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A totalitarian phony and deceitful dilettante has managed to get elected to the US presidency. Donald Trump is an epochal disaster that won't just change his vast country and its democracy for many years to come. The entire world will feel the effects of this aberration. Many thought it was a joke when Trump announced his candidacy last year. Go ahead, many thought, as long as it's fun for him -- and for us. That was almost one-and-a-half years ago, and today, nobody is laughing anymore. Now, a racist sexual predator, a pathological liar and an excitable egomaniac holds power in the United States -- a sickening outcome for all those who believe in democracy and human rights... (source: Die Zeit, German "liberal"-bourgeois news magazine)
Once again: No comment!!
Mass Protests Against New European Central Bank HQ in Frankfurt
There is nothing to celebrate in austerity and impoverishment! About 17,000 people and determined activists from all over Europe gathered in Frankfurt(Germany) for yesterday's afternoon demonstration. Arriving by bus, train and caravan people came to interrupt this celebration of power and capital. Their voices against the austerity crisis and capitalistic greed of the ECB were heard loud and clear...
Only one day earlier one group, involved in the "Blockupy Movement", stated the following: "We don’t have a crystal ball and we cannot foresee what exactly will have happened on the evening of March 18. But according to what we know and hope for, Blockupy can become much more than another blockade or another rebellious ritual..."
But the group's suppositions went wrong! While the afternoon/evening demo was almost peacefully...
...already in the morning(7~10 a.m.CET) about 6000 militant activists from all over Europe took the the streets in downtown Frankfurt, clashed with thousands of riot cops(more detailed info in English you'll get here, a Korean report you'll get here and here you'll get a report in German)...
Turkey:
URGENT APPEAL FROM TAKSIM SOLIDARITY
The officials who promised to keep Gezi as a park until the end of the court case have turned Gezi Park, Istanbul and our country into a war zone.
We condemn the police assault with rubber bullets, intense teargas and sound bombs on Gezi Park at a time where the park was populated with women, children and the elderly in the evening of the 15th of June and declare this a crime against humanity.
The attacks are continuing around Taksim and neighbouring areas and the whole country.
The infirmaries at Gezi Park and the Divan Hotel have been specific targets of this assault whose intense violence could not even be justified in times of war. Protesters from all areas of Istanbul are walking towards Taksim against government violence. There are protests all over the country.
As we speak we are trying to ascertain numbers in the current assault. The declarations by the governor or police chief are far from convincing. Many people are in police custody and hundreds have been wounded by plastic bullets. Many people cannot reach hospitals.
These attacks have taken place following the meetings our representatives had with the PM and while we were having an open and democratic discussion as to how the process would be shaped from here on in. The attacks have taken place when we had been working on how to reorganise ourselves in the park and at a time where there were no protests whatsoever in Taksim Square. This is a clear indication that the intention of the PM is to intensify polarisation in Turkey and oppress the people with his insatiable lust for authority.
Our decision making processes are open to everyone and we will be following up on our humane and fair demands together with our labour unions, democratic organisations, political parties and our volunteer participants.
We were in the process of reorganising our tents at Gezi Park when the assault took place. Despite this process which had already been conveyed to MPs by artists and other MPs, the violence is an indication that public order has been destroyed by the government itself in our country.
Here are our urgent demands:
1.This violent attack by the police forces has to stop immediately! The government is solely responsible for what happens tonight and tomorrow!
2.The press should publicise our declarations and protect our people from the misinformation of a government at war with its own people.
3.We are very concerned about those who ended up wounded as a result of this harsh police intervention. Volunteering medics have been stopped from attending to those in need. Ambulance and other public health services should immediately be re-instated.
4.Tens of thousands of people are walking to Taksim from everywhere in Istanbul. Their voices must be heard.
TAKSİM SOLIDARITY(TAKSIM DAYANISMASI)
16th June 2013, 01:20am(EEST)
Related:
☞ Turkish police storm protest camp using teargas and rubber bullets (Guardian, 6.16)
☞ The Gazi Battle, pictures (Spiegel, 6.16)
☞ Today's news ticker (Nadir, 6.16)
Turkey:
LABOUR UNIONS IN STRIKE TO SUPPORT THE MOVEMENT FOR DEMOCRACY
Tens of thousands of public sector workers in Turkey are now on a "warning strike" in support of anti-government protests...
The strike was y'day(6.03) called by the Confederation of Public Workers Unions(KESK) in response to "state terror implemented against mass protests across the country". It said that "Erdogan's islamist clerical fascist regime" had "shown once again its deep rooted enmity to democracy"...
KESK, which has an estimated 240,000 members in 11 unions, said the strike would last for two days and will send the message, that "this is not just about youth on the streets, this is not just about a park or individual demands - this is about something bigger, about democracy".
The strike comes in the wake of five days of mass protests against the Islamic-rooted government of Erdogan. At least two people have died in the demonstrations and more than 1,700 were injured. Meanwhile the Turkish Human Rights Foundation stated that more than 1,000 protesters were subjected "to ill-treatment and torture" by police and secret service agents.
Related article:
☞ Turkey: the triple strike that could change everything (ROARMAG, 6.04)
For more updated info about the current situation in Turkey, please check out LabourStart!
Turkey:
PRO-DEMOCRACY PROTESTS & STATE TERROR
Y'day morning(6.01, AM07:30 CET) I got the following e-mail:
"Attention comrades! Turkish movement for democracy needs you! After a series of peaceful demonstrations for preserving a recreational area in Istanbul city center which is planned to demolished for the construction of a shopping mall, Turkish police attacked the protesters violently with tear gas and water cannon, directly targeting their faces and bodies. Dozens of protesters are hospitalized and access to the park is blocked without any legal basis. Turkish media, directly controlled by the government or have business and political ties with it, refuse to cover the incidents. Press agencies also blocked the information flow. Please share this message for the world to become aware of the police state created by AKP of Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, which is often considered to be a model for other Middle Eastern countries. Turkish democracy expects your help. Thank you!"
Protests in Istanbul's Taksim Gezi Park started on Monday. Initially over authorities' plan to "redevelop" the park into a shopping mall, the demonstrations rapidly gained momentum and became a mass protest against Erdogan and his AKP party's Islamist policies.
Over the weekend the protests spread across the country, and hundreds of thousands took to the streets and were attacked by riot police, who used excessive violence(incl. tear gas, water cannons...) in attempt to end the demonstrations.(*)
According to Amnesty International, two protestors died and at least 1,000 were injured in protests' focal point in Istanbul's Taksim Square.
A lot of impressing(and depressing) pics you can see here!
* Related, but more detailed reports:
☞ Istanbul Taksim Gezi Park is not about trees (LibCom, 5.30)
☞ Turkey: Thousands of protestors, police clash in fierce demos (Ynet/Reuters, 5.31)
☞ Occupy Gezi/Istanbul Protests (CNN iReport, 5.31)
☞ Fresh anti-government clashes hit Turkey (al-Jazeera, 6.01)
☞ Turkey protests spread after violence in Istanbul... (Guardian, 6.01)
☞ Istanbul Protests Grow In Size As Demonstration Enters 5th Day (HuffPost, 6.01)
☞ Turkey counts cost of mass protests (al-Jazeera, 6.02)
☞ Turkish protest takes root in Istanbul square... (Guardian, 6.02)
Today's German bourgeois(!!) magazine Der Spiegel published the following notable commentary (yesterday's German version's titel: "Der Untergang des amerikanischen Imperiums"/"The Downall of the American Empire"), regarding today's presidential election in the USA:
Destroyed by Total Capitalism
America Has Already Lost Tuesday's Election
'The US election as a battle between the good Obama and the evil Romney'. But this is a mistake. Regardless of who wins the election on Tuesday, total capitalism is America's true ruler, and it has the power to destroy the country.
The United States Army is developing a weapon that can reach -- and destroy -- any location on Earth within an hour. At the same time, power lines held up by wooden poles dangle over the streets of Brooklyn, Queens and New Jersey. Hurricane Sandy ripped them apart there and in communities across the East Coast last week, and many places remain without electricity. That's America, where high-tech options are available only to the elite, and the rest live under conditions comparable to a those of a developing nation. No country has produced more Nobel Prize winners, yet in New York City hospitals had to be evacuated during the storm because their emergency generators didn't work properly.
Anyone who sees this as a contradiction has failed to grasp the fact that America is a country of total capitalism. Its functionaries have no need of public hospitals or of a reliable power supply to private homes. The elite have their own infrastructure. Total capitalism, however, has left American society in ruins and crippled the government. America's fate is not just an accident produced by the system. It is a consequence of that system.
Obama couldn't change this, and Romney wouldn't be able to either. Europe is mistaken if it views the election as a choice between the forces of good and evil. And it certainly doesn't amount to a potential change in political direction as some newspapers on the Continent would have us believe.
A Powerless President
Romney, the exceedingly wealthy business man, and Obama, the cultivated civil rights lawyer, are two faces of a political system that no longer has much to do with democracy as we understand it. Democracy is about choice, but Americans don't really have much of a choice. Obama proved this. Nearly four years ago, it seemed like a new beginning for America when he took office. But this was a misunderstanding. Obama didn't close the Guantanamo Bay detention camp, nor did he lift immunity for alleged war criminals from the Bush-era, or regulate the financial markets, and climate change was hardly discussed during the current election campaign. The military, the banks,
industry -- the people are helpless in the face of their power, as is the president.
Not even credit default swaps, the kind of investment that brought down Lehman Brothers and took Western economies to the brink, has been banned or even better regulated. It is likely the case that Obama wanted to do more, but couldn't. But what role does that play in the bigger picture?
We want to believe that Obama failed because of the conservatives inside his own country. Indeed, the fanatics that Mitt Romney depends on have jettisoned everything that distinguishes the West: science and logic, reason and moderation, even simple decency. They hate homosexuals, the weak and the state. They oppress women and persecute immigrants. Their moralizing about abortion doesn't even spare the victims of rape. They are the Taliban of the West.
The Winner Makes No Difference to Europe
Still, they are only the symptom of America's failure, not the cause. In reality, neither the idealists and Democrats, nor the useful idiots of the Tea Party have any power over the circumstances.
From a European perspective, it doesn't matter who wins this election. Only US foreign policy is important to us -- and Obama is no dove and Romney no hawk. The incumbent president prefers to wage his wars with drones instead of troops, though the victims probably don't care if they're killed by man or machine. Meanwhile, despite all the criticism, his challenger says he wouldn't join Israel were the country to go to war with Iran because the US can now no longer afford such a thing.
In any case, it is wrong to characterize Republicans as the party of warmongers and Democrats as the party of peace -- or even to call the latter a left-wing party at all.
After all, it was Democratic presidents Harry S. Truman, John F. Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson who started the wars in Korea and Vietnam. Republican presidents Dwight D. Eisenhower and Richard Nixon ended these wars. And Ronald Reagan, who Europeans see as the embodiment of both the evil and absurd aspects of American politics, was a peaceful man compared to the standards we have since become accustomed to. He only ever invaded Grenada.
The truth is that we simply no longer understand America. Looking at the country from Germany and Europe, we see a foreign culture. The political system is in the hands of big business and its lobbyists. The checks and balances have failed. And a perverse mix of irresponsibility, greed and religious zealotry dominate public opinion.
The downfall of the American empire has begun. It could be that the country's citizens wouldn't be able to stop it no matter how hard they tried. But they aren't even trying.
No comment!!
Related report:
☞ Recent Testimony from Workers at Zhengzhou Foxconn (ChinaLaborWatch, 9.11)
Twenty years ago in Lichtenhagen, a suburb of Rostock (a city in Germany's north-east region), the attacks of a racist mob against the "central admissions office for asylum requests" escalated to the biggest pogrom after the German reunification...
Y'day afternoon in Rostock-Lichtenhagen: About 5000 people - mainly young antifacsist actvists from Hamburg, Bremen and Berlin (*) - commemorated with a demonstration the victims of the pogrom and all the people affected by racist and neo-nazi violence. But the protest was also directed against the current racist policy in the entire European Union.
More impressive pics you can see here!
* The residents of Lichtenhagen, in their majority, opposed the demonstration... No surprise! Many of them supported/joined the pogrom...
Related stuff:
☞ Lichtenhagen steht am Fenster (Tagesspiegel, 8.26)
☞ Twenty years after the pogrom (short video report, 8.26)
☞ Racism and Xenophobia Still Prevalent in Germany (Spiegel, 8.24)
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