Caroline Lucas shocked by the killings in Egypt

Caroline Lucas, leader of the Green Party, and Green MP for Brighton Pavilion, said: "I have been shocked by the brutal response by the Mubarak government to the pro-democracy protests, including police violence that has used tear gas bombs, rubber and plastic bullets, and diluted mustard gas.

"The Government-led shutdown of telecommunications across the country also raises serious questions about the lengths to which Mubarak will go in order to silence the people - and about the independence of network operators.

"I have asked William Hague, as Foreign Secretary, to have discussions with his Egyptian counterpart to try and facilitate freedom of speech and peaceful protest." (1)

Lucas added that: "President Hosni Mubarak needs to respond to the mass protests which are demanding reform, not the reshuffling of his ministers. And instead of speaking about the need for stability, I'd rather hear Western governments talk about the need to create a multi-party democracy in Egypt."


MORE HERE

Gamal Muburak spotted in London

Much of the UK media coverage has been embarrassing, riots, fundamentalists, tourists and falling markets.

Al Jazeera is in contrast really inspiring, all about Egyptian people (not a faction) democratically organizing for change.

This is a London based story, President's son spotted in our neck of the woods.

Egyptian workers form new union

The TUC has received the following press release from the independent
trade union organisation CTUWS, whose website has been blocked by the
Egyptian government as part of the repression of dissent in Egypt.

Press Release
Date: Sunday, 30 January 2011
Today, representatives of the Egyptian labor movement, made up of the
independent Egyptian trade unions of workers in real estate tax
collection, the retirees, the technical health professionals and
representatives of the important industrial areas in Egypt: Helwan,
Mahalla al-Kubra, the tenth of Ramadan city, Sadat City and workers
from the various industrial and economic sectors such as: garment &
textiles, metals industry, pharmaceuticals, chemical industry,
government employees, iron and steel, automotive, etc... agreed to hold
a press conference at 3:30pm this afternoon in Tahrir Square next to
Omar Effendi Company store in downtown Cairo to announce the
organization of the new Federation of Egyptian Trade Unions and to
announce the formation of committees in all factories and enterprises
to protect, defend them and to set a date for a general strike. And to
emphasize that the labor movement is in the heart and soul of the
Egyptian Peoples' revolution and its emphasis on the support for the
six requirements as demanded by the Egyptian People's Revolution. To
emphasize the economic and democratic demands voiced by the independent
labor movement through thousands of strikes, sit-ins and protests by
Egyptian workers in the past years.
Translation of original in Arabic into English

ITUC statement here:
http://www.ituc-csi.org/egypt-ituc-condemns-police.html

Rapper Keny Arkana - Tribute to the Egyptian people

Listen and repost!

'Walk like an Egyptian' police pepper spray UK Uncut activists

The Police here seem very similar to the police in Egypt!

The video is from F for philistine, she noted

I saw at least 7 people who had been sprayed in the eyes including a journalist, with three men particularly badly affected. One protesters had contact lenses in, which reacted with the spray. If you’ve never been tear-gassed before, it’s horrific. You can’t see, you’re in extreme amounts of pain, and massively panicked by the fact that you have no clue where you are, or who is around you. I called an ambulance, who confirmed they’d be there as soon as possible.

UK Uncut is issuing a statement condemning the use of pepper spray by police on a peaceful UK Uncut protest on Oxford Street this afternoon.

Before 15:00 outside Boots on Oxford Street a female activist tried to push a leaflet through the closed door of Boots explaining the details of Boots' tax avoidance to the staff.

A police officer then arrested the individual for "criminal damage". Around 20 people tried to help the female being arrested and 10 were subsequently pepper sprayed. Three people have been taken to hospital.

Anna Williams who saw the incident said "I condemn the violent behaviour of the police who have attacked a peaceful protest against tax avoidance, with three people being taken away in an ambulance."

she continued, "This is yet another example of political policing that is about protecting corporate interests and not those of ordinary people. We will not however be intimidated off the streets! We have a right to protest when the government are making unnecessary cuts that will hit the poorest in our society the hardest."

José María Arguedas is our flag in the war for our planet and against the capitalists!

Here in Peru, from the days of San Martin, we have always been ruled by foreigners. We have never been anything but the servants of aliens.

"The foreigners are like rapists. They promise everything until they have had their ways, then they beat and scorn their victims. And now, today, the foreigners’ bastard children roll over and beg to be violated, themselves! I tell you, their ‘sophistication’ is just a sickness’ [El zorro de arriba y el zorro de abajo, pp. 58-60].

With sentiments like this its no wonder that the corrupt Peruvian government in hock to oil companies and smashing the rainforests prefer to forget that José María Arguedas is the countries most important novelist, Alan Garcia a comprador prefers a comprador Peruvian novelist who wont upset the corporations!


Just had this from Hugo Blanco, Spanish link here, translation is me plus google translate, not sure about quote from Arguedas...

For those new to my blog Hugo Blanco is the leading ecosocialist and indigeneous leader, he recently toured Britain and led a successful peasant revolution in the 1960s, praised by Che, now aged 76 he fights every day for Mother Earth and against capitalism!



2011 - Año del centenario del nacimiento de José María Arguedas

The commemoration of the centenary of the birth of José María Arguedas has become a rallying point for those who struggle for our culture with all its rich content: Among many other things, of our relationship with Pachamama, whose children we are and who we should live within and sustain. :The organization collective, communal democratic and solidarity, which we share :The good life, you understand that happiness is theaccumulation of money to do the bidding of the consumer society, but to live successfully. From good living, we understand that happiness does not come from the accumulation of money to do the bidding of the consumer society, but to live appropriately. Respect for diversity. The love of our ancestors and descendants.

Predatory neoliberalism, of course is against all this: It fights against nature by razing the forest, convert forests into timber, extracting hydrocarbons that poison the water, killing plants and animals and many other forms. Attacking the mountains with mining and hydroelectric, stealing and poisoning the water for agriculture. Attacking the arable land with agribusiness monoculture and the use of agrochemicals.

The struggle of ideas is not only a reflection of the struggle in practice: On one hand the largely indigenous population, the victim of predation and on the other the large predatory multinational corporations along with their servant Alan García and Vargas Llosa.
So no wonder that the government has refused to declare 2011 the centenary of the birth of José María Arguedas.

Nor are we surprised that multiple voices that are organising events, such as the Regional Council in Ayacucho. In Abancay the municipality organized the celebration. There are activities in Lima was successful in the popular parade organized by various cultural groups, artistic, political, and continue for events.

These are defiant gesture against the enemies of nature and people.
Inseparable part of the commemoration of the centenary of Arguedas has to be support for the struggles that are now giving the Indians who so loved him, and defend their indigenous principles: Cocachacra, Combapata, Espinar, Puno, Ayabaca, Huancabamba Conococha, etc.

Referring to his novel "The Deep River, four days before he died Arguedas said:
"In the novel I imagined this invasion with a premonition: those who study the times to come, those who understand social struggles and politics, those who understand the significance of this revolt of the storming of the city that I imagined. How, how much more the boiling blood of these men would rise if only they pursued to the death the mother of the plague, typhus, the bosses, the day when they overcame the fear, the horror that they have!"

I beat the los gamonales and today fight against the attacks of neo-liberalism.

Arguedas is our duty as with all our strength to support the struggles that raise indigenous principles that both respected the father:

Against the attack of neoliberalism the defense of communal solidarity organization, which provide all democratically.

Against the attack on nature, the defense of Pachamama.

Against the capitalist approach the most important thing in life is to make money, the principle of Good Living, that happiness is to live successfully.

Against the dominance of colonial culture, respect for cultural diversity.

Against forgetting the past and the inhuman selfishness to future generations, respect for our ancestors and ensuring the survival of the species.

Let us support the rebel movement that challenges the current oppressors!

In Cocachacra against the Southern and its servant Alan García, collectively and democratically demand the people of Cocachacra!

The memory of Arguedas is inseparable from our strong support of the struggle for the defense of indigenous principles he loved.

José María is now more alive than ever, it is our banner, our "unanchay", the symbol of those who fought for life against the "black heralds sent to us by death" in the words of Vallejo.

Hugo Blanco
January 2011

Egyptian Army arrests Interior Minister Habib Al Adly?

The Egyptian Army has just issued a statement that it has arrested Interior Minister Habib Al Adly and NDP strongman Ahmad Ezz.

This suggest that the Army is backing the people and about to over throw Muburak, looks like very good news.

The Army is refusing so far to fire on the people.

In contrast the police are killing people, over 200 so far and have been causing chaos such as looting so as to justify crack down.

Well post more when I find out!

Page grab of TV announcement, nice if some one with Arabic could confirm this, been learning Arabic alphabet with my kids this morning but can't a lot further than 'alep' lol!

So far this is coming from @SultanAlQassemi

EXCLUSIVE: Very reliable source from Egypt: Habib Al Adly was arrested for opening the doors to all jail cells yesterday so chaos ensues

GEORGE GALLOWAY EGYPTIAN UPRISING MEETING IN LONDON

WEDNESDAY 2 FEBRUARY 7PM
SOLIDARITY WITH THE EGYPTIAN UPRISING

CONWAY HALL, RED LION SQUARE, LONDON WC1R 4RL

SPEAKERS INCLUDE: George Galloway, Dina Makram - Ebeid, John Rees, Bernard Regan

Egypt has been a cornerstone of the US "war on terror" and America's strategy for dominating the Middle East. Not for nothing is Egypt second only to Israel in the amount of US aid it receives, including $1.3 billion a year for the security forces alone - the same forces who have killed dozens of protesters inthe last few days and injured hundreds more.

President Mubarak has made Egypt a US client state for decades. If his tyranny is overthrown the implications are momentous. As one commentator noted, "Every Egyptian knows today that the United States government is not a friend of Egypt, it is a friend and ally of the Mubarak regime — a regime that does not represent the Egyptian people. Democracy isnot the United State's gift to the world and it will not be acquired underAmerican tutelage. Real democrats don't bankroll dictatorships."

As well as expressing solidarity with the uprising for democracy in Egypt, Stop the War's public meeting on Wednesday 2 February will discuss the implications for the anti-war movement. For updates see Stop the War.

Scenes from the Egyptian Revolution video please repost!

Please repost Tamer Shaaban's video!

: “Violent clashes between police and demonstrators as over ten thousand gather on the streets of Cairo. The Egyptian people have endured a tyrant’s rule for far too long, millions struggle each day to find where their next meal is coming from. January 25th, 2011 marks the day when the people rise and take back what’s rightfully there’s. This isn’t the end, but hopefully the beginning to a long awaited regime change! Send to everyone and let them know.”

Song: “Into the Fire” – Thirteen Senses

Thanks to the following news sources for their footage
Daily News Egypt
The Guardian
CNN
New York Times
Al Masry Al Youm

Take What's Yours - Egypt's peaceful revolution

Aaron Porter chased away by angry Egyptians

Well actually students in the UK...


People like Aaron Porter are the lowest of the low.

It works like this loyal New Labour activists are fast tracked to be Presidents of the National Union of Students.

Few students vote directly for them, its all sewn up by the most right wing members of Labour Clubs at student unions at a local level.

They do nothing much for students and for their loyalty they are given safe parliamentary seats.

When I was active in NUS it was Phil Woolas as NUS President, a man whose racist election leaflets would have made Nick Griffin blush.

In the 1970s or 60s it was the war monger Jack Straw.

The machine is so big, students are unlikely to stop these people but at least we can all cheer the students who chased off Aaron Porter....thanks Aaron for helping to destroy my childrens chance of a university education, now what would be the word that Laurie Penny might call you?

People like Porter have no shame, he will be a Labour Cabinet minister voting for wars no doubt in a decade or two.




The incident began when a small number of students spotted him at University Place, opposite the Manchester Museum, the arranged starting point of the student march. As they argued with about his record as head of the NUS, which has been controversial due to a number of statements critics say amount to denouncing his own membership, a larger number gathered around until there were around 300 people, with some reports suggesting as many as 500.

According to one member of the group, private security guards, who it is believed were hired by the NUS for the event, escorted Porter as the protesters “walked” him back toward MMU, chanting “students, workers, hear us shout, Aaron Porter sold us out”, and “Porter out”. Once at the university campus the police helped him in to the union building, where the NUS leadership based themselves for the day, with a small number of protesters attempting to gain entrance through a side door, before being thrown out by the same security company.

Witnesses reported that he was visibly shaken, with two separately describing him as “sobbing”. Following this, Porter did not take part in the march, and did not speak as scheduled at the TUC/NUS/UCU rally taking place at Platt’s Fields. Shane Chowan, the union’s Vice-President, spoke instead, but was pelted with eggs at the end of his speech. References to the NUS throughout the rally were greeted with booing and heckling from the crowd.

MORE HERE

URGENT MESSAGE FROM EGYPT

URGENT MESSAGE FROM EGYPT: (re-post if you can)


To all the people of world

The people in Egypt are under governmental siege. Mubarak regime is banning Facebook, Twitter, and all other popular internet sites Now, the internet are completely blocked in Egypt. Tomorrow the government will block the 3 mobile phone network will be completely blocked. And there is news that even the phone landlines will be cut tomorrow, to prevent any news agency from following what will happen.

Suez city is already under siege now. The government cut the water supply and electricity, people, including, children and elderly are suffering there now. The patients in hospitals cannot get urgent medical care. The injured protesters are lying in the streets and the riot police are preventing people from helping them. The families of the killed protesters cannot get the bodies of their sons to bury them. This picture is the same in north Saini (El-Sheikh zoyad city) and in western Egypt (Al-salom). The riot police is cracking down on protesters in Ismailia, Alexandria, Fayoum, Shbin Elkoum, and Cairo, the capital, in many neighborhoods across the city.

The government is preparing to crackdown on the protesters in all Egyptian cities. They are using tear gas bombs, rubber and plastic pullets, chemicals like dilutes mustard gas against protesters. Several protesters today have been killed when the armored vehicles of the riot police hit them. Officials in plain clothes carrying blades and knives used to intimidate protesters. Thugs deployed by the Egyptian Ministry of Interior are roaming the streets of Cairo, setting fire on car-wheels as means of black propaganda to demonize protesters and justify police beatings and state torture



All this has been taken place over the past three days during the peaceful demonstrations in Cairo and other cities. Now, with the suspicious silence of the local media and the lack of coverage from the international media, Mubarak and his gang are blocking all the channels that can tell the world about what is happening.

People who call for their freedom need your support and help. Will you give them a hand?

The activists are flooding the net (youtube and other sites) with thousands of pictures and videos showing the riot police firing on armless people. The police started to use ammunition against protesters. 15-year old girl has been injured and another 25 year old man has been shot in the mouth. While nothing of these has appeared in the media, there is more to happen tomorrow. Will you keep silent? Will you keep your mouth shut while seeing all these cruelty and inhumane actions?

We don’t ask for much, just broadcast what is happening



Written by: Mariam Hussien

President Mubarak still in Egypt.

Magazine "Akhbar Al Arab" is reporting Egyptian President Mubarak has left Egypt on a private jet headed for London.

However he has now appeared on TV (could be in London though!).

Still looks like the regime is tottering....

Majority of NSSN Officers resign en-bloc

 
At a meeting immediately following Saturday 22nd January's NSSN anti-cuts conference, the majority of NSSN/Shop Stewards Network national officers-all of those not in the Socialist Party- have resigned.
 
This is the statement of four of these officers: Dave Chapple, Bob Archer, George Binette and Becca Kirkpatrick:
 
“1.We are all NSSN national officers. We have decided that we cannot continue to be activists in an organisation that, following the conference decision on 22nd January, is now controlled by the Socialist Party.
 
The NSSN was established to become a strong independent organisation of trades union activists, with trades council and trades union branch affiliates.
 
Its meetings cannot function as independent voting bodies if all major decisions are to be taken beforehand by the Socialist Party.
 
None of our trades council or trade union branch affiliates can continue to be linked to the NSSN on that basis.
 
2. 22nd January’s NSSN conference decision to set up a separate NSSN-led anti-cuts campaign-the third such organisation that exists-is a major strategic mistake for our part of the trade union movement.

It makes unity of the national anti-cuts movement harder not easier.

The essential NSSN anti-cuts task, of stiffening the resolve of the trades unions, locally and nationally, to fight cuts through co-ordinated strike action, will be set aside or de-prioritised. 

It will ensure that the regional and local SSN groups-already weak and struggling in the main- will wither as they transfer time and energy to establishing-or duplicating-local anti-cuts campaigns.

At the Steering Committee of December 4th, six national officers and EVERY NON-SP STEERING COMMITTEE MEMBER voted against this proposal, yet the Socialist Party has ignored this feeling despite our further appeals, knowing full well that our continued participation in the NSSN would be intolerable.
 
3. Ninety NSSN activists met after the end of that Saturday's conference and unanimously decided to continue the work of trade union activists' solidarity on an organised national basis. Please get in touch."
 
Dave Chapple, NSSN Chair; George Binnette, NSSN Treasurer;
Bob Archer, NSSN Communications Officer; Becca Kirkpatrick, NSSN Affiliations Officer 

Live coverage of a revolution unfolding

Live coverage from Al Jazeera here http://english.aljazeera.net/watch_now/

Tony Blair et al just love dictators when they tortured in the interest of a US or UK elite, nice to see the bad guys losing in one North African country after another.

In an age of social media the multitude are no longer going to let themselves be dominated by the mafia.

Bolivians Ask British Government to Respect Their Coca (Derek Wall/Alborada.net)

“It is said that the virgin Mary chewed on the coca as she lamented the loss of her son leaving her teeth marks on the back of the Coca…”

Bolivian Foreign Minister David Choquehuanca visited Britain on 20 January, as part of a tour of European Union countries, to lobby the British ConDem government to support Bolivia's amendment to the 1961 UN Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs.

At present, due to US government pressure, the use of coca leafs is illegal. Coca, as we all know, was used not just as the original ingredient of Coca Cola but is processed into cocaine. Cocaine is the main fuel of the armed gangs that are wrecking havoc in countries such as Mexico and El Salvador.

However coca has been grown and used for thousands of years without harm in countries like Bolivia and Peru. Indeed Bolivian President Evo Morales was a leader of the coca producers union.

MORE HERE

New study finds fear of clowns is far from irrational.

Britain is just as thick with secret police as Tunisia or Egypt, protest and you are in the spotlight. This is an excellent article from Solomon Hughes. Hoping someone will out the MI5 people in political parties and the infiltration of environmental groups by private security, then there is the back door secret state control of the mass media.

Think you are in a democracy, well think again, its a 'managed democracy'.



This is the face of Britain's political police.

One of the high points of undercover constable "Lynn Watson's" five-year secret mission into the protest movement involved dressing as a clown to occupy the offices of Labour MP Hilary Benn in a 2004 protest against the Iraq war.

Watson "infiltrated" the movement by paying £20 and attending two days of "intensive rebel clown training" in a "big shoe camp" held at a church hall in Leeds.

The Rebel Clown Army is the exact opposite of a violent protest movement. A regular feature on many direct action protests, it uses buffoonery, absurdity and costume to create a disruptive but distinctly non-aggressive presence.

Watson's involvement with the Clown Army formed a pattern in her spy mission - she "infiltrated" protest groups that were entirely non-violent.

The entire undercover operation, involving the highest levels of the police force and costing millions of pounds, led to few, if any, successful prosecutions for serious crimes and prevented no violent acts - because there were no violent acts to prevent.

This was purely political policing.

Watson began her undercover mission by joining Swords into Ploughshares protests against the Trident missile system at the Aldermaston weapons factory in Berkshire - close to the officer's home police force in south-east England.

These demonstrations were entirely non-violent, but the officer's "success" in pretending to be a demonstrator and compiling protesters' names seems to have led to her selection for the full undercover mission.

Watson moved to Leeds.

Her stay with the rebel clowns was short.

After occupying Labour offices and disrupting a local army recruiting station, where balloons and buffoonery bamboozled local police, she moved on.

Rebel Clown organiser John Jordan told me: "She was a totally bad clown, could not let go and be free, which is what clowns have to learn to do."

MORE HERE

Farid Bakht for Mayor!

I am pleased my friend Farid is seeking the Green Party nomination for London Mayor, people tend to vote for incumbents so I expect Jenny Jones is likely to win but I think Farid for a number of reasons would raise the game for the Green Party, he has the personality to make a splash against Boris and Ken.

Please like his facebook 4Mayor site here

And take a look at his carbon politics blog.


The Greens must reflect the city in gender, ethnicity and sexuality if its people are going to vote for us.

Regularly voting Green, I joined the Party after spending a few years in Bangladesh. There, I saw the devastating impact of floods and climate change and its connection to poverty and social injustice. I campaigned against India and China's mega-dam building projects, for the economic rights of female garments workers and for rickshaw pullers. I set up a Renewable Energy Association to promote solar power, a sector which has now taken off.

On my return, I joined the Green Party because for me it is the only one which has a coherent ideology to transform society in both rich and poor countries, for men & women, for young & the elderly.

Half-Basque, half-Bengali, born in Hackney, I was brought up in London. Married, I have a 9 year old daughter & live in West London.

MORE HERE

JAY-Z: The Roots of Rap

[col. writ. 1/17/11] (c) '11 Mumia Abu-Jamal


For a rapper to write a book, a straight-ahead prose text, is unusual. For they think in rhymes, couplets, metaphors and beats.

When books do appear, they are often those dreadful 'as told to' pieces, less written than dictated, more hustle than work of art or deep thought.

Jay-Z has produced the former.

An MC of almost legendary skills and reputation in the rap world, his work traditionally mines the urban streets for tales of hustling, of survival, and often, wild parties. They can mime the highly polished art of braggadocio, of wealth and hedonism for which rap is renowned.

But Jay-Z's new book, DECODED, is an honest, sober, well written and surprisingly political work which chillingly recalls the era of rap's birth in Brooklyn and his struggle to find a place in it.

Remarkably, his attempts to get signed by label after label were repeatedly rebuffed, a measure of just how clueless record companies were in rap's crib days.

But he really soars when he writes of his generation's need to pick through the refuse of the past, to fill the aching spaces of fatherlessness, made worse by the ravages of the Reagan era and the drug scourge. He writes:


I feel like we-rappers, DJs, producers -- were able to smuggle some of the magic of that dying civilization out in our music and use it to build a new world. We were kids without fathers, so we found our fathers on wax and on the streets and in history, and in a way, that was a gift; we got to pick and choose the ancestors who would inspire the world we were going to make for ourselves.

That was part of the ethos of that time and place, and it got built into the culture we created. Our fathers were gone, usually because they just bounced, but we took their old records and used them to build something new. {p.255}


The book is richly supplemented with lyrics from Jay-Z's most famous raps, and even several collaborations. It is thus a treasure trove for rap and hip-hop heads.

Decoded is a map of an era that gave birth to one of the most influential musics of the 20th century. Jay-Z has contributed something remarkable as an historical document of the period.


--(c) '11 maj

[Source: Jay-Z, Decoded, {Spiegel & Grau: New York, 2010]

James Haywood interview, sweep away Aaron Porter build the movement!

I get criticised along the lines of 'Dr Wall only really takes serious notice if an event is happening in Habana, the Peruvian Amazon or Caracas'.

Point taken, companeros...So I have been putting some energy into seeking out the movers and shakers of the English revolution and buying them a pint or a cafe con leche...

Today I met up with James Haywood, who is a sabbatical at Goldsmiths College and one of the leaders of the student movement, I was lucky enough to teach him 'New Radical Political Economy' and have enjoyed some of his writings on ecosocialism.

It was very good to catch up with him and I had a useful meet up with Aaron Peters a couple of weeks back....got a few more movers and shakers to catch up with over coming weeks, nice to argue, debate and see where protest and direct action is going.

Anyway great to get in after chatting to James and find this interview with him from Socialist Resistance.


James Haywood, communication and campaigns officer at Goldsmiths’ College spoke to Socialist Resistance about the student mobilisations.
From emails sent to student union officers, NUS president Aaron Porter seems to want to focus all our energy on lobbying MPs, even after the Lib Dem scandal! They are terrified of unleashing a movement which they can’t control, because it will do radical things that they don’t agree with.

I have to admit that after Aaron came out in support of occupations at UCL, I had some optimism that the NUS was coming on board. But that has proved false. Career before principles!

SR: Is there a need for something in between, like a movement of radical student unions?

JH: We do need a network of radical Student Unions but we still don’t have the weight yet to form our own national union. I think if people are serious about the idea, we need to throw our weight into getting anti-cuts people elected in the spring, and re-assess our weight once the votes are in.

SR: What can British students learn from the struggles abroad?

JH: Well quite simply that radicalism works, and wins. If people genuinely want to stop the cuts and fees, we need to look at places where the campaign has won. France is the most obvious example. Those who dismiss this are not serious about the fight; and only want a symbolic campaign at best.

SR: What will happen next? How important is the campaign against Aaron Porter?

JH: I think the campaign against Aaron is fine, but if we really want a radical change we need to get people to the NUS conference, and, more importantly in my opinion, we need to get activists elected to local students unions. The SU hacks are the base of the right in NUS, if we reclaim our SUs we will be in a strong position to reclaim our NUS too.


MORE HERE

‘We can't save capitalism and save the planet’

I am writing regularly for Green Left Weekly, this is my review of a great new book on green politics and ecosocialism.United States activist Chris William’s new book, published by Haymarket Press, is an excellent introduction to ecology and socialism. It is well written and, despite being a long-time ecosocialist activist, I learnt a lot from it.

Williams is a professor of physics and chemistry at Pace University, and chair of the science department at Packer Collegiate Institute. He is a green activist and a member of the International Socialist Organization.

The ISO, which formed in 1976, was part of the International Socialist Tendency, the international organisation of socialist groups affiliated to the British-based Socialist Workers Party, until 2001. It is involved in a wide-range of struggles, including against war, for queer rights and environmental campaigns.

The ISO has also been active in the US Green Party. Todd Chretien, a leading ISO member, ran as the Green Party candidate for the US Senate in 2006 in California.

The ISO have a reputation for being the largest and most dynamic socialist organisation in the US, an achievement indeed given the difficulties socialists have organising in that country.

Ecology and Socialism discusses the reality and potentially devastating effects of climate change, noting that we are close to a number of tipping points that could unmake much of the natural world — with devastating effects on humanity.

MORE HERE

'Keep your truncheon in your trousers!'

Women blockaded the Met HQ today as a protest against the sexual abuse of women by undercover police agents.

Such abuse is a weapon used to disrupt protest, a means of social control.

Organiser Sophie Stephens said: "It's time for the abuse of women by undercover police officers to stop. If a person is pretending to be somebody else, if they are spying on you, then you absolutely cannot give your informed consent.
"Women are not able to make an informed decision about who they are having a relationship with if they are being duped by police officers. We also want a judge-led inquiry. We don't trust the police to police themselves. They have showed time after time they believe they are above the law."

MORE HERE

Adrian Ramsay speaks on Green economics at the LSE this wednesday

Adrian Ramsay, the Deputy Leader of the Green Party, will be speaking at the London School of Economics this Wednesday, 26th January, at an event hosted by the LSE Green Party Society. His topic will be 'Green economics and the Coalition cuts', and will be taking place at 6.30pm in room 2.06 in the New Academic Building, which is at the south-west corner of Lincoln's Inn Fields.

Non-LSE students and non-students are very welcome to attend. You can link to the Facebook event here: http://www.facebook.com/#!/event.php?eid=146569832066880

Green Party brings down government and triggers General Election

The Irish Green Party have just left the Fianna Fail government, triggering a snap General Election.

When they first went into government, I insisted that the Green Party of England and Wales not congratulate them on this.

I was aware that Fianna Fail were a party wrapped up in corrupt land deals and I felt it was very wrong for Greens to support a government pushing through a motorway at Tara, Ireland's most important prehistoric landscape.

There was broad agreement and concern with my stance from senior members of the GPEW.

None of us knew though the catastrophe that would result.

Ireland has been all but destroyed financially and the Greens did nothing to avoid catastrophe, just bought into low corporation tax and deregulation.

I have got strong family and friend and political contacts with Ireland and one of my friends who works in Galway who was over here last week told me that the Irish Green Party had wrecked the environmental agenda.

Sadly many of the senior members of the Irish Green Party will get through the wreckage with well paid jobs.

Never ever trust politicians, we have seen how protest movements are infiltratrated by cops, noble political parties are infiltrated by those who put career, what they wrongly call 'power', before politics.

We need protest and we need political parties to go beyond protest and change things, but a little caution is necessary.

While I am disturbed by their 'neither left nor right' strap line....I am pleased that Fis Nua are contesting the Irish elections and I have been very proud to work with Cllr Pat Kavanagh who left the Greens to set up this new project.

Love this from Fis Nua!

Before NAMA the Irish people were told that if we did not accept NAMA we would have massive unemployment. We now have NAMA and massive unemployment.

Before NAMA the Irish people were told that if we did not accept NAMA we would see massive emigration. We have NAMA and massive emigration.

Before NAMA the Irish people were told that if we did not accept NAMA we would have to pay massive interest on loans to sustain the economy. We now have NAMA and we pay an interest rate three times higher than Germany… on loans to sustain our economy.

Before NAMA we were told that if we did not accept NAMA we would have no international credibility. With a repeatedly downgraded credit rating, and images of our former Taoiseach crouched in a wardrobe drinking tea in an advertisement for the News of The World…, or the spectacle of a drunk or hung-over Brian Cowen speaking on national radio… We have little international credibility to boast of.

Loyalty to Green Politics can sometimes mean harshly criticising Green Parties when they go wrong.

John Gormley and Mark Stone, brothers in arms if you ask me, self-interest trumps care for the next generation...Green politics has been destroyed by the Irish Greens.

'Pimps and Economists'

Closet idealists
Baldheaded realists
Rastas and bikers
The voice on the phone
Pimps and economists
Royalty and communists
Rioters and pacifists
Persons unknown
MORE LYRICS HERE

The Poison Girls were a British anarcho-punk band, at one point a part of that scene around Crass. The female singer, Vi Subversa, wrote songs that kicked patriarchy in the teeth, bringing the kind of punk energy associated with "anarcho-punk" to bear on women's experiences and struggles. From what i understand, Vi got turned on to punk when two of her kids formed their own band (The Fatal Microbes - they went on to be half of Rubella Ballet) - she figured this was something she might be good at, and the rest is history.

Poison Girls 'Persons Unknown' love this.

Website here

'They come at us because we are strong'

Excellent and sobering article from Cardiff Anarchists on how 'Marco' made it easier for corporations to abuse animals, people and the environment.

Sad but important. I am not an anarchist but we have to work for change together and not let them divide and rule us, a lot of good committed people are anarchists and you certainly need a libertarian (but not market libertarian) approach to things. Right enough of Dr Wall on to the good people of Cardiff, read, learn and share, companeros




Marco also sabotaged environmentalist direct action. In 2007, having managed to get himself included in the planning process for an action against the LNG pipeline terminal at Milford Haven in west Wales, he was able to pass information to the local police that resulted in the arrests of a number of activists. All criminal prosecutions ultimately collapsed, but not before the police had raided houses, including Marco’s own flat, and obtained computer equipment in what seems to have been a massive fishing expedition.

Much of Marco’s time though was spent getting involved in all the normal activities of a political group – meetings, film showings, gatherings and events designed to provoke discussion and debate about radical politics. We believe that in at least one case – the showing of an animal rights film with an accompanying talk – he put on an event purely to gather intelligence on the people who would attend. He was also keen on being involved in projects where there was co-operation with other groups, such as the campaign against the privatisation of military training and the building of a new defence academy at RAF St Athan.


Looking back now we can see he was carefully but consistently disruptive. Despite his obvious competence, whenever anything – building contacts, outreach, transport – depended entirely on him, it would come to nothing.
Damaging the structure of CAN was undoubtedly a key objective. He changed the culture of the organisation, encouraging a lot of drinking, gossip and back-stabbing, and trivialised and ran down any attempt made by anyone in the group to achieve objectives. He clearly aimed to separate and isolate certain people from the group and from each other, and subtly exaggerated political and personal differences, telling lies to both ‘sides’ to create distrust and ill-feeling. In the four years he was in Cardiff a strong, cohesive and active group had all-but disintegrated. Marco left after anarchist meetings in the city stopped being held.



MORE HERE

Memo to Mervyn King: Pick up the phone and call Caroline Lucas….

Derek Wall is former Principal Speaker of the Green Party. He keeps a regular blog from an eco-socialist perspective at Another Green World whilst regularly contributing to the Morning Star.

Monetary policy is essential. Since 1997 the UK economy has been run primarily not by the government but by the Monetary Policy Committee of the Bank of England. Nine men and even sometimes a women meet monthly and vote whether to put interest rates up, down or on hold. It is never revealed what kind of coffee they drink but it is no secret that their grail is the inflation target. They have to achieve an inflation rate measured by the Consumer Price Index of 2% plus or minus 1, i.e they have to keep inflation within a band between 1 and 3%. If they fuck up, they must write a letter of grovelling apology to the Chancellor of the Exchequer. This was quite scary when the incumbent was Gordon Brown, I suspect he would have taken out his glass eye and thrown it out them in rage, when the letter was delivered. It is doubtful perhaps whether George Osbourne or his likely Labour successor would get stressed when it was delivered.

MORE HERE

Who is Joan Rivers?

My son Vince just asked me 'Who is Joan Rivers?'

'Well hijo, have a look at wiki!'

Most of her brilliant stuff is probably too obscene for this time of the morning and she can be so sharp I would be worried by people getting paper cuts on this blog from some of her videos.

This is pretty funny and disturbing though.

And I guess you have picked up on her being banned by Fox for saying of their poster girl the totally unfunny Sarah Palin that 'this woman is just stupid and a threat."

Fidel Castro 'biofuels fuelling new food crisis'

On a good day Fidel, is so good, in his 80s a first class ecosocialist putting Marxism right way up, I salute you commandante. Seriously very very nice to get this stuff hot off the translating team....gracias comrades!

Reflections by Comrade Fidel

THE TIME HAS COME TO DO SOMETHING

The problems have suddenly taken shape now, through the phenomena that are being repeated on every continent: heat waves, forest fires, losses of harvests in Russia, with many victims; climate changes in China, excessive rainfalls or droughts, progressive losses of water reserves in the Himalayas threatening India, China, Pakistan and other countries; excessive rainfall in Australia that have flooded almost a million square kilometres; unusually harsh and unseasonable cold waves in Europe that have considerable impact on agriculture; droughts in Canada; unusual cold waves there and in the US; unprecedented rain in Colombia affecting millions of farming land; never-before seen rainfall in Venezuela; catastrophes caused by excessive rain in the great cities of Brazil and droughts in the South. There is practically no region in the world where such events have not taken place.
Productions of wheat, soya, corn, rice and other numerous grains and legumes that make up the food base of the world – whose population today according to calculations totals almost 6.9 billion inhabitants, now coming close to the new figure of 7billion, and where more than one billion are suffering from hunger and malnutrition – are being seriously affected by climate changes, creating a very serious problem in the world. When reserves have not been totally recovered or just partially in some items, a serious threat is now creating problems and destabilization in many States.

More than 80 countries, all of them in the Third World, already having difficult problems of their own, are being threatened with real famines.

MORE HERE

Joan Rivers interview banned by 'politically correct' Fox TV

Exit Alan Johnson, Enter Balls

Alan Johnson probably should have resigned as Chancellor because he simply knew nothing about economics.

Ed Balls, has form as a minister deeply interested and concerned with the economy.

But neo-liberalism is just going to offer financial catastrophe, inequality and ecological collapse.

Rising oil prices and commodities like cotton disrupted by extreme weather events are pushing up inflation.

I am not convinced that Miliband Labour has the answer.

Wonder what the family matters will turn out to be.

Caroline Lucas says we need to go on war footing

BRITAIN NEEDS A "WAR FOOTING" TO TACKLE CLIMATE CHANGE AND ENERGY CRISIS.

The New Home Front is launched by Green MP Caroline Lucas, with a report written by Andrew Simms, Fellow of nef (new economics foundation) and author of The New Economics. Along with experts on climate change, food and community organisation, the new initiative looks at how Britain finally mobilised in the approach to World War Two, in order to see what can be learned to help with the urgent threat posed by climate change and the end of cheap, abundant oil.

Police ask university authorities to spy on students planning protest

"I would be grateful if in your capacity at your various colleges that should you pick up any relevant information that would be helpful to all of us to anticipate possible demonstrations or occupations, please forward it onto me," the email read.

According to a statement by the Met, the email sent to more than 20 higher education centers in London, including King's and Imperial College, “advises contacts to consider contingency planning to minimize disruption to colleges, and for information that could help anticipate and address possible occupations."

MORE HERE

Oh and undercover cops have sex with protesters and even marry them to get more information and preserve cover MORE HERE

Caroline Lucas is on list of domestic extremists

I haven't checked to see if I am on the list, I suspect that suspected members of
the Taliban will be far fewer than vegans.






National Public Order Intelligence unit database of "domestic extremists" according
to one of the UK's major newspapers, which has contacted the Green Party
privately about the matter.

Responding today, Caroline said: "I wouldn't
be surprised if my name was on the list. Anybody who takes part in any kind
of protest, however peaceful and however justifiable in terms of the public
good, appears to be at risk of being labelled an extremist. "After
attending the 2008 Climate Camp at Kingsnorth in Kent, for example, I wrote
to the Metropolitan Police Commissioner with a Freedom of Information
request to find out whether my name was one of those being held on police
databases. I was told that this information could not be released. "At
Kingsnorth, I saw for myself the extent to which the policing of peaceful
protests was becoming aggressive and disproportionate. There has been a
real escalation of excessive police responses to environmental protests,
student demonstrations and anti-war actions. "Controversial techniques like
kettling have become normalised. And the revelations about police
infiltration of non-violent groups represent an ever more dangerous step
towards to a police state. "Given the discovery that even more undercover
officers like Mark Kennedy are involved in covert operations against green
campaigners - at great expense to the taxpayer - the police must now act
urgently to bring ACPO's policing units into the Metropolitan Police."


Published and promoted by Spencer Fitz-Gibbon for the Green Party of England & Wales, both at 1a Waterlow Road, London N19 5NJ.

When 'Nut' Ain't Enough

[col. writ. 1/11/11] (c) '11 Mumia Abu-Jamal

The recent massacre in Tucson, Arizona has shone an unflattering light on America in the 21st century. What makes this event remarkable though, is not that it happened, but who it happened to.

Consider: If the victims were average people, instead of a congressperson and a judge (among others), would you know the name of the shooter? Would it be more than a passing news item?

Such events as these have happened across America, in state after state; and unless it happened in your locality, I doubt you could recall the name of the assailant.

I dare say, it will happen more in the future.

And media fascination with the mental illness aspect of the accused seems more concerned with promoting the mental well being of the audience than any real, substantial basis for such a diagnosis.

For, having read several articles which quoted the accused, they don't read as crazy as the media suggests. Nor is it helpful to describe him as 'anti-government', for with congressional approval ratings in the low 20s or 30s, the vast majority of Americans are, in some sense, anti-government!

In fact, this young man seemed a 'constitutional absolutist', or one who reads the Constitution literally, and therefore rejected any governmental action or agency not expressly provided in the document.

It is easy to label the accused a "lone nut job", as many have done, but shouldn't that be determined after an investigation, instead of before one?

Many of us remember, (or have read of), "lone nut jobs" being called responsible for the assassinations of President John F. Kennedy, and Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Or even the bombing of the Federal building in Oklahoma. Today, millions of people seriously doubt the official stories.

And look at the continuing controversy over 9/11!

In times of serious economic dislocation, and social instability, some people see change as something utterly threatening and terrifying.

It doesn't help that politicians seem to be sparking (and stoking) such discontent, in part to gain headlines, but also to demonize opponents.

In the 19th century, French observer, Alexis de Tocqueville, described American political parties as virtually nations at war with each other. They are more at war now than then --and mad soldiers can be the best weapons.

Like mad dogs fed on gunpowder, mad men can be fed with words: like traitor, leftist, violator or socialist.

They are like bombs; all you've got to do is point them.


--(c) '11maj
========

First London Screening 'Secrets of the Tribe'

This tribe seemed to be the ultimate bounty in terms of career-making studies within anthropology and this has created extreme competition and bitchy infighting among the academics. The politics of anthropology is, unsurprisingly, not something I’m overly familiar with and it’s surprising just how catty and backstabbing they are amongst themselves. It even goes beyond the point of who has the definitive data from the tribe to far more personal attacks.
The other shocking aspect to this story is their bizarre interactions with the tribe who seem to be passed from anthropologist to anthropologist for their numerous studies. One marries a young Yanomami woman, which raises more than an eyebrow at her suspected age of 15 and he brings her back to the US and fails miserably to integrate her into society. Needless to say there is also the hideous story of one highly respected French anthropologist who used his position with the tribe to satisfy his pedophilia by bribing the young male members with Western goods, which he shipped in by the plane load.

REVIEW HERE



Yes first London screening at Goldsmiths of 'Secrets of the Tribe' and I shall certainly go along! Why not join me


Followed by a Q&A session with the producers (Stampede Productions)

Hosted by the Centre for Visual Anthropology

-----------------------------------
"The field of anthropology goes under the magnifying glass in this fiery investigation of the seminal research on Yanomami Indians." - Sundance Film Festival, 2010

Event Information

Location: LG02, New Academic Building
Cost: Free - All Welcome
Department: Centre for Visual Anthropology
Time: 27 January 2011, 19:00 - 22:00

Big coal caused big floods in Australia, according to Bob Brown

Coal barons should help pay for catastrophes - Brown

Media Release

Sunday 16th January 2011



The full tax on excess profits by the coal mining industry, as recommended by Treasury, should be imposed with half set aside for future natural catastrophes in Australia, Greens Leader Bob Brown said in Hobart today.



"It is unfair that the cost is put on all taxpayers, not the culprits," Senator Brown said.



"Burning coal is a major cause of global warming. This industry, which is 75% owned outside Australia, should help pay the cost of the predicted more severe and more frequent floods, droughts and bushfires in coming decades. As well, 700,000 seaside properties in Australia face rising sea levels."



"A Goldman Sachs study found that the reduction in the mining super tax agreed by the current Labor government (the coalition opposes the mining tax) would cost Australians $35 billion in forgone revenue to 2019-20."



"Scientists agree that current floods come from record-high temperatures of Australian oceans this season."



"We also ask insurers to show some compassion to Queensland's flood victims, and to others who face loss as wild weather besets the country. Many people believe they have flood cover and, if not, the fine print should have been disclosed to them."



------------------------------------------

17 January 2011



The Role of Global Warming



After the hottest and wettest year in recorded history, the seas off

northern Australia are also currently warmer than ever before. This

heat has led to increased evaporation and so, rainfall.



Sceptics and defenders of the coal industry may dispute this scientific

data, but they don't. Instead, they are arguing that there should be no

debate - not, at least, until some undefined time in the future when the

cataclysm has passed and its injuries are behind us.



A week after the "inland tsunami" struck the Toowoomba region, with the

flood crest having passed in Brisbane, and Rockhampton beginning to

recover, Australia's newspapers are now carrying letters expressing

frustration at the absence of debate on the causes of the floods across

the nation and, indeed, in Brazil, Sri Lanka and Pakistan.



Like the drought, heatwaves and bushfires these floods are predictable

calamities and worse is in store as the planet is heated by human

actions.



We may collectively choose to do nothing about the rapidly increasing of

burning of coal, here and overseas, from coal being mined in Australia

by wealthy corporations largely owned overseas. However, that choice

should not be made without informed debate. If there is a later time

better for this crucial debate to begin, let the critics name it.



Bob Brown

Australian Greens Leader

http://bob-brown.greensmps.org.au/

Share more! Shut down the condems not the library

So why are common repositories of freely accessible resources, such as libraries, still important? Eco-socialist Derek Wall argues that ‘sharing provides a way of restoring economics to its original promise as a science that finds ways of matching scarce resources with unlimited human wants’. He says that, in its simplest form, it can ‘give prosperity without wrecking the global environment. If you make goods that last longer and you share more, then it’s a way of giving people more material prosperity’.
In addition to the traditional model of sharing information and culture epitomised by the public lending library, new forms of social lending relating to more physical things have also been developed. From public bike schemes to tool libraries, the ethos of sharing is alive and well. There are currently 33 tool libraries across the US, for example.


MORE HERE

Beyond Resistance

A World to Win film on fighting the cuts and building an ecological commons based society, inspiring stuff!

Flesh and Blood

Really like 'Flesh and Blood' about 3.33 minutes in, nice rap!

'scritti politti' means 'political writing' reference to Tony Gramsci I think

UK Uncut action report from Lee Massey

Today in Londons’ busy Oxford Street, around 50 protesters from the group UK Uncut, turned up outside the Vodafone store to protest about the alleged non payment of a £6billion tax bill. The group conducted many speeches and chants through a megaphone and eventually managed to get the store to close.

Dr. Derek Wall, who is a lecturer at Goldsmiths College teaching Political Economy said “I think it’s great to be on this protest, because local services are being cut by £6billion but Vodafone have got away from paying £6billion in tax…So we’re all paying more VAT, because it’s gone up 20%, but corporation tax has actually gone down…People are frustrated, and are taking out their frustration through non violent direct action, and I think that’s brilliant.”

The crowd held their banners and signs and the protest ended peacefully with no arrests and the crowd moving on. London, UK. 15/01/2011

MORE HERE

PHOTO AND STORY FROM LEE MASSEY HERE

Indigenous killed for nuclear power?

Added attraction for Liberal Democrat support for nuclear power, mining the uranium kills poor and indigenous people.

Funny how the Liberal Democrats reversed their policy on nuclear power, I bet there are thousands of Liberal Democrat activists up and down the country having a good laugh at the suckers who voted for them.

Any way this a shocking story that I suspect both Nick Clegg and the Government of India would rather you didn't think about.

Moushumi Basu reports on a shocking story that the Uranium Corporation of India Limited (UCIL) and the Government of India doesn't want you to know about. Toxic Neglect was produced for Women Aloud Videoblogging for Empowerment (WAVE). Jadugoda. Located on the ancestral lands of the Santhal, Munda and Ho Peoples in Jharkhand, India, Jadugoda is home ...

Continue Reading: http://intercontinentalcry.org/toxic-neglect/

Join me for some Direct Action Tax Collection

Meet me at 1pm today, (Saturday) 15th January outside the Vodafone at 350 Oxford Street near Bond Street tube station, I am going to be asking them to pay their tax bills to the British public.

MORE DETAILS

The Open Veins of Ireland slit by Eamonn Ryan.

I often think fondly of my good comrades in Donegal and Wicklow!

My good friend, originally from Dublin, Joseph Healy alerted me to this film 'The Pipe' about how Shell assaulted Ireland.

Joseph sagely notes:

Well worth watching the documentary ‘The Pipe’ which tells the story of Shell and the pipeline in the West of Ireland. Green Energy Minister, Eamonn Ryan, has presided over the criminalisation of the local campaign, after the Greens had backed it in opposition. Another one of their betrayals, which will not be forgotten in Ireland.

Response to RSCG PR to 'indigenous' allegations

Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "Euro RSCG London appears to have been caught "red-...":

Euro RSCG PR is unaware of the alleged telephone conversation as reported by EnviroLeaks regarding Amazonian tribes.
We are taking this very seriously and are investigating the allegations.
This alleged point of view does not reflect the high ethical standards to which we consistently operate as a company.
To speak to someone
Head of Agency PR – Sarah Van Praagh 07974 217 812/sarah.vanpraagh@eurorscglondon.com

Liberal Democrat lose Oldham, would have won with AV

Labour: 14,718 (42.1%)
Lib Dems: 11,160 (31.9%)
Conservatives: 4,481 (12.8%)
UKIP: 2,029 (5.8%)
BNP: 1,560 (4.5%)
Green Party: 530 (1.5%)
Monster Raving Loony Party: 145 (0.4%)
English Democrats: 144 (0.4%)
Pirate Party: 96 (0.2%)
Bus Pass Elvis Party: 67 (0.1%)

Pretty clear Lib Dems would have won with AV!

Modest Green Party vote but then we don't tend to do well at parliamentary by-elections.

Euro RSCG London appears to have been caught "red-handed"

A representative of the London-based PR firm Euro RSCG London appears to have been caught "red-handed" stating that his company is prepared to help relocate Uncontacted Indigenous Peoples in Bolivia to make way for an open cast lithium mine. According to this transcript of a telephone call with an anonymous caller, first published on the Enviroleaks ...

Continue Reading: http://intercontinentalcry.org/major-uk-pr-firm-prepared-to-help-relocate-uncontacted-tribe/

A lovely tree is just lumber for Nick Clegg

Government plans are appalling. In the same way the International Monetary Fund has insisted that to pay debt countries in the south of the globe have had to sell assets and turn rainforests into logged cash cows, our government is selling everything it can lay its hands on. Britain is for bond traders and other species of finance capitalist.

Resistance is absolutely vital. And there is a rich socialist tradition of support for forests. One of Karl Marx's very first pieces of political journalism was on the law against theft from the woods.

German landowners fenced off the forests and changed the law so that even picking up fallen wood was classed as theft. Peasants were criminalised as a result of the enclosure of the forests.

Today's situation is not so different. Marx would have been just as appalled by the commercial monopolisation of forests which should be enjoyed by all in Britain.

Thatcher tried to sell our forests but public disgust forced the "Iron Lady" to reverse her plans.

We can and must stop the current neoliberal government from destroying them.

Let's think of our children and our children's children instead of the profits enjoyed by corporations.

MORE HERE

Archbishop accuses Irish Green Party of 'corruption' and calls for social revolution

‘Somehow the Greens managed to do a complete turnaround and stabilise the Fianna Fáil government, and they have stayed there through thick and thin. It’s a very sad thing. It’s not just true of the Green Party, but it is very true of them, power tends to corrupt.’

Dr Neill is also ‘very sad’ at how our sovereignty was ‘diminished in the economic field’ by the IMF/ECB bailout. ‘We are in a mess. There’s a great deal of anger and frustration in society. I know that people are very fearful that things could get worse. ‘I think this coming year is going to be very difficult. And I don’t think it has dawned on people fully what the implications of the Finance Bill are going to be. All we hope is that there is light at the end of the tunnel.’

One of the top Irish clergy has accused the Irish Green Party of 'corruption'.

Sadly he is absolutely right.

The Irish Green Party are the Liberal Democrats of their nation.

They have constantly betrayed hope.

They hold a mirror to the face of all Green Parties, we must take care or when we look into the glass we will see the distorted face of John Gormley.

Its a very very tough political world out their, politics involves compromise but the Irish Greens have helped bankers and wrecked the lives of Irish citizens.

They will be extinct after the General Election in March.

Incidentally as a more Catholic than Protestant non Christian, I was intrigued by the following, comments from John Gormley:

as a party that probably has the highest proportion of Church of Ireland members in its ranks, we noted with great disappointment the comments of the archbishop”.

Good for the Church of Ireland, I continue to be inspired by those of faith who realize that path of faith is the pursuit of justice.

MORE HERE

Sting accused of green wash

Career in perpetual artistic decline the first Police singles were quite good but down hill after that.

Likewise green wise, it started with a fund raising record for the Ecology Party and has since gone into the usual eco excesses identified by Paxman.

Bet Paxo flies around the word, eats huskies and leaves his heating on.....oh we must get beyond lifestyle but I do find Sting a bit green in the nausea sense.

Open Letter from Bob Crow: Unit to fight the cuts or face destruction

AN OPEN LETTER IN A PERSONAL CAPACITY FROM RMT GENERAL SECRETARY BOB CROW TO THE NATIONAL SHOP STEWARDS NETWORK AND SOCIALIST PARTY

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

I am writing to urge maximum unity in the struggle against the Coalition government’s austerity programme.

Such is the scale of the onslaught against our class that no one should be in any doubt of the need for such unity.

There can be no question of any political party or organisation seeking to assume leadership of this struggle or setting up new national organisations that would create disunity.

Instead all our efforts should be devoted to mobilising all progressive forces and building the biggest and broadest possible movement against the cuts.

I would urge all comrades to take a step back and consider how we can best act in a way which helps achieve these aims.

Yours in unity

Bob Crow

RMT General Secretary

Eye witness report from killer gold mine in Colombia

Colombia Solidarity Campaign London Branch meeting



Report back from Cajamarca – the fight to stop AngloGold Ashanti
Eyewitness account from two Campaign members just back from the region

7pm Tuesday 18 January at The Apple Tree pub, 45 Mount Pleasant, WC1

(Russell Square, Farringdon, Kings X or Angel tube)


AngloGold Ashanti is ploughing ahead with the exploration phase of La Colosa in Cajamarca, despite widespread opposition from the local community. The projected site of the Cajamarca gold mine, in the central Colombian mountains, includes an area of forest reserve and 161 water sources. It is an important agricultural hub for the whole country.



The results of the exploration so far indicate that the gold mine would be the largest in South America. Opencast mining exploitation, planned to start in three years’ time, would result in complete destruction of the ecosystem. The use of cyanide to treat the gold ore would inevitably contaminate water sources for a large area of the Tolima department. The Machín Volcano a few kilometres from Cajamarca presents a potential unimaginable ecological disaster for the region. The company also has a deplorable human rights record from its activities in other countries (e.g., Ghana).



We will describe the current situation in Tolima, how the company is seeking to win people over, how the community is fighting against this project, and what we can do to help.

When academics lie, people die.

The field of anthropology goes under the magnifying glass in a fiery investigation of the seminal research on Yanomami Indians, also known as the 'Fierce People'. In the 1960s and 70s, a steady stream of anthropologists filed into the Amazon Basin to observe this 'virgin' society untouched by modern life. Thirty years later, the events surrounding this infiltration have become a scandalous tale of academic ethics and infighting. Documentary only viewable if you're based in the UK.]


http://www.alborada.net/padilha-documentary-anthropology-yanomami

Political violence is American as the Baked Alaska

There has been huge shock over the shooting of Arizona Congresswomen Gabrielle Giffords and the accompanying killing of six people, including a nine year old girl and a judge, this weekend.

Many commentators on what passes for the US left have pointed to incitement from former Republican Vice-Presidential candidate Sarah Palin, who used the slogan ‘”Don’t retreat, reload.” and produced a map with cross hair targets above the names of congress members who supported health care reform on her website. These included Gabrielle Giffords.

MORE HERE

Former high profile Labour activist says vote Green in Oldham

John Nicholson, who used to be Labour deputy leader of Manchester City Council, has called on voters in this weeks Oldham by-election to vote Green.

I would echo this not just cos I am Green but Peter Allen the candidate is a good amigo and a principled ecosocialist a strong green vote would really stick it to those neo-liberal democrats as well and give Phil Woolas's nasty escapades it would be good to punish New Labour too.

Peter Allen, excellent and principled socialist, is the Green Party candidate in Oldham (the by-election following the deserved removal of the awful woolas). Anyone and everyone who can assist Peter to raise his anti-cuts, anti-privatisation, anti-war, anti-racism position should be encouraged to help. As far as I know there isnt any obvious left split here (I understand that Respect is explicitly supporting Peter for example and will have leaflets of their own to do so). Also public transport is a big issue in this constituency (reliant on trains and buses to get into Manchester and elsewhere) and the fares increases will hit local people severely. So, as follows:


Subject: Oldham east and Saddleworth Parliamentary by-election campaign - help needed

Oldham east and Saddleworth Parliamentary by-election campaign - help needed

As January 13th the polling date for this high profile Parliamentary by-election draws nearer it leaves the Green Party with very little time left to campaign, so we desperately need all the help that we can get.

To help with campaigning in Oldham east and Saddleworth please:

email nigel@paxmundi.info

Climate trial collapses after police infiltrator unmasked

Good news but remember if you do good the cops will infiltrate your organisaton.



Today’s trial against six people charged with conspiracy to shut down Ratcliffe-on-Soar power station in 2009 will collapse on its first day at Nottingham Crown Court. Activists exposed that an undercover police officer had been spying on them for seven years, and had actually helped organise the proposed power-station shut-down. Barristers submitted that the defendants could not have a fair trial if the Crown Prosecution Service did not disclose details of the officers’ involvement.

After 20 months of investigation the Crown Prosecution Service cited new ‘previously unavailable evidence’ found on 5 January 2011. On Friday last week they informed the defence that they will no longer be pressing charges.

The six defendants were among the 114 climate campaigners arrested at Nottingham’s Iona School over the Easter weekend in April 2009. The incident was the largest pre-emptive arrest of environmental activists in UK history and was widely criticised as a serious erosion of the right to protest.

Oliver Knowles, one of the defendants in the collapsed trial said:

“I was arrested despite having made no decision to take part in the conspiracy, having only learnt of the planned action an hour or two before the police raid. The police knew this full well as one of their number was present in the room. Despite this they went ahead with my arrest and subsequent prosecution. This raises serious questions about the police operation.”

Knowles added “From intrusive surveillance of climate campaigners, to the recent kettling of school kids, the police continue to show their utter contempt for protesters.”

Mike Schwarz, a solicitor at the Bindmans law firm who represented the activists said,

“I have no doubt that our attempts to get disclosure about Kennedy’s role has led to the collapse of the trial. It is no coincidence that just 48 hours after we told the CPS our clients could not receive a fair trial unless they disclosed material about Kennedy, they halted the prosecution. Given that Kennedy was, until recently, willing to assist the defence, one has to ask if the police were facing up to the possibility their undercover agent had turned native.”

MORE HERE

Jerry Hicks backs left candidates for Unite NEC, list here

Proud to have Jerry as a comrade, please spread the word, he achieved a lot coming second as an explicitly socialist candidate for Unite General Secretary and he is a good friend of greens and ecosocialists.


Jerry Hicks : Re: Election for Unite National Executive Committee [NEC] Please feel free to forward.

Can I again convey a massive thank you for your support in our campaign for General Secretary last year.

We did remarkably well by finishing second and in doing so beating not one but two Assistant General Secretary’s was incredible [next time eh?].Our principles, policies and message was fundamentally different to any of the other candidates and we offered members a 'real alternative.

The Election of all Officials.

Fighting anti union laws and confronting them when necessary.

Only supporting Labour MP’s or Councillors who support our members and our unions policies.

Now we must do the same in the election for the new Unite NEC. A number of people have contacted me and I am asking you to support the following candidates, some of which will be under the banner of 'Grass Roots Left', which I really like!

South West Region: Jon Locke Tel: 0776953660 & Doreen (known as Kelly) Roberts Tel: 07931820898.

London and Eastern Region: Mark Evans Tel: 07967325363 and David Beaumont Tel: 07973809527

North East, Yorkshire & Humber Region: Kenny ward Tel: 07831252647 and Ray Smith Tel: 07711080607

Wales Region: Ken Young Tel: 07883300865

West Midlands Region: Martin Hartnett Tel: 07983912670

Vehicle Building & Automotive Sector: Sergio Fellino Tel: 07738103064 or 07876474495

Aerospace & Shipbuilding Sector: Neil Armitage Tel: 07758803594

Construction Sector: Russ Blakely Tel: 07713702063

Candidates will require nominations from Branches and or workplaces. Every Branch and workplace are entitled to nominate.

Nominations must be made at a meeting held in the period 10 January 2011 to 7 February 2011.

If you would like to stand under the banner of ‘Grass Roots left’ or for any other information please contact me jerryhicks4gs2010@yahoo.co.uk

Keep on keeping on,

Jerry. Tel: 07817827912

Greens go Orange!

just got this, from London Guantánamo Campaign

The London Guantánamo Campaign [1] will hold a silent vigil to mark the 9th anniversary of the opening of Guantánamo Bay on Tuesday, 11 January 2011, from 1-2pm, at the top of Trafalgar Square (opposite the National Gallery). All London MPs and MEPs have been invited. Green London Assembly Members Jenny Jones and Darren Johnson have pledged their support. Liberal Democrat MEP Sarah Ludford also pledged her support and stressed that as vice-chair of the European Parliament’s US delegation she will continue to press Washington for the complete closure of Guantánamo and to lobby in London and Brussels for European cooperation in resettlement of men who cannot return to their home countries for fear of torture.

Aisha Maniar, from the London Guantánamo Campaign, says:

“Nine years after the opening of the US military interrogation and detention camp at Guantánamo Bay, and almost one year beyond President Obama’s own deadline for its closure, [2] the London Guantánamo Campaign today calls upon the US President to take urgent action to honour his pledge to close the facility. He must ensure justice for the remaining prisoners through fair trials in civilian courts of law, or their release to countries where their safety and liberty can be ensured.

“The British Government must assist in the closure of the prison by following the example of other EU countries that have accepted prisoners cleared for release who cannot return to their country of origin due to fears for their safety. It must also step up its efforts to secure the freedom of British resident Shaker Aamer, who has been held by the US military for nine years without charge of trial. Shaker’s immediate and unconditional release and return to the UK is long overdue. [3]

“Nine years of torture and arbitrary detention at Guantánamo Bay and similar prisons have not made the world a safer place. Rather, governments who practice and condone torture and detention without charge or trial, citing national security as a justification for their illegal actions, undermine both the rule of law and fundamental human rights. President Obama’s failure to keep to his pledge to close Guantánamo, his new plans for the indefinite incarceration of prisoners without charge or trial, [4] and his approval of extrajudicial executions indicate that he shares his predecessor’s contempt for the rule of law.”