March 2016

On the 25th of March, seven anti-fracking protesters were arrested after blockading the driveways of FERC, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. At first they set up in front of FERC cooking up pancakes on a solar grill, while inviting FERC to send out someone to discuss the destruction of the Holleran family's maple trees to make way for a fracked gas pipeline. When FERC ignored them, they escalated, setting up a picket line from which seven activists broke away to blockade FERC's driveway.

Video by Eleanor of "Pancakes not Pipelines" action

On the 24th of March, Kurdish activists displayed large banners across Mass Ave from the Turkish Embassy. The banners demanded that Turkey stop their war on the Kurdish people and stop collaborating with ISIS,also known as Daesh. The

On the 21st of March, Donald Trump spoke at AIPAC along with all the other candidates except Bernie Sanders. A huge crowd jammed the area around the Verizon Center where at least Trump's speech was held. Code Pink managed to get to a strategic position limiting access to the doors and blockade it with a sit-in. The only way past was to squeeze behind the cops until cops removed other barricades to create an alternate route for the Trump supporters and other facists at AIPAC. Some of the seated blockaders were kicked-pushed and thrown by cops, one was arrested.

Video of Code Pink's blockade and rough police behavior

On the 17th of March, Nancy Vann of Resist AIM Pipeline from NY was violently removed from the room after daring to speak out at FERC's monthly meeting. She was knocked to the ground when security guards in the process of forcibly removing her denied her access to her cane. Her property was condemned by Spectra Energy for their Algonquin Incremental Market (AIM) project. This time around, FERC was not sucessful in preventing photos and video from escaping the hearing room. They are known for aggression against photographers but this time they were not sucessful in concealing their violence and aggression.

Video of FERC security's violent assault on Nancy Vann

Argentina's lower house of Congress voted 165-86 to repeal two laws that blocked the country from settling its decade-long debt dispute with a group of "hold-out" investors. A US judge approved the $4.65 billion agreement on March 2 on the condition that Argentina's congress revoke the two laws.‎ Argentina's Senate now faces an April 14 deadline to also repeal the laws.