Japan will sell their radioactive fish to Third World countries via UN

Cambodia and other four unnamed countries will suffer this mischievous "aid" with World Food Program seal of approval, whose only goal is to recover the Japanese economy even in the worst irradiated areas, irrational goal that is going over the right to life of Japanese children, Australian children and now the children Cambodia and other countries. 

Source: Ex-SKF (citing several Japanese sources).

Spanish government will not change a letter in the labor rights demolition law

After millions of Spaniards and oppressed nationalities walked out yesterday, literally paralyzing the economy of the state for a whole day and also filling the streets of every city and town morning, afternoon and evening... the Spanish ultra-conservative government has declared that they will not change a comma in their law  (more details in English language at IPS, for example).

The ruling People's Party (heir of People's Alliance, heir of Franco's National Movement, heir of the infamous CEDA) has the support of 31.6% of adult citizens and 44% of actual voters but only got 500,000 votes more than previous elections, when it ended in the opposition.

On Thursday more than 10 million actual workers, some of which may have been deceived into voting PP, walked out. Add to that the non-working housewives, students and all the mass of unemployed people (5.3 million). That may be some 20 or 25 million people who actually seconded the strike one way or another and flatly oppose the labor reform and the social cuts.

But the reform will not be voted in referendum, nope. The 32% of neo-fascists are imposing their views to the vast majority who is left frustrated, angry and in many cases desperate.

If that's democracy...

Former British minister to Spain: 'If they want ETA's dissolution, they must make compromises'

Who used to be Tony Blair's Chief of Staff and a key person in the peace negotiations of Northern Ireland, Jonathan Powell, could not say it more clear:

If you want the dissolution of an armed organization, if you want to move ahead, you must get involved, make compromises and engage in dialogue. That is what we learned in Ireland. 

Powell is co-signatory of the declaration of Aiete, pushing for a peace process in the Basque-Spanish conflict, together with former UN Secretary General Kofi Anan, former Norwegian Prime Minister and head of WHO, Gro Harlem Brundtland, former Taoiseach Bertie Arhern, veteran French politician Pierre Joxe and the leader of the Sinn Feinn Gerry Adams.

The declarations were made in a European Parliament conference organized by some MEPs and which gathered some one hundred attendants, many of them political representatives from all around the European Union. 

Powell also said in reference to ETA and the Basque National Liberation Movement:

If one advances towards peace so suddenly, one can end up exhausted. Therefore the importance of doubling efforts and moving ahead, so nothing is gone to waste. 

He also said that the current lack of a proper peace process can lead to new violence:

Peace is a process not an event. If there is no process, a vacuum is created which can eventually be filled with violence. Therefore a process is needed to reach to a solution and that also applies to Basque Country and to Spain. You can't reach to any agreement if there is no process. 

And:

A conflict does not go away just because we wish so. The Government demands the dissolution of ETA but any such organization does not dissolve itself just like that. Even the Police Chief of Northern Ireland told us that negotiation would be necessary to solve the problem. We talked to the IRA... 

Other participants also made comments in similar directions. 

Source: Gara[es] (all quotes here back-translated from Spanish into English).

Police attacks protest in solidarity with Xuban Nafarrate, brutally beaten yesterday to near deathin Vitoria-Gasteiz

The Western Basque police corps, Ertzaintza, did not have enough beating Xuban Nafarrate to near death yesterday but today also have charged against those who concentrated in the centric Plaza of the White Virgin in Gasteiz (Vitoria) to show their solidarity and anger.

If one is beaten, they beat us all. Go Xuban!!!

At least four people have been arrested.

Several people have been injured.

Hundreds of arbitrary identifications have been performed.

Camera cards have been stolen massively by the masked police agents and in some cases the cameras themselves were broken. They targeted with special violence those taking pictures.

We are many, they are just a few mercenaries

Source: Sare Antifaxista[es].

Unemployed begin protest in church in Pamplona

A group of unemployed people from Pamplona have begun a protest in a local church, where they pretend to remain to call the public attention towards their demands:

We enclose ourselves in order to demand the sharing of work and wealth and, while we are unemployed, a dignified subsidy for all the unemployed. (...) It is immoral that so many million euros are injected into banks and capitalists while such fundamental needs as the basic income, education or health are being cut.

We also enclose ourselves to make an appeal to the people to stay in the streets until we put an end to the cuts and labor reforms, which only generate more unemployment and therefore social exclusion. This is not something we make up but something that the very designers of these reforms admit to. 

They have called for a protest tomorrow at 20:00 in Plaza Recoletas.

Source: Ateak Ireki.

Nonviolent ecologist Tim DeChristopher briefly thrown to 'the hole' in Utah prison

DeChristopher (pictured), who delayed an illegitimate gas and oil auction with the creative strategy of bidding for all lots without being able to pay for any, was convicted in July last year to two years of prison after he renounced to agree to any plea bargain and insisted in making the trial as public and political as possible. 

Apparently he was being punished after he inquired about a suspicious contributor to his support group, which may well be a police agent or some other sort of bourgeois provocateur.

Fortunately, after the prison received thousands of concerned phone calls he was brought back to normal prison conditions.

Source: Desmoblog.

I find particularly interesting the nonviolent strategy of disrupting economic bidding. I imagine that it can be used in other cases, such as in mortgages and such. Of course the will to endure prison and well-organized support are needed.

"Neo-nazis storm the university of Athens, injuring students, while mainstream media speak of ‘anarchist attack’" (OL-FTGS)

At approximately 13:30 GMT+2 [of Thursday 29th], a group of about 20 neo-nazis (according from information received so far, aligned to ‘Golden Dawn’ and/or to the Cypriot fascist group ‘DRASIS-KES’ entered the Physics and the Mathematics department of the University of Athens main campus in the suburb of Zografou. The thugs injured at least three students. According to eye-witnesses they were welding sticks, helmets and possibly axes. Students managed to group up quickly and to hold an anti-fascist demonstration of a few hundred, while the perpetrators of the attack disappeared from the scene.

In a remarkable twist of reality (even by their usual, low standards) many mainstream media outlets claim this to be an attack by ‘hooded-up youths’ (koukouloforoi), with an indirect, or even direct reference to anarchists.

(From Occupied London - From the Greek Streets). 

'San Francisco Jewish Federation officially excommunicates large swath of Jewish population' (Muzzle Watch)

The San Francisco Bay Area’s Jewish Federation has made it official.

Here in one of the most cosmopolitan, diversity-friendly and culture-loving places on earth, there is a new litmus test for Jewish identity and it has absolutely nothing to do with religious practice, cultural expression, personal history or the values you embrace. Membership in the Jewish community has been officially reduced to one and only one question- do you UNCONDITIONALLY love Israel?

Do you love Israel so much that you are willing to stand by and do nothing as it destroys itself and everyone it controls by repeatedly violating international law, sending its youngest citizens to enforce the 43-year occupation of another people,  imprisoning them, killing them with impunity, denying them the right to health and education and work and claiming it’s all in the name of security while taking more Palestinian land and water and trees each day.

In other words, are you willing to love Israel to death?

If the answer is YES, you’re in! If the answer is NO, and you have the chutzpah to embrace the principled, creative, peaceful methods of Martin Luther King, Cesar Chavez, and Gandhi as a way to pressure Israel to  help provide true democracy for all Israelis and Palestinians, then you’re out!

... full story at Muzzle Watch.

Absolute massive success of the general strike

Iruñea - Pamplona

The two simultaneous general strike journeys called in the Basque Country and Galicia and, separately and by imitation, in Spain also, have been a massive success.

Not only even the capitalist syndicates agreed that the support for the strike was massive but the streets of every city and town have been full all day with pickets and truly massive demonstrations that in the case of Madrid gathered almost one million people.

There have been scattered incidents, very specially in Barcelona, where clashes between police and angry youths dominated the journey's info. Several people have been injured, notably a Basque citizen from Vitoria-Gasteiz, Xuban Nafarrate, who was shot with a rubber bullet at short distance and is in severe condition although not anymore struggling for his life.

Inserted update on the police violence victim Xuban: 

According to eye witnesses, police agents beat Xuban before shooting directly to his head with a rubber bullet, what amounts to attempt of murder. As usual the police version is that he fell against the ground all alone.

After being abused that way, Xuban remained on the ground for some 15 minutes spasming because of the brain lesion, and the police agents had no better idea than to beat him again.

All this happened at the doors of the major commercial center El Corte Inglés, where police violence is usually hardest, because they are defending one of the most mafioso business, a true lovechild of fascism, infamous for repressing working rights and freedoms and buying the silence of the media with their advertisements. 

(end of the update)

Hundreds have been arrested.

The figures of support in the industrial sector varied between 80% and 100% with every major industry seeing production halted today. In transportation the strike was also important affecting railroads (100%), harbors (close to 100%), air transport (important) and urban transport (less apparent maybe because there were imposed minimal services of 30%). Fresh food markets were blocked everywhere and the impact in commerce was much higher than normal. Media were also affected in some cases, specially public channels, some of which were not emitting or broadcasting only previously recorded programs and news.

Bilbao

Vitoria-Gasteiz

You can find more info (Basque/Spanish languages), photos and videos of the Basque strike at Greba Orokorra, Ateak Ireki, Branka and Sare Antifaxista.

Galicia

Air picture of the demo at A Coruña

Catalonia

I have not yet clear info but seems that the clashes that characterized the journey were triggered by police, who charged against the demonstration of GCT (anarchosyndicalists, the third state-wide union possibly).

Barcelona: police attacking children?

The repression left at least 22 injured and many arrested.

In regards to the rest of the state of Spain, Kaos en la Red covered the strike minute by minute here.

Madrid, possibly 1 million demonstrators

They also make a serious criticism of the mainstream union bloc UGT-CC.OO., who, while cheering the crowd actually move towards doing nothing else worth that name. 

Another reference site is La Haine, which also covered the strike minute-by-minute. They report of a second severely injured person in Málaga, who, after being beaten by police, is having his spleen removed.

Info on Aragon at Arainfo.

On strike: blog closed today

As you may know a general strike has been called in the Basque Country and Galicia, and later another parallel one was also called in Spain by different unions. 

The strike is against the draconian social cuts and the retrograde ultra-capitalist destruction of workers' rights imposed by the European Union and the International Monetary Fund and implemented by the new ultra-conservative government (which has no significant more support that had when they were opposition a few months ago).

Therefore this blog will not be edited in the next 24 hrs. and I will not participate in any discussions (unless something extremely dramatic happens that requires immediate reporting).

Brief review of the latest fascist attacks in Chile and Catalan Countries

Daniel Zamudio (pictured), who was left in coma after a Nazi homophobic attack in Santiago de Chile died today in hospital at the age of 24 (··> SA[es]).

Albert M.G., 16, who was brutally attacked by  Nazis in Manresa (Catalonia) weeks ago, tells how he pretended to be dead and even visualized how bad he must look when he did. He has clear that the Nazi gang wanted to kill him (··> SA[cat]). 

Security guards brutally beat communist youths in Valencia, when these were looking for places to put their general strike propaganda posters. When municipal police intervened the agents justified the guards' violence saying that the logical thing would have been to shoot them down, go figure! (··> SA[es]).

This is the situation: fascist death squads are every day more common and the next victim could be you or someone you love. 

Natural gas accident at North Sea looking very dangerous

I did not even realize until today that an abandoned gas platform owned by TOTAL had suffered a major accident and is releasing massive and dangerous amounts of methane to the sea and atmosphere near Norway and Scotland. 

Worst is that the operation to stop the leak may well be of the dimension of what happened with the Blackwater Horizon in the USA. The only thing not that bad is that, methane being a gas, it will not directly pollute as much as oil and needs no dispersants. 

The very bad thing is that it is a very flammable gas and if sufficient amounts are released it could well ignite accidentally, creating a huge burst. Hypothetically a sufficiently large methane bubble could be catastrophic, and some have argued it to be a cause of mass extinctions in the past (however this kind of leak is surely too small). 

But The Guardian discusses today that an explosion would be cause of major pollution and damage for the local sea life. Also the methane is not pure but is mixed with hydrogen sulphide which is very poisonous:

Martin Preston, marine pollution specialist and honorary research fellow at the University of Liverpool, said that from an environmental standpoint, both greenhouse gas emissions and local fish deaths were a concern. "The methane release represents a very significant explosion hazard, and of course methane is a potent greenhouse gas. The gas in this field is 'sour gas' – ie it contains hydrogen sulphide which is very poisonous to humans and aquatic life – so localised risks to marine life are likely. The hydrogen sulphide content of the current release is unclear at present. Localised fish kills cannot be ruled out."

My biggest concern is indeed that it may get complicated to fix the leak and there is serious risk of massive deflagration, which would kill workers and aggravate the problem. 

That's what the Mail Online argues today, remembering the Piper Alpha catastrophe of 1988, which killed 167. More than 200 workers have been evacuated already. 

The options considered are the same as for the Deepwater Horizon catastrophe near Louisiana two years ago: sealing the leak with a concrete-mud mix (so-called dynamic killing) or drilling a relief well nearby and extracting the gas that way. TOTAL pretends to believe that the leak may well die off on its own but sounds like wishful thinking and stock-market damage minimization strategies in my humble opinion.

It looks like yet another serious problem ahead.

Police controls and threats to citizens in Bilbao main green zone

The city of Bilbao does not have much space nor have many parks but something it does have is mountains. Notably the Pagasarri mountain is a major leisure area in spite of the relative hardiness of its access and is frequented by citizens in weekends and weekdays alike. 

But since a new highway was opened near it the Spanish military police corps Guardia Civil, which has nothing else to do but have not been made redundant in spite of the budgetary cuts, have got the custom of going to the mountain to bother citizens, including families with young children, asking for their identifications and even interrogating them about their private life.

This attitude can only be intended to create a climate of terror among the citizenry and to hush us away from our only accessible and sizable green area.

Some days this city feels like a prison. 

Ref.: Gara[es].

10 lies on the end of armed struggle in the Basque Country

The excellent critical political blog Borroka garaia da! (It's time of struggle!) has today a quite interesting read (in Spanish language) on how all the lies and wishful thoughts issued on the, once-hypothetical and now quite real, end of the armed struggle by ETA were and are all false. My own version (rather than a literal translation):

1. Without ETA's armed struggle there would be no more pretexts for the state: pretexts are that: pretexts and therefore are not the real causes. The state keeps denying the Basque-Spanish conflict or making any effort to solve it constructively.
2. Without ETA's armed struggle all Basque nationalists would rally together: the reality is in fact largely the opposite, with the Basque Nationalist Party each time more and more leaning towards unionist positions.
3. Without ETA's armed struggle everything would be possible (meaning self-determination, independence and what not): not in your wildest dreams, much less in reality.
4. Without ETA's armed struggle repression would cease: in fact it has increased in many aspects and, in any case, no meaningful decrease, never mind a total cessation, of political repression has happened at all.
5. Without ETA's armed struggle the main obstacle for popular struggle would vanish: no significant increase of popular struggle can be reported. In fact demobilization can become an issue in the mid-run.
6. Without ETA's armed struggle the internationalism in Spain and France towards the Basque struggle for freedom would increase: on the contrary: it seems that the rule is that if they look weak, hit them harder. Spanish and French "class" organizations are also obviously puppets of their national bourgeoisies.
7. Without ETA's armed struggle the economy of the Basque Country would improve: it's worsening fast and never ETA's activity seem to have damaged the real economy in the past either. 
8. Without ETA's armed struggle the political debate would come to the forefront: actually all political parties are immersed in some sort of via crucis, demanding repentance and what not. I'd add that, as lack of democratic institutions and media are so consolidated, the "political debate" is totally one-sided and Spanish unionists just repeat their clichés like parrots in a public TV that nobody watches anymore.
9. Without ETA's armed struggle the reaction would not have a pretext: same as in point 2: pretexts are just pretexts. In fact they seem to feel ratified in their previous intolerance, fundamentalism and right-wing extremism.
10. Without ETA's armed struggle there would be peace: what peace. You need two to dance tango, peace with the Spanish occupation forces still all around? Peace with all the exception laws and ad-hoc measures still all around? Peace when you can be arbitrarily arrested at any time just because?

The conflict has not ended: all wounds remain open and bleeding. You don't heal any conflict that way: you just perpetuate it. 

'There's no democracy in Greece anymore' (video)

Short video of some this weekend's lockdown of Athens:

Athens on lockdown from Ross Domoney on Vimeo.

Found at Occupied London - From the Greek Streets.

'Gulf Dolphins exposed to oil are severely ill' (NYT)

Dolphins in Barataria Bay off Louisiana, which was hit hard by the BP oil spill in 2010, are seriously ill, and their ailments are probably related to toxic substances in the petroleum, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration suggested on Friday.

As part of a continuing assessment of damages caused by the three-month spill, which began with an explosion aboard the Deepwater Horizon rig in the Gulf of Mexico, NOAA scientists performed comprehensive physicals last summer on 32 dolphins from the bay. They found problems like drastically low weight, low blood sugar and, in some cases, cancer of the liver and lungs.

... full story at New York Times (found via FOSL). 

'After lengthy analysis, scientists say BP oil spill the culprit for heavy toll on corals' (Washington Post)

NEW ORLEANS — After months of laboratory work, scientists say they can definitively finger oil from BP’s blown-out well as the culprit for the slow death of a once brightly colored deep-sea coral community in the Gulf of Mexico that is now brown and dull. 

In a study published Monday, scientists say meticulous chemical analysis of samples taken in late 2010 proves that oil from BP PLC’s out-of-control Macondo well devastated corals living about 7 miles southwest of the well. The coral community is located over an area roughly the size of half a football field nearly a mile below the Gulf’s surface.

... full story at Washington Post (found via FOSL)

'Vt. consultant Gundersen: Tokyo soil would be nuclear waste in US' (The Republic/AP)

MONTPELIER, Vt. — A Vermont-based consultant on nuclear issues say soil samples he took in Tokyo about a year after the Fukushima nuclear disaster would qualify as nuclear waste in the United States.

Arnie Gundersen, chief engineer with Burlington-based Fairewinds Associates, says he traveled to Tokyo recently, took soil samples from parks, playgrounds and rooftop gardens around the city and brought them back to be tested in a U.S. lab.

Arnie Gundersen, chief engineer with Burlington-based Fairewinds Associates, says he traveled to Tokyo recently, took soil samples from parks, playgrounds and rooftop gardens around the city and brought them back to be tested in a U.S. lab.

He says they showed levels of radioactivity would qualify them as nuclear waste in the U.S.

Gundersen says the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and U.S. nuclear industry don't consider the costs of mass evacuations and radioactive contamination in their cost benefit analysis used to license nuclear power plants.

... from The Republic, found via EneNews.

Inquisition jails 18 citizens of Laudio for protesting the illegalization of the ruling party

Laudio

Laudio (also known as Llodio in Spanish) is a small industrial town between Bilbao and Vitoria-Gazteiz. It has been always governed by Basque Nationalist options for as long as free elections were in place.

Upon the stubborn illegalization of the Basque Nationalist Left by the occupant power (Spain) some citizens performed a protest in the town hall which has nothing of peculiar nor violent, specially if we listen to what the police witnesses said.

However, even if the state attorney wanted to charge just misdemeanors, the 18 Basque citizens were brought to the Spanish political tribunal Audiencia Nacional (alias New Inquisition) with charges of terrorism. The accusation, a bunch of Spanish fascists from the ruling PP party, asked for 76 years.

That's what many Spaniards understand as justice: if you're Basque and proud, then rot in jail.

In the end the Inquisition has in fact condemned 16 of the accused to two months in jail for crime against the institutions of the State, wile two others got a whole year in prison for aggression. Individual sentences for injuries and threats were also issued on the same unlikely grounds.

Police agents and private bodyguards all attested that there was no violence nor threats, just a peaceful protest. But the PP councilors lied and the tribunal (against the law, which considers a police agent's testimony to be higher in fact) considers the testimony of these political opportunists to be more qualified.

That's what they call justice up there in Spain.

Source: Gara[es].

Tasio Erkizia's jail sentence confirmed in the Supreme Court

Tasio Erkizia

Tasio is maybe the most veteran Basque nationalist political leader alive. He was jailed for paying homage to José Miguel Beñaran Ordeñana (Argala), guerrilla militant (he was crucial to the execution of Carrero Blanco, Franco's right hand) but also victim of state terrorism, victim of a bomb planted by Spanish military spies in collaboration with French and Italian fascist terrorists.  

For crying Gora Argala! (Long Live Argala!) in Arrigorriaga now Tasio is in jail because the Spanish courts consider this to equate to support of terrorism, exactly as if he would have cried Gora ETA!

Source: Gara[es].

Navarre loses €500 million with its savings bank

That amounts to 77% of the real value of the Caja de Ahorros de Navarra (CAN, Savings Bank of Navarre), which was estimated in €658 million in 2010, a 3.6% of the Navarrese GDP that same year.

It was in 2010 when the CAN, owned by the chartered kingdom and the City of Pamplona, was fused with a random array of Spanish savings banks from Castile, Andalusia and Canary Islands forming the short-lived Banca Cívica. And it was in that fusion that its value was estimated to be €658 million euros. 

Yesterday all Banca Cívica was acquired, almost overnight, by the all-powerful Caixabank (formerly the savings bank of Catalonia, La Caixa). As result of all the agreed transferences, Navarre and Pamplona will only have 1.4% of the stocks of Caixabank, amounting to a mere €150 million.

The loss is scandalous, specially considering that the CAN has not lost anything apparent in the meantime. It has just been a scam to the Navarrese people. 

Isidre Fainé* is the new capo di capi

With this acquisition Caixabank becomes the largest bank of Spain, outranking Banco Santander and BBVA, which were the leaders until now. Caixabank is controlled by La Caixa, which previous to this acquisition had more than 80% of the stock of Caixabank. La Caixa is a semi-private semi-public corporation with a complex organization (private investors, charities and foundations, municipalities and a small worker representation) but effectively lead by the Catalan bourgeoisie as a private corporation.

Caixabank in turn holds 12% of Repsol YPF (major oil company), 5% of Telefónica (major telecommunications company) and controls Gas Natural Fenosa, which I had to denounce years ago for their criminal policies in Guatemala.

Main source: Gara[es].

_____________________________________________

*Fainé i Casas was speculated to be the misspelt Isintro phenomena casket (sic) who participated in the Bilderberg meeting 2009 in Athens.

Palestine: diplomats and demonstrators attacked by Zionist forces (and other stories of resistance and persistence) - Anarchists Against the Wall

A Child is Injured in Nabi Saleh, Diplomats Teargassed with Demonstrators and the IDF Threatens a Village with Curfew

26/03/2012

Kfur a-Dik

Activists arrived in the village on Friday and were met by members of the local Popular Committee. They were informed of the news that the army had threatened the village with a curfew for a week and that the labourers working in the near by Ariel Industrial Estate would be fired were they to go ahead with a demonstration this week. We will post further news as and when we receive it and continue to support the village in their struggle against the occupation

Kfur Kaddum

Some 300 residents of Kufr Qaddum gathered Friday noon in the village centre for the weekly demonstration against Israeli land grabs, joined by several dozens of Israeli and international activists. Amongst the demonstrators were also a member of the PA's legislative council and diplomats from South Africa and Portugal who came to witness the army's treatment of the demonstration, following last week's incident in which soldiers unleashed an attack dog at protesters.

(...)

South African diplomats evacuated after Zionist gassing

Nabi Saleh 

Women took the lead in the demonstration and sat down peacefully. According to activists in Nabi Saleh, the Border police were completely confused and didn't know what too do. Also in the village the demonstration was met with the usual barrage of tear gas, skunk machine and rubber bullets. A young boy was injured by a rubber bullet who was shot in the face from about 20m away following the violent dispersal of the weekly demonstration against the occupation. He was taken to hospital in Ramallah where he stayed over night under observation and for stitches.

Under military order 101, all forms of political demonstrations in the West Bank are deemed illegal by the Israeli authorities, and are routinely attacked and violently dispersed. 

14 y.o. boy hit with a rubber bullet shot at short distance

al Ma'asara

Local demonstrators joined by Israeli and international activists marched through the village to the main entrances only to be faced with a heavy military presence.

 (...)

Biliin

Over 30 internationals and 15 Israelis joined the local Palestinian demo in Bil'in against Zionist oppression. In accordance with the recent trend the demo included a relatively small amount of gas, a few rubber bullets, and quite a bit of barbed wire cutting.

(...)

Pruning the thorns of Apartheid

 Full report at Anarchists Against the Wall.

The people throws class war against militarism in Greece's national day

In spite of the massive deployment of police to defend the military parades, the people of the troubled Balcanic country has not felt intimidated by the illegitimate IMF government show of force and went out to clash with the police and force the military buffoonery into a halt.

Crete has been so far one of the most active areas and this case was not different: the military parade through the capital Heraklion had to be canceled. An anti-memorandum demo was held in its place. 

Images from Crete TV:

In Patras the parade was held only thanks to massive use of tear gas and police violence. As soon as it ended, the cops were forced to retreat. 

Source: Occupied London - From the Greek Streets.

Probably there is much more going on. I just do not know yet.

Update: Contra Info reports of police raid in the Autonomous Hangout (occupied social center?) Baruti, in the town of Veria (Macedonia), confiscating everything they could find (furniture, books, posters). 26 or 29 people were arrested and charged with "insulting authority" and "posession of weapons" (not reported anywhere to exist at all, maybe a pocket knife?). At least 400 police agents took over Veria today.

Many rally in Galicia for the general strike

The general strike of this Thursday 29 was first called by the Basque and Galician national (separatist) unions. The servile Spanish twin unions UGT-CC.OO. were expressly excluded from the call because they are considered subservient to the regime, specially since they have signed once and again brutal labor rights destruction pacts. 

However, some time later, they decided to call a strike that same day. But actually they are not the ones really calling for the strike but rather trying to pretend that they still have any control at all of the working class in the state of Spain. 

A mere farce. 

However the strike is likely to be a massive success because people, unionized or not, is generally most angry. 

These days one of the two original strike-calling blocs, the Galician labor union CIG (Galician Inter-Union Confederacy), has rallied its members in several towns.

Photo-gallery at La Haine.

Police violence in Spain: immigrant arrested healthy and exits tetraplejic and the cops claim he injured himself

It happened in Guadalajara, Castile/Spain, March 2012.

Mohamed Elashli (pictured) was arrested for not carrying his ID card (it was undergoing paperwork). After six days not knowing anything, his friends reached out to the police station and asked about Elashli: they are hushed out with claims that he was sent back to Morocco.

Later that week they got a call from hospital: Mohamed Elashli was in coma: police brought him to hospital, less than three hours after the arrest, and he entered coma soon after. 

Later he recovered from the coma but has been left tetraplegic.

Now police claims that he injured himself by running against a wall. What?!

Source: Kaos en la Red[es] (link 1, link 2).

Protests continue in Pamplona

This evening young people form the Pamplona district have held an open assembly at Gaztelu Plaza, then marching to the City Hall and the offices of the ruling PP party, heir of Spanish fascism. All in protest for the eviction tonight of the camp established yesterday, in demand to the right to education and against the extremist scrapping of hard-fought-for labor rights.

Source: Ateak Ireki[eu].

Thousands rally in Washington against fundamentalism in the USA

If something we know about the most powerful country of Earth, the USA, is that it ranks only second in fundamentalism and pointless mentions to God every day in the G20, right after Saudi Arabia.

But behold, atheism and generic agnosticism are growing in the land where even money has the name of God printed on it and where every hotel room has a bible or two.

As result some ten thousands of them attended a rally for secularism and strict separation of state and religion in the capital, Washington D.C. It was named the Reason Rally. 

To be honest I'm not really fond of the name: while reason is no doubt important it's also cold and you need some passion to fight against a force that is mostly emotional and irrational: the fantasy of Yaveh (alias God, alias Allah...)

You need something like the Cult of Reason... or maybe the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster... 

But whatever. The case is that a lot of people, also in the USA is demonstrating against the manipulation of public opinion through appeals to an imaginary authority. 

And that is good.

Next: Saudi Arabia... I hope.

Mali: the most idiotic coup ever

Touré was a popular president

As you know there was a coup in Mali a few weeks before elections and after a long period of stable formal democracy. 

Overnight and totally unexpected there was a coup lead by some unknown captain. Political program? Not a line. Complaints? One: they have not enough weapons (allegedly to crush the endemic Tuareg rebellion, going on for some 50 years). But can you rule a country from the mere viewpoint of the "needs" of military officers? That's absurd. 

I've been waiting trying to discern if there was something else going on. But found nothing. The Mali military coup is just a bunch of disgruntled petty military officers without anything that looks like a political program or any known social backing (most people could not care less about the Tuareg uprising out there in the Sahara desert: they may care about salaries, jobs or human rights but hardly about what happens out there in the dunes of the far north).

So I officially proclaim the military coup in Mali the stupidest coup ever.

They are bound to fail, I understand: the time of militarist petty tyrannies is over.


Update: Global Research argues that the USA is behind the coup:

Captain Amadou Haya Sanogo participated in the America’s International Military Education and Training program, sponsored by the US State Department, Public Affairs representative Patrick Barnes revealed to The Washington Post.  

...


Despite condemning the coup, the US is not planning to reconsider its $140-million aid program to Mali in 2012.

Camp at Gaztelu Plaza evicted by Spanish police at night

At 6 am, Spanish National Police evicted the people who were camping at Gaztelu Plaza in Pamplona. Cries calling to the general strike of next Thursday could be heard in the darkness:

Source: SA[es].

Spring 2012 begins? Citizens take over Gaztelu Enparantza in Pamplona

Dozens of young people have camped in Gaztelu Enparantza (Castle Square) in Pamplona (Navarre, Basque Country) against employment instability and budgetary cuts.

It is related to the student strike on Thursday 22nd and the upcoming general strike of next Thursday 29th.

Of course municipal police is already causing trouble:

Sources[eu]: Ateak Ireki, Twitter: #Martxokoiraultza, Agoitz Gorria.

Spanish governor forbids homage to antifascist fighters

The conservative Basque Nationalist Party was illegal in 1969 when two of its members died fighting against the Fascist regime of Franco. This is enough for the current Delegate of the Spanish Government in the (Western) Basque Country, Carmen Alba, to ban a planned homage to Jokin Artajo and Alberto Asurmendi, members of this party, who died when the bomb they were preparing exploded, killing both. 

No wonder, after all those elements are the direct heirs of Franco and his minions. And they know it. 

Source: Sare Antifaxista[es].

Bahraini repression continues killing civilians

Bahrain Center for Human Rights reports today that, under the fascist Khalifa regime:

• Tear gas or lethal gas: 32 killed by US-made gas munitions
• Bahraini minister banned ambulances from reaching the victims of repression
• UN calls for probe into Bahraini violent repression

Antisemitic (Anti-Arab) attempted pogrom in Jerusalem

According to Jews sans frontieres, citing Haaretz, hundreds of Zionist hooligans (supporters of Beitar Jerusalem team) attacked cleaners at a shopping center (Malha) in what was described as a mass-lyncing attempt. The security guards could do little to stop them, and the multitude of racist hooligans took the hall of the mall chanting racist slogans. 

Police took 40 minutes to arrive. It is unclear if anyone was injured. 

In spite of CCTV footage nobody has been arrested. Police says that is because no complaint was filled. 

I say it is because of institutional racism of the Apartheid Regime in Palestine (aka Israel).

Warsaw: Elba squat attacekd by mercenary thugs (Contra Info)

Elba squat was raided on March 16th, 2012, by henchmen of a private security company who received assistance from the Polish police. The project was established in 2004. The Finnish company Stora Enso (the owner of the premises) has been well aware of Elba’s existence and activity and, after protests two years ago, the presence of the squatters in the area was accepted. No user of the building was notified of a scheduled date of eviction, so the incursion came as a total surprise for the people living in the squat, which is the biggest and oldest active social and cultural centre in Warsaw.

Shortly after 11am, guards hired by the ‘Skrzecz’ security agency broke into the building. They didn’t present an eviction warrant and used violence against squatters in order to force them to leave the property. The squatters resisted, and one person barricaded himself in his room and at least six others occupied the roof of the building. They issued an urgent call for help and support. Soon, police units arrived at the place. The fact that the attempted eviction was illegal was ignored by the police, who instead started to block the solidarity demo.

... full story and videos at Contra Info.

'Strike brings Portuguese services to a halt' (Al Jazeera)

A 24-hour union strike against austerity measures has brought public services to a stand-still in Portugal.

Thursday's strike, the second in four months, is in protest against the broad cost-cutting measures agreed to by the government of President Aníbal Cavaco Silva in return for an international bailout of the recession-hit economy.

"The participation rate is strong in the public transport sector, among garbage collectors and the health sector,"  Armenio Carlos, secretary general of the Confederation of Portuguese Workers (CGTP), the group organising the strike, told reporters on Thursday.

The union is opposed to government austerity measures such as the elimination of public employees' Christmas and vacation bonuses - each roughly equivalent to a month's pay - in an effort to rein in the public deficit.

Public transportation in the capital, Lisbon, and Oporto - Portugal's second-largest city - were closed, forcing tens of thousands of commuters to find an alternative way to get to work or school. The majority of ports, including those in Lisbon and Viana do Castelo in the north, were also closed.

... full story and video at Al Jazeera.

Message from within the largest concentration camp in history: "Gaza is Dying" (from Jews sans frontieres)

Since June, 2007 Israel has adopted a continuous series of measures harming the civilian population. In September,2007 Gaza was declared "an enemy entity," and imports were restricted to 9 basic materials. Prohibited have been such items as certain medicines, furniture, electrical appliances, cows and cigarettes, and decreased amounts of such basic foods as fruits, milk and dairy products. Fuel and electricity supplies have also been cut. Gaza used to depend 100% on Israel for its fuels and close to 60% for its electricity. Gazans, however, resorted to digging tunnels on the Egyptian borders with Palestine in order to get fuel, medicine and other necessities. The Mubarak regime took every possible step to tighten the siege and destroy the tunnels. The ousting of Mubarak should have meant the end of the deadly siege imposed on Gaza. This has not happened yet, one year after the great Egyptian revolution! The Rafah crossing is still “partially” open; supply of fuel through tunnels has completely stopped, and the electricity ration is only for 6 hours a day! Hospital generators have stopped!

Israel has turned the Gaza Strip into the largest concentration camp with the largest population of prisoners in the world. The international conspiracy of silence towards the slow genocide taking place against the 1.5 million civilians in Gaza indicates complicity in these war crimes.

According to UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights: "everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of himself and of his family, including food, clothing, housing and medical care and necessary social services, and the right to security in the event of unemployment, sickness, disability, widowhood, old age, or other lack of livelihood in circumstances beyond his control.

We, therefore, call upon the international community to demand that the rogue State of Israel end its siege and compensate for the destruction of life and infrastructure that it has visited upon the Palestinian people. We also call upon all Palestine solidarity groups and all international civil society organizations to demand:

• An end to the siege that has been imposed on the Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip.
• The protection of civilian lives and property, as stipulated in International Humanitarian Law and International Human Rights Law such as The Fourth Geneva Convention (to which Israel itself is a signatory.)
• Immediate opening of the Rafah Crossing (24/7) and the flow of goods, fuel and medicine.
• That Palestinian refugees in the Gaza Strip be provided with financial and material support to cope with the immense hardship that they are experiencing
• An end to occupation, Apartheid and other war crimes.
• Immediate reparations and compensation for all destruction carried out by the Israeli Occupation Forces in the Gaza Strip.

Besieged Gaza, Occupied Palestine

One Democratic State Group
Palestinian Students’ Campaign for the Academic Boycott of Israel
University Teachers’ Association in Palestine
Israel Apartheid Week Organizing Committee-Gaza

From Jews sans frontieres.

 __________________

The Final Solution is happening in Gaza and Palestine before our eyes and most are still trying to appease the new Hitler (= the Zionist leadership). Shame on us!

Student strike heats the ambient for the general strike next week - two arrested

Students in Pamplona took out to the streets today[eu] in a strike in defense of public education, performing a sit-in before the Education Department. 

Yesterday they occupied a high school[es] and performed road cuts[eu]. 

Two people were arrested at some point (unsure of the details right now) sparking protests also before a police station today.

Police evicted occupants at Eunate H.S. yesterday

Sit-in before the Education Department today

Sit-in before police station in solidarity with the arrested (today also)

All images and info from Ateak Ireki (specific links in-text).

Update: 

Gara[es] reports that the arrests happened in the popular neighborhood of Txantrea, which has a long history of class struggle and self-organization. They are not either clear on the details: it may well be that there was some clash between police and the students, who might have thrown over some trash containers or something.

Serbian fascist mafia members arrested in Valencia

Those who are old enough to remember the wars of the Balcans have surely heard of the infamous fascist mafioso and terrorist Arkan, as well as his death squad, known as Arkan's Tigers, which spread terror among Bosnians and Kosovars. While Arkan was killed in 2000, his organization outlived him and became a major mafia again, known as Zemun Clan.

Now Sare Antifaxista reports[es] that some of its members have been arrested in Valencia: Luka Bojović (boss), Vladimir Mijanović "Zuba" (liutenant) and Siniša Petrić "Zenica"(hitman).

They rejected food and water for days for fear of being given the truth drug. Remnants of one of their victims (an alleged traitor of their own gang) were found in the Manzanares river, Madrid. parts of him had been eaten by the other members.

Tamil Nadu: Many arrested in protests against nuclear power plant

The nuclear power plant is being built in Kudankulam (Tirunelveli, Tamil Nadu, India) and, if the government has its way, it will be at full power in six months. 

Ironically, in the aftermath of Fukushima, the state government declared that people has nothing to fear from the nuclear facility.  As many as six reactors (the same number as in Fukushima) are expected to be built in the facility. 

Fishermen, farmers and other workers concentrated at St. Lourdes (sic) church in protest were rounded by the police (about 100 arrested).  Meanwhile subsidies to charities and even to the Catholic Church, accused of backing the anti-nuclear movement, were frozen in a clear act of institutional blackmail. 

A German living in the area and apparently unrelated to the protests was deported, a Fukushima resident heading to give a conference was denied entrance.

Sources: Energy News, Reuters, The Bellingham Herald.

From the Net: 'Two victims pass away because of tear gas in less than 24 hours' (Bahrain Center for Human Rights)

Jaffar Jassem Radhi, 41 years old, died 17 March 2012 after severe deterioration of his health as a result of excessive tear gas that was shot directly at his house in the previous night 16 March 2012. His brother stated to BCHR that the deceased was healthy and not suffering from any health issues, until his house was targeted by tear gas which led to suffocation of the victim followed by his death.

Family members of martyr Sabri Mahfoodh Yousif, 27 years old from Shahrakan, confirmed to BCHR his death on 19 March 2012 as a result of toxic gas asphyxiation. Sabri was subjected to torture during period of the State of National Safety(Emergency law period) and had also suffered from an illness after being hit by a grenade in his chest.

Thousands participated in the mourning rallies of the two men, unsurprisingly, mourners were attacked by security forces using tear gas leading to suffocation and a number of injuries.

... full story at Bahrain Center for Human Rights.

Rif revolt continues and show signs of independentism

Riffian banners, Riffian protests

Cuarto Poder[es] reported yesterday that the Riffian national banner has been sighted in the protests against the totalitarian Moroccan regime that erupted earlier this month. The ensign was official in the Rif Republic of the 1920s, when famous Berber leader Abd el-Krim held against the joint imperialist forces of Spain and France for many years. 

Because it seems that in spite of repression, the uprising is extending, village after village, through all the country. IDOM compares it to the harira, the traditional soup, which simmers in a low fire. The Riffian uprising has begun indeed. 

The rebels chant "down with Houlal VI" in reference to the Moroccan monarch, who gets compared with the idol Houlal, destroyed by Mohammed some thirteen centuries ago in Mecca.  This kind of direct confrontation with the figure of the monarchy, indeed sacralized to the point of idolatry, is very rare to see in Morocco. 

But Morocco is a state that breaks apart in its many troubles: even before the "Arab Spring" began, Morocco was already being shattered by revolts in occupied West Sahara and the southern town of Sidi Ifni. The contact with Europe is here even greater than its neighbors, Algeria and Tunisia, and that means that unavoidably the centuries-old mosque-blessed certainties of the Alaouite dynasty are being decodified. Just like any other traditional reality: it is the destructive law of Capitalism: appropriate, use and discard. 

The police forces that attack the protesters in vain are being described as 'occupation forces', just as they are here in the Basque Country. Whatever the Moroccan correspondent of IDOM says, the seed of Riffian independentism is clearly there in such a language and such anti-Alaouite determination. 

Berbers after all are not happy by how the Arabized majority treat them and their millenarian culture. However the demands of the Riffian revolt are also of the kind of jobs for the unemployed: nothing more, nothing less.

Besides the epicenter of the uprising, Bni Bouayach, which has been declared in state of siege and sealed from the outside world, large protests have also been reported in Imzouren, Boukadine and Nador, and outside the Rif region proper, in Oujda and Tangiers also. 

The ample Riffian diaspora has also organized solidarity protests in Madrid, Paris, Brussels and La Hague.

Turkey kills one person in repression of Kurdish protests

Demo at Ankara

The Newroz or Kurdish New Year (Spring equinox) began early this time and began hot. Protesters have taken over many cities, including North Kurdish capital of Amed (Diyarbakır) and the major Turkish cities of Istanbul  and Ankara (where Kurds are a most important minority).

Turkish response has been brutal, with one person already killed and more than 100 arrested.

New Year celebrations

The mortal victim is Haci Zengin, who was shot by police with a tear gas canister in Kazlıçeşme (Istanbul).

The protests have been called by both the legal BDP and the illegal PKK in demand for autonomy for Northern Kurdistan, which has no political nor cultural rights whatsoever and makes up one of the poorest and most marginalized parts of the centralist and ultra-nationalist Turkish state.

Sources: Ekurd, Reuters, Euronews (video).