Link: http://whatreallyhappened.com/

State control over the individual – as a worldwide phenomenon –intrude to the point where people have little more free will than farmed animals. The quality of life for the majority of people has declined,an elite superrich get richer and are free from any kind of restraint

Link: http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=29260

The Federal Reserve Open Market Committee (FOMC) has made it official: After its latest two day meeting, it announced its goal to devalue the dollar by 33% over the next 20 years.The giant banks – through their treasury borrowing committee headed by JP Morgan and Goldman Sachs – are also demanding the issuance of negative yield bonds.In other words, the too big to fail banks want Americans to pay to have the luxury of holding their money in bonds.

Link: http://www.wsws.org/

The Obama administration announced its latest windfall for Wall Street—a settlement of charges of law-breaking committed by major banks to foreclose and seize homes.The agreement, quashes investigations by state governments that threatened to expose a corruption and crime. It frees the banks from future prosecution or financial liability for forgery, lying to the courts and illegally evicting homeowners.In return, the firms—Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase, Citigroup, Wells Fargo and Ally Financial—are required collectively to pay ($5 billion) to the states

Link: http://www.wsws.org/articles/2012/feb2012/gree-f13.shtml

The Greek parliament has voted to approve a far-reaching austerity package that will push the country deeper into recession and bring further social misery.With the parliament ringed by an estimated 4,000 police as some 80,000 people protested outside, the vote was taken after a special 10-hour session on Sunday, which ended at midnight Amid clashes between riot police and youth,

Link: http://www.a-w-i-p.com/index.php/2012/02/15/greek-fire-extremist-elites-gone-wild-in

The extremist doctrine being forced on Greece is, in every particular, the ruling ideology of the United States, Great Britain, and all the "great democracies" of the West. The aim of the doctrine is the "final solution" of the "problem" of democracy: i.e., the fact that the rabble keep seeking a decent life for themselves and trying to order their own affairs instead of staying in harness to enrich an all-powerful elite.

Link: http://www.wsws.org/articles/2012/feb2012/wkrs-f11.shtml

wenty-five outdoor employees of the Indigo Shire Council in Victoria’s northern highlands held a stop-work meeting on February 8 in a dispute for a pay increase. Australian Services Union (ASU) members voted unanimously to apply 18 types of bans and possible 24-hour strike action. The union wants a 14 percent pay increase over three years. The council had offered just 11.7 percent.

Link: http://www.wsws.org/articles/2012/feb2012/wkrs-f11.shtml

Unionised workers at MBC walked out on January 30 over alleged biased coverage of major social issues. The union has accused the broadcaster of intentionally omitting or reducing coverage of politically sensitive issues, including rallies against the government and corruption allegations against President Lee Myung-bak.

Link: http://www.wsws.org/articles/2012/feb2012/wkrs-f11.shtml

The Australian Manufacturing Workers Union (AMWU) is demanding an 11 percent pay increase over two years (6 percent and 5 percent), a 36-hour week and payment of sick-leave entitlements upon termination of their jobs. Workers rejected the company’s offer of 3.5 percent annual pay increases over two years, pointing out that their counterparts at a sister company, W E Smith in New South Wales, were granted 5.5 percent annual rises.

Link: http://www.wsws.org/articles/2012/feb2012/wkrs-f11.shtml

At least 200 construction workers refused to work and rallied near their living quarters in Tampines on February 4 in a dispute over unpaid wages. The mostly Bangladeshi labourers claimed that their employers—Sunway Concrete Products and Techcom Construction & Trading—had not paid wages since November. The amounts owed, they said, ranged from $2,500 to over $3,000 ($US2,500). Their basic salary is $18 a day.Other complaints include compulsory 12-hour days without overtime payments, poor quality meals and $1,500 wage deductions for work permit renewals, which, according to law, should be paid by employers

Link: http://www.wsws.org/articles/2012/feb2012/wkrs-f11.shtml

More than 1,000 workers at the Tai Yi Slipper factory in the Hlaing Tharyar Industrial Zone in Rangoon walked out on February 4 after discovering that they would not be paid for the five-day Chinese New Year break. Workers were also protesting against deductions from their wages whenever ferry services to the factory were delayed.

Link: http://www.wsws.org/articles/2012/feb2012/wkrs-f11.shtml

Over 100 workers at Unilever Nepal’s Hetauda factory walked off the job on February 3, after three months of negotiations for better wages and conditions reached deadlock. Employees want a 50 percent increase in salary and allowances as well as one million rupee interest-free housing loans and an annual 100,000-rupee housing maintenance allowance for each production worker. Current average monthly take-home pay, including overtime, allowances and bonuses, is 10,500 rupees ($US145).

Link: http://www.wsws.org/articles/2012/feb2012/wkrs-f11.shtml

Nearly 5,000 members of the Film Employees’ Federation of South India (FEFSI) held a day-long hunger strike at Kamala Theatre Music Union in Vadapalani to demand that producers drop their demand for wage cuts. Salaries were raised by between 50 and 100 percent six months ago, after discussions between the Tamil Nadu Film Producers’ Council (TNFPC) and the FEFSI.

Link: http://www.wsws.org/articles/2012/feb2012/wkrs-f11.shtml

About 300 sanitation workers at the Jai Prakash Narayan Apex Trauma Center, which is part of the All India Institute of Medical Science (AIIMS) in New Delhi, struck on February 6 over delayed pay and a wage increase.

Link: http://www.wsws.org/articles/2012/feb2012/wkrs-f11.shtml

At least 5,000 garment workers at Reliance Industries Limited in the Naroda Industrial Area, 8km northeast of Ahmedabad, Gujarat walked off the job and stopped all production on February 2 to demand higher wages. Three union members were arrested twice in two days under section 151 of the Criminal Procedure Code. The wide-ranging law states “a person can be arrested to prevent commission of cognisable offences.”

Link: http://www.wsws.org/articles/2012/feb2012/wkrs-f11.shtml

Pakistan Railways (PR) workers blocked rail engines leaving marshalling sheds on January 30 in a dispute over wages and pension payments. National passenger services were suspended for 10 hours. Employees were also protesting over electricity disconnections at 26 PR housing estates because the service had failed to pay its power bills. Industrial action ended after the government promised to inform workers about the payment of outstanding amounts within 24 hours.

Link: http://www.wsws.org/articles/2012/feb2012/wkrs-f11.shtml

Unions representing health sector workers at the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (PIMS), National Institute of Rehabilitation (NIRM) and the Polyclinic in Islamabad called off five-week strike action last week, after accepting a sell-out deal from the government. Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani promised one additional

Link: http://www.wsws.org/articles/2012/feb2012/gree-f11.shtml

Following days of talks in which Greece’s governing parties finally agreed to a massive programme of spending cuts, euro zone finance ministers on Thursday upped the ante, demanding an additional €325 million in cuts in exchange for a loan of €130 billion ($170 billion). Without the new loan from the “troika”—the European Commission, European Central Bank (ECB) and International Monetary Fund (IMF)—Greece will default on its debts of more than €350 billion on March 20. On that date it is required to repay bonds of €14.5 billion it previously sold.

Link: http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=106722

(IPS) - Despite much government fanfare, the drop in Chile's unemployment rate is not enough to satisfy experts or workers, who point to the deeper problems of sporadic work, underemployment and low wages that are aggravating the country's endemic inequality.

Link: http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2012/02/10/greek-unions-unleash-48-hour-anti-austerity-strike/

Greek unions Friday unleashed a 48-hour strike against new austerity measures to go before parliament and required by the European Union and the IMF in exchange for badly needed aid.According to reports and party leaks, the measures include a 22 percent cut in the minimum wage, a 15 percent cut in complementary pensions and 15,000 civil service redundancies to meet a target of 150,000 layoffs by 2015.

Link: http://www.wsws.org/articles/2012/feb2012/jobs-f10.shtml

A week after American Airlines announced 13,000 job cuts in the US, a new round of mass layoffs is hitting workers in the auto, food and mobile phone industries around the world.Many of the job cuts target workers in Europe, where the economic crisis is being used by the multinational corporations to carry out long sought after attacks on the living standards and workplace protections of workers.

Link: http://www.a-w-i-p.com/index.php/news/2012/02/09/food-prices-soaring-in-iran-as-us-sancti

Every new round of sanctions takes a toll on the civilian economy of Iran and, increasingly, soaring food prices.Corn and rice shipments are down, This has fueled inflation, unemployment.

Link: http://bellaciao.org/en/

Health workers in Kilkis, Greece, have occupied their local hospital and have issued a statement saying it is now fully under workers control. The general hospital of Kilkis in Greece is now under workers control. The workers at the hospital have declared that the long-lasting problems of the National Health System (ESY) cannot be resolved. The workers have responded to the regime’s acceleration of unpopular austerity measures by occupying the hospital

Link: http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=29147

There are many ways for sovereigns to sell their bonds or roll over existing bonds, and one of those wrinkles we mentioned last week. We saw European banks buying US Treasuries and that is happening. These euro banks buy Treasuries and then put them up for collateral with the ECB and purchase the three-year 1% yield repos being offered by the ECB. This is really another form of quantitative easing. It may be debt but it is also an expansion of the money supply. This little game allows US Treasury financing and if something goes wrong the ECB, the public, gets caught holding the bag. Obviously this is another part of the Ponzi scheme that the elitists are using to keep the monetary system afloat.

Link: http://www.wsws.org/articles/2012/feb2012/gree-f08.shtml

Talks held Tuesday night between the three parties making up the Greek government of Prime Minister Lucas Papademos failed to finalise the cuts demanded of it in return for a €130 billion rescue package.The coalition parties met in the midst of a nationwide one-day general strike, with tens of thousands protesting in Athens despite torrential rain.

Link: http://www.alternet.org/food/154041/i%27m_on_food_stamps%3A_my_shame_and_pride_in_signing_up_for_the_most_stigmatized_benefit_/

I call myself frayed white collar -- part of the privileged poor. I'm a semi-accomplished, mid-career journalist and writer, but now I'm hurtling precipitously toward poverty. “Mister Cook! Chris Cook? Mr. Cook! Window three!”

Link: http://www.wsws.org/articles/2012/feb2012/kuci-f07.shtml

As for Kucinich’s remarks about “freedom,” he defends a president who has declared his right to imprison or assassinate US citizens without trial.In its manic drive for ever-greater profits, the American ruling class is putting into place the machinery of a police state to crush popular resistance to social inequality.The attempt to massively reduce the living conditions of the working class can only be re-imposed in the US through dictatorship.

Link: http://www.alternet.org/visions/154056/why_going_back_to_normal_is_no_longer_an_option_for_the_american_economy__and_where_were_headed_now

"Normal" as we know it isn't coming back. economic woes are result of a shift — change happens when the old order are disrupted, and new order take place. in the 1920s and 1930s, economy was built on farm output Advances led to a food glut. prices plummeted, farmers had less money This, , depressed manufacturing and led to job losses . Too many manufacturing workers too few skilled workers.

Link: http://www.commondreams.org/view/2012/02/07-7

January’s increase in hiring is good news, but it masks a bigger and more disturbing story – the continuing downward mobility of the American middle class. Most of the new jobs being created are in the lower-wage sectors of the economy – hospital orderlies and nursing aides, secretaries and temporary workers, retail and restaurant. Meanwhile, millions of Americans remain working only because they’ve agreed to cuts in wages and benefits. Others are settling for jobs that pay less than the jobs they’ve lost. Entry-level manufacturing jobs are paying half what entry-level manufacturing jobs paid six years ago.

Link: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2096799/Nicolas-Sarkozy-spends-10k-day-food-keeps-121-cars-palace.html

Nicolas Sarkozy has been promising to cut back on his presidential spending, but he’s actually splashing out £10,000 a day on food and keeps 121 cars under the Elysee Palace, according to a new book. Socialist MP Rene Dosiere, in L'argent de l'État (Money from the State), sets out what he sees as extraordinary excesses by the French President. In the explosive book, he accuses Sarkozy of ‘ignoring the most elementary principles of the separation between private and public accounts’.

Link: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/9067332/Alcoholic-drinks-to-get-weaker-says-minister.html

Alcoholic drinks should be made weaker under in Britain under Government plans to tackle the "deadly problem” of binge-drinking, a health minister has said. ."In the strategy, ministers are expected to unveil measures to increase the price of alcoholic drinks according to how strong they are. This could be done through higher taxation per unit, minimum pricing per unit or simply higher levels of duty for strong drinks. Ministers will also encourage companies to produce weaker alcoholic drinks.

Link: http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=106684

More than a decade ago, solar electricity changed the lives of several mountain communities in Cuba. Now this and other renewable power sources are emerging as the best options available to develop sustainable energy across the island.If the world's clean energy potential exceeds our consumption needs, why do we insist on using the polluting kind?"

Link: http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2012/02/07/mans-body-found-in-foreclosed-home-years-after-death/

The body of a man was recently discovered in his Milwaukee, Wisconsin home some four years after he killed himself, according to local media. David Carter reportedly used a 9mm Smith & Wesson handgun to shoot himself in the head some four years ago, shortly after quitting his job and telling neighbors that he was moving to New Mexico. That was in 2007. His body was discovered on January 23, 2011 —

DETROIT — Ford Motor Co. on Monday blasted General Motors over a snarky advertisement for GM trucks run during the Super Bowl broadcast, but stopped short of taking any kind of legal action. The ad, during what proved to be the most-watched US television broadcast in history, showed Chevrolet Silverado trucks and their drivers surviving a 21st century apocalypse.Where’s Dave?” asked one of the survivors. “Dave didn’t drive the longest-lasting, most dependable truck on the ro

Link: http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=29109

Americans have been detained in responder camps as a consequence of demonstrating with the Occupy Wall Street movement launched in New York City. Under the guise of protecting Americans from a largely contrived threat of violence, citizens have been denied the right of peaceful assembly and placed in detainment apparatuses, managed by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). Documents have been released by the American Civil Liberties Union detailing the Pentagon’s monitoring of public demonstrations and targeting of individual activists under threat of national security. Co-authored by Senator Joe Lieberman, the Enemy Expatriation Act (HR 3166) gives the US government the power to detain nationals and revoke their American citizenship under suspicion of behavior perceived as terrorism.
This legislation becomes increasingly dangerous as citizens can be labeled extremists based on their personal political leanings.

Link: http://www.wsws.org/articles/2012/feb2012/good-f06.shtml

The decision by the UK's Honours Forfeiture Committee to strip former Royal Bank of Scotland chief Fred Goodwin of his knighthood has led to howls of outrage from the corporate and political elite.Goodwin was awarded the knighthood in 2004 for his services to banking. The financial crisis revealed that Goodwin’s achievements were built on sand. With a loss of £24.1 billion, RBS was rescued from collapse with £45 billion of public funds, its debts nationalised— dumped onto tax payers.Goodwin walked away in 2009 with a £2.8 million tax-free pension .The former banker joins Soviet spy Anthony Blunt and Zimbabwe’s President Robert Mugabe in having his knighthood annulled.

Link: http://www.wsws.org/articles/2012/feb2012/asio-f06.shtml

Alarmed by the “Arab Spring”—the uprisings in Tunisia and Egypt that last year ushered in a new period of class struggle internationally—Australia’s six civilian and military intelligence agencies are preparing for unpredictable political upheavals, abroad and at home.An official review of the “Australian Intelligence Community”, released last month, warned the Gillard government that the events of 2011 had revealed how difficult it was for intelligence agencies to anticipate the collapse of seemingly stable social and political orders. “With such fragility, it will be unknowable what exactly will tip the system over the edge

Link: http://www.wsws.org/

Leaders of the political parties comprising the Greek coalition government will meet the premier, Lucas Papademos, later today to give him their reply to demands for sweeping austerity measures in return for a further €130 billion in bailout loans.The measures are believed to include a 25 percent cut in the minimum private sector wage and a 35 percent reduction in supplementary pensions. In addition, 100 state-controlled enterprises could be closed, leading to immediate jobs losses and the sacking of 150,000 public sector workers by 2015

Link: http://www.alternet.org/newsandviews/article/776429/%E2%80%9Ceverything_goes_up_but_our_paychecks%22%3A_talking_to_real_people_who_live_on_the_minimum_wage/#paragraph6

Everything goes up but our paychecks. We have to live! Before there was middle, low, high class, now there’s either low or high. We have to keep up with the cost of living.”“I don’t make enough to support myself. At this point I’m living on beans and bread. If [the minimum wage] were raised I’d be able to eat better food, I’d be able to get health care, I could finally get glasses.”

Link: http://www.commondreams.org/view/2012/02/06-0

Patenting seeds has led to a farming and food crisis - and huge profits for US biotechnology corporations.Corporations defined a problem - and for them the problem was farmers saving seeds. They offered a solution, and the solution was to make it illegal for farmers to save seed - by introducing patents and intellectual property rights [PDF] on those very seeds. As a result, acreage under GM corn, soya, canola, cotton has increased dramatically.

Link: http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2012/02/06/romania-prime-minister-resigns-spy-chief-takes-over/

BUCHAREST — Romania’s spy chief was appointed prime minister on Monday after the centre-right government resigned following wide protests over austerity cuts.The 43-year-old, who has a master’s degree from Oxford, was foreign minister between 2004 and 2007 speaks fluent English, French and German.