YES, MORE ON THE OLYMPICS.

----and a little more on the Olympics, this time from A World to Win:

Olympic dream and reality

It’s exactly a year since inner-city riots swept London and other parts of the country. They were sparked by bottled-up anger at the arrogance of the police and rapidly spread into a brief orgy of looting and general destructiveness that took many, including the police, by surprise.
As the medals stack up, politicians backed up by the tabloids are hailing the London Olympics as a great British success story draped in endless Union Jacks. So does the hiatus as millions are drawn into the spectacle mean that the alienation which lay behind the riots has been replaced by a new sense of community, as some would have it?
It’s true that the London Olympics are a showcase for aspects of the British character and mass behaviour not normally apparent in the hardscrabble struggles of daily life. In addition to the prowess of the athletes, thousands of young people have made it as a chance to be friendly and helpful to visitors.
It may be asked where has this great surge of sporting talent and determination, which saw British athletes win six gold medals in one day, come from?

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A MULTI COLOURED RAG.

        We are into the second week of the Olympics and nobody can deny, there has been a lot of excellent sport. Though we all know that the modern day Olympics has nothing to do with sport. It is all about corporate identity, a corporate greed feast with particular brands trying to dominate the market. It is also about giving a public subsidy of tax payers money to big business, we are talking billions here. However, its most important function is to get the public all behind the flag, all that flag waving and shouting, creating the illusion that we are all in this together, we are one big happy family. Patriotism, the foundation of wars, the keeper of the state, forget your poverty and injustice, forget the gulf between rich and poor, forget the austerity cuts, unemployment, benefit cuts, lower pensions and deteriorating education system and health service, we are all team GB.

PATRIOTISM.

No, I shall not die for the fluttering flag,

if truth be known, ‘tis nothing but a multi-coloured rag

held aloft by some foolish hand

inciting worker and peasant to kill

on some green and wooded hill,

peasant and worker from some other land.

Nor shall I shed blood for the fluttering rag

that brings out fools to stand and brag

of brutal deeds painted grand,

deeds where rustic and craftsman lie so still

killed by my brothers' misguided hand.

No allegiance have I for the Nation

this man made autocratic creation

that divides my brothers in a world so small,

binds us to a country's cause, right or wrong,

bids us follow its drum, sing its song,

then sheds our blood in some border brawl.

No, I'll be no slave to flag or nation,

have no ear for power oration,

though its iron heel is on my breast,

my back feels its leather thong,

at patriotism's barracoon, I'll be no guest.

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GUNS, GREED AND GAMES.

        While the corporate  greed machine gears up to make a killing at its latest cash cow, the London Olympics, I think we should do our bit to get in the mood. After all we the tax payers have paid a lot of our money to help them get a start on their greed feast. We have sunk a lot of our pensions and social services' money into this military exercise in an attempt to help out those sleazy, sweaty handed shareholders secure their fat pension pots, so let's not lose our enthusiasm at the last lap.

Graphics from HERE:

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LORDS OF THE RINGS!!

From "A World to Win"

Lords of the Rings take over London

      When a café owner has to change its name, shops are banned from having a certain number of linked rings in their window, roads are barred to ordinary motorists and thousands of police and soldiers occupy a quarter of a major city, it can only mean one thing – the Olympics are here.

And when corporations are provided with a tax-free zone for the duration of the Games, you know that the shadowy International Olympic Committee is running the show. Tax exemptions were granted by UK tax authorities as part of a package of concessions demanded by the IOC. They apply to corporation and income tax for non-UK companies and individuals working on the Olympics between 30 March and 8 November this year.
         The IOC’s charter states that their mission is “to promote Olympism throughout the world and to lead the Olympic movement” and “to oppose any political or commercial abuse of sport and athletes”. This is hypocrisy writ large from the owners of the Olympic rings logo.

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SECURING WHOSE WORLD?

        With the hullabaloo about Olympic security and G4S, a little information on the Goliath corporate beast that goes by the name of G4S is perhaps welcome. This is no ordinary corporate beast, this one is the spearhead of the financial Mafia's privatisation program and in being so has made billions from tax payers money taking over security, prisons, police stations, migrant detention and a host of other parts of the state's control and repression facilities. It's tentacles reach across the world and slither into any area of repression that any state wants to privatise. All done with tax payers money at an extortionate profit to G4S.

 

This from A World to Win:

G4S - 'securing' their world, not ours

        Despite its inability to fulfil its London 2012 contract, the rise and rise of G4S is the story of the privatisation of the state and an increasing emphasis on “threats” and “security concerns” aimed at keeping people in thrall to authority.
     G4S is no ordinary corporation. It operates in more than 125 countries and has 675,000 employees. Group turnover last year was £7.5 billion, mostly derived from state contracts around the world, with 30% of revenues coming from “developing markets”. Pre-tax profits were up 2.1% to £531m.
      The self-styled “world's leading international security solutions group” has cashed in on the drive by the state to divest itself of more and more functions like prisons, crowd control and significant parts of the police service. As the company’s website declares: “In more ways than you might realise, G4S is securing your world.”
Of course, it’s not “our world” so much as their world – the rich, the bankers, the state, and the corporations that G4S helps to secure. And nowhere is “security” more on the state’s lips than in Israel, which continues to occupy Palestinian lands in defiance of countless UN resolutions.

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THE LONDON OLYMPICS WAR GAMES??

           The Olympics, the most expensive TV program ever in the UK, a corporate greed feast paid for by public funds. Or as our Millionaire cabal in The Westminster Houses of Greed and Corruption would say, "a chance to show case Britain". However the London that visitors will see will not be the London that most Londoners know. It will be a surreal London, a science fiction London, a military zone London, a London where military law will rule. Apart from the billions of pounds of public money thrown at this even, to encourage corporate leeches to come in and make a killing, there will be another container ship full of money spent on "security". Welcome to the Olympic spirit, UK style.

 This from The Edge of Sport by Dave Zirin:

         As many as 48,000 security forces. 13,500 troops. Surface to air missiles stationed on top of residential apartment buildings. A sonic weapon that disperses crowds by creating "head splitting pain."Unmanned drones peering down from the skies. A safe-zone, cordoned off by an 11 mile, electrified fence, ringed with trained agents and 55 teams of attack dogs.

        One would be forgiven for thinking that these were the counter-insurgency tactics used by U.S. army bases in Iraq and Afghanistan, or perhaps the military methods taught to third world despots at the School of the Americas in Ft. Benning Georgia. But instead of being used in a war zone or the theatre of occupation, they in fact make up the very visible security apparatus in London for the 2012 Summer Olympics.

        London, which has the most street cameras per capita of any city on earth, has for the last seven years since the terror attacks of 7/7/05, been a city whose political leaders would spare no expense to monitor its own citizens. But the Olympic operation goes above and beyond anything we’ve ever seen when a Western democracy hosts the games. Not even China in 2008 used drone planes or ringed the proceedings with a massive, high-voltage fence. But here is London, preparing a counter insurgency, and parking an aircraft carrier right in the Thames. Here is London adding “scanners, biometric ID cards, number-plate and facial-recognition CCTV systems, disease tracking systems, new police control centres and checkpoints.”

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OLYMPIC FERVOUR.

        According to the mainstream media, we are all excited about the Olympics. Well I know the corporate sponsors are very excited, but you and me?Apart from it being an opportunity to pour massive amounts of public money into corporate bank accounts, at a time when our millionaire cabal of politicians are telling us we can't afford anything, it is also a wonderful opportunity for the powers that be to try to crank up public fear and flood the country with armed police. It appears that the security bill for the Olympics will be one billion pounds, a phrase that springs to mind would be, “austerity budget my arse”. Some of this billion pounds will be spent on putting surface-to-air missiles on the roofs of private residents' apartments in East London. The proposed site for this lunacy has over 700 residents living there, and they are none to pleased about this addition to their facilities. Can you imagine the scene if one of those adrenalin pumped uniformed watchful eyed individuals actually fired one of those missiles over an Olympic packed city like London? After an unbelievable explosion it would rain white hot shards of metal shrapnel down on the innocent citizens of wide area of London. Of course our millionaire government of the people, for the people, are quite prepared to do such a thing, well that's what governments do.

Photograph:The Daily Mail on "modern British policing" and preparation for the Olympics

         During the Olympics we can expect our cities to look a bit like a war zone, there will be armed police everywhere, but after the “Games” don't expect them all to disappear again. Over the years we have seen the police being militarised and this is another opportunity to go further down that road. We already have armed police strutting around airports, so why not shopping malls, outside banks, at football matches and of course those blood protesters need to be watched. Eventually we can expect our “community” policeman to look something like the photo.

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CAPITALISM, GREATER OPPORTUNITY = GREATER EXPLOITATION.

        This is capitalism, big events mean greater business opportunities, greater business opportunities means greater exploitation. In this system, slavery is everywhere.

Stop Nike Cheating Women Workers!
Scotland Feminista Saturday,
31 March 2012 10:30 until 12:00

        On Saturday 31 March join Scotland Feminista’s protest outside the Nike store on Buchanan Street, Glasgow. The impact of the London Olympics is already being felt by women workers in Bangladeshi factories producing Nike sportswear. New research released by War on Want s...hows that Bangladeshi garment workers, 85% of whom are women, are being cheated of their maternity rights, face sexual harassment, and receive poverty pay. Those who join unions to demand better pay and conditions risk losing their jobs. However, thousands of women have defied intimidation to fight for their rights as workers in the garment industry. On 31 March feminists in the UK will get out onto the streets to join their struggle. WILL YOU? Take part in our Cheats’ Mini-Olympics and stand in solidarity with Bangladeshi garment workers producing Nike’s sportswear who are systematically being denied their rights.

Facebook Event Page: http://www.facebook.com/events/211700045598601/

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