Greece: From Despair to Resistance by Panagiotis Sotiris

Dandelion Salad

Crossposted with permission from www.socialistproject.ca/bullet/

by Panagiotis Sotiris
Socialist Project | The Bullet
February 14, 2012

On Sunday 12 February 2012 the people of Greece, in demonstrations and street fights all over the country expressed in a massive, collective and heroic way their anger against the terms of the new loan agreement dictated by the EU-ECB-IMF ‘troika’ (Eurpoean Union, European Central Bank, International Monetary Fund). Workers, youth, students filled the streets with rage, defying the extreme aggression by police forces, setting another example of struggle and solidarity.

Hunger Is a ‘Weapon of Mass Destruction’, says Jean Ziegler by Siv O’Neall

by Siv O’Neall
Featured Writer
Dandelion Salad
Axisoflogic.com
Lyon, France
Jan. 19, 2012

Image by Dandelion Salad via Flickr

“Every five seconds, a child under 10 dies of hunger.  – Thirty-five million people die each year from hunger or its immediate aftermath. – One billion people are permanently and severely malnourished and the situation is becoming increasingly catastrophic.” (Jean Ziegler)

In his latest book Mass Destruction – the Geopolitics of Hunger, Jean Ziegler[1] talks about the current state of the world and the neoliberal politics of starvation of the poor, which has led to a crisis situation amounting to calculated murder. What we are witnessing today is the worst hunger crisis in human history is. And it is all because of human greed, colossal mismanagement for profit.

From State Debt to State Money by Rudo de Ruijter

By Rudo de Ruijter
Guest Writer
Dandelion Salad
Independent researcher
www.courtfool.info
Netherlands
Nov. 28, 2011

Brussels wants the keys to the national treasuries of the 17 Euro-countries. Only this way can they save the Euro, they say. The ESM-treaty has already been signed. If the national parliamentarians ratify it, it will be the end of our sovereign democracies. Do we want that? Is there an alternative?

For those who know how the money system works, the logical solution to today’s problems are fairly simple. A bank reform. On TV, at least in the Netherlands, the subject is still taboo [1], but if you want to know how it works, you can find an explanation here. (And if you already know all this, you can scroll immediately to 2. bank reform.)

Iceland’s Fair Value Vultures by Olafur Arnarson, Michael Hudson and Gunnar Tomasson

by Michael Hudson
Featured Writer
Dandelion Salad
http://michael-hudson.com
Nov. 12, 2011

The New Bank Disaster
Olafur Arnarson, Michael Hudson and Gunnar Tomasson*

Image by poptech via Flickr

The problem of bank loans gone bad, especially those with government-guarantees such as U.S. student loans and Fannie Mae mortgages, has thrown into question just what should be a “fair value” for these debt obligations. Should “fair value” reflect what debtors can pay – that is, pay without going bankrupt? Or is it fair for banks and even vulture funds to get whatever they can squeeze out of debtors?

Max Keiser: Greece run by financial terrorists + Satyajit Das: Global economic chaos + James Howard Kunstler: The Political Awakening

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MaxKeiserTV on Nov 2, 2011

Global stock markets have plunged over Greece’s shock announcement that it would hold a referendum on an EU bailout deal.

The decision has raised fears that a rejection of the unpopular EU agreement will renew risks of a Greek default and might even force the country to leave the eurozone.

Michael Hudson: Debt Deflation in Europe and America + Euro SOS

https://dandelionsalad.wordpress.com/

Image by Resident on Earth via Flickr

with Prof. Michael Hudson
Bonnie Faulkner
Guns and Butter
September 14, 2011

European banking crisis causing a constitutional crisis of the European Central Bank; Germany; the myth of Social Security in the US.; bank balance sheet crisis; food, fuel and climate crisis; the super congress; debt deflation; FHA lawsuit against the banks; criminalization the financial sector; Modern Monetary Theory; the coming lost decade; debt cancellation.

The People vs. The Machine by Cindy Sheehan + Gloria Steinem leads the fight to save Jeju Island

Image by dmytrok via Flickr

by Cindy Sheehan
Featured Writer
Dandelion Salad
Cindy Sheehan’s Soapbox Blog
Cindy Sheehan’s Soapbox
August 6, 2011

Since the summer of 2005, when I began a camp in front of the vacation “ranch” of George Bush, I have traveled to many countries and all over the U.S. meeting with people who have been in long struggles against neoliberalism. Most of us in the U.S. are familiar with the term “neoconservative,” but “neoliberal” is also a well-understood and often used term in other areas.

Covering the Somali famine- of news By William Bowles

by William Bowles
Featured Writer
Dandelion Salad
williambowles.info
crossposted on Strategic Culture Foundation
4 August, 2011

Image by frankkeillor via Flickr

Over the past days BBC news coverage of the famine in Somalia has been saturating the airwaves and it’s always like this whenever ‘natural disasters’ strike. Fundamentally it’s little more than a fund-raising promo paid for with our taxes as endlessly repeated shots of emaciated babies and dying people serves no informative purpose except to tug covetously at our purse strings. And of course it has the added benefit of distracting us from our own condition – until the next crisis comes our way.

John Pilger: War by Other Means (1992)

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John Pilger

Image by Infinite Ache via Flickr

John Pilger and David Munro examine the policy of First World banks agreeing [to] loans with Third World countries, who are then unable to meet the cripling interest charges.

Mystery: How Wealth Creates Poverty in the World by Michael Parenti (2007)

Image by Judite B via Flickr

by Michael Parenti
Featured Writer
Dandelion Salad
July 31, 2011

There is a “mystery” we must explain: How is it that as corporate investments and foreign aid and international loans to poor countries have increased dramatically throughout the world over the last half century, so has poverty? The number of people living in poverty is growing at a faster rate than the world’s population. What do we make of this?

Corporatism or Survival on Earth? By Siv O’Neall

Image by tomswift46 (No Groups with Comments) via Flickr

By Siv O’Neall
Featured Writer
Dandelion Salad
Axisoflogic.com
July 21, 2011

Globalized commerce and finance have taken over the planet and the majority of nations are above all anxious to keep up the pace with the rest of the frightened sycophants to the Empire, anxious not to fall behind when and where the big profits are being raked in off the roulette tables. Mesdames, messieurs, faites vos jeux! Tomorrow we’ll be dead. But today, let us not be left out of the big game!

The Great Global Debt Depression: It’s All Greek To Me, by Andrew Gavin Marshall

by Andrew Gavin Marshall
Featured Writer
Dandelion Salad
July 15, 2011

Image by ΠΡΙΝ via Flickr

In late June of 2011, the Greek government passed another round of austerity measures, ostensibly aimed at getting Greece “back on track” to economic progress, but in reality, implementing a systematic program of ‘social genocide’ in the name of servicing an endless and illegitimate debt to foreign banks. Right on cue, protests and riots broke out in Athens against the draconian measures, and the state moved in to do what states do best: oppress the people with riot police, tear gas and bashing batons, leaving roughly 300 people injured.

Michael Hudson: Guns, Finance and Butter – Finance Is the New Mode of Warfare

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Updated: July 16, 2011; added transcript

with Michael Hudson
Bonnie Faulkner
Guns and Butter
July 13, 2011

Image by Plashing Vole via Flickr

The jobless recovery; the debt ceiling and default; China; Greece; banks, not countries, receive the bailouts; financial warfare; IMF and EU; European Central Bank; US credit default swaps; US agricultural exports create food dependency; currency devaluation devalues the price of labor; class war of banks against the rest of society

War, Treason, Redemption by Mark A. Goldman

by Mark A. Goldman
Guest Writer
Dandelion Salad
www.gpln.com
July 11, 2011

Image by apαs via Flickr

We are in the middle of a war.  We are being attacked by a relatively small number of people, many of whom have been able to acquire great wealth and power… or hope to do so.  Their mercenaries are various governments, corporations, and militaries – including our own US government/military/ industrial complex.  They are working to control as much of the earth’s people and resources as they can.  In the process, they commit unconscionable crimes without regard for what in the world gets destroyed or who in the world gets hurt.   

Michael Hudson: Greece a Dress Rehearsal for United States

Image by PIAZZA del POPOLO via Flickr

Dandelion Salad

TheRealNews on Jul 10, 2011

Michael Hudson: Cuts to Social Security and Medicare and privatization at the state level mirror strategy imposed on Greece