A PROUD MOMENT FOR SCOTLAND.

          Edinburgh celebrates the jubilee with the anarcho-syndicalist Red and Black flying at the headquarters of the Royal Bank of Scotland.

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THAT'S JUST A BONUS, NOT THE SALARY.

          Trying to grasp the extent of the wealth that we produce to give to the army of parasites that feed of our backs is difficult. We tend to live in the real world of wages that keep you scurring back to work to pay next months bills. While sums of money that look like your mates phone number just don't register properly and are impossible to imagine dropping into your bank account on a regular basis. Staying with Think Left, this article helps put it into some perspective.

Royal Bank of Scotland chief executive Stephen Hester has agreed to waive his bonusof approaching £1million after the Labour Party threatened to call a parliamentary debate on the issue.

“these men can afford to refuse what the rest of us would consider a fortune”

       This follows close on the heels of the RBS chairman, Sir Philip Hampton’s, decision to refuse his own bonus of £1.4million. As a measure of wealth these figures are pretty striking. They are bonuses not pay. Mr Heston still stands to pocket in the region of £39million during his time with RBS.

       Apparently these men can afford to refuse what the rest of us would consider a fortune. To put it into perspective, if you were to put £1.4million into a savings account at 5% interest, this would earn you £70,000 a year.

Continue reading:

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PROFIT FROM KILLING!!!

        We all know that the corporate world is not a compassionate beast and it will try to squeeze a profit out of anything, including wars, death and destruction. However there must be limits and making investments in cluster bombs when over 100 countries have banned them, is surely the bottom of the barrel, even for the greed merchants in the corporate world.

The following appeal is from Amnesty International.

        Cluster bombs kill and maim indiscriminately – 98 per cent of victims are civilians and a third of those are children. This is why over 100 countries – including the UK – have signed up to an international treaty banning their manufacture and use.

       Yet over a year after this treaty came into force, and despite the fact that cluster bombs are now banned in the UK, some UK-based banks continue to invest in companies which make them.

Stop investment in companies that make cluster bombs

        The worst of these is the Royal Bank of Scotland – which, don’t forget, is now over 80 per cent owned by UK taxpayers. RBS is known to have invested $80 million in companies which manufacture cluster bombs in the past year¹.

Take action: email the Chief Executive of RBS now

        Cluster bombs can remain deadly for years, much like landmines. So civilians in places like Georgia, Kosovo, Lebanon and Laos are at risk long after the fighting has ended. As a member of the global Cluster Munition Coalition², we’re working to end the suffering cluster bombs cause. But we need organisations like RBS to take responsibility for the part they play.

        Should a taxpayer-funded bank be investing in companies making weapons which are banned by this country? Should any bank invest in companies which make these appalling weapons?

If you think not, please take action now

Thank you.

1. Worldwide investment in Cluster Munitions: a shared responsibility – May 2011 update [IKV Pax Christi (the Netherlands) and Netwerk Vlaanderen (Belgium)]

2. The Cluster Munition Coalition is an international civil society campaign working to eradicate cluster munitions, prevent further casualties from these weapons and put an end for all time to the suffering they cause. The Coalition works through its members in around 100 countries to change the policy and practice of governments and organisations towards these aims and raise awareness of the problem amongst the public.

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