Monday, November 29, 2010

"Democracy: There’s no escape." by Greek political group "Agents of Chaos"



























Democracy
There’s no escape.
The big pricks are out.
They’ll fuck everything in sight.
Watch your back.

Harold Pinter (He already said it on February 2003)

At the historical point we are now in, the contradiction of capital is increasingly clear worldwide. Proletarians around the world are in turmoil as the reproduction of their existence becomes more and more difficult. But while it is already difficult for proletarians to continue their lives, it is capital itself, as a relation of exploitation, which is in a crisis of reproduction: The current struggles of the proletariat are the expression of the current form of this relation of exploitation.
During the last year in China, where the economy is still growing very quickly, all kinds of contradictions were rising. Clashes of workers with the police are common for a number of reasons: the demand for the increase of the very low wages on which the steep economic growth is based; attempts to prevent land enclosures in villages; struggles to get compensation for dismissed workers, and against the inadequacy of a health system which results in a high mortality rate for children. In the U.S.A., where there is a historical low in workers’ struggles, thousands of homeless and unemployed people have occupied vacant houses which had been seized by banks. Students have occupied universities in California and New York writing on their banners: We have decided not to die. They are demanding what was until recently taken for granted, just their ability to continue being students. Proletarians in South Africa and Algeria, from their much more desperate position imposed by the hierarchy of capitalist states, have made the same demands, of water and electricity, against being forced to live in slums, as they clash with police. In India as well, workers fight because the price of bread has suddenly risen, and they are starving to death. Last year in Spain, workers in shipyards which were shut down burnt police cars. In South Korea, dismissed workers occupied factories and clashed with police for two and a half months. In Bangladesh, dismissed workers clashed with police and burnt factories. In France and Belgium, dismissed workers kidnapped their bosses, placed explosives in the factories and threatened to blow them up if they were not compensated for their dismissal. In India and China, they kill their bosses during the conflicts because of thousands of upcoming dismissals. In this historical phase, proletarian struggles are objectively struggles for the right of the reproduction of existence itself.
At the same time, the restructuring of labour relations has accelerated and precariousness is the predominant situation for everyone now. Precariousness is manifested in the worst conditions: there have been 43 employee suicides in France Telecom in two years; in the U.S. 1,000,000 unemployed are desperately waiting to see whether Obama will once again extend the unemployment benefit, which runs out in April, or if they will be left with nothing. Unemployment numbers in most countries have surged, hitting records higher than in any other historical period.
In this historical phase we are in, there are more than enough proletariats for capital as the latter cannot effectively exploit the former, cannot produce the amount of profit needed so as a part of it to be anew put into profitable investments. This is the essence of any capitalist crisis regardless of the form it takes. The present form of crisis objectively puts proletarians’ reproduction at the center of the contradiction. The crisis first appeared as debt crisis of proletarian households in the U.S.A. It has already been transformed into a generalized debt crisis, and it is possible it will be transformed into a monetary crisis; that is, a debt crisis of large countries with strong currencies or even whole blocs of capitalist states such as the European Union. The debt crisis forces capital to turn to its only choice at the moment, which is to continue the strategy that created this crisis. It must further reduce wages and benefits in every possible way. This is the only choice of capital, because the debt crisis is the result of globalization and the restructuring of capitalist relations from which there is no turning back.
From the proletariat’s standpoint: “[it is] caught in the stranglehold of competition that can only reduce prices by reducing wages, in the servitude of debt which has become just as indispensable as income in order to live. The waged have, to cap it all, the chance of being tyrannised at their own cost, since the savings [are] instrumentalised by stock-exchange finance, savings which demand to be repaid without end, are their own.” (Le Monde diplomatique, March 2008). From capital’s standpoint, it is a relentless pursuit of the lowest possible price of labour power across the planet, but which has a limit: the existence and reproduction of labour power as this is socially defined in every capitalist state.
Capital is forced to try to resolve the crisis by destroying fixed capital (buildings, machinery, infrastructure) and variable capital (humans) in order to recreate the conditions of its reproduction, without being, at the moment, able to do it through its only directly effective manner, widespread global war. Thus, for the time being, the restructuring will inevitably deepen. The wage cuts are reaching the point where the lowest wage and the unemployment benefit tend to be equal, resulting in the explosive growth of debt for more and more proletarians. The privatization of “public” sectors (health, education, social insurance) is increasing dramatically. The unemployed have smaller and smaller benefits and are forced into slave-like working conditions with wages below the level of reproduction. The present historical period has reached its limit. That’s why the state places police guards outside schools in France or inside schools in the U.S.A. to arrest ‘undisciplined students.’ Capital’s only way out today is repression, but there is absolutely no way out of the crisis. This is obvious in cases of natural disasters such as in Haiti and Chile. In such cases, the capitalist system is directly put into question by proletarians, who, temporarily unable to be exploited as labour power, organize the expropriation of commodities and use them according to their needs in order to survive. Here, the only way to maintain capitalist property is by using military violence: Curfews during the night and straight assassinations are imposed in Haiti, while or imprisonment without trial takes place in Chile. Suddenly life looks like a prisoner’s life in concentration camps for the undocumented migrants who live in the thousands, imprisoned at the borders of each capitalist state.
The attack of capital against part of the working class in Greece is an aspect of this crisis of reproduction of capitalist relations. Greece today is in the eye of the storm of the debt crisis for many reasons. The most important is that the most precarious part of the proletariat rebelled in a way we all know in December 2008. Greece is an experimental lab for the new phase of the absolutely necessity of capital’s global restructuring. The bourgeoisie in Greece, as has happened many times in the past, has asked for help from more powerful bourgeois classes in order to impose a new form of exploitation. From the very beginning, the new government announced a higher national debt than the previous government in order to accelerate the introduction of the Stability Program). But the bourgeoisie itself is at the centre of the global crisis. The entire international economical press is waiting to see the reaction of the proletariat here in Greece and then to have an overview of the situation internationally. The biggest stores of loan sharks are competing with each other in order to lend and, thus, control the future of the Greek state, and thus the form and intensity of the local proletariat’s exploitation. The creation of the European Monetary Fund to IMF standards clearly shows that the contradiction of competition between capitals can now be solved temporarily, but it also shows that it does not matter who the boss of the proletariat is.
Any attempt to present the situation in a “better” way than it really is a meaningless effort. Any attempt to present the restructuring as Germany’s attack against Greece is suitable only for second rate TV-stations. SYRIZA (a leftist parliamentary party) has tried this approach, issuing nonsense about “sacred money” as compensation for a German Nazi occupation. An Orwell-type propaganda of the mass media has been mobilized, and restructuring is being presented as a natural disaster. At present, this propaganda has been partly successful. Some workers in the private sector have welcomed the reductions in the salaries of the employees in the public sector. The employees in public sector are divided on the basis of who is “truly privileged” and who is not. But all of them are in danger. If someone is wondering what being privileged means, they can ask the dismissed workers of Olympic Airways who occupied the State General Accounting Office. 15 days ago they accepted “the difficult and quite heavy program of the Ministry,” while the deputy-minister ignored them after they had begged him for a meeting. If someone is wondering about the impact on workers’ daily lives because of the attempted restructuring, one can ask the workers at the National Printing Office who after reading the text of the austerity plan’s law and realizing that 30% of their income was to be cut, decided to occupy the building they work at in order to prevent the printing of the Gazette! One can also ask them about the role of their trade union leaders who ended the occupation because they were orally “promised by the government” a circular amending the law!
There is nothing that can improve the situation. The ceremonial demonstrations called by leftists, as long as they remain as such, result in nothing but dead-ends. We are unmasking reality from the veils of politics. The stones that were thrown last Friday (March 5), and which covered the sky are not enough to make them listen to us. As more and more unemployed people occupy buildings and the police repress them; as more and more precarious workers and the unemployed clash with the forces of repression at any slightest opportunity; as the social chaos leads to organization on its own and takes the form of class revolt, then, the smiles of the showmen on the TV-news will freeze on their faces. The battles will be of similar levels to the violence accumulated over many years through the accumulation of capital and the expropriation of proletarian lives.
“What will happen in history, tomorrow, it can only be compared with the major geological disasters which change the face of Earth …”
- Victor Serge
text written in Greece for the demonstration and general strike in 5 March 2010 by Agents of Chaos 
translated and published by the Greek political collective and magazine Blaumachen: http://www.blaumachen.gr/2010/03/democracy-theres-no-escape/

Thursday, November 25, 2010

Report From U.K. Student Struggle: More than 150000 students abandoned their classrooms in 24th November 2010 in U.K.




























Void Network
[Theory, Utopia, Empathy, Ephemeral Arts]
http://voidnetwork.blogspot.com/
More than 150.000 students abandoned their classrooms in 24th November 2010 in U.K. participating in occupations of universities, demonstrations, sit-ins and teach-ins all over U.K. making it the biggest wave of student protests and occupations in a generation.


First reports say around 20,000 on today's march in London. Marches in Leeds (1,000), Hereford (1,000), Manchester, Bristol (2,000), Sheffield (2,500), Liverpool, Brighton (3,000), Newcastle (2,000), Durham (1,000) Cardiff (200) Exeter, Bournemouth, Milton Keynes (200) and Ipswich.
Occupations include University College London, London South Bank University, Birmingham University, Warwick University, Oxford, Strathclyde, Cardiff, Dundee, University of East London, Portsmouth, Leeds, Royal Holloway, SOAS, Manchester Metropolitan and UWE Bristol, Nottingham, University of Plymouth.


Round-up of some of the actions



In Bristol, several thousand students, along with teachers and lecturers, held a protest in central Bristol. Large numbers were able to break out of the police kettle and some went on to occupy Bristol University Student Union building. The Students Union stands accused of denying its own members the space and opportunity to discuss the proposed cuts to higher education as well as failing to take a stance on the issue. Earlier in the week, the main building of the Frenchay campus of the University of Western England was also occupied. Cops in Bristol were spotted here and here during the protests on Wednesday without their numbers displayed.
Hadn't we been told this would never happen again?


In London, around 5,000 people demonstrated in Trafalgar Square before heading down Whitehall, where the progress of the march was blocked by riot vans. Police moved in to create a kettle of around 3,000 people, herding youngsters out of McDonald's and into the kettle on the way. There were maybe 2,000 others outside the kettle and in the surrounding area. Skirmishes took place between police and some of the kettled protesters, fires were lit and an abandoned police van, which some have said amounted to entrapment, trashed. Some of those kettled were still being held late into the evening, and mounted police charged peaceful crowds which included children. There were reports of 32 arrests and 17 injuries, including two police officers. During the day, occupations were reported at Royal Holloway, UCL, South Bank and Roehampton. At the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), already occupied for several days, management attempted to get an injunction to remove the students on Wednesday, while many were at the London protests. The High Court allowed an adjournment until Thursday to allow students time to seek legal advice, with the Judge dismissing management claims that the occupation might become a focal point for the wider demonstrations taking place in London.


In Oxford, after a march which began at 1pm at Carfax tower, a group of students and Oxford residents, together with a sound system, took the authorities by surprise and occupied the iconic Radcliffe Camera, part of the Bodleian Library, with reports of over 100 inside. The authorities had been preventing others from joining the occupation during the day, but a group managed to gain entry by means of critical mass in the early hours of Thursday morning to swell numbers. A statement issued on Thursday declared the occupiers' intention to open the 'Rad Cam' as a 'free space for mutual education, in resistance to the neoliberalisation of higher education announced by the coalition government' and to stay there indefinitely.


In Edinburgh, a protest by around 300 students, starting in Bristo Square, joined up with another by 50 workers and benefit claimants outside the offices of A4E to create a march down Lothian Road and on to the Lib-Dem HQ where there was a sit down protest. The march then continued through Edinburgh, with sit-down protests on the roads as it went. There was a brief occupation of the University's Registry Offices before hundreds took possession of Appleton Tower Lecture Theatre 2, with a plan to remain in occupation until demands are met. Early on Thursday morning, the Lib-Dem HQ was targeted again: locks were glued and the handles chained, with a message that 'Lib Dem Lies are Locking us out of our Education.'


In Sheffield, there was a demonstration in the city centre, following which students occupied Sheffield University Hicks Building. During the night, the occupiers reported that security officers were denying undergraduate Astronomy students access to the roof to observe the night sky, and that postgraduates weren’t being allowed in to do their work. The occupiers have expressed their intention to negotiate with tutors to allow all lectures to go ahead. On Thursday, security guards mounted a failed attempt to evict the students forcibly after another group managed to join the occupation, then set off fire alarms to force the evacuation of the building on health and safety grounds. The students have now regrouped and are occupying the space outside the Vice-Chancellor's office in Firth Court.


Brighton students held a lively demo, with brief occupations of the Council Tax offices, a Vodaphone store and reported looting of a chain store. Several police lines were broken and although some groups were kettled, others managed to escape. Pavillion Parade building, part of the University, was occupied by about 70 students. There were reports of police using batons against young students, many of whom were under 18, as well as threatening them with pepper spray. At least two arrests were reported.


In Nottingham, there was a rally outside the Portland Building at the University of Nottingham and more than 50 marched to the Trent building with banner. Later, there was a ‘Teach In’ inside the Portland Building. The Tory Party HQ in Nottingham was also closed all day, apparently in fear of further attack.


In Leeds, a thousand students walked out, with the demonstration being joined by many school students.


In Cardiff, 200-300 students stormed the main building of Cardiff University and laid siege to the Vice-Chancellor's office before occupying the Shandon Lecture Theatre. There are currently around 50 students still occupying this space, teach-ins have been taking place, a local co-operative has been supplying food and the students have announced their intention to stay.


In Birmingham, over 30 students occupied the Aston Webb building at the University of Birmingham, with others prevented by security guards from gaining entry. The occupiers have issued a list of demands.


In Manchester, police violence erupted during otherwise peaceful protests. There were reports of four arrests. Roscoe Building of the University of Manchester has been occupied and the occupiers have issued an invitation to others to join them.


In Lancaster, sixth formers and school students led the action, massing at the Town Hall and marching through town, with some university students lending their support and sounds.


In Cambridge, several hundred students took to the streets and then occupied the front lawn of Cambridge University's Senate House, with baton-wielding cops occupying the House itself to prevent the students from doing so. There were reports of two arrests. A decision was made after several hours to leave the occupied lawn en masse.


Warwick students occupied a campus conference hall, calling on the university to take steps to resist the cuts. The occupation ended on Thursday morning, in large part because of obstructive behaviour by the university.


In Newcastle, 60 students peacefully occupied the Fine Arts building of Newcastle University after a demonstration and march involving thousands of school, college and uni students. Eldon square shopping centre was taken by storm at one point, by hundreds of students with a sound system.


In Plymouth, the Roland Levinsky Building of the University has been occupied since 23 November.


Students from local schools, colleges and the University in Southampton walked out, many attending a rally at the Uni, no thanks to the Student Union, which refused to support the action, which they declared 'too political' as well as claiming to be worried that people might swear.


See: Lasthours for a map charting the occupations so far.


Even though the preasure from the police was strong and the efforts of corporate Mass Media to produce fear and dissapointment to the students was massive the most of the students participated in the action day and created a front against stupidity and apathy. The old game doesn't work anymore.
As an anarchist student occupier from Sheffield university said in a recent interview:
"People, students in particular, are coming to the realisation that simply asking politicians to do something doesn’t work. The result is that they are starting to take matters into their own hands, collectively and at a grassroots level.Anarchist education workers and students are very much a part of these struggles but certainly a minority within them. The tactics – of self-management, non-hierarchy and direct action – have been adopted in many places quite spontaneously. This is, of course, far more preferable to us! It’s ultimately what we want – not a struggle controlled or led by anarchists, but one that shares our goals, tactics and principles."


The reformist and hierarchical left tendencies inside the student struggle are not infuential, the people are using horizontal forms of assembly and decision making processes and the free mind initiatives are strong. These are the elements that can bring this strugle further: Solidarity, Commitment, Direct Action, Active Fantasy, Initiative, Horizontal Open Assembly, Direct Democracy, Non-Hierarchy and the Rejection of representatives.
The next step of the struggle is already born in the hearts of all these people of this generation. Now all of them they know that politicians are just liers and puppets to the hands of economic interests, no one from the high elite cares about them and trhey have to wait nothing from anyone else than themselves and their comrades. Now all of us we have comrades. We gave a fight together. We will continue fighting!   


for more info and pictures see at London Indymedia:
student cuts protest - pics and account (part one)
http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2010/11/468461.html




Void Network


[Theory, Utopia, Empathy, Ephemeral Arts]
http://voidnetwork.blogspot.com/

Sunday, November 21, 2010

WALKOUT OF YOUR SCHOOL, COLLEGE OR UNIVERSITY ON 24 NOVEMBER





WALKOUT OF YOUR SCHOOL, COLLEGE OR UNIVERSITY ON 24 NOVEMBER

Make the walkout happen
Walkouts have been one of the major ways school and college students in Britain have traditionally shown their discontent.
They took place at hundreds of schools and colleges against the Iraq war in 2003, against “third world” debt in 2005, and several colleges walked out against cuts and privatisation in 2009-10, including the Dover Christ Church Academy this month.
University students haven’t staged a walkout for a while in Britain. But last year we did manage an impressive wave of occupations against the attacks on Gaza, and many universities occupied lecture theatres and even management offices against cuts.
Now, with the very nature of further and higher education under threat school students, college students and university students need to fight together. This isn’t just phrasemongering – if we are to defeat the proposals of the Browne Review we need to build a mass movement like the current general strikes in France.
That’s why a school, college and uni walkout out is a vital first step for us to take, demonstrating our unity in action.

Organise a time
First off, we need to find and talk to the small groups of students in our school/college/university who are most in favour of walking out.
Agree what time you will meet up on the morning of 24 November, BEFORE the official walkout time of 11am – 10am is probably a good time, at school, 8.30am might be better. This will allow you to catch students on their way into school/college/uni and get them to join the protest on the day itself.

Spread the word

Use email, facebook, texts, phone calls to advertise the time AND PLACE of your protest. But it may be wise to set up an anonymous email address and facebook profile so you don’t end up getting personally victimised.
If at any point you are asked who has organised the protest, say it “has been organised collectively by lots of students together”
You should organise some leafletings by downloading our NATIONAL LEAFLET at ANTICUTS.COM, writing on the details of your local meet-up point. Take it to your local cornershop for photocopying, cut them up and hand it out to as many students as possible.
If you go to school, you should be discreet about doing this, don’t hand them out openly next to the entrance of your school or you will get in trouble. But as long as you are not on school property, you have a democratic right to hand out leaflets.

Coordinate
In towns and cities where colleges, schools and universities are close together, we want the protests to converge.
In the weeks before the walkout, contact us if you need help finding the people organising walkouts at other schools/colleges/unis in your area.
In particular, we would like to see university students planning to march around their campus, bursting into lecture theatres and spreading the word.
Then they should march to the next school/college/uni, picking up local protests, so the demonstration gets larger and larger. This is called a “flying picket”.

On the day
Make sure you turn up to your initial meeting point (which should be in a highly visible location) with placards, whistles, and good chants. We will list some suggestions below
Grab students planning to go into their lessons, and persuade them to join your protest.
After creating lots of noise and pulling in lots of students it is time to take to the streets! Don’t be afraid to block traffic if you have enough people and most importantly:
AS SOON AS YOU WALK OUT SEND TEXTS TO ALL YOUR FRIENDS IN DIFFERENT SCHOOLS AND COLLEGES TELLING THEM YOU’VE WALKED OUT AND ENCOURAGE THEM TO DO THE SAME.
When you’ve linked up and converged with other walkouts in your area march around your local town and city.
You can finish up with speeches, a meeting on how to continue the struggle, or even occupying a building at the local university if uni students agree this is possible.
[Text above taken from National Walkout Facebook page: http://tinyurl.com/3xgs9d8].  See also National Campaign Against Cuts and Fees:  http://anticuts.com]

PLANNED PROTESTS AND WALKOUTS SO FAR

London:
9.30am QMUL students gather at Library Sq.  Circle Line tube to ULU for approx 10.30am.  (See QMUL Facebook below).
10.30am Walkouts begin across London
11am Carnival of Resistance procession from Malet St, ULU to Trafalgar Square – all welcome
12noon Students from across London and surroundings assemble at Trafalgar Square (called by National Campaign Against Cuts & Fees)
1pm March from Horse Guards Avenue to Parliament (called by Youth Fight for Jobs)
5.30pm Mass protest at Downing Street to link student action with wider trade union movement

Manchester
12 noon Assemble at Uni Place (tin can)
12.30pm March to MMU
1.30pm March to town hall

Glasgow
12 noon Co-ordinated walkouts of educational establishments throughout the city.  Glasgow Uni gathering point from 12 noon at main gate; Strathclyde Uni from 12noon at McCance building.  Feeder marches into city centre.
3pm UNITED ACTION in the city centre.  All Glasgow students assemble from 3pm at Royal Concert Hall (Donald Dewer statue), Buchanan St.
5pm Rally in George Square for all workers and students, supported by student groups & trade unions. Speakers include Dave Moxham (STUC), Pete Murray (NUJ), Phil Whyte (NUS) etc.

Liverpool
11am LJMU walkout, head to Guild of Students, Mount Pleasant for noon.
12noon All students (school, college, university) from across the city to assemble outside Guild of Students, Mount Pleasant.  Followed by a march through the city centre to the Town Hall.

Bristol
All are welcome – Universities, schools and public alike – from across the South West.
11:00 UWE Walkout begins across all campuses
12:00 UoB Walkout begings
12:30 All students (school, college, university) from across the city to assemble opposite Senate House, Tyndall Avenue
13:15 March to Wills Memorial Building

Leeds
8.30am Leafletting begins at Leeds University
11am Leeds University students walkout
12.30am Leeds University students march from Parkinson Steps, past Leeds Met and other colleges from Leeds, to unite students across Leeds, to a protest outside the Art Gallery to be joined by school students.
Thereafter – Really Open University programme runs at Leeds University:  http://reallyopenuniversity.wordpress.com

Edinburgh
Pick your nearest meeting point then march to Lib Dem HQ at Haymarket.
1pm Students from across the city (Edinburgh University, QMUC, high schools, Jewel and Esk College etc),  gathering at Bristo Place (one of two meeting points) and marching to Tollcross.
1.30pm All other students from across the city (Napier, ECA, Heriot Watt, high schools, Telford and Stevenson Colleges etc), meeting in front of the Bank of Scotland, Tollcross (second meeting point).  March to Lib Dem HQ, Haymarket.
2pm onwards, March arrives at Lib Dem HQ.

Brighton
2pm  University, school and college students from across Brighton assemble on Dyke Road Park, just up the road from BHASVIC, march to Churchill Square and end up in Victoria Gardens.

Oxford
1pm Students from across the city gather at Carfax, Cornmarket

Bournemouth
10.45am BU students meet outside the Atrium and march to join AUCB protesters at 11.00.
11:00am – Students and teachers from both uni’s will congregate outside AUCB canteen.
11:30am – Leave the campus and march on the Town Hall, via Meyrick Park where we will combine with hundreds of teachers students, from local schools and sixth-form colleges.
12noon – March from park to Bournemouth Town Hall!

Other:
BROCKENHURST COLLEGE (HAMPSHIRE):  http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=162283583810492
NEW CROSS, HABERDASHER’s ASKE’s HATCHAM COLLEGE:  http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=177738032241069

Teachins and events between now and the 24th:
CAMBRIDGE “FREE UNIVERSITY”:  http://www.coalitionofresistance.org.uk/?p=3847



Tuesday, November 16, 2010

Void Network : Statement of Solidarity to the U.K. Student struggle


Statement from the occupation of Sussex University:



This afternoon, over 170 students occupied the lecture theatre in the Fulton building at the University of Sussex in protest of the trebling of tuition fees and the attack on our education system.
In light of Wednesday’s demonstration, which saw 52,000 people come out in opposition to the government’s proposed cuts to education and raising of fees, we feel it is necessary for further action to consolidate the efforts made so far and push on in the opposition to these ideologically motivated cuts to both education specifically and public services as a whole.

We reject the notion that these cuts are necessary or for the benefit of society. There are viable alternatives which are not being explored. While the government has suggested that ‘we are all in this together’, we completely reject this and are insulted that these cuts are being pushed through alongside reductions in corporate tax. We feel these cuts are targeting those who are most vulnerable in our society.

Furthermore, not only are these cuts damaging our current education, but are changing the face of the education system as we know it. The hole in finances left by government cuts will inevitably be filled by private interest. This marketization of education will destroy the prospect of free and critical academic enquiry, on which universities should be based. The trebling of tuition fees will further exclude another swathe of society and make university accessible only to the rich.

We reject the media manipulation of the occupation of Millbank. The cost of the damage to 30 Millbank is less than insignificant when set against the damage of lost livelihoods and destruction of public services for future generations.
This occupation recognises that Aaron Porter’s statements condemning the demonstration are counter-productive and serve only to divide and segregate the movement. We are disappointed that, as a national representative of students, Aaron Porter’s statements have detracted from the real issue at hand by focusing on the events at Millbank Tower.
We believe that this Tory led coalition government has no mandate for lifting the cap on tuition fees. Nick Clegg has openly manipulated student voters in his campaign for election, and following the recent exposure of plans to drop his pledge to reject any rise in tuition fees, this occupation condemns his dishonesty and undemocratic methods.
Education is a right, not a privilege.

- We demand the University of Sussex management makes a statement condemning all cuts to higher education and rise in tuition fees

- We are opposed to all cuts to public services

- We oppose a rise in tuition fees

- We call for solidarity and support for those arrested or victimised on Wednesday’s demonstration
- We stand in solidarity with others taking action, both nationally and internationally, in the fight against austerity measures.
- We call for all other university, college and school students and staff to strike and occupy in defence of the future of our education system, and to participate in the national day of action on the 24th November 2010.



please print in A3 black&white photocopy this
poster and spread it to your schools, universities and
local social centers





Statement of Solidarity to the U.K. Student struggle

VOID NETWORK // ATHENS GREECE
http://voidnetwork.blogspot.com

All we,…

the students, the working people, the unemployed and the lazy ones, girls and boys from Void Network / Athens Greece section we express our solidarity to the occupation of Sussex university and to all people that will participate in this and all other actions until the great demonstration of 24 November and beyond that....

.

The news coming from U.K. about the student’s struggle are making us all here in Athens having great hope about the arising of critical mind and the radicalization of a whole generation in all U.K…. Our thoughts and hearts are there with you…

We believe that Now(!) is the best moment for all students to deny their position in the machine, to break the process of reproduction of themselves as slaves to the economic system, to destroy the hegemonism, ignorance, apathy and racistic domination of the scientific, academic and economic elite of this planet, to create the conditions of constant free sharing of global knowledge and free distribution of the productions of it, to bring their emancipatory understandings to the center of the city, at the center of the political agenda of their society, to unite their struggle with all other people in struggle (the older and the younger ones, the immigrants and the family people, the retired ones and the workers, the excluded ones and the homeless ones, the lovers, the travelers, the ravers, the squatters, the freaks and the romantic ones, the employed, the unemployed and the lazy ones, the angry ones and the disappointed ones, the destructive ones and the creative ones).

Now is the time to create a new public discourse that includes all of us, that starts from the anxiety, the fear and the misery of the every-day student life and expands to the anxiety, the fear and the misery of all the ages, all the society.
Capitalism and State Democracy are destruction machines. Our blood and our minds are the powers of this machine. Now all of us, in one way or the other we know that this machine is bringing life on planet earth in extinction.
Our Life is the Death of the machine. Life of the machine is our Death.
Our best moments are these ones when we are together fighting against the machine. In the universities, in the working places, in the city center, in the forests, against the parliament, the royal palaces, the industries, the super markets and the luxury restaurants, in the T.V. stations and infront of police stations, prisons, and courthouses.
Now…you can see us…
We are all together…And, when we fight we are fighting for our lives….
Stay awake in the deep night of the western civilization…We become more and more millions on this planet night after night…and We Are Ready to Fight Back!


VOID NETWORK // ATHENS GREECE
http://voidnetwork.blogspot.com