Strange words, but welcome, from an Israeli soldier. You wonder when that trait called humanity will enter the psyche of the majority of the Jewish population in Israel. It is sad to see almost an entire population so steeped in hate all based on an illusion that they are special and their wee man in sky gave them this land more than 2,000 years ago.
A little bit late with this, but it is always good to see the enthusiasm and the colourful banners. Glasgow's anti-racist march on Saturday 25th November was as usual a very colourful affair. Marching from Glasgow Green to George Square it made a powerful statement, that Glasgow stands against racism in any shape or form. When you consider the series of very large ceasefire in Gaza marches that have taken place across the country, there is no doubt where our values lie. Let's strengthen that stand of anti-racism and peace. Enjoy the images from the anti-racism march.
“After 7 years of consecutive imprisonment (from the arrest of 5th January, 2017), 8.5 years together with pre-trial detention (arrested on 10/4/2010) and 13 years and 6 months in total, sentence I served for my participation in Revolutionary Struggle, I have been released. The symbolism of the day was strong as this year’s November 17th marks the 50th anniversary of the Polytechnic uprising of 1973. On that day, everyone remembers the dead of the Polytechnic but also all those who have fallen in the struggle for freedom.
For me, this day was dominated by the memory of our comrade killed in the activity of Revolutionary Struggle, Lambros Fountas. But in my thoughts is also the comrade Nikos Maziotis who, despite the fact that he has served 11 years’ “closed” prison and 14 years in a mixed prison – a very long period for a 20-year sentence -, the judicial councils of Lamia are refusing to release him. It is now clear that a unique status of exception has been imposed on Nikos Maziotis, as no prisoner in a similar situation (with charges based on 187A) and with a similar sentence (i.e. not a life sentence) has remained in prison for such a long period of time. This exceptional regime based on political criteria and motives and which in practice nullifies the institution of parole – which according to the law is mandatory and not “gratuitous”, given that it is not left to the personal will of the respective judge – this exemption regime must come to an end. In addition to the flagrant violation of his rights, this special regime of exception is reminiscent of a junta-style treatment of a political prisoner.
Well we all have heard it, the Government's Autumn Statement, and what becomes very clear is that your tax payments are being handed out to big businesses, in the Tories words to boost growth. Throwing your money at their cronies in the big corporate world will certainly boost growth, but mainly in profit growth for shareholders and CEO. What have they promised the ordinary person, well if you are out of work because of illness, then you can look forward to having your benefits stopped if you are deemed not to looking hard enough for work. No doubt you will notice the different tone when they speak about the ordinary people and their cronies in big business.
Another hand out to the mega rich big business came in earlier when Rushi Sunak was Chancellor, that was the tax cut to big banks, cutting bank profit surcharge from a meagre 8% down to miserly 3%. Once again handouts to their rich and powerful cronies. According to a TUC report this little slight of hand is costing you and I in lost tax revenue approximately £29 million a week. Think what that £29 million a week could have done had it gone in to NHS and other social services. Instead it has gone to purchasing more private jets, larger super yachts big cars and extra homes abroad for the already over rich parasite class.
When will we ever learn that this capitalist system is stacked against the ordinary people. A system that is built on exploitation and amassing unbelievable fortunes from that exploitation can never be fair and just. If you want that better world for all, a fair and just society that sees to the needs of all our people, then we have to destroy the structure that manages this state/corporate marriage that is hell bent on plundering for profit.
Glasgow Sheriff Court today saw a strong support outside of the Court to support the three peace activists, who occupied Thales' weapons factory in Scotland in 2022 in an attempt to stop the slaughter of innocents, and now find themselves in Court. We must continue to turn up to show our support for those who fall foul of the state in their attempts to end wars. It is a strange democracy that those who fight for peace and an end to the manufacture of brutal instruments of war, find themselves in Court. Further proof that the state is a war machine that will throw its full resources into the manufacture of weapons of destruction and he resulting wars, while most of the citizens live an existence of struggle for a decent life. Glasgow must show solidarity and support for all peace activists, today and tomorrow and no matter how long it takes.
Some headlines from Information Clearing House, I know some people don't like IFC, so make of them what you will, but read them, and see if it changes your mind on the genocide being carried out by Israel on Gaza.
I recently learned that a local (Naarm) anarchist called ‘Pope Fred’ has died. I’ve no doubt others will have reflections, but to mark his passing from this realm to the next, it seemed appropriate to make a blogpost.
Assuming the mantle of a Pope was Fred’s tribute to organised religion, and he further distinguished himself by way of his distinctly un-gaudy, proletarian uniform of white overalls, often accompanied by a black balaclava when performing poetry or weaving a magickal spell. Fred had strong opinions, especially about anarchism. When not being delivered in person or on stage, these were often expressed in short, poetik pamphlets, of which he produced many over the decades. I remember him being especially delighted upon discovering that ‘Oppositional defiant disorder’ (ODD) had been diagnosed as an illness by other men-in-white-lab-coats, ODD becoming one of many signals the universe sent him in order to better prompt his subversive imagination. Despite having a sometimes prickly disposition, I always found Fred to be at heart a friendly indeed jovial fellow, eager to talk creative theory and unruly practice, and to share gossip and stories. I’m sure others will have their own stories of His Holiness, but in the meantime:
Hail Eris!
see / hear also:
Pope Fred, Radical Australia, 3CR, April 7, 2021
Pope Fred 2012 performance: https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=1XRXnAopCmg
Pope Fred's poetry website: plastique
Fred (aka Ric) was a collective member of the IRL Infoshop in Melbourne, where a celebration of his life was held on November 3. A recording of the event is available: https://www.facebook.com/IRLinfoshop
AK Press a machine that keeps on producing gems. This From Bulletin of the Kate Sharpley Library October 2023
In 2013 Barry Pateman wrote a piece about Ethel Mannin’s No More Mimosa, his contact with Spanish anarchist exiles and the contrast between the revolutionary situation they had been part of and the grim reality of defeat. ‘Exile meant the end of nearly everything they had known. […] A terrible protective dignity became their defense against a world that had cast them adrift.’ [1]
The anarchist exiles were hardly a homogenous bloc. Different choices, experiences, attitudes and status within the movement before 1939 saw to that (never mind the difference between being exiled in, say, France or Mexico). As a child, Octavio Alberola went into exile with his family: his father was the rationalist schoolteacher José Alberola Navarro who clashed with some members of the Durruti Column: ‘The revolution’s purpose is not providing opportunities for vengeance, but rather to set an example.’ [p.20]
In exile in Mexico, Octavio met Fidel Castro and Che Guevara before they were famous; and also fell foul of the unwritten rule that refugees should not get involved in Mexican politics. After that, Alberola was part of the anarchist resurgence (and not only within the Spanish movement) that we think of as part of the sixties. Partly this connected with the confidence of a new generation, as seen at the Limoges Congress of 1961: ‘On one side stood the “veterans,” the militants who had fought against fascism in the civil war. They were now twenty-two years older, fifty years old and up. Mature, tempered people who proceeded at a comfortable pace. On the other side were the “newcomers,” the children of exile, who had left Spain at a very young age or been born elsewhere. With no investment in the myth, they didn’t hesitate to make action the priority.’ [p.114]
Octavio was part of this ‘activist’ current, being involved in Defensa Interior and the First of May Group. Neither group succeeded in assassinating Franco but their other strand of symbolic actions generated much negative publicity for the Spanish dictatorship. Not to mention a certain amount of controversy within the movement. After the Ussia kidnapping by the First of May Group,[2] leaders of the CNT denounced the ‘thoroughly negative initiative’ [p.176] only to be answered ‘They at least are living in the present rather in the past like some older militants who once had credibility, or in the future, like others who make anarchy the way they would construct scale models once their working hours are over or when they have time on their hands’.[3]. Some veterans, Like Cipriano Mera or Juan Garcia Oliver, were involved in the Defensa Interior, so it was not purely a difference of generations.
The Weight of the Stars: The Life of Anarchist Octavio Alberola by
AgustÃn Comotto with Octavio Alberola, translated by Paul Sharkey.
https://www.akpress.org/the-weight-of-the-stars.html
We all accept that Big Brother society is already here, and it is for ever tightening its grip on our everyday movements. Unseen, the eyes of the state are on your daily life, from shopping to work, from your leisure activities to your daily chores. Then of course there is Stingray the phone data vacuum. IMSI-catchers, also known as Stingrays, allow police forces to track mobile phones and intercept text messages, calls and other data within their radius in real time. The devices can capture the private data and phone calls of anyone who happens to be in range, whether they are a suspect or not.
An interesting article from Wired.
A Beyoncé gig, the coronation of King Charles, and the British Formula One Grand Prix all have one thing in common: Thousands of people at the events, which all took place earlier this year, had their faces scanned by police-operated face recognition tech.
Backed by the Conservative government, police forces across England and Wales are being told to rapidly expand their use of the highly controversial technology, which globally has led to false arrests, misidentifications, and lives derailed. Police have been told to double their use of face searches against databases by early next year—45 million passport photos could be opened up to searches—and police are increasingly working with stores to try to identify shoplifters. Simultaneously, more regional police forces are testing real-time systems in public places.
The rapid expansion of face recognition comes at a time when trust in policing levels are at record lows, following a series of high-profile scandals. Civil liberties groups, experts, and some lawmakers have called for bans on the use of face recognition technology, particularly in public places, saying it infringes on people’s privacy and human rights, and isn’t a “proportionate” way to find people suspected of committing crimes.
“In the democratic world, we are an outlier at the moment,” says Madeleine Stone, a senior advocacy officer with Big Brother Watch, a privacy-focused group that has called for a ban and “immediate stop” on live face recognition, a proposal backed by 65 UK lawmakers. The EU, which the UK left in 2016, may ban the real-time use of face recognition systems, and one of its highest courts has called the technology “highly intrusive.” Various US states have banned police from using the technology.
Cops in England and Wales can hunt for potential criminals using two main kinds of face recognition. First, there are live face recognition systems (LFR): These usually include cameras mounted on police vans that scan people’s faces as they walk by and check them against a “watchlist” of wanted people. The LFR technology is deployed for some big events and announced in advance by the police. Second, there’s retrospective face recognition (RFR), where images from CCTV, smartphones, and doorbell cameras can be fed into a system that tries to identify the person based on millions of existing photos. Police use of both systems is increasing.
Two police forces in England and Wales—London’s Metropolitan Police and South Wales Police—have embraced LFR, using the technology for multiple years. (Police in Scotland, where policing is overseen locally, don’t use live systems but are reportedly increasing their use of RFR). So far this year, the Met and South Wales Police have used LFR on 22 separate occasions, according to statistics published on their websites.
