British May Day reports

This video from the USA is called Occupy May Day 2012.

From daily The Morning Star in Nlondon, England:

Britain’s working class fights back

Tuesday 01 May 2012

by John Millington, at Trafalgar Square

London’s workers made their opposition to cuts clear today with a 2,000-strong May Day march through the capital, joining millions who took to the streets across the world.

Construction, Remploy and public-sector staff assembled alongside Turkish, Iranian and Sri Lankan activists at Clerkenwell Green before marching through the city for the Trafalgar Square rally.

The Remploy workers at the head of the march stole the show, urging the coalition to save jobs for disabled workers.

GMB national convener at Remploy Les Woodward said the attack on the firm and its staff “encapsulates what this government is trying to do to the whole working class.

“They are trying to destroy us,” he told the Star.

Mr Woodward urged workers to mobilise for a general strike to defeat the government’s austerity agenda.

Remploy worker Julie Haynes said the firm could be profitable with proper investment.

“What makes Remploy different is we do a skilled job – we contribute to society, we pay our taxes,” she said.

Highlighting the international character of the march, RMT London transport regional organiser Steve Headley said the fight against racism and fascism could not be more important.

“We’ve got to fight as the working class,” he said.

“We can’t be divided by ethnic differences. We have got to wake up and fight back.”

Others on the march drew attention to co-ordinated strike action around pensions planned for May 10.

Southern and Eastern Region TUC secretary Megan Dobney said May 10 would be an “important sign that working-class people and trade unions in particular are opposing the government agenda.”

By Tony Patey in Britain:

We need to band together and lobby the government to make May 1 – International Workers Day – a national public holiday similar to many parts of the rest of Europe.

That was the message as protests and demos took place around the nation today with other events planned over the next few days.

May 1 is a national holiday in more than 80 countries, including most of Europe, and is unofficially celebrated across the world.

Sparks turned out in force in the heart of the City of London for a May Day protest in their continuing fight for direct employment on all construction sites: here.

Photos: May Day Rallies Around the World 2012: here.

Giant water-lilies damaged by coins

This is a Victoria amazonica time-lapse video.

Leiden University in the Netherlands reports that the leaves of their Victoria amazonica giant water-lilies used to be over two meter in diameter. Last year, they were only one meter fifty.

The botanical gardens in Utrecht and Haren had bigger leaves than in Leiden, though the seed for their Victoria amazonica had come from Leiden.

Why have the Leiden leaves shrunk?

Research showed that there was too much iron in the water. People throw coins in the water to help the hothouses financially. Euro coins, which replaced earlier Dutch coins, of 5, 2 and 1 cents have copper and steel. In water, these coins rust.

Nymphaea thermarum is the world’s smallest water lily. It nearly became extinct. Now, some are in the botanical garden in Leiden, the Netherlands.

Related articles

• Wordless Wednesday 13-09 (curiosakat.com)
• Hint With Genus, Nymphaea (mbracedefreak.wordpress.com)
• Careless hikers’ bonfire damages rare water lily pond in Tel Aviv (haaretz.com)
• Leuven in Belgium, botany, birds and bees (dearkitty1.wordpress.com)

Afghans protest NATO child-killers

This video from the SA is called Rick Rowley: Recent NATO Attacks on Afghan Civilians Show U.S. Military Surge Strategy Has Failed.

From Radio Free Europe (founded by the CIA):

Tuesday, May 01, 2012

Afghan Protesters Accuse NATO Of Killing Four Children During Taliban Clash

Hundreds of protesters have gathered in southern Afghanistan, chanting anti-American slogans and carrying the bodies of four children they said were killed by NATO forces during a clash with the Taliban.

Mohammad Jan Rasoulyar, the deputy provincial governor in southern Zabul Province, said the children, aged 8 to 12, died during a gun battle between Taliban insurgents and NATO and Afghan security forces in the district of Shahjoy. …

U.S.-led forces have been blamed for numerous civilian casualties in Afghanistan, including an incident in March when U.S. soldier, Robert Bales, reportedly killed 17 people, including nine children, in a shooting rampage.

US Army hearing begins into March 2012 Afghan atrocity: here.

Hundreds of Afghans blocked the Kabul-Kandahar highway today demanding foreign soldiers go home after four children were killed during clashes between Nato troops and resistance forces: here.

Related articles

• Apparent Afghan Insider Attack Kills 2 NATO Troops (blogs.voanews.com)
• Four troops die in Afghan attack (bbc.co.uk)
• NATO Airstrike Kills Three Afghan Children (news.antiwar.com)
• Nato troops killed by rogue Afghan police officer (independent.co.uk)

Murdoch, resign, British Parliament says

This video is called RupertGate: Will Murdoch scandal sink David Cameron?

From the Belfast Telegraph in Ireland:

Rupert Murdoch ‘unfit to lead News Corp‘

By Gavin Cordon and Sam Lister

Tuesday, 1 May 2012

Media mogul Rupert Murdoch is not “a fit person” to run a major international corporation, a committee of MPs said today.

In a devastating report into the News of the World phone-hacking scandal, the Commons Culture, Media and Sport Committee accused the News Corp chief of exhibiting “wilful blindness” towards the wrongdoing in his organisation.

It said News Corp had been guilty of “huge failings of corporate governance” and that throughout its instinct had been “to cover up rather than seek out wrongdoing and discipline the perpetrators”.

The report accused three former senior executives of News Corp‘s UK newspaper publishing arm News International – Les Hinton, Colin Myler, and Tom Crone – of misleading the committee during its inquiries into the scandal.

And it said that Rupert Murdoch‘s son James had demonstrated “wilful ignorance” about what had been going on, which “clearly raises questions of competence” on his part.

The most damning judgment was reserved for Rupert Murdoch.

“On the basis of the facts and evidence before the committee, we conclude that, if at all relevant times Rupert Murdoch did not take steps to become fully informed about phone hacking, he turned a blind eye and exhibited wilful blindness to what was going on in his companies and publications,” the report said.

“This culture, we consider, permeated from the top throughout the organisation and speaks volumes about the lack of effective corporate governance at News Corporation and News International.

“We conclude, therefore, that Rupert Murdoch is not a fit person to exercise the stewardship of a major international company.”

The committee was split on party lines over a number of key findings – including the verdict on Rupert Murdoch – with the Tories voting against and Labour and the Lib Dems in favour.

See also here. And here.

David Cameron’s links to the Murdoch empire will be on display this week, says Simon Basketter: here.

The Cameron-Brooks texts begin to leak: here.

Cameron ‘texted Brooks before she resigned over Dowler affair’: here.

PRIME minister Cameron’s former press secretary Andy Coulson yesterday won a ruling that he can appeal against News International’s refusal to pay his legal fees: here.

Pressure mounted for Chancellor George Osborne to attend the Leveson inquiry after it emerged today he had discussed the BskyB takeover bid with Rebekah Brooks at a dinner in 2010: here.

Murdoch could be jailed for “life of the Parliament” if guilty of contempt: here.

The report by the Commons culture, media and sport select committee has found that Rupert Murdoch is “not a fit person to exercise stewardship of a major international company.” It opens up a new stage in the crisis raging at News International and its global parent, News Corp: here.

Don’t cry for Mr Murdoch: here.

Why is the American press not looking into whether Fox and the WSJ were involved in this scandal as well? Three other Murdoch properties were. Reason enough to inquire whether the same thing happened at other Murdoch companies: here.

How Will Murdoch’s U.K. Implosion Be Felt in the U.S.? Here.

A former editor of the News of The World once said: “That is what we do – we go out and destroy people’s lives.” That succinctly sums up the whole career of Rupert Murdoch: here.

Dial M for Murdoch: here.

Scottish First Minister Alex Salmond has emerged as one of the most compromised acolytes of Rupert Murdoch and his media empire: here.

Montagu’s harrier migration in Morocco

This video from Britain is called Montagu’s Harrier, Croft Pascoe, The Lizard Peninsula, Cornwall. 17/04/2011.

A new master’s thesis in biology is called Stopover site ecology
of Montagu´s Harrier (Circus pygargus) in East-Morocco.

41% of migrating Montagu’s harriers stop over in Morocco in autumn, on their way from Europe to Africa. In spring, 76% of the birds stop over in Morocco.

The bird species which the harriers eat most in Morocco is the greater short-toed Lark.

They eat locusts as well.

May Day celebration and oppression

This video from Occupy London in England is called OCCUPY MAY DAY – PROMO.

May Day has been celebrated in London since the 1880s. The London May Day Organsing Committee(LMDOC) has ensured this key day of international solidarity is marked every year on 1st May. The celebrations have maintained the traditions of unity and solidarity in London: here.

USA: Occupy Wall Street Last-Minute May Day Checklist: here. Live blogging: here.

Chicago to Welcome a Militarized May Day? Yana Kunichoff, Truthout: “If there is going to be a dress rehearsal for the coming NATO summit in Chicago, May Day is it…. It will also, coincidentally or not, be the first day that police in ‘battle’ dress hit the streets to prepare for the summit. Operation Red Zone, a security perimeter around … where the summits will be held … will be patrolled by federal law enforcement carrying ‘non-lethal’ guns beginning Tuesday”: here.

Noam Chomsky | May Day. Noam Chomsky, Zuccotti Park Press: “People seem to know about May Day everywhere except where it began, here in the United States of America. That’s because those in power have done everything they can to erase its real meaning. For example, Ronald Reagan designated what he called ‘Law Day’ – a day of jingoist fanaticism, like an extra twist of the knife in the labor movement. Today, there is a renewed awareness, energized by the Occupy movement‘s organizing, around May Day, and its relevance for reform and perhaps eventual revolution”: here.

Ahead of May Day, David Harvey Details Urban Uprisings From Occupy Wall Street to the Paris Commune. Amy Goodman, Democracy NOW!: “On Tuesday, May 1st, known as May Day or International Workers’ Day, Occupy Wall Street protesters hope to mobilize tens of thousands of people across the country under the slogan, ‘General Strike. No Work. No Shopping. Occupy Everywhere.’ Events are planned in 125 cities. We speak with leading social theorist David Harvey, distinguished professor of anthropology at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York, about how Occupy Wall Street compares to other large-scale grassroots movements throughout modern history”: here.

Occupy Oakland, Workers Back Off May Day Plan to Shut Down Golden Gate Bridge. Susie Cagle, AlterNet: “May Day protest actions are planned across the region, state and nation, but many eyes are on the flashpoint of Occupy Oakland, where organizers say ‘traditional labor and precarious workers will strike together for the first time’ at Occupy’s call. ‘It’s an interesting convergence of unorganized labor and the Occupy movement creating this pressure and momentum that encourages the rank and file to plan strikes on this day,’ said Steven Angell, an organizer with Occupy Oakland”: here.

May Day in Greece: here.

Bahrain oppression, resistance continue

This video is called In Bahrain, Protests and Police Action – The New York Times.

Bahrain police ‘continue to torture detainees’: here.

Tell Bahrain Police to Stop Beating Detainees: here.

BAHRAIN: Trial of arbitrarily detained Abdulhadi Al Khawaja transferred to a civilian court, concerns remain over his health status: here.

Bahrain: Free Protest Leaders Immediately: here.

Britain’s craven silence over Bahrain stinks of hypocrisy: here.

Bahrain Live Coverage: The Regime Plays for Time: here.

Nabeel Rajab has been described by some as ‘the unofficial leader of the February 14th’ democratic Bahraini movement. He talks to SBS about the ongoing unrest in Bahrain: here.