february 2020

SS164TR

“February, fill the dyke

With what thou dost like”

Thomas Tusser

“February

Makes me wary

The Days Vary

Sometimes Merry

Sometimes Scary”

– May Duppe

2020  2019  2018  2017  2016  2015  2014  2013

January 2020 hereMarch 2020 here

From now on, the “News” pages will be updated sporadically, probably only once a week.

For those desperate to get information each day, I recommend:

https://www.newsnow.co.uk/h/

(type in “clash police” or “wildcat strike” or “riot” or whatever into the search  box at the top and you’ll get lots of headlines with those words in them; make sure you get the right wording – “riots” will get you different headlines from “riot”, “lashes police” will get you different headlines from “clashes police”)

https://berthoalain.com/about/

(a French site with lots of links and videos to English or other language sites; on the right hand side there’s a list of links to specific situations, including stuff like ethnic riots or things that have nothing independent about them; you click on them and get several links dealing with the events of any particular day)  

Obviously there are other sites, but you’ll probably do your own research if you want the very latest information, and if you want to –  post information in the comments boxes  below.

There are obviously significant limits to providing links to information about situations I know little about. Some of this might give people the idea that struggle is advancing or happening far more than it in fact is, and may even blind people to the contradictions and complexities of any specific situation. However, despite the inevitable limitations,  I will continue to put up links if only as a method of keeping a record of events, though this will be reduced compared  with previous years.

“Reading the morning newspaper is the realist’s morning prayer. One orients one’s attitude toward the world either by God or by what the world is. The former gives as much security as the latter, in that one knows how one stands. ”

Hegel

29/2/20:

US, California: Report on week of student walk-outs in support of disciplined teacher

Greece, Athens: report on events round the Athens University of Economics following cops storming university to rescue gun-toting off-duty cop

France, Le Havre: HQ of Prime Minister Philippe’s local election campaign stoned and tagged whilst government bypasses parliament to Thatcherise France by pushing through attack on workers’ pensions

“Philippe has got a fever – put him in quarantine!”

28/2/20:

Colombia, Santander: university closes as cop motorbike is torched during clashes

27/2/20:

Canada, Ontario: another rail blockade in solidarity with Wet’suwet’en

25/2/20:

Canada, Ontario:  24-hour rail blockade in solidarity with Wet’suwet’en More here

Greece, Athens: clashes with cops after cops harass migrant street vendors

24/2/20:

India, Delhi: head constable plus 3 protesters killed in increasingly heavy anti-CAA demos

“Authorities have imposed prohibitory orders under Section 144 of the Criminal Procedure Code (a government order which prohibits assembly of more than four people in public places) at 10 locations in the northeast district of Delhi. The Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) closed the entry and exit gates of Jaffrabad and Maujpur-Babarpur stations – the areas affected by violence. Trains will not be halting at these stations. Clashes in the area were triggered on Sunday after a leader of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) issued an ultimatum to police to remove the anti-citizenship sit-ins. “BJP leader Kapil Mishra’s men yesterday came to Jaffrabad and incited people and threatened people who are protesting the citizenship law. Police were there but did nothing,” said a Delhi-based activist Nadeem Khan, who visited Jaffrabad. “Members of various right-wing organisations, brought from various places, threw stones on people’s homes and beat locals. It’s clearly an organised, preplanned attack.””

See also this: From a working class perspective a liberal-left response that targets the ‘fascist BJP’ as the main aggressor against ‘the Muslim community’ is dangerous for the following reasons:

a) Because it let’s the ‘democratic’ state and its representative parties like Congress off the hook. The current situation is bad, but nothing compared to the massacre that the ‘democratic’ Congress Party organised against Sikhs in 1984, or the violence of the CPI(M) against anyone who would oppose their industrial investment plans. This is not about comparing ‘evil’, it is about emphasising that ‘pogroms’ and ‘democratic state rule’ are not mutually exclusive and that therefore, an ‘anti-fascist’ response only goes so far.
b) Because it neglects the influence of the ‘Muslim middle-class’ and its political and religious representatives. These forces have an interest in portraying ‘Muslims’ as a community whose cross-class interests outweigh its inner class-contradictions. These forces have been mobilising anti-government protests in response to the new ‘anti-Muslim legislation’ and have an interest in state violence against them. Instead of rallying behind them and other political profiteers (‘democratic’ parties like the CPI etc.) we have to propose working class self-defense.
c) Because it misses the chance to strengthen working class unity against religious or caste politics. In working class neighbourhoods like Faridabad, Kapashera and Okhla ‘Hindu’ and ‘Muslim’ workers live and work side by side, in particular in the garment sector. Currently there is little tension in these areas. The violence takes place largely in areas with a significant Muslim middle-class. In recent years we have witnessed waves of struggles that undermined divisive politics, in particular the division between male and female workers. In the face of a state that wants to provoke communitarian feelings (the BJP lost regional elections recently), this is what we should emphasise.”

Canada: Call for emergency demonstration in support of indigenous communities facing police interventions throughout country

23/2/20:

Mexico, Mexico City: Supreme Court stormed & vandalized as hundreds march against femicide

US, Seattle: solidarity action with Wet’suwet’en anti-oilpipe movement attacked by cops

22/2/20:

France, Lille: heavy yellow vest clashes with cops

21/2/20:

US, California: students raid dining hall to distribute food for free during solidarity action with wildcat strike  More here and here

The graduate students are represented by United Auto Workers Local 2865, which negotiated a contract in 2018 that got them a 3% wage increase and included a no-strike clause – meaning this current strike, known as a “wildcat strike”, has been taken without the union’s approval. More than 80% of the members on campus voted against the contract initially. The administration has cited this as a reason for not negotiating with the graduate students. “To accede to the demands of a group of employees engaged in an unauthorized wildcat strike would undercut the very foundation of an agreement negotiated in good faith by the UAW and ratified by thousands of members across the system… Meanwhile, the movement is growing. Talk of “spread the strike” has begun at UC Davis, UC Irvine, UC San Diego, UC Riverside and UC Merced”

Canada: various texts etc. over the last month related to the  rail-blockades and other actions in support of Wet’suwet’en indigenous tribes against oil pipeline –

Trudeau says barricades must come down

Blockades in Canada Point To Climate Solution

Rail-lines blocked on south shore of Montreal

Report on Shutdown of Canada’s Second-Largest Rail Yard

Rail blockade at St-Pascal du Kamouraska

Twitter accounts:

#Cuzzins for Wet’suwet’en

#WetsuwetenSolidarity

#WetsuwentenStrong

Alicia Elliott

 #ShutDownCanada

Mainstream account of damage to their economy caused by movement

Family day field trip shuts down thousand islands border crossing

Toronto solidarity railway action

Olympia- new poster in solidarity with Wetsuweten

Another blockade

Seattle: rail lines blockaded in solidarity

Toronto blocks rail lines

Train blockades and Canadian railway history

Wet’suwet’en supporters block rails

Reconciliation is dead – a strategic proposal  

Reflections on solidarity and on recent rail disruptions

Motorway blocked in solidarity

Solidarity with Wet’suwet’en action

 

UK: any attempt to change things even slightly and weakly now referred to anti-radicalisation section of the increasingly totalitarian state

“A range of guidance documents drawn up by the counter-terrorism policing network and featuring environmental groups were sent to teachers, doctors and other public sector workers, encouraging them to refer concerns to Prevent….Public sector workers, including teachers and doctors, are under a legal duty to refer to Prevent any individual they suspect could be vulnerable to radicalisation.”

You might  as well be hanged for a sheep as for a lamb…

20/2/20:

Germany, Stuttgart: town hall stormed in wake of fascist terror in Hanau

“…more than a thousand people took part in a gathering organized by “Stuttgart against the Right” to protest the far right terrorist attack in Hanau. Afterwards, about 600 of them took to the streets in rage against Nazi terror and its systematic trivialisation and moved across the main shopping street to city hall. On the way, pyrotechnics were lit and people broke through a police line, which was supposed to protect city hall. Activists stormed the already closed Stuttgart city hall through an open emergency exit and visited the offices of the “Alternative for Germany”(AFD) on the third floor. Among other things, posters with slogans such as “Racist hate leads to racist terror” and “You are responsible for Hanau” were pasted on their door and in the hallway.”

18/2/20:

India tries to catch up with China as the avant-garde of repression

“Authorities in Indian-administered Kashmir have filed a police case against social media users under “anti-terror” laws for defying a social media ban using proxy servers. The move has triggered panic among the people of Kashmir, which has been under a security and communication lockdown since August 5, when the Muslim-majority region was stripped of its limited autonomy…A first information report (FIR or police complaint) has been filed against unnamed users under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA). A person booked under the UAPA can be jailed for months without bail.”

UK, London: Guardian report on occupation by Green Anarchists of empty Paddington Green police station See also this

15/2/20:

France, Marseille: Police station attacked after cops shoot and kill youth during robbery

10/2/20:

France, Paris: Black Rock HQ invaded by anti-capitalist environmentalists

India, Delhi: clashes continue over overtly racist Citizenship Amendment Act

South Africa, Free State: reports on  riots over water scarcity  following death of young girl

Canada: report on various activities in support of the movement against the construction of a pipeline

I suspect, judging from the photos and from experience of this site, that the amount of people involved in these actions has been greatly exaggerated, as may be other aspects of this report.

9/2/20:

France, Bordeaux: usual nasty cop attacks on yellow vest demo

More here (videos and links in French)

7/2/20:

UK, London: abandoned high security police station occupied in anti-capitalist ecologist initiative

“The intention is to hold the space and turn it into a community centre, the activities of which will culminate in a week of action against capitalism. This is motivated by the belief that capitalism by its very nature will continue to destroy our planet and ultimately our civilisation. We chose this building because the police have time and again shown that they will gladly break their own laws to suppress any challenge to the entrenched, unjust, systems our society is based on. Only by moving beyond the inherent oppression of capitalism to a system based on co-operation and communality, can we hope to survive in any meaningful way to the end of this century. During the week of action the space will host workshops, skill shares, socials, planning sessions and a wide variety of other informative and entertaining events while also acting as a base from which to launch actions to reclaim our public space from corporations and government, and strike at the very heart of capital. We will show the mega rich and powerful that we will not stand for their greed and corruption.”

Brazil: mainstream report on growing fascism under Bolsonaro

See also this.

6/2/20:

Colombia: student riots in Medellin and Bogota

5/2/20:

US: On the acquittal of Trump

X writes: “…the first, hesitant, belated realization that bourgeois “democracy” as we have known it, is on the rocks. Of course what is really finished, not just here in the US, but around the world, is the pretense that this system, this society and this civilzation, was ever “democratic” in the first place….

I’m driving home from San Francisco and I’m giong down the local expressway, “Capitol”, and a motorcycle cop – Highway Patrol goes by. I have imbibed so much military history, present day arms info and general militaria that I immediately thought something was weird. I recognized the outline of something I just could not believe for a moment, surreptitiously increased my speed so I could get a better look and – blow me down – sticking out the back of the cop’s seat on the left-hand side was the stock and body (the forward part of the gun was  invisible because it was stuck in the holster) – a fucking Heckler und Koch submachine gun! I had never, ever seen a motorcycle cop, who after all is supposed to just stop people for traffic violations, with such a piece of hardware. This fucking place is switching over to full on-fascism awfully quickly.”

3/2/20:

Israel/Palestine: IDF now uses talking drones against protesters

“According to protesters in Qaddum, this is the first time the army has used this kind of drone, which was likely designed by the Chinese company DJI and has a Mavic 2 Enterprise Speaker attached that allows it to play pre-recorded messages. Sharon Weiss, an Israeli activist who was at the demonstration, said the drone told her to “go home” and “don’t stand with the enemy” in Hebrew, before moving on to someone else. “There is almost always a drone at the protests, but this is the first time it spoke to us,” said Weiss. “The goal is to make us understand that they are watching and following us.”” …Criticism of Israeli leftist ideology of non-violence

Greece, Lesbos: clashes between filth and refugees. More here

Germany, Berlin: how to legally create havoc with some mobile phones

Unfortunately, this was paraded as “art”, giving it also the obligatory air of ‘social critique’ in order to boost the image of its  apparent subversive significance and boost the artist’s career at the same time.  Amazing what you can do if you call it “art”. A few years ago a Russian performance artist set fire to the massive door of the KGB in Moscow – and only got 2 years’ imprisonment.  Maybe we should brick up an art gallery and call it “art”.  Over 40 years ago  I went along with some friends to an exhibition at the Royal College of Art next to the Albert Hall and spray-painted anti-art slogans all over the walls (“Art is dead but the student is necrophiliac”, “Art must be directly lived” etc.). When one of the guards came in and politely asked what we were up to, we said, “This is our art – it’s an experiment. We come in and paint all over the wall and another lot come in and paint over our slogans and then we repeat the action and so on…”. The guard, genuinely perplexed, walked off saying, “I’ll just have to check that…”, and we managed to escape by  running off through the library. The problem with these kinds of some of these anti-art acts is that unless they’re connected with a significant critique of the social function of art, they can very easily become just part of the specialised world of art itself, with all its ego-flattering pretensions of inventiveness and creativity. For a more developed critique of art, see The Closed Window Onto Another Life.

Kenya, Kisumu: students riot over increased fees  and arbitrary suspensions

South Africa, KwaZulu Natal: students torch 3 university buildings in movement to abolish student debt More here

 

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