Cops raid UPR and beat students, but occupation continues

A message from their Facebook solidarity group (Click the link and send your damn solidarity, already!):

The cops went in at one of the gates of the UPR Rio Piedras campus and bashed heads. Around 30 wounded, including a reporter. They’ve retreated. No real reason stated, and the “officers” had no badges on display. A line of professors later stepped in between the cops and the students. According to the Non-confrontation Policy that both parties (students/protesters and the State) have followed for years, police are not supposed to enter the UPR. Of course, with this reactionary government we’ve seen that nothing is respected.

Portland Police Union HQ attacked

Video

PORTLAND, Ore. — Someone vandalized the Portland Police union headquarters doing thousands of dollars in damage early Tuesday.

Spokesman Scott Westerman said just before 1 a.m., bricks and rocks were thrown through their windows, doing about $20,000 worth of damage to the outside of the building.

Eight people were arrested and three officers were injured Monday night when protesters clashed with police in downtown Portland in a rally against two recent officer-involved shootings. DETAILS: Police protests

Westerman said computers and other items were damaged inside the office.

No suspects have been named in the case.

More videos from Monday’s march:

Portland riots after two police murders

For the second consecutive week a black bloc caused havoc in Portland in response to two police murders in the last two months. Aaron Campbell in late January, and Jack Dale Collins on March 22nd. According to Portland IMC’s timeline, the marchers evaded police, went through campus buildings at Portland State University, blockaded streets, smashed the window of a Bank of America, and finally made their way to a “justice center” where prisoners inside could be seen “showing solidarity fists, banging on the windows.” 8 people were arrested during the march.

Joel Dow, an anarchist arrested last week, is still in jail after his bail was set to an absurd $259,000.

Occupy Schools, Not Countries!

Last Tuesday Obama continued the policies of the previous administration by committing an additional 30,000 troops to Afghanistan. The fact that an any war, especially such an unpopular one, can continue to escalate without massive social upheaval is a pathetic sign of the times. The politicians are still addicted to war, they still idiotically believe in the its myths: war for peace, the smart bomb, social order.The United States left may be so-duped but, but we know that as long there is State there will be constant War, and we must make it our own…

On Wednesday night about 50 New York City students gathered in Union Square outraged both by Obama’s escalation of war and the complacency of the anti-war left at its announcement. Chanting “1 2 3 4 We don’t want your fucking war! 2 4 6 8 Turn the war against the state!” we took the streets around 6:45 pm, walking uptown on Broadway into the heart of Manhattan’s tourist and shopping district.
The march had two targets: first, the United for Peace and Justice rally in Times Square, pathetically advertised as a candlelight vigil and Die-in. Playing dead is too close to the reality of the current anti-war movement in the United States, so we intended to wake up the liberals and bring them with us to our second target: the Rockefeller Center Christmas-tree lighting.

Chanting “while you’re shopping bombs are dropping!” the mob made it all the way to 42nd street with no police attention, but as soon as we penetrated Times Square a swarm of swine made two random arrests…

As we surrounded the sub-station the terrified cops called dozens of reinforcements. Responding to the spectacle many of the bored-looking liberals joined us as we continued to Rockefeller Center, but the area had already been well-barricaded and the terrified cops surrounded us as we approached 5th Avenue.

The element of surprise gone we made our way to the Midtown precinct to support our friends, who would later be charged with Resisting Arrest and Obstruction of Justice. (That night a journalist inquiring with the Police Department Public Relations bureau was given false information that they were only released with summonses.)

While the police attack caught us by surprise and effectively ended our momentum, this march proved a few things for the angry anti-authoritarian youth of New York. First, we can improvise loud and passionate resistence without the mediation of huge Troskyist/liberal front groups. UFPJ, ANSWER, Not in Our Name, etc are all failures, and their tactics have proven themselves irrelevant as they have faded away with the 2008 election. Although their leaders will constantly tell us that we must organize first, then fight, all this action needed was a few minutes of reaching out to our friends. They knew what do from there. Second, the police are terrified of any sort of disruption to tourism, shopping, and capitalist normality in general. We need to learn how to continue to exploit this without allowing their random attacks to slow us down. Next time, let’s attack first.

Video: NYC Students celebrate UC Occupations

At night on 19 Nov, approximately 75 (non)students from the New School, NYU, CUNY, and other university-factories in NYC marched from Washington to Union Squares and back in a gesture of solidarity with the wave of occupations that has swept the University of California system in response to the 32% tuition hike, budget cuts, and the reproduction of students as consumer-commodities ready to work for spectacle-subjects. The march saw crazy hooligans hanging banners off of buildings; masked rogues scattering trashcans, newspaper boxes and plastic barricades across Fifth Avenue; sexy dancing throughout the streets an attempted occupation of a Parsons art party as well as the good ol’ 65 5th ave. Unfortunately, the fun ended when cops managed to pierce the motley mob, arresting two after beating them on the sidewalk.

The two arrested were taken to the 6th Precint in the West Village, where much of the crowd ended up at the end of the night, dancing and singing out front, distributing pamphlets and glow sticks, and remaining until the two walked free.