Allison Kilkenny | The Nation

In the past year, a series of mass protests and revolutions have swept the globe, exploding in Tunisia, Egypt, Syria, Bahrain, Yemen, Libya, Greece, Italy, Spain, the United Kingdom, the United States, Canada, Russia and Mexico, among other countries. The Financial Times called 2011 the "Year Of Global Indignation," while the Guardian's John Harris called comparisons made by individuals observing the modern global awakening to Paris in 1968 "not completely misplaced."

Now, political scientists in Russia are making a prediction that shouldn't come as surprising to close observers of international protests. Igor Bunin, president of the Center for Political Technologies, predicts that Russia may soon experience the rise of a radical new breed of protester.

"On the one hand, it seems to me that the protest movement will be more radical, more social, younger and more ready for direct actions," Bunin predicted.

Update: Early press releases for this event erroneously declared Mexico's Yo Soy 132 would be involved with the Carlos Slim event in New York. That, in fact, was not the case. Occupy Wall Street and Two Countries, One Voice emhpasized at the event that, while there is solidarity between the movements, Yo Soy 132 was not participating in the event. 

I spoke with several organizers and activists about how so much information could have been circulated, claiming Yo Soy 132 would be participating in the event, and my sources blamed miscommunication among the groups, though a report in La Jornada suggests the disagreement was actually of a political nature:

In light of the peaceful protest called by the Two Nations organization, the decision to not participate was made because Democratic party operatives were involved, a situation that goes against the principle of nonpartisan Mexican student collective.

A weekend protest in Burlington turned violent when police shot protesters with pepper spray and rubber bullets. Hundreds of activists demonstrating against a proposed tar sands oil pipeline that would extend across northern New England gathered in front of a Hilton housing attendees for the thirty-sixth annual New England Governors conference. Just before 5 pm, the demonstrators attempted to block buses transporting the conference attendees to dinner, prompting police dressed in riot gear to fire on the crowd.

“The police and Burlington PD responded forcefully, kinda got the butt end of that,” said Marnie Salerno, a recent college graduate who works in a coffee shop and sustained minor injuries during the clash. “Shot with pepper spray coated rubber bullets—then some other people were shot with just rubber bullets and other people were pepper-sprayed. I was pushed into the middle of college street and I had officers pushing me back and one with a gun on me most of the time that had these bullets, yeah.”

Protesters from the Yo Soy 132 movement, also dubbed the “Mexican Spring”, took to the streets this weekend to protest what they call a corrupt election that resulted in the PRI, Mexico’s centrist party, winning control of the government.

At least 32,000 protesters marched through Mexico City chanting slogans like “Peña Out” and “Fraud, Fraud” to contest the election results Sunday, accusing president-elect Enrique Peña Nieto, a member of the PRI, of electoral fraud.

Protesters carried signs reading, “Winning by cheating is not winning at all and is illegal” and “You launder money, we are cleaning our consciences.”