Assassination.

          I can only repeat, the state is an institution without humanity or compassion. In this case it is the Greek state, that with callous disregard for the health and welfare of one of its citizens. Giannis Michailidis. An anarchist prisoner of the state is in a severe condition regarding his health, after 61 days of hunger strike, yet the state ignores his right to justice, having served his time, he is being held, not for any crime, but for his political stance. Giannis deserves all the support and solidarity that we can muster, across borders, this injustice of the Greek state must be called out loud and clear, Giannis has a right to be free. 

The following from Act for Freedom Now:

           The anarchist comrade Giannis Michailidis has been on hunger strike since 23/5, demanding his release from prison. Today he completes 61 days of hunger strike without his request being accepted. His health condition has deteriorated greatly, as he has great difficulty in getting out of bed, standing up, reading and writing, his spleen and gall bladder pains are becoming increasingly severe, and he has reached a point where it is difficult for him to drink much water.
           His body weight has reached 54.1 kg. Having started the hunger strike at 73 kilos, he has now lost 19 kilos, or 26% of his original body weight. His high blood pressure is 9 and low is 6, and his blood sugar was measured at 67. Having lost over 25% of his original body weight, and with his health indicators steadily deteriorating, his chances of permanent physical damage are now very high. At the moment, comrade Giannis Michailidis is on the verge of hypoglycemic shock and doctors say that there is a possibility that he could fall into a coma. The state and judicial authorities are gambling with the life and integrity of anarchist Giannis Michailidis.

           We reiterate from the previous update that his white blood cell count has dropped so far below the lower normal limit (value: 2.43 with limits of 4.60-10.2 K/μL), leading to immunodeficiency. Platelets are also counted much lower than the lower normal limit (value: 90 with limits of 142-424 K/μL), and Thrombocytopenia can cause severe and threatening internal bleeding. Based on his latest medical examinations and according to his treating physicians, he is at risk of severe osteoporosis and he is already experiencing joint pain. In addition, he has severe chest pain when trying to move around. He already has a potentially permanent neurological problem in his eyes, as the neurological examination showed double vision in extreme positions due to lack of nutrients.
         The latest radiological examinations and ultrasound examination (on 18/7) showed that the organs now at immediate risk of permanent damage are the bile and the spleen, with the latter facing an additional burden, as Giannis has congenital thalassemia (thalassemia). Finally, there is severe pain in the left kidney. All of the above is not helped by his increased sleep disturbances, and certainly the sensory isolation space in which he is in, leading to the almost total absence of support, care and monitoring by his family members and his personal physician.----

 

       -----We warn the judicial authorities and make it clear that the delay of the decision or the possibility of a rejection by the Lamia council is tantamount to state murder of anarchist comrade Giannis Michailidis. We therefore emphatically emphasize the weight of responsibility that weighs on this decision and the time of its making.

IMMEDIATE RELEASE OF ANARCHIST GIANNIS MICHAILIDIS

Against the regime of exemption of political prisoners

Assembly in solidarity with the anarchist hunger striker Giannis Michailidis

assembly email : mihallil@riseup.net

Read the full article HERE: 

 

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Sad Joke!

        No matter which of the two very rich right-wing worshipers of capitalism become the next Prime Minister of UK, they both will be looking at the world through money tinted glasses. Rishi Sunak's wealth is too difficult to grasp it is somewhere up in the stratosphere you suffer oxygen starvation in attempting to grasp the total. Liz Truss is a bit more modest as far as the Tory's posh club is concerned. Her personal wealth is somewhere around £8.5 million, with an annual estimated income of around £376,000. So you see they are each just one of the people. Their policies are tweedle-dee and tweedle-dum, cut taxes now, cut taxes later. Of course we all know who benefits most from tax cuts, obviously those with the bigger incomes. We also know that tax cuts invariably lead to cuts in social services, austerity for the poor and bonuses for the rich. One thing they both agree on is that there will always be enough money to boost the military budget, there is always money for war. Again, Liz is in a hurry, to impress her wealthy arms manufacturers, with a promise to raise the "defence" budget to 3% of GDP, immediately. While Rishi still wanting to please the arm barons, is a little, more cautious arm, says that 2% is the bottom line and just a floor, with intentions to raise to 2.5% of GDP, and more later. Work out how that will help you pay your bills.

                                        Image courtesy of Original-Political-Cartoon.com

          Which of these two do you think will have the problems of the ordinary people at the top of their agenda. They both preach, "grow the economy" which translates as let's get big business booming with tax cuts and subsides of tax payers money, they are already making billions in profit, but not enough to satisfy their insatiable greed,  that "boom" will take some considerable time arriving, in the mean time you and I can just struggle on as best we can while we wait for that pie in the sky.

          As long as the well paid, well off political ballerinas in the Westminster House of Hypocrisy and Corruption squabble over "the economy" and we sit back and let them make the decisions that control our lives, the rich will get richer and the poor will get poorer. The answer of course is that we make the decisions that matter to us all, we take control of the countries resources and distribution, we eliminate the crazy profit element and run our society on mutual aid, free association, fairness and sustainability, and create a society that sees to the needs of all our people. During this particularly vicious attack on the living standards of all the ordinary people in this country, we must organise in solidarity across all our communities and workplaces and bring this festering cancer they call capitalism, to a passage in history, referring to it as humanity's darkest hour.

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Slaves.

   

            One subject that gets practically no mention by our media or by our political ballerinas, is prison labour. The UK has the most privatised prison system in Europe. Companies make a fortune from incarcerating our citizens, and not content with that, they use the imprisoned population as cheap labour. Those capitive in this slave labour institution are obliged to work and at a particular rate or they can lose "privileges". They have no contract, no sick leave pay, no holiday pay, no opportunity to negotiate their conditions and are paid a pittance while the companies that use them make a killing in profits from this trapped labour force. There is also the view that this cheap labour source takes jobs away from those outside, who would need to be paid at least the minimum wage plus the few other beneficial conditions that the workers have wrestled from the employers.
        We can't in all honesty state that we are a civilised society, when we allow slave labour to flourish for the benefit of companies and large corporations. We can't in all honesty state we live in a democracy when a whole swath of our people have no say or control over their wages or working conditions. Prison labour is an abomination, a blight on our society, an anathema to democracy and freedom. However it is all part and parcel of a society that functions only for profit, a system designed to benefit the few at the expense of the many. Those who worship at the altar of capitalism will see nothing wrong in captivated prison slave labour, it is an efficient way of creating wealth for that privileged few. 

The following figures are from an IWW article in 2016.

 

One3One Solutions is the trading arm of the Ministry of Justice founded in 2012. Over 9,700 prisoners were employed in their profit-making partnerships with private companies, with a total of 13.1 million prisoner working hours being recorded (1). Private sector prisons (those run for-profit) reported that they delivered over 1.5 million prisoner working hours involving over 1,200 prisoners in 2012/13. (1) Prisoners working full time at a minimum will receive £4 a week. Prisoners working in workshops run by private companies may earn up to £25 per week if they are lucky. The average pay if you are a wing cleaner or gardener is about £6-7. Rates of pay are set out in the Prison Service Order 4460 (2). If prisoners are sick on the short-term they may get £2.50 a week. For prisoners that simply cannot work because they are ill long-term or old, they receive £3.25 a week. Likewise, Asylum Seekers in Detention Centres (that are all run for profit), are paid at the very most £1.25 per hour(3).

         The long list of companies that use prison slave labour reads like a role of honour in the world of exploitative capitalism. 

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Murder!!

          While Giannis Michailidis is slowly murdered while in the care of the Greek state, that Greek state casually goes about its business of control, repression and protecting its power and privileges. A human life is neither here nor there on their agenda.
        History teaches us that the state is an institution without humanity or compassion. Glance around the world and we see time and time again, state after state stand idly by watching one of its citizens slow die a painful death, when it is well withing its power to save that life and alleviate that suffering. The state is an institution soaked in blood, its laws written in blood, its power, wealth and privileges protected and maintained by blood. So it will always be, as long as we accept the state has some sort of monopoly of power over our lives. Not until we the ordinary people realise that we have the power to shape society and create that fairer world for all, the state is a brake on those common desires.

The following from Act for Freedom Now:

Giannis Michailidis: Rape and murder of the concept of justice

        For Greek “justice”, a rapist of a child (D. Lignadis) has been sufficiently rehabilitated and is not a danger to society after less than 1.5 years in prison. A racially motivated murderer (Ath. Hortarias), has been sufficiently rehabilitated and is also not a danger after 2 months in prison. The murderer of 15-year-old Alexandros (Ep. Korkoneas) does not deserve life imprisonment. Another rapist (P. Filippidis), earns his freedom prematurely as he is not considered dangerous because of his celebrity. This is the “epic” of crony Greek “justice”.
      However, for Greek “justice” an anarchist bank robber and escapee, after almost 9 years in prison and 7 months, after completing the required 3/5 of the sentence, “risks committing new crimes as he has not spent sufficient time in prison”.
       What I understand is that robbing a bank and escaping from prison is far worse than rape or murder. Especially if the rapist is a close friend of ministers or the killers kill troublesome kids or marginalised people. After all, isn’t the role of the state to protect capital? Also, it will obviously show more vindictiveness towards someone who has actively challenged the feared institution of prison, absolutely necessary for disciplining society.
        And as for bank robberies, now that we’re impoverishing you, don’t get any ideas. If you want to rape a kid, a wink to a minister will do the trick! This is the clear message of Greek “justice”.
        I received it. That’s why I started a hunger strike. To expose all those arbitrary acts against me, which I list at the beginning of the text. However, from what I can see they don’t need me. They have made their own judgments. Not even for appearances.
         I think they are even using the hunger strike as an example now. They’ve set my appeal hearing for 7/25. On that day I will have done 64 days’ hunger strike. The aim is clear. To exhaust me. A possible permanent disability reinforces the message they are sending. Perhaps my eventual death, which becomes more likely with each passing day. Such a perversion of the concept of justice is unthinkable. Let them enjoy their “justice”. Enjoy your careers.
        As for me, who do not have access to their villas with their lavish tables paid for with bribes, I can greet this world fasting, but with the spiritual fullness of total existential conflict with their rotten system.

 

Some photos of the mass protests to free Giannis Miachailidis 

 

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It's War.

           There is always a detail of every Ukrainian killed, our media flash images of horror, women weeping, children dead, elderly in anguish, yes we should feel pain for every loss of live in war and do our utmost to stop this slaughter of ordinary people. However our total silence and disregard for the thousands that have died fleeing war and persecution is a display of astounding inhumanity. Thousands have drowned on Europe's border and all due to a deliberate policy perpetrated by the states of Europe. A policy that is quite prepared to see men women and children drown just to keep them from seeking refuge on our shores. The Mediterranean has become a cemetery where the so called civilised nations bury those fleeing war, persecution and death, and not by accident, but by deliberate policies. When will our media start to report on every death by drowning caused by this European war on "foreigners"? 

The following from Enough is Enough:

        Three years ago, on July 13, 2019 in the state of Washington, the antifascist anarchist Willem Van Spronsen fought his last battle in an armed attentat against a migrant detention center. An article by anarchist prisoner Dimitris Chatzivasileiadis. 

            Photo: Graffiti in memory of the anarchist Willem Van Spronsen on the facade of the Bouboulina Anacatelliana building (August 2019)

        Originally published by Athens Indymedia Via Anaquía English translation by Anarchist News
        Three years ago, on July 13, 2019 in the state of Washington, the antifascist anarchist Willem Van Spronsen fought his last battle in an armed attentat against a migrant detention center.

“I didn’t stay with my arms crossed.
No need to say more.

         I’m putting my broken heart aside and healing the only way I know how, by being useful.”Willem Van Spronsen

        Officially, 700 dead migrants have been counted in the Mediterranean in the past six months. In the case of the North Aegean the number is almost null because no one is keeping track. Since the official tallying has decreased in recent years, ever since the leftist government sealed the Evros, the practice of drowning migrants has increased. The current government has systematized a method: the sabotage of boats and abandoning the maritime frontier. Additionally, the same method is applied to people who manage to arrive to the shore: they are forced to get back on the boats at gun-point, they are towed to the middle of the ocean, and they sabotage the boat. The accounted annihilation of the number of migrants that arrive equals to as many murders as the median number of arrivals before the start of the systematic repatriation. The daily mass extermination has continued and can continue without obstacles ever since the State, with the help of the fascists, turned the eastern coast of the islands of the North Sea into a «safe haven».
      The Aegean, used exclusively as a military zone, inaccessible even to institutional organizations. Precisely in this way, in the borders of the E.U. and the Greek territory, a long-running class massacre is being carried out, no less political than the intra-imperialist war in the Russian-Ukrainian zone. A massacre that is met with indifference by the comfortable Europeans and Greeks, bipartisans and leftitsts, just like the Germans who «didn’t know» about the nazi death camps.
        Comrade Willem broke through an invisible border, blowing up the complicit silence, attacking the miserable class distinction, the antisocial cannibalism of those that don’t risk their own skin while they inhabit the slaughterhouse, in the territories of the masters, with their own body. With gun at hand.
        The martyrs of the revolution watch over the border crossings.

Willem Van Spronsen – Always onward on our path.

DIMITRIS CHATZIVASILEIADIS

Domokou Prison

July 12, 2022

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Keelie 32.

 

        The latest issue of your wee pocket rocket newspaper, The Glasgow Keelie, issue No.32, is now heading for your streets, cafes, pubs, etc. watch out for it, grab your free copy and learn all about the shenanigans of our council, the Kremlin in George Square. Find out what is happening in our fair city, who is angry about the attack on living standards and what they are doing about it, and how you can can join them and much, much more. Why not grab a bundle and distribute among your friends and family, contact details HERE.

Read issue 32 on line HERE:

 

 

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A Stroll.

 

           Don't you just love Glasgow? Photos taken on a wee walk down Miller Street and Argyle Street.

        Amazing how a simple stroll can become so interesting A wee change from the crap window displays of all those rip-off shops and expensive restaurants.

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State Killings.

       Further to my previous post on hunger striker Giannis Michailidis, and the inhumane treatment he is receiving at the hands of the Greek state, I post in full a letter from Lamia prison by Giannis.

The following is from Enough is Enough:

         Lamia. Greece. A letter from anarchist prisoner Giannis Michailidis, who is on hunger strike since May 23, 2022.

Originally published by Anarchist News.

        Since the anthropocentricity of the majority of our society attributes the above mental attributes exclusively to humans, I will probably be accused of anthropomorphism (you will tell me of all you have been accused of, did that bother you?). However, I do not attribute characteristics to scorpions that are not inferred from their behavior, such as rational thought. It is encouraging that newer neuroscientific research suggests that the architecture of neural circuits associated with the function of consciousness in humans and other mammals is even detectable in insect brains.
       How does this relate to the current situation? A few hundred million years after the appearance of scorpions, a being walked the earth that constructed permanent enclosure structures for other living beings, including its own kind: cages and guardians.
       Many intelligent animals in captivity stop eating and are driven to death (e.g. of the dolphins that are captured, few survive). Countless people in captivity, (since so long ago that the beginnings have been erased) have gone on hunger strikes in prisons to gain their freedom or dignity. This is the equivalent of self-centering by beings with enough intelligence to try to provide a way out of the impasse. That is why nowadays, the hunger strike is internationally recognized as a historically powerful means of struggle, especially for prisoners.
       In Greek circumstances (where even the junta of the colonels backed down on hunger strikes) modern judges and prosecutors are governed by a different perspective. The majority are driven by ultra-conservative views and, having caused untold pain to tens of thousands of prisoners who have been deprived of their long-term freedom, they work for a torture industry entrenched behind obvious lies such as correctionalism. Like slaughterhouse workers, or like fighter pilots bombing the enemy’s cities, they have killed any trace of empathy in themselves and can eat their lunch by convincing themselves that they are doing something useful. That is why they see the hunger strike as a means of challenging their omnipotence and show zero tolerance.
       How else to interpret, what judges and prosecutors write, up to the 46th day of my hunger strike, when the prosecutor’s proposal of the court of appeal for my release was issued?
        I was preceded by two councils where I was tried for what the judges believe I will do and I was held on remand as a “risk of committing further offences”. In the second even theirs they didn’t ask me a single question, not even about the facts and just issued a predetermined decision after 40 days (30 of which already on hunger strike). Without even a rationale, it took them 40 days to write “in accordance with the prosecutor’s proposal, to avoid unnecessary repetition”. I was treated with defiant indifference.
        In the face of this squalor, I started a hunger strike. And in the announcement of its opening, I listed both the arbitrary acts against me and numerous examples where the judges have opened wide the doors when it comes to children of the system (cops – murderers, prison guards – torturers, fascists, big capitalists).
       Meanwhile, in the midst of my strike, Alexandros’ killer, one of Zack’s killers who did as much jail time as I do hunger strike time, and rapist Filippidis have been released early on the improbable grounds that the potential victims are not at risk because he is now known for his actions and will avoid him. And I who completed 3/5 of my sentence 7 months ago “have not yet been corrected as not enough time has passed” according to the prosecutorial reasoning! Unrepentant murderers are enjoying what I have been fighting to earn for 50 days risking my life, what I have been entitled to for 7 months, freedom.
      Seemingly unrelated, and yet relevant, is the murder of the chimpanzee that escaped from Jean-Jacques Leshwar’s wild animal prison. I wonder if Greek ‘justice’ will deal with a serial killer and torturer of wildlife? Too much money…
      Anyway at this moment, my own stinger has already pierced my body and is spreading poison destroying its vital organs, probably irreversibly. However, it will inevitably pierce, even if only temporarily, the murderous order that sustains this system of generalized enslavement and exploitation of nature (human and otherwise)…

THE ONLY DEFEATED STRUGGLE IS THE ONE NEVER GIVEN

FREEDOM OR DEATH

11/7/2022,

Giannis Michailidis  

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Sadistic.

           May all those who fund, plan, build and run prisons, rot in hell. They are the most barbaric institutions in any society. To treat humans as other than human is about as low as you can crawl, but the state defends these blots on civilisation, and builds a whole structure to run them and a system to fill them, and has no intentions of removing them.
          The following case is not the first nor unique, such treatment of individuals by the states across the globe, is all to common and shown to be acceptable to those in power. Only the mass movement of people can bring an end to this savagery and build a society that treats all humans as human. 

The following from Enough is Enough:

 

Lamia. Greece. The health condition of hunger striker Giannis Michailidis, who has been on hunger strike for 44 days and is monitored at Lamia General Hospital, is extremely critical. 

Originally published by Barrikade Info. Translated by Riot Turtle.

           First of all, I would like to emphasize and point out that although the law allows each prisoner to appoint his personal doctor to examine and supervise him, in this case I was not allowed to examine him personally, despite having been authorized to do so, but our communication took place between the staffs and in the presence of a police officer right next to me, thus suspending medical confidentiality, since he heard and observed all our communication.
        Giannis’ white blood cells number has fallen so far below the lower normal limit that it now poses a danger to the hunger striker. Leukopenia leads to severe immune deficiency. Platelets are also very low, and thrombocytopenia can cause severe and threatening bleeding. He has worsening anemia, liver dysfunction, and hypocalcemia.
         Clinically, the hunger striker now reports experiencing acute precordial pain with the slightest exertion (signs of myocardial ischemia) and severe pain in his left kidney. The physicians treating him have informed him that he is now at risk of severe osteoporosis.
         Gianni’s extremely difficult situation and struggle are exacerbated by the conditions of his incarceration. Completely isolated in a four-walled cell. No window, except for a small skylight at one side, and no television (although the psychiatric examination he underwent when he was admitted to the hospital did not reveal any pathological findings). In other words, he is physically and sensory isolated, without the slightest constant support, supervision and care from his family, his lawyer and his doctor.
      All of this harms the hunger striker, causes additional stress and contributes to the destabilization of his body, as it is a kind of torture.
        And the paradox is that all this has to happen in this torturous way in a hospital, where the ethical and moral rules of the hospital should not be violated and all patients must be treated in decent conditions.
       For my part, I will once again emphasize the seriousness of the health condition of hunger striker Giannis Michailides, and call on all responsible authorities to find an immediate solution to prevent a fatal outcome of the hunger strike.

The personal physician of Giannis Michailides Pantelia Vergopoulou – NHS director.

FOR THE IMMEDIATE RELEASE OF ANARCHIST GIANNIS MICHAILIDIS

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Rat Pack.

  

         So the UK's king of sleaze bags Bojo, is being forcibly pushed, screaming his innocence, towards the back exit of the farce theatre, and we are supposed to feel relief. Of course this eviction mob did not act on morality or integrity, but sensed a weakness, had the smell of blood in their nostrils and saw an opportunity for self gain. So, sadly what we are left with is a bunch of his previous loyal minions, all complicit in his reign of arrogance, sleaze and corruption, waving the flag of integrity. Then a group of this bag of snakes decide that each of them is the one to to take the throne in this theatre of farce and duplicity. Each one proclaiming they are the new Messiah to carry on this posh boys club of greed arrogance and corruption. While at the same time trying to convince us that they are doing this for our benefit. Those who fall for this thinly veiled hypocrisy, are naive in the extreme. Think back, history shows us that as these snakes shuffle for supremacy, there bank balance increases and child poverty grows, homelessness never disappears, poverty is ever scratching at most people's door. They bestow honours on each other and offer struggle and austerity to us, with the false promise that they have the plan to make us all comfortable, reality is what they offer is, comfortable living for them, pie in the sky for us.

      Ten arrogant individuals all extremely comfortable, all tainted by their complicity in the actions and defence of their previous Messiah, Bojo, now coming with smiles to hide their utter arrogance and disrespect for the lives of the majority. Why do we even listen to them, we know their track record, we know their background and we know or should know, we gain nothing from their actions, but shackle ourselves to a life of struggle. Let's change our ways, let's bring this whole stinking cesspool of arrogance, sleaze, duplicity and corruption down, let's think for ourselves, take control of our communities and our workplaces and make our own decisions that shape our lives, and shape society to see to the needs of all our people. We are many, they are few, they need us, we don't need them.

Without Us.

You, yes you in your Armani suit and Gucci watch,
don't judge me by the label on my shirt.
I've no need for labels,
my worth is etched on my face,
engraved on my hands.
I'm the power that tore roads through mountains
dragged logs across the earth.
Brick by brick
these hands built your "DESIRABLE RESIDENCE",
your "EXCLUSIVE RESTAURANTS".
My sister made you fancy suit.
What we create we can destroy
and recreate for ourselves.
Don't you know,
without us,
you stand cold, hungry, naked? 

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A Plan!!

Image courtesy of Chris Skinners Blog:

           Everybody agrees that we are heading for the harshest attack on our living standards in a generation or more, and most will appeal to our local lords and masters to sort it out. Of course to get your vote they will make all sorts of promises, but the truth is there is nothing they can do to avert this tsunami of poverty that is going to hit the ordinary people. The reason being is that it is not a local event, it is a world wide catastrophe, also it is not an unavoidable event some accident of fate, nor is it an act of God. It is a well thought out and planned set of circumstances, laid out at the last Davos gathering and engineered by the big boys in the financial Mafia. A world wide design to recapitalise the insane system of global capitalism. For years now the financial Mafia has been flooding the system with phony money at very low interest rates, Quantitative Easing, and the big business world jumped at the bonanza building up massive debts. Too much junk money floating around and too many over valued shares. To over come this problems for the Financial Mafia in this greed fest, the only answer they know is to raise interest rates.
         What will follow is mass defaults, bankruptcies, evictions and repossessions and raging inflation as business try to stay afloat. In the global corporate business world only the biggest and strongest will survive. What this translates into in our world of ordinary people, is unemployment, a slashing of social services, cost of living nightmare and the vicious claws of poverty visiting each and every home of the ordinary people. A tidal wave of physical and mental health problems, our kids potential stunted, a collapsing health service and failed education system, our elderly dying much earlier than they would normally.
 

        Appealing to the puppets of this system, our local governments is pissing in the wind, they are part and parcel of this nightmare as they are the managers of the system at our level, the puppets of the financial mobsters that control the global money system. Our only hope is solidarity of the ordinary people, across all borders of on this planet. To organise in bringing down this system of greed and profit for the few. Coming together to create that better world based on mutual aid, sustainability, respect for all humanity, freed from the profit motive and based on seeing to the needs of all our people. Time is running out, if the present set of circumstance does not get you angry and on the streets, your kids and grand-kids can look forward to a heritage of abject poverty in the midst of opulence. The choice is our, it is their world or it is our world, we are on opposing sides, there is no in between fence sitting, you fight or your surrender, you struggle for that better world or you capitulate to abject poverty, the life of a serf.

 The following is an extract, the full article is well worth a read.

 Deleveraging the bubble

           With the Fed now imposing a Quantitative Tightening, withdrawing tens of billions in bonds and other assets monthly, as well as raising key interest rates, financial markets have begun a deleveraging. It will likely be jerky, as key players like BlackRock and Fidelity seek to control the meltdown for their purposes. But the direction is clear.
           By late last year investors had borrowed almost $1 trillion in margin debt to buy stocks. That was in a rising market. Now the opposite holds, and margin borrowers are forced to give more collateral or sell their stocks to avoid default. That feeds the coming meltdown. With collapse of both stocks and bonds in coming months, go the private retirement savings of tens of millions of Americans in programs like 401-k. Credit card auto loans and other consumer debt in the USA has ballooned in the past decade to a record $4.3 trillion at end of 2021. Now interest rates on that debt, especially credit card, will jump from an already high 16%. Defaults on those credit loans will skyrocket.
         Outside the US what we will see now, as the Swiss National Bank, Bank of England and even ECB are forced to follow the Fed raising rates, is the global snowballing of defaults, bankruptcies, amid a soaring inflation which the central bank interest rates have no power to control. About 27% of global nonfinancial corporate debt is held by Chinese companies, estimated at $23 trillion. Another $32 trillion corporate debt is held by US and EU companies. Now China is in the midst of its worst economic crisis since 30 years and little sign of recovery. With the USA, China’s largest customer, going into an economic depression, China’s crisis can only worsen. That will not be good for the world economy.
         Italy, with a national debt of $3.2 trillion, has a debt-to-GDP of 150%. Only ECB negative interest rates have kept that from exploding in a new banking crisis. Now that explosion is pre-programmed despite soothing words from Lagarde of the ECB. Japan, with a 260% debt level is the worst of all industrial nations, and is in a trap of zero rates with more than $7.5 trillion public debt. The yen is now falling seriously, and destabilizing all of Asia.
        The heart of the world financial system, contrary to popular belief, is not stock markets. It is bond markets—government, corporate and agency bonds. This bond market has been losing value as inflation has soared and interest rates have risen since 2021 in the USA and EU. Globally this comprises some $250 trillion in asset value a sum that, with every fed interest rise , loses more value. The last time we had such a major reverse in bond values was forty years ago in the Paul Volcker era with 20% interest rates to “squeeze out inflation.”
        As bond prices fall, the value of bank capital falls. The most exposed to such a loss of value are major French banks along with Deutsche Bank in the EU, along with the largest Japanese banks. US banks like JP MorganChase are believed to be only slightly less exposed to a major bond crash. Much of their risk is hidden in off-balance sheet derivatives and such. However, unlike in 2008, today central banks can’t rerun another decade of zero interest rates and QE. This time, as insiders like ex-Bank of England head Mark Carney noted three years ago, the crisis will be used to force the world to accept a new Central Bank Digital Currency, a world where all money will be centrally issued and controlled. This is also what Davos WEF people mean by their Great Reset. It will not be good. A Global Planned Financial Tsunami Has Just Begun.

Read the full article HERE:

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By Design?

     

        

           The economic hardship that is hitting the ordinary people, more or less across the globe, receives lots of explanations, from pandemic, supply chain break down, to the war in Ukraine and sanctions on Russia. You can take you pick or pick and mix, but are you getting to the heart of the problem? Perhaps we can dismiss all these supposed reason and listen to top US economists and certain government officials, who seem to lay the blame at the workers feet, by stating wages are too high, and there is not enough unemployment. The chair of the Federal Reserve, one very rich, Jerome Powell, has openly stated that inflation is being caused by wages being too high, and economist and former Clinton aid, Larry Summers, claiming that the solution to the inflation problem is to increase unemployment to around 10%. With these guys of the financial Mafia calling the shots, don't expect austerity to disappear any time soon.
         Their answer to the aim of increasing profits is lower wages and increase unemployment. So are we here by design, incompetence by our lords and masters, or the inevitability of living with a greed driven, insane economic system that benefits the few at the expense of the many.
          Do we wish to be pawns in this economic gambling casino of the pampered parasite class. Can we hand this legacy on to our children and grand children? Surely they deserve better than this as their way of life. Their future is in our hands, we can sit back and let the leeches bleed us dry as we struggle from day to day in a perpetual spiral of increasing poverty. Or we can organise within our communities and workplaces to take control of our lives, and shape society to our desires of seeing to the needs of all our people. We have the ability, imagination and numbers to build that better society based on equality, free association, sustainability and mutual aid, a society where the world is our village and its population our brothers and sister, not our competitors.

          An American guy named Jefferson, you may have heard of him, once wrote, "when the government assaults the very liberties it was hired to protect, it is time to alter or abolish it." I would go for abolish as a start.

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