take the streets.Athens. General Strike

#611 | Athens sees its biggest gathering in years, more than 150,000 at Syntagma square as the build-up for the General Strike of June 15th begins

A crowd whose size is difficult to even estimate gathered in central Athens to protest against the crisis and the Memorandum tonight. The call to a pan-european call of action saw more than 100,000 (some estimates give much higher numbers) flooding Syntagma square and many central nearby avenues. In contrast to previous gatherings, police presence was much higher, with fencing erected around the parliament building and double, or triple rows of riot police around it.

The city is now building up for the General Strike of June 15th, which is also the next date of action announced at Syntagma square.

Both mobilisations are aimed against the new agreement between the government and the troika (IMF/EU/ECB) which is planned to be voted at parliament on the morning of the 15th.

The general assembly of Syntagma square has already called for a blocking of the parliament from the night of the 14th. In addition to the fencing installed around the parliament (see below), a police water canon has also appeared nearby.

Similar demonstrations took place in Thessaloniki, Patras, Heraklion, Larisa, Volos and many other Greek cities. In the Cretan city of Chania, fascists bearing arms appeared in the gathering, in a failed attempt to provoke the gathered crowd.

http://barcelona.indymedia.org/newswire/display/423422/index.php

Brazil: LAST STAND FOR THE XINGU

Amazon Watch has organized a “Cause” at Facebook:

“This has been a time of tragedy in the Amazon. This week the Brazilian government green-lighted construction on the monstrous Belo Monte Dam despite searing local, national and international opposition.

Yet despite the initiation of this criminal operation, I can assure you that the battle to defend the Xingu River and its people is far from over. “I have just returned from the Brazilian Amazon, where Chief Raoni gathered with hundreds of Kayapo warriors, indigenous leaders from 18 ethnicities, and leaders from the Xingu Alive Forever Movement (MXVPS).

“This is the last chance we have to paralyze Belo Monte’s construction,” Renata Pinheiro told the indigenous assembly. “The future of the Xingu is in your hands, indigenous peoples and social movements. You succeeded in stopping Belo Monte for 30 years – now more than ever we need to strengthen our resolve, joining forces to stop the beginning of construction.”

“It’s now more important than ever that we take this campaign to the next level. “Take a stand, stop this monstrous project by joining the Cause on Facebook “Stop the Monster Dam: Protect the Xingu River and its People”.

Your donation today will support the travel of indigenous leaders to Brasilia and Altamira to make their voices heard.” Xingu Alive Forever! Xingu Vivo Para Sempre! Please join the cause. Also, please note that the avaaz.org petition is still active. If you have not signed it you can do it now here. Posted by Lou Gold at 4:22 PM

Peru: Exit polls suggest Humala victory!

Humala supporters celebrate in Lima (5 June 2011)

Exit polls in Peru’s presidential election indicate leftist Ollanta Humala has a narrow lead over right-winger Keiko Fujimori in the run-off.

The polls suggested a lead of about 5% for Mr Humala, a one-time ally of Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez.

Ms Fujimori is the daughter of jailed ex-president Alberto Fujimori.

The two candidates are at opposite ends of the political spectrum – a fact that worried some Peruvians who said they would not vote for either of

Bitcoin 2014: US federal government on brink of collapse.

A Bitcoin World

Published on June 4, 2011 at 5:48 pm

By Patrick McEwen

It’s the spring of 2014 and the US federal government stands on the brink of fiscal collapse.

The combination of out-of-control spending and an inability to collect revenue due to the rise of untraceable, anonymous virtual currencies has led to spiralling hyperinflation with no end in sight. With entitlement and welfare programs now consuming 20% of GDP alone while tax revenue is a scant 9% of GDP, and huge numbers of transactions completed using untraceable virtual currencies, the size of the underground black market economy is nearing 50% of the total economy.

While this kind of a fiscal nightmare has been decades in the making, its collapse was accelerated ahead of anyone’s imagination by the Bitcoin project….

read long interesting prediction here

http://www.capitalfreepress.com/3138-bitcoin-world/

Bitcoin: P2P currency to Smash Banks?!

Technology To Upend All Banks

Bitcoin is catching on at internet speed. If they can’t control it then States , corporations and money markets will lose their monopoly or riches, poor countries will benefit most.. Crime cartels may benefit, already there is a big drug trade in Bitcoins, but the main winners will be ordinary people. Right now the banks control the world.. Bitcoin could change that. The only way to stop Bitcoin is to destroy the Internet.

Can this decentralized barter currency free humanity from the grip of the slave masters and provide for a truly free-market economy?

There are no transfer fees or centralized clearing house needed for peers to trade Bits. Bitcoins are held in a wallet that carries an anonymous address in the system. Watch the brief video below for a concise description:

Once you download and run the Bitcoin client software, it connects over the Internet to the decentralized network of all Bitcoin users and also generates a pair of unique, mathematically linked keys, which you’ll need to exchange bitcoins with any other client. One key is private and kept hidden on your computer. The other is public and a version of it dubbed a Bitcoin address is given to other people so they can send you bitcoins. Crucially, it is practically impossible—even with the most powerful supercomputer—to work out someone’s private key from their public key. This prevents anyone from impersonating you. Your public and private keys are stored in a file that can be transferred to another computer, for example if you upgrade.

It’s called a cryptocurrency. Since the invention of Bitcoin… Money will never be the same

In the Bitcoin economy, there is no central bank… no privately owned “federal reserve” bank coprporation. The value of Bitcoins does not go down when “The Fed” decides to “print more money”. In fact, it might even go up in value… as it triggers more people to seek out alternatives to storing their money in the world’s “fiat currencies” (paper money that different nations’ central banks just continue to “print more of”)… and buy more Bitcoin instead. In the news, the corporate-owned media call it, “Quantitative Easing”…. We think it would be more appropriate to call it, “The Titanic”.

Ya know how email… changed old-fashioned mail… forever…? Well, Bitcoin is changing money… forever.

It’s as anonymous as you want it to be. Just like with cash, transactions can be totally anonymous. Transactions are only identified by your Bitcoin address, and you can have as many Bitcoin addresses as you want. You create another new Bitcoin address with one click any time you want to. Most people create a new Bitcoin Address for every person sending them a payment. That way, they know for sure who the payment came from.
Destroying Sate and Bank control of money is a vital 1st step towards a Money Free World
There’s no big brother. Third parties can’t prevent or control your transactions. Transfer money easily through the internet, without having to trust middlemen; no central bank, nor central authority.
It’s not a bank. It’s not paypal. What may be the best feature of all?
“Bye bye, PayPal.” “Bye bye, Bank.”

Peru: Gold rush destroys 6 times more forest.

The greedy capitalists who caused the last economic crash then put their cash in gold. Causing the price to soar to crazy levels and triggering new gold rushes, with tragic consequences for the miners and the environment.

The rising price of gold has multiplied by six the pace of deforestation in the Amazon rainforest in the Peruvian region of Madre de Dios in recent years. Swenson said. “Given the rate of recent increases, we project mercury imports will more than double by the end of 2011, to about 500 tons a year,” she said.

The highly poisonous metal is used by poor gold-diggers to wash gold off rock and sand. It is not only harmful to the health of those who handle it, but it also pollutes the region’s rivers and air. Mercury also gets into the food chain and harms local indigenous communities and even those that live further away.

Once the gold searchers are done, they leave behind a desert landscape that is poisoned by mercury. Peruvian Environment Minister Antonio Brack said gold-diggers have already destroyed 32,000 hectares of rainforest in Madre de Dios. In March, a large joint operation by police and the military targeted tens of thousands of gold searchers, and 32 floating dredges were seized, Brack said. The minister said he was sorry about the death of two prospectors during the raid, although he stressed that the use of force had been justified in the face of an “environmental tragedy.” However, the problem is far from solved. Police assume that at least 250 floating dredges are in use in the region. According to Brack, it will take at least five years to get those searching for gold to leave. And yet poverty in Peru continues to push more and more people into searching for gold, as well as into other equally illegal activities like logging or settling in the rainforest.

There are other factors at work. Climate change in the Andes is already affecting small farming communities, forcing them to adapt or move elsewhere.

The near completion of the Inter-Oceanic Highway, which cuts a swathe straight through this once inaccessible part of the Peruvian Amazon, will lead to migration on an unprecedented scale.

The road, which will link Pacific ports in southern Peru to the Atlantic coast in Brazil, could well become the greatest factor in the environmental degradation of this once pristine pocket of biodiversity.