The Right to Assemble

[cwellen <cwellen@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Comradely Greetings from Wei En Lin.


The question has been posed (concerning laws which restrict the right to
assemble):

"These laws are clearly poised to crush organized disobedience.  Do
other countries have such laws?"

If you visit Tian An Men Square, in Beijing, you will see signs, in
Chinese and English forbidding any public demonstrations without
government approval.  (These were put up long before the 1989 so-called
Tian An Men incident, during which students were violently dispersed).

Technically, it is illegal for three or more people to gather.  But the
Constitution of the People's Republic of China allows any action to be
taken in the interests of preserving socialism (read "preserving the
interests of the Ruling Bureaucracy).  So even a "gathering of one" can
be broken up.

I am somewhat suprised that the question, "Do other countries have such
laws," is even asked.

In Turkey someone was shot the other day for selling a leftist
newspaper.

In Colombia, leftists have been shot by the thousands during the past
several years, merely for daring to run for office (and in many cases,
for winning).

In Sri Lanka, any demonstration by Tamils in support of their democratic
rights, is unthinkable.  The Singhalese dominated government would
encourage mobs to assault them and beat the Tamils to a pulp.  One can
be arrested simply for being a Tamil.  I knew a woman in Sri Lanka, a 55
year old Tamil, completely harmless, and rather feeble (who I doubt had
any political connections whatsoever).  She was taken into custody and
grilled for 24 hours simply because she was a Tamil.

The question of Freedom of Assembly is crucial to the struggle to
liberate the working classes from capitalist bondage.  Laws are not
always the issue.   In each country the legal philosophy is not always
in accordance with practice.

Wei En Lin










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