USA: police or terrorist occupation forces?

This happened in Georgia (USA), just a few days ago, police equipped as soldiers and acting as the most brutal occupation forces I've seen outside Palestine, attack a peaceful antifascist demo:

You can read the whole story at Raw Story.

France: riots against retrograde labor reform

Barricade in Nantes (Público)

It seems that the psychological effect of engineered terror attacks is rapidly declining. People are already back to business and business in Europe means class war.

The retrograde French labor reform that aims to put an end to the 35 hours week and destroy employment guarantees, has been challenged in several cities, notably Paris, Rouen and Nantes, with large demos and riots.

Police has reacted violently, with at least 40 people arrested already and denounces of many incidents of brutality. Notably this case went viral (video):

In the first seconds of the Euronews video we can see a gendarme gratuitously punching an arrestee who could barely stand (after presumable previous beatings, not recorded).

Update: info in French from the popular side.

The Nazis have been let loose in Calais

While police looks elsewhere, far right armed commandos are terrorizing immigrants in Calais, reports The Independent. The new brown shirts kidnap immigrants, including children as young as 10, and beat them with the most brutal methods, causing life-threatening injuries. The reports have not been just documented from many different victims and witnesses but are also confirmed by NGOs like Médecins sans Frontiers and Médecins du Monde.

Police itself has also been accused of taking part in beatings of minors in at least two cases. The "socialist" government of Hollande and Valls, concerned only with implementing an eternal state of emergency, does not seem to care.

It's totally sick!

From islamic terror to state terror: France brutally smashes Climate March

The effects of the prolonged and probably to be permanent state of emergency in France are already becoming patent: the Climate March was crushed today by the French police with tear gas and batons, just because... there is no right to demonstrate anymore in the Republique. 

Hundreds of people were arrested. 

The result of capricious state over-reaction to the terror attacks is that France is now heading to become a Islamic State of its own kind. Maybe not Islamic but similarly fascist in any case.

→ Russia Today.

If someone still doubts the Basque Country is occupied...

... that one only has to look at what happened yesterday in Altsasu (Navarre).

Every year the Sovereign People of Altsasu attempts to celebrate a fiesta-protest known as "Ospa Eguna" (Go Away Day), demanding the evacuation of the Spanish Military Police (Guardia Civil) from the town and valley, and more in general from the whole Basque Country, because they are disruptive, abusive and unwanted occupation forces.

And every year the occupation forces try to demonstrate they are the ones in command and not the People. That's what I call a dictatorship.

This year it was painfully obvious:

The "logic" for the military aggression was that "we don't like it". Not even using and abusing the law and the judicial system, just absolute arbitrariness from those who know that they won't be ever challenged in their own legal and political system. 

Yes, Franco won the war and his ghost is still very much alive.

Very large protests across the USA against racist killer cops

Once again the inhumane brutality of the bourgeoisie's thugs, alias police agents (yes, those are the real thugs, not a bunch of people raging because of systematic murder and abuse by the authorities), manages to trigger the just rage of many many thousands across the streets of the cities of the supposedly most powerful state on Earth, totally unable to control its own racist cops.

On Twitter:
→ #BaltimoreUprising
→ #NewYorkCity2Baltimore
→ #BlackLivesMatter
→ #FreddyGray
→ etc.

Protests shatter USA on acquittal of Ferguson cop

Almost every day a black person is killed by police in the USA. Never mind the thousands who are arrested and convicted on minor crimes such as possession of marihuana to feed the slavery system of the private prisons. Ferguson is just the tip of the iceberg of a colonial racist system in an extremely undemocratic context.

No wonder that an uproar has surged in the streets of the cities across the Imperial Core.

→ https://twitter.com/hashtag/Ferguson?src=hash

Los Angeles march took over major highway

This uproar is good and necessary and does not only answers to circumstances. However for things to get straight there needs to be a Socialist focus that tackles the problem of oligarchic rule and lack of democracy. Only People's Power can address the very urgent needs of Humankind in the USA or anywhere else. 

The objective conditions for Revolution are here, and not just in the USA, however the subjective ones are not. People is angry with very good reason but they do not seem to know yet how to tackle the prevalent injustice, how to defeat the bourgeois oligarchy and establish a Real Democracy.

Without conscience we are powerless. With class conscience we can change it all. 

Update:

The situation across the USA seems to have been developing towards increased protests all across the territory as well as towards increased violence, particularly from police forces, which had no qualm about gassing around everyone or even shooting at them with rubber bullets and possibly even live ammo (unconfirmed).  

Twitter reports from Ferguson tell of police commanding the press to leave the city at once and also of heavy automatic gunfire. This kind of violence is not only found in the suburb of St. Louis but also in many other cities. 

LA cop shooting against demonstrators with a drum-fed grenade launcher (source)

Tortures reported in political trial against Basque youths

The five youths arrested in Loiola are part of a much larger group of 28 being tried for their political activism and ideology at the Spanish Inquisition (Audiencia Nacional) these days in Madrid. 

The trial began yesterday with the victims of political persecution turning their backs to the court in signal of non-recognition and showing banners in demand of repatriation of Basque prisoners. 

After an hour and a half of suspension the farce trial continued at close doors with the declarations of the victims of persecution, most of whom have denounced tortures that forced them to sign self-inculpatory declarations. 

Ander Maeztu reported systematic beatings and the so-called "bag" torture (asphyxia by putting a bag on your head). Garazi Autor denounced sexual agressions and beatings. 

Izaskun Goñi, who knew for two years before her arrest that she was being under persecution, reported the anguish suffered for all that time expecting that any night (it's almost always by night) police entered her home and arrested her, beginning the much feared "long journey". When it finally happened she suffered a panic attack. 

Among the "evidence" against her is her participation in a protest against the murder of baker Anger Berrueta by a policeman in Pamplona in 2004. 

Ohiana López and Eneko Villegas reported systematic beatings and forced physical exercise up to extenuation. They say that their declarations are totally false. 

Ibon Esteban and Egoi Irisarri also denounced tortures. Esteban managed to identify one of his torturers and showed a photo of this vile man to the court. Irisarri declared that in Canillas [police station] I went through hell.

The only one not reporting tortures this first day of the trial was Endika Pérez, who was arrested by French police in the Northern Basque Country, soon after taking part in a sit-in in Izpura precisely to denounce the possibility of being arrested and deported to Spain. 

Second day of the hearing

The day began with the court sending to prison the five citizens arrested in Loiola, claiming risk of evasion, action that was opposed by the defense on the grounds that they were all the time localized and never attempted such evasion. 

Then the narrations of torture sessions continued:

Imanol Beristain reported being subjected to forced postures, beatings and kickings, sexual aggressions. He reported to have lost consciousness because of the pain, waking up drenched in sweat. 

Rubén Villa declared that he began to be tortured already in the Bilbao police station. He was told, sarcastically, that he could relax, that they would not pull out his fingernails nor bury him in quicklime (as happened to two ETA members decades ago, after being captured by the Spanish police). Then they dragged him to a window, pulling half his body out and said: this is the last time you will breathe the air of Bilbao. The forensic doctor did not even pay attention to his complains. 

Xabat Moran explained: they manage to make your head crack... your body is still yours but your head they own it. I did not control my own actions. 

Moran denounced forced postures, beating, "the bag" (asphyxiation) and insinuations that they were raping his girlfriend in the nearby room. Just an hour before being sent to the instruction judge he was naked and in state of shock in the very room he had been tortured, being that the reason he signed a false declaration. 

Ainara Ladrón reported "hell" in the journey to Madrid: they beat me, they hit me with their fists on my ribs, they pushed me against the window and yelled at me all the time. She also denounced sexual aggressions in the police station, rejecting what she signed then, even if this declaration was not self-inculpatory. She has requested to skip the bulk of the trial sessions on the grounds of being pregnant, request that has been granted.

Ikoitz Arrese, Saioa Zubiaur and Xabier Bidaurre also reported tortures in the incommunicado period of their arrest. Arrese denounced a fake execution, with a policeman placing a gun on her head. Among other tortures, Bidaurre reported that he was threatened with the rape of his companion.

The farce trial continues today. 

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

Racist state terror in the USA

Impressive report on the state terror against the population of Ferguson (suburb of St. Louis, Missouri, USA), who protest precisely against police terrorism. From Webguerrillero:

Living under occupation in Ferguson

Webguerrillero | agosto 15, 2014

Nicole Colson reports on the uprising against police murder in a Missouri city–and the response of political and law enforcement authorities to double down on violence.

Police train machine guns on a crowd of protesters in Ferguson, Mo.
SINCE 18-year-old Michael Brown was shot and killed by an unidentified police officer in Ferguson, Mo., on August 9, the majority Black city just outside of St. Louis has been rocked by protests against the racism of a system that sees the lives of young Black men as disposable.

The response of authorities has been to flood the town with hundreds of police from dozens of neighboring cities and towns, decked out in riot gear, and armed with assault weapons, attack dogs and militarized vehicles for “crowd control.”Protesters say “keeping the peace” is the last thing on these cops’ minds–the invaders are acting in a deliberately provocative and aggressive manner, leading to an escalation of violence over several more nights of protest.
In the early morning hours of Wednesday, police shot and critically wounded another young man in Ferguson, not long after that night’s protests dispersed. Police say they were called to the area by reports of men wearing ski masks and wielding shotguns, but when they arrived at the scene, the unnamed victim flashed a handgun–”forcing” them to shoot.

But most people in Ferguson–and millions more like them around the country–can’t help but be skeptical about any police claims at this point.

- – - – - – - – - – - – - – - -

LOOKING MORE like an occupying army than anything else, the massive police presence in Ferguson is responsible for the tensions and violence in Ferguson, having inflicted violent repression on protesters for four days and nights, including tear gas and rubber and wooden bullets.
Steve Walsh was an innocent bystander. On Tuesday, He was walking to the home of his two-month-old son and the child’s mother when he got caught up in a police attack on protesters. Walsh told the Guardian that he was struck in the neck by a “wooden pellet” which left “a bloody, coin-sized wound behind his left ear,” the article stated. Walsh told the reporter “I almost fainted. Blood just started coming out.”

According to the Washington Post, the clashes come “like clockwork–when the sun goes down each night, those remaining on Ferguson’s dark streets are met by heavily armored police, prompting confrontations and injuries.”

Pictures of Ferguson on Wednesday night showed a huge cloud of smoke or gas over part of the city. Another showed what was reportedly some kind of an incendiary device used by police as it exploded in the street, throwing off a massive shower of sparks.
One writer at Jezebel described the I Am Mike Brown livestream playing on the KARG Argus Radio website:

Viewers watched as police fired rubber bullets into crowds of unarmed citizens. We watched as police advanced on a group of peaceful demonstrators. I Am Mike Brown livestream reported police were demanding that they turn off their cameras. “Because they don’t want witnesses,” the reporter said.

And no wonder. While law enforcement tries to paint protesters as violent thugs, CNN cameras caught one white cop on camera taunting demonstrators: “Bring it!” he yelled, “All you fucking animals–bring it!”

Amid the violence of police, many protesters respond with a symbolic action that is a poignant echo of how Michael Brown died: with hands raised in the air, telling police, “Hands up. Don’t shoot.” Other protesters march with signs that draw a parallel to the assertion of basic humanity during the civil rights struggle only a few hours south of Ferguson in Memphis, Tenn.: “I am a man,” “I am a woman.”

- – - – - – - – - – - – - – - -

IN A statement, Ferguson police “requested” that those wishing to hold vigils or protests “do so only during daylight hours in an organized and respectful manner. We further ask all those wishing to demonstrate or assemble to disperse well before the evening hours to ensure the safety of the participants and the safety of our community.”

But for police to lecture the residents of Ferguson–or anyone else–about “safety” after they gunned down an unarmed teenager and treated protesters like animals is the height of hypocrisy. The cops in Ferguson and the governmental authorities who issue their orders don’t deserve anyone’s “respect,” as their actions this past week have shown again and again.

Police still won’t release the name of the officer who shot Michael Brown, because of the “threats” he might face. But they’ve been more than happy to share with the media the names and mug shots of those arrested in the past week for supposed looting.

It’s an illustration of the racism that lies at the heart of the eruption of anger in Ferguson: A young unarmed Black man has his life stolen by a white police officer whose identity is protected–while Blacks alleged to have committed nonviolent crimes like burglary have their names dragged through the mud on the evening news.

Despite the violence of police, protesters have called out this double standard, night after night. Like Jammell Spann, a young demonstrator who yelled out at police clearing a protest, “All of my friends have been killed. I’m sick of it!”

On Thursday morning, it was reported that St. Louis Alderman Antonio French–who has been critical of Ferguson police and a presence at the protests, where he has been videotaping the police for the past several days–had been arrested. There was no word on the circumstances of that arrest as this article was being written, but it was no doubt retaliation for his criticism of the police.

The cops’ fear of independent voices like French’s is understandable–they have been going out of their way to make sure their preferred story is the only one coming out of Ferguson. As The Wire’s Arit John wrote: “In the last few days reporters have said they were barred from entering the city. Reporters who have made it in have been tear gassed and threatened by police officers, alongside the residents of Ferguson.”

Adding to the clampdown on reporting is the fact that the Federal Aviation Administration declared a “no-fly” zone for low-flying aircraft over the area on August 12, after a police helicopter was reportedly shot at–meaning that news helicopters are unable to gather aerial footage of confrontations between police and protesters.

- – - – - – - – - – - – - – - -

IN SOME cases, journalists have been turned away from press conferences, and on Twitter, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Trymaine Lee–who is Black–reported on August 12: “I’ve been told to disperse and go to my residence.”

The next day, when Washington Post reporter Wes Lowery and Huffington Post reporter Ryan Reilly questioned the pushy tactics of police and engaged in the constitutionally protected act of videotaping cops, they were immediately arrested.

The two were working from inside a local McDonald’s that reporters have been using as a hub. Police, some in riot gear, came in and demanded to see ID. According to Lowery:

Moments later, the police reemerged, telling us that we had to leave. I pulled my phone out and began recording video.

An officer with a large weapon came up to me and said, “Stop recording.”

I said, “Officer, do I not have the right to record you?”

He backed off but told me to hurry up. So I gathered my notebook and pens with one hand while recording him with the other hand.

As I exited, I saw Ryan to my left, having a similar argument with two officers. I recorded him, too, and that angered the officer.

Apparently not exiting the restaurant fast enough for the cops, a confused Lowery was arrested–and so was Reilly:

Multiple officers grabbed me. I tried to turn my back to them to assist them in arresting me. I dropped the things from my hands.

“My hands are behind my back,” I said. “I’m not resisting. I’m not resisting.” At which point one officer said: “You’re resisting. Stop resisting.”

That was when I was most afraid–more afraid than of the tear gas and rubber bullets.

“They essentially acted as a military force,” Reilly later told MSNBC’s Chris Hayes. “It was incredible. The worst part was he slammed my head against the glass purposefully on the way out of McDonald’s, and then sarcastically apologized for it.”

The reporters were told they were under arrest for trespassing in a McDonald’s–but the officers refused to give them their names or badge numbers. Once word got around to police officials that two reporters had been arrested, they were quickly released.
Residents of Ferguson, however, don’t know when they’ll be released from the police occupation they now live under.

“It’s like the elephant in the room,” Yusra, a resident of East St. Louis, told The Daily Beast’s Justin Glawe. “We are being occupied.”

She added: “They say it’s the death of three men that started a chain reaction of death and destruction in Gaza. Will we as a people rise up like the people of Gaza? Will our community be bombed like last night with tear gas? That was a terrorist attack.”

- – - – - – - – - – - – - – - -

BUT TO hear St. Louis County Police Chief Jon Belmar tell it, the police have acted as a model of restraint.

“To maintain that restraint, it is, frankly, remarkable,” Belmar said of his officers after several nights of protests, according to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

The police say they won’t release the name of the officer who shot Michael Brown out of “fears for his safety.” They’ve had no comment about Dorian Johnson’s claim that officers refused to take his statement. According to Freeman Bosley, Johnson’s lawyer and the former mayor of St. Louis, Bosley contacted the police to offer an interview with his client–the person standing closest to Michael Brown when he was shot.

“They didn’t even want to talk to him,” Bosley told MSNBC. “[The police] don’t want the facts. What they want is to justify what happened…What they are trying to do now is justify what happened instead of trying to point out the wrong. Something is wrong here, and that’s what it is.”
Dorian Johnson told MSNBC that he understands the outrage that protesters in Ferguson feel toward police:

There are two crowds. An older crowd that wants justice, but there’s anger. Then it’s the younger crowd that wants revenge, but there’s anger there, too. What do you expect when something is steadily occurring and it’s hurting the community and nobody is speaking out or doing anything about it. I feel their anger, I feel their disgust.

But according to Ferguson City Police Chief Thomas Jackson, the “trouble” in Ferguson is being caused by “outside agitators.” On Fox News’ Hannity show, Jackson said:

It’s a lot of outside agitators that are causing the violence. We’ve had several very peaceful protests–they’re angry, they have questions they want answers to. I understand that. I get that. But the community has now stepped up once this violence happened. Our community leaders, the clergy, some of the activists, have stepped forward and said, “Enough is enough.”

That tactic–pitting “good” protesters against “bad” ones, and blaming violence and property destruction on “outside agitators”–is a tried-and-true method of police and the state. During the civil rights movement, complaints about “outside agitators” and “mobs bent on violence” were part of an attempt to divide and conquer, as Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor explained in a SocialistWorker.org article about the urban rebellions of the 1960s:

[T]he rebellions are seen as the dysfunctional cousin to the peaceful and nonviolent Southern civil rights movement. Thus, while the civil rights movement is universally lauded as successful because of its strategic emphasis on nonviolence, the riots are universally condemned because of the violence inherent in them. Moreover, they are also blamed for alienating white allies and supporters, and are widely viewed as the origins of white “backlash politics.”

A New York Times editorial, written only a few weeks after the riots in Detroit in 1967, captured this argument: “The riots, rather than developing a clamor for great social progress to wipe out poverty, to a large extent have had the reverse effect and have increased the crises for use of police force and criminal law.”
Yet that perspective didn’t appear to correspond with a number of polls taken 10 days later that showed massive support for the expansion of social programs aimed at mitigating the material deprivation that many connected with the spreading violence.
In a poll of both African Americans and whites, strong majorities supported anti-poverty programs. As a Washington Post headline summarized, “Races agree on ghetto abolition and the need for a WPA [the federal Works Projects Administration]-style program.” Some 69 percent of Americans supported federal efforts to create a jobs program, and 65 percent believed in tearing down ghettos. Another 60 percent supported a federal program to eliminate rats, and 57 percent supported summer camp programs for Black youth.

- – - – - – - – - – - – - – - -

THAT FERGUSON was a powder keg of anger waiting to explode isn’t the fault of “outside agitators,” nor of its majority African American population. It is the fault of the racist system–and, in particular, the sentries of that system, the police–responsible for the killing of Michael Brown.

Ferguson is a community where the stamp of racism and inequality is imprinted on every aspect of life–from jobs to housing to racial profiling. It was once known in the area as a haven for Blacks who sought to escape poverty and violence in St. Louis, and who were prevented from living in more affluent neighborhoods as a result of redlining and other discriminatory housing practices. But as Blacks moved into Ferguson, whites fled, a New York Times editorial reports:

In 1980, the town was 85 percent white and 14 percent black; by 2010, it was 29 percent white and 69 percent Black. But Blacks did not gain political power as their numbers grew. The mayor and the police chief are white, as are five of the six City Council members. The school board consists of six white members and one Hispanic. As [University of Iowa professor Colin] Gordon explains, many Black residents, lacking the wealth to buy property, move from apartment to apartment…

The disparity is most evident in the Ferguson Police Department, of which only three of 53 officers are Black. The largely white force stops Black residents far out of proportion to their population, according to statistics kept by the state attorney general. Blacks account for 86 percent of the traffic stops in the city, and 93 percent of the arrests after those stops.

Ferguson residents have spoken powerfully in ways that put a human face on these statistics. As Michael Brown’s mother Leslie McSpadden told CNN’s Don Lemon in between sobs, “Just because my son is a 6’4″ male Black walking down the city street does not meet he meets the profile for anything other than just walking down the street.”

Michael Brown Sr. said in the same interview, “My son don’t have justice, and we don’t have no peace. If he has no justice, we won’t get no peace.”

That’s why the smear that the people of Ferguson have engaged in unrestrained “looting” and “rioting” since the death of Michael Brown is so despicable.

The biggest property damage was done to a QuikTrip convenience store that was set on fire and then tagged with anti-police graffiti. As it turned out, the crowd likely turned its anger on the store when word spread that someone at the store made the call to police reporting an alleged case of shoplifting, which was reportedly the pretext for the officer to stop Michael Brown in the first place. Other targets of protesters include a Walmart and check-cashing store–that is, symbols of poverty and exploitation in an impoverished neighborhood.

- – - – - – - – - – - – - – - -

PERHAPS REALIZING that the heavy-handed response from cops has only inflamed the situation, Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon announced on Thursday that he was going to pull St. Louis County police out of Ferguson–reportedly assuring clergy and community members that there will be “operational shifts” and “you all will see a different tone.”

It would be hard for the police and politicians to do any worse than they already have in infuriating the people of Ferguson. But however “different” the tone of police enforcement is, the angry tone of the protest won’t change. It is a bitter reaction to the injustice at the heart of not only Michael Brown’s death, but the death of John Crawford, a 22-year-old Black man shot and killed by police in a Beavercreek, Ohio, Walmartbecause he was carrying a toy gun; of the death of Ezell Ford, a 25-year-old Black man shot and killed by police as he lay on the sidewalk in South Los Angeles, complying with their orders; of the death of Eric Garner, a 43-year-old Black man choked to death by police on a Staten Island sidewalk in New York; of the death of Dante Parker, a 36-year-old Black man Tasered to death by police in Victorville, Calif.

These are just some of the most recent examples of Black lives stolen by police murder. And beyond the killings, untold numbers of people–men and women–have their lives upended by an injustice system that is racist to its core.

And what has been the response of America’s first Black president to this epidemic of Black lives stolen? Almost total silence.

The president expressed his condolences over the killing of Michael Brown, calling it “heartbreaking.” But as tear gas and rubber bullets were being fired at protesters and riot police roamed the streets of Ferguson on Wednesday night, White House Deputy Press Secretary Eric Schultz tweeted from Martha’s Vineyard, where the president is currently vacationing: “Readout of tonight’s social gathering coming shortly–spoiler alert: a good time was had by all.”

Obama’s failure to offer any substantial political initiative on the urgent question of fighting racism is because he is dedicated to maintaining the system that produces it.

Instead, we should be looking to the example of those fighting racism and fighting to win justice for Michael Brown–and all the other “Michael Browns” across this country whose names we don’t yet know.
Like those at the historically Black Howard University where, on Wednesday night, during a meeting about freshman move-in, students felt compelled to respond to Michael Brown’s death and the protests in Ferguson. In solidarity, hundreds gathered for a powerful picture–hands raised, faces defiant.


____________________________________


Also: arrests in New York protests in solidarity with Missouri (video). 

Gaza genocidal brutality spills over to the USA: HS agent shoots anti-Zionist protesters

From the Electronic Intifada:

An officer with the Department of Homeland Security opened fire on Palestine solidarity activists as they drove away from a pro-Israel rally in front of the Federal Building in Westwood in Los Angeles on Sunday. The activists have also complained that they were attacked by Israel supporters.

The Electronic Intifada’s Ali Abunimah was attacked by Los Angeles police in the same area while filming a pro-Israel rally last week.  

After being shot at, the men were detained by the Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department and then smeared by various media outlets as violent members of Hamas.

... more at EI.

Turkey: protests grow after mine disaster

Rigging the local elections was of no use for the Islamist regime of Erdogan: protests continue and even grow every other week.

This year's May Day had an obvious global epicenter at Istanbul and other Turkish cities, with major clashes, which have by now become almost routine in every single demonstration, as the dictatorship does not tolerate any form of protest. 

The recent mining catastrophe of Soma, that killed almost 500 workers, has become yet another rally point for all those demanding a regime change in the Eurasian state. The worker unions KESK and DISK have been organizing all sort of rallies and strikes, which have regularly resulted in clashes with a police determined not to allow a single space for protest but obviously not powerful enough to control a citizenry that is up to the eyebrows. 

It's not an accident, it's murder! chanted the many thousands who marched by Istanbul this Thursday. Similar demos took place in Izmir and Ankara. 

Meanwhile the regime continues its struggle for popularity by personally beating citizens (as did one of Erdogan's ministers this week) or reciting idiotic and unacceptable discourses like the one by Erdogan himself who claimed that such a major catastrophe is "something normal" and "inevitable".

He could have well said: slaves' lives are for their masters' profit and would sound exactly the same. 

In the mine of Soma, where 6500 workers labored, there was just a single and very small refuge (5 m², the size of my kitchen), which was useless to save the lives of the miners. 

But I'll tell you what Erdogan is thinking: security measures are expensive, workers' lives are not. 

80 miners die on average each year in accidents through the Turkish state.

Sources: Webguerrillero[es], RT.

Clashes in Honduras after the dictatorship evicts opposition from fake Congress

At about 4:00 pm, the military police ordered by the de facto President J.O. Hernández (who "won" clearly rigged elections) evicted the representatives of Libre, the main democratic party of Honduras, from Congress using all kind of violence (beatings and even tear gas). 

At least three deputies were seriously injured and had to be hospitalized.

The last legitimate President Manuel Zelaya stated: "they are beasts those who rule Honduras, they only needed 100 days [after the fake elections] to show us their fangs". 

Around Congress clashes between demonstrators and the army continued all evening and night and the situation looks like escalating to revolutionary proportions. 

The punctual demand that triggered all this was that members of Libre are included in the new Constitutional Court and is not just a one sided tool for the "libertarian" (totalitarian) putschists. 

Source: LINyM[es].

Italy: widespread clashes in Rome as police charges against anti-austerity demo

Rome burned in anger today as police charged against a massive demonstration against the dictatorship of the bourgeoisie (aka: "cuts"). 

What began as a huge peaceful protest ended in urban guerrilla after police charged indiscriminately, allegedly after being provoked (but you cannot trust the official versions nor the mainstream media parrots, can you?) 

There is at least one severely injured person: a 50 years old man who suffers the traumatic amputation of several fingers, apparently caused by the explosion of a firecracker he was about to throw.

Update: more than 80 people reported injured in the clashes.

Police used tear gas against the protesters in Via Veneto, where the Ministry of Labor is, pushing them to Piazza Berberini and Via del Tritone, where clashes continued for hours. Fight was also reported in Via XX Settembre, where the Ministry of Economy is.

Sources: Webguerrillero[es] (incl. more photos), Russia Today (also more photos and a video).

Brazil: violent eviction of massive squat

Some 5,000 citizens were brutally evicted by police forces in Río de Janeiro from a former industrial building they had collectively appropriated last month out of dire need and organization. 

At least 25 people have been arrested and there are no figures of injured. 

The initial police attack was successfully countered by the squatters and thousands of people arrived from elsewhere in solidarity, extending the struggle to the nearby streets. Finally the infamously brutal Special Operations Battalion (BOPE) decisively intervened in favor of the bourgeois owner, telecom company Oi. 

Source: Webguerrillero[es].

In Brussels also police attacks the right to demonstrate

A peaceful demonstration of the quasi-official and rather sheepish European Confederation of Worker Unions (ETUC) in Brussels, protesting against the so called "austerity" (for the working class only), was gratuitously attacked by police with water cannons. Activists defended themselves against this instance of state terrorism in any case.

This illustrates how fascism, that is: the suppression of the most basic rights such as the right to demonstrate, is taking over all Europe, from Ukraine to Spain and from Turkey to Belgium.

This is coincident (and not by mere coincidence but because of intentional planning) with the increase in aggressiveness of openly fascist violent squads, which work as mercenaries for the bourgeois elites, trying to instill terror among those who dare to resist one way or another. 

Any day we will wake up in a death camp and wonder how could it all go so wrong. The answer is simple: 

First they came for the communists, and I did not speak out—
because I was not a communist;
Then they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out—
because I was not a socialist;
Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out—
because I was not a trade unionist;
Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out—
because I was not a Jew;
Then they came for me—
and there was no one left to speak out for me.

Martin Niemöller

Spain: Madrid mobilizations and police repression move to university: 50 arrested

Yesterday there was another popular assembly in Puerta del Sol surrounded by aggressive riot police forces. Eventually they decided to call another assembly for today at 18:00. Some of the members joined the occupation of university grounds by students on strike.

The student strike at the Universidad Autónoma was violently repressed by police forces, who entered at request of the rector, just as happened under Fascism. 

Police occupation of the university (SoliObrera)

At least 50 people have been arrested.

Occupation of the faculties have been called for tonight in solidarity with the victims of police repression.  Tomorrow a festive march ("pasacampus") has been called as well.



Recap: 

1. Police attacked first in order to divert media attention to clashes they provoked

How to make a 2+ million demo into a public order issue where you can criminalize the masses? The reactionary Spanish government decided to send the dogs in just before the news hour. There were no provocations other than some people trying to set camp, although there was indeed self-defense with whatever was at hand. 

By controlling all the mass media via their bourgeois mafia, the government has managed to turn the tables on: they don't almost mention the millions marching and all the support necessary (half the country?) but the "violence". They don't invite march leaders to the media but police agents and reactionary journalists trained to bark in favor of their master. Not a single network escapes this trap, what implies that there is no media democracy in Spain de facto and you need to resort to Internet in order to grasp some of the truth.

2. They are using "Venezuelan" defamation tactics

Just as it became notorious in the Venezuelan fascist "revolt of the posh", where images of repression from around the world were relabeled as if they were happening in Venezuela (Basque victim of Spanish torture became "Venezuelan", Tahrir repression by Mubarak's police became "Venezuelan", etc.), the Spanish authorities are resorting to falsification of information in order to defame and criminalize the masses. 

To the right one such example: a cold case of a weapon hidden in a crutch has now been presented by police as "evidence" of the "hidden weapons" that demonstrators on March  22 carried in their fantasy alt world. 

3. Scapegoating

The case of the latest political prisoner is a clear one of frame-up: Miguel has been sent to prison for allegedly taking part in the incidents of Atocha but he was actually arrested 2 km away in Recoletos, where he was probably among those trying to set up camp.

There is no evidence beyond police declarations. In the Spanish inquisitorial "justice" system, these may be enough (depending on the credibility the judge gives them) but it is well known that police lies almost systematically and the previous example is one of those. 

Freedom for Miguel

4. Tortures

Those arrested were treated worse than animals and subject to practices that can only be considered torture. They were kept for eight hours standing against a wall with their arms up, deprived of water and not allowed to use the toilet, deprived of food for 24 hours, menstruating women were not allowed to change their tampons in the almost two days of their arrest. 

Sources[es]: La Haine (link 1, link 2, link 3), @Acmp.Diginidad.Madrid, @SolidaridadObrera





Evening update: 53 students arrested, protests continue

The last info on the arrested students is that they are 53. The Vice-Rector had the whole building locked and with many activist students locked inside. They could eventually open a door but police had already arrived (on the Rector's request) and rounded up some 25 inside and the rest while they attempted to find refuge elsewhere in the campus.

Much of the focus of the Madrid protests has therefore been derived to the Universidad Autónoma, where road blockades and occupations continue, now also demanding the resignation of the Rector.

The daily assembly at Sol continues but they have by the moment desisted from setting up camp and are also focusing on the students' struggle.

Sources[es]: La Haine, Acamp.Dignidad.Madrid (Twitter). 

 

Almost 3 million people take Madrid demanding Dignity in spite of media silence and brutal police repression

The Marches for Dignity, which began weeks ago all around the state of Spain, after a call from the Andalusian Left, seconded by many other groups (unions, parties, social movements), have resulted in some 2.5 million people taking the capital of the realm this Saturday. That is about half the population of the city and about 7% of the total population walking out of their homes and marching into the capital.

Obviously all who are there are, but not all who are are there. So the actual figure of sympathizers can well be five or ten times greater. In other words: almost all Spain is very angry and demand immediate change. 

What did the protesters demand? Simple:

• Not to pay the public debt (mostly imposed to save the banksters)
  
• No more cuts (to public budget nor salaries)
• Out with the government and the Troika
• Food, jobs and housing for all

The full manifesto can be read in English HERE.

In any democratic country such a massive protest should cause the immediate fall of the government and snap elections. But democracy is more and more just a farce and Spain is not different in that but actually avant-guard in this devaluation and falsification of Democracy. 

Since 20:15 police began charging against the marchers near the conservative headquarters of Génova Street and those who attempted to set camp at various locations. They did not even allow for the final act to proceed. According to reports, those present faced them and set up barricades. They even forced the armed police forces to pull back several times just fighting back with whatever they had at had, such as pebbles from the fountain. 

The bourgeois media have reported 50 agents injured, what is rejected with outraged disbelief by the people who were there. What seems more certain is that from the popular side, some 29 citizens have been arrested and 33 injured by police weaponry, which they shot directly against the protesters, in clear breach of all legality. 

Clashes lasted until at least midnight, when protesters gradually pulled back. 

Sources and more info: 

• Webguerrillero[es]: massive demo, police charges against the protest before it even finishes, more on the clashes
• La Haine[es]: detailed chronological report, photos and audios of the southern column
• Marchas por la Dignidad[es/en/it]: police charges against the main meeting, generic info
• Bambuser: videos from the street
• Twitter: #22MTomaMadrid, #22MDignidad, #22mMarchasporlaDignidad, etc.

Update (Mar 23): some protests and meetings continue on Sunday

Hundreds met this morning at the Reina Sofía Theater in a popular assembly to decide what to do next. Some proposals included calling for a general strike but in the end a new protest was called in Puerta del Sol this evening (19:00), mostly to demand the immediate release of those arrested yesterday, and tomorrow at 10:00 in Plaza Castilla. 

They also called for rallies in all the government delegations across the territory of the state (19:00 also). 

The assembly was determined to proclaim the right to self-defense: "yesterday we exerted sefl-defense and we must say that proudly", what is a development in itself. 

The meeting was heavily watched by police forces, which tried to provoke the assistants to no avail. 

It was known that police had used tear gas CS (ATL-1) in the evening attacks, something that has no precedents in the Spanish capital (although it has been used in the periphery). 

Dozens also attempted to set camp near Recoletos train station but were violently evicted by police forces. 

Sources[es]: Webguerrillero, La Haine.

Spain: police brutality in Valladolid causes brain stroke to a woman

This is the result of the national convention of the ruling party in Spain, the ultra-reactionary heir of Fascism Partido Popular. There are other injured citizens, as well as many arrested, but Encarna Arias, 56, is the one in the worst situation, suffering from a brain stroke caused by police beatings. 

In the last day of the political act, a demonstration of unemployed people (almost 30% of the workforce is in such situation) marched by a restaurant where some neofascist delegates were eating. One of them insulted the protesters, stirring their verbal reaction. This was the moment when police first attacked, trying to arrest some of the demonstrators, what was actively prevented by the crowd, being then massively attacked by dozens of riots policemen, who beat and arrest them at whim. 

It was apparent that some of the demonstrators were being actively identified by the masked police agents, much as it happened in the infamous ideological cleansing time of the Civil War, when hundreds of thousands were identified as "reds" by their fascist neighbors, murdered and buried in some forgotten roadside. 

Among the victims of the police brutality were many people with discapacities.

Sources[es]: Ultimo Cero, Webguerrillero (incl. video).

This is just the tip of the iceberg of the clearly growing unrest in the failed state of Spain. In the last weeks alone there have been several riots, some of which have resulted in localized victories of the masses, with police having to run away in fear or controversial projects having to be stopped on concerns of international credibility. Interestingly many of the last conflicts have happened in the traditionally conservative areas of Castile, usually more loyal to the state (but not anymore it seems). 

The overall situation is hard to evaluate but I'd say that it's growingly chaotic if we add up the growing protests and riots, the active separatism in Catalonia especially and in general the popular desperation, mostly organized at grassroots level (the so-called "15M Movement"). To all this the regime has responded only with extremist unilateral measures which only benefit the big capitalists and their own extremist ideology (anti-abortion law), as well as with the reinforcement of police and establishment of internal military intervention plans (against Catalonia or against anyone else who dares to challenge the plutocrats),  leading more and more to a situation similar to that of Turkey. 

The scheduled local and general elections are still more than one year away and, barring surprises, they should lead to a coalition government of all the (very weakened) regime's parties (traditionally acting as opposition of each other but not anymore), as has already happened in Greece, Italy and Germany, where conservatives and "socialists" (liberals) have formed joint governments to protect the interests of the Big Capital.

Basque Country: the Inquisition against the Prisoners Solidarity Movement

Calling for the human tide in Bilbao

A demonstration was called for today in Bilbao. Drop on drop (tantaz tanta) a huge human tide was expected to coalesce today in this city for the rights of Basque prisoners, notably against dispersion.

However the Spanish Inquisition (Audiencia Nacional) has been working hard for it not to happen. 

Step 1: police raids against prisoners' interlocutors

Raid in Bilbao: Mikel Almandoz is arrested

To begin with, on Wednesday, the political tribunal created by Franco to protect the adepts and attack the dissidents, ordered the raid of the office of attorney Arantza Zuluaga in Bilbao, the one of Jon Enparantza in Hernani, as well as of several private homes through the country. Eight people were arrested: Jon Enparantza, Aintzane Orkolaga Aitziber Sagarminaga, Jose Campo, Egoitz López de Lacalle, Mikel Almandoz and Asier Aranguren. 

These are members of a larger group formed a year ago to promote dialogue between Basque political prisoners and the wider society, here and through the World. 

Step 2: violent repression of the protests

The victim of police brutality

The Western Basque autonomous government unleashed its police forces to brutally repress the solidarity with the arrested. 

In Bilbao the police forces under control of the bourgeois regionalists (EAJ-PNV) charged against the people concentrated in Elkano Street, beating a young man so badly that he lost consciousness. 

As usual, they arrested him after that and he was charged with arbitrary accusations (aggression, insults and resistance).

Step 3: prohibition of the human tide

Yesterday inquisitor Eloy Velasco, the same judge directing the rally against the prisoners' interlocutors, declared the demonstration illegal and ordered the various police forces to act accordingly. 

Step 4: the demonstration is recycled to include the bourgeois regionalists

I'm going... or maybe not

The organizers of the Tantaz Tanta human tide decided to obey the inquisitorial ruling in order to prevent the predictable police violence. EAJ-PNV's Interior Councilor J. Erkoreka had not declared publicly how police would behave in case the protest would go ahead but I'm guessing he probably made the message known in private somehow: repression would ensue. 

Instead the major political forces EH Bildu and EAJ-PNV (and their Navarrese sidekick Geroa Bai), along with the major worker unions LAB and ELA, decided to call a joint demonstration half an hour later with a very different slogan: Human Rights, Solution, Peace.

I must say that I'm not going to march along the same elements who implement Spanish inquisitorial repression in this country (EAJ-PNV). While the most read slogan all around is "Ni banoa!" (I'm going), I really do not feel like going at all.

Sources[eu/es]: Naiz Info (link 1, link 2, link 3, link 4, link 5, link 6, link 7), Berria (link 1, link 2), BDG!

Also: the first-person story of January 8th raids and police takeover of Basque-Brazilian R. Tsavvko can be read (in Portuguese) at his blog (with photos and video). He seems aware that he only got away, after yelling to military police to go away, because he has a foreign passport. It is in any case an interesting first hand report of the quotidian brutality of occupation and repression in this little country.

Spain: class riots in Burgos and Melilla

The rather conservative city of Burgos has been burning these days as the citizenry of the popular neighborhood of Gamonal rejected the bourgeois plans to build a new boulevard and underground parking, rift with arbitrariness and likely corruption.

Clashes between police and protesters extended for hours.

→ Webguerrillero[es].


Update: 17 arrested in Burgos → Naiz Info[es].

Update (Jan 12): more riots this morning in demand of the freedom of those arrested → Naiz Info[es].

Update (Jan 12): 23 people were arrested (11 of them minors) in this second night of fire in Burgos, 12 people are reported injured → Sare Antifaxista[es].

In the colonial enclave of Melilla (Rif, North Africa) several working class neighborhoods rioted (again) against brutal unemployment. 

Police charged with everything including massive amounts of tear gas, which entered the homes threatening the lives of children. 

Also there seems to have been an incident with live fire. Someone may have shot against police with a functional automatic gun. Although nobody was injured a bullet was found embedded in the shield of a riot police agent. 

→ Webguerrillero[es].