Dear Students in Egypt,
I am writing from the Barcelona student movement against the implementation of the Bologna Process, representing the International Commission of the CAE (Student Assembly Co-ordinator for the assemblies of the four Public Universities of Barcelona), to demonstrate our solidarity with your resistance and struggle.
We have received news of the arrests, violence and intimidation which have taken place in Egypt these last few days and we are disgusted with the actions of the undemocratic Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak and his government. In contrast, we can only be impressed by the organization and bravery of the student movements in the face of such desperate repression. We believe that, as students, whether in Ain Shams or the Universitat de Barcelona, we have the responsibility to act as a spearhead in the fight for social justice and true democracy and therefore we applaud the strength and optimism of your actions.
Although nowhere close to that seen in Egypt, we have recently also suffered police repression (despite the democratically elected leftist-coalition government of our country). Following four months of student occupation, the rectorate of the largest and oldest university in the city, Universitat de Barcelona, was evicted by riot police at 5.30am 18th March 2009, with 53 people sleeping inside. That day there were different rallies and demonstrations of thousands in solidarity with the students, and a lot of conflict with the police who charged on students sitting in the road and, later, charged indiscriminately in the old town, beating students, clearly-marked journalists, tourists, the elderly and even a 10 year-old boy. Like you, we believe that this level of violence and intimidation on behalf of the government's mercenaries belies the state's fear of our growing strength and influence. Despite the brutality of the repression, we continue to organize and mobilize ourselves. Doing this we take inspiration, in part, from movements such as yours, where, despite the dangers, the pro-democratic movements persevere and don't retreat.
We wish to state our particular condemnation of the student arrests and we hope that those detained are freed as soon as possible. We too believe that the detention of activists and bloggers is a denial of our fundamental right to criticize government, not to mention that we believe the torture and violence which occurs inside Egyptian prisons and police stations should be condemned, not supported, by the state. We support the imprisoned students and we are willing to petition our embassy and/or diplomats regarding their release and safety, perhaps you could give us some useful information regarding carrying this out?
Finally, we wish to state that our movements, and those of other student groups worldwide, have many things in common, and therefore it is important for us to unite and strengthen our struggles. Therefore, we urge you to create an international commission as part of your movement to help us connect with your struggle and receive direct news of events in Egypt. You can view our webpage (with news in Catalan, Spanish and English) here:
http://interuni-bcn.blogspot.com/
Yours in solidarity,
Comisión Internacional de la CA
