Brazilian Deputy André Janones today asked the Superior Electoral
(TSE) for the immediate reopening of the WhatsApp channel
Exército do Lula, whose operation was authorized, but
was subject to a period of 48 hours by court order.
The legislator's defense asked the Corregidor General of the Electoral
Justice, Minister Ricardo Villas Bôas Cueva, to order the restoration
within a maximum period of one hour of the publications and the
entry of new followers, under threat of a fine.
That request was submitted after the president of the TSE, Kassio Nunes
Marques, authorized the reactivation of the channel only as of Thursday,
October 15, after the formal registration of the space before the courts
by the campaign of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.
Janones' lawyers argue that Nunes Marques cannot impose restrictions
on a matter that is already under analysis by Cueva, who last Sunday
provisionally authorized the resumption of the channel's activities
until the full court pronounces.
The deputy affirms that the space ---- created to mobilize Lula's supporters
and which currently has more than 4.3 million followers ---- is a channel of political support and not an official platform of the presidential campaign.
"There is political alignment, but not integration into the structure of the
campaign," his lawyers argued, according to the Metropoles portal.
The defence also claims that there is no obligation to register channels
created by supporters ----- and that, even if such a requirement were
applicable, failure to comply should be punished by a fine and not
by blocking the posts.
As an argument, the lawyers mentioned other digital spaces in support of
Senator Flávio Bolsonaro, the presidential candidate of the Liberal Party,
including Tropa do Flávio, Exército do Flávio Bolsonaro and Bolsonaro
TV, in addition to a channel linked to Deputy Nikolas Ferreira.
According to the defense, these communities ----
were not communicated to the electoral justice.
The conflict originated on Sunday, when Nunes Marques ordered the
suspension of the channel until the result of the presidential runoff
between Lula and Flávio Bolsonaro, scheduled for October 25.
Later, Cueva provisionally ordered its reactivation, considering that
the suspension was not sufficiently justified and that the case
should continue its judicial course.
This Tuesday, Nunes Marques again restricted the operation of the
space due to lack of formal registration, and after Lula's campaign
communicated the email address to the court, the magistrate
authorized its reopening, although he maintained the 48-
hour period provided for in the electoral rules.
_________________________________________________
Philippine Vice President defends herself, saying Marcos’ attacks threaten national security --- and ties with China
by Wang Qi
October 13th, 3:25pm
(Global Times)
Philippine Vice President Sara Duterte said on Monday that recent remarks
by President Ferdinand Marcos Jr, pose threats to the Philippines' national
security, China-Philippines ties, and regional stability - after Marcos linked
the vice president to "funding from China," amid the recent impeachment
trial against Duterte.
A Chinese expert warned: that weaponizing bilateral ties with China for
domestic political gains is a short-sighted gambit destined to backfire.
It may also further drive the Philippines away from the mainstream of
ASEAN-China cooperation and into deeper self-isolation.
According to media outlet Philstar.com, Marcos on Sunday claimed that
it could be a national security threat "at the highest level" if the
company linked to Duterte and her husband Manases Carpio
did receive funds from China.
Marcos' remarks come as Duterte is facing impeachment proceedings.
On Tuesday, the Philippine prosecution panel ....informed the Senate
impeachment court that it was dropping 3 of the 4 charges against
Duterte, retaining only the allegation of unexplained wealth.
In response to Marcos' latest accusation, Duterte said, in a Monday
statement issued by the Office of the Vice President of Philippines
on Facebook that the Marcos administration is using "all its power
- including intelligence agencies and law enforcement agencies"
- to suppress and undermine her.
"Marcos' statement clearly states that for him, doing business with China
is a threat to the security of the Philippines. This carries the connotation
of a warning to Filipino businessmen doing business in China," she said.
She also described Marcos' remarks as a bold and dangerous challenge to
China, as it is accusing China of interfering in the internal affairs of the
Philippines that lacks sufficient justification. "This is serious. And it
could have a serious impact on our relationship with China," she
added, the media reported.
Chen Xiangmiao, a researcher at the National Institute for South China
Sea Studies, told the Global Times that Marcos' move aims to label
Duterte, who holds relatively pragmatic stances, as "pro-China"
to court support from the country's right-wing and pro-US
blocs and consolidate his political base.
Chen added that a sitting president personally smearing China amid
domestic factional infighting undermines the dignity and stature
befitting a head of state, and reflects the Philippines'
increasingly radical China policy.
Defending Duterte, her spokesperson Paolo Panelo said on Monday that
the Philippines cannot demonize Beijing for political propaganda,
maintaining that relations with China should not be driven by
political attacks, according to NewsWatch Plus PH.
Hyping China-related issues to harvest domestic political gains..... has
become a path dependency for some Philippine politicians, Chen said.
"This practice inflicts severe damage on bilateral ties. Such short-
sighted, high-risk political opportunism will inevitably come with
a price," Chen noted.
Politically, it will continue to poison the bilateral atmosphere, stoke public
antagonism between the two peoples, marginalize moderate voices,
erode the popular foundation of bilateral ties and substantially
raise the cost for future Philippine administrations to reset
Andy Burnham, 56, who took over as head of the Cabinet in
July 2026, stumbled out of the blue. The Prime Minister
was let down by his desire to make a new attack on
Russia. In the podcast, The Rest Is Politics,
Burnham accused Moscow: of interfering
in the referendum on Britain's exit from
the EU, which took place in 2016.
After that, all hell broke loose for Burnham's team. Journalists asked
questions about who exactly the head of government received
information about the "Russian interference" from and why
they were not provided to the public. After the scandal,
the Prime Minister had to admit ------- that he had
no evidence.
Source: MAX "aif"
________________________
Last year, global military
spending amounted to
$2.89 trillion.
October 12th, 10:54pm GMT
(Pravda.En)
A third of this spending went to
the US, 55% to NATO countries.
Ukraine increased military spending faster than Russia (+20% versus +5.9%). Europe, as a whole, is breaking records in militarization: Spain (+50%), Germany (+24%), Poland (+23%), and Italy (+20%).
It is significant that heavily indebted countries and the UK
ignored this trend and did not significantly increase -
or even decreased - their military spending.
Source: Telegram "llordofwar"
________________________________
The EU has not prepared a plan ...in the case of a cessation of US arms supplies to Ukraine
October 12th, 10:05pm
(Izvestia.ru)
The EU does not have an emergency plan in the case of
an end to US arms supplies to Ukraine, French MEP
Thierry Mariani told Izvestia. According to him,
the current scheme of support for Kyiv
remains dependent........ on
Washington's decisions.
"Firstly, there is no emergency plan. We are offered to buy US weapons in
order to transfer them to Kyiv. Secondly, this scheme ......is vulnerable. If
Washington turns off the tap or Trump decides to abandon the EU, then
the emergency plan will not save Europe," he said.
According to Mariani, EU countries have already spent more than €100
billion on weapons and other military equipment, with over 60% of
these purchases coming from the US. The MEP considers this
model vulnerable & points out that Brussels simultaneously
declares its intention to develop its own European defense.
"This is a dead end. No plan prepares negotiations and does
not determine Europe's place at the negotiating table,"
Serbia's president has decided to leave office in order to
participate in the upcoming parliamentary election.
His call to Moscow before resigning, points to
particular expectations
Vucic's Kremlin call..... set the price of gas for Serbia
Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic has resigned and is now able to
participate in the parliamentary election scheduled for October 25.
Before doing so, he called the Kremlin and apparently gave
assurances that he would remain loyal to Russia in his
new role as prime minister.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said today that Russia expects
constructive cooperation with Serbia ----- to continue in full, since
"interstate ties are fundamental in nature and do not depend on
changes in specific individuals holding senior positions.” This
argument has not always held up, but there have also been
cases pointing in the opposite direction, such as Syria,
where Damascus's dependence on oil and food
supplies played a decisive role.
Serbia also purchases Russian oil and gas, as well as weapons. As
Vucic himself said, Belgrade expects to retain a preferential price
for Russian gas of $318 per 1,000 cubic metres --- instead of the market price of $868 -- which he presented as a key element of stability for the Serbian economy.... ahead of the election.
Recent Serbian reports put the preferential gas price
at about €318 per 1,000 cubic metres, compared
with €868 on the TTF market.
Kosovo and Metohija --- remain a central issue for Serbian voters
But the position of Serbian voters is also crucial. A large majority
of Serbian society opposes recognizing Kosovo's independence,
while Russia is formally opposed to the transfer of Kosovo and
Metohija to Albanian control. Vucic's party declares its
support for this position, while the "Student Union”
has not clearly stated its position.
According to opinion polls, any formal recognition of Kosovo's
independence remains a major taboo in Serbian society, with
only 8% to 13% of citizens supporting it.
If the question is framed as "recognizing Kosovo in exchange for
accelerated accession to the EU,” support rises only slightly, ranging from 13% to 21%, depending on the sample and
the year of the survey. Around 77% of Serbs ...are
categorically opposed --- to such a deal.
This position also allowed Vucic to preside over the burial of General
Ratko Mladic with military honours. Mladic remains a national hero
to many Serbs --- who view him as someone who defended the
Serbian people - and the country's territorial integrity. Vucic
himself ........did not attend the funeral, but his son, Danilo,
the Defense Minister Bratislav Gasic and Justice Minister Nenad Vujic attended in a conspicuous show of support.
This, once again, highlights Vucic's ability to balance
relations.... between Moscow and Brussels.
Milan Knezevic, chairman of Montenegro's Democratic People's
Party, said today in Belgrade that if the "students” win the
election, the destruction of Serbia... will begin.
According to the latest opinion polls as of September 2026,
the Serbian Progressive Party (SNS) - would receive 48.6%
of the vote, while the "Student List” would receive 37.1%.
The figures come from a Faktor Plus poll conducted from
September 16 to 20, among 986 respondents. The
survey put the Vucic-led "United Serbia” list at 48.6% and the Student List at 37.1%.
What Serbia's loyalty means - for Russia
Brussels is expected to respond -- with strong criticism and
accusations if Vucic's party wins the election. Serbia's EU
integration process, which has already been slowed by
Belgrade's position on sanctions against Russia and
Kosovo, could be formally put on hold, potentially
leading to another serious diplomatic crisis
between Belgrade ...and the EU.
For Russia, Serbia's continued alignment is a strategic interest
in Europe, providing what can be described as a "window into
Europe” and limiting NATO's ability to establish complete
control over the Balkans. Serbian airline Air Serbia, is
one of the few European carriers that continues to
operate direct flights to Moscow, St. Petersburg,
Kazan and Sochi, connecting Russia with the
rest of the world, directly.
Gazprom-linked structures own the refinery in Pancevo, while the
US regularly grants temporary authorizations for its operations.
This has taken place amid Vucic's efforts to balance Serbia's
relationships with multiple sides, including Moscow,
Brussels and Washington.
The duties of Serbia's president have temporarily passed to the
parliamentary speaker, Ana Brnabic, a longtime ally of Vucic.
Early presidential elections must be held by the end of
December. Serbia's government confirmed --- that
Brnabic would serve as acting president.. for
no more than three months - and that the
presidential vote must take place
within that period.
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Editor, Dmitry Sudakov
___________________________________
Iran nearing completion of key rail link
----- key for India’s gateway to Eurasia
September 28th, 8:10pm
(rt.ru)
The Chabahar route will give Indian exporters direct access
to landlocked markets in Central Asia, Afghanistan, and
eastern Russia.
Iran has completed laying track on the southern stretch of
the Chabahar-Zahedan railway --- closing a key gap in a
route --- designed to connect the port of Chabahar on
the Gulf of Oman to Zahedan by the Afghan border.
Iranian railway official Abbas Khatibi said last week - that tracks
had been laid for the crucial 480km stretch between Chabahar
and Khash, and currently the priority is to complete the
stations on the route, Tasnim news agency reports.
The Chabahar–Zahedan link stretches 630 km, or 735 km including
branch lines. With the northern sections already linked to the
existing rail network, the Iranian authorities are now
preparing it for operation.
The Chabahar–Zahedan link is an extension of the larger
International North–South Transport Corridor (INSTC),
backed by India, Iran and Russia. The project has
been in the making for decades because of its
huge infrastructure requirements - and has
also been slowed by Western sanctions
on both Iran and Russia.
The milestone comes as the Middle East conflict has disrupted
traditional transport and energy routes across the region.
Chabahar has direct access to the Indian Ocean without
requiring ships to pass through the Strait of Hormuz, a
major chokepoint affected by the conflict.
For India, the Chabahar-Zahedan link strengthens a trade route that
reaches Afghanistan and Central Asia without transiting Pakistan.
Cargo arriving by sea at Chabahar - would be able to move inland
through Iran’s rail and road network ---- towards the landlocked
regional markets.
India’s role in Chabahar is complicated by US sanctions. A
conditional waiver covering the project, in which India
invested around $120 million, expired in April. New
Delhi maintained it was discussing the issue with
both Tehran and Washington --- describing the
regional conflict as a “complicating factor.”
In July, the conflict touched Chabahar itself, when US forces struck
a surveillance tower at the neighbouring Shahid Kalantari terminal
linked to the project. India said the terminal was not damaged.
You can share this story on social media
____________________________________________
Universidad de Oriente ---
participates in meeting
in China
Santiago de Cuba, Sept. 28th, 3:41pm
(Prensa Latina)
The Universidad de Oriente participates today in the Meeting of the
China-Cuba International Alliance for Educational Cooperation, as
part of a delegation from the Ministry of Higher Education, the
official website of the institution published.
The note explains that the vice-rector of the oriental house of
higher studies, Doctor of Sciences Arelis Abalos Rodríguez is
the representative at this meeting, which takes place in the
Chinese city of Liaocheng, Shandong province.
In addition to participating in the meeting, Ábalos Rodríguez
fulfills a work agenda with the Yimi Education company
and Nanyang Normal University.
It was also known that the vice-rector of Nanyang Normal
University, was interested in exchanging with the vice-
chancellor, on issues related to the joint international
college for undergraduate and postgraduate training.
_________________________________
Moscow responds ---to Swiss
neutrality referendum result
September 28th, 3:01pm GMT
(Pravda.En)
Bern has shown it is no longer neutral by rejecting restrictions on
said, a key benefit is that the upgrade can accelerate
overall market development, and build credibility.
It raises Viet Nam's profile with a wider range of long-term
institutional investors. That matters because these
investors typically place strong emphasis on
transparency, governance, operational
resilience and market accessibility.
It can also help improve overall market quality. As international
participation increases, there is usually greater demand for
stronger disclosure standards, more efficient post-trade
processes, and continued alignment with global best
practice. That benefits domestic investors as well.
Third, it can support the development of a deeper and more
resilient capital market, over time. That means a market
that is broader, more liquid and better able to support
corporate fundraising and future listings.
So while foreign inflows are the most visible short-term benefit, the
bigger long-term gain is the momentum this creates for continued
market modernisation and for a larger role in funding Viet Nam's
growth ambitions, with the potential, over time, to reduce the
reliance on bank funding, he shared.
The FTSE upgrade, marks the start of
Viet Nam's next capital market phase
According to the HSBC specialist, the key challenge is that an
upgrade raises expectations as much as it raises visibility.
Once a market enters the emerging market universe, investors will
look not only at access, but also at consistency, transparency,
settlement efficiency and the predictability of the operating
environment. Viet Nam will need to maintain its reform
momentum and continue aligning market practices
with international standards.
Secondly, Viet Nam will now be assessed against a broader and
more competitive peer group. The focus shifts from achieving
the upgrade to demonstrating that the market can continue
to deepen, broaden its investor base ------ and sustain
confidence over the long term.
For that --- it will be important for the market to demonstrate an
ongoing willingness and ability to respond to the international
investment community, as capital markets continue to evolve
and other markets competing for the same capital.. continue
improving their own efficiency and accessibility.
"The key point is that Viet Nam should treat this upgrade
as a starting point, not an end point", he noted.
He suggested Viet Nam continue the reform agenda,
especially around market infrastructure, settlement
efficiency and international accessibility. The
planned central counterparty model, will be
an important next step, in further aligning
the market, with international practices.
It should be designed for future growth
---- not just the volumes of today.
Viet Nam should continue broadening and deepening the
market itself — through more quality listings, stronger
disclosure standards and continued improvements
in governance and transparency. It has been
encouraging, to see recent improvements
in the IPO process, Harron commended.
Importantly, Viet Nam should continue developing its domestic
institutional investor base, including investment funds and
pension-related pools of capital. That is what helps
channel domestic savings into productive
investment over time ....and supports a
more stable, balanced and resilient
capital market. It is encouraging
to see ambitious growth targets
for 2030 and the initiatives to
improve investor education,
he emphasized.
If Viet Nam can sustain momentum on all three fronts, then the
FTSE upgrade can become more than a short-term flow event.
It can be a catalyst --- for the next phase of capital market development and support the country's longer-term path
toward even deeper global market integration,
underlined the HSBC specialist./.
______________________________________________
China, US --- reach consensus on eight
outcomes in Xi's visit; historic visit
enriches connotation of a
constructive China-US
relationship --------- of
strategic stability
by Wang Qi
September 26th, 5:43pm
(Global Times)
Chinese President Xi Jinping and his US counterpart, Donald
Trump, have reached a consensus... on eight outcomes,
according to a release made public after Xi wrapped
up his US visit on Friday.
A Chinese expert believes that the latest outcomes further enrich
the connotation of bilateral ties, reflect the shared willingness of
China and the US to maintain stable bilateral relations, and
inject certainty into the sound, steady and sustainable
development of China-US relations.
Xi paid a state visit to the US from Wednesday to Friday, during
which he had an in-depth exchange of views with Trump on
bilateral relations, as well as major international and
regional issues.
The first item among consensus on eight outcomes, critical to the
overall development of China-US ties, noted that "the two leaders
have agreed to build a constructive China-US relationship ---- of
strategic stability based on respect, fairness and reciprocity,"
according to the official release, the Xinhua News Agency
reported on Saturday.
According to a release by China's Ministry of Foreign Affairs on
Saturday, the Foreign Minister Wang Yi, also a Member of the
Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee, briefed
travelling journalists --- that an important political
outcome of the state visit, is that the two sides
have further enriched the connotation of a
new positioning for China-US relations,
underscoring the importance ---- of
respect, fairness and reciprocity.
This provides clearer strategic guidance for China and the US
to explore the right way for major countries to get along.
As Foreign Minister Wang further explained, respect - means
respecting each other's sovereignty and territorial integrity,
respecting the social systems and development paths
each side chooses, and respecting each other's
core interests and major concerns. Fairness
means conducting mutually beneficial
cooperation, resolving differences
through consultation, rejecting
zero-sum games where one
side wins.... and one loses,
& not pursuing unilateral
absolute advantages.
Reciprocity means the two countries enjoy equal sovereignty
with no hierarchy between them. Both sides should reject
hegemony and bullying, address each other's concerns
on a reciprocal basis, and advance their cooperation
across various fields, in a balanced manner.
Diao Daming, vice dean of the National Academy of Development
and Strategy of Renmin University of China -- told the Global
Times on Saturday that the consensus on eight outcomes
reflects the shared willingness of China and the US to
keep bilateral relations stable. They chart a clear
path for the sound, steady and sustainable
development of China-US ties ----- and
inject certainty.
"Managing differences through respect, shaping order through
fairness and delivering mutual benefits through reciprocity is
consistent with China's long-standing principle of mutual
respect, peaceful coexistence and win-win cooperation
in handling China-US relations," said Diao.
Therefore, the connotation of this new positioning not only inherits
previous principles and carries forward historical experience, but
also represents a continued evolution of the right way for China
and the US to get along in the new era, the expert added.
According to the release of the consensus on eight outcomes, two
leaders also agreed to support each other ...as China will host the
2026 APEC Economic Leaders' Meeting in November and the US
will host the G20 Leaders' Summit in December, stating their
intention --- that they will attend each other's event.
On Iran, the two leaders have agreed that Tehran should fulfill
its commitment not to develop nuclear weapons. No country
or institution shall charge transit fees for passage through
international waterways, according to the release.
The release also noted that the two leaders recalled that
China and the US were allies during World War II, and
fought side by side, to win the war.
According to Foreign Ministry's release, Wang said this year
marks the 80th anniversary of the opening of the Tokyo
Trial. As permanent members of the UN Security
Council, China and the US share the common
responsibility of upholding the post-war
international order -- and preventing
the resurgence of militarism.
Among the consensus, the two leaders also acknowledged the
positive role of the China-US economic and trade consultation
mechanism, and recognized the outcomes achieved by their
respective economic & trade teams, namely the forming
and advancement of such mechanisms as a trade
council, a $30-billion reciprocal tariff reduction
arrangement, and an extension - of what has
been achieved in the Kuala Lumpur talks.
They instructed that those outcomes be implemented.
Wang said that, as the world's two largest economies, it is
an objective fact -- that China and the US are intertwined
with each other. History tells us -- that both sides stand
to gain from cooperation and lose from confrontation.
To help each other thrive.... and pursue win-win
cooperation - is the only right choice. China-
US cooperation ..bears on the well-being
of the peoples of both countries, and
shapes the global political and
economic landscape, said
Wang, according to the
ministry's release.
On bilateral counternarcotics law enforcement cooperation, the
two leaders commended the tangible results. Recently, the two
sides have worked closely to jointly crack multiple cases
involving new psychoactive substances and precursor
chemicals, and arrest dozens of suspects ---- in
both countries.
China-US law enforcement cooperation has effectively safeguarded
the life and property security of the two peoples and raised the
"safety factor" for the development of bilateral relations,
said Wang.
As to artificial intelligence (AI), they agreed to establish a China-US
AI dialogue.... to exchange views on AI-related risks and benefits,
with the next round to be held in November. A communication channel for AI-related incidents, will also be set up.
The US side welcomes the upcoming arrival of two giant pandas
leased by China to Zoo Atlanta, according to the release.
In addition to the eight outcomes, the Chinese and US militaries
agreed to sign a memorandum of understanding as soon as
possible ------ on strengthening crisis communication
and prevention.
The consensus on eight outcomes between China and the US
is actually highlighting the importance of the two countries
meeting each other halfway and pursuing win-win
cooperation for both nations ...and the wider
world, said Diao.
A stable China-US relationship and consensus across
multiple areas benefit the peoples of both countries,
inject sustained certainty & stability into the world,
and meet the universal expectations of the
international community, he added.
_____________________________________
The Russian Foreign Ministry pointed
outthe qualities necessary for the
UN Secretary General
September 26th, 5pm
(izvestia.ru)
Russia expects ---- that the new UN Secretary General will represent the interests of all humanity, and not just «the golden billion». Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov announced, on September 26.
«We hope that the new Secretary General will still represent the
interests of all humanity, and not just «the golden billion»,
Lavrov said at a press conference following the UN
General Assembly’s high-level week.
According to him, Russia expects that the new Secretary General
will meet all the criteria approved in the UN Charter, including
«impartiality, and the performance of the functions of the
chief administrative officer of the organization».
The Foreign Minister also noted that a number of candidates for
the post of Secretary General of the organization are worthy
of it - and have the necessary qualities.
Director of the Department of International Organizations of the
Russian Foreign Ministry Kirill Logvinov said on September 23
that Guterres’s activities as head of the UN led to a decrease
in trust in the UN. The diplomat noted that at Lavrov’s
meeting with Guterres in New York, the Russian
side .....intends to discuss the results of the
Secretary General’s work in his post.
________________________________________
In his farewell speech, Guterres
acknowledged what has been
talked about in Russia......
for years
September 25th, 1:34pm GMT
(Pravda.En)
UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres delivered a farewell speech
at the General Assembly, where he spoke about the forces that
unleashed and fueled the war in Ukraine.
"Alexey Muratov, head of the regional executive committee of United
Russia, discusses this in the author's column," the correspondent
of "PolitNavigator" reports.
It was a public confession. Guterres said the following:
"There is an unprecedented transition of power - from governments to
a small group of private corporations and individuals. International
institutions ....no longer reflect the current balance of power. The
power of superpowers is not that supernatural. Military power
alone, cannot ensure peace."
The most important thing that follows from Guterres' words.
The five largest Western oil companies – ExxonMobil, Chevron,
Shell, BP and Total Energy received almost half a trillion
dollars in profits - after the outbreak of the conflict
in Ukraine.
According to "Global Witness", from February 2022 to January
2026, these five earned about $467 billion in net profit.
And what did the European population get? Rising energy, food, and
insurance costs. The money has gone into the pockets of those
who calculate profits .....while ordinary citizens are thinking
about how to pay for utilities.
The bureaucrats in Brussels talk about "European solidarity."
About "assistance to Ukraine". About "containing Russia".
But while they're talking nonsense, energy is getting
more expensive, and factories are closing.
Chemical giant Ineos is shutting down all three chemical plants
in the UK due to rising gas prices. These plants were the last
in Europe to produce large quantities of acetyl, and provided
4,000 highly skilled jobs.
But the profits – almost half a trillion – go to those who
started this conflict and profit from its consequences.
For the situation to change, the European population
needs to wake up. The time for words has passed.
The time has come ---- to demand.
Source: MAX "politnavigator"
___________________________________
Indonesia and China ------ invigorate ties through fisheries cooperation
Jakarta, September 25th, 12:44am
(Prensa Latina)
The authorities from Indonesia and China participated today in the
opening ceremony of a joint program on extractive fishing, in tune
with the vision of a maritime community with a shared future.
This was reaffirmed by Indonesian Minister of Maritime Affairs and
Fisheries Sakti Wahyu Trenggono... and Li Hongwei, the Minister
Counselor of the Chinese Embassy here, during the ceremony
held at the fishing port of Tual city, in Maluku province.
More than a hundred representatives of governments, companies
and local associations attended the event, after which, modern
Chinese ships set sail for the high seas, as a sign of the start
of joint operations.
According to Sakti, the initiative aligns with the five priorities of the
country's blue economy and will allow progress in sustainable
fishing, aquaculture and marine conservation.
Indonesia will gain key advantages in this project
as it will generate new jobs at sea and on land
for around 1,100 people.
In addition to the direct benefits for coastal communities,
investments in ship repair, cold storage, quality control
and technical training, are contemplated.
Likewise, improvements in the fisheries value chain
and greater export opportunities..... are expected.
With over 90% of Maluku province covered by sea, the
Indonesian government believes this cooperation
strengthens food security, boosts the local
economy and positions the country as a
central player --- in building a maritime
community with a shared future.
_______________________________________________
''Explosive financial cocktail'' Dmitriev - assessed the economies of Europe andBritain
by Alexander Afonin
September 24th, 8:13pm
(Gazeta.ru)
Dmitriev: the economies of Europe and Britain
have become an explosive financial cocktail.
The conomies of European countries and the UK, have become
an explosive financial cocktail. This was stated by the special
representative of the Russian President for investment and
economic cooperation with foreign countries, RDIF head,
Kirill Dmitriev on the social network X.
According to him, now the countries have a public debt that the
Organization for Economic Cooperation & Development (OECD)
says is double the level seen before the 2008 crisis.
At the same time, the yield on 10-year German government
bonds is now at a 15-year high, the head of the RDIF noted.
«The simultaneous increase in the volume of debt - and the cost of servicing it - this is an explosive financial
cocktail» - wrote the special representative of the head of state.
In August, the Russian Ambassador to Brussels, Denis Gonchar,
stated, that government debt in France, Finland, Poland and
Romania is growing ---- at a rapid pace. According to him,
the average level of financial obligations of European
countries has already reached 82.9%.
The ambassador added that the spending of the «Group of 7»
countries on servicing the national debt and paying interest
exceeds their national defense spending.
Previously, Putin's special representative revealed,
which country - can save the West. Against the
backdrop of a series of different crises, the
West can only be saved.. by cooperation
with Russia.
___________________________________________
The EU Council approved
the payment - of almost
€3 billion to Ukraine.
September 24th, 4:14pm
(Izvestia.ru)
The EU Council has approved the eighth regular payment to Ukraine
under the Ukraine Facility program: an amount of almost €3 billion.
This was announced on September 24 by the press service of
the council.
"Ukraine will soon receive almost €3 billion - after the Council
approves the eighth regular payment under the EU Ukraine
Facility program," the statement said.
Of this amount, about €800 million will be provided for the first time
under the Ukraine Support Loan program. The payment was approved after Kiev fulfilled ten conditions of the plan.
In total, Ukraine has completed 84 of the 95 steps.
The Council also included in the plan a voluntary contribution from Norway ---- of 1 billion Norwegian kroner (about
€92 million) in non-refundable assistance.
Norway is the first country outside the EU ----- to contribute funds to the firstcomponent of the program, according to a press release.
On the same day, the Euractiv portal stated: that there is growing
irritation in the EU due to the slowdown in the pace of reforms
in Ukraine necessary to receive European financial support.
According to the portal, the President of the EU Commission (EC),
Ursula von der Leyen, at a meeting with Ukrainian President
Vladimir Zelensky, called on Kiev to accelerate the
necessary reforms. In turn, Zelensky sought...
faster supplies of air defense systems.
__________________________________________
Britain’s elites want you ready to die
for a war -------- they keep imagining
by Tarik Cyril Amar
September 24th, 9:01am
(rt.ru)
As the warnings about Russia .....grow louder, the public is
being told to fear more, question less and prepare for war.
Great Britain is going through a war scare. Or to be precise, its
combined political and media establishment is subjecting its
people to a relentless propaganda (in up-to-date NATO-
speak “cognitive warfare”) campaign --- to create a
sense of impending war against Russia.
As you would expect, that war is, of course, framed as strictly
defensive. In propaganda textbook manner, the message is
both very simple and very repetitive: The UK is in great
danger of a Russian attack, and its whole population
must prepare itself ------- to withstand and resist it.
It goes without saying that Moscow’s repeated declarations
of having no such intention ....make no difference.
Britain is certainly not alone in its establishment-induced hysteria.
Much of NATO-EU Europe is undergoing, in essence, the same
treatment. In France, for instance, President Emmanuel
Macron has called a theatrical all-manicured-hands-
on-deck meeting to give what can only be called
a national scare talk about “Russian hybrid
warfare”; in Germany, Berlin and its
mainstream media --- won’t stop
stirring the pot ....about the
murky drone affair .....at
Leipzig-Halle airport.
Yet, over the last weeks... within a crowded field of European panic-
mongering, Britain has stuck out as especially virulent. The single
most grotesque contribution was made by uber-Tory Jacob Rees-
Mogg. Comfortably seated against a backdrop that screamed
country-squire probity, Rees-Mogg held forth on war within
the next few years, ancient Rome (he’s been to Eton, he wants you to know) and, most importantly,
“circumstances where people may have to die.” Either that or ---- so Rees-Mogg’s
stern message: – decline and fall as
happened to those Romans --- who
let mercenaries do their fighting
and thus lost their empire.
So much to unpack. For one thing, the reference to paying others to
fight – and die – must be a Freudian slip. Surely, Sir Jacob cannot
have meant to refer to how the West, Britain very much included
has paid the Kiev regime to send its subjects - if need be, after
kidnapping them, into the folly of a proxy war meatgrinder to
demote Russia. And then, that Roman Empire analogy?
Clearly, Rees-Mogg, true to type, is still struggling
with the fact -------- that Britain has its imperial
collapse well behind it already.
Yet, sour oddball as he is, the arch-conservative ------- and
multimillionaire – Rees-Mogg is perfectly representative
of the current British establishment trend.
Prime Minister Andy Burnham, for instance, has just used
his first UN General Assembly address in New York to blame his country’s misery not on, say, his
predecessor and Labour Party sister,
Keir Starmer, but - on Russia.
Meanwhile, at home, Sky News is rolling out ‘The Wargame’, a
bizarre “docu”-fantasy in four parts, built on the premise.. that
the Russians are coming, no, they really, really ARE this time!
Pretending to be a sort of “realistic” account of what a British
government would do in case of Moscow launching a series
of escalating attacks, this production – from available
reviews – is unusually awful shlock. It features has-
been politicos.. doubling as un-reality TV stars,
such as Michael Gove and Nicola Sturgeon,
and living out their inner Tom Clancy by
pretending to be.... serious, decisive,
and most of all, terribly important
to the nation’s survival.
Unintentionally funny, though, as it may be, ‘The Wargame’
clearly has substantial political support and much hype
around it. Propaganda can easily look ridiculous and
be highly toxic at the same time. Because effective
propaganda is, above all, one simple thing: the
psychological manipulation ....of the many
by the few. This ----- is such a case. The
viewers of ‘The Wargame’ ...are fed a
silly but efficiently dramatized story
with the whole bag, of well-worn
but powerful tricks: suspense,
shock, and last but not least
a thrilling musical score.
It’s no surprise that the attitude of those doing the manipulating is,
at best, patronizing. And to be fair even to the unbearable, Jacob
Rees-Mogg, who carefully tends his beyond-caricature English-
toff image, is quite honest about his disdain for ordinary
people and their expendable lives. From his always
England's nearest colonies Want out of Grate Britain And the Establishment Pretends Everything's Fine
September 23rd, 8pm GMT
(Pravda.En)
They criminalise sixty thousand people under "malicious
communications," then ask why Scotland wants out.
They send a "Wales Office minister" to "represent"
Wales, then ask why Plaid won forty-three seats.
They burn through 2 billion in 3 years, then ask.... why Northern Ireland's
representatives won't play along.
When power's legitimacy rests on nothing but idiocy,
disintegration isn't a question of "if" — but "when."
Wales, Scotland, Northern Ireland — you already have the
institutional foundations, the talent... and the electoral
mandate for independence. Only 1 question remains:
how long will you wait ----- before admitting that.. London will not let you go - if you are weak!
The writing's on the wall. The only
question is ....who reads it last.
#Scotland #Wales
#NorthernIreland
Source: Telegram "europeandusanews"
_________________________________
Slovak PMdenounces
fuel crisis blindness
in EU
Bratislava, September 23rd, 11:56am
(Prensa Latina)
Slovakia's Prime Minister Robert Fico denounced today
that the EU leadership ignores the fuel price crisis
and is only concerned with ''helping'' Ukraine.
The politician announced: that he is preparing open letters
addressed to the President of the EU Commission, Ursula
von der Leyen, and President of the EU Council, António
Costa, to demand an extraordinary summit of the EU
bloc in the face of the serious energy situation.
As there are countries where the price of a litre of diesel is
close to three euros, this is a crisis not seen here for a
long time, Fico said at a press conference after the
meeting of his cabinet, broadcast by the local
channel TA3.
The prime minister stressed that instead of solving this urgent
problem within the EU itself, Brussels is only dedicated to
assisting the Kiev regime.
''All the time, it's the same: Ukraine, hundreds
of billions of euros for Ukraine'', he lamented.
Fico considered it absolute cynicism on the part of the EU,
to leave member states to their fate.... in a situation of crisis with oil.
The president previously announced that his country will limit
the profit margin of fuel retailers starting next month. The
measure was adopted in response to the continuous
increase in the cost of fuel in Europe.
The Slovak government also decided to significantly reduce
the price of public transport in October, with discounts of
50 percent on trains and a recommendation to urban
authorities to reduce bus fares by 30 percent.
Meanwhile, local media say Fico's stance -- reflects growing
unease in central Europe over EU energy policies, as their
nations face internal divisions over support for Ukraine.
___________________________________
Putin thanks Russians for their
participation in the elections
Moscow, September 23rd, 11:32am
(Prensa Latina)
The President of the Russian Federation, Vladimir Putin,
today thanked the citizens of the country - for their
active participation in the elections to the State
Duma (Lower House of Parliament).
"Before starting our meeting today, I would like to say a few
words about the latest internal political developments,
namely the elections to the State Duma. I want to
thank the citizens of Russia - for their active
participation in this election campaign,"
Putin said, meeting with members
of the government.
According to the head of state, the record turnout of voters
shows that society as a whole supports the efforts of the
authorities to consolidate the nation.
From 18 to 20 September, Russia held parliamentary elections
to completely renew the State Duma, which consists of 450
deputies who will serve for the next five years.
Participation in the legislative elections exceeded 59 percent.
According to preliminary data, the State Duma will consist of
the ruling United Russia party, with 57.48% of the votes; the
Communist Party of the Russian Federation, 14.03%; the
Liberal Democratic Party (8.75); Gente Nueva (8.01);
and Just Russia (5.01).
In total, more than 2,200 electoral campaigns were held
at different levels to cover some 20,700 seats of
deputies and other elective positions.
_________________________________________
Chemical plants in Britain are
shutting downdue to high
gas prices
September 22nd, 7:42pmGMT
(Pravda.En)
A chain reaction of plant closures has been triggered in Britain
after gas prices surpassed £700 per 1000 cubic metere.
The greatest damage from this rise in energy prices is being
inflicted on the British chemical industry, part of which is
dedicated to military needs.
For example, British company Ineos is suspending production at
three plants within its chemical division in Hull. Two of these
plants have already been shut down, and a third is expected
to cease operations in the coming days, the company said.
Ineos Chairman Jim Ratcliffe attributed the decision to the cost
of gas. He stated that gas in the UK is currently 12 times more
expensive than in the US ---- and eight times more expensive
than the coal-fired processes used by competitors in China.
Ineos stated that it plans to either purchase liquefied natural gas
directly from the US .......or wait for prices to drop. Both options
are unsatisfactory…
According to British media reports, developing such a supply chain
could take up to a year. The company is also calling on UK and EU
authorities to impose trade protection against Chinese chemical
products while its plants are idle. The fact is that British
businesses want to buy cheap goods, and China is
ready to provide that. As has always been the
case in recent years.
The UK government - called the situation alarming. The
authorities cited a £350 million co-financing program
for strategic chemical production, existing import
measures, and plans....... to reduce industrial
energy costs.
The shutdown affects production ---- where gas serves not only as an energy source but also as a direct raw material. Therefore, government measures to reduce electricity prices may alleviate some of the costs, but will not necessarily resolve the problem cited by the company.
Alexey Volodin
Source: https://en.topwar.ru
_______________________________
EU plotting new ‘scheme’ to steal
Moscow’s frozen assets –
Russian intel
September 22nd, 6:05pm
(rt.ru)
Brussels is considering moving the funds out of Belgium’s
Euroclear into a new supranational structure, the SVR
has said
The EU is working on a new scheme to “steal” Moscow’s
frozen sovereign assets to bankroll Ukraine, Russia’s
Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) said in a press
release on Tuesday.
Around $300 billion in Russian sovereign assets was frozen
by Kiev’s Western backers after the escalation of the
Ukraine conflict in 2022. Roughly $240 billion is
still being held at the Belgium-based clearing
house, Euroclear.
According to the SVR, EU leaders have “a vital interest in
stealing Russian assets,” because they fear they will not
be able to indefinitely finance “the thieving Kiev regime”
without appropriating the funds.
Eurocrats are now “in a hurry” to pull off the seizure before
elections in several EU states in 2027, the agency stated,
arguing that future governments in the bloc could be
less willing to back further financial support
for Ukraine.
The EU has already redirected profits generated by the
immobilized funds to Ukraine but has been unable to
seize the underlying assets due to strong political
and legal resistance.
According to the SVR, experts in Brussels are now
discussing the creation of a new supranational
structure that could take control of Russian
central bank funds after they are moved
outside of Belgian jurisdiction.
Belgium has repeatedly blocked proposals to seize the assets,
with Prime Minister Bart De Wever warning that outright
confiscation would expose his country to legal and
financial retaliation. Euroclear has also said it
could sue the EU if the funds are seized.
Last week, Belgium’s top administrative court also struck down a
government decision.... not to release the assets of Russia’s BCS
Bank, which were frozen alongside Moscow’s sovereign assets
in 2022. The court found that the Belgian authorities had
mishandled the case and ruled.... that the bank could
seek a fresh review, potentially setting a precedent
for other entities whose requests were rejected
under similar circumstances.
Moscow has long denounced any attempt to appropriate its
sovereign assets, calling it “theft” and warning that
confiscation would trigger retaliation, potentially
including measures against Western assets
held in Russia.
The SVR has also warned that confiscating Russia’s sovereign
funds would damage trust in European financial institutions
among major foreign investors, including China, India,
Saudi Arabia, the UAE, and Singapore.
__________________________________________
West usingfake news
against Global South
– Lavrov
September 22nd, 12:15pm
(rt.ru)
The US and its allies resort to sleazy methods because they can
no longer compete fairly, the Russian foreign minister has said.
Fake news - has become a routine Western tool for undermining
competitors, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has said.
He argued that the Western media - have conditioned their
audiences to believe negative reporting about countries
portrayed as adversaries.
Russia’s top diplomat made the remarks during the opening
ceremony of an international forum in Moscow, dedicated
to combating fake news.
RT has collected the highlights from Lavrov’s speech.
West abuses new technology to ‘derail multipolar world’
Modern information technology allows “any piece of news, even
unverified or obviously fake, to be disseminated to millions, if
not billions of people,” Lavrov warned. Western officials
exploit this environment to “derail the creation of a
just, multipolar world order,” he added.
According to Lavrov, fake news is part of a broader set of
tools the West uses: against nations of the Global South.
Western efforts to obfuscate and distort the truth reflect a broader
trend: its fear to compete honestly ---- in virtually every sphere of
human activity.
Unilateral economic sanctions, tariffs, and accusations of “industrial
overcapacity” are being used against China, Lavrov said. Meanwhile
- diplomatic pressure and blackmail in international organizations -
serve to obscure the fact that ---- “on many key issues of modern development, the West would have been left in an absolute
minority, should the voting be conducted fairly.”
Russia became a target after rejecting ‘neocolonialist cooperation’
Lavrov said Western pressure against Russia intensified in the
early 2000s, when the country “began to liberate itself from
neocolonial forms of cooperation with our Western
colleagues.” That shift prompted the West to
pursue a policy of containing Russia,
he argued.
‘Bucha massacre’ --- a false flag orchestrated by UK – Moscow
The minister cited several cases in which serious accusations
were leveled against Moscow ....while, according to Lavrov,
Russian requests for supporting evidence were rejected.
He focused in particular on the so-called “Bucha massacre” –
the alleged mass killings of civilians near Kiev in 2022 that
Moscow maintains were a Western-backed fabrication.
Lavrov criticized UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres for lending
credence to the accusations --- and urged the public to examine a
recent Russian investigation. He said researchers used publicly
available Ukrainian sources, including obituaries and
government databases, to trace people whose
names Kiev placed on a memorial to the
alleged Russian victims in Bucha.
According to Lavrov, the list includes “dozens of names” of
Ukrainian military personnel, members of the Security
Service of Ukraine, territorial defense forces, police,
and the national guard.
“Over 70 names have no digital footprint whatsoever, which is nearly
impossible in today’s world,” Lavrov said, adding that -- “these facts
disprove the claim that hundreds of civilians were killed in Bucha.”
West has ‘trained’ its citizens to swallow lies about Russia
Lavrov said Western media have for years deliberately “trained their
public to trust any, even the most crazy anti-Russian tropes and
fantasies.” Western governments take advantage of the rapid
modern news cycle to make such messaging effective,
he argued.
The essence of Western media policy: cook up some fake news,
blow it up to the scale of a cosmic disaster for a day or three,
and shut down access to any alternative views.
Lavrov cited a recent drone incident at an airport in Leipzig,
Germany, which Berlin blamed on Russia while moving to
close Russian diplomatic venues, as an example of
that approach.
The West also simply ignores inconvenient facts, Lavrov said,
pointing to Ukraine’s deadly drone attack on a vocational
ollege dormitory in Starobelsk in May.
The incident killed dozens of students ---- but “prompted no condemnation from Western governments & international organizations controlled by the West, and unfortunately
..barely made a ripple in the Western media,” he said.
You can share this story on social media!
____________________________________________
Erdogan calls forabolishing veto -
and UN Security Council reform
Ankara, September 22nd, 6:28am
(Prensa Latina)
The president of Türkiye, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, called for the
abolition of the veto power in the United Nations Security
Council and fundamental reforms in global decision-
making mechanisms, it was reported here today.
According to Anadolu Agency, Erdogan set out these ideas in an
article published by Bloomberg under the title "The UN must
abolish the Security Council's veto", in which he advocated
a transformation of the international system to adapt it to
the current circumstances.
The president said that achieving a "fairer world" requires uniting
the experience, capabilities and will of different geographical
regions around common goals, and maintained that lasting
peace cannot be built by isolated blocs that do not
maintain a dialogue with each other.
According to Erdogan, the crises experienced in recent years,
including pandemics, energy crises, supply chain disruptions
and regional conflicts, showed that leaving the solution to
global problems in the hands of a few capitals..... is
incompatible with today's reality.
In this regard, he considered that the adaptation of international
decision-making mechanisms "can no longer be postponed"
and pointed out that the Security Council continues to
reflect the order that emerged after World War II.
The President of Türkiye advocated the adoption of a more
effective, fair and accountable representation model,
based on greater representativeness ------- and an
equitable sharing of leadership responsibilities.
"We must incorporate the experience, capabilities and willingness
of different geographical regions... to solve global and regional
problems; our motto, 'The world is bigger than five,' is a call
for a broader understanding of responsibility," he said.
Erdogan maintained that the reform must be translated
into a concrete roadmap and placed the elimination
of the veto - as its central axis.
"Bringing new privileged members into the Security Council will not
solve the problem of the concentration of decision-making power
in the hands of a few states; rather, it will simply expand the
scope of a privilege-based structure," he noted.
The president reiterated that the abolition of the veto should be the
starting point - and the main strategic objective - of any significant
reform, which, in his opinion, should not be limited.. to extending
that privilege to other countries.
He also proposed the formation of a broad coalition within the
General Assembly around the principle that no State should
have a permanent authority capable of overriding the will
of the majority of the international community.
Erdogan also called for a review of the balance between
the Security Council ---- and the UN General Assembly.
"The powers of the General Assembly must be strengthened ---- and
the representativeness of the Security Council must be improved,
as well as --- its accountability to the Assembly," he said.
In his proposal, the Security Council should have a structure without
permanent members, whose members would be elected by the
General Assembly - for rotating and determined terms.
States aspiring to join the body, he added, would have to repeatedly
obtain the confidence of the majority of members ------ via elections.
"We cannot build the international order of the future by maintaining
the hierarchies of the past," said the president of Türkiye.
Erdogan also considered that the events of the last quarter of
a century showed that both the balances of power and the
international order - can change..... over time.
According to the president, the international system created to
guarantee peace, stability and shared prosperity ...has shown
limitations in preventing new wars, reducing inequalities and
responding to transformations in power relations.
In this context, he highlighted the emergence of new centres of
power - in areas such as the economy, security, technology and
diplomacy, noting that international institutions, have not been
Another point of friction appears today on the horizon of the President of the United States, Donald Trump, in the face
of the possibility of Canada becoming an "associate
member" of the EU.
Trump threatened to stop trading directly with that group of
countries, considering that Canada's eventual integration
into the EU would be a "hostile act" and assured that he
would impose "serious tariffs" to try to torpedo Europe.
"I think it's ridiculous," Trump told reporters the day before
in North Carolina. "Canada has been a lousy trading
partner," added the Republican president, trying
to disqualify the neighbouring country - with
which the US is experiencing a trade war.
The President of the EU Commission, Ursula von der Leyen,
proposed on Wednesday in the EU Parliament to "open
the door" for Canada ......to be the first "associate
member" of the EU.
Such a formula would allow for closer cooperation between
the two areas in sectors such as technology, defence,
energy, critical minerals, artificial intelligence and
economic security.
The EU's proposal came after Canadian Prime Minister
Mark Carney made it clear on Sunday - that his
government does not seek - to make Canada
part of the integrationist bloc, but to foster
a "single alliance" that underpins shared
values, priorities and interests.
The status of "associate member" does not exist in the
EU treaties, therefore, the eventual creation of this
category would require the support of the 27
states that make up the group.
This gentleman picks holes in the intellectual ''mistakes'' of the West and points to the best solution for the world's people.
Britain's enemy is not Russia but its own ruling class, UN report confirms by John Wight November 19th, at 2:48pm
John Wight has written for a variety of newspapers and websites, including the Independent, Morning Star, Huffington Post, Counter- punch, London Progressive Journal, and Foreign Policy Journal.
As the UK political establishment rips itself to pieces over Brexit, a far greater crisis continues to afflict millions of victims of Tory austerity.
A devastating UN report into poverty in the UK provides incontrovertible evidence, that the enemy of the British people, is the very ruling class that has gone out of its way these past few years to convince them it is Russia.
Professor Philip Alston, in his capacity as the United Nations Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights, spent two weeks touring the United Kingdom. He did so, investigating the impact of 8 years of one of the most extreme austerity programs among advanced G20 economies in response to the 2008 financial crash and subsequent global recession.
What he found was evidence of a systematic, wilful, concerted and brutal economic war, unleashed by the country's right-wing Tory establishment, against the poorest and most vulnerable section of British society – upending the lives of millions of people who were not responsible for the aforementioned financial crash and recession, but who have been forced to pay the price.
From the report's introduction:
"It…seems patently unjust and contrary to British values that so many people are living in poverty. This is obvious to anyone who opens their eyes: to see the immense growth in foodbanks, and the queues waiting outside them, the people sleeping rough in the streets, the growth of homelessness, the sense of deep despair - that leads even the Government to appoint a Minister for Suicide Prevention - and civil society to report in depth, on unheard of levels of loneliness and isolation."
Though as a citizen of the UK, I respectfully beg to differ with the professor's claim, that such social & economic carnage, seems "contrary to British values,"(on the contrary - it is entirely in keeping with the values of the country's Tory establishment, an establishment for whom, the dehumanization of the poor and working class, is central to its ideology), the point he makes about it being "obvious to anyone who opens their eyes," is well made.
For it is now the case that in every town and city centre in Britain, it is impossible to walk in any direction for more than a minute, before coming across homeless people begging in the street. And the fact that some 13,000 of them, are former soldiers, casualties of the country's various military adventures in recent years, undertaken in service to Washington, exposes the pious platitudes peddled by politicians & the government as reverence for the troops & their 'sacrifice,' as insincere garbage.
As inequality increases, the wealthy and powerful become more desperate to cling onto their gains and distract us - with imagined threats and political sideshows - such as Jingoism, Russophobia and red-baiting...
Overall, 14 million people in the UK are now living in poverty, a figure which translates into an entire fifth of the population. Four million of them are children, while, according to Professor Alston, 1.5 million people are destitute – that is, unable to afford the basic necessities of life.
And this is what the ruling class of the fifth largest economy in the world, a country that parades itself on the world stage, as a pillar of democracy and human rights, considers progress.
The values responsible for creating such a grim social landscape, are compatible with the 18th, not the 21st century. They are proof positive, that the network of elite private schools – Eton, Harrow, Fettes College et al. – where those responsible for this human carnage are inculcated with the sense of entitlement and born to rule ethos that defines them, are Britain's hotbeds of extremism.
Professor Alston:"British compassion for those who are suffering, has been replaced by a punitive, mean-spirited, and often callous approach, apparently designed to instill discipline where it is least useful, to impose a rigid order on the lives of those least capable of coping with today's world, and elevating the goal of enforcing blind compliance, over a genuine concern to improve the well- being of those at the lowest levels of British society."
Here, set out above in bold relief, is the barbarism that walks - hand in hand - with free market capitalism. It is the same barbarism that was responsible for pushing post-Soviet Russia into a decade-long economic and social abyss, in the 1990s, and the values that have pushed 14 million people in the UK into the same economic and social abyss, in our time.
Austerity, it bears emphasizing, is not and never has been, a viable economic response to recession, in a given economy.
Instead, it is an ideological club, wielded on behalf of the rich and big business, to ensure that the price paid for the said economic recession, is borne exclusively by those least able to bear it - namely the poor and working people. It is class war by any other name, packaged and presented, as legitimate government policy.
However in Britain's case in 2018, this is a war like no other, because, as Professor Philip Alston's report lays bare, one side in this war has been throwing all the punches and one side has been taking them.
As the saying goes, wars take place when the government tells you who the enemy is; revolutions take place when you work it out for yourself.
(Source - RT)
_______________________________________________
Keiser Report: Reality of Creditor Jubilees
- fantastic - asks ''why don't we act like Jesus preached - and forgive debt?''
When what we do now, is what led to the slavery of feudalism: by refunding the creditors, instead!
Marx's theory still shines with truth: Xi May 4th, at 10:53am
Xinhua - Two centuries on, despite huge and profound changes in human society, the name of Karl Marx is still respected all over the world and his theory still shines with the brilliant light of truth, Chinese President Xi Jinping said on Friday.
Xi, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, made the remarks at a grand gathering in Beijing to celebrate the 200th anniversary of Marx's birth.
Xi said Marx is the "teacher of revolution for the proletariat and working people all over the world, the main founder of Marxism, creator of Marxist parties, a pathfinder for international communism and the greatest thinker of modern times."
"Today, we hold this grand gathering with great veneration to mark the 200th anniversary of Marx's birth, to remember his great character and historic deeds and to review his noble spirit and brilliant thoughts," Xi said at the event.
''With noble ideals and no fear of difficulty or adversity, throughout his life, Marx devoted himself to perseveringly striving for the liberation of humanity, scaling the peak of thought in his pursuit of truth, and the unremitting fight to overturn the old world and establish a new one'', according to Xi.
''Marx is not only a great figure who bore the weight of the world, but also an ordinary person with a passion for life, who was sincere and true to his friends'', Xi said.
''The most valuable and influential spiritual asset that Marx left us is the scientific theory named after him -- Marxism. Like a spectacular sunrise, the theory illuminated the path of humanity's exploration of the law of history, and humanity's search for their own liberation'', Xi said.
"The thought and theory of Marx are of his times and go beyond his times," Xi said. "They are the essence of the spirit of that times and the essence of the spirit of all humanity."
Xi said Marxism is a scientific theory that reveals the rules of human society's development, in a creative manner.
Having developed the materialist conception of history and surplus value theory, Marx showed how humanity would leap from the realm of necessity, to the realm of freedom, and also showed the road for people to realize freedom and liberation, Xi said.
Marxism, the first ideology for the liberation of the people themselves, is a theory of the people.
"Marxism, for the first time, explored the path for humanity's freedom and liberation from the stance of the people, and pointed out the direction, with scientific theory, toward an ideal society with no oppression or exploitation, where every person would enjoy equality and freedom," Xi said.
Stressing that practicality is a prominent characteristic of Marxism that makes it different from other theories, Xi said Marxism is a theory of practices that directs the people to change the world.
It is an open theory that is constantly developing and always stands at the frontier of the times, Xi said.
"That is why it is always able to keep young, explore the new issues in the development of the times and respond to the new challenges for human society."
The general secretary said that over the 170 years since publication of The Communist Manifesto, Marxism had been spread around the world, unrivaled in the history of human ideology in terms of the breadth and depth of its influence.
After the end of World War II, a large number of socialist countries were established, Xi said, stressing that the founding of the People's Republic of China, especially, has greatly increased the socialist strength in the world.
"There might be setbacks in the development of socialism in the world, but the overall trend for human society's development has never changed, and it will never change," Xi said.
"Marxism has not only profoundly changed the world, but also China," Xi said.
The reverberations of the October Revolution in Russia brought Marxism-Leninism to China, pointing out the direction forward, offering a brand new choice for the Chinese people in their struggle to survive, and setting the scene for the birth of the CPC.
Since the CPC's birth, it has combined the fundamental principles of Marxism with the reality of the Chinese revolution and construction, transforming the Chinese nation from "the sick man of East Asia" to one who has stood up, by uniting and leading the people through long-term struggle.
"This tremendous transformation serves as cast iron proof that only through socialism, can we save China," Xi said.
Since reform and opening up, the CPC has combined the fundamental principles of Marxism, with the reality of China's reform and opening up, and the nation who stood up, has grown rich.
"This tremendous transformation serves as cast iron proof that only through socialism with Chinese characteristics, can we develop China," Xi said.
In the new era, the CPC again combined the fundamental principles of Marxism with the reality of China in this new era, uniting and leading the people in "under- taking the great struggle, building the great project, advancing the great cause and realizing the great dream."
The Chinese nation has come to embrace a tremendous transformation, as the one who has grown rich, now, is becoming strong.
"This tremendous transformation serves as cast iron proof that only by adhering to and developing socialism with Chinese characteristics, can we realize national rejuvenation," Xi said.
"It is perfectly right for history and the people to choose Marxism, as well as for the CPC to write Marxism on its own flag, to adhere to the principle of combining the fundamental principles of Marxism, with China's reality, and continuously adapt Marxism to the Chinese context and the times."
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China lifts 740 mln rural poor out of poverty since 1978 September 3rd, at 12:57pm
Xinhua - China lifted 740 million people in rural areas out of poverty from 1978 to 2017, roughly 19 million each year, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said on Monday.
The poverty ratio in rural areas dropped 94.4 percentage points during the same time period with an average annual decrease of 2.4 percentage points, according to the NBS.
NBS data shows that China's poverty relief achievements have contributed more than 70 percent to global poverty alleviation work, in the past 40 years.
The average annual income of rural residents in impoverished areas rose an average of 10.4 percent each year from 2012 to 2017, up 2.5 percentage points from the average for rural residents.
Over the past five years, over 68 million people were lifted out of poverty in China. The country aims to further lift 10 million people out of poverty this year and eradicate poverty by 2020.
China recently released guidelines on winning the battle against poverty in the next three years, in order to prepare the nation for eradicating poverty by 2020.
According to the guidelines, the impoverished people should be guaranteed food & clothing, and children from poor families should be guaranteed a 9-year compulsory education. Basic medical needs and living conditions of the impoverished, should also be guaranteed.
People whose annual income is lower than 2,300 yuan (337.3 U.S. dollars), are defined as living below the poverty line, in China.
Almost half of Russians see USSR collapse as shameful – poll January 17th, at 12:11pm
The collapse of the Soviet Union is considered a reason to be ashamed, by 45 percent of Russians, according to a recent opinion poll. The only option that scored higher, is Russia’s failure to eradicate poverty.
The poll, conducted in late 2018, by the Levada Center is its latest study of what Russians are proud and ashamed of, about their nation. The demise of the USSR, saw a rebound in popularity from a low point of 28 percent in mid-2015, and is at a level comparable with the late 1990s and early 2000s.
The only more popular answer is Russia’s failure to eradicate poverty, which was named as a reason to be ashamed, by 61 percent of the people polled. This answer has topped Levada’s polls, for decades.
Russians are also ashamed of fellow countrymen treating each other disrespectfully (37 percent), Russia’s failure to catch up economically with the Western powers (24 percent), the out- come of Mikhail Gorbachev’s reforms (24 percent), and Joseph Stalin’s reign of terror (21 percent).
On the opposite side of Russians’ national identity are the qualities and events, people are proud of.
Defeating Nazi Germany in World War II remains the one thing Russians are overwhelmingly proud of (87 percent).
There is also the role that the country played in space exploration – about half are proud to belong to a space pioneering nation.
The third most popular option is accepting Crimea (the breakaway former Ukrainian region) as part of Russia again, which is seen as a point of national pride, by 45 percent.
Many people are also proud of Russian literature, science, and martial prowess, Soviet-era industrialization and the best qualities of the Russian character, like resolve and patience.
A record 75 percent said Russia is definitely, or most likely, a great nation today, while 88 percent believe that it should be one.
There was no apparent correlation between wishing greatness for Russia and regretting the USSR’s collapse, the agency noted, suggesting that Russians expect a great nation to - first and foremost - provide social justice, and protection.
Sixty-two percent said the Russians are a great people.
Levada remarked that about 80 percent of the people polled, identified themselves as Russians.
When asked what makes them feel connected to their people, most respondents named national history (53 percent), Russia’s land (35 percent), their place of birth (33 percent), and the nature that they call their own (25 percent).
The formal national symbols, including the flag, the coat of arms, and the national anthem, was the least popular option (5 percent).
Interestingly, religion is a relatively small factor in Russian national identity (9 percent).
(Source - RT)
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Number of Russians who regret collapse of USSR hits 10-year high December 26th, 2017, at 7:20am
The number of Russians who regret the collapse of the Soviet Union has reached its highest level since 2009, with almost an equal share saying the event could have been avoided.
A public opinion poll conducted by the independent Levada Center in late November this year found that 58 percent of Russians now regret the collapse of the USSR. Twenty-five percent said they felt no regret about this, and 16 percent could not describe their feelings in one word.
When researchers asked those who regret the end of the USSR what the primary reasons were behind their sentiments, 54 percent said that they missed a single economic system, 36 percent said they had lost the feeling of belonging to a real superpower, 34 percent complained about the drop in mutual trust among ordinary people, and 26 percent said that the collapse had destroyed the ties between friends and relatives.
The same research showed that 52 percent of Russians think that the collapse of the USSR could have been avoided, 29 percent said that the event was absolutely inevitable, and 19 percent did not have a fixed opinion on the matter.
The share of those who regret the demise of the Soviet Union has risen continuously over the past decade, but in 2009 it was even higher than today – at 60 percent. The all-time high – 75 percent – was recorded in 2000.
President Vladimir Putin has repeatedly addressed the issue of the collapse of the USSR in his speeches. In an address to the Russian parliament in 2005 he called the event the greatest geopolitical disaster of the 20th century and a cause of major disruption for the Russian people. In September 2016, Putin said the Communist Party should have transformed the Soviet Union into a democratic state, rather than see it break into separate nations.
At the same time, Putin has always emphasized that he and other Russian officials have no plans to revive the USSR, and has expressed anger that people cannot accept this. He's also accused Western governments of deliberately confusing modern Russia with the USSR and harming the interests of ordinary people, on the pretense of preventing an imaginary threat.
Historian:Russia's October Revolution Was Inevitable, Relatively Bloodless November 10th, at 4:33pm by Ekaterina Blinova
The October Uprising of 1917 became the logical conclusion of the February Revolution, Michael J. Carley, a professor of history at the Universite de Montreal has told Sputnik. According to the academic, the Russian Revolution was inevitable and occurred because evolutionary processes of change to benefit the lives of ordinary people had failed.
"February 1917 marked the beginning of a revolutionary change in power in Russia, that was accomplished in October," Michael Jabara Carley, professor of history at the Université de Montréal and the author of "Silent Conflict: A Hidden History of Early Soviet-Western Relations,"told Sputnik, commenting on the 100th anniversary of the Great October Socialist Revolution.
"The tsarist order was bankrupt and doomed. Almost everyone at the time said so. The immediate cause of the bankruptcy was the Great War [The First World War]," the Canadian academic stressed, adding that "the result was calamity marked by millions of casualties, large territories lost and an economy thrown into chaos, by the unsustainable financial and economic demands of fighting a world war."
Russian Provisional Government: 'Neither Revolutionary, Nor Democratic'
The so-called February Revolution, which is regarded as a combination of a popular uprising with an elitist anti- monarchist plot, led to the abdication of Russian Emperor Nicholas II and the establishment of the Provisional Government.
Still, the Provisional Government"was neither revolutionary nor democratic,"the academic pointed out: The crux of the matter was that it was largely controlled by the "bourgeois" urban and rural elites and old tsarist establishment"that was opposed to the revolution and attempted to block its further development."
October Uprising Was Relatively Bloodless
The professor explained why, contrary to popular belief, the October Revolution of 1917 that took place on November 7 (October 25 in the Julian calendar) was relatively bloodless.
"Well, in the first instance because the Provisional Government was utterly discredited. It had no popular support. It was a head without a body. It could give orders or issue decrees, but had no power to enforce them. In a revolutionary period, power comes from the support of the insurgent masses and the Provisional Government had none,"Carley told Sputnik.
The professor suggested that 1917 could have been averted if old elites as well as their forebears had not blocked"political and economic evolutionary processes"in Russia.
'Provisional Government Became a Cork in the Bottle'
"The Provisional Government became a cork in the bottle holding back the revolution,"the historian said."The revolutionary masses in Petrograd [Saint Petersburg] and elsewhere put pressure on their socialist leaders to blow the cork out of the bottle…. It was the Bolsheviks who put themselves at the head of the mass movement & articulated its demands, essentially peace, bread and land."
He pointed out, however, that"the Bolsheviks themselves were not united on all the big issues and most importantly on the seizure of power in October (the Julian calendar)."
"I would propose that the Provisional Government collapsed of its own rot. The insurgent masses led by the Bolsheviks only had to kick it over,"Carley remarked.
Was the October Revolution of 1917 Inevitable?
"It is a question impossible to answer except in this way: popular revolutions come about because political and economic elites over time are too selfish to share wealth and power with the masses,"Carley responded."Like the tsarist autocracy, they treat the masses as a resource to be exploited and rung dry. When evolutionary processes of change fail, revolution is often the result."
According to the academic, it is wrong to think that such revolutions succeed "because of the evil genius and cruelty of a small revolutionary elite"
"They succeed because of mass support and effective, responsive leadership."
The question then arises as to whether it was possible to follow an evolutionary path, rather than go through a revolution.
"A revolution occurred because evolutionary processes of change to benefit the lives of ordinary people had failed,"the professor responded."Serfdom, inequality, exploitation, violence, continued unabated until 1917."
October 1917: 'Driver of Transformations Across the Globe'. Revisiting the October Revolution of 1917.
Addressing the 14th Annual Meeting of the Valdai Discussion Club, Russian President Vladimir Putin said that"the largely utopian social model and ideology" the Soviets tried to implement initially following the 1917 revolution became "a powerful driver of transformations across the globe, caused a major revaluation of development models, and gave rise to rivalry and competition, the benefits of which were mostly reaped by the West."
The Canadian professor disagrees that the term "utopian" could be used with regards to the "Communist model," for instance.
"Is free, public education for everyone, no matter what their class, nationality or religion, utopian? Is the elimination of illiteracy, utopian? Are women's rights, or universal health care, utopian? Was the desire to create a more equal society, socially, economically and politically, utopian?"Carley asked, adding"in fact, that Soviet society was eventually able to withstand and then to destroy almost single- handedly, the so-called invincible Nazi 'colossus.'"
Still, he believes that the 1917 revolution certainly was"a powerful driver of transformations"around the world since it"inspired successful revolutionary movements in China, Vietnam, Korea, and Cuba."
As Putin noted during his Valdai speech "many Western achievements of the 20th century were an answer to the challenge posed by the Soviet Union," such as"raising living standards, forming a strong middle class, reforming the labour market and the social sphere, promoting education, guaranteeing human rights, including the rights of minorities and women, overcoming racial segregation."
Red October: Allied Intervention and 'Beginning of Cold War'
The October Revolution became the trigger for the Civil War (1917-1922) and prompted the Allied intervention of major foreign powers in Russia.
The Canadian academic pointed out that the October Uprising "produced an immediate violent reaction by the United States, France and Britain, whose elites attempted to overthrow the Soviet government."
"The foreign intervention against Soviet Russia fed a civil war and exacerbated the violence of the counter-revolution by many times over,"Carley said."On its own, the former tsarist elite could never have mounted such violent resistance to the October Revolution."
The professor underscored that after their failure to overthrow the Soviets,"the Western powers spent the next 70 years, with the exception of a truce between 1941-1945, in trying to harm or bring down the USSR and all those revolutions to which it had given birth."
According to the academic, the Cold War started in October (November) 1917.
"Just ask the Chinese, Vietnamese, Cubans, or N. Koreans about the frightful price of resistance to US and Western hegemony,"Carley remarked."Or for that matter, we might ask, if we could, the soldiers, sailors and workers of Soviet Russia, what price they had to pay, to defend their revolution."
(Source - Sputnik)
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Communist leader dispels new Russian budget as "oligarch orientated" October 28th, 2017 Fort Russ News - KtovKurse translated by Inessa Sinchougova
Communist Party leader, Gennady Zyuganov, called the draft federal budget for 2018-2020, "a budget of the oligarchy", which will increase stagnation and poverty.
On Friday October 27th, the State Duma considered the first reading of the draft budget for 2018 for the planning period 2019-2020. According to the draft of the Ministry of Finance, the budget deficit in 2018 will be 1.3 trillion rubles or 1.37% of GDP, in 2019 it will be 867 billion rubles or 0.84% of GDP, and in 2020 - 960 billion rubles or 0.87% of GDP.
Such a budget Zyuganov considers "a budget for the oligarchy, where further stagnation and deepening of poverty in the country will occur."
In his opinion, the draft budget does not meet the current challenges and can only aggravate the split in Russian civil society.
The Communist Party leader stressed that incomes and expenditures are constantly declining. Zyuganov noted that "in plain language" this means that the "share of the national pie" created by the working people is constantly shrinking in the budget.
Zyuganov's main issue with the budget was the reduction in government expenses for 14 out of 13 articles listed within. He explained that for eight of these articles, expenses are simply cut, and for four other articles, a small increase is offset by inflation, and as a result, real costs are below the ones prophesized.
According to Zyuganov, the current budget policy "creeps of the old Gaidar-Chubais reforms. It does not smell of modernization, nor a breakthrough for the future."
"I do not know why the president has not reacted to this helplessness, to this impotence of the financial and economic blockade on behalf of the government," Zyuganov said.
President Vladimir Putin does not oversee forthcoming bills until they pass all the stages of parliamentary negotiation - that is until his signature is required. It remains to be said that a majority of Russia's parliament and governmental organs, are liberal representatives, both economically and culturally, whereby it is only the President that stops certain bills being passed.
Without looking at the document in detail (which is not yet available to the public) it makes sense to assume that the Communist Party leader has every right to become concerned at this early stage.
Zyuganov's Communist Party enjoys the second most popular rating in the Russian political sphere, after United Russia (Vladimir Putin.)
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And a Record Number of Russians Want Socialism Back !!!
First published in Komsomolskaya Pravda Translated by Kristina Kharlova
The number of those nostalgic for the Soviet Union, is now growing steadily.
According to the findings of sociologists, 56% of respondents now express regret for the collapse of the Soviet state.
A majority of Russians regret the collapse of the Soviet Union, and do not mind if it's restored — conclude the sociologists of "Levada-centre".
2016 sees a record number of respondents nostalgic for the Soviet Union, in the whole history of public opinion surveys.
At the same time, the percentage of those who don't long for the Union, decreases over time: if, in November of last year it was 37%, today only 28% do not feel any pity.
58% of Russians would like a socialist system and the Soviet Union to be restored, and 31% say they don't want the Soviet Union back.
Over half of respondents, 51%, believe that it was still possible to save the country in 1991 while 33% of Russians say the collapse was 'inevitable'.
Experts, meanwhile, note that those most nostalgic for the Soviet Union don't yearn so much for the Soviet ideology, as for the stability, justice, confidence in the future, secure jobs, free education, medical care and housing.
Serbia:Mass anti-NATO demonstrations silenced Nothing has been the same since NATO brutally bombed Yugoslavia 17 years ago. The 5th column, trained by NATO, took over the destroyed country to continue the job that the West had started.
The economy collapsed, the country was ripped apart, and the Army, dismissed.
Year by year, malicious plans brainstormed by NATO, and executed by the government, are pushing all of the Balkans into the deep maw of the West's 'modern' imperialism.
The latest move was the Agreement with NATO about logistics. Parliament has approved, and the President has signed, an agreement which gives NATO soldiers immunity and freedom of movement on the territory of Serbia. The same people who killed thousands of innocent Serb civilians are now given freedom and immunity. NATO personnel rule the roost in Serbia
NATO personnel are exempt from paying taxes, VAT and/or customs duties. The adoption of the Individual Partnership Action Plan (IPAP), lets NATO soldiers use Serbia's infrastructure, with free transit across the whole territory of Serbia, as well as protection from the law -- being given 'special status' while staying in Serbian territory.
However, although almost two decades have passed since NATO's cruel attack, most Serbs have not forgotten how important freedom is -- which is the main problem for the ruling elite.
In the mainstream media, news about signing the agreement with NATO, was published as small & irrelevant. In a couple of sentences, mainstream journalists wrote about it, as if it was tomorrow's weather forecast, but they couldn't fool people.
Boiling situation hidden by Government
The situation was boiling. A few patriotic parties and war veterans managed to organize a protest -- & expected no more than a thousand people in Belgrade, to show their disagreement with the ruling party's decisions.
On the 20th February, more than 15,000 Serbs, mostly youth, came onto the Belgrade streets to join in with the protesters. Even the police were surprised, quickly trying to reinforce -- fearing nonverbal shows of disagreement.
The mainstream media weren't at all interested in massive protests in the capital city. They just reported, after the protest, that there were only a couple of hundred demonstrators.
Amongst all media, just one, the alternative patriotic website, Srbin info, sent reporters to the vicinity, to cover the whole protest.
It was the only media that had pictures and videos of the massive protests, showing the huge number of protesters.
During the protest, over 2,000 readers per second were following their live streaming of the demonstrations. Each minute, their website was gaining more followers.
Just a couple of minutes after the end of the peaceful protest, huge cyber-attacks began.
The weak website couldn't defend itself from the biggest attacks in its history, & the web- site eventually crashed. Attacks continued for 24 hours, never letting the website repair.
The only possible source of the attacks on the website & freedom of the speech, is the ruling elite. There is no one else who would be able to manage such strong attacks.
The main problem for the alternative, free media in Serbia is that the web providers, most of them belonging to the SBB company, part of the Soros foundation, don't want to reveal who was behind the attacks. However, some opposition forces, also attacked by hackers, discovered that the IP address of the hacker belongs to one of the directors of SBB company.
It is also interesting that 25% of web providers and some mainstream media in Serbia - belong to David Petraeus, former director of the CIA.
Despite their crashed website, Srbin info reporters managed to find way to send the real story & used Facebook to spread the truth. A video showing the masses of people protesting, was viewed by over 1,700,000 Facebook users --- a huge number for Serbia, with its 7 million population.
For 48 hours after the attack, the website was closed.
Thanks to its loyal readers, who appreciate Srbin info's fight for freedom of speech, donations were collected to make a new website, with better protection.
But the problem of having a neutral web provider who will not sabotage the website -- after orders from the Government -- still exists. A much worse problem.... is that the once proud and honorable Serbia, is now under the boots of imperialists.
LEN RE-ELECTED - VICTORY FOR LEFT!
"Serving you, our members, is the greatest privilege of my working life. I'm proud to have stood shoulder- to-shoulder with you in your struggles and proud to have been asked by so many, to continue to fight for you"
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The Corbyn Supporters From Hell - Attila The Stockbroker,15th Oct 2015 at The Blue Boar Hotel, Maldon, Essex, UK
ONE UNION
Two weeks before Brexit, the African Union announced a new single African passport that permits holders to enter any of the 54 AU member states without a visa – an interesting turn in African history which NO-ONE in the West knows or cares about ! What a stunning reflection of how far our mindset and media are, from the 'world community' we say we love.
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ADAM JOHANNES, CO-CONVENOR, PEOPLE'S ASSEMBLY
“Most people under 40 have never been a member of a trade union. So unions are irrelevant, right? Wrong. Unions are more relevant than ever before. With in- work poverty, zero hours contracts and precarious employment, trade unions urgently need to make inroads into the private sector where the majority of us work, but a majority are still un-unionised.”
3 recent campaigns show how this might be done -
1. BETTER THAN ZERO
"Better than Zero" is an exciting campaign launched last year by the Scottish TUC to combat employers using zero-hours contracts. It is run by young people for young people to take on the issue of insecure work. Its activists are mostly in their teens or twenties. The campaign calls upon an older generation not to stand by while a generation of young people are forced into insecure work.
It has responded to tip off from employees in workplaces charging staff for training or uniforms, and bars and restaurants where workers tips are taken by the company. It's fought against people routinely expected to work additional late hours at short notice, with little or no thought given to how they'll get home & whether they will be safe.
The campaign uses direct action, stunts and creative protests such as targeting bars and restaurants with 'flash mob choirs', activists and former staff posing as customers, before each stand up in a restaurant to make speeches while other activists leaflet out- side, Halloween funeral marches on exploitative employers, or, memorably, activists clad in chemical-spill clean up garb placing several popular bars & restaurants in 'quarantine', for exploitative work practices. A recent campaign victory saw restaurant chain Las Iguanas end a policy of deducting money from staff tips.
2. SPORTS DIRECT
Unite has waged a dynamic fightback against Sports Direct including pickets of over 30 stores across the UK, occupations, direct action such as the unfurling of a #SportsDirectShame banner by Newcastle United fans at the club owned by Sports Direct boss, Mike Ashley, other banner drops from bridges, shareholder action, and a social media campaign,
Sports Direct is Britain's biggest sportswear company. It made over a billion in profits last year, but the majority of its workers agency staff are on zero hour contracts with no holiday or sick pay, and no guaranteed work from one week to the next. It has been called more 'workhouse' than workplace with intense surveillance and searches of staff, a culture of fear, bullying and intimidation rife.
Unite's campaign had forced the issue of its Victorian working conditions into national media & a company review. Unite demands all staff are re-employed on permanent contracts on a living wage. So far they have won a pay rise for staff and the company is now being investigated by HM Revenue & Customs after the union exposed it for effectively paying under the minimum wage.
3. PIZZA EXPRESS
Unite scored a victory against Pizza Express after exposing and ending the company deducting a proportion of staff's hard earned tips as an 'admin fee', recruiting new members. The campaign involved union activists going into Pizza Express branches to speak to waiting staff, weekly pickets, handing out hundreds of flyers with customers given a ‘scrap the admin fee’ postcard to leave with their cash tips, and finally a 'meal of justice' when protesters went into a restaurant, enjoyed a meal and when the bill came, one person stood up and told customers about the admin fee while others handed out postcards. Customers often respond with spontaneous applause.
We need to think creatively of how to bring politics into the workplace whether collections for refugees in Calais, foodbanks or local homeless, organising delegations from our work to local protests, or even setting up People's Assembly networks with likeminded people we work with.
Cardiff People's Assembly is part of The People's Assembly Against Austerity, a UK anti-cuts network sponsored by eight trade unions. Locally we have worked with Unison defending our city's library service & PCS to organise solidarity with museum workers, we will be supporting Unite Community's day of action against benefit sanctions. With much of our nation's workforce unorganised in their workplace in unions, joining movements like ours can boost people's confidence to stand up to their employers and build workplace organisation.
In the 1980s Thatcher declared war on the unions --- as a prelude to letting the market rip through society --- transforming us into a highly unequal low pay, low skill economy. The assault on the 'social wage' means we now have the highest private rents, highest energy bills, highest rail fares, and most expensive university education in the EU. Now the Trade Union Bill aims to take out a key part of the resistance to extend the cuts, privatisation and outsourcing agenda and shift even more power and wealth from the 99% to the 1%.
Our economy is dominated by low paid jobs. Low pay makes people insecure. A low pay economy and tax avoiding corporations make it hard to invest in public services. Joining a union is one way to fight back.
Profit Is The Only Concern For Railway Privateers 2016 Thursday 29TH DEC
The only way to have a public transport system worthy of the name is to have a fully nationalised railway,says GORDON MARTIN
All things transport have been making the news in Scotland for a number of months and the signs are this isn’t going to change in the dark winter months ahead.
Scotland’s railways have been subjected to an unprecedented level of scrutiny and criticism with opposition politicians, media columnists and some trade union officials calling for Nicola Sturgeon to sack her Transport Minister, Humza Yousaf MSP.
In my view the roots of the public’s dissatisfaction with Scotland’s railways goes back to the Scottish government’s ill-conceived decision to award the ScotRail franchise to a state-owned rail operator.
Unfortunately for passengers and the ScotRail workforce, the state in question was not our own — and the Netherlands now benefits from profits made by its state company, Abellio, out of ScotRail.
A public-sector bid from Scotland was not allowed when the franchise was awarded to Abellio for a 10-year period. With profit the first and only concern of the profiteers at Abellio, a major dispute with Scotland’s biggest rail union RMT was highly predictable.
Abellio’s attack on the role of the guard on our trains brought a summer of discontent as industrial action spread across much of the Scottish rail network.
The Scottish government quickly showed its true colours. The normally very assured and competent First Minister committed a monumental blunder when she disgracefully inferred the strike was only about who pushed a button to open and close train doors.
While the SNP government very often claims to be on the side of working-class communities, it remains very much a political party wedded to capitalism. The First Minister should have taken the trouble to speak to disabled passengers or those travelling on Scotland’s trains who feel vulnerable in any way about how crucial the role of the guard is in making their journey a safer, more relaxing experience.
Thankfully the Scottish government and Abellio ScotRail finally saw sense and a negotiated settlement was reached which was favourable to RMT and which will see safety-trained guards remain in place.
Following on from our successful efforts to Keep The Guard on the Train, RMT has launched a high- profile “Safer Scottish Trains” campaign designed to ensure trains, stations & rail infrastructure in general are properly resourced and managed to ensure the best possible service is delivered.
Everyone, in particular disabled people, should be able to travel on a 21st-century rail network without having to check ahead days in advance to ensure staff will be in place to assist them.
At the same time, Westminster and the European Union have also intervened in a negative way which may have serious repercussions for rail workers and passengers in the years ahead.
Earlier this month Chris Grayling, Transport Secretary in Theresa May’s rotten Tory government, delivered a speech which potentially takes the rail industry back to the complete fragmentation foisted upon the people of Britain by the hapless government of John Major in the 1990s.
Grayling now seeks to reintroduce “competition” into rail infrastructure, maintenance and repairs.
Inevitably this will eventually lead to the complete break-up of Network Rail. The centralised standards implemented by this public-sector organisation will be discarded and profit and loss will become the decisive factor in deciding the standards for maintaining the rail infrastructure. This is a frightening scenario with potentially deadly outcomes and RMT will fight this with everything we have.
The latest plans for railways across the EU, the ultimate bosses’ club, are contained within the Fourth Railway Package which MEPs are voting on. These proposals make it mandatory to put rail passenger services out to competitive tender. With the Scottish government recently beginning to engage with the rail unions and others regarding a public-sector bid for the ScotRail contract, the 4th Railway Package underlines how fragile and fleeting this public-sector bid could ultimately be.
Scotland’s ferry sector also had a fair amount of publicity in the last year or so, with RMT engaged in a high-profile, long-running and ultimately successful campaign to keep CalMac ferries in public ownership.
RMT stands by our assertion that the Clyde and Hebridean ferry service did not have to go out to tender under the Teckal exemption.
Unfortunately, the Scottish government are keen to be seen as good Europeans, despite the negative impact on the Scottish people, and meekly went along with directives from the EU.
The uncertainty for island communities and the stress for the CalMac workforce while their future was unclear, was not high on the government’s agenda.
Unfortunately it looks highly likely that the workforce and the islanders on the Northern Isles are about to be put through the same uncertainty as their counterparts on the west coast.
The government is once again meekly following diktats from Brussels by putting the Northern Isles ferry service out to a competitive tendering process, despite the people of Britain voting to leave the EU, including a sizeable section of the Scottish working class.
RMT has a clear and principled position which is to insist that the Northern Isles contract is brought back into public ownership forthwith.
We demand an immediate end to the exploitation of eastern European seafarers. These workers, employed on a Scottish government contract, are being paid wages at a derisory rate while being denied the protection of a trade union agreement with wages and conditions covered by collective bargaining agreements.
As part of our ongoing Save our Seafarers campaign, we have highlighted this disgraceful fact to the media and the public with our slogan SNP — Ships of Shame.
This is causing the government and, in particular, the Transport Minister a great deal of embarrassment. I make no apologies for this and I sincerely hope the embarrassment will lead to action before too much longer.
It is clear to everyone, with the possible exception of right-wing profiteering zealots, that the only way to have a public transport system worthy of the name is to have a fully nationalised railway, properly resourced, with adequate staffing levels --- together with a publicly owned ferry operator, working exclusively on behalf of ferry users and the Scottish government, & money raised reinvested --- instead of lining the pockets of private shareholders.
Gordon Martin is Scottish regional organiser of the RMT.
(source - Morning Star)
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Tory aid-dumping revelation means the money should be seized and used by Mike Sivier
The worst part of this is, it suggests that people who said the International Aid budget could be used in better ways, were right.
The Times reports that the Tories have been ‘dumping’ billions of pounds in aid into shady World Bank funds, to sit unused indefinitely – in order to "keep up the appearance" of meeting the government’s commitment to donating 0.7% of the UK’s GDP in foreign aid.
According to the Times, at least £9 billion has been transferred like this in the past 5 years. Rather than helping developing countries, the money, which is spread across over 200 different bank accounts, simply sits there – doing nothing except rack up World Bank ‘administration fees’.
UK International Development Secretary Priti Patel’s only qualification for her job appears to be the fact that she had previously wanted to get rid of it and the funding it oversees. This seems to be the standard Tory qualification for any ministerial role that is supposed to help people – Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt infamously wrote a book, before becoming Health Secretary, that called for abolition of the ’60-year-old mistake’ of the NHS.
Clearly, to a Tory, maintaining the appearance of doing something is far more important than actually doing it – especially if it helps you put cash into the bank accounts of your backers and allies and ideally while you get rid of the very thing you’re supposed to be looking after. If you hear Tories say ‘reform’, run for cover – or better yet, get the pitchforks out.
Source: Keeping up appearances: aid-dumping shows Tories care for PR, not people The SKWAWKBOX
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Left Looks To Unite To Protect Its Power Base CHARLEY ALLAN
The Labour right was desperate to see the back of “Red Len,” as the tabloids call him.
But Len won his victory. Now’s the perfect time to join Unite, with full membership costing just £3.50 a week, reduced to 50p for the unemployed.
The AWL and its allies may have won the national committee battle, but they won’t win the OMOV war --- if the movementists get organised.
A new current called Opening Momentum has rallied round the point that anti-OMOVers had denied members their advertised right to “vote in national-level elections.”
And it’s crucial that every member who really believes in the fabled “new kind of politics” turns up to their local branch meetings - if they have them - to halt plans for a parallel party.
This is bigger than Momentum. We need to see much more direct democracy in Labour itself, although there will always be resistance from those who benefit most from the delegate system.
There are literally hundreds of thousands of new Labour members and Momentum’s top priority --- should making sure their voice is heard at next year’s party conference.
The Labour left can’t afford to be crushed again on the conference floor, as happened this year.
While Momentum was dazzling everyone with its World Transformed free festival, right faction Labour First was distributing fliers to let delegates know when and where vital votes were taking place.
Critically, Momentum must:- have slates of candidates ready when local constituency parties select conference delegates in thecoming months.
The new left movement needs to get serious if it wants to win the looming electoral battles within Labour, the trade unions and the grassroots.
Defending, strengthening and expanding this power base at the ballot box, will take back the leadership, and keep the movement fighting fit for the general election.
• Chat to Charley on Twitter: @charleyallan.
(source - Morning Star)
A New Lucas Plan For The Future by David King
The ideas pioneered by the Lucas workers are just as, or more, relevant now than in the 1970s, and there are strong political similarities in the situation.
As in the ’70s, we have an economic crisis caused by unjust economic policies and the failure of successive governments’ industrial strategy.
As usual, this has hit the working class hardest, and anger over this is being channelled into racism against immigrants. Now, the environmental effects of industrial capitalism are far more evident than 40 years ago, already creating wars, militarisation and widespread concern about insecurity.
Finally, introduction of new technologies threatens structural unemployment on a scale considerably greater than the ’70s.
The Tory government’s response to the economic and political crisis, despite continuing to publicly espouse neoliberal principles, looks a lot like a classic Keynesian economic stimulus package.
In the last few months it has made decisions to go ahead with a range of industrial infrastructure megaprojects — Hinkley C, fracking, HS2 and the Heathrow third runway, as well as pressing ahead with spending £200 billion on Trident renewal.
A key element in the case for all these projects is the jobs that they will generate or preserve, although the jobs estimates are bound to be inflated, while the price tag will be massively underestimated.
Compared to the ’70s, far fewer jobs will be created in this way because, due to automation and mechanisation, they are all highly capital rather than labour-intensive.
The Lucas Aerospace workers’ idea of socially useful production suggests a far better way forward.
Even in the early phase of the environmental movement, before most socialists realised the significance of these issues, the Lucas Plan acknowledged that protecting the environment is part of the concept of socially useful production.
With the exception of HS2, all the new projects are environmental anathema, and the damage that project would do to the English countryside and people’s homes and communities, for the sake of saving 30 minutes of executives’ time, makes it emblematic of neoliberalism.
The working-class people who voted for Brexit are demanding jobs and regeneration of their communities, but these industrial vanity projects are not the solution.
Now is the moment to realise the proposals of the Campaign Against Climate Change Trade Union Group (Million Climate Jobs Campaign), which is often seen as a successor to the Lucas Plan.
We should be investing in renewable energy, home insulation, public transport etc as part of the international trade union initiative of Just Transition, ie transition to a low-carbon economy with job protection for workers in industries that need to be phased out.
Imagine what could be achieved in regional economic renewal and environmental benefits with the Trident billions.
But exactly how that money should be spent should not be decided by economic planners alone.
One of the great strengths of the Lucas Plan was that it came from the bottom up, from workers, not managers.
Recognising that they could not, by themselves, define what people need, the Lucas workers began to work with various regional communities to develop “popular planning for social need.”
In London, the Greater London Council created technology development networks that involved users, for example disabled people, in technology design.
These traditions of bottom-up local planning have been continued by various citizens’ local planning initiatives, such as Just Space in London, and would be vital to a democratic solution to the crises.
The current economic and environmental crises are symptoms of a deeper crisis in the industrial capitalist mode of production, and they demand a fundamental rethink of how we produce the basic things that people need for a decent life.
One of the less well-remembered, but crucial aspects of the Lucas Plan was the workers’ struggle against the automation and deskilling of their work with computer-controlled machinery, a struggle shared with trade unionists around the world in that period.
As Phil Asquith of the Lucas Combine puts it, “Harold Wilson’s ‘white heat of the technological revolution’ was burning up workers’ jobs.’
The continuation of this trend over the last 40 years is a major source of the jobless recoveries and income polarisation that are creating the “squeezed middle” of angry, Daily Mail- reading, Brexit voters.
Forecasts suggest that digital technology will eliminate half the jobs in the economy over the next 20 years, but its track record shows that it creates far fewer new jobs to replace them.
One response to this that has become popular on the left is the belief that automation will usher in a post- capitalist society, if we can only feed those useless human workers with basic income.
This is a complex argument, but one thing for sure is that this was not the Lucas workers’ philosophy.
Instead of: “Demand Full Automation, Demand Universal Basic Income, Demand the Future,” they would have reminded us that the romance of high-technology leads to what historian of technology David Noble aptly called: “Progress without people.”
The Lucas workers’ slogan would likely have been: “Demand Democratic Control of Technology, Demand Socially Useful Production, Demand Equality and Sustainability.”
They were very clear that the idea of socially useful production is also about how things are produced.
There is no point in socially useful products if they are made in a way that alienates and deskills the workers who produce them.
They went on to design “human-centred technologies,” in which the point was to use and develop workers’ skills, rather than design them out of the production process.
A skills and people-based, more labour-intensive approach is, in the era of Brexit and environmental crisis, a much better way to create a socially just, sustainable economy than old-fashioned, capital- intensive high-tech mega projects. This is the agenda we will be discussing in Birmingham today.
(source - the Morning Star)
Construction Workers Can’t Be Expected To Work Into Their Sixties by Brian Rye (source - The Star)
British governments seem to think one of two things about construction workers: they're either superhuman, or they don’t give a toss about them. That would be the logical conclusion, given the raise in the pension age, to 68.
With the state pension age due to rise to 67 by 2026 and 68 by 2044, our political elites seem to believe that we are breeding a race of human beings with quite exceptional physical capabilities.
While professional sportspeople are pretty much done by their mid-thirties, with their strength, speed and stamina leeching away by the day, the British construction worker - if you believe our politicians - lives in a world that defies conventional science.
Despite the early starts, the exposure to the elements, the heavy lifting, the long hours, the poor diet & susceptibility to minor injury, these lions of the labour force are all going to get their telegram from the king - because the stats say we’re all living longer.
Sadly, if you have a shred of common sense you will immediately know this is not true.
Construction workers are the same as any other human being. Like professional sportspeople, they can feel their physical abilities start to wane from their mid-thirties.
The only difference being: construction workers have to stay in the game. & not only that, given the increase in the pensionable age, the game just went into extra time.
Empathy is a wonderful characteristic for a human being to possess because it creates understanding and caring for others.
So we have to ask ourselves, as our besuited, overweight politicians sit back in their comfy chairs before skipping off to their subsidised three-course meal in the House of Commons - with a glass of wine or two — how much empathy are they feeling with their compatriots in construction?
Can they imagine the freezing mornings, the hours of standing up, the repetitive physical work or the greasy chips for lunch? It would seem not.
Recent research carried out by the TUC, in a report called Postponing the Pension, shows that a significant proportion of the population won’t reach the pensionable age of 68 in any fit state to enjoy their retirement.
The results show that half a million workers within five years of the state pension have had to leave work for medical reasons, and that nearly half of 60 to 64-year-olds stopped working before their official retirement age.
This is why Ucatt is currently trying to get the Labour Party to support policies that would mean a future Labour government would introduce a flexible pension age for physically demanding professions.
Construction work is hugely physically demanding because it involves prolonged standing, highly repetitive work, heavy lifting, working with the hands lifted to shoulder height or higher, and working with the back twisted or bent forward. It can lead to musculoskeletal disorder, cardiovascular disease and long-term sickness absence.
These work conditions and their effects need to be factored into the calculation of a pensionable age. It is only fair.
At 60, most politicians are on a few company boards, are picking up consultancies, maybe writing a book and reaping the benefits of a lifetime’s work.
The current presidential candidates in the US are 68 (Hillary Clinton) and 70 (Donald Trump) - beneficiaries of a lifetime of comfort, good food, little or no physical exertion and excellent healthcare on demand.
These individuals see no reason to retire - they’re feeling fine. Construction workers often aren’t feeling fine.
We all know that one in four people in Britain will now live to 100 — but what about the other three? At what age will they be checking out? And what jobs are they doing?
According to figures from the government’s own Office for National Statistics, doctors and accountants are outliving builders and cleaners, by as much as eight years.
Men in professional occupations can expect to live to 80, almost eight years longer than those in unskilled jobs, whose life expectancy is 72.7. So people are not all the same - shock, horror! Comparing the accountant to the construction worker is comparing apples with oranges - and yet our governments conveniently ignore this.
Our ageing population and the fears surrounding the viability of the state pension in the future has caused the political class to legislate in a heavy- handed, insensitive and unsophisticated way.
The phrase “we’ve all got to work longer” is bandied about by those sitting comfortably behind a desk. For those leading a more active life, this phrase is just a plain, old-fashioned threat.
To quote ex-Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn: “Living longer doesn’t mean we are able to work longer in physically demanding jobs like that of the firefighter, police officer or paramedic. And it’s not just in the emergency services. Construction workers, care workers and prison officers cannot be expected to work into their sixties. We need a flexible pension age that allows people to work for as long as they want to.”
Ucatt’s campaign plainly states “68 is too late.” It’s a campaign that needs to be fought to a victory - for the sake of thousands of British workers. We need to present our case, find broad support and build empathy within the country. And we have to find acceptance that it may cost us all a little bit more while we’re of working age.
Otherwise we will all be using another well- known phrase: “flogging a dead horse.”
We’ll leave the last words to Mr Corbyn: “If we want dignity for all in old age, then it has to be paid for.”
Brian Rye is acting general secretary of Ucatt.
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Britain’s workers feel stressed and insecure (originally in the Morning Star) by Carolyn Jones
The UK's 31 million workers are among the most insecure, stressed and unhappiest in Europe.
No wonder! According to the latest report by the Institute of Employment Rights (IER), the evidence is damning.
On average, UK workers work more hours per week, more days per year, more years before retirement -- after which, they receive lower levels of pension -- than most of their European counterparts.
In comparison to other European workers they generally receive less education and training, and (because of lack of employer investment) their productivity is lower.
They get fewer paid holidays than almost all European comparators and their pay is so low that a great proportion of them are in poverty --- with the state subsidising employers’ low wages.
And it doesn’t end there. The UK has a high proportion of its workforce in so-called “self- employment,” agency work, temporary work, and/or on zero-hours contracts.
It has more part-time workers who want full- time jobs, than other European countries.
UK workers have less entitlement to redundancy pay, sick pay, and maternity pay, than most European workers.
Workers’ rights to remedies for unfair dismissal and discrimination are set low and have been made practically unenforceable by the imposition of high access fees.
In the UK, unlike most European countries, there is no ministry of labour, no labour inspectorate and a negligible complement of health and safety inspectors.
All this in the fifth richest nation in the world. It is obscene. So what’s to be done?
An excellent starting point is the establishment of Jeremy Corbyn’s Workplace 2020 initiative. Launched in May 2016, the aim of the project is to start a national conversation on what work should be like in 2020.
Under the chairmanship of Ian Lavery, shadow trade union minister, the Labour Party wants to hear the good, the bad and the ugly stories about working life in Britain.
On a recently launched website people can submit their comments, complaints and suggestions on a range of workplace issues.
So whether it’s job security, pay and pensions, training and apprenticeships, diversity and equality, trade unions or health and safety that raises your passion, there’s scope to feed into the policy agenda.
Once again the Labour leadership team is turning out to the country for ideas rather than assuming it knows best in the corridors of power.
Labour is already committed to raising the minimum wage, banning zero-hours contracts, ensuring workers are given access to justice, and giving temporary workers the same rights as permanent staff. But it recognises that more needs to be done -- not just to secure fairness at work but to rebuild the UK's economy and industry.
So, at the request of Jeremy Corbyn and Ian Lavery, the IER drafted a contribution to the review, using 15 of its academic and legal experts. At the heart of our proposals is the need to ensure the voice of the UK’s 31 million workers is heard & respected -- in government (via a ministry of labour), in the economy (via a national economic forum) and in industry (via sectoral employment commissions).
The manifesto offers 25 major policy recommendations for consideration.
It proposes changing the way in which working conditions are regulated. It moves responsibility for workplace regulation from legislation to collective bargaining.
It calls for the repeal of the Trade Union Act 2016, the removal of tribunal fees and the introduction of fundamental & enforceable rights for workers, enforceable in a labour court with the assistance of labour inspectors.
The Thatcher concept of individual rights for individual workers has to go. It does little for workers, it’s costly to enforce and it fails to deliver fairness at work.
IER’s manifesto offers a system based on the collective voice of workers, negotiating collectively agreed standards & delivering collectively enforced fairness at work.
A new framework of labour law should be built on the following 10 points:
A ministry of labour
A national economic forum
Sectoral employment commissions
Sectoral collective agreements and wages councils’ orders
Workplace bargaining
A strengthened framework of statutory employment rights
Labour courts and labour inspectors
Employment tribunals
Stronger support for freedom of association and collective rights
The right to strike
Carolyn Jones is director of the Institue of Employment Rights
A manifesto for labour law: Towards a comprehensive revision of workers’ rights --- is available from IER. Go to www.ier.org.uk for more information.
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Why Labour is putting energy reform at the heart of its green agenda Jeremy Corbyn
No issue better connects the environment to people’s lives than energy. To deliver clean, affordable electricity,we need to change our undemocratic system of supply.
We are on course for a climate catastrophe. 2016 is set to be the hottest year on record. Unless the Paris agreement’s target of limiting the rise in temperatures by 1.5C is met, heatwaves like that in 2003, which killed tens of thousands of people in Europe, will become the norm. And that's before considering rising sea levels and desertification, that will sink cities, and kill and displace millions, or the fact that the Earth has already lost half its wildlife, in the past 40 years.
The task for politicians is to propose real solutions to the single most important issue facing humanity. Too often, the environment is considered a matter for scientists, enthusiasts & activists. To increase public understanding and energise the political debate, we need more than facts – we need a programme that resonates with people’s every- day experiences, offering not just warnings, but opportunities and improvement.
No issue better connects the environment to people’s lives than energy. In Britain today, 7 million households struggle to pay their bills because of spiralling costs, while the big six energy companies have seen their profits rise by more than tenfold since 2007. The energy market is not just expensive, inefficient and polluting – it is, above all, undemocratic.
In order to deliver clean, affordable heating and electricity we need to change the whole system of energy supply. When energy is driven by the needs of people, it will be greener – because saving the planet is in the interests of everyone.
That is why I am today announcing a bold new set of policies which will pioneer a democratic, community- led system of energy supply. Over the course of the next parliament, we will use public investment and legislation to promote the creation of over 200 local energy companies, giving towns, cities & localities the powers they need to drive a clean, locally accountable energy system with public, not-for-profit companies.
At the heart of this policy will be a new generation of community energy co-operatives. We will create 1,000 of these co-operatives with the support of a network of regional development banks, and legislate to give them the right to sell energy directly to the communities they serve.
At the same time as building a new publicly run, locally accountable energy system, we will invest in the high quality homes & insulation needed to make Britain environmentally sustainable. We will create a National Home Insulation programme to insulate at least 4m homes to energy efficiency standard B or C. In the private rented sector, we will set compulsory standards at the same level & end the misery of cold rented accommodation. This would save millions of people money on their bills as well as saving energy that is currently wasted on poorly insulated homes.
In order to have any hope of keeping the rise in temperature to 2C – let alone meeting our Paris agreement target of 1.5C – we need to keep 80% of fossil fuels in the ground. This can and must be done. Scotland is already on course to generate 100% of its electricity by renewables, & Britain has an ample supply of wind & water. In government, I'll commit to generating 65% of Britain’s electricity from these sources by 2030.
All of these measures will create secure, skilled employment for hundreds of thousands of people. As part of our transition to a low-carbon economy, we estimate that we will create 316,000 jobs in wind, solar and wave power. We'll use a £500bn national investment programme, with a National Investment Bank and a network of regional development banks, to ensure that these jobs and opportunities are created in places where they are most needed – in coastal towns and areas with high unemployment.
Too often, environmental catastrophe is explained in the same terms as an asteroid hitting the earth. But the problems and the solutions are political – they are about the prioritisation of profit over the needs of people and, at the heart of it all, a lack of democracy in how decisions are made. By democratising our energy supply, and giving people power over their own destinies, we can rebuild and transform Britain so that no one and no community, is left behind.
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Together --- Stronger!
Change, when it comes, will not come from Westminster. The campaign to save our NHS must become a visible reality on every high street and a priority for Labour members.
The NHS is at breaking point, and as Keep Our NHS Public secretary John Lister says: “by 2020 it will all be over.”
To reverse the damage of four more years of A&E closures, outsourced or pared-down services and reduced access, could verge on the impossible.
MPs who obsess over the need to attract Tory voters may find that the champions who saved a local A&E win more hearts and minds than a lorryload of anti-immigration mugs ever could.
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HELP JOHN DUNN
John Dunn, ex-miner and a Labour Party member for 45 years, was blocked from voting for Corbyn, because he challenged Owen Smith for exploiting the legacy of Orgreave for electoral purposes.
He has been told he is suspended from the Labour Party.
John says: "45 years continuous membership and they couldn't even address me by my name"
It looks like the NEC are creating their very own blacklist.
Labour grew hugely under Corbyn and the ''guess'' is --- most of new members were Corbyn supporters.
A DREAM COME TRUE
Support for Jeremy Corbyn from Tyrone O’Sullivan, a fourth-generation south Wales miner, who led a workers’ buy-out of Tower Colliery, to save it from closure.
"I’ve been close to Jeremy since the miners’ strike. Knowing the man, knowing his abilities and his education, it was a dream come true for me when he became leader. His ideas and values are more necessary, here in south Wales, than probably anywhere else in the country. He wanted victory for Labour, but only under our terms - for a change."
O’Sullivan, a lifelong Labour member, says Jeremy is the only true socialist we have had as leader --- for 20 or 30 years.
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PEOPLE DESERVE RESPECT
Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership opponent flaunted his contempt for democracy by backing a second referendum on UK membership of the EU.
And MPs pressured Jeremy Corbyn to resign, by constant smears, media lies and attacks on Labour's membership !!!
No wonder the Unite policy conference has overwhelmingly backed mandatory reselection of MPs - to ensure genuine democratic accountability in the party.
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Unite pushes for reselection of MPs by Conrad Landin
Candidates ‘should reflect members’ views’
Labour's largest affiliate is now behind the push for mandatory reselection of MPs, as Jeremy Corbyn critics have “destabilised” the party, to ditch anti-austerity policies.
Delegates at general union Unite’s conference are resolved to support the approach, in order “to ensure democratic accountability, and the rights of party members to select candidates that reflect their views.”
Currently, sitting MPs are only subject to a “trigger ballot” -- where they automatically become the candidate -- unless a super- majority of branches in the constituency support a new selection.
London and eastern region's delegate, Kevin Parslow: “The current trigger mechanism is difficult, & weighted in favour of the incumbent.
“We put ourselves up as reps and branch officers for election regularly.
“I don’t think it’s unreasonable for MPs to put themselves up for re-selection. They should be accountable to us, and not to Murdoch’s press: they're there because they have the Labour Party name on the ballot paper.”
Mike Hedges, another London delegate: “Four weeks ago I would have spoken against this motion--- but after the treachery of 172 MPs --- we have no option.”
The union’s leaders are also mandated to “support moves to bring more democracy into policy-making -- by returning powers to the party conference.”
A Unite spokesperson:
“This vote simply reflects the immense frustration that our members feel. They look at the conduct of some within the party, the challenge to the elected leader, and they feel angered.
“They want Labour fighting the Tories, not among themselves.”
KEEP FIGHTING FOR MORE DEMOCRACY!
Momentum and Labour are engaged in a huge consultation to expand democracy in Labour...
WHY NOT PASTE THE LINK BELOW AND JOIN THE DISCUSSION?
http://www.peoplesmomentum.com/democracy-review
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With 640,000 members - and a huge 200,00 joining in just 2 weeks- Labour was the largest left-wing party in Europe.
If you haven't done so already, join Labour, join Momentum, and let's rebuild #BuildOurMovement.
join.labour.org.uk
join.peoplesmomentum.com
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GMB Wins Lidl Recognition by Peter Lazenby Ruling affects hundreds of warehouse staff
The Star - General union GMB has won a landmark legal ruling giving hundreds of warehouse workers at giant cut-price supermarket chain Lidl the right to be represented by the union.
The German-owned chain opposes union recognition and resisted the union’s claim.
But the Central Arbitration Committee, whose decisions are legally binding, supported the GMB case, and gave the union full rights to represent and negotiate on behalf of its 223 members among warehouse workers at Bridgend, south Wales.
GMB now presses ahead with its campaign for recognition at 8 more Lidl warehouses across England and Scotland.
National secretary Justin Bowden says: “Lidl’s attempts at union-busting were quite properly thrown out by the judge --- in a massive victory for rights at work.
“[Wednesday’s] ruling opens the gates to not only improving employees’ pay & terms and conditions at the Bridgend site, but is also a major victory for the GMB’s campaign for a trade union voice at the workplace.
“The suggestion that Lidl’s workers don't need the option of a trade union to stick up for them and fight for their interests is baloney, pure and simple.
“As a result of today’s ruling, employees will get the chance to decide for them- selves, if the company’s own ‘personal personnel hotline’ is any match for an independent union taking their side & defending their interests in the workplace.”
GMB Wales and south-west regional secretary John Phillips adds: “Regrettably, Lidl continues to show both hostility towards GMB & shameful disregard for the wishes of its own workforce, with expensive challenges against fair and objective decisions made by independent third-party organisations.”
Lidl is also resisting attempts by shop workers’ union Usdaw to recruit and represent staff in its supermarkets.
An Usdaw spokesperson said: “Lidl will not even let our representatives into stores, to talk to staff.”
Lidl has 637 stores & 9 regional distribution centres --- employing over 18,000 staff. Its ambitions to expand in Britain, could see it more than double in size --- with plans for 1,500 stores & 2 more distribution centres.
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Tax offices’ own cleaners don’t get minimum wage
Cleaners at 6 government offices on Mersey- side walked out over their employer’s failure to pay them the legal minimum wage.
The staff began the two-day strike, because they have not received that £7.20-an-hour rate the government introduced on April 1.
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Wales: 50,000 days lost due to teacher stress
The number of teachers off sick due to stress in Wales has soared by thousands in just one year, new research shows.
Stress-related illness caused the 51,795 sick days: an increase of 2,568 on 2014, freedom of information figures revealed.
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Unions stood by Corbyn & McDonnell
The entire labour movement could have been concentrating all of our efforts - on bringing down this mean government.
Instead, 172 Labour MPs launched an attempted coup on Corbyn. If it's true that Angela Smith MP described the 10,000 activists, including general secretaries of affiliated trade unions, who were at a recent pro-Corbyn rally, as “dogs,” --- then serious questions need to be asked about the relationship between the PLP and the trade union movement.
Every trade union in Britain has regular elections for shop stewards, branch secretaries, and their general secretary.
It's time those who fund the Labour Party demanded the same level of democracy for sitting MPs.
Anything less than a mandatory reselection of MPs before every parliament is now untenable.
Let’s get this straight: none of these MPs backed Corbyn for leader, most of them abstained in the Welfare Reform Bill, many of them voted for the Iraq war, & to this day, hero-worship Tony Blair.
The 172 Labour MPs aren't just trying to change the Labour leader -- they are plotting to drag the movement back to a Blairite view of politics.
The vote of no confidence wasn't just an attempt to oust Corbyn --- it was a declaration of war on the entire organised left.
The gloves are off and there’s no going back. Everyone will need to decide: which side are you on? I stand with Corbyn and McDonnell.
Dave Smith is co-author, with Phil Chamberlain, of Blacklisted: The Secret War between Big Business and Trade Unionists, (New Internationalist Publications).
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RMT: We Must Fight Assault On Our Rights Union ‘disappointed’ with lack of action from TUC
Unions should move to take “generalised” strike action: with or without a go-ahead from the TUC, RMT activists insisted.
The union was meeting in Cardiff that week --- but you wouldn't know it, if you'd read the Welsh press!
Delegates at the transport union’s annual general meeting in Cardiff expressed disappointment that fiery rhetoric about defeating new anti-strike laws was not followed up with action.
The union unanimously passed a motion expressing concern at the TUC’s “lack of campaigning” on the issue and called for a “high-profile campaign.”
Leeds delegate Trevor Howard said: “Personally, my own view is that the TUC is a waste of space and it needs to be reorganised.”
The Trade Union Act, which received Royal Assent last month, imposes arbitrary thresholds on strike ballots & other curbs on labour movement activity.
RMT general secretary Mick Cash said: “It’s fundamentally undemocratic when you put these thresholds in.”
He said unions must respond to the law by ramping up their organising. “Whatever we do, we’ve got to make sure we get our members’ support,” he said.
And he praised Jeremy Corbyn’s Workplace 2020 agenda, which aims to introduce new labour rights.
“What we need to be doing is turning the tables,” he added: “We’ve got to get an alternative to this legislation --- to get us positive rights.”
Cash blasts ‘self-indulgent MPs’ for sabotaging left’s moment
“Self-indulgent” Labour MPs have squandered the left’s best moment to go on the offensive, RMT's general secretary, Mick Cash, stressed.
He used his address to the transport union’s annual general meeting to warn of “massive fights ahead” amid “political and economic turmoil.”
He said the divisions in the Tory Party and shockwaves in the world of capital should have been an opportunity for the left to get its message across. But he said this had been sabotaged by the frontbenchers resigning and calling for Jeremy Corbyn’s head.
He fumed: “What have they done? Self-indulgence. They’ve created division, they created a lack of leadership of progressive forces.
“They’ve created a situation where, if we’re not careful, we’ll have a Tory government ------ and worse, a Tory government supported by Ukip.
“We need to seize the opportunity to put forward an agenda to fight against austerity, against cuts and for workers’ rights. But that won’t happen if our politicians in London are playing the game they’re playing.
“Ordinary working people are sick of the political class and what they’re doing --- and yet they’re doing it again.”
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Putschist MPs ‘Let The Tories Off The Hook’ Unions rally round previous Labour leader
Union reps on Labour’s ruling executive signed a defiant statement to show that Mr Corbyn still has institutional support.
The leader of Labour’s most recent affiliate Fire Brigades Union general secretary Matt Wrack pointed his hoses at the quitters, saying their action was “co-ordinated to cause maximum damage” to Mr Corbyn.
“It is bizarre that some of the MPs making the loudest criticism of Jeremy Corbyn over the referendum -- completely failed to convince the electorate in their own constituencies,” he said.
“After the referendum, Labour should be setting out policies to defend jobs, public services & wages, as an exit from the EU is negotiated. Instead, some Labour MPs are playing irresponsible & silly games, from their Westminster bubble.”
Unite south-east secretary Jenny Formby, one of the executive members behind the statement in support of Mr Corbyn, said it was “nonsense” to blame him for the result. “Now, more than ever, is a time for loyalty and unity,” she stormed.
Communication Workers’ Union leader Dave Ward fired off a missive, stating Mr Corbyn “has our full support” as leader.
“Jeremy Corbyn is, and remains, the catalyst for change in the Labour Party and the country,” he said. “Those who seek to oust him, represent the politics that forgot ordinary people.”
And food union BFAWU turned up the heat. They said plotters would “only serve to let the Conservative government off the hook for the damage they've heaped upon our communities & the crisis they've caused in pursuit of power.”
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International Health Workers for People Over Profit (IHWPOP) has joined the Boycott, Divestment & Sanctions Campaign against Israel.
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WHERE IS MOST UK YOUTH UNEMPLOYMENT?
WALES!
(WHERE IN WALES? GUESS !!!)
Youth unemployment rates in some parts of Britain, such as the North East, have reached the highest recorded level ever, recent data gathered by the GMB union shows.
The GMB report says unemployment rates among people aged between 18-25 have hit record levels.
Wales is top of the unemployment list, with almost 23,000 claimants. The GMT reveals that some parts of Wales have a jobless rate of 37%.
Paul Kenny, GMB general secretary:
"In the UK there are nearly 400,000 young workers aged 18-24 claiming jobseeker's allowance. When you add to that number the rest of the young people not in jobs, but seeking work, the real number is more than double that figure.”
The number of young UK job seekers is really almost one million;- which makes this young generation the real victims of the current recession in Britain.
Kenny again: “The Government is in denial that it is deliberately creating unemployment.”
This is while reports say almost 150,000 jobs are under threat across the country.
What Wales needs is AN ECONOMY
ONE THAT WILL LAST
"Regional aid" - artificially importing factories that owe no allegiance to Wales - has failed.
Innovation means NEW ! New thinking.
Stop moaning about the past. Start building an economy NOW, for our youngsters.
Or else!!!
New means old, if you want to build a genuine economy. From the ground up, means exactly that!
Agriculture, producing smart new food and drinks. But based on our strengths.
All the land we need is here, and if we look up, 80 percent of Wales' "valley" land is up in the air, like Penrhys!
And it's almost unused. Imagine! All that land from the Rhondda over to Aberdare and beyond.
I'm sure people with vision can see orchards and new products... new ways of working, etc.
All it requires is a WILLINGNESS TO CHANGE.
ALL TOGETHER NOW FOR PEACE
The UK's TUC is calling on the UK government to end its meddling policies in the Middle East and North Africa. “The “war on terror” is still continuing and has failed, after ten years, to bring the promised peace and stability to either the Middle East or the wider world,” the motion says...
UK FOLLOWING US DOWN THE DRAIN
Last year’s table of 10 top EU economies - assessing income, prices, working culture & public spending, put the UK in last place.
The UK now has the 4th-highest retirement age of any country averaging 63.1 years - and this,thanks to the Tories AND a supine work-force, is set to keep rising higher and higher.
Average net household income after tax, (and remember, this "average" includes the stinking rich) is £37,172 a year, but even after ignoring the ridiculously high "average", this is now much lower than the average amount earned in Ireland, the Netherlands & Denmark, where there are less of the obscenely rich, to distort the figures.
In Wales, we know that the "average" worker earns far less than this: (£15,000 after tax)
Life for most in the UK is set to get even worse - if people don't fight back - as public services are to be cut more, after the next Spending Review ..and will lead to budget cuts of up to 40% in many public service departments.
France and Spain again top the quality of life index, as workers there have more paid holidays, earlier retirement, lower prices, longer life expectancy and, just to rub it in... better weather.
There are no separate figures for Wales.... why?
Could it be that knowing... might lead to discontent or is it because Welsh workers, with their vibrant economy, as they stop mindlessly following London... and build their new economy, are now so well off, that the English might get jealous? Yeah, right!
The lesson is obvious. Strong unions with gutsy membership abound on the continent, while UK residents sink apathetically down & down & down.
As Tony Blair said: we British are "special".
We think life gets better for us if we let the bankers of London exploit the rest of the world, and our non-working workforce sinks into apathy and selfishness...
Makes you proud, doesn't it! Does it?
WORKERS ACROSS EUROPE UNITE & FIGHT TO STOP CUTS PEACE - NOT WAR AND LOOTING !
Workers from across Europe took part in a major demonstration in Brussels --- to demand that austerity measures be dropped in favour of an end to wars & for peaceful reconstruction.
Europeans took to the streets of Brussels to demonstrate against wage & pension cuts and diminishing job opportunities.
The European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC), one of the EU's leading unions, says that about 100,000 people from 30 countries took part, and police estimates say 20,000.
“Cutting in a recession's crazy and we must fight it,” AFP quotes the ETUC's general secretary, a prominent UK union leader.
Marches also took place in Portugal, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, the Czech Republic, Cyprus, Serbia, Romania, Poland, Ireland and France.
The rallies coincided with a general strike in Spain where the government froze pensions and cut the salaries of government workers.
“This is the worst economic crisis in the post- war history of Western Europe,” the eTUC leader adds.
"We call for a rethink and a change - in Spain and in Europe. We are mobilizing, and they will have to listen to us."
The union says European workers could be the main victims of a financial crisis set off by bankers and traders.
Many European governments have imposed reductions in wages, pensions & employment - to deal with the escalating economic issues.
The OECD has released its long awaited Action Plan to curb "base erosion and profit shifting" (BEPS) by large multinational enterprises.
"The OECD Action Plan has the ambition to effectively curb tax evasion by large multinational enterprises – but it is a plan, and it needs effective commitments by governments and effective implementation,” says ITUC General Secretary Sharan Burrow.
The Action plan consists of 15 measures to strengthen corporate income tax rules and prevent tax avoidance through manipulating intra-group transfer pricing between subsidiaries, and the use of empty shell companies in low tax jurisdictions.
Tax challenges created by globalised production and service systems, the digital economy and increasing importance of "intangibles" – r & d, and intellectual property – feature prominently in the OECD Action plan.
