CINA

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About last Sunday's fascist demonstrations in Moscow today's German (bourgeois) magazine Der Spiegel reported following:

NEO-NAZIS ON THE MARCH IN MOSCOW
'We Russians Are Part of the White Race'

Thousands of Russian neo-Nazis marched through Moscow on National Unity Day this weekend, joined by pensioners, students and families. Experts believe Russia's far right gives President Vladimir Putin a welcome justification for his authoritarian political style.

Russian skinheads, hooligans, nationalists, fascists and racists gathered on Moscow's Kutosovsky Prospect to mark National Unity Day on Sunday.

They waved flags as they marched in single file along the banks of the Moskva River and to the Ukraina Hotel, across from the White House, the seat of Russia's government.

"Russia for Russians!" the demonstrators shouted in unison, followed by slogans such as "For a Slavic, Russian nation!" or "Slavic, Russian, Powerful!" The demonstrators stretched out their arms in the Hitler salute between slogans. Their loud shouts of "Slavic Russia!" were followed by the sound of drum rolls.

"We are opposed to the immigration of Caucasians and Asians to Russia. Our people must remain pure. Russia belongs to us," 32-year-old Andrey Bukov explains. The trained media expert says he has been "serving" in the Movement Against Illegal Immigration (DPNI) for four years. He waves its white, yellow and black flag, which features a symbol resembling a swastika.

Nineteen-year-old Sergei carries the red flag of his group -- the "Slavic Union" -- tied around his shoulders. "We Russians are part of the white race," he says. "The blacks -- the Caucasians, the Chechens, the Dagestani -- should stay away," says the Muscovite, a student at the Finance Academy.

Skinheads and Pensioners

The roughly 2,000 demonstrators from the ultra-nationalist scene, who were holding the Russian March for the third year in a row, are a mixed and varied bunch -- a pool of discontented groups and individuals from all classes of society. Elderly women handing out badly photocopied flyers, young female students wearing make-up and high-heeled boots, and parents with small children in colorful snowsuits can all be seen next to skinheads wearing black leather coats, combat boots, SS uniforms or bomber jackets and displaying swastikas. Even young children were giving the Hitler salute.

Pensioner Monika Nikolayeva eagerly passes out flyers portraying oligarchs such as Boris Berezovsky, Vladimir Gusinsky and Mikhail Khodorkovsky as enemies of the people. "These billionaires send their children to school abroad," Nikolayeva, who has a 15-year-old granddaughter, says angrily. "When it comes to our children, there is not even enough money to send them to university in Russia." That is why she believes it is good that young people take to the streets and protest. "Young girls in particular only get limited education!"

The young girls she means are technical university students like Olga and Darya, who are marching beneath the flags. "We're against everything. We're patriots," rants 18-year-old Olga. She and her 19-year-old friend have traveled to Moscow from Rostov-on-Don in southern Russia to attend the demonstration. Asked what they are demonstrating against, she is at a loss for a moment. Then she stutters: "Against the anti-Russian policy in the world -- I can't say it any more clearly."

Nazis are Welcome Bogeymen

Andreas Umland, an expert in comparative fascism studies who specializes in Russia, believes these "organized neo-Nazis" are relatively harmless politically. "It's purely a subcultural provocation," he says. Militaristic fascism has been imported to Russia from the Third Reich, he says, and simply adorned with a few Russian and orthodox symbols. "Within wider Russian society, these fascists are stigmatized," he explains. "This Russian March is more of a protest movement."

Nevertheless the Kremlin allows the ultra-right demonstrators to take to the streets on National Unity Day, a public holiday, and dispatches thousands of security forces to keep the aggressive mob under control. "The Nazis are a welcome bogeyman, an occasion for demonstrating the power of the authoritarian state," Umland says, explaining that President Vladimir Putin uses the neo-Nazis to legitimate his authoritarian political style by suggesting that without it, the far right could take power. On the other hand, Russia's Central Election Commission has banned the "Motherland" party from participating in the elections to the Russian parliament, the Duma.

Later on Sunday evening, four hours after the neo-Nazi demonstrations, a second Russian March took place in Moscow. Again, thousands walked from Kutusovsky Prospect to the Ukraina Hotel. This time, the marchers were members of groups and parties such as "People's Union" -- followers of revolutionary fascism whose ideology is not so much racist as imperialist.

Anti-American Screed

Umland says that this group has little to do with the racist nationalists and their overt Nazism. Generally, says the expert on nationalism -- who has been researching Russia's right-wing movements for 15 years -- groups like the "People's Union" rely on anti-American and anti-European screed to attract followers.

They include the Vice Speaker of the Duma Sergey Baburin and other members of parliament. "More or less all the powerful political parties participating in the Duma elections have made use of these anti-Western slogans -- from the Russian Communist Party to Putin's United Russia," Umland says. But, he adds, there is a complete absence of a significant left-wing party or movement in the run up to the Russian elections.

Russia's leading human rights group, the SOVA Center for Information and Analysis, still sees the neo-Nazi march as reason to sound the alarm. In its latest report the SOVA Center says it recorded 270 racially motivated violent attacks against a total of 472 people, 53 of whom have died. SOVA's Galina Kozhevnikova is even expecting an increase in xenophobia during the coming weeks, in the run up to the parliamentary elections in December. "Sadly, we are not surprised," she says. The figure increases by between 20 and 25 percent every year, Kozhevnikova explains. "But this year we are seeing a trend towards the targeting of new enemy groups, such as homosexuals," she adds.

Most incidents described in the report involve drunk young men on the prowl after football or ice hockey games. They beat up Azerbaijanis, Uzbeks or Tajikistanis or attack them with weapons. Usually, it is the very same young men who can be seen giving the Hitler salute at the Russian March.

http://www.spiegel.de/international/europe/0,1518,515380,00.html

Member of the "National Union"..

Related:

☞ Neo-Nazis March in Russia ("Photo Galery", Der Spiegel, 11.06)

☞ Russian Neo-Nazis Strike Again (Der Spiegel, 9.15)

☞ SOVA Center for Information and Analysis

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Yesterday (11.04) Russia celebrated the obscure (national holiday) "Day of National Unity". In Moscow thousands of demonstrators demanded in two separate rallies - one was more fascist and racist, and the other more fascist and pro-imperialist (incl. the "National Bolshevist Party") - "Russia Only For White Russians", "Foreigners/Migrants Out!!", "Death to the Yellow Danger" (i.e. the influence of the Chinese, Koreans.. in the East..), a "Unified Struggle Against the (so-called western) Democracy" and the "Re-establishment of the Russian Empire", etc..

Well, here some few impressions from y'day's (f..) demonstrations in Moscow:

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AVAILABLE SOON
IN PYEONGYANG!!!
 

Yeah, what a "progress"!! Just read following stupid story (well, it must be a bad joke!):

Fried chicken franchise goes North (JoongAng Ilbo, 11.03)

 
..a South Korean fried chicken franchise will open the only foreign-run restaurant in North Korea, targeting family dining on special occasions...
 
Choi Won-ho, who runs Matdaero, a 70-store fried chicken franchise in the South, said yesterday he would open a restaurant in a joint venture with a North Korean state-run trading company, near the Arch of Triumph in central Pyongyang on Nov. 15.
 
The restaurant will both receive walk-in customers and deliver chicken and draft beer to homes. Such places are common in South Korea, but it will be the first chicken joint of its kind in North Korea.

Choi has invested 500 million won ($551,000) in the restaurant’s cooking facilities, interior decoration and delivery scooters. He will split the profit 70-30 with the North Korean firm.

Choi, 48, who has been a chicken entrepreneur for 15 years, said there should be sufficient demand despite North Korea being one of the world’s poorest countries, because he plans to offer lower prices to locals.
 
“I will charge about $3 for a whole chicken for North Koreans (*) and at least $12, the same price as in South Korea, for tourists from the South and other countries,” Choi said yesterday by phone. “One whole chicken will be enough for a four-member family, so the price of $3 will not be too burdensome for special occasions.”

The store will hire about 20 North Koreans to take telephone orders, fry the birds and make home deliveries. It will have seating for 50...

http://joongangdaily.joins.com/article/view.asp?aid=2882297

☞ Fried Chicken Shop to Debut in NKorea (AP, 11.02)

* According to experts who are familiar with the NK society the average monthly income for "ordinary" workers -  "The Heroes of the Paradise of the Working Class" - is between 3000 and 5000 NK Won.

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Last Monday (10.29) the Swedish magazine The Local published following report:

South Korean hunger striker targets Tetra Pak

A leafy Swiss park is the unlikely setting for a showdown between a South Korean hunger striker and a global corporation he accuses of "gangster" tactics in shutting down a factory.

Chung Janghun, a 41-year-old union official, has been on hunger strike for just over a month in a park in the western city of Lausanne, close to where the processing and packaging company Tetra Pak has its international headquarters.

Tetra Pak was founded in Sweden in 1953 and is famed for its innovative milk and drinks packaging. The Swedish company's registered international headquarters are in Pully, a Lausanne suburb, for tax purposes.

Chung and his comrades from the Korean Chemical and Textile Workers Federation are protesting against Tetra Pak's proposals to close the Yoju plant in South Korea and cut 108 jobs.

"It's very hard, but what keeps me going is the struggle against Tetra Pak," Chung told AFP in an interview.

Since September 26th, he has survived on just water and mineral salts.

Chung also has a twice-weekly check-up at Lausanne's University Hospital and must heed doctors' advice -- one of the conditions imposed by the Swiss city's authorities when allowing his protest.

Tetra Pak announced last March it was shutting the Yoju factory, saying its operations were commercially unsustainable.

However, Chung claimed the factory "had never been in the red," and said the decision to close it down was politically motivated.

All but three of the 76 workers on the factory floor were union members, he said, speaking through an interpreter.

Looking frail but determined in his tent in Lausanne's Parc de Milan, Chung said his aim was to highlight the "immoral and inhumane" methods of Tetra Pak, including hiring what he called "half-gangster" security firms to intimidate union officials.

Tetra Pak also bombarded workers and their families with text messages in a bid to get them to accept a voluntary redundancy package, he added.

Tetra Pak said in a statement that it had offered employees "a significantly more generous redundancy package than required under South Korean employment law."

The two sides have held three meetings since the Korean delegation has been in Europe -- one in Sweden and two in Switzerland.

The unions alleged these amounted to a "monologue, not a dialogue."

Tetra Pak said it wants to continue a dialogue, and "hope(s) that the South Korean Union delegation will soon refocus their campaign onto their health, well being and future."

Switzerland's economy minister Doris Leuthard has rejected calls to become involved in the dispute. Her ministry says that under international directives laid down by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), the matter must be settled in South Korea.

Chung Janghun insists the dispute has implications for workers worldwide and not just in his home country.

"I want to make it an international issue to correct the immoral attitudes of multinationals," he said.

He said he had received a "very good impression" of Switzerland during his protest, and that local people had come to the park to voice their support and provide blankets and food to his companions.

The union official said he was grateful to the Lausanne authorities for allowing his protest and admitted he would face an ethical dilemma if doctors advise him to stop his strike on health grounds.

"I am resolute to go to the very end," he said -- but on the other hand, "unlike Tetra Pak, I won't break my promises," Chung added.

http://www.thelocal.se/8936/20071029/

Signature campaign..

..in Lausanne

For more informations please check out:

☞ 테트라팩홍보팀 (Struggle Tour Dairy, many pics and copies of Swiss newspapers)

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JUNTA PROTESTS RETURN
Burmese Monks Venture Back onto Streets (Spiegel, 10.31)

Last month, protesting monks in Burma were being beaten up and detained by the thousands. Now they're are back at it -- in smaller numbers, but with equal conviction.

For the first time since last month's bloody crackdown by the military regime, monks have ventured back onto the streets of Burma. On Tuesday, more than 100 chanting and praying monks marched through the central Burmese town of Pakkoku, about 630 km north-west of Yangon.

People who witnessed the march, which lasted about half an hour, said the monks did not make any overt political statements but that the rally was clearly in defiance of the junta.

Pakkoku, a centre of Buddhist learning, was the scene of clashes between soldiers and monks on Sept. 5, when soldiers had violent confrontations with 600 demonstrating monks.

Since mid-August, hundreds of thousands of Burmese, among them many students and monks, had been protesting rising fuel prices in peaceful demonstrations against the military regime. With the brutal crackdown that began in Pakkoku and continued for weeks, the domestic crisis entered international headlines. Since then, public gatherings of monks have been prohibited, and many monasteries remain deserted.

While the Burmese government claims that only 10 people died in the clashes, diplomats and dissidents set the figure much higher. The Norway-based opposition news organization the Democratic Voice of Burma has estimated that 138 were killed in the violence and around 6,000 detained...

A frame grab taken by a member of the DVB and released 9.01,

shows the body of a dead Buddhist monk floating in a river in Rangoon

http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/0,1518,514596,00.html

Related:

☞ Burmese monks stage first protest since uprising (Guardian/UK, 11.01)

☞ Monks warned against protesting (DVB, 11.01)

☞ Rangoon Diary (Irrawaddy, 11.01)

☞ Myanmar's generals hit where it hurts (A. Times/HK, 11.01)

Latest soli-activities in Seoul/S.K.: 

☞ [10월 30일] ..기자회견

☞ [10월 30일] 버마.. 촛불문화제