globalisation
community policing
Submitted by antarchi on May 1, 2009 - 09:14Over 185 video recordings show (1) riot police charging protesters who have raised their arms in the air exclaiming 'this is not a riot', (2) riot police shoving people back inside the 'kettle' by striking people on the head with riot shields, (3) police bearing the badges of medics striking people with batons, (4) uniformed officers accompanied by plainclothes officers armed with batons, (5) police with their numbers concealed and a police inspector from Bishopsgate who refuses to identify himself when asked, (6) riot police officers grabbing a woman from behind and throwing her violently to the ground, as happened also to Iam Tomlinson, (7) a police inspector who tells the media to leave the area or face arrest, (8) a woman hit in the face by a back-handed blow from a police officer and then batoned hard on the back of her legs, and (9) a police handler who lets his dog bite the arm of a man who has just turned away.
a 400% increase in imports
Submitted by antarchi on April 21, 2009 - 15:50The entire economy of India was handed over to US in a secret deal to remove import restrictions on 714 items by 1st April 2000 and 715 items by 1st April 2001.
Artificially cheap subsidized products like soya oil started to flood the market. Imports of soyabean oil have increased from 2,36,000 tonnes in 1997-98 to 8,00,000 in 1998-99...
The mustard produced by our farmers which was selling at Rs. 2,000/- per quintal in 1999, is today not even selling for Rs. 900 per quintal. The production of mustard seeds has fallen by 65% and over 60% small oil mills and ghanis have been closed down, rendering lakhs of people unemployed.
As a result of unfair trading practices legalized by the WTO, India's agricultural imports have gone up from Rs. 50,000 million in 1995 to over Rs. 200,000 million in 1999-2000, a 400% increase in imports.
pepsi profits while indians starve
Submitted by antarchi on April 21, 2009 - 13:49It is the trading giants like Pepsi and Cargill who have benefited from withdrawal of food subsidies to the poor and redirection of subsidies for exports. Pepsi is exporting 100,000 tonnes of rice from India during 2002 with Rs. 12.2 million profits, while people in India face starvation. Cargill has exported 1m.t. tonnes of wheat during the past year, and plans to procure 20,000 m.t. during the 2002 harvest. Trade liberalization is a recipe for starving the poor to feed the corporations.
While the World Bank and IMF remove subsidies from food reaching the poor, they encourage subsidies to grain giants like Cargill and Pepsi for exporting food grain.
threats to attack bankers
Submitted by antarchi on April 9, 2009 - 01:00In the run up to the G20 summit in London, the media dutifully repeated police claims that those planning to protest were dangerous types intent on violence. That was an important part of police strategy because it meant they could don their riot kits and wave their batons and turn off the cctv cameras, and still be praised for staving off a violent revolution. OK - so things turned out a little different. But that was no thanks to the media.
One of the more striking reports before the event, on R4's flagship Today programme, claimed that '...anticapitalist and anarchist websites are threatening to attack bankers...'. So I wrote to Jack Izzard, the man behind the report, to see if he could enlighten me...
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see you on the streets
Submitted by antarchi on March 24, 2009 - 16:31- antarchi's blog
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LUNACIES OF THE MARKET
Submitted by antarchi on July 24, 2007 - 01:05'Adam Smith, the father of modern economics, is often cited as arguing for the “invisible hand” and free markets: firms, in the pursuit of profits, are led, as if by an invisible hand, to do what is best for the world. But unlike his followers, Adam Smith was aware of some of the limitations of free markets, and research since then has further clarified why free markets, by themselves, often do not lead to what is best. As I put it in my new book, Making Globalization Work, the reason that the invisible hand often seems invisible is that it is often not there.'
Joseph Stiglitz, Making Globalisation Work
A selection of the inanities, insanities and inconsistencies that the invisible hand - there or not there - manages to conjure out of thin air. The Believers live the madness, certain that the hand knows best, certain it will lead us into sanity (or else believing this is sanity).
