So, Erick Erickson of Red State wants people in Washington State to start dragging state legislators into the street, and beat them into a bloody pulp, over a new law mandating higher environmental regulations on dishwasher detergent. Or, maybe that isn't exactly what he wants, but he certainly implies that he wouldn't object on the off chance that people reading his blog might actually decide to start doing that. Such action is worth considering, according to Erickson, and he is going to give his gun a good cleaning.
Given a longstanding record of assassinations, terroristacts, and even aborted coups in this country, American conservative incitements to violence should not be shrugged off. However, there is still an element of comic puniness to these current threats, giving the actual increases in civil unrest around the world right now. For every Erick Erickson or Michelle Bachmann making what are probably empty threats of civil unrest over the expansion of the public sector, there is an angry mob actually threatening to topple a foreign government, and actually pissed off workers holding their company's managers hostage. Such events have risen in frequency during the economic downturn, putting real lives and real governments at risk.
In light of this increase in civil unrest, today I am bringing you the first of what I hope will become a regular series here on Open Left: "Civil Unrest Watch." Perhaps I am starting this series to offer context and contrast to the current incitements to violence from American conservatives. Perhaps I am doing this to demonstrate that while talk of angry mobs may have been reduced entirely to the metaphorical in the United States, they are still actually real in many places around the world. Perhaps I am doing this simply out of a morbid fascination with civil unrest itself. Whatever the reason, I just feel compelled to write a regular round-up of civil unrest worldwide. If Open Left readers find it interesting, I will make it a regular feature.
In today's edition of civil unrest watch: a revolution / coup in Madagascar, protesters in Thailand attempt to overthrow the prime minister, some G-20 protesters trash banks and clash with police, and managers are being taken hostage in France on multiple occasions. Details in the extended entry.
Police in Madagascar's capital broke up an opposition demonstration by shooting into the air and using tear gas Saturday, Hospital officials said 34 people were injured.
The demonstrators, supporters of Madagascar's ousted President Marc Ravalomanana, had tried to converge on a central square where the president's rival had held demonstrations in recent months.
Andry Rajoelina had led a campaign of street protests that, with backing from the military, brought Ravalomanana down earlier this month. Rajoelina had accused Ravalomanana of doing too little to help the country's poor majority.
Ravalomanana supporters had hoped to hear him address them by telephone Saturday from Swaziland, where he has been consulting with leaders before a regional summit on Madagascar set for Monday.
He was unable to address the crowd before police broke up the gathering. Later Saturday, a private radio station broadcast an audio recording of Ravalomanana's speech, in which he said he would return soon.
"Keep going, consolidate your movement so that the entire world can know that we won't stop until the rule of law is re-established," he said.
"I beseech you not to accept the repression that certain people want to impose, the division they want to create," he said. "We must show our unity, our solidarity."
A melee followed the break-up of the demonstration. Officials at the capital's Joseph Ravoahangy Andrianavalona Hospital said they treated 34 injured people, among them a 12-year-old and a 14-year-old. Police officers at the scene said they were trying to prevent confrontations between Ravalomanana's supporters and his opponents.
In response to Saturday's police action, Ravalomanana supporters called for a general strike Monday.
"Students should not go to school, office workers should stop their work and the private sector should stop paying taxes so as not to support an illegal regime," said union leader Constant Raveloson, who heads a movement calling for the re-establishment of constitutional order.
Madagascar's neighbors have denounced Rajoelina's seizure of power as unconstitutional. The Southern African Development Community summit on Monday is to discuss whether to impose sanctions to try to force Rajoelina to surrender power.
Rajoelina has promised new elections within two years, after a new constitution and electoral laws are adopted and an independent electoral commission is installed.
The G20 protests in central London turned violent ahead of tomorrow's summit, with a hardcore band of demonstrators close to the Bank of England storming a Royal Bank of Scotland branch, smashing its windows and wrecking the interior.
The trouble broke out as Gordon Brown and Barack Obama announced that the G20 leaders were "within a few hours" of agreeing a global deal for economic recovery.
Riot officers and police dogs and horses were used to remove the 20 protesters, who spent quarter of an hour ransacking the RBS building, tearing out computers and telephones. Nineteen people were arrested after a small group among the 4,000-strong crowd broke through the police line.
Although the demonstrations began peacefully, bloody skirmishes erupted as police tried to keep thousands of people in containment pens on Threadneedle Street.
Protesters targeted RBS - at the centre of a row over £703,000-a-year pension payments to Sir Fred Goodwin, the disgraced former chief executive - and police spent an hour clearing and sealing off the branch, which had been closed today as a precaution.
By midday, around 60 protesters and police were involved in scuffles, which saw officers pelted with bottles, eggs, fruit and paint. Some officers also had their helmets ripped from their heads and thrown into the air, which was turned pink and red as protesters let off smoke bombs. Police responded by using truncheons, batons and pepper spray.
For two hours, a group of protesters pushed against the police line on Threadneedle Street, provoking intermittent skirmishes that left several officers and demonstrators injured.
Four Caterpillar Inc. managers were held hostage by workers at a plant in Grenoble, southeastern France, while in Paris an angry mob besieged Francois-Henri Pinault, the billionaire head of PPR SA, to protest job cuts.(...)
"The four are being held until they agree to reopen negotiations," said Patrick Bernard, a representative of the Confederation Generale du Travail union. "They have been sequestered."(...)
Pinault's Paris taxi was surrounded by workers protesting a plan to cut 1, 200 jobs at retailers Fnac and Conforama, which are owned by PPR. Police dispatched to the area helped clear the way for the chief executive to leave in his taxi after an hour- long standoff with the protestors, Agence France-Presse said.(...)
Last week, 3M employees at a factory in Pithiviers, France, held Industrial Director Luc Rousselet for 24 hours before freeing him. 3M is planning to cut 110 of the total 235 jobs at the factory, which makes medical products.
"This is a very difficult plan for these people and I can understand their distress," Rousselet told French television i- Tele after being released overnight.
On March 12, the chief executive officer of Sony France was held overnight at a factory in southwest France by workers demanding an increase in their severance pay.
Thailand protests grind government to a halt; possible violent showdown awaits: In an attempt to replace the prime minister with another prime minister who was ousted by a military coup, tens of thousands of protesters have surrounded the main government office in Bangkok
Thailand's government has offered talks with exiled former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra as it tries to end a week of protests by his supporters.
Thousands of protesters have continued blocking government offices in the capital, Bangkok, defying a court ruling ordering them to disperse.
Deputy Prime Minister Suthep Thaugsuban said he wanted to avoid violence.
But he also said the government could not meet Mr Thaksin's demand that parliament be dissolved.
Mr Thaksin, who has lived abroad in self-imposed exile since being ousted in a coup in 2006, has appealed by video link for his supporters to pour into Bangkok from all over the country.
The demonstration has already forced the government to call off its weekly cabinet meeting.
What did I miss? Where else is civil unrest taking place as a result of economic and political conditions? And, is a round-up like this interesting to you at all? Are there ways you think it could be improved?
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