Archive for the Category 'Reports'
Revolutionary perspectives in times of crisis
As in previous years, for the youth organization REVOLUTION the first week of August was filled up by REVOCAMP, an internationalist summer camp for young revolutionaries in Liberec (Czech Republic). This year’s camp was organized jointly by the independent youth organization REVOLUTION and the Revolutionary Socialist Organization (RSO). About 50 participants from the Czech Republic, Austria, Switzerland, Germany, Great Britain and the USA made this camp slightly bigger than last year’s; also, more comrades from groups such as Socialist Workers’ Voice (SAS), Permanent Revolution, and the Left Party youth organization “Linksjugend [‘solid]” were present and a lively political exchange was possible. »»»»
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Will there be a negotiated solution after the coup?
Three weeks ago there was a coup in Honduras – on July 28, President Manuel Zelaya, still in his pajamas, was kidnapped by the army and put on a plane to Costa Rica.
It was the first coup in Latin America since the ousting of the President of Haiti in 2004. Western newspapers spent weeks reporting about the protests against the electoral fraud in Iran on their front pages. Although a democratic mass movement has also been repressed in Honduras; in the eyes of the western media it is of marginal significance. »»»»
Lack of information and unprepared schools forced school students to protest
On Friday, June 19, students went out into the streets of Prague to express their opinions about plans to establish centralized state-wide final exams. Their demonstration was coordinated vie popular social networks, i.e. Facebook. The demonstration started at 12:00 pm on Palacky square. 20 minutes before the beginning of the action the square was really full of students equipped with banners, flutes or ratchets. Those who stood near the statue were able to hear speeches from the organizers. The megaphones on hand were too weak to reach everyone in the crowd, so the others began spontaneously chanting slogans against the state finals. »»»»
A nationwide mobilization of school and university students
After the last major school students’ strike in Germany in November 2008, there were large demonstrations across the country on June 17 in the framework of a week-long “education strike”. The participants nationwide numbered around 250,000: for example, in Berlin alone there were about 27,000 people on the streets, in Hamburg 13,000, in Kiel 3,000 (one week earlier), in Flensburg 2,500… Dresden 3,500 and Bremen 3,000. In over 80 cities people were out on the streets to express their discontent. »»»»
100,000 school students across Germany went on strike on Wednesday, November 12. In more than 40 cities there were rallies and demonstrations instead of classes. In many places, university students and teachers expressed solidarity. The walkout was directed against overcrowded classrooms, the lack of teachers and the reform of the “abitur” program (the high school degree which qualifies for university), shortening it from nine to eight years. The strike was also against Germany’s three-tiered school system, which leads to education levels in Germany being more closely tied to social status than in any other developed country. »»»»
On October 29 there were protests in front of the bank UBS
Despite the financial crisis, despite the massive drain of deposits and the losses from speculative trading, UBS announced that it would pay millions in bonuses to its cadre. To protest against this, the youth party of the Social Democratic Party of Switzerland, the JUSO, called for rallies across the country on October 29 in front of the branches of the largest bank in Switzerland. »»»»
The internationalist summer camp of the youth organization REVOLUTION was bigger than last year
Just like last year – and the year before that – in the summer of 2008, young revolutionaries from different countries made their the way to the Czech Republic, more precisely to Liberec. That was where REVOCAMP, took place. It was organized by the independent youth organisation REVOLUTION and lasted one week. Nearly 50 young people from the Czech Republic, Switzerland, Germany and Austria were there and participated in many different workshops. »»»»
The flow of people from the Brandenburg Gate to the Victory Column in the heart of Berlin seemed truly endless. On 24 July, up to 200,000 people came to Berlin’s central park, the Tiergarten, to hear a speech by U.S. presidential candidate Barack Obama. As with the “fan mile” for the European Cup, which had been in the same place on month earlier, there were jumbotrons alongside the countless beer and sausage stands. »»»»
The youth organization REVOLUTION in the Czech Republic recently invaded a closed military area in the Brdy mountains. Why? Because an American radar base is planned there.
For more than two years, Revo has been part of a large coalition called “Ne Základnám” (No Bases) which fights against the plans of the Czech and US governments to build a radar base in the woods near Prague. »»»»
About 8,000 school students left their classes on May 22 and demonstrated through the center of Berlin to the school administration building. The protest was directed against classes being cancelled, the lack of teachers, and also against Germany’s three-tiered school system which discriminates against the poor and immigrants. The strike, the third in the last two years, had been organized by the school students’ initiative “Tear down the blockades in education!” »»»»
An activist from REVOLUTION spent one month in Venezuela and wrote a number of reports about the class struggle there. He visited workers’ protests and factory occupations, and discussed with Chavistas, Trotskyists and also “socialist” capitalists. These reports were published in the Summer 2008 issue of Permanent Revolution. They were also translated to German by the Revolutionary Socialist Organization and published on Indymedia Germany. »»»»