NYT: Fatal Stampede in South Africa Points Up University Crisis

"They hoped for a shot at a coveted spot at one of South Africa’s public universities, and with it a chance to escape the indignity of joblessness that afflicts more than a third of the nation."

"The stampede embodied the broad crisis in South Africa’s overstretched higher education system as it struggles to extend opportunities once reserved for whites to all South Africans. It is a problem of grade school mathematics: Too many students are seeking too few seats at the country’s public universities, which turn away more than half of their applicants, leaving few options for most high school graduates."

"Not only that, the squeeze plays into a wider problem of unemployment among young people. The jobless rate among youths is nearly 70 percent, a staggering problem that even a college degree does not promise to solve."

"Access to higher education for all South Africans was one of the most cherished goals of the struggle against white minority rule."

"Under apartheid, higher education for black South Africans was tightly controlled, and blacks were restricted from many forms of skilled employment. The University of Johannesburg was formed in 2005, when the once all-white Rand Afrikaans University was merged with two other schools."

How to Film a Demonstration: A Tutorial

"An introductory tutorial for aspiring citizen journalists to consider before next entering the field. You are needed more than ever, to bring the people direct truth, taking out the middle man in the archaic mainstream media. Each camera is a new set of eyes we all share in near real time - no one can take this from us, so it is imperative we refine and develop new skills
and strategies to capture the missteps of power. "

Join us!

Fault Lines: Chile rising

"Chilean students have taken over schools and city streets

 in the largest protests the country has seen in decades."

"These actions are causing a political crisis

 for the country's billionaire President, Sebastian Piñera."

"The students are demanding free education, and an end to the privatization of their schools and universities. The free-market based approach to education was implemented by the military dictator Augusto Pinochet in his last days in power."

Unfettered Capitalism: Chris Hedges & Michael Moore

"I think it comes from being an imperial power...
and all imperial societies end as we end."
"The tyranny they impose on others 
they finally impose on themselves."

Chile: Student Protests Spread Throughout Region

"José Barrera, a civil engineering student at the Catholic University, said that what is happening in Chile "is an example of what education is like when it's privatised, when it is no longer defended as a right of everyone.""

"An education law enacted by the 1973-1990 dictatorship of General Augusto Pinochet set off a process of decentralisation and privatisation that gave private schools free rein to pursue profit and use entrance exams to select their students. The Chilean system is not just divided into paid private education and tuition-free public education, but is split into three: municipal schools run by local governments, which are publicly funded and free, state-subsidised private schools, and private schools that charge tuition. Within the sphere of state-subsidised private education, students get free tuition at some schools, while at others families pay monthly fees, an arrangement known as "shared financing.""

"The protest movement is calling for an end to the freedom of private schools receiving state subsidies to levy fees at will. Instead of the current system, under which administrators of these institutions rack up profits, the demonstrators want school fees to be invested in under-funded public schools."

"They also want public primary and secondary schools to be directly managed by the Education Ministry, instead of by local governments, because the decentralisation accentuated the inequality in education quality between rich and poor districts."

"Countries that see the Chilean model as an example, and that are moving towards privatisation, have to realise how harmful this kind of system can be for education in general," he argued."

"Capitalism is profits, business, buying and selling, and that is not what educators are about," said Garrido. He added that the movement in which teachers and students have come together is demanding a "social transformation.""

"[T]he student protests have become a broader social movement that will continue to fight for structural changes above and beyond the educational system, such as reforms to the free-market, neoliberal economic system inherited from the dictatorship."

"We need a more democratic country, where the voices of society are really heard. It can't just be the same old political class reaching decisions between four walls."

Debt and Suicide Video by Bjones Dapusha

Writing on the Wall by Vijay Prashad

"One of the most difficult elements of advanced capitalism and modern society is that it is hard to identify the culprit for one's sorrows. In feudal days, there was always the baron's castle or the moneylender's office; they could be located, and the peasantry could convert their agricultural implements into weapons as they rushed to these sites. No such ease in our times.

"Abstract social domination makes it harder to point precisely to the cause of one's distress. Banks often stand in for the problem, being the front lines of financial capital – it is banks, after all, that foreclose on houses and deny credit. But the banks are only a cog in a complex system that is built upon the simple premise that only a few people are able to wield power and property for their betterment, whereas the vast mass of people have only the illusion of property and the hopes for power."

"The banks stand in for the system in general."

"Events in the U.S. are linked closely to the convulsions in the rim of southern Europe, from Greece to Spain via Italy. The root cause of the older crisis and the more recent one is the same, as pointed out by the Greek economist Yanis Varoufakis in his new book, The Global Minotaur: The True Origins of the Financial Crisis and the Future of the World Economy (2011): it has to do with the failure of the world economic system to have a surplus recycling mechanism that would redistribute accumulated surpluses across the world."

"Rather than have such a mechanism, the mandarins of the world order in the 1970s and 1980s preferred to allow vast surpluses to get sucked into the world of finance (with New York's Wall Street as its centre). This institutional failure was the cause of the new culture of greed (and not the other way around). That the political class in the Atlantic world prefers to see the solution in austerity policies against the ordinary people rather than in terms of institutional failures (let alone the system's failure) demonstrates the vacuity of its leadership. Since it offers no new political and economic project to earn the trust of the population, it must resort to the baton."

"The baton offers no solutions. The writing for the Street is on the wall."

The New Yorker: Why Nobody Sh*ts In Jail by Keith Gessen

“But there simply cannot be any rule, or any carceral logic, or any arguments whatsoever, for filthy toilets. And sitting there, with the stench from our filthy toilet filling the room, and with the filth in our filthy sink making me less eager than I ought to have been to drink from it, despite being thirsty, I became angry—really, honestly, for the first time. I thought for the first time, with genuine venom, of the hypocrite mayor Michael Bloomberg, a billionaire, who shut down the Occupy Wall Street encampment for reasons of “health and safety” but has not deemed it worthwhile to make sure that the toilets in facilities that he has control of meet even the most minimal standards of health and safety, such that, while I watched, about forty men, eating a total of a hundred meals, over the course of a day and a half, refused to perform a single bowel movement. This was its own form of civil disobedience, I suppose, and if I’d had my wits about me maybe I could have organized a meeting of all the inmates at Bloomberg’s residence, on East Seventy-ninth Street, so that we could all take a giant shit on his front stoop."


"As Elijah made to leave, an officer approached him. An argument ensued. It ended with the officer tackling Elijah onto the group of people sitting behind him. A number of other officers jumped in. Seconds later, Elijah was pulled up to his feet, away from the group, looking dazed, his shirt ripped. This was ugly. The officer who tackled Elijah was an athlete, you could see it in his neck and shoulders, and a grown man; Elijah is a skinny kid. It was also the case that Elijah was one of the few black people at our protest that day; the officer was white."


"Here is another statistic: Over the course of the thirty-two hours we were held at the Tombs, about twenty-five non-protesters cycled through our cell. In any case, out of those twenty-five inmates on their way to hearings, just one was white. One was Asian. A few—maybe three or four—were Hispanic. The rest were black. Is it really possible that non-whites commit ninety-six per cent of all crimes in Manhattan? I don’t know. Perhaps, outside of Wall Street, whites are just very law-abiding. And most of the crimes appeared to be drug-related—perhaps white people don’t do drugs."

Sex, Class, and Occupy Wall Street from "Sasha Said"

"As for the much-discussed demographics of the Occupy movement, it shouldn’t surprise anyone that white dudes with middle class upbringings are disproportionately represented among the “full-time” occupiers. With the exception of those currently unemployed, the working poor are typically too busy working two or three jobs to keep a roof over their head to occupy stuff. If we don’t show up for work, we don’t get paid, and if we don’t get paid, we can’t make the rent. The Occupy movement doesn’t just protest the economic realities in this country, it also reflects them."

"Women are not only more likely to be poor and underpaid (roughly two-thirds of all minimum wage workers are women), but with all the unpaid domestic work and care-taking we are saddled with, we’re going to have far less time to join protests. On top of that, the ever-present threat of rape serves as a powerful deterrent against overnight stays in tents surrounded by dudes."

"It’s absolutely critical that the white male protesters who are in the majority at every “occupation” understand *why* they outnumber female activists. I’ve seen some pretty disturbing statements from dudes who clearly don’t. Suggesting that those present 24/7 at Occupied sites are more committed to the movement’s goals than those who are able to stay only a short time demonstrates a stunning lack of awareness of male, white, ableist, and class privilege."

"Being poor in the US of A is not just about not being able to “buy stuff.” Being poor frequently means going to bed hungry. It means watching your partner collapse after a day of hard physical labor in 100+ degree heat for which he was paid $5 an hour. It means walking home seven miles in icy cold wind and rain because you can’t afford a car and public transportation is extremely limited. It means cops automatically regarding you with suspicion, and courts locking you up for minor offenses. Most of all, being poor in the US means suffering, and possibly dying, because you can’t afford medical, dental, or psychiatric care–and being forced to stand by helplessly as your friends and loved ones suffer."

"For women, being poor also means that you are more likely to be raped and less likely to see your rapist brought to justice. It means you are more likely to be sexually harassed on the street and at work, and less likely to have recourse against employment-based harassment and exploitation because you really need that job. It means you’re more likely to become a victim of domestic violence and less likely to be able to escape because you’re not paid enough to live alone. And yes, being a poor woman also means that you’re more likely to turn to prostitution or other sex work–either as a “career choice” because that’s the one form of employment open to you that pays enough to possibly escape poverty, or as something you do occasionally to make ends meet."

"Get involved in the Occupy movement and point out how unbridled capitalism, environmental destruction, and patriarchy are inextricably linked? I’m all for it. But not support the movement at all? I don’t have that luxury. I need this movement to succeed. And, really, so do you."

Five Theses on Privatization and the UC Struggle by Nathan Brown

THESES

1. Tuition increases are the problem, not the solution.

"What is happening as tuition increases is that money is being shifted out of instructional budgets and into private credit markets, as collateral for university investments."

2. Police brutality is an administrative tool to enforce tuition increases.

"Police brutality against students, workers, and faculty is not an accident—just like it has not been an accident for decades in black and brown communities. Like privatization, and as an essential part of privatization, police brutality is a program, an implicit policy. It is a method used by UC administrators to discipline students into paying more, to beat them into taking on more debt, to crush dissent and to suppress free speech. Police brutality is the essence of the administrative logic of privatization."

3. What we are struggling against is not the California legislature, but the upper administration of the UC system.

"This struggle against the administration is not about attacking individuals—or not primarily. It is about the administrative logic of privatization, and the manner in which that logic is enforced. It is the job of the upper administration to push through tuition increases by deferring, displacing, and, if necessary, brutally repressing dissent. The program of privatization depends upon this."

4. The university is the real world.

"Two years ago, positioning the university as an anti-capitalist struggle was seen as divisive. The argument was that such a position was alienating and that it would inhibit mass participation. But now we see that there is a mass, national movement which is explicitly anti-capitalist, which positions itself explicitly as a class struggle, and, in doing so, struggles against debt and austerity as the interlinking financial logics of a collapsing American economy. Given this context: the only way the university struggle can isolate itself is by failing or refusing to acknowledge that it is also an anti-capitalist struggle, that it is also a class struggle."

“We are all debtors,” said a student at Berkeley as she called for this strike. That is a powerful basis of solidarity.

5. We are winning.

"The occupation of university buildings is a time-honored tactic in student struggles. But by many it was also viewed as a “divisive” or “vanguardist” tactic two years ago. Now, thanks largely to the example of the Egyptian revolution, the occupation of public space has become the primary tactic in a national protest movement supported by some 60% of the American people. The mass adoption of this tactic, the manner in which it has grown beyond the university struggle, is a huge victory for our movement."

"The resonance of university occupations with the national occupation movement means that our struggle is growing and expanding. That means we are winning. And the fact that the university struggle can no longer plausibly be considered in isolation from from anti-capitalist struggle broadly conceived is itself a huge victory."

George Orwell, Imperialism, and Police Brutality

"Why did police use baton strikes and pepper spray against nonviolent protesters on University of California campuses? ...  authority figures [want] to avoid derisive laughter."

"read "Shooting an Elephant," George Orwell's reflection on his time as a British imperial police officer in Burma."

"In Burma, Orwell remembers, every British police officer was a target of constant ridicule":

"All I knew was that I was stuck between my hatred of the empire I served and my rage against the evil-spirited little beasts who tried to make my job impossible. With one part of my mind I thought of the British Raj as an unbreakable tyranny, as something clamped down, in saecula saeculorum, upon the will of prostrate peoples; with another part I thought that the greatest joy in the world would be to drive a bayonet into a Buddhist priest's guts. Feelings like these are the normal by-products of imperialism; ask any Anglo-Indian official, if you can catch him off duty." 

"when the white man turns tyrant, it is his own freedom that he destroys. He becomes a sort of hollow, posing dummy, the conventionalized figure of a sahib. A sahib has got to act like a sahib; he has got to appear resolute, to know his own mind and do definite things. To come all that way, rifle in hand, with two thousand people marching at my heels, and then to trail feebly away, having done nothing - no, that was impossible. The crowd would laugh at me. And my whole life, every white man's life in the East, was one long struggle not to be laughed at."

"The U.C. police officers are dressed in riot gear. They're given guns, batons, body armor, face shields, and spray canisters of pepper spray. And they're sent out in force."

"But once they're out there -- people all around, photographs being snapped, video cameras rolling -- it's the cops who feel powerless. The kids won't listen. Nobody wants to be the one to say, "Um, should we retreat?" Had they left, the crowd would've burst into cheers at their expense. No one wants to make the first move either. Some of them seethe. Others feel embarrassed, like the macho high school wrestler forced to square off against a girl in practice. If he goes too hard he'll feel bad. If he goes too easy and loses he'll be humiliated and ridiculed."

Top 10 Tips for Filming #Occupy Protests, Arrests & Police Conduct

PREPARE: Know your equipment. Turn off features to maximize battery life (e.g. wifi search on phones). Have charged and extra batteries, use empty memory cards and bring back-ups. Use a camera strap or tie your camera to your wrist. Where possible, turn-on correct date, time and location capturing features. Write the National Lawyer’s Guild’s phone number (or other legal support team) on your forearm and save in case you need legal support. (In NYC: 212.679.6018) If arrests occur, call in location, time and name of anyone arrested.

FILM WITH INTENTION: Hold your shot steady (minimum 10 seconds), pan VERY slowly, avoid jerky movements and zooming – move closer when possible. Get multiple angles – wide, medium and close-up. Film for those who aren’t there – what do they need to see to understand what’s going on? If violence or abuse occurs – KEEP RECORDING.
ALWAYS CAPTURE: Date, time and location (intersections, street signs, landmarks.) Get various angles when documenting the size/behavior of the crowd, number and formation of police and any weapons they are holding or using. Record any police orders or permissions given and the time and officer’s name and badge number. Record when police are creating or moving barricades or orange nets. Record any police filming protests or protesters.
CAPTURE DETAILS – INCIDENTS: If there is an arrest or violence, attempt to capture the entire incident, including: time, location, number and identities of involved individuals, and broader crowd or police presence/behavior. Film or say names of officers, badge numbers or helmet number into the camera. Work to get faces of those affected on film. Be agile: Film from above if possible, or low through officers’ legs to capture what’s happening. Consider verbally adding noteworthy facts of what was happening before you started filming to give context while you film.
WORK AS A TEAM: If filming, have a partner to watch your back, help keep you safe and alert you of other potential shots you should capture. If more than one of you is filming, try to get separate angles of the same incident – ideally keep each other in view. If you are at risk of arrest and want to keep filming, consider giving media card to friend for safe keeping and replace with empty card and KEEP RECORDING.
TITLE WITH INTENTION: Keep titles brief and descriptive. Add date, location and time. Use words you or one would use to find your video. E.g. Occupy, New York City, Protest
DESCRIBE YOUR VIDEO: Always include date, location and details of what happened BEFORE, DURING and AFTER recording. Consider starting with a URL for viewers to find more info, e.g. http://www.occupywallst.org – November 12, 2011 | Brooklyn, NY | then video description.
TAG YOUR VIDEO: Always add these tags -> date, time, city, specific location, occupy wall street, occupy, ows. Use common tags found in your search: ‘police brutality’ ‘arrest’ ‘pepper spray’
SAFETY or SECURITY CONCERNS? If you think faces need to be blurred or feel the video may harm someone’s case or dignity, think twice before uploading. Contact the volunteer legal team for advice.
SAVE AND NAME YOUR VIDEO: Do not rely on YouTube or other sites to save and preserve your footage – it may be taken down and valuable technical information is lost in the upload. Save original footage to your computer and back up to an external hard drive. Name files and organize so they are easy to find – add date, location and tags.

Full Article with Comments

UC Davis Pepper Spray Incident

"Students. Sitting down. With bowed heads. On university property. Police freely moving around them, pepper spraying them, facing no resistance whatsoever. Just students. Sitting on the ground."

"Police used batons to try to push the students apart. Those they could separate, they arrested, kneeling on their bodies and pushing their heads into the ground. Those they could not separate, they pepper-sprayed directly in the face, holding these students as they did so. When students covered their eyes with their clothing, police forced open their mouths and pepper-sprayed down their throats. Several of these students were hospitalized. Others are seriously injured. One of them, forty-five minutes after being pepper-sprayed down his throat, was still coughing up blood."

"Lt. Pike has received a salary in excess of $100,000 from the people of California each of the last three years. More than 40% of his 2010 salary came from student fees."

Emergency Petition to End the Repression of UC Students!

Honest Chung: Student Debt is a Form of Violence

"When they raise our fees, they raise their profits!"

Lessons for Occupy Wall Street by Beverly Gage

"As they sort out what to do next, the Occupiers might take a page from the history of American labor, the only social movement that has ever made a real dent in the nation’s extremes of wealth and poverty. For more than half a century, between the 1870s and the 1930s, labor organizers and strikers regularly faced levels of violence all but unimaginable to modern-day activists. They nonetheless managed to create a movement that changed the nation’s economic institutions and reshaped ideas about wealth, inequality, and Wall Street power. Along the way, they also helped to launch the modern civil liberties ethos, insisting that the fight to tame capitalism went hand in hand with the right to free speech."

"If there is one lesson for Occupiers to take from the early history of American labor, it is that making real changes in the structures of wealth and power in this country is likely to be a long, hard slog."