172. Nonviolent obstruction

On Sunday 26 December Bolivia’s government abruptly ended a six-year freeze on fuel prices, raising the price of gasoline by 73% and diesel by 83%.  Vice president Alvaro Garcia said this change in policy was necessary because the subsidy cost US$380 million a year- 2% of Bolivia’s gross domestic national product and US$150 million of the gasoline was smuggled into other countries and sold at higher prices.  The cost of the subsidies was projected to increase to over US$1 billion in 2011.

Sofia, the capital city of Bulgaria, had only one landfill, which was 500 meters from the Suhodol neighborhood. The residents of Suhodol claimed that the landfill polluted the area and was a danger to the health of their children. In 2001, the mayor of Sofia promised to close the landfill by the end of 2004.

In April 2006, the United States and Peru signed a Free Trade Agreement (FTA), which they planned to implement on 1 February 2009. The United States required that Peru make certain regulatory changes in law to allow access to the Amazon rainforest before implementing the FTA. In late 2006, President Alan García passed Law 840, known as the “Law of the Jungle,” which undermined the collective property rights of indigenous groups by giving land concessions to foreign investors.

In 2012, Colombian coffee prices fell 35% on the international market while the Colombian peso appreciated 10%. A combination of crop disease, bad weather, and unfavorable currency rates forced growers in Colombia to sell their coffee at a loss. Many coffee growers then found themselves spending more on fertilizers and supplies than what they were making for their coffee.

On 29 June 2003, the Israeli Ministry of Finance amended the Hok HaHasderim, a bill passed in 1985 in order to combat existing hyperinflation and aid in the creation and development of an austerity program. The late June amendment enormously decreased single mothers’ welfare allowances. Single mothers across the nation, who were already struggling to make ends meet, were both hurt and angered by the amendment. On 2 July 2003, one such woman, a 43-year-old single mother named Vicky Knafo, marched two-hundred and fifty kilometers from her home in Mitzpe Ramon to Jerusalem.

In 1990, the Indian government and Tehri Hydro Power Corporation began planning to dam the Bhagirati River at the Himalayan foothill town of Tehri in Uttar Pradesh. Plans indicated that it would be the fourth largest dam in the world. Damming the river at this particular location would lead to flooding of the town and the displacement of up to ten thousand of its residents. Scientists also protested the construction of the dam because of its proximity to the central Himalayan Seismic Gap.

Gazprom, Russia’s largest oil company, intended to become the first company
to drill Arctic oil in the summer of 2012.  Gazprom planned to use their aging Prirazlomnaya
oil platform to extract oil deposits made newly available with the retreat of
Arctic ice on the Pechora Sea.  As a part
of their “Save the Arctic Initiative” Greenpeace targeted Gazprom in an intense
campaign to stop the beginning of Arctic oil drilling.

Immediately before
the 2009 UN Copenhagen Climate Summit, Greenpeace International took major
direct action against Asia Pulp and Paper in the heart of the Indonesian forest,
launching their “Asia Pulp & Paper under Investigation” campaign.  Thirteen Greenpeace activists locked down
cranes at Asia Pulp and Paper’s main port, attaching themselves to dangling crane
cables.  All thirteen activists were ultimately
arrested, and the last four activists occupied one of the cranes for twenty-seven hours.  Though Greenpeace activists

The constitution of Honduras, established in 1982, did not provide structures for popular democratic participation. In June 2009, President Manuel Zelaya called for a referendum on whether a constituent assembly should look to rewrite the constitution or not. He had been elected in 2005 as a cattle-rancher conservative but moved to the left and allied himself with Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez. He maintained that he wanted to guarantee wider and fairer representation to all Hondurans.

The International Whaling Commission permits whaling for research purposes and allows whales to be discarded by lethal means as long as whale meat is not used and sold from the specimens. Japanese whalers, who are permitted to whale strictly for research purposes, have not published any peer-reviewed journal articles.  In addition, whale meat frequently appears in Japanese markets and sushi bars with the only possible source being from these Japanese whalers who are killing whales and not publishing research.

The land on the Big Mountain reservation has been disputed by the U.S. Government and the Navajo and Hopi tribes since 1882. This area in Black Mesa, Arizona, which was extremely rich in sulfur coal deposit, attracted mining companies and the government due to the potential profit. Mining began on the Navajo and Hopi land and started to increase greatly by the 1970s. Congress signed a relocation act in 1974, which would allow one company, Peabody Coal, to mine this area uninhibited. The reservation lands of Black Mesa were then to be used as strip mining sites for private U.S.

Peabody Energy Corporation is an international coal company based in St. Louis, Missouri (MO).  In 2007, they created a spinoff company Patriot Coal Corp., also based in St. Louis, MO.  Following the spinoff, Peabody Energy has gradually transferred responsibilities for many of its retirees over to the new company.

The Arab Awakening came to the Middle Eastern country of Oman with a peaceful protest in the capital Muscat on 17 January, 2011. This campaign consisted of several groups that worked towards both individual and collective goals. The campaigners had many demands including: government reforms, an increased minimum wage, lower unemployment rates, and higher education rates.

Wales, a country that is bordered by England to the east, is part of Great Britain and the United Kingdom. The Welsh people have their own distinct national identity, with a unique culture and language. There has long been a Welsh Nationalist movement, which in modern times has been represented by the political party Plaid Cymru, literally “the Welsh Party”. 

In early 2011, the Greek state developed a plan of austerity measures to meet its debt repayments. Due to major financial problems, it had just failed to meet the budget targets established in 2010 when it received a loan from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the Eurozone. The new proposal to be voted on in June 2011, called “The Medium Term Economic Program,” included the privatization of a number of industries and utilities including but not limited to power and water companies, ports, banks, and the train operator.

For Chileans living in the southern Patagonia region, natural
gas is crucial for heating their homes, most importantly during the frigid
winter months. The Chilean Government has been subsidizing natural gas up to
85% for all people in this region because it is the most remote and holds the
highest cost of living in the country. Without this government support, many of
its users would struggle or be unable to pay for it.

On 2 July 2003, the International Olympic Committee president Jacques Rogge made the announcement that Vancouver, British Columbia had been selected to host the 2010 Winter Olympic Games. The Vancouver government appointed the Vancouver Olympic Committee to organize and plan the Winter Games. The Vancouver Olympic Committee, the British Columbian government, and the Canadian government began planning to build the venues for the games.

In 1976,
the Hydro Electric Commission of Tasmania solidified their plans with the
Australian government to build a dam across the Franklin and Gordon Rivers, in
the Franklin-Gordon Wild Rivers National Park. The Tasmanian Wilderness Society
formed not long after this announcement to take action against the Hydro
Electric Commission and their plans to bulldoze the surrounding wilderness for
the construction of the dam. The director of the Wilderness Society and leader
of the anti-dam campaign for the following seven years was Bob Brown, a local

Bangladesh, located to the east of India, is a leading global garment manufacturer, producing clothing for such American companies as Gap, Walmart, and J.C. Penney. The Ready Made Garment (RMG) industry makes up 80% of the country’s exports and employs about 4 million Bangladeshis, 80% of whom are women. A survey published by the Japan External Trade Organization in December 2013 reported that Bangladesh garment workers earn nearly the lowest monthly wage in the world, second only to Myanmar.

The Puno Department is a high plateau region of southeastern Peru, nestled on the shores of Lake Titicaca and the Bolivian border. The people of this region are primarily indigenous Quechua and Aymara people who rely on a chiefly agricultural lifestyle based on quinoa, potatoes and alpacas. The region is also incredibly rich in mineral resources. Many land concessions have been made by the Peruvian government to international mining companies to extract these minerals. Between 2002 and 2010, the amount of concessions increased by 279% in the Puno department.

The Brayton Point Power Station, a coal burning power plant in Somerset, Massachusetts, regularly emits mercury, lead, sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxide into the atmosphere. Brayton Point is one of the largest single sources of pollution in all of New England. Local activists had been fighting the coal plant for a decade when other organizations joined to escalate the struggle.

During
the 18th Century the Iroquois aided the British government to defend
what is now known as Canadian territory from the Americans. As an expression of
gratitude to the Iroquois, the British gifted to them six miles along both
sides of Grand River as a place to never be disturbed; as spiritual land for
the people to forever enjoy.

In late April and early May of 2012, the Norwegian government and the National Farmers Union were negotiating about governmental support for agriculture. The National Farmers Union asked for 2.2 billion kroner in subsidies and other support to farmers, but when the government offered only 900 million kroner ($152 million USD) the union cut off the negotiations completely—the first time the union had done so since the year 2000. The union argued that the proposed government subsidies would have widened the wage gap between farmers and other sectors of the economy.

In 2008, the Federal Government of the United States launched a
program called “Secure Communities” that would allow Immigration and Customs
Enforcement to review records of suspects in the custody of local and state
police.  In cases where officials found
out that prisoners were in the country illegally, officials could issue
detainer orders for local police to keep the prisoner in custody and begin
deportation proceedings. The effect of this enforcement policy was that
undocumented immigrants arrested on minor traffic infractions—or even