ATOS KILLS - TIME TO KILL ATOS.

Tom Gordon
Scottish Political Editor Herald

        DEPUTY First Minister Nicola Sturgeon is being targeted by protesters who want the controversial "fit-for-work" benefits test company Atos dropped as a sponsor of the Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth Games. Around 15 demonstrators carrying "Atos Kills" posters invaded a constituency surgery in Sturgeon's Glasgow Southside seat on Friday to demand an end to the deal.
       The peaceful protest ended after police were called to the Larkfield Centre in Govanhill but there were no arrests. Sturgeon personally welcomed Atos as an official sponsor of Glasgow 2014 last year, calling the French IT giant's involvement "a significant step forward for the Games".
       The company will supply the software to accredit up to 70,000 athletes, volunteers and officials, and run the Glasgow 2014 website. Sturgeon is also the Scottish Government's leading voice on welfare issues – last week she announced an expert group to help devise a welfare system reflecting "Scottish values" and fairness under independence instead of the cuts being imposed by Westminster.
        Protesters say Atos could not be further from those Scottish values, given its central role in the UK government's welfare reforms. Atos Healthcare has a £110 million annual contract with the Department of Work and Pensions to run work capability assessments of the sick and disabled, and a £400m deal to assess mobility benefits. Critics say the tests are flawed, degrading and inefficient, with one in six passed as fit to work winning an appeal against the decision.
        The Atos sponsorship of the London 2012 Olympics and Paralympics led to protests, and similar actions are now planned in Glasgow. The 2014 HQ was occupied last month, and protesters have threatened to disrupt the Scottish equivalent of the Olympic torch relay if Atos is still a sponsor.
        The SNP Government is funding about 80% of the £550m price tag for the Games. However, a video of Friday's protest shows Sturgeon denying any say over the sponsorship: "Obviously the benefits side of this is not a matter for the Scottish Government, it's a UK Government issue ... I will take on board what you said to the Commonwealth Games. Obviously, it's not my decision in terms of sponsors."

        Protester David Churchley, co-founder of the Black Triangle disability rights group, said Atos sponsorship was "absolutely scandalous and beyond belief" and that Sturgeon had tried to give protesters the brush off. He said: "They have learned nothing from the Olympics. They're just riding roughshod over disabled people and those who support us. But Friday will be just one of many stunts we will be mounting up to the Games."
      Sean Clerkin of Citizens United said: "The SNP Government is being hypocritical. They criticise the Tory-led Coalition for what they're doing to welfare, while welcoming Atos as sponsors of the Commonwealth Games. "Nicola Sturgeon is the person talking about a welfare system with
Scottish values. If she's going to live up to those values, she should ensure Atos is dropped as a sponsor."
         An Atos spokesman said: "While we fully respect people's right to peaceful protest and understand this is a highly emotive issue, Atos is proud to be an official supporter of the Glasgow 2014 organising committee." An SNP spokeswoman added: "We are opposed to the criteria and tests set by the UK Government that Atos deliver, and have made clear that they should reconsider this approach. "We are looking forward to a positive Commonwealth Games that will be a great opportunity to showcase Scotland to the world."

Info first obtained from CityStrolls:

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THE BRUTAL STATE.

       In Greece the authoritarian fascist government, now firmly in the hands of the financial Mafia and vigorously pursuing their policies, is coming down hard on any space that appears to a free and autonomous centre, anything that looks like the people can organise themselves, has to be destroyed. Anywhere that might stimulate resistance has to be totally repressed. Resistance to their policies can't be allowed to grow, bare-knuckle corporate fascism is in full swing in Greece.  Recently, squats,  some of them many years in serving their community, have been forcibly evicted and scores of anarchists arrested. However, resistance is growing and on Saturday 13th., 10,000 took to the streets in solidarity with those arrested and calling for the re-occupation of the squats.     

      In country after country across Europe and else where, as austerity is more forcibly applied, and the people's resistance grows, so the true face of our "representative democracy" will be revealed. The state apparatus will do what it deems necessary to fulfill the aims of the financial Mafia, the will of the people is not on their agenda. Be prepared.

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OUR LOVE OF THE PEOPLE OF AFRICA!!

        It would appear that our lords and masters, the millionaire cabal, can't do without a war somewhere. There's talk of UK troops coming out of Afghanistan after 12 years of pointless killing and destruction, and now our pampered and privileged millionaire Prime Minister has announced that, despite our need for austerity, we will be sending aircraft to support the French military, who are fighting in Mali. For many years Mali was the centre of a large empire, controlling trade routes for gold, salt and among other things, slaves. In the West's greed for empire and riches the French grabbed that part of the world and called it their own. After breaking free from the French imperialists the people of Mali have struggled to sort out their country and there have been several massive peaceful demonstrations over the years, that have been brutally put down. Mali is mainly flat and mostly dust covered, so why are the French in there with their fire power, and now the UK?  Could it be because Mali faces several environmental challenges such as desertification, soil erosion, deforestation and shortage of water? Is it simply the Western governments love of the people of Africa coming to the fore? Perhaps this is the West showing its benevolence in its desire to see the people of Mali live the good life? Or, heaven forbid, there might be another motive other than love and affection!! Could it possibly be anything to do with the fact that Mali has considerable natural resources, such as gold, uranium, phosphates, kaolinite, salt and limestone, being the most widely exploited. 

     This is corporate capitalism at work doing its usual thing. Where there are resources the corporate West will take them with the backing of the military might of their puppets, the Western governments, with no thought for the people of that particular area. We have screwed the people of Africa for centuries and it will continue until we get rid of the system that is based on greed, and profit for the few at the expense of the many. Mali is just one little bit of their destructive and plundering activities that are killing people and destroying the planet.

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ONLY TWO DAYS---.

      Just a wee reminder,  only 353 days until Christmas, but more important --- only two days until The Spirit of Revolt Exhibition, Radical Presses Clydeside at the Mitchell Library Glasgow.

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THERE ARE MEN TOO GENTLE----.

       I posted this at the start of 2012, but think it is worth repeating at the start of 2013.

        As the new year gets up and running and all the talk is of struggle and fighting, we should never forget why we are fighting. It is not for the love of struggle and fight, it is not for power and wealth, it is because of love and a desire to create a world where such beautiful flowers as justice, peace and love, bloom in the fertile soil of co-operation, so we can live in a world free from the fear of deprivation. We wish to create a world where the gentle can live and grow.

THERE ARE MEN TOO GENTLE TO LIVE

AMONG WOLVES

Poem by James Kavanaugh

There are men too gentle to live among wolves

Who prey upon them with IBM eyes

And sell their hearts and guts for martinis at noon.

There are men too gentle for a savage world

Who dream instead of snow and children and Halloween

And wonder if the leaves will change their color soon.

There are men too gentle to live among wolves

Who anoint them for burial with greedy claws

And murder then for a merchant's profit and gain.

There are men too gentle for a corporate world

Who dream instead of candied apples and ferris wheels

And pause to hear the distant whistle of a train.

There are men too gentle to live among wolves.

Who devour them with eager appetite and search

For other men to prey upon and suck their childhood dry.

There are men too gentle for an accountant's world

Who dream instead of Easter eggs and fragrant grass

And search for beauty in the mystery of the sky.

There are men too gentle to live among wolves

Who toss them like a lost and wounded dove.

Such gentle men are lonely in a merchant's world.

Unless they have a gentle one to love.

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TWO FACED----!

      While our millionaire parasites that go by the name of MP's, continually wring their hands and tell us things are so bad that we have to tighten our belts and accept all this misery and austerity, they don't seem to think the same about themselves. It seems that our “Honourable Gentlemen” have suggested to the Commons expenses watchdog that they should have a 32% salary increase. In a recent survey our humble MP's suggested that they deserved a salary of £86,250, and though they have worked hard at getting rid of final salary pensions for all and sundry across the land, they feel that it should be retained for them. That's what you call “serving the people”. 

 I'm worth it, I'm an MP.

       The survey also shows that 69% thought that MP's were underpaid, what's your thoughts on that one? The varying amounts that they thought that they should be paid changed according to party, with the Tories coming in with the biggest ego, believing that their salary should be £96,740. One fifth of those in the survey thought that they should be paid £95,000 or more. This is the thoughts that are running through the heads of that bunch of millionaire playboys that are sitting and without any blushes or shame forcing legislation on the rest of us that drive us deeper and deeper into poverty. Perhaps the term “Honourable Gentlemen” should be dropped from the Westminster House of Corruption and Hypocrisy and be replaced with “two-faced lying bastards”. Or do you think I'm being too harsh on the poor souls?

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THAT WAS THE YEAR!

       A review of 2012 from Circle A radio. It was the year of increase poverty for the people, increase pomp and ceremony for the lords and masters with their jubilee. We had the big money splurge of the Olympics and Paralypics. A year of contrasts, as we struggled to keep our heads above water we had opulence and unearned wealth flung in our faces, a true display of the system for all to see.

A 2012 review by Circled A

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WHO DO YOU WANT TO SHAPE YOUR WORLD?

       It is important for us to realise this, "economic downturn" that we are experiencing is not a national problem, it is an international problem. The powers that be, the corporate world, realise this, and organise accordingly, drawing on international resources to shape the outcome to their desires. We have to do likewise, we have to join hands across borders and co-ordinate our struggle, drawing on the limitless energy, imagination and ingenuity of the world's ordinary people. This is the force that must shape the world's economic systems so fulfilling the desires of the ordinary people. We cannot leave it to the greed merchants of the corporate world to create further inequalities in their drive to increase their wealth and power. We have had their capitalist world for centuries now, and the result is poverty and starvation on a scale never known before, wars across the globe on a scale of brutality and ferociousness never witnessed before. We have a range of inequality that has never existed before, with individuals possessing enough wealth to destroy the social fabric of a country. Such a system governed by the unimaginably wealthy can never be in the interests of of the majority of the people. It is not designed for that purpose, its primary function is to create greater wealth in the hands of those with the most wealth. It will strive to protect and increase that wealth at the expense of the environment and the people. So far, as far as the economic system is concerned, it has been functioning well, with fewer and fewer people controlling more and more of the earth's wealth and resources. Is that what we want to continue for our children and our grandchildren? Or do we envisage an alternative of justice, equality, co-operation, mutual aid and sustainability? 

      This from A World to Win:

Davos elites warn of "perfect global storm" threat

      Listening to the ConDems lecturing the low-waged and unemployed about “fairness” as they cut their state benefits when measured against inflation, reinforces the view of a government at war with ordinary people while protecting the rich and powerful.

     The policy adds weight to the contents of the latest edition of Global Risks, which the World Economic Forum produces each year before the world’s ruling elites gather at Davos to try and reshape the world in their image.

      At the centre of its concerns are the prospects of loss of confidence in government leadership and the threat of increasing unrest as inequality widens. With the ConDems held in contempt by large sections in society, and Labour presenting itself as Coalition Lite, the WEF is right to be concerned.

   The report was published on the day that European Union joblessness reached a new record high. Youth unemployment in Spain has passed 56%. No wonder Global Risks says that a eurozone meltdown cannot be ruled out.

    The report is a 80-page crystallisation of responses from “1,000 experts from industry, government, academia and civil society who were asked to review a landscape of 50 global risks”. Presented in the language of systems theory, the results are sobering:

     "Continued stress on the global economic system is positioned to absorb the attention of leaders for the foreseeable future. Meanwhile, the Earth’s environmental system is simultaneously coming under increasing stress. Future simultaneous shocks to both systems could trigger the ‘perfect global storm’, with potentially insurmountable consequences."

Read the full article HERE:

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MASS ARRESTS OF ANARCHISTS IN ATHENS.

      Greek state comes down hard on anarchists in Athens. After the eviction of a 25 year squat in Athens, it was briefly re-occupied this morning, and then re-evicted. This was followed by the arrest of over 150 anarchist. Like I always say, when the state feels threatened, it becomes a bare-knuckle fight, the niceties of party political mud sling soon disappear and the rubber bullets, water cannon, batons and all the paraphernalia of repression come into full view. This from The Greek Streets:

Villa Amalias re-squatted and re-evicted; largest number of anarchists detained in a single day in 15 years; updates

(Follow today’s development via this ticker or via our January 9th tag)

UPDATE, 19.45 pm Another three anarchists have been detained at the corner of Patision and Alexandras ave, bringing today’s total up to 152.
UPDATE, 19.20 pm At least 1,500 people have gathered outside the Police HQ in solidarity with those arrested throughout the day.
UPDATE, 17.55 pm Earlier on, anarchists held a spontaneous demo outside the Ministry of Finance as PM Samaras held a press conference inside, in response to the Villa Amalias raid.
UPDATE, 17.50 pm More than 1,000 people inside the Polytechnic for tonight’s assembly. Meanwhile, a police water cannon has been spotted outside the police HQ on Alexandras avenue. The other two central universities in Athens, the School of Economics and the Law school, have been shut following orders by their administrations.
UPDATE, 17.35 pm The 40 anarchists detained earlier on inside the Democratic Left party HQ have all been released.
UPDATE, 17.15 pm News from inside the Polytechnic: the assembly location has changed, from Gini to the Max auditorium. Outside, riot police squads are stationed on most side streets off Stournari street and around the entire campus.

Catch up on the full story with live coverage:

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WE ARE BEING SUCKERED.

       In 2008 we had the so called financial crash, here we are in 2013 and the November unemployment figures for the Eurozone hit a new all time high at 11.8%, youth unemployment at 14.4%, while for the whole of the European Union it is 10.7%, and youth unemployment is 23.7%. This translates into more than 26 million people unemployed across the EU. struggling to survive, not that those in work are doing that much better. According to the BBC's World Service Economic correspondent, Andrew Walker, “---- The general trend however remains upwards and it makes it even harder for the governments concerned to collect the taxes they need to stabilise their debts”
    These figures are modest by the figures in some individual European countries, Spain leading the charge with 26.6% and Greece following with 20%. The misery heaped on the young of these two countries alone, is an indictment of the capitalist system. Greece has the worst unemployment amongst the young with 57% and Spain next with 56.5% . More than half of the young population of both these countries mired in poverty and their entire life potential being stunted. That's the system we are expected to embrace.
      Of course unemployment is not an accident, it is not unavoidable, it is the direct result of government policies as they follow the instructions of the financial Mafia. Unemployment is the ugly side of that polite phrase, “structural reform” unemployment is the criminal reality of the innocent sounding “austerity cuts”. Both these phrases come together as the cornerstone of the Western corporate world's drive to become “more competitive.”, another innocent sounding phrase with a dire reality. It in fact means, lower wages, unregulated labour and a pool of unemployment. In other words, a European-wide sweatshop economy to compete with the sweatshops of the East.

                                      These are hard times.
 

        Here in the UK, under the direction of the ConDem coalition of pampered parasites, 2013 will be the year that all that talking of “austerity cuts”, starts to impact with a vengeance on the lives of most of us ordinary people. It will be the year that people will begin to realise that cuts are usually followed by bleeding. Our cuts are severe, expect severe bleeding. Meanwhile our millionaire lords and masters, living the pampered life of useless parasites, will attempt to shed a theatrical tear as they tell us how hard things are and how we will all have to do “our bit” and “we are all in this together”. They will then retreat to their mansions and prepare for a break in their Bermuda holiday home. They call it capitalism, don't you feel like a sucker?

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TO SLOWLY DIE OR FIGHT BACK?

      It is becoming obvious that there will be no peace in Greece until the present system collapses and is replaced by something nearer the people's desires. The poverty is too painful, the suffering too severe, the wounds too deep, to let it all go and drift back to the facade that was called normality. The people have seen through the illusion, have seen through the smoke and mirrors, have come face to face with the brutal reality of the capitalist system, and it is too grotesque to allow it to continue.

     The following article from The Greek Streets, gives another example of how the state will always find money to spend on repression, even, for example, as the people run out of medication for serious illnesses. How should the people react when the state can find, approximately €16.5 million, for police equipment while the elderly and the sick are allowed to slowly die from lack of care and treatment?

Tuesday, January 8, 2013

Greek original

THE MONEY EXISTS [1], or…

Authority sets its priorities straight (it always did) Amidst a full-out operation aimed at the economic impoverishment of the poorest segments of greek society, amidst the complete draining of funds toward anything that we may have previously known to comprise a minimum protection for the popular strata (healthcare and treatment, pensions etc), authority now comes to shamelessly and provocatively show even to the most superficial of observers what its priority and its strategy is.

     What could it be that the impoverished Greek society of 2013 needs? Why of course, 499 new police patrol cars and 217 motorbikes for the scoundrels of Dias and Delta. And so, in early December 2012 the call-out was made for car importers to bid for their supply, with a budget of 16.445.000 euros. So, the money exists…

       THE PETROL EXISTS, or…

The repressed must set their priorities straight.

On January 6 and 7 we attacked the official importers of…

* Citroen, on Amfitheas Str

* Hyundai, on Acharnon Str

* Volvo, on Vouliagmenis Ave

* Daihatsu and Fiat, on Tsaldari Str in Polygono

* Honda, on Alexandras Ave…

…companies, that is, that are nevertheless targeted by the revolted – since the automobile industry comprises one of the driving forces of capitalist production and economy.

In addition, this is a warning message to all car importers who will take part in the bidding called by the Greek Police, contributing in this way to economic impoverishment but also to the intensification of repression and policing.

We promise, and you’d better believe this, that whoever “wins” the bidding will face a targeted and constant barrage of attacks.

NOTHING SHALL REMAIN UNANSWERED

IT’S EITHER THEM OR US

P.S. Our thoughts are with the comrade Panagiotis Argyrou [2]

[1] A reference to the infamous pre-electoral quote by ex-PM Papandreou before taking power and implementing severe cuts.

[2] Latest news on the health of Panagiotis Argyrou at contrainfo

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A YEAR IN GREECE.

      Most countries across the globe 2012, was a year of protest and mass demonstrations, in some cases, extremely violent confrontations with the protectors of the powers that be, have accompanied these events. In Europe, no more so than Greece. No matter how violent and brutal these confrontations become, life goes on in some form or other, people go about trying to get by, trying to get a life.

     In this slide show of a year in Greece, I think Teacher Dude has captured that fact, a year of love and hate, tranquility and anger, spectacular and ordinary.

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CHILDREN OF THE RIOTS.

       I have posted this video before, but I think it is worth viewing again. It is fascinating to watch young people with courage and determination, try to create a decent life in a ruthless system that reacts brutally to their every complaint. A society that doesn't give a shit about their future. that offers them no hope, they have to bring their dreams to fruition in spite of the system, not through the system. It also seems that in Greece the lines are more clearly drawn, more easily visible and better known by the vast majority of the people.

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A VOICE FROM SNIPER'S TOWER.

      Not the type of comment we got from that babbling brook of bullshit known as the media, while they were supposed to be reporting the violence during that period in the 90's. The inscription makes you wonder, who wrote it, and why was he there, up in sniper's tower, how did he see the struggle that was being written in blood, what were his hopes and dreams up there at that time? When was it written, before, during or after the violence?
A recent comment on Reddit:

Hi there!

This last summer I went to the Balkans for a couple of weeks. While there, being in Mostar (Bosnia i Herzegovina), I found this text written on a wall of the so called "Sniper's tower".

The text reads:

Oppressed people have begged, prayed, petitioned, demonstrated and everything else to change the global power structure which is strengthening up the strong ones and taking away the power from the already poor people. All these efforts have been answered by more repression, deceit and hypocrite vicious police. tear-gas, water cannons, restrictive border control; familiar sights of the new world order. We have got to find new ways how to break these structures otherwise this phenomenon of oppression will repeat itself again+again. Build up your own opinion, don't let yourself be led by national, supranational or any kind of leaders.

It got me thinking, to be honest. After all, Bosnia has recently (90s) seen quite a bit of war and I guess that these kind of situations trigger quite radical viewpoints. We're seeing how, for example in Europe, the economic crisis is leading to the "empowerment" of what used to be radical parties (by radical I understand those that preach for something utterly different of what we have now), be it right or left-wing.

So, what all this was about, do you think that more people will start to realize how oppressive capitalism really is and look up for "isms" like anarchism? This situation is really hard on many people but I think that if, after all this, we can set up a completely free society, it will be worth it.

And that's me rambling about one picture, thanks for reading 

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CENSORSHIP?

      A Star Trek clip that was never released in America! I wonder why??

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ONE WORLD, ONE CLASS.

Thought for today:

"While there is a lower class, I am in it. While there is a criminal element, I am of it. While there is a soul in prison, I am not free."

Eugene V. Debs, November 5, 1855 - October 20, 1926.

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WHEN IT'S A CRIME TO BE HUMAN.

     All states are authoritarian, in the so called "good times" they wear gloves, but as they squeeze the citizens and the citizens start to resist, the gloves come off and we have bare-knuckle fascist brutality. That is what we have in Greece, that is what is coming our way, it's all a matter of time.

This from Petro Kapetanopoulos protest site:

      In Greece, being a citizen and a human being is a felony!

*We sign– share and demonstrate for citizen Petros Kapetanopoulos,  for democracy, for justice and against all kinds of fascism, whatever its disguise!

     On July 21st, Petros Kapetanopoulos heard shouting in his neighbourhood, in Kolonos (Athens). He had just put his young son in bed and told his wife he would go out to check what was going on. As he went down the stairs, he saw five officers of DIAS squad that had arrested an immigrant. One of them had his foot on the arrested man’s stomach. “Why are you doing this? You’ve arrested him, there is no need for violence!” said Petros Kapetanopoulos. Then, they explained Petros that they were not walking on the man and demonstrated strong violence again, by hittin the man, again “This is walking on the man”, they said.  Petros repeated that this was all about torturing a man that is already arrested.  The end result? Petros was also arrested!

    After that, the immigrant is accused (and, later, admits) he had stolen the bag of a young girl, because he was hungry.  Petros Kapetanopoulos, on the other hand, is charged with the following:

Α. «resisting arrest»,

Β. «false  testimony»,

C. «attempt of  liberating a prisoner» while there is not a single evidence on this, not even from the testimony of the officer (the only accusation witness),

D. and, finally,  not only the Public Prosecutor drafts a common file charging Petros Kapetanopoulos and the immigrant man, also accusing Petros of  «simple complicity in robbery», which is a felony!

       After all this, among others, Petros Kapetanopoulos –being a public servant- is at risk of being deprived from his income for four years and is ex officio temporarily laid off as he is indicted for felony.

At the same time, the same charges may mean lots of years in prison, if he is not proclaimed innocent in Court.

     At the Press conference that was given, after Petros Kapetanopoulos’ attorney explained the legal situation of his client, party representatives, organizations, unions and others have expressed their solidarity and support, speaking of a “State that wants none to care about their fellow people”**

Read the full article HERE:
Also sign the petition HERE:

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THERE ARE ALTERNATIVES.

        As austerity bites, the ingenuity of the ordinary people find alternatives to this corporate driven insanity that attempts to control every aspect of our lives. Which, of course, proves that there are alternatives, there is a better way. Let's hope what is happening in Greece, with their alternative economy, catches on and does what they say it won't do, replace the Euro and develops enough to undermine the present system. You have eggs, I fix washing machines, let's talk??

This from The Guardian:

       It's been a busy day at the market in downtown Volos. Angeliki Ioanitou has sold a decent quantity of olive oil and soap, while her friend Maria has done good business with her fresh pies.
But not a single euro has changed hands – none of the customers on this drizzly Saturday morning has bothered carrying money at all. For many, browsing through the racks of second-hand clothes, electrical appliances and homemade jams, the need to survive means money has been usurped.
     "It's all about exchange and solidarity, helping one another out in these very hard times," enthused Ioanitou, her hair tucked under a floppy felt cap. "You could say a lot of us have dreams of a utopia without the euro."
       In this bustling port city at the foot of Mount Pelion, in the heart of Greece's most fertile plain, locals have come up with a novel way of dealing with austerity – adopting their own alternative currency, known as the Tem. As the country struggles with its worst crisis in modern times, with Greeks losing up to 40% of their disposable income as a result of policies imposed in exchange for international aid, the system has been a huge success. Organisers say some 1,300 people have signed up to the informal bartering network.
       For users such as Ioanitou, the currency – a form of community banking monitored exclusively online – is not only an effective antidote to wage cuts and soaring taxes but the "best kind of shopping therapy". "One Tem is the equivalent of one euro. My oil and soap came to 70 Tem and with that I bought oranges, pies, napkins, cleaning products and Christmas decorations," said the mother-of-five. "I've got 30 Tem left over. For women, who are worst affected by unemployment, and don't have kafeneia [coffeehouses] to go to like men, it's like belonging to a hugely supportive association."
      Greece's deepening economic crisis has brought new users. With ever more families plunging into poverty and despair, shops, cafes, factories and businesses have also resorted to the system under which goods and services – everything from yoga sessions to healthcare, babysitting to computer support – are traded in lieu of credits.

Read the full article HERE:

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HOW IN THE HELL.

Thought for the day.

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NUCLEAR SAVAGE.

      I believe it is always important to draw attention to how any state will inflict unbelievable cruelties on any people if it suits its purpose. We in the West get information on some of the vile and cruel actions by foreign states on their own and other people. However information of Western states brutal and inhumane treatment of people is a little harder to uncover. We are well aware of the brutality of the former USSR, that information was freely available, as they were the enemy of Western corporatism, so it was trumpeted in that babbling brook of bullshit, the media. The cold clinical brutality of the German Nazi regime is well documented and publicised. After all they were an emerging competing power.  However, the US using the Marshall Islands as a laboratory to study the effects of radiation, inflicted by the US, on human beings, between June 30, 1946, to August 18, 1958, must rate as one of the most callous, cruel, cold blooded, state experiments of that century. It may have happened a long time ago, but still in my life time, 

This from One Big Torrent:

     "John is a savage, but a happy, amenable savage." Thus intones the voice on a '50s-era newsreel clip in the documentary, showing footage of seven male Marshall Islanders who have been brought to the United States for radiation testing. "John is mayor of Rongelap Atoll. John reads, knows about God and is a pretty good mayor."The film does a stunning job juxtaposing examples of the smug ignorance of South Sea culture with the reality of what the US did to it.
       In "Nuclear Savage" Adam Horowitz exposes American hubris and the horrors of nuclear testing visited on the Marshallese people in one of the darkest chapters of human history. The United States conducted nuclear tests and deliberately exposed the Marshallese people to radiation and studied the effects it had on them in a secret project called Project 4.1.
      The Marshallese people were treated like guinea pigs and less than human. After studying the immediate effects of the fallout the islanders of Rongelap were transported back to their contaminated homelands for further long-term tests!!.Merril Eisenbud, the first health and safety chief of the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission said in a secret 1956 meeting: "That island is by far the most contaminated place on earth and it would be very interesting to get a measure of human uptake when people live in a contaminated environment. . . . While it is true that these people do not live the way Westerners do, civilized people, it is also true that these people are more like us than the mice."
        At The Nuremberg trials the Nazis were hauled up for conducting experiments on human beings.The same rigorous standards does not seem to apply to the United States which flouts all laws with impunity and gives lectures to the rest of the world .Who is going to prosecute the US for their criminal actions??
       In a recent talk anthropologist Holly Barker pointed out that after all that nuclear poisoning there isn't a single oncologist in the entire Marshall Islands to treat cancer?-NOT-A-SINGLE-ONE.What this means is that anyone suffering from cancer caused by nuclear fallout is in effect handed a DEATH SENTENCE.The US has decided that 150 million$ is all that is needed to pay for the cancers,loss of homeland and livelihood and the environmental cleanup.150 million$ for 67 nuclear explosions whose total yield is equivalent to 1.6 Hiroshima bombs everyday for 12 years!
     Absolutely shameless!-Watch this and decide -WHO REALLY IS THE SAVAGE??

Further information

      During the period from June 30, 1946, to August 18, 1958, the United States conducted 67 nuclear tests in the Marshall Islands, all of which were considered atmospheric. The most powerful of those tests was the "Bravo" shot, a 15 megaton device detonated on March 1, 1954, at Bikini atoll. That test alone was equivalent to 1,000 Hiroshima bombs.

       While the Bravo test is well known, it should be acknowledged that 17 other tests in the Marshall Islands were in the megaton range and the total yield of the 67 tests was 108 megatons, the equivalent of more than 7,000 Hiroshima bombs.

      For the sake of comparison, it may be noted that from 1945 to 1988, the U.S. conducted a total of 930 known nuclear tests with a combined yield estimated to be 174 megatons. Approximately 137 megatons of that total was detonated in the atmosphere. In other words, while the number of tests conducted in the Marshall Islands represents only about 14% of all U.S. tests, the yield of the tests in the Marshalls comprised nearly 80% of the atmospheric total detonated by the U.S.

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THE SPIRIT OF REVOLT.

       The Spirit of Revolt is a group that are attempting to archive as much material as possible of anarchist, libertarian socialist, grass-roots activities, from the Glasgow/Clydeside area. To date we have met with considerable success and have now acquired and catalogued a fair volume of material, which we will make available to the general public through the medium of our website, still under construction, and the Mitchell Library catalogue.

      We have also planned to have a series of exhibitions highlighting certain aspects of the collection. The first of these exhibitions will be held from the 14th. to the 19th. of January, 2013, in the foyer of the Mitchell Library. It is called Radical Presses Clydeside it's free and should prove to be fascinating to all those interested in working class struggle. I hope you can all come along, have a chat with members of the group and find out how you can get involved.

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WE ARE THE MAKERS OF HISTORY.

     Wouldn't it be wonderful if our children and grandchildren could read history like the following article? Well only this generation can make that possible, it is up to us to decide what history will look like to our following generations. Will it be a history of leaders and billionaires, of war and poverty shattering the lives of millions, of corporate greed still running rampant while raping and pillaging the planet for the gain of the parasitical few? Or will it be a history of peace, and an economic system that sees to the needs of all our people?  What we do in the coming year will shape our history, will we continue to allow the financial Mafia to pillage the public purse creating deprivation and death, or do we, with one united voice, cry out, enough is enough?

This from A World to Win:

When people decided that enough was enough.

New Year's message

society was being overwhelmed by a series of catastrophes to which there seemed no answers. Unemployment, poverty and inequality were rife as a global crisis took hold. The old capitalist economic system had run its course and was unsustainable.
The world was choked with products, many of them out of date as soon as they came off the production lines. Huge dumps and rubbish piles accumulated and overwhelmed parts of the planet. Waste, some of it lethal, became big business as it was shipped across the globe.
People became poorer as they lost jobs and services were cut by undemocratic governments in the pockets of the corporations. Increasing numbers depended on charity food banks just to survive. Obesity and diabetes epidemics affected the poor – due to the marketing of junk food by agribusiness and supermarkets.

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