Occupy Nigeria uprising - ten protesters killed

POLICE have killed 10 protesters as the Occupy Nigeria uprising gathers force.

Tens of thousands of people have been taking to the streets as trade unions join in the rebellion with an indefinite nationwide strike against Goodluck Jonathan's neoliberal regime, which has hit the poor by removing a state fuel subsidy.

 

President of Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), Comrade Abdulwaheed Omar, who confirmed the killing, accused the police of using excessive force to quell the protests and cracking down on protesters.

 

Giving the breakdown of the casualty figure, Omar said six protesters were killed in Maiduguri, the capital of Borno State, three in Lagos and one in Kano during the demonstration, reports The Moment. 

 

The Red Cross also confirmed that police fired live ammunition and tear gas to disperse a crowd of protesters in Kano and Lagos wounding at least 18 people, some of whom died in the hospital. 

 

For the Lagos incident, angry protesters at Ogba in Lagos, identified one of the slain protesters as Ademola Aderinto, and the injured as Alimi Abubakar, Egbujor Samuel and Iyara.  

 

One of the protesters, Dickson Oracle said, ‘There were about seven policemen shooting in the air to disperse protesters.

 

"The DPO (police chief) opened fire targeting these four people and shot them. One died on the spot, because he sustained serious bullet wounds and the remaining have been brought to the hospital."

 

Another protester, Abubakar, said: "We were standing in front of our Mosque when some people who were sharing hand bills got to the place and just as we were still talking with them, suddenly police vehicles pulled up and started shooting sporadically on the ground before one of their Ogas took the gun from one of them and fired at us and the bullet hit me on my left thigh and I fell down. 

 

"We were not even protesting on the road."

 

In Lagos the usually busy Mushin, Fadeyi, Jibowu, Ikorodu Road, Lagos-Abeokuta Expressway were blocked by the protesters who made bonfires on the roads. 

 

At Fadeyi bus stop, demonstrators burnt tyres and scores of youth were seen chanting anti- government slogans. 

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School children stage revolt

POLICE were called to a school in Kent, UK, after hundreds of children walked out of lessons in protest over changes to the timetable.

Reports the BBC: "Between 200 and 300 children are understood to have taken part in the protest at Dover Christ Church Academy.

"Pupils said the protest was mainly about changes to the lunch hour, which meant they were split into two groups."

The school gate and three or four cars belonging to staff were all damaged.

Chinese workers are rebelling

CHINESE workers are rebelling against slave labour conditions in the rapidly industrialising state, report AFP and Angry News from Around the World.

Dozens of striking workers have been hurt in clashes with police in China as a fresh labour stoppage again halted Honda's production Wednesday, in the latest unrest to rock the "workshop of the world".

The latest labour action, which came after a spate of suicides at Taiwanese high-tech firm Foxconn, again drew attention to difficult conditions and low pay faced by millions of Chinese factory workers.

The clashes on Monday at a Taiwan-funded rubber factory in the eastern province of Jiangsu marked the first time in recent days that disputes over salaries erupted in violence, with state media saying 50 workers were hurt.

Some 2,000 workers at the KOK Machinery factory in the city of Kunshan outside Shanghai walked off the assembly line, demanding better pay and an improved working environment, the China Daily reported.

The injuries occurred when security forces tried to prevent the workers from taking their strike into the streets, the report said.

Photos of the incident showed police and special security forces massed outside the gates of the facility, preventing workers from exiting.

The paper said 50 workers were injured, five of them seriously.

"The police beat us indiscriminately. They kicked and stomped on everybody, no matter whether they were male or female," one female worker told the South China Morning Post, which said at least 30 people were arrested.

Workers were asking for hardship pay to compensate them for working in high temperatures, full workers' insurance, housing subsidies and a change to make work on Saturdays voluntary, according to postings seen in Chinese chatrooms.

Some of those postings were later deleted.

"We have to work in temperatures of 40 to 50 degrees Celsius (104 to 122 degrees Fahrenheit). They refuse to do anything about the heat," one worker told the Hong Kong-based Post.

"The smell from the rubber is unbearable, but we don't even get a toxic fumes subsidy."

Geoff Crothall of the Hong Kong-based China Labour Bulletin linked the upsurge in labour strife to the general economic recovery, saying workers were less inclined to accept low pay, and facing long hours as orders picked up.

"We are finding in the last few years, particularly since the labour contract law in 2008, workers are more aware of their rights and more willing to stand up for their rights," Crothall told AFP.

"Workers just want to work somewhere that is not oppressive and is decent," he noted.

"I think labour activism in China comes in waves, but over the last few years, there's been an increase in the intensity and frequency of these waves."

Foxconn -- which counts Apple, Sony and Hewlett-Packard among its clients -- has agreed to a 67 percent pay hike for its hundreds of thousands of workers in China after 11 of them committed suicide, 10 in the southern city of Shenzhen.

Its parent company Hon Hai Precision Industry lost more than three billion US dollars in market value in two days this week as investors fretted over the pay increases.

Japan's number two automaker Honda Motor is reeling from more than a week of work stoppages in China -- first at its parts unit in Foshan, and then at an exhaust parts maker owned by a subsidiary -- that have disrupted production.

The first strike was resolved when Honda agreed to a 24 percent pay rise.

The second, at a joint venture factory in Foshan of Honda subsidiary Yutaka Giken and a Taiwanese firm, was ongoing Wednesday, forcing Honda to close two of its China assembly plants run by Guangqi Honda.

Thai rebels block troop train

A CRUNCH day is approaching in the 'red shirt' rebellion against the Thai government.

Reports the Washington Post: "Thailand's tense political standoff was nearing a climax on Thursday with anti-government protesters preparing for imminent battle in central Bangkok against tens of thousands of armed troops.

"The 'red shirt' uprising showed the first signs of spreading beyond Bangkok to the protesters' stronghold in the northeast after they blocked a train carrying troops.

"The red shirts mistakenly thought the train was on its way to Bangkok, but it was taking troops and military vehicles to the south to help contain a Muslim insurgency, a railway police officer told Reuters by telephone from Khon Kaen.

"Some 40,000 red-shirted supporters of former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra have fortified their redoubt in a Bangkok commercial district with home-made barricades, expecting the army to evict them any time. 'We've heard from insiders in the government that April 26 is their deadline,' Kwanchai Sarakam, 57, a red shirt leader from the northeast told Reuters."