[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cuu5r5k5pg8[/youtube]

Anyone who’s followed the situation in Turkey knew that although last summer’s demonstrations had died down by August, all it would take was a small spark to bring the masses back onto the streets.

On March 11th the death of Berkin Elvan – a 14 year old boy who died after spending nearly nine months in a coma after being bit in the head with a tear gas canister last June – provided the spark that has breathed life back into the movement. In response, Tayyip Erdogan’s AKP government has continued its harsh repression of protesters. And now, with an election coming this week, the Turkish state has moved to ban Twitter across the country.

To gain some perspective on this situation, Yusuf Cemal has kindly agreed to answer some questions about what’s happening on the ground. Yusuf is an IWW member based in the Besiktas neighborhood of Istanbul and has been involved in the protests since they first broke out in June of last year.

What follows is a slightly edited transcript of an email conversation that took place over the weekend of 22nd and 23rd March.

The latest news is that Erdogan has banned, or at least placed major restraints, on Twitter. Why has he done this?

This banning is not related to protests against him directly. Erdogan fears something else. He doesn’t think that Gezi damaged his power. He doesn’t think that the 17th December corruption investigations damaged his power either.

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10λεπτο video  από globaluprisings:

[vimeo]http://vimeo.com/89818328[/vimeo]

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-G3Goc83PVI[/youtube]

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ieXrS3jvbUI#t=162[/youtube]

πηγή: fylosykis.gr

Το πρωί του Σαββάτου (15.3.2014) εντοπίστηκε ένα αστυνομικό όχημα στη Λεωφόρο Ιντεντέντε Μαγκαλιάες, βόρεια του Ρίο ντε Τζανέιρο, να σέρνει κάτω από τον προφυλακτήρα του το σώμα μιας γυναίκας για περίπου 250 μέτρα. Το θύμα ήταν η Κλαούντια Σίλβα Φερρέιρα, 38 ετών, καθαρίστρια.

Σύμφωνα με μαρτυρίες το σώμα της γυναίκες χτυπούσε μια στην άσφαλτο και μια στα αυτοκίνητα που απλά προσπαθούσαν να το προσπεράσουν. Είναι βέβαιο ότι οι αστυνομικοί παράβλεψαν τις ειδοποιήσεις των άλλων οδηγών.

Σύμφωνα με την αστυνομία η Κλαούντια Φερρέιρα τραυματίστηκε κατά τη διάρκεια ανταλλαγής πυρών ανάμεσα σε αστυνομικούς και εμπόρους ναρκωτικών στο λόφο της Κονγκόνια, στη Μαδουρέιρα. Σύμφωνα με την κατάθεση των αστυνομικών, η Κλαούντια τους ζήτησε βοήθεια για τη ζωή της και γι’ αυτό την πήραν για να τη μεταφέρουν στο νοσοκομείο. Όταν έφτασε στο νοσοκομείο ήταν ήδη νεκρή.

της Ταντάρα Σάντους

Δεν γνώριζα την Κλαούντια.

Όμως, παρόλο που ποτέ δε γνώρισα την Κλαούντια, ξέρω ότι καθάριζε πατώματα στο Ναυτικό Νοσοκομείο Μαρσίλιου Ντίας. Ξέρω επίσης ότι ήταν μαύρη, όπως και όλα της τα παιδιά, και ξέρω ότι ζούσε σε ένα λόφο, ο οποίος δεν είναι από εκείνους που έχουν ιδιωτική ασφάλεια, φυλάκια και ελικοδρόμια. Όχι, είναι από εκείνους τους λόφους, όπου πάρα πολλές φορές υπάρχει έλλειψη σε νερό, κατά καιρούς ελλείψεις σε τρόφιμα και δεν υπάρχει σχεδόν ποτέ ηρεμία.

Ξέρω επίσης ότι είχε συνηθίσει να ακούει πυροβολισμούς και φοβόταν ότι τα παιδιά της θα δολοφονούνταν από αστυνομικούς.

Αν το σκεφτώ καλύτερα, ίσως γνωρίζω την Κλαούντια. Ίσως γνωρίζω και τα παιδιά της Κλαούντια.

Θυμάμαι εκείνον τον γιο της Κλαούντια, ο οποίος δολοφονήθηκε στο δρόμο μπροστά από το σπίτι, εδώ στη βόρεια ζώνη του Σάο Πάολο. Είχε κι έναν άλλο γιο, τον οποίο τον είχαν δέσει και τον ξυλοκόπησαν μια από αυτές τις μέρες. Θυμάμαι ακόμα και το σύζυγο της Κλαούντια, ο οποίος βασανίστηκε μέχρι θανάτου μέσα σε ένα κελί της αστυνομίας στη Ροζίνια. Και την κόρη της Κλαούντια, η οποία βιάστηκε μια μέρα, ξανά, μέσα σε ένα αυτοκίνητο.

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[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Av39YJTnMM8[/youtube]

The Gulabi gang was founded by Sampat Pal Devi, a mother of five and former government health worker (as well as a former child bride), as a response to widespread domestic abuse and other violence against women. Gulabis visit abusive husbands and threaten to beat them with laathis unless they stop abusing their wives.
In 2008, they stormed an electricity office in Banda district and forced officials to turn back on the power they had cut in order to extract bribes. They have also stopped child marriages and protested dowry and female illiteracy.

Αποσπάσματα από το ομότιτλο άρθρο εδώ

The Ukrainian demonstrators are exhibiting dignity and grace as they protest corrupt government with Molotov cocktails and firearms, while in BH mobs and hooligans are burning and looting without provocation. A double standard is at play.

A few days ago, the BH media carried the words of Doris Pack, a member of the European Parliament, about how she had long expected the riots in BH and Ukraine. Although she was misquoted – her reply related only to BH, not to Ukraine as well – it is interesting to compare the recent events in the two countries.

[…]

General hysteria

The protests in BH began on 5 February and the rioting lasted three or four days, after which the gatherings of small groups of people were mostly reduced to blocking traffic. In Ukraine, the protests have been going on since late November, when President Yanukovych refused to sign an agreement with the EU and accepted financial assistance from Russia. The culmination came in mid-February, when nearly 100 people were killed in clashes between police and demonstrators. The reasons that people took to the streets in both countries are quite similar; it boils down to government repression, widespread corruption, and overall impoverishment. Still, there’s no comparison when it comes to the intensity and scope of the rioting – although if one considers the population ratio (Ukraine has around 45 million people, BH a little more than 3.5 million) and the number of demonstrators who have actively participated in the clashes (several thousand compared with several hundred), the percentages are not that different. Demonstrators in BH set around ten buildings ablaze and clashed with police in several cities. In Ukraine, that was often the net outcome for only one day, and the protestors have used not only rocks, sticks, and baseball bats, but also Molotov cocktails, pyrotechnics, and catapults – and in recent days, firearms as well.

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About 50 vendors who work in the vicinity of the Faculty of Humanities of Olinda blocked the two lanes of the EP-15, on the morning of Tuesday, March 18. They began their protest at around 8 am against a decision of the local municipality which requires the removal of their tents and facilities until today, March 20.

Protesters set fire to truck tires and piled debris, closing two lanes of the road. The traffic in the city was jammed for hours. No one could pass. The group, which was equipped with banners and posters, postponed the act of removal of about 30 shacks and fiteiros.

According to the document signed by Secretary of Urban Planning and Control, Stephen Britto, the withdrawal of informal workers will be held because they are improperly installed in the area of school safety. The place where they will be relocated was not specified.

The protesters claim that they were called for negotiation, but no alternative site was offered.

Πηγή

More than half of those who make $9 or less an hour are 25 or older, while the proportion who are teenagers has declined to just 17 percent from 28 percent in 2000, after adjusting for inflation, according to Janelle Jones and John Schmitt of the Center for Economic Policy Research.

Today’s low-wage workers are also more educated, with 41 percent having at least some college, up from 29 percent in 2000. “Minimum-wage and low-wage workers are older and more educated than 10 or 20 years ago, yet they’re making wages below where they were 10 or 20 years ago after inflation,” said Mr. Schmitt, senior economist at the research center.

“If you look back several decades, workers near the minimum wage were more likely to be teenagers — that’s the stereotype people had. It’s definitely not accurate anymore.”

Δείτε και το video για τους temp workers:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=waeMkka60po[/youtube]

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W7jg5voCd7E[/youtube]

Να τι είχε συμβεί το 2012 στο εργοστάσιο της suzuki, δηλαδή, τι φοβάται η toyota:

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ErLVTS1X9E[/youtube]

Από τον τύπο τους:

Toyota Motor Corp’s Indian unit has temporarily closed its two plants where some workers had stopped production lines to protest a delay in salary hikes after 10 months of negotiations.

The factories near Bangalore are Toyota Motor’s only vehicle plants in the world’s sixth-biggest auto market, where the Japanese manufacturer generates just a sliver of global sales.

Their closure raises the spectre of labour unrest at Indian car plants in recent years, including a 2012 dispute at Suzuki Motor Corp  unit Maruti Suzuki India Ltd . A riot left one person dead and over 100 injured, and resulted in a $250 million month-long production loss.

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