statism watch

Flashback: Athens erupts as Greek austerity plan passes | Greece unveils radical austerity package | Athen’s coffers to run dry in two weeks, more cracks appear in Eurozone | Man who broke the Bank of England, George Soros, ‘at centre of hedge funds plot to cash in on fall of the euro’ | Goldman role in Greek crisis probed | Greek workers stage general strike | How EU Countries Cooked Books Using Derivatives | Goldman Sachs Helped Greece Obscure Debt Through Currency Swaps | Collapse of the euro is ‘inevitable’: Bailing out the Greek economy futile, says French banking chief | Euro currency union shows strains | Stimulating our way into debt crises | EU leaders reach secret Greek bailout deal | Will Greece set off ‘global debt bomb’? | EU cautions Greece about its deficit | Could Greece drag down Europe? | ‘Significant chance’ of second financial crisis, warns World Economic Forum | A world awash in debt

The Associated Press
March 11, 2010

ATHENS-Serious street clashes erupted between rioting youths and police in central Athens Thursday as some 30,000 people demonstrated during a nationwide strike against the cash-strapped government’s austerity measures.

Hundreds of masked and hooded youths punched and kicked motorcycle police, knocking several off their bikes, as riot police responded with volleys of tear gas and stun grenades.

The violence spread after the end of the march to a nearby square, where police faced off with stone-throwing anarchists and suffocating clouds of tear gas sent patrons scurrying from open-air cafes.

Police say 12 suspected rioters were detained and two officers were injured.

Rioters used sledge hammers to smash the glass fronts of more than a dozen shops, banks, jewelers and a cinema. Youths also set fire to rubbish bins and a car, smashed bus stops, and chopped blocks off marble balustrades and building facades to use as projectiles.

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Good news. As Mike Masnick at Techdirt notes, “This is pretty big — and a massive setback for ACTA supporters. The MEPs didn’t just reject the lack of transparency, they were blatantly rejecting some of the proposals that were in the leaked documents.” Let’s hope that any other parliamentary defenders of the freedom of information as may exist out there don’t lose the momentum this generates.

Related: ACTA Internet Chapter Leaks: Renegotiates WIPO, Sets 3 Strikes as Model | ACTA Is Called An ‘Executive Agreement’ To Implement Restrictive Copyright With Less Hassle Than A Treaty | ACTA One Step Closer To Being Done; Concerns About Transparency Ignored | UK MPs frozen out of super-secret ACTA copyright talks | Reading Between The Still Secret Lines Of The ACTA Negotiations | Beyond ACTA: Proposed EU – Canada Trade Agreement Intellectual Property Chapter Leaks | New Leaks of Secret ACTA Copyright Law Reveal Oppressive ‘Global DMCA’ | MPAA Says Critics of Secret Copyright Treaty Hate Hollywood | ACTA Threatens Made-in-Canada Copyright Policy | More ACTA Details Leak: It’s An Entertainment Industry Wishlist | Six Days Left: Canadian Net Users Caught As Copyright Consultation Nears Conclusion | MP Charlie Angus on copyright: industry lobby pulling for ‘dead business model’ | Ottawa denies altering public’s ECopyright Consultation submissions | Security guards stop MPs, students from distributing fair use flyers at Toronto copyright townhall | Can The Public Be Heard On Copyright Issues? | Copyright Consultation Launches: Time For Canadians To Speak Out | Third stab at copyright law ‘reform’ to kick off with consultations | Time to slay Canadian file-sharing myths | Canadian copyright lobbyists leaned on “independent” researchers to change report on file-sharing | Think tank plagiarizes, pulls report on Canadian piracy | Obama Administration Claims Copyright Treaty Involves State Secrets | Latest Round of Closed-Door ACTA Copyright Negotiations Wrap Up | Digital rights groups sue for access to secret ACTA treaty | Critics waging a cyber offensive to fight copyright changes | Canadian Industry Minister lies about Canadian DMCA on national radio, then hangs up | The Canadian DMCA: Check the Fine Print | Government ready to drop copyright bomb | Transparency needed on ACTA | Revamped copyright law targets electronic devices | New Attempt to Align Canada’s Copyright Act with USA Coming Soon | Canadian DMCA To Be Introduced Tomorrow Morning?

Euractiv.com
March 10, 2010

The European Parliament defied the EU executive today (10 March), casting a vote against an agreement between the EU, the US and other major powers on combating online piracy and threatening to take legal action at the European Court of Justice.

Flashback: Greece unveils radical austerity package | Athen’s coffers to run dry in two weeks, more cracks appear in Eurozone | Man who broke the Bank of England, George Soros, ‘at centre of hedge funds plot to cash in on fall of the euro’ | Goldman role in Greek crisis probed | Greek workers stage general strike | How EU Countries Cooked Books Using Derivatives | Goldman Sachs Helped Greece Obscure Debt Through Currency Swaps | Collapse of the euro is ‘inevitable’: Bailing out the Greek economy futile, says French banking chief | Euro currency union shows strains | Stimulating our way into debt crises | EU leaders reach secret Greek bailout deal | Will Greece set off ‘global debt bomb’? | EU cautions Greece about its deficit | Could Greece drag down Europe? | ‘Significant chance’ of second financial crisis, warns World Economic Forum | A world awash in debt

The Associated Press
March 5, 2010

The Greek parliament approved new spending cuts and taxes Friday aimed at defusing the country’s debt crisis, while protesters fought with police in the streets of Athens.

The violence came as Prime Minister George Papandreou went abroad to seek European leaders’ support for his efforts to address the country’s debt crisis.

He met in Luxembourg with Prime Minister Jean-Claude Juncker, head of the group of eurozone finance ministers, and was scheduled to meet with German Chancellor Angela Merkel in Berlin later in the day.

In Athens, riot police used tear gas and baton charges to disperse rioters who chased the ceremonial guards in 19th-century kilts and tasselled garters away from the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier outside the parliament, while a top trade union leader was roughed up by left-wing protesters.

It was the biggest outburst of violence since Greece’s debt crisis escalated late last year. Police say they arrested five people, and seven officers were injured.

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CAPP has this journal’s support. A non-partisan group urging all Canadians to get involved in civics is a great idea, and sure to arouse no small degree of consternation amongst the elite, entitled political classes of this country. Take the system back, Canada! And for goodness’ sake let’s get some principled classical liberals and libertarians out to these things, there’s no need to let them be another exclusive vehicle for socialists and left-anarchists. You’ve seen that Canada has what it takes to meet the Olympic gold standard. Now it’s time to get off your ass – get involved and bring that focus and commitment to bear on holding this state to a higher standard.

Flashback: Thousands of Canadians protest shuttering of Parliament | Anti-prorogation protest dogs PM | Harper says Parliament brings ‘games’ and ‘instability’ | PM Harper downplays detainee torture scandal, prorogation | PM suspends Parliament | MPs vote public inquiry into Afghan detainees, Tories ignore majority motion | Ottawa won’t budge on secrecy laws | Information commissioner quits, Ottawa chided for lacking ‘guts’ | Watchdog alarmed by Harper’s information clampdown | Decision to prorogue parliament sets ‘very dangerous’ precedent: constitutional expert | Harper halts parliament amid row | Comedian begins asking Harper question, cuffed by RCMP | Tentacles of Secrecy Grip Tightly | PM’s tactic `authoritarian’ | Parliament losing power, author says | Information lockdown: How Harper Controls the Spin | Elected Parliamentarians Neutered by PM-Appointed ‘Courtiers’ | ‘What is it they’re trying to hide?’ NDP asks for military export data | The Mulroney Affair: Why politicians seek out the rich | Harper to create government-run media centre: report | Steven Harper and the Bilderbergers Secret Meeting

Gloria Galloway, The Globe and Mail
March 2, 2010

Do you remember that Facebook group Canadians Against Proroguing Parliament – the one that, at last count, had 225,392 members? With federal politicians returning to Ottawa on Wednesday, it has rather lost its raison d’etre.

But the organizers say they will continue to fight democratic apathy under the banner of Canadians Advocating Political Participation. And they will hold a news conference Tuesday to discuss launch a new website CanadaParticipates.ca.

Justin Arjoon, CAPP’s central coordinator, said the main goal is to encourage greater political participation.

“We want Canadians to participate in democracy,” said Mr. Arjoon. “We want to reverse this trend of apathy that Canadians seem to be feeling towards our system of government by holding our government accountable and also be educating Canadians and encouraging them to get involved at a local level.”

Just 58.8 per cent of registered Canadian voters turned out to the polls in the 2008 federal election. But Mr. Arjoon said his group is about more than just getting out the vote.

“It’s getting Canadians to understand what’s going on and to try to get them engaged in things other than voting. Like going to town halls or holding events about issues that concern them, talking to politicians.”

Watch their Youtube video:

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And that sweet City with her dreaming spires, She needs not June for beauty’s heightening. – Matthew Arnold, ‘Thyrsis’

Flashback: G8/G20: Gearing up for the biggest security event in Canadian history | Toronto braces for G20 disruption, Ottawa to pick up security tab | Convention centre confirmed as location for Toronto G20 summit | G20 security could strangle downtown | G20’s Metro Convention Centre location to bump baseball, pride activities | Harper confirms June G20 summit in Toronto | Is G20 more than Toronto can handle? | With only seven months to go, G20 site may be moved to Toronto | Top Mountie says Huntsville too small for G20 | Leaked G20 Documents Shed Light on Global Carbon Tax | Flaherty, USA say no to global financial tax, yes to continued ’stimulus’ at G20 | Bernanke continues pressing for sweeping new powers for Fed | IMF chief wants global bank tax | Provocateur Cops Caught Disguised As ‘Anarchists’ At Pittsburgh G20 | G20 Police & Military Savagely Attack Peaceful Protesters In Pittsburgh Park | G20 decides to become world’s new ruling economic council | Military Police Kidnap G20 Protester, Shove Him Into Unmarked Car | G20 protesters blasted by sonic cannon | American Citizens Attacked With Military Sound Cannons & Tear Gas At G20 | G20 nations meet as protests flare on issue of international banking regulation | Dollar to fall under scrutiny at G20 summit | Gordon Brown urges EU to back new economic order | A year after financial crisis, a new world order emerges | UN wants new global currency to replace dollar | UK PM reveals G20 plan to boost IMF by $1 trillion, hails new world order (again) | World Bank President Admits Agenda For Global Government | Gordon Brown chooses pulpit as latest platform to push New World Order | Volcker sees crisis leading to global regulation | Gordon Brown seeks sweeping reforms to give IMF global ’surveillance role’ | Kissinger Calls for a New World Order | Kissinger Calls For New International System Out Of World Crises | Financial Times: And now for a world government | Gordon Brown calls for new world order to beat recession

Jennifer Yang, Toronto Star
February 28, 2010

In four months, Steve Bovair’s downtown neighbourhood will be transformed from cosmopolitan high life to a barricaded no-man’s land.

On a normal day, the network engineer can look outside his 17th-floor window to find a typical urban scene. Cars drift through his intersection at Lower Simcoe St. and Bremner Blvd. Customers dash into take-out restaurants and convenience stores at the base of his building. Construction workers pound away at the beginnings of a new condo tower across the road.

But on June 26, the scene outside his window will resemble an urban combat zone: razor-wire fences lining the streets, helicopters clattering overhead and — potentially, at least — throngs of screaming protestors confronting police officers in riot gear. Bovair lives kitty-corner from the Metro Toronto Convention Centre, picked as the site for the upcoming G20 summit, and for two days in June, a swirling mob of foreign delegates, journalists, security personnel and — potentially, at least — stick-wielding protestors will take over downtown Toronto, literally landing on his doorstep.

Needless to say, Bovair won’t be sticking around.

“We’ve actually made the decision to go away that weekend,” said Bovair, who plans to escape with his wife to their summer home near Collingwood. “The easiest thing is to go away … and then come back when all the commotion’s over.”

Protests and fears of terrorism have become part and parcel of high-profile international meetings like the G20 summit, and Ottawa is funding an RCMP-led task force called the Integrated Security Unit to oversee security for the G20 and the G8 summit, which will take place in Huntsville. Collectively, the two meetings have been pegged the biggest security event to occur on Canadian soil.

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Amazing… the author even alludes to the fact he recognizes that the Black Bloc, Crimethinc, etc., aren’t necessarily to be regarded as political anarchists, which has a long, rich intellectual history. It will be clear to readers of this site that this is not an anarchist site (neither are we left or right), nor would we ever promote anarchism – there is a moral brightline based on whether a limited state with a mandate to protect citizen’s rights has a right to exist that lies between movements such as libertarianism and anarchism – but for a mainstream writer to see this nuance, and to even bring up the issue of the potential use of the Black Bloc as a cover for police provocation is real progress in the political dialogue of this nation.

Flashback: Vancouver Olympics protesters fall silent as Black Bloc ruins it for everyone | Olympic protesters smash store windows | Provocateur Cops Caught Disguised As ‘Anarchists’ At Pittsburgh G20 | G20 police ‘used undercover men to incite crowds’ | G20 protests: Riot police, or rioting police? | Rioters Were Paid To Provoke the Police in Bulgaria | Greek Cops Caught on Video Posing as Anarchists | ACLU wants probe into police-staged DNC protest | Ex-Italian President: Provocateur Riots Then “Beat The Shit Out Of Protesters” | Massachusetts Police Get Black Uniforms to Instill Sense of ‘Fear’ | Police inspector posed as militant protester | Quebec police admit agents posed as protesters | Canadians who trust our secret police should think again

Doug Ward, Vancouver Sun
February 27, 2010

Destructive tactics fail to attract public sympathy for the cause and alienate moderate activists

This data-dump ought to get us on the blacklist… here is a limited selection of China’s crimes against its citizens.

Flashback: Eyewitness Recounts Forced Organ Removal in China | Prominent Chinese reformer on trial for subversion | China launches ’strike hard’ crackdown in Xinjiang | China executes Tibetan protesters | China’s crackdown for patriotism on 60th anniversary | Chinese pupils told to love nation | Chinese dissident saved by Canada details horror | Urumqi Massacre: The repressive reality behind China’s modern mask | Pro-rights ‘Charter 08′ Manifesto author could face prison in China | Police pounce on 20th Tiananmen anniversary | Tiananmen Square: briefly, anything seemed possible | Tibet’s best friend? China, of course | China executes two men, ‘guilty’ of killing 17 police before Olympics | Monks taken for ‘re-education’ before Tibet uprising anniversary | Beijing strikes at Charter 08 dissidents | Psychiatric treatment used to ’silence’ Chinese critics | Beijing peasants bullied, beaten off of family farms by state-developer blocs | China names 8 alleged Olympic terrorists | Doubt Arises in Account of pre-Olympic ‘Uighur’ Attack in China | Rounded up into torture camps: the ‘undesirables’ China doesn’t want you to see | Pentagon Front Groups Release Laughable Olympics “Terror” Video | Long history of Tibet, China, and British interference means all sides guilty of abuses | Beijing Taxis Are Bugged ‘For Driver Safety’ | Journalists beaten for reporting on separatist attacks in China | Chinese citizens dutifully file protest applications in Beijing, suffer detention | Bombs explode, Washington-based Intelcenter releases yet another terror video, China cracks down on transport security | Mass Arrests as Beijing Prepares for Olympics | Chinese riot in Shenzen over rape, murder, subsequent police coverup | China creates mobile execution vans, organ theft suspected

John Garnaut, Sydney Morning Herald
February 27, 2010

China’s top expert on social unrest has warned that hardline security policies are taking the country to the brink of ”revolutionary turmoil”.

In contrast with the powerful, assertive and united China that is being projected to the outside world, Yu Jianrong said his prediction of looming internal disaster reflected on-the-ground surveys and also the views of Chinese government ministers.

Deepening social fractures were caused by the Communist Party’s obsession with preserving its monopoly on power through ‘’state violence” and ”ideology”, rather than justice, Professor Yu said.

Disaster could be averted only if ”interest groups” – which he did not identify – were capable of making a rational compromise to subordinate themselves to the constitution, he said.

Some lawyers, economists and religious and civil society leaders have expressed similar views but it is unusual for someone with Professor Yu’s official standing to make such direct and detailed criticisms of core Communist Party policies.

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Greece, thanks to the corrupt banker-state interface, is screwed. The bank and the state need to be separated even more urgently than the church and state were. Note: The CBC wins today for not playing up the limited rioting. (For that and the usual incendiary photos of the one or two guys taking a swing at the cops, see the ‘alternate coverage’ articles below.)

Flashback: How EU Countries Cooked Books Using Derivatives | Goldman Sachs Helped Greece Obscure Debt Through Currency Swaps | America slides deeper into depression as Wall Street revels | How Goldman secretly bet on the U.S. housing crash | Goldman Sachs breaks record with $16.7bn bonus pot | More US Bank Failures and The Coming Deposit Insurance Bailout | Arrest Over Software Illuminates Wall St. Secret | The Lords of Time: Goldman Sachs and low-latency trading | Record quarterly profits and bonuses: Goldman Sachs makes out like a bandit on taxpayer’s dime | Goldman-Sachs: Pilfered trading code could be used to ‘manipulate markets’ | Taibbi: NYSE ends transparency to protect Goldman Sachs | Goldman Sachs: The Great American Bubble Machine | 10 U.S. banks to repay U.S. bailout money | Top Senate Democrat: bankers “own” the U.S. Congress | Barclays, Lloyd’s, RBS join Goldman-Sachs in the black | Goldman-Sachs to repay TARP loan, resume private operations, bonuses, at “earliest time” possible | Which Banks Will Rule? | Wall Street’s Big Takeover | Behind the panic: Financial warfare over the future of global bank power | Goldman-Sachs Alumni Hold Reins of Financial System | Bilderberg Seeks Bank Centralization Agenda

CBC News
February 24, 2010

Flights grounded, public services shut down in protest over austerity measures

Flights in and out of Greece were grounded and schools and most public services shut down as the country’s unions staged a general strike on Wednesday.

Police fired tear gas in clashes with demonstrators in central Athens who hurled rocks and plastic bottles near parliament, but the violence remained fairly limited.

More than 30,000 protesters took part in a march on Wednesday in Athens, part of the first general strike in the country since the election of a centre-left government in October.

The general strike came in response to government plans to cut spending and push through tax reform to help the country pull itself out of massive debt.

All flights to and from Greek airports have been cancelled, while trains and ferries were also idle. Public schools, tax offices and municipal offices are closed, and public hospitals are using emergency staff. Journalists are also holding a 24-hour strike.

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What have they got to crack down against? The movement was effectively cowed. There haven’t been any moving protests since the imported Black Bloc went on a tear on the second day of the games. So let’s just all forget the pre-game spying on Olympics activists and attempted free speech zones and give the ISU a big gold star for restraining themselves from cracking heads and throwing the homeless in jail. +1. Big ups. With those qualifications in place, the seemingly professional attitude of Vancouver cops is appreciated when contrasted against the behavior of American forces during recent summits. Perhaps they haven’t forgotten their role as peace officers and civil servants.

Flashback: Police lines block overwhelmingly peaceful Olympic protest march on BC Place Stadium | Let the Olympic surveillance begin | Photographers claim assault at Toronto torch run | Vancouver orders removal of anti-Olympic mural | Border guards are now Olympic thought police – Amy Goodman detained | Anti-Olympic activists decry ‘Orwellian’ treatment | Vancouver police get military sound cannon just in time for Olympics | Olympic security follows protester’s friend | As Olympics loom, B.C. wants to force homeless into shelters in extreme weather | 2010 Olympic security plans include ‘free speech’ zones | Tanks, Face-Scanning Cameras Part of ‘Discreet’ 2010 Games Security | CSIS Spying on Natives, Olympic Dissidents

CBC News
February 23, 2010

Anti-poverty activists and civil rights watchdogs in Vancouver say their worst fears about police crackdowns during the 2010 Winter Olympics have yet to materialize, more than halfway through the Games.

Sean Spear, a director with RainCity Housing, said their emergency shelters and housing projects are full and their clients are appreciating a place far from the crowds.

“We also have people staying in our projects who are going to the Games and enjoying that as well, or finding other things that they enjoy about the Games — just watching some of the stuff on TV,” he said.

Spear said one thing he doesn’t like are Games visitors shooting pictures of the poor, which he called an offence to their dignity.

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Flashback: Convention centre confirmed as location for Toronto G20 summit | G20 security could strangle downtown | G20’s Metro Convention Centre location to bump baseball, pride activities | Harper confirms June G20 summit in Toronto | Is G20 more than Toronto can handle? | With only seven months to go, G20 site may be moved to Toronto | Top Mountie says Huntsville too small for G20 | Leaked G20 Documents Shed Light on Global Carbon Tax | Flaherty, USA say no to global financial tax, yes to continued ’stimulus’ at G20 | Bernanke continues pressing for sweeping new powers for Fed | IMF chief wants global bank tax | Provocateur Cops Caught Disguised As ‘Anarchists’ At Pittsburgh G20 | G20 Police & Military Savagely Attack Peaceful Protesters In Pittsburgh Park | G20 decides to become world’s new ruling economic council | Military Police Kidnap G20 Protester, Shove Him Into Unmarked Car | G20 protesters blasted by sonic cannon | American Citizens Attacked With Military Sound Cannons & Tear Gas At G20 | G20 nations meet as protests flare on issue of international banking regulation | Dollar to fall under scrutiny at G20 summit | Gordon Brown urges EU to back new economic order | A year after financial crisis, a new world order emerges | UN wants new global currency to replace dollar | UK PM reveals G20 plan to boost IMF by $1 trillion, hails new world order (again) | World Bank President Admits Agenda For Global Government | Gordon Brown chooses pulpit as latest platform to push New World Order | Volcker sees crisis leading to global regulation | Gordon Brown seeks sweeping reforms to give IMF global ’surveillance role’ | Kissinger Calls for a New World Order | Kissinger Calls For New International System Out Of World Crises | Financial Times: And now for a world government | Gordon Brown calls for new world order to beat recession

Timothy Appleby, Anna Mehler Paperny, The Globe and Mail
February 19, 2010

Federal Labour Minister Lisa Raitt confirms Metro Toronto Convention Centre as venue for summit

Pittsburgh G20 stormtroopers. A scene to be repeated on the streets of Toronto?

The federal taxpayer will pick up the full tab for guarding the June G20 economic summit in Toronto, it was announced Friday, although what that cost might be was left unspecified.

Security at the two-day conference will be the joint responsibility of the RCMP and Toronto police.

The huge event will take place at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre on the edge of the financial district in the downtown core, federal Labour Minister Lisa Raitt said, confirming numerous reports.

RCMP Chief Superintendent Alphonse MacNeil said the broad security plan involves a system of concentric circles, and that those who live and work inside the perimeter will be required to show identification.

“As you approach the MTCC you will come to different levels of security,” he said.

“It’s our hope and our plan to keep the city functioning as per normal as much as possible, right up to the actual event.”

The summit logo was also unveiled Friday, clearly inspired by the design of the CN Tower.

Ms. Raitt said Ottawa picked the MTCC as the venue – over some vociferous objections – because of its technological infrastructure and its past history in hosting big international events.

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