18 março 2013

Um marco maior na história do movimento operário

Há 142 anos,
a Comuna de Paris 





Le 18 Mars 2013, à la date anniversaire du déclenchement de la Commune dans le Paris assiégé de 1871, l'Association des Amis de la Commune de Paris 1871 invite à une commémoration/manifestation de l'Assemblée Nationale au Sénat où seront portées les signatures pour la réhabilitation des communards. Rencontres de membres de l'Association filmées par Raoul Sangla et Macha Mieg.




e agora canta Jean Ferrat

Regressando à fotografia

Bill Brandt no M.O.M.A.
(Exposição Shadow and Light )



«Bill Brandt is a founding figure in photography’s modernist traditions, and this exhibition represents a major critical reevaluation of his heralded career. Brandt’s distinctive vision—his ability to present the mundane world as fresh and strange—emerged in London in the 1930s, and drew from his time in the Paris studio of Man Ray. His visual explorations of the society, landscape, and literature of England are indispensable to any understanding of photographic history and, arguably, to our understanding of life in Britain during the middle of the 20th century.


Brandt’s activity during the Second World War, long distilled by Brandt and others to a handful of now-iconic pictures of moonlit London during the Blackout and improvised shelters during the Blitz, are presented here for the first time in the context of his assignments for the leading illustrated magazines of his day, establishing a key link between his pre- and postwar work. Brandt’s crowning artistic achievement, developed primarily between 1945 and 1961, is a series of nudes that are both personal and universal, sensual and strange, collectively exemplifying the “sense of wonder” that is paramount in his photographs. Brandt’s work is unpredictable not only in the range of his subjects but also in his printing style, which varied widely throughout his career. This exhibition is the first to emphasize the beauty of Brandt’s finest prints, and to trace the arc of their evolution»

Chipre tem um novo Presidente e um novo governo conservadores


Para perceber melhor  a situação

Statement by Andros Kyprianou, General Secretary of the C.C. of AKEL,on governments Troika discussions

Release Date: March 14, 2013

As the discussion with the Troika for the conclusion of the Memorandum and the loan agreement proceeds, so do our concerns grow. These concerns stem from the fact that whilst last November we had arrived at an in principle agreement with the Troika and Mr. Anastasiades´  election pledge was that he would improve it, now we are seeing ever more additional demands from our European partners leading to new, second and more painful Memorandum.
At the meeting between the Heads of the political parties held last Saturday at the Presidential Palace, Mr. Anastasiades had refered to very concrete measures with the pledge that there will not be any other additional demands. We ascertain that new demands are continuously being added by the Troika with regards the sectors of health, education and social cohesion, which, if accepted, will lead to further negative consequences for Cypriot society and will harm social cohesion and increase unemployment.
Because an attempt is underway by government officials and the mass media to paint a totally different and positive picture, I am obliged to refer to some key issues that have already been made public
At the Presidential palace meeting, AKEL proposed to the President of the Republic that an exchange of views take place between the political parties on how we proceed. Our proposal was rejected and the Government was content just to make a general briefing, which subsequently it was forced to expand on after the many questions that I had asked. No reference was made at all to issues such as the measures concerning education, health and social welfare.
The government´s insistence on negotiating with the Troika without consulting with the parties automatically also means that it assumes full responsibility for the final result.
Given that, as I have mentioned previously, almost all the issues raised at the meeting of the Presidential Palace have been made public, on behalf of AKEL, I wish to declare the following:
There is a serious discrepancy between what Mr. Anastasiades said during the election campaign and all that he is doing after the elections. We can cite the very clear examples of the issues of privatization and the corporate tax.
Just a few days before the elections, besides his pledges made before the people, Mr. Anastasiades sent a written letter to the employees of the Semi-state organisations in which he stated that "Our own position is quiteclear and is recorded with absolute clarity in the Framework Agreement agreed between the parties DISY-Democratic Party, which constitutes the political basis of our candidacy. Namelythat we are categoricallyagainst the privatization of profitable Semi-state organisations (Cyprus Electric Authority AHKCyprus Telecommunications Authority ATHK and the Cyprus Ports Authority ALK) ... we will make every effort to find other sources of financing the public debt and other ways to make it viable so as to prevent the activation of the provision for privatization,included in the Memorandum of Understanding which the Christofias government contracted with the Troika."
Instead it is obvious that Mr. Anastasiades has accepted the privatization of these organisations and is trying with totally unsubstantiated arguments to reassure working people and citizens.
On the issue of the increase in the corporate tax, whilst as leader of the opposition, Mr. Anastasiades was completely against its small and temporary increase, describing such a move as destructive for the economy, today he accepts a bigger and permanent increase saying that this does not cause any problems. The same hypocritical stand is also maintained by relevant professional associations.
The information made public referring specifically to the withholding of pension funds is also worrying. If this information is verified, we express our strong concerns about the precedent that is created, which puts a bomb in the foundations of working people's long-standing gains..
As AKEL, we are fully aware of the situation and needs of the Cyprus economy. This is why we will support the efforts to address the problems, as we confirmed from the outset to Mr. Anastasiades. We declare our readiness today too to back him if he is consistent with his pre-election pledges.
However, AKEL will not agree and consent to measures that will condemn the whole of the Cypriot people, and in particular the workers, unemployed, the young generation or the pensioners to dead ends and poverty, just as other peoples in southern Europe have been led to.

16 março 2013

Os amanhãs que choram ou zurram

Nada disto é inevitável e é disto que 
e feita a nossa pressa em os demitir


manchete do DN

Porque hoje é sabado (317)

Devendra Banhart


A sugestão musical de hoje vai para
o cantor norte-americano

Devendra Banhart
e o seu novo álbum Mala.

A ouvir aqui (41 m.)

15 março 2013

Eu quero ter boa-vontade mas...

... assim se desvenda
um terrível dogmatismo
 Segundo li num jornal espanhol mas também encontrei aqui, numa homília,  
o novo Papa afirmou, citando Leon Bloy, que El que no reza al Señor, reza al diablo” porquecuando no se confiesa a Jesucristo se confiesa la mundanidad del demonio”.
Ora, eu e milhões de mulheres e homens no mundo, respeitando os que o fazem, não rezamos a Jesus Cristo e nem por isso rezamos ao Diabo. Pura e simplesmente, não rezamos, ponto final parágrafo.
É por estas e por outras que há muitos anos que penso que no progama da Igreja Católica, para além do sempre muito falado dialógo ecuménico, faz falta sobretudo um módico de respeito pelos que são ateus.


Rui Tavares ou...

... afinal era só
uma questão de tempo




Em 5 Outubro de 2012, critiquei aqui Rui Tavares por, segundo uma notícia na imprensa, ter defendido no Congresso Democrático das Alternativas, a candidatura de listas de independentes à AR.

No dia 6 de Outubro, o próprio respondia o seguinte na respectiva caixa de comentários: «Caro Vítor Dias, nunca me viu defender a eleição de listas independentes para a AR — e escrevi algumas dezenas de crónicas sobre temas de democracia, incluindo uma série de seis artigos especificamente sobre estes assuntos, que o Vítor leu atentamente porque comentou aqui. Se eu fosse um defensor dessa ideia, por que raio não a teria defendido nessa altura? Talvez isso o tivesse feito desconfiar de que há aqui um erro do jornalista — escreverei para o Público a corrigir, é claro

Ontem, em plena confirmação de notícias já vindas na imprensa, Rui Tavares em crónica no Público referia que era um dos subscritores de um Manifesto ( de cerca de 6o personalidades) defendendo «a possibilidade de apresentação de listas nominais  de cidadãos, em eleições para a Assembleia da República, tornando obrigatório o voto nominal nas listas partidárias».

Tudo visto, quanto à apresentação de listas de cidadãos (volto a insistir que a forma rigorosa de referir a coisa é «candidaturas apresentadas por grupos de cidadãos eleitores») há  que concluir que afinal era só uma questão de tempo e foi exactamente para casos destes que se inventou a desculpa de «só os burros não mudam de opinião».

Quanto à parte da «votação nominal obrigatória» nas listas partidárias, é matéria sobre a qual farei logo que puder um extenso post com todas as dúvidas e incertezas sobre o modus faciendi que isso me suscita. Para já, só digo que uma noite destas tive um pesadelo que consistiu em imaginar, possivelmente sem fundamento, que os eleitores tinham de levar para a cabine de voto as listas de todos os partidos com os nomes (então e as biografias?) dos seus candidatos e depois, mesmo os muito idosos ou atingidos por considerável iliteracia, teriam de usar a lista dos candidatos do seu partido preferido e demorar uns minutos a estabeleceram as suas preferências entre eles.

O problema é este: creio não ser presunção eu pensar que sei mais do que 95% dos portugueses sobre sistema eleitorais e formas organizativas do processo eleitoral. Mas, dadas as dúvidas e perplexidades que esta proposta me suscita, cabe-me admitir sem qualquer dificuldade que sei muitíssimo menos que as 60 personalidades que vieram defender esta «votação nominal obrigatória».

É o que veremos quando eu perguntar e quando alguma delas responder. 

Adenda: ver na caixa de comentários texto de Rui Tavares e curta réplica minha.