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More Police Terrorism In Barcelona

DURRUTI | 20.03.2009 02:20 | World

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Another video on the repression against the student movement on 18th-03-2009 in Barcelona.

We are sure not many British tourists would not know anything about the other side of Barcelona and this kind of things that are happening more and more often.

This is the real face of our city.


 http://e.static.blip.tv/cache/1891138/

DURRUTI

Additions

Some clarification and background information ....

20.03.2009 15:36

The video 'Durruti' posts above is from Wedensday 18h in very early morning (6:30am) when the Catalan police force (Mossos d'Esquadra) violently evicted the 4 month long continuous occupation of Barcelona's Central University, the building you can see at the background of the video. This occupation was the focal point of the student movement against the EU's Bologna Treaty, which basically turns universities into business and education into profit making enterprises funded by corporations.

Under Spanish law, police is forbidden to enter universities - or university's property - unless the Dean of the institution actually allows it or demands it to the Ministry of Interior. It is very rare that this happens, but on Wednesday morning the Dean of the university actually asked for the police intervention, with the result you can see in the video. A reason for this may be that one of the key demands of the occupation was the Dean's resignation, after he refused to engage in negotiations with the students.

It is also worth to point out that the Catalan police force depends directly from the Catalan autonomous government (and not the Spanish Ministry of Interior), and more specifically run by the Catalan Ministry of Interior, which, by the way, it's minister is an ex-member of the Catalan Communist Party. In fact the whole Catalan Government is made of a coalition of ex-communists, greens, left nationalists and the Catalan Socialist Party. The so-called left coalition is in power in Catalunya for the last 5 years, but still, Wednesday early morning eviction resulted in 4 students arrested and over 20 injured due to police violence, some of which needed hospital treatment.

Later in the day hundreds of students turned up in a demonstration called outside the Catalan Department for Education to protest against police brutality earlier on the day. Again, this was met with police violence when the crowd was repeatedly attacked with baton charges. Clashes then spread around the area with the result of more arrests and injured. See the video here:

 http://blip.tv/file/1891860

Another call to take to streets was hastily made for 8pm, to concentrate in front of the Central University building that had been evicted in the early morning. More that 5000 people followed the call to take to the streets against police brutality and in support of those arrested and injured throughout the day. Police again repeatedly attacked the demonstration trying to prevent it from moving into the Portal de l'Angel area, which is one of the main shopping avenues in downtown Barcelona. This resulted in more clashes that took place for several hours when groups of protestors spread around the area. See video of the evening demonstration here:

 http://blip.tv/file/1893943

Reports are now talking of around 10 people arrested on the day, and over 80 having been injured. Demonstrations of support have been taking place in other Spanish cities, including Madrid, Sevilla and Zaragoza. Wednesday's events represents a clear escalation in state repression against the Catalan student movement. Things are definitely hotting up in Barcelona, in Catalunya and throughout Spain. There are several unions talking about a a general strike, banks have been occupied in several cities, people are very pissed off about the banks bail outs, and the student movement is getting stronger by the day. Many people seem to be saying ''enough is enough", and the Argentinian "they all must go!" seems to be increasingly resounding across the country ... and the average holiday package brochure doesn't mention any of this, does it?

maqui