One world One Dream Photos from the banner drop

Seven Tibet independence activists were detained this afternoon after three of them scaled the Golden Gate Bridge and unfurled a large protest banner reading “One World, One Dream, Free Tibet 08.” The three climbers remained on the bridge for about 2 hours before coming down voluntarily. Upon their descent they were met and arrested by officers of the California Highway Patrol. The daring action comes two days before China’s torch relay is expected to be greeted by thousands of Tibet protesters from across North America when it arrives in San Francisco. Already, the torch's so-called ‘Journey of Harmony,’ which China’s leadership hoped would improve its global image and divert attention from its ongoing occupation of Tibet, has been overshadowed by boisterous protests in Olympia, Istanbul, London and Paris. In all these cities, Tibet campaigners have engaged in dramatic actions to highlight China’s ongoing brutal crackdown on freedom protests inside Tibet.

“In two days, the Chinese government is bringing the Olympic torch to San Francisco, while inside Tibet it continues its brutal and violent crackdown on Tibetans crying out for freedom,” said Tashi Sharzur, spokesperson for Students for a Free Tibet and one of the activists detained in today’s action. “The International Olympic Committee must immediately withdraw Tibet from the Torch Relay route. Carrying the Olympic torch through Tibet would exacerbate the crisis and cause yet more suffering for the Tibetan people.”

“San Francisco has a long, proud history of standing up for human rights and freedom, and we will not allow China’s government to make a mockery of everything this city stands for,” said Laurel Sutherlin, one of the climbers and a spokesperson for Students for a Free Tibet. “Gavin Newsom has privately agreed to express his concern with the IOC over China’s torch going through Tibet. Mayor Newsom must now publicly follow up on this promise and call for Tibet to be removed from the torch route.”

Tibetans and supporters from New York, Washington DC, Toronto, Minnesota, Santa Fe, Salt Lake City, Portland, Calgary, Seattle, Los Angeles, Vancouver and other cities in North America are converging in San Francisco for mass protests on Tuesday and Wednesday to demand Tibet be removed from the torch relay route.

China’s latest deadly attack on Tibetans came in in Tongkor Township (Kardze County), in southeastern Tibet on April 3rd after Chinese authorities detained two monks for possessing photos of the Dalai Lama. Following a raid by over 3,000 armed police at Tongkor monastery, the police opened fire on the crowd of over 700 people - nearly half of whom were monks - gathered to protest the arrests. All Tibetan areas remain closed off to independent media, but eyewitness reports from all across Tibet describe severe beatings, suicide attempts by monks locked inside their monasteries, house-to-house searches and, in one instance, a large group of Tibetans being boarded onto a train to an unknown destination at Lhasa’s new railway station.

...and the US has a history of resenting competition. Quote,

As a specific policy with regard to China, it was first advanced by the United States in the Open Door Notes of September-November 1899. In 1898, the United States had become an East Asian power through the acquisition of the Philippine Islands, and when the partition of China by the European powers and Japan seemed imminent, the United States felt its commercial interests in China threatened. U.S. Secretary of State John Hay sent notes to the major powers (France, Germany, the United Kingdom, Italy, Japan, and Russia), asking them to declare formally that they would uphold Chinese territorial and administrative integrity and would not interfere with the free use of the treaty ports within their spheres of influence in China.

In reply, each nation evaded Hay's request, taking the position that it could not commit itself until the other nations had complied. During this period there was a strong economic tension. However, by July 1900, Hay announced that each of the powers had granted consent in principle. Although treaties made after 1900 refer to the Open Door Policy, competition among the various powers for special concessions within China for railroad rights, mining rights, loans, foreign trade ports, and so forth, continued unabated.

End quote.

So, how are your demands anything but imperialism by other means? Or do you even care about the history or ongoing practice of American colonialism in Asia....

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_door_policy

China and America- partners in exploitation and capitalism

From Ron Paul;


"Each year the people of the United States write a check to subsidize China, one of the most brutal, anti-American regimes in the world. Lately it has been in vogue for everyone in Washington to eagerly denounce the egregious abuses of the Chinese people at the hands of their communist dictators...

I offered an amendment before the House of Representatives last month that would have ended the $4 billion subsidy our nation quietly gives China through the US government's Export-Import Bank. The bank underwrites the purchases of goods and services by the Chinese government and others around the world. Unfortunately, only a minority of Democrats or Republicans supported my measure. Apparently, many members of Congress are happy to bash China, but dont mind lending her U.S. taxpayer money at sweetheart interest rates..."

Here's from his website, on "Border Security and Immigration Reform":

Quote:

The talk must stop. We must secure our borders now. A nation without secure borders is no nation at all. It makes no sense to fight terrorists abroad when our own front door is left unlocked. This is my six point plan:

* Physically secure our borders and coastlines. [...]
* Enforce visa rules. [...]
* No amnesty. [...]
* No welfare for illegal aliens. [...]
* End birthright citizenship. [...]
* Pass true immigration reform. T[...]

End quote.

Oh yes, no more of this talking. Just bomb bomb bomb, bomb bomb Iran.....

Ron Paul proposes to solve US problems with the world by effectively removing the world from the US. Plainly not a solution, given 21st century transportation and communication technologies.

Dear All,

As an autonomous chinese communist, I would say we need to demonstrate solidarity with the Tibetan freedom movement - "So lets get our collective booties out on the streets and blow out the torch tomorrow!"

The International Olympic is meeting Friday to discuss whether to cancel the rest of the torch run - what happens in SF tomorrow will be a major factor in this decision.

Well - time for Bay Area activists to step it up again. Besides, we can't let the Paris Commune clique and the Hyde Park Internationalists upstage us!

The Tibetan solidarity movement began in Golden Gate Park - we have a reputation to protect!

Insol,

Ananda

1. Sorry, China isn't a colony anymore and it's international investments in places like Africa is no different than what the US or Europe is doing-- capitalism.
2. China subsidizes the US not the other way around.

Besides you, of course, in a puerile attempt to discredit real and sustained opposition to your 'agenda' such as it is. Congratulations! Have a prize:
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/2/21/Is_this_tomorrow.jpg


It sure is easier than answering the various weak points in the logic by which you criticize China, isn't it?

The Winter Olympics are coming to Vancouver, BC in February 2010.
The 2010 Olympics are no less a symbol of capitalist power, ecological destruction and genocide than the Beijing Olympics this year. Riot 2010!
http://no2010.com/

Ten reasons to resist the 2010 Olympics:
http://portland.indymedia.org/en/2008/03/373988.shtml

No Olympics on Stolen Land (article):
http://www.earthfirstjournal.org/article.php?id=311