‘She’s Pretty Good For a Girl’ is a project that grew out of one of the topics discussed at the Between the Lines reading group.

It’s difficult for women at every stage of becoming a musician.  There’s not enough role models, and the female musicians who are visible are usually airbrushed and pouting on the covers of magazines and album covers,  making young girls feel that they have to sexualise themselves to get anywhere.  If they do make it in to the local music shop they can expect to be patronised by the male staff, and then when they form a band, they end up forever playing lower down the bill while male bands headline.

The purpose of this project is to highlight the amount of sexist crap the average female-identified musician has to go through, by letting them tell their own stories.  We’re still looking for musicians (of all genders) to interview, so if you’re interested, get in touch!

http://shesprettygoodforagirl.blogspot.co.uk/

Local anti-cuts groups have declared that Edinburgh Council are responsible for the deteriorating service in refuse collection, and the blame should be put firmly on the Councillors and top management, not the binmen and other workers.

The groups denounce the “back door privatisation” of Edinburgh Council services and have demanded a response from Council leader Andrew Burns. North Edinburgh Fights Back and Greater Leith Against the Cuts condemn the large-scale use of agency staff in Street Cleansing and Refuse Collection – and state that the new switch to fortnightly collections appears to be motivated by cost-cutting not environmental concern.

“We are in favour of reducing waste and increasing recycling but we suspect the move to fortnightly collections is not motivated by ecology but is part of the cut-backs. We are closely monitoring its impact and are consulting with local people if action needs to be taken to restore the weekly collections.”

The groups also denounce the imposition of “anti social shift patterns” on the workforce, arguing that the continuation of work until 10.30pm will cause disruption and nuisance to residents, particularly children, the elderly and vulnerable. “Refuse collection workers have told management the new shift patterns would not work,” say the community groups, “but as usual the CEC management aren’t listening to the people who really know the job.”

“We are totally opposed to the privatisation of public services and the cuts in services and worsening working conditions this invariably entails,” the two groups declare. “The full Council voted against privatising these services – why are they now doing the complete opposite, and bringing in large numbers of Blue Arrow contractors to both Street Cleansing and Refuse Collection? New workers – who are certainly needed – should be taken on as full Council employees, wherever possible with permanent contracts.”

“Contrary to some claims, Blue Arrow were NOT introduced to deal with the current backlog, dozens of Blue Arrow staff have been operating from the Russell Road depot in refuse collection since March, and Blue Arrow have been deployed from Cowans Close depot in street cleansing since July. What’s more the private firm Enterprise were used in street cleansing in the spring.”

A Shop Steward from within Environmental Services said:

“I have repeatedly voiced my concerns at the use of agency staff to City of Edinburgh Council Senior Management at numerous meetings since the elected members rejected Privatisation and also to various elected members all to no avail; unfortunately it appears that this new administration is also listening to the officials who are now intent on privatising our council/public services through the back door. ”
The community groups explain they are awaiting a response from the Council. “We have written to Councillor Burns demanding an end to this back door privatisation. He has yet to reply. However Councillor Hynds has written to say she has commissioned a report on the matter from Director of
Services for Communities Mark Turley. We eagerly await this and urge its early delivery.”

www.edinburghagainstcuts.org.uk

   -------Every political system requires a justifying myth. The Soviet Union had Alexey Stakhanov, the miner reputed to have extracted 100 tonnes of coal in six hours. The US had Richard Hunter, the hero of Horatio Alger's rags-to-riches tales.

     Both stories contained a germ of truth. Stakhanov worked hard for a cause in which he believed, but his output was probably faked. When Alger wrote his novels, some poor people had become very rich in the US. But the further from its ideals (productivity in the Soviet Union, opportunity in the US) a system strays, the more fervently its justifying myths are propounded."There is no monopoly on becoming a millionaire" ...

      As the developed nations succumb to extreme inequality and social immobility, the myth of the self-made man becomes ever more potent. It is used to justify its polar opposite: an unassailable rent-seeking class, deploying its inherited money to finance the seizure of other people's wealth.

Read the full article HERE:

Workers at the Skaramangas shipyard in Athens storm the ministry of defense; farmers in Heraclion, Crete raid the Heraclion airport, as tension ahead of the voting of new austerity cuts intensifies.

Golden Dawn, G.D. (in Greek, Chrysi Avgi), the neo-Nazi, ultra-nationalistic party, which was recently elected to the Greek Parliament under the pretext of concern over unemployment, austerity and the economy, and while engaging in virulent anti-immigrant rhetoric and anti-democratic, nationalistic activities, has now established a chapter in New York City. Several groups and organizations have already publicly expressed their outrage and have called for immediate action.