An estimated 5000-10,000 (still preliminary) protestors gathered in Hong Kong's Victoria Park and marched their way to the Exhibition Centre where the WTO 6th Ministerial Conference has just begun. Protestors from all over south-east Asia expressed their solidarity with cultural gatherings and workshops. But the most hyped group are the South Korean farmers who made headline news when Lee Kyeong-hae commited suicide at Cancun 2003.

Only a short hour's march from Victoria Park to the assembly area near the Exhibition Centre, the loud but peaceful rally went through one of Hong Kong's busiest cosmomopolitan areas -- Causeway Bay and Wan Chai. With 9,000 police on duty, a third of Hong Kong's force, navy riot helmets and shields were as common as the ordinary spectator.

This story detailing the way in which the "regeneration" of Ballymun in Dublin is turning out to be a free-for-all for private investors, property speculators, builders and landlords, at the expense of the local community is written by Mick Burke, a community activist from Ballymun. It is taken from the first issue of 'Ireland From Below', a non-profit, community newspaper written, produced and published by a voluntary collective which will report on community struggles all over the island of Ireland. Contact details for the paper are included at the end of the article.

At a series of meetings with tenants in the late 1990s, Dublin Corporation set out to persuade the people of Ballymun that demolition and rebuilding were the best – and only – options for the future of the area. A Dublin suburb with the population of Sligo was to be torn down while the people were still living there; at the same time a replacement town was to be built around them.

That option was at first overwhelmingly rejected by the community and only slowly accepted as part of an overall strategy for the area that was intended to change Ballymun forever – from a high unemployment, low-skill ghetto into a vibrant modern town capable of attracting investment at the same time as giving local people pride in rebuilding and reshaping their town.

The regeneration programme has been underway for nearly ten years, and a different picture has emerged, one in which the profits of private investors, property speculators, building giants and private landlords are prioritised over the interests of the long-standing Ballymun community.