Riots Spread From France To U.S. As Strikes Continue

[ilaughatrightwingers]

Rioting in France over austerity measures has spread across the Atlantic Tuesday night, with small groups of youths forming sporadically throughout Brooklyn and causing disturbances.
The youths were seen building barricades, setting several cars on fire, and skirmishing with police, ostensibly in opposition to cuts to social services in France and the United States. The protests come as countries around the globe are adopting IMF-style austerity programs and cutting social services amid the global economic recession in attempts to right their economies.

The demonstrators last night carried signs saying "We won’t pay for their crisis," as they chanted, "From Paris to Brooklyn, Nous Sommes Tous Des Casseurs." The skirmishes were described by NYPD as fairly mild, though eyewitnesses describe seeing several cars set ablaze in the rioting.


One demonstrator who asked that his name be withheld said, "We want to see a global rebellion against a future of capitalist crisis, so we are making it happen tonight ; we want to show the youth in France that they are inspiring us and they should keep rioting."

Several residents said the groups of youth were handing out copies of "The Coming Insurrection," an anonymously-written book from France made famous when its supposed authors were arrested on terrorism charges in France and became known as the Tarnac 9. When the book was released in English last year, an impromptu book party was held in a New York Barnes & Nobles, which was reported in the New York Times.

The United States has not seen massive protests like the ones currently taking place in France against raising the retirement age, but many states have levied severe cuts to social services since the financial crisis began, including cuts to higher education that sparked occupations of university building throughout the U.S. last year.

Whether these riots in Brooklyn are an isolated occurrence or will spread throughout the U.S. as the situation in France becomes more serious remains to be seen.

From: http://www.anarchistnews.org/?q=node%2F12459

[county worker]

1. God I hope the masses come out into the streets all over the world!

[xchrom]

2. Interesting. Nt

[daleanime]

3. If elections are up for sale....

what do our owners expect us to do?:grr:

[brooklynite]

4. Unrec'd

I live in Brooklyn. I can find no reference to "riots" occurring in any local newspaper or blog site, or for that matter, demonstrations about labor unrest (bike lane protests we have; immigration protests we have). If someone's going to post a story about "cars set ablaze", there should be some reputable sources of evidence.

[eShirl]

5. anyone reporting this besides anarchistnews,org?

[starroute]

6. The commenters on the thread conclude it's a hoax

And some of them are pretty pissed about it.

[jberryhill]

7. Fake story /nt

[ilaughatrightwingers]

8. It's not

I found a few other news sources which reported on it.

[jberryhill]

10. Post them

...and not just links to blogs quoting this anonymously posted item at Anarchist News.

Several cars set ablaze in Brooklyn, and no local Brooklyn news reporting it?

[jtuck004]

9. Great. Stupid people in the streets with no idea of a plan

or what they want. Like a monkey with a mirror.

I was talking to a guy the other day who suggested that it would be a good idea if people would pick up their guns
and "clean house" in Washington, get those "rascals" out of there.

I asked him what made him think that, if a large group of people picked up guns to clean house, they would all be on his side?

He had no real answer except for "uh...".


I don't have a problem with people hitting the streets - it can be really effective. But they need some education and a plan for what they want to accomplish. Else it's just a mob, and tragedy will be the only likely result.