Watch Out Richie, Poor Man’s Gonna Get Your Mama

Burning car, Manchester City, 8/9/11 (Image by NightFall404)

The press has been portraying the riots in Britain as common thuggery, apolitical and criminal. Yet the riots come in the wake of severe austerity measures and the worst economic conditions in a generation. Furthermore, the riots began after the police murder of an unarmed black man, in a poor community that has been racked with police violence and harassment of people of color.

Protest Near Oxford Circus 3/26/11 (Image by mastermaq)

 Britain has also seen numerous organized political protests against university fee hikes and austerity measures over the past year, as have Spain, Germany and other European countries. Similarly, there have been uprisings in many Middle Eastern and North African countries, not only against brutal dictatorships, but also against declining economic conditions. Even Israel is seeing its largest demonstrations in generations, with 300,000 in Tel Aviv protesting dire economic conditions, according to the Washington Blog, and thousands of others in Jerusalem and other cities. Protests over poverty and living conditions have also erupted in China and the Philippines.

As the world’s wealthy continue to exploit an economic crisis caused by their own greed to impose austerity on the rest of us and grab as much as they can as quickly as possible, they are acutely aware that they are making their own safety and security more tenuous. People will only take so much before fighting back. Contrary to the authorities and pundits, it seems like this is what has been happening in Britain.

(From Washington’s Blog)

Worst British Unrest in 30 Years

The protests in England spread out of London yesterday, with mobs firebombing police stations and torching shops in London, Manchester, Salford, Liverpool, Nottingham and Birmingham. Protests also spread to Wales. London deployed 16,000 police, the largest police presence in the city’s history, reports Democracy Now. Scotland Yard said it would use water cannons and plastic bullets, if necessary, weapons routinely used in Northern Ireland, but never before in London.

Police Cover Up

The riots erupted over the police shooting of Mark Duggan, a 29-year-old black man. The police claim that Duggan fired at them first. However, according to Democracy Now, the Independent Police Complains Commission (IPCC) found that the bullet fired was a police-issued bullet and could not have been fired by Duggan. Furthermore, rather than informing Duggan’s family of the mistake and apologizing, the family only found about Duggan’s exoneration through the media.

Provoked by the Government?

The riots began in Britain’s poor communities of color in response to the police murder of a black man. To suggest that people were simply taking advantage of the situation to run amok and loot is not only stupid, but dismissive of legitimate grievances of Britain’s minority communities.

Democracy Now reports that anti-terror legislation has made it much easier for the police to search and interrogate people without just cause. As a consequence, police harassment and violence in black and South Indian communities in England has escalated. At the same time, corporate greed and austerity measures have intensified the gap between the rich and poor. In this context, it should not be surprising that simmering anger and frustration might blow up into rioting.

Random Apolitical Thuggery?

While the media and politicians would like us to believe that recent events in Britain were random, disorganized and criminal, they began with an organized protest led by local community activists seeking answers and dialogue with the police, according to Democracy Now. The protest escalated into a riot after the police not only blew them off, but assaulted a 16-year-old girl who was shouting at them and demanding answers, beating her with batons and riot shields.

Proof of Concept?

British soccer star Wayne Rooney, who is well-known for his own violent rampages on (and off) the soccer pitch, called for calm, perhaps out of fear that he might lose property in the unrest. (Rooney earned $20 million over the past year). “Why would people want to do this to there [sic] own country?” he was quoted in the SF Chronicle, perhaps highlighting exactly why: better quality education, especially for the poor and working class, from where Rooney hails.

According to the New York Times one million British youth from the ages of 16 to 24 are officially unemployed, the most since the deep recession of the mid-1980s. In June and November, there were ongoing youth and student protests against skyrocketing costs for college, which cut off higher education to virtually all but the affluent. Over 750,000 people took part in these demonstrations, including three of the country’s teachers unions.

While it may be the dream of large percentages of Britain’s teenage boys and girls to someday attain the success Wayne Rooney, it is increasingly becoming a dream to achieve something much more humble, like a career that pays the bills.

Chile Update: 100,000 March to Defend Public Education

For updates on the ongoing protest against privatization in Chile, check out the latest from Education Notes Online: Update: 100,000 March to Defend Public Education in Chile: SOS on Steroids

UC Student Faces Assault on Officer Charges

Peter Howell, the UC Merced undergrad facing a felony count for the Regents’ meeting, had his arraignment today around 10:45 am.  Brought out in orange scrubs and cuffs, Howell’s lawyer asked that the felony charge be reduced to a misdemeanor given that the prosecution’s case is so weak and that there is video evidence demonstrating that Howell never touched the weapon.  The prosecutor attempted to defend the position that he grabbed Kemper’s baton, but the reasoning was incoherent.  Here’s Howell on the scuffle:

“I put my hands on my chest and backpedaled,” Howell said in the interview. “I was trying to get away. (Officer Kemper) shoved through me, and he may have lost control of his baton. You can hear it rattle on the ground in a video. At no point did I strike him on the head, so I believe that statement was false.”

The read the rest of the article, please visit 

UC Student Faces Serious Charges Still

Off With His Head

Off With His Head (image by Alaskan dude)

Ostentatious Wealth and Grandiose Ignorance  

                                                                     

Protesters chanting “Off With His Head,” attacked Prince Charles and his wife Camilla Wednesday, as his chauffer idiotically attempted to maneuver his Rolls Royce through a demonstration of thousands of angry students. Protesters threw paint, smashed a window, and hurled sticks at the royal couple, as they attempted to make their way to the theater. Throughout the ordeal, The Royal Moron continued to smile and wave, even proffering the thumbs-up, as if completely oblivious to the fact that he and his ostentatious vehicle symbolize precisely the sort of parasitic wealth that was fueling the students’ anger.

Cops Bash in Student’s Brain

The protest had started outside parliament and was immediately met with extreme police brutality. Riot cops “kettled” protesters in Parliament Square, trapping them within a police cordon, and assaulting them on foot and on horseback. Alfie Meadows, a 20-year old student, was carried away unconscious, with serious head injuries. He later had to undergo emergency brain surgery. A student with cerebral palsy was dragged from his wheel chair and roughed up, too. He told journalists that their obsession with violence was not only misleading the public (thousands of protesters had broken free of the police cordon and continued to march peacefully, without incident), but it was fanning the flames of police violence against students, by making it seem deserved.

Photo by Andrew Moss

It should be noted that millions of students have been protesting peacefully across the country against the trebling of university fees. High school and middle school age children have been joining the protests. Students are outraged not only by the fee hikes, but the host of austerity measures being hoisted upon the British people in order to pay for a budget deficit caused by government and corporate irresponsibility and greed.

The media have characterized the students as violent, anarchic and naïve. Prime Minister David Cameron said that the protesters “came determined to provoke violence. . . They must face the full force of the law.”

Yet it is the government who should take responsibility. The violence was provoked by the police, not the protesters. The cops “kettled” protesters, detaining everyone in the vicinity without charge or access to food, water and toilets, and then they assaulted them. People act outraged that protesters attacked the prince, yet if the police had done their homework, they should never have allowed the prince to drive through a mass protest.

The Escalating Class War

The extreme police violence meted out against protesters, and the government and media frenzy to justify it, all come at a time of rapidly growing popular discontent throughout Europe and the U.S. Student protests in Italy have also been savagely attacked by police, while workers and students have also been assailed in France, Germany, Spain, and Ireland in recent months.

The ruling elite recognize that they have crossed a line in terms of the brazenness and greed of their looting and pillaging. They are expecting increasing opposition and they are ready to use as much force as it takes to defend their property and their profits.  

Photo by binary ape

Will American Students and Workers take to the streets in similar numbers when the austerity measures really hit here?

UK Police Attack School Children and Pregnant Woman

Students again demonstrated in London on November 24 to protest tuition hikes and cuts to low income student subsidies. There were at least 10,000 protesters in London, including many school age children who cut classes to join the protests. Demonstrations also occurred in Manchester, Sheffield, Winchester, Cambridge and Leeds. High school age protesters were worried that they won’t be able to afford college and would be consigned to low paying jobs for the rest of their lives. They were also protesting the government’s plans to end the Education Maintenance Allowance, which helps low income students stay in school after the age of 16.

The cops were extremely heavy handed, using truncheons on pregnant women and children under the age of 18. They charged protesters on horseback. They also used a tactic called Kettling, where they encircle protesters and hold them captive without food, water or the use of toilets for hours at a time, in effect imprisoning them without charge or due process. Some children were still being help by police after midnight in near-freezing conditions.

Growing Student Unrest

Britain is planning to hunt down student protesters who occupied Tory headquarters last week and, according PM David Cameron, prosecute them to the fullest extent of the law. Paul McKeever, chair of the Police Federation, said that the man who threw a fire extinguisher from the top of the Millbank building should be “charged with attempted murder.” 

Students protests have been increasing throughout the world. Students have played a major role in the on-going protests in France over Sarkozy’s pension cuts. Students have also protested the deteriorating quality of education, fee hikes, “reform,” and privatization in Germany, Italy, Spain, Denmark, and Argentina. In the U.S., University of California officials want to expel a student for occupying Wheeler Hall during anti-fee hike protests in Berkeley. Students have also recently been punished for protesting at Ben-Gurion University, in Israel, for the rights of school employees.

The British response to last week’s protests may seem excessive. Yet, as governments throughout the world continue to use the economic crisis as an excuse to gut social programs, jobs, education, health and welfare, while bailing out and subsidizing the rich, they are terrified that the masses will awaken violently. Therefore, their response to opposition will be swift, severe and increasingly violent.

Will Students Save Our Schools?

Thanks to Schools Matter for finding this video: