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FACTORY WORKERS, STUDENTS and business owners in Belarus have gone on strike to demand that President Alexander Lukashenko resign after more than two months of continuing mass protests.
Most state-run enterprises continued to operate despite the strike, which was called by opposition leader Svetlana Tsikhanouskaya.
Lukashenko has run the country for 26 years but protests have rocked Belarus ever since the official results of the election were announced on 9 August, giving him a landslide victory with 80% of the vote.
Tsikhanouskaya got only 10% of the votes and refused to recognise the outcome as valid, saying it was manipulated.
Today, students in some universities refused to attend lectures and marched in Minsk in protest, while hundreds of small private companies declared Monday a non-working day and shops and cafes closed, with their owners and employees forming human chains all over the capital.
Several divisions of large plants in Minsk said they were halting work and employees of two plants in the western city of Grodno gathered in front of buildings there.
The authorities responded by detaining protesters in the streets and outside factories, threatening workers with jail or being fired if they went on strike, said Alexander Yaroshuk, leader of the Belarusian Congress of Democratic Unions.
“We stand in solidarty with the people of Belarus and their calls for democracy and freedom. Belarus is Europe,” he said.
Since the disputed election, the authorities have tried to quell the turmoil by detaining thousands and dispersing the crowds but the protests have continued.
Tsikhanouskaya, who fled to Lithuania for fear of her safety, urged the strike if Lukashenko did not resign, release political prisoners and stop the police crackdown by today.
She gave the go-ahead for the strike to begin in a statement last night after police in Minsk and other cities once again dispersed demonstrators with stun grenades and tear gas.
A rally held yesterday in Minsk, Belarus. SIPA USA / PA Images
SIPA USA / PA Images / PA Images
Yesterday’s rally in Minsk was one of the largest in weeks and drew nearly 200,000 people, while smaller protests also took place in other cities. The Interior Ministry said it detained over 500 people across Belarus.
“A strike is the next step towards freedom for Belarusians, towards the end of violence and new elections,” Tsikhanousksaya said in a statement today.
The main goal is to show that no one will work for the regime.
Government officials said that all state-run plants, factories and enterprises continued to operate as usual.
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They can do all they want to try and tap into that social media element but it’s never going to work. Social Networks are dead. I believe people are going to start abandoning them in droves. The fad of sharing everything we do with everyone we’ve ever met is over. It’s just a matter of time.
Ah now that’s a bit dramatic. Social networks don’t have to involve sharing everything we do with everyone we’ve ever met. Controlled sharing is an explicit cornerstone of Google+.
Social networks may evolve beyond the “share everything” model, but there will always be a demand for tools that allow us to connect and share things with other people.
Like or lump it Social Media is staying. Your free to join up and leave if you like. it will evolve as it has always done, more information is being shared now than ever was. Your argument is like saying email will never catch on. Unfounded.
I remember hearing a story about my sister insisting on playing the same Counting Crows CD over and over for 4 years when she was in college ’cause she felt that CD’s were a fad and would never catch on. She now has a Facebook page, and a laptop of MP3′s.
Not so sure that “social networks are dead” but would rather suggest that social network fatigue may set in this year which will result in a decline in interest in these sites.
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