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).

Lone gunman of Toulouse probably a fascist: all victims belong to minorities [Update: an Islamist fascist in the end]

It has finally surfaced, after the attack against the Jewish school in Toulouse, that all three previous victims of the motorcycle gunman of Toulouse belonged to ethnic minorities. 

Previously it was only known, at least to me, that they were military personnel, what made the xenophobic motivation of a Le Pen or Sarkozy supporter less apparent. So today, as I read on the massacre in the Ozar Hatorah religious school, I even speculated with a lone Islamist criminal (who may hold generic resentment against Jews for the Zionist colonial imposition), but after reading the small print today at Euronews, which clearly said: 

All the troops were from ethnic minority backgrounds.

... I immediately realized that the murderer must be a racist.

The killer had already murdered in the past days three soldiers and injured a fourth one, and now also a Jewish religion teacher and three children (aged 3, 6 and 10), two of them sons of the educator, while seriously injuring yet another person.

The attacker used always the same modus operandi, attacking in cold blood with a pistol (the same one in all three attacks until it got jammed, when he began using a second weapon) and running away in a motorcycle. 

While I can't be sure, I would imagine that he is a member or former member of the armed forces, not only because accessing weapons is difficult in the French state but also because his first victims were all troopers. 

References: Euronews, Gara[es].


Update:

It seems that my logic was right and three Nazi officers are being investigated already. The officers were briefly (in)famous in 2008 when they published a photo of themselves with the Nazi ensign and performing the Roman (Fascist) salutation with the extended arm.

All three correspond with the profile of the murderer: a tattooed and very strong man dressed all in black.

Refs.: Le Point[fr], Público[es].


Update (March 20):

The attacker may be a follower of the butcher of Utoya, A. Breivik, because he apparently carries a camera to document his crimes, as allegedly Breivik advised to do (or so claims Al Jazeera - first time I heard that).

However while Breivik was openly Christian-Zionist and resented European fascist antisemitism as useless and counter-producing, this terrorist is obviously antisemitic. So the comparison stops there.


Update (Mar 21): 

A young man aged 24 is in the end apparently the murderer. Against expectations, he is an Islamic Fundamentalist (another type of fascist), identified as Mohamed Merah and who claims to be member of Al Qaeda. The gunman claims that he killed the soldiers in protest for French intervention in Afghanistan and the Jewish children to avenge the Palestinian victims of Israel.

As of now Merah has been surrounded by police in his apartment of Côte Pavée (a neighborhood of Toulouse), from where he has shot against the agents. An attempt to involve his mother in preventing further bloodshed failed as she declared to hold no influence on her son.

Merah is a French citizen of Algerian origins who had been indoctrinated, apparently, in Pakistani and Afghani infamous madrasas.

Japan bans foreign radiation dosimeters, Geiger counters

Fukushima Diary reports that radiation dosimeters not built in Japan have been banned to sell in the East Asian state. This includes repairs of already sold or gifted Geiger counters.

Iori Mochizuki also mentions that after last year's catastrophe, thousands of dosimeters were donated to Japan from outside, however as many as 40,000  are missing (the authorities dumped them probably). 

In a separate post, the same author mentions that some among the corrupt Japanese elite, (specifically the vice-governor of Tokyo, Mr. Inose) are considering restoring conscription (abolished after WWII) in order to send the Japanese youth to work in Fukushima forcibly instead of the seemingly costly subcontractors, which he compares with mercenaries. 

Of course, he has not volunteered himself to clean up the radioactive rubble, talk about shamelessness and hypocrisy!

A personal warning for the Japanese people: either you go out to the streets massively now and throw down the current regime of you will live in a totalitarian state worse than North Korea very soon. Why do I say that worse than North Korea? Because in that state so far there is no widespread radiation pollution being scattered around by corporate mafioso madmen, as happens in Japan.

Punk-rock band 'Ardor de estómago' brought to the Inquisition for saying the truth about the King of Spain

Ardor de Estómago (Heartburn) has been brought before the Spanish state's political tribunal Audiencia Nacional (aka New Inquisition, created by fascist dictator Franco under the name of  Public Order Court). The reason? Insults to the King.

This did not happen 25 years ago, mind you. Spain has been evolving more and more in the direction of absolute monarchies like Thailand or Morocco, in which no dissidence or disrespect to the icon of the monarch is tolerated (a clear sign of weakness incidentally).

But worse is that they are being accused for simply saying the truth: all the lyrics (except the chorus which is subjective and I'd say that sexist) just states the truth on the monarchy. Hence I'm translating the lyrics here for your interest:

(Note that it's full of references to the 1981 February 23rd coup and other dark issues of the monarch's past - see below for explanations). 

Who killed his own brother

with a hunting rifle**?

Who shot in strange circumstances?

Who was named successor

by a creepy dictator?

Who was the White Elephant*?

Who was Franco's friend?

Chorus:

The son of a bitch of King Juan Carlos

The son of a bitch of the King - Bastard!

(repeat)

Who has ships given as gifts

by the bankers and capitalists?

Who is above the Law

and pretends to be popular?

Who censors hazardous affairs?

Who is best buddy of mafiosi?

Who spoke badly of Adolfo Suárez*

in front of the generals?

Who made Tejero and Armada uprise*

then leaving them on their own?

Who showed up in television

as leader of the Transition?

Whose back is well protected

through state secrets?

Who has adulators stuck to him as limpets

following him everywhere?

(Chorus).

Notes:

* All these elements are references to the whitewashed role of the Bourbon monarch in the 23-F coup, which was intended to stop or weaken the democratic reform, specially the federalist trend, and which, in spite of the appearances succeeded in most aspects. It is generally accepted outside the mainstream quasi-official versions that the leader of the coup (which was not as straightforward as some believed) was the King (the White Elephant in the code of the conspirators) and that only the fact that Colonel Tejero, who was the most fascist and naive of all those implicated, resisted the second part of the maneuver, which implied that he was sent to Venezuela in a plane and a "national unity" government with social-democrats and communists was formed afterwards, actually damaged the plan.

** Juan Carlos Bourbon-Bourbon killed his brother (15) when he was barely 18 years old in a so-called accident. Some versions even pretend that the victim shot himself. Nobody who is not monarchic believes it was an accident but rather a personal and dynastic settlement.

Video with the song (lyrics in Spanish at YouTube):

Naturally, if, as they say we are all equal before the law, then the criticism of the King, as of any public figure should be automatically accepted as a matter of course. It was that way in the past. I do not remember any trial of any sort against, for example La Polla Record for their "I want to be King" (in which they called him lazy and hypocrite) and so many others. Yet since the turn of century freedom of speech is more and more difficult in the realm and more and more criticisms of the institutions are considered crimes, what, as I said before, can only be understood as a sign of weakness by institutions which have no legitimacy whatsoever.

Source: Sare Antifaxista[es].

Update: They have been sentenced to fines of €900 each (SA[es]).

Australian authorities want to import radioactive Fukushima soil

Why? Because they expect that way to attract Japanese investments (never mind that Japan as economic power is doomed: radioactive countries with low transparency can't export). 

Whatever the reasons, the move is the first one to actively export the Fukushima catastrophe outside Japan. Already the Japanese government has managed to lure with promises of money and demands of "solidarity" (solidarity through suicide?) many municipalities through Japan, even in Okinawa, rendering that way all the country contaminated with radiation. 

Now they aim to export that pollution and the first useful fool to eat the bait has been Australia. 

Source and more info at Ex-SKF.

From the Net: 'Women demand change to Moroccan rape law' (Euronews)

Women’s rights activists in Morocco have demonstrated outside the parliament building in Rabat, to demand a change in the law on underage rape.

It follows the suicide of a 16 year old girl, who was forced to marry the man she claimed had raped her.

Amina Filali’s mother said the girl found herself in an abusive relationship after being pressured into the marriage in a custom enshrined in law.

Fouzia Assouli from Morocco’s Democratic League for Human Rights said: “What we have witnessed is scandalous. We have had enough. We must change this law. We must change this penal code.”

... full story and video at Euronews.

From the Net: 'Protests in solidarity with Hana Shalabi and against the wall brutally suppressed across the West Bank'

Bilin

Upon the arrival to the Abu Lemon area participants raised Palestinian flags, posters of prisoner Hana Shalabi and slogans calling for national unity, the end of the occupation, destruction of the apartheid wall, and freedom for Palestinian prisoners. A few protesters entered between the barbed wire fence and the wall. Some were able to remove additional part of the barbed wire fence. Some young demonstrators threw rotten eggs at the soldiers. The soldiers reacted with a sound bomb, rubber bullets, tear gas canisters and the "skunk" machine.

...

Also at Kfur Qaddum, al Ma'sara, Nabi Saleh, Beit Ummar,Nil'in and Rafah: full story at Anarchists Against the Wall.

Blogger now redirects all blogs to state adresses and half the gadgets don't work

You may have noticed that all Blogger blogs you're visiting have now the local state address of the jurisdiction you are under, so if for example you're in Sweden, this blog should show up as:

forwhatwearetheywillbe.blogspot.com.se 

instead of the proper address which is

forwhatwearetheywillbe.blogspot.com

This is a big problem for links and stuff and it is already showing up in many gadgets that do not work properly anymore, for example the followers' window on the right or even something as simple as the quick edit button under each post because, even if I am the author, I can only watch my blog and you blog and every Blogger blog as:

<name>.blogspot.com.es 

and not anymore under the universal

<name>.blogspot.com

Besides of the technical issues, which I imagine that they will work out eventually, the fact of having an adress ending with the locator of the state that is invading my country doesn't please me at all. 

But most worrisome is why is Blogger changing this:

Q: Why is this happening?
A: We are doing this to provide more support for managing content locally. If we receive a removal request that violates local law, that content may no longer be available to readers on local domains where those laws apply. This update is in line with our approach to free expression and controversial content, which hasn’t changed.

In other words: bending to the possible censorship demands from the states.

I just discovered this tonight so I will have to sleep over it but I think this means that I will be migrating to Wordpress or some other resource. 

After an arbitrary, never explained total closure of my Google account not long ago, which was eventually solved by ringing up from a borrowed mobile phone (can't Google understand that I do not have a damn cell phone?) but with extremely bad robotic attention in any case, I became concerned about my dependency on a single source, Google, for much of my Internet life (mostly mail and blogging but that's a lot). 

It's always bad when you are too dependent on a single resource: that's why species go extinct and civilizations collapse: lack of diversity, lack of options. So when Google+ came I decided to stay away less that all my Google account could be scrapped overnight without any explanation. 

So right now I'm considering seriously a migration before I have to repent of my laziness. 

Anyhow, in the meanwhile, please take notice of this trick:

Q. Can users outside of the United States still access the service’s .com domains?
A. Yes, we allow anyone to view the .com version of a Blogger blog by typing: http://[blogname].blogspot.com/ncr – which always goes to the .com version of the blog. The “no country redirect” (ncr) will temporarily prevent Blogger from redirecting readers to the local version of the blog.

Whatever they say, you may want to do it as user as well, specially if you love your quick edit buttons.