Rising food prices kill, feed unrest

This video is called Everywoman – Egyptian Women On Strike.

From British daily News Line:

FOOD riots and major strike actions are erupting all over the capitalist world, driven forward by a doubling of food prices in many countries, as part of the growing worldwide inflation.

This situation has emerged out of the failure of the US-UK attack on Iraq, and the massive increases in oil, gas and all energy prices that have taken place because of it, virtually bankrupting many poor, developing and even ‘advanced’ countries.

Now the contradictions of the capitalist crisis are being further sharpened by the collapsing US dollar and the undermining of the banks by the deepening financial crisis, with the indebtedness of the banks now being measured in trillions of dollars.

In Haiti, hungry workers and youth stormed the presidential palace on Tuesday, throwing rocks and demanding the resignation of President Rene Preval over soaring food prices.

UN soldiers opened fire with rubber bullets and tear gas. Meanwhile, hungry workers are looting shops and stores. …

Likewise, there have also been food rioting and general strikes in Burkina Faso and Cameroon, and major clashes between tens of thousands of workers and riot police in Egypt in the last few days.

In Egypt, the price of bread is up 35% and cooking oil 26%, and the government recently proposed ending food subsidies. The plan has produced revolutionary developments. ‘A revolution of the hungry is in the offing,’ said Mohammed el-Askalani of Citizens Against the High Cost of Living, a group established to campaign against the ending of subsidies.

Workers in Sri Lanka are now going hungry along with their families, after a doubling of the price of their staple rice diet. Many Sri Lankan workers cannot now afford rice, and a major clash with the Rajapaksa military dictatorship is on the way.

Likewise in India, where the very rich are even richer and the poor are going hungry.

In the EU, tens of thousands of protesters took to the streets of Slovenia’s capital on Saturday to denounce low pay and corporate greed across Europe as politicians and central bankers called for wage cutting to combat inflation.

These are the same politicians and central banks that are handing out tens and even hundreds of billions to the bankers, whose anarchic practices have been at the root of the inflationary phenomenon. At a time of surging food and energy prices worldwide, the European Trade Union Confederation organised the demonstration, describing it as a show of anger and determination to improve on the ‘poverty wages’ of more than 30 million workers across the Continent.

More about Haiti: here.

About Cote d’Ivoire: here.

Despite spreading recession, US CEOs rake in huge pay raises: here.

Hedge Fund Managers Turning the Woes of the World into Billion-Dollar Paydays: here.