Solidarity.

 

         Despite the brutality, arbitrary punishments and isolation of those hellholes called prisons, vibrant life, stories and poetry keep coming out, vindication of the undying desire for freedom and the unquenchable love of life. The journal Fire Ant tries to capture that lust for life and freedom that is locked in those institutions of state repression. Poetry, essays and letters from anarchist prisoners, a symphony to freedom and the human spirit that continues regardless of the state's savage attempt to silence that flame of human individuality. Always well worth supporting and certainly always an excellent read.

Fire Ant journal #10 is out. A zine by, for, and about, anarchist political prisoners, from Bloomington Anarchist Black Cross.

Originally published by Fire Ant.

[PDF for printing]

Fire Ant is a quarterly publication focused on spreading the words of anarchist prisoners and generating material solidarity for our imprisoned friends. Begun as a collaboration between anarchist prisoners and anarchists in Maine, Fire Ant seeks to raise material aid for anarchist prisoners while fostering communication between anarchists on both sides of the walls.

       Issue #10 features essays, letters, and poetry from anarchist prisoners Michael Kimble, Pepe, Thomas Meyer-Falk, and Sean Swain; as well as an introduction by Robcat to the new Fire Ant Food Autonomy Project.

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

Anger.

 

         A comment to my previous post,"Killers" made by Loam, " We should take the coffins of the cold victims and put them at the gates of 10 Downing Street or at Bukingham Palace. I hate the criminal ruling class with all my soul!" is certainly a powerful way of bring home the callous savagery of this state/corporate regime that blights the lives of so many. Of course it is not just the elderly and ill that suffer, fuel poverty blights the lives of so many of our young, living in a damp and cold home strikes at your health, no matter your age. Perhaps for the dignity of those who died because of this unnecessary crime of fuel poverty and respect for their friends and family that might not be possible to carry out Loam's suggestion. However we could make a demonstration of the extent of this callous crime by placing a mock coffin for every individual that dies from the crime of fuel poverty at the gates of 10 Downing Street and outside the Scottish parliament and the headquarters of the large energy companies. Any young organisers out there?? Make no mistake, they need not die, their is sufficient fuel to heat every house adequately, it is all a matter of profit for the pampered, privileged parasites that leech of our sweat and toil, and who callously kill our friends and family. 

 

Visit ann arky's home at https://spiritofrevolt.info  

Killers.

          Which one of your family, friends or neighbours will die unnecessarily this winter? It is estimated that in Scotland this winter, approximately an extra 400 elderly and sick will die because the will not be able to heat their homes properly. Fuel poverty has always been a larger problem the further north you go in this country, Scotland's winters tend to be colder than further south. So this recent astronomic price rise in energy supplies will proportionally kill more Scots than anywhere else in the UK. You have to ask yourself what democratic government would allow this to happen. For years energy companies have been making billions of pounds, shareholders have been reaping fat profits from those companies and CEOs have sorted millions of pounds into their various tax avoidance bank accounts. Yet we let our elderly and sick be killed because they can't heat their homes adequately. I wonder how many energy company CEOs are worried about heating their home, or should I say "homes".

         If ever we needed an example of how callous and brutal this insane capitalist system is, then this surely must be that evidence. To allow someone to sit and simply feel their life slipping away because it is cold and damp in a country that is awash with wealth is an indictment against the entire system of profit before people and against those who manage and perpetuate this cruel insanity, capitalism kills, when will we ever learn.

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

I Spy!

          Every state moves inexorably towards fascism, small steps, large steps, slow and fast, the direction is the always greater control over the population and harsher treatment for dissenters and those who chose not to fit into their little catalogue of boxes. The UK's latest crime bill is one massive step firmly into the realms of fascism. Protests can and will be classified as acts of terrorism, protesters terrorists, Travellers and Romani will come under ever great harassment with the risk of losing their vehicles, making their way of life impossible. This bill affects us all, we will have to conform or be singled out  for special attention by the state apparatus. Under no circumstances can these new legislations come under the category of a democratic country, that illusion has long been dispelled. We live in a country of total surveillance, monitoring and profiling, your ever move photographed and logged, we are subject to the prying eyes of the state as it clamps down on any form of dissent, any form of activity that strays from their legislated pattern.

 

Visit ann arky's home at https://spiritofrevolt.info   

Cop-in.

     Saturday September 24th. George Square Glasgow saw a youth protest against the pillaging and plundering of their future for the benefit of the corporate bosses. Great to see so many young people active and well keyed-up on the climate emergency issue and the array of colourful posters and street chalking was a pleasure and inspiring to see. We owe it to the younger generation to get ourselves involved and bring an end to this insane capitalist suicide mission. We owe the future generations the right to live on a planet that is sustainable and can provide for their needs.  We can't be the generation that handed our kids and grand-kids a heritage of a disintegrating eco-system and oblivion. Unless we join them on the streets, workplaces and communities, that will be our gift to the next generation, time is running out faster than we can imagine. Solidarity and direct action now could save the day, and ours and their tomorrows.

Some photos from Saturdays protest.

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

Cop-26.

Dear friends,           In less than 6 weeks, world leaders will meet in Glasgow at COP26 to discuss our future. We already know that many groups and communities on the frontlines of the climate crisis will not be able to make it to Glasgow this November.           This means that it’s more important than ever to get organised so that our demands for climate justice are loud enough that they can’t be ignored.

Global Day of Action for Climate Justice

On 6th November, movements across the world are coming together to take action – from indigenous struggles to trade unions, from racial justice groups to youth strikers.          The Covid pandemic means that not everyone can travel to Glasgow. That is why on the 6th November, we’re calling for decentralised actions worldwide. Wherever you are in the world, you can help bring climate justice to COP26.

Find your Local Action for Climate Justice

When you find your local action, make sure to click ‘More Info’ and RSVP to be kept up to date. Can’t find an action or local hub near you? We can help you organise one. Help us build the movement by spreading the word far and wide - see template WhatsApp, email, social media text here.

Want to get involved but not sure where to start?

There are many ways you can get involved in our movement. We need all hands on deck: in workplaces, communities, schools, hospitals and across national borders.  Now is the time to join the fight.         Join us for our webinar to find out how you can get involved - from volunteering to mobilising, from local to international levels. We'll discuss why and how we're getting organised for COP, our plans for and before COP, and the different ways you can get stuck in. Sun 26 Sep 4 - 6 PM BST - register here Don’t worry if you can’t make the session. You can re-watch it here afterwards.

Register

Latin America and Asia Coordination Meeting          We’re getting organised globally! We’re hosting Asia and Latin America regional meetings to share information about what is planned and to explore the possibilities of organising actions globally on Nov 6.          Asia Coordination Meeting - Date: 29 Sept 7:30 AM UTC - register here Latin America Coordination Meeting - Date: 4 Oct 2021 5:00 PM GMT+1 - Zoom link Africa Coordination Meeting coming soon!

UK Local Hubs Meeting          We’re inviting representatives from all the COP26 Coalition Local Hubs to an organising meeting ahead of the Global Day of Action on Nov 6th. We want to hear how plans are developing across the country, what extra support is needed, and enable Local Hubs to share experiences and resources. Open to all activists currently mobilising in their local areas for Nov 6. Wed 29 Sep 7pm – 8pm BST - Zoom link

Volunteer       Our movement can only grow because of our amazing volunteers! It’s not too late to play a key role in the movement that brings climate justice to COP26. From logistics to graphics to mobilisations - wherever you are in the world, there are many ways you can support the movement both now and during COP.   Homestay Network      Do you live in the central belt of Scotland and have an open floor, sofa or room? Share your home with Indigenous leaders and visiting activists coming to COP26.   Find out more and become a host.

Other events

Glasgow Local Social      If you’re in Glasgow, join local organisers for a social, to get to know the Coalition, local campaigners supporting our efforts in the city, and have a peek into one of our venues for the People’s Summit. Wed 29 Sep 5pm BST, Saramago Cafe, Centre for Contemporary Arts   Local hub and regional meetings      Local areas are getting organised! Find more events in our Coalition calendar or contact your local hub to find out about local events.   Visit ann arky's home at https://spiritofrevolt.info

Same Old.

 

        Just in case there are any young people out there that think the present day energy crisis is a new phenomena, I would like to point out to them that the ordinary people get shafted year in year out, while millionaires become billionaires and billionaires bank accounts grow fatter by the hour. It will be ever so, as long as we tolerate this greed drive exploitative, insane system of profit oriented capitalism. To make my point I'm reposting this article I wrote for the Anarchist Critic away back in 2008, read it and see if it rings familiar.

issue 67 Aug. '08
WHO WILL DIE THIS WINTER??

         Energy firm Centrica, owners of British Gas, recently announced a massive 35% price increase to take effect immediately. A day or so later they announced a profit of almost one billion pounds for the six months to June 30th. This was £100 million higher than the city financial spivs were expecting, this did not however, cause them to revue their price increase. So while the city spivs were rubbing their sweaty palms in greedy glee, the rest of us are probably sweating while thinking of our next gas bill, of course you will not be sweating come the winter when you cannot afford to heat your home. British Gas managing director, Phil. Bentley, stated, “We very much regret that we have had to make this decision at a time when many household budgets are already under pressure” I wonder, how cold will his house be this winter and how much pressure is his household budget under?
         Every winter in Scotland there is an large increase in deaths among pensioners, mainly from cold related health problems. Pensioners and others on low income in this country cannot heat their homes properly during the winter and have to make that third world choice, “to eat or to heat”.
The recent fuel price increases will push even larger numbers of vulnerable pensioners and low income families further into the pit of fuel poverty. Many will die and others will suffer health problems that will stay with them the rest of their life.
       Look around you, see the old and the low income families, try to visualise the ones that wont make it through the winter. Try to think of how they will die, their life slowly ebbing, their dignity disintegrating as the temperature falls and the dampness bites. As one of the richest nations on the planet are we prepared to see our friends and neighbours die in poverty because of the greed of shareholders? Are we prepared to stand by and feed the rich parasites at the expense of those around us? Or will try to change things so that we see to the needs of all our friends and neighbours, put an end to such indignities as death from fuel poverty and put all the natural resources in the hands of the people?
ann arky would be interested to hear how you will cope with this massive increase in gas prices and what you think should be done. annarky@radicalglasgow.me.uk

When will we ever learn? 

Visit ann arky's home at:

 http://strugglepedia.co.uk/index.php?title=Main_Page  

Dignity.

            I know I often spout about the callous indifference to human welfare and dignity, the savage brutality and the arbitrary decisions in prisons but the case of an 18 year old pregnant woman being held in privately managed by Sodexo HMP Bronzefield, Surrey, surely goes down as among the lowest of the low for the treatment of a prisoner in a UK prison, I wonder if profit from people's misery had anything to do with staffing. It seems that the pregnant young woman pressed the buzzer for help, a guard shone a torch in and saw nothing unusual. The young woman was on her hands and knees at this point. Unable to reach the buzzer again she passed out, when she came-to, her baby was lying on the floor of the cell dead. A child dead, a young woman's life torn asunder, a family in distress. A deed that is beyond comprehension. 

 

              The usual inquire was held, and of course as usual, lessons have been learnt, and of course, changes will be made. The fact that this happened in a UK prison in the 21st. century is an indictment against the entire prison system. This sort of thing is totally incompatible with any civilised society. Every brick in every prison is a tombstone to human decency, and the only answer to such callous indifference to human life and dignity is the total abolition of the prison system and the type of society that requires and fosters these cages of human repression. 

 

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

Kids.

       
           I wonder what George Orwell would make of today's society, with its total surveillance, quarantine, curfews, lockdowns, travel bans, alienation from those around us and vaccination certificates. Would he rewrite 1984 and date it 2020-21. It is difficult to imagine just how far we have walked down the obedience path, the submissive population, waiting for our next set of instructions. All for our own good of course, in the meantime the rich have increased their wealth and power, millionaires have become billionaires. Meanwhile we the ordinary people have suffered a shackling of our freedoms and are now faced with having to pay for this corporate plundering of the public purse, which was all organised and assisted by the state. We will face closures to social facilities and services as it is pointed out the we have to get the debt mountain down, not those who benefited massively from this pandemic.
        I tend to moan a lot about not enough anarchist pamphlets, serials, magazines, journals etc. on our streets, so I always like to publicise any I come across. The following is an extract from the new issue of "The Local Kids" which is free to download and distribute:

          Population management is now supposedly the responsibility of everyone. Obedience to the state has been dressed up as solidarity. More surveillance is called freedom. All in the name of a return to normal life that appears as a mirage in the desert. Should we rehash for the umpteenth time a comparison to 1984? Its author might have thought that it takes a continuous and considerate effort to see what’s right in front of your nose; can we truly say that? Is it difficult to see what’s going on? Or is it that we speak different languages and will find no common understanding of life?
        We could jump into the fray, unveil their lies, battle for the real meaning of words, uphold a correct perception of reality. But then we would be entering the realm of politics where we can only fight with words without radically changing the narrative. A stubbornness that can have its value to demonstrate the absurdism of society. But only by refusing to do politics can we challenge the power of this system over our lives. That also means that we cannot pretend to have solutions at hand for the crises we’re passing through. The existence of capitalism is based in the progressive destruction of the living conditions of all living beings.
       The blackmail has always been the same; we should do as they say or our own survival is at stake. We’re held hostages in the name of the economy, the nation, and now public health. Our health is instrumentalised in their disgusting game of politics – the legitimisation for an expansive surveillance; tracing whom we met, where we have been, where we will go to. Expanding control to a level where it becomes normal that going to the movies necessitates carrying the right certificates and surrendering our data. Triggering the most basic of fears – the fear of death, of loss – they mobilize obedience to fulfil their dirty dreams of authority: lockdowns, curfews, border closures.
      Seeing this summer which is marked by extreme weather, wildfires and floods – products of the exploitation of the planet – this will be more and more the reality of this society. There are no pragmatic proposals to be made. The wager stays the same, to refuse their game (false choices between quick and superficial fixes to real crises), to be lucid and sabotage the vicious cycle of domination.

Summer 2021

Free download, PDF (A4)

Visit ann arky's home at https://spiritofrevolt.info    

Squat.

          Squatting is not a pastime, it is not a event perpetrated by casual criminals, it is a process forced on ordinary people in a society that has no regard for the right of people to have a place to stay. Squatting is a product of an inhuman system that allows rich speculators to leave property empty some times for years on end, in search of greater profit, while  people desperately seek a place to live. The fact that the state will always come down hard on the squatter rather than the property speculator, who in all probability lives in luxury, is proof, if you need it, where the state's priorities lie. The housing shortage will never be solved as long as we perpetuate this system of state/corporate profit before people. A housing shortage keeps prices high allowing property speculators, banks and mortgage brokers to pile their ill gotten gains high in some off shore tax haven bank account.  You would be a fool and extremely naive if you expect the present system to solve the housing shortage Decent housing for all will only arrive after we demolish the present system of state/corporate capitalism. 

The following from Enough is Enough:

 Image: Demonstration against housing crisis in Amsterdam on September 12, 2021. Image by Indymedia NL.

     Originally published by Woonprotest Twitter account. Translated by Riot Turtle.
         Yesterday (September 12, 2021, Enough 14) we had a great protest and a powerful march. But we have to dwell on something else: after the march, people tried to squat a building near Dam Square which has been empty for a long time. The riot police prevented that from happening and in the process the police used excessive force. Among other things, a person who was already fully enclosed was hit on the head with a steel baton. We are deeply shocked and condemn this police violence. Our support goes out to the people who were injured, suffered trauma or ended up in jail.
        Let it be clear: we are pro squatting, we said that on stage, we said that in the media and so we are still saying that now. Squatting should be decriminalized because it is part of the fundamental housing right. Indeed, squatting plays an important role in the fight against parasitic investors who leave many good residential properties empty. The real problem is the prioritization of the interests of speculators who do not care about our housing and our right to have a place to live. Squatting is the result of inhuman mismanagement.
       We are also working behind the scenes to take concrete action on this and to do something about it because this is unacceptable.
       Again, our deep thanks to all the people who were there, who couldn’t be there but support us and are part of the movement and everyone who supported us. This has to be a tipping point. This is the beginning of a new movement. 

Woonprotest, September 13, 2021.
 

Further reading: Attempted squatting action on Graven Street and police brutality [Amsterdam, Netherlands]

       Addition by Enough 14: All arrestees from Sunday were released again.

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