Workers, Know Your History, John MacLean.

       Today, November, 30th. marks the 93rd. anniversary of the death of one of Glasgow's best known, of the city's many working class heroes. John MacLean, a teacher in more senses than one. His politics were shaped by the hatred of landlords, due to the treatment hand out to his family and thousands of others in the Highland clearances. A conscientious objector who suffered imprisonment for his beliefs, that imprisonment ruined his health and he died a young man aged only 44. Now, more than ever, we need our John MacLeans, our Ethel MacDonalds, our Guy Aldreds, our Willie McDougals, our Les Fosters, our Mary Barbours, I could go on, our city has a proud heritage of working class warriors, but most of all, we need the ordinary people to pick up that baton of struggle that marked out these people, and many, many others. Only the will of the people will end this insane, unjust, exploitative system that crushes the individual and drives the world to destruction.  

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

Tomorrow Can Be Ours, If We Want It.

 

         The struggle in America at Standing Rock, over the Dakota Access Pipeline, is our struggle. It is not just about a pipe line and the pollution of a river, it is about the earth we live on and its total destruction by big business, for greed and profit to the few. The Dakota Access pipeline is a scenario that is being repeated across the planet, an insane juggernaut of destruction powered by the financial Mafia and the corporate greed machine, and in most cases, they have the full support of the various states, backed up by the brutal state apparatus. It will only stop when we the ordinary people, stand up and end this greed driven madness. A better world is possible, we have the imagination, the resources, the power, all we are lacking is the will. With that will and solidarity, that new world can be tomorrow.

Thanks Loam for the link, this from People's Tribune:

         When the Standing Rock Sioux of North Dakota discovered that a pipeline carrying fracked oil was to be built through their land, poisoning the land and its people, there near the headwaters of the Missouri River, destroying sacred sites and burial grounds, they stood up to block the machinery of destruction. This ignited a resistance that has captured the world’s attention, and gathered the support of hundreds of tribes, and massed thousands of supporters to the site in the struggle for water and life.
        In response, the governor of North Dakota called out the National Guard on behalf of the private oil company against the protesters. Private security hired by the pipeline company pepper-sprayed and set attack dogs on men, women and children. Because of the defenders bravery and solidarity, construction has been at least temporarily halted. The people have vowed to remain as long as it takes to protect the land.
        With their many dangerous pipelines leaking and spilling their poisons everywhere, their mauling of the Earth with fracking, only the oil companies, with immense power over and within the US government, benefit from this plunder. With the poisoning of waters in such cities as Flint MI and across the country, the plundering of the Earth by mineral extraction industries, and the use of water by private corporations, this has become a flashpoint in the people’s resistance to corporate rapacity.
        This struggle represents the unity of working people who have little or no stake in this corporate plunder. The native people at Standing Rock whose land is being decimated suffer from 85% unemployment and the highest poverty rate in the country. A growing section of the working class is heading in this direction, thrown out of the capitalist system by automation, no longer exploitable, targeted by police brutality and murder, their communities torn apart and their land and water poisoned. The so-called oil boom in North Dakota has mostly benefited the owners of the oil companies, leaving many people who go there for work homeless or laid-off and stranded.
      This conflict is coming to a dramatic head as more and more people are driven into poverty, despair and no future. This is unifying us around a common cause, the absolute necessity for a radical change in the economic system—from one of exploitation, artificial scarcity and destruction, to one of cooperation, with each other, the world around us and the Earth.
       Our stand is to hold the government responsible for protecting the Earth and its people. We can unite to create a cooperative society—this one global, national and regional—based on the abundance the new tools of production make possible, along with a social structure to support it. A new Fire is burning.  This is what Standing Rock is to us all.

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

A Radio Active Ocean!!

        It seems odd that the UK is pushing ahead with its nuclear energy plans when other countries are moving away from that source of energy. We are still reeling from the Fukushima disaster, which to this day is still pouring radio-active waste into the Pacific, with no end in sight. Of course what drives these decisions is never the welfare of the people, but corporate greed and state power. The facts about nuclear power are that we can't fully estimate the cost of construction, we have no idea of the cost of, or a proper method of, decommissioning, we can't give any guarantee that we will be able to use that piece of land again. Even on economics, it doesn't make much sense. On this basis it seems irrational to pursue that path, but pursue it our lords and masters will, unless we do something about changing the system. 

Wikipedia:

      Hinkley Point C nuclear power station (HPC) is a project to construct a 3,200 MWe nuclear power station with two EPR reactors in Somerset, England.[4] The proposed site is one of eight announced by the British government in 2010,[5] and in November 2012 a nuclear site licence was granted.[6] On 28 July 2016 the EDF board approved the project,[7] and on 15 September 2016 the UK government approved the project with some safeguards for the investment.[8] The plant, which has a projected lifetime of sixty years, has an estimated construction cost of £18 billion, or £24.5 billion including financing costs.[1] The National Audit Office estimates the additional cost to consumers under the "strike price" will be £29.7 billion.[9]

 On Fukushima:

       The 7.4 magnitude quake hit on Tuesday, just off the coast of Fukushima, which was also the site of the 2011 9.0 scale earthquake.
The Japan Meteorological Agency have said that this new quake was actually an aftershock from the previous one, and have warned that further aftershocks could follow.
       The 2011 quake was catastrophic in it’s destruction, killing 15,891 people, with a further 2,584 missing. It destroyed countless homes and ruined people’s livelihoods.
       The fear that these quakes will cause a huge problem in the nuclear power sector is very real. About 30% of all Japan’s power comes from nuclear power stations, many of which are located on the coast where the earthquakes tend to strike.
       The 2011 earthquake catastrophically damaged 3 of 6 nuclear reactors at the Fukushima Daiichi facility, the extent of the fallout from this has never been fully identified.
       One repercussion of this has been the pollution of radioactive waste into the sea. It is thought that hundreds of tons of radioactive waste has been pumped into the sea every day ever since. The nuclear waste has penetrated the Japanese food chain and has been detected in food over 200 miles away.
       In 2015 Akira Ono the chief of the Fukushima power station said that there was no known way of decommissioning the power station and stopping the waste leakage.
      Officials have claimed that while there is a definite leakage, they say it is not doing any actual harm to the environment, but the stats claim another story.
        American scientists have been studying what is effectively the ‘death’ of the pacific, where marine life is dying off at an alarming rate. Krill, one of the key players in the sea-life food chain has been found washed up in vast numbers, and bodies of seals and sea lions are repeatedly washed up on shores.
        USA Today ran a story of starfish being washed up that had seemingly turned to ‘mush’, the reason to which they said left them ‘baffled’. It has also been reported that a staggering 98% of the sea floor is covered with dead sea life.
        It’s time people woke up to the reality of what is happening. In our lifetime we have already seen so many species become extinct on land, and now humans are destroying the sea, too.

Germany:

      Within days of the March 2011 Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster, large anti-nuclear protests occurred in Germany. Protests continued and, on 29 May 2011, Merkel's government announced that it would close all of its nuclear power plants by 2022.[5][6] Eight of the seventeen operating reactors in Germany were permanently shut down following Fukushima.

      In September 2011, German engineering giant Siemens announced a complete withdrawal from the nuclear industry, as a response to the Fukushima nuclear disaster.[8][9]

America:

 -------however the Energy Policy Act of 2005 was passed in 2005 which aimed to jump start the nuclear industry through financial loan-guarantees for expansion and re-outfitting of nuclear plants. The success of this legislation is still undetermined, since all 17 companies that applied for funding are still in the planning phases on their 26 proposed building applications. Some of the proposed sites have even scrapped their building plans, and many think the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster

further dampen the success of expansion of nuclear energy in the United States.

Italy:

      However, following the 2011 Japanese nuclear accidents, the Italian government put a one-year moratorium on plans to revive nuclear power.[3] On 11—12 June 2011, Italian voters passed a referendum to cancel plans for new reactors. Over 94% of the electorate voted in favor of the construction ban, with 55% of the eligible voters participating, making the vote binding.[4]

And Australia, the world's third largest producer of uranium, has no nuclear power plants.

Australia currently has no nuclear facilities generating electricity. Australia has 33% of the world's uranium deposits and is the world's third largest producer of uranium after Kazakhstan and Canada.

  

We Must Preserve OUR History.

          We, the volunteers at Spirit of Revolt, believe we do a very important job, one that is necessary. We are our history, our efforts and our actions are our heritage, our true culture. If we don’t record and preserve that history, we are a people without a history, a people without a culture, but nothing could be further from the truth. Our history is a rich one of struggle, sometime bitter, sometimes victorious, but a never ending struggle to claim what is rightfully ours. Our history is that ongoing story, we can learn from the failures and success of those who went before us. Without somewhere to access that story of struggle, we go blind into the future, we have to re-invent the wheel all over again. Without our history recorded there for all to see, people get a distorted view of history, a history that tells a false story, a history in which we played no part. However, because of the type of society we live under, (for the present), sadly, no matter how many volunteers we have, to survive, we still need that filthy stuff called “money”. There are boxes, envelopes and other storage materials, there is web-hosting, web maintenance, other sundry costs, and to catalogue the collections to international standards, for easy access across borders, we have an archivist, all costing that filthy stuff, “money”.
         So, all you anarchists, libertarian socialists and people of like mind, go have a look at our website, browse the catalogue, it's your history, consider if you think we are doing a worthwhile job. If so, click on to our “Donate” page and perhaps you may be feeling a wee bit generous at this time of year, and can see you way to help us continue to record our history, a history that we can’t expect any other section of this type of society to record. It doesn’t matter how small your donation is, it will be very much appreciated, a one-of, or a monthly donation, from £1 upwards, we will say thank you very much.

If we are ignorant of our history, we will repeat our mistakes.

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

 

International Protests to Transnational Disaster.

     From Europe to America, the months long opposition to the Dakota Access Pipeline is growing, but still needs more of your support. The water protectors are  not only facing the brutal force of a militarised police force, and the national guard, they are now heading into a fierce and bitterly cold winter. There have been a considerable numbers of water protectors injured, some severely, they warrant our strongest solidarity.  As well as actions of solidarity, they need material support to help them survive this two pronged attack.

From Greenpeace

      If you opposed Keystone XL, then you need to know about Standing Rock. Right now, hundreds of Indigenous activists are peacefully protesting the construction of a crude oil pipeline on ancestral lands, and they need your support.

Continue reading:

And from comrades in Exarchia Square in Athens:

        In the afternoon of November 24th 2016, we dropped a banner in Exarchia Square against the Dakota Access Pipeline, currently under construction in the US. This oil pipeline runs a distance of nearly 1,172 miles, from North Dakota to Illinois, and its cost is estimated to be around 3.7 billion dollars. In its destructive path, this mega-project is causing irreversible damage to territories, rivers and surrounding communities.
      Among the affected areas is also Standing Rock reservation in North Dakota, where residents alongside people in solidarity resist the police, forces of the US army, and security guards of the groups assigned to construct the pipeline (Energy Transfer Partners being the main contractor). Repression has been so harsh over the last days, that among the hundreds who were injured there’s also an activist whose hand was amputated because of a concussion grenade fired by cops.
      At the same time, there have been many actions of resistance in various cities across the US and beyond, with rail-track and train blockades, direct actions and symbolic gestures of solidarity.
        We send strength to anarchist comrades and all others who fight in an anti-institutional, anti-hierarchical manner and without mediators against the construction of the pipeline, showing what it really is: one among the tentacles of domination draining the Earth.
       Our opposition to this and any other mega-project of the techno-industrial civilization stems from the conviction that the Earth belong to no one; from our need to defend by all means necessary everything that has remained untamed and wild in this artificialized world. Beyond any rhetoric of “ancestral” or “sacred” lands, we support the particular struggle until the liberation of the entire planet.

AGAINST THE OIL PIPELINE IN DAKOTA
ANATIONAL STRUGGLE AGAINST STATES, CAPITAL AND DOMINATION

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

The Rise Of History's Biggest Empire.

      Abby Martin's Empire Files, facts and figures of how the new bully on the block rules its empire. Wonderful glaring truths that are normally hidden behind the smoke and mirrors of the media and the illusions woven by state propaganda. Thanks for the link Loam.

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

A Flawed System.

 

        I first saw this video on arrezafe. A detailed discussion, in English, on some of the built in flaws and contradictions within capitalism, explained in simple terms by professor Richard Wolff.

Richard Wolff,  American economist known for his analytical methodology and study classes or social strata. Since 2005, much of his work has focused on the analysis and critique of the capitalist economic model, the global crisis it has generated and methodical exploration of Marxist economic alternatives along with other cooperative models.

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

Glasgow's Annual Anti-racism March.

 

         Today, Saturday, November 26th., was Glasgow's annual anti-racism march, and as usual it was a colourful affair, with a host of colourful banners, pipe band and drum ensemble. Despite the very cold weather there was a great turnout. This is encouraging especially in the present climate of a spike in racist abuse. Glasgow, on the whole, is a welcoming city, as I believe most cities are at their core, so we should not really be surprised by the great turnout. However,  congratulations to all those who did brave the very cold weather, to show support for decent human values. It seemed to be a case of everybody and their dogs, joined the march as it snaked its way from Glasgow Green up High Street, through the city to the GFT. Also, as far as I'm concerned, it was encouraging to see a increase in the Red and Black bloc. Let's hope it continues to grow, but at a somewhat increased pace, more than ever, it is needed.

 

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

Whose Normal Do We Accept?

       I was born in Garngad, one of the many slum areas in Glasgow, it is now demolished and renamed Royston. Starting my life in that foul area, I didn't feel deprived, the world I lived in was "normal". Our environment always appears normal, no matter what, it is only when you look out the window, or over the wall, you realise that it is not quite as normal as you thought. That is one of the problems we face, as our freedoms are eroded, and society becomes more controlled, it becomes a way of life, it becomes "the normal". We have to keep looking out that window, looking over that wall and realising that there is a different way of doing things, a better way. The ever increasing repressive legislation, the ever increasing surveillance, the ever more vicious cuts in living standards, is a drip-feed, little by little, like the frog in water that is very slowing being heated, the frog unaware of this sits there until it is too late and is boiled.

      How long will we sit and ignore the heat, how long will we absorb the toxic, the repressive, the shift further and further away from tolerance, before we stand up and say, enough, this is not an acceptable "normal".

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

ACE Events And More.

        Another very interesting list of events from ACE in Edinburgh. I'm sure if you read through the list you will find at least one, probably more than one, event to capture your enthusiasm. One of the events, not strictly an ACE event, is in Glasgow this Saturday, that's a must, The Anti-Racist March from Glasgow Green.

UPCOMING EVENTS. From Autonomous Centre of Edinburgh 

             * FRIDAY 25 NOVEMBER- Informal training session for all interested in accompanying people to benefits appointments and sickness/ disability benefits assessments. 11.30am – 1.30/2pm at ACE *Friday 25th Nov- Art as Solidarity. Talk by Euan Sutherland. 7pm- 9pm at ACE. https://www.facebook.com/events/997341147060638/

           *Saturday 26th Nov- I Daniel Blake Film Screening. Free showing of film I Daniel Blake at Cineworld, Fountainbridge with panel discussion, including screenwriter Paul Laverty and spokesperson from ECAP. 10.00 am – 1pm.Book via eventbrite, see https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/i-daniel-blake-qa-tickets-29… If any problems with link please go to Edinburgh Coalition Against Poverty Facebook and scroll down to link on 12 November 

           *Saturday 26th Nov- Red and Black Bloc at St Andrew's Day Anti-Racism March. 10:30- 12pm at Glasgow Green. Hosted by Clydeside IWW and the Anarchist Federation. https://www.facebook.com/events/963411810429884/ * Saturday 26th Nov- International Women's Strike Discussion and talks. 3pm- 5pm at ACE. https://www.facebook.com/events/110075199474744/ 

        * Saturday 26th Nov- Fight for the Night. 6-8pm on the Royal Mile. Join us on the streets of Edinburgh on Saturday 26th November for a march to take back the streets and fight for the night! The Edinburgh University Students’ Association Women’s Liberation Group are organising events to mark the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women (November 25th). Folk of all and no genders are welcome to attend and the event is open to both students and non-students. https://www.facebook.com/events/1768262986762981/ 

         *MONDAY 28 NOVEMBER- Monthly ECAP meeting 7pm at ACE All welcome (meetings last Monday each month – but no meeting in December) * Saturday 3rd December- Disaster Communism, Mutual Aid and Solidarity. Talk and Discussion hosted by The Anarchist Federation. 2-4pm at ACE. https://www.facebook.com/events/1386277974738025/ 

          *MONDAY 5 DECEMBER- North Edinburgh Housing Action Group monthly meeting 5.45pm at Pilton Central Association, 28-30 Ferry Rd Drive EH4 4BR. All welcome. * Wednesday 7th December- Edinburgh IWW Branch AGM with presentation on Syndicalism. 7-8pm at ACE. All welcome but only IWW members can vote. https://www.facebook.com/events/536409926548582/ *Thursday 8th December- Scottish Radical library and archives work session.6pm - 8pm (2nd Thursday each month) at ACE. 

           *TUESDAY 13 DECEMBER- ACE monthly meeting 6pm at ACE All welcome (meetings second Tuesday each month at 6pm) *Saturday 17th Dec- Black Panthers in Britain. Talk by Carlus Hudson 7pm at Ace *Friday 20th Jan- Stand up to Trump. 6-7pm, US consulate. https://www.facebook.com/events/1336732683037959/

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

   

The State Is Repression.

     As the babbling brook of bullshit that is our mainstream media, spews out fantasy stories from Brexiters and Remainers, it deliberately turns its focus away from anything that might show the Western "democracies" indulging in there routine state violence, against those who resist the brutal onslaught of the corporate juggernaut. Not many photos, not many reports on the resistance of the water protectors standing firm against the Dakota Access Pipeline. Not many reports of the militarised police brutality throwing the full weight of the American repressive system against unarmed and peaceful demonstrators.  

     Of course we should not be surprised, the so called "mainstream media" is no more than the propaganda unit of the corporate dictatorship under which we live. Their main purpose is to weave illusion, breed compliance, encourage celebrity worship and sustain subservience. 

      Well in spite of their smoke and mirrors and ignoring the reality that is all around them, resistance is still there, it is growing, and sooner or later it will prevail. As the state ups its repression, the people will up their resistance.

        Something that our modern super efficient mainstream media failed to notice.

      Demonstrators protesting against Dakota Access Pipeline say they are trapped on a bridge as North Dakota police fire tear gas and rubber bullets at them, according to live reports on social media.

      The demonstration is taking place on Highway 1806, just north of the main protest camp against the pipeline.

    Officers have also reportedly deployed water cannon on the protesters in below-freezing temperatures, and are using LRAD sound devices.

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

The Bank Of No Money.

       It has been some time now since a group of anarchists and like minded people decided to occupy an empty bank on Deptford High Street, London. Well they are still there and doing fine thank you. Of course they will need all the support they can get, not just to survive, but to spread their ideas and keep up the good work of working with the community creating solidarity where needed and over as wide an area as possible.

This is their latest communiqué:

     We are rats running rabid through the stinking guts of London …

        Sick of the fractured ‘scene’ of squatters in London, sick of faux-punk venues and the fashionable veneer of rebellion, sick of the apathy and passivity, sick of housing where everyone is locked in their own rooms, their own lives, their existence atomised, stinking of fried chicken and choking on the bones of what once was, we came together to act …
     We are a collective of those in active rebellion. Warsaw. Barcelona. Roma. Thessaloniki. London. All over we meet in joint attack.
      We organised on the beaches of London for the TRESPASS gig – selling propaganda to fashionpunx and tourists about the trial of the Warsaw 3, dropping banners and smokeflares whilst the crowd rioted amongst itself, spitting in our faces and rejecting all politics.
      We put on infonights, skyping with comrades from across Europe, and people came and listened, complained that there was nothing organised in London, that everything was too fluid, too temporary, that nothing ever happened, and we laughed to hide the tragedy of their blindness to their own domestication. ‘You can’t win’, they said, and we sneered, knowing our victory is in the struggle itself.
     We meet in the streets outside squats under threat of eviction in Bethnal Green, Brixton, Aldwych, to jeer at bailiffs covered in paint, or see doors battered in, or taunt the cops and accuse them of murder by association. Though we called out for accomplices, few came, but enough remained to support each other and fight.
     We battled outside the Camelot HQ, trapped between lines of security and cops and vans and carnage and refused to let go, refused to give up even one of our number, until all were dispersed and the squat remained, refusing any collaboration with the business snakes trying to turn rebellion into money.
    We gather, seeking out other accomplices. Inspired by the mould that grows on rotting food, we chose our target – a disused bank in the heart of Deptford – a no-go zone for the UKBA immigration filth, a frontline of the gentrification war, a barrio within London where there still exists community, affinity, fucking neighbours instead of yuppies and hipsters and cops cops cops.
      We took it – and lined its innards with mattresses to dull the sounds. Within five days it was packed to the rafters with punks in support of the Warsaw 3, its walls lined with banners, its floor full of curious locals and friends old and new. After how many years, finally a non-commercial venue, free of the tyranny of rent and capital.
      The infonights continue – on the progress of the Warsaw 3, on the antiraids network spreading from Deptford to Whitechapel to beyond, on the arrest of the anarchist comrades in Italy, their words now as dangerous as bombs. Once a week we open the doors for Scum Dine With Me, part-street kitchen, part-info-night, part-cinema, where all and sundry are welcome and fed, and we mix more with our neighbours and friends from further afield.
      The bailiffs came but did not succeed in getting rid of us. On the day we are forced to leave, we will take our ideas, our struggle, our new connections, and spread across London, the UK, Fortress Europe, unstoppably changing and adapting, spreading our disease and infecting new mutantations against domination, power, hierarchy.
      Until we mutate into an end to all forms of oppression.

Until all are free.

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

Lizzie's House Needs Repairs!!!!

       You own a house, it is in need of repairs, so you go to your neighbours in the street and ask them to foot the bill for your house repairs. I think you know where you would be told to go. However, this is what is being suggested by our lords and masters, for an old lady living in one of her several homes, all of which are far to big for her, though she has no worries about the bedroom tax. Lizzie Windsor is no pauper, she has stashed away an unimaginable fortune, lives a life of opulence, pomp and grandeur, at our expense, as do a large contingent of her over privileged off spring. It appears that we have to fork out £369 million, to sort out some repairs at Lizzie’s London abode. It shows the true callous indifference our lords and masters have for us the general public. While they administer “austerity” in the shape of benefit cuts to the sick and needy, cap housing benefit, throwing thousands deeper into poverty, and increasing homelessness, preside over the NHS disintegrating for lack of funds, they are quite openly and publicly spending £369 million repairing a monumental edifice to British imperialism, which is the home to a bunch of extremely wealthy parasites. I’m not suggesting that they should ask the “Royals” to pay for it themselves, I’m suggesting that the whole rotten stinking system of unearned privilege, that is part and parcel of the festering cancerous marriage of imperialism/capitalism/monarchy be labelled, humanity’s darkest hour and swept away and disposed of in the dustbin of history. 

 

 

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