No Human Being Is Illegal.

      An appeal from The Unity Centre Glasgow and Glasgow Destitution Network.

 

       Imagine being in a strange city in a foreign country on a cold winter's night. You can't speak the language, you have no where to stay, it's starting to rain and you don't know anyone who can help you...
What do you do?
Where do you go?

SATURDAY 29TH JUNE
St ENOCH'S SQUARE
GLASGOW
STAND UP FOR DIGNITY  

Stop Destitution!
Give us the Right to Work!
Housing is a Human Right!
Stand Up for the right to Asylum 

JUSTICE, FREEDOM & DIGNITY for ALL!

Rally & Music
12.30 St Enoch's Square
Glasgow
Supported by the Glasgow Destitution Network

        Asylum seekers come to Glasgow for safety but 90 per cent of them will have their asylum claims initially refused by the UK Border Agency. The UKBAs asylum process is seriously flawed. Asylum seekers can be reluctant to reveal personal details to officials about how theyve been attacked, raped or tortured. Many are scared to give information about their sexuality in case it is discovered by other people. Worried that translators belong to rival groups or will leak information, many hold back crucial information. Often theyve not had time to collect evidence to show theyre telling the truth.
         So most asylum seekers are not believed by immigration officials who operate in a cynical, canteen-culture of disbelief and racism against people theyre supposed to be helping. Many asylum seekers in Glasgow make two or three asylum applications before getting a positive decision. While they wait for new evidence or for lawyers to prepare judicial reviews, asylum seekers often face destitution. Instead of safety, many asylum seekers in Glasgow face sleeping rough and becoming dependent on the help of friends and charities to survive. 

         Refused asylum seekers are not allowed any recourse to public funds. All financial support is stopped and they lose their accommodation after 21 days. Once homeless, No recourse to public funds means destitute asylum seekers are blocked from government funded night shelters or hostels.
        Refused asylum seekers are left to live without any money, unable to access anything but emergency medical treatment, sleeping rough or couch-surfing until they can get a fresh asylum claim lodged. They become vulnerable to exploitation and face working illegally and crime to survive.
         Destitution is a deliberate policy used by the UK Border Agency to force asylum seekers to give up their asylum claims and return voluntarily to their countries of origin. It is a brutal, immoral policy that goes against basic human rights.

Join us on Saturday 29th June
Stand up for your rights!
Stand up for Dignity!
12.30 St Enoch's Square
GLASGOW
The UNITY Centre
30 Ibrox Street
Glasgow
G51 1AQ

0141 427 7992
http://www.unitycentreglasgow.org info@unitycentreglasgow.org

      The UNITY Centre is run entirely by volunteers and funded completely by donations from our supporters. We need your help! If you would like to help by making a donation or by volunteering you can find more details on our website. Thank you! UNITY!

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A World In Revolt.

     It is the universal pattern of this insane economic system called capitalism. Each government can spend billions on all sorts of grand plans, and at the same time cut down on those essentials, like health care, education, social services, pensions, and so forth. The London Olympics cost billions, the war in Afghanistan has cost us billions each of its disastrous 11 years, but we are seeing a rapid deterioration in the living standards of the ordinary people because we can't afford to run a civilised society. The recent events in Turkey were sparked off by the governments plans to build another shopping mall on a green space in a city. 

 

      Yesterday hundreds of thousands, (Reuters put it at 200,000) took to the streets of Brazil in protest at government corruption, with such comments as "They have spent billions of dollars on building stadiums, but nothing on health and education."  More than half a dozen cities saw there centres grind to a standstill, among them Brasilla, Rio de Janeiro, Sao Paulo and Belo Horizone. The world is in revolt against a system of injustice and insanity.

       So it doesn't matter which bunch of politicians you vote for the outcome is the same, big business gets the contracts, be it arms manufacturers or designers of grandiose edifices to the corporate God of greed, and the people get austerity. The world is awash with wealth, and more and more of that wealth is falling into the hands of fewer and fewer people. It's the way the system is designed to work and it's doing just fine. As long as we continue to accept this insane system we will continue to see the poor grow in number and get poorer and that little bunch of bloated parasites get richer and richer.

       Is it beyond our imagination to devise a system where the wealth of the world is distributed around the planet according to the needs of the people. Is it reckless and terrorist orientated to attempt to bring about a system that sees those who create all that wealth, the ordinary people, control how it should be distributed? The present economic system is not set in tablets of stone, it is not given to us by the booming voice of some other-worldly being on high. It is a man made system that works for the benefit of the few at the expense of the many.

         Our tomorrow will begin when we think co-operation, think community, think mutual aid, think no-borders, think sustainability, think of the heritage we want to leave to our children and our grandchildren. This world is our world, we built the cities and the factories, we grow the food, we therefore have the right to shape it to our needs. we have no need for the blood sucking parasites that bleed us dry to feed their own geed and arrogance.

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Hundreds of thousands took to the streets in Brazil tonight protesting corruption, police violence, and a government that funds massive stadiums and ignores public services.
Gosh, conditions in Brazil sound quite a lot like here in the US, don’t they? Maybe it’s time we took to the streets too.
- See more at: http://polizeros.com/#sthash.N9StDfIv.dpuf

Hundreds of thousands took to the streets in Brazil tonight protesting corruption, police violence, and a government that funds massive stadiums and ignores public services.
Gosh, conditions in Brazil sound quite a lot like here in the US, don’t they? Maybe it’s time we took to the streets too.
- See more at: http://polizeros.com/#sthash.N9StDfIv.dpuf

Hundreds of thousands took to the streets in Brazil tonight protesting corruption, police violence, and a government that funds massive stadiums and ignores public services.
Gosh, conditions in Brazil sound quite a lot like here in the US, don’t they? Maybe it’s time we took to the streets too.
- See more at: http://polizeros.com/#sthash.N9StDfIv.dpuf

How Do You Police The Police?

         Sub Media is a very interesting site, for a glimpse at some of the police brutality that takes place day and daily, one of their videos, "The End Of The World As We Know It" is worth a look.

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From Footbal To Revolt.

       I suppose one event that showed the unity of the Turkish people's protest was the coming together of those bitter rivals Fenerbahce, Galasaray and Besiktas. They battled on and off the pitch, but on this occasion they come out united and joined with the people against the Turkish state.

 From Jenk K
      Football is beyond everything else in Turkey. Fenerbahce, Galatasaray and Besiktas fans got together and marched to Taksim square to support Gezi Park protests in Istanbul on June 8th 2013. For many years these football fans have never participated in social act as a whole. This is a historical moment is now called the march of Istanbul United.

Credits to Bulut Brothers who shared this remarkable footage with me.

Fenerbahce, Galatasaray, Besiktas fans gathering to support Taksim Gezi Park protests. from Jenk K on Vimeo.

The latest from the streets of Istanbul as reported in The Guardian:

       Thousands of people took to the streets of Istanbul overnight on Sunday, erecting barricades and starting bonfires, after riot police used teargas and water cannons to clear the protest camp at the centre of Turkey's anti-government unrest.

        In a night of chaotic violence large areas of the city around the now symbolic area of Gezi Park were engulfed in plumes of tear gas, while protesters opposed to the government of Turkey's prime minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan attempted to push back to the city's central Taksim Square.

       The continuing protest through the night, and calls for fresh demonstrations at 4pm on Sunday suggested that despite the clearing of the encampment in the park, Turkey's crisis was far from over.

      In the immediate aftermath of the police operation trade unionists called for a national strike on Monday.

Rear the full article HERE.

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Just Beneath The Surface.

       Canada doesn't often hit the headlines for street protests, but 2012 saw some of the biggest protests in Canada's history. It was the students revolt that rocked the country, lasted almost six months and forced an election. It is just more proof, if any was needed, that unrest is simply just murmuring under the surface of every capitalist country on the planet. Dissatisfaction is grudgingly borne and then it explodes.

https://ia700406.us.archive.org/23/items/STREET_POLITICS_101_HD/STREET_POLITICS_HD.mp4

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The Kilt And The Black Flag.

       With Scottish independence on the agenda it is good to hear the various points of view being put forward. I for one have never quite got my head round "what is a nation". Having been born in "Scotland" and lived there for most of my life I have often wrestled with the question, "what is Scottish", after all the border between Scotland and England has moved several times in history. It is a geographical location where at least three languages have struggled for survival, and with languages comes as many cultures. As a citizen of Glasgow, a post industrial city, I feel I have more in common with the people of Liverpool than I have with the people of the highlands and islands. I am also loathed to get involved in a debate between the various party political clans as how best to carve up a capitalist entity, so that, that capitalist entity can best serve a particular section of the population. I would rather debate how do we get rid of that capitalist entity and best serve the interest of the people. To me, nationalism and capitalism belong in the same bed, and it is a bed soaked in the blood of the ordinary people. Would it not be better if the debate was about what is happening in Greece, Spain, Italy, Portugal, Cyprus, Ireland, Turkey, Afghanistan, Libya, Iraq, Syria, Iran, and find the connection to what is happening here?

       To add to the debate here is an extract from an interesting article in The Commune:

 

  "--------In Britain today, the mainstream socialist left, in defiance of history,  still regards internationalism as abstract propaganda and is campaigning for a yes vote for Scottish nationalism and independence for Scotland, which is not an oppressed nation.  In a globally integrated world economy, dominated by transnational corporations and world financial organisations, such as the International Monetary Fund, the entire question of national independence becomes hollowed out as in Greece.  And how can the creation of another capitalist state, based on cutting business rates and corporation tax,  and other measures to attract capitalist investment,  benefit the working class ?  Loyalty to a new Capitalist State would renew nationalism and class collaboration and blunt any class struggle for a post Capitalist alternative.
       Independence lite, the programme of the SNP, sharing the Bank of England, the army, the Monarchy  and a currency will not represent the break up of the British State.   But the left in Scotland is putting its hopes on steering the state left .  The Radical Independence Campaign is  ”a coalition that does not even pretend to be based on the goal of Socialism.  Indeed, this emerging coalition is very much in the tradition of welfare provision in Scotland and England for a century ”  (18)  Nationalism given a Social Democratic gloss to attract the working class.  ”The only way in which the grip of a capitalist world system on individual countries, can be broken, is that if the system itself is destroyed. And no national struggle can achieve this, only the international working class” (19) Working class self emancipation from below  cannot be built on a nation, utilize the nation-state, or be confined to the nation-state.

Read the full article HERE:

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PATRIOTISM.

No, I shall not die for the fluttering flag,

if truth be known, ‘tis nothing but a multi-coloured rag

held aloft by some foolish hand

inciting worker and peasant to kill

on some green and wooded hill,

peasant and worker from some other land.

Nor shall I shed blood for the fluttering rag

that brings out fools to stand and brag

of brutal deeds painted grand,

deeds where rustic and craftsman lie so still

killed by my brothers' misguided hand.

No allegiance have I for the Nation

this man made autocratic creation

that divides my brothers in a world so small,

binds us to a country's cause, right or wrong,

bids us follow its drum, sing its song,

then sheds our blood in some border brawl.

No, I'll be no slave to flag or nation,

have no ear for power oration,

though its iron heel is on my breast,

my back feels its leather thong,

at patriotism's barracoon, I'll be no guest.

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Hands Off Syria.

 

   

    The West is hell bent in turning the entire Middle East into a stone age area awash with sectarian violence, Iraq, Libya, now Syria with Iran still in their sights. All this misery heaped on the people of the area, to open up its rich resources to the dollar driven corporate greed machine. This is not about compassion for the ordinary people, it's not about democracy. The Western corporate juggernaut doesn't give a shit about the people of any area, but it does care about oil and gas and the control of these resources. When the corporate world speaks the political puppets obey, this is not Western politicians concerned about the well being of people in the Middle East, it is simply a plunder of another countries natural resources, control and profit, plain and simple.

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Stop the War bulletin | June 2013 | stopwar.org.uk

Tomorrow: demonstrate against US sending arms to Syria

Stop Western Intervention in Syria

US Embassy Grosvenor Square London W1A 2LQ
Saturday 15 June 2013 1pm

     Earlier today the US approved sending arms to Syrian rebel groups, a policy that has been pushed by Britain and France for months and one that threatens to escalate violence in Syria.

      The possibility of a no fly zone - the prelude to the horrific bombing campaign carried about by Britain and France in Libya - now looks more likely as the West seeks to intensify an already difficult conflict with devastating humanitarian consequences.

Join us tomorrow to Stop Western Intervention in Syria: US Embassy, 1pm Saturday June 15.

Please make sure you attend and spread the word.

Take action

• Join our protest at the US Embassy on 15th June at 1pm.
• Share the event with your Facebook contacts.
  

Read more on Syria:

• Shamus Cooke: The real reason Obama is going to war with Syria has nothing to do with chemical weapons

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The Unfolding Story Of Greece.

       A few minutes after 11pm on the night of June 11, the signal of the two TV stations of ERT (the Greek state media broadcaster) was abruptly cut, as the Greek fascist government went further down the road of attempting to control the flow of information, or cut it all together. This decision was taken and enforced without any public debate or any vote in parliament. This unprecedented action was carried via a "act of legislative content" which is supposed to be invoked only during a state of emergency. The shut down meant the immediate firing of all the 2,600+ employees, this on top of an unemployment rate of 27.4%, the employees immediately occupied the broadcasting premises. The Greek public have come out in support of the employees occupation and more than 8,000 have gather outside the ERT HQ on Mesogeion Avenue.

     This drastic action by the fascist political puppets of the financial Mafia changes the situation in Greece as it has even angered the other political puppets that are playing the "representative democracy" game with the fascists, and further alienated the people from the government.

        Public sector Unions called a general strike for Thursday 13 June, buses, subway and trains stopped running, train and ferry links were affected, air traffic control was involved, journalists staged an indefinite strike with practically all major newspapers failing to appear, and hospital staff, already under pressure, also reduced staffing in protest at the ERT closure.

            There are some excellent photographs HERE and by Teacher Dude on his flickr site.
     Though the Troika, (ECB, European Central Bank, EC, European Commission, IMF, International Mankind Fuckers) consider that their fascist puppets in Athens are doing a good job, the people of Greece have not yet decided which way they will take their country, the book is not yet written.

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Turkey, The Angry Face Of Revulsion.

        Where protest movements grow and people take to the streets, it is difficult to get the truth of what is happening. What should be a conduit for information, the mainstream media, becomes a babbling brook of bullshit and state propaganda. What is going on in Turkey is an event that must worry all the other states in Europe, it is an open revulsion at the direction of Western society, it is a disgust for those elected politicians who assist the plundering of the public purse by the corporate greed machine. It is a realisation by the people that this system can't work in their interest. We are the chips at the financial Mafia's casino.

 

         This is an extract from an excellent article from Contra Info, of what is going on in Turkey at present:

    Then Gezi Park, then Gümüşsuyu, then Beşiktaş… And beyond İstanbul came riots in Sakarya, Kocaeli, Ankara, Adana, İzmir… In this revolt, which is still going on, the most important motivation that kept spontaneity alive was sharing and solidarity. Voluntary health workers formed civic medical centres for activists that were affected by police violence. Organizations like law associations, lawyers’ bars, and human rights associations supported protesters in custody or in similar conditions. Trade unions like the Turkish Mechanical Engineers Chambers Association turned their buildings into infirmaries. People opened their homes, workplaces, gave support with food and drinks. People gave information to each other over social networks, and created their own means in face of the silenced media.
     Everywhere and everyone became the revolt against state terrorism, police violence and all forms of exploitation. Social solidarity has worked, and is continuing to work, wherever the State was dismissed from the lives of people.

Read the full article HERE:

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HIV Criminals!!

       We are well aware of the Greek fascist government's scapegoating of immigrants but what is less known is their attack on those who have AIDS. One of the governments first "austerity" actions was to close needle exchange clinics, since then HIV in Greece has rocketed. In place of assistance and support, those unfortunate to suffer from this illness are criminalised. The "austerity" axe fell unduly harsh on the Greek healthcare system. Its budget was set to grow by 4% annually but instead has been hit by staff pay-offs, budget cuts and drug rationing. Of course the consequences of this has been a spike in HIV and Malaria, to mention just two of the extra burdens being borne by the people of Greece.

      "Austerity" means poverty, poverty means deteriorating health facilities, that in turn means misery for families, increase health risks for children and old age devoid of care and medication. "Austerity" is not an economic term, it is a brutal attack on the living conditions of the ordinary people. It is not an evenly spread set of conditions, the vicious blade of austerity never reaches those who plan and implement the "grand plan". It is you and I that feel the pain of austerity.

     None of this is necessary, it is an ideology, it is an economic system to protect and further the wealth of the criminal fraternity at the heart of the financial Mafia that controls our lives. It is not a system set in tablets of stone, it is a man made system that can easily be dismantled and replaced with a more fair, sane and just system based on co-operation, mutual aid, sustainability and the needs of all our people.

     A wealthy suit says "austerity" and people die, that is surely a brutal criminal act and should be called to justice.

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Radical Feminism.

Circled "A" Radio on second wave feminism.

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What Will Your Grandkids Wages Be?

       According to the Institute for Fiscal Studies, UK wages have fallen more in real terms than ever before. According to Claire Crawford of the IFS “The falls in nominal wages - - - during this recession are unprecedented.” Of course we all know the reason, a deliberate policy by employers, public and private, to use the “crisis” to freeze wages or in some cases cut wages. Workers are facing a continual rise in living costs with inflation running at between 2 to 3%, while aproximately one third of workers who stayed in the same job since the “crisis”, have taken a wage cut or wage freeze. Those who have not, have seen wage increases of well below the inflation rate. Of course any wage increase below inflation is in fact a wage cut.

       With “austerity” set to continue into 2020, can you calculate by how much your income will have fallen in real terms by then? We are well on our way to being the UK section of the European sweatshop economy. With a downwrd spiral forecast until 2020, and then some promise of pie-in-the-sky, you can see what kind of future our kids and grandkids are heading towards.

       Of course this "austerity" business is just for you and I the ordinary guys, those at the top haven't even had a whiff of "austerity". Corporate bodies are holding vast volumes of cash, waiting for the right conditions, a pool of very cheap labour, then they will start to exploit it with a vengeance. Their aim is an abundance of cheap labour, ours is to live a decent life with some dignity, the two are incompatible. The sooner we realise this fact the sooner we can all come together and dismantle this burden on our shoulders and start to create that better world. A world of co-operation in place of competition, of mutual aid in place of profit, a world that sees to all our needs and not the greed of a handful of parasites.

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The Right To Privacy.

      For those who have no desire for their personal data read and filed by the various branches of the state apparatus, there is some good information available  HERE.

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Police Brutality.

      Turkish police, Greek police, it doesn't matter, they all follow the same pattern.

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Today In Taksim Square.

      The latest from Taksim Square, the police have went in with force this morning and useing water canon and teargas and are charging the protesters in a brutal attack to try to clear the Square. The latest video  from the BBC gives some idea as to what is actually going on. Some photographs here. Also this short video from Reuters shows police numbers.

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What Does Surveillance Mean To You.

         We got the usual "shock- horror" from our millionaire two-faced politicians about the latest revelations on surveillance, revelations about what we all know is going on all the time by all governments. However, don't expect the state to abandon any of its hi-tec ability to snoop on us no matter which bunch get into power. Spying, snooping has been part of the state apparatus since the first state came into being. As a matter of fact it probably took a lot of spying and snooping to bring it into existence. After "questions have been asked in the House" and the subject matter debated, don't expect to see black bags over those CCTVs, nor to hear about GCHQ unplugging all those black-boxes. No, there will be waffle and blurb and then things will go on as before, with your every e-mail, text, phone call, internet visit and visit into town, monitored, sifted and stored for further analysis. If we want rid of the snoopers we have to get rid of the state and all its repugnant apparatus.

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A People's Man

       This wee video made me think, "Where have all the people gone"? He wasn't an anarchist, but his heart was in the right place and he certainly had a following of ordinary folks.

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The No-Change Party Of Change.

A quote from a satirical article by Mark Steel in The Independent:

       "At last, the Labour Party leaders are revealing their election strategy. They’ve announced they’ll stick to the current Government’s spending plans, and the current Government’s welfare cap. Next week, Ed Miliband will announce:“The British people are sick and tired of the way this Government runs the country, and that’s why we promise to do everything exactly the same. There are so many things they’ve ruined, which is why I assure you categorically we will keep ruining the same things. THAT is the exciting prospect we will be putting to the British people in 2015.”

Read the full article HERE:

    Though I and millions of others don't see it as satire, we have no doubt that the Labour Oxbridge mob will continue to steer the good ship UK Corporate Dream to a safe port, leaving us stranded on Deprivation Island.
    If you want real change, then you will have to look outside The Westminster Houses of Hypocrisy and Corruption. We are the only real change.

Why Not Wobble Along.

Invitation from the Clydeside IWW to their monthly open meeting.

Wednesday, 19 June 2013

19:00 until 21:00

 

Unitarians Hall, 72 Berkeley Street, Glasgow G3 7DS. 

(At the side of the Mitchell Library near Charing Cross.)

       If you would like to learn what makes the Industrial Workers of the World different from a trade union or the party political left, or if you don't know anything about us and would like to find out, then please join the Clydeside general members branch of the IWW for an informal evening of short videos, presentations, and a group chat with our members. We'll supply refreshments so if you have any dietary requirements and are planning on heading along then do let us know.

      And why yes, we will happen to have plenty of membership applications forms on-hand now that you ask ;)

 

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For The Love Of Poetry.

    Like the title says, for the love of poetry.

For The Love Of Poetry.

To you who love poetry,

whose eyes I try to see,

whose mind I try to reach,

whose heart in tune with mine,

see the weeping, the wounded,

I don't offer the grand plan, the blueprint,

only a heart, a hand.

Like you, I know our world as a beautiful garden,

a bounteous Olypus,

exploited, abused.

Like you, I see vicious claws of poverty

tear the dreams of youth,

pillage the pride of age.

Like you, I hear the heavy tread of tyranny,

shake the humble heart,

crush the human spirit.

I don't offer the grand plan, the blueprint,

only a heart, a hand.

Perhaps, with enough hands, enough hearts

we can at last

stop the weeping, heal the wounded.

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How To Get Rid Of Taxes.

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      If your one of the ordinary citizen of your country, and one of that dwindling band who still have a job, you'll have no option but to pay your taxes. Even if you are not working, you are still taxed via VAT, you pay tax on practically everything you buy, you are even taxed when you cook and heat your house. We are told that we pay taxes to make society a better place, our taxes pay for social services hospitals and such. There is probably enough taxes paid by you and me to end poverty in our country and see to the needs of the vulnerable. However, our taxes also pay for the state to arm itself to the teeth and send armies across the globe to kill other ordinary people who pay their taxes, and that's a big slice of our money. So we put up with poverty allowing the state to rob us so that it can play its game of power and control.

      There are however, those in this society that don't bother with that crap of paying taxes, they just keep their money and spend it on themselves, I'm talking about corporations, that band of greed merchants that at the moment control our world. Apple, just one of those corporations, in recent years paid practically no tax on $78 billion simply by setting up shell corporations in low-tax countries and posting profits abroad. It is considered that across the globe, the corporate world avoid paying taxes to the tune of $1 trillion every year. That's a fair slice of money, it is reckoned that it could end poverty, it's enough to give every family on the planet $1,000 every year, or put every child on the planet in school, it is almost as much as the military budget for every country on the planet, and bigger than the total budget of 176 nations. But instead, it goes into expanding corporate power and keeping an army of parasites in unimaginable luxury.

      We know that those duplicitous suits, the political class, will not do much, if anything, to prevent this bonanza for the rich, as they are part and parcel of the same corporate world, they are the puppets of their corporate masters. The only real answer is for the people to take control of those corporations, change the production from crap trivia for fashionistas, to producing what the people of the world actually need. In one fell swoop we would end poverty and deprivation, get rid of that army of parasites and the need to bother trying to get them to pay their taxes.

 

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