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International Student Solidarity Statements with Occupation
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We urge you to continue organising and mobilising yourselves. They aspire to intimidate us, to drive us back with fear, but we are fighting for too much to be stopped by something so basic. - Bologna Quote:
With the careful attention we pay to protest movements in other countries, we bared witness to the police repression and brutality that the university administration unleashed on its students. As we are all part of world-wide student struggles, we want to express our solidarity with your movement and all arrestes. - Rome LETTER 1 Statement of Solidarity from the Comisión Internacional de la CAE in Barcelona Dear Students of the New School in Exile I am writing from the Barcelona student movement against the implementation of the Bologna Process, representing the International Commission of the CAE (Student Assembly Coordinator for the assemblies of the four Public Universities of Barcelona), to demonstrate our solidarity with you following the brutal repression of your building occupation. [continued in Read More link below...] LETTER 2 Solidarity message from La Sapienza University in Rome, Italy. We, members of the Italian student movement who have been continuously mobilized since last autumn against the cycles of university reform, against an unstable job market and for a new student 'welfare', have passionately followed your action at the New School on April 10. We've been following your struggle for the resignation of President Kerry, guilty in our eyes of creating a corporate university administration who blatantly disregards the interests of the students and faculty, the core of the university. With the careful attention we pay to protest movements in other countries, we bared witness to the police repression and brutality that the university administration unleashed on its students. As we are all part of world-wide student struggles, we want to express our solidarity with your movement and all arrestes. [continued in Read More link below...] Letter 1 continued: The sheer quantity of police and police vehicles, not to mention their methods of intimidation, has shocked and disgusted us. However, we must bear in mind that an action of this scale, surreal and out of proportion in contrast to the peacefully protesting students inside the building, shows the institutions' true face. They are alarmed by the nature of our demands, by our organisation, by the connections we are making and the knowledge we are sharing. They repress us with their base brutality, the last cries of a dying beast, we fight back with the powerful creativity of our movements. They will always be on the defense, because we are the people and we are mobilising against their failing system. As you may know, we recently suffered our own eviction, of the 4 month-long occupation of the historic building of the University of Barcelona (UB), the largest and oldest university in the city. The riot police, with their helmets, truncheons, body armour and guns entered the building at 5.30am on the 18th March 2009, when 53 of us were sleeping inside in pajyamas. It was sneaky, no media cameras were inside, and there was violence (denied, of course) against which we are taking legal action, however we saw no tear gas or pepper spray. Hopefully our international correspondences will prepare us for repressions on a greater scale, such as those you are experiencing. We urge you to continue organising and mobilising yourselves. They aspire to intimidate us, to drive us back with fear, but we are fighting for too much to be stopped by something so basic. Finally, we'd like to add that we take inspiration from movements such as yours, where, despite the dangers, you persevere and don't retreat into ignorance and comfort. Don't stop fighting! Yours in solidarity, Comisión Internacional de la CAE You can view our webpage (with news in Catalan, Spanish and English) here. ------- Letter 2 Continued: A few days beforehand, during the new school occupation in new york, performed to stand up against Bob Kerrey's lack of financial and political transparency. The students of New York clashed with the violence 'police' reaction which militarized the campus and removed the occupiers by force. More than 20 students were put under arrest, and now are laden with judicial charges which in our eyes are heavy-handed. The grotesquely disproportionate police reaction reveals to us how governments all over the world, just as in Italy, are incapable to contain the birth of a new movement and new forms of protest with the vain attempt to control the social consequences of the economic crisis as it intensifies. The sole response they are capable of giving is one we know well, with batons, sirens and pepper spray in the eyes of unarmed protesters, in increasingly futile attempts to reduce that which is by its constitution outside the confines of measurement and control. Their brutality does not frighten us. The student and labor movements in America, as in Europe, in New York as in London and in Rome, must necessarily recognize the excessive measures were adopted in the sole purpose of repression, as so-called legitimate power is incapable of relating to that which breaks out of the confines of free market politics. Today at LA SAPIENZA we would like to express our solidarity with the student of the New School. Your struggle as with our own, will continue to be immeasurable. SAPIENZA IN ONDA ROMA- ITALIAN ANOMALUS WAVE |
Content received from: The New School In Exile, http://www.newschoolinexile.com