Europe

What began in Arabic countries has now gone beyond cultural borders. It has been strongly expressed in three European countries: Greece, Portugal and Spain, and is beginning to appear in many more. It is no longer only in capital cities, but has spread to many cities in order to expand, seeking local and student support.

The general assembly of Acampada Sol has decided in the morning meeting that they go on camping until the next Sunday, May 29 at least. Nobody of the participants opposed the idea. One of several reasons to continue is to export the working model to others places of Madrid. This was decided at 2:00 am and will be definitive when is published in www.madrid.tomalaplaza.net.

Those who interpreted the “Arab Spring” as a phenomenon that would only touch a few countries—in general dictatorships personifying the Arab world—have not understood the phenomenon that has awoken and that may not stop until it has covered and moved the consciousness of the entire planet.

The movement “Real Democracy Now” has remained small, and has transformed into “Take the Plaza!”. It has declared that it is political, but non-partisan. It has extended through all of Spain, to more than thirty European cities and to parts of Latin America. We are publishing the information that the organization has sent to us about who they are, as well as their objectives.

The actions of **Real Democracy Now!** monopolize the news, the front pages of newspapers, the debates on the radio. While some are accused of subverting the old order, others try to build bridges to be voted on themselves by the ‘outraged’. A nonviolent revolution has begun to take shape, say participants in these gatherings.

The non-violent protests continue, and they are spreading to other Spanish cities. In Madrid’s downtown, in the well-known “Puerta del Sol” about five hundred people were camping. They were vacated this morning. This did not stop them from reconvening this afternoon in the same place. The protest is also reaching into new areas.

The growing demands for freedom and justice across the Middle East and North Africa and the rise of social media offer an unprecedented opportunity for human rights change – but this change stands on a knife-edge, said Amnesty International as it launched its global human rights report on the eve of its 50th anniversary.

Following the sickening display of glorification of assassination shown by a US president who somehow managed get a Nobel Peace Prize, World without Wars declares: What occurred on Monday, 2nd of May can in no way be described as justice: justice is done when a man accused of a crime is brought before a court of law and given a trial according to international legal standards.

Heart-rending images of Fukushima disaster and a tidal wave of popular uprisings in the Arab world threatened to blur the compelling need for a nuke liberated Middle East as part of a world free of nuclear weapons. A transcontinental 10-nation initiative seeks to jolt the international community out of a mind numbing stupor.

Whilst protesters are shot at in demonstrations against long standing autocratic regimes in the Middle East the British style of avoiding protest and opposition during the Royal Wedding is simply to arrest people **before** they have the opportunity to express themselves. The few who did manage to stage small and peaceful protests are arrested for “Breach of the peace”.