A debate about the Greek citizenship draft law on 8th February 2010 at the National History Museum (Old Parliament), Athens, Greece.
For German readers, see the discussion on Indymedia Germany.
A big thank you to Aug & Ohr for having digged up and analysed this extraordinary video.
The youtube text reads: "Ακροδεξιοί - εκδήλωση για ιθαγένεια"_ "Akrodexioi - ekdêlosê gia ithagéneia"_ "Far-righters - manifestation on the citizenship law".
A PRODUCTION OF
S. L. A. V. E.
Studio Lovenberg für allgemeine Vampir- und Erziehungswissenschaften
***
Foto by Literaturhandlung Müller & Böhm / Dichter Michael Lentz und FAZ-Literaturpäpstin Felicitas von Lovenberg am 6. März 2008 im Heine-Haus, Düsseldorf, Nordrhein-Westfalen, Deutschland
US states struggle in the shadow of Greece (see Financial Times)
Is the US about to go Greek ? (see Market Watch)
Greece delays bond issue (see Wall Street Journal via AFP)
Papandreou to meet Barack Obama (see Athens News Agency)
European Union pushes cutbacks for indebted countries (see Associated Press)
The Greek general strike as turning point in Europe (see World Socialist Web Site)
The social situation in Greece (see World Socialist Web Site)
Tensions ran high in Grigoropoulos trial (see The Hellenic Radio)
Lightning strikes twice in Greece (see The Commune, UK)
***
Foto from SIMELA PANTZARTZI / European Pressphoto Agency: Protest march in central Athens on Wednesday 24th February 2010; the poster reads "ergatike allegeggye_ enantia stous kerdoskopous" - "workers' solidarity_ against the usurers or speculators" (via Monsters & Critics)
... oder eher ein deutscher Sozialfaschist ?
Steinmeier lehnt Finanzhilfen für Griechenland ab
BERLIN (Dow Jones)--Angesichts der Streiks in Griechenland hat der Vorsitzende der SPD-Bundestagsfraktion, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, die Griechen dazu gedrängt, das vorgegebene Konsolidierungsprogramm umzusetzen. "Ein "Weiter so" gefährdet die Stabilität Griechenlands insgesamt", sagte Steinmeier dem "Handelsblatt" (Donnerstagausgabe).
Steinmeier warnte davor, bereits Schritte wie ein Ausscheiden Griechenlands aus der Eurozone zu debattieren. "Bevor solche Maßnahmen kommen, muß Griechenland sein Konsolidierungs-Programm umsetzen." Auch ein Rettungspaket der Europäer schloß Steinmeier aus. "Ein Bail-Out kommt angesichts der Rechtslage nicht in Betracht und wäre auch unkalkulierbar", warnte Steinmeier. Er traue Ministerpräsident Papandreou zu, die Konsolidierungspläne umzusetzen.
Steinmeier forderte Bundeskanzlerin Angela Merkel auf, sich aktiv für eine koordinierte Wirtschaftspolitik in Europa einzusetzen. "Ich erwarte, daß die Bundesregierung sagt, wie sie sich eine stärkere Koordinierung der Wirtschaftspolitik vorstellt und das nicht anderen überläßt. Viel zu spät spürt offenbar auch Kanzlerin, daß wir Instrumente jenseits der Zuständigkeit der Europäischen Zentralbank brauchen, um auf wirtschaftliche und währungspolitische Disparitäten einzuwirken", sagte Steinmeier.
Foto: Jungsozialisten Minden-Lübbecke, Nordrhein-Westfalen, Deutschland
General Strike (im)mobilizes Greece, Street Clashes in Athens (by Taxikipali, Libcom)
The general strike in both private and public sectors has seen mass protest marches across the country and extended clashes in Athens with dozens of shops and banks destroyed and one man arrested.
The first general strike as a response to the austerity measures in Greece has met with huge success as the country has been immobilised by the strike with no boats airplanes buses or trains moving within or from and into the country. The media strike which is part of the general strike means there are no news broadcasts or newspapers which limits the extent of our information gathering on the strike and its protest marches. According to a German newspaper report, there had been demonstrations and manifestations in almost 70 Greek towns.
In Athens the protest march is expected to have gathered around 40,000 people and had a very dynamic character. The first incident occurred when a plain clothed policeman was stopped and beaten by protesters. Later riot police tries to side the numerous anarchist block but was deterred by large numbers of protesters. Before reaching Syntagma square several corporate shops and banks were smashed by protesters. In syntagma square extended clashes between protesters and riot police forces unfolded with use of tear gas on the part of the cops and rocks and molotov cocktails by the protesters. During the clashes Giannis Bardakos, a member of a socialist opposition party DIKKI, was arrested. DIKKI has published a communique condemning the arrest and the "policy of occupation forces' imposed poverty and underdeveloped applied by the State of oppression and violence" adding that "anti-people's terrorism will not pass". The encircling methods of the police at the corner of Phillelinon street however failed, two workers who the cops had arrested were rescued and the two riot police squads were encircled by protesters and heavily beaten with many riot shield broken. The clashes continues across Panepistimiou street where the posh Zonars cafe was invaded by large numbers of enraged workers and teachers who smashed it. The protesters then moved towards the Polytechnic which is under occupation by students in response to the breach of campus asylum in Zografou a few days ago, with many shops across Patision avenue destroyed. The general feeling is one of great success with the forces of repression humiliated and the working class having proved its will to struggle against the state onslaught.
For a good commentary on the Strike Day, see also David Broder in The Commune
For round-ups from international corporate media, see AP, WSJ, Der Spiegel (English) and DPA (attention, the latter report is confusing 'Spiegel' and 'Focus' magazine)
Fotos: Radikal (Turkey), Monsters & Critics and Reuters
Videos: BBC, Reuters, Reuters (German), MSNBC
Banks Bet Greece Defaults on Debt They Helped Hide (see New York Times)
European Statistics Agency Seeks More Power (see Wall Street Journal)
Standard & Poor's May Downgrade Greece Within a Month on Risks to Budget Plan (see Bloomberg)
Athens Goes on Strike - Protest Against Cutbacks Turns Violent (from Indymedia Germany)
Despite the state's repression methods in the demonstration at Athens participated around 100.000 people. One bank entrance was built with bricks from a builders' team. The riot police started attacking the independant blocks and try to seperate them from the main body of the demonstration. The people responded immediately and attacked back by smashing the cops' shields, chasing them away and defend against any new special riot police team that was arriving. In the clashes also 45 years old people were engaged against the cops. One undercover cop had also to visit a doctor after people found out he was a cop. Also the masses of people chased away the police by shouting against and forbid them to come close to the demonstration. Many multinational companies were smashed down. The riot police attacked with tear-gas and sound-shine granades at Syntagma Square in front of the Parliament and people responded with some mollies, stones and wooden sticks. On Stadiou Street a special police forces team tried also to attack. The response from anarchists, syndicalists, independents, workers, people of any age was again one and the same: stones, bottles and whatever could be found on the streets flew on the heads of the cops. RAGE and RAGE can be two words to describe the situation! Attack also at 'Zonars' Burgeois Cafe (9 euro per coffee) when the people spontaniously entered the cafe, stole everything from inside and smashed down the front-glasses. People also entered in Papasotiriou Bookshop, took many books in zero price and gave it to demonstrators. Also clothes from a multinational company were taken away in zero price and given to people. All the actions above happened spontaniously.
Also, the anarchist/antiauthoritarian/libertarian communistic block was bigger than the rest of the others. Participation also from many refugees (Foto, Foto) . Many 50 year old people joined also the radicals (Foto, Foto).
As far as the antifascist counterdemo planned for today afternoon in Amerikis Square, both the fascist gathering and the antifascist counterdemo were declared banned by the district attorney. As a result, antifascist marches were prevented to reach the square by strong riot police forces, so around 800 antifascist gathered instead at Kyprou & Patision self-managed park and demonstrated through Kypseli district. Two fascists tried to reach the park with their van which was smashed down. Two other shitheads had to say goodbye to their motorcycle and their greek army t-shirt. Around 30 lovers of military junta gathered in the church of Agios Panteleimonas district. Just to remind: In the certain district are active many members of Golden Dawn (nazi party) as prostitutes' pimps and members of the mafia. Before some days two nazis were caught by the cops with a gun but they were released. (With elements from Taxikipali's report, Libcom)
On the evening before (Tuesday) a motorcycle demonstration took place in the center of Athens to call the people for participation in the General Strike. For two hours on all the streets of the centre and Kypseli neighbourhood the voice of the strikers was heard loudly. The first surprise of the people around was easily turning into happiness. The demonstration used to stop only to give info flyers at bus stations, squares and super markets. On the dozen thousands of flyers that were spread it was written on them: "On Wednesday everybody join the strike, everybody on the streets", "Warning: On TV speaks the European Commission", "Let's make them feel afraid, down with the stability program", "This strike shall be only the beginning", "The Germans occupy us again?" (Fotos).
People Take to the Streets in Thessaloniki (from Indymedia Germany)
The demonstration in Thessaloniki city went smoothly with the participation of many people. At the tail of the demonstration the anarchists' block with a plakat that was written on it "War Against the Bosses' War". Also a block of Libertarian Syndicalistic Union with a plakat writting "Capitalism is not in Crisis, Capitalism is the Crisis Itself". In the last block a lot of people participated together with Antiauthoritarian Movement. A lot of flyers and press stuff were spread and slogans were sprayed on shops' walls that did not participate in the General Strike. People threw garbage in Hondos Centre (multinational perfume company) so the company had to join the strike after this action. A street camera was smashed, a European Union's flag was burnt and slogans were sprayed on government buildings.
After the end of the demonstration, students in Aristoteleio University started smashing control bars at the entrences of the Campus. Police entered the campus and started chasing the people. More people joined the events after the police attack, smashed more bars and chased the cops away. The rectorship building is squatted and an assembly will take place during the evening.
Mass Protests and Actions in Other Greek Towns (from Indymedia Germany)
Demonstrations in Naousa and Veroia towns (Macedonia). In Veroia on the top of the demonstration anarchists/antiauthoritarians instead of the parliamentary communists. Comrades with flyers, slogans, flags, plakats started demonstrating after the gathering in the town's Working Centre. Spontaniously people who were on the spot joined them. Anarchists' presence also in "the dinosaurs' nest" (frozen parliamentary syndicalists) at Naousa town.
Demonstration in Volos town (Thessaly). The bosses of METKA factory (watch older update) tried to stop workers to participate in the strike by announcing that the building was needing 32 persons inside for fire safety. Striker Workers gathered early in the mourning around the building, blocked the entrances and allowed this way the workers to participate in the strike. 500 people decided to participate in the independent demonstration and 120 joint the official syndicalists' gathering. Participation also from Matsaggou Squat, libertarian communists, out-parliamentary organisations. (Fotos from Volos Town, Worker Newspaper).
Demonstration also in Heraklion and Chania of Creta island. In Heraklion town around 2000 people participated after the call of parliamentary left parties, out-parliamentary communists, independent organisations, anarchists etc. (Fotos). In Chania town around 450 people gathered for an out-parliamentary and independent organisations demonstration. We do not have a number of the parliamentary communists' demonstration.
Demonstration in Patras city (northern Peleponnese). Around 1300 people joined the demonstration of out-parliamentary communistic organisations; anarchists have not make a call for today. A higher number of protestors in the parliamentary communists' gathering.
***
Foto: Mass Demonstration at Central Athens today (from Radikal, Turkey)
Tableau: Max Ernst, Die Jungfrau züchtigt das Jesuskind vor drei Zeugen: André Breton, Paul Éluard und dem Maler, 1926, Öl auf Leinwand, 196 x 130 cm, Museum Ludwig, Köln, Deutschland
Europe hit by wave of strikes ( see CNN, Independent and Socialist Worker)
Greece steeled for 24-hour strike against austerity plan (see BBC and Reuters )
Four biggest Greek Banks downgraded by Fitch Ratings (see WSJ)
LAOS tables question on German war reparations (see Athens News Agency)
German ambassador called in for protest over "Focus" magazine cover (see Reuters)
Athens Stock Exchange squatted by Communist Syndicalists (from Indymedia Germany)
The Stock-Exchange building in Athens was squatted by members of PAME (syndicalists of parliamentary Communistic Party) since today mourning. Mr Chr. Katsiotis, member of PAME's Executive Secretariat, stated on public TV-station that the movement will last the whole day and it is a part of the Wednesday's General Strike. The representatives of PAME stated that their aim is to show to the auditors of European Comission, to Central European Bank, IMF who are in Athens where are the money for real and to stop searching in the workers' pockets. The services of the Stock-Exchange were transfered to a different building and the protestors left the blockade at 14:00.
Other news from Tuesday 23rd February (from Indymedia Germany)
* The occupation of the rectorship building in the University of Athens keeps on against the decision of the rector to enforce the police entrance in the area
* The Dean of Athens University in Sciences sector occupied by students since today mourning
* Also squatted the Polytechnic University in the center of Athens
* Symbolic squat of the European Union's offices by members of SYRIZA (parliamentary leftish party) against the EU 'Stability Programm'
* Call-out for two demonstrations of the Radical Left on 24th February in Athens:
- An Anarchist gathering at 11 am at the Museum (next to the Polytechnic)
- An Antiracist-Antifascist rally at 6 pm in Amerikis Square
News from Monday 22nd February (from Indymedia Germany)
* Solidarity actions with the dismissed persons of METKA factory still go on. Slogans were sprayed on the walls of the company's administrator villa in Volos town and flyers were spreaded so also the neighbours can have a picture about him. On the fotos: "Oikonomou you are a creep, you threw 3 workers in the streets", "1 person in the villa, 3 in the streets", "Achtung, Oikonomou walks free around and fires syndicalists", "3 dismissals, Oikonomou you still sleep in peace during the nights?", "Their wealth is our blood". (Fotos of the action )
* The rectorship building of the University in Zografou district of Athens is occupied since mourning after the last day's police attack to the area. Also students and people in solidarity gathered in the central entrance of the area. A huge plakat was risen up, public busses were sprayed and information flyers were spread around. After lots of people gathered, the information actions took place also in different Universities of the area and the small demonstration also visited the rectorship building. The rector Moutzouris who gave order to the police to break the Asylum law refused to appear in front of the people and prefered to keep on his show in mass media. The people also smashed control systems in several entrances of the area.
News from Sunday 21st February (from Indymedia Germany)
* Early in the mourning police have entered the University Society Area in Zografou district of Athens, swearing against people, trying to stop a party that was taking place at this time, attacking against the residents and arresting many of them. (See more on Indymedia)
* Clashes with fascists in Larissa town. After information about a fascistic gathering in the central square of the town antifascists gathered on the meeting point to avoid this gathering. (See more on Indymedia) Fotos from the action on Indymedia Athens. The statue on the fotos belongs to the leader of "X" team which was cooperating with the German Nazis during 1941-1944 and used to give names of people in resistance to Gestapo and SS. The certain guy on the statue continued also later his anticommunistic actions on Cyprus island. The decision to rise up the statue was taken from the right wing major of the town. The sprayed slogans of the fotos: "Civil Class War, Fascists Back to Your Holes", "Earth is Our Only Country", "We are All Refugees in The World of Bosses", "Aegean Sea Belongs to Its Fish", "Fight for Land and Freedom", "No Tolerance for Nationalists Fascists or Rascists", "National Macho and In Your Job Just Arshole".
News from Saturday 20th February (from Indymedia Germany)
* Today, for one more time, the makeshift refugees' quarters in the near of Igoumenitsa town was attacked by police and also 10 arrests of refugees took place.
* Abandoned seafarers of MV Aetea Sierra joined the antiracist demonstration in Athens (see more on Indymedia) - Fotos from the demonstration and concert
* On Saturday 20th February a team of young workers entered into a theater in Athens to inform the people about the general strike on the 24th of the month. (Video of the action)
* Some out-parliamentary communists, members of Communistic Party marxists-leninists were arrested around 23:00 for rising up posters about the General Strike. They refused to give fingerprints and until 02:00 they haven't been released from the police station.
***
Foto: Poster found on some walls in Greece in 2010: "No fortress of power is invulnerable ... as long as we are determined" (For the complete translation into French and English, see Polisson)
"In a higher phase of communist society, after the enslaving subordination of the individual to the division of labor, and therewith also the antithesis between mental and physical labor, has vanished; after labor has become not only a means of life but life's prime want; after the productive forces have also increased with the all-around development of the individual, and all the springs of co-operative wealth flow more abundantly—only then can the narrow horizon of bourgeois right be crossed in its entirety and society inscribe on its banners: From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs!" (Karl Marx)
What follows is the farewell letter of Joseph Andrew Stack, the man who crashed his plane into an IRS (Internal Revenue Service = Steuerbehörde) office building at Austin (Texas) on Thursday 18th February. Joe Stack published this text on his website http://embeddedart.com/ which "had been taken offline due to the sensitive nature of the events that transpired in Texas", as the provider says. See for a translation into German here. In line with state-near US-media and some rightist blogs, the procapitalist German mainstream media (as the Süddeutsche Zeitung) are presenting Stack nearly as a hero of the American Right, which is far from being clear, because it is focusing more on what is said about him than on his own words (for a better analysis, see Peter Mühlbauer & Christopher Ketcham). In any case, his manifesto-like letter closes with a famous traditional communist principle and slogan going back to Karl Marx' "Critique of the Gotha Program"(1875): Jeder nach seinen Fähigkeiten, jedem nach seinen Bedürfnissen ! From each according to his ability, to each according to his need !
"If you’re reading this, you’re no doubt asking yourself, “Why did this have to happen?” The simple truth is that it is complicated and has been coming for a long time. The writing process, started many months ago, was intended to be therapy in the face of the looming realization that there isn’t enough therapy in the world that can fix what is really broken. Needless to say, this rant could fill volumes with example after example if I would let it. I find the process of writing it frustrating, tedious, and probably pointless… especially given my gross inability to gracefully articulate my thoughts in light of the storm raging in my head. Exactly what is therapeutic about that I’m not sure, but desperate times call for desperate measures.
We are all taught as children that without laws there would be no society, only anarchy.
Sadly, starting at early ages we in this country have been brainwashed to believe that, in return for our dedication and service, our government stands for justice for all. We are further brainwashed to believe that there is freedom in this place, and that we should be ready to lay our lives down for the noble principals represented by its founding fathers. Remember?
One of these was “no taxation without representation”.
I have spent the total years of my adulthood unlearning that crap from only a few years of my childhood. These days anyone who really stands up for that principal is promptly labeled a “crackpot”, traitor and worse.
While very few working people would say they haven’t had their fair share of taxes (as can I), in my lifetime I can say with a great degree of certainty that there has never been a politician cast a vote on any matter with the likes of me or my interests in mind. Nor, for that matter, are they the least bit interested in me or anything I have to say.
Why is it that a handful of thugs and plunderers can commit unthinkable atrocities (and in the case of the GM executives, for scores of years) and when it’s time for their gravy train to crash under the weight of their gluttony and overwhelming stupidity, the force of the full federal government has no difficulty coming to their aid within days if not hours?
Yet at the same time, the joke we call the American medical system, including the drug and insurance companies, are murdering tens of thousands of people a year and stealing from the corpses and victims they cripple, and this country’s leaders don’t see this as important as bailing out a few of their vile, rich cronies.
Yet, the political “representatives” (thieves, liars, and selfserving scumbags is far more accurate) have endless time to sit around for year after year and debate the state of the “terrible health care problem”.
It’s clear they see no crisis as long as the dead people don’t get in the way of their corporate profits rolling in.
And justice? You’ve got to be kidding!
How can any rational individual explain that white elephant conundrum in the middle of our tax system and, indeed, our entire legal system? Here we have a system that is, by far, too complicated for the brightest of the master scholars to understand. Yet, it mercilessly “holds accountable” its victims, claiming that they’re responsible for fully complying with laws not even the experts understand.
The law “requires” a signature on the bottom of a tax filing; yet no one can say truthfully that they understand what they are signing; if that’s not “duress” than what is. If this is not the measure of a totalitarian regime, nothing is.
How did I get here?
My introduction to the real American nightmare starts back in the early ‘80s. Unfortunately after more than 16 years of school, somewhere along the line I picked up the absurd, pompous notion that I could read and understand plain English. Some friends introduced me to a group of people who were having ‘tax code’ readings and discussions. In particular, zeroed in on a section relating to the wonderful "exemptions" that make institutions like the vulgar, corrupt Catholic Church so incredibly wealthy. We carefully studied the law (with the help of some of the “best”, high-paid, experienced tax lawyers in the business), and then began to do exactly what the “big boys” were doing (except that we weren’t steeling from our congregation or lying to the government about our massive profits in the name of God). We took a great deal of care to make it all visible, following all of the rules, exactly the way the law said it was to be done.
The intent of this exercise and our efforts was to bring about a much-needed re-evaluation of the laws that allow the monsters of organized religion to make such a mockery of people who earn an honest living.
However, this is where I learned that there are two “interpretations” for every law; one for the very rich, and one for the rest of us…
Oh, and the monsters are the very ones making and enforcing the laws; the inquisition is still alive and well today in this country.
That little lesson in patriotism cost me $40,000+, 10 years of my life, and set my retirement plans back to 0. It made me realize for the first time that I live in a country with an ideology that is based on a total and complete lie. It also made me realize, not only how naive I had been, but also the incredible stupidity of the American public; that they buy, hook, line, and sinker, the crap about their “freedom”… and that they continue to do so with eyes closed in the face of overwhelming evidence and all that keeps happening in front of them.
Before even having to make a shaky recovery from the sting of the first lesson on what justice really means in this country (around 1984 after making my way through engineering school and still another five years of “paying my dues”), I felt I finally had to take a chance of launching my dream of becoming an independent engineer.
On the subjects of engineers and dreams of independence, I should digress somewhat to say that I’m sure that I inherited the fascination for creative problem solving from my father. I realized this at a very young age. The significance of independence, however, came much later during my early years of college; at the age of 18 or 19 when I was living on my own as student in an apartment in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. My neighbor was an elderly retired woman (80+ seemed ancient to me at that age) who was the widowed wife of a retired steel worker. Her husband had worked all his life in the steel mills of central Pennsylvania with promises from big business and the union that, for his 30 years of service, he would have a pension and medical care to look forward to in his retirement. Instead he was one of the thousands who got nothing because the incompetent mill management and corrupt union (not to mention the government) raided their pension funds and stole their retirement. All she had was social security to live on.
In retrospect, the situation was laughable because here I was living on peanut butter and bread (or Ritz crackers when I could afford to splurge) for months at a time. When I got to know this poor figure and heard her story I felt worse for her plight than for my own (I, after all, I thought I had everything to in front of me). I was genuinely appalled at one point, as we exchanged stories and commiserated with each other over our situations, when she in her grandmotherly fashion tried to convince me that I would be “healthier” eating cat food (like her) rather than trying to get all my substance from peanut butter and bread. I couldn’t quite go there, but the impression was made. I decided that I didn’t trust big business to take care of me, and that I would take responsibility for my own future and myself.
Return to the early ‘80s, and here I was off to a terrifying start as a ‘wet-behind-the-ears’ contract software engineer… and two years later, thanks to the fine backroom, midnight effort by the sleazy executives of Arthur Andersen (the very same folks who later brought us Enron and other such calamities) and an equally sleazy New York Senator (Patrick Moynihan), we saw the passage of 1986 tax reform act with its section 1706.
For you who are unfamiliar, here is the core text of the IRS Section 1706, defining the treatment of workers (such as contract engineers) for tax purposes. Visit this link for a conference committee report (http://www.synergistech.com/1706.shtml#ConferenceCommitteeReport) regarding the intended interpretation of Section 1706 and the relevant parts of Section 530, as amended. For information on how these laws affect technical services workers and their clients, read our discussion here (http://www.synergistech.com/ic-taxlaw.shtml).
SEC. 1706. TREATMENT OF CERTAIN TECHNICAL PERSONNEL.
(a) IN GENERAL - Section 530 of the Revenue Act of 1978 is amended by adding at the end thereof the following new subsection:
(d) EXCEPTION. - This section shall not apply in the case of an individual who pursuant to an
arrangement between the taxpayer and another person, provides services for such other person as an engineer, designer, drafter, computer programmer, systems analyst, or other similarly skilled worker engaged in a similar line of work.
(b) EFFECTIVE DATE. - The amendment made by this section shall apply to remuneration paid and services rendered after December 31, 1986.
Note:
· “another person” is the client in the traditional job-shop relationship.
· “taxpayer” is the recruiter, broker, agency, or job shop.
· “individual”, “employee”, or “worker” is you.
Admittedly, you need to read the treatment to understand what it is saying but it’s not very complicated. The bottom line is that they may as well have put my name right in the text of section (d).
Moreover, they could only have been more blunt if they would have came out and directly declared me a criminal and noncitizen slave.
Twenty years later, I still can’t believe my eyes. During 1987, I spent close to $5000 of my ‘pocket change’, and at least 1000 hours of my time writing, printing, and mailing to any senator, congressman, governor, or slug that might listen; none did, and they universally treated me as if I was wasting their time. I spent countless hours on the L.A. freeways driving to meetings and any and all of the disorganized professional groups who were attempting to mount a campaign against this atrocity. This, only to discover that our efforts were being easily derailed by a few moles from the brokers who were just beginning to enjoy the windfall from the new declaration of their “freedom”. Oh, and don’t forget, for all of the time I was spending on this, I was loosing income that I couldn’t bill clients. After months of struggling it had clearly gotten to be a futile exercise. The best we could get for all of our trouble is a pronouncement from an IRS mouthpiece that they weren’t going to enforce that provision (read harass engineers and scientists). This immediately proved to be a lie, and the mere existence of the regulation began to have its impact on my bottom line; this, of course, was the intended effect. Again, rewind my retirement plans back to 0 and shift them into idle. If I had any sense, I clearly should have left abandoned engineering and never looked back.
Instead I got busy working 100-hour workweeks. Then came the L.A. depression of the early 1990s. Our leaders decided that they didn’t need the all of those extra Air Force bases they had in Southern California, so they were closed; just like that. The result was economic devastation in the region that rivaled the widely publicized Texas S&L [Savings & Loans = Sparkassen] fiasco.
However, because the government caused it, no one gave a shit about all of the young families who lost their homes or street after street of boarded up houses abandoned to the wealthy loan companies who received government funds to “shore up” their windfall. Again, I lost my
retirement.
Years later, after weathering a divorce and the constant struggle trying to build some momentum with my business, I find myself once again beginning to finally pick up some speed.
Then came the .COM bust and the 911 nightmare. Our leaders decided that all aircraft were grounded for what seemed like an eternity; and long after that, ‘special’ facilities like San Francisco were on security alert for months. This made access to my customers prohibitively expensive.
Ironically, after what they had done the Government came to the aid of the airlines with billions of our tax dollars … as usual they left me to rot and die while they bailed out their rich, incompetent cronies WITH MY MONEY!
After these events, there went my business but not quite yet all of my retirement and savings. By this time, I’m thinking that it might be good for a change. Bye to California, I’ll try Austin for a while. So I moved, only to find out that this is a place with a highly inflated sense of self-importance and where damn little real engineering work is done. I’ve never experienced such a hard time finding work. The rates are 1/3 of what I was earning before the crash, because pay rates here are fixed by the three or four large companies in the area who are in collusion to drive down prices and wages… and this happens because the justice department is all on the take and doesn’t give a fuck about serving anyone or anything but themselves and their rich buddies.
To survive, I was forced to cannibalize my savings and retirement, the last of which was a small IRA [Individual Retirement Account]. This came in a year with mammoth expenses and not a single dollar of income. I filed no return that year thinking that because I didn’t have any income there was no need. The sleazy government decided that they disagreed. But they didn’t notify me in time for me to launch a legal objection so when I attempted to get a protest filed with the court I was told I was no longer entitled to due process because the time to file ran out. Bend over for another $10,000 helping of justice.
So now we come to the present. After my experience with the CPA [Certified Public Accountant = Wirtschaftsprüfer] world, following the business crash I swore that I’d never enter another accountant’s office again. But here I am with a new marriage and a boatload of undocumented income, not to mention an expensive new business asset, a piano, which I had no idea how to handle. After considerable thought I decided that it would be irresponsible NOT to get
professional help; a very big mistake.
When we received the forms back I was very optimistic that they were in order. I had taken all of the years information to Bill Ross, and he came back with results very similar to what I was expecting. Except that he had neglected to include the contents of Sheryl’s unreported income; $12,700 worth of it. To make matters worse, Ross knew all along this was missing and I didn’t have a clue until he pointed it out in the middle of the audit. By that time it had become brutally evident that he was representing himself and not me.
This left me stuck in the middle of this disaster trying to defend transactions that have no relationship to anything tax-related (at least the tax-related transactions were poorly documented). Things I never knew anything about and things my wife had no clue would ever matter to anyone. The end result is… well, just look around.
I remember reading about the stock market crash before the “great” depression and how there were wealthy bankers and businessmen jumping out of windows when they realized they screwed up and lost everything.
Isn’t it ironic how far we’ve come in 60 years in this country that they now know how to fix that little economic problem; they just steal from the middle class (who doesn’t have any say in it, elections are a joke) to cover their asses and it’s “business-as-usual”.
Now when the wealthy fuck up, the poor get to die for the mistakes… isn’t that a clever, tidy solution.
As government agencies go, the FAA [Federal Aviation Administration] is often justifiably referred to as a tombstone agency, though they are hardly alone. The recent presidential puppet GW Bush and his cronies in their eight years certainly reinforced for all of us that this criticism rings equally true for all of the government. Nothing changes unless there is a body count (unless it is in the interest of the wealthy sows at the government trough).
In a government full of hypocrites from top to bottom, life is as cheap as their lies and their self-serving laws. I know I’m hardly the first one to decide I have had all I can stand. It has always been a myth that people have stopped dying for their freedom in this country, and it isn’t limited to the blacks, and poor immigrants.
I know there have been countless before me and there are sure to be as many after. But I also know that by not adding my body to the count, I insure nothing will change. I choose to not keep looking over my shoulder at “big brother” while he strips my carcass, I choose not to ignore what is going on all around me,
I choose not to pretend that business as usual won’t continue; I have just had enough.
I can only hope that the numbers quickly get too big to be white washed and ignored that the American zombies wake up and revolt; it will take nothing less. I would only hope that by striking a nerve that stimulates the inevitable double standard, knee-jerk government reaction that results in more stupid draconian restrictions people wake up and begin to see the pompous political thugs and their mindless minions for what they are.
Sadly, though I spent my entire life trying to believe it wasn’t so, but violence not only is the answer, it is the only answer.
The cruel joke is that the really big chunks of shit at the top have known this all along and have been laughing, at and using this awareness against, fools like me all along.
I saw it written once that the definition of insanity is repeating the same process over and over and expecting the outcome to suddenly be different.
I am finally ready to stop this insanity. Well, Mr. Big Brother IRS man, let’s try something different; take my pound of flesh and sleep well.
The communist creed: From each according to his ability, to each according to his need.
The capitalist creed: From each according to his gullibility, to each according to his greed.
Joe Stack (1956-2010)
02/18/2010"
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"Dixi et salvavi animam meam" (I have spoke and saved my soul) are the final words of Karl Marx' "Critique of the Gotha Program". The wording seems to go back to the Book of Ezechiel (III, 19 and 21) in the Jewish Bible: "But you, if you warn him-the righteous man-that a righteous man should not sin, and he does not sin-he will live because he took heed, and you-you will have saved your soul"(21). This reads in the Latin Vulgata Translation:"Si autem tu annunciaveris iusto ut non peccet iustus, et ille non peccaverit: vivens vivet, quia annunciasti ei, et tu animam tuam liberasti"(21).
Foto: Alberto Martinez/Austin-American Statesman, via Associated Press/NYT
Debt Deals Haunt Europe: Investors Re-Examine Complex Financial Maneuvers Used to Hide Borrowings (from Charles Forelle & Susanne Craig, Wall Street Journal)
Concerns that Greece and other struggling European nations may not be able to repay their debts are focusing investor attention on another big worry: Economies across the Continent may have used complex financial transactions—sometimes in secret—to hide the true size of their debts and deficits. (...)
Deutsche Bank executed currency swaps on behalf of Portugal between 1998 and 2003, according to spokesman Roland Weichert. Mr. Weichert said Deutsche Bank's business with Portugal included "completely normal currency swaps" and other business activity, which he declined to discuss in detail. The currency swaps on behalf of Portugal were within the "framework of sovereign-debt management," Mr. Weichert said. The trades weren't intended to hide Portugal's national debt position, he said.
The Portuguese finance ministry declined to comment on whether Portugal has used currency swaps such as those used by Greece, but said Portugal only uses financial instruments that comply with European Union rules. (...) Between 1998 and 2000, Goldman structured 12 currency-swap agreements with Greece, allowing the country to lock in an exchange rate.
Greece Said to Have Arranged Swap Contracts With About 15 Banks (by Elisa Martinuzzi, Bloomberg)
Greece arranged swap agreements with about 15 securities firms and only some included payments from banks that may have helped hide the country’s true deficit, according to a person with direct knowledge of the contracts. (...) The 15 banks that have swap agreements with Greece are among the country’s so-called primary dealers, said the person. Greece had 21 dealers last year, including Citigroup Inc., Barclays Plc and Morgan Stanley, according to the country’s central bank. Spokesmen for Goldman Sachs in New York and Morgan Stanley in London declined to comment. Officials at Barclays and Citigroup in London didn’t have an immediate comment.
Soros: Euro's future in question (from Reuters)
Writing in the Financial Times, [the billionaire & currency speculator George] Soros said what the European Union needed was more intrusive monitoring and institutional arrangements for conditional assistance. He said a well organised eurobond market was desirable. "A makeshift assistance should be enough for Greece, but that leaves Spain, Italy, Portugal and Ireland. Together they constitute too large of a portion of euroland to he helped in this way," Soro said. "The survival of Greece would still leave the future of the euro in question."
On Saturday, a magazine [Der Spiegel] reported Germany's finance ministry has sketched out a plan in which countries using the euro currency will provide aid worth between 20 billion and 25 billion euros ($27-$33.7 billion) for Greece.
Police raid Polytechnic campus in Athens - Anti-fascists clash with fascists and cops in Larissa (from "Occupied London")
At around 3am on Saturday night, cops of the “Delta force” (motorcycle cops) entered the campus of the Athens Polytechnic in the suburb of Zografou, Athens. Police do not enter university spaces unless invited by the university authorities; this usually requires evidence of a serious crime being committed on campus. Yet last night, the rector of the Athens Polytechnic, Kostantinos Moutzouris, asked the police to intervene as “he was informed” that large-scale property destruction was taking place on campus. (See more at Occupied London and Libcom)
Customs strike declared illegal (from Athens News Agency)
An Athens court on Saturday declared an ongoing strike by Customs employees as "illegal", following an injunction submitted Friday night by the finance ministry. Before the ministry tabled the injunction, finance minister George Papaconstantinou had met with representatives of the striking Customs employees, but the talks ended in deadlock after the strikers stated their unwavering determination to continue their mobilisation. The Customs employees on Friday morning extended an initial three-day strike by three rolling 48-hour strikes, as reserves at petrol stations started drying up. The customs employees throughout the country had initially launched a three day strike from Tuesday to Thursday, but decided on Thursday evening to call an additional three rolling 48-hour strikes.
Alfredo Bonnano denied bail - Anarchists receive 22 years for Mylonas kidnapping - Parody-trial of Alexis' murderers continues (from "Occupied London")
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Picture found at Indymedia (may be inspired by a legendary photo of Daniel Cohn-Bendit, at Sorbonne university, during mai 1968; see also here)
