EUs frontalangreb på fagforeninger

For tiden er højrefløjen i USA stærkt optaget af at fjerne arbejdernes sidste indflydelse på løn og arbejdsvilkår. Det er finanskrisen der er undskyldningen for at slagte resterne af den amerikanske middelklasse, hvilket er ironisk eftersom finanskrisen af flere økonomer ses som en konsekvens af de store skattelettelser til de rigeste i USA.

Den samme logik spreder sig nu til EU, hvor den såkaldte europagt er i støbeskeen. Den er en konsekvens af højrefløjen og industriens tiltagende magt i EU, og der står i det første udkast at EU skal bestemme lønstigninger i de forskellige medlemslande. Dermed bliver fagforeninger frataget enhver reel indflydelse på lønudviklingen i alle Eurolande. Naturligvis ikke for ledere og børsspekulanter – de forslag er for længe siden blevet taget af bordet, nej nu er det de almindelige lønmodtagere der skal fratages enhver rettighed til at forhandle egen løn.

De konservative jubler naturligvis over forslaget. De er ganske vist officielt for den danske model hvor arbejdsmarkedets partner sætter lønningerne, men det er mest fordi det er hvad der er populært i den brede befolkning. Nu kan de via EU få slagtet fagforeningerne og sat lønningerne kraftigt ned hos alle der ikke har en lederpost.

Europagten er ganske enkelt et opgør med den danske velfærdsstat og den danske middelklasse. Man må håbe politikerne og danskerne snart får øjnene op for hvad erhvervslivets top og højrefløjen i EU er ved at indføre.

Link til frontalangrebet

Angry Arab om Søren Pind som taler til Mellemøsten-demo

Den ubegribelige opportunisme, der har fået arrangørerne af en stor demo for demokrati i Mellemøsten til at lade den nationalkonservative integrationsminister Søren Pind tale, har nu vakt opmærksomhed også uden for landets grænser.

Angry Arab News Service, der drives af den libanesisk-amerikanske forfatter og akademiker As’ad Abukhalil, skriver således:

On friday 11th, there will be a large demo in Copenhagen in favour of democracy in the Middle East. Unbelievably, Søren Pind, the current Danish minister of “integration” (foreigners) and “devolopment” (humanitarian aid, development programmes) will be among the speakers.  Mr. Pind is an unapologetic racist who has supported the Danish Hells Angels’ “Jackal Manifesto” which said Arabs “squeal when they are beaten”. I kid you not. He has also said there will be no more “integration” – foreigners must assimilate completely or leave. And he is in charge! I kid you not. I don’t know what the other speakers are thinking, but I know I’d only go for one reason: To protest again that man’s presence. I can only hope he will meet his one little slice of Tahrir on Friday. The Facebook page of the demo is here – it’s in Danish, but you can easily see his name.

Link: Soren Pind

Bedst som man troede, det ikke kunne blive værre – Søren Pind som integrationsminister

Birthe Rønn Hornbechs længe ventede afgang, efter at det blev lidt for åbenlyst, at hun ganske enkelt bevidst har syltet en række statsløse menneskers krav på statsborgerskab, markerer samtidig endnu et tryk på speederen i højredrejningen af Danmark: Hendes afløser Søren Pind erklærer prompte, at den lov, som Birthe Rønn Hornbech har overtrådt, er “åndssvag“.

Det er også Søren Pind, der har udtalt:

Jeg gider ikke høre mere snak om integration. Fri mig for det – det rigtige ord må være assimilation. Der er så rigelig kulturer, folk kan drage andensteds hen og dyrke, hvis det er det, de har lyst til

Det er også Søren Pind, der udtalte sin helt uforbeholdne støtte til Hells Angels’ “sjakalmanifest“, hvor det blandt andet hed, at arabere “piber og skriger, når de får tæv”.

En analyse viser ret hurtigt, at Søren Pind er en gennemført magtpolitiker – antiliberal, åbenlyst racistisk, i bund og grund udemokratisk og ude af stand til at anerkende andre synspunkters ret til at eksistere. Udnævnelsen af Pind rejser et grundlæggende spørgsmål: Hvorfor ikke Pia Kjærsgaard?

Svaret er desværre: Fordi det ikke ville gøre nogen forskel. “Mørke” indvandrere gør snart klogt i at have en pakket kuffert stående ved siden af sengen, som This Indonesian konkluderer:

To tell you the truth, I don’t even want to imagine what kind of new “rules” that the new minister would implement – I could already tell that it’d be worse than Birthe Rønn Hornbech’s era.

What it would feel like to be an immigrant in Denmark in the next few months or years? I have no idea. My only hope is that the election would hopefully come soon and the opposition would win the majority. Other than that, I could see myself packing my big suitcases ready.

Fredag d. 11. marts er der demonstration til støtte for revolutionerne i Mellemøsten på Rådhuspladsen i København – og arrangørerne har temmelig ubegribeligt bedt Søren Pind om at tale.

Jeg håber, at mange vil møde op; ikke for at deltage i demonstrationen, som allerede er ødelagt, men for at vise deres vrede mod det racistiske Danmark, som Søren Pind repræsenterer. Noget af det bedste, vi kan gøre for at støtte folk i Egypten, er at lære af dem og ikke finde os i de “demokratiske” regimer, som har ført krig i Irak og Afghanistan og sendt folk til Syrien og Egypten for at blive torteret.

Jeg håber, at Søren Pind vil møde et lille bitte hjørne af Tahrir-pladsen, når han taler på fredag. Ash-shab yurid isqat al-nizam – folket ønsker at vælte regimet. Jo før, jo bedre!

Michael Moore: “America is not broke”

Michael Moore taler til de strejkende arbejdere i Madison, Wisconsin.

“America is not broke. Contrary to what those in power would like you to believe so that you’ll give up your pension, cut your wages and settle for the life your great-grandparents had, America is not broke. Not by a long shot. The country is awash in wealth and cash, it’s just that it’s not in your hands. It has been transferred in the greatest heist in history from the workers and the consumers to the banks and the portfolios of the über-rich!”

Via Lenin’s Tomb.

Libyen: Mission Accomplished (not)

Hvis der er én ting, oprørerne i både Tunesien, Egypten og Yemen fra starten har gjort klart, er det, at de ikke ønsker indblanding udefra. Ikke modstand, ikke støtte, ingen ting. Wael Ghonim, som vi før har citeret, er ganske repræsentativ:

Dear Western Governments, You’ve been silent for 30 years supporting the regime that was oppressing us. Please don’t get involved now.

Og Ghonim er endda med sin middelklassebaggrund og sin chefstilling hos Google blandt de mest provestlige af den egyptiske revolutions ledere (hvilket han også bliver kritiseret for). “Pro-vestlig” behøver ikke længere at være “pro vestlig indblanding”.

Oprørerne i Libyen har også hele tiden gjort opmærksom på, at de ikke ønsker udenlandsk militær støtte til opgøret mod Gaddafi, men nok humanitær hjælp. Så hvad gør man, hvis man er en hjertensgod vestlig regering, der så gerne vil gøre lidt godt for de trængte libyere?

Ja, hvad man ikke gør er at sende en deling jægersoldater ind bevæbnet til tænderne og med pas fra fire forskellige lande ind med en helikopter midt om natten. Den officielle historie er, at meningen var, at de britiske jægersoldater skulle kontakte oprørslederne for at hjælpe dem, men det blev i givet fald ret hurtigt klart, at en sådan hjælp var ganske uønsket.

The Daily Fail har for en gangs skyld en glimrende gennemgang af den uheldige “diplomatiske hændelse”, eller hvad man nu skal kalde den britiske regerings forsøg på heltedåd:

A joint SAS-MI6 team was kicked out of Libya last night after their mission to link up with rebels fighting Colonel Gaddafi turned to farce.

The eight-man unit was sent to have secret talks with opposition leaders but humiliatingly the team was detained and held by a group of farmhands.

The crack troops, armed with guns, ammunition, explosives and false passports, were mistaken for enemy spies, detained and stripped of their mobile phones and satellite communications devices

Britain faced further diplomatic humiliation as telephone calls in which officials in London begged opposition figures in Libya for their release were intercepted by Colonel Gaddafi’s security forces and broadcast on Libyan state television.

But his team of Special Forces bodyguards was forced to put down their weapons just after they had landed when confronted by armed farmers near the town of Khandra.

Whitehall officials admitted they had ‘gone quietly’ when challenged. A senior defence source denied the men were captured but said: ‘They had issues of freedom.’

Some rebels are hostile to any foreign forces entering Libya, even if they may be providing support.

One spokesman said: ‘If this is an official delegation, why come with helicopters? Why not say “We are coming, permission to land at the airport?” There are rules for these things.

Der er også et interview med en af de landarbejdere, der overmandede de såkaldte elitesoldater:

‘They all got out and they were not talking, just moving,’ he says. ‘Three or four of them were dressed all in black, so it was hard to see. But they were unloading big bags, several of them, and it looked like a lot of equipment.’

This was when Rafah, a mere 5ft7in tall, and his workmates decided they needed to act. They picked up AK-47 rifles from inside the gateroom, and made their way along the inside of the perimeter fence.

Rafah says: ‘We fired into the air, and said “hands up, don’t move”. They did as we said. It was not very difficult, we just asked them to move away from their bags to the side, and they did.’

When the farmhands peered into the bags, they found a fearsome array of military kit, which seems to have included guns, explosives, bullet-proof vests with a desert-camouflage design, satellite phones, GPS tracking devices and multiple sets of passports.

The warning shots that were fired woke the wheat and corn farm’s manager, Ahmed Albira. He remains reluctant to speak, but confirms he telephoned the headquarters of Libya’s rebel government, in Benghazi, and the reaction was immediate alarm.

With Colonel Gaddafi flying in heavily-armed mercenaries with orders to murder innocent civilians, any foreign troops on Libya’s soil are being treated with the deepest of suspicion.

Mr Albira was warned to keep them under close armed guard until back-up could arrive. While they waited, Rafah and his friends took it in turns to guard the seven SAS men and the MI6 agent, and make them breakfast. Rafah says with a smile: ‘We gave them eggs, milk and bread. It was very nice.

Er den historie overhovedet til at stå for? Nogle gange betyder: “Nej tak, vi er ikke interesserede” rent faktisk lige præcis: “Nej tak, vi er ikke interesserede.”

The Guardian har også historien:

“We don’t want new enemies, but this is no way to make contact,” said a senior member of the committee, Essam Gheriani.

“Dropping in in the dead of night with espionage equipment, recording devices, multiple weapons and passports. In Dubai the Israelis used British passports to kill that man, [Hamas commander Mahmoud] al-Mabhouh. It’s a matter of verification. At a time of revolution, suspicion is greater than trust.”

” A major embarrassment to the British government”, som The Guardian opsummerer; og det er vist endda årets underdrivelse.

Når topchefer er uduelige

En af de alment udbredte erfaringer fra finanskrisen var at det er rigtig skidt når firmaers topchefer var tæt bundet til firmaets indtjening på kort sigt. Mange banker og store firmaer havde chefer der tænkte på kortsigtede gevinster, for at score store bonusser, og når firmaet derfor gik nedenom hjem kunne de ikke straffes.
Det viste sig også hurtigt at der ikke er et frit marked for topchefer. Topchefer kender bestyrelserne godt og der var en kultur af rygklapperi, hvor bestyrelser gav topchefer og sig selv store lønforhøjelser uden at aktionærerne kunne stoppe det. De små aktionærer brokkede sig, men de store – herunder pensionskasserne forblev tavse, med enorme tab til følge.
Finanskrisen udstillede disse absurditeter og den almene befolkning har måtte lide store tab pga. storhedsvanviddet. Således har mange offentlige og private ansatte fået at vide at de må gå ned i realløn det næste års tid, da krisen kradser.
Det eneste sted krisen åbenbart ikke kradser hos topchefer og bestyrelser. Her fortsætter man med at dele millioner og atter millioner ud fra mantraet, at “man skal kunne tiltrække dygtige,internationale topchefer”.
Finanskrisen har påvist at vi ikke har dygtige topchefer i Danmark, og de ikke er deres løn værd, og flertallet burde tjene langt mindre end de gør. Hvis disse elendige chefer kan få 23% lønstigninger, så må resten af befolkningen kræve ca. det dobbelte.

Den elendigste topchef i Danmark

Hvad burde en person der fik Danmarks økonomi i knæ og afpressede staten for over 100 mia, få i årsløn?

Link til et svindelnummer og rygklapperi

Charlie Brooker om oberst Gaddafi

Den britiske komiker Charlie Brooker kan en vits eller to om Gaddafi og hans gode, gode venner rundt omkring (se den til ende for at få hele pointen med).

Via Boing Boing, hvor Cory Doctorow benytter lejligheden til at give en stående anbefaling af Channel 4s Ten O’Clock Live:

I wish that all of Ten O’Clock Live’s clips were on YouTube, as it would be amazing blogfodder — the show is better than The Daily Show most weeks, IMO (I’ve asked, C4 say their lawyers won’t let them because there are got clips of the BBC, Sky, etc, which is some pretty weird fair dealing analysis).

“Better than Daily Show”, det var da alligevel noget. Så mangler vi bare, at en dansk komiker og TV-kanal med respekt for sig selv tager fat på at lave et dansk Daily Show.

Arabisk revolution – next stop Palestine?

Faktisk kunne en regulær palæstinensisk opstand som dem, vi har set i Libyen, Tunesien og Egypten måske være det, der skal til for at bryde den israelske besættelse og få såvel israelerne som Abbas’ Quislingestyre til at trække sig helt tilbage, spekulerer Larry Derfner i Jerusalem Post:

Something’s going to blow, I figured, and my guess was that Israel would start one war too many, maybe against Iran, or Lebanon, or Gaza, and masses of Israelis as well as foreigners would die, and when the smoke cleared it would be recalled that we started it, and the world would finally run out of patience with us and we would get out of the West Bank in a lather to avoid being ostracized, to save ourselves from becoming a Jewish North Korea.

Again, not my preferred way of ending the occupation. But no “good” way was presenting itself.

And then came Tunisia. And Egypt. And Iran, and Yemen, and Bahrain, and Libya, and no one knows where this is going to stop.

And it became pretty clear to me that this is how Israeli rule in the West Bank is going to end – through Palestinian people power. Masses of Palestinians, tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands, marching to IDF checkpoints and outposts, marching to Israeli-only roads, to settlements, to the security fence – to the nearest Israeli presence and screaming, “Out! Out!”

And refusing to leave.

WHAT THE hell is the IDF going to do then? Shoot them? Arrest them? With the whole world not only watching but, for the first time, already won over by other unarmed Arab masses facing down their oppressors? What will the IDF do under the eyes of a world that, for the first time, is seeing Arabs as people like themselves who want freedom, who deserve it and who are earning it, to say the least, with their courage?

How will the IDF and the Palestinian Authority police – those who don’t defect – get all these people to go back home and stay there?

I don’t see it. I think we’re going to have grand-scale anarchy on our hands – and we won’t be able to solve it by force, and the world will be on the side of the anarchists.

Impossible? If you say this is impossible, you’ve been on Mars for the last month. If you’ve been on Earth, the idea of the Arab revolt not reaching the West Bank is what seems impossible. To me, it’s inevitable. I’m only surprised it hasn’t started already.

After all, the Palestinians’ “war of the stones,” the first intifada in the late 1980s, was close to being a model for what’s happening in the Middle East now. The Egyptians and other Arab rebels have even adopted the term intifada, which means “shaking off.”

True, the first intifada (not to mention the second one) wasn’t nonviolent – the Palestinians threw stones and Molotov cocktails. But they certainly played David to the IDF’s Goliath. And in recent years, the “popular resistance” – the marches on the security fence in Bil’in and other West Bank villages – has been all but nonviolent, with only a few teenagers throwing stones at IDF troops, usually from far distances.

The Palestinians are the Arab world’s masters at political judo – at turning the enemy’s superior power against him. This is how civil disobedience works, and it’s working wonders in the Middle East, so why on earth shouldn’t it come to the West Bank, too?

It’s a matter of time. Maybe it’ll start Friday with the Palestinians’ “Day of Rage” against the US veto of the UN resolution against settlements. If not Friday, it’ll start soon. Something will set it off.

And yes, I’m hoping it happens. If the only other options are occupation forever or peace following catastrophe – and I think those are the only other options – I prefer people power.

Link: People get ready – there’s a train a-comin’ (via Angry Arab).