NEW SCHOOL AND GREEK SOLDIERS STATEMENT

As an exercise, today, I decided to feature two events happening simultaneously which amply illustrates the differences between the rest of the globe and the US.

First, an action at this moment in the New School in NYC. A student occupation, takeover. I will provide a few links in a moment. Whatever you may think of this event, I, situated in the US, not too far away but NOT within walking distance of NYC, must get my information about BOTH Greece and NYU FROM ABROAD on the internet!!

A virtual news blackout exists. Very little, if any, reporting, at all about Greece and/or NYU. This news blackout comes from ALL sides, here, in the US, our fake, state, foundation sponsored, alternative, "Left" media sources, groupings, individuals, websites and the obvious commerical ones.

So, here is alittle something about NYU activities for those informationally challenged in the US:

First:
http://www.marxist.com/usa-students-occupy-new-school.htm

Then, a followup:
http://libcom.org/news/update-new-school-exile-occupation-19122008

The followup, above, does not mention the demands and position statement in the initial report for FREE higher education, elimination of student debt, etc.
This MAY simply be a reporting oversight or miscommunication from abroad. I do not know. But, it certainly IS important. And, it needs clarification and reemphasis.

However, I can tell you right now, unlike Greece, the students in NYC will get NO further labor leadership support from our Fascist led organized labor and fake Left.

As a consequence, it/their action will not grow, expand, snowball, mature, enlarge, as in Greece and elsewhere, encompassing ever broader swaths of the population and working class and none of their major demands will be met, certainly not free, higher education and elimination of debt.

And, I think I've explained the reasons why on this blog, ad nauseum. As a consequence, they may wind up with a token compromise, at best. So, once again, contrast the US to events in Greece and elsewhere.

For Greece, I reproduced the following from the tapesgoneloose.blogspot.com.

It was translated into English on their/his blog apparently from the Greek Indy website and I have not seen it elsewhere in English. Other websites with further information below the following:

Letter from army camps refuting the army's repressive role (indy.gr, Wednesday)

Hundreds of soldiers from 42 army camps state: WE REFUSE TO BECOME A FORCE OF TERROR & REPRESSION AGAINST THE MOBILIZATIONS; WE SUPPORT THE STRUGGLE OF SCHOOL/UNIVERSITY STUDENTS & THE WORKERS.
We are soldiers from all over greece [it's necessary to not remark here that conscription is still active in greece & affects all males greeks; most or maybe even all of the people signing this are bound to be people who are serving their compulsory military service at the moment - not army recruits]. Soldiers who, in Hania, were ordered to stand against university students, workers & fighters of the antimilitary movement carrying our guns & a short while ago. [Soldiers] who are carrying the weight of reforms & of the "readiness" of the greek army. [Soldiers who] live every day through the ideological bullying of militarism, nationalism, unpaid exploitation & of submission to "[our] superiors".In the army camps [we're serving at], we hear of another "isolated incident": the death, [caused] by a policeman's gun, of a 15-year-old called Alexis. We hear [of] it in slogans carrying over the camp's outer walls like a distant thunder. Weren't the deaths of three colleagues of ours in August also called isolated incidents? Wasn't the death of each one of the 42 soldiers who died in the last 3.5 years also called an isolated incident? We hear that Athens, Thessaloniki & an ever-increasing number of cities in greece become fields of social unrest, fields where the outrage of thousands of youths, workers & unemployed is played out.Dressed with army uniforms & "working attire", guarding the camp or running errands, [being] servants of the "superiors", we still find ourselves there [in those same fields]. We lived, as university students, workers & desperately unemployed, the[ir] "claypots", "accidental backfirings", "[bullet] deflections"; the desperation of precarity, of exploitation, of lay-offs & of prosecutions.We hear whispers & insinuations from the army officials, we heard the government's threat, made public, about the imposition of an "alarm state." We know very well what this means. We live it through intensification [of work], increased [army] duties, extreme conditions with one finger on the trigger.Yesterday we've been ordered to be careful & "keep our eyes open". We're asking: WHOM DID YOU ORDER US TO BE CAREFUL OF?Today, we've been ordered to be ready & alert. We're asking? TOWARDS WHOM SHOULD WE BE ALERT?You ordered us to be ready to impose a state of ALERT:• Distribution of loaded guns in certain units in Attiki [where Athens is] even accompanied by the order to be used against civilians if they're threatened. (e.g. an army unit in Menidi, close to the attacks against the police station of Zephiri.)• Distribution of bayonets to soldiers in Evros [along the turkish border] • Instilling fear to protesters by moving platoon to peripheral army camps.• Moving police vehicles to army camps in Nayplio-Tripoli-Korinthos for safekeeping.• The "dopping" by the Major I. Konstantaros in the Thiva bootcamp concering the identification of soldiers with the storeowners whose property is being damaged.• Distribution of plastic bullets in the Korinthos bootcamp & the order to shoot againts our fellow citizens if they move in "threateningly" (with respect to whom???)• Positioning a special unit at the "Unknown Soldier" [statue] right across from the demonstrators on Saturday, December 13, as well as [positioning] the soldiers of the Nayplio bootcamp against the pan-workers demo.• Threatening [the citizens] with Special Operations Units from Germany & Italy - in the role of an Occupation Army - thus revealing E.U.'s real, anti-workers/authoritarian face.Police shoots targeting the present & future of social revolts. That's why they're preparing the army tot assume the duties of a police force & the society to accept the return to the army of the Reformers' Totalitarianism. They're preparing us to stand against our friends, out acquaintances & our brothers & sisters. They're preparing us to stand against our former & future colleagues at work & in school.This sequence of measures shows that the leadership of the army-the police & the consent of Hinofotis (former member of the professional army, currently vice minster of the Interior, responsible for interior "unrest"), of the General HQ of the Army, of the entire government, of the E.U. directives, of the store-owners-as-infuriated-citizens & of the far-right-wing groups aim at utilizing the Armed Forces as an Occupation Army - aren't you calling us "peace corps" when you send us abroad to do the exact same things? - in the cities where we grew up, in the neighborhoods & the roads where we walked.The political & military leadership forgets that we're part of that same youth. THhey forget that we're flesh from the flesh of a youth which is confronted with the desert of the real inside & outside army camps. Of a youth that's outraged, not subserviant; & most importantly, FEARLESS. WE'RE UNIFORMED CIVILIANS.We won't accept becoming complimentary tools of fear which some attempt to instill over society as a scarecrow.We won't accept becoming a force of repression & terror.We won't stand against people whom we share that same fears, needs & desires/[the same] common future, perils & hopes with.WE REFUSE TO TAKE TO THE STREETS ON BEHALF OF ANY STATE OF ALERT AGAINST OUR BROTHERS & SISTERS.As a youth in uniform, we express our solidarity with the people who're fighting & we scream that we won't become pawns of the police-state & of state repression. We'll never stand against our own people. We won't allow the imposition of a situation in the army corps that will be bringing to mind "days of 1967" [when the greek army had his last coup d'etat].

For MUCH further reporting on Greek events, such as militant occupation of the Greek Central Labor office, and strikes elsewhere, the above blogspot and:

www.tapesgoneloose.blogspot.com
www.libcom.org
www.occupiedlondon.org/blog
www.marxist.com

Meanwhile, I will end on another amongst the many, many militant, ongoing, Turkish labor actions within the past few years against privatization, again, totally and completely ignored in the US.

This time, Turkish worker occupation of a tire factory, partially owned by Sabanci, in turn, partnered with Citigroup through Akbank:

http://www.hurriyet.com.tr/english/finance/10596945.asp?scr=1