Brutal capitalism - Hungry Greece suffers

I have come across a horrific article in the New York Times today about the levels of hunger and suffering in Greece a nation never too far from the news at the moment with its heavy handed austerity programme being implemented hard on ordinary people. In the article it details how levels of so called food insecurity are rising to levels commonly seen in many African nations. This for me is the brutal cold reality of capitalism in internal decline. Its hard to comprehend how this is like in Britain where levels of food scarcity is very low and although food banks are opening up every week in many areas Greece is on an entirely deeper scale than we face currently although we are heading in that direction. The Greek economy is in free fall, having shrunk by 20 percent in the past five years. The unemployment rate is more than 27 percent, the highest in Europe, and 6 of 10 job seekers say they have not worked in more than a year. Those dry statistics are reshaping the lives of Greek families with children, more of whom are arriving at schools hungry or underfed, even malnourished, according to private groups and the government itself. Last year, an estimated 10 percent of Greek elementary and middle school students suffered from what public health professionals call “food insecurity,” meaning they faced hunger or the risk of it, said Dr. Athena Linos, a professor at the University of Athens Medical School who also heads a food assistance program at Prolepsis, a nongovernmental public health group that has studied the situation. “When it comes to food insecurity, Greece has now fallen to the level of some African countries,” she said. Unlike those in the United States, Greek schools do not offer subsidized cafeteria lunches. Students bring their own food or buy items from a canteen. The cost has become insurmountable for some families with little or no income. Their troubles have been compounded by new austerity measures demanded by Greece’s creditors, including higher electricity taxes and cuts in subsidies for large families. As a result, parents without work are seeing their savings and benefits rapidly disappear. “All around me I hear kids saying: ‘My parents don’t have any money. We don’t know what we are going to do,’ ” said Evangelia Karakaxa, a vivacious 15-year-old at the No. 9 junior high school in Acharnes. Acharnes, a working-class town among the mountains of Attica, was bustling with activity from imports until the economic crisis wiped out thousands of factory jobs. Now, several of Evangelia’s classmates are frequently hungry, she said, and one boy recently fainted. Some children were starting to steal for food, she added. While she does not excuse it, she understands their plight. “Those who are well fed will never understand those who are not,” she said. “Our dreams are crushed,” added Evangelia, whose parents are unemployed but who is not in the same dire situation as her peers. She paused, and then continued in a low voice. “They say that when you drown, your life flashes before your eyes. My sense is that in Greece, we are drowning on dry land.” Alexandra Perry, who works at the school, said that at least 60 of the 280 students suffered from malnutrition. Children who once boasted of sweets and meat now talk of eating boiled macaroni, lentils, rice or potatoes. “The cheapest stuff,” Ms. Perry said. This year the number of malnutrition cases jumped. “A year ago, it wasn’t like this,” Ms. Perry, said, fighting back tears. “What’s frightening is the speed at which it is happening.” The government, which initially dismissed the reports as exaggerations, recently acknowledged that it needed to tackle the issue of malnutrition in schools. But with priorities placed on repaying bailout funds, there is little money in Greek coffers to cope. Mr. Nikas, the principal, said he knew that the Greek government was laboring to fix the economy. Now that talk of Greece’s exiting the euro zone has disappeared, things look better to the outside world. “But tell that to the family of Pantelis,” he said. “They don’t feel the improvement in their lives.” Quite clearly the deepening crisis in global capitalism and the Euro crisis in particular know no boundaries and will stop at nothing to make workers and ordinary people pay for a crisis not of their making. Stories like these need to be in the mainstream news all the time but wont be as the media is controlled and owned by big business and it is not in its interests to highlight the suffering of its own ideas and actions. What is clear though that Spain, Italy, Ireland and Portugal the so called PIGS face very similar situations and need to come together in collective solidarity and put an end to this brutal rotten system of capitalism and form a new society based on the needs of the mass’s. There can be no way out of this crisis on the basis of capitalism only a socialist transformation of society can start to develop the means and the ways of ending mass exploitation and suffering. A society which meets peoples needs not focus’s on only what profit can be made out of something. With extracts from http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/18/world/europe/more-children-in-greece-start-to-go-hungry.html?pagewanted=1&_r=3&smid=tw-share&

Keep the market out of our childrens education , say no to academies

The con-dem governemnt are using the tactic to try and make out failing schools who are under performing need to change to improve and by change they suggest turning into a academy. They are using official bodies like OFSTED to convince schools to make the change to come out of local authority funding and go it alone in the tories idea of a better education for our children.

Already education secretary Michael 'Royal Yacht' Gove has had to back down: one of the schools, Downhills School, where results have improved recently, will undergo an Ofsted inspection before any decision about a change of status.

New Labour used bribery to turn schools into academies with up to £2 million promised from a business sponsor. The coalition government are now using compulsion.

The Con-Dems argue that academies are the only way to raise standards in under-performing schools. Yet recent research publicised by the Anti Academies Alliance shows that in London, on the measure of five GCSEs including English and maths, the best performing schools are NOT academies. Nationally, 20% of academies failed to improve on their GCSE results in 2010.

As socialists we stand for free comprehensive well funded education for all with no exlusion based on any background or creed. Bringing the market into our childrens education is a disaster waiting to happen. If a academy fails or runs out of money what happens to the childrens education then ?

Haringey parents are right to call academies 'privatisation'. Already bigger academy 'chains' run more schools than some local authorities.

Oasis Community Learning, for example, runs 12 high schools all over England. Nine teachers were sacked at its Media City Academy in Salford at Christmas.

And ultimately, academies can pay staff whatever they like.

Despite business involvement, eight academies recently had to be 'bailed out' by the government for nearly £11 million.

An academy at Backwell near Bristol recently failed to enter 100 pupils for GCSE science exams. A parent commented: "I feel badly let down... now the school is an academy, who is it accountable to?"

Academy plans can be defeated. At St Leonards RC School in Durham staff voted 105 to 15 against academy status and the plan was dropped. Protesting parents stopped an academy project at Varndean School in Brighton. Teachers from Lancashire to Gloucestershire, from Coventry to London, have taken strike action against academy proposals. If the NUT and NASUWT teaching unions mobilise promptly, they can kill the plans before they get underway.

For coordinated strike action across schools threatened with academy status, backed by strong community campaigns
No to academies and free schools. Bring all schools under local authority control
We need high quality local comprehensive schools, under democratic control including students, parents and education workers
Haringey Labour MP David Lammy is opposed to compulsory academies, but not to academies themselves. None of the main parties opposes Academies. Elect trade union and community candidates to the London assembly and in town halls to defend comprehensive education.
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Demonstrate against academies!
Saturday 28 January, 12noon
Assemble at Keston Road N17
(Next to Downhills School)

March to Haringey Civic Centre

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Anti-cuts campaign

Hard Times - but not for the 1