World Social Struggles Feature Archive

Summary reports, links, activities and timeline from Anti-WTO protests in Cancun, Mexico

Thousands of protesters, peasant and farmers organization, workers, environmentalists, trade unionists and many other groups opposing the World Trade Organization, corporate globalisation and militarism from around the world and Latin America are converging in Cancun, Mexico this week, the location for this weeks WTO meeting.

On Wednesday, Korean farmer Kyong Lee took his life in protest against WTO policy, while demonstrators tore down the fence surrounding the summit but refused to enter the summit grounds. The Mexican president Vicente Fox had ordered a police-led campaign of misinformation and barricades (Report) and prevented a teach-in organized by the International Forum on Globalization. Police repression is high. At least 8 protesters have been seriously injured during the Thursday march. Many other protesters throughout the week have been injured, threatened with deportation, banned from Cancun and refused entry to the country.

Breaking news:
Saturday report
Radio report
Starhawk
Photos [1][2]

A timeline of up-to-date events as well as ¡Radio Hurakán! (Mirrors 1 2 3) are also available.

Background: UK IMC article

A general strike and a mass demonstration of a hundred thousand people in Bogota against the American free trade contract ALCA paralyzed Colombia on the 12th of august during the visit of Bush's trade delegate Zoellick to Colombia. [timeline of events.]
At the demonstration and from then on, repression in Colombia has increased, consisting of mass arrests of trade unionists, community and social workers and assassination attempts [AI statement].
As the conflict intensified, Juan Carlos Benavides, a journalist at the community radio Manantial Stereo in Putumayo, was murdered on the 22nd of August at a road-block set up by the guerrilla organization FARC.

"Juan Carlos was a well known community communicator in the region, always trying to support community participation and social journalism. He was an active member of the CRIS campaign, coordinated in Colombia by the local NGO Planeta Paz." From a statement of the campaign Communication Rights in the Information Society.

5,000 Zapatista supporters gathered at Oventik, Chiapas on 8-9-10 August 2003 to celebrate a major step forward in the indigenous movement's struggle for autonomy.
The last few weeks have seen the Zapatistas issue several communiques of major importance.
“It is possible to govern and to govern ourselves without the parasite that calls itself government.”

Coca-Cola stands accused of violence, intimidation and murder in Columbia. A new global boycott and direct actions looks like the Real Thing...

The National Center for Rural Workers (CNTC) in Honduras, Central America asks for urgent support for their communities after 2 activists are murdered and 30 detained in two separate attacks July 16 and July 17th.

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...

Update Saturday 19: Simon, thessaloniki prisoner, has just phoned and said that letters, which DO NOT have a return address on the ENVELOPE will not be delivered to prisoners.
If you want to send a card Simons 30th birthday is the 24th of july.
This new procedure applies to all prisoners.

Update Sunday 13: The greek government has seized the account at the Pireus bank which had been opened to receive fundings for prisoner solidarity (concerning the last EU summit in thessaloniki). It's important to avoid depositing any money into it, and to wait for more updates before sending more funds. Meanwhile for financial support please contact: financial2003@disobey.net

Update Saturday 12: On Thursday, 10th of July Solidartiy actions so far known of, were taking place in London, Brussels, Graz, Athens, Thessaloniki, Madrid, Bilbao, Torino, Rome, and Buenes Aires.

Update Friday 11: Letter received from Simon Chapman from Thessaloniki's prison.

Thursday, July 10, will mark an international day of solidarity with the eight protestors arrested and imprisoned after demonstrations against the European Union summit in Thessaloniki three weeks ago. In London, supporters will gather at 3 pm at the Greek tourism office and the Greek airline, on Conduit Street, to raise awareness about the injustice being perpetrated by the Greek government.

On the 30. Juni 2003 a demonstration took place against borders, deportations and the new visa-regulations in Warsaw, Poland.
This noborder demo in Warsaw on June 30 ended with 16 arrests for a short time.
A website with templates for appeals to authorities and more info was prepared.

The demo ended a noborder conference and an International Anarchist Meeting preceding the Krynki bordercamp which started on June 2nd.

A noborder demo in Warsaw on June 30 ended with 16 arrests. A website with templates for appeals to authorities and more info is prepared. The demo ended a noborder conference and an International Anarchist Meeting preceding the Krynki bordercamp which starts on June 2nd.
A Financial Call for people arrested and injured during the Evian G8 Protests was sent out.
The Uk supporters for people held in prison following the EU summit in Thessaloniki are sending regular updates [Update #2 | Update #3].

After Saturday's siege at the university, people could finally walk in and out since the early hours of Sunday, and police, both riot and plain clothes, left the area. People in the building earlier in the night gathered for a meeting and prepared this statement in solidarity with the prisoners.

This building was used for an Independent Media Center (IMC), the radio station and the medical teams. They made a video to show no damage had been done to the building. At noon local time, the occupation was ended peacefully.

At the Courthouse in Thessaloniki there was a solidarity demonstration for the arrested activists. Reports say there were over one hundred arrestes saturday, of whom at least 25 will appear in front of a magistrate. However, this appointment was postponed for several activists. Currently, there are still twenty to thirty five person in jail linked to Saturday's events, all others have been released. The demo at the Court got surrounded. Heavy police attacks and violence... Read information from Indymedia Athens.

Earlier in the afternoon people showed what they thought about the Greek court and police (see picture).

[Dispatch].

In the afternoon several hundred people demonstrated outside the Courthouse, supporting people who have been arrested. Some of these people have suffered beatings and tortures.Police release here.

Timelines:
sunday evening, from alasbarricadas.

foto's [ 1 | 2 ]

Saturday sees the continuation of demonstrations in Thessaloniki. There are reports of more than 100,000 people in demonstrations called by the Greek Social Forum, Action Thessaloniki 2003, and other organizations. Summaries: [1] [2][3].

An international march started at 5.00pm in the city of Thessaloniki, in protest of EU policies on immigration [1|2|3] war, pension reforms and a European common army. An Anti-EU-summit concert with the participation of Greek and international groups is planned for the evening.

Anarchists occupying Thessaloniki University marched this morning through Eganatia street, damaging two banks and a McDonalds restaurant. There are also conflicting reports about anarchists vandalising offices of the Greek Communist Party. The police responded with a lot of tear gas, and repelled the demonstrators. Reports of anarchist marches [ 1| 2 | 3] Photos [1| 2|3| [4]

In the evening the University campus was surrounded by riot police and the demonstrators withdrew into the campus, which police are not legally allowed to enter. The campus is surrounded by police, although everything is reportedly calm at this point. The live stream radio stopped its work. People remaining in the University have constituted an assembly which has issued a declaration. Read the latest information from the university: [1] [2 (audio) | 3 ]

Timelines:
translated --from la haine
--from Neos Marmaras area
-- ImcSwitzerlands timeline

Breaking news as it comes.
Personal reports: [1,2, 3, 4]
Summary: collection and translation of personal reports.

Friday, 20 July, Thessaloniki (Greece)
The Day of action in Thessaloniki against the EU summit sees two demonstrations proceeding against the institutions of power.
The red zone was attacked. The police fought the demonstrators, including the Disobedienti, off with CS-gas. Another demonstration went to the Macedonian/Greek Border to support the Roma in the refugee camp with food and medicine, but the activists were refused entry to Macedonia.

Reporting Both IMC Athens and IMC Thessaloniki are momentarily experiencing technical server problems.
Quick,comprehensive coverage at our timeline | Personal Reports [1|2|3|4|5] | [Short Update|Longer Update| Legal Team Update | report from Struggle Initiative | Pictures: [LaHaine|2|3]

Thursday 19 June The three days of protests at the EU summit in Thessaloniki have started today with two large demonstrations in support of refugee and immigration rights. A summary of the whole day is available.IMC Athens report

The anti-authoritarian/anarchist demonstrations [videos 1 2 | photos 1|2 |3|4|5 |personal reports 1|2|3] started from the occupied university campus, and went around neighbourhoods where refugees and immigrant workers live to show their support and solidarity...

Antiauthoritarians have squatted the Law School of the Faculty of Legal and Financial Studies at the University of Thessaloniki, and set up an Independent Media Center and a medical centre inside. The Faculty of Philosophy has been squatted by anarchists. A group of women took over the stage briefly during a concert in front of the theology faculty to demand an end to sexism within social movements.[report, anarcha-feminist workshop]

Anarchist techs have installed their radio broadcast software on Law Faculty computers and are currently broadcasting Ozzy Osbourne tunes and news updates in 4 languages including English. You can listen to the broadcast in MP3 software such as WinAmp, iTunes, or XMMS - just open the stream at http://dimitra.law.auth.gr:8000. The US consulate is closed although everything remains peaceful at this point. There are nearly 20,000 security personnel including a division of the Greek army around the Summit.

This year's EU summit takes place in Chalkidi near Thessaloniki, 19 to 21 June, under the Greek presidency of the EU. Several groups have called for actions: Struggle Initiative Thessaloniki 2003 set up camp in the university campus in the center. Antiauthoritarian Movement Salonika 2003, also camping at the University, is organising an antiauthoritarian festival. The platform Action Thessaloniki 2003 are preparing conferences and demos.
Thursday 19 June The Greek Social Forum, an umbrella of leftists, NGO, trade unions and students, called for a demo about immigration in the center of Thessaloniki [Report | Pics | collection of pics] | Friday 20 June Demo in Chalkidi | Saturday 21 June Demo in the city of Thessaloniki.

Practical Information | Schedule [1 | 2]

Reporting Up-to-Date confirmed and unconfirmed information from the streets -> Indymedia Dispatch | Timelines (es) | Live multilingual radio stream being broadcast by anarchists who have taken over the University Law Faculty's computer lab. Use Zinf, WinAmp, iTunes, or XMMS to open the stream from http://dimitra.law.auth.gr:8000 .

Whilst Civil Society gathers in Porto Alegre for the 3rd World Social Forum to debate alternatives to neoliberalism and economic globalisation, world finance "leaders" and CEO's of the main global corporations meet behind closed doors for this year's summit of the World Economic Forum in the Swiss city of Davos to further implement economic globalisation policies.

Update Jan 31st: WSF ends with brutal police repression. Police violently attacked protesters and bystanders on the last day of the World Social Forum. It started when a Mapuche woman who was attending the WSF was arrested with charges of "obscene acts" for bathing nude in a river. Activists saw this and organized over 400 people to protest by nonviolently taking their clothes off in solidarity. When the nude protest left the youth camp to march downtown the police attacked. After injuring and arresting some of the the nude protesters the police lashed out at journalists and bystanders. An unknown number of people were hospitalized or arrested as a result of the police assault.

Video of the protest | Photos of the Nude Protest Against Police Brutality | More Photos

The World Social Forum in Porto Alegre started on the 23th of January and will continue until January 28. The WSF presents itself as a space for diverse activities, workshops, debates and lectures about alternatives to the current economic and political state of affairs, as well as a space for the exchange of ideas, experiences and struggles.

The activities of this year's WSF began with a "March for the Peace against the Militarization and the War" [photo and report (bra). At the same time, and parallel to them main march, another anti-capitalist demonstration took part in the streets of Porto Alegre. Photo and reports 1 | 2 | 3 | 4

The workshops of January 24 included a "Conference against the militarization and the war", and a debate on "Communication for the exertment of the Citizenship". On the same day Greenpeace organised an anti-nuclear action against the installation of Angra III's Nuclear Plant in Rio De Janeiro.

January the 25th saw a conference of the People's Global Action as part of the event "Life After Capitalism" which debated issues of participatory democracy and notions of consuption and income. A meeting of the global network of Social Youth Movements also took place. At the same time different marches and demonstrations took place in the streets of the city.

For latest updates and reports in English see IMC-Brasil.

Hear daily Radio stream [offline now] from Porto Alegre.

For a full programme of events see the WSF website.

At the same time, in the Swiss city of Davos another type forum was taking place. The summit of the World Economic Forum (24-28 Jan) met in secretive talks whilst fences and hundreds or riot police [photos 1 | 2] protected the "global economic leaders" from up to 5000 anti-capitalist demonstrators that thook the streets of Davos and the nearby city of Fideris [photos 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 ].

On Sunday 26, people returning from the mountain city of Davos were met with hundreds of riot police in Bern and clashes ensued [photos].

For latest updates and reports see IMC-Switzerland, the Anti-WEF website and the Netstrike against the WEF.

A European Social Forum took place in Florence, Italy the week of 6/10th November billed as ≥an open meeting space for in-depth reflection, democratic debate, free exchange of experiences and planning of effective action among entities and movements of civil society engaged in building a planetary society centred on the human being.≤ It is an offshoot of the World Social Forum that took place in Porto Alegre, Brasil a where 'civil society', Unions, NGO's and activists converged to give a positive counter to the World Economic Forum of business leaders in Davos and later New York.

The official event ran concurrently with a number of other initiatives including: The Euro@ction Hub project [pics | report] - an interconnection tool and space to reflect upon the media, processes of political production, communication between activists and new forms of expression; The Disobedienti No Work No Shop space - an axis of discussion and experimentation researching questions of knowledge and intellectual properties, income and new forms of workplace conflicts, Zapatism and diplomacy from below, Europe and migrants; Additionally the Cobas union and MAT held separate events showing the breadth and limits of such a European social justice movement.

Check out Global Radio in English from Sherwood Communicazione.

Reports:
Sat 9th: Up to 1 million people are currently taking the streets of Florence to demonstrate their opposition to the War; see participant's first impressions and overview. Reports: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4

Photos:
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6, videos: 1 | 2 and video streaming.

Fri 8th: Disobedienti occupy Caterpillar factory, meanwhile a Hub Street parade has taken place [Photos 1 | 2 | 3]. Report of a NoSweat seminar. Photos of the critical mass.

Thu 7th: Day One + pics, A Hub report, and explanation. Photos of anti-war demo at US Army base Camp Darby 1 | 2

There have been rumours of the borders being blocked, and reports are coming in of a UK participant being turned back.

ESF website | Indymedia Italy

On Wednesday 26th June during demonstrations in Buenos Aires the police shot in the head and killed two young men in an execution style murder. Tear gas was also used against the anti-government protesters in the worst riots since the government was toppled last December.

On the following day thousands of people took to the streets outside the National Congress Building to protest over the deaths, and calling for President Eduardo Duhalde to resign. At the same time teachers and state workers also went on strike against the government's repression and Argentina's worsening economic crisis, brought on by the austerity measures imposed by the IMF. On Friday 29th the governor of the State of Buenos Aires ordered the arrests of two policemen and suspended over 100 others after a newspaper published photographs which showed the police shooting one of the demonstrators in cold blood.

A statement from IMC Argentina said "We just received notice that one of the murdered piqueteros is Dario Santillan, 21 years old, a friend from the La F Neighborhood. Dario, part of the MTD (Unemployed Worker's Movement) in the area, was a bricklayer who worked every day in a factory making bricks for a new community hall. He lived on land taken a few months ago, on a vacant farm. All of us participating in Indymedia had the fortune of sharing with him several pickets, assemblies and unforgettable conversations. In these moments we don't have words to express our pain and our anger. His murderers will pay for having stolen from us this beautiful friend."

Read reports discribing the huge mobilisation of homeless people, workers, assemblies, students, and leftist parties that took the city center for several hours. The roads were again blocked and travel was impeded in Neuqu»n, Salta, Jujuy, Mendoza, Ri€ Negro, Chaco, Tucum∑n, Santa Fe, Catamarca, La Pampa, and various parts of the country. Media coverage of the events was also criticised for serving the powerful's agenda. "The crisis has caused two new death", was the title in the local newspaper as if the crisis had shot the bullets without resorting to the services of the police. Right after that, amounting to the intimidation campaign, the same daily said that today "they will try to march to the Plaza de Mayo", as if this were an exploit, rather than a right.

[ Argentina IMC | Argentina IMC in english | Summary of Available Photos & Audio]

On Saturday March 23 up to 2,000,000 marched in Rome against the proposed abolition of art.18, an article of the labour law preventing workers from being fired without valid reasons. The demonstration went ahead despite calls from the Berlusconi government to suspend it in the wake of the killing of Marco Biagi - adviser of the Minister for Welfare - on Tuesday 19th in Bologna.

The Italian Police deemed 'credible' a document published on Thursday 21st March on the website www.caserta24ore.org in which 'The Red Brigades Combatant - Communist Party' claimed responsibility for the murder.

The killing of Biagi has been widely condemned by the institutional left in Italy which quickly moved to use today's demonstration as a show of opposition to terrorism and as a call for "national unity" that in the 70's established the premise for a crackdown on social movements.

COBAS, Disobbedienti and the social centres movement have condemned the murder as a 'pro-regime homicide'.

The timing of the murder, and the way in which it was quickly linked by the Berlusconi government to the Left, raises memories of the 70's and of the 'strategy of tension' which saw state sponsorship of terrorist acts which were then blamed on the left.

A general workers strike against the reforms of the labour law will go ahead at some point during the month of April. Indymedia Italy | Foto

Thousands converge in Sweden's second largest city to protest at the European Union summit. Migration, corporate Europe and militarisation are among the many issues raised by protesters.