Thursday, January 31, 2013

Colombia: worker leader murdered

Photo by Allan McDonald (Rel-UITA)
Sugar cane workers' leader Juan Carlos Pérez Muñoz was shot dead on January 28  by Capitalist death squads at his hometown of Corinto (Cauca, Colombia) . He was 47 and leaves widow and several children. 

The sugar cane corporation he used to work for, La Cabaña, had recently gone into bitter conflict with the 580 workers affiliated to SINTRAINAGRO, union that formed a commission to negotiate. Instead of negotiating the company fired all members of the commission and then other 90 workers, with the blessing of the liberal-fascist government of Santos.

Juan Carlos Pérez was involved in this conflict being member of the union and giving advise to his working class comrades, it seems that was enough reason for the Capitalist gangsters to end his life by murder.

Source: LINyM[es].

Demand that UE cuts subsidies to racist parties

The British coalition 'Hope not hate' has demanded from the European Union to cut all funding to racist parties confederated in the European Alliance of Nationalist Movements (EANM-AEMN). Notable among them are the Hungarian Nazi party Jobbik, the French National Front, the Bulgarian Ataka and the Greek Golden Dawn. 

With help of EMPs from the Labor Party they are proposing to the European Parliament to cut all funding to these formations on the grounds of the rule 210 that demands from all parties "respect for human dignity, freedom, democracy, equality, state of law and respect for Human Rights, including the right of individuals to belong to minorities". 

Source: Diagonal[es].

Wednesday, January 30, 2013

Petition: UEFA revoke the sub-21 championship in Apartheid Palestine

A petition (in French) is available to ask Michel Platini and UEFA in general to revoke their criminal decision of backing the Apartheid Regime in Palestine (aka Israel) by organizing the European sub-21 football championship in the Zionist colony. 

L’UEFA a choisi Israël pour accueillir l'Euro Espoir 2013. Nous demandons à M. Platini de revenir sur cette décision  pour montrer à Israël que la morale et l’éthique sportives ne peuvent tolérer les violations du droit pratiquées par l’état d’Israël. 
L’histoire a montré, du temps de l’apartheid en Afrique du Sud, que le boycott sportif était une arme non violente pour combattre le racisme et les injustices: la Fédération Sud-Africaine avait ainsi été exclue de la FIFA en 1964.
To:
M. Platini - Président de l'UEFA
Je viens de signer la pétition suivante adressée à: M. Platini - Président de l'UEFA

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

Revenez sur votre décision d'organiser l'Euro Espoirs 2013 en Israël.

L’UEFA a choisi Israël pour accueillir l'Euro Espoir 2013. Nous demandons à M. Platini de revenir sur cette décision
pour montrer à Israël que la morale et l’éthique sportives ne peuvent tolérer les violations du droit pratiquées par l’état d’Israël.
L’histoire a montré, du temps de l’apartheid en Afrique du Sud, que le boycott sportif était une arme non violente pour combattre le racisme et les injustices: la Fédération Sud-Africaine avait ainsi été exclue de la FIFA en 1976.
----------------

Cordialement,
Sincerely,
[Your name]

SIGN.

IAEA denies rumors of explosion at Iranian nuclear reactor

IAEA inspectors have denied rumors of explosion at Iranian nuclear facility, which I briefly echoed (expressing my doubts and caution) in this blog days ago

International Atomic Energy Agency spokeswoman Gill Tudor told The Associated Press on Tuesday that Iran's denial of "an incident" at the Fordo uranium enrichment plant is "consistent with our observations."

So it was mere Zio-intoxication after all. 

Sources: Fox News, Energy News

Tuesday, January 29, 2013

Was Aaron Swartz murdered?

Ah Mephistophelis! has a most intriguing entry today on how a lot of evidence seems to point that Internet pioneer Aaron Swartz was murdered and did not kill himself.

Because of its interest, I reproduce the article in its entirety, including the many source links:


courtesy of cryptome

Make up  your own mind.  Take a moment, look at the picture above.  Even if you haven't been living under a rock, you might not have yet seen it. Look at that smile.  Under what conditions would you smile like that? How about while you were being raided by the Feds?  Surrounded by agents of your government, acting under orders to attempt to throw the book at you?
Did you know that Aaron H. Swartz


  • had been offered a plea deal of only six months incarceration -- and turned it down?
  • had been investigated by the FBI and gotten his dossier and posted it online in 2009?
  • wrote the supposed 'suicide note' in 2007, when he was really sick (probably food poisoning), not because he was depressed but to feel better?
  • did not do anything normally thought of as hacking in order to download the JSTOR files?
  • got the attention nevertheless of the Secret Service, who personally took over his case, evincing a great interest in the hardware upon which the files had been copied?
  • was 'killed,' according to his father?
  • was not intended to have had the book thrown at him, according to the lawyer for the prosecution?
  • joins two other young internet activists fighting for free speech and privacy who have committed suicide recently?

(...and in the above I avoid the more conspiracy-minded, hypothetical, or fringe.  In my opinion, or rather, my opinion of what should be the general opinion, which is to say, yours.)      

All of this in the links below, and even more, as of what I avoided above I include the choicest yet encountered.  All of which I also have made available for download as PDFs, links appended.  In case something were to, you know, get, uh, misplaced.

https://s2.wp.com/i/favicon.icoAaron Swartz was Murdered – He Faced 3 Months in Jail Not 35 Years! « American Everyman http://www.huffingtonpost.com/favicon.icoTom Dolan, Husband Of Aaron Swartz's Prosecutor, Defends Her On Twitter http://boston.com/favicon.icoMIT hacking case lawyer says Aaron Swartz was offered plea deal of six months behind bars - Boston.com https://www.google.com/favicon.icohttps://twitter.com/tomjdolan/status/291018637274390528 - Google Search http://static.guim.co.uk/favicon.icoAaron Swartz: US attorney says she only sought six-month jail term | Technology | guardian.co.uk Wanted by the FBI (Aaron Swartz's Raw Thought) http://digitaljournal.com/favicon.icoReddit pioneer Aaron Swartz wrote 'suicide note' blog in 2007 http://www.blogger.com/favicon.icoCannonfire http://cdn.wbur.org/wordpress/cognoscenti/images/cog_fav_16.pngCarmen Ortiz’s Case Didn’t ‘Kill’ Aaron Swartz | Cognoscenti http://i.cdn.turner.com/dr/teg/tsg/release/sites/default/files/tsg_favicon.pngCaught Red-Handed, Aaron Swartz Was Prepping For Key Federal Court Evidence Hearing | The Smoking Gun http://crookedtimber.org/favicon.icoMIT and Aaron Swartz — Crooked Timber http://s2.wp.com/i/favicon.ico?m=1311975824gThe Truth about Aaron Swartz’s “Crime” « Unhandled Exception http://cdn1.topsy.com/asset/master.geo-2.9-20121029.001-3.b98ed74b2a/img/favico.pngTwitter Trackbacks for @mkapor Truly incredible that in their own son's obit they blame others for his death and make no mention of the 6-month offer. [twitter.com] on Topsy.com http://cdn1.topsy.com/asset/master.geo-2.9-20121029.001-3.b98ed74b2a/img/favico.pngTwitter profile for tomjdolan - Topsy https://www.google.com/favicon.icohttps://twitter.com/tomjdolan/status/291018637274390528 - Google Search https://si0.twimg.com/favicons/favicon.icoTwitter / ggreenwald: Carmen Ortiz's husband, IBM ... http://lamecherry.blogspot.com/favicon.icoLame Cherry: The murder of Aaron Swartz http://lamecherry.blogspot.com/favicon.icoLame Cherry: Aaron Swartz Murdered Twice Done http://aangirfan.blogspot.com/favicon.icoaangirfan: JEWISH HERO AARON SWARTZ; EXPOSING ELITE CHILD ABUSE



   
 
Be seeing you.

Protests against UEFA decision of playing sub-21 European championship in the Apartheid Regime in Palestine

The hypocrisy of European cultural and sporting entities towards the Apartheid Regime in Palestine is obviously less and less sustainable by the moment. Taking risky decisions in futile attempts to normalize the presence of Israel (= Apartheid Regime in Palestine) in European competitions can only increase the contradictions. These are such that in a blatant act of double standards and hypocrisy, UEFA President Michel Platini found himself obliged to briefly show sympathy to those protesting against his atrocious decisions and allow himself to be photographed with a leading campaigner and a shirt of the Palestinian National Team. 

But don't deceive yourselves with that hypocritical picture just conceived to appease the a European public opinion that is fiercely and growingly anti-Zionist. Platini also defended his atrocious decision and went back to earn his millionaire salary as chief of an organization that clearly collaborates with Zionism, Apartheid Palestine and Genocide against Palestinians. 


Boycott Israel, boycott UEFA!!!

Source and more details at Jews sans frontieres.


Update: petition (in French) HERE.

Greek top officer accussed of pretending greater Greek debt to impel 'austerity'

The Greek officer in charge of budget statistics (Hellenic Statistical Authority, ELSTAT), Andreas Georgiou, is under trial for greatly and mischievously inflating the figures of Greek debt so the Troika plan of "austerity for the poor, fiesta for the rich" would have more support. The accusations date back to 2009 and were initiated in 2011. 

Former PM, George Papandreou and former Minister of Finances George Papaconstantinou are also suspect. 

Is the Greek debt nightmare, partly, a case of engineered storm in a teapot?

Sources: Greek Reporter, Yanis Varoufakis (who is oddly sympathetic of the accused).

Growing rumors of explosion at Iranian nuclear facility

It seems hard to confirm but it also seems that it is the Zionists who are spreading the rumor, without confirming nor denying that it was their attack which caused it. According to the unverified information, some 200 workers were trapped in the explosion of a nuclear facility in Iran and an Israeli airplane was spotted near the site of the explosion. The incident is said to have happened days ago.

Source: EneNews, citing The Australian, citing The Times (but article not located, paywalls make search futile).

Has Israel actually bombed Iran? Or is it just another Zio-intoxication?


Update (Jan 30): it was a mere rumor after all (luckily).

Japan: TEPCO will dump 50 times the legal limit of radioactive water to the Ocean

Fukushima Diary reports:

Tepco is going to discharge contaminated water to the sea. (cf, Tepco officially announced to discharge contaminated water into Pacific ocean [URL])

Tepco states the discharged water will be purified by the purifying facility “Alps”, but it can’t filter out the nuclide called “tritium”. Tritium is radioactive water.
It is estimated that the water contains 2,000 ~ 3,000 Bq/ml of tritium even after purification, which is 33 ~ 50 times much as the legal limit to discharge.

Tepco comments they will dilute it before discharging but the total amount of tritium would be the same.

Monday, January 28, 2013

Galician social prisoner held for much longer than sentence, sexually abused

This case is not known (I think) even in Spain itself, however Greek counter-information blog Contra Info has a terrifying narration evidencing the impunity of terror and injustice of the the Spanish prison system that for its interest I reproduce here in full:

Spain[sic]: On the case of the prisoner in struggle Noelia Cotelo Riveiro


Noelia Cotelo Riveiro is a young woman from A Coruña, Galicia (northwestern Spain). Her sentence to serve was set at a year and a half, after stealing a car to buy some drugs. Inside the prison, the situation became complicated, and she has defended herself from the jailers. Now, five years later, she is still imprisoned.



On October 23rd, 2012, Noelia was speaking with her mother on the phone, explaining to her what was going on inside the Brieva prison (in Ávila, central Spain). At some point, a female guard urged her to finish the conversation, screaming at her: “YOU BASTARD SCUM, GET OFF THE PHONE”, but she refused. After a row with the humanguard, five other jailers forced her to drop the telephone by grabbing her wrist strongly and breaking it. They moved her to the cell and left her handcuffed to the bed until the following day, with no medical assistance at all. The next day, at the suggestion of the prison doctor, she was transferred to a hospital to be treated. The injuries and the prescribed treatment are detailed in the medical report.

During the night of October 23rd until the morning of the 24th, Noelia was sleeping handcuffed to the bed in her cell. She woke up and caught one guard by the name of Jesús (who had participated in the aforementioned assault) touching her breast and chest. Caught unawares and attempting to conceal his identity, the jailer threw the contents of a water bottle at Noelia’s face. Prisoners in adjacent cells were awakened by the row and the jailer’s flight.

Additionally, it seems that one of Noelia’s suitcases (with her winter clothes) was stolen from the warehouse of the prison facility. Apparently, her clothes were distributed to the rest of the prisoners, since one of them, María Luisa, gave Noelia back some of her pieces of clothing.

As we all know, this is not an isolated occurrence; we want to report Noelias’s situation, as well as those of many other imprisoned women and men who are systematically assaulted. Noelia had just been transferred from the prison of Picassent (Valencia), where she had filed a complaint because of ill-treatment.

After this and filing a new complaint, Noelia started a hunger strike as a means for protesting, reporting and rebelling against her situation, and making visible the acts that the system silences. Nonetheless, she had to quit after only 5 days because the prison guards used her mother’s visitation time to blackmail her and pressure her to abandon the protest.

During the month of November, a female guard slammed the cell door on Noelia’s broken hand; she was denied medical treatment; she was forced to take cold water showers; her communications were tapped and, in order to isolate her, she was denied visits while her visitation hours were reduced. In early December, Noelia was served meals on a pre-arranged tray while the rest of the prisoners could watch their food being served. Immediately after eating, Noelia would sleep until nightfall, which was not her usual habit. She was not allowed to check her food.

On December 9th, a march was called to the Brieva prison in support of Noelia and against the daily torture and abuse suffered in prisons. Dozens of people showed up to show support and solidarity with our comrade. Despite the strong presence of the Guardia Civil (military police), it was a positive experience. Cops were not able to break the bonds created by the shouts of support from the women inside that we could hear through the walls of the prison.

On December 14th, anarchist prisoner Juan Carlos Rico Rodríguez expressed his solidarity with Noelia through the following communiqué:

Today, I learned through some friends that a comrade in the women’s prison-slaughterhouse of Brieva has been tortured and that the prison guards have even tried to sexually harass her (something that is not “abnormal” at all in the Spanish slaughterhouses). Our comrade is called Noelia Cotelo.

My daughter Noelia (12 years old) and my other daughter Selena (16 years old) are also imprisoned; Noelia is in Valladolid (1, Pajarillos street) and Selena is in Ávila, another youth detention facility, as prisons for children are euphemistically called. I’ve been imprisoned for 14 years. Yet, I am perfectly aware that in a patriarchal society such us ours, imprisoned women carry a double burden: their status as prisoners and as WOMEN.

I cannot eliminate the direct culprits of this violence against women in the institutions of STATE MURDER with my own hands (which is what these tyrants deserve). Therefore, I want to express my SOLIDARITY, not only with Noelia and my daughters, but also extend it to every woman in the world who suffers the TORTURE of prison.

We should bear in mind that any kind of system that inflicts this kind of treatment on the “female” population inside their prison slaughterhouse, as well as those who sustain it, is an ill system/person. And such “illness” should be pulled up by the roots, whatever the cost. As an answer to this cruelty, I will fast symbolically on December 24th, 25th and 31st, 2012 and on January 1st and 6th, 2013.

ELIMINATE ONCE AND FOR ALL THESE PRACTICES
AND THOSE WHO PRACTICE THEM!

This is also a call to the “free society”: REVENGE!

Juan Carlos Rico Rodríguez
Aranjuez Prison Slaughterhouse
(1st Wing, Madrid, Spain)

On January 14th, 2013 we were informed that, after the riots in late December in the prison of Brieva, Noelia’s yard hours were reduced from 3 hours to 1 hour per day – or occasionally just half an hour. What’s more, the prison guard who had sexually attacked her filed a counter-complaint against Noelia (!) saying that she was the assailant; now she is the one who is suffering the consequences, spending 28 days in isolation.

After all the above, our comrade is still not willing to contribute to her own silence and fit in the mold. Noelia decided to start an indefinite hunger strike on January 8th, with the support of her fellow prisoners in struggle. Her aim is to be released from the Brieva prison and to return near her family, in Galicia. Her demands are:

* An end to mistreatment, torture, degrading treatment, beatings and verbal abuse in all prisons;

* An end to collusion between doctors and judges;

* Not one more incident of sexist violence against women, no more hazing and not one more sexual assault. No more male jailers in the women wings and prisons;

* That no law or sentence can separate a family. No to the dispersion of those in prison. Each person should stay near their place of birth. No more constant transfers from prison to prison;

* That all the people in prison be treated with dignity, that they are provided with their medical treatments, that they are attended by the necessary medical staff. That health service, something so universal, reaches them all. No more DEATHS in prisons. Enough medical malpractice;

* That we are told no more lies – rehabilitation is not humiliation. We do not need to be assimilated into anywhere, we need respect. Hatred and violence only generate more hatred and violence;

* That the so-called transparency reaches the penitentiary institutions and anything related to them. No more impunity. No more coverups of state murders;

* That this farce comes to an end. That poverty is not punished with imprisonment; that prisons do not make their living off of poor people. That this mercantilist system ends. We are people, not coins!

On January 16th Noelia asked to visit the doctor because she had an ear infection that had spread to her mouth, becoming very inflamed. But the prison guards replied that no doctors would receive her, although if she wanted to, a jailer called Adelardo would attend her. A while earlier, this same jailer gave her an incorrect dose of methadone and almost caused her to overdose. When he arrived Noelia asked him if she could go to a doctor. He replied that she did not need a doctor because she would die there. After this incident with the jailer Adelardo, Noelia was moved to another cell with an open window… just perfect for her ear infection – note that there is no heating in the prison of Brieva (where the highest temperatures are 10ºC) and that most of her winter clothes were stolen.

On January 25th there was a call at Paeria square in Lleida in support of Noelia, who is still on hunger strike.
Noelia is not alone! Down with prisons! No more prisoners!

If you want to write her and show your support:
Noelia Cotelo Riveiro, CP. Brieva, Ctra. de Vicolozano; 05194 Brieva (Ávila), Spain

See also: article in Galician language at Abordaxe.

Extreme capitalism = slavery

This is the model of development and job creation that the European neofascist propose for Spain: casinos and degrading decadence cum slavery.

Bourgeois perverts eat sushi extracted from a dying ocean on the body of a naked woman
Las Palmas Casino (Canary Islands)



That's the "way forward" that decadent late Capitalism seems to offer as only option: sell your body and life for a few euros to satisfy the endless predatory hunger of the ineffable markets, embodied in the faces and behavior of those degenerates.

Of course "workers" have no right to even go to the bathroom.

And worse: the media sells this as the way to go, as great innovation and what not.

In Spain proper, South of the Ebro river down to the seas that bath the Sahara, there does not seem to be anything else in offer: after demolishing the promising solar energy and diverse research projects accumulated through a decade or two. It seems that the heirs of Aznar has chosen the same road to nowhere: earlier it was the brick bubble and now it is the casino and prostitution bubble. All mafiosi from around the world are welcome: this is not even half-assed capitalism but raw decadence as gangsters like it.

Just like with Cuba under Batista.

And the colonies (Canary Islands, Al Andalus) get the worst of it, of course. They always did and they always will... unless they rise up.

Unemployment in Spain (2011): green < 15%, yellow: 15-20%, red > 20% (source)

Source: La Haine[es].

UAE repressing reform advocates

Is the Arab Spring over? Far from it, I'd say: it has just entered a more complex stage of widespread "unfinished business" situation waiting for a second definitive wave. 

While in Egypt and Tunisia, the Islamists clearly defraud after being elected to steer transition, while Libya and Syria struggle with the consequences of a way-too-militarized, and also too internationalized, process, in Arabia Peninsula the situation is of eerie calm. 

Or actually: of protests and arrests, of tortures and ideological persecutions, of peoples who are clearly demanding an end to feudal theocracy under the auspices of Western Imperialism. 

While in Bahrain the chain of continuous protest and repression has daily basis and is slightly better known to me (but silenced through the media), in the nearby United Arab Emirates, where totalitarianism is exactly as bad, we had not heard much. 

But 94 denizens have been brought to political trial on accusations of challenging the absolute rule of the emirs, of trying "to seize power and confronting the main principles which the rule is based on"...

Which are those principles? The emirs dictate and you obey. Totalitarianism at its worst!

They are accused of relationship with the Muslim Brotherhood of Egypt but they claim to be independent and just wanting to promote reforms. 

Still a long walk for many peoples in the Arab World. Still a lot of repression and fascism going on.

Sunday, January 27, 2013

Morsi declares state of emergency at Suez Canal

Funeral at Port Said
A spat of most controversial death sentences, arguably designed to appease Cairo football fans, have ignited the Canal by which most trade goes between the Atlantic and Indian Oceans. The cities of Suez, Port Said and Ismailia, all three located along the Suez Canal, have seen these days riots challenging the clearly overwhelmed Egyptian state, which looks more and more powerless under the anti-consensual reactionary leadership of Islamist President Morsi. 

The people who are now protesting against Morsi in Suez as in Cairo are almost exactly the same who did it two years ago against Mubarak: in fact the greatest weaknesses of Morsi are two: (1) that he's seen as a divisive sectarian and (2) that he's seen as continuity for the Mubarak regime.

As desperate measure Morsi just declared the state of emergency in all the Canal Region (governorates of Suez, Ismailia and Port Said). I see it as a clear sign of weakness: a clear sign that his political strategy which has Egypt licking the Zionist boots exactly the same as with Mubarak, which looks to reinforce the autocratic figure of the President while keeping the country weak and submissive, is collapsing.

Is the Girondine phase over?

Macabre humor: Davos declares the economic crisis to be over

The club of wealthy jokers from around the World that meets in the Swiss resort of Davos every year to plan their practical and often humorless pranks against you and me, have declared:

The Crisis is over!

Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha! 

I bet they plan to end unemployment by killing millions through laughter.

Meanwhile, desperate with any sign that would ratify their mad bourgeois optimism, Business Insider thanker the masters of the World for this last joke... which they ironically seem to believe. After all they have been prophesying the end of the crisis since before it even began.

The reality however seems much gloomier: the crisis will continue for years, maybe even for decades until radical revolutionary programs are applied and Capitalism itself is deconstructed.

Actually that's what you get when you browse some other less wishful thinking media. The NYT understands that instead The Crisis has become normality (yeah, pretty much), while The Economic Times interprets instead that The Crisis is NOT over

Ah, not, yes, normal... all at the same time, so you can pick your favorite doctrine? Who cares: we just see the facts on the ground and don't care what the aristocrats may say in their luxury fortress. We see everything horribly bad, with a worsening tendency and normalized. It can explode at any moment anywhere or it can remain latent for one, two, three or even more years before people really gets angry and kick some ass... and some head probably too. 

What won't happen, much less any time soon, is any sort of return to the pre-2008 normality. The aristocrats have decreed that people must suffer and die so they keep their profit rates high... it is just up to the people and how much will they withstand: will they march to Auschwitz, whose slogan was quite ironically "work shall make you free", sheepishly or will they raise in arms?

Sooner than later we will see the latter. And then maybe some of those filthy capitalist pigs meeting in Davos will not laugh anymore.

Israeli clubs' blatant racism ignored by UEFA

Never mind the most strange and unacceptable fact of including Israel (the name of the regime of Apartheid in Palestine) in all kind of European competitions, from the pathetic Eurovision annoying music contest to football and basketball. Much more worrisome is that while European clubs are being warned and sanctioned (in most cases correctly) for racist attitudes, Zionist ones, which may well be the most racist of all (Arabs are banned for example) bear no sanction. 

This racism has come again to the forefront as the ultra-nazi colonial football club Beitar Jerusalem admitted, exceptionally, two Chechen players in its ranks. Chechens are mostly Muslim, what angered the islamophobic Zionist fans of the settler club. 

Instead of rejecting the brutal racism of the club hooligans, the manager, Eli Cohen, explained that European Muslims like Chechens are ok but Arabs, Christian or Muslim... that's not acceptable for him. 

It were the hooligans of this Beitar Jerusalem club who chanted not long ago "death to Arabs". Nothing of all this even raises an eyebrow among UEFA anti-racism courts and committees. They may sanction Serbian clubs for chanting against Albanians, Italian ones for throwing racist insults against Black players... All that is great, although rounding the culprits and throwing them into the mouth of the Etna sounds even better to me. But why this tolerance towards Jewish-centric racism?

Not acceptable: European institutions, in football and elsewhere shame us with their intolerable Zionism and preferential treatment of Zionist cultural entities. How can we democratically challenge this undemocratic racist attitude of our pan-European institutions? Does the European charts and treaties allow for democratic referendums? Does even the European Parliament matter at all? 

We live under a subtle but real pan-European totalitarian dictatorship in which democracy is a fallacy. So our new "civilized little Hitlers" of the European Commission, UEFA, etc. do as they please and their masochistic pleasure is, it seems to lick the boots of the USA and to lick the boots of Tel Aviv. 

It'd be alright if a private activity, of course, but we are discussing here the people who claim to represent us all Europeans. 

We need some guillotine again... that's becoming more and more clear.

Hospital kitchen privatization in Navarre or how the private sector is highly inneficient

Until weeks ago, the hospital kitchen at Osasunbidea (the public health care system of Navarre) was managed by Osasunbidea itself and worked just fine. But the far right government of UPN-PP has decided to privatize the service. The result: corruption and disaster.

On one hand the company assigned to the service, Mediterránea de Catéring (Medicat) is owned by a member of the party ruling in Spain and Navarre (PP, UPN pretends autonomy but is a mere delegation of this all-Spain neofascist/conservative party).  This already implies a suspicion of corruption and cronyism, something way too common when the public treasury uses our taxes to pay private companies providing a service. Way too often bribes (outright corruption) and the implicit mutual promises of excessive "friendship" (cronyism) get in the way at this preliminary stage, not just costing the public more for less, not just degrading the social ethics, but displacing the more honorable companies who decline to take part in these corrupt practices. 

But there is another side to this problem. The main measure used to gauge private sector offers is cheapness. And cheapness almost invariably comes at the cost of quality. This can have deadly consequences: from nuclear reactors made of cheap parts that rot away, to buildings that have to be demolished before they fall on the heads of the new scammed owners, to hospital meals that can well kill you. 

This last is the case of Medicat servicing the Hospital Virgen del Camino in Pamplona (and soon also in two other public hospitals) after the new IMF-style "reforms" in the old kingdom. Medicat meals have already resulted in massive complains for horrible taste and incredible delays that cause major risks to diabetics but also for many other patients who cannot take their meds (which are aggressive for the digestive system) before their meals. So this apparent great capitalist idea is already causing big problems in their first days just because the contractor happens to be inefficient and cheap. 

On top of that there have been numerous reports of lack of hygiene or dietary errors that have included even coffee for children, just an example. While in some cases these errors can be just a matter of laughs, in others they can cause serious problems and even death (just imagine an allergic person given the allergene in a meal supposedly designed for his/her particular needs). This is what is happening at Virgen del Camino since the capitalist method took over: no description of food composition, foods that cannot be differentiated in any obvious way, meals wrongly sent to another floor, etc.

And citizens are paying them, instead of keeping highly effective public workers, for such a criminal "service" that can well end with somebody dead and somebody else in jail for manslaughter. 

The problem seems to be that the cheapskate Medicat company does not have enough workers (typical). That's why they can offer at so low apparent cost (and so high hidden cost for public health). They have lots of costly high tech machines but simply not enough workers (34, scattered in many shifts) to provide the adequate service. If they hire more workers they will lose money, so they will not or only late and under high pressure.

Instead of doing that, Medicat is firing kitchen auxiliaries who they blame for the errors. So the errors will no doubt persist. 

Now they serve 400 beds but they are supposed to take care of as many as 800 in no time and they simply do not plan to expand their installations nor hire more personnel. 

Who does all this benefit? Incredibly enough this dangerous mess does benefit some: private clinics, typically owned by the Catholic cult Opus Dei. By lowering the quality of the basic services provided by the state, the private speculators can get benefits, providing services that are usually not too good but comparatively better than the crappy ones they allow the state to offer, if they allow any state service at all. 

Capitalism: give us your life that we will give you some crap in pretty wrappings.

Source: Gara[es].

Tahrir Square packed again

Liberation (Tahrir) Square in Cairo is again packed of people who protest against President Morsi plans of Mubarakist continuity with increased religious intolerance (Mubarak regime was already fundamentalist as are most regimes based on Sharia but Morsi is working to worsen that into a Saudi-like style).

The result is images that remind of two years ago:

January 25th in Cairo but January 2013, not January 2011

The difference is that while back then it was first page in Al Jazeera, today it is hidden in a corner. True that the violence in Suez became a convenient ideout before the masses chanting 'irhal' (leave) to Morsi as they did to Mubarak two years ago. 

But it is clear that the Egyptian revolution is an unfinished revolution which is going through a Girondine phase (continuation through shallow reform) and has still to reach its true revolutionary stage in which the world is put upside down. 

It may be true that most Egyptians outside the major cities still think reactionary but it is also true that revolutions are not driven solely or even mostly on ideas: they are driven by hunger and exhaustion. The problems of 80 million famished Egyptians can't be solved with mere praying to Mecca, begging to Riyadh and prostrating to the murderous manipulators of Tel Aviv. Uncle Sam and Uncle Saud simply cannot put up enough money to solve the problems of Egypt, nor they wish to (in their exploiter ideology: workers must be kept as squeezed as possible so they have to beg for work and everything else to them, the lords of Capital).

So revolution shall continue until the workers of Egypt and everywhere else, at both sides of the Mediterranean, take the power into truly democratic hands, including and emphasizing power over the economy, collectivizing all major property.

Partial source: Uruknet.

Saturday, January 26, 2013

Panda Security fires workers

The antivirus company Panda Security headquarters are located at this city of Bilbao, which makes this both a local and a global issue. 

Unions CNT and LAB denounced that the company is again firing workers arbitrarily, handing them a standard cessation document unchanged along the years. 

In response to this capitalist threat, worker assemblies have seen many people joining them and a strike is foreseeable, although not yet agreed. 

Source: Herri Kolore[eu].

Very worrying radiation levels in California and other places in the USA

Fukushima Emergency what can we do? has a series of posts these days on the apparent impact of Fukushima radioactive contamination across the Ocean in continental USA.

This image shows peaks of above 1000 counts per minute at Bakersfield, California, between October and November 2012 (100 CPM is considered alert):


In successive posts, the same blog shows EPA sanctioned graphs with levels of c. 100 CPM at Anchorage, Alaska and c. 200 CPM at Los Angeles, California for a similar period.

See at Fukushima Emergency what can we do?:

Update: also on Canada (similar situation to continental USA).

Summit of the Peoples in Santiago de Chile

In response to the EU-FTAA and EU-CELAC necolonial summit taking place in Santiago de Chile these days, popular organizations from Europe and Latin America are celebrating an alternative Summit of the Peoples[es] in that same city this weekend.

According to Argentine analyst Atilio Boron[es], the European Union brought such an ultra-liberal (ultra-capitalist) trade treaty proposal that pales the nature of the FTAA itself. However the exact content of the proposed treaty is not yet known in full because of total lack of transparency and only leaks point to this conclusion.

For the first time ever, the newly created CELAC will play a role in this imperialist summit. The Community of Latin American and Caribbean Countries, which arose as anti-imperialist alternative to the nearly deceased OAS after the USA kicked its own butt with many geostrategical errors, notably the Honduran coup. The irony is that the CELAC is made up of such different regimes as the ultra-capitalist ones of Chile (presidency now) or Colombia on ones side and the hardcore communist one of Cuba and this time the beleaguered Presiden of Chile, Santiago Piñeira is pulling the ember to his own sardine, as its said in Spanish, and promoting a neocolonialist ultra-liberal agenda. Whether he will get away with it or will all remain just a high-profile international meeting remains to be seen. 

Meanwhile the popular organizations from both continental regions are drafting a global campaign[es] to castrate the illegitimate and brutal power of corporations, especially large ones.

In a time and age like the present, corporations (the main manifestation of private Capitalist power) are without doubt the biggest threat to humankind in many fronts. They are promoting the dismantling of all public solidarity (welfare) and also of all legal regulations to their power, redefining the states in pure capitalist terms: army, police, judges and prisons for the defense of their illegitimate private property. 

Down with them!

India: disabled professor faces firing for his revolutionary ideas

Dr. G.N. Saibaba
Online petition found at Kasama (sign it HERE):

Dear Dr. M. M. Pallam Raju,

We the undersigned are astounded to know that the University of Delhi is withdrawing a facility provided to a severely disabled teacher of its College. Taking recourse to technicalities as the benchmark to forcefully evacuate a disabled teacher ignoring further national and international developments in law pertaining to the differently-abled is a sad state of affairs of one of the leading universities in India. Any future perusal by the university authorities of the question of special accommodation at the warden’s flat, Gwyer Hall accorded to Dr. G. N. Saibaba cannot ignore the specific grounds of his 90 percent disability.

Universities should be centres of excellence, where cutting edge ideas are discussed and deliberated towards building a future which is humane and compassionate. University of Delhi is witness to a comparatively sizeable increase in the intake of differently-abled people as faculty, students and non-teaching staff. Given the fact that there are few Universities in the country with such intake it becomes imperative that Delhi University also be a model in providing a humane and dignified space for the differently-abled. And this demands urgently a disable-sensitive administration which is humanely conversant with the new developments in jurisprudence pertaining to the differently-abled.

Under the disabilities laws and United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities 2006 to which India is a signatory country since 2007, it is the primary obligation of all institutions of the Indian Government to provide all facilities including “reasonable accommodation”. Instead of extending the facilities and making them broad-based for all disabled teachers and students on the campus, the present proceedings of the University to forcefully evict Dr. G. N. Saibaba is highly deplorable. What is required today is to make the University Campuses habitable and create workable environment to the differently-abled teachers and
students. It is the legal and ethical obligation of the University to provide reasonable accommodation on the campuses to the differently-abled teachers and students in order to increase their participation in the higher education.

The University of Delhi cannot take away this facility provided to Dr. G. N. Saibaba on any technical grounds which is a total misreading of the very grounds on which the whole premises was allotted to him. On the contrary such facility has to be broadened and extended to all differently-abled teachers and students of the Colleges and Departments.

Thus we would like you to:

1.      Instruct the University to desist from withdrawing the residence facility to Dr. G.N. Saibaba and,

2.      Constitute a high powered committee to find ways and means to provide all facilities including “reasonable accommodation” to disabled persons in the University as mandated by the disabilities laws and United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities ratified by India in 2007.

Issued for endorsement by:

Anand Teltumbde, Professor, School of Management, IIT, Kharagpur. Contact: tanandraj@gmail.com.

Maya Pandit Narkar, Professor, Department of English Language Teaching,
English and Foreign Languages University, Hyderabad. Contact: maya@efluniversity.ac.in.

Sign the petition HERE.

Thursday, January 24, 2013

Metro strike of Athens becomes all transport strike after government tries unilateral imposition

The strike of subway workers in Athens, already in its eight day, reached today to a key crossroads as the government attempts to conscript all striking workers in their bid of no negotiation. In response, all transport workers from the Greek metropolis have joined the strike, which looks like heading to a showdown of willpowers.

From the Greek Streets reported today:


Greek government orders the civil conscription of the striking metro workers in Athens; workers in all transportation mediums join strike in solidarity

In the afternoon of January 24, the Greek government via the ministry of transport ordered the civil conscription (i.e. the forced return to work) of the workers at the Athens Metro, who had been on strike for the past eight days. In response, the workers in all other mass transportation mediums in the city (buses, metro green line and tram) have also joined or extended their strikes. The workers at the Athens metro are calling all those in solidarity to gather at the main metro depot in Sepolia (by Kifissos Ave).