state repression in france’s pensions struggle

Millions in France have marched and struck against a two-year increase in the retirement age. Nicolas Dessaux looks at the repression of the movement.

Since the start of the movement over pensions, the state has reacted in a highly repressive manner. From the fist demonstrations, the slightest stepping-out-of-line, a single bottle thrown, has led to offensives by CRS (riot cops), tear gas, arrests, fast-track trials and sentences.

First, on 23^rd September, workers were arrested in Saint-Nazaire, since when court sentences, dismissals, penalties and threats have rained down on workers who took part in blockade actions. From the start of the movement in the lycées (of high school students), there has been a hail of arrests and punitivemeasures, and many have already been injured.

defend ukrainian community activists against repression!

from Liva Sprava comrades

On 27th July court hearings will take place on the case of Andriy Movchan and Sergiy Movchan, members of the independent student union “Pryama diya” (“Direct action”) and activists of the initiative “Save old Kiev”. They are accused of group hooliganism during a protest action.

More than one year ago, 6th June 2008 the “Save old Kiev” initiative (a social movement struggling against illegal building) were conducting an action against illegal building on the site of public park at Umanska street. Activists together with locals were protesting against the destruction of a green zone and the privatization of public space. During the action people took down the fence around the building site in order to attract public attention to the inactivity and negligence of the authorities. For a long time beforehand local people had repeatedly tried to appeal against Kiev council’s decision about the allocation of land. But bureaucrats gave us the run-around. Even when the city prosecutor ruled that it was illegal, the building work continued. That was the reason for the radical action.

the “molly maguires” and the communist party of the usa: political repression in a free country

by Hal Smith

At the rise and decline of the American labor movement, the media and courts saw demons among the working people: “Molly Maguires” and Communists. Who were these radical “conspirators,” and what was their “crime?” Theirs is the transatlantic story of militant workers, and the law as their masters wield it.

The Molly Maguires began as a group of Irish Catholic peasants who resisted British landlords. Since Britain yoked Ireland in the 1600’s, the Irish served as peasants on semi-feudal British estates. In the 1840’s, the Great Hunger devastated Ireland, while Britain exported its food. Landlords evicted starving peasants, whose poverty forced them into the worst mines of America and England. Among the Irish immigrants were nationalist revolutionaries like Fenians and “Mollies.”

activist’s arm broken as police clamp down on gaza protest

by David Broder

Our readers will forgive us for another report on the daily protests at the Israeli embassy in response to the war on Gaza. Although the numbers at the 9th January protest were less than on previous days due to a simultaneous demo at the embassy of Egypt, whose government actively participates in the the blockade of Gaza, the protest was remarkable for the arrest of one activist and the aggression of the police, leading to another protestor’s arm being badly broken.

Below are several photos of the demo and a brief summary of the course of events.