Total solidarity with the #baltimoreuprising

Total solidarity with everyone striking back against white supremacist shitbags in Baltimore!

This linked document will be constantly updated with actions and activity going on in Baltimore. Many have contact details that can be used to send support and solidarity.

Of particular note is that today all Baltimore schools are also closed. 188 schools. 85,000 students overall. 84% of those students rely on free/reduced meals from their schools to have enough to eat every day. Operation Help or Hush will be serving lunch to students today in 4 locations in West and East Baltimore. You can donate to Operation Help or Hush here: http://operationhelporhush.org

Here’s a relevant soundtrack from Seattle: “And they call this a riot? Aw man, fuck that, I’m gonna call this an uprising.”

Glasgow Palestine Action Shut Down Drone Manufacturer!

FOR IMMEDIATE PRESS RELEASE

Glasgow Palestine Action Shut Down Drone Manufacturer

A group of activists from Glasgow Palestine Action network have today shut down Thales UK, the weapons systems manufacturer, in Govan, Glasgow.

The activists climbed onto the factory roof, and blocked the doors, during the early hours of the morning and are planning to remain as long as possible. Activists are blockading both entrances, lying on the ground attached to arm tubes, and are occupying the roof.

The action is in response to the recent Israeli bombardment of Gaza, and the UK economy’s ever growing military industrial cooperation with governments that flout international law. In just over 7 weeks, Israel, armed with weapons supplied by the UK, killed more than 2000 innocent Palestinians.

Thales is being targeted today for their close relationship with Elbit Systems, Israel’s largest military company and the world’s largest drone producer.  In a joint venture, Thales UK is working with Elbit Systems to make the next generation of ‘Watchkeeper’ drones, a contact worth £1 billion.  These drones are based upon the Hermes 450, which was documented killing Palestinian civilians in Gaza in 2008-2009.  The drones are marketed as ‘field tested’ – which means they have proven effective at killing Palestinians.

Fifi O’Hara, one of the roof occupiers, explains: ‘Drones are a key part of Israel’s military arsenal.  By allowing this factory to export drone components and other arms to Israel, the UK government is providing direct support and approval to Israel’s massacres.’

Speaking about Scotland, Latrice Royale said:  ‘The UK government, and by allowing Thales to operate with Elbit systems, have blood on their hands.  Last year alone the UK government had 381 extant arms licences to Israel, worth almost £8 billion. We demand that the Scottish government puts pressure on the UK government to end arms sales to Israel. And also takes active steps towards ending the production of weapons systems in Scotland that are connected to apartheid, colonialism and genocide. Another Scotland is possible!’

International News: Cuba Still a Bourgeois State

Reports are showing that the Cuban state seems to be continuing repression against anarchists, this time for hosting open discussions over new labour laws that are being introduced. The irony of the situation? It was the public Communist Party the official labour union line that the Cuban public should discuss the proposed legislation!

An article by Isbel Diaz Torez on the subject can be read (in Spanish) over at the Havanna Times.

Updates on Greece and Iceland

Aftaka provide another English-language update on the unease in Iceland, including a festive anti-Coke action.

Only with the help of 6 police pigs could the Coke trucks continue their way from the center, which means that a lot of parents had to answer their kids’ question: “Why did the police stop the nice and fun Santa Clauses?”

This is a country with a population lower than that of Glasgow but many of the same problems in terms of a clique-ish government wedded to stupid development plans and personal enrichment. While its size and remoteness might make it seem irrelevant, you could also look at it as the canary in the coalmine of capitalism as the coaldamp of the credit crunch creeps onward.

Meanwhile in Greece, the streetfighting has died down and occupiers are leaving University buildings. While this isn’t as photogenic as confrontation and property damage, it is an exciting development. This movement has not been defeated: the police and state singularly failed to break it up or (it appears) isolate it from the Greek population as a whole.

…some spirit that is already spreading like fire: Municipal buildings and town halls are being occupied across Athens, and popular assemblies (λαϊκές συνελεύσεις) are being organised in neighbourhoods of both Athens and Thessaloniki. In what turns out to be one of the most positive aspects of the revolt, people are starting to take back their lives: street after street, square after square, neighbourhood after neighbourhood. This is not about a government falling, about some “justice” being paid, about a mere meeting of some demands, a vindication of some sort. The people on the streets demand nothing; they occupy, they organise among themselves, they know that there is no way back to normality, that fighting this very normality is, quite literally, a matter of life and death.

Eruptions of anger in Iceland

One of the weekly demonstrations in Reyjavik

Not to be outdone by Greece, the economic crisis has brought out a wave of popular anger in Iceland as well. This article by AFTAKA, Direct Action in Iceland is an excellent, detailed roundup of what’s going on there.

Including