Rebel clashes in the Sahara

REBEL protesters in Morocco have been attacked by live bullets, tear gas canisters, truncheons, stones and water cannon, it is being reported.

Western Sahara's independence movement said on Tuesday 11 people had been killed in clashes with Moroccan security forces.

Reports Reuters: "Western Sahara, a former Spanish colony which was annexed by Morocco in 1975 sparking Africa's longest-running territorial dispute, was the scene of violent clashes on Monday when Moroccan security forces raided a protest camp."

It says a statement released on Tuesday by the Polisario independence movement in Algeria, where it has its headquarters, said 11 people had been killed in Monday's clashes, 723 were wounded and 159 others had disappeared and were feared dead.

"The Moroccan forces of aggression used live bullets, tear gas canisters, truncheons, stones and water cannon against peaceful, defenceless civilians," the statement said.

Clashes erupted on the day officials from Morocco and the Polisario were gathering near New York for talks brokered by the United Nations and aimed at breaking the stalemate in their dispute, Africa's longest-running territorial conflict.

The protest camp of thousands of tents near Western Sahara's main city of Laayoune had been there for a month when attacked.

Adds Reuters: "Soon after, several hundred of the people forced out of the camp took their protest to the streets of Laayoune, where they blocked roads with burning tyres, set fire to cars, and threw stones at police."

One protester told Reuters from the scene: "Anger is boiling over. We are in the streets protesting against Morocco."

Western Sahara is a sparsely populated tract of desert about the size of Britain, with rich fishing grounds off its coast and reserves of phosphates, used to make fertiliser and detergent.

Morocco says the territory should come under its sovereignty, while the exiled Polisario Front says Western Sahara is an independent state.

The Polisario waged a guerrilla war against Moroccan forces until the United Nations brokered a cease-fire in 1991.

Seoul braced for anti-G20 protests

SOUTH Korea is braced for massive protests agains the neoliberal G2 circus when it rolls into town this week.

The Korea Herald reports that 50,000 police officers are currently deployed around the COEX, the summit’s venue, according to the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency.

It adds: "The highest number of police officers ever mobilized in a single G20 summit was 19,000 in Toronto this June."

Say organisers of the impressive anti-G20 coalition: "The G20, originally formed to respond to the global financial crisis, is attempting to set itself up as the authority responsible for directing the world economy and defining world governance.

"While completely excluding most nations from decision-making, the G20 is attempting to make the world ‘safe’ for neoliberal capitalism by forcing emerging economies to shoulder part of the burden of the crisis, promoting trade and investment liberalization dressed up 'in new robes', negotiating weak financial reforms that largely allow financial speculation to go on unchecked, and reviving the ailing IMF and other IFIs.

"This agenda is being pursued despite the fact that neoliberal capitalism is clearly a failed model, which only increases poverty and inequality around the globe."

A protest was held on Sunday and the main march and rally is planned for Thursday November 11.

Germans battle to halt nuclear train

AN ARMOURED police vehicle has been torched by protesters trying to stop a train of nuclear waste from crossing Germany.

Reports The Independent: "Riot police using water cannon, teargas and baton charges fought thousands of demonstrators attempting to halt the shipment of 123 tons of atomic waste to a disputed storage site in northern Germany yesterday.

"More than 30,000 protesters took to fields, roads, lanes and railway tracks around the northern town of Danneberg to try to stop the movement – initially by rail and then road – of nuclear waste containers sent from France for storage in a disused salt mine close to the nearby village of Gorleben.

"The protests, which amounted to one of the largest anti-nuclear demonstrations in Germany for 30 years, were given added momentum by Chancellor Angela Merkel's recent decision to extend the life of the country's 17 nuclear power stations by an average of 12 years.

"Wolfgang Ehmke, a spokesman for protesters, said the attempts to disrupt the shipment through blockades and demonstrators chaining themselves to the tracks were not only meant to delay the arrival of atomic waste but were 'also meant to mess up the timetable for the government's nuclear policy'.

"Demonstrators used an array of different techniques to try to stop the shipment, which has been called 'Chernobyl on wheels'. Militant activists tried to rip up the train tracks due to carry the waste shipment by digging out the earth from under the rails.

"Squads of helmeted riot police equipped with batons and tear gas grenades tried to disperse the group. They were met by a hail of fireworks and stones. An armoured police vehicle was set ablaze in the clashes.

"Police eventually used water cannon to dispel the protesters. They made dozens of arrests. Both sides accused each other of violence.

"In other incidents, protesters abseiled down to rail tracks from a bridge and chained themselves to the rails. Police were forced to clear away some 60 tractors blocking the main road between Dannenberg and the Gorleben storage site some 12km away."

Video footage can be seen here.

Deliberate unleashing of state violence

MORE evidence has emerged of the brutal state violence used against Irish students who protested against increased fees in Dublin on Wednesday.

Several videos have been posted online showing riot police attacking young protesters, lashing out with batons at peaceful sit-downs and charging at lines of demonstrators with horses.

Said one campaigner: "What we witnessed today was the policing of fear, the deliberate use of state violence to discourage acts of protest and civil disobedience. "

Spineless national student union leader Gary Redmond has chosen to condemn the protesters as extremists and has not commented on violence from the Gardai.

But the WSM (Workers Solidarity Movement) issued a statement condemning in the strongest terms the police violence.

It reported that several members of the organisation were present with almost 1000 others in support of for those who entered and occupied the Department of Finance.

Mark Malone, student and member of the WSM, present at the protests, said: "I witnessed masked men in padded clothing beat a woman around the head with a baton.

"She was so scared she couldn’t move even as they shouted at her to do so. My friends and I helped her away from where the police where hitting people.

"The police refused to listen to our calls for medical attention and instead pushed me on top of this woman using a large plastic shield. This was only one of many instances of brutality.

"I also saw police punch, kick, drag and throw to the ground the people who occupied the Department of Finance. It was clear to everyone that the police decided to intimidate and physically assault us.

"The low number of arrests compared to the very high level of injuries suggest that this was a tactic decided at a high level. It was as if the police wanted to provoke a violent response from us. All we could do was try to defend our selves and each other from these thugs.

"While several WSM members where present in the demo, other members watched from the vantage point of our office window which directly over looked the scene.

"We witnessed many injuries as a result of police violence, mostly unprovoked batoning, but also the use of the edges of riot sheilds to dig into people.We witnessed police horses being run directly into a mass crowd, we saw women and men sitting on the ground, beaten with lumps of stick the police call 'batons'.

"We witnessed polices dogs being reared into the crowd as people shouted 'peaceful protest'. I heard the police swear and verbally threaten students, one saying they would 'knock the fucking shit' out of me if I didn't move.”

Malone continued: "The government chooses to target students, much in the way they target the sick, unemployed and marginalised because they think we are an easy touch.

"This government has lost legitimacy since in reality it is the IMF and ECB, and the faceless rich of the “markets” who now dictate policy. This is not just an economic crisis, it is a crisis democracy as we can clearly see the structures of power at play.”

"What we witnessed today was the policing of fear, the deliberate use of state violence to discourage acts of protest and civil disobedience. "

Irish students resist police thugs

IRISH students occupied a government building and bravely resisted attacks by riot cop thugs during a Dublin protests against fee hikes.

Reports the BBC: "Gardai forcibly ejected students from the lobby of the Merrion Row building on Wednesday afternoon.

"In violent scenes, at least one person was carried away, possibly unconscious. Others were visibly injured and bleeding.

"The student protesters occupied the Department of Finance in a stand against plans to increase fees for third level education in the Republic of Ireland.

"Several hundred students also staged a sit-down protest outside the building."

Mexican people power defeats Walmart

MEXICAN people have been successfully standing up to the commercial imperialism of the US Walmart empire.

An in-depth Narco News report shows how communities in Cuernavaca and in the Magdalena Contreras area of Mexico City resisted the capitalist invaders.

In the first instance the town council voted to buy up the land earmarked by Walmart and use it for the community, despite legal threats and pressure from the supermarket chain.

Says the report: "A citizen committee made up of neighbors, community members, and environmentalists will be in charge of the cultural center and environment-friendly park project, which will be operational by the end of the year on the same site where Walmart tried to build the store. "

In Mexico City the Broad Front Against the Western Superhighway has joined in the mobilization against Walmart. The construction project of five stores has been stopped.

Says Narco News: "In August the affected neighbors closed a side road to Periférico in Mexico City due to the lack of response from Magdalena Contreras delegation chief Eduardo Hernández.

"Since then the mobilizations were constant, to the point that on Tuesday October 12, residents of the region and members of the Front moved into the area to demand the cancellation of the Walmart projects. The mobilization was sucessful and the construction of the stores has been stopped.

"The areas where the megastores were to be constructed are located near local traditional markets. "

Comments Al Norman, the director of the organization Sprawl Busters: “The victories in Cuernavaca and Mexico City are just a reminder that citizens united can beat the world’s largest retail corporation.”

London party-goers defy riot cops

A THOUSAND party-goers saw off brutal attempts by riot cops to close down a weekend of fun in London.

The Daily Mail reported: "At one stage in the early hours, dozens of riot police were forced to retreat as party-goers shouting, ‘We won’t go’ hurled bottles, bricks and road signs."

It quoted Daniel, a 20-year-old student who had come from Manchester for the party, as saying: "There was a riot when the cops tried to close it down. They hit us with batons and used Taser guns. But we’ve carried on.

"People have come from Spain, and all over the world for this. It’s all free and we’re just enjoying ourselves. A lot of us are activists and anarchists who go to protests."

The report says the last contingent of ravers left at 4.15pm on Sunday, about 18 hours after the party started.

It said one 'organiser' had told the paper: "There will be a big resurgence of this sort of thing because of the economic situation. It’s mirroring what happened in the last recession."