700 students storm TUSD in Arizona
May 15, 2010
Meeting canceled after 700+ students walk out of classes and blockade TUSD headquarters. Fifteen arrested during occupation of Arizona state building
Breaking: On Tuesday, May 11 Arizona Governor Jan Brewer signed HB2281, a bill that legally prohibits ethnic studies programs from Arizona public schools, equating such classes with sedition and removing state funding from districts that offer them.
On the morning of May 12th state superintendent Tom Horne, who for years has advocated eliminating ethnic studies, tried to hold a meeting with Tucson Unified School District officials to discuss the district’s curriculum. Rumors began circulating around 10:00 a.m. among Jr. high and high school students that Horne was in Tucson to immediately “pull the plug” on their classes.
In response, more than 700 spontaneously walked-out of their classes, with participants from Rincon, Cholla, Tucson and Pueblo high schools. Students then marched to TUSD headquarters and proceeded to surround the building and blockade the entrances to prevent Horne from entering. Shortly thereafter, school district officials canceled their meeting, claiming that Horne, who is running for state Attorney General, had turned it into “a political event”.
After learning that the meeting was canceled, about 200 among those gathered left TUSD and marched through downtown Tucson to the Arizona state building, where Horne was scheduled to hold a press conference at 2pm. More than a hundred entered and occupied the building lobby, and fifteen were ultimately arrested for refusing to leave.
In addition to HB2281, student demonstrators spoke out against SB1070 and SB1097, a bill that would force school districts to check the legal status of all students and eliminate public funding for those undocumented. A statement was circulated at the rally encouraging others around the country to engage in protests and direct action on Friday, May 14 in solidarity with students in Arizona.
See also: SB1070: Battle at the Grassroots
Portland Blockade
April 9, 2010
From Portland IMC:
Today, fifty anarchists arrived at five p.m with the intention of taking and holding space at the intersection where the death of James Chasse occurred. At some point during the night, a creative and sneaky comrade had changed the street sign at the intersection to read “James Ave,” a tribute to the lost community member who was killed at the hands of the Portland Police in 2006.
Immediately, individuals began to break into affinity groups and carry out the tasks they had agreed to do together. While people began stringing caution tape across the intersection, others grabbed wooden pallets and began to stack them together to create a barricade. Banners were hung across these impromptu structures. Others grabbed trash cans, cardboard and other reinforcements. Soon, a dumpster was reclaimed from a near by business and rolled into the intersection and then overturned. Another dumpster soon followed. These dumpsters soon became drum sets, and voices rose to greet them with chants of “another man is deceased, who’s to blame, the police.”
Crowds begin to gather, curious to see why people are demonstrating here. Someone explains that this is the intersection where James Chasse was killed by the Portland Police Department, a man who was a singer and poet, beaten to death by our “boys in blue.” It took the Portland Police Department twenty five minutes to respond. The Portland Police Department deployed roughly fifty bicycle cops and fifteen motorcycle cops. It was also noted that many plain clothes police officers were seen casing the area. The police blocked off two streets and watched while anarchists chanted, spoke and danced inside their barricades. It looked as if the police were very unsure as to how to proceed, and understood that they were being watched by almost two hundred by-standers. The march was able to disperse safely at six p.m, as decided. The action happened on their terms, just like it was intended to. The downtown area was still swarming with police at 6:15 p.m. So far, there have been no reports of arrest. Read the rest of this entry »
Action days against Bologna Process begin
March 11, 2010
Today begins a week of actions across Europe to block the Bologna Process, a massive scheme for gutting public education across Europe by standardizing the commodification of education. An Indymedia page in English provides some more details:
Between March 11 and 12, about 50 education ministers from all over europe and beyond, will gather in vienna and budapest to celebrate the 10 anniversary of bologna process.(Infos in: fr, de, tr)
Considering the current situation, the autumn and winter occupations and the ongoing protests in many Universities in Europe, South Africa, California (articles Indymedia Los Angeles) – is this celebration a mockery for all of us.
The bologna process is directly linked to the lisabon treaty which enforces the eurpean unions psychotic plan the transform this habitat into the most competitive place in the world resourced by the “product” knowledge.
Red and Black flags in the sky in Bologna:
Banner in Vienna:
The New School Reoccupied 