Sunday, 23 December 2012

U.S. surge in police and neo-fascist lynchings


U.S. surge in police and neo-fascist lynchings


U.S. surge in police and neo-fascist lynchings

By  on December 20, 2012 Oppressed have right to fight ‘by any means necessary’, part 3

An “unwritten law” in the U.S. “dictates that nothing unusual is happening when 13 cops shoot 137 bullets at an apparently unarmed Black couple in Cleveland, a Black-run city,” writes Glen Ford, the executive editor of Black Agenda Radio. (Dec. 5)
“Community members charged the victims were lynched,” Ford reported.
Ford’s online commentary is headlined “Massacre in Cleveland: Lynch Law Was Never Repealed.”
“Less than two weeks before, in Jacksonville, Fla.,” Ford recalled, “a white man who didn’t like Black teenagers playing loud music at a gas station fired eight or nine shots at 17-year-old, unarmed, Jordan Davis, killing him.”
Armed killers of Jordan Davis and Trayvon Martin both claimed the “right” to gun down these unarmed Black youths was “self-defense” under Florida’s “stand your ground” law — which has emboldened vigilante, death squad terror.
“Young Trayvon drew his last breath in time to be listed among the 120 Black people known to have been extrajudicially executed in the first six months of this year — one killing every 36 hours.”
The damning evidence of these executions was compiled by the Malcolm X Grassroots Movement in its report on the “Extrajudicial Killings of Black People by Police, Security Guards or Self-Appointed Law Enforcers,” posted online on July 9, 2012. The full report can be downloaded at mxgm.org.
This compelling study was the second produced for the “‘No More Trayvon Martins Campaign,’ demanding a National Plan of Action for Racial Justice.” It found that “sixty-nine percent of the lives lost belonged to people from the ages of 13 to 31.”
The online report states: “The corporate media have given very little attention to these extrajudicial killings. We call them ‘extrajudicial’ because they happen without trial or any due process, against all international law and human rights conventions.”
‘Institutionalized violence of white supremacy is intensifying’
The Malcolm X Grassroots Movement emphasizes that “this 6th month update proves beyond a shadow of a doubt that the institutionalized violence of white supremacy is not only alive and well, but is, in fact, intensifying.
“To complete the picture, we must take into account the extrajudicial killings and other repressive policies directed at other targeted peoples and communities such as Indigenous peoples, Latinos, Arabs, Muslims, and immigrants.”
“Those few mainstream media outlets that mention the epidemic of killings have been … unwilling to acknowledge that the killings are systemic — meaning they are embedded in institutional racism and national oppression,” the report explains.
BAR Editor Glen Ford noted: “The report, compiled by a handful of people for the Malcolm X Grassroots Movement, had to be pieced together from news clippings and other sources. That’s because there is no database on the extrajudicial killing of African Americans, a practice that is not considered a crime, based on America’s ‘unwritten law.’
“In fact, it’s treated even more casually than a sport — at least in sports they keep statistics.”
Ford concluded that Black anti-lynching organizer and journalist “Ida B. Wells kept statistics. She and a few colleagues tallied 3,436 lynchings of Blacks in the 33 years between 1889 and 1922. Eighty-three of the victims were women. Lynching reached its high-water mark in 1892, when 160 African Americans were slaughtered because of their race.
“That number will be far exceeded this year, at the rate the blood is flowing.”
CeCe McDonald punished for surviving racist lynch mob
CeCe McDonald — a 22-year-old Black (trans)woman — and her friends survived a white-supremacist attack by a racist mob on the streets of South Minneapolis. McDonald has been punished by sheriffs, jailers, prosecutor, judge and prison guards ever since.
McDonald’s web support site states: “Around 12:30 a.m. on June 5, 2011, CeCe was walking to the grocery store with some friends, all of them young, African American, and LGBTIQ or allied. As they passed a local bar, the Schooner Tavern, a group of older, white people who were standing outside the bar’s side door began hurling racist and transphobic slurs at them, without provocation.”
In the trial transcript CeCe McDonald testified that at least four or more white adults took part.
The website states: “When CeCe approached the group and told them that her crew would not tolerate hate speech, one of the women … smashed her glass into CeCe’s face. She punctured CeCe’s cheek all the way through, lacerating her salivary gland.” (supportcece.wordpress.com)
One of the neofascists, Dean Schmitz — a white man whose body was emblazoned with a swastika tattoo — was stabbed and died.
McDonald was the only person arrested that night.
Repressive show of state force against CeCe McDonald
After being arrested, her website states that McDonald “was briefly taken to the hospital where she received 11 stitches in her cheek. While McDonald was still suffering both physically and mentally from this traumatic incident, she was left alone in a room for three hours. She was then interrogated and placed in solitary confinement at the Hennepin County men’s jail.
“She spent the next several months in jail and had to wait almost two months between her initial doctors’ visit and a much-needed follow-up appointment.
“After her arrest, CeCe was quickly charged with second-degree murder. In short, she was prosecuted for surviving a violent, racist, transphobic attack.”
A Crime Library online article, posted Oct. 2, 2012, reports: “Prosecutors offered McDonald a deal: Rather than face trial for second-degree murder, she could plead guilty to first-degree manslaughter and serve just seven years in prison. She refused the plea bargain.”
The article added that on Oct. 6, 2011, “Prosecutors added a second charge of second-degree murder, this one ‘second-degree intentional murder.’
“Each of these two charges could damn her to as much as 40 years in prison if she were found guilty in court.”
The Crime Library article stated that McDonald’s lawyer and the Legal Rights Center charged that “prosecutors were retaliating for McDonald’s refusal to take a plea.” (trutv.com)
McDonald’s web support site points out that Hennepin County Attorney Michael Freeman — a white prosecutor “who describes himself as ‘the Michael Jordan of prosecutors’ — held the power to drop the charges against her.
“But in the face of powerful community demands to ‘Free CeCe,’ Freeman did not drop the charges: instead, he dug in his heels and escalated the attack against CeCe by adding an additional charge of second-degree murder.”
Crime Library notes: “Freeman continued to maintain that it wasn’t self defense. Schmitz wasn’t the one who’d hit McDonald with the glass, he pointed out. And nothing stopped McDonald from running away from the scene at any time.” ­(trutv.com)
Katie Burgess, executive director of the Minneapolis-based Trans Youth Support Network, said in April, “People were very enraged about what had happened to her and the refusal of Hennepin County to recognize her right to self-defense.”
Burgess continued: “And word has spread across the nation and across the world. We have seen local support from LGBT organizations and politicians and also national support from organizations such as the National Center for Transgender Equality and the Sylvia Rivera Law Project. We have a petition that’s circulating with over 15,000 signatures asking Hennepin County to drop these charges.” (April 27)
She said that 44 percent of hate murders in the U.S. are committed against young trans women of color.
“And we would like to also point out the ways that this violence plays out in the courtrooms.” (democracynow.org)
Journalist Marc Lamont Hill wrote in an Ebony article: “The injustices of McDonald’s case continued inside the courtroom. Throughout the trial, the judge and prosecution consistently and intentionally misgendered McDonald, referring to her by masculine pronouns, further demonstrating a refusal to acknowledge her as a woman.
“Despite considerable evidence — including medical evidence, toxicology reports, eyewitness accounts, and unrefuted testimony that Schmitz initiated the altercation — McDonald’s self-defense claim was dismissed by prosecutors.
“Even worse, the judge ignored the fact that McDonald was the target of a hate crime, despite the racist and homophobic language used by Schmitz seconds before the fight began.
“The court even refused to admit Schmitz’s criminal record into evidence, not to mention the swastika tattooed on his chest, as evidence of his history of violence and bigotry,” Hill reports.
A May 22 article in Mother Jones points out, “The judge also ruled that the defense could not call an expert witness who would testify to transgender people’s experiences of violence in their everyday lives.”
Crime Library concluded: “Meanwhile, McDonald’s family and friends reported that they were being harassed by people connected with Dean Schmitz. They recounted threatening phone calls, and said that people they recognized from the Schooner Tavern had thrown bottles at them from a car” and yelled racist epithets. (trutv.com, Oct. 2)
‘By any means necessary’
It is always “legal” for ruling classes and their hired guns to attack and wage war against those they exploit and oppress. This same legal fiction deems it “illegal” for those who are oppressed and exploited to fight back.
The Emancipation Proclamation— signed Jan. 1,1863 — was necessary, for example, because the inhuman violence of the ­system of chattel slavery had been “legal.”
The Proclamation spelled out the right of Black people to self-defense. Yet McDonald was arrested for defending her life against white-supremacist attack, and later sentenced during the month of Juneteenth, a celebration of the Emancipation Proclamation — the formal abolition of “legal” enslavement of peoples of African descent.
McDonald was sent to prison in June — the month when the Stonewall Rebellion ignited in the streets of Greenwich Village in 1969. From the Compton’s Uprising to the Stonewall Rebellion, defense against oppressions is a law of survival.
During the month of March, McDonald and her book club supporters read “The Autobiography of Malcolm X,” as told to Alex Haley. (supportcece.wordpress.com)
Black revolutionary Malcolm X spoke out repeatedly about the right to self-defense: “I’m nonviolent with those who are nonviolent with me.
“I don’t call it violence when it’s self-defense, I call it intelligence.”
In a speech Malcolm X gave only weeks before being assassinated on Feb. 21, 1965, he told an interviewer, “We declare our right on this earth to be a human being, to be respected as a human being, to be given the rights of a human being in this society, on this earth, in this day, which we intend to bring into existence by any means necessary.” (Quoted in “By Any Means Necessary.”)

Saturday, 8 December 2012

Jacintha Saldanha: A tragic suicide - but who is really to blame?


Jacintha Saldanha: A tragic suicide - but who is really to blame?




It is truly tragic that a mother and nurse, Jacintha Saldanha, took her life as a result of a inane prank by a couple of fascile DJs. And it is right that they feel haunted by the unbearably painful consequences of their actions. Humiliating working people for the humour of others is pathetic, but is has become a mainstay of popular culture.

But that must be far from the whole story here. To take
 your life is no small leap. You must feel fear, desperation. To be left feeling that it is better to die, to leave your children and those you love behind, than to face what you fear is ahead of you, that takes something more than just a prank call.

So who spoke to that nurse after the prank call was exposed? Who left her feeling such fear and helplessness that she took her own life? Was it her managers? Was it the police? Security services? The minders and managers for the Royal Household? Who took their failings out on her and left he so distraught that she ended her life and left her children motherless?

It is understandable that anger is being directed at the perpetrators of the prank. But I do not believe it was their actions alone that led to this tragedy. Management. The police. The Royal Family. Bullies one and all. It at them that we should be looking.

We need to know who spoke to Jacintha Saldanha as they tried to save face after that phone call and we need to know exactly what they said to her that left her feeling she had no option left but to die.


(Originally posted on the NOT A DINNER PARTY blog)

 

Tax the Rich: An animated fairy tale

Thursday, 6 December 2012

CAMERON AND OSBORNE LAUGHING THEIR BALLS OFF AS THEY ROB THE POOR

They've just cut the incomes of the poorest in the country and directly transferred it to the richest. So what have these smug pricks got to laugh about? Plenty.

They are laughing at you and they are laughing at Labour who they know will just carry on and implement what the tories started.

The only way to end this insanity for good is to VOTE YES to INDEPENDENCE in 2014. 




Friday, 16 November 2012

DEFEND GAZA - END ISRAELI AGGRESSION - EMERGENCY NATIONAL DEMO - SATURDAY 17th NOV 2012 - EDINBRUGH SCOTLAND

Emergency National Demo
Saturday 17th November 2012

Assemble 12noon at Bute House First Minister's Residence,
Charlotte Square 12.30pm - March to Scottish Parliament


Called by: 

We are All Hana Shalabi student network & Scottish Palestine Solidarity Campaign 

Supported by:
 Friends of Al Aqsa (Scotland)
 Edinburgh Uni Students for Justice in Palestine
 Glasgow Uni Palestine Society Strathclyde Uni Students for Justice in Palestine
 Glasgow Caledonian Uni Palestine Society
 Dundee Uni Action Palestine
 Kashmir Solidarity Movement
 James Connolly Society
 Edinburgh Uni Islamic Society

Friday, 9 November 2012

Meet the Real Sons of Anarchy — Greek Anti-Fascist Motorcycle Club Confronts neo-Nazis

The REAL Scottish Defence League approves of this...



Meet the Real Sons of Anarchy — Greek Anti-Fascist Motorcycle Club Confronts neo-Nazis

by WILL POTTER on NOVEMBER 7, 2012
Real Sons of Anarchy, GreeceMeet the real Sons of Anarchy. An anti-fascist motorcycle club in Athens, Greece, patrols the community, fighting neo-Nazis who attack immigrants.
As of June 2012 the far right/neo-Nazi party Golden Dawn is officially represented in the Greek Parliament with support from the local media. As we have seen throughout history, in times of “economic” crisis, far-right ideologies tend to increase their influence dramatically.

The number of attacks on immigrants is rising every week, fuelled by the police’s complicitly apathetic stance and refusal to do anything to stop the perpetrators. This has led to a need for anti-racist patrols, as it is the only way of protecting immigrants from racist violence.
On the nights of the 15th and 22nd of September, the first two antifascist motorcycle patrols took place, with fly-posting and protest chants against neo-Nazi attacks. A third motorcycle demo passed through down-town locations on the evening of Sunday, September 30th, where it encountered a group of neo-Nazis smashing up immigrants’ shops. The antifa successfully attacked and stopped them, and were themselves attacked in retaliation by several motorcycle police units.
I wanted to share this because here in the U.S., anarchism is increasingly being linked to “terrorism” in the courts and in disinformation campaigns. There are currently two anarchists in prison for refusing to talk about their politics before a federal grand jury, and a third individual has been subpoenaed to appear today. Meanwhile, the Cleveland 4 are fighting a “terrorism enhancement” penalty that would officially reclassify them as terrorists in prison.
Minneapolis anarchist motorcycle rally supporting CeCe McDonald.
Minneapolis anarchist motorcycle rally supporting CeCe McDonald.
Of course, not all anarchists form motorcycle clubs. They also step in after natural disasters like Hurricane Sandy to provide relief and support that, in some cases, has been more effective than the government has been able to do. Check out Occupy Sandy Relief for more information.

There’s video below. If motorcycles aren’t your thing, there’s also an anti-fascist scooter gang in Athens.
Meanwhile, if this club decides to start a US charter, I’ll be the first to sign up.

Thursday, 8 November 2012

Obama wins - world to get more of the same


Wednesday, 07 November 2012 13:32

Obama wins - world to get more of the same

Obama wins - world to get more of the same
By Jane West
The re-election of Obama as US President rather than a right-wing creationist Republican in hock to the Tea Party movement has naturally pleased progressive opinion in the West.
But the truth which ever candidate had won there would be little change, and the indifference to the result reported on the streets of Islamabad, and the coolness of response in China is a far more accurate response.
‘With or without an Obama presidency, US policies in our region will remain the same. The US will continue using drones to target our innocent people’, Sameer Khan, a school teacher in Islamabad told the FT.
The drone attacks on Western Pakistan – which have taken a fierce toll in civilian lives – will continue.
The failure to pressure Israel to reach a peaceful settlement with the Palestinians and its other neighbours will continue. Provocations from Netanyahu to call Obama’s bluff on the issue of settlements will likely persist.
The sabre-rattling on Iran will go on, with tighter sanctions and even military action more likely now the election is over.
The ‘pivot to the Pacific’ with its aim of encircling China and whipping up regional discord was invented by Obama and will be stepped up. As will the regular threats of trade wars and economic boycotts of China’s producers, as well as actions like the ban on contracts with Huawei and ZTE (two major Chinese telecoms companies) on the alleged ground of ‘security risks’.
In Latin America the hostility to the leftward advance across the continent will be maintained and as in Honduras, if a right-wing, pro-Western coup can be engineered, then the US will be behind it.
Guantanamo Bay military prison camp for America’s victims and enemies world-wide will remain open. So-called ‘terrorist’ suspects alongside computer hackers, and whistle blowers – like Bradley Manning, Talha Ahsan, and Babar Ahmed – will be held in conditions of semi-torture in ‘supermax’ prisons. The US state agencies will both openly and covertly continue their pursuit of Julian Assange to demonstrate that you can’t expose their secrets and get away with it.
Internally, the deal on the economy that will be done between a Democrat Senate and Republican House will be virtually the same as that Romney would have done – continuation of some tax breaks and of some government spending programmes. Not enough to make a difference to the dire state of the US economy, no new relief for the poorest, and no new steps against dramatically rising inequality.
Obama’s lacklustre campaign precisely reflected how little he actually has to offer the American people – or the people of the world.
Of course, on many social issues Obama is more progressive. On gay marriage, abortion rights, equal rights and racism, Christian fundamentalism and creationism, Koran burning and insulting the Prophet, a clearer and better view will come from this President rather than the alternative. This is why exit polls show Obama won 55 per cent of women voters, 93 per cent of African American voters, 71 per cent of Latino voters and 73 per cent of Asian voters.
But with the world economy in crisis, working people being forced to pay the price, while billions are wasted on wars and bombings, a better choice than that was needed.

Monday, 5 November 2012

England's Nukes all in Scotland? Nice one Maggie

POOR FAMILIES DRIVEN OUT OF LONDON

SOURCE: The News LinePOOR FAMILIES DRIVEN OUT OF LONDONHOUSING benefit cuts being debated in parliament today and set to come into force next April will see local authorities ‘decanting’ poor families out of London, the Child Poverty Action Group (CPAG) warned yesterday.

A CPAG report, ‘Between a rock and a hard place: the early impacts of welfare reform on London’ examines the effects on London residents and local authorities of cuts to Local Housing Allowance, the introduction of the benefit cap and under occupation penalties.

The report is based on interviews with local authority officers, advice agencies and partnerships.

The research found that:

• Government impact assessments predict that 124,480 households in London will be affected by these changes.

• The changes are intended to reduce expenditure on housing benefit, in part by driving down rent levels.

But there is no sign that rent levels in London are falling, and local authorities predict that as housing benefit expenditure falls, their costs will rise, as they struggle to prevent or deal with increased levels of homelessness.

• Many local authorities are actively considering procuring accommodation outside London.

However, they fear that placing families outside of London will leave them subject to legal challenge.

Alison Garnham, CPAG CEO, said: ‘Families are facing the impossible situation of being told to move to cheaper accommodation that just doesn’t exist with London’s rising rents.

‘London Boroughs are staring at a black hole in their budgets as a result, with costs transferred from central to local government.

‘It’s not right that children are left paying the price for London’s housing crisis, which they did nothing to create.

‘There’s still time for Government to do the sensible thing and think again when these reforms are debated in Parliament on Tuesday before thousands of London’s families find themselves uprooted, overcrowded and thrown into turmoil.’

• Caps to local housing allowance (LHA) restrict the level of support that families can receive with their rents to the ‘30th percentile’ of rents within a local area.

These began to take effect in April 2011, although many families will not see their level of support reduced until later this year.

17,400 households in London will be affected by this change.

• The benefit cap will restrict the total amount of support received by a household to £500 a week for families with children and £350 for single people.

27,440 households in London are expected to be affected by the cap.

• ‘Under-occupation penalties’ will reduce the level of support for families in social rented housing if they are deemed to have an extra bedroom.

This will affect 80,000 households in London.
 

Washington aims to reorganize Syrian reactionary ‘rebels’

Washington aims to reorganize Syrian reactionary ‘rebels’


Washington aims to reorganize Syrian reactionary ‘rebels’

By  on November 3, 2012 » Add the first comment.
Despite its longtime leading role in the attempt to overthrow the Syrian government, the U.S. government is increasingly frustrated. The failure of the “rebels” — who are really reactionary mercenaries — to make significant gains, or even hold territory, is leading top U.S. officials to try to “reshape the Syrian opposition” according to the Oct. 31 New York Times.
The assault on the Gadhafi government in Libya in 2011 was soon followed by targeting the nationalist Syrian regime of Bashar al-Assad by the imperialist Western powers. From the beginning, Washington encouraged rebel groups, which operated under the name of the Free Syrian Army. The U.S. assigned its client states — Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Qatar — to carry out the direct arming of the rebels. Washington provided communications, other aid and full diplomatic backing at the United Nations and other international forums.
An April 1 meeting held in Turkey intensified the intervention of the U.S. and its allies by approving $100 million to further equip the Syrian rebels. According to the April 1 New York Times, however, “the opposition had pledges of $176 million in humanitarian assistance and $100 million in salaries.” The rebel groups reported that they were put on the payroll with the $100 million to pay them for three months.
While bringing tremendous pain and disruption to Syria, the opposition hirelings have been unable to chalk up any major victories. This led to Washington’s blatant intervention to reorganize its puppets in the region. In old fashioned colonial style, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton announced on Oct. 31 that the U.S. was going to form a new leadership for the rebellion by bringing in more representatives of the military units on the ground in Syria. She denounced the current leaders as out of touch and having “not been inside Syria for 20, 30 or 40 years.”
A meeting to carry out this plan is scheduled for Nov. 7 in Qatar, completely orchestrated by the U.S. The Times revealed that Clinton “had been heavily involved in planning the meeting, including recommending individuals and organizations to include in any next leadership structure.”
This game plan may be carried out with the aim of using a new rebel leadership to “invite” the U.S. and other imperialist states to directly intervene inside Syria with military forces. It should be remembered that the so-called Libyan rebel groups were unable — on their own — to make any serious headway against the Libyan government. It was only the continuous and massive bombing campaign by the Western powers that literally cleared the way into the capital, Tripoli.
The Syrian rebel fighters may not prove to be a stable grouping to lead the puppet opposition. Not only are they divided by loyalties and ideologies, but they are increasingly being exposed as murderers and war criminals. A Nov. 2 New York Times article revealed that videos from inside Syria clearly show rebels capturing, beating and then summarily executing dozens of Syrian army soldiers.
Even the office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights publicly called it a war crime. This is just the latest of charges, not given much coverage in the major capitalist media, that the Syrian rebels have for many months been executing thousands of civilian supporters of the Assad government in areas where they have taken control.

Saturday, 20 October 2012

Your Brothers Are Fighting - Why Aren't You? - 1970's Provisional IRA poster


































Provisional Irish Republican Army recruitment poster circa early-1970's.

Thanks to the Trades Unions and all who stood and fought for all of our rights


CONFRONT FASCISM


No Cuts! Tens of thousands turnout for British anti-austerity protests (VIDEO)


No Cuts! Tens of thousands turnout for British anti-austerity protests (VIDEO)

Published: RT.com 20 October, 2012, 22:11 


Demonstrators hold placards during a protest march organised by the Trades Union Congress (TUC), in Oxford Circus, in central London October 20, 2012 (Reuters / Suzanne Plunkett)
(11.3Mb)embed video
Nurses, teachers and off duty policemen marched with anti-war activists, politicians and the unemployed in a massive protest against the Conservative led Government’s austerity measures, which they say are killing Britain.
Tens of thousands of people took to the streets in the demonstrations, which was led by a group of jobless young people. More than 250 coaches brought people to London to take part. There were similar protests in Belfast and Glasgow.
Protesters blew whistles and held up flags and banners as they marched though central London. One homemade banner read, ‘Cameron has butchered Britain’.  Other banners read ‘cut war not welfare’, and ‘need before greed’.

RT’s correspondent in London, Sara Firth, who watched the march and spoke to some of the protesters, said that cuts to the NHS and the police force were the areas that people were most concerned about.
“People have turned out here today from all walks of life. Families and all age groups are being affected by this,” She said.

The cuts have severely affected the police force, the National Health Service (NHS) and the armed forces.
One demonstrator told RT why he was marching, “We want our children to have a good education and good health care, this is what my grandmother who was a suffragette – [the women who fought for the female vote in Britain] –  actually fought for and my father spent six years in north Africa fighting for a decent country and this government is going to destroy it.”
Demonstrators hold placards before the start of a protest marchorganised by the Trades Union Congress (TUC) , on the embankment, in central London October 20, 2012 (Reuters / Suzanne Plunkett)
Demonstrators hold placards before the start of a protest marchorganised by the Trades Union Congress (TUC) , on the embankment, in central London October 20, 2012 (Reuters / Suzanne Plunkett)
Children, dressed as public sector workers, hold placards before the start of a protest march organised by the Trades Union Congress (TUC), on the embankment, in central London October 20, 2012 (Reuters / Suzanne Plunkett)
Children, dressed as public sector workers, hold placards before the start of a protest march organised by the Trades Union Congress (TUC), on the embankment, in central London October 20, 2012 (Reuters / Suzanne Plunkett)
There was a strong trade union presence at all the three nationwide events.    
The head of the Trade Union’s Congress (TUC) Brendan Barber said that the message from the protesters is that austerity isn’t working.

“The government doesn’t understand the pain that their cuts and their economic program are having in communities up and down the country. And the government needs to swallow its pride and go for plan B, because Plan A just isn’t working.”
Dave Prentis, the leader of Unison, Britain’s biggest public sector trade union, told RT.
Barber and other union leaders have called for a general strike and further protests to hammer home their message to the government.

Other groups involved in the protest included the Stop the War Coalition and the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, which has slammed the government for what it says are “disastrous” implications for public services financing by committing tens of billions of pounds to a new nuclear weapons system.
In a rally in Hyde Park, which took place after the march, Labour leader Ed Milliband took to the stage saying that if elected his party would
“stand for all the young people in the country who want to work in Britain but cannot find it today.” 
Demonstrators listen to speakers in Hyde Park at the end of a protest march organised by the Trades Union Congress (TUC), in central London October 20, 2012 (Reuters / Neil Hall)
Demonstrators listen to speakers in Hyde Park at the end of a protest march organised by the Trades Union Congress (TUC), in central London October 20, 2012 (Reuters / Neil Hall)
Demonstrators pass the Houses of Parliament during a protest march in central London October 20, 2012 (Reuters / Neil Hall)
Demonstrators pass the Houses of Parliament during a protest march in central London October 20, 2012 (Reuters / Neil Hall)

An embarrassing week

The march will provide further discomfort for David Cameron’s conservative led coalition, which is reeling from a week of negative headlines.
On Friday Andrew Mitchel, the Chief Whip or party enforcer, resigned after a row in which he’s accused of calling the police ‘plebs’ – a class-laden insult often used by Britain’s upper classes to insult common working people.
In a second embarrassment, the chancellor, George Osborne, was caught sitting in a first class train carriage with only a standard class ticket. This was ammunition for Tory critics who accuse them of being the party of privilege. The unions were quick to pounce on his actions: “The Chancellor eventually paid for his ticket, but the rest of us are paying the price for his disastrous policies.”
But Sajid Javid, a Conservative Treasury minister, said the government must stick to its guns and said that figures out last week showing a fall in unemployment and inflation showed that its economic policies were working.
While Mark Littlewood, the director general of the Institute of Economic Affairs, which describes itself as an independent free market think tank, said the government must not listen to militant union leaders and that relatively the cuts Britain has seen are tiny.
But for many of those voicing their discontent on the streets of London and for people in the UK who have lost their jobs because of austerity, prudent economic principles appear to be just background noise.
Police officers attempt to detain a demonstrator during a protest march organised by the Trades Union Congress (TUC), in Oxford Street, in central London October 20, 2012 (Reuters / Suzanne Plunkett)
Police officers attempt to detain a demonstrator during a protest march organised by the Trades Union Congress (TUC), in Oxford Street, in central London October 20, 2012 (Reuters / Suzanne Plunkett)
Demonstrators hold placards before the start of a protest march organised by the Trades Union Congress (TUC), on the embankment, in central London October 20, 2012 (Reuters / Suzanne Plunkett)
Demonstrators hold placards before the start of a protest march organised by the Trades Union Congress (TUC), on the embankment, in central London October 20, 2012 (Reuters / Suzanne Plunkett)
Demonstrators in wheelchairs block Park Lane during a protest march organised by the Trades Union Congress (TUC), in central London October 20, 2012 (Reuters / Neil Hall)
Demonstrators in wheelchairs block Park Lane during a protest march organised by the Trades Union Congress (TUC), in central London October 20, 2012 (Reuters / Neil Hall)
Police officers scuffle with demonstrators during a protest march organised by the Trades Union Congress (TUC), in Oxford Street, in central London October 20, 2012 (Reuters / Suzanne Plunkett)
Police officers scuffle with demonstrators during a protest march organised by the Trades Union Congress (TUC), in Oxford Street, in central London October 20, 2012 (Reuters / Suzanne Plunkett)

Tuesday, 16 October 2012

Scottish Government donate £10,000 to FBU for Palestinian Fire Fighter training.

The REAL Scottish Defence League applauds and wholeheartedly supports the news that the Scottish Government today provided the Fire Brigades Union woth over £10,000 of funding to pay for Palestinian firefighters to come over to Scotland to learn valuable life saving skills and expertise.

Saor Palestine, Saor Alba.

Fire Brigades Union - Scotland - 
http://www.fbuscotland.org/

Scottish-Palestine Solidarity Campaign - http://www.scottishpsc.org.uk/

"Let's take our chance for a fairer, better Scotland"


Let's take our chance for a fairer, better Scotland

SCOTLAND becoming an independent nation can benefit everyone with the country being more prosperous than ever before.
(SOURCE: http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/politics/lets-take-our-chance-for-a-fairer-better-1380877)

First minister Alex Salmond and Prime Minister David Cameron
First minister Alex Salmond and Prime Minister David Cameron
WE caught a glimpse of the future yesterday when David Cameron came calling on Alex Salmond.
Two countries, two ministers – Prime and First – a courteous welcome and a deal called the Edinburgh Agreement. The meeting was between the leaders of two different countries on equal terms.
When Scotland becomes independent, such meetings and agreements will be commonplace.
The relationship between Scotland and England after independence will be a healthier one – close, naturally, but one in which Scotland has an equal voice and where there is mutual respect.
That respect can be seen in the terms of the deal signed yesterday.
In an important clause, both governments agree they will respect the verdict of the people in 2014.
If it is a yes vote, the London government must start negotiating the new partnership between Scotland and England in good faith.
It’s in everyone’s interests that such discussions are positive – just as the discussions leading up to the historic meeting were.
Already even the prospect of an independent nation has changed the way Scotland is treated by Westminster.
It was only in January that Mr Cameron hinted the London government would run its own referendum in Scotland and dictate the timing, the question and even who could vote. That intervention caused outrage, with thousands of people rushing to join the SNP in the space of a few weeks.
Mr Cameron quickly pulled back – despite some hotheads urging him to use London’s power to call a ‘snap’ referendum
We are in a much better place, as yesterday’s smiles and handshakes demonstrated clearly.
The referendum will be made in Scotland, with our own parliament passing the law to make it happen.
The SNP always made it clear they were open to putting a second question on the ballot paper, but the compromise means that will not now happen. The refusal of the unionist parties to put forward a second question means Scottish people have a clear choice.
We can stay with the union as it stands – with four per cent of the seats in Westminster, where all the big economic decisions are made.
Or we can grasp the opportunity offered by a yes vote. That’s an opportunity to make Scotland both fairer and more prosperous.
Recent figures from the UK’s Department of Work and Pensions, uncovered by MSP Linda Fabiani, found the gap between the highest and lowest earners grew by £237 per week between1997 and 2010, when Labour was in power.
The incomes of the poorest 10 per cent of households grew by just £24 per week under Tony Blair and Gordon Brown. By contrast, the incomes of the top 10 per cent of households increased by 10 times that figure, going up from £897 to £1153 per week.
Scotland can do better. A yes vote in 2014 also offers a chance to make Scotland more prosperous.
Just this weekend a group of prominent business people, many of whom previously favoured more powers for the Scottish parliament, signed an open letter backing independence.
They wrote: “We believe that if our nation is to realise its full potential and if we are to deliver a fairer, more competitive and faster growing economy, Scotland’s parliament needs the full range of economic and social levers.
“In the absence of any clear statement from the other parties in the No campaign, the only choice that will result in the Scottish Parliament having the fiscal powers it so badly needs is to vote yes for independence.”
They included Jim McColl, Scotland’s most successful industrialist and Malcolm Fraser, who runs an architectural practice.
They have concluded, at this early stage, that there is no third option. A no vote is exactly that, a vote for nothing – no ambition and no progress for Scotland.
Yesterday was a historic day, but it was just a taster for a truly historic opportunity.

Saturday, 6 October 2012

This is England: Child starved to death after benefits delay


Why is this not headline news? A child starved to death as a result of delays in benefit payments. In London. In Westminster. The wealthiest borough of London and the vanguard council for tory benefit cuts. Oh, but wait, its okay, the kid was an asylum seeker, so not a real person after all then, just a foreigner. I mean that is the only reason we can think of why this is not the most important piece of news in the country today.

We NEED Independence, to safeguard the future for ALL of the children in our land, to ensure they never suffer the barbarism inflicted upon them by the English electorate ever again - the REAL Scottish Defence League.



Charities warn of more tragedies unless flaw in transition system is fixed

Child starved to death after benefits delay

The government has been warned it must urgently fix flaws in its support system for successful asylum seekers, after a destitute child starved to death in temporary accommodation in Westminster.
Further tragedies are increasingly likely as more asylum claims are processed while support funding dries up, organisations claim.
Details of the tragic circumstances surrounding the death of ‘child EG’ and the unrelated death of his mother ‘Mrs G’ surfaced in a serious case review and a letter sent to the government by child safety experts at Westminster Council, a flagship Conservative borough.
The case review found that the family had become dependent on ‘ad hoc’ charitable handouts despite a successful asylum claim because of ‘significant problems’ transferring the family from Home Office to mainstream welfare support services.
The family of three was forced to ‘actually become homeless’ before local authorities could offer official help, it added.
The Westminster letter - sent last March but only released to Inside Housing this week - urges Home Office and Department for Work and Pensions officials to review and improve transitional support for successful asylum seekers.
‘Joined up government should be able to manage the transition from one form of public support to another,’ Terry Bamford, chair of Westminster’s Local Safeguarding Children’s Board, wrote in the letter.
Asylum seeker charities this week warned of a deterioration in government support services in the 18 months since the letter was sent.
The Home Office axed its funding for Refugee Integration and Employment Service - which paid for transitional support for successful asylum seekers - last September, they point out.
Judith Dennis, policy officer at the Refugee Council, said the problems highlighted in the review were common.
Daoud Zaaroura, chief executive of the North of England Refugee Service, said the issues raised in Westminster’s letter were unresolved. ‘Without RIES, or something similar, there is a real threat of the tragic case of EG happening all over again.’
Dave Garratt, chief executive of Refugee Action, said the newly appointed immigration minister, Mark Harper, must ‘urgently address the shortfall in resourcing for these essential services’.
‘We are deeply concerned that our caseworkers are seeing increasing numbers of recent refugees who are being forced onto the streets,’ he added.
James Thomas, director of family services at Westminster Council, said it had provided more details of the case to the Home Office at its request.
A spokesperson for the UK Border Agency said: ‘We have already made several improvements to transitional arrangements.’ Organisations housing asylum seekers for the UKBA must now notify local authorities when applications are successful and refugees can remain in UKBA-funded accommodation for one month after a decision. Funding is given to voluntary groups which offer support and advice, the spokesperson added.