International
Thousands protest over chemical plant in China
Thousands of protesters faced off with riot police in northeast China to demand a chemical plant be relocated after a toxic pollution scare sparked urgent evacuations, state media said. Residents in the port city of Dalian gathered in front of the municipal government’s office, shouting demands as hundreds of police looked on, the official Xinhua news agency reported.
Indian PM vows ‘strictest action’ against graft; New Hunger strike planned by campaigner
India’s embattled prime minister said his government was taking the “strictest possible action” to stamp out corruption after a string of recent scandals. “We are taking the strictest possible action in cases of corruption that have surfaced,” Manmohan Singh said from the ramparts of New Delhi’s 16th-century Red Fort in an Independence Day speech on Monday.
Police fire teargas at Tunis protest
Tunisian police fired teargas on Monday at a rally by hundreds of people protesting at the lack of political reforms since the overthrow of President Ben Ali in January. Columns of smoke could be seen rising above an area in front of Tunis cathedral where protesters gathered for a demonstration at the same time as an authorised one called by the General Workers’ Union.
Blackberry vs. rioters
Concern that social networks to be targeted as BlackBerry helps British police identify rioters.
RWB is worried about cooperation between Research in Motion (RIM), the Canadian manufacturer of the popular BlackBerry smartphone, and the British authorities in the wake of this week’s rioting in London and other cities in which,
Chilean Students on Hunger Strike
When Mahatma Gandhi resorted to the use of hunger strikes as a tool of non-violent struggle, denying himself any form of food in order to demand freedom for his people in front of the British Empire which was colonising India, he was massively supported by the clamour of his people who knew – in the India of that day – what it was to suffer hunger.
Myanmar’s Suu Kyi set to make first political trip
Myanmar’s democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi is on Sunday set to make her first political trip outside her home city since she was freed from house arrest, despite a government security warning. Suu Kyi, who was released from seven straight years of detention days after a controversial election last November, will visit the Bago region, about 80 kilometres north of Yangon.
15-M: Notes on Nonviolence
To speak of nonviolence obliges us to review what we understand by violence. The great backing received by the 15-M movement in Spain is due, apart from their demands, to the fact that their actions and protests are peaceful and non-violent. Nevertheless, we still don’t know very well what nonviolence as a methodology of social struggle is.