Chinese Workers Fight Back
In early July over 4000 workers at the Mianyang Silk Printing Factory in Sichuan province took to the streets after their factory went bankrupt and managemers stole their unemployment money. Workers built barricades and blocked traffic for two days before their action was crushed by police. In March 20,000 textile workers in Nanchong besieged city hall for 30 hours before their demand for payment of back wages was met. For the past five years the number of strikes in China has increased dramatically. In the first half of ë96 there were 4000 strike actions. This year the number of labor disputes has increased by 59%. Job securities that had existed under the previous socialist (state capitalist) system are rapidly being eroded as China integrates with the rest of world capital. Strikes are banned in China and unions are strictly controlled by the Communist Party. Chinese workers can expect more hardship. Last month president Jiang Zemin promised massive layoffs as China privatizes most of its state owned industry.
3,000 Italians Hijack Train to Amsterdam
In Amsterdam 50,000 people marched this June against European capitalist unification, turning the city ìinto a sea of red and black.î A section of the march, which coincided with a meeting of European Union leaders, turned over a police bus, broke bank windows and battled police. Several days before, the Summit authorities decided to remove the remaining European Union flags after three-quarters of them had been stolen. It seems that several local squatter bars had offered free beers for each captured flag. Attending the march were several thousand Italians who had taken over trains in Rome and Milan. ìWe demanded free transportationî and to be able ìto pass through different countries without revealing our identity, this was an act of solidarity with undocumented workers and to assert our right to free circulation as individuals.î Marchers were protesting austerity measures imposed by states to qualify for the European single currency.
Police Murder Sparks Nashville Riot
Nashville, TN: On August 10, hundreds of angry people threw rocks and bottles at police after they shot to death Leon Fisher. Fisher, a 23 year old Black man, was being chased by the cops for speeding when he pulled into a housing project. According to witnesses he was then chased down on foot and, after being beaten, pepper sprayed and handcuffed, was shot by Sgt. Randy Hickerson who is white. Hours later police returned to find a nearby Dollar General Store looted and in flames.
Lorenzo gets messed with
down under
In July Lorenzo Komboa Erwin was arrested by Australian immigration police after arriving in the country for a speaking tour. Komboa, an anarchist and former Black Panther was convicted in 1969 of hijacking a plane to Cuba in order to escape from a U.S. counter-insurgency which left many Black Panthers dead. Under pressure from racist politician Pauline Hanson who attacked Komboa as ìa known terrorist and gunrunnerî who ìwill only incite racial hatred and violenceî, Prime Minister John Howard ordered him arrested and summarily deported. After his arrest immigration police slammed him head first into a wall, breaking his glasses then dragged him by the handcuffs giving him ìfirst hand experience of what it is like to be blackî in Australia where up to 1,000 Indigenous Blacks have died in jail. Komboaís lawyers appealed the deportation to the High Court, saying he had been denied his right to answer the governmentís allegations. In a precedent setting case, the court agreed and ordered the government to restore the visa and pay all legal costs. After his release Komboa spoke to 7,000 people at an annual indigenous celebration and was warmly received. Because of widespread racist violence against Indigenous australians, Native communities are calling for an international boycott of the 2000 Olympics to be held in Sydney.
German Cops raid Zine
Berlin, On June 12 print shops, private apartments, and the offices of the ìAnti Racist Initiativeî were raided by 500 cops attempting to find the editors of ìInterimî, Berlinís weekly autonomist magazine. Cops broke down doors seized 750 copies of the current issue, 16 computers, 2,000 diskettes and disassembled printing presses. Many Berliners suspect that the ìentire action was designed to gain insights and overview into leftist collective houses.î For the past nine years the Interim has provided autonomists in Berlin and beyond an open forum for information and discussion. This attempt to criminalize the Interim ostensibly because it ìrewards and approves of criminal actsî is just the latest action of the German state against resistance media.
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