Mexico: teacher and student camp brutally evicted by police

The teacher and student camp in the Zócalo (the major plaza of Mexico City) was brutally evicted by police forces. 12,000 teachers continue on strike in the North American country. 

Source: WG[es].


Update: more than 200 injured reported, almost all civilians. 32 arrested. → WG[es].

Update: more repression: police charge and gas civilians near Arts Faculty after these accused the cops of "assassins" → video at WG[es].

Turkey: more repression against students in Ankara

The police forces of Islamist ruler Erdogan brutally charged with loads of tear gas and other violence against students protesting the deforestation of their campus to build a highway. 

The also Islamist mayor of Ankara, Melih Gökçek, recently announced that the works for the highway to be built right through the Technical University of the Middle East would begin this week. 

Source: Webguerrillero[es].

Greece: police raids two social centers in Athens University

From Form the Greek Streets:

Police raids the historical Athens polytecnic campus in exarcheia, five detained

This morning the police raided the historical Athens polytechnic campus. The two self-organized spaces inside the campus got raided and five people were detained (among them 3 immigrants from whom 1 will be deported).  The rest of the detained were released few hours later.

Source in Greek
https://athens.indymedia.org/front.php3?lang=el&article_id=1486866

Original entry includes a police video of the raids.

Fascist USA: forced Zionist "re-education" of anti-apartheid students

The Defamation League continues with its attempts to curb free speech on the Apartheid Regime in Palestine. 

From the Electronic Intifada:

Students who walked out of a speech given by an Israeli soldier at Florida Atlantic University earlier this year are being forced by the administration to attend a chilling “re-education” program designed by an Israel lobby group.

This mandatory “training” program is based on curriculum designed by the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), a lobby organization which has been instrumental in pressuring university administrations to curb Palestine solidarity activism across the US.

As The Electronic Intifada recently reported, the ADL has a lengthy history of spying on Palestine solidarity activists and academics, including Noam Chomsky.

Two of the three Florida Atlantic University (FAU) students being forced to attend this program have also been put on indefinite probation by the administration “for the remainder of our undergraduate careers,” they say in a recent statement.

(...)

As we reported, in April 2012 students at FAU were subjected to administrative pressure and death threats after they engaged in a nonviolent direct action calling attention to the demolition of Palestinian homes by Israeli forces. In a creative effort to raise awareness of Israel’s rampant home demolition practices, students posted 200 fake eviction notices on dorm room doors.

(...)

... read the full article at the Electronic Intifada.

Turkey: student loans to be denied to those who join protests

The fascist Turkish state is again showing its true colors: people who take part in protests will become legally ineligible for student loans.

The new norm, to be applied from 2014 on, has been approved by the Institution of Loans for Superior Education and University Residences on the grounds that such activities are "a violation of the right to education".

The banned activities include painting graffiti, chanting slogans, occupying buildings or taking part in any boycott, be it individually or collectively, inside or outside the university precinct.

The banned activities are described as "acts of anarchism and terrorism".

Hitler himself could not have thought something more twisted. 

Source: Webguerrillero[es].

Chile: police forcibly evicts more than 20 schools occupied by students

In the early hours of Thursday the Chilean military police (carabineros) proceeded to the eviction of more than 20 schools occupied by its students in protest against the commercialization of education. In most of the centers the students were evicted without further incidents but in some there have been denounces of police brutality. 

For example in the girls' school Carmela Carvajal, Providencia, the 16 students were arrested in front of their relatives and have denounced excesses by the police. In the Darío Salas high school students got to the roof and hurled objects against the soldiers that tried to get them down using tear gas. 

Source: Webguerrillero[es].

Chile: workers and students strike together

Miners, teachers, dock and healthcare workers have gone on strike today in Chile, along with high school and university students. The demands are focused on free quality education for all, labor rights, dignified jobs and healthcare.

While the leading force in this strike is the Student Confederation (CONFECH), these have been getting closer and closer to labor organizations in the last several years in the course of struggles against privatizations imposed by the neo-Pinochetist President Piñera. This way the General Union of Dock Workers (UNTP), the Teachers' College, the Confederation of Copper Workers (CTC), the Unitary Workers Central (CUT) have joined student organizations in this strike, bringing class struggle in the Andean country one step ahead. 

Three marches will converge today at the center of Santiago de Chile, while the popular organizations are working in order to express the anger in multiple ways at each location. 

This strike is also a preparation for the General Strike of July 11th. 

Source LINyM[es].

Peru: large protests against fascist control in universities

Some six thousand students marched through the streets of Cuzco against the new University Law, which severely restricts freedom of speech and university autonomy. 

There were clashes between police and students on Thursday and Friday.

Source: Webguerrillero[es].

Chile: huge student protests (again) - updated: 30 arrested, 20 injured

Hundreds of thousands marched through Santiago and other cities (Concepción, Talca, Los Ángeles, Chillán, Valparaíso) of the South American state in demand of free quality public education for all. 

The president of the Student Federation of the University of Chile, Andrés Fielbaum, declared about the upcoming presidential elections, that:

It would seem that the candidates live in another country and have not hear the demands of the majority of this country and keep believing that education is good business for the majority. 

Similarly Isabel Salgado (ACES) said:

We want to tell the candidates that none of them represents us, that this movement is autonomous. Therefore their proposals are useless for us unless they would dare to promote structural change.

Diego Vela of the Student Federation of the Catholic University attacked the post-fascist constitution of the country, which acts as a lock against change. 

In the main demonstration at Santiago, there were some squabbles between police forces and a fraction of the students but compared with previous occasions this time the mobilization was quite peaceful.

Source: Webguerrillero[es].

Update: police violence after the march was important again. Some 20 people have been injured and at least 30 arrested.

Some of the worst clashes took place in Mapocho (north of Santiago), where citizens responded to police water cannons and gas canisters with rocks and petrol bombs. Luxury shops and bank offices were attacked as well.

Police also attacked the campus of the University of Chile, where an anti-government meeting was to take place, against the will of the rector, who dubbed it "unacceptable" and "aggression with impunity".

→ Webguerrillero[es].

Chile: 19 universities occupied by students

Some 19 campuses, both public and private, have been occupied by Chilean students, who continue in their indefatigable struggle to secure a public, free and quality education in their country.

While student struggle has been dramatically active in Chile the last several years, the movement felt impelled to give a new impulse to their struggle as the arrogant President Piñera (Christian-Democrat) declared on May 21s that he would not guarantee free public education. 

A new national student strike has been called by the Student Confederation (ConfECh) for June 26th.

Source: Webguerrillero[es].

Chile: students occupy faculty

Yesterday a group of students occupied the main building of the University of Chile. Their declared intention is to denounce and reject the deterioration  of public education in the South American country.

Source: Webguerrillero[es].

Italy: students defeat riot police and conquer freedom of assembly (video)

Very impressive:

This happened on May 27. Students had called an assembly at the Piazza Verdi of Bologna and the governor had forbidden it (in yet another example of lack of any real democracy in Europe). The students bravely conquered their right of assembly and police run away. 

That's exactly how Ben Ali was kicked from Tunisia: after many protests repressed by police, one happy day, the protesters, much more numerous than the armed forces, turned around and took their rights, their freedom. 

Source: Madriz Rebelde[es].

Chile: more police attacks against student marches

Chilean military police (carabineros) violently attacked again freedom of expression and protest in Santiago. The student demonstration was scheduled to march to the Heroes Plaza after marching through the Alameda, the city's main street, but was brutally repressed (again) by the police-soldiers, who arrested 600. 

The government had explicitly forbidden the march through the Alameda in a clear attempt to hide the student protests that are the major challenge that the extremist right-winger President Piñera faces. All previous demonstrations have used this major street as avenue to show their discontent.

Source: Webguerrillero[es].

Update (Jun 1): video available at Madriz Rebelde[es].

Chile: police repression of student protests

From the larger photo-gallery at Webguerrillero:

Chile: students occupy faculties

Law students in Valparaíso have occupied their faculty in demand of free quality education for all, with emphasis on the increased difficulties to apply for public grants (dozens of students are expected to lose their grants under the new measures of the far-right government). 

They have called to fellow students elsewhere to do the same. 

Economics students have already joined the protest. 

Source: Webguerrillero[es].

Teachers, students and workers violently evicted from University of Barcelona

At 3:45 in the night, police forces evicted violently the students, teachers and workers who were occupying the rectory of the University of Barcelona in protest for the budgetary cuts and the fascist project of a new educative law. 

Source: Webguerrillero[cat/es] (incl. video).

Student strike in Pennsylvania

While student strikes may be somewhat common in other places, they are truly exceptional in the USA. However On May 9th and then again the 17th, Pennsylvania high school students walked out massively to protest cuts on education.

From Fire Next Time:

On May 17th thousands of high school students from various schools across the city walked out of their classes and took the streets of Philadelphia. This walk-out was organized by the students themselves in direct opposition to impending budget cuts which will close dozens of schools, lay off thousands of teachers and school employees, cut funding for school libraries, sports, after- school programs, summer school, counselling services, and other services that students rely on. Unlike the first walk-out which took place on May 9th, this walk-out occurred during school hours and without permission from school administrations. West Philly High locked its doors so that students couldn’t leave, but the students figured out how to get out of the school anyway. Some students even organized sit-down occupations of the schools. It is clear that the students are becoming more willing to break the rules and that this is scaring the school administrations. At the same time, the students have a very long way to go if they want to stop the budget cuts and take control of their lives–sending petitions and letters to Mayor Nutter and Governor Corbet wont do this. Below is a flyer that members of FNT distributed to hundreds of students during the walk-outs to encourage them to consider a revolutionary strategy.

Congratulations to the Students Who Walked Out of School Today!!!

The students who walked out of classes today have the power to change the future of Philadelphia. Today they defied a system that sees them as nothing but disposable. The city and state government are closing schools, cutting funding, but they have money for a Youth Jail at 48th and Haverford and $200 million has been set aside for a new Police Roundhouse at 46th and Market. They are replacing schools and libraries with more prisons and police! They are throwing a whole generation into the trash!

The question is: Are you going to let them get away with this? Sending letters and emails to the mayor and the governor wont change this situation. We will still be trapped in poor neighborhoods and in bullshit schools, stuck with no jobs or bullshit jobs, and constantly threatened by the police. Crews will continue fighting each other over petty beef. You have our full support, but it is going to take much more than voting and signing petitions to change this situation. We need to build a united revolutionary movement against the forces that keep us all down: the government, the police, the rich. Will you work with us to build this movement?

There will be a Meeting in the center of Malcolm X Park on Saturday May 25th at 5pm

Check us out @ facebook.com/FREETHASTREETS

Spain: massive strike forces the government to postpone education reform

With a 70% following among teachers and 90% among students, as well as massive demonstrations in many towns, the sectoral strike has forced the neofascist Minister Wert to pull back, at least by the moment, his proposal of reform of the education system. 

The strike was also supported by the Spanish Confederation of Associations of Students' Parents (CEAPA, usually leaning to the right), which demanded the withdrawal of all budgetary cuts to education, the law of reform of the educative system (LOMCE) and the immediate resignation of Mr. Wert.

The bill known as LOMCE by its Spanish acronym is essentially a return to the fascist education system and is particularly hostile to the rights of students who wish to learn in languages other than Castilian-Spanish, as well as uniformizing the teaching of history, for example, in ways that are blatantly Spanish-imperialist. 

According to some unions the law is almost certainly unconstitutional. 

We can only imagine that the passing of the law will be delayed until the summer in order to prevent a hot spring in the education system. 

Sources: Público[es], Kaos[es], Al Jazeera.

Italy: socialized university bookshop evicted in Milan

The Ex-Cuem self-managed anticapitalist bookshop was evicted by order of the dean of the Milan State University, Gianluca Vago. 

The former CUEM bookshop's closure caused the book business in the unviersity to become a monopoly of CUSL, an emporium linked to the fundamentalist-fascist organization Communione e Liberazione, heavily implicated in corruption scandals and strongly supportive of the neofascist Silvio Berlusconi.

For this reason students decided to occupy the former CUEM bookshop, offering many alternative and cheaper forms of access to literature for students, including book exchange schemes and availability of scanning of books into digital format. 

All them are deemed criminal by the Capitalist Regime as they threaten the profits of the big oligopolistic companies of the oligarchy.

Source: Struggles in Italy. 

Related: a similar eviction in Bologna University earlier this year.

Italy: police again joins the fascists again a popular protest

From Struggles in Italy:

(...) a group of protesters attacked the students’ rally unprovoked, with the complicity and support of the police, who charged and chased the students without identifying those responsible for the violence.

The events took place in Naples, in Piazza Plebiscito on the morning of May 7. About 100 students were protesting in front of the Prefecture: they were demonstrating their solidarity peacefully with the students brutally charged by the police at the State University in Milan the day before (May 6), and were waiting for the arrival of Maria Carrozza, newly nominated Minister of Education.

A few meters away, around thirty former workers of the Consorzi di Bacino were also demonstrating against their job losses, as they have been doing for several months. A group of neo-fascist extremists entered their ranks. They were led by Salvatore Lezzi, a local member of Forza Nuova who was tried in 2003 for alleged involvement with organized crime. Neo-Fascists started taunting the students, then attacked them.

Policemen who had been standing nearby then immediately charged and dispersed the students with anti-riot batons. Two more charges followed, as police chased students in the alleys behind the square. One student was injured. Several other students and researchers were identified by police; they were all released but they reported intimidating behavior during their questioning. Police attacked left-wing activists once more during the afternoon, for no apparent reason, as they had regrouped and formed a rally in Via San Sebastiano.

This episode of violence closely follows the violent repression of student protest in Milan and it comes as a sinister start for the term of Angelino Alfano, the Minister of the Interior coming from the ranks of Berlusconi’s party.

(...)

 

It seems that, sadly enough, this is the new norm in all Europe: fascist terrorism with police protection under a pretext of residual democracy.