INTERNATIONAL LABOUR-INDONESIA:

SOLIDARITY WITH THE FARMERS OF PATI, JAVA:

The following is a news story from the Asian Anarchist Network. It concerns the struggle of local farmers in Pati Indonesia against the construction of a cement plant that would contaminate their water supply. the following has been slightly edited for English grammar.

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Fight The Law: Solidarity!‏:
From: super samin

supersamin_inc@yahoo.com

Fight The Law: Solidarity!

SOLIDARITY: FREE OUR ENVIRONMENTAL FIGHTER FARMERS!

Once again we have to face another obstacle in stopping the corporations from destroying our environment, culture and economy. Together with the plan to built the cement factory in Pati, Central Java that caused lots of conflicts and problems among local people because the factory will be built on the North Kendeng Mountain where are most rivers and lakes are located, the authorities has arrested nine farmers and activists that joined the protest.

This rejection of the cement factory not only comes from Sukolilo's farmers but also the Sedulur Sikep community or as it used to be called Wong Samin, the local community being known in Javanese society as very wise and humble environment fighters.

But this effort now facing an obstacle related with the arrests of nine farmers and environment activists during their protest to close this cement factory.

The chronology of the events started Thursday morning, 22 January 2009 when the people tried to have a dialog with their village authority about the news of the selling of their land to the Semen Gresik, one day after they made posters with the statement that Our Land Belongs To Us because of zero response from their village authority regarding this news. Because the authorities seemed to refuse to meet them, they decide to block and close the road to the four survey cars from Semen Gresik that arrived that day. But then when the night came and there is was no news from the authorities about having that dialog with them, those people just sat and wait patiently without making any violence acts at all.

The situation got intense when 250 Brimob and Samapta suddenly moved towards the people that sat around the Semen Gresik's cars. They screamed and swore at the people while trying to make them move away from those cars violently. They kicked, hit, stepped on and threw woman and men that insisted on staying. Women and children screamed in panic. Then people started to fight back. Children, women, men and even elders throwing rocks towards those officers while the sound of gunshots filled the air. Thirteen police officers were wounded and three Semen Gresik's cars destroyed. Many people, men and women, being victims of those police's brutality. Video camera and digital camera belonging to our friends were also heavily damaged. Without having strong evidence the police then arrested those nine people. They are under arrest with accusation of violence, persuasion and doing unpleasant activities(Molly can only imagine the contents of this charge. Sorta like "disturbing the peace I guess). Among those nine people that being arrested there were Kamsi (65 yrs), Sunarto (52 yrs), Sudarto (48 yrs), Sukarman (26 yrs),Sutikno (26 yrs), Gunarto (25 yrs), Purwanto (22 yrs), Mualim (21 yrs) and Zainul (20 yrs).

These police brutality actions are still continuing after the arrest by physical and mental torture, by hitting those nine farmers on their heads, eyes and other parts of their bodies.

At present, those nine farmers are still under arrest at the Semarang Police Station, in central Java, waiting for their further trial. Therefore, in the name of our land and people's fight against those tyrants, we are calling out all of our friends out there to be actively involved on this solidarity effort.

Release our nine brothers from prison as soon as possible!

Stop the Semen Gresik project at Central Java right away!

INTERNATIONAL POLITICS-GREECE:

UNREST PERSISTS IN GREECE:

Unrest continues to persist in Greece. This week Greek farmers have been staging protests and road blockages over the low price of their products. At the same time fresh clashes have broken out between anarchists and the police in Athens. Here's what's presently happening with the farmers' protests via the AFP news.

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Greek farmers pledge to maintain highway blockades:
ATHENS, Greece (AFP) — Thousands of Greek farmers on Saturday hunkered down for a fifth day of highway blockades in an ongoing tug-of-war with the government over the low price of produce.

The farmers, who are demanding higher prices for cotton, corn and wheat than those set by the European Union, threatened to escalate their protest despite a 500-million-euro (646-million-dollar) package offered by the state last week.

"We're not leaving unless the government clarifies how the money will be divided per crop," a farmer union member told state TV channel NET at a roadblock in Promachonas near the Greek-Bulgarian border.

Hundreds of tractors continue to occupy key junctions on the Athens-Thessaloniki highway and other roads in northern Greece, effectively slicing the country in two.

The disruption is expected to spread to the Peloponnese on Monday where farmers intend to block the bridge over the Isthmus of Corinth, one of the two road access points to the southern peninsula.

The farmers have also blocked border routes to Bulgaria and Turkey where freight traffic has slowed to a trickle, with the protesters only making exceptions for perishable goods and medical emergencies.

The Bulgarian government on Friday formally protested to the Greek embassy in Sofia, noting that the blockade compromises free travel and trade principles enshrined in the two countries' common European Union membership.

On Friday night, a group of Greek farmers attempted to cross the border into Bulgaria for unspecified reasons but were blocked by Bulgarian police, the semi-state Athens News Agency (ANA) reported.

A similar farmer protest cut Greece in half in 1997 for several weeks, forcing the government to sabotage the tractors, puncturing their tyres at night to get traffic running normally across highways.

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Meanwhile in Athens and Patras anarchists and others continue to clash with police. Here's the story of today's events from the Reuters news agency.

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Anarchists clash with Greek police in Athens march:
ATHENS (Reuters) - Anarchists threw fire bombs and clashed with Greek police in Athens on Saturday during a march to parliament by more than 1,000 demonstrators protesting over the police killing of a teenager last month.

"About 150 anarchists who broke away from the rally threw rocks at the police who responded with teargas," said a police official, who declined to be named. "Later, they threw fire bombs at the offices of the defense minister."

The anarchists set on fire a newspaper kiosk and a bus station and caused minor damages to four banks in the center of the Greek capital. Police chased small groups of youths around the city center and detained at least two people.

Protests also took place in the southwestern Greek port of Patras, where three newspapers' buildings, a journalists union and three banks suffered slight damage.

Greece witnessed the worst riots in decades in December, triggered by the fatal police shooting of a 15-year-old boy and fueled by anger at economic hardships and government scandals.
On Thursday, a protest march against an acid attack on an immigrant cleaner, who was a union activist, caused vandalism by groups of anarchists, who clashed with police.

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Here's another take on the story from the British libertarian communist site LibCom.

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Protests resume in Athens:
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Protesters and riot police have clashed in central Athens today during a protest calling for the release of prisoners arrested during last month's riots, as farmers continued a week-long road blockade over prices.

The clashes occurred outside the University of Athens, as police charged with batons and pepper spray, while protesters used sticks and stones. Several hundred people were involved in the protests, and around 300 continued a march through the town centre. The International Herald Tribune reported that most participants were anarchists.

Also this week, around ten thousand farmers have been blocking major highways and border crossings with tractors over prices, after government talks broke down. Protests at Greece's third largest airport in Crete finished earlier this week, after the runway was blockaded by tractors and burning tires on Tuesday.