november 2018

graffiti life before death

November  – with uncanny witchery in its changed trees. With murky red sunsets flaming in smoky crimson behind the westering hills. … Days with a high-sprung sky of flawless turquoise. Days when an exquisite melancholy seemed to hang over the landscape and dream about the lake. But days, too, of the wild blackness of great autumn storms, followed by dank, wet, streaming nights when there was witch-laughter in the pines and fitful moans among the mainland trees. ”

Lucy Maud Montgomery

(October 2018 here, December 2018 here)

30/11/18:

Uruguay, Montevideo: anarchists clash with the media on anti-G20 demo   The protesters, who shouted “Macri you’re trash, you’re the dictatorship” and “the bourgeois press does not interest us” among other chants, threw paint bombs and painted the premises of the avenue 18 de julio as well as the embassy of France in Uruguay and the National Auditorium of Sodre, headquarters of the National Ballet, with tags such as “Troops Out”, “Death to G-20” and various anarchist symbols. Likewise, some individuals with hoods and covered faces assaulted journalists and cameramen, throwing stones and vandalizing their cameras with graffiti, until finally the march was dispersed after the arrival of troops from the National Police and the Republican Guard.Buenos Aires: “Left, Right – the same shit” shouted as anarchists clash with lefty demonstrators on anti-G20 march

India, Sudha Singh: 1200 sacked workers smash up  mobile phone factory  Video here.

France: 100 high schools blockaded in solidarity with the ‘yellow vests’; cops particularly brutal in Tours  Apparently quite a few of them were not independent initiatives, but were started by unions. In Nice a walkway near the airport was blockaded by high school students.

High school in La Seyne, Var

Rouen: clashes between ‘yellow vests’ and cops after cops dismantle camp on roundabout

29/11/18:

Ivory Coast, Anyama: striking transport workers trying to free arrested strikers, barricade road to police station, followed by  heavy clashesBouaké: following wounding by prison guards’ gunfire, university students take over several schools, both private and state, and stop classes  In recent weeks, eruptions of violence have occured in several parts of the country, including Zouan Hounien, in the west, as well as in the regions of Tonkpi and Duékoué, in the Guemon. More here

France, Le Mans: cops launch teargas grenades despite ‘yellow vests’ giving them flowers (though some threw heavy petanque balls at them)Normandy: local HQ of governing party’s MP smashed with sledgehammer

Belgium, Brussels: cop car burnt during clashes with cops on unauthorised ‘yellow vest’ blockade

28/11/18:

Honduras, Tegucigalpa: 2 undercover cops infiltrating student demo beaten up

Colombia, Bogota: several clashes with cops in 2 parts of town as students demonstrate against education cutsBucaramanga: student clashes here as well …three car dealerships were attacked with stones, sticks and explosive devices, which caused the destruction of the facades.Medellin: here also (stones and explosive devices thrown at riot cops)

France, St.Nazaire (Loire-Atlantique): ‘yellow vests’ teargassed in clashes round the Town Hall 8 ‘delegates’ (delegated by 30 ‘gilets jaunes’ sections by a vote on the internet) were meant to have talks with Macron, but they received death threats, anbd only 2 turned up, one saying her couldn’t represent anybody. Previous meetings with ministers were secretly recorded against the will of the government and broadcast over the internet. This reminds me a bit of the negotiations with the state in Gdansk in Poland in 1980, when they were broadcast through loudspeakers throughout the shipyard. In terms of form, this is an advance on the standard union negotiation procedures of having secret talks with the government. Of course emphasising form without looking at the content is as much a distortion of what is needed as emphasising content without looking at the form.

27/11/18:

France, Beziers: ‘yellow vests’ chuck projectiles at cops as they try dislodge blockade of supermarket La Réunion (department in Indian Ocean): clashes with state on ‘yellow vest‘ picket as cops force removal of picket with teargas(La Possession)same in GillotSt AndreSt.Louis

UK, Sheffield: report on improved David Bowie mural  See this, for explanationBedfordshire: over 40 women go on hunger strike at immigration detention camp against flight to take traumatised women back to Nigeria “Women in Yarl’s Wood are also protesting appalling conditions inside. A dossier by Black Women’s Rape Action Project (BWRAP) and Women Against Rape documented a decade of rape and sexual abuse by guards, much of which was covered up by Serco, the multi-national company which was granted a £70 million contract to run the centre. Christine Case died there in 2014 due to lack of medical care. …Women inside Yarl’s Wood are demanding: an end to charter flights, the closure of detention centres, the reinstatement of legal aid for immigration cases, an end to mothers being separated from their children by detention and for rape and sexual abuse to be recognised as torture and therefore grounds for asylum.”

26/11/18:

Chile, Valparaiso: clashes on demo against cop killing of Mapuche IndianSantiago: municipal van burnt out on similar demoand also in Concepcion

Zimbabwe, Gweru: clashes between cops and flypitchers as cops confiscate goods

France, Calais: about 50 people use ‘yellow vest’ picket as pretext to attack riot cops Generally speaking, people tend to reduce the ‘yellow vests’ in Calais (and elsewhere) to a movement of the extreme right. Undoubtedly, some of them are  (and it reminds me of  those in the Somme, who denounced migrants hiding in vans a few days ago) which has been part of Calais life for some time (with demos against migrants over the last 2 or 3 years). However,  this journalist’s report mentions  things such as the use of ACAB slogans (hardly something the right proclaim) and the fact that most of the people have never been on a demo in their life before.  Nevertheless, many, if not most, of the yellow vests here have said they don’t want the ‘casseurs’ around.

Canada, Halifax: striking postal workers occupy processing facilities

Dominican Republic, Santo Domingo: student riots during transport strike preceding protests against fuel price hikes, corruption, etc.

24/11/18:

France, Paris: state claims extreme right responsible for clashes  More here. “By nightfall, barricades were set on fire, luxury shop windows smashed and traffic lights uprooted.” Apparently anarchists and people from the Parisian banlieux also joined in this conflict (one banlieusard said he joined in for revenge against the brutality of cops in his area). I’ll try to write something about this ‘yellow vest’ movement over the next week or so, as I try to get my head around its contradictions and the contradictions amongst those who either support or oppose it. But for the moment, to counter the caricature that this is purely a right-wing movement – take a look at these bits of graffiti from Paris:

“The ultra-right will lose!”

“Down with the state, the cops and the fascists!”

“Macron – dismiss

Government – disband

System – abolish”

(Thanks to Crimethinc for these photos)

Marseille: clashes again at La Plaine See 16/11 below for last report.

La Plaine, Marseille

23/11/18:

France, Ouistreham: 2 gendarmes hurt during clashes at opening of squat for refugees More here

Haiti, Port-au-Prince: heavy clashes resume on demo against corruption

Canada: striking post office workers occupy federal ministers’ offices throughout the country

South Africa, Gauteng: health workers on official strike against hemorrhaging of jobs by automation

22/11/18:

France: a molotov and lots of projectiles thrown as high schools in 4 towns join ‘yellow vest’ movement (or, at least, use it as a pretext)

Albania, Tirana: clashes with cops, roads blocked, in protests against low compensation for demolition of homes

Colombia, Bogota: further clashes between hooded students and riot cops over education cuts

Argentina, Buenos Aires: clashes as fence round parliament is broken through by protesters against education reform involving greater control over teachers

South Africa, Gauteng: 1000s of shopkeepers attack cops searching for illicit goods “…a mob from the multi-storey buildings where the illicit and counterfeit goods are suspected to be stored and sold got wind and began to gather in a bid to prevent the joint law enforcement operation. The situation quickly escalated when over about 1,000 people gathered to attack the police by pelting stones and bricks. Police had to retaliate to the violence including firing of rubber bullets. One Gauteng Traffic Police officer was injured in the attack.”Union president of striking mine workers participates in agreement not to attack scabs after heavy striker-scab clashes

21/11/18:

Belgium, Feluy: several cop cars & lamposts smashed, on ‘yellow vest’ picket of oil depot, as 400 attack cops with billiard balls, molotovs, etc.; trucks looted  The police responded with intensified pressure on their water cannons. The demonstrators even tried to break through a police checkpoint with … a truck. The power of the jets of water from one of the hoses broke the windscreen and damaged the engine, immobilizing the truck.” This was not carried out by the main picket, but 400 people who’d joined it and used it as a pretext.

Colombia, Bogota: about 40 hooded youths clash with cops on student demo against ‘education’ cuts Video here

Honduras, Choluteca: clashes with cops during  protests against high cost of ‘living’ (fuel  prices etc.) & corruption

Venezuela, Caracas: clashes between students and cops

South Africa, Cape Town: wildcat strikers sackedafter heavy clashes at Civic Centre

20/11/18:

France, Perpignan: high school students teargassed for blockading their schools (including Rosa Luxemburg High School) in solidarity with ‘yellow vests’Gironde: toll booth torched (video)Minister of Interior complains that as many cops have been injured (92, 17 of them seriously) in 3 days as over 3 months at Notre-Dames-des-LandesCôte d’Armor: “ultra-leftists” set fire to pallets, barricades and smash windowsSeine-Maritime: people in ‘yellow vests’ (denounced by others) loot 2 businesses “They stole all the alcohol from us and the freezer was emptied…. it must be said that it was not the Yellow Vests that did that. On the contrary, they secured the restaurant and escorted us to our cars when we left….The computer shop Nicolas et Fils, also close to the roundabout, was also robbed, suffering significant damage.No link for this, but several toll gates on motorways have been opened up so motorists can drive for free.

However, this ‘gilet-jaunes’ video  is horrendously nationalist and overtly political, calling for a referendum, a change to the constitution (something sections of the ruling class would love to be able to do), and negotiations (which up until now have not been part of this movement).  Many classic leftist themes, though it adds explicit nationalism, are there – such as the ideology of unity, the ideology of blocking the economy…Above all it insists that people “speak with one voice”.  But whether this represents a significant attempt to make this movement explicitly populist and hierarchically controlled, and rein in the best aspects of it – the excesses of those who use it as a pretext for their own anger – remains to be seen. In its favour, the constant noise of a siren in the background, and the fact that the whole thing  is spoken in a voice with an echo  in the form of a scary announcement on a station tannoy warning of imminent disaster, is not conducive to watching this crap: the idea of everyone speaking with this one voice, transforming France into a nation of robots, certainly terrifies me. Even if it’s an expression of a small minority wanting to represent a movement that so far has no clear representation, it’s a miserable development – and small minorities often succeed in drowning out the majority, particularly a majority that doesn’t explicitly express much more than opposition to an increase in the cost of survival.

Chile,Temuco: burning barricades in front of University in protests about killing of MapucheSee reports below for 16/11 & 15/11

South Africa, Gauteng & Mpumalanga: unrecognised union strikers attack security guards of pharmaceutical chain Dis-Chem said that it has put in place additional security at the shopping centres where it has a presence following the intimidation and harassment of a number of its employees by strikers as they returned home from work on Monday evening. According to Dis-Chem, security guards at the group’s distribution centres in Midrand, Gauteng, and Delmas in Mpumalanga, were assaulted and car windows were smashed. Dis-Chem workers affiliated to the National Union of Public Service and Allied Workers (Nupsaw), declared a national strike on Friday. The union’s demands include a minimum wage of R12 500 across the board, an annual increase of 12.5% guaranteed for the next three years for those earning above that amount, plus a guaranteed annual bonus.”…Western Cape: clashes during resistance to gentrification  More here Chaos unfolded on Tuesday morning in Lion Street, Bo-Kaap, when angry residents of the area blocked a Blok crane from entering the neighbourhood .

19/11/18:

France, La Réunion (French department in Indian Ocean): 70 cars torched at dealership,  shopping mall wrecked, etc. during ‘yellow vest’ movement, as refineries are blocked on the mainland and tollgates are made free More here In Saint-Denis, the Score supermarket in the Vauban district was vandalized. They then went to Vauban’s pharmacy. At the Cauldron, a fast-food restaurant was invaded by about thirty masked people. A major fire was ignited on the roundabout of this fast food place….Young people then gathered near the Simply Market store in La Providence. A crowd formed, garbage cans were burned to prevent traffic circulating. Then, the young people attacked the iron shutters of the Simply Market before entering inside and emptying the liquor section of the store….In Saint-André, there was a report of a fire being started at the annex of the town hall of Cambuston. In Saint-Gilles-les-Bains, two fires were set in Montroquefeuil and another in town towards the Score. In Saint-Paul, an SFR building and an Orange store were targeted. At the Port, the MacDonalds was burned and vandalized….and looted.  Cars were also burned, especially in Saint-Denis….In the Vauban district in Saint-Denis, but also in Mufia, clashes took place between young people and the police from the start of the evening….The road was cut off by protesters at the intersection “Chemin Neuf”. The police intervened with tear gas to dislodge them. The helicopter of the gendarmerie was mobilized for a good part of the evening to fly over Saint-Denis.” In all, 8 towns (Saline les Bains, La Providence, La Possession, Saint-Benoit, Saint-Denis, Saint-Paul, Le Port and Saint-André) experienced riots on the island. Some obvious bad aspects of this have been gangs playing the state by forcing car owners to pay a “toll” to travel along certain roads. A curfew has been imposed on 14 towns.

A wrecked MacDonalds, La Réunion, Saint-Denis

18/11/18:

Haiti: 6 killed by state during anti-corruption riots/demos

Port-au-Prince, Haiti

17/11/18:

France: about 300,000 block roads, do “operation snailspaces” (deliberate slowing of traffic), etc. throughout the country, in social-network-organised movement against high fuel prices (called the “yellow vests”)  A demonstrator is killed by an angry driver, and 409 throughout the country are injured (14 of them gravely injured), mainly by fucked up individualist drivers (many of whom the cops avoid arresting). And over 200 arrests. Though aspects of this have something rather nationalist about it (some demonstrators sung the Marseillaise and there are often affirmations of France, or regional flags) it also has something vaguely libertarian about it as well – e.g. they refused the support of Marine Le Pen and Melanchon; e.g. some toll boths were liberated so drivers could drive for free; e.g. various ideologues have lamented the lack of leaders with whom the state could negotiate, and the rejection of trade union involvement in the movement, which would give some semblance of acceptable organisation. And so far no person has come forward to represent the movement in the media (though obviously there are a lot of individuals who speak to journalists on the roadside). In Paris the Champs Elysée was blocked and many demonstrators went to the Elysée only to be blocked by the cops (surprise surprise). Barriers were thrown at them in the Champs Elysée and they responded with teargas. In Troyes about 200 people broke through the barriers of the prefecture and briefly occupied the courtyard, where the gate was vandalised, and the hall, where a window was broken and a cop was badly injured, and 3 cop cars damaged. There were heavy clashes at Quimper (Finistere)….Funny mix of videos, including footage of middle-of-the-road line-dancing/ hokey-kokey, here Some shopping precincts were blockaded and throughout the country lots of shops sold very little, many closing at midday. According to this, “shopping malls saw revenues fall by an estimated 35 per cent” (though this says 40% down for 17/11 and 20% down for the whole weekend). It looks like this will continue beyond this one day, including many who have prepared to stay the night. In Lorraine, toll gates were wrecked and intervening cops were beaten, and molotovs were thrown at them

In La Réunion (French department in the Indian Ocean) there were several interesting events: Scuffles occurred all night in several cities of Reunion after the demonstrations of the day. Several roundabouts were set on fire in Saint-Denis, clashes also took place between police and young people in Saint-Pierre. Garbage cans and other objects are on fire all along the South Boulevard in Saint-Denis and part of the Cauldron. The damage is also visible in Camellias with a service station partly ransacked. Traffic is also difficult in the area of Vauban where the police were still firing tear gas around 11 pm. Boulevard Sud to the East exit of Saint-Denis is dotted with garbage cans and cars on fire. A tree from the Moufia roundabout is even prey to the flames. Scuffles also occurred in Saint-Pierre in the area of Ravine des Cabris. More here “…in the early evening, more than 200 individuals gathered near the CGSS roundabout on the South boulevard between the Camellias and Vauban playing cat and mouse with the police, including the BAC… supported… by the helicopter which  circled around for a good part of the night. These riots continued until late at night, with tear gas bombs thrown on one side and stones and bottles thrown on the other.When the situation seemed to calm down in one place, it degenerated in another. In a large number of municipalities, the roundabouts and strategic crossroads were taken over by young people who lit several fires on the road. This was the case in Saint-Denis (Moufia roundabout, Chaudron, Candin roundabout, etc.), but also in Saint-Benoît (Plaines roundabout), at Rivière-des-Galets (roundabout – Sacred Heart point), in Salazie …  In Mufia, apart from the many garbage fires, thugs have repeatedly tried to get into the Express Score [supermarket], put to flight by the police. But they finally realised their goal late in the evening….Saint-Denis for its part, was able to find a relative calm after 1am, with the lifting of several blockades of roundabouts…still all littered with debris and  burnt objects. Vehicles were burned here and there…In the middle of the night, a vehicle was still burning in the middle of the road on the South boulevard, near the Region….at La Rivière: from the end of the day until midnight, garbage cans burned and dozens of young people occupied the roundabout High School. In the district of La Palissade, it was later that the situation began to stir, with the presence of hooded youths lighting fires near the Leclerc roundabout. In Sainte-Anne, young people opposed the gendarmes. The police, like the firefighters, were overwhelmed all night in several municipalities. A blockade persisted in Bourg Murat …and traffic jams lasted most of the night. At Saint-Paul, it was also up until late that the police had to deal with young vandals. From the waterfront to downtown, young people were present in the streets, sometimes hooded, not hesitating to throw stones. At La Possession, a school …windows were broken shortly after midnight….other blockades, already held by day by the “yellow vests”, continued to be occupied calmly all night or at least a good part of it. Protesters remained at the airport roundabout in Gillot, for example, or at the Azaleas roundabout in Tampon.

La Réunion: the ad says, “The same passion for a job well done”

Undoubtedly there are aspects of this that are inter-classist, but it’s uselessly unilluminating and lacking in nuance, to drag out the old ‘petit-bourgeois’ knee-jerk insult particularly in an epoch where increasing amounts of proletarians are forced into petit-bourgeois means of survival just as many petit-bourgeoises are increasingly proletarianised. See, for example, this about the UK fuel blockades of 2000. This is not to minimise crudely populist aspects of this movement, but to reduce it all to the “petit-bourgeois” put-down doesn’t clarify anything.

It should be pointed out that the figure of 300,000 is the highest official (media) estimate – those who blocked the roads have not issued any estimate whatsoever, as they have no way of knowing, since there is no central organisation. The Ministry of the Interior put it at between 244,000 and 282,000 (depending on the time of the day they gave out the information) but then they invariably underestimate.

UK, London: environmental demo  closes 5 bridges across Thames  Hard to know why this is being described as “unplanned” since the organisers say  “it had informed London police and emergency services of the roadblock on the bridges ahead of the event”.  Which seems in contradiction to their stating“The group has declared itself in “open rebellion” against the government “, as if being in “open rebellion” is compatible with informing the state of your intended actions ahead of time. But then “ExtinctionRebellion” wants to play 2 games at once – the thrill of claiming to be in ‘open rebellion’ and the security of submitting to the state’s demands that it informs them of their intentions in advance. As they said, in their brief occupation of the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (on the 12th of this month), where they also graffitied the building,  “their members used spray chalk, which washes off.”: the appearance of rebellion but nothing too rebellious.  Clearly this organisation brings into its fold some intelligent individuals with a sincere and urgent desire for reform, but one suspects that they’re being directed by a leadership through a maze of politically motivated compromises to an end that is sadly predictable: impotence and unconsciousness in the face of the commodity-based form and content of social relations that makes ecological catastrophe imminent,  the enrichment of the careers of a few bureaucrats and their own desperate disllusionment about any possible diversion from the headlong rush towards the abyss of disaster. Until ecologists develop a basic understanding of the necessity of suppressing the economy and the state, and thus recognising themselves in those who revolt against them regardless of how much they’re able to understand the ramifications of their revolt, they’ll remain trapped in a narrow reductionism complete with its self-righteous roles and moralist ideologies, which will prevent them from connecting to these different forms of revolt, and prevent them advancing towards the project of a genuinely ecological environment.  In this context, the following quote from here seems relevant: “As far as critiques of ecocide are concerned, capitalism very much needs to start taking care of the environment. Clearly, we must focus on contesting what that means rather than focusing on the reactionaries who still don’t agree with some version of this sentiment. Capitalist concerns for the environment will necessarily involve managing and engineering nature. Anti-capitalist concern for the environment is meaningless unless it is ecocentric and anti-colonial. What is being done to the planet is an atrocity. Those responsible should be stripped of all social power and made to answer for the hundreds of millions of deaths and extinctions they have caused; above all, they cannot be trusted with solving the problem they are profiting from.” More here.  SK writes: “…as you say, the genuine urgency of many participants are utterly neutralized by the spectacular context and anodyne forms preferred by the decision makers — and notably, despite claiming to be a decentralised egalitarian network, the concrete decision making processes and bodies are not immediately transparent. 

A perfect example of this is the passionate retort of a young woman to a room full of journalists at a press conference, who were telling her to be realistic and demand the impossibly suicidal. When she finished talking, articulate and burning as her words are, the only response by those around her (one which conveyed in an instant the way in which the most blisteringly emotional revolt can be not merely defused but rendered hopelessly absurd within the context of the spectacle) was applause:
https://realmedia.press/bbc-extinction-response/
The second point is that the historical models this campaign, and I use the word advisedly, follows, were the sort of single-issue protests that agitated for the abolition of one or another discriminatory law, a relatively straightforward proposition, whereas the only practical response to the present mass extinction is the total liquidation of the social relations which produce it as an inevitable consequence of their dominance. “

Greece, Athens: clashes with state on 45th anniversary of student revolt that eventually brought down the Colonels’ regime

16/11/18:

France, Marseille (from an email):

Fifth week of construction work on La Plaine

Friday, November 9, very early, thirty people block access to the site. Some scuffles with the workers. They end up asserting their right to withdraw. The site comes to a stop. The locks of the two gates, as well as a construction machine, are sabotaged. In the evening, sope fencing hindering the passage outside the wall are transferred into the middle of the site.

Saturday and Sunday, all quiet.

Monday morning, once again with fifty people. The workers leave but end up coming back when the cops return.

Tuesday morning about fifteen people unsuccessfully attempt to block the site.

Wednesday morning another attempt to block the site is made. A security guard, locked inside the enclosure by the unofficial use of padlocks, gases some opponents. The cops clear the people and allow the workers to return. One of the gates is unhinged when they leave. That’s when the cops come back to clear out and gas people.
Also note this day the beginning of repairs to cameras sabotaged a few weeks ago.

In the evening, a demonstration was called following what is happening around the district of Noailles (but also in other neighborhoods). That is to say, currently five buildings have reduced to rubble, eight bodies were found in the rubble of the first three alone, and others could be found; all the adjoining block has been evacuated, other buildings have been evacuated also in this area, as well as in other neighborhoods – with about 850 people fucked around in hotels, gyms or who knows where; some of these buildings should be destroyed; a balcony fell next to the rue d’Aubagne during the demo / mourning on Saturday, a stairwell also next to the rue d’Aubagne fell during the demonstration on Wednesday (the whole district dates from the end 18th century and is therefore in the same state); two elected representatives of the regional council, owners of two apartments in the collapsed buildings, have, for the moment, been removed from their administrative functions … In short, a joyful atmosphere.

A procession descended from La Plaine with its own banner (“12 million to destroy La Plaine, not a euro to save Noailles”). It joined the demonstration at Noailles. About 10,000 people headed for the Town Hall. Once it arrived hundreds of people put pressure on the cops. Slogans, big firecrackers, paint, some projectiles and two or three barriers spurted towards them. A Christmas tree was burnt. Some blows, some teargas, and once again, some arrests.

A procession returned to La Plaine at the end of the demonstration, followed by cops. Arriving in the square, one of the gates of the site is unhinged, security guards keep an eye out and gas people; they are hit by stones. The cops very quickly start gassing and chasing people.
Small isolated groups are found on La Plaine, many people drunk (we are in a square full of chavs). Some slogans, some failed “actions”  and clashes with the BAC and the national cops who find themselves stuck in the enclosure. Some blows, some gassing and more arrests.

In all these latest attempts, there is often an idea hoping for the  workers themselves to leave. Indeed, the meager balance of power established before the installation of the wall  defeated  it,  and the neighborhood still not responding consistently, it is clear that this is a last assault led by very few people who will be hit by more and more repression. Unless the events of Noailles have repercussions on the site…
The square has been so wrecked by the building site that from now on the building work will prevail.

Chile, Arauco: riots in 3 areas after a young Mapuche is killed  In Cañete, hooded youths burned an agricultural farm in the sector of Paicaví. Fire consumed warehouses, a van, a caretaker’s house and 3 trucks. In Tirúa, a van belonging to a company that provides services to Frontel was burned in the heart of the city, where a group …stoned the sub-police station, the town hall and a branch of Banco Estado. And in Tranaquepe, they set fire to a summer cottage that was without residents. For all these reasons, the mayor of Cañete, Jorge Radonich, decided to suspend classes yesterday, in five municipalized educational establishments… Concepción…“There were riots and outrages in different parts of the commune, so the police had to react to establish public order …” said the governor of Concepción, Robert Contreras, who regretted the damage caused by the protesters.

South Africa, North West: 2 schools, a school admin block, a clinic & a temporary council office torched in protests about expropriation of community funds

Senegal, Dakar: flypitchers clash with cops during cop clampdown

Colobane, Dakar

15/11/18:

Canada, Montreal: wildcat transport maintenance workers’ strike ruled illegal

South Africa, Western Cape: tyres burned, stones thrown during illegal service delivery protest More here Ten suspects were arrested on Thursday night on charges of public violence and seven suspects for business robbery in Saldanha… two SAPS vehicles were damaged by protesters. The arrests follows three days of protest action in the Vredenburg area on the West Coast over poor service delivery. … protesters started to throw stones at Vredenburg Police Station and damaged 11 SAPS vehicles, several private vehicles and shops.“…Gauteng: informal settlement protesters invade administrative centre, vandalise glass doors

Chile: riots in 4 areas after young Mapuche is killed

Congo, Kinshasa: cops kill student during demo against cops having killed another student More here According to several witnesses, the police fired live ammunition, used tear gas, robbed students and even burned computers.

Colombia: clashes with riot cops on student marches in Bogota, Medellin and Baranquilla

14/11/18:

Colombia, Bogota: clashes again between hooded students blocking road and riot cops as students try to march to rich part of town  More here and here

France, Marseille: fireworks, beer cans, barriers and smoke bombs v. teargas and truncheons during demo against mayor after 8 people died on November 5th due to shoddy buildings collapsing 

Bangladesh, Chittagong: cop motorbike torched, police box smashed in resistance to cop extortionAssistant Town Sub-Inspector (ATSI) Anwar Hossain …demanded money from driver Rubel, 27, although he had all updated documents….as Rubel refused to pay, police informer Munna slapped Rubel, triggering a scuffle inside the police box. At one point, seeing the matter, Rubel’s helper parked the lorry across the road, blocking vehicular movement. Later, hearing a hue and cry, other transport workers and locals went to the police box and started an altercation with police. They also vandalised the police box and torched the motorbike.”

US, California: riots at 2 prisons  No details given here, so it’s not clear whether these were riots between prisoners or an attack on the screws and prison infrastructure or a mixture of the two.

Nepal, Chitwan: students smash up university central office, the agriculture dean’s office, and administrative building in protest against opening admissions to private colleges …students had broken open the door of the administration office, sprinkled petrol and burnt the furniture and documents. Since they could not break open the door of the central office, they set the door on fire….University Registrar Manraj Kolakshyapati said property worth millions was damaged in the arson and vandalism.

13/11/18:

Belgium, Brussels: interesting – though rather specialist – subversion of street furniture designed to prevent homeless lying down (includes video in French)

Colombia, Medellin: road-blocking sit-in against education cuts turns into riot; teargas & stun grenades v potato bombs & stonesBaranquilla: students clash with cops

Bogota, Chiquitos: local supporters of striking blockaders demanding protection of nature reserve burn down unmanned police station after blockaders are gassed by the state

12/11/18:

France, Paris: diplomatic corps car and Porsche torched by anarchists in centre of town

Mexico, Tlalneplanta: local residents  block roads all night in protest against cop violence

South Africa, KwaZulu Natal: residents occupy unoccupied land after waiting for over 10 years for housing

UK, London: climate change activists block traffic, tag Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, etc.  However, this seems to have been a bit weak to say the least – for instance, “A spokesperson for Extinction Rebellion, the group that coordinated the demonstration, said their members used spray chalk, which washes off.”

Guinea, Kindia: state high school students, chanting anti-government slogans,  stone private school students following cop attack on striking teachers’ sit-in in front of Prefecture More here

News of cop-out-isition: armchair rioting “Each player controls a faction of revolutionaries—Workers, Students, Neighbors, or Prisoners—fighting against the State in the streets of a city that change with each game. Build barricades, clash with riot cops, occupy districts, loot shopping centers, and liberate the city before time runs out and the military arrives!” I wonder how the owners of this will react if the workers at the factory producing it go on strike.

11/11/18:

UK, Yorkshire: if only real naval warfare (and all the other forms) could be wrecked so easily ...but a nice symbolic gesture on the 100th centenary of the First World Massacre (see also this)

10/11/18:

France, Etampes: cops pelted with bricks & fireworks by about 20 youths during patrol

9/11/18:

Colombia, Cali: rioting students block roads clash with riot cops, in demo against repression in Bogota

Cali, 9/11/18

Venezuela, Bolivar: public transport workers join, in solidarity, fishermen’s protests against being blocked from market & refrigeration – which is dispersed with teargas and pellets

8/11/18:

France, Marseille (sent by email):

Fourth week of work on La Plaine (see entries for 1/11/18, 25/10 & 18/10) –

Thursday, November 1st, the evening of the demo, sabotage of the links between the blocks is carried out inside the wall.
Friday night, while flashmob concerts are held outside, at the foot of the wall, people are doing things inside it to prepare the action that will follow. Two parts of the wall are pulled by rope and eventually fall to the ground, opening a passage inwards (wall parts weighing more than 2.5 tons each). People spend a bit of the evening inside it.

After the arrival of the cops, a container of projectiles is made available to the neighborhood (a bottle bank is ripped open by flames).
Saturday morning, the two pieces of wall are put back in place by workers.
In the evening, a new team is active inside to prepare the action of the following evening.
Sunday night, a few hundred people attend, happy because of the collapse of five parts of the wall.
Later, small clashes with the cops followed.
On Monday, the blocks are replaced or put back and work resumes.
Tuesday, the access gate to the site is installed, facilitating entry and exit for the site, but also the installation of four guard dogs, especially at night, inside the enclosure, at the same time making the underground clandestine direct action more complicated.
Wednesday, a second gate is installed.
On Thursday, trees begin to be uprooted to be replanted in another neighborhood.
From now on, only a massive and offensive riposte by the whole area will be able to harm or to stop the building site. But it hasn’t happened.

And the drama that occurred at the beginning of the week at the rue d’Aubagne, in the neighborhood just next door – Noailles[videos here & here], focuses people’s eyes, energy and solidarity. As I write three buildings have collapsed, six bodies have been found, dozens of people have been evacuated for an indefinite time, but the balance sheet could be heavier.
I think this event is not going to please the citizenist mentality of many people. We hear everywhere statist views of this story. Parallels are blithely, and correctly, made with the building site of La Plaine. But  one constantly hears regrets that  Marseille’s state authorities did not have the right priorities (whereas from the point of view of capital and its protector, the state, they’re all the right ones – they cannot be any other) and it would be enough if they were reversed so that things got better.
To be continued…

 

Colombia: students clash with cops in 4 cities during demos against education cuts as 32 universities go on strike; occupations and looting More here “…confrontations took place over several hours, and later the camp that had been installed in the Caldas Park was evicted by members of the Mobile Riot Squad, Esmad. The commander of the Metropolitan Police of Popayán, Colonel Nelson Díaz, said that the decision to vacate the Park was taken in a security council, in which they were informed that some officials had been attacked with dangerous elements, which left a policeman wounded. The Officer indicated that after 16 days of an occupation of public space, they made an intervention …After this, the authorities attended demonstrations and riots at other points where students had occupied public space. The National Police restored public order, and initiated investigations to prosecute those responsible for violence and vandalism in the area of ​​the clashes. The facades of several buildings were painted with graffiti and looting was also reported…. parents denounced the excessive force used by the policeAnd here  “Students of the University of Nariño staged powerful protests yesterday amid the indefinite strike that was decreed a week ago at the country’s 32 public universities. The university students clashed with members of the Mobile Riot Squad, Esmad …for more than 3 hours, which caused traffic congestion to the west and center of the city of Pasto. Around 11:00 in the morning, three explosions, which  caused some damage to vehicles, alerted the uniformed men who were on guard at the police unit located in the sector of Torobajo. After the detonations, Esmad agents immediately went to the entrance doors of the university where they tried to control the demonstrators who were throwing explosive potatoes.
During the confrontations the authorities tried to control the situation by throwing tear gas, which affected restaurants, transporters, owners of premises, passers-by, and a large part of the neighborhoods of Pandiaco, Figueroa, Maridíaz, Palermo, El Dorado, among others. Citizens traveling to the municipalities of Nariño, El Tambo, Ancuya, La Florida and Sandoná had no choice but to wait until the situation normalized, which was around 1:00 in the afternoon….during the protests yesterday a cop on patrol was injured in the eyes.

 

 

Ghana, Adentan: high school students burn tyres on roads after fellow student killed in ‘accident’, second one this weekThe angry youth prevented vehicles from moving, causing a gridlock amidst severe chaos, which forced the police and fire officers to deploy to the area amidst firing of tear gas to disperse the crowd. The youth threw stones and crude weapons at the fire and police officers who attempted clearing the road for traffic to flow. Before Thursday’s accident, the youth had planned a protest vigil on Friday over the first accident. Several fatalities have been recorded on that stretch of the highway due to the lack of overhead footbridges.” More here Since the accident, angry residents have since taken over the road and are rioting. They demand that action be taken to make the road safer. They burnt tires and chanted ‘no more deaths’. Incredibly, this death marks the 195th on the highway in 2018.” More here Video here

 

 

El Salvador, Santa Tecla: cops kill 37-year-old in crackdown on flypitchers More here The confrontation with bullets, stones and sharp objects began after the mayor and the vendors failed to reach an agreement on the relocation of the latter

7/11/18:

South Africa, Western Cape: another scab bus torched during wildcat bus strike “The service was suspended in Khayelitsha yesterday, leaving thousands of commuters stranded after yet another bus was torched. Another bus was set alight in Milnerton on Tuesday.”

 

New Zealand: report on various attempts at sabotaging pesticide use against “invasive wildlife”  Whilst death threats against politicians are pointless and self-defeating gestures, these aspects  are basic: “As opposition to the use of the pesticide has grown over recent months, conservation department staff have had tyres slashed and wheel nuts loosened, been locked in national parks by protesters blocking exits… and dodged wires erected through the helicopter flight paths.”

Tunisia, Sidi Boumendil: 4 cops hospitalised in clashes after they prevent flypitchers from selling stuff

Tajikistan, Khujand: 22 prisoners and 2 screws killed in prison riot …six other law enforcement officers with various wounds were hospitalized. The authorities have been largely silent about what occurred but sources close to the Sughd law enforcement authorities say several people convicted of religious extremism and terrorism organized the riot at the Khujand high-security penal colony 3/3. They were reportedly armed with cold steels and one of them managed to disarm a guard, took his assault rifle and began shooting at guards and wardens….Amaq news agency, which is linked to the Islamic State (IS) terror group, reported on November 8 that one of IS fighters “is responsible for the attack in Tajikistan that sparked a prison riot.”The authorities would say that it was ISIS, whether it was them or not. And often ISIS itself makes claims to bolster its ferocious image, regardless of whether such claims are true or false. Of course, I have no way of knowing what went on, and I suspect very few have, particularly as the whole thing has been surrounded in state-enforced secrecy.

6/11/18:

Australia, Northern Territory: building burns during  riot at juvenile detention centre More here. A set of keys to the Northern Territory’s largest youth detention centre are still missing after a group of detainees stole them from a guard and sparked an eight-hour riot….In the early hours of Wednesday, police released tear gas on Don Dale Youth Detention Centre detainees who escaped from their cells, set the facility’s school on fire and used angle grinders to cut fences in an attempt to escape.

Don Dale Detention Centre

5/11/18:

France, Paris: paramedics block ringroad in protest against  reform making medical transportation expenses having to be paid for by medical facilities rather than state

Namibia, Outapi: clashes between flypitchers and cops after cops confiscate goods

India, Bihar: sub-inspector hospitalised, railway tracks & roads blocked, after man killed by cops during clashes as cops crack down on illegal drinking & gambling

4/11/18:

US: black woman scams racists out of $150,000

Kenya, Kisumu: students riot against cop harassmentstudents… barricaded the busy Maseno-Busia road with boulders and lit bonfires on the road, inconveniencing hundreds of road users for several hours….the students were protesting over the detention of their colleagues who had gone to Maseno Police Station to report about an attack on four of their colleagues by thugs on Saturday night….the students took to the streets after their colleagues were held by the police. They claimed that the law enforcement officers were harassing them…

Bangladesh, Dhaka: workers set fire to &/or vandalise at least 14 vehicles after death of colleague in “accident”

France, Saône-et-Loire: curfew for minors imposed on town after several burnings of cars“On Saturday November 3 in the morning, a car dealer overwrought by the fire of 13 vehicles in his garage, which had occurred in the night, deposited one of the burnt-out carcasses in front of the town hall of Montceau …Confronted with repeated car fires, the mayor of Montceau-les-Mines, Saône-et-Loire, decided Sunday, November 4 to establish a curfew for minors…During the night of Saturday to Sunday, several other vehicles were burned voluntarily in a neighborhood of the city.

3/11/18:

France, Drome: intolerable but far too comprehensible gratuitous reaction to 3 people getting themselves a good educationAfter the damage and the fire of a computer room during the night of Friday to Saturday at the Lycées des Catalins in Montélimar,  reactions have been unanimous [sic] in strongly condemning these acts. Around 3:30 am, three individuals …managed to break into the compound of the establishment. On site, they smashed several windows and burned a room dedicated to the INS (Digital Information System). The firefighters were able to quickly control the fire before it spread to other rooms, but the damage will not allow the facility to reopen Monday. Regional councilor Mounir Aarab, also a member of the school’s board of directors, came to see the damage on Saturday afternoon,  firmly condemning it: “It is intolerable and incomprehensible. It’s gratuitous vandalism. I hope the police will quickly identify the perpetrators and justice [sic] will be done.

UK, Edinburgh: deplorable maliciously violent  celebration of war amnesia improvedHertfordshire: and another

2/11/18:

US, Michigan: screwing the cops

South Africa, Gauteng: police station torched after cops beat local resident to deathThe community of Soshanguve north of the city torched the local police station earlier on Friday after a community member was beaten to death. According to community members still gathered at the entrance of the community just after the R80 Mabopane Highway, police officers embarked on a raid chasing youngsters selling pirated CDs early in the morning. However things escalated as members watched in horror as a group of officers beat Thomas Ditshele,30, to death after he had fallen while trying to escape the police. In anger the members said they then demanded to see the station commander of the Soshanguve police station who they were informed would arrive at 3pm. But instead of having the head of the police arrive to answer for the callous murder of Ditshele, police allegedly started pelting the community with rubber bullets….The members then turned their rage towards the police station and the township’s main road where some threw large boulders and stones on the road, while others burnt tyres and started breaking down the police station fence. The younger brother to the deceased Amos Ditshele, said he could not believe his brother was killed for a R5 disc. “Unemployment is very high here so my brother like others was just trying to make money. They brutally killed my brother for three discs he had in his possession.”…Francinah said police also shot their 12-year-old nephew on the back whilst he was returning home from school. Another community member Jan Maropola lay in pain on floor surrounded by community members trying to assist. Maropola was allegedly shot twice in the face by police as he returned from fetching a friends child from school. A community member who asked not to be named said he was shot in the arm as he got off the taxi from work “

India, Patna: news of copposition More here. Just thought this was an instance of cops doing something a bit useful for a change, but hardly fits the term ‘news of opposition’.

UK, Leeds: critique of memorial to cop killed in the line of duty to the ruling class

1/11/18:

South Africa, Gauteng: striking workers in packaging industry burn company vehicle in “strike …turned into a war”On Thursday, an ALPL delivery vehicle was petrol bombed. On Wednesday, two ALPLA non-striking staff were hospitalised after they were attacked in their homes. A business owner in Kempton Park was also attacked during the violence. Last week, a group of striking workers stoned the ALPLA SA plant in Isando. Members of its own staff were caught in the crossfire. Over the weekend a business was burnt to the ground in Ladybrand. The packaging industry has been dragged into a war. What started as a surprise strike three weeks ago has now turned into a war where employers have to employ private security to protect staff, assets and stock as striking workers continue to raid premises and cause maximum destruction in well-coordinated attacks.”

How to deliver (Gauteng 1st November)

Argentina, Rosario: riot in residents’ resistance to eviction by council in order to pursue construction project

Disobedience – because of you I will be happy

US, New York: huge payout for Google executive accused of sexual harassment provokes spontaneous walkout

 

France, Marseille (from an email): third week of resistance to construction on The Plain aimed at intensified gentrication (see reports for 25/10 & 18/10) –

After the relative calm on Friday, Saturday and Sunday (arrests still occurred, but also sabotage and unauthorized “flashmob” construction), hostilities resumed on Monday afternoon with the establishment of concrete blocks weighing several tons connected between them (and with counterweights made of the first concrete blocks installed over the previous weeks) and forming a wall 2m50 [about 8 foot] high. The goal is to surround the square before the holiday arrives, with workers working with the support of CRS riot cops in the rain until 19:30.

Still arrests of opponents who participate every day, and since early morning, the slowdown of work; but good news: the person held in prison before trial has just left.

Small acts of sabotage are perpetrated in the night after the departure of the CRS.

Tuesday, the massive surrounding of the square continues. In the evening, sabotage by a few dozen people again.

On Wednesday, the enclosure of the square is finished. More arrests. At the end of the construction, a small fight breaks out with workers, teargas being used. In the evening an attempt to open up the wall is made without much success and with the cops (and security guards again) who roam around not far away.

In the night, several graffiti artists return to graffiti a good part of the outer enclosure.

Today, Thursday, November 1, a demo, smaller than the previous one, came to The Plain while graffiti artists continue the work of the previous day in broad daylight and in front of the cops.

This demonstration aims to symbolically bury the negotiations with the town hall….this will to negotiate their own gentrification with the state and capital. Finally, except for the people who live in this neighborhood, or spend their time in it, those who have not been sufficiently coordinated by the competent authorities (in the words of a lot of people), we really wonder why people who are challenging the SOLEAM project are particularly bothered by it – SOLEAM which, finally, wants to bring them the alternative gentrification that they want (and which has also already been in progress for years).

Unlike other parts of this very working class city, which  have a massive conflictual relationship vis-a-vis the state and wage labor, this inability in the district to have a class position against the employers and an anti-authoritarian one against the state comes from the very high amount of “leftists” in the area (it obviously needs an electorate to give Melenchon a mandate). These people being public service employees, associated with  co-management of social misery in the city, or in the small alternative scene, and the large one too; therefore, most of the time, in that class composition which is somehow with the state.

Even some of those with an autonomous perspective in the district (where almost all of those in the city are concentrated) don’t escape this attitude. Indeed, in recent years, we have seen, almost everywhere in France, a fringe of Autonomy take  up  a leftist stance  (to the point of sometimes becoming part of this left, like those ‘autonomes’ of  Marseille [including  some of those living , or passing through The Plain] who participated in, or contributed to the creation of, the union Sud), thus being stuffed with some of the themes and practices of the Left.

In my opinion it feels like the end of this struggle (since the only perspective seems to be dancing around at the end of the demonstration instead of direct action) but also the end of any clash between the various social strata of the neighborhood once the construction site has been well established and the cops have definitely left…

To be continued over the next few days.

–  CSH, an autonomous chav who wants to continue having a drink  in the midst of living corpses and the corpses of bottles of The Plain pending the advent of a social revolution (which may not come) that will abolish the state and capital.

Tarn: 2 imprisoned minors totally ransack prison kitchen and TV room

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Comments

2 responses to “november 2018”

  1. Cautiously Pessimistic avatar

    Surprising news from the US electoral farce, it appears to have produced both a good politician: https://www.apnews.com/afd73fee87e5442ca72b7179c593089e

    and a good judge: https://www.chron.com/news/houston-texas/article/Promise-not-to-kill-anyone-After-losing-election-13371485.php
    (note the utterly pathetic quote from some reformist who claims that their aim is to “get young people out of the justice system” but condemns… young people getting out of the justice system.)
    https://www.chron.com/news/houston-texas/article/A-day-after-wholesale-releasing-defendants-13375089.php

    A true demonstration of how upside-down this world is, that instead of being a good thing this guy’s actions are presumably meant to be some kind of a temper tantrum: “fine, if you’re going to be like that then I *won’t* lock any kids up today, see how you like that!”

    1. Sam FantoSamotnaf avatar

      I’ve put this up on the USSA page (for 8/11/18): http://dialectical-delinquents.com/ussa-2/

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