REPRESSION.

     The recent students' protest in London and the expected comments from most of the media and the millionaire controllers of society, for the full weight of the law to be brought down on those nasty protesters who didn't play be their rules, should remind us that the desire for repression is alive and well in this “mother of democracy”.

     Most people have an opinion of what repression is and it is normally seen as something to do with an outrageous violation of rights and it usually happens somewhere foreign and under a dreadful dictator but not here in our “mother of democracy” This illusion is based on the failure to grasp that repression is part and parcel of any class society. In our society, as in any class society, there are those who rule and those who are ruled. It is the state’s function to maintain this structure protecting the privileges of those who rule against the desires of those who are ruled, to do this a combination of coercion and accommodation will be applied. In its drive to maintain the status quo the state will have to continually repress any social movements that attempt to break the rule-ruled, empowered-dis-empowered nature of our society, repression is a necessary and permanent part of the state apparatus.

       The military and the police are two of the main bulwarks of the state and recent years have seen a change in the way that the state deals with dissent. Crime is no longer seen as something done by individuals, it is now a “war-on-crime” this in turn has brought a militarization of the police, armed police on the streets is now seen as commonplace and it is not just small arms, the police can call on ever more powerful fire power. The introduction of the community police has been an attempt to turn the ordinary people into the eyes and ears of the state allowing the state to be more pre-emptive in its approach to dissent.

      The state also infiltrates all organisations of protest and dissent, monitoring and provoking where it feels it would be beneficial to the survival of the state. Infiltration and provocation are not new, we can go back to what is known as the 1820 insurrection, when government agents provoked an uprising in order to deal more severely with its dissenters. The same principles are applied today. The state’s ever changing forms of repression also attempts to link protest to its “war-on-terror” creating a fear among the people and allowing it greater scope to deal with any form of protest or dissent. This is repression of the desires of the ordinary people for change

       In today’s class society repression comes in many varied and subtle ways and to change society for the benefit of all we must confront that repression where ever it is present. We must see protest as our way of taking control of our lives and changing society for the good of all future generations.

 

 

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SELF DEFENCE IS NOT A CRIME- IS IT??

Unity statement -
Defend the right to protest - Defend Education

Now is the time for unity, more so now than at any point in our movement for a better world. The move to privatatise all areas of our lives and work will need maximum unity against their efforts to divide us.

SIGN THE STATEMENT ONLINE NOW AND FORWARD TO YOUR NETWORKS
http://www.petitiononline.com/st53231/petition.html

We need unity to defend education and break the Con Dems’ attacks. Stand with protesters against victimisation.
• Stand with the protestors against victimisation
• Hands off our students, our colleges and our universities
• Broken windows cannot compare to the broken hearts and dreams of a generation denied education and jobs
       Wednesday’s 10th November national NUS/UCU 50,000 strong national demonstration was a magnificent show of strength against the Con Dems’ savage attacks on education. The Tories want to make swingeing cuts, introduce £9,000 tuition fees and cut EMA. These attacks will close the doors to higher education and further education for a generation of young people. During the demonstration over 5,000 students showed their determination to defend the future of education by occupying the Tory party HQ and its courtyards for several hours. At least 32 people have now been arrested, and the police and media appear to be launching a witch-hunt condemning peaceful protesters as “criminals” and violent. A great deal is being made of a few windows smashed during the protest, but the real vandals are those waging a war on our education system.
        We reject any attempt to characterise the Millbank protest as small, “extremist” or unrepresentative of our movement. We celebrate the fact that thousands of students were willing to send a message to the Tories that we will fight to win. Occupations are a long established tradition in the student movement that should be defended. It is this kind of action in France and Greece that has been an inspiration many workers and students in Britain faced with such a huge assault on jobs, housing and the public sector.

We stand with the protesters, and anyone who is victimised as a result of the protest.
Initial signatories include:

Mark Bergfeld, NUS NEC
Sean Rillo Raczka, Birkbeck SU Chair and NUS NEC (Mature Students’ Rep)
Vicki Baars, NUS LGBT Officer (Women’s Place)
Alan Bailey, NUS LGBT Officer (Open Place)
Kanjay Sesay, NUS Black Students’ Officer
Matt Bond, NUS Disabled Ctte (Open Place rep)
Michael Chessum, Education and Campaigns Officer UCL SU
Jade Baker, Education Officer Westminster Uni SU
Cameron Tait, University of Sussex Students' Union President
Nathan Bolton, Campaigns Officer Essex University Students’ Union
Clare Solomon, ULU President
Jim Wolfreys, UCU NEC
Dr Marion Hersh, UCU NEC and Scottish Executive
Alex Gordon, President, National Union of Rail, Maritime & Transport Workers (RMT)
Lee Hall, playwright ‘Billy Elliot’
Hilary Wainwright, Transnational Institute
Alex Callinicos, Professor of European Studies King’s College London
Billy Bragg Songwriter
Noami Klein Author and Activist.
All in a personal capacity

SOLIDARITY.

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DON'T BREAK OUR COMMUNITIES APART!

        
       The free-marketeers ideology gathers pace. Shifting asylum seekers from council housing to private sector housing puts more tax payers money in the pockets of the private sector landlords, apart from the misery and pressure it puts on the individuals and families of those involved.
         The following was taken from; http://www.indymediascotland.org/node/22207
Keep the Contract with Glasgow City Council!
Join the Protest:

Monday 15 November
10.30am
Outside Glasgow City Chambers,
George Square.

Today at a meeting in Cranhill it was confirmed that the first asylum seeker families are to be moved out of Glasgow City Council accommodation starting as early as Monday next week. One family has been told they will be moving on Monday. At least two other families have been told they'll also be leaving accommodation provided by the council next week. On Saturday last week, the 900 plus asylum seeker families who are currently accommodated in housing organised by Glasgow City Council received letters stating that the housing contract from the UK Border Agency to house them had been terminated.

        Staff at the Glasgow Asylum Seeker Support Project were told at 3pm on Friday afternoon after their acting head had received the news in an email. The move has taken everyone involved in supporting asylum seekers in Glasgow completely by surprise and came as a shock to many.

       It is still not known where families are going to be moved to and the confusion is spreading anxiety and alarm through the asylum seeker community in Glasgow. Earlier today the UKBA press office was suggesting that, in the short term at least, the other current accommodation providers in Glasgow, the YMCA charity and the notorious Angel Group, would take on the contract. The letters sent out to the tenants however suggest that they could be relocated to anywhere in Scotland.

        Now facing significant disruption to their housing - and potentially facing being moved away from established friends and supporters as well as from services such as GPs and social workers - asylum seekers in Glasgow are extremely alarmed and concerned about this sudden news. Many are concerned about how their children could be affected if they are moved out of established schools. Many are also worried that they may have to move away from friends and supportive neighbours and community groups, breaking the strong ties that have developed over months and years in communities across the city. Other concerns have also been raised about the ability of the YMCA and the Angel Group to provide adequate accommodation at such short notice.

      Since taking over part of the housing contract in 2006, both the Angel Group and the YMCA, have received criticism over how they have provided accommodation to asylum seekers. The Angel Group, in particular, have had many accusations of providing inadequate housing and its staff giving poor service, made against it.

        UNITY is calling for a protest outside of Glasgow City Chambers of everyone concerned about the sudden ending of the housing contract and against the disruption to our communities and its impact on the lives of our friends and neighbours.

      Come to Glasgow City Chambers at 10.30 Monday 15th November to show your opposition to these developments and to call on the UKBA and Glasgow City Council to resolve any difficulties.

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DEMOCRACY VILLAGE UNDER ATTACK

  
      Activists in Parliament Square, who have been camping out in protest against the war in Afghanistan, are being threatened with eviction in the run up to the Queens Speech next week. They are asking for people to visit them to show support. Send messages to: supportdemoracyvillage@gmail.com
They can also be followed on Twitter at: http://twitter.com/Democracyville

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International Call for Solidarity

International Call for Solidarity: Support the 11 of Lisbon!

     On the 25th of April of 2007, an anti-authoritarian demonstration against fascism and capitalism took place in downtown Lisbon, protesting against the growing influence of fascist groups in Portugal and the attempt to rehabilitate the figure of the former dictator, António de Oliveira Salazar. Several books about Salazar came out back then and a Museum was to be opened in Santa Comba Dão, the place where the dictator was born. A television contest, designed to boost nationalistic and chauvinistic attitudes among the Portuguese people, actually managed to elect Salazar as “the greatest Portuguese of all times”. Besides that, PNR, an ultra right-wing party, involved with nazi skinhead groups, started to show signs of great activity, with a large-scale campaign to increase xenophobia and several street demonstrations, one of which taking place, provocatively, in a known immigrants' quarter downtown Lisbon.

     As a response to the growth of reactionary forces and attitudes in Portuguese society, anarchists organized a big demonstration on the day of the celebration of the Carnation Revolution, the 25th of April, when the fascist dictatorship was overthrown. The demonstration gathered over 500 people, crossed downtown Lisbon, always being closely followed by the police, and halted in Largo de Camões, where most people left. From there, a second demonstration started and, when the demonstrators were descending Rua do Carmo, the riot police closed the street exits, trapped them, and then charged violently. Several people were injured, some of them badly, and 11 of the demonstrators were arrested and now stand for trial, for alleged civil disobedience, verbal abuses, and assault on police officers, risking sentences from six months to five years of imprisonment.

       We ask for the international support and solidarity of all sections and friend of AIT-IWA to spread the news of what's happening, specially among Portuguese communities in their area, and send protest letters, faxes and emails to local Portuguese Embassies, Consulates and interests, performing, if possible, actions in front of them, specially on the days of the Court hearings, but not limited to them. We also appeal to the sending of protest letters, faxes and emails to the Court where the hearings are taking place. 

A model protest letter to be sent:  (it's both in English and Portuguese)

     Vimos por meio da presente carta protestar contra a ida a julgamento dos 11 detidos aquando da realização da manifestação anti-autoritária contra o fascismo e o capitalismo, em 25 de Abril de 2007. Denunciamos o comportamento claramente ofensivo e discriminatório demonstrado pela polícia no decorrer dos acontecimentos, assim como a brutalidade com que a mesma reagiu à manifestação, carregando indiscriminadamente sobre os manifestantes e demais transeuntes presentes na Rua do Carmo, numa acção cujo objectivo manifesto não foi a dispersão da manifestação, mas antes o espancamento do maior número de pessoas possível, posto que todas as saídas da rua foram cortadas pela polícia de forma a não deixar aos manifestantes fuga possível. 

    Afigura-se-nos que as pessoas detidas o foram de forma aleatória e arbitrária, e que a sua ida a tribunal não serve outro propósito que não seja o de mascarar e ilibar a violência policial, culpando os manifestantes pelo sucedido. Consequentemente, exigimos o encerramento deste processo e a absolvição de todos os arguidos. 

             Com os melhores cumprimentos,

…

English translation of the letter:

       We hereby send you the following letter to protest against the trial of the 11 persons arrested during the anti-authoritarian demonstration against fascism and capitalism, which took place on the 25th of April 2007.

We denounce the clearly offensive and discriminatory behavior displayed by the police during the events and its brutal response to the demonstration, charging indiscriminately on demonstrators and bystanders at Rua do Carmo, in an action clearly intended, not to disband the demonstration, but to beat up as many people as possible, for all the street exits were cut off by the police in order to trap the demonstrators and let them no way to escape.

       For us, it seems that the persons arrested during the events were picked randomly and arbitrarily among the demonstrators, and that the charges pressed against them serve no other purpose than to whitewash the police violence, blaming the demonstrators for what happened. Consequently, we demand the closure of this process and the acquittal of all defendants.

                                 Best Regards,
...
Court address:
1º Juízo Criminal
Av. D. João II, nº 1.08.01 - Bloco B
1990-097 Lisboa
Portugal

Email: lisboa.jcr1@tribunais.org.pt  Phone: (+351) 213 505 500 Fax: (+351) 211 545 164

Process Number:  42/07.5PALSB (please mention it on the letters, faxes and emails you send to the Court)

A list of Portuguese Embassies worldwide:
http://www.mne.gov.pt/mne/en/ministerio/organizacoes/embaixadas/

Portuguese Consulates abroad:
http://www.mne.gov.pt/mne/en/infocidadao/pestrangeiro/consulados/

Days of the next Court hearings:
- 20 of April   - 29 of April   - 19 of May
________________________________________
Associação Internacional dos Trabalhadores
Secção Portuguesa
Apartado 50029
1701-001 Lisboa
PORTUGAL
Tel. +351 963 216 840  
 E-mail: aitport@yahoo.com  http://www.ait-sp.blogspot.com/  http://www.freewebs.com/ait-sp/

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