solidarity – Page 182

Sack the Banks..’Cash transfer Day’ on Nov 5th

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

Lethal radioactivity spreads as Fukushima hots up.

Japan Times: It is now a “grave situation” at Fukushima — “Plutonium fission” mentioned for first time — “Criticality is very likely to have occurred”

The meltdowns are still out of control. Every day more radioactive ‘Hotspots’ are found, many 100’s of kms away, but latest reports shoe the stations may have GONE CRITICAL AGAIN.

Nov. 3, 8:30 pm ET Tepco announced Wednesday that, according to the Times, “There is the possibility that criticality, a sustained nuclear chain reaction, had occurred ‘temporarily’ and ‘locally’ in the No. 2 reactor.”

During it’s testing, Tepco has detected xenon-133 and -135, “Products of uranium or plutonium fission.”

The half life of xenon-135 is about 9 hours, therefore, “Criticality is very likely to have occurred just before the gases were analyzed,” reports the Times.

“Clearly the reactor has not yet been stabilized,” and, according to the Times, “The fact that Tepco cannot deny the possibility of criticality irrespective of its scale is a grave situation.”

And the article notes, “Conditions are similar in the Nos. 1, 2 and 3 reactors.”

Now is the time to get “serious” writes The Times:

“Tepco should make serious efforts to accurately grasp the conditions of nuclear fuel inside the reactors.”
“Tepco and the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency should take a serious view of the fact that radioactive xenon pointing to criticality was detected from the No. 2 reactor. What happened in it can happen in the Nos. 1 and 3 reactors.”
Read more HERE (with thanks) http://enenews.com/

Greeks resistance gets referendum.. The 1% in a Panic

Stock markets will be crashing through the floor tomorrow.

The Bankers will be selling out and buying gold

Politicians will be going apoplectic.

Because the heroic Greek resistance has triumphed again! The millions on the streets is finally paying off

Greece’s government is holding an emergency meeting following a day of turmoil and international pressure triggered by PM George Papandreou’s shock announcement of a referendum on the proposed EU bailout.

Most likely the Referendum will be defeated ( if it’s not cancelled) and the whole SAVE CAPITALISM deal will fall apart.

And this on top of winning a promise to CANCEL 50% of Greek debts.

These are some of the latest cuts…Further cuts in public sector wages and many bonuses scrapped…Some 30,000 public sector workers suspended,. …Wages cut to 60% and face lay off after a year…Wage bargaining suspended…Monthly pensions above 1,000 euros to be cut 20% above that threshold…Other cuts in pensions and lump-sum retirement pay…Tax-free threshold lowered to 5,000 euros a year from 8,000

Greek Resistance wins 50%+ debt cuts

Anarchgist vs police — Anarchists have led the heroic resistance in Greece

Months of intense resistance by ordinary people in Greece appear to have resulted in a partial victory. The EU crisis summit conceded that bond holders be forced to shoulder 50% of their losses. This did not come easy, Greek workers have staged several general strikes and Athens has seen day after day of large scale rioting.

Only the traitorous intervention of the Stalinist Union to help the police prevented the 500,000 demonstrators taking Parliament on the 2nd day of the last General Strike.

The contrast with Ireland is clear. Here the union leadership called off token resistance in the first months of the crisis and workers passively marched, shrugged their shoulders and went home. As a result the ordinary Irish worker alone, the majority of ‘the 99%’, have shouldered all the costs. Bond holders will scontinue to have their failed gambles covered. Next

cops take a beating — Clearing the neighbourhood of terrorist police

week alone another 700 million will be handed over to the Irish & global 1% to cover their losses in Anglo. This is our ‘thanks’ for being the poster boys for austerity across Europe.

It is true that the intention is still to impose further vicious rounds of austerity on workers in Greece. So this partial victory is only that but hopefully it will give heart to those who have fought and are continuing to fight to resist those intentions there as well as being a lesson on how resistance is fertile to those of us in Ireland.

The details of how the EU will finance the bailout are dodgy to say the least, running from a reliance on China to lend the needed funds to the construction of another round of mysterious ‘Special Purpose Investment Vehicles’ designed to turn the debts into attractive investments. Despite this the Stock Markets have still initially welcomed the new deal, presumably out of desperation and relief that the next stage of the crisis has been once more postponed.

Belo Monte site OCCUPIED. Work still stopped..

Altamira, Brazil – Hundreds of indigenous leaders, fishermen and riverine people from the Xingu River basin have gathered to occupy the Belo Monte Dam construction site in a peaceful protest to stop its construction in Altamira, located in the state of Pará in the heart of the Brazilian Amazon. They

: Poor barrio of Altimira to be permanently flooded by Belo Monte

have vowed to permanently occupy the site and are calling on allied organizations and movements to join them.

Work has been stopped while various legal cases are got rid of, with the politicians bought off by the ‘progress’ business and landlord nationalist lobby, while most people oppose the dam , as well as the amnesty for forest crimes and opening up of the Amazon with the new ‘Forest Code’.

Help support the peaceful protest: http://www.causes.com/campaigns/158177

Below: a report on the protest from Amazon Watch; and a declaration from the Xingu Alliance.

The Trans-Amazon Highway (BR-230) has been blocked around the Santo Antônio village, where it passes the proposed construction site. Groups are demanding the presence of a Brazilian government high-level official at the site to initiate a new round of negotiations that are transparent, inclusive and respectful of the rights of local people affected by the dam.

On Apr. 1, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights IACHR recommended that the Brazilian government “immediately suspend the licensing process for the Belo Monte hydroelectric project” and “any material works” to protect the rights of local indigenous people.
This “abrupt change, without precedent in the democratic history of Brazil, indicates a breakdown of dialogue within the multilateral (Organisation of American States) system,” Caldas said at the news briefing.