No Prisons, No Borders.

      It is a strange fact that as we become, supposedly, more civilised, we lock up more people than ever. That, supposed pinnacle, of Western development America, locks up more people than any other country on the planet and is responsible for a quarter of the world's prison population. The UK has one of the highest prison populations per head, in Europe. These two countries strut the globe shouting "freedom", while the holding the accolade of locking up more of their citizens than anybody else in the West.

 

      The concept of prison is outdated in any truly civilised country, it was built on a failed and false premise. Take a "bad" person, punish them and they will become good. It then was modified to take a "bad "person, lock them up and they will see the errors of their ways and reform. The fact that over the centuries we have seen the prison population grow, can only mean, it is failing, or we are becoming a more "bad" species. Of course we all know that prisons are really there to keep the population in thrall to the established power. There is no place for prisons in any free and civilised society.

An interesting article originally from MediaPart before being translated by Lena Theodoropoulou and appearing in Xpressed:

      ---“Prison was built on the principles of philanthropy: during the time of their incarceration, the offenders would reflect, would improve, would be reborn. History defeated this sad nonsense. A prison can only be constructed on the foundations of absolute spiritual cruelty; otherwise imprisonment is just based on the hope that everything will go well after it ends, hence on something completely inconceivable”. When Catherine Baker (journalist of the libertarian movement, author and supporter of the abolition of prisons) was writing these words in March of 1984, in France there were 38,600 persons held in prisons. Thirty years later this number has increased to 69,000 and the average time of incarceration is more than double (from 5.5 to more than 12 months).----

Read the full article HERE:

Visit ann arky's home at www.radicalglasgow.me.uk

Time For politicians And Bankers To Leave.

 

    I recently read an open letter by the leader of the Portuguese dockers union, to Passos, the Prime minister of that country, and published in Xpressed. Though I don't agree with the entire content, I agree with the feelings and the sentiments expressed in the letter, particularly the last couple of paragraphs. The last paragraph could equally apply here or for that matter, to any other country.

        The fury with which you take forward your ideological agenda is so radical that you are unable to look at the consequences for people’s lives. In the Lisbon Port, for example, which is the reality I know better, the irrationality of port law, which you have approved against everything and everyone, has led to 47 dockers being unfairly fired, when their job was crucial for the performance of the port. The bosses have recognised this and have committed to reinstate them all, but nothing erases the suffering of being jobless for one year. Do you have any idea what that means? I know well that you only care about the performance of exports –a reality you have hindered– but let me tell you that your intransigency has a tremendous impact in people’s lives. Unemployment is almost always to blame for other avatars, from divorce to depression, from giving up on having children to losing the house, from the lack of horizons to the illusionary escape of emigrating.

      Passos, listen… we are tired of seeing our relatives, rights and dreams emigrate and we will keep fighting so that you understand quickly that the best for everyone is that you, your government and your bankers leave. Nobody will shed a tear when you sail off. This trip today is a condition for people to have hope in a better future tomorrow. It’s not enough surely, but everything will begin again in that day, whole and clean.

President of the Dockers Union , Traffic workers and Maritime Clerks of the Centre and South of Portugal.

Read the full letter HERE:

Visit ann arky's home at www.radicalglasgow.me.uk

Pan-European Anti-Fascist Movement.

        Where better to hold a pan-European anti-fascist gathering than in Greece. Since the financial Mafia's thugs, the Troika, (EC, European Commission, ECB, European Central Bank, IMF, International Mankind Fuckers) plunder the public assets of that country, throwing the people in to deprivation, fascism has come crawling out of its sewer and grown in strength. Golden Dawn now openly struts the streets of Greece, spewing its vile vomit of division and Nationalism. Whenever capitalism hits one of its inevitable and regular "crises", and poverty is heaped on the general public, fascist scum usually find that they get funding to grow. It is capitalism's safety valve, which helps to create division among the ordinary people, and prevent a mass revolt for real change. We end up fighting fascist groups rather than the system.

European Anti-fascist Meeting in Athens 11, 12 & 13 April 2014

FOR A EUROPE FREE OF FASCISM, RACISM AND SEXISM

IN A WORLD OF FREEDOM AND SOCIAL SOLIDARITY

 

This from Xpressed:

        Seventy years after World War II and the defeat of fascism, Europe is facing the challenge of a nazi, racist far-right on the rise. In times of economic crisis and of harsh attack against workers’ and peoples’ rights, especially the rights of southern European peoples, from France to Ukraine (with the nazis in power) and from Norway to Greece, xenophobic and intolerant parties and groups start having influence on the society, even on poor and excluded popular classes all over Europe. They have begun to play a part in formulating political developments and getting involved in societies, schools, the streets, working-class neighborhoods, as well as national parliaments and state devices, most of all the police.

Read the full article HERE: 

Visit ann arky's home at www.radicalglasgow.me.uk