CAPITALISM WILL NOT DIE PEACEFULLY.

       I keep saying we should be looking at Greece to see what is coming our way and to prepare the appropriate action to turn the situation to our advantage. Europe's problem is not the Greek "crisis", Europe's problem is the inevitability of capitalist "crisis". As far as the living standards of the ordinary people are concerned, capitalism is the "crisis". Until we resolve that problem, our lives will always be a struggle for survival while the parasites live in the lap of luxury. There is an alternative, there is a need, to start to create that society based on the needs of all our people. Any attempt at moderating capitalism is simply more of the same, just different degrees.

Taken from International Journal of Socialist Renewal:

        Speech given by Eric Toussaint at the SYRIZA youth festival in Athens on October 6, 2012 More than 3000 people were present to listen to four speakers: Marisa Matias, EU deputy, member of the Left Bloc (Portugal); Lisaro Fernandez, miners’ union leader (Asturias, Spain); Alexis Tsipras, president of SYRIZA (Greece); Eric Toussaint, president of Committee for the Abolition of the Third World Debt (CADTM, Belgium). 

 
       My dear friends, history is not written in advance. Several scenarios remain open to us. We can continue within the current chaotic situation, with more and more authoritarianism on the part of governments who are at the service of the banks. This can continue for years. Another scenario is possible, and is even worse – an authoritarian, neo-fascist scenario. That is a grave danger and a very present threat.
         But there are two other scenarios: under popular pressure, there can be a regulated capitalism, a capitalism of the type that was practiced in the 1950s and 1960s, a capitalism of the Keynesian type. That is a possible solution. But the fact that there are so many of us gathered here this evening shows that we feel that there is no point in limiting our struggle to an attempt to discipline capitalism. We want to go beyond capitalism. We want a democratic, self-managed socialism of the 21st century.
      Long live international socialism. Long live self-managed socialism. Long live SYRIZA. Long live the Greek people. Long live popular resistance. Long live the revolution, comrades!

Read the full speech HERE:

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BOMBING THEM IN TO DEMOCRACY.

      One feature of Western foreign policy is that other countries can't create democracy without the might of the Western military and Western government intervention. The powers that be preach this idiotic message that for democracy to spread anywhere in the world, it needs the fire power of the West, of course ignoring the fact that we don't have democracy here. People across the world can't do that for themselves, the ordinary people of Pakistan and Yemen can't have democracy unless we go in with our drones and special forces. The West's big lie is that by its war on terror, it is spreading democracy, when in fact they are creating chaos in an attempt at permanent domination.

This from Freedom Socialist Party (US):

      Who knows how many die from these attacks, since they are carried out secretly by the CIA. And civilian casualties are falsely minimized by counting every male of military age an enemy combatant. I guess “Kill-them-all” is the policy at hand. Hundreds of non-combatants have died, including a good many little girls and boys.
Obviously, this didn’t just start with Obama. Pakistan, the sixth most populous country in the world and territorially home to several ancient cultures, was artificially created in 1947 by the British Empire. From the beginning, the country has been dominated by a right-wing military, backed first by Great Britain and then the United States.
Since the 1980s war in Afghanistan against the Soviet Union, Pakistan’s state apparatus has been mixed up with the Islamic fundamentalists in both countries. In fact, the Taliban was nurtured and funded by the United States in Afghanistan. So much for the myth that the U.S. brings secular democracy and women’s equality to the Middle East.
      Only the people themselves can do that, and they are trying desperately. Before she was attacked, Malala said, “If the new generation is not given pens, they will be given guns by the terrorists. We must raise our voice.”
      Forty-four years ago (1968) Pakistanis, with women in the forefront, launched a stunning revolution. They forced a dictator to abdicate and ran society for 139 days. Workers occupied factories, peasants seized land, and students took over the schools and colleges. This can happen again and I have no doubt that Malala Yousafzai, and other determined young women and men like her, will be a part of that struggle.

Read the full article HERE:

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CHOICES, WORKFARE OR WORKHOUSE.

      This from The Crutch Collective on Saturday's Glasgow day of action against the governments slave labour scheme which goes under the pseudonym of "workfare".

Anti-Workfare Pickets Glasgow Report

      On Saturday 8th December as part of the Boycott Workfare Week Of Action a couple of dozen people from Clydeside Industrial Workers Of The World, the Crutch Collective, Glasgow Anarchist Federation, Glasgow Solidarity Federation, the Right To Work Campaign and other individuals leafleted a branch of Superdrug in one of the city centre's busiest streets. The one thousand leaflets given out highlighted Superdrug taking on even more people on the Government's 'Work Experience' workfare scheme for the Christmas period. The extra people on workfare means less holiday pay for the regular staff. There was a lot of police about and Superdrug had hired extra security for the day. However the combination of the picket, the leaflet saying, 'Don't Shop At Superdrug' and the added security costs meant we succeeded in our objective of costing Superdrug money for using Workfare. Thanks to everyone who took part. Apparently someone also left placards saying 'Superdrug + Unpaid Work = Superdrudgery' outside their other city centre branch.

    The picket also attracted some media attention from local journalists. The Sunday Mail, with a reported readership of around one million, mentioned the Edinburgh, Dundee and Glasgow protests, and their article, 'Big Businesses Taking On Jobless Young People To Work Unpaid Over Christmas', helped get our general message across to a larger audience. It appears to contains some useful information on the extent of Workfare involvement of a number of companies, but it also includes some of the distortions of the reality of Workfare by these companies and the Department for Work and Pensions. We would have to question if the newspaper verified any of the information in the statements of the the Workfare companies and the D.W.P.

http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/scottish-news/revealed-big-businesses-taking-on-jobless-1480979

     The Superdrug distortions - 'Work Experience' is not voluntary in practice. Job Centre Plus and third party workfare profiteers like A4E bully benefit claimants on to the scheme. Benefit claimants can have their benefits cut if they do not not continue to 'volunteer' to stay on the scheme, after they have been on the scheme for a week. Only a tiny number of people on workfare get jobs afterwards. For example it is 3.5% for the 'Work Programme' and that includes participants getting jobs with other companies and very short-term jobs. Stacking shelves for Superdrug is not learning a skill. Argos state that 'Work Experience' people work alongside paid colleagues, but don't replace them, but the permanent staff lose out on holiday pay. Why aren't all of their temporary staff paid? Of the 25% Poundland say left their 'work experience' early, because they received a job offer elsewhere, how many were going to get offered a job anyhow? Poundland also put a positive spin on 10% going on to get jobs with them, but that means 90% do not, while Poundland continue to make profits from all the unpaid labour.

     We brought forward the time of the picket so that people could take part in he UK UnCut Starbucks demo in Glasgow. UK UnCut have been making the links between tax avoidance, cuts to public services and their impact on women. The Starbucks PR machine has gone into overdrive saying that they will pay a few more peanuts in tax in the next couple of years based on their own estimates while they don't mention all the unpaid tax from the past in their media releases. It has been revealed that the tax payments will be paid for by cuts to the terms and conditions of the Starbucks staff. The IWW Starbucks Workers Union is looking for volunteer organisers to help them organise Starbucks staff to fight these cuts c/o -

PO Box 7593, Glasgow G42 2EX
communications@iww.org.uk
www.iww.org.uk

     One person did manage to get inside the Sauchiehall Street coffee shop with leaflets, but there was too many police for a Refuge from the Cuts to be set up in this branch of Starbucks. The demo moved on to create a noisy presence with cake outside the Starbucks on Buchanan Street, another one of the main shopping streets in Glasgow.

       From there a few people went on to picket the city centre furniture store of the British Heart Foundation. The manager of the store aggressively told us we needed a permit to hand out leaflets. This is another fake claim from BHF. When we told him we didn't need one he told us he was then going to ring the police and he stropped off phone in hand. Of course the police never arrived. A customer said that the manager said we were talking 'shit', but at the same time the manager had confirmed that that they do use Workfare in that store. BHF have had 1500 placements on 'Mandatory Work Activity' and the 'Work Programme'. Despite BHF claims, the schemes are not voluntary. BHF must know the meaning of the word, 'mandatory'. All workfare companies have to sign a contract saying that they will report anyone who does not show up for the schemes, which automatically results in benefit claimants having their benefits cut. BHF have vaguely stated that are 'moving away' from workfare at some unspecified point in the future, but hopefully this picket and others will bring their use of workfare to a halt sooner rather than later. They have been pressurised in to making another public statement, which could be a sign that they are about to cave in.

     We are already making plans for a bigger Anti-Workfare campaign in the new year.

Claimants Resisting Unfair Treatment Cuts and Harassment
A group of benefit claimants and supporters in Glasgow
Hopefully we will have photos of the picket here soon:
www.thecrutchcollective.blogspot.co.uk
www.facebook.com/pages/The-Crutch-Collective/132893236781931?ref=hl
thecrutchcollective@gmail.com

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WESTERN CORPORATE SLAVERY.

       This video shows the extent the corporate world invests in keeping the prison system expanding and why. Though this was an America report, this is also a growing industry in the UK with the government trying hard to get more corporate bodies to use prison labour as a cheap form of slave labour. In a corporate world, if it is profitable to keep people in prison the system will put greater resources behind that goal of getting more people behind bars. The usual right-wing cry of "tough on crime", longer mandatory sentences, all point to more people behind bars, more captive cheap labour. Ah well, that's capitalism for you.

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WE SHOULD ALWAYS REMEMBER ONE OF OUR OWN.

       Once again I am a day late, it must be some sort mental decay.  December 9th marked the 170th anniversary of the birth of anarchist Peter Kropotkin

From Wikipedia:

       Kropotkin died of pneumonia on 8 February 1921, in the city of Dmitrov, and was buried at the Novodevichy Cemetery. Thousands of people marched in his funeral procession, including, with Vladimir Lenin's approval, anarchists carrying banners with anti-Bolshevik slogans. This was the last large gathering by anarchists until 1987, when glasnost saw them hold the first open free protest against Bolshevik state communism for over 60 years in Moscow. In 1957, the Kropotkinskaya station on the Moscow Metro was renamed in his honor.

More from Anarchy Archives.

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FIXED PENALTIES -- ILLEGAL???

An interesting line of thought from MuirMatters?

       The motto of Northern Constabulary is Protect and Serve - Dion is Cuidich. Protect and serve Highland Council, NOT the public.

     The threats of violence mentioned above include for example "fines" and "On the spot" fixed penalty notices, “Fixed Penalty Notices” are null & void and totally UNLAWFUL, by definition …  the Magna Carta 1215 specifically says that “No property shall be removed from anyone - unless based on the Verdict of a Jury”.

     Failure to pay fines can incur arrest, which is violence, by Northern Constabulary. Thus Highland Council impose their will, by force and threat of violence.

Read the full article HERE:

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GIVING VENT TO THE DREAMS.

       It was a few years ago, but it did get to the people's imagination and sowed a few seeds, who knows what grows from that and who knows the spark that starts the fire. Let's keep throwing seeds, the more the merrier.

ann arky's home.

PROFIT BEFORE LIVES, THAT'S CAPITALISM.

     A little bit more on that pinnacle of capitalist development, that citadel of Mammon, Walmart. It would appear that fire safety would hit their profits, so they decided that it was more profitable to risk the lives of thousand of workers rather than face a small hike in costs.

This from Huffington  Post:

     Last year, Walmart reportedly decided against aiding factory upgrades that could have stopped fires like last month's blaze at a Bangladesh garment factory.

Bangladeshi suppliers of Walmart clothes wanted to upgrade their facilities to make them more fire-proof, and other retailers approved the plan, according to Bloomberg. The plan only fell through after Walmart and the Gap said they would not pay higher prices to make such upgrades feasible.

Read the full story HERE:

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SHOT DEAD FOR SHOPLIFTING.

       Who are these people, where do they come from. They carry a gun, even when off duty, and don't hesitate to draw it and fire it, even although there is no apparent danger to anybody. It can only be somebody that lacks any empathy, a mind set that sees no value in other people's lives. I think that could come under the heading of psychopath, but then I'm no psychologist. It is a value structure that is straight out of Hollywood, society is divided simplistically into two categories, there are "good guys" and there are "bad guys". Of course you are always one of the "good guys" and the "other" is always one of the "bad guys". 

    After all a fleeing shoplifter, especially from a store like Walmart, could be a dreadful threat to the foundations of capitalist society.

This from The Mail online:

A 27-year-old mother of two has been fatally shot by an off-duty sheriff's deputy after he suspected her of shoplifting at a Houston Walmart. Harris County Sheriff's deputies have said that victim Shelly Frey, Tisa Andrews and Yolanda Craig  were stealing when they were confronted by Louis Campbell a 26-year veteran of the force who works as a security guard at the store. According to Campbell the women ran to their car and when he rushed to open the door, they accelerated away - at which point he fired the deadly shot into the car which hit Frey in the neck.

Read the full story HERE:

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HAPPY BIRTHDAY.

        I'm always a day late, but as they say, "better late than never".  Noam Chomsky, born December 7 1928, He helped to raise the profile of ANARCHY and ANARCHISM.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY.

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THEY ARE SKINNING ALL OF US.

This from ContraInfo:

      On Saturday, December 8th, by 12pm anarchists and antispeciests held a gathering at Syntagma square against the fur industry and the animal exploitation machinery. At 13.30pm they began a protest march downtown. A relatively small demonstrator bloc, with some 150 participants, chanted slogans walking on Mitropoleos street with momentum. They then took to Pandrosou street, in the tourist area of Plaka. The comrades carried out direct actions, spraying graffiti and stencils on the walls, and throwing paints on windows of fur trade shops which are located in the district.

    The demo was fiercely attacked as comrades tried to head back to Monastiraki, amid a consumerist and indifferent crowd. When they approached Aiolou street, the repressive forces blocked access to Ermou street beforehand, which is the main shopping zone downtown. Specifically, cops dispersed the antispeciest bloc by excessive use of tear gases, stun grenades and physical violence.

     The fascists in uniform chased people on the surrounding streets. Several protesters were assaulted savagely by cops. No detention was reported, however some comrades were beaten so heavily that they were evacuated to a hospital, while at least three protesters suffer head injuries.

    The State/Capital shows no mercy, neither on people, nor on non-human animals, and once again its mercenaries protected the interests of exploiters.

They are skinning all of us, every living being, to warm the pockets of our killers. We are at war on all fronts.

ann arky's home.

 

INSIGNIFICANT LITTLE US.

 

       To those among us who think that we are somehow unique and very, very special in this universe, just a little reminder.

ann arky's home.

A WASTE OF SPACE.

        As everybody knows parliaments under the present system are a waste of space, a waste of energy and resources, some more than others. Some individuals in these parliaments are a greater waste of those resources and energy than others and it is is always amusing to see one waste of space call another bigger waste of space, just that. All part and parcel of the farce that is the representative system under capitalism.

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STRANGE HAPPENINGS.

       The strange happenings in a police car. A 17 year old student is searched, handcuffed with his hands behind his back and put in the back of a police car, then shoots himself??

US.NEWS:

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IN SOLIDARITY, "WE DO NOT FORGET".

     The latest From Athens on the demonstrations marking the death of Alexis Gigoropoulos, the youth murdered by the Greek police in 2008.

From The Greek Streets:

Extended riots in Exarcheia four years after the killing of Alexandros Grigoropoulos by police

Thursday, December 6, 2012

      On December 6, 2012, four years on from the cold-blooded murder of Alexandros Grigoropoulos by police, the Athens neighbourhood of Exarcheia saw yet another round of riots and clashes between people and the police.
       As of 22.30 GMT+2 (Athens time) intense clashes continued at Exarcheia square, as well as at Mesollogiou and Tzavela streets, which is where Alexis was murdered. Barricades have been set up in many side-streets leading to the square. Riot police have attempted to storm the square a few times, only to be fought back by the people. In one of those occasions an undercover policeman was discovered by the people and severely beaten.
      There is at least one heavily injured demonstrator. So far, at last 78 people have been detained of which 9 were arrested (i.e. charged).

ann arky's home.

NATURAL GAS, OIL, MINERALS = WAR.

       It is sickening to think, that here we are in the West, shouting peace and democracy and yet have been fighting in wars more or less continuously since the end of WW2. We in the UK came out of that war and then continued for years, fighting numerous wars across the globe, in an attempt to hold on to “our colonies” as one by one the people of those “colonies”, done their best to kick our arse out of their homelands. Then there was, in no particular order, the Suez disaster, the Korean war, Iraq, Libya and Afghanistan. Not content with that little catalogue of death and destruction, we are ready to hold hands with that great liberator, the USA, and have a totally unequal go at Syria. It is the same old formula, there is this dreadful dictator, a real bad man, he has horrible weapons and he might use them, so we have to go in and sort it out. Remember Saddam and those Iraqi weapons of mass destruction, that never were? Of course although Syria has such natural resources as, petroleum, phosphates, chrome, manganese ores, asphalt, iron ore, rock salt, marble, gypsum and hydropower, that doesn't influence the West, Assad's biggest crime is, like Saddam, he won't play ball with the Western corporate big boys. So they call on their minders, the Western States and their military arsenal of weapons of mass destruction. The West will not stop its spread of death and destruction until the entire resource rich Middle East is in turmoil, making it so much easier to exploit all those rich natural resources. You either play ball with the Western corporate world, or the big bully boys will kick the shit out of you. Iran, beware, another bad, bad man, with weapons of mass destruction, who won't play ball with the Wester corporate world, the fact that Iran is sitting on such natural resources as, petroleum, natural gas, coal, chromium, copper, iron ore, lead, manganese, zinc and sulfur, will not influence the West one little bit, the death and destruction will be for the benefit of those getting the shit kicked out of them.

This from Russia Today:

     The arrival of the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower, one of the 11 US Navy aircraft carriers that has the capacity to hold thousands of men, is now stationed at the coast of Syria, DEBKAfile reports. The aircraft carrier joined the USS Iwo Jima Amphibious Ready Group, which holds about 2,500 Marines.

      “We have (US) special operations forces at the right posture, they don’t have to be sent,” an unnamed US official told The Australian, which suggested that US military troops are already near Syria and ready to intervene in the conflict, if necessary.

     If the US decides to intervene militarily in Syria, it now has at its disposal 10,000 fighting men, 17 warships, 70 fighter-bombers, 10 destroyers and frigates and a guided military cruises. Some of the vessels are also equipped with Aegis missile interceptors to shoot down any missiles Syria might have at hand, according to DEBKAfile.

Read the full article HERE:

This from ZEROHEDGE:

     France is preparing its special forces for a mission in war-torn Syria, French weekly magazine Le Point reports.

     The mission would only involve a relatively small amount of special forces, and a number of NATO countries — including the UK and the US — would be involved. The mission would be modelled on the Western intervention in Libya, the magazine reports.The action appears to be in response to fears that the regime is planning on using chemical weapons in the conflict. Earlier this week one US official told reporters that it was believed Bashar al-Assad's forces had moved two key components of a deadly nerve gas in preparation for an attack (a later report refuted this, however).

     Le Point says a large ground operation "is out of the question" and that a smaller action aimed largely at securing chemical weapon stockpiles. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton today vowed a swift response if Assad's regime used chemical weapons.

Read the full article HERE:

ann arky's home.

"WE DO NOT FORGET" - "WE DO NOT FORGIVE".

       Police brutality is known the world over, however, in Athens one act of particular callous brutality by the police, sparked some of the biggest riots and protests Athens had seen in years. It was on December 6th 2008 young Alexis Grogoropoulos was shot dead by police in Athens, his crime, sitting in a cafe with some young friends and jeering at the police. This callous murder brought to a head the simmering hatred the people felt for the police. Four years on as the people prepare to march to mark this young boy's brutal murder the slogans on the streets are, “we do not forget” and “we do not forgive”,

    From The Greek Streets:

The shot still echoes and people will march again. Posters calling for marches today.
” We do not Forget, We do not Forgive, We are going on…the ghost of December is always here, Solidarity, Self-Organisation, Direct Democracy, Newspaper Drasi”

” The State continues assassinating, destroying everything -We struggle for everything, Authoritarian Movement of Athens (AK)”

” A Ghost is looming above the city” Thursday 6/12 March 10:30 on Democracy Avenue, Anarchists by the Schools of Agioi Anargyroi and Kamatero.”

” We do not Forget we do not forgive, Local march in St Tryfon Square, Terpsithea” (Glyfada: South Athens)

“We do not forget, We do not forgive, We go forward” March in Agios Dimitris Square, Antifascists of Arta”

“Did you forget? We do not forget, murderers in uniform killed Alexis” poster from Chios

 ann arky's home.

TWO FACED LAW.

      Those who make the laws, can change the laws to suit themselves.
From the Dissenter:

      Think Progress reports that the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled last week that police can secretly videotape the inside of your home without a warrant.

      The case involves an undercover officer who entered a suspect’s home under false pretenses (claiming to be an interested buyer of contraband bald eagle feathers and pelts), carrying a concealed video camera. The footage from that camera was used as evidence in the suspect’s prosecution.

     The suspect claimed that the method for gathering the footage constituted a violation of his Fourth Amendment rights and that the evidence should have been suppressed. The court ruled that because what was revealed to the undercover officer during his visit was in plain sight, the fact that he was secretly recording it is irrelevant.

      Earlier this year, Iowa and Utah became the latest states to approve “Ag Gag laws” that criminalize undercover investigations of animal abuse on factory farms. When activists enter a Concentrated Animal Feeding Operation under false pretenses (usually by getting hired) for the purpose of secretly videotaping the daily gratuitous atrocities committed against pigs, cows, chickens and other livestock, their conduct in states with Ag Gag laws is criminal. The FBI has recommended they be prosecuted as terrorists.

So:

     Cops lying about their identities and shooting undercover videos in your house = no problem.

      Animal rights activists lying about their identities and shooting undercover videos of animal abuse on factory farms = terrorism.

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WORKERS KNOW YOUR HISTORY - ETHEL MACDONALD.

      How could I have forgotten to mark the anniversary of the passing of one of Glasgow's memorable fighters. On the 1st. of December 1960 Glasgow anarchist and veteran of the Spanish Civil War, Ethel MacDonald, died from multiple sclerosis. We should always remember our own and always pay tribute to their selfless struggle for the better good of all.

From, Ethel MacDonald - Strugglepedia:

     Ethel MacDonald born in Motherwell, just outside Glasgow, 24 th. of February 1909. She was one of nine children. Leaving home at sixteen became active in women’s movements and the rights of the working class. From an early age Ethel was an active socialist, still only sixteen she joined the Bellshill, Independent Labour Party, (ILP). Worked as waitress and shop assistant,1931 she came in contact with Guy Aldred who asked her to become his secretary. Ethel left the ILP and joined Guy Aldred in the Anti-Parliamentary Communist Federation, (APCF).1934 the APCF split over the issue of the nature of its opposition to Labour Parliamentarianism. Guy Aldred lead the splinter group, Ethel joined him in the United Socialist Movement, and remained a member of the USM and a close comrade of Guy Aldred until her death in 1960. Ethel MacDonald stated that her first encounter with Guy Aldred was the moment which determined for future. 

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ECONOMIC BULLSHIT.

         Here we go, here we go, millionaire Osborne will take centre stage this afternoon and deliver what is meant to be taken as a profound calculated analysis and plan. When in fact it is a series of calculated guesses, smoke and mirrors and a ridged following of ideology. His master plan when he was handed the job of Chancellor of the Exchequer by his millionaire mate, David, was to suck all the money out of the public purse and transfer it to his corporate friends. Of course we were told that this would be painful, but difficult choices had to be made. However our misery would be short lived, we would just have to suffer until 2015, then all our finances would be in great order and we would once again be living the good times, (which never were for the most of us). Now, as 2015 approaches, it is not quite sorted yet, so once again, difficult choices have to be made. That translates into, screw more money from the public purse, hand more money to the corporate world. Sadly that means we will have to wait until 2018, until those ever so rosy good times return. What a load of bullshit.

 "These are difficult times".

      We are on a downward spiral, as far as the living standards of the ordinary people of the developed world are concerned. According to recently released figures, Europe is sinking deeper into recession. The people of Greece have been brutally assaulted by the financial mafia, Spain, Potrugal and Italy are circling the plug hole, Ireland has to intoduce further austerity measures. Here, we are in the hands of a member of the millionaire Etonian old boys club, telling us that we will have to face a few more years of being screwed for the benefit of his corporate friends. What they are trying to get you to swallow is that after ten years or so of slashing our living standards and destroying the fabric of our society, we will all be better off!!! Tell that to the working families that are living in poverty at this moment in time. Tell it to the unemployed youth and the thousands of homeless. Tell it to the one third of our chidren who at present are living below the poverty line. 

       This certainly a master plan, a rigid following of ideology, for the Western corporate world to survive and grow, it has to create a Western wide sweatshop economy. A low wage, unregulated labour force is it last gasp to compete with its Eastern corporate adversary. You and I are intended to be part of that subservient corporate dream. Is that what you want for yourself, your kids and grandkids? If not, we have to organise, resist and act, very quickly, after all that is the way that they work.

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IS CAPITALISM DYING OUT?

     I received the new edition of Ephemera, (on the net) and found it a very interesting magazine. I found one article in particular "Is capitalism dying out?"  by Steen Nepper Larsen, extremely thought provoking and recommend it as well worth a read. The entire magazine is packed full of thought provoking articles and well worth a visit.

     The following is just a very short quote from near the end of the above mentioned article:

Exit

Where Gorz envisages a capitalism dying out and negating itself in a fertile virtual sphere of communication that contains real political potentialities for radical social transformation, I see what Marx called ‘the civilizing influence of capital’ giving breath to ever newer forms of contradiction. Gorz is right in claiming that knowledge is not reducible to a commodity. He is also right to emphasize that neither the Marxist theory of value nor the dominant ‘liberal’ theory of economic value can grasp the process of transforming knowledge into value. But unfortunately he is mistaken in claiming that capitalism will soon disappear. Maybe it is capitalism’s ability to produce powerful conflicting and contradicting patterns of social life that keeps it alive and kicking. Capitalism manages to integrate major parts of human creativity, our innovative skills, desires and communicative utterances to foster and maintain its own logic of accumulation, and until now we have not been able to conquer its destructive aspects or find a way to live without its seemingly magnetic power.

490

ephemera 12(3): 486-491

reviews

Is capitalism dying out?

Steen Nepper Larsen

You can read the full article HERE:

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BANISH THEM TO THE "SCUM VILLAGE"!!!

       I read this article in TheTelegraph and thought perhaps I should try to keep it quiet, as it is the sort of thing that our government of pampered Oxbridge millionaires would jump at. Think how it would fit into their austerity plans, think of the savings to the social spending bill, housing thousands in caravans with little or no facilities or amenities. It would be in keeping with their plans for tougher sentences, (more people in prison for longer terms). If you can't get them into prison to form a cheap pool of labour, then dump them in “scum villages” They already have plans to open up the prisons to more of their corporate friends as a means of a cheap captive labour force, not covered by the normal health and safety regulations and with no union rights. This Dutch plan  would just fit nicely into their "deficit reduction" plans.

      Apartheid comes in many forms and in this corporate world, we are divided into our various groups, to be exclude or included. The most common form of Apartheid in the Western world is what I call “financial Apartheid”. You are exclude from whole speres of society because of your lack of money. With this “scum villages” plan you would be excluded because you behaviour doesn't fit their shape of “normal” and you would be banished to the shany towns dotted around their efficient profit producing labour camps.

Extract from The Telegraph article:

Amsterdam to create 'scum villages'

      Amsterdam is to create "Scum villages" where nuisance neighbours and anti-social tenants will be exiled from the city and rehoused in caravans or containers with "minimal services" under constant police supervision.

       The new punishment housing camps have been dubbed "scum villages" because the plan echoes a proposal from Geert Wilders, the leader of a populist Dutch Right-wing party, for special units to deal with persistent troublemakers. "Repeat offenders should be forcibly removed from their neighbourhood and sent to a village for scum," he suggested last year. "Put all the trash together." Whilst denying that the new projects would be punishment camps for "scum", a spokesman for the city mayor stressed that the special residential units would aim to enforce good behaviour.

Read the full article HERE:

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