In a vicious cycle of sorts, banks and states thus spin down together like two entangled paragliders caught in a mutual embrace of death.
Not excessive government spending but excessive bank lending lies at the root of the eurozone crisis. Here’s why the bankers, not the people, should pay.
We’ve been listening to the same tired old story for almost three years now: if governments don’t cut back on their reckless spending, the euro crisis will escalate and the world will face catastrophe. Collapsing banks, spiraling unemployment, rioting workers — all are said to be the direct result of irresponsible fiscal policies in the lead-up to the worst crisis since the 1930s. And if government is to blame for these ills, austerity is certainly its only cure.
“But hold on,” some hundreds of thousands of protestershave been asking over the past year, “if governments were spending excessive amounts of money, then where did all this money come from? And if we are running out of cash so rapidly that we need to sacrifice social security, education, healthcare and hard-earned pensions in order to keep our heads above the water, then why is there somehow always money left for the bankers when they run into trouble?”
As Capitalism collapses amid climate chaos… one lonely abused schoolgirl occupies herself… and sets off an explosive social and economic revolution…
Amazonian Indigenous Peoples Occupy Belo Monte Dam Site
Date:
Saturday, June 23, 2012
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Altamira, Brazil – Indigenous peoples affected by the controversial Belo Monte Dam complex now under construction along the Xingu River in the Brazilian Amazon have occupied the Pimental coffer dam that cuts across channels of the river since last Thursday, June 21. Warriors from the Xikrin and Juruna indigenous groups arrived from the Bacajá River and Big Bend of the Xingu River in order to occupy one of Belo Monte’s main dams and work camps, expressing dissatisfaction with the blatant disregard of their rights and the dam building consortium’s non-compliance with socio-environmental mitigation measures. The groups independently organized the action and are demanding the presence of the Norte Energia (NESA) dam-building consortium and the Brazilian government.
The occupiers come from a region of the Xingu downstream of Belo Monte that would suffer from a permanent drought provoked by diversion of 80% of the river’s flow into an artificial dam to feed the dam’s powerhouse…. Continue reading “Amazon warriors occupy Belo Monte”
The draft and probably final declaration is 283 paragraphs of fluff. It suggests that the 190 governments due to approve it have, in effect, given up on multilateralism, given up on the world and given up on us.
The Rio Declaration rips up the basic principles of environmental action. In 1992 world leaders signed up to something called “sustainability”. Few of them were clear about what it meant; I suspect that many of them had no idea. Perhaps as a result, it did not take long for this concept to mutate into something subtly different: “sustainable development”. Then it made a short jump to another term: “sustainable growth”. And now, in the 2012 Earth Summit text that world leaders are about to adopt, it has subtly mutated once more: into “sustained growth”…. Continue reading “Rio treaty ‘written for billionaires’..283 paragraphs of fluff.”
Coordinated Anarchist Groups: values, methods and purposes
Emblema de la anarquía
In this paper we present ourselves to all our male and female, anarchist, ‘libertarian’ and anti-authoritarian comrades. For some months and as a result of a substantive discussion on Anarchism, movement theory and practice, we have created from different anarchist groups and individuals a coordination area where our potentials can gather and provide with greater strength and social impact the content that we take to the streets in order to transform the world in which we live.
Grupos Anarquistas Coordinados: valores, métodos y finalidades
Con este texto queremos presentarnos ante todxs lxs compañerxs
English: Casa de Okupas (Squat house), Parc Guell, overlooking Barcelona,
anarquistas, libertarios y antiautoritarios.
Desde hace unos meses y como fruto de un debate de fondo sobre anarquismo, movimiento teoría y práctica hemos creado desde diferentes grupos e individualidades anarquistas un espacio de coordinación donde poder reunir potenciales y dotar de mayor fuerza e impacto social los contenidos que sacamos a la calle con el fin de transformar el mundo en el que vivimos…. Continue reading “Coordinated Anarchist Groups (English/Spanish)”
English: Demonstration in front of Sydney Town Hall in support of Julian Assange, 2010, December 10 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Ray McGovern, June 21, 2012 Barring a CIA drone strike on the Ecuadorian embassy in London, WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange’s sudden appeal for asylum there may spare him a prison stay in Sweden or possibly the United States. Assange’s freedom now depends largely on Ecuadorian President Rafael Vicente Correa Delgado, a new breed of independent-minded leader like Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez.
Correa has been a harsh critic of U.S. behavior toward Ecuador and its Latin American neighbors as well as an outspoken fan of WikiLeaks. Atypically for the region, Ecuador is not a major recipient of U.S. economic or military aid, so Washington’s leverage is limited. This suggests that the Ecuadorian government may decide to defy Washington, accept Assange’s request for asylum, and have him flown to Ecuador pronto.
In which case, most British “justice” officials will probably say good riddance and breathe a sigh of relief — literally. They have been holding their noses for weeks against the odor of their obeisance to U.S. diktat, after the British High Court rejected Assange’s argument that he should not be extradited to Sweden.
Although Swedish “justice” officials have not charged Assange with any crime, they insist that he be extradited to face questions resulting from allegations by two women of sexual assault. This is widely — and in my view correctly — perceived as a subterfuge to deliver Assange into Swedish hands to facilitate his eventual extradition to the U.S. to face even more serious charges for publishing classified information highly embarrassing to Washington.
There have been persistent reports that Assange has been the target of a secret grand jury investigating disclosures of classified U.S. documents allegedly slipped to WikiLeaks by Army Pvt. Bradley Manning. A leaked 2011 email from Fred Burton, a vice president of the private intelligence firm Stratfor, informed colleagues that “we have a sealed indictment on Assange,” but that claim has not been confirmed. Manning, however, is facing a court martial for allegedly leaking U.S. documents to WikiLeaks.
Giving the Brits the Slip
Interesting, is it not, that Assange — just days before he was to be extradited to Sweden — was able to (I guess) slip out of his ankle monitor, sneak through the cordon of bobbies on watch at the estate where he was under house arrest, dodge other bobbies and security chaps, and hit pay dirt inside the Ecuadorian embassy.
There is no denying that Assange is a clever chap. But unless you think him some kind of Houdini, there has to be some more likely explanation as to how he slipped through the various police checkpoints and walked into the embassy, which is located behind the popular Harrods department store in London.
Were the British security forces all out for tea? Or were they just as happy to have the Assange case — and all the pressure from Washington — focused elsewhere?
Certainly, the British had enough clues that, in extremis, Assange might attempt to make it to the Ecuadorian embassy. In late November 2010, Ecuadorian Deputy Foreign Minister Kintto Lucas publicly offered Julian Assange residency in Ecuador, saying that Ecuador was “very concerned” by information revealed by WikiLeaks linking U.S. diplomats with spying on friendly governments. Continue reading “Julian Assange’s Artful Dodge”
by Italy Calling Squatting is on the rise again in these times of austerity (see for example the recent occupations of flats in Southern Spain, mostly carried out by housewives and families). An Italian project that’s caught my attention since its beginning is in Pisa, where last year’s Occupy protests evolved into the reappropriation and transformation of abandoned buildings for the benefit of the local community.
The low-cost social canteen
The Occupy Pisa project started in November 2011 with the occupation of some old buildings owned by a bank in Pisa, with the aim of providing alternative and self-managed social spaces for the local community. After only a few months of successful initiatives, such as a low-cost canteen, courses and advice drop-ins, the building was evicted in February. The eviction didn’t stop them though, as they went on to set up a permanent camp in the nearby Piazza Dante, which was used as a base to organise pickets and demonstrations, and to keep engaging with the local residents. Thanks to these tactics the project has grown from being an activist-based movement to being a mixed group of people from all sorts of backgrounds, including students, precarious workers, unemployed people and local residents of all ages.
After the global day of action against austerity on May 15th – which in Italy was focused on Equitalia, the Italian state-owned tax department – the project decided to move on and occupy an abandoned sports centre, disused for the last 6 years despite the local residents’ requests to re-open it. The works at the “Nuova Periferia Polivalente” started straight away and culminated with a public assembly on June 3rd to discuss ideas and proposals for the project, which obviously include renovating the sports facilities, but also creating social spaces for adults and children, an employment-focused area to organise the local workers and an “Anti-Equitalia Advice Centre” for people in debt. The low-cost social canteen – one of key elements of the project since its origins – will come back with a newly built outdoor wooden oven.
Public assembly Italian style…
Italian sources: here and here. For older articles on this blog on the Occupy Pisa movement and other occupations see here.
El próximo 29 de mayo puedes participar de forma activa en la protesta por el tremendo recorte de derechos laborales, sociales y de libertades colectivas e individuales que conlleva la nu
eva REFORMA LABORAL.
¿Quién se atreve ahora a quedarse embarazada, a guardar cama cuando llega el inevitable gripazo, quién le dirá a su jefatura un “no puedo”, quién denunciará un abuso, un trato vejatorio, unas condiciones laborales insalubres o mezquinas?
Además de la participación activa en las movilizaciones, también podemos incidir en esta jornada de lucha, evidenciando el rechazo a esta situación que nos traslada a una época casi medieval de señores y vasall@s.
DEMOSTREMOS QUE QUIÉN SOSTIENE LA ECONOMÍA Y CREA LA RIQUEZA DE UN PAÍS SOMOS: LAS PERSONAS
HUELGA DE CONSUMO:
DESENCHUFA ABSOLUTAMENTE TODO AQUELLO QUE NO SEA IMPRESCINDIBLE, baja a mínimos vitales el uso del agua o los combustibles. ¡SE PUEDE!
NO COMPRES NADA, no gastes. Prevé tus necesidades esas 24 horas… y baja el consumo siempre!
DEJA TRANQUILO AL BANCO, no utilices tarjetas ni cajeros automáticos.
DESEMPOLVA LA BICI, ESTIRA LAS PIERNAS, CAMINA. Si no tienes más remedio que usar tu vehículo, compártelo y no pongas gasolina el 29. Cuélate y no pagues en los medios de transporte.
In a vicious cycle of sorts, banks and states thus spin down together like two entangled paragliders caught in a mutual embrace of death.
The Free 