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WORLDWIDE TRUCKERS' STRIKES & PROTESTS * ASIA
* Gridlocked cities, empty shelves and bloodshed as fury at soaring costs spreads
Asia -Jazz Blog (USA), by Jazzy -14 June 2008: -- Around the world, Worldwide protests over the rising price of fuel escalated today, with the Philippines presidential palace besieged by lorries, fishermen burning their boats in Thailand, and Spanish petrol stations running dry as hauliers blockade major roads.Violence has already claimed lives of lorry drivers on either side of the dispute, while one haulier was nearly burned to death in his cab by strikers...
* Philippines - Hundreds of lorries and minibuses blocked roads in Manila leading to Malacanang Palace today to demand the lifting of a 12 per cent sales tax on fuel. Petrol prices there have risen about 24 per cent this year...
(Photo: Anger drivers take their grievances onto the streets of Manila)... Traffic ground to a halt as anti-riot police halted the convoy, including about 500 tuk-tuks, Manila's three-wheeled taxis...* Thailand - In Thai capital Bangkok, tens of thousands of heavy lorries are threatening to cause havoc while farmers are demonstrating and fishermen have begun burning their boats in nationwide protests against soaring prices of fuel and other essentials... Lorry drivers' leaders warned the government that it has until next Tuesday to subsidise their fuel or face at least 100,000 vehicles rumbling into Bangkok. A half-day strike yesterday by lorry drivers who parked their vehicles on roads across the country was only a prelude to next week's possible push into Bangkok, they said... Finance Minister, Suraphong Suebwonglee, said there were plans to help reduce transport costs... 'I am not concerned about the lorry drivers' threat to strike because the government is seeking to subsidise the transport sectors as the whole,' he said...
(Photo: Thai truck drivers block the highway during a strike protest against high fuel prices on a highway on the outskirts of Bangkok)* Malaysia - Meanwhile opposition groups in Malaysia today vowed to push on with mass protests against a 41 per cent hike in petrol prices - despite a pledge from the Prime Minister to keep prices fixed for the rest of the year... Malaysia is Asia's largest net oil exporter, earning £38 million a year in revenue for every 50 pence rise in crude prices. Protesters demanded to know why rising profits from oil exports were not being used as subsidies to the poor... A march is planned tomorrow in Kuala Lumpur to the Petronas Twin Towers, headquarters of oil giant Petronas... A million people are expected for another demonstration in the capital next month... Police have warned they will take action against protesters, with a permit required for any gatherings of more than four people...
(Photo: Fury united: Activists from the Communist Party of India stop a train at Guwahati Railway Station during a protest against the hike in fuel prices today)... Malaysia followed India, Indonesia, Taiwan and Sri Lanka by raising pump prices last week. On Monday, Nepal became the latest Asian nation to rise prices to stem losses of a state firm... Also in Asia, South Korean lorry drivers voted to strike on Monday, ignoring a £5 billion government aid package designed to cushion the impact of fuel price rises... Labels: strikes and protests
posted by Unknown @ 11:24 AM
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