MADRID ECHOES THE SPIRIT OF TAHRIR SQUARE.

The following was taken from A World to Win site. Where is the rest of Europe in this "awakening"?

Madrid echoes the spirit of Tahrir Square

     The Real Democracy Now movement that has sprung up across Spain, with a main square in Madrid under occupation since Sunday, is a key moment in the developing global struggle against the failure of the political and economic status quo.    

 Drawing their inspiration from Tahrir Square in Cairo – where the Egyptian revolution began – thousands have organised themselves into a people’s assembly in Puerta del Sol to discuss a way forward. The movement, which is independent of political parties and the trade unions, used social networking sites to mobilise for the occupation.

SOLIDARITY.

      A pamphlet distributed by organisers said they "do not represent any political party” and that "we want a new society that prioritises life over economic and political interests. We advocate a change in society and social consciousness." Fabio Gándara, the spokesman for Democracia Real Ya, a 26-year-old unemployed lawyer who is studying to be a civil servant, said: "What we're denouncing is the lack of real democracy and the tendency toward a two-party system where corruption at all levels is simply scandalous.”

     

       With tents, mattresses, a kitchen, a workshop and even a pharmacy, protesters have refused to budge, defying the decision of regional election officials that they should leave the square. They have also organised their own security teams to keep order in the square. There are at least 57 so-called "Sol campsites" that have popped up across the country in solidarity. Spaniards living abroad have also set up camps outside Spain 's embassies in Berlin and London , and in Amsterdam 's Dam Square . 

       In Spain – just as it was in Tunisia and Egypt , where the Arab spring began at the start of the year – the movement is driven by the “lost generation” of educated but unemployed young people. An estimated 45% of them are without work while average unemployment at over 20% is the highest in Europe .

      They are the victims of a global capitalist recession which has devastated Spain ’s economy which floundered when a gigantic property bubble burst in 2008. And they are casualties of the post-Franco dictatorship politics too.

      

       The fascist regime was replaced by los señores Tweedledum and Tweedledee – aka the Socialist Party (PSOE) and the right-wing People’s Party (PP). Only fewer and fewer Spaniards can tell the difference between them. Both parties are endemically corrupt and have shared the role of integrating Spain into the global market-driven capitalist economy.

        One result is that Spain is close to following Ireland , Portugal and Greece in seeking a bail-out from the European Union and the International Monetary Fund. That would spell not only the collapse of the eurozone but trigger a new global financial collapse.

      That is why Real Democracy Now is saying “Don’t vote for them” – the PSOE and PP – in Sunday’s regional and local elections because neither represents the interests of ordinary people. This is an astonishing indictment of a parliamentary democracy that was only established in 1977 after Franco’s death two years earlier.

      This, naturally, poses the question of if not this “democracy”, then what type of political system should replace it? The protests in Madrid , Barcelona , Seville and other cities, popularly known as M-15 as they began on May 15, have started that debate. In Sol Square there is a “democracy wall” where people have stuck hundreds of notes with their thoughts on them, declarations and statements.

     In Egypt , the dictatorship was overthrown but power remains out of reach, resting in the hands of an army that owns a large chunk of the economy. In Spain , a 35-year-old parliamentary democracy leaves real power in the hands of the corporations and banks who use politicians as a front.

      For a “real” democracy to work, it must involve the transfer of economic and financial resources into the hands of ordinary working people, alongside the replacing of the capitalist state by forms of popular power. Many took up the fight against Franco’s fascists in the Spanish Civil War in the 1930s with that aim in mind. The revolution was cruelly betrayed by Stalinism and then defeated. Puerta del Sol signals a chance to put history back on course.

Paul Feldman
Communications editor
20 May 2011

Corinna Lotz
Secretary

A World to Win  07871 745258

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STUFF THE BANKERS, THEY GAMBLED AND THEY LOST.

     

       First Iceland said let the banks fail and then marched some of the bankers off to jail. The Italian public are making similar noises and now Spain is saying, "we've had enough" so stuff the bankers, let them take the loses of their reckless greed. If you want to change the system you have to do something other than run out and vote every 4 or 5 years. Tunisia changed because of people on the streets, Egypt changed because of people on the streets. No political party played any part in bring about those changes, why should it be any different here. All the political parties here are saying, austerity cuts on the people, not on the bankers. They only disagree on the pace of the decimation of the standard of living of the ordinary people. The people's opinion is different, we say no cuts on the people, stuff the bankers.

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WHO SHAPES THE WORLD??

  

      I would like to inform you that the recent protests against fake democracy and the broken link between politicians and citizens happening in Madrid initially have extended to London and other cities of the UK.

We are also camping in front of the Spanish Embassy in London (SW1X 8SB) and other cities in the UK.

The programme for today is:
12.00h Kick off of the Static Demonstration
19.00h Mock elections
20.00h Sauce-pan banging demonstration and camping!

It will be good if we get the support of UK protest groups.

Join the revolution.
Follow us on Democracia Real YA Londres & Democracia Real YA on Facebook

Please pass the news

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THE POPE OF HOPE, THE PRINCE OF PEACE!!!

     

      The President of America, once the Pope of Hope, the man of change, is visiting the UK next week. He will be visiting the Queen at Buckingham Palace, he sure knows where the power lies in this country. Far from bringing an end to George. W. Bush's marauding wars, the man of change has lived up to his promise and changed in to a higher gear when it comes to wars and killing. Drone attacks in Pakistan have dramatically increased during his term, with the resultant massive increase in innocent deaths from these attacks. He has presided over attacks in Yemen, Pakistan, Somalia and Libya and continues to occupy Afghanistan and Iraq. Remember all the euphoria when this man was elected? At last, an end to the macho war stance of George W. Bush, enter the Prince of Peace, St. Obama. Well this man of peace is spending more on military operations than any other president of America.

      His latest waft of wind to come from his mouth, the rhetoric about reaching out to the Muslim world and finding a path to peace for the Palestinians, while at the same time involved in bombing and occupying three Muslim countries. This reaching out, also involves supporting and propping up ruthless dictators across that same Muslim world, while supporting Israel in its land grabbing and genocide of the Palestinian people and supporting Israel financially and military as they flaunt countless international laws. The violence inflicted on the Palestinian people by Israel is never criticised let alone condemned by this reaching out, path way to peace, president of America.

    I always refer to Libya as Cameron's war, every prime minister and president seems to want their own war, but he couldn't have got his way without the wink and nod from the Prince of Peace, St. Obama. We in the West belong to an empire of violence, the West will bomb and occupy any country that has resources that we want if that is the best way to get those resources. We live in a world of corporate fascism. For our corporate beasts to grow they must have all those cheap resources and the states put their stamp of legitimacy on the brutal conflicts to grab what the corporate world demand.

      There is an alternative, a world free from the grip of corporate greed, a world of co-operation, mutual aid and sustainability based on the needs of all our people. A world free from the profit motive that belongs to the people, a world that we would be proud to hand to the next generation, our kids and our grand kids. A world free from the fear of exploitation and deprivation. First we have to stop looking to leaders, Popes of Hope, Princes of Peace and take control of our own lives, control our own communities and in federation with other communities take control and shape our own world. It is their world, or it is our world, there is no compromise.

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TURKEY TRYING TO CRUSH ALL TRADE UNIONS.

      

      States always try to stifle any working class organisation, whether it be trade unions or community organisations that seek some sort of autonomy. If it doesn't feel too threatened then the attacks are quiet, subtle and covert, but if it feels the threat is rising, then it can become very brutal, overt and bring into use all the bruteforce of all the state apparatus. At the moment Turkey is trying to smash all working class organisation in an attempt to create a subservient workforce suitable for its corporate friends in the EU. We cannot stand by and watch the state try to crush those struggling to improve their conditions. We are all in this struggle together to survive in an exploitive corporate capitalist greed machine which is backed up by the state.

       This following message is from IUF, International Union of Food Workers,   hopefully those reading it will take the action requested.  

    

       "The Turkish government has filed criminal charges against 111 union leaders, members and supporters, which carry prison terms of up to 5 years in connection with a 2010 demonstration in Ankara. The list of those indicted by the Ankara Public Prosecutor include TEKGIDA-IS President Mustafa Turkel along with 4 other national officers and twelve branch presidents, the current and former heads of the national centre DISK, two former leaders of the public sector confederation KESK and other prominent union and social activists."

      Click HERE, to learn more and send an urgent protest message to the Turkish government.
      An injury to one is an injury to all. Are you free if your brothers and sisters are in chains?

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ANOTHER ILLEGAL WAR, HOW MANY DOES THE WEST WANT??

     

       SIGN online petition at  iacenter.org/africa/libyawarpowersact to send messages to House and Senate Foreign Relations Committees, congressional leaders, the Obama administration, the U.N. Secretary-General, Security Council, General Assembly President and member states, and the national and international media. On May 19 the war against Libya reached its 60-day mark. On that date this criminal war will be in explicit violation of the War Powers Act.

      The War Powers Act is a U.S. law that grew out of the struggle against the war in Vietnam. It requires a president involved in a military conflict lasting longer than 60 days to come before Congress for authorization to continue the war. Knowing that this war is immoral, illegal and based on lies, the Obama administration has refused to address the reasons behind initiating yet another war after years of death and destruction in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Iraq.

     In the past 61 days of a war that was promoted as a "humanitarian intervention" to enforce a "no-fly zone," the U.S. and NATO have conducted more than 2,500 bombing missions. A May 13 NATO bombing killed 11 Islamic religious leaders and injured 47 other members of a highly publicized, unarmed religious peace delegation of 150 Imams and other Islamic leaders. The NATO command has acknowledged the attack occurred.

      This was a deliberate, targeted massacre by U.S./NATO aircraft. The religious leaders were gathered to attempt a meeting of peace and reconciliation with the NATO-supported opposition. The attack occurred in the city of Brega, which is 500 miles east of Tripoli and close to the area under opposition control. Since time immemorial, in every country and culture, peace delegations, religious delegations and unarmed envoys traveling under white flags have been accorded respect and safe passage, especially in war zones.

      U.S./NATO Command, with reconnaissance predator drones that are able to read a license on a car, knew exactly what this large, highly respected Islamic peace delegation was, where the delegates were staying and what their announced purpose was. This latest NATO airstrike is a most grievous war crime. It is an unprecedented new level of international lawlessness and it reveals a dangerous escalation of the war on Muslim people. It comes on top of the ongoing criminal assassination attempts on Col. Gadhafi that have already killed his son and three of his grandchildren.

       NATO bombs have hit numerous civilian targets including the Libyan Down's Syndrome Society, a school that provided speech therapy, handicrafts and sports sessions for disabled children. NATO Planning Staff claim that "All NATO targets are military targets," And the New York Times reports that Gen. Sir David Richards, Britain's top military commander, is propsing that NATO target Libyan "infrastructure," including electrical power grids and fuel dumps, in government held areas. Such targeting would be an attack on the civilian population that would constitute a war crime according to the Geneva Conventions.

       We believe the people of Libya, North Africa, the Middle East, the U.S. and the world deserve a debate on the need to immediately end this war. With the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression having a continued impact on the peoples of the U.S. and the world, we must stand up and demand the end to the bombings and other destabilization efforts against Libya, and all other forms of hostility against this African country.

      We need money for jobs, housing, food, health care, and quality education -- not for war and destruction.  Tell Congress, the White House and the corporate media that the illegal and criminal war on Libya must end now.

Stop the bombs! End the war!

SIGN online petition at   iacenter.org/africa/libyawarpowersact

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LAND OF THE FREE!!!! MY ARSE.

      

     As the West lead by America claims the moral high ground and goes about the world lecturing other nations about their human rights abuses and bombing freedom and democracy into others, who is there to point the finger at the West's record on human rights? What seems to go unnoticed by all and sundry is America's  appalling record on the incarceration of its own people. Where is the world's condemnation of the staggering number of Americans locked up behind bars, in what is a commercial incarceration industry. American crime rate has fallen quite dramatically over the years but the number of Americans imprisoned has shot up. America leads the world in locking up its own people, it has the largest proportion of its own people behind bars than any other country in the world. A strange record for a country that has the arrogance to lecture the world and threaten the world with sanctions and war if they don't improve their human rights record.

      Of course the fact that in America the prison system is mainly a corporate commercial concern and under the rules of capitalism, prison companies have to grow and make money for their shareholders may have something to do with the numbers. More prisons, more prisoners, more money for the shareholders, AH, the beauty of capitalism, money from the misery of of our brothers and sisters, increase share price by removing people's freedom. This of course needs some sort of co-operation between the judicial system and the corporate prison system. Once again the state system flourishes under the illusion of democracy.

     For a more detailed look at the figures concerning the prison population in America click HERE.

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THE ILLUSION OF DEFICIT REDUCTION!!!

        What you have to realise about the deficit reduction brigade, those millionaires that spout that deep cuts are necessary to reduce the deficit, is that the deficit reduction is not their real aim. The aim of the exercise is to accelerate a vast privatisation program. In there eyes, public assets could be earning their millionaire friends in the corporate world, billions of £s. Practically ever country in the world, China probably being the exception, runs its affairs with a deficit. The entire stinking capitalist system relies on debt to function, or should that be dysfunction, as that seems to be the only way the system runs. The system continually needs debt and fresh capital to fuel their greed driven dream of eternal growth. So the Banking sector has come up with this wonderful illusion, get rid of your deficit and everything in your garden will be rosy, we will all find ourselves in the promised land of milk and honey. Decimate your living standards now and for the foreseeable future and all will be well, and of course the banking sector will not lose any money inspite of all its greed driven dodgy gambling mistakes.

      Of course to get rid of your deficit, you have to sell off all your assets. So, the millionaire public school thugs under the guise of “your government”, lead by the Cameron/Clegg spivs, will hand all our public assets over to the corporate world in the biggest privatisation operation ever undertaken. Everything must go, libraries, museums, public parks, schools, canals, health and welfare, education, all social services, all to be handed over to the private sector to feed the greed of the corporate world. What you will be left with is a corporate society where everything is available, but at a price, good health care, good education, well stocked libraries and fascinating museums, but all at a price. Those who don't have the price, will you can just do without, we will have a society that gives the rich their every wish and the poor a selection of charities. A society designed especially for the corporate world to make loads of money and nothing else.

       Forget the cuts, fight to change society away from profit and greed and towards people's needs. We don't need to carry an army of pampered parasites on our backs, sucking us dry like a plague of leeches.

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CRACK CAPITALISM - JOHN HOLLOWAY.

John Holloway

Thursday 19th May 2011  18:00-20:30

The Free Hetherington

13 University Gardens

GlasgowUniversity

G12 8QH       (NearByres Road/ Hillhead Underground Station)

      The author of Crack Capitalism (2010), and Change the World Without Taking Power (2002) will be visiting the free Hetherington on its 109th day in occupation. As usual, there will be free tea and coffee served at visitor’s own instigation, and an evening meal.

Google Map: http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?q=the+free+hetherington

Facebook Event: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=223559130993733

      “Crack Capitalism, argues that radical change can only come about through the creation, expansion and multiplication of ‘cracks’ in the capitalist system. These cracks are ordinary moments or spaces of rebellion in which we assert a different type of doing.”

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Crack-Capitalism-John-Holloway/dp/0745330088

The full text of Change the World Without Taking Power (2002) is available online here (free): http://libcom.org/library/change-world-without-taking-power-john-holloway

    John’s talk and the subsequent discussions will focus on ‘The Force of Negativity and the Rage Against the Rule of Money’. (see below)

The Force of Negativity and the Rage Against the Rule of Money

    “We can only try to emancipate ourselves, to move outwards, negatively, critically, from where we are. It is not because we are maladjusted that we criticize, it is not because we want to be difficult. It is just that the negative situation in which we exist leaves us no option: to live, to think, is to negate in whatever way we can the negativeness of our existence” (Holloway, 2002, p.5)

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DOMINIQUE SRAUSS-KAHN, "CAVIARE SOCIALIST"!!!

       

       What does the Dominique Strauss-Kahn, now former president of the IMF, affair say about the socialists in France? Here is a man who has the reputation of being a bit of a lecherous creep, a skirt chaser, and philanderer, this translates as disrespect for women in any true socialist's language. He is the head of one of the world's largest corporate capitalist organisations, a man who can spend £2,000 a night on hotel bills and has been called a “caviare socialist”. A man who wanders the world forcing countries to decimate the living standards of the ordinary people of those countries, just to make sure that the bond markets, i.e. the banks, don't lose any money on their dodgy gambles. A man that has seen the people of various countries shafted by his rigorous regulations to make sure the bankers don't lose, and the corporate world gains, and yet, the socialists of France see him as their saviour, the man to lead them to victory, the next socialist president of France. Did they honestly believe that this man wanted to join a socialist world, let alone a socialist France? Did they believe that he was going to change to a reputable, decent human being with full respect for all the people, including those women he allegedly pursued for his own selfish gratification and those people in the countries his organisation shafted, raped and plundered? That he would suddenly champion the cause of the people against the corporate banking world? Isn't it time that the “socialists” started being part of the people, seeking their answers among the ordinary people and moving in the direction the ordinary people want to move. Or do they just want power, power at any cost and to strut around the political stage showing off their rich and famous new “caviare socialist” president?

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WHAT IS HAPPENING WITH THE ZAPATISTAS IN MEXICO?

'What is happening with the Zapatistas in Mexico?"

Speaker from 'Rebeldía Revista' Mexico

Talk by Javier Elorriaga, Editor of the 'Other Campaign' magazine, followed by questions and discussion.

Monday 23rd May

1pm-3pm

The Free Hetherington

The Glasgow University Occupation

13 University Gardens.       Just off University Avenue,    Glasgow University Campus.

http://freehetherington.wordpress.com/find-us/

         Javier is a journalist, video maker, historian, political analyst and a member of the editorial team of the influential magazine Rebeldia, which acts a voice for the Other Campaign and the Zapatistas throughout Mexico. He was a founder and co-ordinator of the Zapatista Front for National Liberation. He will speak about what's happening in Mexico today, especially what's happening with the Zapatistas.

      

       From their latest massive march through the town of San Cristobal to oppose militarisation and repression in Mexico, to the development of autonomy in the mountains and jungle of Chiapas, Javier will give a first-hand report of the movement which has inspired the anti capitalist movement world-wide. Don't miss this rare opportunity - these are Javier's only dates in Britain on his European tour.

A merchandise stall will be at both events selling Zapatista t-shirts, coffee and crafts. The money raised goes to health clinics run by the Zapatistas in the Highlands of Chiapas, Mexico.

Organised by Edinburgh and Glasgow Chiapas Solidarity Groups
http://www.edinchiapas.org.uk%20http//glasgowchiapassolidaritygroup.wordpress.com/

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THE GREAT ILLUSIONIST!!

    

      A lot of public anger regarding the decimation of the social fabric of our society, is hurtled at the Cameron/Clegg millionaire public school thugs, and rightly so. However we should remember that though they may be pushing for the privatisation of every thing that their pals can make money from, we have to realise that they have an army of back-room boys, (advisers) who come up with the ideas on the how and wherefore. Sometimes these millionaires' flunkies speak the truth, but we are not supposed to hear. Take the NHS, while Cameron, in public, goes on about protecting the NHS and only wanting to improve the service that it provides, one of his back-room adviser poodles, a certain Mr. Mark Britnell is telling a conference of executives from the private sector, that future NHS reforms would “show no mercy” to the NHS and these same reforms would offer a “big opportunity” to the for profit sector. He also stated,  the NHS could be improved by charging patients and will be transformed into a "state insurance provider, not a state deliverer" of care.

         There you have it, the Cameron cabal's true plans for the NHS, improve it by charging people and turning it into a nice little money earner for their millionaire friends in the corporate world. So while his adviser is spouting the truth to his corporate friends, Cameron is putting on a smiling and compassionate theatre act for our benefit. He is the great illusionist, but unlike a theatre act, he is extremely dangerous. Will he now come out and agree with his poodle Mr. Mark Britnell, or will he dismiss him? With this information now public, will he now scrap the plans for the privatisation of the NHS or will he carry on spouting one message for our ears and another truthful message for his pals in the corporate world. There is no doubt that Cameron will soon take his place among those other great actors like Tony Blair and Sir Laurence Olivier. Though only the latter had any integrity.

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PAKISTAN AND SCOTLAND A REPUBLIC, DISCUSION.

Listen to internet radio with polizeros on Blog Talk Radio

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TWO CLASSES, TWO SETS OF RULES.

       Imagine you are in a well paid job and you fiddle the expenses to the tune of a five figure sum and are caught out. There is an enquiry and it finds that you were, “guilty of a series of serious breaches of the rules, over a considerable time.” What do you think your employer would do? Fire you? Hand the info to the police? Well either or both probably, that is unless your an MP.

      It seems that Libdem MP, David Laws, former Chief Secretary to The Treasury did that wee fiddle to the tune of £50,000 or there abouts, and was found out. There was the usual investigation by the Commons standards watchdog, who eventually came out with the statement that Mr Laws had been, “Guilty of a series of serious breaches of the rules, over a considerable time.” The sack? The cops? Well no, you see he is an MP and the rules are different for them, it is suggested that he be suspended from the House of Commons for 7 days, WOW, that'll make him think twice about any future fiddles.

      Why do we put up with such crap, at a time when the public school thugs sitting the Westminster Houses of Hypocrisy and Corruption are slashing at the very fabric of the social structure of our society? When we the public, who pay for their every whim, are seeing our standard of living being decimated, this little cabal of millionaires keep a rule book that sees them as very special people, immune to the normal rule of fairness and justice.

It's oor money they're fiddlin', thow them oot.

        It's our money, we pay them, if they fiddle, at least throw them out, even if the do decide to pay it back after they're caught. A fiddle, is a fiddle, is a fiddle, and the perpetrator is a fiddler.

What you lookin' at? I'm an MP!!

       Of course you and I know that we will not stop the old boys network that exists in the system of party political politics. It is the system that stinks, not just the players. We have to scrap this illusion of democracy and put the power in the hands of the people. A non hierarchical grass-roots system freed from the profit motive and the stranglehold of the corporate world. A system free from privileged parasites and based on needs, mutual aid and co-operation. We can do things by ourselves, why bother with arrogant, self-centred, power hungry parasites that claim to be doing it all for our good, BULLSHIT.

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