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Historic report: Nobel Peace Prize 2010 - And the winner is, Liu Xiaobo - Congratulations from the anarchists

Direct action by anarchists (AFIN) against the Chinese Embassy in Oslo!

The Anarchist International - AI/IFA and the Anarchist Confederation of Asia and the Middle East - ACAME, Chinese section, congratulate Liu Xiaobo (lee-OO' show-BOH') with the antimilitarist Nobel Peace Prize. The autonomous Norwegian Nobel Committee ignored warnings from Chinese authorities and announced Friday 08.10.2010 that it was awarding the Nobel Peace Prize for 2010 to the jailed Chinese activist Liu Xiaobo for his long non-violent struggle for human rights in China. The choice of this year's winner was unanimous among the committee's five members. The prize will be formally awarded at the traditional Nobel Peace Prize ceremony in Oslo on December 10, the anniversary of the death of Swedish industrialist Alfred Nobel. His will set up the Nobel Prizes, funded by his vast estate.

The Anarchist International - AI/IFA and the Anarchist Confederation of Asia and the Middle East - ACAME, Chinese section, condemn the hysterical ultra-authoritarian reactions by the Chinese authorities and demand release of Liu Xiaobo and all other political prisoners in the country. The ruling maoists in China are ideologically totalitarian state-communists. They are ideologically located in the state-communist sector of the marxist quadrant of the economic-political map, see System theory. However in practice, as now in China, the maoists are left fascists. The economic-political system is left fascist with only about 30,5% libertarian degree. This means 69,5% authoritarian degree, more than 666 per thousand authoritarian and thus very evil for the people, seen as a class as opposed to the superiors economic and/or political/administrative; in income and/or rank. For more information about this societal system, see China's place on the economic-political map.

The Anarchist International - AI/IFA and the Anarchist Confederation of Asia and the Middle East - ACAME, Chinese section, demand a development toward Libertarian Human Rights and Real Democracy, a bottom - up approach - in China. Do away with the ultra-authoritarian fascist regime! The jailed Mr Liu's empty chair at the awards ceremony in the Norwegian capital on Friday represents a very strong signal that shows how appropriate this prize was. It will be the first time since 1936 that the prize, now worth $1.5m, will not be handed out to the winner or close family. In 1936 the winner Carl von Ossietzky was in Hitler's prison (concentration camp)... The Nobel Peace Prize can be collected only by the laureate or close family members. UN human rights chief Navi Pillay on Thursday again called for Mr Liu to be released "as soon as possible".

Amnesty International accused China of pressuring members of Norway's Chinese community to join protests on Friday against the awards ceremony. China's foreign ministry insisted Mr Liu had not been convicted only for his calls for more democracy but had "actively tried to subvert state power", an Orwellian "1984" Big Brother lie. The International Anarchist Tribunal - IAT-APT hands out a Brown Card to the Chinese authorities for this lie, declaring. "We don't give a dime for the Chinese legal system. Social science and history show that power corrupts and totalitarian power corrupts very much toward totally!"

10.12.2010. In the morning the Childrens' Peace Prize (Redd Barnas fredsprisarrangement) was awarded to Liu Xiaobo, about 2000 children demonstrated for Liu. Norwegian TV2 even estimated the number as high as 3000. As black limos pulled up outside City Hall and dignitaries stepped out, various groups staged small, but loud protest across the street, shouting slogans against China's leadership. Even an Italian group of demonstrators, favouring Liu, joined the actions. "They are evil, using money and power to get their way," said Leung Kwok-hung, known as "Long Hair" in his native Hong Kong, where he is a veteran protester and also a member of the legislative council. Some members of Norway's Chinese community demonstrated against the prize. Later Chinese supporters of Mr Liu confronted the pro-government demonstration.

The Anarchist Federation of Norway (AFIN) will have a direct action, a protest action, against the Chinese Embassy in Oslo at about the time when the Peace Prize is awarded... As China tightens its grip on dissidents at home, dignitaries in Norway celebrate this year's winner of the Nobel Peace Prize, imprisoned Chinese activist Liu Xiaobo, with solemn ceremony - and an empty chair. Nobel committee secretary Geir Lundestad said Liu will be represented "by an empty chair ... the strongest possible argument" for awarding it to him. Some 1,000 guests including about 100 Chinese dissidents in exile and some activists from Hong Kong will take their seats in Oslo's modernist City Hall for the two-hour ceremony.

Direct action. Between 13.00 and 14.00 Norwegian time The Anarchist Federation of Norway (AFIN) has a direct action, a protest action, against the Chinese Embassy in Oslo, with the following parole: Release Liu Xiaobo and all political prisoners in China! For a development toward Libertarian Human Rights and Real Democracy, a bottom - up approach - in China!

International Human Rights Day. Fundamental human rights are under attack in every region of the world, and respect for workers' rights in particular is being undermined as working people are increasingly forced to bear the burden of the global economic crisis, in contravention of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and other UN and International Labor Organization instruments. On this day, International Human Rights Day, life under absolute dictatorship remains the reality for many, many millions of people, in China, Burma, Cuba, North Korea, Iran and several other countries while the international community lacks the capacity, or the will, to make human rights and democracy truly universal. 

The awarding of the Nobel Peace Prize this year is especially remarkable since the recipient, Liu Xiaobo, is serving an 11-year prison sentence imposed by the Chinese authorities in 2009. China has launched an international campaign to deter countries from attending the Nobel award ceremony. Police are stationed outside his home in Beijing where his wife, Liu Xia, is under house arrest. The UN says it had information that China detained at least 20 activists ahead of the ceremony. A further 120 cases of house arrest, travel restriction, forced relocation and other acts of intimidation have been reported. Some have been prevented from leaving the country, while others have been forced to leave their homes for the next few days, according to the Chinese Human Rights Defenders. One of those to disappear, it said, was Zhang Zuhua, a man who co-wrote Charter 08 with Liu. Dozens of labor activists have been imprisoned in China over the past year, swelling the ranks of those already in jails or in labor camps.

China was infuriated when the 54-year-old literary critic won, describing the award as an attack on its political and legal system. Authorities have placed Liu's supporters, including his wife Liu Xia, under house arrest to prevent anyone from picking up his prize. In Beijing, both CNN and BBC TV went black at 8 p.m. local time, exactly when the Oslo ceremony was taking place. French TV5 also went black. Security outside Liu's apartment in Beijing was heavy and several dozen journalists were herded away by uniformed police to a cordoned-off area. China has also pressured foreign diplomats to stay away from the Nobel ceremony. Geir Lundestad said 48 foreign delegations attended the Oslo ceremony, 16 countries turned down the invitation and the Chinese returned their invitation unopened. China, Vietnam, Kazakhstan, Russia, Venezuela, Cuba, Tunisia, Morocco, Sudan, Algeria, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Iran, Egypt, Pakistan, Afghanistan and Sri Lanka boycotted the ceremony. Serbia - which had previously said it would not attend - sent a representative.

China's furious assault on Liu's award has reached proportions last seen during the Soviet and Nazi regimes. But even Cold War dissidents Andrei Sakharov of the Soviet Union and Lech Walesa of Poland were able to have their wives collect the prizes for them. Myanmar democracy activist Aung San Suu Kyi's award was accepted by her 18-year-old son in 1991.

The 54-year-old human rights advocate Liu was one of the main activits in the Tiananmen Square protests in 1989. Fellow Tiananmen Square campaigner and dissident Wan Yanhai, who fled to the United States in May, was in the audience at the Norwegian capital's city hall. He said: "I came to witness this most important and encouraging day in China's contemporary history. It's a milestone and we hope it will be a turning point as well." Wan Yanhai was the only one on a list of 140 activists in China invited by Liu's wife to attend the ceremony, that was able to be in Oslo...

The Norwegian Nobel Committee Chairman Thorbjoern [Norwegian: Thorbjørn] Jagland said awarding the prize to Liu was not "a prize against China," and he urged Beijing that as a world power it "should become used to being debated and criticized." In his award ceremony speech, Mr Jagland praised China for its move forward over recent years, lifting millions of people out of poverty. He called it an "extraordinary achievement" but warned China that its new status meant Beijing "must regard criticism as positive". Mr Jagland said the Nobel Committee was calling for Mr Liu to be freed immediately and declared: "He hasn't done anything wrong," receiving an unusual standing ovation at the international gathering.

Jagland compared China's anger at the award to the outcry over peace prizes awarded to other dissidents of their times, including the South African Desmond Tutu and the Burmese pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi. He said Mr Liu was dedicating his prize to "the lost souls from 4 June", those who died in the pro-democracy protests on that date in Tiananmen Square in 1989. "We can say Liu reminds us of Nelson Mandela," he said. The former South African president received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1993. At the end of his speech, again drawing attention to the fact that Liu Xiaobo had not been permitted to be present, he placed the Nobel Peace Prize mesa and diploma in the empty chair reserved for Mr Liu.

More about Mr Liu. Norwegian actress Liv Ullmann read out a statement from Mr Liu which he made to a court at the time of his trial in December 2009. "I, filled with optimism, look forward to the advent of a future, free China," his statement said. "For there is no force that can put an end to the human quest for freedom, and China will in the end become a nation ruled by law, where human rights reign supreme." Liu Xiaobo first came to prominence when he took part in the 1989 protests in Beijing's Tiananmen Square. He was sent to prison for nearly two years for his role, and has been a critic of the Chinese government ever since.

He was given the 11-year prison sentence in December 2009 for inciting 'the subversion of state power', a charge which came after he co-authored a document known as Charter 08. The document calls openly for political reforms in China, such as a separation of powers and legislative democracy. Liu Xiaobo had personally requested that a children's choir should be among the performers at the award ceremony, and the children's choir of the Norwegian Opera fulfilled his request, singing a number of Norwegian folk songs as a conclusion to the ceremony. With his Nobel Peace Prize diploma and medal placed in his empty chair, imprisoned Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo was given a standing ovation at the award ceremony Friday as dignitaries demanded his release.

According to Sarah Lyall and the New York Times 10.12.2010: "Mr. Liu, 54, a professor, poet, essayist and campaigner for human rights, has been an irritant to the Chinese authorities since helping resolve confrontations between the police and students in Tiananmen Square. Mr. Liu was detained in December 2008, after co-writing the Charter 08 call for human rights and reform, and is currently serving an 11-year sentence for the crime of 'incitement to the overthrow of the state power and socialist system and the people's democratic dictatorship.'"

According to John Simpson and BBC 10.12.2010: "The official line [of the Chinese authorities] is that Liu Xiaobo is a wrecker, putting everything that China has achieved in danger through a return to anarchy." It is clear the Chinese authorities here mix up anarchy with ochlarchy (mob rule broadly defined), and The International Anarchist Tribunal - IAT-APT hands out another Brown Card to the Chinese dictators, for this ultra-authoritarian Orwellian "1984" newspeak. The freedom fighter Liu Xiaobo is acting for a movement of the Chinese social system toward Libertarian Human Rights and Real Democracy, i.e. real anarchy, the quite opposite of ochlarchy. The marxist Orwellian Big Brother newspeak propaganda 'news'-station BBC and John Simpson also get Brown Cards for spreading the newspeak-lies of the Chinese rulers, the marxist Communist party.

China press comments. China's English-language newspapers had big front-page articles about the Nobel Peace Prize - and China's objection to the award. But the issue was given less prominence in Chinese-language newspapers. The two most important stories on the front page of the Beijing Morning Post were about vehicle tax and private kindergartens. There was, however, a commentary piece in the People's Daily, the Chinese Communist Party's newspaper. It ran an editorial attacking the Nobel Peace Prize committee, saying it faced an "unprecedented embarrassing situation". But it also felt compelled to defend China's position in not allowing Liu Xiaobo to attend the prize ceremony. "No country in the world that is governed by laws would allow a high-sounding criminal to leave and 'pick up an award'," said the commentary. And the Chinese-language Global Times suggested there was great division among countries about whether the award was a good thing.

Also Friday, a group of Nobel laureates, including former South African President F.W. de Klerk, Nazi death camp survivor and author Elie Wiesel and Northern Ireland politician John Hume, offered to mediate with the Chinese government for Liu's early release. In Washington, President Barack Obama said he regretted that Liu and his wife were not allowed to go to the ceremony as he and first lady Michelle Obama did when he won the peace prize last year. "Liu Xiaobo is far more deserving of this award than I was," he said. Mr Obama also was calling on China to free Nobel Peace Prize recipient Liu Xiaobo. In a statement stressing the importance of democracy and the rule of law, he said Liu stands for universal human values and should be released from prison as soon as possible. U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who attended the ceremony with U.S. Ambassador Barry White, said it was "an honor" for her to be there. "It is really a joy of my official life. For decades we have worked for human rights in China and Liu Xiaobo has been a hero to all of us," she said.

Torchlit parade. At the Nobel Peace Center, which is devoted to the Peace Prize, its history and its winners, crowds gathered to watch the ceremony on large-screens as NRK broadcast live from the adjacent City Hall. Events continued throughout the day, and climaxed with an annual torchlit parade, starting about 18.30 local time at Youngstorget and ending at the Grand Hotel where the Peace Prize winner traditionally stays. This year, no winner was on hand to greet supporters. The balcony where the winner stands was symbolically empty, with an image of Liu due displayed against the building. Probably due to the empty balcony, only about 1200 persons participated in the parade according to the police. There were also marches in Trondheim and Kristiansand.

Some time has passed on since the Norwegian People turned their back against the main economic political course of the social democrat government, at the 1994 EU referendum. The megatrend of the late eighties and early nineties was a movement to the right and upwards on the Economical Political Map. The EU referendum indicated a further jump in this direction, and thus the economic political system in Norway made a revolutionary change, and passed the border between the marxist social democrat sector and the anarchist sector of social individualism. This of course is a major social event in the economic political world history. A long jump further rightwards may result in a social liberal system, and a reverse tendency may give a retardation to marxist social democracy, but this is not the case at the moment. Thus, Norway became an anarchy in 1994/95, and it still is an anarchist economic-political system.

In 2001 the Norwegian economic-political system has not changed significantly in the distance from the top of the economic-political map. And thus, the Anarchy of Norway is still going strong. Although the system is significantly anarchist, i.e. within the Quadrant of Anarchism on the economic political map, it is somewhat far from the anarchist ideal on the top of the map. "So this is heaven: Norway", the LA-TIMES in USA reports about Norway, November 2001, but this is however a bit exaggerated; see American look at Norway - Report no 1, where the article is quoted, with comments from IIFOR added. Another American article on the situation in Norway, quoted from NY-TIMES January 2002, also with comments from IIFOR, is also included.

The main policy of the Anarchist International (AI/IFA) and The Anarchist Federation of Norway (AFIN) was presented in the largest Newspaper in Norway, Verdens Gang 06.11.2001, p 39, see Anarchy is [real] democracy - article in VG. This article also states "Norway [as] a relatively anarchist country, however a bit far from the anarchist ideal (Norge som et relativt anarkistisk land, men nokså langt fra det anarkistiske ideal)."

In June 2002 a libertarian direct action against the World Bank's reactionary policy and the ABCDE-meeting, in Oslo, once more confirmed that anarchy is significantly on in Norway, see Direct action against the ABCDE-meeting and policy. Norwegian firms are more and more horizontally organized, according to Nordhaug and Gooderham at NHH (Dagsavisen 15 & 16.10.2004). An investigation later in 2002 indicated a slight movement to the right on the economical-political map and about 54% degree of anarchy, compared to the situation in 1994-95 with about 53% anarchism. In 2005 Norway is celebrating its 100th anniversary as a sovereign nation.

After the red and green council of state (state in the meaning of central administration, not archy), took over in 2005, the system has turned a bit to the left, but the degree of anarchy is still about 54%. A degree of anarchism of ca 54%, as in Norway 2007, is as mentioned not a high degree of anarchism. This means the authoritarian degree is still ca 46%. If the libertarian degree is less than 50% there is no anarchy at all. About 54% anarchy degree is quite an accepted estimate. It is a.o.t. quoted in Dagens Næringsliv (the Industrial life of today, the main economical newspaper of Norway) no 2/3 June 2007 and Finansavisen (the Financial newspaper) Wednesday 17. October 2007, see anarchist articles in DN and Finansavisen. The red and green council of state (central administration) continued after the general election in 2009, with still about 54% degree of anarchy in Norway, and this will probably continue in the coming years.

30.05.2007. The Anarchy of Norway was rated as the most peaceful nation in the world, and since the middle of 1995 the country has also been ranked as the most libertarian and anarchist on planet Gaia, a.k.a. Tellus and Earth.

15.01.2010. Positive citizen survey: A nationwide citizen survey shows that 86 per cent of Norwegians think that their country is close to being a perfect country to live in.

So called heaven or not, 54% anarchism is far from the 100% anarchist ideal. Thus, it is plenty of room for improvement from anarchist perspective, and by no means time for a break in the fight against authoritarian tendencies. The revolution must be fought permanent, in the daily life, to sustain and develop further. However, as long as a) Norway stays out of EU, b) populist and nationalist tendencies are put at place, and c) the left and right tendencies outbalance each other reasonable as by now, Norway will probably stay anarchist, and be a lighthouse for EU and the rest of the world. [Source: FB-IJ@ 4(24), 1-4(25), 1-3(26), AIT - AIIS].

Resolution, decided with general consent, by AFIN, AIIS, IIFOR, AIUF and:
The International Anarchist Congress
The 11th Anarchist Biennial 27-28.11.2010
International Congress-Seminar on Anarchism
The AI/IFA network represents more than 50 000 anarchist world wide
To see the Website of the Congress - Click here!
Updated

PS. 26.06.2017. Chinese Nobel peace laureate Liu Xiaobo has been released from prison on compassionate grounds after being diagnosed with terminal liver cancer. Mr Liu, a human rights campaigner, was jailed in 2009 on subversion charges for calling for greater democracy. His lawyer says he is being treated in hospital in northern Liaoning Province after being diagnosed a month ago. His wife Liu Xia has been under house arrest since her husband won the award in 2010 but has never been charged. Liu Xiaobo, 61, was a key activist in the Tiananmen Square protests in 1989. The Chinese authorities have never explained why they have restricted his wife's movements.

PPS. 13.07.2017. Nobel laureate Liu Xiaobo, who was China's most prominent human rights and democracy advocate, has died aged 61. The activist had been serving an 11-year prison term for "subversion" and was recently moved to a hospital for treatment for terminal liver cancer. A university professor turned tireless rights campaigner, Mr Liu was branded a criminal by authorities. The Nobel Committee said the Chinese government bore a "heavy responsibility for his premature death". The campaigner was repeatedly jailed throughout his life. When not in prison, he was subject to severe restrictions while his wife, Liu Xia, was placed under house arrest. Mr Liu died "peacefully", surrounded by his wife and other relatives, a doctor who treated him said. His final words to Liu Xia were: "Live on well".

More information about the Nobel Peace Prize and the Anarchy of Norway - Click here! More about the situation in China - Click here!
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