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Peoples Climate March September 2014 New York

Photos by Anna Verani

More than 400,000 people turned out for the People's Climate March in New York City on Sunday, just days before many of the world's leaders are expected to debate environmental action at the United Nations climate summit.

It was the largest climate march in history, fbigger than the Forward on Climate rally held in Washington, D.C in 2013. Environmentalists including Bill McKibben, Jane Goodall and Vandana Shiva, Leonardo DiCaprio,  marched alongside policymakers such as Sens. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.), Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.). U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and former Vice President Al Gore were also there, and more than 550 buses carried in people from around the country.

more images by Anna Luiza Verani:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/annaluizacampos/sets/72157647531179427/

more information:

https://ninja.oximity.com/article/Galeria-Confira-as-imagens-da-maior-Ma-1

http://peoplesclimate.org/

World Leaders Condemn Failed Drug War, and Call For Global Reform

Photos by Anna Verani

New Report: World Leaders Call For Ending Criminalization of Drug Use and Possession and Responsible Legal Regulation of Psychoactive Substances

September 8th 2014,  MOMA, New York City, the former presidents of Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Mexico, Poland, Portugal and Switzerland join UN officers and others to call for the end of drug criminalization. They are also calling for legal and regulated use of psychoactive substances.

The Global Commission on Drug Policy is releasing Taking Control: Pathways to Drug Policies that Work, a new, groundbreaking report at a press conference in New York City. The event will be live-streamed and speakers include former Brazilian President Fernando Henrique Cardoso, former Mexican President Ernesto Zedillo, former Colombian President César Gaviria, former Swiss President Ruth Dreifuss, Richard Branson and others.The Commissioners will then meet with UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon and UN Deputy Secretary General Jan Eliasson in the afternoon following the press conference.

The report reflects the evolution in the thinking of the Commissioners, who reiterate their demands for decriminalization, alternatives to incarceration, and greater emphasis on public health approaches and now also call for permitting the legal regulation of psychoactive substances. The Commission is the most distinguished group of high-level leaders to ever call for such far-reaching changes.

For more information:

/new-report-world-leaders-call-for-ending-criminalization-of-drug-use-and-possession-and-responsible-legal-regulation-of-psychoactive-substances-2/

http://www.gcdpsummary2014.com/#executive-summary
https://ninja.oximity.com/article/Basta-de-Guerra-relat%C3%B3rio-aponta-1

Photographer: Anna Verani September 2014 for Midia Ninja 

The Biggest Mass Global Action To End Violence Against Women & Girls In The History Of Humankind

Text from: onebillionrising.org/

One Billion Rising is the beginning of the new world ignited by a new energy. It is not the end of a struggle but the escalation of it. NOW is the time to enact change. This is NOT an annual holiday, we are not waiting until 14 February 2014. NOW is the time to harness the power of your activism to change the world!

If you want to know where to direct your energies right now, you can stage a

V-Day benefit in your community - visit vday.org/our-work/college-community-campaigns today!

VICTORIES

Brought together people across movements and causes – mobilizing communities such as migrants, women in prison, domestic workers, urban poor, LGBTQI, farm workers, the disabled, and many more.

Created the opportunity for councils of indigenous women to participate in global problem solving.

Created global solidarity and strength cutting across borders, races, class, religions, sexual orientation, ages, genders. Reignited solidarity between women's organizations in various countries. Rekindled the ethos of sisterhood amongst women on a global scale.

Brought to the surface the intersection of issues both causing and affecting violence against women: patriarchy, poverty, corporate greed, environmental plunder, imperialist policies, religion, militarization, interventions of outside countries, immigration, labor export policies, nationalization of industries, political repression.

Engaged masses on a deeper, more embodied level through dancing, poetry, singing, and art.

Produced massive media exposure, discourse, and advocacy on violence against women issues. It also created or was the catalyst for the development of millions of women citizen social media journalists telling their own narratives by picking up cameras.

Created solidarity and safe and free space, through our creativity and numbers, for violated women to tell their stories, many for the first time, and heal their trauma by dancing in public, communal open spaces.

Inspired millions of men to stand and rise as our allies, deconstructing patriarchy alongside us.

Galvanized and empowered legislators to generate legislation in support of ending violence against women and girls globally. Created an opportunity for globally linked women’s councils to lobby at all levels of government and UN.

Increased funding and support for programs and education to end violence and women and girls.

Made violence against women impossible to ignore and never to be marginalized again. Reminded the world that women united will never be defeated.

Generated the best collection of worldwide dance videos ever

Women are Heros in Brazil

Moro de Providencia is a place of which the name has become synonymous for violence in Rio de Janeiro. However the reason this favela (shantytown) located in the center of Rio appeared on television screens in August 2008 wasn’t the regular scenes of clashes between drug dealers and the police but to present the art exhibition Women.

In order to pay tribute to those who play an essential role in society but who are the primary victims of war , crime, rape and political or religious fanaticism, JR pasted huge photos of the faces and eyes of local women all over the outside of the favela, suddenly giving a female gaze to both the hill and the favela.

“It’s a project made of bric-a-brac, like the favela itself. We had to adapt to this world where the roofs of houses are made of plastic and children’s revolver are made of steel. We managed to get by in spite of the steep streets, the unsteady houses, the unpredictable electric cables and the exchanges of gunshots where the bullets sometimes go through several houses at once”, says JR.

by: http://www.jr-art.net

http://www.womenareheroes-lefilm.com/site_womenareheroes/


Trailer Bresil - Women Are Heroes by womenareheroes

New York State Maternity Leave Law

By Jonathan Lister, eHow Contributor and Samantha Volz.

Maternity leave laws in the state of New York are primarily determined by the federal government. The Family and Medical Leave Act of 1993 governs when an employee may leave work to care for a newborn child and what benefits are extended by an employer during this time. An employer can offer additional maternity leave benefits to an employee, but no existing law requires it.
The Family Medical Leave Act, requires all United States employers to provide leave and benefits for its employees for maternity leave. This includes mothers giving birth, fathers who want to be home for the childbirth and couples adopting children. Individual states have been able to implement their own laws adding to this act, and New York features a few variations on the national law.

Photo:  Fabio Verani
Read more: New York State Maternity Leave Laws |

Anti-gun protesters march on NRA

By: Kevin Robbilard

A group of 75 gun-control activists marched on the NRA’s Washington, D.C., headquarters on Monday, denouncing the organization with chants of “Shame on the NRA!” and deeming it responsible for the thousands of Americans who die each year as a result of gun violence.

“More than anyone else, the NRA is responsible for the more than 12,000 people murdered by guns every year in this country,” said Josh Nelson, campaign manager for the progressive CREDO Action group that organized the protest, adding: “We call on the NRA’s lobbyists to stand down and allow Congress to pass common-sense gun laws.”

One protester held a sign reading “SHUT DOWN TERRORIST-ENABLING NRA. FREEZE ASSETS” on one side, and “KILL THE 2ND AMENDMENT. NOT CHILDREN” on the other. The group repeatedly chanted “Shame on the NRA!”

But long-time activists among the group — which skewed older and white — said they were also filled with optimism about the chances of movement on gun control. In a speech Sunday night, President Barack Obama said the country was not doing enough to protect its children. On Monday morning, NRA-backed Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.V.) called for action on gun control.

Martina Leinz, the president of the Northern Virginia chapter of the Million Mom March, was blunt when asked why gun control’s time had arrived.

“Twenty dead six-year-olds,” she said, referring to Friday’s massacre. “It’s just too horrible.”

“Now is the moment,” said Leinz, who has been working for gun control since the first Million Mom March 12 years ago. “Obama has the political will now, and the country is united behind him to stop the carnage.”

Eddie Weingart, a 34-year-old man who held a simple sign reading “I AM A VICTIM OF GUN VIOLENCE,” said he had been attending pro-gun control protests since he was 14. Weingart’s mother was killed by her ex-husband when he was only two years old. Weingart said the man turned the gun on him, but it malfunctioned, saving his life.

While he has seen the movement’s ranks grow after each previous mass shooting — Columbine, Virginia Tech, Tucson, Ariz., and Aurora, Colo. — he said he was more confident in action now than ever before.

“It’s raised my optimism,” Weingart said of the response. “I really believe that this is going to be addressed.”

“As long as the NRA is going to keep going the way they are — in silence and denial — we’re going to keep seeing this,” Weingart added.

The group marched the short distance from Spirit of Justice Park near the Capitol to the NRA’s federal lobbying headquarters on 1st Street SE.

There were no counterprotesters, except for a single man who repeatedly yelled “Arm The Teachers” out a nearby window before coming outside and bellowing the same slogan. (The NRA has kept silent since the massacre, shutting down its Facebook page and avoiding Twitter.)

“The truth is that if there was one teacher or principal armed, they could’ve end the violence with one shot,” said Larry Ward, the president of Political Media, a GOP advertising firm with offices on the same block as the protest.

While organizers managed to keep most of the protesters away from Ward, they couldn’t stand in the way of the media, which rushed over to cover the lone gun-rights supporter.

“Folks, what we’re here for is over here,” march organizer Andrew Nazdin said to reporters, pointing back to the mass of protesters.

Read more