Solidarity Has No Borders.

 

        An appeal for solidarity from Labour Start:

      Tomorrow is Human Rights Day -- and I'd like to ask for your help to get our brother Huber Ballesteros released from prison.
       Huber Ballesteros is one of Colombia's best known trade union and human rights activists. He is also one of the most threatened.
He was arrested on 25th August 2013 and accused of 'rebellion' and 'financing terrorism'.
He has still not faced trial.
     Huber is vice-president of FENSUAGRO, Colombia’s second largest union and one of the most persecuted, having had over 1,000 members assassinated in recent years. We believe it is because of his activism that Huber is being targeted, and are calling for his unconditional release, along with that of all other political prisoners in Colombia.

Please take a minute to send your message of protest to the Colombian government:

http://www.labourstart.org/go/freehuber

    And please share this message with your friends, family and fellow union members.

Eric Lee 

Copyright © 2014 LabourStart, All rights reserved.  our website (http://www.labourstart.org) Our mailing address is: LabourStart 27 Muswell Hill Place London, England N10 3RP United Kingdom Add us to your address book Visit ann arky's home at www.radicalglasgow.me.uk

The Mainstream Medis, The State's Tranquilliser.

Greece.

      That babbling brook of bullshit, the mainstream media, is meant to be a form of tranquilliser, to lull the populace in to a stupor, a befuddled subservience. Across the world the streets are alive with protests, riots and police brutality, but what do we get? A large helping of what Kate wore in America, how the Americans love her, and the children are beguiled by her charm. We are informed of how passionate Wills is about poachers living fat of the sale of ivory. I wonder just how much ivory lurks in the vaults of his family residence, and does he ever think about his entire family living fat of the sweat of others. No doubt we will never know.

Finland.

      From Greece to Finland, from America to Mexico, people are raging on the streets, but it is not considered news. Thousands poured onto the streets of Barcelona at the weekend, but you would need to search to find any info on that event. We did get a lot of coverage about the Hong Kong riots, but then again, they were rioting against China, an enemy of the Western imperialist, hence the cover. Police brutality is rife, in Greece, after a series of arrests at a demonstration, MP's went to the police station and were astounded at the blood all over the place as those arrested were beaten by the police once inside the police station. We hear of daily shootings and beatings by American police, and the case of the 43 abducted and murdered students in Mexico, beggars belief.

America.

      One would imagine that journalist would be highlighting this mass unrest, and asking questions such as why are our cities exploding, why is there so much discontent across the globe. But then they may come up with the answer, that it is the system we live under that is the real problem, that wouldn't suit their masters the media barons. They are the ones that are tasked with keeping us all in a state of ignorance and subservience.

Mexico.

      They peddle illusions, they manufacture a false world, and make you believe you live there. In this world of smoke and mirrors, truth is a crime, an act of rebellion. We are meant to believe that we live in a world of glamour and high fashion, where the highest aim is to be a “celebrity” where happiness comes in pretty boxes with designer labels. We are angry because we know the real world and it is harsh, brutal and unjust, we know it need not be like that, and we want to change it to that better world that lives in our hearts.

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

The Privatisation Of The NHS Glides Ever Forward.

      Even before TTIP, the corporations charter, has been ratified, the big greed merchants are targeting the NHS, and all with a nod and a wink from their Oxbridge millionaire friends, sitting in the Westminster Houses of Hypocrisy and Corruption. No matter the public statements to the contrary, being uttered by the residents of that Westminster millionaires club, the sale of the NHS is on their agenda, TTIP is just making sure it is written into law. Only by a massive uprising of anger and protests of the ordinary people will it be stopped. The sale of the NHS is in the interests of the millionaire class, and guess who is looking after and legislating on the NHS? That's right, it's the millionaire class of course. Only you can stop them, it is your NHS, you have a fight on your hands to keep it so.

 

 This from Sum Of Us:

      Incredible! Over 80,000 of us have signed the petition telling NHS England to keep mega US weapons company, Lockheed Martin, out of our healthcare system.
      Let's make sure we go into 2015 with a bang (after all, Lockheed Martin is used to those). Can we get to 100,00 signatures by the end of the year?
Here's what you can do:
Forward the email below to at least five of your friends.
Click here to share this campaign with your friends on Facebook.

       Let's make 2015 the year we kick corporate power out of the NHS,

Martin, Hanna, and the team at SumOfUs.org

Share email:

Friends,
      American arms company, Lockheed Martin, is targeting huge chunks of our NHS! If successful, the world's biggest weapons manufacturer could be in your GP's office, handling your records and scheduling your appointments.
      Lockheed Martin isn’t content with raking in billions from selling weapons to countries right around the world -- now it wants a slice of our National Health Service.
      Right now, it’s sniffing around a huge £1 billion contract to supply services to our GPs and family doctors. But the NHS hasn’t decided yet who will make it through the bidding process, so we’ve still got a chance to stop this arms company from profiting from the healthcare our families receive. But we don’t have long to make our voices heard.

      Join me to tell the government and NHS England to stop Lockheed Martin from bidding on the NHS contract. Gun-runners don't belong in the NHS! http://action.sumofus.org/a/weapons-NHS/

More information:
International arms firm Lockheed Martin in the frame for £1bn NHS contract The Independent, 21 November 2014
World's biggest arms firm targets £1billion NHS contract, Mirror, 19 November 2014

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

Grangemouth Anti-Fracking Protest.

     This afternoon ann arky was at the anti-fracking peaceful protest at Grangemouth. Despite the Baltic weather, it really was wet, windy and foul, there was a fair gathering of people from different political backgrounds, with the usual array of  colourful banners as well as some well wrapped up kids.

     Fracking is another one of those insane ideas that corporations come up with that can make a lot of money for their shareholders, while showing complete disregard for the people that live in the areas affected. The list of problems that flow from fracking is endless, subsidence, earthquakes, toxins finding their way into the water table, rivers and the soil. Drinking water contaminated and the resultant health problems. But still the powers that be will push ahead with the licensing of fracking contracts, even to the extent of trying to bribe some of the local communities with the promise of some of the money from the insane and dangerous scheme coming to them. They would of course, as they are in the pocket of the big corporations, as well has having some of their millions invested in those companies. Let's hope that the anger against fracking grows and grows, until our whisper becomes a roar.

Some PHOTOS:

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

We Are An Image From The Future.

       I can't help but feel for the people of Greece, what has been inflicted on them by the Troika, (EC, European Commission, ECB, European Central Bank, IMF, International Mankind Fuckers), more accurately described as the financial Mafia, is a crime against humanity. Their health service has been trashed, suicides, mental health problems, and substance abuse, have shot up to the stratosphere. Their education system is in a state of collapse, poverty and deprivation is endemic, and homelessness is in epidemic proportions. All this presided over by a cabal of rich, self-centred and corrupt politicians, who always dance to the tune of the financial Mafia.

 Alexis Grigoropoulos.

       Of course it is not all being taken meekly and subserviently by the people of Greece, they continue to fight for the right to dignity and a decent life. This despite being constantly attacked by, what is probably the most brutal police force in Europe. The case of Nikos Romanos epitomises the state brutality under which the people of Greece struggle for dignity. This young man of 21 years at the age of 15, cradled his best friend of the same age, Alexis Grigoropoulos, as he lay dying on the street from a bullet in the chest, from the gun of a member of that brutal police force. Nikos's early youth must have been shaped by this callous act of brutality.

Nikos Romanos after arrest.

      Exactly six years on from that brutal, murderous event on December 6, 2008, Nikos finds himself in prison and on hunger strike, close to death. Acts of solidarity for Nikos take place across Greece, and cities across the world, on a constant bases. If the young Nikos Romanos dies in prison, and with recent reports of his condition pointing to that, it will have been an unnecessary, brutal, callous, vindictive murder, by a brutal callous, vindictive state, that puts its homage to the financial Mafia, above that of the people of Greece. But what will his death mean to the people of Greece, will it finally raise their righteous anger to that point of no return? Their suffering and that of Nikos Romanos, gives them the right to enjoy the ecstasy of their righteous anger.

This from Roar Mag:

      That dystopian future is now. On Saturday, it will be exactly six years since Alexis’ murder — and Alexis’ best friend Nikos Romanos, if he is lucky, will be spending it in hospital. Nikos stopped eating on November 10 in protest against the authorities’ refusal to grant him his legal right to educational furlough. His doctors warn that he is in critical condition and could succumb from heart or kidney failure anytime. The government has given hospital staff the order to force-feed him, but the doctors have refused. As Nikos’ health steadily deteriorates, the streets are becoming ever more combustible — especially in anticipation of the annual commemoration march for Alexis on Saturday.

       On Tuesday night, fierce riots broke out in downtown Athens after more than 10.000 people marched through the city in solidarity with Nikos and four anarchist comrades who recently joined him on his hunger strike. The images of burning cars in Exarchia led many to wonder if a replay of 2008 might be in the cards if the state does not give in to Nikos’ demands soon. Riot police responded with the usual teargas and baton rounds, but what was truly worrisome were later reports that at least 10 detainees had been hospitalized with heavy injuries, including broken limbs and ribs. Two Syriza MPs who rushed to the police headquarters found the sixth floor of the building “covered in blood.”

Read the full article HERE:

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

Self-Help In The Face Of State Repression.

       We all know that the "Greek experiment", as the financial Mafia call it, has caused the trashing of the living standards of the ordinary people of Greece, has resulted in the vaporisation of incomes, and the disappearance of social services. This has thrown the people of Greece to fall back on their own resolve and imagination, and to come up with new ways of surviving this brutal onslaught on the fabric of their society.

       They have not been idle on that front, co-operatives, self help, squats, and mutual aid schemes, have sprung up across the country, factories have been taken over by the workers, farmers have started dealing direct with the public, rather than the corporations. All this takes place in the face of state repression and police brutality, as the powers that be attempt to hold onto the old exploitative ways of organising society, the last thing they want is that people start to organise society in a way that is most beneficial to the people. Will the new ways sustain themselves, will they grow, will they set an example to the rest of Europe, or will they be viciously destroy by the heavy hand of the state and its masters the corporate world.

          Extract from an interview with Antonio Cuesta Marín, author of the book “Solidarity and Self Organisation in Greece” Taken From X-pressed:

4. To what extent are these initiatives sustainable? Especially those based on solidarity, such as pharmacies, clinics…
     With regards to economics, I think their viability depends on the skills of its members and their ability to work, along with the fact that their ethical principles create a closer proximity to local populations. The sustainability of solidarity projects has other conditional factors: the intervention on pressing problems for the neighbours is based on the collaboration and participation of many people. As far as I know, some initiatives have been modified to better suit real needs but have not disappeared. When one gets to know the level of involvement of many anonymous participants and the original proposals to provide funding to projects, then one can understand that, against all odds, they will go ahead.
5. Does the society know about them, in general? Has there been some sort of public debate on new ways of meeting these needs based on self-organisation? (I mean, by a wide audience, the average Greek).
       My sense is that there are two parallel worlds running, that of institutional politics reproduced by the mainstream media, and that of the reality experienced by the citizens, which is clearly present in any initiative or social group. Of course, the corporate media have not fostered a frank and open discussion on possible alternatives or on the demands of popular movements. They have occasionally mentioned some of the projects but from a humanitarian point of view rather than claim. It is normal; the rationale of these “opinion makers” is embedded into the neoliberal system and will not facilitate any debate contrary to their interests. However, I believe that at the grassroots level there have been channels of communication opened which have helped to transfer information and calls which have worked quite effectively.

Read the full interview HERE:

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

State Brutality.

       The campaign of solidarity with Nikos Romanos is growing in strength and on a wider front as acts of solidarity and support are happening across the globe. His case highlights the vindictiveness of the state apparatus, not just in Greece but in states across the planet, the same brutal repression happens somewhere every day, whether it be Ferguson US, or Athens Greece, it is the same vicious reprisals to keep hold of their authority over us.

Nikos being arrested.

       In the case of Nikos Romanos, some people may not be familiar with the facts behind this case. Behind this vicious brutality of the Greek state, there is a young man who at the age of 15, saw his 15 year old best friend shot and die in the street, at the hands of a thug in a uniform, called a police officer. This after what was a verbal confrontation, the uniformed thug drew his gun and fired to kill the youth. The state shaped Nikos Ramanos's life in a brutal fashion, and the state will willing let him die. This, in what is supposed to be developed, democratic Europe, an illusion that has evaporated like mist in a wind.

Nikos after his arrest, and the photoshop image issued by the police.

       This from Void Network:

       Nikos Romanos was only 15 years old when his name first became known to the Greek public. Romanos was close friend with Alexandros Grigoropoulos, the unarmed pupil who was shot dead by a policeman in the Athens neighborhood of Exarheia. Romanos watched his friend die in front of his eyes after being shot through the heart.

      Not the happiest way to set of into on adulthood, this was a brutalisation by the state machinery of a young man with all the potential of youth, friends and family, beside him. Now some 6 years after that incident, the state is still vindictively brutalising one of our own, with a callousness that defies belief.

       Last spring while in prison, Romanos studied for and took the pan-Hellenic high school exams earning high enough marks to gain a place at a top Athens polytechnic university in business management.
       At the time, the Justice Ministry had praised him and other inmates for their academic success and was to award Romanos a prize of 500 euros. However Romanos refused to attend a ceremony to accept the prize from the Justice Minister, saying that doing so would violate his principles.
      Regardless, at the time the Justice Minister Charalambos Athansiou stated that, “the state does not make distinctions on the issue of studies. He is praiseworthy for following the advice of his teachers and working hard to gain a place at an institution of higher education.” However despite this praise, the door subsequently was shut on Romanos’ putative academic career when the relevant prison council denied his application for prison leave to attend classes.

Read the full article HERE:

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

"Austerity" A Tool In The Class War.

      I have always said that "austerity" is not a necessity, but an ideology, it is the strategy of the rich and powerful in their class war. We, the plebs, are being made to pay for the upkeep of the wealthy, the corporate, and the financial Mafia. They staked their lot in a mad gambling frenzy, and it blew up in their faces. In comes "austerity", of course it only applies to you and I, the plebs. The fat cats are all doing rather well at the moment, more millionaires, increase sales in top-of-the-range cars etc. While you and I see our standard of living edging ever nearer the Dickensian era.

     The phoney chorus coming from our Oxbridge millionaire cabal, sitting in the Westminster Houses of Hypocrisy and Corruption, that we have fixed it and are on the mend, is just hogwash, propaganda. We have had inflicted on us almost 5 years of slashing social services, and now that we are on the mend, there are more and more, vicious cuts coming our way. In this class war, "austerity" is to be the new way of life for us lower orders.

     After the next election, no matter which bunch of privately educated rich parasites get in, their agenda will be this cry of balancing the books, so more cuts to the living standards of the ordinary people. The pattern has been set, sweatshop future awaits you.

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

The Usual Oxbridge Self-centred Hypocrisy.

 

      Just what you expect from an MP, two-faced, money grabbing, hypocrite, Stephen Dorrell, sitting as an MP in a tory government that says it will protect the NHS, while taking a job with a company that wants to plunder out a slice of the NHS for profit. No doubt he'll advise KMPG on how best to go about grabbing a chunk of the NHS, at the cheapest price, and what sections will be the most profitable to the company. He has the inside info and contacts, having been chair of the Health Select Committee for four years. Well, what do you expect from one of the Oxbridge Mafia. 

 This from 38 Degrees:

     Stephen Dorrell MP has just taken a job with KPMG, a private company that wants to bid on a £1 billion NHS contract. [1] But he's refusing to give up his parliamentary seat.
     Mr Dorrell has admitted his new job is “incompatible” with his role as an MP. But he's refusing to step down until May 2015. [2] How can that be ok? Who is his boss for the next 5 months - KPMG or his constituents?
     If thousands of us sign a petition to David Cameron to show our outrage, the weight of public opinion could force the PM to crack down. Please sign now:
http://secure.38degrees.org.uk/dorrell-conflict-of-interest
For four years, Stephen Dorrell MP was the chair of the powerful Health Select committee, helping open the NHS up to privatisation. His new job is with a private company bidding on the NHS.
       Here’s what Chris, one his constituents says:
“Public trust in politicians is currently at an all-time low. Dorrell's action in joining KPMG displays a cynical lack of integrity amongst MPs. This presents a serious conflict of interest and misuse of his privileged position, making him unfit to continue as an MP."
     From campaigning for a law to allow voters to sack rogue MPs, through to fighting to protect our NHS from private healthcare vultures, [3] 38 Degrees members have a history of challenging politicians who act against our democracy. Let’s show David Cameron we’re watching his every move.
    Can you sign the petition asking David Cameron to tell Stephen Dorrell he can't take a job in health privatisation whilst he's still an MP?
http://secure.38degrees.org.uk/dorrell-conflict-of-interest
Thanks for being involved,
Ali, Robin, David and the 38 Degrees team
NOTES:
[1] Daily Telegraph: Stephen Dorrell MP faces calls to resign over conflict of interest:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/conservative/11264425/Stephen-Dorrell-MP-faces-calls-to-resign-over-conflict-of-interest.html
[2] Mirror: £1 billion NHS sell-off scandal: Tory MP works for firm targeting huge health service deal:
http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/1billion-nhs-sell-off-scandal-tory-4724959
[3] 38 Degrees blog - Recall campaign and NHS privatisation vote:
http://blog.38degrees.org.uk/2014/10/23/recall-mp-debate/ http://blog.38degrees.org.uk/2014/11/20/save-our-nhs/

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