Spain General strike action in Almeria and Mojacar areas and barcelona madrit!

A general strike is taking place throughout Spain today aginst the so-called "austerity measures" imposed by the government and capital. Since midnight piquets, blockades, actions and demonstrations are taking place all over the Spanish State. The strike is planned to last for 24h until midnight tonight..

29 settembre 2010

sciopero generale in spagna

picchetti, cortei, scontri…

pietre e fuoco!!

UPDATE:  In the east of Almeria Province – the Mojacar area – the morning of the national strike appears to have started without reported incidents. Pickets have not yet been spotted in the area and for all intense and purposes it is business as usual. Schools, banks. Petrol stations and supermarkets contacted were all open.
Meanwhile this morning, unions declared the 24-hour general strike in Almeria City as a resounding success. They claim 90% of businesses were shut, although in the early hours of the morning this was probably true.
At the strike of midnight 100 picketers barricaded the exit gates of the Almeria bus station to stop buses leaving. Ten minutes later 50 riot police dispersed the crowd and with some remaining at the station on guard.
At 6am a picket of about 40 people closed access to Almeria Port, although from 9am it reopened and is now reported as operating with about 30% of the workforce having joined the strike.
Municipal rubbish collection did not take place.
Almeria fire services have attended a dozen incidents of burning rubbish containers and tyres across the city.
Pickets also stopped access to several retail parks and industrial estates although this was before most of the businesses were due to open.
Nationally, the government assures minimum public transport services are in operation. Electricity consumption in Spain this morning dropped by 19% compared to the normal amount, attributed to the strike.
Clashes with police have been reported in Barcelona, Alicante and Vigo.+
Unions say construction and metal industries have seen a 100% participation with the strike.

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Euro-demonstration against austerity measures

2010-09-29

BRUSSELS, Sept. 29 (Xinhua) — Around 100,000 people are expected to gather in Brussels on Wednesday for a key part of Europe-wide demonstration against austerity measures.
The European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC) called for a European Day of Action on Wednesday to demonstrate against the austerity measures adopted recently by many European countries and to ask for recovery plans promoting quality jobs and growth.
As many countries have been badly hit by the global financial and economic crisis, European authorities have decided to implement drastic budget measures and social reforms, such as Greece’s austerity plan or France’s pension reform.
Between 80,000 and 100,000 members of fifty Trade Unions organizations from 30 countries are expected to take part in the demonstration held on Wednesday in Brussels.
After the demonstration, an ETUC delegation is expected to meet European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso and Belgian Prime Minister Yves Leterme, whose country ensures the rotating Presidency of the European Union.
Besides the Euro-demonstration in Brussels, a general strike has been called in Spain for the first time in 8 years. Actions and demonstration movements will also take place on Wednesday in other European countries, namely Portugal, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, the Czech Republic, Cyprus, Serbia, Romania, Poland , Ireland and France.

Mozambique police kill 6 in food price protest riot!

Tires set alight by mobs protesting rising food prices burn in a street in Maputo, Mozambique, on Wednesday. (Nastasya Tay/Associated Press)Police opened fire and killed six people after stone-throwing mobs filled the streets of Mozambique's capital city Wednesday to protest rising food prices.
The marches were illegal and no group had sought permission to hold them, police said.
Thousands of people, mostly men, lined the streets north of downtown Maputo, burning tires and looting shops as they made their way into the city centre.
Police appealed for calm and said they had made an unspecified number of arrests. Youths were blocking streets and public transport drivers abandoned their vehicles in the streets.
International food prices are at their highest in two years, the UN's Food and Agriculture Organization said Wednesday.
In Mozambique, the price of a loaf of bread rose 25 per cent in the past year to about 14 cents. Fuel and water costs also rose.
The FAO's food price index shot up five per cent between July and August, partly because of a drought in Russia that lifted the cost of wheat, it said.
The international food price surge also reflects higher sugar and oilseed prices, the FAO said.

Government blamed for high prices

In Mozambique, critics say bad government decisions have made shortages worse and have accused producers of colluding to push prices up.
The FRELIMO party, in power since Mozambique won independence from Portugal in 1975, has been plagued by charges its government is corrupt and inefficient.
Violent protests over high costs erupted in Maputo in 2008, as well, when global food prices jumped. The government cut fuel prices after a week of clashes police and rioters that left four people dead and more than 100 seriously injured.

Read more: http://www.cbc.ca/world/story/2010/09/01/mozambique-food-prices.html#ixzz0yI7NsD8Z

Three dead as police fire on Mozambique protest

MAPUTO — Police opened fire on demonstrators protesting rising prices in and around the Mozambique capital Maputo on Wednesday, killing at least three people and wounding at least 15, the Red Cross said.
A 12-year-old boy was shot in the head and left dead in a pool of blood in the street, a school textbook resting beside him and empty bullet casings nearby, an AFP correspondent said.
Six Red Cross rescue teams working around the capital and the suburb of Matola said the demonstrators were killed during separate protests over rising fuel and food prices, spokesman Americo Ubisse told AFP.
Maputo Central Hospital reported 42 patients were admitted after being wounded during the protests. One, a student, died from her injuries, the hospital said.
"We have had 42 cases at the hospital. Twenty-three were wounded by gunshots. Two are being operated on at the moment. Nineteen have wounds from physical attacks. One died," Antonio Assis da Costa, director of emergency services, told AFP.
The unrest broke out as thousands took to the streets in poor neighbourhoods on the outskirts of the city to protest against the rising prices of fuel, wheat, bread, water and electricity in the impoverished southern African country.
Protesters burned tyres to block major roads to the airport and the city's largest suburb, Matola, as mini-bus taxi drivers went on strike and some schools closed.
A witness said the dead boy had been walking toward demonstrators when police opened fire on the crowd and hit him.
"We all saw it, all of us participating in the strike. We want justice here," said 18-year-old Eunici Antonia Kiove.
State-owned Radio Mozambique reported three dead in the town of Benfica, about 15 minutes' drive from the capital.
The broadcaster said rioters had set alight cars outside a branch of the national energy company Electricidade de Mocambique. Looters were also ransacking businesses, the radio station said.
Mozambique has seen prices climb in recent months as the value of its currency, the metical, slumped against the South African rand.
The exchange rate is currently five meticals to the rand, down from a rate of 3.5 meticals to the rand this time last year, according to exchange data from South Africa's Standard Bank.
The currency slide has taken a toll on import-dependent Mozambique.
Electricidade de Mocambique on Wednesday implemented a 13.4 percent rate increase, while the state water supplier has also raised prices in and around the capital, state newspaper Noticias said.
In 2008, six people were killed in protests against public transport fare increase.

5,000 migrants riot at Malaysian factory

Malaysia.jpg

More than 5,000 migrant workers tore down a guard tower during rioting at the facility where they were staying in Malaysia’s industrial city of Johor Baru today.

During the struggle rubbish and stones were used against over 200 riot police, with fire extinguishers being torn off the walls and allegedly used to spray bystanders.
The fighting, which was eventually contained in the early evening after seven hours, was sparked after an injured staff member died when employers delayed sending them to hospital.

Have you read today newspaper regarding the protest of five thousand factory foreign workers, relate to a death of a Nepali worker happened recently in Tebrau Industrial area? They are mainly from India, Bangladesh, Vietnam, Nepal and Myanmar.
They destroyed the guardhouse, threw objects like stones and rubbish at bystanders, used fire extinguishers against bystanders and chased down a vehicle fetching two health inspectors…
Whoever fault it is about the death case, the foreign workers have gone over their limit!!!

Truck Drivers defiant despite conscription orders in Greece Lorry-drivers continue their strike, clash with riot police in Thessaloniki

The government decided to take down the

streets tanks army to break the strike by

truck owners for public use.

The government decided to take down the

streets  tanks and troops to break the

strike by truck owners for public use.

Will welcome as they deserve ... 30/7

Greek truckers' strike bites harder 30/7

The latest round of talks this morning between leaders of Greece's truck drivers associations and the government failed to find common ground and so the industrial action which is likely to see the country ground to a halt in the next few days is set to continue.

The dispute was the result of attempts by Athens to liberalise Greece's transport market by opening up the trucking profession to everyone with a heavy goods licence and so doing away with the existing permit system which has meant that like taxis, only those registered can operate.

On the one hand the opening up the profession is part of the IMF/EU/ECB process of making Greek products more competetive by reducing transport costs however, drivers associations argue that the sudden implementation of the system means that many of their members stand to lose hundreds of thousands of euros spent obtaining an operating licence.

Instead of petering out strike actions are set to escalate as Greek international truck drivers associations are also preparing to join the strike so threatening imports and exports to other EU countries.

The Greek media has been speculating on whether the government will be forced to bring in the army to make sure the country does not run out of fuel and other basic goods.

 Jul 29 2010

Truck drivers carrying fuel stand their ground and continue their strike against the austerity measures despite the government calling a civil conscription on them

The fuel carrying truck drivers strike which started on Monday in response to a special "reform", part and parcel of the austerity measures, that will see individual ownership abolished and replaced by large firms, has been the first strike crisis facing the greek government after the signing of the EU-IMF structural adjustment agreement. As a result of the strike at the moment of writing all but a few gas stations across the country stand dry and shut, with serious problems caused in boat and bus transport as well as in individual car transport at the peak of the summer exodus from the cities. The strike is believed to be hampering the tourist industry which has reported a virtual freeze on reservations from abroad.
The government's response to the strike has been to call the truck drivers for dialogue on the condition they stop the strike. The truck drivers refusal to attend such onerous negotiations led yesterday evening the PM to announce a civil conscription of the drivers and their trucks, an authoritarian administrative measure equivalent to forced labour in pain of prison. The truck drivers response has been defiant: last night after the announcement of civil conscription drivers pulled their trucks to blockade the oil refineries of Thessaloniki and Aspropyrgos (Athens), while at the moment of writing a demo outside the Ministry of Transport is forming in protest to the authoritarian administrative decision. Faced with resistance the government has not yet used force to force conscription with truck-driver reps announcing: "We continue. Let them take us to prison. We have nothing to more to lose. If the government thinks that after two days of strike it can move to such measures instead choosing dialogue, it carries all responsibility" .
The response of the Left to the crisis has been bitter. The KKE (Communist Party) asked in Parliament if the government intends to reopen exile-island concentration camps for dissidents, while the Radical Left Coalition has called the conscription a "July coup d' etat" and the government policy "colonialist". Civil conscription of workers has occurred again under the Republic at least three times, in 1979 (bank workers), 1986 (airspace control officers) and 2006 (dock-workers).

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Jul 29 2010 13:40

Update: The truck driver demo outside the Ministry of Transport in Athens was attacked earlier today by riot police forces shooting tear gas against the protesters. According to mainstream news the lack of fuel has already led to problems of delivering supplies to supermarkets across the country. The government is yet to implement civil conscription which could really derail the situation. According to the news at the moment less than 5 gas stations in greater Athens hold fuel.