Athens: Police Repression Against Workers
Paris: Cops Try to Kill 16 Year Old Student
Buenos Aires: Cops Attack Students, Forced to Retreat
Just when you think you cant hate cops much more, they go on a worldwide scandal spree! Nothing of this should come as much of a shock, as they are merely playing their role as armed guards of the state and the existing order. It is however in times, such as these, of increased conflict when the state is more often forced to remove the mask of peaceful democratic governability and clearly shows that its violence is not reserved only for the marginals and „extremists“ from which the good citizen is to be protected. Democratic government is indeed simply a more effective form of rule, but in the end, when the social fabric begins to show its ruptures, it is violence and violence alone on which this order rests. First, it was the „good people“ of Stuttgart who were confronted with this reality, in the form of hundreds of injuries, several broken bones, and one person possibly blinded for life, then…
Several hundred high schools were on strike and blockaded yesterday across France (and to differing degrees throughout the week). School blockades and demonstrations were met in many cities with police repression, resulting in clashes between students and cops in Yvelines, Paris, Lyon, Chartres, Chambery, Lens, and Nimes. Cops had already produced one scandal in Caen on Tuesday, shooting a demonstrator directly in the head with a tear gas canister. Yesterday, in Montreuil (Parisian suburb) they took it one step further, as one police officer carried out what can only be classified as attempted murder of a minor, by shooting him directly in the head with a „flash ball“ (basically a freaky looking, round shaped, rubber bullet). The police lies of course talked of students bombarding them with stones as they began shooting, but the video below clearly shows that, while barricades were being (half-heartedly) built nobody was throwing anything. The person who gets shot is the young man in the black/white adidas jacket. He is currently in critical condition, with several broken bones in his face, and faces the possibility of losing an eye.
Incident avec la police au lycée Jean-Jaurès à Montreuil
Hochgeladen von rue89. – Neueste Nachrichten Videos.
(Last minute France update: Cops were sent in this morning to forcefully break the blockades of several oil refineries. Fortunately, others have been blockaded today thanks to the joint actions of students and workers).
In Athens, only a few days after attacking a migrants solidarity rally, the dogs of the state were again in action, this time excercising a heavy repression against employees of the Ministry of Culture who were demanding two years of back pay as well as permanent contracts through a blockade of the Acropolis.
And finally to Argentina, so that we may end on a relatively positive note. The so called „popular and progressive“ government of Cristina Kirchner yesterday unleashed the full force of the state on university demonstrators who had occupied the Ministry of Education, unfortunately for them Argentine students know how to defend not only their political interests, but also their physical integrity. As the video below shows, towards the end, the cops are attacked from both sides and forced to retreat. The occupation was carried out by social science students after the Minister of Education denied them a meeting to discuss their 14 year old request for a new, and adequate, building in which to study. Despite the inital police repression, which left three cops injured and 11 arrested students, the building was held for over 10 hours, finally cleared after the Ministry committed to several million in funds. Despite this fact, the Ministry of Education is now pressing criminal charges against the students.
Similar, though much more massive and inspiring scenes took place in late 2008, when the University of Buenos Aires decided, again, that student participation wasnt all that important to them when choosing new management…
Nobody is interested in a movement of victims. The moral high ground is for priests and other preachers. Organization, self-defense, and mass militance are the answers to state repression and police violence, so that fear may finally change sides.
