through europe

This question, appearing on most newspapers after every riot, such as the one in Rome on December 14, deserves an answer. Do you want to see what our faces look like, when they are not hidden by scarves, helmets and balaclavas?

They are the same faces that pay the rent for your scruffy flats, the faces to whom you offer unpaid internships or full time employment for £800 a month. They are the faces that pay thousands of pounds to attend your lectures. They are the faces of the kids that you slap when you catch them with some weed in their pocket. They are the faces that have to run out of the bus when the inspectors appear, as they couldn’t afford to travel otherwise.

Days, in London, always pass fast. This city embodies the very essence of late capitalism. Its illness. Working over-time, running along underground platforms, eating late at night, pills, kebabs, sleeping drunk on buses, waking up at the last stop or already late for work.
There couldn’t possibly be a better city for activism.

November 24, 2010. A date to remember. A few months after the Greek riots, a few weeks after the French wave of general strikes, Britain, Italy and Portugal synchronized their unrest against the new measures of austerity enforced by their respective governments. While British students descended in mass on the streets, their Italian equivalents attacked the palace of the Senate, before moving to occupy the Coliseum. At the same time, in Portugal, the unions called for a general strike that managed to paralyze the entire country, with peaks of 80% adhesion among the workers of several industries.

24 November 2010, London

Dear Sir,

I happened to see you today around Whitehall. You didn’t seem to see me. I was right in front of you, maybe a couple of feet away. I was blowing my breath on your yellow uniform. I tried to talk to you. But I guess you weren’t there. Talking to a uniform is a silly thing to do, when there is no one inside it.

They did it, again. Once again, it was the Metropolitan Police, once again it was in London. It was the national walkout day and thousands of students were marching in countless cities all over the United Kingdom. In London, a colorful and determined march (supported by all student organisation, with the exception of the notoriously brave-hearted NUS) made its way from Trafalgar square down to Whitehall. There, at about 1pm, it happened again. The Metropolitan Police, fearful of being blamed again for incompetence, kettled everyone in.