PHASE 1, GREECE, PHASE 2, EUROPE!!

    So you thought that once the financial Mafia and plundered and raped Greece, we would be all sorted out and growth would come galloping to the rescue and return us all to everlasting prosperity. Well it seems it is not going to quite work out like that. Just as the “financial crisis” of 2008 slips into the fog of short memories along comes the rumblings of another wee problem with the financial sector, Oh dear will prosperity be delay? Well of course it will for you and I, but not for the unimaginably rich financial parasites that live off our backs, after all, this is capitalism.

 

This from The New Statesman:

 

The finance sector is signalling alarm, and our politicians are once again asleep at the wheel. Another "credit crunch" may be looming. The most significant evidence emerged from the ECB's second Long Term Refinancing Operation (LTRO) on Thursday last week.

The LTRO is simply language intended to disguise the "printing of money" by the ECB for lending to private European banks at a very low rate of interest - 1 per cent. (In fact, the money is not even printed: it is created by entering digits into an ECB computer, and then transferring hundreds of billions of euros as 'bank money' to private banks.)

The fact that British banks rushed to drink from this punch bowl, tells you something about the state of their balance sheets.

Continue reading

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WOMEN FACING ADVERSITY.

       The stories of all those who fight oppression, who struggle for justice for all humanity, should be recorded to add to the rich heritage that is the history of the ordinary people. From out of the ranks of the ordinary people have come giants that have faced oppression head on with a selfless courage, a courage that enriches the culture of the ordinary people, a courage that will one day bring a better world of justice, co-operation, mutual aid, a world free from oppression and deprivation.  

       On International Women's Day, this from Human Rights First:

        For years, the Russian police have targeted activist Anastasia Denisova because of her work to combat intolerance in the city of Krosnodar. She faced one bogus charge after another—from tax fraud to piracy. All charges were eventually dropped because of lack of evidence.

But the persecution has not stopped her from continuing her work. Forced out of her own city, Anastasia moved to Moscow. Today, she defends people like Anwar Yusupov, who faces a two-year prison sentence for defending himself from neo-Nazi attackers.

Across the globe, women have been at the forefront of the human rights movement—often risking their lives fighting for core freedoms. Anastasia is one of the brave activists that Human Rights First is honoring for International Women's Day and Women's History Month.

Learn their stories. Celebrate their achievements and draw daily inspiration from their courage.

We're proud to work with courageous women from all over the world who continue to push boundaries and make human rights truly universal. Please help us continue our partnership with women activists by giving a gift today.

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STILL MORE TO BE DONE.

INTERNATIONAL WOMEN'S DAY!!!

THERE HAS BEEN PROGRESS,

BUT,

IT'S A CRIME WE STILL NEED IT???

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THE STRUGGLE FOR EQUALITY.

          Let's celebrate  the contribution women have made to the struggle for rights, not just rights for women, but rights for all. March 8 is International Women's Day and here in Glasgow we have an army of women who through the years have been at the forefront of the struggle for rights. Theirs was a struggle to raise the dignity of all, to see all humanity as one, with nobody excluded from the rights others took for granted.  There are those women who have etched their names on recorded history but there are thousands of others who battled for those rights, but sadly their names have not been record, but their efforts have left a beneficial mark on the shape of our society today. Here are just a few of those women from Glasgow whose names were recorded and should be remember with pride; Ethel MacDonald, Mary Barbour, Helen Crawfurd, Jenny Patrick, Helen Lennox, but honour and gratitude  to those women's names we can't recall.

The following from Human Rights First

      Eleanor Roosevelt was the driving force behind the International Declaration of Human Rights, which the United Nations passed in 1948. Since then, women have been at the forefront of human rights movements—pushing for human rights to be truly universal.

Human Rights First is proud to work with courageous women from all over the world, and to commemorate Women's History Month and International Women's Day on March 8, we're highlighting their inspiring stories.

Some are women's rights activists and others are human rights activists who happen to be women. Whether it's promoting tolerance in Pakistan, democratizing Egypt and Bahrain, or fighting for LGBT rights in Russia, these women face unique challenges, from sexism to gender-based violence. Yet they refused to be silenced.

Check out their stories.

Sincerely,

Marc Jayson Climaco
Human Rights First

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IN DEFENCE OF NHS.

      Join us online at 6pm this evening for a LIVE stream of a major campaign event opposing the government's controversial plans for the NHS.

     The Rally To Save Our NHS is being held in Westminster this evening, and will be broadcast online. It kicks off at 6pm and you'll be able to follow it live online at GoingToWork.org.uk/saveournhs

We’ve a full programme from 6pm until 7.30pm, with dozens of health practitioners and campaigners speaking about their concerns for our NHS if Andrew Lansley's Bill gets passed.

     Former psychiatric nurse Jo Brand, prominent opponent in the House of Lords, Lord David Owen, Shadow Health Minister Andy Burnham and many more will join nurses, GPs, physios, paramedics, radiographers, consultants and other health workers on stage.

     This evening, as the Rally gets going, please help us make it a really big event outside London too - it's a great opportunity to show thousands of people around the country the full breadth of opposition to the government's plans.

SOLIDARITY.

      Let's organise a real burst of online action for our NHS that the government won’t be able to ignore. People tweeting and blogging, commenting in the media, signing petitions and lobbying Parliamentarians - making a huge noise to add to the voices in the hall opposite Parliament.

We've put together a list of actions you might like to take if you want some inspiration, or use your own ideas. But whatever you do, do it as loudly and as widely as possible - there could only be weeks left now to safeguard our NHS.

Watch the rally and take action at: GoingToWork.org.uk/saveournhs

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MARCH 31st., ORGANISE, MARK IT.

        There has never been a greater need nor a greater urgency for the people of Europe to come together to defend themselves against the march of capitalist greed. Capitalism has morphed, no longer is it the "bossman" up the road who employs the local people. Today it is world wide corporate fascism, unelected groups moving their wealth around and dictating to elected governments how to run their respective countries. The financial Mafia sit on the throne of this new beast, corporate fascism, and they are intent on plundering all public assets and directing all funds from the public purse straight to their personal coffers. Greece is just the start, that is the road that faces us all unless we can halt the march of this greed driven corporate fascism. Your children and your grandchildren are depending on your action now, it is their future that is being stolen. The following is the latest from March31 movement.

Dear Comrades,

       we would like to update you on "M31", the European Day of Action against Capitalism, to be held on March 31st in many countries. Some of you may already know the project, or may have heard about it through different channels. This is just one further attempt to get you interested and involved.

       M31 is an initiative of leftist, anticapitalist and antinational groups from Greece, Spain, the Netherlands, Germany and Austria. Groups from other countries like Belgium, Denmark and Ukraine have since joined the project. With the crisis deepening, we want to overcome the national and nationalist division of struggles.

Take a look at our international homepage: www.march31.net/

Here's our Call for Action, available in many languages:

http://march31.net/call-for-action/

Or follow M31 on facebook:

http://www.facebook.com/againstcapitalism?sk=wall

         We think it's about time to organize a radical intervention. We're not interested in superficial social reforms of capitalism. We can see in Greece what the future of our societies will look like, if left[ist] resistance fails.

       M31 is very much a work in progress. Who knows what will happen till March 31st! In Germany, we're helping to organize a rally in Frankfurt, dealing with the European Central Bank (ECB), among other issues. In Greece or Spain, interventions may be different.

         If you like the project, please tell others about it. Get in contact with M31-groups in your country, and help set something up. If there's no group from your country on our list of M31-groups, send us an eMail, and we'll try to get you in contact with people who are already discussing M31 in your country. Planning an "open assembly" is a good way to get something started.

If you have any questions or proposals, please send an eMail to: m31@umsganze.org

Let's get it on!

umsGanze! network (Germany)

www.umsganze.org

Contact:mailto:m31@umsganze.org

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THE STRUGGLE FOR EQUAL RIGHTS.

An appeal from IUF, for solidarity.

       On International Women's Day, women workers at Nestlé are fighting discrimination and unequal treatment and providing vital support to the fight for justice at Nestlé in Pakistan and in Indonesia.
Send a message to Nestlé management calling for Equality Now and No More Nespressure!

        Nestlé workers and supporters rally in Indonesia and Pakistan as global support builds - Stop Nespressure!Read here about how support at home and abroad continues to build for the struggle for trade union rights at Nestlé factories in Indonesia and Pakistan.
Visit Stop Nespressure! on the IUF website
Join Stop Nespressure! on Facebook

Click here to subscribe to the new IUF News Service

Ron Oswald
General Secretary, IUF

International Union of Food, Agricultural, Hotel, Restaurant, Catering, Tobacco and Allied Workers' Associations (IUF)

8, rampe du Pont-Rouge
1213 Petit Lancy, Switzerland
Tel: +41 22 793 22 33
Fax: +41 22 793 22 38
web-site: www.iuf.org

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INTERNATIONAL WOMEN'S DAY 2012.

          In spite of the fact that women are 51% of the world's population, they still seem to treated as the underdog in most societies. However women, rightly so, have never accepted that as good enough and have for generations fought to have equal rights in their society.  In most coutries they have come along way along the road to equality but still have a long way to go. It is surely unacceptable that the majority of the wold's population should treated as somewhat unferior to the minority, but then again, that seems to be the way that our societies are structure, the minority have all the priveleges and power while the majority have to struggle for a decent life. With men and women coming together to fight for equality we have the opportunity to put to rights all the inequalities built into this capitalist society by changing it so that we are all treated equally in a society that sees to the needs of all its people, not one that panders to a privieged few.

 

           This from International Women's Day.

International Women's Day has been observed since in the early 1900's, a time of great expansion and turbulence in the industrialized world that saw booming population growth and the rise of radical ideologies.

1908
Great unrest and critical debate was occurring amongst women. Women's oppression and inequality was spurring women to become more vocal and active in campaigning for change. Then in 1908, 15,000 women marched through New York City demanding shorter hours, better pay and voting rights.

1909
In accordance with a declaration by the Socialist Party of America, the first National Woman's Day (NWD) was observed across the United States on 28 February. Women continued to celebrate NWD on the last Sunday of February until 1913.

1910
n 1910 a second International Conference of Working Women was held in Copenhagen. A woman named a Clara Zetkin (Leader of the 'Women's Office' for the Social Democratic Party in Germany) tabled the idea of an International Women's Day. She proposed that every year in every country there should be a celebration on the same day - a Women's Day - to press for their demands. The conference of over 100 women from 17 countries, representing unions, socialist parties, working women's clubs, and including the first three women elected to the Finnish parliament, greeted Zetkin's suggestion with unanimous approval and thus International Women's Day was the result.
Continue READING.

 International Women's Day what's happening in your area?

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OCCUPY AIPAC PROTEST.

       AIPAC is a powerful Israeli lobby group in the US and they literally pour money into the hands of those that will push the Israeli call for war with Iran, their influence is widespread, overt and covert and they can be very brutal in their response to any form of criticism. Democracy doesn't seem to be in the vocabulary. The following from: CODEPINK.

March 6, 2012

“Mic check! We are the 99%. War benefits the 1%. Don’t bomb Iran! Use diplomacy not bombs!” Four Occupy AIPAC activists voices eruptedyesterday inside the AIPAC conference when Representative Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, who is pushing for a resolution which seeks to lower the threshold for the to US attack Iran, took the stage. An AIPAC delegate leaped over rows of chairs to pounce on the activists, choking one with his own tie. The People’s Microphone continued:“AIPAC wants war. We want peace.” More HERE:

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RESISTANCE IS ESSENTIAL.

Protest on Budget Day
11:30am, Wednesday 21 March
Downing Street, London

        

              Coalition of Resistance is organising a protest with the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, the Public and Commercial Services (PCS) union and Stop the War Coalition. This is planned to coincide with when George Osborne leaves Downing Street to present the budget to the Queen. Our messages will be 'Not one more cut to public spending', 'Welfare not Warfare' and 'Scrap Trident'. If you can, come wearing hospital scrubs, nurses uniforms, academic mortarboard and gown, a firefighter's helmet or any other outfit that represents what this government wants to cut, privatise or scrap! Others will be dressed as bankers and politicians.
        Call for volunteers: If you plan to attend wearing an outfit that represents a service being cut or can help on the day please phone Sam on 07872 481769.
Please invite your friends and spread the word on Facebook. Click here for the event.

SOLIDARITY.

Activist Meeting:- 28 March Strike and demonstrations Protest on Budget Day
6:30pm, Monday 19 March
Room 4418, School of Oriental and African Studies
(SOAS), Thornhaugh Street, Russell Square
London WC1H 0XG
         We are organising an activist meeting to bring together all those that want to help plan and build for the protests, strikes and demonstrations in the coming weeks. Please spread the word. If you want to organise an activist meeting in your area, we can put you in contact with others.

Please email coalitionofresistance@mail.com.

Upcoming Public Meetings

Croydon

7pm, Wednesday 14 March
Ruskin House, 23 Coombe Road, Croydon CR0 1BD
with Jeremy Corbyn MP

Newcastle

7pm, Wednesday 14 March,
Newcastle Arts Centre (Black Swan)
67 Westgate Road NE1 1SG
with Owen Jones, Lindsey German, speaker from Greece

Kings Lynn

7:30pm, Wednesday 14 March
Friends Meeting House
38 Bridge Street, King’s Lynn PE30 5AB
with Andy Bain (Coalition of Resistance, former president of TSSA)

Glasgow

6:30pm, Thursday 15 March
STUC Centre, 333 Woodlands Road, Glasgow G3 6NG with Owen Jones

York

7pm, Monday 26 March
Friend's Meeting House, Friargate, York YO1 9RL
with Mark Serwotka (PCS), Clare Solomon (Coalition of Resistance)

Doncaster

7pm, Tuesday 27 March
Danum Hotel, High St Doncaster DN1 1DN

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DEEMED A TERRORIST FOR FIGHTING FOR BETTER CONDITIONS.

       At last it is beginning to unravel in the public domain, the fact that employers have been running a blacklist for years. Though most trade unionists, those keen on health and safety and other activists have known all along, but what they couldn't be sure of was what information was listed against them, where did that information come from and of course its accuracy or otherwise. The fact that such blacklists are illegal is one thing but to have what appears to be confirmation that the police and MI5 were feeding the blacklist, blows a hole in the illusion that the police and MI5 etc. are there to protect us from criminals and terrorists. After all what is the terrorist or criminal element in pointing out to an employer that there is an asbestos danger in a particular workplace? It becomes obvious that the police and MI5 etc. are there to protect the wealth and power of those in control of the capitalist system. Anyone that in any way interferes with the profit making of our corporate masters is deemed an enemy and can be put on a blacklist that can have devastating effects on the individual and their family due to the fact that they will probably never again work at their trade. All this done with the help of the police and our secret services, who spout that they are there to protect “us”, from what? Are they there to protect us from those fighting for decent working conditions, proper health and safety regulations being followed. Idea that the police are there for law and order and to protect the public, is just for propaganda purposes, there might be a little spin off in that direction, but their main purpose is to protect the wealth of the powerful in this society. This from The Guardian.

STOP, TRADE UNIONIST

        The police or security services supplied information to a blacklist funded by the country's major construction firms that has kept thousands of people out of work over the past three decades.

The Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) has revealed that records that could only have come from the police or MI5 have been discovered in a vast database of files held on 3,200 victims who were deemed leftwing or troublesome.

The files were collected by the Consulting Association, a clandestine organisation funded by major names in the construction industry.

Its database was seized nearly three years ago, but the extraordinary nature of the information held has only now emerged, following an employment tribunal for one of the victims, Dave Smith, a 46-year-old engineer who had a 36-page file against his name and was victimised repeatedly for highlighting safety hazards on sites, including the presence of asbestos.

Continue READING.

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THE PRICE OF COOL!!

         So it's expensive, slick, cool and a must have for many, but Jobs created jobs that kill.


Created by: Online MBA Programs

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THE ONLY ANSWER - DIRECT ACTION.

      Across the continent of Europe the people are taking direct action in an attempt protect themselves, the attack on the onrdinary people comes from all sides of the corporate fascism that we live under. While the social fabric of our lives is being torn assunder by "austerity cuts", our future is being plundered by the bargain basement sale of our public assets in the biggest asset stripping exercise of modern times. As the corporate world expands its empire it will move everything and everybody out of the way and in lots of cases it is a case of bulldozing people off their land with disasterous results, as was this case in Italy.

      Taken from Anarchist news dot org:  

        Widespread acts of resistance are taking place across Italy triggered by the near murderous actions of the police in Val Susa.

       A summary of the latest events - Baita Clarea is an area in Val Susa where works for the implementation of the TAV were due to start soon. On Monday 27th February the forces of order proceeded to evict and expropriate the land in Baita Clarea in order to clear the way for the devastating high speed railway works. On the same day Luca Abba’, a resident of the Val Susa whose land was also expropriated, climbed a pylon in an attempt to block the ongoing military operation. The cops ordered Luca to come down without taking precautions for his safety, pushing him even higher and failing to cut off the electricity of the pylon. As a result, Luca was electrocuted and fell several metres below. Rescue was delayed by cordons of antiriot cops but finally Luca was taken to hospital by helicopter. He is now out of danger although his conditions remain very serious.
Barricades were set up by NO TAV people in the area, which has been declared a ‘strategic site of national interest’.
Protests and blockages are being organized all over Italy.
The faculty of Political Sciences of the University of Bologna has been occupied in solidarity with the struggle in Val Susa. Here is the communiqué of the occupiers:Continue READING:

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DEMOCRACY VIA THE ARMY? I DON'T THINK SO!!

       At the time of the "Arab Spring" in Egypt I wrote up a little post stating that if the Egyptian peole are relying on the army to deliver democracy, they will be sorely disappointed. Think of the authoritarian regime with all its cronies discussing the control of the country with all those high ranking officers, they would be discussing crackdowns and surveillance, and imprisonment of the opposition. Then suddenly when the people rise up, the top ranking military are there defending democracy, it doesn't happen. They are all buddies in the same gang. The army by its structure is an authoritarian machine, democarcy is an anathema to its top brass, they live by power and authority.

To prove a point, this from Labour Start.

        Kamal Abbas, a leading figure in the fight to create independent democratic trade unions in Egypt, has been sentenced to six months in prison for the "crime" of insulting a Mubarak-era hack at an International Labor Organization conference. Abbas is used to such treatment at the hands of the Mubarak regime, which jailed him and tried to crush the Center for Trade Union and Worker Services (CTUWS) which he headed. But the Mubarak era is supposed to be behind us. After all, we are now one year into the Arab Spring.
       The world's trade unions are calling for a massive online mobilization to demand that the charges be dropped.

Please take a moment to click here and then spread the word.

Thank you!

Eric Lee

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ON-LINE FRAUD, HOW SAFE ARE YOU!!!

Created by: Online Marketing Degree

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A LIFE WITHOUT A FUTURE!!

   

          What is happening to the Greek people is an avoidable tragedy and is brutal by any standard of measuring. However we should not be lulled into thinking that Greece is the only problem facing the European people. Right across the continent the people are suffering in unimaginable numbers. If we look at the unemployment numbers in some of the major economies in Europe what we see is a depressing picture of ever increasing poverty. The unemployment figure for Italy is 8.5%, UK 8.4%, Portugal 14%, Greece 20.9%, Spain 22.5%, that's an awful lot of people who are unable to provide for themselves or their families, an awful lot of people living in poverty. However that masks the real tragedy, the youth unemployment, in Europe we are talking in millions upon millions. Young people who have their future obliterate because of the financial Mafia dictating the shape of our society. If you go through your early years unemployed and living on miserly unemployment benefit what kind of life will you have by the time you get to 30 or so? How do you provide a roof over your head, how do you provide for your family, what hope have you got of any kind of decent future? This so called “financial crisis” has destroyed the future of millions of ordinary people, but not that of the financial barons, and in doing has plunged generations of ordinary people  into poverty. The youth unemployment figures for the same major economies make extremely depressing reading, UK 22.2%, Portugal 23%, Italy 30%, Greece 48%, Spain 51.4%, in these countries alone, how many bighted lives does this translate into? This is the real picture behind all the nonsense spouted about the need for “austerity cuts”, these cuts translate into lives in misery, futures destroyed, a downward spiral for millions for generations to come.

        This is the reality of the system we call capitalism, this is the system working the only way it can, it cannot work for the benefit of all our people. If we wish to shape society so that it sees to the needs of all our people then capitalism has to go. We surely have the imagination and the compassion to come up with a fairer and more just system than a “winner take all and to hell with the hindmost” greed driven system of exploitation. As social creatures we can create a society based on mutual aid, free association and voluntary co-operation, a system freed from the greed motive built on sustainability and the desire to see to the needs of all our people. What we have at the moment is corporate fascism that feeds the ego of a small bunch of parasites who have a voracious insatiable greed.

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THE FIGHT FOR INTERNET FREEDOM.

      This campaign has delivered a 2.4 million petition to the European Parliament, but it seems it is not enough, so let's keep the pressure up and win this one. This from AVAAZ:

Our outcry has stunned European politicians and nearly buried ACTA, but the European Commission is now trying a last ditch attempt to revive it through a legal endorsement. We can stop it if we rally together again and demand the Court assesses ACTA's full impact on our Internet rights and freedoms. Sign the urgent petition now:

      In days, the European Commission will try a last ditch ttempt to revive ACTA. But if we intervene now this global attack on Internet freedom will collapse.
      We are so close to winning -- our 2.4 million strong petition has stunned politicians across Europe and halted the censors. Now the European Commission is on the back foot and hoping the Court of Justice will give ACTA the greenlight by presenting a very narrow legal question that is sure to receive a positive answer.
      But if we all raise our voices now we can ensure the Court looks at all the legal impacts of ACTA, and releases an opinion that tells the truth about ACTA's attack on our rights. Sign the urgent petition to European Commission President José Manuel Barroso to call on the Court to tell the whole truth:
http://www.avaaz.org/en/acta_time_to_win_eu//?vl
        The European Commission spent five years negotiating ACTA in secret with corporations, but in the last five weeks we've blown the ACTA debate into the open. Now the Commission is fighting to keep ACTA alive by getting the blessing of the EU’s highest court. The Commission, well-versed in bureaucratic dodges, may only present the court with a narrow question, preventing it from assessing ACTA's impacts on our freedom of expression, privacy and democracy.
      We’ve forced governments in Poland, Germany, Bulgaria and other countries to freeze ratification. And now, if we win this battle in the European Commission, we can stop ACTA for good. If the EU does not ratify, ACTA will never become a global agreement and negotiators will have to go back to the drawing board to produce a treaty that stops genuine abuses but protects our rights.
      Let's urgently call on the Commission and Court to give ACTA a full and fair hearing, and make sure the whole truth about this threat to our fundamental freedoms is revealed. Sign now and send this to everyone:
http://www.avaaz.org/en/acta_time_to_win_eu//?vl
       Millions of us joined together to fight for Internet freedom and stop the US censorship laws. We won, but now this threat is back on a global scale with ACTA. We've done what no one thought we could and stopped the treaty's march to ratification. Let's finish what we started and beat back ACTA, for good!

With hope and determination,

Alex, Pascal, Laura, Alice, Ricken, Dalia, Diego and the whole Avaaz team

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