Grandama Is On The Picket.

       In this country there is a tendency for people of different groups to think of their problems are the problems of that particular group. pensions and raising the pension age, is the problem of the older people, unemployment among the young is a problem for the young, the disabled being crucified by ATOS is a problem for that group, and workfare is a problem for those on jobseekers allowance, and so it goes on. However, in reality all these problems are all our problems, in this society employed can quickly become unemployed, able-bodied can quickly become disabled, and we all grow old. Pensioners should stand in line with young unemployed, employed should support those on the abusive workfare programs, pensioners and unemployed should be on the anti-ATOS pickets. After all, parents struggled hard to give their kids a decent life, workers paid dearly for a system that would take good care of those unable to work, for whatever reason, pensions and the pension age, were fought and paid for by ordinary workers. All of the meager benefits that we get in this society were paid in full, and more, by the ordinary people of this country. Having paid for them with blood, sweat and tears, the financial Mafia have decided to strip them all away. For nothing more than an ideology of greed and exploitation.

     The problem is not ATOS, it is not workfare, it is not unemployment, it is not working until you drop, nor is it carp pensions. The real and only problem is the system itself, capitalism.

      It is encouraging to see in Spain that the pensioners are getting the big picture and realise that the entire benefits of a working life to help secure your kids future, is now going down the tubes, for no other reason than greed. and they are joining the fight with the young.

Another interesting article from Xpressed:

 

        “We are the generation that has fought to achieve a better life for our children. Right now, they are toying with the futures of our children and grandchildren… We stand by them in spirit, at the local assemblies and at all their activities. If they condescendingly call these people “Perroflautas” (hobos) to diminish their audacity, then let them call us “Iaioflautas” (from the spanish yayo, which means grandpa)”.
       The Iaioflautas support the young in their fight for democracy and social justice, “against the bankers and their accomplices the politicians”. They combat the rampant speculation, the cut-backs, the privatisation, and the mutualising of the losses, like saving banks with public money. They also support the PAH and all those who have been thrown out of their homes for mortgage debts. They are to be found in 11 cities, 4 of them in Catalonia, and are active on both facebook and twitter.
      On October 27, 2011, the Iaioflautas occupied their first bank, Banco Santander in Barcelona.
 This particular bank was picked as a starting point for the day of actions against banks because its director, Mr. Botin, denoted that the banks are the doubtless winners of the economical crisis. This man has a personal fortune of about 1,7 Billion Euro. This was just the beginning of a campaign to occupy banks (i.e. La Caixa in Badalona), through which they still protest against the bankers and the financial oligarchy, who “ruin the lives of 99% of people”.

Read the full article HERE:

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

Whose Town Is It Anyway?

Published on May 30, 2013

     Presents a portrait of a working class community after 25 years on the receiving end of traditional local government. Includes interviews with local community activists, a meeting in a pub, the editorial office of "The Voice" community newspaper and a discussion with unemployed young people. Conveys their sense of powerlessness and anger at the failure of the authorities to get to grips with the massive housing and employment needs of their area.

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

Austerity Is Death By Another Name.

       When that babbling brook of bullshit, the mainstream media, report on the Greek “crisis”, it is always about bailouts, debt, and need for greater “austerity”. What, seldom if ever, gets a mention is the death factor in all this financial Mafia economic gobble-gook. Hidden behind the unemployment figures and falling wages, rising taxes and prices, is the death factor. Accelerated deaths from malnutrition, stress, drug and alcohol addiction are all linked to the “austerity” plan. There is another toll the people of Greece are paying to satisfy the financial mafia and banksters, suicide. During the first 4 years of Greece's “financial crisis”, 2007-2011, the suicide rate increased by a staggering 43%. In fact 2011 marked the highest number of suicides in Greece, for 50 years. According to some authorities the last two years are showing indications that there will a further very large rise.

        The group Klimaka, based in Athens, stated that reported suicides rose dramatically, but we cannot take these figures as accurate, as there are a considerable number of unreported suicides, the figures are in all probability, much higher. Greece is a relatively small country population wise, with a population of just 11.28 million, (2012 figures), but with the direct impact of the financial Mafia's dictate, creating 27% unemployment, 60%+ among the young and a stratospheric minimum 43% increase in suicides, you begin to get the true meaning of “austerity”. This is a small country, a member of one of the largest and richest developed economic blocks on the planet, yet we can't see to it that the people of a small country of 11.28 million, can have a reasonable standard of living. Capitalism isn't working for the benefit of the majority, capitalism will never work for the benefit of the majority, capitalism can't work for the benefit of the majority. It isn't made that way, it is simply a system of exploitation, where the few live in luxury off the backs of the many, who struggle to survive, as all the wealth they create is siphoned up to that few, the parasites, the leeches of society. Capitalism is the enemy of the people.

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

Prosperity And Austerity - Them And Us.

    The European Commission has stated that the UK still has a structural government budget deficit of 5.7% of GDP, where as the eurozone as a whole has minus 1.5%. This after our millionaire cabal, sitting in those Westminster Houses of Hypocrisy and Corruption, have slashed our social services by attacking us with three years of “austerity” that was supposed to take us to the land of prosperity. However, the land of prosperity that they refer to is not for you and I. Austerity is now to be a permanent feature of our lives, public sector jobs will continue to be sacrificed at the alter of privatisation. Wages will continue to be squeezed well below inflation, that is the prosperity that is facing you and I. There will be no let up in the squeeze on the living conditions of the ordinary people, as this is the demand of the financial mafia, that band of thugs in suits, known as the Troika, (E.C. European Commission, E.C.B. European Central Bank, I.M.F. International Mankind Fuckers), their aim is a European sweatshop economy to compete with their Eastern sweatshop competitors. They see more prosperity for them if they can get the living conditions in Europe down to a level on par with those Eastern sweatshop countries. 

     Under the stewardship of this bunch of financial vultures, the people of Greece have been plunged to a level of deprivation not seen in Europe for many a decade. In spite of this, it is not enough, the vampire Troika, has demanded a further push to deeper deprivation for the people of Greece, and has demanded that a further 15,000 public sector jobs must go by 2015, this with unemployment at present sitting at 27% and almost 60% among the young. This is not because the Troika hates the people of Greece, this is the path they want for all of Europe, the end of the public sector, the privatising of all public assets, and a continent of low wages. Excellent fertile conditions for the corporate world to exploit and grow fatter.
     Burgeoning prosperity looms on the near horizon, but it is for the financial Mafia and their parasitic friends. This will continue unabated, unless we the people decide to take control of our own lives, destroy this festering cancer called capitalism and build that better world based on mutual aid and co-operation. There is no point in trying to modify the present system, there is no point in believing that there is such an animal as compassionate capitalism, it is a ruthless exploitative system of selfish greed and can only survive by the plundering and rape of the planet and the exploitation and enslavement of the people.

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

Saturday 9 November, International Day Of Solidarity.

       The brutal and consistent crushing of what vestige of democracy there ever was in Greece continues unabated. The Greek government, having dismantled practically all social services, paid off thousands of public sector workers, pushing unemployment to approximately 29%, and increased taxes beyond breaking point for the ordinary people, the Troika, (E.C. European Commission, E.C.B. European Central bank, I.M.F. International Mankind Fuckers), after a visit to Greece, have come up with the idea that the Greek government hasn't carried out enough of its austerity plan. Along side this vicious attack on the living conditions of the people of Greece, the government increases its attack on any sign or symbol of people organising.

     When the Greek government closed down ERT, the Greek national radio, without discussion or legislation, the employees occupied the building and continued broadcasting, with massive support from the people. But once again the state resorts to its usual brute force, to silence the voice of the people and to break any solidarity among the people. In response the people of Greece are calling for an international day of solidarity on Saturday 9th. November.

This from The Greek Streets: 

“Police forces have just entered the studios of the Greek radio… It’s not for ERT alone. It’s not only for our jobs. But it is for Democracy itself… Don’t seek for legality… for the defence of Democracy, for holding each other’s hand, for our dignity and honour, for standing shoulder to shoulder to each other… because we met at the same street together, because we fought the same struggle… we ask you to come now at the headquarters’ of ERT… The voice of the Greek radio is silenced!”

“The prosecutor said that the person responsible for ERT’s inventory now is the ‘brigadier general’ of the police forces.”
Thursday, 7 November 2013

Read the full report HERE:

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

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

Zero Hours Contracts - Deprivation Contracts.

      There is a lot of talk just now about “zero hours” contracts, as soon as you debate the matter you give it some legitimacy, as far as the ordinary people are concerned this con deserves no debate and has no legitimacy. You don't have to look back into the distant Dickensian history to find the deprivation caused by this casualisation of labour. Up until the end of the second World War it was a common scene to see people huddled outside factories and docks in the early hours in all weathers, hoping to get picked for a few hours casual work. Those who got picked felt themselves lucky and got a few hours work and would turn up the next day hoping to be lucky again. As for those who didn't get picked, well they could run to the next nearest workplace and hope to be picked there. Or they could just go home and try again next day. It was Attlee's government in 1947 that introduced the National Dock Labour Scheme in an attempt to give some sort of job security. Of course the employers and the usual rightwing millionaire class railed against it, and labelled it as a hindrance to business and a “job for life”. Of course they never forget and in 1989 Thatcher's government abolished the NDLS.

       The figures for those on “zero hours” contracts is put at 1 million+ and growing, it is another step towards the sweatshop Europe. The only difference between the hordes standing outside workplaces in that age of severe deprivation, and those on these contracts, is that they don't have to stand in groups outside, they can sit at home waiting for the phone to ring. When it does ring you could be offered anything from three or four hours work or a few days. You have no idea how much you will earn in any given week, it is impossible to budget for essentials. What is more, you are off the unemploymet records.

       How do you manage your affairs and tend to your familes needs if you are never sure just how many hours you will work and therefore no idea what your weekly wage will be? You could turn up eager, bright and early and after a few hours work things go quiet, so your boss tells you just go home and come back after teatime, or “I'll phone you when I need you”. This is the type of society that the corporate world are doing there damndest to create, you are a unit that can be used, or stored at your own expense, until you are needed again. A workforce of casual workers always on tap to suit the needs of big business. This is the road to insecurity and deprivation, but it is the road that we are being lead down as our corrupt political class do the bidding of the financial Mafia and the corporate cabal. They are nearing their dream, of a sweatshop Europe, is it your dream? If not, why can't we realise our dream, instead of them realising theirs?

ann arky's home.

Work For Nothing To Feed The Greedy Rich.

-->

      Being unemployed in this society is a debilitating existence, being forced onto workfare is even worse. Not only do you still grind out your life in poverty, but you turn up every day to help to fill the coffers of some rich greedy bastard, with no gain to you. Apart from workfare there is the harassment  and sanctions forced on you, if you don't jump through all the hoops to some bureaucrats satisfaction. This is all part of the ideology of a cheap labour force, a sweatshop Europe, and it will require the solidarity of all our class to bring this capitalist dream to an end. 

      Protest against Sanctions, plus SUWN meeting Wed 7^th August, Glasgow

https://www.facebook.com/events/479667628794945/

      Protest outside Partick Jobcentre (20 Benalder Street Glasgow) - organised by the Scottish Unemployed Workers' Network as part of the Week of Action called by the Civil Service Rank and File Network to help bring an end to sanctions, workfare and harassment of claimants. From 3 - 4.30pm

(See http://www.boycottworkfare.org/?p=2825)

      After the protest we will be holding a planning meeting about future campaigning. We will meet at the STUC (333 Woodlands Road, room 4 upstairs) starting at 5pm. This will be open to anyone interested. (Call 07803 052239 if the door is locked)

ann arky's home.

Who Will See To Our Needs?

       While our millionaire political playboys keep re-assuring us that they are on the right track to economic recovery, the figures just don't stack up. In the 17 nation Euro Zone, unemployment has reached a new record high, in fact the highest since the EU statistics office started collecting data in 1995. Unemployment in the Euro Zone is sitting at 12.2% with several countries well over that average. Unemployment of young people in Greece is now over 60%, while Italy is facing the highest unemployment in 36 years, with the young of that country having to live with more than 40% unemployment. France, the second largest economy in the Euro Zone is also facing a new record in unemployment. At the same time the Euro Zone is faced with the longest recession since 1999. Green shoots of growth??? 

       Of course all those committees of economic experts have grand plans, they will oscillate between deeper austerity and printing more money. To discuss this as an economic problem will keep the answers in the economic bracket and so will go round and round on how to cut the debt, how fast to cut the debt, to forget the debt for a moment and print more money to spend. All of which means more of the same for you and I, a life of struggle. 

      Also to keep the discussion in the economic field masks the real problem, it is a human problem. In Greece what does 62.7% unemployment mean to the young people of that country? What does the future hold for that 40% of unemployed young Italians? Are they suffering because we in Europe do not have the material resources to see to their needs? Are we saying that as a continent we don't know how to use the potential energy and skill of all those young people? Or is it that the system is geared to making sure that the wealthy continue to stay wealthy at the cost of the future of our children and our grand children.  

 

     Europe is an extremely wealth continent, well capable of supporting all its people, there is food in abundance, there are things that need doing, there are people willing to do them, but unless there is a profit in it for that over fed, pampered bunch of parasites that sit in the ivory towers of control, then those young lives can go and rot in some dingy back street. 

       The real problem is the system, capitalism cannot see to the needs of all our people, it wasn't set up to see to the welfare of the people, it wasn't started to see that everybody got a job, it wasn't set up to improve the well being of the ordinary people. It is doing what it was set up to do, create wealth for the business class and at the moment it is doing that very well indeed, so don't look for any real changes from that bunch. To see to the needs of all our people the present economic system has to go, and the change will have to come from the people, only we ourselves can and will set up a system that sees fairly to the needs of all our people.

ann arky's home.

So, Is This The Bottom Line?

      I don't write in the vernacular, but admire those who can. Away, way, way back in the good ol' days of the 1980's I did have a stab at trying to write a poem in that wonderful rich Glasgow vernacular. So poem for the day is that effort from the Thatcher era, Though it was written all those years ago, it kind of shows that nothing has really changed. They're still screwing us stupid, and we are still struggling to survive and they're still scapegoating the poor, unemployed, disabled and vulnerable.

Where's the Bottom Line?

Aw fuck me,   the giro's done,

the bloody heatin's aff, nae milk, nae breed

two totties an'an egg,

is this the bottom line?

Three years unemployed

his crushed ma self-esteem.

Yi' see,

am th'wrang age, or I've got th' wrang skills,

well,   that's the usual theme.

So,    I've threw in the towel

a don't even try,

wi' younger men than we

stawnin' in the queue,

am oot,    sine die.

Wi nae money in yir pocket

there's nuthin' yi can dae

except stawn it the windi'

watchin the weans it play.

Noo the wife's buggard aff,

says she's hid enough.

Says am never oot o'bed

a never try a leg. Bit,

wi a job an' a good wife

a wis jist like a young pup.

Then some bastard shut the factory,

noo ma life's aw fuck'd-up.

Right noo, a need a jar ur two

tae kill ma screami' heid,

there's nuthin' left tae pawn

so wit is it, beg ur thieve,

is this the bottom line?

Meanwhile,  the cabinet all agree,

dependency culture is rife,

something must be done

to stamp out this lazy life,

now,    this is the bottom line.

ann arky's home.

Bedroom-tax - Poll-tax!!

      We in the UK are heading for some real battles and should be preparing now. Come April there will be the implementation of the "bedroom tax"  on top of increasing food poverty and fuel poverty. This "bedroom tax" will put three options before all those in social housing, if they are deemed to have an extra bedroom. As an "under-occupier" you can pay extra, take in a lodger or get out, non-compliance will trigger eviction notices. This is probably the most vicious attack in decades on the ordinary people of this country. The legislation comes into force and they are well aware that there isn't enough right sized accommodation to fulfil that legislation, but that won't stop them going for evictions. Even if there were enough right-sized apartments for everybody, but there isn't, the monumental upheaval to people's lives, sick, disabled, elderly, young families, as they are shunted around to the satisfaction of some millionaire cabal's bullshit economics, is inhumane, unjust and downright vindictive. This is "poll-tax model two.
       While our millionaire parasites that lord it in those Westminster Houses of Hypocrisy and Corruption are spewing out crap about it all being necessary and "for our own good" a UN official, Mr De Schutter, the UN's Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food, has stated that the explosion of people in the UK, depending on food handouts could represent a human rights abuse. He points to the dramatic rise in the number of food banks as evidence that governments had "failed in their responsibility not to leave the poorest behind". Here in the UK the number of food banks as exploded tenfold  since the start of the recession.
       This is the UK today, massive fuel poverty with energy prices still rising. Food poverty with food banks the only growth industry in town. A third of children living in poverty. Unacceptable unemployment among our young people. Being forced through "workfare", to work for free in some tax dodging corporate greed machine. Now the threat of evictions being heaped on the shoulders of the already struggling public.
        These are drastic times and drastic action by the organised public is the only answer. We may not yet be where the people of Greece are as far as deprivation is concerned, but we are moving inexorably in that direction, it is only a matter of time. It is inevitable, unless we the public, by mass organised resistance, come together and drive our society in a different direction. Another world is possible. 

POWER CUTS, a daily reality in Greece by docupraxi

ann arky's home.

THAT BABBLING BROOK OF BULLSHIT.

      We have 24 hour news coverage and are assaulted with an avalanche of bullshit and trivia. We have a long winded out pouring from a sick parasite from the parasitic family of Windsors informing us he killed Taliban, all in a matter of fact, all in a day's work attitude. Then we have massive coverage of celebrities sexual exploits, people making snowmen, while other tell us how dreadful it is when it snows and upsets their routine. However you will have to search hard to find anything about the people in Europe in struggle and direct action to protect themselves against this ongoing vicious attack by the financial Mafia. You get statistics about the soaring unemployment among the young and pie-in-the-sky plans to end hunger forever. But where is the coverage of struggles taking place on a daily basis?

      We were informed that the unemployment rate among the young in Spain had passed the 55% mark, but it appears that all is quiet in that country, the people are just going quietly about their business, waiting for the promised growth. It would be a surer bet to wait for the promise land.

     In Greece the overall unemployment rate is now above 26%, homeless is stratospheric, suicides are rocketing, health problems, physical and mental, are going of the radar, while the Greek government becomes more openly fascist by the day, where is the coverage? Our media is indeed, a babbling brook of bullshit.

This from the Greek Streets.

Thursday, January 24, 2013

      In the afternoon of January 24, the Greek government via the ministry of transport ordered the civil conscription (i.e. the forced return to work) of the workers at the Athens Metro, who had been on strike for the past eight days. In response, the workers in all other mass transportation mediums in the city (buses, metro green line and tram) have also joined or extended their strikes. The workers at the Athens metro are calling all those in solidarity to gather at the main metro depot in Sepolia (by Kifissos Ave).

ann arky's home.

RUTHLESS ATOS AND MANSLAUGHTER.

       Sometimes we can be grateful to the Westminster Houses of Hypocrisy and Corruption, as some useful information can be gleaned from the discourses of the "Honourable Gentlemen". During a recent debate on the government's Work Capability Assessment scheme, some interesting figures came out. Some MP's condemned ATOS for, ruthlessly pressurising sick and disabled people into returning to their jobs. Michael Meacher, former Labour minister, stated that 1,300 people had died after ATOS had placed them on a work related activity group, these are people who ATOS deemed too ill to return to work at present but are expected to start preparing for a return to work. There has been 2,200 ill people who have died before ATOS had completed their assessment. There has been several cases of people on disability benefit, who after being passed fit for work by ATOS, and stripped of their benefit, have committed suicide. 

       It would appear that this forcing sick and disabled people through brutal humiliation and stress, can sink to depths no decent person could imagine. The debate in the Westminster Houses of Hypocrisy and Corruption, were told of the case of a woman who suffered from incontinence and was told she could return to work if she wore a nappy, how low will they sink? Attempting to get those registered as sick and disabled back into work, come what may, at a time when there are approximately 2.5 million people unemployed in this country, is just another charade, concealing their money saving mania. What are the chances of them getting employed when there are more than eight people chasing every vacancy?

           The entire stressful and humiliating process ruthlessly enforced by ATOS at the government's bidding is a criminal act and deaths resulting from such a process should be registered as manslaughter. If you bully somebody to the extent that they commit suicide, you are culpable. If you pressurise somebody to the extent that it could hasten their death, you are guilty of a crime. Why not ATOS?

         It is perhaps too much to expect justice under this present system, but we can fight for a change to society, so that justice will not have to be struggled for, it will be the norm.

ann arky's home.

WE ARE BEING SUCKERED.

       In 2008 we had the so called financial crash, here we are in 2013 and the November unemployment figures for the Eurozone hit a new all time high at 11.8%, youth unemployment at 14.4%, while for the whole of the European Union it is 10.7%, and youth unemployment is 23.7%. This translates into more than 26 million people unemployed across the EU. struggling to survive, not that those in work are doing that much better. According to the BBC's World Service Economic correspondent, Andrew Walker, “---- The general trend however remains upwards and it makes it even harder for the governments concerned to collect the taxes they need to stabilise their debts”
    These figures are modest by the figures in some individual European countries, Spain leading the charge with 26.6% and Greece following with 20%. The misery heaped on the young of these two countries alone, is an indictment of the capitalist system. Greece has the worst unemployment amongst the young with 57% and Spain next with 56.5% . More than half of the young population of both these countries mired in poverty and their entire life potential being stunted. That's the system we are expected to embrace.
      Of course unemployment is not an accident, it is not unavoidable, it is the direct result of government policies as they follow the instructions of the financial Mafia. Unemployment is the ugly side of that polite phrase, “structural reform” unemployment is the criminal reality of the innocent sounding “austerity cuts”. Both these phrases come together as the cornerstone of the Western corporate world's drive to become “more competitive.”, another innocent sounding phrase with a dire reality. It in fact means, lower wages, unregulated labour and a pool of unemployment. In other words, a European-wide sweatshop economy to compete with the sweatshops of the East.

                                      These are hard times.
 

        Here in the UK, under the direction of the ConDem coalition of pampered parasites, 2013 will be the year that all that talking of “austerity cuts”, starts to impact with a vengeance on the lives of most of us ordinary people. It will be the year that people will begin to realise that cuts are usually followed by bleeding. Our cuts are severe, expect severe bleeding. Meanwhile our millionaire lords and masters, living the pampered life of useless parasites, will attempt to shed a theatrical tear as they tell us how hard things are and how we will all have to do “our bit” and “we are all in this together”. They will then retreat to their mansions and prepare for a break in their Bermuda holiday home. They call it capitalism, don't you feel like a sucker?

ann arky's home.

THE MASKING OF DEPRIVATION.

        While the media was spewing out images of everybody having a great time over the last week or so, we should remember that nothing has changed, austerity is still the plan. With fireworks, tinsel and an array of nicely wrapped boxes, it is easy to forget the misery inflicted the poor on a daily basis by this austerity and it is still there. Christmas has done nothing for the people of Greece who are still being rapidly pushed down the slope to the pit of deprivation. The media would have you think otherwise, with glowing reports of how the financial Mafia have agreed the terms for the next slice of bailout. Which in fact will never go anywhere near the ordinary people of Greece, it is merely to help out the Greek banksters. Just remember, Greece's today is our tomorrow, unless, of course, we change the system.

This from LibCom:

      As more loans have been released to the Greek state a combination of recent surveys and reports show the true effects of years of austerity. There has been across the board reductions in conditions and living standards for large parts of the Greek population.
       The political and financial worlds have been feeling pretty pleased with themselves recently. The next instalment of loans to the Greek state have been released and the country's credit rating has even improved. The Prime Minister and his government tell us that this means Greece is on the road to recovery. The government and it's international lenders have saved Greece, just in time for Christmas.
In contrast to the official optimism(or delusion) a recent round of reports and surveys shows that the situation is in fact getting worse. Unemployment, corruption, suicide and homeless rates continue to rise as living standards and wages fall.
      The latest unemployment rate is around 26% and is expected to rise further still. 26% of the Greek working population comes to over one million people without work. In addition to this it's also possible that up to 500,000 more are unemployed but not included in official statistics. As the economy is expected to contract further in 2013 we should expect this rate to keep rising.

Read the full article HERE:

ann arky's home,

   

WORKING POVERTY, TODAY'S PATTERN.

      Iain Duncan Smith, our well heeled, Works and Pensions Secretary, recently stated that poverty was the result of “ worklessness and welfare dependency, addiction, educational failure, debt or family breakdown” Strange that he should put worklessness first, considering that recent figures show that in this country we have more than 6 million working families living in poverty. We also have approximately 5 million adults living in poverty from homes where nobody works. So bang goes that theory that if you are unemployed and you get a job, whizz-bang, you're out of poverty. Another little fact about working gets you out of poverty, almost one third of children living in poverty in this country, come from working homes.

     It is obvious to any ordinary person that in-work poverty is as much a problem as is out of work poverty, in this system of capitalism. Even the apoligists for capitalism can't help but see that when you have one fifth of women and one seventh of men working for less than £7 an hour, you are goping to have working families in poverty. The situation is getting worse by the month, as “austerity” bites, and incomes shrink, more and more people are having to claim “tax credits”, (tax payers subsides to employers who don't pay a living wage).

     There is also the wild claim that our country is riddled with families who have never worked, yet the true figures state that only 2% of all working age households contain no one who has never worked.

     Of course their ideological thinking to create a UK sweatshop economy, pushes them to say, get them off benefit and into work and the poverty problem is solved, it would not cross their tiny twisted minds to say that they are being paid too little. Nor do they open their eyes to the fact that shouting about getting people into work, when there are no jobs, doesn't fit rational thinking. Then again, this is capitalism and those making the legislation are mainly millionaires with bundles of shares in the corporate world and a vested interest to keep wages down and profits up to fatten there bank accounts and those of their shareholder friends.

ann arky's home.

VIOLENCE ON A MASSIVE SCALE.

       November 14 Pan-European day of action brought people onto the streets across the continent. Some cities saw massive demonstrations against the enforced poverty being heaped on them by the financial Mafia. Of course in some cases the police brutality, as usual, came to the fore. What is never stated as violence by that babbling brook of bullshit, the mainstream media, is this real and far worse violence being handed out by the supposed people's representatives, the government, the violence of the forced killing of opportunity, killing of a future, the brutal destruction of the very fabric of society. The increase in homelessness, poverty and the accompanying of health problems that flow from these conditions. This is violence on a massive scale against generations of ordinary people. Yesterday was what I hope, a start to that real Pan-European co-operation and solidarity, the final step to the destruction of the most brutal and exploitive system on the planet today. It is not a law of nature, it is just a man made system, we can bring it to an end and create a new man made system of co-operation, mutual aid and sustainability, a system that sees to the needs of all our people.

ann arky's home.

VOTING TO HAVE MILLIONAIRES KICK YOU IN THE TEETH.

         As time goes by it becomes more obvious how our coalition of millionaires works. At the Libdem's conference their hapless mealy-mouthed Clegg announced in bold fashion that there will be no £10 billion in cuts. A week or so on, their partners in crime the Tories have their conference and their hatchet man, millionaire Osborne, announces a further £10 billion in cuts to the welfare system on top of the £18 billion cuts scheduled for the coming year. That's co-operation Conservative style. While the Libdems prance around making pleasing sounds, but doing no more than rubber stamping Tory ideology, we the public get hit with more and more cuts to all our vital social services. I shudder to think what will be the harsh reality of £10 billion in cuts to the welfare system on top of £18 billion. We are already seeing disabled people thrown off benefit with drastic effects, nurseries, libraries, and other vital parts of a civilised society being discarded, an education system in tatters and our National Health Service being privatised. Of course with these cuts comes more people being paid off from public sector jobs at an ever increasing rate, adding to that ever growing army of unemployed. All this comes with the promise that Britain will have balanced its books in the distant future. 

    Of course balanced books doesn't mean that you will get back all those conditions and benefits that you lost. They will have gone forever, all those wage cuts and wage freezes will not come hurtling back because Britain has balanced its books. All those libraries and nurseries will not suddenly re-appear, the Health Company PLC. will not suddenly become the NHS. This massive transfer of wealth upwards is for ever, those who bear the brunt of this “deficit reduction” by being pushed deeper into poverty will just have to grind their way through life in the comfort of knowing that Britain has balanced its books. You will of course, from time to time, be asked to vote for this decimation of your standard of living, you will be give the choice of having them administered by your favourite colour of party, or choose by the most pleasing smile. You could of course, screw the lot of them and don't bother voting, there are other ways of structuring society.

ann arky's home.

PENALISED FOR WORKING PART-TIME.

       It would appear that Ian Duncan Smith's own advisory committee, the Social Security Advisory Committee, (SSAC) has stated that his universal credit reforms are unworkable and unfair. It seems that our very rich Ian wants to penalise part-time workers, that don't look for more work often enough, It also is part of his plan to penalise those on part-time work by cutting their benefits, if they don't take up a “better” job, within 48 hours of being told to do so by by a job centre. They could also see there benefits cut if they refuse to take up full time work that is with 90 minutes of their home. It would appear that to this bunch of pampered parasites, one and a half hours travelling to and from your work, for what will probably be a minimum wage, is fair, three hours onto your working day for poverty wages is how they see the plebs living their lives. This country has 8.1 million part-time workers and when asked, almost one and a half million would prefer full time work but can't get it. So those 8.1 million are the ones likely to see their benefit cut in an economic climate where there are no full time jobs to be had. We all know that is “unfair” but to the Ian Duncan Smiths of this world it is all about saving money and to hell with the consequences on the people. This mob of pampered parasites don't know what it is to live under this capitalist system, they have always existed in the rarefied atmosphere of wealth and the arrogance, privilege, security and opportunities that it brings.Who needs them to tell us how to live our lives?

ann arky's home.

SOCIAL EXPLOSION,

         It seems that the European Parliament is coming round to what I have been saying for well over a year. Martin Schulz, president of the European Parliament, stated on Saturday, when speaking of the economic crisis in Spain, that it could spark a social explosion across the continent. In an interview with the German Newspaper, Bild, he said, “The demonstrations in Spain show that a social explosion is looming because of the high unemployment rate among young people in Europe,” It should be obvious by now that bailouts solve nothing, it is just shuffling debt around the table. It is a game of big numbers that is meant to impress, but doesn't mean a thing. The only people who gain in this illusion are the bankers, the financial Mafia, they collect a fee every time their sweaty hands pass the bundle around. Greece shook them a little, but Greece is not a big player in the corporate greed game, Spain is. The unrest in Greece is on the periphery, Spain is considered mainland Europe and is big. Unrest there would have the financial Mafia really worried, as the rest of Europe is suffering under the same “austerity” plan. It is all just a matter of degree and time. As the “austerity” plan in each of the countries in Europe drives the people deeper into poverty and deprivation, it would only be a matter of time before the whole of Europe shows it anger and despair and takes to the streets. They would be fools if they didn't, and I have never taken the people to be fools, naïve, too tolerant, but fools, never.

       Where I think Mr Martin Shulz is wrong is his belief that it is just the unemployment that will cause the explosion, I believe it will be the breaking down of the social fabric of society through poverty, and destruction of social services, on top of rapidly rising unemployment across the continent, all seen to be caused by the greed and corruption of the few. We can only plan and hope that the “social explosion” will seek answers outside the present system and will not be appeased by being thrown a few biscuits, while the parasites go back to their banquet. 

ann arky's home.