Time For politicians And Bankers To Leave.

 

    I recently read an open letter by the leader of the Portuguese dockers union, to Passos, the Prime minister of that country, and published in Xpressed. Though I don't agree with the entire content, I agree with the feelings and the sentiments expressed in the letter, particularly the last couple of paragraphs. The last paragraph could equally apply here or for that matter, to any other country.

        The fury with which you take forward your ideological agenda is so radical that you are unable to look at the consequences for people’s lives. In the Lisbon Port, for example, which is the reality I know better, the irrationality of port law, which you have approved against everything and everyone, has led to 47 dockers being unfairly fired, when their job was crucial for the performance of the port. The bosses have recognised this and have committed to reinstate them all, but nothing erases the suffering of being jobless for one year. Do you have any idea what that means? I know well that you only care about the performance of exports –a reality you have hindered– but let me tell you that your intransigency has a tremendous impact in people’s lives. Unemployment is almost always to blame for other avatars, from divorce to depression, from giving up on having children to losing the house, from the lack of horizons to the illusionary escape of emigrating.

      Passos, listen… we are tired of seeing our relatives, rights and dreams emigrate and we will keep fighting so that you understand quickly that the best for everyone is that you, your government and your bankers leave. Nobody will shed a tear when you sail off. This trip today is a condition for people to have hope in a better future tomorrow. It’s not enough surely, but everything will begin again in that day, whole and clean.

President of the Dockers Union , Traffic workers and Maritime Clerks of the Centre and South of Portugal.

Read the full letter HERE:

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We're A Very, Very Rich Country.

       So according to our lords and masters, the pampered Oxbridge parasites, the Cameron cabal, the flood damage will get what ever money it takes and, no need to divert money from overseas aid to the flood disaster, we are a very rich country. Well that's good to hear, perhaps we will now see the reversing of all those austerity measures that are creating different kinds of disasters around the country. These are not natural disasters, but man made disasters, the direct result of the Cameron cabal's ideological policies. How about reinstating all those public sector workers that have been paid off, because we couldn't afford them? After all, we were told that the severe austerity and massive redundancies were because we didn't have the money, but now Cameron has let it be known that have, there is all the money we need, as we are a very rich country. 

We can't afford a welfare state.

      It is the usual claptrap bullshit we expect from the political class, a phrase to suit an occasion, truth is irrelevant. I'm not saying we are not a very rich country, on the contrary, I have always spouted that we are a very, very rich country. However, the economic structure of the country is ideologically driven to suit the corporate world, it could just as easily be driven to suit the needs of the people. No matter how you look at it, it is a class thing, the class with all the wealth, hold the levers of power, and they are not about to adjust things to reduce their own wealth in favour of bettering the conditions of you and I. They will continue their drive to increase their own wealth and power. If we the ordinary people want the economic structure of the country to be working for the benefit of all, then we as a class will have to take those levers of power into our own hands. Our are we going to wait for the compassion of the corporate moguls and their political lackies? 

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The Lord Of The Universe Has Spoken.

     Experts always manage to do research and then prove what everybody else already knows. A recent study proves that we in the UK are now worse off than we were in 2008. I could have told them that for nothing. It seems that in 2008 21% of those interviewed stated that they had difficulty in paying their bills and credit. Then the same number of people were interviewed in 2013, and guess what, the figure had risen to 35%. That is approximately 25 million people in the UK have difficulty paying the bills and credit, roughly a little more than a third of the entire population. The reasons give are wage cuts/freeze, loss of jobs or now on part-time, late benefit payments, etc.. Unavoidable, accident or ideology? Well my vote goes firmly in the ideology box. It is all going well as the financial Mafia and the corporate cabal carry out "restructuring" which translates into creating a sweatshop Europe.

     I have been spouting that line since before 2008. The powers that be want an end to the "welfare" states of Europe, they consider them a hindrance to the efficient plundering by the financial Mafia. Unhindered speculation makes billions for the already very rich, but causes misery and deprivation for millions of ordinary people. However, that's the name of the game.

      At the end of May 2013, The European Research Group of  JP Morgan Chase, released a document entitled "The Euro Area Adjustment - About Half-Way There." This document calls for the overturning of the bourgeois democratic constitutions established in a series of European countries after the Second World War and the installation of authoritarian regimes.

     The paper goes on to argue that financial measures are necessary to ensure that major "investment houses" (members of the financial Mafia) such as JP Morgan Chase can continue to reap massive profits from their speculative activities in Europe. They also maintain that it is necessary to impose political reforms aimed at suppressing opposition to the unpopular austerity measures being carried out at the behest of the banks.

      Well there you have it, no need to take the word of an angry old wrinkly anarchist, the lords of the universe have spoken.

Further reading on this:

The bellforum.

DailyPaul.

Sottnet.

Deep Politics Monitor.

World Socialist Web Site.

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Austerity, A Beast With Blood On Its Teeth.

     Austerity is an ugly beast, it tears at the fabric of society, bloodying the present and devouring the future. It is not just a matter of cutting down on the cappuccinos, skipping a night at the movies, it's the spread of fear, the creation of bitterness, the struggle for survival. With austerity comes anger and to contain that anger, and preserve their own privileged position, the establishment unleashes its fascist dogs, intimidation and repression are necessary for the survival of their ideological beast austerity. Austerity never arrives by accident, it is called in to do its masters bidding. What is happening in Greece is neither an accident nor necessary, it is an ideological plan. What we should not forget is that the austerity beast is already prowling the streets of other countries about to start its ravenous feast and devour the lives of those ordinary people.

    This film is not the Greece I visited for many years, it has been changed, brutalised and its people impoverished, austerity has ravished them. All this because a bunch of corrupt rich politicians follow the grand plan laid down by another bunch of even more rich financial parasites who never live in the world they create, by their enforced austerity. 

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ATOS KILLS.

       Is it a civilised country when disabled people have to take to the streets  and demonstrate in an attempt to hold on to what meagre assistance they get to help make their lives liveable? To see an army of disabled people being manhandled by the police for simply objecting to having their lives made intolerable, shames any society. This is 21 century Britain, one of the wealthiest countries in the world, and the powers that be are stripping away the quality of live from the most vulnerable. What is more, it is for no other reason than to follow the dictate of the financial Mafia's enforced ideology department.

      Scenes like this video tell you that this present economic system is not fit for purpose.

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MODERN SLAVERY.

        Where have the slaves gone? We used to speak of wage slaves but that seems to be out of fashion, but we are still in that position, modern slavery exits as a way of life across the planet, but we slaves are brainwashed into believing that slavery has been abolished, it is an illusion.. A quote from an interesting article on Modern Slavery:

Read the full article HERE:

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THE PARTY LINE OR HONEST DIALOGUE?

Dialogue and critique require honesty. This from Anarchist News:

        The anarchist project is one of constant dialogue and critique. Our ideas are not separate from our actions; theory is not separate from practice. Through the course of our activities it becomes necessary to re-evaluate our positions in relation to events. As anarchists we do not offer an answer or solution to the world's problems, but instead a lens through which to critique and act upon it. We should always be suspicious of those who claim to know, to have an answer or truth, especially from those who also call themselves anarchists but are not open to dialogue. This is how thoughts crystallize into ideology, into unquestionable positions. It is imperative that our ideas do not become static, that we remain dynamic in response to our environment.

       The adherence to ideologies lessens our ability to hear and be heard by one another. With the wide variety of positions anarchists take, there must be room for criticism and debate, as it allows for a sharpening of analysis and a deepening of understanding, of ourselves as anarchists and our positions in relation to each other. The following is an analysis of left anarchists' tendency to launch unfounded accusations instead of engaging in a critical dialogue. Sometimes it seems that those who question the authority of a false unity are committing an act of heresy. In response I would posit the question: what position is more appealing, that of adherent or heretic?

Continue READING:

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RICH SCROUNGERS, EVERY ONE OF THEM.

        The Disability Living Allowance claimants who are having to go through the process of re-assessment are having to face a much flawed system. As far as I am aware, Atos the company responsible for the assessments, does not require staff to have any training in or understanding of mental illness. And as anybody who has any knowledge of mental illness is aware, the condition can vary considerably from day to day. So it is difficult to understand how a one of, one day visit can adequately assess someone as fit for work. Of course the very fact that you are facing a short one of meeting that could affect the rest of your life, only adds stress and can aggravate the condition. There are lots of people on Disability Living Allowance who have physical conditions that fluctuate wildly from one day feeling not too bad, to other days when they are completely incapacitated. How does a short meeting assess this accurately? The Guardian has an excellent article on this subject HERE.

          The whole philosophy behind this unfair, stressful re-assessment system is based on an ideology that all those on benefit are scroungers, and the self righteous pampered millionaire parasites, that is our government, is intent on weeding them out. Who are the scroungers? Those pampered millionaires who have grown up in a cloistered world of unearned wealth and excess, or those on benefit struggling day to day to make ends meet? I have no doubt that a few do work the system and get a meagre living out of it, but the vast majority by far are legitimate claims and those on benefits do not lead a life of luxury, they struggle from day to day. Compare this with the abuse of the system by the over paid MPs with their expenses fiddles, those massive fat bonuses paid to grossly over paid bankers, the abuse of the system by the tax dodging corporations, and the millionaires with their wealth tucked away in some tax haven while prancing about in this country giving advice to their millionaire friends in government.

        This attack on those on benefit is an attack on the working class and they should not have to face it alone. On benefit or not, we have to stand side by side with those who are on benefits. These benefit cuts are only one aspect of a general attack on our class by the pampered parasite class. Deficit my arse, it is all about privatising everything and grabbing public assets into private hands.

 

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SMOKE AND MIRRORS--IDEOLOGY!!

        Recent figures from the Bank of England show that in the UK there are over 10 million families that are struggling to pay their bills. There are approximately 26.5 million household in the country, so we are approaching the 50% of UK families in some sort of financial trouble. These figures are before the “we're all in this together” austerity cuts come into play. This an increase from 8.9 million in the last report. These figures do not include the hundreds of thousands of people who have already fallen behind with their various payments. The report also states that 1 in 10 people are having difficulty paying their rent or mortgage. It also states that it expects these figures to get worse next year.

This is the type of life that capitalism brings to the ordinary people, struggle to hold on to your standard of living and facing cuts. This situation is nothing new, no matter how far we go back the story is the same. Go back to 1787, the Calton Weavers strike, three weavers shot dead, and why were they on strike, because they were facing a wage cut. It's the same old story, and it is a brutal story.

We are now being told the full extent of the next round of vicious cuts to be unleashed on the ordinary people of this country. Believe me, these will be the worst that any of us have experienced in our life time. The misery that will be heaped the the ordinary people of this country will be brutal and it will be long lasting, this is not a quick fix policy.

You have to ask yourself, does the government really want to devastate the living standards of the people? We know that there are alternative ways of reducing the deficit, why this way? The truth is it has nothing to do with rapid deficit reduction and all to do with ideology. The deficit is the wonderful excuse to allow them to go hell for leather at transferring all public assets into private hands and that is the real game plan. The cuts will make it impossible for government departments to carry out their appointed duties, and where they fall short, galloping in to the rescue will come the knight in shining armour, the private sector. Then you starve the local councils of funds and they can no longer provide the required services, lo and behold, here he comes again, galloping to the rescue the wonderful capitalist knight in shining armour, ever ready to supply what you want or need, at a profit of course. No such thing as a public service, good lord no, that would be silly, you must always provide a profit for the parasites sitting at the top sucking the life out of society.

Prepare yourself for a society with no public assets, no public spaces, no public services, all corporate owned and controlled, a society of ghettos and poverty with an unbridgeable divide between the deprivation of the many and the opulence of the few. We know there is an alternative, we can build a society that is based on the needs of all our people, we know what we want, a society created on the principles of mutual aid free from the fear of deprivation and exploitation. We have it in our power to destroy this abomination of a system and build a future that we would be proud to hand to the next generation.

 

Ah Love, Could Thou and I

with Fate Conspire

To Grasp this Sorry Scheme

of Things entire,

Would we not shatter it

to bits, and then

Remould it nearer to

the Hearts Desire!

Extract from Rubaiyat of Omar Khayam.

 

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