Workers Know Your History, Tom Anderson.

        A wee poem from the past. Written by Tom Anderson, born Pollokshaws 1863, died 1947. He founded the first Socialist Sunday School, 1894, and in 1897 formed the South Side Socialist Sunday School. As well as a revolutionary socialist, he was a song writer and poet.

 
The Revolutionist

“We fear not their law, nor yet their great men;

We fear not their prisons or blood-gallows pen;

We fear nor their priests, or parsons, or their spies;

We fear not their land away up in the skies.

We laugh at their army, and navy, and king;

We laugh at the god to whom these thieves sing.

We laugh, and in earnest we strive for the day

We wipe out the tyrants who do our class slay.”

Tom Anderson

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In Fear Of A Loving God.

        Every time the ISIL religious nutters, rampaging through the Middle East, carry out one of their many sadistic be-headings, our babbling brook of bullshit, the mainstream media, splashes the details across front pages and on TV screens, condemnation rages against such a barbaric act, as it should. However, I couldn't find much coverage of the case of a man sentenced to be be-headed for tearing a Koran. The reason being, that particular case, was taking place in one of our “friendly” nations, Saudi Arabia. Saudi Arabia is allowed to carry out be-headings, public floggings, and stoning to death, with impunity, simply because it is a “friendly” nation.
      Just the other day, in another “friendly” nation, a young man and his wife were dragged from their bicycle rickshaw and brutally assaulted by a group with machetes. The young man died on the way to hospital, his wife is seriously injured and has lost a finger. His crime, he was an atheist blogger in Bangladesh, another “friendly” nation. I'm waiting to see just how much coverage our babbling brook of bullshit will give this barbaric crime, committed by the faithful of one of the world's largest religions.

      Across the globe we can put our finger on brutal and vicious killings, savage wars and community conflict, and at the same time, you will be putting your finger on the god loving killing the god loving. Day and daily, you will find the god loving killing those who have no god, all in the name of their particular “loving” god. Religion, insanity, and the curse of the masses.

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

 

Blood For Wealth.

     I have always held that wars are an economic tool of capitalist governments. They can start them and prolong them, to suit their own economic ends. There is lots of money to be made in destruction and re-building, plus creating chaos in your rival's camp. Think of all the public money that flows into the arms industry during conflict. Every bullet, rocket, shell, missile, fired has to be replaced, every damaged piece of equipment has to be replaced, and it is all tax payers money pouring into the corporate bank accounts. Think how much easier it is to control the assets in a region if that region doesn't have a strong local government. Chaos allows the powerful to walk in and dictate what happens to that region's assets.
 

      WWI was a brutal imperialist scramble for power and resources, a blood bath for markets and territory. WWII was a clash of empires as the British empire felt threatened by the resurgence of the German empire. All the blood that has flowed in the Middle East since then, has been for the control of its oil, none of it has been for the welfare and benefit of the people of that area.
      In all these brutal capitalist tactics for power and wealth, other forces hedge their bets until they think they can see a winner, or feel their power and assets are threatened, then they throw in their hand with this side or that side. In this insane blood letting for power, your ally in this conflict could be your enemy in the next, loyalty depends on wealth and power.

      Having said all that, I have always been puzzled how a band of vicious religious nutters, in this case, ISIL, can march through country after country, taking on the state armies of Syria, Iraq and the Kurds and win massive swaths of land. Even now, with the “coalition” forces bombing the shit out of them they still manage to hold and take territory. Remember our "air-strikes" managed to bring down the well armed Libyan state. Of course our babbling brook of bullshit, the mainstream media, will not shed any light on that, as all they do is pour out misinformation, illusions and propaganda, for their lords and masters.
      However, if the following report has and validity, which I see no reason why it shouldn't, it does help explain the long life and continued success of that rat-bag of religious nutters that go by the name of ISIL.

     This from Global Research:

Iraqi Army Downs Two British Planes Carrying Weapons for ISIL Terrorists
GR editor’s Note
      There are no reports in the Western mainstream media pertaining to this issue.
      This report is based on statements emanating from the Iraq parliament, with photographic evidence. We have not been in a position to corroborate this report by FARS News.
       Iraq’s army has shot down two British planes as they were carrying weapons for the ISIL terrorists in Al-Anbar province, a senior lawmaker disclosed on Monday.
       “The Iraqi Parliament’s National Security and Defense Committee has access to the photos of both planes that are British and have crashed while they were carrying weapons for the ISIL,” Head of the committee Hakem al-Zameli said, according to a Monday report of the Arabic-language information center of the Islamic Supreme Council of Iraq.

Read the full article HERE:

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Glasgow Council Plunders Public Spaces.

From Save The Steps campaign:

Another public space to become a private shopping mall.

To all our amazing supporters,

      You will have probably heard, through social media and local news coverage, that Glasgow City Council voted in favour of demolishing the steps at Glasgow Royal Concert Hall, 11 votes - 4 votes.
      This also means that the Donald Dewar statue will be moved further down Buchanan Street, just outside the Sainsburys on Cathedral Street / Bath Street.
Our team are inevitably gutted with the decision, with a demonstration of more than 100 people, over 2,000 individual objection letters and emails, 15,000 signatures (and rising) showing how unpopular their plans are for this valued public space.
      The appalling attitude of the council is clear in this radio interview, where councillor Liz Cameron dismisses our huge petition as unimportant compared to the Council's long-term plans. You can also hear our fabulous campaigner Aileen McKay expressing the outrage we all feel at the decision the council have taken. Thanks to Clyde 1 for giving us the air-time to get our point across - the BBC didn't even bother to contact us!
      We'd like to thank you for your ongoing support in signing the petition, the letters you sent to your local councillors and those who attended the demonstration on the 15th February. We could not have raised the awareness that we did or got as much media coverage.
      However, this is NOT the end of our campaign as we wish to continue to raise awareness of the Council's plans and the privatisation of public spaces within Glasgow city centre.
      Some folks, out-with of our team, have organised an “Occupy The Buchanan Street Steps” event, this Saturday 28th February at 12pm.
Details can be found on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/events/896701807057841
      Following on from the protest on the 15th February, it'd be good if supporters could turn up with “Hands off our public space” styled banners, placards, flags etc. Be creative!
      Demolition is not due for some time yet, so we still have an opportunity to show our opposition to the plans.
     Please continue to sign and share the online petition where you can and tell your friends and family.

Thank you again and we look forward to seeing you on Saturday afternoon.

Save the Steps Team

https://you.38degrees.org.uk/petitions/save-the-steps

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

Greek Referendum.

        Is Greece heading out of the Euro? I have always felt that the Syriza plan was doomed to fail, as it was asking the European financial Mafia to be compassionate and think of the people of Greece. That bunch of money junkies will not tolerate any form of “left” government in its patch. The so called “left of centre” yes, they will always play ball with the money thugs, but a government that puts the people before the markets? No way. The Syriza group may have a mandate from the people of Greece, but that means nothing to the low life forms that make up the Troika, (EU, European Union, ECB, European Central bank, IMF, International Mankind Fuckers), Theirs is a world of balance sheets and profit, and there is not a column on that balance sheet for “people”. Syriza was the Oliver, asking the fatcats for, more please, not a strong bargaining position.

      Up until very recently the thought of Greece leaving the Euro had not entered the consciousness of the people of Greece, however, having been booted in the teeth, and told there's plenty more where that came from, the “exit” is being discussed, with the thought in mind, who wants more of this?

      The people of Greece are being told to look to the horizon, and see more of the same, unemployment, poverty, destroyed social services, increase in mental and physical health problems, substance abuse, suicides and homelessness. And they are asking WHY?

      I believe that the next line of thought will be a referendum on the exit from the Euro, with a very strong possibility that it will be for a, get us to hell out of this shithole. They may fear the unknown, but they are now most certainly angry and sick of the known. 

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

The Defence Of Public Spaces.

    The privatisation of public spaces is an ongoing affair, in country after country. It matters not what particular party you vote into the cesspool of power, they all behave the same, public bad, private good. Of course this is not what the people want and there is a continual struggle to hold onto what public spaces we still have. In Glasgow we have seen the private encroach and gobble up, little by little our public spaces. Not so long ago, a slice of St Enoch Square was added to a shopping mall, before that a part of Pollok Park became a motorway, and the council's latest venture is to take away the Buchanan Steps, a popular meeting place, and turn it in to an addition to the Buchanan shopping mall, and so it goes on.

      However it doesn't always go the way of the money addicts, and it swells the heart with pride when the private is shown the door and the public triumph.

      On one of my visits to Athens in 2009, a story unfolded of the park in Athens that the council decide to turn into a car park, ripped up the trees with the intention of concreting the space, but the people decide otherwise, and proceeded to replant the area with trees. Thanks to the continuing effort and solidarity of the ordinary people, it is still, in 2015, a park and a meeting place for the public. We could all learn from the people involved.

From Contrainfo:

 More photos from the park HERE.

      On January 26th 2009, Athens Municipality crews on the orders of the then mayor N.Kaklamanis destroyed the park located on Kyprou Street, uprooting its perennial trees with a view to handing over the space to a private parking company.
     Its cementing was prevented thanks to the immediate mobilisation and combative resistance of local residents and people in solidarity, who put in collective efforts to regenerate the park, planting 150 new trees and shrubs, and transformed it once again into an open public green space and a focal point of social struggle.
     Six years after the park was destroyed, and despite the systematic machinations of the municipal authority and the state, we continue to resist in a collective, self-organised, anti-institutionalised and self-determined manner against its commercialisation, ghettoisation and antisocial use, and we keep defending its open, social character.
Nowadays, when the largest part of society suffers the consequences of an all-out attack by the state and the bosses, we continue to defend every focus of resistance against poverty, fear, exploitation, racism and repression, for a society of equality, solidarity and freedom.

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

Creationist And Other Nutters.

        We all know that religions can come up with some weird and wonderful beliefs and statements, but top of that crazy heap are probably the "creationists", who come up with the most bizarre and irrational statements, making it extremely difficult to grasp the true idiocy of their "philosophy". They can take science turn it on its head, make few miraculous miscalculations, add in a guess or two, stir with fantasy and wishful thinking, and proclaim the outcome as irrefutable truth.

       With this in mind I really enjoyed this wee tongue-in-cheek article from Satire Wire:

PETERSBURG, KY (SatireWire.com) – Creationists using a deep-faith telescope said today they have discovered a galaxy formed at the very beginning of time, nearly 6,000 years ago.

     The galaxy, which they named “Michael” after one of the earliest angels, is about 6,000 light years from Earth, but not more, “because light did not exist before that time,” researchers explained.

A telescope (above) is an instrument that aids in the observation of remote objects by collecting electromagnetic radiation. A creationist telescope (below) is the exact same thing, but with the lens cap on.

       The team’s discovery was immediately condemned by the American Astronomical Society, which said “Michael” is actually the Andromeda galaxy, which formed 9 billion years ago. In response, Bertram Hill, lead theophysicist at the subbasement Creation Science Observatory in Kentucky, said, “No it isn’t” and called the debate a tie.

Hill and his colleagues made their observations using a specially designed Deep Faith Creationist Telescope, which is a standard wide-field, Ritchey–Chrétien hyperbolic telescope, but with the lens cap on. From there, calculating the age of Michael, and the Universe itself, was simple, Hill said.

       “We know this galaxy is about 6,000 years old because we know the Universe is 6,000 years old, and we know that because, contrary to what non-believers say, we’ve done the math,” said Hill. “Specifically, we’ve taken the ‘supposed’ age of the Universe – 13 billion years – and multiplied it by .000046, which gives us, as we suspected, the true age of 6,000.”

     But why multiply the age of the Universe by .000046?

“Because that gives us 6,000,” said Hill.

      Using this same multiplier, Hill said creationists plan to further shake up the scientific community by announcing that dinosaurs died out 3,000 years ago, Jesus was born last month, and Pittsburgh was founded on Tuesday.

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

Net Neutrality, Is Almost There.

       The fight for net neutrality is starting to look like a success story, not quite yet, but it could be in sight. All because of world wide solidarity and mobilisation. Together we can change the world, on many more fronts.

This from Fight for the Future:

The first thing I read this morning gave me chills.

      The New York Times ran a front page story about how enemies of net neutrality are on the retreat, and that tomorrow, we could see the biggest open Internet victory of our lives. [1]
Bottom line: together, we are on the cusp of an absolutely unbelievably epic victory for net neutrality. Do you want to savor it? Watch this video we made!
      We whipped up this fun little video to mark the “final” moments of the Internet Countdown, and to look back on how we got here, together. It’s so mind blowing to think how all these online protests, real life camp-outs, calls, emails and epic stunts snowballed into what could be the biggest win of our lives. It could be even bigger than defeating SOPA. [2][3]
      Keep an eye on the news tomorrow, and remember: activism works. When tons of people come together with a clear vision, nothing’s impossible. Really! Getting to where we are right now was supposed to be impossible!!
Can’t watch a video right now? Would you rather be scolding some politicians on the phone? Then click here to start making phone calls!
      The House Energy and Commerce subcommittee just had a hearing today whose sole purpose was to kill net neutrality with partisan confusion. That’s what we’re up against now, and we need to smack it down hard if we want to defend any victory. Click here to call these committee members, and stay on the line for as long as you like; we’ll keep connecting you with more of them… until you hang up or your phone runs out of batteries :)

     Thanks for everything you do,
Holmes Wilson, Tiffiniy Cheng, Evan Greer, Vasjen Katro, Jeff Lyons, Laila Murad, and the whole Fight for the Future team.
1. http://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/25/technology/path-clears-for-net-neutrality-ahead-of-fcc-vote.html
2. http://www.forbes.com/sites/marvinammori/2015/02/25/ten-reasons-the-net-neutrality-victory-is-bigger-than-the-sopa-win/
3. http://www.wetmachine.com/tales-of-the-sausage-factory/the-fcc-is-gonna-give-me-an-open-internet-for-my-birthday-best-present-evar/

Want more awesome more often?

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* Keep us fighting, chip in what you can.

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

Why Apathy When You're Hungry?

     I found this article by Michael Theodosiadis interesting and thought it worthy of publicising.

From Eagainst:

      The question that emerges is why the passion for political and social life remains the exception rather than the rule? Why do people constantly withdraw in the private realm, allowing public matters to be managed by representatives, “experts” and technocrats? What makes people not fight for emancipation when their most fundamental and vital interests are threatened? Even worse they applaud and consent to authoritarian rules imposed on them. What motivates Wilhelm Reich (1983, p.53) to write that “what has to be explained is not the fact that the man who is hungry steals or the fact that the man who is exploited strikes, but why the majority or those who are hungry don’t steal and why the majority of those who are hungry don’t strike”? This leads to the following conclusion: the main issue is not to give the citizen consciousness of social responsibility – this is understood. The question is what inhibits the realization of such responsibility. What drives millions of people to consider insane leaders as the only ones able to solve their problems and overcome the socio-economic crisis?
     The French thinker Etienne de la Boetie (1530-1563), one of the first that dealt with this issue, in his Discourse on Voluntary Servitude (1548) is unable to understand this phenomenon. He vividly and derisively describes how people allow themselves to be governed by kings and princes despite their inner desire to reject such subordination. He also mentions that human beings, choosing to live in authoritarian structures, are neither men – as freedom is the natural state of the species – nor animals, because even animals when their freedom is limited or when they are in captivity resist so strongly to the point of self-harm.

Read the full article HERE:

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

Glasgow TTIP Meeting.

     TTIP still rumbles on, wheeling and dealing behind closed doors. The corporate world's attempt at a final thrust to take control of the world, and bring an end to any shape, form or illusion of democracy. What is more our elected politicians are in there stitching us up, all in secret.

Global Justice Now is holding a meeting regarding TTIP in Glasgow this Friday, 27th. February.    

       On Friday 27 February, Global Justice Now campaigner Ed Lewis will be in Glasgow speaking at a public meeting about the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Treaty (TTIP), the EU-US mega-trade deal that could hand unprecedented power to multinational businesses. You are very warmly invited.

      Come along and find out more about how TTIP threatens hard-won regulations to protect the environment, food, workers' rights and our public services. Hear the latest on where the negotiations are up to, how the opposition is growing and what action we can take to stop TTIP.

The meeting is on at 7pm at Govanhill Baths Community Trust, 99 Calder Street, Glasgow G42 7RA.

     TTIP will affect people in Scotland: from the NHS and other public services, to laws on fracking, local procurement, and the food we eat.  Make your voice heard with others across Europe to stop this free trade deal. Please come along on Friday to find out more.

Best wishes

Liz
Global Justice Now (Scotland)

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

Immigrant Rights Are Civil Rights.

 An urgent call for solidarity from Unity Centre Glasgow:

(Note: Template Letters at bottom of post)

        Marking one year since Mohammed Alam was made destitute and began his stay in a Glasgow night shelter, the UK Home Office have decided to forcibly remove him against his will. Alam is being held in Dungavel detention centre, the only detention centre in Scotland and will be moved to one of the 12 other detention centres in England tomorrow in order to be close to Heathrow Airport to access his intended flight on THURSDAY 26th February via Jet Airways.

        Alam has been in the UK for 6 years and despite being made destitute a year ago has managed to make a life here, most recently in Glasgow. He is an active member of the night shelter that accommodates him from 8am to 8pm every night and also volunteers for Bridging the Gap. Less than two weeks ago he was featured in an article in the Evening Times highlighting the role the night shelter plays in his life and situation presently in the UK. There is some speculation that this may have had something to do with the Home Office’s sudden vindictive actions towards him. The article titled ‘Inside the Unity Centre: back home in Bangladesh I was tortured…’ can be accessed here http://www.eveningtimes.co.uk/news/shelter-for-the-forgotten-197122n.117816482#disqus_thread

         Alam was detained abruptly on the 16th of February at the Home Office Reporting Centre on Brand Street, Glasgow. He has been regularly signing at the Home Office Reporting Centre as this is a requirement of individuals who have claimed asylum. Penalties of not signing are high as well as constant threats made by the Home Office, however, in this case the penalty came by following the rules.

         Alam’s lawyer has put together a fresh claim for his case, however, it cannot be put in until a response is gained from legal aid. There is no reason to suggest Alam would not qualify for legal aid, however, this is presently the only barrier that would lead to the definite cancellation of his ticket in two days time.

         Details of Alam’s reason for claiming asylum in the UK cannot be disclosed because of the sensitive nature of his claim and fear of persecution and likely death if forcibly returned to Bangladesh. It is apparent, however, that he has no confidence whatsoever in the Judicial System in Bangladesh and its ability or likelihood of leading to his protection and safety. This is due to high levels of corruption within the police and judiciary.

        We are calling on supporters and friends to contact Jet Airways to inform them of the situation facing Alam if removed via their services. Such action can and often does make a difference and in this instance will gain time needed for Alam’s legal aid to be approved.

       Please urgently contact Jet Airways through as many channels as you have access to, to ask them to halt the forced removal of Mohammed Alam, and allow him to remain in Glasgow, where he belongs.

       It seems living in a night shelter, on the floor of a church with 15 other single men in Glasgow, night after night for a year is not enough to prove Alam’s very real need for protection – so lets help gain him some more time to meet the unbelievably high levels of scrutiny the Home Office impose by taking collective action to STOP THIS FLIGHT and PREVENT THIS INHUMANE FORCED REMOVAL of a dear friend of Glasgow’s.

    Contact Jet Airways – Please quote flight numbers 9W121 and 9W272 on correspondence.

Phone: 0808 101 1199 (Toll Free/Freephone)
            020 8735 9650 (Heathrow Office)
            0208 735 9650 (London Office)

Fax: 0208 735 9655

Email: guestrelations@jetairways.com

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/jetairways

Twitter: @jetairways

Also contact UK Corporate Communications

Mr. Simon Quarendon,
Keene
Whitehall House,
41 Whitehall,
London – SW1A 2BY
United Kingdom
Phone:   +44 (0) 207 839 2140
Fax:        +44 (0) 207 839 1436
Email:    jetairways@keenecomms.com

TEMPLATE LETTERS:

Word format   Letter-to-Jet-Airways

PDF format     Letter-to-Jet-Airways

Many thanks!

SOLIDARITY!

Unity!

Unity Centre Glasgow, 30 Ibrox Street, G51 1AQ

0141 427 79 92

info@unitycentreglasgow.org

www.unitycentreglasgow.org

Practical support and solidarity to all asylum seekers and migrants in Scotland.

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

Do Not Be Bullied.

An Important date for your diary, picket, Partick Job Centre Wednesday 25th. February, 2:30. Prove to the powers that be, that we will not be bullied, we will stand in solidarity with each other.

YOU HAVE THE RIGHT TO
   BE ACCOMPANIED TO ALL  
   BENEFITS INTERVIEWS!

    You have the right to be accompanied to interviews at the Jobcentre and all DWP offices – and that's official!
      A top official writing on behalf of the Chief Executive of Jobcentre Plus for the United Kingdom has stated:
    “On the matter of accompanied interviews....Mr McGonigle and his predecessor Bill Wilson have written to Edinburgh Claimants about this and made clear the position for interviews conducted on Jobcentre plus premises. We accept that there will always be times when customers attending our premises feel the need to be accompanied by a friend or advice worker and we will always try to accommodate this where possible.”
      (Letter copied to Edinburgh Claimants from Matthew Nicholas, Employers and Stakeholders Director Jobcentre Plus, on behalf of the Chief Executive Darra Singh, letter dated 15 February 2010. Mr McGonigle and Mr Wilson are the current and previous Jobcentreplus local District Managers)
     More evidence of this right was provided on 24 th February 2014 when, in response to a Freedom of Information request, the DWP wrote: "Claimants accessing DWP benefits and services can have someone to accompany them to act on their behalf.....”
https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/196795/response/486014/attach/html/3/Response%20634.pdf.html
     By writing that the accompanier can act on the claimant’s behalf this statement also makes it clear that the accompanier can speak in appointments.  

NO NEED TO FACE THEM ALONE

        Certainly if you have any interview you think might pose problems we advise you to take a friend or adviser with you. For example, if they are threatening benefits sanctions, trying to change your jobseekers agreement, or force you to go on schemes or apply for jobs you don't want, or if you are called in by the Counter Fraud team, you should NOT face them alone. If you have a benefits medical exam, you should be accompanied. Edinburgh Claimants and Edinburgh Coalition Against Poverty accompany people to such interviews, and to interviews at City of Edinburgh Council, all the time. If anyone tries to stop your friend or adviser accompanying you, then tell them the Chief Executive of Jobcentre Plus says this is allowed, and show them the quotes in this leaflet. Edinburgh Coalition Against Poverty have also won the right for claimants to be accompanied by a person of their choice to all A4e, Ingeus and JHP workfare provider appointments.
Edinburgh Coalition Against Poverty

 ecap@lists.riseup.net www.edinburghagainstpoverty.org.uk
      Don’t be bullied or intimidated – let’s support each other and stand up for ourselves.
Partick Job Centre picket organised by Clydeside IWW clydeside@iww.org.uk and other activists in solidarity with Tony Cox arrested in Arbroath on 29th. January after police acted on a complaint by JobCentre Management when accompanying a jobseeker, who was facing unreasonable requests to comply with a Jobseekers Agreement. Today there is a Court picket in Forfar and pickets in Edinburgh etc.

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

Today's Wild West.

    While we here in Scotland. population 5.2 million, are lumbered with a police force that has carried out nine times more stop and searches than New York, population 8.4 million, or London, population 8.3 million, at least the victims are still alive. Take the police force in Pasco in Washington State, population 59,000, they have shot and killed four people in the last six months. This is more than the three years figures for police in the UK, population approximately 62 million. In the last year, they also managed to outstrip the police in Germany, population 80.6 million.

     The video shows a shocking misuse of power, the man concerned, apparently he threw rocks at an officer, had obviously stopped running to face the officers, but hit the ground in a hail of bullets, just like a Wild West movie. America, land of the free.

       Of course if our Scottish Police chief has his way there is nothing to say that we might not be competing with the little district of Pasco in Washington State. 

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

Please Sir, Can I Have Some More?

      I have always held the view that the EU would not tolerate any deviation from its financial masters' "austerity" plan. Since they don't really give a shit about the people of any particular country, they are quite prepared to see a people slide into total deprivation, as long as it protects their mountain of phoney money. People don't matter when you are dealing with balance sheets. For Greece to go to them to negotiate and talk about a humanitarian crisis, is simply to confuse the issue by talking a different language. All they would say to that is "what humanitarian crisis"?

       It has never been a negotiation on equal terms, Greece is the Oliver in this macabre play, they are simply going to the fat cats and asking for more please, under the illusion that people matter in these affairs. If you play the game according to the rules laid down by your adversaries, you are onto a looser.

      Where does this leave Greece? It leaves it still on a hiding to more austerity and deprivation. Time keeps rolling on, we have been treated to seven years of austerity, and more promised, nobody has said when it will all come good. Austerity is the new way of life, the longer it goes on, and they get away with it, the longer it will go on. Of course we are treated to phoney rhetoric of recovery is arriving at platform one SOON.

        Accept it, the grand plan is for a low wage economy throughout Europe, creating a sweatshop to compete with the Eastern sweatshops. In doing so protecting the loot of the Western financial Mafia. Unless of course, we all wake up and say we don't need to take this shit from a bunch of useless parasites, we don't have to play the game to their rules. Just as they change the rules to suit themselves, then so should we. Their grand plans are not to our advantage, nor are they set in tablets of stone.

An analysis on the latest Greek situation from Lenin's Tomb.

       The problem with Tsipras's speech goes further than this, however.  Not only is it deluded.  It recalibrates the government's language and goals in order to rationalise not just this thrashing but future routs.  Having said that austerity and the Memorandum are now left behind by this deal, the government shifts the goalposts and terms of future negotiations.

       And this is part of the reason why those who speak of 'buying time' are wrong.  Time is not a simple quantity that only one side gains from. The EU ruling classes have also 'bought time' and they have the resources and are on the offensive, while Syriza has retreated.  There are no grounds for thinking that Syriza's bargaining position will be better in four months time than it is now.  It has already weakened its stance, while its political position, after four months of continued austerity, will probably be worse.

      One can hardly pin most of the blame for this on Syriza.  They are in a weak position, and it is doubtful that any government could have obtained better against an EU determined to humiliate Greece.  Yet, the line of Tsipras and Varoufakis is simply untenable.  Their commitment to trying to resolve this crisis within the terms of the euro must fail.  They were simply wrong to think that they would have a single ally or interlocutor in the EU.  The southern European governments are even more fanatical than Berlin on this question.  Hollande, far from being a friendly face, told Syriza to shove it fairly early on: he made his decision on austerity some time ago.

Read the full article HERE:

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