Wednesday, 16 April 2014
Monday, 14 April 2014
Police violence and neo-Nazism in Greece
A long-standing culture of impunity, entrenched racism and endemic violence, including the excessive use of force against protesters and ill-treatment of migrants and refugees, has been exposed by Amnesty International's research into policing in Greece. It follows an official investigation into links between police and Golden Dawn.By December last year nearly 50 people, including the leader of Golden Dawn, two police officers and five MPs, were arrested and charged with offences ranging from murder and causing explosions, to blackmail. Ten police officers were found to have direct or indirect links with criminal activities attributed to Golden Dawn members.Now Amnesty International’s report, A law unto themselves: A culture of abuse and impunity in the Greek police, exposes the many and persistent human rights violations by law enforcement officials. It details the root and branch nature of the lack of accountability and the failure to conduct prompt, thorough and impartial investigations into complaints.“Our investigation shows that the Golden Dawn debacle is only the tip of the iceberg. Entrenched racism, excessive use of force and deep-rooted impunity are a blight on the Greek police. Successive Greek governments have so far failed to acknowledge, let alone tackle, these human rights violations by police and on-going impunity,“ said Jezerca Tigani, Europe and Central Asia Deputy Programme Director at Amnesty International.“There is an urgent need for a comprehensive structural reform of law enforcement including the creation of an independent police complaint mechanism to investigate allegations of unlawful police conduct. The Greek authorities must restore the public confidence in Greek law enforcement structures.”Amnesty International has been documenting the unlawful behaviour of police in Greece over many years. Its new research looks at the situation over the last two years and concludes that it remains bleak.At the end of March 2014, police at Nigrita Prison, in northern Greece, reportedly beat to death an inmate in solitary confinement. The autopsy revealed that he was extensively beaten on the soles of his feet and his chest, and that he had burns on his hands.In the past three years, there has been a dramatic escalation in hate attacks against refugees and migrants. Hate crimes have also been recorded against the Roma community and the LGBTI community. Law enforcement officials have reportedly failed to prevent such attacks and/or have failed to investigate the hate motive behind them.“With their actions Greek police pander to xenophobic far-right groups who are intent on attacking anyone who does not conform to their idea of mainstream society,” said Jezerca Tigani.“Police have been used as an indiscriminate tool by the authorities. Instead of maintaining law and order, all too often they have been tasked with stifling dissent and persecuting members of vulnerable groups. Their actions have been left without independent scrutiny and their transgressions unpunished. This has to change.”Golden DawnOn 17 September 2013, Pavlos Fyssas, a musician and anti-fascist activist, was stabbed to death in Keratsini, a suburb of the capital Athens, by a member of Golden Dawn. Eyewitnesses told the national media that eight police officers belonging to the DIAS motorized police unit were already present at the scene when Pavlos Fyssas and his friends were ambushed by members of the far-right, but they did not intervene when Pavlos was chased by some of them and subsequently stabbed by Giorgos Roupakias.On the following day, riot police dispersed demonstrators protesting against the murder of Pavlos Fyssas with batons and chemicals. Thirty one protesters sought medical treatment, many of them with head injuries. The protesters reported that they had been beaten with police batons, helmets and shields. They were pelted with stones by members of far-right groups while riot police stood by and failed to protect them. Gavril, a 32-year-old protester, lost his right eye and had undergone three operations by the end of October 2013.The case of Pavlos Fyssas prompted a major police investigation into the activities of Golden Dawn and links with the police.Brutal treatment of refugees and migrantsPolice in Greece are tasked with controlling migration and detaining and deporting irregular migrants. Under the ongoing sweep operation “Xenios Zeus” between April 2012 and June 2013 more than 120,000 foreign nationals were stopped for identity checks. Of those, only nearly 7,000, or about five per cent, were found without identity papers.K, a Syrian refugee, described his ill-treatment by police at the Corinth immigration detention centre in February 2013: “ The same policeman began to kick me … I tried to stand and the policeman hit me again … then he asked two police officers to take me to a room where I could not be seen by other detainees … [In the room] the policemen started kicking my chest … then a policeman slapped me and started beating me with his fists on my face .”Hate crimesIn January 2013, two Greek nationals stabbed to death S. Luqman, a Pakistani national living in Greece. However, police and prosecutors did not take into account the possible racist motive of the attack. The killing of S. Luqman showed many of the elements of an organized racially motivated attack by a “hit squad” linked with Golden Dawn. Their trial is currently on-going.In September 2013, a Greek woman was recorded on camera kicking a Roma girl playing the accordion on a pedestrian street under the Acropolis in Athens. The police opened an investigation into the incident and the alleged hate motive only after the insistence of the non-governmental organization, Greek Helsinki Monitor.
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Thursday, 10 April 2014
The Cats Will Know, by Cesare Pavese
Rain will fall again
on your smooth pavement,
a light rain like
a breath or a step.
The breeze and the dawn
will flourish again
when you return,
as if beneath your step.
Between flowers and sills
the cats will know.
There will be other days,
there will be other voices.
You will smile alone.
The cats will know.
You will hear words
old and spent and useless
like costumes left over
from yesterday’s parties.
You too will make gestures.
You’ll answer with words—
face of springtime,
you too will make gestures.
The cats will know,
face of springtime;
and the light rain
and the hyacinth dawn
that wrench the heart of him
who hopes no more for you—
they are the sad smile
you smile by yourself.
There will be other days,
other voices and renewals.
Face of springtime,
we will suffer at daybreak.
Tuesday, 8 April 2014
Saturday, 5 April 2014
Remembering Kurt Cobain
At this point I have a request for our fans. If any of you in any way hate homosexuals, people of different color, or women, please do this one favor for us - leave us the fuck alone! Don't come to our shows and don't buy our records.
Intro 00.00 / School 00.50 / Drain You 3.30 / Aneurysm 7.06 / Smells Like Teen Spirit 11.30 / Been A Son 16.18 / Lithium 18.28 / Sliver 22.35 / Spank Thru 24.35 / Scentless Apprentice 27.40 / Heart-Shaped Box 31.15 / Milk It 35.52 / Negative Creep 39.38 / Polly 42.20 / Breed 44.54 / Tourette's 48.20 / Blew 50.15
Friday, 4 April 2014
![Self-Portrait in Mirrors, 1931 [Wikipedia]](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Ilse_Bing_self_portrait_1931.jpg){kind=link}
Wednesday, 2 April 2014
Justice for migrant domestic workers in the UK
Migrant domestic workers accompanying their employers to the United Kingdom are being subjected to serious abuses including forced labor, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today. The UK government is doing far too little to protect vulnerable workers, and recent changes to UK immigration rules make it harder for workers to flee abuse, the report found.
“It’s scandalous that in modern Britain migrant domestic workers are subject to such appalling abuses,” said Izza Leghtas, Western Europe researcher at Human Rights Watch. “But instead of protecting these workers, the system makes it harder for them escape.” The 58-page report, “Hidden Away: Abuses against Migrant Domestic Workers in the UK,” documents the confiscation of passports, confinement to the home, physical and psychological abuse, extremely long working hours with no rest days, and very low wages or non-payment of wages. The report also shows the UK government has failed to live up to its obligations under international law to protect migrant domestic workers and enable them to access justice if they are mistreated.
In April 2012, the UK abolished the right of migrant domestic workers to change employer once they are in the UK, against the recommendations of parliament, nongovernmental organizations, and UN experts. Under the terms of the new ‘tied visa,’ overseas domestic workers cannot legally leave their employer and find new work, meaning those abused can become trapped.
“Workers who are mistreated now face a horrendous choice: either endure the terrible abuse, or escape and become undocumented migrants, where of course they are much more vulnerable to further abuse and exploitation,” said Leghtas. “It’s abhorrent that anyone should be tied into abuse in this way.”A group of domestic workers, led by a Filipino woman living in the UK, are stepping up their demands for the British government to provide new visa laws for 16,000 domestic workers thought to be at serious risk of exploitation and abuse. Justice for Domestic Workers is campaigning to repeal controversial visa laws introduced by the home secretary, Theresa May, which tie domestic workers visas to their employers. It is the same kafala system that operates in Qatar, where the abuse of migrant workers, amounting to forced labour, has been exposed."The current system licenses more employers to abuse, exploit and enslave domestic workers," says J4DW founder Marissa Begonia, who works with hundreds of Asian and African women brought to the UK by foreign employers, and treated poorly, abused or enslaved behind closed doors.Speaking just days after the shocking revelations that three women had been apparently kept in forced servitude for 30 years in south London, Begonia warns that "tied visas" could be subjecting thousands more to a life of modern slavery."What happened in Lambeth is exactly the same fear I always have for my fellow domestic workers," she says.Domestic workers operating under the new visa system, which was introduced in April 2012, can be forced to work long hours, are not paid the minimum wage, denied overtime pay or simply not paid at all. And women who thought they would be working in one household find their employer wants them to work in two or three, without extra pay. They often have no choice but to accept, otherwise their visa will be cancelled.Cases that J4DW have worked on include a woman forced to sleep on the floor and kept alive on out-of-date scraps of food thrown at her by her employers' children. Another was taken to the top floor of a building, where her employer threatened to throw her off. Some are beaten. Reports of sexual assault are not uncommon.If workers manage to flee, they become illegal immigrants and have to pursue work via shadowy channels. Most are sending funds back home to support large families. They have no option but to stay in the UK and keep working at all costs. If domestic workers report their employers' abusive behaviour to the police they are often deported straight away, says the charity.
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