Thousands of Maoists held a torch procession on December the 5th in preparation for a nationwide Banda (closure) the following day. The action was called in retaliation of an incident in Kailali district on Friday. Police had used deadly force in removing thousands of Maoist aligned landless squatters from forest land.

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Originally posted on Advance the Struggle, reposted from Kasama.

For the Workers Party campaign against political trespassing by Victoria University, click here.

“These protests represent a political eruption in a time when militant struggle is bubbling up to the surface.  It’s becoming progressively clearer that proposing such militancy is not premature…but also prove that it isn’t wise to push heroic yet isolated occupation attempts…  We have witnessed the first convergence of occupation with mass protest and observed the fiery radical effect the synthesis has had on its participants.  The only way to challenge society’s problems is to first understand that the rich and powerful will stop at nothing. Capital brings only impoverishment for our class while their class accumulates incredible amounts of wealth. Our struggle has to win by beating back and altering the relationship of class forces, which will not be easy. But this recent wave of occupations and militant protests throughout California represent a new cycle of struggle that gives hope and insight to such a possibility in the near future.”

Behind Every Fee Increase is a Line of Cops

Fully armed, a line of 10 swat team police marched up to the picket line. Half-stunned by their presence, the crowd of supporters hesitatingly jeered the cops. In unison and on command the pigs charged forward and shoved the picketers to the ground. Throughout the day there were various refusals to accept these attacks; they ranged from hurling verbal abuse at the cops with chants like “Fuck the Police,” to acts of physical resistance such as refusing to sit down at the urging of cops and fellow protesters, to minor incidents of exchanging blows with the pigs.

Some of these bold acts of resistance were deplorable to those protestors whose go-to chants were “Peaceful protest! Peaceful protest!” as the pigs violently attacked students.  One chant was even directed to the cops themselves: “We are fighting for your kids! We are fighting for your kids!” This brings into sharp relief the widespread confusion about the role of the state in the anti-budget cut movement.

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