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News :: Globalization |
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Two Reports on anti-WTO demonstrations in Hong Kong |
Current rating: 0 |
by various sources, via Paul Kotheimer
Email: herringb (nospam) prairienet.org (unverified!) |
13 Dec 2005
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Demonstrators have amassed against the latest round of World Trade Organization talks, taking place in Hong Kong this week.
Here are two reports. Great photos can be found at the New Zealand IMC site. |
source:http://indymedia.org.nz/feature/display/40168/index.php
A-IMC reports:
Demonstrations against the 6th World Trade Organisation (WTO) Ministerial kicked off on Sunday in Hong Kong with a march with over 4,000 workers, farmers, migrant workers chanting "kong yee sai mau" (No to WTO!). On Tuesday another demonstration, which included 1,500 South Korean farmers, took place. "We will continue to struggle because we want to survive. The WTO is trying to kill us," a speaker from Via Campesina, an international movement of peasants, announced to the crowd. 200 Korean farmers also jumped into the cold water of Hong Kong harbour to reach the Convention Centre where the Ministerial Conference is deciding their future.
Korean protesters charged the police line that blocked the road to the convention center on the demonstration on Tuesday. They dismantled the funeral pyre prop they had been carrying throughout the march, lit the two-by-fours on fire and ran for the police line. Other protesters joined in, launching empty water bottles and other small objects at the police, who responded by spraying the crowd with a thick, orange, foaming substance that triggered reactions similar to those caused by pepper spray.
The capitalist media in New Zealand reports that Trade Negotiation minister "Jim Sutton is in the power centre that is running the negotiations." He was invited "to take part in the confidential inner-circle World Trade Organisation discussions" which blatantly shows the current government's commitment to neo-liberal policies. A anti-WTO concert was really successful in Wellington with Food not Bombs serving free food.
source: http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=05/12/13/1524248
Democracy Now! reports
Protests Mark Start of WTO in Hong Kong
In Hong Kong the World Trade Organization ministerial meeting has opened up amid mass protests. At the center of the demonstrations have been a group of farmers from South Korea. Members of the group tried to gain access to the WTO meeting by swimming through Victoria Harbor. In the streets, police fired pepper foam to block demonstrators from getting near the ministerial meeting. About 15 activists were able to make it inside during the opening address of WTO Director General Pascal Lamy. The demonstrators unveiled signs reading "The WTO Kills Farmers" and "No to the WTO." Critics of the World Trade Organization charge the WTO has undermined democracy around the world by promoting the trade agenda of multinational corporations.
Jose Bove, French farmer and activist: "Today, the opening of markets is a real danger for most farmers in the south and the north. That's why the trade talks are a delusion and we oppose the European agricultural policy and the U.S. one which are still hiding their export subsidies." |
This work is in the public domain |
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Re: Two Reports on anti-WTO demonstrations in Hong Kong |
by Just a guy
(No verified email address) |
Current rating: 0
16 Dec 2005
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That's not a PROTEST...
...that's a RIOT.
It's no wonder most people put very little stock in so-called "progressive" interests.... |
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Re: Just a Guy |
by thom pain
(No verified email address) |
Current rating: 0
09 Jan 2006
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Like the Boston Tea Party? Lexington and Concord? Remember, anyone who opposes authoritarian regimes, like the so called founding fathers, are labelled _terrorists_ by the fascists to make thier concerns seem _illegitimate_ . |
