"Lenosphere" via Jack in Google Reader

Manuel Valls est favorable à l'interdiction des mamans voilées lors des sorties scolaires

2012-05-31T16:25:00Z

Avec Manuel Valls, les mamans voilées restent privées de sorties scolaires

Greece: the impossibility of realism » ThePressProject

2012-05-31T09:02:00Z

Greece: the impossibility of realism » ThePressProject

It's like goldy and bronzy, only it's made of iron...

2012-05-31T08:55:00Z

Suzanne Moore has had enough of irony, which is nice. Not always the most spot on commentator, here she is spot on, by completely failing to hit the target. Irony, detachment, postmodernism are so utterly infuriating because they're so protean, you think you've got then it completely slips your grasp. Irony has been declared over more than once before. Only shoot hipsters in the head. Make it a quick, clean kill, otherwise they will enjoy being shot ironically.

It is a fascinating aspect of ideological struggle. Commodity fetishism is the result of alienated labour, we come to see the results of our labour, goods and services, as having life on their own. For example, from the smallest level, where we might feel we express ourself through a ring tone or a book collection, to when we see the result of, say, an election in Greece and wonder how "the markets" will react. This fact is a building block of bourgeois ideology: the mass of humanity is worthless except as slaves, tied to the whims of a computer or a lathe or some other object (often people have to compete with lifeless objects for work). But in an age of mass media and mass education this is difficult to sustain. Irony, detachment, distance, whatever you call it, helps ideologically sustain the whole cycle of capital accumulation. You can be knowlingly exploited, ironically condescended to, enjoy living through worthless, substandard commodities, it's so bad it's good.

But the main fact about postmodernism is it is hyper-liberalism. Relativism, the death of grand narratives etc so practiced really does dissolve all forms of solidarity. We are all little atoms bumping around in a vast chamber (capitalism as a mystery box, which magically generates surplus value). Each interaction, each insight is a meaningful as the next, and so meaningless; hence, I think, the drive to rationalise the Arab Spring or the Occupy movement as leaderless or propelled, somehow, by social networks.

So long as it's only individuals who have had enough of irony and detachment, such attitudes will prevail, earnestness and involvement being just another set of postures, as good as any other.

Auckland’s new ‘riot folk’ outfit Myth of Democracy is about love and rage

2012-05-31T03:10:00Z

Debts may climb, devils may care, For clean water sky and health care,

Penance for past sins, kill for cash, Mark our forheads with the ash of our loved and dear departed,

Beg forgiveness from free markets, We took the greatest care while our cluster bombs fell from the air,

'Guns, Abuse and Belief', Myth of Democracy

-----

An interview with Matt Billington aka Myth of Democracy, whose album Humans Piss Me Off is out now on Bandcamp.

What’s your new album all about Matt?

It’s an acoustic, punk rock album. It’s punk rock to me, I don’t give a fuck whatever any other cat calls it. It’s a punk rock album. I’ve tried to capture the spirit of the first punk rock I ever heard which was my friend Craig playing a battered, old, acoustic down at the lake front in Rotorua and writing songs about his friends, and the world and how he felt treated by everything. And it was just this blatant honesty and it was really inspiring. So it’s kind of a homage to that. And hope that I can capture that spirit. It’s a really honest album.

What about the theme, Humans Piss Me Off?

Humans are responsible for a lot of, well all the terrible shit in the world. The title track is based on what I read by an author, Chris Hedges, and it is about, we cannot escape human nature as it is. We have certain impulses we are drawn too. And it is humans and their attempts to control these. And it just can’t be done. We can’t control these impulses. We need to recognise these impulses, recognise human nature and go from there.

Everyone hates motorways but everyone loves motorway overpasses. The overpass is this weird thing where you can feel like you are above the world. You’ve written a song about one. Why?

I worked for ten years in hospitality, every night I would finish work at this pub on Vulcan Lane and I would walk home to Grey Lynn. I would always stop on this overpass. Christ I don’t know the name of the fucking road but I did it for years. I could see towards the North Shore, and see the bridge and see the traffic and it was a still part of the night. I would always invariably think of my friends and where I’ve come from and wonder what they were doing now. One of the themes of the album is love for the people that are around you. That song is just a love song for the people that have influenced me in life. I think about them all the time. There is a lyric in the song, ‘There is much to build, destroy and fight, but don’t forget our time together is finite’. We’ve only got so much time on this earth. You’ve got to enjoy the people around you.

You’ve got another song about late nights, Why Go Home?

It’s very much about just being with people you love. It came from many, many nights just walking drunken home, walking home smashed as, not knowing what’s ahead of you. Just out for fun, looking for something and trying to find it in every place you go to.

Guns, Abuse and Belief is one of the centrepiece songs on the album, is it your favourite?

That song came about when nurses were on strike and John Key stood up and said, ‘Nurses need to live in the real world. There is no money for more pay.’ It comes down to economic priorities. A lot of the political lyrics are traditionalist punk because they are about waking people up from apathy. If you go into the history of punk rock in my favourite albums where talking about why things went wrong and how to change them. There as much an expression of emotion as a political cry. The message that you’re getting from people who control shit, ‘This is how things are and this is the real world’. That song is a response to that. Punk rock for me should be a rallying point for social change. That should be where people get together, we are not in front of the telly, we are out there together, we are all pissed off, we’ve got music to celebrate with. You’ve got that but it has to have the next steps. Where do you take the rage? Where does it go to from here?

How do you think the punk scene is today?

I think punk rock is slowly again waking up to the fact that it has nothing to do with the corporate world and what I’ve noticed in the last few years is that it is getting back to its roots, people putting on their own shows, and it is getting its activism back. We are in an exciting time now because the borders between genres are breaking down. You can see Tourettes playing with Shit Ripper. Punk and hip hop are blurring.

You’ve been described as a modern day Joe Strummer. Playing benefit gigs for striking workers? What’s the link between your music and activism?

My personal political plan for change is that it has to come from below. The bigger picture is important don’t get me wrong, but people need to start taking concrete steps in their own little lives. People say change comes from the individual that’s a little hippy for me. Change has to come from people stepping up and starting to look at the most vulnerable members of society and start standing up for them. At the moment it happens to be locked out meat workers, it is people in Glen Innes losing their homes, it is our homeless situation, people with mental health issues. These are the most vulnerable people in society that the attacks are coming to. And with my music I hope to get people to take more of a humanistic view on the world. I support Socialist Aotearoa because it isn’t all theory, it’s not all talk, it is actually some concrete actions on how we can stop these things happening. Throughout history there are people like that. You look at the Berrigan brothers for example, Philip and Daniel they were a couple of brothers, priests, in America, who went to prison because they busted into a draft office and burnt the draft cards, they went into a nuclear plant and threw paint over the nuclear warheads. They were active. I will support anyone who will support the most vulnerable. When I started doing Myth of Democracy, the plan was to take awesome community organisations like Socialist Aotearoa, like Global Peace and Justice Auckland like the Glen Innes community and take it to the punk shows. So it’s not all lyrics screamed over the mike. So there is a concrete movement people can get involved in.

What next for Myth of Democracy?

I’ve been jumping on the internet and firing off emails. I fly into Seattle in July, I fly a few shows in Canada and then going down the West Coast of the States playing shows in people’s houses and basements. I can’t fucking wait. It’s like going into the belly of the beast.

Listen and download for free or koha at http://mythofdemocracy.bandcamp.com/

Matt Billington, second from left, facing the camera. On the frontlines in Glen Innes.

Capitalism is crisis

2012-05-30T23:36:00Z

Across the world, ordinary people are raging at the bankers. And it’s no wonder.

As the rest of us suffer the effects of the economic crisis, these fat cats are still raking in billion-pound fortunes.

In the years since the banking system came to the brink of collapse in 2008, people have clearly identified them as the ones who bear responsibility for the crisis.

This has fed the sort of class rage socialists should encourage. It’s certainly better than putting the blame on migrants, unemployed people, or public sector workers.

But it is also important to acknowledge that the underlying causes of the crisis capitalism finds itself in are more long-term and complex.

The crisis has shifted between different parts of the economy as the years have gone by. The bank bailouts left states holding the can, in the form of so-called “sovereign debt”.

This debt is in turn owed to banks. And they’re nervous the states won’t be able to pay it back. So the stronger economies have “bailed out” the weaker ones, again to shore up the banks.

Now that has caused the crisis’ latest manifestation—the ruling class’s turmoil over resistance to austerity in Greece and the possible collapse of the euro.

All this did not just arrive out of nowhere. The crisis was caused by underlying trends in the capitalism system.

The revolutionary Karl Marx identified the reasons why capitalism goes into crisis.

In the short term, it goes through frequent cycles of boom and bust. But this is a symptom of a far deeper problem—a tendency towards overproduction.

As capitalists compete, they battle with each other to produce enough goods to dominate the market, buying ever-better machinery to do so.

But as other capitalists rush into the same markets, more is produced than can be sold. Crises of overproduction break out as unsold goods pile up and firms go bust. This, together with long-term falling profit rates, causes capitalists to look for short cuts.

Neoliberalism, with its emphasis on letting the financial markets rip, was a way of trying to restore bosses’ profits by squeezing workers. But it only partly managed this.

And at the same time the growth of finance, a sort of gambling den for the ruling class, has added to capitalism’s chaos.

Prospect
Capitalists pile in behind everything that looks like a hot prospect—whether it’s dot-com firms or sub-prime mortgages—creating huge financial bubbles.

Stock market chaos is a symptom of crisis in the “real economy”. It can also aggravate this root crisis.

It was a financial bubble bursting that sparked the latest round of crisis. And as capitalism ages, these crises get longer and deeper.

Many suggested solutions have been targeted at reining in finance. This has included calls for stronger bank regulations, breaking high street banks off from investment banks, and banning financial wizardry like “short selling” and “derivatives”.

But just putting the bankers on a leash won’t end the crisis. They are part of the problem—but not the root of it.

We want to make the rich pay, not the working class. We want to take that bailout money back and spend it on useful services for all.

But it’s the bosses’ whole system that has caused this. We need to get rid of it all.

-Socialist Worker

Islamophobie ordinaire à Tourcoing

2012-05-30T18:29:00Z

http://www.uam93.com/news/voile-temoignage-de-tourcoing.html

3arabawy BookMarx 05/30/2012 (p.m.)

2012-05-30T17:30:18Z

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

This week's thoughts for the brain...

2012-05-30T10:15:00Z

Those of you who hang around the same parts of the internet as I do will know there is a debate going on. The Greek and French election indicate a potential sea change in European politics. To use the precise meaning: austerity rolls, but anti-austerity politics have found their voice. There are now rallying points, in Greece it's Syriza, in France the Left Front. These are not Bolshevik organisations. The question then is what does the left of the left, including revolutionaries, do?

Let me make one thing clear, however. The people in places like Britain arguing with headbanging sincerity about the need for entryism are total phonies.

But if these results are indicative, it means rough equivalents of these organisations will appear everywhere. The British political system is the most resistant to political breakthroughs (regional assemblies and local mayors not withstanding). Fans of doorknocking, sorry, getting down to some serious work in local communities, might not see too many tangible results so soon. One thing I think we can definitely say is there is not simply a vaccum on the left, at least not one we can fill ourselves.

It's worth going over what it took last time to give the left unity and purpose. At the height of the anti-war movement, in the weeks before the attack on Iraq, I attended organising meetings (not rallies, organising meetings) where 100 people occupied one room and 100 more taking up an overflow room, with runners heading between them and the local news crew confused as to who they were supposed to film... and yet things worked perfectly, with no foul-ups, no duplication and no sectarianism.

The point is, partly, that the organisation which received most of the anti-war movement was set up in anticipation, as opposed to the left unity project, which was a reaction to events. Perhaps when Respect was formed the moment was already passed. Certainly between the first unity rally in October 2003 and the foundation in January 2004 Bob Crow, George Monbiot, the Green Party, the Socialist Party and the CPB all backed off.

For better or worse, we were in a position where we had to substitute for a united left in the anticipation of future success or effectively cancel the project. Let's never get into that pickle again. No substitution or liquidation; perhaps easier typed than done.

3arabawy BookMarx 05/30/2012 (a.m.)

2012-05-30T05:30:31Z

أدانت حرق مقر شفيق..المصرية لحقوق الإنسان تطالب الجميع بضبط النفس – بوابة الأهرام

إيه الخيابة ديه

tags: Egypt شفيق فلول Elections Protests EOHR
«الفنجري»: الجيش لن يدخل في أي تحالفات مع «مرسي» أو «شفيق» في جولة الإعادة | المصري اليوم، أخبار اليوم من مصر

tags: Egypt فلول شفيق Presidential Campaign Elections SCAF military
الوفد – بالصور..عم زوجة جمال مبارك يدعم شفيق

tags: Egypt NDP فلول شفيق Mubarak Presidential Campaign Elections
فلول الوطنى

tags: Egypt NDP فلول
الوفد – 600 ضابط يدخلون فى اعتصام مفتوح بالمنيا غداً

الضباط في مواجهة الأمناء

tags: Egypt Police Pigs Corporals Law

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

From Quebec, with Love...

2012-05-30T02:51:00Z

Family, friends, allies on the west coast and elsewhere;

I'm writing you almost a week after close to half a million people gathered in Montreal to mark the 100th day of the student strike, and to express their anger and rage at the passing of the Loi 78 in Quebec. Many of you have asked me for information about what is going on; it is also a time of need for students and their allies. My apologies for the length - there's a lot to say, and this barely begins to cover it.

There so much to tell about what's been going on that I'm not sure where to start. First off, though the rest of Canada only seems to really be noticing now, students have been on strike for months. There have been hundreds of demonstrations-- easily one every day for the entire period of the strike, and often more. Since March, there have also been dozens and dozens of economic disruptions (blocking of bridges, of the world trade center, of major banks, occupations of government offices, shutting down of the metro system, and so on). For three months running, there have been massive marches-- the first at about 200,000 people, the second at 300,000, and this latest estimated to be around 450,000-500,000 people. This past week, neighbourhoods starting showing their solidarity with students and against Loi 78 by holding their own 'pots and pans', or 'casserole', demonstrations-- for an hour every night, entire neighbourhoods march, or sit on their stoops, banging pots and pans. In my neighbourhood (a fairly small one), there have been marches of around 3,000 people every night since Tuesday (here's a vid with some familiar faces).

This resistance to the tuition hike and to 78 have been met with intense repression and police violence. I have dozens of stories of my own, and of my friends, but for the sake of brevity I'll defer to the words of a friend who works with the Legal Committee of the largest student association in the province, CLASSE. He writes:

"As of May 18th, 2012 our committee has documented and is supporting 472 criminal accusations as well as 1047 ticket and penal offenses. One week in April saw over 600 arrests in three days. And those numbers only reflect those charged with an offense, without mentioning the thousands pepper sprayed and tear gassed, clubbed and beaten, detained and released. It does not mention Francis Grenier, who lost use of most of an eye when a sound grenade was illegally thrown by a police officer into his face in downtown Montreal. It does not mention Maxence Valade who lost a full eye and Alexandre Allard who clung to life in a coma on a hospital bed for days, both having received a police rubber bullet to the head in Victoriaville. And the thousands of others brutalized, terrorized, harassed and assaulted on our streets. Four students are currently being charged under provisions of the anti-terrorist laws enacted following September 11th."

Since Max wrote this a week ago, another 900 arrests have been made, and several more people have entered into critical condition as a result of their treatment by the police. Much of this is the result of new laws (both provincially and in the city of Montreal) in place. The city bylaws make a number of actions associated with protest (wearing masks, for one) illegal, and the offences come with fines of about $630. The second, Loi 78, is being described as 'draconian' and 'fascist', is widely considered to be in violation of the Charter (particularly freedom of expression and assembly), is currently the target of the largest constitutional challenge in Quebec history, and has made for easy comparisons to the periods of grande noirceure in Quebec. Again, from Max:

"Among other draconian elements brought forward by this law, any gathering of 50 or more people must submit their plans to the police eight hours ahead of time and must agree to any changes to the gathering's trajectory, starttime, etc. Any failure to comply with this stifling of freedom of assembly and association will be met with a fine of up to $5,000 for every participant, $35,000 for someone representing a 'leadership' position, or $125,000 if a union - labour or student - is deemed to be in charge. The participation of any university staff (either support staff or professors) in any student demonstration (even one that follows the police's trajectory and instructions) is equally punishable by these fines. Promoting the violation of any of these prohibitions is considered, legally, equivalent to having violated them and is equally punishable by these crippling fines.

In addition to these criminal and penal cases, of particular concern for those of us involved in the labour movement is that anti-strike forces have filed injunctions systematically from campus to campus to prevent the enactment of strike mandates, duly and democratically voted in general assemblies. Those who have defended their strike mandates and enforced the strike are now facing Contempt of Court charges and their accompanying potential $50,000 fines and potential prison time. One of our spokespeople, Gabriel Nadeau-Dubois, will appear in Superior Court under such a charge for having dared say, on May 13th of this year, that "I find it legitimate" that students form picket lines to defend their strike."

At the same time as thousands of students, including many of the people around me, are facing severe injuries, court charges, and massive tickets, the last few months have also been inspiring and wonderful and exciting and full of hope and bravery. I think part of why this has been able to occur in Quebec is because there is a long history of social solidarity that has been less affected by neoliberal policies and austerity measures than elsewhere in North America. At least in my neighbourhood, this sense of social solidarity and support is what people are talking about rebuilding and strengthening. In a community assembly yesterday afternoon, people spoke about creating systems for legal and psychosocial support for people being arrested, having regular community picnics and BBQs to support each other and as a space to talk about resisting the neoliberalization of the province, and discussed plans for working towards a general strike.

The "pots and pans" demonstrations have also made more visible what has been true for a while: this struggle is about more than tuition hikes; it's about more than free education; and it's about more than students. In the last few weeks, we have seen a solidarity strike from public service employees, a huge upswell of resistance against 78 from hundreds of unions and community organizations, and the highly visible presence of non-students and workers as part of the movement. It looks more and more like people are actively working to move this beyond a student strike with fairly specific demands and towards a broader social struggle. On a more quotidian level, the ongoings in the province are the only thing anyone talks about, and the only thing anyone does; at this point, almost everyone I know spends almost all of their spare time supporting and participating in this movement.

There is so much more to say and know about what is going on, and a huge barrier to that happening outside of Quebec is the dismal english media coverage. English media, both inside and outside of the province, has been terrible (including the CBC, Al Jazeera, etc-- absolutely terrible!). In the past few weeks, we have started to see some articles coming out in English with a much better analysis, so I've included some of them here. One of the first good ones was this article by a Montreal freelance journalist which gives a very basic overview of what is going on. More recently, the Montreal Media Co-op (generally a great source of information) posted this article ("10 Points Everyone Should Know about the Strike"), which is much more detailed and pretty great, though I think there's still a lot more to add.

This article out of New York offers a more chronological perspective, and adds details about the new law (Loi 78), which aims to criminalize the student protests specifically. Here is a more brief analysis of Loi 78. Lastly, for those of you who are 'numbers' people, this outlines the changes in Quebec tuition over the last forty years, in relation to other university fees and fluctuations in minimum wage. This article-- also by an involved Montreal organizer-- addresses some of the reasons why there is little to no coverage in the English media, and offers some other resources as well. If you're interested in keeping up to date more regularly with English media, Rouge Squad, this page and this page are all amalgamating or translating English media (of varying quality). Open File Montreal, the Montreal Media Co-op - both community media sources here - are offering some of the best coverage so far form on the ground. If you want to watch the protests live, every night, go to the Concordia University TV Livestream.

As well as wanting to give some of you an idea of what is going on here, I am also writing in part because there is a lot of need for outside support. We need people to be writing articles and doing radio shows that are well informed and supportive (as I mentioned above, the CBC coverage, as one example, has been astoundingly inaccurate). There is a need for pressure from outside of Quebec on the provincial Liberal government, particularly with regards to the repression and violence they are perpetrating. This is a need for solidarity actions, particularly economic disruptions, that put real pressure on governments and institutions. There is also a need for money. For those of you who have some, or who work for organizations or unions who might, here are a few places to start.

The CLASSE legal committee, as I outlined above, is fighting hundreds and hundreds of criminal cases, tickets, and other infractions with extremely limited resources. As they put it, "Not only must we help those being unduly criminalized and facing injunctions undermining their right to associate, but we must act now and make sure that the criminalization and judicialization of a political struggle does not work and set a precedent that endangers the right to free speech and free assembly. You can send you donation directly to the order of "Fonds de défense légale 2012" to the following address: Att.: F. Dupuis-Déri, Dépt. Science politique, UQAM, Case postale 8888, Succursale Centre-Ville, Montréal, Québec, Canada, H3C 3P8). Donations may also be made online using Paypal via the following address: http://www.fondslegal2012.org/index-en.html

CUTV (Concordia University Television) has been the only media outlet providing live coverage of almost every single demonstration to date; they work tirelessly and have caught some of the most important footage of the strike to date. In response, they have been beaten, arrested, and harassed almost every night. Their camera equipment has been broken and smashed by the police on numerous occasions. If you want to support community media, they're a very good place to start. Go to http://cutvmontreal.ca/

The Maison de la Greve, one of the central organizing locations for the student strike, pays their rent and other costs entirely through donations. Their support page of here; if any of you need help navigating the site in french, let me know. https://maisondelagreve.boum.org/maintenant/nous-soutenir/

A few friends and I are getting together an ongoing program to train people in First Aid and emergency medical responses during demonstrations, something that is currently sorely lacking. Though we will be able to provide the training for free, we need to finance the actual first aid kits - so if any of you are interested in supporting this venture, let me know.

Most importantly, of course, there is a need for people to struggle in their own communities, on their own issues, and I would love to hear about that work from you as well. If you have any questions or thoughts, I would love to hear them.

With love and solidarity,

Kira

Stuff raising the retirement age, tax the rich instead!

2012-05-29T23:42:00Z

Last week student protesters in Auckland called for education to be funded by taxing the rich. Taxing the rich can fund national superannuation for all as well.

The recent headlines tell the story, 'Pressure for John Key to raise retirement age', 'Shearer: Superannuation 'status quo is unsustainable'' and 'Labour challenges National on retirement age'.

The Labour Party has spotted the gap between Government income and expenditure which will occur in decades as New Zealand's population ages. Desperate to appear in the media as financially sensible and prepared to manage the Government's budgets once again the Labour Party want to raise the retirement age to 67. The debate is couched in hysterical terms by some pundits, 'New Zealand's superannuation bill last year was $8.8 billion. Fastforward four years and this bill will be about $12.3b.'

Yet the wealth to pay for retirement is there. Despite the rhetoric of hard times and squeezed books the rich are doing better than ever.

Mana Movement Vice President, John Minto points out, 'The richest 150 New Zealanders (Prime Minister John Key included) last year increased their collective wealth by $7 billion – and most of that was untaxed.
The big Australian banks took $3 billion in profits out of this country last year as their profits increased a massive 18% on last year!
CAFCA points out $10.3 billion net left NZ in the year to September 2011 - 'Their profits are NZ's biggest invisible export.'

The rich, the corporations and the banks have all enriched themselves at workers expense. The Talley's family have a wealth of $300 million which was created by workers in industries like fish processing, vegetable processing and the AFFCO meatworks. The Aussie banks make their profits through extortionate mortgages that many working people will spend their lifetime paying off and by paying low wages to bank workers. The transnational corporations like the supermarket giant Progressives make their profit from the labour of thousands of low paid New Zealanders. The local super rich, the Aussie banks and the transnational corporations all get rich off the labour of workers as sociology lecturer at the University of Auckland Campbell Jones points out,

Wealth is not created out of nothing. Wealth is not produced merely by the ideas or actions of isolated individuals. We produce things of value through our action on the material world and through the application of science and technology and the skill of social cooperation to that action. And as anyone who works knows, we work with others and for others in order to produce things of value.

At the same time as the Labour Party talks tough about wanting to put up the retirement age for workers it says nothing about taxing the rich and redistributing wealth more fairly in society. The wealth is available to pay for pensions for all but it is being stolen by the local super rich, giant offshore corporations and the Aussie banks. As Hone Harawira said in his budget speech, Tax the rich and free the poor, 'Rich people pay a lower tax rate here than in France, Australia, Germany, Ireland, Japan, the Netherlands, the UK & even the USA';

MANA’s response is to say tax the rich and free the poor.

1 Reverse National’s $2 billion of tax cuts to wealthy New Zealanders.

2 Lift the tax rate for the super rich from 33% to 45% like in Australia.

3 Establish a proper capital gains tax where all income, regardless of where it comes from, is taxed at the personal tax rate.

4 Replace GST with a financial transactions tax, which will put money straight into the hands of the poor, reduce speculation on the Kiwi dollar, and increase our export earnings.

The silence of Labour MPs on their parties policy of raising the retirement age show that their MPs do not think nor care about the working people, young and old, whose support they rely on at election time. Raising the retirement age will mean more unemployment for young workers as older workers are forced to keep working. The raising of the retirement age will also hurt Maori more than anyone else. Last election Mana's policy was that the retirement age for Maori should be lowered to 60 until such time as statistics prove Maori live as long as non-Maori. Currently Maori life expectancy is ten years shorter than it is for Pakeha. As Hone Harawira said,

On current trends, 19 out of every 20 Maori will pay taxes all their lives and then die before they get the pension, That’s a criminal bloody outrage that no society should accept, and yet by raising the retirement age from 65 to 67, Labour will ensure that even fewer Maori would live to get superannuation.

As the retirement debate continues we need to call as socialists for the solution to be found not in raising the eligibility age for national superannuation but in taxing the ultrarich, the banks, the corporations. Raising the retirement age means more youth unemployment, more workers who die before they get to retire and is part of the post-1984 consensus between Labour and National that workers should pay for the regular economic crises that upset the Government's budgets.

Stuff that! It's time to tax the rich!

-Socialist Aotearoa

Blog of interest...

2012-05-29T19:39:00Z

I don't know what it's like where you are but London is currently decked out like a Louise Mensch reboot of Triumph of the Will. We are being bombarded with relentless festivities that are part of a political campaign to take us back to the 1930s and make us be pleased about it. There's the jubilee, the football, the tennis and then six weeks of Olympics; wall to wall flags, cops, soldiers, missiles, tourists, tories and traffic jams.

If for some bizarre reason you to the upcoming summer-long reactionary gang-bang, full-on naked toryism in our streets, may I reccommend to you the Official (sorry OFFICIAL) Anti-Olympics Blog. You will like it. For example:

“Poppycock!” they cry. “This is a time to rejoice, not to whinge and whine and moan and talk of democracy. Let’s put up the bunting, wave our flags, cheer for all that is good about being British!” Well, I hate to disagree… No, wait, scrub that. I love to disagree!

Damn right!

Christine Lagarde, scourge of tax evaders, pays no tax | Business | guardian.co.uk

2012-05-29T15:26:00Z

Christine Lagarde, scourge of tax evaders, pays no tax | Business | guardian.co.uk

Christine Lagarde non plus ne paie pas d'impôt sur les revenus

2012-05-29T11:34:00Z

Christine Lagarde non plus ne paie pas d'impôt sur les revenus

Christine Lagarde, une des plus sanglants des monstres.

Teachers' strikes would inspire us all

2012-05-29T10:26:00Z

This winter strikes by teachers in defence of quality, public education could break the National Government and their attacks on youth and education.

How appropriate it would be to see this greedy government humiliated and smashed by education unions and those guardians of childrens' future - teachers. After all the Nats have done to education it would be a beautiful sight to see the Coalition finally splinter under pressure from education unions. But already the Rats are backpedaling as principals and teachers line up strike action in school after school across Aotearoa. They know the teachers will win a fight and they're eager not to lose another confrontation after the debacle of National Standards.

In the news over the last four years have been the repeated cuts to education funding and attacks on public education – night classes, kohanga reo, playcentre, cutting the education training incentive for DPB recipients, National Standards and now the cuts to student allowances.

A teachers strike would inspire us all. It would show the technocrats in Treasury who really runs this country and who has the power to shut it down. It would show other groups attacked in the budget - university students, pensioners and child workers - that the Nats austerity budget can be broken. It would show other workers that they need to have a go! There's no point waiting around for things to get better. A Government relying on the support of the corrupt John Banks for its support doesn't care about this country. This Government is for the rich and by the rich. School strikes can bring it to its knees.

-Socialist Aotearoa

Éliminer la haine raciste et misogyne de Zemmour sur les ondes de RTL

2012-05-29T07:41:00Z

Éliminer la haine raciste et misogyne de Zemmour sur les ondes de RTL
de : Le MRAP
samedi 26 mai 2012 - 11h02

> Discriminations-Minorités > Radio

3 commentaires

Le MRAP est scandalisé par la chronique haineuse, raciste et misogyne, d’Eric Zemmour qui a pris pour cible Christiane Taubira le 23 mai 2012 sur les ondes de RTL à une heure de grande écoute.

Zemour déplore que la Ministre veuille faire entrer le harcèlement sexuel (il précise même « les mains baladeuses » !) dans le code pénal.

Il accuse aussi les familles des quartiers populaires de vivre des revenus du trafic des jeunes des quartiers devenus banquiers-délinquants « qui « volent, trafiquent, torturent, menacent, rackettent, violentent, tuent »...

Son délire misogyne et raciste le conduit à déplorer la protection dont bénéficieraient les femmes et les jeunes des banlieues tandis que « l’homme blanc » serait selon lui criminalisé.

Le chroniqueur raciste use et abuse d’images pour renvoyer Christiane Taubira à sa couleur de peau, elle stigmatiserait « l’homme blanc », elle donnerait une « couleur angélique » au début de la gauche au pouvoir, elle s’inscrirait dans les « scores africains » de François Hollande dans les banlieues.

Les accents de cet “éditorialiste” rappellent étrangement, sur le fond et la forme, d’autres accents de haine contre d’autres cibles sur les radio des années 40.

Symbole de la compromission de RTL avec la haine de Zemour, la chronique est présentée ainsi : « c’est signé Z comme Zemour ». Le propagandiste de la haine devient donc un justicier pour les responsables de la radio.

Le MRAP interroge alors les annonceurs qui font vivre cette radio : leurs produits sont-ils dorénavant réservés à ceux qui se reconnaissent dans la haine raciste et misogyne. Tel n’est peut-être pas le choix de ces entreprises.

Le CSA rappelle sur son site internet que sa mission porte notamment sur le respect de la personne et de la dignité humaine, la lutte contre les discriminations, le maintien de l’ordre public et l’honnêteté de l’information.

Le MRAP en appelle donc au Conseil Supérieur de l’audiovisuel pour que sa mission s’exerce contre une radio qui donne un tel espace à la haine raciste et misogyne.

Zeitung - Juni 2012 | linkswende.org

2012-05-29T06:55:00Z

Zeitung - Juni 2012 | linkswende.org
Anticapitalist paper in Austria

3arabawy BookMarx 05/29/2012 (a.m.)

2012-05-29T05:30:25Z

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

Taking lessons from the Greeks- Episode One

2012-05-29T05:29:00Z

The Deputy Prime Minister of New Zealand, Bill English, advised the student movement to take some lessons from the Greeks. Over the next few weeks, www.socialistaotearoa.org will present a short course in General Strikes, urban uprisings, mass civil disobedience and the construction of mass parties of the radical and revolutionary Left, to do our bit to respond to the social crisis Bill and his National Party mates want to inflict on Aotearoa. Lesson One is from Greek revolutionary socialist Giorgos Pittas

SYRIZA, the elections and class struggle in Greece

2012-05-29T04:54:00Z

Socialist Alternative - SYRIZA, the elections and class struggle in Greece

Should syriza take government if they get the chance? Frankly, I'm not 100% sure, but here is the position of my favourite anticapitalist magazine, Socialist Alternative, from Australia.