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Montreal Students Clash With Riot Police In Austerity Protests
Montreal Students Clash With Riot Police In Austerity Protests
Last week, anti-austerity protests in Germany turned the streets of Frankfurt into a veritable horror show as Blockupy supporters dressed as clowns clashed with riot police against a backdrop of flaming cars and utter chaos in what looked like a scene out of Pennywise The Clown Meets Black Hawk Down:
It now appears the Blockupy spirit has migrated across the pond to Montreal, where hundreds of students hit the streets to protest austerity measures drawing the ire of police armed with rubber bullets, tear gas, and sound bombs. Here’s more via RT:
Canadian police used tear gas and reportedly fired rubber bullets and sound bombs at hundreds of students protesting austerity measures at an anti-capitalist rally in Montreal. Thousands took to the streets on Tuesday to protest sweeping education cuts…Many activists wore masks, covering their faces while violating the local bylaw that prohibits covering faces during protests…
The Revolutionary Student Movement organized the Tuesday’s evening march. The group has claimed it is “an association of young Communists and revolutionary anti-capitalists.”
Thousands of students have been boycotting classes to protest against provincial government austerity measures, including new tuition hikes and university cuts.
The protesters reportedly broke car windows, lit flares, and spray painted some stuff, which all would have been ok had they provided police with a schedule initially:
Violent Clashes Break Out Next To New ECB Headquarters In Frankfurt As Thousands Protest Austerity: Live Webcast
Violent Clashes Break Out Next To New ECB Headquarters In Frankfurt As Thousands Protest Austerity
It’s not just Greece which is protesting the utter lack of reforms enabled by the ECB known as “austerity” – as of today so is Germany itself with the so-called #Blockupy movement. According tolocal media reports, the start of anti-austerity rallies in Frankfurt coincided with the European Central Bank opening its new headquarters, whose occupants are now besieged by tens of thousands of protesters, so perhaps #OccupyQ€ would have been more appropriate. Police said they expect around 10,000 anti-capitalist protesters, marching under the banner of leftist alliance Blockupy, to attend the rally, with a march through the city planned for later in the evening. The result is what according to a police spokesman “is one of the biggest deployments ever in the city.”
As the photos below shows, several police cars have been set on fire, with windows being smashed and demonstrators throwing stones at police ahead of the massive demonstration on Wednesday, and as riots break out across Frankfurt even as thousands of police respond with water cannon, pepper spray and mass arrests.
Authorities say at least one officer has been injured by a stone hurled by an activist, near the city’s opera house.
Organizers have accused the police of sparking the violence, saying they set up a “civil war type scenario” to provoke demonstrators. “This is not what Blockupy planned,” spokesman Hendrik Wester told German news agency DPA.
Video footage has shown riot police running through the city, with at least one protester being dragged away.
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