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Democracy Now! Wednesday, September 19, 2018

For the past 49 days, I have been on a hunger strike. I have lived on the streets day and night, through sun and rain. I am doing it to save my father, Hassan Mushaima who has been detained since 2011 in Jau Prison, where he has been tortured, abused and denied simple and basic human rights.

In the years since, my father’s case has been raised by Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and the Human Rights Council in Geneva. But none of this has made a difference to the Bahraini authorities. I started my protest because I felt I had exhausted all other options to help him.

The Bahraini authorities are slowly killing my father, so I decided to do everything in my power to save his life and shed light on the suffering of all those who, like him, are paying the price for believing in democratic values.

This has taken a physical toll. Since I began my hunger strike, I have lost 16 kilos, 20% of my weight. For the last 10 days, I have been joined by Zainab Al Khawaja, who came all the way from Denmark to express her solidarity, and launched her own hunger strike.

Zainab is a well-known activist and her empathy for the human suffering of others, and strong human rights ideals have cost her being arrested about 12 times in Bahrain. On one of those occasions she was pregnant. On another she was detained with her infant son.

Her father, leading human rights defender Abdulhadi Al Khawaja, suffers from the same fate as my own father. Both men have been tried in the same case and are now facing life imprisonment.

My hunger strike and sit-in have helped raise awareness of the brutality of the Bahraini government. They have also led to some concessions, with my father having been given access to cancer screening and to some of his medication – both of which had been denied previously. By taking this action, I have allowed my father’s story to be heard, and helped to expose the terrible suffering of political prisoners in Bahrain.

My action has also shown the extreme lengths the Bahraini authorities will go to silence political dissent. My demands are so basic and simple that it would have taken them a few hours to address them. They could have stopped my protest at any time if they wanted to. But instead they have refused to even give my father the most basic rights. These are rights that every prisoner should have.

Despite being a London resident, the British government has done little to help me. Instead, it has made its position clear by supporting the false statements and lies of the Bahraini government. It has sold millions of pounds worth of arms to Bahrain, and spent millions of pounds of taxpayers’ money to train its violent police force, and to teach them how to whitewash their crimes.

Several British MPs have taken up my cause, with Caroline Lucas, Ian Blackford, Jim Shannon, Tom Brake, Andy Slaughter and Chris Law all showing me extraordinary support, despite coming from different parties. However, despite their strong interventions, their voices have been ignored.

I have written to the Foreign Secretary, Jeremy Hunt, but he has not even replied. I even wrote to the Queen, who counts the Al -Khalifa family among her friends, but she has refused to help me.

Theresa May and her cabinet claim they are supporting democratic institutions, but in reality they are providing a fig-leaf of legitimacy to regimes that implement repression and carry out abuses every day.

After 44 days, doctors, as well as human rights activists and many friends urged me to end my hunger strike, including a message from Nabeel Rajab, a Bahraini activist who is himself detained in Jau Prison. But what affected me the most was a call from my father. He told me how scared he was the day I was hospitalised.

I will not end my hunger strike, but I have moved to a liquid diet which will include soups. My body needs to recover, but if my father’s basic rights are not met I am ready to resume it. 

My father is a prisoner of conscience, and should not be where he is. Not only will I fight for his freedom, but I will also fight for his right to life and dignity as a human being. This is not easy, in fact it could be life threatening, but I will never stop fighting for my father and for our cause.

You can sign and share this petition in support of Ali’s demands.

Photo credits: Ali Mushaima on Twitter

The Intercept’s Ryan Grim reports on assault accusations against Brett Kavanaugh; immigrants seeking aid after Florence fear deportation; 7 years after Occupy Wall Street, author and activist Nathan Schneider talks about the cooperative movement.

Slate's Dahlia Lithwick says "Our System Is Too Broken to Assess the Sexual Assault Claim Against Kavanaugh”; Facebook declares a Think Progress report “fake news”; Botham Shem Jean’s family lawyer says police are smearing him to protect his killer.

Indigenous and climate justice activists protest outside and inside the Global Climate Action Summit in San Francisco; plus, we host debates on two systems proposed as climate change solutions: cap-and-trade and geoengineering.

Democracy Now! 2018-09-13 Thursday

• Headlines for September 13, 2018
• NC Lagoons Hold Billions of Gallons of Hog Feces. The Hurricane May Blast That Waste into Waterways
• Big Coal Put Toxic Coal Ash in Unlined Dirt Ponds—Now a Hurricane is Heading Directly Toward Them
• Bill McKibben to Jerry Brown: We Must Keep the Oil in the Soil, Limiting Emissions Is Not Enough

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We continue our interview with longtime oil and energy journalist, Antonia Juhasz, about her explosive new report: Death on the Dakota Access: An Investigation Into the Deadly Business of Building Oil and Gas Pipelines. She explains how the deaths of two men who worked on the Dakota Access pipeline led her examine how the massive oil and natural gas boom has generated some of the deadliest jobs in the country.

We continue our look at fallout from the women’s U.S. Open final Saturday, where tennis star Serena Williams lost to 20-year-old Naomi Osaka, after accusing umpire Carlos Ramos of sexism. On Monday, the Women’s Tennis Association came out in support of Williams, with chief executive Steve Simon suggesting the umpire showed a different level of tolerance to Williams because she is a woman. During the final, Ramos gave Williams a code violation after he deemed a gesture made toward her by her coach to be “coaching,” which is banned during a game. Ramos then penalized Williams a point after she destroyed her racket in anger, and docked her an entire game after she subsequently called the umpire a “liar” and a “thief” for stealing her point. We speak with Amira Rose Davis, assistant professor of history and women’s, gender and sexuality studies at Penn State University and co-host of the sports podcast “Burn It All Down.” Watch Part 1: Sexism at U.S. Open: Serena Williams’ Treatment Lays Bare Double Standard Black Women Face

Democracy Now! 2018-09-12 Wednesday

• Headlines for September 12, 2018
• A New Form of Slavery? Meet Incarcerated Firefighters Battling California’s Wildfires For $1 An Hour
• Amika Mota Fought Fires as a Prisoner For 53 Cents/Hour. Now Free, She Can’t Work as a Firefighter
• Death on the Dakota Access: Oil & Gas Boom Generates Dangerous Pipeline Jobs Amid Lax Regulations

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Democracy Now! 2018-09-11 Tuesday

• Headlines for September 11, 2018
• Climate Change Supercharges Hurricane Florence as 1.5 Million Evacuate in Carolinas & Virginia
• John Bolton Threatens International Criminal Court Judges for Probing U.S. Torture in Afghanistan
• Trump Admin Punishes PLO for Trying to Prosecute Alleged Israeli War Crimes in International Court
• Sexism at U.S. Open: Serena Williams' Treatment Lays Bare Double Standard Black Women Face

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Democracy Now! 2018-09-10 Monday

• Headlines for September 10, 2018
• Rise for Climate: Tens of Thousands March in San Francisco Calling for Fossil-Free World
• Ex-Senator Aide: Kavanaugh Should Be Impeached for Lying Under Oath About Stolen Democratic Memos

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Democracy Now! 2018-09-07 Friday

• Headlines for September 07, 2018
• Roe v. Wade in Danger: Released Docs Reveal Kavanaugh Thinks Abortion Decision Is Not "Settled Law"
• As 400+ Children Remain Separated From Parents, Trump Admin Wants to Detain Kids Indefinitely
• Idlib on Brink of "Humanitarian Catastrophe" As Syrian Military Threatens to Invade Rebel-Held City

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Web bonus interview with the Indian author and activist Arundhati Roy. She won the Booker Prize in 1997 for her first novel, “The God of Small Things.” Her most recent book is a novel titled “The Ministry of Utmost Happiness.”

Democracy Now! Thursday, September 6, 2018

Today Sen. Bernie Sanders and Rep. Ro Khanna introduced the BEZOS Act that would tax large corporations like Amazon and Walmart for every dollar their low-wage workers receive in government assistance. In part two of our interview with U.K.-based journalist James Bloodworth, he describes how he went undercover an Amazon warehouse “picker” and found impoverishment and mistreatment. His new book is Hired: Six Months Undercover in Low-Wage Britain.

Charlene Carruthers, national director of the Black Youth Project 100, joins us for a wide-ranging discussion upon the publication of her timely new book, Unapologetic: A Black, Queer, and Feminist Mandate for Radical Movements. She reflects on electoral versus grassroots organizing, the Chicago model of activism, the Haitian revolution, healing justice, the importance of leadership development and more.

Democracy Now! Wednesday, September 5, 2018

In a major victory for indigenous groups and environmentalists, Canada’s Federal Court of Appeals has rejected the government’s approval to triple the capacity of the Kinder Morgan Trans Mountain Pipeline. Meanwhile, a coalition of environmental and civil liberties groups are launching a new campaign called “Protect the Protest,” to fight back against lawsuits aimed at limiting free speech. Corporations often used so-called SLAPP suits, or strategic lawsuits against public participation, to try to silence activists. We continue our interview with Winona LaDuke, Native American activist with the Ojibwe Nation and executive director of the group Honor The Earth. She lives and works on the White Earth reservation in northern Minnesota. And joining us from Alberta via phone is Eriel Deranger, founder and executive director of the group Indigenous Climate Action. She is a member of the Athabaskan Chippewa first nation. To see Part 1 of this conversation, click here.

Democracy Now! 2018-09-04 Tuesday

• Headlines for September 04, 2018
• "What Are They Hiding?": Kavanaugh Confirmation Hearings Begin Despite Suppression of 100K Documents
• Indigenous Activists Win “David v. Goliath” Victory as Court Rejects $4.5B Trans Mountain Pipeline

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Democracy Now! 2018-09-03 Monday

• Boots Riley on His Anti-Capitalist Film "Sorry to Bother You," the Power of Strikes & Class Struggle

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