WILL IT BE A MERRY CHRISTMAS??

       Our dupicious millionaire politicians are still feeding us crap about improving the economy by austerity cuts, while those in the know are more or less saying it is all over and we are heading for the biggest collapse of the financial system - ever. The Greek people are in the front line of the harshest attack on anybody's living standards seen in Europe. They are expected to accept wage cuts, pension cuts, social service cuts, increase taxes, plus VAT up to 23%, a new porporty tax on all property, increased unemployment and price increases on energy and food. The attacks on the general public will become more vicious and more wide spread as the greed created crisis rapidly deepens.

      At the moment we have mass demonstrations in Greece, Italy, Spain, and Portugal, with plans for co-ordinated union demostrations in the UK. The various goverments are not listening to the people, they can't, they are impotent in the face of the dictates from the leader of the banking cartel, the IMF (International Mankind Fuckers) and the policy from them will continue to be, screw the people and hand the tax payers money to the banks. In this corporate fascist system we live under they hold total power over the political class and the International Mankind Fuckers will not allow their cartel to go down. When will the demonstrations turn to open revolt?

ann arky's home.

IMF, CREATING A REVOLUTIONARY SITUATION.

Those who are familiar with history, well Western history, will be looking at Greece and having visions of Germany after the first world war. What the winners in that imperialist war done to Germany in the form of reparations, as a punishment, drove the German people into a spiral of deprivation, creating a revolutionary situation in which the fascists took control, with a little help from their friends. What the winners in the world war of debt, in the shape of the IMF (International Mankind Fuckers) and the others in the financial cartel, are doing to Greece is just the same as reparations, and will drive the Greek people into a spiral of deprivation, with no likelihood of a reversal for at least a generation. All this to protect the debt mountain of the winners club in this insane game of grow the debt, namely Germany and France.

It will not stop there, Portugal, Italy and possible Spain are all in the firing line in an attempt to save the mountainous debt bubble from bursting and hurting those at the top. The people of country after country will be sacrificed by having their living standards slashed at the dictate of the International Mankind Fuckers, at all costs, the billionaires at the top of the festering heap must be saved. The financial system most survive, even if it means the people have to live in rabbit warrens or sewers.

You lot will have to tighten your belt.

We are lead to believe that this is the only game in town and we the people must take our medicine to save the system. This message is of course, pumped out by those very people who created the fantasy world of growth and debt, the very people who will make sure that they will not suffer for their greed and believe that we the people have a duty to suffer so as to save their arses. Why do we accept such shit? We don't need them, they need us. We make and distribute everything on this planet, they do nothing but live off our backs. They could of course be creating their own demise, simply by creating a revolutionary situation in each country in turn could see their selfish self centred greed driven ideology go up in smoke.

ann arky's home.

IT WILL BE WON OR LOST ON THE STREETS.

     While we in this country mobilise against the millionaire bankers' cuts to our living standards, we should not lose sight of the fact that this is not a UK problem. This is a crisis in capitalism across the globe. The financial system is in effect bust, and has to claw in money from the public to save the bankers arses. They have to raise more money from the people and take ownership of all public assets to shore up their greed gotten billions.

      As far as Europe is concerned, Greece is probably at the front line and what is happening there is in all probability coming our way. Recently the Greek government introduced a new tax very much reminiscent of Thatcher’s Poll Tax: every single house owner in the country is to face an “emergency tax” ranging between 3-20 euros per square meter (depending on their property value, location etc). Even people on unemployment benefits are not to be spared of the tax, only offered a discount instead. Practically, this means that an average household of, say, three bedrooms (approx. 100 sq m.) would have to pay an additional of 1,000 euros (!) annually in tax. It doesn't stop there, a staggering increase in VAT (from 13% to 23% for many products), and the effective sacking of thousands of public sector workers. Of course there are the usual exceptions from the new tax, no not the poor hard working, but the more leisurely, religious-use buildings owned by the Church will be exempt. The Orthodox church is the largest property owner in Greece.

      All this information looks innocent on paper, just statistics, percentages, numbers, but when it hits you personally the human effect is a different story. It means poverty in the present time with it likely to continue for decades, destroying the future of the next generation, stress and anguish which at times can be unbearable. Friday 16 September in the Greek Northern city of Thessaloniki, a 55-year old man tried to set himself alight in front of a branch of Piraeus Bank, in protest and desperation for his mounting debt to the bank. He was rescued by passers-by and police and has been transferred to hospital.

      You can write, text, send emails to your MP, decide to change who you vote for at the next election and it will all be to no avail. This is not a national crisis, it is global and it will be won or lost on the streets. It is the system that has to be changed, not the bums on seats of power, nor the smiling faces at the podium.
Some of the details here were taken from

http://www.occupiedlondon.org/blog/

ann arky's home.

 

WHAT'S YOUR PENSION WORTH???

         As our well manicured millionaires that haunt the Westminster Houses of Hypocrisy and Corruption force us to work longer and contribute more to our pensions, for less at the end, while spouting about us all being in this together and other crap about the broadest shoulders taking the greatest load, etc. we should take a look at their millionaire CEO chums’ pension pots. Jeroen van der Veer, former boss of Royal Dutch Shell, £1.4m a year. Former Barclays boss John Varley £1.2m. Sir Frank Chapman, CEO of BG Group, and David Brennan, CEO of AstraZeneca, more than a million a year. Diageo's CEO Paul Walsh, more than £930,000 a year. Yea, we’re all in this together!!!  What will this bunch of parasites care about cuts in social services, lack of opportunities, deteriorating education system. How much thought will they give to this year’s heating bills, Their unimaginable wealth will shower them with choices, where as most of us, this winter, will be faced with one choice, to eat or to heat.

         Britain's top company bosses have stashed away pension pots that have soared by 70 per cent in less than a decade and are now at record levels, according to new statistics to be published this week. The five biggest pension pots of FTSE 100 directors are worth more than £84m combined – nearly 600 times greater than the £150,000 that the average retirement fund of five working Britons would amount to. Income inequality in the UK is nothing short of mind-boggling. The average income of a FTSE 100 chief executive, according to the most recent Guardian survey of executive pay, is over £3m per year, including bonuses and pension contributions. Jaw droppingly more than 100 times

median household income. It is common for CEOs to soar 200 or 300 times as much as the median pay of their employees or, in the case of Terry Leahy's final year at Tesco, for a CEO to be paid 500 times the average take-home pay of his employees.

   

        Amid what we are told is austere times, while we, the ordinary people, are having cuts forced on us in every aspect of our lives, and our standard of living being undermined, it is safe to say that the millionaire cabal of parasites have never had it so good. Ah, that’s capitalism for you!!!

ann arky's home.

WHOSE DEBT IS IT ANYWAY???  

  

   This world is built on debt, every country is more or less obliged to borrow, then when their debt is too big for them to handle they sell their debt. Then the countries that buy the debt have too much debt they sell the debt, eventually every country is carrying too much debt and they scurry around for somebody else to buy their debt, but nobody can, well except the Joe public, the tax payer. so they, have to pay for the debt with "austerity cuts", translated that means slashing their standard of living, throwing millions on the dole destroying all social services and selling off all public assets, so that the insane mery-go-round can start up again and the banks and bond markets don't lose their greed gotten gains.

ann arky's home.

      THE MARCH OF CORPORATE FASCISM.

    

   

     This July will be the 75th anniversary of the start of the Spanish Civil War. When the fascist started their onslaught on the elected Spanish government, thousands of ordinary people from around the world made their way to Spain to help in that fight against Franco's fascists. Thousands from Britain alone, see previous post. That spirit of solidarity is once more needed as the fascists once more attack the ordinary people. This time it is not Spain, and they are not lead by a military general. The modern day fascists are world wide, has no uniform and doesn't carry a gun. They wear suits, carry laptops and sit at desks in offices of splendour. Today it is corporate fascism that dictates the fiscal policies in every country in the world.

ATHENS.

        There is not one government in Europe that was voted in to decimate the education system, privatise the health system, close libraries, shut down nurseries, cut social benefits and social services, raise pension contributions and raise the pension age. However, that is what you are getting. Not only that we are being told that it is all for our benefit, we are told that if we don't accept their grand plans we will face dire consequences. What we are told is the best option is austerity cuts, and that translate into, we cover the banks and bond markets losses and accept an impoverished society mired in deprivation for at least a decade or two.

PARIS.

 

        However, we don't have to play the game with their loaded dice, we can write the rules of the game ourselves, we can change the way the game is played. Across Europe that is what is happening, in France there are mass demonstrations, in Spain there are weekly protests across the country building up to a national day of action on the 24 July, in Greece there are on going mass protest in Athens and else where across Greece. Here in the UK there is a public service day of protest on Thursday 30th June.

LONDON.

 

      The protests have to move out from the big cities, they have to take place in every city, town and village in the country. This struggle is not the struggle of one particular group it is the struggle of all the ordinary people against the relentless march of corporate fascism. Your so called representative government does not represent you, it takes it orders from the banks and the bond markets and they are not interested in the welfare of the people, only in the welfare of their bank balances.

ann arky's home.

WORKERS KNOW YOUR HISTORY -

- EMMA GOLDMAN'S BIRTHDAY.

      As the struggle of the ordinary people is set to become more harsh, we should always remember those who in their life gave so much to that struggle. We can learn from their deeds, their words and take inspiration from the way they lived their life.
     Today June 27 is the birthday Emma Goldman, born, 27 June 1869, died 14 May 1940, one of the many working class giants that took the full force of the state but never wavered in their believe, never lost their desire for a better world for all.

      On June 27, 1919 Emma Goldman spent her 50th birthday behind prison walls, where she was serving a two year prison term in Jefferson City, Missouri, for her conviction, along with Alexander Berkman, for conspiracy against the Selective Service Act of 1917 (for publicly speaking out against conscription). Today, June 27, 2011 we should take strength from the countless Emma Goldman's across the world and refocus our vision and re-double our efforts to carry on the struggle for that better world for all.
     
       Emma Goldman's writings and speeches touched on the full spectrum of human activity, she had clear thoughts on everything from love to death and all that comes between. Here are a couple of quotes from those two perspectives.
 

Cover of 70th Birthday Commemorative Edition pamphlet (Los Angeles: Libertarian Committee, 1939)

[Kate Sharpley Library]    

  

  Love:          

              Free love? As if love is anything but free! Man has bought brains, but all the millions in the world have failed to buy love. Man has subdued bodies, but all the power on earth has been unable to subdue love. Man has conquered whole nations, but all his armies could not conquer love. Man has chained and fettered the spirit, but he has been utterly helpless before love. High on a throne, with all the splendor and pomp his gold can command, man is yet poor and desolate, if love passes him by. And if it stays, the poorest hovel is radiant with warmth, with life and color. Thus love has the magic power to make of a beggar a king. Yes, love is free; it can dwell in no other atmosphere.

     Death:

               As to killing rulers, it depends entirely on the position of the ruler. If it is the Russian Czar, I most certainly believe in dispatching him to where he belongs. If the ruler is as ineffectual as an American President, it is hardly worth the effort. There are, however, some potentates I would kill by any and all means at my disposal. They are Ignorance, Superstition, and Bigotry — the most sinister and tyrannical rulers on earth. As for the gentleman who asked if free love would not build more houses of prostitution, my answer is: They will all be empty if the men of the future look like him.

        Responding to audience questions during a speech in Detroit (1898); as recounted in Living My Life (1931), p. 207; quoted by Annie Laurie Gaylor in Women Without Superstition, p. 382

ann arky's home.

DEMOCRACY vs MYTHOLOGY:

THE BATTLE IN SYNTAGMA SQUARE.

        I have continually spouted that the deficit reduction has nothing to do with deficit reduction. It is all to do with saving the banks and the bond markets from losing any of their illgotten assets and rescue them from their gambling excesses. The billionaire playboys gambled massively and lost, so now they want the ordinary people of the world to pay for their greed. Living standards will be slashed, social services will be decimated, unemployment will rise, pensions will be plundered and all public assets will be sold off at bargain prices to those very billionaire gamblers.

      All this is happening not because your government wants to destroy the social fabric of the nation, but because they are being dictated to by foreign billionaires and as they are in the pay of those billionaires they obey for fear of losing their own wealth, power and privileges. It is an army of occupation taking over all the decision making in their target countries.

      It is explained excellently in the following extract from STURDYBLOG. Please take the time to read the article in full and spread the details as widely as possible. This is your battle, it is not just something that is happening over there in some foreign land. It is here, it is our struggle, it is your and your kids future.

     "I have never been more desperate to explain and more hopeful for your understanding of any single fact than this: The protests in Greece concern all of you directly.

        What is going on in Athens at the moment is resistance against an invasion; an invasion as brutal as that against Poland in 1939. The invading army wears suits instead of uniforms and holds laptops instead of guns, but make no mistake – the attack on our sovereignty is as violent and thorough. Private wealth interests are dictating policy to a sovereign nation, which is expressly and directly against its national interest. Ignore it at your peril. Say to yourselves, if you wish, that perhaps it will stop there. That perhaps the bailiffs will not go after the Portugal and Ireland next. And then Spain and the UK. But it is already beginning to happen. This is why you cannot afford to ignore these events.

      The powers that be have suggested that there is plenty to sell. Josef Schlarmann, a senior member of Angela Merkel’s party, recently made the helpful suggestion that we should sell some of our islands to private buyers in order to pay the interest on these loans, which have been forced on us to stabilise financial institutions and a failed currency experiment. (Of course, it is not a coincidence that recent studies have shown immense reserves of natural gas under the Aegean sea).

       China has waded in, because it holds vast currency reserves and more than a third are in Euros. Sites of historical interest like the Acropolis could be made private. If we do not do as we are told, the explicit threat is that foreign and more responsible politicians will do it by force. Let’s make the Parthenon and the ancient Agora a Disney park, where badly paid locals dress like Plato or Socrates and play out the fantasies of the rich.---"

 

       We have to admit that the world at this moment in time is owned by gambling billionaires, they buy governments and plunder the planet. We can continue in this fashion and leave a future of deprivation and corporate fascism to our grandchildren, or we can orgainse in solidarity with all the ordinary people of the world and change the way our world is run. We can create a world based on needs, mutual aid and sustainability, we have the resources, we have the ability, all we are lacking is the will to start that change.

 ann arky's home.

TIME FOR RIGHTEOUS ANGER!!!

         As the Greek government tries to push through more "austerity" measures to appease the IMF and bond markets, the people of Greece are saying NO, enough is enough. The riots, strikes and now camps on Syntagma Square are proof of their determination. Here in the UK, we are also being hit with “austerity” measures for the same reasons, to protect the bond markets, the banks and to appease the IMF. However, to date, we in the UK seem to be taking it on the chin with the mythical stiff upper lip. There are those who might say that the reason for that is because we are not being hit as hard as the Greeks. Perhaps not, but we still have unacceptable poverty in this country and our “austerity” cuts have still to bite.

         Save the Children state that there are over 1.6 million children in the UK living in extreme poverty. No matter the illusions they try to weave, no country can claim to be civilised where over 1.6 million children live in extreme poverty. This is an increase on last years figure, the main contributing factor to this increase being because of huge increases in the cost of energy, petrol and food. According to the British Retail Consortium, families have seen the average food bill of £100 increase by £5 since last year. This continuing rising cost of living, has thousands more families struggling to to pay for the very basics in the home. What people have to cope with in the face of wage cuts, wage freezes and benefit cuts are such things as Petrol £1.37 a litre, diesel £1.42 a litre, and according to the Office of National Statistics, the last 5 years have seen the price of bread increase by 50%, butter by 57.7% and milk up 33%, on top of this gas is expected to rise by 19% and electricity by 12% before the end of this year. Obviously if you are on a low income, benefit or a wage freeze, then these factors are going to hit you hard, as you are obliged to spend a larger proportion of your income on the basic necessities. Last year over 61,000 people across the UK approached Foodbanks for help. Poverty is wide spread here in the UK but our millionaire, friends of the IMF and bank Mafia's hatchet job, has still to do its real damage. Will the UK people still continue with their orderly strikes, marches and banner waving, or will they vent the very real anger that they are already feeling? "Enjoy the ecstasy of your righteous anger", goes an old Korean saying!!!

 

 

TIME FOR RIGHTEOUS ANGER.

We talk of justice, we ooze compassion

you and I. Our comfort sure

with a gracious smile a token give

those “SO deserving poor”.

Where is compassion when children lose

carefree innocent play,

where is justice when children meet

hunger along the way?

Children who, in this world of excess

create a newsreel scene

cradled in a starving mother’s arms

expiring on your TV screen.

Forget the famine rationale

in a sickly syrup word,

mouthed by those crazy apes

until the truth is blurred.

Feel the anguish of the other

hear their pitiful cry

see hunger steal their future;

loudly cry out, why?

Then act out your righteous anger

fan the passions flame,

create a world of social justice

end this human shame.

ann arky's home.

NO MONEY FOR HEALTH - MONEY FOR DEATH.

       Since NATO took full command of the Libyan bloodshed, and that is approximately one week, it has carried out over 500 “sorties” (nice word that for “killing exercises”). Each missile fired costs between £700,000 and £850,000, while the running costs of the “sorties” varies from £30,000 to £70,000 depending on the planes involved. During all this devastating bombardment all we hear of is the casualties on the “rebels” side. If the Gaddafi forces can inflict this sort of carnage with small arms fire, tanks and field artillery, what sort of slaughter is the NATO deluge of weapons of mass destruction, doing to the Libyan people on the other side?

        At a time when the ordinary people of every country in the NATO alliance are suffering cuts to every fibre of the fabric of their society, because of the proclaimed lack of money, how can we still afford this massive outpouring of money for the purpose of killing Libyan people. Make no bones about it, all the talk of no-fly zones and protecting the rebel forces, is just double speak for war, slaughter and the destruction of a country's infrastructure. No matter the euphemisms trotted out in the media, this is death and mutilated bodies in large numbers and the largest number will be the result of the UN/NATO operation. Looking around the world at all the brutal dictators and their vicious oppression of their people, and our approach to them, prove to me that in this case, there was no other way!!!

 

ann arky's home.

CAPITALISM AND ITS ETERNAL WARS.

     

      Britain boasts of being a peaceful nation but when has the UK been at peace? There are young people in their twenties who have never know this country not to be fighting in an overseas war. How many wars can a small country wage while telling its people that we can't afford decent social services? While cutting education, closing libraries and decimating the health service? The dogs of war must be fed but not the social fabric of our society. The arms industry has saliva running down its chin at the thought of another war. Who gains in these endless wars? Not the young soldiers who are sent out to do the killing, not the families of the soldiers, and certainly not the ordinary people of this country. And from past experience of Iraq and Afghanistan, it is not the people of the bombarded country.

      

      The only gains go to the corporate giants of this world, the oil industry, the arms industry and all the back-up companies that go to support any war. War is big business, capitalism doesn't just make money out of making things, there is lots of money to be made from destroying things, profit is all it is about, as far as the people are concerned, the corporate world doesn't give a shit. It is not the Libyan revolution that we should be focusing on, but the need for a revolution here to stop these endless bloody wars where the ordinary people of the world pay in blood and sweat and the corporate parasites inflate their already bloated wealth. 

We have more in common with the people we attack and invade than we have with the corporate parasites that stand to get all the "spoils of war", corporate capitalism and its state mandarins are the "dogs of war".

 ann arky's home.

PARTY OR CON????

Was it one big billionaires' party, or was it the greatest con in history? Which ever, it's the ordinary people that are being asked to pick up the tab by means of savage cuts in all social services and high unemployment. What's more, we are expected to do it without so much as a whimper. Are you going to oblige???



ann arky's home.

BONUSES FOR PARASITES OR JUSTICE FOR ALL???

        

         With the boss of Barclay's, Bob Diamond, being burdened with a £6.5 million bonus, heaped on top of his more than ample salary, while the rest of us face savage cuts to our standard of living, we should be seeing more of this sort of thing. Why does the British public accept the injustice of this system? Those responsible for the financial mess are rewarded with bonuses in the millions while the sick, the vulnerable and the poor are having their benefits cut. The ordinary people are seeing services cut, libraries disappearing, schools closing, unemployment rising as well as fuel and food prices rising at an alarming rate. Meanwhile the culpable parasites still suck the system dry and are protected by their millionaire friends in government. There is an alternative but the rich and powerful don't want you to think about that, just knuckle under and accept the "austerity cuts" leave the wealth and power to the pampered parasites. The choice is ours, take what they throw at you, or fight back for a better system based on mutual aid, justice and sustainability. A system that sees to the needs of all those in that society, not to the pampered profit drive few.

ann arky's home.

WE ARE ALL IN THIS TOGETHER!!!!

       

      The following is a letter written to Indymedia Scotland and the reason I have posted it here is that I fully agree with the writer's sentiments. The student movement should not fight in isolation hoping to sort out something on education cuts. To quote the millionaire twins, "we are all in this together", the fight is a matter of self defence for the whole of society, excluding the millionaire parasites who at this moment in time are calling the shots. The ideology that is being forced onto the ordinary people of this country affects everybody, workers, students, unemployed, claimants, pensioners, the sick, those with mental health problems, housewives, single parents, couples and children. These groups should not be left alone to fight their own battles, like the letter says, the state is powerful, has limitless resources at its disposal and will pick the groups off one at a time. It is only through linking up and working in co-operation across the full spectrum of society with true solidarity can we win this fight. It is a defining battle, if the ordinary people lose there will be a totally corporate society, a society with no social welfare, everything provided by the private sector, at a price, and if you can't afford the price then it will be an appeal to a charity. We will have become a society of profit providers for the corporate world with no say in the shape our society takes. On the other hand, if we win, we can start to create a society that will see to the needs of all our people, a society built on the simple principles of mutual aid, voluntary co-operation and free association based on sustainability. We can create a society that frees all its members from the fear of deprivation. However, it will take courage, co-operation and organised solidarity. We can draw on lessons from some of our victorious battles of the past, to mention two, the 1915 Clydeside rent strike and the 1980's poll tax struggle. Solidarity and direct action was the key in both these victories. 

More on Glasgow working class history, HERE.

Dear Student Anti-Cuts Protesters,

       Thank you. You are an inspiration. You have lit the blue touch paper. But now is not the time to stand back. I was proud to be part of the tremendously successful Edinburgh University-led protest and occupation yesterday. There was a huge turn-out for an Edinburgh protest, and the sudden occupation of the university took everyone by surprise. I am not a student: I'm currently a benefits claimant, and was marching with the Edinburgh Campaign Against Poverty. One of the reasons I am most proud of the Edinburgh protest is that it made an active effort to work in solidarity with workers, benefits claimants, and all others affected by the cuts. As in London, we were all also delighted and impressed by the number of school students who came too. This is an aspect a number of the University anti-cuts campaigns are missing, and that's what I'm writing to you about now.

         Your struggle is not isolated. You are not alone. All those affected by the cuts – workers, claimants, families, everyone – should be proud of you and impressed by you, because you have with rage and love and energy led the charge against these repressive and unnecessary cuts. Workers are being betrayed by the TUC just as students are being betrayed by the NUS: currently so many in Britain are waiting and hoping for organisations to work for cross-class struggle against the cuts. You can contribute to that.

        This government, for all its flimsy rhetoric, is incredibly powerful. States are powerful. You do not win a fight against a state, with all its apparatus of power – from police who beat us up to teachers who punish schoolchildren for their brave protest “truancy” – unless you work across social groups, across classes, in solidarity with the huge diversity of people who are struggling with this government.

       University student protesters, you are privileged. Many, if not most you, have far more financial freedom and time than many affected by the cuts (though certainly you will suffer terribly from them); many of you are white, or male, or have other markers of privilege. It is easier for you to protest and occupy than it is for many, because you will face less repression and have more freedom, and so you have a responsibility to use that power for others.

       So do not let your struggle against fees be compartmentalised. Do not let the anti-cuts fight be divided. Go out and meet with trade unions, with workers and their councils, with disability and LGBTQ rights groups, with women's groups, with those fighting for their benefits, with everyone who is affected by the cuts. None of us will win alone. Together, we can. Do not be parochial. Do not let your struggle be the only reported struggle, and do not waste the power you have.

       This is not to say that you must come and rescue the struggling poor or oppressed minorities. That would perpetuate structures of privilege and oppression. What I am saying is that you are organised, and that you are starting to be heard, and that all the other organised groups who have to struggle harder to be heard need you to work for them.

      Be strong. Use your privilege. Extend your fight. Make it stronger. Show solidarity – but also be active in your solidarity. I say this without pretension or apology for sincerity: your country needs you.

     This letter has been written quickly and not gracefully. It is propaganda. It is flawed. I am currently too busy working and fighting to spend much time writing the philosophical arguments and journalistic analyses. But you can find those elsewhere and I will link to as many as I can find as soon as I can; there are people struggling and writing on all fronts. I am not the only voice telling you this. I am not the only voice asking for your help.

We are already together. We are already strong. Onwards!

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