Even tho I know the military presence and assistance in civil unrest violates Posse Comitatus this trouble in Orange County,Calif. and the trouble in Iceland and Russia along with China may tell us what the government is expecting here in the US also as unemployment rises and the economy keeps going south.
Angry Government Employees Protest Lay Offs
Stuart Pfeifer
Los Angeles Times
December 24, 2008
Faced with a gaping budget deficit, Orange County officials disclosed plans Tuesday to lay off nearly 60 Probation Department employees and to start releasing some juvenile criminal suspects rather than holding them in juvenile hall.
Word of the cutbacks came the same day that 1,000 angry workers stormed the Orange County Hall of Administration to protest previously announced plans to lay off 210 social services employees.
The social services cuts stem from a steep reduction in state funding that county officials said left them with no option but to eliminate jobs. In addition to the layoffs, the county has disclosed plans to require 4,000 social services employees to take two weeks off without pay next year.
Read the entire article @ latimes.com
| Icelanders Protest Economic Crisis | |
01 December 2008 |
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| Demonstrators crowd into a city square in Reykjavik, Iceland, 01 Dec 2008 |
Thousands of Icelanders marked the 90th anniversary of sovereignty from Denmark Monday by demanding the government resign over the country’s economic crisis.
Hundreds of marchers tried to storm central bank headquarters in Reykjavik. They left after a tense hour-long standoff with riot police.
The global financial crisis has left Iceland’s economy in shambles. Three major banks have collapsed, unemployment has soared, and the value of the krona has plunged.
Russian Riot Police Detain 100 At Economic Crisis Protest
Riot police face off against protesters in Vladivostok.
VLADIVOSTOK (Reuters) — Russian riot police have detained at least 100 people protesting against government measures linked to the economic crisis, a crackdown that highlighted official sensitivity to growing hardship.
Riot police broke up an unsanctioned rally organized against import duties on new and used cars, kicked a protester as he was being held, and hurled a cameraman’s gear to the ground.
Police used a bullhorn to order demonstrators to go home as they gathered near the city center, and the OMON riot police started snatching people after an uneasy 30-minute standoff.
Local media said 100 to 200 of the 500 participants were detained, but authorities declined to confirm this figure.
Further protests were due to take place across Russia against car import tariffs, which are being raised to prop up struggling domestic car producers and discourage Russians from buying second-hand vehicles.
In China, anger rises as economy falls
The crisis in global capitalism has spelled trouble for the Chinese Communist Party, confronted by public unrest as factories shed workers and investments collapse.
Reporting from Beijing — The signs of discontent are small but unnerving in an authoritarian country where public demonstrations are not permitted.
Laid-off toy company workers smash windows and computers and overturn police cars in Guangdong province. Employees of a liquor company in Harbin travel to their company’s Beijing headquarters to demand back wages. Taxi drivers, as many as 20,000 of them, scuffle with police in protests that have spread into seven provinces.
Even the police have gotten into the act. Auxiliary officers surrounded a Communist Party office last week in Hunan province to demand higher wages, said the Hong Kong-based Information Center for Human Rights and Democracy.
As China’s economy hits the skids, such protests have been sporadic and usually involved fewer than 100 people. But in recent weeks, they have cropped up across the country like brush fires.
Steve Hilton
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Mike
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