Strikes continue against austerity measures

Strikes by the workers continue to spread across the EU, in Italy, Greece, Spain, Portugal, Belgium, France, and UK, in protest against harsh austerity measures being imposed by the governing troika, the European Union (EU), European Central Bank (ECB) and the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

Striking is one of the last actions remaining for the working class to take in order to bring social justice.

In reality, the working force can produce enough for every citizen of every country to share, feed and care for themselves and their families. The fruits of their labor are co-opted by the corporations, banks, financiers, investors and money speculators who siphon off profits and stash the money away in off-shore tax-free havens. 

And we wonder why there is not enough money to pay a decent wage?

There is one battle left to be fought – collapse of the global financial system that will wipe out all of the accumulated wealth of the ruling class.

The battle wages on.

Corporations Rule the World

The entire world is headed into three simultaneous monumental crises: financial, environmental and social. The environmental destruction, social unrest and financial collapse are all precipitated by corporate stranglehold on our governments, institutions and global monetary policies.

Guns, laws and money are all instruments of social organization and control. Whoever controls any or all will rule the world. Right now, the military-industrial-congressional-complex (MICC) has it all.

In Chris Hedges latest article, “Colonized by Corporations” (truthdig.com - May 14, 2012)http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/colonized_by_corporations_20120514 he writes,

“We have been, like nations on the periphery of empire, colonized. We are controlled by tiny corporate entities that have no loyalty to the nation and indeed in the language of traditional patriotism are traitors. They strip us of our resources, keep us politically passive and enrich themselves at our expense.”

 “Laws are written to legalize corporate plunder and abuse, as well as criminalize dissent.”

“A change of power does not require the election of a Mitt Romney or a Barack Obama or a Democratic majority in Congress, or an attempt to reform the system or electing progressive candidates, but rather a destruction of corporate domination of the political process... It requires the establishment of new mechanisms of governance to distribute wealth and protect resources, to curtail corporate power, to cope with the destruction of the ecosystem and to foster the common good.”

Our only hope to stop the MICC domination is by revolution of the masses. The Occupy protest we witness now is just a dress rehearsal of what is yet to come. We have already seen the start of this revolutionary process in the “Arab Spring” in Middle Eastern nations. We will see this eventually come to Greece, Spain, Portugal and Italy in the coming months. As the walls of the financial-corporate-ruling class structures come tumbling down, this will spread to the rest of Europe and America.

“A revolution has been unleashed across the globe. This revolution, a popular repudiation of the old order, is where we should direct all our energy and commitment. If we do not topple the corporate elites the ecosystem will be destroyed and massive numbers of human beings along with it.”  

"Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results." - Albert Einstein

“Go ahead and vote this November. But don’t waste any more time or energy on the presidential election than it takes to get to your polling station and pull a lever for a third-party candidate—just enough to register your obstruction and defiance—and then get back out onto the street. That is where the question of real power is being decided.”

Plan A vs Plan B

Columnist Evan Davis on BBC News posed the dilemma "Plan A vs Plan B" to economists Jonathan Portes and Roger Bootle. Is austerity or spending stimulus likely to pull us through the financial mess we are in?

Economics explained: Plan A vs Plan B

There is a joke that goes: If you took all the economists in the world and laid them on the ground head to foot they would still not come to an agreement. It is not a question of Plan A vs Plan B but a matter of understanding the creation and purpose of fiat money.

There are many others who are spreading the word that our current economic system is simply not sustainable. It his high time that we consider steady-state economics. Herman Daly, Paul Ekins, Thomas H. Greco, Michael Hudson, Tim Jackson, David Korten, Mike Nickerson, Jonathon Porritt, James Gustave Speth, Peter Victor, are some of these writers, to name just a few.

We know that people can and do trade without the need for money. We also acknowledge that barter is an inconvenient and inefficient mode of exchange. Money has become the life-blood of our modern economic world. Along with money comes the desire and need to save for retirement, to see us through the final years of our lives when we are no longer fit to labour. Personal saving is no different from business profit. The essential objective of every business enterprise is to return a profit. But saving or profit is real and tangible only if it represents surplus. This is one of the essential roles of money that every student of economics is told. Money is a store of value. In our modern world, fiat money is not backed by any underlying surplus. Instead, money is an entitlement to those who hold it. It is a debt obligation on the future worker. The quest for savings, profit, return on investment, or interest is a gigantic pyramid scheme that is dependent on a growing labour force, consumers, population, liquidation and exploitation of the natural resources.

In reality, neither austerity programs nor quantitative easing will solve the financial crisis. Austerity programs destroy the very productivity of the workforce that is required to create any resemblance of surplus. Monetary expansion only continues to build the pyramid scheme that maintains the status quo for the ruling moneyed elite.

Money, like laws and guns are all instruments of social organization and control. And with all three, those who wield the power will corrupt and distort it for their own self interests.

In conclusion, it is not a choice between Plan A and Plan B, but a matter of understanding money, growth and profit. Money is a human fabrication and a false god. Growth is not sustainable on a finite planet. Profit without surplus is all an illusion.

Pipe Dream to Nowhere

The good news for now is that on January 18, 2012, US President Barack Obama rejected the application from TransCanada Pipelines to build the Keystone XL pipeline from Alberta to Texas. But now is not the time to celebrate. There is still another battle being fought right here at home in Canada, the Enbridge Northern Gateway Pipeline planned to stretch across Alberta and British Columbia to the Pacific coast.

On January 9, 2012, federal Minister of Natural Resources, Joe Oliver wrote a letter to the Globe and Mail.

On January 18, 2012, Joe Oliver spoke on CBC Radio, The Current, with host Anna Maria Tremonti defending his government's position on the Northern Gateway Pipeline.

What Natural Resources Minister Joe Oliver had to say reeks with the stench of dirty oil for big profits for Big Oil companies.

"Unfortunately, there are environmental and other radical groups that would seek to block this opportunity to diversify our trade. Their goal is to stop any major project no matter what the cost to Canadian families in lost jobs and economic growth."

"These groups threaten to hijack our regulatory system to achieve their radical ideological agenda. They seek to exploit any loophole they can find, stacking public hearings with bodies to ensure that delays kill good projects. They use funding from foreign special interest groups to undermine Canada’s national economic interest."

Joe Oliver states that "radical" environmental groups are delaying the review process.

In the minds of Joe Oliver, Stephen Harper and his government, the Northern Gate Pipeline is a "done deal". The review process is a hindrance to corporate progress. Why have a review process for the public to tell the government it is dead wrong? The review process is there as an opportunity for both sides to voice their arguments. It is the Harper government that wants to curtail the due process in order to accelerate its own agenda.

"In many cases, these projects would create thousands upon thousands of jobs for Canadians, yet they can take years to get started due to the slow, complex and cumbersome federal Government approval process."

What jobs? All of these so called jobs are temporary, transient jobs. Once the pipeline is built, these jobs will be gone. The jobs and legacy that will be left behind will be the ones to clean up the ongoing pollution, contaminated water system, environmental damage and escalating damage to human health and well-being.

"For our government, the choice is clear: we need to diversify our markets in order to create jobs and economic growth for Canadians across this country. We must expand our trade with the fast growing Asian economies."

Nonsense. You cannot fool the public all the time. The Northern Gateway Pipeline and the entire Alberta Tar-sands project is all about big profits for Big Oil Companies. We give away non-renewable resources to Asian countries for what?. We supply Chinese manufacturing industry with cheap energy in exchange for cheap plastic goods that end up in landfill after less than a year of usage. We are not creating jobs in Canada. No, we are exporting jobs to China.

The Keystone XL Pipeline is the fuse to the biggest carbon bomb on the planet. The Northern Gateway Pipeline is the Harper government's backup fuse.

We have already released a significant amount of carbon into the atmosphere from the Saudi Arabian oil deposits. If we release the carbon from the Alberta Tar-sands you might as well kiss your kids goodbye. The best place for fossil fuel is to leave it in the ground.

Dr. Jim Hansen, head of the Goddard Institute for Space Studies at NASA has said, "Einstein said that to think and not act is a crime."

Now is the time for all of us to act and stop the Northern Gateway Pipeline.

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