Display Your Bias Game.

        It is blatantly obvious to any thinking person that capitalism has done and is doing tremendous damage to the planet, creating divisions and wars between people for false and malicious reasons. Therefore it should be challenged and destroyed, and there are lots of people dedicating their lives to that aim. However what seems less acceptable to people at large is that religion has been for far more centuries been responsible for wars, and dividing people for false and malicious reasons. Religion has a far longer history of brutality and wars than capitalism, yet it still, in most societies, holds a place of privilege, WHY? 

      I wrote this little piece four years ago, but think it is well worth posting again, it shows up most people's built in bias. I would like the experiment to be more widely used, it might open a few more eyes to the crass stupidity of following a religion.

 Quran V Bible?

         It is weird how the accepted religion is good, but other people's religion is backward, out of step with human nature, and in cases downright cruel. However I personally put all of them in the one rat-bag that has plagued humanity for countless centuries. The religious cherry pick their religion, quoting the parts from their holy-of-holy books they like, but ignoring the parts that are unpalatable. I just loved this little experiment carried by a couple of individuals. A video well worth the watch.

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Latest From Police Occupied Exarcheia.

        The latest from the police occupied district of Exarchia, Athens.

     EXARCHIA: Solidarity to squats and all spaces of struggle- ASSEMBLY Announcement 

August 29, 2019 in Events/Global movement/Void Network News 

        The state and capital always attack the freedom of the social base, steal its labor and resources. In recent years we have experienced one of the most violent attacks through the massive impoverishment of people who are already oppressed and exploited.
        On the other hand, there has been widespread social resistance and solidarity. People have created a variety of self-organized spaces such as housing infrastructure, social medical centers, community kitchens, open parks and public spaces which are just some of the main examples. In spite of weaknesses and setbacks, with squats, political groups, base unions, squares and neighborhood assemblies, the movement has created a solid social territory that has gathered significant knowledge and experience, forming communities of struggle with strong social bonds, addressing society with criticism. On many occasions the movement had to use violence to defend and expand the free spaces and territories from state and capitalist interests and fascist attacks. The movement has grown in diversity and vitality, despite the continued criminalisation of solidarity and mobilisation.
        In the context of this socio-class conflict, on Monday, 26/8, the state, armed with police forces, seized Exarchia and evacuated four squats. Two of them were refugees / migrants’ houses, Transito and Sp Trikoupi 17, where they captured 144 refugee migrants by uprooting them from their residences for a second time and isolating them in what they call detention centers.Intrusions-evicted were also carried out in an ongoing housing and political squat in Assimaki Fotila and the Gare squat where three arrests were made. The cops also invaded the comrades’ home from Gare.
        In addition to the squats and the movement itself, this repressive operation is aiming at migrants. They are one of the most oppressed parts of society since their very existence is considered illegal. In a state of illegality there is no access to health and education while working conditions are exploitation and subjugation. The situation of exclusion, which often comes also from a section of society, leads them to violent and wild situations, which are then used by the state and racists to attack migrants. Many choose their self-organization and solidarity structures in order to survive and resist. Together with local and international solidarity they build communities and claim their visibility, posing a direct threat to political and economic power. The solidarity we are building is in contrast to the humanitarian aid of NGOs that victimize migrants and make money from their problems. Real solidarity is at odds with the humanitarianism of the state which is a simple cover up of deaths at the borders and the murderous conditions at the concentration camps. Prisoners do not receive medical care but instead suffer daily from diseases that lead to death. These concentration camps lack basic hygiene, people live with bed bugs and miserable food, constantly being beaten or raped to force them to flee the Greek and European territory or commit suicide. Transferring them from the squats they have chosen to live, undermines their dignity and self-determination, while the excuse that these camps are safer and healthier is one of the most vicious state lies, an absolute reversal of reality.
        As far as squats are concerned, all these years they have responded to a variety of needs and desires. They are free spaces where the social base re-creates its relationships without state control and economic exclusion, over-coming national, gender and other systemic discrimination. They respond to basic needs such as housing, breaking out of rent coercion and wage exploitation. In times of migration, they have offered shelter to thousands of people by making spaces beyond the barbaric so-called ‘detention centers’ which are nothing more than concentration camps. The most important achievement is that people of different backgrounds were organized into squats and formed collective bodies to create projects that reflect the world of equality and freedom we desire. Squats in collaboration with the social and other grassroots forces defend neighborhoods and public spaces from the business and political interests of power.
        The political agenda of the “New Democracy” is a continuation of Syriza’s policy. It aims to transform the entire region into easily exploitable land for local and foreign capital. The result is the further exploitation and destruction of the environment and the aggressive gentrification of urban space that transforms neighborhoods — within cities — into tourist consumption areas, displacing residents and carrying out informal “social cleansing”. The militarisation of public space and the imprisonment of those who are rising up is of prime importance and requires the implementation of repression against migrants, workers, students, the unemployed, women and queers. Some of the state’s first moves were to integrate the correctional system and the immigration ministry under police jurisdiction. At the same time, they hired 1,500 new people to the police force, expanding the state’s repressive army. They further criminalised the means of struggle and abolished university asylum in preparation for the new social class struggles. The struggles that Syriza assimilated and disintegrated paved the way for an even more capable totalitarian state that we saw with the rise of New Democracy.
        As a continuation of the resistance of all recent years, we call on people of struggle, the rebellious, the squatters, the collectives and individuals to step up their efforts for an open front against repression. With the primary aim of defending the squats and of a broader objective of defending all social achievements against the state and capital until they are overthrown. Strengthen social structures and create new ones, further escalate social, class and local struggles. Don’t let the struggle be assimilated by any regime of power. To crush the repressive forces, to break the media propaganda, to bring out the truth of the struggle of the oppressed.

SOLIDARITY TO SQUATS AND ALL THE SPACES OF STRUGGLE

COMMON STRUGGLES OF LOCALS AND MIGRANTS

       Open Assembly of affinity groups, international solidarity activists and migrants / refugees at Polytechnic University

CALL OUT for actions
THUR. 29/8 – 18.00: Occupied Space Mpoumpoulinas 42 / Info Megaphone
FR. 30/8 – 05.00 ‘o clock in the morning: Mpoumpoulinas 42 / Organized Defense of the building
FR. 30/8– 18.00 Polytechnic University/ Open Assembly for solidarity to Occupied Spaces of Exarchia
SAT. 31/8– 12.00 Exarchia Square- DEMONSTRATION against the organized

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The State's Steel Boot Stamps On Freedom.

 

   

       What is happening today in Exarcheia, in Athens, which is at the present time, under police occupation, is the true face of our so called representative democracy. It has nothing to do with humanity, and all to do with dogmatic ideology. Logically the state should welcome what goes on in that district, locals help refugees to live with some dignity and freedom of movement without any state aid, surely to be applauded by financial pundits in the state apparatus. However. like I said, the state is not about humanity, dignity or freedom, it is all about control and the development of big corporate profits. Self organising people living with the ethos of mutual aid, is an anathema to the state. During the recent election in Greece, the rhetoric from the right-wing party that gained power was that the district was a nest of criminals and they promised to bring it back under the control of the state. What in fact they wish to do is to clear the district that survives more or less outside the state by means of self-help, mutual aid and co-operation, and hand it over to the corporate juggernaug who would start by clearing out the locals and building luxury hotels, expensive restaurants, opulent apartments and shops filled with over price trinkets for the wealthy Greeks and rich tourists.

       The method used by the state in this operation of control and suppression is to bring in an army of armed thugs in uniforms and beat up and intimidate the locals, arresting some of the locals, and all the refugees they can lay their hands on, men, women and children, hoarding them onto buses, taking them for a position of self help and some dignity and locking them up in over crowded concentration camps with appalling conditions. To date approximately 150 refugees have been arrested in the district, and rising. This operation will be carried out with brutality and out without any thought of humanity.

      What is happening in Exarcheia, is just anther step deeper into the fascist state of politics today, and demands our strongest opposition as across the globe states seek ever greater control over the population, all for the benefit of the corporate world of greed and profit. We must continually struggle for a society of mutual aid, self help and co-operation and support all those who walk that road.

 

      Yesterday in Glasgow a group of people took to the street to show their anger at what is brutally being executed in Exarcheia and their support for the people of that district. More of this is required across the globe.

Visit ann arky's home at https://radicalglasgow.me.uk

The World's Largest Concentration Camps.

        I, like so many others, refer to Gaza and the West Bank as the largest open air prisons on the planet, well I think we should rename them as the largest open air concentration camps on the planet. These two parts of the planet are controlled by a regime of racist, Zionist, brutal, ruthless guards, lacking in any humanity and under the direct control of the apartheid Zionist state of Israel. The aim of this regime is the elimination of the people of Palestine and the taking over the ethnic cleansed land.

 

Photo courtesy of Jewish Voice For Peace.

       Apart from, all the glaringly obvious injustices, brutalities and sadistic cruelties and the vicious attacks that kill and maim thousands of Palestinians, there is another more sinister attack on the people of the West Bank. The West Bank is festooned with a secret network of hidden cameras that is linked up to the latest Israeli state cutting edge facial recognition software. There is no such thing as privacy for Palestinian people in the West Bank. 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, these cameras track and log every Palestinian face they can trace. All the information is logged and profiles built, from lovers holding hands to mothers feeding the babies, from kids at play, to people at work, where and when you were at a particular spot and for how long, all the faces and this information are noted and logged for future reference by the Zionist apartheid state of Israel in its end game of grabbing the last of the Palestinian lands. Incidentally, Microsoft is a major partner in this technology, you have been warned.
       Despite this glaringly obvious savage cruelty and inhumanity being directed at the Palestinian people to further Zionist fundamental ideology, the world looks the other way and invites the perpetrators into the marble halls of power. Sups with them at the financial Mafia's banquet and considers profitable arms deals worth more than human justice and dignity. How else would you expect capitalism to work. This gross injustice will continue as Israel is doing the job of the West's policeman in the Middle East, and is a profitable member of the capitalist club. Only the will of the people can end this festering cesspool of capitalist/nationalist/religious insanity. When will we come together and exert that will? 

Visit ann arky's home at https://radicalglasgow.me.uk

And Now For Something Completely Different.

 

        Been a mixed bag of weather over the last few months, in spite of the good spells I haven't got out on the bike very often, because of one thing and another. I have been out but sadly all rather short runs, hence can't be bothered to stop and take photos. Today was forecast to be the last dry day for a while, so just to remind myself that I used to be a cyclist I took the opportunity to head out for a short spin. My partner Stasia comes along for a spell then settles down and takes some photos. So thanks to her for this one, this afternoon. Don't like swans, they hiss as you cycle past, I have had the odd on go for my ankles. But I suppose they don't like us humans as some of us can be rather nasty to them.

Visit ann arky's home at https://radicalglasgow.me.uk 

Right-wing Greek Government Attack On Liberated Spaces

 

       I have been a frequent visitor to Athens, and have visited the district of Exarchia several times and found its mix of cultures, cafes and squats as well as its activities to be a liberating feeling. It is with a heavy heart that I heard of the latest state attack on this area of free and liberated spaces. There must be an international response and resistance to this clamp down on the liberty of the people to form their own communities. Watching the rise of fascism across Europe and elsewhere and since the rightwing government was voted in at the last Greek election, I always felt that it was inevitable that they would make Exarchia their first battle ground against the left and libertarian section of the Greek communities. For Exarchia to survive as a libertarian centre in an authoritarian regime will require a tremendous and sustained effort from the international left community. Athens today, who's next?

 This from Void:

      EXARCHIA area under police attack by the new right government in Greece
in Global movement
     Exarchia area in Athens Greece under police occupation! Time to show your solidarity!
      The famous rebel and solidarity district of Athens is completely surrounded by huge police forces: many riot police buses (MAT), anti-Terrorism Police (OPKE), motor bike policemen (Dias), members of the secret police as well as a helicopter and several drones. Unique place in Europe for its high concentration of squats and other self-managed spaces, but also for its resistance against repression and solidarity with the precarious and migrants, Exarchia has been in major focus of the right government since its election on July 7th. The new right Prime Minister Kiriakos Mitsotakis had made it a personal matter, especially since he had been mocked in early August for not having achieved his goal of “cleaning Exarchia in a month” as he had announced in great pumps.

      This morning, 4 squats have been evacuated: Spirou Trikoupi 17, Transito, Rosa de fuego and Gare. The offensive is for now the northwest part of the neighborhood, with the remarkable exception of the squat Nottara 26, known to be best kept and very important symbol for the neighborhood as the first historic squat of the “refugee crisis” in the center City of Athens. We are currently counting about a hundred arrest, as well as brutal attacks against people trying to film.
In total, there are 23 squats in Exarchia plus 26 others around the neighborhood, which is a total of 49 focused on a small area. 49 squats to which you need to add other types of self-managed places, some of them for rent (Free Social Space Nosotros, free shop Skoros, etc) as well as dozens of private housing groups of activists, often near the terraces to allow access over the streets. Of the squats that is officially inside Exarchia, 12 are accommodation squats for refugees and migrant and the other 11 are squats of political anarchist, autonomous groups anarchists. Most refugee squats are also of course very political as they are organized through horizontal assemblies where the refugees can take their lives to their own hands and organize their every day decisions equally and in solidarity of each other and every one of them. Nottara 26, 5th High School of Exarchia and Spirou Trikoupi 17 have a lot of links with the rest of the social movement and international solidarity support. In the squats of Spirou Trikoupi 17 and Transito, that the jacks of power now attack and destroy, more than a dozen children have been ripped away from a peaceful and happy existence to be suddenly sent to camps. The sinister and overcrowded camps, where the migrants they are poorly fed and suffer from temperature variations. New Prime Minister of Greece Kiriakos Mitsotakis requires that all refugees will be well closed in concentration camps and completely cut off from the rest of the society. The face of Europe keeps getting hard like what is also happening elsewhere. This ever more authoritarian evolution of capitalism leads to questions about what the current era announces: attacks against the pockets of utopia combined with the confinement of the emissaries reminds of the dark hours of history. The whole world becomes fascist and Greece is, once again, one of the laboratories.

       But nothing is over. August ends. The social movement is gathering and organizing again. Places like the Nottara 26 and the K*VOX ARE UNDER HIGH surveillance. Responses are getting ready, as well as several major mobilizing events. Autumn will be hot in Athens. Resistance!
text: Yannis Youlountas

translated in English by Pia Klemp – edited by Void Network / athens

       PS: PLEASE republish this article. We are counting on your own reports and photos as these news to go international. Please protest infront of the places representing the Greek state in your country in defense of Exarchia. Solidarity is our weapon.
       The response of the movement was immediate with a demo organised spontaneously in the neighborhood. Talks and assemblies are taking place organizing the next steps of resistance. Also 3 days of self-organized concerts in defense of the neighborhood will take place in Exarchia square from 29/8 to 1/9- more info: https://www.facebook.com/events/728132344308674/ 

Visit ann ary's home at https://radicalglasgow.me.uk

Israeli State, The Fire Raiser.

  

 Syria, home to millions of ordinary people, like you and I.

 

     The Middle East region is a powder keg, it is in fact where World War3 is, for the time being, being fought. Conflicts rage across the region with every major power involved in some way or another, and this weekend Israel threw petrol on the fire. That Zionist apartheid state, this weekend carried out a series of attacks on three nations, Syria, Lebanon, and Iraq as well as Sections of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard and the Palestinian PELP-GC. Of course it couldn't do this without a nod of approval from it financial banker, the US.

      Despite this ruthless escalating series of illegal attacks, the western nations will sit back and do nothing, some of the poodles that head these governments may nod their heads in disapproval, but will continue to call Israel their friend and ally and continue making lucrative arms deals for Israel to continue its attacks on any and all Arab nations. We are being dragged to destruction by two psychopathic entities, Israel and USA and their poodles in the EU.

This from Antiwar: 

        The weekend marked a precipitous escalation in Netanyahu’s promise to attack all perceived “enemies.” From Saturday evening into late Sunday afternoon, Israel carried out strikes against three separate nations, Iraq, Syria, and Lebanon. By Monday morning, he had also attacked forces from the Iranian Revolutionary Guard, as well as Palestinians from the PFLP-GC. That’s a lot of enemies to wage war against all at once.
        Rumors of Israeli attacks against targets in Iraq over the last few weeks came to a head last week, when US and Israeli officials confirmed that the attacks were taking place. This led to some complaints from Iraqi officials, but Israel is hardly backing away from this policy.
       Indeed, with Israel’s election less than a month away and Prime Minister Netanyahu and his allies trailing substantially in most polls, it appears the policy is to escalate its attacks across the region, hoping to secure more votes from the hawkish right.
        The biggest attacks came Saturday, when Israel launched a series of attacks against a village near the Syrian capital of Damascus. The attacks were drone bombings, with Israeli drones laden with explosives flying into the target, crashing and detonating.
       Israel attacking Syria is common enough, but the real news was the Israeli military commenting directly, claiming they’d attacked an Iranian site, intending to preempt an Iranian attack on northern Israel on Thursday. Iran denied everything, including that they’d been hit in the strikes.
      It makes sense why the Netanyahu government would want to make this the case, as while he’s got mounting political opposition, he likely believes war with Iran is still a platform that would benefit him in the election. Indeed, if the war actually was ongoing against Iran and basically all Shi’ites, it would probably guarantee his reelection.
     But it didn’t stop with an attack in Syria, nominally on Iran. On Sunday, Israel carried out attacks against the Lebanese capital of Beirut, targeting Hezbollah. Israeli drones also slammed into Western Iraq, killing at least one member of a Shi’ite militia there.
      That bought Israel into engagements in three distinct countries, targeting Iraqi Shi’ite militias, Hezbollah, Syrian, and Iranian forces. Adding a fifth faction, early Monday morning Israel attacked a Palestinian base in northern Lebanon.
       That’s almost everyone in the region that Israel could attack, but this week will probably see a continuation of such strikes. Israel has also indicated an interest in starting to attack the Shi’ites in northern Yemen, even though they are not the same type of Shi’ites, so that too is likely to be a priority target.
       So far there has been no reaction from Israel’s opposition parties, and it puts them in an awkward position, as historically attacking anything is relatively popular in Israel, and it is considered unthinkable for the opposition to chime in on that in anything but enthusiastic support.

Visit ann arky's home at https://radicalglasgow.me.uk

The Savage March Of Raw Capitalism.

      The previous post was on the insane savage destruction of the Amazon forest, however, it's what capitalism does, destroys. Destroys communities, environments eco-systems, fauna and flora, defacing the earth, all in the name of profit for the few. The 21st. century juggernaut capitalism, raw capitalism, capitalism with the gloves off, people and communities can be cast aside, villages removed, every action assessed as how it will show up on the financial statement of the corporate world. When and where does it stop, when the last tree has been logged, the last green spot concreted? 

Part one of a two-part Shoal report from Germany.

Hambach mine: destroying communities

             The bus stops remain, but the buses don’t call any more in the little rural village of Manheim in Nordrhein-Westfalen. The pub is still there, but permamently shut. The same with the shops. The village church is still standing but was desanctified in May this year and will never host another service. Only a handful of houses show any signs of occupation. The rest are deserted, boarded up, surrounded by bleak wastelands of rubble where once stood family homes.

 

 

        Manheim is, in fact, in the process of being completely demolished. Why? It is the latest human settlement to get in the way of the massive Hambach opencast lignite mine, which is busily laying waste to 85 square km of German countryside to extract “brown coal” used for fossil fuel power stations. Trees, wildlife, communities – nothing can ever be allowed to get in the way of industrial capitalism and its insatiable need to destroy all that is living.
       Operator RWE, whose entire executive board joined the Nazi Party en masse on May 1 1933, knows that electrical and political power always go hand in hand and thus far has been given free rein by the authorities, despite much local opposition. The human beings whose homes got in the way of their profits have been resassigned to Manheim-neu, a new settlement 7km away on the other side of the A4 motorway. 

      Just as clear-cut forests can apparently safely be replaced by planting saplings on a different site, so can people’s lives be neatly rearranged to suit the financial needs of the ruling industrial capitalist elite. An environmental activist who has been visiting Manheim for several years told me of his sadness at the death sentence imposed on the community. “You really saw the decline of the village. At some point you could not buy bread any more. People were really depressed. They said their grandparents were born there, their parents as well, they had lived there all their lives.
      “There are not a lot of old buildings in Germany because so many were destroyed in the wartime. Where I live, you need permission to paint your house – not just the colour but the kind of paint. “Here, 60km away, they are destroying whole villages. It all depends on who is wanting to do what”.
       There were attempts to protect Manheim. As well as residents determined to defy the compulsory purchases, supporters squatted some houses but were rapidly evicted and the buildings immediately rased to the ground to stop them coming back. RWE and the authorities insist that that the destruction of Manheim, with all the human trauma it involves, is for the “common good”. 

 

    Passers-by we spoke to didn’t seem to agree. One referred to RWE as “criminals”, while another preferred to describe them as “the mafia”. He noted that they ruthlessly threw people out of their homes in Manheim and then adopted a “human” approach when it came to the question of destroying Hambach Forest, arguing that the jobs were good for the local “community”. The political situation has shifted a little in Germany in 2019. Rising awareness of climate change, and the environmental crisis in general, means there is currently a question mark over the ongoing expansion of the Hambach mine. But nobody seems to have have told the people demolishing Manheim. We watched as their bulldozers tore into the walls of a place that somebody once called home. Before long, even the firm soil it stood on will have been ripped away by RWE’s enormous and brutal machineries. Is this what progress looks like? Replacing a community with a massive hole in the ground?

Visit ann arky's home at https://radicalglasgow.me.uk 

Governments Fiddle While The Planet Burns.

        It has been in the news recently, and there has been condemnation and outrage, and rightly so. The Amazon fires, the raging capitalist driven burning of the planet's lung. This is surely the most greed driven insane action of capitalism for many years, if not ever. All accepted rational scientific information states clearly, to survive our species needs the Amazon forests. This destructive action has no other reason than money for the rich and powerful, spearheaded by macho, fascist, psychopath Balsonaro. What we see is from afar, but their are people who live in the forests and have no other way of live except to live with and in the forest, it is their way of life and their culture that is going up in smoke. If this continues, then we will be the next to feel the utter folly of burning the planet's lung, nobody will escape this suicide pact with the corporate juggernaut and the financial Mafia. It may already be too late, if there is life out there in outer space, they must be looking on in complete disbelief, watching a supposed intelligent, ration species, stand by and allow a small group of their own, engineer collective suicide for all. This must surely be the most dramatic lethal and final action that proves beyond any doubt, that capitalism is a destructive force and doesn't and can't work for the people. It is either the destruction of capitalism, or the destruction of the species. The chose is ours.

       The following from AMW

Originally published by Abolition Media Worldwide.

      More than 18,000 Mura people live in Amazonas state, the largest state in Brazil’s Amazon rainforest.
       Logging companies have cleared away an area the size of several football fields near their village, leaving a broad dirt hole in the ground pockmarked by the treads of heavy machinery.
    “With each passing day, we see the destruction advance: deforestation, invasion, logging,” said Handerch Wakana Mura, one of several leaders of a tribal clan of more than 60 people.
       “We are sad because the forest is dying at every moment. We feel the climate changing and the world needs the forest.”
       Indeed, Amazon deforestation has surged 67% in the first seven months of the year from the same period a year ago, as the Bolsonaro regime has ramped up environmental destruction.
       Forest fires were up more than 80% in the country year-to-date, hitting their highest point since at least 2013.
       Everywhere in the region around the Mura village, pockets of fire were raging.
      The fascist President Jair Bolsonaro has called for the development of protected reserves and railed against environmental fines, emboldening loggers and farmers who seek to clear the land, sometimes by setting fires.
      Deforestation in the area began four years ago, and only last year were loggers and those extracting rocks to build a nearby roadway forced out.
      Logging subsequently jumped across the roadway, with a huge area of downed trees visible by drone.
       When that abated, the Mura people came upon a path through the jungle nearby that had recently been hewn with chainsaws and machetes – a logging path and the first sign of a new area that would be targeted.
      This time, the path runs particularly close to a group of Brazil nut trees the clan harvests, a major traditional food source for indigenous people in the area, Handerch Wakana Mura and other tribal leaders say.
      The Mura clan plans to fight against loggers and others exploiting the land through militant resistance.
     The clan says it will be a tough battle, with Bolsonaro having vowed not to set aside any more tribal land.
      Leader Raimundo Praia Belem Mura, a 73-year-old who has lived on the land his entire life, has vowed to fight to the bitter end.

    “For this forest, I will go on until my last drop of blood,” he said.

      A small group armed with spears, bows and arrows, cannot be left alone to fight this corporate juggernaut suicide mission, if ever solidarity was needed it is now.

Visit ann arky's home at https://radicalglasgow.me.uk

How Best To Get The Scum Fascists Of Our Streets.

        In Portland USA, the fascists and others of that rancid breed, show up, en masse, on a regular basis, all kitted out in their armour and armed, in an attempt to terrorise, beat up, and on occasions, kill those who they see as not part of their pure white, fundamental Christian, American paradise. They are on these occasions accompanied by an even greater number of more kitted up and well armed riot police and government agents from various strand of the state, to ensure a safe passage for the festering fascist mob. They are meet by antifascists who are usually outnumbered by the combined forces of the fascists and the state minders, and as a rule the antifascists are the ones that end up being beaten up and arrested by the police. At least one among the antifascists has called for a rethink of tactics and a different approach, perhaps we should all do likewise. Perhaps a muscle flexing face-off might not be the best approach, I do agree we can't ignore them, and they must be defeated.

      The following from It's Going Down:
A critical reflection on the mass antifascist actions in Portland on August 17th. 

 

 

      Since Trump’s election, the Alt-Right, fascists and neo-Nazis (as well as racists and misogynists of all stripes) have been bolder than ever. Around the country they have stabbed people, beat people up, and shot at them.
       In Portland, of course, they have descended nearly every other month for the past two or three years with the intention of instigating a street brawl and provoking anarchists and antifascists, as well as to doxx and threaten people’s safety. And people up and down the west coast have responded. We have allowed ourselves to be provoked each and every time, showed up in the hundreds or thousands, and gotten our asses kicked. We’ve had some shining moments, to be sure, but at the end of most of these demonstrations, all the antifascists I know – and I assume many others – leave feeling demoralized, disempowered, and sometimes in the ER scared to death about our friends lives. Neither the fascists nor the antifascists have changed tactics in these demonstrations. While the police get better at crowd control, become more and more violent, and put more money and energy into investigations, we continue to let ourselves be provoked and show up to do the same damn thing as the month and year before.
       The day before the demonstration on August 17th, a friend said to me, “We have to get these fuckers. The scope of their violence is so intense.” Yes, the fascists are violent and they routinely attack POC, queers and random bystanders. They should be attacked, and I would certainly celebrate if they all killed themselves. But these Portland demonstrations no longer feel like they are actually about attacking anyone. I show up terrified, knowing today might be the day I see a friend get shot. Given their guns and the police response, I do not show up expecting us to do anything more than be a symbolic gesture. Antifascists can talk a big game about how “we are going to show them.” We can show up with bats and batons and pepper spray. And yet, at every demonstration, our goal becomes to not end up in the hospital and maybe get a couple good punches in.
        On August 17th, we stood around for about an hour before the Alt-Right left the park and crossed the bridge, and then we walked aimlessly around the park because we had no other plan than the one we’ve always had. This is not an attack. It doesn’t show us our own strength, and it certainly doesn’t show them our strength.
       At this point, “antifa” feels like a brand name, not an ideology. My politics are larger and deeper than the image embodied by that word. As anarchists, we are inherently antifascist. I am not interested in being defined as “antifa” because we are so much more than that. There are plenty of “antifa” in the antifascist demonstrations who are not anarchists, who do not seem to have politics outside of beating up fascists in the street.
      At every demonstration, I’ve seen supposed antifascists using violently misogynistic and transphobic language, even making rape threats against the fascists. Those people are not on my team. If we were to encounter people like that outside of these demonstrations, they would be our enemies, not our friends. If making fascists bleed is the only thing have in common with each other, what are we fighting for? Where was the 200 person black bloc in Portland when 700 migrants were arrested two weeks before? Are those fascists not worth fighting because we can’t meet them in the street in a flashy muscle-on-muscle fight in front of the media?
       I do not want to fight for or with people who think it’s acceptable to make rape threats, or who use disgustingly misogynistic language. But Joe Biggs announces he is coming to town, and we all team up like we are one big antifa family. And in Portland, the “antifa” feels like a dog that comes when its name is called and gets kicked.
       When the fascists show up in Portland, how can we respond differently? PopMob will have their demonstration, which brings a lot of people in costumes and party attire, and that’s great. But the fascists thrive on us – the black bloc – showing up, too. So what if we didn’t show? I am not saying we should stay home. I am not saying we should not respond. But there is a lot of truth in the idea of “not giving them what they want.” Liberals use that phrase to mean we should stay home, but that is surrender, and we will not surrender.
        There are so many other ways of showing up the day of a fascist demo that do not involve having a face-off with them at the waterfront. We are creative. We are anarchists. We have so many enemies throughout the city that can and must be attacked. An attack on one fascist is an attack on all of them, and we don’t need to stand at the waterfront flexing our muscles in front of their body armor and their guns to strike a blow against them. Think of what 200 people in bloc could accomplish if we were not surrounded by 700 cops, the FBI, and the national guard. Think of how many other opportunities there are. Think of the fascists temporary glee when we don’t show up at the waterfront, only to find out that while they were waiting for us, we have taken action – and won – on another front.
       We need to refind our creativity. We need to remember how to make demonstrations joyful. We need to stop letting ourselves be provoked, and instead become the provocation.

More on the Portland fascist antifascist recurring battles.

Visit ann arky's home at https://radicalglasgow.me.uk    

BUCK Helps Buck The Trend.

       I do sometimes harp on about getting papers onto the street, as an anarchist I strongly feel there isn't enough of our material getting out there into the hands of the general public. Perhaps my harping on will inspire those younger than me to get out there and hand people our message in a physical form, not everybody is on Facebook. So I like to publicise any anarchist papers or zines etc., that I come across, this one, called Buck, is from Bristol, a city with a fair bit of radical action. It may not be to everybody's taste, but that's anarchism for you, and is well worth a read.

        “It becomes a hazard of the choices we make when we commit acts that move us nearer to the freedom we seek.”
      ‘Buck’ is inspired by ‘September Commando’ by John Yates with it’s minimal direct punchlines that accompany iconic images.

BUCK, Free download PDF:

Visit ann arky's Home at https://radicalglasgow.me.uk

ACE Edinburgh.

 

        As usual, our friends over in Edinburgh at ACE, have pulled together another couple of months of events, important, interesting, and worthy of attention. So if you can shuffle over to Edinburgh and given them your support, all worth while.

Sunday 25th August
Rising Free book reading in aid of Edinburgh Rape Crisis Centre
6.30pm
SHRUB Coop (Zero Waste Hub)
22 Bread street, EH3 9AF
https://www.facebook.com/events/2441906742569751/

       Sisters Uncut Edinburgh invite you to share space with and listen to the voices behind Rising Free, a recently published anthology of creative writing from Edinburgh Rape Crisis Centre.
      Following the reading and a short break, survivors in the audience will be welcome to share their own voices in an open mic. Entry is by donation with all money collected going to support Edinburgh Rape Crisis Centre.
      This topic of this event can provoke a range of emotional responses. There will be provision of support available for anyone who finds the event difficult.
        This event is open to all genders
Organised by Sisters Uncut http://autonomous.org.uk/groups-activities/sisters-uncut-edinburgh/

Mon 26 August
      Protest over Amazon fires
1pm – 3pm Scottish Parliament
Organised by Extinction Rebellion
https://www.facebook.com/events/648606235635568/

Wednesday, 28 August
     Stop Lock-Change Evictions !
Demonstration organised by Scottish Refugee Council, Living Rent and others
11:00am -12:00
Court of Session , Parliament Square, EH1
https://www.facebook.com/events/344415249767683/?active_tab=about

       JOIN US outside the Court of Session on Wednesday 28th August at 11am to demonstrate against the callous Home Office policy which forces people into street homelessness, to support the case of Ali vs Serco and the Home Office, and to raise awareness of ongoing, inhumane lock-change evictions in Glasgow.
#StopLockChangeEvictions #DignityNotDestitution

Thurs 29 August: ACE Evening Opening
       ACE open 6 - 8 pm
General browsing welcome, Open to all!

Mon 2 September
       Edinburgh Coalition Against Poverty advocacy stall
10am – 11.30ish
Leith Jobcentre, Commercial Street
All welcome
(note – weather dependent, not on if its pouring!)
www.edinburghagainstpoverty.org.uk

Thursday 5 Sept: ECAP Monthly Meeting
       ACE 6 - 8 pm All welcome
Help organise ECAP activities for the month ahead
www.edinburghagainstpoverty.org.uk

 Saturday 7 September: ACE is Open!
     Come browse & check out our groups

Open 1 - 4 pm

Sunday 8 Sept: International Women's Day Group
        Edinburgh branch - all women welcome
ACE 12 - 2 pm
http://autonomous.org.uk/groups-activities/international-womens-day/

Wed 11 September
       Action for Trans Health Planning meeting at ACE
https://www.facebook.com/events/486168151880782/?event_time_id=486168168547447

Sunday 15 September
     Edinburgh IWW branch meeting
2pm – 4pm at ACE
http://autonomous.org.uk/events/iww-2019-09-15/

Friday 20 Sept: #GeneralStrikeForClimate
       Gather 11am Middle Meadow Walk, Meadows
11.30am March to the Parliament
https://www.facebook.com/events/600485737142445/permalink/616791722178513/

      Edinburgh Youth Climate Strike
We ask that all people join us for this general strike the climate crisis is no longer an issue that will effect young people it will effect us all.
So on the 20th of September we ask people of all ages and backgrounds to stand together to face this climate and ecological crisis.

Edinburgh World Justice Festival
28 September – 19 October
http://www.ewjf.org.uk/

October
Auction for Trans Health
Online via Facebook
Coming up in October
https://www.facebook.com/groups/AuctionForTransHealth/
        Edinburgh Action for Trans Health have a facebook group where they will be holding fund-raising auctions. Expect to find some quirky queer curios and funky feminist things up for grabs! Money raised here will go directly into the hands of trans people in need or on into projects to bring about the liberation of trans healthcare. The next auction is coming up in October so join the group, set notifications to get all posts so as to not miss the auction, and add your friends so they can join in on thee bidding!

Regular Events

Every Tuesday 12 – 3pm at ACE
Edinburgh Coalition Against Poverty drop-in
http://edinburghagainstpoverty.org.uk/?page_id=2193
Plus all ACE facilities open

Every Wednesday 2pm – 4pm at ACE
Common Ground
Homeless led action and advocacy
http://autonomous.org.uk/groups-activities/the-a-team/
More news on events on Autonomous Centre of Edinburgh facebook and on the ACE calendar at www.autonomous.org.uk
For info on all the groups based at ACE see http://autonomous.org.uk/groups-activities/

CONTACT acemail@gmx.co.uk

Autonomous Centre of Edinburgh, 17 West Montgomery Place, Edinburgh EH7 5HA
        ACE is open every Tuesday 12-3pm, the last Thursday each month 6pm - 8pm, and the first Saturday each month 1pm - 4pm
Plus see ACE facebook and the calendar at www.autonomous.org.uk for special events and meetings
      Tel 0131 557 6242 - best to ring during opening hours, sorry we cannot guarantee to be able to respond to voicemail.

Visit ann arky's home at https://radicalglasgow.me.uk