From ldxar1 at tesco.net Wed May 2 16:09:10 2007 From: ldxar1 at tesco.net (Andy) Date: Thu, 3 May 2007 00:09:10 +0100 Subject: [Onthebarricades] Police attack peaceful Mayday march in LA Message-ID: <0d3301c78d0e$e78aa470$0202a8c0@andy1> National Immigrant Solidarity Network, ActionLA Coalition Statement on LAPD Brutally Attacks May Day Immigrant Marchers at McArthur Park Lee Siu Hin National Coordinator National Immigrant Solidarity Network Action LA Coalition May 1, 2007 10:00 PM PST National Immigrant Solidarity Network and Action LA is outraged to learn that at about 6:30 PM, May 1, the LAPD fired rubber bullets and tear gas into crowds of hundreds of people at the May Day rally in McArthur Park. This was after the police had declared an unlawful assembly. Most of the people present did not hear or know about the police declaration.. The LAPD failed to act professionally and demonstrate restraint when it used excess force against a peaceful rally of families which included mothers, babies and young children. The LAPD lacked recognition of the consequences of it's actions. Shame on the LAPD for failing to careful think before using brutal force to attack peaceful marchers. We are calling community members, civil leaders to Immediately call LAPD chief William Bratton, and LA Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa office, to demand the following: 1) An immediate independent police investigation of the May Day incident at McArthur Park, and demand officers who violated the police guidelines be punished. 2) The immediate and full disclosure from LAPD of any people arrested and detained, we further demand that the LAPD not act as immigrant agents to enforce Federal immigrant law. Due-process of any detainees must be respected. We encourage anyone if you have information about the May Day McArthur Park incident, please contact us: (213)403-0131 or e-mail: info at immigrantsolidarity.org We'll issue another detail statement soon and your support is highly appreciated. Lee Siu Hin National Coordinator National Immigrant Solidarity Network ActionLA Coalition LAPD Hotline: Toll Free (1-877-275-5273) Spanish Line (Espa?ol) 213-928-8222 LA Mayor's Office: 213/978-0600 National Immigrant Solidarity Network No Immigrant Bashing! Support Immigrant Rights! webpage: http://www.ImmigrantSolidarity.org e-mail: info at ImmigrantSolidarity.org New York: (212)330-8172 Los Angeles: (213)403-0131 Washington D.C.: (202)595-8990 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- See what's free at AOL.com. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Call To Action! May Day 2007 National Mobilization to Support Immigrant Workers! Web: http://www.MayDay2007.net ================================================================= Peace, No War War is not the answer, for only love can conquer hate Not in our Name! And another world is possible! URL: http://www.PeaceNoWar.net Tel: (213)403-0131 e-mail: Info at PeaceNoWar.net Please Join PeaceNoWar Listserv, send e-mail to: peacenowar-subscribe at lists.riseup.net Please Donate to Peace No War Network! Send check pay to: ActionLA/SEE ActionLA/The Peace Center 8124 West 3rd Street, Suite 104 Los Angeles, California 90048 (All donations are tax deductible) -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: -------------- next part -------------- An embedded and charset-unspecified text was scrubbed... Name: message-footer.txt URL: From ldxar1 at tesco.net Thu May 3 14:03:07 2007 From: ldxar1 at tesco.net (Andy) Date: Thu, 3 May 2007 22:03:07 +0100 Subject: [Onthebarricades] Fw: [victimisationagainstdisabledpeople] 99 Arrested as ADAPT Demands U.S. House Hearings on Community Choice Act Message-ID: <009301c78dc6$7441f870$0202a8c0@andy1> ----- Original Message ----- From: "Colin REvell" To: ; ; Sent: Thursday, May 03, 2007 7:38 PM Subject: [victimisationagainstdisabledpeople] 99 Arrested as ADAPT Demands U.S. House Hearings on Community Choice Act > > ADAPT Press Release on the Arrests > > For Immediate Release: > > April 29, 2007 > > For information contact: > Bob Kafka (512) 431-4085 > Marsha Katz (406) 544-9504 > > 99 Arrested as ADAPT Demands U.S. House Hearings on Community > Choice Act > > Washington, D.C. - 99 arrests occurred when ADAPT invaded the > Rayburn House Office Building to push for hearings on the > Community Choice Act (CCA, S 799 and H.R. 1621) by the House > Energy and Commerce Committee Subcommittee on Health. ADAPT took > over the hearing room along with the office of Rep. John Dingell > (D-MI), and Rep. Joe Barton (R-TX), and filled the horseshoe drive > outside the Rayburn front door. > > "We've been waiting for ten years for this legislation to pass, > and all the while Congress has refused to act on this national > scandal of America forcing people into nursing homes against their > will," said Dawn Russell, currently with ADAPT in Colorado. "I had > to leave my home state of Tennessee in order to get the assistance > that would keep me out of a nursing home. I want so much to be > able to go home to Tennessee to be with my family, but I can't > because then I'd be forced into a nursing home just because I need > personal assistance to get through my day, and Tennessee refuses > to provide that assistance to people in their own homes. I won't > give up my freedom, my privacy, my dignity and the control over my > life, so I have to stay in exile in Colorado." > > The CCA was introduced in March 2007, and is the newest version of > legislation that would remove the institutional bias in the > nation's outdated Medicaid program by allowing Medicaid to pay for > the services and supports people need to remain in their own > homes. Under Medicaid currently, states are federally mandated to > provide only nursing home services, and are not equally mandated > to provide similar services in a person's own home, thus diverting > the person from being forced into a nursing home or other > institution. In order for the CCA to move through Congress, the > next step is to hold hearings. ADAPT met with the Democratic > National Committee (DNC) last week, and is meeting with the > Republican National Committee (RNC) this week to garner their > support for hearings, and to gain additional co-sponsors. > > "It's easy for Congress to ignore us," said Guadalupe Vasquez of > Texas ADAPT. After all, they all make a very good living and have > great benefits, and so they will never have to face the prospect > of being institutionalized and losing their freedom. But so many > of us live on $600/month, so we are the people who Congress, by > its inaction, is guaranteeing will lose the freedom so prized in > America. We'll lose our freedom, and we'll be relegated to back > wards where we lie in our own waste until someone eventually takes > the time to change us, and where we acquire deadly pressure sores > because no one takes the time to reposition us. It's way past time > for Congress to correct this travesty." > > The ability to stay in one's own home with needed services is even > more critical now that the baby boom generation has entered its > "disability years," the time of life when they are most likely to > acquire disabilities that will cause them to leave the workforce > and apply for disability benefits. Some of the members of ADAPT > have been part of the organization since its inception nearly 25 > years ago, going from being younger people with disabilities > forced into nursing homes to elders of retirement age, again being > threatened with forced institutionalization. > > Observed Barbara Toomer of Utah ADAPT, "More and more of us have > come to see the need for home and community-based services from > two perspectives- disability and aging. The perspectives may > differ a bit, but the desire to remain in our own homes with the > services and supports we need is exactly the same. We must assure > passage of the Community Choice Act now." > > On Tuesday, May 1, ADAPT will host HUD Secretary Alphonso Jackson > for a meeting at their hotel in the morning, and then will meet > with Mike Hudson, Chair of the Republican National Committee in > the afternoon. > > Source: ADAPT > __________________________________________________________ > > For more news issues, see: > http://www.aapd.com/docs/news.php > > _________________________________________________________________ > Reserve your place in history - Email Britain! > http://www.emailbritain.co.uk/ > > > > > Yahoo! Groups Links > > <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: > http://groups.yahoo.com/group/victimisationagainstdisabledpeople/ > > <*> Your email settings: > Individual Email | Traditional > > <*> To change settings online go to: > http://groups.yahoo.com/group/victimisationagainstdisabledpeople/join > (Yahoo! ID required) > > <*> To change settings via email: > mailto:victimisationagainstdisabledpeople-digest at yahoogroups.com > mailto:victimisationagainstdisabledpeople-fullfeatured at yahoogroups.com > > <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: > victimisationagainstdisabledpeople-unsubscribe at yahoogroups.com > > <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: > http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/ > > From ldxar1 at tesco.net Tue May 8 06:31:29 2007 From: ldxar1 at tesco.net (Andy) Date: Tue, 8 May 2007 14:31:29 +0100 Subject: [Onthebarricades] Fw: [EF!] Boston: Biotech protest draws modest turnout Message-ID: <03fa01c79175$38acd340$0202a8c0@andy1> ----- Original Message ----- From: CraigGingold To: Earthfirstalert at yahoogroups.com Sent: Tuesday, May 08, 2007 1:38 PM Subject: [EF!] Boston: Biotech protest draws modest turnout Photo caption: A smattering of protesters marched yesterday against the biotechnology lab being built in the South End. http://cache.boston.com/bonzai-fba/Globe_Photo/2007/05/07/1178534353_7543.jpg BOSTON GLOBE Biotech protest draws modest turnout Marchers say lab will pose hazards By Scott Allen, Globe Staff | May 7, 2007 About 150 people paraded through mostly empty streets in Roxbury and the South End yesterday in an attempt to rally opposition to a high-security research laboratory now under construction at Boston University Medical Center. However, the protest fell far short of the mass demonstrations that some had predicted. The "Environmental Justice Parade" had been billed as the biggest public event of a broader protest against a national biotechnology conference in Boston this week, and police had been bracing for what they said could be the city's largest demonstrations in three years. But the peaceful march, led by a ragtime band and a Vermont-based theater group, drew only a fraction of the 1,500 protesters police have anticipated for the four- day conference. There were no arrests by the dozens of officers escorting the protesters. Leaders of BioJustice 2007, as the protest against biotechnology is called, said they were not disappointed with the modest turnout against the biological laboratory, where researchers will work with highly infectious diseases to develop defenses against bioterrorism. They contended police had exaggerated expectations of a big protest. "We're not playing a numbers game. We are trying to get as clear a message out to the public as we possibly can," said Brian Tokar of the Vermont-based Institute for Social Ecology, one of the BioJustice organizers. He said the biotechnology officials meeting at the convention center "are seizing control of our food, our seeds, and our health and they need to be stopped." "It represents a very serious hazard to our future, and the biolab issue is one that really brings all the pieces together," Tokar said. For weeks, Web-based activists have been urging supporters to come to Boston to counter the BIO International Convention, a biotechnology conference expected to draw about 25,000 people. Biotechnology may be better known to the public for developing new treatments for disease, but critics say it has a dark side, such as the genetic manipulation of foods, the cloning of human embryos, and the potential for creating dangerous new biological weapons. BioJustice organizers had planned nine protest events around the conference, with yesterday's parade expected to be the biggest. Police are monitoring Internet chatter for the possibility that anarchists and radical environmentalists not associated with BioJustice 2007 could be planning significant disruptions this week. Police have set up a block long protest zone at the Boston Convention and Exhibition Center in South Boston, though there were no protesters in sight there yesterday afternoon. Yesterday's parade, which began on Dudley Commons in Roxbury, brought together a wide assortment of organizations, including Boston-area anti war groups, environmental activists, and Bread & Puppet , a Vermont-based theater group that often joins in protests. The signs carried a cacophony of messages against corporate greed and genetically modified products; the sign of a 7- foot-tall multi-eyed puppet read, "Property of Genzyme." Marchers said they were united in opposing construction of the biolab in an urban neighborhood populated largely by low-income people of color. "Right now I want to stop the biolab," declared Bobbi Keegan of South Boston Residents for Peace. However, the protest drew only a scattering of residents to the streets as it meandered to Blackstone Park in the South End, and many of them were lured outside by the loud music, enormous puppets, and protesters dressed as corporate executives. For blocks at a time, especially in industrial areas, no spectators lined the sidewalks to see the gyrating dancers, the man on stilts wearing monarch butterfly wings, the huge blue-headed mutant and other colorful symbols protesting biotechnology. "I don't even know what they're doing," said Rafael Pena as he watched from the door of a high-rise apartment building a few blocks from where the biolab is under construction. Adonis Smith of Dorchester was nonplussed when a protester handed him a leaflet against the biolab. "It's a sideshow," said Smith, who said he opposes the biolab. Powerful people "are going to do whatever they're going to do regardless" of the protest. Howie Rotman , a 34-year Boston University Medical Center employee who has organized protests against the biolab, said he was disappointed with the low turnout of people living closest to the facility. "I wish there would be more people because they are the people at risk," said Rotman. He said a medical waste fire in March in an existing Boston University lab shows the dangers of the new lab, which would be authorized to experiment with deadly pathogens such as the bubonic plague and the Ebola virus. Klare Allen , of the grass-roots organization SafetyNet, which has long opposed the lab, said she is still hopeful, citing resolutions against the lab passed by Cambridge and Somerville. The Boston City Council is considering similar action. In addition, the state's Supreme Judicial Court has scheduled a hearing for September to listen to arguments against the lab. "The structure may be here, but the stuff is not inside and the people have the power to stop it," said Allen through a megaphone as she stood in front of the skeletal frame of the research laboratory on Albany Street. BioJustice's Tokar estimated that the protest crowd reached 250 people in Blackstone Park, but he said the numbers don't tell the whole story. He said many people register their objections to the excesses of biotechnology through online groups or through actions such as buying organic vegetables and getting medical treatment from alternative sources . He said yesterday's event was "about what we were expecting." And Danny McNamara , a member of Bread & Puppet, said the problem of low protest turnouts goes far beyond Boston. "Protests are harder and harder to find," he said. Scott Allen can be reached at allen at globe.com ==================================================== *** [==> If you're not part of the solution... you're part of the problem <==] *** __._,_.___ Messages in this topic (1) Reply (via web post) | Start a new topic Messages | Links | Database | Polls | Calendar Change settings via the Web (Yahoo! ID required) Change settings via email: Switch delivery to Daily Digest | Switch format to Traditional Visit Your Group | Yahoo! Groups Terms of Use | Unsubscribe Recent Activity a.. 3New Members Visit Your Group SPONSORED LINKS a.. Northern california lodging b.. Northern california whitewater rafting c.. Northern california d.. Northern california wedding photographer e.. Issue management Got Yodel? Best Yahoo! Yodel Give us your best yodel and win! Yahoo! News Kevin Sites Get coverage of world crises. New web site? Drive traffic now. Get your business on Yahoo! search. . __,_._,___ -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From ldxar1 at tesco.net Tue May 15 20:37:27 2007 From: ldxar1 at tesco.net (Andy) Date: Wed, 16 May 2007 04:37:27 +0100 Subject: [Onthebarricades] Fw: Denmark: police attack on Christiania leads to fresh unrest Message-ID: <018901c7976b$87a7bb80$0202a8c0@andy1> Youths, police clash in Copenhagen riot JAN M. OLSEN Associated Press May 15, 2007 at 8:07 AM EDT http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20070515.wdaneriot0515/BNStory/International/?page=rss&id=RTGAM.20070515.wdaneriot0515 COPENHAGEN - Hundreds of black-clad youths clashed with police in Copenhagen on Tuesday, barricading streets and setting fire to cars to protest against the demolition of a building in the free-wheeling Christiania district. Police fired tear gas to disperse the crowd and arrested 59 people, all Danes. Three people were hurt, all police officers. "At times it was pretty violent," police spokesman Flemming Steen Munch said. The clashes started Monday when workers tore down a condemned building in Christiania, a partly self-governing section of Copenhagen that is home to an alternative lifestyle community. The youths threw bottles, cobblestones and firecrackers at police and set fire to cars and street barricades. Although the building was largely abandoned, many protesters saw the demolition as part of a government plan to assert control over the enclave. Two months ago, angry youths went on a rampage in downtown Copenhagen to protest the eviction of squatters from a youth centre in another part of the city. Hundreds were arrested and 25 people hurt in the riots, the worst clashes in Copenhagen in more than a decade. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From ldxar1 at tesco.net Tue May 15 20:39:44 2007 From: ldxar1 at tesco.net (Andy) Date: Wed, 16 May 2007 04:39:44 +0100 Subject: [Onthebarricades] Ogoni protest hits Nigerian oil production Message-ID: <019001c7976b$d9491a10$0202a8c0@andy1> http://www.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/africa/05/15/nigeria.oil.ap/ Nigeria protest cuts 170,000 daily barrels of oil production POSTED: 11:04 a.m. EDT, May 15, 2007 Story Highlights . Shell: Protesters take over an oil-pipeline intersection in Ogoniland . Negotiations under way with youths inside the facility, Shell spokesman says . Violence has slashed production by nearly 1 million barrels per day LAGOS, Nigeria (AP) -- Protesters have occupied an oil facility in Nigeria's restive southern region, causing oil production cuts of 170,000 barrels per day in the latest disruption to hit Africa's biggest producer, a spokesman for Royal Dutch Shell PLC said on Tuesday. Precious Omuku said the company had started negotiations with the youths inside the facility in Ogoniland, in restive southern Nigeria. He did not give details on when the occupation began. "We don't know what their grievances are," he said. The attack is the latest incident in a series of bombings, kidnappings and protests that have slashed production by nearly 1 million barrels per day in Africa's largest oil exporter, representing around one-third of its total capacity. Omuku said that 137,000 barrels of the shut-down production belonged to a Shell subsidiary and the remaining 33,000 belonged to other parties that used Shell infrastructure. Omuku said the protesters had taken over a manifold, which is an oil-pipeline intersection. No oil has been pumped in Ogoniland since the region was gripped by widespread protests over exploitation and environmental degradation, leading to the execution of nine community leaders by Nigeria's then-military government in 1995. However, the tiny region, home to less than 500,000 of Nigeria's 140 million citizens, is still crisscrossed with an aging network of pipelines carrying crude toward export terminals. Frequent oil spills in the region anger citizens and have sparked earlier protests. Occupying oil facilities is a common form of protest in the volatile Niger Delta region, which remains deeply impoverished despite producing tens of billions in oil revenues every year. Since no foreign oil company is currently active in Ogoniland, the region has not seen the kidnappings and attacks on foreign workers that have plagued production in much of the rest of the Delta region. Around 100 foreign workers have been kidnapped since the beginning of the year and last week the region's largest militant group bombed three pipelines leading to a major export terminal, helping send crude prices higher in world markets. Nigeria is one of the world's top 10 exporters of crude and a key source of oil imports for the United States. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From ldxar1 at tesco.net Thu May 17 01:29:41 2007 From: ldxar1 at tesco.net (Andy) Date: Thu, 17 May 2007 09:29:41 +0100 Subject: [Onthebarricades] ARGENTINA: Unrest over train service cutbacks Message-ID: <004e01c7985e$10362480$0202a8c0@andy1> http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1178708620238&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull May. 17, 2007 2:52 Argentina: Late train sparks large riot By ASSOCIATED PRESS Print Subscribe E-mail Toolbar In one of the largest outbursts of passenger fury over poor service in years, mostly working-class commuters rioted at the Constitucion Plaza station in Buenos Aires after a train breakdown threw Tuesday's departures into chaos. Rioters set fires, destroyed ticket booths and looted shops. About 100 police fought back with tear gas and arrested 16 rioters. Another 21 people were injured. Passengers on commuter rail lines, privatized in the 1990s under then-President Carlos Menem, for years have complained the new operators are failing to provide timely service on crowded routes. On Wednesday, President Nestor Kirchner threatened to crack down on those who do not modernize lines. http://breakingnews.iol.ie/news/story.asp?j=219434684&p=zy943539x Commuters riot over train delays 16/05/2007 - 07:04:59 Commuters enraged by delays in evening train services set fire to one of South America?s biggest stations, looted nearby shops and attacked riot police. Police fired rubber bullets and tear gas as rioters pelted them with rocks. The fighting at Buenos Aires? Constitucion station spilled into a nearby street as demonstrators shattered windows, set fire to a ticket sales area, looted shops and ripped pay phones from walls. Hundreds of passengers fled the fighting inside the station, one of the largest in South America with an estimated 300,000 users daily. Twelve police officers were injured by flying rocks, mostly with cuts and bruises to the head and chest, and nine people were also treated at the scene for smoke inhalation, said Alberto Crescenti, a spokesman for emergency medical workers. Police Commissioner Ricardo Falana reported 16 arrests, including two minors. He said about 100 police were needed to quell the rioters, who he said threw a ?hail of rocks? at officers. During the disturbances, a motorcycle was set ablaze and angry youths used metal poles to try to break down tall wooden doors to a security office in the station. Firefighters quickly put out small fires in trash cans and the ticket area. Shattered glass, bricks and sticks littered the hall afterwards. The fighting threw evening rush hour into chaos, forcing a cancellation of all train service early today. Fernando Jantus, a spokesman for the Metropolitano train concession, said service was interrupted at the evening rush hour because a train broke down on a key track just outside the station, blocking other trains from leaving the station. ?The problem happened at the worst moment,? he said, noting the rioting began in the peak evening rush around 6.30pm local time. Passengers have long complained about poor commuter rail service on lines leading from Constitucion station in downtown Buenos Aires to poor southern suburbs of the Argentine capital. The riot was the second major outbreak of violence at the station since passengers angry over cancellation of train service one day last September set three train carriages ablaze and police made seven arrests. Buenos Aires area commuter rail lines were privatised in the 1990s under then-President Carlos Menem, but passengers have complained for years about the failure of new operators to provide timely service on often crowded routes. http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2007/05/17/america/LA-GEN-Argentina-Train-Riot.php Argentina: railroad rage over poor service sparks large riot The Associated PressPublished: May 16, 2007 E-Mail Article Listen to Article Printer-Friendly 3-Column Format Translate Share Article Text Size BUENOS AIRES, Argentina: Road rage is common in many countries. But in Argentina, railroad rage was the talk of the town after riots shut down one of South America's busiest train stations during a midweek rush hour. In one of the largest outbursts of passenger fury over poor service in years, mostly working-class commuters rioted at the Constitucion Plaza station in Buenos Aires after a train breakdown threw Tuesday's departures into chaos. Rioters set fires, destroyed ticket booths and looted shops. About 100 police fought back with tear gas and arrested 16 rioters. Another 21 people were injured. Passengers on commuter rail lines, privatized in the 1990s under then-President Carlos Menem, for years have complained the new operators are failing to provide timely service on crowded routes. On Wednesday, President Nestor Kirchner threatened to crack down on those who do not modernize lines. "The state is going to give a swift kick where it counts," Kirchner said, calling those who failed to make investments "shameless." Sergio Taselli, head of the Metropolitano concession that runs trains out of the Constitucion station, rejected the criticism. "There was a breakdown on just one train," he said on Radio 10. He added that passenger volume on Metropolitano routes had doubled in three years, overwhelming the pace of improvements. Commuters say the service has never been worse: delays and cancellations are regular annoyances aboard packed trains, as are ripped-up seats, broken windows, trash and graffiti. "The trains are just ruined," said Daniel Marchese, a private security guard and daily commuter. "You travel really badly, all packed together and there's no security." Critics also say that with highway crossing accidents and serious crimes together claiming about one life a day on routes used by hundreds of thousands, it's no wonder rioting erupted. But passengers have few options: public buses can take up to three times longer than the train, and train tickets cost as little as 30 U.S. cents ? a price affordable to most. "By train, I can get to work in 40 minutes. By bus, it takes me an hour and a half," said Mirta Ojeda, 48. "The train is much cheaper ... but we travel worse than cattle." Others say the state is lax on regulatory control, failing to force investments or boost low fares. Taking office in May 2003, Kirchner promised to revive the commuter rails. Years later, the concessions still benefit from some US$83 million (?61.2 million) in annual subsidies while complaints continue. British companies founded the railroads in the late 1800s to ferry dried hides and salted beef to Europe-bound ships. But the proud symbol of Argentina's cattle and farming wealth began to crumble over ensuing decades. In the 1940s, then-strongman Juan Peron took state control of the railroads. Slowly, lines were abandoned, tracks went idle and finally Menem, in the early 90s, ordered the trains turned over to private concessions. Now, in a presidential election year, leading opposition candidate Roberto Lavagna has put the blame on Kirchner's government, saying the riots underscored the "enormous incapacity" of public transport planners to manage the railroads. In November 2005, 29 people were hurt in rioting at Haedo station on the capital's outskirts after passengers set rail cars ablaze. Last September, passengers also burned a rail car at Constitucion after a train was canceled. "If the government doesn't take charge of this problem," warned opposition leader Margarita Stolbitzer, "there is going to be a social explosion not even the military police can stop." http://news.monstersandcritics.com/americas/news/article_1304991.php/Commuters_riot_at_Buenos_Aires_station_clash_with_police Commuters riot at Buenos Aires station, clash with police May 16, 2007, 3:51 GMT Buenos Aires - Thousands of angry commuters went on a rampage, taking out their anger over continuous delays in Buenos Aires' antiquated train system by vandalizing the city's historic Constitucion station. At least 21 people were hurt and 16 arrested. Rioters threw rocks and bottles at police, who responded with tear gas and rubber bullets. At least 12 officers and nine passengers were hurt. The unrest broke out Tuesday after travellers who had already boarded a train bound for the suburbs during the evening commute were ordered by loudspeaker to leave the train after a defect was found. The commuters, who often spend up to four or five hours per day getting to and from work on outdated trains in the city of 13 million people, set fire to the ticket windows and offices in the downtown station, broke windows and looted stores. ITN News: Argentine commuters riot over delays 13.01 Wed May 16 2007 Furious commuters have ran amok through a railway station in Argentina after one delay too many sparked riots. Officers responded by firing rubber bullets and tear gas into the angry crowd Parts of Constitucion station in the capital Buenos Aires were set alight, nearby shops were looted and police were pelted with rocks and stones. Officers responded by firing rubber bullets and tear gas into the angry crowd. Hundreds of passengers fled the fighting inside train station, one of the largest in South America with an estimated 300,000 users daily. Twelve police officers were injured by flying rocks, mostly with cuts and bruises to the head and chest, and nine people were also treated at the scene for smoke inhalation, according to the emergency medical service. Police Commissioner Ricardo Falana reported 16 arrests, including two minors. He said about 100 police were needed to quell the rioters, who he said threw a "hail of rocks" at officers. Firefighters quickly put out small fires in bins and the ticket area. Passengers have long complained about poor commuter rail service on lines leading from Constitucion station in downtown Buenos Aires to the capital's poor southern suburbs. Buenos Aires area commuter rail lines were privatised in the 1990s under then-President Carlos Menem but passengers for years have complained about the failure of new operators to provide timely service on crowded routes. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: tbar.listen_now.gif Type: image/gif Size: 138 bytes Desc: not available URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: epaper.tbox.gif Type: image/gif Size: 651 bytes Desc: not available URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: dot_h.gif Type: image/gif Size: 43 bytes Desc: not available URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... 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Name: dot_h.gif Type: image/gif Size: 43 bytes Desc: not available URL: From ldxar1 at tesco.net Mon May 21 04:38:42 2007 From: ldxar1 at tesco.net (Andy) Date: Mon, 21 May 2007 12:38:42 +0100 Subject: [Onthebarricades] ARUNACHAL PRADESH: Protesters blockade roads over fake "encounter killing" Message-ID: <022201c79b9c$969948e0$0202a8c0@andy1> Fake encounter: More villagers join protest despite Arunachal plea >From our Reporter TINSUKIA, May 13: Adamant on their demand that the chief minister and the governor visit them, agitating villagers protesting the Army's staged encounter in Tinsukia district refused to disperse for the seventh consecutive day today, stalling movement on the national highways. While more villagers poured in at the protest site at Rupai in Doomdooma, the Arunachal Pradesh government, reeling under shortage of essential commodities, urged the villagers to restore communication on the national highway. In an official communiqu?, the deputy commissioner of Lower Dibang Valley district of Arunachal Pradesh said the blockade launched by the protesters has hit the supply of essential commodities, including oil, medicine and kerosene, to over 2 lakh people in six districts of the hill state. "The protesters should allow the stranded passengers and foodstuff to reach Arunachal Pradesh," the DC said, adding that if the blockade continued, it might create 'havoc' in the places. Civil societies of Arunachal have also expressed concern over the continued blockade of the national highways connecting Asom. Road communication to the secluded Sadiya sub- The public of Sadiya ha d submitted a memorandum to the deputy commissioner, seeking measures to restore communication to the subdivision. Security personnel yesterday erected barricades outside the tea town of Doomdooma, preventing the protesters from entering the township. On Friday, Doomdooma witnessed an impromptu bandh in the wake of the protest. Shortage of essential commodities was also reported from various places in the district like Kakopathar, Dirak and other interior places in view of the blockade. The protesters demanded that the Chief Minister and Governor visit them and hear their grievances, else they would continue the stir. Meanwhile pledging support to the agitation, the ULFA yesterday warned that if the Army does not stop its atrocitientifying himself as 'commander' of the ULFA's 'C Company' Jiten Dutta told the media, "This is not the first time the Army has butchered an innocent. The men in uniform have been meting out atrocities to the innocent in the name of anti-insurgency operations off and on." He also hailed the protest launched by the villagers, terming it as a manifestation of the resentment among the people against the 'atrocities' of the Army. This is the third incident of fake whiff on the Army operating in the state in 15 months. The killings of Moni Gogoi and Ajit Mahanta by the Army in January this year and February last year respectively also saw similar protests. Two Army officers were court marshalled for staging an encounter in the Ajit Mahanta's case. __,_._,___ -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From ldxar1 at tesco.net Tue May 22 08:02:05 2007 From: ldxar1 at tesco.net (Andy) Date: Tue, 22 May 2007 16:02:05 +0100 Subject: [Onthebarricades] CHINA: Mass unrest over one child policy Message-ID: <00a001c79c82$2aa90530$0202a8c0@andy1> According to these reports, regime officials are going around robbing and destroying property of farmers, which is provoking mass unrest and destruction of government buildings in at least four towns in Guangxi province in southern China. One article refers to thousands such incidents per year in China, which have forced the government to curtail land grabs and rural pollution. http://www.thepeninsulaqatar.com/Display_news.asp?section=World_News&subsection=Rest+of+the+World&month=May2007&file=World_News2007052221635.xml Chinese farmers riot against 'one child' policy Web posted at: 5/22/2007 2:16:35 Source ::: AFP BEIJING . Police clashed violently with protesters in southern China as thousands of farmers rioted over the nation's controversial "one-child" family planning policies, residents said yesterday. Angry farmers besieged up to four township governments in Guangxi province on Friday and Saturday, with police and protesters clashing in at least one demonstration, they said. The demonstrations occurred after local governments this month dispatched "family planning work teams" to levy fines on families that were violating government population control policies, they said. One woman in Shapi township, speaking on condition of anonymity, said up to 20,000 people had gathered and rioted there on Saturday, hurling rocks, breaking windows and torching public property. "The farmers were really angry because the family planning team was going around to homes and making farmers pay fines if they had too many kids," the woman said. "If the farmers had no money they took things from them. Property with value they confiscated, things with no value they destroyed." The work teams confiscated everything from livestock, to electronic goods and household items such as pots and pans and teapots, according to the woman and other accounts by locals posted on the Internet. Photos on the Internet showed family planning work teams dressed in military fatigues and helmets carrying sledge hammers as they marched through Guangxi villages. On Friday, similar demonstrations erupted in neighbouring Shuiming township, with locals confronting up to 1,000 police armed with clubs and dogs, one witness said. "It's hard to say how many people were there, (but) you could say there was a sea of people," a man in Shuiming township told AFP also on condition of anonymity out of fear of government retribution. Hong Kong press reports said up to 50,000 farmers protested against the family planning policies in the four Guangxi townships in recent days. Residents and Internet postings indicated the situation was calm yesterday. Authorities were trying to impose fines ranging from 6,000 yuan ($780) to more than 60,000, depending on how many children the families had, according to the residents. Local and provincial government and police departments refused to comment on the unrest when contacted by AFP Monday. China has since the 1970s enforced strict family planning measures to control its population, which at 1.3 billion people is the world's biggest. Reports of abuse by authorities enforcing the law, such as forced late-term abortions and forced sterilisations, as well as arbitrary fines, are common. http://thescotsman.scotsman.com/international.cfm?id=792602007 Chinese riot in protest against drive to enforce family-planning laws ETHAN MCNERN VILLAGERS have rioted in south-western China, attacking officials and burning cars, in protest at attempts to enforce strict family-planning policies. The people in Shabei county in Guangxi, one of five "autonomous" regions in China, clashed with officials and armed police, pulling down a wall surrounding a government office, burning part of the building and overturning cars, witnesses said yesterday. "The government office was a big mess," one villager said. "Broken glass, bricks and rubbish were everywhere." Another villager said dozens of local people had been detained by police. Police and local government officials declined to comment, but an official from the neighbouring Shapo county confirmed the riot had taken place. A doctor at the Shabei hospital said several injured people had been treated there. One protester had been hit by a brick thrown from the government building, and two injured officials had also been treated. The protests were linked to moves to intensify family-planning policies, villagers said. China launched its one-child policy in 1980 and some couples with more than one child must pay fines the equivalent of thousands of pounds. "The family-planning officials were just like the Japanese invaders during the war. They took everything away, and destroyed or tore down the houses if people could not pay the fines," one witness said. This article: http://thescotsman.scotsman.com/international.cfm?id=792602007 http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/05/21/asia/china.3-58166.php Chinese villagers riot over stricter population-control By Joseph Kahn Published: May 21, 2007 BEIJING: An intensive campaign to enforce strict population-control measures prompted violent clashes between the police and local residents in southwestern China in recent days, witnesses said, describing the latest incident of rural unrest that has alarmed senior officials in Beijing. Villagers and visitors to several counties of the Guangxi autonomous region in southwestern China said rioters smashed and burned government offices, overturned official vehicles and clashed with the riot police in a series of confrontations over the past four days. They gave varying accounts of injuries and deaths, with some asserting that as many as five people were killed, including three officials responsible for population control work. A local government official in one of the counties affected confirmed the rioting in an interview by telephone but denied reports of deaths or serious injuries. The violence appeared to stem from a two-month-long crackdown in Guangxi to punish people who violated the country's birth control policy. The policy limits the number of children families can have legally. Corruption, land grabs, pollution, unpaid wages and a widening wealth gap have fueled tens of thousands of incidents of unrest in recent years, many of them occurring in rural areas that have been left behind in China's long economic boom. The central government, expressing concern that unrest could undermine one-party rule, has alleviated the tax burden on peasants and sought to curtail confiscations of farmland for development. But China's hinterland remains volatile compared with the relative prosperity and stability of its largest cities. To limit the growth of its population of 1.3 billion, many parts of China rely more on financial penalties and incentives than on coercive measures, including forced abortions and sterilizations, that were common in the 1980s, when the so-called one-child policy was first strictly enforced. But local officials who fail to meet annual population-control targets can still come under heavy bureaucratic pressure to reduce births in their area of responsibility or face demotion or removal from office. According to villagers and witness accounts posted on the Internet, officials in several parts of Guangxi mobilized their largest effort in years to roll back population growth by instituting mandatory health checks for women and forcing pregnant women who did not have approval to give birth to abort fetuses. Several people said officials also imposed fines starting at 500 yuan and ranging as high as 70,000 yuan, or $65 to $9,000, on families that had violated birth control measures any time since 1980. The new tax, called a "social child-raising fee," was collected even though the vast majority of violators had already paid fines in the past, the people said. According to an account published on a Web forum called Longtan, officials in Bobai County of Guangxi boasted that they had collected 7.8 million yuan in social child-raising fees from February through the end of April. Many families objected strongly to the fees and refused to pay. Witnesses said in such cases villagers were detained, their homes searched and valuables, including electronic items and motorcycles, confiscated by the government. "Worst of all, the gangsters used hammers and iron rods to destroy people's homes, while threatening that the next time it would be with bulldozers," said a local peasant, who identified himself as Nong Sheng and who faxed a petition letter complaining of the abuses to a reporter in Beijing. Nong said the crackdown was widespread in several counties in Guangxi. He said local courts had declined to hear any cases related to the matter, citing an edict from local officials. Other villagers reached by phone described an escalating series of confrontations that began Thursday and continued through the weekend. Several described in detail an assault on the government offices of Shapi Township, Bobai County, by thousands of peasants. They said villagers broke through a wall surrounding the government building, ransacked offices, smashed computers and destroyed documents, then set fire to the building itself. There were inconsistent reports of deaths and injuries during that clash and a subsequent crackdown by riot police officers. http://www.boston.com/news/world/asia/articles/2007/05/22/riots_against_govt_in_china/ Riots against gov't in China By Anita Chang, Associated Press Writer | May 22, 2007 BEIJING --Thousands of farmers in southwest China rioted at a government office after authorities imposed heavy fines on families that had more children than allowed under the country's family planning policy, a newspaper and a villager said Monday. Anti-riot police were called in after villagers set fires and smashed cars Saturday at the Shapo township government office in the Guangxi region, Hong Kong's Ming Pao Daily News said. One person was injured as villagers and government officials hurled stones at each other, the newspaper reported. The demonstrators also knocked down a wall and damaged offices at the building, it said. Lu Wenhua, a town resident, did not participate in Saturday's demonstration but said he had heard about the riot from other villagers. Lu, 23, said protesters were angry because the government had levied fines of more than $1,300 on families that had too many children. "The fine is too heavy because the annual income of the villagers was only 1,000 yuan (about $130). It is too much for people to bear," he said in a telephone interview. It wasn't immediately clear what sparked the riot, how long the fines had been imposed or how many families had been involved. A woman who answered the phone Monday at the Shapo township government said she had no comment and refused to give her name. China's family planning policy -- implemented in the late 1970s -- limits most urban couples to one child and families in some rural areas to two in an attempt to control population growth and conserve natural resources. Critics say China's family planning policy has led to forced abortions, sterilizations and a dangerously imbalanced sex ratio due to a traditional preference for male heirs, which has prompted families to abort female fetuses in hopes of getting boys. Lu said local regulations allow families to have two children if the first is a girl. Families are limited to one child if the first is a boy. No one can have more than two children. Ming Pao said all public servants had been ordered to collect $65 from people who violated the family planning policy. If violators failed to pay within three days, their homes would be demolished and their belongings seized. The protest is the latest in a growing number of violent incidents across China in recent years as ordinary Chinese vent anger over official corruption, a growing rich-poor gap and land confiscations. Photographs of the Guangxi protest posted on a Chinese online forum showed cars and a motorcycle smashed and overturned, and a rioter making off with a computer monitor taken from the office building. http://www.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/asiapcf/05/21/china.riot.reut/ Villagers riot over China's family planning POSTED: 4:31 a.m. EDT, May 21, 2007 Adjust font size: BEIJING, China (Reuters) -- Villagers rioted in southwestern China, attacking officials and burning cars, in protest against attempts to enforce strict family-planning policies, witnesses said on Monday, the latest in a series of protests nationwide. The villagers in Shabei county in Guangxi, one of five "autonomous" regions in China, clashed with officials and police armed with guns and electric cattle prods, pulling down a wall surrounding the government office, turning over cars and burning part of its main building, witnesses told Reuters. "The government office was a big mess," a villager, who witnessed the scene, said by telephone. "The big gate and two cars near it were all burnt and black, and broken glass, bricks and rubbish were everywhere." One villager said dozens had been detained by police. Local government and police officials reached by telephone declined to comment. An official from neighboring Shapo county confirmed the riot had taken place, but refused to give details. A doctor at the Shabei hospital said several injured people had been treated there. One protester had been hit on the head by a brick thrown from the government building, and two injured officials had also been brought in for treatment, he said. The protests were linked to local government moves to intensify family-planning policies, villagers said. Some couples with more than one child must pay fines of up to tens of thousand yuan (thousands of dollars), the villagers said. China launched its one-child policy in 1980 to curb a ballooning population, now at more than 1.3 billion. The restrictions, which vary from city to countryside, have bolstered a traditional preference for boys and have drawn fire from Western countries and human-rights watchdogs after widespread reports of forced abortions and female infanticide. "The family-planning officials were just like the Japanese invaders during the war. They took everything away, and destroyed or tore down the houses if people could not pay the fines," said one villager surnamed Wu. "In some families, even the gate and bowls were taken away, leaving them with an empty house." Wu said he had seen about 20 buses and other vehicles full of riot police and put the number of protesters at up to 10,000. His account could not be confirmed. A widening gap between rich and poor, corruption and official abuses of power have fueled a growing number of demonstrations and riots around China. The government has said the number of "mass incidents" in the country -- a term that includes protests, petitions and demonstrations -- reached about 23,000 last year. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/6677273.stm China's child fines 'spark riot' Thousands of villagers have rioted in south-western China over the country's controversial family planning restrictions, reports say. The villagers, in Guangxi province, reportedly attacked government offices after officials imposed heavy fines on families who had too many children. The rioting allegedly took place on Friday and Saturday. Beijing allows urban dwellers to have one child, while villagers can have two if the first child is a girl. The policy - which was launched in the 1970s - is aimed at controlling population growth in the world's biggest nation with some 1.3 billion people. 'Property confiscated' Angry villagers targeted several local government offices in Shapi township in Guangxi, setting fires and destroying public property, local residents were quoted as saying by the AFP news agency. At least one person was injured in clashes after riot police were called in, Hong Kong's Ming Pao Daily News newspaper said. "The farmers were really angry because the family planning team was going around to homes and making farmers pay fines if they had too many kids," one local resident told AFP. "If the farmers had no money they took things from them," the resident said. It was not immediately clear when the fines had been imposed and how many families were affected. Local and provincial officials have not yet commented on the unrest. It is the latest in a series of civil disturbances in China which have come to the attention of the international media. In March, there were riots in the central province of Hunan, provoked by a sharp increase in bus fares. http://www.feminist.org/news/newsbyte/uswirestory.asp?id=10322 Feminist Daily News Wire May 21, 2007 Renewed Efforts to Implement One-Child Policy Spark Protests in Rural China Villagers in southwestern China have been protesting and rioting over the past four days in reaction to a recent crackdown on violators of China's so-called one-child policy. Chinese law limits families to one child except in cases where the first child is a girl and a second child is allowed, the Associated Press reports. Local officials are held accountable to ensure that the policy, which attempts to control China's population growth, is implemented. According to the New York Times, officials in the Guangxi autonomous region have recently increased their efforts to control births by instituting mandatory health checks, forced abortions, and fines ranging from $65 to $9,000 for families that have violated the policy anytime since 1980. Many of the fines, called "social child-raising fees," surpass the annual income of an average villager, which is about $130, the Associated Press reports. Some families who refused to pay the tax are being subjected to detainments, searches, and seizures of valuables, according to the New York Times. Protests, demonstrations, and the circulation of petitions are taking place in response to the increased enforcement of the policy. Villagers in Guangxi have reportedly been ransacking government buildings and offices. Dozens of people have been detained, and reports count as many as three fatalities. Media Resources: New York Times 5/21/07; Reuters 5/21/07; AP 5/21/07 http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/C1BD864C-6C9F-4DBB-9580-57CA053B4CA6.htm Chinese riot over one-child 'fines' Thousands of villagers in southern China have clashed with police after the authorities imposed heavy fines on families for breaking the country's controversial family planning laws, reports say. Police were called in after villagers started fires and smashed cars in the protests that erupted over the weekend in Guangxi, an autonomous region bordering Vietnam, Hong Kong's Ming Pao Daily News said. One person was injured as villagers and government officials hurled stones at each other, the newspaper said. The clashes reportedly broke out after the local government levied fines of more than $1,300 on families that had too many children under what has become known as China's one-child policy. Some witnesses put the number involved in the rioting at around 10,000, although other reports have said there were many more people. Photos on Chinese blogs showed buildings on fire and cars overturned. Confiscated Reports say between 10,000 and 50,000 people took part in the riots The protests began after local governments dispatched "family planning work teams" to levy fines on families that were violating government population control policies, local residents told the AFP news agency. One woman in Shapi township said on condition of anonymity that up to 20,000 people had gathered and rioted there on Saturday, hurling rocks, breaking windows and torching public property. "The farmers were really angry because the family planning team was going around to homes and making farmers pay fines if they had too many kids," the woman was quoted as saying. "If the farmers had no money they took things from them. Property with value they confiscated, things with no value they destroyed." Other accounts posted on online Chinese forums said officials had confiscated everything from livestock to electronic goods and even household items such as pots, pans and teapots. Controversial China's one-child policy is meant to keep the population - the world's biggest at 1.3 billion - to a size the government believes is sustainable. But the policy, in place sine the 1970s, has been controversial, with frequent reports of abuse including forced late-term abortions and forced sterilisations, as well as arbitrary fines. Al Jazeera's reporter in Beijing, Melissa Chan, said there have also been other unintended problems such as the demographic abnormality of 119 males to every 100 females. In some provinces and regions, such as Guangxi, there are concessions to the policy with families allowed a second child if the first one is a girl although no one is allowed more than two children. The weekend's protests are the latest in a growing number of violent incidents across China as ordinary Chinese vent anger over official corruption, a growing rich-poor gap and land confiscations. According to the official figures there were 87,000 protests, officially termed "mass incidents", reported in 2005, up 6.6 per cent from 2004 and 50 per cent from 2003. http://www.radioaustralia.net.au/news/stories/s1929100.htm Villagers riot in China, attack officials, burn cars Villagers upset by moves to enforce family planning policies have rioted in southwestern China, attacking officials and burning cars. The violence is the latest in a series of protests nationwide. The Reuters news agency reports villagers in Shabei county in Guangxi, one of five "autonomous" regions in China, clashed with officials and police armed with guns and electric cattle prods. The protesters pulled down a wall surrounding the government office, turned over cars and burned part of its main building. Villagers say the protests were linked to local government moves to intensify family-planning policies. Some couples with more than one child must pay fines of thousands of dollars. http://www.spiegel.de/international/0,1518,484135,00.html Birth Control Measures Prompt Riots in China By Joseph Kahn An intensive campaign to enforce population-control measures prompted violent clashes between the police and local residents in southwestern China in recent days. An intensive campaign to enforce strict population-control measures prompted violent clashes between the police and local residents in southwestern China in recent days, witnesses said, describing the latest incident of rural unrest that has alarmed senior officials in Beijing. Villagers and visitors to several counties of Guangxi autonomous region in southwestern China said rioters smashed and burned government offices, overturned official vehicles, and clashed with the riot police in a series of confrontations over the past four days. They gave varying accounts of injuries and deaths, with some asserting that as many as five people were killed, including three officials responsible for population-control work. A local government official in one of the counties affected confirmed the rioting in an interview by telephone but denied reports of deaths or serious injuries. The violence appeared to stem from a two-month-long crackdown in Guangxi to punish people who violated the country's birth control policy. The policy limits the number of children families can have legally. Corruption, land grabs, pollution, unpaid wages and a widening wealth gap have fueled tens of thousands of incidents of unrest in recent years, many of them occurring in rural areas that have been left behind in China's long economic boom. The central government, expressing concern that unrest could undermine one-party rule, has alleviated the tax burden on peasants and sought to curtail confiscations of farmland for development. But China's hinterland remains volatile compared with the relative prosperity and stability of its largest cities. To limit the growth of its population of 1.3 billion, many parts of China rely more on financial penalties and incentives than on coercive measures, including forced abortions and sterilizations, that were common in the 1980s, when the so-called one-child policy was first strictly enforced. But local officials who fail to meet annual population control targets can still come under heavy bureaucratic pressure to reduce births in their area of responsibility or face demotion or removal from office. According to villagers and witness accounts posted on the Internet, officials in several parts of Guangxi mobilized their largest effort in years to roll back population growth by instituting mandatory health checks for women and forcing pregnant women who did not have approval to undergo abortions. Several people said officials also slapped fines starting at 500 yuan and ranging as high as 70,000 yuan, or $65 to $9,000, on families that had violated birth control measures anytime since 1980. The new tax, called a "social child-raising fee," was collected even though the vast majority of violators had already paid fines in the past, the people said. According to an account published on a Web forum called Longtan, officials in Bobai County of Guangxi boasted that they had collected 7.8 million yuan in social child-raising fees from February through the end of April. Many families objected strongly to the fees and refused to pay. Witnesses said in such cases villagers were detained, their homes searched, and valuables, including electronic items and motorcycles, confiscated by the government. "Worst of all, the gangsters used hammers and iron rods to destroy people's homes, while threatening that the next time it would be with bulldozers," said one local peasant, who identified himself as Nong Sheng and who faxed a petition letter complaining of the abuses to a reporter in Beijing. Nong said the crackdown was widespread in several counties in Guangxi. He said local courts had declined to hear any cases related to the matter, citing an edict from local officials. Other villagers reached by phone described an escalating series of confrontations that began Thursday and continued through the weekend. Several described in detail an assault on the government offices of Shapi Township, Bobai County, by thousands of peasants. They said villagers broke through a wall surrounding the government building, ransacked the offices, smashed computers and destroyed documents and then set fire to the building itself. There were inconsistent reports of death and injuries during that clash and a subsequent crackdown by riot police. From ldxar1 at tesco.net Sat May 5 05:48:44 2007 From: ldxar1 at tesco.net (Andy) Date: Sat, 05 May 2007 12:48:44 -0000 Subject: [Onthebarricades] Activist responses to police attack on Los Angeles Mayday march Message-ID: <023401c78f13$c66a8a10$0202a8c0@andy1> ANSWER Condemns LAPD Attack on Immigrant Rights Movement Stop Racist Police Violence! Fire Police Chief Bratton now! The ANSWER Coalition unequivocally condemns the brutal, unprovoked Los Angeles Police Department attack on immigrant families, media reporters and camerapersons and others in MacArthur Park on May 1. The LAPD's racism and violent nature has been displayed once again for the world to see. We demand that Mayor Villaraigosa and all city officials take immediate action to bring the officers involved to justice. We also demand that the Los Angeles Board of Police Commissioners fire LAPD Chief William Bratton. On May 1, tens of thousands of protesters participated in mass marches for immigrant rights in Los Angeles and around the United States. The march targeted by the LAPD was the second major action in the city that day. It marched from Vermont and 3rd to MacArthur Park. By all accounts, the march was peaceful-that is, until the cops began their coordinated attack on the participants. Soon after the thousands of marchers arrived at MacArthur Park, a police motorcade forced its way into a large circle of people who were enjoying the Aztec Dancers perform an Indigenous ceremony in Alvarado St. near the Southeast corner of the park. The cops pushed people, including Aztec Dancers and children, to the ground. Next, cops on bicycles rushed through the crowd demanding people evacuate the area. They were followed closely by LAPD "shock troops" on foot, who forced people from the area by hitting onlookers with batons. The crowd was obviously upset and highly concerned by the unprovoked and violent police attack. In an attempt to defend themselves, people responded by hurling empty water bottles and fruit at the police. Contrary to LAPD Chief Bratton's statement that their violence was in response to "certain elements of the crowd . [who] began to create a series of disturbances," it was really the other way around. As this was happening at the east corner of the park, several hundred yards away on the other end of the park, dozens of cops in full riot gear cleared the street by pushing people onto the sidewalks. The coordinated, military-style actions show a deliberate calculus used by the LAPD. This was a premeditated attack-a police riot. It is standard practice to repress mass movements and working people. 'They were merciless' Take action today Write an e-mail or contact Mayor Villaraigosa to express your outrage at the attack on immigrant rights marchers and community members. ANSWER has set up an easy-to-use mechanism to fax or write a letter to the Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa demanding that Bratton be fired immediately and that his application for reappointment be denied. Click this link to send your letter by fax or email. The worst was yet to come. Less than one hour after the initial attack, the LAPD began its full assault on the marchers and all people in the park. Well over 100 riot cops, including 30 to 40 shooting pellet guns and rubber-coated bullets began attacking everyone in the park. They fired many times directly at people, many of whom could not get away from the police onslaught. Police also shot tear gas at the protesters. One eyewitness to the LAPD violence was Ernesto Arce, ANSWER Coalition organizer and KPFK radio host. Arce, who was hit in the leg with a rubber-coated bullet during the attack, described the scene: "Without warning, cops descended into a park full of families, homeless and handicapped individuals and street cart vendors. They were merciless. "For the next 30 minutes, hundreds of activists and bystanders were shot, beaten by night sticks and run out of the park. The police had no intention of entertaining requests from people who were not able to move quickly enough. They were forcefully hit on the legs until they were immobile. "The cops didn't only move people out of the perimeters of the park, they chased through the park firing at anyone who might have been an obstacle. I witnessed many people who were shot at from the back. Children and entire families were being violently pushed or beaten. An elderly woman cried out for help but few were willing to run back in the face of fast-approaching SWAT police. "We were chased onto 7th street and forced at least 6 blocks west. The police tried to cordon off the entire area, but most protestors didn't stick around. It was frightening for even seasoned protestors." The cops shut down the organized rally. Many scheduled speakers did not get to speak. In addition, they overturned and destroyed the tables and displays of non-profits inside Macarthur Park. The LAPD claimed that they declared the legally permitted event an "unlawful assembly." But no one heard an official order to disperse or face arrest. In fact, a Fox News reporter heard riot cops say, "Better hustle, it's time to tussle," as they moved in on people with batons and loaded weapons. LAPD strategy May 1 is International Workers' Day. It started in the United States after police viciously attacked a demonstration of striking workers demanding better working conditions. The police killed several and wounded 200. They blamed the workers for the police violence. The police strategy is still the same in 2007. This was displayed in L.A. as it has been many times before. The LAPD's May 1 attack brings to memory to the violent repression of demonstrators outside the 2000 Democratic National Convention in Los Angeles. Similar tactics were used: firing rubber bullets and beating people without cause; chasing people on foot and in police vehicles, and then tackling and clubbing them; using military formations to intimidate and disperse crowds; and then blaming the victims for the aggression. The police and Mayor Villaraigosa have promised investigations into the police assault in MacArthur Park. But what will come from the LAPD when its chief, Bratton, has already blamed those attacked and said they were throwing "missiles?" What will come from a mayor who wants more police on the streets and has been an apologist for police brutality and murder-like the killing of Susie Pe?a-many times before? Already, Villaraigosa has assured Los Angeles and his wealthy backers that "order has been fully restored"-when it was the LAPD that broke the "order" in the first place. Little will happen unless the movement demands justice. Bratton should be fired. His first term as L.A.'s police chief is over, but he has applied for another. The Los Angeles Police Commission has 90 days to decide whether to reappoint him. His history of condoning police terror at the expense of working and oppressed people is clear. Attacking the immigrant rights movement When mass movements arise-like last year's mass upsurge for immigrant rights-they often are met with repression in order to maintain the status quo. The immigrant rights movement mobilized millions to demand equality and legalization. Now, the ruling elite want the movement to go away for good. A wave of racist raids and deportations has swept the country in recent months, aiming to strike fear into immigrant communities. The LAPD action on May 1 is part of that strategy. But the movement is still alive with potential. The April 7 protest in Los Angeles and now the May 1 protests around the country have showed this. In the face of racist police violence, it is important that the people stay united to demand justice. We in the ANSWER Coalition demand justice, an end to racist police violence and full rights for all immigrants. Fighting against racism, immigrant bashing and police brutality must be a top priority for the anti-war movement and all progressive organizations. Take action today Write an e-mail or contact Mayor Villaraigosa to express your outrage at the attack on immigrant rights marchers and community members. Due to the growing national outrage, Police Chief may try to distance himself from some of the worst police atrocities. But Bratton and other officials must be held responsible since this was a clearly planned and coordinated police assault that lasted a considerable period of time. ANSWER has set up an easy-to-use mechanism to fax or write a letter to the Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa demanding that Bratton be fired immediately and that his application for reappointment be denied. Click this link to send your letter by fax or email. --------------------------------------------------- A.N.S.W.E.R. Coalition Act Now to Stop War and End Racism 213-251-1025 http://www.answerla.org answerla at answerla.org 137 N. Virgil Ave Los Angeles, CA 90004 Join us each Tues at 7 pm for A.N.S.W.E.R. Activists Meetings. ================================================================ Just from media coverage at the time, this is true. On Fri, 4 May 2007, Linda Piera-Avila wrote: Dear Greens, This is a must read! It is from Jennifer Snow of Progressive Christians Uniting. progressive.christians.uniting at gmail.com I have met Jennifer and know her to be a gentle and sincere person. Several of my friends from the Farm were among the dancers she describes in the first paragraph. I can't help but think that that may have had something to do with the LAPD's instructions to attack. The scene Jennifer describes sounds horribly similar to Wounded Knee in 1890, with the substitution of rubber bullets instead of real ones. But, as she said, she feels they would have used real ones, had they had them I remember the day of the eviction from the Farm a group of us observers were at one point surrounded by six LAPD who were pointing rifles at us. Unreal! I was just talking on the cell phone while looking down the barrel of a rifle! This behavior cannot go on! Linda Piera-Avila ________________________________________________________ May 1: Violence in MacArthur Park This is what happened. The march ended at Wilshire and Alvarado, and the last organization in the march was a Native American drumming and dancing troupe. They stopped in the street to dance, and a huge circle, mostly of families with small children, gathered around them to watch, cheer, and clap. It was peaceful and jubilant, a celebration, not a protest. The police were there, but no one was paying any attention to them. Suddenly there were sirens, very loud and close. Police motorcycles drove into the crowd around the dancers. There was no announcement - or if there was, no one could hear it over the sirens. Imagine the deafening noise of many sirens only a few feet from you, the motorcycle driving towards you, pushing you forward. Imagine the panic of women with small children in strollers. People tried to get away from the motorcycles, but the police would not allow you to walk through them. When I tried, I was pushed roughly back in front of the motorcycles. I saw three middle school girls standing hugging each other in front of a motorcycle, the wheel pushing against their feet and legs, the sirens blasting in their ears, the policeman screaming at them. I saw people being pushed off their feet. When I saw the police start striking someone, I ran over to try to put myself between them. I saw people dragging their friends away from the police. Eventually they pushed us back onto the sidewalk. No one knew why they were doing this or what was happening. A line of police in riot gear faced us as we crowded on the sidewalk, bewildered and bruised and angry. We hadn't been doing anything wrong. They hadn't asked us to move, or tried to communicate with us in any way other than violence. The noise was deafening, terrifying, disorienting. Teenagers with piercings yelled at the police. I pointed at the ground, trying to tell the police, look, I'm on the sidewalk. The police yelled at us. You had to yell to be heard. But the tension faded. The National Lawyers Guild passed the word along that as long as we stayed on the sidewalk, there would be no problems. Most of the teenagers had calmed down. There was nothing to see - just the people lined up on the sidewalk, the police in the street. People were a little bewildered. Why were the police here? What were they doing? Why were there so many of them? Why did they have guns and canisters? But no one was doing anything. We just stood there, talking, laughing, drinking water, eating corn, taking pictures. We wondered what on earth there were so many police for. And then suddenly the kids - the same teenagers that had been yelling at the police - ran along the sidewalk, yelling get back, get back, they've declared unlawful assembly, they're going to arrest everyone. We heard shots. Within the park, from the corner of Alvarado and 7th, I saw people running. I ran towards them. I wanted to make sure that people were not responding violently to the police, that no one was being hurt. No one was violent, but people were indeed being hurt. Keep in mind that there had been no announcement - or at least, no effective announcement. I had been in the front the entire time, less than two feet from the police. Surely I would have heard an announcement if there was one. The only announcement had been rumor. Later on, I would hear a completely unintelligible announcement from a helicopter. I could tell that it was in English. Even if I had been able to understand it, many in the crowd would not have. There were no requests to disperse. There was no warning to the crowd. There was no explanation. There was no effort to communicate. The police entered the park shooting gas or smoke canisters. People panicked, running in all directions. I saw a couple, bewildered, start walking in the wrong direction. I held up my hands and said to the police, I'm going to get those people, I am going to help those people there, and went down to them, guiding them in front of the line and towards the exit. They didn't speak much English. I continued to walk slowly in front of the police. Suddenly I saw a homeless man, sleeping under a tree. The police line approached, screaming at him. He woke up, confused. Someone with a camera tried to help him, but was beaten off. He tottered to his feet, trying to grab his suitcase and blanket. The police screamed at him. He held out his hands to them. Perhaps that seemed threatening. I saw two policemen start hitting him with their batons, one to his legs, one to his chest. I started back towards him, thinking I could put myself between him and the police, but that's all I saw, because then the police had me. I was thrown to the ground. A policeman screamed move! move!, pushing me and hitting me with the baton. John Johnson Change-Links Progressive Newspaper change at pacbell.net or change-links at change-links.org http://change-links.org Subscribe to our list server. Email change-links-subscribe at yahoogroups.com (818) 782-1412 Cell (818) 681-7448. ======================================================== May Day 2007 Statement -Cop Watch Los Angeles On May 1, 2007 (May Day), Cop Watch Los Angeles participated in the march and rally organized by MIWON (Multi-Ethnic Immigrant Workers Organizing Network) in McArthur Park. Our role during the march was to observe and document police harassment and brutality, and to defend the people in the community as well, at the request of MIWON organizers. As the police began their attack on peaceful protestors, Cop Watch Los Angeles and other community members directed families to safety, acting as a buffer between police and the people. At no point did Cop Watch LA provoke the mass beating and shooting of demonstrators that occurred on May 1st. There is no justification for the actions of the Los Angeles Police Department. In some cases, community members attempted to defend themselves as they were being brutalized, acting on their human instinct of self-preservation, by throwing water bottles or food; this level of defense is far removed from the injurious rubber bullets, beanbags and tear gas being fired indiscriminately into a park filled with thousands of people, including families, children and elders. The attack commenced when the police disturbed a sacred indigenous ceremony by plowing their motorcycles into the participants. Armed with only angry words, Cop Watch LA members and the community took on a defensive position during the assault and posed no offensive physical threat to the police's weapons and technology. Cop Watch LA does not control the imagination and will of other young people who want to take any sort of action against the police, or imitate our organization in an undisciplined manner. Our role was to defend those people and stand with them. Members from Cop Watch LA were heard saying, "We need to get children out of here, the police are about to attack." There is also video footage of members putting their bodies on the line for the people to get them out of harms way. Many organizations and media outlets have begun to place blame on youth and anarchists, asserting that throwing trash necessitates a full-scale police assault on peaceful protestors and families. Video footage from numerous angles and at several locations clearly discredits those accusations - it is unmistakable that the police are at fault. Contacts from the Mayor's office have confirmed that the attack on protestors and the community of Pico Union was pre-meditated due to the desire to test out months of counter-terrorism training and last year's embarrassment, when the LAPD could not stop the people from taking the streets. The strategy by the LAPD, the media, and even some "progressive" organizations has been to focus on Cop Watch LA as the direct cause of the May 1st incident is an attempt to get the people on the side of the state and to isolate CWLA from the communities we live in and organize in. This is the same tactics that were used by COINTELPRO (Counter Intelligence Program) to destroy organizations like the Black Panther Party, American Indian Movement, and other groups who focused on making fundamental change in society. Today as we live under the Patriot Act, these tactics of the police state continue to go after anybody who resists the status quo. We hope that organizations and individuals don't fall into the divide and conquer methods of the state. The scapegoating of anarchists today is reminiscent of 1886 Chicago Haymarket Square Massacre in the first May Day ever celebrated, where police instigated a massacre during a worker's strike. The state blamed the anarchist organizers and railroaded eight innocent people into prison and hung four (while the other committed suicide). We must also hold the organizers, organizations, and individuals who are falling into this accountable. We have to stand on the side of the people, not the police state. The mayor Antonio Villaraigosa found himself in El Salvador, on a trip, while this attacked happened right in the middle of the biggest concentration of Central American people outside of Central America. Then he has the nerve to guarantee Chief William Bratton a second term. They are both responsible for implementing this type of policing and repression that our communities are facing today. This attack is not unprecedented! It has happened before and will happen again - until we put a stop to it. In communities where populations are predominantly working class or unemployed people of color, police abuse and harassment is an everyday occurrence. For years, our communities have struggled to overcome oppression at the hands of those sworn to "protect and serve." Still, death tolls and brutality cases continue to climb in the neighborhoods of South Central, Compton, Watts, Pico Union, Maywood and Boyle Heights. Cop Watch's main goal is to put an end to the injustices that plague our streets and to oppressive institutions like the Los Angeles Police Department. We stand on the side of the people and always will. Cop Watch Los Angeles May 4, 2007 ?Ya Basta! Statement Signed and Supported by: Youth Justice Coalition, Revolutionary Autonomous Communities, Asians for Jericho and Mumia, Unity Mission to Free the 8, ================================================================= From: JGGORGEOUS at aol. com [mailto:JGGORGEOUS@ aol.com] Sent: Wednesday, May 02, 2007 7:11 PM Subject: Re: May 1 police attacks As one of the attorneys that has agreed to handle cases of people victimized by LAPD officers during yesterday's May 1 rally, I wish to address the following subjects to organizers of the event. 1. We have recruited at least four lawyers to collaborate on litigation representing victims and organizations in a class action which will seek more than just monetary damages. All of us are associated with the National Lawyer's Guild, and have lengthy experience in handling police brutality and class action litigation. The legal team will be headed by Robert Mann and Donald Cook of MANN & COOK. Their phone number will be publicly disseminated to victims, witnesses, and potential litigants. It is 213.252.9444 . They have several staff members available to interview people, including in Spanish. We may need assistance with interpreters if other languages are needed. Additionally, myself, Jorge Gonzalez ( 213.670.0063 ) and Cynthia Anderson-Barker ( 213.381.3246 ) will be on the team. Their may be others added to the list by tomorrow. 2. I will dedicate the next two days (Thursday and Friday) to be available to interview people, victims, witnesses, organizers, etc., at the offices of CARECEN. All people who have inquiries, were victimized, are potential witnesses, and who have photographic or video evidence of the events should be encouraged to contact me there. My office phone will forward calls to my cell phone ( 213.598.3278 - not for public dissemination) . I will meet at noon on Thursday with organizers as a group to discuss potential interviews by Internal Affairs or the Inspector General. DO NOT agree to be interviewed by anyone, not IA, the IG, or the media without talking with me first so that you are properly prepared. My suggestion is that all interviews be coordinated by myself so that an attorney is present and tapes each interview. 3. Everyone and every organization who has compiled a list of witnesses or victims, should forward this information to me. In other words, I will act as the liason with the lawyers and will serve as a clearinghouse for the information. We will need to interview everyone in a formal manner, and I will try to coordinate that. WE can use volunteers for this effort, and anyone interested and available should let me know. We will need to do at least a perfunctory training for this. Anyone who was present during the march should at least make an effort to write down their experiences. Do not worry about completeness, grammar, etc., the idea is to let us know who might have possible useful information. 4. Both CHIRLA and CARECEN will consider being a named plaintiff, and even if you did not suffer injuries, you may be a potential litigant also. The point to class action litigation is we intend to represent everyone who as a class (to be defined) might be injured in the same fashion in the future in any subsequent demonstration, march or rally. 5. It will be especially helpful to compile all known sources of recording of the events, particularly digital photographs and videos. We have already identified some, and people should be encouraged to provide it to us on cd. Emailing it may be alright, but I am concerned some files might be too big to exchange via internet, and a cd or flashdisk would be more practical. NOTE: for any such documentation to be useful in court, we need the identity, address, and telephone number of the person taking the photos or videos. 6. My mind is running a hundred miles an hour and I'm sure much is being left out, but I can be contacted the next couple days at CARECEN to discuss these issues more. Please encourage anyone who has information which might be useful to make an effort to contact me. Please disseminate this to all organizers, organizations, or persons of interest so that this message can get out as widely as possible. Saludos y gracias. Jorge Gonzalez A PROFESSIONAL CORPORATION Post Office Box 2739 San Gabriel, California 91778-2739 Tel. 213.670.0063 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Community Organizers Demand the Resignation of Chief Bratton. Union del Barrio and Frente Contra Las Redadas, respond to May 1st Police Brutality By Jose X May 2nd, 2007 Los Angeles, Occupied Mexico - With repeated chants of "Fire Chief Bratton" filling the air, Union del Barrio and Frente Contra Las Redadas, a collation of over 30 organizations dedicated to protecting Raza from racist I.C.E. Raids, demanded justice for all the demonstrators that were viciously attacked at the May 1st demonstration at Macarthur Park. Over 150 people gathered for the protest and press conference on a windy Wednesday afternoon in front of LAPD headquarters in downtown LA. Daniel Montes of Union Del Barrio exposed the irony of Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa being in El Salvador to sign an agreement to train police in that country, while LAPD beat peaceful protesters in Los Angeles. "Where is Mayor Villaraigosa?" demanded one of the protesters, "He must be held accountable. The police chief does not act alone, but reposts directly to the mayors office. Both Villaraigosa and [Chief] Bratton must assume responsibility for what happened." Other speakers pointed out the inherent racism within the LAPD. Ron Gochez, another member of Union del Barrio stated "If the people at the park would have been White, under no circumstance would the police have launched tear gas canisters and shot rubber bullets at men, women and children without warning." Gerardo Gomez, one of the victims that was shot with rubber bullets at the march, displayed his wounds and also demanded the resignation of Chief Bratton. "We can change the chief of police, but that will not change the system. We need to change the system!" The protest and press conference ended with chants of "Queremos Legalizaci?n No Represi?n (We want Legalization not Repression) and "Renuncia, renuncia, renuncia Chief Bratton (resign, resign, resign Chief Bratton)." The event can be best summed up by a student organizer from the Coordinadora Estudiantil de la Raza, Vicente Jimenez, who stated, "What surprises me is that I am not surprised. This has been occurring to us Mexicans since 1846 when they attacked us to take our land. This is not over yet." ==================================================================== From: dorinda moreno To: Aztlannet News Sent: Friday, May 04, 2007 8:02 PM Subject: [Aztlannet_News] MacArthur's Park is Screaming MacArthur's Park is Screaming John Calvin Jones City of Tolerance or Tokenism? In the 1970s and 1980s, Los Angeles had a Black mayor, Tom Bradley. A product of the LAPD, some of us figured that a Black mayor might help mitigate or reduce the levels of racism and abuse visited on the citizens of Los Angeles, especially the Black citizenry, by the LAPD. The legacy of Darryl Gates, the DARE program, and Rodney King's beating cured our delusions. A generation later, a broad coalition of Latinos, Democrats, activists, and wishful thinkers elected the first Latino mayor of Los Angeles, Antonio Villaraigosa. Aside from his record where the new mayor: (1) tried to usurp power and violate the State Constitution by taking over the school system - and its budget; (2) has both squandered political capital and disavowed the idea that he has commonsense by pushing for three miles of underground train-track costing billions of dollars in lieu of more and better busses; and (3) has sought to criminalize association via indiscriminate injunctions against gangs, people still had hope that Villaraigosa would be more than another impotent who would stand aside when police oppressed people of color. Do As I Say or Not Are we surprised then that on May 1, 2007, when thousands of Latinos across LA, throughout Southern California, and the nation would join together, march and talk about rights for immigrants and workers, Villaraigosa would be in El Salvador, preaching both capitalism and "advising" the Salvadorans on how to control their LA-based gangs. (In regards to the Mara Salvatrucha, perhaps Villaraigosa might confess that trade and globalization is not always good). And while the "mouse" was away, the cats in riot gear came out to play. The police force that originated SWAT teams and military-style training (i.e. kill and maim first, keep the peace and ask questions later), was in force and raided a public park - commando style. How uncanny is it for a city which still has roller skaters to also have a MacArthur Park. MacArthur Park is that title of the song made famous by the Queen of Disco, Donna Summer. In the song, MacArthur Park is a metaphor for social unrest of Vietnam, race riots, COINTELPRO and the struggles for freedom and tolerance of "hippies," homosexuals, American Indians and others. Once voted the worst Top-40 song of all-time, given the recent acts of LAPD, it is time to revisit the words to MacArthur Park, when the thick green icing is flowing down. I have taken the liberty to update the lyrics. *** May Day was never about fear Just to celebrate our lives But cops won't give us a chance MacArthur's Park is screaming from the shots All the sweet baton blows, flowing down Cops in riot gear saw a march I don't think the crowd can take it 'Cause their rights don't let them make it No those Mexicans won't never march again I recall the camera crews And the kids On the ground and running scared Tear-stained mothers clutch tender babies And the Uniforms beating heads in the breeze MacArthur's Park is bleeding after dark And the feet of Riot Cops stomping down Someone saw them beat us and the pain I didn't think that LA would do it But they got power, they abuse it And Telemundo has it all on film . -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: 55559.jpg Type: image/jpeg Size: 117551 bytes Desc: not available URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: 55560.jpg Type: image/jpeg Size: 105191 bytes Desc: not available URL: From ldxar1 at tesco.net Wed May 9 03:23:59 2007 From: ldxar1 at tesco.net (Andy) Date: Wed, 9 May 2007 11:23:59 +0100 Subject: [Onthebarricades] Unrest after Sarkozy victory Message-ID: <00bd01c79224$28a999b0$0202a8c0@andy1> [While Bush himself is losing ground on his home turf in a pretty significant way, a Bush sympathiser scores a handsome electoral victory in France negating its long-revered Gaullist legacy. What an irony!] I/II. http://direland.typepad.com/ May 06, 2007 French Election: WHAT SARKOZY'S VICTORY MEANS Sarkozy_good In the third consecutive defeat for the French left in a presidential election, NICOLAS SARKOZY (left) has been chosen to lead France with a comfortable 53.06% of the vote, as the pre-election opinion polls had predicted. His Socialist opponent, Segolene Royal, received 46.94% (ACTUAL VOTES, UPDATED MONDAY MORNING.) A whopping record 82% of French voters went to the polls today to give an unambiguous victory to the autocratic, demagogic, hard-right nationalist Sarkozy, who campaigned on promises of a "rupture" with France's mixed economy and its welfare state, one of the most extensive in Europe. The crowd in the hall where Sarkozy declared victory after the polls closed repeatedly sang the national anthem, La Marseillaise -- with its famous xenophobic refrain, "Marchons, marchons! Qu'un sang impur abreuve nos sillons!" (Translation: Let us march, let us march, May impure blood soak the furrows of our fields.) And Sarkozy's campaign was marked by incessant appeals to racism and the fear of immigrants, symbolized by his adoption of a slogan used by the neo-fascist leader Jean-Marie Le Pen, "France, love it or leave it," and by his proposal for a new "Ministry of Immigration and National Identity," which was widely criticized by the left and by anti-racist groups for amalgamating the two concepts and suggesting a fundamental opposition between the two. In fact, the campaign strategy of "Sarko," as he is referred to in France, was based onLe_pen_finger_good appeals to the electorate of Le Pen (right) and his Front National party, which in the last presidential election in 2002 had beaten the Socialists for the place in the run-off against then-president Jacques Chirac. That lurch to the right five years ago by a significant portion of formerly left voters was confirmed by today's vote, in which more than two-thirds of former Le Pen voters -- many of them from the one-time Communist-dominated working class suburbs -- went for Sarkozy, according to the exit polls. Indeed, as the weekly Le Canard Enchaine -- which has the best insider political gossip -- reported a couple of weeks ago, a Sarkozy confident of victory had already discussed his long-term political strategy for remaining in power -- for, as Le Canard revealed, heFini_good plans to integrate the Front National into his ruling UMP party in his second term, uniting the hard-right and the neo-fascist extreme right in an alliance imitating that operated by the Italian Silvio Berlusconi with the "post-fascist" Alleanza Nationale of Gianfranco Fini (right), who was Berlusoconi's vice-premier. In his victory remarks within minutes after TV declared him the winner, Sarkozy -- frequently referred to the in the French press as "Sarko l'americain" for his aggressively Atlanticist views and his sympathy for Bush -- promised a cheering audience of supporters that "the American people can count on our friendship" and that the war on terrorism "is of primary importance in the world, it is a fight that will be our fight" under his leadership. In fact, President Bush called Sarkozy within a few minutes after the polls closed to congratulate him, according to a report on France 2 public television. (At left, a widely-circulated satirical poster, based on the French title of the movie "Fatal Attraction," showing Sarkozy during a visit with George W. Bush in the White House. This famous photo was widely commented upon in France, for it shows Sarko the same height as Bush -- even though the diminutive Sarkozy is several inches shorter than the U.S. president. Sarko had worn lifts in his shoes for the photo-op meeting to make them seem of equal height. No wonder the iconoclastic centrist magazine Marianne recently portrayed Sarko on its cover as Napoleon, another tiny authoritarian.) But in reality, what Sarkozy's victory means for France is something closer to the so-called "Reagan Revolution" in the U.S. that began in 1981 the process of dismantling and destroying the institutional New Deal legacy of Franklin D. Roosevelt. Chirac was a Gaullist, and the political heritage of General Charles De Gaulle, who led France from 1958 to 1969, included a vigorously statist approach to the economy and defense of a wide series of social protection and social safety-net measures that had been instituted by the left's Popular Front government in the mid-1930s, and which were renewed and extended by post-war governments dominated by the political activists of the Resistance movement to Nazi occupation, who had a conception of government as a guarantor of economic security for all. Sarkozy is of a new generation than his predecessor Chirac and, ideologically, is not a Gaullist -- but rather Sarko is in phase with the "Chicago school" of economics led by Milton Friedman. Sarko believes in minimal government, a slimmed-down state that interferes as little as possible in the economy, an aggressively laissez-faire approach that is dear to the economic barons of the MEDEF, the French business leaders' association, whose tycoons were solidly behind Sarkozy's candidacy. Sarkozy has already promised to, in effect, abolish the ISF (the tax on large fortunes), accord more tax breaks to big business and the upper-middle-classes, and make more cuts in the state-run national health system (declared by a U.N. survey to be the finest in the world in terms of delivery of health services and quality of care.) Sarkozy's economic program is designed to help the already-privileged classes retain and extend their socio-economic position, to the detriment of the have-nots (the massive pro-Sarkozy vote in the upper-income neighborhoods today confirms that they understood Sarko's message to them.) And he has promised a major down-sizing of the civil service employed by state agencies. Sarkozy is a skilled demagogue who, on the stump, tried to give the impression (like Bush's first presidential campaign did) that he was a "compassionate conservative." But Sarkozy's so-called "compassion" is strictly rhetorical -- his concrete economic orientation is bound to deepen the gulf between the haves and the have nots, to aggravate what Jacques Chirac -- in a famous phrase from his 1995 re-election campaign -- had baptized the "social fracture." Sarko's speech tonight had accents of Petain, when he declared that his election represented "a break with the past," and that he intended "to rehabilitate work, authority, morality, respect and merit." Another odious moment in Sarkozy's victory peroration came when he proclaimed that France would no longer be a country of "repenting" -- this was a dig at Chirac, who was the first French president to apologize for the crimes committed by the Vichy French state against Jews under the Nazi occupation, and who'd sent an ambassador to apologize to the Algerians for the French massacre of thousands of civilians in the city of Setif that had triggered the bloody war for Algerian independence from France's colonial rule. It was an ugly moment in Sarko's frightening speech, and a bow to Le Pen's notorious anti-Semitism, and Sarko's "break with the past" means a closing of the books on the most unsavory parts of France's recent history. Life for the have-nots will become even more difficult under Sarkozy's hard-right, anti-immigrant, law-and-order society. He has announced "zero tolerance" for illegal immigration, has deported tens of thousands of immigrants during his two terms as Interior Minister and split up immigrant families while making it tougher for them to become French citizens. He has proposed strict minimum sentences for all sorts of crimes, thus removing all discretion from French judges, and France's already-crowded prisons will soon be overflowing with expanded, and younger, populations. French prisons, like ours, are training institutes for criminals, and by sending ever-larger numbers of young people to them for petty offenses Sarkozy will, in fact, be manufacturing new generations of hardened voyous (thugs in French.) (Above left, Sarko as his puppet character in the popular satirical TV show "Les Guignols," showing him as the Chilean dictator Pinochet. Above his head, the balloon has him saying, "Too much liberty kills liberty.") In 1986, I was in Paris during the legislative elections that made Jacques Chirac prime minister for the first time -- and the next day, the police -- who sensed that the right's victory had unleashed them -- displayed an openly hostile and noticeably new aggressive posture toward people of color in the streets. I've had reports from French friends that the same thing happened after Sarkozy's strong, lead showing in the first round of this presidential election two weeks ago. Now, with Sarkozy's election, one can expect that the forces of law-and-order will consider that all restraints on them have been removed, and it will be more unpleasant than ever to be an Arab or black in France, no matter how many generations one's family has lived there or how perfectly one speaks French. (Remember Sarkozy's hard-line program of repression during the October 2005 ghetto riots against racism, exclusion, and unemployment that had all France in flames?) Sarkozy absolutely hates the left -- in part because the Communists burned his aristocratic family's chateau in Hungary (from whence his family emigrated to France) in 1944. And, in a major campaign speech just days before the election, Sarkozy surprisingly devoted 20 minutes of his discourse to a violent denunciation of the May 1968 student-worker revolt (Sarko was only 14 at the time of that rebellion.). The heritage of May ';68, Sarko thundered, must be "liquidated." He blamed it for a generalized attitude of "laxisme," for France's having become a country "in which work has no value, in which people think they can do anything they feel like doing, in which people are lazy," and on and on. May '68 was, of course, the fountain of social ferment that led to the sexual revolution, to women's liberation and the legalization of abortion, the gay liberation movement and the eventual repeal of laws criminalizing homosexuality, the relaxation of censorship laws, and a whole series of other cultural changes that opened up a stuffy, paternalistic, arteriosclerotic French society. But May '68 was also a general strike by 11 million French workers that gained union recognition in many factories, higher wages, and that won a reinforcement of the social safety net in an agreement (negotiated on behalf of then-President Georges Pompidou by a young Jacques Chirac) that became known as "les accords de la rue de Grenelle" (the agreement of Grenelle Street). What was unstated in Sarko's anti-May '68 speech was that all that sort of thing, too, must be "liquidated." Dark days are ahead for those who love liberty, equality, and fraternity in France. (For more, see my earlier article, "Why Sarkozy Is Dangerous.") II. http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20070507/ts_afp/francevote Sarkozy goes into seclusion as France braces for reform by Hugh SchofieldMon May 7, 4:46 PM ET France's next president Nicolas Sarkozy headed to Malta Monday for a few days of seclusion with his family a day after his election triumph that promises to usher in radical economic reforms. The 52-year-old president-elect boarded a yacht on the Mediterranean island with wife Cecilia and their 10-year-old son Louis at the start of a three-day break far from the hectic post-election atmosphere in Paris, Maltese and French officials said on condition of anonymity. The family arrived in Malta on a private plane after spending the night in a Champs-Elysees hotel following Sarkozy's convincing electoral win Sunday with 53 percent of the votes to 47 percent for his Socialist rival Segolene Royal. "He has not had a day off -- including weekends -- in more than five months and he just wants a break..., Today he is the top man. I think he deserves three days to reflect on running the world's fifth-biggest power," said Francois de la Brosse, a close friend of the Sarkozys. Sarkozy, a hyperactive rightwinger who relentlessly manouevred his way to power over the past five years, had pre-planned his post-electoral break to recover from his gruelling campaigning and to mentally ready himself for France's highest office. Ahead of him is an ambitious programme to overhaul France's economy. He has vowed to cut taxes for the wealthy, trim unemployment and curb the power of the country's powerful unions. He will take over from Jacques Chirac as president on May 17. Leaders from major western powers, including US President George W. Bush and German Chancellor Angela Merkel, were quick to congratulate Sarkozy, who is expected to forge closer ties with Washington and work to raise Europe's global standing. Franco-American relations cooled in 2003 after Chirac took a leading role in opposing the Iraq war at the United Nations. British Prime Minister Tony Blair, who at times had chilly moments with Chirac, spoke of his "respect" for Sarkozy and stressed the importance of an outward-looking France. In a YouTube message in French, Blair also said: "Nicolas is someone with whom I have worked on several occasions, who I admire and who I consider a friend." Sarkozy was expected to move fast to enact his reforms. He is banking on a clear majority for his Union for a Popular Movement (UMP) party in legislative elections in June, after which he is to call a special session of the National Assembly to vote through the first stage of his programme. These include the abolition of tax on overtime, deep cuts in inheritance tax, a law guaranteeing minimum service in transport strikes, and rules to oblige the unemployed to take up offered work. On the social front he has pledged minimum jail terms for serial offenders and tougher rules to make it harder for immigrants to bring extended families to France. Before that he has the task of naming a prime minister. Former social affairs minister Francois Fillon and current Employment and Social Cohesion Minister Jean-Louis Borloo are seen as likely candidates. Tens of thousands of supporters celebrated Sarkozy's win into the night Sunday in the Place de la Concorde in Paris. "I want to say to everyone: I will not betray you, I will not lie to you, I will not disappoint you," Sarkozy told them, after declaring he would represent all the French, even those who voted against him. But violence also greeted his victory. More than 700 cars were burned overnight by gangs of youths and nearly 600 people were arrested. The scenes were reminiscent of 2005 riots in poor French suburbs in which much of the anger was directed at Sarkozy, then interior minister. Late Monday, riot police charged a group of around 500 youths protesting Sarkozy's election after they went on a rampage near the Place de la Bastille in eastern Paris, toppling motorbikes and breaking shop windows. Similar clashes took place in the same area on Sunday, and in several other cities around France. French newspapers of the left and right agreed that Sarkozy -- often attacked as a divisive figure -- had won a clear mandate for reform. "With the strong legitimacy his indisputable electoral performance gives him, the new president of the Republic can now begin his great transformation, but taking care, of course, to reconcile the French," wrote the right-wing Le Figaro. "Nicolas Sarkozy is a legitimate president, elected without rotten tricks or hesitation," wrote the left-wing Liberation. "Tough, but it's the people's will. Thatcher without the petticoats? Let us prepare ourselves..." ___________________________________________________________ Yahoo! Answers - Got a question? Someone out there knows the answer. Try it now. http://uk.answers.yahoo.com/ _______________________________________________ Foil-l mailing list Foil-l at insaf.net http://insaf.net/mailman/listinfo/foil-l_insaf.net -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Here's a new way to find what you're looking for - Yahoo! Answers __._,_.___ Messages in this topic (1) Reply (via web post) | Start a new topic Messages | Files | Photos Socialist Pakistan News (SPN) is managed by supporters of Weekly Mazdoor Jeddojuhd and Labour Party Pakistan Change settings via the Web (Yahoo! 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URL: From ldxar1 at tesco.net Tue May 22 17:07:45 2007 From: ldxar1 at tesco.net (Andy) Date: Wed, 23 May 2007 01:07:45 +0100 Subject: [Onthebarricades] BELIZE: Unrest over hospital closure, debt Message-ID: <02d601c79cce$6559d2d0$0202a8c0@andy1> http://www.belizean.com/mt-static/archives/2007/05/protesters_riot.html May 18, 2007 Protesters Riot in Belize Belmopan, Belize 18 May 2007 (Belizean.com) - Police used tear gas and rubber bullets to disperse protesters in Belmopan as the House of Representatives met to consider a bill allowing government to assume a $33 million dollar debt following the failure of the privately held Universal Health Services Hospital. Some 4 thousand protesters from the opposition United Democratic Party, the National trade Union Congress and the Belize National Teachers' Union, marched, waved banners and taunted a heavy police presence surrounding the National Assembly Building this morning. In the early afternoon, protesters began heckling and throwing stones at the heavily fortified security forces. A riot rapidly developed and police responded by firing tear gas cannisters and rubber bullets into the crowds. The tear gas entered the House of Representatives building nearby forcing the suspension of the House sitting. Several protesters and police officers were injured in the ensuing fracas. A number of arrests were reported. Many windows on government buildings were smashed by protesters and a number of government vehicles vandalised. The government of Prime Minister Musa has been rocked by several financial scandals in recent months. The latest arises out of a previously undisclosed guarantee government made for the Universal Health Services - a private hospital owned by People's United Party insiders. After the collapse of UHS, the Belize Government has now been asked by the Belize Bank to repay the $33 million dollar debt - a move opposed by most Belizeans. ============================================================== -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: belmopan-riot-squad.jpg Type: image/jpeg Size: 86905 bytes Desc: not available URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: belmopan-riot-crowd-07.jpg Type: image/jpeg Size: 83966 bytes Desc: not available URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: belmopan-riot-truck-07.jpg Type: image/jpeg Size: 86417 bytes Desc: not available URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: belmopan-riot-car.jpg Type: image/jpeg Size: 51963 bytes Desc: not available URL: From ldxar1 at tesco.net Wed May 23 15:26:20 2007 From: ldxar1 at tesco.net (Andy) Date: Wed, 23 May 2007 23:26:20 +0100 Subject: [Onthebarricades] China: local officials moderate policy in response to mass unrest Message-ID: <021a01c79d89$647c8130$0202a8c0@andy1> http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/PEK15870.htm Riot-hit Chinese county eases family planning drive 23 May 2007 06:24:33 GMT Source: Reuters BEIJING, May 23 (Reuters) - A county in southwest China where a family planning drive sparked riots last week has eased tough measures that inflamed public anger, officials said on Wednesday, but it is pressing on with efforts to cut population growth. Twenty-eight people were detained in Bobai county, Guangxi region, after hundreds of protesters fought officials and police, burnt vehicles and attacked government offices, Xinhua news agency reported, blaming resistance to family planning rules. Some locals said thousands protested. Officials in Bobai said residents were reacting against a harsh drive to rein in "excess births" imposed by Yulin city, which oversees the county. The campaign had stirred resentment among people used to ignoring national policies that usually limit families to one or, at most, two children, they said. A family planning clinic chief in one of the towns struck by the protest told Reuters that sweeping checks and fines had been suspended while the government seeks to douse public anger. "Family planning is a national policy and Yulin city has demanded that residents stop flouting laws and regulations," said the official, who only gave his surname, Luo. "There has been a lot of pressure on officials who don't understand family planning work and the situation got out of hand, but that's stopped now." China imposed the "one-child" policy from the late 1970s, and officials credit it with keeping the country's current population to about 1.3 billion and so boosting prosperity. But the rules are resented in many parts of the restive countryside where children, especially boys, are considered a safety net. Banners with stern warnings against over-sized families have been removed from around Bobai, replaced by more "neutral" slogans, the Hong Kong-based Wen Wei Pao newspaper reported on Wednesday. But Bobai remained committed to halting "excess births" in the county, said Luo. "The goal won't change, but the methods will be adjusted," he said. In February, Guangxi officials criticised the county for lax population controls, and Bobai officials launched a plan to collect "social support fees" for children born outside official limits after 1980, the Hong Kong paper reported. The official Guangxi Daily reported in March that after the "yellow card" warning, Bobai had mobilised 5,896 officials to impose family planning controls. The officials were ordered to collect at least 500 yuan ($66) in fines and at least induce one woman to have a tubal ligation -- to prevent further births -- by August, the Hong Kong paper reported. Luo and other officials refused to comment on the report. An official in the county propaganda office told Reuters that government workers had now been sent to villages to monitor residents and ease resentment about the family planning rules. She refused to give her name. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From ldxar1 at tesco.net Thu May 24 16:44:47 2007 From: ldxar1 at tesco.net (Andy) Date: Fri, 25 May 2007 00:44:47 +0100 Subject: [Onthebarricades] CAMBODIA: Police attack striking textile workers Message-ID: <015701c79e5d$849c6e60$0202a8c0@andy1> http://www.licadho.org/articles/20070522/54/index.html Riot Police Clash with Cambodian River Rich Garment Factory Workers on Strike in Phnom Penh Published on May 22, 2007 More than 150 armed riot police were called in to breakdown a peaceful strike Print version Email this news On the morning of May 21, 2007 approximately 1000 workers from the River Rich Textile Factory based in Kandal Province's Sa'ang district gathered to stage an ongoing peaceful strike and encountered more than 150 riot police ready to disperse the crowd. The workers had staged the strikes to protest the dismissal of 10 fellow workers who had planned to form a union within the factory. Those 10 workers had been dismissed in November 2006 due to their involvement in a local union and continued to be refused entry back into the factory. At around 8:30 AM, riot police fully equipped with tear gas, guns, electric batons and shields were dispatched to the factory after its owner made a complaint against the workers for instigating a strike and not coming to work. The workers had previously staged strikes the week before with each strike garnering more numbers however there was no sign of riot police or violence. While there were minor altercations between the riot police and the workers, the strike was finally broken up at around 1pm. There has since been no resolution. The River Rich Textile Factory had initially dismissed 30 workers in November 2006, for their participation in labor union elections, however after negotiations an agreement was reached on February 3 2007 to reinstate all 30 workers on April 2, 2007. Although when April came only 20 workers were allowed to return work, apparently due to the remaining 10 workers continued plan to form a union. The factory's continued refusal to reinstate the final 10 workers led to strike action in May 2007. This is not the first time factory owners have resorted to using riot police to break labor strikes. In 2006, LICADHO documented at least ten cases of labour strikes and protests stopped by authorities. Among these, similar tactics were used in October 2006 to break up a strike at the Bright Sky Factory in Dangkor District, Phnom Penh. During that incident one worker was wounded by police gun fire, a pregnant woman kicked in the stomach lost her baby, and several others were injured in the violence that erupted after 200 riot police tried to disperse the 2000 strong crowd. LICADHO urges factory owners to respect the Cambodian Labor Laws and the right of garment workers to form labor unions and to go on strike when all peaceful means of resolution have been exhausted. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: 54armed-police-break-strike.jpg Type: image/jpeg Size: 21815 bytes Desc: not available URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: print.gif Type: image/gif Size: 599 bytes Desc: not available URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: email.gif Type: image/gif Size: 624 bytes Desc: not available URL: From ldxar1 at tesco.net Thu May 24 16:24:44 2007 From: ldxar1 at tesco.net (Andy) Date: Fri, 25 May 2007 00:24:44 +0100 Subject: [Onthebarricades] FINLAND: Trials start over ASEM summit protest, + earlier stories Message-ID: <014001c79e5a$b7809110$0202a8c0@andy1> http://www.hs.fi/english/article/86+face+trial+over+Smash+ASEM+riot+/1135227475422 86 face trial over Smash ASEM riot print this The court proceedings regarding last autumn's Smash ASEM riot promise to be exceptionally massive, given the fact that no fewer than 86 people will be prosecuted. The majority of those facing charges deny having committed any crime. The trial in the Helsinki District Court looks likely to commence in the autumn. Presently, the Court is hunting for a suitable location for the unusually large trial. "Certainly, the Helsinki Court House has spaces large enough to accommodate all of the accused. However, these spaces are not actual courtrooms", district prosecutor Harri Ilander explains. Ilander estimates that the court proceedings will last for several weeks. "The length of the process depends, for example, on how many of the accused will be subpoenaed to be present in court." At least 78 of them are likely to be asked to attend the trial, as they have denied the allegations brought against them. "Eight of the accused can be interpreted of having confessed, so their presence in court is not necessarily required", Ilander elaborates. Those accused are primarily young people, although only four of them were under the age of 18 during the time of the demonstration. Among the accused are also MP and Helsinki councilman Paavo Arhinm?ki (Left Alliance) and a photographer from the Suomen Kuvalehti weekly. The photographer was present at the demonstration in the capacity of doing his job. For 24 of the accused, prosecutor Ilander is calling for the minimum of a four-month suspended sentence for violent rioting and violent resisting of a public official. The rest of those facing charges, such as Arhinm?ki and the Suomen Kuvalehti photographer, Ilander would impose fines against. Further charges will be presented for inconveniencing a public servant, illegal disguise, and resisting a police officer. One demonstrator, who had a pepper spray in his possession, will be charged for a firearm offence. Also the police suspected 86 individuals of having committed crimes in connection with the Smash ASEM riot. In each case the threshold was reached to bring charges against the individual. The incident in September of last year has prompted counter-accusations of excessive use of force and criminal acts by the police who went in to break up the demonstration. http://www.hs.fi/english/ASEM/article/Complaints+filed+on+police+action+during+Smash+Asem+protest/1135221581972 Complaints filed on police action during Smash Asem protest Chancellor of Justice and Parliamentary Ombudsman to investigate charges print this Actions taken by police during clashes with demonstrators taking part in the Smash Asem protest in the centre of Helsinki on Saturday are to be assessed by other officials. At a press conference on Tuesday, Minister of the Interior Kari Rajam?ki and National Police Commissioner Markku Salminen defended the actions of the police. Data Protection Ombudsman Reijo Aarnioas well as either Deputy Parliamentary Ombudsman Jukka Lindstedt or Deputy Chancellor of State Jaakko Jonkka will investigate complaints submitted on Monday concerning police procedures during the anarchists' demonstration. One of those detained, a photographer for the weekly news magazine Suomen Kuvalehti, was held in custody for 18 hours. The complaints concerned allegations that people were arbitrarily detained, encircled and prevented from leaving, photographed, and their personal information recorded at and nearby the Kiasma art museum and its vicinity. Police surrounded hundreds of people, limited the free movement of even more, and detained 136. Lindstedt said that at the very least, the police will be asked to provide a report on matters raised in the complaints. "It is also possible that we will make a broader study on the action of the police", he added. The offices of the Parliamentary Ombudsman and the Chancellor of Justice will agree amongst themselves, if either, or both bodies will investigate the matter. Data Protection Ombudsman Reijo Aarnio will ask the police to clarify what information the police collected on the people at the location of the melee, if the information has been recorded in some register, and how the information is to be destroyed. "I understand that passers-by and others who were not involved, were blockaded. The police took down information and photographed them. This has raised concern among people, some of whom are afraid that the information will come up during job interviews, for instance. Our purpose is to see if everything went according to law", Aarnio says. Jouko Salo, chief inspector of police in Helsinki, says that data concerning those suspected of crimes will be included in the preliminary investigation material, as is normally the case. The information on others is to be destroyed, once the investigation is completed. "The information will not end up in any registers", Salo promises. At Tuesday's press conference, Interior Minister Rajam?ki praised the actions of the police as successful. "The police decided to prepare for Smash Asem with sufficient manpower and equipment, so that as little force as possible would be needed." He also noted that objects were found in the possession of the demonstrators that had nothing to do with the protest. "It is nevertheless good that the actions of the police are evaluated and that a critical view is taken." National Police Commissioner Markku Salminen was also satisfied. He said that after rioting on the night before the First of May holiday, the police decided to make better preparations to prevent an unruly event from spreading. http://www.hs.fi/english/ASEM/article/bSUNDAY+109b+Anarchist+demonstration+corralled+by+huge+police+presence+over+100+held+overnight/1135221540413 ASEM SUNDAY 10.9. Anarchist demonstration corralled by huge police presence; over 100 held overnight Downtown Helsinki cordoned off for several hours on Saturday evening print this A huge police presence, almost unprecedented by Finnish standards, boxed in and stifled the planned anarchist "Smash Asem" demonstration and march on Saturday evening and restricted the movement of other people in the downtown area of Helsinki. Several dozen demonstrators were arrested on suspicion of malicious damage, rioting, and incitement to cause a riot. No serious injuries were reported, and the siege outside the Kiasma Contemporary Art Museum was lifted at around 11 p.m, although for some time after this there was still a heavy police presence. The "Smash Asem" demonstration began peacefully at around 6 p.m., but was unable to move on from the gathering point in the square in front of Kiasma by the arrival of around 200 riot police equipped with shields, helmets, and truncheons. Not merely the 300 or so demonstrators were hemmed in, but also passers-by on their way home, journalists and cameramen, and people who had turned up out of curiosity to see what was happening, and whether the demonstrators would make good on their website pledge to "bring at least a bit of disorder to the streets of Helsinki". There were a further several hundred police officers behind the inner ring, as well as five Helsinki City Transport buses arranged as a wall. Some of the protesters hurled themselves against the police cordon in an attempt to break through, and bottles and benches were thrown. The police reported that some of the demonstrators were armed with metal bars. The police justified the three-hour standoff situation by saying that the planned march would have presented a danger to local residents, with a risk of damage to property and the potential to disrupt the Ecofin gathering of EU ministers of finance, which was going on at the Pasila Fair Centre at the time. Initially the march was to have headed for Pasila. Eventually the authorities announced they were interrupting the protest after violent incidents and a refusal from the organisers to negotiate. A senior officer said that they had made repeated vain attempts to contact the leader of the demonstrators and get details of the route for the march. People were allowed out of the enclosed area gradually in small numbers after around an hour. Those coming out were photographed and their bags and rucksacks were inspected. Further scuffles with police took place close to the Lasipalatsi building and the Forum shopping mall. When police in the early stages urged the demonstrators to disperse there was immediate movement, and bottles and eggs were thrown. Apparently a firework rocket was also set off from outside the cordoned-off area. Those arrested, numbering in the several dozens, were taken to T??l? and Pasila police stations. Some demonstrators were carried or dragged away. Early on Sunday morning the area was empty, except for people clearing up the litter and debris. Little material damage was caused, and police reported no serious injuries on either side. The demonstrators were clearly shocked by the size of the police response, which was in stark contrast to the situation a few weeks ago during the Helsinki Festival Night of the Arts, when a couple of hundred youths and graffiti enthusiasts had surprised police completely. This time the police remained composed and did not respond to provocation from the demonstrators, though there will be many who argue that the massive response was of itself a provocative act. At a press conference on Sunday morning, police officials reported that slightly more than 100 people had been held overnight for questioning. Most are Finnish, with one or two foreigners among their number. http://www.hs.fi/english/ASEM/article/bSATURDAY+99b+Falun+Gong+most+active+protester+during+ASEM/1135221521108 SATURDAY 9.9. Falun Gong most active protester during ASEM print this Two women dressed as surgeons dig a red bundle out of the abdomen of a mannequin on an operating table. Next to them a man in a police uniform threatens to beat a handcuffed woman. The organ theft and torture performance of the Falun Gong spiritual movement in front of Helsinki's main railway station may have been the most violent sight during Friday's demonstrations linked with the summit of the Europe Asia Meeting (ASEM), which officially begins on Sunday. Friday's demonstrations involved fewer than 100 people, and no disturbances were reported. On Friday, police had been informed of plans for about 20 demonstrations to be held by Monday evening. About ten of them are being organised by Falun Gong, which will make its presence known on the streets in the coming days. The small but energetic group is holding protests, giving performances, and distributing information. According to Hannu J?rvinen, the chairman of the Finnish Falun Gong association, dozens of members of the movement have travelled to Finland from abroad to take part in the events attacking China. "I came here to support these events. It is important for people to know about the human rights violations committed by China. The Swiss media does not report on them, because China is economically so important to my country", said Aleardo Manieri from Switzerland. The Finnish Falun Gong association said that it planned to file a criminal complaint of genocide against China's Minister of Commerce Bo Xilai. The association says that he was responsible for torture and murder while serving as Governor of Liaoning Province. Genocide is considered an international crime, and can be prosecuted outside the country where the acts were committed, even if the perpetrator is protected by diplomatic immunity. Falun Gong made a similar criminal complaint in 2003 against Luo Gan, a member of the Permanent Committee of the Politbureau of the Chinese Communist Party. At that time, Finnish police began an investigation, but called it off after hearing from the Ministry for Foreign Affairs. The Foreign Ministry felt that Luo Gan's position was similar to that of a visiting head of state, which means that he could not be prosecuted. The chair of the Parliament's Legal Affairs Committee, Tuija Brax (Green), has criticised the view of the ministry. Further demonstrations will be held on Saturday in the Kaisaniemi Park, in front of the Chinese Embassy, around the Pasila site of the actual ASEM meeting in the Helsinki Fair Centre, and at the square in front of the Kamppi Center shopping mall. There is also an anarchist and anti-globalisation protest - "Smash Asem" - planned in the city centre. A heavy police presence is anticipated to ward off possible troublemakers. http://www.hs.fi/english/ASEM/article/Police+fill+streets+of+Helsinki+-+ASEM+demonstrations+start+today/1135221497601 Police fill streets of Helsinki - ASEM demonstrations start today print this It was hard to move in the centre of Helsinki on Thursday without seeing large numbers of police officers brought in to secure the upcoming summit of the Asia Europe Meeting (ASEM). Some were directing traffic, and others were securing hotels where the high-level guests are being accommodated. Police were also preparing to keep order during15 demonstrations by various groups planned in the coming days. Helsinki deputy police chief Jari Liukku says that the ASEM arrangements will be visible on the streets of the Finnish capital mainly in the large number of police - a few thousand of them - on foot. The arrangements will affect traffic in the centre of Helsinki. After three in the afternoon on Thursday, the street running in front of the President's Palace was closed to traffic, and onlookers were kept at a distance from the palace itself. Palace caretaker Allan Kahres rolled red carpets onto the cobblestones of the palace courtyard and pavement in front of it, shortly before Roh Moo-hyun, President of the Republic of Korea, arrived at the palace. Hundreds of people watched at a safe distance, as official welcoming ceremonies took place. Most of the onlookers were there by chance. The first in a series of demonstrations linked with the ASEM summit began at 9:00 Friday morning with a small rally in front of the Chinese Embassy on the island of Kulosaari organised by the Falun Gong spiritual movement, which has been banned in China. About 20 representatives of Falun Gong were on hand, as well as "a van full of police", said representatives of the demonstration. The English-language banners demanded an immediate end to the repression of Falun Gong in China. A Finnish-language sign complained of "state terror" in China. Police in Helsinki had been officially informed of plans for 15 different demonstrations linked with ASEM events between Friday and Monday. Many of them were for small events organised Falun Gong, criticising the state of human rights in China. At least two demos are planned concerning Myanmar, and issues concerning Indonesia, Thailand, the Philippines, and Cambodia are also topics of some of the demonstrations. Saturday is set to be a busy protest day. It is then that the Helsinki 2006 NGO network will hold a demonstration, which the organisers expect will attract 2,000 - 3,000 people calling for a fairer Europe. Planners of the Helsinki 2006 event promise that their protest will be completely non-violent. Police are more concerned with the Smash ASEM demonstration organised by Finnish anarchists. Organisers state as one of their goals to bring chaos to the streets. Jari Liukku says that disturbances are likely. Police estimate that Smash ASEM might attract several hundred people onto the streets, although Liukku says that the crowd could dwindle to a few dozen. "We hope that bystanders would not go into the middle of the action, or that if they do, they should understand that they are at risk of becoming involved in activities that bear the characteristics of a crime. A representative of Smash ASEM told Helsingin Sanomat that he expects between 100 and 1,000 people to take part. He also said that "some" people are coming to the event from abroad. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: printtaa.gif Type: image/gif Size: 85 bytes Desc: not available URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... 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Name: 1135221490648.jpeg Type: image/jpeg Size: 7418 bytes Desc: not available URL: From ldxar1 at tesco.net Fri May 25 18:10:45 2007 From: ldxar1 at tesco.net (Andy) Date: Sat, 26 May 2007 02:10:45 +0100 Subject: [Onthebarricades] GERMANY: Demonstrations against criminalisation of protests Message-ID: <031c01c79f32$b1c92880$0202a8c0@andy1> http://fifthinternational.org/index.php?id=187,1157,0,0,1,0 Germany: "We are all terrorists!" 10 May 2006 Thousands protest against criminalisation of Anti-G8-movement "We are all 129a!" shouted more than 5000 demonstrators in the streets of Berlin yesterday evening. Paragraph 129 is the "anti-terrorist" clause of the German Federal constitution, the Grundgesetz. On 9 May the Gereralbundesanwaltschaft (the general federal attorney) ordered about 1000 police to raid more than 40 left wing centres, bookshops and flats searching for "proof" of the "formation of a terrorist organisation" against the G8. This vicious onslaught on activists planning demonstrations against the G8 is an onslaught on the social and anti-capitalist movement in Germany. It gives a bitter foretaste, of what the German imperialist state will do when faced with a developing movement of struggle and resistance. Clearly, the aim was to criminalise activists, intimidate larger strata of people wanting to protest against the G8 and isolate the movement by branding it "terrorist". But the governments and the state's plan backfired. Thousands and thousands took to the streets, more than 5000 in Berlin, around 4000 in Hamburg. In at least another 20 towns or cities hundreds if not thousands angrily demonstrated against this outrageous assault on democratic rights. Political groups, anti-war, anti-capitalist, antifascist organisations and trade unions from all over Germany issued protest statements, press releases and called for joining the actions that evening. Demonstrations and pickets are also called in other European cities, like Vienna (today) or in London and Edinburgh (tomorrow). And these were a big, big success. They showed an important way to combat state repression and intimidation - massive solidarity action, taking the streets, turning the criminal, repressive onslaught into a political defeat for the ruling class. Arbeitermacht, German section of the L5I, and REVOLUTION participated in the demonstrations, calling for an end to all the repression and intimidation, the immediate release of all those arrested, the return of all material taken by the police, the withdrawal of all charges against the activists. Resistance against the G8 is not criminal, but a democratic duty. The GB leaders, men like Bush, Blair and Putin are war criminals and terrorists on a truly mass scale. The German government are also "terrorists" engaged in attacking our movement, supporting imperialist occupations, promoting racism; fostering neo-liberal attacks on our jobs, pensions, and social welfare. Thus when they meet in June in the Kempinski Grand Hotel in Heiligendamm, behind the usual perimeter fence and exclusion zone, guarded by a vast array of military, naval and air forces, it is just laughable to think that it is they who are the potential victims of terrorism. Rather it is those people trying to exercise the democratic freedom to assemble, to demonstrate, who the state forces will try to terrorise. The answer to such threats is to turn out in even huger numbers to combat them. The state has, by its clumsy and brutal raids, reported right across the German media, inadvertently conducted propaganda for the Anti-G8-protests from 2 - 8. June. Millions who scarcely realised that the G8 were coming now know. Let's give the exploiters and warmongers both a reception and a send-off they will long remember, with militant demonstrations and blockades! -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From ldxar1 at tesco.net Sat May 26 13:59:39 2007 From: ldxar1 at tesco.net (Andy) Date: Sat, 26 May 2007 21:59:39 +0100 Subject: [Onthebarricades] GUANGXI/CHINA: Latest on unrest Message-ID: <012a01c79fd8$c8143bb0$0202a8c0@andy1> http://www.bakutoday.net/view.php?d=37312 Tension remains high in the Guangxi region, nearly a week after thousands clashed with police over an official campaign that residents say included forced abortions, property destruction and crippling fines aimed at violators of the so-called "one-child policy." "If they continue to act like bandits then of course people are going to fight back," said a woman in the city of Shapi who gave only her surname, Liang. "The people are calm now but we are waiting to see how the government is going to deal with this," she said. She was one of many people in Shapi, the scene of fierce recent rioting, to angrily demand that authorities right the wrongs of the crackdown. Crowds of agitated residents surrounded foreign journalists waving what appeared to be typed and hand-written complaint letters and other documents related to the campaign. "We demand to know what the authorities are going to do to make up for this," said a woman surnamed Liu. She said her home was looted by local authorities who arrived to impose a fine of 24,000 yuan (3,100 dollars) for having a second child, and was one of many in the region to angrily demand justice. "We want to know if we will get our property back," she said. State media had reported Thursday that authorities put down the unrest in Guangxi, a sprawling subtropical region near the Vietnam border, but residents scoffed at that. Calm returned only because the government "work teams" carrying out the three-month enforcement blitz had withdrawn in the face of public anger, they said. "It's calm now because the work teams don't dare come out, especially after (the riots). They are afraid to come out," said a businessman surnamed Guan in the nearby town of Shuangwang. He was ordered to pay 120,000 yuan for having five children from two marriages, he said. Like many residents, he is refusing to pay. First introduced in the late 1970s amid fears of runaway population growth, China's controversial family planning policies limit urban residents to one child while allowing some exceptions for rural and minority residents. The anger felt by people in Guangxi was spurred in part by what they described as sudden enforcement of rules long ignored by officials. The official Xinhua news agency said on Wednesday that 28 people in Guangxi had been arrested for rioting after seven towns erupted in violence. About 3,000 people protested, ransacking government offices and destroying official vehicles, according to the official version, but residents in several towns say the numbers of rioters and arrests were far higher. State media has reported that teams of officials were sent to the region to investigate whether official abuses contributed to the unrest, but residents in several towns said no one had come to hear their grievances. Officials in Bobai county, at the centre of the unrest, conceded this week there may have been "problems" in enforcement methods but on Thursday blamed the violent public reaction on "behind-the-scenes instigators" manipulating ignorant villagers. A crowd of people in Shapi erupted in protest on Friday when a journalist pointed out these claims. "Wrong! That's wrong! They are the ones stirring things up," one shouted. http://edition.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/asiapcf/05/23/china.riots.ap/ China: 28 detained after 'family planning' riots POSTED: 0059 GMT (0859 HKT), May 23, 2007 BEIJING, China (AP) -- Authorities have detained 28 people after thousands of farmers rioted to protest fines levied on those who had more children than allowed under China's family planning policy, state media said. Between 300 and 3,000 people were involved in the demonstrations outside government offices at the weekend in six towns in Bobai, a county in the southern Guangxi region, the Xinhua News Agency said Wednesday in the first official account of the violence. "They verbally abused and attacked government workers and civil police," Xinhua said. "In some cases, the county government office's main gate, its walls, office equipment, documents and archives were damaged. A few people burned and damaged cars and some motorcycles." The 28 have been detained on suspicion of publicizing the demonstration, and of provoking and participating in the violence, Xinhua said. A Bobai police officer who only gave her surname, Zhang, said she was "unclear" about the incident. A man from the Bobai county government who refused to give his name said he knew nothing about the violence. The Xinhua report said the protest was triggered by unhappiness over fines that villagers said were imposed "arbitrarily and brutally" as part of efforts to control population growth in the area. It did not give any details. China's family planning policy -- implemented in the late 1970s -- limits most urban couples to one child and families in some rural areas to two to control population growth and conserve natural resources. Villagers said local regulations allow families to have two children if the first is a girl. Families are limited to one child if the first is a boy. No one can have more than two children. Critics say China's family planning policy has led to forced abortions, sterilizations and a dangerously imbalanced sex ratio due to a traditional preference for male heirs, which has prompted countless families to abort female fetuses in hopes of getting boys. Reports earlier this week said all public servants had been ordered to collect fines from people who violated the policy. If violators failed to pay within three days, their homes would be demolished and their belongings seized. One villager said some fees were as high as $1,300 -- an unmanageable amount for an area where most annual incomes were only $130. http://www.gulf-times.com/site/topics/article.asp?cu_no=2&item_no=151151&version=1&template_id=45&parent_id=25 Chinese villagers flay brutal 'one-child' blitz Published: Friday, 25 May, 2007, 01:19 PM Doha Time A woman cycles past a billboard encouraging couples to have only one child along a road leading to a village in the suburb of the Chinese capital Beijing BOBAI, China: Residents of this southern China county yesterday angrily accused authorities of forcing women to have abortions and vandalising homes in a brutal campaign to enforce birth-control policies. "Many women have been forced to have abortions. Authorities are going into their homes and destroying their homes to implement the policy," said a woman in Bobai county who gave only her surname, Chen. "The people are angry. This is not the way to carry it out." Bobai was at the heart of riots that erupted late last week across Guangxi region and saw thousands of people take to the streets in anger against local authorities' efforts to enforce China's so-called "one-child policy". Chen was one of dozens of people in the county to corroborate reports that government "work teams" had raided homes, carried out mass arrests and levied crippling fines across Guangxi, a sprawling region near the Vietnam border. Authorities had even forced women pregnant with their first child to undergo abortions merely because they had not completed paperwork required before getting pregnant, said a woman surnamed Xu, a waitress in a Bobai restaurant that was deserted at lunchtime due to fear pervading the district. "This has been going on for about three months. The one-child policy is wrong. We are totally against it. I know a woman who committed suicide by jumping in the river because she did not want to be caught by the work teams," Xu said. A feeling of palpable tension has gripped the area, where deserted roads contrast with bright red-and-white banners and billboards bearing government slogans such as: "Support the one-child policy" and "Happiness is to have one child". "Everyone is afraid to come out," Xu said. The mood was even more intense Thursday at Wang Mao, a nearby village where about 50 angry residents surrounded foreign journalists to loudly accuse work teams of beating residents and imposing exorbitant fines on violators. "Our children were sitting on the table and they barged in and turned the table over and were screaming and shouting at us," an elderly woman said over the din of angry voices. One woman, apparently aged in her 20s and holding a one-year-old child, said she was fined 30,000 yuan ($3,900) for having a second child after failing to complete paperwork that would have allowed the birth. "This is not about population control. It's about money. They just want money," one man standing alongside the woman shouted. Several villagers said residents of the area fought back, driving off work teams. "The work teams don't dare come out now," the man said. First introduced in the late 1970s amid fears of runaway population growth, China's controversial family planning policies limit urban residents to one child while allowing rural families two children if their first child is a girl. The official Xinhua news agency said on Wednesday that 28 people in Guangxi had been arrested for rioting after seven towns erupted in violence. About 3,000 people had protested, ransacking government offices and destroying official vehicles, according to the official version. But a man surnamed Wang in Bobai town said the numbers were far higher, backing up other residents' assertions that tens of thousands of people had protested. "Don't believe the government. Many, many more people than that have been arrested. This is happening everywhere," he said. "The one-child policy is correct. China has too many people. But the way they are carrying it out is wrong. It is not right to smash up people's homes and fine them." "Everyone here is against the government."-AFP http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/05/22/AR2007052201496.html Birth Control Crackdown Sparks Riots In Rural China Officials Enforce One-Child Policy With Brutal Drive to Collect Fines By Edward Cody Washington Post Foreign Service Wednesday, May 23, 2007; Page A12 BOBAI, China, May 22 -- Word came down from the central government in Beijing that it was time to strengthen enforcement of China's one-child policy. In response, people here said, birth control bureaucrats showed up in a half-dozen towns with sledgehammers and threatened to knock holes in the homes of people who had failed to pay fines imposed for having more than one child. Other family planning officials, backed by hired toughs, pushed their way into businesses owned by parents of more than one child and confiscated everything from sacks of rice to color televisions, they said. Who's Blogging? Read what bloggers are saying about this article. a.. miyublog b.. CHINA ANALYSIS c.. Heart, Mind & Strength - Blog Admin Panel Full List of Blogs (10 links) ? Most Blogged About Articles On washingtonpost.com | On the web Save & Share Article What's This? DiggGoogle del.icio.usYahoo! RedditFacebook The brutal fine-collection drive was launched last week around Bobai, 110 miles southeast of Nanning in southern China's Guangxi province. It constituted the latest example of abusive local enforcement of a policy that China's leadership says is vital to maintaining swift economic growth and spreading its benefits more evenly among a population already at 1.3 billion people. Local officials eager to meet population quotas have frequently been accused of forcing women to submit to abortions or sterilizations to keep the birthrate down. But the problem in the Bobai area was that lax enforcement of the policy over the years led to a high number of families with several children -- and suddenly the local family planning bureau wanted to collect its fines or else. "The people who didn't have money, they threatened to knock their houses down, or punch holes in the roof," a resident said. But the farmers of Bobai and nearby towns have been known since the Qing Dynasty for resistance to highhanded rulers. True to their legacy, they rose up against the collection teams, whom they decried as bandits. Backed by their sons, thousands of peasants and townspeople encircled government and birth control centers across surrounding Bobai County, residents here said, stoning riot police brought in to quell the unrest and, in some places, trashing local offices. "There was trouble in all the villages around here," said a truck driver who, like most of those interviewed, spoke on condition of anonymity to avoid retribution by local officials. Even near the main county office building, a witness said, a white banner was unfurled calling for revenge against Su Jianzhong, the Bobai County Communist Party secretary. "Crack down on the head of the bandits, Su Jianzhong," it advertised for all to see, until authorities pulled it down. The townspeople were all the more unwilling to accept authorities' demands for payment because, as frequently is the case in China, they expressed belief that local officials were generally corrupt and that the money for fines would go to line their pockets rather than into government coffers. The disorder, which rolled from village to village between Thursday and Saturday, caused a number of injuries to police and protesters, according to witnesses. Townspeople and villagers, relaying unverified reports, said an unknown number of people were killed. Several people reported seeing police carrying pistols and rifles, but there were no firsthand reports of gunfire. A witness in the nearby town of Dunbu said two dozen officials dressed in uniforms and carrying electric cattle prods barged into a small store near his house Thursday evening and demanded the owner pay an overdue fine or his inventory would be carried off. Neighbors quickly gathered around, he said, and scores of police officers were called in to back up the family planning officials. By the end of the evening, several thousand townspeople and hundreds of police were facing off near local government offices, he said, and the stones began to fly. The witness said he saw three bloodied protesters, including a primary school student, before the melee subsided and authorities imposed an overnight curfew. Similar outbreaks of violence were reported in the towns of Yongan, Dadong and Shabo, where offices were reported ransacked and police cars burned. Zhang Ming, a local official in Shabo, was among those who witnesses said were injured by the flying stones. The witnesses said local authorities and police seemed surprised by the vehemence of the townspeople's reaction. A local television report referred to those who participated in the violence as "rebels." "The police looked like they were afraid," one witness said of the clashes in his neighborhood. Who's Blogging? Read what bloggers are saying about this article. a.. miyublog b.. CHINA ANALYSIS c.. Heart, Mind & Strength - Blog Admin Panel Full List of Blogs (10 links) ? Most Blogged About Articles On washingtonpost.com | On the web Save & Share Article What's This? DiggGoogle del.icio.usYahoo! RedditFacebook The Bobai County government issued a statement saying government property was destroyed by the protesters and blaming the outburst on excessive enforcement tactics and attempts by officials to overcharge families with more than one child. By Tuesday, the area was calm except for a continued police presence in the most restive towns and the frequent passage of Public Security Bureau vehicles with sirens blipping. The way the one-child policy has been interpreted in this region of fertile rice paddies and pineapple fields, families whose first child is a daughter can try again for a son but have to pay a $375 fine for their second offspring, parents said. Those who give birth to third and fourth children have to pay progressively higher fines, residents said. But, they added, Bobai authorities traditionally have been lenient about collecting the money, realizing that farmers often face a cash shortage between crops. As a result, many Bobai area families, particularly in tradition-bound farming villages along dirt lanes cutting between paddies, have three or more children. For many of them, the new determination to enforce the rules meant financial stress, and for others financial impossibility. Chen Hua, 32, a mother of two, said she and her husband were suddenly faced with demands for swift payment of their fine. After pleading for a delay, they coughed up the money just before the May 1 Labor Day holiday. Part of the money came from Chen's earnings as a taxi driver, a trade she plies in the nearby city of Yulin for $90 a month while her husband tends the family farm. Chen said they had a daughter, now 8, but wanted a son as well. He was born six years ago, making them liable for the $375 fine that they paid three weeks ago. "It's worth it," she said. "I finally got a son. In our area, if you don't have a son, you haven't made it. In the countryside, if we don't have a son, who will take care of us when we are old?" -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: spacer.gif Type: image/gif Size: 73 bytes Desc: not available URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: 2_151150_1_248.jpg Type: image/jpeg Size: 17325 bytes Desc: not available URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: GR2007052300110.gif Type: image/gif Size: 14271 bytes Desc: not available URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: icn-talkbubble.gif Type: image/gif Size: 203 bytes Desc: not available URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: spacer.gif Type: image/gif Size: 43 bytes Desc: not available URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: pwdByTech82x18a.gif Type: image/gif Size: 578 bytes Desc: not available URL: From ldxar1 at tesco.net Sat May 26 21:34:56 2007 From: ldxar1 at tesco.net (Andy) Date: Sun, 27 May 2007 05:34:56 +0100 Subject: [Onthebarricades] NEPAL: Landless farmers protest Message-ID: <020001c7a018$61dea930$0202a8c0@andy1> http://www.telegraphnepal.com/news_det.php?news_id=1103 NEPAL: LANDLESS STAGE SIT-IN PROTEST TGW A group claiming to have been enjoying the support of more than 16 lakhs landless farmers in Nepal staged a sit-in protest in front of the Prime Minister's residence. While the landless farmers were staging their protest programs, the EPA meet was going on inside the closed doors of PM's residence. The group was demanding immediately acting upon the agreements made in the past with the Government of Nepal, formation of a land-reform commission, and abolishing previous unfair land-laws, among others. The group also said that unless the government took their demands seriously, the protest will continue. May 27, 2007 -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From ldxar1 at tesco.net Sun May 27 15:44:56 2007 From: ldxar1 at tesco.net (Andy) Date: Sun, 27 May 2007 23:44:56 +0100 Subject: [Onthebarricades] UK: Latest police-state plans condemned by Hain, LibDems, police Message-ID: <00be01c7a0b0$a79b2780$0202a8c0@andy1> http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/crime/article1848485.ece May 28, 2007 Doubts over plans for 'stop and question' Sam Coates, Political Correspondent Plans to give police new powers to stop and question anyone were in disarray last night as supporters of Gordon Brown gave the proposal lukewarm support and police leaders questioned its usefulness in the fight against terrorism. The Home Office confirmed yesterday that it was examining whether to extend a version of the "stop-and-question" powers available to police in Northern Ireland to the rest of the United Kingdom. Under the proposals, people refusing to give their names or explain what they were doing could be charged with obstructing the police and fined up to ?5,000. Tony Blair said yesterday that it would be a "dangerous misjudgment" to put civil liberties before fighting terror. But the Home Office proposals faced criticism from Cabinet members, MPs of all parties and Muslim and civil rights groups, who said that it would drive a wedge between the police and sections of the Muslim community. The proposals were outlined in a leaked letter to the Prime Minister from Tony McNulty, the Counter-Terrorism Minister. He argued that stop-and-search powers used by British police were overused, unpopular and did not enable an officer to ask individuals who they were or where they were going. He wrote: "Therefore, a less intrusive power of stop-and-question that could be used by the police in the first instance would be useful. The effect of this power should, therefore, be to reduce the number of times stop and search is used." The Police Federation welcomed proposals for police to get new powers, but said that the immediate connection to fighting terrorism appeared "abstract". Speaking on The World This Weekend on BBC Radio 4, Mr McNulty said that no decision had been taken and that legislation was unlikely to emerge before October or November. But allies of Mr Brown appeared lukewarm about the proposals yesterday, insisting that police would be allowed to stop and question someone only where officers had a "reasonable suspicion". Home Office sources insisted last night that the issue had yet to be decided. Peter Hain, the Northern Ireland Secretary and a Labour deputy leadership contender, went farther, saying the restrictions could become "the domestic equivalent of Guantanamo Bay". He told Sunday AM on BBC One: "We cannot have a reincarnation of the old 'sus' laws, under which mostly black people, ethnic minorities, were literally stopped on sight." Ed Miliband, a close ally of Mr Brown, said that he was "not in a position to judge" whether it was a good move, and Alan Johnson, the Education Secretary and another deputy leadership contender, also avoided backing the idea. William Hague, the Shadow Foreign Secretary, said: "We will listen to the proposals . . . but they have to be proposals consistent with popular consent in this country and with not alienating the people whose cooperation we need in the fight against terrorism." Nick Clegg, the Liberal Democrat home affairs spokesman, accused the Government of seeking a "police state". Shami Chakrabarti, the director of Liberty, said: "This looks like political machismo, a legacy moment." Search results 22,700 stop and searches were carried out by officers from the Metropolitan Police last year 27 led to terrorism-related arrests 1,126 arrests under the Terrorism Act 2000 between 2001 and 2006 117 of those were charged with terrorism legislation offences only 104 were charged with terrorism legislation offences and other criminal offences Source: Times database, Muslim Council of Britain -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From ldxar1 at tesco.net Sun May 27 22:49:25 2007 From: ldxar1 at tesco.net (Andy) Date: Mon, 28 May 2007 06:49:25 +0100 Subject: [Onthebarricades] US: Picketers blockade war shipping Message-ID: <013901c7a0eb$f44b4200$0202a8c0@andy1> Anti-War pickets shut down terminal of war cargo shipper in Port of Oakland, California on May 19, 2007 (Internationalist Group, section of the League for the Fourth International ) On , May 19, in Oakland, California dock workers of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) Local 10 refused to cross picket lines outside a notorious war cargo shipping firm, Stevedoring Services of America (SSA), leaving three ships idle for consecutive shifts. The picket was also called against American President Lines (APL), which along with SSA handles war materiel from the Concord Naval Weapons Station. When scores of picketers blocked the gates at the SSA terminal beginning at 7 a.m., the company eventually gave up and called off the shift. In the evening, an arbitrator ruled that this was not a bona fide "health and safety issue" and ordered the workers to go to work. However, the dock workers collectively refused. A black longshoreman insisted that there was indeed a safety issue because of the heavy police presence, and everyone there remembered how on 7 April 2003, shortly after the U.S. invasion of Iraq began, police shot pointblank at protesters and longshoremen at the same docks, injuring six ILWU members. Yesterday's picket line was called by a "popular front" coalition of antiwar groups, the Port Action Committee, rather than a labor group. PAC includes the Oakland Green Party and the pro-Democratic Party United for Peace and Justice (UFPJ). In addition, Oakland's Democratic mayor Ron Dellums sent a sympathetic letter to the PAC. But the Oakland Education Association, which is part of the Action Committee, declared it was holding an official union picket (not a bogus "informational picket line"). Union picket signs declared "OEA Says Honor the Picket Lines." And ILWU longshoremen did. The ILWU has officially opposed the war and occupation of Iraq from the outset, as have most Bay Area labor bodies. But paper resolutions have not translated into union action. In May 2006, Local 10 passed a resolution, "Strike Against the War, No Peace, No Work," calling on unions and working people nationally to "mobilize for a strike action" of 24 hours "to demand an immediate end to the war and occupation in Iraq and Afghanistan and the withdrawal of U.S. troops from the Middle East." But the resolution was buried in committee at the union's annual longshore caucus. The dock workers' action shows the depth of anger against the war in the U.S. working class and the real possibility of labor action against the war. Longshoremen emphasized the union's opposition to the war. Local 10 executive board member Jack Heyman was quoted on Oakland's KTVU (Channel 2) news saying, "I think the message is loud and clear. If longshoremen at the Port of Oakland can honor picket lines against the war in Iraq, then they can do that in other ports. And this will be the beginning of the end of the war." At the onset of the U.S.-led imperialist invasion of Iraq, British railway engineers refused to move weapons trains, and Italian rail unions joined with antiwar protesters in seeking to stop shipments of military equipment to Iraq. Labor action in the U.S. would send shock waves around the world. . Since before the war began, the Internationalist Group has uniquely called for workers strikes against the war and for transportation unions to "hot cargo" (refuse to handle) war cargo. A host of opportunist socialist groups dismissed this call as hopelessly utopian "pie in the sky." The Spartacist League, which regularly called for such workers action during prior wars, suddenly dropped these slogans on the eve of the U.S. invasion of Iraq. At the time of Democrat Clinton's bombing of Iraq in 1998, the SL dismissed the IG's call for hot cargoing, claiming the demand had no "resonance" with workers today. Yet on May 19, West Coast union dock workers were respecting antiwar picket lines and shutting down war shippers. This can be an important first step toward the mobilization of workers power to shut down the war machine, but that requires a sharp struggle against the bourgeois politics of the antiwar groups and union officialdom. The OEA calls for money for schools not for war, as if it were a matter of budget priorities, and the PAC poster made a social-patriotic pitch to "Bring the Troops Home Now, and give them the care they need." Such "peace is patriotic" rhetoric is a staple of the UPFJ, but all the antiwar coalitions make similar appeals to garner support from Democratic Party liberals. Revolutionaries and class-conscious workers, in contrast, emphasize that this imperialist war must be opposed by class war. The Internationalist Group, section of the League for the Fourth International, struggles to defeat the imperialist war abroad and the war on working people and minorities "at home." Strike action by the unions against the war will mean a direct confrontation with the government and its strikebreaking Taft-Hartley Act. This slave labor law was pushed through Congress by the Democrats at the height of the Cold War. In 2002, it was used against the ILWU on the basis that any strike would harm the "war effort." The ILWU tops buckled before the government's threats. Yet in the 1978-79 coal strike, militant miners ripped up Taft-Hartley injunctions. Thus the call for workers strikes and labor boycotts must be part of a fight to oust the pro-capitalist union bureaucrats, break with the Democrats and build a revolutionary workers party. n -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From ldxar1 at tesco.net Mon May 28 18:44:46 2007 From: ldxar1 at tesco.net (Andy) Date: Tue, 29 May 2007 02:44:46 +0100 Subject: [Onthebarricades] NEW ZEALAND: Uprising at youth prison Message-ID: <018401c7a192$f1896900$0202a8c0@andy1> http://www.stuff.co.nz/4076108a11.html Police grill 14 jail riot suspects By EMILY WATT and NZPA - The Dominion Post | Tuesday, 29 May 2007 Email a Friend | Printable View | Have Your Say Related Links . Subscribe to Archivestuff . Have your say Advertisement Advertisement Police are interviewing 14 suspects involved in the five-hour riot at Rimutaka Prison's youth wing but say it will be several days before charges are laid. Some inmates took over part of the youth unit on Saturday, saying they had a hostage, smashing property and getting on the roof. A specialist riot squad regained control. The Corrections Department says the inmates could face charges including behaving in an offensive, threatening or abusive manner, deliberately damaging property, or obstructing an officer doing his or her duties. Prison Services acting assistant general manager Susan Provan said the outcome of the police investigation would be awaited before it considered laying charges. Upper Hutt acting police area commander Pete McKay said the investigation was in its early stages. "It's a moderately big investigation. There are anything up to 20 potential offenders and a substantial number of Corrections staff to interview." An independent review by the Prisons Inspectorate will look at practices at the youth unit and compare it with others in New Zealand. It should take two to three weeks. Corrections Association president Beven Hanlon has joined NZ First MP Ron Mark's call for prison staff to be equipped with stab-proof vests and Taser stun guns. "Police have handcuffs, batons, pepper spray and stab-proof vests to keep them safe from the people they may come into contact with," he said. "Corrections officers ... only have a cotton uniform. Yet every day on every shift officers are expected to walk amongst the very people that the police may come across." Staff should also be trained in de-escalation techniques. New Zealand's jails were becoming more violent with "stabbings, riots, serious beatings and murders". Meanwhile, prison unit managers will strike from June 7 over a claimed salary cut of $4500 a year. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From ldxar1 at tesco.net Mon May 28 18:46:23 2007 From: ldxar1 at tesco.net (Andy) Date: Tue, 29 May 2007 02:46:23 +0100 Subject: [Onthebarricades] BELARUS: Protests over repression Message-ID: <018b01c7a193$2c0afad0$0202a8c0@andy1> http://www.charter97.org/eng/news/2007/05/28/flag Detentions near court of Savetski district. Riot policemen snatch national flags 13:48, 28/05/2007 Two young activists have been detained near the court of Savetski district of Minsk. They have come to support the Young Front activists. As the Charter'97 press-center has been informed by a human rights activist Iryna Toustsik, Andrus Ihnatovich and Mikhail Pashkevich were detained by policemen from a special task regiment (former riot police). They were detained in the moment the young men were behind the building of the court. Besides, riot policemen seized two white-red-white flags from the hands of protesters. Despite of that, the rally near the building of the court continues. Its number has reached 400 participants. People are chanting "Freedom!" They hold portraits of the Young Front activists who are to stand trial. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From ldxar1 at tesco.net Mon May 28 18:50:18 2007 From: ldxar1 at tesco.net (Andy) Date: Tue, 29 May 2007 02:50:18 +0100 Subject: [Onthebarricades] MEXICO: Prison uprising in Puerto Vallarta Message-ID: <019301c7a193$b76f0800$0202a8c0@andy1> http://www.eluniversal.com.mx/miami/24788.html Prison riot leaves one person seriously wounded in Vallarta One person was seriously wounded and 14 suffered minor injuries in a riot at a prison in the Pacific coast city of Puerto Vallarta - A A A + Wire services El Universal Domingo 27 de mayo de 2007 GUADALAJARA - One person was seriously wounded and 14 suffered minor injuries in a riot at a prison in the Pacific coast city of Puerto Vallarta. Luis Carlos N?jera, the public safety secretary of the state of Jalisco, where Puerto Vallarta is located, told reporters that some 500 police stormed the prison Friday night to quell the rebellion and freed four hostages. The riot broke out earlier that day and initially involved 20 inmates, who took four guards hostage, but hundreds of other prisoners joined the uprising hours later to protest against the food they are given and supposed abuse by the guards. Rioters also set fire to the library. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: boton-imprimir.jpg Type: image/jpeg Size: 1865 bytes Desc: not available URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: boton-envia.jpg Type: image/jpeg Size: 2174 bytes Desc: not available URL: From ldxar1 at tesco.net Tue May 29 21:50:45 2007 From: ldxar1 at tesco.net (Andy) Date: Wed, 30 May 2007 05:50:45 +0100 Subject: [Onthebarricades] SOUTH AFRICA: Informal traders resist police repression Message-ID: <020401c7a276$16d75580$0202a8c0@andy1> "hawkers looted stores and stoned police and vehicles while also blockading the R101" http://www.citizen.co.za/index/article.aspx?pDesc=40040,1,22 Hawkers riot in Hammanskraal JOHANNESBURG - Hawkers in Hammanskraal rioted against police who removed their stalls in front of the Kopanong Shopping Mall on Tuesday, Tshwane metro police said. Spokesman William Baloyi said the hawkers looted stores and stoned police and vehicles while also blockading the R101. Traffic had to be diverted to Bela Bela. Baloyi said the Tshwane metro police were ordered into the area because traffic and pedestrians were being obstructed by the hawkers. He said major damage was caused to a Kentucky Fried Chicken outlet, and a truck that was parked nearby. The hawkers fled after reinforcements were called. "No one was hurt during the riot and we have now managed to contain the situation," said Baloyi. One person was arrested for public violence and was handed over to the SA police in Hammanskraal. -Sapa Last updated 29/05/2007 19:09:33 -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: spazio.gif Type: image/gif Size: 43 bytes Desc: not available URL: From ldxar1 at tesco.net Thu May 31 04:07:38 2007 From: ldxar1 at tesco.net (Andy) Date: Thu, 31 May 2007 12:07:38 +0100 Subject: [Onthebarricades] ARGENTINA: More unrest over public transport delays Message-ID: <025b01c7a373$e7fa8530$0202a8c0@andy1> http://www.buenosairesherald.com/argentina/note.jsp?idContent=388822&hideIntro=true Commuters riot over train, subway delays Retiro station was the scene of violent protesting by at least a thousand people last night, after delays in the Mitre-line were announced. Earlier in the day Constituci?n station was the scene of an arson attempt and subway passengers breaking windows as they waited for the C-line train which was delayed because of an accident. At Lavalle station a person was injured after being run over by a train wagon in what police say was an attempted suicide. The subsequent delay sparked "anger among the passengers," according to a Metrov?as spokesman. Police and subway officials were able to quell the violent outbreak, the second this month after a similar incident at Constituci?n took place on May 15. At Retiro station the disturbances started after 7.00pm when several hundred people waiting for the three Mitre line trains left the platforms and chased subway employees into the information offices. Some rioters managed to get inside the office and broke windows. Almost an hour later as the situation got increasingly tense, the operator TBA announced that the trains were departing. According to the TBA, the cause of the delays was an electrical malfunction in the signal switchboard. At 8.30pm TBA announced buses to take passengers to Belgrano station from where trains departed, after which the scenes at Retiro quietened down. Ombudsman Eduardo Mondino condemned the rioting, saying "Vandalism and violence are not the way to draw attention to complaints, however justified by a poor service." Reacting to speculation that more public transport companies may be intervened by the government, Mondino said that "Taking decisions after acts of vandalism and calling it 'listening to the people' is demagoguery that perpetuates violence." -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: spacer.gif Type: image/gif Size: 43 bytes Desc: not available URL: From ldxar1 at tesco.net Thu May 31 04:09:05 2007 From: ldxar1 at tesco.net (Andy) Date: Thu, 31 May 2007 12:09:05 +0100 Subject: [Onthebarricades] CHINA: More unrest over one-child policy Message-ID: <026201c7a374$1b7d7890$0202a8c0@andy1> http://www.kentucky.com/524/story/83556.html Rural Chinese riot over one-child policy By ANITA CHANG Associated Press Writer BEIJING -- Protesters broke into government offices, destroying furniture and setting vehicles ablaze in the second known outbreak of violence this month over China's strict family planning policies, local officials and state media said Wednesday. The latest riots erupted Tuesday in rural parts of the southern region of Guangxi, apparently in the mistaken belief that the government was reducing its fines for violating family size limits, the Xinhua News Agency reported. China fines couples who have a second child $1300, a means of population control that represents an exorbitant sum in an area where most annual incomes are only $130. In the town of Yangmei, several thousand people ransacked the main government office, a local official said. Xinhua said official vehicles were set on fire. About 100 police were called in, and some protesters were injured or detained, said the official, who refused to give his name. In Lingshan, residents smashed government office building windows, and police later arrested some protesters, said a town official, who only gave her surname, Li. A generation after being imposed, China's population control policies continue to engender anger and resentment, especially among the largely rural country's farmers. Under the regulations, most urban couples are limited to one child, while in many rural areas, couples are allowed two, especially if the first child is a girl. Yangmei and Lingshan, both in Rongxian County, were reported calm Wednesday. The protests were the second over family planning to strike Guangxi recently. A week and a half ago, thousands rioted in another county, leading to the detention of 28 people. In the latest case, the catalyst was a purported government document said that fines for having a second child would be reduced to a few dollars from the current minimum of $1,300. Xinhua cited county officials as saying that the document was fake and that current penalties levied against residents were in line with regulations. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From ldxar1 at tesco.net Tue May 29 21:48:23 2007 From: ldxar1 at tesco.net (Andy) Date: Wed, 30 May 2007 05:48:23 +0100 Subject: [Onthebarricades] FINLAND/GERMANY: Sailing ship heads for G8 protests Message-ID: <01ff01c7a275$c2364b80$0202a8c0@andy1> http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2007/05/371796.html A sailing protest heading towards Rostock s/v Estelle | 28.05.2007 21:13 | G8 Germany 2007 | Globalisation The Finnish Fair Trade sailing ship Estelle, running on windpower and locally produced biodiesel, left Helsinki on Sunday after 8 pm accompanied with an anti-G8 demonstration. The journey to Rostock takes more or less one week - depending on the wind. In Rostock, the vessel campaigns for a fairer world and serves as one of the venues for the G8 alternative summit. Support 2nd June G8 Demonstration S/v Estelle's campaign tour of the summer 2007 started in Helsinki, where the ship participates in the World Village festival, the biggest multicultural city festival in Finland. Estelle's tour promotes Fair Trade and highlights the links between environmental sustainability and social justice in particular. The first stop after Helsinki will be Rostock, where Estelle participates in the alternative summit that takes place parallel to the official G8 meeting in a close-by holiday resort of Heiligendamm. "The diversity of the planned seminars, workshops and other events is truly inspiring. New forms and practices of social organization, democratic decision-making and alternative economics are growing from the grass-roots level. Rostock will be one of the places where these initiatives meet. The events are not only for protesting, but for creativity and for building up a better world" comments Jyri Jaakkola, responsible for Estelle's own workshop on Fair Trade and social self-organisation, which will be organised together with the German Caf? Libertad collective, an importer of Zapatista coffee from Mexico. The alternative summit is organised by a wide platform of NGOs and social movements. Along with the panels with invited speakers, there will be over 120 workshops, part of which take place at Estelle. Moreover, the movement that seeks alternatives for the G8's neoliberal policies is presented in various informal meetings and actions ranging from demonstrations to concerts and other cultural events. Among the many issues dealt with during the summit days, Fair Trade, developing country debt and ecological sustainability are on top of Estelle's agenda. The interconnectedness of the issues is clarified with the concept of ecological debt. "All the debts of the developing countries have already been paid, because the Northern models of consumption and production are built on the exploitation of cheap resources from the global South. Our lifestyle causes destruction of local livelihoods in developing countries due to wastes, pollution, degradation of ecosystems and climate change. The debt question is more meaningful when we ask, how much we, the industrialized countries, owe to the global South for the environmental destruction we have caused" says Elina Toivonen, the tour co-ordinator sailing with Estelle. Besides participating in workshops and public debates, the Estelle crew is engaged in promoting ecological sustainability and social justice through practical work and daily choices. The ship has been renovated into sailing condition over the years largely by volunteer work and recycled materials. She has also delivered a cargo of 300 m2 of humanitarian aid to war-mangled Angola bringing back locally produced handicrafts and cultural items. During the on-going summer tour, Estelle gives a practical example encouraging the use of renewable energy. The ship runs on windpower and biodiesel produced by Finnish small-scale producers. "Biofuels do offer one way of fighting against the climate change. However, there is a great risk of the business being dominated of by big transnational corporations, which create a lot of other environmental and social problems especially in developing countries," says Jaakkola and continues: "To become sustainable, the production of biofuels must be controlled by local communities and targeted towards local needs, not driven by search of profits on world markets. Otherwise they just increase our ecological debt to developing countries." More information on the G8 alternative summit: www.g8-alternative-summit.org - - s/v Estelle in a nutshell - - Estelle is a Finnish sailing ship specialized in Fair Trade and development co-operation purposes as well as awareness-raising on related issues. Between mid-eighties and mid-nineties, she was renovated practically from a wreck into sailing condition largely by volunteer work and using recycled materials. In 2002, she visited Angola delivering a cargo of humanitarian aid and bringing back handicrafts from local small-scale producers. Estelle is 53 meters long and has a cargo capacity of 220 tons / 317 cubic meters. She is the biggest sailing ship operating as a merchant vessel in Europe. This makes her one of the most environmentally sound means of transportation when crossing seas - as well as a great tool in reaching people directly in awareness-raising purposes. s/v Estelle e-mail: project2007 at estelle.fi Homepage: http://www.estelle.fi -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: 371797.jpg Type: image/jpeg Size: 23404 bytes Desc: not available URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... 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