Plundering The Till!!!

     A brief description of our political system, greed, corruption, cronyism, secret deals to line pockets of friends and associates, operated by a bunch of rich two-faced duplicitous callous Oxbridge parasites. I think that is a reasonable and fairly accurate summary of this festering cancer we call capitalist "representative democracy". 

       We could all get on with our daily lives if this bunch of suited mobsters were wheeling and dealing and divvying up their own loot, but unfortunately it is our tax money, they are shuffling into their mates pockets. It's our NHS that is being sliced into money making packages for the greed merchants in the corporate club. It's our social services that are being slashed, to allow their business buddies to step in and provide them, at a profit of course. 

     Is there anyone out there who still believes this cabal of thieving Oxbridge parasites, have anything but the interests of their own class in mind, as they wheel and deal in those corrupt corridors of power, in that decadent encampment on the banks of the Thames, The Westminster Houses of Hypocrisy and Corruption?

     The following is from The Sum Of Us:

     A Tory MP's mates are about to get an £80 million payout from the NHS. At stake is a 10-year contract to provide high-tech medical imaging to cancer patients in five counties. The "winning" bid comes from a private company called Alliance Medical -- whose board of directors includes Sir Malcom Rifkind, Conservative MP for Kensington.

     It's suspicious enough to see a government contract going to a company led by a sitting politician. But it gets worse. There's a rejected bid from a consortium of NHS hospitals -- and that bid would cost the government £7 million less than Sir Rifkind's! For his services to Alliance Medical, Sir Rifkind receives about £60k per annum, so it seems that the company makes quite a profit off his friendship.

     Let's ask the NHS head office: does having a Tory on board make for better medicine? Make your contracting policies transparent so that we can tell!

What's happening is clear. This is another attempt to steal our NHS and hand it off piece by piece to private corporations that will charge us more and serve us less. The government happily announced that this contract was going to a private company -- but hid the fact that Alliance was underbid by a state-run group!

     Healthcare advocates say it's almost impossible to get a glimpse into this kind of procurement deal. That has to change. Privatising the NHS affects us all, yet we're being shut out from the decision and denied public oversight of contracts that take public funds. Whether it's a favour for Sir Rifkind's cronies or simply a willful waste of money, the result is to blind our eyes and yank the NHS from our hands.

     Tell NHS England to put its procurement process where we can see it, and stop sneaking in handouts for corporations and politicians!

Thanks for all that you do,
Angus, Deanna, and the team at SumOfUs 

More information:

NHS Contract Awarded To Private Firm Despite Rival Bid Being “£7 Million Cheaper” Buzzfeed, 27 January 2015

'Selling off NHS for profit': Full list of MPs with links to private healthcare firms, The Mirror, 27 November 2014

Privatisation of the NHS means that
a job the state could do for £73 million is going
to a corporation that wants £80 million.
We don't know how many other handouts
are going to corporations and politicians' mates
-- but we want to find out.
Sign the petition to make NHS contracting processes transparent
and show us where the money's gone!

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

Illness As A Money Making Machine.

      The NHS as a corporate experiment, a chance to see how best to turn it into a money making corporate giant. That's what this government is doing, of course it is under the dictate of the financial Mafia. Though it is driven by the international Financial Mafia, we can still put a spoke in their wheel by making it impossible for the government to go ahead with this money from suffering experiment.

This from Sum Of Us:

    We knew privatising the NHS wouldn’t work -- and lots of other people said so too. But the government and the big health corporations wouldn’t listen. Now we’re the ones paying the consequences.
    Circle Holdings, the first private healthcare operator to take over an NHS hospital trust, has announced it’s pulling out of its ten-year contract. It says its franchise is ‘no longer viable under current terms’. We know what that means: it’s no longer making money.     It’s bad enough that a dearly needed hospital’s future is in jeopardy because of a misguided privatisation gamble. But the truth is much more grisly: the bosses installed by the private operator bullied staff and created a ‘blame culture.’ Circle pitted doctors against doctors and was allegedly willing to ensure local GPs incurred financial losses as long as it meant the corporation continued to make a profit. It’s time to stand up for our hospitals.

Tell our government to stop breaking up our health service and protect the NHS.
    This is a glimpse into our future: private corporations managing hospitals based on what will be most profitable, rather than what will deliver the best care to patients. And, when the arrangement inevitably collapses, it’s the British people that will be left to pick up the pieces -- and pay the bill.      The only way to save the NHS is to fund it properly -- that’s what doctors want, it’s what patients want, and it’s what everyone wants. The only ones who don’t want it are free-market ideologues who think that privatisation is a magic bullet that can save hospitals that are underfunded and understaffed.

Well, now we know that’s simply not true.
Defend the our health service and tell David Cameron to stop privatising the NHS.
Thanks for all that you do,
Martin, Katherine, and the rest of the SumOfUs team

More information:

Hinchingbrooke Hospital: Circle to withdraw from contract, BBC, January 9, 2015 
Battle with GPs led to Circle’s retreat from Hinchingbrooke hospital, The Guardian, January 9, 2015
Hinchingbrooke staff in CQC 'abuse' concerns 'fear bosses', BBC, September 29, 2014 

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

TTIP, Secret Talks And Corporate Lobbyists.

 More on TTIP from SumOf Us:

       Environmental standards, workers’ right and food hygiene are all under the chopping block with TTIP. And even worse: these incredibly sensitive policy areas are being negotiated away in secret -- so far only lobbyists of the big corporations have had access to EU lawmakers.

       But this is about to change. The European Ombudsman -- the place where European citizens can lodge complaints about EU politics -- has opened a formal investigation into TTIP and its lack of transparency following pressure from civil society. We have only 7 days left to write to the Ombudsman and let her know how we feel about our rights being negotiated away in a secret trade deal.

Write an email to the Ombudsman today!

      While lobbyists of the big corporations from Monsanto to Nestle to Exxon Mobile have been going in and out of meetings with lawmakers in Brussels, ordinary citizens are often standing in front of closed doors. That has to change!

      We need actual citizens’ participation in a process that is going to affect our lives as profoundly as the TTIP. We need true access -- to the negotiating documents, the meeting reports and full transparency about which lobbyists are meeting with European lawmakers.

Here is what you need to do: write an email to the European Ombudsman to demand full transparency about the TTIP and in particular the comings and goings of corporate lobbyists. It will only take a few minutes but it will be totally worthwhile.

Here are some talking points you could use for your email:

• The EU should be extremely open and transparent and immediately release all information on the TTIP negotiations, especially when it concerns areas such as environmental standards, workers’ rights and health and safety. 
• The EU should lay open all communication between lobbyists of big business. Sadly, so far business had way more access to negotiations than normal citizens. That needs to change. 
• The EU should release a list of all the meetings that corporations have had with lawmakers.

     Remember: the more personal your message, the more likely it will be read by the Ombudsman.

The leaders of the European Union are starting to really feel the people’s discontent with this secret trade deal. And this is also thanks to you. Thousands of SumOfUs members complained to the EU Commission about corporations being able to sue governments -- the ISDS clause in TTIP. Many of you have chipped in to support our TTIP work and the development of the European Citizens’ Initiative. Now is the time to keep up the pressure!

Send an email to the Ombudsman to ask for full access to the TTIP negotiations and transparency about the comings and goings of corporate lobbyists.

     Thanks for all you do, 

Anne, Hannah, and the team at SumOfUs

More information:

European Ombudsman launches public consultation in relation to the transparency of the TTIP negotiations

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

Corporations, Rulers Of The World!!!

      More and more, large corporations dictate what happens in countries across the globe, governments bend to the pressure of big money, and the people suffer. At present there are two pieces of legislation being fashioned that will immensely boost the control the large corporations have over our lives, TPP and the big telecom companies attempt to control the internet. However,  these are not the only two battles for control, it goes on daily as the corporate world rides roughshod over the people and their rights. 

        Drinking water is a necessity, but to corporations profit is more important, as the people of El Salvador are finding out. 

This from the Sum Of Us:

     A major mining company is suing El Salvador for millions -- just for saying no to a dirty mine that would have destroyed its remaining water supply. A mining corporation shouldn't get to decide what laws a country can and can't pass. With just one week remaining before the hearing begins, we need to get OceanaGold to back down now.

Sign the petition asking OceanaGold to drop the lawsuit and respect El Salvador’s decision.

        90% of EL Salvador’s water is already polluted, putting families and communities in danger of waterborne illness, food shortages and the added expense of buying bottled water. If OceanaGold gets its way, it could destroy the last remaining river with drinkable water in this Central American country.

       Already, the mining industry has devastated El Salvador. The community of San Sebastian is being forced to buy bottled water after a mining company contaminated its water supply. Community activists have risked their lives opposing mining companies, including Dora Alicia Recinos Soto, who was shot dead in front of her house while 8 months pregnant and carrying her 2-year-old baby.

        The hearing for the case is in less than a week away, so we have to act now to make sure OceanaGold drops this frivolous lawsuit.

Sign the petition asking OceanaGold to drop the lawsuit against El Salvador for trying to save its water.

      The government of El Salvador has already denied OceanaGold a mining license for its El Dorado mine, because it failed to comply with national regulations protecting human rights and the environment. But instead of conceding to this democratic decision, OceanaGold is now relying on dangerous “Investor State Arbitration" -- rules created under international trade treaties that allow foreign corporations to sue national governments for billions just to get their way. OceanaGold has repeatedly proven it cares only about profits -- not the people of El Salvador. Now, it's time the company listened.

Add your voice to ask OceanaGold to drop the lawsuit against El Salvador for trying to save its water.

       We know we can win this fight, because public pressure has worked before. After thousands of us spoke out about Rio Tinto's involvement in a destructive Alaska mine and helped get Indigenous activists to their annual shareholder meeting, Rio Tinto pulled out. And when we focused public pressure on Infinito Gold over a $1 billion lawsuit against Costa Rica, the company dropped its claim to $94 million -- not enough, but some reprieve for the community fighting this mining giant. This is another fight for people over profits, and together we can force OceanaGold to back down before it’s too late.

Thank you for all that you do,
Paul, Ledys, Emma and the rest of us

     For more information: Gold Mining Company Wages $301 Million Lawsuit Against El Salvador, Global Research, March 17 2014.
El Salvador groups accuse Pacific Rim of 'assault on democratic governance', The Guardian, April 10th 2014. 

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

Secret Deals, Secret Courts, To Protect Profits!!!

      Secret deals between governments and multi-national corporations, can't be good for the general public, or they wouldn't be secret.

     If it is signed, future laws designed to protect consumers, our health, and our environment could be overturned in secret courts by corporations that claim the laws harm their profits---

This from the SumOfUs:

      It's a corporate lobbyist's wildest dream -- a huge global trade deal that would let corporations like Monsanto sue our governments if they passed laws to protect the environment or keep life-saving medicine affordable.

The Trans-Pacific Partnership has to be stopped.

       This month, tens of thousands of American SumOfUs members and friends have called Congress to demand it rejects a bill to give President Obama "fast track" authority to sign the TPP -- and support is starting to fall away. But it's not enough.

      In the US, corporate lobbyists are pushing hard for Congress to approve. Elsewhere, governments are facing no scrutiny as they get ready to sign away our democratic rights to make laws that protect the public interest. Unless we do more, we may lose this fight.

       That's why our community is stepping up. This week, we're getting ready to launch a major effort to stop the TPP in its tracks -- and with your support, we're not going to stop fighting until we've won.

If enough of us can chip in just $1, we can launch the first steps of our campaign and start working together to stop the TPP and save our democracy.

We can't talk about all our plans yet, but we're already looking to:

• Target key countries that can stop the TPP -- like Australia and Canada -- and make sure that citizens hear about the TPP before it's too late
• Call out consumer companies who have access to the negotiations and are helping write the deal -- rights our elected representatives don't even have -- and demand they come clean on what they know
• Organize constituents to contact their representatives -- to make sure the TPP is something that governments have to answer for
• Work with lawyers to submit Freedom of Information requests for governments to come clean on the deal
• Offer rewards for officials who are willing to do the right thing and let the public know what's in the TPP
• Take out advertisements in key national media highlighting the threats the TPP poses to our democracies

       The corporations behind the TPP know the public won't like what's in the deal. That's why the full contents are still secret -- only high-level government negotiators and the 600 corporate lobbyists have access. 

But we know enough to know that the TPP has to be stopped -- and enough to know how we can stop it with your help.

Can you chip in $1 to fund our campaign to stop the TPP and protect our democracies?

       The Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) is called a trade deal, but it is really a corporate wish-list aimed at attacking everything from environmental protections to affordable medicines to internet freedoms. Worst, it gives corporations impunity from governments or citizens that want to reign in their power. 

        In fact, it is probably the most important international treaty you’ve never heard of. The TPP is being negotiated between the United States, Canada, Australia, Japan and other Pacific countries -- making it nearly global in scope.

There's lots wrong with the TPP, but the unaccountable systems it would set up to allow corporations to sue governments are one of the most frightening. If it is signed, future laws designed to protect consumers, our health, and our environment could be overturned in secret courts by corporations that claim the laws harm their profits -- and there is nothing we or our elected governments could do to stop them.

      We need to do a lot more to make sure we stop this treaty -- and we need your help to do that.

If you can, please chip in $1 today to take a stand for democracy and against the TPP, and fund the fight to stop this corporate power grab.

Thanks for all you do,

Paul and the team at SumOfUs.org

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

Why Pay Workers? It Cuts Into Profits.

     Pick your country and you'll find some corporate body ripping off the people some where, some how. Of course the Third World usually comes in for the most blatant and vicious attacks, but it is how the corporate world works. We can campaign to limit the worst of this abuse, and we must always show solidarity with those at the sharp end of this brutal corruption. However, if we are looking for justice and equality, then we must get rid of capitalism itself. There is no such thing as compassionate capitalism.

This is an appeal for solidarity from TheSumOfUs:

    Giant clothing brand Hanes has been caught stealing from some of the poorest workers in the world, and we've got less than a week to stop it.

    Haiti has become an apparel-producing powerhouse as global clothing brands like Hanes move factories there to take advantage of some of the lowest wages in the Western Hemisphere.  But workers aren't benefiting from the boom -- a new report from our friends at the Worker Rights Consortium has revealed that every single export garment factory in Haiti has been paying workers less than the minimum wage. And as a result, three quarters of Haitian garment workers don’t make enough to afford three full meals a day.

    At the end of this week, Russell and Gildan, two of Hanes’s top competitors, are meeting with labor rights advocates and representatives from Haitian unions to make plans to pay workers what they're owed. But Hanes has refused to join them. That means we need to speak out now and let Hanes know that consumers will hold it accountable if it tries to ignore the workers making its clothes.

    Tell Hanes to stop stealing from the poor: End wage theft at your Haitian suppliers.

     This isn't the first time Hanes has been in the public eye for trying to keep Haitian workers in poverty. Two years ago, WikiLeaks revealed that the company furiously lobbied the U.S. State Department to stop the Caribbean nation from raising its minimum wage to just $5 a day. Even after the garment industry got special carve-outs from the minimum wage, Hanes and its suppliers continued to mercilessly exploit its Haitian workforce.

Factories use all sort of dirty tricks to swindle workers out of their wages: forcing workers to work off the clock, refusing to pay overtime, and requiring workers to reach totally unrealistic production quotas to get their full wages. On average, Haitian garment workers make more than 30% less than what they’re legally owed. Apparel companies are flagrantly breaking the law, but the combination of the garment industry's political clout and its importance to the country's economy means that the Haitian government doesn’t have the appetite to hold them accountable.

      Hanes could help more than 3,000 workers get millions of dollars in money that its suppliers stole from them  -- it's the top buyer at several factories, and has huge influence in the industry. But instead, the company is claiming it didn't technically break the law as its workers struggle to survive. We need to let Hanes know that consumers won't tolerate any more excuses.

Tell Hanes to stop wage theft and make sure Haitian workers get back the money that was stolen from them.

Thank you,
Rob, Kaytee, and the team at SumOfUs.org

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

Corporate Finance And Pollution.

       An appeal from The Sum of Us, as corporate capital attempts to get its way in plundering the planet. Gold mining is among the most environmental polluting businessed on the planet, it uses some of the most toxic substances on earth, and they usually find their way into the water table. Leaving the locals with poisoned water and some arsehole in another city with a gold watch.

     Infinito Gold, a Canadian mining company, just slapped Costa Rica with a $1 billion lawsuit because the nation decided to protect its rainforests rather than host an open-pit gold mine.

      Costa Rica’s rainforest is lauded as one of the most beautiful in the world, and is home to many endangered species, including the green macaw. Officials considered approving the gold mine, but the use of toxic chemicals such as cyanide -- which often leaks into and pollutes nearby lakes and rivers -- was far too great a risk to allow the project to move forward.

      A subsidiary of Infinito Gold has announced that a massive lawsuit against Costa Rica is “imminent”, so we need to act now. If thousands of us stand together against this toxic mine, we can show Infinito that Costa Rica and other countries that are defending their natural resources will not be silently bullied by corporate power. 

Tell Infinito Gold to drop its $1 billion lawsuit against Costa Rica.

        Open-pit gold mining in Costa Rica would destroy 190 hectares of pristine forest. The rainforest houses 5% of the world’s species and has seen tremendous growth in the ecotourism industry. Over 75% of Costa Ricans oppose mining and have decided that they cannot take the risk to move forward with gold mining in the country.

        Costa Rica is not the first to be sued by Infinito Gold. In 2001, Infinito Gold locked Venezuela into a ten-year legal battle over a rejected mine. Fortunately, Infinito lost. We can make sure Infinito Gold loses again by standing up to its greedy tactics and shameful behavior. Corporate profits cannot take precedence over the health of the people and the environment.

Stand up for Costa Rica’s rainforests -- tell Infinito Gold to drop the $1 billion lawsuit now.

Thanks for taking a stand,
Kaytee, Hanna, Katherine, Terryn, Kimberly, Jessica, Ledys, Fatah, Marie, Zermina and the rest of us

P.S. Please help us up the pressure on Infinito by sharing this petition on Facebook or forwarding this email to your friends.

More information:

All That Glitters. Corporate Knights, 3 Oct 2013.
Calgary-based mining company suing Costa Rica for more that $1 Billion. Global News, 4 Oct 2013.

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

   

Death Through Bottled Water.

     We all know that the corporate world is a destructive force that rides roughshod over the well being of the ordinary people, all in the name of profit and power. However like all bastards, some are worse than others and Nestles comes in among the bottom of the barrel. We can certainly target the worst offenders in this brutal war for profit, but until we rid the world of this system of capitalism, that breeds, feeds and proliferates, this festering cancer of corporatism, we, the ordinary people, will be on the receiving end of its greed driven destructive force.

This appeal from SumOfUs:

   Nestlé is draining developing countries’ groundwater to make its Pure Life bottled water, destroying countries’ natural resources before forcing its people to buy their own water back.

    Now Nestlé is moving into Pakistan and sucking up the local water supply, rendering entire areas uninhabitable in order to sell mineral-enriched water to the upper class as well as people in the US and EU. Meanwhile the poor watch their wells run dry and their children fall ill from dirty water.
Tell Nestlé to stop making Pakistan's villages uninhabitable by stealing their water.
   Nestlé’s aggressive water grab is already descending like a plague on parts of Pakistan. In the small village of Bhati Dilwan, villagers have watched their water table sink hundreds of feet since Nestlé moved in. Children are getting sick from the foul-smelling sludge they’re forced to choke down. Meanwhile, Nestlé spends millions marketing “Pure Life” to wealthy Americans, Europeans, and Pakistanis who can afford to watch their kids grow up healthy. This scenario is played out again and again in countries around the globe. But this is where we say: enough!

      Dirty water kills more children around the world than AIDS, malaria, war, and traffic accidents combined -- and Nestlé has a big hand in it.

     At the World Water Forum in 2000, Nestlé led the way in fighting against defining access to water a universal right. Nestlé and other big corporations won out, and government officials around the globe officially downgraded water’s classification to a “need” instead, meaning it could be captured, commoditized, and exploited by major corporations without regard for local populations.
Tell Nestlé: Water is a human right. Stop stealing it from communities around the world.

     When the company's Canadian subsidiary pushed to keep draining millions of liters of fresh water from the water table in a time of drought, we joined our friends at the Council of Canadians, Wellington Water Watchers, and Ecojustice challenging Nestlé in court -- and we won! Just this month, after additional pressure from thousands of SumOfUs members, Nestlé decided to drop its appeal -- a huge win for the public.

     If we expose Nestlé’s disgusting game plan for Pakistan, the company will scale back its water-draining facilities to avoid a damaging global backlash. But if we ignore what’s happening there, Nestlé and other major corporations will suck up more and more the world’s water -- and that’s not good news for anyone.

Join us in standing up to corporations like Nestlé that suck up essential natural resources.

Thanks for all that you do,
Claiborne and the rest of us

     P.S. Nestlé’s current chairman and former CEO was caught on tape arguing that water is "not a right”, and while the clip is shocking, the reality is even worse. Nestlé’s aggressive policies are depriving thousands of people around the planet of the basic water they need to survive, all to pump up the company’s bottom line. Please get word out about Nestlé's horrific practices by sharing this campaign on Facebook.

More Information:

The Global Search For Liquid Gold, Urban Times, 11 June 2013
Bottled Life: The Story, Bottled Life, 1 January 2012
Water Facts, Food and Water Watch

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