The richest ten per cent of the UK  has 100 times the wealth of the poorest ten per cent. The  widest gap since records began, the petition is calling for a national debate on the redistribution of wealth through shared ownership in a co-operative way. 

The petition will be presented to the Government during Co-operatives Fortnight (June 25th to July 9th) and can be signed at: s.coop/ryz.
 
See also the ecoco-op.com, sells a vast range of environmentally friendly products, relies on local distributors that take your orders and delivers them to your door (kind of like the betterware) and is looking for distributors across the UK. Anyone interested in becoming a distributor can leave a message on this site and I will pass on your details to a hardworking friend that deserves a bit of good luck!

On 7 March, Maikel Nabil Sanad blogged about  the role the military had during and after the protests that toppled Mubarak. A version of the article  can be found here: http://wri-irg.org/node/12484. One can  identify why it may have been considered controversial but it is balanced and poses rational arguments and in any just society would not have led to his arrest. He has since been sentenced for 3 years. Indeed the constitution approved by the interim military rulers supposedly guarantees freedom of expression and freedom of the press. Clearly this does not include the freedom to criticise the military. Ironically this also adds considerable validity to his article, a quote: "The revolution has so far managed to get rid of the dictator but not of the dictatorship.”  

What you can do:
Write to Maikel Nabil Sanad:
Maikel Nabil Sanad
El-Marg prison
El-Kalag
El-Khanka
Qalyubeya
Egypt

Write letters of protest to the Egyptian authorities:
Director of Military Judiciary
Major-General Ahmed Abd Allah
Military Judicial Department
Cairo, Egypt

Military General Attorney
Major-General Medhat Radwan
Military Judicial Department
Cairo, Egypt

Minister of Defence
His Excellency Muhammad Tantawi
Ministry of Defence
Cairo, Egypt
mmc@afmic.gov.eg ; mod@afmic.gov.eg
Fax: +20 2 2 5748 822
A protest email can be sent at http://wri-irg.org/node/12728.

There is a great selection of speakers at this years Marxism. Ecosocialists will be particularly keen to see John Bellamy Foster. See the brochure below and click here to see who else will be speaking. The organisers are putting on free accommodation and crèche facilities. The most you will pay for 5 days (If waged) is £55 the least £20. A final night gig is a fiver. Click here to book online.

There will be over 200 different meetings at Marxism 2011. Some will be individual events, some will be linked by theme and others will be timetabled together as courses you can follow through.  Here is a glimpse of some of the meetings. More details here.

The Arab revolutions

A rough guide to Marxist economics

Capitalism and crisis

Women’s liberation

Radical thinkers and radical thought

The Con-Dems

Class struggle in Britain

Anti-racism and anti-fascism

Anarchism and autonomism

Africa & the global south

What’s wrong with America?

The changing media

Palestine and Zionism

Debates in Marxism and philosophy

From the welfare state to austerity Britain

Great Marxists of the 20th century

More names required! 800 in the first week. 1000's more needed. Please Share.

I Don't suppose you have to be resident in the UK to add your name?

Environment, Employment and the Economy, the three E's!, effects us all! 

Click here to add your name

The Petition:
We the undersigned call on the Government to give urgent and serious consideration to the recommendations of the One Million Climate Jobs report including:

1. We face a global climate crisis. If we do not halt the increase in greenhouse gas emissions by 2020 the “prospects for the people on the planet are looking pretty bleak” (The Secretary of State for the Environment, reported 24.11.10)
2. Britain faces a global economic crisis, with rising youth unemployment and the predicted loss of over a million jobs due to austerity measures.
3. We need the Government to take urgent steps to address both these crises through the creation of a million climate jobs aimed at reducing greenhouse gas emissions, enhancing energy efficiency, developing renewable and environmentally friendly sources of energy, and training workers in the “green skills” necessary for a sustainable low carbon economy.
4. Given the urgency and enormity of this task, we want the Government to employ staff directly in secure jobs, to do the necessary work through a National Climate Service.
5. We call for an immediate, fully government-funded programme to promote energy efficiency and the use of renewable energy in existing and new buildings.
6. We call for Government funding for free or low fare public transport services and the expansion and integration of public transport networks to reduce the use of private cars; for major investment in extending the rail network and introducing faster and more efficient trains; and the phasing-out of domestic airline flights as soon as practicable
7. We call for direct intervention by the proposed Climate Service to create new industries, and convert existing and declining industries, to conduct the research, development, manufacture and installation of alternative technologies for generating electricity from renewable sources.
8. We call on the Government to finance free programmes of “Green Skills” training through Further Education.
9. Such proposals can be met at a net cost well within the scale of recent Government spending on the financial sector and would be far less costly than the possible alternative – catastrophic climate change.
10. By adopting such a programme Britain would set a standard for the rest of the world, especially the developed world responsible for the crisis, in taking the decisive action necessary to limit global warming and ensure that future generations are left an inhabitable planet.

                                                                      Click here to add your name

I arrived in Trafalgar square at approximately 8pm on Saturday night and was greeted by a positive carnival type atmosphere.  Sounds of the samba band could be heard from Picadilly station and contrary to the wording on the banners Trafalgar square was definitely no Tahrir square. Exiting Picadilly station I noted a police officer having fun and endulging in some good 'P.R.' doing a highland dance with a Scottish bagpipe band.

The images below are chronological. The body language of the crowd in the top left image reflects the relaxed atmosphere.  An atmosphere that changed very quickly. I was standing behind the Olympic clock, taking a picture of the banners that were still hanging. Police flooded into the square and  in moments a peaceful protest was under attack. There was retaliation, and blood was shed.

I am yet to hear and read much of the mainstream reporting on what happened in Trafalgar square. I am sure however, based on the titbits  I have heard, that they have not been fair and unbiased. I would expect different? Lying by omission and selective weighting the usual tactic.

I ended up having a privileged vantage. When the storm-troopers broke their lines and walked straight past me I momentarily assumed that i had absorbed some Kryptonite, perhaps radiation from Fukishima. It would seem having a  camera hanging from your neck sometimes makes you invisible. At least I assume that's how I managed to film some extremely peaceful and articulate protesters getting a 'kick-in' from a not so peaceful Police Officer.

The video contains some brief commentary. I still have several large video files to look through, so there may be more of this to come. If anybody has any skills or equipment that could improve or 'lighten' this footage, please let me know. The first 'kick' in this video was hard, what follows and is relatively more easy to see is relatively minor. I hope the footage is representative on your screens.,Laptops may be less favourable to desktop. There is also some sound which is barely audible. One police officer rubbing his hands 'who we gonna arrest tonight then'. As the protester I spoke to in the footage remarks 'They've been told to arrest, they've stepped it up, it's reached a new level'

A World to Win will be in Hyde Park on Saturday. Bruce Chapman has sent this message:

26 March · 12:00 - 19:00
Location Hyde Park from 12noon - find AWTW banner/tent. A World to Win
In Cairo, workers stayed put until Mubarak went. In Tunisia, workers brought down the regime. In Britain, we should aim to oust the dictatorship of corporate and financial power and send its political backers in the Coalition packing. Let’s be inspired by the movement in Egypt, which declared: “You Go – We Stay”.

Follow the link below for the facebook group:

http://www.facebook.com/will2403#!/event.php?eid=190886207611806

Follow this link to learn more about A World To Win (AWTW)

The leaflet below introduces the idea of people's Assemblies:

"In response to the government public sector spending cuts the Trade Union Congress along with a variety of Trade Unions and organisations are marching through London to protest against government spending cuts that will damage public services and put more people out of work "  The TUC march is just one element of Saturdays activities.  Hyde Park will serve as one occupied territory with a plethora of groups and activities. We are invited to stay for 24 hours!
More details of this and of other campaign groups and actions.

• Stay for one day (Facebook Group)
• Turn Trafalgar square into Tahrir Sq. (Facebook Group)
• Details of other Campaign Groups attending http://www.resist26.org/actions
  

Or alternatively if you are unable to get to London for whatever reason,  you can offer much needed virtual support by joining the armchair army virtual march   Arm chair Army (Virtual March 26th March)

On the 26th March (this Saturday) the Campaign Against Climate Change Trade Union Group is launching a “People’s Petition for a Million Climate Jobs”, coinciding with the big TUC demonstration. The e-petition will be live here www.climate-change-jobs.org  Paper petitions will be downloadable from the same site.  

A switch to renewable sources of energy, wind and solar,  insulation of the existing housing stock, higher standard of insulation for all new builds, radical upgrading of public transport to take people out of aeroplanes  and  cars. Big changes we need to make very fast. We just so happen to have millions of unemployed people. Sadly our irksome corporate led government is more interested in reinstalling the British empire, cutting taxes for it's wealthy donors, and making everyone else pay. If the climate were a bank it would have been fixed by now. So put pressure on PR Dave and career politician Cleggy. It's a no brainer, Jobs + de-carbonisation, Simples!

On February 19th the International Socialist Organisation (ISO) Zimbabwean chapter, arranged a meeting calling on workers and students to support the struggle in solidarity with Egyptian and Tunisian workers. On the 24th February Wikileaks Central released an article which begins:

" Munyaradzi Gwisai, the International Socialist Organisation (ISO) general coordinator, and 45 others were charged in Zimbabwe today with treason, which carries the death penalty, or subverting a constitutionally elected government, for which the maximum penalty is 20 years imprisonment"

In this meeting they watched video footage from the north African and Middle Eastern protests and  allegedly offered the following commentary on the situation in Zimbabwe:

"in Zimbabwe, there was a long authoritarian leadership , general hunger, poverty, unemployment and capitalist practices where wealth was enjoyed by a few individuals while the general populace of Zimbabwe was suffering."

And this is controversial because......? Here is a quote from Sherry Wolfs Blog:

"Mugabe's "free-market" policies and corruption have led to hyperinflation in excess of 100,000 percent (yes, that's not a typo) and exacerbated the poverty of a nation already laid waste by colonialism and HIV/AIDS. Out of a population of 12.5 million, 1.6 million are living with HIV/AIDS, and because unemployment is a shocking 94 percent of the population, women and girls are  forced to trade sex for food"

This is controversial because there is an election looming and Mugabe is increasing his censorship efforts with new press laws that deny further any freedoms of speech. It was a brutal campaign of torture and intimidation by his police thugs that helped him cling on to power in 2008. Even though there are little signs of the uprising spreading south, the prospect of  being the next long term autocrat to topple is clearly making him twitchy. This is reflected in a statement  from the Congress of South African Trade Unions: "The Egyptian and Tunisian experience have inspired many workers and poor people all over the world to stand up and demand an end to dictatorship, corruption and injustice of whatever kind." 

Mugabe's censorship efforts have led to a spate of beatings and arrests and the ISO are no longer able to circulate their paper. To this end they have released this plea:

"We also ask socialists in other countries to forward the updates we email out, and to publicise them, so that workers internationally can get the real story of what is happening in Zimbabwe"

Their website is still active and here are some insights from a very good article: 

"What Zimbabwe is going through is a manifestation of an entire global economy in recession. There is no way out of this crisis using capitalist means. The state can revive the economy a bit by pumping out money, but then inflation will rise even further. There is only one way out of this crisis, not only in Zimbabwe but world-wide, and that is dismantling the whole system of capitalism"

"We are saying "No to dictatorship" - meaning ZANU-PF - and "no to neo-liberalism" - meaning MDC"

The good news is 40 of the prisoners were released without charge Human Rights Watch  issued the following statement: "The Zimbabwe authorities should immediately free the activists and drop these outrageous charges,"  "Arresting people for watching a video on the historic events in the Middle East is a transparent pretext to block peaceful criticism of the government."

However 6 remained. Reports of the torture they have endured is alarming and I can not yet find confirmation of this, but according to reports Tafadzwa Antonater Choto (36) (pictured above right) was told by guards " Today we will beat you until your period comes". There are reports that Tafadzwa has  already suffered beatings from Mugabe's Police thugs as she walks with a limp after being clubbed along with others during a  women’s rights meeting. 

One imagines that Munyaradzi (pictured top left) is the jewel in the crown for Mugabe. He has spent years as a defender of workers’ rights. He is a law lecturer was a member of parliament and as stated above is a coordinator for the ISO. He is a prominent voice that Mugabe will want quieting.  

Solidarity efforts from human right's and socialist organisations have led to funding to meet bail at a cost of $2000 (USD) each.VOA Zimbabwe news reports that Justice Kudya ruled there was no evidence the suspects would skip bail or interfere with investigations and witnesses. and with regard opposition to bail  “From the averments of the State, I find that its case is, so far, not a strong one,” . 

I have contacted Ann Tomoko Rosen who is coordinating online solidarity efforts and she informs that although the bail hearing was successful this offers no indication that the 6 may evade the death penalty or lengthy incarceration. 



So what can we do
From Socialist Worker

An international day of action to demand their release will be held on Monday, March 21, when they are scheduled for a court hearing.

Our message is simple and urgent: We demand that the government of Zimbabwe drop all charges and release them immediately.

Plans are underway for demonstrations in a number of countries. We urge concerned people everywhere to join us in organizing meetings and demonstrations in solidarity with the prisoners. Please translate and distribute this appeal as widely as possible. Let us know know what you are doing at the contact addresses below.

Website with petition: http://www.freethemnow.com/index.html

Join the facebook group:http://www.facebook.com/home.php?sk=group_178601402184959

To endorse the March 21 actions, please send a message to both of these addresses: 
zimtreasontrial@gmail.com 
solidarity@freethemnow.com.

Contribute to the legal defense of the activists, as well as support for their families.Donate to the "Free the Zimbabwe 45" fund

Send an urgent e-mail to Zimbabwean officials calling for the immediate release of the remaining six activists:
Include these e-mail addresses in the "To" line: info33@zimbabwe-embassy.us, consular@zimbabwe-embassy.us,gapare@zimbabwe-embassy.us, mhute@zimbabwe-embassy.us, goora@zimbabwe-embassy.us, chinoingira@zimbabwe-embassy.us, masoso@zimbabwe-embassy.us, nyamapfeni@zimbabwe-embassy.us and mukupe@zimbabwe-embassy.us.

Forward your message separately to these supporters of democracy, so they have a record of who has appealed to the regime:socialismfrombelow@gmail.com, ashley_fataar@yahoo.co.uk, shanthabloemen@gmail.com.

Send the following message to the Peruvian President:

"President Garcia: Oil drilling and logging in uncontacted tribes' territories could wipe the Indians out. Please protect these peoples' right to live in peace and security – stop the loggers and oil companies from entering their land."

More information in the video below.

Click here to sign the petition and read more or follow the link at the end of the video.