Amnesty International denounces police abuses and lack of real democracy in Spain

The Secretary General of Amnesty International, Shalil Shetty, has been visiting Madrid and has denounced the major abuses of police against Basques and the illegalization of a major Basque party (Sortu). He also asked for Basque prisoners to be moved to the Basque Country and for the Spanish government to be more open in order to take advantage of the current situation and advance towards Human Rights. 

Not that anything of that matters to the heirs of Franco who rule in Moncloa after him. Human Rights? Rajoy would be rolling on his back laughing... if he could even smile.

Shetty was very specific on his criticism of not just the Law of Political Parties, which is the pretext to ban Sortu (or any other party that the heirs of Franco deem inconvenient) but also many articles (571-589) of the Penal Code: those that make reference to terrorist organizations and groups, crimes of terrorism, crimes of treason or against peace or against the independence of the state and crimes related to national defense, whose redaction he finds utterly ambiguous and open to interpretation.

Source: Gara[es].

Fukushima marine contamination reaching Hawaii

Fukushima diary reports, citing TEPCO, that this is a most realistic estimate where free floating material (fish larvae, algae, phytoplankton, zooplankton…) present in the sea water near the damaged Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power station plant could have gone since the earthquake on March 11th.

They warn in capital letters that this is not a representation of the radioactive plume concentration but nothing more and nothing less that their best estimate of where the Fukushima radioactive debris may be in the said months:

However they also say that TEPCO monitoring indicated radiation higher than the legal limit (in Japan?) during the months after the accident. So be warned.

Fukushima: 30% of children have thyroid nodules (likely cancer)

In a radio interview at Green Acre Radio, Dr. Helen Caldicott reported that c. 30% of Fukushima children have already developed lumps in their thyroid gland, a likely symptom of cancer among those under 20 (in adults it is less alarming).

Now that’s really early. That’s within the first year. That’s unheard of.

In Chernobyl, which was much more effectively evacuated and whose accident was probably quite less severe than that of Fukushima, the incidence of thyroid lumps in children grew a 60%.

Source: Energy News.

Nicaragua to produce 50% of energy from renewables by the end of 2013

There you have, I understand, a country that will damage less its natural resources, that will be less reliant on foreign imports and that will be in advantage as the old energy sources (fossil, nuclear) are becoming obsolete.

Right now it is already producing almost that figure because of the seasonal conditions (strong winds) but the figure of 50% will become stable, according to the government by the end of 2013.

Since the return of the Sandinista Front to the government in 2007, the problem of energy has been solved, first with a short term solution: thermal power (oil) but then with a growing reliance on renewables. It is also working on reduction of energy consumption by means of education.

Source: LINyM[es].

Arizonan antifascist on trial for opposing Nazi demo in Tucson 2010

Dane Edward Rossman (pictured) has been brought to trial after two years of legal limbo (it can last as much as seven years) for alleged 'aggravated assault' in a demo against members of the National Socialism Movement in Arizona, where these sported paramilitary black uniforms and chanted white supremacist slogans, exhibiting lots of Nazi paraphernalia (video).

You can read more about this persecution at Arizona Antifa Defense.

Another source: Sare Antifaxista[es].

From the Net: 'The Irish Begin to Wake Up to the Fact That They are Repaying Money That is Then Burned' (Philip Pilkington at naked Capitalism)

About a year ago a couple of friends and I were sitting around drinking beer and talking. As so often happens today in day-to-day Irish conversation, the economic situation and the repayment of debts was raised. One of my friends said that, naturally, the debts had to be repaid. I pointed out to him that by repaying the debt we were just sending away money to be effectively destroyed.

He couldn’t believe what I was saying and I didn’t blame him because it sounded like madness. But I pointed out to him that the money the Irish people were repaying by accepting decreases in government spending and increases in taxes was simply going to the central bank and from there it was being destroyed. I explained that what had happened was that the central bank had created a load of new money and thrown it into the crumbling Irish banking sector. Now the Irish people were paying back this newly created money so that it could be destroyed by the central bank.

My friend thought about it for a while and then pointed out that if the new money wasn’t paid back and destroyed it would result in inflation. Not so, I said, because the money has already entered the economy. The Irish banks loaned out the money during the boom years and this had driven a speculative bubble in the property market. But now we were just trying to prop up the banks that had made these loans. Effectively we were taking newly created money, throwing it into a black hole in the banking system and then scalping tax payers and citizens so that we could pay back money that would be destroyed by the central bank.

He refused to believe me. The story was too incredible. After all, why on earth would the central bank want the money back if they were just going to destroy it? Why would they want to destroy it if it would not lead to inflation? Politics, I said. He shook his head and took another sip of beer.

That was almost a year ago. To say such things in polite circles was to be labelled a crank or a joker. But now the Irish politicos are beginning to see what’s really going on.

...full story at Naked Capitalism.

Goldman Sachs takes a major hit: director for Europe quits and denounces the company's practices against their own customers

Greg Smith, executive director and head of Goldman Sachs’s United States equity derivatives business in Europe, the Middle East and Africa, resigned explosively by means of a letter of denounce (NYT, pay per view) of the bad practices of the super-bank, which systematically rips off clients and pays bonuses to managers for doing it. 

Naturally this is a bomb and GS stocks have fallen four points since the letter was published today. And it's probably just the beginning. 

According to Matt Taibbi at Rolling Stone:

The essence of Smith’s piece is devastating. He points to one simple, specific problem in the company: the fact that Goldman routinely screws its own clients.

Smith confesses his ultimate disgust about the company's practices:

It makes me ill how callously people talk about ripping their clients off. Over the last 12 months I have seen five different managing directors refer to their own clients as "muppets," sometimes over internal e-mail. Even after the S.E.C., Fabulous Fab, Abacus, God’s work, Carl Levin, Vampire Squids? No humility? I mean, come on.

Muppets? That's professional!

In a higher tier and more uptight magazine, Forbes, Peter Cohan writes:

What is so bad about Blankfein’s Goldman? In Smith’s view, it gives power to the people who make the most money — and it encourages people to do that by shifting complicated financial instruments that Goldman wants off its own balance sheet onto those of its clients.

In other words: they sell junk to clients so GS can have more profits.

He also posts three possible reasons why GS still have customers in spite of its many wrongdoings and increasingly bad reputation:

• That they still make some benefits in spite of all
• That they are naive enough to be blinded by GS' name the same that they or others were by Maddoff
• That they have no alternative: GS is a monopoly in its market segment

Maybe a combination of the three, although I doubt that you can make any benefits trusting someone who calls you muppet on your back.

Still, one wonders if all this is little more than a maneuver, to prepare the return of Henry Paulson (yes the Paulson who bailed out Goldman Sachs while he was Secretary of Treasury under Bush Jr.) to the most powerful corporation on Earth (or otherwise replace current CEO Lloyd Blankfein by someone else, like his second on board Gary Cohn).

One also wonders what implications this may have on the widespread domination of GS over today's European Union or even if the inter-penetration of GS and the European crisis have something to do with it. 

I can even imagine secret ethic wars between the WASP, the Jewish and the Italian mafias within this corporation. But I do not know. 

Not yet at least but it is a matter to watch carefully, not in vain this is probably the most powerful bank and economists' mafia on Earth.

From the Net: 'University students sentenced to 15 years imprisonment and ongoing sham trials' (Bahrain Center for Human Rights)

The Bahrain Center for Human Rights expresses its grave concern over the continuous human rights violations against university students in Bahrain. A year past the start of the revolution, university students are still being subjected to injustice, unfair trials, arrests and torture.

On February 14 2011, Bahraini youth started to demand democracy and freedom from the oppressive Al Khalifa regime. Most of these youth were targeted even before the declaration of Martial Law in March, through a government-sponsored thug attack of the pro-democracy students at the University of Bahrain (UOB) during a planned protest which took place on March 13 2011. Following the state of emergency, the government targeted students in a fierce crackdown; more than 500 were expelled, many were arrested, tortured and put through sham trials. At least 6 UOB students were sentenced to 15 years imprisonment in an unfair trial lacking evidence.

... full story at Bahrain Center for Human Rights.

Seven Basque prisoners of conscience liberated (on bail), many others remain in jail

Seven Basque citizens, mostly from the Pamplona district (Iruñerria), jailed for their political activities were set free yesterday after paying bails of 30,000 euros. They are: Izaskun Goñi, Iban Esteban, Egoi Irisarri, Garazi Autor, Oihana Lopez, Eneko Villegas and Julen Zuaznabar. 

They are all victims of political persecutions by the New Spanish Inquisition (Audiencia Nacional: special political tribunal created under fascism).

Welcome to Ohiana Lopez in Burlata

Sources[eu]: Ateak Ireki (several more photos), Gara.

Fukushima workers: exploited, no rights, extreme conditions

That is what former worker Saburo Kitajima declared to Democracy Now!:

SABURO KITAJIMA: [translated] The workers at the Fukushima plant are currently working under extreme circumstances. To be more specific, the wages are extremely low, and there are no rights being observed at the moment. In spite of being exposed to radiation, the levels of wages run to about maybe $100 a day, more or less.

AMY GOODMAN: And exactly what were they exposed to, and what continues to happen at these plants? I mean, in the United States, we know very little about what’s happening in Japan.

SABURO KITAJIMA: [translated] In the course of our work, the type of work where people are exposed to the highest levels of radiation would be maintaining the water pipes that are being put in place to cool the reactor. And, of course, the entire site is extremely contaminated, and there is radiation that is coming from the ground.

AMY GOODMAN: What workers decided to go into—back into the plant afterwards, knowing how great the exposure would be?

SABURO KITAJIMA: [translated] We’re talking about workers who have always worked at perhaps the most marginalized jobs and who oftentimes are not aware of the risks and had no other choice but to go back.

AMY GOODMAN: You have been speaking at anti-nuclear protests in the United States. What is your message?

SABURO KITAJIMA: [translated] There’s two sides to it. And, of course, I would like the people who I met in New York to understand the situation in New York, to communicate what is exactly happening. At the same time, I would like that the people here support and stand with us in our struggles in Fukushima.

AMY GOODMAN: And what is your struggle in Fukushima? What are you calling for there?

SABURO KITAJIMA: [translated] For the moment, the workers at the Fukushima plant are demanding that they be compensated for exposure to radiation, which is not happening at the moment, and also kind of a compensation and being looked after, after working in these plants, since they must leave in a very short period of time.

AMY GOODMAN: And that short period of time is—what is the kind of levels of exposure they have right now?

SABURO KITAJIMA: [translated] Those exposed to the highest levels of radiation must leave the plant in a period of under two months.

Source: Democracy Now! (found via EneNews).

Working till maybe your death for a few thousand bucks, that really sucks! The less they could do is to pay super-wages for people doing super-work. Never mind workers' rights and all that.

Guatemala: genocidal general sentenced to 6060 years for 201 murders

Former Guatemalan Army General Pedro Pimentel has been sentenced to 30 years of prison for each one of the 201 people he murdered in the massacre of Dos Erres (Petén department, Maya Country). He also got other 30 years for crimes against Humankind. 

However he will only be in prison a maximum time of 50 years, as the Guatemalan Penal Code does not allow for greater effective penalties in any case.

The massacre is one of the 660 which, according to the Commission for Historical Clarification, took place in Guatemala through the armed conflict (1960-1996), which left some 250,000 casualties among dead and missing people.

Many of the massacres, mostly against Native Americans, happened in the short dictatorship of Ríos Montt (1982-83), who was also recently brought to trial.

Source: Gara[es].

From the Net: Morocco town sealed by repressive forces (IDOM)

Morocco: Revolt in the city of Bni Bouayach – Solidarity appeal against the ferocious repression

Written by Communist League of Action (Morocco)

Monday, 12 March 2012

The city of Bni Bouayach in the mountainous area of the Northern Rif in Morocco has been sealed off since Wednesday, March 8. All the repressive organs of the state, the army, the gendarmerie together with the secret and public police, have joined forces to blockade the small city. The inhabitants live in fear of police terror and the raiding of houses and arrests. Other repressive forces are hunting down activists who fled into the neighbouring mountains to escape arrest. The media black-out is total.

This violent intervention is the dictatorship’s response to peaceful demonstrations organised by the young unemployed and the activists of the 20F movement that have been ongoing for many months. The protest is against the generalised lack of jobs and bad social and economic conditions in this marginalised city of the Rif.

The regime has used a variety of tactics against the protest movement, from “containment” to targeted repression of the leaders of the action. One activist, Kamal al-Hassani, was killed on October 27th last year, another, Bachir ben Shu'ayb, was abducted and put on trial. His imprisonment and the accusations against him have provoked new protests in the city.

National highway Number 2 was blocked and a sit-in was organised in front of the municipal buildings and the National Electricity Company. On March 5 the youth wanted to organise a march (25 km) to the city of Al Hoceima in support of the arrested comrade but the police stopped them.

Then on Thursday, March 8, the forces of repression attacked the demonstrators during a sit-in. The police used truncheons, teargas and water cannons to disperse the demonstrators. The masses of this city, known for their fighting traditions and activism, have defended themselves by throwing stones (see this report).

Demonstrations have been organised in the main streets leading to clashes in different neighbourhoods. Many people have been injured in those clashes. Fearing arrest, most of them have avoided being treated in the hospitals. Dozens of demonstrators have also been detained. The attack of the repressive forces was ferocious. No-one was spared, not even the women and the children. In seeking out demonstrators, the police entered people’s homes and destroyed the contents or plundered them. They are even hunting down the young activists in the mountains all around the area.

Friday the police arrested a group of activists, including Wael Faqih a leader of the unemployed youth association (Association Nationale des Diplômés Chômeurs au Maroc), and Mohammed Jalloul, a teacher in a primary school and also an activist of the 20F movement.

This attack against the city of Bni Bouayach is taking place against a background of growing revolt in some cities (such as Taza and Khénifra) that are completely marginalised by the state. These protests are organised by the 20F movement. They reflect the absolute bankruptcy of the system and the lack of alternative. It also shows the real nature of the dictatorship which is not ready to reform itself out of existence.

Therefore we declare:

• Our rejection of the violent and repressive intervention against the city of Bni Bouayach.
• Categorical rejection of the attacks against the population and the arbitrary arrests.
• We call for the immediate release of all prisoners detained during recent events
• The immediate lifting of the state of siege in the region around Bni Bouayach.
• All those responsible for the brutal repression against the youth, men and women of the city, should be put to trial.
• An immediate acceptance of all the demands of the population
• We appeal to the unions to take up their historic responsibility in reacting firmly and systematically against all forms of oppression and to call for a general strike!

>Please send messages of support to contact@marxy.com
(March 11, 2012)
[More photos and videos about the situation in Bni Bouayach here
Original Arabic article here]

From: In Defense of Marxism.

Nothing of this has transcended in the news as far as I know, never mind it's just a few kilometers outside of Spanish territory.

According to Spanish and French Wikipedia entries, the people of Bni Bouayach are Berbers and many have been pushed to emigrate to Europe in the last decades. 

The crisis is deepening, not being solved

If anyone though that the austerity for the workers (but abundance for the elites) could in any way solve the deep economic crisis that began in 2007-2008 with the bubble limit (not yet burst because the implosion is being contained at the expense of worker's lifes and any hope of effective solution)... that one was wrong. 

Greece is effectively in default according to the International Swaps and Derivatives Association, whatever the EU authorities say (WSWS), Italy has officially entered in recession today (Euronews) and China is being severely affected by the contraction of its markets in Europe and North America, showing for the first time in 12 years a trade deficit (it imported more than exported - Euronews).

Meanwhile I am surprised now and then by people who claim to be revolutionary Marxist economists and who are unable to see the big hole in which the global Capitalist system is in. Well, comrades, I can't know if it's is (some years from now) the time for a revolution or if it would succeed but what I do know is that the Capitalist system has not been this fucked up since at least the 1930s. 

And I actually do consider that this crisis may not even have a single precedent in all the Capitalist history and that we have to look back to as far as the late 18th century crisis to compare with. If so we'd be before a true unprecedented systemic crisis because the complexity of society and economy and the technological (and destructive) power accumulated through the last two centuries has no precedents whatsoever.

Now sure what each one of us can do (no, I do not have any clear plan, at least not yet)  but we must think ahead as if the revolutionary process is coalescing before our eyes in our lifetime and without expecting any hope of serious recovery for the Capitalist system, so stable until the day past yesterday. 

As many as 21 people killed by the latest Zionazi attacks against civilians in Gaza

Victims of the latest Zionazi attacks

The genocidal Zionist attacks against Gaza strip, which began three days ago have already killed five people, including a minor and an elderly man, injuring many many more. The exact extent of the destruction is not well known but remember that Israel has in the past used extremely harmful and long-term poisonous weapons like depleted uranium, napalm and the like, regardless that they attacked civilian areas under their unilateral military occupation. 

The Neonazi racist ideas implicit in the formation of Israel, imply that non-Jewish lives are not worth anything, what, even in just the concept it is a crime against everything good and humanist, never mind Human Rights. 

Israel must be stopped, boycotted, isolated and destroyed. Not to genocide! Not to apartheid! Not to the colonial Zionist state in Palestine (or anywhere)!

Source: Gara[es].

See also:

• Al Jazeera: Deaths reported in Israeli air raids in Gaza
• Window into Palestine: Israel butchers 16 more Palestinians in Gaza
• Occupied Palestine: Tolerable savagery: Israeli killing of Palestinians
• Occupied Palestine: Funeral march for 12-year old Ayoub Assaleya (video)
• Desert Peace: Israel gets the war it's been begging for
• Palestine blogs aggregator (in general)

Fukushima nuclear catastrophe anniversary: workers' and experts' views

March 13th, a year ago

Energy News has today a whole series of news snippets gathered from the media in the anniversary of the Fukushima nuclear catastrophe. While, as we all know, most media have silenced or downplayed the severity of the nuclear disaster, there's a lot of columns and TV magazines to fill with words and words are sometimes more than meaningless ritual blah-blah.

For example Asahi remembers (EneNews excerpt) the so-called 'Fukushima 50', which were more than that figure and were the workers of Fukushima II at the time of the disaster, risking their lives in arguably futile attempts to prevent the worst. Three of them spoke out:

[Kenichi's] internal radiation exposure has been measured at 5,000 counts per minute, or around five times the upper range for an average person. “I sometimes think maybe I shouldn’t get married and I won’t be able to have kids.”

...

Many fainted from heatstroke, but Kenichi notes that if they had to go home they would not be paid. Those who blamed the plant’s operators for their symptoms were told not to come back the next day.

...

Kenichi predicted that the reactors would melt down in strict number order, from the No. 1 reactor upward, as the cooling system runs from the first to the sixth reactor.

...

None of them trust anything TEPCO or the government says.

Another concern for Asahi (EneNews excerpt) is depopulation, even if the government, criminally, has declined to evacuate the most affected areas (what means most of Fukushima and parts of neighboring areas, while all East/North Honsu is directly polluted):

Serious concerns about whether depopulation is now a reality.
...
Other estimates also predict a gloomy picture for the future population of Fukushima Prefecture.
...
An Environment Ministry official offered this explanation: “There is the possibility that radiation levels may not fall even if the area is decontaminated”.
...
[Isao Tanihata at the Osaka research center's Cosmonuclear Physics Division] said, “There may be a need for drastic action, such as removing large sections of mountains and valleys, including the vegetation found there”.

Nothing about saving the people by relocating them outside the radiation hell: they are just worried about how to keep and recover the highway linking North Honsu with the rest of Japan. They may well destroy all Japan in the process. They are true madmen. 

Russia Today (EneNews excerpt) cites US nuclear engineer Arnie Gunderssen who

[...] Total clean-up of the radioactive zone around the earthquake- and tsunami-affected Fukushima nuclear power plant will cost up to half a trillion dollars and many years of hard work, Arnold Gundersen, energy adviser at Fairwinds Associates, told RT.

“The entire north of Japan has a public health hazard,” claims Gundersen, who has found traces of radioactive waste in Tokyo, some 250 kilometers from Fukushima. [...]

But Gundersen is succumbing to nuclear optimism, I'd say because radiation is forever: decontamination is effectively impossible except for very localized issues and there is no way to destroy radiation (or radioactive sources other than by expanding their radiation) - they must be kept in 'safe' places forever. Radiation only decays with time, so extremely slowly for most sources that it is effectively forever in terms of human history, and even biological history altogether.

The only way to avoid contamination is to abandon nuclear power altogether (or at least as much as possible and as soon as possible) and to store all radioactive debris accumulated since the 1940s into some geologically stable pit of doom, far away from populated areas. 

It is an existential threat to humankind. Chernobyl polluted half Europe, Fukushima has effectively destroyed Japan (mostly thanks to the Japanese government's mismanagement), the exact effects of Three Mile Island are not well known, there is nuclear debris all around, beginning with hotspots like Murmansk or Los Alamos (these are just two examples) to kill all us many times, the huge number of nuclear reactors in France (and secondarily Spain and the UK) make Western Europe the most likely candidate for the next nuclear disaster...

A nuclear power plant not far from where I live is conceived exactly like Fukushima: a simple loss of power would cause it to descend into uncontrolled meltdown, destroying everything between Valladolid and Pamplona. While Garoña NPP was supposed to be decommissioned in 2011, the Spanish government has extended its legal lifetime twice already. 

It is just one example: France is full of nuclear reactors and other facilities, some of which have got serious problems this year. France is just one example, the USA and even Russia have also got nuclear accidents only this year. Even if they are no Fukushimas, it's clear that there is a serious risk of something similar happening any day, with no advice and no solution.

See also in this blog: category: nuclear catastrophe.


Update: Xinhua (EneNews excerpt) cites Gundersen in more detail anyhow, saying that Fukushima is ten times worse than Chernobyl.


Update: Fukushima Diary cites (and translates) the Mayor of  Matsumoto, Mr. Sugava:

On today’s News9 of NHK, Mr.Sugaya, the Matsumoto city mayor, who has been involved in medical care in Chernobyl clearly stated, “After all, Tokyo citizens were exposed.”. Did you see it ? Media has started reporting Tokyo citizens have been exposed. Yes, I thought “exposure” was a story of WW2 too but I have been too. I’m Hibakusha too.

From the Net: 'Death of Fadhel AlObaidy with a teargas canister' (Bahrain Center for Human Rights)

22 year old Fadhel AlObaidy, from Diraz, was shot in the head with a teargas canister on March 1st, 2012 when he was peacfuly protesting. He was announced clinically brain dead on 2nd March at the Bahrain International hospital (private hospital), and he passed away in the early hours of Saturday 10 March 2012. According to eye witnesses, security forces continued to beat, punch and kick Fadhel after he was shot in the head with a teargas canister. 

According to reports, "The young man remained in a critical and worrying condition during his treatment period due his head injury which caused lack of oxygen.

He was entered the recovery room but attempts to save his life failed as he has been shot from a close distance and the wound was deep covering the right side of his head, from forehead to neck. Doctors in Bahrain International Hospital rushed him into operation after identifying fractures in his skull.

Many citizens died as a result of direct and close range shooting of canisters by security forces, this clarifies attempts to deliberately injure citizens."

People who attended his funeral procession 11 March 2012 were attacked with teargas and sound grenades.

Source and more pictures: Bahrain Center for Human Rights. 

Zionist massacre in Gaza - 15 kiled, many wounded - funeral attacked

Zionist forces have launched a murderous attack against civilian areas of Gaza, which they formally occupy (and hence are legally responsible for). 

The Zionist forces attacked civilian areas from the air, killing as many as 15 people (of which many but not all are claimed to be "activists", whatever that means). The Zionist airplanes attacked a funeral procession also, injuring many.

The attacks against the largest concentration camp on Earth (or largest ghetto if you wish) are pretexted as retaliation against rockets launched by the Islamic Jihad, which in turn were retaliation against the murder of one of their leaders by yet another Zionist air attack. 

There is some fear that this could descend into another genocidal attack like the so-called operation Cast Lead, which left Gaza devastated while Nobel Prize and elect US President Obama said not a single word of condemnation. Some analysts even speculate on the attack becoming one against Egypt, specially as tensions between Cairo and Washington have been growing in the last weeks.

_________________________________________

Note: I'm using the relevance of mentioning this attack to reconsider mainstream media I visit more or less regularly: BBC is out from my list, so is The Guardian. None of them even bother mentioning it in any relevant position. You could end the day totally ignorant of this most important development would it be for these partisan media.

Fukushima catastrophe anniversary: bird population has collapsed twice as in Chernobyl

That says much more that all the propaganda about the disaster being over (murderous bullshit!), decontamination (a ridiculous farce) and reconstruction (go figure!)

If bird population has fallen twice as in Chernobyl, that means that the Fukushima disaster is much worse than Chernobyl, something that all Japanese politicians (and Western ones, let's not deceive ourselves thinking this is a mere Japanese problem) would want to deny in a most pathetic buffoonish show of incompetence and corruption.

Source: Energy News, citing yet another made-up article at Wall Street Journal.

And it is this camouflage of the disastrous reality also in Western media what worries me the most. Tomorrow Garoña (way too similar to Fukushima in design, and similarly old) could explode and the same media would say that everything is all right and that my nieces and nephews would have to stay here and not allowed to be relocated as nuclear refugees, as it's happening with Japanese citizens, who get only lies and no useful help from their government, never mind the so-called international community.

Meanwhile Japanese citizens, already most wary of what both major political parties say (lies and more lies), became even more astonished yesterday when an expert informed in TV (source: Energy News again) that almost any earthquake could aggravate the risks and cause the end of Tokyo.

But let's get real: all the Eastern (or Northern) half of Honsu island is affected, the damage is scattered with some randomness in places like Tokyo but it is very real. Besides almost the whole of Fukushima prefecture should have been evacuated since day one, yet the inhabitants are being left to languish and die by such a cheapskate state that is not worth that name anymore (being more adequate the one of murderous mafia).

The World should be, as Germany and Italy did in the aftermath of the disaster, totally reconsidering nuclear but if the destruction of the third global economy, of a metropolis the size of Tokyo, is not shaking the World, it seems unavoidable that yet another and maybe several such disasters will happen before we wake up. It can be in Europe (West Europe notably has tremendous concentration of, often old, nuclear power plants), the former USSR, the USA, China, India, Palestine (Israel) or Iran... I can't forecast but it looks very bad.

In March 26th I mentioned, based on two Chinese airport detection, that Central Japan was already being affected by radiation. Naturally, the worst came in the aftermath of the two nuclear explosions that rocked the island, but as I also said then, radiation is forever.

That means that you cannot effectively decontaminate (what a macabre farce!) and that any area touched by enough radioactive pollution will remain affected forever (in human terms). Also it will tend to scatter around by means of wind, water flows and even pollen.

My rough estimate of the worst affected area (dotted line), March 2011

I understand that it's so apocalyptic that we are having trouble coming to terms with this disaster, accepting that is real (and radiation being invisible and killing mostly slowly does not help). But what is really a problem is when the people in power, those who are supposed to make responsible decisions, stay in denial like the immature idiots they truly are. 

I can only imagine these people, our institutional leaders, as total addicts to money (and whatever they buy with it) and as such junkies they do not care about anything that is not getting their regular dose. And they will do anything for it - absolutely anything short of jumping down a cliff (throwing their mothers and children down that same cliff... they will, no doubt).

But will the people swallow? For how long?

ETA asks France for dialogue

The Basque armed organization Euskadi Ta Askatasuna (Basque Country And Freedom), commonly known by its acronym ETA, currently in the process of unilaterally giving up armed struggle, has issued a communication addressed to the French Government asking for direct conversations about the conflict and its consequences. 

Notably ETA claims that the French authorities have been treating the conflict as a Spanish internal matter, forgetting the many Basque prisoners in French jails, almost systematically far away from home and its own role in the so-called dirty war (institutionally-sponsored terrorist attacks against Basque activists or random civilians).

ETA also states that French authorities, like the Spanish ones, deny the national reality of the Basque Country and the right of Basque People to decide their future.

The communication comes days after the French President N. Sarkozy admitted in a convoluted electoral tour through the Northern Basque Country that Basque prisoners with French official nationality may be moved to the Basque Country or nearby areas. Currently most are in the many Parisian prisons, 700 km away from home. 

Source: Gara[es].

Radioactive cesium found in fish from Japan, which are anyhow sold in South Korea

Reported by EXSKF:

South Korea's Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry, Fisheries and Food announced on March 8 that an increasing number of marine products imported to South Korea from Japan have been found with radioactive cesium. 

... 

In most cases, the radioactive density was 7 becquerels/kg or less. The maximum was 97.9 becquerels/kg. Since they are all below the safety limit of South Korea, they have been sold in the market.

A becquerel is a unit of disintegrations per second and it's equivalent to 60 disintegrations per minute (a unit often used by Geiger counters). 

'Journalist' A. Mora threatens anti-Zionist protester with belt (video) - resigns hours later

Must watch because this gesture is only proper of a fascist. 

The Journalists' Association of Granada was celebrating, in a clearly pro-Zionist act (not commemorated by anybody else as far as I know, the 25th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between the Apartheid Regime in Palestine (alias Israel) and the Kingdom of Spain. 

Some people staged a protest in solidarity with Palestine and Antonio Mora, President of the association, had no better idea that to take out his belt and threaten with it one of the women who were protesting with a Palestinian flag, then pushing and threatening a camera-woman.

We can only imagine that this fascist used to beat his own children that way, if he have any, being the signature of a sick man and a rotten soul.

Soon after he had to resign. 

Sources: Sare Antifaxista[es], Typically Spanish.

...

Spanish police dismantles repeater antenna for Basque TV in Pamplona district

The antenna had been installed on January 11th by opposition party Basque Solidarity (EA), which spent 12,000 euros in it, the main reason being that in Navarre there are no Basque-language TV channels because of institutional hostility towards Basque language and identity and that in the past there was no difficulty in watching ETB in the old kingdom.

The reaction by the Spanish Nationalist coalition government was to declare the repeater 'illegal' and to begin the paperwork to destroy it. Today Spanish police has dismantled it. 

Source: Gara[es].

Military presence in the center of Pamplona

Spanish troops have been spotted occupying a square in the center of Pamplona, at Stronghold Plaza (Plaza del Baluarte), reports Ateak Ireki, with this photo:

Factoid: in Navarre more people killed by police than by ETA

In a conference of Euskal Memoria (Basque Memory) on the anniversary of the murder of Angel Berrueta, victim of a policeman and neighbor, who has almost not been punished, of the 92 mortal victims of the Basque-Spanish conflict in the last decades, only 39 can be attributed to ETA, the other 52 are victims of police violence either in uniform or as members of various death squads. 

Source: Ateak Ireki[es] (includes short video).

In coma after Nazi homophobic attack in Chile

Daniel Zamudio, 24, was attacked by fascists in the center of Santiago de Chile apparently on the pretext of his homosexual preferences.

He is struggling for his life at hospital, in coma. The Nazis did not just beat Daniel almost to death but they cut part of his ear and engraved swastikas on his skin.

He had been previously threatened and been victims of followings.

Source: Sare Antifaxista[es].

Lukashenko's homophobia

While there are still some confused minds in the so-called 'anti-imperialist left' (which is not left and doubtfully anti-imperialist but just a bunch of vocal and Cold War nostalgic neo-Stalinists) who would support any fascist tyrant claiming to oppose the "American Empire" and what not... these tyrants reveal themselves for what they really are with just paying some attention. 

For example Belorussian dictator Alexander Lukashenko just declared in self-inculpatory statement that it is 'better to be dictator than gay'.

Really? I do not think so, Alex. Not only being gay is perfectly fine (neither better nor worse) but being a criminal dictator who squeezes the people has no justification whatsoever and, by a long justice tradition stemming at least from Francisco de Vitoria, deserves execution. 

What we do not deserve in Europe is to have fascists like you, Alex. Hopefully this will be the last of your hurtful buffooneries.

Source: Sare Antifaxista[es].

From the Net: 'Russia: Prosecutions and detentions of demonstrators amid anti-election protests' (Contra Info)

Correspondents of avtonom will spread photos and videos of events on March 5th in Moscow, as well as in St. Petersburg.

According to recent reports, during protest action in Pushkin Square in Moscow about 25 anarchists were arrested. Three more young men were detained in the beginning of the rally because they had their faces covered.

Also, on the same day in Moscow two members of the feminist punk band Pussy Riot, who were held detained from the weekend due to a band’s performance (see video below), appeared before the prosecutor; their lawyer said that his clients will remain in custody until April 24th.

In St. Petersburg, one of the slogans was ‘OUR SOLUTION: SELF-GOVERNANCE!’ There, five people were reportedly arrested. In particular, when Molotov cocktails were thrown at one point, the pigs attacked the crowd and caught the first people who were closer.

Pussy Riot intervention in the Cathedral of Christ the Saviour in February 21st, 2012, when Putin was described as ‘the head of the KGB’ in their lyrics:

From: Contra Info (more videos at link).

Imperial summit moved from Chicago to Camp David.

The imperial summit 2012 (G8) will not be held at Chicago. The organizers have panicked after the success of the Occupy Wall Street movement and have moved it to the infamous Camp David mansion, weekend residence of the almighty emperors... opsa, US Presidents.

It is still only 100 Km. from Washington D.C. but I guess it's rural enough to be easily controlled by police and military. Or so it seems.

Still Chicago is to held the most important military imperial meeting of NATO and ISAF (occupation army of Afghanistan).

Source and further discussion at Kasama.

Iceland's former PM on trial for financial negligence

Again Iceland shows us mortals the way to do things properly: former Prime Minister Geir Haarde, who mismanaged the Icesavings crisis, is standing trial for negligence, for not making sure that legal safeguards were there. 

He claims that he's the victim of political persecution and a scapegoat and that he did not make sure that financial guarantees were there because he believed that was the best thing to do.

The way to Hell is paved of good intentions, say the superstitious... but it's doubtful this is the case: the guy managed to take the country hostage of private interests and only massive protests and a statesman-quality President who vetoed once and again abusive laws designed to make the citizens pay for the faults of the private banks, managed to save the small island nation, not without trouble. 

Sadly enough, the example of Iceland is again not being followed in the rest of Europe. Where is for example Kostas Karamanlis, main local culprit of the Greek debt crisis? He's still the leader of the main right-wing party and not a single case has been opened against him. Or the infamous Brian Cowen, who sold Ireland to the sharks much as Haarde wanted to do with Iceland. None of them has been brought to court and it is a pity because it would seem that only harsh punishment may dissuade politicians from abusing their mandates in favor of the corporations.

Similarly, what do we see with the other culprits of the financial crisis: the core-European and US-American banks? The first are guaranteeing by these abuses that they get paid even if it is with the blood of the Greek, Irish and other European peoples, the latter, the infamous Goldman Sachs, sees its men placed as new proconsuls in Greece, Italy and even the European Central Bank. 

More guillotine for the enemies of the People!

From the Net: “Why we occupied our hospital” – an open letter by a hospital doctor at the workers-run hospital of Kilkis

The occupation of our hospital in Kilkis by its workers began on Monday, February 20. This occupation does not merely concern us, the doctors and the workers at the Hospital of Kilkis. Nor does it only take place in response to the greek National Health System (ESY), which is indeed collapsing.

We are undertaking this struggle because what is under threat today is human rights. And this threat is not even made against one nation, or a bunch of countries, or social groups: it is a threat made against the lower and middle classes in Europe, America, Asia, Africa; across the entire world. Greece’s today is the tomorrow of Portugal, Spain, Italy and the rest of the countries around the world.

The workers at the hospital of Kilkis and most hospitals and health centres around Greece are not paid on time, while many of them see their wages being slashed, to reach practically zero on a practical level. One colleague of mine was rushed to the heart clinic in a state of shock when he realised that instead of receiving his usual monthly cheque of 800 euros (yes, that is his monthly salary) from the state, he received a notice saying that not only was he not going to be paid for that month, but that he had to return 170 euros instead. Other workers were paid only 9 (nine) euros for that month. Those of us who continue to receive some wage will support them in any way we can.

This is a war against the people, entire the entire community. Those who claim that the public debt of Greece is a debt of the greek people are lying. It is not a debt owned by the people. It was amassed by the governments, in cooperation with the banks, with the aim of the enslavement of the people. The loans toward Greece are not used to pay wages, pensions or public healthcare. The exact opposite is happening: wages, pensions and healthcare cuts are used to pay the bankers.

... full story at Occupied London - From the Greek Streets.

From the Net: 'Singular Legal Regime Necessitates One-State Solution' (N. Erakat at Jadaliyya)

The true Zionist banner

This weekend, the Harvard University community will host its conference, "One-State Conference: Israel/Palestine and the One-State Solution". The conference promises to be an invigorating discussion on the likelihood of the two-state solution, the benefits of the one-state solution, and the challenges to achieving either. In light of that discussion, I thought it useful to share the legal dimensions that demonstrate Israel’s discriminatory system both within its putative borders and the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT) as a singular Apartheid regime. The unitary nature of this legal system at once triggers proper legal remedies in international law and underscores the pragmatic thrust of the one-state solution.

Since its establishment, Israel has bifurcated Jewish nationality from Israeli citizenship. Indeed, there is no such thing as Israeli nationality. Instead, the Citizenship Law of 1952, inaccurately termed “Nationality Law,” repealed the Palestinian Citizenship Order of 24th July 1925 under which the indigenous Palestinians were granted the status of citizens and nationals in their country; it resulted in the de facto “denationalization” of this entire population. Henceforth, Israeli law has distinguished between its Jewish population who are both “nationals and citizens” from its non-Jewish population, namely Palestinian Muslims and Christians, who are “citizens-only.” This distinction aims to privilege the rights of Jewish-nationals wherever they may reside and/or abridge the rights of non-Jewish nationals (Palestinian Arabs), regardless of their status as citizens of the State, residents of East Jerusalem, civilians living under occupation in the OPT, or refugees living in exile, with regard to residency rights, land ownership, freedom of movement, nationality, citizenship and the right to leave and return to one’s country.

... full article at Jadaliyya.

Bahrain: Younis Ashoori (prisioner of conscience) pushed to near death by prison abuses

The Bahrain Center for Human Right alerts of the extreme danger that Dr. Younis Ashouri, 60, director of the maternity, has been pushed by the Khalifa dictatorship to near death.

Ashouri, who was kidnapped by masked policemen and then sentenced to three years after being forced to sign some papers under torture,  has a number of illnesses:

... chronic urinary stone recurrences which needs a surgery, enlarged prostate, heart problem history and a type of migraine which leaves him temporarily paralysed.

Since he was imprisoned he's been denied access to his medicines, what puts his health in extreme danger.

Source and more info: BCHR.

Police violence overshadows the homage to the victims of 1976 police violence

The demo

Like every year, the five workers murdered by police in March 3rd 1976 under the command of recently deceased fascist politician Manuel Fraga (founder of the PP party now in power in Spain), were paid popular homage by the Basque People in Vitoria-Gasteiz. 

Exceptionally the imposed 'Basque Government' attempted to take control of the homage by making an institutional act for the press (never before in all these 36 years) and letting the dogs loose. Since the morning, police vans patrolled the area, announcing that they would make their best to turn this popular homage into violence.

Further homages were made through the day, at noon it was the parties allied in Amaiur (Basque Independentist Left), in the evening it were the majority labor unions, ELA and LAB, followed by a large demonstration through the streets of Gasteiz. 

Front of the march

Some young people displayed five fake coffins before the Spanish Government Delegation. It was then when police first attacked, even if they were about to leave. They caused 15 injured and arrested three.

Then they charged against people in other areas of the city. Finally at night, they went to the hospital and arrested another person they had injured.

And this is how we live: under 'democracy' as under fascism, petty dictators appointed from outside impose their violence with a police badge. 

Sources: Gara[es], Berria[eu].

See also: "Death bells" documentary on the workers massacre of March 3rd 1976 in Vitoria-Gasteiz (Spanish language).

Update: the four arrested have been set free, probably with false charges (source: SA[es]).

Update: video of the coffins' protest and police attack (via SA):

Update: According to Gazte Komunisten Kolectiboak (Communist Youth Groups), the 15 injured are seriously enough to be at hospital, one of which has been intervened surgically.

While the No TAV movement increase the protests, Italian bourgeois media label them as "terrorists"

In order to justify the increased violence that police is using against the people who resist the imposition of the High Speed Rail (TAV by its Italian acronym) in Piemonte and elsewhere in Italy, the bourgeois media under the control of Berlusconi and a few others have lashed against them with unprecedented aggressiveness, labeling them as terrorist and what not.

Meanwhile the ones terrorizing everyone are the police forces who have already caused a very serious injured victim and have attacked bars and restaurants where No TAV protesters wen to eat. 

Source and more details at Struggles in Italy.

Video: anti-Sarkozy protesters and police squirmish on the fields of Itsasu

They come from outside, tell us what to do in our own country... at gunpoint.

 

Alde hemendik! Utzi pakean!

Go away! Leave us alone!

Anti-fascists clashes in Baiona

Basque citizens protested against the electoral visit of the French Neonazi organization Bloc Identitaire, clashing with extremist thugs who enjoyed police protection:

Source: Sare Antifaxista (video, communication[eu]).

Homs: 'not war but slaughter of civilians', 'like Srebrenica'

I normally do not trust the BBC as source for controversial matters of international policy but today they include interviews with two photographers who escaped Homs and whose testimonies of the kind of democidal intent of the Assad regime are unmistakably honest first person accounts:

Paul Conroy: Homs comparable to Srebrenica

Spanish reporter: I escaped Homs

Two arrested in protests against Sarko in the Basque Country

Two people have been arrested after the military police corps known as Gendarmerie atacked the multitude protesting against the controversial visit of French President Nicholas Sarkozy to the Itsasu and Baiona (Lapurdi, Basque Country).

The protest was called by the Basque Youth Movement, Euskal Herria Bai coalition, farmers and environmentalists opposed to the High Speed Rail. In Baiona, they were also seconded by supporters of the social-democratic candidate François Hollande, and Bizi!

The massive rejection to Sarko in Baiona was countered by police charges, resulting in two arrested. Pressed hard by the multitude, and in spite of a few supporters, Sarko had to hide in a tavern, the Bar Palais, where he could still pose for the cameras with some merchants.

Sources: Gara[es], Sare Antifaxista[es], Kazeta[eu].


Update: In the end 12 people were arrested, of which 11 have already been released.

Video of the huge boo! against Sarko in Baiona:

Another video can be watched at BBC.

Student protests continue in Barcelona

Students cut AP-7 highway and B-30 road near the Autonomous University of Barcelona, in protest for the privatization and higher costs of education. The cuts have generated several kilometers of stuck vehicles. Also the urban railroads announced not stopping today at the university for safety reasons. 

Source: Gara[es] (see also the photo gallery)

See also: 70,000 students march through Barcelona (yesterday).

Popular road blockades and police violence in Italy tonight

The NO TAV (High Speed Rail) deflagration continues in Piemonte, as popular blockades of roads have continued with massive assistance, as apparent in the following video:

Police attacked the blockades however, causing some 100 injured. They also attacked vehicles of the NO TAV activists, burning them in several cases. So good for the rule of law and the sacredness of private property!

At 23:00, the popular assembly decided to call off the protests for the night and begin again today. However police continued the aggressions and raided bars and pizzerias, arbitrarily arresting alleged activists found in them.

Source: Contra Info (incl. several more videos).

From the Net: 'Fears for safety at Fukushima one year on' (Economic Times)

To some of the men who earn as little as $100 a day to work inside Japan's Fukushima Daiichi, the plant at the centre of a year-old nuclear disaster is far from safe - despite the official line.

Operator Tokyo Electric Power (TEPCO) and the Japanese government say the tsunami-crippled reactors are all in a "state of cold shutdown" and are keen to give the impression that there is just cleaning up to do.

They acknowledge it is the work of a few decades - perhaps 40 years - but nonetheless insist things are under control.

But that is not how those who spend their days inside the plant see it.

"I can clearly say it's not safe at all," said one worker in his 50s, a subcontractor who has been working on the plant's cooling system since September.

The man did not want to be identified for fear of losing the 8,000 yen ($100) daily paycheck he receives.

"There are many spots where radiation levels are extremely high," he said.

The man said subcontractors like him were treated like animals. 

... full story at Economic Times.

That's how Japan and the Nuclear Industry treat their people and even their heroes.