As the world suffers more from natural disasters and the devastating results of wars, along with the ravages of poverty created by corporate capitalist greed, we need to allow people freedom of movement as they try to survive these horrors. No one can be illegal, borders can’t be a death sentence, we are one.
Don’t jis stawn therr, dae sumthin’!!
ANTI-BENEFIT CUTS LEAFLETING
GLASGOW
THURSDAY 10TH MARCH
1.30-2.30PM
ATOS HEALTH CARE
CORUNNA HOUSE
29 CADOGAN STREET
GLASGOW
G2 7AB
Followed at 3pm by:
Group organising meeting including a go round of problems with benefits,
services etc, other ways of promoting the public meeting and discouraging
medical professionals from working for ATOS.
The Free Hetherington
The Glasgow University Occupation
13 University Gardens
Just off University Avenue,
Glasgow University Campus
http://freehetherington.wordpress.com/find-us/
“Patriotism … is a superstition artificially created and maintained through a network of lies and falsehoods; a superstition that robs man of his self-respect and dignity, and increases his arrogance and conceit.”
Emma Goldman.
“So many able writers have shown that the unjust institutions which work so much misery and suffering to the masses have their root in governments, and owe their whole existence to the power derived from government—. ” Lucy Parsons
“People have only as much liberty as they have the intelligence to want and the courage to take. ” Emma Goldman.
“It is not by changing ministers – such guilty men! – or issuing declarations that fascism will be conquered. The problem is more complex than that. We do not intend to add our voice to those who delude the workers that their ‘leaders’ will get them out of the mess. The problems need a complete transformation in the present attitude of the working class.” Marie Louise Berneri From; War Commentary, December 1940.
Women need not always keep their mouths shut and their wombs open. Emma Goldman.
Roma family in Italy.
Read Amnesty International’s page on the plight of the Roma in Europe and help to see that they are given, at least, the same human rights as the rest of us.
The Roma are one of Europe’s oldest and largest ethnic minorities, with an estimated 10 to 12 million Romani people living within the countries of the Council of Europe.
Existing predominantly on the margins of society, Roma are among the most deprived communities in Europe. They suffer massive discrimination and are denied their rights to housing, employment, health care and education. Roma communities are often subject to forced evictions, racist attacks and police ill-treatment.
Amnesty’s work on the rights of Roma forms part of our global Demand Dignity campaign, focussing on the human rights abuses that are a cause and a consequence of poverty.
The TUC is talking about an attack on this “demolition government” and stating that there will be poll tax type anger on the streets when these “austerity cuts” start to bite. If the TUC is hoping that the general public will back them to get things back to pre election terms then I hope they are disappointed. I would hope that the people will see this for what it is, it is not about cuts, it is about transferring all public assets to the private sector. It is the complete corporatisation of all of our entire society. It is certainly a demolition job on anything that is publicly owned, it is the fulfilment of the corporate mantra, business and profit must triumph over welfare.
This is an attack on public libraries, schools, health centres, museums, art galleries, public parks, welfare services, universities, it is the restructuring society where the public own nothing and have to buy everything from the corporate world. You will have no control over the shape of our society, that will be determined by the profit motive of the boardrooms around the world.
If the general public organise and take to the streets in anger, and I hope they do, it should be to change the shape of our society for once and for all. Let’s not fool ourselves, that is what the millionaire cabal in the Westminster House of Hypocrisy and Corruption are intent on doing. The difference is that they want to change it in favour of the millionaire’s club, we must change it in favour of all our people and to hell with the pampered parasite millionaires. We can manage our affairs with justice and and fairness and see to the needs of all our people if we have the courage to dump the millionaires and their greed driven desire for ever more profit. Capitalism is a man made system, we can dismantle it and build a society based on mutual aid and sustainability.
Here in the West we like to think that we have got rid of slavery. However, right here in our very own “Fortress Europe” we have our pockets of slavery, excluding the millions of wage slaves. It is hard to believe that with the mountain of bureaucratic legislation covering all aspects of our lives here in Europe, that we can have factory workers not being paid and then being sacked for asking when they are likely to be paid.
Lifted from the Polish site : http://pracownik.net.pl/rubryki/english
Workers from ZEFAM furniture factory in Nowe Miasteczko in the west of Poland were given disciplinary dismissals because they asked when the would get paid.
ZEFAM stands for Zielona Gora Furniture Factory. Workers there had not received salaries for months. Some had not been paid for four months and nobody was receiving overtime payments. On August 19, the workers asked about this. The manager went to consult with the director of the firm, Marek Cierpka. Then he told the workers to “go home”. They didn’t want to, but the manager shut down the production hall. After some time of not knowing what to do, the workers went home.
The next day, the manager was waiting for them at the gates of the factory with disciplinary dismissals. Most people refused to take them, but they were sent by post to 27 workers. In the dismissals it was written that they were being dismissed for leaving their work place without permission or justification. The boss claimed that the workers held a wildcat strike.
The next day, the boss proposed that people return to work, but with new contracts, for “trial periods”. Some people were so desperate that they agreed to this, but 11 people refused. Six of them are prevented by security from going near the factory.
But even the ones who “agreed” to the new conditions are not factory. The Mayor of Nowe Miasteczko “mediated” but convinced them to agree to the bad deal. It was agreed that if the workers have no problems or “strikes’ over the next two months of the “trial period”, then the Director will annul the disciplinary dismissal.
In Poland, all records of work are kept in your “work book”. If you were fired, it stays on your record and basically creates a problem for you for years, if not the rest of your life.
The workers at ZEFAM were totally fucked. The majority of them are older, many in their 50s and 60s. Many have worked in the factory 30 or 40 years with no problem. And now they are told they should be on a trial period! If they give their work books, the bosses will write that they were fired. If they don’t give their work books to be signed, they will have no proof of the work they have done for decades! It is important to point out that these people live in a high unemployment area.
The Mayor of Nowe Miasteczko is actually aiding the director, Mr. Cierpka, in committing a crime. Unfair dismissal is not a crime in Poland, but if he is not paying, the company should go into bankruptcy, its assets liquidated and the workers paid from this. But the case is more likely that the company just wanted to find some pretext to get rid of old staff and hope that the workers will not be able to fight back.
We hope that this assessment of the workers will prove wrong and we support the 11 who refused! Hopefully the next wildcat strike will be a real one!
Protests can be sent to:
Prezes Zarządu
Marek Cierpka
Zielonogórskie Fabryki Mebli S.A.
ul. Głogowska 18
67-124 Nowe Miasteczko
Tel. (+48 68) 325 46 31
Fax (+ 48 68) 388 89 64
Email: zefam@zefam.com.pl
www.zefam.com.pl
A little bit behind but only received this the other day in the form of a leaflet and thought it deserves support, after all who will be next in their attempt to silence the opposition to their slash and burn policies? Trying to push one group out here and another out there is their way of trying to silence the public and frustrate any attempt at the ordinary people organising themselves against the millionaires’ club.
Govanhill Police Attack the Right to Organise.
On Tuesday (13/07.2010) Fight Racism-Fight Imperialism set out to hold one of its weekly stalls outside Lidl Victoria Road. Within 15 minutes of setting up we were approached by two police officers; Pc. Ishaque (badge number- G282) and Pc. Willie Neil (badge number-G480) who have tried to shut down our own and other activists stalls before but failed. Two FR/FI activists were charged with selling a newspaper without a permit ( which the human rights act 1998 allows us to do) and were also charged with obstruction. Our table and 13 FR/FI newspapers were seized!
Defend Democratic Rights! No to Political Policing!
FR/FI will not be intimidated off the streets and will defend the rights of ourselves and others to oppose the wars, spending cuts and blatant corruption (e.g. Steven Purcell) of Britain’s rulling-classes. I the period before the full crunch of the spending cuts is felt; lower the already miserable living standards of Glasgow’s poor; police should be shown that they cannot attack our democratic rights without promting a fightback. Let the people of Govanhill decide who should be allowed to sell their newspapers, not a few coppers hiding behind their badges!
What You can Do?
Send e-mails of complaint to –SouthsideCentralCommunityPolicingTeam@strathclyde.pnn.police.uk
or phone 0141 532 5312 demanding our table and newspapers be returned and that all charges be dropped.
Support our right to sell newspapers! No to censorship!
L:eave your details for upcoming meetings and events or contact us at glasgowfrfi@yahoo.co.uk
Our millionaire Prime Minister at a meeting in Birmingham made clear what we all new would be the case. He stated that his slash and burn cuts at our social services to get the deficit down and under control would be permanent and would not be restored once the budget deficit had gone. So it is not a matter of a little pain now and all will be well in the future. This is clearly millionaire ideology being forced onto the general public. All the social services, education, health, care for the elderly, pension, you name it, it will be up to the private sector to step in and provide these, at a huge profit for them of course. Services will be graded according to what you can afford not what you need. If you fall into the category that can afford very little, well tough, you’ll have to rely on charity, after all, business is business.
This millionaire hatchet man also stated that we would have to do things differently. What he means by that, is a society with no social services and no social conscience, a 100% profit orientated society, the underlying principle being if it doesn’t make money then don’t do it, let some charity organisation take care of that side of things.
Is this the sort of society that you voted for? Is this the sort of society that you want? If not then we had better get our heads together and do some organising, not to put things back the way they were, but to change society forever based on the needs of all our people and dump the millionaire parasites in the dustbin of history.
We no longer have a political party system, it is a corporate state. No matter what party you elect and no matter the different and wonderful manifesto promises, after the election it is just as before with perhaps a little plus or minus this way or that. The smile on the face of the new messiah may look more radiant than the last, but the price of bread still goes up. The few over privileged parasites that have control of all the institutions in our society have bought the political parties and are in bed with the military. Big business is all, and war is big business, so we will have war, bloating the coffers of the corporate greed machine until they bleed us all dry. To the corporate world people are dispensable, profit is the name of the game.
Turning to this or that political party creates the myth of democracy and the results prove that it is no more than a myth, an illusion spun by the media, another institution, which is hardly likely to speak against its master and owner corporate world.
If we want a better world where we see to the needs of all our people then we have to break the hold of that corporate beast. Communities have to take control of all those institutions and run them in federation with each other based on sustainability. We have to eliminate the profit motive from all we do, and create for the benefit of all, mutual aid being the key. No matter how you try to shape capitalism, no matter how green you think you can make it, it is unsustainable and will never work for the benefit of all, it is an elitist and exploitive system that works for the privileged few parasites who own those corporations.
Now that the well manicured millionaire twins are in full swing with their machetes, hacking at the living standards of the ordinary people of this country, all those who voted at the last election must ask themselves is this what they voted for? Did you know what you were voting for, was it really to see the millionaires club rip you off? Well, it is all your fault, you voted for them. Think of the number of elections we have had and all those wonderful manifestos and yet nothing has changed. The rich and powerful still hold all the aces, we get to carry their bags and we are supposed to be grateful.
Every adult should know by now that changing the smile at 10 Downing Street, doesn’t make our lives any easier. It is not the well coiffured grinning face that needs changing it is the system. This system of corporate capitalism owns you, it owns the best houses the best land, the factories and the supermarkets, the schools and the hospitals. They have you by the balls and they are squeezing harder now than ever before. Our destiny is now shaped by globalised financiers and multinational corporations, ask yourself, did you vote for them? The 23 millionaires in the cabinet are the action team of the corporate world, they are there to sort things out, to sew-up all the public assets into nice packages for their parasite friends in the millionaires club to gobble up, and to hell with the people. It is their world or it is our world, there can be no compromise.
The Millionaire twins’ plans to cut the housing budget will have devastating effect on a huge swath of ordinary people. According to certain estimates the cuts will put another than 500,000 people on to the housing waiting lists as well as costing over 300,000 jobs in the process. The National Housing Federation stated that ministers risk “shutting the door on an entire generation of low-income families” It will also result in the creation of ghettos where the poor will be corralled like cattle, while the rich live in their secured areas of opulence at the expense of those poor. This is only one aspect of the Cameron-Clegg “BIG SOCIETY”. As well as decent housing being exclusive to the rich, the health service will go the same way and an adequate education will be an expensive commodity that most will not be able to afford. All this to safeguard the bond markets and the millionaire parasites of the corporate world, the real friends of this government and its millionaire cabinet.
We accept these cuts at our peril, all that the working class have gained through struggle over the last century will be wiped out. It will be a return the poverty of the Victorian era where the deprivation in society was handled by charities and the rich parasites massage their egos by pretending to be philanthropists where they handed back a pittance of what they stole from the poor and expect respect and homage from those that they plundered.
Some of my friends are unemployed and receive £65 a week to live on and of course as anybody with half a brain cell knows it can’t be done. They’re part of a growing army of young and older people, who are going to join the ranks of those who need to rely on charity. Welcome to 21st century Victorian Britain. Living in these sort of conditions has a pattern, what happens next? Well of course their physical health starts to suffer, because they have to save on food to pay electric and gas bills and replace the odd thing that wears out. Then the social life goes out the window and depression can set in and we all know that the Cameron-Clegg plan for the health service means that they will get virtually no help from that source. So what should they do? Simple sit alone and let themselves suffer in silence, letting the millionaire club get it all its own way? No, they need to organise with the employed and pensioners to stop this vicious attack on the living standards of the working class. It is time to realise that this is an all out class war struggle, as far as the corporate world is concerned, the gloves are off. Likewise it is time that the ordinary people of this society acted accordingly. The niceties of empty illusions being woven by the millionaire class while the hack us to pieces has to be met with the brutality of an all out onslaught of the working class to defend ourselves and change society for once and for all to a society that sees to the needs of all its people. We cannot compromise on the future of our kids, we have an obligation to hand our kids a world better than the one we have.
LET’S ROAR.
The problem’s too big
the perpetrators unknown
you can’t beat the system
all on your own.
So it’s easy to withdraw
find your own little cage
turn a blind eye to the suffering
stifle your rage,
but the greed goes on
the poverty’s still there,
you can’t just leave it
for your children to bear.
Others feel as you do
eager to put things right
but locked in isolation
it’s a hopeless fight,
so don’t sit in silence
behind a closed door,
your voice can help raise
a whisper to a roar.
The Westminster House of Hypocrisy and Corruption’s well manicured millionaire twins plans for the NHS will not see it completely disappear, it will be transformed into a safety net where the poorest will get a minimum of care and those with the money to pay will get an excellent service avoiding waiting times. It will be a 1920/30s model where money will buy you what you want.
The foundation trust hospitals will be able to offer private care along side the safety net services. Those with the money to pay will be able to choose their doctor and have their diagnosis and treatment done in rapid time avoiding the appointment and waiting time queues of the poorer members of society. The cash customers will get first call on what is the finite skills of the service, this of course will be at the expense of those unable to pay for that first class rapid service.
What was the fundamental underlying principle of the health service, treatment for all at the time of need, will be sacrificed on the altar of Mammon, the god of the corporate world.
Apart from being a disaster for the ordinary people, these plans for the Nation Health service will be bonus to the well manicured millionaire twins’ friends in the corporate world. They will now be able to scoop up billions of pounds from the health needs of the nation. Another public asset will be handed over to the corporate world.
Good bye 21st century National Health Service, hello 1930s sticking plaster and delay service for the ordinary people. The ordinary people of this country should not accept such a blatant attack on their health and well being nor the plunder of their national assets without a rigorous and sustained battle. Just as the millionaire cabal is trying to change society forever to the benefit of the corporate world, so we the ordinary people should be organising to change society forever to the benefit of all our people. It should be seen for what it is a class war battle.
Let’s do something about it. You don’t have to go it alone: Call Glasgow Solidarity Network for support from people like you, standing up for their rights. Together we win!
Phone or text us on: 07982742305
or e-mail us at glasgowsolnet@gmail.com
As the well manicured twins from the millionaires’ club down at the Westminster House of Hypocrisy and Corruption go ahead with the financial world’s plans to decimate the living standards of the working class, they are still, without laughing, muttering that blatant lie “we are all in this together” You and I are looking at a massive rise in unemployment, savage cuts to social spending, cuts in benefits, a shattered education system, reduced pensions, working longer to to get that lousy pension, if you have a job at all, and on top of that they are now about to rip apart the health service and turn it into a market governed grouping of private enterprises, in other words the privatisation of our health service. They are about to create a society where if you want something you buy it, at a profit to some corporate body. Of course if you can’t afford it then you do without and that will apply to health, education and special needs plus a host of other things that a civilised society should provide. While we, the ordinary people, are supposed to take this, the friends of this millionaire cabinet are still laughing all the way to the bank. Take for example a certain Mr Justin King, chief executive of Sainsbury’s, the burden that he has to carry during this period of austerity is an £8 million package which was his last years earnings. Another of the millionaire cabinet’s friends Marc Bolland of Marks & Spencer’s has just sign a nice wee contract that could net him approximately £15 million for next years pay check. As you can see, we are all in this together.
The most blatant lie about this whole affair is the fact that they keep repeating, “there is no alternative” what shit. You and I and any member of the working class know that we could create a society that would see to the needs of all our people, we know we have the ability, imagination and resources to create a society free from the profit motive, based on mutual aid and sustainability. We know we do not need that army of pampered, well manicured parasites that rip us off day and daily. We, the working class, are facing what is probably one of the biggest challenges that has arisen in capitalism, we now have the ability to organise across the whole of the European continent on an almost instantaneous basis. What is happening in this country is happening across Europe, it is a united attack by the financial institutions of corporate capitalism, it surely makes sense that we should respond with a united attack on those institutions that aim to destroy our already meagre standard of living. Local strikes, marches and demonstrations can be ignored and dealt with without too much trouble to the system. However a national general strike would be a different matter and much more difficult for the system to handle, a pan-European general strike would be impossible for the system to cope with, and would be our opportunity to restructure society to our aims based on that fair and universally desire, of a society free from the fear of deprivation and exploitation.
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