Category: social revolution

‘Rule of Law a Joke’: Catalans jailed on Suspicion as Show Trial Verdict looms

THE PRESENT STATE OF LAW BECOMES A FARCE WHEN THE OBJECTIVE IS TO CRIMINALIZE INDEPENDENTISM    ..  by RE-EVOLUCIÓN

(leer en castellano abajo)    Seven young independentists  from Republic Defense Committees  (CDRs) arrested on suspicion last Monday arrived at the Spanish Court with a Civil Guard bus around seven in the morning but did not begin to testify until 11.

They were refused bail as it was claimed they might abscond.

The obvious reason for their detention is the taking of hostages against reaction to the upcoming sentencing of the Catalan leaders, within the next 10 days, by the politically appointed far right High Court.

The elected leaders have spent 2 years in jail awaiting trial  for holding a long demanded, non binding, consultation referendum on Catalan Independence, which resulted in an overwhelmingly YES PLEASE vote despite massive military police attacks which shocked the world.

The CDRs are local horizontally organised committees set up after the wave of police and following far right and fascist attacks.

The 7 youths were arrested in an operation ordered by the holder of the court of instruction 6 of the Court, Manuel García Castellón.

Image result for encarcelamiento de los CDR

According to the version of the Civil Guard, they were found material and substances considered ‘precursors’ of the manufacture of explosives, in fact things you might find in any garage or kitchen.

The arrests by the Madrid run paramilitary Guardia Civil were seen as an open return to Francoist dictatorship. The local parliament passed a motion demanding the removal of agents from the Civil Guard from Catalonia. But of course they have no powers to enforce this and the local Mossos police are now also run by central government.

Before the hearing, political representatives, such as Eulàlia Reguant and Maria Sirvent, and members of the CDR declare.

40 minutes of horror from 1st Oct 2017 Catalan Consultative Referendum. Imported Spanish police failed to stop the vote which overwhelmingly called for independence. ..40 minuts de l’HORROR de l’1-O(imatges de 500 agressions, aproximadament)

Some media yesterday reproduced the police version, according to which two of the detainees acknowledged having bought material and having made tests for the manufacture of artifacts. Continue reading “‘Rule of Law a Joke’: Catalans jailed on Suspicion as Show Trial Verdict looms”

Azores in path of Cat 5 Hurricane Lorenzo. Sinks Ship. May hit Ireland Thursday

BBC weather prediction for Thursday 3rd Oct 2019

‘Spectacular Hurricane Lorenzo continues to churn in the Central Atlantic in a region where no hurricane so intense or so large has ever been observed’ weather underground. Update> Lorenzo now highest CAT 5 , winds 257 kph/160 mph

Sea temperatures in Ireland are always way too low for a Hurricane. But Lorenzo developed in mid Atlantic where the temperatures were hotter than normal, due in part to the record hot summer in the northern hemisphere.

So we can say the Lorenzo’s phenomenal size and strength is in part promoted by the global warming emergency, and, though normal, sea temperature round Ireland are way higher than this time last year (see comparative maps below).

An unusually supportive environment has propelled Lorenzo to its record strength for this part of the Atlantic…”Sea surface temperatures are close to 1°C (1.8°F) warmer than average, putting the ocean well above the 26°C (79°F) threshold for tropical development.

It is very possible that the storm will curve north and miss Ireland, or weaken to a normal strong gale, which the west of Ireland is totally accustomed to.Comparison sea temperature anomalies in 2019 and 2018 http://www.climate4you.com/SeaTemperatures.htm

Storm Ophelia was the last recent big ex hurricane to hit Ireland, https://www.theverge.com/2017/10/16/16481940/hurricane-ophelia-ireland-meteorology-weather Plus, the last time before that a hurricane that powerful hit Ireland was 1961

”Models agree that Lorenzo will carry out a classic recurving path over the central and eastern Atlantic as it gradually weakens, reaching the northwestern Azores Islands on Tuesday afternoon or evening. Lorenzo will be a massive wave generator due to its high intensity, longevity, and huge size.

Lorenzo’s tropical-storm-force winds extended out 450 miles from northwest to southeast at 11 am EDT Friday. On Thursday afternoon, when Lorenzo’s wind field was not as expansive, an analysis of the Atlantic hurricane database by Eric Webb found that Lorenzo was the largest hurricane ever observed so far east, with a size that ranked in the 85th percentile for all historical Category 4 and 5 hurricanes”https://www.wunderground.com/cat6/C

update: By Sunday evening no sign was found of the 11 missing crewmen and the ship was confirmed sunk. Initially the search was hampered by waves up to 7 meters (23 feet) high and visibility of less than 1 nautical mile (1.8 km)

AZORES IN PATH OF MONSTER

Hurricane Lorenzo, a Category 4 storm on the Saffir-Simpson scale, could affect the Azores islands by Tuesday, October 1, according to the US National Hurricane Center (NHC). The Portuguese Institute of the Sea and Atmosphere (IPMA) forecasts that the western islands of Flores and Corvo and central islands of Terceira, Faial, Pico, Sao Jorge, and Graciosa will be most affected.

”Track forecasts from the 12Z Saturday GFS and European models are in close agreement on bringing Lorenzo very close to the 30°W/40°N point on Wednesday. Such a track would thread the needle between the far-northwest Azores islands of Corvo and Flores and the rest of the archipelago.

Lorenzo’s wind field is so vast—hurricane-force winds are predicted to extend 75 miles east of the center by Tuesday—that the predicted track could bring winds approaching hurricane force in the northwest and/or central Azores even if no direct landfall occurs.

Ensemble model output from Friday night shows enough left-to-right uncertainty in Lorenzo’s track that all of the Azores should keep tabs on the hurricane’s progress toward the islands. Given Lorenzo’s vast size and strength, very high seas and sustained winds in the high tropical-storm range (50-70 mph), with higher gusts, could cause widespread trouble across large parts of the Azores on a variety of potential tracks-

Even as it becomes a post-tropical cyclone, Lorenzo may still bring widespread tropical-storm-force winds to Ireland and the United Kingdom around Thursday, along with very heavy rain.”. Category 6 | Weather Underground

Hurricane Lorenzo.. NHC track latest: Hurricane Lorenzo to hit Ireland…
Hurricane Lorenzo NHC track latest: Hurricane Lorenzo to hit IRELAND – Europe on alert Hurricane Lorenzo could smash into Ireland as it heads for western Europe spaghetti models have revealed……

‘I can’t Stay Silent’ Hit turns 18 Turkish Rappers into Heroes

leer en español más abajo.. Screen shot from the Susaman video on YouTube

from Global Voices     Turkey woke up on Friday morning to an unstoppable musical hit that apparently struck a chord with its citizens for speaking openly about sensitive issues such as domestic violence and nepotism.

State Hits back:  Criminal Complaint Against 18 Rappers Who Sing ‘I Cannot Stay Silent…A criminal complaint has been reportedly filed against the song “I cannot stay silent” (Susamam) sung by 18 rappers led by Sarp Palaur, or Şanışer as he is publicly known in Turkey.

see also..Millions find their voice as Turkish rappers rise

The song, Susamam [which translates as ‘cannot stay silent’], became a number one trending video on YouTube on the morning of September 6 in Turkey. Uploaded at midnight by the creator of the song, Turkish rapper Şanışer [Shanisher or Sarp Palaur], Susamam is an ode to Turkey and its most pressing social, political, and cultural issues.  Touching upon a series of issues ranging from nature, animal rights and violence against women to justice and traffic, the video has been watched by millions of people

Within 48 hours, it has also turned into one of the most popular hashtags on Turkish social media. It proved so popular that even some local government Twitter accounts shared the song. There is now an Instagram filter that encourages you to take a picture and share it, and T-shirts are on sale whose profits will be donated to village schools.

The song brought together 20 rappers or MCs (masters of ceremonies), under one roof. Each picked one of the themes highlighted in the song. These included environment, animal rights, education, women rights — a total of 20 “issues” presented under a separate hashtag in the video. Continue reading “‘I can’t Stay Silent’ Hit turns 18 Turkish Rappers into Heroes”

Colonial Government Office Burned as Insurrection Continues in West Papua

www.amwenglish.com    West Papuan revolutionaries burned down an Indonesian colonial government building in Wamena on September 23, as the insurrection in West Papua gained new momentum.

In the capital of Papua province, Jayapura, three West Papuans were killed by Indonesian occupation forces, and one Indonesian soldier was fatally stabbed in a successful act of revolutionary justice.

The violence was sparked by police, attacking West Papuan university students who recently returned to West Papua from cities in other parts of Indonesia, and had converged at Jayapura’s University of Cenderawasih for a solidarity action.

Around 2000 students have returned home early from study in mainly Javanese cities where racist attacks on Papuans last month prompted widespread protests in the Papuan provinces and also raised fears for the students’ safety.West Papua

318 people were arrested on September 23. Since the beginning of the West Papua uprising last month, at least 40 West Papuans in Jayapura alone have been named as suspects, including those charged with treason. Continue reading “Colonial Government Office Burned as Insurrection Continues in West Papua”

26,000 investigated for insulting Turkish president in 2018

By   TM      A total of 26,115 people were investigated on allegations of insulting Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan throughout the year of 2018, indicating a 30 percent increase from the previous year, according to the Birgün daily.

A total of 4,480 of these investigations turned into court cases, and 2,462 of the suspects, including 19 under age, have received various punishments.

On Monday a social media user from Turkey’s Van province was given a 12-year prison sentence for insulting Erdoğan.

Canan Kaftancıoğlu, an official from the main opposition party, was also sentenced to over nine years for allegedly insulting the Turkish president.

Hundreds of people in Turkey, even high school students, face charges of insulting President Erdoğan.

The slightest criticism is considered insult, and there has been a significant rise in the number of cases in which people inform on others claiming that they insulted the president, the government or government officials. Continue reading “26,000 investigated for insulting Turkish president in 2018”

Greta Speaks Truth to Power as Those She Criticizes Applaud and Sneer

Greta condemned leaders stressing that while “[e]ntire ecosystems are collapsing… all you can talk about is money and about fairy tales of eternal economic growth. How dare you!”

Greta’s UN Climate Summit Speech Successfully Predicted More Business as Usual From World Leaders

By Julie Dermansky • …  On Monday, the United Nations Climate Action Summit opened with a glossy video projected around the room. It hawked a hopeful message that climate catastrophe can be averted. With the lights turned down and music turned up, for a few minutes the summit felt like an IMAX movie experience. 

“Unfortunately, the video is symbolic of the summit itself — all talk, little action,” Jesse Bragg, media director at Corporate Accountability, said via email.

A scathing speech by Swedish youth activist Greta Thunberg and the passing presence of President Trump upstaged presentations from world leaders, who in some cases did announce pledges to reach net-zero emissions by 2050 but overall failed to offer visionary solutions for the rapid transition away from fossil fuels.

While UN Secretary General António Guterres instructed leaders to bring “concrete plans,” not “beautiful speeches,” the world’s biggest polluters, including the U.S. and China, made no further commitments to cut emissions, which will be necessary for avoiding the worst impacts of climate change.

Left, Center and Right: We’re All in Denial About Climate Change .. by Ted Rall  ..  If you really believe that the planet is becoming uninhabitable, if you think you are about to die, you don’t march peacefully through the streets holding signs and chanting slogans begging the corrupt scoundrels who haven’t done a damn thing for decades to wake up and do something. You identify the politicians and corporate leaders who are killing us, you track them down and you use whatever force is necessary to make them stop. Nothing less than regime change stands a chance of doing the job.

Bragg’s advocacy group Corporate Accountability is staging protests during Global Climate Week, which kicked off with a worldwide climate strike on September 20. “We should not need a flashy video to persuade governments to act with urgency,” Bragg said. “The devastation the climate crisis is already bringing to every corner of the world and the science that demands they act should be enough.” Continue reading “Greta Speaks Truth to Power as Those She Criticizes Applaud and Sneer”

EAT the RICH.. SMASH Capitalism.. Save Planet Earth

 .. In 2015 a group of billionaires announced amid much fanfare that they’d be investing a few globs of their fortunes in clean energy research, and the world was all: “Hooray for billionaires!” But  two days
later a  report from OXFAM called “EXTREME CARBON INEQUALITY” (capitalization not my own) revealed that rich people are the biggest contributors to climate change — by a wide, wide margin.Climate justice activists protest outside the Oil and Gas Climate Initiative event
Greta Speaks Truth to Power as Those She Criticizes Applaud…16-year-old climate activist Greta Thunberg addressed the U.N. Climate Action Summit with an emotional speech condemning leaders for inaction and stressing that while “[e]ntire ecosystems are collapsing… all you can talk about is money and about fairy tales of eternal economic growth. How dare you!”

Embarrassment of Riches   By George Monbiot ….. For the sake of life on Earth, we should set an upper limit on the money any person can amass.

It is not quite true that behind every great fortune lies a great crime. Musicians and novelists, for example, can become extremely rich by giving other people pleasure. But it does appear to be universally true that in front of every great fortune lies a great crime. Immense wealth translates automatically into immense environmental impacts, regardless of the intentions of those who possess it. The very wealthy, almost as a matter of definition, are committing ecocide. A few weeks ago, I received a letter from a worker at a British private airport. “I see things that really shouldn’t be happening in 2019,” he wrote. Every day he sees Global 7000 jets, Gulfstream 650s and even Boeing 737s take off from the airport carrying a single passenger, mostly flying to Russia and the US. The private Boeing 737s, built to take 174 seats, are filled at the airport with around 32,000 litres of fuel. That’s as much fossil energy as a small African town might use in a year.

Where are these single passengers going? Perhaps to visit one of their superhomes, constructed and run at vast environmental cost, or to take a trip on their superyacht, which might burn 500 litres of diesel per hour just ticking over, and is built and furnished with rare materials, extracted at the expense of stunning places.   continues below

 Eat the Rich? How Offshore Capital Now Rules the World .. Today’s super-rich are the most privileged and powerful group of people in history. If you’re a billionaire, you can even decide an election by funneling a little bit of your money into the race. You can choose to pay 0% tax. You can sway public opinion by buying up media outlets, and by using think […]

see also:   Direct Action beats Pleading:  Green Anticapitalist Front/

Perhaps we shouldn’t be surprised to learn that when Google convened a meeting of the rich and famous at the Verdura resort in Sicily this July to discuss climate breakdown, its delegates arrived in 114 private jets and a fleet of megayachts, and drove around the island in supercars. Even when they mean well, the ultrarich cannot help trashing the living.

A series of research papers shows that income is by far the most important determinant of environmental impact. It doesn’t matter how green you think you are. If you have surplus money, you spend it. The only form of consumption that’s clearly and positively correlated with good environmental intentions is diet: people who see themselves as green tend to eat less meat and more organic vegetables. But attitudes have little bearing on the amount of transport fuel, home energy and other materials you consume. Money conquers all.  continues below

Growing inequality in the United States shows that the game is rigged. …..Last month, Bloomberg reported that Jeff Bezos, the founder of Amazon and owner of the Washington Post, has accumulated a fortune worth $150 billion. That is the biggest nominal amount in modern history, and extraordinary any way you slice it. Bezos is the world’s lone hectobillionaire. He is worth what the average American family is, nearly two million times over. He has about 50 percent more money than Bill Gates, twice as much as Mark Zuckerberg, 50 times as much as Oprah, and perhaps 100 times as much as President Trump. (Who knows!) He has gotten $50 billion richer in less than a year. He needs to spend roughly $28 million a day just to keep from accumulating more wealth.

The disastrous effects of spending power are compounded by the psychological impacts of being wealthy. Plenty of studies show that the richer you are, the less you are able to connect with other people. Wealth suppresses empathy. One paper reveals that drivers in expensive cars are less likely to stop for people using pedestrian crossings than drivers in cheap cars. Another revealed that rich people were less able than poorer people to feel compassion towards children with cancer. Though they are disproportionately responsible for our environmental crises, the rich will be hurt least and last by planetary disaster, while the poor are hurt first and worst. The richer people are, the research suggests, the less such knowledge is likely to trouble them. Another issue is that wealth limits the perspectives of even the best-intentioned people. This week Bill Gates argued in an interview with the Financial Times that divesting (ditching stocks) from fossil fuels is a waste of time. It would be better, he claimed, to pour money into disruptive new technologies with lower emissions.

World’s poor get less than 1 cent a day for climate change: Oxfam World’s poorest communities have done the least to cause climate change, but end up paying for it, says charity.

Of course we need new technologies. But he has missed the crucial point: in seeking to prevent climate breakdown, what counts is not what you do but what you stop doing. It doesn’t matter how many solar panels you install if you don’t simultaneously shut down coal and gas burners. Unless existing fossil fuel plants are retired before the end of their lives, and all exploration and development of new fossil fuels reserves is cancelled, there is little chance of preventing more than 1.5°C of global heating.     continues below

see also:  US Millionaires Pass $1.500,000,000,000 Tax Cut for Rich Every year wealth and power are concentrated in fewer and fewer hands.. HOW CAN WE STOP THIS MADNESS NOW? ‘Welfare for the Wealthy’: 227 Congressmen Pass $1.5 Trillion Tax Cut for Corporations and the Rich “It’s immoral that many hardworking families will pay a higher tax bill or lose access to critical services like healthcare […]

But this requires structural change, which involves political intervention as well as technological innovation: anathema to Silicon Valley billionaires. It demands an acknowledgement that money is not a magic wand that makes all the bad stuff go away. On Friday, I’ll be joining the global climate strike, in which adults will stand with the young people whose call to action has resonated around the world. As a freelancer, I’ve been wondering who I’m striking against. Myself? Yes: one aspect of myself, at least. Perhaps the most radical thing we can now do is to limit our material aspirations. The assumption on which governments and economists operate is that everyone strives to maximise their wealth. If we succeed in this task, we inevitably demolish our life support systems. Were the poor to live like the rich, and the rich to live like the oligarchs, we would destroy everything. The continued pursuit of wealth, in a world that has enough already (albeit very poorly distributed) is a formula for mass destitution.  continues below

see also: The US military is a bigger polluter than as many as 140 countries …The US military is one of the largest polluters in history, consuming more liquid fuels and emitting more climate-changing gases than most medium-sized countries. Its carbon bootprint is enormous. Like corporate supply chains, it relies upon an extensive global network of container ( … )

see also:  climate change?.. try Catastrophic Climate Breakdown!

A meaningful strike in defence of the living world is, in part, a strike against the desire to raise our incomes and accumulate wealth: a desire shaped, more than we are probably aware, by dominant social and economic narratives. I see myself as striking in support of a radical and disturbing concept: Enough. Individually and collectively, it is time to decide what enough looks like, and how to know when we’ve achieved it.

Left, Center and Right: We’re All in Denial About Climate Change .. by Ted Rall  ..  If you really believe that the planet is becoming uninhabitable, if you think you are about to die, you don’t march peacefully through the streets holding signs and chanting slogans begging the corrupt scoundrels who haven’t done a damn thing for decades to wake up and do something. You identify the politicians and corporate leaders who are killing us, you track them down and you use whatever force is necessary to make them stop. Nothing less than regime change stands a chance of doing the job.

There’s a name for this approach, coined by the Belgian philosopher Ingrid Robeyns: limitarianism. Robeyns argues that there should be an upper limit to the amount of income and wealth a person can amass. Just as we recognise a poverty line, below which no one should fall, we should recognise a riches line, above which no one should rise. This call for a levelling down is perhaps the most blasphemous idea in contemporary discourse but her arguments are sound. Surplus money allows some people to exercise inordinate power over others, in the workplace, in politics, and above all in the capture, use and destruction of natural wealth. If everyone is to flourish, we cannot afford the rich. Nor can we afford our own aspirations, that the culture of wealth maximisation encourages. The grim truth is that the rich are able to live as they do only because others are poor: there is neither the physical nor ecological space for everyone to pursue private luxury. Instead we should strive for private sufficiency, public luxury. Life on earth depends on moderation.

shared with thanks from www.monbiot.com (inserts and illustrations added.)

Climate is class war — what next for green activism? …
https://freedomnews.org.uk/climate-is-class-war-what-next-for-green-activism/
An alliance of non-hierarchical groups formed over the last few months, the Green Anticapitalist Front is attempting to provide a link between the extensive anarchist experience of green direct action and the latest wave of climate change activism. Here, the group outlines its background and ideas for future activity.