November 5 has been designated Bank Transfer Day or Move Your Money day, the day to send the message to the too-big-to-fail Wall Street banks that they have failed us.
But it looks like the tsunami has already begun. The Credit Union National Association (CUNA) says that some 650,000 people have opened credit unions in the past month – more than in all of 2010.
Customers were livid after Bank of America announced they would introduce a $5 monthly fee for using their debit cards, as a way of keeping their profits high after a new federal law had tried to limit them. But it looks like they’re feeling the heat – earlier this week they scrapped the fee. Other banks have also backed down from planned fees.
“These results indicate that consumers are clearly making a smarter choice by moving to credit unions where, on average, they will save about $70 a year in fewer or no fees, lower rates on loans and higher return on savings.” said Bill Cheney, president and CEO of CU
Good afternoon Hospitalet !………. . On the 28th it was decided to take over the Health Center in protest for it being closed down from this weekend. Neighbors have occupied it permanently and expressed their discontent by cuts in health care.
Keep up the fight to strengthen public health in Bellvitge, after the occupation of the Health Clinic, there is a camp called for November 2. Continue with # tardorcalenta!
During the weekend talks were carried out, activities, various demonstrations and protests around the neighborhood, as well as meetings daily at 10am and 18pm. At the meetings residents have made it clear that this occupation is indefinite, and will not return until the entire medical staff, the doctors and specialists. A district with more than 30,000 people and many elderly people need local services and cuts mean loss of rights and welfare.
We have created a facebook page where we upload photos, impressions and actions of neighbors. Join! The name is: Bellvitge Cap Rambla Marina.
El día de ayer, viernes 28 de octubre, nuestro compañero Mono, recibió una golpiza por parte de tres funcionarios de Gendarmería.
La situación ocurrió alrededor de las 16:45 de la tarde, Mono se encontraba dormitando en su celda cuando ingresan los bastardos a realizarle un allanamiento. En eso uno de ellos le pregunta si tiene algo de valor, a lo que Cristóbal responde que sí, su dinero. En esto, se acerca uno de los gendarmes y lo increpa, diciéndole que si acaso cree que le van a robar. En ese momento se armó una pequeña discusión y el mono ya estaba siendo golpeado y lanzado por las escaleras.
Sufrió golpes en su cabeza, tórax y extremidades. Permaneció durante un rato inconsciente y se encuentra con vómitos. Los paramédicos de la unidad no le han tomado la atención necesaria y solo le han administrado antiinflamatorios. Luego, lo trasladaron a una jaula de castigo en donde sufrió episodios de taquicardia y problemas respiratorios. Se encuentra completamente incomunicado y sin comida. Pretenden quitarle su próxima visita. Permanecerá castigado ahí con la asquerosa excusa de que le faltó el respeto a la Autoridad.
No podemos permitir esta situación. No permanezcamos indiferentes A agitar y solidarizar, no puede repetirse esto. Ningún compañerx esta solx! Fuerza Mono!!!
Ten of the best…ways to get stuck into urban gardening
Growing your own fruit and vegetables doesn’t have to involve huge amounts of space. As Hannah Corr explains, there are plenty of short cuts for city dwellers who want to get
The recession and the resulting squeeze on living standards have little to recommend them except in one respect. Thanks to a combination of rising food prices and greater environmental awareness, the last few years have seen interest in DIY food production skyrocket. According to the Department of the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs [DEFRA], one in three of us now grows fruit and vegetables at home. And why not? Not only can you ensure that what you grow is totally organic, you also avoid the human rights issues surrounding commercial vegetable production and slash food miles to almost zero. In short, DIY vegetables are not only good for you; they’re excellent for the planet to boot. What’s more, say DEFRA, DIY veg production is winning new converts every day with many of the new recruits coming from urban – and even inner city – backgrounds.
Sebastian Mayfield, co-founder of London based grower’s network, Food Up Front, was forced to think creatively after spending four years on an allotment waiting list and never making it higher than 22nd. ‘I began looking for an alternative closer to home’ he says. ‘And then it dawned on me while lying in the bath one day: why don’t we make better use of the space we already have?’ And he’s not alone. People are looking to their balconies, windowsills and lawns as potential places to produce food, which means that even the residents of inner city areas can try their hand at grow your own. Here’s how to get started.
Make the most of your windowsill
According to the National Trust, there are over 600 acres of growing space on windowsills across the UK, which makes them the perfect place to start for the space starved urban dweller. The easiest ’ledge veg’ to grow are spinach, rocket, lettuce and herbs, all of which thrive in small tubs and can be grown from seed….
Try a grow bag
Container gardening is the commonest – and most practical – way to grow food in the city. Pots can be placed almost anywhere, are easily moved, simple to reach when you want to start picking and excellent value for money – you can get even the pots for free by recycling catering tubs….
Use your walls
Finding extra space for veg means looking at wall space as well as what you can squeeze onto your balcony. There are plenty of varieties that are happy to twine around a trellis and still produce an abundant crop….
Grow your own fruit
Approximately 60 per of orchards have been lost since the 1950s, according to the Orchard Network, All you need is an underused corner of the garden and you could be producing apples, pears, plums, quinces, cherries, apricots or peaches within a year….
Invest in raised beds
Swap your clematis for carrots by converting your garden borders into vegetable plots….
Adopt a chicken
If you’re blessed with a reasonable sized garden, adopting a couple of hens not only means a daily supply of fresh eggs but also free help with your garden….
only NATIVE seeds please
Put a Hive on your Roof Although relatively simple, there are many intricacies to keeping bees so get some advice from the British Bee Keeping Association before getting started. Oh, and you get delicious honey too. …
Get a Greenhouse Vegetables that thrive in a greenhouse include tender crops such as aubergines, cucumbers, chillies, tomatoes or more exotic plants like melons and sweet potatoes….
Convert urban wasteland
While inner city land is scarce and at a premium, you might be lucky enough to come across a pocket of derelict land that can be converted into an organic paradise. Along with the fun to be had during an hour or two of seed bombing, community gardening provides security against volatile food prices and gives you truly local produce. The Cuban ‘Organoponico’ model has inspired many organisations…
Get on the waiting list for an allotment
Thanks to increased interest in home vegetable production, allotments have become like gold dust. The average waiting list is three years (or 40 for an unlucky few in central London)….
On the morning of Thursday, October 20th, approximately 30 families from the Mapuche-Huilliche community of Huichan Mapu walked onto a 250 hectare (approximately 615 acre) parcel of land in Frutillar, Chile and began a peaceful occupation of the land. The community was removed from the land in 1991 and has been trying, unsuccessfully, to use the processes of the state to gain its return. According to their spokesperson, the families are prepared to stay on the land indefinitely until the land is returned to the community.
Prior to 1991, the Hulliche community members lived on and farmed the land that they now peacefully occupy. But in 1991, according to the lonko (leader) Florinda Martínez Gáez, the land was taken from the community when other individuals “misrepresented” the land’s status. At that point in time, men, women and children were removed from the land. Since then, the community has sought the return of their lands by going to authorities at the regional, provincial and national levels. With those efforts leading nowhere, the decision was made to take peaceful action to recover their traditional lands.
Native Protesters Celebrate Law Cancelling Rainforest Road By Franz Chávez
LA PAZ, Oct 25, 2011 (IPS) – With victory cheers and predictions of future campaigns in defence of their ancestral territory, indigenous protesters from Bolivia’s Amazon jungle region celebrated the new law that banned the construction of the road through their rainforest reserve.
The 66-day march by the demonstrators to La Paz and the controversy over the road undermined the backing for President Evo Morales among his main support base, the country’s indigenous majority.
Late Monday, Morales signed into law the agreement putting an end to the plan to build the road that was opposed by some 1,000 native protesters from the Amazon, who made the gruelling 600-km march from the rainforest to La Paz.
The demonstrators, who were subjected to a brutal police crackdown in late September near a remote village 330 km north of La Paz, were greeted as heroes by thousands of people who took to the streets on Wednesday Oct. 19 to welcome them when they reached this city in Bolivia’s western highlands……. …….The indigenous peoples of the Amazon region make up 10 percent of the 10 million inhabitants of Bolivia, where over 60 percent of the population are native people, mainly belonging to the Quechua and Aymara ethnic groups concentrated in the western highlands. Morales, the country’s first-ever indigenous president, is an Aymara Indian.
next…Save the Madidi Campaign
In an interview with IPS, environmentalist Carmen Capriles, one of the leaders of the Save the Madidi Campaign, discussed the concept of the “plurinational state”, as established by the new constitution that went into effect in 2009, in which she said indigenous communities and people of mixed-race or European descent mutually recognise their different identities while declaring their unity in the Bolivian state.
The activist, who is working to defend the 1.9-million-hectare Madidi National Park in northwestern Bolivia, said the plurinational state was achieved by a struggle waged along the country’s roads and in its jungles and mountains, in the face of repression and stiff opposition.
Capriles also said there is a growing sense of unity between indigenous people from poor rural areas and from urban slums, who are forging a natural alliance to defend nature.
Morales’s reputation as one of the world’s foremost champions of the environment was hurt by the plan to build the road across the TIPNIS reserve.
She was referring to areas like the Madidi National Park and the Pilón Lajas Biosphere Reserve and Communal Lands in the north of the province of La Paz – which are close to recently discovered oil reserves.
In addition, the projected El Bala hydroelectric dam would flood some 300,000 hectares of land in the Madidi National Park and the adjacent Pilón Lajas biosphere reserve and indigenous territory, including the TCO owned by the Leco indigenous community.
Customers were livid after Bank of America announced they would introduce a $5 monthly fee for using their debit cards, as a way of keeping their profits high after a new federal law had tried to limit them. But it looks like they’re feeling the heat – earlier this week they scrapped the fee. Other banks have also backed down from planned fees.
The Free 