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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Occupied Taksim.

       For those wishing to keep up to date on what is happening in Turkey can visit the new site, Occupied Taksim.

 

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Not A Hope In Hell.

       Europe is a rich capitalist continent, it is a big slice of the developed world, and yet visit any country in that continent and poverty is rife and growing. If capitalism can't eradicate poverty in its richest and most developed areas, what chance is there of poverty being tackled in the poorer areas. No matter which country you pick, take Germany, Europe's biggest economy, held up as an example to the rest of Europe. In this paragon of capitalist efficiency, 15.5% live below the poverty line and would be nearer 25% if it was not for public assistance, (2010 figures but have increased since then), while child poverty has doubled since 2004.
 

        France, Europe's second biggest economy, sets another fine example of capitalist efficiency with youth unemployment at 26% and rising, and 23% of 18 to 24 year olds living in poverty, on top of that, there are approximately 11 million people in France living in poverty. In that second biggest economy there are 2 million people living on less than €640 a month.
 

       Here in the UK we have 3.6 million children living in poverty, that's 27% of all children. In some local council areas the figure is in Third World realms with 50% to 70%. My own local area of Springburn in Glasgow has 52% of children living in poverty. Poverty in the UK has seen the number of people seeking help at food banks soar by 170% from 2010 to 2013, the number is put at over 500,000 people needing a hand out with their food. 28% of adults state that they scrimp on food to feed others in the family.

 

      Italy, has millions too poor to heat their homes and almost 2 million children living in poverty, the highest child poverty % in the 25 European nations. In May, Italy's National Statistics Institute, (ISTAT) stated that 25% of Italians were heading towards deprivation, while the number already living in poverty has doubled in the last two years. The ISTAT report also found that 14.3% of the population was seriously deprived in 2012 up from 6.9% in 2010. It also stated that 14.9% were heading towards poverty.
 

        Spain, 27% unemployment, those under 25 and not studying the figure for unemployment is 57%. If you move south in Spain the unemployment reaches 40% in some areas. 1.9 million households have no breadwinner, 10% of the population have had no work for two years or more and 3 million live in extreme poverty with less than €3,650 a year, and a further 3 million get by on less than €7,300 a year.

 

        All of these figures are dwarfed when we visit Greece which has taken a full frontal attack from the financial Mafia that rule the European capitalist world.

       For the whole of Europe the unemployment rate is a little over 17%, that is approximately 84 million people can't find work in Europe. If the rich developed heart of capitalism carries so much poverty, and the misery that goes along with that poverty, only an idiot would believe capitalism can solve the problems of the ordinary people. There is not a hope in hell that capitalism can eradicate poverty in any country, it was not intended to, it was a system devised to make the business class rich and that is what it will do until we the people dismantle this exploitative and repressive system of injustice and greed.

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The Veneer Has Cracked.

      Across the internet there are lots of reports of what is happening in Turkey, some very graphic, others very emotional. I found this one to be graphic, ringing with both sincerity and feeling. I don't think we can give enough cover to what is happening in Turkey at the moment. It is the perfect example of what is on the face of things, a perfectly functioning capitalist consumer society, but just under the surface lies a plethora of discontent, a rumbling of resentment at inequality and daily injustice, now the veneer has cracked and truth is pouring out. Each country in Europe shines with the same illusion and harbours those same resentments just simmering under the surface. How long will their veneer hold?

 

 Photo taken from Occupy Gezi Facebook page. Also used by Reuters.

This from Insanlik Hali:

To my friends who live outside of Turkey:
      I am writing to let you know what is going on in Istanbul for the last five days. I personally have to write this because at the time of my writing most of the media sources are shut down by the government and the word of mouth and the internet are the only ways left for us to explain ourselves and call for help and support.
     Last week of May 2013 a group of people most of whom did not belong to any specific organization or ideology got together in Istanbul’s Gezi Park. Among them there were many of my friends and yoga students. Their reason was simple: To prevent and protest the upcoming demolishing of the park for the sake of building yet another shopping mall at very center of the city. There are numerous shopping malls in Istanbul, at least one in every neighborhood! The tearing down of the trees was supposed to begin early Thursday morning. People went to the park with their blankets, books and children. They put their tents down and spent the night under the trees. Early in the morning when the bulldozers started to pull the hundred-year-old trees out of the ground, they stood up against them to stop the operation.
    They did nothing other than standing in front of the machines. No newspaper, no television channel was there to report the protest. It was a complete media black out. But the police arrived with water cannon vehicles and pepper spray. They chased the crowds out of the park.

Continue reading HERE:

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We Are On A Downward Spiral.

      Remember when Gideon, Mr Osborne to you and I, predicted in 2010 that he would balance the budget in four years. Then our tough spell of austerity would be over and we would be awash in the lush green shoots of growth and the entire population would sing hallelujah Gideon. Then there was a slight re-think about those magical green shoots of growth, and it seemed that we would have to suffer a little more austerity, through to 2017/18. So from a four year fix to an eight year fix, that's quite a miscalculation. Now, Gideon's fix seems to be getting pushed a little bit more into the future, Two economic “think tanks”, (I love that phrase, it seems to imply that we have found some people in economics who can actually think), have come up with another wee disappointment for Gideon. The Institute for Fiscal Studies and the Institute for Government have warned that the austerity measures in the UK could still be trying to work their magic when the 2020 election comes around, with austerity being the plans for that election, and Gideon's mythical balancing act still out of reach. Beyond that requires a very special crystal ball.

       What does all this missing targets and austerity continuing mean to us the ordinary people? Well there has already been agreements by a number of government departments to make cuts of between 8% and 10% for year 2015/16. This is on top of the massive cuts we have had to Government spending, since Gideon and his gang first mugged us in 2010. So all those who think that the worst is over should think again. Ten years or more of cuts in benefits and social spending, wages frozen or cut, inflation running at almost 3%, and you can see deprivation staring you in the face for a generation or more.

      What these two “think tanks” are actually saying is, that there is no hope of any improvement in the living conditions of the British people for the foreseeable future, on the contrary, it is a future of more cuts and the risk of higher taxes. Even if in the 2020's those mythical green shoots of growth do start to appear and that magical balanced budget materialises, how long will it be before we the ordinary people even get back to where we were in 2008? The answer is never, it is a downward spiral and our battles and struggles over the last couple of hundred years to improve our standard of living will have to be re-fought. Improvements in wages and working conditions will have to be wrestled miserly bit by miserly bit from the capitalist greed merchants, as they were in the past. We could of course organise to bring an end to the capitalist economic system that is the root problem of our economic woes, and start to restructure society on the basis of the needs of all our people. We can create a society free from bankers and corporate control, based on communities, built on mutual aid.

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Circled "A" Radio On Turkey.

       Over the past week, what started as a protest against plans to turn Gezi Park in Istanbul into a shopping centre has started to look like a popular uprising across the country, with large protests and attacks by the police reported from numerous cities. Donnacha is joined in the studio by three young activists from Turkey to discuss what's happening, why it's happening and where it might go - the show also includes a pre-recorded interview with an activist in Turkey. 

 

The latest Circled "A" Radio broadcast is interviews with Turkish activists. 

 

Listen to Circled "A" Radio HERE:

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Guantanamo Greece.

      In times of unrest the state will always find a scapegoat, the usual choice is immigrants. According to the vomit spewed by the apologists of the system, immigrants are the root of all evil within the system. The hope is that the people will focus on that situation and allow the system to continue to screw them stupid. In Greece, since the onset of the financial Mafia's rape of the country, immigrants have been treated to horrific and brutal treatment at the hands of the jackboot scum that roam the streets of Greek cities doing the state's dirty work, and at the hands of the state apparatus. Detention in appalling conditions with no end in sight, children separated from their parents and detained in mass dormitories. Conditions that would draw the attention of the babbling brook of bullshit, the media, if it were happening in some Third World country, but ignored when it happens here in so called civilised Europe.

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A Swamp Of Injustice, Inequality And Repression.

       Seven days of police brutality and the people are still there. It is no longer just Istanbul, it has spread to other towns and cities across Turkey. Of course while the people were resisting the brutal force of authoritarianism on the Turkish streets, their babbling brook of bullshit, their national media, was showing a film about penguins. The usual crap, stay at home and watch nice tele. Turkey is just like the rest of Europe, a capitalist cauldron about to bubble over, a swamp of injustice, inequality and repression. There is not a country in Europe that is not on the edge of exploding. The normal inequality and injustice has been exacerbated by the financial Mafia's  plundering of the public purse via their "austerity" plan. Do they see the threat as big enough to ease up on their plundering, or will they push ahead with their drive for a sweatshop Europe. Either decision should be unacceptable to us the ordinary people, our only hope of draining that swamp of injustice, inequality and repression, is to end the present economic system. A system of profit is incompatible with a system for the people. We have to accept exploitation or get rid of capitalism, there is no middle road in this particular struggle.

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