--Indymedia please stop censoring our posts - we are run by a collective group and have less hierarchy than Friends of the Earth who you put in your features column...stupid rule anyway imho ;)

4pm GMT Update on WTO> current news is that one protestor has died today during the fierce battles between protestors and police, parts of the march nearly broke through to the conference centre before being repelled by enormous volleys of teargas

relayed from the streets of Hong Kong by GR London

...Saturday morning

developments yesterday

The mood in Hong Kong seemed to change yesterday. Such was the sympathy for the Korean activists who did the three-steps-and-bow, there is a far wider acceptance of the protesters. Each evening there's been a candlelight vigil near to Causeway Bay tube station, and last night local people brought out food, sang, danced and chanted with the protesters. That is a big difference to to media-instilled fear we witnessed at the beginning of the week.

As a result, there is more talk of the situation in China and the HK movement for direct elections. One of the features of the week until not has been the low level of local involvement. It is fantastic that this is starting to change. Tomorrow I'll be joining with local activists and a variety of international people to leaflet about the direct elections issue, linking it with the struggle against the WTO.

Earlier in the day I attended a small meeting on the Politics of Bird Flu with a representation from many of the countries that have been hit the hardest. People in Taiwan are going to poressure their government to make generic copies of the Tamiflu drug (made and patented by Big-Pharma corp Roche), if that is indeed the treatment required, regardless of international law. This would be an excellent campaign against the very rules of the WTO - the Trade Related Intellectual Property Agreement (TRIPs)

Korean trade unionists marched to the Korean consulate yesterday afternoon, and soon had entered the building, along with others from the Korean delegation. The place was under occupation until 10.30 last night. Thne US Consulate got a bit more dramatic treatment, slogans against the WTO and Bush were sprayed (in full view of the police and press) on the front of the consulate and Korean activists started peeling off the letters announcing the purpose of the building. In an hilarious statement the US consular spokeswoman said they believed in free speech but deplore any defacement of private proerty. News to anyone who thought the US state or people might lay claim to ownership of the consulate.

There's been a few reports in the papers of activists complaining that the Korean farmers have stolen the limelight and other issues are not getting the media exposure they would like. Perhaps a lesson for all activists groups. If you want to be the centre of attention, come in numbers, be disciplined, photogenic and don't pants around with statements when actions are required.
In the evening there was a meeting for people involved in the organisation of the Asian World Social Forum. Only it was a bit too much like the European Meetings, so as I wasn't exactly needed there, I slipped off!

Very late last night a meeting decided an extra march would be held today. The march will split into four parts and advance on the convention centre from different directions. I can't see any problem with dividing the march, such is the discipline of the Korean majority here, I can't really predict exactly what's going to happen. Keep up to date with more mainstream media (I don't think I'll be able to blog this fast enough, such is the access to computers here). 2pm HK time it starts (that'll be 6am in the UK).

The reckoning has been that any detrimental agreements on the inside will be made pretty last minute so today and tomorrow are the days to make sure our presence is heard and felt from the outside. Speaking of inside/outside, there's little in the way of briefings from the NGO representatives in the convention centre for the movement on the streets (unless I'm missing something here). Not having been in Cancun, I wouldn't be able to say if it's been done before, but in future (if there is one for the WTO) there should be at least a daily briefing session. At the moment we depend on the HK press, which is hardly satisfactory. There seems to be an unnecessarily big divide between inside / outside here.

To the streets!

Guy Taylor