EU-MENA revolution consolidation

[vanlose kid]

Fighting for a future without capitalism in Spain.

01/06/2011

Andy Durgan spoke to Socialist Worker from Barcelona about the ongoing Spanish revolt against the economic crisis

Thousands of mainly young people are involved in the new movement in Spain. Young people have suffered from poor employment conditions, poor wages and temporary contracts for years.

But the effects have become more pronounced with this most recent crisis of capitalism.

Some 21 percent of Spain’s population have no job and 40 percent of these are under 30. This doesn’t include students who are looking for work, so really the figure is much higher.

If you’re young here the prospects are bleak. Around 85 percent of people under 30 live with their parents because housing is so expensive.

The movement was partly inspired by events in Egypt. What is now known as the 15 May movement called a demonstration on that day for "real democracy now". People declared the mainstream system a farce—the voting, the parties, everything.

The main parties have repeatedly broken promises and betrayed the people who voted for them. Many of the movement’s demands have an anti-capitalist nature. There is a general sense that we should not pay for the crisis.

The call for real participatory democracy has revolutionary implications, even if most of those demanding it don’t necessarily see it like this.

No single organisation called the protests—activists came together, face to face and online, to build the day.

Some of them had been involved five years ago in a housing campaign which mobilised tens of thousands across the country. Another section was from a campaign to protect people who couldn’t afford their mortgage repayments from eviction.

But most of the people involved are unorganised. The call to protest inspired tens of thousands. There are now around 120 protests and assemblies across the country.

On the Monday following 15 May the police attacked the spontaneous camp a small number of people had set up in Madrid. This provoked a backlash against the state and spread the protests across Spain.

Once people were in the squares, the influence of the Arab movements became more apparent.

The movement has raised questions of organisation as it has developed.

The trade unions in Spain are very weak. Only 19 percent of workers are unionised.

Workers can be on workplace committees, which bargain over wages, whether they are in a union or not. The majority of delegates are in unions—but that is not true of the workers who vote for them.

Most young people have little work experience and therefore little experience of workplace organisation or positive experience of the unions.

In September the main unions organised a general strike and up to seven million people took action.

But the unions didn’t follow it up with anything and shortly afterwards they signed agreements with the ruling Socialist Party which attacked workers’ rights. These made it easier to sack people, attacked pensions and raised the retirement age.

A third of workers in Spain are on temporary contracts. Many people see the unions as part of the discredited establishment that sells them out.

The mainstream unions have said very little about the recent protests. Their response is very similar to the Socialist Party’s—a lot of hand wringing but no proposals for action.

This is because it is their policies and agreements that people are protesting against.

But the voters haven’t moved to the right. In the recent election the Socialist Party lost over 20 percent of its vote, but the right only gained 3 percent. A few votes went to the electoral left coalition, but not many.

The movement is critical of the economic and political positions taken by those in power. There is no connection between people on the streets and the top of the unions or the Socialist Party.

Failure

Autonomist ideas are strong here partly because the main parties are completely subordinated to the banks and financial institutions.

The revolutionary left collapsed in the years after the transition from fascism to democracy following General Franco’s death in 1975, leaving a vacuum that autonomist ideas can fill.

These ideas make sense to people who aren’t organised. The majority are taking action for the first time, and the rejection of parties and unions ties into the idea that this is something new. People want to build something different.

Just what forces make up the camps varies from place to place, though there is a general consensus that no organisations should be allowed.

There are serious discussions about the way forward and revolutionary socialists like us in En Lucha—Socialist Worker’s Spanish sister organisation—are intervening in them.

We’re very active in the camps’ main assemblies. Everywhere we’re involved we work hard to make the assembly and the camp function at every level—shoulder to shoulder with activists.

And although we have our own ideas about how things should develop—and put these forward—it is important to respect the mass direct democracy that runs the camps.

We’ve had stalls with our propaganda on them just outside the camp and have been hugely successful. We made a special issue of our paper which went down really well. We have met dozens of people who have shown an interest in our ideas and some have joined En Lucha.

We have set up a blog—from indignation to revolution—which is a slogan we raise in the camps. We are convinced that we have to tackle anti-union ideas if the movement is going to broaden and deepen. We work with other anti-capitalists and left union militants active in the camps with this aim.

We say the camps have to move out, building assemblies in the neighbourhoods and taking the ideas of the movement into the workplaces.

The organisation of local assemblies and even new camps has been quite successful. Workplace interventions are more difficult. But when some young people from the Barcelona camp went to an engineering factory that is on strike the workers on the picket line were thrilled to meet them.

The depth of feeling of solidarity is impossible to measure but there are signs. At 9pm every evening people bang pots and pans in the camps as part of the protest. After the brutal police attack on the camp last week in Barcelona, people come onto their balconies and do it too.

In Seville there was a demonstration from the camp through a working class neighbourhood. People came out to join the protest.

Demonstration

Last weekend some camps decided to put a date on when they will close, usually coinciding with a local mobilisation.

They all stress that the mass assemblies will continue in the neighbourhoods, and the struggle will go on. This makes sense as the movement must continue and it will be difficult to sustain the camps indefinitely.

The national demonstration on 19 June is a focus for everyone.

As yet the movement has had only a small impact on the fight against austerity. But this could change.

Most importantly, a new generation has entered into struggle, a generation that could provide the basis of a new vibrant moment against the system.

And this, as has been seen in other countries, is increasingly part of the new international youth rebellion.

Andy Durgan is a leading member of the revolutionary socialist group En Lucha, Socialist Worker’s sister organisation in Spain.

http://www.swp.ie/reviews/fighting-futu ... spain/4504

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[vanlose kid]

Greece on the brink of revolutionary situation
Written by Stamatis Karagiannopoulos Monday, 06 June 2011
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Yesterday a milestone was passed in the social and political situation in Greece and throughout Europe. Impressive mobilizations rolled across the country: half a million in Athens and rallies of thousands of people gathered in Thessaloniki, Patras, Larissa, Volos, Heraklion, etc. This places Greece on the threshold of a revolutionary situation. It means that, for the first time in decades the developed capitalist countries of Europe are faced with the prospect of a revolution with continental dimensions.

Half a million protesters in Athens - Uprising across the country


June 2, Syntagma Square. Photo: Rania H.June 2, Syntagma Square. Photo: Rania H.

Yesterday's gathering in Athens, apart from its impressive size, had many new elements. The awkwardness and blind rage that characterized the first days of the movement have given way to enthusiasm. The masses have acquired a sense of confidence through the collective show of strength. While the early days were focused on the idea of a silent angry people, yesterday the mood had changed. The people shouted ingenious slogans against the government and the “Troika”, and everywhere groups of people were spontaneously formed in which everyone wanted to express an opinion on the movement and on the next steps to be taken.

At the same time, in the most advanced part of the protesters, especially in the youth, an interest to seek a political solution for the "next day" was evident. This explains the enormous interest in participating in the People's Assembly of Syntagma Square, which was attended by 10,000 people, patiently waiting to participate, although very few were able to speak.

From 9.30 pm onwards, the density of the protest made it impossible even to approach the site of the assembly. The predominant element in the meeting was the spontaneous opinions voiced by ordinary workers, unemployed and young people expressing the need to continue the struggle.

Many proposals were made: "to besiege the parliament on the day the austerity measures are put to the vote"; "to fight to set up popular meetings in every neighborhood"; "to put into practice the decision of the People's Assembly for an indefinite general political strike"; "to fight the media propaganda with an organized campaign in the neighborhoods and squares”. On one point all were agreed: "next Sunday there will be a million people in the streets of Athens!”

The situation becomes revolutionary

The masses are erupting onto the scene very dramatically and are consistently to the forefront. The climate in the neighborhoods this week highlights the potential for mass assemblies. The enthusiasm from the protests is being carried into every workplace, thereby putting tremendous pressure on the leadership of the unions to take action. Already the GSEE leadership has been forced to call a 24 hour strike of all those companies that are soon to be privatized on Thursday 9th June. For the first time these workers will be engaged in coordinated action, while another 24 hour general strike was announced for 15th June.

It is certain that this general strike will be different to those we saw last year. Coming as part of the general escalation of the mass movement that has developed in the squares, it will have a much greater participation than before in the private sector. And it will be combined with the most widespread popular protests in decades. This strike will not mobilize only a part of the working class, but will tend to embrace the vast majority of the working class and trade unions. It will put the proletariat at the head of a struggle that is not a struggle for economic demands alone, but a political struggle of the masses in the streets. This strike therefore will have an inner tendency to become a lasting general strike, regardless of the intentions of the bureaucracy.

What is revolutionary situation?

In the writings of Lenin and Trotsky, we can find the definition of what is a revolutionary situation. In his book "The failure of the Second International" (1916) Lenin explained:

“What, generally speaking, are the symptoms of a revolutionary situation? We shall certainly not be mistaken if we indicate the following three major symptoms: (1) when it is impossible for the ruling classes to maintain their rule without any change; when there is a crisis, in one form or another, among the “upper classes”, a crisis in the policy of the ruling class, leading to a fissure through which the discontent and indignation of the oppressed classes burst forth. For a revolution to take place, it is usually insufficient for “the lower classes not to want” to live in the old way; it is also necessary that “the upper classes should be unable” to live in the old way; (2) when the suffering and want of the oppressed classes have grown more acute than usual; (3) when, as a consequence of the above causes, there is a considerable increase in the activity of the masses, who uncomplainingly allow themselves to be robbed in “peace time”, but, in turbulent times, are drawn both by all the circumstances of the crisis and by the “upper classes” themselves into independent historical action.

“.....The totality of all these objective changes is called a revolutionary situation. Such a situation existed in 1905 in Russia, and in all revolutionary periods in the West;...”

Trotsky in 1940, in the Emergency Manifesto explained the necessary conditions for the victory of the proletariat:

“The basic conditions for the victory of the proletarian revolution have been established by historical experience and clarified theoretically: (1) the bourgeois impasse and the resulting confusion of the ruling class; (2) the sharp dissatisfaction and the striving towards decisive changes in the ranks of the petty bourgeoisie, without whose support the big bourgeoisie cannot maintain itself; (3) the consciousness of the intolerable situation and readiness for revolutionary actions in the ranks of the proletariat; (4) a clear program and a firm leadership of the proletarian vanguard—these are the four conditions for the victory of the proletarian revolution.” (Manifesto of the Fourth International on Imperialist War and the Imperialist War).

All these elements have developed in Greece today. The ruling class begins to understand that they cannot govern as before; to lie and deceive the masses, i.e. with the old, gentle, "democratic" means. The suffering and indignation of the masses have been growing over a long period. The masses have already begun to move independently of the ruling class.

The ruling class finds itself in a state of unprecedented confusion because of the impasse. They are absolutely unable to reach to a unified strategy. Some say: “we must completely capitulate to the foreign lenders and see where we can go from there". Others suggest that Greece should "renegotiate with the troika”, while still others say we must "get out of the euro now in order to strengthen the country's competitiveness." Some say: "let’s form a national government", while others urge Papandreou to continue carrying out the dirty work until he gets the boot. Some, are even secretly studying the possibility of a coup, in an attempt to put the brake on the movement of the masses. This scenario was outlined in a leaked report by the CIA in the bourgeois press last week.

The desertion of 16 PASOK MPs from the government over the issue of new cuts and taxes, shows that the pressure of the movement has destabilized the government’s parliamentary group for good. New Democracy and LAOS, fearing that they will go down together with Papandreou’s sinking ship, are now keeping their distance from the government, trying to speculate on the result of a future election.

The traditional mainstay of the bourgeoisie, the middle classes have been radicalized and are now in the streets. The proletariat again and again shows its readiness to act. All the basic elements for a revolutionary situation have matured. The only thing that is lacking is a clear programme and firm leadership of the proletarian vanguard. That is all that is needed quickly to convert the revolutionary situation into a victorious revolution which will expropriate the exploiters and eliminate capitalism, setting in motion a movement that can lead to the victory of socialism in Greece, the Mediterranean and throughout Europe.

The leadership of the Left is acting criminally

Ever since the beginning of mass movement on the streets, the Left leaders have adopted an unacceptable attitude. The leadership of the Communist Party sends ultimatums to the people located in squares, urging them to "finally make the right policy proposals!" (See main article in Rizospastis on 3 / 6). The task of a Communist Party leadership is not to ask the movement to “make the right policy proposals”, but to participate actively in the movement, to try to raise the of consciousness and help the masses to formulate the correct demands.

Last Friday, the Stalinist leadership of the Communist Party made complete fools of themselves in front of the eyes of thousands gathered in the Syntagma Square. That afternoon a demonstration of PAME, the trade union faction of the Communist Party, ended up in the Square. There they delivered a 15-minute speech, during which the Communist Party called on the people assembled on the squares ex cathedra "not to trust anybody else except PAME".

When the speech was over, in order to avoid mixing up the protesters in the square with the Communist workers, the organizers of the PAME demo immediately ordered members of the Communist Youth to form "chains" and immediately, the "Communist" left the square. In this way, the Stalinist leadership of the Communist Party has proved eloquently their organic inability to connect with the real mass movement. They have shown that they regard it simply as a means of strengthening the Party’s position in the parliamentary elections.

On the other hand, the leadership of SYRIZA refuses to enter the movement openly and boldly. It is a very serious mistake just to ask for elections, without making any proposal on how to further develop the movement, when people are on the streets, getting self-organized, ready to get rid of the government and the "troika" altogether. It is also an incorrect attitude of the CC of Synaspismos (decision 29 / 5) to ask Party members to participate in the movement, while pretending to be “non-partisan"; " ... In this movement we participate as citizens, trying to listen and learn, we take part in uniting our voice with thousands of angry in each square of the country .... ".

The rank and file of the Left parties should respond to this damaging attitude. The position of comrade Alexis Tsipras (President of Synaspismos) and comrade Aleka Papariga (Secretary of the Communist Party) must not be confined to party offices and television panels. The place of the leaders of the Left in these moments is in Syntigma and the other squares. If the Left fails to participate openly and boldly in the movement, with appropriate ideas and suggestions that will help lead to victory and the final overthrow of the capitalist system of slavery, the core of the movement will be occupied by all sorts of petty-bourgeois and professional "patriots" who are trying to obscure the social content of the movement, replacing the class struggle with nationalist confusion.

The working class must lead the struggle!

The outbreak of this mass movement in the squares, found the labour movement in a state of fatigue and frustration, mainly because of the devastating role of the union bureaucracy, which up to now imagined they could defuse the militant mood of hundreds of thousands of workers with an occasional 24-hour general strike. So naturally, the initiative in the fight against the government and the “Troika”, passed from the unions to broader sections of people, who had not been involved in mobilizations in the last few years.

Unemployed university graduates, skilled and unskilled unemployed, young people without work experience, middle class people devastated by taxes and robbing banks and the collapse of the market, workers without any union or political affiliation, students who are just beginning to be politicized, pensioners and housewives: people from all layers of the working society form the main basis of this mass movement in the squares.

These layers have a fresh and combative mood. They don’t have bureaucratic leaders above them to put the brake on the mobilization and so far, they have created a movement that has proved to be persistent and long lasting. On the other hand, as is perfectly natural, these layers’ together with explosive anger and militancy, display inexperience of mass protests and are desperately seeking appropriate political slogans, appropriate fighting methods and specific political demands.

In these circumstances, therefore, the need for a distinct contribution of the working class and the labour movement in the struggle is decisive. The decisions of the People's Assembly of Syntagma Square calling for a general strike clearly recognize this need. Without paralyzing the economic centers of the system, there cannot be any fundamental change in society. But very little has been done until now to realize the general political strike demand.

Most of the leading layer in the Popular Assembly in Syntagma Square are under the false impression that the general strike is a merely a militant auxiliary to the demonstrations in the squares. In reality, it represents a decisive escalation of struggle and reflects a new, higher stage of this struggle. We must understand that the general strike cannot be organized by shouting slogans outside the union offices and workplaces, but must flow from the demands of the workers themselves through the trade unions and workplaces.

In working-class neighborhoods and workplaces, we must create action committees and elect strike committees to prepare for the strike. That is the only way to guarantee its success. Finally, it is vital to make clear that a general political strike will lead to the downfall of the government. It must not bring to power a government of bourgeois political careerists, but rather one of elected representatives of the people coming out of the movement itself.

Therefore, the democratic organization of the movement is a crucial issue, not only for the growth but also for the solution of the question of power in order to serve the interests and aspirations of the indignant working people. The views put forward by different groups of intellectuals within the movement on "direct procedures” and “democracy through sms and e-mails”, which are portrayed as "direct democracy”, have nothing to do either with the immediate issues or democracy.

What we need now

What we need now is:

• Popular Assemblies in every neighborhood, with assemblies in the workplaces to elect recallable action committees everywhere.
• Popular Assemblies in the central squares of all major cities that are composed of elected and recallable representatives at neighborhood workplaces meetings and.
• The creat[ion] of a Pan-Hellenic Central Committee elected by the recallable representatives of the Popular Assemblies of the different cities.

Finally, at the heart of the struggle should be the following two demands:

• A complete write-off of the debt created by Greek and foreign exploiters and thieves!
• To abolish forever the nightmare of debt, poverty and unemployment we need to place the control of the financial centers and the concentrated wealth of the country (banks, insurance companies, infrastructure, transport and big firms in every industry) under social ownership, through the democratic control of the working people, as a step forward the victory of the revolution throughout Europe and the world!

Athens, 6 June, 2011.

http://www.marxist.com/greece-on-the-br ... uation.htm

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[vanlose kid]

06/07/2011

The Rage of the 'Indignants'
A European Generation Takes to the Streets

By Mathieu von Rohr and Helene Zuber


For weeks, hundreds of young people have been camping out in central Madrid. And others across Europe have now begun following their example. Protests in Lisbon, Paris, Athens and elsewhere show that Europe's lost generation has finally found its voice.
Info

Any real revolution in Paris has to include the storming of the Bastille. Which explains why 200 young demonstrators are sitting in the shade of the trees at Place de la Bastille on this Thursday evening, wondering how to go about staging such a revolution.

Their numbers had already swelled to more than 2,000 by the Sunday before, when they had occupied the entrance to the Bastille Opera and half the square. But then the police arrived with teargas and, since then, have kept strict watch over this symbolic site.

The protestors are trying to create a movement to rival the protests in Madrid and Lisbon. They want tens of thousands of young people to march in the streets of Paris, calling for "démocratie réelle," or real democracy. They believe that there is also potential for such large-scale protest in France, with youth unemployment at more than 20 percent, precarious working conditions and what feels like a constant state of crisis.

"Until now, our problems were always seen as individual problems," says Julien, a 22-year-old physics student who has joined a group called Actions. "You were told that if you couldn't find a job, it was your own fault. Perhaps we are now experiencing a change taking place, and that we are joining forces to form a pan-European movement against this system."

A Fundamental Change

There is a feeling that unites young people throughout Europe, namely the belief that they will not be able to attain the same level of prosperity as their parents did. They feel that they have no future. They are well-trained, and yet they are not finding any jobs. This feeling has been smoldering for years, affecting the generation of "crisis children," who grew up in a world shaped by economic and other crises, but who never took to the streets to fight for their interests.

But a fundamental change is taking place. On March 12, 200,000 people marched down the Avenida de Liberdade, or Avenue of Freedom, in Lisbon. It was the biggest demonstration in Portugal since the 1974 Carnation Revolution, a march of the lost generation.

As in Cairo months ago, everything began on Facebook -- with an appeal that Alexandre de Sousa Carvalho and some of his former fellow students at the University of Coimbra posted. They called upon the Geração à rasca (or "generation of junk"), to join together in protest. "We, the unemployed, the underpaid and the interns, are the best educated generation in the country's history," they wrote. "We are protesting so that those responsible for our precarious situation quickly change this untenable reality."

Carvalho, 25, who studied international relations, is a polite young man with a beard and a leather armband on his wrist. He says that he is normally a patient person. But when he discovered that, despite having obtained a master's degree in English, he would likely only be able to get a limited contract and that he would likely be forced to find work in Africa, he was overcome with fury.

No Benefits

Portugal is the fourth-poorest country in the euro zone. Even in Greece, the per capita gross domestic product is higher. Unemployment has almost doubled to 12.6 percent in six years; among people under 25, the jobless rate is 27 percent. Of those who do have jobs, more than half are working in temporary positions. Many are pseudo self-employed, earn very little and must pay a tax rate of up to 50 percent. They receive no social insurance benefits.

Carvalho says that a song by the band Deolinda inspired them to protest. The lyrics epitomized their feelings about life: "I'm from the generation that doesn't get paid. It doesn't bother me. How stupid can I be? Things are going poorly, and that's the way it will stay. Those who can land an internship are lucky. What a stupid world this is, a world in which we go to school to become slaves."

They had never imagined that so many people would end up taking to the streets. Nor did they think that it would be the beginning of a movement that would take hold in other countries, too. The organizers of the protests in Spain and France contacted him, says Carvalho. They wanted to know how to bring anarchists, right-wing activists, Trotskyists and Catholics together into the streets without a single windowpane being smashed.

In the last few months, the world has gotten used to the images of young people occupying streets and squares. It is familiar with these scenes from Avenue Habib Bourguiba in Tunis, Tahrir Square in Cairo and the Pearl Roundabout in Bahrain. Those are the images of the Arab revolution, and now there are similar scenes unfolding in Europe.

But what do they have in common? The Arab countries are among the poorest in the world. More than half the population is younger than 25. Europe, by contrast, is rich and young people are a minority in societies that are getting older and older. In Arab countries, young people are fighting for democratic rights, while Europe's youth are protesting because they are worried about decline.

Images from the Arab World

In both cases, the protesters are well-educated young people who are unable to find work. They are the driving force of all revolutions. The tools of the demonstrations are also similar, with young people using social networks to organize but lacking central leadership. It almost seems as if the European youth needed the images from the Arab world to finally stand up on their own.

A tent city has been set up on Puerta del Sol in Madrid, the most famous square in Spain, for three weeks. The square has become the world of the "indignados," the indignant. The protesters began building the tent city on May 15, a week before local and regional elections. About 100 people spent the night in the first few nights, but then the election council declared the camp to be illegal -- which only resulted in its growing even faster. On the Sunday of the elections, 30,000 people filled the square and nearby streets, protesting against the economic crisis, incompetent politicians and corruption.

They are also trying their hand at direct democracy. Citizens are encouraged to thrown their suggestions into cardboard boxes set up on the square. Every evening, a committee meets to discuss short-term political ideas and those that are more future-oriented. Two weekends ago, the protesters held gatherings in 120 districts of the capital. They now intend to use these gatherings to refine their ideas and have decided only to meet on Puerta del Sol once a week.

Apolitical young people who long believed that conformity was the best strategy for getting by, have become political overnight. This is perhaps the most astonishing conclusion to be reached by observing this movement. And it also applies to France and Portugal, where the protesters are demanding direct citizen participation and are collecting signatures to support bills aimed at improving the situation of young people.

'I'll Have to Go Abroad'

Patri, an 18-year-old woman, was at the protests in Madrid almost from the start. Last Wednesday, she was sitting at the communication stand in her gray hooded sweatshirt. She was coughing and had dark circles under her weary eyes. Nevertheless, she still wants to stay. "We're making history now," she says. "A chance like this will not come again." Patri is a first-year university student studying English and German. She wants to become a translator. "But I'll have to go abroad," she adds.

More than 44 percent of people under 25 have no work in Spain, and almost one in three young academics is unemployed. More than half of those young workers who are employed have so-called garbage contracts, which are often limited to just a few weeks. Even during the boom years, young people suffered from bad schools, expensive universities and a slim job market. Since the real estate bubble burst three years ago and the crisis erupted, young people, once again, are the ones suffering the most.

In other parts of Europe, the situation among young people is not nearly as desperate as it is in Spain, Portugal or Greece. Still, many can identify with their frustration -- and offshoots of the protests are gradually reaching other European cities. Young people, albeit only a few hundred, have taken to the streets in Hamburg, Vienna and Rome.

Storming the Bastille

Ironically, a 93-year-old Frenchman provided the template for the youth protests. "Indignez-vous!" or "Be Outraged!" is the polemic pamphlet that the former French resistance fighter Stéphane Hessel published last year. The Spanish "indignados" and the French "indignées" have borrowed their names from Hessel's title.

Although Hessel did not establish the pan-European movement himself, he is demanding something that has once again become en vogue after years of apathy: citizen involvement. His appeal is both vague and sufficiently serious to garner approval in many European camps. He advocates nonviolent action in a world in which there is an ever-widening gap between rich and poor.

Although the indignées in France are not yet as numerous as the protesters in Lisbon, Madrid or Athens, they are well organized. In Paris, they sit in the median strip of a boulevard and devise communiqués and plans of attack, but they do so in a very civilized way. When one of them speaks, the others indicate approval or disapproval with hand signals. It looks like a classroom at a university.

Sitting a few steps away from them is a group of Arab youth from the Paris suburbs, the banlieue, where unemployment is the highest and where cars are still being set on fire. They look perplexed as they observe this strange gathering, and occasionally one of them hurls an insult at the indignées. But the activists are mild-mannered and well-behaved, and no one reacts. They also want to remain peaceful when they storm the Bastille.

Translated from the German by Christopher Sultan

http://www.spiegel.de/international/eur ... 32,00.html

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[vanlose kid]

Tony Blair issues Arab spring warning to west

Dictators must 'change or be changed' says ex-PM as western leaders urged to prepare wider plan for Middle East

guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 8 June 2011 23.28 BST

Tony Blair warns the west today that it urgently needs a wider plan to respond to the Arab spring, including a warning to autocratic leaders across the Middle East "to change or be changed".

His call for a clearer strategic approach comes in a new foreword to the paperback edition of his bestselling autobiography, The Journey.

The former prime minister also praises Europe, and by implication David Cameron, for showing leadership in Libya, saying it would have been inconceivable to leave Muammar Gaddafi in power.

He said that if America and Europe had done nothing, "Gaddafi would have retaken the country and suppressed the revolt with extraordinary vehemence. Many would have died."

If he had been left in power while the west was willing to see President Hosni Mubarak of Egypt deposed, "the damage to the west's reputation, credibility and stature would have been not just massive but potentially irreparable. That's what I mean by saying inaction is also a decision."

Blair does not call for immediate military intervention across the region, saying instead that "where there is the possibility of evolutionary change, we should encourage and support it. This is the case in the Gulf states." [you mean Bahrain?]

He hails the way in which "Europe and America came together over Libya and, though it is difficult and though the way things will turn out is uncertain, it showed leadership; and amongst the criticism, there was also – in the region – relief that leadership was shown".

While praising European and US efforts in Libya, Blair also calls for an elected European president who would have a mandate for far-reaching reforms including collaborating on taxes. In an interview in the Times he says such an office would give Europe "strong, collective leadership and direction". But he accepts that the idea has "no chance of being accepted at the present time".

In his book, Blair acknowledges that the west cannot intervene across the Middle East and claims some leaders are "already embarking on a path of steady change. We should help them keep to it and support it. None of this means we do not criticise strongly the use of violence against unarmed civilians. Or that if that violence continues, we do not reserve the right then to move to outright opposition to the status quo, as has happened in Libya. But it is more sensible to do so in circumstances where the regime has excluded a path to evolutionary change. Then it is clear: the people have no choice. But if there is a process that can lead to change with stability, we should back that policy."

He adds: "My point is simple: we need to have an active policy, be players and not spectators sitting in the stands, applauding or condemning as we watch."

He says that the lesson for autocratic regimes the world over is to change – or be changed.

Largely in line with the policy laid out at the G8 summit of most industrialised nations in Deauville last month, he says: "We should stand ready to help with aid, debt relief and the muscle of the international financial institutions, but we should also be quietly insistent that such help won't succeed unless proper rules and order are put in place."

Blair, still the special envoy of the quartet in the Middle East, admits the Arab spring is going to make it harder to secure a Palestinian peace deal since Israel is less certain about the nature of the threat it faces.

The stability and predictability of Israel's neighbours, he says, has been replaced by instability and unpredictability.

"For similar reasons, but with an opposite conclusion, the Palestinian leadership find it hard to go into negotiation with an Israeli partner they don't trust, to make difficult compromises which will be tough to sell, in circumstances where they don't know the regional context into which such compromises will be played."

Blair also warns more broadly that the world has not yet adjusted to the emergence of China as a global economic giant, saying "engagement with geopolitics of the 21st-century will be unlike anything the modern world has seen. Our children in the west will be a generation growing up in a situation where virtually every fixed point of reference that my and my parents' generation knew has changed or is changing".

He claims energy security will become as serious an issue for the nation states as defence.

Blair says: "Currently China consumes around 10% of worldwide demand for oil. If its GDP per head carries on rising – and follows the path of similar increases in living standards in South Korea and Taiwan, say – the world output will need to double, and China's share of demand will rise from 10% to 50%."

He also questions the way in which the EU leaders have led the debate about its future, saying "there has been an obsession about institutional integration in itself rather than a debate about what we want to do as Europe, where the institutions should be at the service of the policy, rather than the policy at the service of institutions".

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/ju ... rning-west

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[vanlose kid]

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[vanlose kid]

2011-06-07 The #Europeanrevolution consolidates in #France and #Spain as hundreds of thousands protest in #Greece
Submitted by Wikileaks World on Tue, 06/07/2011 - 00:35


Despite the obfuscation of information by major outlets in traditional media and Internet, the movement born in Europe on the past 15th of May is spreading all across the continent, each day with more intensity and popular support. The repercussions, both in economic and political scenario are still unknown, in the same way the effects of the Cablegate episode of November 2010 were difficult to apprehend in that date but step by step shows its importance to contemporary society. The revolution lead by the European youth holds all Western economical and political structures as its enemy and is the type of social movement that does not have its shelter- an essential characteristic of a revolution. Relevant information of the gatherings, protests and projects are provided uniquely by independent media, and in some occasions these are being boycotted. The website for the Real Democracy Now platform in Berlin claimed that they were attacked, and the independent media site, http://www.europeanrevolution.com was finally put offline illegally, after having been blocked via DNS in, at least, France and Belgium. Below is a recollection of information from past events in different countries.

The movement has grown the most in Greece, where people have held protests in front of the Parliament building, located in central Syntagma Square, for fourteen days. A camp has also been set up and hundreds of people are sleeping there. Patra, Thesaloniki and all other major cities also hold popular assemblies and protests in their main squares. Protests, that have been going on sporadically for about a year, increased after the announcement of harsh austerity measures added on to the second bailout conditions being debated by the UE and the IMF, along with the Greek Government. These include a law which will reduce the salary of people younger than 26 in 20%, allowing employers to pay less than 600 euros a month. At the same time however, the Greek government has continued to spend millions of euros on weapons. This has sparked a strong movement of outraged citizens, to the point where last Sunday, around 500-800 thousand people took the streets of Athens to demonstrate their dissatisfaction. According to Demotix.com, the movement was “the largest witnessed in decades, adding pressure to the prime minister to reject latest austerity package”. The All Workers Militant Front (PAME) occupied. the ministry of finance on Friday, making it impossible for people to access the building where the bailout negotiations are taking place. They also displayed a huge banner from the building calling for a general strike. "We have a sacred duty to our children and ourselves to cancel plans to turn workers into modern slaves," PAME said in a statement, they also assured that "we must not allow our children to work for hunger wages. If we do not fight to overthrow these policies their working future will be hell." Interesting photos of recent events in Greece can be found here and a video of the Syntagma Square demonstration on the 5th of June here . A good article on the complex greek crisis can be found here.

In Spain, the group of activists working under the name Democracia Real Ya, which started the movement of the 15th of May, is calling for a massive demonstration all across the country, in streets and squares, on the 19th of June. This protest will be coordinated with all the camps, most notably Barcelona and Madrid, and assemblies are deciding if they should all lift the camps at the same time, to coincide with the march. The way in which it will be carried out is also being debated. Another protest is planned for the 15th of October, and organizers are hoping to make it happen in all of Europe or worldwide. The movement is Spain is more mature and robust, always organized horizontally and increasingly decentralized and organized. The official media channel for the camp in Puerta del Sol claimed that around 28 thousand people participated in the smaller assemblies held in each neighborhood of the city. Facebook pages representing each group are posting information on decisions, committees and weekly meetings. In general, the repercussion of the police crackdown in Barcelona on the 22nd of May engaged more citizens to take action in the camp of Catalunya square. This also gave the camp exposure in the media around Europe. Campings are present in at least 30 cities in Spain, such as Valencia, Bilbao, Sevilla and Vigo.The. Tomalaplaza channel has updated and illustrative videos regarding the matter. The web 15MayRevolution.com provides information in English about the movement in Spain.

In France assemblies are being held in major squares in at least 20 cities and according to a contact in http://www.ReelleDemocratie.fr, the squares of Brest, Bayonne, Toulouse and Lyon are constantly occupied. Assemblies are taking place every day at Bastille Square in Paris, but according to the same contact police evict the protestors every night. A massive gathering to definitely occupy La Bastille is planed for the next weekend. Last Sunday, in the first attempt to establish a camp in the square, the police evicted the protesters with tear gas, general aggression and arrests. A video can be found here and here . As the information regarding the events in France cannot be published or divulged elsewhere, a dynamical and collaborative document to organize the information was established online (http://piratenpad.de/ep/pad/view/ro.I4O ... a2c/latest).

In Germany, protests and assemblies are taking place at least five squares: in Berlin, Frankfurt, Leipzig, Munich and Stuttgart. On the 28th of May, a demonstration against the violent eviction of Catalunya Square in Barcelona took place in front of the Spanish Embassy in Berlin beside the constant protests at Brandenburg Portal. Popular assemblies take place at Lustgarten. There has been complains in social networks that the protests are not being given the attention they deserve, and that the hype caused by the media regarding an outbreak of E. Coli is intentionally pushing them to a secondary role. There is a video here of the gathering at Bradenburger Tor. This is the Facebook page of the movement in Berlin. In Austria, it is also reported that Karl Square in Vienna is under occupation since 29th May.

In Portugal, squares in Lisbon, Porto and Coimbra hold daily protests and assemblies at occupied squares. Last Saturday, 5th of June, Police evicted protesters who were camping for two weeks ago at Rossio Square in Lisbon with violence and arrests. A demonstration against violence and the arrest of three protesters took place in front of the Justice department yesterday. A calling for a general assembly and massive gathering in Rossio is set for the 19th of June as published by the website http://acampadalisboa.wordpress.com. Photos can be found here.

In Belgium, Moscow Square in Brussels is occupied since last Saturday, 28th of May, with daily popular gatherings, discussions and activities as a samba block that goes around the area calling people to action. Yesterday, 5th June, it was decided that a new camp will be established apart from the original one at Flagey Square. General Assemblies of the indignés are occurring there since then. In Liege, occupation takes place since 27th May. It is said by Belgian media that the local government will 'tolerate' the demonstrations until the public events that are to be held on "musical day" in Belgium on the 15th of June. A good photo portfolio of the camping in Brussels can be found here. For more information visit http://www.indignez-vous.be .

http://wlcentral.org/node/1865

embedded links at source.

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[vanlose kid]

June 8, 2011
Greece at the brink as politics takes centre stage
By BRIAN MILNER, ERIC REGULY
From Thursday's Globe and Mail

Dissent within Prime Minister's party and demands by German electorate threaten austerity plan

Against a backdrop of deteriorating economic conditions, worsening social unrest and rising political tensions in Athens and Berlin, the Greek debt crisis increasingly looks like a powder keg ready to explode.

As European policy makers do their best to delay the day of reckoning for Greece and its unsustainable debt, the country is facing a new wave of political opposition and public demonstrations - including 80,000 protesters in central Athens last Sunday - that will make it tougher for the beleaguered government to push through the austerity measures demanded by its putative rescuers.

Adding to the government's woes are the latest dismal economic numbers. The unemployment rate climbed to 16.2 per cent in March, a jump of more than a third from a year earlier and the second-highest level in the euro zone after Spain. The number of young Greeks out of work soared to 42.5 per cent from 29.8 per cent a year earlier. And prospects of any improvement are growing dimmer as the economy marks its third year of recession. Industrial output plunged 11 per cent in April from a year earlier.

On Wednesday, Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou faced down dissenters within his ruling Socialist party, warning that the government must impose heavier cuts and speed up its privatization program, conditions demanded by the European Union, the International Monetary Fund and the European Central Bank in exchange for the second emergency bailout in a year. Athens reached the tentative deal for the rescue last week.

A backbench revolt would spell parliamentary defeat of the government's economic plan and possibly doom EU efforts to prevent the first default by a member state, putting the fate of the euro zone and its common currency on the line.

"The political situation in Greece right now is key," said Marko Papic, a senior analyst with Stratfor, a global intelligence company in Austin, Tex.

The situation in Berlin is another crucial variable in the complex equation, because the rescue can't proceed without Germany taking the lead.

Under pressure from within its own ruling coalition and an increasingly restive electorate, the German government is moving toward a bailout plan that will require bondholders to accept a seven-year extension of maturities, essentially a so-called soft default, which has been adamantly opposed by the European Central Bank, the French government and private creditors.

German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schauble bluntly called for what amounts to a haircut for the private sector. The ECB rejects any maturity extension, because it would immediately have to write down the value of billions of euros worth of Greek bonds it holds as collateral in exchange for loans to the Greek banks.

Mr. Papandreou has managed to steer the new austerity measures through his party leadership. But a crucial parliamentary vote is unlikely before the end of June, which is about the time experts calculate Athens will be running out of time and money.

"The danger for Papandreou is that he will lose control of his party. Remember that in 2010 he had to evict four parliamentarians that opposed the initial austerity measures, which lowered his majority to just six seats," Mr. Papic said.

Greece must redeem a €6.6-billion ($9.4-billion) bond issue on Aug. 20, as well as the final payment on the coupon. But that is only the biggest of the demands on the country's capital. It faces a fiscal deficit cost of an average €1-billion a month and another €500-million outflow to meet payments on bond coupons.

"So Greece can run out of cash at any time," said Carl Weinberg, chief economist with High Frequency Economics in Valhalla, N.Y. "We're now really in uncharted territory and we're in the hands of the politicians."

Mr. Weinberg surmises that the critical date is probably the end of June, because the IMF, which is keeping close tabs on Greek finances, had said it hoped to have a relief package in place by the beginning of this month.

"The system to build bridge loans for countries that need money in a hurry never considered the possibility that those countries wouldn't have a functional or agreeable government," he said.

Yannis Stournaras, director-general of the Foundation for Economic and Industrial Research, an independent economic think tank in Athens, does not think the public demonstrations will translate into mass social unrest that could turn violent, as it did last year, when three bank employees died when their bank branch was firebombed.

The demonstrations so far are unfocused and the Greek middle class has yet to become angry, he said. "They still have a lot of money, so their lifestyles are intact."

Many Greeks think a general election is imminent, although the government said it has no intention of taking what a spokesperson called the easy way out of the current crisis by calling one.

Mr. Papandreou "is losing the ability to lead this country," said Mr. Stournaras, who thinks the Prime Minister will have to go to the polls to try to form a strong government with the backing for reform.

The problem is that the governing Socialists have lost their edge in the polls over the opposition New Democracy party, which they defeated in 2009. The result could be a stalemate that would make it even harder for the Greeks to extricate themselves from their financial mess.

Close observers of the unfolding crisis are skeptical Greece can avoid some sort of default, regardless of the political outcome, a view underlined in the markets, where Greek debt has been hammered.

Equally troubled Portugal, meanwhile, is slated to run out of money even sooner. A €5-billion bond redemption comes due next Wednesday.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-o ... le2051386/

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Greek anti-crisis protesters vow to stay the course
(AFP)

8 June 2011
ATHENS — Greeks flooding Athens’ main Syntagma Square to rail against their country’s draconian austerity measures vowed to stay course on Wednesday after a similar protest in Madrid fizzled out.

Protesters decrying Spain’s economic crisis since mid-May decided late Tuesday to dismantle their encampment in Madrid’s Puerta del Sol square that has become a symbol of the anti-establishment movement.

But their Greek counterparts on Syntagma Square said they would not budge.

“We are here because enough is enough,” said Christina, a 40-year-old mother of four, who has just managed to find employment after a year on the sidelines.

Christina works as a cleaner at a hair salon for six hours daily and earns just 500 euros ($732) a month, far less than the legal minimum wage in Greece.

“We must show them that they have taken enough so far, we must rise up,” she told AFP, referring to Greece’s sheltered political elite.

The size and vitality of the Greek protest movement has taken many in the country by surprise, including unions, political parties and many of the protesters themselves.

Even before the crisis, protests in Athens were held nearly every week.

But they are almost always held under the supervision and control of labour groups, which are themselves usually affiliated with political parties.

Now, thousands of Greeks seem to have found a solidarity they never knew existed. The protest has crystallised around Greece’s economic impasse which is roundly blamed on the country’s politicians.

“I am not indignant, I am determined,” adds Lakis, a civil servant in his fifties. “There is nothing left for us, the people are condemned to misery.”

Official statistics released this week showed unemployment soaring to 16.2 percent in March and over 800,000 people out of work, particularly the young.

“That is the official figure, but in reality it’s closer to 18 percent,” Spyros Papaspyros, the head of Greece’s second largest union Adedy that represents hundreds of thousands of public sector staff, told Flash Radio.

For decades, a succession of socialist and conservative governments spent vast sums on cultivating political support, buying votes with bribes and appointments to the country’s overstaffed civil service.

The profligacy caught up with Greece last year and the country nearly went bankrupt. But while hundreds of thousands are suffering the effects of a harsh fiscal correction, few politicians are seen to be suffering.

Among the slogans directed at the parliament building just across the square, one chant has dominated: “Thieves, thieves.”

The outrage has led some Greeks to even advocate a payment default on Greece’s monster debt of 340 billion euros, accumulated from a run of budget deficits.

“I don’t owe, I don’t pay, I don’t sell,” read stickers plastered around the square, the last phrase a reference to a controversial privatisation of choice state assets planned by the government.

“You stole, you pay,” says a protest banner.

Persistent attempts by political youth groups to set up booths on the square have been turned back.

“No parties on the square,” reads one prominent banner hanging over a small tent city that has sprouted on the site over the past fortnight.

But there is no shortage of camaraderie.

Volunteer lists have been drawn up to handle cleaning duties, debate organisation, the coordination of the protest’s website and a barter system to exchange services such as haircuts and language or music lessons.

“Together, we seek a solution to the problems,” said a young father with his six-year-old daughter in tow.

The Greek ‘indignant’ movement set off on May 25, two weeks after gatherings began in Spain which is grappling with even higher unemployment and was to hold local elections at the time.

It peaked last Sunday when an estimated 70,000 people flocked to the square, calling on the government to abandon a loan rescue deal with the European Union and the International Monetary Fund deemed to have made the economy worse.

Elections are not currently foreseen in Greece, but the embattled Socialist government of George Papandreou has hinted that it could hold a referendum on a new round of austerity measures to address the country’s crushing debt.

Lawmakers later this month are to vote on a new package of cutbacks worth over 28 billion euros over the next four years in order to secure continued assistance from Greece’s eurozone peers and the International Monetary Fund.

“Our goal is to stop this vote,” says ‘Alpha’, the sociologist.

http://www.khaleejtimes.com/displayarti ... ional&col=

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[vanlose kid]

German Federal Constitutional Court To Challenge Greek Bailout, Claims Action Is Unconstitutional
Submitted by Tyler Durden on 06/09/2011 11:50 -0400

Just like last year when the first bailout of Greece was met with significant opposition by German constitutional professors, the constitutionality of the upcoming bailout #2 is about to be questioned. Only this time it does not come from powerless academic but from the very top: the Federal Constitutional Court. From Frankfurter Allgemeine (google translated): "The federal government has to explain how the measures are compatible with the Basic Law....The government will have to justify before the court how the measures conform to the stabilization of the European currency with the Basic Law, and possibly with European law. It was originally envisaged in the Second Senate to negotiate in private. But this stance has apparently changed in the course of the discussions." As expected, the fine legal print is once again about to throw a major monkey wrench in the ongoing usurpation of constitutional right by the banking syndicate.

From FAZ:

The Federal Constitutional Court, after information from the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung on Tuesday, 5 July, negotiate the claims against the euro and against the rescue Greece Help orally.

Thus, the government will have to justify before the court how the measures conform to the stabilization of the European currency with the Basic Law, and possibly with European law. It was originally envisaged in the Second Senate to negotiate in private. But this stance has apparently changed in the course of the discussions.

Chancellor Angela Merkel and Finance Minister Wolfgang Schäuble had signed on Wednesday in the government parties to show support for new Greece aids. Schäuble According to information provided by participants estimated the additional demand for the government in Athens in 2014 to around 90 billion euros. Merkel supported the claims to the claim to a participation of private creditors Schäuble on a new aid package. Schäuble explained to Members the outcome of the troika report by ECB, IMF and EU on the situation in Greece. This notes that Greece needs new funding from outside in order to solve its debt problems.

On Thursday, the groups will present a resolution to be adopted on Friday in the Bundestag. In order to intercept the expected displeasure with new grants, called Merkel on Members to voice their demands openly. These will culminate in the German negotiating position that Schäuble, on the 20th Euro Finance Ministers Meeting June and Merkel at the EU summit on 24 want to represent June.

Expressly warned the Chancellor before a rescheduling of Greece, as this could then endanger the situation in Spain and Italy. Greece must reform its tax system. The EU structural funds should be more targeted. "If Greece does not get any new taxes, it would be a bad signal for Portugal and Ireland," Merkel was quoted as saying. Despite criticism by some Members of the CDU and FDP, FDP faction leader Rainer Brüderle showed before the meeting convinced that there is a separate majority of the Coalition for the euro's launch. In addition to a new aid package for Greece includes the proposed rescue ESM from 2013.

The troika report published on Wednesday finds that Greece needs further support from outside in order to solve its problems. "Given the unlikelihood of a return to Greece for the financial markets in 2012, the adjustment program is now under-funded," it says in the results of joint tests of the troika that existed Reuters. "The next payment (from the ongoing Greece-aid package) can not take place before the problem of under-funding is resolved." The euro governments prepare therefore propose a new, possibly three-year aid program.

http://www.zerohedge.com/article/german ... titutional

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[vanlose kid]

The popular Syrian activist/blogger, Amina Abdallah Araf al Omari -- who according to someone claiming to be her cousin (via her blog) has been abducted off the streets of Damascus -- might be a fake, says the Washington Post as well as a woman in London who says the photo of the blogger belongs to her, and As'ad AbuKhalil who blogs at: http://angryarab.blogspot.com/2011/06/on-gay-girl-in-damascus.html. Though the latter believes pretty definitively that she is a fake.

On the "Gay Girl in Damascus"
Many have written to me about the case. It is clear that there is a fabrication there. The Washington Post has even noticed. Somebody is playing with readers' minds, and most likely for political reasons. "Friends" of her wrote me yesterday and said that they all exchanged notes and that they found out that no one has ever seen her. Her closest friend once tried to skype with her: but she told her that there is no skyping Syria (a lie). An alert reader also noted to me that she (under the name of Amina Arraf) is among my Facebook friends. But I was assured that the pictures that she has belong to another woman (I even have the name of the woman of those pictures). Politically, she recently posted a pro-Palestinian message, but back in May "she" expressed hope to be able to serve as an ambassador for Syria in Israel. That in itself tells me that it is no Syrian person at all. In fact, I won't be surprised if this is Abraham Foxman posing as a "gay girl in Damascus."

Her -- now unfortunately, alleged -- blog: http://damascusgaygirl.blogspot.com/

I can't get my head around this one.

.

It's become very hard. Do you prefer to be the naive fool who believes it, or the heartless asshole who denies it?

How about a scholar? You can make a list of a dozen possible scenarios:

"She's real but for protection disguised herself with a fake picture"
"Israel made her up to horrify the gay demographic, obviously"
"In a work of meta-propaganda, Syria hired someone like Hill & Knowlton to make her up, so that they could later expose her as a fiction."
Etc.

When you're done, you can rip up your list as an exercise in nihilism, admit you don't know, decide this might be one of those where you'll never know.

Or you can call all the witnesses and reporters involved and try to get in on the story, track her down for real. Good luck.

As I said, it's getting pretty damn hard dealing with post-reality, with so many spaces now virtual, multiple industries devoted to lying, a breakdown between fiction and document, people even admiring known liars for their genius at it (That Madoff! That Rove! Artists, they were!) and so many idiots determined to be certain about their personal checklist of what's true and what's propaganda, or what's true and what's "conspiracy theory."

Maybe next we'll hear the Damascus Gay Girl is an ARG, made up by a progressive brandname company.

See ARG: Conspiracy For Good (Warning: Don't click this)
http://rigorousintuition.ca/board2/view ... =8&t=32316

They'll be proud to say that the action sold their product while drawing attention to a worthy cause. Alternatively, if they're artists who devised an ARG, they'll claim they "held a mirror up to society" and invite you to learn some important lessons.

The ARG's media flaks will say it doesn't matter if it's true, since it expresses a higher truth and all's fair in love and revolution. (Are you saying it could never be true? Are you saying Syria doesn't oppress gay activists? Are you defending Assad?!)

Most people on reflection will agree with the philosophy that what matters is whether or not you want it to be true. However, this is because most people on reflection will agree they don't care either way, so why not both? No need for extremes, right? Please don't be too political. Chill and play!

Osama using his wife as a human shield was easy to dismiss. But what about today's latest: Gaddafi's rape squads, equipped with Viagra? "I can sense this story is wrong" only goes so far, obviously. ("Are you calling the ICC liars? On what evidence? Shoe me the evidence!")

The fact that the media doesn't cover the systematic mass humiliations of women in the Shi'a community conducted by Bahraini security forces exposes the hypocrisy of an ICC that's willing to indict Gaddafi in the middle of NATO bombing Libya, but not the Kalifas or Saleh for committing similar crimes, not while their countries serve as bases for US forces. And doesn't the Bahrain story merely show the prevalence in many wars of terrorism directed against women? Does the hypocrisy of the ICC and the media mean the Gaddafi Viagra story is untrue?

We can go on like this for ages...



In short:

You don't know! Except, sometimes you do. And you're obligated to find out what you can, if you're going to claim one or the other. Except, you probably won't find out with certainty, and you'll be left with your original feeling, whatever that may have been, plus a new portion of emptiness.

(Courtesy of Sandra Bagaria/COURTESY OF SANDRA BAGARIA) - Photographs of Amina Arraf released by the friend and on her Web site are of a woman in London, Jelena Lecic, who said her identity had been stolen, according to a statement from the woman’s publicist.


http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/mid ... print.html

‘Gay Girl in Damascus’ may not be real

By Liz Sly, Published: June 8

BEIRUT — Questions emerged Wednesday about the existence and identity of a Syrian American blogger whose eloquent postings on life in Damascus and her purported detention Monday by Syrian security forces had catapulted her to global fame.

The Washington Post was among the news organizations in the United States and around the world that reported on the writings of Amina Arraf and her alleged detention, which was publicized in a posting on her blog, A Gay Girl in Damascus, by a woman who claimed to be her cousin.

But although many Syrian activists said they had corresponded with Arraf online, none acknowledged actually meeting her. A friend in Montreal, Sandra Bagaria, who started a campaign for Arraf’s release and said she knew her well, said she had corresponded with Arraf only by e-mail. Photographs of Arraf released by the friend and on her Web site are of a woman in London, Jelena Lecic, who said her identity had been stolen, according to a statement from the woman’s publicist.

The cousin, Rania Ismail, whose Facebook page identifies her as a “fulltime mommy” in Lilburn, Ga., did not respond to e-mails, although she had previously corresponded with journalists. Spokesman Mark Toner said the State Department was “seeking to confirm the details of [Arraf’s] case — including her citizenship.”

Syrian activists maintained Wednesday that they were sure Arraf existed, that she had been detained and that she had been using a fake identity to protect herself, as do most of the activists engaged in covert activity against Syria’s government at a time when the country is in the throes of a widespread popular uprising.

But alternative theories flew within the online community, including that Bagaria and Arraf are the same person, that Lecic and Arraf are the same person, and that Gay Girl in Damascus is an invention.

Bagaria, when contacted in Montreal, seemed distraught at the possibility that the person with whom she had established a close relationship online might have been using a false identity.

“I don’t know. I really can’t tell. I would love to tell you I know,” she said. “I just want it to be clarified, and then I will deal with what I should and should not feel. But for now I just want it to be a little more clear.”

If A Gay Girl in Damascus is indeed a hoax, it would be an elaborate one. Arraf’s Facebook page reads like a who’s who of the Syrian opposition movement, and although none of the activists contacted had met her, all of them said they found it difficult to believe she wasn’t real.

“My feeling is that this lady exists and that she’s been risking her life to serve her cause,” said a prominent Beirut-based activist. “But she can’t write under her real name or reveal her identity. I know many activists, and none of them reveals their real identity.”

The saga illustrates the difficulty of establishing what is really going on in Syria at a time when the government is engaged in a brutal attempt to crush the 11-week-old uprising. Most information comes from the state-sponsored media or shadowy cyber-activists who post reports and videos online.

One activist contacted in Damascus, the Syrian capital, said he doubts Arraf is real and expressed concern that the opposition’s efforts to convey to the world the regime’s ruthlessness will be undermined by the apparent fabrication.

“It’s selfish because it means real issues in the future won’t be taken seriously at all,” he said, speaking via Skype on the condition of anonymity because he fears the consequences of talking to the media.


© The Washington Post Company

from here: viewtopic.php?f=8&t=32331

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[vanlose kid]

09/06/2011
12 injured as police, protesters clash in Spain

Spanish police and anti-corruption protesters clashed in the Spanish city of Valencia Thursday, injuring 12 people and leading to five arrests, officials said.

Hundreds of demonstrators decrying political corruption, the economic crisis and soaring unemployment had gathered Wednesday night outside the regional parliament, which was to elect its president on Thursday after regional elections on May 22.

"Throw the corrupt out of our institutions," read one banner waved by protesters.

The re-elected president of the Valencia region, Francisco Camps, is under investigation for corruption in a scandal involving members of Spain's conservative opposition Popular Party.

Police said they moved in on Thursday morning to break up the protest after objects were thrown at the officers.

A spokeswoman for the regional government said eight police officers were injured and five demonstrators arrested.

Those detained were held for "public disorder, assaults on police and injuries" resulting from "throwing full bottles and even scissors" at officers, a police spokeswoman in Valencia said.

Police were also "kicked and punched," she said.

An emergency services spokeswoman said four demonstrators were also injured: a 55-year-old woman who was hospitalised for heads wounds and three others who were treated at the scene for bruises.

Protests over the economic crisis began in Madrid May 15 and fanned out to city squares nationwide as word spread by Twitter and Facebook among demonstrators known variously as "the indignant", "M-15", "Spanish Revolution" and "Real Democracy Now."

Hundreds also rallied in front of the Spanish parliament in Madrid Wednesday night to condemn plans by the government to reform the collective bargaining system.

Unions and employers have been negotiating for months over reform of the collective bargaining system, considered a crucial plank of labour, banking and pension reforms aimed at reviving Spain's battered economy.

Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero said last week that his government will approve the reform by June 10 even if there is no deal with unions by then.

The Spanish economy slumped into recession during the second half of 2008 as the global financial meltdown compounded the collapse of the once-booming property market. It emerged with meagre growth in early 2010.

The crisis sent the unemployment rate soaring to 21.29 percent in the first quarter of 2011, the highest in the industrialised world.

© 2011 AFP

http://www.expatica.com/es/news/spanish ... 55425.html

Several injured as Spanish protesters clash with police

Jun 9, 2011, 12:51 GMT

Valencia, Spain - Several people were injured and five arrested Thursday in Spain's eastern city of Valencia when police clashed with demonstrators belonging to a nationwide protest movement.

Dozens of demonstrators had spent the night in front of the Valencia regional parliament as new legislators were due to take office following the May 22 regional elections.

The demonstrators were protesting at the inclusion of legislators facing corruption charges, including regional premier Francisco Camps.

Hundreds more joined the rally, forcing police to establish a security corridor to allow lawmakers to enter parliament.

Police clashed with demonstrators trying to break through the security cordon, injuring some of them, witnesses said.

Meanwhile in Madrid, about 2,000 people protested overnight in front of the regional parliament.

The protest movement, known as M-15 (May 15) or The Indignant Ones, was launched a week before the elections last month by young activists demanding a reform of Spain's democratic system.

It has mobilized protesters around the country, who have occupied central squares in more than 50 towns and cities.

The main protest camp at Madrid's Puerta del Sol square is due to be dismantled on Sunday, while the M-15 movement is reorienting itself towards neighbourhood assemblies and protest marches.

The movement charges that Spain's democracy serves financial markets and politicians' vested interests, while citizens suffer 20 per cent unemployment.

http://www.monstersandcritics.com/news/ ... ith-police

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[vanlose kid]

Spanish youths take anti-crisis protests to parliament

(AFP) – 1 day ago

MADRID — Hundreds of protesters took to the streets outside Spain's parliament Wednesday to condemn plans by the government to reform the collective bargaining system.

The rally, behind a police barrier that prevented them from entering the building, took place just a few hundred metres (yards) from where youths decrying the economic crisis have been camped since mid-May.

"These are our weapons," the protesters shouted, raising their arms.

"Cutbacks for those in parliament," was another cry, while some, pointing fingers at the parliament, shouted "here is Ali Baba's cave."

Many also took keys from their pockets and shouted "these are the keys of my parents," to remind the government that many young people are still forced to live with their parents due to the soaring unemployment,

"We are here because they are going to approve a law that gives all the power to employers," said Luis Fernandez, a 21-year-old student.

"They always talk about flexibility but never about the obligations of employers."

Unions and employers have been negotiating for months over reform of the collective bargaining system, considered a crucial plank of labour, banking and pension reforms aimed at reviving Spain's battered economy.

Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero said last week that his government will approve the reform by June 10 even if there is no deal with unions by then.

The International Monetary Fund and the Bank of Spain believe the collective bargaining system, which includes industry-wide agreements that cannot be modified, is too rigid.

The Spanish economy slumped into recession during the second half of 2008 as the global financial meltdown compounded the collapse of the once-booming property market. It emerged with meagre growth in early 2010.

The crisis sent the unemployment rate soaring to 21.29 percent in the first quarter of 2011, the highest in the industrialised world.

Protests over the economic crisis began May 15 and fanned out to city squares nationwide as word spread by Twitter and Facebook among demonstrators known variously as "the indignant", "M-15", "Spanish Revolution" and "Real Democracy Now."

http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/ar ... f63302.e01

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[vanlose kid]

Debtocracy: the samizdat of Greek debt

Made for just £7,000, a compelling film about Greek's financial crisis makes the case that the entire euro system was rotten from the start

Aditya Chakrabortty
guardian.co.uk, Thursday 9 June 2011 22.15 BST

One might not expect a butcher in rural Greece to recognise Costas Lapavitsas. He is, after all, an economist, a professor at the School of Oriental and African Studies in London. His research interests include the evolution and function of the Japanese financial system and his books include The Political Economy of Money and Finance – probably not staples of discussion among rural Greek butchers.

But when, just before Easter, the Lapavitsas went shopping for groceries in Kopanos ("A godforsaken village," apparently, "ugly as hell"), said butcher spotted his name. "I know of a Costas Lapavitsas," he said. "I have seen him in a video on the internet." On being told that video star and customer were one and the same, the butcher responded with more excitement than is desirable from someone wielding a cleaver: "Ah, Debtocracy!"

Lapavitsas does have a star turn in Debtocracy, a film whose success is as unlikely as the academic's celebrity. It's a documentary about the financial crisis that has struck Greece; the collapse of public finances; the €110bn loan from Europe and the International Monetary Fund; and the savage spending cuts to come.

Unlike other entries to the nascent credit-crunch movie genre, the film-makers do not go looking for guilty men and women. No Inside Job, this. Instead what you get is a polemic against the European system; an explanation of how Greece was always doomed to struggle against the likes of Germany. "So are we the black sheep of an all-successful Europe?" asks the voiceover. "Or has the system been ailing since its youth?"

Debtocracy makes a compelling case that the entire euro system was rotten from the start, with bankers in Frankfurt and Paris left with piles of surplus cash, and southern Europeans getting by on cheap loans. Made on a budget of €8,000 (£7,110) and with very little flashy camera work or fancy use of archive, this is still – I can confidently say, without delving too far into history – the best film of Marxian economic analysis yet produced.

Stuck up on a website and YouTube in early April, Debtocracy has garnered something close to a million views and has been broadcast on small Greek television channels, gradually building an audience. "At first, it was young Greeks with broadband connections," says Aris Chatzistefanou – who co-wrote and co-directed the film with Katerina Kitidi. "But then we heard stories of how small villages were screening it, and how old men in the countryside were asking their sons to download it on to DVDs." In the process, the film has become an artefact in the popular resistance to the austerity package imposed on Greece – and across southern Europe. In Portugal, the Left Bloc put on a showing of Debtocracy in a small cinema to launch its recent election campaign. The film was also scheduled to be screened to 4,000 protesters in Barcelona's Plaza Catalunya before the authorities broke up proceedings.

When I speak to Chatzistefanou, he is still recovering from showing his film in the central Syntagma square in Athens. The screening only got going at 2.30am "and then the audience wanted to discuss it. We still had 400 people arguing over the Greek financial crisis at five in the morning."

Timing has a lot to do with Debtocracy's success. Greece's economy has sunk deeper into crisis, buttressing the film's argument that the nation is being broken, not fixed, by the IMF and the eurozone. Yet the film's suggestion that Greeks should renegotiate, and refuse to pay some of its ruinous debts, still barely features in mainstream Greek politics or media. Which leaves one video on the internet to be passed around a swelling band of dissenters.

After returning from Kopanos to London, Lapavitsas received an email: "Greetings from the village!" began the butcher. "I just want to congratulate you on your film. When you come back we can have a proper discussion."

• See the film at: debtocracy.gr [DailyMotion version, youtube below]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2011/jun ... cracy-film

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[vanlose kid]

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"Debtocracy", the documentary posted just above is well worth watching. also it references Avi Lewis and Naomi Klein's "The Take" which is an uplifting piece of work on "doing something about it".

"The Take" is in nine youtube parts. am posting one and two here for those with an interest in the boring, woo-less and mundane part of our predicament. click on for the continuation.





a working model for taking back sovereignity and freedom (cf., "Debtocracy" for the meaning of the distinction.)

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[JackRiddler]

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I don't know about this thread. How do we delineate? Remember "Global Revolution Is Imminent?" That went a really long time. The biggest scrapbook of the Arab Spring here (maybe on the Web, no kidding) is in the really long Egypt thread and I'm very partial to keeping that one going. The Libya thread also shouldn't go dormant. How do we distinguish the imperial reactions and wars from the uprisings? Seems to me the Spain thread you started was hot stuff on a semi-separate course of development there. European and especially Greek uprisings and developments have received years of scrapbooking in the really long Wall Street thread.

But here's an offering I just posted on the latter:

http://www.occupiedlondon.org/blog/2011 ... th-begins/

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



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

The city is now building up for the General Strike of June 15th, which is also the next date of action announced at Syntagma square. Both mobilisations are aimed against the new agreement between the government and the troika (IMF/EU/ECB) which is planned to be voted at parliament on the morning of the 15th. The general assembly of Syntagma square has already called for a blocking of the parliament from the night of the 14th. In addition to the fencing installed around the parliament (see below), a police water canon has also appeared nearby.



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

[vanlose kid]

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I don't know about this thread. How do we delineate? Remember "Global Revolution Is Imminent?" That went a really long time. The biggest scrapbook of the Arab Spring here (maybe on the Web, no kidding) is in the really long Egypt thread and I'm very partial to keeping that one going. The Libya thread also shouldn't go dormant. How do we distinguish the imperial reactions and wars from the uprisings? Seems to me the Spain thread you started was hot stuff on a semi-separate course of development there. European and especially Greek uprisings and developments have received years of scrapbooking in the really long Wall Street thread.

...

thanks.

you're expecting a semi-coherent answer aren't you? right. [takes deep breath.]

i started this because is was having trouble figuring out where exactly to post things. and yes i did start the Spain thread but things inspired by that started to pick up all over the place [see the wikileaks piece above] and i wanted to bring them together because the actors "on high" tended to overlap. Egypt is its own thing and i''m still posting there, same with Libya. nor do i want to see the Spain thread die out. maybe this is where i petition T(RI)PTB (mainly barracuda, since Jeff is probably still scrubbing the tub) to merge that into this.

also, re the posting on Greece in the Wall St. thread, i wanted to pick up on the street side of things. i realize the Greek protests have in a sense been going on since 2008, but what's arising now is different. as with Spain the "uprisings" this year are "headless" or ideologically open. which is also why i posted on Argentina. i think that that very non-party "headlessness" in Syntagma, Porta del Sol, etc., is a strength. i'm hoping it catches on, that the new Argentina model is picked up elsewhere. yadda yadda yadda.

it still seems worthwhile to gather the threads. to me anyway, so as to get an idea of the connections and the bigger picture. we're beyond parties and nations states here, in a sense. i wanted the thread to kind of reflect that. whether it works or other here back it up is up to you/them/the forum members and the RI PTB.

what else? not sure. oh yeah, it has to do with the way my thought processes run. trying to keep related things tied together,

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