Out Of Control.

         The police in most countries are out of control and all with the blessing of the state. I think the Greek police are at the forefront of this charge to suppress any form of dissent. However the citizens of Greece are not taking this lying down, day in and day out they face this police brutality  for simple protesting a gross act of inhumanity, and stand their ground, we owe them solidarity and support. There is a bond of unity between all police, there has to be a bond of unity between  all citizens seeking that better world for all.

          Athens, Greece: For the 7th time in 7 protests in solidarity to the hunger striker Dimitris Koufodinas, scores of riot policemen tried to spread fear and terror amongst those that dared to raise their voices and their feasts in the air to protest the prisoner’s imminent death, but people stood their ground, as you may see in the video. If Dimitris Koufodinas (on strike since January 8, 2021) dies it will be the first prisoner on hunger strike to die in the European Union, since the death of Bobby Sands on May 5, 1981, in Northern Ireland, under the Margaret Thatcher regime. Dimitris Koufodinas, now 63 years old, is on hunger strike for the last 50 days and has begun a thirst strike too since 23 February. His death is considered imminent. His current demand is to be transferred to Korydallos prison, as well as, an end to these arbitrary interventions against him. Even after 50 days without food and 3 without water, the greek government refuses his right to equal treatment. People that dared to protest in Athens today, 26 February 2021, were, once again, forcefully attacked by scores of policemen for no reason, just for protesting. This is the 7th time in the last few weeks that protests for Koufodinas in Athens city centre have been heavily attacked by riot cops. 

 - The rise of right wing fascism within the greek government -

 Germany: Hundreds march in support of imprisoned Greek militant https://youtu.be/Cu4vY9raz5c Thanks Loam for the link, but where are the others?

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

The Crowd.

         What will the end of covid19 bring, will it see the underlying anger of the people explode, will it see the long suffering, exploited and marginalised take to the streets, not to demand change, but to unstoppably create change, in doing so destroy this system of greed, pillage and plunder, that for generations has stunted their lives and that of their children. Or will they humbly submit to more of the same, leaving the rich pampered parasites laughing all the way to their luxury yachts.  

I Am The Crowd.

I am the crowd
I awim in the quagmire of poverty
its hooks, its barbs, tear my flesh
rupture my dreams,
I hold my breath for centuries
hoping to break through, gasp pure air.
Through the murky mire
I see bright things, shiny things sparkle
I see women in fine dresses, men in silk shirts.
I ask myself
why do I swim in this cesspool?
I want the light and warmth of rectitude
to caress my labouring body,
seeds of my dreams to bloom
like wild flowers in a meadow.
one day, I will use my boundless strength
to haul this torn, battered being
out of the morass
onto the warm grassy bank,
when I do;
woe betide you, women in fine dresses
woe betide you mister in your fine silk shirt
should you ever try to get in my way,
for I am the strength of the world,
I am the crowd.

 

The following Lifted from ANARCHISM:

London, the most unregulated city in the world - rich scum particularly welcome ★
“Give me your rich, your greedy,
Your mafia drug-gangs from every corner of the globe
yearning to launder cash,
The people traffickers who exploit the teeming shores.
Send these, the property speculators
who create the city's homeless and drive out the working class.
Bring on the economic power of right-wing churches
To buy up our cinemas, our theatres, and our music venues.
I lift the lamp of the corrupt politician
To illuminate your way!”

   

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

Uncle Willie.

My Uncle Willie.

         To those who know me there will be no doubt in their minds about my hatred of the economic system we bleed under. In my eighties now, I have seen this system destroy individuals, tear families apart, and in its voracious greed for profit and power, it has murdered and maimed countless millions in its endless wars. Each individual destroyed, each family torn apart, each war grave, and each veterans hospital are all indictments against a system where people are sacrificed to keep the system functioning for the benefit of a small cabal of over privileged parasites. You would think that our humanity would demand that the system should be altered, modified and shaped to meet the needs of the the people, not the other way round.
        As we look at this society we can see all around us, those unfortunate individuals whose lives are deeply scarred by a system that uses people to perpetuate its greed driven machinations. It is so easy to encapsulate the ruthless viciousness of the system in one person's life, to me my uncle Willie is such a person. To the system, a nobody, a human being of no significance, but to those around him, a father, a son, a brother, a husband and an uncle.
        My uncle Willie was my mother's younger brother, naturally I didn't know him in his early years, but I heard the stories. Willie, like the rest of my family, lived in Garngad, a Glasgow slum in the north of the city. A young man in his 20’s, he was married and had three kids, and like so many of that era, unemployed. It seems that Willie was a family man and loved his kids, he could be seen most days walking with them along the waste ground off Charles Street at the back of Glenconner Park, usually two kids running in front and the youngest on his shoulders. It seems he was an excellent snooker/billiards player, and that is where he supplemented his income, by playing round the many snooker halls in Glasgow. However to the system, he was superfluous to requirements, so could scrape a living in the slums of Glasgow as best he could. 

 

       Then, suddenly, he is a valuable asset to the system, 1939, WWII starts, and Willie is scooped up and shipped out to Egypt. We no nothing of his experiences there, but after three years there and later his demob, he returned home with malaria, this is when I got to know him, just a little. His shaking hands, the troubled look in his eyes. His return to civilian life didn't get off to a good start, on returning home to his family, of wife and three kids, he discovered that he now had five kids. This was the end of his marriage, the family broke up, and Willie moved from job to job, and his drinking got worse and he eventually couldn't hold a job, he was now an alcoholic and homeless. Moving from homeless hostel to homeless hostel, occasionally staying with family, but his alcoholism made that an ever decreasing possibility.
       I remember my mother, a church goer and anti-drink woman, on many an occasion, looking out the window and saying, “Oh here's Willie coming”, then a pause, then, “he doesn't look too drunk”. He would sit and chat to his big sister and myself, my mother would make him something to eat and give a cup of tea. Though it was never a full cup of tea, his hands were shaking so bad it would have been all over him, she only quarter filled the cup and kept topping it up, it was his troubled eyes that have stuck with me all these years, as he was leaving, my mother would slip a 10 shilling note into his hand. 

 

       Willie spent the rest of his years moving around hostels for the homeless, eventually dying in one down in Ardrossan in his fifties. To me, my uncle Willie epitomises this stinking system, you're a worthless entity, left to rot unless the system needs you, either to make its profits, or to fight its imperialist wars, and your reward for either of these activities, if anything at all, is never anything grand, usually nothing or suffering.

 

The Warmth of a Dream.

 

He lay in a dark doorway, dreamed of home,

night frost locked his joints

morning rain chilled the marrow of his bones.

In the dream there was a sister, 

a pram in a garden, a crowd of youngsters

who called him "mister", a time of little pain.

Are these youngsters the same young men, who

now laugh at him, throw beer cans, 

piss on him as he lies drunk in some dark lane?

When was that first step to no forgiveness.

No will to rise to beg for food,

numbness kills the pain.

The dream brings a warmth that feels good,

dark fog shades out consciousness,

an ambulance carries off a body washed in rain.

 

 

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

Coiled Spring.

        A week or so ago I posted a piece referring to the pent up anger of the people, and likened it to a coiled up spring and sooner or later it will uncurl as all coiled up springs do, and the pent up anger will no longer be a murmuring under current but will become a physical event. A glance across the world and there is a realisation that the coil of anger is already releasing its energy. From Hong Kong to Ecuador people have been taking to the streets in protest at the myriad of injustices, gross inequalities, corruption, police brutality, blatant abuse by those in power and a host of other foul endemic features of this capitalist system.

 

 Spain:  https://www.npr.org/2021/02/19/969320165/protests-continue-in-spain-against-jailing-of-rapper-over-tweets?t=1614269967662

Belarus: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-02-23/belarus-revolution-women-nina-baginskaya/13164670

Greece: https://www.voanews.com/europe/greek-students-teachers-defy-weeklong-ban-protests

Europe: https://carnegieeurope.eu/2021/01/27/europeans-right-to-protest-under-threat-pub-83735

South America: https://www.brinknews.com/why-is-latin-america-aflame-with-protests/

      And of course the little reported largest workers strike in the world ever.

India:  https://socialistworker.co.uk/art/51024/Indian+farmers+join+mass+action+after+Modi+government+attacks%C2%A0

 

        However, where is the anger of the people of UK, still murmuring below the surface, what little act will cause the UK pent up coil of anger to explode? 

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

State Barbarity.

        Not that long ago two prisoners died on hunger strike in one of Turkey's many prisons. A vicious and inhumane set of circumstances that we expect from a deluded dictator like Erdogan. However, here in the EU, that self proclaimed, bastion of democracy such barbarity should be unthinkable, it is forty years since a prisoner died in a European prison due to the intransigence of the state to a hunger striker's requests. That is shortly about to change as the Greek state, probably the most right wing state apparatus in Europe, sits back and lets Dimitris Koufontinas die a slow agonising death after 45 days of hunger strike. Greece, like all other states, consider its authoritarian system and its package of enforced legislation, as more valuable than the life of a citizen.
      Of course the people in that patch of soil called Greece, don't take such savage barbarity lying down, and they deserve all the support and solidarity we can muster, as the face down this murderous act by the state.  

The following from Act For Freedom Now:

           “They follow you secretly and openly gangs and torturers and search
day and night to find you but there is no trail to follow because they
were never poets to worship the soil they tread on” 

           On the night of Friday 5/2 we placed an incendiary device in one of the entrances to the courts of Evelpidon (specifically that of the lawyers) wanting to support the struggle of the hunger striker Dimitris Koufontinas. The attack on the central structures of the judiciary is a response to a very clear political choice. The central governmental authority in direct collaboration with the representatives of civil justice is leading to the comrade’s death or at best to irreparable damage to his health. This political decision to assassinate Dimitris Koufontinas cannot go unanswered. Violating even their own legal tools, first legislating an photographic device to remove him from the agricultural prison now they are denying him the obvious, his transfer to Korydallos prison.
         The whole bourgeoisie and especially its head viciously and vigorously seeks the physical extermination of one of its political opponents, whose contribution to class struggles and to the appropriation of revolutionary violence by the oppressed, deeply challenged the omnipotence of the State beast and practically challenged its monopoly of violence.
         Their own murderous insistence must be answered with our comradely and fighters’ solidarity. We call on every part of the movement to sharpen its action and stand as a bulwark against the murder of the hunger striker. Dimitris Koufontinas is a link in the chain of the history of the revolutionary movement and part of our struggles. With this action we declare to his tormentors, blinded by authoritarian arrogance, that they must seriously consider the political costs that they will be called upon to manage if they attempt to murder the comrade.
Victory to the hunger strike of the revolutionary communist Dimitris Koufontinas

Cell of anarchist attack

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

Cesspool.

        So health secretary Hancock acted unlawfully while dishing out government contracts, and a government contract given to his neighbour is being investigated, while Boris's chum Cummings, say that the fact that two of his mates got a government contract had nothing to do with him. Sort of makes you hold your nose, doesn't it? These are just the ones that come to light at the moment, but we all know that the handing out of government contracts during this pandemic has been a wonderful opportunity to throw taxpayers money at the rich and powerful friends of Her Majesty's Government. Let's not be to harsh in singling out Hancock, he is just one of an army of greed driven parasites that hold the reigns of power.
       Hancock, of course says that what he and his cronies did was the right thing in the circumstances. So in his eyes it's alright to act unlawfully if you think it is the right thing to do in the circumstances. Boy does that open the door for lots of our actions at protests and direct actions etc. If you find your self in court after protesting against injustice, you can claim the "Hancock" defence, it was necessary under the circumstances. He gets off with that defence, why not you.
        Of course we all know that's not how it works, there is one law for you and another for that wee bunch of powerful parasites. Let's face it, this society with its power and privileges for the wealthy is nothing more than a suppurating cesspool, which is poisoning all walks of life. It is pointless to call for Hancock or those of his ilk, to be replaced, as they will just be replaced with another one of the "Old Boys" network.

 

        The ordinary people have to be ruthless and completely drain and demolish that cesspool, forget trying to clean it up, that has never worked in the past and it will never work in the future. It may be difficult, but we have the road map, it's called "Anarchism" 

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

 

Coiled Spring.

 

       One of our government pundits stated that the economy was like a coiled spring, and would bounce up quickly. I believe that the underlying anger of the people is like a coiled spring, and that as this lockdown and pandemic comes to an end, and unemployment and slashed working conditions start to make their mark, that anger in the coiled spring will be released. In so doing it will bounce up and reverse that submissive attitude that has affected all our actions like a thick gum. Some of the coils are already releasing their energy, all for different aspects of this type of society. Spain, against the arrest of rapper, Pablo Hasél, in India, the largest strike in the world, because of the government pushing its neo-liberal free market policies. There may be different reasons but the anger is there and will thrust itself up like that released coiled spring.

     There will be plenty to vent that anger on, child poverty, homelessness, unemployment, inhumane treatment of migrants, police brutality against public protests, the privatisation of the the NHS and other public assets, and the myriad of population controls introduced during the pandemic, which our lords and masters will attempt to retain. Then of course there will be the anger against the oncoming austerity engineered to pay back the billions handed to their corporate friends, to keep their luxury yachts well stocked. 

       We should never pull back from showing our anger at the injustice and inequality that is the bed rock of the capitalist exploitation system. What we must try to do is link up all this anger with that of other countries, we must organise across borders. Our corporate overlords, are well versed in that cross border organising, in conjunction with the various states. The ordinary people of this world must never recognise borders, we are all in the same struggle against the same state backed corporate juggernaut. Only unity across these imaginary lines will end this world of wars, exploitation, injustice and inequality. Let's release that coiled spring of anger, and in the words of an old Korean saying, "Enjoy the ecstasy of your righteous anger".

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

Bailout Scam.

        How long will it be before the public at large get really pissed off with being shafted generation after generation? In this capitalist system the bigger you are the less you play by the rules. In capitalism, when a small business runs into financial difficulties, it goes bust. However if you are a very large capitalist business, and you run into difficulties, then there is every chance that the government will bail you out with tax payers money. This is not new due to the pandemic, it is standard practice and has been for generations. The pandemic has just opened the sluice valves that bit wider. Of course it is not just happening here in the UK, it's part and parcel of the capitalist system the world over. America is probably where the largest hand over of tax payers money to big businesses is happening.  

 

 

        Here in the UK we try to mimic the U$A in this bailout scam.  

    While SMEs struggle to gain access to government-backed loans, large corporations have already been bailed out to the tune of approximately £7.5bn via the Bank of England’s newly created Covid Corporate Financing Facility – and it’s all being hidden from public view. ------
----- The most concerning aspect about the CCFF however, is that neither the Bank of England nor the Treasury are being transparent about which corporations have access to the facility. The Bank explicitly states that “the names of issuers and securities purchased or eligible will not be made public” and recipient companies are even required to sign a confidentiality agreement regarding their participation in the scheme.
       A few companies however have seemingly broken this agreement by publicly announcing the support they’ve received through the CCFF. This includes EasyJet, Redrow, and Greggs who have secured £600m, £300m, and £150m respectively. With these sums amounting to £1.5bn, that leaves another £6bn already doled out to some of Britain’s biggest businesses completely in secret. 

       This is just the tip of the bailout iceberg, and all this while the NHS is struggling for more staff, equipment and funding, councils are slashing services to local communities and vulnerable groups are flounder in a morass of  poverty stricken services and facilities, and food banks grow by the day. It is glaringly and blatantly obvious that we the real wealth creators in society, are being plunder and pillaged by the rich and powerful, through the auspices of Her Majesty's Government, yet we tolerate this generation after generation, while watching the ever growing poverty among our children, why? 

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

Profit & Misery.

           I wonder when we will grab the bull by the horns and create a civilised society, a society where the locking people up in cages is finally recognised as barbaric and inhumane. When will we see a society where the only reference to this savage activity is in our history books.
         The fact that these degrading institutions are more and more being run by large corporations for profit, makes them even more unacceptable to civilised people. Inflicting misery and violence on fellow humans for corporate gain condemns them beyond the pale. Profit will always strip away at conditions, making prisons even more damaging to the mental and physical health of those caught up in this human crushing machine. In these inhuman institutions there is never enough money for medical care, security and profit come first. So it comes as no surprise that there have been approximately 260 people infected with covid19 in Kilmarnock prison. This particular human degradation institution is run by SERCO, a company that is no stranger to useing human misery to enhance its profit margins. Apart from prisons, Serco have been grabbing a slice of public money to harvest a profit from the misery of migrants.
        As long as we follow the economic madness of the capitalist system, making money from human misery will be an acceptable method of enhancing shareholders' bank accounts. If we dare to call ourselves civilised, then we have to erase any possibility of this type of enterprise entering the human chain of thought. A civilised society will only grow from the dust of demolished prisons and an end to the profit motive.

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

Bias?

       Isn't it interesting how the Western mainstream media are always showing the police violence in places like Russia and Hong Kong, yet police violence in the EU doesn't seem to get much of an airing. Do you think there might be a wee bit of bias there? Police violence is part and parcel of the state system, not as the media would try to have you believe, that it's a product of bad evil states, who, by some strange coincidence, don't fit into the Western capitalist model.
      States and police are co-joined twins, and the job of the police is to dish out what ever violence they deem necessary to protect the power and privileges of the state, no matter the shade, shape or other characteristics of that state. What kind of person takes on the job of beating up their fellow citizens to protect the rich and powerful, who don't give a shit about their paid minders, or the citizens.

 

  

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

Failed System.

            The rich developed West, overflowing with wealth, a parasite class living in obscene opulence side by side with outrageous child poverty. The UK, 5th or 6th richest nation on the planet belongs to that unique club where child poverty is above 26%, we are in keeping with other countries that fail miserably to see to the health and welfare of the next generation. In that rich conglomerate of nation states belonging to the world's largest trading block, the EU, (I know that UK is no longer a member, but these figures were compiled shortly before we left.) there are 12 nation states where child poverty is above 26%, with Bulgaria and Romania champions of European child poverty, with Bulgaria at approximately 46% and Romania approximately 49%.

 

 
          This is modern capitalism at work, luxury yachts, grand mansions, tax havens, power and privileges for a small band of leeching parasites and struggle and poverty for the many with children bearing the blunt of this greed driven system of exploitation for profit.
         Large corporations dictate economic policy to the various governments and they put the stamp of legitimacy on them, then enforce the implementation on the population, all to the detriment of the people and the benefit of the corporate parasite class.
         Child poverty will remain with us as long as we tolerate this capitalist system where the holy grail is the economy, where the only reason for any form of production is for profit. Common sense tells us that it would by much better and fairer for all in society, if we built it round a state free public ownership and co-operatives, organised by the communities in co-operation with each other, and all free from the profit motive. However don't expect our prancing political ballerinas and their corporate paymasters to arrange that for you, that task will have to be up to us, to throw their rule book in the bin and take control and shape society to see to the needs of all our people, only then will we see child poverty turn into something your read about in the history books.

 

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

Assassination?

          Did President Trump order the assassination of an American citizen on American soil? That's the question some people are asking after the killing of activist and antifascist Michael Reinoehl.

It's Going Down reports on the incident:

        A look at the evidence surrounding the State killing of Portland-area protester Michael Reinoehl – which begs the question, just who directed what seems to be – his execution?
By John Teufel
        That Michael Reinoehl was murdered is hardly in doubt. Whether he was assassinated remains an open question.
         We know the events of September 3rd with some certainty. Five days earlier, Reinoehl had killed a man named Aaron Danielson in downtown Portland. Local police had already publicly named him as a suspect – Reinoehl was a fugitive, and feared that his own death was imminent. Now, Reinoehl was trying to hide at an apartment in Lacey, Washington, a suburb of Olympia. At this, he was failing, as FBI agents watched silently outside.
Murder
       At approximately 6:45 PM, Reinoehl finished a phone call with a friend and left the apartment, walking toward his car parked outside. As he did so, a contingent of U.S. marshals and local police in SUVs approached him at rapid speed. Reinoehl had a cell phone against his ear, and popped a gummy worm into his mouth. He opened his car door and started to get inside. The SUVs reached Reinoehl and, before coming to a complete stop, federal agents and cops descended with weapons drawn. No commands were issued. Within seconds, law enforcement opened fire. Reinoehl tried to duck for cover behind his vehicle, but the barrage of shots – 37 rounds in total – was relentless.
       Medical aid was half-heartedly administered (chest compressions, with the officer still standing) eight minutes after Reinoehl had been pumped with bullets. It wouldn’t have made a difference even if done right. Reinoehl died fast – likely in seconds, according to the coroner.
        Of the 22 civilian witnesses present at Reinoehl’s death, 21 stated that police never issued any commands or announced themselves before opening fire. Five eyewitnesses stated that the gunfire began as soon as the vehicles arrived on the scene. None saw Reinoehl with a gun. One witness initially assumed he was watching a drug-related gang hit, until he noticed the bulletproof vests worn by the shooters.

Read the full article HERE

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

  

       Stuart Christie, who dead recently was a remarkable man, an anarchist, with incredible  skills, resilience, and a remarkable history, it is wonderful that his family and friends are creating an archive of his life and work. We must always remember and record our own, the society we live under would rather such people were erased from history, we must never let that happen, we have a rich and remarkable history we should be very proud of, Stuart Christie made it that bit richer. 

The following from Kate Sharpley Library.

Stuart Christie

The Stuart Christie Memorial Archive

       Friends, family and comrades of Stuart Christie have come up with a plan to commemorate his life by creating an archive at London’s Mayday Rooms and online.
      “Stuart’s life may have been plastered with headlines, Britain’s most famous anarchist was the usual description, but the small print of it was what was important. His courage, imagination, his loyalty, not just to what he believed in, but to his friends and family, his remarkable intelligence, his self-deprecating, droll and spiky humour. He was a man of parts, each one of them remarkable.
     “To reveal the richness of Stuart’s life and the many histories he was a part of, we intend to establish a memorial archive in his name. The Stuart Christie Memorial Archive will be housed at the MayDay Rooms in Fleet Street in London.”
      Read more about the project (and donate!) at
https://www.gofundme.com/f/stuart-christie-memorial-archive

 

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

Incompatible.

          It is now becoming ever more obvious that the system is falling apart, for generations we have been subject to our rulers rampant aggression and utter contempt, yet the populace at large, continued to hold onto that mythical thought of some sort of alliance between rulers and ruled. Now the truth is so blatantly obvious that this myth has evaporated, leaving bare the true nature of this incompatible relationship. The powerful rulers of society are aware of this now complete disconnect between ruled and ruler, aware that the illusion no longer holds, and the populace see the glaring truth. This makes them extremely dangerous, if they can’t hold onto their power by smoke and mirrors, by weaving illusions, then they will try to do so by force, we must prepare for this inevitability. The disconnect between ruled and ruler is now complete, the glaring inequality and disparity inherent in the system shows that their reality and ours is completely incompatible. 

        We the public can no longer march to their tune, no longer pick up the sword to defend their wealth, no longer shed our blood in their petty power struggles, no longer sweat our lives away cementing their privileged position. Across the globe people are showing that they have finally grasped this irrefutable truth, open rebellion is in the air. The attempted containment will become more brutal, ever increasing restrictions, ever greater surveillance, ever greater punishments for dissent. We organise in solidarity and face it full on, or we revert to that illusion that there is compatibility between rich and powerful rulers and the ruled and once again accept our serfdom, in a tighter and more frightening new world order.

 

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