4 More years

The reality is that those of us who live in Europe are affected by American foreign policy and that never changes irrespective of who the President is. On the other hand it is good to see that the USA is mature enough to understand that out of the two candidates Obama is on balance the best. We won't see many fundamental changes but at least Obama brings some hope to those who in the past felt excluded.

48 hour strike in Greece

The entire country has started a huge 48 general strike with almost every employee refusing to work. ADEDY the major public services union has instructed their members not to turn up for work whilst marches in cities like Athens, Thesaloniki, Patras Iraklion and others have been organised. I am not able to be there this time but I am hoping that the TUC would have at least send messages of support...

What happens after the 20 October then?

Our great leaders allowed us to march down the streets of London on the 20th October more than 200,000 of us were there and there were many more in other major cities of the country. But what happens now? How do we follow on from that? Is local action the way to continue the struggle or was that it? Many members have been asking these questions but I don't know if we have the answer?? Why can't we use that energy and enthusiasm to move on? Or have we given in?

The reports on Greece

Glad that Jon of the Rogers has referred to the collective strike action organised by TU's in southern Europe. I have been reporting about the new phenomenon of organising in the south and the luck of support from Britain for months now. Greece, for example, would see its 10th big strike on the 14th of this month (plus many marches)

It is true that the rise of the far right golden shower party (or is it golden dawn?) is responsible for a number of terrible incidents in Athens. More disturbing is the fact that they have gained 6% of the vote (similar to France) On the other hand there has been a number of demonstrations against them and ordinary people on the streets are organising themselves to resist and the majority of MPs in the Vouli have signed a petition wanting to outlaw them. I did not see this reported on Jon's 'armchair socialist' friends blog nor did I see any reports of the movement that occupies supermarkets and forces big chains to reduce their prices. I think more is done in Greece to resist the tyranny of capitalism than Jon and his mates can imagine! Less chat more action mate??

More strikes in Greece

Finance Minister Stournaras is in desperate discussions with the two partner parties in the Greek government coalition trying to convince them to agree the austerity measures that he has agreed with the Troika.

In the meantime the Greek TUC announces more strike action for next week. The country has suffered a lot because there are in a treble recession and the economy has contracted by 4.3% unless Greece finds a way to make the economy grow a default at some stage will be inevitable... It don't look good and Syrizas dream of reinventing Argentina in the middle of norther Mediterranean could become real...

Cypriots to sue UK government for torture

A group of Cypriots are determined to sue the British government for damages and an apology for torture during the fight against colonial rule. The specific case of a 17 year old Evagoras Palikarides, a school boy who was hanged because he brought down a British flag in his school, is also to be looked at again.

A British court has already ruled on the right of three Kenyans to pursue damages for torture in the 1950s, which “has paved the path for us to carry on.

Because of the Kenya decision, two questions are answered: whether a law suit would be admissible in court and whether the court would admit a case dating back over fifty years.

Top secret foreign office files made available this year, have showed that activists and civilians were brutally tortured between 1955 and 1959.

The Foreign and Commonwealth Office has said it will make more documents available by September 2013 that will also need to be studied.

Leading Cypriot lawyer Clerides confirmed that about 20 cases stood out, although about 60 individuals have detailed alleged abuses and said they are willing to go to court.

Unions must merge

I was involved with another discussion yesterday afternoon with a number of activists who do not think that the 3 main unions should merge. I disagree with this view and I strongly suggest that if more work isn't done to find ways of bringing the 3 main public service unions together we will be facing further decline. Merging will allow us to manage our affairs better and enable us to serve the interests of our members better with concentrated resources. Unite, GMB and Unison must find a way out of their rivalries and unite!