WINTER IN ATHENS.

         Hidden between cardboard boxes, wrapped in dirty blankets, numb and nearly frozen from the cold in recent days are the homeless people, who sleep in the streets of Athens. Low temperatures and cold winds have made many of them turn to the municipality that has provided sports halls and other premises where they can spend the nights. However, others preferred to remain in the street. Fear that someone else will take their place the next day if they leave it even for a night makes them stay there despite the cold.

THE MISERABLE ONES OF ATHENS

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NO GODS NO MASTERS.

        It seems that the leopard hasn't changed its spots, the Catholic Church, as usual, is set on leaning hard on the victims of physical and sexual abuse by priests, in an attempt to protect the perpetrators of the abuse. This world wide organisation is riddled with paedophile abusers and has been for centuries. It is difficult to believe that for centuries priests have been abusing children and moving up through the ranks unpunished and yet those at the top claim innocence and ignorance of this vile corruption among their ranks. Over all those years of child abuse it is impossible to accept that some of the abusing paedophile priests didn't reach the highest of ranks, but still, pleading ignorance or blaming the victim is their stance. Their continual contesting of cases of abuse and forcing victims to take their humiliating treatment to the public venue of a court, rather than put their hands up and help these damaged individuals, is an utter travesty of what they preach. The sooner individuals turn away from these authoritarian myth based enslavement organisations the happier they'll be and the sooner we will see and end to the abuse they sow.

Catholic Church Files Case against Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests

     Attorneys representing the Roman Catholic Church and priests who have been charged in two Missouri sex abuse cases have filed a case in an effort to legally compel the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP) to disclose its records from the past twenty-three years. The documents requested include correspondences with victims, witnesses, police officers, and lawyers. SNAP, a network of survivors of religious sexual abuse and their supporters, is neither a plaintiff nor a defendant in the case.

Continue READING:

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1,000 NEW ZEALAND LOCKOUT.

          It is not just in Europe that the corporate bully boys are flexing their muscles, it is world wide. In every country the corporate gaints are ripping up contracts, in doing so reducing wages and taking away conditions that have been fought for with blood, sweat and tears. Workers across the world have to show solidarity with each other, it is one big battle, a fight against world wide corporate fascism.

This from IUF:

      Talley’s/AFFCO has locked out 1,000 meat workers in an attempt to force them and their union, the New Zealand Meat Workers’ Union, to accept changes to their collective agreement - changes which will make it easy for the company to impose individual contracts on workers and thereby to set wages unilaterally. Changes which will eventually destroy the Core Collective Agreement now applicable to AFFCO’s 8 plants in New Zealand’s Northern Island. More...

Click here to tell AFFCO and its parent company Talley’s to lift the lockout and return to the negotiating table!
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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A HIGH SCORE AT THE OFFICE TODAY??

     The march of the robotic war continues at a rapid pace, mostly unobserved in the West but we are the harbingers of the peopleless army. Most people tend to see CCTV cameras as a benign watch on criminals, but they are all part and parcel of the surveillance and control by a central authority and that authority spreads across the globe. the latest stage is the surveillance drones and their big brother, the killer drones.

      America has used drones to strike at and kill citizens in other countries, and since Obama came to power the use of drones as robotic assassins has grown enormously.  In Pakistan, Yemen, Somalia, the Obama administration is using drones to invade other nations sovereign territory and kill people by remote control in those countries, while no state of war exist with the U.S.. Some of those killed have been American citizens. No charges, no jury, no judge. Just a CIA hit list.

            Once one state finds an efficient killing method others soon follow, now 50 countries have drones. Of course drones are not just being used to invade others soveriegn territory but are used as means of surveillance in their own home land. They have been used in the UK for this purpose and in the US, no doubt other countries are fllowing suit. The implications are horrendous, as country after country builds up its peopleless army of spies and assassins. Soon war will become a 9 to 5 office job, you'll have kids sitting in front of what looks like a game consul in some government office, getting excited as they see there hits score go higher and higher. No doubt there will be bonuses for the highest scorers. They will probably boast to their friends and family about their high score, oblivious that each score is the death of a family or a village, or even worse as the drones get larger and carry a heavier payload of destruction and death.

       I wrote on this some time back and make no apologies for doing so again, it is a horror world we should not allow ourselves to sleepwalk into, it is a world that only suits the corporate state.

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LAW AND ORDER,PLC.

        We should be under no illusions that the present bunch of millionaires sitting in the Westminster Houses of Hypocrisy and Corruption have a master plan. It is quite simply to privatise everything, and that means everything, no exemptions, all will be turned into cash cows for the corporate world, health, education, social services, police, prisons and the judiciary. There method is the same in each case, starve it of funds, forcing it to seek private money to continue functioning and waffle on about letting competition in to improve things and hey presto, you have a privatised society and we all live in a state of corporate fascism. 

This from SACC:

       You suffer a violent burglary. The scenes of crime officer who comes round is employed by G4S. Fibre samples are found, swabs taken and dispatched to G4S Forensics. The suspect resists arrest, is held overnight in police cells run by G4S, then appears before magistrates trained by the company. After serving his sentence he spends his a period of probation tagged by the company on a G4S work programme....

        John Shaw, the managing director of G4S has already held secret talks with leaders of two Scottish police forces.

Read the full article (SACC article)

        G4S provides security services to settlements and the Israeli Occupation Forces in Palestine. On 11 March 2011 it announced its exit from some contracts in the West Bank, but it continues to deliver security services to illegal settlements in the West Bank and to prisons in Israel. This includes the provision of various security systems in prisons where Palestinian are held as "security prisoners" in violation of international human rights norms.

see http://www.bdsmovement.net/2011/g4s-ends-some-5472

Privatisation of policing and justice in Scotland is unacceptable!

What You Can Do

Let your MSPs know about your concerns over any privatisation of policing and justice in Scotland. You can contact your MSPs using www.writetothem.com

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ECONOMICS EXPLAINED.

        While this present "financial crisis" is rumbling along sucking all the wealth from the poor to the very rich, we keep getting all sorts of economic explanations from the academics and politicians. We get Keynesian to Marxist theories thrown at us, all in jargon that doesn't mean much to the ordinary member of the public, the ones hardest hit. Seldom do we get the truth set out in accurate but simple form, that we can all accept and understand. The following is probably the most straight forward, honest and simplest explanation that will come your way.

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POVERTY GAMES TORCH, GLASGOW

           Between the Commonwealth Games and the Olympics, billions of pounds of public money is being handed over to the corporate world, so that they can can have a bean feast at our expense, while at the same time councils are being forced by the government, to cut vital services, increase unemployment and are being party to a deepening housing crisis. We are supposed to get excited at the sight of “VIPs” being chauffeured around, wined and dine, while we are meant to stand at the roadside waving flags. Hooray for the council, they're having a party, and we are paying. Of course you might get a chance to see some of the sports on tele, and when the party's over we will still be sitting in crap houses, with no social services and facing unemployment, if you have a job, and fuel poverty if you don't or if you're a pensioner. Rise up Glaswegians and show your anger and disgust at a system that has all the money in the world for a 10 day party and overseas wars, but nothing for the ordinary people.

"Poverty Games” torch comes to Glasgow –

Thurs 15 March, 1pm Dalmarnock

        Glasgow Games Monitor is hosting visitors from the Vancouver Poverty Olympics campaign here next week, to ‘hand over’ their Poverty Olympics Torch. The purpose of the event is to highlight the gross inequity produced by Games events: while millions in public money is spent on a 10 day party, the city faces massive cuts in local services, increasing unemployment and a deepening housing crisis.

        The event is a mock ‘torch relay’, to take the Poverty Torch through the worst affected streets of Dalmarnock. Starting at the Velodrome on London Road, the torch will be ‘handed over’ to Glasgow by visitors from Vancouver and taken down Springfield Road to pass the sites of massive land speculation as well as brutal evictions of residents, shopkeepers and local service users from the Accord Centre.

         Meet at 12.45pm for a 1pm start outside the new Velodrome on London Road (opposite Celtic Park), finish by 2.30 at the Accord Centre.

All welcome, please circulate widely.

http://povertyolympics.ca/?page_id=87

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GREEK SELF HELP.

        The brutality with which the corporate fascists have hit the Greek people is beginning to have a bit of a blow-back effect. For years the farmers have been screwed by the merchants who offer them a pittance for their crops and then the produce goes to the supermarket where the public get ripped off along with the farmers by paying through the nose for what the merchants bought for a song. Now the farmers are turning to the public direct, and selling tonnes of potatoes at a fraction of the supermarket price and still making more for themselves. Let's hope that the process spreads through the whole of the Greek home grown produce and the friends of the corporate fascists, the supermarkets pull down the shutters and pull out. The ingenuity and resilience of the ordinary people is a rich seam, we should always remember, we don't need them, they need us, a little bit of mutual aid goes a long way.

This from Teacher Dude's Grill and BBQ:

With incomes plummeting and retail prices rising the idea for farmers to sell their produce directly to the Greek public has proved to be an unexpected success. Producers from the northern region of Nevrokopi sold 35 tonnes to city dwellers eager to buy potatoes at less than a third of the supermarket prices. For the farmers it is a chance to sell potatoes at a reasonable price rather than be forced to accept merchants's offers than did not even cover the cost of production. In the wake of the successful experiment other producers of fruit, vegetables and dairy products are considering following the potato farmers lead. Clickhere for their site.

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WHICH ONE-- WHITE CAT OR BLACK CAT???

          Sometime you think we will never learn, this little cartoon was based on a speech by Tommy Douglas give in the 1940's As far as I know the original mouseland story was by a canadian miner, and here we are in the 21 century still choosing between the black cats and the white cats. In the words of the song, "When will we ever learn". Enjoy and learn.

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AN ANNIVERSARY, MARCH 10th.

        Through out their history anarchists have been despised and persecuted by the state and employers alike. We could fill a very large telephone directory of those who have suffered at the hands of this particular authoritarian duo. From blacklisted to beaten, executed and assassinated the anarchists have had it all flung at them. It is not difficult to understand why this brutal onslaught should be thrown at this particular group of individuals. The last thing that the state or employers want is for people to think for themselves and take control of the society in which they live. In order to protect their wealth and power both these organisations need a subservient populace, anarchism would be the demise of such exploitation. Anarchists are about the complete restructuring of society, the abolition of exploitation, an end to power over anyone, and the creation of a society that sees to the needs of all our people. It is no wonder that the powers that be in the state and the corporate world will do everything in their power to dirty the image of, and destroy anything associated with, the words anarchist and anarchism.  

       However, we anarchist still have a lot to celebrate, in spite of the phony propaganda and the violence against us, we are still here, but we should always remember those events that have tried to prevent that being the case.

March 10th, From Wikipedia:

Salvador Segui.(centre)

 

Salvador Seguí (Tornabous, Lleida Province 1886 – Barcelona, 1923), known as El noi del sucre ("the sugar boy") for his habit of eating the sugar cubes served him with his coffee, was a Catalan anarcho-syndicalist in the Confederación Nacional del Trabajo (CNT), a Spanish confederation of anarcho-syndicalist labor unions active in Catalonia. Together with Ángel Pestaña, Seguí opposed the paramilitary actions advocated and carried out by other members of the CNT.^[1] On March 10, 1923, while completing preparations to promote the idea of emancipation as a form of social empowerment among workers, he was assassinated by gunshot on Carrer de la Cadena, in Barcelona's Raval District, at the hands of gunmen working for the Catalan employers' organisation under protection of Catalonia's Civil Governor, Martínez Anido.^[2][3] At this same shooting, another anarcho-syndicalist, Francesc Comes, known as Perones, was wounded and was to die several days later.

He has received many tributes since his death, and a foundation has been launched in his memory, the Fundación Salvador Seguí, based in Barcelona, Madrid and Valencia.

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OUR NHS OR A CORPORATE CASH COW??

        Is it our NHS, or is it a cash cow for the corporate world? Only you can save it for our kids, grand kids, our elderly and our sick, the corporate millionaire Mafia in the Westminster Houses of Hypocrisy and Corruption have already decided. They want it to be parcelled up and delivered to their friends in the corporate greed club. Their plans are in place, they are just waiting to get it the stamp of approval from their millionaire buddies, giving it a bogus legitimacy, a gift from that Millionaires welfare club on the Thames. It is the biggest bonanza the parasites have had in many a year, don't expect them to show compassion, we don't enter their cash register brains. This is all about making billions from the sick, the elderly and the vulnerable, if you have the money you will get the best health care available, but otherwise you will be put on a waiting list until the wealthy, who can fill the tills of the corporate health service, get all the pampering they want.

 

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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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