Wonderful news: British MP's vote to recognise Palestine as a state.

Ok I would be the first to admit that I don't always like what emerges out of the  house of commons, but  as a result  of tireless campaigning, yesterday finally  resulted  in the historic occasion  which resulted in the UK Parliament  voting to recognise the state of Palestine. This follows the Swedish Parliaments decision to do the same. Wonderful news. It  saw as many as 274 voting for the motion to 12 against in a momentous  event that  gave  me much joy, when usually the only thing that emerges from these dusty corners are dark shadows.
Surely it is a big thanks to all  who for years  have marched, demonstrated  for the rights of the Palestinian people and is  also a sign of times in the fact   that British Parliament seems to have noticed and reflected  what  it's people really feel  in the wake  of  Israels recent onlslaught in Gaza, that left over 2,000 Palestinians dead,  and that people are now wide awake to its continuing illegal military occupation and recognise that Israel is losing the battle for public opinion and is part of a growing international trend that demands justice for the Palestinians. The time is  now right for the Palestinians to have the state that it deserves.
This symbolic  vote will mean absolutely nothing if further action is not taken, to bring the  Palestinians dream of statehood into reality. International pressure must continue to be mounted  until oppression is ended and the maxim  from the 'rivers to the sea' is finally achieved.

Steal this poem - Claire Faucet

This poem is copyleft.
You're free to distribute it and diffuse it,
re-write it and abuse it,
and use it.
For your own ends,
and with your own ending.

This is an open source poem
entering the public domain.
Here's the source  code,
add a little salt and pepper if you  like,
share it out amongst your friends.

Because I didn't write  this poem
I moulded it,
picked the lines out of a skip as I was walking on over here
took used up fragments of leftover ideas,
and put them to use.

Think about it -
I can't tell you anything new.
In all these millennia of human existence
there certainly can only be a few ideas to be thought through.
So we treat them like rare commodities?
Plunder artistic reserves for new ideas buried deep beneath the permafrost,
suffocate them with patent protection
and junk the rest?
Or  do we re-use them and recycle them?
Pile our public spaces high with shared ideas beyond anyone's imagining.

So I steal a verse  here and a line there
a riff there and a rhyme there
pass it on around the circle,
roll it up
add a joke
here have a toke
does it get you high?

This poem  is indebted to Gil Scott Heron. Abbie Hoffman, Jim Thomas
   and Sarah Jones
This poem is indebted to all the words I've read and the voices I've known
This poem is a community  of intellect, your and mine
This poem  is ripped off line after line after line

Because intellectual property is theft
and piracy is our only defence against the thought police.
The revolution
will be plagiarised!
The revolution will not happen if ideas are corporatised
So steal this poem
and use it
For your own ends
and with your own ending.

This poem is copyleft
all rights are reserved

Claire Faucet is a performance poet, activist and researcher for Corporate Watch.
Her poetry can be found online at http://www.re-clairethestreets.blogspot.com
and her political writing at http://www.corporatewatch.org.uk

The above poem reprinted  from:-
This poem is sponsored  by : Poems  in the face of corporate power
2007

Apple : Irony alert

Apple one of the the major  success stories of the dot-com era  is often accused of treating its own workers poorly and is no stranger to controvery.
According to recent Pocket Gamer  report  Apple has pulled 'Sweatshop' a satirical  game designed  to raise awareness about the inequities of forced labour, from its APP store, because it was 'uncomfortable selling a game based  around the running of a sweatshop. Though it apparently  has no such qualms  about selling a sweat shop produced phone. The technology giant whose own Foxconn facility  is routinely plaqued by suicides, riots and human rights allegations, has cited  clothing factory managers as routinely 'blocking fire escapes,' 'employing child labour' as reasons why the game was unsuitable for sale, according to Simon Parkin, head of games at liitlecloud, which created the game to highlight the human cost of fashion.
There is nothing ethical about apple, remember that they pay contract workers so little in China that they have been committing suicide, while their founder Jeff Bezos sits on a personal fortune of 427 billion, and Apple itself recently announced a $13.5 billion profit for the first quarter of 2014, while its warehouse workers suffer low pay and unfair working conditions, combined with a long term practice of using underpaid student labour and underpaying its  own share of British corporate tax. Long too,  has it had a history of allegations concerning human rights and labour rights abuses and lets not forget . Where things have improved recently for Apple is within its  public relations department, but scratch under the surface it is still very sensitive to any outside criticism. Apple's reputation still not squeaky clean, their thirst for maximum profit still seems to be their major concern and is still  in many peoples eyes a less than honest company. Apple also happens to be one of the most aggressive  patent lawsuit filers in the world, that  agressively pursues litigation  and excessive  claims  against its competitors. In effect a bully.Apples' dismal record on human rights has long been questioned and is probably worse than we know about such is this companies insistence on secrecy, besides treating  humanity with disrespect, Apple documents  show that suppliers  to the company also disrespect the environment, their suppliers routinely  discharging  toxic waste into our communities,  without regard to the  effect the  waste has  on  residents, wildlife or the planet, its commitment to ethical values  continues to be very dubious.  Scratch under the surface, Apple not as  nice and shiny as they try to make out.

R.I.P 'Louakanikos' The Greek Riot Dog

'Loukanikos'  a ginger mongrel internationally known as the 'Riot Dog' has sadly passed away at the age of 10, His name translates into English as 'sausage'. This valiant much loved stray dogs health was adversely affected by  police asphyxiating  gas and from being kicked on numerous occasions by the police. Forcing him to retire from active protest 2 years ago. More than just a dog, he was a protector and a beloved comrade facing down riot Police daily as demonstrators took to the streets  of Greece against the police murder of Alexandros Grigoropoulos, a 15 year old Greek student  who was gunned down in cold blood in the center of Athens, and later against austerity measures, he was usually  to be found at the thick of all the action in front of the crowds, charging and yelping alongside protestors when they confronted  police on the streets of Athens.So legendary was this noble creature that he had a bar named after him in Madrid, and. In 2011 Time magazine listed  Loukanikos as one of its personalities of the year.
He was on the couch sleeping when suddenly his heart stopped. A leftist newspaper Avgi, says the dog  has been buried in the shade  of a tree in the city centre. This  courageous four legged revolutionary who led many a fight for justice will bark no more.
Rest in Power.

Louakinikos in action

Once a time in Athens - The Legend of the Riot Dog

David Rovics - Riot Dog

7 facts about Workfare.

" There is little evidence that workfare increases the likelihood  of finding work.... workfare is least effective  in getting people into jobs   in weak labour markets where unemployment is high." This week their is a week of action against it, workfare profits the rich by providing free labour, whilst hurting the poor by taking away  welfare rights if people refuse to work. The government is misleadingly calling it now 'Help to work' but it is business as usual, it is draconian, exploitative, unjust and wrong, many charities are now refusing to have anything to do with it because :-.

1. There is no evidence that workfare schemes lead to employment.

2. You're  five times more likely to be sanctioned than get a job on a government work programme.

3. Workfare  is undermining voluntary and  charitable values.

4.Forced Labour is illegal.

5. Workfare is not just for the long-term unemployed.

6.Courts have repeatedly ruled  against workfare schemes.

7. Workfare is heading for collapse but we need  to  push for it.

Facts reblogged from here, where you will find more information.:-

http://realfare.wordpress.com/2014/10/07/7-facts-you-need-to-know-about-workfare/

Empty promises and broken 'pledges' lead folk to one conclusion:-

and its too late for Cable and Clegg to start sounding off now, they have backed the Tories throughout, we all know now what their party stands for, everything the Tories have done has been done with liberal democrat support. Milliband as for him apparently shifting his party to the left, come on, same as Blair,who created a version of the social democrats mark 2, under the guise of New Labour, where is their pulse, where is their opposition, their anger, their fiery direction.As for the Tories, unreformed unapologetic Thatcherites and UKIP more of the same. I feel political scepticism is more than justified, most people I encounter feel alienated from the lot  of them, and do not understand the need to rush out to vote for them. Its not that people are disengaged with politics as a whole, I think  people just feel let down by the so called democratic systems and norms that does nothing for them in return.Regarding most careesrist politicians as fraudsters and liars, a self serving elite, who carry on  wining and dining, fostering division, with empty gestures, carving and making scapegoats out of sections of the community, as austerity grippens,  is it any wonder  that people increasingly feel abandoned, and left with not much hope, pessimistic and more than a little dissillusioned. Many people feel nauseated with the lot of them and simply cannot be bothereed with their message.
To change this country for the better, me thinks, the only hope for us, is to start thinking outside of the box, but  people are still demonstrating, occupying, resisting with direct action, it is not a question of people simply apathetic, people are wide awake, change is happening NOW. Anger,does not reflect disengagement, and as we see, people are able to express their political dissatisfactions in so many different ways in our modern world. But the status quo carries on regardless, carries on not listening, as no confidence in their empty hollow words  continues to grow.
But out of their fading  embers, hopefully a fairer, system can be built, personally for me one that proactively is used to combat oppression, exploitation and repression, surely another world is not impossible.

How the ISIS theatre of murder was born - Heathcote Williams

David Cameron says he is 'standing firm  and will not be cowed" by ISIS brutality. Poet Heathcotte Williams  responds.

Montage and narration by Alex Cox.