ECONOMIC BULLSHIT.

         Here we go, here we go, millionaire Osborne will take centre stage this afternoon and deliver what is meant to be taken as a profound calculated analysis and plan. When in fact it is a series of calculated guesses, smoke and mirrors and a ridged following of ideology. His master plan when he was handed the job of Chancellor of the Exchequer by his millionaire mate, David, was to suck all the money out of the public purse and transfer it to his corporate friends. Of course we were told that this would be painful, but difficult choices had to be made. However our misery would be short lived, we would just have to suffer until 2015, then all our finances would be in great order and we would once again be living the good times, (which never were for the most of us). Now, as 2015 approaches, it is not quite sorted yet, so once again, difficult choices have to be made. That translates into, screw more money from the public purse, hand more money to the corporate world. Sadly that means we will have to wait until 2018, until those ever so rosy good times return. What a load of bullshit.

 "These are difficult times".

      We are on a downward spiral, as far as the living standards of the ordinary people of the developed world are concerned. According to recently released figures, Europe is sinking deeper into recession. The people of Greece have been brutally assaulted by the financial mafia, Spain, Potrugal and Italy are circling the plug hole, Ireland has to intoduce further austerity measures. Here, we are in the hands of a member of the millionaire Etonian old boys club, telling us that we will have to face a few more years of being screwed for the benefit of his corporate friends. What they are trying to get you to swallow is that after ten years or so of slashing our living standards and destroying the fabric of our society, we will all be better off!!! Tell that to the working families that are living in poverty at this moment in time. Tell it to the unemployed youth and the thousands of homeless. Tell it to the one third of our chidren who at present are living below the poverty line. 

       This certainly a master plan, a rigid following of ideology, for the Western corporate world to survive and grow, it has to create a Western wide sweatshop economy. A low wage, unregulated labour force is it last gasp to compete with its Eastern corporate adversary. You and I are intended to be part of that subservient corporate dream. Is that what you want for yourself, your kids and grandkids? If not, we have to organise, resist and act, very quickly, after all that is the way that they work.

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MISERY NOW FOR PIE IN THE SKY, IN THE BYE AND BYE.

      Unrest and anger spreads and intensifies across Greece as more "austerity cuts" are on the cards. More cuts to people's pensions, workers not having been paid for six months, and so it goes on, and all this is for the benefit of the Greek people, or so the people are being told. They are being asked to meekly accept abject poverty, deprivation and misery, all for their own good!!! They are being told that their country will have to sell off all the assets owned by the people, so that their government can pay the financial Mafia billions of Euros, and things will all come right in the bye and bye. Spain, Italy, Portugal and Ireland are not far behind, and yet there are those that still believe the problem will be contained, that the system will be fixed, and we will all get back to growth and eternal prosperity. What is being plundered from the public purse will never come back. If you believe that all those billions of Euros poured into the coffers of the financial Mafia will somehow find their way back to the public purse and create a decent society for all the people, then you are more stupid than naive.

      The way that the system works now is that it is a downward spiral for the people, and a financial vacuum cleaner for the financial Mafia. Why should they hand it all back to make your life and my life better? If they can have you scrambling about in the gutter, fighting each other for the few jobs around and willing to accept whatever wage they decide to pay you, then they are doing fine. Perhaps you see corporate capitalism as a compassionate beast that at the moment has some problems, but a soon as it sorts them out it will start to reward you for your patience and suffering, Dream on my friend.

 

This from Occupied London:

Workers at the Skaramangas shipyard in Athens storm the ministry of defense; farmers in Heraclion, Crete raid the Heraclion airport, as tension ahead of the voting of new austerity cuts intensifies.

Watch video and read the full article HERE:

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ONE WORLD, OUR WORLD.

        Western democracy in action, the system is creaking under the strain of the desire for freedom and justice, how long before it completely collapses. We should always remember, we are governed by consent, we can always withdraw that consent, hundreds thousands have already done so.

When injustice becomes law, resistance becomes duty.  Thomas Jefferson.

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A LITTLE MORE ON "DON'T PAY".

     It seems that the Irish people are about to launch their own version of the "Don't Pay" campaign that is spreading across Europe. Though in truth it is more a case of " Can't Pay Won't Pay" as it is the severity of the cuts that is forcing people  to take matters into their own hands. It is important that the people protesting in one country are aware that the same thing is happening in countries all across Europe and to link up and work in unison and solidarity with each other.

    This from KCUR.org:

By NPR People: Philip Reeves

      House prices have crashed. Banks and businesses have failed. Jobs have been axed. People are struggling to make the mortgage. The Republic of Ireland's 4.6 million people have suffered considerably since the financial crisis began four years ago, forcing their government to turn to the European Union and International Monetary Fund for a $90 billion bail-out.

     Yet the Irish have, for the most part, endured the pain and taken the medicine — a mighty dose of tax increases and spending cuts — compliantly enough to earn plaudits for their country in Brussels as the "poster child of austerity".

Is that now about to change?

      This weekend, Ireland's 1.65 million householders were supposed to register to pay a new tax; an annual household charge of 100 Euros. That's about $133. By the time the deadline expired at midnight Saturday, only about half had done so. Hundreds of thousands now face the prospect of penalties and, potentially, prosecution. Is a tax revolt in the making, that could disrupt the government's strategy for getting the economy back on its feet — and make it still harder to implement future austerity measures?

Continue READING:

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23.3% UNEMPLOYMENT AND MORE TO COME!!!

       This video is Barcelona on 29th. March, before the government announced another round of austerity cuts described as the worst cuts since the Franco era. How much more will the people of Europe take before the really shout, "enough is enough"? Must we all wait until every major country in Europe is reduced to the poverty level of the Greek people. The Spanish establishment is solidly following the instructions of the fanatical Mafia, the same instructions that sent the Greek people to generations of deprivation. Italy, Portugal, Ireland are well down the road to that deprivation, there is nothing in their plans to help the ordinary people, it is all about saving the bankers and the Euro. As far as the financial Mafia are concerned, the people will just have to pay what ever price it takes. They are not there to help the people, they are their to enhance their already unimaginable wealth and protect their power, if that means plundering all public assets, then so be it.

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A CONTINENT ON THE VERGE OF INSURRECTION!!

       Across Europe the people are being squeezed, it is all a matter of degree, where you stay will determine that amount of pain you receive. Greece is at the forefront of the attack, with wages cut by 50% and more, in some cases wages delayed for a couple of months, taxes increased, pensions slashed, social services destroyed and unemployment going stratospheric. The Italian government has been replaced by a member of the financial militia, as has been the Greek government. Italy has had mass demonstrations on the streets, Portugal is gearing up for a general strike, Spain likewise, and it already has had several one day stoppages, Ireland has dropped back into recession. Recently Spain's Prime Minister stated that comparing Spain with Greece was ridiculous and that Spain would meet it fiscal targets of austerity and reduce its deficit. However, meeting its fiscal targets, set by the financial Mafia, will mean more suffering poured on to the backs of the Spanish people, will they accept more poverty to save the bond markets?

        Romania, Hungary, Belgium are all doing the austerity thing and the people are suffering, the usual lie from the financial Mafia is that it is a “crisis”. There is no “crisis”, everything is working fine, all public funds are being directed to the corporate fascists that rule the world, everything is being privatised to help to re-capitalise their coffers, all is going according to their ideological plan. We are fed this illusion of “crisis” in an attempt to get us to swallow this rapid plunder of all public assets. You may see a worried look on the faces of the ordinary people, but you will only see smiles on the faces of the bankers, bond holders and the corporate world. How long will the public take this purloining of their kids future, how long will they suffer the lies of their “elected representatives”, how long before they public realise the system is loaded against them. It can't be modified to suit their desires, it can't deliver well being for all, it is a ponzi scheme and we the public are the dupes.

       The system has to be destroyed and now more than ever it is obvious that it is not a national problem, it is international. It is the people of the whole of Europe that have to rise up and create an alternative, we have to stop saying, “Please Sir, can I have some more.” It is our world or it is their world, we have to decide. Do we want more of the same, always struggling to get a little more from our masters, or do we want a world that sees to the needs of all our people?

This from Anarchist News.

The spectre of the revolt of December 2008, which shook the country deeply after Alexis was murdered by the cops, has haunted minds for months in Greece. Indeed, faced with the unprecedented poverty in the country, with the impossibility of “improving” the economic and social situation, faced with the turning of the screw on the whole population in the name of upholding the system and power, many people have put in their lot for the return of that spectre, for a vast revolt against the State and capitalism without compromise or mediation. After the vote went through on the nth package of austerity measures, which among other things stipulated a 30% reduction of the minimum wage (with all the prior reductions, this adds up to a 50% wage reduction in less than a year), it’s not“just” that spectre that’s taken hold of Athens as it has of several other cities – it’s something more: that night, after the vote, a breeze of insurrection blew in. Dozens of buildings were burned to the ground (banks, institutions, supermarkets, “historical heritage sites,” ministerial buildings,...), hundreds of businesses were pillaged and destroyed, barricades were erected, aside from the heavy confrontations with the forces of order, building occupations, etc. But that gust blew away all attempts to make “calculations”about what was happening too… the sheer vastness of its scope, involving dozens of hundreds of thousands of persons, every one of them charged with their own load of rage, desire, ideas – every one of them ready with their hands. No politician, no manager, no“politics” could lay a finger on it without the risk of getting burned.

Continue READING:

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BANKERS CRIME -- PEOPLE PAY.

         A simple explanation on why we have "austerity" in Europe. The bankers hymn that we the people have all been living beyond our means and now we have to pay, is probably the biggest lie every put across an entire continent and yet lots of people swallow the lie. Probably partly by confusion and partly by ignorance of the facts. That is why any discussion that highlights that lie is worth giving voice to as widely as possible.

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TWO FACED FINANCIAL MAFIA HENCHMEN.

        Slippery, sleazy smooth talking henchmen of the corporate financial Mafia, they don't know how to make a straight answer to a direct question. Perhaps the do, but are well paid not to, double speak, phoney empty phrases, nice sounding words, that's all they spout and it is all meaningless. All meant to confuse and weave an illusion that it is all for our benefit.

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HUMAN SACRIFICE ON THE HIGH ALTER OF FINANCE.

         When looking at how the ordinary people in Europe are being punished for the sins of their bankers and politicians, it is difficult to know where to focus. Greece has been in the firing line to some of the must brutal attacks to the livings standards of any European country. However a little closer to home is Ireland. Bearing in mind that Ireland has already been through 4 years of savage cuts to the conditions of its people, what is in store for them in the coming year 2012 is frightening. The Irish government has set out its next hit list and it amounts to 2.2 billion Euros of cuts for 2012. Its targets are the usual working class areas, welfare, health, education, fuel and rent allowance, disability allowance and student grants, on top of that lot there is VAT increased to 23%. Public sector workers are being punished extremely brutally, having seen their wages cut, by on average, 15%, they now face a two year wage freeze and the threat of redundancy, as another 6.000 public sector jobs are set to go. No doubt in the coming months we will be able to talk about the decimation of the Italian people's living standards, Spain is well down the road to social disintegration caused by rampant unemployment and cuts to social spending. We here in the UK have similar problems with savage cuts and youth unemployment running at well over 1 million.

       The working class of Europe are being sacrificed on the bankers' alter of greed, what ever actions are taken by the puppet politicians, it is always to ensure that the banks and bond markets, the politicians paymasters, don't lose out. This system has nothing to do with improving the welfare of the people, it is all about amassing wealth in the accounts of the corporate world and their greedy shareholders. It is all about holding on to that unearned wealth and the power that derives from that wealth. The people are of no consequence, mere pulp that can be used, abused and sacrificed as the need arises in the game of exploitation.

"Sacrifices have to be made."

       Surely lurking somewhere in your mind you can think of an alternative system, a system that sees to the needs of all our people, a system that is built on mutual aid and sustainability. It is not impossible to build such a system, the present system of capitalism is a man made system of a few hundred years. It is not something handed done from the gods, written in tablets of stone. It was people that devised it and it was people that drove it, surely people can destroy it and build from a foundation of co-operation, a caring a system that we would be proud to leave to our grandchildren. Are you proud of the inheritance that we will leave to them under the present system?

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WISDOM FROM THE STREET.

           An economic lesson from the street, no need for a university degree, listen to the voice from the street. It is cheaper, clearer and more accurate. When will we wake up and destroy this game of fraud and corruption, that shackles us to a permanent fear of deprivation, in a world of plenty?

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WHAT HAPPENS IF THE GREEKS DEFAULT?

        The end is nigh, prepare for Armageddon, the banking world is in shit creek and the system is about to explode. Of course most people with any knowledge of capitalism know that it is unsustainable and will eventually collapse, the financial sector is just part and parcel of that same system. Our problem is not so much the collapse of the system, but how do we react to that  catastrophic event? Will we fight to get it back on the rails, so that we can get back to borrowing and getting ever bigger mortgages, back to a job with crap wages and an never ending struggle to get an increase that will help you survive? Or will we decide to take control ourselves and change the entire system to one free from the profit motive, bond holders and financial spivs? The following is an extract form a much longer and more detailed article HERE.

What Happens if the Greeks Default?

       Andrew Lilico, writing in the London Telegraph, gives us the answer to that question with a series of short bullet points. I might not agree with all of them, but he is looking in the right direction. (quoting from http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/finance/andrewlilico/100010332/what-happens-when-greece-defaults/)

       “It is when, not if. Financial markets merely aren’t sure whether it’ll be tomorrow, a month’s time, a year’s time, or two years’ time (it won’t be longer than that). Given that the ECB has played the “final card” it employed to force a bailout upon the Irish – threatening to bankrupt the country’s banking sector – presumably we will now see either another Greek bailout or default within days.

“What happens when Greece defaults. Here are a few things:

- Every bank in Greece will instantly go insolvent.

- The Greek government will nationalize every bank in Greece.

- The Greek government will forbid withdrawals from Greek banks.

- To prevent Greek depositors from rioting on the streets, Argentina-2002-style (when the Argentinian president had to flee by helicopter from the roof of the presidential palace to evade a mob of such depositors), the Greek government will declare a curfew, perhaps even general martial law.

- Greece will redenominate all its debts into “New Drachmas” or whatever it calls the new currency (this is a classic ploy of countries defaulting)

- The New Drachma will devalue by some 30-70 per cent (probably around 50 per cent, though perhaps more), effectively defaulting 0n 50 per cent or more of all Greek euro-denominated debts.

- The Irish will, within a few days, walk away from the debts of its banking system.

- The Portuguese government will wait to see whether there is chaos in Greece before deciding whether to default in turn.

- A number of French and German banks will make sufficient losses that they no longer meet regulatory capital adequacy requirements.

- The European Central Bank will become insolvent, given its very high exposure to Greek government debt, and to Greek banking sector and Irish banking sector debt.

- The French and German governments will meet to decide whether (a) to recapitalise the ECB, or (b) to allow the ECB to print money to restore its solvency. (Because the ECB has relatively little foreign currency-denominated exposure, it could in principle print its way out, but this is forbidden by its founding charter. On the other hand, the EU Treaty explicitly, and in terms, forbids the form of bailouts used for Greece, Portugal and Ireland, but a little thing like their being blatantly illegal hasn’t prevented that from happening, so it’s not intrinsically obvious that its being illegal for the ECB to print its way out will prove much of a hurdle.)

- They will recapitalise, and recapitalise their own banks, but declare an end to all bailouts.

- There will be carnage in the market for Spanish banking sector bonds, as bondholders anticipate imposed debt-equity swaps.

- This assumption will prove justified, as the Spaniards choose to over-ride the structure of current bond contracts in the Spanish banking sector, recapitalising a number of banks via debt-equity swaps.

- Bondholders will take the Spanish Banking Sector to the European Court of Human Rights (and probably other courts, also), claiming violations of property rights. These cases won’t be heard for years. By the time they are finally heard, no one will care.

- Attention will turn to the British banks. Then we shall see…”

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REAGANITES CALLING FOR REVOLUTION!!!

   

     A voice from the inside explains how an elite group of Wall St. oligarchies are plundering the world, ripping everything they can from the poor and middle classes to protect their unearned wealth. Land grabbing in Greece, pension grabbing in Ireland with the same prescription for the rest of Europe. A Western world devoid of democracy, more or less being used as a honey pot for the very, very rich. This guy from the Reagan administration believes that revolution is the only answer to this plundering of the poor and middle classes. We know it is the only answer, where there is no democracy, and there isn't, only the people can create democracy.

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MADRID ECHOES THE SPIRIT OF TAHRIR SQUARE.

The following was taken from A World to Win site. Where is the rest of Europe in this "awakening"?

Madrid echoes the spirit of Tahrir Square

     The Real Democracy Now movement that has sprung up across Spain, with a main square in Madrid under occupation since Sunday, is a key moment in the developing global struggle against the failure of the political and economic status quo.    

 Drawing their inspiration from Tahrir Square in Cairo – where the Egyptian revolution began – thousands have organised themselves into a people’s assembly in Puerta del Sol to discuss a way forward. The movement, which is independent of political parties and the trade unions, used social networking sites to mobilise for the occupation.

SOLIDARITY.

      A pamphlet distributed by organisers said they "do not represent any political party” and that "we want a new society that prioritises life over economic and political interests. We advocate a change in society and social consciousness." Fabio Gándara, the spokesman for Democracia Real Ya, a 26-year-old unemployed lawyer who is studying to be a civil servant, said: "What we're denouncing is the lack of real democracy and the tendency toward a two-party system where corruption at all levels is simply scandalous.”

     

       With tents, mattresses, a kitchen, a workshop and even a pharmacy, protesters have refused to budge, defying the decision of regional election officials that they should leave the square. They have also organised their own security teams to keep order in the square. There are at least 57 so-called "Sol campsites" that have popped up across the country in solidarity. Spaniards living abroad have also set up camps outside Spain 's embassies in Berlin and London , and in Amsterdam 's Dam Square . 

       In Spain – just as it was in Tunisia and Egypt , where the Arab spring began at the start of the year – the movement is driven by the “lost generation” of educated but unemployed young people. An estimated 45% of them are without work while average unemployment at over 20% is the highest in Europe .

      They are the victims of a global capitalist recession which has devastated Spain ’s economy which floundered when a gigantic property bubble burst in 2008. And they are casualties of the post-Franco dictatorship politics too.

      

       The fascist regime was replaced by los señores Tweedledum and Tweedledee – aka the Socialist Party (PSOE) and the right-wing People’s Party (PP). Only fewer and fewer Spaniards can tell the difference between them. Both parties are endemically corrupt and have shared the role of integrating Spain into the global market-driven capitalist economy.

        One result is that Spain is close to following Ireland , Portugal and Greece in seeking a bail-out from the European Union and the International Monetary Fund. That would spell not only the collapse of the eurozone but trigger a new global financial collapse.

      That is why Real Democracy Now is saying “Don’t vote for them” – the PSOE and PP – in Sunday’s regional and local elections because neither represents the interests of ordinary people. This is an astonishing indictment of a parliamentary democracy that was only established in 1977 after Franco’s death two years earlier.

      This, naturally, poses the question of if not this “democracy”, then what type of political system should replace it? The protests in Madrid , Barcelona , Seville and other cities, popularly known as M-15 as they began on May 15, have started that debate. In Sol Square there is a “democracy wall” where people have stuck hundreds of notes with their thoughts on them, declarations and statements.

     In Egypt , the dictatorship was overthrown but power remains out of reach, resting in the hands of an army that owns a large chunk of the economy. In Spain , a 35-year-old parliamentary democracy leaves real power in the hands of the corporations and banks who use politicians as a front.

      For a “real” democracy to work, it must involve the transfer of economic and financial resources into the hands of ordinary working people, alongside the replacing of the capitalist state by forms of popular power. Many took up the fight against Franco’s fascists in the Spanish Civil War in the 1930s with that aim in mind. The revolution was cruelly betrayed by Stalinism and then defeated. Puerta del Sol signals a chance to put history back on course.

Paul Feldman
Communications editor
20 May 2011

Corinna Lotz
Secretary

A World to Win  07871 745258

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