Free University Activities: 12th - 18th November

Activities in:

La Rimaia (Casanova 17)

La Teixidora (Marià Aguilló 35)

Barrilonia (Rambla del Raval)

La Rosa Negra (Roser 30, metro Paral.lel)

GLOBAL WEEK OF ACTION

Thursday 12
Fine Arts Faculty (UB)- Anti Repression Day. 1200-1800.

La Rimaia- Class: First aid. 1830.

Plaça Universitat- unitary demo "Stop Repressió"/"Sembrem Llibertat". organised by Grup Denùncia 18M. 19h

La Rosa Negra- Screening: Brazil (with food). 2000.

Friday 13

Rimaia- Class: First aid. 1830.
Rimaia- Institutional Revolutionary audiovisual. Session IV: Copyleft (with invited groups: Riot cinema collective, eXgae, Traxtore). 2100-2300.
Barrilonia- Party: 26th Anniversary of the Zapatista uprising. 2100-2300.

Saturday 14

Rimaia- Workshop. Co-ordinating syndicalised workers. 1200-2200.

Rimaia -Talk: An anarco-syndicalist response to the crisis. 1900.

Barrilonia- Supper with screening of Zapatista film "Corazon del tiempo". 2100.

Sunday 15
Barrilonia- Popular paella eat-in and play against political and domestic violence in Mexico. 1400.

Barrilonia- Workshop: Theatre for the oppressed. 1700-2000.

Barrilonia- Screening: "In this world" dir. Michale Winterbottom. 2000-2300.
Teixidora- Workshop: Bodily expression (held be Rebel'art). TIME UNKNOWN.

Monday 16

Barrilonia- Class: Life drawing. 1700-2000.

Rimaia- Class: Electricity. 1800.
Barrilonia- Assembly: Feminist group L’estisores (pro-choice). TIME UNKNOWN.
Biology faculty (UB)- Fundraiser and talk. TIME UNKNOWN.

Tuesday 17

La Rimaia- Class: Electricity. 1800-2000.

Wednesday 18
Ciutat de la Justicia- Protest rally (Denuncia18M). 1000.

La Rimaia- Class: Electricity. 1800-2000.

The library and tearoom in La Rimaia are open everyday from 1700-2100.

10th Nov: Anti-Repression Press Conference

This is a translation of the communiqué read out in a press conference held today outside the central University of Barcelona building (site of the 18th March eviction last year). This forms part of a week of general activities to highlight the court cases that will be held on the 18th and 26th November for those charged on the 18th March.

The movement's lawyer, Jaume Assens

On the 20th November it will have been a year since the occupation of the "rectorat" (grand entrance) of the University of Barcelona. However, it's already been years since students have been organising in order to paralyse the European Higher Education Area and create a space of debate regarding its implementation and the function of universities in society. A stronge and persistent students movement was formed as a response to an imposed market-orientated education reform. From the rectorat of the UB the conflict was visualised to society the movement gained strength. Students, in seeing that they wouldn't be given a voice, had decided to speak without permission.

During that time academic authorities, politicians and the commercial media practised an information-based counter-offensive taking two forms: on the one hand, they pettily badmouthed the student movement and discredited their arguments with cooked up information, on the other hand, they upped their attempts to sell the reforms. The UB tried for a PR victory, with the constant use of the word "dialogue", and a clean "police-free campus" image (painting itself as an exception amongst the other universities) to the point where members of the management claimed that "the day the police step foot in this university I'll resign".

On the 18th March this hypocrisy was made obvious to everyone.

The UB's good image, and the endangerment of "academic normality", which in reality don't amount to anything, were the arguments used by university president Dídac Ramírez for letting riot squads into the building. The repression that we lived through on the 18th March started inside the rectorat, without warning, in a violent eviction confronted with the students' passive resistence. During the morning, at midday and at night police brigades charged on protesters, journalists and passers-by brutally and indiscriminately.

The actions of the repressing forces ended with 6 detentions and hundreds injured, many of whom were hit in legally prohibited parts of their body (the head, the hands, etc.). Today there are more than 58 people charged.

It remains very clear that, behind the armed police officers who chased, harassed, threatened and humiliated so many people, there was a well defined repressive strategy being put in place by academic and political authorities. No kind of responsibility has been assumed for what happened that day, or for the effects that are still suffered to this day. Rather, in many cases the actions were justified by the authorities, who went so far as to call for harsher repression. The only action undertaken was to sack Rafael Olmos, then head of the police, only to later reinstate him a little later.

We must also take this opportunity to denounce the manipulation of information in the media over the following days, in which the number of injured police officers given was at one point greater than that of injured protesters.

Faced with the impunity which shields those responsible, it was necessary to gather the testimonies and documents to make a collective denunciation. We have united more than a hundred people to denounce the abuses committed.

We have decided to use a legal route to make the denunciation. On the 18th September a dispute against the police force was presented through the legal system, although we still don't know if this has been accepted or rejected. The fact that the police brigades didn't carry identification on their uniforms, makes this route difficult, but we hope it will go some way to save the events from being forgotten. Therefore we are making the dispute public today.

We are here to say that we haven't forgotten and we will continue to fight, even despite the political and mediatic silence, we won't just stand by. We are here to denounce and dismantle a judicial system thought out and orquestrated by those in power, a judicial system which is normalising repression against anyone who speaks out.

We demand to see those responsible brought to justice, not with words but with actions (resignations), In the Interior Department, in the police force, amongst the presidents of Catalan universities, in the "Innovation, Universities and Business" Department and in the Commission for Universities and Research.

We will rally against repression on the 12th at Plaça Universitat.

We will also rally at the courthouses on the days 18th and 26th in protest at the trials for those evicted and charged with public disorder.

Free Uni-What?

As part of its renowned squat scene and history of educational struggle, Barcelona is home to many free universities.

These are usually in squatted social centres (abandoned buildings occupied to meet the needs of the neighbourhood) and hold a range of activities, from tranvestite theatre to debates on primitivism. The aim of the project is to create a revolutionary space of learning where the difference between teacher and student is blurred and the subject matter, duration of the class, entry requirements etc. are chosen in self-organised groups interested in social change rather than by antiquated power structures serving only the needs of the rich.

The universities aim to provide a space for anyone interested where they can sit and chat without the obligation to buy anything, "a free space for all".

Check the blog for upcoming free university events!

The Free Universities this week- Activities

Activities in:

La Rimaia (Casanova 17)

La Teixidora (Marià Aguilló 35)

Barrilonia (Rambla del Raval)

La Rosa Negra (Roser 30, metro Paral.lel)

Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB) Cerdanyola Campus.

Thursday 5

UAB- Alternative party. 1400-late.

La Rimaia- Arts Workshop open. 1700-2000.

La Rimaia- Talk: Crisis and Anticapitalism. A vision from a Marxist perspective. 1730.

La Teixidora- Supper in support of Mexican prisoners. 2100-2200.

Friday 6

La Teixidora- Sexual bric-a-brac workshop. 1000-1400. ENROL BY EMAIL - lateixidora@gmail.com

La Teixidora- Politically Correct Abusers. 1800.

La Teixidora- Theatre piece about domestic violence. 1930-2230.

(La Teixidora will have food available)

Saturday 7

La Teixidora- Analizing gender on the internet with theatre techniques. 1000-1200.

La Rosa Negra- Bike Repair Workshop. 1630.

La Teixidora- Talk: Sexuality and HIV in the classroom. 1700.

La Teixidora- The history of the LGBT struggle. 1900.

Barrilonia- Anti-Repression fundraiser for 58i+ legal fees

La Teixidora- Big gay party. 2200-0300.

(La Teixidora will have food available)

Sunday 8

La Teixidora- Workshop: "Degenerate yourself" (held by the Barcelona Gay Collective). 1200.

La Teixidora- "Performative Subversions". 1700.

La Teixidora- Chat: "Tran-Intersex, the construction of an illness". 1900.

Monday 9 START OF THE GLOBAL WEEK OF ACTION

La Rimaia- Class: Electricity. 1800-2000.

La Teixidora- Theory Assembly. 1930.

Tuesday 10

UB (Rectorat) - 58i+ press conference. 1000.
UB (Psychology faculty) - 58i+ chat and fundraiser. 1300.
UB (Raval campus) - 58i+ chat and fundraiser. 1400.
La Rimaia- Class: Photography. 1800-2000.

La Rimaia- Class: Electricity. 1800-2000.

Wednesday 11

La Rimaia- Class: Electricity. 1800-2000.

La Rimaia- Social Centre Assembly. 2000.
UB (Medicine clinic) - 58i+ chat and fundraiser. 1900.

UB (Pedagogy hall Room 1o2, first floor) - 58i+ chat and fundraiser. 2000.

The library and tearoom in La Rimaia are open everyday from 1600-2100.

"La Rimaia"

Since it was squatted last June, a lot has happened to number 17, Carrer Casanova. The building, having been abandoned for four years, has now been transformed into a social centre comprising of a Moroccan style tea room, a public library, a wifi access point, a cinema cum debating room and a host of classrooms where a range of subjects are taught for free.

The project is being developed with the aim of creating a free space in which knowledge can be shared and the problems of the city confronted by the neighbourhood

22nd May: Alternative University

This week the University of Barcelona's Raval Campus has held an alternative university, the initials of which in Catalan spell ULL (which also means "look!").

ULL was set up as a student-organised university, "we decide what we want to learn and when". Furthermore, the creation of a space for thought in the university is a response to the creation of the EHEA (European Higher Education Area), that is to say: the submission of knowledge and learning to capitalist logic. The students "are taking the university onto the street and the street into the university".

The programme of events included:
- Chat-debates on the fragmentation of knowledge
- The showing of a documentary in construction about the student movement
- A stand-up lesson on mythology
- Chats about the student movements in France, Colombia, Mexico and Argentina
The week of events ended with a party to raise funds to pay the movement's legal fees.

Posters and graffiti all over campus publicised the event: on the programme the slogan reads "Close your eyes and look"

Raval campus has been recently redecorated by various student groups. This reads:
"In their democracy there are only 2 kinds of consensus:
The consensus of silence
and that of repression"
The poor person on the right is being fed timetables, punctuality, control and manipulation.

21st May: Professors and Admin. Personnel Protest

Against the application of the Bologna Process, the entire university community is organising and acting. A rally of "PDI-PAS" (teaching and investigative personnel and administration and services personnel) took place today at 7.30pm outside the Catalan parliament.

Around 200 participants gathered outside the building to give a letter to the Catalan president, José Montilla. The letter asks Montilla to hold dialogue with PDI-PAS regarding the Bologna Process reforms to the university. The letter complains that the new laws have been introduced without discussion with those that will be effected and will lead to a university which creates "workers who are experts at silence, dependent, adecuate to the laws of the market". They also handed in ten petitions against the Bologna Process together with thousands of signatures procured from around Spain.

>>See the original of the letter on the website for the PDI-PAS assembly (in Catalan)<<

14th May: Occupation Ends in Vandalised Bank

The on-campus bank which was decorated, whilst it was being cleaned

An occupation of the library in the Mundet campus of the University of Barcelona (which hosts the pedagogy, psychology and teacher-training departments) has taken place from Tuesday 12th May till Friday 15th May.

A group of 20 occupied the campus library as a continuation of the action held the previous week (and holding the same demands). The first night the students slept under the vigilance of 8 sub-contracted security guards. Attempts to hold dialogue with the vice-president over the three days proved fruitless, as she would only say, “this is a library, it closes at 8pm and therefore no one can stay here. No mattresses can enter, neither can you sleep, eat, smoke or drink.”

During the occupation the library was decorated and a branch of Santander bank inside the campus was vandalised with red paint and slogans criticising its presence in an educational institution. Following these events the students decided to leave to avoid recriminations.

"The chains of their legality will not stop the creation of a different social conscience"

"We are no-one.
We are alone and so alone with our dignity and our rage.
We have seen and heard.
Our voice is small on account of being the echo of this word, our sights are short for so much and such dignified rage. We are others, something else.
If this world has no place for us, then another world will have to be made.
We need to meet more, to get to know each other.
What's needed is that which is missing."

5th May: Mundet Redecoration

News from the University of Barcelona's Mundet Campus:

A 30-person rally took place at the deacon's office on demanding (amongst other things):

• A moratorium on the implementation of Bologna-style degrees in the next academic year

• That the administration pay the legal fees of all those charged in the 18^th March occupation eviction, and the following confrontations with police

• That the administration assume responsibility for the eviction of the student occupation and the consequent confrontations with police

This meeting resulting in two hours of sterile dialogue, following which the group left the office and redecorated their campus.

Pictures:


From a poem by Eduardo Galeano:

"Politicians speak but don't say anything
Voters vote but don't choose anything
The media disinforms
Centres of learning teach ignorance
Judges condemn victims
Soldiers are at war against their own countrymen
The police don't fight crimes, because they're too busy committing them
Bankruptcies are socialised, profits are privatised
Money is freer than people
People are at the service of things"

A translated quote from "Know Your Rights" by the clash:
"You have the right to free speech / As long as your not dumb enough to actually try it"
and the slogan of the 26th March demonstration, "Bologna is being imposed with beatings"

The slogan of the anti-repression campaign "58 and more besides"

18th May: "58 and more besides"

Today we can confirm that the 53 people evicted from the student occupation have been charged with “desobediència a l'autoritat” (breach of the peace) for resisting eviction. The figure of 53 can be added to that of the 5 people detained and more than 200 injured by police violence on the day of the eviction. "58 i +" (58 and more besides).

Therefore, the Barcelona Student Movement has acted today against the person they hold responsible, the university president Dídac Ramírez, who ordered the eviction to take place.

Marking the two month anniversary of the eviction (and another “18-M”) a group from the Barcelona Student Movement entered the historical building and tried to enter the president's office in order to discuss his actions with him. Unfortunately, the rector locked himself in his office, refusing to face up to the bruised, charged and indignant consequences of his shameful action. Therefore the group posted a mural of photos from 18^th March outside of his door.

Some of the images posted outside

"Didi"'s door

Following this action, most of the group left the building and created a giant mural spelling out “58 i +” on the pavement outside. Meanwhile, other members hung explicative banners from the building's windows with chains. Also visible was the same logo graffitied in red on the road, the result of an action the night before that ended in more police charges. The students then remained outside, leafletting students and passers-by.

One of the two posters hung from the building:
"1 imposition +
3 demands +
0 dialogue =
58 and more besides... Moratorium now!"

The mural outside the front doors

Graffiti on the road outside, the slogan reads:
"We disobey their authority, on the street and in the university"