As Hong Kong protesters stand up to recent heavy handed police tactics in clearing sections of the Mong Kok Occupy site, Peter Gabriel, Pussy Riot, Iron & Wine, and others have sent photos and messages of support which are being projected on the Lennon Wall in the Admiralty District of downtown Hong Kong, a center of the Occupy Movement.
In a video released on the Stand By You: Add Oil Machine Facebook page today, the project is being called StandByYou 2.0, an “escalation” of the effort which has already projected over “30,000 messages from 70 countries” and is now encouraging people to ask their heroes to send a photo and message of solidarity to the Hong Kong activists. In the photos, Gabriel, Pussy Riot, Mario Batali and others are each holding umbrellas, which have become the symbol of the protest movement since activists used them to fend off pepper spray and tear gas first used by the police on September 28.
Hong Kong's student protesters have faced difficult opposition in the forms of arrests and beatings at the hands of triad gang members who had apparently been sent into the encampments in attempts to incite violence. Recently, police have employed pepper spray cannons to clear out protesters and in attempts to dismantle encampments. As the civil disobedience movement enters its third month, the government has made no further attempt to engage the protest leaders after rejecting their key demand for genuine universal suffrage during a dialogue on October 21.
Marking the two-month anniversary of the Add Oil Machine projections, the “Stand By You 2.0” launch is a collaborative effort among Stand By You: Add Oil Machine and human rights groups The Voice Project, and Human Rights in China.
"We are encouraged to launch this project with The Voice Project and Human Rights in China as it echoes our belief in the importance of international solidarity in the pursuit of universal values and human rights," said Sampson Wong of Stand By You: Add Oil Machine, the group that has been projecting messages of support from around the world on the Lennon Wall since the movement began.
"Basically we wanted to find some way to support what Sampson has been doing with the Add Oil Machine,” said The Voice Project founder Hunter Heaney. “We want to show the faces of some of the people around the world who so admire what these young people are doing. We wanted to show them that we still stand with them and to help counteract propaganda that they don’t have support out there."
“Faced with the failure of the SAR and central governments to resolve the political issues of Hong Kong and the use of excessive force by the police, the Hong Kong people are responding with incredible spirit, courage, and tactical fluidity,” said Sharon Hom, Executive Director of Human Rights in China. “We very much welcome the solidarity of our international friends.”
Anyone can join Peter Gabriel, Pussy Riot, Iron & Wine, Mario Batali, Samantha Mathis and others in solidarity by taking pictures with umbrellas and posting to Instagram, Twitter, or Facebook with messages of support using the hashtags:
#StandByYou
#UmbrellaRevolution
Photos with short messages of support can be emailed to standbyyou@voiceproject.org to be included in the projections onto the Lennon Wall in Hong Kong.
Messages of support:
Peter Gabriel: Water gets everywhere - like the will of the people.
彼得•蓋布瑞爾：人民的意志就像流水一樣無處不在
Singer-songwriter, musician, and humanitarian activist
Pussy Riot: Solidarity
Pussy Riot：肩並肩，手挽手
Russian feminist punk protest group
Iron & Wine: Keep heart and stay strong
Iron & Wine：心明志堅
singer-songwriter
Mario Batali: Eat well and don't take any crap
馬利歐•巴塔利：食就食好啲，唔好「食住先」
Chef, writer, restaurateur
Samantha Mathis: Stay strong
薩曼莎•馬西斯：堅毅不屈
Actress
For more information and to talk to the organizations directly, please reach out to:
© All Rights Reserved. For permission to reprint articles, please send requests to: communications@hrichina.org.
Started by Sampson Wong, Jason Lam, and Chris Cheung, the Stand By You: Add Oil Machine has projected 30,000 messages of support from 70 countries to the pro-democracy activists in Hong Kong since September 28.
The Voice Project focuses on "Defending Freedom of Expression" and "Supporting the Art of Activism." Executive director Hunter Heaney and the TVP team have supported creative activism and imprisoned artists around the world and were lead human rights organization in coordinating support for Pussy Riot while the women were imprisoned in Russian labor camps.
http://voiceproject.org/
https://twitter.com/thevoiceproject
https://www.facebook.com/voiceproject
2019 Anti-Extradition Protests
2014 Occupy Movement
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