This needs to happen here.

[seafan]

Strike against austerity cuts brings Portugal to a halt



Unions hope for the most effective strike in decades


24 November 2010 Last updated at 08:03 ET

Portuguese rail, air and other services have ground to a halt as workers strike in a bid to weaken the government's resolve to make budget cuts.
Rail services were paralysed from the north to the south, with nearly 80% of trains not running, and the national airline TAP cancelled most flights.

.....

The budget, meant to tackle the euro member state's mounting debt crisis, goes to a vote in parliament on Friday.
The Socialist government wants to quell international unease over the country's public spending and deficit by cutting wages for public sector workers, freezing pensions and increasing taxes.
With the main opposition party saying it will not block the budget, analysts expect it to have an easy passage through parliament.

.....

* All of the country's ports were closed, according to the unions

* Both air traffic controllers and airport ground handling operators were on strike, meaning dozens of flights in and out of Lisbon had to be cancelled or rescheduled

* Bus and ferry links in Lisbon were disrupted, along with the metro service
* Fewer than 10% of the workforce at Volkswagen's Autoeuropa plant near Porto turned up for work, according to unions

.....

One CGTP leader, Manuel Carvalho da Silva, said there was strong public support for the strike as it expressed "outrage at injustices".
Another trade unionist in Lisbon told AFP news agency it was unacceptable that workers should "make all the sacrifices".

"We cannot accept that the first, second and third priority of Portugal is the deficit," said Joao Proenca.

.....

Meanwhile, back in the USA, the *deficit* is also being shoved down our throats by the GOP and associated regressive members of the Democratic Party.


ABC’s Z. Byron Wolf reports:


November 19, 2010

Former Republican Sen. Alan Simpson, the top Republican on the President’s bipartisan debt commission, painted a vivid picture of what Washington will look like when the national debt limit must be extended beyond $14 trillion and the new class of Tea Party Republicans, with their mantra of “no compromise” have to take that tough vote.

He predicted a government that approaches shutdown in April of next year.

“This is going to be beautiful politics - The brutal kind,” he told reporters in Washington at a forum put on by the Christian Science Monitor. “I love those,” he said, with a twinkle in his eye and a jokester tinge to his voice.

“The debt limit, when it comes in April or May, will prove who’s a hero and who’s a jerk and who’s a charlatan and who’s a faqir,” said Simpson. “And there it will be right there. Because they’re going to say, these new guys, some of them, and I’ve met a good deal of them and boy they’re sharp cookies,” he said, adding a message to new Congressmen.

“Compromise is not a filthy word,” said Simpson. “It doesn’t mean you’re a wimp when you learn to compromise. You either learn to compromise and legislate or go home – my personal view – anyway there they are and they’re going to say I will not vote for the debt limit extension until you cut this. Say, you can’t do that. you can’t possibly do that. well, then I’m not voting for it. and they’ll say well the government will close. Which they’ll say that’s what I came here for. Oh, I can’t wait. It’ll be something and I’ll be watching.”

.....

But the commission has until next month for 14 of its 18 members to agree on a set of proposals. Bowles would not tell reporters today how close they are to accord. He said President Obama has agreed to support the proposal if they “reach the promised land” and 14 of the 18 members agree.

.....

Simpson said that no matter what happens with the commission, the voters have made sure that the government will have to change its ways.

“They’re sending these anti-tax people,” Simpson said of voters. “I can’t wait for the blood bath in April. It won’t matter whether two of us have signed off on this, or 14 or 18. When debt limit time comes they’re going to look around and say what in the hell do we do now? We’ve got guys who will not approve the debt limit extension unless we give them a piece of meat, real meat off of this package, and boy the blood bath will be extraordinary. And they’ll say how the hell do you get meat off this package.”

"Bipartisanship is another name for date rape." ---Grover Norquist, 2003


There is so much depraved and criminal pathology in the poisonous minds of people such as this.





When the GOP shuts down our government, as they are threatening, we the people must massively shut down the income stream flowing into those greedy, hateful fingers.

[SammyWinstonJack]

1. K&R

[geckosfeet]

2. European countries are geographically suited to effective protests.

They are smaller and much more centralized. A well planned protest with a few thousand people can quickly stop many services, block main arteries and clog entire cities.

The US is so huge and distributed that millions of people acting in a coordinated fashion would be challenged to achieve similar results.

Effective alternatives designed specifically for a large country must be considered.

[seafan]

3. Actually, we have very effective methods.

1. Shut down airlines.

2. Shut down rail, bus lines.

3. Shut down the seaports, especially the off-loading of cheap foreign goods made with slave labor.

4. Shut down trucking, especially of the above-referenced goods.

5. Student walk-outs.

6. Teacher walk-outs.

7. Refuse to buy gas for a few days.

8. Coordinated sick-outs from work.

9. Refuse additional spending for the holidays, including for gifts and Christmas trees. Give that money to a food bank instead.



The effective date will be when the oligarchs shut our government down, now forecast to arrive in the next few months, when the key fascist operatives in the US House seize control of the next Congress.



Whether it's a relatively small population or 300 million, the actions are the same.


All of these things represent the most powerful weapon people have against the oligarchs, and that is the economic weapon.

[geckosfeet]

4. Yes. Very effective in smaller economies and countries - as in Europe. Less effective in the US.

[nadinbrzezinski]

5. We have had national strikes and they were effective at one time

What has changed is a very well coordinated and effective war against labor.

And there is no class identity here as well.

[donheld]

6. American's are just to ignorant and lazy