Irish anti-G8 demonstrations

This video from the USA says about itself:

Camp David 2012 G8 Protesters. Ethiopian Americans from around the United States protesting today (Saturday May 19, 2012) in Thurmont, Maryland for human rights. Thurmont is located in Frederick County, Maryland and is the closest community to Camp David where the 2012 G8 Summit is being held. Critics say Meles Zenawi‘s government represses civil rights and news media. The United States is a major contributor of aid to Ethiopia.

From BreakingNews.ie in Ireland:

Protestors plan ‘alternative’ G8 in Ireland

05/04/2013 – 14:51:05

An “alternative” G8 summit is to be organised by protesters in Ireland against global austerity measures.

Trade unionists, anti-war activists, charities, anti-fracking organisations, environmentalists and pro-Palestinian lobbyists will be involved in demonstrations to be held near this summer’s conference in the North as well as in Belfast, Dublin and London, one of the organisers said.

Police in the North are mounting a massive security operation in anticipation of trouble including creating extra cells capable of holding 350 people and imposing a ring of steel around the luxury Lough Erne golf resort in Co Fermanagh where June’s meeting of world leaders is being held.

US President Barack Obama and Russian President Vladimir Putin are among those expected to attend a gathering of leaders representing some of the world’s leading economies hosted by British Prime Minister David Cameron.

People Before Profit campaigner Eamonn McCann said: “Here we have these eight people who are all in one way or another representing big power politics, they are all in one way or another involved in imposing austerity.

“They represent the 1% against the 99%.”

The PSNI is expanding custody provision at stations across the North for the summit.

Courts and prisons staff will also step up workloads in the anticipation of extra arrests. An unused 108-capacity unit at Maghaberry high security prison in Co Antrim and a former army site in Co Tyrone could house those charged.

Mr McCann accused the media of focusing on a violent minority and said past G8 demonstrators had been angered by the sight of US security forces on the streets.

“I would hope that the protests would be peaceful but you cannot rule out provocation in some form,” he said.

“The main focus of the violence in 2005 (Gleneagles) was the tactics by foreign security services. In Scotland groups of people were being confronted by American security agents who had taken over control.”

He said it was remarkable that the PSNI had been granted late-night sittings of courts to charge suspected offenders and demanded magistrates be made available on a Sunday without any opposition from local politicians.

“Where is the democratic accountability of law and order in all this?” he asked.

“Whether or not you agree that these things should be happening, they should not be happening without public debate.”

He said that besides the alternative summit several musical events were being organised to coincide with the G8 meeting.

He said plans for Co Fermanagh had not been coordinated yet but were in the process of formation by trade union organisations.

Expected participants in protests include the War on Want and Trocaire aid charities, groups concerned about fracking for gas (Fermanagh is a potential site for the mining), organisations supporting Palestinian causes and Friends of the Earth.

Issues to be highlighted include environmental protection, carbon emissions, public spending cuts and nuclear disarmament in the UK, France and Russia.

Mr McCann claimed G8 leaders did not have electoral endorsement for some of their policies.

“There is no mandate there for nuclear weapons, no mandate for the austerity measures across Europe, every public opinion poll shows that the vast majority of people are against them,” he said.

“Greece objected to them (austerity measures), Italy objected to them, the democratically elected government there was cast aside and a technocrat was installed.”

He said elected governments’ programmes were just set aside when the IMF and major financial institutions became involved in bailouts.

He added: “I believe we need Europe-wide coordinated resistance to what is happening. There is a spirit of revolt in France, a spirit of revolt in Greece and a spirit of revolt in Italy and there is a spirit of revolt on this island against what is happening. It needs to find a focus, we must all rise up together.”

Related articles

• Prison cells readied ahead of G8 summit in Co Fermanagh this summer (belfasttelegraph.co.uk)
• Protesters to hold ‘alternative g8′ (morningstaronline.co.uk)
• UK under pressure to act on UK offshore havens (irishtimes.com)

More homeless Irish people, IMF demands

This music video from Ireland is called Lough Sheelin Eviction, by the Wolfe Tones.

The song tells about one of many similar tragedies in nineteenth-century Ireland.

The Wikipedia article about the lake Lough Sheelin writes about it:

Lough Sheelin (from Irish: Loch Síodh Linn meaning “lake of the fairy pool”) is a limestone freshwater lough (lake) in Ireland located in County Westmeath, County Meath and County Cavan near the villages of Finnea (also spelled Finea) and Mountnugent and the town of Granard, (County Longford).

The lake is naturally populated by brown trouts whose native stocks had depleted in recent years, hence the Central Fisheries Board stocking with farm reared the lake for the pleasure of anglers.^[1] Trout stocks are estimated to be over 100,000.

It is also the setting of the song “Lough Sheelin Eviction”, made popular by The Wolfe Tones. The lyrics tell the sad, but unfortunately, too typical story of a family being evicted from their home by an unforgiving & merciless landlord. Absentee landlords were common in Ireland and for many landlords the main interest was income rather than the conditions of their tenants. Many landlords realized that they could get a higher income by turning their properties to pasture than to continue with the old practice of collecting rents from tenant farmers. Evictions were the most common way of getting rid of unwanted tenants. In the song the woman, Eileen, dies in the cold and the man is forced to flee his native land in order to find a new home.

It seems that the International Monetary Fund of Ms Christine Lagarde now wants to bring back the horrors of nineteenth century Ireland to the twenty-first century.

From daily News Line in Britain:

Friday, 5 April 2013

IMF ORDERS MORE IRISH ‘REPOSSESSIONS’

THE International Monetary Fund has delivered a brutal assessment of Ireland’s economic situation, complaining of a lack of progress by banks, and dangers of the country’s debt becoming unsustainable if growth forecasts are missed.

The IMF has criticised Irish banks for ‘inadequate progress’ in dealing with non-performing loans, stating that they are ‘only beginning to tackle non-performing loans’.

It complains repossessions are low at 0.3 per cent of total mortgage arrears in 2012, compared to the 3.25 per cent in the UK and the US.

Calling for a more efficient repossession regime, the IMF proposes the designation of specialist judges to concentrate expertise in handling a ‘potentially larger volume of repossession cases in an expedited manner’, while maintaining protections for homeowners.

While acknowledging progress to date, the IMF expects Ireland’s economy to grow by 1.1 per cent this year, by 2.2 per cent next year and by 2.7 per cent in 2015.

However, it warns that if growth was to fall short of these targets and to remain a sluggish 0.5 per cent per year, public debt would escalate to one-and-a-half times the size of the economy by 2021 and put the economy on an ‘unsustainable path’.

The IMF says allowing the European Stability Mechanism bailout fund to directly invest in Irish banks could play ‘an invaluable role’ in improving the country’s prospects for recovery and making the public debt burden more sustainable.

On the high unemployment, the IMF warns: ‘If involuntary part-time workers and workers only marginally attached to the labour force – two groups that registered significant increases – are also accounted for, the unemployment and underemployment rate stands at a staggering 23 per cent.’

Related articles

• Bankers make Irish people homeless (dearkitty1.wordpress.com)
• British bedroom tax makes people homeless (dearkitty1.wordpress.com)
• European funding for banks could be ‘invaluable’ to recovery, says IMF (irishtimes.com)
• IMF’s grim warning on recovery is aimed at EU hawks (independent.ie)

Greek ferry workers not paid by bosses

By Bill Benfield in Britain:

Ferry workers at the end of their tether

Thursday 04 April 2013

In Greek mythology, Charon is the ferryman of Hades who carries souls of the deceased across the rivers Styx and Acheron that divide the world of the living from the world of the dead.

The dead needed a coin to pay Charon for passage and those who could not pay the fee had to wander the shores for 100 years.

By that token, the directors of the ferry companies that provide the lifeline ferry services to the country’s more than 100 islands will be beachcombing for a very long time indeed.

Because Greece‘s modern-day Charons are going unpaid for months at a time.

For seven months, often under harsh winter conditions, Giorgos Polilogidis has waited for one thing – his pay.

A veteran of the ferries, Polilogidis is among hundreds of sailors, mechanics, stewards and others who work on the ferries and, according to the seamen’s unions, have been going unpaid for months at a time.

“If they don’t pay me some money,” the sailor growls, “I’m stopping tomorrow.”

Ferries are the lifeblood of Greece and not only in the tourist season. Many of the nation’s islands depend on ferries for supplies of everything from food and medicine to fuel and machinery spare parts, as well as getting agricultural products to market.

The government invoked emergency powers in January to force seamen back to work after a six-day strike.

Like every other sector in Greece, shipping has been hit hard by the country’s financial crisis.

“They kept telling us that the situation would become better but after September things got very bad,” said deckhand Antonis Pelatis, who joined the crew of one ferry in April and didn’t see his first pay packet for 10 weeks.

Last month he hit his fifth straight month without pay.

Greece has been dependent on bailout loans from other European countries and the International Monetary Fund since May 2010.

In return for its bailout, the country was forced to reform its economy, pushing through waves of austerity measures that slashed pensions and salaries, jacked up taxes and left the country mired in recession.

More than 26 per cent of the workforce is out of work and youth unemployment hovers close to 60 per cent.

Day after day, week after week and month after month, demonstrators pound the streets of Athens, demanding an end to the misery that the financial goons of the Troika have forced on them.

They are not only deprived of work, of wages and of benefits. They are being robbed of their futures by a gang of politicians whose only interest is to save the skins of their failed and unrepentant speculating mates, whatever it costs the people of Greece.

Austerity has failed dismally, despite claims by German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble, who told Athens daily Ta Nea that austerity measures are working, despite growing hardship and high unemployment.

With nearly 1,000 people losing their jobs each day, hundreds of thousands of those still employed don’t get regular pay.

According to one of Greece’s two largest trade unions, the GSEE, about a million people in the private sector – roughly two-thirds of all private-sector employees – have had their hours cut or get paid several months late.

For ferry crews, there’s an added twist.

Often hundreds of miles away from home and with nowhere else to go, most end up living on the ferries until they can get paid, their families surviving on money borrowed from friends and relatives.

“People have families. Some have two, three kids. They’re being patient, so they can get their money,” said Thanassis, who works the decks on the ferry Theofilos, where he and his colleagues have been living, many unpaid in five months.

“We don’t even have enough money for cigarettes any more,” said Thanassis. “The company has promised to pay but still there’s nothing. We’re in a desperate situation.”

His shipmate Spyros hasn’t been paid since November and has been living on the ferry even though he rents an apartment in Piraeus.

“I can’t go home because the landlord won’t let me in any more until I pay my rent,” he said.

Unable to borrow so much from friends, he now owes four months’ rent.

Like the vast majority of their colleagues, Thanassis and Spyros didn’t want to give their full names, fearing that speaking out would leave them blacklisted by ferry companies as troublemakers.

“It’s the insecurity of unemployment, the fear, the terror people have.

“They are afraid they’ll be seen and will be stigmatised by the other companies and they won’t get any more work.

“They are afraid for tomorrow, the day after tomorrow,” said sailors’ union treasurer Apostolos Banasis.

Crew members earn €2,000-3,500 a month in return for months spent away from home and working days that often stretch to 18 hours – or, at least, they do when they are paid.

Banasis said there were around 900 to 1,000 workers owed between two and seven months’ wages, mostly by three major Greek ferry companies – ANEK, Nel Lines and Hellenic Seaways.

Given the financial crisis, the inability of some coastal shipping companies to meet their financial obligations is not surprising, claims Association of Passenger Shipping Enterprises president Michalis Sakellis.

Between falling passenger numbers and spiralling expenses, he says that “companies are trapped.”

Heavily reliant on domestic tourism, passenger traffic has fallen by 20-30 per cent in the recent austerity-hit years as Greeks see their incomes dwindle, Sakellis said.

Banks have stopped lending money and costs have exploded, with a doubling of the tax on fuel, which accounts for 50-60 per cent of a ship’s costs.

Only a few of the total of 26 ferry companies operating in Greece have been unable to pay their crews, he claimed, though he wouldn’t name which ones.

But on any given winter’s day, when not all ferry companies are operating, half of the ships setting sail owe back wages to their crews, he admitted.

On the Theofilos, Thanassis and others were refusing to work until back pay was disbursed.

The company is still contractually obliged to feed them and provide power.

But for Dimitri, a deckhand on a ferry under repair in Perama, near Piraeus, there is only power – and therefore heating and running water – between 9am and 5pm.

After that, the ferry engines are turned off, plunging the ship into freezing darkness and leaving Dimitri with only layers of clothes and blankets to ward off the cold and damp as he sleeps on the ship.

Unpaid for more than two months, Dimitri has nowhere else to go because his home is in a town in the north-eastern part of the Peloponnese, more than 75 miles south of Athens.

“My finances don’t allow me to get to the other ships in port where they have hot food and power,” he said. “So I sleep here.”

He has but one thing to be thankful for. He won’t be doomed to wander the shores for 100 years – unless his bosses continue to withhold his pay and he is deprived of even a euro for the ferryman when his time comes.

Greek seafarers & dockers in 24-hour national strike: here.

The Federation of Greek Seafarers Trades Union PNO have called a 24-hour strike for 16 April on all ferries, passenger and cargo ships, against a government Bill for the ‘restructuring of the Commercial Naval Affairs Ministry’: here.

Related articles

• Hundreds of Greek seamen unpaid for months (ekathimerini.com)

Greek austerity destroys education

By Robert Stevens:

Greek parliament overturns right to free, universal education

2 April 2013

On Thursday the Greek parliament voted to pass legislation, codenamed the Athena Plan, aimed at the destruction of free, state-provided higher education. The law was rammed through in flagrant violation of the Greek constitution, which does not allow for the abolition of universities.

The law was passed with 148 parliamentary deputies voting in favour with 125 against. The deputies of the Democratic Left, the smallest party in the ruling three-party coalition which also comprises the conservative New Democracy and social democratic PASOK, voted against the measures. This was entirely on the basis that support for it would threaten their ability to operate as a “left” fig leaf for the governments’ austerity strategy.

Athena results in the immediate closure of four universities (ten percent of the remaining 40). These are the University of Central Greece, the University of Western Greece, the International Hellenic University and the University of Western Macedonia.

Some 20 percent of Greece’s technical institutions will also be abolished, with a number merged to establish privatized colleges. Currently there are a total of 534 departments, comprising 289 university departments and 245 technical college departments. A total of 129 university (AEI) and technical college (TEI) departments will be closed immediately and a further 26 other departments gradually phased out.

Since the Athena Plan—cynically named after the Greek goddess of wisdom and knowledge—was first announced in January, tens of thousands of students and young people have protested in an attempt to prevent its passage.

As it passed, more than 5,000 students, including some from faculties in Patras and other cities, protested outside the parliament in Athens. Gathering in front of Athens University, the protest marched to the main Syntagma Square via Omonia Square and Stadiou Street. Despite a heavy police presence and the use of tear gas in attempt to disperse the protesters, many students remained in the area. Students set fire to a flag of the European Union to protest the austerity programme being carried out at its behest.

One of the protesters stressed to PressTV the dictatorial nature of the new law, stating, “Today they passed an unprecedented bill that will allow the education minister to legislate restrictions and spending cuts, without the need for parliamentary voting. His signature alone with suffice to that effect. But we will not accept that. They are running our future and they will find us against them.”

Other protests were held the same day in Greece’s second city, Thessaloniki, in which students from the city of Serres also participated. A demonstration was also held in Larissa, the capital and biggest city of the Thessaly region.

The student protests have been fuelled by systemic youth unemployment, which now stands at almost 60 percent. Many students have cited the deaths of two university students in Larissa, from carbon monoxide poisoning in early March, as being symbolic of the terrible conditions they face. The two were trying to heat their dwelling with a makeshift heating stove when they gradually passed out. Three other students in the house were hospitalised, with two of them close to death and in a coma.

Of 63 towns nationwide, Athena will leave 12 without any higher education institution, department or school. It is estimated that more than 20,000 students will have to abandon their studies or move to another town. Teaching staff and department employees will be fired.

As courses are slashed to the bone, with only those deemed profitable able to survive, the cuts will have a grave impact on graduates wishing to enter higher education. It is estimated that this academic year alone the number of successful applicants is down from 77,000 in the previous academic year to 55,000.

An example is seen at the University of Western Macedonia, which will be abolished as a self-governing institution. Five of its six departments (four of which are in the town of Florina, and two in Kozani) will come under the Aristotelian University in Thessaloniki and the University of Macedonia, while one department will be abolished.

The cuts at the Technological Educational Institute of Western Macedonia are far deeper under the final Athena plan than originally proposed: only nine out of the 20 departments remain, as opposed to the 13 originally planned.

In pushing through Athena, the Greek ruling elite is tearing up the educational system and laying the basis for a private-sector takeover of education, in flagrant violation of the Greek constitution.

The right to free education was first enshrined in the constitution following the fall of the military Junta in 1974. In 1975 Article 16 became part of the constitution and stated, “All Greeks are entitled to free education on all levels at State educational institutions”. It adds, “Education at university level shall be provided exclusively by institutions which are fully self-governed public law legal persons.”

Point 16:8 of the constitution states, “The establishment of university level institutions by private persons is prohibited”. Whilst the constitution permits, the “Merging or splitting of university level institutions,” it does not allow for their abolition, as the Athena plan dictates.

Under Athena, it will become easier for private firms to invest in faculties, and appoint the personnel of their choosing, thus bringing private management into education provision. Institutions will be required to seek private sponsorship and connect their educational programmes more and more to the demands of the market. Athena’s focus is to promote those faculties specialising on economics and business, while other departments will be allowed to go to the wall.

The Athena plan is the culmination of a massive onslaught against state education, demanded by the European Union, European Central Bank and International Monetary Fund under the terms of Greece’s 240 billion euro loans. Last August, Education Minister Constantinos Arvanitopoulos said, “It is impossible for a country with a population of 11 million people to afford about 40 universities when other countries, such as Israel, have just seven or eight.”

In the last several years, academics have suffered salaries cuts of more than 50 percent, with the budgets of many institutions also slashed by more than half. School teachers have also recently demonstrated alongside academics and pupils in their thousands against cuts at primary and secondary school level.

Such has been the level of cuts to the education budget that much of the schooling infrastructure has been destroyed. Over the winter months hundreds of schools nationwide were forced to try to function without any heating oil, computers and insufficient textbooks.

Recent statistical surveys attest to the massive drop in working class living standards in Spain since the onset of the global financial crisis: here.

Related articles

• Students protest against plan to overhaul Greek universities (ekathimerini.com)
• TEI students protest against plan to overhaul Greek universities (ekathimerini.com)
• Central Athens rallies to protest education reform (ekathimerini.com)
• Big Students’ Protest Against Athena (greece.greekreporter.com)
• More austerity in Greece and Cyprus (dearkitty1.wordpress.com)
• VIDEO: Raw: Greek Protest Against Austerity Reforms (jtn-network.com)
• The Final Athena Plan (greece.greekreporter.com)
• Protesting through my eyes. (lostandfoundinbudapest.wordpress.com)
• Athens: Students block up Education Ministry over ‘reforms’ (keeptalkinggreece.com)
• 1,000s of students demonstrate in Madrid against education cuts (en.trend.az)

Bankers make Irish people homeless

This music video from Ireland is called Lough Sheelin Eviction, by the Wolfe Tones.

The song tells about one of many similar tragedies in nineteenth-century Ireland.

The Wikipedia article about the lake Lough Sheelin writes about it:

Lough Sheelin (from Irish: Loch Síodh Linn meaning “lake of the fairy pool”) is a limestone freshwater lough (lake) in Ireland located in County Westmeath, County Meath and County Cavan near the villages of Finnea (also spelled Finea) and Mountnugent and the town of Granard, (County Longford).

The lake is naturally populated by brown trouts whose native stocks had depleted in recent years, hence the Central Fisheries Board stocking with farm reared the lake for the pleasure of anglers.^[1] Trout stocks are estimated to be over 100,000.

It is also the setting of the song “Lough Sheelin Eviction”, made popular by The Wolfe Tones. The lyrics tell the sad, but unfortunately, too typical story of a family being evicted from their home by an unforgiving & merciless landlord. Absentee landlords were common in Ireland and for many landlords the main interest was income rather than the conditions of their tenants. Many landlords realized that they could get a higher income by turning their properties to pasture than to continue with the old practice of collecting rents from tenant farmers. Evictions were the most common way of getting rid of unwanted tenants. In the song the woman, Eileen, dies in the cold and the man is forced to flee his native land in order to find a new home.

It seems that banks in Ireland now want to bring back the horrors of the nineteenth century to the twenty-first century.

By Jordan Shilton:

Banks threaten to increase repossessions as Irish mortgage crisis deepens

1 April 2013

Details have emerged in recent weeks of the full scale of the debt crisis confronting households in Ireland. The large quantity of mortgage debt, which totals €17 billion for owner-occupied properties alone in a country of just 4.5 million people, equating to €3,777 per person, is creating concerns about the potential for a renewed financial collapse.

A report from the Central Bank of Ireland stated that over 140,000 households were in some form of mortgage arrears. Including the buy-to-let market, the total outstanding debt stood at €25 billion. The report showed that more than 23,000 households had been in debt for at least two years and that the total overdue payments were at least €3 billion. Some 11.5 percent of households were in arrears by more than 90 days.

Almost one quarter of mortgages are either in arrears or have been restructured due to the inability of borrowers to pay. Many homes are “under water”, meaning that they are worth less than the mortgage taken out on them, since property prices have halved since the economic crisis began.

A massive property bubble prior to 2008, brought on by the speculative activities of the banks and encouraged by low tax rates, contributed significantly to the financial collapse five years ago. Since then, the austerity policies implemented by the political elite have shifted the burden of the crisis onto the backs of working people.

The last five years have seen spending cuts and tax hikes totalling €28.5 billion, and much more is to come. The latest deal agreed between Ireland’s international lenders and the government in February will see working people pay for the bailout of the former Anglo Irish Bank over the next 40 years.

Concerns remain that the large levels of mortgage debt could provoke another financial collapse, particularly as the economy across Europe goes deeper into recession. Projections for the domestic economy this year suggest that it will see zero growth.

Bank of Ireland, the only major financial institution not to have fallen under majority state control, reported pre-tax losses of €2.16 billion earlier this month. It has cut 5,000 jobs since 2008. Over €3 billion of its mortgage lending, which totals €28 billion, is more than 90 days in arrears.

Some commentators have warned that the deepening crisis may compel the state to intervene and assume responsibility for the debt, not only at Bank of Ireland, but also at Allied Irish Bank and Permanent TSB. Losses for 2012 at Allied Irish were even worse at €2.8 billion. At Permanent TSB, one in five mortgages are in arrears.

In spite of the Bank of Ireland’s poor figures, executive pay rose sharply in 2012. Bank CEO Richie Boucher saw his pay and bonus package rise by over €12,000 to more than €840,000. Joe Walsh, a former Fianna Fáil government minister ostensibly appointed to the bank “on behalf of taxpayers,” enjoyed a pay increase of 14 percent.

In contrast, yet more sacrifices are being demanded from the working class. Leading banking officials responded to the latest mortgage figures with complaints over the low repossession rate of homes, and warned that they would be taking a more direct approach in future. A Bloomberg report described what was being prepared as “the biggest wave of foreclosures in the nation’s history.”

John Moran, the Secretary General of the Department of Finance, summed up the views in government when he declared that the rates of house repossessions in Ireland were “uncharacteristically low.” He continued that banks would soon be able to “move forward” in dealing with problem mortgages.

Matthew Elderfield, Deputy head of the Irish Central Bank stated, “Various factors have temporarily restrained lenders but it is an unpalatable fact in light of the severity of the crisis that repossessions must be expected to rise significantly.”

The Central Bank, which will oversee new government regulations to tackle the crisis, has said that banks must propose “sustainable” solutions to 50 percent of those with mortgage arrears by the end of 2013. In addition, the bank wants 75 percent of all customers with outstanding debts to have complied with new agreements by the end of 2014.

The government legislation will help facilitate the banks’ attempts to claw back mortgage arrears from workers struggling to make ends meet, with provision for repossession for those unable to make repayments. There are also plans to remove a legal loophole that has prevented a number of repossessions from going ahead.

The government proposals also include powers for representatives of the banks to impose income restrictions and limits on living standards on those in arrears. This could include compelling individuals to give up health insurance or even childcare. State-appointed “mediators”, who will be tasked with debt negotiations between mortgage holders and the banks, will be granted the power to determine “reasonable living expenses,” and rule out any spending deemed to be a “luxury.”

The government is calling for more “engagement” by the banks, in order to separate the “strategic defaulters” from those borrowers who genuinely cannot afford to pay. This distinction is completely fraudulent and is an attempt to conceal the brutality of the approach being proposed. The reality is that thousands of people across the country no longer have the means to meet basic living costs, let alone keep up with mortgage payments.

According to a survey by the Irish League of Credit Unions, 1.8 million people—a third of the population—have less than €100 left each month after “essential bills” are paid. Slashing of wages across all economic sectors, the implementation of a series of new taxes and levies to pay for the banking bailout, and thousands of job losses, with unemployment rising to over 14 percent, have all contributed to the growth of mass poverty.

On top of this, the government will introduce a new property tax at the beginning of July on 1.8 million households across the country.

Ireland’s international lenders in the European Union (EU), European Central Bank, (ECB) and International Monetary Fund (IMF) all support these measures against homeowners. In its latest review of Dublin’s bailout programme, the IMF hailed the government’s encouragement of the banks to increase home repossessions. “Building on the strong budget out-turn for 2012, sound budget execution remains critical in 2013, including continued vigilance on health spending and a successful introduction of the property tax,” the IMF wrote.

The callous indifference to the impact such measures are having on working people is in line with the policies being dictated by the troika across Europe. Similar austerity programmes are being followed in Greece, Spain, Portugal, Italy, and Cyprus.

The banks have seized the opportunity to massively expand repossessions. On March 16, the Irish Independent reported that instead of the 200 homes it had repossessed last year, Ulster Bank may aim at assuming control of 1,000 in 2013.

Related articles

• British bedroom tax makes people homeless (dearkitty1.wordpress.com)
• Irish Foreclosure Wave Risks Housing Recovery: Mortgages – Bloomberg (bloomberg.com)
• Chief executives could escape wage cuts at bailed-out banks (independent.ie)
• Wave of foreclosures risks killing Ireland’s housing recovery (business.financialpost.com)
• Permanent TSB chief says bank unlikely to repay all bailout funds (irishtimes.com)

More austerity in Greece and Cyprus

This video is called Greece: student protest rally in Athens.

By Robert Stevens:

After Cyprus, more austerity in Greece

30 March 2013

The European Union’s financial looting of Cyprus marks a qualitative turn in the brutal austerity measures being rolled out across the continent.

The EU’s €10 billion bank bailout is tied to the destruction of the island’s banking sector in the interests of the most powerful sections of finance capital.

Bank deposits over €100,000 have been raided, and strict capital controls are in force. Cyprus’s Foreign Minister Ioannis Kasoulides has said these could last for “up to a month” although commentators say they expect them to remain in place for years.

The bailout is tied to drastic spending cuts and privatisations. Representatives of the troika—the EU, European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund—have been in Cyprus since the beginning of the month, drawing up a list of potential privatisations, including major utilities.

At the same time, demands for greater austerity are being made of Greece, which has been in recession for five years as a result of EU measures.

Troika officials are to return to Athens early next month to complete what German Finance minister Wolfgang Schaeuble described this week as a “tough supervision mission”.

Speaking to Greece’s Ta Nea newspaper, Schaeuble refuted any suggestions that the population could no longer bear further austerity, saying “Right now all macroeconomic indicators are showing that the recipe is yielding fruit. But more time will be needed than what many in Greece would desire.”

In December, the troika agreed to release €50 billion from its current €130 billion loan agreement with Greece. In return, it demanded that Greece impose further massive job cuts, tax rises and other crippling austerity measures. The money is disbursed in tranches which are strictly conditional on attached austerity measures, with regular reviews of their “progress”.

But last month troika officials abandoned negotiations with the Greek government, delaying the disbursement of a €2.8 billion loan from that previously agreed.

At the centre of the crisis was the troika’s insistence that Greece fully adhere to promises to cut 25,000 jobs in the public sector by the end of 2013. Fearful of rising and explosive social anger amid record levels of unemployment, the government instead proposed to avoid compulsory layoffs and transfer the employees into a “special labour reserve” by 2014. Even though this would result in workers’ wages being slashed by 40 percent for a year, and the layoff of 150,000 employees by 2016, it was still rejected by the troika as insufficient.

Based on its loyal adherence to EU diktats, the coalition government of New Democracy, the social democratic PASOK and the Democratic Left had claimed that receiving the further tranche would be a formality. Finance Minister Yannis Stournaras commented at the time, “This time it will be easy. If they [the troika] stay a few extra days, it will be to see some antiquities.”

Instead, the troika spent double the time it had allocated in Athens, then ended the talks and withheld the promised loan on the basis that the government could not stall on the measures already agreed, including the shedding of thousands of jobs in the public sector.

In response, an anonymous government official told the Guardian that the receipt of any money from the troika was now gravely threatened: “There are very real concerns that come the summer the next loan disbursement [from the bailout] will not be made. Nothing is certain.”

Central to the EU’s action is a policy to drive down the wages and conditions of workers in all European countries to a level on a par with those in Eastern Europe, China and India.

In revealing comments prior to the last visit of the troika to Athens, a Greek representative of the Commission, Maria Damanaki, told To Vima FM radio, “The strategy of the European Commission over the past year and a half or two has been to reduce the labour costs in all European countries in order to improve the competitiveness of European companies over the rivals from Eastern Europe and Asia”.

This was the backdrop to meetings held late April between Kostas Hatzidakis, Greece’s Minister of Economy and Development, and the managing directors of 11 of the largest international companies operating in Greece. A report by GR Reporter noted that, “Eight of the eleven managers supported the idea that a [monthly] salary of 250 – 300 euro for part-time work could create new jobs.”

It cited the comments of the executive manager of Barilla Hellas George Spiliopoulous, who said, “I do not see why a minimum level of the salary should be maintained in a country where youth unemployment has reached incredible levels.”

It is this drive to destroy workers’ wages and conditions which accounts for the ruthlessness with which the EU has dealt with Cyprus and others, as well as the venality of their national governments in aiding its actions.

The ruling elite is moving rapidly to exploit the now catastrophic levels of unemployment, which stand at nearly 30 percent for adults and more than 60 percent for youth. With such demands, the ruling elite seeks to satiate itself even further just months after the government, under troika insistence, reduced the minimum wage for all under-25-year-olds by 25 percent, to €510 per month from €740. For a worker above 25, the minimum wage was cut by 22 percent to just €586 per month.

This week, the German federal statistics agency Destatis released research showing that in 2012, Greece was the only EU country to see a decrease in average labour costs in the private sector. According to the study, the cost of one hour worked, including non-wage elements, in the Greek private sector was €15.50 last year, down 6.8 percent from 2011.

No area of social provision has been spared, as living conditions in the country were thrown back to a level of those that existed during the Nazi occupation of the Second World War. Even further attacks are being implemented, under cost-cutting measures agreed with the troika, including the closure of regional hospitals in an already decimated health service and the slashing of the right to higher education under the “Athina Plan”.

This plan is called after Athena, the ancient Greek goddess of wisdom. Like this unwise attack on university education got a mythological name from the Greek government, they also gave a name from ancient myths to another one of their disastrous policies. A witch-hunt against refugees and immigrants which they called Zeus Xenios. Zeus Xenios in ancient Greece was the name of the supreme god as protector of foreigners.

Wikipedia says: “Zeus Xenios, Philoxenon or Hospites: Zeus was the patron of hospitality and guests, ready to avenge any wrong done to a stranger.”

What a cynical name for such a xenophobic witchhunt. Maybe this cynicism is inspired by the United States occupiers of Afghanistan calling their bloody war, also outside Afghanistan, “Enduring Freedom.”

Famous Greek composer Mikis Theodorakis reacted against the Athina plan:

Iconic 88-year-old composer Mikis Theodorakis has spoken out openly against the Athina plan, which over and above mergers or abolitions of many public institutions has proposed reducing the number of students in remaining universities and further, severe reductions in state funding of institutions.

The composer’s reaction was provoked by the plan’s indirect attempt to abolish the public nature of higher education, which is embodied in article 16 of the Greek constitution, by suggesting that institutions seek private sponsorship and make greater efforts to connect their educational programmes to the demands of the market.

Referring to IMF and EU admissions that the numbers for economic recovery in Greece had been wrong – though this did not lead to corrections to economic policies that are plunging Greeks into greater poverty – the famous composer said:

“Athina is not another mistake; it is a well planned step towards the further downgrading not only of Greek education but also of the whole of Greek society, individually, occupationally, biologically and educationally.”

In the same message, the composer argued that powerful groups “want our people on their knees, obedient, ignorant and submissive without resistance and without national conscience or patriotism, in order to usurp our national resources and in order to turn us into well-behaved slaves; they are taking us back to the period of colonialism”.

In a direct appeal to students, he said: “Don’t let them do that. It is up to you, together with your parents and the rest of the Greek people, to ensure the safety of the country, to take the problems of our motherland in your own hands.”

Robert Stevens continues:

The aim of Athina is to close many higher education facilities and abolish the right to higher education, currently enshrined in article 16 of the Greek constitution. Under its aegis, institutions will be required to seek private sponsorship and connect their educational programmes to the demands of the market.

This course is being insisted on under conditions in which the austerity agenda has left Greece mired in its sixth year of recession. The Greek central bank has forecast that the recession is set to worsen, with the economy projected shrink more than 5 percent this year, compared with the troika’s projection of 4.5 percent.

Students demonstrate against plan Athina: here.

Officials warned on Saturday that Bank of Cyprus customers may lose 60 per cent of their deposits – far more than initially thought: here.

The loan terms dictated to Cyprus by the troika of the European Union, European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) are predicated on the destruction of the pay and conditions of the working class and an onslaught against vital social and welfare programs: here.

Greece: LEADER of the Coalition of the Radical Left (SYRIZA) Alexis Tsipras has warned that the Troika ‘maybe wants to abolish democracy’: here.

Related articles

• Troika robbery of Cyprus depositors (dearkitty1.wordpress.com)
• Cyprus workers fight back (dearkitty1.wordpress.com)
• Savers across Europe will look on in horror at the Troika’s raid on Cyprus | Michael Burke (guardian.co.uk)
• EU in ‘denial’ that sick economy costs lives, say health experts (ekathimerini.com)
• Cyprus: Austerity Test-Case is ‘Biggest Experiment in Financial History’ (commondreams.org)
• Chomsky Says Germany Wants Hold On Greece (eu.greekreporter.com)
• Health study: Austerity is costing lives in Europe (nhsfightback.org)
• Greece suffers deflation for first time since 1968 while resentment towards German austerity continues to mount (thisismoney.co.uk)
• Spiegel Suspects Deposits Haircut in Greece (greece.greekreporter.com)
• ILO Foresees Social Unrest in Greece and Cyprus (eu.greekreporter.com)

United States NASA space education threatened

This video is called Great NASA Images – Deep Space Part 1.

By Bryan Dyne in the USA:

US sequester cuts force NASA to halt outreach programs

28 March 2013

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has announced an immediate halt and review of all public outreach programs and educational activities and most likely will cancel them altogether. The memo released by NASA states this is the direct result of $900 million in budget cuts caused by the sequestration—the mechanism put in place by the Obama administration and the Republican-controlled Congress to slash federal spending.

It is unclear at the time of this writing how many jobs will be lost as a result of these cuts.

In terms of scope, the memo goes on to specify that the programs affected include those “intended to communicate, connect with, and engage a wide and diverse set of audiences to raise awareness and involvement in NASA, its goals, missions and programs, and to develop an appreciation for, exposure to, and involvement in STEM [Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics]”.

NASA maintains dozens of such programs, ranging from programs directed at children as young as five years old through college internship programs to promote a study of the sciences.

These cuts come alongside a general slashing of funds to publicly funded basic research. The National Institutes of Health was cut by $2.52 billion, the National Science Foundation lost $586 million and Department of Energy research was dropped by $400 million. All in all, research spending took an 8 percent cut.

NASA was founded under the Eisenhower administration of the late 1950s, a political response to the success of the Soviet Union in its launching of history’s first satellite in 1957. It was also done to coordinate the efforts of disparate organizations that were part of the already existing US space programs. NASA’s first space mission was Explorer 1, launched on January 31, 1958.

The cutting of NASA’s budget is less than two years after the shuttle program ended in August 2011. It is a continuation of the policy decisions made during the Bush administration and continued under Obama. It also continues the steady decline of NASA’s budget. It is now less than half a percent of the federal budget, half as much as it was 20 years ago and more than eight times less than what it was during the height of the Apollo program.

Significantly, cutting public outreach programs is primarily directed at NASA employees, who run those events. Contractors, on the other hand, will still have NASA money allocated to them. Just last August, NASA awarded contracts totaling more than $1 billion as part of its Commercial Crew Integrated Capability (CCiCap) initiative to Boeing, SpaceX, and others. SpaceX, owned by billionaire co-founder of PayPal Elon Musk, already received a $1.6 billion contract from NASA in December 2008 to develop a replacement to NASA’s Space Shuttle.

Contracting out work combined with cutting NASA’s budget goes along with the drive by the Obama administration to privatize public resources. No longer will the public benefit from the advances generated by space flight, of which there are many. In fiscal year 2003, the economies of the 50 states were boosted by more than $12.5 billion as a result of NASA research. There are tens of thousands of non-space applications of technologies generated by the space program.

The rationale for the necessity of these cuts at NASA, as is the case with cuts to other “unnecessary” federal programs, is that “there is no money.” Left out of this reasoning by agency bureaucrats appointed by the Obama administration as well as the corporate media is that the banks and major financial institutions are being bailed out to the tune of $85 billion a month.

These cuts and re-appropriations are part and parcel of those hitting other governmental agencies, which assist the working class in one way or another. Head Start, a program funded by the US Department of Health and Human Services designed to address the educational and nutritional needs of children in poverty under the age of five, will see a loss of 70,000 children from eligibility as a result of the budget sequestration. Cuts to the US Postal Service will stop Saturday mail delivery this August.

Other programs to be cut are the US Department of Education’s Title I program, which provides assistance from the federal government to local school districts in areas of rampant poverty. It will lead to the elimination of an estimated 10,000 teachers. Parents of some 1,300 children with severe mental disorders will see their federal support for treatment lost as the Children Mental Health Services program sees its budget slashed.

Ending public outreach programs is a continuation of the ongoing destruction by the ruling elite of the free dissemination of scientific knowledge. It speaks to the decline of American capitalism and the socially regressive character of the profit system on a world scale.

Related articles

• Indiegogo campaign wants to place a commercial for NASA in front of Star Trek film (slashgear.com)
• The end of NASA’s Education and Public Outreach [Starts With A Bang] (scienceblogs.com)
• Sequestration forces NASA to halt educational, outreach efforts – @NBCNews (cosmiclog.nbcnews.com)
• Sequester Cancels NASA Outreach (universetoday.com)
• NASA Tells Congress About Meteors: Pay or Pray (astronaut.com)

Cyprus workers fight back

This video is called Bank of Cyprus staff protest at Nicosia headquarters.

From daily News Line in Britain:

Thursday, 28 March 2013

Bank of Cyprus occupied!

Thousands of Bank of Cyprus employees remained in occupation of the bank’s Nicosia headquarters in defence of their jobs yesterday, after hearing that the ‘restructuring’ agreed in the EU bailout deal involves thousands of bank job cuts.

The occupation began on Tuesday after the country’s largest commercial bank announced plans to take over Laiki Bank, the island’s second largest bank also known as Cyprus Popular Bank.

Cypriot officials said the deal would mean the country would shift its focus away from being an international centre of financial services. That is expected to cost jobs, adding to the unemployment rate which now stands at around 14 per cent.

‘If their only goal right from the start was to destroy the banking sector of Cyprus then it looks like they found the way. After Popular Bank it will be us and even worse after that,’ said Bank of Cyprus employee Panicos Stelaianou.

Bank of Cyprus chairman, Andreas Artemis, and four other board members have resigned, complaining that the government has failed to tell them it was appointing an administrator to oversee the bank’s restructuring.

Nicosia secured a 10-billion-euro bailout deal on Monday from the Troika – the European Union (EU), the European Central Bank (ECB) and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) – involving a 40 per cent tax on deposits of over 100,000 euros and the shutting down of the Popular Bank.

Cyprus is to impose severe limits on money transfers and withdrawals, while extra security guards are on hand for today, provided the government reopens the banks.

• Following the Cypriot banks’ collapse the Athens stock exchange collapsed by 4.9 per cent last Tuesday and by lunchtime Wednesday it was diving by a further 3.5 per cent.

On Wednesday morning, the Cypriot Finance Minister Mikhalis Sarris stated in a TV programme that one of the reasons for the collapse was that the Cypriot Popular Bank since 2007 made ‘unchecked huge loans’ to Greek companies.

He also said that when he was made head of the bank, the Cypriot Popular Bank was already ‘in tatters’ and he just kept it breathing for the last two years until Cyprus appealed for EU help.

The Greek bourgeois press stated that the EC-IMF-ECB troika will impose over 50 per cent ‘haircuts’ on Cypriot banks’ accounts and also a widespread programme of privatisations and deep wage and pension cuts resulting in very high unemployment.

• Meanwhile, unemployment in France climbed toward a record high in February for the 22nd month running and has reached its highest level since 1997.

The number of registered jobseekers in the eurozone’s second-largest economy rose by 18,400 from January to 3.188 million, the highest since June 1997 and close to the record of 3.196 reached in January of that year.

See also here.

The bailout imposed on Cyprus by the European Union (EU) is a politically criminal act of financial looting, aimed at destroying the country’s banks and reducing the working class to penury: here.

Cypriot youth protest: here.

By Stella Tsolakidou on March 28, 2013:

Cyprus’ Crisis Could Last For Years

The Cypriot banking crisis is yet another blow to the Eurozone system, but it is the Cypriot people who are experiencing the true impact of the embattled banks and the imposed haircut of the Troika.

Some experts claim that the country would be better off if it had exited the Euro and started negotiation about its banks’ future without any promises or commitments.

Most, however, fear that the future seems particularly bleak for Cyprus and the years to come will be harsher than any other Eurozone nation has witnessed before, even Greece, which has undergone three years of big pay cuts, tax hikes and slashed pensions.

In Cyprus though, bank account holders with more than 100,000 euros ($130,000) could lose 80 percent or more of their money as the government is going to confiscate it on the orders of the same international lenders who imposed harsh austerity on Greece.

“Thanks to political mismanagement, we now have a first: capital controls in the Eurozone,” Nicolas Veron, a senior fellow at Bruegel in Brussels and a visiting fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics in Washington told the Bloomberg news agencky. “How long is temporary? It could turn out like Iceland, extending to many years.”

Due to the prolonged shutdown of Cypriot banks, competent authorities in Cyprus and Greece [are] getting prepared for possible shortages in basic food sources and medical drugs that are considered irreplaceable. According to a ProtoThema report, the closed banks created conditions of economic suffocation, since Cypriots can now only withdraw cash in dribs and drabs, barely enough to cover their daily needs and businesses have been left without enough money to buy goods, including supermarkets.

Cypriot media reported that some retail businesses are threatened with extinction because consumers have significantly lost much of their spending power, similar to Greece, where more than 68,000 businesses have closed since 2010 when austerity began. The sharp drop in sales has rendered retailers unable to make commission, so that with each passing day more and more shelves are emptied.

Most suppliers do not accept checks and require cash. Gas stations also require cash payment, as well as supermarkets and credit cards are virtually useless and not accepted. A week ago, the President of the Cypriot Supermakets’ Union, Andreas Hatziadamou, had already warned that supermaket stocks are enough for less than a week time. “Unless a solution is immediately found and suppliers do not withdraw their decision of accepting only cash for payments, there will be serious shortages in our supermarkets’ shelves,” he said.

The National Guard is in a dire situation too: just as any other civil servant in Cyprus, they do not know when they will get paid and their families are feeling the consequences. There are currently no other fuel supplies beside the army supplies. All exercises have been cancelled, especially for reservists, who for a number of reasons are not wanted to be armed at the moment, according to a defencenet.gr report.

Employees in private companies will not receive their wages from March, even if the banks open as scheduled on March 28 after being closed since March 15. Employers can not make payments, either because of administrative failures of the banking sector or due to restrictions on withdrawals or the lack of money in their accounts after the haircut on deposits imposed by the Eurogroup.

All bank accounts of more than 100,000 euros in Laiki Bank, which was the commercial bank in Cyprus, will remain in the bank until the final liquidation, and the most optimistic scenario wants beneficiaries to get 20-30% of their deposits back in three or four years.

Before the confiscation, ATM withdrawals were limited to 100 euros ($130) per day. People are facing difficulties with covering their daily needs (food, electricity, telephone, water) making this crisis, economically speaking, as bad as that in 1974 when Turkey invaded and occupied the northern third of the island.

According to a draft presidential decree, as revealed by Kathimerini’s version in Cyprus, a series of strict capital controls will be imposed for at least a week. Bank customers cannot withdraw from savings until their time deposit accounts expire; checks can be deposited but not cash, only 3,000 euros ($3835) per person will be allowed to be taken out of the country, no money can be transferred abroad except for students studying in foreign countries, and that will be limited to 10,000 euros ($13,000) per quarter.

Cyprus banks opened: long queues but no panic, no bank run: here.

Bank workers in Cyprus face the loss of half their pensions: here.

Related articles

• No run as banks reopen in Cyprus (fsn.typepad.com)
• Cyprus’ President-related company transfers €21 mln to London prior to bailout agreement – report (rt.com)
• You: Bank of Cyprus depositors could lose up to 60% of their savings (guardian.co.uk)
• Cypriot archbishop urges finance minister to quit (jhaines6.wordpress.com)
• Leaked documents accuse elite of pulling millions from Cyprus banks before scandal (express.co.uk)

G4S mercenaries enforcing Cyprus austerity

This is a music video by British punk band Crass, of their song Securicor (another name for G4S corporation). Lyrics are here.

From daily The Morning Star in Britain, Wednesday 27 March 2013:

Cypriot banks set to reopen tomorrow

CYPRUS: Officials have placed limits on money transfers before banks reopen tomorrow to avoid a run.

Banks have been closed for two weeks during wrangling over a bid by international financiers to steal Cypriots’ savings.

Security privateer G4S will despatch around 180 staff to branches across the country to quell any potential unrest.

Related articles

• G4S security guards sent in as Cyprus banks open (metro.co.uk)
• Bringing in the Wolves to herd the sheep? G4S Readies Guards as Cypriot Banks Prepare to Open (sott.net)
• Cyprus Readies for Reopening of Banks (ipsnews.net)
• Cyprus crisis: Oligarchs escape as crisis hits middle class (rbth.ru)
• Cyprus caves to eurozone pressure (morningstaronline.co.uk)

Hungarian government honours racists

This video says about itself:

News: Hungarians unite against antisemitism; huge anti Nazi, anti-Jobbik rally held in Budapest

Dec 4, 2012

Around 10,000 people have taken to the streets in Budapest in protest over what many see as a resurgence of neo-Nazi ideologies in government just days after a far-right MP belonging to the ultranationalist Jobbik party accused Hungary’s Jewish population of posing a national security risk, and called for them to be registered on special lists.

In a rare show of unity on Hungary’s deeply divided political scene, civil rights groups and party leaders from across the spectrum came together for the rally, which was held outside the main parliament building. During the protest, organisers played scenes from a 1944 film about World War Two, in which around 600,000 Jews and 30,000 Roma were killed by Hungarian fascists.

Many demonstrators carried signs critical of the far-right opposition party, Jobbik, which rode to power in 2010 by winning 44 out of 386 parliamentary seats, making it the third largest party in the country in terms of MPs. Many have accused the party of targeting Jewish and travelling Roma minorities in order to win votes, and of inciting racist attacks with hate speech.

Protesters are demanding government condemnation of the remarks and are urging action to be taken to suppress extremist and anti-Semitic voices.

By Markus Salzmann:

Hungary: National award for notorious Anti-Semite

23 March 2013

On Hungary’s National Day, March 15, the right-wing TV host Ferenc Szaniszlo received the Táncsics Award, the highest state award for journalists in Hungary. On the state-run Echo TV station Szaniszlo has disseminated anti-Semitic conspiracy theories and described the Roma minority as “apes”.

In response to criticism of the decision, the minister responsible for the award, Minister of Human Resources Zoltán Balog, replied that he was unaware of the anti-Semitic and abusive racists remarks made by Szaniszlo. Szaniszlo has been employed by the right-wing Echo TV station since 2008, where he is primarily concerned with foreign policy. In 2011, the state media regulator had already fined the station following racist remarks by Szaniszlo.

In protest against the awarding the honor to Szaniszlo, over 10 former Táncsics award-winners immediately returned their awards.

The honoring of Szaniszlo is just the latest in a string of provocations involving right-wing personalities. Recently the government awarded archaeologist Kornel Bakay a medal of merit. Bakay had caused a stir with anti-Semitic statements, e.g., with his claim that Jews had organized the slave trade in the Middle Ages.

The Golden Cross of Merit was awarded to the singer of the rock band Kárpátia, Petrás János. The group is close to the neo-fascist party Jobbik and composed the anthem for Jobbik’s paramilitary wing, the Hungarian Guard. In its songs the band glorifies the “immaculate nation” and calls for expanding the borders of Hungary.

The government of Prime Minister Victor Orban (Fidesz/Civic Union) used the award ceremony to close ranks with Jobbik as part of a broader strategy of relying on far-right layers to suppress increasing popular resistance against attacks on social and democratic rights.

The already strained social situation in Hungary is deteriorating rapidly. Poverty and unemployment are at their highest level for over 20 years and the economic outlook is grim. Investment in the Hungarian economy in 2012 fell by about 5 percent compared to the previous year. The decline in the fourth quarter of 2012 was close to 8 percent.

Despite this situation, Orban is holding fast to his policy of radical austerity measures. In early March, together with the mayor of Budapest, Orban signed a contract that establishes, among other things, the acquisition of 60 percent of the liabilities of the capital by the state budget. In return the government receives the power to cut the funds of, or close down, municipal facilities. The government has already announced its intention to make huge savings through budget cuts to hospitals and public transport in the capital city.

Fidesz Secretary Gábor Kubatov has urged his party to establish its own version of the paramilitary Hungarian Guard. Fidesz must set up its own “party guard”, Kubatov wrote in a circular to party members. Such a force should be entrusted with the security of party offices and the protection of party events, he said.

The initiative to form their own band of right-wing thugs is Fidesz’ response to the latest protests. A week ago, mainly young protesters conducted a sit-in in front of the Fidesz party headquarters in Budapest to protest against Orban’s increasing attacks on democratic rights and the constitution.

Using its two-thirds majority in parliament, Fidesz has recently curtailed the powers of the Constitutional Court. In future judges may only check laws for formal errors and have no influence over their content. In addition, the Constitutional Court can only judge cases on the basis of the 2011 Constitution adopted by Fidesz, thereby excluding any reference to former Constitutional Court judgments.

Following a number of judgements by the Constitutional Court declaring government laws unconstitutional, Orban has now elevated some of these laws to the rank of constitutional articles. Homelessness, for example, is now a punishable offense in Hungary. The homeless are forbidden from staying on “public property” for any length of time. Freedom of expression can be annulled by the government when judged that the “dignity of the Hungarian nation” has been violated.

The EU Parliament and its commissioner for basic rights and justice, Viviane Reding, condemned the constitutional amendments and threatened to impose sanctions. But experience demonstrates that such exhortations from Brussels remain without consequence. In 2011 Reding had rejected criticism of a new Hungarian media law that annuls the freedom of the press by arguing that her commission “has no role to play with regard to media law”.

Orban’s Fidesz is a member of the European People’s Party, which includes the conservative CDU led by German Chancellor Angela Merkel. Merkel and other European leaders are well aware that the enforcement of the current austerity measures cannot be carried out by democratic means. Nevertheless, Merkel has maintained that she had “no doubts” that Hungary is following the path to democracy.

Related articles

• Hungarian government honours anti-Semite (dearkitty1.wordpress.com)
• Hungary awards top journalism prize to anti-Roma broadcaster (euobserver.com)
• Hungary Asks Journalist to Return Award on Anti-Semitism – Bloomberg (bloomberg.com)
• Hungary Honors Anti-Semites (blogs.the-american-interest.com)
• Hungarians fight for civil liberties (dearkitty1.wordpress.com)
• Israel Asks Hungary to Withdraw Award to Anti-Semitic Journalist (israelnationalnews.com)
• Racist Hungarian Journalist Returns State Prize (dokmz.wordpress.com)
• Racist Hungarian Journalist Returns State Prize (israelnationalnews.com)
• [Opinion] Time to suspend Orban’s EU voting rights (euobserver.com)