Future Suspended.

     Over half an hour long, but well worth seeing through to the end, an explanation of what is going on in Greece, but could, and probably will, come to the rest of Europe. Spain is well down that road already, can the rest of us be far behind?

Future Suspended:

    How does a global financial crisis permeate the spaces of the everyday in a city? Our final 35' documentary film traces the multiple transformations of crisis-ridden Athenian public space and those who traverse it.
     Future Suspended is divided in three sections. “Privatised” explores the legacy of mass privatisation projects that preceded the 2004 Olympics, placing them in the context of present day privatisation schemes. “Devalued” gazes at the ever-shrinking spaces of migrants in the city and the devaluation of their lives that comes as a result. “Militarised” shows how, in face of the crisis, this devaluation turns into a generalised condition.
   Through its cinematic traversal of today's Athens, "Future Suspended" traces the rise of the authoritarian-financial complex and how this shrinks public space in the city, fuelling social despair and anger in return.
     Future Suspended is part of the research project at crisis-scape.net. The research team consists of Christos Filippidis, Antonis Vradis, Dimitris Dalakoglou, Ross Domoney and Jaya Klara Brekke. All music for Future Suspended was composed by Giorgos Triantafyllou.
    This film is released under the Creative Commons BY-NC-ND licence. Details here:

creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/deed.en_GB

Future Suspended (english) from Ross Domoney on Vimeo.

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THAT WAS THE YEAR!

       A review of 2012 from Circle A radio. It was the year of increase poverty for the people, increase pomp and ceremony for the lords and masters with their jubilee. We had the big money splurge of the Olympics and Paralypics. A year of contrasts, as we struggled to keep our heads above water we had opulence and unearned wealth flung in our faces, a true display of the system for all to see.

A 2012 review by Circled A

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AND YET MORE ON THE OLYMPICS.

      Below is a statement by singer Morrissey on the Olympics. I can just hear the roar of approval from our “free press”!! I also feel sick in my stomach at what seems to be mass hysteria whipped up by the media, much the same way that Hitler's Nazi regime, for its own imperial dreams, whipped up the illusion of “The Fatherland”. I have a vision of all those flag waving individuals going home and this winter trying to make the decision as to whether to eat or heat. Perhaps they can all wrap themselves in the flag to keep warm.

----And, yet! I am unable to watch the Olympics due to the blustering jingoism that drenches the event. Has England ever been quite so foul with patriotism? The "dazzling royals" have, quite naturally, hi-jacked the Olympics for their own empirical needs, and no oppositional voice is allowed in the free press. It is lethal to witness. As London is suddenly promoted as a super-wealth brand, the England outside London shivers beneath cutbacks, tight circumstances and economic disasters. Meanwhile the British media present 24-hour coverage of the "dazzling royals", laughing as they lavishly spend, as if such coverage is certain to make British society feel fully whole. In 2012, the British public is evidently assumed to be undersized pigmies, scarcely able to formulate thought.
As I recently drove through Greece I noticed repeated graffiti seemingly everywhere on every available wall. In large blue letters it said WAKE UP WAKE UP. It could almost have been written with the British public in mind, because although the spirit of 1939 Germany now pervades throughout media-brand Britain, the 2013 grotesque inevitability of Lord and Lady Beckham (with Sir Jamie Horrible close at heel) is, believe me, a fate worse than life. WAKE UP WAKE UP.

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THE GREAT LONDON RIP-OFF.

           The corporate world's latest suction pump for sucking public money into their coffers, starts in about three weeks, this time it goes by the name of "The Olympics". Not only is our millionaire government spending £14 billion to get the corporate greed feast rolling, but it has also allowed certain firms tax free trading for the period from March 30 to November 8 at an estimated cost to the public purse of £700 million. Yep, it's austerity time and we're all in this together.                                       This from A World to Win.

 

London 2012 corporate sponsors cash in

         Human sporting talent and achievement? Inspiration? Yes, that’s the Olympic spirit – or rather what’s being exploited to the hilt by corporate sponsors, backed by new laws, when London 2012 opens in 25 days.

        For the “biggest thing this nation will have delivered in living memory” (Seb Coe) is being done at the expense of the people of London and the UK and their rights.

        The justification for spending some £14 billion of taxpayers’ money is that corporate sponsorship makes up the rest of the cost. But association with their brands will reap them much more than the paltry £1bn that GE, McDonalds and BP, for example, have coughed up so far. New tax rules mean that these companies will not have to pay tax on their Olympic operations between 30 March and 8 November. The loss to the Treasury is estimated at some £700 million.

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THE OLYMPICS, THE MOST EXPENSIVE TV SHOW EVER.

         The media having overdosed on the “jubilee” it is now ramming the “carrying the torch” down our throats, they get the kids out of school to make sure they have a crowd. May I suggest to all those good folk who line the streets to see the big cigarette lighter being paraded through their village/town/city, to take a good look as it will be about all they will see of the Olympics, unless they stay seated in front of a TV. What they probably don't realise is that, that television viewing will one of the most expensive viewings in their lives. They get to see the “torch” and pick up a tab of £24 billion for a television show.

      Our millionaire lords and masters spouted about the Olympics being a mere £2.4 billion which would be mainly private capital, however the price-tag rocket and private capital evaporate, leaving the tax payer to pick up the tab. By 2007 the cost was revised up to £9.3 billion, the public funding had tripled and private capital had dwindled to less than 2%. It doesn't stop there, the House of Commons Public Accounts Committee now put the cost at £11 billion with the tax payer taking the hit. While a SKY Sports investigation, including the transport upgrade put the cost at £24 billion. An awful lot of money for a TV show!! Since that is all most of the people of this country will ever see.

     The other more sinister side of this billion pound fun TV show will be the militarisation of London. The city will have surface-to-air missiles, a naval battleship moored offshore, 13,500 military personnel roaming around, which is about 4,000 more than we have based in Afghanistan. Hovering overhead will be lightweight aerial drones with elite firearms response units and snipers lurking below. All of this is not enough for the US, who will be sending their own security team which will include 500 FBI agents. This security comes at a price, £1 billion and counting. Plus it will set a precedent for drones, sniper and military patrolling our streets. Yes it will leave a lasting legacy, of debt and surveillance.

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TORTURERS IN TOWN.

 

              Athletes a part, we all know that the Olympics will be the gathering of all the pompous, arrogant, parasites, such as heads of state, dictators, monarchs, princes, etc. from all shades of the authoritarian spectrum, some worse than others. Though on the whole, the entire ratbag should be classed the same, but it does no harm to single out one who might stink a bit more than the others.

This appeal from AVAAZ

Dear friends across the UK and the Middle East,

         The British government is about to reward a torturer with a luxury hotel and chauffeur-driven BMW at the London Olympics -- unless we demand they stop this outrage.
        Prince Nasser bin Hamad Al-Khalifa is a chief architect of Bahrain’s brutal suppression of the Arab Spring, accused of personally torturing protesters, and persecuting athletes who have stood up against his father’s dictatorship. Gifted the presidency of the Bahrain Olympic Committee, Nasser now stands to receive VIP treatment at the London games. British Foreign Secretary William Hague has said that Nasser will be “closely assessed”, but hasn’t yet committed to keep out this human rights abuser. If enough of us raise our voices, we can ensure Nasser is kept away from the London games.
         Avaaz members in the UK and Bahrain have come together to start a campaign to force Secretary Hague to keep this torturer away from the Olympics, but they need our support. Sign the petition now -- when we reach 30,000 signatures, we’ll work with Bahraini activists to deliver the message to Secretary Hague and PM David Cameron in London:

http://www.avaaz.org/en/no_torturers_at_the_olympics/?vl

          Nasser is the son of Bahrain’s ruling King Hamad ibn Isa Al Khalifa, one of the Arab World’s most brutal dictators. Intimately involved in the crackdown on the Arab Spring pro-democracy protesters in Bahrain, Nasser has used his platform as head of the country’s Olympic Committee to ensure that athletes in particular have been punished if they dissent.
        He installed himself as head of a committee that targeted 150 athletes and sports officials for their democratic views, including a disabled athlete, personally ensuring that two of Bahrain's national football team star players were also arrested and imprisoned. When Mohammed, capped 52 times for Bahrain, was sentenced to 2 years in prison, Nasser tweeted, “If it was up to me, I’d give them all life.” Several of the protesters have also claimed that they were personally tortured by Nasser after their arrests for peaceful demonstrations.
        Foreign Secretary Hague and PM Cameron have the power to block Nasser’s entry into the UK, but right now, they stand set to reward him with publicly-funded VIP treatment for the duration of the London games. Let’s stand with Bahraini athletes and protesters to demand that Hague and Cameron prevent Nasser’s attendance at the games. Sign the petition:

http://www.avaaz.org/en/no_torturers_at_the_olympics/?vl

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WORKERS KNOW YOUR HISTORY - THE LONG WAR.

          Across the globe battles erupt between the state/corporate world and the people, to those who don't know their history it always seems like a new war, a blip in the system, something that will soon be sorted out and then we can all get back to "normality". However to those who do know their history, the battles are the "normality" it is just another battle in the same long war for the freedom to control our own life. A struggle that will continue until there is no state/corporate system exploiting the ordinary people. The battles come in many a guise, it can be strikes as the corporate world tries to extort extra profit from the workers. It can be protests against government policy as it tries to placate its corporate masters. It can be wars as the various power blocks seek to defend their segment or try to expand. No matter what, it is the ordinary people who are at the receiving end of the pain.

         We should always remember our history it is the voice of those who have struggled before you in the same cause, telling you of the dangers, the pitfalls, the victories. it is a cry for freedom.

 

An extract from On History, Repression and the infinite:

The Mexican Guerrilla and Forgetfulness History tells us that the Nazis cleansed Berlin of Jews in the days leading up to 1936 Summer Olympics. Before everyone arrived from abroad, the Jews had been pushed out of sight, the brutality and pogroms hidden away. The city was brightened, the roads were cleaned, and the shops were open. Three years earlier, Hitler had presided over May Day celebrations, having successfully hijacked the ideas of socialism and revolution from the Marxists, many of whom also happened to be Jews. In 1945, Hitler killed himself and had his body burnt. The war he started before his death consigned the world to its current fate of authoritarian domination. Long after he died, the SS patrolled the streets and Nazi rockets filled the sky.

In 1968, the students of Mexico City (DF) began boarding buses and handing out literature, marching in the streets against the PRI government, and withstanding heavy assaults by the police. They fought to free their imprisoned friends, to keep beauty alive, and to destroy the capitalist terror around them. They were executed in cold rooms after defending the occupied UNAM, the wandered drunkenly down Insurgentes knowing their future was gone, they fucked in dirty bathrooms knowing the world was against them, and they witnessed the tumultuous expansion of the world revolutionary Geist before their intoxicated eyes. Some of them were part of the Anarchist International, although we may never know to what extent.

Ten days prior to the opening of the 1968 Mexico City Summer Olympics, the PRI government sent a group of paramilitaries called the Olympic Brigade to liquidate the student movement. The Brigade was created to cleanse the city and erase all unwanted disturbance. In the Plaza de las Tres Culturas, hundreds of students were killed outright, their blood and life and beauty permanently staining the dry ground of the capitol.

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POVERTY GAMES TORCH, GLASGOW

           Between the Commonwealth Games and the Olympics, billions of pounds of public money is being handed over to the corporate world, so that they can can have a bean feast at our expense, while at the same time councils are being forced by the government, to cut vital services, increase unemployment and are being party to a deepening housing crisis. We are supposed to get excited at the sight of “VIPs” being chauffeured around, wined and dine, while we are meant to stand at the roadside waving flags. Hooray for the council, they're having a party, and we are paying. Of course you might get a chance to see some of the sports on tele, and when the party's over we will still be sitting in crap houses, with no social services and facing unemployment, if you have a job, and fuel poverty if you don't or if you're a pensioner. Rise up Glaswegians and show your anger and disgust at a system that has all the money in the world for a 10 day party and overseas wars, but nothing for the ordinary people.

"Poverty Games” torch comes to Glasgow –

Thurs 15 March, 1pm Dalmarnock

        Glasgow Games Monitor is hosting visitors from the Vancouver Poverty Olympics campaign here next week, to ‘hand over’ their Poverty Olympics Torch. The purpose of the event is to highlight the gross inequity produced by Games events: while millions in public money is spent on a 10 day party, the city faces massive cuts in local services, increasing unemployment and a deepening housing crisis.

        The event is a mock ‘torch relay’, to take the Poverty Torch through the worst affected streets of Dalmarnock. Starting at the Velodrome on London Road, the torch will be ‘handed over’ to Glasgow by visitors from Vancouver and taken down Springfield Road to pass the sites of massive land speculation as well as brutal evictions of residents, shopkeepers and local service users from the Accord Centre.

         Meet at 12.45pm for a 1pm start outside the new Velodrome on London Road (opposite Celtic Park), finish by 2.30 at the Accord Centre.

All welcome, please circulate widely.

http://povertyolympics.ca/?page_id=87

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CORPORATE OLYMPIC MONEY SPINNER.

         A recent headline really shows the arrogance of the millionaires in the Westminster Houses of Hypocrisy and Corruption, it states “Politicians condemn Olympic strike threat”. This is all about the leader of Unite Union, Len McCluskey, stating that there could be industrial action during the Olympics. His statement "I believe the unions, and the general community, have got every right to be out protesting. – If the Olympics provide us with an opportunity, then that's exactly one that we should be looking at." seemed to have hurt their sensitivities.

       Our elected politicians never miss an opportunity to “condemn” any protest, demonstration or industrial action taken by the ordinary people to try to defend themselves against the savage attack being hurtled at them by the said elected politicians.

      Why should we listen to them, the pay themselves excellent salaries and generous expenses, secure for themselves wonderful pensions, get all sorts of perks and not content with that, lots of them fiddle the system. While wallowing in their unearned grandeur they state that there is no alternative to “austerity”. Then they have have the audacity and arrogance to tell us to take what they throw at us and accept our poverty with humility.

       Because the corporate world wants to hold a mainly public funded extravaganza in the hope of making even more money, and remembering the most cities that hold the Olympics are bankrupted after the event, why should we see it as some sacred festival, and restrain ourselves from defending ourselves against facing a generation or more of poverty? When it comes to defending ourselves the last people we should listen to are the politicians. The last thing that will benefit the ordinary people is a world wide corporate event that will make millions for broadcasters like Sky and Virgin etc. make millions for sponsors, and cost us the public, millions. We need a National Health Service, we need an decent education system, we need pensions that give dignity to our elderly, we need nurseries, we need libraries and we need a host of social services, we do not need an Olympic corporate money spinner.

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