http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/news/national/no-paycheck-for-volunteer-firefighter/2009/02/21

No paycheck for volunteer firefighter February 21, 2009 - 8:48AM

A Victorian aged care home did not pay a volunteer firefighter who battled the Black Saturday bushfires, a union claims. The Health Services Union (HSU) says the frontline firefighter was called to put in containment lines around fires in Gippsland as part of a Country Fire Authority strike team.

http://www.workersliberty.org/twblog Tubeworker's blog.

The Man That Waters the Workers' Beer (Paddy Ryan)

I am the man, the very fat man,

That waters the workers' beer

I am the man, the very fat man,

That waters the workers' beer

And what do I care if it makes them ill,

If it makes them terribly queer

I've a car, a yacht, and an aeroplane,

And I waters the workers' beer

Now when I waters the workers' beer,

I puts in strychnine

Some methylated spirits,

And a can of kerosine

Ah, but such a brew so terribly strong,

It would make them terribly queer

So I reaches my hand for the watering-can

And I waters the workers' beer

Now a drop of good beer is good for a man

When he's tired, thirsty and hot

And I sometimes have a drop myself,

From a very special pot

For a strong and healthy working class

Is the thing that I most fear

So I reaches my hand for the watering-can

And I waters the workers' beer

"then dump the bosses off yer back"

Tent City for Jobless over the New Years Period was opened at Hibiya Park in Tokyo. Many temp workers who were laid off gathered. Produced by Video Press. Subtitled by Internationl division of Labor Net Japan. http://labornetjp.blogspot.com/2009/02/tent-city-for-joblessmovie-with-english.html

MORE: http://www.povnet.org/node/3076

Japanese tent city for unemployed January 9, 2009 - 11:30am Over the new year, a tent village was set up by a number of volunteer groups in a Tokyo park for the country’s growing number of unemployed workers. The organizers led a march to demand stable employment and housing.

The tent city filled up so quickly that the government was forced to open up shelters to house the unemployed workers....

http://www.reuters.com/article/domesticNews/idUSTRE51C2MU20090213?feedType=RSS&feedName=domesticNews

Anthony Suau, a Time photographer based in the U.S., has won the World Press Photo of the Year 2008 award with a picture showing an armed officer of the Cuyahoga County Sheriff's Department moving through a home in Cleveland, Ohio, following eviction as a result of mortgage foreclosure.

Jury chair MaryAnne Golon said: "The strength of the picture is in its opposites. It's a double entendre. It looks like a classic conflict photograph, but it is simply the eviction of people from a house following foreclosure. Now war in its classic sense is coming into people's houses because they can't pay their mortgages". The prize-winning entries of the World Press Photo Contest 2009, the world's largest annual press photography contest, were announced February 13, 2009. REUTERS/Anthony Suau/Time

more: http://www.ourfuture.org/blog-entry/2009020818/class-war-photography

Almost 7,000 companies facing collapse: Dun and Bradstreet Tue Feb 17, 2009

http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2009/02/17/2493891.htm

A survey has found almost 7,000 Australian companies are close to collapsing this year. The survey's author, Dun and Bradstreet, says that is 12 per cent higher than last year. It says firms in the finance, insurance and real estate sector are the most at risk. Dun and Bradstreet's chief executive, Christine Christian, says the risk of insolvency has surged because businesses are not paying enough attention to their cashflow levels. "Many companies have been relying on cheap funding from banks and they have taken their eye off the basic fundamentals of business," he said. "That is what's emerging from the latest research, many businesses are just not managing cash-flow sufficiently."

"Those left homeless by the bushfires are able to access emergency accommodation through Office of Housing staff at the relief centres in their area, or by calling the accommodation line on 1800 006 468. 600 units of public housing across Victoria will be made available for those made homeless by the bushfires....UP to 2,000 bushfire victims are to be accommodated on Australian Defence Force (ADF) bases Up to 1,200 beds in communal accommodation would be made available at the army base at Puckapunyal, near Seymour, close to the fire-affected areas. 150 beds would be made available at Maygar Barracks, near Broadmeadows in Melbourne. The RAAF base at East Sale, in Gippsland, will provide accommodation for up to 500 people, including 150 places with disabled access. Another 200 could be accommodated at the navy base, HMAS Cerberus, on the Mornington Peninsula. Another RAAF base at Point Cook, southwest of Melbourne, will be able to provide accommodation for 150 people. until better accommodation can be found.

http://www.theage.com.au/national/emergency-accommodation-hotline-for-bushfire-homeless-20090210-82x9.html

"DOLE BLUDGERS" Back in the 1980s the Unemployed Workers Union (before it imploded due to competing leninist sects boring from within & squabbling bored away everyone else ) used to hold open air meetings at abandoned/empty sites like servos/petrol stations. Since then they fence them in much more securely, coincidentally ?

"SIT-DOWN MONEY" One building used by UWU in Northcote used for claimants advice sessions etc was evicted by the Tactical Response Group who came through roof and upstairs windows for show and practice for their political Masters. Irony was the building was then turned into a social security office. More ironic still that office was closed as Howard Inc centralised Centre-link offices. The 'service" (of hassling the jobless) was sub contracted out & sites sold off to mates. The "Opposition Leadership" now First Family of Oz Battlers Mrs Rudd aka Terse Reign set up a privatised job agency and made mega bucks in the Family/National Interest.

Greed is (not) good' A basic way to end the recession: a universal Basic Income for every person on the entire planet. Economics - John Tomlinson - posted 10/2/2009

http://www.onlineopinion.com.au/view.asp?article=8524

" The figure of 20m unemployed migrants does not include those who have stayed in cities to look for work after being made redundant and is substantially higher than the figure of 12m that Wen Jiabao, premier, gave in an interview on Sunday." - the Financial Times Feb 2nd 2009 http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/19c25aea-f0f5-11dd-8790-0000779fd2ac.html?nclick_check=1

'Qiongren' - the poor people By Brian Hennessy - posted Wednesday, 11 February 2009 http://www.onlineopinion.com.au/view.asp?article=8438&page=0

Wedgwood sit-in is the first of many: The Wedgewood Waterford workers' protest over the administration may become a trend, say experts Written by David Jetuah Accountancy Age, 12 Feb 2009

http://www.accountancyage.com/accountancyage/analysis/2236308/wedgwood-sit-first-4468405

The occupation of a Waterford Wedgewood factory by workers in protest over the company being put into administration represents a new worry for insolvency practitioners. Experts believe the sit-in protest by angry workers at the Waterford Wedgewood crystal factory in Ireland is unlikely to be a one-off incident.

The protest at the 250-year-old crystal and crockery maker was still continuing as Accountancy Age went to press. Last week 13 workers at the company also marched into the head office reception of the company’s auditor Deloitte to protest over the actions of the receiver David Carson. The deadlock at Deloitte’s office only ended after a meeting between two Waterford workers and Deloitte senior partners.

Been staring into my tea cup reading the leaves therein and here we go: here we go HERE WE GO !

possible scenario uno: European General Strike is coming (East and West, North & South) and is the key that fits the lock to freedom (from wage-slavery-Capitalism) Greece, France, Italy, Spain, Iceland, Ukraine, Latvia are restless awaiting proles in Germany, Sweden, Norway, Czechs & Serbia etc to look beyond their national borders, craft or industry, political and religious cultures used to divide and rule them as Nationalism. Instead to organise international working class solidarity.

The diaspora of Europeans around the world (all once were economic refugees) have no choice but to consider what they are going to do too ? In economically depressed America - like Europe - is about to thaw into a hot Spring of class warfare..resist evictions, occupy shut down worksites kick start direct democracy and maybe even bring the troops home from Iraq etc.