Most of us have read George Orwell's 1984 -- unless you own an unread copy on Kindle. While Orwell's fictitious characterization of his Ministry of Truth -- the government office that manufactured round the clock lies -- had an eerie parallel-to-the-present ring of truth, the idea still seemed distant, belonging more to the sphere of science fiction entertainment. Science fiction future has come home to roost in the present.
As the structure of the entire banking system and US economic framework collapses before our eyes, official government released statistics have become so deliberately misleading, the numbers are virtually useless. All major U.S. news reporting agencies work in concert with the government. None of them challenge government figures and pump out a constant daily barrage of misleading headlines. Corporate owned media and our elitist syndicate government work as one in what is a stunning present display of Orwell's description of the Ministry of Truth.
Government revised figures show that the U.S. economy contracted more than twice as much as the previously estimated figures indicated, also reflecting substantially larger declines in consumer spending and housing. The previous quarterly data was adjusted significantly downward from -5.5% to -6.4%. Zero Hedge points out that "Additionally, per a brand new revision to the way GDP data is presented, the GDP decline demonstrated over the past year is now the largest since World War II. Current quarter jiggering aside, downward revisions to prior quarters have left the decline in real GDP at -3.9% in the year through Q2. And to demonstrate, the severity of this downturn, the Q2 data concluded the first three-quarter consecutive period of falling GDP since 1953-1954."
On the employment front, "the Department of Labor Weekly Unemployment Report is now so skewed by abnormalities," says Mish Shedlock, "it is difficult to get a clear picture. Because of expiring claims, continuing claims data will soon start looking better. The reality however, is things will get worse for another year as unemployment soars into double digits."
More than 650,000 Americans will have used up all of their unemployment benefits by September, and the Labor Department doesn't track anyone who has moved beyond 26 weeks of unemployment in its weekly data on continuing claims. That means in August the government will report significant declines in continuing filers and use that to generate even more propaganda.
On the housing front. Five days ago the main stream media reported new-home sales in U.S. increased 11% in June from May. The reported increase in sales caused a rise in home-builder stocks that day. But as Barry Ritholtz notes: "we in fact know that Sales fell from last year. They were down 21.3%, a number greater than the margin of error. The monthly data, on the other hand, is not statistically significant. Therefore we DO NOT KNOW what the change was from last month, as the margin of error is greater than the reported data point. The usual suspects got it wrong, as they do every month. If New Home Sales are so strong, then can anyone explain why prices are still plummeting? Median home prices dropped 12% year-over-year, and 5.8% from the prior month."
Unwrapping the government lies, the media distortions, the daily subterfuge requires an almost obsessive prodding, digging, and searching for the facts behind all the lies. Obsessions require time, persistence and interest; many who struggle from paycheck to paycheck don't have that luxury. Most Americans rely almost exclusively on the skewed reporting of corporate owned media for their picture of the world and the U.S. economy, an economy they want you to believe is well on its way to recovery. But even the least informed can sense something is very wrong, just as Orwell's characters did in 1984.
Saturday, August 1, 2009
Friday, July 31, 2009
DHS Summons Children to Serve as Citizen Police
Recent comments from a speech in New York by Janet Napolitano, secretary of the Department of Homeland Security:
This is fear mongering, plain and simple. When the government begins a vocal recruitment of its children as citizen police, you know fascism has arrived.
For too long, we've treated the public as a liability to be protected rather than an asset in our nation's collective security. This approach, unfortunately, has allowed confusion, anxiety and fear to linger. You are the ones who know when something is not right in your communities. There's actually an important role we can play in educating even our very young about watching for, and knowing what to do, if you're in an airport and you see a package left with no one around.
This is fear mongering, plain and simple. When the government begins a vocal recruitment of its children as citizen police, you know fascism has arrived.
Record Decline in North American Trade
The Journal of Commerce reports the steepest decline on record for North American trade using surface transportation:
Trade using surface transportation between the United States, Canada and Mexico dropped 35.4 percent in May, the largest year-over-year decline on record for the North American Free Trade Agreement partners, according to the Bureau of Transportation Statistics of the U.S. Department of Transportation.
In the eighth consecutive month of falling trade, imports from Canada and Mexico to the United States in May were down 38.1 percent from May 2008 while exports from the United States declined 32 percent.
The value of North American surface trade dropped to $47.9 billion in the fifth consecutive month with a year-to-year decline of greater than 27 percent. Trucks carried 72.4 percent of the total.
Surface transportation trade between the United States and Canada totaled $29.2 billion in May, down 40.3 percent compared to May 2008. The value of imports carried by truck was 35.7 percent lower, while the value of exports carried by truck was 33.4 percent lower during this period.
U.S.–Mexico surface transportation trade totaled $18.6 billion in May, down 26 percent compared to May 2008. The value of imports carried by truck was 23.4 percent lower, while the value of exports carried by truck was 21.1 percent lower than in May a year ago.
Thursday, July 30, 2009
Unraveling The Health Bill Lies in 8 Paragraphs
Ilargi's laser breakdown of Obama's health bill and the surrounding political complexities is the best I've read by anyone thus far. In eight paragraphs, Ilargi connects all the scattered dots and compresses them into one clean bull's eye.
From Ilargi's The Automatic Earth:
"Universal" health care plans have been running in many rich western countries for decades, and while there are no perfect systems, and cost pressures build up there as well, the satisfaction level to date is generally high, much higher than in the US. While at the same time the costs of these systems are way lower than anything the US has been able to come up with. So why the extensive talk, why does the US need to re-invent the wheel? Just look around and pick a tried and true system, like Norway, France, Germany. They're all cheaper and they all function better. And if you don't believe that, ask yourself why none of these countries is presently involved in exasperating talks about their systems.
So why does Washington try to invent the wheel? The answer is easy. The difference between US and Western European health care lies exclusively in the political power acquired by corporate industries, in this case -mainly- a combination of drug manufacturers (closely linked to the chemical industry) and insurance companies (which are in turn closely linked to Wall Street banks). The US needs to fabricate its own system because it needs to satisfy the perverted influence industry has on not just health care itself, but also on the political process.
US health care spending is over 15% of GDP, and within 10 years it will be 20% (there's your bubble). That means today’s dollar total is about $2.2 trillion (that's Britain's entire GDP), and we're on our way to $3 trillion. If the US would adopt a Western European system, it might save 50% of these costs. And a few very powerful corporations would lose $1 trillion per year in revenues. That's all you need to know about the reason why there will be no significant reform. Sick people are big business. And big business runs the nation.
The link between drug manufacturing and the chemical industry is obvious. The same chemical giants also have close ties to the military. What is less known are their connections to the food industry. Firms like DuPont, Dow, Syngenta and Monsanto have, under various names and guises, made enormous profits from fertilizers and pesticides ever since the Green Revolution started over half a century ago. In the past two decades, they have moved into the industry of food itself. Genetically modified seeds are taking agriculture by storm, and they're all property of the world's chemical giants, which are now routinely referred to as agribusinesses. A long cry, at first glance, from the Monsanto that for instance infamously supplied the US army with Agent Orange.
The companies have further solidified their control over all aspects of our food by linking up with traditional food conglomerates like Cargill, Tyson and ConAgra, essentially forming a closed circuit of control over world food, a circuit that tightens as time goes by and all seeds are contaminated with GM technologies.
Meanwhile, they are still also what they started out as: chemical giants. As such, they control much of US health care. And therefore have a huge influence in Washington, much like Goldman Sachs and General Electric (which, accidentally, has a large chemical division).
Now, if I were an innocent little simple child, I might conclude from this that all these companies really have to do is make Americans eat the food they control, make sure that food makes them sick, and cash in big again at the other end, in medical care. The corn syrup produced at one end of this "food chain" is in everything these days, and it's a main ingredient in the current obesity epidemic in the US, which brings along large additional medical costs, an estimated $147 billion per year in fact. Obesity habitually leads to diabetes, and you can guess who provides the insulin. A few years ago, the increase in childhood diabetes led one doctor to proclaim that we're raising a generation of blind amputees. The numbers keep on rising exponentially.
One columnist today claimed that obesity doesn't cost money, but it saves billions of dollars, because obese people live on average 7 years shorter than their non-obese neighbors. That sort of cynicism seems to be the leading policy guideline for both industry and government. And that's why there will be no health care reform.
From Ilargi's The Automatic Earth:
"Universal" health care plans have been running in many rich western countries for decades, and while there are no perfect systems, and cost pressures build up there as well, the satisfaction level to date is generally high, much higher than in the US. While at the same time the costs of these systems are way lower than anything the US has been able to come up with. So why the extensive talk, why does the US need to re-invent the wheel? Just look around and pick a tried and true system, like Norway, France, Germany. They're all cheaper and they all function better. And if you don't believe that, ask yourself why none of these countries is presently involved in exasperating talks about their systems.
So why does Washington try to invent the wheel? The answer is easy. The difference between US and Western European health care lies exclusively in the political power acquired by corporate industries, in this case -mainly- a combination of drug manufacturers (closely linked to the chemical industry) and insurance companies (which are in turn closely linked to Wall Street banks). The US needs to fabricate its own system because it needs to satisfy the perverted influence industry has on not just health care itself, but also on the political process.
US health care spending is over 15% of GDP, and within 10 years it will be 20% (there's your bubble). That means today’s dollar total is about $2.2 trillion (that's Britain's entire GDP), and we're on our way to $3 trillion. If the US would adopt a Western European system, it might save 50% of these costs. And a few very powerful corporations would lose $1 trillion per year in revenues. That's all you need to know about the reason why there will be no significant reform. Sick people are big business. And big business runs the nation.
The link between drug manufacturing and the chemical industry is obvious. The same chemical giants also have close ties to the military. What is less known are their connections to the food industry. Firms like DuPont, Dow, Syngenta and Monsanto have, under various names and guises, made enormous profits from fertilizers and pesticides ever since the Green Revolution started over half a century ago. In the past two decades, they have moved into the industry of food itself. Genetically modified seeds are taking agriculture by storm, and they're all property of the world's chemical giants, which are now routinely referred to as agribusinesses. A long cry, at first glance, from the Monsanto that for instance infamously supplied the US army with Agent Orange.
The companies have further solidified their control over all aspects of our food by linking up with traditional food conglomerates like Cargill, Tyson and ConAgra, essentially forming a closed circuit of control over world food, a circuit that tightens as time goes by and all seeds are contaminated with GM technologies.
Meanwhile, they are still also what they started out as: chemical giants. As such, they control much of US health care. And therefore have a huge influence in Washington, much like Goldman Sachs and General Electric (which, accidentally, has a large chemical division).
Now, if I were an innocent little simple child, I might conclude from this that all these companies really have to do is make Americans eat the food they control, make sure that food makes them sick, and cash in big again at the other end, in medical care. The corn syrup produced at one end of this "food chain" is in everything these days, and it's a main ingredient in the current obesity epidemic in the US, which brings along large additional medical costs, an estimated $147 billion per year in fact. Obesity habitually leads to diabetes, and you can guess who provides the insulin. A few years ago, the increase in childhood diabetes led one doctor to proclaim that we're raising a generation of blind amputees. The numbers keep on rising exponentially.
One columnist today claimed that obesity doesn't cost money, but it saves billions of dollars, because obese people live on average 7 years shorter than their non-obese neighbors. That sort of cynicism seems to be the leading policy guideline for both industry and government. And that's why there will be no health care reform.
Wednesday, July 29, 2009
Prepare for H1N1 Martial Law This Fall
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security and Federal Emergency Management Agency began conducting National Level Exercises two days ago on July 27. The exercises are scheduled to continue until Friday, July 31. These exercises are a dress rehearsal. Today, CNN claims Defense Department officials announced the U.S. military wants to establish regional teams of military personnel to assist civilian authorities in the event of a significant outbreak of the H1N1 virus this fall.The Defense Department is awaitng final approval from Defense Secretary Robert Gates.
CNN Report:
The plan calls for military task forces to work in conjunction with the Federal Emergency Management Agency. There is no final decision on how the military effort would be manned, but one source said it would likely include personnel from all branches of the military. It has yet to be determined how many troops would be needed and whether they would come from the active duty or the National Guard and Reserve forces.
Interested readers will want to consider this July 14 Stephen Lendman post:
On July 13, a World Health Organization (WHO) Global Alert headlined, "WHO recommendations on pandemic (H1N1) 2009 vaccinations" suggest that universally mandated ones are coming. It stated that on July 7, the pharmaceutical industry-dominated Strategic Advisory Group of Experts (SAGE) on Immunization held an "extraordinary meeting in Geneva to discuss issues and make recommendations related to vaccine for the pandemic (H1N1) 2009."
There's no pandemic nor until recently a single death anywhere attributable to Swine Flu. Yet WHO said the virus "is considered unstoppable," while admitting little evidence of spread so far, most cases are mild, and many people recover unaided. Nonetheless, all countries will need vaccines and should follow these priorities as initial supplies will be limited:
-- immunize health care workers "to protect the essential health care infrastructure;" then
-- pregnant women; children over six months of age "with one of several chronic medical conditions;" healthy young adults aged 15 - 49; healthy children; healthy adults aged 50 - 64; and finally healthy adults aged 65 or older.
WTO suggested the risks in stating "new technologies are involved in the production of some pandemic vaccines, which have not yet been extensively evaluated for their safety in certain population groups..." As a result, "post-marketing surveillance" and "post-marketing safety and effectiveness studies" are essential so that countries can adjust their vaccination policies.
WHO "recommendations" are binding on all 194 member countries in case a pandemic emergency is declared under the 2005 International Health Regulations Act and April 2009 WHO pandemic plan.
It's crucial to understand that these vaccines are experimental, untested, toxic and extremely dangerous to the human immune system. They contain squalene-based adjuvants that cause a host of annoying to life-threatening autoimmune diseases. They must be avoided, even if mandated. It's also known that vaccines don't protect against diseases they're designed to prevent and often cause them. They should be banned but proliferate anyway because they're so profitable, and if globally mandated to the greatest extent ever.
Get ready because that's precisely what's coming - universal orders to risk toxic vaccine hazards. In the coming weeks, the dominant media globally will get into high gear fear-mongering mode to convince people voluntarily to submit to jeopardizing their health and well-being. It's essential to refuse and be safe and international law absolutely protects us.
Stephen Lendman is a Research Associate of the Center for Research on Globalization. He lives in Chicago and can be reached at lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net.
Also visit his blog site at sjlendman.blogspot.com and listen to The Global Research News Hour on RepublicBroadcasting.org Monday - Friday at 10AM US Central time for cutting-edge discussions with distinguished guests on world and national issues. All programs are archived for easy listening.
Source
CNN Report:
The plan calls for military task forces to work in conjunction with the Federal Emergency Management Agency. There is no final decision on how the military effort would be manned, but one source said it would likely include personnel from all branches of the military. It has yet to be determined how many troops would be needed and whether they would come from the active duty or the National Guard and Reserve forces.
Civilian authorities would lead any relief efforts in the event of a major outbreak, the official said. The military, as they would for a natural disaster or other significant emergency situation, could provide support and fulfill any tasks that civilian authorities could not, such as air transport or testing of large numbers of viral samples from infected patients.
As a first step, Gates is being asked to sign a so-called "execution order" that would authorize the military to begin to conduct the detailed planning to execute the proposed plan.
Orders to deploy actual forces would be reviewed later, depending on how much of a health threat the flu poses this fall, the officials said.Interested readers will want to consider this July 14 Stephen Lendman post:
Mandatory Swine Flu Vaccination Alert - by Stephen Lendman
On July 13, a World Health Organization (WHO) Global Alert headlined, "WHO recommendations on pandemic (H1N1) 2009 vaccinations" suggest that universally mandated ones are coming. It stated that on July 7, the pharmaceutical industry-dominated Strategic Advisory Group of Experts (SAGE) on Immunization held an "extraordinary meeting in Geneva to discuss issues and make recommendations related to vaccine for the pandemic (H1N1) 2009."
There's no pandemic nor until recently a single death anywhere attributable to Swine Flu. Yet WHO said the virus "is considered unstoppable," while admitting little evidence of spread so far, most cases are mild, and many people recover unaided. Nonetheless, all countries will need vaccines and should follow these priorities as initial supplies will be limited:
-- immunize health care workers "to protect the essential health care infrastructure;" then
-- pregnant women; children over six months of age "with one of several chronic medical conditions;" healthy young adults aged 15 - 49; healthy children; healthy adults aged 50 - 64; and finally healthy adults aged 65 or older.
WTO suggested the risks in stating "new technologies are involved in the production of some pandemic vaccines, which have not yet been extensively evaluated for their safety in certain population groups..." As a result, "post-marketing surveillance" and "post-marketing safety and effectiveness studies" are essential so that countries can adjust their vaccination policies.
WHO "recommendations" are binding on all 194 member countries in case a pandemic emergency is declared under the 2005 International Health Regulations Act and April 2009 WHO pandemic plan.
It's crucial to understand that these vaccines are experimental, untested, toxic and extremely dangerous to the human immune system. They contain squalene-based adjuvants that cause a host of annoying to life-threatening autoimmune diseases. They must be avoided, even if mandated. It's also known that vaccines don't protect against diseases they're designed to prevent and often cause them. They should be banned but proliferate anyway because they're so profitable, and if globally mandated to the greatest extent ever.
Get ready because that's precisely what's coming - universal orders to risk toxic vaccine hazards. In the coming weeks, the dominant media globally will get into high gear fear-mongering mode to convince people voluntarily to submit to jeopardizing their health and well-being. It's essential to refuse and be safe and international law absolutely protects us.
Stephen Lendman is a Research Associate of the Center for Research on Globalization. He lives in Chicago and can be reached at lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net.
Also visit his blog site at sjlendman.blogspot.com and listen to The Global Research News Hour on RepublicBroadcasting.org Monday - Friday at 10AM US Central time for cutting-edge discussions with distinguished guests on world and national issues. All programs are archived for easy listening.
Source
Animal Farm 2009
The dismal state of America in 2009 can't be summarized much better than this: "Since the administration of Franklin Delano Roosevelt, the United States has gone from taking personal responsibility for our own lives to dependence on government to make all decisions in our lives. There are 306 million Americans and we have defaulted on our responsibility for governing this nation to 535 corrupt politicians, 10 “too big to fail” banks, a secretive Central Bank, 17,000 corporate lobbyists, and thousands of government bureaucrats. Essentially 306 million citizens are managed by a few thousand elitist rulers." More...
Fed Govt Gold Manipulation 101
Image by Getty Images via Daylife
Who Stole My Cheese? IMF looting of US gold reserves, Fed’s illegal manipulation of gold market
When the International Monetary Fund was created at the Bretton Woods international conference in 1944, the member nations were asked to chip in a certain quota of money, related to the assessed size of that nation’s economy. This contribution was to be made 75% in that nation’s own currency, and 25% in gold, or in “currency redeemable in gold”—in other words, the dollar. This is how the US dollar became the “reserve currency of the world,” held in great volume by the central banks of the other participating countries. We agreed to redeem these dollars for gold for the other central banks upon demand, at the fixed price of $35 per ounce.
This became quite a problem over the years. The problem was that in order for the system to actually work, the US would need t very strictly control the value of its currency. This would meant that America couldn't go printing money willy-nilly whenever they needed to pay for more social programs, or for military adventures. But of course, that was exactly what the US Congress proceeded to do over the next three decades. By 1971, the dollar had inflated considerably, and foreign central banks had looted the US gold reserves, so the Federal Reserve were only enough to cover 22% of the dollars in existence. West Germany and Switzerland pulled out of the Bretton-Woods system, and the demand for gold payment from other central banks increased even more, because those banks could then turn around and sell this gold on the open market at tremendous profit. The US dollar was standing on a precipice.
This was what motivated President Nixon to make a unilateral decision, without consulting the IMF, to close the “gold window” and stop redeeming dollars in gold. This was the final nail in the coffin of the Bretton Woods system, and unhinged the value of the dollar from gold completely. The international banking elite was enraged. Nonetheless, while it did not stop inflation, it did slow down the looting of Fort Knox and put the dollar on life support for a few more decades.
But “life support” is exactly what has been required ever since then. Because the US still does redeem dollars for gold for foreign central banks, via the IMF’s own currency, SDRs (Special Drawing Rights). Since 1975, gold has again been a legally traded commodity in the United States. And while the price of gold has fluctuated considerably, it has since then always been much higher than $35 an ounce. Presently the market value of an ounce of gold is inching towards $1000 an ounce. Yet the US is still redeeming SDRs for a mere $42.50 per ounce of gold so that they can be sold to large bullion banks and dumped onto the open market (a process technically called “dishoarding”). Our gold reserves are still being looted by the banksters.
But they are doing this for a specific reason. They need to dump gold on the market at below market value to keep the price of gold artificially suppressed, or else the fiat currencies of the world would collapse, and businessmen would begin to insist on doing business only in real money: gold and silver coin. To hide what they are doing, IMF-controlled central banks are allowed to report their gold certificates (paper that represents the gold that they have “leased out” or dishoarded) in the same column on their balance sheets where the gold reserves themselves are reported. So nobody actually knows how much gold is in reserve anymore. The last independent audit of Fort Knox happened in 1955. One was attempted during the Reagan administration, but the Federal Reserve thumbed its nose at the President, and the audit was never completed.
The evidence of dishoarding being used to suppress the price of gold (and thus prop up the fiat currencies) is overwhelming. In fact, Alan Greenspan actually admitted it in front of Congress on July 24, 1998 when he said: “Central banks stand ready to lease gold in increasing quantities should the price rise.” An international organization called the Gold Anti-Trust Association (GATA) has been formed, consisting of gold investors who resent their market being manipulated secretly and illegally by banks with the collusion of government. They even took out a full-page ad in the Wall Street Journal in recent years informing investors of what was going on. Strangely the ad, and all other public pronouncements from the group, have been ignored by the financial press so far. More...
Tuesday, July 28, 2009
Ten Survival Tips for Life on the Street
With more than 650,000 Americans exhausting all their unemployment benefits by September, America's streets will begin to swell with even greater numbers of the homeless and destitute. Learn what you -- or someone you may know -- need to do to survive on the street.
Picture the Homeless, a social justice organization founded and led by homeless people in New York City, has joined The Nation to come up with a list of things you need to know to live on the street--and ways we can all build movements to challenge the stigma of homelessness and put forward an alternative vision of community.
Picture the Homeless, a social justice organization founded and led by homeless people in New York City, has joined The Nation to come up with a list of things you need to know to live on the street--and ways we can all build movements to challenge the stigma of homelessness and put forward an alternative vision of community.
1 Be prepared to be blamed for your circumstances, no matter how much they may be beyond your control. Think of ways to disabuse the public of common misconceptions. Don't internalize cruelty or condescension. Let go of your pride--but hold on to your dignity.
2 There is no private space to which you may retreat. You are on display 24/7. Learn to travel light. Store valuables in a safe place, only carrying around what you really need: ID and documents for accessing services, a pen, etc. You can check e-mail and read at the library. You can get a post office box for a fee or use general delivery (free).
3 Learn the best bathroom options, where you won't be rushed, turned away or harassed. Find restrooms where it's clean enough to put your stuff down, the stalls are big enough to change in and there's hot water so you can wash up. If you're in New York City go to Restrooms in New York.
4 It's difficult to have much control over when, where and what you eat, so learn soup kitchen schedules and menus. Carry with you nuts, peanut butter or other foods high in protein. Click here to find a list of soup kitchens by state.
5 Food and clothing are easier to find than a safe place to sleep--the first truth of homelessness is sleep deprivation. Always have a blanket. Whenever possible, sleep in groups with staggered schedules, so you can look out for one another, prioritizing children's needs over those of adults.
6 Know your rights! Knowing constitutional amendments, legal precedents and human rights provisions can help you, even if they're routinely violated. In New York, for example, a 2003 court-ordered settlement strictly forbids selective enforcement of the law against the homeless. The Malcolm X Grassroots Movement offers another resource, and the ACLU has cards, brochures, fact sheets and films.
7 Learn police patterns and practices. Be polite and calm to cops, even when they don't give the same respect. Support initiatives demanding independent police accountability. Link with groups from overlapping populations of nonhomeless and homeless people (i.e., black, Latino, LGBT groups) that are fighting police brutality and building nonpolice safety projects, like the Audre Lorde Project's Safe OUTside the System in Brooklyn. Organize your own CopWatch--and photograph, videotape and publicize instances of police abuse. Consider and support models like the Los Angeles Community Action Network or the People's Self Defense Campaign of the Malcolm X Grassroots Movement in Brooklyn.
8 The First Amendment protects your right to solicit aid (panhandling), especially if your pitch or sign is a statement rather than a request. To succeed, be creative, funny, engaging ("I didn't get a bailout!"). Find good, high-traffic spots where the police won't bother you.
9 Housing is a human right! Squat. Forge coalitions with nonhomeless but potentially displaced people in this era of mass foreclosures. Support United Workers in Baltimore, the Coalition on Homelessness in San Francisco, the Nashville Homeless Power Project. Learn about campaigns against homelessness in other nations, including the Landless Workers' Movement in Brazil and the Anti-Eviction Campaign in South Africa.
10 Don't go it alone! Always be part of an informal network of trust and mutual aid. Start your own organization, with homeless people themselves shaping the fight for a better life and world. Check out the Picture the Homeless Blog for news, updates and reports on homelessness in NY.
CONCEIVED by WALTER MOSLEY with research by Rae Gomes
Monday, July 27, 2009
Steelworkers beat manager to death -- global civil unrest intensifies
The Sidney Morning Herald reports 30,000 Chinese steelworkers protested plans to merge their mill with another company and beat the company's general manager to death. Employees of Tonghua Iron and Steel Group objected to plans for Jianlong Steel to take control of the company. Jianlong Steel, headquartered in Beijing, controlled the company temporarily last year, and employees blame Jianlong for financial problems. Tonghua employees attacked Jianlong's general manager, Chen Guojun, during the protest and beat him to death.
Last Saturday workers occupied a UK wind tubine factory for six consecutive days in protest at plans to shut it down. The prior week employees at New Fabris -- a bankrupt French car-parts supplier -- threatened to blow up their factory unless Renault and Peugeot pay them compensation. Nearly 400 employees occupied the plant demanding the automakers pay nearly R350 000 to each worker. The Telegraph reported the French workers were paid the same week.
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