Shafted!!

          If you are one of those who are still trying to work out who this government and system works for perhaps the following wee article will help you make up your mind.
         While the powers that be repeat their mantra that there is not enough money to pay NHS workers and others a decent wage, they can find plenty of money for propaganda for UK imperialism. Take Queen Elizabeth II's funeral, tax payers forked out £162 million of tax payers money for that pompous circus to please the parasite class. Then shortly after that we had the pomp to celebrate British imperialism with the circus coronation of Charles III costing the tax payer somewhere in the region of £100 million +. On the matter of this extortionate over the top lavish pomp and circus, Cabinet Officer minister Oliver Dowden had the audacity insisting the government and the king were 'mindful of ensuring that there is value for the taxpayer' and there will not be lavish or excess. So this is his idea of modest normality. All in all the The Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) estimated that the addition of an extra Bank Holiday weekend would cost the Government £2.39 billion. Of course you have to factor in the cost of the massive security operation that these two circuses required in the eyes of our lords and masters.

No wonder they are laughing.

 

Image courtesy of GraziaDaily.

         Of course the parasite class are boasting about the fact that The British Beer and Pub Association estimates the coronation will generate an extra £120 million for pubs across the country with the hospitality industry also expecting a significant boost. So be happy, your money has helped the hospitality industry as it will gain immensely from you generosity.
       Away from the imperialist propaganda machine, other facts on who this system supports. While we all struggle to pay our bills and heat/fed our families, ASDA is consulting on cutting the wages of 7,000 workers, BT is paying off 55,000 workers and replacing them with AI.

      With a crumbling NHS, a decaying education system, a totally broken social service system, an increase in poverty and the an increase in the resulting mental illness, where in this jamboree of spending and job/wage cuts do you see anything that is for you benefit or well being? Enough is enough, we must support all workers taking strike action, their fight is our fight. We have to create that better society that is based on fairness, mutual aid, and freed from the profit motive that sees to the needs of all our people. 

 

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Finnish Workers Fight Back.

      An update on the Finnish workers fight back against the vicious attack on their pay and conditions by the right-wing coalition government. This government has tried to do in one fell swoop, what the Cameron Bullingdon Boys have been doing over the last few years. However, the Finnish workers are not taking it lying down, they are organising across the country, isn't it time we followed their example.

This from IUF

      Last week we appealed to you to send messages to the government of Finland condemning proposed new anti-union laws. Over 7,000 of you sent messages, which were shared with the Finnish labour movement. The Finnish Food Workers, on behalf of our affiliates and the wider labour movement have conveyed their warm appreciation for this show of solidarity.
     Workers in Finland's 3 national trade union centers held strikes and demonstrations on September 18 to show their opposition to the new coalition government's proposed legislative attack on collective bargaining rights. Some 300,000 workers engaged in work stoppages, including 10,000 members of the Food Workers Union SEL who held strikes ranging from 15 minutes to 4 days, depending on the company.
    30,000 workers demonstrated in torrential rain in the capital Helsinki and unions held local demonstrations across the country.

The fight has only started.

       If you were not able to respond to our earlier appeal, please take a moment now - CLICK HERE TO SEND A MESSAGE

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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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That Elusive Growth Thingy.

      Austerity isn't working for that elusive "growth", across the globe the "experts" keep cutting the expectations of economic growth. So what's their answer? More "structural reforms", in other words, more of the failed austerity. The policies that are devastating the living standards across the world, according to those "experts" have to be re-doubled. Corporate growth means more than the wellbeing of people, screw a generation or two, as long as our failed and unjust economic system survives. Wage increases in the UK for the last year were running at an average of 0.8%, while inflation is steady at 2.8%, in real terms, that's a massive wage cut. Wage cuts are only part of the question, thousands of working people are paid so low that they have to rely on benefits of one kind or another, and with benefit cuts coming into play, poverty's cruel hand is grabbing the coattails of more and more individuals and families.

       Falling wages, slashed benefit cuts and rising unemployment, all, so we are told, necessary, for what? Necessary for the survival of an economic system that will never see to the needs of the ordinary people. Necessary for the survival of a system that pampers parasites. The world is not short of resources, we have enough to see to the needs of all on this planet. Warehouses are full of food and other necessities of live. We don't, not because we don't know how to go about it, nor is it because we don't want to see to the needs of all. No, its because the rich and wealth, through their political puppets, forbid such actions to take place without there being a profit in it for them. In the corporate world, life is cheap, but commodities are expensive.

From A World To Win:

 "--------Summarising the latest set of global data, leading economics professor Eswar Prasad says: “The global economic recovery remains stuck below takeoff speed, unable to achieve liftoff and facing the risk of stalling.”          

        Prasad’s warning that “politicians around the world continue to avoid tough structural reforms, instead relying on central banks to continue propping up growth”, implies a redoubling of the assault on living standards that has produced 60% unemployment among young people in Greece and Spain."

Read the full article HERE:

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A HARD AND POVERTY NEW YEAR TO YOU!!!!

        Well it is that time of year when we start to think of what the next year will bring. You can rest assured that as far as the ordinary people are concerned, it will not be a year of prosperity, though it most likely will be for the corporate world. For them, profits up, taxes down, for you and and I, continued wage freezes/cuts, as pay increases stay below inflation, more part-time jobs, less job security. We will also face increased prices in food and energy, poverty and deprivation will be on the increase, more "austerity" cuts, more attacks on the most vulnerable in our society. This is the plan for many years to come, when will we as the general public, say, enough is enough? This article from The Guardian points the path that our millionaire parasites have in store for us, the ordinary people of this country. The one line I might disagree with is "---with workers maintaining a 'grin and bear it' attitude", I sincerely hope not. I would expect to see greater organisation and resistance from the workers. Why should we "grin and bear it" to the benefit of the corporate parasites when we don't have to. There are alternatives.

Workers face 'hard year of slog' in 2013

      New year will bring longer hours, continued squeeze on pay, fewer new posts and more job insecurity, warns economist. Workers can expect longer hours, a continued squeeze on pay and fewer jobs being created in 2013, in a "hard year of slog", a new report has warned.

    Job insecurity will remain high, with workers maintaining a "grin and bear it" attitude, said John Philpott, director of The Jobs Economist. Unemployment is forecast to increase by 120,000 to 2.63 million in 2013 because growth in the workforce will exceed the number of jobs being created, Philpott said.

Read the full article HERE:

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ANARCHIST DOMINO DRIVERS.

        Just when you thought it was alright to order a pizza delivery, along comes the usual corporate bastards to spoil it for you.

This from NewMatilda.com

    Domino's Pizza has just discovered it can cut the wages of its delivery drivers thanks to a wage agreement loophole – and it's the Anarchists who are taking the case to arbitration, reports Conal Thwaite, Industrial disputes are always good for a yarn and the one happening at Domino’s Pizza shops across Australia right now is more deliciously intriguing than usual.
     At 7pm this Saturday night a one-hour weekly roving picket will descend on Domino’s, this time on Grattan Street in Carlton, Melbourne. Nothing will be blocked going in or out. Rather, leaflets and a limited amount of free homemade pizza will be delivered to customers who shun the Domino’s brand.

Continue READING:

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LIVE SPARKS.

        The electricians are holding firm in their resolve not to be treated like serfs, with a "take it or leave it" attitude from the employers. If Balfour Beattie get away with cutting the electrician's wage by up to 35%, then you can rest assured that you will probably be next in line for the same treatment. That is taking it that you have a job at all. These guys are at the forefront of the attack on your living conditions. the bosses will not pick a fight with all the workers at the one time. First one group, then the next, once you have slashed the wages of the first couple of groups the rest is easier. This is your fight, whether you are in the public sector or the private sector or unemployed, you never know, you or your kids, might want to a spark in the future. Show solidarity with your class, that's what the millionaire class do to defeat you. 

From Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/home.php#!/groups/264935423529258/

Sparks Against de-skilling and 35% Pay Cuts

Public Event for Sparks Against de-skilling and 35% Pay Cuts
Friday 10:00 until 13:00 Baflour Beatty Office, Lumina Building,

40 Ainslie Road, Hillington Park, Glasgow G52 4RU
FRIDAY 6TH JANUARY - 10AM

SCOTTISH BASED BALFOUR BEATTY M&E WORKERS ARE RETURNING THEIR BESNA CONTRACTS UNSIGNED STRAIGHT TO THE OFFICE

       Pass this on and let's give them as much support as possible! ALL M&E workers in the area should attend to show their support and to pass on the message to BBES that we will not stand for this attack

          The same firms who are de-skilling our industry and cutting our wages are also blacklisting innocent people. If you have heard sparks complaining about the blacklist on demo's and didn't know what they were talking about - watch this youtube video and all will be revealed - if you've never seen it before, it is truly shocking. As it stands I am not blacklisted but I do personally know a couple of people who are. It is a shocking practise and needs to be eradicated.

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SPARKS FIGHT BACK.

          It is encouraging to see the private sector fight back against the savage attack on their living conditions. A combined fight back of both public and private sector industries is one route to success. This article is from Union-News.co.uk

Sparks in “unprecedented” action over pay, apprenticeships

 by Pete Murray - 7th December 2011, 18.36 GMT

     Electricians in the construction sector have taken part in what organisers describe as “the biggest unofficial strike in decades”. The series of mass walk-outs followed a decision by the construction giant, Balfour Beatty to initiate a legal challenge to last month’s strike ballot conducted by Unite which returned an 81% majority in favour of industrial action against threatened “sign or be sacked” contracts which had been due to come into force today. Hundreds of sparks and supporters blockaded Balfour Beatty sites in London, Hartlepool, Hull, the Conoco Phillips refinery at Immingham in Lincolnshire, Cardiff, Liverpool, Glasgow and Manchester. Sparks at the Grangemouth oil refinery in central Scotland voted at a mass meeting earlier this week to join more than one hundred colleagues who protested outside the company’s head office in Hillington, Renfrewshire. They later blockaded the entrance to a Strathclyde Fire Brigade training centre under construction by Balfour Beatty. More than a dozen sparks walked off the job to join protesters who later occupied one of the site offices.

       Today’s protest in Cardiff marks the first action of its kind in Wales. In Manchester, electricians occupied a city council meeting and demanded to know why councillors had awarded a construction contract for the town hall and library to NG Bailey – one of the seven employers which Unite says is trying to impose a 35% pay cut and enforce de-skilling on the industry. Ian Black, Unite shop steward at Grangemouth told UnionNews: “The agreements at the centre of this dispute have worked well for forty years and we don’t see any reason for change. “This is an attack on our wages and employment, but it’s also about apprenticeships. It’s about the future, about young people getting a proper four-year apprenticeship.  It’s not just about money, not just about ourselves.  It’s about the young men and women coming into our industry.” Rank and file organisers of today’s protests – which mark an escalation in their four month campaign against the so-called BESNA contracts – feel increasingly the momentum is with them, not the employers.

       At Balfour Beatty’s Blackfriars site, 300 workers and students persuaded 20 workers not to go in, despite police pushing aside campaigning workers to allow Balfour employees to enter the site unhindered. Campaigners did manage to shut down a lorry entrance leading to the canceling of orders for the day. One spark from Southend who only wanted to be named as “Keith” told workers blockading the site: “You [Balfour] can’t make 55 million pounds and then expect people like me to take a 35 percent pay cut.

SOLIDARITY.

      In one scuffle, a police officer grabbed the only black protester present at the demonstration. Other activists tried to free him but officers took the man named by a friend as “Josh” away to a van and confirmed he was arrested for assaulting a police officer. Cries of “racist boot boys” and “I’d rather be a picket than a scab” reverberated around the area, as protesters promised to return this evening. Rank and file sources say no sparks, cable pullers or scaffolders came on site for the night shift. Spirits were  boosted by the presence of a large number of senior lay Unite officials at the Blackfriars protest, which was also attended by the Labour MP John McDonnell and RMT general secretary Bob Crow.

      Unite is contacting all members at Balfour Beatty in preparation for re-balloting employees in the coming days. The union is also preparing to ballot for industrial action at two more of the group of seven companies seeking to break away from the current JIB agreements, which cover pay, skill and safety levels. Senior officials believe Balfour Beatty’s management is looking for a “face-saving exit” from the dispute. Unite is calling for the employers to take part in talks at ACAS to try to stop escalating industrial action and civil disobedience in the new year.

Watch our film report of today’s events here:

Tags: Balfour Beatty, JIB agreements, NG Bailey, sparks, Unite

Related Articles:

1. Sparks ignite nationwide protests
2. Sparks block Blackfriars – ballot, Nov 9th day of action planned
3. Sparks shower shards of anger in City of London
4. BREAKING NEWS: Sparks occupy fire station over contracts dispute
5. Unite condemns Balfour legal challenge – cancels sparks 81% strike ballot

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TAKE A 45% WAGE CUT OR GET OUT.

        I keep spouting about this "crisis" is being used by all the corporate world as an excuse to slash at wages and conditions. Obviously as the government attacks the wages and conditions of the public sector, they are not going to complain as the private sector does likewise. Balfour Beatty the big construction company is leading the attack by tearing up electricians contracts and forcing them to sign new contracts or get off the site. The new contracts of course have not been negotiated and in some cases mean a cut of up to 45% in wages and deskilling of the trade. No doubt all the other big boys in the corporate world will be waiting and watching to see how far they can go and how quickly. A sample of what the electricians  in the construction industry are up against can be seen in this extract from an article in The Commune.

Under BESNA, the current across the board hourly rate of £16.25 would be scrapped, and electricians would be graded for a rate of between £14 and £10.50. This follows a pay freeze last year, so some electricians would be 45% worse off than they were two years ago, assuming they are able to find work at all in a declining construction industry. Inevitably, deskilling would follow, along with an increase in workplace ‘accidents’.

READ THE FULL ARTICLE HERE.

These type of greedy tactics are part and parcel of the corporate world, world wide, the only real answer is to get rid of the corporatism that devastates our lives and our planet, capitalism cannot be reformed, repaired or made ethical, it is a beast built on, and dependent on, exploitation. Its removal from the face of the Earth will require the some world wide solidarity and organisation by the people, as is shown by the cancer that is the corporate world.

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A FAIR DAY'S PAY---????

        Every where you look there is evidence that we are all in this together. As most of us see our standard of living nosedive, either through wage cuts/freeze, redundancy or inflation, or perhaps even a hit from at least to of these measures being forced on us by our millionaire lords and masters, it is puzzling how a certain group seem to manage quite well in spite of the “crisis”. Take the directors of the Footsie 100 companies for example, while they go on about hard times and how difficult decisions have to be made they still manage to award themselves a whopping 43% pay increase over the previous year's salary. Perhaps if we look at it as “all in this together” means US not THEM, it all begins to make sense.

 

I have to make some very difficult decisions.

       To give you some idea of how our captains of industry are suffering in these hard times, take a wee look at the earnings for last year.

Mick Davis(Xstrata) £18,426,105.

Bart Becht (Reckitt) £17,879,000.

Michael Spencer (ICAP) £13,419,619.

Sir Terry Leahy (Tesco) £12.038,303.

Tom Albanese (Rio Tinto) £11,623,162.

Sir Martin Sorrell (WPP Group) £8,949,985.

Todd Kozel (Gulf Keystone Petroleum) £8,913,223.

Don Robert (Experian) £8,601,984.

Edward Bonham Carter (Jupiter Fund Management) £8,530,871.

Dame Marjorie Scardino (Pearson) £8,003,641.

        Not a bad wee packet for a day at the coalface, and remember these are the sweaty palmed greed parasites that sit in board rooms directing plans to cut your wages and conditions, who plan to make you redundant to increase their share of the loot that they cream of your labour. This is capitalism, screw you, I'm all right Jack. It is now raw capitalism, open and blatant exploitation of unimaginable proportions. They see nothing wrong in this greed feast, as far as they are concern the system is working just fine.

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COMING TO A CITY NEAR YOU!!!

         Greece is shut down, the people have called a 48 hour general strike against the extremely severe “austerity” cuts being imposed by the financial puppets of the IMF, (International Mankind Fuckers), the Greek government. 70,000 on the streets of Athens, over 15,000 on the streets of Thesilonika, riot police fire stun grenades and tear gas into the protesters, running battles across the city centre. This is democracy Western style, the people don't want the policies the government is forcing on them, so they try to beat the shit out of the people to intimidate them in the hope that they will meekly accept poverty and deprivation.

       What the Greek people have had inflicted on them over the last 18 months or so, is unacceptable in any so called civilised country. They have faced massive pay cuts, not just one but in some cases two pay cuts, cuts to their pensions, if it is over 1,00Euros a month, it is cut by 20%, also lump some retirement payments cut, increased taxes, tax threshold lowered from 8,000 Euros to 5,000, VAT increased to 23%, plus new taxes. One such new tax is the property tax, whereby you have an extra tax if you have a house, it is worked out at so much per square metre. Prices are rising and unemployment is soaring, the health budget has been cut by 40%, health problems are mushrooming plus alcohol problems, drug problems and suicides are on the increase. Perhaps it wasn't the best health service in the world, but whatever it was has now been decimated. Students complain of not having books, 30,000 public sector workers have been put on “reduced” pay, 60% pay, with the possibility of being made redundant after a year. New reduced pay and conditions for all civil servants, and an end to pay bargaining, Still the IMF (International Mankind Fuckers) claim it is not enough, their puppets in Athens must do more. Apart from the savage dismantling of the social fabric of the country, they have been ordered the sell-off of 59 billion Euros of public assets. The IMF puppet government that is hell bent on pursuing these policies, will in no way suffer themselves, no, the “necessary” hardships they claim that must be imposed are for the people, not for the implementers. Western capitalist democracy at work.

       What we are witnessing is the Greek people being sacrificed on the alter of corporate greed, a blood curling and savage process to appease the world's billionaire bankers. The will not suffer any losses, if they can take the money from the general public, and if Greece is not enough then other countries will have to be sacrificed on that same alter. Spain, Italy, Ireland, Portugal, are all being prepared for the sacrifice. With the rest of Europe being held in the same trap in case that last list is not enough. France isn't far down the list, and so it will go on until they own everything and their coffers are secure. All this misery and deprivation to save the wanker bankers from losing their unearned billions that they gambled and lost.

        The fight that the Greek people are involved in is our fight, we are not immune from the greedy tentacles of the corporate greed machine. Whatever it can do and get away with, to protect its wealth and power, it will do. It has no nationality, it knows no borders, the only pain it can feel is the loss of money. People are of no consequence, wealth and power are all that matters. We have to think the same way, solidarity across nationality, solidarity across all borders.

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WOULD YOU ACCEPT A 20% PAY CUT?

        As Cameron and his millionaire cabal go on about creating "THE BIG SOCIETY" it is becoming abundantly clear what exactly that means. More volunteers doing the work that was paid work before and those who are still being paid will have to accept what is no more than expenses in place of wages. Wages will be continually pushed down and more and more work offered up to charity. It is what I call raw capitalism, capitalism with the gloves off. Below is just one example of what is going on across the country, but sadly it all seems to be taking place in isolated pockets with workers having to fight thousands of small battles across the country. Let's all realise, this is one big battle, this an attack on the living standards of the ordinary people of this country, so it should be one massive show of solidarity against this siphoning of all the wealth up to those over privileged parasites at the top.

SOLIDARITY.

NEWS From UNISON

Date:26 August 2011

Quarriers staff vote yes to strike action to oppose 20% pay cuts.

The men and women who care for some of Scotland’s most vulnerable adults anddistressed children have voted massively for strike action. UNISON members at Quarriers are determined to resist brutal pay cuts on staff which will see over 560 staff take a pay cut of 10% while others will lose as much as 23%. The postal ballot for strike action returned a 76% yes vote for strike action and aan even higher 85% result for action short of a strike. When the ballot result was announced UNISON repeated their ofer totake the ongoing dispute to Acas for arbitration, but Quarriers management have spurned the offer. In addition to pay cuts, which will see some members lose £400 a month. There are also proposed cuts to sick pay, increased pension contributions and other protections removed. 

Stephen Brown, UNISON Quarriers branch Secretary said today, “The attacks Quarriers are making on our members are unprecedented. No one can cope with a 23% pay cut and for Quarriers to suggest that they will set up a Hardship Fund for their own staff funded out of their own pay cuts shows how much the organisation has lost touch with its values. William Quarrier set up Quarriers in the 1870s to help underprivileged children not to use wage cuts to drive staff into poverty”.

SOLIDARITY.

Speaking today Simon Macfarlane UNISON Regional Organiser said “ Our members want to be doing their jobs caring for people- not arguing with Quarriers management. But the proposed pay cuts will force people out of the job and impact on the work that they do with the people they care for.“ A 3 to 1 vote for strike action must surely send a message to Quarriers that their proposals are unacceptable. We call on Quarriers to get back round the table and to remove their threat to dismiss and reengage all their staff – let’s take this to ACAS and see if it can be resolved In recent weeks Quarriers have seemed to be more intent on attacking UNISON instead of negotiating. We call on these attacks to stop and for Quarriers to get down to the real work of trying to find a way forward.

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- ALL IN THIS TOGETHER!!!

       Aberdeen has been in the news recently for some very different reasons. Of course most football fans will know that the city's team is having a crap season. Its council workers are not doing so well either. The council has been trying to get them to take a 5% cut in their wages, though I'm delighted to see that the workers through their union have refused to willing throw themselves into dire poverty. Like everybody else they are facing increased costs in energy and food along with the VAT increase, it is more likely that they will need a 5% increase in wages just to stand still. Another occasion where the name Aberdeen has come to my notice is by way of Aberdeen Asset Management. As its name suggests, it is an asset management company. Its CEO is a Mr Martin Gilbert, no he hasn't taken a 5% wage cut, on the contrary, his basic annual salary went up from meagre £400,000 to a more acceptable £500,000, on top of this he had a nice little bonus of £3.3 million. You would think that might be enough to keep him above the deprivation line, even although it is not a full time job, well he appears to have time on his hands as he is also Chairman of First Group and Chaucer Holdings which brings him in some spending money to the tune of £262,000. How many jobs at more than a quarter of a million pounds can one person hold down. Just a few examples of our millionaire cabinet's mantra, “we're all in this together.”

       The sooner we scrap this greed driven parasites paradise and replace it with a society based on the needs of all our people the better. We know there is a desirable alternative of communities based on mutual aid, co-operation and sustainability, where we can all contribute in the knowledge that our needs will be seen to and we will not be carrying a bunch of greedy parasites on our backs. Also just maybe, Aberdeen Football Club might win the SPL, well that's probably a wish too far.

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