US

Direct actionists calling themselves the ‘Dusty Desperadoes' destroyed five acres of genetically engineered canola at Monsanto facilities. Since November 1998, there have been at least 37 reported anti-genetic direct actions in North America.

Canada

The CCLC (‘Concerned Citizens Labelling Collective') have been helpfully going into supermarkets and labelling up their GM foods. DIY: Their Website (http://www.voluntarylabelling.com) is full of labelling tips and PDF files with ready made labels to download.

Korea

On July 1st at 4am, 3,000 riot police stormed the Lotte Hotel, downtown Seoul, to drag out 1,000 striking workers. The Lotte Hotel Workers Union went on strike on June 9 demanding 17% wage increase, permanent contracts, 40 hour working week, and extension of retirement age. Police sprayed and fired tear gas into the rooms where striking workers were sleeping. They beat the workers with their truncheons causing serious injury to some 70 workers.

Ireland

Six workers have been on strike since June. When the workers joined MANDATE (the union for shop and bar staff), management sacked two union workers for “poor performance” and suspended three others.

Czech Republic

In August, yet another chapter of the monster trial against the group of 10 Czech anarchists in Zlin (to the East of the country) unfolded. They were arrested after a large group of Nazis attacked them. One of the defendants is David Srott, age 22, metalworker, dedicated anarchist militant from Otrokovice and FSA-IWA member. He is a regular target of police persecution, and friendly police-Nazi links are a regular problem for activists in the country.
Send donations for the legal fund to; CZ ABC Defence Fund,Federation of Social Anarchists, International Secretariat,PO BOX 5, 15006 Praha 56, Czech Republic. Tel: 420-0604-773440. Email; intersec@atlas.cz

Colombia

On August 3rd, a national 24-hour strike to protest against austerity measures and record unemployment saw 700,000 workers walk off the job, with subsequent street battles with police, which brought riot gear and tanks to Colombia's capital, Bogota.