From the Net: 'Greenwash this!' (Jews sans frontieres)

Here's a report just in from Associated Press under the headline, Israeli nixes solar energy for Palestinians:

Electricity from solar panels and wind turbines has revolutionized life in rural Palestinian herding communities: Machines, instead of hands, churn goat milk into butter, refrigerators store food that used to spoil and children no longer have to hurry to get their homework done before dark.

But the German-funded project, initiated by Israeli volunteers, is now in danger. Israeli authorities are threatening to demolish the installations in six of the 16 remote West Bank communities being illuminated by alternative energy, arguing the panels and turbines were installed without permits.

Ah, no permits, I see. But what's this?

At the same time, Israeli officials argue that the Palestinian herders of the southern West Bank are nomads with no legal claim to the lands they squat on.

Which roughly translated means they're Arabs and so can't get permits and because they can't get permits they can't settle and because they can't settle they are nomads and because they are nomads they can't get permits and, oh never mind.

Just so you know, dotted through the piece are references to something called "the peace process".

From Jews sans frontieres.

Negev Bedouins = illegal 'Israelis'. No apartheid? No genocide? Equal rights?

See also: Bedouin-Jewish Justice in Israel.

Tokyo City councilor who measured radiation in parks murdered

Takashi Kabayama, councilor of Tokyo (LDP), was found dead on January 7th with a plastic bag on his head. Against all logic, in an act of obvious complicity, police ruled suicide.

Kabayama had been measuring radiation through Tokyo and found that in some public parks (Mizumoto specifically) was equivalent to that of the Chernobyl no-go zone (1.48 million Bq/m²).

The news has only now been known in languages other than Japanese, thanks to Fukushima Diary (link 1, link 2). 

From the Net: 'China: The Wukan uprising and its lessons' (Socialist World)

China: The Wukan uprising and its lessons

23/02/2012

Workers’ strikes and new local rebellions use the slogan “Learn from Wukan”

Vincent Kolo and Zhang Shujie, chinaworker.info

Wukan is the fishing village in southern China’s Guangdong province that achieved worldwide fame as a symbol of mass resistance. Like thousands of other rural communities in recent years, the 13,000 inhabitants of Wukan rose up against corrupt local officials who have stolen land and made millions in profits. But Wukan achieved something else, by displaying a new level of organisation and mass mobilisation, setting up independent popular committees and campaign structures. In so doing, Wukan has become a benchmark for future struggle in China. 

(...)

(...) the impact of the Wukan uprising is enormous and goes far beyond its boundaries and even those of Guangdong province. This was, according to numerous commentators, the first time since 1949 that the CCP totally lost control of an administrative area. During a few short weeks the struggle in Wukan shattered the idea that the Chinese people need one-party dictatorship and are incapable of governing themselves democratically. 

(...)

Along with several other concurrent struggles – including some very significant workers’ strikes – Wukan shows that mass protests in China are becoming more organised, more bold, and their methods and tactics more sophisticated. In short, they are adapting to the changing situation, studying and taking stock of the evolution of the one-party dictatorship as it upgrades its repressive methods. (...)

“What is happening in Wukan gives an extraordinary view of the social tensions that exist in China,” noted BBC reporter Martin Patience, who was one of several foreign journalists inside Wukan during the struggle. Incredibly, China experienced more mass protests last year than the entire Arab world, based on sheer numbers. (...)

Official figures show that 43 percent of China’s villages have suffered from land seizures over the last decade, and every year four million peasants lose their land. A whole generation of local ‘communist’ politicians have become millionaires as a result of this lucrative trade in what is technically still ‘collectively-owned’ land. This massive sequestration of land, smashing the fiction of communal ownership, has been a major ingredient in China’s booming economy. 

(...)

... full article at Socialist World. Found via Kasama.

Fascist threats against Valencian high school

The Lluis Vives High School of Valencia has reported threats from the small fascist political party España 2000. The fascist organization claimed that they would end the job that police could not finish, in reference to the scandalous repression of this week against student protests.

It seems that the infamous Police Chief of Valencia, Antonio Moreno Piquer (pictured), is in very good relations with this fascist party, which is essentially the political cover of the largest prostitution ring of Spain and a private security firm, Levantina de Seguridad. All three are headed by the same person, José Luis Roberto, apparently a quite close friend of said Police Chief. 

Source[cat]: VilaWeb (link 1, link 2).

Italian skin head tifossi attack Russian football aficionados in the center of Bilbao

Surreal but real: a group of 30 or 40 masked skinheads attacked today some Russian supporters of the Lokomotiv (Moscow football team) who were drinking and singing in the center of Bilbao (Basque Country), bothering no one according to witnesses.

Apparently the attackers are Italian supporters of basketball team Montepaschi of Siena, which had lost against the Bizkaia hours earlier.

The Russian supporters who were so violently beaten by the fascist mob are local residents, mostly students, who had gathered to support their home team at San Mames. At least one is seriously injured.

Source: Sare Antifaxista[es].

From the Net: 'Reactor 2 went over 100º again' (Fukushima Diary)

Following up this article ..Tepco secretly increased the water amount to reactor2

Tepco started decreasing the water amount to inject to reactor2 from the night of 2/19, but the heating gauge attached at RPV bellows seal, which is on the top of the container vessel is showing the temperature rapidly increasing.

... full story at Fukushima Diary.

From the Net: 'Survival uncovers shocking human rights abuses in Ethiopia'

Survival has uncovered shocking new evidence of human rights abuses against tribes in Ethiopia’s Omo Valley, as government efforts to develop lucrative sugar cane plantations in the region intensify.

Bulldozers are flattening land near a UNESCO World Heritage Site, destroying villages and forcing local communities to give up their pastoral way of life.

Fear is growing as violence becomes commonplace and reports of beatings, rapes and arrests spread among tribes close to the Omo River.

As recently as January 2012, Survival received reports of three Bodi men being beaten to death in an Ethiopian jail.

The forests and savannah of the Omo valley (L) are being cleared for plantations (R)

... full story at Survival International. Found via Pasado y Futuro[es].

Forecast for Greece

Part of the pro-bankster coalition deal in Greece was that elections would be held in April 2012, that is: within two months, more or less. But naturally the continuous sell-off of the nation by the current leadership has taken a toll, eroding the support of the parties conforming the coalition: the Socialist Panhelenic Party (PASOK), New Democracy (ND) and the far-right Christian-Fundamentalist neofascist bloc LAOS (National Orthodox Rally). The latter broke ranks this past week but looks unlikely to be able to benefit too much, at most stealing some voters to ND.

The conservatives of New Democracy, which already took a serious beating in the 2009 elections, are still bleeding out and can't expect to get more than 28% of the votes (33% in 2009) and will more likely be around 24% (min. 19%)

The social-democrats of PASOK are set to collapse. The Papandreu dynastic party gathered 44% of the vote in 2009 but can't expect today to get more than 14% (more like 11% and maybe as little as 8%). 

As mentioned above, LAOS is stuck in voters' support (4.5-6.9%, from a 5.6% in 2009), so who is benefiting from the collapse of the bourgeois dual single party system?

The Left. However the Greek Left is wide and divided. Ignoring the Greens (stuck in their share of 3.5% of the vote) and very minor parties, there used to be two blocs at the left of PASOK: the old school (Stalinist) Communist Party of Greece (KKE), the new school Communist Coalition of the Radical Left (SYRIZA) and its breakaway faction by the right the Democratic Left (DIMAR). 

This DIMAR party is the greatest uncertainty because they are bound to become kingmakers in the new parliament. They claim to be Democratic Socialist (in theory at the left of Social-Democracy but in practice probably no difference at all) and promote reformist strategies (not revolutionary ones) within Europeanism.

In practice this probably means that they are just waiting to gather enough bargaining tokens (votes) to form a bourgeois coalition government, extending the current one in new form into the immediate future. It surely means a new Papademos government with their support (or something of the like).

But in theory at least they may have the possibility to lean to the left and form an ample Left coalition government with Syriza and KKE (and maybe the small Green party). Together they are at the very edge of getting sufficient majority in the Greek Parliament (approx. 41.5% of the popular vote needed and together the Left parties, not counting PASOK, reach as much as 47% in some of the latest polls - and growing).

Can this happen? In truth I do not know. The situation of Greece does not allow for intermediate ways: either they bow to the demands of the Troika or they break away, declaring unilateral bankruptcy and having to use quite radical socialist measures to keep the country stable. 

Of course NATO would not allow such thing to happen and would instigate military coups and/or border conflicts with Turkey (an all-out invasion is unlikely but not impossible) but let us for a moment assume that this does not happen and that Greece is irrationally allowed to declare bankruptcy and nationalize at will in a bubble of sorts.

So let's dream awake a bit and assume that DIMAR, SYRIZA and KKE can join forces and form a serious consistent genuinely Socialist government ready to at least try a Icelandic option of sorts by means of declaring unilateral bankruptcy. And let's assume that all that happens is that the Council of the European Union freaks out and suspends Greece membership in EU (or even expels it altogether), maybe embargoing its foreign assets or whatever. 

That would be the KKE or Stalinist option of socialism in one state, which is hardly sustainable but of course there you have Cuba. Nowadays life in Cuba is probably enviable for a growing number of Greeks, who are being dispossessed of all, even their dignity as citizens, workers and human beings, in the unholy name of Usury. 

Are there other options? Not at the moment. If and when the crisis and revolutionary awareness extends to other parts of Europe (what will probably happen eventually, maybe soon but just not yet), then Greece will have other choices but right now it's between a rock (IMF-EU blackmail) and a hard place (determined Socialist policies in isolation - other than that of worker and popular solidarity organizations elsewhere).

Would it be my decision, I have no doubt: Socialism in one state (provisional solution) and arming the people for territorial self-defense.

But it's not, so my forecast is that DIMAR will form a pro-bankster second coalition government with ND and PASOK, maybe even still led by that pathetic Papademos. However the IMF-EU blackmail will be harder and harder to swallow, with growing unrest in the streets (even more!), and within a year or two (maybe just a few months) the coalition will collapse with its members suffering from even more erosion in terms of popular support. 

Then we will see: the revolutionary exit is the only likely exit for Greece sooner than later (and the Greek People has demonstrated that they have the strength to push it ahead) but how exactly it will materialize: earlier or later, in isolation or in a larger European revolutionary wave, whether it will trigger a military reaction by NATO or what... all that is very hard to forecast. It is just clear that the path set for Greece at Brussels is doomed to not work at all. 

Note: an option is that elections may not take place until legally demanded (c. October 2013), allowing for the constitutional reforms demanded by Brussels to take place. But further delays can only cause further erosion of the coalition members, further growth of the Left (voting intention but also popular convictions) and further instability.

Sources for the vote intention data: IDOM (which has a very interesting article, somewhat different from what I ponder here), EMGR.

Russian Anarchist murdered

Nikita Kalin 1991-2012

A las Barricadas[es] reports that Nikita Kalin, 21, was murdered on February 9th in his hometown of Samara, Russia. His corpse was found before dawn with nothing less than 61 stab marks, several broken ribs and head injuries. 

Police reported to his mother that one of the suspects is a neonazi and that there are others unnamed suspects as well. The fact that they are hiding the names and they have not even bothered in interrogating the last people who saw Nikita alive, makes many suspect that the murder is institutional and will be brushed under the rug, as often happens under the fascist rule of Vladimir Putin and camarilla. 

From the Net: 'Greece: Eurogroup imposes interest of usurers to be guaranteed by the constitution' (S. Karayannopoulos at IDOM)

[The last] Eurogroup meeting in Brussels finally reached a deal and, in the most provocative manner, put a seal on the drama that the Greek working people have had to endure for the past two years.

The highlight of this provocative deal is the obligation on the Greek parliament to revise the constitution in 2013 and insert a clause that will safeguard the interests of lenders and transform these into a national priority. Healthcare, education, wages and pensions, issues of vital importance for the Greek people, are to be regarded as insignificant compared to the need to ensure the profits of the usurers.

... full story at In Defense of Marxism. 

_________________________

Note by Maju: this essentially demonstrates how the EU as we know it must be scrapped in order to save Europe, both as sociological reality and as project of continental convivence and sharing. As it is, the EU is just the enemy of Europeans. 

Police attacks students, teachers and parents in Valencia

Pasado y Futuro[es] reports that Spanish police charged today (Monday 20) against a student demo in Valencia (Valencian Country). Later, they charged again against a more diverse protest of students, teachers and parents, all protesting against the cuts in education. 

Besides protesters, several journalists have also suffered the beatings of the police. 

Result: 17 arrested and many injured. 

Photo-gallery at Público. Vídeo at Pasado y Futuro.


Update: La Plataforma reports[cat/es] 26 arrested, five of them underage and "many injured". Being the fourth day of protests the total of people arrested in Valencia alone is of 42.

On the positive side the repression has got some decent TV coverage, bringing to question the attitude of the Spanish occupation authorities: government delegate and police chief.

Sare Antifaxista[es], has three videos of the police aggressions. 


Update (Feb 22):

Numerous and large demonstrations took place in several cities of the Catalan Countries and Castile in solidarity with the victims of police violence in Valencia, while the authorities tried to save face but often only resulting shameful and contradictory.

While the Government Delegate blamed the chief of police in private discussion with student representatives, only to deny such thing minutes later, the Minister of Interior initially admitted excesses but then blamed them on the students (who kept a perfectly nonviolent attitude all the time). But if there is one person on the tight rope, that's Police Chief Commissary Antonio Moreno Piquer, who in press conference declared the students and the general public as "the enemy" (while hitting the table angrily) and has been noticed as responsible of excessive violence (more excessive and more violent than usual - excepted the Basque Country of course, where this kind of gratuitous repression is just routine) before the new government took power.

If someone would resign or be ceased on this row that would be him. But in Spain that's how police officers actually get a promotion and a medal: torturing and repressing mercilessly. So I would be surprised if he's punished at all. At the most he might be moved around to a less controversial position, I would say, specially as the year promises to be very hot (considering the extremist destruction of worker rights and social achievements decreed recently) and the new far-right government should want all the repressive power they can muster available, even if under their hierarchical control. It is very likely that nobody will be ceased at all.

In any case large demos took place in Madrid, Barcelona, Murcia (and maybe many other cities - unconfirmed), as well as Valencia itself, choring "I am also the enemy" and demanding resignations.

Madrid protested in solidarity with Valencia

Partial sources and more info (in Spanish): Público, Tercera Información, Kaos en la Red, Diagonal.

Also there is a call for tomorrow February 23rd to take Puerta del Sol in Madrid against the corporative coup. It commemorates in negative light the infamous coup of 1981-Feb-23, which effectively prevented the democratization process in the state of Spain to advance any further. 

From the Net: 'Brazil: Amid the Carnival, the military police raided the students’ autonomous space in the University of São Paulo (USP)' (Contra Info)

In the morning of Monday, February 6th, a warning regarding police presence close to the main gate of the university campus mobilized the students’ movement and other supporters. It was the deadline for the repossession of the students’ autonomous space, known as Moradia Retomada (‘Retaken House’), located on the ground floor of the G block of the residential premises of the USP (CRUSP).

After series of human rights’ violations during the repossession of the occupied rectorate, late last year, the persecution of the USP workers’ union, mass layoffs and attacks on the ‘Black Awareness Cell’, the rector keeps managing the university as if it were a business. This time, he decided to ‘sweep’ the university campus a few days before the first-year students’ registration, which took place from February 8th to 9th.

In the early hours of February 19th, during the Carnival holiday, the military police of São Paulo seized the opportunity to attack the students’ autonomous space of the USP. The cops used rubber bullets, and no student from the next buildings could get close to at least film the repressive operation. Twelve students were arrested.

... full story (and videos) at Contra Info.

Several people stabbed by Nazis in Toledo (Castile) with the passive complicity of the authorities

Sare Antifaxista[es] reports that, on Saturday night, some 15 masked neonazis attacked four citizens in Toledo with baseball bats and knives. Three of them suffered stab injuries, two remaining under emergency care at hospital. All four victims were known left wing activists. 

All this happens without the government or police doing anything about them, in spite of the repeated denounces, becoming obvious that these death squads (it's only a matter of time before they actually kill someone) are acting under direct orders and supervision of the so-called conservative authorities of Spain and Castlie-La Mancha.

We know well that these conservatives, christian-democrats and liberals, recycled themselves into fascists in 1936 only to change clothes again in the 70s: CEDA > FET-JONS > UCD > PP.

A protest took place on Sunday with people arriving from other parts of Southern Castile (picture).

Spain refuses Basque prisoners' petitions to be moved closer to home

The Spanish government has rejected all and each one of the individual petitions written by Basque political prisoners to be moved towards the Basque Country. Today most of them are scattered many hundreds of kilometers away from home.

According to the Ministry of Interior the petitions "were a legal fraud" because they did not "ask for forgiveness to the victims" or "expressed any rupture with ETA". Many Basque political prisoners are not even ETA members at all but victims of the ideological repression of the last decade, which has brought so many journalists and politicians to jail. 

The Collective of Basque Political Prisoners announced in December that they would perform this formalism and asked the states (Spain and France) to respond positively in order to advance towards peace.

However it would seem that Spain is determined not to allow peace to happen, that they are much more comfortable in a dynamic of open war.

Source: Gara[es].

Map of Basque prisoners' dispersion (source)

From the Net: 'Hundreds attend Bil’in’s 7th annual day of struggle against the Wall' (AATW)

In the beginning there were engineers, soldiers and bulldozers. It was after the International Court of Law in The Hague had already barred construction of The Separation Wall within the West Bank, and before the Israeli High Court of Justice found the Wall’s route in Bil’in illegal. It was after someone somewhere decided that more than 2,000 dunams of the village’s agricultural lands were to be annexed to Israel by force, and before countless people would be arrested and injured, and two killed. The engineers marked which trees to uproot, and the villagers removed the marks. The soldiers came to disperse the demonstrations, and the demonstrators tied themselves to the olive trees. The bulldozers started tearing the land, and the activists stood in their way. Day after day. A battle for every tree and every yard.

Seven years have passed since the first engineers, soldiers and bulldozers appeared in Bil’in. Seven years since the local Popular Committee against the Wall and the Settlements was founded, drawing from the experience of villages such as Mes’kha, Bidu and Budrus. Seven years since the Israelis and internationals were first invited to join in on the popular struggle. In the years that passed a fence was erected, causing incredible damage, and recently torn down in favor of a new wall, in a route which gives the village back some of its lands – but not all of them. The village has gained international attention and has become an example of a people’s unarmed struggle for liberation – a struggle which goes on to this day.

... full story at Anarchists Against the Wall.

From the Net: 'Japan's nuclear evacuees denied Canadian refuge' (Calgary Sun)

A Japanese woman who claimed exposure to radiation from damaged nuclear reactors has been denied refugee status in Canada almost one year after that nation was rocked by an earthquake and tsunami that left more than 100,000 people homeless.

The woman’s identity has not been released by an Immigration and Refugee Board (IRB) since she’s seeking asylum in this country. She is among several dozen Japanese nationals who filed refugee claims to stay in Canada following the disaster and is one of the first decisions to be reached by the IRB.

“The claimant feared risks of exposure to radiation,” an IRB member said in a ruling. “She was not convinced by the Japanese government’s assurances of safety from radiation.”

The woman was one of hundreds of Japanese citizens who sought refuge in other countries following the March 11, 2011 catastrophe caused by a magnitude 9.0 quake and tsunami that left more than 15,000 dead and nearly 3300 missing.

... full story at Calgary Sun (found via EneNews). 

No more Fukushimas, Garoña shut down

The very old and obsolete nuclear power plant of Garoña is not just the closest one to where I live but it is also too similar to the design of the ill-fated Fukushima to be relaxed about it at all. The license of the plant is being extended once and again in spite of reports and promises. 

For that reason and, coincident with the unwanted visit of the monarch of the occupant power Juan Carlos Borbon Borbon (alias 'Double Bourbon' - for good reason, mind you) on Tueday 21st there will be a protest before the monster tower of Iberdrola (the local feudal electricity company) which is formally inaugurated in that day (building pictured).

More details at Sare Antifaxista[es]: link 1, link 2.

The greatest risk area of Garoña includes most of the Basque Country

Brutal police repression in Valencia

Spanish police charged yesterday mindlessly in Valencia against students who, quite ironically, were protesting against police violence the previous days, as well as against budgetary cuts in education.

When the demo arrived to the Government Delegation (all powerful Spanish proconsul's office) it was surrounded by scores of police vans and their usual porcine meat cargo. Charges began immediately, followed by many arrests.

This was followed by a protest at the central police station, which again was responded by police charge and more arrests, including the beating of elected deputy Mònica Oltra.

A third police attack happened  at the central station, where parents and teachers had gathered separately. Six people, including a minor, were arrested. 

I forecast a very hot year in the state of Spain, because all the two-neuron IMF-docile government knows is to unleash the dogs.

The single twin party PPSOE lost four million votes in the last general elections and now rules with the support of only 15 million votes (roughly).

Sources[cat/es]: La Haine, Kaos en la Red (videos).

Union leader murdered in Guatemala, violence against unions increasing

The LINyM[es] reports that Miguel Ángel González Ramírez, member of the Banana Workers Union of Izabal (SITRABI) was shot dead when he returned home after a football match. He is the fifth member of this union murdered in the last 10 months alone. 

He used to have police protection since his relative Marco Tullio Ramírez Portela, leader of the same union, was murdered in 2007. However the government removed his protection recently in spite of the growth in class murders.

SITRABI has repeatedly denounced the lack of protection by the Guatemalan state, a mere client of North American corporations.

From the Net: international communication from Occupied Crete (yes, the occupation of the prefecture continues)

Greece: Greetings from occupied Crete

Location of Chania regional unit/prefecture

This is the 8th day of the occupation of the building of prefectural administration in Chania, Crete. We just translated our main communiqué in English and we send it to you, to inform and spread the message of the occupations worldwide. There is also a French translation available here. We also have a blog and internet radio, live from the occupation. Today at 18.00 GMT+2 we have organized a march in the main streets and the neighbourhoods of Chania. On Crete there are also occupied buildings in Rethimno and Lasithi. Moreover, the students are occupying their schools day by day. There at least 11 schools occupied in Chania today.

On February 15th, after a unanimous decision, the open public assembly of the prefectural administration in Chania occupied the studio of the corporate TV channel ‘Nea Tileorasi Kritis’ (NEA TV). Here’s the related video:

[video in Greek language]

The occupied administrative building

Communiqué of the occupied prefectural administration of Chania

We are also part of the struggling people that rushed into the streets for the 48hour strike demonstrations and the massive protest of Sunday, February 12th, against the devaluation of our employment and the pauperization of our lives. Since Friday, February 10th, after the march in the city streets, we have occupied the building of Prefecture of Crete in Chania. The occupation serves as a meeting and coordination centre of a collective effort to organize the struggle for a life that is characterized by solidarity, resistance and dignity. By blocking the ordinary function of a central administrational building, we pose political pressure against the implementation of the recent decisions of the foreign and local exploiters. We are referring to the voting by the Greek parliament of the second Memorandum and the new austerity measures according to the commands of Troika (EU/IMF/ECB) and global capitalism.

We salute the hundreds of thousands demonstrators that during the last few days, and especially on Sunday, February 12th, fight against barbarism and the plundering of the basic social goods such as health, education, electricity and water.

We are a part of dozens of occupied state administrative, educational and labour buildings that spread across the country the last few days. Against a spirit of struggle decline and defeatism after the voting of the new laws by the parliament, we continue to fight against the fake dilemmas they impose, such as ‘default or consent’. We call the grassroots labour unions of Chania to take decisions towards a long-term general strike. We call all the citizens of Chania and the countryside, students, workers and unemployed, immigrants and locals, to join our ideas, agonies and creativity.

To defend the dignity in our employment and in our life

No prosecution to the detainees of the strike demonstrations

Solidarity – Victory to the long-lasting strike of the ‘Greek Steelworks’ and all labour struggles

All ahead towards a wild permanent general strike

We call all people to participate in the public open assembly daily at 20.00 in the occupied prefectural administration of Chania and in actions that are decided. The last few days hundreds of people have participated in the decisions of these assemblies.

From Contra Info.