Mexico: police represses would-be protesters in the subway

Hundreds of riot police agents in full gear occupied metro stations in Mexico D.F. in order to violently repress an intended protest at the Presidential palace of Los Pinos. 

Let us here recall that all recent Mexican presidential elections have been tarnished by mass fraud, what makes the authorities highly illegitimate.

Police violently beat protesters and neutral commuters alike. Reports also suggest that infiltrated plain clothes' police provokers, carrying rocks and petrol bombs, were also present and caused much trouble.

This intended protest is part of a wider civil disobedience campaign which has scheduled a protest camp in the Ángel de la Independencia (close to Los Pinos) for tomorrow and Wednesday, when there will be a march on the anniversary of the burning of kindergarten ABC. Between June 15th and 25th there will be a civic plebiscite on the revocation of the presidential mandate, followed by a march against insecurity and later, on July 1st, mobilizations across the country.

Source: Kaos en la Red[es].

Turkey: protests continue, police more cautious now

Protests continued in huge numbers in Turkish cities yesterday, although at least police aggressiveness seemed more contained and focused on impeding protesters from reaching governmental centers such as the Prime Minister's residence in Ankara. 

The media only seems to confirm as of now two mortal victims (some reports suggested yesterday that up to four but not confirmed). However injured and arrested citizens are counted by the thousands. 

The situation was calmer in Istanbul, where Taksim Square has been reoccupied by the protesters, while the clashes seemed focused in Ankara, where demonstrators attempted to reach the government buildings even using excavators. 

Turkey is traditionally an authoritarian "democracy", where police and army have kept a firm grip over the people, be them Turkish or Kurds. However these days have shown that the Turkish citizens are not anymore fearful of police or at least that they level of anger has overcome the obstacle of fear. 

The reactionary AKP (islamic-democrats, akin to European christian-democrats, i.e. very reactionary under a thin "democratic" varnish) which has ruled the country in the last decade has combined a populist nationalist "neo-Ottoman" discourse (with even formal conflicts with its traditional Zionist ally but a stronger compromise with reactionary old-school Islamism in the region, promoted by the USA, Saudi Arabia and Israel) with reactionary policies of dismantling of Kemalist secularism (the most radical of its kind in all West Eurasia since the collapse of the Stalinist regimes of Eastern Europe) and continuity of Kemalist autocracy within a formal "democracy". 

The people in the streets have therefore all kind of grievances, from economy to ecology, from authoritarianism to re-islamization of society. The hyper-violent repression of a peaceful urban-ecologist camp in Istanbul triggered therefore the barely contained anger of a population that now demands the immediate resignation of the government that has betrayed the representative legitimacy by going in murderous rampage against the citizens.

Partial source: Webguerrillero[es].

USA: Colorado to legalize marijuana

Colorado is set to be the first state of the North American federation to legalize marijuana ownership by citizens and sale in shops without a medical pretext. Citizens older than 21 (legal age for alcohol consumption) will be allowed to have up to a ounce (28 grams) of this herb, although individual purchases would have to be of just a fourth of this measure. Shops will be able to sell it with an especial tax of either 15% (to be dedicated to school construction) or 10% above the normal sales taxes (in which case it'd be dedicated to education campaigns on drug use and the regulation of the trade itself). The bill is to be voted in referendum on Autumn this year. 

Source: Webguerrillero[es].

Turkey: brutal police repression causes outrage as popular protests escalate - update: 4 killed, thousands injured

The protests in Turkey escalated yesterday, as did police brutality. What began as a peaceful massive camp in central Istanbul to protest the corrupt and anti-civic construction policies in the city, became, after violent police intervention, in a state-wide tide of protests, again most criminally repressed by the armed forces, what has only managed to feed the popular rage even more. 

The number of victims is unknown but some of the photos and reports suggest that several citizens may have already been murdered by the guards of the bourgeoisie.

The number of protesters is almost unaccountable

This woman was critically injured in the head

The same woman being carried to hospital

Gratuitous gassing

Brutal beatings

Water cannons

All the bourgeois violence only achieves more anger, more protests

... and more...

... and more...

Main source: Webguerrillero[es] (link 1, link 2, link 3).


Update: at least two killed by police brutality in Turkey, according to Amnesty International, which also claims a thousand injured. Further reports claim no less than four dead. Official Turkish figures only talk of 939 arrested in some 90 different demonstrations.

One of the mortal victims

Beleaguered Prime Minister Erdogan, while vaguely admitting "some excesses", is entrenched in his ivory tower, claiming that "democracy" only admits one heavily restricted way of expression: to wait for next elections. Some rumors suggest that social networks in the Internet have been silenced by the fundamentalist government.

US citizens by the hundreds marched in New York, Chicago, Austin and Boston in solidarity with the Turkish people.  Similar internationalist protests were held in Brussels, London, Helsinki and Nicosia.

Source: Webguerrillero[es] (link 1, link 2, link 3).


Update (Jun 14): I have been informed that the woman who was badly injured by a gas canister, shown in the photos above, is Labna Al Lami, an Egyptian tourist. She is still in coma. 

'Fuck the Troika!' pan-European protests

Yesterday many protests were held across Europe under the slogan "Fuck the Troika!"

Madrid:

There were many more protests in Spain, according to Webguerrillero[es], as well as in Catalonia (→Kaos[es]).

Frankfurt:

(from Al Jazeera)

See another video at The Guardian.


London (antifascist focus):

(source: Bambuser)

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Update:  52 antifascists arrested in the London protests (WG[es]), once again police defends the Nazis.

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I do not have info for the rest of Europe at the moment, except for the growing widespread violent clashes in Turkey, which will be dealt with in a separate entry. 

Mention also deserves the massive protest in Sana (Yemen) demanding a change of regime (→PressTV).

Kyrgyzstan: miner uprising against Canadian multinational, at least one killed by police live fire

The clashes took place at the huge gold mine of Kuntor, in the North of Kyrgyzstan, owned by Centerra Gold since a decade ago. The protesters demand a greater share of the profits and that the company invests in local infrastructures (roads, a kindergarten, hospitals, more jobs and a long-term loan scheme).

This uprising is just the tip of the iceberg because it follows a chain of strikes last year that reduced CG's profits by 6.6%.

Instead of supporting the Kyrgyz worker-citizens, the government of President Atambayek has declared war on them, sending police to repress the uprising with live fire, resulting in at least one killed, 50 injured and 90 arrested. 

A curfew has been officially declared in the mining district of Dzhety Ohuz until June 10th. 

Kuntor is the largest gold mine in Central Asia and one of the largest on Earth. Kyrgyzstan is the only Central Asian state, other than Afghanistan, that still holds a US military base. 

Source: Webguerrillero[es].

Guantanamo: hunger strike continues, prisoners threatened

Some 103 (the vast majority) of prisoners in US-controlled Guantanamo concentration camp continue on hunger strike in demand of their human rights (what essentially means their immediate release or fair trial). Nothing has changed since Obama made a brief empty speech on the matter last week, rejecting to make use of his presidential super-powers to order the immediate closure of the infamous prison.

If anything for the worse. 36 strikers are being force-fed, while intimidation happens daily in an attempt to curtail access to attorneys (the only lifeline these people have with the World). 

Source: Webguerrillero[es] (link 1, link 2).