Category: dictators


“You can cut down all of the flowers but you cannot stop the spring.”
- poster circulating around the strikeTHE LAWS
On Friday, May 18, 2012, two new laws came into effect in montréal. Their purpose is to stifle the anti-capitalist revolt that has emerged from the student strike that began in this province fifteen weeks ago, to restore order and clear the way for the implementation of austerity measures in this territory.The first is a municipal by-law. It aims to discourage people from wearing masks at demonstrations by threatening them with fines from $1000 to $5000. It comes as the federal government is contemplating a law, to be implemented across the whole territory of the canadian state, that would punish those who conceal their identities “while participating in a riot” with a maximum of ten years in prison.

The second is the provincial government’s Special Law which demands that all public manifestations of popular dissent submit themselves to fastidious control by the state. Any demonstration, anywhere in québec, must submit a start time and a complete route to the local police at least eight hours in advance; if it does not, it is illegal. The route can also be changed at any time by the police. There can be no demonstrations on the grounds of academic institutions, nor even within fifty metres of them. View full article »

 

por tercera vez consecutiva y hay 8 nuevos detenidos

Los ochos detenidos se suman a las 18 realizadas en el primer día y a las dos de ayer, todas ellas por desobediencia y atentado a agentes de la autoridad.En total, en estos tres días la Policía Nacional ha detenido a 28 personas durante los desalojos de estos días en Madrid.

The eight prisoners are added to the 18 held on the first day and two of yesterday, all of them for disobedience and attack on Authority. in total, these three days, the National Police have arrested 28 people during evictions these days in Madrid.

La Policía ha desalojado por tercera noche consecutiva a los ‘indignados’ que han decidido View full article »

Llibertat immediata per a la Laura! Ja n’ni ha prou de repressió!

Laura Gomez, of the anarchist CGT union is still being held for burning symbolic ‘money’ in front of the Stock Exchange

Immediate freedom for Laura! Enough of repression! in English below

Les persones i organitzacions sotasignades ens adherim al següent manifest i ens solidaritzem amb la companya Laura Gómez exigint la seva immediata posada en llibertat.

El 25 d’abril la Jutgessa del Jutjat d’Instrucció núm. 23 de Barcelona va decretar presó sense fiança per a la Secretària d’Organització de la CGT-Barcelona amb els càrrecs d’incendi i subsidiàriament de danys, coaccions, delicte de desordres públics i delicte contra els drets fonamentals.

Els i les adherents considerem que han donat resultat les pressions polítiques, tant al jutjat com a la fiscalia, ja que consideren que una persona sense antecedents penals, amb domicili i treball fix i amb una filla, té risc de fugida i de reincidir abans fins i tot de ser jutjada i condemnada. Aquests barems no s’apliquen als banquers, ni als polítics investigats per la fiscalia anticorrupció als quals es deixa en llibertat. Realment ens qüestionem l’anomenada “independència” del poder judicial pel que fa a la resta de poders dins d’un mal anomenat “estat de dret”. View full article »

Felip Puig: the psychopath who keeps Barcelona on lock-down

by Carlos Delclós on May 4, 2012

Post image for Felip Puig: the psychopath who keeps Barcelona on lock-downWith Barcelona on lock-down over a European Central Bank meeting, the Minister of the Interior of Catalonia is making a name for himself as a tyrant. View full article »

DemocracyNow.org – As Occupy Wall Street plans nationwide protests marking International Workers Day, or May Day, we discuss the movement with Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter, Chris Hedges; Amin Husain, editor of Tidal Magazine and a key facilitator of the Occupy movement; Marina Sitrin, author of “Horizontalism: Voices of Popular Power in Argentina” and a member of Occupy’s legal working group; and Teresa Gutierrez, of the May 1st Coalition for Worker and Immigrant Rights. We also get an update from protests on the streets of New York City from Ryan Devereaux, former Democracy Now! correspondent, now with The Guardian. View full article »

Spain tightens borders to stem ECB protests

Visa-free travel suspended ahead of European Central Bank meeting, overriding Schengen Protocol.

 

Spain has suspended visa-free travel and re-instituted border checks ahead of a meeting of the European Central Bank (ECB) in Barcelona next week.It is an unprecedented move that overrides the Schengen Protocol that was first instituted in 1985. The agreement means there are no int

Community police remove a dangerous terrorist

ernal border controls for the 26 European

countries and their combined population of more than 400 million people.

Spain says it needs to regulate its borders to prevent foreign protesters disrupting the ECB meeting .

It is not the first time Schengen Protocol has been called into question. Germany and France also want new rules to make it easier to suspend passport-free travel.

Al Jazeera’s Sonia Gallego reports from Madrid.

Cerca de 100 personas han reocupado a primera hora del viernes la finca Somontes, una hacienda de casi 400 hectáreas que la Junta de Andalucía mantiene sin uso en Palma del Río, Córdoba. La toma se produce menos de 24 horas después de que la Guardia Civil desalojara a los ocupantes.

About 100 people have reoccupied the early hours of Friday Somontes estate, an estate of nearly 400 hectares of Andalusia remains unused in Palma del Río, Córdoba. The decision comes less than 24 hours after the Civil Guard to evict the occupants.

“No se han llevado nada de material, tan sólo algunas fotos”, informa Víctor, uno de los jornaleros y miembro del Sindicato Andaluz de Trabajadores (SAT), impulsor de la acción. “Pero si no hubiéramos vuelto, las huertas estarían sin riego y las gallinas se habrían muerto de sed o se las hubieran comido los perros”, continúa.

“There has been no material taken, only some pictures,” says Victor, one of the laborers and union member Andaluz de Trabajadores (SAT), driver of the action. “But if we had not returned, would be no watering gardens and chickens would have died of thirst or the dogs might have eaten them,” he continues.

Porque la ocupación no pretende ser sólo una denuncia de la falta de uso de los terrenos públicos -en este caso, pendientes de una subasta, sino una vía de autoempleo para jornaleros y jornaleras en paro que están participando en la ocupación.

Because the occupation is not intended as only an allegation of non-use of public lands in this case, pending an auction, but a way of self-employment for unemployed day laborers who are participating in the occupation.

Poco antes de las tres de la tarde del viernes la Guardia Civil no se había presentado para hacer ninguna nueva identificación. Los y las ocupantes se dedican ahora a reordenar lo revuelto por el cuerpo armado (“han dejado alguna casa echa trizas, con todo revuelto y embarrado”) y a preparar los detalles del acto central del 1 de mayo que el SAT organiza precisamente en la finca ocupada. La organización prevé varios conciertos, así como talleres de autoformación sobre técnicas agrarias tradicionales.

Shortly before three o’clock in the afternoon of Friday, the Civil Guard had not submitted the occupiers  to any further identification. The occupants are engaged and now it scrambled to reorganize the destrruction by the miltary police.  (“left a house check shredding, yet turbulent and muddy”) and prepare the details of the central act of May 1 the SAT union organized precisely on the squatted farm e. The organization provides for several concerts and workshops on traditional agricultural techniques .

El SAT impulsó la ocupación de la hacienda el 4 de marzo. Las 400 hectaŕeas, en su mayoría de secano, de la finca de Somontes son sólo una parte de las 400.000 hectáreas de terreno agrícola que, según el sindicato, son propiedad de la Junta y mantiene improductivas.

The SAT drove the occupation of the property on 4 March. The 400 hectares, mostly rainfed farm Somontes are only part of the 400,000 hectares of agricultural land, according to the union, are the property of the Board and remains unproductive.

http://www.diagonalperiodico.net/spip.php?page=imprimir_articulo&id_article=18353

RELATED POSTS

http://thefreeonline.wordpress.com/2012/04/26/6799/

http://kanpasqual.wordpress.com/2012/03/08/somonte-finca-ocupado-y-colectivizado-occupied-and-collectivized/

Detenida Laura Gomez de la CGT por su presunta participación en los disturbios del 29M en Barcelona. Se trata de una detención más con cara a la toma policial por la Cumbre del BCE el 2 de mayo..

They claim she burnt a box of fake money outside the Stock Exchange.

Arrested a leader of the CGT for alleged involvement in riots in Barcelona General Strike  29M. This is one of many arrests leading up to the police takeover for the European bank Summit on 2nd May. There are now daily demonstrations.
A Laura Gómez, secretaria de Organización de la Federación Local de Barcelona del sindicato anarquista, se le imputan los delitos de desórdenes públicos, incendio, coacciones y un delito relativo al ejercicio de los derechos fundamentales y las libertades públicas.
Laura Gomez, Secretary of Organization of Local Federation of Anarchist union Barcelona, is charged with public disorder offenses, arson, extortion or an offense concerning the exercise of fundamental rights and civil liberties.

Demonstration in support of the CGT leader Barcelona Laura Gomez held on Tuesday at the police station in the Catalan police in Les Corts (photo: CGT).
Manifestación de apoyo a la dirigente de la CGT de Barcelona Laura Gómez celebrada este martes ante la comisaría de los Mossos d’Esquadra de Les Corts (foto: CGT).


The Police have arrested Tuesday at the Organizing Secretary of the Barcelona Local Federation of the CGT, Laura Gomez, for his alleged involvement in the burning and destruction caused to the building of the Barcelona Stock Exchange during the day general strike on March 29. Wednesday is scheduled to go to court.

Los Mossos d’Esquadra han detenido este martes a la secretaria de Organización de la Federación Local de Barcelona de la CGT, Laura Gómez, por su presunta participación en la quema y los destrozos causados en el edificio de la Bolsa de Barcelona durante la jornada de huelga general del pasado 29 de marzo. Está previsto que este miércoles pase a disposición judicial.
Carlos Navarro, a spokesman for the CGT, explained that the action took place before the stock was to burn a box containing money and papers that had symbolized a message against capital, and is unrelated to the union of the destruction occurred. In his opinion, the detention serves the objective of “clear that people can protest through organizations and unions not officially controlled.”

Demonstration in defense of the arrested

Carlos Navarro, portavoz de la CGT, ha explicado que la acción que se llevó a cabo ante la Bolsa consistió en quemar una caja que contenía papeles que simbolizaban dinero y que llevaba un mensaje contra el capital, y ha desvinculado al sindicato de los destrozos que se produjeron. En su opinión, la detención responde al objetivo de “desactivar que la gente pueda protestar a través de organizaciones y sindicatos no controlados oficialmente”.

Manifestación en defensa de la detenida

Un grupo de militantes y simpatizantes de la CGT se han manifestado durante este martes por la tarde ante la comisaría de los Mossos d’Esquadra de Les Corts, en Barcelona, para exigir la puesta en libertad de Gómez.

A group of militants and sympathizers of the CGT have emerged during this Tuesday afternoon at the police station of the Autonomous Police of Les Corts in Barcelona, to demand the release of Gomez.

CONCENTRACIÓ DIMECRES 25 D’ABRIL a les 8.30h.

a la Ciutat de la Justícia, entrada per Gran Via.

Si ens toquen a una, ens toquen a totes. Solidaritat.

mès informaciò akì..http://www.kaosenlared.net/compone….

Llamamiento a todas las organizaciones políticas, sociales y de derechos humanos:
¡Si tocan a un@ tocan a tod@s!

Este curso el movimiento estudiantil viene respondiendo con fuerza a los ataques lanzados desde el Gobierno central y el de la Generalitat. El pasado 29M los estudiantes también salimos a luchar junto a la clase trabajadora contra la Reforma Laboral y todos los ajustes. La respuesta del Gobierno del PP, de CiU y el conjunto del Régimen está siendo la criminalización de la protesta. Tres compañeros, Dani e Isma de la UB de Físicas, y Javi del barrio de El Clot, están en prisión preventiva a modo de “cabeza de turco”. Quieren mandar un mensaje de miedo, a la vez que preparan fuertes recortes de derechos democráticos y libertades.

Desde No Pasarán creemos que la campaña anti-represiva que proponemos al conjunto de las organizaciones debe implementarse también con fuerza en nuestros centros de estudio. Las asambleas de facultad, la PUDUP y el conjunto de sindicatos y agrupaciones de estudiantes, PAS y PDI, debemos sumarnos con fuerza a la lucha contra la represión, sumando la defensa de nuestros derechos democráticos a la lucha cont  ra los ajustes y la liquidación de la universidad pública.

Calling all political, social and human rights groups:
If they touch one of us they attack us all!!

The student movement has responded forcefully to attacks launched from the central government and the Generalitat. (Catalan Gov.) Last 29M  (General Strike) students also went out to fight alongside the working class against the Labor Reform and all the Cuts.  The Government’s response PP, CiU and the whole scheme is still the criminalization of protest. Three colleagues, Dani and Isma UB Physics and Javi in the neighborhood of El Clot, are in custody as  “scapegoats.” They want to send a message of fear, while they prepare deep cuts in democratic rights and freedoms. Here at ‘No Pasarán’ we believe the anti-repressive proposals of all the organizations should be implemented , and also featured strongly in our study centers, assemblies, faculty meetings, the PUDUP and all trade unions and student groups, PAS and PDI, we must adhere strongly to the struggle against repression, adding the defense of our democratic rights to the fight against extreme Cuts and the liquidation of the public university.

Desde No Pasarán denunciamos la campaña de criminalización y la durísima represión de los Mossos en particular y la Policía en general, contra los trabajadores y jóvenes de la Huelga del 29M. Creemos que el repudio a esta política que la mayoría de las organizaciones de derechos humanos, sindicatos de izquierda, asociaciones, asambleas barriales y grupos políticos de izquierda están llevando a cabo mediante una gran cantidad de declaraciones, podría transformarse en una gran campaña en común en todo el Estado.

From ‘No Pasarán’ we denounce  the campaign of criminalization and harsh repression of the Autonomous Police in particular and generally against young workers and the general strike of 29M. We believe that the present repudiation of this policy by most human rights organizations, leftist unions, associations, neighborhood assemblies and leftist political groups , could lead to a common campaign throughout the state.

Desgraciadamente otros grupos como como Iniciativa per Catalunya i Esquerra Unida i Alternativa han publicado declaraciones condenando a sectores de los trabajadores y la juventud indignada como ”violentos”. Así también lo han hecho las direcciones de CCOO y UGT. Y lo más lamentable, es que la CGT también se ha declarado “ajena” a la respuesta de los jóvenes y trabajadores a la represión policial. Estas organizaciones también están sufriendo este ataque represivo: dos estudiantes del AEP (Asociación de Estudiantes Progresistas) están en prisión preventiva, fueron encarcelados trabajadores de CCOO, criminalizados y reprimidos manifestantes de la izquierda sindical.

Interior ha expedientado a los sindicatos de CGT y CNT por convocar la manifestación.

Reject calls against ‘violence’ by Unions and politicians.

Unfortunately, political parties such as the Initiative for Catalonia, Esquerra Unida and Alternativa have issued statements condemning sectors of youth  and workers and indignant as “violent.” So too have the leadership of the majority of CCOO and UGT trade unions.  And most unfortunate is that the CGT has also declared  itself to be “alien” to the response of young people and workers to police repression. These organizations are also suffering this repressive  state attack: two students in the AEP (Association of Progressive Students) are in custody, CCOO workers were jailed, left wing trade union protestors have been criminalized and repressed .

The Interior Ministry has brought charges against the trade unions CGT and CNT for convening the event.

Por eso llamamos a las compañeras y compañeros de estas organizaciones a que reconsideren esta posición. Ante la ofensiva del Estado es necesario conformar la más amplia movilización en defensa de nuestros derechos y poner en pie una campaña en todo el Estado para enfrentar la política de represión y criminalización de la protesta social que la Audiencia Nacional, el Gobierno Central y el Govern de Catalunya están llevando a cabo contra las trabajadoras, trabajadores y el pueblo.

Por la dimisión del Conseller de Interior de la Generalitat Felip Puig y el Ministro del Interior del Gobierno central, Jorge Fernández Díaz.

Solidarity Call

Therefore we call upon the comrades of these organizations to reconsider this position. Against the offensive of the state it is necessary to form the largest mobilization in defense of our rights and put in place a statewide campaign to address the policy of repression and criminalization of social protest that the Courts , the Central Government and the Govern Catalonia are carrying out against workers, employees and the people.

We call for the resignation of Councillor of Interior of the Felip Puig and the Minister of Interior of the Central Government, Jorge Fernandez Diaz.

Libertad Deteni*s YA

Al mismo tiempo que exigimos la libertad inmediata y sin cargo alguno de todas las personas detenidas y encarceladas durante esta jornada, proponemos a todas estas organizaciones y sindicatos como una de las primeras medidas a tomar en común, formar una “gran caja de resistencia” que pueda afrontar las multas y fianzas impuestas a los encarcelados; como se ha exigido a 5 personas que paguen entre 3.000 y 4.000 euros y uno de ellos no ha podido pagar por lo que se quedó en prisión.

Free the prisoners .. Call for Bail fund

At the same time we demand the immediate release without charge of all persons arrested and detained during the General Strike, we offer all these organizations and trade unions, as one of the first measures to be taken together, the formation of a “big Fund of resistance”  that can stand up to fines and pay bail bonds, imposed on the prisoners, as 5 people have been required to pay between 3,000 and 4,000 euros and one of them could not pay and remained in prison.

¡Libertad a los presos por luchar!
¡Anulación de las causas y procesos judiciales a todos los activistas del 29M!
¡Basta de persecución y criminalización a los luchadores!
¡Puig y Fernandez Díaz Dimisión!
Juicio y castigo a los responsables políticos y policiales de la represión
Por la mayor unidad contra la represión del régimen con manifestaciones,
campañas y cajas de resistencia.
Freedom for those imprisoned for fighting back!
Cancellation of the charges and prosecutions for all activists of 29M general strike!
No more persecution and criminalization of the fighters!
Diaz Fernandez and  Puig … Resign NOW!
Trial and punishment  for policy makers and police repressers
For the greatest possible unity against the repressive regime, with demonstrations,
campaigns and resistance bail funds.

http://arevolucionarianopasaran.wordpress.com

Iceland ”partly forgives Mortgage Debt ”

This is awesome. It shows when the people DO STAND UP they have more power and win against the corrupt bankers and politicians of a country. Iceland is forgiving and erasing the mortgage debt of the population. They are putting the bankers and politicians on the “Bench of the Accused.” Which means I assume they are putting them on trial for corruption.

Now the rest of people of the world need to start doing the same thing. We all need to stand up and against all the corruption and fraud of the banks and politicians that are puppets of the banks and corporations.”  Sherrie

The country’s banks forgave loans equivalent to 13% of gross domestic product, according to a Bloomberg article Richard cites. The equivalent in the United States would be about $1.95 trillion of mortgage debt writedowns. Icelandic banks agreed to forgive all mortgage debt over 110% of a home’s value. “I think I may have been one of the first commentators with a wide audience to point out how relatively well Iceland was doing.” What he didn’t mention, though his commentator “iInfoliner” did, is that the credit rating agency Fitch upgraded Iceland’s debt to investment grade last week. Moreover, according to the Business Week story, the country can now borrow in U.S. dollars at a mere 4.77%. Compare this to Greece at 35.98% and Portugal at 12.77%; even Spain and Italy are a little over 5% (the FT link has no rates listed for Ireland, which has no 10-year bond).The moral of the story is that a different approach to dealing with the banks is necessary. http://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/02/24/1067831/-Iceland-Solves-Banking-Crisis-by-Indicting-Bankers-Forcing-Mortgage-Relief

C0rrection., Iceland had to forgive just a part of mortgage debt

The romantic view on Iceland

There is one misunderstanding apparent when Iceland and Ireland are compared. People seem to sometimes think that Icelandic people said “Oh, hell no! We’re not going to save your arses, you just have to go bankrupt and that’s the end of it” to the banks. Some people make a gesture to Icesave referendum to justify that point of view. Furthermore, the “splendid” 110% debt write-off that was passed by the parliament is considered to a fantastic success and shows on top of that the will of the people to simply get the banks to understand that debts that cannot or should not be repaid, won’t be repaid.

Sorry, there is a bit of romanticism in this story.

First, the Icelandic government tried absolutely everything it could possibly do in 2008 to save the banks. It was Iceland’s “fool’s luck” to have allowed the banks to grow up to 1,000% of GDP that made the government rescue impossible. There was no other choice than to let the banks go bankrupt, even though it has been painted in the foreign media as “Iceland chose to let the banks go bankrupt instead of shoring up their broken pieces.”

Second, the Icesave agreement was forcibly passed through the parliament by the government. It was the president that stopped the bill to become a law after the world of bloggers had been on fire for months while the public anger against the government ascended day by day. More importantly, the Icesave dispute had nothing to do with Icelandic “banksters” as they were called by that time. It was and is an international quarrel regarding how to interpret the EU/EEA treaty concerning deposit insurance schemes and passport-banking within the EU. Icesave wasn’t and isn’t a question of bailing out the banks.

Third, the 110% debt write-off that was introduced by the government hasn’t been that successful and certainly not very influencing in the overall scheme of things.

Hanged-Man-Project! :-summary of the Icelandic revolution:
 -resignation of the whole government
 -nationalization of the bank.
 -referendum so that the people can decide over the economic decisions.
 -incarcerating the responsible parties
 -rewriting of the constitution by its people

 Have we been informed of this through the media?
 Has any political program in radio or TV commented on this?
 No! The Icelandic people have been able to show that there is a way to beat the system and has given a democracy lesson to the world
 ...See More

Wall Photos ICELAND. No news from Iceland?… why? How come we hear everything that happens in..
By: RePeace

 

ICELAND. No news from Iceland?… why? How come we hear everything that happens in Egypt but no news about what’s happening in Iceland:

In Iceland, the people has made the government resign, the primary banks have been nationalized, it was decided to not pay the debt that these created with Great Britain and Holland due to their bad financial politics and a public assembly has been created to rewrite the constitution.

And all of this in a peaceful way. A whole revolution against the powers that have created the current global crisis. This is why there hasn’t been any publicity during the last two years: What would happen if the rest of the EU citizens took this as an example? What would happen if the US citizens took this as an example.

This is a summary of the facts:

2008. The main bank of the country is nationalized.
The Krona, the currency of Iceland devaluates and the stock market stops. The country is in bankruptcy

2008. The citizens protest in front of parliament and manage to get new elections that make the resignation of the prime minister and his whole government.
The country is in bad economic situation.
A law proposes paying back the debt to Great Britain and Holland through the payment of 3,500 million euros, which will be paid by the people of Iceland monthly during the next 15 years, with a 5.5% interest.

2010. The people go out in the streets and demand a referendum. In January 2010 the president denies the approval and announces a popular meeting.
In March the referendum and the denial of payment is voted in by 93%. Meanwhile the government has initiated an investigation to bring to justice those responsible for the crisis, and many high level executives and bankers are arrested. The Interpol dictates an order that make all the implicated parties leave the country.

In this crisis an assembly is elected to rewrite a new Constitution which can include the lessons learned from this, and which will substitute the current one (a copy of the Danish Constitution).
25 citizens are chosen, with no political affiliation, out of the 522 candidates. For candidacy all that was needed was to be an adult and have the support of 30 people. The constitutional assembly starts in February of 2011 to present the ‘carta magna’ from the recommendations given by the different assemblies happening throughout the country. It must be approved by the current Parliament and by the one constituted through the next legislative elections.

Debt write off was only partial

The 110% debt write-off was simply a measure that was offered to over-indebted households. It was very simple on the surface: if your mortgage was higher than 110% of the estimated market value of the property, you could have the debt written off down to the 110% mark.

The total debt that was written off based on this jubilee was 43.6 billion krona. On top of that came 6.2 billion due to “special measures”. In comparison, the debt that was written off due to illegal foreign-exchange-linked loans was 146.5 billion krona. In September 2008 (the last point in time where it is known how high the face value of household debt was) the debt of households was 1,890 billion krona (128% of GDP). The government induced debt write-off has been roughly 2.5% of the total debt of households. Is that meant to be a huge turning point? Give me a break! The indexed debt of households has in the meanwhile risen by a rough estimation of 200 billion ISK due to rise in consumer prices since 2008. This is not a typo.

Longer term view

The debt dynamics in the Icelandic economy are scary! The mortgage and financial system is built to collapse, it is an unmissable feature of the organisation of the system.

http://icelandicecon.blogspot.com.es/search?updated-max=2012-03-06T11:44:00Z&max-results=5&start=5&by-date=false

Shit on the system!  
  Tögg: english
When Elections took place in Iceland one voter decided to use his rights to vote. Showed up at the voting station and literally took a dump on the political party system, the power abuse and the general democracy distortion, wiped his ass on the ballot, neatly folded it and slipped into the ballot box.
  HEHEHE
The video is here http://aftaka.rusl.org/tag/english/

“Femicide is an act of fear, of hate, of incompetence, omission, of cowardice and abuse. Not one more.”

Agnes Torres, a transsexual psychologist and gay rights activist, left her home in the central Mexican state of Puebla on her way to a party. The next day, her body was found in a gully, naked from the waist down. Her throat had been slit.

“Agnes’s case had major repercussions because she was an activist involved deeply in the struggle for our rights. But there are many other cases that no one has ever heard about,”

Torres was 28 years old and in the process of changing her identity in Mexico City, the only part of Mexico that has passed progressive laws such as the decriminalisation of abortion, same-sex marriage and a gender identity law http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=51861 allowing transgender people to change their gender and sex, under the left-leaning Democratic Revolution Party (PRD), which governs the capital.

Big demo against homophobia and femicide

…….The protesters, who according to news reports numbered between two hundred and one thousand, filled the central square with pictures of Torres, art, candles, and signs that read “La homosexualidad no es una enfermedad, la homofobia sí,” (Homosexuality is not a disease, homophobia is.)   Members of the crowd also taped signs to the walls of the buildings that border the central square: “Exigimos justicia,” (We demand justice) “¿Cuántas más?” (How many more?) “No somos todas; faltan nuestras muertas,” (This isn’t all of us; our dead are missing.)

The crowd chanted “va caer, va caer, la homofobía va caer.” (It will fall, it will fall, homophobia will fall.)  Instead of a minute of silence, the demonstrators had a minute of applause to remember and celebrate Torres’ life.  After filling the square for two hours, the group marched to the state government offices in downtown Puebla.

Word of Torres’ death spread quickly through social media, allowing the protest to be organized within about 24 hours.  On Monday night Twitter users were writing about plans for protests and memorials in other Mexican cities such as Xalapa and Guadalajara.

  “People should know about her. #AgnesTorres she was a daughter, she was a friend, she was a professional, she was human being. She is no longer with us. She was murdered”

-@mtorch on Twitter

Messages were directed at politicians such as state governor Rafael Moreno Valle asking him to take action to prevent hate crimes in the state. Tweets expressed a range of emotions from grief to anger and indignation.

Angry comments on Twitter also centered around a user who tweeted that Torres had deserved to die.  The account purported to belong to Juan Pablo Castro, a young man who had earlier in the week been forced to apologize for using a derogatory slang word for homosexuals at a political event for young people in the congress building in Mexico City.  However the account tweeting about Agnes Torres contained a slight variation in spelling from the real Juan Pablo Castro’s account name (substituting a capital i for an l) leading many to believe that it was a case of stolen identity.  The fake Castro account continued to tweet negative comments about Torres throughout the evening.  Perhaps in response to the backlash against “Castro,” other politicians took to Twitter on Monday evening to condemn Torres’ murder.
Image

“Femicide is an act of fear, of hate, of incompetence, omission, of cowardice and abuse. Not one more.” Photo via @feminicidios on Twitter.

People attending the protest also tweeted that the body of César González Martínez, a gay man, had just been found in Momoxpan, Puebla, at 2 PM that afternoon.  Some news outlets reported that including Agnes Torres, there had been three murders attributed to homophobia in Puebla so far in 2012; activist groups, some represented by Ibrahim Zamora and the organization “De Ser” (To Be), claimed that there have been six homicides of members of the gay community in Puebla so far this year.

According to the autopsy performed by the coroner, the cause of Torres’ death was hypovolemic shock caused by beheading with a sharp weapon. The autopsy was performed as part of the preliminary investigation into case number AP/406/2012/Atlixco.  News reports also stated that part of the body had been burned.

In addition to working as an activist, Torres was a psychologist specializing in gender identity. She was 28 years old.

Reads more HERE  with thanks   http://awayfare.wordpress.com/

All the pain in Spain… Millions refuse to lie down and see their lives smashed for the benefit of a few bankers, says Escobar.
Zaragoza, Spain – Make no mistake; the future of the euro is being played in Spain. The euro may win – but at a price; millions of Spaniards as “collateral damage”.

It took less than 100 days in power for the right-wing Popular Party (PP) government led by Mariano Rajoy to face its first general strike, on March 29.

The strike was mostly called by minority unions; the major ones, the opportunistic and bureaucratic CCOO and UGT, have been in bed with the powers that be for years.

The strike was a response to Rajoy’s EU-imposed labour market reforms that, according to Antonio Carretero from the CGT union, are “a counter-reformation that erases with a single stroke many labour and union rights acquired by the working class in decades and generations”. That includes extremely harsh cuts in health, education and social services.

Predictably, the spin war was relentless. Madrid insisted “only” 800,000 workers took part in over 100 demonstrations nationally. According to unions, 900,000 people marched in Madrid, 800,000 in Barcelona and hundreds of thousands more in 111 cities, especially Valencia and in the Basque country (the unionist vanguard in Spain). In Zaragoza, a city of 700,000, at least 150,000 people may have been in the streets; it certainly looked like it by late afternoon.

Spain strikes over austerity measures

The country virtually stopped – at a 77 per cent overall rate (much higher than the 18 per cent predicted by corporate media). In the manufacturing sector, it was 80 per cent; in mining and construction, a whopping 97 per cent. Only 30 per cent of the national transportation system was active. And even though scores of cities kept the streetlights on all day – or used other tricks to bump up the numbers – consumption of electricity in Catalunya, for instance, fell by 24 per cent.

Austerity ergo sum

The catalogue of Spain’s “austerity” is the usual catalogue of neoliberalism in trouble. A previous, nominally socialist and now an ultra-conservative government have furiously decimated unemployment, retirement and severance benefits; turned virtually all labour contracts into precariousness hell; steeply raised fees for education and transportation; vastly militarised the police; and spent fortunes to bail out banks.

Spain inevitably follows the post-modernist mantra that democracy controls protest and rebellion by managing it – sort of. That’s where the cooption of those unions, CCOO and UGT, fits in; as they had already tamed rebellion in exchange for funds from Madrid, they called the strike virtually at the last minute.

Corporate media – and Spain is a small market run by monopolies – also fit in with the usual script. There will be violence by “anarchists”. The strike will be bad for tourists. Everyone has the right to work. No one will show up for this strike.

In Zaragoza, repression was harsher in the dead of the night and in suburbs, with no cameras watching. Morning pickets concentrated on banks across its mini Wall Street, driven by Brazilian-style samba drums and demonstrators dressed up as bankers. That sparked an internal debate among the protesters; with many shouting that this was not a party, in the end the samba drums were sent packing.

By late afternoon, during the massive main demonstration that crisscrossed the city centre, everyone and his neighbour seemed to be there – immigrants, whole middle-class families, the unemployed, the precariously employed, anarchists, socialists, progressives, and every indignado in town.

In powerhouse Barcelona, there were riots but mainly sparked by people’s rage against infiltrated cops [SP], some of them chased down and beaten up.

Significantly, more people in Barcelona took part in a spontaneous protest in landmark Catalunya square than in the official union protest. In Barcelona, and to some extent in Zaragoza as well, it was clear that the strike was not a union thing, but a collective effort of a loose network; neighbourhood assemblies; workers’ assemblies; smaller anti-authoritarian unions like the CNT and CGT; groups that sprang up out of the indignados movement – the precursor of Occupy Wall Street.

In Zaragoza and Barcelona, there were flyers, posters and stickers all over town. Neighbourhood assemblies and average workers went door to door – and shop to shop – to talk about the strike; and crucially, there was as much criticism of the major unions as criticism of the government………
“Your debt – we won’t pay it.” The mood during the March 29 Spanish general strike [Al Jazeera/Pepe Escobar]

The Harpies are coming to get you

The destruction of Greece may eventually be seen as an Aristophanes comedy compared to the Sophocles tragedy in store for Spain. Spain is the fourth largest economy in the eurozone. If it goes down, the EU goes down.

The infernal mechanism is the same; more “austerity” is followed by steeper Wall Street-engineered interests rates on Spain’s debt so every single euro in budget cutting is diverted to higher interest payments – and then some.

Of course Madrid will never have the guts to tell Spaniards that this budget-cut hysteria has less than zero chances of improving their lives. For 2012, Madrid has budgeted a whopping 29 billion euros for interest payments alone; that’s 30 per cent more than in 2011.

On top of it Rajoy offered an “amnesty” for major tax cheaters – thus encouraging future tax cheating.

And this in a country with a staggering 6 million unemployed. The official unemployment rate is 24 per cent – higher than Greece and the highest in Europe. In reality it’s more like 30 per cent. Among young people, it’s between 45 per cent and 50 per cent. An extra 600,000 Spaniards will definitely lose their jobs in 2012.
…..

The US has a budget deficit of 10 per cent of GDP. Its colossal $4 trillion-plus national debt is already 100 per cent of GDP. Compare it with Spain a few points above the EU’s debt ceiling of 3 per cent of GDP, and a national debt of 79.8 per cent of GDP. Of course, if you are Washington/Wall Street you can get away with anything.

But even if Spain is now a barely disguised protectorate, still elections, strikes and a powerful concept of citizenship are kept alive. There’s serious talk of organising a European general strike. After all, the indignados started their movement in Spain, in May 2011 – the inspiration for Occupy Wall Street, a new, self-organised push for a global solidarity culture, way beyond the old, tired institutions of the organised Left, and the washed-up categories of Left and Right, East and West, North and South.

The future may be grim, but a global ola of rebellion may still be at hand. As I left Barcelona’s airport back to Asia I couldn’t help erase the verse of a classic Echo and the Bunnymen song ringing in my head: “See you in the barricades, babe.”

Pepe Escobar is the roving correspondent for Asia Times. His latest book is Obama Does Globalistan (Nimble Books, 2009).

http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2012/04/20124712153186201.html Full article HERE

By Joel Poindexter   Much has been written about The Hunger Games and the underlying libertarian themes in that story.

Jeffrey Tucker recently described the similarity between the fictional games and voting. Brent Railey noted just the other day the realities of the black market springing up to provide what the state can’t, or won’t, and the futility in relying on political figures for salvation. I’d like to draw attention to the allegory of the games and the modern warfare state….

A co-worker of mine suggested that another lesson is that when fighting one evil, it’s important not to become just as evil yourself; a lesson from later in the series.

…So right off the bat it’s pretty clear: An impoverished underclass, already forced to pay tribute to the government, has its youth pressed into violent service by the wealthy and politically powerful, for the entertainment and enrichment of this ruling elite. This pretty well describes the nation-state in virtually all times and all places, but it goes far beyond this.

The next similarity one finds is the way in which children are selected for the games: a draft. Each child’s name is placed in a bowl, and a representative from the Capitol draws the “winner.” There is a slight twist, one that makes the process even more similar to the actual draft. Each child may be entered additional times in exchange for greater food rations for their family.

The obvious effect is that poorer families are at greater odds of having their children selected for the games. In similar fashion, special rules applied during the draft allowed wealthy draftees to receive deferments, effectively allowing them to avoid military service. In modern times the ranks of the military are almost exclusively made up of the middle class and poor, who are promised better-paying jobs and opportunities otherwise not available at home.

While the people of most districts generally dread the “reaping,” in others, participation in the games is a coveted experience. In these districts, children, known as “Careers,” volunteer to go after training their whole lives. In very much the same way, military service is a generational endeavor. There are many soldiers now serving who can trace their family’s participation in wars going back many generations. It’s not uncommon for recruits to explain that their reason for joining was, at least in part, because their fathers and grandfathers served; “it’s just what we do.”

It continues.

The games are of course a spectacle. The players are paraded in front of adoring crowds; politicians make grand speeches, the Capitol showers praise on the children, who are costumed and trained before being sent to their deaths. Those who die have their portraits broadcast at the end of each day, in memoriam, not at all unlike the nightly news here when troops are killed in overseas combat.

One point that stands out, as Tucker notes, is that none of the participants would have any real reason to fight one another outside the arena. They are forced to do so, to adopt a base mentality and become uncivilized animals in order to survive. This is also true in virtually all wars. The people of at least one side, if not both, are pressed into service and sent to kill other people they’ve never met, and have no real quarrel with.

As with all contemporary conflicts, the games are televised, and huge profits are realized for those who organize them. Cameras are set up everywhere, ensuring that no detail goes unnoticed. Highlights are routinely played, not just of current games, but of those past…..

….There is one major deviation, to be sure. “Winners” are treated to special accommodations and never want for any material thing, unlike many of the troops who return from war with broken minds, bodies, and souls. A staggering number of returning veterans are often unable to function in normal society. Having been used up by their government, unfit to continue fighting, they’re no longer valuable and may be left and forgotten.

It’s no surprise that so many parallels exist, given that the series’ author, Suzanne Collins, was inspired when watching news reports about the wars. The two are so strikingly similar I can only hope that the millions of people, mostly teenagers, will make the same connection.

see full article HERE  http://www.stopwar.org.uk…

 

(Download a PDF of press release here)  http://in-Isolated-Confinement.pdf

On the evening of Friday March 9th, Tim DeChristopher was summarily removed from the minimum security camp, where he has been held since September 2011, and moved into the FCI Herlong’s Special Housing Unit (SHU). Tim was informed by  Lieutenant Weirich that he was being moved to the SHU because an unidentified congressman had called from Washington, DC, complaining of an email that Tim had sent to a friend.

”We firmly believe the only way Tim will be returned to the Minimum Security Camp he’s been housed in for the last
six months is to place outside pressure on elected and appointed officials in Washington DC, specifically the
Bureau of Prisons (BOP) and the members of Congress charged with overseeing the BOP. Peaceful Uprising
wishes to express their solidarity with Tim by making a national call to action, asking Tim’s supporters to call
officials at the Federal Correctional Institution in Herlong CA, the Bureau of Prisons in Washington DC, and
members of Congress that sit on the House Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism and Homeland Security,
demanding that they immediately return Tim to the Minimum Security Camp from which he came.
It has come to our attention that William Koch entered into an antitrust settlement where his company, Gunnison Energy, and SG Interest, a Texas energy company, conspired to orchestrate the bidding at a BLM oil and gas lease auction in Colorado. They memorialized this conspiracy in a memorandum of understanding that was subsequently revealed by a whistleblower. The Department of Justice settled the matter by having each company pay a $275,000 fine, <http://www.justice.gov/atr/public/press_releases/2012/280273.htm> and allowed the conspirators to retain their successful BLM oil and gas leases. Tim’s actions stopped any such conspiracies without doing any violence or harm to anyone, and now he is in isolation at Herlong potentially for the remainder of his sentence.

This is not justice, it is political persecution. Join us in stopping it. The time for action is now.

For more details please visit: www.peacefuluprising.org or the complete blog
post at http://www.peacefuluprising.org/breaking-tim-dechristopher-placed-in-isolated-confinement-20120327
FOR YOUR ATTENTION: A press Conference with Tim DeChristopher’s Legal Defense Team will be held on the
steps of the Frank E. Moss Federal Courthouse (350 South Main Street, SLC Utah) on Thursday March 29th at
1:30pm.

 

 

New Obama Executive Order Seizes U.S. Infrastructure and Citizens for Military Preparedness by Brandon Turbeville

In a stunning move, on March 16, 2012, Barack Obama signed an Executive Order stating that the President and his specifically designated Secretaries now have the authority to commandeer all domestic U.S. resources including food and water. The EO also states that the President and his Secretaries have the authority to seize all transportation, energy, and infrastructure inside the United States as well as forcibly induct/draft American citizens into the military. The EO also contains a vague reference in regards to harnessing American citizens to fulfill “labor requirements” for the purposes of national defense.

Not only that, but the authority claimed inside the EO does not only apply to National Emergencies and times of war. It also applies in peacetime.

The National Defense Resources Preparedness Executive Order exploits the “authority” granted to the President in the Defense Production Act of 1950 in order to assert that virtually every means of human survival is now available for confiscation and control by the President via his and his Secretaries’ whim……………….

Some have no doubt begun to wonder why the President has signed such an order. Not only that, but why did he sign the order now?

Is it because of the looming war with Iran or the Third World War that will likely result from such a conflict? Is it because of the ticking time bomb called the economy that is only one jittery move or trade deal away from total disintegration?

Is it because of a growing sense of hatred of their government amongst the general public? Is there a coming natural disaster of which we are unaware? Are there plans for martial law?
Whatever the reason for the recent announcement of Obama’s new Executive Order, there is one thing we do know for sure – “It wouldn’t happen here” has been the swan song of almost every victim of democide in modern human history.

Read MORE  here.  http://www.activistpost.com….

You can support this article by voting on Reddit:   http://www.reddit.com/r/conspiracy/comments/r1ngp/new_obama_executive_order_seizes_us/

Cada vez somos más las personas que exigimos compaginar la Huelga General del 29 de marzo con una HUELGA DE CONSUMO. La Reforma Laboral del desPPido ha supuesto el mayor atentado a los derechos laborales de la historia reciente, a lo que debemos sumar el retraso en la edad de jubilación a los 67 años, la subida de impuestos a los que menos tenemos y los recortes a la sanidad y la enseñanza, mientras que bancos, multinacionales, políticos y especuladores en general, los mismos que han causado esta crisis, siguen enriqueciéndose a nuestra costa y para ello no les importa llevar al planeta al borde del desastre ecológico.

Huelga de Consumo  Vs  Huelga General
El derecho a la huelga es algo  legítimo  que ejerce libremente la clase trabajadora para demostrar al empresariado que se está en desacuerdo con su gestión. Lo cierto es que la idea principal de la huelga es conseguir que el empresario pierda dinero. La huelga es el mejor  mecanismo de presión en procesos productivos industriales y algunos servicios. Si no se produce o no se vende  el empresario deja de ganar un dinero.
Sin embargo en parte del sector de servicios y empleados públicos, una huelga no tiene tanto efecto sobre el empresario, ya que si el trabajo hoy no se hace, no sucederá nada especialmente grave, en ocasiones por los abusivos servicios mínimos o el miedo al despido. El retraso que se acumule se irá recuperando poco a poco.
En definitiva en una sociedad industrial la huelga general es la mejor medida de presión. Pero ese escenario ha ido cambiado con el tiempo, pasando a una sociedad basada en el consumo, donde lo que de verdad hace daño a todas las empresas es no consumir.
Imagina un día de huelga general y de consumo, de paro absoluto. Sin apenas consumo, sin compra de alimentos, prensa, tabaco, sin uso del transporte privado ni colectivo, sin movimientos bancarios, sin llamadas, sin gestiones con la administración, un día de total retiro del mundanal ruido. Bancos, centros comerciales, supermercados, gasolineras, comercios, centros de atención al cliente, todos ellos sin clientela. Si algún trabajador no secunda la huelga general por miedo al despido estaría cruzado de brazos.

29 de marzo de 2012: HUELGA GENERAL Y DE CONSUMO
29M: No trabajes, No consumas
Publicado por TINTA NEGRA, anARTchist blog

 

The conflict in Afghanistan is at a decisive juncture, and the West is facing defeat on a scale not seen since Vietnam. Few want to face facts, and the result is a gap between rhetoric and reality of a kind that only wars gone badly wrong produce.


Lost in the rolling crisis that began with the Quran burning is an important upcoming date. At the end of this month, some say the 20th March, the Karzai regime will see through its threat to force out the private security companies who guard the contractors that carry out development projects across Afghanistan.

It never made any sense, a knee jerk reaction, to take over and punish a whole country because the US believed the twin tower bombers had a base there. 10 years of hellish war for an idiotic immoral revenge attack by the US war machine.

Humanitarian NGOs that operate without security will be unaffected. But the contractors who carry out projects funded by Western governments face the prospect of operating under the protection of a hastily raised “Afghan Public Protection Force”.

Would you put your business and your life in the hands of such a force?

According to the New York Times, some companies are wrapping up their projects in Afghanistan and leaving; others allow their employees to illegally keep personal weapons; and all are scrambling to make new arrangements.

In the kind of corporate buffoonery that neoliberal privatisation creates, and which has damaged the Western war effort in both Iraq and Afghanistan, one US company is considering suing the US government. The contractors had been assured that they would have a secure environment in which to operate.

As one frightened US employee of an aid company commented, “We’re easy pickings” for insurgents and angry Afghans.

 

And there are a lot of angry Afghans. Abdul Samad is one of them. He lost 11 relatives to the ‘rogue’ sergeant (and friends) in Panjwai. Along with those who have demonstrated against the Quran burnings, the Taliban, and the silent majority of Afghans.

Mr. Samad has one demand: It is time for the Americans to leave, all of them.

summary..Read full article HERE  http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2012/03/201231593938401477.html

Most Important Video of the Year? Asahi TV: “Unbelievable”

View the video and transcript here Published: March 10th, 2012 at 3:47 am ET By ENENews

— If Unit 4 pool gets a crack from quake and leaks, it would be end for Tokyo -Expert — Doesn’t have to be large tremor, already shaken many times

Most discussion of the No. 4 spent fuel pool has focused on an earthquake causing the pool to collapse. This video is different because it reveals: A crack, rather than the collapse of the pool itself, can be the end of Tokyo The quake that could put a crack in the pool and be the end of Tokyo does not have to be a large one….

They are talking about resuming the operation of nuclear plants. [...] But is the accident over? Is it really over? For example, Unit 4. In fact, Dr. Koide of Kyoto University is worried about it most. The present conditions of Unit 4 are like this. You see, almost no walls. They were blown off, and honestly speaking, the Unit 4 is a wreck. A wreck. [...]

Now, what if an earthquake occurred right now and the water in the pool started to leak? I asked this question to Dr. Koide. Please watch this video. [...] If a large aftershock occurred and the wall here collapsed, the water in the pool would leak out and the spent fuel would not be cooled any more. Then, they would start to melt, probably completely. And huge amount of radiation contained in the spend fuel would be released outside, with no walls to block it. We’ll never know when an earthquake comes. [...] the fuel rods, which are probably damaged to some degree [...]

What if a destructive earthquake occurred during those years? That would be the end. The end? Yes. You see, that would be the end. Unbelievable…unbelievable. This is a serious problem. TEPCO knows dealing with this problem is most important for now. [...]

So if a large earthquake should occur from now until that January… No, it doesn’t have to be large. Unit 4 has been shaken many times already. If the pool got cracks after another earthquake and the water started to leak out, Dr. Koide said that would be the end. The end for a wide area including Tokyo. Oh my, and they are talking about resuming nuclear plant operation.

I think resuming the operation is out of the question at least until the results from the investigation by NAIIC come out. [...] I want them to let us vote again. They talk about resuming the operation after gaining understanding from local communities. But for this issue, I think the whole country of Japan, or the whole area including the neighboring countries, is a “local community” that would be affected. We should keep in mind that it’s not only the sites of the plants that should be considered as “local communities.” We should recognize the accident is far from over and the crisis is still ongoing. Yes.

And excuse me, I have a correction to make. Retrieving the fuel rods is planned to start not from January, but from…when? December next year? (Yes.) December next year? No kidding! Sorry, I took a too-favorable view. The members of the Diet who want to resume, I want them to resign. We need to reconsider this issue.

I want to know the exact names of the members of the Diet who want to resume, and ask them for their opinions. [...]


As the displaced residents of Dale Farm in Essex face another round of forced evictions, Elly Robson talks to some of the families and examines the discrimination they face

The storming of Dale Farm by hundreds of riot police at dawn on 19 October 2011 was the money shot that the press had been waiting for following weeks of legal proceedings; the next day they all went home. But three months down the line, the eviction continues for the Dale Farm community, unreported. Their former home has been systematically destroyed by Constant & Co. bailiffs, who have transformed this once vibrant and close-knit community into a sewage-filled bombsite.

  1. With nowhere else to go, the vast majority of the displaced Travellers now live on the private road (owned by them) leading to Dale Farm and on their friends’ plots on the neighbouring Oak Lane site. Living in overcrowded conditions, they lack adequate access to water and toilet facilities, the only electricity supply is through noisy and expensive generators, and many of the young children and elderly people are ill. It is an unreported refugee camp, just thirty minutes away from London.

Arriving at the site last week, we were greeted by an elderly man who looked up at the remnants of the children’s rope swings hanging from the trees and said ‘What is there to live for? What hope do we have? My wife and I have talked seriously about ending it all. This is no way to live.’ While the trauma of the eviction is still vivid for the residents, it is what happens next that worries them most of all.

Kathleen, an articulate five-year-old with an acute awareness of the challenges facing her community, explained the situation to me: ‘Basildon Council and the police came and they broke everything. They broke the walls, and my granny’s caravan, and they broke all the ground, and even my mum’s back [Kathleen’s mother was hospitalised with a fractured spine during the policing operation]. We were crying and we were so scared. Now, Basildon Council want to move us again, but they can’t put us out on the road because where can we go?’…………………………..

READ FULL ARTICLE AND COMMENTS HERE   (with thanks to Red Pepper

http://www.redpepper.org.uk/dale-farm-the-human-cost-of-prejudice/

The eviction of the Occupy Dame Street camp

A large force of Garda and council workers were deployed at 3.30am today, International Women’s Day, to clear Occupy Dame Street (ODS) camp. The camp was completely demolished in the course of the eviction, campers intimidated and their personal property stolen.

This was a level of force way out of proportion with the numbers in the camp (about 15 people) and stands in contrast with the lack of resources put into investigating what happened at Anglo, the collapse of which has left a debt of 26,000 Euro on every single person in the country.

The small Garda team ‘investigating’ what happened at Anglo only includes one forensic accountant. As far as anyone can tell they have yet to get into the computers that were encrypted and which the bank has refused to hand over the passwords for. This certainly tells us whose interests those in power protect and that the Garda will ‘just follow orders’ even if they are individually included amongst the 99% of us who have been screwed over.

Media coverage of the eviction suggests that it was a fairly low key affair with an overwhelming number of Garda (around 100) compared to campers (about 15) but commentary from the campers and a video interview published by the Irish Times suggests that a significant level of physical intimidation & force was used by Garda. Campers talked of pick axes being used to break into structures while they were still inside and of the seizure of mobile phones, lap tops, clothes, minutes & contact books and even bicycles that were chained on the square. This happened without warning, while people were sleeping. One of the campers said of the police that “they came like volatile bullies & terrorists .. they behaved like animals”

Updated 14.30: In a second video interview from this morning two women from ODS talked about how the Garda had arrived wearing balaclava’s, didn’t poduce the court order until they had dragged everyone off the site and had twisted their arms and stamped on their hands when they attempted to sit on the street.  Just before lunch a small group were forcibly prevented from putting up tents.  A number of witnesses have said that last night some of the Garda appeared to be carrying guns.

  Latest UPDATE
GARDAÍ IN DUBLIN city centre are preventing the protest group who had camped outside the Central Bank’s headquarters from 8 October until this morning from erecting any more tents at the property.

The camp was dismantled by dozens of gardaí at around 3.30am today and the area was subsequently cleaned by Dublin City Council workers.

WHEN PIGS CRY

The vache (that’s the French cops to you and me) scored a hilarious own goal last week at la ZAD protest site near Nantes: They tear-gassed themselves.

Around 100-150 cops had turned up to police a protest on Tuesday (14th) of around 40 ZAD occupiers and some local farmers whose fields were being valued. As the state and corporation Vinci press ahead with the long-awaited, and much-opposed, plan for a new international airport to be built on over 6km2 of the southern France countryside, the valuing of land for compensation agreements is one of the last remaining steps before imminent destruction.

Deciding the presence of the site riff raff (who may or may not have been planning on blocking the land valuers access to the fields…) justified riot control policing, one butterfingered cop pulled out a tear gas canister which, seconds later, inexplicably exploded behind the police line. Activists proceeded to piss themselves laughing at the sight of floundering, crying robocops while the bosses behind hogged the eye-drops. Their faces were even redder later as they struggled through muddy fields as nimble protesters gave them the run around.

The episode was the latest in the saga of the Notre-Dame des Landes airport. The airport is just one part of the meglomaniac ‘Grand Ouest’ project incorporating a new road system and the expansion of the Saint Nazaire port (“What’s climate change?”). Most land-owners have already sold their land to the government but a handful still resist, either wholeheartedly rejecting the devastating plans or just holding out for more dolla: the current offers stand at a meagre 16cents per square meter, while Vinci stands to siphon millions in public money to concrete the lot.

Some of the land expropriated by the state, meanwhile, has been re-appropriated by squatters occupying empty farm buildings and treehouses. Although a couple of squats, including the hub Les Planchettes, have been on eviction alert for several weeks ZAD inhabitants are busy with a timetable of workshops, building, riding the airwaves with the ZAD’s Radio Klaxton and planning for the upcoming True Substances week of demonstration, skill shares and action (5th – 10th March).

 

See zad.nadir.org, or get yer ass down to France for March 5th.

Shell oil rig set for landmark Alaska journey

by Kim Murphy,—After one of the biggest environmental fights in decades, exploratory drilling is expected to begin in July off the state’s north coast. The company has plans in case of a spill; opponents say normal operations will still release damaging chemicals.

Shell Oil's Kulluk rig set to leave Seattle for the north coast of Alaska to drill in the Arctic at the Beaufort and Chukchi Seas with no spill plan, also releasing thousands of tons of industrial carbon, methane, nitrogen dioxide, adding toxic chemicals to the pristine environment

Shell Oil’s Kulluk oil drilling rig, with downtown Seattle in the background. By July it’s expected to be at work off the north coast of Alaska. (Elaine Thompson, Associated Press) View full article »

What Are Iran’s Intentions?

 Noam Chomsky    Saturday 3 March 2012   Nation of Change

“Iran has very limited capacity to deploy force, and its strategic doctrine is defensive, designed to deter invasion long enough for diplomacy to take effect.”

The Jan­u­ary/Feb­ru­ary issue of For­eign Af­fairs fea­tured the ar­ti­cle “Time to At­tack Iran: Why a Strike Is the Least Bad Op­tion,” by Matthew Kroenig, along with com­men­tary about other ways to con­tain the Iran­ian threat.

The media re­sound with warn­ings about a likely Is­raeli at­tack on Iran while the U.S. hes­i­tates, keep­ing open the op­tion of ag­gres­sion – thus again rou­tinely vi­o­lat­ing the U.N. Char­ter, the foun­da­tion of in­ter­na­tional law.

March 3 PERES AMD OBAMA FOAMING AT THE MOUTH
Mr Peres described Iran as "an evil, cruel and morally corrupt regime" bent on controlling the Middle East. He told delegates: "Iran is the centre, the sponsor, the financier of world terror. Iran is a danger to the entire world."Mr Obama is due to hold talks with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the White House on Monday.

As ten­sions es­ca­late, eerie echoes of the run-up to the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq are in the air. Fever­ish U.S. pri­mary cam­paign rhetoric adds to the drum­beat.

Con­cerns about “the im­mi­nent threat” of Iran are often at­trib­uted to the “in­ter­na­tional com­mu­nity” – code lan­guage for U.S. al­lies. The peo­ple of the world, how­ever, tend to see mat­ters rather dif­fer­ently.

The non­aligned coun­tries, a move­ment with 120 mem­ber na­tions, has vig­or­ously sup­ported Iran’s right to en­rich ura­nium – an opin­ion shared by the ma­jor­ity of Amer­i­cans (as sur­veyed by WorldPublicOpinion.org) be­fore the mas­sive pro­pa­ganda on­slaught of the past two years.

China and Rus­sia op­pose U.S. pol­icy on Iran, as does India, which an­nounced that it would dis­re­gard U.S. sanc­tions and in­crease trade with Iran. Turkey has fol­lowed a sim­i­lar course….,,,,

Iran has very lim­ited ca­pac­ity to de­ploy force, and its strate­gic doc­trine is de­fen­sive, de­signed to deter in­va­sion long enough for diplo­macy to take ef­fect. If Iran is de­vel­op­ing nu­clear weapons (which is still un­de­ter­mined), that would be part of its de­ter­rent strat­egy.

The un­der­stand­ing of se­ri­ous Is­raeli and U.S. an­a­lysts is ex­pressed clearly by 30-year CIA vet­eran Bruce Riedel, who said in Jan­u­ary, “If I was an Iran­ian na­tional se­cu­rity plan­ner, I would want nu­clear weapons” as a de­ter­rent.

An ad­di­tional charge the West lev­els against Iran is that it is seek­ing to ex­pand its in­flu­ence in neigh­bor­ing coun­tries at­tacked and oc­cu­pied by the U.S. and Britain, and is sup­port­ing re­sis­tance to the U.S.-backed Is­raeli ag­gres­sion in Lebanon and il­le­gal Is­raeli oc­cu­pa­tion of Pales­tin­ian lands. Like its de­ter­rence of pos­si­ble vi­o­lence by West­ern coun­tries, Iran’s ac­tions are said to be in­tol­er­a­ble threats to “global order.”

Global opin­ion agrees with Maoz. Sup­port is over­whelm­ing for a WMDFZ in the Mid­dle East; this zone would in­clude Iran, Is­rael and prefer­ably the other two nu­clear pow­ers that have re­fused to join the Nu­clear Non-Pro­lif­er­a­tion Treaty: India and Pak­istan, who, along with Is­rael, de­vel­oped their pro­grams with U.S. aid.

Sup­port for this pol­icy at the NPT Re­view Con­fer­ence in May 2010 was so strong that Wash­ing­ton was forced to agree for­mally, but with con­di­tions: The zone could not take ef­fect until a com­pre­hen­sive peace set­tle­ment be­tween Is­rael and its Arab neigh­bors was in place; Is­rael’s nu­clear weapons pro­grams must be ex­empted from in­ter­na­tional in­spec­tion; and no coun­try (mean­ing the U.S.) must be obliged to pro­vide in­for­ma­tion about “Is­raeli nu­clear fa­cil­i­ties and ac­tiv­i­ties, in­clud­ing in­for­ma­tion per­tain­ing to pre­vi­ous nu­clear trans­fers to Is­rael.”

The 2010 con­fer­ence called for a ses­sion in May 2012 to move to­ward es­tab­lish­ing a WMDFZ in the Mid­dle East.

With all the furor about Iran, how­ever, there is scant at­ten­tion to that op­tion, which would be the most con­struc­tive way of deal­ing with the nu­clear threats in the re­gion: for the “in­ter­na­tional com­mu­nity,” the threat that Iran might gain nu­clear ca­pa­bil­ity; for most of the world, the threat posed by the only state in the re­gion with nu­clear weapons and a long record of ag­gres­sion, and its su­per­power pa­tron

Genocidal US capitalists see huge profits in a war with Iran.. and they control Obama.

One can find no men­ti

on at all of the fact that the U.S. and Britain have a unique re­spon­si­bil­ity to ded­i­cate their ef­forts to this goal. In seek­ing to pro­vide a thin legal cover for their in­va­sion of Iraq, they in­voked U.N. Se­cu­rity Coun­cil Res­o­lu­tion 687 (1991), which they claimed Iraq was vi­o­lat­ing by de­vel­op­ing WMD.

We may ig­nore the claim, but not the fact that the res­o­lu­tion ex­plic­itly com­mits sign­ers to es­tab­lish­ing a WMDFZ in the Mid­dle East.

 

Occupy London condemns demolition of the School of Ideas building

 

Illegal evictions aren’t unusual and happen all the time, but it is rare for a building to cease to exist so fast afterwards!

Complete with redacted text, Kenneth Clarke MP signed the warrant of possession for the Occupy London School of Ideas building, that Master Bragg issued two weeks ago and around midnight – at the same time as the eviction of Occupy London Stock Exchange by St Paul’s – high court enforcement officers backed by the Met Police, stormed the building without notice from the court and evicted 25 people. [1]

Very little was saved and very few people were allowed back in to collect what was inside. Usually there would be a day given when people could return and collect what was inside, but this day won’t come because at 6am bulldozers arrived and began the demolition at 8am.

Amongst the rubble of the old Moorfield Primary School, you’ll find children’s clothes and toys, as well as passports and medication of Occupy London protesters who had been working with the local community to use the building to house workshops focusing on social, economic, environmental and cultural issues.

Only last week the local community asked the council to buy back the school and keep it as either a primary school or community space.

Occupy London condemns the demolition of the building without regard to the needs of the community.

http://occupylsx.org/?p=3815


You can see videos of cops attacking kids in the 70,000 strong demo in Barcelona here..Plus many more on You Tube from all over Spain as the Spring 2012 Youth Rebellion takes off !

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=0wfn0NIz0Kw


The protest brought together tens of thousands of people 70,000 according to the organizers, 25,000 according to the Guardia Urbana police..-roads that have been jammed including the AP-7 Motorway and the center of the city from early in the morning. They also wanted to show solidarity with the students in Valencia, harshly repressed by police in recent weeks.

The student protests in Barcelona have been attacked by Autonomous Police
Three arrested and nine wounded. Police surrounding the Mobile Phone World Congress against the protes
tors

Un coche y diversos contenedores arden esta tarde durante los incidentes registrados en la confluencia de las calles Diputación y Balmes de Barcelona. EFE


A car and several containers burn this afternoon during the incidents at the junction of Provincial and Balmes streets of Barcelona. EFE

The student demonstrations on Wednesday against cuts in education from the streets of Barcelona have received police charges and clashes between the Autonomous Cops and  the protesters, and have resulted in a balance of 12  injured and 12 arrested, including two children.

The detainees have been charged with public disorder, damage to street furniture, container burning and attacks on police officers, all of whom will this Thursday to justice as they are closing the proceedings.

Major incidents have occurred on campus in the city center and Plaça Catalunya, where they are celebrating the Mobile Phone World Congress.

Congress has been much of the afternoon heavily protected by a cordon of riot and Mossos to the hundreds of protesters who were nearby. Agents have arrested one of the students when they wanted to cross the police line that had surrounded them, which caused the student reaction, and a stone throwing objects, and some agents charge.

“Less police and education” or “we are students and not criminals” were some of the slogans that have shouted.
The Sindicat d’Estudiants dels Catalan Countries (SEPC) has accused the Catalan police of “suppressing” the protests and demanded the release of detainees without charge. Fifty students have protested peacefully against the Mossos police station in the district of Les Corts.
Students at the Autonomous University of Barcelona and has called for another day strike for Thursday.


The campus, OCCUPIED

Earlier, hundreds of students have taken the campus of the University of Barcelona, which has led to the Autonomous surround the campus, in the center of the city, where there have been serious riots and clashes between demonstrators and law enforcement.
At the end of the protest some people have burned container
During the morning, the protests have resulted in new police charges after several of the protesters have burned containers and vehicles passing through some of the streets, as the confluence of the Calle de Balmes council or the Eixample.

Upon completion of the protest, some demonstrators have dispersed into groups by the Eixample of Barcelona and have overturned and set fire to several containers. In one of the fires that have been formed, the fire has caught in a vehicle parked next to containers, Efe reported.


Barcelona, collapsed

Tens of thousands of people in Barcelona, students and university staff have carried out a march in the Plaza of the University of Barcelona that has collapsed the city center. In the morning, protesters cut off several highways and Bellaterra station of the Railways of the Generalitat, causing major delays. At 10:30, about 200 students have come to the SER, where they read a statement with their demands in the program live ‘Fora Joc’.

The strike in favor of public education in Catalonia has also been seconded by

teachers, researchers and administrative staff, showing banners with the slogan “We wont pay foryour scam” and that the organizers have described as “huge success”. This protest is in addition to those held in about a dozen more cities participating in strikes, rallies and demonstrations organized by the Students Union.

Protests in 20 cities

In Barcelona, a group of students have entered the BE and have read a statement in direct

In Valencia closures have occurred in universities during a demonstration tonight and has come from the History Department at 12:00 hours.

In Madrid there was a demonstration from Cybele to the Sun, called by the university network of community meetings, along with the Assembly and Youth Without Interinstitutos Future. About a thousand students chanting “we are students, not criminals” or “We are all the Luis Vives High School” have participated in it. The general coordinator of IU, Cayo Lara, has attended the event, where young people said “do not want to be in a country with 31% of school failure and spent half a point less than the European average spending on education” , Efe reported.

Also in Malaga have left protested on campus about one hundred students demanding a “free public education and quality.”

Financed by capitalist slush funds the rightwing press has fanned a wave of race hate against southern Europeans, blaming our lazy love of fiesta for their economic woes.
BUT OECD FIGURES PROVE THAT SPANISH, PORTUGUESE, ITALIAN AND GREEK WORKERS DO LONGER HOURS FOR LESS PAY, WORK IS MORE PRECARIOUS, HARDER WITH LESS MECANIZATION  AND UNEMPLOYMENT IS  HIGHER.

The eurozone crisis has sown divisions in the European family, and Greece in particular has often been singled out for criticism. Has Greece been living beyond its means? Are Greeks lazy? On this second point, the statistics tell a surprising story.

This week Greece is facing more spending cuts after agreeing to a deal of 130bn euros (£110bn, $175bn) to help it avoid bankruptcy.

But the statistics suggest the country has not lost its way due to laziness. If you look at the average annual hours worked by each worker, the Greeks seem very hard-working.

Figures from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) show that the average Greek worker toils away for 2,017 hours per year which is more than any other European country.

Out of the 34 members of the OECD, that is just two places behind the board leaders, South Korea.

On the other hand, the average German worker – normally thought of as the very epitome of industriousness – only manages 1,408 hours a year. source: BBC NEWS

Next solidarity protest on Saturday 25 February at the Greek Embassy

Φεβρουαρίου 19, 2012

After the success of the day of action on 18/2 in London and around Europe, we decided to continue our actions of solidarity! 13:00 at the Greek embassy, at 1A Holland Park W11 3TP. Facebook event:  http://www.facebook.com/events/396894816993798/ Με επισήμανση:, , , , Posted in: Δράσεις

GREEK anarchists have called for international solidarity efforts, as they endure a new brutal wave of repression from the state and its neo-fascists guard-dogs.

Says a statement posted on From the Greek Streets: “Greece is at a critical turning point, and many critical changes are taking place in a societal as well as a political and economic level.

“The disintegration and dissolution of the dominant – until recently – model of power and exploitation is more than evident, so it defines what is commonly called ‘crisis.’

“What we are experiencing now is the total failure of a system that is unable to secure any longer the social consensus, thereby is engaged in a frontal attack that is unconditional and with no pretext.

http://vastminority.blogspot.com/

The world has lost 10 crucial years in the race to stop a cataclysm of runaway climate change, due to the massive secret funding of US 'climate skeptics', really obscene criminals cashing in on the trashing of our planet....

Now it’s a straight fight with the billionaires and corporations.

 By George Monbiot  Shocking, fascinating, entirely unsurprising: the leaked documents, if authentic, confirm what we suspected but could not prove. The Heartland Institute, which has helped lead the war against climate science in the United States, is funded among others by tobacco firms, fossil fuel companies and one of the billionaire Koch brothers(1).

It appears to have followed the script written by a consultant to the Republican party, Frank Luntz, in 2002. “Should the public come to believe that the scientific issues are settled, their views about global warming will change accordingly. Therefore, you need to continue to make the lack of scientific certainty a primary issue in the debate.”(2)

Luntz’s technique was pioneered by the tobacco companies and the creationists: teach the controversy. In other words, insist that the question of whether cigarettes cause lung cancer, natural selection drives evolution or burning fossil fuels causes climate change is still wide open, and that both sides of the “controversy” should be taught in schools and thrashed out in the media.

The leaked documents appear to show that, courtesy of its multi-millionaire donors, the institute has commissioned a global warming curriculum for schools, which teaches that “whether humans are changing the climate is a major scientific controversy” and “whether CO2 is a pollutant is controversial.”(3).

read much more HERE   (with thanks) http://www.monbiot.com/2012/02/20/plutocracy-pure-and-simple/

Heartland Institute's Denialgate includes funding from Microsoft to undermine the IPCC: Breaking Heartless-news for Valentine’s Day: “Dissuading teachers from teaching science …”
Mass Police brutality fails to stopValencia Uprising (Spain)
The Spanish National Police condemned the “aggression” of school students, who they considered the “enemy”
20/02/2012 Rights and Freedoms

Huge seige of students at the Lluis Vives High School | Author: @ JoanaRibes
The student revolt takes more strength than ever despite the efforts of the Spanish government and police to quell it. more than a hundred demonstrators , many of them minors,  have been wounded, and there have been dozens of detained since the protests began last week.

On Monday,  there were about twenty prisoners, and the emergency services had to meet four people who were injured by the loads of riot, they have not stopped all afternoon.

As usual,the fourth day of protests, has started at 14:45 the doors of the IES Luis Vives High School, the school that sparked the protests. From there the demonstration went to cut the main roads of the Valencian capital, where there were severe persecutions and police charges throughout the evening, even with rubber bullets and tear gas. The police occupied the city in helicopters and the Civil Guard(militarised) controls the different access roads of the Orchard North suburbs.

At nightfall, groups of demonstrators were still protesting in the streets Bailen and Xativa. In addition, the Faculty of History at the University of Valencia has been occupied about 400 students and teachers to protest the police action with the intention of spending the night. 60 vanloads of riot police were deployed, the police chief refused to reveal their numbers wuith the phrase ?’I don¡t tell my enemies how majny we are”. The un iversity declared the students were refugedthere with permission, but most left to resume the struggle.

Students rebelled against cuts in education, which have led schools to Valencia suffered an extreme situation, to the point of cutting light or heating.

Police condemned the “aggression” of students, who considered the “enemy”

The Spanish National Police, for their part, spoke of aggressiveness. In a hearing this Monday afternoon, the upper head of the police in Valencia, Antonio Moreno, spoke to students as the “enemy” and justified the police charges against students for “aggressiveness” of young. As he said, the protesters have acted with “a surplus of aggression” that has led police officers to provide “a fair response.”

Solidarity with students from all over the country

Solidarity with the Valencian revolt has spread throughout the country. In this respect, concentrations were held in the Plaza Sant Jaume de Barcelona, Plaça de la Font in Tarragona, in the Plaza Wine Girona and Alicante Montanyeta Square. Tuesday at 7 they held another in the Plaza of the Town Council of Lleida at half past eight in the square of the President Ferrer Olot. Sunday he held a Palma.

There was also a big demo in Madrid, etc.

Students have demanded the release of detainees without charge.

The SEPC ask the whole school community to join the general strike of February 29.

Teachers reported the siege of Vives High School bypolice

The assembly of teachers of IES Lluis Vives Valencia has also denounced the siege of students. He recalled that on Wednesday, in the vicinity of the institute, there was “a violent and disproportionate” police action against a student group focused out to protest against cuts in education. The result several students were injured and bruised, and even arrested, injured, handcuffed and taken to the police Sapadors.

Thursday and Friday also saw “these violent actions, disproportionate and out of any democratic logic against children and adolescents, treated like criminals.”
All in all, the teachers expressed their “strongest condemnation of such actions” and that “stem from the repeated attempts of our authorities to discredit public education and criminalize us all that we are engaged as teachers, non-teaching staff, students and families in the dignity of public education. “

original Catalan

La brutalitat policial no apaga la revolta estudiantil valenciana

La Policia Nacional espanyola denuncia l’”agressivitat” dels estudiants, a qui considera l’”enemic”
La revolta estudiantil pren més força que mai tot i els esforços del govern espanyol i la policia per sufocar-la. No és de franc: es compten per més d’un centenar els manifestants –molts d’ells menors d’edat- que han resultat ferits, i hi ha hagut desenes de detinguts des que van començar les mobilitzacions, la setmana passada.

Aquest dilluns, en la quarta jornada de protestes, hi ha hagut una vintena de detinguts, i els serveis d’emergències han hagut d’atendre quatre persones que han resultat ferides per les càrregues dels antiavalots, que no han cessat en tota la tarda.

La mobilització, com cada dia, ha començat a les 14.45 h a les portes de l’IES Lluís Vives, l’institut que va encendre les protestes. D’allí n’ha partit una manifestació que ha tallat les principals vies de la capital valenciana, on s’han produït persecucions i severes càrregues policials durant tot el vespre, fins i tot amb pilotes de goma i gasos lacrimògens. La policia ha ocupat la ciutat, amb helicòpters i controls de la guàrdia civil per diferents accesos de l’Horta Nord.

Ben entrada la nit, grups de manifestants segueixen protestant entre els carrers Bailén i Xàtiva. A més, a la Facultat d’Història de la Universitat de València s’hi ha tancat al voltant de 400 estudiants i professors en protesta per l’actuació policial amb la intenció de passar-hi la nit.

Els estudiants es rebel•len contra les retallades en educació, que han dut els centres educatius valencians a patir una situació límit, fins al punt de tallar la llum o la calefacció.

La policia denuncia l’”agressivitat” dels estudiants, a qui considera l’”enemic”

La Policia Nacional espanyola, de la seva banda, ha parlat d’agressivitat. En una compareixença aquest mateix dilluns a la tarda, el cap superior de la policia de València, Antonio Moreno, s’ha referit als estudiants com l’”enemic” i ha justificat les càrregues policials contra els estudiants per “l’agressivitat” dels joves. Segons ha afirmat, els manifestants han actuat amb “un plus d’agressivitat” que ha portat els agents policials a donar “una resposta equitativa”.

De la seva banda, la responsable política de l’actuació, la delegada del govern espanyol al País Valencià, Paula Sánchez de León, s’ha limitat a donar suport en tot moment a l’actitud de la policia, que actua “davant d’una situació de desordre i desacatament”, afirma. “No hi ha repressió, ni instruccions ni intent de control del dret a la manifestació”, ha asseverat.

Solidaritat amb els estudiants des de tots els indrets del país

La solidaritat amb la revolta valenciana s’ha estès per tot el país. En aquest sentit, s’han celebrat concentracions a la Plaça Sant Jaume de Barcelona, a la Plaça de la Font de Tarragona, a la Plaça del Vi de Girona i a la Plaça de la Montanyeta d’Alacant. Aquest dimarts a les 7 se’n celebrarà una altra a la Plaça de la Paeria de Lleida i a dos quarts de vuit a la plaça del Rector Ferrer d’Olot. Diumenge se’n va celebrar una a Palma.

Aquest cap de setmana s’ha portat a terme diverses mobilitzacions arreu dels Països Catalans per denunciar les brutals agressions

luis Vives High School yesterday

contra els estudiants a València, després que les càrregues policials de la setmana passada se saldessin amb una desena de detinguts i diversos ferits.

Els estudiants adverteixen que seguiran rebel·lant-se

Els estudiants han rebutjat en bloc la brutalitat policial i han exigit l’alliberament sense càrrec dels detinguts. El SEPC ha remarcat que es repeteix la violència i repressió que es va viure al Principat amb el Pla Bolonya i denuncia que el govern espanyol “està disposat a les retallades i les polítiques privatitzadores per sobre de la voluntat de les classes populars”. En aquest sentit, considera “indignant que haguem de patir la incompetència dels nostres governants” i “lamentable la negació del diàleg per part del Govern de la Generalitat Valenciana”, així com l’ús de la violència contra els manifestants, especialment els estudiants d’institut.

Per tot plegat denuncia que les retallades “s’estan aplicant amb violència, per precaritzar l’educació pública i hipotecant el futur del nostre país” i exigeix l’aturada de la violència per part de la policia espanyola i la fi de les retallades i de l’EU2015 que hipotequen el futur del país.

El SEPC demana al conjunt de la comunitat educativa que s’adhereixin a la vaga general del 29 de febrer.
De la seva banda, Endavant OSAN ha exigit la dimissió de Paula Sánchez de León i d’Antonio Moreno, “per actuar sobre la ciutat de València com en una zona de guerra”. Així mateix, exigeix l’absolució sense càrrecs de totes les persones detingudes i convida tota la ciutadania a mobilitzar-se.

I la COS ha condemnat la repressió policial però ha lloat la resposta dels estudiants. Una afiliada del sindicat ha estat agredida per un policia espanyol a l’IES Lluís Vives. Segons informa la COS, la càrrega li ha provocat una síncope cardiaca i ha hagut de ser avacuada en ambulància.

La COS celebra que “comença l’autèntica primavera valenciana, l’autèntica primavera dels Països Catalans” i denuncia que “l’Estat, i el cap major dels torturadors, Jorge Fernandez Diez, ha tornat a usar València com a laboratori de proves repressives pel conjunt del nostre país”. Però “només estan aconseguint que tota la ràbia accumulada comence a brollar com l’aigua neta i bona dels brolladors de l’Albufera de València”, proclama.

Els professors del Vives denuncien el setge policial

L’assemblea del professorat de l’IES Lluís Vives de València també ha denunciat el setge contra els estudiants. Ha recordat que dimecres, a les proximitats de l’institut, es va produir “una violentíssima i desproporcionada” actuació policial contra un grup d’estudiants concentrat a fora per protestar contra les retallades en Educació. El resultat foren diversos alumnes ferits i contusionats, i fins i tot un detingut, lesionat, emmanillat i portat a la comissaria de Sapadors.

Dijous i divendres es van produir també “aquestes actuacions violentes, desproporcionades i fora de qualsevol lògica democràtica contra adolescents i menors, tractats com a delinqüents”.

Per tot plegat, els professors expressen la seva “més enèrgica repulsa a aquesta mena d’actuacions” i assegura que “s’emmarquen en els intents reiterats de les nostres autoritats per tal de desprestigiar l’ensenyament públic i criminalitzar-nos a tots els que estem compromesos com a professors, personal no docent, estudiants i famílies en la dignificació de l’educació pública”.

A més, anuncien que denunciaran formalment les actuacions i reclamaran responsabilitats penals i polítiques per als qui han promogut “aquest despropòsit”. També adverteixen que continuaran denunciant els atacs als serveis públics i “la criminalització que els governants intenten fer dels seus empleats per desprestigiar-los”.

Indignació política

El síndic de Compromís, Enric Morera, ha demanat que s’alliberin sense càrrecs tots els joves que es troben detinguts a la comissaria i que es retirin tots els expedients sancionadors oberts contra els estudiants de l’IES Lluís Vives de València. Morera considera que amb el PP “han arribat les retallades en democràcia, perquè la resposta del govern a les protestes estudiantils ha sigut desproporcionada i més pròpia d’un règim dictatorial que d’una societat democràtica, la qual cosa lamentem”.

De la seva banda, la coordinadora general d’Esquerra Unida al País Valencià (EUPV), Marga Sanz, ha demanat la dimissió de Paula Sànchez de León, a qui ha acusat de “saltar-se els principis democràtics i ha deixat el poder a mans de la policia”. Segons Sanz, “el que està passant a València és propi d’èpoques no democràtiques, que ens recorden massa el franquisme i les persecucions dels grisos a les revoltes estudiantils contra la dictadura”.

I quant al PSPV, simplement ha telefonat al president de la Generalitat Valenciana, Alberto Fabra, perquè cessi la violència contra els estudiants, segons ha informat el secretari general dels socialistes, Jorge Alarte, a través del Twitter.

On March 11 2011, at 2:46pm, a 9.0 magnitude earthquake struck Japan. The earthquake, followed by a colossal tsunami, devastated the nation, together killing over 10,000 people. The earthquake also triggered the start of a triple nuclear meltdown at the Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant, run by Tokyo Electric Power Company (Tepco).

Of the three reactors that melted down, one was nearly 40 years old and should have been decommissioned two decades ago. The cooling pipes, “the veins and arteries of the old nuclear reactors”, which circulated fluid to keep the core temperature down, ruptured….

..Tepco has long been a scandal-ridden company, caught time and time again covering up data on safety lapses at their power plants, or doctoring film footage which showed fissures in pipes. How was the company able to get away with such long-standing behaviour?

According to an explosive book recently published in Japan, they owe it to what the author, Tomohiko Suzuki, calls “Japan’s nuclear mafia… A conglomeration of corrupt politicians and bureaucrats, the shady nuclear industry, their lobbyists…” And at the centre of it all stands Japan’s actual mafia: the yakuza…..

 For his book, The Yakuza and the Nuclear Industry, Suzuki went undercover at Fukushima to find first-hand evidence .

….The initial work, directly after a series of hydrogen explosions in March, was extremely dangerous. Radiation was reaching levels so high that the Japanese government raised the safety exposure levels and even ordered scientists to stop monitoring radiation levels in some areas of the plants

. Tepco sent out word to their contractors to gather as many people as possible and to offer substantial wages. Yakuza recruited from all over Japan; the initial workers were paid 50,000 yen (£407) per day, but one dispatch company offered 200,000 yen (£1,627) per day.Even then, recruits were hard to find. Officials in Fukushima reportedly told local businesses, “Bring us the living dead. People no one will miss.”

‘SAFETY’ LEVEL RAISED TO OVER 500 TIMES HIGHER

The labour crunch was eased somewhat when the Japanese government and Tepco raised the “safe” radiation exposure levels at the plant from pre-earthquake levels of 130-180cpm (radiation exposure per minute) to 100,000cpm…. OVER 500 TIMES HIGHER

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/japan/japan-earthquake-and-tsunami-in/9084151/How-the-Yakuza-went-nuclear.html

Slave Britain

Arbeit Mach Frei, the Nazis proclaimed above their concentration camps. Well, in 21st century Britain we now have a government offering cheap or even completely free labour to employers using the most vulnerable people imagineable – prisoners, the unemployed, the physically disabled and the mentally ill. And the dying.

No, it is not a sick joke. Cameron and Clegg’s Britain has today seen three blows to what little civilised restraint remained among Coalition policymakers.

1. The “Justice” Secretary hosted a seminar for employers on his plans to create 10,000 new jobs in British prisons where employers of all shapes and sizes can boost companies’ profitability by in-sourcing their work to jails. Prisoners are exempted from the national minimum wage and have no employment rights. So, anything from call centres to finishing kitchen units will be carried out by prisoners earning less than £1 per hour.

2. Tescos in East Anglia had the audacity to advertise PERMANENT “jobs” paying out of work people – nothing! The jobs were advertised in partnership with the appropriately named “Monster” website. As part of a government workfare scheme, they will continue to get their unemployment benefit – Jobseekers’ Allowance – plus unquantified “expenses” in return for working all night. If they turn down the work, their benefits will be cut. Tescos made profits of £1,900,000,000 in the six months to October 2011.

3. And now, sneaking in behind the controversial Welfare Bill, the Government has briefed a range of charities that disabled people will be forced to work for free for charities, public bodies and high street retailers on open-ended work experience placements or face losing their disability benefits. This will include people who are terminally ill with cancer, but assessed as having more than six months left. 

 

From Void Network

Saturday 18 February 2012 WE ARE FIGHTING FOR OUR FUTURE! + article/global invitation:”Greece shows us how to protest against a failed system” by John Holloway

More than 300.000 people participated at the social revolt that took place in 12 February 2012 in Athens. Many thousands took the streets all over Greece… Thousands of students demonstrated all over Greece in 17 Feb. 2012. The social struggle against misery, inequality and exploitation continues, expands and becomes stronger and stronger. People from all cultural backgrounds come together in the neighbourhood assemblies, in the grass-roots unions, the social centers, the big demonstrations and the riots. People from all ages help each other in the streets to attack against police, against the parliament, against the economy and the inhuman austerity measures that the global and local economic elites imposes to the people of this world

We invite all our friends to participate all over the world in the demonstrations at Saturday 18 February 2012 for Greece, for ourselves, for all the possible reasons, for all the life of this planet! WE ARE FIGHTING FOR OUR FUTURE!

Can this be the end of Murdoch's reign of terror at the SUN ??Five senior Sun newspaper employees were arrested this morning over the scandal of payments to police for information. As part of the ongoing police investigation Operation Elveden, which began after the News of the World phone-hacking scandal saw the Murdoch Sunday paper close, a number of high profile journalists were arrested in a series of early morning raids, along with senior police officers and Ministry of Defence employees and a member of the armed forces.

All five were arrested on suspicion of corruption under the Prevention of Corruption Act 1906 – aiding and abetting misconduct in a public office and conspiracy accroding to a police statement, which adding ‘It relates to suspected payments to police officers and public officials’.

The arrests come two weeks after four former and current Sun journalists and a serving Metropolitan police officer were arrested over alleged illegal police payments.

Sean Hoare's death let Murdoch and Cameron off the hook in the NOTW hacking scandal

It’s understood the paper itself is in jeopardy and Murdoch attempted to distance himself further from his UK employees and operation with a statement: “News Corporation remains committed to ensuring that unacceptable news gathering practices by individuals in the past will not be repeated and last summer authorised the MSC to co-operate with the relevant authorities”.

The NUJ on the other hand are less than impressed with Murdoch’s stance stating: “Journalists are reeling at seeing five more of their colleagues thrown to the wolves in what many sense to be a witch-hunt. They are furious at what they see as a monumental betrayal on the part of News International.”

It is also understood the scandal so far has cost the company $200 million in legal fees and compensation pay outs to people who had their phone illegally hacked by Murdoch’s papers.

http://www.freedompress.org.uk/news/2012/02/11/the-sun-goes-down-on-murdoch/

 

FAVELA RISING documents a man and a movement, a city divided and a favela (Brazilian squatter settlement) united.

Watch online: http://www.snagfilms.com/films/title/favela_rising

Haunted by the murders of his family and many of his friends, Anderson Sá is a former drug-trafficker who turns social revolutionary in Rio de Janeiro’s most feared slum.

Download: http://fileserve.com/file/Dmz5acm/Favela.Rising.DVDRip.XviD-pedr1nho.avi

Through hip-hop music, the rhythms of the street, and Afro-Brazilian dance he rallies his community to counteract the violent oppression enforced by teenage drug armies and sustained by corrupt police.

Torrent: http://thepiratebay.se/search/favela%20rising/0/99/0

TRAILER  You Tube  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B5_DnxeEkts

Subtitles:   Not found.
You might also like:Blowing Up Paradise (2005)The Shock Doctrine (2009)Many Straws Make A Nest (2010)Rachel Corrie: An American Conscience (2005)

See More HERE..(with thanks) http://fuckcopyright.blogspot.com/2012/02/favela-rising-2005.html

 

U.S.  Using Drones to Target Rescue Workers and Funerals in Pakistan

The CIA’s drone campaign targeting suspected militants in Pakistan has killed dozens of civilians who had gone to rescue victims or were attending funerals.

So concludes a new report by the London-based Bureau of Investigative

Syed Wali Shah Age7 Killed In CIA Pakistan Drone Attack

Journalism. It found that since President Obama took office three years ago, as many as 535 civilians have been killed, including more than 60 children. The investigation also revealed that at least 50 civilians were killed in follow-up strikes when they had gone to help victims. More than 20 civilians have also been attacked in deliberate strikes on funerals and mourners.

We speak to Chris Woods, award-winning reporter with the Bureau of Investigative Journalism. “We noted that there were repeated reports at the time, contemporaneous reports in publications like New York Times, news agencies like Reuters, by CNN, that there were these strikes on rescuers, that there were reports that there had been an initial strike and then, some minutes later, as people had come forward to help and pull out the dead and injured, that drones had returned to the scene and had attacked rescuers,”

Woods says. “We’ve been able to name just over 50 civilians that we understand have been killed in those attacks. In total, we think that more than 75 civilians have been killed, specifically in these attacks on rescuers and on mourners, on funeral-goers.”

More info HERE   http://www.democracynow.org/2012/2/6/us_accused_of_using_drones_to

By dropev in English below
Nuestras familias tienen el dolor físico y psíquico anclado en la memoria: el aceite de ricino, las cabezas rapadas , los paseos denigrantes por los pueblos, los insultos, la discriminación por ser madre, padre, hijo, hija o mujer de un “rojo”, la miseria alimenticia, la expropiación de bienes personales, el llevar una comida o enseres a un padre en la cárcel y la respuesta... “
...the shot still alive a well, spraying gasoline, beaten with numerous fractures and then the "coup de grace", the belly of a woman burst expecting a baby, the outcasts of his people, the stolen children, building a new road passes over the mass grave without anyone ... prevent violation of graves and take bodies to Cuelgamuros. The absurdity of a country under the repression of a dictatorship......
Un amplio abanico de informaciones y fotografías llenan las páginas de los periódicos y los reportajes de muchas cadenas de televisión. El eco que llega a un público de gran audiencia es notable. Los testimonios aportados por los familiares de las víctimas del franquismo en defensa del Juez Garzón son relatos que ponen los pelos como escarpias  y sin ninguna duda ocurrirá hasta que  testifiquen  todos.

María Martín López, de Pedro Bernardo (Toledo), de sus 81 años, testificando ante los magistrados del Supremo. / … (EFE).Maria Martin Lopez, Pedro Bernardo (Toledo),  81 years, testifying before the judges of the Supreme. / … (Reuters)

La valentía y la firmeza de estos “memoriadores” es un gran ejemplo para todos los ciudadanos de este país amnésico. Muchos de nosotros empapados de esas micro biografías, que hacen parte de nuestra propia  historia individual como familiares de víctimas, las hemos contado y publicado en nuestros blogs o webs.

Fotográfias de desaparecidos portadas por un sipatizante de Garzón delante del TS foto SUSANA VERA (REUTERS)

En nuestras familias las palabras dolorosas asociadas a nuestros desaparecidos son similares a las que estos días suenan en los media. Muerto por hemorragia intestinal, por colapso  respiratorio,…, por arma de fuego…por traumatismo craneoencefálico, sin especificar cuál y quien es el causante, figuran en el acta de defunción ( cuando la hay) fechada a posteriori de los hechos, sin firmas legibles, sin autopsia, sin lugar de enterramiento o simplemente en un registro parroquial con una “D” delante del nombre de una persona.

Nuestras familias tienen el dolor físico y psíquico anclado en la memoria: el aceite de ricino, las cabezas rapadas , los paseos denigrantes por los pueblos, los insultos, la discriminación por ser madre, padre, hijo, hija o mujer de un “rojo”, la miseria alimenticia, la expropiación de bienes personales, el llevar una comida o enseres a un padre en la cárcel y la respuesta “ a este ya no le hace falta”, el “las manos atadas con un alambre”, el tirado aun vivo a un pozo, el rociado de gasolina, el apaleado con numerosas fracturas y luego el “tiro de gracia”, el vientre reventado de una mujer esperando un bebé, los desterrados de su pueblo, los hijos robados, la construcción de una nueva carretera que pasa por encima de la fosa común sin que nadie lo impida…violación de sepulturas y traslado de los cuerpos a Cuelgamuros.  El esperpento de un país bajo la represión de una dictadura.

Simpatizantes y partidarios del juez Baltasar Garzón esperan su llegada su llegada hoy al Tribunal Supremo, en donde continúa el juicio contra él por declararse competente para investigar los crímenes de franquismo.SERGIO BARRENECHEA / EFESimpatizantes y partidarios del juez Baltasar Garzón esperan su llegada su llegada hoy al Tribunal Supremo, en donde continúa el juicio contra él por declararse competente para investigar los crímenes de franquismo.SERGIO BARRENECHEA / EFE Photographs of missing realatives on a sympathiser of Garzon

La sala de audiencias del TS decorada de terciopelo y molduras doradas, con jueces que no arrugan sus togas y con las puñetas bien almidonadas, es como una fosa donde los cadáveres de las cunetas llenan el espacio hasta asfixiar los presentes al juicio. Los abogados de la acusación contra Garzón, ajenos a este dolor, ningunean a los testigos cortándoles la palabra, sacando a relucir el tan recurrido “Paracuellos del Jarama”.

Siendo la primera vez que delante altas instancias judiciales estos relatos son expuestos, y que definen claramente una violación de los Derechos Humanos, crímenes contra la Humanidad, no debemos olvidar, bajo ningún espejismo, que NO ASISTIMOS A UNA COMISIÓN DE LA VERDAD , QUE NO SE ESTÁ APLICANDO REPARACIÓN NI JUSTICIA. Solo son testigos llamados por la defensa del Juez Garzón.

Un simpatizante de Garzon porta la imagen de Wenceslao Romero de Castilla Lopez, asesinado en Mérida en Septiembre de 1936 .foto ARTURO RODRÍGUEZ (AP)  A supporter of Garzon bears the image of Wenceslao Lopez Romero de Castilla, killed in Merida in September 1936. Photo ARTURO RODRIGUEZ (AP)

Baltasar Garzón,  quien recibió a esos familiares, intentando darles el amparo judicial que les corresponde, promovió con su auto, de hace dos años sobre los crímenes de la dictadura, la difusión mediática de esos crímenes como nunca había ocurrido en nuestro país. Entonces y ahora el mundo entero escucha los relatos que se contaban en las cocinas de nuestras familias en voz baja “por si se enteran los vecinos”.

Puede que sea la última vez que la Justicia nos escuche.

En memoria de nuestros familiares desaparecidos, en agradecimiento al Juez Garzón, en reconocimiento al valor y la tenacidad de los testigos, (son  compañeros nuestros), en solidaridad con todos ellos, reclamando  VERDAD, JUSTICIA Y REPARACIÓN, un abrazo fraternal.

Pedro-Vicente Romero de Castilla Ramos, nieto de Wenceslao, desaparecido, y de Eustaquio represaliado.

Algo de la prensa de estos días:

Los nietos buscamos con la misma dignidad pero sin el miedo de nuestros padres

http://www.publico.es/especiales/memoriapublica/420017/los-nietos-buscamos-con-la-misma-dignidad-pero-sin-el-miedo-de-nuestros-padres

“Dijeron que le habían reventado la tripa a mi abuela embarazada”

http://politica.elpais.com/politica/2012/02/02/actualidad/1328180875_064552.html

ENGLISH GOOGLE TRANSALATION

Garzon’s trial and witnesses in his defense
by dropev
A wide range of information and photographs fill the pages of newspapers and the stories of many television networks. The echo that reaches a large public is remarkable. The testimony given by the families of the victims of Franco in defense of Judge Garzon are stories that make your hair like hooks and no doubt will happen until they testify all

The courage and firmness of these “memoriadores” is a great example for all citizens of this country amnesiac.

 Many of us steeped in these micro biographies, which are part of our own individual history as relatives of victims, we have had and posted on our blogs or websites.

In our families the painful words associated with our missing are similar to the sound these days in the media. Died from intestinal bleeding, by respiratory collapse, …, … gunshot head injury, without specifying what and who is responsible, are listed in the death certificate (if any) dated subsequent to the facts without legible signatures no autopsy, no burial or simply in a parish register with a “D” before the name of a person.

Our families have the physical and psychic pain rooted in memory: castor oil, shaved heads, walking through the villages demeaning, insulting, discriminatory treatment for mother, father, son, daughter or wife of a “red” , food poverty, expropriation of personal property, carrying a meal or appliances to a parent in prison and the answer “to this and does not need” the “hands tied with wire,” the shot still alive a well, spraying gasoline, beaten with numerous fractures and then the “coup de grace”, the belly of a woman burst expecting a baby, the outcasts of his people, the stolen children, building a new road passes over the mass grave without anyone … prevent violation of graves and take bodies to Cuelgamuros. The absurdity of a country under the repression of a dictatorship.

Sympathizers and supporters of Judge Baltasar Garzon arrival await your arrival to the Supreme Court today, where he continued the trial against him had jurisdiction to investigate crimes franquismo.SERGIO BARRENECHEA / EF
The TS courtroom decorated with velvet and gilding, with judges who do not wrinkle their robes and starched the heck it is like a pit where the bodies of the space-filling ditches to stifle the present trial. Lawyers for the prosecution against Garzon, oblivious to the pain, the witnesses ningunean cutting off the floor, bringing out the much used “Paracuellos Jarama.”

Being the first high courts before these stories are set, and defining a clear violation of human rights, crimes against humanity, we must not forget, under any illusion that NO COMMISSION TO ASSIST THE TRUTH, NOT REPAIR IS BEING OR JUSTICE. Only witness called by the defense of Judge Garzón.

Baltasar Garzon, who received these family members, trying to give them their proper legal aid, promoted his car two years ago about the crimes of the dictatorship, the media coverage of such crimes as never before in our country. Then and now the whole world listens to the stories that were told in the kitchens of our families in a low voice “for if they know the neighbors.”

It may be the last time we heard Justice.

In Memory of our missing relatives, in gratitude to Judge Garzon, in recognition of the courage and tenacity of the witnesses, (they are our companions) in solidarity with them, claiming TRUTH, JUSTICE AND REPAIR, a fraternal embrace.

Pedro Romero de Castilla-Vicente Ramos, grandson Wenceslas gone and Eustachian reprisals.

Some of the press these days:

The grandchildren look with equal dignity without fear of our parents

“They said they had busted the guts to my grandmother pregnant”

http://politica.elpais.com/politica/2012/02/02/actualidad/1328180875_064552.html

According to the New York Civil Liberties Union (NYCLU), “more than 4 million innocent New Yorkers were subjected to police stops and street interrogations from 2004 through 2011.” Predictably, “black and Latino communities continue to be the overwhelming target of these tactics. Nearly nine out of 10 stopped-and-frisked New Yorkers have been completely innocent, according to the NYPD’s own reports.”

“As we march up Third Ave.,” Jamel tells the group assembled beneath the cloudy skies to protest the practices, “your job is to recruit everyone you see. You’ve been drafted. You ain’t got no say-so.” Jamel is a photographer, digital media artist and educator, who has been instrumental in organizing many of the Stop Stop and Frisk rallies in black and Latino majority neighborhoods around New York. Rallying the troops to march, he tells the crowd that we are here so that “no more generations of our youth will continue to be brutalized because of the way that they look. We’re here to say, ‘No more of this shit.’”

Read full story HERE  http://wammtoday.wordpress.com/2012/02/02/occupy-

 

Zombie banks are dragging Ireland into the ground

Just like many African nations, Ireland’s debts must be cancelled or a ‘financial bomb’ will go off in its most deprived communities

 Activists more accustomed to campaigning against the debts of countries like Zimbabwe, Egypt, Ecuador and Indonesia were instead outside the Irish embassy this morning. Dressed as zombies, we hoped to shed some light on the so-called “zombie banks” whose debts continue to drain resources from an Irish public sector that is being slashed to the bone.
But in Iceland They REFUSED TO PAY
Iceland was ripe for change, having effectively gone bust thanks to the cronyism of a cluster of politicians and bankers who thought that they could turn an island of fishermen with a population of 318,000 into a financial superpower.In less than four years, the most rapid expansion of a banking system in history saw three privatised banks develop assets 10 times the size of the country’s GDP. It was the Icarus economy. Property prices tripled, the stock market multiplied nine times, and people borrowed heavily – often in foreign currencies – to cash in on the boom. The crash was fast, hard and painful, worsened by the collapse of the krona as the state, unable to bail out the banks, refused to pay foreign creditors. The strategy looks smart now, compared with events in Greece and Ireland
Ireland’s financial crisis has much in common with scores of countries across the developing world. The country has been brought to its knees by an enormous debt, which originated not with excessive public spending, but a footloose financial sector that gambled with the future of the country. Without so much as a vote, Ireland’s people found themselves on the hook for tens of billions of euros of reckless investments.
The ultimate symbol of this form of crony capitalism in Ireland is Anglo Irish, the bank that started Ireland’s slide into the abyss. Anglo Irish lent vast sums of money to fuel Ireland’s property bubble, in the process making fortunes for rich speculators. Anglo is believed to have 15 customers who owe the bank more than €500m each.
When the bubble burst, the Irish government stepped in to underwrite the bank – ultimately being forced to nationalise it. This disastrous decision was not based on any assessment of the use of Anglo to the economy. Economics professor Morgan Kelly said at the time that Anglo – as well as Irish Nationwide, which was also brought into public ownership – “were purely conduits for property speculation. They fulfil no role in the Irish economy.” He said it would be “better to incinerate €1.5bn than squander it on Anglo Irish Bank”.
Outrage at RBS boss's bonus deal
A £963,000 bonus in shares awarded to Royal Bank of Scotland boss Stephen Hester is strongly criticised by politicians and unions.
Today Anglo Irish, rebranded as the Irish Bank Resolution Corporation, is a zombie bank – a bankrupt institution that exists to channel government money to a group of bondholders who the Irish people can’t know anything about, and who themselves were fuelling Ireland’s increasingly speculative economy.

25-G Fora Feixestes dels nostres barris

20h. CONCENTRACIÓ (Hospital de Sant Pau cantonada Av. Gaudí)
20.30h. CASSOLADA. Vine a boicotejar la seva marxa

El dia 25 de cada mes, les organitzacions ultracatòliques “Hazte Oir” i “Derecho a la Vida” es concentren davant l’hospital de Sant Pau amb l’objectiu de pressionar als centres mèdics perquè deixin de practicar avortaments, promovent alhora un discurs feixista, lesbo-trans-homòfob, patriarcal, sexista i racista, propi de la dretas més rància. És per això que nosaltres hem decidit fer una contra-concentració per donar suport a la decisió de les dones a interrompre un embaràs no desitjat, i perquè en definitiva nosaLtres ens oposem a tot discurs que posi en perill la nostra llibertat i la nostra capacitat de decidir sobre la nostra vida i el nostre cos.

NOSALTRES DECIDIM SOBRE ELS NOSTRES COSSOS
AVORTAMENT LLIURE I GRATUÏT!25-G Out Feixestes our neighborhoods
Posted by foradelesnostresvides on January 13, 2012 in Announcements

20h. 25th Jan every month DEMO  (Hospital de Sant Pau corner of Av. Gaudí)
20:30. Saucepan Banging Sessions. Come to boycott the march

The 25th of each month, organizations ultracatòliques “Hazte hear” and “Law and Life” are concentrated to the hospital of St. Paul in order to put pressure on medical centers to stop abortion, while promoting a fascist speech , lesbo-trans-homophobic, patriarchal, sexist and racist in itself dretas more stale. That’s why we decided to make a counter-concentration to support the decision of women to interrupt an unwanted pregnancy, and because ultimately we are opposed to any discourse that endanger our freedom and our ability to decisions about our lives and our bodies.

ENGLISH google

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