Perhaps the best thing about the Beijing games is that attention will be drawn to the despotic regime of authoritarian pseudo-communists that run the place.

Very impressed to hear about the introduction of a Netizen Party. Perhaps the ideas of Sun Yat Sen will finally be implemented.

Anthony raises some interesting points about repression but doesn't suggest a way forward. Information (as Michael Kirby points out in another article on today's posts)flows freely around the world, including into countries run by dictatorships.

Au Loong-Yu is a long term campaigner for workers' rights in China. He was a founding member of the Globalization Monitor, a Hong Kong based organisation that played an important role in the massive anti-WTO protests in Hong Kong in 2005. They have highlighted the conditions of Chinese workers and provided a forum for the struggle for democracy and workers rights both in Hong Kong and mainland China.
For a background to the Hong Kong workers and anti-globalisation movement see Au Loong-Yu's interview with New Left Review.

Au Loong-Yu will be speaking in a personal capacity at 2pm Friday March 21 on working class resistance in China as a special feature of Socialist Alternative's Marxism 2008 conference.

The conference runs over the easter weekend from Thursday March 21 to Saturday March 22 at Union House, Melbourne University, Parkville, Victoria.
Tickets are available at waged and concession prices. For tickets or more information please contact:

http://www.sa.org.au/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1451&Itemid=137

Other conference highlights include:

- A US speaker from Iraq Veterans Against War

- South African activists – Trevor Ngwane and Zodwa Madiba on anti-privatisation and other struggles taking place in South Africa today.

- Italian Marxist and activist Yurii Colombo

Live music: a Radical History of the Blues