Although the protests in the Ukraine are in support of joining the European Union they can actually be largely attributed to being in support of democracy with a defiant NO to Russian behind closed doors dictating.
Socialist Students, one of the organisations at the heart of the 2010 student movement against tuition fees, has strongly condemned recent revelations about police surveillance of political campaigns and student activists. Students from the group, who are involved in organising against cuts, fees and privatisation on campuses, have said it ‘makes a mockery’ of the democratic right to protest in Britain. This comes a day following a student demonstration against the closure of the University of London Union, which saw a large and heavy handed police presence prevent students from entering their own campus and, following which, the president of the students’ union has been arrested.
Edmund Schluessel, Socialist Students member and NUS National Executive Councillor said:
“The videos released give categorical evidence that the police targeted groups on a political basis, including those involved in peaceful protest. This follows several revelations of police surveillance of activists, which included systematic infiltration of groups like Youth Against Racism in Europe (YRE) during the 1990s.The huge student movement of 2010 broke the consensus and in many ways humiliated the police. These are outrageous attacks on basic democratic freedoms and the right to protest. These surveillance techniques, coupled with heavy handed and often violent policing, are designed to limit the effectiveness of protests and intimidate demonstrators. Protest is increasingly becoming a criminalised act. Alongside this, anti-trade union laws are making strike action increasingly difficult to organise legally. Clearly, there is a deep seated fear at the heart of the establishment about the potential momentum that campaigns like these could gain. As brutal austerity intensifies and Cameron declares its permanency, it is vital that we defend the right to protest.”
Socialist Students is campaigning defend the right to protest. They plan to link up with other groups, such as YRE, to build the fight for democratic rights.
From the Green Party of England & Wales
Accidents on Brighton & Hove’s roads have fallen by a substantial 12.5% since the Greens took office, according to a major survey by the Department for Transport. At the same time, accidents across the South East fell by just 1% and in England as a whole by only 5%. And this is despite the fact that Brighton & Hove’s population is rising rapidly, with more people than ever before using the city’s streets.
At a time when the Greens’ flagship road policies are coming under fire from motorists’ and taxi drivers’ campaigns such as Unchain the Motorist, the survey provides substantial government evidence that Green transport policies are working: there are now one in eight fewer accidents than before the Green administration launched its transport initiative and a much higher drop in accidents than seen nationally or across the region.
Lead member for transport, Councillor Ian Davey, who has championed the Greens’ initiatives since day one, said: “This survey proves in black and white what we have been saying since we took office: we are introducing policies that make the roads of Brighton & Hove healthier and safer.
“Opposition councillors and pro-motorist campaigners want us to roll back time and return to the transport policies of the last administration. But do they also want more accidents on our roads each year? Because that’s what a roll-back would mean.
“Our streets are now safer. Sometimes people claim that Greens are anti-car. We are not anti-car but we are for safer streets for everyone. And that’s what this survey demonstrates we are achieving”
The survey result comes four months after it was revealed that the city’s roadside air quality had also improved markedly over two years.
By Gary Egelston
Last time government shutdown occurred was in 1995, during the Clinton administration; healthcare, environmental reforms, and education were a few issues dividing elected opinion. And, while the two-headed monster chewed its own neck, mainstream media ensured that took center stage, drawing attention away from its tail. Democrats claimed their ideas helped the public, and republicans appeared as cantankerous assholes that cared little for the well-being of citizens… sound familiar?
Clinton was and is the poster-child for austerity, along with an extreme big brother state. After all, he heavily supported the original Patriot Act and NDAA (introduced on the floor by then Sen. Biden as The Omnibus Counterterrorism Act of 1995). ‘Reforms’ were pure donkey shit wrapped in a nicely framed message, with opposition from the right dividing public opinion, as one side appeared as a party acting for good and the other not. As it turned out, what the democrats and Clinton promoted was the advancement of corporatism, yet constructed debate blinded most to that truth. What he lobbied helped only the elite, and that is not coincidental. Clinton heavily championed corporate interests, as his reforms were nothing more than the progression of neoliberalism. Howard Zinn wrote many great pieces explaining it further if you want to research.
Today isn’t any different, as republicans appear obstructionist, and democrats the opposite. The main disagreement is Obamacare, another state capitalist idea that mandates corporate profit through government force, at the expense of people’s health. One side fights fiercely against it, creating a perspective that it must not be that awful if those assholes hate it so much. The other touts they care and frames a message of good vs. bad. Incidentally, it forces sides and the original wrong becomes justified, accepted, and not questioned by the general population.
Obamacare will stay, as this administration, along with Jonathan Gruber, ensured corporate interests were protected and pushed forward. While this issue takes center stage and distracts, a compromise will occur, resulting in further austerity guts to the economy. It’s a distraction designed to advance a neoliberal agenda. Watch, social services will take the biggest hit, with the rich getting richer. One hand washes the other; that’s how it works.
A look through Turkish newspaper Hurriyet today will find nothing of the ongoing rioting in Antakya and to a lesser extent Istanbul despite now going into the sixth day.
Courtesy of jn1:
Solidarity with those trying to oust Recep Tayyip Erdogan and the fascist AKP regime.
Good luck, you’re going to need it but don’t give up!
Guess the news headline, humorous answers welcome!
For 3 points:
1) Guess the headline correctly
2) Guess the publication
3) Give a funny alternative to the headline
We pay into the tax system when we are working and when times are tough we have a small part of that tax held for when we need it, social security.
From the Socialist Party (UK)
Tories make the poor pay say Socialists as benefits cap is introduced
Paula Mitchell, Socialist Party London regional secretary said: “This is yet another demonstration of the Tories obsessional hatred of working class and poor people. Instead of getting people into work by creating jobs they are forcing some of the poorest people in society into destitution. Up to 40,000 households will now face the prospect of not being able to pay the rent or buy food.
The government claims that this is in the name of “changing a culture” and putting an end to “days of blank cheques”. It’s a shame that they have never applied these principle to the bankers who caused the economic crisis in the first place who have had plenty of blank cheques written for them in the form of huge bail outs.
Unfortunately the Labour Party is too busy attacking trade unionists to put up any real opposition. They accept the same logic as the Tories of kowtowing to big business.
This is why Bob Crow made the call for a new party at the weekend. In the elections next year, hundreds of trade unionists, socialists and ordinary working people, fed up with Labour’s inability to stand up for us, will be standing candidates in the elections under the banner of the Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition (TUSC).
In order to end worklessness and poverty a government would have to unroll a programme of public works in order to create real jobs. The money is there – if big companies aren’t prepared to invest, they should be nationalised under democratic control.
We call for the trade union movement to work alongside unemployed activists and anti-cuts campaigners to build a mass movement against austerity. A 24 hour general strike should be the next step in the campaign against the ConDemolition of our rights and living standards.”
Guess the news headline, humorous answers welcome!
For 3 points:
1) Guess the headline correctly
2) Guess the publication
3) Give a funny alternative to the headline
By Leon J Williams
Trayvon Martin
If you are white and you kill someone black the verdict will be… not guilty.
George Zimmerman (white) has just been found not guilty of murdering 17 year old Trayvon Martin (black).
Mr Zimmerman is now a free man after killing the unarmed teenager as he walked to his father’s house.
According the Lawyers for Mr Zimmerman, 29, acted in self-defence and with justifiable use of deadly force in the death of Trayvon Martin which the jury seem to have agreed on!
Naturally this has rights groups up in arms…
Following the verdict, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) said it was calling “immediately for the Justice Department to conduct an investigation into the civil rights violations committed against Trayvon Martin”.
“This case has re-energised the movement to end racial profiling in the United States,” Roslyn M Brock, chairwoman of the NAACP, said in a statement.
ACA The Underground 