Cypriot people fight austerity robbery

This video is called Cyprus bank levy- Bailout terms shock Cypriots.

By Bill Benfield:

Cypriot leader fails to wriggle out of corner

Tuesday 19 March 2013

The new and almost unbelievably inept Cypriot government struggled today to find a way out of the financial corner it had painted itself into.

The hugely controversial bailout conditions, imposing a 6.75 per cent charge on bank accounts of up to €100,000 (£85,000) and 9.9 per cent on deposits above that amount has been rejected not only by the parliamentary opposition but even by those who made the deal in the first place.

IMF head Christine Lagarde said in Frankfurt that the IMF was “extremely supportive of the Cypriot authorities’ intentions to introduce more progressive rates in the one-off tax,” despite having been party to the original deal.

And, late on Monday, eurozone finance ministers urged Cyprus to rethink the levy, even though it had been agreed in Brussels on Saturday.

The EU is grimly aware that the “one-off” imposition on Cyprus has backfired on the whole EU as well as on the sorry administration of incompetent new Cypriot President Nicos Anastasiades, whose administration has spent what political capital it possessed with voters faster than it agreed to plunder their accounts to featherbed bigger account holders.

The idea of such one-off taxation of accounts has gone down like a lead balloon on the world’s money markets and is already affecting the rates at which speculators are prepared to loan to EU nations.

The miserly concession of exempting all deposits below €20,000 (£17,000) looked unlikely to win over the furious left opposition or even some governing party members.

So, almost inevitably, the vote was likely to be postponed until tomorrow.

Cypriot banks are now to remain closed until Thursday at the earliest.

In the air, Britain was flying in a planeload of cash for servicepeople who might not be able to access cash machines.

In parliament, the finance minister has offered to resign.

And on the streets outside, the demonstrators are appearing in steadily rising numbers – a sure sign that the troika’s in town.

Related articles

• European Union robs Cyprus bank depositors (dearkitty1.wordpress.com)
• A Cypriot Nobelist ‘Appalled’ By the Bailout Bank Tax (businessweek.com)
• Cyprus: panic as savings levy is imposed (guardian.co.uk)

European Union anti-Romanian, anti-Bulgarian xenophobia

This video from Ireland says about itself:

Belfast: Romanians Flee Homes After Racist Attacks

More than 100 Romanians, including a five-day-old baby, have been forced from their homes in Belfast by racist attacks.

Sky’s Mark White reports.

By Julie Hyland in Britain:

Europe’s rulers whip up anti-immigrant chauvinism

18 March 2013

Membership of the European Union is supposed to confer on a country’s citizens the right to free movement and freedom from discrimination on the grounds of nationality.

The populations of Bulgaria and Romania have been targeted by the major European powers for the removal of these rights.

The EU has agreed to postpone a decision on Bulgarian and Romanian membership of the visa-free Schengen zone. Both countries are members of the EU and, according to the European Commission, have fulfilled their obligations under the treaty. After two years of postponement, their citizens were finally to be eligible to work within the EU without restrictions from 2014. But EU justice and home affairs ministers meeting last week delayed agreement, after Germany’s Hans-Peter Friedrich said his country would veto their membership of the Schengen zone.

Friedrich asked contemptuously, “Does free movement in Europe mean that we can expect one day that people anywhere in Europe, who believe that they can live on welfare in Germany better than in their own countries, will come to Germany?”

“Those who only come to receive social welfare, and thus abuse their freedom of movement–they must be effectively prevented from doing so,” he insisted.

Germany is by no means alone. Britain, France, The Netherlands and Austria have made similar statements. Their stance exposes the claims as to the progressive, “harmonising” mission of the EU that was made most stridently at the time of the collapse of the Soviet Union and its satellite states.

During the 1990s the European bourgeoisie rushed to entice the eastern European countries into the EU, holding out the promise of economic prosperity and political stability in an equitable union of nations.

Over the next period, the economies of these countries were looted as the EU demanded sweeping privatisations and the destruction of extensive social welfare provisions. This was justified on the grounds that “structural adjustment” was necessary in order to be fully integrated into the European club.

Instead, even after many of the eastern European countries were accepted into the EU (Bulgaria and Romania joined in 2007) there has been no end to the pain. The result is rising unemployment, joblessness and economic insecurity. Bulgaria and Romania are the two poorest countries in the EU, with half of their populations at risk of poverty.

The EU admits that the ruling elites in Bulgaria and Romania have done everything demanded of them. But it sadistically argues that the very “success” of its scorched earth prescriptions means their populations must not be allowed their rights as EU citizens because the impoverishment inflicted upon them makes them unwelcome!

Ivan Krastev, chairman of the Centre for Liberal Strategies think-tank in Bulgaria, told the Financial Times, “The idea was transition was painful, it was suffering. But now [with EU membership] we were supposed to get to a totally different life. We were going to live if not like Germans, at least like Greeks. It never happened.”

His statement sums up the sea change that has taken place in European class relations. For more than a decade, the Eastern European countries strove to live “like Greeks”. But rather than joining a Europe of prosperity, they joined a Europe of austerity.

Greece has been the laboratory in which the European bourgeoisie has utilised the global capitalist crisis to roll out the shock therapy it pioneered in Eastern Europe across the continent. Subject to five years of savage austerity, unemployment in Greece is more than 25 percent, and almost 50 percent among the youth; food banks are a way of life for tens of thousands, and health care and educational provision is grinding to a halt.

Instead of Bulgaria and Romania “levelling up”, conditions across the continent are being levelled down to a benchmark no longer even set in eastern Europe but in China.

The attitude of the major European powers towards Bulgaria and Romania is not only a matter of great-power arrogance. Class retribution plays its role. Both countries have seen mass movements against EU-dictated austerity that have brought down governments associated with these policies—in April last year in Romania and only last month in Bulgaria.

As punishment, the working population of these countries are now slandered as welfare scroungers, and held virtually captive, while finance capital is free to plunder Europe without let or hindrance.

Meanwhile, vicious propagandising against “benefit tourism” is used to divert from the actual source of rising unemployment and falling wages that lies in governmental policies dictated by the real parasites in society—the financial oligarchy.

While slashing wages and conditions, the New Democracy-led government in Greece—in coalition with the social-democratic PASOK and Democratic Left—authorises mass round-ups of immigrants and other racist measures as it appropriates the policies of the fascist Golden Dawn.

The same tendency is underway throughout Western Europe, with social democratic parties increasingly taking the lead.

In Germany, the Social Democrat Mayor of Duisburg, Soren Link, has unleashed a filthy, racist tirade against eastern European migrants, complaining that their presence drains resources from “native” citizens.

In France, the Socialist Party government of Francois Hollande continues the policies of Gaullist President Nicolas Sarkozy, carrying out raids on immigrant camps and mass deportations, as it competes with the National Front.

In Britain, the Labour Party is championing “maximum controls” on eastern European migration, under the demand—again appropriated from the fascist British National Party—of “British jobs for British workers.”

The target of such measures is the social rights of the entire working class. The demands to bar immigrants from welfare entitlements—including health and housing—is used to justify the claim that social provision is no longer affordable and must be eliminated.

…

Workers and youth must actively oppose the campaign of anti-immigrant chauvinism.

Greece’s austerity has caused a 90% decline in pharmaceuticals as drug companies withhold shipments to the country: here.

Related articles

• Tories warned not to discriminate against Romanians and Bulgarians (guardian.co.uk)
• EU: No Consensus on Letting Bulgaria, Romania into Schengen (novinite.com)
• Rich EU Countries Fret Over All The Romanians And Bulgarians Heading Their Way (businessinsider.com)

European Union robs Cyprus bank depositors

This video says about itself:

Cyprus bailout- Man threatens bank with bulldozer

16 March 2013

People in Cyprus have reacted with shock to news of a one-off levy of up to 10% on savings as part of a 10bn-euro (£8.7bn; $13bn) bailout agreed in Brussels.

Savers queued at cash machines amid resentment at the charge, while co-operative credit societies shut to prevent a run on deposits.

From daily News Line in Britain:

Monday, 18 March 2013

‘Clear-cut robbery in Cyprus’ – the penalty for the crime is revolution!

THE Cypriot parliament yesterday postponed an emergency session on the 7-10% banking tax imposed by the EU on every depositor in the country’s banking system.

This has already been termed by locals as a ‘clear-cut case of robbery’. Already, ATM machines have been shut down, and farmers have appeared on the scene with bulldozers ready to do what is necessary to get their cash back.

However, the reality of the situation, that the Cypriot banks do not have the cash in their vaults to restore depositors’ money, demands a revolutionary solution to this crisis.

The parliamentary debate and a presidential address is now to take place today. By the time it ends, most Cypriot banks could well be occupied by their depositors, who will be considering what further steps they must take to end this ‘clear-cut case of robbery’, to get their cash back.

The Cypriot president has said that refusing the bailout terms will lead to the collapse of the country’s banks. However, they have already collapsed.

The implications of the EU’s bankers imposing a 7-10 per cent banking tax on an entire state are completely revolutionary. This time the EU is not just deciding who the government will be, it has decided to act as a bank robber.

The prospects are that the Cypriot parliament will refuse to do this, leaving the EU leadership with no option, but to order the government to carry out the robbery using the police and the state forces to do so.

This will leave the Cypriot working class with only one option – that of taking possession of the banks, bringing down the government and bringing in a revolutionary government.

It will not be lost on workers and young people throughout the EU that they could be the next target of the EU’s robber financiers.

Their initial reaction may well be to withdraw their cash, and begin a run on the EU’s banks that will reveal that they too are already bankrupt, and see the banks closed.

As the Cypriot crisis explodes, depositors throughout the EU will be forced to ignore governmental and other assurances that ‘it can never happen here’. They will test out themselves whether the banks have enough cash to return their deposits.

In Cyprus, the opposition leader George Lillikas has already said the president – who was elected last month – had ‘betrayed the people’s vote’.

Sharon Bowles, MEP, chair of the European Parliament’s Economic and Monetary Affairs Committee, has said she is appalled by the plans to impose the tax.

‘This grabbing of ordinary depositors’ money is billed as a tax, so as to try and circumvent the EU’s deposit guarantee laws. It robs smaller investors of the protection they were promised,’ she said.

However the EU parliament is purely cosmetic. The real power is the European Central Bank and the eurozone’s financiers.

‘The challenges we are facing in Cyprus are of an exceptional nature,’ claims Jeroen Dijsselbloem, the Dutch finance minister who helped engineer the plan, ‘Therefore, unique measures are determined to be necessary.’

However, Jeroen Dijsselbloem, the president of the group of euro area finance ministers, made it clear early on Saturday that he could not rule out taxes on depositors in countries beyond Cyprus, although he said such a measure was not currently being considered.

‘What the deal reflects is that being an unsecured or even secured depositor in euro-area banks is not as safe as it used to be,’ said Jacob Kirkegaard, an economist and European specialist at the Peterson Institute for International Economics in Washington. ‘We are in a new world.’

In this ‘new world’, capitalism is crashing, its currencies are pieces of paper and gold is money.

This is not a new world but the essence of the capitalist madhouse revealing itself.

The terms attached to the European Union (EU) finance ministers’ bailout for Cypriot banks triggered heavy losses on financial markets that were lessened only on the basis of an expected climb-down: here.

Update: here.

Related articles

• ATMs drained as bailout tax triggers run… (theage.com.au)
• A look at Cyprus’ decision to tax depositors (miamiherald.com)
• Insane EU: Bank depositors in panic as they pay for Cyprus €10bn bailout (keeptalkinggreece.com)
• Bailout Cuts Cyprus Bank Accounts, Withdrawals Barred (greece.greekreporter.com)
• Madness in the Mediterranean (smallthoughtsfromasmallmind.wordpress.com)
• Is The Cyprus Money Grab Coming To A Bank Near You? (etfdailynews.com)
• Deposit haircut back on the table (cyprus-mail.com)
• How Europe stumbled into scheme to punish Cyprus savers (ekathimerini.com)

Save honeybees, Internet petition

From Avaaz.org:

Dear friends across Europe,

In less than 36 hours, European countries will vote on plans to ban bee killing pesticides, but Bayer and other chemical giants are out in full forcetrying to protect their profits from needed safety regulation. Our governments are buckling under the pressure — let’s counteract the corporate bullying with a flood of messages to our Agriculture Ministers to save the bees! Send a message now:

In less than 36 hours, the European Union will vote on whether to ban toxic pesticides that are killing bees around the world and threatening our food supply. The big corporations profiting from this vile stuff are lobbying furiously to defeat the ban and we’ve just heard that key governments are about to cave — unless they feel the sting of public opinion!

Bees are disappearing around the world at alarming rates. Because bees pollinate our crops, experts are warning that these mass deaths pose a catastrophic threat to our food supply. Thankfully, numerous studies have now identified the likely culprit: a certain class of noxious pesticides. An official EU report found that banning them could solve the problem, but pesticide giant Bayer is trying to convince our leaders to ignore the science to protect their profits.

Over 2.5 million of us have signed the petition that made this vote possible — and now it’s time to tell our politicians that they must side with science to save the bees this week. Let’s flood the inboxes of our Agriculture Ministers, drown out the corporate lobby, and make sure our governments saves the bees and our food — click below to send a message then share this urgent campaign with your friends:

http://www.avaaz.org/en/bye_bye_bees_eu_spread/?bHFhfab&v=23040

Bees don’t just make honey, they are vital to life on earth, every year pollinating 90% of plants and crops and helping to generate an estimated $40bn value and over one-third of the food supply in many countries. Without immediate action to save bees, many of our favourite fruits, vegetables, and nuts could vanish from our shelves.

Last month the European Food Safety Authority gave the most compelling evidence yet that toxic chemicals called neonicotinoid pesticides could be responsible for the bee deaths. Italy has banned some uses of these bee-killing pesticides and has already seen it’s bee populations come back, but Bayer and Sygenta are lobbying to prevent a Euro-wide ban, for fears it would harm their global business. It seems they’re close to having the support of the UK, Spain, and Germany, who want to protect their biggest chemical corporations.

Now the issue is coming to a boil. Just weeks ago, Avaaz delivered a petition signed by over 2.5 million of us to the European Commission, who proposed a ban days later. EU parliamentarians are stepping up their pressure and several other European governments have announced plans to push ahead with new legislation to ban the deadly pesticides on their own. So we have the power to win this, but we need one final push to overcome the pesticide lobby. Send a message telling our governments to support the ban now and then share with others:

http://www.avaaz.org/en/bye_bye_bees_eu_spread/?bHFhfab&v=23040

Our world is beset with threats to what makes it habitable, and to what fills it with wonder. The Avaaz community comes together to defend both — large or small. Whether winning a battle to keep the International Whaling Commission from sanctioning the murder of these giants, or saving bees, the tiny creatures upon which so much depends, we will come together and stand up for the world we all want.

With hope,

Iain, Marie, Pascal, Emma, Ricken, Alaphia, and the Avaaz team

MORE INFORMATION

EU Proposes ban on bee killer (The Telegraph)
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/earthnews/9840497/EU-proposes-ban-on-bee-killer-pesticide.html

Bayer slams draconian EU plans to ban neonicotinoids (Farmers weekly)
http://www.fwi.co.uk/articles/01/02/2013/137451/bayer-slams-39draconian39-eu-plan-to-ban-neonicotinoids.htm

Government to ignore European ban on neonicotinoid pesticides (Independent)
http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/green-living/government-to-ignore-european-ban-on-neonicotinoid-pesticides-8483916.html

The Battle to ban bee killers (Avaaz Daily Briefing)
http://en.avaaz.org/1326/eu-ban-bee-killing-pesticides-bayer

Studies fault Bayer in bee die-off (Christian Science Monitor)
http://www.csmonitor.com/Science/2012/0406/Studies-fault-Bayer-in-bee-die-off

March 2013. Buglife – The Invertebrate Conservation Trust is questioning why Owen Paterson, the UK Secretary of State for the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) plans to delay the European Commission’s proposed restrictions on three neonicotinoid insecticides in an EU vote on the 15th March: here.

Update: see here.

Fruit growers and solitary bees: here.

Related articles

• Pro-honeybee Internet petition (dearkitty1.wordpress.com)
• Owen Paterson set to scupper plans to ban pesticides linked to bee harm (guardian.co.uk)
• Stop bee-killing pesticides, Dutch parliament says (dearkitty1.wordpress.com)
• Neonicotinoids threaten bees, new report (dearkitty1.wordpress.com)
• EU Commission Takes Steps To Suspend Bee-Toxic Pesticides (prnewswire.com)
• EU proposes to ban insecticides linked to bee decline (guardian.co.uk)
• EU Says World’s Most Popular Pesticide Causing Massive Honeybee Deaths (organicauthority.com)
• Who Will Save The Honey Bee? EU Mulls Pesticide Ban While US Set to Approve More (wakingtimes.com)
• A Deadly Disorder at the EPA (inthesetimes.com)
• Pesticide ban: food security now or later? | Editorial (guardian.co.uk)

German and other European militarism

This video is called German Militarism 1871-1914.

By Johannes Stern in Germany:

The return of German imperialism

21 February 2013

Germany is making intensive preparations to conduct new wars to secure resources. This was the unmistakable message of a lead article in Germany’s business newspaper Handelsblatt, “Expedition Resources: Germany’s new course.”

The article shows the real face of the German bourgeoisie. As in the first half of the twentieth century, when it twice played a central role in plunging humanity into world war, it is again moving to enforce its imperialist interests through war. “The previous political measures to secure raw materials are reaching their limits,” the Handelsblatt states. Dependence on raw materials is the German economy’s Achilles heel, the paper writes: “Industry is plagued by the fear that the high-tech sector in Germany could be cut off from essential supplies.”

The very same business circles that financed Hitler are again banging the war drums. The article cites an interview with Dierk Paskert, the manager of the Resource Alliance founded in 2011. Members of the alliance include Volkswagen, ThyssenKrupp, Bayer and BASF—firms that either directly supported Nazi war plans, or whose predecessors did. Now they work closely with the German government to plan how Berlin will secure access to critical raw materials across the globe, by force if necessary.

The hunger of Germany’s export-dependent industry for materials and markets is huge. According to Handelsblatt German raw material imports over the last decade have nearly tripled. “The battle for resources is about oil and gas, but also minerals.” Handelsblatt gives a detailed overview of such highly prized resources as lithium, cobalt, chromium, indium and rare earth elements, and cites the growing conflict between the major powers over such resources.

Paskert makes clear that the German bourgeoisie is willing to use military force to secure such resources against its rivals. Asked by Handelsblatt whether there will once again be resource wars, he explains: “History shows that many conflicts are rooted in the fight for resources. Up to now it was mostly about oil or gas, but also increasingly minerals. The supply of raw materials is the basis for the value and wealth of a country and therefore has geopolitical significance. The presence of the US military in the Persian Gulf or the massive expansion of Chinese naval forces is also aimed at protecting such interests.” Handelsblatt assures its readers that this view finds support in political circles, and that for the federal government, “the control of raw materials” is a “strategic issue for foreign policy”. It is preparing for a situation where “the existing resource partnerships” are insufficient and “additional security and military instruments are required.”

The return of aggressive German imperialism initiates a new stage of inter-imperialist conflict, raising the threat of a Third World War.

It is increasingly clear that the period after the Second World War—during which the German bourgeoisie adopted a pacifist stance and relied on Washington to carry out the wars and other military operations on which world imperialism relied—was merely a historical interlude.

The austerity policies pursued by the European Union after the outbreak of the world economic crisis have undermined the European market, which provided the basis for the expansion of German trade and production in recent decades. The result is the return of apparently long-buried specters of the past, as all the imperialist powers prepare for war.

In the 19th century Germany arrived late on the scene to take its place in the scramble for the division of the world. Then it acted all the more aggressively to enforce its interests against its rivals and twice plunged the world into war. With the intensification of the financial and economic crisis of world capitalism, German imperialism feels once again compelled to enter the arena.

After the collapse of the Soviet Union, the American ruling class saw an opportunity for unchallenged operations all over the world. For more than a decade, it has waged “preventive wars” throughout the Middle East. Now it is also turning increasingly toward Asia and has organized a global drone war in defense of its strategic and economic interests. US President Barack Obama claims the authority to assassinate even American citizens via drone attacks.

French imperialism is increasingly employing military means to defend its interests in Africa and the Middle East. After playing a key role in starting the war in Libya, as well as wars in two former French colonies, Ivory Coast and Syria, it is now invading a fourth country, Mali.

Like the German bourgeoisie, Japan, Germany’s strategic ally in World War II, is reacting to the crisis with attacks on the working class at home and growing militarism abroad. As in the 1930s, this militarism is particularly directed against China and is currently being inflamed in the conflict over the Senkaku/Diaoyu Islands in the East China Sea.

Under these conditions the German bourgeoisie is re-arming. The Handelsblatt bluntly states that the German army will be rebuilt “in order to be used all over the world.”

The vast majority of the German population is vehemently opposed to militarism. The fact that the Handelsblatt can so publicly formulate the goals of the German bourgeoisie is above all a devastating indictment of the Green Party, the Social Democratic Party and the Left Party. They have repeatedly justified German foreign policy and military operations in Kosovo and Afghanistan, falsely claiming these wars were based on democratic and humanitarian considerations.

In the past 15 years, such forces have moved sharply to the right, aligning themselves increasingly openly on the interests of German big business and German militarism. Their silence on the Handelsblatt article speaks volumes. They agree with the war preparations.

Capitalism is once again dragging mankind toward catastrophe, under conditions when the destructive power of the ruling classes is vastly greater than during the two world wars of the last century. Though a new world war would place a question mark over the fate of the entire human race, it is precisely to this end that the ruling classes and their bankrupt social and economic system are leading mankind. To the policies of imperialist barbarism and national conflict, the working class—in Germany, Europe, and around the world—must advance the program of international solidarity and socialist revolution.

On Tuesday, February 19, the German cabinet consisting of the Christian Democratic Union, Christian Social Union and Free Democratic Party agreed to deploy 330 German soldiers for a long-term mission in Mali: here.

By Alan MacKinnon in Britain:

Growing EU military a threat to peace

Wednesday 20 February 2013

The popular myth about the European Union (EU) is that it is a benign international body which brings together the peoples of Europe in a common trading block where everybody benefits. It promotes a pan-European identity – a kind of regional internationalism – and helps to maintain peace, security and welfare across Europe. What’s not to like?

Well, actually quite a lot. In the EU Thatcherite economics is the only game in town. It’s written into the constitution and is enforced on every member country in virtually every sector of the economy. The EU’s decisions are taken by the Commission, the Council of Ministers, the European Central Bank and the European Court of Justice. None of them are elected or accountable to the people.

The European parliament is elected but has few powers and can only amend legislation not initiate it. The EU’s democratic deficit is no accident. It has been carefully fashioned to bypass the democracy of member states to serve the interests of Europe’s biggest transnational firms.

From its origins the EU was always, at least in part, a military project. The real purpose of the first supranational body, the European Coal and Steel Community of 1951, was to facilitate German rearmament at the start of the cold war and at the same time assuage French fears over the danger of resurgent German militarism. Above all else, the US wanted a rearmed West Germany inside Nato.

Subsequent treaty revisions – especially the Amsterdam and Lisbon treaties – have steadily strengthened the military role of the EU. It now has a Common Security and Defence Policy (CSDP) and a High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security – currently Baroness Ashton. It sees its main threats as terrorism, nuclear proliferation – athough not its own – regional conflict, energy security and cyber-attack.

The Lisbon Treaty sets out clear military obligations on the part of EU member states to “make civilian and military capacity available to the union for the implementation of the Common Security and Defence Policy … Member states shall undertake progressively to improve their military capabilities.” This is a particular problem for those states who have a policy of neutrality like Finland, Ireland, Austria and Sweden.

EU military capacities now consist of 13 EU battle groups – battalion-sized forces of 1,500 each – two of which are on standby at any one time and can be dispatched within a few days.

Since 2003 the EU has been involved in military missions in more than 19 countries on three continents – Bosnia, Macedonia, Ukraine, Moldova, Georgia, Palestine, Kosovo, Guinea-Bissau, Somalia, Sudan, Chad, the Central African Republic, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Uganda, Libya, Iraq, Indonesia, Afghanistan and Mali.

These missions range from “Petersburg tasks” including humanitarian, rescue, peace keeping and peacemaking operations through to military training and full-scale war – and there is nothing benign about these missions. They exist to support EU foreign policy when diplomacy fails – and to enforce the neoliberal policies of free trade, privatisation, de-regulation and austerity outside Europe as aggressively as they are imposed inside.

But EU forces are intended to complement rather than replace Nato. Indeed, there is a new emphasis on interoperability and integration with Nato.

The EU only intervenes where Nato chooses not to. Despite its size and economic strength, the EU has limited capacity to fight wars – except on a very small scale – outside its own area. It lacks key resources for larger out-of-area operations such as smart bombs, air-to-air refuelling, intelligence, reconnaissance, drones and heavy lift capacity.

Not so Nato. It dwarfs the EU as a military force and takes precedence over it on most occasions.

There is, of course, considerable overlap between Nato and the EU membership. Twenty-one states are members of both organisations but by far the most important difference is that Nato is clearly transatlantic and includes and is dominated by the world’s only military superpower – the United States.

The alliance was conceived in the early days of the cold war, ostensibly to counter the Soviet “threat” to western Europe. But its steady expansion eastwards and southwards more than twenty years after the cold war reveals its true purpose.

It is not about countering any perceived threat to Europe or north America. Nato’s Strategic Concept admits the risk of this is “low.” It is a vehicle for binding member countries into support for US foreign policy and for global intervention.

In November 2010 it reaffirmed the concept of nuclear “deterrence” and the first use of nuclear weapons. In addition it committed itself to building a new and destabilising missile defence system to cover the continent of Europe, adding a new twist to the nuclear arms race.

Today, from Afghanistan to Kosovo, from the Mediterranean to the Horn of Africa, 138,000 Nato military personnel are engaged in military action around the world.

But Nato is not a monolithic bloc. Ten years ago serious differences emerged over the war in Iraq between the “old Europe” of France and Germany and the “new Europe” of eastern Europe supported by Britain.

More recently differences have appeared over who is doing the fighting in Afghanistan and who is not and about whether to recruit new members such as Georgia to the alliance. The Franco-German axis would still like to promote the EU as a military counterweight to the United States – a rival imperialism – but for the moment they are in a minority.

Europe and America – crippled by debt and recession – are empires in decline. Nato and EU armed forces will continue to threaten peace and stability across the world. But they represent the past not the future.

NATO secretary-general Anders Fogh Rasmussen pleaded with member countries today to stop cutting their defence budgets in response to tough economic times: here.

Related articles

• War in Mali and German militarism (dearkitty1.wordpress.com)
• Armed drones stir debate in pacifist Germany (japantimes.co.jp)
• Dresden ‘Stalingrad’ exhibit: Stunning display of life during battle (warhistoryonline.com)

People worldwide against austerity and oppression

Not only in Bulgaria do people oppose austerity, rising prices and government violence.

This video is called Greece: general strike brings country to standstill.

Tens of thousands of Greeks marched around the country during a general strike against austerity: here.

Tens of thousands of workers marched through the centre of Brussels close to the European Union headquarters today, to protest against cuts that have hit their pay and stopped index-linked pay rises, and to demand initiatives to boost employment: here.

India: Millions of people stayed away from work today as unions launched a two-day general strike against spiralling price rises and government plans to open up the economy [to foreign monopoly corporations]: here.

Protests and strikes brought Egyptian city Port Said to a standstill for a fourth day running today as protesters demanded official accountability over 40 deaths last month: here.

Egyptian rights groups alleged on Wednesday that police abuse and brutality are on the rise in detention centres and at demonstrations across the country: here.

Related articles

• Greek journalists walk out against punishing austerity (morningstaronline.co.uk)
• Photos: Anti-Austerity Protesters Demonstrate in Athens, Greece on Wednesday, February 20, 2013 (photos.denverpost.com)
• Greeks Strike Against Austerity – Again (goldenageofgaia.com)

Irish workers defrauded by bankers

From daily News Line in Britain:

Wednesday, 20 February 2013

1.8 MILLION WORKERS EXPECTED TO REPAY 35bn EUROS – GETTING NOTHING IN RETURN

IRISH Congress of Trade Unions (ICTU) Chief Economist Paul Sweeney has told a high level global economic summit involving the IMF, World Bank and international trade union federations that Europe must make good on its June 2012 promise to separate Ireland’s private and bank debt, if the country is to have hope of recovery.

Speaking in Washington DC at the high-level summit involving the IMF, the World Bank and the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) Sweeney said: ‘It is vital that Irish sovereign and public debts are separated and Europe assists Ireland on its socialised (bank) debt.

‘We are being punished for having been the first in dealing with our failed banks and for the foolishness of the (then) government which guaranteed all the creditors, as well as the depositors.

‘Without a significant deal on our massive bank debt burden, there is little chance of economic recovery in the near future,’ he said.

Sweeney cited recent Eurostat figures that showed Ireland has paid more for the bank crisis than any other EU state.

He said: ‘So far, the bank bailout has cost us 41 billion euros, while Germany – with an economy almost 20 times our size – has paid 40 billion euros. We have also paid more than the UK, France, Portugal and Spain.

‘There is little or no recovery after five years of austerity in Ireland, especially when judged by the key factor of unemployment.’

Describing the recent promissory note deal as a step forward, Sweeney told his audience – which included senior IMF officials dealing with Ireland – that it was a deal ‘that should never have had to been done and should not have totally protected the private creditors of the two dead banks (Anglo Irish and Irish Nationwide).

‘There should have been burden-sharing by those who were stupid enough to lend to these banks,’ he insisted.

Sweeney said 1.8 million at work in Ireland were still expected to repay over 35bn euros, albeit over a longer timeframe.

‘For this we will get absolutely nothing in return – not one school building, not one teacher or hospital bed. Such a deal may satisfy the European Central Bank and the EU, but it undermines democracy,’ he warned.

Sweeney told delegates that an EU-wide stimulus programme would be necessary to start recovery – something the IMF also appeared to favour.

He added: ‘A stimulus in Europe would work every effectively in reducing its vast unemployment rate of 26.06 million.

‘However, the lack of interest shown by European officialdom in such a programme threatens the very institutions of the EU, if not the European project itself.’

Meanwhile government negotiators at talks on the corporatist Croke Park Agreement have rejected union claims that they have targeted frontline workers disproportionately for cuts in earnings.

On Monday the 24/7 Frontline Alliance, which represents around 70,000 nurses, gardaí, prison officers and emergency staff, held a national rally to protest against the proposed reductions in premium payments and overtime.

The alliance says the cuts will hit them more than other public servants who work 9am-5pm.

However, management sources said the talks over the past five weeks had involved comprehensive proposals encompassing all sectors and all grades.

They said that among the issues under discussion were headcount reductions, increments, longer working hours and pay cuts for higher grades across all parts of the public service.

They welcomed the fact that all unions affliated to ICTU were continuing to engage in the talks.

The Frontline Alliance says cutting overtime and premium payments would hit employees who work 24/7 rosters particularly hard, as they account for a significant part of their earnings.

It held a rally at the National Basketball Arena in Tallaght on Monday evening to oppose any further cuts in emergency services earnings.

Unions will also be pushing for concessions on pensions, outsourcing and lower-paid workers.

Meanwhile, talks aimed at securing an agreement on extending the Croke Park Agreement were due to resume on Monday.

The government has set a deadline of 28 February to conclude a deal with public service unions on cuts.

If a deal is not done by consent, the government has threatened to legislate for pay cuts.

Measures on the table include pay cuts for the higher paid, reductions in overtime, weekend and evening premiums and longer working hours for no extra pay.

Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation (INMO) General Secretary Liam Doran said that so far management’s approach to Croke Park negotiations has disproportionately focused on cuts that would impact frontline workers.

Speaking on RTÉ’s Morning Ireland Doran said that the INMO Executive will meet today, but he believes it will remain in the talks process.

Doran said that it is willing to negotiate, but said that proposals have to be fair, and that so far this has not been the case.

As well, the union representing lower-paid civil servants has warned that forcing them to work additional hours would be fraught with difficulty.

Speaking after meeting government negotiators at the Croke Park talks, the General Secretary of the Civil Public and Service Union (CPSU), Eoin Ronayne, said Monday’s talks had focussed on how additional working hours sought by the government would impact on overtime.

However, Ronayne warned that any measures that resulted in additional cost would be a ‘no-no’ for his members.

He said many members had opted for shorter working hours.

However, additional hours could mean they would face additional costs for childcare or other caring arrangements.

He said people work because they have flexibility, but if that flexibility was going to be changed by this talks process, they would have great difficulties.

He added that if there were additional costs, that would be effectively a pay cut for members.

He said they were awaiting further details of the implications of the management proposals.

Despite declaring significant profits Boots insists long serving staff must pay for their colleagues’ pay increase.

Boots staff last week sought an unconditional pay increase from their employer, however, despite recently announcing profits in excess of 18 million euros the company still insists that any pay increase which it claims it is prepared to pay to staff who are on a new pay scale agreed in 2009, must be paid for by their colleagues who remained on the old pay scale which had been agreed with the company under the auspices of the Labour Relations Commission in 2009.

The company have attempted to disguise its actions under what it describes as a ‘pay alignment initiative’, which requires staff earning more than 12 euros per hour to reduce their rate of pay to that amount resulting in employees suffering reductions in pay of anything between three cents per hour to over two euros per hour.

Although the company informed staff that their decision was ‘voluntary’, it clearly stated that staff refusing to change would lose their entitlement to all bonuses.

Even though the company received an almost 100 per cent rejection of its ‘pay alignment initiative’, it continues to make it the precondition to the payment of any pay increase.

Following a meeting of the Boots National Negotiating Committee in January 2013 it was decided to refer the claim to the Labour Relations Commission for a conciliation conference in accordance with the company/union procedural agreement.

Mandate trade union Divisional Organiser Brendan O’ Hanlon expressed his disappointment at the company’s stance in what he described as ‘a deliberate move by the company to divide the staff and pitch worker against worker despite the fact that all employees of the company had made massive contribution to the company’s continued success’.

However, he went on to say that ‘the National Negotiating Team had made a strategic decision with regard to communicating to all Boots employees to ensure that the staff of Boots realise the importance of remaining unified and not to allow their employer create this divisive situation’.

As part of the communication process all existing members were written to individually to update them on developments, as well as individual text messages and store circulars, an exercise which Industrial Officer Jonathan Hogan explained emphasised the need for members to ensure that their union had members up to date contact details.

Related articles

• Thousands of frontline workers rally to oppose proposed Croke Park cuts (independent.ie)
• Irish workers demonstrate against austerity (dearkitty1.wordpress.com)
• Irish anti-austerity fight (dearkitty1.wordpress.com)
• Over 100,000 refuse to pay for bank crisis (morningstaronline.co.uk)
• Irish marchers protest nationwide against austerity (worldbulletin.net)
• Organisers claim 100,000 to march against austerity across Ireland next weekend (independent.ie)

Bulgarian red-breasted geese in danger

This video is about two red-breasted geese, in a big flock of barnacle geese. Recorded: Getterons Nature Reserve, Varberg, Halland, Sweden 2010-05-09.

From BirdLife:

Court Ruling Threatens Red-Breasts

Thu, Feb 14, 2013

Europe, News

In January, the Bulgarian Court overturned a decision by the Bulgarian Minister of the Environment to revoke permission for a wind energy project threatening a high nature value area as well as the globally endangered bird species inhabiting it.

The court ruling might lead to Bulgaria ending up in front of the EU Court of Justice.

The case in question refers to the plans to construct 95 wind turbines close to Durankulak Lake – one of the most important wintering sites on the Black Sea coast for the globally threatened red-breasted goose. As a consequence, red-breasts might lose a significant part of their feeding area not to mention the risk of collision with the wind turbines. It is also at odds with an EU LIFE+ funded project run by the Bulgarian Society for the Protection of Birds (BSPB; BirdLife in Bulgaria) ‘Safe Grounds for Red-Breasts’, which aims, with local and international partners, to find solutions to the problems facing the geese.

Despite a totally inadequate environmental impact assessment, the proposal was waved through by the regional inspectors, only for it to be quashed by the Bulgarian Minister for Environment and Water after the BSPB campaigned vigorously against it.  This victory seemed to be part of a turning tide in Bulgaria towards proper regulation of development and protection of key nature conservation sites, exemplified by the adoption of the Bulgarian National Renewable Energy Action Plan.

The judgement to overturn the Minister’s decision on a legal technicality is deeply misguided. Overruling the Minister’s decision when the project is obviously in direct breach of European law does no one any favours. If this project is implemented, there can be no doubt that the European Commission will take the strongest action through the European Court of Justice to require the Bulgarian Government to remove the damaging project and make good any damage to red-breasts.  This will be an embarrassment to the Bulgarian Government (which is already in trouble with the Commission over previous poorly placed projects), and a damaging indictment of the Bulgarian judiciary.

BSPB and the Bulgarian Ministry of Environment and Water have submitted a final appeal to the Supreme Administrative Court to get this judgement revoked.  BirdLife Europe strongly encourages the court to find in favour of the appeal, so that the red-breasts will remain free to feed in their key wintering grounds as they have done for centuries.

Related posts:

1. Final Warning for Bulgaria over Failure to Protect Internationally Important Sites On Thursday 21 June, the European Commission issued a final legal warning against the Bulgarian…
2. Bulgarian Important Bird Areas protected The Bulgarian government has confirmed Special Protection Area extensions for four key Important Bird Areas….
3. National renewable energy Action Plan in Bulgaria ensures biodiversity conservation Bulgaria has started implementing the regulations of the National Renewable Energy Action Plan 2011 –…

Bid to solve mystery of 50,000 red-breasted geese lost in migration: here.

Related articles

• Bulgarian graffiti helps birds (dearkitty1.wordpress.com)

Irish workers demonstrate against austerity

From daily News Line in Britain:

Monday, 11 February 2013

100,000 march through Dublin

OVER 100,000 workers in their unions, with students and youth marched on Saturday through the centre of Dublin, furious at the 64 billion euros of debt that the government wants to extract from the people of Ireland over the next forty years.

The Dublin demonstration was part of a nationwide day of action where marches took place simultaneously all over the country including Cork, Waterford and Limerick.

The Dublin march began at Cork Street and shouts of ‘No more Cuts!’ and ‘Not our Debt!’ filled the air. There were calls to bring down the government and for a general strike.

There were mass delegations of teachers marching behind their giant union banners: Irish National Teachers Organisation (INTO), Teachers Union of Ireland (TUI) and ASTI.

Masses of postal workers turned out behind the Communication Workers Union (CWU) banner; there was a big delegation of electricians, plumbers and fitters behind the Technical and Electrical Engineering Union (TEEU); big delegations of bank workers and financial service workers behind the financial union IBOA, as well as big turnouts from Unite, Mandate, SIPTU and Impact.

The crisis in Ireland runs so deep that splits are emerging in the Irish state with a section of Garda officers marching against the debt.

Patricia Fanning, a special needs assistant in Impact, said: ‘Children shouldn’t have to pay for the debt!

‘Our staff numbers are being cut and children are losing support.

‘Children that were being supported are now being left on their own and unable to cope.

‘The people of Ireland didn’t incur the debt and our children should not be made to pay it back!’

Anne Leonard in the South Dublin County Council branch of Impact said: ‘I work for the council.

Most of the staff where I work are on low pay, lower grades of work and they are expecting more and more from us all the time.

‘The workload is getting bigger, but our staff numbers are getting smaller and smaller. We have to work extra hours for less money.

‘What we have to do now is all come out on a general strike.

‘We shouldn’t be paying off this debt, it is not our debt.

‘They are just going to town on us now and we will literally be working for nothing.’

Martina McKarney from the Monaghan County Council branch of Impact told News Line: ‘We have been cut so much that there is nothing left to cut, we all have families to feed.’

Maureen Rowley, in the SIPTU union which covers health workers, said: ‘Not only have they cut our wages drastically, but they have sacked so many people that it is affecting our service users in a big way.

‘There simply are not enough staff to look after our service users who have special needs.

‘We should get rid of this government. We say: stuff the debt. It is the ordinary people who are paying for it.’ Her sister Bernadette McDonald added: ‘The government are puppets of the European Union. Our kids have all gone away!

‘My son is in Canada; my sister’s son and daughter are in Australia. The only thing that Ireland is exporting is young people.

‘The European Union is going to collapse and the sooner the better.’

Aoife Sullivan, an eleven-year-old girl who came on the march with her mum, said: ‘I think the politicians should take notice of our march and some of the bankers should go to prison for their horrendous deeds because they have taken from the people to line their own pockets.

‘They lost the gamble and I think it is astounding that we will be paying this back for 43 years.

‘I will be 54 by the time it is paid and that is my whole life!

‘Cancel the debt! I am going to keep on marching and keep on fighting!’

Lee McEnery, an unemployed youth who was marching with his friend, said: ‘We came up from Waterford to join the march today. There is a march going on in Waterford but we decided to come up and see the one in the capital.

‘Over 3,000 people worked for Waterford Crystal and all but 60 lost their jobs.

‘They occupied their factory and the Garda tried to get them out.

‘The lack of jobs is a symptom of a bad system, the whole system has to come down.

‘It is like trying to clean the wounds of a bad infection. If the core issues are not addressed then the infection just comes back.

‘We need to have a people’s party and we need a general strike, the country has to come to a standstill and we need everyone to get together and strike.’

Steve Fitzpatrick, the General Secretary of the Communication Workers Union (CWU) covering postal and telecommunications workers, said: ‘We are marching today against the debt that is being foisted upon us.

‘It is not realistic for us to pay it back and it is not realistic for our children to be paying it back.

‘Everybody in the country has been cut. A lot of postal workers depended on extra earnings from overtime and that is all gone now.

‘People are feeling the impact of taxes and less take-home pay and the extra amounts they have to pay for the services so they are being hit from both sides.

‘Water charges will be introduced in the next twelve months. Presently it is free and this is at the behest of the Troika.’

Ciaran Burke, a student studying Psychology, who was marching behind the Mandate banner which read ‘Austerity kills jobs’ said: ‘I have to pay 5,000 euros a year for my course.

‘I get a loan from the Credit Union. It is impossible to work and I am looking for jobs everywhere but no-one is really employing.

‘I am in complete opposition to Europe. We joined them for trade, not to be controlled by a foreign country.

‘It is going to boil over. If you heap that much austerity on people then they will bite back and that means a general strike.’

Orla Howley in the Dublin North County District 15 of the Irish National Teachers Union (INTO) said: ‘We have all taken a pay cut but there have also been changes to our conditions.

‘There is less support and that affects the kids.

‘The expectations they have of you as a teacher are increasing all the time but the support and the resources are being diminished at the same time.

‘The teaching hours dedicated to each student are also being diminished.

‘There will be a national strike if they increase class sizes and that is on the table.

‘The media have tried to spin this forty-year debt into a “Good News Story”. With inflation over forty years who knows how much you will pay back?

‘Everybody is really stretched to the point of breaking.’

Feargal Anderson, an electrician in the Technical and Electrical Engineering Union (TEEU), told News Line: ‘Me and my friend have been on protective notice for the last two weeks. We will be losing our jobs and made redundant.

‘The company I work for claim that they are in “financial stress” and our manager says he has to “restructure” and “downsize”.

‘I have a serious mortgage and my friend has an eviction hanging over him.

‘The austerity measures are hitting every worker harder than they have ever done in the history of the state as the banking debt is not being dealt with.

‘We are picking up the costs of the private gambling debt of the elite few.’

Caroline O’Malley in the financial services and health section of Unite said: ‘I work in financial services, we are loaded with a lot of pressure.

‘There have been 200 voluntary redundancies at the moment where I work and that is out of a group of 600.

‘So they are looking to reduce the workforce by a third!

‘We were forced to make our banking debt sovereign debt. The banks would have gone down if it were not for the government guarenteeing all their debt.

‘In the Anglo Irish Bank, which has the most lethal toxic debt, the government has made the debt the responsibility of the people of Ireland rather than the bond holders.

‘IBRC which has taken over from the collapsed Anglo Irish Bank has just sacked 800 workers, which may well turn out to be over a thousand workers. They did this only a few days ago.

‘They are only going to give them two weeks’ statutory redundancy.

‘It is absolutely disgraceful to treat workers like this.

‘Ordinary people, serving on the counters in banks, front line staff, and they are treating them despicably!’

At the end of the march, the Irish Congress of Trade Unions (ICTU), which organised the march, had erected a stage where bands were playing to ‘entertain’ the crowds of workers after the march.

An angry worker, Mary Ryan shouted into a megaphone over the music: ‘We don’t want acts, we want action! We are not in the mood for singing, we don’t want songs!’

She got up on to the stage and tried to speak.

People in the crowds shouted: ‘Let her speak,’ as she was forcibly dragged off the stage by an ICTU trade union leader.

Mary Ryan spoke to News Line after being ejected from the stage, she state: ‘We want these trade union leaders to take action, we want a general strike, we want austerity ended, the trade union leaders have to take action.’

A group of young people began shouting at the stage that it was a disgrace that they would not let this woman speak and that the ICTU leader physically dragged her off the stage.

Michael Yolan, an unemployed electrician, shouted: ‘Let her speak, why won’t you let her speak? Why should we pay for the debt? It’s not our debt!’

Speaking to News Line he added: ‘It is scandalous that the promissory notes that we had as leverage have now been turned into legal debt.

‘We need to get rid of this whole system. The last government under Brian Lenihan made exactly the same mistake. This government is following up that mistake by legalising the debt.

‘We need a social revolution. Why should our future generations pay?

‘It is breaking families apart. Ireland has one of the highest suicide rates per capita in the whole of Europe, it is a tragedy.

‘I want to make a new movement in Ireland that stands up for the people. We have to get rid of this system if we are going to have a future in Ireland.’

• See photo gallery here.

Related articles

• Irish marchers protest nationwide against austerity (worldbulletin.net)
• 100,000 take part in street protests against austerity days after government deal (irishcentral.com)
• Irish unions lead marches to protest austerity (seattlepi.com)
• ‘Lift the Burden’: Tens of thousands march against austerity in Ireland (VIDEO) (rt.com)

European Union greenwash, cartoon

This cartoon from BirdLife shows how greenwashing lobbyists’ influence leads to anti-environmental European Union policies. From left to right: Merkel of Germany, Hollande of France, and Cameron of Britain.

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