Sopa and Pipa might be on hold for the time-being, but there is a greater threat looming. It's called the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) and it's an international agreement that aims to establish multinational standards on intellectual property rights enforcement.

Most recently, Acta made the headlines when online activists paralysed some of Poland's government sites to protest against Warsaw's plans to sign the international copyright treaty. They fear that it could lead to censorship on the web. Meanwhile Anonymous has announced over Twitter that it is planning a "huge operation soon" opposing Acta.

Wired.co.uk has created a handy guide to the agreement and how it might affect you. It's worth looking at the introductory video in this post to start with.

What is Acta?
As noted earlier, ACTA is an international agreement that aims to create international standards on intellectual property rights enforcement. The title of the treaty suggests the agreement deals with counterfeit goods, such as medicines and luxury goods. However, the treaty actually has a much broader scope and will deal with tools targeting internet distribution and information technology.

It has been negotiated, mostly in secret, between various countries and the EU over the last four years. Many states have already signed up for Acta, well before the widespread web furore over Sopa. So far, Canada, Japan, Korea, Morocco, New Zealand, Singapore and the US have all signed up to Acta. The European Union, Mexico and Switzerland have supported the treaty and shown a commitment to signing it in the future. Acta was slipped through the European Council in an agriculture and fisheries meeting in December. Some of its more aggressive language has been removed from more recent iterations of the treaty, particularly concerning "disconnection of internet access". It is expected to be signed by the EU on Thursday, before the European Parliament has a chance to vote on it.

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GREEK BONDHOLDERS: The last big unknown on the road to Greek default

The site greekcrisis.net summed it up two weeks ago: ‘large bondholders say the take-up is likely to be high, if only because the alternative of a full-blown Greek default is so bad’.

However, the key words there are ‘large bondholders’. These are, on the whole, the big banker guys with a lot to lose from Greek default: many of them are the same guys from ISDA who last week voted against seeing an open-and-shut case of bond-issuer default as a default. It was a case of turkeys voting for the abolition of Christmas. But the markets are not about to abolish it.

Yesterday, the pessimistic view came from London. The Daily Telegraph financial columnist Louise Armitstead wrote that ‘Authorities in Athens are ready to enforce the controversial collective action clauses, or CACs, to impose the restructuring deal on all bondholders as the number of voluntary agreements look set to fall short of the required amount’. And the influential Open Europe website’s Raoul Ruparel opined that, “Greece is likely to struggle to reach the targets for a voluntary agreement, so the credit rating agencies are almost certainly going to see this as a default.”

This makes for a stark contrast with the remarks of IIF negotiator Charles Dallara (above right), who yesterday pronounced himself “quietly confident” of the swap going ahead without complications.

Clearly, they can’t both be right.

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The word ‘firewall’ has leapt (rather like flames do) from its specialist meaning among geeks to being the saviour of the human race over the last year. But ask people – laymen or specialists – what they think the word means today, and they will either answer “to protect against contagion” or “I’m not really sure”. Most media people see it as some kind of financial stem-cell breakthrough. A frightening proportion of them see it as the thing that came after the bazooka that never was….but they too often see it as a cure-all.

Just to be upfront here about the mixed-up, drivel-riddled nature of this rhetoric, I will summarise the current theory like this: ‘What you do is get some firepower leveraged into the bazooka, and when it’s too late for that, what you have to do is amputate the bad leg, and then borrow a firewall to stop the debtstream from bleeding onto others’. This is a metaphor recipe that’s been in the blender for an hour – but it still looks and smells like sh*t.

First up, the global world created by these clowns has made it impossible to firewall anything in the sovereign debt sector. They know this perfectly well – the Central Bankers, that is – but it is just possible one could sandbag enough banks in one earthly zone in order to stop the knock-on waves caused by the Krakatoa explosion. As you can see, we’ve now moved out of weapons and fire security into measures against the Tsunami aftermath of one explosion….albeit a big one. In my view, that latter analogy is much nearer the mark – but it’s still unrealistic.

We all saw Clark Kentaghi’s double-barrelled blast of dollars (sorry, back in the arms cache again) ‘designed to get lending to the EU economy going’ and we all know that this too is crap, because it was just more bank sandbagging. He’s firing double-barrelled sandbags at a tidal wave, and get the liquidity back on track and create a sandbank. It’s that straightforward.

But it’s too late: the Lehman moment was passed weeks ago. Today’s hot news is this: ECB lends €630bn to 800 banks, those banks then deposit €777 bn  at the ECB. That’s more than last week, which was more than last month, which was more than ever before. It’s a new record. But call me wacky, it doesn’t lend itself to the interpretation that wild speculative business lending just got under way throughout the eurozone.Nope, that was 2005.

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PURPOSE

The collection of one (1) million signatures in electronic format. The signatures should cover as many regions of Europe as possible on the basis of geography and population. The text bearing the signatures will then be sent to the President of the European Commission.

THE MEANING OF SIGNATURES

Signing the petition will indicate OPPOSITION to poverty and to individual and national subjugation. European Solidarity: this is a huge duty and responsibility for all of us.

WE DEMAND:

The REMOVAL of the onerous Debt. When countries are in “a state of necessity'' (when they are experiencing the collapse of their health and education systems, as well as their wages and pensions), repayment of the burdensome debt must be put aside. The necessity for survival and human dignity must come before repayment of a debt.

NOTE: under Article 8 of the Treaty of Lisbon, about one (1) million signatures will be officially put into force on 1/4/2012. From that point onwards, European citizens will be able to make their requests for the passing of Laws in the European Union.


There is a NEED: by that date, SEISACHTHEIA must have collected the signatures of one (1) million European citizens in order to claim and establish the validity of the state of necessity. (When the people are suffering, the usurer cannot be paid).

ONE MILLION SIGNATURES FOR “A EUROPE OF SOLIDARITY”

ENGLISH / Αγγλικά / Anglais / I, too, am Greek !

Solidarity with the Greek people !

I, too, am Greek !
We demand double nationality !

Enfuriated by the cowardice and lack of imagination of the Western
governments—including our own (1)—towards the dictatorship of the
financial markets;

And disgusted by the current humiliations being imposed on the Greek
people, shamefully accused of excess and dishonesty, pronounced guilty
without being allowed a defence (2), condemned to endless austerity
and penitant contrition, in a language that evokes 1940 and Pétain
with its "moral order," "effort" and "spirit of joy;"

And certainly not forgetting those who now sacrifice Greece to the
financial speculators, pretend that "economic fascism" will content
itself with the little countries, sparing themselves...

... those same people who abandoned Czechoslovakia to Adolf Hitler in
Munich in 1938, hoping that he would be satisfied with this new prey,
following the cowardice shown to the Spanish republicans (3);

We will no longer support these nouveaux riches (the triumphant 1% of
the globalised world), who ignore the moral debt that humanity owes to
the Greek nation (4), which sowed the first seeds of direct democracy
(5), based precisely on the abolition of debts and the emancipation of
citizens reduced to slavery by their indebtedness 2500 years ago (6).

For all these reasons, we are all Greeks. We want to send a clear
signal right now that we will no longer collaborate a minute longer in
passivity towards the financial regime imposed on Greece (7). We wish
to express our solidarity with Greece, and to share, at least
symbolically, the fate of its people.

We therefore ask for dual Greek nationality, by making a formal
request to the Greek ambassador in our country. We will launch this
campaign with a list of primary signatories on the 24 November 2011, a
date that is also the anniversary of a significant action by the Greek
resistance at the Gorgopotamos Viaduct on the night of the 24/25
November 1942 (8).

"Declaration of Nantes for Greece," 11/11/11.

"Your excellency, in solidarity with your country, I, the undersigned.............. request personally to be counted at heart a Greek, to enjoy the rights and duties of dual nationality, and to express this international citizenship with a view to the establishment of universal democracy in liberty and equality, twenty-five centuries after the time of Solon, Clisthene, and Pericles. Thanks in advance for your response, and in fraternity with your people. "

My name, town and country of residence follow, along with my profession and other relevant personal information (blogger, musician, father, student, Hellenist, age, etc.): FAMILY NAME, First name............ Town........... Country of residence....... Profession and other personal information................. Where to send it ? In France, send a letter to l'Ambassade de Grèce, République hellénique, 17 rue Auguste-Vacquerie, 75116 Paris (Telephone : 01 47 23 72 28, Fax : 01 47 23 73 85 ).
Copy and paste this text, or write a personalised letter to the embassy. When you have done so, send a copy to the following list of
email addresses (copy/paste the entire line):

This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it , This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it , This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it , This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it , This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it ,


(The first address is that of the Greek embassy in Paris, the next two
are those of its press office and communications office which must be
informed of your application, the fourth is the Greek office at the
Council of Europe in Strasbourg, and the latter is the liaison address
for this initiative for information and coordination).

You can also post a personal comment on the dedicated blog:
http//:www.jesuisgrec.blogspot.fr

This personal and collective response of a request for Greek
nationality belongs only to those who undertake it, and is not
directed by any party or institution. It has been proposed by the
N.e.u.f. cultural association ("Nantes Est Une Fête! ", note 9)

Notes on the call for solidarity:

Note 1: We will never forget the paternalistic disdain displayed
towards Greece by the leaders of Germany and France, an arrogant and
vexatious attitude, made all the more scandalous by the fact that it
is these two countries whose major arms deals with Greece have ruined
the country.

We are shamed by the Merkel-Sarkozy couple, who lecture at Greece when
it is down, forcing upon them a treatment that is as highhanded and
inept as that of the bloodletting physicians of old, medicine which
they next plan to administer to their own people.

We cannot accept that, for the first time in the history of mankind, a
country will lose its political sovereignty at the diktat of financial
markets, merely to defend the investments of the privileged 1% of the
world, who have bought themselves government bonds.

We will not allow these slanders towards the Greek people to pass,
while the responsibilities of the profitmongers and international
traffickers and their accomplices remain ignored.

Note 2: Nor even to express themselves in a referendum.

Note 3: Churchill's well known comment after Munich: "You were given
the choice between war and dishonour. You chose dishonour and you will have war." Gandhi's comment from India is less well known: "Europe has sold her soul for the sake of seven-days’ earthly existence. The peace Europe gained at Munich is a triumph of violence; it is also its
defeat."

We do not forget General Faucher, the French mission chief in Prague,
who, sickened by the Munich agreement, submitted an honourable
resignation to the French government, and then requested Czech
citizenship. General Louis-Eugène Faucher (1874-1964) had lived for
twenty years among the Czech people. On his return to France, he
joined the resistance against the Nazi occupation, was arrested and
deported to Germany, and survived to return home in 1945.

Note 4: Because Greece has given the world the inspiring myth of
Antigone, the unconquerable defiance of conscience in the face of
arbitrary tyranny;

Note 5: Because Greece gave Europe the first seeds of direct democracy
(not delegated to a class of professionals, but exercised directly by
an assembly and by drawing lots),

Note 6: And because the first act of the newborn Athenian democracy,
though but a fragile and imperfect shoot, under the rule of Solon in
594 BCE, was precisely the abolition of debts and the general
emancipation of citizens reduced to slavery by personal indebtedness.
But who remembers that?

We do not forget the eminent and heroic Greek resistance, which
strongly participated in the liberation of Europe from Nazism.

Note 7: The controls imposed on Greece are a blatant coup d'etat
against European democracy, a deliberate suffocation of its civil
society, a material and moral humiliation of its people, which will
inevitably spread in a domino effect to neighbouring countries,
including our own, with a risk of pre-fascist crisis.

Note 8: On the night of the 24/25 November 1942, the destruction of
the strategic Gorgopotamos railway viaduct between Thessaloniki and
Athens was an important joint action between two major elements of the
Greek resistance: the communist EAM-ELAS and the non-communist
EDES-EOEA, with the support of British special forces.

Note 9: The N.e.u.f association organises the Fête des langues
(Festival of languages) and walking tours commemorating the resistance against fascism in Nantes (Pays de la Loire/Brittany, France). This association was instrumental in achieving the transparent publication of public finances on the internet in 1995, and in 1997 launched the "Réveillon de 1er mai" (Eve of the 1st of May) outside the Paris Bourse (Stock exchange), the first demonstration in the western world for the Tobin tax on financial speculation and against tax havens.
N.e.u.f. also participated in the "Call to the youth for resistance"
of the 8 March 2004 with ATTAC, and the Décapol Declaration for Ten
new rights for the coming century.

http://lucky.blog.lemonde.fr/2006/11/13/video-et-texte-de-lappel-des-resistants-traductions/

http://cf.groups.yahoo.com/group/LeMonde-etLaResistance/message/2

http://lucky.blog.lemonde.fr/2005/09/18/2005_09_decapol_dekapol/

Technical notes:

There is a general Greek consulate in Marseille, as well as twenty or
so honorary consulates in other French towns. Consult the list here:
http://www.levoyageur.net/ambassade.php?pays=GRECE

A Greek flag measuring 1 x 1.5m with a pole, costs around 30 euros
from a specialised shop. A small table flag costs about 3 euros.

The photo overleaf shows the Greek flag flying over the Acropolis in
Athens, an important site for remembrance of the anti-nazi resistance.


SVP :
Nous cherchons des volontaires pour traduire l'intégralité de ce message en grec, anglais, et autres langues. Merci d'avance.

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http://jesuisgrec.blogspot.com/