Spain protests: Young protesters in Madrid and beyond have many different demands, but they are united in opposing the Spanish governmentThis article titled “Spain reveals pain over cuts and unemployment” was written by Giles Tremlett in Madrid, for guardian.co.uk on Saturday 21st May 2011 11.59 UTCThe arrival of the table, a battered piece of formica bashed on top of four rough, oversized legs raised a cry of joy. Never mind that anyone on a normal chair would barely be able to see over the top – here was another small triumph of the new Spanish revolution, the gathering of angry Spaniards of all colours, ages and persuasions that is sweeping across the country and beyond its borders.The table that arrived in Madrid’s Puerta del Sol square was part of the swirl of creative chaos, naive enthusiasm and pent-up frustration that has transformed it into a makeshift camp for thousand of protesters who call themselves los indignados, the indignant ones.Tents and mattresses, armchairs and sofas, a canteen, portaloos and solar panels have sprung up in a remarkable display of organisational prowess. And the mass of people jostling around, each pursuing their own dream or demand, or just watching others doing the same, seemed more like something transported from the Arab spring in North Africa than from Europe.As the protests continued to swell on Friday, with 60,000 people defying authorities to obey the campaign’s “Take over the square!” slogan in dozens of Spanish cities, and with copycat demonstrations across Europe, the question was whether this was the new May 1968 – a youth-led popular revolt against an establishment deemed to have failed an entire generation.Esther Gutierréz, an elfin 26-year-old, wandered through the crowd with a battered shopping cart full of fruit.“We’ve got so much food we don’t know what to do with it. People just bring it to us for free and it’s wonderful stuff,” she said. “We want real democracy. Not just freedom for bankers. You’re not from the Spanish press, are you? We don’t speak to them.”Cynical and ingenuous by turns, the Madrid protesters and those who last week refused to obey orders to budge from the occupied city squares have torn up the rule book of Spanish public politics. The heavyweights of old – political parties, trade unions and media commentators – are not wanted here.“I was sacked when the Madrid regional government closed down a women’s centre last year when it imposed cuts,” explained Beatriz García as she bashed a small frying pan with a wooden spoon. “The unions didn’t even bother to turn up.”The political parties were worse, she said. “There is no renovation. There is nothing new or different, just two parties who take it in turn to govern because our electoral laws favour them.”Just a week ago Spain was known for the passivity of its citizens as they put up with one of the most depressing eras in recent history. Despite unemployment hitting 21%, widespread spending cuts and a socialist government bound to obey the diktats of Germany’s chancellor, Angela Merkel, and the financial markets, they had refused to show their pain. Marches, sit-ins or riots were for the French – or British students. The real drama, anyway, was in North Africa. Spaniards stayed at home.All that changed this week as demonstrations organised via Facebook and Twitter became static protests in city squares, mushrooming into something that caught politicians, unions and the media by surprise.While journalists were following the dull routine of campaigning for Sunday’s municipal and regional elections, the steam was beginning to escape from a pressure cooker of discontent.Many Spaniards had told pollsters they were tired of the same, well-known political faces – especially those who are due to be re-elected despite being mired in corruption scandals. Politicians have rarely been held in such disregard, with the prime minister, José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, and opposition leader, Mariano Rajoy, of the conservative People’s party, rating lowest. Rajoy seems set to take over after a general election next March.When police forcibly evicted the Madrid demonstrators on Tuesday morning, they came back in even greater numbers later that day. By Friday night authorities had lost the battle to impose rules banning public politics on the day before elections. Police could only look on. “Join us, police officers!” the demonstrators shouted.By the early hours of Friday, it was already elbow-room only in the Puerta del Sol – the square which prides itself on being Spain’s “kilometre zero”, the spot from which all other distances are measured.On the statue of King Carlos III, somebody had pinned a sign that read: “We are anti-idiots, not anti-politicians.” Other placards read: “We aren’t against the system, we want to change it”, “Democracy, a daily fight”, and “Take your money out of the bank!”“We’ve brought tents, food and even Trivial Pursuit to keep us entertained,” said Pablo Cantó, a fresh-faced 23-year-old journalism student. Like many younger protesters, and the movement as a whole, he had trouble expressing exactly why he was here. “We want change,” he said. “Things just can’t carry on as they are.”The heavy clouds of cannabis smoke suggested others had brought their own form of entertainment.“I’ve been protesting for decades,” said 60-year-old school teacher Rosa Marín. “I’m glad to see so many young people here. The questions is this: Is this another May 1968, or are they just here for the party?”A gang of drunken skinheads, mindlessly chanting football terrace slogans, were there for the latter.But a neat, disciplined circle of people intently debating social reform showed many were here in earnest. They took turns to stand up and make their proposals, the audience listening and using the sign language applause of the deaf – by shaking their hands above their heads – to show approval without drowning the speakers out.The proposals, due to make their way through a laborious process of committees, working parties and general assemblies, varied from calls for less spending on the military to helping businesses. “Because it is not just money for the owners. They are the ones who give people like us jobs,” said one young man.For some younger protesters, it was a political baptism. “I don’t know what will come out of this, but it is enough just to show everyone how upset we are,” explained Javier de Coca by phone from the protest camp in Barcelona’s Plaza de Catalunya, where there was a surprising absence of the nationalist or separatist symbols of protest movements in recent years.“It’s as if they’ve realised they have more serious problems to deal with,” said one protester. One of those problems is 45% youth unemployment.On a wall beside the tarpaulin-covered command centre in what some were calling Madrid’s “Republic of Sol” – home to a press office, an infirmary and a legal centre – a list of needs had been pinned up. Toilet paper and food were scratched off the list. Bookshelves, wood, rubber gloves and bottles of cooking gas were on it. Volunteers were needed for a creche.“We process the proposals and try to turn them into something that makes legal sense,” explained a volunteer at the legal centre.However, the open assemblies are painfully slow. Some last for hours, as everybody is given their turn to speak. After almost a week of protests, the demonstrators have failed to come up with a coherent set of demands.Electoral reform to end the two-party system and action to both punish corrupt politicians and limit their luxuries and privileges were the main areas of agreement.So is the Arab spring spreading to southern Europe? “You can’t really compare us to people who were risking their lives by protesting,” said 23-year-old computer engineer Jaime Viyuela. “But yes, you can say that we are inspired by the courage of the Arab spring.” guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010Published via the Guardian News Feed plugin for WordPress.Thanks for subscribing to Andy Roberts blogSpain reveals pain over cuts and unemploymentRelated posts:Zapatero says Spain safe from bailoutProtest march against coalition cuts expected to attract 300,000Anti-cuts campaigners plan to turn Trafalgar Square into Tahrir Square
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Spain reveals pain over cuts and unemployment
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May 21 2011, 8:54am | Comments »
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Syria, Libya and Middle East unrest – live coverage
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Syria faces ‘day of rage’, EU discusses sanctions against Syrian regime. Pro- and ant-government supporters rally in Yemen. Pro-Gaddafi forces attack Tunisian town of Dehiba
This article titled “Syria, Libya and Middle East unrest – live coverage” was written by Mark Tran, for guardian.co.uk on Friday 29th April 2011 09.43 UTC
12.03pm – Syria: Reports are coming in of thousands of people demonstrating in Kurdish regions of eastern Syria in solidarity with the southern city of Deraa, which has been in lockdown for days. There are also reports of large demonstrations in the Damascus suburb of Saqba amid chants of “overthrow the regime”.
11.45am – Syria: President Bashar al-Assad’s government has deployed forces in strength in anticipation of protests after Friday prayers. Syrian Republican Guard trucks equipped with machine guns and carrying soldiers in combat gear patrolled the circular road around Damascus ahead of prayers on Friday, a witness told Reuters. Two other witnesses said various security units and secret police manned checkpoints around Damascus, cutting off the city from the suburbs and rural regions, as telecommunications and electricity were cut off from urban centres and towns that had defied warnings not to hold protests.
11.36am – Libya: Susan Rice, the US ambassador to the UN, has accused the Gaddafi regime of passing out tablets of Viagra to his front line troops to help them rape women. Rice made the allegation in a closed-door meeting of the security council, Colum Lynch reports on Turtle Bay, on the Foreign Policy website. Rice made the allegation after facing criticism from council members that the Western-backed coalition has effectively sided with Libya’s rebels in the country’s ongoing civil war. China, Russia, India and other have expressed concern that the Nato-backed military coalition has exceeded its mandate to protect civilians, and had become a party to the country’s conflict… UN council diplomats said that Rice provided no evidence to support her claim, which appeared earlier this week in the British tabloid, the Daily Mail. Human rights advocates say the allegation first surfaced publicly last month when a doctor in Ajdabiya, Suleiman Refadi, claimed in an interview with Al Jazeera English that Qaddafi’s force’s had received packets of Viagra and condoms as part of a campaign of sexual violence. “I have seen Viagra, I have seen condoms,” Refadi told Al Jazeera.
Save the Children has alleged that Libyan children as young as eight have suffered sexual assaults, including rape, amid the worsening conflict across the country.
11.27am – Syria: Syria is also facing pressure from the UN’s nuclear watchdog. The Associated Press reports that the IAEA is setting the stage for UN security council action against Syria for allegedly trying to build a secret nuclear reactor. On Thursday the head of the IAEA said for the first time that a target destroyed by Israeli warplanes in Syria in 2007 was a covert nuclear site. The agency later retracted the statement, but diplomats say it is working on an assessment that will judge the destroyed building a likely reactor.
11.17am – Libya: The Guardian’s Xan Rice, has interviewed the leader of the rebellion in Misrata, the only rebel-held city in western Libya. The rebel leader made an urgent plea to the international community for weapons that would allow his fighters not just to defend the besieged city, but to topple the Libyan leader, Muammar Gaddafi. Khalifa al-Zwawi, an appeal court judge who heads Misrata’s transitional council, said that after weeks of fierce fighting, rebel forces would eject the last of Gaddafi’s troops from the city “very soon”. “Once we have done that our target is to eliminate the Gaddafi regime,” he told the Guardian in an interview. “We want to go to Tripoli and set it free, and Libya free. We want to move from defence to attack.” Until now, the rebels in Misrata have relied solely on small arms and weapons captured from loyalist troops, or sent by sea from Benghazi, the rebel capital in the east. But Zwawi said help was required if his forces were to go on the offensive. “The most important thing for us now is arms. We need weapons that are suitable to take on Gaddafi. As soon as our freedom fighters reach people in other cities they will join our revolt,” he said.
11.08am – Syria: The Human Rights Council, which is holding a special session in Geneva, is expected to call for a fact-finding mission to look into violations committed by Syrian forces and also suggest that Syria should not seek membership in the forum next month, Reuters is reporting. “The council will be quite divided, but we should get a vote in favour of the text,” a western diplomat told Reuters. “It will be a tough slog today. But the key thing is getting a result,” said another. In an opening speech, Kyung-wha Kang, UN deputy high commissioner for human rights, said Syrian tanks were shelling densely populated areas and entire towns were under siege. “There have been reports of snipers firing on persons attempting to assist the injured or remove dead bodies from public areas,” she said. There is “a widespread, persistent and gross disregard for basic human rights by the Syrian military and security forces,” she said, speaking on behalf of the UN human rights office.
On the divided Arab response. “There will be an Arab League statement. But it would be a lie to say there is a consensus of positions,” a Geneva-based Arab diplomat told Reuters. “To avoid speaking in favour of Syria, most (Arab) delegations will not take the floor.” “The Arab group is a bit embarrassed. During the Libyan affair we were all unified and integrated the international community’s consensus,” he said, adding that censuring Syria could set off a chain reaction. “Do this and a Pandora’s Box will open. Bahrain is also a member and Gulf countries are fully behind Bahrain,” he said.
11.00am – Libya: My colleague, Harriet Sherwood, who is in Tripoli, has sent an update on the fighting on the border with Tunisia. Forces loyal to Gaddafi have retaken a border crossing between Libya and Tunisia close the Western Mountains region, which has been the scene of fierce fighting over recent weeks. Rebel fighters gained control of the Wazin-Dehiba border post last week. But it fell in an onslaught by regime troops, in which missiles were fired across the border into Tunisia, on Thursday. The Tunisian news agency, TAP, quoted witnesses saying Libyan refugees on the Tunisian side of the border had been killed and wounded. According to the UN refugee agency UNHCR, more than 30,000 Libyans have fled the area in recent weeks. The region is largely populated by Berbers, who have suffered decades of repression under the Gaddafi regime.
10.30am: Good morning and welcome to our live coverage of unrest in the Middle East, where major shows of strength are expected in Syria and Yemen. • In Syria, activists have called for a “Friday of rage” following Muslim prayers, to commemorate the death of over 100 people killed by security forces exactly a week ago. As the Assad regime braces itself for more protests, international diplomatic pressure is mounting. The UN’s top human rights body is holding a special session in Geneva to consider possible abuses in Syria. Meanwhile, EU governments are meeting in Brussels are to discuss sanctions on the Syrian leadership for the first time. • In Yemen, opponents of President Ali Abdullah Saleh have called for rallies across the country after Friday prayers to demand his exit, two days after plainclothes gunmen shot dead 12 demonstrators in the capital. Funerals of the 12 protesters killed on Wednesday were expected to draw big crowds in Sana’a. • There are reports of clashes between Tunisian troops and forces loyal to Muammar Gaddafi inside the Tunisian border town of Dehiba. Residents say there was heavy fighting in the centre of the town, which is near a border crossing point into Libya. This would be the first time that fighting in Libya has spilled across the border to Tunisia. • The death toll in one of Morocco’s worst terrorist attacks has risen to 16. The MAP news agency said two people died of injuries in the hospital after Thursday’s explosion in a tourist cafe in Marrakech, bringing the number of dead from 14 to 16. At least 11 of those killed were foreigners, and at least 20 people were injured.
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April 29 2011, 6:14am | Comments »
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Libya and Middle East uprising – live updates
http://distributedresearch.net/blog/2011/04/11/libya-and-middle-east-uprising-live-updates
Muammar Gaddafi has reportedly accepted an African Union roadmap for peace in Libya, which includes an immediate ceasefire.
This article titled “Libya and Middle East uprising – live updates” was written by Haroon Siddique, for guardian.co.uk on Monday 11th April 2011 08.57 UTC
10.04am – Libya: In an editorial, the Guardian says the prospect of stalemate and even partition is making the prospect of a ceasefire in Libya more attractive to both sides. Air strikes may have degraded Gaddafi’s forces to the point that they no longer threaten Benghazi, but that is a long way from him surrendering control of Tripoli. Libya is the only country where the Arab revolution became a military struggle, and for this very reason it may be one of the places where the regime stays put … All we know is that the military option is looking less appealing and the regime, despite the defections, is not crumbling. The air war may have secured parts of Libya, but Gaddafi has shown for the second time in his life that he is still standing on home turf. This could change, but how many in Nato are that confident that it will? All this points to an outcome with Gaddafi and his sons in place. It is messy. It lacks a redemptive conclusion. But it is the way this conflict is going.
9.57am: Welcome to the Guardian’s live coverage of the conflict in Libya and the protests throughout the Middle East. • The African Union says Muammar Gaddafi has accepted a peace plan for ending the conflict in Libya, which includes an immediate ceasefire. It has called on Nato to halt air raids. • The AU representatives are travelling to Benghazi today to present the Libyan peace plan to the opposition leadership. Opposition spokesman Mustafa Gheriani told Reuters the rebels would respond to the plan but it could only work if Gaddafi stands down. • The Syrian army has entered the port city of Banias, witnesses have told AP. At least four anti-government protesters were killed in the city yesterday and dozens injured.
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April 11 2011, 4:13am | Comments »
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Egyptian soldiers attack Tahrir Square protesters
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This is tragic. Those altruistic spontaneous revolutionaries in Tahrir Square were so convinced the Egyptian army was on the people’s side. Now at least two people have been killed in a pre-dawn raid on protesters calling for the trial of Mubarak and the removal of the army chief.
This article titled “Egyptian soldiers attack Tahrir Square protesters” was written by Peter Beaumont, for guardian.co.uk on Saturday 9th April 2011 14.48 UTC Egypt’s deepening political crisis following the ousting of President Hosni Mubarak has taken a dangerous new turn after soldiers armed with clubs and rifles stormed protesters occupying Cairo’s Tahrir Square in a pre-dawn raid, killing at least two. The demonstrators, angry at the slow progress of reform since the country’s 18-day revolution earlier this year, had been demanding the trial of Mubarak, his son Gamal and close associates, and an immediate transition from military to civilian rule. The rally revealed the increasing impatience and mistrust that many Egyptians feel towards the military, which took over when Mubarak was forced out of office on 11 February. Some protesters accuse the top brass of protecting the former leader. Eyewitnesses who spoke to the Observer – accounts confirmed by graphic video footage – described hundreds of troops charging into the square firing rubber bullets at 3am on Saturday to clear it. The assault appears to have been triggered by the decision of several dozen Egyptian soldiers on Friday to defy orders and join a protest in the square to call for the removal of Field Marshal Mohammed Hussein Tantawi, who is titular head of the country. “The people want the fall of the field marshal,” said protesters, in a variation on the chant that has become famous across the Middle East. In the aftermath of the assault, as security forces retreated, witnesses described an army officer leading slogans against Tantawi, while anti-army graffiti appeared on barricades. Tamer el-Said, an Egyptian film-maker who was in the square, described what happened. “There was a huge demonstration that started at about 11 o’clock [on Friday]. There were some military officers who joined it who were dissatisfied with what the supreme military council was doing. There were between 15 and 20 of them. Obviously it was really dangerous for them so the other protesters decided that they would protect them from being arrested by the military police. “At about 11 o’clock last night the security forces, who had surrounded the square, tried to enter it to try and catch these soldiers but the protesters would not allow them to come in. There were army and police and special forces. At 3 o’clock they attacked the square. They were firing bullets in the air: at first rubber bullets and then live rounds. They pushed all the demonstrators out of the square. Then they started to chase the protesters into the surrounding streets and the downtown area using tear gas and bullets. I have a friend who was there who said there was continuous shooting.” The huge turnout in the square has followed growing fears in some sections of Egyptian society that the army has hijacked the revolution. According to eyewitnesses, the raid was led by a mixture of army, police and internal security forces in 20-30 military trucks. They said the firing continued in the square until about 5.30am. Although an army spokesman insisted the army had fired only “blanks” and not live rounds to warn protesters, images posted on social media sites appeared to show both blank and live shell casings. The force of around 300 soldiers honed in on a tent camp where protesters had formed a human cordon to protect army officers who had joined them. The troops dragged protesters away, throwing them into trucks, which video footage showed driving into the square amid the sound of gunfire. At least seven of the soldiers were reported to have been snatched. “I saw women being slapped in the face, women being kicked,” cried one female protester, who took refuge in a nearby mosque. Troops surrounded the mosque and heavy gunfire was heard for hours. The military issued a statement afterward blaming “outlaws” for rioting and violating the country’s 2am to 5am curfew, and asserted that no one was harmed or arrested. “The armed forces stress that they will not tolerate any acts of rioting or any act that harms the interest of the country and the people,” it said. “We are staging a sit-in until the field marshal is prosecuted,” said Anas Esmat, a 22-year-old university student in the square, as protesters dragged debris and barbed wire to seal off the streets leading into it. Protesters chanted: “Tantawi is Mubarak and Mubarak is Tantawi”, explicitly equating the field marshal with the president who appointed him.
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April 9 2011, 11:08am | Comments »
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‘Black bloc’ anarchists behind anti-cuts rampage reject thuggery claims
Masked protesters called ‘Black Bloc’ from the Anarchist section of London protestors say their ranks have swollen to 1,500 and include social workers and nurses.
This article titled “‘Black bloc’ anarchists behind anti-cuts rampage reject thuggery claims” was written by Robert Booth and Marc Vallée, for The Guardian on Friday 1st April 2011 17.36 UTC They dressed in black, masked their faces and flew red and black flags as if they were a revolutionary army, but anarchists who smashed up shops, banks and hotels during last Saturday’s anti-cuts protests in London have dismissed government allegations they are “mindless thugs”. Amid growing public anxiety about the actions of the so-called black bloc, the home secretary, Theresa May, this week threatened pre-emptive police action while Kit Malthouse, London’s deputy mayor, branded them “fascist agitators”. But unmasked and talking to the Guardian, anarchists involved in last weekend’s violence claimed their direct action tactics were going viral. They said they were legitimate representatives of the public’s concern about public sector cuts and their ranks had swollen to an estimated 1,500, boosted by student first-timers. The black bloc tactic involves masked militants moving in tight units cordoned by flags, vandalising symbolic property and sometimes attacking police. The group created chaos in central London’s busiest shopping area last weekend, seizing attention from about half a million peaceful anti-cuts protesters on a Trades Union Congress-organised march and terrifying onlookers. Anarchists attacked the Ritz hotel, smashed the windows of banks, fought with police officers and vandalised police vans. There were 201 arrests (mostly non-violent protesters at Fortnum & Mason) and at least 84 people were injured including 31 police officers, 12 of whom required hospital treatment for minor injuries. One activist admitted criminal gangs and small numbers of football hooligans were among those who adopted the approach. But the anarchists stressed that those in the black bloc last weekend included graduates, social workers, students, the unemployed, militant feminists and mental health nurses. The anarchists who agreed to talk also revealed their own deeper motivations: anger at family poverty as they grew up, the exhilarating sense of belonging they found in the black bloc, and longstanding grudges against the police. All of them said the failure of the peaceful anti-Iraq war march to overturn government policy was formative in their decision to turn to aggression and violence over the cuts. “We realised that political change in this country isn’t predicated on being right and winning a debate,” said Peter Wright, a twentysomething teacher who was in the black bloc with the South London Solidarity Federation, “which seeks to destroy capitalism and the state”. “You have to force your agenda. The slogan on Saturday was to make the country ungovernable,” he said. On Saturday, some anti-cuts activists plan to occupy Trafalgar Square and have asked anarchists to attend even though the opprobrium they drew after the march has sparked a debate inside the movement about whether their tactics are self-defeating. Nevertheless, with the royal wedding and May Day around the corner police are braced for more unrest. “We are not in any way setting out to terrorise the public. We are the public,” said Robert James, a smartly turned-out unemployed anarchist in his mid-20s. “We should do our utmost to ensure no one is harmed, but we can’t guarantee that people will not be shaken up by scenes of disorder … We are not calling for political reform or changes to the tax system. We are sending a clear message to capitalism that we can’t be bargained with. There is no reform. We only seek your abolition.” Jason Sands, 32, a graduate and local authority IT worker in south London and black bloc veteran, said the ranks of anarchists appeared to be “growing in confidence, skill and numbers”. He said there had been an influx of students galvanised by last year’s violence at the Conservative party headquarters in Millbank Tower during anti-tuition fees protests and by police tactics used against conventional demonstrators such as kettling. “It feels good to be part of it,” Sands said. “You are in a group of people who have a shared outlook which you don’t always feel in normal life. It can feel exhilarating running down a street and moving as a group. It is an atmosphere of resistance, not of chaos. You could get hurt or arrested so you have a combination of fear and adrenaline and a sense that this is the moment to act because it could all end shortly. There’s an intensity to the moment. It is not just about breaking things. It is manifesting your politics and personal feeling in the street.” He said some anarchist protesters only turned up if there was going to be a black bloc, finding it “boring” otherwise. Both Sands and James traced their anarchism to their experience of growing up relatively poor in the 1990s. “I have been going on protests since my parents took me on CND marches and anti-poll tax protests,” said Sands. “I realised kids from other families had more stuff and bigger houses but the most acute thing was the poll tax.” After university he found marches in London too “institutionalised” and became involved in violent action abroad, taking part in anti-G8 action in Rostock, Germany, in 2007, during which the offices of Caterpillar, the bulldozer company, were firebombed. James said he was radicalised when he saw his working-class family fall behind during the consumer and debt boom. “People growing up in the 1990s experienced capitalism moving away from the production of goods towards finance capitalism and the movement of debt,” he said. “Social mobility was everything but was quite difficult to attain. We achieved that through consumption and financed it through debt. Those who weren’t able to do that, especially as children, found themselves becoming the collateral damage of the consumer war.” He later went on anti-war marches and found himself feeling “utter contempt” for the state. “You would be incredibly surprised by the demographic that uses black bloc tactics, in terms of age, gender, occupation,” James said. “The media like to paint a picture of hooligans and thugs, mindless men on the rampage. It is simply not true. There are women and probably transgender people too. Some of the scariest-looking anarchists work in jobs like social care and mental health. It doesn’t come from a thuggish place.” The anarchists named in this article insisted on using pseudonyms.
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April 1 2011, 4:30pm | Comments »
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I posted to distributedresearch.net
UK Uncut arrests threaten future protests, lawyer warns
Matt Foot, a solicitor at Birnberg Pierce, says the detention of 145 UK Uncut activists will threaten the right to peacefully protest. Perhaps they did this because it’s easier to catch people sitting peacefully in a shop than people running round the streets outside. Perhaps they wanted to gather intelligence on a network of peaceful protesters. Either way the Met have serious questions to answer.
This article titled “UK Uncut arrests threaten future protests, lawyer warns” was written by Shiv Malik, for The Guardian on Wednesday 30th March 2011 08.05 UTC A lawyer at a leading civil liberties firm has expressed fears for the future of direct action protest after the mass arrest of UK Uncut activists during last Saturday’s anti-cuts demonstrations in London. Matt Foot, a criminal defence solicitor at Birnberg Pierce, said the detention of 145 activists during an occupation of luxury food store Fortnum and Mason in Piccadilly was “unprecedented”. He has questioned the police’s motivation. After being arrested for aggravated trespass and criminal damage, scores of Uncut campaigners were dispersed to police stations around London as far apart as Harrow, Ilford and Romford and were held for up to 24 hours. The next day, the accusation of criminal damage was dropped but 138 activists were bailed on the charge of aggravated trespass. Foot, son of the campaigning journalist Paul Foot, said: “It is unprecedented to arrest so many people for simply protesting peacefully in a building. And then it is intimidating to keep peaceful protesters for so long at the police station and then charge them so quickly without reviewing the evidence first. “To rush to treat people in this way and charge them on such a scale suggests the police want to make a statement. This is going to threaten the right to peacefully protest through direct action.” Commenting on video footage obtained by the Guardian, in which a senior officer inside Fortnum’s was captured telling Uncut campaigners they were “non-violent” and “sensible”, Foot said: “It’s fascinating that the police clearly took a view that these were peaceful protesters.” He added: “Given the police’s public comments about violence on the demonstration, it is extraordinary that the overwhelming numbers of arrests and charges have been for non-violent protesters. One has to question the motivation behind this.” Replying to a Commons question on Monday about whether UK Uncut activists had been “misrepresented”, the home secretary, Theresa May, said the police were right to make the arrests. “I say to them [UK Uncut] that they certainly have not been misrepresented and I think that what we need to do at this point in time is make it absolutely clear; the police are right in what they were doing in trying to prevent violence for taking place in our streets,” May said. The Guardian has published further footage from the event showing that senior officers on the ground at Fortnum and Mason were confused as to whether UK Uncut activists would be arrested or not. Luke Heighton, a 32-year-old trainee journalist from East Dulwich, saw the exchange between police officers outside the store as he stood beside police lines with his girlfriend. “I was within a couple of feet of a police officer in a fluorescent standard issue jacket who I took to be one of the more senior officers there and I overheard what was being said. Speaking to an officer in black riot gear and a peaked cap, he said: ‘It’s you that’s stopping me from letting them out. What’s the problem?’” Heighton said a second officer in black riot gear and a peaked black cap replied: “We don’t want them let out yet. We want them detained and arrested.” “The officer [in the fluorescent jacket] didn’t contradict that. He looked baffled by the decision,” Heighton said. “You got the sense that he was being overruled but he immediately issued that order to other members of the Met. The whole conversation probably took less than two minutes.” A Guardian video producer, Cameron Robertson, who was at the protests with officers from the Met’s public order unit, the Territorial Support Group, captured a pre-demonstration briefing that made it clear senior officers wanted to draw a “line in the sand” over legal and illegal occupations. Adam Ramsay, a campaigner with UK Uncut who was detained for more than 20 hours, said the arrests might have been politically motivated or to faciliate information gathering on the group. “At the time, the chief inspector at Fortnum and Mason effectively told us there we had committed no criminal damage – that we were all ‘non-violent’ and ‘sensible’. But moments later we were all arrested for criminal damage – a charge later dropped. This certainly looks to me like political policing.”. “Perhaps they did this because it’s easier to catch people sitting peacefully in a shop than people running round the streets outside. Perhaps they wanted to gather intelligence on a network of peaceful protesters. Either way the Met have serious questions to answer.” In a statement the Metropolitan police said: “The matter is now sub judice. It would be inappropriate to discuss further whilst proceedings are active.”
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March 30 2011, 9:32am | Comments »
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I posted to distributedresearch.net
March for the alternative – live updates
http://distributedresearch.net/blog/2011/03/26/march-for-the-alternative-%E2%80%93%C2%A0live-updates
More than 250,000 people are expected to march against the governing coalition’s cuts. Protesters gather in London in the biggest demo for eight years. Organisers warn against infiltration by police provacateurs.
This article titled “March for the alternative – live updates” was written by David Batty and Rowenna Davis, for guardian.co.uk on Saturday 26th March 2011 10.01 UTC
1.15pm: Tom Wills, a student journalist based in Brighton, has posted a set of photos from the march on Flickr, which give a sense of the mass turnout.
1.10pm: EastLondonLines, a news website run by the journalism department of Goldsmiths, has posted this Twitpic, which shows the protesters marching past police lines near Parliament.
1.04pm: Paul Lewis has sent through an update, describing the wide range of groups who have joined today’s protest. “Standing here watching hundreds of thousands of people stream past, you get a real sense of the broad coalition against the government. I noted down every banner that past through over a couple of minutes. “Somerset Teachers Association, Vulnerable Chinese Migrants Association, Society of Radiographers, Prison Officers Association, Don’t Cut Out The Disabled, Southend On Sea Unison Branch, Ipswich Labour Party, Cut Trident, Nurses Uncut, Met Police Group PCS Union, Calderdale Division of the NUT, Chelsea Anti Cuts Alliance, Colchester NHS SOS, South Ribble Children, The Bohemian Storm is Rising, Parents Alliance of Community Schools, Isle of Wight Uncut.”
1.02pm: Matthew Taylor says thousands of people are still joining the march, with the total number estimated at around 400,000. “I am now on a footbridge overlooking the Embankment and people have been streaming underneath us for about an hour. People are queuing as far back as I a can see and tens of thousands more are still arriving from side streets. Organisers are suggesting there could be as many as 400,000 here today. That is impossible to verify at this stage. But it is clear that this is a very big demo.”
1.00pm: While this photo from Mary shows crowds gathering at Embankment.
12.58pm: This photo by Mary Hamilton pokes fun at undercover police officers – whose activities have recently been investigated by the Guardian.
12.45pm: Journalist Mary Hamilton – aka newsmary – has been posting photos of the march on Twitpic.
12.35pm: The Public and Commercial Services Union has set up its own live blog of the march.
12.30pm: Here’s a map of the march route
12.20pm: PA news agency has been speaking to some of the protesters: Peter Keats, 54, from Lowestoft, Suffolk, who works for Jobcentre Plus, said: “We’re toasting the success as so many people have turned out. The press were saying 100,000 people but I think we have far exceeded that. I’m hoping for half a million. I’m hoping the government will start to listen with this many out. “Personally, I think it’s wrong the way we are hitting the poor. I’m not so much worried about myself but the customers I deal with are vulnerable and I’m worried about them and I’m worried about the kids of this country.” Alan Dowling, 40, who works for the UK Border Agency in Sheffield, said: “The other day the immigration minister was on TV saying we need to do more. How are we going to do more enforcement when we are cutting enforcement officers?”
12.17pm: Len McCluskey, general secretary of Unite, estimates there are half a million people taking part in the protest. He told PA: “This is an absolutely incredible turnout and display of anger which the government will have to take notice of.” Hundreds of police officers lined up outside parliament behind metal barriers as the marchers passed by and moved down Whitehall.
12.09pm: Matthew Taylor, who has been following the education feeder march, has now joined the main protest. In this audio report, he says the main march dwarfs the scale of the education protest: “The student block has suddenly become much quieter than it was now they see the scale of the TUC march.”
11.58am: Paul Lewis is on the Golden Jubilee Bridge near the Embankment, overlooking the march. He says the turnout is huge, stretching from the Houses of Parliament to St Paul’s Cathedral. He says the atmosphere is good natured. The only scuffle he’s seen was a protester heckling the shadow chancellor, Ed Balls.
10.49am: My colleague Matthew Taylor is with the education feeder march, which set off from the University of London in Mallet Street, Bloomsbury, around 20 minutes ago. Groups of Scottish students who set off at 11pm last night are leading the chanting. Student organisers had said ‘more than 10000′ people would meet here but so far there are probably month more than 2000 – although more are arriving all the time. Students and lecturers are being joined by various activist groups and so far the mood is vocal but pretty good natured. We’re at Russell Square now. There’s a small police presence. The police and the organisers don’t seem clear on the route but we’re on our way down to join the main march.
10.34am: My colleague Paul Lewis has just sent in his thoughts about the potential for trouble between protesters and the police. “I don’t think anyone doubts that the main march will be in large part good natured and peaceful. Most protesters will spend several hours marching through London, seeing little more than the placards in front of them, and finish with sandwiches in Hyde Park. But that isn’t to say there won’t be pockets of trouble, and if past experiences are anything to go by they could flare into some quite nasty confrontations with police. “Flashpoints could come when a handful of unofficial feeder marches, coming from across the capital, plan to join the main march. Will police let them? Many of the seasoned activists – those police like to call ‘trouble-makers’ – are likely to be on these fringe processions (watch out for delegations gathering right now in Kennington Park, Camden and Mallet Street) and the instinct of police, who at times exhibit an almost medieval vision of crowd psychology, is often to prevent groups mixing. That would spell trouble. “The other likely hotspots will be Oxford Street at 2pm, where UK Uncuts plan to close down shops, and Trafalgar Square late in the afternoon, which there are plans to occupy. Both of these locations, and others we don’t yet know about, are likely to be magnets for those intending to peel off from the slow procession through London in search of “direct action”. Coping sensibly with all these splinters from the main march will be a policing nightmare for Scotland Yard. It all comes down to how much coercion police use. Stop people from walking where they want and sparks fly.”
10.29am: Here’s some more comments from union leaders ahead of the march. Dave Prentis, general secretary of Unison, will tell the demonstrators that every time the government votes through more cuts, they should hear the “angry voices” of public sector workers losing their jobs. He also warned it faced being wiped out in May’s elections. “Every day when they discuss squeezing NHS budgets I want them to remember the nurses here on the march, the paramedics – workers who keep our NHS going. Workers who see every day the effect of the cuts on patients who are having vital pain-relieving operations cut or delayed. “Workers who worry about patient care suffering, because job cuts mean there are not enough staff on the ward. NHS workers and the public fearful that the Health and Social Care Bill will mean the break-up of the NHS – the end of our much loved health service as we know it. A new dawn of privatisation for the Tories’ friends in big business. “Every month when a library closes, a care home shuts its doors, or services for struggling young people are withdrawn, I want them to feel the fear, and anger of the people who have come here today from every part of the UK to vent their frustration and to stand up for a fairer future.” Matt Wrack, general secretary of the Fire Brigades Union, said: “Cameron and Clegg have launched a war on working people and today’s demonstration is the start of the fightback. They expect us to suffer tax increases, pay cuts, unemployment and devastation of our pensions to pay for the crisis their friends in the City caused. They should expect the fight of their lives.” Len McCluskey, leader of Unite, said those taking part in the march were the “tip of the iceberg” because millions were opposed to the cuts. “There is growing anger, which will build and build as the impact of the cuts take effect.”
10.13am: Labour politicians will join the march and party leader Ed Miliband will address the rally in Hyde Park. He will use the speech to set out Labour’s alternative to the cuts and to accuse the coalition of fomenting the “politics of division” not seen since the “rotten” Thatcher era. Labour is calling the demonstration the “march of the mainstream”. But Gove told the Today programme there were “really big dangers” for Miliband in addressing the rally at the end of the march. “One is that people will say ‘You are calling for a plan B from the government, you don’t even have a plan A. More than that, you are associating yourself with a march which could, I’m afraid, move from being family event into being something darker.”
10.10am: Education secretary Michael Gove said today that he recognised the public concerns about the planned cuts. But he insisted that the government would not be deflected from its strategy. He told the BBC Radio 4 Today programme: “Of course people will feel a sense of disquiet, in some cases anger, at what they see happening, but the difficulty we have as the government inheriting a terrible economic mess, is that we have to take steps to bring the public finances back into balance.”
10.02am: Barber will tell today’s rally that there is an alternative to the “brutal” spending cuts. Ahead of the march, he accused the coalition government of threatening the NHS and destroying communities with the scale of the job cuts. “No part of our public realm is to be protected. And don’t believe it when ministers say that the NHS is safe in their hands. With over 50,000 job cuts already in the pipeline – nurses, doctors, physios, midwives – in the name of so-called efficiency savings of £20 billion, the NHS as we know it, is already in intensive care. “With David Cameron talking about selling it off to any willing provider out to make a profit, the NHS is facing the gravest threat in its history. “Today let us say to him: we will not let you destroy what has taken generations to build. Let’s be brutally clear about these brutal cuts. They’re going to cost jobs on a huge scale – adding to the misery of the 2.5 million people already on the dole. “They’re going to hammer crucial services that bind our communities together, and they’re going to hit the poorest and the most vulnerable hardest. Anyone who tells you different is a bare-faced liar. “The government claims there is no alternative, but there is. Let’s keep people in work and get our economy growing. Let’s get tax revenues flowing and tackle the tax cheats, and let’s have a Robin Hood Tax on the banks, so they pay us back for the mess they caused.”
9.45am: A Guardian/ICM poll published today shows that the public are divided over the cuts, while two other polls last night put the balance more strongly against cuts. The Guardian/ICM poll of 1,014 found that 35% believe the cuts go too far, 28% think they strike the right balance and 29% think they don’t go far enough; 8% don’t know. A YouGov survey for Unison found that 56% believe the cuts are too harsh and a ComRes poll for ITV showed that two-thirds think the government should reconsider its planned spending cuts programme. Just one in five disagreed with that view. Speaking ahead of the march, TUC general secretary Brendan Barber said of the Unison survey: “I’m sure that many of our critics will try to write us off today as a minority, vested interest. This poll nails that lie. “The thousands coming to London from across the country will be speaking for their communities when they call for a plan B that saves vital services, gets the jobless back to work and tackles the deficit through growth and fair tax.”
9.15am: Good morning and welcome to the Guardian’s live coverage of the mass protest in London against the coalition government’s public sector cuts. Around 300,000 people are expected to join the March for the Alternative organised by the TUC, the biggest union-organised event for over 20 years and the largest in the country since the protest against the Iraq war in 2003. More than 800 coaches and 10 trains have been chartered to bring people to the capital from as far afield as Cornwall and Inverness. Union members are expected to be joined by a broad coalition, from pensioners to doctors, families and first-time protesters, to football supporters and anarchists. My colleague Matthew Taylor has written a guide to all the organisations – both official and unofficial – who will be taking part. The Metropolitan Police believe a small minority will try to hijack the anti-cuts march to stage violent attacks on property and the police. The TUC organisers of the event say they have organised a family-friendly demonstration with brass, jazz and Bollywood bands. But there are concerns that unofficial feeder marches, sit-down protests and a takeover of Trafalgar Square could turn from peaceful civil disobedience into stand-offs with the police. The march assembles on the Embankment from 11am but it will still be leaving at 2pm and possibly even later. The TUC has drawn up a set of tips for those planning to join the march. The protest will culminate in a rally in Hyde Park. Guardian reporters Matthew Taylor and Paul Lewis will be out on the streets covering the protest as it happens. If you’re at the demo and want to send me any comments – or share any pictures, audio clips and videos – you can contact me either on david.batty@guardian.co.uk or on Twitter – @David_Batty
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March 26 2011, 8:38am | Comments »
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I posted to distributedresearch.net
Egyptians endorse reforms but Arab discontent simmers
http://distributedresearch.net/blog/2011/03/21/egyptians-endorse-reforms-but-arab-discontent-simmers
An estimated three-quarters of the 14m Egyptians who voted have back the election blueprint, but calls for reform in Syria and Saudi Arabia are met with repression.
This article titled “Egyptians endorse reforms but Arab discontent simmers” was written by Martin Chulov, for guardian.co.uk on Monday 21st March 2011 09.18 UTC Egyptians have strongly endorsed amendments to the country’s constitution as aftershocks from the Arab spring revolts rumbled into the furthest reaches of the region. More than 77% of the estimated 14 million-plus people who voted supported changes that will provide a blueprint for parliamentary and presidential elections to be held within the next six months. Voting was mostly problem-free across the country, a significant result in a country that is emerging from more than three decades of dictatorship, when elections merely served to rubber-stamp ousted president Hosni Mubarak’s rule, and voter turn out was low. Elsewhere in the Arab world, tentative calls for democratic freedoms were met with force in both Saudi Arabia and Syria. In the Syrian town of Daraa, a second day of clashes with state security officers reportedly left one protester dead, in addition to the four reported killed on Saturday. A council building in the centre of town was burned down during the clashes. Some reports claimed it was a local headquarters of the Baath party, however they could not be verified. In Saudi Arabia, where demonstrations are banned, protesters tried to force their way into the interior ministry in Riyadh demanding the release of prisoners who they said had been detained for up to two years without trial. Around 15 people were arrested, but no serious violence was reported. However, the spectre of protests in the Saudi capital is something the Islamic kingdom’s leader, King Abdullah, has been trying to avoid as he battles to contain an uprising in Bahrain on his northern border. The Saudi government holds grave fears that the Shia protests in Bahrain could stir unrest in eastern Saudi Arabia, which is home to most of the 12% Shia population. Bahrain’s rulers have claimed to have uncovered a plot involving outside powers – an implicit reference to neighbouring Iran. The government asked Iranian diplomats to leave the tiny Gulf state and later called Lebanon’s Hezbollah a terrorist organisation that was destabilising the region and impinging on Bahrain’s sovereignty. The unusually vehement tones underscore the sensitivity in the Gulf, where all the petro-states have been under pressure from their citizens to introduce widespread reforms. Bahrain is in its second week of a three-month period of martial law, which was introduced after weeks of violent clashes between citizens and riot police. The clashes have taken on a sectarian tone that the kingdom is anxious to play down. Meanwhile, in the south of the Arabian Peninsula, the embattled leader of Yemen, Ali Abdullah Saleh, has sacked his cabinet in the latest of a spate of moves designed to keep power. The clean sweep came two days after a massacre of more than 40 unarmed pro-reform protesters in the capital, Sana’a, which has drawn widespread condemnation and placed further pressure on Saleh to step down after more than 30 years in office. The attacks on Libya have left the Arab world largely mute, unlike the opposition voiced before the last western assault on an Arab capital eight years ago. Amid unrest and rebellion across the Middle East, a clear distinction has been made between the invasion of Baghdad and the bombing of selected targets in Libya. The former was widely condemned by many states that have had no such reservations about the bombing of Gaddafi’s forces by US and European planes. A key reason for that appears to be the west’s stated desire not to overthrow Gaddafi but to leave his fate to be determined by Libyan citizens. However, as the air campaign entered its second day, cracks began to appear in the regional solidarity on show last week when the Arab League voted in support of military action to protect civilians. While the governments of Qatar and the Gulf states were in favour of the attack, the popular press throughout the Gulf has remained neutral, although there are a consistent tone that suggests consistent suggestions the raids are partly motivated by oil and western greed. Qatar’s al-Raya newspaper said Gaddafi bore sole blame for the attacks on Libya. “He insisted on stories about hallucinogenic rebels and terrorists being responsible, while the whole world saw for a month how he brutally killed and oppressed people,” the paper said. “Gaddafi did not learn the lessons of Tunisia and Egypt.” In Bahrain, however, there was deep cynicism among Shia demonstrators, who argue that they too have been suppressed and attacked by loyalist forces, but have received no such western backing. “There is a double standard with the Americans,” said Ali al-Akri, a committee member of the National Democratic Action society. “It suits their interests to go after Gaddafi now because the crimes he committed cannot be defended by anyone. But in Bahrain it is the same and our experiences are there for all to see. Yet what do we get from the US? Demands that we tone down our protests and gentle pleas that the regime change its ways.” Egyptian media view the western raids through the prism of the country’s revolution, which has overthrown the same sort of stagnant old order that clings to power across the border. “The Egyptian experience gave very good lessons, but Gaddafi ignored them,” said the editor of al-Ahram newspaper, Kareema Abdul Ghani. “He humiliated himself and his people. It is time for democracy. The time of tyrants who keep their positions for ever is gone.” In Iraq, which is still recovering from the 2003 invasion, officials were more cautious about the attack on Libya, but few condemned it outright. “The Libyan regime committed crimes against humanity and killed civilians,” said Mahmoud Othman, a Kurdish MP. “He used military means to attack protesters and that led to reactions for the Arab League and the UN, which are legitimate. But I am not convinced that an international attack will solve the problem. It could lead to war and a humanitarian crisis.” A member of the hardline Shia Islamic Sadrist party, Ali Mohsen, said the campaign in Libya would have more chance of success if it was led by Arab forces. “I am against any attack on critical infrastructure,” he said. “If this is not managed carefully, it could lead to another invasion like Iraq.” Syria and Saudi Arabia, both dealing with their own revolts, stayed silent. Up to six demonstrators were killed in Daraa in south-western Syria at the weekend as a protest was reportedly crushed by thousands of members of the security forces. As momentum built last week towards the Libyan raids, the Saudi government was generally supportive of the rebel campaign against Gaddafi, but continued helping to quell rebellion in neighbouring Bahrain, which poses more of a threat to it than what is happening in Libya. Additional reporting by Enas Ibrahim
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March 21 2011, 6:22am | Comments »
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