International week of actions in solidarity with the Reykjavik Nine 10th - 16th of January 2011 An international week of actions has been called for 10th - 16th of January, 2011 in support of the Reykjavik Nine, nine individuals including anarchists and radical leftists, who face up to 16 years in prison for protest against the Icelandic parliament. In December 2008 the bullet that killed Alexandros Grigoropoulos set fire to the streets of Athens, a fire that soon spread to every city across Greece. That same December on the opposite shore of Europe, in Iceland another revolt was already under way born out of the wreckage of the economy that had collapsed that fall. In the winter of 2008, Iceland, the first ‘victim’ of this global crisis, was witness to the largest mobilization in its history. Demonstrations, mass gatherings and popular assemblies, direct action and confrontation on a daily basis and finally mass riots managed to bring down the right wing government at the time. But, just like in Greece that bullet was only one cause to a revolt that had a thousand reasons behind it, in Iceland the bubble that burst that fall was only the spark for the pent up rage and frustration resulting from two decades of neoliberal government - and well, against the political and economic system in its entirety. As we speak, the Icelandic state threatens with imprisonment nine individuals chosen to be the scapegoats of the uprising that brought down the government in January 2009. They are the Reykjavik Nine.

Edu-Factory Planning for Paris, February 11-13, 2011 A short update and contribution for the organization of the European meeting planned for 11-13 February in Paris: Although it might be somewhat superfluous to underline the political importance of creating effective networks of student struggles in Europe, I'd simply like raise a few points. First, based on Edu-Factory's experience, the possibility of gathering different student movements together for discussion, debate and organization has always proved to be a positive, constructive and stimulating way of building new relationships and connections between diverse realities. Beyond the warmth and quality in direct human interaction (never to be underestimated), the extensive common character of different movements nearly always emerges in new and sometimes unexpected forms. Small, seemingly anecdotal elements of our singular movements that are shared in these occasions can find echos in other experiences even if we didn't know that similar conditions exist elsewhere. Likewise, differences between national and cultural contexts (for example of how the Bologna Process is being applied differently in different countries) can shed light on each individual context in new ways and help provide strategies for interpreting these differences constructively and overcoming the limits and problems that we face – we learn to read our reality and other realities in new ways, we learn new languages and new translation skills.

University of Puerto Rico Students Resume Strikes
Rossana Rodriguez

Students from six campuses in the University of Puerto Rico (UPR) system have held a series of 48-hour strikes in the last week to oppose the imposition of an $800 fee that is scheduled to take effect at the beginning of the January 2011 semester. Students at the Río Piedras campus were among of the first to go out after they held a December 1 mass assembly and voted by an overwhelming majority to strike if the administration does not rescind the new fee by December 14. The chancellor of the Río Piedras campus used every means possible to try to stop the students from gathering, including the canceling academic recess, freezing the bank account of the student council so that it couldn't pay for the sound system, and denying students the use of a space for their meeting. But UPR students are already used to doing things the hard way, so the night before, they raised funds by approaching cars stopped at traffic lights so they could rent a sound system for the outdoor meeting that lasted five hours under the harsh rays of a sunny day at the university's athletic track.

The Antagonistic University? A Conversation on Cuts, Conviviality and Capitalism Anja: Let me begin by posing three questions. Firstly, it’s becoming increasingly apparent that modes of labour are appropriating cognitive, communicational and affective skills. What does this mean to you for the political potential of academic and collaborative work? Secondly, given that there are massive cuts being proposed to the education sector through a regime of austerity measures, and given that the current labour paradigm is one that produces precarious, alienated, competitive and individualised relations between workers, do you think that the university as an institution (and the kinds of labour it engenders) is a potent site of struggle and strike? And thirdly, what kinds of collective relations between people and modes of organising do you think are possible for the university struggles, and where do you think we should place our emphasis? How can we negotiate a transversal between micro- and macro- political desires, anxieties, exhaustions, solidarities and hopes? (Please feel free to comment on strategies you think are useful for building more caring and collective common worlds in general as well if you like).

“We’re Coming”: COP 16 Mexico Protests Dawn Paley “We’re coming, and we’re going to take over public spaces.” That is the message that Gustavo Castro Soto, a community organizer in Chiapas, has for the Mexican government and the world in the lead up to the COP-16 Summit in Cancún. Even though they’ve been getting the runaround from local and state governments about renting halls and meeting places during the COP-16, environmental and social movements throughout Mexico have put out a call for an alternative gathering, dubbed a “Climate Dialogue,” outside of the official summit.

Stronger than ever: The student movement in Croatia Marimer Berberena For the past two weeks, over 800 students have participated in the blockading of the filosofski fakultet, one of the main university buildings in Croatia's capital Zagreb. Just over two weeks ago, a plenum was held with the decision made to occupy this building, where much of the social sciences and arts/humanities teaching takes place, and to block all teaching taking place there. This might seem short-sighted at first glance, as students themselves are the first to feel the ill-effects of no teaching. But the decision was made, and was necessary to highlight how seriously students oppose the current government's attempts to create a market in education, and to make students pay for this 'privilege'. Two weeks of tuition lost to this generation of students is nothing compared to the years of university level education which many future potential students will lose as a result of not being able to afford to go to university. The blockade was impressively well organised. Students made sure the building was kept clean. The consumption of alcohol and smoking were forbidden inside the building during the blockade, and students organised themselves into groups of redari (monitors) who kept tabs on what was going on in every classroom in the building. I volunteered as a redar almost every day and it was interesting to see just how much the blockade had polarised the students and the professors. Whilst the majority of professors were in favour of the blockade, a few departments had a majority against the student action. The most significant department voting against being unsurprisingly (to those who know a little about the history of Croatia), German studies, who persistently tried to hold classes on a day to day basis. An alternative lecture programme also took place, with 3-5 guest lectures taking place on a daily basis. I gave a workshop on the commericalisation of education in the UK, with special focus on Manchester University, and how students have organised themselves against such neoliberal impositions, and crucially, how the struggles currently taking place in Manchester, Croatia, Serbia, Germany among others are connected.

Squatting Ban in the Netherlands Approaching Dutch Indymedia For the last three years a ban on squatting has been in preparation in Dutch politics. A new act that is to ban squatting in the Netherlands has passed through parliament on October 15th. Squatting empty houses that have been empty for over a year is currently still legal in the Netherlands. The new act, an initiative by the Christian Democrats, the Christian Union and the conservative opposition party VVD, is to make squatting a felony punishable by at least one year and up to three years of prison when refusing to evict. Despite strong critique from the High Court, the union of city councils and even the Amsterdam police force, the christian/rightwing majority in The Hague is pushing this law through. Having suffered from an immense housing shortage ever since the sixties, squatting has a long history in the Netherlands and has always been a legal means for thousands of people to acquire a roof over their heads. Not only will all these people be criminalized, no initiative to bring about other solutions for losing their homes has been brought up. This and the complete disregard for the culture that has been created by squatters and their vital role in activist infrastructure has been overlooked.

Second Day of Street Protests Across Greece Libcom A second day of protest marches occupations and clashes across Greece marked the first anniversary of Alexandros Grigoropoulos murder as pupils take to the streets The second day of the anniversary of Alexandros Girgoropoulos murder was marked with protest marches, occupations and large scale riots in major greek cities. Monday was the day of pupils as pan-educational marches against police brutality and in memory of Alexis were staged in all major greek cities

Riots in Greek Cities on Anniversary of Grigoropoulos Murder Anonymous Comrade Riots have broken out in Athens and Salonica during the first day of A. Grigoropoulos murder anniversary with police demonstrating extreme brutality leaving two people seriously wounded by a motorised charge on the Athens march. Police brutality during the marches to comemmorate the first anniversary of Alexandros Grigoropoulos murder surpassed any limit today, in a coordinated operation of barbarity and crude violence against protesters across greece. Under socialist orders police violence has left dozens of people wounded.

Want to Sneak into U.S.? There's an App for That American College Prof Develops Cell-Phone Tool to Help Illegals Cross Border Chelsea Schilling Illegal aliens crossing the U.S.-Mexico border now have a cell-phone tool to chart the best route, find food and locate people who will help them enter the country – courtesy of a professor at a state-funded university. Ricardo Dominguez, a University of California, San Diego tenured visual arts professor and activist, designed the Transborder Immigrant Tool, an application much like a global-positioning system used in cars, to help illegals find the best locations for food, water and groups to assist them as they sneak into America.