14.5% ANNUAL PAY INCREASE, NICE ONE LLOYD.

        While the financial Mafia, lead by the likes of Goldman Sachs etc. continue with their slash and burn of the living standards of all the ordinary people across Europe, they have no qualms whatsoever in gorging themselves on the fruits of their plunder. It is not done surreptitiously, no it is done quite blatantly, their arrogance makes them feel they are entitled to such stratospheric payments.

It's hard being a banker, I have to make some tough decisions.

      Take Mr Lloyd Blankfein, head of Goldman Sachs, while you and I are suffering from a wage freeze or wage cut, this hard working gentleman received, for his 2011 annual pay, an increase of 14.5% taking his reward for a hard years work to the princely sum of $16.2million. This is approximately £10.3million a payment that makes up his salary, bonuses, long term share rewards and perks. You can rest assured that every penny/cent of that was gleaned from the “austerity cuts” and “deficit reduction” being imposed on the rest of us. Well, that's capitalism for you.

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23.3% UNEMPLOYMENT AND MORE TO COME!!!

       This video is Barcelona on 29th. March, before the government announced another round of austerity cuts described as the worst cuts since the Franco era. How much more will the people of Europe take before the really shout, "enough is enough"? Must we all wait until every major country in Europe is reduced to the poverty level of the Greek people. The Spanish establishment is solidly following the instructions of the fanatical Mafia, the same instructions that sent the Greek people to generations of deprivation. Italy, Portugal, Ireland are well down the road to that deprivation, there is nothing in their plans to help the ordinary people, it is all about saving the bankers and the Euro. As far as the financial Mafia are concerned, the people will just have to pay what ever price it takes. They are not there to help the people, they are their to enhance their already unimaginable wealth and protect their power, if that means plundering all public assets, then so be it.

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GREECE TODAY - TOMORROW----??

          Having been a long term visitor to Greece and having a family connection there, I can tell you that the full extent of what the Greek people are suffering is unbelievable, it is criminal, it is brutal. It isn't reported on by the mainstream media, what they give you is what the financial Mafia are preaching and the need for “tighter fiscal policies”, never the human cost, or the real reason for these “austerity cuts”. The Greek people are expected to accept a life of severe third world deprivation for the next generation or two at least, and all that that entails, deprivation, increased health problems, homelessness, rapidly rising suicide rate, drug and alcohol addiction and massive unemployment. What is more, they are expected to accept it like good subservient serfs. Ask your self, what would you do? Would you kneel and accept this blatant plunder of the all public assets, the destruction of the social fabric of your society, see your kids and grand kids' future deposited in the bank account of the corporate fascists that rule this world, or would you stand up and try to do something about the situation? Well now is the time to stand up and do something. There is no point in appealing to your "elected" government, it has been taken over by a Goldman Sachs hit man with his heavy team waiting in the wings, the illusion of democracy has been shattered. What worries me is that we all tend to feel that it is all happening over there, and our media feed this type of illusion by spouting the usual crap about, it couldn't possible happen here, we don't have the failings of those people over there, but we are all in the same Ponzi scheme. It is all a matter of degree, and sooner or later our little illusion will be shattered and we will all be standing doing battle in our own little patriotic backyard. Mean while, the corporate fascists are organised world wide. This is not a national problem, this plunder of public assets is organised on an international basis and it can only be combated on an international basis, by pan-European action organised to change society, not to modify it. Of course you may feel that your government is more democratic and wont let it happen to you, they'll fix it before it really hurts you, more the fool you.

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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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WHOSE CRISIS IS IT ANYWAY??

        It is strange how the media, pundits and politicians all discuss where the cuts should be, and how deep and how fast we should cut. No debate on why the cuts, no debate on why the banks were handed trillions of pounds of tax payers money. There is never any debate on why the private debt of the banking sector was transferred to the public's balance sheet. There is never any debate on the fact that the present sovereign debt crisis was created because of this shifting of the private debt crisis in the banking sector, on to the public's balance sheet. Should we not be shifting the debate to, how we can transfer those trillions of pounds back from the banking sector into the public purse, and should we debating how we should cut the banking sector down to size to suit the needs of our society.

We're facing a crisis, you'll have to face austerity cuts.

      Well the reason we have the first debate is because we live in a system of corporate fascism controlled by the financial Mafia. To have the alternative debate we would need to be in some sort of society that sees to the needs of its people. Of course if we lived in a society that seen to the needs of its people, there never would have been the “financial crisis” in the first place. However, the real crisis is that we allow ourselves to be dominated by a bunch of financial parasites who will suck everything they can from the public domain.

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IT IS VESTED INTERESTS THAT ARE KILLING PEOPLE.

      We should never lose sight of the fact that all this talk of "austerity cuts" has a human face. While those, the faceless ones, in expensive suits, sit in marble halls discussing how, where and how deep  to cut at the social fabric of our society, the results among those without the expensive suits, you and I, the ordinary people, can be ill health, poverty, deprivation, mental health problems and even death. It is discussed politely on TV and radio and long winded economic articles appear in the mainstream media, all with a cold rationalism the belies the horror and hurt of the situation to most ordinary people. As the results of the polite decision makers policies grind on, our society changes, suicides rise dramatically, family relationships start to break down, hopelessness descends on youth, who see their future as a bleak unknown devoid of opportunity. It is not the "economy" that is killing people, it is a small group of human beings making decisions to protect their vested interests.

      The powers that be would like to keep that veneer of politeness and cold discussion, but it can't last. The people are getting more anger by the day, across the developed world we are taking to the streets to vent that anger, and there is more to come, we will not be destroyed to save the wealth of the financial Mafia.

     This from OCCUPIED LONDON.

Tuesday, January 10, 2012

      At approximately 7pm on Monday evening, 78-year old S.K. set himself alight with petrol at a parking lot in the town of Lefkada, in Western Greece. The man died on the spot.

This follows from a tremendous increase in suicides across Greece, and Crete in particular – where also, two days ago (on Saturday night) a homeless man died of the cold in the streets of the city of Chania.

Exploring Revolt in Greece from Ross Domoney on Vimeo.

      On December 6th 2008 a police shooting of a 16 year old innocent boy in Athens started a two week revolt in cities around Greece. Three years on people march in remembrance of Alexis Grigoropoulos. Greece now is very much in social and economic turmoil. This films looks at the events surrounding December as well as an inside look to the often cases of revolt in a country that is sinking deeply in recession. This film also explores the role that anti authoritarian movements play in Greece.

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A MERRY XMAS TO THE ARMS INDUSTRY!!!

        It is the festive season and the ordinary people of the UK are facing an “austerity” Christmas. The slashing and cutting of social services, benefits, wages, pensions, on top of rising unemployment, being implemented by our millionaire public school thugs, with their mantra, “we can't afford them” sounds rather hollow when we look at what is being squandered on death and destruction. The money poured into Iraq and Afghanistan is well passed the £20 billion mark. To put this figure in perspective we can take Ken Livingstone's statement, "The true cost of our policy of international adventures is now being shown - £20bn is 10 times the amount it would cost to scrap student fees in England, for example.". So would you rather have ten years of free education for your kids or ten years of bombing, killing and destroying some foreign country? When this figure was released, Lindsey German, convener of “Stop the War Coalition” said, "People will be astonished that the government had the cheek to call for public spending cuts when such an obscene amount has been spent in Iraq and Afghanistan." This figure of over £20 billion, believe it or not, does not include the wages of the troops, (10,000 in Afghanistan at the moment) nor the cost of treating those injured in these unacceptable brutalities. Bob Crow's statement also helps to let us grasp the reality of this situation, “The money that's been drained away on illegal war-mongering is only outstripped by the cash ripped off in the bankers bail-out," This figure still does not have Cameron's little ego trip, the Libyan disaster, added, another vast expenditure on death and destruction. We still have to count in such things as the UK's illegal weapon of mass destruction "Trident".

Don't you know,the arms industry creates jobs??

         When governments talk about can't afford, it is a matter of choices. They have in their coffers a vast pot of gold, they decide where to spend that gold. It so happens this mob choose to spend unbelievable sums on bank bailouts, followed by foreign policy adventures of death and destruction and nuclear weapons. They could choose to spend it on improving social services, education, health and welfare of the people and pensions. They choose not to. However they still claim that this is a democracy, it is a strange democracy when the wealth of a country is drained away in destructive and financial policies that not one member of the public voted for, and then we the public, are told we will have to suffer “austerity cuts” to all the fabric of our society. At the same time all those who made those decisions will in no way be implemented in the suffering from the “austerity cuts” nor the death and destruction from their foreign policy. In fact, they belong to the same club that they helped to bail-out, the only group that will benefit from their choices. If you think that is democracy, you are delusional, it's called corporate fascism.

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GIVING BIRTH IN GREECE.

         While the UK mainstream media fills its pages and TV time with squabbles over David Cameron's EU veto, we should not lose sight of what the “Euro crisis” means on the ground. The conditions in Greece for the ordinary people are appalling, what is happening there is nothing short of crime against humanity. The criminals in this case are the financial gurus of the bond markets with complete complicity of European national governments. The Greek people are being ground into the dust by “austerity” cut after “austerity” cut, increase taxes, pension cuts and thousands being added to the unemployment army on a daily basis. Ill health, suicides, drug addiction and alcoholism are all on the increase, these are the constant companions of poverty. In the new Greece to be pregnant is now a nightmare unless you belong to that well-heeled group in the upper echelons of the income bracket. Read how it is to be pregnant in modern Greece.

      Of course we should not be under any illusions that we are somehow guaranteed immunity from the Greek treatment, it could and probably will come your way, in the not too distant future. That's capitalism for you.

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HUMAN SACRIFICE ON THE HIGH ALTER OF FINANCE.

         When looking at how the ordinary people in Europe are being punished for the sins of their bankers and politicians, it is difficult to know where to focus. Greece has been in the firing line to some of the must brutal attacks to the livings standards of any European country. However a little closer to home is Ireland. Bearing in mind that Ireland has already been through 4 years of savage cuts to the conditions of its people, what is in store for them in the coming year 2012 is frightening. The Irish government has set out its next hit list and it amounts to 2.2 billion Euros of cuts for 2012. Its targets are the usual working class areas, welfare, health, education, fuel and rent allowance, disability allowance and student grants, on top of that lot there is VAT increased to 23%. Public sector workers are being punished extremely brutally, having seen their wages cut, by on average, 15%, they now face a two year wage freeze and the threat of redundancy, as another 6.000 public sector jobs are set to go. No doubt in the coming months we will be able to talk about the decimation of the Italian people's living standards, Spain is well down the road to social disintegration caused by rampant unemployment and cuts to social spending. We here in the UK have similar problems with savage cuts and youth unemployment running at well over 1 million.

       The working class of Europe are being sacrificed on the bankers' alter of greed, what ever actions are taken by the puppet politicians, it is always to ensure that the banks and bond markets, the politicians paymasters, don't lose out. This system has nothing to do with improving the welfare of the people, it is all about amassing wealth in the accounts of the corporate world and their greedy shareholders. It is all about holding on to that unearned wealth and the power that derives from that wealth. The people are of no consequence, mere pulp that can be used, abused and sacrificed as the need arises in the game of exploitation.

"Sacrifices have to be made."

       Surely lurking somewhere in your mind you can think of an alternative system, a system that sees to the needs of all our people, a system that is built on mutual aid and sustainability. It is not impossible to build such a system, the present system of capitalism is a man made system of a few hundred years. It is not something handed done from the gods, written in tablets of stone. It was people that devised it and it was people that drove it, surely people can destroy it and build from a foundation of co-operation, a caring a system that we would be proud to leave to our grandchildren. Are you proud of the inheritance that we will leave to them under the present system?

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CAPITALISM - PROFIT = MISERY.

           The capitalist system is in crisis, it sounds all so rational and academic, but what it means is that across Europe people are suffering in ever increasing numbers, and to an ever degrading degree. Country after country comes under the spotlight of the media and all the talk is about the “debt” crisis, never the human side. In Greece, a country with an unelected Prime Minister, unemployment has risen from 6.6% in 2008, to 16.6% in 2011, while youth unemployment went from 18.6% to 40.1%, and heroin addiction rose by 20% during the same period. Add to this human disaster the fact that the government during the same period has cut the health budget by 40% and reduced the street-work programs by 33%. Put that toxic cocktail together and you have human suffering and deprivation approaching third world proportions. Spain fares little better, with unemployment at 20%, and 10% of families with no wage earner, plus, during 2011, 1 in 8 business closed. Italy another country with an unelected Prime Minister, is about to embark on a series of vicious slashes to public spending, which will heap more people on to the already mountainous mound of misery that exists in Europe. Here in the UK we have now passed 2.6 million unemployed, 8.3% and rising. Our youth unemployment is now over 1 million and rising, add to this our wage freeze/cuts and an inflation rate of 5% and you can see the misery indicator shooting up. Meanwhile our Millionaire cabinet cabal, keep blaming the Euro-Zone for all our ills. The fact that growth in Europe is above that in the UK, and inflation is lower than the UK, doesn't seem to register with them, it is all Europe's fault.

CRISIS? What crisis?

         The simple fact is that capitalism is crisis, it can't work for the benefit of the ordinary people, it is basically a system that feeds the rich at the expense of the poor. Profit is the aim, not human welfare, and as such, that profit must be protected at all costs. The human misery resulting from this type of value structure is never taken into account on the balance sheets of the corporate world. Throughout the entire period of history where capitalism has been the main system we have had continuous wars, raging poverty, mass unemployment and the resulting misery such circumstances produce. Of course the numbers who gain a reasonable life varies from time to time, but it is a temporary respite, soon along comes another recession, or crisis and the numbers change again, with poverty and misery growing, wiping out any benefits that some of the ordinary people had fought for and temperaly gained.

        If we want to fix the “crisis” so that all the people will benefit, then we have to demolish the present system and change our value structure to one of profit free thinking. The only answer is to create a society of mutual aid and co-operation based on sustainability. The present “crisis” of the system can only be remedied by eliminating capitalism and building a needs based system. Only then will be see an end to the misery of deprivation, only then will our youth be able to flower to their full potential.

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DIAMONDS AND DEPRIVATION??

         An item of news that might not catch the eye of those at the receiving end of the financial Mafia’s drive for austerity cuts, I'm referring to the coming sale of the Sundrop yellow diamond. This is quite a pretty piece of shiny stuff, kinda like yellow glass. This piece of carbon rock that was dug out off the ground, might not be your thing or mine, but, it is expected to go in the auction for somewhere around £7 million. So as you and your friends sit around discussing the hardships being inflicted on you, don't for one moment think we are all in this together. The hardship is for you and I, the fat-richcats, responsible for devising these austerity cuts, have no intention of including themselves. They and their millionaire friends will be at the diamond auction, throwing in a bid or two for that Sundrop yellow diamond. After all, what is £7 million here or there for such a lovely piece of rock.

Times are hard, I had to drop out of the Sundrop diamond auction.

      Wages cut/frozen, pensions cut, education decimated, health care privatised, libraries closed, social benefits slashed, uneployment rising, the very fabric of what little social justice we have won, being viciously removed, and Victorian poverty the only future our kids are being offered. That's the deal, you sink in the shit, and those who created this mess and pass the legislation to ensure your poverty and the protection of their wealth, flutter around the diamond markets of the world nodding a million bid here and a million bid there.

       I see this diamond auction as a graphic display of all that is wrong in this corrupt and exploitive system. The few throw millions at trinkets, while the millions struggle to live a half decent life, and in most cases, fail miserable. Their failure is not down to their lack of ability, but directly linked to the grasping greed of those in control of this stinking system, the ones who throw the millions at glossy trinkets.

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WISDOM FROM THE STREET.

           An economic lesson from the street, no need for a university degree, listen to the voice from the street. It is cheaper, clearer and more accurate. When will we wake up and destroy this game of fraud and corruption, that shackles us to a permanent fear of deprivation, in a world of plenty?

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ARE WE COUNTING OUR DEAD AND INJURED?

             Across the developed world the call is for "austerity cuts" wage cuts/freeze, pension cuts, redundancy. The social service for the ordinary people are being decimated, education, health care, libraries, all being  dismantled. It is even being discussed in the mainstream media, but what the will not say is that this is an all out war against a particular class by another class. This is the rich and wealthy class taking from the working class to protect and enrich themselves, they call it a financial crisis. It is time to realise this is a real war, it is time to call it by its real name, class war. People will die, it may be from the cold, (can't afford to heat themselves) it could be from health problems, (proper service just not there). Like all wars though, there will be more injured than killed and the injuries can be from malnutrition, to mental health. However one of the greatest casualties will be the hopes and dreams of an entire generation of young people. This is a brutal war, and like all wars it is a war for resources, (money & and power), like all wars it is an unnecessary war. Like all wars, you lose if you don't fight back with more determination, organisation and solidarity than your enemy. We all know who that enemy is, it is the corporate capitalist system, and until we defeat that we will continue to lose our people to this brutal onslaught.

             Of course the parasites at the top of this pile of shit, could not wage this war without having their troops on the street. We see their troops around us every day of the week and they will swing into action when ever you try to resist their masters attacks.
          This video was Falmouth, it could be anywhere, yes, your neck of the woods.

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THE RETURN OF PAST POVERTY FOR GREECE.

        When the media reports on Greece it is all about the Greek government trying to "balance the books" which translates into "placate the IMF" (International Mankind Fuckers), with some coverage of strikes and protests. Never do they capture what is actually going on in Greece, they fail miserably to convey what it is like to be living in Greece at the moment. A country where all the ordinary workers have seen their wages cut by as much as a third, their taxes rise by by the same, and new taxes introduced. Add to that a flood of redundancies and massive cuts to health, 40%, education and all other social services. These type of cuts take a civilised country and return it to the beginning of the 1900's. Naturally the people are objecting, and rightly so. 

      There is one photographer who does capture what it is like on the streets of Greece with photographs that are each an art work in their own right. Yiannis Biliris's photographs capture not just an instant but a story, an emotion, a living period. You can see more of his work HERE.

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CAMERON - MILIBAND, TWO OF A KIND!!

        The following is a short extract from Tony Benn's speech made at the weekend. It is all well and good what he says, but we don't want to to defeat the government and see a Miliband Labour government in its place. After all the man himself Ed, has said that they cannot reverse the cuts. To replace the Cameron/Clegg millionaires with look-a-like named Miliband is hardly going to improve the conditions of the ordinary people of this country. They are all singing from the same music sheet, it's just that the Cameron mob are singing it as a reel, while the Miliband bunch want to sing it as a waltz. The end result will be the same, a drastically decimated welfare system, a low wage economy and millionaires making loads of cash. It is not the faces at the front of the package that is the problem, it is the package itself.

          “The present government is mounting the biggest attack ever made on the welfare state created after the Second World War. Their aim is to finish the work begun under Margaret Thatcher in the 1980s.

         When people came back from the war, the view was that it was the responsibility of government, representing the people as a whole, to provide affordable homes, free medical care, education for all, and key public services.

        All of that is now under threat. The Con-Dem Coalition's programme of austerity and privatisation will take us back 80 years.

          We are going to need a tidal wave of resistance from below to defeat the government. Every one of us needs to get active, involve others, spread the spirit of resistance to help to build a united mass movement to stop the cuts.”

What we want is a mass movement of resistance to change the system, not to change the face at the podium or the bums on the seats of power, and party political politics will never do that.

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THE CUTS ARE FOR YOUR BENEFIT!!!

      

       Our millionaire public school thugs keep spouting that what they are doing is for the benefit of the country. What do they mean by “benefit of country”? What most people would think is that it is for he benefit of the people of that country. However the policies being administered by this bunch of millionaire parasites is most certainly not for the benefit of the people. Let's start with the £9billion cut from disability benefit, hitting some of the most vulnerable in our society. Then of course there is those effects that are not linked to any specific cut, like for example the fact that in the last year FareShare, which redistributes waste food from food manufacturers and super markets to various social care charities, has seen the demand for its food rise from 29,500 to 35,000 and increase of 20%. A lot of those coming forward for the food are from what would be termed “stable families” affected by rising unemployment. The number of charities applying to the FareShare scheme has risen from 600 to 700 over the last year. Almost half of those charities signed up to the scheme have claimed that the demand for their food services has risen by more than 50%. That's an awful lot of people depending on food handouts to survive, in what is one of the richest countries in the world. So much for “the benefit of the country”. Another action for “the benefit of the country” is a wage freeze, and in some cases, a wage cut, on public sector employees, while inflation is running at 5% and fuel bills for heating have risen by 18% this year alone. What is the total so far that are benefiting from these policies?

WE HAVE PLANS FOR THE SOCIAL SERVICES.

     Cuts in social services and benefits, wage freeze and wage cuts, high inflation and rocketing fuel prices, cuts in education, closure of libraries, leisure centres, and school, attempts to privatise the National Health Service, higher pension contributions, working longer and lower pensions at retiral, plus unemployment rising, all for your benefit. Of course you won't benefit now, but in 20 years or so this will be a great country for big business, lots of cheap labour and hundreds chasing every job. What you are being promised is the usual pie in the sky for you, and an immediate killing for the millionaire parasite class. So as far as they are concerned what they are doing is for “the benefit of the country”, as they consider it is their country, we are just the tools by which they make their fortunes. In the words of that old song,”When will we ever learn”?

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WAR = TERRORISM.

WAGING WAR ABROAD AND WAR ON PUBLIC SERVICES AT HOME.

An appeal from Stop the War Coalition.

      The war in Libya will soon have cost the UK two billion pounds. We were told at the start of the NATO intervention that the cost to Britain would be "tens, not hundreds of millions". The war is in its seventh month and British planes have flown around one in five of all the bombing raids on the country, destroying or damaging more than 900 sites. The £2 billion spent on Libya comes on top of £5 billion a year on the war in Afghanistan and the £2 billion a year spent maintaining the Trident nuclear missile system.

       Just as we're being told there is no alternative to deep cuts in the NHS, in disability allowances, pensions, and every area of the public services, £9 billion is being spent on two wars opposed by the majority of the British public, and on maintaining the militarily pointless Trident system. Britain is facing its worst economic crisis since the 1930s, but David Cameron in his speech last week to the United Nations, called for yet more war, adopting from Tony Blair the justification of "humanitarian intervention" for western powers to wage war wherever they please. (SEE: http://bit.ly/rk11ZC).

       It will be the main purpose of the Antiwar Mass Assembly on 8 October (see below) to mobilise as big a display of popular opposition as possible to this government's policy of spending billions on wars abroad while waging a war at home to cut billions from our public services.

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