New Zealand police anti-student violence

Unfortunately, there is police repression against students expressing their right of free speech for education not only in Canada.

This video from New Zealand is called Student protest Auckland City 01/06/2012.

By Tom Peters:

New Zealand police attack protest against education budget cuts

8 June 2012

Police arrested 43 people last Friday in Auckland, New Zealand’s largest city, during a violent crackdown on a protest against the conservative National Party government’s latest round of cuts to tertiary education. The “Blockade the Budget” protest was organised by the University of Auckland student protest group, “We Are the University.” About 400 students and supporters marched through the city centre to oppose the government’s attacks, which include cuts to student allowances and an increase to the student loan repayment rate. The protest followed budget day rallies on May 24 in Auckland and Wellington.

About 100 police surrounded the rally on Symonds Street and violently dragged several protesters to waiting paddy wagons. Auckland University student Jai Bentley-Payne, a leader of “We Are the University”, told Auckland Now that protesters were grabbed “by their arms, throats and clothes” and that he had suffered a bruised neck. Another protester received a cut to the forehead when police pushed him against the ground. Bentley-Payne was held in custody for six hours and charged with “obstructing police.” Three others were charged with “disturbing the peace” and 39 were released without charge.

Videos posted on YouTube, including this one [above], show that the police violence was completely unprovoked.

The arrests were a deliberate attempt to intimidate the growing opposition to the government’s austerity budget. Since 2008, the government has slashed spending on basic services such as health, welfare and education forcing the working class to pay for the impact of the worsening global economic crisis. As well as attacking university education, the latest budget, which Finance Minister Bill English described as the “tightest” in the last 20 years, includes plans to sack hundreds of primary and secondary teachers and to further restrict access to aged care.

Auckland students who last Friday 1 June participated in a peaceful protest against the attacks on tertiary education in Budget 2012, are preparing to lodge an official complaint with the Independent Police Conduct Authority (IPCA) in response to the arrests of 43 peaceful student protesters: here.