South Korea: Hyundai workers strike
About 46,000 Hyundai workers will launched a four-hour strike over two days in order to press the South Korean car-maker for higher wages and benefits, union officials said on August 20.
Spokesperson Kwon Oh Il said that talks had made little progress, Morning Star reported that day. The union has demanded increased wages and benefits during three months of annual negotiations.
Britain
UPDATE: Green MP Caroline Lucas was one of more than a dozen people arrested on August 19 after police broke an anti-fracking blockade of a West Sussex drilling site.
Snatch squads were seen dragging demonstrators from the front gates of energy giant Cuadrilla's Balcombe site after police declared the picket a breach of public order, alleging that it could potentially block emergency services from reaching the site.
The protest's organisers No Dash For Gas reported 19 arrests.
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I have known my postman for more than 20 years. Conscientious and good-humoured, he is the embodiment of public service at its best. The other day, I asked him, 鈥淲hy are you standing in front of each door like a soldier on parade?鈥
鈥淣ew system,鈥 he replied. 鈥淚 am no longer required simply to post the letters through the door. I have to approach every door in a certain way and put the letters through in a certain way.鈥
鈥淲hy?鈥
鈥淎sk him.鈥
What a week! Oh such boundless joy that transports us to the very heavens! It began with BBC royal correspondent Nicholas Witchell gasping statements such as: 鈥淚 am informed the royal cervix has currently widened to 9cm, and the Queen is said to be 鈥榯hrilled鈥 at this level of dilation.鈥
鈥淭he world waits鈥 were the words the BBC put up, and indeed the whole world was thinking of nothing else. Somali fishermen abandoned their nets, saying: 鈥淭oday I cannot concentrate on mackerel to feed my village, as we pray that Nicholas Witchell soon brings us news of the royal head emerging.鈥
August 9, 1971 is a date firmly etched in the minds of many people in six counties in Ireland's north occupied by Britain. It was the date of the start of the occupying British Army's Operation Demetrius 鈥 more commonly known as the start of internment.
Internment was the military response to a popular uprising against a politically bankrupt Stormont regime. As part of Operation Demetrius, thousands of British soldiers descended on nationalist areas, smashed into homes and dragged hundreds of men away to be incarcerated in prison camps without charge or trial.
Kate Hudson is a veteran British left-wing activist and former chair of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament. Hudson was a candidate for the left-wing Respect party in last year's Manchester municipal by-election, but stood down after Respect leader George Galloway made 鈥渦nacceptable and unretracted statements about the nature of rape鈥.
Since then, Hudson has joined other left-wing activists, including film maker Ken Loach, in pushing the Left Unity initiative for anew left-wing party, which has received support from thousands of people across Britain.
Frances O鈥橤rady, head of the British Trade Union Congress (TUC), set the tone in the opening session of the People's Assembly in London on June 22, declaring: 鈥淭he Bullingdon boys are waging class war against ordinary people. We will retaliate, it is time to fight back against a government of millionaires.鈥
O'Grady's reference to Conservative Prime Minister David Cameron and Chancellor George Osborne by the exclusive upper-class Oxford University society they belonged reflects the anger at the Conservative-Liberal Democrats war on the poor.
To listen to its advocates, there is little shale gas won鈥檛 do: bring down energy prices, cut carbon emissions, support renewables and bring us out of recession.
The 鈥渃limate-sceptic鈥 Global Warming Policy Foundation even claimed that 鈥渂ecause of shale gas, wealth and health will be distributed more equitably over the planet鈥.
Add to this newspaper stories with misunderstood numbers saying that there is enough shale gas to heat British homes for 1500 years and you can see why some people are getting excited.
Sinn Fein president Gerry Adams accused the British government on May 24 of breaching commitments given during peace talks over a decade ago. Adams' comments came after the arrest of leading Donegal Sinn Fein member John Downey.
The 61-year-old was brought before Westminster Magistrates Court to face charges over a 1982 IRA attack in London鈥檚 Hyde Park in which four soldiers were killed.
Adams said an agreement forged with the British government at the 2001 Weston Park talks about republicans still pursued over outstanding prosecutions had been breached.
Martin Corey is a 63-year-old man jailed in the six counties of Ireland's north still claimed by Britain. He has been held for three years without trial.
On April 16, 2010, Corey鈥檚 house in Lurgan was visited by members of the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) and Corey was arrested.
When he asked what the charges were, Corey was told that the police officers 鈥渄id not know鈥. All they were told was to arrest Corey.
The People's Assembly is electrifying the movement against austerity in Britain. Hundreds of new people are flocking to People's Assembly meetings around the country to hear speakers like author Owen Jones, comic Mark Steel, anti-war activist Lindsey German, trade unionists and local campaigners outline the need for coordinated national resistance to the government's plans.
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