Wednesday, 27 August 2008
Thursday, 14 August 2008
Lawyers win stay of execution for Chinese activist
Lawyers win stay of execution for Chinese activist
MARTIN WILLIAMS August 08 2008
A legal team supporting a Chinese trade unionist and her two-year-old son, who face deportation back to China after five years in Scotland, have won a stay of execution to stop her from leaving.
Birmingham-based solicitors Harvey Son & Filby, who specialise in Chinese law, lodged a High Court judicial review yesterday at the High Court in London to stop the deportation of Qin Wang and her son Jian Qi Lin.
They are expected to use European human rights legislation to argue her case.
Qin Wang and her son were at Heathrow Airport awaiting a 1.30pm flight out of Britain to China when news of the stay of execution came through and she was taken back to a detention centre.
A close friend, Jing Wu, said: "We are very pleased that the lawyer has managed to stop her leaving because he did not have a lot of time.
"There is still more for the lawyer to do though if they are to come back to Glasgow."
Friends who have visited her in detention said Qin Wang, who lived in Sandyhills, Glasgow, talked of killing herself rather than returning to China, where she says she was beaten and indecently assaulted by police when detained in connection with outlawed union activities.
The mother and son were due to be flown back to China from Heathrow yesterday, on the eve of the opening of the Olympic Games in Beijing.
Qin Wang's solicitors claim the Home Office took issue with the activist "going underground" for four years - scared she would be sent back to China - after first registering as an asylum seeker when she arrived in 2003.
She re-registered in 2007 but failed to convince the Home Office of her refugee status.
Qin Wang, who gave birth to her son in Glasgow, says she suffered torture and was indecently assaulted before managing to escape one of the many political prisons in China after she was arrested for her part in agitating for workers to get redundancy payments when an electronics factory in the Fujian district closed.
She was detained without notice by the Home Office last Friday and went on hunger strike at Dungavel before being transferred to a detention centre near Heathrow.
http://www.theherald.co.uk/search/display.var.2420737.0.lawyers_win_stay_of_execution_for_chinese_activist.php
MARTIN WILLIAMS August 08 2008
A legal team supporting a Chinese trade unionist and her two-year-old son, who face deportation back to China after five years in Scotland, have won a stay of execution to stop her from leaving.
Birmingham-based solicitors Harvey Son & Filby, who specialise in Chinese law, lodged a High Court judicial review yesterday at the High Court in London to stop the deportation of Qin Wang and her son Jian Qi Lin.
They are expected to use European human rights legislation to argue her case.
Qin Wang and her son were at Heathrow Airport awaiting a 1.30pm flight out of Britain to China when news of the stay of execution came through and she was taken back to a detention centre.
A close friend, Jing Wu, said: "We are very pleased that the lawyer has managed to stop her leaving because he did not have a lot of time.
"There is still more for the lawyer to do though if they are to come back to Glasgow."
Friends who have visited her in detention said Qin Wang, who lived in Sandyhills, Glasgow, talked of killing herself rather than returning to China, where she says she was beaten and indecently assaulted by police when detained in connection with outlawed union activities.
The mother and son were due to be flown back to China from Heathrow yesterday, on the eve of the opening of the Olympic Games in Beijing.
Qin Wang's solicitors claim the Home Office took issue with the activist "going underground" for four years - scared she would be sent back to China - after first registering as an asylum seeker when she arrived in 2003.
She re-registered in 2007 but failed to convince the Home Office of her refugee status.
Qin Wang, who gave birth to her son in Glasgow, says she suffered torture and was indecently assaulted before managing to escape one of the many political prisons in China after she was arrested for her part in agitating for workers to get redundancy payments when an electronics factory in the Fujian district closed.
She was detained without notice by the Home Office last Friday and went on hunger strike at Dungavel before being transferred to a detention centre near Heathrow.
http://www.theherald.co.uk/search/display.var.2420737.0.lawyers_win_stay_of_execution_for_chinese_activist.php
Saturday, 2 August 2008
Wednesday, 16 July 2008
Riot in Eastern China
Migrant workers rioted for three days in a town in eastern China in a fresh sign of rumbling social unrest running up to the Beijing Olympics.The protests began on 10 July in Kanmen in the coastal province of Zhejiang. Workers - reportedly angered by a beating meted out to a colleague - attacked a police station for three successive nights. The incident comes just weeks after a 30,000-strong crowd torched dozens of official buildings in Guizhou province.
They were protesting about an alleged cover-up over the death of a teenage girl. Police said the girl committed suicide but her family said she was murdered by the son of a local official. One hundred people have been detained over the Guizhou riots, Chinese state media reported on Monday, including "39 members of local gangs". The incident in Kanmen erupted after a migrant worker was viciously beaten by a security guard, a Hong Kong-based human rights group said.
A crowd surrounded the police station after officers detained the worker, who had gone to file a complaint, the Information Centre for Human Rights and Democracy said, after which three nights of protests and rioting followed. Three hundred military police arrived in the town on Sunday, another local official told the Associated Press news agency. In recent years, more and more reports of local protests have emerged from China. Corruption, land seizures, abuse of power by local officials and the widening gap between rich and poor are the common causes.
They were protesting about an alleged cover-up over the death of a teenage girl. Police said the girl committed suicide but her family said she was murdered by the son of a local official. One hundred people have been detained over the Guizhou riots, Chinese state media reported on Monday, including "39 members of local gangs". The incident in Kanmen erupted after a migrant worker was viciously beaten by a security guard, a Hong Kong-based human rights group said.
A crowd surrounded the police station after officers detained the worker, who had gone to file a complaint, the Information Centre for Human Rights and Democracy said, after which three nights of protests and rioting followed. Three hundred military police arrived in the town on Sunday, another local official told the Associated Press news agency. In recent years, more and more reports of local protests have emerged from China. Corruption, land seizures, abuse of power by local officials and the widening gap between rich and poor are the common causes.
Wednesday, 2 July 2008
International unions
SUPPORT SACKED STARBUCKS BARISTAS
On Thursday 24th April, Monica, a barista in the central Seville branch of Starbucks, was fired without notice for creating problems with her workmates. She had worked there for a year and a half. She had been active in organising with the CNT and defending her rights. The store manager told her on several occasions that she must have nothing to do with unions. She is a member of the Commerce Union of the CNT, in Spain. The CNT is demanding her reinstatement.
Barely a month later, in Grand Rapids, Michigan, USA, Starbucks fired
barista Cole Dorsey on June 6th. Cole had over 2 years of service and
was active in the IWW Starbucks Workers Union. The National Labor Relations Board in the US has already made the firm rehire two sacked workers in 2006, and are looking at Starbucks latest violation.
Please come and join us and show Starbucks bosses will not tolerate their union busting.
This is part of an international day of action.
Bring placards, banners, instruments and your mates.
Solidarity Federation and Industrial Workers of the World
www.solfed.org www.iww.org.uk
On Thursday 24th April, Monica, a barista in the central Seville branch of Starbucks, was fired without notice for creating problems with her workmates. She had worked there for a year and a half. She had been active in organising with the CNT and defending her rights. The store manager told her on several occasions that she must have nothing to do with unions. She is a member of the Commerce Union of the CNT, in Spain. The CNT is demanding her reinstatement.
Barely a month later, in Grand Rapids, Michigan, USA, Starbucks fired
barista Cole Dorsey on June 6th. Cole had over 2 years of service and
was active in the IWW Starbucks Workers Union. The National Labor Relations Board in the US has already made the firm rehire two sacked workers in 2006, and are looking at Starbucks latest violation.
Please come and join us and show Starbucks bosses will not tolerate their union busting.
This is part of an international day of action.
Bring placards, banners, instruments and your mates.
Solidarity Federation and Industrial Workers of the World
www.solfed.org www.iww.org.uk
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