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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Anonymous hacktivists hit back

 
HACKTIVISTS have hit back against repression by the global plutofascist system.

Anonymous defaced  web pages of the leading internet security firm Panda Security.

The business is thought to have helped the FBI by infiltrating chatrooms and message boards.

The promo page, Panda Security’s “Cybercrime Files”, was given a long statement accusing the security company of “working with Law Enforcement to lurk and snitch on anonymous activists”.

Hacktivists may have been behind a two-hour downing of Facebook in the UK and also hacked into the Vatican website.

Robert Harris, a member of the UK Pirate Party, told RT hacking groups like Anonymous and LulzSec are movements that have “resorted to direct action,” and prosecuting their members is only going to make things worse.

­“I think prosecuting and locking them up will not actually cause any significant damage,” he said. “It is only going to make things worse and encourage more people to join the group.”

On Tuesday top members of the infamous computer-hacking group LulzSec were arrested by the FBI and charged with conspiracy after it emerged a prominent member - Hector Xavier Monsegur, known in LulzSec circles as Sabu - was working for the authorities.

Following the arrests Anonymous posted on its Twitter feed: “LulzSec was a group, but Anonymous is a movement. Groups come and go, ideas remain.”

Meanwhile, some security suggestions for hacktivists have been published here.

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Soundtrack to the US uprising

A SOUNDTRACK to the Occupy uprising in the USA has been compiled on the internet.

The #OWS Songs playlist on YouTube consists of 49 songs and runs to more than four hours.







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This is a war against the people

"THIS is a war against the people, entire the entire community" warns a powerful message from a doctor in the front line of the resistance to neoliberal dictatorship.

It adds that the current 'austerity' measures are part of carefully designed plan is to reduce the bulk of the population to the level of slaves to the corrupt elite.

Leta Zotaki is director of the radiological unit of the Hospital of Kilkis in Greece, which has been occupied by its workers since February 20.

The open letter to the people of Greece and the world declares: "This occupation does not merely concern us, the doctors and the workers at the Hospital of Kilkis. Nor does it only take place in response to the greek National Health System, which is indeed collapsing.

"We are undertaking this struggle because what is under threat today is human rights. And this threat is not even made against one nation, or a bunch of countries, or social groups: it is a threat made against the lower and middle classes in Europe, America, Asia, Africa; across the entire world.

"Greece’s today is the tomorrow of Portugal, Spain, Italy and the rest of the countries around the world.

"This is a war against the people, entire the entire community. Those who claim that the public debt of Greece is a debt of the Greek people are lying. It is not a debt owned by the people. It was amassed by the governments, in cooperation with the banks, with the aim of the enslavement of the people.

"The loans toward Greece are not used to pay wages, pensions or public healthcare. The exact opposite is happening: wages, pensions and healthcare cuts are used to pay the bankers.

"They are lying. In opposition to what they are declaring, they do not wish to see a society free of debt. They are creating debt themselves (with the aid of corrupt governments and politicians) for their own benefit.

"They gave a banker to Greece for prime minister, to ensure that the 'job' will be executed correctly. Our prime minister Loukas Papadimos has not even been elected. He was appointed by the ECB and the bankers, with the aid of European and Greek corrupt politicians. This is their own interpretation of the word ‘democracy’.

"Debt is caused by bankers, who create money out of thin air and receive interest, merely because the governments gave them the right to do so. And they continue to say that those who are called to pay the debt are you, and me, and our children and grandchildren; with personal and national wealth, with our lives.

"We owe them nothing. To the contrary, they owe to the people a large part of their wealth, which they amassed thanks to political corruption.

"If we do not open our eyes to this truth, we shall soon all turn into slaves, and we will be working for 200 euros or less per month. Those of us, that is, who would be able to find a job.

"Without healthcare, with no pensions, homeless and hungry, just like it’s already happening with my fellow inhabitants in Greece. Thousands of these live in the streets and are going hungry.

"We do not have any intention to paint any gloomy picture; this is the truth. The current situation has not been caused by a financial or monetary accident or error.

"It is the beginning of the ugly stage of a long procedure following a carefully designed plan, a procedure that started decades ago.

"We must fight together against this neoliberal plan. And this is what we are doing here, in Kilkis, this is what people are doing in many, many cities around the world."

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Occupy Nottingham refusing to go

OCCUPY protesters in the English city of Nottingham are defying attempts to make them move.

Says a report on Nottingham Indymedia: "A week ago, the council served a notice on the Occupy Nottingham camp, that unless they move by the 5th March, council will start proceedings.  The camp says it won't be moving."

The occupiers state that they "have collectively decided so far, not to move from the Market Square, and through civil disobedience and lawful rebellion we will stay, and prevent intimidation tactics being used on those involved with Occupy".

Observers are saying the potential political ramifications for the council of pursuing eviction are serious and they need "to have a good long think about whether it really wants bailiffs charging in at such a high profile public spot."

The Occupy Nottingham website is at http://occupy-nottingham.org.uk/whats-on/common-statement/ and its Twitter feed here.

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Anti-capitalists to target Frankfurt in May

INTERNATIONAL protesters are to converge for three days of action in Frankfurt , home of the European Central Bank.

The European Resistance website said that folowing an Action Conference attended by 400 people,  there would be protests from May 17th to 19th "against the crisis dictatorship of the European Union".

The statement reads:  "We resist the disaster that is applied to Greece and other countries, against the impoverishment and denial of rights of millions of people and the practical abolition of democratic procedures resulting from the decisions of the Troika consisting of ECB, EU and IMF.

"The days of protest in Frankfurt directly succeed to the International Action Day on May 12th and the anniversary of the first assembly in Madrid on May 15th.

"We are therefore sending a visible sign of solidarity to those people in Europe who have been and are resisting against the debtocracy of the Troika and the attacks on their livelihood and their future.

"Simultaneously, protests are being organised in the US against the G8 Summit in Chicago.

"The choice of Frankfurt for the protests results from the role that the city has as headquarters of the European Central Bank (ECB) and of powerful German and international banks and corporations.

"On May 17, we will occupy parks and main squares of the city to create spaces for discussion and exchange.

"On May 18, we will block the running business of banks in Frankfurt and turn our anger about the Troika's policies into action.

"We will gather for a large demonstration on May 19 and visualise the broad base of the protests. From many countries and regions of the world people will travel to Frankfurt and participate in the days of protest.

"The success of the protests requires a mobilisation that is actively supported by as many as possible: the Occupy movement, the initiatives of unemployed and the crisis alliances, trade unionists, Attac, the environmental and peace movement, migrants', youth and students' organisations, anti-racist, anti-fascist and left groups, activists of various local struggles and the Left Party.

"The period of mobilisation includes the European action day on March 31st and international Mayday, as well as collective bargaining struggles in Germany that have our solidarity."

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Protesters battle with Italian police - videos

  


PROTESTERS in Italy have blocked a motorway with burning barricades in protests against a high-speed rail line being imposed on the area.

As riot cops were sent in to try and crush their resistance to the plutofascist project, which is intended mainly for freight, full-scale battles broke out.



Many people were injured including, claim the authorities, ten policemen.

Opposition to the TAV scheme on the Italian-French border near Turin goes back 20 years and has been subjected to repeated police repression.

Explains an in-depth report on Indymedia: "TAV is the italian acronym for Treno ad Alta Velocità i.e. HSR, High-Speed Rail.

"This is a railway that allows a sustained speed higher than 200 km/h (124 mph) and its peak speed is around 300 km/h. Even though for the most recent project of the Turin-Lyon it would be more appropriate to call it TAC (Treno ad Alta Capacità, High-Capacity Train), since it’s intended mainly for transport of goods, the misleading name of TAV remains.

"Works were supposed to start during the second half of the Nineties, but as of 2011 just a few side structures located in France have been finished. Today’s expectation is that it can’t be completed within 2030.

"The project consists of two twin tunnels, each of them 56-km (35-mile) long and 6-m (20-foot) wide, reaching 2,000 meters of depth underground, plus many other satellite tunnels – each longer than 10 kilometers – one of which is planned to run under Turin."

A shocking video (below) has emerged showing brutal Italian cops smashing their way into a bar in search of No Tav protesters.

The police decided not to use the normal door to the establishment, but a locked side entrance not normally in use, and when the proprietor couldn't find the key in time they simply shattered the glass in a show of fascistic force.

People inside the bar, including youngsters, are clearly scared stiff by the brutal raid.



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