kalesyllog:

thepeoplesrecord:

Mass brutal police repression during a protest against the cancellation of a teachers’ strike after an assembly with the Union of Education Professionals in Sao Paulo on May 10, 2013. Source 1 | Source 2 

For a bit of additional info:
According to local journals, the protest became violent when a segment of the teachers disagreed with the decision of a poll deciding for the end of the strike, since the government agreed with some of the sindicate’s revindications. Some protesters started throwing objects at the car where the board of directors was and soon the police got involved. The head of the sindicate claims the protesters are just a noisy minority and the decision was democratically made. But the number of people claiming the opposite, and since the media coverage here hasn’t yet given a minute of full attention to the replies from the side of the protesters - and, as usually, the police’s answer was heavy and violent - implies there’s more bias to this than it’s being noticed by both brazilian and foreign media.

(via humanrightswatch)

haaretz:

Some 10,000 Israelis took to the streets on Saturday to protest against impending austerity measures proposed by new Finance Minister Yair Lapid. 

globalvoices:

İstanbul is under police siege today, Public transport banned, roads blocked, pepper spray used extensively, police attacks demonstrators.

Teargas enveloped Istanbul as demonstrators defiantly merged onto the city’s symbolic Taksim Square, where they hold May Day protests every year. The government banned all events there this year, because the square is under construction. As protesters and police clashed they turned the 15 million strong metropolis into a war zone, leaving behind destroyed property and reportedly dozens of injured people. To get a grip on the increasing number of protesters, Turkey’s police fortified their ranks with four planes full of officers transfered from other cities. Among the injured were four journalists and a teenage high school student who suffered head injuries. and is in critical condition at the hospital. Opposition politicians affected from gas and police brutality were also hospitalized.

Teargas and Water Cannons for Istanbul’s Labor Day Protesters

humanrightswatch:

Russia: Worst Human Rights Climate in Post-Soviet Era

The Russian government has unleashed a crackdown on civil society in the year since Vladimir Putin’s return to the presidency that is unprecedented in the country’s post-Soviet history.

The authorities have introduced a series of restrictive laws, begun a nationwide campaign of invasive inspections of nongovernmental organizations, harassed, intimidated, and in a number of cases imprisoned political activists, and sought to cast government critics as clandestine enemies. 

All photos © Human Rights Watch

guardian:

Nicolás Maduro declared Venezuela election winner by thin margin

Political heir to Hugo Chávez claims victory in presidential election but rival Henrique Capriles demands recount

 

Photos: Venezuela’s interim president, Nicolás Maduro, greets supporters as he arrives to cast his ballot Photograph: Enric Marti/AP

 

Venezuelans pose with their ink-stained fingers after voting for Chávez’s successor Photograph: Tomas Bravo/Reuters

 

Supporters celebrate after the official results of the presidential elections were announced at the Miraflores Palace in Caracas Photograph: Ariana Cubillos/AP

 

Nicolás Maduro and his wife Cilia Flores celebrate after the official results gave him a victory Photograph: Tomas Bravo/Reuters

latimes:

Former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher dies at 87

The ever-combative “Iron Lady,” whose lengthy tenure of Britain’s first female prime minister drew rampant cheers and criticisms abroad and at home, passed away this morning at age 87.

She altered the country’s political and social landscape for decades following her departure, as summed up in our obituary:

The woman many regard as Britain’s most important peacetime leader of the 20th century shook her country like an earthquake after moving into 10 Downing St. in 1979. In nearly a dozen years at the top, she transformed the political and economic landscape through a conservative free-market revolution bearing her name, Thatcherism, which sought to reverse Britain’s postwar decline and the welfare state that she felt accelerated it.

What do you think Thatcher’s legacy will ultimately be?

Photos: Jockel Fink / Associated Press, AFP/Getty Images archives, Carl Court, Jean-Claude Delmas / AFP

fotojournalismus:

How A Female Photographer Sees Her Afghanistan

Born in Kandahar, Afghanistan, in 1984, photographer Farzana Wahidy was only a teenager when the Taliban took over the country in 1996. At age 13 she was beaten in the street for not wearing a burqa, she recalls, and she describes those years as a “very closed, very dark time.” To carry a camera would have been unthinkable.

And yet, she says, “I felt lucky compared to other women at that time.” Women were banned from continuing their education during Taliban rule. But some, like Farzana, found ways to keep studying. She would carry books under her burqa and attended what she calls an “underground school” with about 300 other students in a residential area of Kabul.

When U.S.-led forces ended Taliban rule in 2001, Wahidy was able to attend high school. A friend encouraged her to apply for a photojournalism program, knowing that she had hopes of sharing her experiences with the world.

“Day by day, as I started learning about photography, I fell more in love with it,” she says. “There was a huge need for women photographers in Afghanistan.”

Wahidy became the first Afghan female photographer to work for the AFP and later AP, two leading wire agencies, and eventually received a scholarship to continue studies in a photojournalism program in Canada. In 2010, Wahidy returned home to Afghanistan.

“I try to show the bigger image, not just show we have problems,” she says. “And we do have a lot of problems, but I do want to show normal daily life.”

Wahidy focuses on women. “This subject was important to me because I am a woman,” she says, recognizing an advantage that gives her. When she wants to document their lives, “it’s easier for a woman to get access,” she says.

Her photos of daily life range from men selling balloons on the streets to the secret lives of female prostitutes. And Wahidy was not the only one to recognize the need for this type of photography in Afghanistan. She is now part of the recently created Afghan Photography Network.

“Many Afghan photographers are not well-connected,” she explains. “We hope it will create a better connection and show Afghanistan by Afghan photographers.”

It is a young website, still in development, but the Afghan Photography Network is already bringing increased visibility to the work of Afghan photographers.

Of the eight women in her original photojournalism program, Wahidy is the only one working as a full-time photographer. Some got married, and others stopped working for reasons unknown to Wahidy. Wahidy, meanwhile, plans to continue for a very long time.

“When I shoot and I get a good photo,” she says, “that is a beautiful day.”