San Francisco Olympic Torch Running, Part 2: Big group takes torchless embarcadero

GREAT WORK SAN FRANCISCO
FREE TIBET
OM NAMAH SHIVAYA

They were forced to cancel because of everyone out there. It seems like there was *no way* they could have gotten that thing there with that many people on both sides . . .

But I'm guessing they still have more plans.

Thanks for this work.

Someone should post a video of OJ's white SUV and the torch bus alongside eachother . . . or at least two images. It says it all.

This CBS5 camcorder view got through the intranet blocking at my work of all videos and music, as do the embedded videos being posted via email (but no sound on any of them).

Sad, Sad Spectators
Posted by brittneygilbert via CS5

This comment left by a reader sums up the attitude of a LOT of people on the Embarcadero today:

Catching early muni train to view torch - $3.00
Buying 3 souvenir olympic flags for you and your kids - $1.25 each
Coffee, hot chocolate and bagels - $10.00
Sitting for 8 hours with no torch ceremony and wasted day off and having to drag tired kids back home - priceless
---------------------

I would have loved to have seen those people after sitting for 8 hours with their mini-flags and kids fighting and crying! Missed out.

scary. I saw the pro chinese side do that all day. pathetic and dishonest. liar, indeed.

We've done more to advance the cause of a free Tibet in the last few days that you can possibly image.
It doesn't stop here.
To get more involved, see:

http://www.studentsforafreetibet.org/

Lets keep this momentum going!

I am glad to see indy readers in SF/Bay area "get it" when it comes to the issue of Tibet. On the NYC page there are mostly Maoists giving pro China propaganda. Really sad what the left in NYC is NOT doing about this issue.

Was Wednesday a victory for
us pro-Tibet folks;
or a victory for Mayor Newsom?

His "shell game"
gave half a loaf to Feinstein,
half a loaf to Pelosi....


But I'm happy with the way
this day went,
on balance.

Call it a
victory if you please!

Now I hope
the IOC
will shit-can the
remainder of the torch route...

-- Tortuga Bi LIBERTY

The Winter Olympics are coming to Vancouver, BC in February 2010. The 2010 Olympics are no less a symbol of capitalist power, ecological destruction and genocide than the Beijing Olympics this year. Riot 2010!
http://no2010.com/

Ten reasons to resist the 2010 Olympics:
http://portland.indymedia.org/en/2008/03/373988.shtml

No Olympics on Stolen Land (article):
http://www.earthfirstjournal.org/article.php?id=311

If you want to "resist" the 2010 Olympics, then don't go. What a concept.

I love the headline to this article. "Big group 'takes' Embarcadero". Where did they take it? Is it back?

The pretentiousness of the protester set gets more amazing every day.

I feel it is important enough to restate. The Paestinian People are fighting U.S. Imperialism. U.S. Imperialism is fighting for a "free" Tibet.
Richard Blum, war profiteer and husband of Senator Diane Feinstein spoke at the "Free Tibet" vigil Tuesday evening. If that does not capture the class character and class forces behind the "Free Tibet" movement maybe the 2007 Congressional of Honor Award given to the Dalai Lama does. Richard Blum not only profits off the real genocide happening to the Iraqi people, a third of which have been killed, injured or displaced but also supports the most brutal occupation of Palestine.
I would like to express my deep sorrow for my Chinese brothers and sisters, who after centuries of Colonial occupation in China and severe racist opression here in the United States, had to have white, priveledged young people screaming at them and protesting them on a day that was meant to be celebratory to the Chinese People and their history and their diverse and rich culture. Tibet is part of China.
Richard Gere, I can not leave out, with all his anti-communist rhetoric and his "the Dalai (C.I.A.) Lama is a simple monk" bullshit. Please. Before the Revolution the life expectancy in Tibet was 35. Almost half of the babies died. No education and no health care for the People of Tibet-just for the class of your "simple monks." Budhism is still practiced in Tibet.
To all you privledged college students who admit the harsh conditions of the Tibetan masses and the feudal society prior to the Revolution and admit that yes now they have health care,education and food but down play the importance of health care, education and food must never have had to live without health care, education or food.
If you are misled to think the U.S. is going to step in and do good for the Tibetan People, just look to Iraq, Afghanistan, Haiti etc. and for that matter, the Sudan, bombing and supporting the PLA forces undermining the Sudanese governement and causing the violence-U.S.'s favorite tactic of destabilization, divide and conquer. Look at Yugoslavia, broken up, occupied and now powerless. In the Phillipines, in Vietnam, Korea etc. In our own country, genocide of the Native Peoples, slavery of African and Chinese People, brutal repression of our immigrant brothers and sisters.
The oppresors are in the Washington D.C.
Stop the attacks on China!

waa, if approach something without the desire to understand it, it's obvious that you won't.

"take" is used in reference to the practice of "taking to the street" or "taking the street" (as in seizing it, occupying it, obviously not 'bringing it' somewhere)

your willful ignorance of such a simple concept is emblematic of most troll posts on indymedia.

Notice who wasn't there to demonstrate in support of human rights and against Chinese imperialism/ethnic cleansing of Tibet?

The Revolutionary Communist Party, aka Not in Our Name
The Workers World Party, aka International ANSWER, aka so many front groups to list here
The International Socialist Organization
The Freedom Socialist Party

Why weren't they there? Because they're bought and paid for by the Chinese Communist regime.

I ask you supporters of authoritarian regimes: is China your idea of the "workers' paradise"? Is that your vision of a future society? Do you always fall in with the party line, even when it's wrong?

Shameful. These groups are a cancer of the Left. Watch out for them - they will infiltrate your groups. They will offer help, but it's never for free. They will coopt your righteous struggles to recruit new members. They will attack you when you shine a light on their true affiliations and goals.

Distance yourselves from them and do not attend their rallies. Organize your own and watch out for them. Tell them to go away.

We have a question to Leftists , progressives , who are uncritical supporters of the '' Free Tibet'' movement : Doesn't it bother you who you were marching besides yesterday ? Among many examples did you notice those yellow flags with maroon stripes ? That was the flag of the US puppet South Vietnamese regime , that killed untold numbers of their own people for the US . It's now the flag of the very violent, very right wing Vitenamese exile mileau . There's been over a dozen murders of Leftist and Liberal Vietnamese over the past thirty years by supporters of that hated regime . They are so fanatical that they recently threatened a Vietnamese City council woman in San Jose recently over whether or not a shopping district should be named '' Little Saigon'. It goes without saying that they are staunch supporters of the Bush adm.
They are for a '' Free Tibet '' so there other politics doesn't matter ? (As one '' Direct action '' ''anti -authoritarian'' leader told a friend of ours yesterday . )
Ok but just don't piss them off with statements about opposing the Iraq war etc. You might find the very hard way your new right wing friends aren't exactly ''committed to non violence ''!

The Vietnamese- American victims of the Right wing exiles were all murdered in California . There was also a Non- Vietnamese Leftist professor shot at Cal State Fullerton . His assasin, a Vietnamese student, was the only one ever arrested and prosecuted for any of the murders.

Many Kurdish groups that now seem allied with the US were allied with the USSR during the Cold War. There are neoNazis who support Palestinian independence just as there are neoNazis who support Israel because they hate Arabs more.

People often support the same cause for different reasons or have bad politics on one issue but good politics on others.

One's enemy's enemy is not always one's friend and guilt by association makes little sense either.

China is oppressive to minority regions as well as anyone who speaks out for change or against corruption. It also oppresses anyone trying to unionize or fight exploitation by firms like Walmart. The Olympics will be used by China for both nationalistic reasons as well as marketing of China to US multinationals.

Some people may hate China for racist reasons, others may have the Chinese government because they were lied to by US propagands. Others may hate the Chinese government because it is Capitalist, oppresses minority groups executes political opponents...

'' Well'' just ackowlege that , in referring to supporters of '' Free Tibet'', that '' Some may hate China for racist reasons ''. So what if some of your new racist allies start chanting '' Chinks (or Gooks ) out of the US ! ''?
Will you tell them to shut up that racist filth and if they don't ,kick them out of your march ? Or will you just let it slide in the interests of ''unity '' ?
If you do the latter then don't whine if and when you get your asses kicked alongside your racist ''comrades ''.

You obviously do have to do something if those one is marching with start saying offensive things but from waht I could see in the photos most of the proTibetan protesters with Tibetan and he main motivations were concerns for relatives and probably some nationalism.

At huge protests one does sometimes march in the same march as people who say offensive things without knowing but that isnt a reason to not protest since in any large crowd there will be crazies and who show up.

While I would have been on the side of the N Vietnamese during the war. S Vietnamese flags don't really bother me now since they are much mroe a symbol of an oppressed minority group in the US who can not return to Vietnam now than they are symbols of the CIA. Vietnam is a capitalist oppressive society much like China today and while in the abstract much better that it is not controlled by the US, it is hard to condemn Vietnamese who oppose the government there for very direct reasons.

Saddam was horrible leader as well but would you be so quick to condemn associating with Sunni refugees waving Saddam era flags when they are more a symbol of an Iraqi they could live in before they were forced to leave due to sectarian violence? The CIA did bad things in Vietnam and the S Vietnamese government had very little good about it but that isnt a reason to condemn all those forced to leave when S Vietnam fell.

As a former employ of the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency, it is with deep regret that i disclose the following information..

There are not now, nor were there ever, sweatshops in China. The Chinese government treats all of their workers with respect and fairness as they are true to their word communists. All the false rumors about Chinese sweatshops were all CIA created hoaxes, such as this misleading website made up by the CIA which indicts Wal-mart stores as profiting from importing products made in Chinese sweatshops..

this from China Labor Watch;

"On December 15, 2005 China Labor Watch and the National Labor Committee released two reports on Wal-Mart factories in Southern China. One factory manufactures stationary, such as notebooks and holiday cards. The other produces toys, such as battery-operated trucks (see picture above). In both factories workers receive dismal wages, are cramped into hot dormitories and work exhausting hours at an unbelievably fast pace. Workers are working up to thirteen hours a day, six to seven days a week. Workers are denied health insurance, maternity leave, paid holiday leave, marital leave or leave to bury family members. In both factories workers are told exactly what to say to inspectors, making it clear that factory inspections are not working. These factories must be opened to China Labor Watch to conduct independent investigations and thorough worker trainings.

CLW and the NLC have been investigating the Lung Cheong International Toy Factory for four years, now. Virtually nothing has changed. While wages have increased nominally to comply with the minimum wage laws, the pace of work has become exhausting. Workers are painting one truck every fourteen seconds. When one counts overtime, these workers are making a mere 33 cents an hour. Furthermore, the workers have explained that the paint they use on these trucks can cause workers to become ill. The factory, however, forces all new hires to sign a statement releasing the factory from responsibility for any work-related injuries. The workers are forced to pay for medical bills that result from inhaling pain fumes all day, not to mention paying for housing and pensions (which the factory denies them), supporting a family and putting food on the table -- all for 33 cents an hour ."

further info @;
http://www.chinalaborwatch.org/en/web/article.php?article_id=50304

ALL LIES!! Am terribly sorry to all the pro-China sympathizers for any damage this false info about Chinese sweatshops may have caused their glorious People's Republic. Will now proceed to grovel and beg for forgiveness on my knees before Bob Avakian, Revolutionary Communist Party Chairman and Supreme Master of the People's Universe! Hopefully the RCP can protect me from the murderous Dalai Lama and his CIA puppeteers (my former employers!) for revealing their hoaxes!

After that another apology is due to Mr. Sam Walton, founder and owner of Wal-mart corporation for any damages done to their honest and forthright business of selling valuable plastic products at such low prices. Our CIA concocted hoax of Chinese sweatshop products imported to Wal-mart has damaged their name and reputation in the community. The real reason that prices at Wal-mart are sooo low is NOT because their products are imported from Chinese sweatshop labor where workers are paid pennies per day, the prices at Wal-mart are sooo low because the Wal-mart bouncy smiley face fairy fixes them that way so YOU, the Wal-mart customer, keep coming back!!

All consumers in the U.S. are now free to return to shopping for precious plastic products at Wal-mart stores without any guilt because under no circumstances are ANY Wal-mart products derived from Chinese sweatshop labor! Just ask the kind and generous Wal-mart bouncy smiley face fairy for verification!!

BTW, this website is also a CIA hoax;
http://walmartwatch.com/

To sum up; ANY critique of China, whether it be about Tibet, sweatshops or other human rights abuses are ALL CIA HOAXES!!

Anyone who disagrees with this info should contact the Chinese government immediately and discuss this in person!!

If you are a pro-tibet or will be a pro-tibet, I'm asking you:

how much do you know about China and Tibet?
Do you know China and Tibet as well as you know your neighbors?
Do you know that 5 innocent girls were burned alive in Tibet on March 14th,2008 by the so-called "free Tibetan protesters"?
Do you know that a whole family were burned alive in Tibet on March 14th,2008 by the so-called "free Tibetan protesters"?
Do you know that two pregnant women were burt by the "free Tibetan protesters"?
Do you know how many shops and hourses were destroyed in Tibet on March 14th,2008?
Do you know that in the "free Tibetan protesters"' hands are knives, sticks and stones on March 14th,2008?
Do you know that the "military car" you saw is actually an ambulance car?
Do you know that the "arrested person" you saw is actually a person hurt by the "free Tibet protesters"?
Do you know that the policemen attacking protestors you saw are actually Nepal police?
Do you know that the "free Tibetan protesters" attacked a disabled torch girl?
Do you dare to say that you don't have bias?

If your answers for these questions are "No", I'm telling you, your ignorance has made you become a tool of someone to achieve their shabby purposes.

If you still have bias,how can you be qualified to execute justice? If you don't even know the truth of one-day history,how can you execute justice to a history of hundreds of years?

Think before you act! Go to find the truth using your own eyes!