Society's Child

China: Activists Arrested; Regime Fears Protests Like Those in Middle East

Agence France-Presse
Sun, 20 Feb 2011 13:04 UTC

© AFP
Police officers stand guard near a restaurant which was a planned protest site for 'Jasmine Revolution' in Beijing.

Beijing - Several top Chinese rights activists have disappeared into police custody as a web campaign urged angry citizens to mark the Middle East's "Jasmine Revolution" with protests, campaigners said Sunday.

Up to 15 leading Chinese rights lawyers and activists have disappeared since Saturday amid a nationwide police mobilisation, according to activists, while the government appeared to censor Internet postings calling for the demonstrations.

"We welcome... laid off workers and victims of forced evictions to participate in demonstrations, shout slogans and seek freedom, democracy and political reform to end 'one party rule'," one Internet posting said.

The postings, many of which appeared to have originated on overseas websites run by exiled Chinese political activists, called for protests in Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and 10 other major Chinese cities.

Protesters were urged to shout slogans including "We want food to eat", "We want work", "We want housing", "We want justice", "Long live freedom", and "Long live democracy".

US: 70,000 demonstrate at Wisconsin capitol for workers' rights - Tea Party counter-rally rides out to meet them!

D. Abner, K. Dolak, C. Bury & O. Katrandjian
ABC News
Sun, 20 Feb 2011 12:03 UTC

As protest in Wisconsin stretch into its sixth day on Sunday, union members and supporters are have begun to arrive in both Madison and Green Bay, where a smaller pro-union rally will take place outside Packers Stadium.

Meanwhile, Governor Scott Walker said that the state Democrats senators who have fled Wisconsin to protest a vote on his controversial legislation to reduce public employee bargaining rights have "failed to do their jobs," and that he expects then to concede this week.

"If you want to participate in democracy, you've got to be in the arena, and the arena is right here in Madison, Wisconsin," Walker said on "Fox News Sunday.

"My hope is that cooler minds will prevail and by some time earlier this coming week they'll show up for their job," Walker added. "Democracy is not about hiding out in another state. It's about showing up here in the capital and making the case there, and for us, we're willing to take this as long as it takes."

More than seventy-thousand protestors descended on Wisconsin's capitol yesterday, angry at Walker's bill to slash their union benefits and eliminate bargaining rights, a plan that has the backing of the Republican controlled state Senate. Pro-union protesters were joined by supporters of Walker's bill -- many of them bused in by tea party groups -- who support efforts against the 14 Democratic state senators who are hiding in Illinois and preventing the bill from coming to a vote on Tuesday.

U.S. Protests, Teacher Walkouts Mount in Wisconsin. Milwaukee Schools Closed

Tom Eley
World Socialist Web Site
Sat, 19 Feb 2011 12:08 UTC

The movement of Wisconsin workers and youth against budget-cutting and attacks on government workers continued to spread on Friday, with tens of thousands more teachers and students walking out of their classrooms, while the major demonstration in Madison continued unabated.

Demonstrations that began on Monday with an unexpectedly large march of 1,200 University of Wisconsin graduate and undergraduate students have since drawn hundreds of thousands more into struggle. The crowd surrounding the capitol building on Tuesday grew to between 13,000 and 20,000, and demonstrations have been estimated at between 20,000 and 30,000 on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday. A major demonstration is also expected today.

Friday may have been the largest demonstration yet. Buses brought an estimated 11,000 students and university workers to Madison from the University of Wisconsin campuses at Milwaukee, Eau Claire, La Crosse, Superior, River Falls, Green Bay, and Stout, while teachers and government workers continued to arrive in large numbers.

Update: Libya death toll tops 173, says Human Rights Watch

Raw Story
Sun, 20 Feb 2011 12:00 UTC

Human Rights Watch said Sunday that the countrywide death toll in Libya had reached 173.

Local residents told Al Jazeera that 200 people had died in Benghazi alone.

Tripoli - The death toll has topped 100 from an iron-fisted crackdown on protests in east Libya, Human Rights Watch said, as demonstrators on Sunday again braved the streets of the restive city of Benghazi.

Speaking to Al-Jazeera television on a patchy telephone line, a Benghazi resident warned that the flashpoint city was turning into a scene of "out of sight massacres".

"It feels like an open warzone between protesters and security forces," said Fathi Terbeel, a protest organiser in Benghazi. "Our numbers show that more than 200 people have been killed ... God have mercy on them."

Shock video: Bahrain's army deliberately murders peaceful protesters with automatic weapons

shaffeem
YouTube
Fri, 18 Feb 2011 11:22 UTC

Bahrain protesters gunned down in streets.

'Scumbag!': Judge behind 'cash for kids' scheme gets an earful

Raw Story
Sun, 20 Feb 2011 10:41 UTC

In the trials of those behind the "kids for cash" scheme discussed in Michael Moore's film Capitalism: A Love Story, one recently convicted judge, who sentenced countless innocent children to a private juvenile detention center, recently got an earful from a furious mother whose son committed suicide.

This video is from CNN, broadcast Feb. 19, 2011.

Dictators are "Disposable": The Rise and Fall of America's Military Henchmen

Michel Chossudovsky
Global Research
Sun, 20 Feb 2011 07:27 UTC

History Repeats Itself? From the "King of Java" to the Pharaoh of Egypt

From Suharto to Mubarak: History Repeats Itself?

President Suharto of Indonesia was deposed following mass protests in May 1998.

The Western media in chorus pointed to "democratization": the "King of Java" had been deposed by mass protests, much in the same way as Hosni Mubarak, described by today's media as "The Pharaoh of Egypt".

The 1997 Asian Crisis

The 1997 Asia financial crisis which served to impoverish millions of people was instigated by institutional speculators. It was a process of deliberate market manipulation. It consisted in destabilizing national currencies, through "short selling".

The Indonesian rupiah was destabilized, food prices skyrocketed, real wages collapsed by more than fifty percent. Nike workers in export manufacturing were receiving $45 a month before the crisis. In the wake of the devaluation of the rupiah, their wages plummeted to less than $20 a month.

Libyan revolt death toll put at 200

Press TV
Sun, 20 Feb 2011 07:11 UTC

Nearly 200 Libyan demonstrators are feared dead following government crackdown on protesters in five days of pro-democracy revolt against the 42-year rule of Libya's Moammar Gaddafi.

UK's Independent newspaper reported Sunday that government crushing of the protests in the eastern Libyan port city of Benghazi has left up to 200 people dead.

Earlier reports put the death toll from the anti-government uprising at 100 people.

Libya's crackdown on massive demonstrations turned bloodier as government forces opened fire on protesters in Benghazi on Saturday, leaving at least 15 people dead.

Medics said snipers opened fire on thousands of people on Saturday as protesters gathered to mourn the 35 protesters killed by security forces on Friday, Associated Press reported.

In addition to the 15 killed, scores more were reported wounded during the Saturday violence. Moreover, many of the victims in the incident are reported to have been hit in the head.

Images: Revolutionary fever inflames the Muslim world

The Guardian
Sun, 20 Feb 2011 06:21 UTC

Bahrain's uprising enters eighth day

Press TV
Sun, 20 Feb 2011 06:15 UTC

Protesters celebrate after reaching Pearl Square in the Bahraini capital of Manama.

Bahrain's pro-democracy uprising has entered its eighth day, as thousands of protesters camped out at Pearl square in the capital city, Manama.

Inspired by popular revolutions in Tunisia and Egypt, Bahraini demonstrators say they will stay in the square until the regime collapses, Press TV correspondents reported.

Bahrain's opposition movement led by Shia ex-lawmakers is expected to hold talks with Crown Prince Sheikh Salman bin Hamad al-Khalifa to put demonstrators' demands before the heir to Bahrain's king.

The army withdrew from the square on Saturday following an order by Crown Prince Salman, who is leading a national dialogue after days of a massive uprising that has left six portesters dead and hundreds wounded.

Tension is running high in the streets of Manama despite the crackdown and heavy police presence.

The government has violently cracked down on demonstrators demanding an end to the monarchy.