The Downward Spiral To Deprivation.

 

      In the UK the cull of the working class continues unabated. A recent statement from a food bank charity says it has handed out 913,000 food parcels in the last year, up from 347,000 the year before. Still the Bullingdon Club Boys, sitting in The Westminster Houses of Hypocrisy and Corruption, trumpet this as a "strong" economy. Another sign of their "strong" economy, is the steep rise in homelessness. The England and Wales figures of homeless for June to July 2014 was 55,090 compared with 39,480 for the same period 2010. 

     The massive rise in food bank distribution and the stark increase in homelessness, is nothing short of a human tragedy, a crime waged against the poor and vulnerable, in this extremely wealthy country. One homeless charity says it can no longer offer a bed to all the homeless and instead is giving then bus tickets so they can sleep on the bus at night. It says ‘We tell them which routes to choose, so that they will be travelling around all night".

        Of course the UK state is not the only state that is slashing the living conditions of the people. It is a European wide strategy, we all know how far they have gone in Greece, we are aware of the viciousness of the Spanish state. The people in Finland have taken to the streets as their government moves in with the hatchet to slash at the people's living conditions. New legislation in Finland will abolish two paid holidays, introduce wage cuts, and cut overtime payments, among a raft of other "austerity" measures. Big business wants a sweatshop economy here in Europe and the governments are hell bent on delivering. The UK has already given them a pool of free labour in the shape of workfare.

        Living standards across Europe are all under attack, big business is hungry, wages have to come down, working conditions have to "liberalised", social spending has to be cut to a minimum. Slashing social services means that the government can cut taxes to big business, and those services can be provided, at a profit, by big business. 

       This is not going to change because the government and their pay masters, big business, decide that it is time to raise the living standards of the people and give them a bigger slice of the cake. We are not going to see this wealthy bunch of parasitical shareholders, become a caring compassionate group eager to share their ill-gotten plunder with the people. We are on a downward spiral to deprivation, unless we decide that we want all the fruits of our labour to come to us, and take the necessary steps to ensure that happens. We don't need CEO, banksters, parasitical shareholders, nor do me need their protector that state.

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

The Real Growth Is Debt.

      The Oxbridge millionaire duo that sit on the thrones in The Westminster Houses of Hypocrisy and Corruption, the Cameron-Osborne parasites, are still crowing about how they fixed the economy, of how we are all doing better, as unemployment is falling. Of course we all know that the employment being created is part-time, low paid, low skill, zero hours contacts, the thousands forced to call themselves, “self-employed” and lets not forget, the thousands who now work for no wage at all, the workfare slave force. 

        The true signs of this “growth” are in the figures. UK family debts are rising much faster than incomes. According to a recent survey, the Avia Family Finance Report, states that typical family income rose by 4% between July and December 2014, while average household debt has rocketed over the last six months from £6,740 to an eye watering £16,260. The debt comes from many sources, family credit card debt rose a staggering 71% from £1,720 to £2,940, personal loan debt went from £1,210 to £2,090, and increase of 72%, while that ever increasing modern commodity, the “pay-day loan” went from an average £350 to £1,290, a 269% increase. Another sign of our growth, is the growth of the overdraft, which over the last six months going from an average of £340 to strangling £1,490, a whopping 338% increase.

       The report goes on to show that while average debt is climbing, the amount we pay to clear that debt is falling. The amount spent since July 2013, on servicing our debt, excluding mortgages, has dropped from £262 to $208 a month. Some of the reasons for the ncreasing debt and the falling paying off of that debt, is simply harder times. Families are paying on average, £571 a month on rent/mortgages and council tax, compared to £514 six months ago. Public transport costs have also seen an increase from £102 to £188 a month, with driving going from £116 to £130. 

      In the real world of the you and I, outside the Cameron/Osborne illusionary world, the predictions are that things will get tougher in 2015.

      A recent Money Advice Service survey found approximately half (47%) are buying cheaper alternatives to their usual everyday products, while 41% are planning to spend less on socialising. A little more than 25% will spend less on presents next year, it also states that 25% will take a packed lunch to work to help cut day-to-day spending. 

        This then is the recovery, this is the growth of the millionaire cabal, and they will continue to carry out the dictates of the financial Mafia and punish the poor and drive more people into poverty as the pursue the ideology of the corporate world. Sweatshop Europe, here we caome. 

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

European Democracy At Work.

      The Greek police probably rank as the most brutal police force in Europe, a very high percentage are members of Golden Dawn, the Greek right wing fascist group. Immigrants come in for some very brutal treatment from both Golden Dawn and the police, and thousands of immigrants end up in concentration camps dotted about the country. Of course it is not just immigrants that feel the harsh hand of the police, protesters old and young take a very high risk of injury if they take their protests to the streets. This is democratic Europe at work, repression by riot police tooled up like military units.

    Today students in Greece were heading to their university only to find it occupied by riot police, and were met with violent confrontation. The students gather in thousands in the centre of Athens, where they were again met by a massive riot police attack.
     Greece has been the financial Mafia's first stage of the experiment in creating a sweatshop Europe, and obviously the people will not take to this without resistance, and that's where the state's police brutality and repression come in. If they can beat the people of Greece into subservience, then the rest of us can look forward to the sweatshop Europe experiment spreading more rapidly to the rest of us.

This from Roar Mag:

     Schools in Greece have been occupied for a week. After today’s student protest, riot police blocked access to the university and attacked the students.

      It’s been some time since we last heard from the Greek movement. But, thanks to the Greek government and its riot police, today became a day of large student demonstrations, clashes with the cops, injuries and rising tension. First, let’s see what happened. Early in the morning, the Athens Law School students arrived at their university in order to carry out their assembly decision, which included a symbolic occupation of their university until the 17th of November — commemoration day of the 1973 student revolt against the military dictatorship.

       The problem was that the school was already occupied by the riot police. The Athenian Universities’ rectors had decided to apply a peculiar “lock out” of------

Read the full article HERE:

 

  

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The Slow Walk To Deprivation.

        In Greece more than one third of the population are living below the poverty line. Unemployment is running at 27.9% with youth unemployment a criminal 62.2%. These figures put Greece ahead in the grand plan of sweatshop Europe, but one country is not enough. The financial/corporate Mafia need more countries to get down to that level in their standard of living, to create the right circumstances to compete with the Eastern sweatshop economies. They need more people desperate enough to work for next to nothing, a more subservient workforce that has seen their working conditions decimated and the trade unions completely neutered. 

      In the UK They are taking a much slower road to deprivation and desperation. We have seen a 10% drop in real terms on our income in the last 4 to 5 years, with the promise from the recent Tory conference, that this "austerity" will continue until 2020. That's 7 more years of wage reductions/freeze, 7 more years of vicious cuts to social services and benefits. Where will your standard of living be by then? We are not there yet, but we are getting there. All other European countries are walking the same road, some faster than others. This is the legacy that we will leave our children and grandchildren, deprivation and desperation, unless we start now to take control of our own lives, our own communities. This struggle has been going on for more than a couple of hundred years and at the moment, they are winning. The final outcome is up to us, servitude, deprivation, or freedom to shape our own society.

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

Full Circle, Victorian Poverty To Osborne Poverty.

      How far will this government of millionaires go in creating its section of the European sweatshop economy? Well as far as we will let them. Though they failed to get voted in, they managed to cobble together a cabal of privileged parasitical millionaires to push through their agenda of low wage anti-union policies at the behest of the financial/corporate mafia. However they are by no means finished, there are some very vicious plans still to be implemented. Having attacked the unemployed with slave labour "workfare", brutally assaulted  the disabled by means of ATOS, bludgeoned individuals and families with the "bedroom tax" and coerced those working into accepting zero hours contracts, Old Etonian millionaire Osborne, has a super plan to bring back the Victorian workhouse conditions. Come April, all unemployed will be forced to do 30 hours a week of unpaid of charity work, or lose their benefits. If you can't find a job, you can be expected to be out picking up litter etc. saving the council money, and allowing them to pay off some more workers, to be forced to the same work. How you are supposed to find work while doing 30 hours a week slave labour is not mentioned. The reason being that they are well aware that there are no jobs.

      All this bodes well for their corporate  friends, forced labour, and shrinking wages and the promise of more "anti-union legislation". The phrase, "anti-union legislation" translates as an attack on all our working conditions, including health and safety. As far as the corporate greed machine is concerned, health and safety is costly, and that money could be used for shareholders bonuses. After all people are cheap, much cheaper than health and safety. Since taking the reigns of power, this millionaire cabal have managed to cut the average family income, in real terms, by £1,300 annually, and remember, they are talking about the "austerity" conditions lasting until 2018. How much will your average income have shrivelled to by then?

      It is all going to plan, sweatshop Europe is well under way, wages have fallen by approximately 10% since 2010, the unemployed will work for nothing, unions are being decimated, so firing at will isn't a problem, and zero hours contracts take a load off the employers responsibilities. In the marble halls of the corporate world, the champagne glasses are clinking in honour of the Osborne/Cameron attack on the working class.

Following extract from Mirror News:

     He said taking more money off the wealthy to pay for schools, hospitals and defence was “not sensible for a country if it wants to support wealth creation”. On the opening day of the conference he also announced policies that included pulling out of the European Convention on Human Rights. And his shift to the right was reinforced by party chairman Grant Shapps who set out plans for new anti-union laws – as his boss appeared to doze off in the audience.

Read the full article HERE:

     This is the best we can expect from this type of economic system, it's called capitalism. That means make lots of money for corporations at the expense of the people employed. However, it is not the only game in town, as we are continually told. There are other ways to shape our society, there is co-operation, mutual aid, producing to see to the needs of all our people and sustainability. We can create structures that serve us the people, rather than a market, controlled by billionaires. The parasites need us, we don't need them.

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

Protests In Poland, Sound Familiar?

      In country after country in Europe, the people are rising up against the financial/corporate Mafia and its drive to sweatshop Europe. Yesterday, September 14, in Poland, between 100,000 and 120,000 people took to the streets of Warsaw. Armed with banners, drums, whistles, smoke bombs and chants, they brought the city to a standstill. The marches started four days previously and marchers from all over the country converged on the capital Warsaw on Friday. Some of the protester had camped in front of parliament since Wednesday. The complaint is a familiar one, it was not a Polish problem, it was the European problem. They were objecting to the retirement age being raised to 67, the average monthly wage being among the lowest in Europe, and new legislation attacking working conditions, allowing longer daily and weekly working hours. No matter the country, no matter the government in power, be it Labour, Conservative, Christian Democrat, Liberal, or whatever, the policies are all the same, an attack on the living conditions of the ordinary people, the creation of a Europe wide cheap workforce. The European corporate machine has to compete with the Eastern sweatshop economies and you and I must pay the price. Of course there is another way, the demolition of this unjust, exploitative, greed and profit driven system called capitalism and the creation of a needs based society built on mutual aid, voluntary co-operation and free association, founded on equality and sustainability. It is up to us.

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

Sweatshop Europe Is Still The Aim.

      Like I keep saying, sweatshop Europe is the aim. Now that the People of Greece have seen their living standards trashed and poverty and deprivation is the norm for the ordinary people, it's time to invite in the big corporate plunderers. Time to start useing that poverty and deprivation as available cheap labour.  The puppets sitting in Athens, controlled by the Troika, (EC, European Commission, ECB, European Central Bank, IMF, International Mankind Fuckers), have now rolled out the red carpet for the corporate/financial Mafia to come in and do what they like with the environment.

This From Corporate Warch:

Public event, 

Thursday 19 September, 7 to 9pm,
Unite House, 128 Theobald’s Road, Holborn, London, WC1X 8TN.

Gold mining in Greece: stories of resistance and repression
       Under the pretext of a severe financial crisis Greece is reasserting its investor-friendly profile by opening up all goldmines across the country without regard to the threats that mining poses to the environment and to people’s livelihoods. Foreign investors are particularly welcome: fast track processes; tax relief; exception from damages; easy money; no royalties; no problems.
      But the true picture is not so rosy! Sham public consultations, questionable deals designed to advance specific corporate interests and the slow but steady destruction of the environment have been met with resistance. The struggle to oppose Eldorado Gold’s plans to create an enormous open pit mine on Mount Kakavos and within the ancient forest of Skouries has succeeded in capturing people’s imagination and inspiring waves of solidarity across the country.

Read the full article HERE:

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

Puppets Of The Troika.

       Who rules Greece? An email has come to light proving that the Troika,  (EC, European Commission, ECB,European Central Bank, IMF, International Mankind Fuckers.) is dictating to the Greek government what is to be done regarding some purely domestic affairs. If you believe that it is only the Greek government that the Troika put pressure on, you're being rather naive. Why just Greece? After all it is sweatshop Europe that they are trying to  create, not just sweatshop Greece. We are never informed what goes on behind those closed doors in the marble halls of power.

This from Borderline Reports:

       Nevertheless, the email addressed by Mr Kontolemis to the Greek government contradicts the Justice Minister’s claims: it not only requests that “revisions” be made to the proposed bill, an issue of domestic policy, but it also reminds the government that they have already committed to making these changes in July, and it also demands the legislature’s swift actions, under the threat that the October payment will be withheld.

Read the full article HERE:

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

€200 A Month,--Economic Recovery!!!!

        I know I go on about the planned European sweatshop economy, but it is all falling into place. All the European countries are moving in the same direction but at a  slightly different pace. Greece is just the most advanced in the grand plan. In the UK with wage freezes/cuts, and inflation romping along at around 3%, wage earners here have seen the income reduce by approximately 10% since the "crisis". Where will they be in another 5 years or so? Unless we change the system, we the ordinary people, are on a downward spiral to deprivation. It is not the lack of wealth, it is the system. Like I said, Greece is now well established as on par with some third world countries, In that country, on offer are IT jobs at €200 per month, without insurance. This is a European country, try talking about economic recovery on that salary.

Another report from Teacher Dude: 

Keep Out! - The 78th Thessaloniki International Trade Fair

      Inside the 78th Thessaloniki International Trade Fair the prime minister is giving a speech as prime minister have done for decades on this date. I will not bother to follow the speech, either in person or on TV as Samaras's public addresses are usually leaked well in advance and amount to a little more than  a series of soundbites linked together by the slightest of rhetorical devices, more akin to bloated TV commercials than anything Demosthenes would recognise.
         "The economy is coming round, recovery is on its way, the sacrifices of the people are finally paying off."It's old, old stuff made all the more unconvincing by the fact that every prime minister has sad the same since the financial crisis began in 2009. Yes, the rate of decline in the Greek economy has slowed down to "just" 3.8% but unemployment is still rising, set to reach 30% by the end of the year if the latest Greek trade union research is to be believed.
       On the other hand while Samaras was addressing the nation, safely ensconced behind thousands of riot police the people next to me in the cafe are discussing a mutual acquaintance;
"They're looking for a IT graduate, part time, 5 to 9 and you know what they're offering?   200 euros a month, without insurance, 200!"
       This is is the economic success story that the government and the foreign press are so happy to promote, a country in which salaries do not even begin to cover living costs, even for people with years of experience and advanced qualifications. An economy where millions are unable to start a family or even afford basic health care or a pension. Even if the books balance by the end of the decade the macroeconomic damage being wrought will last for a generation.
         By midday the prime minister will have returned to Athens, his presence having left behind little than a bunch of high sounding promises and a lot of disgruntled commuters. The Trade Fair once again has become the political plaything of the leadership which fails to see that turning a city into war zone every year is not the best way to encourage international trade and especially not Greece's image abroad.

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

     

Spiraling Into Planned Deprivation.

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       Hello Greece, we in the UK are following hard on your heels, as you plunge into orchestrated deprivation, we are right behind you. Recent figures show that we in the UK saw average hourly wages fall faster than most European countries. Since 2010 UK average hourly wages, adjusted for inflation, have fallen 5.5%. This is worse than Spain, 3.3%, Cyprus, 3%, countries that have faced financial turmoil. The only countries that suffered a worse deteriorating hourly wage were Greece, Portugal and Holland. Compare the UK drop with the European average drop of 0.7% and you see the rate at which we are racing towards the sweatshop economy. The UK workers will have lost £6,660 by the time the next election comes round. The present millionaire cabal sitting in The Westminster Houses of Hypocrisy and Corruption have presided over 35 consecutive months of falling real wages. The pattern is set to continue as price rises outstrip wage increases, where there are any wage increases.
       Do you honestly see this changing? Do you believe that voting in another smiling suit will make up any of that lost income? Only a fool would accept that a change of party, from tweedle-dee to tweedle-dum will sort out the falling living standards of the ordinary people. I suppose it is wrong to say “falling” living standards, “falling” implies some sort of unavoidable accident, the correct phrase in this instant should be “driven down” living standards. There is no accident in the way things are going and it is certainly not unavoidable. Everything is going to plan, cheap labour and everything privatised, that is the real aim of this financial Mafia plan. We are well on our way to be part of that corporate dream, sweatshop Europe.

ann arky's home.

   

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.

ann arky's home.

What Will Your Grandkids Wages Be?

       According to the Institute for Fiscal Studies, UK wages have fallen more in real terms than ever before. According to Claire Crawford of the IFS “The falls in nominal wages - - - during this recession are unprecedented.” Of course we all know the reason, a deliberate policy by employers, public and private, to use the “crisis” to freeze wages or in some cases cut wages. Workers are facing a continual rise in living costs with inflation running at between 2 to 3%, while aproximately one third of workers who stayed in the same job since the “crisis”, have taken a wage cut or wage freeze. Those who have not, have seen wage increases of well below the inflation rate. Of course any wage increase below inflation is in fact a wage cut.

       With “austerity” set to continue into 2020, can you calculate by how much your income will have fallen in real terms by then? We are well on our way to being the UK section of the European sweatshop economy. With a downwrd spiral forecast until 2020, and then some promise of pie-in-the-sky, you can see what kind of future our kids and grandkids are heading towards.

       Of course this "austerity" business is just for you and I the ordinary guys, those at the top haven't even had a whiff of "austerity". Corporate bodies are holding vast volumes of cash, waiting for the right conditions, a pool of very cheap labour, then they will start to exploit it with a vengeance. Their aim is an abundance of cheap labour, ours is to live a decent life with some dignity, the two are incompatible. The sooner we realise this fact the sooner we can all come together and dismantle this burden on our shoulders and start to create that better world. A world of co-operation in place of competition, of mutual aid in place of profit, a world that sees to all our needs and not the greed of a handful of parasites.

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