Monthly Archives: October 2011

Libyan justice

So Saif Gaddafi wants to go on trial in the international court at the Hague while the new rulers of Libya say that violates their sovereignity. I don’t blame Saif if the justice he gets is like his father’s. Rough justice indeed which made areal life spectacle enjoyed by the world. At least Hillary Clinton laughed her socks off. The thin veneer of civilisation indeed!
Presumably then the US will support the new Libyan administration which can hardly claim not to have blood on its hands. I believe it’s important to hear what Saif has to say. NATO cannot claim that it stuck to the UN mandate as is claimed. It was clearly about safeguarding civilians. To the NATO allies it was about safeguarding the oil supplies they want so badly want and will use any pretext to get it. Probably a lot more suffered as a result. I would think that NATO will not welcome Saif Gaddafi telling all he knows about what has been going on in Libya. As usual the media have followed a narrow one-sided path so as usual we remain ignorant of the full story. Curiously Al Jazeera seems more pro-western while Russia Today has provided a broader outlook.

One percent has seized power

In US the Occupy Wall Street movement is beginning to encounter the force of the state with the armoury it has to impose its authority being brought out. This will be very familiar to people in occupied Palestine who weekly face rubber-coated bullets, tear gas, foul water and even live ammunition. Northern Ireland similarly. Those who have gained power through being in the right place at the right time are not going to relinquish it readily. Protesters occupying land outside St Paul’s Cathedral are being threatened with eviction, a move which is seriously challenging for some who take their Christianity seriously.
Greece. It has new been agreed to write off 50% of the debt, but still interest runs into unimaginable figures. Who gains from this? Presumably the banks who, Goldman Sachs prominent among them, advised their government and those of many other indebted countries to spend like there was no tomorrow.
In Birmingham the City Council is either axing the work force or slashing already low salaries by thousands. A few years back the Con Dem authority hired Capita to “modernise” services, including finance. I haven’t heard if Capita employees are being cut back or receiving wage reductions. I wouldn’t mind betting that they will be asking more for their services in reducing the city’s essential services or passing them to the private sector for profit. So OUR Council Tax no longer pays for services we need, it goes into the n(gr)eedy hands of the financiers who have been ever more adept at creating useless, self[serving work for themselves. http://www.thecornerhouse.org.uk/resource/exporting-corruption-0 to perform tasks local government did for itself. It falls into the hands of Cameron who has declared he wants to roll back the state. As with Thatcher the intention is to dismantle. Since Thatcher we have seen New Labour come in, but instead of turning round Thatcherism Blairism became an effective twist privatising more than Thatcher dreamed of in her worst nightmare.
What else does Capita run? http://brixtonblog.wordpress.com/2011/06/28/lambeth-council-capita-contract/has just awarded a contract for collecting its taxes amid concern from it tax payers. Some years ago it took over the Teachers’ Pension Fund and will presumably help with the reduction of payments those, like myself, thought we would get. This year a move from increases based on final salary to average salary has helped reduce costs. Some have been saying that teachers’ pensions are unaffordable. When I started teaching in the 60s there was some embarrassment over the size of the teachers’ pension pot which was considered then over large and needed to be reduced! We note that those in the 1% (likely to include Capita et al executives at least) can name their pension in telephone number terms. Clearly the 1% will be happy to run the earth without the encumberence of the rest of humanity.

The thin veneer of civilisation

Just scratch the surface of what we fondly think of as civilisation and we get this. Go a little deeper and you’ll find this.
Another extra judicial killing and not just the Sun but a good deal of the rest of the UK media crow about Britain’s role in Libya. It is claimed it was not the same as Iraq and that there was a UN mandate for this. As I remember it the agreement was to “protect civilians”. Wasn’t “regime change” ruled out? The execution of Saddam Hussein was a political act of revenge by his enemies, that of Osama bin Laden (if it was him – I have my doubts, especially when Benazir Bhutto claimed he had been dead for some time. as has she herself) and now Gaddafi. Who is next. Well not the tyrants in Bahrain or Saudi Arabia, made rich, powerful and untouchable by the same bunch glowing with pride at this barbarism. Is this supporting terrorism? No it asking for people to act like the civilised individuals they claim to be. It is they who are recruiting sergeants for terrorism. They are also the friends of the arms dealers who want bigger and better wars, and increasing markets for death and destruction. Their operators won’t get hurt when they drop their illegal cluster bombs for little children to handle as toys, or play their computer games as they operate drones from their armchairs thousands of miles distant on real people.
The scene of Gaddafi’s end did look like the climax of the fox hunt where the baying hounds close in and tear their quarry to pieces. Oh no Gaddafi “was caught in cross fire” as the kindly, humane rebels ferried him to hospital in an ambulance. Didn’t look like that to me on the Russia Today video.
What’s next in Libya no one knows. Will they get the standard of housing, health and education that was once reported? Will they get the “democracy” promised by the likes of Cameron, bursting with pride at what has been done, while at the same time consigning his own people to savage cuts with many forced to the point of going without food, energy or essential services. Even Libya was better than that!

The League Against Cruel Sports must be brought in

The Fox hunting season is in full swing. The new “safe pair of hands” brought to Defence that is Philip Hammond is already under scrutiny with names like Goldman Sachs emerging. Not that there are likely to be any of this right wing billionaire cabinet, the Tory bit that is, that will emerge without blemish. William Hague for example is running furiously just to stand still to distance himself from Atlantic Bridge. This cruel sport of Tory hunting will have to stop!
Cameron, Hammond and all have paid lavish tributes to Fox for his services to himself and his wealthy mate for lining their own pocket in the course of government business. There couldn’t be more sensitive areas but there we see the unelected, unknown Werritty deep in links with Iranian interests. War its seems is also a business conducted by dodgy dealers. All they want are bigger better wars. Humanity is of no consideration as they peddle their misery, death and destruction of people and their environment. No holds barred. Their support of the present state of Israel demonstrates that.
Clearly there is more to air, so rather than being pushed, the Fox has jumped.

The unspeakable in pursuit of the uneatable

The pursuit of the Fox by the hunt is beginning to bring results. Atlantic Bridge? It seems their website is being reconstructed. What are they hiding? The Tory agenda is unravelling as links to the US far right appear with Cameron as an apologist. Just what were the Lib Dems thinking about when they agreed to support Tories in coalition? Didn’t know what they were about? Leopards don’t change their spots – foxes don’t have them, but we know what they’re about and avoid putting them in charge of hen houses.
With Blair in charge we didn’t need the Atlantic Bridge (perhaps he was part of it} when he gave the warmongers credibility to act. Not that Blair was ever credible among the majority of us as we showed when we marched against war on Iraq.
What is amazing is that Fox has been waltzing around with Werritty for so long and so blatantly that it is incredible it wasn’t spotted by the press or reigned in by Cameron long since. He was in it for business? They were making profit for themselves through business? They were dabbling in right wing politics in the US, in Israel, in Sri Lanka, in Iran? As we see the prospect of perpetual war extending to Iran the reality is more and more frightening. War enriches those linked to the burgeoning industry, and here we have the UK Minister of Defence right in the middle of it. Cameron too was in Bahrain of all places banging the drum for its business.

10 year war against Terror goes on creating unlimited Terror

Who has gained from the endless “War on Terror”, as it is called, 10 years on? Not the people of Iraq or Afghanistan, or now those in Libya, with threats to take “shock and awe” to other theatres. As one writer points out the threat to security of western countries is economic rather than military, so spending on dropping ever increasingly sophisticated and horrifying weaponry has no point. That is unless you work in the arms industry or have shares in it, as many proponents of the endless war tend to do.
Modern warfare is made endless because of the use of weapons which are supposedly illegal. So cluster bombs continue to kill and maim years after they are used, often deliberately sown towards the end of a conflict to reap a grim harvest of life and limb of the young and innocent for years to come. The US and Israel did this in Vietnam and the Lebanon. An increasingly widely used menace is the drone. Just sit back in your arm chair thousands of miles away and find your target. Kids do it in their living rooms, except they are playing games. Actually they are being programmed to become the next murderers as fantasy becomes a reality. What is the difference?
Yet David Cameron is still able to spout about how everyone has benefited from unleashing terror upon terror. How the wretched in Iraq and Libya have been helped to democracy, their overthrown leaders replaced by unknown, untested, shadowy figures who will bow to western governments demands for the worlds limited resources. The cost? Enough in monetary terms to settle the economic crisis many times over I would guess, but this doesn’t begin to look at the human misery in terms of lost and damaged lives. It doesn’t consider the environmental damage, which has been enormous but hardly registers as a concern in media coverage.
Obama told the world he can change things. He can stop the war. He can close Gitmo. Apparently he can’t, and egged on by the likes of Cameron continues with yet more. A once settled Libya is now open for the taking. Yes there may have been serious concerns about life and liberty there, but this overlooks the concerns that exist in these hypocrites’ own back yard.
Ten years ago Tony Blair bared his chest and placed an image of Britain on it saying “shoot here”. They heard him and obliged!

Yes PM we are fighting back, or hadn’t you noticed?

Across the United States and Europe the battle over the assault on the public is taking off, with a firm response to Britain’s attack on public services, jobs and pensions planned for 30th November, Around 30,000 assembled in Manchester to register their displeasure with the Con bit of this appalling government.
When we take to the streets however can we expect more heavy handed policing to crack down on us for having the temerity to protest against loss of pay and poorer, less safe working conditions? Which of the weapons will you choose to use against us: water canon, rubber coated bullets, cs gas?
What is happening to us as a result of the austerity measures imposed on us by a rich, well-fed elite? More are growing hungry as food bills rise with food supplies controlled by profit-hungry corporations. More will be feeling the chill as energy prices spiral upwards so many will have to choose between going hungry or enduring the cold – probably both. Public services are no longer able to pick up the pieces as councils dispense with experienced staff who ran our “essential services”. No longer essential the most vulnerable are suffering the consequences. Yes Mr Cameron we will fight back you are assured.