Organizers of the annual “Autumn Struggle” yesterday said that protesters would walk from Pingtung County to the Presidential Office Building in Taipei to highlight their opposition to “ractopamine pork, double standards and one-party rule.”
Event convener Huang Te-pei (黃德北) said that organizers hope to garner support for a “yes” vote in two of the national referendums scheduled for Dec. 18.
One of the four referendum questions calls for a ban on pork imports containing traces of the leanness-enhancing additive ractopamine, while another seeks to block a liquefied natural gas terminal from being built near algal reefs off Datan Borough (大潭) in Taoyuan’s Guanyin District (觀音).
Photo: Fang Pin-chao, Taipei Times
“On the walk, we hope to talk with civil organizations and groups in the hope of gathering support to voice our displeasure on Dec. 18,” Huang told a news conference in Taipei.
Lin Tzu-wen (林子文), one of the leaders of the group, said that they would start the walk from Pingtung tomorrow and aim to reach Yunlin County in 12 days.
The planned route is to take them through 13 municipalities and counties before arriving on Ketagalan Boulevard in Taipei on Dec. 12, Lin said.
They are to hold talks in front of train stations, temples and other public places at 7:30am each morning as the walk progresses, he said.
People are welcome to listen to the talks or walk with the group to learn more about the issues that those on the march advocate, he said.
Environmentalist Pan Chong-cheng (潘忠政), who initiated the referendum seeking to block the building of Taiwan’s third liquefied natural gas terminal at its proposed site off Taoyuan, said he was touched that the organizers were willing to support reef protection.
Su Wei-shuo (蘇偉碩), a clinical psychologist who attended last year’s protests and who is to participate again this year, said that none of the demands regarding banning pork containing traces of ractopamine, and fighting double standards and one-party rule had been met.
In last year’s protest, more than 50,000 people backed by 42 labor groups walked from Ketagalan Boulevard in front of the Presidential Office Building to the headquarters of the Democratic Progressive Party on Beiping E Road in Taipei.
The Autumn Struggle is one of Taiwan’s oldest domestic labor demonstrations.
A tropical depression east of the Philippines became a tropical storm early yesterday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said, less than a week after a typhoon barreled across the nation. The agency issued an advisory at 3:30am stating that the 22nd tropical storm, named Yinxing, of the Pacific typhoon season formed at 2am. As of 8am, the storm was 1,730km southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan’s southernmost point, with a 100km radius. It was moving west-northwest at 32kph, with maximum sustained winds of 83kph and gusts of up to 108kph. Based on its current path, the storm is not expected to hit Taiwan, CWA
Residents have called on the Taipei City Government to reconsider its plan to demolish a four-decades-old pedestrian overpass near Daan Forest Park. The 42-year-old concrete and steel structure that serves as an elevated walkway over the intersection of Heping and Xinsheng roads is to be closed on Tuesday in preparation for demolition slated for completion by the end of the month. However, in recent days some local residents have been protesting the planned destruction of the intersection overpass that is rendered more poetically as “sky bridge” in Chinese. “This bridge carries the community’s collective memory,” said a man surnamed Chuang
FATALITIES: The storm claimed at least two lives — a female passenger in a truck that was struck by a falling tree and a man who was hit by a utility pole Workers cleared fallen trees and shop owners swept up debris yesterday after one of the biggest typhoons to hit the nation in decades claimed at least two lives. Typhoon Kong-rey was packing winds of 184kph when it slammed into eastern Taiwan on Thursday, uprooting trees, triggering floods and landslides, and knocking out power as it swept across the nation. A 56-year-old female foreign national died from her injuries after the small truck she was in was struck by a falling tree on Provincial Highway 14A early on Thursday. The second death was reported at 8pm in Taipei on Thursday after a 48-year-old man
A tropical depression east of the Philippines became a tropical storm earlier today, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The 22nd tropical storm, named Yinxing, in this year's Pacific typhoon season formed at 2am, the CWA said. As of 8am, the storm was 1,730km southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻) with a 100km radius, it said. It was moving west-northwest at 32kph, with maximum sustained winds of 83kph and gusts of up to 108kph. Based on its current path, the storm is not expected to hit Taiwan, CWA meteorologist Huang En-hung (黃恩宏) said. However, a more accurate forecast would be made on Wednesday, when Yinxing is