alanjjohnstone
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Greece's parliament has narrowly approved the 2016 budget that includes sharp spending cuts and some tax increases amid economic recession. The budget was passed with a majority of only eight votes – 153 to 145…Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras agreed to a batch of economic reforms in August to secure a euro zone bailout of up to €86bn ($93bn; £62bn)The budget makes €5.7bn in public spending cuts including €1.8bn from pensions and €500m from defence. It also includes tax increases of just over €2bn.http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-35018854
Just to comment that this meeting is an example of how not to conduct a meeting. The chair mostly stood around doing nothing and looking gormless and did nothing to bring the meeting to order. Once more it shows that our formalism in the way we organise meetings is part of our strength and we don't let meetings degenerate into a general melee where discussion and debate is lost. The disruption was actually fairly minor and could have been easily handled by a decent chair imposing proper rules but was permitted to grow out of control at several points during the proceeding.I have suggested a few times that we invite Maram Namazie to address ourselves and i am sure whoever is in the chair will perform much more effectively than in this video even in the event of any attempted sabotage.( i'm not so sure that the topic of this meeting would be one suitable for a socialist audience but i am sure if requested she can tailor it appropriately)
One of her latest talks at Goldsmiths Universityhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-1ZiZdz5nao&feature=youtu.be&app=desktop
"Germany’s parliament has approved plans to provide military assistance in the fight against Isis militants, including reconnaissance jets and up to 1,200 support personnel. MPs voted on Friday 445 to 146 to approve the plan crafted by Angela Merkel’s cabinet this week following a pledge of greater support in the wake of the deadly attacks in Paris. Germany will send up to six Tornado reconnaissance planes and tanker aircraft, as well as a frigate to help protect the French aircraft carrier Charles de Gaulle in the eastern Mediterranean, but will not actively engage in combat."I find it interesting that Germany seems to believe that a French aircraft carrier in the Mediterrean may be vulnerable to attack…by whom, one might ask…certainly not ISIS unless they have somehow acquired a navy and airforce.
The apple certainly fell well away from the tree in regards to the difference between Tony Benn and his son Hilary. (no surprise though since Hilary supported the Iraq Invasion)And now the granddaughter takes petty petulent offence at Alex Salmond reminding us how Tony Benn would be birling in his grave at the decision of Labour members to go to war again and many would claim based upon another bunch of lies such as an army of 70,000 'moderate' jihadists waiting in the wings to assume power now they have been provided with air-cover.And the media are now in full swing hailing Hilary Benn as the new Labour leader in waiting…imagine the future possibility ..two Hilarys in power.
In regards to the contesting claims about who is buying ISIS oil, the latest being Fallon alleging it is Syria and not Turkey, rekindled a vague memory of a few articles i read months ago that there was an informal agreement amongs the warring parties about preserving some important infrastructure they share such as the electric national grid. So i googled and came up with these. http://syrianobserver.com/EN/News/28834/Regime_ISIS_Agree_Share_Electricity_Aleppo_Countryside/http://acdemocracy.org/syria-isis-pragmatic-cooperation/http://www.4thmedia.org/2015/10/why-is-the-u-s-silently-bombing-syrias-electricity-network/As always the sources may have suspect motives but both were published before the current debate made the headlines which i think contributes to their validity.
But they are certainly turned out in the Sunday best and most sporting fob watchesI was struck by the design of the banner on the left side…an angel of something or other…and the rising dawn…Do we have any other images of it …or what it depicts?
Not new is it…We have the Carnegie, Rockerfeller, Ford all in the past devoting large amounts of their wealth to "good" causes…always "good" only as defined by themselves…and all tax deductable…They are also invariably reluctant to exercise any democracy in deciding what to consider as a "good cause" choice.
YMS, i think the religious schisms which are far more regional, further than Iraq and Syria. For instance, Bahrain and in Yemen, both trouble-spots for the Sunni ruling class and both nations where the Saudis intervened militarily. Of course, the family links are important but so were the middle age "great families" connections in the Catholic/Protestant power struggles. Reflections and not the essence.
Our blog over a week ago called upon people to remember the inhabitants of Raqqa held as human shields by ISIS in a short post.
Quote:The Syrian city of Raqqa is a crucial power centre for the so-called Islamic State, the “strong-hold of ISIS, important enough that many call it the group’s “capital” and France chose to bomb it repeatedly in retaliation to the Paris attacks.The takeover of the city by IS doesn’t mean all the city’s current residents are behind the group. Instead, many in Raqqa have learned to deal with the strict rules and keep their heads down. This means enduring almost daily executions, lashings, and public displays of prisoners. In addition to the human rights abuses known to be rampant inside the territories that IS controls daily life for civilians in Raqqa is becoming harder. UN agencies and international aid organisations are barely able to provide any assistance to the local population.http://socialismoryourmoneyback.blogspot.com/2015/11/remember-raqqa.html
Quote:A Myanmar military offensive against ethnic rebels in the country's east has uprooted more than 10,000 people, a rights group says.The Shan Human Rights Foundation (SHRF) has accused the army of bombing schools and Buddhist temples, firing on civilians, and raping women in Shan state…"We are very concerned that there has been no public condemnation by the international community about these war crimes and these attacks on civilians," rights activist Charm Tong told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.To be clear, those atrocities were committed before the latest election but will there be any justice delivered by the new government?
The Pope's closest adviser on ecology has urged Catholics to join global climate marches.http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-34948805I vividly recall the role of the churches in Make Poverty History in 2005 and how much potential they have in mobilising people and offering logistics such as places to sleep and eat. Many have dismissed religion on various threads as a declining social force in the West. I beg to differ. They can probably put more people on the streets than the TUC if motivated to do so.
Once again to blow our own trumpet, our blog covered this (or at least an earlier approval by Congress) everal days ago.http://socialismoryourmoneyback.blogspot.com/2015/11/space-capitalism.htmlMembers and sympathisers really should be regular visitors to our blog and get the news first.
Yes, this is often the argument i have heard on Fox TV. That most Americans are part of the 1% so why should the poor be complaining… Actually 0.01% is closer the mark in global terms, i believe. But we do use political and economic short-hand and i think most folk understand what is meant by 1% versus the 99%. In the USA, the 1% earned an average of $1.2million in 2012, the most recent year data is available for. The 0.1% earned almost $6.4million but the top 0.01% earned over $30million.The 1% incomes have remained mainly flat. The 0.1% have seen earnings double what they were 20 years ago, and many multiples higher than in the 1970s but the super rich 0.01 per cent have seen incomes sky rocket by 1,300 per cent since the early 1990s. The top 1 % might be the primary target of the masses anger , but it's actually the top 0.1 percent who are grabbing a bigger slice of wealth The 0.01 percent has essentially quadrupled its share of the country's wealth in half a century. They don’t work for their money. Their money ‘works’ for them.The top 0.01 percent of Americans amount to fewer than 14,000 households. In Canada the threshold to reach the top 1 per cent in 2010 was $201,400, while the median income in the middle of the 1-per-cent pack was $283,400 and the average income of 1 per centers was $429,600.
i have always argued for multi approach that when we go to demos and wish to present our case it should be with more than one leaflet. There should be various texts and designs emphasising the different aspects from different angles.I do take issue though that we have only 3 seconds to make an impact.In my experience most people glance at the leaflet, (the 3 seconds) but then stuff the leaflet along with all the others they have been given into their pockets or bag and on the return trip home or in the pub afterwards, they go through the leaflets more attentively. Only the worse sort of leaflet is discarded immediately it is handed out. Its why i suggest we also a 4 page newspaper type leaflet as well as the smaller, to present a meatier analysis.
