STRIKERS MASSACRED IN THE PHILIPPINES

[cormacobear]

STRIKERS MASSACRED IN THE PHILIPPINES - YOUR HELP NEEDED NOW

Three days ago, on 16 November, fourteen people were killed by army and police in the Philippines. Those people were strikers, trade unionists like yourselves. They worked on sugar farms in sugar mills, and had been on strike for ten days. Two of those killed were children, aged two and five, who died from suffocation as a result of the tear gas used. Some 35 people suffered gunshot wounds, 133 were arrested, hundreds more were wounded.

The trade union movement in the Philippines has called for a massive international protest condemning the murders, demanding a full investigation of what happened. They are demanding that hundreds of workers illegally dismissed be rehired, and that criminal charges against the strikers be dropped. Please send on your message of protest by going here:

http://www.labourstart.org/cgi-bin/solidar...mpaign.cgi?c=39 (http://www.labourstart.org/cgi-bin/solidarityforever/show_campaign.cgi?c=39)

Make sure to pass this message on to everyone you know. Let's flood the Filipino government with thousands of messages in the next few hours and days.

(From Labour Start Newsletter)

[che's long lost daughter]

I am from the Philippines and that news really strucked me. I think the srtikers have all the right to hold the protests and it was very exagerrated for the local government of that particular place to be sending massive forces of Police and Military people to control the protests. These are just ordinary workers, trying to earn a living, they had no weapons whatsoever and were very defenseless. There were even children there. I don't know what devil has got into the mind of the person who send those police and military forces over. Maybe because of the fact that the "hacienda" is owned by the family of our former president (Corazon Aquino). They are very rich and powerful people who takes control of many corporations in the country (particularly one of his brothers).

The worse thing about it all is that, they (military and police) are accusing the communist party here, the National People's Army (NPA) to be responsible for the killings and that is just bullshit.

[leftist resistance]

Terrible,terrible..

I'l try spread the word around.

We must end all oppression

[leftist resistance]

Just sent the message to the phillipine goverment through labourstart

[cormacobear]

Your threads have honestly brought me to tears. And while I rarely if ever condone violence as it usually ends up causeing more harm to those you're trying to protect than those you're trying to harm. There are instances when I truly wish their were armed factions protecting the innocent . Their use of Mercs. is disgusting I wish in the case of Brazil they had encountered a well armed angy leftist militia instead of the innocent and helpless that they acted against.

[NovelGentry]

They are demanding that hundreds of workers illegally dismissed be rehired.

This is possibly one of the most shockingly telling attributes to capitalism, and that is that it is so established as it is that workers must demand to be exploited more in order to survive. This is no different then a master forcing a slave to beg for food. It's cruel and needs to end.

[Sabocat]

Not surprisingly, in Iraq, the new "Constitution" orchestrated and rubber stamped by the U.S. prohibits unions or any labor organization, and nationalization of industries, oil industry in particular.

[news]

Indigenous Riot on Palm Island highlights racism in Queensland

"On the 19th November 2004, on Palm Island a community just off the east coast of Townsville, Queensland, Australia an Aboriginal man by the name of Cameron Doomagee was arrested for singing a song on a street in the Palm Island Community, just over an hour and half later he was dead in the police cell." National Indigenous Human Rights Congress Australia from the Melbourne Indymedia Newswire

A State of Emergency has been declared with over two hundred police officers sent to the Island to supress the community after the State Coroner's autopsy report found the death to be an accident. Story on Melbourne Indymedia Newsire

Palm Island, home to over 4000 indigenous Australians has turned into a crucible for bad race relations in Australia after the death in police custody of indigenous man Cameron Doomagee this week. Last Friday the shock and anger in the community erupted into a 'riot' after release of an autopsy finding that Doomagee death, of "intra-abdominal haemorrhage caused by a ruptured liver and portal vein... (with) four broken ribs" was "accidental", the result of a 'fall' outside the watchouse [Townsville Bulletin article] . The police station, court house and police residence were burnt to the ground as local expressed their disbelief and anger at the judicial system.


http://www.indymedia.org/icon/2004/11/112463.jpg

[news]

Brasil: Violence unleashed against landless

During the month of November, the landless movements' activities in Brazil have grown significantly - and so has the repression against them, especially against the MST (Landless Workers Movement). In Jandaia, a rural city about 300 kilometers away from Brasilia, ninety three rural workers were arrested on the morning of November 8th and brutalized by police after an action to re-take the lands sold from under an occupation named "Paulo Freire". 81 comrades were released the next day, though nine were kept in jail. Local justice officials denied the request for parole under the argument that "[their detention] was needed to secure public order and maintain peace in the area". The National Instute of Colonization and Agrarian Reform (INCRA) building in Goiás was occupied and about 650 landless workers camped in vigil in front of the Goiânia Cathedral on hunger strike to protest police violence and the federal government's inertia on promoting agrarian reform.

On November 20th in Felisburgo, Minas Gerais state, fifteen mercenaries attacked landless workers, killing five and wouding twenty others. The workers were part of an occupation named "Terra Prometida" on the Nova Alegrida farm. Mercenaries set fire to several tents and destroyed personal belongings of many families living in the occupation. In protest, the MST blocked three roads for a few hours.

Meanwhile, the case about the Eldorado dos Carajás killings remains open. Police murdered 19 landless workers in April of 1996, but a court judgement satisfactory to the MST has not yet been reached. Three judgements have been made in this case so far. None of the police officers were found guilty when the first judgemenst were made in 1999. But the decision was thrown out after an appeal by the MST lawyers and the Attorney General. In the second trial, held May of 2002, two comanders, colonel Mário Colares Pantoja and captain Raimundo José Almendra Lameira, were found guilty but none of the 145 other officers were convicted. In the third trial, that just finished on Novemeber 19th, the judge maintained the sentence, despite MST protests demanding for justice. An appeal has not yet been made to this third decision.

Links:
Homeless arrested and tortured in Jandaia, Goiás | Manifesto pelo fim da impunidade em Eldorado dos Carajás | Cartilha de Eldorado dos Carajás (pdf - 30MB) | Last updates on the massacreÚltimas notícias sobre o massacre | End new trial on the massacre of Eldorado de Carajás
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[news]

Abby Anna Batko-Taylor, 12.11.2004 16:30

Police violently dislocated a group of rural farmers on November 4th who were occupying land in the department of San Pedro, Paraguay. (photos) One farmer, Aurelio Espinosa, 55 years old, was killed, and 30 others were detained. This type of confrontation has occurred in various departments in the country. Typically, farmers and their families have been sent to prison, where they have experienced inhumane conditions and treatment.

In just three years, the Paraguayan government has expelled more than 100,000 farmers from their lands in the implementation of mono-agricultural programs to cultivate genetically modified wheat, soy and corn. These farmers are joining the growing number of families in Paraguay without land, now more than 400,000. The government of Nicanor Duata, following the footsteps of past governments, has promised lands to the farmers, but has not followed through on this. He has publically acknowledged that there are 13 million hectares (32.11 million acres)of ill-gotten land and that 90% of that land is in the hands of 2% of the population of Paraguay.

Note: this translations is missing some links: check the spanish original and/or post a new translations. thanks.

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[news]

Thousands face genocide by Indonesian military

Since August 17 the Indonesian military have been attacking villages in the heavily forested highland district of Puncak Jaya of West Papua. Dozens have already been killed; either directly by bullets from helicopter gun ships or from starvation in the crowded makeshift camps that now adorn Pancak Jaya the highest mountain in Australasia...

The military assault follows guerrilla attacks attributed to around 50 OPM / T.P.N. warriors in mid October. Six Indonesian construction workers were killed when their vehicle was attacked. This was followed by the torching of government schools and administration buildings. indy (http://www.indymedia.org/en/index.shtml)

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[Elmo]

I read the story and was morraly shocked by the oppresion of the phillipino union list members. Is there anything else we can do besides the e-mail?