Greek Sovereign Debt Crisis a Sovereignty Crisis

Greek Parliament, Syntagma Athens - by kouk

News outlets around the world have focused heavily on the so-called Greek Sovereign debt crisis this week.  The proposed solution–an IMF loan package requiring “austerity measures” and a fire-sale of public assets–has sparked massive unrest in the capital, where people from all walks of life are decrying a loss of democracy, sovereignty, economic means, public services- the viability of their futures and of Greece itself. 

Many have insisted that these “measures” are necessary.  If one is speaking about maintaining the share value of many European banks and institutional investors, such is true.  The IMF loan package to Greece, boiled down, is a global taxpayer bailout of European banks which have made poor investment decisions in purchasing Greek bonds. 

Even while the US debt has reached its ceiling, the US Senate has recently rejected a Republican measure attempting to restrict the IMF’s ability to dip directly into the US treasury to the tune of $100billion.  In the twisted game of hot potato that now typifies international finance, the IMF is making loans to Greece so that Greece can pay back its loans to the various private European banks and investors holding Greek bonds, while the member nations of the IMF, all of whom are similarly in debt to private banks, will have to seek more loans from private international banks (or China) in order to cover additional deficits that the IMF causes them as it takes their money and dumps it into the sieve that is the Greek economy.  Almost every tax-payer in the world will see a portion of their taxes swept into this bailout scheme for these investment institutions, which over many years have irresponsibly funded the institutionally corrupt Greek government.  More and more, the European Union–if not the globalised economy entirely–appears to be a supranational bank-controlled state-capitalism and less and less the free market as it is advertised.

Flush with this bailout of world taxpayer money channelled through the IMF–money which in a truly free market should have been lost as a consequence of the impropriety of lending to a state which everyone now seems ready to admit was rife with corruption–private European banks and investment firms will, like rapacious vultures, descend upon the carcass of the Greek economy.  The transportation and social service infrastructure of Greece will be bought up at fire-sale prices, as will small and mid-size local businesses that are struggling in an increasingly volatile economy and facing an extremely uncertain future.  As is their legal obligation to their shareholders, these foreign corporations will attempt to squeeze as much profit as possible from their Greek buyouts, through further rounds of asset-stripping and layoffs, the profits of which will be repatriated to investors outside Greece.  As Greeks lose their jobs and their businesses, as those lucky enough to keep their jobs lose income to pay cuts and higher taxes, as retirees lose income to pension cuts, as credit becomes scarce and money circulation becomes restricted, many will be forced into personal asset liquidations and home foreclosures in a depressed market paying pennies on the Euro.  This will come just as the people of Greece will desperately need reasonable access to the services being hawked by the Papandreou government and whatever remains of Greece’s gutted social security net.  

The whole enterprise reaches a higher level of absurdity in light of the fact that a similarly massive loan package last year failed to do anything but forestall the problem for a year.   Anyone who has juggled debt between two lines of credit knows that borrowing from one to pay the other leads to precisely nothing but a higher debt-load due to accumulating interest.  The only step in the right direction, and likely in any case inevitable, is a default by Greece on their debt, orderly or not.  Independent economists at the UN and elsewhere agree:  Austerity measures increase unemployment and reduce wages, thus lowering economic activity and tax revenues needed to repay national debts.  They do not work.

In this context, the governments and investment community of Europe–by their actions–seem keen to ensure that the Greek people are made destitute by having their collective assets stripped down and turned over to foreign interests before allowing a default.  That is what this is about.  Business and media have propagated the idea that the fault of the Greek debt crisis lies squarely with the Greek people, and this is the bitter pill they must now swallow.  However, those who pay the costs will not be the benefactors of Greece’s famously corrupt “culture” of bribes and patronage that everyone wants to blame.  Rather, it will be the middle and lower-classes who have all along suffered paying these bribes and corruption to have access to fundamental services.  These are the people now protesting in majority across Greece and in Syntagma square of Athens.  The police, who have lost all credibility as defenders of public security, have employed exemplary violence.  There are several videos posted to YouTube of police attacking restaurants bars and cafes near the protests, as well as the corralling and kettling people into sidestreets and subway stations, pelting them with tear gas and rocks, and beating them with shields and batons as they try to escape through police lines.  They have even been accused on Greek TV–with amateur video seeming to corroborate–of the deployment of agents-provocateurs among the protests: police posing as anarchists dressed in black, damaging property and threatening violence in order to give pretext for and initiate the police crackdowns.  While it will likely be impossible to verify these charges through police admission–as the Quebec Provincial police admitted to doing in Montebello, Canada in 2007–one might weigh the evidence and draw a parallel line:  if it is possible in Canada, it is possible in Greece. 

The schizophrenia of fiscal policy, or the flock of interests it serves, is evident when the situation in Greece is juxtaposed with the global financial crisis of a few years ago.  While it is demanded of Greece to sell off public assets and cut social spending, including gutting pensions and laying off civil servants–which is ostensibly supposed to restore the viability of and confidence in their economy- the US faced their crisis by going in the opposite direction:  Employing a Keynesian program of public spending to increase employment and economic activity.  Rather than allow critical industries to be gutted by private markets, companies such as GM were partly nationalised until they could recover, to prevent massive unemployment.  The recovery plan in the US was funded by “money creation,” when the US federal reserve wrote into existence billions of dollars to buy a new issue of US T-bills to fund the government.  While neither of these solutions is desirable, their “necessity” is rooted in the same problem.

Some time ago Greece, like most of the world, gave into the liberal economic idea that private banks should be allowed to create Greece’s money.  Evidently, under the yoke of the European Economic Community, Greece has now completely lost its sovereign right to create any of its own money at all.  They cannot repatriate their debt or use inflationary means to mitigate it.  Thus, Greece has lost its freedom and nationhood.  According to the words of Prime Minister of Canada William Lyon MacKenzie King, who in 1935 addressed the issue which is clearly at the root of the debt crises of not only Greece, but of Portugal, Spain, Ireland and the US, “Once a nation parts with the control of its currency and credit, it matters not who makes that nation's laws. Usury, once in control, will wreck any nation. Until the control of the issue of currency and credit is restored to government and recognized as its most conspicuous and sacred responsibility, all talk of the sovereignty of Parliament and of democracy is idle and futile.”

The videos below attest to the different tactics Police have used to break-up demonstrations and impose their will on the local community in Athens.

Watch Police attack a restaurant:

Watch club-wielding alleged Agents Provocateurs retreat behind Police lines:

 Watch Police corner and herd demonstrators into subway tunnel before gassing them:

 

Watch the above event from inside the subway tunnel:

Watch a Police line attack a peaceful march:

Watch Police move in to clear a demonstrator camp after tear gassing it:

Read more about the efficacy of "austerity" measures:

http://business.inquirer.net/4929/austerity-measures-threaten-global-recovery%E2%80%94un

http://www.zcommunications.org/fiscal-austerity-is-not-the-answer-by-robin-hahnel

Tahrir Square, June 28 Post-Script

Yesterday's clashes in Tahrir square were covered here at WHR as breaking news.  A more complete picture of the context and extent of the situation has emerged.

As mentioned in the previous report, the protest began in Cairo as a peaceful demonstration and public mourning by the families of those who have died in the cause of liberating Egypt.  An air of gravity was upon the demonstrators and the martyrs's families as they paid their respects to the coffin of a recent victim, Mahmoud Khaled, who died on Monday.  He passed in hospital, where he has been for 5 months, since he was struck by a racing US Embassy vehicle during the height of unrest on January 28, remembered in Egypt as the "day of rage."  The astonishing incident can be seen in the following video, taken from a rooftop directly above the scene:

The rage the families and friends feel about the fate of their loved ones is understandable.  That they have not received any justice after a "successful" revolution and "policy reforms" by a "transitional phase" government only amplifies their anguish and personal feeling of victimization.  In the above mentioned case, the US Embassy insists the vehicle was stolen, however; Egyptians more and more look upon the foreign and local elites who run their country for their own purposes as one and the same.  Protesters understand well that the storm troopers attacking them in Tahrir square, while perhaps Egyptian by birth, do so with American made tear-gas and foreign weapons, employed through tactics taught by foreign security firms, paid for by foreign "aid" money.

Tear Gas Canister fired at demonstrators - by lilianwagdy

While paying their respects to and demanding justice for the martyrs, demonstrators were met by insults and denied free movement by members of the Central Security Forces.  They were tear gassed and tased.  It likely did not escape many demonstrators that among the CSF members sneering at them could be some of those who are directly responsible for the deaths and maiming of their friends and family members. Nor did it likely escape the CSF that should demonstrators succeed in reforming Egypt, they will find themselves out of job and pay, and possibly on trial for their actions. 

As word of the indignity being paid the demonstrating families began to spread, more and more people began to arrive in front of the Ministry of the Interior and in Tahrir to vent their outrage.  Running and pitched battles in the square and adjacent streets ensued as the CSF attacked the crowds; these battles lasting from before dusk until after dawn this morning.  Many people on the scene have reported on twitter a vengeful attitude by the CSF.  While protesters were pelted with stones and tear gas, they were also taunted and threatened with death over megaphones.  Today it has been reported by Egyptian authorities that more than 1000 demonstrators were injured, and more than 100 hospitalised.

Egyptian activists are calling for justice.  There have been protests specifically against the military courts, which since the fall of Hosni Mubarak continue to condemn protesters, activists, journalists, bloggers, artists and even doctors who have aided or simply spoken in favour of the uprising.  Activists say that without a proper functioning legal system and means of redress, no progress in any other aspect can be made or maintained. The nation will be transfixed tomorrow, Thursday June 30th, as a verdict is delivered in the trial of the 2 officers charged for the infamous beating death of Khaled Said.

The murder of Khaled Said is said to be one of the catalysts of the revolution.  The story and pictures of his body circulated and created outrage after he arrested in an Internet cafe and murdered by police in June of 2010.  The lack of justice for Mr. Said helped compound an ever present anger at authorities, which finally broke loose after Egyptians took the example of the Tunisian revolution.  A facebook group called "We are all Khaled Said" has galvanised and informed the public throughout the revolution.  It is reasonable to expect massive demonstrations in light of last night's unrest if Egyptian courts do not return a verdict finding someone responsible for his murder while in police custody.  This will likely continue into Friday, which is the day of Muslim prayer and the typical day for protests as many Egyptians do not work Fridays.

Egypt is once again on the precipice.


This post is a follow-up on yesterday's coverage, read here:
http://worldheadlinesreview.blogspot.com/2011/06/tahrir-square-tantawi-picks-up-where.html

Wikipedia article about Khaled Said:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_of_Khaled_Mohamed_Saeed


We are all Khaled Said facebook group:
http://www.facebook.com/elshaheeed.co.uk

June 28th, Tahrir Square in Pictures:
http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2011/06/201162915192350772.html

Description of June 28th events by Egyptian activist:
http://theangryegyptian.wordpress.com/2011/06/29/june28-the-second-coming-of-rage/

Tahrir Square: Tantawi picks up where Mubarak left off

Cairo's Tahrir square is once again tonight the scene of ordinary people making extraordinary efforts to free themselves from the militarist rentier regime still in power since the fall of Hosni Mubarak in February.

Earlier today in Tahrir began a protest by families of "martyrs," which in this case refers to those who've died at the hands of Egyptian security forces during the ongoing uprising.  Families are still waiting for justice as there have been no substantial prosecutions or trials of those responsible for the deaths and torture of hundreds if not thousands since the year began.

Media reports are beginning to trickle in, however the twitter stream and blogosphere of the region are alight.  While all credit for what has been achieved in Tunisia and Egypt belongs to the people who have bravely faced torture and death, many have credited social media as a major factor and primary tool in these events.  Following are several Twitter postings by people who are in the streets of Cairo and Tahrir at this moment; fighting for ownership of their country against the CSF (Central Security Forces).  While non of these can be verified, the volume of similar reports is substantiating and cannot be understated:

As the battle kicked off, descriptions and pictures of the violence poured in:

Inevitably injuries begin to be reported:

During the chaos people communicated and discussed logistical issues:

Commentary of various sorts was ongoing:

Sometime well after midnight, it seemed that the protesters had won round one and a moment of reprieve:

The situation is ongoing, it is currently early morning in Cairo.  Information continues to stream in on social media outlets and in the press.  Many tweets reported on the crowd chanting "The people want the fall of Mosheer," referring to Mohamed Hussein Tantawi, the leader of the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces and the de facto head of state since Mubarak's ouster in February.  It remains to be seen if the ongoing unrest, including tonight's clashes, can carry the momentum which ousted Hosni Mubarak and effect real change.


Follow up to this article at WHR:
http://worldheadlinesreview.blogspot.com/2011/06/tahrir-square-june-28-post-script.html

An early press report dealing with tonight's clashes in Tahrir:
http://english.ahram.org.eg/NewsContent/1/64/15239/Egypt/Politics-/Clashes-erupt-between-martyrs-families-and-police-.aspx

Egypt and the Press: Stories and Stories

Coverage of the uprising in Egypt in its second week has become characterised by a number of types of reports, most of which paint colorful pictures, but do little to inform on the situation.  There are the political discussions as to the West’s reaction, and how the uprising will unbalance the Arab world and its relationship with Israel.  There are also personal interest stories, about tourists and tycoons fleeing Cairo.  There are business reports about stock markets.  Then there are vignettes into the disorder itself:  Jailbreaks have been given coverage, and Hosni Mubarak, through state TV, has publicised the looting and vandalism that is occurring, primarily in wealthy neighbourhoods, where there is actual wealth to loot. 

Cairo - Flags, by Muhammad*#

The West has been gripped by reports of vandalism at the Egyptian Museum in Cairo, with reports carrying headlines claiming “looting” and “ransacking.”  In fact, reports go on to describe that there have been only 10 small artifacts damaged, 2 mummies damaged, and nothing stolen.  Thus looting has not occurred, and only something of a rather polite “ransacking” when only 12 items out of a massive collection of Egyptian artifacts are affected.  Stories presented in this manner seem to ask the question:  Should the disorder be allowed to continue if it puts at risk the treasures of the Egyptian Museum?  This is a type of sensationalism and yellow journalism which wants to paint the Egyptian uprising as mindlessly destructive.  Currently, armed forces and vigilantes guard the museum.

Other reports discuss looting, vigilantes and Bedouin tribesmen breaking people out of jail.  This type of press has been reaching the Egyptian people themselves.  Again, it asks a negative question, as to whether the uprising is “worth it,” if it means crimes will go unpunished and criminals on the loose.  However, the mass of people seem unafraid that while they are out protesting someone will ransack their house.  Most Egyptians are more concerned with their government and police whose crimes have for 30 years gone unpunished, and whom remain as always “at large.”  Many of the described vigilantes are also community members who are manning barricades and conducting neighbourhood watches in the vacuum of police coercion; working to stop the inevitable few people who are willing to take advantage of a lack of security to enrich themselves (or steal food and fuel).  Furthermore, at this point it can’t be disproved that in many cases it is plain-clothes agents of the government who are committing these acts of vandalism, looting and robbery undercover, in order to discredit the public and the protests as criminal.  Such reports have been confirmed, and this notion has great credibility on the street with Egyptians. 

As for reports of jailbreaks by the Bedouin, the favourite gypsy-nomad scapegoat of popular culture and governments in the Middle East for everything from drug and gun running to indecency; it seems that "Bedouins on the loose" is a far bigger concern for Mubarak than for people on the ground, who do not seem too concerned with the familiar caricature image of camelback heathens amok on the fringes of society.  While jailbreaks are a serious thing, especially to Western sensibilities, could it be that such does not concern Egyptians nearly as much at the moment, as a majority of people being broken out of prison are not in fact gang members and hardened criminals, but instead political prisoners and minorities (such as the Bedouin) who have been victims and captives of Mubarak’s suspicious and overbearing police state?

There are two sides to every story, at least.  As night begins to fall on Wednesday in Egypt, reports will continue to flood out from there, and many of them will narrowly discuss the small tragedies and inconveniences that social unrest poses for Egyptians and outsiders alike.  However, those stories that deserve the most attention will remind us that there are 300 people dead so far, and millions more risking their lives for their future; people who have already been subject to the organised looting, criminality and brutality of a 30+ year-old dictatorship.


Read More:
http://www.almasryalyoum.com/en/news/un-300-killed-nationwide-protests
http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/01/29/us-egypt-vigilante-trib-idUSTRE70S3AZ20110129
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/africaandindianocean/egypt/8291661/Egypt-in-crisis-vigilantes-and-prisoners-on-the-streets.html
http://www.ibtimes.com/articles/106646/20110130/egyptian-protesters-ransack-cairo-museum-smashes-mummies-egyptian-museum-egyptian-art-egyptian-antiq.htm

Egypt, Tunisia, Thailand... Top 10 destinations for Social Upheaval

A Tide of civil unrest has swept through at least 11 nations in just the past week.  Media focus has been on the successes of the "Jasmine Revolution" and developments in Egypt, which is populous, geopolitically significant, and in total upheaval; but nations far and wide are experiencing mass-protests and anti-government demonstrations. 

Cairo, January 25 2011 by Muhammad*#

The underlying cause connecting all of these movements is the political and economic disenfranchisement of large majorities and groups of people within their nations.  It could be that what now is being witnessed will be seen broadly as a sociological reaction to generally poor ongoing conditions which became exacerbated by ongoing effects of a global economic crisis and major moves in global food and fuel inflation.  This situation has threatened a future of abject poverty and destitution on large populations of working poor, unemployed, pensioners, students, small business operators, professionals; anyone with debts or low incomes.  In these conditions, any political or economic event can become a symbol of repression which people begin to rally against, venting their anger and will to change in street demonstrations and violent confrontation with security forces. 

While the list is dominated by the Middle-East/African-Arab speaking nations of Egypt, Jordan, Yemen, Tunisia, Algeria and Lebanon, there is representation from the Sub-Sahara in Cote D'Ivoire and Ghana, as well as Europe and Asia with Albania, Bangladesh and Thailand.  In no particular order:


JORDAN
Last Friday saw thousands of protestors marching in Jordan, and was the 3rd consecutive day-of-prayer protest.  Jordan fits the same profile as the other Arab countries in upheaval: A large population mainly below the age of 30, under the strain of rising prices and unemployment, facing a lifetime of economic deprivation and political disenfranchisement.  Today, February 1, King Abdullah has dismissed his cabinet and prime minister.  His appointment of former general and PM Marouf Bakhit as the new Prime Minister will likely be seen as an empty gesture, as Bakhit is an entrenched member of the political class who was already PM from 2005-2007.


EGYPT
The Egyptian government, led for 30 years by Hosni Mubarak, on January 28 shut down all cell-phone and internet access as it faced popular calls for him and his government to step down during consecutive days of demonstrations.  The entire Presidential cabinet has been purged and restaffed.  Sources put today's crowds at million strong just in Cairo. Transportation has been severly restricted and night-time curfews are in place but ignored.  Protestors have occupied buildings, and the army has refused to use violent coercion against the people whose demands it views as "legitimate."  This represents a major break from President Mubarak, who is himself a former Air Force Commander and Chief of Staff.  Clashes between demonstrators and security forces have cost more than 125 lives.  The protests began in earnest on January 25, a date on which the government annually commemorates the police.  Activists organised for that day a massive apolitical demonstration against police brutality, dubbed the "day of rage."  The protests, unified by the rally-call "Kefaya!" (Enough!) have gathered momentum and are ongoing at the time of publication.


LEBANON
Angry demonstrations hit the streets of Beirut and elsewhere in Lebanon on January 25.  Politics remain as a constant catalyst to demonstrations and unrest in Lebanon, a country which has felt the brunt of 2 wars in the past 3 decades.  Lebanese society faces a lack of housing and vital state infrastructure, unemployment and rising prices, a factionalised society along religious, sectarian and political lines, and the constant threat of renewed war from its southern neighbor Israel. 


YEMEN
Near daily protests since mid January in Yemen and the capital Sanaa have seen calls from tens of thousands for the ouster of 32-year President Ali Abdullah Saleh.  Yemen is an extremely poor nation, located at the southern tip of the Arabian peninsula and across the gulf of Aden from Somalia.  America has called Yemen an Al-Qaeda haven and has been making drone attacks inside the country.  The country has already been coping with open revolt from rebel and separatist movements.  With war, corruption, high unemployment and rising prices plaguing the nation, thousands of people with nothing to lose have turned out to demand rights, justice and new government.  One man, Fouad Sabri, lit-himself on fire in an attempted suicide protest, immitating the act which sparked the Tunisian uprising. 


ALGERIA
Rioting and protests have continued to errupt for over a month as economic turmoil engulfs the country.  Algeria has suffered for a long time with a housing shortage, and the young population is acting out against their impoverished living conditions, rising prices and lack of economic opportunity.  Abdelaziz Bouteflika, the 12-year president, has vowed to quash the unrest; along with employing security forces he has put in place a cooking fuel subsidy and has also ordered major purchases of wheat with the hopes of holding domestic food prices down. 


TUNISIA
A month of protests which saw the ouster of Tunisia's 23-year president, Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, continue into their 6th week after being dubbed the "Jasmine Revolution."  Sparked by the suicide protest of Mohammed Bouazizi on Dec 17th, general strikes and protests against indignity, police brutality, organised corruption and generally lacking rights and freedoms continue.  Security forces, out of seeming habit or acculturation, continue to use deadly violence against the crowds, who are now specifically calling for the president's former cronies to resign their posts in various state ministries and the interim government. 


BANGLADESH
Bangladesh is experiencing violent demonstrations as its stock market is rapidly collapsing.  Since a previous report about it here at World Headlines Review, more street violence has been seen as markets hit new lows and stability has failed to return.  Trading was again halted on the Dhaka exchange for a third time, on January 20, to stop rapid and massive declines which threatened a total collapse of stock values.  In a seemingly unrelated story, the AFP reports that a police officer was killed and several police and civilians seriously injured in protests which saw 20,000 villagers fighting against the appropriation of their land by the government.  For the masses of Bangladeshis, it seems there is no safe place to put your savings, be it stocks or real-estate. 


ALBANIA
A country of some 3 million people on the Mediteranean coast of Europe, Albania's social unrest has expressed itself slightly differently from other nations.  Factions within the country have fought with each other and the police over political scandals and corruption.  On January 21, 3 civilians were killed when security forces fired on anti-government demonstrators.  At its core, the unrest is the result of the same rising prices, unemployment and rampant corruption that is swelling the ranks of the uprisings in many other nations.  


THAILAND
Anti-government protests by "red-shirts" and "yellow shirts" saw thousands of demonstrators occupying streets and neighborhoods in Bangkok this week.  The Thai government has been beset by protests for years now, from groups who seem to recognise no democratic forum for redress except direct action.  In December 2008 the Bangkok international airport was occupied by protestors, leaving many tourists stranded and creating international headlines.  Since then, protests continue largely in the absence of international attention.


GHANA
Thousands of people demonstrated in the capital of Accra and Kumasi on January 26, calling for government action against poverty and rising food and fuel prices.  The protests were peaceful.


COTE D'IVOIRE
In a poor country facing massive unemployment and inflation, a political crisis has sparked violence along social, political and ethnic lines.  The UN this week reported estimates of 260 deaths in the rapidly evolving situation.  Violence erupted when Laurent Gbagbo, the incumbent President, was defeated in a recent election.  Gbagbo has refused the election results and is pitting the ethnic and economic prejudices of his southern support base against the growing anger of the supporters of President-elect Alassane Ouattara. 

Cairo Police Line, January 25 by Muhammad*#

The above list briefly illustrates a number of locales experiencing unrest right now or in the past week.  Haiti and Belarus are two more countries which could be added to the list if the timeframe was widened to the past month.  Both countries have been mired in violent protest against corruption and anti-democratic government.  In all of these countries, where there are little to no rights or freedom to associate, to gather publicly, to speak one's opinion vocally, where there are no democratic venues for ordinary people to make themselves heard and to seek redress, the only option is to defy the law, defy curfews, and face tear-gas, batons and bullets in the streets. 

What seemed to happen first in Tunisia may yet inspire more people to take to the streets, but what is actually happening will continue as long as there is a reason: People facing a bleak future, with little to lose and everything to gain, finding common cause with each other and searching for hope and the power to shape their own destiny

Street-battles in Cairo

Read Sources On:  Egypt  - Lebanon  - Thailand1  - Thailand2  - Cote D'Ivoire1  - Cote DI'voire2  - Ghana1  - Ghana2  -  Albania1  - Albania2  - Bangladesh1  - Bangladesh2  - Yemen1  - Yemen2  - Yemen3  - Algeria  - Jordan 1  - Jordan 2

Revolution in Tunisia?

Zine el Abidine Ben Ali

The President of Tunisia, Zine el Abidine Ben Ali, has been driven from office. Following up on a previous article here at World Headlines Review about civil unrest in Tunisia, demonstrations only intensified in the face of the lethal force applied by police and military in attempts to quell the protests.  Security forces have killed 30 people amidst the protests according to confirmed official counts, with sources on the ground reporting the death toll as higher than 60, after several instances of security forces firing into crowds.  The CBC is reporting (Jan. 14) that Zine el Abidine Ben Ali has fled the country, putting an end to his 23 year reign as President.  Reports say Saudi Arabian authorities have confirmed that Ben Ali and his family have arrived there, after being denied entry to France.

Earlier this week there were many last-minute promises by Ben Ali; to step down in 2014; to allow greater freedom of movement and freedom of internet access; that security forces would stop using lethal force against protestors after two dozen had been killed; that rising milk, bread and sugar prices be brought down and capped by law; that opposition parties may legally be formed; but protests continued.  Demonstrators did not see Ben Ali's concessions as enough or genuine.

The popular uprising, sparked on December 17 by the suicide protest of university graduate Mohammed Bouazizi continues, even after the president's abdication; with riots and looting occuring in spite of attempts by police and military to protect property and restore order.  This could be expected as the uprising began as a protest against broader social and economic conditions in Tunisia, not specifically against the former President, who was a symbol of elitism and corruption.  The speaker of Parliament, Fouad Mebazaa, has been sworn in as interim president, and an interim government is being formed with the intent of holding Presidential elections within 60 days, in accordance with the Tunisian constitution.

It remains unclear whether the popular uprising which ousted the president will actually result in real and tangible political change in Tunisia.  However, an entire young generation of Tunisians is now experiencing freedom unlike at any time in their lives under the Ben Ali era, they suddenly have freedom of speech and movement, freedom to form political organisations, freedom of press, and freedom from internet censorship and bans on internet websites.

The following video is an ITN report posted to Youtube just after the President's whereabouts became unknown.  Pictures and video that are now pouring out of Tunisia in the absence of censorship authorities can be seen on the internet especially at youtube and AJE:

Read and watch World Headlines Review's recent coverage of Tunisia here:
http://worldheadlinesreview.blogspot.com/2011/01/tunisia-and-algeria-north-african.html

Watch More Videos:
Al-Jazeera  video report
Dec. 14th CBC video report

Russia, Violence and Protest: What it is and what it is not

Reports and video footage of violent demonstration and criminality by ultra-nationalist and racist organisations in Russia this week are forming an interesting juxtaposition to recent political protests in the West. 

If one is interested in what ‘violent thuggery’ actually looks like, witness this week’s outburst of unrest in Moscow:  Rampaging gangs seeking racist revenge against non-Slavic Russians after Moscow police failed to hold in custody four suspects in the murder of a Moscow Spartak football hooligan, who died in a post-match brawl with immigrants from the North Caucasus region.  These ‘thugs’- in the true sense of the word- are affiliated with nationalist ‘football firms’ and are quite used to attacking police at football games as a matter of sport.  The firms collectively have thousands of members across the country and are loosely organised and armed: mostly with edge weapons; sticks and truncheons; in some cases tazers.  They have over the past many days readily engaged police en-masse in Moscow and attacked bystanders who were of Central Asian or similar ethnic extraction.  An ethnic-Kyrgiz man has been stabbed to death in revenge, and dozens of innocent ethnic minorities were ruthlessly beaten by the crowds, videos showing police attempting to protect bystanders, not incriminate them by kettling them with demonstrators for hours until they are provoked into active resistance by hunger, exhaustion, confusion, claustrophobia and police taunts, as has been seen in Pittsburgh, Toronto, and very recently London.  

The scenes in Moscow reveal what it looks like when police attempt to contain and quell throngs of actually violent citizens, not the notional ‘thugs’ of Western political description.  Pale in comparison are the so-called ‘violent protests’ in the West; rather the recent demonstrations in London and Toronto set next to the type of violence in Moscow (as seen in the video embedded below- watch from 0:40) seemingly depict Western police as aggressive, well-trained and highly equipped paramilitary forces acting on marching orders to illegally suppress freedom of movement, expression and peaceful demonstration.
 

The ‘football firms’ of Russia that brought the fight to Moscow this week are largely populated by unemployed or otherwise economically marginalised ex-soldiers steeped in a culture of racism and violence; while the demonstrators jailed and humiliated in Toronto were a mish-mash of peace and anti-poverty activists, political agitators, trade unionists, students, professionals and public employees.  There are virtually no women in the ranks of the Moscow rioters; perhaps the fairer sex in Russia refuses to take part in such sinister activities. In contrast, thousands of peaceful female demonstrators hit the streets of London and Toronto, scores of whom were illegally detained, strip searched and sexually humiliated; in some cases by female police indoctrinates.  So much for feminism. 

Western leaders have taken to characterizing political demonstrations in their countries as ‘violent thuggery’.  In light of the actual ‘violent thuggery’ witnessed in Moscow this week, this terminology seems a crude semantic deception for media consumption, considering there is virtually never intent of violence on the part of Western demonstrators, only occasional acts of vandalism by ideologically motivated dissenters and the occasional dilettante or working class person feeling at odds with the system.  There is a well established legal differentiation in the West between breaking heads and breaking windows, a distinction which should never be blurred. 

The BBC reports: “Simon Hardy, of the National Campaign against Fees and Cuts, said police "kettled" and beat some protesters and then accused anyone who tried to resist of being violent,” while the police justified such tactics, saying that “officers acted with professionalism and selflessness and that, if they had not, the consequences would have been ‘unthinkable’.”  (Watch kettling at the Toronto G20 Protests in the video embedded below) Apparently within the realm of ‘thinkability’ is the provocation of thousands of demonstrators by truncheon beatings, mounted police charges and overturning disabled protesters in their wheelchairs.  In Russia, there is no organised statement of purpose or ethic among the perpetrators of the violence beyond confused bigotry, while interestingly Vladimir Putin is on record admonishing both the criminality in Moscow as well as the negligence of the police in letting the murder suspects go free; the event that sparked the violence.  While the politics of relations between the government and the right-wing football firms-cum-street militias is fraught with allegations of corruption and social subterfuge, there is a clear distinction between the government’s recognition of racism and social problems in Russia and Western governments’ us vs them attitude; their blind support for and unwillingness to inquire into police abuses, and their complete denial of any validity in the concerns of its citizens who are willing to put their personal safety at risk to make their voices heard.   

All arguments and justifications of belligerents aside, there is clear and immense contrast between the hemorrhaging violence in Russia and the demonstrations typical of Western protest movements, in spite of the similar language that media and government outlets use to characterize them; ie. 'criminal' 'violent' 'hard-core', etc.  Furthermore, Russian police appear decidedly less confrontational set next to Western police forces, who appear increasingly prepared, trained, armed and willing to employ violence against non-violent demonstrators and witnesses, for no other obvious reason than to discourage corroborators and media onlookers, to silence public opposition to government policies and to quash expressions of democratic freedom which manifest at peaceful anti-war, anti-globalisation, anti-privatisation and anti-austerity demonstrations.  

The first embedded video above depicts at 0:40 Russian police corralling minorities at a van who have been beaten by the mobs, who eventually chase them down and continue to attack the bewildered and defenceless victims even while they are in protective custody.  Also depicted is a pitched battle between the rioters and police.  The video was obtained from youtube, and can be found at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X8wj_69OkHo, where links to other videos can be located.  The second video depicts 'kettling' by Canadian Police of hundreds of peaceful demonstrators in a large square and the tightening of a kettle around a few dozen others.  This video is also hosted on youtube, at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=280hrwKUqKg&feature=related

One story from inside the smaller Kettle depicted in the video above:
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/toronto/a-look-inside-the-g20-kettle-at-queen-and-spadina/article1787949/page3/

Read recent reports about the violence:

December 09, 2010

http://www.themoscowtimes.com/mobile/article/police-let-furious-fans-rally/425927.html

December 14, 2010

http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/russia/101213/soccer-hooligans-far-right-violence

http://english.ruvr.ru/2010/12/14/36832719.html

December 16, 2010

http://news.in.msn.com/international/article.aspx?cp-documentid=4705957

http://en.rian.ru/russia/20101216/161804042.html

Riots and Disparity: Rome, London and Toronto

International headlines in the last two weeks have reported a massive amount of social unrest and unsettling news across the developed world, including riots and economic data which on the surface may appear discordant and unrelated, but are united as part of larger political and economic trends. 

Fees Protest, by Andrea_F

Days of protests and rioting in London have seen the metropolitan police employing illegal crowd control tactics such as kettling, assault, and the use of horseback police charging at canter to provoke demonstrators who could not disperse to areas already cordoned off by police.  The protesters themselves have attacked government buildings and corporate franchise outlets, as well as molesting Prince Charles and Camilla Parker Bowles, who demonstrated an incredible lack of forethought in their failure to associate themselves with the objects of the 50,000 protesters’ anger when they ventured into downtown London for an evening at the theatre, their car being attacked with billiard balls, sticks and paint amid shouts of “Shame... Your government fucked us,” and “Off with their heads!” 

by Andrew Moss Photography

The London ‘fees riots’ have been precipitated by public anger over the government’s decision to allow university tuitions to rise by as much as threefold, or more precisely, the betrayal of campaign pledges and promises made by the Liberal-Democratic Party to oppose any attempt by a government to increase tuition fees.  This week the party made a fantastic U turn by abandoning this key point in their manifesto, and providing the swing vote the government needed to push the measure through; in so doing, perhaps a generation of middle-low income youth have been simultaneously denied an affordable post-secondary education and disabused of the notion that their government functions as a credible democracy.  With the perception that they have lost any means of redress or democratic expression and that the government exists to serve financial and corporate institutions after tax-payer funded bailouts, the students have lashed out against government and corporate property, and responded with violence against police who have attempted to pacify demonstrators with violence of their own.  While British papers polemicise as to whether the police and/or demonstrators have been criminally violent, it is not difficult to understand on a sociological level how such a reaction could occur when teens and twenty-somethings have had the image of their own futures swept out from under them by a duplicitous group of politicians.  After all, revolution is for the young. 

Bandana Bianco by surfstyle

Similarly, riots in Rome erupted this week after Silvio Berlusconi managed somehow to maintain his control of the office of Prime Minister by defeating 2 no-confidence votes, in the Senate and lower-house.  Berlusconi has long been something of a controversial playboy figure in Italian politics, he is a multi-billionaire, ranked by Forbes as the world’s 74^th richest man, and has always been unabashed and opinionated, endearing himself to a wide base of the Italian population; his tenure as Prime Minister being the second-longest in Italian history.  However, many Italians, have throughout his career decried his virtual monopoly of control over the state and private media, as well as his many moves to change Italian law in his favour; in one instance he changed a statute of limitation to quash conflict-of-interest charges levelled against him.  He has employed his personal fortune to mire his opponents in law-suits, more recently to allegedly hire dozens of girls for a bunga-bunga-orgy-party.  His office has lied to police in the attempt to get a 17 year-old belly dancer/prostitute released from custody, with the absurd story that she was a relative of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, and his wife divorced him last year stating publicly that she “cannot remain with a man who consorts with minors” and “is not well.” 

Va fa'n... by Alessio85

Beyond the litany of credible allegations of corruption and solicitation of prostitution spanning his career, which one must wonder if he has throughout maintained his office only by his control of Italian media, there are the recent revelations in the leaked cables by Wikileaks that Berlusconi has moved in an attempt to curb freedom of expression on the Internet in Italy to silence his critics; that he has personally profited enormously through his nation’s rapprochement and energy deals with Vladimir Putin’s Russia, and that his long hours of partying have a narcoleptic effect on his meetings with US diplomats.  That Italy’s elected government, in light of the very recent Wikileaks revelations and prostitution scandals, would still somehow find reason to vote in confidence of him as leader of their nation is too much for his most belligerent opponents who no longer believe they can find a voice in parliament, in the senate, or in the press.  As such, they have chosen to cast their votes in the streets through violence and destruction, in rioting the likes of which has not been seen in Italy in “over 30 years.”

Toronto's Queen st. by C.G. Cunningham

While many media outlets would like to describe these violent protests in Rome and London as mindless apolitical thuggery, as was the mantra of major Canadian media outlets after G20 protests in Toronto this summer, it is much more likely that it is an expression of a deep feeling of political disenfranchisement.  The protests in Canada saw major abuses of power and a total abridgement of people’s rights to free movement, peaceful assembly, security of the person and due process.  Nearly all ‘charges’ against protesters in Toronto who were jailed have been thrown out, and there are now multiple investigations into police wrongdoings.  The protests on the second day of the G20 meetings swelled as the residents of Toronto spilled out onto the streets as they sensed that their rights were being trampled on; not by the IMF; the World Bank or the Group of 20; but by the Toronto Police and the other anti-riot squads and intelligence squads running amok in their city, indiscriminately searching and arresting people wearing "suspicious" or dark clothing, kettling areas of the city without warning and trapping peaceful demonstrators and people going about normal business.  Stories of beatings and sexual intimidation by police abound.  Reporters, video journalists and accredited media personnel, even from the CBC, were attacked by police, having their equipment seized and destroyed in an ostensible effort to control information on what was happening.  Many Canadians travelled to Toronto simply to protest the government’s eagerness to spend $1billion on security for the meetings while other social spending was being cut. 

Protest for Inquest by My Toronto Democracy

Though it may be too cold to protest in Canada now as winter approaches, there must be further consternation among all who have read a recent report by the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, which discusses the continuing trend of rising income disparity in Canada since the 1970s.  As the top earning Canadian households continue to earn a greater and greater share of dollars, the result can only be a growing perception amongst lower earners that they are not getting their fair shake.   As long as a coalition government between Canada’s two major parties continues to support policies which encourage the trend of increasing disparity, which favours a numerical minority, so will there be a growing perception amongst the majority that the government is in service of that wealthy minority class, is unresponsive to the will of the majority, and that there is an erosion of democracy and social justice.  The disparity trend is the same in the US.  After the G20 summit in Toronto, it has also become public knowledge that to join a group which seeks redress against the government’s seeming anti-democratic leanings is to find oneself on a ‘security list’, and that should you present yourself at a public protest while being on such a list, you may be targeted for kidnapping and wrongful confinement in makeshift jails for the duration of the demonstrations, as happened to several activists who found themselves on government and police watch-lists. 

The British government has attacked its own future by making it harder for its citizens to educate themselves; they have stunted social mobility, and entrenched class divisions through this recent measure which was enacted in a gross and anti-democratic breach of public trust.  In Italy, a section of society would rather see Rome burn than accept the continued rule of their philandering and self-interested Prime-Minister.  Canadians and Americans are waking up to the fact that regardless of which party has formed their governments, they are facing a fourth consecutive decade of erosion of social services and increases in wealth and income disparity.  The populations of all these nations are watching their governments pay less and less attention to the will of their people, and more and more money to security and prison firms, policing and domestic surveillance initiatives.  Many view this as evidence that the protests such as we have seen in the past weeks in London and Rome, and this summer and Toronto are fruitless.  However, I’m afraid to imagine what shape the world would take in the total absence of such protests, should we proud inheritors of western democracies, whose freedoms and institutions were paid for in blood and revolution, become wholly subservient and meekly offer a carte-blanche to those who would take it.

More reading:


London's Fees Protests
http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2010/dec/12/riots-fire-anger-defining-political-moment
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/footage-shows-protester-dragged-from-wheelchair-2159570.html


Riots in Rome
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1338461/Berlusconi-win-sparks-violence-Rome-survives-just-THREE-votes.html
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/12/14/silvio-berlusconis-confid_n_796566.html#s207347


Toronto G20 protests
http://www.cbc.ca/canada/toronto/story/2010/07/10/g20-rally-toronto-independent-review.html
http://littlealexinwonderland.wordpress.com/2010/06/29/report-toronto-police-molested-female-g-20-captives-video/
http://www.g20justice.com/

Increasing Canadian Income Disparity
http://www.policyalternatives.ca/publications/reports/rise-canadas-richest-1
http://www.obj.ca/Canada---World/2010-12-01/article-2008311/Canadas-wealthiest-breaking-new-frontiers-in-income-disparity%3A-report/1