A Requiem For Democracy.

     Corporatism just took a very large step forward in its battle to control national governments. TPP secret discussions, locked well away from public scrutiny, have finally been signed on the dotted line. In Auckland New Zealand out-of-touch Trade Ministers and corporate bureaucrats just put their thumbs to their noses and ignored millions of Internet users, plus millions of others, and signed the TPP agreement. At the same time, New Zealand police, the corporate world's government sponsored minders, were intimidatingly knocking on the doors of “known activists” demanding to know about any plans they may have to protest this extreme censorship plan.

        TPP is seen as an integral part of TTIP, and all part of the corporate czars plans to rule the world, over-riding any sham of democracy that we may think we have. These so called "trade agreements" put the corporate world in the driving seat, placing them in a position to challenge any legislation made by governments, that they consider might hinder their drive for profits. Health and safety regulations, minimum wage guarantees, and so on, can be challenged if the corporate greed machine deems them to be a drag on their drive for gold.

     The ratifying of these power-monger agreements can be seen as a requiem for democracy, another step in the march of power away from the people to the upper echelons of the faceless bureaucrats of the corporate world, its natural direction in capitalism. We have always argued that parliamentary party elections were an illusion, a smoke and mirrors trick to make you believe you have democracy, now it has become even less, it is no more than chewing gum and candy-floss TV entertainment. 

       How can we solve the problems in our world, when the control lies in the hands of those who wish to plunder the earth and exploit all its population? We have to shift the power away from the faceless accountants and corporate bureaucrats and into the hands of the people. We can't do this unless we smash the existing system of capitalism. 

More information:

https://www.facebook.com/openmediaorg

https://twitter.com/OpenMediaOrg

Visit ann arky's home at www.radicalglasgow.me.uk

1% - Superfluous To Requirements.

       The world has reached a very bizarre situation. Through human effort and ingenuity we have built up an enormous mountain of wealth, however, we have allowed 1% of the world's population to purloin 50% of that wealth. At the same time we have allowed the conditions of the other 99% to become ever more bleak. Surely any sane person must see this as unjust, unacceptable and unsustainable. Living within this mountain of wealth the world has 2.2 billion children, of which approximately 1 billion live in poverty, almost 50%. Here in the UK we have roughly 3.7 million children living in poverty, 28% of all children. To put it into context, imagine a school class room with 30 pupils, 9 of those children will be living in poverty. There is another anomaly in this capitalist system, London, one of the richest cities in the world, has the highest rates of child poverty in the UK. Opulence and deprivation live cheek by jowl in this crazy insane system of capitalist exploitation and greed. 

       Looking at the trend of greater wealth moving into ever few hands, we have to ask ourselves, will the 1% stop at owning 50% of the world's wealth, will they as a group, say, "Well we have enough now, let's reverse the trend", or will they continue their journey of grasping at ever more of that wealth, where does it stop? When do we say enough is enough, how many more children will have to sink into deprivation and poverty, before we call a halt to this plundering of the world's wealth by the greedy few?
 

      We can't rely on that 1% to reverse this trend, to abandon their desire for ever larger yachts, ever more lavish personal jets, that just will not happen. We have to decide that this system of injustice, inequality, exploitation and greed, has to be destroyed, by us. We have to start with co-operation across our communities and workplaces, at taking control of our lives and shaping things to our needs. We the ordinary people, produce everything in this world, we distribute everything in this world, the change has to be that we decide what we produce, and how it should be distributed. We don't need some over paid CEO, nor a bunch of greedy shareholders, nor the leeches of the financial Mafia, to tell us how to shape our society, to tell us who gets and who goes without. We know, that the 1% is superfluous to requirements.

Visit ann arky's home at www.radicalglasgow.me.uk

 

The Silencing Of The People.

        This matters, this is the squeezing out of you and I, the silencing of the little people. It has to be resisted, or our voices will disappear. This appeal from Avaaz:

      The richest 1% could now control what we all see on the Internet forever. It’s the apocalypse of the Internet as we know it, and will erase the democratic promise of an information highway for everyone the founders of the world wide web imagined.
       Together, our community has built on that vision, using the web to fight corruption, save lives, and bring people-powered aid to countries in crisis. But the US and the EU are on the verge of giving the richest corporations the right to show content fast, while paywalling or slowing down everything else. Avaaz’s ability to show the world citizen journalist footage from Syria, or run campaigns to save our planet is under threat!
        Decisions on both sides of the Atlantic are being made now. But tech innovators, free speech advocates and the best web companies are fighting back. If millions of us join them now we can create the largest call for a democratic and free Internet ever. Sign up now and tell everyone:
http://www.avaaz.org/en/internet_apocalypse_pa_eu/?bwqhjab&v=34958
        Until now, any improvements in the speed and functioning of the Internet benefited all of us — if Rupert Murdoch’s ultra-conservative Fox News got a faster way to stream videos, it also benefitted independent media showing reality on the ground in Ukraine, Syria, or Palestine. Politicians called this “net neutrality” and laws protecting it used to exist in the United States until a court just struck them down. Now, the EU Parliament is threatening to pass regulation that give ISPs the right to carve up the web and control w hat we see, by slowing down or charging for sites that don't pay.
      But we can stop this. First, we will show up with massive global numbers into this week’s public meeting in the United States to decide whether to reinstate Internet protections. Then we will unleash a high powered lobby team to target the EU Parliament to ensure its committees listen to the public. This will be the big first step we need to win these important battles over the next few months.
Web providers like Verizon and Vodafone are lobbying hard for an Internet for the rich. And without a massive response from citizens, they could win, and put our whole community’s work at risk. Most of our Internet is located in the US and the EU so this affects us all. We don’t have any time to lose. Click below to join now:
http://www.avaaz.org/en/internet_apocalypse_pa_eu/?bwqhjab&v=34958
       When our community was less than half of the size it is now, we rallied and helped kill the ACTA treaty and stopped massive Internet censorship laws SOPA/PIPA. Today, we are more powerful than ever. Let’s now join together and ensure that what connects us all stays open.
With hope,
Pascal, Emma, Dalia, Luis, Emilie, Luca, Sayeeda and the whole Avaaz team
    PS - Many Avaaz campaigns are started by members of our community. It's easy to get started - click to start yours now and win on any issue - local, national or global: http://www.avaaz.org/en/petition/start_a_petition/?bgMYedb&v=23917

SOURCES:
On dangers of non-Network Neutrality (ABC news):
http://abcnews.go.com/Business/major-ways-internet-change-net-neutrality/story?id=21541399
Save the Internet
http://savetheinternet.eu/en/
EU telecoms market reforms threaten net neutrality and privacy (Wire d)
http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2013-11/19/eu-telecoms-reform-concerns

Federal court strikes down FCC net neutrality rules (The Verge)
http://www.theverge.com/2014/1/14/5307650/federal-court-strikes-down-net-neutrality-rules

Summary of BEREC positions on net neutrality (BEREC)
http://berec.europa.eu/files/document_register_store/2012/12/BoR_(12)_146_Summary_of_BEREC_positions_on_net_neutrality2.pdf

Visit ann arky's home at www.radicalglasgow.me.uk

May The 1% Prevail!!

          I have never been happy with the 99% - 1% cry of the occupy movement, I don't think it is that clean a break. The vast majority of the 99% don't really want the 99% to take control of everything, they just want a better say in the running of the stinking system in an attempt to make it "fairer", to guarantee a little cake on the table instead of the perpetual stale bread. Inside that 99% however, there is another 1%, perhaps a little more than that, who have higher hopes and dreams than a benevolent capitalism. They don't see taking over the institutions of a rotten system as any answer at all, to them society has to be refashioned, reshaped to fit the dreams of the just. They will have no truck with the pomp and ceremony of past power and will bury tradition that binds us to inequality. Their tomorrow has no grand plan, it is a continuous metamorphosis that perpetually shapes itself to all our needs. Ask them what their tomorrow will look like and they will reply, "I don't know, it all depends on who walks with me." The important thing is that it is all those involved in our society, that determine the shape of our society with justice and freedom at its heart.

Said in another way: 

"------We know what the real causes of the suffering we endure: the sect of power, the cult of money, but also the obedience that they demand and obtain. These causes are perpetuated in the daily lives of human beings by the actions, gestures, relationships that interweave within a society in which we feel that we are strangers everywhere. And these causes – that have to be refused, deserted, demolished – have found shelter in your movement. We have never felt at home in 99% of our modern life, spent lining up to beg for crumbs, and yet you insist on defending 99% of the problem. We will take our possibilities elsewhere. Through the hopes, dreams and actions that have earned your condemnation. You, you still continue you passage through the ocean of universal indignation. You raise your sails passing the ropes to bureaucrats and police. You share space and air with the scum who have made life on this planet so unlivable. You head straight towards a new tomorrow with the hold still full of yesterday’s shit. We won’t climb onto your ship, in case we would never get off of it. We will stay on our rafts which you so despise, because they are so small and light.
But watch out. A vessel that travels with our enemies on board is an opportunity to fine to miss. Do you laugh? Do you have no fear of us because we don’t have the strength board you? You’ve misunderstood us. We don’t want your gold, we don’t at all want to conquer you, We want to make you sink with all your death cargo. To succeed at this, there is no need for a majestic fleet, one fire-ship is enough. Small and light."

Read the full article from Tabula Rasa HERE:

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LET'S SHOW WE CARE!!

          I think I'm beginning to get it with Cameron's "Big Society" we need to show more caring, perhaps in suggesting that we spend our resources on us ordinary people is being a little bit selfish. After all a millionaire has also got needs, us being a little bit more tolerant might take some of the stress out of their lives.  

     I think this excellent video helps us to understand what we should do.

      

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