In the Water

Some thoughts on May 2

So, another International Labour Day has come and gone, with some of the expected, some of the usual, and some of the exciting. Probably some of the most exciting events this May 1 have been taking place in the United States, which, along with Canada, refuses to recognize International Labour Day and holds its own official holiday in September. Perhaps this has to do with the events of May, 1886?

In any case, a national day of action including a work stoppage and an economic boycott ('gran paro nacional') was called for May 1, 2006 by the strong and growing immigrant and undocumented workers' movement in the United States. In what was called "A Day Without an Immigrant", businesses were urged to close, workers to not go to work, and students to not go to schools,  in solidarity with the struggles of immigrants and undocumented workers in the US. The most prominent themes in earlier demonstrations seem to have been to highlight migrants' position in the US economy as workers, and also as equal members of society.

The most conservative reports have said that at least one million people across the US participated in the actions, while other reports have said at least twice that number. Reports in the business press are calling the events of May 1 a demonstration of economic clout by migrant workers.

In other places, since this is the designated 'labour day' and at least officially a public holiday for most of the rest of the world, it perhaps wasn't surprising that large rallies took place all across the planet, and Asia was no exception. There's too much to report on, of course, so here are just a few of some of the interesting actions and occurences I heard about...

In India a reported crowd of around 100,000 marched in Kolkata, while a separate demonstration in the city saw around 4,000 sex workers participating and calling for social justice. In neighbouring Sri Lanka, however, there was a "voluntary decision" by concerned parties to call off May Day rallies, due to fears over the escalating violence in the country. In Japan, some two million people are estimated to have joined labour rallies across the country, including hundreds who participated in a demonstration held by temporary, part-time and unemployed workers for the second year running. As people prepared to demonstrate in Malaysia, the government there "vowed" to suppress workplace strikes and cut them "to zero". In the Philippines the history of May 1 struggles continued with a large rally in Manila... actions by workers and organizations also took place in Palestine, South Korea, Indonesia, Thailand...

So how about here in Hong Kong? A march of about 1,000-2,000 people, more than half of whom were migrant workers from Indonesia and the Philippines, gathered in Victoria Park and marched to the Central Government Offices, after which a number of performances and speeches were given. Although the mood was generally positive and lively, the relative absence of local Chinese workers was once again very evident. Indeed, the ability of the Hong Kong Confederation of Trade Unions (HKCTU) to organize people to come out even during a completely risk-free time such as International Labour Day seems to be diminishing every year (the HKCTU contingent was about 300 people, generously speaking), overshadowed by migrant workers' organizations, who consistently bring out thousands of people even though they face significantly greater obstacles and risks to organizing.

What does this mean? To a hopeful cynic like myself, it points to the increasing irrelevance of a union federation as it is organized by HKCTU. While the group is relatively flushed with resources, and has a number of excellent organizers and committed individuals involved, it seems to not be able to identify or effectively address the deteriorating work situation for most people over here. It seems that a 'traditional' union, organizing in different industrial sectors or among people with long-term contract jobs for example, won't seem relevant to the increasing number of part time, casual, temporary, non-contract, undocumented, or unemployed workers as is happening in Hong Kong. Indeed, even getting a day off to demonstrate on the public holiday of May 1 seemed like a privilege when we walked through the streets, looking at retail and service industry workers going through one of their busiest workdays, and hearing from organizers that many more migrant domestic workers would have come out but most of their employers give them either zero or significantly reduced holidays.

So what is the hopeful part? If not a traditional 'trade-union' (a "trad-union"?), then what kind of organizing would be more relevant to us and to the majority of people in our city? Perhaps we can learn from some of the organizing that has been taking place in the US, or the much smaller rally in Japan,  or even our own local organizing among migrant workers. Rather than focusing on the protection of relative privilege such as long-term job contracts, and rights for those with documented or 'full' immigration status, these campaigns have directly or indirectly, seem to confront the issues of class, work and labour as issues of exploitation.

To me they do this either by directly organizing against increased attacks on the rights already won by working people (attacks which most of us are experiencing through increased 'casualization', no-contracts, diminished pay, longer working hours, more temporary part-time staff, and unemployment), or directly campaigning against the extreme vulnerability of workers due to their undocumented status (or in the case of migrant domestic workers in Hong Kong, due to their 'special' immigration status). These are issues that 'trad unions' here in HK may have mentioned but either haven't been able to address or come to terms with.  And crucially, of course, the campaigns I've mentioned feature central involvement by people facing the brunt of this exploitation themselves rather than from some union federation bureaucracy.

So, to end a long rambling story, exploitation seems to me to be at the heart of labour issues under capitalism (or state socialism) and thus seems to be an effective place to start organizing.

Wow, what a great and completely original conclusion that has never been mentioned before.
Having taken the long road to that ridiculously obvious point, I'm now going to do what we all need to do... get off my ass and do something!!!

Happy May 1!

The month that was two years long

It's said that this January is a month containing two years- the Western new year at the beginning and Lunar new year at the end.

Well, for us here in Hong Kong, recent times have really felt like a month that is two years long. The actions by the end of the anti-WTO week in December had become so heated, long, exhausting, and dramatic as to render things like writing on blogs somewhat inane. Months, though it now feels like years ago, as the WTO meeting here came closer and closer to its date, I was planning on doing daily reports, updates, bulletins, urgent appeals etc. etc...

Nothing came of all of this, of course, as meetings, plannings, actions, and events took up most of my time, and my continuing mental inability to process what happened that week left me at the best of times in a vegetative state in front of any computer screen with sassy blank pages daring me to respond to the questions that kept coming from people about what the hell was happening here.

Well, a couple of weeks later and here I am back floating in the blog pond. I figured that my perceived inanity of blogs was one thing. But going back to my job and service-industry wage slavery after the week of anti-WTO actions was on a completely new level of mundane, mindless, vacuuous, asinine drudgery. (I don't think I've ever mentioned what I do for money, but this wonderful treatise on class analysis sort of sums it up). I reasoned that if economic need could compel me to go back to that shit, I had to find some way to compel myself to return to the comparatively liberatory paradise of webspace.

So, here I am, gingerly testing the water again. Among other things, I'll try and keep everyone updated on the progress my own feeble mind is making with understanding all the aspects of what happened in Hong Kong between December 11 and December 18... of course, along with the usual posts on things going on in this region and others.

Well, an important note to end on is that despite my tone in the above paragraphs, the struggle hasn't really ended over here. I don't even mean that in some wishy-washy rhetorical way. The legal cases of the 14 people-- 11 Korean farmers and unionists, 1 Taiwanese student, 1 Japanese anti-poverty activist, and 1 mainland Chinese bystander-- who have been charged by the HK government as a result of their anti-WTO activities seem to be dragging out to epic proportions. Their next hearing, and a crucially important one, will be held on January 11th at the Kwun Tong District Court, so if it's at all possible please try to go and support our troops!

Anyway, happy new years to all of you out there. And there are two of them this time, so let's make them count.

Echoes from Tiananmen

I'm reposting here a call from local activists for June 4... the important point made is that the big commemorations in Victoria Park in HK, aside from their theme of 'patriotic democracy', are problematic in that they remember only the massacre in Tiananmen Square in 1989, and not the reasons for the gathering nor the public space that was created and liberated by people for so long...

So here's the call for another action on June 4, not just remembering the massacre, but liberating an area for public space in HK, in front of the Cultural  Centre beginning on that night, and ending... ?

The call is reposted below (scroll down for English)... check out the blog for dizzidenza by following the link, which you can also find in the right hand column...

異議聲音(天安門迴響)       dizzidenza (echoes from Tinanman)              

請廣為轉傳發播

異議聲音(天安門迴響)

一九八九六四

想的不只愛國

要的不只民主

做的不只運動

愛恨哀怨 迴響不絕

二零零五六四

要再上路

愛人同志

到廣場去

死生相隨

異議聲音為一個由九七回歸開始，迴響八九六四人民自主提出異議的年度音樂演出聚匯。十六年後的今天，人民的自主性仍然被主導，異議的聲音依然被忽視。我們心信人民自主的異議聲音必須被確認及鼓動，所以自上年度的異議聲音開始，我們放棄再以主辨者的身份籌備及安排演出，只就此發出一個公開呼籲，希望接收到以上訊息的朋友，帶同自己的發聲、演展、播放器具，於六月三日晚上八時九分匯聚尖沙咀文化中心外「翱翔的法國人」雕塑前的空地，共構一個自主發聲、自由起動的文化廣場。

誠然，在一個開放的廣場上，任何一個聲音都應被尊重，當中如出現任何不協調之情況，亦只可期望各參與的朋友本著互相關顧的原則作出協調及安排。

另外，我們認為人民的廣場本就屬於人民，任何規管者於未被要求的情況下之干預，實為不必要及壓縮人民自主表達的空間的行為。故此，此次的文化廣場匯聚，將不會向任何規管機構發出申請或知會。所以，期間各參與朋友將可能需要面對規管者的干預及作出回應。當然，既稱人民匯聚廣場，人民之間，互相關顧、支援，以至共同面對及化解任何眼前的困難，將會是至為重要。

如有任何疑問，請電郵至dizzidenza@mail.com

異議者啟

中國大陸東南

二零零五年四月二十六日

Please forward and propagate

dizzidenza (echoes from Tinanman)

19890604

Thinking not just of being patriotic.

Wanting not just of democracy.

Making not just a movement.

Love, hate and sadness, echoes on.

20040604

Wanting to trek the path again.

Lovers and comrades.

To the square we go.

Death or live, together we always will.

Since ’97 (the return of Hong Kong to the Mainland), dizzidenza has been an annual music gathering echoing the independent dissents raised during June 4^th, 1989. 16 years have gone by, people’s voices are still being organised, voices of dissent are still being neglected. We believe that people’s independent voice of dissent must be acknowledged and facilitated. Therefore, we refrain from organizing and arranging for the since last year, and send out here an open call for participation. Hoping those who get the message shall bring along their own equipments of amplification; performance or display to gather at the area in front of the “The Soaring Frenchman” sculpture in front of the Tsimshatsui Cultural Centre at 8:09 p.m. on June 3^rd to realize an cultural square of the voices of the independent dissents and the freedom to action.

In a square of openness, any voice must certainly be honoured. If any discord should happens, accord could only be made with mutual care of the involved participants to achieve a just co-ordination and arrangement.

Furthermore, we think that a people’s square is of the people and for the people, any uninvited interruption by any governing party are un-necessary and is actually a repressive act to suppress the people’s freedom of expression and action. Therefore, this gathering of cultural square will not submit any application or notification to any governing bodies. Thus, the participants might have to face and react to interruption by the governing parties. Since we called this gathering a square of the people, the mutual care and support between people to face up to and resolve any pressing problem will be of utmost importance.

If you should have any question, please email to dizzidenza@mail.com

Kartini Day

Sunday, April 17 was Kartini Day, an Indonesian festival that celebrates women's rights and emancipation in education.

A hundreds-strong rally was held by the Indonesian Migrant Workers Union in Victoria Park on Hong Kong island to celebrate and also protest against abuses against migrants by employers, recruitment agencies, and state institutions...

The picture on the left is from the discussion on the WTO and migration that took place towards the end of the day. Union members also gave talks on their own situations, performed drama and dances, played traditional and pop music...

For a great, full description of the Kartini Day celebration and some brief notes on the situation of Indonesian migrant domestic workers in Hong Kong, check out this good report from Asian Labour News.

"Spoils of war"

This is the best online version of this picture from the SCMP I could find... it's not very good but I really had to post it. It's a post-uprising picture from Zhejiang province, with a group of the elderly protesters showing off the trophies they took from police after a 30,000 or so strong crowd forced authorities to flee over the weekend...

In the front you can sort of make out the villagers sitting down, while police uniforms, shields, helmets etc. are hanging on clotheslines above them... the inside of the paper also shows a number of trashed cars and government vehicles...

Wow! If I find any better versions of these things I'll stick them up later.

Tens of thousands take to the streets against Japan? Great! 200 elderly women protest birth deformities and chemical poisoning at home? Round 'em up!

With all the focus on the ridiculous state-sponsored nationalist jubilee going on in China, a refreshing report appeared in The Guardian recently on grassroots protests... when you talk about Japan you can gather in the thousands, it seems, but bring up something about conditions closer to home and you might face "reckless efforts" to have your dissent curbed... like being run over by police cars, for example, as two elderly women recently were at a anti-factory pollution protest in Zhejiang province... the two were reportedly part of a group of 200 elderly women holding a vigil to protest birth defects and poisioning near a series of chemical factories, a gathering that was set upon by city officials and police after some weeks...

Interestingly there was a popular reaction to the womens' deaths this weekend by thousands people who attacked police after hearing reports about the incident... This excerpt from the linked report:

Reports that two elderly women were killed during a protest against factory pollution have sparked a bloody riot by thousands of villagers in eastern China.

Several dozen police officers were injured, five seriously, during the clashes in Huankantou village, Zhejiang province, on Sunday. It was the latest of several recent violent demonstrations, of a kind that poses an increasingly serious threat to China's stability.

The two protesters were said to have been killed when officials tried to disperse 200 elderly women who had kept a two-week vigil outside a chemical factory that they blamed for ruined crops and deformities in new-born babies.

Witnesses claimed that police and construction officials from the Dongyang city government were reckless in their attempt to pull down the demonstrators' bamboo shelters and arrest the women.

As far as this incident goes, there are some inconsistencies between the Guardian report and a report in the April 12 South China Morning Post. So I'm typing out the report from the latter, which is not available online... particularly interesting are the first hand accounts from villagers detailing the police violence, some estimates of the extent of the attacks on government property, and a few details on the extent of chemical exposure involved in the village... Here is the SCMP report:

30,000 Clash With Police in Village Pollution Riot

Two Rumoured Killed as Officers Break up month-long vigil by elderly women

Didi Kirsten Tatlow in Dongyang and Kristine Kwok

A village in Dongyang, Zhejiang province erupted in a massive riot on Sunday when over 30,000 villagers clashed with police who were disrupting a protest against pollution.

Reports that police had killed some of the elderly women protesters sparked the chaos in Hua Xi village in Dongyang. More than 50 government vehicles, including 14 cars and at least 40 buses, were turned over and destroyed. A total of 128 people were sent to the hospital for treatment, and 36 were admitted for longer-term care.

One resident told the South China Morning Post that police officers, armed with clubs and shields, tried to disperse the group of elderly women, firing tear gas.

"They arrived at the sheds at about 5am and began dispersing the women. A number of the women passed out after they were hit with electrified clubs... They just hit the elderly women," said the resident. He said he heard that at least two elderly women had died after being run over by police cars. Some protesters even had their eyeballs fall out, said the resident, he added. The casualties could not be confirmed.

Some protesters were whisked off by police cars.

For about a month, the 200 elderly protesters had been staging an around-the-clock vigil outside the Hua Xi Middle School, not far from an industrial zone. They were protesting against the heavy pollution emitted by 13 chemical plants 250 metres away. They lived in makeshift bamboo sheds they had erected.

On Sunday morning, rumours quickly spread that at least one of the protestors had been killed, sparking a rush by 30,000 to 40,000 villagers to the site, the witness said. "This is like almost all of the town's population was there," he said.

Residents said since the 13 chemical plants were erected in 2001, the pollution had affected the environment so badly that the soil was barren and local vegetables inedible. "The turnip's skin is white but it's dark inside," said one resident who took part in the riot.

Villagers had to give up farming and earn a living by working at small trades, he said. "At the beginning, there was just one factory; now there are about 13 of them. We complained to the city government, asking for the relocation of either the factories or the village, but got no response.

"One official even said the factories would remain there even if all the people in the village died," he said.

"Young people didn't dare [join the original protest], since if they did, they would have been immediately harassed," the resident said, explaining why most of the protesters were elderly.

Dongyang government spokesman Chen Qixian last night denied that anyone was killed when the protest was broken up. He said 1000 government officials, including at least 100 policement, were used in the operation.

An informed source said mainland media had been restricted from reporting sensitive news about Zhejiang for hear that it would discourage foreign investment in the coastal province, which has seen extensive investments from overseas, Hong Kong and Taiwan in recent years.

Foshan factory strike

So it seems the city of Foshan, which I think I briefly mentioned in relation to my travels in Guangdong last month, was the scene of a 5,000-strong strike by factory workers a few days ago.  The strike is reportedly over an occupational health and safety issue, involving the contracting of silicosis by workers in a Hong Kong-owned jewelery factory, and the subsequent tampering of medical files by the employer...

There are apparently few reports on this in English, even on the usual blogs like Asian Labour News... so I'm going to reprint the following post from that maoist academic-y site China Study Group...

The post has two or three links to reports in Chinese on this story, so if you can read them, they're there...

Jewelry Factory Workers Strike in Guangdong

5,000 workers in a Hong Kong jewelry factory in Foshan City of Guangdong Province struck for 3 days (3/15-3/17) after they began to suspect that their employer had falsified medical exam results showing that some workers had contracted silicosis.

Earlier this year, 10 workers with several years of experience at the plant, suspecting that their employers were withholding medical exam results, went to a provincial hospital specializing in occupational diseases for a second opinion. 2 of the 10 were diagnosed with silicosis, despite having been given a clean bill of health in the plant’s medical exams. These findings let 212 more workers to get second opinions, and 12 further cases were found.

Upon hearing the news, the plant’s 5,000 workers refused to return to work and surrounded the factory. The owners were rumored to have fled to Guangzhou. The work stoppage attracted the attention of the city’s Health and Labor Bureaus, and large-scale medical examinations were organized. A total of 31 workers were diagnosed with silicosis by 3/19.

The workers, who average work on the average 9 hours a day with one day off every two months, claim frequent exposure to both glass and plastic particles given off during the jewelry manufacturing process.

(still waiting for English reports, please email us if you know of any)

• 疑染塵肺症 佛山港資廠爆發5000人罷工 –  苦勞網 3/19
• 首饰工疑染尘肺病入院 – 搜狐 3/19
• 广东首饰厂职工疑染尘肺病 5000工人与厂方对峙 – 今日扬州 3/19

Some pieces on 'violence'

There have been three articles that I have seen so far about potential WTO protests in Hong Kong in the awful English language press here, all of them based around sensationalising the theme of 'violence'. To paraphrase, but in no way embellish, their general sentiments: 'Police stock up on rubber bullets to protect the city!' 'Protestors gather in HK to draw up their war plan!' 'Protestors can't guarantee peace!'

I dunno if this is reflective of general fears, but friends I've seen on the street and talked to about this stuff have asked me such questions as well: briefly put, will there be violence?

So I'd like to link to a few pieces on this issue. But first we should ask ourselves what does this question mean? More specifically, what does the word 'violence' refer to when its used in mainstream reporting in the context of protests?

There are many examples of violence out there, and in the media's use of the term in this case, there are certain types of violence that are obviously not talking about. We can probably agree that they are not talking about cruise missiles or ballistic missiles, cluster bombs or car bombs or carpet bombing or crippling sanctions. But bafflingly they are also not referring to police beatings or arrests or use of chemical/sub-lethal weapons, and certainly not the violence that is protected by this sort of state repression, namely the policies of the WTO, IMF, et al. that are inflicted on people around the world every day...

No, generally the immediate inference in mainstream reporting is property damage/destruction by certain protestors, using as the point of reference the images and stories from Seattle of windows being smashed, Starbucks branches being vandalized, etc.

(As a side note, if you didn't pick up on my sarcasm, I think these are paltry and pathetic standards and definitions to hold on to. During this whole 'Can protestors guarantee peace?' sensation, for example, the freakin' USS Kitty Hawk was docked in HK waters... this was of course greeted with a human interest story in the same paper about how US sailors love their trips to the city and spend lots of money. "What? An aircraft carrier from the imperial fleet with 5000 troops and countless weapons? Nah, they couldn't possibly be violent. Better run that horror story about the two hundred NGO people meeting at a university to talk about organizing demonstrations...")

So, bearing this very specific definition of 'violence' in mind, ZNet has a good site with a few essays on non-violence, trashing and movement strategy. The writers are all social justice activists as well, and are writing around the context of the Seattle demonstrations in 1999, adding to the discussions of 'violence' that took place then. The writers themselves either took part or helped organize for these demos, and they first and foremost note that this discussion should be undertaken as part of a movement: that these are questions of movement strategy not some individual intellectual analysis from which we can come up with a blanket position on 'violence' or 'pacifism'.

If I were to pick out a couple of these pieces to read... well, they would be the ones I agree with! Brian Dominick discusses critically the 'trashing' of buildings or storefronts by certain people in Seattle with this piece titled  'Anarchy, non/violence and the Seattle actions'

And in a short piece by Michael Albert titled 'Different Strokes for Different Folks?' he talks more generally about the issue of strategy...

For what it's worth, I fundamentally abhor attacks against people and acts of violence that hurt people, but do not have any immediate moral objections to 'trashing' or sabotaging the property of capitalist or military institutions. In fact I think that if we are serious about the former point, we should in principle agree with the second: any serious discussion on 'violence' against these institutions, after all, needs to take into account the gargantuan systems of violence and oppressions that they uphold...

Of course, that's on an abstract level. Whether or not a movement should use these actions in practice is a serious question of strategy, and needs to be considered as such, by carefully considering its effects on people, on elites and the powerful, and on movement strategy.

In the above-linked piece Michael Albert proposes a few questions to ask when evaluating any question of strategy:

What are its effects on those who utilize the strategy

What are its effects on those it seeks to pressure

What are its effects on those that the protestors wish to organize, and

What are its effects on enduring movement organization and culture?

Albert continues:

The point by point contrast highlights the complexity of judging tactics. Is having teach-ins, marching, rallying, doing civil disobedience, obstructing large numbers of people, or destroying draft card files, a missile nose cone, a war-making facility, or targeted windows, or trespassing, rioting, resisting arrest, or even escalating to pro-active aggression against police, scabs, or other sectors, a good choice? To know, we have to decide which claims are true and which false, and how we regard the overall tally.

But why do we have to consider each case on its own merits? Why can't we have an across-the-board always binding judgment? In some situations aggressive tactics yield all the positive affects their advocates expect. Yet in other situations aggressive tactics fail to deliver any potential benefits. Likewise, in some situations aggressive tactics yield all the debits their critics anticipate. Yet other times aggressive tactics minimize or even eliminate the debits. Thus there are no universal rules about specific tactics and the best we can do is assess each tactic in each situation, seeking to maximize potential benefits and minimize potential ills.

In the broadest possible terms, I think the overarching task of people anywhere is to increase the costs of state violence for its perpetrators, while building a movement for a better world based on principles that we agree are desirable. Our choices and discussions on tactics and strategy should bear in mind all of these tasks and the effects of our actions on them.

Well, while we are on the subject of demonstrations and movements, check out this recent interview a friend of mine here in HK did with Arif Dirlik... Dirlik is a US academic who has written a lot about modern Chinese history, particularly on the history of anarchism in the Chinese revolution . I'm currently reading a book co-authored by him and Ming K. Chan titled 'Schools into Fields and Factories: Anarchists, the Guomindang, and the National Labor University in Shanghai 1927-1932'. The discussion linked above deals mostly about the WTO meeting in Hong Kong and approaches to organizing that are long term and that go beyond organizing one more large demo...

The interview is one of a few pieces featured on ZNet's recently updated China Watch website, so please go over there and browse that site when you can!

Migrant workers support tsunami victims

With every Hong Kong billionaire and his corporate mother currently receiving front page coverage for their charity donations, the excellent weblog Asian Labour News is probably the only place I've seen the efforts of ordinary people in solidarity with the tsunami victims reported. This post from December 29, for example, describes some of the efforts:

There are around 85,000 Indonesian domestic helpers in Hong Kong (the second largest group after Filipinas). Despite their low pay (they are often paid well under the minimum wage) and being denied a day off on Monday (Boxing Day Holiday in Hong Kong), the community has started to raise money for relief efforts back home. This has been difficult because usually they only meet on Sundays, so the drive to raise funds has been conducted by SMS and other means. However, as of this morning they have raised $HK10,000 and organisers expect that on Sunday they will add to this amount considerably.

With the death toll in Indonesia standing at almost 90,000, grassroots organizations such as the Indonesian Migrant Workers' Union (IMWU) and the Hong Kong Coalition of Indonesian Migrant Workers' Organizations (KOTKIHO) have also been raising funds, food, and clothes, and holding special prayer sessions in local mosques to show their solidarity with the tsunami victims and their families. A public campaign on the tsunami and migrants in Hong Kong has also been announced by these organizations as a follow up the collection of funds.

Pictures from Dec 3 demo

I should have posted this earlier, but things have been a little hectic lately. Fortunately, they've been hectic in a good way, with lots of meetings with lots of good people about starting up some campaigns and creative actions over this year to build up to the WTO meetings in HK (and beyond, of course). A more considered post will come soon.

Anyway, as I mentioned to Ray in the comments section, we held a very hastily organized demo on Dec 3 in front of the Dow Chemical company offices. I'd never been to these offices, but they turned out to be a major regional hub for Dow's activities.  Makes one wonder how many other killer companies operate in near-anoymity on the top floors of HK giant skyscrapers.

Dow also has a production facility in the Tsing Yi area, and has several facilities in mainland China, and participants in the demo brought up links between HK, China and Bhopal. Some linked it to the issue of democracy and accountability, citing Bhopal as a tragic example of what can happen when powerful people and companies can act with impunity, while others brought up the possibility of a Bhopal-type disaster happening in China through the reckless and unrestrained activities of corporations operating there.

There weren't so many people participating, but we still managed to get into the corridors of the office tower and make a lot of noise. It was also good of legislator Leung Kwok-hung to show up and support the demo...

This action was basically to show solidarity with the Global Day of Action Against Corporate crime called by the International Committee for Justice in Bhopal and Bhopal victims groups.  But for us in HK, where many killer corporates have their bases, a more sustained, strategic, and direct campaign against the likes of Dow is in order. Let's see what we can do.

Incidentally, to your left is a picture of the Dow representative who came out to meet us holding a sign saying 'Justice for Bhopal Victims'. Hmmm.