The new indefinite occupation is just 2 streets from Plaça Catalunya which was the main location where anti-government protests and sit ins began in May 2011 in Barcelona, mirroring the events in other Spanish cities, and an inspiration to the Occupy movement which snowballed worldwide..
Defying extreme police violence and the jailings by the politically controlled courts the massive demonstrations continue. The fast growing street camp blocks the main Gran Via street right outside the university. The occupation defies the Spanish authorities to order an eviction just days before yet another General Election on Nov 10th.
Hundreds of students have been camping since Wednesday in Plaça Universitat in the centre of Barcelona, protesting the Supreme Court’s verdicts and the repression of the independence movement, as well as calling for a “dignified future”, citing issues like the lack of social housing, full equality between men and women and the need for “real measures to stop the climate emergency”.
📣 Per la independència dels Països Catalans, vine i acampa!
— Acampada Plaça Universitat #Generació14O (@AcampadaUni) November 2, 2019
The students, calling themselves the Generation of the 14th October after
the day Spain’s Supreme Court announced its decision to send
pro-independence Catalan leaders to prison for up to 13 years on charges
including sedition, currently have no intention to leave the square. A
call they made on social media for help with provisions drew a large
response from the public.
Trump blames mass uprising in Chile on “foreign efforts”
1 November 2019
US President Donald Trump blamed the historic mass protests that have gripped Chile for the past two weeks on “foreign efforts”
Trump does not say which Johnny Foreigner he blames for the millions of Chileans protesting against inequality and governmental bloodshed. Does he blame Russia? Or China? Or Venezuela? Or Cuba? Or…
***The US has a huge unfair advantage..It can ”just print money”..that is.. go into unlimited debt because it controls the world money system. But it is run by Corporations and wastes these Trillions on the Military while millions in US struggle in poverty.. and then blames and ”sanctions” the rest of the world, condemning us to misery.***
The imposition of arbitrary measures or “sanctions” by the United States against numerous countries around the world was denounced by the Venezuelan delegation present at the XVIII Summit of Non-Aligned Countries, held in Baku, Azerbaijan.
The Venezuelan ambassador to the United Nations Organization, Samuel Moncada, denounced the economic terrorism executed by US President Donald Trump, which affects a third of humanity with more than 8,000 measures in 39 countries.
The measures constitute a “threat to the entire system of
international relations and is the greatest violation of human rights in
the world,” said the Venezuelan official.
For the diplomat and representative of the government of Caracas, the
social upheavals present in the Latin American region and the rest of
the world “are the clearest evidence of the extremist perversion imposed
by the power factors in Washington.”
Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces have been betrayed by the US,
giving the Turkish state a green light to carry out atrocities in
Northern Syria, writes Amber Huff and Patrick Huff
October 25, 2019 · shared from Red Pepper with thanks
Protests have been taking place around the world, including in London
Latest statistics: 400,000 people displaced, 420 SDF fighters killed and 1,419 wounded. 509 civilians have been killed, and 2,733 injured.
The military alliance between the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic
Forces (SDF) in Northeastern Syria and Washington was always one of
mutual desperation. The US needed to appear to have a credible Syrian
ground game in the eyes of its rivals. Kurds in Rojava needed US
airpower and other protections. There was never a political or
ideological alliance – only a tactical one.
The US betrayal of the SDF and Rojava has long seemed inevitable. It
would be yet another in a century-long series of betrayals of the Kurds
by imperial powers in the perennial struggle to control the Middle East.
But when it came in early October, Donald Trump’s order to withdraw US
forces from Northeast Syria came as a surprise. It comprised the
geopolitical equivalent of tossing an incendiary grenade into a lake of
petrol.
Now, after sacrificing more than 11,000 fighters in the struggle against ISIS, the SDF and the Kurds find themselves once again abandoned and betrayed by the US. Trump’s rash decision to let somebody else ‘figure the situation out’
was taken as a green light by Turkey’s autocratic president Recep
Tayyip Erdoğan to launch his long-anticipated invasion, occupation and
ethnic cleansing campaign in Rojava.
In his novel The Man in the High Castle, which depicts a
Nazi-dominated world, Philip K. Dick describes a dynamic where the
Reich, despite holding enormous power, makes itself progressively more
volatile and reactive. At one point in the book, a character observes
that “most high-placed Nazis are refusing to face facts vis-a-vis their
economic plight. By doing so, they accelerate the tendency toward
greater tour de force adventures, less predictability, less stability in
general. The cycle of manic enthusiasm, then fear, then Partei
solutions of a desperate type…all this tends to bring the most
irresponsible and reckless aspirants to the top.”
This satirical vision of Naziistic excess parallels the dynamic that’s now making the capitalist world collapse. The ruling elites, by refusing to address the plight of the global poor and ignoring the environmentally and economically unsustainable nature of capitalism, are making civilization ever more unstable.
As civil unrest spreads around the world in reaction to the decline of living standards, and as a recession looms that will be worse than the last, the political and business class throws crumbs to the suffering masses while seeking militarized solutions to the growing chaos. The neoliberal regimes in Ecuador and Chile aren’t going to yield to future protests much beyond the minor concessions they’ve made so far. They’ll respond to further uprisings by escalating their police repression, which in Chile’s case has already come to mirror the brutality of the Pinochet era.
Impressive strength of the Revolt, it’s a dream week. There is
exhaustion, many of us sleep very little because of the mixture of worry
and anxiety. But there is no doubt that we still have a lot of strength
to continue fighting.
Another day of protests where massivity was the tonic, continue the focus of clashes between rebels versus police and military. Anarchists and Antifascists on alert for posts on social media by members of ultra-right groups who call for their support to crush the mobilizations.
Riots outside a police station in the commune of Peñalolen, where
neighbors claim that police crucified detainees on the antennas of the
roof of the police compound. In the center of the city encapuchadxs
(hooded ones) attack the subway Baquedano, a place accused of being used
as a macabre torture center.
Drivers of the public transport company “SuBus”, on which lines 200
and 300 depend, paralyse their functions in solidarity with a colleague
shot in unclear circumstances.
There are also truck drivers, taxi drivers, collectives and car
owners. Demanding that the price of the road tolls be reduced, the call
is to travel very slowly on the motorways.
Bolsonaro’s friend and ultra-right presidential candidate Kast tries to take political advantage of a movement called “yellow vests”, a group of citizens who, full of paranoia, take care of their homes and patrol their neighborhoods, protecting themselves from imaginary enemies and looting (no house has been registered to date)
The truth is that they are functional people to the system who protect “their” supermarkets and criticize the use of violence. Fascist Kast calls for a march on Sunday. Political parties and parliamentarians “shield” the president of Chile from the demands of the people for his head, diverting anger towards the psychopathic interior minister Andrés Chadwick Piñera (cousin of the president) blaming him for the murders and demanding his resignation.
Congress approved the idea of legislating to reduce weekly working
hours to 40 hours. A week ago this idea was strongly resisted by the
government, the right wing and the businessmen.
Despite President Sebastian Pinera cabinet reshuffle Monday morning, Chileans angry at inequality called for more demonstrations this week in the biggest political crisis since the country's return to democracy in 1990. #ChileDespierta#CambioDeGabinetehttps://t.co/BJiaRyNKjV
There’s a problem in Catalonia. You don’t need to be a genius to notice. We won’t analyse its causes here, nor make a political statement in favour of either side.
There are different points of view within our organisation regarding the right to self-determination claimed by parts of the Catalan people. But if there is something that defines the history of CNT, within Catalonia and in the state, it must be that we always stand against repression.
The Spanish state has proved, once again, to be anything but democratic. No matter how often they intone the “democracy” mantra. Today, the sentence in the trial [of the politicians sent to jail for participating in the organisation of the referendum on independence of the 1st of October 2017] was finally made public.
It arrived after multiple and outrageous leaks [on the process] to the media, which flatly contradict the idea of the separation of powers. Now, let’s leave aside any personal affinity or animosity that could be felt towards Catalan politicians in general, and the imprisoned ones in particular.
We must realise that, in any case, as an organisation that defends direct action and social mobilisation, CNT is affected by this sentence. Because it’s been drafted in a way that any public demonstration, no matter how peaceful it may be, can be construed from now on as “sedition” [a crime akin to treason in Spanish law, carrying a sentence of up to 15 years in jail].
Anything from a union picket, a sit-in, a rally to stop the bailiffs from evicting a family…It is an outright assault on everybody’s basic rights. And let’s not be naïve: sooner or later, it will be used against us. That’s why we denounce this sentence and we stand together with large parts of Catalan society in rejecting it. Lately, we’ve seen some bizarre sentencing coming out the courts, such as the prison terms served on the Altsasua youngsters [that were condemned for allegedly having a fight with military police in plain clothes].
check out ‘La Mosca TV’ , autonomous squatters videos
We all stated our solidarity with them, as everybody understood that it was nothing more than attack on basic rights. Similarly, we denounced the raids and arrests in the “Piñata” and “Pandora” police operations, that saw several anarchists arrested. They were accused of being part of a terrorist network, sent to jail and held in solitary confinement [and finally released as no accusation could be substantiated]…
Many years ago, we lived through the “Scala” operation. We are fed up with the state using all its nasty tricks to suppress any initiative that may represent an alternative to its power. We are the people. We are your neighbours.
The Barcelona barricades are defended by the autonomous assembly-based CDR local groups of which there are now dozens in Catalunya
We have the right to make decisions on our future and on our lives. It is not a matter of flags or countries. It is about basic individual and collective rights. Not standing firm together with our neighbours when they are suffering state repression, when they are being held under anti-terror laws, would be mean and not libertarian at all. Keeping quiet when disproportionate sentences are being dished out would be implicitly siding with those in charge of repression.
We know that our struggle is in the streets, demanding justice and raising our voice. We can offer our experience and we must learn from those beside us. We have to share, be the people. We need to plant a seed of resistance and dignity.
The streets must be ours. For the sake of all those who have suffered the state’s repression and for those that will have to endure it, at home and around the world, we must prove ourselves worthy, as an anti-authoritarian working-class organisation.
We will stand together with anyone repressed by the state. Because the state, whichever it may be, is our enemy. We know where our place is: in the streets, in the workplace, in college… fighting for our basic rights.
