news from the streets of Hong Kong
Globalise Resistance | 15.12.2005 23:02 | Globalisation | Social Struggles
Protests relentless, meetings and rallies too.
As I write about five hundred Korean peasants are making very slow progress towards the convention centre. They are marching three steps and then lowering to their knees and bowing their heads to the ground. It's spectacular, obviously very painful and has most of the Wan Chai district of Hong Kong watching in silent amazement. There's been quite a fractious relationship between the Koreans and the press, as I've mentioned before, so as a gesture of good will the Korean farmers leaders invited the press to join this protest, interestingly I didn't notice any takers - but I hope I'm wrong! The organisers of this march issued instructions for people wishing to join the protest. They advised the purchase of a few sanitary napkins to tape to your knees and were handing out gloves to anyone who wanted them. After a twenty minute session of marching and bowing, they all stop for a rest and lie on their backs for five minutes. No doubt the papers will be carrying pictures of this curiousity tomorrow.
I obvious had an important blog to post which unfortunately prevented me from participating in this march - and I'm really gutted about that.
Yesterday saw a demo organised by Jubilee South amongst others which toured the embassies and consulates in HK. It ended at the convention centre where another confrontation occured, again Korean farmers and the cops. During the confrontation they managed to relive the cops of 15 riot shields (quite an achievement in itself). The farmers stacked the shields neatly out of the way and when thety decided they were done with that action, politely handed the police back their gear. These actions are making it very clear to the press, the rest of the movement and a much wider audience that their enemy is solely the WTO.
I attended a meeting on alternatives to the WTO in the morning yesterday, an interesting discussion and a debate about what should follow the WTO. I think back a few years and there was a debate about can the WTO be reformed into a useful and beneficial organisation, that's been completely settled and there's not even an echo of that debate now, it's all about what comes after the WTO is got rid of.
Given that the world survived without the WTO until 1995, and shortly before that, most trade was organised through local agreements, I tended to agree with Walden Bello who argued that it was best not to replace the WTO with a centralised trade system, even one based on fair trade. It would be better to have regional systems of checks and balances. Only that way could poorer countries have policy freedom required to develop. the destruction of the WTO would not lead to chaos, rather space for countries to decide and make strategy.
No matter what the playing field is, no matter how level, the strong western nations and imperial interests will continue to be bullies.
After that meeting I got talking with Carmen Buena, a peasant woman from Pampanga, Philippines and chairperson of Amihan, a national federation of peasant women in the Philippines. She also introduced me to Zen Soriano, the vice-chairperson of the federation. They'd sent five people to HK, from an organisation of 24,000 women faremrs mostly growing rice, coconuts, onions and garlic. Most of the women in their organisation are all too aware of the WTO, and have been suffering it's effects for 10 years (they also run extensive education programmes). Given the import of cheap rice mass produced in Thailand, Vietnam and the US, they were being undercut in price and forced into debt. The interest being charged on the loans they have taken varies between 8 and ten percent per MONTH. Their best quality rice is sold at a price determined by the traders and for standard quality produce they get just 4 pesos a kilo. In an echo of our own UK govermnment, the philippino authorities conduct 'consultations' and then press ahead with their pre-determined policies anyway.
Now the advice from government is change the use of your land - a brilliant solution for a tenant farmer, who are getting evicted in large numbers as farms close to the coast are getting turned into resorts, and some further inland are becoming golf courses - just what this planet needs! as a result the peasants move to the urban centres in search of work, ending up being referred to as "Gilids" meaning 'sides' - the people who live on the sides, the side of the road, the side of the railway, the side of the city and of the corporate world. despite knowing many peoople in this situation Carmen and Zen have a good laugh at this common joke, as they write the word down for me.
One other new land use is mining, the open cast method for tin, copper and gold with the environmental tradegies that this brings, ruining the land forever, creating an eyesore and leading to flooding and irrigation nightmares.
But the Philippino government isn't oppsoed to farming - it actively encourages it. It's now GIVING land over to agri-business, with Del-Monte, Dole and Nestle getting huge plots to start up plantations, production ready for competition on the world market, and in accordance with the policies and priorities of the WTO - nice, you never know Carmen might be able to get a job on a plantation after she's forced from her tiny few acres of land.
That's if she can manage to evade the security forces who set up a little headquarters close to her home in April 2003 - part of a pattern of targeting activists and union leaders. Many leaders have been attacked and injured of killed, it's a constant concern for Carmen.
I asked Zen if she'd like to send a message to activists and campaigners in the UK. She said
"We are asking the support of other countries to join us in our call to junk WTO. The WTO makes farmers lives miserable. 10 years is enough, the WTO has to get out of our lives, our government should look after our people and not the big business."
I found myself thinking 'you can't argue with that'.
I'm going to catch up with the march and bow event before it gets to the convention centre - it's probably progressed a good 500 metres since I started typing this.
Guy Taylor
more reports at:
http://www.resist.org.uk/globblog/
As I write about five hundred Korean peasants are making very slow progress towards the convention centre. They are marching three steps and then lowering to their knees and bowing their heads to the ground. It's spectacular, obviously very painful and has most of the Wan Chai district of Hong Kong watching in silent amazement. There's been quite a fractious relationship between the Koreans and the press, as I've mentioned before, so as a gesture of good will the Korean farmers leaders invited the press to join this protest, interestingly I didn't notice any takers - but I hope I'm wrong! The organisers of this march issued instructions for people wishing to join the protest. They advised the purchase of a few sanitary napkins to tape to your knees and were handing out gloves to anyone who wanted them. After a twenty minute session of marching and bowing, they all stop for a rest and lie on their backs for five minutes. No doubt the papers will be carrying pictures of this curiousity tomorrow.
I obvious had an important blog to post which unfortunately prevented me from participating in this march - and I'm really gutted about that.
Yesterday saw a demo organised by Jubilee South amongst others which toured the embassies and consulates in HK. It ended at the convention centre where another confrontation occured, again Korean farmers and the cops. During the confrontation they managed to relive the cops of 15 riot shields (quite an achievement in itself). The farmers stacked the shields neatly out of the way and when thety decided they were done with that action, politely handed the police back their gear. These actions are making it very clear to the press, the rest of the movement and a much wider audience that their enemy is solely the WTO.
I attended a meeting on alternatives to the WTO in the morning yesterday, an interesting discussion and a debate about what should follow the WTO. I think back a few years and there was a debate about can the WTO be reformed into a useful and beneficial organisation, that's been completely settled and there's not even an echo of that debate now, it's all about what comes after the WTO is got rid of.
Given that the world survived without the WTO until 1995, and shortly before that, most trade was organised through local agreements, I tended to agree with Walden Bello who argued that it was best not to replace the WTO with a centralised trade system, even one based on fair trade. It would be better to have regional systems of checks and balances. Only that way could poorer countries have policy freedom required to develop. the destruction of the WTO would not lead to chaos, rather space for countries to decide and make strategy.
No matter what the playing field is, no matter how level, the strong western nations and imperial interests will continue to be bullies.
After that meeting I got talking with Carmen Buena, a peasant woman from Pampanga, Philippines and chairperson of Amihan, a national federation of peasant women in the Philippines. She also introduced me to Zen Soriano, the vice-chairperson of the federation. They'd sent five people to HK, from an organisation of 24,000 women faremrs mostly growing rice, coconuts, onions and garlic. Most of the women in their organisation are all too aware of the WTO, and have been suffering it's effects for 10 years (they also run extensive education programmes). Given the import of cheap rice mass produced in Thailand, Vietnam and the US, they were being undercut in price and forced into debt. The interest being charged on the loans they have taken varies between 8 and ten percent per MONTH. Their best quality rice is sold at a price determined by the traders and for standard quality produce they get just 4 pesos a kilo. In an echo of our own UK govermnment, the philippino authorities conduct 'consultations' and then press ahead with their pre-determined policies anyway.
Now the advice from government is change the use of your land - a brilliant solution for a tenant farmer, who are getting evicted in large numbers as farms close to the coast are getting turned into resorts, and some further inland are becoming golf courses - just what this planet needs! as a result the peasants move to the urban centres in search of work, ending up being referred to as "Gilids" meaning 'sides' - the people who live on the sides, the side of the road, the side of the railway, the side of the city and of the corporate world. despite knowing many peoople in this situation Carmen and Zen have a good laugh at this common joke, as they write the word down for me.
One other new land use is mining, the open cast method for tin, copper and gold with the environmental tradegies that this brings, ruining the land forever, creating an eyesore and leading to flooding and irrigation nightmares.
But the Philippino government isn't oppsoed to farming - it actively encourages it. It's now GIVING land over to agri-business, with Del-Monte, Dole and Nestle getting huge plots to start up plantations, production ready for competition on the world market, and in accordance with the policies and priorities of the WTO - nice, you never know Carmen might be able to get a job on a plantation after she's forced from her tiny few acres of land.
That's if she can manage to evade the security forces who set up a little headquarters close to her home in April 2003 - part of a pattern of targeting activists and union leaders. Many leaders have been attacked and injured of killed, it's a constant concern for Carmen.
I asked Zen if she'd like to send a message to activists and campaigners in the UK. She said
"We are asking the support of other countries to join us in our call to junk WTO. The WTO makes farmers lives miserable. 10 years is enough, the WTO has to get out of our lives, our government should look after our people and not the big business."
I found myself thinking 'you can't argue with that'.
I'm going to catch up with the march and bow event before it gets to the convention centre - it's probably progressed a good 500 metres since I started typing this.
Guy Taylor
more reports at:
http://www.resist.org.uk/globblog/
Globalise Resistance