MPs’ expenses: shoot them or jail them – public is after revenge

From The Guardian UK: It was fortunate that Andrew MacKay did not encounter one of his elderly constituents when the Conservative MP defied growing public fury to show his face in Bracknell town centre yesterday.

“I can see ordinary people going round with shotguns and shooting them all,” said a pensioner in this industrious Berkshire town. She was so enraged by MPs’ expenses, she said, that she was tempted to shoot the Speaker herself.

The days when Dick Turpin reputedly rested up in a pub where this new town now sprawls have long gone. But voters outside Westminster are increasingly convinced that their representatives have got away with daylight robbery. See full story HERE

Trouble in Spain

Spain is forecast to be the hardest hit by the “crisis”. The economy has suffered its largest contraction in 50 years SEE HERE and the Spanish have been taking to the streets on a regular bases regarding protection of the jobless SEE HERE . And to top it all off they have found Cocaine in the air SEE HERE . Go figure,

Steel workers storm ArcelorMittal meeting

From The Guardian UK: Angry steel workers attacked the Luxembourg headquarters of ArcelorMittal, the world’s biggest steelmaker, during the company’s annual shareholders’ meeting yesterday, setting off smoke bombs and breaking through the front door in protest at temporary layoffs. See fulls story HERE

Riots across Europe fuelled by economic crisis

Tension over the global economic slump have fuelled May Day protests and riots across Europe with trouble breaking out in Germany, Greece, Austria, Turkey and France. Police in Berlin arrested 57 people while around 50 officers were hurt as young demonstrators threw bottles and rocks and set fire to cars and rubbish bins. There were also clashes in Hamburg, where anti-capitalist protesters attacked a bank.

In Turkey, masked protesters threw stones and petrol bombs at police, smashing banks and supermarket windows in its biggest city, Istanbul. Security forces fired tear gas and water cannon at hundreds of rioters and more than a hundred were arrested with dozens more hurt. There were also scattered skirmishes with police in the capital, Ankara, where 150,000 people marched. See full story from TheTelegraph HERE

French fishermen continue to blockade Channel ports

Thousands of cross-Channel ferry passengers faced a second day of travel disruption today as French fishermen continued a blockade of ports in protest against EU quotas.

P&O Ferries said it was forced to suspend services from Dover at 6am as protests restarted off Calais, just nine hours after they ended.

Three thousand passengers, including families returning from Easter holidays, had to be helped home overnight after being stranded at the ports.

Blockades at Boulogne and Dunkirk remained in place. P&O advised passengers on day trips to make alternative arrangements while others were told to head to Dover but to get there early because of extra security. The company is planning to sue the French government for compensation for the disruption. See story HERE

Bankers Home Attacked

Here comes the summer of rage?

A warning of more attacks on UK bankers was made on Wednesday after the home of former Royal Bank of Scotland boss Fred Goodwin was vandalized.

Windows were smashed in Goodwin’s house in the Scottish capital Edinburgh and those of a Mercedes-Benz limousine parked outside.

It is not known if anyone was at home at the time. Goodwin — dubbed “Fred the Shred” by the media for his ruthless cost-cutting — and his family have not been living in the house since it was revealed that the 50-year-old Goodwin was receiving an annual pension of $1 million (£700,000) for life.

A statement issued to media organizations including the Press Association after the attack said: “We are angry that rich people, like him, are paying themselves a huge amount of money and living in luxury, while ordinary people are made unemployed, destitute and homeless.

“Bank bosses should be jailed. This is just the beginning.”

No group was named in the message and it did not explicitly claim responsibility for the attack.

Goodwin took early retirement after RBS nearly collapsed amid the economic crisis and was later part-nationalized.

On the same day as the size of his pension was revealed RBS announced a UK record loss of $34.6 billion (£24.1 billion) for 2008.

Politicians and commentators have expressed fury about the deal and excessive bonuses being given by bailed-out banks. See more from CNN HERE

We will we see a “Class War” in France?

France faces a “class war” that could undermine President Nicolas Sarkozy’s reform efforts and spark a period of damaging labour unrest, one of the country’s most prominent business leaders has warned.

In an interview with the Financial Times as France braced for its second national strike in less than two months, Maurice Lévy, head of Publicis, said “people are really angry” over the country’s growing economic hardship and costly bank rescues.
EDITOR’S CHOICE
Workers pile pressure on Sarkozy – Mar-18
Brussels and France resolve auto dispute – Mar-02
France softens plan to deny aid to carmakers – Feb-26
Sarkozy pressed to add social element to plan – Feb-18
Lex: French car industry – Feb-13
French aid to car industry remains under fire – Feb-13

Mr Lévy criticised the government for fanning the discontent. The boss of the advertising group said ministers had failed to explain adequately why the state had bailed out banks while refusing to help consumers with new tax breaks or wage rises.

Unions have promised another record turnout for Thursday’s general strike, with more protests planned across the country than in January when up to 2.5m people came out on to the streets.

The public mood has worsened, with protests becoming militant amid factory closures and as the government struggles to revive the economy. See full story from the Financial Times HERE

Revolution Brewing? The New Tea Partys

A revolution is brewing as American patriots and free-market advocates unite in protest against out-of-control government spending – with a wildfire movement of more than 170 nationwide tea parties. See full story and video from World Net Daily HERE

Bomb Explodes at Citibank Branch in Greece

How long before we see more of these kinds of actions worldwide?

A bomb exploded outside a Citibank branch in Athens early Monday causing damage but no injury.

A police statement said the bomb went off at 3 a.m. local time (0100 GMT) Monday in the Nea Ionia district of the capital. The device had been planted behind the two-story bank building, which suffered moderate damage.

There was no claim of responsibility for the attack, and police said they had received no warning call.

Police said the bomb was detonated from very close to the blast site, with the use of electric cables. A police spokeswoman said the attackers used “a medium-sized improvised device,” and the damage to the building was not severe. She was speaking on customary condition of anonymity.

The target of the attack pointed to Greek far-left militant groups, which have become increasingly aggressive following the police shooting of a 15-year-old boy in December — an incident that sparked the country’s worst riots in decades. See full article HERE

‘There will be blood’

Harvard economic historian Niall Ferguson predicts prolonged financial hardship, even civil war, before the ‘Great Recession’ ends. See interview at The Globe and Mail HERE

Police fear mass protests and a ’summer of rage’ in response to economic crisis

Police are bracing themselves for a ’summer of rage’ against the economic crisis, a senior officer warned today.

Superintendent David Hartshorn, who heads the Metropolitan Police’s public order branch, said he feared there could be ‘mass protest’ at rising unemployment, failing financial institutions and the downturn in the economy.

The officer told The Guardian that ‘known activists’ were planning returns to the streets, and intelligence revealed that they may be able to call on more protesters than normal due to the unprecedented conditions. See story HERE

Mass protest in Ireland over Economic Crisis

Hundreds of thousands of workers filled the streets of Dublin on Saturday to protest the government response to Ireland’s economic downturn.

Up to 120,000 people attended the peaceful demonstration that included a march from Parnell Square to Merrion Square, Dublin police said. No arrests were made, police said.

The protest was organized by the Irish Congress of Trade Unions (ICTU). Workers from Waterford Crystal and SR Technic, two companies facing economic problems amid the recession, led the march.

Ireland’s economy was booming until last year when it was hit with the most “profound global economic crisis in seventy years,” due in large part to a significant decline in the housing and construction markets, according to the government’s Web site. See full report from The BBC HERE

Rumblings of Russian dissent

From The Guardian UK:

A recent outbreak of protests across Russia has led to a great deal of excitement among commentators. Vladimir Putin’s centralised “power vertical” is apparently crumbling; protests are set to sweep the country and lead to his downfall.

After several years of quiet on Russia’s streets, it’s easy to overestimate the protests’ significance. In fact, they are small, sporadic and localised, and do not, as yet, pose a real threat to the leadership. But they do reveal a fundamental weakness in the political system and a threat to its stability.

Sarkozy aide warns of risk of social unrest

From Rueters:

” A senior aide to French President Nicolas Sarkozy warned that countries risked seeing explosions of popular anger comparable with the riots seen in Greece unless governments provided some protection to industry.

Henri Guaino, one of Sarkozy’s inner circle of advisers, told Le Monde that without some commonly agreed rules on reasonable levels of protection and government intervention more uncontrolled outbreaks of populism and xenophobia were likely.

“We should take this risk very seriously,” he said in an interview which appeared on Tuesday.

He said the riots in Greece, strikes in Britain in protest against foreign temporary workers in the energy sector or anti-government protests in Iceland were an example of what could happen in other countries.

“This crisis is already going through all the chapters of an economics textbook. We should be careful that it doesn’t also go through a history textbook as well,” he said. See full story HERE

Will there be another Russian revolution?

From The Independent…

As the cold, hard realities of the global economic meltdown hit home in Russia’s remote industrial ‘monotowns’, Vladimir Putin is facing the first serious challenges to his authority. Is anarchy just around the corner? See story HERE

Job Losses Pose a Threat to Stability Worldwide

From The New York Times…

“Worldwide job losses from the recession that started in the United States in December 2007 could hit a staggering 50 million by the end of 2009, according to the International Labor Organization, a United Nations agency. The slowdown has already claimed 3.6 million American jobs.

High unemployment rates, especially among young workers, have led to protests in countries as varied as Latvia, Chile, Greece, Bulgaria and Iceland and contributed to strikes in Britain and France.

Last month, the government of Iceland, whose economy is expected to contract 10 percent this year, collapsed and the prime minister moved up national elections after weeks of protests by Icelanders angered by soaring unemployment and rising prices.

Just last week, the new United States director of national intelligence, Dennis C. Blair, told Congress that instability caused by the global economic crisis had become the biggest security threat facing the United States, outpacing terrorism.” See full story HERE

“Worst economic collapse ever’ predicted

Gerald Celente, of The Trends Research Institute predicts total global economic crisis that will be worse than 1929. See interview HERE

Eurozone slump worst in 50 years

From The Financial Times: Countries in the eurozone face their worst recession in half a century after data on Friday revealed that the economic slump late last year was even steeper than feared.

Eurozone gross domestic product fell 1.5 per cent in the fourth quarter, led by a dramatic deterioration in Germany. This highlighted how the fortunes of the world’s economies have become entwined as the global crisis has unfolded.

As finance ministers from the G7 group of industrial nations gathered for a summit in Rome, Alistair Darling, UK chancellor, said Germany’s difficulties demonstrated that economies were going through “one of the severest downturns in generations” and that “governments must take extraordinary actions at extraordinary times”. See story HERE

Popular Rage Grows as Global Crisis Worsens

As the global economic crisis deepens, tempers around the world are getting shorter. French and British trade unions are organizing strikes, Putin is sending troops into the streets and Beijing is trying to buy itself calm. See story from Spiegel HERE

In the USA protesters take it to the homes of the bankers

In the state of Connecticut, homeowners took the protest directly to the Bankers homes…

Stamford and Greenwich became the stomping grounds of a grassroots campaign against corporate greed Sunday as part of a three day homeowners’ workshop sponsored by the Neighborhood Assistance Corporation of America. Between 350 and 400 people, most of them members, staff or volunteers for the Boston-based nonprofit organization, converged outside the Greenwich home of William Frey, manager of Greenwich Financial Services, at around 1 p.m.

Wearing bright yellow hats and t-shirts with pictures of sharks and the words “Stop Loan Sharks,” protesters had already targeted the home of John Mack, CEO of Morgan Stanley, at 6 Club Road, Rye, N.Y. earlier in the day.

At Frey’s house, 10 Glenville Road, Greenwich, they chanted slogans such as “Fix our loans, save our homes.” They placed furniture on the lawn to symbolize the dislocation felt by people who have had their homes foreclosed upon and been evicted, their belongings tossed outside by state marshals.

“We did it to make them feel what it must be like for someone to have their home foreclosed upon,” NACA mortgage counselor Carmen Orta said.

Called the “Predators Tour” these actions were the start of NACA’s “accountability campaign,” an aggressive, confrontational protest aimed at several top executives of companies that refuse to allow NACA to renegotiate the terms of loans on behalf of members, according to NACA CEO Bruce Marks. See story
HERE and video HERE

23 killed at Madagascar protest

Protest against the government in Madagascar turned violent…

” Violence in Madagascar began January 26, when protesters stormed state-run television and radio stations in Antananarivo.

Hours earlier, the government had shut down a radio station owned by Rajoelina and, weeks before, had similarly shut down Rajoelina’s television station after it aired an interview with ex-President Didier Ratsiraka.

Ravalomanana took power in 2001 after ousting Ratsiraka in a tense, hotly contested election. Ratsiraka fled to France afterward. Loyalists blame Ratsiraka’s family members for inciting the recent trouble.

There is also anger in Madagascar — where the World Bank says the average person earns about $320 a year — over reports that Ravalomanana recently bought a $60 million airplane.” See story HERE

WTO Warns of Global Unrest not seen since the 1930’s

The Head of The WTO Pascal Lamy thinks things may get bad. real bad…..

“The global economic crisis could trigger political unrest equal to that seen during the 1930s, the head of the World Trade Organization (WTO) said in a German newspaper interview Saturday.

“The crisis today is spreading even faster (than the Great Depression) and affects more countries at the same time,” Pascal Lamy told the Die Welt newspaper.” See story HERE

Is game up in Ireland? And trouble continues in England.

It seems that Ireland is being hit the hardest by the economic crisis. How far will things spread out of control?

“We are experiencing the most profound economic crisis in 70 years,” he intoned solemnly. “The Irish economy is suffering from the aftermath of a large housing and construction boom and a loss of competitiveness … exacerbated by the decline in the value of sterling (the pound) relative to the euro (Ireland’s currency).”

Declaring what amounted to a national emergency, he warned that, “We are borrowing half our day-to-day expenses for this country for the course of this year.”

Ireland’s international creditworthiness is at stake with the emergence of a gap of 20 billion euros (about $25.7 billion) between revenue and expenditure this year.

Ireland was the first European country to go into recession in the current global downturn, and its economy is forecast to contract by an unprecedented 10 percent this year.

But rarely has a developed country been asked to swallow such harsh medicine as Cowen prescribed.

In a typical case, a couple made up of a firefighter and a teacher would have to forfeit 5,000 euros (about $6,422) of their gross joint pay of 60,000 euros (about $77,000).

The country’s trade union leaders will meet in the coming weeks to decide whether they will follow French trade unionists and organize strikes.

David Begg, the Irish Congress of Trade Unions general, warned of a “revolution” from lower-paid public workers.

Already there are signs of social unrest in a country where the morale of the people, according to Enda Kenny, leader of the main opposition party Fine Gael, is “at a historic low.”

Teachers, pensioners and students have staged separate protests at government cutbacks in recent months. Meanwhile, hundreds of workers at bankrupt Waterford Crystal are in the fifth day of a sit-in at the plant in Waterford to protest the layoffs of 480 employees and the loss of their pension entitlements. See full story from The Global Post HERE

And strikes and unrest spread continue in Britain as well, with discontent getting stronger by the day and peoples faith in the government fading by the minute…

“They’ve sold us down the river,” said Charles Hilton, 61, an electrician from Hull in northern England who was out on strike yesterday with local oil-refinery workers. “We’re going to see civil unrest in this country. It’s already started. It will grow unless things are sorted.”

Public anger is mounting as the unemployment roll approaches 2 million for the first time since 1997 and companies reduce working hours to cut costs. Contract workers at oil refineries, power plants and a nuclear facility this week staged walkouts as Britain dug out of its worst winter storm in 18 years. See story from Bloomberg HERE

Its NOT going to be OK. OK?

Over at the wonderful TRUTHDIG, Chris Hedges has a good commentary on the situation we are in…

” The daily bleeding of thousands of jobs will soon turn our economic crisis into a political crisis. The street protests, strikes and riots that have rattled France, Turkey, Greece, Ukraine, Russia, Latvia, Lithuania, Bulgaria and Iceland will descend on us. It is only a matter of time. And not much time. When things start to go sour, when Barack Obama is exposed as a mortal waving a sword at a tidal wave, the United States could plunge into a long period of precarious social instability.

At no period in American history has our democracy been in such peril or has the possibility of totalitarianism been as real. Our way of life is over. Our profligate consumption is finished. Our children will never have the standard of living we had. And poverty and despair will sweep across the landscape like a plague. This is the bleak future. There is nothing President Obama can do to stop it. It has been decades in the making. It cannot be undone with a trillion or two trillion dollars in bailout money. Our empire is dying. Our economy has collapsed.” See full story HERE at TRUTHDIG

I fully agree. Things are going to get much much worse. In a matter of weeks and months its possible that the world will be engulfed in protest, riots and maybe even martial law.
Shits hitting the fan and the parties over people. Turn off that CNN and FOX and BBC and give a thought about what side you are on. And what you are going to do. Because its almost that time.

More Strikes in Greece and England

In England, more workers have walked off the job in the Wild Card strikes now striking England. How big will the strikes become?

Hundreds of workers at British power plants and refineries walked off the job in unofficial “wildcat” strikes Tuesday to show their support for another spontaneous strike now entering its second week. Union members at the Lindsey Oil Refinery in northwest England downed tools last Wednesday, accusing Total, the oil company which owns the refinery, of discriminating against British workers. Total is bringing in labor from other countries for a major construction project at the site.

Spontaneous strikes, unsanctioned by national unions, were under way Tuesday in every corner of the country: at the Stanlow oil refinery in western England, Drax power station in the northeast, Petroplus Coryton Refinery in the southeast and Longannet power station in Scotland. A total of nearly 1,000 workers were off the job at the three English locations. Scottish Power did not specify how many workers were on strike.

Representatives of all four plants said contractors, not full-time staff, had walked off the job, and all said operations were not affected.

But the strikes threaten to spread. Unite, one of Britain’s largest unions, called last week for a national protest in front of Parliament.

The dispute began when Total announced it had hired an Italian firm that planned to employ 600 to 1,000 workers from Italy and Portugal for a major construction project at the Lindsey oil refinery. See full story HERE

And in Greece police used teargas to stop Farmers from joining the strikes…

At least two people, including an opposition politician, were injured in scuffles between police and the protesters at the port of Piraeus outside the Greek capital.

The farmers are demanding financial help from the government and the tense stand off at Piraeus is the latest twist in nearly two weeks of protests.

The farmers, who had used their tractors to block border crossings and major raods across the country for days, complain that they are receiving low prices for their products.

“Farmers are not second-class citizens. All they want to do is make their presence felt,” said Alekos Alavanos, an MP on the island of Crete and leader of the Left Coalition party leader. See story HERE

Europeans and the Demise of Democracy

I ask: Are Europeans finally figuring out the EU and its treaties and rules with mean the death of a democratic Europe? That you have sold your soul (and your culture and your wallet) the controllers? It seems so, and that even some in the press are finally willing to admit it…

“The peoples of Europe have finally discovered what they signed up to. I do mean “peoples” (plural) because however much political elites may deceive themselves, the populations of the member states of the EU are culturally, historically and economically separate and distinct. And a significant proportion of them are getting very, very angry.

What the strikers at the Lindsey oil refinery (and their brother supporters in Nottinghamshire and Kent) have discovered is the real meaning of the fine print in those treaties, and the significance of those European court judgments whose interpretation they left to EU obsessives: it is now illegal – illegal – for the government of an EU country to put the needs and concerns of its own population first. It would, for example, be against European law to do what Frank Field has sensibly suggested and reintroduce a system of “work permits” for EU nationals who wished to apply for jobs here.

Meanwhile, demonstrators in Paris and the recalcitrant electorate in Germany are waking up to the consequences of what two generations of European ideologues have thrust upon them: the burden not just of their own economic problems but also the obligation to accept the consequences of their neighbours’ debts and failures. Each country is true to its own history in the way it expresses its rage: in France, they take to the streets and throw things at the police, in Germany they threaten the stability of the coalition government, and here, we revive the tradition of wildcat strikes.

But the response from the EU political class is the same to all of these varied manifestations of resistance. Those who protest are being smeared with accusations of foolhardy protectionism or racist nationalism when they are not (not yet, anyway) guilty of either. It is not purblind nationalism, let alone racism, to resent the importation of cheap labour en masse when its conditions of employment (transport and accommodation provided, as seems to be the case at Lindsey) allow it to compete unfairly with indigenous workers. The drafting in of low-wage work gangs has always been seen as unjust: exploitative of the foreign workers, and destructive of the social cohesion of existing communities which, incidentally, is something about which the Tories say they are much exercised. So can the protesters expect their support?” See this fine article from The Telegraph here Wildcat oil strikes: Europeans are finally waking up to the demise of democracy

Riots and protest spread in both CHINA and RUSSIA

If you read the mainstream press, you might guess that both China and Russia have not much been affected by the economic crisis. But the truth is that they both have and things are getting ugly pretty fast.

“Bankruptcies, unemployment and social unrest are spreading more widely in China than officially reported, according to independent research that paints an ominous picture for the world economy.

The research was conducted for The Sunday Times over the last two months in three provinces vital to Chinese trade – Guangdong, Zhejiang and Jiangsu. It found that the global economic crisis has scythed through exports and set off dozens of protests that are never mentioned by the state media.” See VIOLENT UNREST ROCKS CHINA AS CRISIS HITS and

CHINA SLASHES 20 MILLION PLUS JOBS

And in Russia…

“The Kremlin’s rule is beginning to look much shakier than at any time since Vladimir Putin came to power, after a series of protests in cities across its vast landmass this weekend by Russians disgruntled about the economy. And as the country starts to feel the effects of the global credit crunch, there are also signs of a growing rift between Prime Minister Putin, and his hand-picked successor as President, Dmitry Medvedev.” See DISSENT BEGINNING IN RUSSIA

Protest Spread and Europe is Sh-sh-sh-shaking

This past week has seen major protest in both France and Britain related to the economic crisis. Will we see the actions spread across Europe as the Crisis worsens in the next few weeks?

“France paralysed by a wave of strike action, the boulevards of Paris resembling a debris-strewn battlefield. The Hungarian currency sinks to its lowest level ever against the euro, as the unemployment figure rises. Greek farmers block the road into Bulgaria in protest at low prices for their produce. New figures from the biggest bank in the Baltic show that the three post-Soviet states there face the biggest recessions in Europe.

It’s a snapshot of a single day – yesterday – in a Europe sinking into the bleakest of times. But while the outlook may be dark in the big wealthy democracies of western Europe, it is in the young, poor, vulnerable states of central and eastern Europe that the trauma of crash, slump and meltdown looks graver.” See story HERE

And in France in particular, the protesting may not stop…

“Sarkozy is right to be afraid of us,” says Marine, a 22-year-old student and member of the League of Communist Revolutionaries in Toulouse.

“We are the ones who are going to break the rules and the control of the old system. We are the new alternative”.

Across Europe, victims of the economic slump who are losing their jobs in their tens of thousands are furious that public money is being doled out to the banks.

In some countries, they are more willing to vent their anger.

As huge crowds took to the streets across France this week, in a national day of protests and strikes, the far left points to a boost in the number of its supporters in times of financial gloom. ” See HERE

The French On Strike today. Will it spread?

The French, doing one of the things that they know best (and that I admire them for) have gone on strike. The public and private sector are in the streets to protest the economic crisis and try to convince Sarkozy to do more. See full story HERE

Also, is this Europe’s winter of discontent and how bad will the bad get?

The French are in revolt. On Thursday, teachers, television employees, postal workers, students and masses of other public-sector workers will be united in a hugely-popular strike with car workers, supermarket staff, journalists and thousands of others in the private sector.

One poll said that 75 per cent of the public supported the action, which has the backing of the large union groups and opposition socialists. It will be a big test for President Nicolas Sarkozy but, more importantly, the strike will mark the biggest protest so far in one of the world’s largest economies against the grief and distress being caused by the catastrophic global downturn.

A depression triggered in America is being played out in Europe with increasing violence, and other forms of social unrest are spreading. In Iceland, a government has fallen. Workers have marched in Zaragoza, as Spanish unemployment heads towards 20 per cent. There have been riots and bloodshed in Greece, protests in Latvia, Lithuania, Hungary and Bulgaria. The police have suppressed public discontent in Russia, and will be challenged again at large gatherings this weekend.

This is turning into Europe’s winter of discontent. Protests are widespread and gathering pace. It seems to be about national interests superceding the common cause that has united countries for decades.

Comparisons with the Thirties have tended to focus on the numbers – a lack of growth and waning consumer confidence, an increase in business failures and job losses, collapsing stock markets and currencies and panicky runs on banks. See full story HERE

Iceland’s PM falls do to the Economic Crisis PLUS fear of increasing Violence and protest spread throughout the world

Iceland’s Prime Minister has resigned after weeks of violent protest…

“Iceland’s embattled Prime Minister Geir Haarde may have become the first political casualty of the global credit crisis, announcing his resignation yesterday, and clearing the way for elections in May. Illness was the official reason for Mr Haarde’s decision to quit, but few in the capital Reykjavik were in any doubt that his departure was linked to a week of intense and violent public protests at once prosperous Iceland’s economic implosion.

Since October’s financial earthquake Icelanders have vented their frustration, anger and despair in peaceful weekly protests. But demonstrations turned violent on Thursday, leading to 22 arrests and the worst civilian unrest since Iceland joined Nato in 1949″. See full story from The Independent UK HERE

Also China fears that riots due to worsening economic conditions increase…

“Without doubt, now we’re entering a peak period for mass incidents … In 2009, Chinese society may face even more conflicts and clashes that will test even more the governing abilities of the party and government at all levels,” said a senior Xinhua agency reporter, Huang Huo.

“The key is going to be what happens in a week or two. How many people are going to come back? And are there going to be jobs for them?” asked Geoffrey Crothall of China Labour Bulletin, a Hong Kong-based organisation defending mainland workers’ rights. “The most likely thing is that it will get heated after the new year. The government pulls out all the stops beforehand to make sure people have enough money to put in the red envelopes [traditional gifts] when they go home. It puts a false gloss on the real situation.” See story from The Guardian HERE

And finally, some video of all this HERE

Has the Revolution started in Iceland?

What could be inspiration to angry citizens across Europe, Iceland is possibly close to seeing a revolution due to the Economic Crisis.

“While Barack Obama was being sworn in to office on Capitol Hill yesterday, the people of Iceland were starting the first revolution in the history of the republic. The word “revolution” might sound a bit of an overstatement, but given the calm temperament that usually prevails in Icelandic politics, the unfolding events represent, at the very least, a revolution in political activism.

Four months after the collapse of Iceland’s entire financial system, no one has accepted any responsibility. Our currency has lost more than half its value, rampant inflation has already eaten up most people’s savings, property values have dropped by more than a third and unemployment is reaching levels never seen before in the life of our young republic. The fault is clearly shared between the business elite and the government, which failed to regulate the newly privatised financial sector, allowing a few incompetent and egotistical business tycoons to gamble with the nation’s fortune. And yet neither the government nor the bankers – who, by the way, seem to have disappeared into the cold thin air – see anything wrong with their own behaviour.” See full story HERE