Free Republic

2008 Milton Friedman Award by: Bethany Stotts, May 01, 2008 Yon Goicoechea, the leader of the Venezuelan Student Movement, has recently been declared the winner of the 2008 Milton Friedman Prize for Advancing Liberty. The CATO Institute-sponsored prize of $500,000 will be presented to Goicoechea on May 15 at the Waldorf=Historia Hotel in New York City. Many credit Goicoechea with thwarting a 2007 referendum which contained 69 constitutional amendments designed to centralize unprecedented economic and political power within the government. At a March 2008 CATO briefing, Gustavo Tovar (another movement leader) said of his fellow panelist, Goicoechea, that “The leaders...

Iranian students need solidarity Jordan Michael Smith May 29, 2006 Most political activity on campus consists of organizing and demonstrating against capitalism, the U.S., and student tuition. The latter is a noble cause, of benefit to both students and society at large. Tuition should be within financial reach for anyone who is academically able to grasp it, and societies with the better-skilled and educated workforces dominate the international workplace. At the same time though, students seem to feel they should bear no cost for being educated. No matter how low tuition is, they always want it be lower. Moreover, lowering...

<p>A peaceful school-sanctioned protest march in support of illegal immigrants turned ugly Monday when students from Santa Barbara High pelted the home of an elderly couple with rocks and eggs.</p> <p>The incident took place at the home of Joel and Eloise Gomez on East Canon Perdido Street after the couple exchanged words with some of the 300 or so students making their way back to campus, about one block away.</p>

Of particular interest to L.A. taxpayers are these assurances from the school district: And this: The Los Angeles Times reports: As of midafternoon, more than 22,000 students had walked out of classes in "little bits here and there," according to Ellen Morgan, spokesperson for the Los Angeles Unified School District. A total of 60 schools were involved. Many students waved Mexican flags as they poured out of schools and onto city streets. "Everything has been calm and there have been no reports of injuries or incidents," said Morgan. The major walkouts were: Kennedy High School in the San Fernando Valley,...

PARIS - French student groups, bolstered by a firm show of support from trade unions, led a new protest march Tuesday to ratchet up pressure on the premier to scrap a contested labor law. Dominique de Villepin, meeting with ruling party lawmakers, expressed willingness to soften two provisions of the contested "first job contract" — but refused to consider canceling it altogether. As he spoke, the fourth student-led protest in eight days began in the capital, with thousands marching across the Left Bank and shouting "It's the street that rules!" in defiance of Villepin. The protests — at times violent...

PARIS (Reuters) - French President Jacques Chirac on Monday backed his prime minister in a confrontation over a youth job law, urging unions and students to enter constructive talks on the measure rather than threaten strikes. Buoyed by protests at the weekend that organizers said brought 1.5 million people on to the streets nationwide, union leaders set a Monday evening deadline for the government to withdraw or suspend the so-called First Job Contract (CPE) law. Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin has shown no signs of backing down over the law, which allows employers to fire people under 26 for any...

PARIS - Tear gas. Students clashing with police around the famed Sorbonne university in Paris. Barricades in the capital's streets. Is March 2006 proving to be May 1968 all over again? So far, no. While comparisons between the student protests of then and now are tempting, they are also misleading. The young protesters of '68 wanted to turn French society upside down. "Break the old molds" was one of their many slogans. Their children want not revolution but status quo: the same access to pensions, jobs, prosperity and generous welfare systems their parents enjoyed. In short, a comfortable European lifestyle...

Students Boo the Regime's President SMCCDI (Information Service) Sep 27, 2003 Students booed Mohamad Khatami, the regime's president, as he was fixing to leave the Alameh Amini Auditorium of Tehran University. The cold and protestful reception, by the students, of the regime's head followed his speech, under high security measures and in presence of selected people, marking the begining of the Universities Starting Year. Students are intending to carry more protest actions in this started year and are no more contenting to simple demands. The first wide scale action is planned for Monday.(9/29)

U.S. satellite feeds to Iran jammed May be linked to the anniversary of student uprisings By Robert WindremNBC NEWS PRODUCER NEW YORK, July 9 — U.S. government officials as well as Iranian Americans and communications satellite operators confirm that all U.S.-based satellite broadcasts to Iran are being jammed by an unknown group or individual, possibly Iranian agents operating out of Latin America.    OVER THE PAST several months, private Iranian-American groups have begun increasing their broadcasts into Iran using Telstar-12, a communications satellite over the eastern Atlantic. All are trying to encourage protests against the regime in Tehran.   ...

Copyright 2003 The Financial Times Limited  Financial Times (London) June 16, 2003, Monday London Edition 1 SECTION: MIDDLE EAST; Pg. 6 LENGTH: 427 words HEADLINE: Iran student protests spread to other cities BYLINE: By NAJMEH BOZORGMEHR DATELINE: TEHRAN BODY:Anti-regime protests in Tehran, led by students, have spread to other cities, while Iran's Islamic establishment has slammed US support for the demonstrators as interference in the country's internal affairs. The protests continued early yesterday morning in Tehran for the fifth successive day, though on a smaller scale than previously. Few clashes were reported amid a heavy presence of police and Islamic...

Fox News just broke in with an alert stating that Reuters is reporting gunshots at the scene of Iranian protests. People wearing kevlar and wielding AK's have been seen. No word on casualties as of yet.

Iranian students openly defy rule of the mullahs By Justin Huggler 14 June 2003 Thousands of Iranian students took to the streets of Tehran yesterday in the biggest protests against the mullahs' rule since the huge demonstrations four years ago. Students fought in the streets with hardline vigilantes on motorbikes who were armed with chains, clubs and cattle prods.It was the third successive night ot protests. The students rounded on Iran's Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, chanting: "Death to Khamenei" and "Khamenei, the traitor, must be hanged." In a society where criticising the Supreme Leader is punishable by jail, this...

ISTANBUL, June 13 -- Clashes between students and security forces in Tehran appear to be the most significant civic protests inside Iran for in almost five years, analysts and witnesses say, but it was far from clear this morning whether the unrest would extend to the general population.Authorities made a huge show of force at Tehran University Thursday night, busing in hundreds of riot police to deter students from mounting a third night of protests. Witnesses said students gathered in a dormitory for hours after dark weighing whether to risk clashes with police and the basij militia who serve as...

TEHRAN, March 9 (AFP) - More than 120 Iranian MPs sent an open letter to President Mohammed Khatami denouncing measures taken against student leaders during protests in November over the sentencing of a dissident intellectual, IRNA said Sunday. The statement, signed by 125 of Iran's 290 MPs, blasted the "unjust measures taken by university disciplinary committees and certain security, police and judicial services against student leaders." The MPs asked Khatami, who heads the Supreme Council for National Security that ordered committees to take harsher measures, to ensure there was more leniency. Last November, Iranian students staged a series of large...