Student Protests in Budapest, December 2012

Starting from December 10, 2012 thousands of university and high school students went into the cold streets of Budapest with spontaneous protests against governmental budget cuts in education. The government of Hungary decided to cut the number of budget (free of charge) places from 50.000 to 10.000 from the next year on. This means that the next generations of students are deprived of free education in this country.

8 March Greetings from Vagina

On March 8, an International Women Rights Day, a huge vagina arrived to Budapest to remind about the right of a woman to pleasure.

The vagina appeared next to the famous Buda castle in the place of the zero kilometer statue. The idea is that anyone can come to vagina and cuddle her to make her feel good. There was a sign next to the vagina saying: "Caress me, indulge me, I am vagina, happy Women's Day!"

Reclaim the Fields and NOTAV

Just one day after the violent eviction of the motorway blockade on Wednesday 80 RTF activists joined the No-TAV movement to re-occupying the motorway in Susa valley. While about 2000 people blocked the motorway close to the exit of Chianocco another blockade was set up in the higher Susa Valley. At the same time the central station in Turin was occupied and solidarity actions happened in more then 40 other cities all over Italy.
MORE >>HERE

Student Demonstration in Budapest on February 15

On February 15, 2012 several thousands students made a rally along the Danube to protest against the new Higher Education Act that destroys publicly funded higher education and obliges students to stay in work in Hungary after graduation. The demonstration ended as a several hours occupation of the law faculty of ELTE (Eötvös Loránd University).
The demonstration was organized by the Network of Students (Hallgatói Hálózat, HAHA), an independent student organization. This organization was protesting against the reform of the Higher Education Law in Hungary. As the HAHA explains, the new law is wrong, because:
"The government drafted the new law without previous public consultation with the academic community (students, professors, and administrative staff). The new legislation on higher education establishes governance and funding mechanisms that significantly limit university autonomy, particularly in domains of organizational structures, decision making and academic employment, also harming academic freedom. The new law significantly jeopardises social mobility and equal access to higher education by severely cutting down on the number of state-funded student places, encouraging student loans and otherwise limiting forms of support to those wishing to study (including vulnerable populations, such as the Roma). The new law obliges those who receive student support to stay in the country for twice as long as they receive it, thus restricting of employment mobility, without securing stable employment prospects".

Anti-ACTA Protest in Budapest

Several tens of thousands of citizens from an estimated 200 cities in Europe went out in the streets on a cold 11 February 2012, in a massive pan-european protest against ACTA and to support digital civil rights. [EDRI]

In Budapest around a thousand protesters went in the streets in order to protest against ACTA agreement that was signed by the Hungarian administration along with other 22 EU administrations on January 26.

The protest was organized by the Hungarian Anonymous Group and Occupy Budapest, made its way past the Hungarian parliament and ended outside the Hungarian Intellectual Property Office. The demonstration was attended by many young people chanting slogans such as “Internet freedom!”, and “Copy right, Copy left!”, and holding placards proclaiming “Broadband or Death!” and “Stop ACTA!”. The peopel were wearing the Anonymos masks and holding various banners and transparencies. The march was accompanied by the political samba band Rhythms of Resistance and ended by a concert.

Here you can see some videos about the protest in Budapest:

English: VIDEO

Hungarian: VIDEO

Further info: 

ACTA FAQ

STOP ACTA

Attila József Picnic

In autumn 2011 the Hungarian government decided to continue its struggle against the remaining of communism or things that may remind about it. After numerous renaming of the streets in Budapest and an attempt to remove the statue of liberty build during the communist times, the government decided to continue the fight with statues. This time its choice was made for the statue of a revolutionary proletariat poet of the 20th century, Attila József , who was a member of a communist party for a short time somewhere far away from the lawn near the Parliament building where it is now.

There were a couple of symbolic mainstream events against removal of the statue where people were holding speeches and listening for concert. We decided to make our own action - a picnic to commemorate Attila Jozséf. We like him because his life and worldview is unique and revolutionary. His poetry writing manner is full of provocation and grotesqueness, and his worldview is rebellious and anarchist.

On November 20 we took the food (mostly dumpster dived at the market on Saturday) we were cooking over the weekend and the FreeShop to the lawn with Attila Jozséf statue. There were some people there already, and during our stay there  more people came. We were just hanging out, eating and sharing food, and also talking to the interested people who were passing by. 

"I am paying attention that your lifestyle is just sitting here in the street on the stone..!"

Winter tea for those in need

Once the soup from the dumpstered food in the market was over, as we distributed it among the people, we came up with an idea of giving free tea to the people just in the streets of Budapest, as it turns out to be  really cold outside.
We decided to give the tea in Blaha square close to the place where we can actually make the tea. It was a good timing as there were some workers reconstructing the tram line, so first we brought them the tea. Then we were standing with the tea and the passers-by were coming to us to drink some tea and to talk. There were a lot of poor and homeless people, as well as some immigrants, as this place is full of them.

The workers

Free tea

Free of money tea and the neighbouring corporate for-profit McD

Budapest: Women Protest against Domestic Violence

25 November is an International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women. On the next say, November 26, a number of feminist and women rights NGOs organized a demonstration to commemorate the victims of domestic violence in Hungary.
The demo started at 3 p.m. in Anker köz after the speeches and presentation of the current situation in Hungary with domestic violence. It was said that since the beginning of 2011, in Hungary 44 women have been murdered by their husbands. Major reasons behind these numbers are the outdated laws (in fact, there is no separate law in Hungary against violence against women), passivity and unwillingness of the government to deal with this problem, as well as inappropriate treatment of domestic violence by the police that considers it to be a private matter. Patriarchy, sexism and everyday male chauvinism are widespread in Hungarian society nowadays, and they are the main triggers of the widespread of domestic violence against women and lack of appropriate treatment of this issue by the state.
Ca. 100 participants of the demo were going from Anker köz to Ferenc Liszt tér through Andrassy ut. It was not the best route, as the street is just a big central avenue with lots of posh shops and cafes, and there were not many passers-by, whose attention the demo could attract. The demonstrators were holding various transparencies and 8 red women dummies to symbolize those who died from domestic violence. There was also a Samba band drumming during the demo. The Samba peopel were shouting the following slogans while walking together with the crowd:
Aki erőszakot lát emelje fel a szavát! (Who witnesses violence raise the voice!)
Az erőszak nem magánügy! (The violence is not privacy!)
Break the silence, stop the violence!
Overall, it was a nice demo on a topic that rarely gets any attention in the Hungarian society.

A VIDEO

BRIC’s of Stability: Why Occupy Wall Street Isn’t Coming To Moscow Or Beijing

"the Arab world remains in the midst of convulsions, and political instability is spreading into the West – most visibly in Greece and the Med, but also in the guise of Occupy Wall Street and associated movements in the US."

Read more HERE.

Evictions in the 14th District of Budapest

On October 18 local authorities of the 14th district of Budapest, Zugló, started evictions of the homeless. Until October 18 there existed several self constructed houses near the railway embankment at  Francia St. and Egressy St. corner for almost 7 years. There were hiding behind the garages, so they even were not visible from the street. On Tuesday, though, the municipality started its action and demolished around 5 huts and left 9 homeless without a roof. On October 19 the authorities evicted other 7 people and destroyed their huts.
Some activists from A Város Mindenkié (The City for All) initiative and anarchists tried to prevent the destruction of the huts.