Merkel Isolated As Austerity Backlash Continues in Euro Crisis - SPIEGEL ONLINE

Merkel Isolated As Austerity Backlash Continues in Euro Crisis - SPIEGEL ONLINE

What Merkel's Isolation Means For the Euro Crisis

REUTERS

Angela Merkel's euro crisis strategy is unpopular and she has lost a number of allies. Worse yet, French presidential candidate François Hollande has pledged a change of course from the strict austerity measures she supports. But in the end, the Paris-Berlin alliance will likely survive and austerity will continue, albeit with a few growth initiatives thrown in. By SPIEGEL Staff

Translated from the German by Paul Cohen

German Chancellor Angela Merkel stood behind a podium at the DZ Bank at Berlin's Brandenburg Gate, gazing sullenly into the cameras. She had just received the wrong prop for a photo op, and she needed to get it out of sight as quickly as possible.

To thank her for her speech marking the International Year of Cooperatives, a gray-faced official had thrust a porcelain piggy bank into her hands -- an ugly thing with a milky sheen that appeared to reflect the very coldness said to characterize her policies.
Merkel reflected momentarily, then had the gift quickly tucked away in a box. Photos of the piggy-bank chancellor are not exactly what she most urgently needs right now. In fact, for the past few days, she has endeavored to put a more friendly face on her image as the strict belt-tightening politician who is forcing Europe to adhere to Germany's budgetary discipline dictates.
She is determined to stick by her strategy. But now when she talks about theeuro crisis, instead of focusing solely on "structural reforms" and "stability," she has also started to refer to "growth" and "jobs."
Merkel's euro strategy is under fire, and she has lost one ally after the next in recent weeks. In the Netherlands, her most loyal follower, Prime Minister Mark Rutte, has submitted his resignation. In Frankfurt, European Central Bank President Mario Draghi has demanded that Merkel's cost-cutting strategy be supplemented by a "growth pact." And in Paris, Socialist Party presidential candidate François Hollande has announced that, if he wins the run-off election this coming Sunday, he intends to lead the European opposition against Merkel. "So many people in Europe are waiting for our victory," he said. "I don't want a Europe of austerity, where nations are forced on their knees."
North and South
Until now, the German-French axis, led by Merkel and incumbent French President Nicolas Sarkozy, has been the best reason to hope for a positive outcome to the euro crisis. But a dangerous rift appears to be looming, along with a relapse into outdated mindsets. Paris is relying on the presumed stimulating effect on the economy from additional government spending, while Berlin trusts in the dogma of tough reforms.
The differences are great, and the two main actors aren't even trying to play them down. On the contrary. Last Thursday, Merkel underscored that the current rescue strategy is "not renegotiable." Hollande responded: "Germany will not decide for all of Europe."
This reflects differing political traditions and economic ideologies, but it is mainly an attempt to appeal to the differing moods on the Continent. Hollande has stylized himself as the hero of the south -- the defender of the Spanish, Portuguese and Italians who have had enough of pension reductions and hiring freezes, and believe that additional cutbacks will only exacerbate the crisis.
Merkel, on the other hand, speaks in the name of northern European taxpayers, who are repeating another mantra. Before additional billions of euros evaporate in the south, the Mediterranean countries should first do their homework, they say.
Viewed from this perspective, the conflict between Merkel and Hollande is also an attempt to both nurture the illusions of their respective supporters and to pretend that everything in Europe could be restored to the way it once was. It's an attempt to escape the bitter truths of the euro crisis, which is dominated by one truth in particular: If the European currency is to be secured over the long term, additional sacrifices are inevitable, both in the north and the south.
In Europe's Mediterranean regions, though, another axiom is currently popular. Political leaders in Lisbon, Paris and Madrid are saying that the situation can't be turned around by introducing an endless series of new cost-cutting initiatives. That may appear to be true at first glance, but the most recent history of combating crises in Europe paints a different picture. A number of countries on the Continent have managed to recover from severe economic crises precisely because they have unswervingly adhered to their reform policies.
Austerity Success
This has been the case with Ireland, where the budget deficit soared by 31 percent in 2010 after a number of banks ran into trouble. The country had to be rescued with bailouts, and it embraced a radical austerity program that produced unexpectedly rapid results. Unit labor costs declined, exports rose, and the budget deficit shrank to nearly 9 percent within two years.
This success is also reflected in the country's current account balance. After a huge deficit of €10 billion ($13.25 billion), it is once again positive.
There was a similar series of events in Estonia, where the economy rapidly contracted in 2008 and 2009 and the budget drifted into the red. To balance the budget and boost the economy, the government should have devalued its national currency, the kroon, as textbooks would recommend.
But that was simply out of the question for the Estonians, who were determined to enter the euro zone. Consequently, the government cut wages by up to 40 percent, froze pensions and slashed social services. There were no protests like the ones in Greece and Spain, and unemployment sank from over 18 percent to under 12 percent.
What's more, Germany itself is living proof that their approach to crisis therapy produces results. At the beginning of the last decade, the country was considered the "sick man of Europe." Economists warned that the radical "Agenda 2010" reforms introduced under then-Chancellor Gerhard Schröder would accelerate the country's decline even further.
But the opposite occurred. The reforms of the labor market generated jobs and competitive wage agreements with German industry helped spur exports. Germany has once again become the engine of Europe's economy.
The only question is whether Germany's recovery can also serve as a model for the countries of the Mediterranean region. Merkel's critics argue that the structures of northern and southern Europe differ too greatly, making it all the more difficult to lead countries like Portugal out of the crisis.
No Alternative
In reality, though, the austerity policies have yielded the first fruits of success, as shown by the most recent data from Spain. Granted, the economy has faltered again, and the number of young people out of work has reached a record level, but the recent flood of bad news has overshadowed statistics that give cause for hope. For instance, unit labor costs, which are an important indicator of a country's international competitiveness, have continuously declined over the past two years. In return, Spain's exports are growing, with sales of Spanish red wine in Germany alone rising by 20 percent.
More importantly: There is no alternative. If Spain were to water down its austerity policy, and boost growth with new loans, the result would be particularly disastrous. Economists are convinced that this would lead to growing concerns in the markets that the government in Madrid can't bring its finances under control, and interest rates would rise.
The experts even warn that it's very possible such a growth strategy could ultimately precipitate a recession. "We don't see any possibility of boosting growth through additional expenditure," says a high-ranking representative of the German government.
The government in Berlin would thus prefer to do nothing more. The crisis-ridden countries are making cutbacks, and the euro rescue fund has been expanded. According to Chancellor Merkel and her finance minister, Wolfgang Schäuble, this means that sufficient measures have been taken to put the monetary union on firm footing. Now, they say it's up to each individual country to do the rest.
That's how the Germans see it -- but leading economists take a different view. Henrik Enderlein, an economist at the Hertie School of Governance in Berlin, says that the austerity measures introduced by the German government were the right move, "but they won't fix the euro zone's flaws."
Enderlein is sitting in a café at Berlin's Tegel Airport. He's on his way to attend a session of the Notre Europe think tank, founded by the legendary eighth president of the European Commission, Jacques Delors. The meeting in Brussels deals with an issue that is central to Europe's survival: How can the monetary union be made permanently crisis resistant?
New Initiatives in Brussels
One answer is provided by a comparison with the US, where the monetary union has worked for over 200 years, even during times of economic crisis. If a state such as California falls into a recession, the same rules apply as in Europe. The government has to cut costs, and the economy has to become more competitive.
But the Americans have an additional mechanism to help crisis-ridden regions. National systems such as federal income tax and nationwide unemployment insurance ensure that money automatically flows from rich to poor states, and this reduces the impact of economic downturns. Enderlein is convinced that such transfer systems are missing in Europe. "If we really want to save the euro, the question is not whether we need such financial transfers, but rather how we organize them," he says.
Enderlein says that he could envision a Europe-wide unemployment insurance scheme and a common financial transaction tax and/or standardized corporate tax for all EU member states. The only problem is that it will take many years before such systems can be introduced in Europe.
Countries like Portugal and Spain, which are grappling with a worsening recession, can't wait that long. Indeed, Brussels is currently preparing a range of initiatives designed to rapidly divert money from the prosperous north to the poorer south.
For instance, the European Commission is soon planning to launch "project bonds" to finance major infrastructure projects. On May 7, the day after the French presidential election, the Commission intends to present its plans. EU President Herman Van Rompuy wants to have the plan approved at an EU summit in late June.
The German government also supports the scheme as a way of financing new highways, along with energy and telecommunications networks. Olli Rehn, the European commissioner for economic and monetary affairs in Brussels, enthusiastically announced to EU parliamentarians in mid-April that "there was a breakthrough before Easter." He said the European heads of state had given the green light to pilot projects worth billions, such as building highways in Greece.
From the point of view of all cash-strapped politicians, the project bonds have the appeal that they cost relatively little to start out with. The money primarily comes from private sources. The European Investment Bank (EIB) will provide guarantees that safeguard private investors. In the pilot phase until 2013, EU funds amounting to €230 million are expected to mobilize investments of up to €4.6 billion.
Conflict Will Blow Over
The second major project designed to put an end to the EU's "ruthless austerity," as Hollande calls it, involves bolstering the EIB's financing. The EU countries plan to pump €10 billion into the bank. This would allow the EIB, which is headed by Germany's Werner Hoyer, to loan an additional €60 billion for major projects in the EU. Together with private co-investors, €180 billion would be made available, according to Rehn's calculations.
The increase in capital for the bank is already on the agenda, at least informally, for the next meeting of EU finance ministers scheduled for this week. It's already clear that Germany will contribute the lion's share.

The German government has shown a willingness to do its part. It's reportedly also examining ways that EU organizations and subsidies can be used in a more growth-oriented manner. According to sources inside the German government, instead of funding new highways, Berlin is interested in supporting innovation and programs to promote small and medium-sized businesses. To ensure that this is done as professionally as possible, the Germans would like to see the southern European countries receive their own state-owned development banks, modeled after Germany's KfW banking group. It's hoped that this will get the economy moving in Greece and Portugal.
And so it seems that the loud conflict between Paris and Berlin has momentarily eclipsed what will actually be on the negotiating table between the two countries when the French presidential election is over. That is, no change in Merkel's austerity drive, but additional growth projects for southern Europe and more power for Brussels -- yet all of it done as cheaply as possible.
Will Paris and Berlin find a compromise? This question will be easier to answer after May 6, when the current French election campaign is over. German Finance Minister Schäuble would clearly prefer to see his fellow conservative Sarkozy remain in office. But aside from that, the excellent relations between Germany and France will continue to work as well as they have in the past, regardless of who wins the election.
BY SVEN BÖLL, CHRISTOPH PAULY, CHRISTIAN REIERMANN, MICHAEL SAUGA AND CHRISTOPH SCHULT

Why Our Economy Isn’t Working for Workers: Think Progress

Why Our Economy Isn’t Working for Workers

Today is May Day, an international holiday honoring workers. Unfortunately, our economy — and its tax code rigged to benefit the wealthiest few — isn’t working for many workers.

ThinkProgress’ Annie-Rose Strasser highlights three charts showing why we need an economy that works for everyone, not more conservative policies that give all of the benefits to the wealthy in the vain hope that some of it will trickle down to the rest of us.

1. The 99 percent are extremely productive workers, but aren’t compensated for their productivity. While productivity has been on the rise among workers, average wage and compensation has remained nearly flat. That means while workers are producing more, they’re being compensated the same. This chart from the Economic Policy Institute details the change:

2. Corporations don’t notice income inequality, but workers sure do. The 99 percent may be pivotal in the productivity of a company, but they aren’t reaping any of the benefits of success. This chart from the New York Times illustrates exactly how companies profit while workers do not:

3. Workers who don’t organize are getting the short end of the stick. While productivity goes up and wages stay flat, the middle class sees itself shrinking. This income inequality is in direct correlation to union participation. As union membership falls, the middle class shrinks.

Evening Brie

George Monbiot – Empire of Capital

George Monbiot – Empire of Capital
Empire of Capital

April 30, 2012

Colonialism never ended, it continues by different means.

By George Monbiot, published in the Guardian 1st May 2012

The conviction of Charles Taylor, the former president of Liberia, is said to have sent an unequivocal message to current leaders: that great office confers no immunity. In fact it sent two messages: if you run a small, weak nation, you may be subject to the full force of international law. If you run a powerful nation, you have nothing to fear.

While anyone with an interest in human rights should welcome the verdict, it reminds us that no one has faced legal consequences for launching the illegal war against Iraq. This fits the Nuremberg Tribunal’s definition of a “crime of aggression”, which it called “the supreme international crime”(1). The charges on which, in an impartial system, George Bush, Tony Blair and their associates should have been investigated are far graver than those for which Taylor was found guilty.

The foreign secretary, William Hague, claims that Taylor’s conviction “demonstrates that those who have committed the most serious of crimes can and will be held to account for their actions.”(2) But the International Criminal Court, though it was established ten years ago, and though the crime of aggression has been recognised in international law since 1945, still has no jurisdiction over “the most serious of crimes”(3). This is because the powerful nations, for obvious reasons, are procrastinating. Nor have the United Kingdom, the United States and other western nations incorporated the crime of aggression into their own legislation. International law remains an imperial project, in which only the crimes committed by vassal states are punished.

In this respect it corresponds to other global powers. Despite its trumpeted reforms, the International Monetary Fund remains under the control of the United States and the former colonial powers. All constitutional matters still require an 85% share of the vote(4). By an inexplicable oversight, the United States retains 16.7%, ensuring that it possesses a veto over subsequent reforms(5). Belgium still has eight times the votes of Bangladesh(6), Italy a bigger share than India and the United Kingdom and France between them more voting power than the 49 African members(7). The managing director remains, as imperial tradition insists, a European, her deputy an American.

The IMF, as a result, is still the means by which western financial markets project their power into the rest of the world. At the end of last year, for example, it published a paper pressing emerging economies to increase their “financial depth”, which it defines as “the total financial claims and counterclaims of an economy”(8). This, it claimed, would insulate them from crisis.

As the Bretton Woods Project points out, emerging nations with large real economies and small financial sectors were the countries which best weathered the economic crisis, which was caused by advanced economies with large financial sectors(9). Like the modern opium war it waged in the 1980s and 1990s – when it forced Asian countries to liberalise their currencies, permitting western financial speculators to attack them(10) – the IMF’s prescriptions are incomprehensible until they are understood as instruments of financial power.

Decolonisation did not take place until the former colonial powers and the empires of capital on whose behalf they operated had established other means of retaining control. Some, like the IMF and World Bank, have remained almost unchanged. Others, like the programme of extraordinary rendition, evolved in response to new challenges to global hegemony.

As the kidnapping of Abdul Hakim Belhaj and his wife suggests, the UK’s foreign and intelligence services see themselves as a global police force, minding the affairs of other nations. In 2004, after Tony Blair, with one eye on possible contracts for British oil companies, decided that Gaddafi was a useful asset, the alliance was sealed with the capture, packaging and delivery of the regime’s dissenters(11).

Like the colonial crimes the British government committed in Kenya and elsewhere(12), whose concealment was sustained by the Foreign Office until its secret archives were revealed last month(13), the rendition programme was hidden from public view. Just as the colonial secretary, Alan Lennox-Boyd, repeatedly lied to parliament about the detention and torture of the Kikuyu(14), in 2005 Jack Straw, then foreign secretary, told parliament that “there simply is no truth in the claims that the United Kingdom has been involved in rendition.”(15)

Reading the emails passed between the offices of James Murdoch and Jeremy Hunt, it struck me that here too is a government which sees itself as an agent of empire – Murdoch’s in this case – and which sees the electorate as ornamental. Working, against the public interest, for News Corporation, the financial sector and the billionaire donors to the Conservative party, its ministers act as capital’s district commissioners, governing Britain as their forebears governed the colonies.

The bid for power, oil and spheres of influence that Bush and Blair launched in Mesopotamia, using the traditional camouflage of the civilising mission; the colonial war still being fought in Afghanistan, 199 years after the Great Game began; the global policing functions the great powers have arrogated to themselves; the one-sided justice dispensed by international law: all these suggest that imperialism never ended, but merely mutated into new forms. The virtual empire knows no boundaries. Until we begin to recognise and confront it, all of us, black and white, will remain its subjects.

www.monbiot.com

References:

1. http://www.arrestblair.org/what-are-crimes-against-peace

2. http://www.fco.gov.uk/en/news/latest-news/?view=News&id=758449982

3. http://www.arrestblair.org/legal-status

4. http://www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/aa/index.htm

5. http://www.imf.org/external/np/sec/memdir/eds.aspx

6. http://www.imf.org/external/np/sec/memdir/members.aspx

7. France the UK, between them, have 8.58% of the vote. The African nations have 6.79%.

8. IMF, 19th October 2011. Financial Deepening and International Monetary Stability. Staff discussion note. http://www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/sdn/2011/sdn1116.pdf

9. Bretton Woods Project, March/April 2012. Bretton Woods Update No.80.

10. Joseph Stiglitz, 2002. Globalization and its Discontents. Allen Lane, London.

11. http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/apr/18/straw-mi6-libyan-renditions-belhaj

12. http://www.monbiot.com/2012/04/23/dark-hearts/

13. http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2012/apr/18/britain-destroyed-records-colonial-crimes

14. Caroline Elkins, 2005. Britain’s Gulag: the Brutal End of Empire in Kenya. Random House, London.

15. Here is the quote in full: “Unless we all start to believe in conspiracy theories and that the officials are lying, that I am lying, that behind this there is some kind of secret state which is in league with some dark forces in the United States, and also let me say, we believe that Secretary Rice is lying, there simply is no truth in the claims that the United Kingdom has been involved in rendition full stop, because we have not been, and so what on earth a judicial inquiry would start to do I have no idea.”

http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200506/cmselect/cmfaff/768/5121304.htm

DEBT PEONAGE! Household debt fears as mortgage rates rise | Herald Scotland

Household debt fears as mortgage rates rise | Herald Scotland

Household debt fears as mortgage rates rise

Helen McArdle

News Reporter

SCOTS homeowners could be plunged into a "spiral of debt" as banks hike up mortgage repayments for tens of thousands of borrowers from today, campaigners have warned.

Customers with the Halifax – the UK's biggest mortgage lender – could find themselves paying around £200 a year extra, following rate rises. The increases will affect borrowers on standard variable rate (SVR) mortgages and those on fixed-rate deals due to expire.

Halifax is raising its SVR from 3.5% to 3.99%, an increase that will affect 850,000 UK homeowners who will be paying an average of £16.40 a month more in repayments.

The Co-operative, Clydesdale and Yorkshire banks are also raising their rates from today, blaming the weak economy and the increased cost of funding a mortgage.

Graeme Brown, director of Shelter Scotland, said the rate rises could push thousands of struggling homeowners to the brink, with calls to their repossession hotline already soaring last year. He said: "News that some lenders are going to put up interest rates will set off alarm bells in many thousands of households across Scotland.

"We have already seen a 40% increase in calls to our legal service on repossessions and, of the more than 10,000 calls taken by our free helpline advisers last year, many needed money advice on how to make ends meet. My fear is that even a 0.5% increase in some mortgage rates will push many over the edge into a spiral of debt, arrears and eventually repossession."

Around 54,000 Co-operative Bank customers will see SVR rates go up by 0.5% to 4.74%, meaning payments will typically increase by £15 a month, or £180 a year.

Clydesdale and Yorkshire banks' SVR rate will rise from 4.59% to 4.95%, affecting 30,000 customers. RBS-Natwest is also pushing up the rate on its One Account, a non-SVR product, by 0.25%, affecting 100,000 customers.

The rate rises have sparked fears people could struggle to switch to a better deal as lenders have started tightening their borrowing criteria, triggering a fall in mortgages being approved.

Borrowers with a poor credit rating, high loan-to-value ratios, or who are in negative equity could find themselves stuck with their existing lender and unable to switch to another provider, consumer campaigners warn.

Mike Dailly, a solicitor with Govan Law Centre who also sits on the Financial Services Authority's (FSA) consumer panel, said that, while the rate rises were "relatively small", he feared there could be serious consequences from the cumulative effect of several increases further down the line.

He said: "It can still be very difficult for people who have got very tight budgets and don't really have any money to spare, but the reality is the increases are still relatively small.

"The fear that we [on the FSA consumer panel] have is that this could just be the start of it. If you consider the proposition that many people are trapped in these mortgages and we have a double-dip recession, which means things aren't necessarily going to get any better, especially if the Bank of England raises its base rate, then that's when we're really going to see much more of an impact."

However, the Council of Mortgage Lenders said it has seen "little evidence so far" that borrowers on an SVR are paying uncompetitive rates. Its analysts insist market pressures will keep rates in check as lenders who raise SVR rates too aggressively risk losing their most creditworthy customers.

Ray Boulger, senior technical manager at mortgage adviser John Charcol, said the degree of equity borrowers have in their home will be "the most important factor" for those facing rate rises and who want to switch deals.

He advised those worried they may become "trapped" to increase equity by overpaying their mortgage if possible, pointing out that previous falls in the variable rate meant many homeowners were actually paying less per month now compared with a few years ago.

In Suit, Protesters Say City Violated Their Constitutional Rights - NYTimes.com

In Suit, Protesters Say City Violated Their Constitutional Rights - NYTimes.com

In Suit, Protesters Say City Violated Their Constitutional Rights

By COLIN MOYNIHAN

4:07 p.m. | Updated The City of New York, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority and several large corporations have regularly violated the constitutional rights of Occupy Wall Street protesters who have sought to express their opinions at various demonstrations across the city, according to a wide-ranging federal lawsuit filed on Monday.

The lawsuit, which included several City Council members as plaintiffs, said that the city “in concert with various private and public entities” subjected the plaintiffs to “violations of rights to free speech, assembly, freedom of the press, false arrest, excessive force, false imprisonment and malicious prosecution.”

At times, the Police Department had improperly photographed people who were arrested and may not have destroyed those pictures, when required by law, according to the lawsuit, which was filed in United States District Court in Manhattan.

In addition, the lawsuit said, the city had stopped some plaintiffs from “carrying out their duties as elected officials.’’

Muriel Goode-Trufant, the chief of the special federal litigation division of the city Law Department, said, “We will review the matters thoroughly,” adding that the agency was waiting to receive the complaint.

Court papers said that the private companies, which included Brookfield Properties and JPMorgan Chase, had improperly excluded protesters from public spaces that are controlled by those companies and are supposed to remain open in return for zoning concessions. Representatives from those companies declined to comment.

The plaintiffs requested, among other things, that a judge order the police not to remove people from public spaces or prevent reporters from observing police activities connected to public speech and assembly. The plaintiffs also asked that an independent monitor be appointed to review arrests related to Occupy Wall Street demonstrations and to investigate how the police had closed public spaces at different times.

The lawsuit was filed by three lawyers, Wylie M. Stecklow, Yetta Kurland and Leo Glickman. Ms. Kurland said that it was “concerning that members of the press and elected officials are targeted and arrested.” She added, “We are asking specifically in redress that a federal monitor be appointed to safeguard the public.”

The police stopped one City Council member, Jumaane D. Williams, from getting to Zuccotti Park while the city was clearing protesters from the park, the lawsuit said, thus preventing him from fulfilling his “institutional role as a monitor and overseer” of the police. A second council member, Ydanis Rodriguez, was arrested without cause near Zuccotti Park that same day, the lawsuit said, as was Paul Newell, a leader of a local Democratic district.

Charges against Mr. Newell and Mr. Rodriguez were eventually dismissed.

The lawsuit said that two other council members, Letitia James and Melissa Mark-Viverito were “denied the right to receive information about the police,” but did not provide further details.

Several other plaintiffs in the lawsuit are “citizen journalists,” or Occupy organizers who the complaint said were wrongly arrested.

One example involved Justin Sullivan, who describes himself as an independent reporter and who the complaint said was wrongly arrested in January by Metropolitan Transportation Authority police while filming a demonstration inside Grand Central Terminal. When he returned to the terminal after being released from custody to ask for his cameras, which the lawsuit said were still being held by officers, Mr. Sullivan was again arrested, according to the complaint. Eventually a still camera was returned but a video camera was not, the lawsuit said. The lawsuit went on to state that a witness saw a transportation authority officer “instructing another officer to break the camera.”

Aaron Donovan, a spokesman for the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, declined to discuss the lawsuit, saying, “We never comment on pending litigation.”

Another section of the lawsuit cited Peter Dutro, an Occupy organizer who has been identified in previous court papers as the “de facto treasurer” of the group, and who was arrested in November. The lawsuit said that the criminal complaint against Mr. Dutro stated that he had been on the corner of Exchange Place and Broadway when he was arrested, but that video footage showed he was actually arrested inside the Amalgamated Bank, where Occupy Wall Street had an account.

Officials from the Police Department did not respond right away to requests for comment.

The lawsuit also said that many protesters who had been arrested had been improperly photographed by police officers. And while the law requires that photographs of those who are found to be not guilty must be returned to those defendants or destroyed, the lawsuit stated, “Upon information and belief, N.Y.P.D. has not returned or destroyed photographs of innocent arrestees in the O.W.S. movement.”

On several occasions since the Occupy protests began, the lawsuit said, the city had acted with private landlords to prevent protesters from assembling in public areas like Zuccotti Park, the Winter Garden of the World Financial Center and One Chase Manhattan Plaza, which the protesters had selected as one of their original gathering spots for Sept. 17.

The wide plaza, between William and Nassau Streets, was sealed off that day by metal barricades. Over the past seven months the barriers have become more permanent and now include chain link fencing and plywood walls.

A spokesman for JPMorgan Chase declined to discuss the lawsuit.

SignOn.org - Tell Arizona Congressmen Quayle and Gosar to drop H.R. 4067! Do not steal Navajo And Hopi water for corporate profit!!

Tell Arizona Congressmen Quayle and Gosar to drop H.R. 4067! Do not steal Navajo And Hopi water for corporate profit!!

By Wenona Benally Baldenegro (Contact)

To be delivered to: Rep. Paul Gosar (AZ-1) and Rep. Ben Quayle (AZ-3)

Drop H.R. 4067! Congressmen Quayle and Gosar want to take pristine Navajo and Hopi drinking water, and give it to ALEC-affiliated mining and energy corporations! Say NO to ALEC and say NO to corporate greed! Please help the Navajo and Hopi people fight this!

H.R. 4067 is economic blackmail to coerce the Navajo and Hopi nations to give up all water rights, forever, to ALEC members Peabody Coal, the Salt River Project, APS, and other owners of the Navajo Generating Station (NGS), in exchange for no compensation. It also will prevent any litigation by the Navajo and Hopi nations should they incur any future financial losses or physical harm as a result of water loss and/or water contamination.

BBC News - Europe focus of global May Day labour protests

BBC News - Europe focus of global May Day labour protests

Europe focus of global May Day labour protests

Tens of thousands of people demonstrated in Madrid

Continue reading the main story

Global Economy

• Crisis jargon buster
• Charting Europe's economic woes
• Q&A: EU treaty to control budgets
• What caused the eurozone crisis?

Labour activists have been holding marches and rallies in Europe and around the world to mark May Day, at a time of austerity and social unrest.

Politics coloured events in France - one of the eurozone's dominant states - which elects a new president on Sunday.

In Greece, which elects a new parliament the same day, a march through Athens passed off peacefully.

Thousands of Spaniards took to the streets of Madrid and Barcelona to protest against cuts and unemployment.

Earlier, workers in Asian states marched for better working conditions and the Occupy movement is planning events in North America.

International Workers' Day, as the 1 May holiday is known officially, is meant to be a celebration of working people worldwide.

A recognised national holiday in most of the developed world, it is also celebrated unofficially in some countries.

'Vote blank'

In France, far-right leader Marine Le Pen refused to back either candidate in the country's presidential election run-off on Sunday, when she addressed supporters in Paris.

Nicolas Sarkozy spoke at the Trocadero

Ms Le Pen, who came third in the first round last month, said National Front voters should vote with their conscience but added that both President Nicolas Sarkozy and his challenger, the Socialists' Francois Hollande, would surrender power to Europe.

Attacking Mr Sarkozy's five years in power and the ruling UMP party, she said she would "vote blank".

The National Front holds an annual march in Paris on 1 May to celebrate French heroine Joan of Arc.

Addressing a mass rally in Paris, Mr Sarkozy appealed for national unity around his Gaullist vision of France.

"I tell the unions, put down the red flag and serve France," he told the crowd at the Trocadero, which the UMP put at 200,000.

But the conservative leader also appeared to concede the banking system had been at fault.

"I want a new French model where the capitalism of the entrepreneurs will have replaced the capitalism of the financiers," he said.

Both Mr Sarkozy and Mr Hollande have been wooing the six million people who voted for Ms Le Pen in the first round.

In a speech in the town of Nevers, Mr Hollande voiced solidarity with trade unionists, saying: "When you have been a worker, when you have been a trade unionist, you know that inflation is a gnawing evil."

French trade unions were holding their traditional May Day marches in Paris and other cities.

Greek institution

Several thousand Greek workers, pensioners and students marched peacefully to parliament in central Athens holding banners reading "Revolt now" and "Tax the rich".

Greek Communist Party supporters gathered in the Aspropyrgos industrial area, outside Athens, to show support for workers at a local steelworks who have been on strike for months.

The northern French city of Lille held a march

Anti-austerity protesters have been taking part in a day of strikes and demonstrations across Greece.

The BBC's Mark Lowen in Athens says the 1 May protests there have become an institution, with public and private sector strikes and disruption to public transport.

But he says there may be less of the traditional violence, since minds are focused on Sunday's general election, when many Greeks are expected to vent their anger against the austerity measures.

In Madrid, tens of thousands of protesters filed peacefully in the rain to the main square waving signs opposing government cuts.

The new conservative government is battling to prevent Spain needing an international bailout like those for Greece, the Irish Republic and Portugal.

"This day is an expression of rebelliousness... against the attack by the government upon the public services, upon employment, upon social and labour rights in our country," said Candido Mendez, head of the UGT union.

Ana Lopez, a 44-year-old civil servant, said May Day was sacred for her but this year in particular because, she argued, the government was doing nothing to help workers and the economic crisis was benefiting banks.

"Money does not just disappear," she told the Associated Press news agency.

"It does not fly away. It just changes hands, and now it is with the banks, and the politicians are puppets of the banks."

In Russia, nationalists, communists and opponents of incoming president Vladimir Putin all held separate rallies in the former communist state.

Mr Putin and outgoing President Dmitry Medvedev made a rare joint public appearance on the streets of Moscow, leading more than 100,000 people in a Soviet-style "Holiday of Labour and Spring" march.

US protests

The Occupy movement has called for global protests against economic inequality.

The movement gained international attention with the Occupy Wall Street protest last September but has struggled to maintain its profile as its supporters began to be evicted from public squares across the US.

An Occupy statement said: "The Occupy Movement has called for A Day Without the 99% on May 1st, 2012," referring to its slogan that the wealthy 1% rules over a powerless 99%.

Iraqi Communist Party supporters rallied in the centre of Baghdad for May Day

Its main rally will be in New York in the afternoon rush hour.

The Occupy movement in San Francisco called for a Golden Gate Bridge protest.

It said: "This May Day we look forward to seeing strong, powerful picket lines, unlike anything the Golden Gate Bridge bosses have seen before."

Rallies took place across Asia

• In Hong Kong, about 5,000 workers marched demanding a rise in the minimum wage
• In Jakarta, Indonesia, more than 9,000 workers marched to the state palace calling for better pay and job protection
• In Manila, the Philippines, some 8,000 workers rallied near the Malacanang palace to call for pay increases

Real Bread Campaign steps up anti-GM wheat protest - British Baker

Real Bread Campaign steps up anti-GM wheat protest - British Baker

Real Bread Campaign steps up anti-GM wheat protest

 - Published:  25 April, 2012

The Real Bread Campaign has delivered a pledge to the government from more than 350 bakers, millers, farmers and consumers not to sell or buy GM wheat.

The pledge was accompanied by a letter to Caroline Spelman MP, Secretary of State for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, expressing deep concerns about the testing of GM wheat at Rothamsted Research in Hertfordshire.

Chris Young of the Real Bread Campaign said: “The Real Bread Campaign finds ways to make bread better for us, better for our communities and better for the planet. We cannot see how GM technology fits with any of these aims.”

Ian Hodson, president of the Bakers, Food and Allied Workers Union, added: “Our members feel there are too many unknowns and risks associated with GM food. We believe the health and wellbeing of people should be put before profit, and people have the right to know what is in their food. GM foods should not enter the food chain until it is proven beyond doubt there are no associated risks. GM crops have been heralded as the future by some, but previous experience tells us that such promises need to be very carefully scrutinised before allowing them to enter our environment and food chain.”

Signatories have pledged that they:

·         Will not buy GM wheat or any products containing GM wheat

·         Will not use GM wheat in their businesses

·         Do not want GM wheat or the risks it brings to our food chain and countryside

·         Want the money being spent on testing GM wheat to be used for non-GM agricultural research

Defra granted Rothamsted Research permission to release wheat lines genetically modified for resistance to aphids last year. A march on Rothamsted Research has been organised bywww.taketheflourback.org for 27 May.

GM Freeze has also published a review of research projects showing how farmers can manage their farms to attract predators and parasites of aphids to make ensure the pest never reaches numbers that would reduce yield from wheat crops. This can be found at: www.gmfreeze.org/publications/briefings/127/.