Anger mounts in global uprising

LATEST updates from the global uprising against neoliberalism and its shock doctrine of so-called 'austerity' measures.



Athens, Greece. Angry protests erupted after a 77 year old man committed suicide outside Parliament in Syntagma Square.

From the Greek Streets reports that the suicide note left by Dimitris Christoulas said: "The Tsolakoglou* [Quisling] occupation government literally nullified my ability to survive on a decent pension, for which I had already paid (without government aid) for 35 years.

"I am of an age that prevents me from offering a decent individual response (without of course ruling out the possibility of being the second person to take arms, should one person decide to do so), I find no solution other than a dignified end, before resorting to going through garbage in order to cover my nutritional needs.

"One day, I believe, the youth with no future will take up arms and hang the national traitors at Syntagma Square, just like the Italians did with Mussolini in 1945 (at Milan’s Piazzale Loreto)"

Montreal, Canda: Police arrested about 60 students opposed to planned university tuition hikes as they roved through downtown Montreal on Wednesday morning, at one point setting off a “pyrotechnic device,” reports the National Post.

California, USA: About 100 students protesting a plan to offer high-priced courses at Santa Monica College this summer tried to storm into a meeting of the college's Board of Trustees on Tuesday evening.

Police attacked protesters with pepper srapy for chanting, "Let us in, let us in" and "No cuts, no fees, education should be free," reports the LA Times.

More rioting erupts in Canada

MORE rioting has broken out in Canada - this time in London, Ontario.

A TV van was set on fire and later exploded (see video) as around 1,000 young people torched vehicles and threw beer bottles.

It was the worst case of civil disobedience the city has ever seen, said London Police Chief Brad Duncan, according to 680 News.

The violence grew near the city's Fanshawe College and began with St Patrick Day celebrations.

The scenes of exuberant destruction follow the riots in Montreal  last week amid a rise of youth militancy in Québec.

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Québec rebels defy police brutality

 
YOUNG rebels in Québec are coming under vicious attack from Canadian cops.

But anger and defiance are rising as a big day approaches - a demonstration against police brutality in Montreal on Thursday March 15.

Contra Info explains that a vast strike movement is shaking colleges and universities in the traditionally rebellious French-speaking province.

This general strike movement has set itself, as an immediate objective, the cancellation of the recent 25% tuition fees rise implemented by the neoliberal government of Québec.

"The movement is now 125,000 striking students strong and many strike votes will be held in the coming weeks by student assemblies.

"Many massive street demos gathering thousands of people, as well as blockade actions have been organized, triggering more and more police repression."

On March 7, the repressive violence went up a notch, as almost 1,000 people were blockading a downtown building in Montréal, hosting the offices of the public lotteries and the Conference of University Rectors.

About 200 people had gained entrance to the building, blocking access to the elevators, as the others occupied the doorways and the adjacent streets, raising barricade out of metal railings in order to block off busy Sherbrooke Street and to use as protection against police assaults.

Riot cops attacked the crowd, hitting the protesters with clubs and shields, soaking them with pepper spray and throwing many “stun grenades”.

One of these devices, that produce a deafening bang as well as projecting fragments and pepper gas, seriously injured a student protester, who received splinters in the right eye and has been taken to the hospital.

As of March 8, he was being operated on for retinal detachment and he might lose the use of his eye. Apparently, the riot police deliberately delayed the ambulance call. Three other protesters were also injured during the assault.

On the same night (March 7th), at about 9pm, a group of about 300 people gathered at the Berri Square, in response to the police attack, and took to the streets, shouting “Cops, Pigs, Murderers!”.

Reaching the administrative headquarters of the municipal police, some tried to smash the glass doors of the entrance with metal crowd barriers, before being chased through the streets by police.

Thursday's protest, and others planned for later in the month, seems more relevant than ever.

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Brutal cops Taser teenager

 

ANGRY teenagers in Canada have  marched to their local city hall and police station in protest at cop brutality.

The protest in London, Ontario, was sparked by the Tasering of a youth involved in a minor scuffle with another youngster. The video clearly shows him backing away and presenting no danger to anyone when he was shot.

Says a report on CTV: "The crowd marched to city hall and police headquarters, and stopped traffic at the intersection of Richmond and Dundas Streets.

"Among the protesters were many high school students, including some who attend the same school as the boy who was Tasered."

Free the Toronto 500!

AN APPEAL has gone out for people to voice support for the hundreds of protesters arrested during the anti-G20 protests in Toronto.

Says the Movement Defence Committee: "The MDC’s Summit Legal Support Project is appealing to the movements it supports to mobilize a show of political strength and solidarity for the nearly 500 people arrested in the last four days.

"The Toronto Police and the ISU appear to have lost control of their ‘prisoner processing center’, denying arrestees meaningful and timely access to counsel while beating and arresting those peacefully protesting their detention outside.

"Despite assurances to the contrary, only a handful of people have been released, including those held for many hours without charge.

"Arrestees are given incorrect information about the bail process they will be subjected to, and friends and family members gather hours early at the courthouse, located far from the city center and inaccessible via transit.

"Our lawyers call in and are told that there is no one available to make decisions or wait for hours at the detention centre, only to be denied access to their clients.

"Almost 500 people are in custody and we know from experience that the vast majority of those charges will disappear and yet the cell doors remain shut.

"We need to step it up and build a political response. We need many more voices – especially prominent ones – to say that the abuse and incompetence at 629 Eastern Avenue must stop.

"We must demand that all levels of government take control of the police forces under their command. We need to ensure that courts and crown attorneys act to enforce constitutional rights rather than collude in their violation.

"Free the Toronto 500!"

Anti-G20 protests erupt in Toronto

TORONTO in Canada has today erupted with massive and angry protests against the G20 meeting of the global neoliberal elite.

Reports Digital Journal: "What started as a large peaceful protest in downtown Toronto to rally against the G20 summit has suddenly turned violent.

"Police cars have been set ablaze, protesters hurled bricks and golf balls at windows and many Toronto venues are on lockdown.

"A portion of the G20 summit protesters in Toronto clashed with police Saturday afternoon, forcing Toronto Police to take control of downtown Toronto.

"At King and Bay streets, a Toronto Police vehicle has been set on fire. Along Yonge Street, various stores -- such as American Apparel and the Zanzibar strip club -- have had their windows broken by thrown objects.

"The security perimeter on Front Street has not been compromised, Toronto Police say. Now, black-clad protesters have dispersed across Toronto, wrecking havoc on a wide range of Toronto sites.

"The Yonge and College streets area are facing impacting damage; news report say protesters are also moving to University and College streets. Police are reportedly using tear gas right now at the University and College area, the Globe & Mail reports.

"One Globe reporter recently liveblogged: "Huge rubber bullet shot at cluster of photographers and me, missed but close." This is reportedly the first time in history Toronto Police have used tear gar.

"The violent protest has forced Toronto attractions to shut their doors. The Eaton Centre, the Delta Chelsea Hotel, the Sheraton Hotel and the subway system between Bloor and St. George stations have been shut down.

"Also, police headquarters at 40 College Street is on lockdown."

Canadian banks fear G20 protests

CANADIAN bankers are getting increasingly nervous, four weeks before the G20 summit.

CTV News reports from Toronto: "Several downtown banks and a police vehicle were vandalized with anti-G20 graffiti early Friday.

"At least five banks and ATMs were hit with red and black spray painted slogans such as 'Stop the G20'. A police vehicle was also damaged."

A video of the TV news broadcast explains that banks are advising customers to use online banking during the summit and to withdraw valuables from safes in advance as they fear they will be forced to shut by angry protests.

Adds 680 News: "Mayor David Miller is warning residents and tourists alike to do what they can to avoid downtown Toronto during G20 weekend."

The graffiti follows the firebombing of a bank in Ottawa, Canada's capital city, by anarchists.

World leaders descend on Toronto' s Metro Convention Centre on June 26th and 27th.

Canadian anarchists torch bank

ANARCHISTS claimed responsibility yesterday for a firebomb attack on a Royal Bank of Canada branch in the nation's capital and warned of more chaos at G8 and G20 summits in Toronto next month, reports AFP.

"The resistance continues," an unidentified group said, taking aim at RBC for financing the mining of oil sands in Alberta and for trampling native rights by sponsoring February's Winter Olympics.

Police told AFP an investigation is ongoing into Tuesday's early morning attack, but would not comment on the group's online posting.

The Games were held on stolen indigenous lands in Vancouver, the anarchists said. "The Vancouver Olympic Games are over, but a torch is still burning."

"G8 and G20 leaders and bankers are meeting (next month) in Huntsville and Toronto to make decisions that will further their policies of exploitation of people and the environment," the group said. "We will be there."

An online video posted by the group, which can be viewed on YouTube, shows the fireball bursting through the bank's windows in a blinding flash.

Police said witnesses saw "three or four males running from the scene" in Ottawa's smart Glebe neighborhood "and leaving the area in an SUV (sport utility) vehicle a short time before the fire was reported."

No one was injured, but the storefront was gutted and damage was "extensive," police said, adding in a statement that there were no further descriptions of the vehicle nor the suspects.

Some 4,000 Royal Canadian Mounted Police officers will be on hand to provide security for the G8 and G20 summits from June 25 to 27.

Anti-Olympic resistance kicks off in Canada

ANARCHISTS clashed with police in Vancouver, Canada, over the weekend in a high-profile protest at the corporate junket known as the Winter Olympics.

Reported the LA Times: "Anti-Olympic protests erupted into clashes with police Saturday as a roaming band of masked activists broke plate-glass shop windows at the iconic Hudson's Bay Co., smashed car windows and hurled trash cans and news racks into busy intersections.

"Riot police moved in several times to secure key downtown thoroughfares and occasionally wrestled protesters to the ground with batons, though there were no serious injuries.

"Police were finally able to corner the band of about 300 protesters on a commercial block in Vancouver's west end and then formed a cordon around the leaders, sealing them off as the crowd screamed 'Let them go!'

"They were released a short while later on the condition that they disperse. Police said about 100 masked 'criminal' anarchists were marching among about 200 protesters who appeared to be law-abiding."

In response to this blatant police attempt to criminalise dissent, an anti-Olympics campaigner told the paper: "The Vancouver Organizing Committee are the criminal element that have pilfered the public coffer of as much money as they could, and we're going to see the effects of it after these Games with cuts to education, cuts to housing, cuts to all the public services."

Alissa Westergard-Thorpe of the Olympic Resistance Network was quoted by the Canadian Press accusing the police of trying to intimidate Olympic critics and pointing out that the protesters hadn't been 'violent' at all, as had been widely claimed.

"Protesters have never been violent toward human beings," she said. "Property damage is not the same as violence, and it certainly is nothing compared to the tools that police have, manhandling them, pushing them, hitting them with bicycles."

NATO forces rocked by scandal

SCANDALS relating to the war in Afghanistan are rocking key NATO countries.

The current situation, with morale spiralling down to disastrous levels, was usefully summarised by the Canadian blog RedBedHead on November 27.

It wrote: "Canada's role in facilitating the torture of suspects - many of them likely innocent - has become a central public issue here. In Britain the revelation that MI6 supported torture against British citizens in Pakistan has become a major issue. And, now in Germany, where anti-war sentiment is very high, the prosecution of the war is causing deep political damage.

"Today the Labour Minister, formerly Defense Minister, Franz Josef Jung was forced to sign his own walking papers after it was revealed by the tabloid Bild that he knew about the killing of numerous civilians resulting from a Kunduz airstrike in September.

"The German army called in NATO fighters to bomb two fuel tankers that had been seized by the Taliban, even though there were numerous civilians taking advantage of the free fuel being provided to them.

"Jung had originally stated that he didn't know there were civilians killed but it has since been discovered that he was told on the day that the bombing took place and that he received a top secret video showing that the carnage included children.

"The German military's chief of staff in Afghanistan has also been a casualty of this cover-up, resigning earlier this week.

"Germany, which has 4,250 troops in Afghanistan has faced significant opposition at home to the deployment. This will, hopefully, further weaken the hand of the government to keep its troops there.

"All of these scandals are simply proof that the occupation of Afghanistan is a criminal operation that involves dehumanizing the locals to the point that bombing civilians, including children, is seen as nothing more than potential bad press that needs to be covered up. Same for torture, as we're seeing so vividly here in Canada. It's time to stop the killing by bringing the troops home."

Riot cops move against anti-monarchists

RIOT police were deployed to push back hundreds of anti-monarchist protesters during Prince Charles' visit to Montreal, Quebec, on Tuesday.

Reported CBC News: "The noisy protesters, mostly members of radical sovereigntist groups, chanted slogans against the monarchy. They also waved flags and placards reading, “Majesty go home.” Some of the protesters also threw eggs.

"The members of the separatist Société St-Jean Baptiste and the Réseau de Résistance du Québécois want an apology for what they say is the British monarchy's role in the alleged cultural genocide of francophones in North America over the last 400 years."

The report quoted one protester from the French-speaking province as saying: "I'm here to support democracy. I think a monarch is an obsolete institution, and it's not democratic.

"I'm here to speak in favour of democracy, republics and power to the people, not power to the monarchy."