This week’s deployment of Black-hawk helicopters in Chicago is only the latest in a series of “urban warfare training” exercises that have become a familiar feature of American life. As elsewhere, this exercise was sprung unannounced on a startled civilian population. Conducted in secrecy, apparently with the collusion of local police agencies and elected officials, Democrats and Republicans alike, the oste ...

1) Self-run public radiotelevision, open to the major problems of the tortured society. 2) ERT is to become a real democratic means of expression of the popular desire for Democracy and Freedom. 3) There should be an elected Board of Directors, revocable, voted directly by the Greek people. This Board will undertake the safekeeping of polyphony and pluralism on the basis of Democracy and National Independan ...

In his book, 'Propaganda', published in 1928, Edward Bernays wrote: "The conscious and intelligent manipulation of the organised habits and opinions of the masses is an important element in democratic society. Those who manipulate this unseen mechanism of society constitute an invisible government which is the true ruling power of our country." The American nephew of Sigmund Freud, Bernays invented the term ...

Today, the Greek government ordered the employees of the Greek Public Broadcaster (ERT) to evacuate the premises of the broadcaster. They also announced that the closure of ERT is definite and that a new broadcaster will be launched with fewer employees in an indefinite period. The union of ERT workers issued the following announcement as a response. The government will most probably send the riot police to ...

The struggle of the workers of Vio.Me. has now a long history but at the same time it is a struggle that comes from the future.   Vio.Me: Self-Organization in Greece from brandon jourdan on Vimeo.   It is a story of a factory abandoned by the employers, forgotten by the state and the government and ignored by bureaucratic trade unionism. It is a story of a factory where, same as in many other plac ...

On 16 June, Prime Minister Antonis Samaras wrote a long opinion piece for the Sunday edition of newspaper Kathimerini (which, incidentally, was published despite the fact that all media were officially on strike) to justify his decision to shut down Greece's public broadcaster ERT. Former ERT news director Giorgos Kogiannis wrote in turn an answer to the Prime Minister on the newly established ERT workers' ...

Paul Mason Economics editor, for bbc.co.uk The language and the time zone changes but, from Turkey and Bulgaria to Brazil, the symbolism of protest is increasingly the same. The Guy Fawkes masks, the erection of tent camps, the gas masks and helmets improvised in response to the use of tear gas as a means of collective punishment. The handwritten signs - scrawled in defiance of the state's power and the uni ...

Solidarity to ERT from The Netherlands Greeks demonstrating for ERT Occupy and Turks demonstrating for Taksim Occupy are chanting together: "Turkey, Greece, you are not alone!" "Erdogan, dictator - Samaras, dictator!" Amsterdam 13 June 2013 Occupy ERT from Reinform NL on Vimeo. ...

Translated from Netherlands. ‘Πρωθυπουργέ Ρούτε, καταδίκασε τη σίγαση της Ελληνικής κρατικής ραδιοτηλεόρασης’ Το συνδικάτο FNV KIEM, μαζί με άλλα συνδικάτα σε όλο τον κόσμο, καταδικάζει τη ξαφνική κατάργηση του δημόσιου Ελληνικού ραδιοτηλεοπτικού φορέα, ΕΡΤ. Η Ελληνική κυβέρνηση αποφάσισε να κλείσει το τηλεοπτικό κανάλι με την παρούσα μορφή, με τη δικαιολογία ότι ‘κατασπαταλά το δημόσιο χρήμα’. Το σήμα των ...

On Tuesday night, the Greek government blocked the transmission of the Greek public broadcaster (ERT). The decision was taken earlier that day by the government in a totally undemocratic way. There was no prior discussion about it in the parliament. PM Samaras' "success story" has not convinced anyone, so he decided to take one more "successful" step towards the Troika's demand for 4.000 layoffs of civil se ...