GREAT VICTORY FOR IWW MEMBERS.

       Once again, organisation and solidarity win the day, 9%. must be one of the best victories in a long while.

IWW Victory!

John Lewis Cleaners Win Pay Rise

      Monday 19 Novermber 2012 -- The industrial Workers of the World are proud to announce their victory in their latest John Lewis cleaners' campaign. On Friday 16 November, the IWW-unionised John Lewis cleaning staff employed by contractor Integrated Cleaning Management won a 9% pay rise as a result of their campaign.

     The outsourced cleaners work at four different John Lewis sites in London and are employed by cleaning contractor Integrated Cleaning Management (ICM). This announcement follows a previous press release on Monday 12 November, in which IWW lodged a fresh pay dispute on behalf the IWW unionised cleaners at John Lewis, and a further press release on Wednesday 14 November, in which the IWW announced our intention to ballot the John Lewis cleaning staff for industrial action. The attached campaign press release can be downloaded at the bottom of this article.

Read the full details HERE:

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OL' MAN RIVER.

      Some of you young ones might not know of this giant of a man, here he is singing of another giant of a man. Paul Robeson, born April 9th. 1898, was the son of a former slave, won a scholarship to Rutgers University, a brilliant student and for a short term was a lawyer. Became politically active for civil rights and was involved in Council on African Affairs, (CCA). He was an incredible actor/singer and played Othello on Broadway, no one actor has ever given more performances in a Shakespearean play. He gave a concert in Spain during the Spanish Civil War. After WW2 the CCA was placed on the Attorney General's list of Subversive Organisations, this brought him to the attention of  the infamous McCarthy during the McCarthyism era.   

     He refused to recant his beliefs, was refused an international visa, and his income fell dramatically, After this he lived in Harlem and published a periodical that was critical of American policies. The case of Kent V. Dulles brought about the restoration of his right to travel, However soon after this his health deteriorated and he died in January 23rd. 1976.

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LOOKING BACK AT THE OCCUPY MOVEMENT.

     Though it had a greater impact in America than here and no matter the outcome, I personally see the Occupy Movement as a great success. It took more people along that road of making the private public, politicised lots of people and created new networks of communication. It also altered the way lots of people view this society that we live in, opening their eyes to the inequalities and injustices, none of that can be bad. 

This from The Bureau of Public Secrets: 

Looking Back on Occupy

1. Your assessment of the Occupy movement was very positive. What is the overall perception you have of this movement today? What is left of Occupy?

       There is not much left of the Occupy movement as such — almost all the encampments were destroyed in November or December 2011 and virtually no new ones have emerged. On the other hand, the movement was in no way “defeated.” With few exceptions, the people arrested were quickly released and totally exonerated. The elimination of the encampments simply had the effect of forcing the participants onto other, more diverse terrains of struggle. Countless people all over the country continue to meet regularly, to network with each other and to carry out all sorts of actions — picketing banks, disrupting corporate board meetings, blocking home foreclosures, protesting environmental policies (Monsanto, Tar Sands Pipeline, fracking, etc.), in addition to more specifically “occupy” type actions such as attempting to take over and reopen schools and libraries that have been closed and abandoned, or “Homes Not Jails” attempted takeovers of vacant housing to provide dwellings for homeless people. One of the most interesting and well planned of these latter types of actions, “Occupy the Farm,” took place just a few blocks from my home last April, when ecological activists took over a large plot of vacant urban land and turned it into a community garden, planting more than ten thousand seedlings in the space of a few days. The gardener-occupiers were driven out after three weeks, but the agitation continues and has resulted in a temporary victory against a planned commercial development. [November note: Since the completion of this interview the immense disaster relief work of Occupy Sandy is yet another very important and exemplary development.]

      The Occupy movement already had the implicit goal of “reclaiming the commons” — occupying public squares or parks played on this theme, since regardless of quibbles about permits it was obvious that such spaces belong to the public and are, or at least originally were, intended for public use. But these more recent actions have the merit of challenging the fetish of private property in a more direct manner. That fetish has always been extremely strong in the United States, and the police responses to its transgression have always been more immediate and brutal. But I like to hope that these types of actions will eventually weaken the fetish, just as happened in the days of the Civil Rights movement. Back in the 1950s and 1960s, when black people first started restaurant sit-ins, one often heard this argument: “That restaurant belongs to the owner, he has the right to do whatever he wants with it, including deciding who he wants to serve.” But as more and more people kept peacefully sitting in and calmly accepting arrest, the general public was gradually brought around to the idea that there was a “higher law” than property rights — that other rights also had to be respected, such as the right to be treated fairly as a human being. I think this may eventually happen with these post-Occupy invasions of various types of property, as people see the absurdity of there being millions of vacant buildings while there are millions of people living in the streets. Even now many people sympathize with the idea of defending a family against foreclosure, despite the fact that a bank technically owns the home, because there is increasing awareness that the banks have often acted illegally. The notion of reopening abandoned schools, etc., is even more exemplary in that it hints at the notion of a society based on cooperation and generosity rather than on how much money can be made from something.

         The two drawbacks of these types of action are that they are risky and that they thus tend to be the work of a small minority (mostly young and mostly male). Occupying public spaces is much more likely to attract the sympathy, the support, and ultimately the participation of multitudes of ordinary people (including parents, children, elderly, disabled). But for those who want to push the limits and don’t mind the risks, taking over vacant buildings and opening them up to public uses is much more challenging and inspiring than breaking windows.

Read the full article HERE:

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UTOPIA ON THE HORIZON.

     People change, circumstances change people, our circumstances are changing dramatically, how will we change? We will change, how rapidly will we change, what direction will we look? Will we seek that Utopia? If not, why not?

Again, from The Greek Streets:

     ROARMAG.org presents: ‘Utopia on the Horizon’, a documentary for those who chose to struggle.
     In May 2011, hundreds of thousands of Greeks swarmed into Syntagma Square in Athens to protest against the firesale of their country, their labor rights and their livelihoods to corrupt domestic elites and foreign financial interests.
       In a matter of days, a protest camp was set up — organized on the principles of direct democracy, leaderless self-management and mutual aid — providing a glimpse of utopia in the midst of a devastating financial, political and social crisis. On June 28-29, during a Parliamentary vote on further austerity measures, the state finally responded with brutal force, eventually evicting the protesters from the square and crushing the radical potential of their social experiment.

     A year later, Leonidas Oikonomakis and Jérôme Roos — PhD researchers at the European University Institute and co-authors of the activist blog ROARMAG.org — returned to Athens to speak to activists involved in the movement and the occupation of Syntagma Square, as well as WWII resistance hero Manolis Glezos. What follows is this dramatic portrait of a country veering on the brink of collapse; and the people who chose to struggle in order to build a new world on the ruins of the old.

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IT IS SLOW GENICIDE.

       So what is new in this latest show of Israeli aggression? It is part and parcel of the Zionist aims to have all the land that God promised them. Yes, according to the Zionist, away back thousands of years ago, when they were an ancient roaming tribe, God told them that this land was theirs. The problem being that there are millions of people living on these lands, so they have to be removed. And there will be no peace as long as this idiotic claim is at the root of their Zionist government policy. Bit by bit the land of Palestine is disappearing and being settled by fundamentalist Jews, the Palestinian people are the problem, to have God's promise fulfilled, these people have to go, be destroyed, eliminated or call it what you will. This latest onslaught against the Palestinian people is just another step in that direction. In my way of thinking, the word genocide seems to fit. 

Of course you need God's blessing before you kill.

      The last major Israeli assault on the Palestinian people of Gaza was December 27 2008, in what the Israeli state called Operation Cast Lead. As usual with the Israeli state, the action was claimed to be in response rockets being fired from Gaza, and as usual the response was totally and utterly disproportionate. It was state blanket repression of an entire people. It was referred to in most places a a massacre. It involved a co-ordinated attack by land artillery, air bombardment and shelling from the sea. On January 3 the      Israeli state ground forces moved in and attacked many densely populated areas. Gaza was literally cut in two. The operation was ended on January 18 and the withdrawal of Israeli ground forces was complete by January 21. In that short period of brutal overwhelming firepower, it is estimated that 1,400 Palestinians died and 13 Israelis.

      In the 2006 Israeli invasion of the Lebanon, Israel declared all of Lebanon south of the Litani River a kill zone. Within this entire twenty mile area of Lebanon, anyone who was in a vehicle would be targeted and destroyed by the Israeli state terrorist forces. People in villages across the south of the country, who were already without food or water, were unable to flee the bombing or get medical aid.

         Between 1968 and 1974, the Lebanese government registered 3,000 attacks on Lebanon by the Israel state apparatus, which resulted in the brutal murder of 880 Lebanese and Palestinian civilians.

           Of course the attacks on Lebanon by the Israeli state did not start in 1968 with the attack on Beirut airport and the destruction of the Lebanese civilian air fleet. The Israeli aggression started much earlier. Between 1949 and 1964 there were 140 Israeli attacks on Lebanese villages and towns. Some of these attacks include, on July 24th. 1950 a Lebanese civilian plane shot down by Israeli planes, October 1950, Israeli state forces fired on Lebanese civilians killing four at the village of Yarun. In 1959 Israeli state forces hijacked three planes, two civilian planes and one Lebanese military jet, and forced them to land in Israel On August 27th. 1959 Israeli state forces killed one woman and destroyed two houses and three bridges during an Israeli terrorist infiltration into South Lebanon. June 14th 1968 saw the Israeli state terrorists bomb Mays Al-Jabal in South Lebanon and injured 56 people. After the Israeli state terrorist attack on Beirut airport in 1968 their occupation forces killed 11 Palestinians in the ‘Arqub region.

        After 1968 the Israeli state terrorist attacks became so numerous that they would fill the pages of a Glasgow telephone directory. The Israel state apparatus has been attacking and killing Lebanese and Palestinians long before the formation of Hezbollah and the PLO.

         The 2006 Israeli aggression, saw more than 1,000 bombs dropped on 9th August 2006 on Khiyam alone, destroyed the entire infra-structure of Lebanon, killed over 1,000 Lebanese, mainly women and children, children making up almost 50% of those murders. Lets not forget the countless children killed in Gaza over the years of Israeli aggression. During this period the Israeli deaths are in the low hundreds mostly soldiers.

         This is the record of a state that is held up by the Western states as the only democratic state in the Middle East. If this is democracy, who wants it. This is the usual state imperialism doing what it always does, expand and control, brute force while proclaiming democracy, killing while waving the flag of peace. Territory and resources are the aim, people are expendable.

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CONFRONTATION, -- THEN WHAT?

      Golden Dawn's new office sparks riots. More and more Greece seems to be heading to a straight split on the streets with the fascist aided and abetted by the state apparatus, being confronted by massive anti-fascist  and it turning brutal, all the hallmarks of a coup by the military or a civil war. This is what "austerity" brings to the ordinary people, and we are not immune.

This from The Greek streets:

 

Hundreds of anti-fascists riot in the city of Agrinio as police from across Greece protect the newly-opened office of Golden Dawn Nazis
Sunday, November 18, 2012

     Agrinio, a medium-sized city of just over 100,000 saw some of the most severe rioting in its history on the evening of November 18th. As the Nazi party Golden Dawn formally opened an office in the city, just opposite the local police station, hundreds of police and Golden Dawn members arrived from nearby cities (but also from Athens, approx 280km away). At the same time, local anti-fascists took to the streets of the city, demonstrating and rioting against the Nazi presence. At least 20 anti-fascists have been detained by the police (at least two of them arrested/charged), while at the time of writing (22:00 GMT+2) the rioting continues.

 

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GLASGOW'S RADICAL INDEPENDENT BOOK-FAIR.

Glasgow's Radical Independent Book-fair project...

...supporting small press publishers and independent producers...circulating radical reading materials and information...

SAT 24 NOV  from 10am till 5pm approx

Radisson Blu Hotel
1st Floor lobby
Argyle Street, Glasgow
next to (near to Central Station)

mini stall at
Radical Independence Conference

note although there is an entry charge for the Conference -
the RiB stall will be outside the main hall and therefore access to it is free. 

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THE ENEMY IS HERE, AT HOME.

     You and I may know this, but how many people don't? He may be talking about Iraq, but the same applies to Afghanistan as it did in Vietnam and thousands of other unfortunate countries across the globe. Though I do believe that more and more people are beginning to realise the our real enemy is right here in our own country, and most of them wear expensive suits.

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PRIVILEGE AND IMPUNITY.

      Imagine you get a nice easy job, you get paid for turning up, you can if you wish just sleep on and off and hobble off to the bar now and again and it pays well. You start to fiddle the expenses, get caught and sentenced to 9 months in prison. You are released after 9 weeks and you wander back to your old job, move in and carry on as if nothing had ever happened. Fantasy? Well no, it is the rules in that club of pomp and privilege, the House of Lords.

      Take the case of one Paul White, last year he got convicted of fraudulently claiming £14,000 worth of false expenses at his place of work. Straight from prison after serving nine weeks of a nine month sentence, back to his old job and for the months of April and May he claimed £4,596 in expenses and for June this year has claimed £3,600 in expenses. The June expenses were for turning up on 12 seperate days at £300 a day, plus £285 travelling expenses. That's a total of £8,481, not bad for 3 months part-time “work”.

      How does he do it? Well he is one of those privileged parasites who has those magic four little letters in front of his name, “LORD” . Paul White, is better known as Lord Hanningfield, and the House of Lords is his nice little earner, of course it is tax payers money that he is pocketing and it is just for turning up.

 It's tough trying to adjust after prison.

     However I don't want you to think that Lord Hanningfield is alone as the only privileged benefit cheat. His Lordy pal Lord Taylor of Warwick, not only a cheat, but a liar, done for lying about where he lived and fiddling £11,000, served 3 months of a 12 month sentence, and in June this year his fingers were in the honeypot again, claiming £2,100 in expenses.

     Of course there more of these members of this privileged parasite club that have fiddled and the went back to business as usual. One Baroness Uddin, though not prosecuted, was told to pay back fiddled expenses to the tune of £125,349, has this June claimed £1,800 in attendance allowance. Try to think of who you know in your neighbourhood, that might have in some way fiddled at work, went to prison and then back to their old job, no questions asked? So why do we tolerate a bunch of parasites washed in pomp, privilege and impunity, all at our expense. 

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SAME OLD SAME OLD.

     I find it amazing that as our lords and masters inflict more and more "austerity" on us a vast majority of the general public think this is something new. Somehow there are those out there under the impression that somehow the system has hit a glitch and our millionaire friends in the cabinet have had to take very unusual action. They seem to see what is happening as something temporary and want things to get back to "normal". Well history tells us, this is "normal" nothing has changed, it is all a matter of degree, wealth has always flowed upwards to the leeches and parasites that sit on our backs. It is just that at the present time it has accelerated considerably. If we look at history, even this acceleration is not new. 

      After the first world war we the ordinary people were, as usual, in shitsville, with high unemployment, poverty and deprivation, industrial relations were in turmoil. In 1922, our then lords and masters, in order to resolve the problem,  decided to commission a report, which when produced was known as the Geddes report. Its recommendations were in line with the usual answers from the Leeches Legion. It recommended heavy cuts in education, public health and workers' benefits, sound familiar? We all know that four years later, 1926, Britain workers were involved in the general strike. Must we wait another four years?

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HISTORY FROM BELOW.

All Knees and Elbows of Susceptibility and Refusal: 

Reading History From Below

Saturday 24th November 2012 | Transmission Gallery | 4.00pm onwards

      The book All Knees and Elbows of Susceptibility and Refusal: Reading History From Below began as a discussion between two friends, Anthony Iles and Tom Roberts, about the politics of writing history. Neither are trained historians. They have assembled a critical and necessarily partial picture of the practice of ‘history from below’: historiographical tendencies which sought to uncover the agency of ‘ordinary people’ in challenging capitalism and developing different forms of social organisation. All Knees and Elbows surveys the work of a number of British and international left historians and groups, including Silvia Federici, History Workshop, Eric Hobsbawm, C.L.R James, Peter Linebaugh, Sheila Rowbotham, Jacques Rancière and E.P. Thompson.

   “The completed study is not intended to be comprehensive. We’ve veered towards the subjects, areas and materials which interest us. These include questions of sources and their uses, working class education and self-education, welfare and the wage, language, historical authenticity and literary inventiveness, and contemporary political instrumentalisations of radical history. The book attests to the importance of reading history critically against the present.”

Authors: Anthony Iles & Tom Roberts
Illustrations: Artwork by Rachel Baker
Publishers: Transmission Gallery, The Strickland Distribution, Mute Books
Format: Paperback, H 182mm x W 118mm
ISBN: 978-0-9565201-3-5 (paperback) / 978-0- 9565201-4-2 (ebook)
Book price: £8.99

Film Screening & Introduction - 4.00pm

     The Luddites (53 mins) is a film directed by Richard Broad for Thames TV in 1988 as if it were a contemporary documentary. The Luddites were a social movement of textile artisans from around Northern England and the Midlands, who banded together in 1812 in secret societies and destroyed the machines which were putting them out of work.

Discussion - 5.30pm-6.30pm

     A discussion of The Luddites led by authors Anthony Iles and Tom Roberts informed by some of the All Knees and Elbows themes, including: The definition and redefinition of the working class in History from Below • Critical re-examination of ruptures in the social relation • Techniques developed within struggles to control and convey their own history • Struggles over the marketisation of research • Critical struggles over authenticity • The market for working class memoirs and hardship porn • Determinism and/ or the potential for action.

Book launch - 7.00pm

      Authors Anthony Iles and Tom Roberts will give a short introduction to their new book All Knees and Elbows of Susceptibility and Refusal: Reading History From Below critically appraising tendencies and debates in history from below. A sample chapter is available here: http://strickdistro.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/Members_Unlimited_blog-sample-version.pdf  

The book will be available for purchase at the launch.

For further info see:

http://strickdistro.org/2012/10/31/all-knees-and-elbows-of-susceptibility-and-refusal-reading-history-from-below/

.................

All Knees and Elbows of Susceptibility and Refusal: Reading History From  Below is organised by The Strickland Distribution as part of its knowledge is never neutral programme with Transmission Gallery.

    The Strickland Distribution, September 2012 – June 2013 with/at Transmission Gallery

knowledge is never neutral is a series of projects organised by The Strickland Distribution taking place from September 2012 to June 2013 within and outside the gallery space. Taken together, these projects set out to explore the circumstances that surround cultural and knowledge production. We look to situate this production within a wider set of social and historical relations, and to reflect on our practices across these relations. We invite you to join us in these processes.

     Creating spaces for participatory dialogue – for listening and being listened to – the projects include a public walk, co-research inquiry, facilitated workshops, film screenings, reading and discussion groups, publication launches and the ongoing documentation and reconsideration of outcomes deriving from these projects.

     The Strickland Distribution is an artist-run group supporting the development of independent research in art-related and non-institutional practices. Art-related includes research forms that directly implement artistic practice as a means of research method. Non-institutional includes forms of grass-roots histories, social inquiries and projects developed outside of academic frameworks and by groups and individuals normally excluded from such environments. The Strickland Distribution operates in the public sphere, seeking to stimulate and contribute to public education, discourse and debate around the topics and themes addressed through its projects.

Transmission Gallery 28 King Street Glasgow G1 5QP Scotland

Tel.:+44 (0)141 552 7141 info@transmissiongallery.org www.transmissiongallery.org

The Strickland Distribution contact@strickdistro.org http://strickdistro.org

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FEAR.

Taken from Frank Herbert's Dune:

“I must not fear.
Fear is the mind killer.
Fear is the little death that brings total obliteration.
I will face my fear.
I will permit it to pass over me and through me.
And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path.
Where the fear has gone there will be nothing.
Only I will remain.”

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CIRCLED "A" RADIO.

For those interested in Circled A radio show, here is a link.

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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.

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ALWAYS FILTH.

      One of the factors in this onslaught on the people of Europe is the fact that in this country and others, no more so in Greece, there has been signs of rapid growth in at least one sector of the economy, pawnshops. As people become more and more desperate in their struggle to survive they start to dispose of all their precious possessions. Everything from jewelry to sentimental family heirlooms. In their desperation they will accept a pittance for them from the leeches that run these establishments, who will in turn go on to live a life of luxury on the backs of the poor. Normal practice for this system. 

From The Greek Streets:

      The poster below comes from the “Network of tangible solidarity and resistance” of the city of Chalkida, as a response to the pawnshops (gold-haggling shops) that have mushroomed all across the country recently.

 It reads:

I Buy gold. 
Jewelry, teeth, wedding rings,
badges, baptism crosses, relics,
memories, belongings and dignity.
IN DEROGATORILY LOW PRICES.
Because I know you are desperate.
I know you can’t afford your housing tax,
your kid’s tuition, your medicine, your food.
I know that you are in despair and that you don’t know
how to resist, that you’re scared.
I know, therefore, that you’ll take whatever I give you
and that you’ll even thank me on top.
Yesterday a black-marketeer, 
Today a pawnbroker,
Always filth. 
– Chalkida Network of tangible solidarity and resistance 

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INFORMED OR MANIPULATED.

     The debate rages, but are we all properly informed or are we emotionally taking sides like in a faith thing, is climate change a religion where you follow one church or the other. Are we informed or manipulated, where does the truth lie? An interesting article from The Libertarian Alliance:

Dear Roger Harrabin,

   Re-reading your memo below reminds me that there is now a considerable debate as to whether the BBC have been even handed, or not, regarding the all important issue of Climate Change, or more accurately the extent that CO2 emissions have on any such change.

    In the interests of the impartiality that the BBC desperately wish to show, so as to be conforming with the Royal Charter that guarantees your independence, would you please give publicity to the following:-

    I have no commercial or vested interest whatever in these issues but, as a scientist trained by ICI in the 1950s I merely seek for a true presentation.

    We are being told to sacrifice our standard of living to reduce the quantity of CO2 in our atmosphere. How big a factor is CO2 in our atmosphere?

     It surprises everyone I ask when they learn that this beneficial trace gas is 0.037% of our atmosphere. The line would be so thin on a pie chart as to be near invisible. Not only is CO2 a benign gas it is essential for all pant life and we need 7% of it in our lungs to live. Furthermore it is at an historically low level. So how can this minuscule quantity of trace gas affect our climate? As common sense and real science tells us it cannot and does not!

Read the full article HERE:

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CARBON CAPTURE, WHO PAYS?

      We all know that the corporate world will make a killing wherever possible and they will dress it up as if they were some sort of compassionate caring body looking out for the well being of the planet. Carbon capture is one of those brilliant ideas where the developed world goes about its business of destroying the environment, while pointing to how it is all be sorted by raping and plundering of the undeveloped world.
This from WideOpenExposure:

     Hundreds of hydroelectric dams in Panama. Incinerators burning garbage in India. Biogas extracted from palm oil in Honduras. Eucalyptus forests harvested for charcoal in Brazil. What do these projects have in common? They are all receiving carbon credits for offsetting pollution created somewhere else. But what impact are these offsets having? Are they actually reducing emissions? And what about the people and the communities where these projects have been set up?
    THE CARBON RUSH takes us around the world to meet the people most impacted. They are the least heard in the cacophony surrounding in this emerging "green-gold" multi-billion dollar carbon industry.
     From indigenous rain forest dwellers having their way of life completely threatened, to dozens of Campesinos assassinated, to the livelihood of waste pickers at landfills taken away, THE CARBON RUSH travels across four continents and brings us up close to projects working through the United Nations, Kyoto Protocol designed Clean Development Mechanism. This groundbreaking documentary feature asks the fundamental questions "What happens when we manipulate markets to solve the climate crisis? Who stands to gain and who stands to suffer?"

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NOBODY IS ILLEGAL, WE'RE ALL PEOPLE.

Not new, but I still like it.

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JUST DOING MY DUTY.

     Don't you just love cops!! If they are not beating the shit out of somebody, harassing peaceful protesters, or blasting a tasar at a blind man with a white stick, they are intimidating and provoking at peaceful demonstrations. This recent case in Florida shows the extent of their empathy with the ordinary people.

This from The Miami Herald:

SARASOTA, Fla. -- A homeless man spent the night in a Southwest Florida jail after a police officer accused him of stealing by charging his cellphone at a public park.
   An arrest report says that a Sarasota police sergeant spotted 28-year-old Darren Kersey charging his phone Sunday evening in a public picnic shelter at Gillespie Park. The sergeant told Kersey that the "theft of city utilities will not be tolerated during this bad economy" and then arrested him on a misdemeanor charge of theft of utilities.
    Unable to pay the $500 bond, Kersey spent the night in jail. But the Sarasota Herald-Tribune ( http://bit.ly/W4frm0) reports that Kersey was released Monday morning after a judge threw the case out, saying the sergeant lacked the legal justification to make the arrest.

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Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/11/12/3094232/homeless-man-jailed-after-charging.html#storylink=cpy

NOVEMBER 14 PAN-EUROPEAN DAY OF ACTION.

There will be demonstrations in all major cities in the UK and across Europe on Wednesday 14. Glasgow will have two demonstrations in the city centre on that day as part of the pan-European day of action. It is encouraging to see that the people of Europe are beginning to mobilise on continental basis rather than a city or country wide manner as in the past. It will take a united European working class to change this money and market drive system to one of justice and equality. We have had enough of being told the markets this and the markets that, and the markets are unhappy or the markets are happy, who the fuck are the markets? They are no more than a bunch of extremely rich and very greedy individuals who want more of the public purse. The first event will be:  Glasgow George Square, 12:30 to 1:30.      On Wednesday 14th November trade unionists in Greece, Cyprus, Italy, Malta, Portugal and Spain are joining a southern European General Strike against Austerity. Workers in other countries are organising protests too. It is important that we here in Britain show solidarity as we face the same attacks Glasgow City UNISON, UNITE Scottish Housing Association, UNITE Scottish Rank and File M & E Construction Workers and UNITE 7/600 branches are calling upon all trade unionists and campaigners to join lunchtime leafleting and petitioning in George Square, opposite the City Chambers, to show support for the European strikes and to demonstrate our own opposition to welfare and public spending cuts here. So come along, bring your sandwiches and say no to Austerity!       Supported by BARAC, Black Triangle, Coalition of Resistance, Defend Glasgow Services, Glasgow Campaign to Welcome Refugees, Right to Work Campaign, Save the Accord, Stop the War (Glasgow), Youth Fight for Jobs. Bring your banners. Trade union and campaign speakers. 12.30 to 1.30pm       For more info/ to add your organisation's name to the list of supporters/ sponsors contact Glasgow City UNISON, 84 Bell Street, Candleriggs, Glasgow, G1 1LQ Tel: 0141 5527069 or enquiries@glasgowcityunison.co.uk The second event will be: *CHANGE OF EVENT DETAILS* EMERGENCY ACTION:  George Square under threat of privatisation! On November 14th there will be general strikes in Spain, Portugal, Greece, Italy, Cyprus and Malta. The ETUC [European Trade Union Confederation] is calling for solidarity action throughout Europe. At the same time, a panel will be selecting the winner of a design competition for the effective privatisation of George Square on Monday, with a rapid schedule of ‘redevelopment’ in place thereafter. The council itself has admitted that such development will potentially shut off the square to the public for two years.     Across Europe people are taking action in squares against austerity - we need to keep George Square as a place for protest. George Square has been a historic sight of protest going back to 'Red Clydeside' in 1919 George Square 1919.         We have changed the rally to a march from Donald Dewar Statue to George Square. The Glasgow Defence Campaign has been holding meetings about the 'redevelopment' of George Square. For more information check out their website at: http://glasgowdefencecampaign.blogspot.co.uk/      This includes the council's sham 'consultation' document which clearly outlines their aim to prevent public assembly in the square.

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