[Onthebarricades] On the Barricades - ASIA - part 2

Mon Apr 4 04:21:57 PDT 2005

IRAN:  Quake victims block roads in protest over inadequate aid

http://www3.turkishpress.com/w.asp?s=i&i=050223105006.8vy6r6pn

Iranian exiles in Germany protest Iran's nuclear manoeuvres

This is despite attempts by German pigs to stop the protest

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-iranians11feb11,1,3969244.story?coll=la-headlines-world&ctrack=2&cset=true

Dissidents occupy plane in Belgium

http://www.iranmania.com/News/ArticleView/Default.asp?NewsCode=30384&NewsKind=Current%20Affairs

Iranian women protest against headscarf ban on US passport photos

http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2005-02/10/content_2566714.htm

http://news.newkerala.com/world-news/?action=fullnews&id=70346

http://www.iranmania.com/News/ArticleView/Default.asp?NewsCode=29618&NewsKind=Current%20Affairs

TURKEY:  Paper mill workers resist privatisation, strike and occupy factory
http://www.wsws.org/articles/2005/mar2005/turk-m10.shtml
http://www.wsws.org/articles/2005/mar2005/turk-m15.shtml
http://www.wsws.org/articles/2005/feb2005/turk-f25.shtmlhttp://www.icem.org/update/upd2005/upd05-06.html

http://www.socialistworker.co.uk/article.php4?article_id=5966

Workers march against government policies

http://www.turkishdailynews.com.tr/article.php?enewsid=6183

http://www.turkishdailynews.com.tr/article.php?enewsid=6201

Police attack women's day protest

Repression draws international criticism and condemnation

One pig vehicle damaged by protesters throwing stones

http://news.scotsman.com/latest.cfm?id=4222290

http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click_id=24&art_id=vn20050307130026632C429870

http://edition.cnn.com/2005/WORLD/europe/03/06/turkey.demo.ap/

http://www.icftu.org/displaydocument.asp?Index=991221374&Language=ENhttp://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2005/03/306289.html

http://groups-beta.google.com/group/alt.anarchism/browse_thread/thread/9675f7290eb70e3f/4055b55897679126#4055b55897679126

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/smygo/message/5961

Turkey, Adana, [Cukurova University] NO PASARAN TO
FASCISM
In Cukurova University which is known with its dissident identity for years, lately emerging fascist students!!!!! got an answer.. The incident started with the potent response of the rectorship against the attempts of erecting a turkish flag in front of r1 classrooms which is the most crowded place and the center of leftist, anti-system students of the school. The rectorship declared that the flag will not be erected.. but on friday,
12th of march, about 75 anti-system students' response with stones against the national anthem and reception of turkish flag made by about 200 fascists increased the tension of the events, anti fascist resistance campaign which was started after the clash ending with the intervention the swift force [a kind of 'riot police'] lasted one week.. on 18th of march it was heard that fascists exiting out of the prayer and coming out of the towns around adana will come to r1 classrooms. probably it was the preparation of 500 students which had made fascists to feel scared that they dispersed away after talking with the rector.. it is not hard to see the reason of these events, [newly] built up facilities in the school which will provide profit for the capital, create new slaves and design arms systems of the state such as teknopark ayagem( oil research ins.) space sciences ins. should be protected so we must be rusticated from the school..
NO PASARAN TO FASCISM AND CAPITAL..
CU Anarchists

TURKS NOT THRILLED TO SEE CONDI (from ORead Daily)

Demonstrations took place both just before and at the conclusion of 
Condoleezza Rice's visit to Turkey this weekend.  Prior to her 
arrival protesters demanded cancellation of the visit as well as 
preventing the Americans from using military bases in Turkey. The 
demonstration, organized by political parties, human rights groups 
and trade unions, gathered outside the American embassy in Ankara 
where protestors laid a black wreath of flowers. Chairman of the 
Turkish Chambers of Engineers Federation Mohammed Soganji told the 
crowd that the USA "has been pursuing, since 15 years, the cold war 
policy in the region." Other demonstrators carried anti-war banners 
that demanded withdrawal of the American and British troops from Iraq.

The Labor Party's youth wing, "The Pioneer Youth," staged a small 
protest in Ankara on Sunday, as the U.S. Secretary of State left the 
country. The group shouted slogans against the United States and 
President George W. Bush, who they accused of being the most 
dangerous terrorists in the world.  In a statement released, the 
group said Rice had warned Turkey not to intervene in Northern Iraq 
last week, but added that she had come to Turkey to ask just that.  
The statement said that the recent developments in Northern Iraq 
have shown the United States to be an enemy of Turkey and that the 
group would not recognize any promises made by the ruling Justice 
and Development Party. Sources: Arabic News, Turkish Daily News, Xinhua

Munzur is Life

People against Dams flowed like a river against global
murderer corporations

>From Istanbul to Dersim, Action for Munzur!
ISTANBUL-Against the global murderer corporations' dam
projects in Munzur Valley and gold mining with
cyanide, about 300 people flowed like a river with
slogans "Munzur will flow freely", "Munzur is Life!
The stream of life can not be stopped!".

For the International Day of Action for Rivers on 14th
of March, with the action call of Munzurun Delileri
(the Mad of Munzur), Sosyal Ekolojist Dönüsüm (Social
Ecologist Transformation), Munzur Çevre Derneði
(Munzur Environmental Association), Hozatlýlar Derneði
(Hozatlýlar Association), on the 13th of March,
hundreds of people marched in Beyoglu-Istanbul. During
the march, the protestors carried a common banner
written "Munzur Will Flow Freely" and a hundred meters
long huge blue fabric, representing Munzur River
against war of capitalists targeting nature and human
beings, was waved. Protestors chanted "Munzur will
Flow Freely", "Munzur is Life, the Stream of Life
cannot be Stopped", "Murderer corporations, go away
from Dersim", "Murderer Rio Tinto, Go Away from
Munzur", "From Ýstanbul to Dersim, Action for Munzur",
"No mining corporations, No nuclear Power Plants, No
Dams, No Dams in Munzur", "Action for Munzur, Don't
Watch the Slaughter" slogans with great enthusiasm.
Many people supported the march and gathered to the
"river" and chanted the slogans.

When the protestors reached Galatasaray Post Office,
where the press release was read, "Munzur is Life, the
Stream of Life can not be stopped", "Life is in Air
and in Earth, Life is not in Murderer Corporations",
"Ata Holding, Rio Tinto Nalet Sero To" banners were
opened. Seyri Mesel Theater performed a play in Zaza
language and then the press release was read. It was
decleared that the struggle against global murderer
corporations attacking nature and human beings will
continue. Traditional pies representing the will to
struggle against dams and mining corporations were
distributed. 

On the same day, at the same time with Istanbul,
Rivers and Earth Movement made an action in Dersim.
People from Dersim, met in the Market Square and
marched to Gole Çetu where Harçik and Munzur rivers
meet and read a press release there. Actions against
dams and mining corporations also took place in
Eskisehir, Van and Ankara.

For action photos:
http://www.munzurhayattir.org/index.php?a=20

EGYPT:  Thousands protest on campus against Sharon's visit to Egypt

http://www.palestinechronicle.com/story.php?sid=20050210045004737

http://www.haaretzdaily.com/hasen/spages/537636.html

http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=JPost/JPArticle/ShowFull&cid=1107487146137

Small anti-Mubarak demonstrations during Cairo bookfair

"Enough" movement continues to gain momentum

http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/2F4DC0DB-476F-4ABE-9310-066550F30000.htm

http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2005/731/eg10.htm

http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=10&categ_id=2&article_id=12956

Esco workers strike against privatisation
http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2005/734/eg9.htm
http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2005/733/ec4.htm
Industrial action on the rise in Egypt
http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2005/733/ec5.htm

Textile workers strike against privatisation
http://www.wsws.org/articles/2005/mar2005/wkrs-m18.shtml
http://www.wsws.org/articles/2005/mar2005/euro-m25.shtml

http://www.socialistworker.co.uk/article.php4?article_id=5967

Palestine solidarity demo attacks threat to al-Aqsa mosque

http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2005-04/02/content_2775589.htm

Demonstrations against attacks on villagers by landowners' goons
http://www.socialistworker.co.uk/article.php4?article_id=6095

Protesters call for political reform

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/apmideast_story.asp?category=1107&slug=Egypt%20Uncertainty

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/4394915.stm

http://www.bangkokpost.com/News/31Mar2005_news26.php

http://www9.sbs.com.au/theworldnews/region.php?id=108422&region=6

Women protest to demand release of their husbands

http://www.thepeninsulaqatar.com/Display_news.asp?section=World_News&subsection=Gulf%2C+Middle+East+%26+Africa&month=March2005&file=World_News2005032625419.xml

Women protesters storm bombing trial over wrongful convictions

http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/1838D14E-4402-49A2-BB6F-7606D44483A5.htm

Supporters of banned Labour Party protest Mubarak and say reforms do not go far enough

http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/7F40B563-44F1-4EA7-82BF-450481CAE7D5.htm

More controversy and protests over alleged forced conversions of Copts

http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2005/732/eg62.htm

http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/470F557E-504D-4033-8C82-954E201D4A66.htm

Reformers defy protest ban

http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/171BDC44-DC05-49A0-A166-4955206ECF2E.htm

http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/5D53A859-FAB7-42CF-9E1A-C867F3E4BA94.htm

Protests planned over police attack on Egypt villagers
By William Wallis in Sarandu
Published in Financial Times: March 12 2005 02:

Police have laid siege to a string of hamlets in Egypt's Nile delta, allegedly beating and detaining dozens of men, women and children whom a landowner has been trying to move off the land.  Pro-democracy campaigners said yesterday they were planning to take up the case of the villagers and hold a related demonstration next week in Cairo. They argue that unless state-sponsored violence is stamped out in Egypt, political reforms promised by the government will fail to bring the anticipated change. Under pressure at home and from abroad to allow greater political freedom in Egypt, President Hosni Mubarak introduced a constitutional amendment two weeks ago to allow the first ever direct elections for the presidency. His opponents among intellectuals and activists are now pressing - among other measures - for the lifting of emergency laws that were used to combat Islamic extremists in the 1980s and 1990s but have also stifled wider political life and contributed to abuses by security services during Mr Mubarak's 24-year rule. Agricultural reform has itself been a volatile issue since 1997, when new legislation gave control of rent back to landowners and began to reverse earlier laws.

MOROCCO:  Protesters call for release of POWs
http://www.cageprisoners.com/articles.php?aid=5725

TUNISIA:  Lawyers strike and protest over police brutality

http://www.tunezine.com/breve.php3?id_breve=2132

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/GH0945182.htm

JORDAN (Fwd from EarthU list

amman feb12;05

a message from dr. hisham bustani at Hbustani2 at yahoo.com /translated from arabic.

 a sit-in in amman;jordan to protest the jordanian governments measures to prevent the jordanian professional unions from engaging in political activities.
--------------------------------------------------

the sit -in took place outside the jordanian parliament;after the unions building was stormed by the jordanian security forces;who brought down banners demanding the release of jordanian prisoners in israeli jails;and also demanding ending the ongoing normalization process with israel.
the building was twice surrounded by security forces who prevented people from going inside;and disrupted a couple of functions;one designed to protest holding elections in iraq under foreign occupation;and the other to protest the assault on unionists and members of parliament.
the sit-in raised slogans like ( freedom is a right and not a privilege);(for my country i oppose normalization);(no to silencing unions) and ( no to beatings in the streets of amman);and others.some participants symbolically used black masks with the word ( government) written on it;in a reference to the governments oppression of freedom of speech.
the crowd in the sit-in this time was beaten not by men in uniform but by a mob who used all kinds of abusive language as well;and who tore down all banners.
for details visit www.alwatanvoice.com under articles.
you could also contact dr. bustani on his email address above.
laila faisal

JORDAN:  Police ban trade union march
Marchers manage to enter parliament before police
arrive to drive them away
http://www.middle-east-online.com/english/jordan/?id=12912

LEBANON:  Protests against Syrian intervention at slain PM's funeral

http://today.reuters.co.uk/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=worldNews&storyID=2005-02-16T081040Z_01_JON629418_RTRUKOC_0_LEBANON.xml

Massive rally opposes US intervention
http://www.wsws.org/articles/2005/mar2005/leba-m10.shtml
Radio interview with Beirut Indymedia activist about events in Lebanon
http://www.radio4all.net/proginfo.php?id=11380

Two species of cedar
http://www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?SectionID=22&ItemID=7409

Students protest at US embassy against US intervention

http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=1&categ_id=2&article_id=13466

Hundreds burn flags near US embassy to protest intervention

http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=1&categ_id=1&article_id=13668

KUWAIT:  Women protest for the right to vote

http://www.msmagazine.com/news/uswirestory.asp?ID=8934

http://www.telegraphindia.com/1050308/asp/foreign/story_4466638.asp

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/4325207.stm

BAHRAIN: Tens of thousands protest for democratic reforms
http://www.wsws.org/articles/2005/mar2005/bahr-m29.shtml

http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/526DD1A0-761C-4E50-9174-133AD7766423.htm

http://chanadbahraini.blogspot.com/2005/03/constitutional-reforms-first.html

YEMEN:  University lecturers strike over pay and conditions
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=45755&SelectRegion=Middle_East&SelectCountry=YEMEN

Students protest for greater freedom

http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/CA75B1B2-E84C-4BC3-B93C-15F7408FA8F5.htm

KAZAKHSTAN:  Hunger strike by former workers with industrial illnesses

They are trying to win unpaid disability benefit payments

http://www.iwpr.net/index.pl?archive/rca2/rca2_347_1_eng.txt

How the East Was Won 

The wilted daffodil: Easter orgy of destruction in Kyrgyzstan      

by Justin Raimondo       

On the first day of Kyrgyzstan's "daffodil revolution," photogenic girls smilingly offered daffodils to police guarding the presidential palace, but in a few hours those same guards were being pushed back and beaten by drunken crowds, who surged into the seat of government and ransacked the place. They also ransacked the entire city. "Democracy, whiskey, sexy!" - as the saying goes.

Looters in Kyrgyzstan's capital city of Bishkek justified their rampage on the grounds that the owners of the big stores - including President Askar Akayev's son, Aidar - were supporters of the old regime. Conversely, in typical Soviet style, the "revolutionary" leaders were quick to accuse the looters of being part of a counterrevolutionary plot:

"'It's those government-hired provocateurs who were trying to spoil our rally yesterday,' said Kadyrbai Sodirov, referring to hundreds of men in plainclothes who clashed with the anti-Akayev rally before the seizure of the government building known as the White House. 'Now they are trying to tarnish our image another way.' But Saniya Sagnayeva, an analyst from the International Crisis Group, said she believed most looters had been on the opposition side Thursday. 'It's a war of the poor against the rich,' she said. 'It is understandable: These young men are mostly from remote villages. They have no fridges, no radio at home. After their triumph at the White House, they think the city is theirs. It's winners' fever.'"

That the Bush administration has unleashed a war of "the poor against the rich" may seem anomalous to some of us here at home - after all, this is the same administration that is making it harder for the poor to declare bankruptcy while at the same time giving the rich the right to keep their Mercedes - but this is nothing new for our Janus-faced administration: they are royalists at home and Jacobins abroad. While the Bushians claim the right to suspend the Bill of Rights in the U.S., they do more than merely proclaim their "global democratic revolution" - they are acting on it. 

It was therefore not at all surprising to read the text of a purloined memo from U.S. ambassador to Kyrgyzstan Stephen Young - originally posted on the official news site of the Kyrgyzstan government - that outlines in detail the American plan to oust Akayev. Now before I go any further, I just want to comment on the authenticity of this memo: a number of people have remarked on the various grammatical errors that appear in it. These, I believe, can be explained as errors of transcription: it seems that this was posted in a very great hurry, as events in Kyrgyzstan have proceeded apace. After all, we aren't talking about the Associated Press or Reuters here, but a news agency, albeit the "official" one, in a small and relatively impoverished Central Asian country. Secondly, we have to look at the context in which this memo appears: it was posted on a Web site that features all sorts of articles written with reasonable objectivity, and even pieces that put the Akayev government in a bad light. So the Kabar News Agency doesn't seem to be an outlet for pro-Akayev propaganda. The memo sticks pretty closely to the thrust of U.S. policy in Kyrgyzstan, and I find the signature of the U.S. ambassador as well as the U.S. government seal reproduced at the bottom fairly convincing. The distinct possibility that this is authentic, and precisely because it hasn't received attention anywhere else, compels me to take it seriously. If this isn't a memo written and conceived in the U.S. embassy, then let the U.S. State Department deny it.

In any case, after drawing a portrait of the country as thoroughly penetrated by Russian, Chinese, and radical Islamist interests, the memo goes on to draw up a strategy to increase U.S. influence:

"Taking into account the interests, of our presence in the region and development of democratic society in Kyrgyzstan, our primary goal - according to the earlier approved plans - is to increase pressure upon Akayev to make him resign ahead of schedule after the parliamentary elections."

And of course Akayev's supporters were completely correct, as the memo itself proves. It's fascinating to read the smug assertions of the ambassador, as he calculates the impact of covert American support to his various sock puppets:

"According to the materials we sent to the Department of State earlier, at present two formations are shaped on the political arena of Kyrgyzstan. . First of all, it is the pre-election block For Powers of People. In July 2004 it united six opposition parties, which nominated K. Bakiev [sic], ex-prime minister and MP, as their single candidate for the presidential post. I think he is the most acceptable candidate in the aspect of fruitful development of relations between the USA and Kyrgyzstan. I met Bakiev on repeated occasions. Bakiev expressed his consent to take advantage of the support after his block's winning in parliamentary elections. As he said, after ambiguous American involvement in elections in Georgia and Ukraine unconcealed American support provided to a candidate might have a negative effect on his political reputation. Furthermore, he was against falling off in relations with Russia by criticizing on behalf of his party Russian intervening in the Ukrainian elections. "

So Bakiyev is their man, but what of the others? 

"Among the other significant political leaders we name M. Ashirkulov, the former secretary of Security Council, and F. Kulov, who is currently imprisoned. They represent a newly founded party - the Civic Union For Fair Elections. 

"We believe Ashirkulov's growing popularity has . arisen from recent scandals and his demonstrative walkout from the president's team. In our opinion, it was a specially made up action to promote the president's friend to head up a 'puppet' opposition. In this connection, we advise continuing contacts with another prominent representative of the opposition - F. Kulov, whose imprisonment will end in the middle of 2005. Enjoying deserved popularity and being a victim of [the] regime, he will have sufficient potential to struggle for the presidency. F. Kulov shares and adheres to American concepts of freedom and democracy and can be viewed as a dubbing candidate for the presidency in case our main candidate Bakiev is defeated."

The truth is that the "democratic" opposition backed by the U.S. is no better - and, in some ways, worse - than the regime they have just overthrown. Kulov is a former official of the Soviet secret police who brutally crushed a 1990 ethnic uprising in the southern city of Osh and mobilized the military around Akayev's banner after the fall of the Soviet Union. He purportedly became involved in an abortive coup, and, as one study of the Kyrgyzstan opposition puts it:

"Much of the equipment allocated to a special task force set up by Kulov, including electronic eavesdropping devices, mysteriously disappeared. The president, already doubtful of Kulov's loyalty, demoted him in 1998 to the post of mayor of Bishkek. In late 1999, Kulov resigned and set up his own party to oppose Akayev in the 2000 parliamentary and presidential elections. In January 2001, as his split with Akayev grew deeper, a Bishkek court found Kulov guilty of fraud and abuse of power, giving him a seven-year prison term."

Oh yes, Kulov certainly "shares and adheres to American concepts of freedom and democracy" - by Bushian standards.

Bakiyev is no better. On March 17, 2002, demonstrators who were holding a peaceful and legal rally in support of Azimbek Beknazarov - a member of parliament who spoke out against the cession of land to China by the Akayev government - were attacked by the police and five demonstrators were killed. Bakiyev, then prime minister, was forced to resign after an investigation revealed police responsibility for the murders. This character has been proclaimed the new "president" of Kyrgyzstan: yesterday, he was reviled as a "hardliner," and now he is being held up as the symbol of "democracy" and pro-American liberalism. 

The United States couldn't care less about "democracy" and "freedom," in Kyrgyzstan or anywhere else. What they care about is limiting Russian - and, increasingly, Chinese - influence in Central Asia, and their strategy is to encircle both. The "democratic tide" that pundits are waffling on about is just the ideological window-dressing that adorns what is basically a military strategy. That's the real reason the U.S. is pouring money and resources into this impoverished backwater, with the help of the Soros Foundation and other global meddlers, as Ambassador Young relates in his memo to the State Department:

"We have mostly succeeded in developing contacts with another leader of the opposition - R. Otunbaeva, ex-Minister for Foreign Affairs. Through the funds allocated to her we managed to lobby setting up and promoting certain NGOs as well as organizing a unified system of mass media for better coverage over the country to spread her statement about noninterference of Russia in internal affairs of Kyrgyzstan. 

With a view to providing favorable conditions and helping democratic opposition leaders come to power, our primary goal for the pre-elections period is to arouse mistrust to the authorities in force and Akayev's incapacitated corruption regime, his pro-Russian orientation and illegal use of 'an administrative resource' to rig elections. In this regard, the embassy's Democratic commission, Soros Foundations, Eurasia Foundation in Bishkek in cooperation with USAID have been organizing politically active groups of voters in order to inspire riots against pro-president candidates. 

"We have set up and opened financing for an independent printing office - the Media Support center - and AKIpress news agency to interpret impartially the course of the elections and minimize state mass media propaganda impact. We also render financial support to promising non-governmental tele- and radio companies."

The tentacles of the U.S. "democracy"-exporting machine are everywhere: Ukraine, Georgia, Belarus, Moldova, with a Western media eager to broadcast the administration's narrative of color-coded "revolutions" (i.e., coups) as triumphs of the popular will. This strategy, which seeks to avoid outright invasion and take over countries on the cheap, was given voice by Robert D. Kaplan in a recent article in The Atlantic, in which he advocated small-scale covert interventions around the world as an alternative to the Iraq-quagmire scenario. Check out this debate with political scientist John Mearsheimer on NPR (also here), in which Kaplan details his plans for building a "global empire" unobtrusively (I got a kick out of Mearsheimer's response, in which he wonders why we should care about what happens in, say, Colombia: why, indeed - a good question, which Kaplan doesn't deign to answer). In any case, it seems to me as if the U.S. is already implementing the Kaplan Plan, and that's what's happening in Kyrgyzstan, and elsewhere.

You'll note that Kaplan evades Mearsheimer's query as to the fate of empires, from Rome to Great Britain: didn't all these imperial projects fail? Well, uh, yes, Kaplan admits, but we still have "30 or 35 years" before we overextend ourselves and exhaust the U.S. Treasury, enough time to create some kind of "world order." So overweening is the sickening arrogance of the empire-builders that they don't care about the "blowback" that comes our way as a result of our policy of global intervention. 

And what about the human cost of all these low-grade interventions, which are supposed to save us the trouble of invading, Iraq-style, while still extending our imperial domain? This query is met with the answer all utopian madmen of the Jacobin mentality have traditionally come up with to justify their global depredations: You can't make an omelet without breaking a few eggs. In replying to Kaplan's blithe dismissal of the slaughter in the Philippines that was the direct result of U.S. intervention, Mearsheimer notes that thousands were killed and that people to this day remember and resent it - but such protestations fall on deaf ears. Morality, humanity, the old republican virtues of modesty and humility - those are for ordinary people, not the "great men" (and women) of our new imperial class. 

Well, then, isn't freedom worth a few lives, or even more than a few? But that's the problem with our "liberationist" foreign policy - there isn't much "liberating" involved. Don't think for a moment that the new regime in Kyrgyzstan is going to install anything even remotely resembling a condition of freedom. As the San Francisco Chronicle reported the other day:

"A witness to the government ouster in the southern Jalal-Abad and Osh regions - where the authorities fell first - said the new rulers immediately imposed new taxes on businesses. The witness, who also asked not to be named for fear of retribution, said no one in the interim government had expressed concerns about democracy or human rights. She said the newly appointed head of the Osh region told her his administration's attitude toward press freedom would depend on its treatment by the media."

In Kyrgyzstan, meet the new boss - pretty much the same as the old boss. Brought to you by Uncle Sam, and paid for by the American taxpayers. 

NOTES IN THE MARGIN

No sooner had I written the words "let the U.S. State Department deny it" than they did deny it - but not very convincingly. Here is the text of their press release on the Stephen Young memo referenced above, in full:

"A document attempting to imitate a report of the Embassy of the United States of America in Bishkek is being disseminated via the internet and circulated by government supporters at demonstrations, bazaars, bus stations and in mail boxes. Made to appear on U.S. Embassy letterhead and dated December 30, 2004, the document slanderously misrepresents U.S. policy toward Kyrgyzstan and its election process. It forges the signature of Ambassador Young. This report is a crude fabrication by an individual or individuals who have no association with the United States Government. 

"The document in no way represents the views of the U.S. Embassy in Bishkek. Our support for democratic development here has been clearly documented in public, and is designed to support the efforts of the people and government of Kyrgyzstan to strengthen democratic institutions in this country. The creation and distribution of this fraudulent document is a disservice to the citizens of Kyrgyzstan and threatens to damage the good relations between the United States and the Kyrgyz Republic. We urge the Kyrgyz authorities to denounce this forgery and take effective steps to disassociate the government from any efforts to distribute it."

Oh, c'mon, guys, you can do better than that! To begin with, there is nothing "slanderous" about the memo: didn't George W. Bush clearly state in his recent inaugural address, as well as the 2005 State of the Union speech, that the U.S. government was actively seeking to export "democracy" to the four corners of the earth? We're lighting "a fire in the mind," to use the Dostoevskyian phrase uttered by our oh-so-literary President - and if Kyrgyzstan is now burning, is it any wonder that the identity of the arsonist is now coming out? 

Furthermore, I don't see what is so "crude" about this alleged "fabrication" - it is surely far less crude than the documents that supposedly "proved" Saddam Hussein was trying to procure weapons-grade uranium in the African nation of Niger, a reference to which appeared in the President's 2003 State of the Union address. The embassy alleges that Young's signature is "forged" - but how do we know that? Is Young willing to submit samples of his signature to a handwriting expert - and, if not, why not? 

One can only note, with dismay, the distinctly threatening tone of this Embassy missive. The Ambassador's office ominously refers to the possibility that this could "damage relations between the United States and the Kyrgyz Republic" - but isn't it a bit late for that, considering how the U.S. government is openly engaging in a campaign of "regime change" in Kyrgyzstan? How else can one explain Ambassador Young's traipsing about the country, making speeches about the proper application of "democratic" principles and brazenly interfering in the internal affairs of a sovereign nation? It is as if the Kyrgyz ambassador to the U.S. held a press conference demanding another Ohio recount.

Implicit in this threatening tone is the demand that the posting on the Kabar News Agency be taken down: 

"We urge the Kyrgyz authorities to denounce this forgery and take effective steps to disassociate the government from any efforts to distribute it."

Translation: delete it or you'll be sorry. 

But what happened to the U.S. government's alleged devotion to "free speech" and an untrammeled media? We are pouring how many millions of taxpayer dollars into Kyrgyzstan, flooding the country with propaganda - but we can't stand up to what they claim is a "crude forgery"? Get over it, guys, and stop trying to censor the brave new "democracy" of Kyrgyz. And I wouldn't have the Kyrgyz government "denounce" the memo, either - that's likely to convince people that it's real. 

Which leads us to a fascinating bit of speculation: if it is a forgery, and a "crude" one at that, why is the U.S. government bothering to issue an official statement? Why give it that much credence - if there isn't some truth to it? 

The answer, of course, is that the American embassy in Kyrgyzstan has been caught with its pants down, and is desperately trying to cover its butt. But it's a little late for that .

Finally, it is difficult to see how the embassy can maintain this stance of high moral dudgeon in the context of its own actions: regardless of whether or not the memo is real, in whole or in part, they have made its declared provenance all too believable. 

- Justin Raimondo

http://antiwar.com/justin/

Revolution that came too soon starts to fall apart in chaotic Kyrgyzstan
Mary Dejevsky reports from the capital on violent ethnic rivalry and a
growing sense that no one is in control
27 March 2005
[From: The Independent (London)]

The success of Central Asia's first post-Soviet revolution was
starting to look distinctly shaky last night, as Kyrgyzstan's
self-appointed coalition struggled to form an interim government and
assert the power it had won so precipitately earlier in the week.
Reports from the capital, Bishkek, said that bands of youths, some
armed, roamed the streets and sporadic looting continued. Local
observers spoke of a growing sense that no one was in charge.

The ousted Kyrgyz president, Askar Akayev, meanwhile, was reported to
be in Moscow, having flown there from his first point of refuge in
neighbouring Kazakhstan. A defiant statement issued in his name and
distributed by email yesterday said that he left the country "for
humane reasons, so as to avoid bloodshed and prevent casualties". But
his tone soon turned threatening. He remained president, he said, and
"any attempt to deprive me of my presidential powers by
unconstitutional means will be a state crime". He had been overthrown
by "adventurers and conspirators".

While Mr Akayev's sudden re-emergence yesterday - and so far it
remains "virtual" rather than physical - served to remind many about
why he had been overthrown, it may also have sowed doubt in some
quarters about the legitimacy, and the permanence, of the regime that
has replaced him.

Under Kyrgyzstan's constitution - passed in 1993 after the republic
had independence thrust upon it by the collapse of the Soviet Union -
an absent or incapacitated President is replaced by the Prime
Minister. In this case, however, the Prime Minister resigned shortly
after Mr Akayev fled the country. Other senior ministers had just been
dismissed by the President as punishment for the unrest that followed
the parliamentary elections, as had the chief of police.

The temporary solution was an emergency meeting of the outgoing
parliament late last Thursday, which appointed one of its members to
be the new speaker - Ishenbay Kadyrbekov, a leading opposition figure
who was a former minister for construction. Another opposition leader,
Kurmanbek Bakiyev, was named as acting prime minister and entrusted
with forming an interim cabinet. He was quickly declared acting
president as well.

Such sweeping changes, however, appear already to be running into
trouble. Their legitimacy would seem to be questionable, at the very
least, and is already inspiring opposition. The prospect of waiting
until June for new elections, whether for a new president or a new
parliament, will require a measure of patience that Kyrgyz voters -
who forced their President out of office within a matter of days - may
be disinclined to show. Those aspiring to power may well want to
entrench themselves in office rather sooner.

Among the more ominous signs from Bishkek yesterday were reports of ad
hoc militias being set up by individual ethnic groups, including
Russians, intent on defending the lives and property of their own
communities. Ethnic tension has long been high in the south of the
country, where it borders on Tajikistan and Uzbekistan, and it was
violence in Osh in the south, Kyrgyzstan's second city, immediately
after the second round of the parliamentary elections which arguably
helped to fuel the unrest further north.

And, warning of a risk of civil war, the ousted interior minister said
yesterday he was leading thousands of demonstrators towards the
capital to protest against "the coup" that overthrew Mr Akayev. The
new leadership said the action had fizzled out but later switched the
venue of a news conference on word of a possible plot to kill the
acting president, Mr Bakiyev.

The biggest difficulty for an interim administration, however, is that
there is no central figure around whom the political opposition can
rally. Although the precedents of Georgia and Ukraine have been
repeatedly cited as models for the Kyrgyz "revolution", both these
countries had strong opposition figures who commanded loyalty and
provided a focus for political protest. And when they called on their
supporters to show discipline, they were listened to. There is no such
figure in Kyrgyzstan. Arguably, the revolution came too soon. The main
figures named to the interim administration represent quite different
groups and interests. They already appear to be jockeying among
themselves for the presidency. This does not bode well for a united
interim government - let alone one that will last until late June.
There is not even consensus on how to describe the "revolution"
-"tulip" or "daffodil".

The ignominious flight of the president as protesting crowds invaded
the presidential compound and government buildings in Bishkek would
not have been how Askar Akayev would have wanted to be remembered in
Kyrgyzstan. When he came to power in 1990, it was as a mild-mannered
nuclear physicist, with a doctorate from Leningrad (now St Petersburg)
University, who was chosen from the ranks of the Communist Party in
the wake of serious ethnic violence in the southern border areas of
the republic. He was chosen precisely because he did not have the
profile of a party hack, but that of a liberal and progressive
politician rather in the mould of Mikhail Gorbachev, who would be able
to keep the country together through turbulent times. This profile
endeared him to the West, as did his decision a few months before the
break-up of the Soviet Union to abandon Mr Gorbachev and throw in his
lot with the Russian leader, Boris Yeltsin.

When I interviewed him in September 1991, he was eloquent in his hopes
for his homeland - and confident that he could preside over the
modernisation of Kyrgyzstan as a state and an economy. Even then,
however, the contrast between his own education and outlook and that
of the majority of his fellow-countrymen was sharp. I was sped in a
convoy of government limousines for four hours from Bishkek to the
presidential summer compound on the shore of the spectacular and
legendary inland lake, Issyk-kul. The whole road had been cleared of
traffic; only a few herdsmen on horseback were to be seen along the
whole route. There was dinner, Russian-style, with the Akayev family
and aides - and eventually the following day, postponed from one hour
to the next, rather in the way of early oriental potentates, a formal
interview.

In many ways, he also seemed personally caught between traditions.
Thoroughly at home in a Russian milieu, he felt the weight of his
responsibility as an educated Kyrgyz. Increasingly, he came to see
himself as indispensable to his country's future. From 1996 he
presided over constitutional changes that allowed him to remain in
power. His now grown-up children were widely perceived to have
benefited inordinately from patronage. The economic promises he had
repeatedly made were felt to be empty.

More and more aware of how the rest of the world - and their Central
Asian neighbours lived - and protested - increasing numbers of Kyrgyz
seethed with resentment.

The test of the "tulip" - or is it the "daffodil"? - revolution will
be whether Kyrgyz voters are content with the change they have forced.
Or will they, in a few months' time, be wishing they had their old
president back?

http://news.independent.co.uk/world/asia/story.jsp?story=624029

>MASS UPRISING IN KYRGYZSTAN

A revolution stolen from the people

FifthInternational.Org Newswire, Vienna

A popular uprising in Kyrgyzstan has toppled the regime of President Askar Akayev. It brings to end his 15-year rule. Now this revolution is in danger of being stolen by rival cliques, each implicated in the crimes of the old regime.

Kyrgyzstan is a mountainous Central Asian country which is located south of Kazakhstan. It borders Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, and China. While Kyrgyzstan is twice as a big as Portuga,l it has a population of only 5.05 million people. As a result of the divide and rule policy of the Stalinist bureaucracy in the 1920s and 30s, the country is divided into the following ethnic groups: 65.7% Kyrgyz, 11.7% Russian, 13.9% Uzbek, 1% Uighur, and 0.4% German.

It is one of the poorest countries in the world. According to the official World Bank figures for the year 2002, the average Gross National Income per head is only 290 US Dollars which ranks Kyrgyzstan at 181 of 208 countries.

The driving force of the uprising was the suffering of the people - their empty stomachs and the iron fist of the Akayev regime. Nearly 60% of the population live below the poverty line. This is because the Akayev has been a strict follower of the dictates of the international financial institutions. It has energetically implemented the neoliberal policy of privatisation. In 1998 Kyrgyzstan became the first Central Asian republic to join the World Trade Organization. As a result its external debt of 1.95 million US Dollars is as big as its whole annual Gross Domestic Product.

As a result many Kyrgyz are migrating to neighbouring countries to find a job and to feed their families. Approximately 420,000 Kyrgyz are living in other parts of the former Soviet Union and 170,000 in China.

Capitalism's general law of the concentration of capital - increasing power in the hands of a few monopolies - applies fully to Kyrgyzstan. While in the rich, imperialist countries this dictatorship of the bourgeoisie can be hidden by a veneer of capitalist democracy and liberal freedoms, in a poor country like Kyrgyzstan the rule of the bourgeoisie takes a far more authoritarian form. The cake is smaller, so the varied fractions of the ruling class fight all the harder for their share. This  leads to ever sharper friction in society. As a result the regime in Kyrgyzstan became ever more a dictatorship of the Akayev family.

Akayev - a former leading member of the Stalinist party - became president of Kyrgyzstan in 1990. He proved a loyal lackey for all available masters. After September 11 2001, he immediately announced his support for the imperialist war drive and granted the USA a military base. But it also granted Russian imperialism a military base - just 20 minutes outside of the capital city of Bishkek.

However the combination of poverty and his corrupt and authoritarian regime made Akayev more and more hated by the people. He also alienated functionaries inside the elite. The most important figures in the opposition are all former member of the Akayev regime. Felix Kulov served Akayev as vice president before he fell out with him and was thrown into prison when he announced his intention to run for president before the elections in 2000. Roza Otunbayeva was a former Foreign Minister and another leader, Kurmanbek Bakiyev, served Akayev as Prime Minister till 2002.

An important trigger for the recent uprising was Akayev's plan to install his son or his daughter as his successor when his constitutional term expires in October this year. The other trigger was the rigged parliamentary elections on 27 February and, in a second round, on 13 March. Opposition candidates won only two of the 32 seats filled in the first round. Of the 43 seats at stake in the second round, opposition candidates took four.

The uprising started in the south-eastern provinces which are - compared with the Northern part of the country where the capital Bishkek is located -poorer and neglected by the elite. The ethnic Uzbek minority is concentrated there.

The popular uprising in the South quickly developed such a dynamic that the state apparatus broke down and the people took over various areas including Osh, the second biggest city. According to a wide range of reports it was an uprising of the poor and downtrodden, those who for years were treated as nothing more than rubbish by the ruling elite.

The Akayev regime tried to secure its power by a combination of carrot-and-stick manoeuvres against the opposition and attempts to assure the support of the rulers of neighbouring countries and Russia (including a secret trip to Moscow). But it didn't help.

The spark of the popular revolt in the South spread to the North and on 23 March thousands of people stormed the presidential and government headquarters, known as the White House. Akayev left in panic and flew with his family to Russia.

The divided bourgeois opposition leaders Bakiyev, Kulov and Otunbayeva are now trying to re-establish order. In the first nights after the uprising many shops and buildings in Bishkek were looted and ransacked by the desperate poor and youth.

There seem to be serious divisions between the three opposition leaders. While Otunbayeva seems to be the closest to Western imperialism, Bakiyev has a strong base among the Southern oligarchs while Kulov is rooted among the traditional elite in the North.

After exchanging threats - including arresting each other - for the moment they seem to have agreed a power sharing deal to avoid the collapse of bourgeois rule and a successful popular revolution. While Bakiyev has been announced as acting interim president and prime minister, Kulov has been given responsibility for "coordinating law-enforcement agencies of the state" - i.e. power over the armed state apparatus. They also agreed to hold presidential elections on 26 June.

Whatever their differences might be, they are only over their respective share of power. They all want to save the capitalist system and they all want to continue running the country as a semi-colony for US and Russian imperialism and the IMF.

The central task now is that the workers, the peasants and the poor organise themselves in popular councils and don't let the country be run for another day by a small clique of corrupt bourgeois politicians. They must not allow only the names at the top of the system to change and Bonapartist rule to remain. They must fight for the expropriation of the small elite of Oligarchs who have looted the economy. They must fight for a massive enlargement of democratic rights. They must fight for full rights for the national minorities. They should fight for a Constitutional Assembly to discuss the future direction of the country. Only a Workers and Peasant Republic in Kyrgyzstan located in a federation of socialist republics in Central Asia can provide a future for the people free from neoliberal austerity and exploitation by the major imperialist powers.

More on Kyrgyzstan

Police stations burned and offices and shops looted as protesters rise up against the government

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A3982-2005Mar26.html

http://www.hindu.com/2005/03/29/stories/2005032903891000.htm

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/OreadDaily/message/678

http://www.jamestown.org/edm/article.php?article_id=2369449

http://www.mg.co.za/articlepage.aspx?area=/breaking_news/breaking_news__international_news/&articleid=200248

http://www.news.com.au/story/0,10117,12608259-23109,00.html

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A55113-2005Mar21.html

http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,3604,1443156,00.html

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A52233-2005Mar20.html

http://www.eurasianet.org/departments/insight/articles/eav032105.shtml

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A62138-2005Mar24.html

http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2005/03/306554.html

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2005/mar2005/kyrg-m28.shtml

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/IRIN/c1afc2845f2b7116f281e120c4eeafaa.htm

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/apeurope_story.asp?category=1103&slug=Kyrgyzstan%20Protests

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,3-1527049,00.html

US role in instigating revolution?

http://www.asiantribune.com/show_article.php?id=2259

http://fairuse.1accesshost.com/news4/kabar1.html

http://www.aljazeerah.info/3%20o/Whos%20the%20Real%20Power%20Behind%20People%20Power%20John%20Laughland.htm

BALOCHISTAN: Jailbreak!

200 Masuri tribe men fled from Bugti's personal jail
F.P. Report
[From: Frontier Post (Quetta) 22 March 2005]

QUETTA: The Chief of Masuri Bugti Qadir Khan Masuri has said more than
200 persons that were languishing in Nawab Muhammad Akbar Khan Bugti's
personal jail in Dera Bugti have fled Bugti jail and reached the
provincial metropolis due to mounting tension and intense gun fire in
the area.

Talking to newsmen at FC headquarters here on Monday, Qadir Khan
Masuri said that Nawab Akbar Bugti was at loggerheads with them for
years as they (Masuri Bugti tribe) had established government schools,
hospitals and other development projects in the area.

"We have been persuading Nawab Akbar Bugti not to oppose development
works and projects in the area," he said adding that Nawab Bugti men
had looted army medical convoy last year in which during trading of
fire his (Nawab Akbar Bugti) son was also killed in the gun battle.
He went on to say that after the last year armed clashes between Nawab
Akbar Bugti men and army medical corps personnel Masuri Bugti Jirga
comprised of 164 men went straight to Nawab Akbar Bugti home to defuse
the tension but Nawab Bugti imprisoned all Masuri men in his personal
jail in Dera Bugti.

He said that as situation became tense on March 17 in Dera Bugti, "I
along with other Masuri Bugti 164 men have fled Bugti's jail and
reached Quetta."

"We have asked the Frontier Constabulary to ensure our security as the
Bugti tribe Chief Nawab Muhammad Akbar Khan Bugti have been making
untold excesses to other small clans."

http://www.frontierpost.com.pk/

Tribes battle army in Dera Bugti

http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=story_18-3-2005_pg1_1

http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=story_21-3-2005_pg1_1

Baloch alliance holds demonstration in Quetta

http://www.dawn.com/2005/03/18/nat13.htm

Protest over raids on Marri camp and torture and humiliation of women

http://www.dawn.com/2005/03/01/nat8.htm

SINDH:  Nationalists call province-wide strike

http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=story_24-1-2005_pg7_24

http://www.dawn.com/2005/01/24/nat1.htm

INDIA:  Journalists protest against use of Official Secrets Act

http://www.business-standard.com/iceworld/storypage_link.php?chklogin=N&autono=180262&lselect=4&leftnm=lmnu9&leftindx=9

Punjab teachers take time off and rally over pension cuts

http://cities.expressindia.com/fullstory.php?newsid=115358

Pilots strike

http://www.newkerala.com/news-daily/news/features.php?action=fullnews&id=72262

Bankers stage nationwide strike
http://news.newkerala.com/india-news/?action=fullnews&id=89081
http://www.hindu.com/2005/03/23/stories/2005032305891200.htm
http://www.enrager.net/newswire/stories.php?story=05/03/23/6495762

Some bank workers march also
http://www.hindu.com/2005/03/23/stories/2005032300710300.htm
Insurance workers strike over pay
http://www.hindu.com/2005/03/24/stories/2005032416290300.htm
http://www.hindu.com/2005/03/24/stories/2005032412380300.htm
http://news.newkerala.com/kerala-news/?action=fullnews&id=90112
Pharmacists stage brief strike over substandard drugs
http://www.hindu.com/2005/03/22/stories/2005032209530300.htm

Cinema workers strike
http://www.telegraphindia.com/1050321/asp/calcutta/story_4517586.asp
Chhattisgarh government workers strike
http://www.newkerala.com/news-daily/news/features.php?action=fullnews&id=87342
Bank workers demonstrate against foreign takeovers
http://www.hindu.com/2005/03/17/stories/2005031713970300.htm
Mobile phone and landline strike hits service
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/4310769.stmwork-to-rule
http://www.hindu.com/2005/03/17/stories/2005031712280300.htm
http://www.hindu.com/2005/03/16/stories/2005031609010300.htm
http://www.hindu.com/2005/03/16/stories/2005031606550300.htm
http://www.hindu.com/2005/03/02/stories/2005030209130300.htm
Maharashtra electricity workers strike
http://news.newkerala.com/india-news/?action=fullnews&id=86917
Strike at SV University
http://www.hindu.com/2005/03/17/stories/2005031704380300.htm
Mysore government workers protest
http://www.hindu.com/2005/03/15/stories/2005031507530300.htm
Andhra Pradesh electricity workers begin hunger strike
over equipment shortages
http://www.hindu.com/2005/03/15/stories/2005031504280300.htm
Construction workers demonstrate in Tiruchi, Chennai
http://www.hindu.com/2005/03/15/stories/2005031513060300.htm
http://www.hindu.com/2005/03/15/stories/2005031512270300.htm
Hospital strike against autonomy for hospital
http://www.hindu.com/2005/03/08/stories/2005030802000300.htm
Mumbai bus workers strike lasts two days before a deal
is reached
http://www.keralanext.com/news/indexread.asp?id=146037
http://www.hindustantimes.com/news/181_1276439,0008.htm
University teachers march to parliament
http://www.hindu.com/2005/03/11/stories/2005031115900300.htm
http://cities.expressindia.com/fullstory.php?newsid=120996
Bangalore workers besiege government office
http://www.hindu.com/2005/03/14/stories/2005031402150500.htm
Electricity workers launch agitation against
privatisation
http://www.hindu.com/2005/03/12/stories/2005031206820300.htm
Aluminium workers stage strike
http://news.newkerala.com/india-news/?action=fullnews&id=83852
Lecturers oppose industrial area near university
http://www.hindu.com/2005/03/01/stories/2005030111750300.htm
Punjab doctors strike against restructuring
http://www.wsws.org/articles/2005/mar2005/wkrs-m12.shtml
Tamil Nadu salt workers strike
http://www.wsws.org/articles/2005/feb2005/wkrs-f26.shtml
Mumbai transport strike, construction workers
demonstrate, aluminium and power workers strike,
airport workers resist privatisation
http://www.wsws.org/articles/2005/mar2005/wkrs-m19.shtml
One-day bank strike
http://www.wsws.org/articles/2005/mar2005/wkrs-m26.shtml

Labourers stage blockade to demand rice

http://www.greenleft.org.au/back/2005/618/618p17l.htm

Traders strike in protests against VAT - markets shut nationwide

http://cities.expressindia.com/fullstory.php?newsid=123257

Bar owners close down and protest against state repression

http://www.ndtv.com/morenews/showmorestory.asp?slug=Mumbai+bar+owners+protest+govt+decision&id=70789

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/articleshow/1066445.cms

Bank workers protest over suspension of colleague

http://www.business-standard.com/common/storypage.php?chklogin=N&autono=184678&lselect=1&leftnm=lmnu9&leftindx=9

Bank workers protest against FDI, privatisation

http://www.webindia123.com/news/showdetails.asp?id=72460&cat=Business

Teachers stage ongoing protests over staff shortages and recruitment ban

http://cities.expressindia.com/fullstory.php?newsid=120971

Semi-naked traders protest against VAT;  protests spread across India, even reaching Kashmir

http://netindia123.com/showdetails.asp?id=71887&cat=Business&head=Trader's+protest+against+VAT+continues

http://www.newkerala.com/news-daily/news/features.php?action=fullnews&id=82260

http://news.newkerala.com/india-news/?action=fullnews&id=82152

Strike hits PNB
By Our Staff Reporter 
KANNUR, MARCH 7. Banking operation in Punjab National
Bank was totally hit today by a strike of its
employees belonging to the All India Bank Employees'
Association (AIBEA) in response to a nation-wide
strike call to protest against the bank's decision to
disinvest.
http://www.hindu.com/2005/03/08/stories/2005030802170500.htm

Road workers take out rally 
By Our Staff Reporter 
MADURAI, MARCH 7 . About 90 road workers and family
members took out a procession demanding reinstatement
here today. According to the police, the
processionists, led by the Tamil Nadu Highway Road
Labour Union Madurai district president, Raja Vadivu,
marched from Tamukkam Junction to the Collectorate and
submitted a memorandum to the Collector in support of
their demands.
http://www.hindu.com/2005/03/08/stories/2005030814170300.htm

PUNJAB PEASANTS STAGE BLOCKADE

The army has once again usurped more land by taking over 10 muraba land that belongs to Chak # 15 in Okara. 

As I write this message, the Anjuman Mazarin Punjab (landless tillers movement) has blocked the Grand Trunk Road and according to one report about 10,000 tenants have come out in protest. So far that mazarin (tenants) outnumber the police by an enormous amount which is why the police is having to sit down at the negotiating table and are adopting an apologetic attitude. However, we know from experience that it is only the power of the people that keeps them in check.  

It is inspiring to see this movement that the army simply cannot quash no matter how hard it tries. The Mazarin need the support of all progressive people and organizations, we hope that everyone will do their best to help the AMP achieve its objectives.  

Long live the struggle of the Mazarin

In solidarity
Hassan Nasir

(from CMKP list)

INDIA:  MASSIVE FARMERS' DEMO - "millions" turn out for Farmers' Day in Mysore

http://www.all4all.org/2005/03/1490.shtml

INDIA:  Slum dwellers shave heads, stage rally in demolition protest

http://www.reuters.co.in/locales/c_newsArticle.jsp;:42134c91:4a20461539128737?type=topNews&localeKey=en_IN&storyID=7647239

Activists rebuilt shanty-town after demolition

http://cities.expressindia.com/fullstory.php?newsid=117493

Hindus and Muslims stage joint procession in
village, to heal pogrom wounds
http://www.newkerala.com/news-daily/news/features.php?action=fullnews&id=75161

Bhopal survivors protest

http://www.greenleft.org.au/back/2005/618/618p17f.htm

Villagers repel Naxal punishment raid

http://www.hindu.com/2005/03/19/stories/2005031903670500.htm

Muslims protest against disappearances

http://www.newkerala.com/news-daily/news/features.php?action=fullnews&id=83701

Tribal women protest disruption of programme

http://cities.expressindia.com/fullstory.php?newsid=120789

Protest over alleged wrongful removal of kidneys

http://www.webindia123.com/news/showdetails.asp?id=72322&cat=India

http://www.newkerala.com/news-daily/news/features.php?action=fullnews&id=83862

INDIA:  Nepalese in Gujarat demonstrate against coup

http://www.hindustantimes.com/news/181_1240675,001300980000.htm

Indian Sikhs protest against French turban ban in schools

http://www.gg2.net/viewnews.asp?nid=2114&tid=breaking_news&catid=Breaking%20News

Nepal peace demo held in Delhi

http://www.kantipuronline.com/kolnews.php?&nid=32095

INDIA:  Communist-led demonstrators protest against foreign investment in telecoms

http://www.siliconindia.com/shownewsdata.asp?newsno=26950&newscat=Top

http://www.newkerala.com/news-daily/news/features.php?action=fullnews&id=69262

Socialists protest over bills and fares brings Kolkata to a standstill

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/1004558.cms

http://www.newkerala.com/news-daily/news/features.php?action=fullnews&id=66322

INDIA:  Socialists stage Nepal solidarity protest

Calcutta 16 February 2005, - Today, the West Bengal State Committee of
Socialist Unity Centre of India (SUCI) organized a massive rally in front of
the Consulate Office of Nepal at Calcutta, protesting the suppressions of
democratic rights, sacking of Government, promulgation of emergency and
usurpation of all executive power by the autocratic King of Nepal. The rally
was led by Provash Ghosh, the CC Member and State Secretary of West Bengal
of the Party. Several speakers addressed the rally.

There after, a five member Delegation, headed by Manik Mukherjee, Deputy,
International of the Party along with Sunil Mukherjee, Sankar Saha, Iswari
Bhandari and A B Thapa submitted a Memorandum to the Consulate General of
Nepal demanding to end  autocratic rule and to pave the way for
establishment of democracy,  withdraw  emergency and abolish military
dictatorship,  restore all democratic rights to the people, release
immediately of all political prisoners,  allow the people of Nepal to decide
their future and abrogate all defence pacts with imperialist and
expansionist forces .

An effigy of King of Nepal was burnt in front of the Nepalese Consulate
Office, torched by Provash Ghosh

INDIA:  Naxal supporters intensify stir in support of tribal political prisoners

http://www.deepikaglobal.com/ENG1_sub.asp?state=ES29%2COrissa#92787

Rebel blast frees political prisoners

http://www.telegraphindia.com/1050221/asp/nation/story_4404104.asp

RALLY SUPPORTS POLITICAL PRISONERS

http://www.newindpress.com/NewsItems.asp?ID=IEQ20050213012912&Page=Q&Title=ORISSA&Topic=0

Naxals rally behind incarcerated tribals

Sunday February 13 2005 11:50 IST 

BHUBANESWAR: The Naxal sympathisers are back for round two. This time, they are rallying behind those tribals, who have been thrown behind bars for raising voice against the anti-people policies of the State Government. The Naxal sympathisers have termed them political prisoners.

Deciding to take up the cudgels for the prisoners, a group of Naxal sympathisers, led by writer Vara Vara Rao has decided to hold a meeting in the City on Sunday demanding their release.

A massive group of the sympathisers had held a public meeting in the State Capital for the first time on September 15, 2004. A delegation had met Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik, requesting him to initiate peace talks with the Left wing ultras. However, the next day, 18 of them were arrested on their way to Malkangiri.

Sunday's meeting assumes significance in view of the fact that while the peace talks of People's War with the neighbouring Andhra Pradesh Government have reached a plateau, in Orissa, they have gone haywire even after State Government dropped charges against more than 50 tribals and announced a series of incentives.

Sunday's meeting is expected to be attended by a number of top leaders apart from Rao. Sujata Bhadra from People's Democratic Rights and Shyamal Nandi of West Bengal will also address the gathering under the banner of Rajanaitika Bandi Mukti Committee.

Accusing the State Government of being pretentious, convener of the committee Dandapani Mohanty said, ''while the Government is showing interest for peace talks on one hand, it is victimising the tribals for opposing its policies on the other.''

The 18 tribals, who were arrested after the September 2004 public meeting, were charged with dacoity and murder. Besides, more than 45 tribals from Motu, Kalimela, Chitrakonda and MV 79 are languishing in jails after being framed in false cases, Mohanty claimed. The number of tribals behind bars in Rayagada and Gajapati will be more than 600, he added.

PAKISTAN:  Karachi protesters oppose US consulate move

http://south-asia.news.designerz.com/pakistanis-protest-against-planned-us-consulate-site.html?d20050210

Strike, demonstration against poverty
http://lnn.laborstart.org/more.php?id=402_0_1_0_M
Teachers on hunger strike in Dadu
http://www.dawn.com/2005/03/05/local37.htm

Tens of thousands rally against Musharraf
http://www.cnn.com/2005/WORLD/asiapcf/03/20/pakistan.protest/index.html

Hunger strike in teacher pay dispute
http://www.wsws.org/articles/2005/mar2005/wkrs-m12.shtml

Militant workers block roads and protest in Lahore

http://www.marxist.com/Asia/pakistan_demo250305.htm

Protests, transport strike over fuel price

http://washingtontimes.com/upi-breaking/20050330-094505-8614r.htm

Women protest against discrimination on women's day

http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=story_9-3-2005_pg7_15

PAKISTAN

KESC Anti-Privatization Hunger Strike Enters Second Week

Despite various attempts at ending the hunger strike of the now 
fourteen workers of the KESC Employees Action Committee the KESC 
military bosses failed to succeed as the hunger strike enters its 
eight day on Feb 10, 2005. The workers are protesting at the 
privatization of largest state-owned electricity company in Pakistan 
to a Saudi-German (Kanooz-Siemens) conglomerate for Rs 16 billion 
while the asset value stands at over Rs 400 billion. 

Camped outside the Karachi Press Club the KESC hunger strike camp and 
its workers have changed the landscape of that area. Usually groups 
of four of five people stage token hunger strikes for various social 
and trade union rights outside the club but the camp covering over 50 
KESC workers supported by a string of KESC and other political 
workers hanging out in their hundreds throughout the day have 
suddenly forced the media to take the strike seriously. By four pm 
the numbers of solidarity KESC workers swells to even more, an 
estimated two to three thousand workers visit the camp. One strikers 
said `The government tried to project the bidding of KESC that took 
place on Feb 4 as the final nail in the coffin of anti-privatisation 
struggle but to their and media's surprise the hunger strike camp has 
yet again focused on the workers struggle.' A stream of local 
political party and NGO leaders visit the camp to express their 
solidarity. `The political parties', said a worker `have largely 
supported the anti-privatisation struggle and have been pushed to 
discuss KESC privatization in National Parliament and Sindh 
Provincial opposition leaders have rejected privatization but they 
have failed to call for mass mobilization.'

The workers are angry that the privatization gives right to sack the 
workers after one year. The fundamentalist right wing led by 
Jamaat-e-Islami has time and again criticized its rival political 
party MQM for not supporting the anti-privatisation struggle, MQM has 
a sizeable presence amongst KESC workers as well. While nearly half 
of the workers actively support the anti-privatistation struggle this 
right wing argument has demoralized many into buying the right-wing 
idea that `we are not strong enough' to win a strike. Hence the 
hunger strike which has yet again raised hopes of workers for a 
better terms of conditions after privatization. There is a 
possibility that the union leaders may get a promise for lifting ban 
on their collective bargaining agent (the elected trade union) 
imposed since the military came to power in 1999. 

The right-wing political fundamentalist parties while showing 
solidarity with the striking workers have time and again reminded 
them that the ethnic Mutahidda Quami Movement (united nationalist 
rights movement) which has 14 out of 22 seats from Karachi in lower 
house of parliament and is a provincial govt partner is not 
supporting the cause of workers. MQM does not oppose privatization. 
On the other hand Jamaat-e-Islami which controls the Karachi City 
local government in collaboration with MQM's Sindh Governor signed a 
pact with Kanooz-al-Watan (the new KESC owner) in Decmeber 2005 
according to which Kanooz will build 4000 low-cost houses for the 
Jamaat-e-Islami controlled Karachi local council.  The 
fundamentalists oppose privatization on the grounds that it is 
American Agenda but are happy to do deals with the same privatisers. 
Similarly MQM opposes retrenchment of workers and want temporary 
workers (largely Karachi based Mohajirs) to be made permanent but 
supports privatization as it believes in free-market economy, a claim 
even projected at its web-site. In their half hearted opposition to 
privatization these two dominant groups in Karachi (together poll 
nearly 70% of votes) both having middle-class professional-trader 
roots have helped the privatization processes go against the workers 
class struggle. 

Less than 3 percent of workers are organized in Pakistan and in the 
largest industrial estates in Karachi out of 500 factories 4 have 
trade unions. Of the biggest textile fabric and garment manufacturing 
factories  that earn over $2 billion per year in exports none have 
permanent workers or trade unions. In this immense sea of workers 
deprived of their rights the continuing struggle of KESC workers have 
given a hope to a large mass of workers that it is possible to fight-
back. 

Riaz Ahmed
International Socialist Pakistan

Dear Colleagues 

Pakistan Fisherfolk Forum [PFF] wants to share with you the happy news that PFF after bringing an end to Pakistan Rangers occupation and exploitative contract system on 22 coastal fishing grounds of Badin through mass based struggle, has also foiled Sindh Government plans of re-introducing contract system on the same fishing grounds.

After continuous occupation of 30 years Pakistan Rangers withdrew from Badin fishing water on December 31, 2004 as a result of PFF struggle. However, Sindh Government decided to auction those fishing grounds on February 26, 2005. PFF initiated a series of hunger strikes and protests demanding that fishing rights be restored to the indigenous through license or cooperative system. PFF announced to organize a big protest rally on February 26 at the venue where the fishing auction was to be held in Karachi. 

Amidst continuing PFF rallies and hunger strikes in Karachi, Thatta, Badin and other towns and cities, Sindh government postponed the fishing auction and advised two member Sindh Cabinet Committee to hold talks with PFF and local fishermen of Badin on February 20, 2005 in Badin

As a result of full day talks between Sindh Cabinet Committee comprised of Provincial Minister Sayed Papoo Shah and Provincial Advisor on Fisheries Mr. Jadim Mangrio with PFF Chairperson Mr. Mohammed Ali Shah and other PFF office -bearers it was decided to bring an end to contract system in the coastal waters of Badin once for all. It was also decided that the fishermen would be given fishing rights through the establishment of their Cooperative Societies in Badin. The talks also resulted in an end to contract system on other fishing lakes of Sindh including Kenjhar, Manchhar and River Indus fishing grounds.

Report from CMKP list

The army has once again usurped more land by taking over 10 muraba land that belongs to Chak # 15 in Okara. 

As I write this message, the Anjuman Mazarin Punjab (landless tillers movement) has blocked the Grand Trunk Road and according to one report about 10,000 tenants have come out in protest. So far that mazarin (tenants) outnumber the police by an enormous amount which is why the police is having to sit down at the negotiating table and are adopting an apologetic attitude. However, we know from experience that it is only the power of the people that keeps them in check.  

It is inspiring to see this movement that the army simply cannot quash no matter how hard it tries. The Mazarin need the support of all progressive people and organizations, we hope that everyone will do their best to help the AMP achieve its objectives.  

Long live the struggle of the Mazarin

In solidarity
Hassan Nasir

BANGLADESH:  Massive demonstration against India's planned Tipaimukh Dam

http://www.bangladeshjournal.com/index.php?ID=3670&tim=9-3-2005

Protest against Indian dam project

http://www.bangladeshjournal.com/index.php?ID=3670&tim=9-3-2005

http://www.telegraphindia.com/1050310/asp/northeast/story_4472770.asp

Protest against acid attacks and other violence against women

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/4329733.stm

Workers reinstated after campaign
http://www.itglwf.org/displaydocument.asp?DocType=Press&Language=&Index=1046

SRI LANKA:  Protest against education privatisation

http://www.sundayobserver.lk/2005/03/13/new27.html

Fisherfolk stage boycott demanding new gear and replacement of boats after tsunami

http://www.tamilnet.com/art.html?catid=13&artid=14462

Jaffna students march to protest killings

http://www.tamilnet.com/art.html?catid=13&artid=14408

Tsunami protests planned

Transport workers in Jaffna stage convoy to protest discrimination

http://www.tamilnet.com/art.html?catid=13&artid=14246

http://www.tamilnet.com/art.html?catid=13&artid=14250

Bus strike over salaries shuts down transport

http://www.colombopage.com/archive/February15144835JV.html

http://www.colombopage.com/archive/February15142245UN.html

http://www.dailynews.lk/2005/02/15/new12.html

http://www.dailynews.lk/2005/02/16/new18.html

Electricity workers hold one-day strike and demo against privatisation

http://www.tamilnet.com/art.html?catid=13&artid=14264

Electricity strike called off quickly after talks
http://www.colombopage.com/archive/March28122343JV.html
http://www.dailyne Postal strike
http://www.colombopage.com/archive/March17140645JV.html
Protests against privatisation in Colombo
http://www.bbc.co.uk/sinhala/news/story/2005/03/050302_privatisation_protest.shtml
ws.lk/2005/03/29/news01.htm
Protests against privatisation by workers and students
http://www.wsws.org/articles/2005/mar2005/wkrs-m05.shtml
Hotel workers demonstrate for redundancy allowances
http://www.wsws.org/articles/2005/mar2005/wkrs-m05.shtml
Health workers strike for back pay
http://www.wsws.org/articles/2005/mar2005/wkrs-m12.shtml
Rail strike
http://www.wsws.org/articles/2005/feb2005/wkrs-f26.shtml
Hunger strike by sacked workers
http://www.wsws.org/articles/2005/feb2005/wkrs-f26.shtml
Postal workers hold sickie campaign
http://www.wsws.org/articles/2005/mar2005/wkrs-m19.shtml
Clothing workers strike; teachers, health workers
picket; factory workers protest sell-off
http://www.wsws.org/articles/2005/mar2005/wkrs-m26.shtml
Health workers' hunger strike ends after assurances

http://www.tamilnet.com/art.html?catid=13&artid=14598

http://www.tamilnet.com/art.html?catid=13&artid=14576

Crowd torch army motorbike which hit civilian

http://www.tamilnet.com/art.html?catid=13&artid=14596
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.resist.ca/pipermail/onthebarricades/attachments/20050404/87f407cb/attachment.html>