This video is called Lethal Medicine: ‘Greece testing ground for EU austerity hell‘.
By Peter Schwarz in Germany:
EU summit adopts Fiscal Pact for European-wide austerity
3 March 2012
On Friday, the European Union heads of government signed the so-called “Fiscal Pact” at a summit meeting in Brussels.
The agreement commits EU members to maintain strict fiscal discipline. They are required to adopt a constitutional debt limit along the lines of the German “debt brake.” If they exceed the specified budget deficit ceiling of 3 percent of gross domestic product they can be sued by the European Court, triggering an automatic procedure for imposing penalties. Countries that do not sign up to the pact will be ineligible for assistance from the European Stability Mechanism (ESM), the permanent European rescue fund, presently set at €500 billion, which is slated to come online in July.
The Fiscal Pact increases pressure on EU member states to cut government spending. It ensures that austerity policies are continued regardless of election results and changes of government. It effectively strips parliaments of their most important power, control over the budget, and deprives voters of any opportunity to influence fiscal policy.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel described this profoundly undemocratic treaty, which came about largely on her initiative, as a “milestone in the history of the European Union.”
Twenty five of the twenty seven EU members have signed up to the pact. In most countries, however, it has to be approved by national parliaments and in Ireland by a referendum before coming into force, with a deadline of the beginning of 2013. Only the British and Czech governments refused to sign, not because they reject austerity measures, but on the grounds that the pact impinges on their national sovereignty.
Referendum in Ireland: here.
100,000 welfare recipients in Berlin threatened with eviction: here.
Financial markets demand sharper crackdown against Egyptian workers: here.
USA: A bill passed by Congress makes it a felony—a serious criminal offense punishable by lengthy prison terms—to participate in many forms of protest: here.
Protests against austerity continue in Spain: here. And here.
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NATIONAL CALL TO KEEP POST OFFICES OPEN
DEFEND THE POSTAL WORKERS
MARCH AND RALLY MARCH 17 IN NYC
2pm, March 17 RALLY at MAIN POST OFFICE
32nd St & 8th Ave, Manhattan
12 noon Rally at Union Square – 14 St, Manhattan.
1pm Rally at the Fulton Housing / Port Authority P.O at 15 St & 9th Ave.
March to G.P.O. at 32rd St & 8th Ave for 2pm RALLY
Endorse/Volunteer Donate
Save Our Post Office
Operation Zip Code
In New York City, a citywide coalition, the Community-Labor United for Postal Jobs and Services, is mobilizing nationally for a March 17 action to halt the plot to destroy and privatize the Post Office. We’re holding a march and rally that day to commemorate a victorious postal strike that broke the back of Pres. Richard Nixon’s racist union-busting austerity program in 1970.
The 1970 strike was in perfect tune with the Civil Rights movement, which opened up doors to Blacks, Latinos, women and LGTB to jobs, benefits and services and won dignity and respect for the postal unions and their members.
NOW WORKERS FACE AUSTERITY, RACISM AND CLASS WARFARE!
A class war is now on against workers–organized and unorganized; poor and oppressed, women and LGBT. The class enemy’s one face is that of unprecedented wealth, the 1%. They aim to privatize trillions of dollars of public property, including the Post Office system. Outsourcing threatens 200,000 postal jobs, and 3,600 Post Offices, processing and distribution centers.
For the targeted communities of Black and other people of color and for the rural poor, all who depend on these services, the cuts are a monumental disaster. Immigrants, seniors, the disabled will be forced to travel long distances to pay bills or send money.
Today 42 years since the 1970 strike, the 1% in transnational banks, corporate monopolies, private equity conglomerates, and plantation land-syndicates are planning to expand their racist austerity programs. Communities of color are fighting back with their own demands for jobs and income, an end to hunger and poverty, to evictions and foreclosures, to immigrant-bashing and deportations, to “stop and frisk,” and for a social contract with decent health care, free improved public education, and affordable housing. The postal struggle joins these life and death struggles. Our multinational working class is coming together, organized and unorganized, to resist this class war.
Organizations like Occupy 4 Jobs and the Bail Out the People Movement are on the front lines confronting this unprecedented attack. Bail Out the People has issued a call for resistance, and has supported the call for the March 17 march and rally.
There is a growing list of labor and community organizations adding their support.
Endorse/Volunteer Donate
CLUPJS March 17 Endorsers List:
* affiliation for purpose of identification only
Chelsea Coalition on Housing
South Bronx Community Congress
Parents to Improve School Transportation (PIST)
New York Metro Area Postal Union, APWU, AFL-CIO
Central Jersey Area Local # 149 (APWU)
National Association of Letter Carriers, AFL-CIO
General Assembly, Occupy Wall Street
St Pat’s Day for All
Ramsey Clark
United States Labor Against War (USLAW) – New York Chapter
Occupy Staten Island
Chris Silvera Secretary-Treasurer, Teamsters Local 808
*Ray Laforest Community Organizer with Haitian/Dominican
Angel Franco Organizer for Pueblo en Marcha, South Bronx Community Congress
*Joe Hirsch National Postal Mail Handlers Union (NPMHU) Local 300
*Wilson Espinosa Shop Steward, Branch 36 National Association of Letter Carriers (NALC)
*Charles Twist Assistant Shop Steward, Branch 36 NALC
*John Dennie Retired Staten Island Postal Worker, Local 300 NPMHU
*James Whiteman Grievance Appeal Board of Local 32BJ SEIU
*Mike Eilenfeldt Delegate to NYCOCLC for NYSUT Local 37O901 AFL-CIO
*Kendall Jackman Retired Postal Worker APWU, Organizer for Picture the Homeless
Angelo Vega Former Postal Worker, Educator
Mike Gill Retired Letter Carrier
La Peña del Bronx
Las Mujeres Trabajadoras por la Paz
Workers World Party
Freedom Party (Bronx Chapter)
Green Party (Manhattan Chapter)
Pastor Alonso Correa Bronx Evangelical Minister
Enrique Colon Bronx Tenant Organizer, South Bronx Community Congress
Shihan Ervin Velez Chief Branch Instructor, World Oyama Karate
Harry Bubbins Friends of Brook Park Restoring Nature in the South Bronx
Ralph Poynter Lynne Stewart Defense Committee
Lynne Stewart Political Prisoner
New Abolitionist Movement
Build Peoples Power/www.bailoutpeople.org
PakistanOUSA Freedom Forum
International Action Center
International Concerned Family and Friends of Mumia AbuOJamal
New York Free Mumia Coalition
Shaka Shakur Co-Founder of Peoples Survival Program in Harlem under attack by NYPD
Maxi Rivera Retired Postal Worker, Former Shop Steward APWU, Founder of Pueblo en Marcha,
South Bronx Community Congress, Freedom Party Candidate for State Assembly
Ramón Jimenez South Bronx Community Congress, Freedom Party Candidate for Att. General (2010)
Kafahni Nkrumah Bronx Peoples Lawyer, Freedom Party Candidate for State Senate
*Ed Figueroa Chief Bronx Steward of 32BJOSEIU Schools Division, Chair of Local 32BJ Latino Caucus,
Freedom Party Candidate for State Assembly
Reverend Karl Kooperkamp Rector of Saint Mary s Church in Harlem
*Reverend Luis Barrios Activist-Scholar, Co-Director IFCO Pastors for Peace
Reverend Lydia Lebrón Pastor of Grace United Methodist Church
May 1st Coalition for Workers & Immigrant Rights
Lucy Pagoada Honduran Resistance
Victor Toro Founder of la Peña del Bronx, Chilean Leader Facing Deportation
John Mineka Ret. Professor, Mathematics Department, Lehman College
Long Island 4 Social Change
Rock Against Wall Street
*Organizations listed for identification only
12 noon Rally at Union Square – 14 St, Manhattan.
1pm Rally at the Fulton Housing / Port Authority P.O at 15 St & 9th Ave.
March to G.P.O. at 33rd St & 8th Ave
Endorse/Volunteer Donate
Community-Labor United for Postal Jobs & Services
c/o Solidarity Center
55 W 17th St Suite 500
New York, NY 10011
212-633-6646 clupjs@gmail.com
Blog clupjs.com
Twitter @clupjs
Facebook: Save Your Post Office
http://www.occupy4jobs.org
http://www.bailoutpeople.org
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Campaign aims to halt privatisation
SPAIN: Anti-privatisation activists set up a “protest referendum” in Madrid today against the governing Popular Party’s plan to sell off publicly owned water supplies.
City authorities want to sell 49 per cent of the water supply network to privateers but campaigners erected 236 makeshift polling stations around the capital with ballots asking voters to respond Yes or No to the question: “Do you think Isabel II Canal should remain 100 per cent public?”
http://morningstaronline.co.uk/news/content/view/full/116155
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State legislates to curb controllers
CYPRUS: Parliament approved legislation on Thursday limiting air traffic controllers’ right to strike as a pay dispute rumbles on within the state-run industry.
The new law says that air traffic control services can’t drop below 75 per cent of capacity.
Work stoppages are limited to once a week for two hours and cannot affect more than eight flights at a time.
http://www.morningstaronline.co.uk/index.php/news/content/view/full/116396
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New labour law prevents strikes
CYPRUS: Air traffic controllers have cancelled strike action that had been scheduled for tomorrow and Thursday in the wake of MPs’ swift passage of a law seriously curtailing their right to strike.
The law passed last Thursday places severe restrictions on strike action and makes it a criminal offence for air traffic controllers to refuse to work when required.
Employees deemed to have violated the law face up to two years in prison and/or a fine of €2,550 (£1,885).
http://www.morningstaronline.co.uk/news/content/view/full/116432
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Money makes people more right-wing,
lottery study finds:
http://www.world-science.net/othernews/140205_lottery.htm
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