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Over One Million Join Student Fight Against CPE

Update Tuesday 21st March:
French unions and student bodies have called for a general strike and massive protests throughout France on 28th March.

On Saturday 18th March: Over one Million people demonstrated against the CPE in France following weeks of student unrest. Clashes with police broke out after the CPE demos. For breaking news see French IMCs: Paris | Lille | Toulouse | Marseille | Nantes | Liege | Auvergne | Grenoble and Libcom Blog

Since the start of March, protests, occupations and direct action against the new CPE employment law in France have been increasing, with university and school students leading the dissent. Railways have been blockaded, airports disrupted, and up to two thirds of France's universities have been occupied or disrupted, as well as many schools. Clashes with police have occured throughout the country.

On Thursday 16th March well over 300,000 people took part in growing protests throughout France [report and pics] as more universities were occupied, roads blockaded and the town hall in Rennes was occupied. In Paris up to 120,000 protested [report and pics | gallery] followed by clashes with police using tear gas, rubber bullets and water cannon [report and pics | gallery]. Around 150 arrests were made in Paris bringing the total to around 300, with over 40 police injured. (See also Censier University occupation report and pics).

Much international publicity came from the occupation and violent eviction by riot police of the Sorbonne university in Paris on Saturday 10th March [Video | Report + Pics | Gallery 1 2]. On Tuesday 14th the protests escalated as a student day of action saw thousands of school students taking part in occupations and blockades [report and pics | gallery] as well as more street fighting around the Sorbonne area [gallery].

The CPE is a new employment contract due to take effect in April. The CPE would allow firms to hire people aged under 26 for a two-year trial period, during which they could be easily dismissed without a reason. Students and others complain this will only increase the precarity of everyday life in France where unemployment currently runs at 10% and 50% in some areas.

See other reports [1 | 2 | 3 | 4 ] Plus recent features at IMC Germany | Poland | March 22nd London CPE report back | STOPCPE | UNEF

A boost for video activism

While ever cheaper consumer electronics and increased internet bandwidth have made it easier than ever to make and distribute independent video, the number being made still appears to be disproportionately low compared to the number of people filming at events. Various projects have been initiated to empower more people to get involved with radical video production and screening. They include online distribution, archives, screening databases and training sessions (see IVDN, IndyPeer, IndyTorrents and Clearer Channel.

In London during January there was a video activism gathering consisting of skill sharing workshops, presentations, discussions such as the role of cameras on demos (how video can be used to get protesters both nicked and set free), along with feedback from the G8 video indymedia experience. Modeled on similar national gatherings in previous years, this one was organised by and took place at the rampART social centre.

The event ended with a public screening with films from Real2Reel, Revolt Video, Camcorder Gorillas and many others. There was also a premiere of Cine Rebeldes 'Latitude 36' and two films made during the gathering 'Justice For Dad' & 'The Demo Demo'.

Related links:

Lights, Camera, Direct Action - a PDF DIY guide
Call for regular activist shorts
IMC-UK Video Projects Page (out of date)

UPDATE - The gathering generated a number of proposals to indymedia and have already resulted in support for uploads of 3GP and M4V formats for mobile phones and ipods etc. Further follow-up workshops will be taking place, join the list if interested. In Manchester next month there's a gathering to look at how groups currently work with each other, what resources are available for screenings and campaign work and how best to make them accessible.

World Summit On Information Society - Part II

15-11-2005 18:24 | WSIS 2003 | Education | Technology | World

The second part of the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) is held from November 16 to 18 in Tunis, Tunisia. The first part of the UN sponsored event was held in Switzerland in December 2003, where people from all around the world gathered for meetings and actions during the official meeting in Geneva expressing protest under the slogan 'WSIS - we seize'.

The choice of place for the second part of WSIS - Tunis - is more than hypocritical for a summit on information society: While Tunisia is catching up economically with the capitalist North, it is far from any information society if you are talking about the freedom of information (report). Furthermore - and different to 2003 - it seems almost impossible to express protest against this summit. Nevertheless some initiatives and organisations called for alternative meetings. Some Human Rights Groups take part in the "Citizens Summit on the Information Society (CSIS)". Others try to bring in their ideas within the WSIS itself.

Free access to knowledge for everybody is not the goal of WSIS, and the summit organizers' plan is to concentrate on governmental and corporate use of information and communication technologies. This approach fits the choice of place. Yet, the summit does not only give legitimacy to a repressive regime, its focus also ignores the social and technological situation in the Magrebh region. The majority of people in this part of the world do not have access to communication tools and the authoritarian regimes in the region are reliable allies to the european governments in supressing freedom of movement.

Update 16 November:It is reported that Tunesia is blocking unofficial websites related to the WSIS. People said that they could not access Websites as wsisblogs.org or the CSIS Website from hotels or other places outside the official media centre. ( study on Tunesian internet filtering ). Furthermore there were reports of repressiv actions by Tunesian authorities against groups claiming freedom of speech in the days before the conference started.

Caracas Youth Festival Starts

Over 17,000 young international activists have gathered in Caracas for the 16th World Festival of Youth and Students, which begins today (Monday 8th August). Several groups in the UK, including Hands Off Venezuela, Colombia Solidarity Campaign, Justice for Colombia and New Generation, as well as various communist groups, have between them sent over 100 delegates. Everyone from Europe is being housed at a newly-completed village, half an hour south of the Venezuelan capital, except for the organisers from the World Federation of Democratic Youth who have been staying at the Hilton Hotel (which is now run as a co-op). The festival is seen as an excellent opportunity to build solidarity with Venezuela's peaceful and democratic revolution.

AUDIO: "Voices from Africa" Conference - G8 - Migrants - Aid, Trade, Debt - HIV

In the wake of the Governments much hyped "Commission for Africa" came a reply - a conference not so much "for" Africa, as from Africans.

There were excellent presentations and speeches by the usual suspects - Patrick Harvie, Tommy Sheridan, Aamer Anwar, representatives from Oxfam and G8 alternatives - but the most succesful aspect to the conference, what made it really striking, was the African speakers.

The conference was held at Caledonian University - Glasgow - 23rd April 2005.

Anniversary of the MST and EZLN

18-05-2004 12:04 | Education | History | Zapatista | World

Anniversary: 20th birthday of the MST and EZLN in the university of Sao Paulo (USP)

2003: The summer of Resistance Camping

The summer of Resistance Camping is still ongoing. Starting of with the convergence of protesters against the G8 in Evian, tents and food kitchen have moved on to the noborder camps and various other activist gatherings in the sun, organised around particular pressing issues, such as computing (also see WSIS [1,2]), antinuke or ecology.

Autonomista Interview

14-07-2003 10:39 | Education | Globalisation | Social Struggles | World

In June and July of this year, two Argentinian women toured the UK to talk about the wave of social change which is sweeping their home country. Graciela and Neka talked about the Piquetero movement, which has seen unemployed workers taking control of over 200 factories, and organising a direct democracy through neighbourhood assemblies. The movement has also organised road blockades in resistance to the neo-liberal reforms which are leaving many Argentinians unemployed.

The tour was organised by the Argentina Autonomist Project (AAP), an group which seeks to educate people around the world about the struggles in Argentina.

I met up with Graciela at the Glasgow event, to find out more...

Students protesting against privatisation of education arrested.

13-02-2002 00:00 | Education | World

STUDENT PROTESTS IN THE SPANISH STATE

Since October 2001, students in the Spanish State are protesting against the commercialization of education and resisting a new universities law called L.O.U. On the 12th of February 4 students were arrested in Sevilla. The university of Sevilla also excluded 6 student activists from the university. In June thousands of students from across Europe will fill the streets of Sevilla. Full story...

- A brief overview of the Spanish L.O.U.(English)
- Campaign's website(English)

Palestinian students make it to University

31-12-2001 00:00 | Education | World

Palestinian and Europeans students take direct action at University of Bir Zeit in the West Bank.

On the morning of December 29th about 300 foreign nationals, including fifty Britons defied the Israeli army when they escorted Palestinian students through tear gas and past an army checkpoint into the University of Bir Zeit, in the Occupied Territories. Both students and teachers had been prevented from attending the University by the army checkpoint.

The foreign nationals also linked arms and lined both sides of the road past the checkpoint preventing further army vehicles from entering the area. The fifty Palestinians who were to be escorted through the checkpoint carried banners and were whooping with joy.

Kunle Ibidun, a resident of Bristol amongst the 300 Internationals said "We succeed in getting the students to the University, but it shouldn't take the presence of 300 foreign nationals and the worlds media to allow the Palestinians to exercise their right to an education.

Full report
More on the ongoing conflict: Indymedia Israel | www.palestinecampaign.org

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