The protest movement in Hong Kong is continuing to grow as thousands of protesters remain on the streets despite being met with police violence. This afternoon as police sought to clear the area outside the government headquarters following last night’s occupation, protesters moved onto the streets in Central and have been occupying the major roads. Police have been making several attempts to clear the roads using tear gas and have also been reported to have fired rubber bullets at protesters. Lots of arrests have been made and injuries sustained. However, this seems only to have made people more determined and promoted more people to spontaneously take to the streets. The protesters are committed to protesting peacefully and the violence has been initiated entirely by the police. This can be seen from how on several occasions when threatened with police violence the majority of people raised up their hands in the air
A majority of the protesters are students and young people, however not exclusively and support also seems to come from different sections of society. The movement has moved much beyond anything planned or organised by the original Occupy Central leadership and has taken on a new dynamic of its own. Early this evening it was estimated that up to 100,000 had taken to the streets of Central. There has been a strong sense of solidarity among the protesters on the streets tonight, in the way that they have been working together well to ensure each others’ well being and to distribute supplies. A number of centres have also been opened to provide rest and aid.
The protests have also spread to other areas of Hong Kong, including Mong Kok and Causeway Bay. Just after 10pm this evening the Hong Kong Federation of Students announced that protesters should go home due to the police use of rubber bullets and so that people could regain their strength to continue the struggle in the coming days. However thousands still remain on the streets now.
Meanwhile the teachers’ union and the social workers have called for a strike and the students have also decided to continue with the class boycott this week [[See also the recent statement from the Hong Kong Confederation of Trade Unions (HKCTU), available on ESSF (article 33118), Hong Kong Confederation of Trade Unions (HKCTU) strongly condemns the police crackdown of people’s protest by Hong Kong government.
Bai Ruixue
Sunday September 28, 2014
News: Saturday September 27, 2014
Protesters are now gathered outside the government building. It has just been announced that occupy central has officially begun. This is earlier than the planned date on Wednesday. After the arrests of several protesters early on Saturday morning, protesters have been outside the building all day but significantly growing in number from this evening. At around midnight there were around 50,000 protesters here. As a result of the students initiative it has led to the growth of the movement, and the Occupy Central leadership trio have been pushed into calling for the start of Occupy Central earlier. Some students are unhappy with the decision to launch Occupy Central from their actions. It is not clear how widespread this feeling is though.
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Riot control start to clear people from the flyover. Booing can be heard everywhere. Reporters are also being forced to leave. Demonstrators chant loudly, “Press Freedom!”
This facebook page carries instant news about the students/citizens action:
https://www.facebook.com/hktranslators
Protesters participating the overnight sit-in understand the legal consequences that they need to bear, Yvonne Leung Lai-kwok says.
Some protesters still remained in the Civic Square. Yvonne Leung Lai-kwok, president of the Hong Kong University Students’ Union says, the police asked protesters whether they prefer to leave by themselves or stay and being shifted away by the police. Most of the protesters choose to stay. She stresses that people who have decided to stay understand the legal consequence that they need to bear.
Yvonne says in a RTHK programme, the organizing committee has explained the legal consequences to the crowd before the occupying action took place. Therefore she believes that people involved has taken serious consideration before sitting in.
Yvonne condemns the Police Force’s way of clearance of protesters. Compared to 2nd July, it was much inhumane.
Scholarism spokesperson, Agnes Chow, who joined the same programme on RTHK says, they have requested the underaged or students who are wearing school uniform to understand the responsibility that they need to bear, or they should not participle in the action.
Source: RTHK 香港電台
Original text: http://rthk.hk/rthk/news/expressnews/news.htm?expressnews&20140927&55&1040348