After Gothenburg - repression

Joanna Sheldon cjs10 at cornell.edu
Mon Jun 18 17:31:17 PDT 2001


At 02:14 19-06-01, you wrote:
>European leaders are again showing their contempt for democracy: The Irish
>have to go to the polls until they agree to the Nice treaty and the right to
>assemble and move freely is suspended if you dare to protest against
>capitalism.
>
>Johannes
>
> From today's Guardian, full text at:
>http://www.guardian.co.uk/globalisation/story/0,7369,508634,00.html
>(And do not say the Guardian has no sense for humor, the subtitle of the
>story is 'European integration')

Well, I do like the Guardian, but that subtitle is actually just a link to a special report.


> From the BBC website, full text at:
>http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/world/europe/newsid_1394000/1394274.stm
> <...>
>The suggestion is even being raised that the Genoa summit might have to be
>moved to a warship or cruise liner to guarantee the safety of delegates -
>who will include US President George W Bush.

This is good. We'll borrow the Dutch Women on Waves ship, stock up on grappling hooks, and sail alongside.

Tony Benn, below (http://www.guardian.co.uk/eu/story/0,7369,508618,00.html): ------- Ironically, many leading EU politicians, including Mr Straw and his new deputy, Peter Hain, are veterans of student protests though without the extremist links admitted by both Joschka Fischer, the German foreign minister, and Lionel Jospin, the French prime minister. Mr Blair, untainted by such a past, said the protesters' arguments were as defective as their violent tactics. Globalism and free trade helped the world's poor, he insisted. Yesterday Tony Benn, the veteran ex-cabinet minister and former MP, protested that such criticism was hypocritical when the protesters were only staging "a demand for democracy" against unelected bodies such as the International Monetary Fund, the European commission and the European Central Bank. "Most people in Britain would have a lot of sympathy for what the protesters in Gothenburg are saying," said Mr Benn, who linked the protests to electoral apathy at home. ------

cheers Joanna S

----- my site www.overlookhouse.com news from down under www.smh.com.au



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