Readers, what is important here,imo, is the pattern that is emerging in the reaction world wide to the effect of the austerity as yet another piece of faith based economics which is causing some populations to de-legitimate the institutions of governance. In the self de-legitimation of these governments by attempting to enforce the franchise of the installed class interests, they are choosing violence toward the totalizing of its control.

This is happening in at least three different countries right now, South Africa, Argentina, and Greece. Note too that these countries all have had relatively recent movements of resistance, and could be expected to have a continuing culture of resistance and of expectations of improvement. In my limited understanding of Japan's cultural/political history, the closest that Japan has been to developing a culture and legacy of resistance has been toward the US military bases on Okinawa. The Chinese government has been incredibly adept in their international and multi-decade "Go" game. It is currently encouraging its working classes to agitate for increases in pay. This sort of aspect makes the national government a participant in the change process. I expect that the US will withdraw its bases at Japan's request within the year, in effect the Japanese national government is being conscripted by China to also participate in the cultural change process, though the Japanese national government is largely controlled by corporate interests.

The resistance will arise also by populations learning from each other, and that the gaming and the totalitarianism of corporate control are the cause and not the solution. As to what the US population will do, if may be different in different regions. It is still not clear if the de-legitimization of electoral democracy will send the US into further investments in reactionary politics. Here recall that Hitler was able to take over in Germany after the demolition of sovereign interests and policies after WWI and the first Great Depression.

Note that the BHO PotUS administration is providing nothing at all in the way of either "Hope" or "Change," and I expect that this will play out as a very stupid gambit. Trying to posture as not being weak by using force and threats in a situation where the government is being de-legitimated by the result of their own policies is a very stupid choice, and it will lead to even more violence. By the pattern the US troops will come home to be used against us at home so that the politically crass and corrupted can appear to not be weak when the policies are the problem. Hannah Arendt describes this exact process, and she also describes the legitimate solutions. Stay buckled in, it is going to get bumpy and probably fairly soon. Tadit Anderson

South Africa's schools and hospitals were transformed into battlegrounds yesterday as a nationwide strike escalated into a sometimes violent test of strength between the government and unions.

Police fired rubber bullets to disperse crowds blocking roads in one area while healthcare workers picketed hospitals, preventing patients from seeking help.

Public-sector unions have launched an indefinite strike demanding an 8.6 per cent pay rise, which the government has insisted the debt-stricken country cannot afford. The struggle could be critical to the future of President Jacob Zuma as well as damaging for sub-Saharan Africa's largest economy.

"This is more than an industrial dispute," said Professor Sakhela Buhlungu, an expert on organised labour at the University of Johannesburg. "It is a political testing of strength in which Zuma can't be seen to be weak."

Crowds who blocked a main road near a hospital in Soweto, holding up traffic and blocking entrance to patients, were broken up by police firing rubber bullets and water cannons. Elsewhere in Johannesburg striking teachers threw bricks and stones at police, while nurses tore down a gate at one hospital as pickets struggled to block colleagues who wanted to go to work as normal.

A worker from one hospital in the commercial capital
said strikers were throwing out doctors and nurses who
were trying to treat patients as normal. Exam papers
were torn up and teachers driven out of schools by
flying pickets in other areas.

"This will continue until we get the response from
government that we need," said the teachers' union
leader Nomusa Cembi.

Unions are demanding an across-the-board wage hike at
nearly double the rate of inflation plus an £88 monthly
housing allowance for all civil servants. The
government has offered 7 per cent and £62 towards
housing. With South Africa running a large budget
deficit -- equivalent to 6.7 per cent of GDP -- the
housing allowance alone would add another percentage
point to the state budget.

"The days of spending money as though it is unlimited
are essentially over," said the government spokesman
Themba Maseko.

South Africa was hit hard last year by the global
downturn, losing close to a million jobs in a country
where a quarter of the workforce are already jobless.
There are fears that a prolonged strike could reverse
the already anaemic recovery and threaten projected
growth rates of 5 per cent next year.

"The 8.6 per cent demand is simply not affordable as
every additional cent spent on salaries means less
money for other essential services," said the
spokesman. "It also means we cannot employ more
teachers and nurses."

However, any hopes that the government had of a swift
victory over South Africa's trades union congress,
Cosatu, disappeared as other smaller unions joined the
walkouts. The country's influential auto workers' union
is also threatening to expand a strike they began last
week, demanding a 15 per cent increase in wages.

The stand-off between the public sector and the
government comes with frustration against the
leadership of the ruling ANC running high. The unions
now on strike were among Mr Zuma's most influential
backers during his bid for the ANC presidency, and
analysts are seeing the dispute as a test of his
ability to balance the competing forces within the
ruling coalition.

This week the Cosatu leader Zwelinzima Vavi took a
personal potshot at Mr Zuma and how much he is earning
as a state employee. "If my memory serves me right he
is earning more than R2.2m [£195,000]," he told
protesters outside parliament on Tuesday. "He has blood
like we have blood. He has a big family like we do...
Our needs are the same. We want geld [money]."

Some union officials were threatening to carry the
pickets over to private schools and hospitals where the
political elite educate their children and send their
relatives.

However, the unions themselves risk losing public
support if the strike continues to block access to the
basic services on which the majority of poorer South
Africans depend.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/africa/violence-erupts-as-zuma-o...