Flames throw light on desperate reality behind statistics

WITH all the TV coverage of the Olympic torch, I don't expect there'll be much time for another kind of flame.
But here is yesterday's Guardian's report:

A man has set himself on fire outside a Birmingham jobcentre after what reports suggest was an argument over benefit payments.
The 48-year-old unnamed man is understood to have doused himself in flammable liquid and tied himself to railings after a dispute inside the Jobcentre Plus in the Selly Oak area on Thursday.
Police arrived at the scene and extinguished the fire after the jobcentre was evacuated.
The man was later taken to hospital with burns to his legs.
A source with links to staff at the centre told the Guardian the man had been recognised by the staff as vulnerable with outstanding health issues but had recently been found fit to work precipitating a move from one benefit to another. This had caused payment delays.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2012/jun/29/man-on-fire-birmingham-job-centre?newsfeed=true
And now an item from investigative bloggers Penman and Sommerlad back in April in the Mirror:

MORE than a thousand sickness benefit claimants died last year after being told to get a job, we can reveal. We've highlighted worries about the controversial medical tests for people claiming Employment Support Allowance which are being used to slash the country's welfare bill.

The Government has boasted that more than half of new claimants are found "fit to work" - failing to mention that over 300,000 have appealed the decision and almost 40% have won.Instead, employment minister Chris Grayling says this "emphasises what a complete waste of human lives the current system has been".

Here's another waste of human life. We've used the Freedom of Information Act to discover that, between January and August last year, 1,100 claimants died after they were put in the "work-related activity group" - that's 32 a week.

This group - which accounted for 21% of all claimants at the last count - get a lower rate of benefit for one year and are expected to go out and find work.

This compares to 5,300 deaths of people who were put in the "support group" - which accounts for 22% of claimants - for the most unwell, who get the full, no-strings benefit of up to pounds 99.85 a week.

We don't know how many people died after being found "fit to work", the third group, as that information was "not available".

But we have also found that 1,600 people died before their assessment had been completed.

This should take 13 weeks, while the claimant gets a reduced payment of up to pounds 67.50 a week, but delays have led to claims the system is in "meltdown".

Mr Grayling admitted last month that 35,000 people are waiting longer than 13 weeks. Commenting on the deaths of claimants, a Department for Work and Pensions official said: "It is possible that the claimant had already closed their claim and then subsequently died, meaning that these figures may be overestimating the true picture."

Of course, they're bound to include some people who died of something completely unrelated to their benefit claim.

But there are plenty of tragic cases - such as that of David Groves who died from a heart attack the night before taking his work capability assessment.

The 56-year-old, from Staveley, Derbyshire, worked for 40 years as a miner and telecoms engineer but stopped on doctors' orders after an earlier heart attack and a string of strokes. His widow Sandra said: "When Dave was called in for a medical, he felt like he was back to square one.

"He was in a terrible state by the day he died. It was the stress that killed him, I'm sure."

Stephen Hill, 53, of Duckmanton, Derbyshire, died of a heart attack in December, one month after being told he was "fit to work", even though he was waiting for major heart surgery.

Citizens Advice told us it has found "a number of cases" of people dying soon after being found fit for work.

"There seems to be a clear link between the cause of death and the condition they were suffering from that led to the claim," a spokeswoman added.

The work capability assessments are carried out by private firm Atos, on a pounds 100million a year contract.

The firm made a pounds 42million profit in 2010 and paid boss Keith Wilman pounds 800,000, a 22% pay rise on the previous year.

http://blogs.mirror.co.uk/investigations/2012/04/32-die-a-week-after-failing-in.html
But the clampdown on benefits claimants has not been all bad news. Not for some.
On Wednesday this week the Mirror reported:

The fatcat boss of a firm hired to help slash the benefits bill has won a bonus of nearly £1million.

Thierry Breton’s bumper payout means he pocketed more than £1.9million last year.
Details of the obscene sum paid to the head of French firm Atos come as David Cameron draws up draconian new welfare cuts.
Atos was brought in to reassess 2.5 million people on ­incapacity benefit to help the ­Department for Work and Pensions decide whether they are fit to work.
Mr Breton received his massive pay out despite mounting numbers of successful appeals by people ordered to get a job after being tested by the firm.
Heart attack and lung disease victims are among those judged to be well enough to work.
Some 3,100 claimants had appeals upheld in May 2011, up from 900 in the same month in 2010, the latest figures show.
On average almost two in five, 38%, challenged decisions are overturned at tribunal, nearly one in 10 of all those made.
And the appeals system costs taxpayers tens of millions of pounds to administer.
Labour MP Tom Greatrex says Mr Breton’s bonus will “sicken” those put through the reassessment ordeal.
The Atos chief’s latest payment comes on top of wages and perks totalling £1.83million in 2010.
It was revealed in its recent annual report in which it boasts about its “excellent service”.
Mr Greatrex said: “People will find it hard to believe that he sees fit to reward himself with millions, while thousands here suffer.
“It will sicken those who have been through the Atos process to hear the company crow about its expertise.”
He called on the DWP to get a grip on Atos and make the firm improve its performance.
“Thousands suffered because time and again incorrect decisions have been made on the back of Atos assessments,” he said.
An Atos source said decisions on fitness to work were not based solely on its ­assessments but also on information from ­claimants and their doctors.
A spokesman for the company said the bonus was unrelated to the firm’s Government contract, insisting: “No bonus payments are made as part of the Department for Work and Pensions contract.”

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/atos-fatcat-lands-1m-bonus-941601
Oh, and also this week, David Cameron said his government was determined to "get rid of the benefits culture". Well, at 1,000 deaths last year you could say they are getting rid of the poor.
Time we got rid of Lord Snooty and his chums. They ought to be burning in hell. Let the flames lit in Birmingham be our torch.

Daphne puts things straight

IT'S TIME FOR ME TO PUT THINGS STRAIGHT",
Israeli social protest leader Daphne Leef replies to liars.

LAST weekend it seemed all hell broke out in Tel Aviv because of a woman's arrest. Well, crowds blocked a couple of busy streets, and a few banks got their fronts kicked in. But you must remember that for those who believe in bourgeois law and order, in Israel, as in Britain, such "violence" from the plebs and disaffected youth, in damaging the very rich person's property, easily eclipses anything the state can do in killing people, destroying homes or amassing weapons of mass destruction.

What particularly sparked off anger in Tel Aviv was the news that 23-year old Daphne Leef had been injured when police grabbed her and a dozen other people from a demonstration. The demonstrators had been marking the anniversary of last year's protests over housing, prices, and social justice, which began when Daphne pitched a tent on Rothschild Boulevard, and spread across the country.

Police claimed later that Daphne's injuries had not been caused by them, but by her friends trying to prevent her being arrested. Eye witnesses, and cameras, tell it differently.

But Daphne Leef has not just been manhandled by the police. It seems the media and politicians who last year thought her avowedly "non-political" protest tame enough to be taken into the house (didn't the protest camp welcome everybody, and weren't they flying the flag, and finishing up by singing the anthem Hatikvah? ) have now decided otherwise.

At first it was just the "Bibiton", as Israelis have dubbed the pro-Netanyahu freesheet Yisrael Hayom (Israel Today) owned by Las Vegas billionaire Sheldon Alderson (from the nickname Bibi for Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, and the word iton, meaning newspaper). But now the rest of the pack, or most of them, have joined in.

In response, Daphne, or as her name is commonly transcribed from Hebrew, Daphni (and why not Dafni?) has made a statement, which tries to put things right, and has been translated by Sol Salbe, who says:
"I have just posted a translation of heartfelt response to the vicious attack on her personality in the Israeli media. Last year she was the pin-up woman (they called her a girl) of the protest movement. (Only the Bibiton [the freebie Israel Hayom] showed some hostility.) This year the tide has turned and with the exception Haaretz the protest movement has been abused by the media Knesset members who are all acting at the behest of the powers to be.

So Daphni, who a few months ago was a model for young girls at the dress-up festival of Purim, became a prime target. I've some political differences with Daphni who as Dimi Reider pointed out a few days ago is no revolutionary leftist or even a liberal political operator but an honest person who has seen something wrong and has taken up the cudgels to fight it. She has certainly acted as a spark for the movement and is continuing to channel more energy into it.

by Sol Salbe on Friday, 29 June 2012 at 08:21 ·

This is a translation of an item on Daphni Leef's wall that she has asked to be shared as widely as possible. Daphni has not seen or checked the translation.

Please share. It's time for me to put things straight (for those who are interested)

For several months now the media* has been telling stories about me. I managed as much as I could to ignore those for a very long time. I did so because I knew that Sharon Gal and his ilk represent powerful interests. Some media people are not interested in the truth, they are much more interested in damaging the protest movement by setting someone as patsy to antagonise people. But enough is enough, and I've had it up to here. So where should I put my response? On my Facebook wall , where I can write as I please. So here goes:

1) I was born in Jerusalem and lived there till I was 16. (In Rehavia near the city centre, right next to the prime minister residence).

2) I suffer from epilepsy.

3) I don't have a driver's licence.

4) The house that my parents built in Kfar Shmaryahu [an upmarket neighbourhood in the greater Tel Aviv region] was only made possible through the purchase of the land by my father's grandfather. It's a one-storey house with a lawn.

5) My Jerusalemite-born father is a music teacher, he has been very recently appointed as the president of the Jerusalem Academy of Music

6) My mother immigrated from Latvia, she has been working in the welfare development funds section of the National Insurance Institute.

7) My last job before pitching the first tent last year was as an editor on the program Your house is worth more .

8) Before the commencement of the social protest movement I have not heard of the New Israel Fund, . When they asked me if I have edited any film for the New Fund, I thought they were talking about New Fund for Cinema and Television.

9) I have not received any money from any fund during this period.

10) How do I make a living - I am on the brink of a negative balance in my finances. I have raided the savings account that my parents opened for me on the day I was born. I'm still owed some money for some editorial work from about a year ago. Also, lately I started to lecture here and there. That's it. Oh, and a bank loan. Shite.

11) Re Miri Regev -she called me up in the morning on the day she visited the tent encampment. She said she wanted to visit. I said that it would be my pleasure so long as her visit was on the level. It is important to note that at that point I wasn't familiar with too many Knesset members. I did not know who she was. I thought that it would be good if she came, if that's she wants. The person who spilled a glass of water on her was a provocateur. Knesset Member Miri Regev was very aggressive after that. And although I genuinely dealt with her politely at the beginning of the day I was shocked when she denounced me as an extreme Leftist. She continued to be interviewed on the media and I nearly had an epileptic seizure from the emotional tension.

12) I'm not an extreme Leftist.

13) I'm a qualified video editor, director and assistant director. I've been working 12-hours work days for years.

14) I'm not here for apartments in [upmarket] Rothschild Boulevard . I'm here to ensure that Israeli society becomes healthy and fair. I want to live in a decent society , because I want to live here and I do care.

15) I'm not a violent person, last treaty I was brutally manhandled just like everyone else was. My character's assassination which they are trying to fabricate is not based on the true facts.

This is it now. Let me assure you that if you have any questions, I'm here *), without any intermediaries.

Translator note. In her first allusion to the media Daphni used the slang term Tishkoret which transposes two letters in the Hebrew word for media to make it sounds like "the liars".

Translated by Sol Salbe of the Middle East News Service, Melbourne, Australia.

https://www.facebook.com/sol.salbe?ref=tn_tnmn

And here by way of background explanation is an extract from Wikipedia, with my own comments in parantheses:

As the housing protests continued and expanded, various public figures and organizations, mostly affiliated with the political right in Israel, began to escalate their personal criticism of Leef, her character and her political positions. From their point of view, various Israeli left-wing media and political organizations have exploited the demonstrations, as well as the economic distress affecting large sections of the Israeli public, for political purposes, with the intention of overthrowing the current right-wing Netanyahu government. According to this version, finding solutions to the housing crises in Israel is only secondary in this struggle.

On July 15, 2011, demonstrators drove out the Knesset member Miri Regev (member of the ruling right-wing Likud party) from the tent encampment in Tel Aviv. Several protesters had booed Regev, one threw a glass of water at her and she had a verbal confrontation with Daphni Leef. Regev, quite upset by the encounter, claimed the activists in the encampment had attacked her, a member of Israel's ruling coalition, while members of the opposition received a warm greeting. In addition, Regev stated that Leef "represents the extreme left". In response, Leef said she felt embarrassed by the violent confrontation but made it clear that, contrary to Regev's claim, it is first and foremost a social struggle and not a political struggle.

(Perhaps the demonstraror was inspired by example from the Knesset, where a right-wing member threw water over an Arab knesset member. Regev, as was seen recently when she spoke at an anti-African immigrant rally that became a pogrom, prefers her struggles racial. - CP)

On July 20, 2011, the Israeli right-wing extra-parliamentary group "Im Tirtzu" (אם תרצו) announced that they would no longer take part in the housing protests, claiming that the New Israel Fund and various left-wing groups are directly involved. Im Tirtzu officials said that "Daphni Leef, who is perceived in the media as the initiator of the struggle, is actually a video editor for the New Israel Fund and Shatil." This was also reported in Front Page Magazine.

(The New Israel Fund, which most people would probably see as liberal or socially progressive albeit Zionist, funds various projects across ethnic or religious divides aimed at countering racialism and improving culture and social conditions. But such respectable aims and activity have made it a favourite bete-noir for Im Tirtzu, who denounce it as a foreign funding conspiracy. These right-wing patriots see no incompatibility between this and their own acceptance of funds from for instance, right-wing American Evangelical Christian outfits).

For background on Yisrael Hayom's Las Vegas backer see:

http://www.minyanville.com/special-features/articles/Sheldon-Adelson-adelson-Las-Vegas-Sands/10/21/2010/id/30615

An interview with Daphne Leef from last year when media were still friendly enough to call her "an ordinary average Israeli".

Wealth fears Workers in Kazakhstan

BIG companies operating in Kazakhstan, anxious to avoid the kind of bitter struggle that culminated in riots last Deecember, are giving into quickfire strikes by workers, according to a report by Robin Paxton of Reuters, on the Mineweb site.

Seventeen people were killed and hundreds injured when police clashed with striking oil workers on December 16, 2011. Dozens of people were arrested. The Kazakhstan unions, with support from those in Russia and the International Confederation, are urging the Kazakh authoties to review the cases, investigate allegations of torture, and remove legislation which makes it a criminal offence to "call for social strife", a law which they say particularly hits trade unionists.

With gold, iron, copper, coal and uranium to be mined, Soviet-era steel plants and single industry towns, Kazakhstan is potentially a very rich country, its $185 billion economy the largest in Central Asia.

Big mining companies including Glencore-controlled Kazzinc and London-traded Kazakhmys and ENRC, have reaped bumper profits on record-high commodity prices. They count some of the country's richest men among their shareholders. But the workers who produce this wealth say they are struggling to keep up with inflation, and that after they have paid higher rents and power prices they have not enough to feed their families.

State repression is not effective in quelling the unrest. Kazakhmys, the world's 11th-largest copper miner, found this out in May. Around 80 miners refused to leave the Annensky mine when their shift ended. More than 200 joined the underground sit-in. Also in May, steel workers held a rally to demand a 30 percent hike in base salaries on top of an inflation adjustment of 7.4 percent.

ArcelorMittal Temirtau, the world's biggest steel producer, paid its coal division employees an average monthly salary of $915 last year, an increase of slightly more than 12 percent on the previous year. IThis year, the company has offered both its steel and coal workers a 10 percent increase in base salary. It's a compromise that was accepted on June 19 by the coal miners' trade union, on the understanding that talks will resume when markets improve.

But that may be some time. As Paxton notes, "...the spectre of labour dissent has been compounded by a recent downturn in the market. Copper prices, for example, have fallen by nearly a fifth in the last year as concerns mount over Europe's debt crisis and slowing economic growth in China.

"ArcelorMittal's Temirtau plant faced an even more sudden shock to demand when Western financial sanctions on Iran closed the door overnight on a market that accounted for a considerable portion of the mill's sales last year.

"Vijay Mahadevan, chief executive of ArcelorMittal Temirtau, said the government had advised the company to resolve its labour issues peacefully. Talks with the steel workers' union are continuing."



Trade Unions Letter
(This can also be signed on line. See Labour Start site below)

Kazakhstan: Justice for oil workers!

In partnership with the Confederation of Free Trade Unions of Kazakhstan, the Confederation of Labour of Russia, and supported by the International Trade Union Confederation

Over a period of several months, court trials related to the tragic events in Zanaozen of 16 December 2011 have taken place. Many months of dispute between oil workers and the management of oil companies, with the connivance of the authorities, resulted in disorders, violence and the uncontrolled use of force by police, which caused the death of 17 and injuries to dozens of people. Not only oil workers were killed and injured, but also citizens of Kazakhstan who had no involvement with the labour conflict.

Dozens of people, whose involvement is contestable, were subsequently charged. Many of them were sentenced to different terms in prison. During the process, international observers, representatives of Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and OSCE, human rights defenders and journalists recorded numerous violations in the trial processes. Almost all defendants and some of witnesses stated that they were tortured in the course of the investigation, but the trials were not suspended. The trials were conducted in an environment of extreme tensions and close to a state of emergency measures in the region.

The international trade union movement demands that the sentences be reconsidered, that all cases of torture and provocation be thoroughly investigated, and that national legislation that envisages criminal responsibility for “calling for social strife” and that is used selectively to put pressure on trade unionists, human rights activists and public figures, be changed.

http://www.labourstartcampaigns.net/show_campaign.cgi?c=1461

For Reuters report on companies etc:

http://www.mineweb.com/mineweb/view/mineweb/en/page72068?oid=153934&sn=Detail&pid=102055


While international trade unions are calling for the end of repression, the Kazakh government has one well-known -and well-paid - one-time "Labour" leader promoting its cause and polishing its image, as best he can considering his own is so despised here:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/kazakhstan/8982290/Kazakh-activists-urge-Tony-Blair-to-give-up-adviser-role.html
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/may/27/nick-cohen-tony-blair-kazakhstan
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-17827773
Kazakhstan president sacked son in law after oil unrest:
http://blogs.ft.com/beyond-brics/2011/12/22/kazakh-president-sacks-son-in-law-after-deadly-clashes/#axzz1z8Mlr7Br

Which brings us to the Windsor Connection:

http://randompottins.blogspot.co.uk/2012/06/prince-property-and-petroleum-profiteer.html

Trouble in Tel Aviv

HOW many cops does it take to change a peaceful demonstration into a "riot", by brutally arresting leaders?

Daphne Leef being taken away in Tel Aviv's Rothschild Boulevard


IT seemed to start quietly enough. A few hundred people returned to the spot on Tel Aviv's Rothschild Boulevard where Daphne Leef set up a tent last year to protest about housing problems and prices, starting a movement that sprouted across the country.

Some brought tents again. Some had handmade placards. A few even tried handing flowers to policemen. That mood did not kast long. The police saw to that.

They went for people seen as leaders of the J14 social justice movement, Here's how one eye witness saw it.

"Five police special unit officers – maybe six – drag protest leader Daphne Leef out of a group of demonstrators on Rothschild Blvd. in Tel Aviv and onto the opposite sidewalk.

"Leef, in a blue shirt, is thrown to the ground. A few meters away, municipal inspectors and Huldai's "Green Patrol" help the police push back the protesters. Every few minutes Leef tries to raise her hands and protect herself from the shoves and kicks, to no avail.

"In the background, the crowd repeatedly shouts one word: Democracy. This horrific sight lasted for many minutes, until Leef was forcefully taken to a nearby police vehicle. No one should ever ignore or repress these pictures".

http://www.haaretz.com/news/national/police-violence-against-tel-aviv-protesters-should-raise-the-alarm-with-israel-s-authorities-1.443369

If the police or whoever gave the orders to get tough thought this would scare away protesters, they were in for a shock. Last night people were out on the street in their thousands, and this time the mood was different.

The night started with a rally against police violence, as some 2,000 protestors gathered in Tel Aviv's Habima Square a day after 12 activists were detained by police during a social protest.

The demonstrators claimed police used uncalled for violence during Friday's rally, holding up signs reading "Don't touch my body, I have a right to speak up" and "Dear police officer, please don’t disrupt this citizen in performing his duty."

Soon after, violent clashes erupted at various locations across Tel Aviv, including at banks near the city's Rabin Square. Protestors shattered windows at some banks, in one case making their way into the bank with a tent, the symbol of last year's housing protest, and barricading themselves inside.

Stav Shaffir, one of the leaders of last year's social protest, told Ynet that "while we're struggling for what we've been fighting for throughout the year, we realized there's another struggle, a great one, for democracy."

"It's embarrassing to see the State of Israel using violent means and beating up protestors," she said. (my emphasis)

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4246274,00.html

That last comment may sound ironic, even amusing, against the news we are more used to, of Israeli troops and police regularly using violence against Palestinians. Tel Aviv mayor Ron Huldai is a retired Brigadier General.

Some people have also been saying that "in the scale of things" the beating up of a few demonstrators in Tel Aviv does not amount to much. Last week a dozen or so people were killed in Gaza by Israeli forces, possibly using rockets fired in the south again as pretext, and one of those killed was a two-year old toddler. A four year old boy was killed by a tank at Khan Yunis. A Bedouin village in southern Israel has just been demolished for the third time.

But this kind of objection really misses the point. It is not about competing for sympathy. In terms of who has suffered most there can be no competition. But in order to maintain itself as an occupier Israel needs more than brigadier generals, and gun-toting settlers from Brooklyn who if push comes to shove can go home. It needs ordinary Israelis ready to serve the state, and thinking the state looks after them. And this weekend that assumption was looking thin because they were fighting the police in Tel Aviv.

One swallow does not make a spring, and other things are happening, but ...

Anyway, here is Asma Aghbarieh-Zahalka who comes from Um el Fahm, and is active in the Workers Advice Centre-Maan and the Workers Party DAM, which takes its red banner on the social protests and says there can be no social justice with national oppression, giving her compliment to a sister under the skin:

"Daphni was walking in the midst of the raging, supportive crowd that loved her, with a broken rib in her chest, a sprained hand, a huge smile and tears in her eyes. How can you not fall in love with her?! The unauthorised protest in Tel Aviv today was the happiest, the most real, and there were sparks of revolution in people's eyes. The people has spoken, it wants to protest, it has the fire, and it has a leader. If you want to sharpen up and focus certain messages, come out into the street and watch them focus as you march. Among the few placards raised in Tel Aviv tonight was a mock road sign, pointing direction to Tahrir Square, Deraa and Homs in "Free Syria." This means that this is a protest that know where it lives. And it certainly means that it's alive."

It is reported that at least 85 people were arrested on Saturday night, and police wanted thirteen of them denied bail. And someone says police horses are out on the streets against demonstrators in Jerusalem.

See also:
http://972mag.com/
http://www.haaretz.com/news/national/hundreds-amass-on-tel-aviv-s-rothschild-blvd-in-bid-to-revive-social-protests-1.440457

"Keep the Crane 'MOT'!"

Campaigners going to Westminster


THE price of liberty, they used to say, is eternal vigilance.

The same is true of safety, especially under this government. Last month I commented on how campaigners who had fought for something to be done about dangerous tower cranes, spurred by deaths like that of Michael Alexa in Battersea, were concerned that the government could scrap the legislation they had achieved.
http://randompottins.blogspot.co.uk/2012/05/victims-mother-liliana-alexa-centre.html

Michael Alexa was killed in the street outside his mother's house on September 26, 2006 when a 165 foot crane collapsed in Thessaly Road, Battersea. The crane driver, Jonathan Cloke, 37. was also killed.

Following campaigning, in which Michael Alexa's mother Liliana played an active part with the Battersea Crane Disaster Action Group, supported by the Construction Safety Campaign and London Hazards Centre, in 2010 the Notification of Tower Crane Regulations Act was introduced, with a 'Crane Register'. Although campaigners might not have been satisfied this went far enough, at least they had got a result.

But it seems for the government it went too far.

In line with David Cameron's New Year's Resolution to "kill off the health and safety culture for good", Employment Minister Chris Grayling has had a review examining health and safety legislation, under Professor Ragnar Löfstedt - Director of the King's Centre for Risk Management at King's College, London. Lofstedt's consultations are due to end on July 4.

But it is reported that Löfstedt has proposed repealing the Notification of Tower Crane Regulations (2010).

This is despite the fact that a jury at Westminister Coroners Court this year squarely blamed bad management and inadequate safety checks or maintenance for the crane disaster which killed two men in Battersea. Had they been been allowed to they would have returned a verdict of "unlawful killing".

During the inquest it was stated that four bolts had failed some time before the accident. The owners, Falcon Cranes, had replaced them, but failed to investigate the causes of the failure. "Speaking after the verdict Liliana Alexa, Mr Alexa’s mother, said: “The bolts needed to be replaced at least every eight years but this crane had no history when Falcon bought it in 2002, so who knows how old the bolts actually were?"

http://www.yourlocalguardian.co.uk/news/local/wandsworthnews/9588212.Jury_blames_company_over_Battersea_crane_deaths/

Under the new legislation fought for by campaigners, cranes have to be fully registered and have a detailed history that can be checked by those hiring the machinery.

In the decade before the law was introduced there were 60 crane accidents, with 9 deaths and 25 serious injuries. The Health and Safety Executive which provides those figures took Falcon's 180 cranes out of service in 2007, and checked them. It found 10 per cent failed its tests.

That is just one company.

But Lofstadt proposes scrapping regulations, both on inspection and training of staff, and letting the industry look after its own affairs - as it has plainly failed to do, with dangers both to workers in construction and the public. And knowing the way this government thinks, deregulation is just the advice it wanted.

That is why the Battersea Crane Action Group campaigners, the Construction Safety Campaign and London Hazards Centre are going back to the Department of Work and Pensions to register their protest at noon on July 3, and following that with a lobby of MPs and meeting in the Houses of Parliament. That is one day before the consultation ends. Let's hope they have a good turn out.

Here is their leaflet:

Footballer wins freedom pledge

Hearing the good news in RAFEAH, Mahmoud's older brother Imad.


Demonstration in ROME at headquarters of Italian Football Federation, and below, schoolgirls in RAMALLAH with pictures of Mahmoud al Sarsak

PALESTINIAN footballer Mahmoud al Sarsak has ended a record-breaking 93 days on hunger strike in an Israel jail after winning an agreement that he will be released on Tuesday, July 10.

His lawyer Mohammad Jaberein said al-Sarsak agreed to end the fast during his visit today. Israeli prison authorities asked al-Sarsak to eat something in their presence to ratify the deal, after which he took a piece of chocolate from the lawyer, Jaberein said.

The footballer, from Rafeah in the southern Gaza strip, had been held for three years,without charge or trial, when he commenced his hunger strike.

Under the deal al-Sarsak will visit a civilian hospital for treatment tomorrow, but the same day will return to Ramle prison clinic until his release on July 10, the lawyer added.

Physicians for Human Rights - Israel say the clinic is not equipped to treat long-term hunger strikers or manage the health risks when they return to eating, and has called for transfer of hunger strikers to civilian facilities.

The 25-year-old soccer player from the Gaza Strip has been imprisoned by Israel without charge or trial since July 2009. He is the the only prisoner held so far under Israel's Unlawful Combattants Law which allows detention without trial for an unlimited period.

Al-Sarsak joined the local soccer team in his Rafah refugee camp at 14, becoming the youngest footballer to play in the Palestine Liga A at the time. The midfielder attracted the attention of a German coach while playing for the Palestine national team in Norway.

The first step was to play for a team in the West Bank. But Israeli security arrested him on July 22, 2009, at the Erez crossing from the blockaded Gaza Strip, the only route to Palestinian territory in the occupied West Bank.

His hunger strike attracted attention and support for his cause not only in Palestine and among campaigners in Israel, but internationally. Demonstrations and petitions in Europe brought in
Eric Cantona and FIFA President Sepp Blatter to add their voices to those calling for Mahmoud al Sarsak's release, and the International Federation of Professional Footballers. An Israeli conscientious objector in military prison has joined the Palestinian hunger strike in solidarity.

It was reported that Eric Cantona called upon the UEFA to cancel plans for Israel host the 2013 European Under-21 Football Championship due to its violation of human rights, and especially due to the ongoing imprisonment of Mahmoud al Sarsak. “It is time to end the injustice, and insist upon standards of equality, justice and respect of international law – like we demand from any other country,” said Cantona.

In Israel, Yaniv Mazor - sentenced to 20 days in prison for refusing to do his reserve service - started a hunger strike of his own while in military prison, in solidarity with Palestinian detainees. Mazor’s attorney Michael Sfard told Haaretz journalist Amira Hass that Mazor’s goal is to raise awareness on the issue of administrative detention – and not to secure his own release.

http://www.foa.org.uk/statements/cantona-and-kanout-call-for-release-of-mahmoud-sarsak

Mass arrest of Iran trade unionists

IRANIAN authorities have launched another clampdown against the workers' movement, with the arrest yesterday of Mahmoud Salehi (above) and other activists. A statement we have received says:

On Friday 15th June at noon, 60 members of the Coordinating Committee to Help Form Workers’ Organizations and a number of labour activists were arrested by agents of Karaj city.

According to the latest news, Mitra Homayooni, Vafa Ghaderi, Reyhaneh Ansari, Khaled Hosseini, Mahmoud Salehi, Saeed Moghaddam, Cyrus Fathi, Ghaleb Hosseini, Mohammad Abdipour, Jalal Hosseini, Alireza Asgari, Masoud Salimpour, Abbas Andriyany, Sediq Amjadi, Fattah Soleimani, Maziar Mehrpour, Mhommad Molanai, Vahed Seyyedeh, Jalil Sharifian, Sediq Khosravi, Yusuf Ab Kharabad, Faramarz Fetrat Nejad, Jalil Mohammadi, Nezam Sadeghi, Afshin Nadimi, Hussain Pilooti, Rahman Ebrahim Zadeh, Abbas Hashem Poor are among the detainees. (If new names appear, they will be added to the list).

The detainees were transferred to Rajai Shahr prison in Karaj and until now no further news is available.

We, members of the Coordinating Committee to Help Form Workers’ Organizations, condemn the arrest of the members and other workers activists. We demand the immediate release of all workers activist. We expect all workers activists and organizations to protest against these arrestments.

Further news will be announced later

Coordinating Committee to Help Form Workers’ organizations.

This mass arrest follows the sentence to six years imprisonment last month of Tehran bus drivers' union treasurer Reza Shahabi, and amid demonstrations by building workers over the removal of social insurance.

See also:

http://www.justiceforiranianworkers.org/?p=1506

http://khamahangy.com/English.htm

http://www.amnesty.org/en/library/asset/MDE13/027/2012/en/9ac58cc8-096f-46fe-8bac-c8ed14738855/mde130272012en.html

The Pinkwash Paradox and the Ambassador's Wife

"IDENTITY PROBLEMS"? Ambassador's wife and deputy ambassador herself, Nurit Tinari-Modai embarasses Israeli Foreign Ministry with plan to smear critics in Ireland .

ISRAELI propaganda on the sexual liberty front seems to be running into trouble. Running? More like caught with its trousers down and tripping over its own feet, ass over er...elbow.

A picture showing two male soldiers holding hands on the Israel Defense Forces' official English Facebook page turned out to be staged, according to a report in the Times of Israel. The two soldiers in the photo are not a couple, only one of the two is gay, and both the soldiers serve in the IDF Spokesperson’s Office.

The picture gathered thousands of "likes" on Facebook and went viral over the internet. It appears to have been taken on Itamar Ben Avi street in Tel Aviv, around the corner from the Spokesperson’s Office headquarters.

A spokesperson for the IDF Spokesperson’s Office did not deny the photo was staged, but said: “The photo reflects the IDF’s open minded attitude towards soldiers of all sexual orientations. The IDF respects the privacy of the soldiers featured in the photograph, and will not comment on their identities.”

I suppose there are worse things one has to do for the military, though you may wonder why the army goes to this trouble. After all, as someone commented, a survey in Gaza found that more than 99 per cent of Palestinians were also open minded, not concerned as to whether the Israeli who bombs them was gay or straight.

But the Israeli state and its propagandists have been going to great effort to prove how modern and enlightened the country is, compared to those nasty folk over the wire, and further afield in Iran. Male homosexual sex was outlawed in Israel until 1988, and in the 1950s the IDF was the only official state institution to try and jail soldiers for engaging in such behavior, according to the Israeli National LGBT Task Force.

Gays were not initially included in those entitled to rights under the so-called Law of Return, which continued to discriminate against non-Jewish gay partners until recently. (And needless to say excludes non-Jews, i.e. Palestinians who gay or straight, really are trying to return to what was their country!)

But Israeli tourism officials and hasbara(PR)niks have been keen to welcome gay pride events, even at the risk of uniting hostility from Orthodox Jews, fundamentalist Christians and Muslims. What has been called "Pinkwashing" not only offsets the tourism boycott, but they hope, takes minds off other little problems, such as 45 years of occupation, discrimination and increasingly strident racialism. It's one of the ways they hope to promote "brand Israel" as a positive image that avoids the problems of politics.

Trouble is, trying to project a comfortable and reassuring image for gays or anyone else sits ill with the brutality of oppression, macho culture and racist thuggery. Somehow things just don't fit. They just can't get it right.

Last year there was the case of the gay called "Marc" who had supposedly been turned away because of his sexual orientation when he tried to join the Gaza Freedom Flotilla. "Marc"s flashy video circulated on YouTube, he looked quite sincerely hurt, but a lot of his footage was far too like a record promotion and pink stereotyped to fit its supposed subject, or for any of the gay people I know to identify with. It might have been made by some IDF propaganda unit with its crude idea of what would appeal on YouTube.

That's only an impression, mind.

What we do know is that the "gay activist Marc" whom nobody had heard of, has been identified as an Israeli actor called Omar Gershon, and that one of the people promoting the video turned out to be an official in Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu's office. Well, nice try, fellas!

More recently, spectators watching Gay Pride processions in the United States have been treated to a tasteful float on which an effigy of Iranian president Ahmadinejad is being buggered by a nuclear missile. What such crude and violent imagery has to do with gay rights or peace we don't know, but it is the work of an outfit called "Iran 180" which claims to stand for "human rights, not nuclear rights", and is supported by some quite "respectable" but mainly pro-Zionist organisations, and directed by a PR man called Marco Greenberg who previously worked for the Israeli army. The persons on the float were professional actors, though whether paid or volunteering we don't know.

In case such efforts were not bad enough, the pinkwashing game has been undermined by some Israeli figures singing from a different page. Like Knesset member Anastassia Michaeli of the right-wing Yisrael Beiteinu party led by Russian immigrant Avigdor Lieberman. She has angered gay groups and MKs alike by saying "most gay people commit suicide at 40."

On Wednesday, speaking at a meeting of the Knesset Committee for the Advancement of Women, Michaeli accused Channel 10 television of encouraging people to become homosexual. "When I turn on Channel 10 I see entertainment programs supposedly showing how nice it is to be gay," she said in remarks reported on Army Radio. "Why should my children have to hear how fun and nice it is to wear a dress and put on makeup? Why does Channel 10 broadcast such programs?"

Michaeli said she had seen an interview with the mother of a gay man who divorced her husband. "I want to ask, what happened to that boy when he was 3 years old regarding his father and why did they divorce?" Michaeli then said she thought "most gay people suffered sexual trauma at a young age and committed suicide at 40."

Channel 10, for its part, said it was happy to learn that Michaeli regularly watched the channel with her children. But it said it did not know what she was talking about and that it believed in giving equal expression to all groups.

Yisrael Beiteinu responded that Michaeli's remarks "reflected her own views and not those of the party." Yisrael Beitanu (Israel Our Home) may be a small, extremist party, mainly interested in ethnic cleansing while basing itself on Russian sectionalism, but it is part of the ruling coalition and Lieberman is Israel's Foreign Minister.

Michaeli, a former Miss St.Petersburg who converted to Judaism on marriage, was previously reprimanded by the Knesset for attempting to physically remove Israeli-Arab MK Hanin Zuabi from the floor as Zuabi tried to speak about the 2010 Gaza flotilla raid. In January 2012, Michaeli threw a cup of water at Israeli-Arab MK Raleb Majadele during an argument about an Arab high school principal who had taken students to the annual Human Rights Day march in Tel Aviv. Majadele promised to take Michaeli to the Ethics Committee for sanctioning.^[5] On January 10, the Ethics Committee suspended Michaeli from the participation in the Knesset plenum or committees for four weeks, but still allowed her to take part in house votes during this period. (Wikipedia).

Then there is Nurit Tinari-Modai, Israel's deputy ambassador in Dublin, who has reportedly come up with what she considers a novel plan to combat those who are engaged in "delegitimisation" of Israel, that is the people who criticise the Zionist state and its treatment of the Palestinians. It seems there are a lot of such people in Ireland, not only Irish people who for historic reasons identify with an oppressed people fighting for its land against occupation, but Israelis who are living in Ireland.

"An exceptional statement by a senior Israeli diplomat is published for the first time today (Tuesday), on Channel 10 News. The deputy to the ambassador to Ireland, Nurit Tinari-Modai, has argued that pro-Palestinian Israeli activists who defame Israel abroad are acting from psychological motivation, including problems of sexual identity. Ireland is one of the sharpest hot-spots of the pro-Palestinian activism against Israel, and some of the people who take part in that activity are Israeli.

In a cable Tinari-Modai sent to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Jerusalem she proposes a new strategy: work directly against those Israeli activists, humiliate and shame them. “It is possible to obtain names of the Israelis… you have to try and hit their soft underbellies, to publish their photographs, maybe that will cause embarrassment from their friends in Israel and their family, hoping that local activists would understand that they may actually be working on behalf of Mossad,” writes the deputy ambassador.

“The activity of those activists against the state is, in my evaluation, not necessarily ideological (!) but grounded in psychological reasons (generally of disappointment with the parents, [or] sexual identity problems) or the need to obtain a residency visa in one of the countries in Europe,” adds Tinari-Modai.

This letter was met with fury by senior figures at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. “The deputy ambassador has become entirely confused, this result of going against the Israelis will empower the objectors. It would be better to fight against the delegitimization than to propose deranged ideas,” they told Channel 10 News there.

The official response by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs is that “the Ministry of Foreign Affairs unrelentingly fights the delegitimization of Israel everywhere, but does not engage in witch hunts. Such proposals are not aligned with the spirit and customary practice of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.”

(Moaz Vardi, Channel 10 News)

The deputy ambassador in Dublin is also the wife of the anbassador Boaz Modai. A few years ago he was the subject of a restraining order over harassing midnight telephone calls to a female junior in the Israeli Foreign Office.

In sending him off to Dublin the Israeli government removed one embarassment, and in sending his wife to be his deputy, it not only saved money but put her where she could keep an eye on him. Till now her main contribution was organising an Israeli film festival, but by letting her smear plan get out she has delivered more embarassment. Israel just can't get reliable staff these days.

http://www.timesofisrael.com/idf-gay-soldiers-photo-is-misleading-military-source-says/

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DVXrHFxgzSA

http://electronicintifada.net/blog/benjamin-doherty/israeli-actor-anti-gaza-flotilla-pinkwashing-video-identified

http://electronicintifada.net/blog/benjamin-doherty/pinkwashing-mother-teresa-keffiyeh-marc3pax

http://electronicintifada.net/tags/omer-gershon

http://electronicintifada.net/blog/ali-abunimah/israeli-prime-ministers-office-staffer-confirms-ei-he-promoted-pinkwashing-video

http://electronicintifada.net/blogs/benjamin-doherty/israel-lobby-group-iran180-sodomizes-ahmadinejad-effigy-nuke-san-francisco

http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/news/mk-anastassia-michaeli-most-gay-people-commit-suicide-at-40-1.436541

http://electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abunimah/israels-dublin-embassy-planned-smear-palestine-activists-sexual-deviants-and

http://www.thejc.com/news/uk-news/64395/why-mr-ambassador-youre-spoiling-me%E2%80%A6

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3382506,00.html

And don't let us catch you smiling!

AS the government attacks people's rights and benefits, as well as the jobs and pensions of the state's own servants, it is treating frontline staff worse, with bullying and overwork, and hoping they will take this out on clients and service users.

Fortunately there is resistance.

A report from the Public and Commercial Service union, PCS gives an insight into what is happening behind the department doors. It says:

Managers in government call centres have been taking down union posters that expose the brutal way workers are told to treat people on benefits.

Bosses in the Department of Work and Pensions (DWP) said the notices were offensive and an incitement to take industrial action.

The PCS posters were on union noticeboards and highlight the real experiences of workers in DWP call centres – including one who was told off for wishing an unemployed person "good luck".

They also refer to the number of callers who threaten suicide because of cuts to disability benefits.

Industrial action is not mentioned.

Follow this link to see the posters they tried to ban

The PCS posters were a response to an insensitive management propaganda campaign aimed at people who take time off sick.

Fran Heathcote, president of the PCS DWP group, said. “This is as an attack on the union’s independence. The posters are no different in content to those we've used before and we can see no justification for them being banned."

See the banned posters

PCS in the Department for Work and Pensions

Fight for dignity at work - join PCS

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