Today’s demo was always going to the the one that counted

Yesterday ensured Hong Kong will go down in history alongside Seattle and Genoa. The determined and disciplined actions of the demonstration (many, but by no means all Koreans) saw the WTO ministerial iminently threatened with invasion.

A protest gathered in Victoria Park at 2pm, I estimate about 5 or 6,000 (but that ain’t my strong point!). Many speeches from Korea, La Via Campesina, trade unionists and more, and then we departed. The declared intention was reported in the South China Morning Post, detailing the route and mentioning the fact that it would take four different approaches to the convention centre. I stuck with an international grouping of socialists from different persuasions, about two thirds of the way down the demo. Doing ‘stop and runs’ and chanting in a way only the Koreans could manage, there was a lot of people watching and giving a thumbs up.

As I mentioned earlier, the relationship between Hong Kong people and protesters has been growing and warming. More, but not as many as we might have liked, Hong Kong people had joined this demo than before, and onlookers were joining in the chants of “Kong Yee Sai Mau!”. Even the staff in the 7-11 round the corner from the guest house shout this when we go in for beer, fist aloft!

As we approached the first designated point of departure for the convention centre, the mood turned electric. It was obvious there’d been a couple of scuffles by the time we passed, and the march ahead of us had speeded up considerably. We hung around the road junction Marsh Road and Lockhart Road for a while before we diverted north, to avoid road blocks and approach the centre from another angle. Perhaps a thousand people were in this block.

Marching towards a steep bridge that crosses the main Gloucester Road, the top of which was heavily populated with riot police, we took the ground level alternative, which was less heavily guarded. It didn’t take long before getting through this line - some protesters taking heavy blows with batons. Our morale soared, having secured our first significant advance, and had here been more people acting with more urgency, perhaps our progress would have been further. On Gloucester Road, however, a huge number of cops will pepper foam, full length shields and riot gear stood in our way - but we could see the entrance to the WTO conference.

There was a number of attempts to breach the lines. Mostly using nothing more than human bodies and flag sticks against the riot cops. Brave but fruitless attempts were relentless, and repeatedly ended up with a dozen or so protesters getting their faces washed by colleagues to get rid of the stinging pepper foam. Many groups had invested in a roll of cling film and there was the peculiar spectacle of shrink wrapped demonstrators running about the place!

For a while, I stood near to Walden Bello and others from the Focus organisation. Walden was commentating on the events into a dictaphone. “The police lines are not heavy enough to hold these protesters indefinitely” he noted. He was right. With the front line measuring upwards of 200 metres, the press photographers were not going to get in the way (although march stewards still brusquely marshalled them away from places they decided on).

A lull, and a rethink in tactics. Hong Kong policing seems very amateurish compared with most other places, these cops aren’t trained or cut out for mass protests and confrontations. I think the UK police would have been pretty stunned by the Korean methods. Sitting in ranks a singing, they then got to their feet and rushed the lines, taking pepper and blows, only to return for more. But this being unproductive, they tied three crowd control barriers together and used them as part battering ram, part shield to charge the police lines. Incredibly the police withstood three of four such charges. Further down the line, there was a breakthrough, around 100 people (again, that’s my guess) burst through to huge cheers. They had got to the centre.

Police were brutal and uncompromising with them.

The breach of the line led to a change in police tactics - tear gas. Without warning several large cannisters were fired into the crowd, harsh and debilitating stuff that seemed more ferocious than flavours I’d tasted in Europe before. There was quite a panicked retreat. Strangely many young Koreans had not experience tear gas before - it’s not been commonly used in Seoul and Pusan for six or seven years - they do much more serious ‘crowd control’ there.

We regrouped the other side of a bridge, on the north side of Gloucester Road.

Other groups who’d taken different approaches joined with us and we got onto Gloucester Road - the major traffic artery of Hong Kong Island. We started another rally, sat down in the street and occupied the place, again within sight of the entrance to the WTO ministerial. Speakers from across the planet took the microphone. La Via Campesina and Jose Bove were received with tremendous applause. The police instructed people to move, they later claimed, but no police announcement was made - not once. Riot cops moved in on all sides, narrowing our space gradually but continuously. For a while the area of confinement was a few blocks square, and there was toilets and even a couple of functioning cheap restaurants which did a roaring trade. Food appeared in abundance in the sit-in itself and was shared between students workers and peasants (and even some of the media).

At one point the announcement came that there’d been many arrests and 30 people hospitalised, one person in a critical condition with internal bleeding. Soon afterwards there was another announcement that the WTO talks had collapsed, with jubilant scenes (I remember a similar thing happening in Genoa). Later still the mood deepened with the announcement that someone, a Korean farmer had died. We observed a minutes silence, followed by a gutsy rendition of the Korean peasant song that has become the theme tune of the protests. It later emerged that the person dead might well be a suicide back in Korea (not necessarily in protest at the WTO, just as likely a desperate and sad end to a life suffering from the effects of WTO policies). Neither version of this story has been confirmed or denied and we’re trying to find out exactly what has happened.

Appeal after appeal was made to the police not to attack us. “Do you want your descendants to be proud or ashamed of you?” they were asked. Wisely the attack didn’t come, there was too many press and locals looking on. “The Whole World is Watching!” we chanted for a while, but it’s a difficult one for Koreans!

As the night grew colder and the speeches had run their course, the microphone was handed over to singers and other entertainment. People stood and danced, again did massive congas, introduced themselves to their neighbours and made many many friends. I got into a fantastic discussion with a young Taiwanese student who thought another world was a dream - but a nice dream, I like to think he’s a bit more optimistic now.

At about 3.30am it was announced that anyone non-Korean should leave or be arrested. It semed the Koreans had one choice - arrest. Small groups of activists hugged their Korean friends, taking keys to guest house rooms to collect baggage (most had packed in the morning expecting a bit of a night of it), and said their goodbyes. We had to show ID to prove our nationality to get out, in a blatant victimisation of Korean activists.

On getting back to the guesthouse, we saw on the live TV coverage there was still people (including our friends) on the street. The women were arrested first, it being cold, many people were impatient for the process to begin.

It’s now 1pm the next day and I’ve just spoken to a jounrnalist on the inside of the convention centre - the sit ion is still going - at least 17 hours after it began, the major road on HK Island still blocked. It’s very small now, the prisons being filled, but incredible that it is still there.

There’s a Korean meeting starting now to decide a strategy over what to do. The Chinese consulate in Seoul is being picketed at the moment. Anyone reading this should get on to the Chinese embassy and call for the release of the Koreans and any one else who is being detained, they were all arrested at a peaceful demonstration.

An incredible day, and hearing the latest from the inside, a deal which is so weak and meaningless looks the likely outcome. Anyone portraying the WTO as anything but a defeat and a step closer to the grave is a liar. This is a deal which is only in name to save face for the supporters of the WTO. Delegates from more radical poorer countries are saying how the protesters helped the resistance on the conference floor, like Seattle and Cancun before, the power of the people ain’t stopping.

KONG YEE SAI MAU!