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“March was an unpredictable month, when it was never clear what might happen. Warm days raised hopes until ice and grey skies shut over the town again”
– Tracy Chevalier
(February here & April here)
31/3/18:
China, Shanghai: partial victory for 6-day sanitation workers’ strike (long report on strikes in China)
US, Sacramento: sheriff’s car deliberately hits protester… Florida: how to spoil a good walk spoilt
Albania, Kukes: toll booths torched as protesters against higher tolls clash with cops “This is theft,” an angry protester told reporters. “This tax damages all the Albanians in Kukes and Dardania (Kosovo),” opponents said of the fees, ranging from 2.5 euros for a motorcycle to 22.5 euros ($27.72) for heavy trucks.”
toll booth, Kukes (Albania)
30/3/18:
US, Kentucky: teachers go on wildcat strike over pensions law manipulation More here. Doubtless there’ll be loads of radicals of various stripes talking of how this could develop into something BIG like was fantasised about West Virginia earlier this month or Wisconsin 7 years ago. Obviously it could, like so many struggles that have some element of independence. However, unless optimism of the will is tempered by pessimism of the intellect, and proletarianised teachers or whoever stop accepting the manipulations of union bureaucrats etc., and go beyond the hesitations that repeatedly make them stall before the immensity of their tasks, it could very well fizzle out. A million times workers have complained of being “sold out” by union bureaucrats and Democrat or other politicians, as if they hadn’t already sown the seeds of being sold out by tolerating – and looking for help from – these 2-faced creeps whose fundamental social function is always to keep their struggle under hierarchical control, and to sell a “sell-out’ as the most realistic option. Everyone fears the relatively unknown. But avoiding the relatively unknown, succumbing to the fear of fighting without and against external authority, is the enemy within each proletarian that s/he has to combat if s/he is not to fall into the sense of demoralisation that comes from a very predictable sell-out. “Will alone does not suffice to provide oneself with courage and remove fear; truly one must toil to consider the reasons, the aims and the examples which are able to convince one that danger is not overwhelming, that there will always be more safety in defence than in escape; that one will gather glory and joy as a winner, whereas in escaping one can only expect regret and shame” (Descartes)…Sacramento: Black Lives Matter organisers repress anger on demo again “…several hundred protesters marched through downtown streets for nearly four hours, with Black Lives Matter Sacramento leaders defusing tensions on several occasions to keep the march peaceful.” See entries for 29/3/18, 23/3/18 & 22/3/18
Greece, Athens: students clash with cops as they try to enter Tsipras’s office More here
Nigeria: 100 electricity transformers belonging to electricity company vandalised over 2 month period “he… also decried the rising rate of energy theft by consumers that had continued to by-pass prepaid meters, regretting that JEDC could not collect up to N1 billion for the N4.5 billion worth of energy it distributed in February.”
29/3/18:
South Africa, Eastern Cape: service delivery protesters block major road with with burning tyres, cement blocks & tree branches “…the burning of tyres on public roads during protest actions constitutes contravention of Act No. 18 of 2015, and any person who is found guilty for the offence may be sentenced to imprisonment for a period of up to 30 years, or in the case of a company a fine not exceeding R100 million.”
US, California: protesters against cop murder of unarmed black guy block roads, but Black Lives Matter leaders, and their followers, preach against blocking of basketball game See entries for 23/3/18 & 22/3/18 More on this here, under the section marked “Sacramento Spring”…Washington: university admin building occupied in protest against financial “scandal”
Zimbabwe, Mazowe: bourgeois shithead’s farm looted
28/3/18:
Greece, Piraeus: football fans clash with cops, disrupt Finance Minister “Scores of soccer fans clashed with police in the Greek port city of Piraeus, near Athens, on Wednesday as they tried to disrupt a speech given by the country’s finance minister. Police fired tear gas to disperse the youths, who threw rocks and set fire to trash bins. The violence broke out a day after the government ended a two-week suspension of the Greek soccer league after saying it had received a commitment from clubs to crack down on violence.”
France, Bordeaux: cops intervene against high school blockade; blockade of university continues; clashes with cops on small student demo against cop/fascist attacks on students; journalist truncheoned, after cops steal journalist’s & students’ mobiles …Lille: clashes between students and cops on small demo
UK, London: wildcat strikers win what looks like an, at least, partial but very speedy victory Details here…Glasgow: partial critique of bureaucracy and bureaucratic manipulation at student conference
Venezuela, Valencia: cops teargas and fire rubber bullets at families of prisoners after at least 68 die in prison riot “…when distraught family members showed up at the attached police station demanding answers, police responded with tear gas and rubber bullets. The riot began on Wednesday morning in a jail in the northern city of Valencia, a once-vibrant industrial hub that has been devastated by the country’s multiyear economic crisis. The jail, which is attached to a police station, was designed to hold just 60 people. At the time of the riot, it contained around 200….the chaos began when inmates took a prison guard hostage and threatened to kill him if their demands were not met. Some inmates set mattresses on fire, and the blaze quickly grew out of control.”
Valencia, 28/3/18
27/3/18:
Chile, Santiago: heavy clashes between students and cops as court rules universities can operate for profit “Riot police used water cannons to disperse the protesting students. …The ruling is a blow to free tuition reforms.”
UK, Buckinghamshire: David Bowie tagged Karl Kraus said: “… the only productive deed left to an empty time like my own would be using a Rembrandt canvas to cover somebody’s freezing feet, for no matter how low man had sunken, the preservation of his life was still the supreme value” But nowadays, ars longa vita brevis, means that aesthetics is the supreme value and a homeless, possibly freezing, wo/man’s life is secondary. Art , like Dracula, is dead, but it gives the appearance of life, and sucks the blood out of the living. Under austerity, 12,000 more people die each year than over any one of the previous 10 years, but £100,000 on a statue celebrating some dead millionaire pop idol helps keep people’s priorities right: Down with Life! Long live Art!…Liverpool: cop cars vandalised
France, Montpellier: at the “liberal studies” faculty of the University, 2 to 1 majority to have indefinite occupation voted at unprecedentedly large (perhaps 3000 people) General Assembly Tags include “kill the spectator in yourself”, an idea very few took up.
26/3/18:
India, Lahore: massive sit-in by female health workers outside Punjab Assembly blocks traffic for hours “The protest continued till late night as negotiations with the government officials remained inconclusive. President of LHWs [Lady Health Workers] Association Rukhsana Anwar has announced continuing the sit-in till acceptance of all demands. Hundreds of LHWs from across the province gathered outside the PA in the morning to press for the demands of payment of outstanding dues, scale upgrade and implementation of service structure.”
Saudi Arabia, Ryadh: 32 workers arrested in rare workers demo
South Africa, Western Cape: police station and library torched in land squat attempt Once again, the demagogic EFF were involved in this, but it’s unlikely that they were the only participants.
25/3/18:
Greece, Athens: 3 cop cars destroyed in anarchist attack on police station “At around the same time, a group of hooded anarchists attacked the riot police unit stationed in the corner of Patission and Tositsa streets in Athens, next to the National Technical University of Athens. The assailants threw molotov cocktails and rocks at the police. The exchange of fire bombs and tear gas between the two sides lasted for almost three hours.”
US, California: prison riot
Niger, Niamey: heavy clashes between state and protesters at banned demo against new tax on poor; TV station reporting clashes closed down by state
Canada, Ontario: antifas clash with cops in counter-demo against racists supporting local businesses that had been attacked on 3/3/18
Brazil, Fortaleza: courthouse & municipal building torched, 45 motorbikes & a dozen cars burnt The official line is that this is part of a war between drug gangs, but do drug gangs torch courthouses and municipal buildings as part of their rivalry?
24/3/18:
UK, Bolton: it’s just not cricket
Vietnam, Dong Nai Province: 1000s of footwear workers on wildcat strike blockade major highway and win temporary victory “A total of 314 wildcat strikes took place across the country last year, with disgruntled workers demanding better pay and working conditions and protesting against overtime, according to the Vietnam General Confederation of Labor. The number was up by nearly 10 percent from the previous year”
South Africa, Johannesburg: roads blocked, clashes with cops, during attempt to occupy land Unfortunately this involves the political racket, the EFF, though it’s not clear how much involvement they have had in this.
23/3/18:
US, California: traffic blocked as protests against cop killing of black guy continues
France, La Réunion: bins etc. burnt, as over 200 youths party-riot through the night
22/3/18:
South Africa, Western Cape: housing and service delivery protests turn “violent”
US, California: 100s block freeways and 1000s from entering basketball game in anger at another cop killing of unarmed black guy
France, Montpellier: occupation at the Law Faculty attacked very violently by masked fascists led by the Dean Apparently, the Dean asked the cops to go in, but they said they’d only go in with the agreement of the Prefecture, which refused to order them in. So the Dean sent in 20 masked and hooded fascist students, including professors (one being a professor of health law, no less), to beat the shit out of the occupying students, using truncheons, tasers, etc. The Dean then locked himself up with these hooded scum inside the faculty, protecting them from the police who had just arrived. 3 students were hospitalised. Undoubtedly the best lesson in law studies that the students could ever have, including “health law”: “justice” is determined not by “rights” but by the balance of force(s), and the same goes for health (though very differently). Added 26/3/18: The Dean has now been forced to resign; apparently 4 professors were involved in the fascist violence; and no-one was kept in hospital for longer than 24 hours. The university authorities have temporarily closed down the Faculty of Law and the Faculty of Science. The main student resistance is at Paul Valery (Faculty de Lettres – basically, all the “liberal” subjects such as sociology, art, etc.) The fascists are likely to continue their defence of “education” however, despite the fact that, because of the massive media focus on this unprecedented attack (unprecedented in post-WWll bourgeois demockracies, at least) some of their number have so shitted themselves that they’ve decided it best to grass up their fellow fascists…clashes on demos in Nantes, Rennes & Paris during one-day so-called “general strike”…Video of cops using water cannon etc in Nantes …Video of Paris…new president of Socialist Party forced, by boos & projectiles, to leave demo…Lots of high schools and universities blockaded…Toulouse: university occupation threated with intervention of riot cops…Some details in French here Paris: “Railway and public sector workers gathered this Thursday afternoon in Paris [while the demonstration called at Nation at 11am split after a few hundred meters into two wild and angry demonstrations that re-grouped at the Gare de l’Est…] But also in nearly 180 towns in France. According to the Ministry of the Interior some 320,000 people were mobilized 400,000 according to the CGT. This mobilization was followed in the SNCF [France’s railways] but also in schools and air transport. Students and high school students also initiated a mobilization on March 22, the fiftieth anniversary of the student uprising that launched the events of May 1968…a bank branch was “ransacked”…Disruptive elements clash with the police…Police respond with water cannon and tear gas…An insurance agency on Beaumarchais Boulevard is targeted by hooded “casseurs”, breaking the window and entering the premises…projectiles fired at the police … They responded using teargas grenades…a vehicle was set on fire…hooded groups attacked two bank branches and billboards and threw projectiles at the CRS. Shortly before noon, the police charged the protesters and used tear gas.” Should be pointed out that there were lots of public sector workers who did not go on strike – in some sections, a majority. Nantes: “…clashes occur between a few hundred protesters and police…projectiles and paint were thrown onto the facade of the police station…at the prefecture, the demonstrators were greeted by water hoses. “We’ll keep going, we’re not afraid of getting wet,” the crowd chanted. The police repeatedly used tear gas, causing panic… Numerous firecrackers, smoke bombs and projectiles…degradations and tags…”
“Dead for nothing…” – tag on war memorial, Nantes
This strike was called above all by the CGT union, a critique of which is now largely taboo in the so-called anti-authoritarian milieu in France. For a critical history of the CGT up until the end of the 2016 movement against the labour law, which I wrote a few months ago, see this.
…Grenoble: cops beat up protesters against Frontex “150 people gathered in front of IMAG building of the University of Grenoble, in which was held a university symposium of those enacting the militarization of the borders (Frontex, Euromed police, Europol, etc) which was titled “From Frontex to Frontex , towards the emergence of a new European body of coast guards “. In particular, the President of Euromed Police and the Director of Legal Affairs of Frontex were present. Slogans, a press table and leafleting were on the agenda that afternoon. The organizers of the conference chose to keep it under police surveillance, the entrances being infiltrated by members of the BAC. Around 4 pm, the group of more than thirty people went to the conference room to disrupt the intervention of the head of Euromed police, and to appeal to the members of the conference. Participants then opened the doors to the protesters who came in, chanting slogans for about ten minutes and leaving time for a tag in the room saying “FRONTEX kills”. Police in riot gear intervened, hitting protesters without warning to get them out. Blocked against a wall, dozens of people had to face the police without being able to avoid blows. Many people were injured and some of them had to be hospitalized. It seems that there were no arrests.“
21/3/18:
Zambia, Lusaka: students riot; 333 arrested
Tunisia, Gafsa: cop station torched during sit-in, after sit-inners prevent phosphate workers going to work See entry for 18/3/18
Spain, Madrid: cops injured as Senegalese migrants help fellow migrant resist arrest “When agents of the Municipal Police have tried to identify a person who threatened them, several people have started throwing stones, objects and chairs against the agents.” See entry for 15/3/18.
Greece Athens: clashes during anti-foreclosure protests
20/3/18:
South Africa, KwaZulu Natal: lectures suspended after heavy clashes between students and campus “security” “A group of around 200 students disrupted lectures, demanding that their fellow students join the protest action.The students say poor conditions at the residences and problems with the payout of some students’ National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS) allowances led to the protests….Another student from the Westville residence said living conditions there were deplorable. “There has been flooding and no repairs. The roof is not fixed and we are tired of living this way”
Bolivia: clashes with state following siege of coca plant control building “The siege of the APEPCOCA grounds began eight days ago…headed by female coca growers.” Video here
19/3/18:
US, Hollywood: a critique of celebrities? “The “You Are the Star” mural sits at Wilcox Avenue and Hollywood Boulevard. It features classic Hollywood legends like Charlie Chaplin, James Dean and Richard Pryor sitting in the audience at a theater looking at the viewer of the mural. Someone painted yellow bars over the faces of several stars, including Marilyn Monroe, Clark Gable and Shirley Temple, among others. Other walls and street objects in the area were also vandalized. The same yellow paint was also splashed on the Hollywood Walk of Fame near Art Linkletter’s star. A trail of yellow footprints leads away from the spill.” See also “blinded by stars” “The celebrity is the role model broadcast non-stop advertising the positive value of total identification with modern alienation….the carrot of “fame” … invariably makes even those who reach stardom at best comfortable and complacent towards their unhappiness.”
Indonesia, Sulawesi: locals clash with cops as state demolishes houses “The clash began when the execution team, comprising thousands of police and military personnel, was intercepted by a group of women who protested the demolition…Later, the residents and the police and military joint troops shoved each other. The residents also threw rocks at the police, prompting them retaliate with tear gas. The tear gas failed to stop the residents, who went on to burn tires on the streets.”
South Africa, KwaZulu Natal: toll gate workers on strike burn tyres at some tollgates
France, Toulouse: up to 100 youths attack cops with stones, fruit and veg, trying to stop arrest…2 youths cut down high surveillance camera post
18/3/18:
Tunisia, Gafsa region: 2nd day of clashes with cops as locals demand jobs and investment “On Saturday night, police fired tear gas at protesters who tried to block trains that were transporting phosphate. Sunday’s protest, attended by many young men and women, broke down into clashes after some demonstrators threw stones at police, who again used tear gas to disperse the crowd.”
17/3/18:
Israel/Palestine, Jerusalem: 1,500 march against planned deportation of 40,000 asylum seekers. See also this analytical text about migrants in Greece & Germany.
16/3/18:
India, Maharashtra: farmers occupy land they’d been manipulated to sell in scam
Senegal, Mbour: over 120 schoolkids hospitalised due to teargas inhilation after cops clash with striking taxi drivers
Iran: list of mainy proletarian protests going on over last 2 days (from a repulsive pro-Western “demockracy” site, which nevertheless has interesting information, even if published for utterly opportunist reasons)
15/3/18:
Spain, Madrid: migrants riot against cops after cops murder migrant fly pitcher… This says the filth beat him on the head until he was unconscious and adds, “for this reason they had a salary increase”. Should be pointed out that over the last few years throughout the world, there have been several riots by illegal street vendors against heavy cop clampdowns; those lowest in the hierarchy are always subject to the worst intensification of state/economic terror in order to frighten those above them into subservience for fear of sliding further down the slippery pole. Equally, the lies about those lower in the hierarchy give those above them some pretense to some innate superiority to compensate for their passivity towards their own misery.
France: several universities blockaded – Bordeaux…Montpellier…Toulouse…Rennes…Nantes…Besancon: “…several inscriptions on the walls of the college from the start of movement: “Let’s be wild; We are nothing let’s be crazy; What do you learn in college, if not to submit?; We are not students, we are delinquents; Let’s live let’s block everything.” To the usual tags done during the occupations at night or in the middle of a “normal” day of classes was added the destruction of various instruments of technological alienation: more than 40 computer screens were smashed in three computer rooms in the Mégevand area; in other rooms overhead projectors were torn from the ceiling, damaged and stolen. At the Arsenal area rooms were sprayed with extinguishers. In addition, food and beverage dispensers and coffee machines were regularly emptied and ransacked. The damage amounts to tens of thousands of euros.In addition, the offices of the Dean of literature André Mariage and head of the administrative staff Thierry Liégeois, were tagged and their locks glued.”
…probably others. In Montpellier, students cut off electricity to the admin block. These blockades and occupations are against a new law intensifying selection for university places. Included in the criteria for selection will now be such things as showing how much voluntary work you’ve done – i.e your being prepared to be a total arse-licking slave….Lyon: football fans clash with cops
UK, Brighton: students occupy half-built accommodation block in solidarity with lecturers’ strike and against 75% rent increases…Nottingham: another student occupation…Glasgow: and yet another Updates on these occupations etc. here. Depressingly there doesn’t seem to be any critique of the form and content of what passes for “education” at all, the goal of which is to support, in a vast variety of ways, the totality of hierarchical power, class society, the commodity economy and the roles necessary to merely survive, producing and consuming our alienation. Is it that all the marxists, libertarian communists, anarchists and whateverists involved in these events feel the need to uncritically support some vaguely radical action in order to later win people over to their more radical critique or have they long repressed this critique? Are they cowards or have they adopted a political mentality that sees struggles in terms of stages and feel fearful of “alienating” those who merely want a temporarily easier adaptation to their alienation. Of course, the attacks of capital on pensions etc. and its constant creation of financial insecurity for those not at the top of the shitheap has to be resisted, but it’s obvious that it’s not enough. How can one expect anything to advance if you don’t contribute to this advancement? How come there’s no critique of the lecturer role, the intensification of reification by “science”, the distortion of creativity by the arts, the use of leftist “critical” sociology by the powers-that-be, etc. etc. Sure, everyone has to find a way of surviving, of making money, but reducing struggle – particularly in the university – to just that ignores a million questions. Response to this on the Cautiously Pessimistic site or below in the comments box . Also, this (below).See also this – academia, sociology & the muddle class, written in 2012; though obviously not sufficient it’s maybe some kind of framework or springboard for developing in relation to current struggles.
South Africa, KwaZulu Natal: farms torched, roads barricaded with burning tyres, after poacher is shot dead by security guard
14/3/18:
Bolivia, Santa Cruz: state kills 6 prisoners in prison riot “…a group of inmates set fire to containers and began shooting at the police when they became aware of the operation”
Morocco, Jerada: clashes between cops and locals, including miners, protesting about safety after a series of “accidental” deaths in mines. Video here Cops are using jihadist tactics against the miners etc: driving their cop vans at high speed at protesters; several injured, but protesters throw stones etc. at cops…this (in English) says that 5 cop cars were torched
US: brief school walkouts throughout country in protest against gun laws As I said back in February: It’s difficult to unweave the subtleties (or lack of them) of the NRA v. liberal gun control debate – but from the point of view of radical opposition neither side makes sense, surprise surprise. Trump, at the end of February, declared he would have law enforcement seize the arms of anyone who (through the eyes of whatever means the US government possesses) constitutes what the government deems to be a threat, without due process. All the focus on “gun control”, without looking at how the state will selectively enforce such control according to its own needs and criteria, merely reinforces the illusion of the state as protector. What convenient selection of gun control could this mean? At the moment one can only speculate. But it could well mean that antifa groups like the Redneck Rebels could be disarmed (perhaps using statutes originally created to attack “criminal gangs”) while ultra-right filth like the now legally bulletproof Bundys will get a green light or even be allowed in as part of the posse. And how will they enforce this “gun control”? Probably by the use of even more highly technified, intrusive and slimey means of collecting information, and even more aggressive physical invasions of property (infoshops, squats, homes). All this contributes to repressing a community of resistance the growth of which would be the main atmosphere which could help stop the increased atomisation of increasingly mad and even psychotic individuals submissive to the individualist tastes produced by this insane society. [my thanks to G. for most of this]
South Africa, Cape Town: street barricaded with burning tyres as informal settlers resist cop demolition of shacks
Greece, Lesbos: anti-cop riot in migrant camp “the clashes broke out after some 150 people started to protest that they were trapped in the camp indefinitely and charged at police who arrived at the center, and set fires to dumpsters.” See also this analytical text about migrants in Greece & Germany.
Germany, Donauwörth: about 50 migrants clash with cops most of the day trying to prevent deportation of migrant denied asylum
13/3/18:
Panama, Colon: cop car burnt during riot and general strike against lack of infrastructure “Demonstrators are angry over what they see as the slow pace of a project to revitalize Colon’s collapsed sewer system, deficient water supply and crumbling housing. Ditches left open for protracted periods have regularly filled with dirty water and flooded streets, giving off a foul stench and making life more unpleasant in an already dilapidated city. A march called by a social and labor movement ended without incident in the city center. Protest leader Edgardo Voitier called on supporters to return to the streets Wednesday and announced that a general strike in Colon province would continue for another 24 hours. But splinter groups of protesters broke off and threw rocks at police, set at least one patrol car aflame, burned tires and wooden pallets and looted some businesses.”
Senegal, St.Louis: clashes between students and state over non-payment of grants…Yeumbeul: state sector high school & middle school students on strike in support of teachers’ demands in confrontations with private schools scabbing on strike This report is, probably deliberately, confusing, saying that the school students were denouncing the strike at the same time as supporting the teachers against the state. Reading between the lines, the “denunciation’ is more of the state forcing the teachers to strike because the state hasn’t honored its contract with them…Fatick: school students clash with cops over same issue
Algeria, Constantine: students, trying to blockade university, clash with cops during 5th month on strike protesting withdrawal of guarantee of post graduation jobs
Iran, Tabriz: clashes with state during annual fire festival, now banned (video)
Iran fire festival
UK, York: another student occupation in solidarity with lecturers…Dundee: and yet another. See also comment below.
Eire, Dublin: students occupy dining hall in movement against £450 fee for resitting exams“Yesterday was the third day of protest over the issue: students had previously blocked access to the Book of Kells and blockaded entrances to the university.”
France, Mayotte (French overseas department): immigrants riot, burn cars, as local population embark on reactionary general strike against immigration…Bordeaux: 82 prisoners refuse to return to cells after exercise yard “free” association, in protest at changes to exercise time (3 hours once, rather than 1½ hours twice a day)
Mali, Bamako: Algerian embassy attacked and partly burnt during demo by people from Mali expelled from Algeria
12/3/18:
UK, Cambridge: 30 students occupy part of uni in solidarity with lecturers’ strike These people are from “Cambridge Defend Education” – well , I suppose an occupation is giving them a bit of an education, but what is currently defined as “education” is mostly, with a few exceptions, merely inculcation into some precarious role necessary for maintaining the fundamentally anti-educational weight of this society, not worth defending at all. And defence of Cambridge university is a defence of elitism at its worst.
11/3/18:
Zimbabwe, Mutasa: high school students riot on 3rd day of demos against expulsion of students for drug possession “Security guards and school authorities who tried to restrain the riotous students were pelted with an assortment of missiles. The students vandalised the security fence around the learning area”
Venezuela, Valera: demonstrations in several parts of city against electricity cuts are followed by riots and looting of various shops and a major shopping centre
Iran, Tehran: clashes between students and state’s morality filth over imprisonment of students
Bangladesh, Gazipur: garment workers in new clash with state and bosses “Workers of ATS Apparels Ltd observed strike and staged a demonstration in front of their factory as their arrears were not paid in due time, which ended on Saturday. The demonstration turned violent when police tried to disperse the workers. Meanwhile, the agitated workers vandalized the factory and blockaded the Dhaka-Tangail highway. Nur-e-Alam Siddiqui, assistant superintendent of industrial police in Gazipur, said: “Police fired several rounds of rubber bullets and tear gas shells to bring the situation under control.” He added that seven police members were injured in the clash. The injured workers and policemen were admitted to several local hospitals and clinics.”
10/3/18:
South Africa: a critique of the electoral circus? ” A voting station in the Free State was torched and several others closed across the country on the first day of voter registration… In the Free State, a tent erected as a temporary voting station in Harrismith was burnt down, another was stolen in Kroonstad by residents and a third was demolished and destroyed by residents… In Gauteng, seven voting stations in Ward 55 in Katlehong, on the East Rand, were affected by ongoing community protests; Community residents in Ntabankulu in the Eastern Cape shutdown activities in voting stations…Parts of Wonderkop in the North West were also closed; Gazebos had to be erected by staff in Tongaat in KwaZulu-Natal when communities threatened landlords of venues used by the IEC; Dunoon residents in the Western Cape forced an evacuation of election staff by police; One tent was vandalised overnight and another stolen in Kimberly, Northern Cape; On-going protest over municipal demarcation in Vuwani, Limpopo have affected 10 voting stations which remain closed”
Greece, Thessaloniki: cops throw stun grenades & teargas 2000 anarchists protesting nationalism “…the anarchists… barricaded themselves at the University of Thessaloniki. Police are prohibited by law from entering the campus to make arrests. The gathering of Balkan anarchists was organized after far-right activists burned down an anarchist collective’s premises during a January rally protesting the use of the name Macedonia by Greece’s northern neighbor.” Videos here. “Black-clad rioters were seen throwing petrol bombs, fireworks and other missiles at Greek police”
9/3/18:
Mexico, Durango: clashes as locals and others resist construction of cyanide factory “For hours, in the town of Dinamita, of the Aurora Ejido, in the municipality of Gómez Palacio, residents of this community blocked the road that connects to the Chemours Company, dedicated to processing cyanide, which announced that it would manufacture 65 thousand tons of this chemical a year, which alarmed the public. At the beginning, talks began so that the demonstrators could withdraw; however, minutes later, the security forces were attacked with sticks and stones, to which the anti-riot group of the Preventive Police reacted, resulting in three of the protesters being arrested and four officers injured.“
8/3/18:
Brazil, Rio: 800 landless women & supporters occupy media giant’s newspaper HQ
Cambodia, Kratie province: 8 villagers killed by security forces backing rubber plantation company’s destruction of village “…the authorities “confiscated our smart phones and destroyed them,” apparently in a bid to prevent video of the incident from being made public….The Kratie provincial government also released a press statement denying the claims and calling earlier reports “fake news.”
South Africa, Pretoria: evicted informal settlers block roads with burning tyres etc.…Western Cape: students block roads, clash with cops, in protest against lack of accommodation
7/3/18:
India, Tamil Nadu: 1000s block major highway, clash with cops after cop causes death of pregnant woman “The situation turned violent as some of the agitators started pelting stones at some other police vehicles. The police too retaliated with lathi charge to clear the protestors, severely injuring many.”…Aurangabad: cops injured in clashes over waste dump “The villagers also pelted stones at the trucks dumping garbage and police vehicles. They also set ablaze two vehicles.”
Greece: more protests against home auctions
6/3/18:
France, Bordeaux: riot cops called by uni admin to violently evict students during General Assembly and amphitheatre occupation…Marseille: 40 youths surround and throw stones at cops during arrest
Ivory Coast, M’Bahiakro: public buildings (including gendarmerie and sub-prefecture) ransacked & burned by youths after discovery of victim of ritual killing
Colombia, Bogota: major street closed, windows & bus stop smashed, part of university wrecked in demo against reduced university funding.
See also this anarchist report
US, W.Virginia: school teachers win wage rise for all state workers…paid for out of cuts to Medicaid (wonderful!) Report on end of strike here.…Illinois: part of university occupied in protest against underfunding
UK, Somerset: 100s of construction workers occupy nuke power building site over unpaid wages
5/3/18:
Italy, Florence: centre of town smashed up a bit by 100 or so migrants furious about racist murder of Senegales street seller by shopkeeper
Argentina, Bariloche: cops fire teargas & rubber bullets after courthouse attacked, bank windows smashed, cops attacked with sticks following court decision to extradite Mapuche chief to Chile
US, Michigan: antifas clash with fascists…Wisconsin: street shut down by 100s demonstrating support for illegal immigrants outside House Speaker’s offices
UK, Exeter: students occupy admin building in pensions movement…Bristol: similar events here
Australia, High Wycombe: school closed due to vandalism
1970s graffiti:
“VANDALS – ‘The urge to destroy is a creative urge’ SIGNED: BAKUNIN, MARX, the Situationists, the insurgents of Watts ’65, FRANCE MAY ’68, Port Talbot ’69, PORTUGAL ’74-’75, SOWETO & HULL ’76”
4/3/18:
Iran, Haft Tapeh (Khûzistân): management flee their building after workers smash windows in conflict over unpaid wages
US, W.Virginia: a 2nd section of this state’s working class go on strike
3/3/18:
Bosnia: 4th day of blockading of main junctions connecting cities throughout country by vets demanding benefits for unemployed former soldiers
France, Bure: clashes renewed at this nuclear waste site following expulsion Seems that there’s an element of fixated activism on the part of these militants – the land is barren and besides, many of the people in the area have been bought off, and without that support, the struggle against this nuclear waste site seems like banging your head against a brick wall just to show how radical you are.
Canada, Ontario: yuppie businesses attacked on anti-gentrification demo “a masked mob caused an estimated $100,000 in property damage….”On Saturday night, I met up with a group of people in the Durand neighbourhood, strolled along Aberdeen and up some of the side streets attacking the luxury cars and mansions we found there, making noise with a portable sound system and loads of fireworks,” the post reads. “The march then turned down Locke and attacked as many yuppie businesses as we could before deciding to disperse.”
2/3/18:
US, W.Virginia: teachers vote to occupy state capitol… as “wildcat” school strike continues In fact, according to this fairly detailed take on the strike, “Rather than a wildcat, this has been and remains an illegal strike with the full support and participation of the 3 trade unions involved.” However, as far as I can tell, this is “wildcat” in the sense that the main bureaucracy has not officially given it its blessing, but the local union has. In fact, the “leadership” at state level seems to be playing a confusing 2-faced, “wanting their cake and eating it”-type game – if this report is anything to go by, though this is probably justified by them on the basis of not wanting to be taken to court and receiving a hefty fine: “…the wildcat strike has the support of the teacher unions’ leadership. “The union leadership is still negotiating with the state, the governor and with the strikers…When the continuation [of the strike] was announced, yes it was a wildcat. And yes, even though those extra days have not been authorized by the union, the union leadership is going to stand by its members”. More here “It gets emotional for us, because West Virginia is deep, history runs deep, and strikes are not unknown to our working people here…People died on the lines fighting for what they believe in.” It’s good to be reminded of the fact that when people start to move a bit, when they start to make history a bit, they also begin to rediscover the history of past movements. However, it’s also indicative of this thoroughly counter-revolutionary epoch that the hierarchical form and ruling ideological content of education is largely unquestioned, very rarely subject to critique even amongst “anarchists”, as it was so often during the late 60s – 80s: historical memory has yet to reach such depths.
Eire, Dublin: Lidl looted More here “Stolen substantial digging equipment was used to bulldoze into the side of a Lidl store in Tallaght in Dublin, and the store was then looted, including the store’s safe which the criminals attempted to break open using that same digging equipment. Gardaí later confirmed that six people were arrested at this scene, with a further three arrested at another looting scene at a Centra Store in Jobstown, at which someone who cut open the shutters with a con saw….the first responding officers to arrive were then attacked by people at the scene, and the Gardai drew ASPs (batons) and pepper spray for personal protection but did not use them and were forced to retreat. Civil Defence and Defence Force trucks and snowploughs had to be utilised to bring Garda reinforcements to the scene and arrests were then made.”
Nigeria, Anambra: 2 youths and cop killed, cop vehicle destroyed, in clashes at club “The trouble started about 4:30pm on Friday when a Hilux vehicle owned by SARS [Special Anti-Robbery Squad] parked at the famous joint in the village known as Guzoro Ministry with the policemen harassing people. Their action allegedly infuriated the youths who had earlier last two months held a peaceful protest and rejected the services of the police, SARS or any law enforcement agency in the community. They barricaded the arena and resisted any attempt to arrest any patron of the joint, an act which did not go down with the SARS operatives. The operatives allegedly shot five youths, which infuriated the youths leading to a riot and the death of one SARS officers. Their Hilux van was sent ablaze, which forced the security operatives to flee the community.”
1/3/18:
Nepal, Hetauda: community cop station attacked, 5 cops injured
Greece, Athens: list of interesting actions in solidarity with anarchist prisoner on hunger & liquids strike See also entry for 28/2/18. Hunger/thirst strike won
US, W.Virginia: teachers’/school employees’ strike becomes a wildcat as strikers reject union sell-out (see entry 2/3/18 above for modified take on this)
…Nevada: well-executed detournement of gun ad It’s difficult to unweave the subtleties (or lack of them) of the NRA v. liberal gun control debate – but from the point of view of radical opposition neither side makes sense, surprise surprise. Trump, at the end of February, declared he would have law enforcement seize the arms of anyone who (through the eyes of whatever means the US government possesses) constitutes what the government deems to be a threat, without due process. All the focus on “gun control”, without looking at how the state will selectively enforce such control according to its own needs and criteria, merely reinforces the illusion of the state as protector. What convenient selection of gun control could this mean? At the moment one can only speculate. But it could well mean that antifa groups like the Redneck Rebels could be disarmed (perhaps using statutes originally created to attack “criminal gangs”) while ultra-right filth like the now legally bulletproof Bundys will get a green light or even be allowed in as part of the posse. And how will they enforce this “gun control”? Probably by the use of even more highly technified, intrusive and slimey means of collecting information, and even more aggressive physical invasions of property (infoshops, squats, homes). All this contributes to repressing a community of resistance the growth of which would be the main atmosphere which could help stop the increased atomisation of increasingly mad and even psychotic individuals submissive to the individualist tastes produced by this insane society. [my thanks to G. for most of this] See also this.
…Arizona: massive prison riot; 1 dead “…hundreds of inmates attacked guards and set fires…Some threw rocks, lit mattresses and other property on fire and some broke into the prison’s health care unit. The damage included broken windows, sinks, toilets, fire alarms and flooding.”
UK, Reading: students occupy vice chancellor’s office building in solidarity with lecturers’ pension struggle More on these struggles here
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