ISRAEL AND APARTHEID.

         Recently the Israeli government has stated that it will speed up the building of settlements on the occupied territories in the West Bank. This is deemed necessary to show the Palestinian people that Israel will be firm because of the Palestinians' horrible crime of seeking membership of UNESCO. There is no country in the world would get away with treating any other people the way that the Israeli government treats the Palestinian people. Israel seems to put itself outside international law, outside the United Nations, and continually puts two fingers up to its main banker, the United States of America. Is it guilty of apartheid? Is it guilty of ethnic cleansing? It certainly is guilty of some of the most brutal blanket punishment handed out to any people in modern times. It is encouraging to see that there are still people who are trying to bring some form of international condemnation on the Israeli government for its treatment of the Palestinian people. The following is a short extract from an interesting article.

Israel cannot be held accountable for its actions by any international tribunal as it refuses to accept the jurisdiction of either the International Court of Justice or the International Criminal Court. The Russell Tribunal seeks to remedy this weakness in the international system of justice by providing for accountability by a court of international opinion. It does not seek to obstruct the peace process. On the contrary, it wishes to promote it. But there can be no peace without justice. This is a basic principle that Richard Goldstone, who has written an op-ed criticising the Russell Tribunal (Israel and the Apartheid Slander, New York Times, October 31, 2011), has devoted much his life to, as prosecutor before the Yugoslavia Tribunal.    READ the full article.

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OAKLAND PORT CLOSURE.

        
              The latest from Oakland California, from that great paper, The Commune. The question is where next, what next? A group, large or other wise, camped in the centre of the city is not going to bring dramatic change to the system, it can be tolerated in the hope that it will fade and die away. It has to grow, it has to find new strategies, to gather more support and move to a wider range of protests. Occupation and organising strikes is a road that has to be considered, but more co-operation and communication between local community groups and the various occupation movements across the world, working in federation with each other, learning from each other and organising co-ordinated enlarged protests in solidarity with each other.

The occupy movement closes US's 5th. busiest port at Oakland.

“… they fear this logical next step from the movement more than anything else. They fear it because they know how much appeal it will have. All across the US thousands upon thousands of commercial and residential spaces sit empty while more and more people are forced to sleep in the streets, or driven deep into poverty while trying to pay their rent despite unemployment or poverty wages… [The police] say: you can stay in your rat-infested park. You can camp out here as long as we [sic] want. But the moment that you threaten property rights, we will come at you with everything we have.”
READ the full article.

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CAMERON RESPONSIBLE FOR EURO MELTDOWN!!!

       Wars always produce death, upheaval and misery, and though the make money for some in the corporate world, they also cost governments (tax payers) money, and Cameron's ego booster, the Libyan war will have an effect on the finances of the nations in NATO. So indirectly the Libyan oil grab will add to the European debt crisis. The following is a short extract from Russia Today.

-----Another adverse factor for the sociaEurope has been the military conflict in Libya.

      NATO has officially declared its campaign in Libya accomplished, but the war in that country is likely to rage on. The alliance assumed command of all air and naval operations over Libya on 31 March, 2011, titling the war effort Operation Unified Protector. From that day on, NATO air forces (mainly comprised of British and French jets) conducted over 26,000 sorties, including 9,600 air strikes. Needless to say, every single one of those missiles and every gallon of fuel and every day of fighting had a very hefty price tag attached to them. Meanwhile, most allied nations’ budgets for 2011 were not designed to accommodate multi-billion war costs. The expenses assumed by the main sponsors of NATO’s Libya campaign (i.e. Britain and France) make a full-blown European crisis all the more likely – and such a crisis could spark a second global meltdown. ----

Read the full article HERE.

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LET'S POISON THE KIDS!!!

          I have always believed that the corporate world is not in the least concerned about me or my health. So finding toxins in products we use is no surprise to me, I accept that to the corporate world profit is all that matters. As lots of these corporate companies are link to each other it makes sense to them for one company to use the by-products of the other. Hence lots of chemicals from one company end up in another company's product. The food industry becomes a part of the chemical industry, likewise the cosmetics industry is awash with chemicals, a wide range of which are toxic. This little video goes some way to pointing this out.

Raed the story HERE.

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MIGRANT WORKERS.

     
           Another appeal for solidarity from LabourStart. It only takes a few seconds to show your support.

           This is an extraordinary story about resistance and courage - and an appeal for you take one minute of your time to show your support. Leather workers in Turkey have been engaged in a bitter dispute with an employer which has included mass sackings, factory closures, and more. At one point the employer invited the workers to come to work in Istanbul, but refused to give them a day to find a place to live. So workers stayed overnight in the factory. Here's the amazing bit: the employer decided that this constituted an "occupation" of the factory and tried to call in the police. When that didn't work, they sacked 36 workers. The struggle has gone on since May 2011 and the union has called for an international campaign to protest these anti-union measures.

Please take a moment to send your message - clickhere .

And please - forward on this message to your fellow trade union members.

Thank you.

Eric Lee. 

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SHE WAS ASKING FOR IT!!!

        When is rape not rape? Apparently when a woman wears a nightie!! It is hard to believe that there are still those who find it hard to accept that a person can so no to the sexual act. It would seem that rape can only happen between strangers and even then they seem to doubt that it was rape, (she was asking for it!!!).

         The video is of one Dick Black, would be politician with a bitter anti-abortion stance, it also seems that he doesn't quite understand the meaning of that simple word NO. If this is the quality of people that enter politics, what chance have we got??

Thanks Care2 for the video.

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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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WORLD STRIKE 2012!!!

        A number of years ago a group set about trying to convince everybody in the world to strike for a moneyless society in the year 2012. Well it seemed rather far fetched to me at the time, but here we are with 2012 almost upon us, and the conditions have changed dramatically. We have protests in cities across the world demanding an end to the financial repression that is ruining millions of lives. We have cities across the world where people have come together to occupy their city centres, again, against the financial corruption, excesses and repression, the banks have forced on the ordinary people.

         Now more than ever the answer seems to be for the people of the world to come together and have, not that national strike, but the first ever world wide strike, with the one aim, to destroy once and for all, the fanancial world, the global corporate financial beast, that dominates and devastes our lives in country after country.

         I now no longer think it is far fetched, but with today's communications a real possibility, and with the political and financial corruption all around us, it seems the best option.

ann arky's home.

OCCUPIERS, THE STATE DOESN'T LIKE YOU!!

           Occupiers, the state doesn't like you, I suppose that is a compliment. As time goes on they will rack up the brutality against you, already there have been brutal repression in Oakland and now Denver. They will tolerate you and try to discredit you, but if there is a hint that you are a growing threat to their power, they will move in against you with all the force they deem necessary. Don't allow your movement to stagnate, think of new strategies to draw in more people, to broaden your attack on the system that is responsible for all that stinks in our society.

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SUNNY GOVAN -GO-GO-GO.

      One of Glasgow's indepndent local community radio broadcasters, Sunny Govan, invites you to join them at the "Stairway" on 95 Union Street on Friday 4th November 7:30pm to help launch their new CD "Turn it Up Govan" Tickets £5 at the station or on the door. Some of the 19 bands from from the album will provide the live music. "Its your station your creation, we need help to make it happen.

      Sunny Govan helps many campaigns, individuals, organisations, reach out to a wider audience - Now is the time to help sustain this vital service to our community. If you wish to make a donation. www.localgiving.com

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FIRST STEP, OCCUPY, SECOND - GENERAL STRIKE?

        A communication from "Bureau of Public Secrets" on the events following the brutal treatment of the occupiers in Oakland Calafornia. As the article says, all the occupiers should now be looking at how to take their campaign to the next level. You don't want to become a toiurist attraction in the centre of the cities around the world. A peaceful encampment might make a point but can be tolerated as long as big business can carry on as usual.

Dear Bay Area Friends,

        As most of you probably know, the police raid and destruction of the Occupy Oakland encampments last Tuesday, followed by the notorious police violence against protesters later the same day, provoked such an immense expression of outrage from thousands of people in the Bay Area and around the world that the Oakland city government was thrown completely on the defensive. The next day police were scarcely to be seen. The fence surrounding Frank Ogawa Plaza was still in place, but the occupiers calmly took it down and began reoccupying the same spot. That evening, by a vote of 1484 to 46 (with 77 abstentions), the general assembly decided to call for a General Strike in Oakland on Wednesday, November 2. You can see their declaration and other information at www.occupyoakland.org.

SOLIDARITY.

          The fact that they reoccupied the encampment less than 48 hours after it had been demolished is astonishing enough. But that they immediately shifted to the offensive with such a marvelously audacious venture leaves me almost speechless with admiration. I hope that their appeal meets with
correspondingly large-minded and supportive responses by people in Oakland and elsewhere in the Bay Area. Occupiers in many other cities have already been venturing outside their encampments for various types of demonstrations (e.g. the marches to banks and CEO residences in New York City), but this general-strike appeal is upping the ante and moving toward a new level of active engagement with people in the whole community. Occupy Oakland people have been fanning out into the city, speaking with workers and small businesses, with teachers and students, with religious groups and all sorts of other community organizations, in order to enlist support for the strike. At this point I don't think anyone really knows what the response will actually be, but there are a number of promising indications. In addition to support from nurses' and teachers' associations and a number of other unions (see www.occupyoakland.org/strike/), the Longshoremen's Union is collaborating with Occupy Oakland to bring about a shutdown of the Port of Oakland in solidarity with striking workers elsewhere on the West Coast.

Read the full article HERE.

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FAIR AND JUST CORPORATISM!!!!

         There are all sorts of pundits spouting what is wrong with the system of capitalism at the moment. Even those who support the system are still critical of the way it is functioning at present. To them the system can be fixed, it is just a bit more regulation and nice ethical CEOs at the top of the corporations, and all will be well. Poverty will disappear and we will all live in abundance. I find this belief in an ethical corporate beast as rather laughable. Corporations buy politicians, politicians move into lucrative positions in the corporate world. A quote from one of these reformers tells us something about the system: Read the full article HERE.

        Our Congress today is a forum for legalized bribery. One consumer group using information from Opensecrets.org calculates that the financial services industry, including real estate, spent $2.3 billion on federal campaign contributions from 1990 to 2010, which was more than the health care, energy, defense, agriculture and transportation industries combined. Why are there 61 members on the House Committee on Financial Services? So many congressmen want to be in a position to sell votes to Wall Street.

Adbusters corporate flag.

        Don't for a minute think that what goes on in the American political/financial circles doesn't go on here and in every country in the developed world. Another quote from the same article perhaps should be taken seriously over here as well as in America: 4) Finally, an idea from the blogosphere: U.S. congressmen should have to dress like Nascar drivers and wear the logos of all the banks, investment banks, insurance companies and real estate firms that they’re taking money from. The public needs to know. Of course, we will never really know, it is a duplicitous system.

I used to be a politician, but I'm in finance now.

          The basic principles of the system has no room for ethics, the rules are simple, maximise your profit margin, increase your market share and reduce your costs. How do you equate this with improving the conditions of the workforce, removing exploitation, improving the health and safety of all workers and workplaces and of course distributing the proceeds of the labour fairly? Capitalism is an inherently unfair system, those with the wealth are always in a position to exploit those without the wealth, there is nothing fair, just or ethical about that. The system can't be overhauled to eradicate these contradictions, it has to be dismantled and an alternative system created in its place. I'm sure we have the imagination and the resources to create a system that sees to the needs of all our people, based on mutual aid and co-operation, a system of fairness and justice founded on sustainability. The only problem is when, time is running out.

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THE RETURN OF PAST POVERTY FOR GREECE.

        When the media reports on Greece it is all about the Greek government trying to "balance the books" which translates into "placate the IMF" (International Mankind Fuckers), with some coverage of strikes and protests. Never do they capture what is actually going on in Greece, they fail miserably to convey what it is like to be living in Greece at the moment. A country where all the ordinary workers have seen their wages cut by as much as a third, their taxes rise by by the same, and new taxes introduced. Add to that a flood of redundancies and massive cuts to health, 40%, education and all other social services. These type of cuts take a civilised country and return it to the beginning of the 1900's. Naturally the people are objecting, and rightly so. 

      There is one photographer who does capture what it is like on the streets of Greece with photographs that are each an art work in their own right. Yiannis Biliris's photographs capture not just an instant but a story, an emotion, a living period. You can see more of his work HERE.

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THE ENEMY, THE CHURCH OR THE BANKERS!!!

         

         While the media try to turn the occupy London movement into a fight between protesters and the Church of England, we have to keep getting the message out that the fight is with the system under which we try to earn our daily bread. The economic system which creates unimaginable wealth for the few and deprivation for millions, is the problem, not a few old guys in fancy clothes. The media will do everything in its power to belittle the protest and keep the true agenda out of the headlines. The media is part and parcel of the system and is no more than the state's propaganda machine, and therefore part of the problem. The need for alternative media, independent of the money machine, is now more important than ever before.

SOLIDARITY.

        Just to keep you up to date on what is going on at the camp in the centre of London take a wee while and watch this live stream. You can also catch up on the latest information on the occupation, on line, from The Occupation Times.

Watch live streaming video from occupylsx at livestream.com

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STATE VIOLENCE.

         I make no excuse for showing this video which is on the same police brutality as the last post. I sincerely believe that we must show how prevalent police brutality is in the so called "free democratic" West. This type of violence is not limited to any one country, the state will always come down as hard as it thinks it can get away with, whenever it feels in any way threatened. Mass protests against the system will always be seen as a threat to its power, especially if it is a growing protest. As the protests grow, expect more brutal repression. The will of the people is not wanted here in the West. We only play lip service to it in Middle Eastern countries, with the odd NATO support if the have oil.

 

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WHERE IS NATO WHEN YOU NEED THEM?

         The police wade in to clear over 1,000 peaceful protesters of the Occupy Oakland movement in Calafornia. The scenes make a mockery of the freedom loving democracy that the US is always trying bomb onto other countries. Watching these scenes I was wondering how long would it be before NATO moved in to protect civilians from brutal reprisals handed out by the state apparatus. NATO, where are you when we need you? More on this brutal act of repression HERE.

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FUNDAMENTALIST UPRISING.

      Now that the Libyan regime has been replace to the satisfaction of the Western oil companies, the truth is starting to come out. At first we were lead to believe that it was a people's “uprising” against the regime and our heroic peace loving NATO stepped in to save civilian deaths. However it now seems to be that it was a fundamentalist engineered uprising and Qatar and Sudan have now stated that they sent in forces to help the “uprising”. It is also stated that Libyan al-Qaeda groups fighting in Afghanistan and Iraq return to Libya to help the “rebels”. What kind of “people's” uprising is it if it is supported by troops from at least two different countries and the force of NATO plus war hardened religious fundamentalist al-Qaeda groups and takes more than six months to overthrow the regime?  It is obvious that if NATO hadn't stepped in with its, over 10,000 strikes, the "uprising" would have fizzled out. This is in no way to condone the Gadaffi regime, but does show the lies behind the West's talk of protecting civilians in a people's uprising. The last thing the West would do is send in NATO to support is a people's uprising, especially if it was somewhere in the West.

      Already the citizens of Sirte are beginning to vent their anger at the violence that has been heaped upon them, no doubt other divisions will make themselves clear as NATO, Sudan and Qatar all withdraw and the Libyan people start to make their real voice heard.

     What the West can look forward to is profit from all that oil and all that re-construction that needs to be done after we blow the place to bits.

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