State Sponsored Uniformed Thugs.

       The Greek police have now descended to new low level of callous brutality, and what is more is that it is with the blessing of the Greek government and the judiciary. It seems to be accepted that if you are arrested you will be beaten, the state has put intimidation into full throttle and the police are obliging. This depressing article from Borderline Reporters should be made as widely available as possible. This is Europe, not some far flung despot state, this is how the state deals with any form of resistance when it feels threatened.

     Recently, however, this controversial practice was taken to a new level. The Police published photos of four youths arrested on robbery and terrorism charges.

Three of those arrested, as presented in the first set of images released by the Police

  When reporters and members of the public pointed out that the photos had evidently been photoshopped, and rather crudely for that matter, the Police finally released several unaltered photos of those arrested. In the second set of photos, it was revealed they had been brutally beaten.

 

The same three, in the second set of images

Read the full article HERE:

ann arky's home.

Heads They Win - Tails You Lose.

     As the Cameron/Osborne millionaire cabal continue with their "austerity" plan and you and I slide ever further down the poverty plughole, their mantra of "we are all in this together" and "tough decisions have to be made" merits a little examination.

      Through the period of the "crisis" from 2008 to 2011, average wages for UK workers rose by a mere 3.7% while those who engineered the "crisis" the 1% top financial sector, saw the salaries rise by 8.6%. When the "crisis" arrived in 2008, it is not as if the banks hadn't been raking it in. European banking profits for the year 2003 were approximately €8 billion, for 2007, this had risen to €40 billion, and in 2008, the year of the "crisis" they still made €10 billion. However, those vast sums of money seemed to have disappeared. Where did it all go? Since 2008 until 2011 the European Commission approved €4.5 trillion in state aid to that same financial sector that had been raking it in since 2003.

       We are told we can't afford decent social services, can't afford decent pensions, and benefits have to be cut, where did that €4.5 trillion "state aid" to the financial sector come from? State aid is your money, the state doesn't have any money except what it takes from the people.  "In good times, banks took the benefits for their employees and shareholders, while in the bad times the taxpayer bore the costs. For the banks, it was a case of heads I win, tails you - the taxpayer - lose."  Mervyn King, Governor of The Bank of England. All of that €4.5 trillion "aid" to the privately owned financial sector was plundered from the public purse, stolen from the people.

      Another aspect of the deepening poverty among the ordinary people of Europe is the obscene fact that of a European population of approximately 500 million, 0.6% are millionaires and their wealth is approximately €7.6 trillion, equivalent to roughly 50% of the European GDP. In other words those 0.6% millionaires could have bailed out the banks with €4.5 trillion all by themselves and still had €3.1 trillion left between them.

       Europe is made up of very rich countries, we are awash with wealth, it is just that the system is loaded against the ordinary people and in favour of all those greedy, sweaty palmed, millionaire/billionaire parasites that go to make up the financial Mafia.  "the crisis was the result of human action and inaction, not Mother Nature or computer models gone haywire----- we conclude this financial crisis was avoidable." US Congressional report 2011.  Ah, the wonders of capitalism.  

Figures gleaned from TNI:

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"We Have A Pope".

      "We have a Pope" and so the stench of the church continues, as one scandal ridden chief shuffles off another steps in to carry on the whole sorry mess of the corrupt Church PLC. Benedict with his shady Hitler Youth past, and the ever present flow of financial and sexual scandals, slips out of the limelight, and now Francis, friend of Argentina's 1976 brutal military junta takes the reigns.

     The church's history is a catalogue of brutality, sexual crimes, financial fiddlings and siding with all manner of brutal autocratic regimes in an attempt to further and protect its wealth and power, and its maniacal desire to control the minds and bodies of the people of world. Those who seek freedom and justice can have no truck with such a vile institution. As long as it exists, freedom is in chains.

An extract from a Guardian Article:

 What one did not hear from any senior member of the Argentinian hierarchy was any expression of regret for the church's collaboration and in these crimes. The extent of the church's complicity in the dark deeds was excellently set out by Horacio Verbitsky, one of Argentina's most notable journalists, in his book El Silencio (Silence). He recounts how the Argentinian navy with the connivance of Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio, now the Jesuit archbishop of Buenos Aires, hid from a visiting delegation of the Inter-American Human Rights Commission the dictatorship's political prisoners. Bergoglio was hiding them in nothing less than his holiday home in an island called El Silencio in the River Plate. The most shaming thing for the church is that in such circumstances Bergoglio's name was allowed to go forward in the ballot to chose the successor of John Paul II. What scandal would not have ensued if the first pope ever to be elected from the continent of America had been revealed as an accessory to murder and false imprisonment.

Read the full article HERE:

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41 Years Solitary Confinement!!

        Another reminder of what goes on in the land of the preacher of democracy and freedom, the Good ol' US of A. This appeal from Amnesty International.

	Amnesty International UK
	After 40 years of ‘inhuman’ punishment, conviction overturned for third time
	Albert Woodfox has spent most of the last 41 years in solitary confinement, locked up for 23 hours a day in a 6.5 x 9 foot cell. Yet a judge recently overturned his murder conviction for the third time on the basis of racial discrimination in the selection of the grand jury foreperson prior to Albert’s re-trial in 1998. Now the Attorney General of Louisiana has a choice: appeal the ruling and drag out Albert’s ordeal for many more years, or let it stand - paving the way for Albert to be re-tried or freed.

	Dear John, My name is Robert H. King. I was released on 8 February 2001, after spending 31 years in prison - 29 of them in solitary confinement at the infamous Louisiana State Prison also known as 'Angola'. Confined there with me were Albert Woodfox and Herman Wallace, the other two friends who make up 'the Angola 3'. Herman and Albert have now spent 41 years in prison. And though neither are any longer housed at Angola, both remain in solitary confinement at another prison - a punishment Amnesty has described as 'cruel, inhuman and degrading'. Call on the State of Louisiana to end Albert Woodfox's ordeal Prior to and since my release from prison, I have continued to campaign to free Herman and Albert. Last week, that campaign took a huge step forward with the ruling by a federal district court that there was racial discrimination in the selection of the jury foreperson prior to Albert's re-trial in 1998. Louisiana's Attorney General could appeal against this ruling – he has two weeks left to do so. Or he could do the right thing and end four decades of injustice by letting the ruling stand, clearing the way for Albert to be re-tried or simply walk free at last. Call on Louisiana to allow Albert Woodfox to be retried or walk free I know what being locked up in that cramped, dark cell does to a man, and I fear for my friend Albert whose physical and mental health is failing fast. The sense of how cruelly and unjustly Albert and the rest of us were treated still burns as strong as ever - as does my will to end their ordeal. This isn’t the first or even the second time Albert’s conviction has been overturned. Previously judges have cited racial discrimination, misconduct by the prosecution and inadequate defence in their rulings. There is also troubling evidence that a key eyewitness against Albert had been bribed, and no physical evidence linking him to the murder has ever been found. Call on Louisiana to allow Albert Woodfox to be retried or walk free However, I also know how many of you share my sense of injustice and that we can count on your ongoing support. When I spoke to Albert last week he asked me to pass on his gratitude to his ‘legions of supporters’ across the world, particularly to all of you in the UK. Wednesday 17 April will mark the 41st anniversary of our incarceration in Angola. Please help ensure that this year it is a day of hope - or even freedom - for my friend, Albert Woodfox. End Albert Woodfox’s ordeal: email the Attorney General now Power to the people!  As ever, Robert H. King The only freed member of the Angola 3

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Those Office Killer Soldiers.

    Drones are hyped as the smart clinical method of dealing with the "really bad guys" of this world, but the truth is that they are weapons of terror. They create terror when ever they are sighted over an area and result in all sort of psychological problems for those who live in or near the area where they are used. This is over and above the sudden and brutal carnage caused by their devastating fire-power. These weapons of terror are used by Britain and the US to kill in other sovereign states without any declaration of war, illegal under international law. There is a feeling of helplessness, fear and hyper anxiety in men women and children when these killers fly overhead, for good reason. These are not surgical weapons, they can wipe-out a small village in one fell swoop and the perpetrators  will call it a success if among the many killed and maimed their appointed target lies dead.

      We are under the illusion that this is a solely America crime, but the UK is up to its armpits in this illegal, soldierless program of terror and assassination. It is no more than we should expect from any state. States will always use whatever means is at their disposal to maintain their power, no matter how fiendish, vile, brutal or how dubious its legality they may be, just as long as they can get away with it covertly or overtly. It is all part and parcel of their game of empire.

 

This from The Bureau of Investigative Journalism.

    Legal proceedings were begun in London recently against British Foreign Secretary William Hague, over possible British complicity in CIA drone strikes.
     Britain’s GCHQ – its secret monitoring and surveillance agency – is reported to have provided ‘locational evidence’ to US authorities for use in drone strikes, a move which is reportedly illegal in the United Kingdom.

Also this:

    One psychiatrist told researchers that many of his patients experience ‘anticipatory anxiety,’ a constant fear that they might come under attack. The report goes on to note that:

"Interviewees described emotional breakdowns, running indoors or hiding when drones appear above, fainting, nightmares and other intrusive thoughts, hyper startled reactions to loud noises, outbursts of anger or irritability, and loss of appetite and other physical symptoms. Interviewees also reported suffering from insomnia and other sleep disturbances, which medical health professionals in Pakistan stated were prevalent.’---"

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Driven By Unbridled greed.

      Large corporations are having a field day, most of them are holding large volumes of cash but are still using the "austerity" plan as a method of making more. It gives them the excuse to lay-off workers by what ever means possible, it can be out-sourcing or efficiency cuts, the effects are the same, spreading the load over fewer workers, and/or lower wages, but to them more importantly, higher profits.

This appeal from Labour Start:   

      The FNV Bondgenoten is taking action in support of their members' demand for decent transfer conditions for service workers scheduled to be outsourced. Their terms and conditions under the new employer, catering and service giant Sodexo, will be severely degraded. Many of these workers, employed in catering, cleaning, security, and reception are long-serving Unilever employees. The union is demanding safeguards and compensation for being tossed on the outsourcing scrapheap - support their struggle.  Sign up to the IUF campaign by clicking here to send a message to Unilever. 

       In another 8 days we're closing down the 3rd annual LabourStart survey of trade union use of the net.  Fillling in the survey will only take you a couple of minutes and will provide invaluable information not only to us, but to the international trade union movement.  Please fill in the survey here.

       Finally, we need just over 500 more of you to send your messages of protest to the Turkish government following raids that resulted in the arrests of over a hundred trade union leaders.  If 500 of you send off your messages today, that will bring the total up to 10,000 -- a number which we hope the Turkish government will not ignore.  Please help us grow this campaign and spread the word in your unions.

 

Thank you for your support.

 

Eric Lee

---
Which campaigns have I missed?  Click here to find out.

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It Is World Wide Class War.

        On reading the following article I found it hard to believe that the writer was not writing about the UK. The evaporation of private sector jobs by out sourcing, the destruction of unions and collective bargaining, the demonising of public sector workers and the demolition of social services etc.. Of course it was just a momentary lapse, for I am well aware that this assault on the living standards of the ordinary people is not just a UK event. This is a Western capitalist strategy to extract the last drop of profit from the people to further their own greed. A determined effort to create a Western capitalist sweatshop empire to compete with their Eastern sweatshop competitor. Like the article says, this is not something that is unavoidable, it is not following some immutable laws of nature. It is a man made ideology that is being rigorously pursued by people, people with an aim, to enrich themselves and their cabal of millionaires and billionaires at the expense of you and I. The class war is now fully on the world stage. You could say it is World War 3.

This extract from the article by Andy Piascik in the Connecticut Post, 

       The destruction of good-paying private-sector jobs and the current assault on the public sector is further evidence of the failure of capitalism. In many ways, this is a historical epoch as we witness the utter bankruptcy of a system where the global super-rich have bled the people dry and now seek to gut what remains of the public sector. Those efforts are being met with tremendous resistance, however, as millions work together in search of a better way.

Perhaps most instructive is the burgeoning cooperative movement where workers and communities make do without owners or bosses and instead produce cooperatively based on need. Such workplaces are mainstays in places as diverse as Argentina and Greece and shine much-needed light on how people around the world might free themselves from the clutches of corporate predators.

Read the full article HERE:

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In This Society Money Makes The Man.

       An old 1963 Soviet Union cartoon, not much has changed, it still make sense today.

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Time For Your Righteous Anger.

       As usual the anger of the people across Europe at the slashing of their standard of living, goes more or less unreported in our babbling brook of bullshit that passes for mainstream media. Week in week out some where in Europe people are on the street displaying their disgust and anger at the corruption of the puppet governments of the financial Mafia. The message from the bullshit factory is that everything is going fine and the people realise that they have to make sacrifices. The reality is that the people are aware of the smoke and mirrors of the corrupt political careerists and the financial Mafia, that awareness is backed up by anger. Anger that should, with justification, explode and drive this economic system that favours the parasites to the dustbin of history. There is an old Korean saying that fits the moment,

"Enjoy the ecstasy of your righteous anger."

Just one of the many, and for those who rely on the babbling brook of bullshit and missed it:

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Theft From The Poor.

       Most of us realise that the present economic system is crazy, unjust, and corrupt, and we will spout this from time to time. However sometimes, even those who are steeped in its rituals and take the reigns of power, can't help but comment on its stupidity, brutality and unfairness.

"Every gun that is made, every rocket fired, signifies in the final sense a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed."

General Dwight Eisenhower, formed US President.

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Who Owns The Basics of Life?

    Some things are necessary for survival, like water, shelter and food, without any one of these basics your survival is in jeopardy, yet we tolerate a system where by if you don't have enough of that stuff called money, you can be denied these basic necessities. Probably one reason this cruel unjust system survives is because you don't die suddenly. With poverty you can be denied one or all of these basics, not enough money means cheap crap food, not enough food, and you die, rather slowly. We won't see people fall over and die in the street, they will just simply deteriorate and die young, the shock factor isn't there. Likewise the homeless, a hidden slow death by poverty, murder by shareholders. Across the world day in day out, millions of lives are shortened by not having access to clean drinking water. Why should the flow and distribution of the very basics of life be under the control of the Davos Club, that group of greedy, pampered, parasitical, millionaire shareholders?

      Under our millionaire's scheme of "debt reduction" and "austerity cuts" we are seeing more and more of our public assets being handed over to those shiny suits of the Davos Club. Soon there will be nothing that belongs to the people. In the UK they already own, among other things, our energy resources and we have seen the prices rocket, as they pursue ever greater profits. Social housing has long been under attack and is disappearing, financial institutions own our homes, and they are working hard at getting our water.

      These corporate conditions will produce a world where we will be completely at the mercy of those greedy, pampered, parasitical, millionaire shareholders of the Davos Club, for everything we need, and if you are poor, your only means of survival will be dependent on charity organisations. Of course we can take everything back, creating co-operatives and community controlled enterprises, it is happening in all sorts of places across the globe. People have seen enough of "free market", "neo-liberalism", which translates into ripping-off the people and widespread deprivation. The tide is turning, it has to, it must be our world, or it is a destroyed world of abject poverty.

We are the ones who knead and yet we have no bread,
we are the ones who dig for coal and yet we are cold.

We are the ones who have nothing,
and we are coming to take the world.

~ Tassos Livaditis (Greek poet, 1922-1988)

ann arky's home.

Glasgow and International Women's Day.

 

      International Women's Day (March 8) has been observed since in the early 1900's, a time of great expansion and turbulence in the industrialized world that saw booming population growth and the rise of radical ideologies.

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

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

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

1911
Following the decision agreed at Copenhagen in 1911, International Women's Day (IWD) was honoured the first time in Austria, Denmark, Germany and Switzerland on 19 March. More than one million women and men attended IWD rallies campaigning for women's rights to work, vote, be trained, to hold public office and end discrimination. However less than a week later on 25 March, the tragic 'Triangle Fire' in New York City took the lives of more than 140 working women, most of them Italian and Jewish immigrants. This disastrous event drew significant attention to working conditions and labour legislation in the United States that became a focus of subsequent International Women's Day events. 1911 also saw women's 'Bread and Roses' campaign.    Read the full article HERE:

   

      Here in our own city of Glasgow can boast an army of women who have fought not just to raise the profile and rights of women, but fought in that greater struggle, the struggle for justice and freedom for all. The early part of the 20th century through the hungry 30's Glasgow had battling heroes such as Mary Barbour, Helen Crawfurd, Agnes Dollan, Jane Hamilton Patrick, Helen Brown Scott Lennox, Ethel MacDonald, and Rita Milton. From then until now there have been many more. Our city and indeed the world, owe a debt to those women who stood and fought against the tide of the conventionalism, injustice and war. 

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The Advance of the Soldier-less War.

     War is always a brutal nightmare, but the rapid advancement of the "soldier-less war" takes us into the realms of some science fiction horror movie. The idea of states controlling vast swaths of the planet by a bunch of youngsters sitting in a comfortable office near their home, in front of their console, boringly doing their 9-to-5 job, must be the nightmare of nightmares. Brutal death and devastation administered from a swivel-chair in an air conditioned office by people who have no conception of the death and destruction that they are implementing. It separates real bloodshed and death from the reality of those administering the devastation.

This appeal from Stop The War Coalition:

  Ground the Drones - sign the petition

    Stop Britain being a launchpad for killer drones. We call on the government to abandon the use of drones as a weapon of war.

     Signed by: Chris Cole (Drone Campaign Network); Jeremy Corbyn (MP for Islington North); Lindsey German (Convenor, Stop the War Coalition); Kate Hudson (CND); Rafeef Ziahdah (War On Want).

   

• Add your name to the petition
• Join us in Lincoln on the 27th April to protest against drones
  
• Share the event with your Facebook contacts

This spring, the UK will double its number of armed Reaper drones in Afghanistan and will for the first time begin operating drones over Afghanistan from a new facility at RAF Waddington near Lincoln.

    CND, Drone Campaign Network, Stop the War Coalition, War on Want and others will protest against the drones at RAF Waddington, Lincoln on the 27 April.

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FAQ by Iain McKay.

‘Everything you ever wanted to know about Anarchism, but were afraid to ask’ with Iain McKay.

Wednesday 20^th March, 7pm
_________________________________________

    Iain McKay is the author of the encyclopaedic two-volume set ‘ An Anarchist FAQ’ which sets out to cover all aspects of the Anarchist tradition, in terms of theory, history and practice. He has also written an extensive introduction to the 2011 AK Press published ‘Property Is Theft!: A Pierre-Joseph Proudhon Reader’, and is currently completing work on a new translation of the writings of Bakunin.

    Housmans are very happy to welcome Iain, who will be starting off the evening by flying through a brief history of Anarchism and highlighting the major traditions within it, before opening it up to the floor for questions and discussion. Whatever your current understanding  of Anarchism, this is a chance to ask questions, share knowledge, and raise your and others awareness in a friendly setting.

Event informationHousmans Bookshop
5 Caledonian Road
King's Cross
London N1 9DX
Tel: 020 7837 4473www.housmans.com

Entry £3, redeemable against purchase.
Nearest tube: King's Cross

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Time to Start Pushing.

     In these so called “difficult times” it is hard to grasp the difference between the rich and the poor. As you and I continue to struggle to maintain a decent standard of life, and millions fail in that attempt, the wealth of the richest parasites looks more and more like monopoly money. According to the Forbes “rich list”, the combined wealth of the world's 1,426 billionaires is a staggering $5.4 trillion. If they decided to fall out with us and form their own country, they would be the fourth richest country in the world, just behind Japan but ahead of Germany. Think of it, a country richer than Germany, with a population of just 1,426??

      At the other end of the scale, approximately one person every 3.5 seconds of each and every day, dies of hunger-related causes, a staggering 25,000 each day, most of these are children. At least 80% of the world's population lives on less than $10 a day. The world is a wealthy place but the split is criminal, with the poorest 40% of the world's population having 5% of the total income and the richest 20% accounting for 75%.

     In a world where 25,000 a day die every day because of hunger, there is an abundance of food. The problem is not the shortage of food, the problem is the system. In this capitalist system everything has to make a profit, the system traps people in poverty and the spiral is downward. Malnutrition means ill health and you are less able to earn your living, and in country after country that is a slow spiralling down to death.

      At one end, a small army with money to burn, obscene wealth for a handful of pampered parasites, private jets, yachts, mansions dotted across the world, the purchase of islands for family homes. All this off the sweat, tears and death of the many. At the other end, a multitude of hungry people, mother after mother watching her child slowly die of hunger.

     By any analysis, the system is unjust, immoral, plain wrong, stinkingly corrupt, unsustainable and not fit for purpose. That is not in doubt, the question is how long will we allow this murder for wealth to continue? How many more mothers will see their children slowly die of hunger while surrounded by food, before we say enough is enough? In a world of abundance, it doesn't take a lot of imagination to take food and distribute it to all who need it, those who stand in the way have to be pushed aside.

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Greece Today.

     A run through modern Greece today, courtesy of Teacher Dude's Grill and BBQ.

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The Justice in Capitalism.

      Listening to our millionaire cabal in the Westminster Houses of Hypocrisy and Corruption, spouting their “economic strategy” of austerity and debt reduction, is a lesson in double speak, smoke and mirrors and illusion. As they slash at all our social services, benefits, pensions, etc. while freezing/cutting wages, we are told that there is no alternative, it is all for our benefit and will all come right in the end.   

   There monologue goes something like this, “All you 16 to 24 year old unemployed, (skivers), just put up with it for 8 to10 years, then, as we enter the economic land of milk and honey, you will all have a well paid job with a decent pension, in one fell swoop, you will have been transformed into upwardly mobile, (strivers). All you poor on benefit, (scroungers), quietly continue with trying to survive and bring up a family in a situation of poverty and deprivation for a mere 8 to 10 years and you will be magically transported into the land of the two car “middle class” (wealth creators). As for all you pensioners, (national burden), scrape-out your existence for a short period of 8 to 10 years and you will enter the land of bus-pass paradise, as the new UK is transformed into corporate Ecotopia.” 

     For the ordinary people of this country it is a philosophy of suffer today for pie-in-the-sky tomorrow, meanwhile, the hypocritical millionaire parasites who spew this “economic strategy” go blissfully on their greedy way, day by day amassing ever great wealth. Ah, the justice in capitalism.

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We Can Do It Ourselves.

       DIY is a well known phrase but our answer to the problems of this type of society that we live in, is DIO Do It Ourselves. We can work together to create communities that can work in federation with other like-minded communities. The ordinary people have all the skills and imagination necessary to build and sustain healthy, just and happy environments. We don't need a bunch of power hungry parasites to tell us what is best for us, why should we believe a group of egotistical arrogant political careerists that tell us that to control our lives is too difficult, so we should leave that part to them. It is our lives, it is our world.

We are the ones who knead and yet we have no bread,
we are the ones who dig for coal and yet we are cold.

We are the ones who have nothing,
and we are coming to take the world.

~ Tassos Livaditis (Greek poet, 1922-1988)

This from Edible City:

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We Are Half Way There!!

       I keep mouthing off about the financial Mafia driving us back to the deprivation of the Victorian era in their attempt at creating a European sweatshop economy, well we are half way there. The figures from a newly published study from the High Pay Centre makes for some interesting reading. Its conclusions are that the UK has returned to the pay inequalities that have not been seen since the 1930's. While we, the ordinary people have seen our incomes shrivel, the top 1% have seen their share of the national income more than double since 1979, they now claim 14.5% of the national income. The national average wage in the UK sits at £20,500, while the 26,000 top earning parasites of this country receive more than that in a month after tax, taking home a tidy sum of at least £21,500 a month. Of course average earnings can be misleading, we have approximately 6.75 million people in the UK earning less than £800 a month. Think of the difference in your standard of living, £800 a month or £21,500 a month, how do you justify that disparity?

     At least one rich retired business man doesn't seem to like this. The Independent on Sunday reported that a certain Sir Mike Darrington, retired CEO of Greggs, has written to the remuneration boards of all the FTSE 100 companies begging them to show restraint on executive pay, no this is not a joke. Strange that he should write this letter AFTER he retired and not before. However I wouldn't hold my breath on a positive response from his FTSE 100 colleagues.

     Of course it is not just in Europe that this great divide is ever widening, in the US they have the same pattern, the rich get richer and the poor get poorer. In that land of the free and opportunity, for the year 2009, a mere 311 Americans shared between them a staggering $54 trillion, while 80% of the American population share just 7% of the national wealth. As for the bottom 40%, well they get by with barely any wealth at all. Ah well, that's capitalism for you.

      If we want to change this, and what ordinary sane person wouldn't, we will have to take a very different approach from our Sir Mike Darrington, It is no use appealing to the charity of a bunch of greedy parasites, we have to get rid of them. Would the chickens ask the fox to help them?

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Anarchist Economics, on Circled A Radio.

Glasgow's Iain McKay chats anarchism economics on Circle A Radio.

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