World Newswire Archive

SPANISH protesters remain defiant after a brutal attack by police on the camp for real democracy in the centre of Barcelona on Friday.

“Turkey pioneers the process aiming at normalization of politics and history in the [Middle East] region”

[Turkey’s Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu, interview on ‘TRT Haber’ TV channel, 25 May 2011]

Welcome to this Week in Palestine, a service of the International Middle East Media Center, www.imemc.org, for May 21st to 27th, 2011.

The famous British Rap group "Foreign Beggars" ticket page to buy tickets for the Tel Aviv event in Israel was hacked by TriCk - Teamp0isoN

Beginning on May 15th, a wave of protests has swept across Spain, with demonstrations in around 60 cities. The rallies have continued despite being officially banned under Spain’s electoral law. There have also been solidarity protests across the world, with several in the UK, including in Nottingham where a small protest was held in the Market Square on Saturday 21st. Supporters also maintained a small presence at this year’s Green Festival.

On the newswire: Nottingham Supports the Spanish revolution! | Brighton | Bristol | Edinburgh | London: 1, 2

The protesters in Spain have produced and distributed a manifesto:

We are ordinary people. We are like you: people, who get up every morning to study, work or find a job, people who have family and friends. People, who work hard every day to provide a better future for those around us.

Some of us consider ourselves progressive, others conservative. Some of us are believers, some not. Some of us have clearly defined ideologies, others are apolitical, but we are all concerned and angry about the political, economic, and social outlook which we see around us: corruption among politicians, businessmen, bankers, leaving us helpless, without a voice.

This situation has become normal, a daily suffering, without hope. But if we join forces, we can change it. It’s time to change things, time to build a better society together. Therefore, we strongly argue that:

• The priorities of any advanced society must be equality, progress, solidarity, freedom of culture, sustainability and development, welfare and people’s happiness.
• These are inalienable truths that we should abide by in our society: the right to housing, employment, culture, health, education, political participation, free personal development, and consumer rights for a healthy and happy life.
• The current status of our government and economic system does not take care of these rights, and in many ways is an obstacle to human progress.
• Democracy belongs to the people (demos = people, krátos = government) which means that government is made of every one of us. However, in Spain most of the political class does not even listen to us. Politicians should be bringing our voice to the institutions, facilitating the political participation of citizens through direct channels that provide the greatest benefit to the wider society, not to get rich and prosper at our expense, attending only to the dictatorship of major economic powers and holding them in power through a bipartidism headed by the immovable acronym PP & PSOE.
• Lust for power and its accumulation in only a few; create inequality, tension and injustice, which leads to violence, which we reject. The obsolete and unnatural economic model fuels the social machinery in a growing spiral that consumes itself by enriching a few and sends into poverty the rest. Until the collapse.
• The will and purpose of the current system is the accumulation of money, not regarding efficiency and the welfare of society. Wasting resources, destroying the planet, creating unemployment and unhappy consumers.
• Citizens are the gears of a machine designed to enrich a minority which does not regard our needs. We are anonymous, but without us none of this would exist, because we move the world.
• If as a society we learn to not trust our future to an abstract economy, which never returns benefits for the most, we can eliminate the abuse that we are all suffering.
• We need an ethical revolution. Instead of placing money above human beings, we shall put it back to our service. We are people, not products. I am not a product of what I buy, why I buy and who I buy from.

For all of the above, I am outraged.
I think I can change it.
I think I can help.
I know that together we can.I think I can help.

I know that together we can.

Welcome to Palestine Today a service of the International Middle East Media Centre www.imemc.org, for Thursday May 26th, 2011

On Wednesday 25th May, police forced their way into the homes of 6 Padua University students. All have been active in the movement of recent student protests that have shaken several Italian cities, culminating in the December 14th mass protest in Rome. This follows the significant growth of the European movement fighting against attacks on labour rights, welfare cuts, and the marketisation of education, all under a common banner of “We won't pay your crisis”.

Robvert Devereux is the top man at the United Kingdom Department called DWP. His apponytment was hgailed by the ever so adjustable Gus O'Donnel with a gushing tribiute to Robert's acheievemnts. Robert hisme;lf played the Reform card well and dediucatred the key soundbytes on his arrival to the concept of reform. So wehat has Robert been presidnering over for the first six monthsw followinmg his suiccession to Leigh Lewis at the Depratment for Want and Povertry?

Two graduate students in the law department of King's College, London, are planning to collude in an illegal act of Iraeli settlement on occupied Palestinian territory

To highlight the 43% cut in NHS Primary Care Trust funding for HIV prevention services in London, which particularly puts gay and bisexual men’s health at risk, Queer Resistance - independent LGBTQI anti-cuts group - plans to transform a major high street bank in London into a ‘mock’ sexual health clinic on Saturday 28 May.

The antinational and communst federation Ums Ganze has launched a campaign against socialchauvinism and racism in austria and germany. This is the call to the campaign.

 http://top-berlin.net/?page_id=265

Welcome to Palestine Today a service of the International Middle East Media Centre www.imemc.org, for Wednesday May 25th, 2011

A statement of demands to the local state from the Unemployed People's Movement in South Africa.

Tommorow Syntagma square is giving a message to the world

The American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) is "the most powerful and feared lobby in Washington." For years, it's "drawn on a well-organized, well-connected, highly visible, successful, and wealthy Jewish population," subverting potential opposition.

Obama's May 22 AIPAC speech affirmed rock solid support for a "strong and secure Israel," leaving Palestinians entirely out of his equation, despite paying disingenuous lip service to their interests.

An official AIPAC statement expressed gratitude for his assurance that Washington doesn't expect Israel to withdraw to June 1967 borders, besides explicitly calling Hamas a terrorist organization, ignoring its January 2006 electoral victory as Palestine's legitimate government.

Friday 27th May - 4pm-6pm

Welcome to Palestine Today a service of the International Middle East Media Centre www.imemc.org, for Tuesday May 24th, 2011

Hundreds of people attended a rally and demonstration over the last week in Belgrave Square, opposite the Spanish Embassy in London, in support of‘Democracia Real Ya’ (‘Real Democracy Now’). Numbers peaked on Saturday 21st May at 8pm with around 700 people in attendance.

The show this week looks at the so-called financial 'crisis' from two different perspectives. Firstly, I give an audio commentary on a presentation I created last year, Understanding the Financial 'Crisis'. Next, Michael Hudson speaks on The Spectre Haunting Europe, detailing the financial goings on in Europe, focussing on the evisceration of the Latvian economy and expanding upon his prediction of a new feudalism and a neo-liberal style fire sale of the European welfare state.

Support for the Spanish protesters in Madrid reached Bristol today. Protesters gathered in the centre of Bristol with placards echoing the demands made in Madrid. They expressed their wish for real democracy and a change to the political and economic systems chanting slogans such as "They Don't Represent Us" and "Real Democracy Now

Support for the Spanish protesters in Madrid reached Bristol today, on May 22nd 2011. Protesters gathered in the centre of Bristol with placards echoing the demands made in Madrid. They expressed their wish for real democracy and a change to the political and economic systems chanting slogans such as "They Don't Represent Us" and "Real Democracy Now".

The protests in Madrid started on 15 May with a camp in the central "Puerta del Sol" square. The gathering of thousands is continuing following a vote to remain in the square for another week.

Full Story | Please Support the Spanish Revolution | They All Must Go (London Indymedia) | Protests Set to Continue Outside Spanish Embassy (London Indymedia) | Constructing, Living and Demanding Participatory Democracy in the #Spanishrevolution (P2P Foundation) | Spain's Tahir Square (Znet) | Arab Spring to Spanish Summer (Znet)