The people "speak"
Limits to the power of China's authoritarian government becomes visible.After Protest, Chinese Officials Halt Steel Mill Sale
A Chinese provincial government... halted the privatization of a state-owned steel mill where thousands of workers protested last week... in the latest sign of increasing labor activism in the country’s steel industry...
Local, provincial and national government agencies have been reluctant to use overwhelming force against protesting workers. China Daily newspaper reported... that police had tried to break through the ranks of workers... at Linzhou Iron & Steel in Anyang City, in Henan.
China Daily did not say if the police had been successful. The official Xinhua news agency said that the workers decided... to halt their protests, which had attracted up to 3,000 participants at a time, after a government mediation team agreed to reconsider the takeover...
The success of steel workers in blocking privatization could embolden workers in other industries, experts on Chinese labor issues said...
“It is no longer possible to push through privatization regardless, without considering the workers’ interests,” said Geoffrey Crothall, a spokesman for the China Labor Bulletin, a labor rights advocacy group based in Hong Kong.
In a sign of high-level interest in the recent unrest, the government-sponsored All China Federation of Trade Unions has posted a prominent series of commentaries at the top of its Web page under the heading, “Corporate restructuring: participation of the trade union is essential.”
Chinese law has long required that each privatization be approved by the workers’ congress of the affected company. But local government officials and company managers have frequently been able to rig the approval by running the congresses themselves...
Parents in China clash with police
Police clashed with residents of two neighbouring villages in northern China where nearly all the children were poisoned by lead apparently from a nearby smelter...
Several hundred villagers tore down fences and blocked traffic outside the Dongling Lead and Zinc Smelting Co. in Shaanxi province after news of the poisoning emerged ... Fighting between angry parents and scores of police broke... and trucks delivering coal to the plant were stoned...
At least 615 out of 731 children in two villages near the Dongling smelter have tested positive for lead poisoning, which can damage the nervous and reproductive systems and cause high blood pressure, anemia and memory loss. Lead levels in the children were more than 10 times the level considered safe by China...
It was unclear whether the plant had been closed and what its future might be...
Chinese mayor apologizes for lead poisoning that sickened hundreds of children
A mayor apologized to residents of two villages — where nearly all the children were sickened by lead poisoning apparently from a nearby smelter — after recent clashes between angry parents and police...
Mayor Dai apologized to residents for the poisoning and vowed the plant will not be allowed to open again until it meets health standards...
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Labels: China, participation, politics
posted by Ken Wedding @ 6:54 AM
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