La Sorbonne Occupied--> French State, Police State!

After more then 8 weeks of contestation, the Anti-LRU movement continues in France and is being further radicalised.

On the 26th of March 2009, the teachers-researchers occupied La Sorbonne university. They are still in the building, liberating the university from the invasion of this Sarkozy reform that wishes to abolish the last remainings of the social state in France. Also the national center for research (CNRS) was also occupied but then cleared.

Sorbonne is on strike
by sorbonnard2009

Upon the occupation of La Sorbonne, leftist student unions called for a solidarity demonstration in front of the university to support and reinforce the occupation. I went to the Sorbonne in order to participate, i found the forces of order (or repression) spread all over the Sorbonne square, they were covered with white resulting from the flour thrown at them from the demonstrators. We were chanting slogans of support, holdding eachother's hands in order to maintain the line in front of the forces of repression. As time passed, the police increased in number, surrounded us and closed every passing to the square. Meanwhile, policemen in civilian cloths filmed us thoroughly ( a good way for profiling). The police circle became tighter as they approached us, they encircled us, 100 protestors. The police chief took a speaker and told the demonstrators to leave the square in small groups, and present their ID cards while doing so.

Shockingly, the vast majority obeyed, we, militants of Marxist Unitaire, were only 10 to refuse but then we caved because we ended up alone. The police threatened us, saying that if we don't do as they demand they will arrest us.

The police controlled each person who left the square, verified his ID card and took the name, adress and place of birth! this is unacceptable in so-called democratic state like France. This act by the Police explicitly expressed that demonstrating, gathering in a public space is a crime, something you can be punished for! Taking our names is intolerable, and shouldn't be neglected. This, and filming us is a clear act of profiling, of constant control and serveillance. This practice showed that the French state is nothing but a police state! The police is trying to spread fear amongst the protestors in order to refrain them from coming back! This control of demonstartors is frequently seen in dictatorships and totalitarian state. "Democratic" states are smoothly slipping into dictatorship, everyone should be watched and controlled in order to protect the politico-economic oppressors who preach for economic liberalisation and privatization. This profiling is despicable, and the police should be brought into justice and courts in order to abolish such totalitarian measures, and hold the responsibles accountable.

What shocked me the most was that the demonstrators easily caved and agreed to submit to the police's orders! Demonstrators shouldn't have left the square nor agreed to give their names. The struggle cannot be won while obeying to the repressive acts of the security forces!

PS: The university was evacuted later on by the forces of repression.

Fin de l'occupation du 26 mars de la Sorbonne
by sorbonnard2009

For more information about the movement: http://sorbonneengreve.revolublog.com/

The Counter NATO Summit-->The Mobilization begins!

The NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization) will celebrate its 60th anniversary in Strasbourg (France) from the 1st to the 5th of April. Many Presidents will be present, amongst them will be Sarkozy and Obama...Well it doesn't seem that they will have a pleasent party! at least we should not let them!

Today I participated in a meeting called upon by the Collectif-Sud in Tolbiac university in Paris, its purpose is to mobilize people in order to go to Strasbourg and protest against the celebration of a disastor brought to humanity, and to organize a counter NATO summit in order to voice their vision of an alternative world. It was the first meeting that was held in the Parisian universities, the organizers were students and placed this event in the context of the anti LRU movement going on in France. They insert the movement in an overarching vision of society, an alternative to the neo-liberal way that Sarkozy advances, they claim their movement as a real society project which englobes the anti-war slogans, hence the protestation against the NATO summit.

The NATO is a military alliance created initially to face the Soviet bloc in Eastern Europe during the cold war. After the end of the cold war, the NATO countries refused to dissolve the organization and continued to be the mecanism by which the USA and its occidental allies impose their hegemony on the world and wage wars (Kosov

o and Afghanistan), and menacing many countries like Russia through the employment of a missile system near its European borders. A military organization cannot claim preserving peace! And the NATO cannot continue to exist by creating a ficitionnal enemy like terrorism, Iran or Russia, because the possibility of war exists only because the NATO country are profesizing it! The NATO has been only a danger to peace, and a threat to human lives and democracy. Moreover when a country joins the organization, it is supposed to be at a certain military and technological level, hence the Eastern European countries had to pay billions of dollars in order to be up to the level while social inequalities are staggering, and economic difficulties are hardly being handled. Many militants from around Europe are expected to march to Strasbourg, and many demonstrations are expected to take place around the world in order to protest against NATO, t

he occupation of Iraq and Afghanistan. The French and European authorities are expected to take extreme security measures which migh be the following: more than 15000 security men are to be deployed, the closing of the Schengen area, the creation of at least two security zones in the city, the closing of schools and the market, in short there will be no space for a democratic protest unless it is 10km away from the NATO meeting!

Facing those fierce security measures there will be an international peace conference held by the militants in Strasbourg, an alternative village will be co

nstructed, and an international demonstration on the 4th of April.

Each individual is concerned! wherever you are organize collectives to demonstrate and protest in you countries against this imperialist organization! If you were in Europe then come to Strasbourg to show those war-presidents a nightmare!

The world is facing a dangerous financial and economic crisis, millions are going to be unemployed: while social budgets are shrinking, military and defence budgets are constantly rising! While people are starving and being impoverished, governments are spending tons of money to buy arms and missiles to use them on defenseless population and to commit mass murders!

Join the movement in Strasbourg and elsewhere in the world to sabbotage the NATO warlords summit and show the world that an alternative is possible!

In order to be informed about the mobilizations and how can you participate and go to Strasbourg: 

http://www.non-otan-strasbourg.eu/

http://www.appelotanafghanistan.org/

http://www.no-to-nato.org/

http://www.block-nato.org/index_en.htm 

Guadeloupe: the strike radicalized - International Solidarity needed!

In a few days the Guadeloupe (a French territory colonized in the American continent) will be commemorating a month of general strike. The movement led by the LKP ( union against exploitation) ,which regroups the territory's syndicates, declared a general strike against the "expensive life". The strikers are demanding the lowering of the prices of basic goods such as food or gasoline, the lowering of taxes and the increase of social aids to the workers being paid below the minimum wage. In fact the Guadeloupe has one of the highest rates of unemployment in the EU which is at 25% and 55% amongst the youth
The movement was very effective in paralyzing the activity on the island and forcing everyone to participate by blocking roads to supermarkets, work places and gaz stations. The demonstrators have been facing police repression (yesterday 50 people were arrested and then released) but also racism from the french security forces ( who are mainly white, and the demonstrators are mainly black). The movement has gained in scale since it extended to the other french islands in the American continent such as the Martinique, and it refused to make any concession to the government. In fact after nearly one month of strike, Sarkozy has just decided to pay the island a visit in order to hear the demands since repression and dissuasion haven't worked. (Dominique Chomereau-Lamotte - Reuters)

These Islands have a history of repression and struggle regarding the metropolitan power which resides in Paris. They are not of equal development with their continental counterpart, social inequalities and poverty are staggering. Many people are rememberin May 1967 where 87 construction workers were massacred by the the security forces while they were protesting for a 2% increase in wages.
Surpisingly (or not), on continental France the only signs of support to the general strike came from the extreme left who demonstrated yesterday. This is surprising because the the strike in the Guadeloupe began on the 20th of January, that is 9 days before the general strike in the metropole which means that it was a precursor to the protestation wave. The french syndicates, and the workers in general ought to follow the Guadaloupean strike and take lessons from it because that is how things should operate in order to stand in the way of Sarkozy's reform. The current strike has shown resilience, determination, and effectiveness that should be generalized on a national scale.
The movement on the french islands should be the first sign for a larger scale national movement that should aim to regain the streets, the public sphere and to push Sarkozy to pull back and even resign. More importantly international solidarity is needed to support the movement due to its legitimate demands and way of action. The situation in these french islands is not very unique and can be identified elsewhere: prices of basic goods are rising everywhere, the minimum wages are not sufficient to survive, the people are suffering from a crisis caused by the financial system, governments pushing to liquidate the social benefits and the public property. Those realities are being witnessed all over the globe from Europe to Asia: the right wing and social democrat governments are making the people pay the crisis caused by the banks. Such an international problem needs an international movement to counter act, and to push for a just international system. Therefore the movement in Guadeloupe shouldn't be isolated and left alone, international protestation should spur all over, let's start at least with an international solidarity with the comrades in Guadeloupe and Martinique! Solidarity is not a question of what cause you support, or what class you are in, or where you are from, or even who you may be. SOLIDARITY my friends is a question of humanity, is a fundamental question of knowing what suffering entails, and resisting. It is a subtle but truthful shame that our histories, our cultures, our lives, our borders, have become barriers towards our humanity. And it is my belief that Guadeloupe deserves our support. This is a call to all who can and should act!

France: the University is NOT a firm!

By Farfahinne and Hanzala

February 9 and 10/2009 were not ordinary university days: in most universities of France courses were replaced by General Assemblies in which students and professors expressed their anger towards the Sarkozy reform plan concerning universities.

France: Student General Assembly Against the LRU
par farfahinne

A rare scene was witnessed in La Sorbonne where the presidents of many prominent public universities declared their full support for the demands of the teachers and students' movement. And they solemnly demanded, in a declaration called the "appel de Paris", the repeal of the LRU.
The LRU or the Law about the Liberties and Responsibilities of the Universities, threatens what the French university stands for and the social value it advances. In fact, this reform promotes for the financial autonomy of the univesity which by itself destroys the fundamental right to a free and equal education which has been one of the main pillars of the french social system for decades. The french government will withdraw a considerable funding it currently provides for the university, forcing it to seek this vital money elsewhere: who else can provide other than firms?! Thus, the enterprises will systematically submit the acadamic sphere to the logic of the market, i.e. the university will have to obey to the law of market profit when offering its majors to the students. therefore, "unnecessary" majors such as philosophy, theater, humanities etc... will simply disappear and university fees will rise pushing students with limited financial possibilities to the margin of education. Moreover, universities will be forced into competition in order to attract funding, putting in danger the principal of equality amongst the diplomas they deliver.
another aspect of the reform seeks to generalize the model of the Sarkozy governance to the university: the power of the university presidents will accrue considerably in such a way that they will have the "privilege" to recruit and to decide on the path of staff careers and more importantly on the remuneration.
A third aspect deals with the status of the teacher-researcher: the law suggests an increased production of publications and in the same time more charges in terms of teaching. These requirements are added to the fact that 3 thousand positions are threatened by suppression increasing the burdens on the teacher- researchers.
The LRU has provoked a large resentment among the students last year when it was first proposed: demonstrations were held but they were ineffective due to the absence of professors and researchers.This year, the law was voted with amendments concerning the status of professors and without any kind of negotiations with the parties concerned. this is what pushed the teachers to react and declare a general, unlimited , and reconductible strike starting from the 2nd of February 2009.
The 9th and 10th of February were crucial to this movement. in fact, the general assemblies that were held witnessed the generalization of the movement to the whole academic community.
the students voted on the general strike calling for the repeal of the law.

France: Students voting for the strike
envoyé par farfahinne

the voting on the general strike was followed by a large demonstration in which 50 .000 teachers and students marched from the Pantheon to the National Assembly in Paris.

France: Demonstration of the students and the teachers
envoyé par farfahinne

the movement is gaining scale due to the fact that it was launched by the teaching body which is a first since many years. However, the survival of the movement depends on the student-teacher solidarity (where Sarkozy will probably seek to break in order to liquidate the movement) and more importantly on the linkage with other sectors like transportation, the heavy industries, and more generally the public and the private sectors.
In launching these major reforms, Sarkozy is unknowingly catalyzing and radicalizing the protestation movement and generalizing it to certain categories that were for long time on the margin of any mobilization. This is an opportunity for the Left in order to regain the trust of the people and to present a real alternative to the current system.