Aching For The Sun

        Hi, to my friends, comrades, followers, readers and critics, a big thanks to all those who read my "stuff" and comment. Stasia and I are off on a wee holiday, a nice wee break. No doubt both of us will be expecting different things from this escape, but I will be looking for some kind warm sun to gently caress my ageing body. It will be a chance to re-charge batteries, after what has been a very busy and at times stressful period. I will be be parting company from my dream machine, my bike, and this blog will probably fall silent for another wee spell. Though I expect both bike and blog to re-start when I return. 

           A photo from my run  last Thursday. Just peeping through the trees is a favourite watering hole of mine, The Aizle Tearoom. at Ballott Toll, on the Aberfoyle Road. It is not expensive and they do a lovely plate of lentil soup. All cycle runs should end at a good tearoom.

See you soon.

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

Forgotten Women Warriors.

         Women have always played a very important part in the struggles of the ordinary people, but so often there contribution and their names, fade into the fog of history and are forgotten. Glasgow remembers some, Ethel MacDonald, Helen Crawfurd, Mary Barbour, to mention a few, but how many have we forgotten? For those, myself among them, who feel we should do everything we can to bring these lost and forgotten warriors back into the forefront of our history, there is an interesting site, The Beautiful Nihilist. Though it refers to Russian Nihilists, it still makes interesting reading and shines a light on some forgotten warriors of struggle for freedom.

Vera Zassulitch.

       Welcome to The Beautiful Nihilist: Representations of Revolutionary Women. The goal here is to gather material from the popular press depicting radical and particularly militant women, in all its sensationalist and often exploitative glory. The articles and tales collected here document a familiar fascination with a political variety of femme fatale, often with a great deal of emphasis on the sexual desirability and social status of the women portrayed in presumably “unwomanly” acts of violence. At the same time, however, the tabloid presentation often allows important bits of history and biography to show through. Indeed, in many cases, this spectacular journalism is all that we have to document the lives of women who were on the front lines of the most militant sorts of struggles.

Continue reading HERE:

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

From Despair To Admiration.

 

        Looking at the affairs of this world my emotions sway from tremendous optimism, to abject despair. You look towards the Middle East and North Africa, and you see a swath of the world that is awash with blood and suffering, with daily deaths and destruction on a massive scale, the hand of the new era of capitalist imperialism. Trying to grasp the scale of the suffering and deprivation seems to be beyond our minds. How can we allow such misery to be the sum total of so many people's lives? War, power, greed and destruction, seem to be the only tools this rotten system can bring to bear on people's lives.

Winter

Dark malefic clouds crowd the sky
winds carry the stench of carrion to every nostril,
the crazy ape has followed the faculty of hawks.
All around stand crows, magpies, jackdaws, vultures,
edacious eyes anticipating their putrid feast.
A weary Cassandra laments;
doves, hearts weeping for a better yesterday
forsake their olive branches.

 

       Then of course we direct our eyes to the relentless struggle of those ordinary people, to shatter the grip of this cancerous system. From all corners of the world people are standing up and defying the power of neo-liberalism and its imperialist intentions. People are coming together and linking across borders in what they know is one struggle, one war, the war of the will of the people against the greed of raw capitalism, You have to stand back and gasp in admiration at this power and solidarity, and know within your heart, we will succeed. We can look at each other with pride knowing that this war is like a relay race, we take the baton and run with it, knowing that when we have run our lap, there will be somebody else there to take the baton and run further.

I’m Proud

I’m proud of my people, proud to be one of them,
that great mass on society’s bottom rung.
Those who, with coal-dust under their nails
in their eyes, in their lungs
claw at the earth's entrails.
Their brothers,
cement in their hair
in their mouth, in their ears,
oil ingrained in their fingers,
on their face.
Sisters, glistening with sweat
midst the ceaseless noise of machines
that throw out shirts, shoes, toys, carpets
for other people.
Those with soil and sweat stuck to their skin
smelling of the earth, feeding the multitude,
grinding out their lives in a harsh pitiless system
weighted down
with a sack load of half-dead dreams,
sometimes brought to their knees
by a tidal wave of despair,
never defeated,
groping in the dark to find tomorrow,
keeping hope alive;
they amaze me.
Somehow, from somewhere
in this cold, cruel
unforgiving scheme of things
they find love for their children.
Not a teaspoonful, not a cupful,
but buckets full, to bathe them in,
to pour over them.
They seem to know
that one day this world will be ours
and to take care of it
we will need those who have been loved. 

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

Freedom!! What Freedom?

        The usual common sense words from Not Buying Anything:
 

        Our much touted freedom in so-called democratic countries is an illusion. It is an over hyped lie. Except for one area - we are free to do as much consuming as our bank accounts will allow.

       Where else is the freedom?
      Are we free to protest without harassment? Free to travel a world without restrictive borders? Free to live anywhere we want? Free to quit work and live off the land?
       Are we free to put into our bodies what we want, or keep out of our bodies those things we don't want? Free to marry whom we wish? Free to use the bathroom we feel most appropriate for our gender situation? Free to read about the truth in the mainstream media?
       Instead of gaining any freedoms, we are increasingly being stripped of any vestiges of liberty that we have left. In some parts of the world you are not free to harvest rain water, or grow a garden where you neighbours can see it, or without being taxed for the privilege of putting a bit of distance between you and the system.
        Our system is broke. Unless you are rich, in which case you are more free than those less monetarily blessed. In today's world money is the way to freedom, not the ballet box. And if you don't have money you don't deserve to be free because you just aren't trying hard enough.
Now whole countries are being forced to accept the freedom to be plundered, privatized and pirated. How are you enjoying all that Western capitalist consumeristic freedom Iraq? Libya? Syria? Honduras? Brazil? Argentina? Egypt? Are you feeling it yet, all that juicy freedom? When we stop the violence, you can go shopping.
        Robin Mathews, author of “The Trans Pacific Partnership: Canada and Imperial Globalization”, describes our current situation: 

"A characteristic of Imperial Globalization is criminal manipulation of people and events for the profit of a few. It includes massive ‘disinformation’ about equality, benefits, social development, law, improved standards of living, etc.

The disinformation is spread by ‘authoritative’ news sources. In the hands of gigantic, wealthy, private corporations, globalization is a process which works to erase sovereign democracies and replaces them with ‘treatied’ sub-states, economic colonies ruled by faceless, offshore, often secret, unaccountable powers."

       You see, it is all about enriching the few as a result of the consumption of the many. Have money? Want stuff? This new world was made for you. Your dollars will buy you the freedom to consume, plus a bit more, depending on how much cash you have. More cash - more freedom.
        I don't know about you, but that is not a system I am interested in joining or supporting, and I will do everything I can to ensure that I am doing nothing to contribute toward this dismal distortion of our infinitely good and abundant planet.
       Freedom can not really be bought. Or given. Or forced. It just is, and we have to actively live it for ourselves. After all, consumption is not legally mandatory. Yet. We still have a choice.
        I am free to consume, but, well, no thanks. Consuming is enslaving us all. Therefore, I see unconsuming as the answer. As always, simplicity yields true freedom, and if more of us adopted such a lifestyle, we could negate the power of the criminal manipulators, and turn this thing around.
I'm not buying anything. Not their stuff, or their bullshit, for I am free to unconsume.

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

Bubble Gum And Candy Floss News.

         The way our babbling brook of bullshit, the mainstream media, spews out its vile bubblegum and candy-floss pulp, it is difficult to get a true picture of what is happening in other parts of the world. France for example, weeks of mass protests, violent clashes with the minders of the system, the riot police, tear gas and water cannon, and we get wall to wall coverage of football and mad supporters. America, well its Trump and Clinton and mass shootings, and so the public build a distorted picture of the world we live in. There is another world, the unreported world of ordinary people, of struggles across the globe, as people tackle the brutality, exploitation, injustice and poverty of a world system of capitalism, the real world, the one that we all live in.

         This short video from Anarchist Radio Berlin, Sur Negro, helps to blow away the fabricated fog, the mist of illusion, created by that babbling brook of bullshit, that continually attempts to obscures our vision.

 Sur negro-No Borders: New anti-authoritarian Web Series, 1st. session: Social struggles in USA.

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

No Borders!!!

          No Borders! People tend to see borders as those imaginary lines drawn on the surface of the planet by various power-mongers. However within those “borders” that surround “your” country, there are borders. There are areas of “no-go” territory, places of confinement, prisons are borders, those in can’t get out, those out can’t get in. Schools are borders, again once in, your not supposed to get out until the authorities tell you, you can go. They are all around us, detention centres, military property, places of employment, you can’t just walk in, and once in you can’t just walk out, you need somebody’s authority, or you pay a price. Even the glitzy shopping mall, you may go wandering in and leave, in fact you will be encouraged to come in, and you can just walk out, but the owner controls the right of entry, you can be banned from entering and you can be removed, if you don’t function as “expected”, it is not a public space. 

         Then there are the other type of borders, things you can't have, places that you can't go, barred for financial reasons, these borders are probably the most insidious, they slither through our society, separating the "haves" and the "have-nots", herding the poor into areas of deprivation, and making sure they stay there.

        Borders have become so entrenched in our psyche that there are borders we don’t even recognise, they become part and parcel of our life, an accepted fact of this society. This makes it all the more difficult for people to see the dropping of those imaginary lines that the power-mongers drew on the surface of the planet with our blood, but fall they must. 

 

         We can never claim to be free when we live in the midst of so many lines we cannot cross without a “higher” authority. We have to recognise all the borders within borders, a place of work should not be a place of confinement, but a place of willing creativity, schools should be an integrated part of our society, not a camp for shaping people to suit the needs of a capitalist “economy”. Prisons should be seen as what they are, an abomination and a scar on humanity, a system of repression. 

       Freedom means just that, freedom of movement, but must be linked to freedom to stay, with or without “documentation”. Borders are an anathema to freedom, our love of freedom means they will always need to be enforced, by a "higher" and "powerful" authority.

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

 

It's Your Pension They're After.

        We all know that in this society, big business comes first. Small businesses can fall by the wayside, but big business in trouble, they’ll see how they can get their grubby hands on taxpayers money, one way or another, to bail them out. It is usually a government subsidy, (taxpayers subsidy), or a tax break, some way in which we, the tax payers, can help keep the corporate beast alive. Now though they are sinking to an even lower level of duplicitous greed and depravity. It’s your pensions they are after. The government is considering giving Tata Steel the green light to cut people’s pensions, to save the shareholders money. Of course all the other big businesses will realise that this is a one-of arrangement, my arse. They will squeal “unfair”, they will claim that they need the same rules to make it a level playing field, and bob’s your uncle, open season on your pensions. Capitalism is ruthless, depraved, exploitative and favours the few, but they need our money to continue to screw us. It’s a crazy world, and we allow it to go on, when we could bring the whole thing crashing down. Workers of the world, take a months holiday, all at the same time.

This from 38 Degrees:

          The government’s trying to rush through new laws that could let big businesses put millions of our pensions at risk. [1] We've got 48 hours to stop them. In the rush to save a failing company, Tata Steel, the government’s planning to give them the power to cut staff pensions. Experts are warning it could open the floodgates for other companies to follow suit. It could put millions of pensions at risk. [2]
       But 38 Degrees members could stop them. The government’s consulting on their plans right now - but they’d probably prefer to keep them quiet. [3] If thousands of us sign a huge petition today, then deliver it on Wednesday we can force the plan out of the shadows.
       We’ve not got much time. The consultation closes in 48 hours so we’ve got to act fast. [4]

So please can you add your name right now?

SIGN THE PETITION

         Pensions are the safety net that let us sleep easy knowing that we’ve prepared for later life. Most of us spend years paying into them, but this new law could give big business bosses the power to go back on their promises and empty the pot.
       The government prides themselves on being good to pensioners. They know it’s a vote-winner. The last thing they want is a huge to-do over pensions that could anger a huge number of people they need on side. If tens of thousands of us sign a huge petition to stop the government rushing through these dangerous laws, it could make them back down to avoid the embarrassment.

 Please can you sign the petition now?

SIGN THE PETITION

Thanks for being involved,
Lorna, Rachel, Maddy and the 38 Degrees team
 NOTES:
[1] The Guardian: Tata Steel: warning that pensions restructure could set risky precedent: https://www.theguardian.com/business/2016/may/26/tata-steel-warning-that-pensions-restructure-could-set-risky-precedent
The Telegraph: Warning that Tata steel pension plan sets dangerous precedent: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2016/05/26/government-consults-on-legal-change-to-pension-rules-to-speed-ta/
[2] The BBC: Tata steel pension changes 'unique' to firm: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-36388178
[3] The consultation can be found below. It closes on 23rd June at 11:45pm.
Government.uk: British steel pension scheme: https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/british-steel-pension-scheme
[4] See note 3.

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

Solidarity In One Big Fight.

 

       It is great to see that the racist policies of this government, (and the previous ones) are being resisted and that resistance is growing, not just with meetings and leaflets, but by direct action. This latest action was in London and shows solidarity and ingenuity. It is all linked, migrants, workers conditions, social cleansing, austerity, it is one large fight against an all encompassing system of repression and exploitation.

This from Rabble:

       On Monday afternoon the neighbourhood of Deptford, South East London, chased away a Home Office “Immigration Enforcement” raid team. The Home Office bullyboys had reportedly been spotted several times in the previous week doing so-called “intelligence gathering”. I.e., trying to harass shopkeepers into giving them permission to carry out “operations” in their premises so they don’t have to go to the hassle of getting a court warrant. On Monday they came back in greater force, but people gathered and sent them away empty handed. They drove off in several unmarked cars but abandoned their marked “racist van” in a back street, which was then refurbished with the windows smashed and messages written in spray paint (see pictures).

     Deptford market is a regular target for Home Office raids, often working in conjunction with police, the local council and other agencies. The most recent major raid was in April. As with other London street markets (such as East Street), there are clear links between these attacks targeting migrants and wider attacks on the neighbourhood, as property developers and state authorities combine to “socially cleanse” the area, and clearing out those they consider undesirable. But resistance is growing. In Deptford, there is now a regular “Deptford Anti Raids” information stall every Saturday in the market, and Monday shows that people are ready to fight back.

Check the AntiRaids twitter account for raid alerts and other live updates.

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

A Cameraman's Oversight!!!

 

        While the babbling brook of bullshit, our mainstream media, has been over in France covering the football and the "supporters" kicking the shit out of each other, it seems amazing that with all their high-tec equipment and rapid access to getting anything of interest to their pulp making base here in the UK, they seem to have missed a few facts. One being that France, has been in turmoil for weeks with strikes, mass protests, and streets bathed with water cannons, and a haze of tear gas hanging in the air. Eager to show those nasty Russians kicking the shit out of those nice law abiding English, they failed to notice the French police in riot gear, kicking the shit out of the French citizens. You would be lead to believe that the only violence in France was those nasty Russians, everywhere else the population were sitting in cafés sipping cappuccinos.

       Here are a couple of "little incidents" that all those cameras and microphones seem to have missed. Probably a small oversight, or biased or censored reporting.

More Videos at arrezafe.

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

Singing In The Rain.

      Once again I was visited by the evil of the computer world, my computer decided to crash and leave me with a black screen. After a day of typing in gibberish, and getting "unknown command", I gave up and popped it into your friendly computer repair shop. I got it back working, but lots of stuff gone, so I've been trying to get it back to where it was before the dreaded black death. Hence my ranting mind being clamped in the sound of silence for the last week. Where would we be without the internet.

View of the Campsie Hills at Campsie Glen, before you start the walk.

     So today, in spite of the rain, I decided to escape on the dream machine, and head for familiar territory, the Campsies. It was dull and overcast with drizzle when I left, and raining steadily on the way back. However, I didn't suffer too much at all, despite the dampness, and thoroughly enjoyed the outing.

The view as you start the glen walk, too rough for my delicate bike.

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

 

A Future Thought.

        A poem, and why not? This one I found in an old newspaper, Free Society. An American paper, published in Chicago, with the sub heading, A Periodical of Anarchist Thought, Work and Literature, Vol.IX, No. 30, dated November 30th, 1902. It states that the author is unknown, so if you think you can throw some light on this, I'd be delighted to hear from you. After all, the poet deserves some recognition.

A Future Thought.

When o’er my cold and lifeless clay

The parting words of love are said,

And friends and kindred meet to pay

Their last fond tribute to the dead,

Let no stern priests with solemn drone

A formal liturgy intone-----

Whose creed is foreign to my own.

Let not a word be whispered there

In pit for my unbelief,

Or sorrow that I could not share

The views that gave their souls relief.

My faith to me is no less dear,

Nor less convincing and sincere

Than theirs, so rigid and austere.

Let no stale words of Church-born song,

Float out upon the silent air

To prove my implication wrong

The soul of her then lying there----

Why should such words be glibly sung

O’er one whose lively tongue

such empty phrases never hung.

But rather let the faithful few

Whose hearts so close were knit to mine

That they with time the dearer grew,

Assemble at the day’s decline.

And while the golden sunbeams fall

In floods of light upon my pall

Let them in softened tones recall,

Some tender memory of the dead----

Some virtuous act, some word of power

Which I, perchance, have done or said,

By loved ones treasured to that hour,

Recount the deeds which I admired,

The motives which my soul inspired,

The hopes by which my heart was fired.

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

"Holidayism".

       As capitalism lurches from one "crisis" to another, we get ever new theories, economic theories, social theories, some very complex, others not so, all pointing the way how to change the system, how to destroy the system, where we should be heading, and so on. Sometimes if we look back we find that somebody has said it all before, and in some cases in a very explicit fashion and very simply.

Walter Wilkinson, 1888-1970, author, puppeteer, put it quite simply in his book, The Peep Show:

       "If I were a philosopher expounding a new theory of living, inventing a new "ism," I should call myself a holidayist, for it seems to me that the one thing the world needs to put it right is a holiday. There is no doubt whatever about the sort of life nice people want to lead. Whenever they get the chance, what do they do but go away to the country or the seaside, take off their collars and ties and have a good time playing at childish games and contriving to eat some simple food very happily without all the encumbrances of chairs and tables. This world might be quite a nice place if only simple people would be content to be simple and be proud of it; if only they would turn their backs on these pompous politicians and ridiculous Captains of Industry who, when you come to examine them, turn out to be very stupid, ignorant people, who are simply suffering from an unhappy mania of greediness; who are possessed with perverse and horrible devils which make them stick up smoky factories in glorious Alpine valleys, or spoil some simple country by digging up and exploiting its decently buried mineral resources; or whose moral philosophy is so patiently upside down when they attempt to persuade us that quarrelling, and fighting, and wars, or that these ridiculous accumulations of wealth are the most important, instead of the most undesirable things in life. If only simple people would ignore them and behave always in the jolly way they do on a seashore what a nice world we might have to live in. Luckily nature has a way with her, and we may rest assured that this wretched machine age will all be over in a few years' time. It has grown up as a mushroom, and like a mushroom it has no stability. It will die."

       Of course Walter didn't see the strange new world that would spring from the madness of the old industrial world. The world of electronics, IT, artificial intelligence and mass surveillance, further alienating us from the simple world of "holidayism". However "holidayism" is still a road to be examined in detail.

       Walter Wilkinson was the brother of Arthur Wilkinson, English born anarchist, puppeteer, artist, and conscientious objector during the first world war. Arthur married Scottish born woman anarchist, writer, translator, and artist, Lilly Gair Aitken, (Lilly Gair Wilkinson).

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

We Have To Destroy To Build A New.

 

      New York, what is going on, a picture that you will not get on our babbling book of bullshit, the mainstream media. Well worth the watching through its 31 minutes. No Borders, Sur Negro, First Chapter, New York.

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

Pleasure In The Drizzle.

               Well today, Sunday, wasn't my kind of cycling day, dull, cool, a bit of a wind and drizzle, all the factors that play havoc with my wee bronchial tubes. However ever the optimist I decided to have a short run up to Clachan of Campsie.  I coughed and spluttered a bit, but no real problems, and I thoroughly enjoyed the outing. While having my obligatory plate of lentil soup, I had the added pleasure of my partner, Stasia arriving by car and joined me in the eating routine. So, all in all, a great afternoon.

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

As The Oil Flows, So Does The Blood.

       We all know that wars are fought not for principles of morality, defending democracy, or freeing "the people", but for the gain of those in power, the controlling of resources for big corporations, and dominance in resource rich territory. Anybody who can't see this, just isn't paying attention. Sometimes the manoeuvring remains shrouded in illusion and the fog of lies, sometimes it comes out quite quickly, but it is always a struggle to get the facts accepted.

       The Saudi lead massacre in the Yemen is one of those charades that the light of truth falls on while it is still in operation. The whole Yemeni slaughter is no more than bombing a clear path for a Western/Saudi backed oil pipeline to by-pass the Strait of Hormuz, and be free from Iranian influence. 

        We will support organisations like al-Qaeda, one day, then bomb them the next, depending how the powerful can use them.

        The following is an extract from a very interesting article on that Western backed Yemeni slaughter, taken from The Canary:

Massive attack

         In an official statement after the April operation, the Saudi-led coalition said that “more than 800 al-Qaeda elements” had been killed in the military confrontation. Mainstream media outlets parroted the coalition claim. The Wall Street Journal referred to a successful “offensive” marking a “new direction for the coalition.” And Reuters described the operation as a “lighting advance” that “routed the militants” from their stronghold. In the official narrative, on the day Saudi-led Yemeni and UAE troops moved to the outskirts of Mukalla, local Islamic clerics and tribesmen were enrolled to mediate al-Qaeda’s withdrawal. AQAP subsequently “fled westwards” in the wake of the frightening military advance.
        A statement from the Saudi embassy in Washington said: Saudi forces are also on the ground alongside the UAE forces in Mukalla… it is a Saudi-led Arab Coalition that is fighting AQAP alongside the US military contingent on the ground. New details about the alleged US and UK-backed assault emerged on Wednesday from an interview with the Commander of the Saudi-led Yemeni forces behind the Mukalla operation.
         In the Al Jazeera interview, Major General Faraj Salmeen al-Bahsini painted a Hollywood-esque picture of a: big number of [AQAP] fighters… destroyed first by the coalition’s warplanes and then by [our] forces on the ground. None of the al-Qaeda fighters was able to flee these camps.
       Al-Bahsini said that the total number of AQAP fighters killed was “probably” much higher than the 800 originally claimed. The general described: precise air strikes by the coalition’s warplanes on [AQAP’s] key positions, gatherings, ammunition depots and centres-of-command rooms.
         There were also, he said, bold coalition navy attacks on hundreds of fighters who were fleeing the city on boats and vessels bound for the Horn of Africa.
Not to mention: special commandos who attacked al-Qaeda from the sea The commandos bravely secured the Dhabah oil terminal from the AQAP barbarians, before rapidly defusing hundreds of landmines.

Except they didn’t.

Attack? What Attack?
        Independent on-the-ground sources have denied there was any such attack. Veteran BBC journalist Iona Craig, who has reported extensively from Yemen, said that the coalition statement was “ridiculous”, as AQAP had already deserted the city before the alleged military ‘rout’: There weren’t even 800 fighters left there. There was no fighting inside the city because al-Qaeda had already left. She described the 800 figure as “a lie that’s not even plausible.” Craig had been in Mukalla a month before the military operation. She said that Saudi-led forces had been secretly negotiating with AQAP for the previous two weeks “to let fighters leave”. Far from being ‘routed’, al-Qaeda “had been given free passage out of the city” by their Saudi benefactors.
         There were sporadic clashes on roads leading into Mukalla, but none within the city itself. She also said that coalition airstrikes were hitting targets that had already been repeatedly bombed.
        Mohammed al-Yazidi, a Mukalla-based writer, said during the operation that locals were surprised at the “prompt and bloodless exit” of AQAP from the city.
         Hisham al-Omeisy, a Yemeni political analyst, similarly reported that there was “no real battle” as AQAP fighters had left the city within twelve hours. Yet, he said: Coalition capitalise, claim huge battle killed 800. In other words, the Saudi ‘victory’ against AQAP in Mukalla was achieved without a single fire-fight in the city.

The US and UK collude in Saudi pipeline plan        While under al-Qaeda’s control, Hadramawt had remained curiously free from Saudi aerial bombardment since the beginning of the war. The province is central to a long standing Saudi plan, supported by the US and UK, to install an oil and gas pipeline route through Yemen to the Gulf of Aden. The idea is to bypass Iranian influence via the Strait of Hormuz. Regional oil supplies must currently pass through the Strait to reach world oil markets.
       The pipeline plan is mentioned in a top secret 2008 State Department cable from the US embassy in Yemen to the Secretary of State: A British diplomat based in Yemen told PolOff [US embassy political officer] that Saudi Arabia had an interest to build a pipeline, wholly owned, operated and protected by Saudi Arabia, through Hadramawt to a port on the Gulf of Aden, thereby bypassing the Arabian Gulf/Persian Gulf and the straits of Hormuz.
        Ousted Yemeni President Abdullah Saleh had originally supported the project, but eventually became its chief opponent.

The full article is a must read HERE:

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

Undying Desire To Be Free.

        Gabriel Pombo da Silva's first letter of gratitude and commitment from outside the Spanish state's cages.
From Act For Freedom Now:

      “Anarchism concerns the individual, not only with regards to collectivity but also with regards to itself’. Anarchism is not directed at the “citizen” but to people.” – Albert Libertad.

Dear comrades,

        Finally, after endless games and chicanery by the prison institution and the ministry of the interior they were forced to obey their own laws, which they constantly break, here I am finally free, writing these first words of gratitude and love to all those who over these past 30 years have accompanied me and reaffirmed my own anarchist beliefs, putting into practice the basic values and principles of anarchism like mutual support and solidarity and have finally managed to pluck me from the clutches of the prison beast which I will continue fighting from the street without forgetting, obviously, the combat being waged outside.

          I am certain that even in all of this I am very privileged to have had the support of comrades, because there are many who do not have this possibility. In the coming days we will send out statements in more specific terms about what concerns our movement and possible strategies that we must develop so that we can cure the revolutionary anarchism of our elders of all institutionalism and insubstantial chatter. I want to be clear that I will never forget our libertarian comrades imprisoned in the spanish state and around the world, particularly Mónica, Francisco, Claudio, and the latest comrade to be arrested who will soon be extradited to the german state, and many more unnamed.

         There is still so much to do, I know, and it will certainly not remain undone due to lack of will, passion and commitment. In these moments I won’t refer to the pettiness implemented by the prison administration to try to impede my release because we will be documenting this with official papers that denote, clearly, how crude and cunning the justice administration in this country is.

           I am free and apparently in 45 days they intend to imprison me again, they will unleash their hounds on me. Obviously, I will not go voluntarily or participate in any way in any kind of agreement or negotiated release with those disgusting people. Therefore I suppose that I have no choice but to continue, as always, fighting from the shadows, supporting those processes and anti-authoritarian projects that I consider it necessary to give life to with all the means I can reach from my imposed clandestinity.

       It would be impossible to mention here all the people and organisations that have supported me throughout all these years, because they are too many. I only want them to know that they can count on me yesterday, today and forever for anarchism and social revolution.

         Today, from a place outside the walls, huge greetings to all my sisters and brothers in latin america and southern europe, with the confidence that we will find ourselves on this journey and project of emancipation that is our lives in struggle.

Gabriel Pombo da Silva   10th June, 2016.

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