WHERE IS NATO WHEN YOU NEED THEM?

         The police wade in to clear over 1,000 peaceful protesters of the Occupy Oakland movement in Calafornia. The scenes make a mockery of the freedom loving democracy that the US is always trying bomb onto other countries. Watching these scenes I was wondering how long would it be before NATO moved in to protect civilians from brutal reprisals handed out by the state apparatus. NATO, where are you when we need you? More on this brutal act of repression HERE.

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FUNDAMENTALIST UPRISING.

      Now that the Libyan regime has been replace to the satisfaction of the Western oil companies, the truth is starting to come out. At first we were lead to believe that it was a people's “uprising” against the regime and our heroic peace loving NATO stepped in to save civilian deaths. However it now seems to be that it was a fundamentalist engineered uprising and Qatar and Sudan have now stated that they sent in forces to help the “uprising”. It is also stated that Libyan al-Qaeda groups fighting in Afghanistan and Iraq return to Libya to help the “rebels”. What kind of “people's” uprising is it if it is supported by troops from at least two different countries and the force of NATO plus war hardened religious fundamentalist al-Qaeda groups and takes more than six months to overthrow the regime?  It is obvious that if NATO hadn't stepped in with its, over 10,000 strikes, the "uprising" would have fizzled out. This is in no way to condone the Gadaffi regime, but does show the lies behind the West's talk of protecting civilians in a people's uprising. The last thing the West would do is send in NATO to support is a people's uprising, especially if it was somewhere in the West.

      Already the citizens of Sirte are beginning to vent their anger at the violence that has been heaped upon them, no doubt other divisions will make themselves clear as NATO, Sudan and Qatar all withdraw and the Libyan people start to make their real voice heard.

     What the West can look forward to is profit from all that oil and all that re-construction that needs to be done after we blow the place to bits.

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A FAIR DAY'S PAY---????

        Every where you look there is evidence that we are all in this together. As most of us see our standard of living nosedive, either through wage cuts/freeze, redundancy or inflation, or perhaps even a hit from at least to of these measures being forced on us by our millionaire lords and masters, it is puzzling how a certain group seem to manage quite well in spite of the “crisis”. Take the directors of the Footsie 100 companies for example, while they go on about hard times and how difficult decisions have to be made they still manage to award themselves a whopping 43% pay increase over the previous year's salary. Perhaps if we look at it as “all in this together” means US not THEM, it all begins to make sense.

 

I have to make some very difficult decisions.

       To give you some idea of how our captains of industry are suffering in these hard times, take a wee look at the earnings for last year.

Mick Davis(Xstrata) £18,426,105.

Bart Becht (Reckitt) £17,879,000.

Michael Spencer (ICAP) £13,419,619.

Sir Terry Leahy (Tesco) £12.038,303.

Tom Albanese (Rio Tinto) £11,623,162.

Sir Martin Sorrell (WPP Group) £8,949,985.

Todd Kozel (Gulf Keystone Petroleum) £8,913,223.

Don Robert (Experian) £8,601,984.

Edward Bonham Carter (Jupiter Fund Management) £8,530,871.

Dame Marjorie Scardino (Pearson) £8,003,641.

        Not a bad wee packet for a day at the coalface, and remember these are the sweaty palmed greed parasites that sit in board rooms directing plans to cut your wages and conditions, who plan to make you redundant to increase their share of the loot that they cream of your labour. This is capitalism, screw you, I'm all right Jack. It is now raw capitalism, open and blatant exploitation of unimaginable proportions. They see nothing wrong in this greed feast, as far as they are concern the system is working just fine.

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WESTERN CORPORATISM'S HIT SQUAD.

         Here in the developed Western world most people look at NATO as a force for good. However it history dosn't back that up. Country after country has suffered from its military might. In truth it is no more than the Western corporate world's hit squad. The following is an extract from an intersting article which you can read HERE. 

         Like dominoes they are falling: Yugoslavia, Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya. Even al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden was taken out in a surprise ambush by US special forces at his secret hideout inside of nuclear-armed Pakistan.

           Since its first act of aggression on the territory of a sovereign state (on February 28, 1994, NATO aircraft shot down four jets in the Bosnian War) each successive NATO operation is revealing an increasingly disturbing trend: the leaders of the condemned countries are meeting violent, even barbaric ends. Has the rule of law taken a back seat in NATO's global juggernaut?

           Compare the ‘natural’ death of Slobodan Milocevic, former President of Serbia and Yugoslavia, with that of the grisly murder of Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi. Shortly after the end of the Yugoslavian War, which saw a massive NATO aerial bombardment that lasted from March 24, 1999 to June 10, 1999, Milocevic was sent to The Hague to stand trial for charges of war crimes. Milocevic surprised his accusers by deciding to represent himself in the five-year trial. The case, however, abruptly ended without a verdict when the former four-term leader died of an apparent heart attack.

READ ON.

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WILL A LOST GENERATION BE MEEK?

         The recent riots across a large swath of England are no longer in the headlines, the state and their propaganda machine, the media, would like to think that the public have accepted the pumped out lies that it was all down to mindless thugs and blind vandalism. The state's vengeance on those who would dare to break their sacrosanct love of property has seen over 2,000 people dragged through the courts and threatened evictions. All this done out of the spotlight and it still goes on. At no time is it mentioned that in this country there are thousands of young people with no hope of a future, no wealth of possessions, no choice of opportunities, in the midst of opulence, and greed. What the state and its millionaire cronies want is that those young people just accept their place at the bottom of the heap in this repressive and exploitative system. What they don't say is WHY.

    The following is an extract from an interesting article in Freedom Socialist.

       ---The rioters, far from being “animals,” are young people with bleak prospects. Like all over the globe, this “lost generation” is fighting for its future. Add police brutality and murder to the mix and the riots make total sense. As for “crimes,” committed during the riots, how can people respect private property when they have none of their own? How can youth respect a state where police routinely harass minorities and poor people, and are never found guilty of deaths in custody?

The real criminals are global corporations and neoliberal governments that allow banks and big businesses to amass vast fortunes while the majority of society suffers.

READ THE FULL ARTICLE HERE

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FORM A UNION, GET THE SACK???

        Corporate fascism is rampant across the world at the moment, it sees the "crisis" as a wonderful opportunity to slash at the rights and conditions of its work force. Getting people to believe that there is a "crisis" allows them to spout that they must take drastic action. Of course that drastic action is to increase profit margins at the expense of the wages and conditions of those who produce those profits. The parasites want more, and the state is right behind them ready to back them up with legislation.

       This is an appeal from IUF International Union of Food, Agriculture, Restaurant, Catering, Tobacco, and Allied Workers.

         Sheraton's parent Starwood Group, owner of the Four Points, W, aloft, Luxury Collection, Le Méridien, element and Westin brands, has long set the benchmark for global hotel chain profitability, regularly delivering 16% and higher returns to investors. While investors rake in the money and Algeria's elite do their deals at the 5-star Sheraton Club des Pins in the capital Algiers, workers seeking to form a union at the hotel/resort have been dismissed by the hundreds for attempting to form a union in accordance with the law.

Algerian hotel workers have yet to see an 'Arab spring' - you can support their struggle. Click here to send a message to the local and regional corporate management, telling them to respect fundamental human and trade union rights and reinstate immediately and unconditionally all employees dismissed for exercising their rights and supporting a union!

Ron Oswald
General Secretary, IUF

International Union of Food, Agricultural, Hotel, Restaurant, Catering, Tobacco and Allied Workers' Associations (IUF)

8, rampe du Pont-Rouge
1213 Petit Lancy, Switzerland
Tel: +41 22 793 22 33
Fax: +41 22 793 22 38
website: www.iuf.org

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CRIMES AGAINST HUMANITY.

            The Battle of Fallujah in Iraq in 2005 was on of the most brutal reprisals by the Americans during the Iraq war. There were claims of white phosphorus bombs being used as well as depleted uranium weaponry, (an anti- tank type of weapon, though Fallujah had no tanks). The town was obliterated and its population decimated. Since then the area has  had an extremely high proportion of birth defects and cancers. This crime against humanity has been ignored by the Western media, even although there has been a high incidence of similar problems amongst the US personnel involved in that brutal crime.
         The most barbaric terror inflicted on any people is the terror of the state, there is no more powerful terorist organisation on the planet than the state. War is just terorism with a much bigger budget.

 

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IDEOLOGICAL ATTACK ON WORKERS CONDITIONS.

       Across the country, across the world, for that matter, the corporate greed machine is going into action to reduce wages so as to increase profits. Here in the UK the corporate bosses know that they have the backing of our well manicured millionaire cabinet on their side, as they tear up national agreements on wages and conditions. Skilled workers on construction sites across the country are being told that their contracts are null and void and are presented with a new contract, which cuts their wages by as much as 30%. The message from the corporate fascists is simple, sign the new contract or get off the job. This is their brand of democracy, agreements arrived at by negotiation between the workers unions and employers can just be ripped up and a new one drawn up, with no workers or union input, take it or leave it. Work for less or go look somewhere else for you livelihood. It is happening here, it is happening in America, it is happening all across the developed world.

     This is all in line with the present government's ideology of cuts in all public spending and the bosses are backing it up with cuts in the private sector. Workers are not going to accept this type of corporate fascism and are fighting back. Electricians are walking of sites and demonstrating, public sector workers and planning mass demonstration and possible strike action.  All the unions, public sector and private sector, must come together on this one. It is not just about public sector pensions, it's all about privatising all public services, slashing living standards, decimating education, as well as privatising the National Health Service, and at the same time, creating a low wage economy at the dictate of the IMF,(International Mankind Fuckers).

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FROM BLOODLESS COUP, TO BLOODY DEATH.

         As the various groups give their views on the outcome of the NATO forced regime change in Libya, the opinions switch from Shangrila in Libya, and a peaceful world, to chaos with ethnic and religious battles, and Western oil companies working the miracle of changing Libyan oil into money in Western corporate shareholders' bank accounts. Who knows, but I think we can take it that the first is out of the question. The country's infrastructure has been decimated by NATO and marauding well armed militia, hell bent on firing off as much armaments as possible. It seemed as if the were on a bonus scheme from the Western arms producers. In most of the scenes from that poor unfortunate country, there hardly seems to a building that hasn't been multi-potholed. What homes are left to go home to? Such Western vengeance directed at a man who was responsible 42 years ago, for the bloodless overthrow of the Western puppet, King Idris, and for the nationalisation of Libyan oil. At that time Libya was a very poor country, as far as the people were concerned but no as far as the oil compnaies and their cronies were concerned. Gadaffi used that oil revenue to give Libya, food security by irrigation, free clean water pumped from under the Sahara, free education, free health care, and he kept a lid on the religious fundamentalists, who will now come to the fore. Probably his biggest crime in the eyes of the Western corporate world was the nationalising of the oil. Had he just taken power and left the oil in the hands of the Western corporate greed machine, perhaps he would still be in power and would still be feted by the West. Ah, that's capitalism for you.

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HILLARY THE CALLOUS, THE ARROGANT.

        

         Hillary Clinton has called for the the man accused of the Lockerbie bombing to be returned to prison. He was released on compassionate grounds as he was dying from cancer and recent video footage shows him lying in his bed obviously near to death. Why would this so called civilised Christian woman want a dying man back in prison? Why is anyone put in prison, is it to try to reform them, so that they can again take their place in society, is it because they are a danger to society, so have to be kept locked up, or is it just to punish them? Does she think that Magraghi can be reformed while on his death bed, or does she think that a dying man on his death bed is a threat to society? Or does she just want to punish him? How do you punish a dying man?

       Not only has this woman shown utter callousness she has also shown her arrogance and let the cat out of the bag, in so much as who got rid of Gadaffi. This short clip shows her at her delighted and arrogant self, on hearing of Gadaffi's death and letting it be known who actually got rid of Gadaffi. This is also the same woman that sat in the comfort and safety of Washington, watching the assasination of Osama bin Laden. She glories in her assumed power.

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OCCUPY GLASGOW.

       

  

      Occupy Glasgow had its first assembly and almost 500 people came together to discuss their gripes and grievances, hopes and dreams, It soon became apparent that the way society is run today got all the gripes and grievances but none of the hopes nor dreams. It is now so blatantly obvious that the system works for the corporate world, and their growth depends on the exploitation of the ordinary people. Though still not the largest occupation, but growing all the time, and it has a cross section of all the citizens of Glasgow and beyond. All enthusiastic and informed and willing to take what Glasgow's winter can throw at them to make their voices heard.

      They still need support in numbers and materials, pay them a visit, you'll be surprised at the number of ways you can assist in this occupation without actually camping down, though the more of them the better. Visit their web site www.occupyglasgow.org, visit the groups involved, discuss what you see as the way this society should be shaped, your voice counts, this is a place to let it be heard. This is a golden opportunity to contribute to creating a better world for all our children and our grandchildren.

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NESTLE, SERIAL ABUSER.

         

          Another appeal from LabourStart for solidarity in an attempt  to get Nestle to stop abusing workers as they try to organise into a trade union. One thing the corporate world does not like is organised workers, it is more difficult to exploit them, organised workers can stand up to the corporate greed merchants, individuals can be eliminated. 

      

            Nestlé is the world's largest food company. It is also a serial abuser of workers' rights.

This afternoon, the IUF - the global union federation for food workers - launched a major campaign calling on Nestlé to respect workers' rights.

         The campaign call comes in the wake of Nestlé sacking workers in both Indonesia and Pakistan for daring to organize themselves into trade unions.

          Last week, I asked you to help striking Suzuki workers in India. 96 hours after we launched the campaign, the company had reached agreement with the union and the strike was over.

This is going to be a longer and harder fight.

That's why it's so important that you not only send off your protest to Nestlé, but that you forward on this email.

Thank you!

Eric Lee

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NEW WORLD ORDER???

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WESTERN TERRORISTS!!!

        As the events unfold in Libya, the West is spouting about a bright new future for Libya. Whose Libya? Will it be the Libya of the religious fundamentalists, or perhaps the Libya of the big business corporate world, or more likely a combination of these two. After seeing the brutal murdering of Col. Gadaffi, I can't see a fair and democratic Libya working for the benefit of all Libyans, coming out of this destruction of a country. You would think that by now we would recognise the pattern of how the Western media, at the dictate of their masters the political class, demonise a leader and/or a country somehow legitimising sanctions against the ordinary people and then it isn't working, so let's go in and bomb the shit out of them. Libya, like Iraq, is a warning to all smaller countries with resources that the West want to control. The following is an extract from an article at RT.

         As some European leaders demonstrate a celebratory mood over the violent death of Colonel Gaddafi, they are no less terrorists themselves, claims international consultant and author Adrian Salbuchi.
­Salbuchi said Gaddafi’s death was undoubtedly a message for the whole world, as it is not just about Libya.
“We are seeing how Hillary Clinton, US Secretary of State expressed it very clearly: ‘We came, we saw, he died,’ and then started laughing. This is a message to the world of how this new world order model actually works,” he stated. “When they decide to change the regime, they do so with the utmost violence, and it is a whole model. First they target a country by calling it a rogue state; then they support local terrorists and call them freedom fighters; then they bring death and destruction upon civilians and they call it UN sanctions. Then they spread lies and call it the International Community’s opinion expressed by the Western media. Then they invade and control the country and call it liberation and finally they steal appetizing oil and call it foreign investment and reconstruction,” Salbuchi explained.

Don't you know, wars create jobs?

At the moment Western powers are hailing a democratic future for Libya. When Saddam Hussein was captured in 2003 the US also thought it was all over – but it had only just begun. And according to Salbuchi, it is going to be the same, or even worse, for Libya.
READ THE ARTICLE.

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GADAFFI'S DEATH ANOTHER TURNING POINT???

       

       Every death from the Western war on teror is another "turning point", there has been so many that it is obvious that the West is running round in circles.

       This from STOP THE WAR COALITION.

       The killing of Muammar Gadaffi in Sirte has been marked by a round of celebration by western governments over their intervention in Libya. As with the capture of Saddam Hussein in Iraq and the killing of Osama bin Laden in Pakistan, it will be described as a turning point and a further victory in the seemingly endless 'war on
terror'.

      There is little reason for the triumphalism. Nato's war on Libya was not a 'humanitarian intervention' but a war for regime change -- illegal under international law. It was about the western powers attempting to regain control of the region in the face of the Arab uprisings across the Middle East. Yet despite its overthrow of the regime in Libya imperialism faces many problems in the region.

       In Libya itself it is already clear that there are many divisions between the different elements in the new government, and not at all clear that a stable regime will emerge. Even if it does, the ordinary people of Libya will see their interests subjugated to the oil companies and other western business, backed up by Nato, which has no intention of vacating the scene.

       The consequences of the war on terror elsewhere are not outbreaks of peace and democracy but rather a spreading of the war. Afghanistan, ten years on, has just experienced its bloodiest two years of war. Iraq remains a society destroyed by war and occupation. Somalia remains war torn with Kenyan troops recently crossing the border. Pakistan suffers drone attacks which have killed thousands. The Israeli oppression of the Palestinians continues. There are threats of intervention over Syria.

        The recent alleged plot against the Saudi ambassador to Washington was blamed on sections of the Iranian government and Saudi and Israel are both urging attacks on Iran. Far from the west conquering all, it is deep in the mire of war. The gloating over Gadaffi should not become an excuse for further interventions that will only spread the carnage further.

SEE ALSO: JOHN PILGER -

With Libya, secured an American invasion of Africa is under way.

 http://bit.ly/qJ6PhP

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NOAM CHOMSKY ON AFGHANISTAN.

          A voice I always feel is worth listening to, Noam Chomsky, here he is with some more words to ponder. It never does any harm to have a look in the mirror.

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GLASGOW HUMAN RIGHTS FILM FESTIVAL.

Document 9 : International Human Rights Documentary Film Festival
Thursday 20th - Sunday 23rd October 2011
LAUNCH - Thursday 20th October, 7pm onwards, CCA Document 9 Film Festival launch with live music from Andrea Marini & opening film: Soy Libre I am free

8.00pm10.00pm CCA 4 & 5
OPENING FILM - Soy Libre: I am Free
Andrea Roggon, Germany, 2011, 86 mins
      The Cuba of Raoul Castro: a camera glides through the streets of Havana like the eye of a recording angel witnessing moments of interaction in the everyday lives of ordinary people. Off-camera, other voices talk about their feelings, hopes and fears, and the search for personal happiness in a country at a crossroads between the old revolutionary ideals of Fidel and Che and whatever changes the new economic realities of the 21st century will bring. Faces, voices, sounds. From its dreamlike imagery to the candid insights of the unseen, unidentified speakers, a strikingly beautiful and thoughtful film that becomes a kind of visual poem.

The Director will lead a Q & A with the audience afterwards.

http://documentfilmfestival.org/

@ CCA (Centre for Contemporary Art)
350 Sauchiehall Street
Glasgow G2 3JD
http://www.cca-glasgow.com/contact

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