British poet Pete the Temp interviewed

This video from Britain is called The Fresh Prince Cameron Rap – Pete the Temp (Live Poetry).

By Jody Porter in Britain:

Well Versed: Temporary solution

Wednesday 25 April 2012

Pete the Temp is a well-known figure on London’s busy spoken word scene, and his poetry cuts right to the nub of the disenchanted masses.

He has been heavily involved in the Occupy movement and draws inspiration from the artwork and slogans which festoon the walls of squats, social centres and activist encampments.

“Some of those pictures I translate into word form and they make it into my poetry,” he says. “I have collected quotes, slogans and chants from Italy, Spain, Colombia and Copenhagen, as well as Occupy sites, banners, walls and tents.

“Occupy is dripping with poetry – ‘Compost capitalism,’ ‘democracy is a participatory sport,’ ‘if you stand for nothing you’ll fall for anything,’ and the witty ‘now is the winter of our discount tents.’

“I like these words because they are not part of the mass-produced, bleached and sanitised commerce that has poisoned the urban landscapes of our cities. They convey radical ideas in spaces that often only exist at flash points in history,” he continues.

While an assuredly contemporary poet, Pete has plenty of time for the historic giants of literature, citing William Blake as a recent inspiration.

Blake is interred in Bunhill Fields, otherwise known as Dissenters’ Graveyard.

“It was surrounded by riot cops on the night of the St Pauls eviction. While the cameras of the world looked elsewhere, Ken Clarke signed off an illegal eviction of Occupy London’s School of Ideas building which is adjacent to the cemetery. Occupiers ran past Blake’s grave to retrieve belongings,” he recalls.

“Blake wrote of the ‘mind-forged manacles’ of the Protestant work ethic and the ‘dark satanic mills’ of industrialised London. I think these things are as relevant today as they have ever been.

“We should start a radical poetry collective that can assault police lines with strongly worded metaphors. The best thing about this plan is that we can call ourselves The Blake Block,” Pete quips.

While camping at Occupy London’s Finsbury Square, then later helping to occupy the Bank of Ideas, Pete arranged events, performing in muddy fields and street corners in an attempt to lift people’s spirits with words and sounds. “When I perform at regular gigs those pieces serve as ambassadors to the movement, but some of my best audience members have been people who sleep rough. They rarely get to see live performances,” he says.

“As a self-employed performer I don’t have time to go to as many meetings as I would like, so I combine art and activism. Sometimes activist events, gatherings and conferences can be quite formal. I’m often asked to get up and throw in a bit of humour and randomness to proceedings.

Pete the Temp Verses Climate Change takes people through first-hand accounts of direct actions that Pete has been involved with. He hopes that it will help ignite an epidemic of civil disobedience that we can all be a part of.

The Occupy movement differs from previous activist movements in that it works best as a guerilla shock tactic – on a global scale it can spread like wildfire.

Pete is positive about the power of the movement. “By creating spaces of debate and political creativity it can solder people together. Many new working groups, actions and ideas have sprung from it, and occupation is as old as humanity – there is nothing as political as space, territory and property.”

The creeping nature of anti-protest legislation is not lost on Pete. “New laws could threaten our right to occupy workplaces and universities as well as peace camps, climate camps and occupy sites. We must all defend our right to occupy,” he insists.

The artistic potential of the movement is as valuable as the political. Indeed, the lines between the two disciplines often blur.

“Performance poetry can engage people physically, emotionally and intellectually because it is musical, as well as rich in imagery and oratory. It is perfect for getting a crowd of people going or getting across a message. It also fits with the DIY ethos – everyone has a voice, an opinion and the right to make it heard,” Pete says.

“Spoken word and poetry nights are one of the last bastions of free speech and critical debate. Whether the topic is relationship politics, sexual politics, identity politics or politics-politics, it’s about community and discussion.”

Pete’s new show, Pete the Temp Verses Climate Change! is a multimedia stand-up poetry show that tells a personal story of temp jobs, oil orgies, bank sieges and arrest.

“It’s about talking, laughing and taking action on climate change. I think this is the biggest challenge humanity has had to face,” he explains.

“The 1 per cent are getting huge profits from dirtying our planet whilst pensioners are dying in their homes because they are prevented from getting cheap locally sourced energy. It’s not OK. This is me talking about how ridiculous it all is and how fun it can be getting in the way of it.

“In the show I will defeat climate chaos using only my mouth, that’s all.”

Noam Chomsky: Occupy Points to a “Different Way of Living”: here.

Guernica’s lost children

This video is called Guernica Picasso.

By musician Roberto Garcia, living in Britain now:

Spain’s lost children

Wednesday 25 April 2012

On the afternoon of Monday April 26 1937, when the Spanish civil war was in its 10th month, the small Basque market town of Guernica was almost completely destroyed by bombs dropped by Franco’s fascist forces.

It was a market day, and thousands of innocent people were killed.

Franco denied responsibility for the carpet bombing attack, claiming it was the work of “red incendiaries.”

However, in the words of George Steer, the Times journalist who visited Guernica the day after the bombing and subsequently filed a report following the denials by Franco’s nationalists: “I spoke with hundreds of homeless and distressed people who all gave precisely the same description of events … unexploded German aluminium incendiary bombs were found in Guernica marked ‘Rheindorf factory, 1936,’ eyewitnesses reported Heinkel and Junkers bombers and subsequently statements from captured German pilots in early April reported that these bombers were manned entirely by German pilots.”

In Paris, the Spanish artist Pablo Picasso began work on what would become his most famous painting – Guernica.

Four days after the bombing of Guernica, a letter was published in the Times and signatories included Ellen Wilkinson and the Duchess of Atholl. The letter was asking for refugees to be brought to Britain, and at the same time Leah Manning, an official of the British National Union of Teachers who was in Bilbao at the invitation of the Spanish government, was trying to arrange the evacuation of children on behalf of the National Joint Committee for Spanish relief.

Na-mara‘s songs and music tell the story of the evacuation of 4,000 children from Bilbao.

My father was among the group of child refugees brought to Britain to escape the bombings.

After much shameful prevarication from a British government bent on a policy of appeasement, 4,000 children were accepted aged from five to 12, with the strict proviso that there was not to be a charge on the British taxpayer, and under the condition that children were to be sent back to Spain “as soon as conditions permitted.”

In addition, only children were accepted and parents were to be left behind.

The Basque children’s committee, which had representations from organisations including the TUC, took responsibility for the children when they arrived in Southampton in May 1937.

My father Fausto, aged seven, and his older brother Teo, aged nine, were among this group of children whose names were put forward by their parents to take them away from the bombings and the war to a safe haven.

As parents were not allowed to travel with their children the parting must have been unbearable.

In order to console their children, mothers told them it was “only for three months.”

Events to mark the anniversary

The acclaimed St Albans-based folk duo Na-mara – Paul McNamara (Guitar and vocals) and Rob Garcia (Guitar, mandolin and mandola) – will be performing a series of concerts at events to commemorate the bombing of Guernica 75 years ago today, and the evacuation of the Basque children during the Spanish civil war.

Their concerts will include a mixture of self-penned songs and tunes from the war, interwoven with the story of the International Brigades and the evacuation of the Basque children from Bilbao in May 1937.

Their songs about the Spanish civil war capture the history of those brave men and women and tell the story of the commitment of British workers and members of trade union movements who joined the Spanish republic to fight fascism.

As close friends of the International Brigade Memorial Trust their performances coincide with events being organised by the IBMT to commemorate the criminal carpet bombing of Guernica by Franco’s fascist forces during the height of the Spanish civil war in April 1937.

Na-mara has released a special EP to commemorate the bombing of Guernica and Basque children’s evacuation on this the 75th anniversary, entitled Songs of the Spanish civil war.

You can hear them on the following dates and venues:

– May 4, 8pm – Ruskin House Folk and Blues Club, Ruskin House, 23 Coombe Road, Croydon, Surrey. A 75th anniversary commemoration event for Guernica, in memory of Bob Doyle. Further info at www.folkandblues.org or (01737) 553-493

– May 11-14 – Maesteg Town Hall. Part of the Celtic Tapas in Maesteg festival commemorating the Welsh miners who fought in the Spanish civil war.

– May 12, 4pm – Hartley Suite, University of Southampton. Commemoration event for the arrival of the el ninos in Britain.

– May 20, 2pm – Friends of Ash Church, nr New Ash Green, Kent, TN15. A concert with songs of the International Brigade and in memory of the ninos.

– June 18, 11am – BBC Radio 4 will broadcast a programme to coincide with the 75th anniversary of the evacuation of the children from Bilbao in May 1937. The programme is entitled Habana, the name of the ship that the children travelled in, and will include an interview with Rob and feature Na-mara’s music.

– July 7 – South Bank Jubilee Memorial Gardens. Free open-air event to commemorate the International Brigades.

For further information on Na-Mara, visit www.na-mara.com.

Brighton artists are remaking Pablo Picasso’s masterpiece for the modern fight against fascism, says BERNADETTE HYLAND: here.

Related articles

• Guernica (monsalveandrew.wordpress.com)
• Picasso and Poussin (artamaze.wordpress.com)
• Guernica, a Changing World and Inescapable Horror (polygrafi.wordpress.com)

Saudi Arabia jails human rights activists

This video is called UN Human Rights office – on death penalty in Saudi Arabia.

From daily The Morning Star in Britain:

Cairo demo demands lawyer’s release

Wednesday 25 April 2012

by Our Foreign Desk

Hundreds of Egyptians protested outside the Saudi embassy on Tuesday to demand the release of an Egyptian human rights lawyer detained in Saudi Arabia for allegedly insulting the Western-backed kingdom’s absolute monarch.

Protesters demanding freedom for Ahmed el-Gezawi chanted “Down, down with Al-Saud,” referring to the Saudi royal family, and “Screw you, your majesty,” in reference to King Abdullah, the Saudi monarch.

The demonstrators called for the expulsion of the Saudi ambassador in Cairo and some raised their shoes alongside a picture of the king, a sign of deep contempt in the Arab world.

The detention of Mr Gezawi has revived long-standing resentment over the treatment of Egyptians working in oil-rich Saudi Arabia, a destination for more than a million Egyptians seeking better jobs.

At the protest a woman cloaked in a black abaya, a long garment worn by many devout Muslim women in Egypt, held a picture of her son and said that he has been detained for two years in a Saudi prison.

See also here.

Apr 30, 2012 (IPS) – While athletes around the world enter their final stages of training for the 30th Olympic Games in London this July, Saudi Arabia stands alone as the only country who has banned females from participating: here.

Moroccans keep fighting for democracy

This video is called Rapper’s Imprisonment Tests Moroccan Reforms.

From Women’s eNews:

Young Moroccans Keep Arab-Spring Spirit Alive

By Juhie Bhatia

WeNews managing editor

Wednesday, April 25, 2012

The youth-led Feb. 20 Movement in Morocco has simmered down to a core group that includes many female activists. They’re keeping an eye on constitutional reforms enacted last year that some say didn’t go far enough. “We want real, radical change,” says one.

RABAT, Morocco –Zineb Belmkaddem hadn’t ever given much serious thought to political activism. She didn’t believe she could really change things.

Then came the uprisings in nearby Tunisia.

“I was in awe and shocked that young Arab people can actually do something to change the political scene,” said 27-year-old Belmkaddem in a cafe here earlier this month, wearing Ray-Ban sunglasses and a white hijab. “It was impressive. Then it happened again in Egypt and my shock increased. It was the first time I decided it was worth getting involved.”

The wave of protests sweeping the region soon hit Morocco, and Belmkaddem responded to a YouTube video’s call out for Moroccans to join pro-democracy protests on Feb. 20 last year. Thousands of others from across the country also participated to demand reforms, including checks on the monarch’s power, dignity, social justice, democracy and freedom.

Motorists kill rare New Zealand birds

This video from New Zealand is called Fiordland Brown Kiwi.

From Wildlife Extra:

Morepork and kea being killed by motorists in New Zealand

Native NZ birds killed by motorists on the Milford Road

April 2012. Morepork and kea are the latest victims of speeding vehicles on the Milford Highway. The New Zealand Department of Conservation (DOC) has collecdted ten morepork and two kea killed by vehicles on the Milford Highway this summer.

Morepork particularly vulnerable

Morepork are particularly vulnerable to traffic deaths as they perch near the road at night seeking potential prey and often fly up into the headlights of cars.

“This is the highest number of morepork deaths caused by vehicles in Fiordland National Park since I started work here 15 years ago”, said DOC scientist Moira Pryde.

Morepork breeding

DOC has been researching morepork breeding in the Eglinton Valley since 2008. This research has shown that breeding can be quite erratic but this season has been identified as the best in four years with most monitored female morepork raising two chicks. In the previous three breeding seasons no chicks were known to survive. The thirteen chicks produced this year will be a boost to the population who have suffered poor breeding years and road-related deaths.

Two juvenile kea killed

Meanwhile kea – the mountain parrot that entertains visitors at various locations along the Milford road – are also falling victim to the road, with two juveniles killed by vehicles near Monkey Creek in December.

Kea are most vulnerable near car parking areas along the alpine section of the road where some tourists, including tour buses, feed the kea encouraging them to hang around on the roadside in the way of traffic. DOC would like to remind visitors that kea must not be fed and drivers need to take extra care around the Monkey Creek, Pop’s View and the Homer Tunnel areas.

Speed is definitely a factor contributing to the deaths of native birds along the Milford Road and staff based in the area say there have been several reported near misses. DOC advise motorists travelling in the forested and alpine areas of the road to take extra caution especially when travelling at night. The public are asked to report any dead native birds to the Te Anau Area Office.

Sri Lanka’s Yala National Park inhabits a remote and wild corner of the south-east, but anarchic behaviour by tourists and drivers desperate to glimpse big game has created dangers for the wildlife there, as the BBC’s Charles Haviland experienced: here.

Britain: Speed is the main contributory factor in approximately a third of fatal car crashes in the UK, with the Department of Transport estimating that 4,187 deaths in 2009 were attributable to exceeding the speed limit of going too fast for the conditions: here.

Dam proposal dropped saving one of New Zealand’s largest and most pristine wild rivers: here.

New gecko discovery in Papua New Guinea

This video is called BUMBLEBEE GECKO DISCOVERED IN PAPUA NEW GUINEA.

From Wildlife Extra:

New ’bumblebee’ gecko discovered in Papua New Guinea

Unexplored region could contain many new species

April 2012. A new species of gecko, adorned like a bumblebee with black-and-gold bands and rows of skin nodules that enhance its camouflage on the tropical forest floor has been discovered in Papua New Guinea by biologists from the Papua New Guinea National Museum and the U.S. Geological Survey.

Specimens of the lizard, which measures about 5 inches from head to tail, were collected in May 2010 in Sohoniliu Village on Manus Island in Papua New Guinea. Herpetologists George Zug of the Smithsonian Institution and Robert Fisher of the USGS Western Ecological Research Center described the new species.

“We’ve officially named it Nactus kunan for its striking colour pattern – kunan means ‘bumblebee’ in the local Nali language,” says Fisher. “It belongs to a genus of slender-toed geckos, which means these guys don’t have the padded, wall-climbing toes like the common house gecko, or the day gecko in the car insurance commercials.”

Fisher found two individuals of the bumblebee gecko on Manus Island in 2010 and analysed their genetics to show that the lizards were new and distinctive. Two additional species were found that trip, and the specimens await further analysis.

“This species was a striking surprise, as I’ve been working on the genus since the 1970s, and would not have predicted this discovery,” says Zug, a curator emeritus at the National Museum of Natural History.

Many new species in unexplored region

“Exploration of Manus Province is in its infancy, with many new species possible, and this joint expedition was our first to this region,” says Bulisa Iova, the reptile curator at the Papua New Guinea National Museum.

This research on Pacific lizard biodiversity was supported by the Smithsonian, U.S. Department of Defense and USGS.

So, part of the money for this beautiful discovery comes from a very ugly source: the Pentagon. The United States Department of “Defense”; “Defense” which, for some reason, invariably happens thousands of miles away from US borders. The Pentagon, the worst polluters in the world. What a pity that this beautiful interesting Papua New Guinea lizard is abused for Pentagon greenwashing.

More about greenwashing by militarists is here.

February 2014: The endless stick-ability of geckos’ feet have inspired researchers to develop a reusable adhesive tape: here.

Geckos take advantage of van der Waals forces to run across ceilings:  here.

Related articles

• Three new species of tiny frogs from the remarkable region of Papua New Guinea
• G4s staff accused of attacking inmates at Papua New Guinea detention centre
• Bumblebee Gecko Discovered In Papua New Guinea
• The bumblebee gecko from Papua New Guinea – Nactus kunan
• New Species: Bumblebee Gecko Strikingly Striped
• New to Nature No 79: Nactus kunan
• Check out these ten amazing newfound species while you can
• Tree snake research leads to Manus gecko find
• Australian lizards, frog new species discoveries
• ‘Extinct’ Indian lizard rediscovery

Swedish king pro-wolf killing

This video is called Winter Wolf Tracking in Sweden.

(What is called an “elk” in Europe is a “moose” in America. An American “elk” is closely related to European “red deer“.)

From Wildlife Extra:

WWF President number 2 – Let’s kill more wolves because we want to kill the elk

WWF beginning to look careless – 1 president/king hunter could be a mistake – 2 looks very careless – How many more are there?

April 2012. WWF has many presidents, but some of their choices are beginning to look questionable. Although, as an organisation they do not oppose all hunting, or even trophy hunting, (UK WWF president Prince Charles and ex-President Prince Phillip are known for their love of shooting), WWF Sweden do strongly oppose hunting wolves in Sweden. However their president, King Gustaf,

Carl XVI Gustaf

wants to “cull the wolf population“.

Wolves kill elk – But King Gustaf wants to kill the elk so he wants to get rid of wolves

And why does he want to do that? Because every year the good king runs an elk hunt in Sweden, along with his son Prince Carl Philip. Despite the fact that some 100,000 elk are shot every autumn in Sweden out of an estimated population of 3-400,000, King Gustaf believes that the presence of 200 wolves might spoil his annual hunt, so has been advocating the culling of as many wolves as possible. Yet to hunt the elk, he himself uses hunting dogs.

Hunting with dogs

According to the Swedish Royal Court, in 2011, “On Wednesday 2 November, The King and Prince Carl Philip took part in the traditional royal elk hunt in Halleberg and Hunneberg.

The hunt was a so-called free-ranging dog hunt, and two elks were caught during the day. Three hunting teams took part, with three huntsmen, a hunt leader and two dog handlers in each team.”

WWF Sweden statement:

“The Wolf Hunt in Sweden

The Swedish Government approved 27 wolves to be culled in a license hunt in early 2010. In total 28 were killed. A new license hunt has now been approved with a start 15 January 2011, this time 20 wolves are allowed to be shot. WWF Sweden has protested strongly against the decimation hunt as it is not in accordance with the EU legal regulations (Habitat and Species Directive) and the Swedish subpopulation is highly vulnerable due to inbreeding.”

Prince Carl Philip

Interestingly, IUCN (International Union for Conservation of Nature) are currently touting their World Conservation Congress, to be held in Korea in September. Amongst the many ‘VIPs’ they list as attending the conference, is Prince Carl Philip. The IUCN prince was recently appointed an IUCN ‘Patron of Nature’.

According to IUCN “During his welcoming ceremony at IUCN’s Swiss headquarters, the Prince said that he is delighted to be working with IUCN and looks forward to doing “great things” for nature.

Patrons of Nature play a key role in advising IUCN’s top management on a wide range of strategic issues related to IUCN’s work, as well as help us raise our visibility and reach out to decision makers.”

It is working then – It has provided them with some coverage on Wildlife Extra.

Snapshot of WWF Sweden website – Stating that king Gustav is president, whilst (on the right) ‘protesting strongly’ about the wolf hunt – That King Gustaf wanted to expand

Also from Wildlife Extra:

Was canid shot in New Brunswick first wolf for 150 years?

April 2012. On April 6th a licensed varmint hunter in New Brunswick, in Caraquet, ‘harvested’ (Why do they always use these euphemisms? They mean shot) what he believed to be a large coyote. The animal weighed 66-88 pounds. Due to the relatively large size of the animal, there is some speculation that it may be something other than an eastern coyote. The Department of Natural Resources (DNR) has collected a piece of tissue from the animal for DNA analysis to determine its species genetic profile, the results should be available in 4 months.

Swedish crown princess and WWF: here. And here.

In the Westerwald forest in West Germany, a 71-year-old hunter has killed the first wolf seen in the area since over 120 years.

Have wolves returned to Arctic Canada? Here.

Christopher Hitchens, from leftist to war propagandist

This video from the USA is called Seymour Hersh: Propaganda Used Ahead of Iraq War Now Being Reused Over Iran’s Nuke Program.

By David Walsh in the USA:

Memorial for Christopher Hitchens in New York City: A gathering of the unprincipled and politically clueless

25 April 2012

Vanity Fair magazine hosted a memorial in New York City April 20 for the late journalist Christopher Hitchens, who died of cancer in December. According to the Guardian, the event, at Cooper Union, a private college in lower Manhattan, paid tribute to Hitchens’ “wit and warmth.”

The memorial brought together a diverse group of personalities, including novelists Martin Amis, Salman Rushdie and Ian McEwan, playwright Tom Stoppard, literary critic James Wood, historian Douglas Brinkley, journalist Carl Bernstein, actors Sean Penn and Stephen Fry, former Nation editor Victor Navasky and numerous others.

What would prompt anyone to celebrate such a despicable figure?

Hitchens began his public life vaguely on the British left, around the state capitalist International Socialists group, wrote for the liberal-left Nation magazine in the US (1982-2002) and ended up in the camp of imperialist reaction, a supporter of the Bush administration’s bloody invasion of Iraq, the “global war on terror” and the racist-chauvinist campaign to stigmatize Muslims.

Along the way Hitchens shook hands with Argentine dictator General Jorge Rafaél Videla and enjoyed a flirtatious exchange with Conservative Party leader and future British prime minister, Margaret Thatcher. He enthusiastically participated in the Republican right’s campaign in 1998-99 to oust Bill Clinton from the White House in a manufactured sex scandal. In 2001, Hitchens told an interviewer that he now recognized globalized capitalism was a revolutionary economic system.

Much of the last decade or so of his life Hitchens spent as a favorite of the ultra-right in the US. Not accidentally, the New York Post, one of Rupert Murdoch’s gutter publications, covered the April 20 celebration in the friendliest terms (“Hitch remembered with wit” in a “moving ceremony”).

Pathologically vain and cynical, a thoroughgoing careerist, a mediocre snob without a memorable thought or insight to his credit, Hitchens had significance solely as the embodiment of the shift of a portion of the “protest generation” into staunch defenders (and beneficiaries) of the profit system.

The Washington Post’s description of Hitchens and his crowd in the late 1990s remains useful. The British-born journalist, the newspaper explained, belonged to “an elite subset of Washington society—the crowd of journalists, intellectuals, authors and policymakers, mostly in their thirties and forties, who regularly dine together and dine out on each other.” Another Post article at the time described “a rarefied world where the top pols and bureaucrats sup with the media and literary elite at exclusive dinner parties. It’s a cozy little club of confidential sources and off-the-record confidences.”

Related articles

• Protesters Call for War Criminal Henry Kissinger’s Arrest; John McCain Threatens Them with Arrest…
• Hitchens, Dawkins and Harris Are Old News: A Totally Different Atheism Is on the Rise
• Why Richard Dawkins, Sam Harris and the ‘New Atheists’ Aren’t Really Atheists

• “The Trials of Henry Kissinger” A Documentary (The film focuses on Christopher Hitchens’ charges against Kissinger as a war criminal ) (12160.info)

Fascist anti-student threats in Quebec

This video is called Quebec students protest university-fee rise.

By Eric Marquis in Quebec:

Major daily publishes fascist diatribe against Quebec student strike

25 April 2012

One of Quebec’s principal dailies has published on its internet site a commentary from a senior Quebec government official that openly calls for fascist-type violence to be employed against striking students.

Titled “To be rid of student strikes,” the comment—which was published by Le Soleil, Quebec City’s “quality” daily, on April 12—urges that the actions of the “fascist movements of the 1920s and 1930s” employed to “reconquer ground” from strikers and the left be emulated.

At the bottom of the Le Soleil “Viewpoint” comment, its author, Bernard Guay, identified himself as a “long-time anti-strike activist.” Subsequently, it came to light that Guay is a senior official in the tax branch of Quebec’s Ministry of Municipal Affairs.

In his diatribe, Guay denounces the two month-old strike that Quebec university and CEGEP (pre-university and technical college) students have mounted against the provincial Liberal government’s plans to raise university tuitions by 75 percent. He calls the strike “wasteful and anti-social,” while commending the violence perpetrated by fascist militias in the decades between the world wars of the last century.

“We must organize,” declares Guay, “to regain lost ground. In the 1920s and 1930s, the fascist movements did this by giving leftists a taste of their own medicine. This lesson was so seared into their memories that three quarters of a century later, they still demonize this reaction of political good-health.”

In other words, the intimidation, goon attacks, and murders that the Italian fascists and the Nazis employed against militant workers, Communists, and socialist-minded youth and intellectuals should serve as a model for the Quebec ruling elite in breaking the current student strike,

Hostile reader reaction to this paean to an ideology rightly associated by people all over the world with savage repression, bellicose nationalism, and the Holocaust quickly forced Le Soleil to remove Guay’s comment and its editor-in-chief, Pierre-Paul Noreau, to offer a public apology.

In his apology, Noreau claims that Le Soleil’s editorial board read Guay’s letter “much too quickly” and failed to take note of its “incitement to violence.”

While condemning Guay’s remarks, Le Soleil’s editor-in-chief, nonetheless sought to minimize their fascist character. “There is at times a thin margin between freedom of expression and its abuse,” declared Noreau. “How should Le Soleil be judged in this difficult debate over tuition fee increases? On this error that was admitted and corrected as quickly as possible, or on the whole of its journalistic coverage?”

This explanation is simply not credible.

It is far more likely that Le Soleil’s editors viewed Guay’s comment as legitimate and deserving of publication precisely because of the virulence of his opposition to the student movement, which, to the consternation of Quebec’s elite, has insisted that quality education should be a social right.

Le Soleil, is owned by Gesca, a subsidiary of Power Corporation, a holding firm owned by the Desmarais family, billionaires who have been in the forefront of big business’ push for the dismantling of public services in Quebec and across Canada

Noreau is not being honest when he says that “It is quite clear that Le Soleil will never condone an incitement to violence.” On the contrary, this is what the media, including the many newspapers published by Gesca, have been doing almost since the first day of the student strike. Quebec’s dailies have published lurid accounts of “student violence,” providing pretexts for the brutal repression of student protests by riot police.

Isolated acts of vandalism, allegedly perpetrated by striking students, have been used by the ruling elite and its media to portray the students as a band of “looters.” Certain media commentators, such as Éric Duhaime of the Journal de Montréal, have gone so far as to characterize the student struggle as a “form of terrorism.”

At the same time, the police systematically repress student demonstrations and the courts issue injunctions, limiting or banning picketing, and forcing teachers to resume regular instruction and evaluation even if the vast majority of students are boycotting class with virtually no criticism from the media. Students are beaten, tear-gassed and pepper-sprayed, and even seriously injured (a student lost the use of one eye after a stun-grenade explosion), but the media focuses all its energies on denouncing “student violence.”

Amnesty International criticizes Quebec police over handling of tuition protests: here.

USA: The University of Kentucky announced Friday it is planning to raise tuition by 6 percent and suspend raises for faculty and staff: here.

Britain: Pensioner beaten up by EDL thugs says: Get racists off our streets: here.

British government in Murdoch scandal

This video from Britain is called Labour calls for Jeremy Hunt to resign.

From daily The Independent in Britain:

James Murdoch‘s revenge: Evidence that shook Government to its core

Former BSkyB chief shocks Leveson Inquiry with frank disclosure of his close relationships with ministers, as Culture Secretary is urged to resign after explosive emails show his office briefed News Corp on £7.5bn BSkyB bid

Oliver Wright, James Cusick, Andrew Grice, Martin Hickman, Cahal Milmo

Wednesday 25 April 2012

The Culture Secretary, Jeremy Hunt, was battling to save his political career last night after it was revealed that his office was secretly passing information to the Murdochs during their £7.5 billion bid to take over BSkyB.

Mr Hunt faced demands for his resignation after hundreds of pages of explosive emails, released by News Corp to the Leveson Inquiry, showed that his political advisers engaged in intimate and frequent briefing of the Murdochs’ chief lobbyist to help get the deal through – despite Mr Hunt’s claim to have acted impartially in his exercise of quasi-judicial powers.

One email quoted Mr Hunt saying “we’d get there in the end” and that he “shared” News Corp’s objective of taking over the broadcaster.

Another email, sent by News Corp’s lobbyist the day before Mr Hunt made a statement to Parliament on the bid, drew gasps when it was read out at the Leveson Inquiry: “Managed to get some infos on the plans for tomorrow (although absolutely illegal…!)”

In a day of dramatic revelations at the judicial inquiry, where James Murdoch gave evidence under oath, it also emerged that:

* Mr Murdoch did discuss News Corp’s bid for BSkyB with the Prime Minister David Cameron over Christmas dinner at the Oxfordshire home of Rebekah Brooks – contradicting Downing Street’s previous denials.

* Emails sent by James Murdoch’s lobbyist Fréd Michel show that Mr Hunt’s office would regularly update News Corp on the progress of its bid and how to get it past the regulators – sometimes speaking several times a day, and once even delaying the Culture Secretary’s trip to the ballet.

See also here.

The damning email trail: Dossier of messages reveals astonishing secret relationship between Culture Secretary Hunt and the Murdoch empire: here.

Jeremy Hunt, the secret News Corp emails and the ‘absolutely illegal’ tip-off: here.

Beleaguered media mogul Rupert Murdoch was in denial at the Leveson inquiry into media ethics on Wednesday claiming he has “never asked a prime minister for anything”: here.

Rupert Murdoch‘s Email Bombshell at the Leveson Inquiry: here.

Labour MPs gave Prime Minister David Cameron a battering on Wednesday as a rising tide of Murdoch sleaze engulfed his government: here.

Testimony by James Murdoch has led to the resignation of one ministerial adviser and forced Culture Secretary Jeremy Hunt to defend himself in parliament: here.

Culture Secretary Jeremy Hunt promised on Friday to hand over all his private texts and emails he sent to his special adviser Adam Smith, forced out over his handling of News Corp’s BSkyB takeover bid: here.

Opposition MPs knocked the stuffing out of Tory Prime Minister David Cameron on Monday after dramatically summoning him to Parliament for an interrogation about Culture Secretary Jeremy Hunt’s ties to the Murdoch empire: here.

10 questions Leveson should ask Rupert Murdoch about his relationship with Tony Blair: here.

Rupert Murdoch Admits A ‘Cover-Up’ At The News Of The World, Says ‘I Failed’: here.

Rupert Murdoch testimony: Routine denials of wrongdoing by UK’s political power-broker: here.

News Corporation boss Rupert Murdoch yesterday made it clear that he had taken a decision to smash the print unions when he provoked the 1986/87 strike: here.

Teachers branded frantic attempts by Rupert Murdoch to run a taxpayer-backed school as the true face of Tory Michael Gove’s so-called “parent-led” education policies: here.

Former Scottish first minister Jack McConnell said on Sunday that he was pursuing legal action after it emerged he may have been a victim of phone hacking by the News of the World: here.

News Corporation has sought to undermine elected governments. Rupert Murdoch is a man driven not so much by market forces as a deep desire to optimise his empire’s power and influence: here.