The charity song released to highlight the cruelty of taking Winter Fuel Payment from pensioners has passed its fundraising target of £50,000, according to the musicians who created it.
Freezing This Christmas broke into the Official Charts at Number 37 after topping the iTunes, Download and Sales charts, said Sir Starmer (of Sir Starmer and […]
Winter Fuel Payment charity song reaches its fundraising target
ByTurkish Minute December 20, 2024 A new report by the Stop Fueling Genocide campaign, supported by Progressive International, has revealed that 10 crude oil shipments were made from Turkey to Israel over the past year, eight of which violated Ankara’s embargo announced in May, according to the Gazete Duvar news website. The report is the […]
New report reveals multiple oil shipments from Turkey to Israel despite embargo
Activists say it was the first of many planned protests “targeting wealthy landowners deliberately keeping their properties empty during a housing crisisby
by Freedom News on Dec 20 2024..
~ From Backlash Blogs ~
On the 14 December 2024, housing advocates and people experiencing homelessness occupied three adjoining empty properties in Brunswick, an inner-city suburb in Melbourne, Australia, which have cumulatively been empty for almost 25 years
This was a collective social protest against the greed and excess affecting housing in Australia. Occupiers believe an agreement should be made for the community to use these properties as emergency accommodation for people experiencing housing insecurity and the Victorian Government should forcibly acquire these properties for public housing.
Neighbours say that the owner of one of the properties refuses to rent or sell the property, despite regular offers from the public.
These dwellings are a symbol of the problems with Australia’s housing market.
The fundamental reason for the proliferation of empty houses is that they continue to generate profit whether lived in or not.
Based on median house values, collectively these three properties have more than doubled in value since they were last lived in.The owner bought 86 Weston St, Brunswick for A$430,000 in 2005; it now has an estimated worth of A$1.1 million.
Government reforms since colonisation have created a landscape where housing in Australia is now treated as a commodity rather than a basic necessity for living.
When the area now known as Brunswick was first colonised and the land privatised, only 1 out of the 10 allotments sold for speculation at a Sydney auction was actually lived on by the purchaser, a legacy that continues today.
In 2023, nearly 100,000 homes in metropolitan Melbourne, or 5.2% of all dwellings, were found to be either empty or underused.
This number exceeds the 48,620 households currently on the Victorian social housing wait-list, suggesting vacant homes could house everyone on the list twice over.
With 540,000 rental properties in Melbourne, utilising vacant homes would increase rental stock by nearly 20%.
The number of vacant homes also equals more than two and a half years’ worth of new construction, based on the annual average of 37,000 new homes built.
This action is not without historical precedent. Dr. Iain McIntyre, Historian and research fellow at The University of Melbourne has written extensively on the historical role of squatting in the housing crisis following the end of World War 2.
According to Iain, squatters “had the most impact in Victoria where three days after the house in Hawthorn was squatted the Premier announced that the state government would introduce its own legislation to give councils and municipal shires the power to install tenants in disused houses, with the state government to guarantee the payment of rent”.
The squatters published a list of their demands:
Immediate Use of Empty Properties for Emergency Accommodation
We demand that vacant properties, like the one currently being occupied, be made available immediately for emergency accommodation for people experiencing housing insecurity.Property owners, who hoard houses for profit rather than providing housing, should not be allowed to block the use of such properties for those in need. Referencing the Vacant Residential Land Tax (VLT), these properties must be repurposed when left idle
Forcible Acquisition of Long-Term Vacant Properties
If properties remain empty for more than two years, they should be forcibly acquired by the government for public housing under the Compulsory Acquisition and Compensation Act 1986 (Vic).
This measure would prevent property investors from land-banking and would help ensure that housing is used for living, rather than a commodity.
Extend No-Fault Eviction Laws to Prevent Commodification of Housing
We call for the government to extend no-fault eviction laws to people occupying empty dwellings that are being used as investments rather than homes and meet the same criteria as the current VLT.
The state must protect those using properties for shelter from eviction, and ensure these homes are not left vacant while people suffer from housing insecurity. This aligns with the Victorian Charter of Human Rights, which affirms the right to adequate housing.
Build community support and solidarity
We call on the community to support future housing protests, actions and occupations. This is the first of many protests which are aimed at addressing the insanity of prioritising greed and profit over people’s right to be housed.
Amsterdam: Takland Squatters occupy adjacent building7 June 2023In “News”
Activists occupy third Dublin property to highlight Ireland’s housing crisis10 September 2018In “World”
Squatters occupy former Roylt building in Tower Hill29 December 2015In “News”
The heroic spirit displayed by our forces a week ago near Qara Qwzaq Bridge and the Tishreen Dam serves as the most compelling evidence of the triumph of the Kobani resistance
by https://riseup4rojava.org .. https://linktr.ee/revolutionkurdistan 19.12.24 via thefreeonline at https://wp.me/pIJl9-Fhu Telegram t.me/thefreeonline.
Yesterday, December 18th, the Turkish occupation launched a large-scale attack on the Tishreen Dam axis. Intense clashes erupted and lasted until the evening hours. Our forces resolutely confronted the attackers and successfully repelled their attacks. Additionally, various areas within Kobani came under attack from Turkish occupation UCAVs and heavy artillery.
Simultaneously, the Turkish army continues to mobilize forces in the Suruj area, while Turkish tanks and armored vehicles are deployed along the northern border of Kobani and the western side of the Qara Qwzaq Bridge.
The heroic spirit displayed by our forces a week ago near Qara Qwzaq Bridge and the Tishreen Dam serves as the most compelling evidence of the triumph of the Kobani resistance
SDF General Command
December 19, 2024
Turkey rejected the ceasefire agreement between the SDF and SNA. The YPJ General Commander Rohilat Afrin confirmed that an attack on Kobane is imminent.
“The Turkish state is sending military forces to attack Kobanê. Everyone must take action for Kobanê. Just as we defeated ISIS in Kobanê, we will also defeat Turkey!”
We are following the situation closely. We must make preparations and act to stop Turkey. With the spirit of 2014 and our şehids we will defend Kobane!
by Talesfromtheconspiratum 19/12/24 via thefreeonline at https://wp.me/pIJl9-FgW
There is no science that shows vaccines cause Autism …except in these published studies which show vaccines cause Autism: .
http://ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3878266/… http://ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21623535 http://ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25377033 http://ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24995277http://ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12145534 http://ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21058170 http://ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22099159 http://ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3364648/… http://ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17454560 http://ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19106436 http://ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3774468/… http://ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3697751/… http://ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21299355 http://ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21907498 http://ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11339848 http://ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17674242 http://ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21993250 http://ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15780490 http://ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12933322 http://ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16870260 http://ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19043938 http://ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12142947 http://ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24675092 Causal relationship between vaccine induced immunity and autism http://ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12849883 Subtle DNA changes and the […]
November 24, 2024
In “Autism”
Childhood Vaccines: 1983 = 10 vaccines 2013 = 32 vaccines 2022 = 74 vaccines Autism Rates: 1983 = 1 in 10,000 2013 = 1 in 88 2022 = 1 in 36 2025 … estimates 1 in 2 https://twitter.com/BarbaraOneillAU/status/1849626682858066183October 25, 2024
In “Autism”
December 17, 2016
In “Alternative medicine”
The British double crossed all sides during the 2nd World War, fomenting Arab and Palestinian Nationalism with false deals while setting up Israel as a Western proxy
British origin of Syrian mess-via thefreeonline at https://wp.me/pIJl9-FgV
SYRIA. World War II. 1941. British and F.F troops advances on Damascus …
The conflict between Arab and Jew in the Middle East and most of the mess in Syria and the general region is a direct product of Britain’s Great War on the Ottoman Empire.
Britain, after declaring war on the Ottoman Empire in November 1914, as part of the Great War taken on against Germany, expected to make short work of the Turks.
However, the major reverse suffered at Gallipoli in 1915 convinced the British that they required various regional allies to help them conquer the Ottomans. They had already acquired the Russians through a convention in 1907, and through them the Armenians and their irregular forces in the eastern parts of Ottoman territory.
The Tsar was persuaded through an offer of his heart’s desire, Constantinople, which was made formal in a secret 1915 agreement by Sir Edward Grey after much diplomatic work done behind the scenes in the previous year.
However, having failed to defeat the Turks in the time expected and with the Russians and Armenians, England lured the Arabs into active participation in the war against the Muslim Ottoman State on the promise of a great Muslim Arab state after it.
To achieve this the seeds of nationalism were sown amongst this people, which had, up until then, proved impervious to such things. And Syria/Lebanon/Palestine/Jordan, they were led to believe, would be part of the nationalist inheritance at the harvesting of victory.
However, at the same time Britain divided up the Arab lands, including Syria, with their allies in secret agreements, despite knowing that this would confront the new Arab nationalism which they were cultivating, after the War.
While the McMahon correspondence and treaty with Shereef Hussein was being formulated, in which Britain agreed to establish a large Arab state in return for an Arab rising against the Ottomans, London began making secret treaties with the French (The Sykes/Picot Agreement of May 1916) which sought to divide up the Middle East amongst the Western Christian Powers after the Great War was won.
In 1917 Britain launched yet another project, on another set of promises, of a Jewish colony in Palestine, during a moment of great difficulty during its Great War. The object was to win over what it believed to be the considerable force of international Jewry to the failing Allied cause.
To do this it announced the Balfour Declaration and Britain set about the process of large-scale Jewish colonization of Palestine under the auspices of the Mandate system of Versailles. The plan was not to establish an independent Jewish State but a Jewish colonial state of the British Empire.
So, having created an Arab nationalism in the region that was going to be confronted with Imperialist domination, England simultaneously made sure of its frustration by giving it a powerful alien rival nationalism to also conflict with.
It is sometimes said that the Arab world was the victim of a British double-cross. But it actually fell foul of a triple cross. And in the century or so from 1918 there has been a working out of what emerged from the activities of the British State between 1916 and 1918 in destroying the Empire of the Ottoman Turks.
Shereef Hussein knew nothing of the agreement that aimed to balkanise the region so that the Muslims could not operate a state that would amount to anything in the world.
This plan of balkanisation was, of course, a most unsuitable way to administer the region because divisions within the Arab world were not national in any way. They were religious and cultural. Different religions and cultures were spread right across the region and could not be delineated by national boundaries or through nation states drawn out of the sand.
That was why the Ottoman structures worked – because they enabled different religious groups, clans and families with different cultures, ways of life and allegiances to live next to each other, with no lines in the sand to bother them.
When the lines in the sand were imposed on the Arabs they were forced to see themselves as nationalities, (but with no historical meaning) and to see others (who had the same history, religion or culture as themselves) as alien and a threat, because they were from without the newly imposed lines in the sand..
read MUCH more… Britain and the origins of the Syrian mess
On By rebelbreeze via thefreeonline at https://wp.me/pIJl9-FgU.
Diarmuid Breatnach (Reading time: 3 mins.)
The Zionist state announced the closure of its embassy in Dublin, accusing the Irish Government of being anti-Israel.
1 The broad Palestine solidarity movement celebrated the announcement while Harris for the Irish Government expressed regret.
ZIONIST DUBLIN EMBASSY CLOSES TO REGRETS AND CELEBRATIONS
The Zionist Embassy at 28 Shelbourne Road, Ballsbridge, Dublin has been without an Ambassador since she left Ireland last May in protest after the Irish Government, along with the Spanish and Norwegian governments, officially recognised the state of Palestine.2
However the Irish State’s recent decision to join South Africa’s case against Israel at the International Court of Justice3 seems to have prompted the closure of the Embassy and led once again to allegations of “anti-semitism” in Ireland which the President called a “gross slander”.4
Simon Harris, Taoiseach (prime minister equivalent) of the outgoing Irish Government5 expressed his regret at the ‘Israeli’ decision while at the same time rejecting vigorously the allegation that the Government is anti-Israel. He is absolutely correct in doing so.
Irish Governments have consistently been pro-Israel and colluding with Zionism, in contradiction to Irish popular opinion. The outgoing government6 has allowed military supplies for ‘Israel’ to fly through Irish airspace and the US military to land and depart from Shannon Airport.
The Irish Government has also held up for years the relatively mild UN-compliant Occupied Territories Bill. These points were well made in an Al Jazeera Inside Story7 program by Mícheál Mac Donncha, Sinn Féin Dublin City Councillor and by Zoe Lawlor, IPSC8 Chairperson.
The Free 