Representing the Mambo

On 15 March 2012, the Syrian revolution “celebrated” its first year with more killings and repression. The death at this date toll in the regime crackdown has exceeded 10,000 martyrs, while there are more than 35,000 injured, over 65,000 missing and more than 212,000 prisoners. The regime’s repression has continued since then.

The determination of the Syrians in their struggle against this criminal dictatorship is nevertheless doubted by some left-wing currents around the world, and even among some comrades in the Stop the War Coalition who have even been relaying the Syrian regime propaganda.

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It was the political story of the month. It was a gift that had fallen into the lap of the subs on Fleet Street. “Labour MP, Eric Joyce headbutts Tory MP in the Strangers Bar in the House of Commons”.

We heard that Mr Joyce was slightly worse for wear or “pissed up” in the common parlance, but what was the spark that ignited the flame, so to speak?

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Robocop leads 150 protesters from UNISON and Unite opposed to the privatisation of Police services outside Lloyd House on 24th May 2012

How to sell the £1.5bn privatisation of Police services to the public was the main subject of discussion by members of West Midlands Police Authority when they met yesterday. Chris Sims, the Chief Constable said ‘when we start to talk about the offer we will excite the public, what fills the vacuum is negative views.’

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The Tories are fond of writing reports but few are based on any form of research. Moreover, the lack of research points to a deep-seated hatred of anything that bears even the slightest resemblance to evidence.  Even when they do conduct research, it is so compromised that they need not have bothered (have a look at some of the Centre for Social Justice’s ‘research’ if you don’t believe me).

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The UK’s white working classes have no greater champion than the Spiked Online journalist Brendan O’Neill. Day after day, year upon year, he’s plugging away at his Telegraph Blogs account, dedicated to defending the proletariat against the metropolitan liberal chattering classes, which seek to attack and belittle England’s honest workers with such predations as anti-racist activism, independent film…

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Sandwell and Birmingham Hospitals trust have begun using unpaid workfare labour to cover for £125m of cuts to the “ringfenced” NHS budget.

First reported by Eoin Clarke, the story has been picked up by the Guardian, and Right to Work have called a demonstration at Sandwell Hospital on Thursday, from 5pm.

6 people, forced under threat of having their benefits stopped, have taken part in a trial scheme, which has seen them undertake a number of duties including cleaning and running errands but also extending to patient care in non-clinical areas, helping with meals and drinks.

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Courtesy of the Torygraph (believe it or not): here are the proposals (drawn up at Cameron’s request by Adrian Beecroft, a venture capitalist, in conjunction with government officials and lawyers),  for mor or less doing away with an employee’s right to claim unfair dismissal. This comes on top of  the already enacted increase in the qualifying period of an employee’s service in order to bring an unfair dismissal claim, from one year to two.

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I could hardly believe this (on the European media this morning),

Thousands of students protested in Montreal’s downtown overnight and dozens were arrested after the Quebec government announced it would suspend the current semester for many college and university students until August.

Montreal police made 122 arrests after the protest was declared illegal shortly after midnight Thursday. (from Here.)

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This is part of a series examining the alternatives to cuts and austerity. In this post we look at building a new generation of eco-friendly social housing. This investment would be funded directly by the government and not through expensive PFI deals, creating a stock of council houses that would provide affordable housing, cover increasing demand and help to meet our carbon reduction targets to avert climate change.

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The Greeks are having another election on 17 June.  The 6 May election was a disaster for the Troika.  An anti-austerity party, Syriza, gained the balance of power and ensured that no pro-Troika government could be formed. Now Greece is in a limbo for another month under a surprised premier, Panagiotis Pikrammenos, the president of Supreme Court.

But the Greek economy is not standing still. 

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