demonstrations
Articles about demonstrations, rallies and protest marches.
58,000 mass incidents in China in first quarter as unrest grows to largest ever recorded
There were 58,000 “mass incidents”, the Chinese state's euphemism for strikes, street protests, roadblocks and other forms of mass protests, in China in the first three months of this year.
Chinaworker.info reports the monitoring agencies in Hong Kong, and cites the pace of job losses and migrants being forced to return home as the main causes. The figure covers protests which involved 25 or more people.
The report said that if this trend continues, then 2009 would break all previous records with over 230,000 'mass incidents', compared to 120,000 in 2008 and 90,000 in 2006.
Cretan farmers march in Athens in midst of political meltdown
Thousands of farmers from Crete marched in the Greek capital under torrential rain demanding financial help in midst of political meltdown
Cretan farmers came by boat for a second time this year to Athens to protest against government neglect of their sector at the time that the Ministry of Agriculture is dedicating some 500million Euro help package to lift problems caused by the global economic crisis in other agricultural areas of the country.
Protest marches across Greece for Mayday, ISAP headquarters entrance smashed by anarchist march
Protest marches take to all major cities in Greece on Mayday. Big anarchist march in Athens smashes ISAP's entrance.
Protest marches took the the streets of all major Greek cities on Mayday 2009: Athens, Salonica, Patras, Larissa, Lesbos, and Heraclion, Crete. In Athens the independent march of anarchists, anarchosyndicalists and autonomous unions attracted over a thousand protesters in defiance of anti-anarchist measures.
Belfast: Hundreds rally in support of Visteon workers occupation
A report and audio recordings of the rally of hundreds of supporters of the Ford Visteon workers occupying their plant against their redundancies with no pay.
Over 200 people marched today from Andersonstown to the factory in Finachy for a rally, which was addressed by Unite Shop Stewards Charlie Maxwell and John Maxwell, including representatives from the SDLP and Sinn Fein.
Notes from the Enfield Visteon occupation rally
Comments and thoughts from the rally in support of the occupied Enfield Visteon plant on Saturday 4 April 2009.
At 2pm last Tuesday, 565 workers at three sites of Visteon, a car component manufacturer tied to Ford, were given six minutes notice of redundancy. They did not get their last week’s pay, though it turned out that the Friday before around four or five hundred quid had been deposited in each of their accounts in place of redundancy pay.
Rome: 2.7 million people demonstrate against the crisis
According to the Italian union Cgil, today - 4th April - 2.7 million people marched in the streets of Rome to demonstrate against the current financial crisis.
According to the police headquarters, only 200,000 people were there. In reality, five different processions took hours to get to the main meeting point, the Circo Massimo.
March 2003: Schoolkids against the Iraqi War
The actions of schoolkids in March 2003 throughout the world were perhaps the most interesting aspect of the opposition to the Iraqi war.
Undoubtedly they failed to stop the war, surprise, surprise. They fizzled out as it became obvious that the war would just go on despite what was done in the streets.
Cleaners at Schiphol airport hold sit-down strike
Over a hundred cleaners at Schiphol Airport have held a sit-down strike to demand regular jobs, travel expenses and respect.
Prior to the action, they observed a minute’s silence to commemorate the victims of yesterday’s Turkish Airlines crash.
Demonstrations in Milan against anti-migrant laws
Last weekend in Milan 30,000 people demonstrated with CGIL union against xenophobic anti-migrant laws recently introduced in Italy. These laws have been proposed with the usual rationale of more security for citizens.
The Italian parliament have recently issued laws such as one which will allow doctors to denounce patients without proper immigration documents. Another law will put immigrants in a detention centre without having committed any crime and Berlusconi has also recently approved a decree (apparently “against-rape”) that legalises rounding up immigrants.
Huge protests over handling of the Irish economy
About 100,000 people have taken part in protests in Dublin city centre yesterday (Saturday 21st) to vent their anger at the Irish government's handling of the country's recession.
They oppose plans to impose a 'pension levy' (real terms 10% pay cut) on 350,000 public sector workers. Trade union organisers of the march said workers did not cause the economic crisis but were having to pay for it.
