear-gas and rubber bullets without justification, assaulted demonstrators, and detained several protesters. The demonstration, organized by youth groups and civil society organizations, was a response to the Angolan government’s decision to raise fuel prices and eliminate public transport subsidies without public consultation. (Photo: Nicolas Raymond/Flickr)

New York City

Zohran Mamdani and municipal resistance II

As a dictatorship consolidates in Turkey, aspiring strongman Recep Tayip Erdogan is launching a special attack on municipalities, arresting the mayor of Istanbul and removing elected governments in hundreds of cities and towns across the country—mostly in the restive Kurdish east. In the United States, aspiring strongman Donald Trump is now threatening to similarly remove Zohran Mamdani if he becomes mayor of New York, and order a federal take-over of the city government. Border czar Tom Homan says he will “flood the zone” with ICE agents in “sanctuary cities” such as New York and Los Angeles. In Episode 287 of the CounterVortex podcast, Bill Weinberg argues that Trump forcing the issue could accelerate the breaking point in which localities coast-to-coast assert their autonomous powers in repudiation of the fascist-coopted federal leviathan—vindicating Murray Bookchin’s theories of radical municipalism. (Photo: Wyatt Souers/Peoples Dispatch)

Africa

Nigeria: pardon for Ogoni Nine ‘far short of real justice’

Amnesty International said that the Nigerian government’s pardon for the Ogoni Nine falls “far short of real justice.” The rights group published the statement in response to the government’s decision to posthumously exonerate the Nine. The Ogoni Nine were a group of environmental activists who campaigned against Shell oil company and the Nigerian central government for the destructive impacts of oil production in the Ogoniland region of the Niger Delta. After brutally suppressing protests in the region, the government accused the Ogoni Nine of murder. The nine men were convicted after what rights groups called an unfair trial and executed in 1995. Amnesty International Nigeria welcomed the decision to pardon the activists but noted that much more needs to be done for the local communities, asserting that Shell’s activities in the region have left toxic pollution, affecting the health and livelihoods of many of the 30 million people living in the Niger Delta. (Photo: 101LastTribes)

Europe

Serbia: harsh repression as protests mount

Europe’s top human rights official raised concerns that Serbian authorities are using violence and arbitrary arrests to break up protests against President Aleksandar Vučić’s populist government. The Council of Europe’s Commissioner for Human Rights Michael O’Flaherty especially decried “the arrest of children, as well as the number of students being charged for criminal offenses or hospitalized for the treatment of injuries.” Serbian police have recently escalated their use of force to dismantle street blockades and curb large-scale nationwide protests denouncing the government and demanding snap parliamentary elections. (Photo: VOA via Wikimedia Commons)

North America

Congress approves Trump’s mass deportation force

Donald Trump’s draconian immigration policies are to get a massive injection of cash thanks to the omnibus budget bill that the president signed into law on July 4. The bill includes over $170 billion in funding for new detention centers, deportation operations, border wall construction, and other anti-immigration initiatives. While this outlay is to be spread out over five years, critics point out that it surpasses the annual military budgets of any country on Earth except for the US and China. The bill, which narrowly passed in the House with no Democratic support, represents a massive shift of funds from basic social programs such as Medicare to Immigration & Customs Enforcement (ICE), whose budget will now overshadow that of the FBI. The ICE detention budget is to now outstrip that of the federal Bureau of Prisons, aiming at capacity to hold over 100,000 detainees. (Image: Department of Homeland Security via Florida Phoenix)

North Africa

Algeria: Kabylie independence at issue in press freedom case

A court in Algeria sentenced French sports journalist Christophe Gleizes to seven years in prison on charges of “glorifying terrorism” and “possessing propaganda harmful to the national interest.” Gleizes was arrested in Tizi Ouzou, in the restive Kabylie region, after interviewing the president of football club JS Kabylie. Authorities alleged the interviewee had ties to the Movement for the Self-Determination of Kabylie (MAK), which Algeria designated a “terrorist group” in 2021. The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) said the sentence “is a clear indication of the government’s intolerance of press freedom.” (Map: Kabyle.com)

East Asia

Hong Kong bars ‘national security’ offenders from union organizing

The Hong Kong Legislative Council passed a law that bans anyone convicted of a “national security” offense from forming or holding a leadership position within a union. The new law amends the Trade Union Ordinance, introducing a lifetime ban on union organizing for such offenders. The move comes just as Hong Kong’s last remaining active pro-democracy party, the League of Social Democrats, announced that it is disbanding, citing fear of prosecution under the National Security Law. The territory’s largest labor confederation, the Hong Kong Confederation of Trade Unions (HKCTU), was forced to disband in 2021. (Photo: HKFP)

Iran

Iran: wave of repression in wake of bombardment

One result of the 12 days of war has been the intensification of repression inside Iran under the name of “defending the homeland” or “fighting espionage.” According to reports, at least 700 people have been arrested on accusations of cooperating with Israel. Six political prisoners (all with serious legal irregularities in their cases) have already been executed, labeled as “spies.” And this could be only the beginning. The “Islamic Gestapo” (Basij) have turned urban areas like Tehran into militarized zones. They roam the streets, hunting for “suspicious agents.” (Photo: Wikipedia)