mr president i condemn the arrest of ai weiwei and call for his immediate release
his detention is part of the most severe police crackdown in china in decades
since two thousand and eight china's internal security budget has incredibly grown larger than its military budget
it now stands at an incredible usd ninety-five billion
this pays for a massive apparatus of state repression including over forty zero policemen whose sole job is to police the internet for dissent
this repression is being stepped up because the regime fears the spread of revolution from the middle east and north africa
the regime is right to be afraid
the revolutions there demonstrate that a risen working class and the risen poor are more powerful than even the most brutal repressive methods the most repressive regimes
mass struggle is needed in particular the creation of independent democratic mass organisations of the working class
the struggle against dictatorship must be linked to the struggle for genuine socialist change in china whereby the vast wealth and resources in china are taken into democratic public ownership and the economy is democratically planned to raise the living standards of ordinary people
