May 4, 1919 — The Chinese Movement, precurser of 20th Century Chinese Revolution

May Fourth Movement (1919)

May Fourth Movement, 1976

At the end of the First World War, in 1918, China was convinced it would be able to reclaim the territories occupied by the Germans in present-day Shandong Province. After all, it had fought along with the Allies. However, it was not to be. The warlord government of the day had secretly struck a deal with the Japanese, offering the German colonies in return for financial support. The Allies, on the other hand, acknowledged Japan’s territorial claims in China. When it became known in China in April 1919 that the negotiations over the Treaty of Versailles would not honor China’s claims, it gave rise to a movement that might be considered even more revolutionary than the one that ended the Empire.

Northern Ireland: Here Comes Trouble(s) — (again)

[Typically, bourgeois Brit media characterize rebellious violence in Northern Ireland as nonsensical and anarchistic, without good or understandable cause.  This is especially true since the highly touted peace deals were consummated years ago.  But today, conditions in Northern Ireland continue to worsen for the people as the economic crisis grows.  Farmers march in protest of milk prices, mass resentment grows at plans for a celebratory visit by the hated British monarchy, provocative Orange marches are staged, and the gap between the conciliating compradors of Sinn Fein and the abused and discarded working class youth in the streets is a faultline that the powers only address with force. — Frontlines ed.]

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Police Wounded In Northern Ireland Violence

Sky’s David Blevins reports on the anarchy that emerged in Belfast as the annual Orange Order march reached an ugly end.

By David Blevins, Ireland correspondent, Sky News — Friday, July 13, 2012

Nationalist protesters face the police in Ardoyne in north Belfast after an earlier Orange parade returned back past shops in the area

At least 20 police officers have been injured during public disorder at a flashpoint in North Belfast.

Nationalist youths rioted for hours after a loyalist march on a contentious stretch of road.

The teenagers went from hurling missiles to ramming police lines with vehicles they had stolen.

Officers deployed water canon and later fired plastic bullets in an attempt to restore calm.

Police later came under gun attack. Officers escaped injury when at least 10 shots were directed at them.

Nigel Dodds, the Democratic Unionist MP, witnessed the unrest in his constituency.

“There comes a point where everybody has to stand up against people who only are interested in violence,” he said.

The Orange Order had been told it must complete its annual parade earlier than usual.

Loyalists were outraged when the Parades Commission then permitted a nationalist protest march on the road.

Tension reached breaking point when rival factions came face to face, exchanged chants and threw bottles at each other.

Not for the first time, police were caught in the middle.

Protesters clash with police in Ardoyne following an Orange Order parade in north Belfast

Gerry Kelly, a Sinn Fein member the Stormont Assembly, said: “Let’s sit down, talk this out and come to some sort of accommodation. We have had worse problems to solve.”

North Belfast witnesses similar disturbances every July but they are now being fuelled by a power struggle.

Sinn Fein had called for calm but dissident Republicans made no such appeals.

Assistant chief constable Will Kerr, the officer in charge of policing parades in Northern Ireland, encouraged “individuals and communities” affected by trouble to respond in a “calm and responsible manner”.

With the Orange Order demanding its right to walk traditional routes and Catholic residents objecting, the marching season often provides the backdrop for a period of tension on the streets.

Loyalists march to mark the victory of King William of Orange over the Catholic King James in 1690.

To some, it is tradition; to others, triumphalism and they rarely compromise.

Protesters Defy Egypt’s Govermnent – The New York Times

[click here to see video:  Protesters Defy Egypt’s Govermnent – Video Library – The New York Times.]

[As in a growing number of countries, a new generation of Egyptian youth is bringing the force of revolt to the fore.  Older, established opposition forces are scrambling to catch up, while the street is erupting and making plans.–Frontlines ed.]

New York Times: “Egyptian Youths Drive the Revolt Against Mubarak”

By DAVID D. KIRKPATRICK and MICHAEL SLACKMAN

For decades, Egypt’s authoritarian president, Hosni Mubarak, played a clever game with his political opponents.

He tolerated a tiny and toothless opposition of liberal intellectuals whose vain electoral campaigns created the facade of a democratic process. And he demonized the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood as a group of violent extremists who posed a threat that he used to justify his police state.

But this enduring and, many here say, all too comfortable relationship was upended this week by the emergence of an unpredictable third force, the leaderless tens of thousands of young Egyptians who turned out to demand an end to Mr. Mubarak’s 30-year rule.

UK: 15 year old Tells Establishment to “Stick it”

“we are no longer the post-ideological generation…..we are the generation now at the heart of the fight back”

The Bloody Streets of Kashmir Have Spoken

Prakash Kona

Countercurrents,  October 4, 2010

Not their criminal politicians who’ve betrayed their people and the folks on the streets know that. The youth, the lower middle classes and the workers – they’ve got the idea right that the only way to fight is with your back against the wall – either you die fighting or you fight dying. The treacherous government of India has sponsored generations of local elites to do the dirty job of suppressing the people on the street.

Omar Abdullah, the Chief Minister of Kashmir and President of Jammu and Kashmir National Conference has a fine English accent albeit fake and sure knows how to make a speech prepared before one or two or many mirrors look extempore: “I don’t know why should I fear the nuclear deal. It is a deal between two countries which, I hope, will become two equals in the future” says Omar in 2008 while defending a fraud nuclear deal made by the Manmohan Singh government – in anticipation of being the head of a puppet government whose strings are pulled by a bunch of robbers in New Delhi – who themselves are puppets of a global mafia in Washington.

There are neither decent armies in the world nor decent policemen. Stanley Kubrick’s “Full Metal jacket” (1987) makes the point rather well: armies exist on this planet to kill – not to do social justice or any justice. To take a line from Che Guevara that I’m fond of quoting, the Indian army is a bunch of “wild bloodthirsty animals determined to slaughter, kill, murder and destroy the very last vestige of the revolutionary or the partisan in any regime that they crush under their boots because it fights for freedom.”