UC Execs Demand More Money

According to Nanette Asimov (SF Chronicle), 36 top UC executives are demanding better pensions (and threatening the UC with lawsuits), including a $5 million increase in pension liability and what would effectively be another $51 million in retroactive changes for the UC. The list of executives that signed the demand letter:

UC system’s central offices

Satish Ananthaswamy, CFA senior portfolio manager, Office of the Chief Information Officer

Marie Berggren, chief investment officer

William Coaker Jr., senior managing director of equity investments, Office of the Treasurer

Lynda Choi, managing director, absolute return, regents’ Office of the Treasurer

Linda Fried, senior portfolio manager

Gloria Gil, managing director of real assets, Office of the Treasurer

Jesse Phillips, senior managing director, investment risk management, regents’ Office of the Treasurer

Tim Recker, CFA managing director of private equity, regents’ Office of the Treasurer

Dr. Jack Stobo, senior vice president, health services and affairs

Randolph Wedding, senior managing director, fixed income, Office of the Treasurer

UCSF

Dr. Sam Hawgood, vice chancellor and dean, School of Medicine

Ken Jones, chief operating officer, medical center

Mark Laret, CEO, medical center

Larry Lotenero chief information officer, medical center

John Plotts, senior vice chancellor

UC Berkeley

Christopher Edley Jr., dean, School of Law

Richard Lyons, dean, Haas School of Business

UC Davis

Steven Currall, dean, Graduate School of Management

William McGowan, CFO, health system

Dr. Claire Pomeroy, CEO health system, vice chancellor/dean, School of Medicine

Ann Madden Rice, CEO Medical Center

UCLA

Roger Farmer, chair, Department of Economics

Dr. David Feinberg, CEO of the hospital system; associate vice chancellor

Franklin Gilliam Jr. dean, school of Public Affairs

Dr. Gerald Levey, dean emeritus

Virginia McFerran, chief information officer of the health system

Judy Olian, dean and John E. Anderson chair, Anderson School of Management

Amir Dan Rubin, chief operating officer of the hospital system

Dr. J. Thomas Rosenthal, chief medical officer of the hospital system; associate vice chancellor

Paul Staton, chief financial officer of the hospital system

UC San Diego

Dr. David Brenner, vice chancellor for health sciences; dean of the School of Medicine

Tom Jackiewicz, CEO, associate vice chancellor of the health system

Gary Matthews, vice chancellor, resource management & planning

Dr. Thomas McAfee, dean for clinical affairs

Robert Sullivan, dean, Rady School of Management

UC Irvine

Terry Belmont, CEO, Medical Center

DIY Book Bloc

UC Student Faces Serious Charges Still

from ThoseWhoUseIt:

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.”

Regardless, the judge refused to engage the debate, pushing it back to the hearing date, now scheduled for February 22 upon the request of the defense.  The judge denied him release on OR but reduced the bail from $30,000 to $15,000.

Hands off Peter Howell!

Update: Howell’s lawyer, John Hamasaki, is looking for anyone who witnessed the alleged incident on November 17 at UCSF-Mission Bay.  Contact him at john@hamasakilaw.com if you are a witness, or else if you have photos or videos of the alleged incident.

Safety reminder: Please do not offer yourself as a witness if you have uncharged conduct from that day (that may also show up in photos or videos). This is not an assumption that anyone does, just a precaution. Also, please don’t discuss any possible evidence or witness testimony you may have in writing, including comments sections on blogs and over listservs. Due to the recent increase in state/university repression, we should actively consider being very careful with information, in order to care for each other and ourselves.

[Editor: On a related note, 19 students/demonstrators involved in the UC Irvine sit-in in February are facing arraignments tomorrow, Dec. 29th at 8am at the Central Court (700 W Civic Center Dr., Santa Ana, Orange County)*. The charged face several misdemeanors each. More here.]

*correction.

The only security the government can gives us is to die on the job.

ITALY – Today, the Italian senate voted on the Gelmini bill which masses of students continued to protest. In Rome, some 30,000 demonstrators blocked highways and arteries into the city. In Milan and Palermo, riots broke out. In Naples, protesters blocked the ports and railways. Protests, roadblocks and occupations also took place in several other cities including, Pisa, Venice, Genoa, Turin.

Students the Sapienza University of Rome, returned from the parade to bring flowers for a foreign worker who died this morning on a construction site at the university. Students wrote on the construction site fencing: “the only security the government can gives us is to die on the job.”

More at UniRiot.

A whole different story

from UniRiot:

A revolt is never a linear, predictable fact, easy to read: it is something that should be placed in the context of years of struggles and arrogant answers given by the government, inside a crisis that destroys the lives of the ones who most suffer its consequences. The universities are being dismantled, precariousness has become a way of life and blackmail is the normal condition: all this leaves a scar on a generation that dreams and desires much more. Our future is being snatched from us and this produces rage, revolt; at the same time it indicated an open and unresolved space, and starting from the capacity to imagine, it creates new forms of common decision and social negotiation that can win and impose a radical change to politics.

Many days have passed since the December 14. We have written this piece only today because we wanted to listen to all the voices and stories of who was there that day, read the reports on the web, the blogs, inside the colleges, see the videos that recount that day. We write because we believe that everyone has something to tell and to report. A collective and diversified narrative is needed, a narrative able to compose a new way of looking at this country, to imagine a present in a different and radical way. We know that as soon as a rebellion breaks the expected pattern of things the mediated and false words of journalists start to be heard: they say there were 200 black blocs (who are they???) and try to exorcise the fear of an illegitimate government that has to deal with of a square in revolt, where in fact the criminals were the 314 MPs. 314 votes  allowed a government to stand upright for a little longer: it is an isolated, corrupt, and mafia ridden government. How long will this last?

Now inside the colleges, in the thousands of debates that take place during the assemblies, one thing is certain: what we all want is a general strike, a strike capable of bringing the country to a halt and of forcing the government to resign. Wu Ming says: “ there is need of a new narrative. Without tales to tell sitting around the fire in the evening every struggle in the desert is bound to fail”. A narrative able to include the people who were there in that square, who came from all over Italy, and the people who were not present but who imagined what happened, who asked about it, who had others tell and talk about it and asked why. These various stories flow, the words, the anecdotes; everyone wants to tell their one story, listen, share. People talk about Genova, but many of us were not there, though Genova means a lot to us. We were born in those days and like most sons we need to go far, get away, far from family, from memories, from that sense of belonging, not to disown all of this but to have another story to tell. December 14 everything, and not only what happened in Piazza del Popolo, marked a real divide. We wanted to know what was the most interesting thing that happened that day. We couldn’t agree on one thing because everyone had his or her own story to tell: every one believes that what he or she has to tell is more important and more significant. So we decided to talk about something different: the evening before the march. It was fascinating to walk around the occupied university, everyone was making his and her own shield, book, everyone wanted to comment on it and carry it. What we saw was a collective determination, a mass decision to not be the object of someone else’s choice. We decided that our life was not to be decided on and governed by someone else. Everyone hoped his or her book would be up front the next day, that he or her would be the one to carry it, everyone knew that the next day would be an historic one.

One in which everyone wanted to be protagonist. There was no good or bad, it was simply us, the live body of this society, determined to get back our words, our speech. No apology, never say you’re sorry; no ideological fetishism about practice, but a capacity to react with strength, because we are right, because the tens of thousands of people in Piazza del Popolo speak to all and question the country. From London to Paris, from Athens to Dublin the widespread indignation explodes. They would like to diminish everything and deal with it as if it were a matter of public security, threatening preventive arrests: they are incapable of providing a political answer, shut inside the buildings in the red area, no democracy in sight.

“Branca Branca Branca … Leon Leon Leon”: Mario Monicelli must have laughed a great deal looking down on the book block that walked along Corso Rinascimento from who knows where.

The Armata Brancaleone (The Incredible Army of Brancaleone) was among the books that marched, a poetic and cinematographic license, a tribute to the man that in his last interview reminded us of the fact that hope is a trap created by the rulers. Well, we left our hope at home a long time ago, you can imagine what kind of trust we have in this government and in this representative system that is in crisis. We have decided to not flee a country that has no alternative to offer, we have decided to resist inside the faculties, in our work places, in the occupations and in the streets. We have decided to start to dream again, because “a dream you dream alone is only a dream, a dream you dream in two is reality”. What happens when thousands of people start to dream?

P.S. It is utterly vile and shameful to recall (and to claim responsibility for) the biggest judicial frame-up against the movements, as Gasparri (PDL’s group leader in the Senate), did. It indicates that the government is afraid. We want to play on the fact that he got the date wrong. Gasparri talked of the need for preventive arrests and recalled April 7 1978 (it was actually 1979), day in which many were arrested and accused of being involved with the Red Brigades. We looked up April 7 on Wikipedia and found that on that day in 1300 Dante began, maybe under hallucinations, his journey in the dark wood and in 1943 Hoffman synthesized Lsd. We found the link that connects these events. Our former minister is having a bad trip!

Alioscia Castronovo, Stefano Zarlenga -  Uniriot Roma

(traduzione di Emma Catherine Gainsforth)

UPR Students Arrested and Injured

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico – [BREAKING] 17 or more students were arrested, at least 2 hospitalized, and around 8 police injured on Monday, December 20th, in clashes related to the student strike at the University of Puerto Rico. Although still unclear, it appears students attempted to shutdown business as usual at the natural sciences building at the Río Piedras campus, but were instead met with a violent police response. According to one mainstream news report, police were seen bludgeoning students with nightsticks while they lay on the ground, and students were seen throwing stones at police.

[Update]: Reports are coming in that the arrested students were still being beaten once boarded onto police transport buses and while at the police detention center.

Video of arrests (warning, the video is loud):

For the past few weeks students have been in an uproar over a fee increase intended to begin in January. This is the same fee increase students fought to prevent last Spring, where demonstrators effectively shut down the 10 of 11 campus system for two months. Students held a 48 hour strike only two weeks ago, which ended in the police occupation of some UPR campuses (including: Río Piedras, Aguadilla, Humancao, Bayamon, Carolina, and Cayey). Students have attempted several creative actions and protests to raise awareness of the police sieges on their education and the ensuing brutality.

Update: After going to the Carolina campus to show support for their strike, the Río Piedras students came back and held a demo in the main plaza.  They went around doing the usual classroom visits to make sure no one was holding class, and while this was happening the police showed up and followed one individual down a set of stairs and arrested him.  A fight broke out between the arresting police officers and some students defending the already-apprehended student, so the police went ahead and arrested another student.  This fight set off a chain of events where the students retreated through the campus and onto the streets. The police pursued them, shooting tear gas and pinning down and arresting anyone they could get their hands on.  When they got to the main avenue, the students formed a picket line, and the police gave dispersal orders, followed by more tear gas and a second chase down the street.  Finally the day ended when the police and the students negotiated to have a picket line at a nearby intersection. (Special thanks to Luis O.)

Some more updates from ReclaimUC.

UC Police Ramp Up Repression

from reclaimUC:

This just came to us on the email, regarding the UC Merced student who learned the other day that he was facing four misdemeanor charges from the protest at the UC Regents’ meeting in November [Update: the above link discusses a different student facing battery charges from the same protest; the student in the email cited below is facing charges for allegedly attacking UC Irvine cop Jared Kemper. Sorry for the confusion!]: 

Tuesday morning Peter learned he was being charged with four misdemeanors arising out of the demonstration at the Regents meeting. Peter only learned that he was being charged after his attorney called the District Attorney’s office to check on the status of his case. Peter was informed that there was a warrant for his arrest issued at the behest of the district attorney’s office. Peter immediately arranged to appear in court in San Francisco at the earliest possible date.

Thinking everything was squared away, Peter spent the night at a friend’s house on Tuesday. Instead three cars full of police officers showed up at his house pounding on the door. His housemate tried to turn them away, but they asked for his ID which they ran to see if it was valid. The police were also looking in the backyard and the windows to see if they could concoct a reason to go inside. Luckily, his housemates knew their rights and told the police to leave, which they finally did after insinuating that the house was lying to them about knowledge of Peter and his whereabouts.

When he got to campus on Wednesday, he went to his professor to tell them what was going on. The professor offered to give him an incomplete, which is helpful but that means he’ll have to re-study for his final over winter break. Peter found out later that police had been at the campus coffee shop looking around at everyone to see if he was there. Police also stationed themselves outside of the classroom where his final exam was to take place, and even went inside and lurked in the projector room during the entire test.

Peter, through his attorney, had himself placed on the court’s calendar immediately after he learned that the district attorney’s office was filing charges against him. Nonetheless, police have continued to hunt for the UC Merced student relentlessly. He now has two incompletes and must make the work up after break. Peter is rightfully outraged at the police’s behavior and is astounded that something like this could happen in a country that says it values free speech and democracy. Also, he is disheartened that a university, his university, would use its police force to unjustifiably intimidate students, going far out of the way to make them feel hunted and watched.

We have learned that the Merced manhunt was orchestrated by the UCSF police, who traveled two hours out of their way in order to attempt to arrest and humiliate Peter in front of his friends, professors and classmates.

This situation is unique in a few ways:

1. University police conducted a 24-hour manhunt (With UC student funds) for a student who is charged with a few misdemeanors.
2. These police were from SF and went all the way to Merced to do this.
3. Police created a situation of intense surveillance of the Merced campus, including a coffee shop that students use and call their own space.
4. Serious attempts were made to enter his house, including searching for a Plain-View Doctrine reason and questioning the integrity of his housemates.
5. He does not have a violent record of any kind and is not a flight risk. He has never given the police any reason to believe he would not show up for his court date on Monday.

We should consider some possible reasons that the UC has suddenly decided that its police force is best used to harass students at their homes and during final exams. Is it because they need to justify the unjustifiable act of Officer Jared Kemper of UC Irvine, pulling his gun on a crowd of unarmed protesters? Or have the UC regents and administration finally realized that the public education movement isn’t a phase, and that we’re not going to stop?

Peter deserves commendation for his cool head in this stressful situation and our support on Monday at his courtdate. Please show up, 9am in Department 13 at 850 Bryant Street in San Francisco to support this student who has been the target of oppressive police tactics.

[Update Sunday 12/19, 2:08pm] Just got word of some updates in the case. Most important is that Peter’s arraignment will not be taking place tomorrow (Monday) morning, as previously noted. We’ll post updates as we get them:

• He has been informed that he will be charged with a felony count of 148(b) for the removal of an officer’s baton;
• The total charges are a felony and three misdemeanors;
• He’s arranging to turn himself in;
• He won’t be in court tomorrow and his lawyer is working on putting him on calendar soon (hopefully Tuesday).

UK Occupations Holding it Down Over Break

UNITED KINGDOM – Almost 50 university and college occupations have taken place since November 10th. The vast majority of them have now been suspended, or have made plans to leave this weekend. But two of them, that we know of, are planning to stay in over the holiday period: University of Kent Canterbury and Camberwell College of Art (South-East London).

These will need all our solidarity! We encourage all our supporters to get in touch with the occupations or just to go along and show some support.
(via EducationActivistNetwork)

Kent:

• http://blogs.kent.ac.uk/welfare
• http://www.facebook.com/home.php?sk=group_111242792278660

 

Camberwell:

• http://3-camberwell.blogspot.com/
• https://twitter.com/camberwellantic

SF DA springs battery charges on Regents’ meeting protesters

from ThoseWhoUseIt:

As our comrades at Mobilize Berkeley have already publicized, a UC Berkeley undergrad was taken into custody today and remains locked up in a San Francisco jail.

This morning, the 13 protesters who were arrested at November’s UC Regents’ meeting had their day in court.  Initial reports were optimistic, as the majority of the arrestees had no charges filed against them.  Note that this is not the same as having their charges dropped; until next November 17, the DA has the option of filing these charges at any time.

Then came the bad news.  Three current and former UC Berkeley students were charged with assault on an officer.  This came as an utter shock, as none of the 13 people arrested on Nov. 17 were arrested on such charges.  One of the three has since had her charges dropped, and a second has posted bail.  However, a UC Berkeley freshman remains behind bars.  Both the alumnus who posted bail and the student still in custody are being charged with obstruction, resisting, and assault on an officer with injury.  Bail is currently set at $30,000 for this student.

[Update:  The student has been bailed out.  His family and friends had to post bond, so they are asking for donations.  You can give what you can by contacting either of the emails at the bottom of this post.  His arraignment is tomorrow (12/15) at 9 am, and we'll need as many people as possible to come out to show the DA that we are watching.  Details of the arraignment are below.] (Read the rest of the article here.)

Georgia Prisoners on Strike

GEORGIA, USA – Georgia State prisoners have been on strike since Thursday at the following state prisons: Baldwin, Hancock, Hays, Macon, Smith and Telfair, among others. Prisoners are refusing to leave their cells and work under slavery conditions. Prisoners have coordinated their efforts through a loose network of cellphones (which are banned for prisoners). They’re list of demands (below) is directed at the Georgia Department of Corrections (DOC).

Update: The prisoners ended the strike after 6 days, but will continue fighting awful conditions. More here.

Demands:

• A LIVING WAGE FOR WORK:  In violation of the 13^th Amendment to the Constitution prohibiting slavery and involuntary servitude, the DOC demands prisoners work for free.
• EDUCATIONAL OPPORTUNITIES:  For the great majority of prisoners, the DOC denies all opportunities for education beyond the GED, despite the benefit to both prisoners and society.
• DECENT HEALTH CARE:  In violation of the 8^th Amendment prohibition against cruel and unusual punishments, the DOC denies adequate medical care to prisoners, charges excessive fees for the most minimal care and is responsible for extraordinary pain and suffering.
• AN END TO CRUEL AND UNUSUAL PUNISHMENTS:  In further violation of the 8^th Amendment, the DOC is responsible for cruel prisoner punishments for minor infractions of rules.
• DECENT LIVING CONDITIONS:  Georgia prisoners are confined in over-crowded, substandard conditions, with little heat in winter and oppressive heat in summer.
• NUTRITIONAL MEALS:  Vegetables and fruit are in short supply in DOC facilities while starches and fatty foods are plentiful.
• VOCATIONAL AND SELF-IMPROVEMENT OPPORTUNITIES:  The DOC has stripped its facilities of all opportunities for skills training, self-improvement and proper exercise.
• ACCESS TO FAMILIES:  The DOC has disconnected thousands of prisoners from their families by imposing excessive telephone charges and innumerable barriers to visitation.
• JUST PAROLE DECISIONS:  The Parole Board capriciously and regularly denies parole to the majority of prisoners despite evidence of eligibility.

More:

• NY Times (Dec. 12) article
• Georgia State Green Party published original press release, (which originally noted the strike to last only one day.)
• Black Agenda Report (Dec. 11) article

Government Establishes Siege Following Successful Strike at UPR

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico – Having achieved student control over the [University of Puerto Rico, Río Piedras] campus during the early morning on December 7th, the second day of the strike flowed with relative calm.  By then, students were not going to wait on the rumors about a potential eviction by police. To spice up the rumor, the police dispersed hundreds of fliers from their helicopter around 6:30 in the morning around the whole campus warning their intervention of the strike. This old military tactic was the beginning of the current siege on the campus.

As part of the coordinated repression, a leaflet was distributed in schools neighboring the UPR: Barbosa, Muñoz Rivera and Vilamayo. It contained a security “contingency plan” and was placed next to the teacher’s time punchers since they had to pass there before going to class. As you can see, the leaflet doesn’t have a signature or letterhead (see below). A university student on strike whose mother is a teacher at one of these schools made sure to copy and distribute the leaflet at the gates of the UPR.

The rest of the day was marked by events filled with strong emotions. At mid-morning, the student leader Giovanni Roberto offered a one-on-one conversation with some employees of the private security company. With this, he managed to get empathy from the young guards by identifying affinity between the working-class students and them as marginalized groups that the system attempts to pit against each other. Watch the video:

But the surprise of the day was the demonstration by the UPR High School students. Contrary to past events, the school remained open with some teachers unaffiliated with the APPU giving classes. Even then, the school cafeteria was closed due to the fact that it’s operated by the Worker Syndicate of the UPR, who have a policy of not crossing picket lines.  At noon, a group of students asked for permission to go eat lunch outside and demonstrate in solidarity with the strike at the Education dept. gate. They were denied, but the students decided to demonstrate in front of the closed gate anyway.  Watch the video:

The afternoon came and the barricades were taken down to put everything where it was before. Once the paths were cleared, the closing activity was a march through the main road of the campus until they reached the Tower. A group of students prepared a 70-foot-long banner that said “Venceremos Siempre” (loosely translated, “We’ll Always Win”) to be hung at the top of the historic building. Unfortunately, the rotunda steps were occupied by the Capitol Security riot squad blocking access for the action. That day, the university administration gave the campus tower away to Chicky Starr (Note for gringos: Chicky Starr is a famous PR wrestler known for his cocky antics.  UPR students dubbed the private security guards the “Chicky Starr Squad” throughout the strike). Watch the video:

The group decided to hang the banner from the top of scaffolding in a nearby building. Afterwords, the students exited through the main gate in a victorious march.

But the story didn’t end there. It was after the effective two day shutdown by students, against the orders of the regent, that the administration played its card. At midnight, the state police came into the university campus effectively breaking with the “non-confrontation” policy and declaring a siege. As of now, their declared intentions are to remain in the campus to prevent the students from coming back to take control for the Tuesday strike. The police have already chosen the nightstick over dialogue.

The indignation of the university community did not wait passively. The Ponce de Leon Ave. was occupied for more than 24 hours in spite of the police presence in the campus. The activities that took place on Thursday Dec. 9th outside of the campus will be in our next report.

Police leaflet:

Leaflet Content:

University High School gate demo:

Taking down barricades:

March through campus:

Occupied Tower:

Banner:

Exit through the main gate:

Ponce de León Occupation:

A common sight at the campus now:

(Via indymedia Puerto Rico. Special thanks to Luis O. for the translation!)

Four Theses on the Invisible University

from reallyopenuniversity:

A radical critique of the university and student activism from the Regents of the Invisible University. Dedicated to our comrades at the University of California.

Thesis 0.1: The University is a Machine in the Network of Capitalism & Empire.

Does anyone still pretend that earning a degree is anything other than job training? Can professors still hide that their knowledge is commodified? Is it not clear that the university is the lap-dog of the state?

Thesis 0.2: There is No Crisis. It is all Business as Usual.

We cry for the loss of a dream that never was. The university was never ours. After shaking off the unessential it will rise from the grave merely mutated and continue to serve its master.

Thesis 0.3: The University Cannot be Saved.

Stop occupying dead space. Our demands merely echo through the empty corridors. There is nothing here for us to take-back or transform, except their administration of an infertile garden.

Thesis 0.4: Defect to the Invisible University!

Abandon the university! Join the university! We are building a new community in the shell of the old: an universitas magistrorum et scholarium, a community of teachers and scholars.

From: http://j-dv.org/stpa/2010/12/preliminary-notes-on-the-charter-of-the-invisible-university/

UCI administration is out for blood

SANTA ANA, California – UC Irvine students charged today, December 9th, for a civil disobedience that occurred almost 10 months ago.

From OccupyUCI:

We have just learned that 19 students and supporters have been charged by the District Attorney of Orange County for participation in the February 24 sit in.

Each person is being charged on average with 3 misdemeanors, though 1 person each is being charged with 2 and 4 counts.  The charges include: false imprisonment, obstruction of a public place, being a public nuisance, trespassing, disturbing the peace, and refusal to disperse.  Arraignment will be December 29.

It is important to note that these charges were filed DURING FINALS WEEK and the arraignment will be during Winter Break, while many students go home to see their families.  Not only is this the greatest intensification of political repression coming from the UCI administration yet, it is also a deliberate attempt to disrupt the course work and family lives of students involved in dissent.

We will keep you posted for more about these cases.

[Editor's note: read our initial report on the UCI sit-in here, and an editorial on it here.]

Call to Europe, from to Rome to London: this is just the beginning!

from UniRiot:

…You don’t need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows: occupation of universities everywhere in Europe, blockage of the cities, manif sauvage, rage. This is the answer of a generation to whom they want to cut the future with debts for studying, cuts of welfare state and increasing of tuition fees.

The determination of thousand of students in London, the rage of who assault the Italian Senate house against the austerity and the education cuts, has opened the present time: this is because the future is something to gain that start when you decide collectively to take risk and to struggle.
The extraordinary struggles that we are living have the capacity to show a present with an intensity that exceed the linearity of the time, that refuse our precarity condition: it is an assault to the future!

We don’t want to get into debt, we don’t want to pay more fees to study in London as well as in Paris, Wien, Rome, Athens, Madrid, Dublin, Lisbon. This European movement is about refusing austerity policies, refusing to get into debt for these miserable politicians. Que se vayan todos!

What is happening nowadays in Rome first spread out in Athens and Paris, then in Dublin and London: it is the irruption of a movement who speaks a common language, the same young generation in revolt, who inhabits different cities but shares the same determination to struggle, «floating like a butterfly and stinging like a bee».

We have to meet each other and invent a new political grammar against the weakness of the Nation-state and their strategy to face the crisis: their receipt is just austerity, cuts and debt.

In Italy we have occupied not only universities, but also blocked motorways and the mobility of the country in order to circulate struggles outside the national borders and coming in Europe and beyond. The circulation of struggles is living within the Book Block and the wild demonstration in London, Paris and Rome.

This autumn we are living a real European student movement, that is various and radical, really heterogeneous. Its common reclaim comes from a protest that is born in the middle of the crisis, and that represents the most courageous answer. It is a struggle composed by different struggles, heterogeneous temporalities that reclaim more scholarships for student and a public university for everyone.

Within the book block a new generation recognized and found itself in the protest. Today in lots of cities the Italian student movement is showing something more than just solidarity: this is because your struggle is our struggle and all around Europe students are against the increasing of fees, the privatisation of the university and the education cuts.  You are not alone in UK: an European event, a new generation do not want to stop. We have the force whom want to change the world and we have the intelligence to do it. It is just the beginning!

We propose to students, researchers, precarious workers and PhD students to build up together an European meeting at the beginning of the 2011, to continue the struggle, to transform this wind in a tempest!

Reclamations Issue III out

The Reclamations journal, born in the fall of 2009, has released its third issue. Read it here.