“The tentative agreement will see the private-sector minimum wage cut by 22 per cent [to USD 5.80/hr] and the elimination of as many as 150,000 government jobs [within two years], [and immediate job cuts for as many as 15,000 state workers]. That triggered immediate protests in central Athens and vows from union leaders for a 24-hour national strike beginning Friday. [T]he unelected Greek parliament is expected to approve the austerity measures on the weekend”
But … even this is not enough for European central bankers. Sheer barbarity.
“The unrest on Tuesday night was the culmination of weeks of protests following Nasheed’s [the deposed President] order to the military to arrest a judge, whom he accused of blocking multimillion-dollar corruption cases against members of Gayoom’s [the former dictator] government. … Nasheed, educated in the UK, was detained dozens of times during the 30-year rule of Gayoom, earning the nickname “the Mandela of the Maldives”.
Yesterday’s coup against Nasheed also marks a blow against his efforts to bring attention to the plight of island states dealing with sea-level rise.
“Thousands of migrant workers come to Canada from the Caribbean and [Latin] America each year to perform seasonal labour, mainly in Ontario and British Columbia’s agriculture sector. Most have come under the federal government’s Season Agriculture Worker Program, and rarely have much contact with the communities where they spend as much as seven or eight months as labourers, often to earn money to send back home”
The families of the deceased labourers have no rights to pursue financial compensation for their loss.
“According to the Toronto Star, Health Minister Deb Matthews, while describing the crash was “a horrific tragedy”, said she was unsure whether the survivors’ health costs are covered. She promised to look into the issue.”
Member countries of Latin America’s alternative integration bloc, the Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our America (ALBA), met in the Venezuelan capital this weekend in order to discuss the advancement of the organisation at its 11th official summit. | venezuelanalysis.com
Health workers in Kilkis, Greece, have occupied their local hospital and have issued a statement saying it is now fully under workers control. | libcom.org
Conservativism may be the refuge of the dim. But the room for rightwing ideas is made by those too timid to properly object | George Monbiot | The Guardian
Young Tunisian bloggers who promoted and recorded the events of the Arab Spring now find that, without a common enemy, the social media are just a cacophony of divided and conflicting views | by Smain Laacher and Cédric Terzi | Le Monde Diplomatique
“In a preamble to the interview, a Jerusalem Post scribe said Baird likes Israel “a lot” and that makes him no different than Prime Minister Stephen Harper.”
Synopsis: “To See If I Am Smiling, the frank testimonials of six female Israeli soldiers stationed in Gaza and the West Bank pack a powerful emotional punch. The young women revisit their tours of duty in the occupied territories with surprising honesty and strip bare stereotypes of gender differences in the military. The former soldiers share shocking moments of negligence, flippancy, immaturity and power-tripping as they describe atrocities they witnessed and participated in.”
“It’s not about playing politics, he insists. “There are 2,800 Jews in my constituency in Ottawa; I have 11,500 Muslims and Arabs,” he told one Israeli interviewer. It’s all about values, he says.”
“[T]he Russian foreign minister, Sergey Lavrov, criticised the UN resolution, saying it made too few demands of anti-government armed groups, and could prejudge the outcome of a dialogue among political forces in the country.”
A principled move. More so, it is the anti-imperialist stance.
“The U.S. economy is still nearly 6 million jobs short of its January 2008 peak. This graph shows how long it would take to make back the jobs we lost in the Great Recession at various rates. If we create 200,000 jobs a month, as we have averaged over the last three months, we’ll fill the jobs gap by the early 2020s.”
“[T]he Ocampo family was hit by many of the same misfortunes that have beset so many other Americans: [The suspects father,] Refugio Ocampo lost his job. The family’s house was foreclosed on three years ago, forcing them to move in with relatives of [the suspects] mother. … After a 2008 tour of duty in Iraq, Itzcoatl became traumatized and depressed, family members said, presenting another challenge to a family in crisis.”
“Militias have carved up Tripoli and the rest of Libya into competing fiefdoms, each holding out for the share of power they say they are owed. … Several militias from outside the capital have set up bases in Tripoli. They clash intermittently often because of disputes over who controls which neighborhoods of the city.”
–What is this nonsense? People should write in to the city and demand that this garbage be taken down. While it is not only is it not guaranteed that the city would save that money, it is guaranteed that the service would decline and the impact on our communities (which include public sector workers) will be negative. The current choice is ours, either we pay for our services through a fair tax system, or we undermine the fabric of our communities. We must mobilize against these attacks on workers and our communities.
“The fighting has grown more intense as an anti-Assad group known as the Free Syrian Army, composed partly of army defectors, has attacked and violently resisted loyalist forces … the Syrian National Council, a large Syrian opposition group, was reported to have rejected the offer outright unless Mr. Assad stepped down first — a condition that both Mr. Assad and Russia have said is unacceptable.”
