Occupy Greensboro joins Occupy Raleigh to reclaim an evicted family’s foreclosed home

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From Occupy Greensboro:

A family in Raleigh has been evicted and forced from their home through an illegal foreclosure. They have been ordered to remove all personal property from their home by Sunday April 8, 2012. The family has bravely chosen to fight eviction and foreclosure and is requesting community support. Evidence of robo-signing by the bank, which is a fraud, has been uncovered and the entire foreclosure process is under attorney review.

It is up to us to send a clear message that we will not allow this to happen.

On Monday, April 9th, community participants will enter the house and refuse to leave as an act of civil disobedience. Another 10 families in this predominantly African-American neighborhood are facing similarly illegal foreclosure and eviction.

A coalition coordinating with Max Rameau of Take Back the Land and including; Mortgage Fraud NC, Occupy Raleigh, Save Our Homes and Occupy Greensboro are quickly mounting a public protest and home defense. The objectives of this action are: We demand that Nicole and her family be allowed to reclaim possession of their home. We call for a NATIONAL MORATORIUM on all foreclosures, evictions, and utility shut-offs. We demand that banks negotiate loan modifications that include principal reduction. We call for the creation of a community land trust.

This foreclosure eviction protest is one of a growing movement across the country. Take Back the Land, the Occupy movement and others are partnering with homeowners to demand that housing be recognized as a human right. In the last year, successful eviction resistance has been used nationally from Los Angeles to Atlanta and Washington DC. This will be the first use of civil disobedience in defense of foreclosed homes in North Carolina.

The time is now. SAVE OUR COMMUNITIES: FIGHT FORECLOSURE!

Updates posted to: http://occupygreensboro.org and http://twitter.com/occupygso

Background

When Nikki and her husband purchased their house in Raleigh in February of 2006, the future was bright. They looked forward to raising their 3 children and eventually growing old together in their home . Nikki has been a licensed in-home child care provider for the last 12 years. She and her husband both worked full time to provide for their children. In October of 2007, they were late on their mortgage payment. U.S. Bank National Association, who accepted $27 million in bailout money, asked that the family “catch up” on payments. In October of 2007, they paid $1156.00; in November of 2007, they paid $1300.00; and in December of 2007, they paid $1500.00.

On December 13, 2007, Nikki’s husband was injured in a head-on collision. In January of 2008, Nikki advised ASC (the servicer of her loan) that her husband was still out of work due to injuries he sustained in the December car accident. ASC advised Nikki that her husband’s condition qualified her for a loan modification. From January to April of 2008, Nikki diligently called ASC monthly to check on the status of her loan modification. She never received any paperwork, but ASC assured her that her case was “under review.”

In April of 2008, Nikki’s grandfather passed away. Nikki took the loss of her grandfather very hard. He had been the man who raised her, the most important figure in her childhood. While Nikki grieved for her grandfather, she received the first acceleration letter in the mail. By May 2, 2008, U.S. Bank National Association appointed a substitute trustee. That document was signed by a known robo-signer, Sean Nix. Nikki felt overwhelmed, but she knew she had to save her home for her family. She took the only option left to her and filed Chapter 13 Bankruptcy; that filing automatically stopped foreclosure proceedings. She and her husband kept up with their structured payments for a full 14 months until Nikki’s husband lost his job. In October of 2009, the bankruptcy was dismissed because they could no longer keep up with the payments.

On November 22, 2010, Nikki’s home was sold back to the bank at a foreclosure auction. On December 5, 2010, a Wells Fargo representative offered Nikki $3,000 in a “cash for keys” scam. Nikki refused the offer and stayed in her home with her family. Nikki was told she should consult a HUD approved housing counselor. With the assistance of Freedom Financial Services, Nikki filed a “motion to set aside judgment and cancel sale” on Dec. 20, 2010. Two days later, her motion was denied by the Wake County Clerk of Courts.

The eviction date was set for April 24, 2011. Nikki did not want her children to witness a forcible eviction by the police. Instead, she and her family packed up their belongings into a “POD” that weekend and took shelter at a neighbor’s home.

When Nikki left her home, she also lost her livelihood. She had been running a licensed day care out of her home. She dutifully followed every step the bank, servicers, and housing counselors told her would save her home. When all of those efforts failed, the prospect of no home for her family and no income to provide for her children was simply overwhelming. In July of 2011, she and her family sought refuge with relatives in Washington, D.C.

Nikki and her family returned to Raleigh on Feb. 2, 2012. They have been staying at Nikki’s mother’s home. She received a notice from GMAC on March 15 stating “anything left within the premises after 4/8/2012 will be considered trash.”

This notice did not close the book on Nikki’s struggle. Instead, with renewed determination, Nikki decided to fight to save her home. When Nikki’s family was evicted, her community lost more than a neighbor. Nikki provided a valuable child care service to her community. The property taxes and state and local taxes that create revenue were lost. Every time a house is foreclosed upon, the property value of the surrounding houses is reduced. Nikki and her family are not alone. There were 66 thousand foreclosures in the state of North Carolina in 2011. How many homes must be abandoned, how many neighborhoods torn apart, how many families must be displaced, before the public wakes up?? The time is now. SAVE OUR COMMUNITIES: FIGHT FORECLOSURE!

ChicagoSpring

MAYDAY!
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Occupations all across the globe will stand up and defend the 99% on May 1st. In Chicago, we are organizing a massive gathering of laborers, immigrants, students & more. JOIN US IN CHICAGO!

CALL TO ACTION: On May 1st, we will march for the 99%! JOIN US IN CHICAGO!

We are Workers. We are Students. We are Documented. We are Undocumented. We are Occupiers.

They are Detaining Us. They are Shutting Down our Clinics. They are Closing our Schools. They are Taking our Wealth. They are Busting our Unions.

Come May 1st, we are on the March! Join Us!

We will be assembling at Union Park (1501 W. Randolph St.) at 12:00 PM and marching to Federal Plaza (230 S. Deerborn St.)

CALL TO ACTION: 1 de Mayo: Marcha por el 99%!

Somos Trabajadores. Somos Estudiantes. Somos Documentados. Somos Indocumentados. Somos Ocupantes.

Nos Estan Denteniendo. Estan Cerrando nuestras Clinicas. Estan Cerrando Nuestras Escuelas. Estan Quitando nuestra Riqueza. Estan Quebrando nuestros Sindicatos.

¡Estamos en Marcha! ¡Únase!

Use these hastages on Twitter:

#MAYDAY #ChicagoSpring #MAY1 #ChicagoBound #OChi

RSVP on the facebook event!

General Strike in Spain: Report from Madrid on Growing Anti-Austerity Protests

Workers in Spain staged a general strike Thursday, shutting down factories and parts of the transportation sector and holding massive marches. The strike was called by two major trade unions to protest labor rules that make it less costly for employers to hire and fire people in a country where unemployment is near 23 percent. We speak to former Democracy Now! producer Maria Carrion, an independent freelance journalist based in Madrid, Spain.

AMY GOODMAN: Workers in Spain staged a general strike on Thursday, shutting down factories and parts of the transportation sector, holding massive marches. The strike was called by two major trade unions to protest labor rules that make it less costly for employers to hire and fire people in a country where unemployment is near 23 percent. Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy is expected to deliver a budget today that includes some $26 billion in spending cuts and tax hikes.

To talk more about the situation in Spain, we’re joined by Maria Carrion. She is an independent freelance journalist based in Madrid. She’s a former Democracy Now! producer

It’s great to have you back, Maria.

MARIA CARRION: Great to be here, Amy.

AMY GOODMAN: Well, you flew in just before the major strikes hit the airlines of Spain. Talk about what’s happening there.

MARIA CARRION: Well, in November, we got a new conservative government, so the Socialist Zapatero was ousted from power. And he didn’t even run for a third term, because his ratings were so bad because of the deep social cuts that he had to enact. And this was all because of, you know, the directives of the European Union and the troika, as they’re called, which includes the IMF. So now we have a conservative government. We have a deep economic crisis. We have 5.3 million people out of jobs. And the rate, which is 23 percent, is expected to go up. And among young people, over half are unemployed. So you have also a massive exodus of young people leaving the country and going to Germany and other places in search for work.

So this is the perfect scenario for a conservative government to do what it could never have done a few years ago, which is to privatize, which is to come up with a new labor law that basically makes it very inexpensive to hire and fire. And Rajoy keeps talking about, you know, this is in the benefit of the unemployed, the 5.3 million, but there’s no sense that more people will be hired. In fact, the—what we’re seeing is that, you know, a lot of companies have waited for this law in order to begin to fire people. And even the government is recognizing that next year we may face an unemployment rate of 25 percent. So these protests are a result of this new law. The PP, the governing party, has absolute majority, which means they don’t need to really negotiate with any other political party.

AMY GOODMAN: Now, how did this happen? I mean, you had the movement before Occupy Wall Street, the indignados, the thousands of people that took to the streets, and then the Socialist prime minister is out.

MARIA CARRION: Well, this movement, which grew out of a total indignation, happened during Zapatero’s presidency as a result of these deep social cuts. Zapatero spent the first four years, basically, enacting progressive policies and financing social spending that was needed in Spain, and then the economic crisis hit. So, for the past few years, not only has he had to backtrack on a lot of these promises, but also enact terribly deep social cuts. And that has led to, you know, young people saying, "We don’t have a future here in Spain anymore."

So these social movements and the indignados that rose up, and that were parallel or even a little before Occupy Wall Street, took the streets, but they never endorsed any other political candidate or party. And this citizen movement must be seen in a—out of a political context, outside of the two political parties, main political parties, and even some of the other political parties. This is a citizen movement that is no longer so visible in the streets. It has gone into the neighborhoods. It is now active, for instance, stopping evictions from taking place. Any time there is an imminent eviction, there they are, and they stand between the police and the families.

AMY GOODMAN: This is very similar to what’s happening in the United States.

MARIA CARRION: It is. And in fact, what happened—this has been going on in Spain before it happened in the U.S. And there was an international committee that took place—or a big meeting that took place during the occupation in Spain over the summer, and it was an international committee that wanted to internationalize this model of movement. And a lot of people that participated in Occupied Wall Street were part of this. So, you see these—you know, these movements coming here.

Will Occupy Wall Street influence the elections in the United States? Occupy Spain didn’t influence the elections. What they’re saying is they want deeper social transformation. This is not about the political parties, because the political parties are doing what Europe wants them to do and what the IMF wants them to do. They’re not really paying attention to alternative models.

AMY GOODMAN: I think most people will be surprised to hear that the unemployment rate in Spain is worse than in Greece.

MARIA CARRION: Far worse. When you have over half of the young people between the ages of 18 and 23 unemployed, it is serious. People are moving back into their parents’ homes. People are not having children, young people. You have a situation where maybe someone with three higher degrees cannot find a job, even like washing dishes in a restaurant. So it’s very serious.

AMY GOODMAN: Can you talk about who Rajoy is, how he came to be in power?

MARIA CARRION: Well, Rajoy has been the perpetual PP candidate for presidency, and he has lost every single election until now. And what he’s done, basically, is just waited. The first two elections he lost because Zapatero—the first time Zapatero won was right after the March 11th attacks, and the PP lying about the authors of these terrorist attacks and saying it had been—

AMY GOODMAN: Saying? Remind us.

MARIA CARRION: Well, this was al-Qaeda bombing several commuter trains in Madrid in 2004, and the PP government, because it had gone to war in Iraq—

AMY GOODMAN: And this was Aznar.

MARIA CARRION: This was Aznar. President Aznar, who supported the Iraq war and who went the Azores with Bush and Blair, basically did not want the public to know, because these bombings took place three days before the elections, the general elections, did not want people to think that these bombings might have been related to a stance on the war. And so, the government tried to cover it up by saying it was the Basque independence movement, ETA, that had authored these attacks. Once the lies were exposed, there was a social clamor. And the day before the elections, there was a huge demonstration in front of PP headquarters. And Rajoy, who had been expected to win the elections—he was sort of the Aznar protégé selected to take over from him—lost. And Zapatero came to power.

AMY GOODMAN: And Zapatero’s first promise was to pull the troops out of Iraq.

MARIA CARRION: And he did. And for the next—well, his entire presidency, he was basically ignored by the United States. Bush would never want to talk to him. It was a big deal for him, because it almost was like he had become the persona non grata for the United States, and he was afraid that it would affect all kinds of things like commerce with the U.S., etc. But yes, he pulled the troops out of Iraq. And for the first few years, Spain was doing well, in the sense that there were a lot of progressive social policies. The second time—the second elections, Rajoy lost again against Zapatero. Zapatero was still very popular at the time.

So, Rajoy was able to win these elections because the situation in Spain is catastrophic, and anyone in power would have lost the elections. And in fact, you know, Rajoy was told, "Shut your mouth. Don’t say anything about what you would do to resolve the crisis." It’s just let Zapatero basically disintegrate, and whoever takes over from him—and his former interior minister, Rubalcaba, was the Socialist candidate—will lose automatically, because people are so discontented. And the left was demobilized. And so, a lot of people who usually voted Socialist, in November, did not—either stayed home or voted for United Left, which is a more progressive political party.

AMY GOODMAN: And so, what do you see happening now? The significance of this mass protest that’s taking place today in Spain?

MARIA CARRION: Unfortunately, this government does not need any kind of political consensus to enact any policy that they want. So Rajoy privately told his colleagues at the European Union in a meeting—and this was caught on one of those mics that was left on—saying, "I totally expect a general strike to take place, but it’s not going to matter. I’m going to continue with my policies." And that’s basically what’s going to happen on a political level in Spain.

On a social level, upheaval. Hopefully, the indignados will continue to press on. And I think that their role in society is very important, because now that we’re facing cuts in education and basic medical services and that people are being evicted, the indignados are there to remind society of what is happening on the streets.

AMY GOODMAN: Finally, Baltasar Garzón, the crusading judge in Spain—we followed the trial of the judge himself. You have been covering this for a long time, what is happening in Spain. I mean, he took on Pinochet. He took on the Bush administration around war crimes. He also took on September 11th. Talk about his history, but what it was—what was the fatal blow to his position in Spain, what he dared to take on at home?

MARIA CARRION: Well, Garzón, as you know, has inspired universal justice, the concept that any crime against humanity can be tried outside of the country where it is committed, if the country itself does not investigate and prosecute. And that’s what he did with Pinochet. After many, many years of inaction in Chile, he said, "Well, I’m going to go after Pinochet," and had him arrested in London. Garzón has continued on this crusade. The only good thing about the whole situation now is that Garzón is out of the judiciary because of his investigation of Franco crimes, but he has left a legacy.

AMY GOODMAN: Franco, the former general—

MARIA CARRION: The former dictator of Spain.

AMY GOODMAN: —dictator of Spain.

MARIA CARRION: Exactly.

AMY GOODMAN: How many people died under his reign, and how long did he rule for?

MARIA CARRION: Millions died. I’m not sure about the exact amount. Many people were disappeared, too. And the problem is that the disappeared have not—a lot of them have not been found. And that’s what he wanted to do. There are survivors. Even though Franco died in 1975, and many of these crimes took place over 60 years ago, 70 years ago, there are people who remember their mothers and their fathers being taken away and disappeared. This was a brutal civil war, and with brutal repression during the dictatorship, mass graves all over Spain. And what has happened is that these families have formed these associations, and they are the associations that brought the case before Garzón. And Garzón said, "They have not gotten relief in any court in Spain. I’m going to try to investigate, see what happened to these people."

That was too much for the conservative judiciary. You have to think that Supreme Court justices, a lot of them swore their loyalty to Franco. They are the remnants of the conservative fascist courts that we used to have. And they decided to put a stop to it, so they initiated a series of investigations against Garzón. He was actually acquitted in the trial on his Franco investigations, where he was being accused of abuse of power. But he was convicted on another case involving the taping, the wiretapping, of conversations between a corrupt network associated with the governing party and their lawyers. So, he’s been ousted from the judiciary.

Now, many judges remain in the national court in Spain, the court responsible for trying these crimes against humanity—against humanity, who continue doing Garzón’s work. So there’s a judge, for instance, who has taken on the Guatemala genocide case. And recently, General Ríos Montt was arrested in Guatemala. And that’s a direct result of these investigations going on in Spain. Once these investigations take place and the arrest orders take place, a lot of the countries begin to act and begin to bring these people to justice. And I think that’s Garzón’s legacy.

AMY GOODMAN: He will try to get back into the judiciary? He’s appealing?

MARIA CARRION: He’s appealing. It’s difficult, because he was ousted by the Supreme Court, and technically, there’s no place to appeal in Spain. But he is a very good judge. He knows the judiciary well. And he knows how to get around it. The problem is that I think, from the start, there is a policy of not allowing him back. So I doubt very much that he’s going to find relief in Spain. I think he’s going to have to go to the European Court of Human Rights for this.

AMY GOODMAN: Finally, Maria, you’re in the United States promoting a film festival that’s taking place in the Western Sahara. Can you just tell us what is happening in the Western Sahara? And then tell us about the significance of this film festival.

MARIA CARRION: Well, Amy, I think Democracy Now! is one of the few media outlets even talking about the Western Sahara. I think most people—most Americans don’t know where it is or what it is. It’s Africa’s last colony. It was occupied—well, there was a brutal military invasion by Morocco when Spain, the former colonist, stepped out. They gave the green light, along with Henry Kissinger, for this invasion to take place. And the Western Sahara is south of Morocco. There are a lot of natural resources, and Morocco had a huge interest in occupying and incorporating it into its country. As a result of the brutal invasion, over 100,000 people fled on foot.

AMY GOODMAN: When did it take place?

MARIA CARRION: This was in 1976. So the refugees went to Algeria to one of the most remote—one of the most remote parts of the world, the Sahara Desert. And they set up refugee camps and a parallel society, and even a parallel government in exile that has been acknowledged by many countries, including South Africa, for instance. And they subsist, and they survive. And the problem is that there’s a stalemate at the U.N. Security Council. There have been resolutions calling for a referendum on self-determination. But Morocco has refused to hold the referendum, and because of its powerful allies at the council, including France and the United States, they continue to avoid making a final decision. And in the Western Sahara, there is tremendous brutality. It is truly a military occupation, in every way possible. There’s a U.N. delegation there that is supposed to be overseeing the preparations for the referendum. Their offices are surrounded by Moroccan military perpetually, and Moroccan flags have been planted around the U.N. delegation. And it’s supposed to have a human rights mandate, and it does not, because the Security Council won’t allow it. So that’s the situation.

The film festival is an attempt to bring some entertainment and culture and education into the camps. And it’s held every year. Spanish filmmakers like Javier Bardem have supported it. And I’m here in the United States to let people know that it exists and that it needs support.

AMY GOODMAN: When is it taking place?

MARIA CARRION: This year, it’s May 1st to 6th.

AMY GOODMAN: And it’s films about the Western Sahara and also other films.

MARIA CARRION: Other films, as well. So they get to see everything, from comedies to dramas. But, of course, all films that are made about the Western Sahara, and even by the refugees themselves, are screened. And this takes place at night on this huge screen under the stars. And it’s this—I went to the first one, and one of the first films they showed—I forget the name of it, but it’s a beautiful documentary on bird migration that was done a few years ago. And the sense that these refugees in the middle of the desert all of a sudden were flying over the North Pole and over all these oceans—and these are, you know, people who often have never seen the sea before—was just magnificent.

AMY GOODMAN: And there is a film school that has been set up for people to document what is happening in the Western Sahara?

MARIA CARRION: Yes. That was established last year. So now the young Sahrawis, and especially women, because this has a—the school has a 85 to 90 percent female enrollment, can document their own stories. They can produce fiction and documentaries at the same time. They use them as educational tools. And it’s fledgling, but it’s at least a permanent production. It’s something that—it does not go away when the festival goes away.

AMY GOODMAN: Maria Carrion, thanks so much. This is Democracy Now!, democracynow.org, The War and Peace Report.

BBC News - Greek clashes after pensioner suicide 2012

Protesters have clashed with riot police in Athens hours after a pensioner shot himself dead outside the Greek parliament.

The man, named in the Greek media as 77-year-old Dimitris Christoulas, killed himself in the city's busy Syntagma Square on Wednesday morning.

In a suicide note reported by Greek media, he accused the government of reducing his pension to nothing.

Occupation?

Bahrain: Shouting in the dark

As Bahraini human rights activist Abdulhadi Alkhawaja is near death on the 58th day of a hunger strike protesting his imprisonment, we look at an award-winning documentary that tells the story of the uprising in Bahrain with extraordinary footage shot entirely undercover by Al Jazeera English reporters. It’s called "Bahrain: Shouting in the Dark."

"Shouting in the Dark": Film Chronicles Bahrain’s Pro-Democracy Uprising Against U.S.-Backed Rule

JUAN GONZALEZ: We turn to Bahrain, where the country’s best-known human rights activist is on the 58th day of a hunger strike. According to those who have seen him most recently, 51-year-old Abdulhadi Alkhawaja has been moved from prison to the hospital. They say he could die at any moment.

His detention has led to calls for the cancellation of the Bahrain Formula One race scheduled for later this month. The government has been touting the race as a sign that the people of Bahrain are united and the situation on the island kingdom has returned to normal after a year of protest.

Alkhawaja was arrested last April during a government crackdown on protests by the country’s Shia majority that has been demanding greater rights from its Sunni rulers. He has been refusing food since February 8th to protest the life sentence he received in June for allegedly plotting against the state.

In the past year, Bahraini security forces have killed dozens of demonstrators. Hundreds more have been arrested or fired from their jobs. The island nation is a key strategic ally of the United States in the Middle East, home to the U.S. Navy’s Fifth Fleet.

AMY GOODMAN: We turn now to an award-winning documentary that tells the story of the uprising in Bahrain. With extraordinary footage shot entirely undercover by Al Jazeera English’s May Ying Welsh, the documentary Bahrain: Shouting in the Dark was awarded the George Polk Award for TV documentary on Thursday night. The film has also received the Scripps Howard award for in-depth TV reporting and the 2011 U.K. Foreign Press Association’s Documentary of the Year Award.

We’re joined by May Ying Welsh here in New York. But first let’s play a few minutes from the opening of the documentary, Bahrain: Shouting in the Dark.

MAY YING WELSH: Bahrain, an island kingdom in the Arabian Gulf, where the Shia Muslim majority are ruled by a family from the Sunni minority, where people fighting for democratic rights broke the barriers of fear only to find themselves alone and crushed. This is their story, and Al Jazeera is their witness, the only TV journalists who remain to follow their journey of hope to the carnage that followed. This is the Arab revolution that was abandoned by the Arabs, forsaken by the West, and forgotten by the world. With the world’s cameras trained on Cairo and Tunis, on February 16th, we discovered what felt like a secret revolution: no lights, no TV crews, just a people shouting in the dark.

BAHRAINI REVOLUTIONARY 1: [translated] Something inside was pushing me to go. I have to participate. I have to go. I can’t just stay at home and watch TV. I can’t do that.

MAY YING WELSH: Tens of thousands had come to Pearl Roundabout in the heart of the capital to call for democracy.

BAHRAINI REVOLUTIONARY 2: When I saw the crowd over there, all—really, it’s the whole Bahrain is out here. It’s the real revolution. Whoever was afraid, fear being broken on that day.

MAY YING WELSH: And it was all happening just one hour’s drive from the oil fields of eastern Saudi Arabia, the fulcrum of the global economy.

BAHRAINI REVOLUTIONARY 3: [translated] All of these years, we had been inside our villages, separate and isolated. This would be the point of takeoff for us. This will be the beginning of our freedom.

MAY YING WELSH: They went to bed that night in the street, believing they were already free. At 3:00 a.m., the government moved to evict sleeping protesters from Pearl Roundabout. Police swarmed the camp with shotguns and clubs. Anyone too slow or injured to run was beaten by police. At Salmaniya, the country’s main hospital, the aftermath was on view. Hundreds of protesters were shot, tear-gassed and beaten with rifle butts. Dr. Ali Al Ekri was there.

DR. ALI AL EKRI: It was chaos. We cannot see anything. It was dark. It was—we were in tears. Everybody is panic. Kids were just under us. I just pulled one lady, one of the—with me. And another child was there. I was just going out. And he says—he pointed to me. I told him, "I’m doctor! I’m doctor!"

MAY YING WELSH: As distraught family members flooded in, doctors and nurses broke down, overcome by the scenes of violence that shocked this small Gulf nation. For hours, the hospital’s ambulances were prevented from reaching protesters who were injured and dying.

DR. GHASSAN DHAIF: There is a ministerial order from the minister of health not to send anybody from the paramedics or the ambulance people in order to serve the casualties. So, let them lie in the street. Let these police people do whatever they want.

MAY YING WELSH: Any uniformed medic caught trying to save protesters at Pearl Roundabout was attacked. Dr. Saadiq Al Ekri, a senior surgeon, was handcuffed and beaten.

DR. SAADIQ AL EKRI: I was wearing the uniform for the doctors. You know, that one would be with the—with the Crescent. Then they tie me, and they attack me, while I’m crying. Then, I don’t know how many people, maybe 10, maybe 20—I don’t remember—are beating—from everywhere, I was being hit by sticks, by legs. Then, I don’t know. Then they—they told me, "Get up, or we will kill you."

MAY YING WELSH: After breaking Dr. Ekri’s nose and ribs, he says police pulled his pants down and threatened to rape him. Four had died at Pearl Roundabout.

AHMED ABU TAKI: My brother, he was sleeping next to the roundabout. Then, the policeman, he’s coming. Then they shoot him, when he was asleep. He’s going there because he’s looking for work. He’s only 22 years.

AMY GOODMAN: The opening scenes of Bahrain: Shouting in the Dark, directed by May Ying Welsh, the documentary shot entirely undercover. May Ying was awarded the George Polk Award last night. She’s a journalist with Al Jazeera English.

May Ying, welcome to Democracy Now! You are remarkably brave. But we at Democracy Now! knew this years ago, because it was during "Shock and Awe," the bombing of Iraq in those first days, March 19th, 20th, 21st, you were our reporter on the ground, running outside with a satellite phone. You’d say, "There is a bomb in front of us." And we’d say, "Run in the other direction. Go inside." You’d say, "No," and you would keep on running and reporting. So, we know what you are made of, May Ying. Talk about this documentary that is truly a stunning document of what has taken place in Bahrain in the last year.

MAY YING WELSH: Right. We, Al Jazeera English, were the only journalists that really came to Bahrain early and stayed throughout the entire crisis, from the beginning of the uprising to the pretty much final crushing of it in April. We stayed almost the entire time, and we followed these people. And so, I think we have the only full document of what really happened there. In order to stay that whole time, you know, as they started to go underground, as the crackdown deepened, we also kind of had to go underground. We started having to move out of the hotel. We started being chased around Bahrain by the police, you know, from place to place. We took the SIM cards out of our phones. We had to go to people’s homes unannounced to do interviews. I wore an abaya and a hijab and put my camera in like a feminine purse. And we did a lot of things to try and basically stay in Bahrain, as they were deporting and, you know, saying goodbye to what few journalists were there. And we had a very great sense of responsibility for those people, because we knew we were the only people that were getting the story, and so we felt we’ve got to stay, and we’ve got to get this complete story out there, so people know what really happened in Bahrain.

JUAN GONZALEZ: And what kind of pressure came on the network, in terms of the coverage, and then, finally, in terms of the airing of the documentary last August on Al Jazeera English?

MAY YING WELSH: OK, huge pressure was put on Al Jazeera to remove this film from the air. I mean, the first thing that happened after the first airing of the film, just a few minutes after midnight, the foreign minister of Bahrain sent out a tweet saying, you know, that—basically attacking Qatar for having aired the film and, you know, complaining about—he sent out several tweets. Even one of the princes, one of the king’s sons, sent out some tweets against the film. And there was a social media firestorm against the film. There was a diplomatic letter of protest that came from Bahrain to Qatar demanding that it be removed from the air.

And, you know, Al Jazeera’s response to that was actually to give the regime a chance to respond to the issues raised in the film by creating more programming. So we had some talk shows and other things that we brought, in addition to Bahrain: Shouting in the Dark, just to get people talking even more. And that’s one of the really good things about the film, is that it got people in the Gulf talking about taboo subjects, about sectarianism, authoritarianism, one-family rule, you know, these issues which are not talked about, you know, yeah.

AMY GOODMAN: I mean, Qatar is a part of the Gulf Cooperation Council that was supporting the Bahrain monarchy, so this was—

MAY YING WELSH: Right.

AMY GOODMAN: —extremely significant that Al Jazeera was producing this.

MAY YING WELSH: Yeah, yeah.

AMY GOODMAN: Talk about the overall uprising and the role of the doctors and the nurses, why they became targets and remain on trial today.

MAY YING WELSH: Right. I think—I mean, I think that the reason why—from what we saw, I mean, we spent a huge amount of time with those medical staff. I saw them unannounced. You know, we would show up at 3:00 and 4:00 in the morning at the hospital. We saw them at all hours of the day. We saw a lot of the patients. You know, we really saw what happened at the hospital over the course of two months.

And, you know, I believe, personally, based on my observations, that the reason why—what they did wrong was they allowed journalists into the hospital to film the aftermath of what the crackdown had meant physically on the people, you know, the injuries that people had, the deaths. They let us film people who were dying, and as a result of the regime’s violence. And I think that really, really was what they really did wrong. They supported the protesters, in a sense of they treated them. They gave them, you know— what do you call it? — help and aid.

AMY GOODMAN: And they treated the police, as well.

MAY YING WELSH: They treated police, as well. I saw that with my own eyes. And they treated everybody. They treated everybody that came into their care. But I think what they really did wrong was they scandalized the government.

JUAN GONZALEZ: Yeah, I want to go to another clip from Bahrain: Shouting in the Dark. This excerpt includes your conversation with opposition MP Matar Matar, who urges the United States to support democratic forces in his country.

MAY YING WELSH: The only gathering allowed to the people was a funeral. Amidst the trauma, Shia mobs formed to punish the only people they could: the impoverished Asian immigrants living among them, simple workers suspected of being policemen. In early April, Bahrain started a campaign to destroy Shia places of worship, demolishing 35 mosques. The government said they were illegally built, though many had been standing for decades. Police launched a campaign of house raids in Shia neighborhoods. When a raid ruined the home of journalist Kareem Fakhrawi, he went to his local police station to file a report, where he was jailed and tortured to death.

PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA: Some nations may be able to turn a blind eye to atrocities in other countries. The United States of America is different. Wherever people long to be free, they will find a friend in the United States.

MAY YING WELSH: But when it came to Bahrain, the champions of freedom were silent.

MATAR MATAR: I don’t ask the United States to help. I believe that United States have obligations here. They classify us as a strategic ally, and they are having their Fifth Fleet here in our country. They should say that they are supporting democracy. They should say it clearly.

MAY YING WELSH: Not long after this interview, masked men pulled Matar off the street and took him to prison. There were no international journalists in Bahrain. There was only the word of state TV.

STATE TV: [translated] Treason is a filthy ocean, and the traitor is so filthy he is not made any filthier by the swamp he is drowning in.

MAY YING WELSH: When the government demolished Pearl Roundabout, state TV censored the moment of collapse, because it killed a worker.

BAHRAINI REVOLUTIONARY 3: [translated] When I’m sleeping, a lot of times I dream we are returning to the roundabout. To this day, I dream it is there. I don’t feel it is broken.

MAY YING WELSH: State TV had been right about something. At Pearl Roundabout, all the masks had fallen to reveal the authentic face of a nation, where a country is not its rulers, but its people. And this was a place where, for once, the story was theirs.

BAHRAINI REVOLUTIONARY 2: There was no fear from anything, because they felt of their freedom soul. They touched that soul of freedom, where—this is the point the regime in Bahrain, they don’t understand. The Bahraini people touched the soul of freedom. They won’t go back. They won’t go back.

MAY YING WELSH: Each night, the people of Bahrain go to their rooftops and call out to God and each other. The world’s cameras have left, and their revolution remains as it began: a people shouting in the dark.

AMY GOODMAN: An excerpt of Bahrain: Shouting in the Dark by filmmaker May Ying Welsh. The documentary has just won the George Polk Award along with many others. May Ying, your bravery, in being undercover, many of your interviews are in silhouette. Talk about the journalists you describe who were tortured to death.

MAY YING WELSH: Right. There’s two journalists in Bahrain who were tortured to death. And we know a lot of journalists who also were just tortured, arrested and tortured. The government did take a lot of the journalists that covered the Pearl Roundabout and detained them, sometimes in order to pressure them to hand over photographs to identify—so that they could identify who else had been at Pearl Roundabout. Other times it was because they accused them of feeding information to Iranian-owned news agencies like Press TV and Al-Alam, which, you know, that was a very difficult thing, was to see our colleagues—that happen to our colleagues. I mean, that happened to so many of the people. Everybody that you see in the film that we interviewed was, with like only one or two exceptions, was arrested, and most of them were tortured.

JUAN GONZALEZ: And yet, there was so little outrage internationally or condemnation, really, of the Bahraini government. Your sense of how the population felt about being basically ignored in much of the world?

MAY YING WELSH: That was devastating for them. I mean, they felt alone, really alone. They felt nobody was standing with them. They felt, you know, the Arab world wasn’t standing with them, because they were Shias. You know, people had been told that they were a fifth column for Iran, and a lot of people were believing that, and that really hurt them a lot. And because they had sort of stood with the Egyptians when the Egyptians rose up, and they had been standing with the Palestinians for a long time, they were very hurt that nobody stood with them. And they were very upset that, you know, the United States sort of didn’t have anything to say about the fact that they were asking for democracy, freedom of the press, freedom of expression, sort of all the things that we say, as Americans, you know, that we stand for and we want to see spread around the world. And yet, it seemed like the United States was kind of supporting the Khalifa ruling family. So they were really, really deeply disappointed.

AMY GOODMAN: Well, the Navy Fifth Fleet is there.

MAY YING WELSH: Yeah.

AMY GOODMAN: The U.S. is very close to the Bahraini monarchy.

MAY YING WELSH: And very close to the Saudi monarchy. And I think that might be the main point of conflict for the United States government, is that, you know, if you are to support the Bahraini—if they were to support the Bahraini democracy movement, that would come—that would put them in direct conflict with our strong allies, the Saudis, who really don’t want to see this, yeah.

AMY GOODMAN: And your footage is very dramatic in this film, of the Saudi soldiers coming in.

MAY YING WELSH: Yeah.

AMY GOODMAN: The tanks rolling in.

MAY YING WELSH: Yeah.

AMY GOODMAN: We are getting tweets, as we are speaking now, about Abdulhadi Alkhawaja. At the end, you refer to him getting a life sentence, the human rights leader, activist on hunger strike, now on his 58th day, has been moved from prison to the hospital. We’ve been talking with his daughter. People can go to our website for that. From Twitter, "People now marching to A. Karim roundabout for protest in 10 min. Also [in] Aali, protest starting soon [&] people wearing #Alkhawaja face masks." Abdulhadi Alkhawaja is near death, people calling for his release. As we wrap up, and we see the end of your documentary with people shouting in the dark, as you say, they now take to their rooftops to pray at night, so their faces won’t be seen.

MAY YING WELSH: Yeah, I mean, I think things have gotten a little better in Bahrain since this film was filmed. I mean, you know, at this time, this was April. During April, people—the only place people could protest anymore was on their rooftop at night, you know, where nobody could see your face. Now there’s a little bit more freedom to protest.

AMY GOODMAN: Although Alkhawaja remains near death.

MAY YING WELSH: Although, yeah, there are like several people that are in prison for life in Bahrain, basically because they went to Pearl Roundabout and protested and demanded the fall of the regime.

AMY GOODMAN: May Ying Welsh, we’ll have to leave it there. The documentary, Bahrain: Shouting in the Dark, is on YouTube. Anyone can watch it. Congratulations for your work.