A court has passed the sentence of aggravated trespass (“falta de deslluïment” in Catalan) to eight of the thirty activists identified following the occupation of a government party*’s headquarters last year. As a result of the trial the 8 are sentenced to house arrest for six days. The action occured on the 28th April last year as part of a day of actions which included the occupation of a bank and a demonstration. The actions were held in an attempt to widen the focus of the “Anti-Bologna” struggle from that of a university-based movement to one which symbolically attacked what were considered to be the root causes behind the neoliberal reforms.
Read our communiqué from 28th April 2009
A student organisation (the SEPC**) has issued this communiqué:
– Today we have once again seen the use of trials as part of a the government’s repressive strategy against student activists
– We continue and will continue to point out those truly guilty for privatisation, even if they are hiding behind a façade of false progressivity and Catalan independentism (referring to leading Catalan political parties)
– Even though this was a non-violent action, in which the activists were demanding dialogue, the response has been coercive
* The ERC (Catalan Leftist Republican Party) forms part of the triparty which governs Catalonia. The minister for education, Josep Maragall, belongs to the party.
** SEPC stands for Union for Students from Catalan Territories, we have no links to this organisation and merely relay their communiqué as evidence of the thoughts presented from one area of student activism in Barcelona.
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