Archive for the Category 'Europe'
The youth movement in the Basque Country is an inspiration for young people across Europe. The brutal repression by the Spanish and French states has not been able to stop the mass struggles: young people fight against the lack of decent jobs, temp agencies that exploit young people, the lack of affordable housing… They occupy buildings to create cultural centers… They fight for their political rights and against national oppression…
These are problems that young people all over Europe face: tuition fees and the privatization of education, unemployment, poverty, and youth oppression. Repression is also increasing across Europe, for example the Communist Union of Youth (KSM) from the Czech Republic was banned simply for calling for the abolition of private property! »»»»
read comments (0)
The BILD is Germany’s biggest right-wing tabloid, well known for its frenzied attacks against immigrants and the left. The day after the Anti-G8 demonstration in Rostock its headline screamed: “Do you want dead, hooligans?” (no one “died” as it happens, afterwards it transpired there were only two “seriously” injured police officers). But on Monday (January 14, 2008), BILD reported that; “more than 10.000 demonstrators from (across) Germany, Italy, Spain, Austria” participated in the demonstration to commemorate the three L’s (Rosa Luxemburg, Karl Liebknecht and Vladimir Lenin). »»»»
Revolution is magnificent. Everything else is nonsense.* (Rosa Luxemburg)
– Everything sucks! There’s not nearly enough apprenticeship positions… school is extremely annoying… university – if you even have the chance – is only about money… there’s more and more work for less and less money for some people … for the others there’s the unemployment office… deportations into the states of bloodthirsty dictators… Nazis hunt down “un-German” people… worldwide 24,000 people die of hunger every day and countless more die in wars… add to this smiling faces in the executive suites of the big corporations, who make record profits every year – it sucks! »»»»
On November 10, an organization with the name Mladí Národní Demokraté (Young National Democrats) organized a demonstration against the presence of Czech troops in Iraq, right through the Jewish Quarter of Prague. The Prague magistrate had banned the demonstration because its official motto was a false front and its purpose was to “incite racial hatred”. »»»»
Solidarity with the left-wing organizations that are under attack!
In the past weeks there has been a massive wave of repression in Euskal Herria (the Basque Country). On October 5, 23 members of the prohibited left-wing party Batasuna were arrested on charges of “membership in a terrorist organization”. On the same day, the office of the legal party EHAK (Communist Party of the Basque Territories) in Donostia/San Sebastián was occupied by the police. »»»»
Between June 6-8, the heads of state of the world’s eight most power states met behind barbed wire and high fences for the latest G8 summit in Heiligendamm near Rostock, Germany. The security costs of the summit topped 130 million euros (£88 million) but all the gigantic fortifications – a 12-kilometer fence, 16,000 police and 1,000 soldiers – could not protect the G8 from mass protests. Tens of thousands of activists participated in demonstrations and blockades against the G8 summit. »»»»
The protests against the G8 summit in Heiligedamm in north-eastern Germany are less than three weeks away. On May 9th, 900 police searched 40 left-wing projects across Germany, including the bookshop “Schwarze Risse”, the house project “Bethanien / New Yorck 59”, the photo archive “Umbruch Bildarchiv”, the left-wing store “Fusion”, the internet server SO36.net (all in Berlin), the cultural center “Rote Flora” (in Hamburg) and a number of offices and private apartments. »»»»
In July 2006, several weeks after the Czech parliamentary elections, it was publicly announced that a plan exists to build US military bases in the Czech Republic and Poland. The plan involves building a radar station in the west of the Czech Republic and a base for interceptor missiles in north east Poland. Both bases are designed to be part of an American shield system against intercontinental ballistic missiles. »»»»
At the beginning of June, the heads of state and government of the eight most powerful countries will meet up for a summit in Heiligendamm in Northeastern Germany. Even though these are supposedly the eight most powerful people in the world, they have to meet in a remote luxury hotel to be shielded from protests. Almost 100 million euros will be squandered in order to keep demonstrators away from the summit. The “Group of 8”, G8 for short, is hated, because their summits are a symbol for misery in the world. »»»»
Protest against the persecution of the left-wing youth organization SEGI in the Basque Country
“Terrorism” is hard to define. Wikipedia tells us that it generally refers to violence for political aims. But when the US army bombs a Bagdad neighborhood, that is declared to be “the fight against terror”. When young people in Euskal Herria (the Basque Country) fight for democratic and social rights with mass demonstrations and public campaigns, they can be imprisoned for this “terrorist activity”. »»»»
World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland
January is traditionally considered the month when, after Christmas, the money has been spent and the mist of splendor and love has evaporated. Nonetheless, every January the richest and most powerful people on the planet meet up in the Swiss ski resort Davos to discuss how the profits of corporations can be secured in the year ahead. For this reason, every year in January Davos becomes a fortress hermetically sealed by the police and the Swiss army, so these valuable people can meet up without interference by the bothersome public. »»»»