Stop recruiting Irish for British army

This is a music video from Ireland: The Wolfe Tones – Some Say The Devil Is Dead, about the British army.

From British daily The Morning Star:

Irish unions ‘must oppose army recruitment drive’

Thursday 26 March 2009

PROGRESSIVE youth urged Ireland’s labour movement on Thursday to join the campaign against a British army recruitment drive in the six counties.

The British army has had billboards erected and leaflets delivered to homes in working class areas, encouraging youngsters to sign up.

Adverts have been put in newspapers, with one reading: “Call 50 non-responsive customers a day? Or call in an air strike?”

The territorial army has targeted the cross-community Belfast Metropolitan College with what the Connolly Youth Movement (CYM) described as a “misleading campaign which promotes a romanticised image.”

CYM spokesman Nicholas O’Hagan observed that the army recruitment propaganda made “no mention of the atrocities carried out by the British army in Iraq or Afghanistan and the legacy of their actions in Ireland.”

Noting that the Educational Institute of Scotland had banned recruitment by the British army in Scottish schools and that the National Union of Teachers in Britain had voted to oppose the distribution of misleading propaganda, he called on Irish trade unions to “adopt a similar policy to prevent more of our young people being shipped off to certain death in Iraq and Afghanistan or even to face death here in Ireland, as shown in Antrim earlier this month.”

The recruitment drive coincides with the recession and comes at a time when the British army is failing to meet its targets.

This video is the song Join the British Army, by The Dubliners.

The lyrics of the song Join the British Army are here.

A rock version video, with lyrics, is here.

British child soldiers: here.

The British army’s glossy recruitment drive to get young people to sign up as cannon fodder for Britain’s imperialist exploits has not gone down too well in parts of the six counties: here.

The Teachers’ Union of Ireland (TUI) Dublin City Post Primary branch has called for the resignation of Irish Congress of Trade Unions (ICTU) general secretary David Begg over the calling off of Monday’s national strike: here.

James Connolly: here.

St. Patrick’s Day Facts: Snakes, a Slave, and a Saint: here.

Littering is “terrorism” in Britain

This video is called Taking Liberties: The fight for rights and rights handed down from on high Part1.

From British daily The Morning Star:

Civil liberties ‘under threat’ as councils caught abusing anti-terror law

Thursday 26 March 2009

SURVEILLANCE powers have been used by local councils more than 10,000 times for “crimes” as minor as littering.

Details disclosed on Thursday under the Freedom of Information Act showed that councils in England and Wales had used the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act (RIPA) to investigate offences ranging from dog fouling to taxi overcharging.

Fewer than one in 10 inquiries resulted in any form of penalty.

The Liberal Democrats, who obtained the details, said that they represented a fresh erosion of civil liberties and warned that RIPA was becoming a “snooper’s charter.”

The findings were based on a survey of 182 district and unitary councils in England and Wales which responded to a freedom of information request.

They showed that RIPA powers had been used on 10,288 occasions since 2004 but just 9 per cent of those inquiries had led to a successful prosecution, caution or fixed penalty notice.

The alleged offences included littering, illegal street trading and taking the fairy lights from a Christmas tree.

Lib Dem local government spokesman Julia Goldsworthy said that when RIPA originally became law, only nine organisations – including the police and security services – were allowed to use it. That has since been extended to 795 bodies.

“This government sees civil liberties as little more than a temporary inconvenience. Slowly but surely, freedoms have been eroded,” she said.

See also here.

THE police are using anti-terrorism laws to prevent amateur photographers from legitimately recording scenes of everyday life, MPs heard on Wednesday: here.

CIVIL LIBERTIES campaigners called on Monday for the scrapping of a national DNA database which can hold the details of members of the public indefinitely – even if they have not committed a crime: here.

British economic crisis, workers fight back

The economic crisis continues; also in Britain.

This video says about itself:

Joint General Secretary of the trade union Unite, Tony Woodley, tells us why he’s asking his members and supporters to turn out in large numbers for the Put People First London march and rally on Saturday 28 March 2009, ahead of the G20 summit on the financial crisis.

From British daily The Morning Star:

UNION leaders called on ministers to tax the super-rich and clamp down hard on tax dodgers on Thursday as thousands prepared to join Saturday’s G20 march for jobs, justice and climate.

THE TUC will demand on Friday that the government extend the adult minimum wage to 18 to 22-year-olds to end low pay for young workers: here.

ANGER over the government’s plans to part-privatise Royal Mail intensified on Thursday amid a fresh row over the role of the chairwoman of the organisation’s pensions trustees: here.

FIRMS could save more than £10,000 per worker if they considered alternatives to making staff redundant, the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development said on Thursday: here.

CONSTRUCTION union UCATT finally won a two-year battle over holiday pay and sham contracts with housing giant Redrow on Thursday: here.

“THE British government hasn’t taken over the banks – the bankers have taken over the government,” Bill Benfield told the Communist Party of Britain‘s political committee on Wednesday: here.

David Manning, Blairite warmonger and corporate fat cat: here.

White stork and nuthatch

Today, to the nature reserve.

A white stork on the nest.

From the street, you can hear a nuthatch whistling in the woodland.

Ads I go back, a green woodpecker sound.

French workers release 3M manager

This is a French TV video on the workers’ occupation of 3M in Pithiviers.

From AFP news agency:

Sacked French workers release 3M manager

Thu Mar 26, 12:15 am ET

PITHIVIERS, France – A 3M factory manager was released Thursday after being held for more than a day by angry French workers trying to force their US employer to improve their redundancy package.

Following hours of talks between representatives of labour unions, 3M-Sante and 3M France, Luc Rousselet, the manager of the company’s factory in Pithiviers, 85 kilometres (50 miles) south of Paris, left the office where he had been held since Tuesday afternoon.

“We have an agreement with 3M to provide funds to respond to our demands,” said union representative Jean-Francois Caparros.

Economic crisis, fat cats, workers

This video from the USA says about itself:

$165 million in bonuses? Rachel Maddow explains the economic madness.

The Wednesday New York Times published an “open letter” of resignation by one of the American International Group (AIG) executives who had recently received a huge bonus (“Dear A.I.G., I Quit!”). The letter from Jake DeSantis, Executive Vice President of AIG’s Financial Products (AIG-FP) division, defended the AIG executive bonuses: here.

A FORMER American International Group (AIG) chief slammed the insurance corporation on Thursday for forking out millions in bonuses to its controversial financial unit: here.

A report by the US Government Accountability Office (GAO) details how the Department of Labor routinely ignores low-wage workers who complain about the violation of federal minimum wage, overtime and child labor laws: here. Unemployed in the USA: here.

The world bourgeoisie is beginning to consider the consequences of the huge deficit spending and money-printing operations that the Obama administration is using to fund its bailouts of Wall Street and major banks: here.

With the Japanese economy hit hard by plummeting exports and a deep recession, hundreds of thousands of people are facing unemployment and poverty: here.

At the heart of the disputes inside the German coalition government is how to deal with the consequences of the international financial and economic crisis: here.

Rare birth of laughing thrush in US zoo

This video is called White Crested Laughing Thrush, Garrulax leucolophus.

From the Washington Post in the USA:

NY zoo reports rare captive birth of Asian bird

The Associated Press

Wednesday, March 25, 2009; 2:51 PM

SYRACUSE, N.Y. — It’s called a white-crested laughing thrush and it’s bringing smiles to zookeepers in Syracuse.

The Rosamond Gifford Zoo greeted a new bird March 7. The chick is named Zephyr.

The birth came as a surprise to zookeepers, who have had no success breeding white-crested laughing thrushes. Zoo officials say the chick is one of only three born in captivity in the U.S. over the last year.

The birds are commonplace in Southeast Asia, South China and East India and were once widely imported into the U.S., but avian influenza worries forced zoos to stop importation.

White-crested laughing thrushes are cooperative breeders, so the zoo’s three adult birds are helping feed the newborn.

That’s right: Zephyr has three parents. It’s still a mystery just which ones are mom and dad.

Germans say get troops out of Afghanistan

This is a video from Germany: people demonstrated there to get the German troops out of Afghanistan.

From Dow Jones in the USA:

Most Germans Want Their Troops Out Of Afghanistan – Poll

BERLIN (AFP)–A poll published in Germany on Wednesday showed almost 60% support for a pullout of the country’s troops from Afghanistan just over a week before a key North Atlantic Treaty Organization summit.

Just 36% of those polled by the Forsa institute in the survey commissioned by Cicero magazine were in favor of Germany’s roughly 3,500 troops staying, while 58% want them to come home.

The German contingent, the upper limit of which parliament voted last year to increase to 4,500, is part of the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force). The soldiers are based in the relatively peaceful north of Afghanistan.

The mission has always been highly unpopular in Germany, the country’s first major overseas military operation since World War II. Thirty-one German troops have died in Afghanistan since 2002, including 14 during attacks.

U.S. President Barack Obama is expected to press his allies – Germany included – to do more at a 60th anniversary NATO summit on April 3-4 in Strasbourg, France and the German town of Baden-Baden.

Just like so many people in the USA and in Britain oppose the Afghan war.

From Reuters:

Police Say Two Afghan Farmers Shot Dead By NATO-Led Troops