[This is a guest post by Comrade Rapha. He originally published the following comment yesterday on his own blog, Politika etc.]

Almost 25 years after the end of the military dictatorship (1964 – 1985), Brazil still faces the ghosts of authoritarianism. Surprisingly, these spirits came back in the context of an institution which played a remarkable role in the resistance to the military regime. In the past few days, professors, students and workers of the University of Sao Paulo witnessed a police action which made the community aware of the lack of democracy in its own academic environment.

On May 27th, workers blocked the entrance of four buildings in the State Capital campus. They asked for better wages and other labor demands. According to the rector, they were posting pickets during the strike to discourage other employees to work, an illegal act as stated by Brazilian laws. On June 1st, the administration called the police to intervene and stop the pickets. The police remained on campus and on June 9th, they attacked a group of students, professors and workers who were demonstrating against them.

The police used tear gas, pepper spray and rubber bullets to disperse the protesters. This action generated lots of reactions. Several newspapers articles were published by those concerned, including faculty members, students and union members, showing anything but an opinion agreement on the police action. Part of the faculty supports the rector’s initiative to call the police and considered the intervention legitimate. On June 18th, more than 1,500 people demonstrated on the streets against the police reaction and its disproportion.

In 2007, students occupied the building where the rector’s office is located. They were against some decrees passed by Governor Jose Serra with the support of the rector Suely Vilela. The decrees considerably reduced the autonomy of the university in favor of the State Secretary of Education, concentrating more power in the hands of the Governor. After the occupation, Jose Serra stepped back and voided the decrees.

The University of Sao Paulo is responsible for 23% of all scientific production in Brazil. It has more than 86,000 students, 5,400 professors and 15,200 employees. The 2009 budget is about US$ 1.4 billion due to a disposition of the Sao Paulo State Constitution, which allocates 5% of all value added tax revenue of the State, which is the richest State in Brazil, to the university. It is clear that a major crisis in a university with these proportions reflects on local and national politics.

As the Philosophy professor of University of Campinas Marcos Nobre pointed out in a newspaper article, the police action is “the symptom, not the cause.” For him, this shows that despite having democratic institutions, “Brazilian society still has a low level of democratization.” The process to choose the university’s rector gives a good example of the way different groups are represented within the institution. Approximately 300 people vote to appoint 3 names to the State Governor, who is supposed to pick one. In this election, the group of “titular professors” (named chair professors) is majoritarian, and one must be a titular professor to become rector. Students and workers are not able to nominee someone to this position, even if both groups vote together.

By the moment, the rector and the union of workers started to negotiate again. The police are expected to leave the campus soon. The lesson which seems to have been learned till now is that the university needs to rethink its own structures. It has still to find the difficult tune for attending social demands of inclusion and participation.

Thanks to Comrade Rapha  for informing us about this story.

Scientific Community Teargassed in Brazil

Written by Pablo Ortellado

Sunday, 14 June 2009 13:25

[Originally published on EduFactory]

120 professors and about 1,200 students and university workers were beaten and teargassed in the main campus of the University of São Paulo in Brazil last Tuesday (June 9).

Conflicts started after a one month strike of university workers whose employment status is being disputed due to a legal controversy over university autonomy to hire its workers without approval of state representatives. Over one thousand workers might loose their jobs. Workers started a strike on May 5 demanding the preservation of their jobs and other labor demands. On May 27, workers started to block the entrance of four university buildings because, according to them, university management was threatening workers who were using their legal right to strike. On June 1, administration called the military police to intervene. On June 4 professors joined the strike protesting police occupation of campus. on June 5, professors had a two hours meeting with management asking for a non-military solution to the labor conflict. However, common sense did not prevail and military police attacked a peaceful demonstration of students and workers yesterday (June 9). 120 professors were discussing the crisis when the meeting was interrupted by news of a police attack. A few minutes later teargas and concussion bombs exploded inside the building. Several of our colleagues and students were hurt. The academic community is shocked.

We ask the support of the international scientific and academic community by demanding university management the immediate withdraw of military police from campus and the non-violent resolution of labor conflicts in the university.

Professor Pablo Ortellado (Public Policy)
Professor Rogério Monteiro de Siqueira (Geometry)
Professor Jefferson Mello (Brazilian literature)
Professor Thomás Haddad (Science History)
Professor Carlos Gonçalves (Science History)
Escola de Artes, Ciências e Humanidades
Universidade de São Paulo

Further information (in Portuguese):
Associação dos Docentes da USP: www.adusp.org.br
Sindicato dos Funcionários da USP: www.sintusp.org.br

Please send protest and concern letters to the University of São Paulo
administration:

Professor Suely Vilela
Rector of the University of São Paulo
E-mail: gr@usp.br, suvilela@usp.br

Professor Franco Lajolo
Vice-Rector of the University of São Paulo
E-mail: gvr@usp.br, fmlajolo@usp.br

Professor Alberto Carlos Amadio
Chief Staff of the Rector
E-mail: grcg@usp.br, acamadio@usp.br

This shocking report comes to us via Brian Holmes on the nettime mailing list. Here is how he prefaced it:

Sorry for any cross-posting, but this material from Emily Foreman is important to get out. Despite the good news from the polls we are still living under the boot here in the USA. Poor people’s lives get wasted in the war, and when they try to participate in the democracy they were supposed to be fighting for they get their skull crushed by the police. When is this gonna stop?

I just wanted to draw your attention to this video, particularly these video stills, that i shot during the Iraq Veterans Against the War protest at the final U.S. presidential debates, last Wednesday, in Long Island, NY. The video is extremely disturbing and clearly shows Iraq War Veteran Nick Morgan at the moment when his head was crushed to the sidewalk under a police horse. This story has been completely ignored in the media. He was legally, peacefully and standing on the sidewalk when the event occurred.

The still images speak volumes to this moment in history, please look at them and please get them to people (journalists, activists, veterans) who can use them!

Video links and more information are posted here.

Last Wednesday October 15th 2008, former Army Sergeant Nick Morgan, a 24-year-old veteran of the US war in Iraq, was nearly killed by riot police, his face crushed under a police horse, during a peaceful protest outside the final US presidential debates.

Morgan is a native of Annapolis, MD, who spent four-years the US Army and one year in Iraq. He was a participant in the Winter Soldier hearings and is an active member of the Iraq Veterans Against the War (IVAW), a national organization of ‘Global War On Terror’ veterans who had come to the Presidential debates in Long Island, demanding that veterans’ concerns be heard during these nationally televised dialogues.

The IVAW had previously announced, sending a letter to CBS, that two veterans had prepared one question each for Obama and McCain, to be asked during the televised debate.  They had also announced that if they didn’t receive a response by 7pm on the night of the debates, that those veterans would enter the debates anyway, in an attempt to be seen, if not actually have their voices heard.

On Wednesday, as the sun was going down, the veterans waited for a response with a crowd of civilian supporters. When no response came from CBS, Obama, or McCain by 7pm, they led a march peacefully to the gate of the debates.  Seven veterans were arrested while attempting to enter the gate of the national debates.

Nassau county police immediately began pushing the crowd of media, veterans and supporters backwards and across the street, charging riot cops and horses into the tightly packed crowd. One officer, Officer Quagliano was seen by many witnesses to be driving his horse backwards, in circles and out of control, repeatedly antagonizing Nick Morgan and a group of Iraq War vets who were peacefully holding the front of the line. The IVAW veterans are committed to non-violence and committed to protecting ‘civilians’ that come out to support them.  Video shows him swiping Morgan and veteran Carlos Harris with the head of his horse just a few minutes before trampling them on the ground.

After the crowd was divided in two and fully pushed back onto the sidewalk with nowhere to go, Officer Quagliano continued to run his horse into the crowd and in circles ON the sidewalk. Riot police on foot began pulling people from the tightly packed sidewalk and into the way of Quagliano’s out of control horse. At least three civilians and three veterans were knocked to the ground and trampled in the undertow.

This video clearly shows the moment of impact as Officer Quagliano’s horse backs up and steps on Nick Morgan’s face.  He immediately lost consciousness and his lower orbital was shattered in 3 places. After nearly being killed, suffering a concussion and bleeding profusely from the head, police actually refused to allow other soldiers and friends to give him medical attention and to protect him from Quagliano’s horse, still stomping inches from his body.

A police statement later claimed that quote “a ‘person’ may have been injured when their body came into contact with a horse.”  While the event happened quickly and in the pitch black, the momentary flashes in the darkness reveal a different story.

Instead, Nick Morgan was flipped, tugged, and dragged by police, bruising and cutting his abdomen. He was pulled from the crowd, face wiped, and thrown in an arrest van with other arrested veterans.

Morgan, who already suffered from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder after his tour of duty in Iraq, was eventually taken to Nassau County hospital where he was handcuffed to a gurney, cat-scanned and given a prescription for antibiotics and Motrin.  Ironically, Morgan and other members of Iraq Veterans Against the War had come to the October debates with the intention of asking candidates pointed questions about lack of care for veterans.

A few hours later he was taken to jail, chained to a bench for five hours, and given a November 10th court appearance ticket for a charge of disorderly conduct.

Multiple veterans and civilians were injured by horses. All were given insufficient medical attention at Nassau County hospital. Veteran Carlos Harris had his foot stepped on and was refused an X-ray at Nassau County. IVAW supporter Devra Shore actually heard her foot crack under the hooves of a horse, and she too was denied any diagnosis in Nassau County.

Nick Morgan has nerve damage and his vision is still blurry. He underwent facial reconstructive surgery this morning to keep his crushed cheekbone from sinking into his face.

The reality is that American police nearly killed an American vet last week with immunity, and with complete silence from the media, as he peacefully exercised those ‘constitutional freedoms’ he was sworn to protect and was supposedly fighting for across the world. Anti-war Veterans like Nick Morgan have suffered a double betrayal, in Iraq and at home, and their voices deserve to be heard, if not by the presidential candidates, then by the American people themselves.

Iraq Veterans Against the War
IVAW media contact for Nick Morgan: matthis@ivaw.org
Video and video still requests (Emily Foreman):  multiplefronts@gmail.com