More from Spain...anyone know owt about the red helmetted plod?

Like Al Murray-Lawson stated in his article last week, things are laughably out of control in Quebec. Students want free burgers, free taxi rides and free La Ronde passes. Oh no, wait, only I want that. Students were and are largely fighting for a tuition freeze. How dare they?

If I were to maintain a tone as reductive and dismissive as Al’s, I’d end my argument there. Maybe I’d throw in some irrelevant personal history outlining how I’m a lifelong Montrealer, identify as a Quebecer and have attended both French and English schools here. And why wouldn’t I? It seems everyone against the student movement has appropriated the whole thing and made it about themselves. “I had to pay for school!” “I’ve seen those kids, they all have iPhones!” “That damn protest made me late for my meeting with Mister McMoolah!“ Le nombrilisme à son meilleur.

It’s easy to take an over-simplistic approach whether you’re for or against the movement. However, the protests have snowballed into something so multifaceted, delicate and complicated that it’s impossible to form a legitimate opinion without fully understanding it. I’m admittedly not even sure that I do, given that media outlets often report on it in a confusing or biased manner, provide selective information and numbers, and utilize terminology that the average reader or viewer isn’t entirely familiar with.

Student groups had originally demonstrated against Liberal ex-premier Jean Charest’s $325 per year tuition hike but were very soon joined by alumni, professors, artists, feminists, the Occupy Montreal camp, anti-police brutality advocates, separatists, anarchists, vandals and people who were just generally fed up in one way or another, each making the cause their own. That last faction is particularly noteworthy as there’s long been a sense of frustration and mistrust of the government within Quebec, and the movement probably wouldn’t have been sparked without it. The discontent culminated on May 22, 2012 when a giant crowd estimated at 500,000 marched on the 100th day of the student strike.

Current Parti Quebecois premier Pauline Marois took advantage of the situation, schmoozing the students, wearing the red square and essentially fueling the conflict. She was elected in part due to her student-friendly platform that included a tuition freeze. Loud applause and sighs of relief roared through the Plateau bar I watched the election results at. And then, at last week’s curiously short two-day summit on higher education, Marois reneged on her promise. Tuition is now indexed to inflation, totalling an additional $70 per year.

Saying that the student movement is continuing what was a six month-long series of protests over $70 is wrong. It’s meant to shame and ridicule the people involved. Some of those taking to the streets are incensed that they’ve once again been betrayed by their government. Others are still pushing for free post-secondary education, hoping to join countries like Argentina, Finland and Scotland, to name a few. That agenda isn’t impossible. In 2007, the government granted $950 million in household tax relief that favored rich peeps; by contrast, free higher education would cost the government $700 million. If instilled, this would redistribute the wealth, blur socioeconomic lines and promote a more educated, arguably smarter people but let’s face it - rich white, male fucks don’t want anyone else’s grimy hands touching their rubies or their Grey Poupons.

The education summit proved to be a joke even without taking its length or the slight tuition hike into account. Marois announced that university funding would be cut by $250 million over the next two fiscal years. She also boasted the creation of a council, the Conseil national des universités, and of committees whose jobs it will be to discuss university efficiency and finances. A noble idea, only Quebec already has a minister and a ministry of education, who are presumably already tasked with those duties.

Government officials and university rectors have frequently called for tuition hikes based on the supposed underfunding of these learning institutions. However, it’s been affirmed that they aren’t actually underfunded; rather, they mismanage their dough. Of the $850 million universities were to receive by 2016-2017, they planned to allocate between 20 and 40 per cent to research which prioritizes the private sector and to top dog salaries. Let us remember that Heather Munroe-Bloom, principal and vice-chancellor of McGill University, received $587,000 in salary and perks in 2008-2009. Former Concordia University presidents Judith Woodsworth and Claude Lajeunesse both left before their contracted terms ended with severance packages totalling $703,500 and $1 million, respectively. Must be nice.

Student movement participants have every right to be disappointed in not only the government but also in the police force. Cops’ well-documented, reprehensible behavior has often caused sheer panic among protesters. Whether it be hitting people with their cars and motorcycles, pepper spraying non-violent crowds (this officer, widely known as Agent 728, was recently arrested on unrelated but equally scary charges) or shoving or otherwise abusing journalists, people have lost what little faith they had in those mandated to keep the peace. In a somewhat ironic move, the Montreal police Brotherhood held its own protest last Thursday. That’s our thing, guys.

Quebec has the highest taxes in the country so it’s only logical that it also has the cheapest education. Post-secondary enrollment is 9 per cent higher in Quebec than in the rest of Canada. Full-time students here work more than their Canadian counterparts. The student movement therefore isn’t reflective of a lazy, cheap, privileged society like certain people blindly believe; it’s a fight for everyone’s inherent right to education regardless of class, gender or race. It’s a disillusioned youth refusing to live up to antiquated expectations. It’s hundred of thousands of individuals who aren’t just going to accept whatever their corrupt, self-serving government shoves down their throats.

But yeah, I guess it’s easier to laugh at Quebec.

Campaigners have blockaded the gates of a Brighton arms factory on the tenth anniversary of the invasion of Iraq.

A group of activists arrived at the EDO MBM factory at 6am and three of them affixed themselves to the gates using bicycle d-locks and superglue.

The action was held this morning to mark the tenth anniversary of the beginning of the Iraq war in 2003.

EDO blockade 19 March 2013
EDO blockade 19 March 2013

EDO MBM is one of a group of companies which has supplied Paveway missiles for use in Iraq and Afghanistan. The company also manufactures a cable, the Field Replaceable Connector System, which is used on US planes known to carry cluster munitions.

Chloe Marsh of Smash EDO said: “The case for war was put to people in the UK on the basis of an immediate threat from Iraqi WMD. This turned out, as expected, to be a lie. As a result, according to the Lancet, over a million Iraqi citizens have died.”

Andrew Beckett said: “We are here to commemorate those who died in the aerial bombardment of Iraq and to resist EDO MBM's continued supply of components to the US/UK military.”

Another campaigner, Jessica Nero, is challenging her conviction for aggravated trespass in Lewes appeal court today. She will argue that EDO MBM's business is unlawful.

For more details about Nero's appeal, see smashedo.org.uk/1223.

Montreal, Canada: Demo against police brutality ends in.....police brutality!

Dozens of teachers, administrators, union officials, clergy, school janitors and lunchroom staff took a seat in protest on Wednesday afternoon -- in the middle of LaSalle Street in downtown Chicago.

They were among thousands of demonstrators who gathered at Daley Plaza Wednesday for a rally led by the Chicago Teachers Union in protest the proposed closings of 54 Chicago Public Schools.

The rally, march through downtown that clogged rush-hour traffic and the LaSalle Street sit-in -- a promised sign of civil disobedience -- ended in front of CPS headquarters 90 minutes later with speeches from the Rev. Jesse Jackson and Chicago Teachers Union President Karen Lewis.

An estimated 150 protestors sat down peacefully on LaSalle, in front of City Hall. Chicago Police said 127 protesters were detained, ticketed and released. Police asked protesters to leave, then handcuffed them when they refused and led them to nearby buses for processing.

The teachers union warned of the sit-in in a memo that was distributed early on Wednesday, which stated protestors would, "risk arrest."


Teachers, union officials, school janitors and lunchroom staff were among 150 people
who sat in protest outside City Hall. (Photo courtesy Gervaise Clay)

Jitu Brown, of the Kenwood Oakland Community Organization, called it the school closings a national issue and called on state lawmakers to, "address the laws that governs the school closings."

He called on them to vote on a U.S. Senate and House bill which would place an immediate moratorium on school closings.

"Education is a human right. What do we do?" Brown asked the crowd.

"Fight, fight!" the crowd chanted.

That was one of several chants the group -- estimated in the thousands at the plaza but several hundred for the march -- yelled during the demonstration. Another: "We need teachers, we need books. We need the money that Rahm took."

Prior to the demonstrations, Mayor Rahm Emanuel said in a press conference Wednesday that negotiations on the school closings are over and the plan will move forward. Emanuel said that he and Chicago Public Schools CEO Barbara Byrd-Bennett will proceed with a plan that's necessary for them to live up to the pledges they made -- to put children first.

If approved by the school board, the closings will begin in June, the end of the school year. It will impact 30,000 students.

Karen Lewis Photo
Teachers union President Karen Lewis addresses the crowd from a
flatbed truck in front of CPS headquarters. (Photo/Angelica Robinson)

Lewis called the school closings racially motivated. Many of the closings are on the South and West sides in predominately black and Latino neighborhoods. Aldermen from those neighborhoods -- including Robert Fioretti (2nd) and Ricardo Munoz (22nd) -- were at the demonstration.

"Let's not pretend that when you close schools primarily on the South and West sides that the children who will be affected are black," Lewis said. "Let's not pretend that that's not racist."

Lewis read a list Chicago Public schools named after prominent African-Americans, such as Arna Bontemps, Crispus Attucks and Mahalia Jackson.

"They are closing down schools that have names of African-American icons," she said. "These are injustices … [They are] wiping away the history of a people."

Teacher Tyra Smith said she participated in the rally to "serve notice today on the failed leadership of black leaders in the city. They have sold us out. If you don't stand with us, then you stand against us."

Alexis Moore, a student at Lindblom Math and Science Academy in Englewood, said closing the schools won't make things any better for students. She's concerned with the increased distance students must travel to school -- many will walk through crime-ridden, gang-ruled streets.

"Y'all don't walk in our shoes, y'all don't know how it feels to walk everyday to school," she said. "You have little kids walking farther to school everyday, which could be dangerous.

"Don't close our schools because we don't have anything else. Y'all say education is the future, so why are you trying to limit what we already got?"

The district says closing the schools will offer students a better education because it will allow scarce resources to be spread across fewer schools. In addition, they estimate it will allow the district to save $43 million annually -- helping it defray a $1 billion deficit.

The teachers union demands the schools stay open. Lewis called for a safety plan to prevent the closings of so-called underutilized schools.

Despite CPS' proposal to close the schools, Lewis asked for people to show up at the beginning of the academic year at their original school.

"It's not over til it's over," she said. "On the first day of school you show up at your real school. Don't let these people take our schools."

Teachers angered at education reform stormed the offices of political parties in southwestern Mexico on Wednesday, breaking windows and setting fire inside the ruling party’s local headquarters.
Thousands of members of the CETEG teachers’ union, joined by farmers and student groups, marched in the capital of Guerrero state, Chilpancingo, while groups wearing masks took their anger out on the offices of four political parties.
Plumes of black smoke billowed from the rectangular-shaped office of the ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) in the state capital after masked protesters broke into the building and tossed chairs, papers and plants out of windows.
Some spray-painted anti-government graffiti on the building, while others tore pictures of President Enrique Pena Nieto, who pushed through an overhaul of the nation’s flagging education system with the backing of opposition parties.
The protesters used pipes and sticks to destroy windows and doors at the local headquarters of the National Action Party (PAN), the Democratic Revolution Party (PRD) and the Citizen Movement.
Protesters wrote “traitors of the people” on the PRD’s walls.
Milenio television also showed small fires inside the state education department’s audit office, with computers and broken pieces of glass strewn on the parking lot.
Firefighters were later seen dousing the flames.
Police did not intervene while some 300 police officers protected the state legislature.
To escape disruption from the protests, the state congress moved this week to Acapulco, which last year became the murder capital of Mexico with more than 1,000 homicides reported.
Teachers have held protests in recent weeks, twice blocking the highway between Mexico City and the Pacific resort of Acapulco to denounce the reform that passed the federal Congress in December.
The latest demonstration erupted one day after the Guerrero state legislature approved an education bill that fell well short of the protesters’ demands to water down the federal law, which requires teachers to pass periodic tests in order to get jobs and receive promotions.
The law takes away control of teacher assessment from a powerful teachers union and seeks to end the practice of teachers passing on posts to relatives or simply selling them.
Teachers have been one of the most militant groups in Mexico in recent years, periodically causing major disruptions in some states during efforts to force through change.
Guerrero is already suffering from a wave of violence that spawned vigilante-style “community self-defence” groups.
The groups have taken the law into their own hands, rounding up who they see as suspects, including police, and prompting criticism the government is no longer in control of some areas.
Guerrero state police said elements from the self-defence groups were among the people attacking the political offices.
Minervo Moran, the CETEG union’s spokesman, said that the violent protests were “a reaction to the aggressive policies that are being imposed by the reforms and that’s why there was this sort of action against the parties” that voted against the protesters’ proposals.
Moran warned that the demonstrations “could escalate, but it is up to the government and the legislature to find a solution”.
He said the union would hold a meeting later in the day to decide the way forward.
Guerrero Governo Angel Aguirre called the violent protesters “vandals” and warned that arrest orders were issued against those who committed crimes. He added that he asked for federal police reinforcements.
PRI chairman Cesar Camaco condemned the attacks, telling Milenio that it was “a bad signal and this cannot remain unpunished”.
Chilpancingo Mayor Mario Moreno asked for federal security support to control the situation.
“We as a municipality do not have the ability to face a mob of 4,000 or 5,000 people,” Moreno told Milenio.
Meanwhile, students in schools to become teachers temporarily blocked two federal highways in the neighbouring state of Michoacan, demanding that graduates from their college automatically get teaching positions.
Protests have also taken place in recent weeks in Oaxaca, which is among the country’s poorest states along with Guerrero and Michoacan.
Pena Nieto signed the education law in February. Lawmakers must still draw up separate legislation to implement it.