Resistance fighter returns to the fray

NOT  THAT HE EVER RETIRED!  A hero before he turned 19, Glezos has not given up in his 'Nineties. Protesting austerity in Athens.

ON this day, May 30, in 1941, two young men climbed to the top of the Acropolis, on the crag high above Athens, and tore down the Nazi swastika flag which had hung over it since April 27, 1941, when German forces took over the Greek capital.

For this defiant and heroic act, which inspired popular resistance to the Nazis in Greece and throughout Europe, Manolis Glezos and his comrade Apostolos Santas were sentenced to death in absentia by a Nazi court. Glezos was captured and tortured the following year, but he survived this and several other spells in captivity, both during and after the occupation.

WARTIME COMRADES Apostolis Santas and Manolis Glezos.

Now, at 91, Manolis Glezos is going to the European Parliament as a top figure of the left-wing Syriza party. He was elected with a record 233,000 votes and pledged to wage resistance to EU/IMF-imposed austerity -and fascism. Syriza beat the conservative New Democracy and left the fascist Golden Dawn in third place.


From his youth, -he was not yet turned 19 when he tore down that Nazi flag - Manolis Glezos has had a lifetime of struggle. As a result of his treatment at Nazi hands he was affected by tubercolosis. In 1943 he was arrested again by Italian forces, and the following year by Greek Nazi collaborators. He escaped in September 1944, but after the Greek civil war the right-wing regime which the Western powers had helped tried him as a leftist, and sentenced him to death.

After an international outcry this was reduced to life imprisonment in 1950. While he was still in prison he was elected to parliament as a left-wing MP in 1951 . He went on a hunger strike demanding the release of his fellow EDA MPs that were imprisoned or exiled in the Greek islands. He ended his hunger strike upon the release of 7 MPs from their exile. He was released from prison on July 16, 1954.

Apostolos Santas also suffered post-war imprisonment and exile, before escaping and gaining political asylum in Canada, where he died.


On December 5, 1958, Manolis  Glezos was arrested and convicted for "espionage", a common Cold War accusation. Released in 1962, after an international campaign, during which he was elected an MP again, he was one of the many rounded up overnight when the colonels junta seized power in 1967, carrying out a NATO contingency plan. He spent another four years in prison.

After the colonels' regime was removed, Glezos returned to politics, and was elected to parliament as a PASOK (Panhellenic Socialist Movement) MP, and then in 1984 to the European parliament. But in 1986 he withdrew from Parliament, to concentrate on developing grass-roots democracy. He was elected president of of a community council in Aperathu. In 2002, he formed the political group Active Citizens which is part of Coalition of the Radical Left, Syriza, and in 2012 he was elected a Syriza MP.


Between his political activities and periods of imprisonment Manolis Glezos managed to acquire qualifications in geology and civil engineering, applying them in developing techniques for flood control and preventing soil erosion.

Being a nonagenarian, not to mention a national hero, does not seem to have exempted Manolis Glezos from the police violence that has met austerity protests.  In March 2010, Glezos was participating in a protest demonstration in Athens, when he was hit in the face by a police tear gas canister. He was carried away injured.  In February 2012, he was sprayed with tear gas and arrested by riot police.

Manolis Glezos says he will remain in the European Parliament for a year, after which he intends to hand over to a younger person. Meanwhile he will bring with him memories not only of resistance, but of the way the Nazis occupiers plundered his country before they left.

“The German war reparations, which were never addressed by the current government, will be brought up by Manolis Glezos in the very first meeting of the European Parliament,” Syriza leader said in a statement before the election announcing the war hero's candidature. 

Glezos himself made clear in a statement together with composer Mikos Theodorakis that he is urging not just Greeks but all peoples to resist the impositions of fascism and finance capital.


http://greece.greekreporter.com/2014/04/24/manolis-glezos-to-run-for-euro-parliament-on-syriza-ticket

http://www.keeptalkinggreece.com/2014/05/27/greeks-send-resistance-fighter-manolis-glezos-91-to-ep-with-more-than-160k-votes/

http://cgtlehavre.ul.over-blog.com/article-mikis-theodorakis-et-manolis-glezos-appellent-les-peuples-a-s-unir-contre-la-finance-88167472.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manolis_Glezos

MANY HAPPY RETURNS!

Another anti-fascist veteran and nonagenarian celebrates almost a century on Sunday. Max Levitas is 99! 

Here is the message from the SEARCHLIGHT website:

Max Levitas took part in the Battle of Cable Street in 1936 and has dedicated his life to fighting racism and supporting the labour movement in Tower Hamlets and internationally. He was a Communist councillor in Stepney, east London, for 15 years. Born in Ireland in 1915 he has never completely lost his Dublin brogue. Even today he is still a key activist in the pensioners’ movement.

A celebration ‘meeting’ is being held on Sunday 1 June, 2pm to 4pm, to celebrate Max’s 99th birthday, at the Idea Store, 321 Whitechapel Road, London E1 1BU. Nearest tube Whitechapel (turn left on leaving the station and it is on the left-hand side).

Please come and join us.

RSVP glynrobbins@aol.com. 

http://www.searchlightmagazine.com/ 

 

Dublin or Quits?

OUT: PAUL MURPHY, Socialist MEP.  And setback for prospect of left unity.

GOOD CANDIDATE BUT WRONG CONTEST.  Why did SWP decide Brid Smith should stand?

 UNLIKE Britain, where Socialists to the Left of the Labour Party are used to coming nowhere when they decide to stand under their own colours in elections, Ireland's capital Dublin had a sitting member of the European parliament until the weekend.

When Irish Socialist Joe Higgins relinquished the seat he had held since 2009 to take his place in the Irish Parliament, the Dail, to which he was elected in 2011, he was able to hand it over to the man who had been his adviser, Paul Murphy.

Both of them belong to the Irish Socialist Party, a sister party of the Socialist Party in England and Wales, indeed almost like a twin, notwithstanding the different history ad conditions in the two countries. Higgins and a dozen other members of the 'Militant Tendency' in the Irish Labour Party were expelled in 1989, and decided to form Militant Labour, which went on to become the Socialist Party. Like its namesake in Britain it belongs to the Committee for a Workers International (CWI).

Both men have taken part in a number of campaigns on community and wider issues, Joe Higgins earning respect fighting for the rights of Turkish migrant workers as well as opposing the breach of Irish neutrality by US military using Shannon airport on their way to the Middle East.

During one Dail debate Justice Minister Michael McDowell declared "I do not take lectures on democracy from a Trotskyite communist like Deputy Joe Higgins." That's an accolade worth having!

Unlike UKIP MEPs and others who have gone to Brussels to collect their salaries and expenses while doing nothing in return, Paul Murphy sat as a full member on the European Parliament Committee on International Trade and as a substitute on the European Parliament Committee on Employment and Social Affairs, and Committee on Petitions. He was also a full member of the South Asia Delegation and a substitute on the Central Asia delegation.

Outside parliament, in 2011 Paul participated in Freedom Flotilla II which attempted to breach the Israeli blockade on the Gaza Strip. In August 2011, he visited the "No TAV" Italian campaign against the Turin-Lyon High Speed railway. A supporter of the Shell to Sea campaign, in August 2011 he and others were forcibly removed from Erris by Gardaí.

In early November 2011, the Dublin MEP was taking part in another humanitarian aid flotilla when  Israeli forces boarded the ship on 4 November and imprisoned him and others. Undaunted by this experience, in June 2013, he travelled to Istanbul to speak with Turkish freedom and environmental activists taking part in the occupation of Taksim square. 

Although I've not met Paul Murphy, he sounds like my idea of a socialist MEP!. I did hear Joe Higgins when he was guest speaker at the National Shop Stewards Network conference a few years ago, and I think it is fair to say having these two voices raised has been a boost to left-wing morale whatever one's particular shade of leftism.

However, seems the possibility of left unity in Dublin was too good to last.  As one commentator informed us towards the end of last year,

"In an act of blatant sectarianism the SWP in Ireland have decided to run a candidate in Dublin in the European Elections against sitting Socialist Party / CWI MEP Paul Murphy.

Paul Murphy is in a four way fight for three seats in Dublin with Fine Gael, Fianna Fail and Sinn Fein. The SWP candidate Brid Smith (who will stand under the SWP front name of People Before Profit) has no hope of winning a seat.

This act is clearly part of the SWP engaging in a wrecking ball strategy - take enough votes from Paul Murphy to ensure he doesn't retain the seat - raise the profile of Brid Smith and then run Brid Smith as a general election candidate against socialist Member of Parliament, Joan Collins, in the hope of unseating her and winning the seat for the SWP.

 Despite this intervention Paul Murphy will likely still be in a position to fight it out for a seat in the European Parliament - but this action demonstrates that the SWP have no interest in 'left' unity' unless they can dictate and control the 'left'. Furthermore they are likely to dumb down their political programme further in an attempt to engage in populism in order to win extra votes.

Others suggested the aim was just to hit the Socialist Party by depriving it of the funds brought in by its MEP, which help to maintain full time workers.

In response some SWP or People Before Profit supporters argued that the Socialist Party and Paul Murphy "do not own the seat", that it was only handed over to Murphy by Joe Higgins, that they had as much right to stand as anyone else, and that anyway, their Brid Smith was the better candidate. Anyway there were three seats to be won, so maybe both of them could get in?

Brid Smith, it must be said, has an impressive record of campaigning, on issues from prisoners' rights to housing, and her election leaflet from People Before Profit gave full details, though curiously it does not mention the Socialist Workers Party.


Polls were said to show electors favouring Brid Smith over the sitting MEP.  Supporters argued therefore that Paul Murphy was taking away her votes, rather than her stealing votes from him.

But what was it all about? Were the SWP's differences with the Socialist Party, for instance supporting reform of the upper house in parliament, the Seanad, which the SP wants abolished, that important or relevant to a Europoll?  Surely it has not got anything to with past theoretical disagreements over the class nature of the now bygone Soviet state? If there were serious political issues that had to be raised, how come Brid Smith's party affiliation was not mentioned, but just People Before Profit?

Whatever the reasons, the outcome of the election was that on the first count, Paul Murphy got 29,953 vote, or 8.5 per cent, well below the Sinn Fein candidate who topped the poll, but ahead of Labour. Brid Smith got 23,875,  that's 6.8 per cent.

So neither of them made it into the first three, and Dublin no longer has a Socialist MEP, nor does it offer any encouragement for the hope that the Left can get its act together, aven to confront the looming menace of the far Right in Europe.

Whatever the point was, comrades of the SWP (whether in Ireland or here in Britain) was your effort really worth it? 

And what do you have in mind next?

  http://cedarlounge.wordpress.com/2013/10/06/left-unity-how-are-you/

http://socialistparty.ie/2014/03/dublin-winning-mep-seat-left-working-class-movement/

http://irishelectionliterature.wordpress.com/2014/01/12/leaflet-introducing-brid-smith-people-before-profit-alliance-2014-euro-elections-dublin/

Reflections on the EU Election

DEFENDING JOBS AND SERVICES. Not everybody or every issue gets TV coverage

AFTER years of being either kept in ignorance about what goes on in Brussels or fed stories about straight bananas, it is hardly surprising that a large percentage of the British public is "Eurosceptic".  Some even cling nostalgically to notions of Britain's greatness as an imperial power, revived by Thatcher and her adoring press during the Falklands war, so much so they did not notice how many firms and jobs were going to the wall for the sake of the pound and the City of London, and stood by as the monstrous milk snatcher and her cops smashed the miners, before destroying their industry and communities. 

The papers told us Thatcher had restored Britain's pride, and the respect in which we were held in the world. In 1994, I had to change trains in Munich, and met up with some young German building workers who'd been out on the beer. One of them told me "We have nothing against English people. But tell me, why do you work for such low wages and put up with such bad conditions?"  Respect? Auf wiedersehn, pet.

To put my own cards on the table, I voted and campaigned against British entry to the Common Market back in the 'Seventies. I was not convinced that a group of wealthy manufacturing countries huddling together behind tariff walls made sense for fair and free trade, let alone internationalism. What about Britain's obligation to Commonwealth countries (oddly France seems to have treated its former colonies better)? And wasn't Britain's policy of food subsidies better than the Common Agricultural Policy, with its butter mountains and wine lakes?

Time moves on. We have had British governments, of whichever party, boasting how they have upheld our rights against EU directives, so we could work longer hours to try and earn a living wage and keep a roof over our heads, and carry on working longer before we reached our pensions. I had to ask my union whether this was what was meant by the banner saying "Keep Britain Working With Labour" that hung for a time on our headquarters.

British governments have also led the way in privatisation, like the recent sell-off or sell-out of Royal Mail, going further than their continental counterparts could or would.That's why, though I've seen how European court rulings aim to hamstring unions and even local authorities maintaining wages and jobs, and dare say cheap labour was one of the objects of British support for the EU's expansion eastward, I could not go along with the pretence that our problems come from Brussels, and not from the City of London and Westminster.

That's why I could not vote for the alliance of Socialist Party and Communist Party patriots standing as 'No to EU! Yes to Workers' Rights'. Labour's leaflet on the other hand barely mentioned the EU, and their party election broadcast merely admitted they had made "mistakes", before going on to waffle about immigration and people needing to learn English (something for which incidentally the Labour government cut provision, and teachers were sacked). The Greens' leaflet did say something about their policies, both on the environment and on workers' rights, and asked us to return their MEP for the London area, Jean Lambert. Having more than once seen her at events for which  other MEPs don't seem to have time, I decided for the first time in my life to vote Green. A lot of my friends seem to to have done the same.

(I might have divided my vote between Green and Labour, but unlike Ireland, where you can pick and mix, Britain has a voting system for the EU where you can only vote for one party list).

So I was glad to see that Jean is back, while Labour has made the main gains here in London, both in councils and the EU seats, likewise in the Manchester area of my origin, and other cities. I even sent a message of congratulations to friends in the London Borough of Redbridge, who but a few months ago revived the Redbridge Trades Council, and now have the pleasure of seeing their largely suburban borough controlled by Labour for their very first time.

Before those who don't know me write to say how awful the Labour Party is and dispel my "reformist illusions", I should mention that this year marks half a century since I was expelled from the Labour Party, and since then, though I have sometimes worked with Labour people politically,  I have never been tempted to rejoin. But I am not one of those people who having discovered the truth about Labour just recently, is impatient with working class Labour voters who, despite their disappointments, still prioritise the fight against the Tories and are prepared to give Labour another chance.   

Who took your jobs ?  

What is more worrying of course, is the rise of the United Kingdom Independence Party (UKIP), led by by the unlikely figure of Nigel Farage. On the plus side, it comes accompanied by the downfall of the obnoxious Nick Griffin and the British National Party. Some of the UKIP's more crankish candidates have expressed views which even the BNP might find extreme, but somehow Farage seems to have shaken off the loon image while winning votes with the immigration card.

This is not that surprising, even if some of those areas supporting UKIP have not experienced that much immigration. They have been told for years that immigration is a problem, hardly a  week passing without papers like the Sun, Express, or Daiily Mail claiming immigrants were taking over, living in luxury on benefits, and grabbing homes and hospital beds that are in short supply. It is handy when you experience frustration, or your life and neighborhood are affected by remote but powerful forces, to have a visible target to blame.
 
But I am also not entirely surprised, because while a lot of people would not like to be considered or think of themselves as racialist,  the 'respectable' BBC, which contrary to supposition does not let just anybody or every issue be aired in front of its mikes,  has been finding airspace for Nigel Farage and giving him sympathetic coverage and the questions he likes. I don't often watch Question Time, but when I saw it recently Nigel Farage was being allowed to shout down a woman panel member who questioned UKIP's policies, and chair Richard Dimbleby then cut her short. No wonder the BBC reporting of the EU election results was so congratulatory to  UKIP, they might have been patting themselves on the back.

Another broadcaster which has had lots of time for Nigel Farage and his opinions is RT, Russia Today. The latest news broadcast I saw shamelessly lumped together the left-wing Greek party Syriza with right-wing Eurosceptic parties like UKIP, and explained the latter's success with the help of footage of trade union and anti-cuts marches here, as though those of fighting austerity policies would have voted for Farage. (Perhaps they decided to skip No2EU?) I'm sure any of the marchers depicted who was not horrified at the idea of supporting UKIP will certainly be so when they see what the party's policies are, on issues like unemployment or the NHS.

I was surprised to see Paul Mason, whose work I respect, and whose own background is in the labour movement and the Lancashire mining area, referring to the UKIP vote in places like Rotherham, say that workers had experienced a fall in wages, co-inciding with a rise in immigration.

I need not remind Paul or anyone else what happened to the main industry around Rotherham or similar places. British miners did not find their jobs taken away by immigrants, but their pits were closed, and coal from Colombia, South Africa or Poland took the place of the coal mined in Britain. Communities and their class tradition and culture have taken hammer blows, while generations thrown on the dole have been told it is their own fault.

Mining is not exceptional. Across the country jobs in industry -and with them union membership - have been lost, not to immigrants coming in, but by capital flowing out.  Entire industries and well-known brand names have gone abroad. I remember Paul Mason on TV talking about the effects of this in the Potteries. But while politicians and the media have all decided the problem is immigration, and even some on the "Left" insist there must be control over the movement of labour, it seems to be tabu to suggest interference with the free movement of capital.

The laws which Thatcher brought in to shackle unions, loyally maintained by Labour in office, have made it difficult for trade unionists to defend their previous gains, let alone cope with new challenges. Whether union leaders, let alone Labour, have resisted as well they could, perhaps history will judge. Remember how the TUC was going to invite Cameron to address it? Now he wants to strengthen anti-union legislation, as well as tearing up Health and Safety provisions. I'm glad we no longer hear our leaders bleating about "partnership"!

If trade unions contented themselves with organising in the public sector, which also provided a high percentage of employment in some areas of industrial decline, this has been hit by outsourcing, privatisation and cuts, hitting the most-vulnerable and lowest paid workers. Now both government and local authorities are taking away union and workplace rights, aiming to create a defeated and demoralised workforce.

I don't know to what extent British workers are desperately competing for jobs like fruit picker, carer or cleaner which we have tended to leave to immigrants. I have noticed more than once that when workers like cleaners start joining unions and becoming shop stewards, their employers, usually contractors, suddenly discover they are employing "illegals" and call in the UK Border Police to check everyone's papers. Funny coincidence, isn't it?

I do know that if you keep telling people the shortage of jobs, hospital beds and housing or anything else is natural and inevitable, and there's nothing you or they can do about it, it is no use expressing surprise, jeering or shouting abuse at them when they turn to fighting among themselves for a place in the queue, when they should be demanding enough for everybody. But nor is it honest or admirable for our politicians to pretend they are listening, and apologise - not for the shortage, but because they have allowed people into the queue who shouldn't be.

In the leafy and supposedly prosperous London Borough of Sutton an old lady was left to die without food or water because police had raided the firm responsible for her care, and arrested her immigrant carers, but nobody thought to check what was happening to their clients. I don't say that is typical (though certainly a lot of vulnerable people have died one way or another under this government). But it symbolises the way real problems and people can be forgotten while so much attention is given to blaming everything on immigrants.

And getting back to Rotherham, and the reasons many people might have decided to give a party of unknowns and unlovables a chance instead of Labour, dare we ask whether they felt freer to consider this knowing their former Labour MP was enjoying  Her Majesty's hospitality? Part of the change in Britain in recent years has been disillusion in the parliamentary establishment and system.  That was bound to have big dangers as well as opportunities. The Left needs to ask why it has not succeeded in becoming the alternative.

Ed Balls says Labour must speak "louder about immigration". Well, I saw the Labour broadcast for the Euro election and that seemed to be all it did talk about, even though it was not clear what it was saying about it or what it had to do with EU policy. I say if you want to win back people's respect you must respect people's intelligence, stop talking balls to suit the media, and start tackling the real problems, which are class issues.

Class Revolt in Bosnia

BOSNIA and Hercogovina has shaken by an eruption of public anger aroused by privatisation, factory closures, profiteering and unemployment. This has been the country's crash course in free market capitalism, as people tried to rebuild their lives after the bloody war of two decades ago which left it saddled with a US and EU backed peace accord preserving its division in two.

Perhaps the brightest sign to come out of this seemingly spontaneous outburst of protest and riots is that it cut across the ethnic division and boundary, encouraging people to come out for unity. This may not be a homogenous political upheaval, but it is a movement of class.

The movement began, fittingly, in Tuzla, the mining and industrial town in north central Bosnia where people steadfastly resisted not only Serb nationalist forces in the war, but the influence of sectarian religious elements and Bosnia's governing SDA. Tuzla has a tradition of resistance going back to the 1920s struggles against the Yugoslav monarchy and rising again in partisan war against the Nazis in World War II. It was the partisans who proclaimed Bosnia a republic for all its people, and it was for this multi-ethnic character that the people fought when Yugoslavia came apart. At least a quarter of the population were of mixed origin anyway.

The end of the Bosnian war brought new problems, of US occupation, EU pressure, and those who had done well out of the war hoping to do better out of privatisation, and trusting a war-weary working class would not put much fight. What has really angered people however is that these new bosses have not even been after production and modernisation, but simply made a fast buck closing factories and selling assets.

 In Tuzla, the trigger this week was the sudden collapse of four formerly state-run companies that employ thousands in the city. The companies were privatised but the new owners sold the assets, sacked the staff and filed for bankruptcy.

On Thursday in Tuzla, workers from Vladom TK took it to the streets to demonstrate peacefully to put a stop to their factory being shut down and to save their jobs. Riot police attacked them to break their demonstration and beat the people who called the protests. They arrested their union leaders. One of them, Sakib Kopić, from “Polihema” union, spoke to local journalists by phone while he was under police arrest: “They keep us here for more than an hour, and nobody tells us anything.”

The government arrested Aldin Širanović, one of the leaders of the group called “Stroke,” which together with another group called “Revolt” helped people organize. He was released after a few hours, and said he was severely beaten under arrest. Union leader Sakib Kopić said he saw Širanović broken by the police: “Blood was pouring from his nose. They did not take him to hospital.”
“They were given the order to remove us from the streets, and that’s it. Then they started to attack us. Lots of people got injured. I saw a child of 15 years old who was all bloody, and who was crammed in one bus. They did not let him out. Doctors wanted to help him, but the cops locked the boy in the bus,” said Kopić.


People’s fury exploded. Some 5,000 local residents, including students from the technical college, joined the workers and set fire to government buildings, tires and police cars. “You have really hungry people who decided to do something,” said Dunja Tadic, a woman from Tuzla. ”People here are not living lives, they are simply surviving. Maybe 15% of the population lives well, mostly those who are stealing and their relatives. They destroyed the so-called middle class. All in all I don’t see how it can be any better here.”

Hana Obradovic, an unemployed philosophy and political science graduate who participated in the protests explained: “Our government sold state companies for peanuts, leaving people without their pensions or social security, Their families have nothing to eat, while our politicians sit in these institutions and steal from people.”

At one point some of the 5,000-strong crowd stormed into a local government building and hurled furniture from the upper stories. "The people entered the government building," said Mirna Kovacevic, a student who witnessed the protests. "They climbed to the fourth floor and started to throw files, computers, chairs from buildings. They burned parts of the building …
"Four storeys are blackened. People have burned the stuff that was thrown outside … Some people are trying to put the fire out. It's hectic."



On the walls of government buildings in Tuzla people wrote “Everybody to the streets. Death to nationalism!”. Throughout the Bosnian war, while the Muslim SDA party headed the government, Tuzla was run by mayor Suleiman Beslagic's Social Democrats, non-nationalists. 

But the fires lit in Tuzla this time spread through the country. On Friday night, the scene was enacted in Sarajevo, the capital, as fire raged through the presidency building and hundreds of people hurled stones, sticks and whatever else they could lay their hands on to feed the blaze. Police used rubber bullets, tear gas and water cannon trying to disperse the crowd. Buildings and cars were also burning in downtown Sarajevo and riot police chased protesters.

"It is about time we did something," said a woman in her 20s who gave her name only as Selma. "This is the result of years and years of not paying attention to the dissatisfaction of the people."

"Everyone is here because everyone has a problem with this government," said a twentysomething male protester who did not want to be identified. "Young people don't have jobs. Older people don't have pensions. Everyone is fed up."

In Zenica, another central Bosnia city, protesters set fire to part of the local government building.

A fire at the National Archive of Bosnia, thought to have destroyed documents from the Late Ottoman and Austrian periods of rule, is less hard to justify, adding a sad sequel to the Serb incendiary attack on the National Library of Bosnia at the start of the war. But it is not certain this was the work of demonstrators or clear what its purpose would be. 

Although the protests were largely confined to the Croat-Muslim half of Bosnia, there was also a rally in Banja Luka, the main city in the Serb half of the country. About 300 activists and citizens staged a peaceful march to call for unity among all Bosnia's ethnicities. "We are all citizens of Bosnia and we all have the same difficult lives here," organiser Aleksandar Zolja, president of the non-governmental organisation Helsinki Citizens' Assembly, told the rally.

In Brcko, a demonstrating crowd held the mayor hostage, while in Bihac people took over government buildings.  Elsewhere, police intervened at the mansion home of an SDA politician who was brandishing a gun at the crowd. But in Mostar, demonstrators were even-handed, attacking the premises of both the SDA and the Croat nationalist HDZ party.

On 7 February, Bosnian Federation Prime Minister Nermin Nikšić held a press conference, with prosecutors, and accused hooligans of creating chaos.  Bakir Izetbegović, one of the country's three presidents and leader of the Party of Democratic Action said, "I believe that people want a change of power. I believe that within three months we should offer citizens a chance to choose who they trust, because it's obvious that this isn't working anymore".

In the Serb held part of Bosnia, Republika Srpska, president Milorad_Dodik said he was "proud of the citizens in Republika Srpska" for not falling for provocations that could make the unrests in the federation spread further. He has also expressed suspicions that there might be an underlying political project that intends to somehow make the recent unrests expand into Republika Srpska.


European Parliament member Davor Ivo Stier said that  "When people who set things on fire in Mostar are yelling 'This is Bosnia!', it incredibly reminds me of the Chetniks during the agression against Croatia yelling 'This is Serbia.'. When Zlatko Lagumdžija accuses the European parliament because of a resolution which condemns centralism, it is clear just how much the centralist elites are against the European peace project. Croatia and the EU cannot be passive towards this downward spiral of violence in Bosnia and Herzegovina. It is time to show leadership. End to centralism! End to violence! It's time for an European path of Bosnia and Herzegovina!", he commented on his Facebook profile the riots in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

(Zlatko Lagumdzija is leader of the Social Democratic Party and currently Bosnian Foreign Minister)

Davor Ivo Stier,  a Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) politician, and Croatian member of the European Parliament, was born into a Croatian expatriate family in Argentina—his paternal grandfather was a colonel in the fascist Ustaše who left for South America after World War II.He  returned to Croatia in 1996 and worked as a diplomat in Washington and Brussels.

When he talks about fires and violence in Mostar, it might be unkind to visit the sins of the father upon the son by remembering the crimes of the Ustashe during World War II. But talking of Mostar and fires, we cannot forget the more recent war, when so much of that historic town was reduced to rubble under fire from both Croat nationalist and Serb Chetnik forces either side. Such criminal, barbaric conduct does not seem to have hindered Croatia or Ivo Stier's "European path".

As we approach the centenary of an incident in Sarajevo, and the events it helped ignite, I see the Austrian government too has expressed concern over these riots and said it might reinforce its troops  in Bosnia. But that's enough history for now.


http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/feb/07/bosnia-herzegovina-wave-violent-protests

http://revolution-news.com/class-war-bosnia-herzegovina-government-fire/

Rakovsky centre solidarity statement

No Olive Branch for Palestine?

ABOUT 300 people from different parts of Britain came to Westminster on Wednesday to lobby their MPs about Palestine and the Palestinians. They came to raise awareness about issues like Israel's Prawer plan for displacing Negev Bedouin, about ethnic cleansing and house demolitions, and about settlement goods still coming into the European Union.

For those MPs who are already sympathetic to the Palestinians and their rights such lobbying by constituents can be encouraging, and let them know they are appreciated. For others - well it varies. A few years ago I was gratified by the way an MP whose affiliations are far from my own appeared ready to listen, even nodding his head in apparent agreement with some of the points I made. As he suggested I followed up my visit with a memo in writing, and some literature. Over the following months I saw little sign that he had altered his views or adopted any of the points I made in the slightest.

In contrast, some friends I joined the following year to lobby their MP found him pleasantly surprised to see so many of them concerned as they were, and they in turn were pleased a few months later to see this previously "pro-Israel"  Labour MP speaking out against the Occupation. Perhaps he had just needed their bit of encouragement.

I don't suppose many of Wednesday's lobbyists were expecting lightning conversions. But all the same, after finding MPs doubtless amiable enough, and feeling you've got them listening to reason, it is upsetting to see the latest example of Britain's contribution to peace efforts.

You and I might think that assisting Palestinians to develop their agriculture and economy, and obtain international recognition, is a good way to raise their confidence in a peaceful solution, and show that your motives in proposing a "Two state" policy are genuine. That's to say the least questionable when we're talking about the Israeli government, but what about the governments claiming to speak for us in Britain - or in Germany?
Here's Amira Hass reporting in Ha'Aretz:

Germany and Britain block Palestinian bid to join international olive trade group

    European diplomatic sources claim that letting Palestinians join the council could sabotage Israeli-Palestinian peace talks.
    by Amira Hass; Nov. 29, 2013

    The Palestinians have had to freeze their application to become a member state of the International Olive Council due to opposition by Germany and Britain.

    According to European diplomatic sources, German and British representatives claimed that letting the Palestinians join the council could sabotage the Israeli-Palestinian talks now taking place under American auspices. The talks’ resumption was conditioned on Israel releasing Palestinian prisoners in exchange for a Palestinian promise not to try to join various UN organizations, and not address the International Criminal Court in The Hague.

    The Palestinian application, which was prepared this summer by the Palestinian Authority Foreign Ministry in Ramallah in the name of the State of Palestine, was supposed to be voted on at an olive council meeting in Madrid this week.

    Representatives of the European External Action Service argued that the council is purely a technical organization, and therefore does not fall in the category of the organizations that the Palestinians promised not to join. Moreover, they argued, membership would give the Palestinians access to technical assistance in an industry vital to their economy. But this view didn’t sway Britain and Germany, both of which opposed the application.

    The European Union’s member states are represented on the olive council by a single joint delegation, so if these states are unable to reach a consensus on a given issue, the rule is that the EU delegation must abstain from voting.

    Therefore, despite the External Action Service’s support for their bid, the Palestinians realized that the European Union’s vote wouldn’t be cast in their favor, and preferred not to suffer a diplomatic failure. Instead, they decided to postpone their application to a more opportune moment, Palestinian officials told Haaretz.

    A German Foreign Ministry official said in a statement: “The vote in this decision has not yet taken place and will be taken by the EU, not Germany. The German position related to questions on Palestinian statehood is well known.” No British response was forthcoming.

    The Office of the European Union Representative in East Jerusalem said: “The membership to the IOC is in line with Palestinian institution-building efforts which the EU continues to support and has worked on for years. In that context, the EU looks favorably at improving Palestinian technical capacity in the olive oil sector.”

    Last October, the PA Foreign Ministry urged the International Olive Council to take urgent action to protect olive trees in the West Bank from settler attacks. It also urged the international community, and particularly members of the Quartet (the United States, United Nations, European Union and Russia), to condemn these attacks.

    According to data collected by the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, almost 10,000 Palestinian olive trees and saplings in the West Bank have been uprooted or damaged in direct attacks by Israelis since the start of 2013, up from about 8,500 in 2012.

    Asked about this issue, the Office of the European Union Representative in East Jerusalem told Haaretz: “The EU has condemned continuous settler violence towards Palestinian farmers and deliberate provocations against Palestinian civilians. It constantly calls on the Israeli authorities to bring the perpetrators to justice and to comply with its obligations under international law.”

I've supplied that emphasis. Anyone who has been to Palestine knows the importance of the olive trees to villages, and anyone who follows the news can imagine the heartache for Palestinian farmers of seeing centuries of care and toil uprooted by army bulldozers or set ablaze by vandal settlers.

And now we see the EU, and particularly the British and German governments, taking sides with the those wreaking destruction, and  so that peace talks getting nowhere can proceed. They would make a desert, and call it "peace".

If they are that worried about anything that might derail peace talks, they might consider another item of news:

Israel approves 829 new settlement units near Jerusalem

Allison Deger on November 25, 2013 15

Two weeks ago Prime Minister Netanyahu announced then quickly cancelled an order to build 20,000 new settlement units. He had angered American officials, pressed their limits, and then tabled Israeli expansion into the West Bank when it seemed the negotiations process was on the line. But today Peace Now announced Netanyahu is moving forward with the settlement project, approving over 800 new units north of Jerusalem in the neighborhoods of Givat Zeev, Nofei Prat, Shilo, Givat Salit, Nokdim and Amihai.

From the AFP:

    ‘The construction of 829 homes has been approved by a committee of the Israeli military in charge of the West Bank,’ said Lior Amihai, a Peace Now official.

    ‘This is yet another move that threatens to derail the peace process,’ Amihai told AFP.

    Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas has warned that ongoing settlement building by Israel in the Palestinian territories threatens the future of Middle East peace talks, which stand at an impasse little more than three months after they began.

    The new homes would be built north of Jerusalem in the settlements of Givat Zeev, Nofei Prat, Shilo, Givat Salit and Nokdim, Amihai said.

The new homes are not just being plonked down anywhere in the West Bank, nor on sites chosen for their view. Nor is it a matter of meeting demand for housing, for people will have to be found to fill them, and given incentives to move. The plan approved by the military is to reinforce a barrier being built between the present Palestinian Authority centre at Ramallah, and the rightful capital in East Jerusalem. It also helps divide the Palestinian West Bank into two.

      Ari Shavit said it was a ploy to a end to a two-state solution. “The trend is clear: Within a short time the number of settlers will increase dramatically, as will their ability to block any attempt to divide the land. If it continues this way, the Netanyahu-Lapid-Bennett government will put an end to the two-state solution, the Jewish democratic entity, and the Zionist dream,” the author of My Promised Land wrote in Haaretz.

http://mondoweiss.net/2013/11/approves-settlement-jerusalem.html

That depends what "dream" you mean. As a warning Shavit's lament is already obsolete. So far as the right-wing settlers' leaders are concerned, the idea of sharing the country with anyone as equals, in whatever form or arrangement of states, is out, and democracy can be dispensed with too. They have little respect for Israeli citizens who will not join them , let alone Palestinians. They are building up their base of influence in the state, and talking to Washington hawks. It's not hard to see where they get their confidence.

There'll need to be some vigorous lobbying and campaigning to change the direction of Western help.  

The Violence at Khalet Al-Makhoul

 

 

” ‘They dragged me out of the truck and forced me to the ground with no regard for my diplomatic immunity,’ ” French diplomat Marion Castaing said.” ‘This is how international law is being respected here,’

 http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/09/20/us-palestinians-israel-eu-hamlet-idUSBRE98J0GK20130920

THE pictures went around the world. European Union (EU) diplomats attempting to deliver emergency humanitarian aid, dragged from their vehicles by armed troops, who confiscated badly needed blankets and other supplies.

Not in some hidden corner of Africa, or forgotten Latin American dictatorship, but in the Occupied Palestinian West Bank, and by the troops of the supposedly civilised State of Israel, which boasts that it is "the only democracy in the Middle East", claims to uphold international law, and expects not just fair but privileged treatment by the European Union.

Here is the report of what happened on Friday, September 20:


(Reuters) - Israeli soldiers manhandled European diplomats on Friday and seized a truck full of tents and emergency aid they had been trying to deliver to Palestinians whose homes were demolished this week.

A Reuters reporter saw soldiers throw sound grenades at a group of diplomats, aid workers and locals in the occupied West Bank, and yank a French diplomat out of the truck before driving away with its contents.

"They dragged me out of the truck and forced me to the ground with no regard for my diplomatic immunity," French diplomat Marion Castaing said. "This is how international law is being respected here," she said, covered with dust.

The Israeli army and police declined to comment.

Locals said Khirbet Al-Makhul was home to about 120 people. The army demolished their ramshackle houses, stables and a kindergarten on Monday after Israel's high court ruled that they did not have proper building permits.

Despite losing their property, the inhabitants have refused to leave the land, where, they say, their families have lived for generations along with their flocks of sheep.

Israeli soldiers stopped the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) delivering emergency aid on Tuesday and on Wednesday IRCS staff managed to put up some tents but the army forced them to take the shelters down.

Diplomats from France, Britain, Spain, Ireland, Australia and the European Union's political office, turned up on Friday with more supplies. As soon as they arrived, about a dozen Israeli army jeeps converged on them, and soldiers told them not to unload their truck.

"It's shocking and outrageous. We will report these actions to our governments," said one EU diplomat, who declined to be named because he did not have authorization to talk to the media.
"(Our presence here) is a clear matter of international humanitarian law. By the Geneva Convention, an occupying power needs to see to the needs of people under occupation. These people aren't being protected," he said.

In scuffles between soldiers and locals, several villagers were detained and an elderly Palestinian man fainted and was taken for medical treatment to a nearby ambulance.

The U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said in a statement that Makhul was the third Bedouin community to be demolished by the Israelis in the West Bank and adjacent Jerusalem municipality since August.

Palestinians have accused the Israeli authorities of progressively taking their historical grazing lands, either earmarking it for military use or handing it over to the Israelis whose settlements dot the West Bank.

Israelis and Palestinians resumed direct peace talks last month after a three-year hiatus. Palestinian officials have expressed serious doubts about the prospects of a breakthrough.
"What the Israelis are doing is not helpful to the negotiations. Under any circumstances, talks or not, they're obligated to respect international law," the unnamed EU diplomat said.
(Writing by Crispian Balmer; Editing by Louise Ireland)


The Israeli troops who manhandled EU diplomats at Makhoul might have embarrassed Israel's representatives in Brussels and its supporters, insofar as they embarrass that easily. But they were not just unruly soldiers or raw conscripts flustered ("provoked" in the words of the IDF) by a difficult situation. They were carrying out their government's policy, and implementing consistent brutality.
   
Makhoul is one of a group of hamlets in the northern Jordan valley, part of what has been designated "Area C".  Israeli government propagandists here say the area was allocated to Israeli control under the Oslo agreement, as though that temporary arrangement for five years, made 20 years ago, was meant to give them permanent rule. They say the village has been ruled illegal by the Israeli Supreme Court, as though the people there are invading newcomers, like the illegal Israeli settlers.  But the people of Makhoul and neighbouring villages were established there on their land long ago, before the Israeli state existed, let alone the occupation.

And not even the shabby and threadbare Oslo Agreement which Israel cites when it suits provided for blatant ethnic cleansing, which is being practiced. 

http://www.smh.com.au/world/israeli-forces-manhandle-eu-diplomats-seize-west-bank-aid-20130921-2u65f.html

  Here, from an Israeli who knows and does not mind telling the truth, is the background to what was happening:

DON'T SAY YOU DIDN'T KNOW #381 by Amos Gvirtz, (kibbutznik and long time peace activist, writing a weekly column):

The IDF was sent to evict the inhabitants of Khalet Al-Makhoul in the occupied Jordan Valley. The village existed long before the occupation started in 1967, when it was demolished the first time. The question is how to send soldiers to perpetrate a war crime, without them understanding that that is what they are being required to do …

One way is to devise a “legal” pretext. Probably the IDF lawyers realise it’s impossible to physically expel people, so the military acts in ways that are acceptable only to an Israeli court, in order to set up a situation in which it’s feasible to evict people. First, the area was declared a closed military zone. Next, residence permits were issued for two year periods. At a certain point, those permits were no longer given out. The Palestinian planning and building committees were cancelled and that authority was given to the IDF. At this point, the IDF has not authorised any construction plan, not a single one, so all construction has to be carried out “illegally.” Then, there’s no problem, at the next stage, in issuing demolition orders.

So the village has been demolished a few times over the years. On 16th September, 2013, all tents and shacks were demolished, and the residents were forbidden to erect tents or build homes or constructions of any kind. Under pretext of a “closed military zone,” the army confiscated trucks bringing humanitarian relief to the villagers, and prevented entry to international humanitarian organisations such as the Red Cross. The villagers, including women and children, are there in the scorching sun, without any relief aid or roof over their heads.

The army wants to force the Palestinian residents out in order to implement a plan to expel the Palestinians from the West Bank’s Jordan Valley. “Willing transfer”…

Questions & queries: amosg@shefayim.org.il

 

http://www.poica.org/editor/case_studies/jvdemolitions.jpg

http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2013/09/jordan-valley-khirbet-makhoul-palestine.html 

Puppets and Puppeteers

 

SHOWING HOW TO PULL THE STRINGS? Netanyahu with Baroness Ashton and Blair

PUPPETEERS and actors involved in the Israeli version of the Sesame Street show have protested against the Israeli authorities' banning of a Palestinian children's puppetry festival. Israel’s Ministry of Public Security last week ordered the temporary closure of the Hakawati Theater, the Palestinian national theater in east Jerusalem, canceling a children’s festival set to feature puppet shows and plays.

“I think every boy and girl deserves to see puppet theater,” says Ariel Doron, who provides the voice of Elmo in the Israeli version of the childrens TV show.  “There is no sense to this.” Together with  Yousef Sweid, who plays an Arab Muppet on the show, he has created a Facebook group named Puppets4All calling on Israel to permit the festival. Other Israeli Sesame Street puppeteers, along with a number of actors, uploaded photos to the Facebook group holding puppets and signs protesting the closure.

 http://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/tv/israeli-sesame-street-actors-protest-israels-closure-of-palestinian-puppet-theater-festival/2013/07/01/c4f2c5f8-e263-11e2-8657-fdff0c195a79_story.html

I have signed an online petition which Ariel Doron started and am persuading friends to sign it. It says every child has the right to enjoy puppet shows. A simple thing to ask.

It seems the Israeli government decided the puppets were a threat to security and stopped the festival so as to assert its sole authority over the  entire Jerusalem area, in line with which Arab families are increasingly being displaced from the city. Israeli police spokesman Mickey Rosenfeld said organizers of the Hakawati theatre illegally received funds from the Palestinian Authority government in the West Bank.

Having illegally annexed the eastern half of Jerusalem and much of its environs, taken in the 1967 war, the Israeli state is determined to block any chance of Palestinian claiming part of the city as their capital in a peace settlement.

It is not only the Israeli government that has taken its malice out on children. While the new Israeli version of  Sesame Street, “Rechov Sumsum” includes a Muppet of Arab origin, and characters representing Israel’s diverse Jewish immigrant population, its Palestinian counterpart “Sharaa Simsim,” which sought to offer positive role models to Palestinian children, was taken off air last year after the U.S. government cut funding. This was one of many programmes hit as Washington stopped funds in order to punish the Palestinians for appealing to the UN for recognition and statehood. The childrens' show may return to Palestinian TV next year if local funds can be obtained.

So much then for America's wish for peace and goodwill and commitment to the so-called two-state solution, and any semblance of equal rights, s well as the pretence that the Israeli government is even interested.

Meanwhile as US Secretary of State John Kerry goes to and fro, supposedly relaying messages between Palestinian president Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu about resumption of talks, Netanyahu authorises yet another settlement expansion in the occupied Palestinian territories. "Don't watch their mouths, watch their hands" remains even more valid for understanding politics than for studying puppetry.

While they have banned one sort of puppet show in Jerusalem, it appears another less amusing piece of puppetry has been performed behind the scenes in Brussels. As US-based columnist and blogger Max Blumenthal tells us:

"Secretary of State John Kerry and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu succeeded in blocking a statement by European Union member states that would have included sharp criticism of illegal Israeli settlement activity and of the general direction of the peace process. Kerry and Netanyahu depended on Catherine Ashton, the High Representative of Foreign Affairs for the EU and a proxy of Quartet Special Representative Tony Blair, to prevent EU member states from delivering the statement at a June 24 Council gathering in Brussels.

In the past year, several European governments have issued declarations calling for a new diplomatic approach to Israel. In April, the Dutch Advisory Council on Foreign Affairs released a report in April that recommended “calling [Israel] to account for violating the law,” and urged reconciliation between Fatah and Hamas.

Meanwhile, Irish Tanaiste (the country’s foreign minister) Eamon Gilmore has vowed to use Ireland’s position as President of the EU Council to advance a comprehensive boycott of products from Israeli settlements. And in recent weeks, Irish Palestine solidarity activists have gained traction in local district councils with proposals for settlement product bans, sparking a retaliatory campaign of lawfare and intimidation by Irish pro-Israel groups.

At the EU Council meeting last month, the foreign ministries of the United Kingdom and France planned to advance a united EU call for labeling Israeli settlement products and a condemnation of Israeli abuses of Palestinians living in the West Bank’s Area C. Release on the eve of Kerry’s trip to Jerusalem, the statement would have offered a dramatic rebuke of Washington’s business-as-usual attitude. But the EU ministers were stymied by Ashton, who had just met with Netanyahu at the Prime Minister’s office in Jerusalem.

During the meeting, Netanyahu told Ashton that if she did not block the EU statement, she would open the door for “laying the responsibility for failure on Israel’s shoulders” while giving the Palestinians “a blank check.” Despite Netanyahu’s plans to authorize 930 new homes in the East Jerusalem settlement of Har Homa, Ashton acceded to his request.

Days later, in Brussels, she announced (PDF) that she was “completely supporting John Kerry's efforts” -- even though she did not know a single detail about what Kerry planned to do when he arrived in Jerusalem. “He will tell us all about these proposals when he's ready to do so,” Ashton promised.

Ashton is fairly typical of the layer of one-time liberal "lefties" and peace believers who wound up in the entourage of Blair, the so-called peace envoy and war criminal. During the 1980’s, she was treasurer for the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament. (But then wasn't B-liar himself a member?). . In the 90’s, she rose through the Labour Party ranks with New Labor.  In 1999, Blair made her a life peer, entitling her to a seat in the House of Lords.

Within a decade, Ashton had secured an appointment as Europe’s top diplomat, giving her control of the EU’s foreign service and a generous salary of around $41,500 a month. Before this, she had no experience in international relations and had never been elected to office.

Since entering the job, Ashton has demonstrated her fealty to Blair at almost every turn. According to a source familiar with proceedings inside the European Union External Action Service (EEAS), which advises Ashton, she has repeatedly stopped meetings to wonder aloud, “What would Tony think about this proposal?” Ashton and Blair joined forces last year to stifle the Palestinian Authority’s campaign for statehood at the UN, a futile maneuver that pitted them against almost the entire EU. She has since worked to eliminate the position of the EU special envoy to the peace process, a move seemingly aimed at further marginalizing European influence. Ashton’s suppression of the EU Council conclusions at Brussels in June represented the culmination of her efforts to keep the US and Israel in the driver’s seat, with Blair playing the third wheel.

Having successfully suppressed European dissension that might have disrupted Kerry’s public relations strategy, Ashton was off to Bahrain, where three EU-Bahraini dual nationals languished in prison for their role in peaceful protests that were violently crushed by the autocratic regime. Seated beside the Bahraini Foreign Minister Khalid ibn Ahmad Al Khalifa at a press conference, Ashton and her counterpart “underlined the importance of further strengthening EU-GCC ties,” according to Bahrain’s official news agency.

http://mondoweiss.net/2013/07/catherine-ashton-blairs.html

(GCC -Gulf Co-operation Council, the Saudi led reactionary alliance -RP)

Doesn't it make you proud of Britain's role in the European Union and the Middle East, and the kind of people whom the Labour Party is still harbouring?

I sometimes feel my friends who worry about European Union .influence on British policy should look at it the other way round occasionally.

As for the more entertaining kind of puppets, the Israeli closure of a Palestinian theatre and prevention of a children's festival undermines those defending Israel as a "democracy" and claiming that a boycott offends against cultural freedom. But on the other hand, looking at the way those Israeli puppeteers have raised their voices for their Palestinian fellow-artists, I think some of the energy expanded on a "cultural boycott" could be more usefully and justly directed aganst certain British and American politicians and institutions.  .

Grand old voice of Greek Resistance

HARD to keep a good man down. White-haired Manolis Glezos outside Greek parliament, where he was attacked with tear gas.

PICTURES like the one above, depicting riot police going for Greek veteran Manolis Glezos, have been circulating today in social networks and elsewhere, with captions suggesting this happened on Monday, when workers and students clashed with the police, and buildings were set ablaze overnight, as the Greek government pushed through new austerity measures in a stormy and angry parliament.

Ever a stickler for accuracy, I have checked, and the picture was taken in March 2010, when the then 88-year old ex-MP tried to stop them arresting a friend outside the parliament. The 'Socialist' Georgios Papandreou was still prime minister. Glezos, famous for tearing down the Nazi swastika flag over the Acropolis in 1941, had been a member of parliament in Papandreou's Pan-Hellenic Socialist party PASOK, but would not go along with its capitalist austerity measures.

No matter. Papandreou called at the weekend for MPs to support the IMF and EU backed package of cuts and privatisation, and today there is news that this is just the start.

"A new document from Greece's troika of creditors - the International Monetary Fund, EU and the European Central Bank - spells out how Athens will further have to punish the Greek people in return for more money.

"It calls on Athens to cut spending on drugs by another €1 billion (£840 million) and quickly sell off state assets. Government spending on medicines was cut by more than a quarter to €4.1bn (£3.4bn) last year. And the troika also demands that Greece slash its military spending". (we might not disagree with that part)

"The document came to light a day after Greek MPs passed a cuts Bill that lops 20 per cent off the minimum wage and will dump thousands of public-sector workers on the scrap heap".

http://www.morningstaronline.co.uk/news/content/view/full/115393

Manolis Glezis understands the anger of the young people on the streets. He sees a continuity with his courageous act of defiance in 1941. The octagenarian is still resisting.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/today/hi/today/newsid_9633000/9633164.stm

As he told the Guardian last year:

"Not since the German occupation have we been in such a difficult and dangerous situation," he laments, with an angry thump of his hand.

"Economically, democratically, the Greek people are seeing hard-won rights being wiped away. Unemployment is growing, shops are closing daily and decisions that are totally unconstitutional are being made."

On May 30, 1941, Manolis Glezos and Apostolos Santas climbed on to the Acropolis and tore down the swastika flag which the Nazi forces had hoisted over that symbol of ancient civilisation when they entered Athens on April 27, 1941. This heroic act of defiance, the first act of resistance, was an inspiration to the Greek people and all those under occupation.

Glezos paid for his defiance with arrest and torture, and it was not until September 1944 that he escaped from Axis captivity. His troubles were not over. Allied forces entering Greece were ordered to suppress any left-wing attempt to take over, and the civil war which followed the world war ended with a right-wing government sentencing Glezos to death on March 3, 1948.
Only an international outcry led to this being commuted to life imprisonment in 1950.

While still imprisoned, Manolis Glezos was elected a member of parliament in 1951, under the rubric of the United Democratic Left (EDA). He went on hunger strike demanding the release of his fellow EDA MPs that were imprisoned or exiled in the Greek islands. He ended his hunger strike upon the release of 7 MPs from their exile. He was released from prison on July 16, 1954. But on December 5, 1958 he was arrested and convicted for espionage, a common Cold War accusation.

He was released in 1962 after another international campaign, but when the colonels seized power in 1967, Manolis Glezos was inevitably among those top of their list for arrest, and he suffered yet another four years of imprisonment and exile.

After the restoration of democracy in 1974, Glezos participated in the revival of the EDA, and then in the elections of 1981 and 1985, he was elected an MP for PASOK. In 1984 he was elected a Member of the European Parliament, again for PASOK. But from 1986 Glezos turned to an experiment in grassroots democracy, being elected president of the Community Council in Aperathu, then setting up a local assembly to run the community. This lasted seven years.

In the 2000 legislative election Glezos stood as head of a left-wing colation, and in 2002 he formed an group called Active Citizens as part of it.

The present economic crisis has brought Manolis Glezos back to the scenes that impressed themselves on him in his earlier years, and to facing the historic issues of power behind the democratic facade.

Glezos has not forgotten the howls of the starving or the images of municipal carts carrying the corpses of those who, during the Nazi occupation, collapsed begging for food in the streets of Athens.

He knows not only because he was there; he counted them.

"I worked in the statistics office of the International Red Cross and every day I would note the deaths of around 400 people as a result of famine. We lost 13.5% of our population, more than any other occupied country, because all of our foodstuffs, our crops, were requisitioned [by the Wehrmacht]. For those two reasons alone Germany should help Greece."

"To this day, Greece remains the only country in Europe that never received reparations from Germany," added the former MP, who has long headed the National Council for the Reclamation of German Debt. "We never got back any of the antiquities that they took, or the buildings that they seized, or the tons of silver and nickel that they stole.

"If you take into account the enforced occupation loan, I estimate that they owe us around €162bn, plus interest."

Glezos, who has proposed that Berlin fund companies in Greece and scholarships for students bound for Germany by way of compensation, insists he is neither motivated by hatred nor revenge. He has many German friends and every year, he says, they descend on Athens to "try and right the wrong" by demonstrating outside the German embassy. But he is infuriated that Greeks are invariably typecast by the German media as lazy laggards when studies show them working the longest hours in Europe.

"The latest agreement to save Greece is all about saving banks and financial capital, not people," he says. "After the war, we won our freedom but we emerged as vassals, first of the English and then the Americans. Being indebted in this way keeps us in that subordinate role. Our new masters are the troika [the EU, IMF and ECB] and they have to go. Mark my words, the Greeks will play a pivotal role in resisting the policies they want to impose."

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/aug/02/greek-protester-resisted-nazis

The spirit of resistance is still alive, and that is good.
Working people across Europe are facing attacks on our living standards and rights. We need that inspiration once again.

IF CARLSBERG MADE PROFITS......Baltic trouble brewing

THE well-known Carlsberg beer ads alomg the "If Carlsberg made ...(e.g. cars)" theme, suggesting that whatever the Danish brewery turned its mind to would excel, were amusing. Its lager isn't bad either, I've got a few cans waiting in my fridge right now. But as Carlsberg has gone global in pursuit of greater profit, its reputation as an employer is going a bit off.

Carlsberg is attacking trade union rights in Lithuania with the support of the country's legal system, which has declared beer production an "essential service". Since they were not only freed from the Soviet Union but brought into the European Union, the Baltic states seem to have become a laboratory for undermining workers rights, so we best sit up and pay attention.

Here is a report from the International Union of Food, Agricultural, Hotel and Allied Workers(IUF):

On June 10 last year members of the IUF-affilitated Lithuanian Trade Union of Food Producers (LPMS) voted in favour of strike action at the Carlsberg brewery in Lithuania in support of their demand for a decent company-level collective agreement.

Management sought to stop the strike and applied to the court with a petition to declare the strike ballot procedure invalid and the strike illegal, and demanded compensation for litigation costs. The company not only tried to stop the strike and declare it illegal but also argued that no strike action was possible until the "high season" had passed.

The Klaipeda district court on June 20 suspended the start of the planned strike for 30 days based on a dubious determination that the production of beer was recognized as 'vitally essential' in Lithuania.

On the July 5, 2011 the Klaipeda city district court ruled that the strike was legal. Carlsberg Lithuania management appealed this decision. On August 5, 2011 the Klaipeda regional court annulled the decision of the lower court, ruling that the brewery strike announced in June was illegal.

The court decision to rule the strike illegal is based on the following astonishing grounds: "The collective agreement is in compliance with the Labour Code because the wages of Carlsberg employees are above the market level, jobs are maintained and wages are not reduced." With this absurd ruling, the court is attempting to legitimize Carlsberg's attempt to freeze wages for three years by declaring a legitimate strike unlawful.

The union has appealed the regional court decision to a higher court, where it is still under appeal, and submitted a complaint to the ILO which the IUF has formally supported and which will now be examined by the Committee on Freedom of Association.

The brewery sector is unlikely to be considered an essential service by the ILO Committee on Freedom of Association! We therefore expect the ILO to condemn a court decision to suspend a strike for an unreasonable period as denying the right to strike in contravention of international labour standards

Carlsberg Lithuania management has stepped up its anti-union aggression by pressuring union leaders and activists at the plant through disciplinary action. Furthermore the company initiated a police enquiry against workers who joined the picket line to protest the suspension of the strike. Since then, 9 workers who were active in protest actions have been dismissed on the grounds of 'lost production'. These 9 dismissed workers are now reengaged, but on temporary contracts, punishing them for their union activities in the plant.

Carlsberg's healthy 2011 profits have produced global job cuts and attacks on trade union rights in Lithuania. You can support the Lithuanian beer workers' struggle by sending a message to Carlsberg, the 4^th largest global brewery, and the government of Lithuania calling on the company and government to stop violating fundamental trade union rights in Lithuania. Use the form below to insist they act to ensure that rights are respected.

Click here to send a message.
[1]

Apparently Carlsberg's subsidiary in Cambodia has also run into trouble. Women employed to promote the brew demanded overtime payments, and thanks to support from hotel workes and bars deciding not to stock the disputed brew, and the local authority in Phnom Penh saying the workers should be paid in the interest of public order, the workers appear to have won.

http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php?option=com_jcs&view=jcs&layout=form&Itemid=458

http://www.scandasia.com/viewNews.php?coun_code=dk&news_id=9289

If we don't want workers' rights in the European Union to fall behind those in poor Cambodia then the Lithuanian brewery workers must get wide support. And whatever we think about beer as an "essential service", I don't mind doing without my Carlsberg if need be to help the strike.

EU takes account, and Veolia counts the cost

IN an apparent change from the days when Britain used its presidency of the European Union to suppress a report criticising Israeli policy on the West Bank, the EUs ambassador to Israel has submitted a formal protest to the Israeli Foreign Ministry over plans to displace Bedouin, and demolition of Palestinian homes in the E1 area near the West Bank settlement of Ma'aleh Adumim.

The EU Ambassador, Andrew Standley, also expressed profound concern over the deterioration in the Palestinian residents situation in the West Bank Area C, under Israeli control. He cited the rise in the number of houses demolished by Israel, an excess of 500 in 2011, resulting in more than 1,000 Palestinians displaced.

The Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions (ICAHD) is taking some credit for ensuring that European governments and the EU are kept aware of what is going on. It says that after a briefing and field visit lead by ICAHD Co-Director Itay Epshtain, and Advocates Michael Sfard and Emily Schaeffer, European foreign ministers received a report compiled by the European consuls in Ramallah and East Jerusalem on the situation of the Palestinians in Area C of the West Bank.

"The report cited a rise in the number of Palestinian houses demolished by Israel, and the growing distress of the Palestinians living in Area C. "ICAHD has long cautioned about the emergence of a greater Jerusalem" said Epshtain "linking the Judaization of East Jerusalem and displacement of Bedouin in E1, with the development of Ma'aleh Adumim, all the way to the Jordan Valley."

"The significance of this development is not only the creation of a greater Jerusalem that controls the center of the West Bank" says ICAHD Director Dr. Jeff Halper "but the emergence of Israeli Occupation territorial contiguity, that effectively eliminates the two state solution."

Halper referred to the EU protest saying: "The EU is picking up on ICAHD's long standing analysis which connects seemingly unrelated developments on the ground to the larger political picture."

According to Haaretz, EU foreign ministers have also received information from human rights organizations, referring to ICAHD's publication'Nowhere left to Go: Arab al-Jahalin Bedouin Ethnic Displacement', saying Israel is planning to forcefully transfer some 3,000 Bedouins of the Arab al-Jahalin tribe from their residence in the E1 area, to allow for the expansion of illegal settlement Ma'aleh Adumim.

In November 2011, Israel expropriated 1.5 km2 of Palestinian land in the northern Jordan Valley and de-facto annexed the land to a Jewish community within Israel proper. This is considered the first instance of Palestinian land in the Occupied West Bank to be annexed to Israel, (excluding East Jerusalem) in defiance of international law.

In his May 2011 address to US Congress, Israeli PM Netanyahu asserted that "Israel will never cede the Jordan Valley. Israel would never agree to withdraw from the Jordan Valley under any peace agreement signed with the Palestinians. And it‘s vital – absolutely vital – that Israel maintain a long-term military presence along the Jordan River."

The Path to Annexation – 2011 Fact Sheet published by ICAHD highlights the matrix of control laid over the Jordan Valley, the legal framework, fact and figures associated with the de-facto annexation of the Jordan Valley.

To download the fact sheet, press here…

http://www.icahd.org/?p=8028

https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&pid=explorer&chrome=true&srcid=0B1AOvsjv8IjdMjNlYTk5YjItZGU4Mi00ZmJiLWFlYjMtN2UwZWRkNTk1M2Q3&hl=en_GB

http://eeas.europa.eu/delegations/israel/about_us/delegation_role/index_en.htm


Meanwhile, in London, campaigners celebrated the good news before Christmas that French-owned company Veolia appears to have been left out of the bidding for a £485 million contract for the West London Waste Authority ('WLWA') , covering disposal and treatment of of residual domestic waste from o1.4 million inhabitants of the London boroughs of Brent, Ealing, Harrow, Hillingdon, Hounslow and Richmond-upon-Thames.

The reasons behind the decision by the WLWA to exclude Veolia from the short list are commercially confidential. The company has a wide range of business in Britain, from water supply to bus services. It has recently lost contracts in Richmond and Ealing, and been criticised for wanting to cut street cleaning it carries out in Brent.

But what has really engaged the activity of Palestinian solidarity and human rights campaigners is Veolia's involvent in projects assisting and profiting from Israel's occupation and colonisation in the West Bank. Together with another French company Alstom (formerly better-known in Britain as Connex) it has been involved in the Jerusalem light railway project which links illegal Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank with Jerusalem, helping to reinforce the cordon of settlements which separates the city, including Arab East Jerusalem from its hinterland.

Veolia also runs bus services whose segregated character was exposed recently by Palestinian youth who were arrested for boarding the bus at certain points (and one of them simply for being at the stop).

Over the last six months campaigners in London lobbied local councillors and officials to exclude Veolia from the waste contracts, and submitted a letter to the WLWA documenting Veolia's direct complicity in grave breaches of international and humanitarian law in Jerusalem and the West Bank.

Besides the transport issues, - including what amounts to discrimination in recruitment of staff - campaigners also pointed to Veolia involvment in taking waste from Israel and illegal Israeli Settlements and dumps this on Palestinian land at the Tovlan landfill, in the Jordan valley.

Some of this information came from the Israeli human rights group B'Tselem in its report on the Jordan valley, and in North London where councils are considering a contract similar to the West London one, they received a letter from the coalition of women;s peace groups in Israel and Palestine. The campaign in west London had support from the Green Party and more recently from Brent Trades Union Council.

There are signs that Veolia would like to divest from its controversial Palestine involvments as its business elsewhere starts to suffer. Alstom has already been hit by institutional investers in Holland and Norway deciding to pull out, and it suffered the loss of a major rail contract in Saudi Arabia following publicity over its Israeli operations.

http://www.thejc.com/blogs/suzanna/veolia-takes-severe-blow-as-it-fails-to-win-485-million-pound-contract-in-west-london-

http://www.palestinecampaign.org/index7b.asp?m_id=1&l1_id=4&l2_id=25&Content_ID=2312

http://wembleymatters.blogspot.com/p/letter-to-west-london-waste-authority.html

http://markets.ft.com/research/Markets/Tearsheets/Summary?s=fr%3AVIE

http://www.zawya.com/marketing.cfm?zp&p=/story.cfm/sidGN_28102011_291011/Alstom_loses_94bn_Saudi_rail_contract