politics for the 99%

Published on The People’s Voice.org, by Stephen Lendman, Feb 8, 2016.

… Two years after fascists seized power, conditions for ordinary Ukrainians are deplorable. According to Germany’s daily broadsheet Junge Welt, they’re “staggering.”

“Since the end of the Yanukovych era, the average income has decreased by 50%,” it reported – on top of 2015’s 44% inflation, nearly reducing purchasing power by half, making it impossible for most Ukrainians to get by. They’re suffering hugely, deeply impoverished, denied fundamental social services, abolished or greatly reduced en route to eliminating them altogether.   Continue Reading…

Uploaded by Baxylz:

• Music for Running, Weightlifting, Bodybuilding 2016, 31.26 min, Feb 2, 2016;
• Inspirational Music for Studying, Working, 360.13 min, March 7, 2014;

… Submission to the Standing Committee on Finance and Economic Affairs – Published on The Bullet, Socialist Project’s E-Bulletin No. 1217, Feb 5, 2016.

… A sampling of recent cuts:

• North Bay: 30 – 40 beds closing and 140 staff positions to be cut.
• Brockville: 17 Registered Nurses cut affecting departments across the hospital.   Continue Reading…

Special Event – Wednesday 10 February 2016, New Economics Foundation (NEF), 10 Salamanca Place, London SE1 7HB, 18:00 – 19:30, refreshments provided - Space limited – register.
Website: New Economics Foundation nef.org, economics, as if people and the planet mattered (on en.wikipedia).

Uploaded on YouTube by New Economics Foundation:
Can we measure happiness? 11.43 min, Feb 3, 2016 … NEF’s Saamah Abdallah on Sky News;
GDP release by NEF’s Olivier Vardakoulias, on Sky News, 5.06 min, Jan 28, 2016;   Continue Reading…

Published on Market Express.in, by Deutsche Welle DW, Feb 2, 2016.

Pauper or billionaire: Switzerland prepares for a vote on a basic income for all. Here are the arguments pro and con – and why the referendum is most likely to fail.
To work or not to work for a living – that may no longer be an issue in Switzerland in the near future.
The Swiss go to the polls on June 5 in a referendum on an unconditional basic income (UBI). A guaranteed income for everyone, no questions asked … // Continue Reading…

The Bank Whistleblowers United – Who are We, and Why are We Trying to Help Implement Real Banking Reform? on New Economic Perspectives, by William Black, Jan 31, 2016. At this time (January 29, 2016), we consist of four founding members: Continue Reading…

Zuerst ein paar Fragen: erlauben wir unserem Nachwuchs, sich so aufzuführen? Wenn nicht, warum akzeptieren wir das Benehmen nachfolgender Hitzköpfe, ohne sofort abzuschieben? Diese Leute verstehen nur eine Sprache, die sie in die Schranken weisst. Sind wir noch erziehungsfähig? Sind wir wirklich diese beschimpften Weicheier? Wenn nicht, warum führen wir uns dann so auf? Continue Reading…

Published on Dissident Voice, by Ruth Hurley, Feb 1, 2015.

A people’s history of the U.S. working class starts with the conflict between resistance and repression.

As income inequality widens in the U.S., the narrative that we need to “take back” our country, or return to an America where hardworking people are rewarded for playing by the rules, is everywhere. But is this really the history of the U.S.—or a fairy tale that obscures the U.S.’s path to industrial dominance? … // Continue Reading…

Translation in spanish, and in persian (Farsi) language – Published on ZNet, interview with Yanis Varoufakis (first on his blog), Jan 31, 2016.

Why did you resign the very next day after the ‘no’ victory in the Greek referendum?

• Because the Prime Minister told me, on the night of that magnificent result, that it was time to surrender to the troika. Not what I had entered politics for and certainly not what the mandate that the 62% NO vote we had just received stipulated.   Continue Reading…

Published on RT, Jan 31, 2016.

Human traffickers are taking advantage of Europe’s refugee crisis to find sex and labor slaves, particularly children, Europol says. The EU police’s chief of staff told the Observer that some 10,000 minors have gone missing since crossing into the EU.

Thousands of underage refugees have reportedly disappeared since registering with authorities, Europol’s chief of staff, Brian Donald, told The Observer. Continue Reading…

related articles published during January 2016: (continuously updated … ) Continue Reading…

Published on RT, Jan 30, 2016.

A federal court judge in Portland has denied bail to Ammon Bundy and three of his cohorts as the occupation of a federal wildlife refuge building in Burns, Oregon continues. The FBI says four people remain there as the protest hits its fourth week.

The leader of the group of armed men that occupied the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge, Ammon Bundy, as well as his brother Ryan, Brian Cavalier, and Ryan Payne, were all denied release on Friday. US Magistrate Judge Stacie Beckerman said that they posed a danger to public safety and were considered a flight risk, as she was concerned they would not follow orders to return to Oregon for criminal proceedings … // Continue Reading…

Published on Basic Income Earth Network BIEN, by Stanislas Jourdan, Jan 28, 2016.

Critics of basic income have been proven wrong once again. Giving everyone the means to survive would not make people lazy. A new opinion poll carried out in Switzerland shows that only a tiny fraction of the population would stop working if they had a Universal Basic Income (UBI). What is more, most young people believe UBI will be implemented in the future.

The survey was conducted by DemoSCOPE and released on January 27, 2016 (you can read the full results here). Among the 1076 respondents, only 2% said they would stop working completely, while another 8% said they would ‘rather’ stop working. This trend is also persistent among the youth, were only 3% said they would stop working. However, about a third of the respondents think “others would stop working.”   Continue Reading…

• The Lie We Live, 8.28 min, uploaded by Freshtastical, Jan 27, 2015 … (subtitled in french: le mensonge que nous sommes en train de vivre)
• Thoughts on Egypt’s revolution from the ground, 3.11 min, uploaded by Middle East Eye, Jan 25, 2016;
• The case for radical modernity, on red pepper.org.uk, by Jeremy Gilbert, Jan 2016: the left should embrace technological innovation and new class alliances as part of a strategy for 21st-century socialism;
• Shocking Disfunction and The Power Of Oligarchs, 62.38 min, uploaded by Minethis1, Nov 4, 2015 … Candid interview with Yanis Varoufakis (subtitled in german);
• Die neue, selbstorganisierte, ressourcenbasierte Wirtschaft – Prof. Franz Hörmann, 96.15 min, von NeueHorizonteTV am 25. September 2014 hochgeladen … und weitere Videos in autoplay;
• Rethink your life, 4.56 min, uploaded by iReleaseEndorphins, Feb 8, 2012;
• The Story of Your Enslavement, 13.09 min, uploaded by Stefan Molyneux, April 17, 2010.

Published on tni.org.uk, Jan 25, 2016.

Final declaration of the Global Forum of Producers of Prohibited Plants.

In a global meeting small scale farmers of cannabis, coca and opium from 14 countries discussed their contribution to the United Nations General Assembly Special Session (UNGASS). The UNGASS will discuss all aspects of global drug control policies, including the worldwide ban on the cultivation of coca, poppy and cannabis, an issue the Global Farmers Forum demands that their voices be heard and taken into account … // Continue Reading…

Published on ZNet (first on red pepper.org), Jan 27, 2016.

What do you see as the main threats to democracy today?

• The threat to democracy has always been the disdain the establishment has for it. Democracy by its nature is very fragile and the antipathy towards it by the establishment is always extremely pronounced, and the establishment has always sought to undo it.   Continue Reading…

… rightists’ election victory poses major threat to Venezuela’s advances – Published 0n The Bullet, Socialist Project’s E-Bulletin No. 1211, by Richard Fidler, Jan 25, 2016.

Seventeen years after Hugo Chávez was elected Venezuela’s President for the first time, the supporters of his Bolivarian Revolution, now led by President Nicolás Maduro, suffered their first major defeat in a national election in the December 6 elections to the country’s parliament, the National Assembly … // Continue Reading…

• We Can’t Address the EU Refugee Crisis Without Confronting Global Capitalism – Slavoj Zizek, on IN THESE TIMES, by SLAVOJ ŽIŽEK, Sept 9, 2015;
• Environment, Identity and Multiculturalism – discussion with Slavoj Zizek, 40.13 min, uploaded by Science and Scolastic, July 24, 2015;
• What does it mean to be a great thinker today – Slavoj Zizek, 111.54 min, uploaded by IWM Vienna, May 6, 2015 … Institut für die Wissenschaften vom Menschen / Institute for Human Sciences;
• an excerpt of above: Continue Reading…

Published on Real World Economic Review Blog RWER, by Norbert Häring, Jan 22, 2016.

A central bank governor in Athens conspires with the President of the Republic to sabotage the negotiation strategy of his government to weaken it in its negotiations with the European Central Bank. After the government has capitulated, this governor, who is a close friend of the new finance minister and boss of the finance ministers wife, and the President of the Republic travel together to the ECB to collect their praise and rewards. This is not an invention, this is now documented. Continue Reading…

Published on Spiegel Online International, conducted by Bernhard Zand, Jan 22, 2016: … (she) discusses the recent market crash, the end of China’s building boom and why she views Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg as a role model for the wealthy … //

… SPIEGEL: In comparison, how did things start out for you?

• Zhang: When we started out, we were among the first. Beijing had no and Shanghai had very few large buildings. At that time, it was all about building, building, building — and then selling, selling, selling. We were working like a manufacturer. Soon, however, we realized that land was running out in Beijing and Shanghai. So we started keeping our buildings, and managing and renting them out. We became landowners. That was the second act.   Continue Reading…

Published on ASIA TIMES, by ASIA UNHEDGED China, Jan 21, 2016.

The People’s Bank of China BPOC on Wednesday said it wants to issue its own digital currency to cut the costs of circulating traditional paper money, boost policymakers’ control of money supply and improve the efficiency of global transactions.

The central bank set up a research team in 2014 to study digital currencies and application scenarios, according to a statement posted on the regulator’s website.   Continue Reading…

How to kill the demos: the water struggle in Italy

Published on ZNet (first on Roarmag.org), by Andrea Muehlebach, January 20, 2016.

On November 28, 2015, water activists from the Southern Italian region of Campania staged a massive protest in the city of Naples. Some 5,000 water activists and environmentalists, trade unionists and workers from Naples’ water works protested a recently passed regional law that aims to centralize water management and set the stage for water privatization … // Continue Reading…

Published on ZNet, by Paul Rubin, Jan 18, 2016.

The labor movement in this country is in deep crisis. All too many unions are losing members, confronting deteriorating job conditions, and fighting defensive battles. One would think that labor in conservative, right-to-work states would be in the worst shape of all. But this is not necessarily so. One union local in historically conservative Arizona has continued to grow not just in size but, more importantly, in influence. I believe there are lessons here for labor activists across the nation … //

… Internal Organizing/Education: Continue Reading…

… and How Not to Be Fooled – Published on naked capitalism, by Yves Smith, Jan 17, 2016; (first by Larry Schwartz on AlterNet).

… Americans, as P.T. Barnum once noted, are not all that difficult to fool, and our nation’s somewhat weak math skills don’t help. A Pew Research Center report issued last year, which studied test results of 15-year-olds, ranked the United States 35th in the world in math. Not only has this weakness in understanding numbers created opportunities for mass exploitation by Big Pharma and other industries, it has led to needless and mostly unwarranted fear. While Americans don’t understand math, be assured that corporations do, and they happily use it to mislead and obfuscate in the name of selling their products.   Continue Reading…

• The Costs of Capitalism’s Crisis, Who Will Pay? 95.00 min, uploade by Joe Friendly, Jan 27, 2012;
• Marxian Economics vs Capitalism with Economist Prof. Richard D. Wolff, 37.31 min, uploaded by TYT Interviews, Aug 4, 2014 … Professor Richard D. Wolff. is one of the world’s leading Marxian economists and is a professor of economics emeritus at the University of Massachusetts, where he taught from 1973 to 2008. He is also currently a Visiting Professor in the Graduate Program in International Affairs of the New School University in New York. He is also a founding member of the Green Party of New Haven Connecticut, is the host of Economic Update, at WBAI in New York City, and has co-authored 13 books, most recently “Democracy at Work: A Cure for Capitalism” in 2012 …;
• MALAYSIA: Budget 2016 revision not austerity measures, says Wahid, on The Edge Markets, by Kamarul Anwar, by Simeon Kerr, Jan 19, 2016;
• Spain’s deadlocked parliament a reflection of the crisis of the regime, on In Defense of Marxism, by Jorge Martin, Jan 18, 2016;
• Unions, Kirchnerite leaders blast austerity measures, repression, on Buenos Aires Herald, Jan 11, 2016.