A Flag!

 

       A poem can often say in a few verses what a book takes several chapters to say. So with all the recent fawning at the feet of that symbol of British brutal imperialism, I thought the following lyrics from a song by The Wolfe Tones. The lyrics of The Butcher's Apron originate from a poem written by Henry Dupre LaBouchere.

 

The Butcher's Apron

Where is the flag of England? Go North, South, East or West. Wherever there's wealth to

plunder or land to be possessed. Wherever there's feeble races to frighten, coerce or scare.

You'll find the butcher's apron, the English flag is there!

It waits upon blazing hovels where African victims died, to be shot the explosive bullets or

wretchedly starve and die, and where the pirate hammers the isles of southern seas, at the

peak of the hellish vessel the English flag is free!

The Maori often cursed it with his bitterness dying breath, and the Arab hath hissed his hatred

as he spat at its folds in death, and the helpless Hindu feared it, and the Kenyan did the

same, and the Irish blood hath stained it, with a deep indelible stain.

Where is the flag of England? Go North, South, East or West. Wherever there's wealth to

plunder or land to be possessed. Wherever there's feeble races to frighten, coerce or scare.

You'll find the butcher's apron, the English flag is there!

It is floated on scenes of pillage, it is flaunted on deeds of shame. It has waved o'er fell

marauders, as they ravished with sword and flame, it has looked upon on ruthless slaughter,

and massacred dire and grim, and has heard the shrieks of victims drowning the jingo hymn.

Where is the flag of England? Seek lands where the natives rot. Where decay, and assured

extinction must soon be a people's lot. Go search for once glad islands where death and

disease are rife, and the greed of colossal commerce now fattens on human life.

Where is the flag of England? Go North, South, East or West. Wherever there's wealth to

plunder or land to be possessed. Wherever there's feeble races to frighten, coerce or scare.

You'll find the butcher's apron, the English flag is there!

Where is the flag of England? Go sail where rich boats come. With shoddy and loaded

cottons, and beer and Bibles and guns. Go where brute forces triumphed, and hypocrisy

makes its lair. In your question you'll find the answer, it was and still is there!

Where is the flag of England? Go North, South, East or West. Wherever there's wealth to

plunder or land to be possessed. Wherever there's feeble races to frighten, coerce or scare.

You'll find the butcher's apron, the English flag is there

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

Bliar!

         Our so called constitutional Monarchy is a living edifice of British imperialism, steeped in pomp, wealthy and privileges. It scatters its tainted privileges far and wide conferring pompous honours on those who serve and preserve British imperialism. We are about to see this in action when Tony Blair, probably one of the worst war-mongering Prime Ministers the UK has ever had, well until reckless, arrogant duplicitous Boris arrive at No.10. Lying, bloody handed, Tony Blair, he of the illegal Iraq invasion, is about kneel in front of the monarchy, with his fancy hat on, and have bestowed on him one of the privileges with which our constitutional monarchy peppers on the imperialist faithful.
         Far from honouring this blood soaked lying war-monger, he should be facing trail for the bloody, brutal devastation he heaped on the innocent people of Iraq. The people of this country should in no way accept this theatre of pomp and privilege, bolstering UK imperialism, privilege and power.

 

11 Jun 2022 —
        The UK honours system is anything but honourable. On June 13th draped in robes, gold and plumed hat, Tony Blair will be given the red-carpet treatment and granted the highest honour the Queen can bestow, a Knighthood.
       That’s why we will be outside Windsor Castle to remind Blair he can never wash the blood off his hands.
         Join the public protest at the annual Garter Day procession in Windsor and let the world know there is only one court that Blair should be attending, and it’s not the royal one.
       We are assembling at 1pm at the Queen Victoria Statue on Castle Hill, Windsor, SL4 1PD to say 'Jail Blair! No knighthoods for war criminals'.
      For those traveling from London we will be meeting at Paddington Station at midday for the 12:20 train. Changing at Slough at 12:36.
     It will be a memorable day when we send a memorable message to the gathered media. Be a part of that message!

Thank you for your support.

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

50 Years?

             For centuries the British imperialist machine has stomped across the planet, waving its red white and blue rag, soaking it in blood where ever it went, from India to America, to Asia. So much so that the red white and blue rag became known as the butcher's apron. However we don't have to go across the globe or back to the 1800's for examples of the British imperialist savagery, we can move much closer to home and just go back 50 years. The British state, like any other state, has no qualms about unleashing its military hounds on its own population. In Northern Ireland in 30th January, 1972, the British state unleashed its military on a peaceful protest and shot 26 unarmed civilians, 13 were killed outright, two others died later from their wounds. 50 years on and the friends and families are still seeking justice. 

 ‘Butcher’s Dozen’

Derry Remembers 50 Years On

(Sunday, 30th January 2022)

        This performance of Thomas Kinsella’s poem, ‘Butcher’s Dozen’ was produced for the 50th anniversary of Bloody Sunday, similar to what was done with the poem 25 years ago. Back then it was performed in public as a live performance in Derry City’s Bogside, where these 13 men and boys were shot and killed by the British Army's 1st Battalion the Parachute Regiment during a peaceful Civil Rights march and demonstration.
          Thomas Kinsella, a Dublin poet, passed away on December 22nd 2021. He wrote the poem following publication of the British Government's official report in April 1972, compiled by Lord Widgery, the lord chief justice of England. Effectively, the "Widgery Report" exonerated the British Army for the killings and blamed the organisers of the Civil Rights march.This most powerful performance of the poem can be heard at https://youtu.be/U_P6GW7jpqo
         The ten voices/contributors include three of those who attended the original march: Eamonn McCann, Liam Wray whose brother Jim was shot dead on Bloody Sunday and Donnacha McFeeley, whose friend Gerald was also shot and killed that day.
        People interested to learn more on these events and the situation as it is today in regard to the justice question should go to http://bloodysundaymarch.org/for_justice/ or to www.bloodysundaymarchcommittee.org

Thomas Kinsella's poem, Butcher's Dozen.

 

BUTCHER'S DOZEN:
A LESSON FOR THE OCTAVE OF WIDGERY

by Thomas Kinsella

I went with Anger at my heel
Through Bogside of the bitter zeal
- Jesus pity! - on a day
Of cold and drizzle and decay.
A month had passed. Yet there remained
A murder smell that stung and stained.
On flats and alleys-over all-
It hung; on battered roof and wall,
On wreck and rubbish scattered thick,
On sullen steps and pitted brick.
And when I came where thirteen died
It shrivelled up my heart. I sighed
And looked about that brutal place
Of rage and terror and disgrace.
Then my moistened lips grew dry.
I had heard an answering sigh!
There in a ghostly pool of blood
A crumpled phantom hugged the mud:
"Once there lived a hooligan.
A pig came up, and away he ran.
Here lies one in blood and bones,
Who lost his life for throwing stones."


More voices rose. I turned and saw
Three corpses forming, red and raw,
From dirt and stone. Each upturned face
Stared unseeing from its place:
"Behind this barrier, blighters three,
We scrambled back and made to flee.
The guns cried Stop, and here lie we."
Then from left and right they came,
More mangled corpses, bleeding, lame,
Holding their wounds. They chose their ground,
Ghost by ghost, without a sound,
And one stepped forward, soiled and white:
"A bomber I. I travelled light
- Four pounds of nails and gelignite
About my person, hid so well
They seemed to vanish where I fell.
When the bullet stopped my breath
A doctor sought the cause of death.
He upped my shirt, undid my fly,
Twice he moved my limbs awry,
And noticed nothing. By and by
A soldier, with his sharper eye,
Beheld the four elusive rockets
Stuffed in my coat and trouser pockets.
Yes, they must be strict with us,
Even in death so treacherous!"
He faded, and another said:
"We three met close when we were dead.
Into an armoured car they piled us
Where our mingled blood defiled us,
Certain, if not dead before,
To suffocate upon the floor.


Careful bullets in the back
Stopped our terrorist attack,
And so three dangerous lives are done
- Judged, condemned and shamed in one."
That spectre faded in his turn.
A harsher stirred, and spoke in scorn:
"The shame is theirs, in word and deed,
Who prate of justice, practise greed,
And act in ignorant fury - then,
Officers and gentlemen,
Send to their Courts for the Most High
To tell us did we really die!
Does it need recourse to law
To tell ten thousand what they saw?
Law that lets them, caught red-handed,
Halt the game and leave it stranded,
Summon up a sworn inquiry
And dump their conscience in the diary.
During which hiatus, should
Their legal basis vanish, good,
The thing is rapidly arranged:
Where's the law that can't be changed?
The news is out. The troops were kind.
Impartial justice has to find
We'd be alive and well today
If we had let them have their way.
Yet England, even as you lie,
You give the facts that you deny.
Spread the lie with all your power
- All that's left; it's turning sour.
Friend and stranger, bride and brother,
Son and sister, father, mother,


All not blinded by your smoke,
Photographers who caught your stroke,
The priests that blessed our bodies, spoke
And wagged our blood in the world's face.
The truth will out, to your disgrace."
He flushed and faded. Pale and grim,
A joking spectre followed him:
"Take a bunch of stunted shoots,
A tangle of transplanted roots,
Ropes and rifles, feathered nests,
Some dried colonial interests,
A hard unnatural union grown
In a bed of blood and bone,
Tongue of serpent, gut of hog
Spiced with spleen of underdog.
Stir in, with oaths of loyalty,
Sectarian supremacy,
And heat, to make a proper botch,
In a bouillon of bitter Scotch.
Last, the choice ingredient: you.
Now, to crown your Irish stew,
Boil it over, make a mess.
A most imperial success!"
He capered weakly, racked with pain,
His dead hair plastered in the rain;
The group was silent once again.
It seemed the moment to explain
That sympathetic politicians
Say our violent traditions,
Backward looks and bitterness
Keep us in this dire distress.
We must forget, and look ahead,


Nurse the living, not the dead.
My words died out. A phantom said:
"Here lies one who breathed his last
Firmly reminded of the past.
A trooper did it, on one knee,
In tones of brute authority."
That harsher spirit, who before
Had flushed with anger, spoke once more:
"Simple lessons cut most deep.
This lesson in our hearts we keep:
Persuasion, protest, arguments,
The milder forms of violence,
Earn nothing but polite neglect.
England, the way to your respect
Is via murderous force, it seems;
You push us to your own extremes.
You condescend to hear us speak
Only when we slap your cheek.
And yet we lack the last technique:
We rap for order with a gun,
The issues simplify to one
- Then your Democracy insists
You mustn't talk with terrorists!
White and yellow, black and blue,
Have learnt their history from you:
Divide and ruin, muddle through,
Not principled, but politic.
- In strength, perfidious; weak, a trick
To make good men a trifle sick.
We speak in wounds. Behold this mess.
My curse upon your politesse."


Another ghost stood forth, and wet
Dead lips that had not spoken yet:
"My curse on the cunning and the bland,
On gentlemen who loot a land
They do not care to understand;
Who keep the natives on their paws
With ready lash and rotten laws;
Then if the beasts erupt in rage
Give them a slightly larger cage
And, in scorn and fear combined,
Turn them against their own kind.
The game runs out of room at last,
A people rises from its past,
The going gets unduly tough
And you have (surely ... ?) had enough.
The time has come to yield your place
With condescending show of grace
- An Empire-builder handing on.
We reap the ruin when you've gone,
All your errors heaped behind you:
Promises that do not bind you,
Hopes in conflict, cramped commissions,
Faiths exploited, and traditions."
Bloody sputum filled his throat.
He stopped and coughed to clear it out,
And finished, with his eyes a-glow:
"You came, you saw, you conquered ... So.
You gorged - and it was time to go.
Good riddance. We'd forget - released -
But for the rubbish of your feast,
The slops and scraps that fell to earth
And sprang to arms in dragon birth.


Sashed and bowler-hatted, glum
Apprentices of fife and drum,
High and dry, abandoned guards
Of dismal streets and empty yards,
Drilled at the codeword 'True Religion'
To strut and mutter like a pigeon
'Not An Inch - Up The Queen';
Who use their walls like a latrine
For scribbled magic-at their call,
Straight from the nearest music-hall,
Pope and Devil intertwine,
Two cardboard kings appear, and join
In one more battle by the Boyne!
Who could love them? God above..."
"Yet pity is akin to love,"
The thirteenth corpse beside him said,
Smiling in its bloody head,
"And though there's reason for alarm
In dourness and a lack of charm
Their cursed plight calls out for patience.
They, even they, with other nations
Have a place, if we can find it.
Love our changeling! Guard and mind it.
Doomed from birth, a cursed heir,
Theirs is the hardest lot to bear,
Yet not impossible, I swear,
If England would but clear the air
And brood at home on her disgrace
- Everything to its own place.
Face their walls of dole and fear
And be of reasonable cheer.


Good men every day inherit
Father's foulness with the spirit,
Purge the filth and do not stir it.
Let them out! At least let in
A breath or two of oxygen,
So they may settle down for good
And mix themselves in the common blood.
We are what we are, and that
Is mongrel pure. What nation's not
Where any stranger hung his hat
And seized a lover where she sat?"
He ceased and faded. Zephyr blew
And all the others faded too.
I stood like a ghost. My fingers strayed
Along the fatal barricade.
The gentle rainfall drifting down
Over Colmcille's town
Could not refresh, only distil
In silent grief from hill to hill.





Visit ann arky's home at:

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

A Method Of Control.

     The state, any state, will do all that is necessary, "legal", by their own written laws, or "illegal" by their own written laws, to protect its power and the wealth and privileges of those who hold the power. Each state points to other states for useing torture to achieve their aims, but none are immune from this inhuman tactic. The British imperialists were pass-masters at it, controlling vast swaths of the planet by subtle and dubious means or open callous brutality to control populations. They have never lost that acquired ability. We can point to Russia, China and other states for their, so called "abuse of power" and "illegal" methods of controlling their populations, but the British state's hands are ever deep in the sewer of this inhuman method of repression to guard their power and privileges and maintain the status-quo. We can and do fight the open and known injustices inherent in the state system, but we must always be alive to the their many and varied, more underhand, hidden, callous methodology they use to try to create that subservient population. First they came for the anarchists----.

This from Act For Freedom Now:

       On Saturday the 22nd of February there was a protest held outside the Russian embassy in Dublin, Ireland in solidarity with anarchists and anti-fascists being persecuted by the Russian state.
       On the 10th of February, as part of “The Network” show trials and ongoing repression since 2017, seven anarchists were convicted on fabricated lies created by the Federal Security Services (FSB) the successors and continuity of KGB.
       Dimitry Pchelintsev received 18 years, Ilya Shakursky 16 years, Arman Sagynbaev 6 years, Andrei Chernov 14 years, Vasily Kuksov 9 years, Mikhail Kulkov 10 years and Maxim Ivankin 13 years imprisonment.
      The main “evidence” used against the seven were:
    1) “Confessions” that were tortured out of the accused. Torture, which includes beatings, sleep deprivation and what could only be described as sexual assault from electric shocks to bodily parts.
     2) Materials planted in the homes of the accused.
From the very start of the trial and throughout, the defence for the accused attempted to have the “confessions” thrown out of the trial as evidence. The court refused. Its clear the state had them guilty before they were even arrested!
       At the Russian embassy in Dublin the police were there before our arrival. Throughout the protest embassy staff continuously came out to take pictures of us. The repression and tactics used by the Russian state are nothing new. Throughout the world, states fabricate “evidence” to remove anyone deemed as a danger to the power of the state.
     In Ireland this can be seen in recent years with the case of the Craigavon 2, who the British state blamed on killing a cop in Craigavon, Armagh. The only evidence the state used against the two was a statement made by an individual whos father came out publicly calling his son a liar and in the trial the same witness contradicted himself. The rest of the evidence was circumstantial. The British intelligence service even had a tracking device on the car of one of the accused on the night of the shooting, which the data on the device mysteriously went missing. The Craigavon Two are still in jail doing life.
      Also in Ireland in the last few days a republican Paul McIntyre was arrested and charged with the murder of journalist Lyra Mckee who was shot dead in Derry during a riot that erupted after a series of police raids on homes. The police have publicly said they have no evidence linking Paul McIntyre to the killing other than picking up shell casings. This is yet a new case of repression by the British state against their political enemy.
       We send our solidarity to our comrades in Russia as well as across the world and to all those fighting oppression and being persecuted.
YOUR TORTURE WILL NOT KILL OUR IDEAS

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

The Savagery Of The American Empire.

         I don’t believe that the most of the general public grasp the full extent of American imperialism and the scale of its savage barbarity, or they would rise up with fury and revulsion and tear it apart. Ever since its independence from British imperialism, America has steadily built its own empire. Always with ruthlessness and no regard for civilian populations. Today it is the most powerful imperial power on the planet, and it will defend and expand this position with unimaginable weaponry, used with savage brutality, against civilian populations. In its imperial logic, to rid itself of an annoying leader, it is acceptable and probably necessary to destroy a country, slaughter its population and obliterate its infrastructure. It will then call the result a victory and a success, once it has replaced the annoying leader with a more subservient puppet. 

        A small list of the countries that have felt the wrath of the American empire since 1980 is a lesson in geography:
Iran (1980, 1987-1988),
Libya (1981, 1986, 1989, 2011),
Lebanon (1983),
Kuwait (1991),
Iraq (1991-2011, 2014-),
Somalia (1992-1993, 2007-),
Bosnia (1995),
Saudi Arabia (1991, 1996),
Afghanistan (1998, 2001-),
Sudan (1998),
Kosovo (1999),
Yemen (2000, 2002-),
Pakistan (2004-)
Syria, ongoing.
        Not only does the American empire spend more of its taxpayers money on weaponry than any other country on earth, with, by far, the largest military budget of any nation, it also has more of its troops on foreign soil that any other nation. All this to defend its power over its empire.
         For a more detailed look at the savagery and vicious enforcement of its power over its empire it is worth reading Zoltan Grossman’s A BRIEFING ON THE HISTORY OF U.S. MILITARY INTERVENTIONS.

         Since the September 11 attacks on the United States, most people in the world agree that the perpetrators need to be brought to justice, without killing many thousands of civilians in the process. But unfortunately, the U.S. military has always accepted massive civilian deaths as part of the cost of war. The military is now poised to kill thousands of foreign civilians, in order to prove that killing U.S. civilians is wrong.
      The media has told us repeatedly that some Middle Easterners hate the U.S. only because of our "freedom" and "prosperity." Missing from this explanation is the historical context of the U.S. role in the Middle East, and for that matter in the rest of the world. This basic primer is an attempt to brief readers who have not closely followed the history of U.S. foreign or military affairs, and are perhaps unaware of the background of U.S. military interventions abroad, but are concerned about the direction of our country toward a new war in the name of "freedom" and "protecting civilians."
       The United States military has been intervening in other countries for a long time. In 1898, it seized the Philippines, Cuba, and Puerto Rico from Spain, and in 1917-18 became embroiled in World War I in Europe. In the first half of the 20th century it repeatedly sent Marines to "protectorates" such as Nicaragua, Honduras, Panama, Haiti, and the Dominican Republic. All these interventions directly served corporate interests, and many resulted in massive losses of civilians, rebels, and soldiers. Many of the uses of U.S. combat forces are documented in A History of U.S. Military Interventions since 1890: http://academic.evergreen.edu/g/grossmaz/interventions.html

Well worth reading the full and well detailed article HERE:
The list and briefing are also available as a powerpoint presentation.

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

Kids As Cannon Fodder For Imperialism!!!

      Everybody knows, or should know, that the British military is there to defend and further the British imperialist state, forget that crap about defending peace and democracy, we have never had either. So it seems, that more and more people are staying clear of the military recruiting offices. However, this is a problem for the state, it needs cannon fodder to do its dirty work, when it comes to defending its plunder in other countries, or when it feels it can move in and grab some more of other countries' natural resources, Iraqi and Libyan oil to mention just a couple. They come up with totally misleading propaganda adverts, appealing to the easily misguided or vulnerable of our children, promising comradeship, free travel and learning a valuable skill. No mention of authoritarian brutality, sexual and physical assaults, depression, suicides, and trauma, let alone death and injury.  Even their expensive glossy misleading adverts don't seem to be doing the job. The new targets are our schools, the imperialist cabal in the Westminster Houses of Hypocrisy and Corruption, are planning to launch military cadet units in our secondary schools, mainly in the working class areas of the country. This callous bunch of parasites, are well aware that the kids in the poorer areas of the country are facing a life of fewer and less rewarding opportunities, just what they consider to be, ripe pickings for the cannon fodder to defend their imperialist plunder here and abroad. All this while the hypocrites gasp in mock horror about "boy soldiers" in other lands. 

From The Herald:

      With the army and reserve forces struggling for recruits, the Tory government has launched a £50m Cadet Expansion Programme (CEP) to establish 500 school cadet units across the UK by 2020, with schools in “less affluent” areas being prioritised.
      Scotland’s largest teaching union, the EIS, said its members would also oppose anything that smacked of the armed forces trying to recruit within schools.
      With around 100 units recently established in England, and many more already in place in private schools, the UK government needs 145 more state cadet units to hit its target.
       It has now turned its attention to Scotland’s 360 secondaries to help make up the numbers. 

        This callous duplicitous action should be a battle ground for us, it is blatant class war, we have to see it for what it is, getting the poor trained, to defend the wealth of the rich. On no account should the teachers, friends and families of our school kids allow this scooping up of our young impressionable kids, to carry out the brutal, dangerous, dirty work of defending the ill-gotten gains of the wealthy and bloated parasitical rich. Keep the military well away from our schools, we don't struggle to bring up our kids to have them sacrificed on the bloody altar of imperialism. 

 

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

 

What Cost Bombing?

     It is no surprise that after last night's expected success of the imperialist warmongers, in the Westminster Houses of Hypocrisy and Corruption, the same cabal that tell us we must have austerity to balance the books, we can't afford decent social services, these are difficult times, we shouldn't live beyond our means, have no problem opening the nations cheque book for war.

        According to the the Ministry of Defence, (should be renamed, Ministry of War) figures released in 2010 state that every time a Tornado plane takes to the air, it costs the taxpayer £35,000 per hour. Assuming the average flight lasts about six hours, not excessive, that comes in at £210,000 an excursion. Of course they will not be flying paying tourist, each Tornado will have a payload of probably four Pathway bombs, (£22,000 each) and two Brimstone missiles, (£105,000 each) that takes us to the staggering cost of £508,000 per plane per mission. Of course these instruments of destruction rarely fly solo on missions, they tend to fly in pairs. So that takes your cost of each mission to a little over £1 million. Of course our air-force has much more expensive weaponry at its disposal, they could take off with our super-duper destructive toy, the Storm Shadow, at a cool £800,000 each. Now that would make a nice big bang. 

         During our imperialist intervention in Libya in 2011, 16 Tornado GR4s were employed, at £35,000 per hour flying cost, and used 230 Brimstones missiles, (£105,000 each) and a number of Storm Shadows, (£800,000 each). Of course there are other costs involved, support and back up services, also these planes often have to refuel in the air, a very expensive exercise. What if just one aircraft is lost, at a cost of £9.4 million.

      So you see how the costs stack up as the missions continue over a period of years. The other imperialist forces have been bombing Syria for approximately 15 months so far. Considering that some of the most powerful military in the world have been bombing the hell out of Syria for that amount of time, what difference do you think the British imperialists will make?

       Like I keep saying, we are a very rich country, it is just that that wealth, created by all the working people in this country, is not shared out fairly among those wealth creators. It is hoarded by our lords and master to keep them in unimaginable opulence, and for operations to protect their imperialist power.

         Apart from the outrageous financial cost of these imperialist escapades, there is of course the human cost, the destruction of villages, towns and cities, comes with incomprehensible death, misery and trauma, to hundreds of thousands of families. We are seeing the result of our imperialist's recent endeavours in the Middle East, as hundreds of thousands of families now find themselves facing a European winter living in fields and inadequate camps. Among those families are sick, elderly, and children, all fleeing a hell-hole, a dystopia, created by the actions of the imperialists quest for power and wealth.  

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

We Are Complicit.

At the age of 81, this poster says what I feel in my heart.

        Today, the members of the Westminster Houses of Hypocrisy and Corruption will decide if the British imperialist hierarchy will unleash their modern destructive air-power on Syria. The extreme right-wing faction in the Labour Party have demanded a free vote on this matter, and with their usual overpowering arrogance, they say the will vote according to their conscience. They utterly fail to grasp the idea of democracy, they simply can't accept that they are there to represent their constituencies and not their own personal view.
        What will happen if the pompous arrogant mouthpieces of the British imperialist establishment succeed in getting their way, and it certainly looks as if they will? That babbling brook of bullshit, the mainstream media, will swamp us with maps, showing lots of lines and strange names, photographs of UK war-planes, there will of course by videos of our “clever smart missiles” turning a rather hazy something into a cloud of dust. What they will not show of course, is the body parts lying around after the dust settles. They will also pump out that old UK military myth, we only kill “bad guys”, but somehow in every war zone we are involved in, the local inhabitants keep burying the damaged bodies of their men women and children. 

        At present some of the most powerful military powers on earth are bombing Syria on a vast and daily basis, Syria is a waste land, its people are fleeing in their millions, Britain's contribution to that mayhem, will be more death and destruction, more terrified traumatised families fleeing a Western created Dante's inferno. The UK imperial establishment's only reason for entering this destruction of a country, is its desire not to miss out on the spoils of war, when the imperialists start to carve up that unfortunate land. The pack of imperialist wolves are tearing Syria apart to fulfil their original aims, to bring down the Assad regime and open Syria's resources to the corporate world. The Syrian people are not on that agenda, they can go to hell in a hand cart as far as the big boys in the imperialist team are concerned. 

          Like Afghanistan, like Iraq, like Libya, and further back, Malaya and Suez, and many others, our involvement in Syria has nothing to do with democracy, nothing to do with the local people, it is all about imperialist powers carving up the world to their own advantage.
         Under the present system, Britain's blood stained path will continue, we will continue to send our young people to foreign lands, waving the false flag of democracy, they will destroy and kill, to further the power of UK interests, to plunder other people's resources. Only the will of the people can stop this greed driven human disaster. As it continues we are complicit, we swallow their lies, we turn a blind eye, we settle into our own comfort zone, we ignore the suffering of others. This brutal crime may be planned and instigated by the powers that be, but they need us to carry it out, we are the tools they use to savage other people, people just like us. 

         It will take something more than lobbying your MP, to end this cancer that is eating the human race. It will take a revolution of consciousness of the ordinary people, and the will to destroy the present system. 

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

 

Shall We Sow The Seeds Of Hate, And The Desire For Vengence.

     Can the voice of sanity drown out the baying for blood, can the doves of peace silence the trumpet call to war, can the will of the people return the dogs of war to their kennels? We can't expect that pampered, privileged, hypocritical cabal sitting in the marble halls of power to silence the howling hounds, they are the ones who stand ready to unleash them. It is not blood that flows through their veins, it is the venom of imperialism. Stopping the frenzied rush to war can only be done by the will of the people, only by the concerted effort of the ordinary people can the bloodshed be stopped.  

       The savagery of war is never to the benefit of the ordinary people on either side of the slaughter. They are the ones who see the blood of their loved ones stain the fertile earth, but never gain the the spoils of war. They are the ones who mourn, while the war mongers feast in marble halls built on the bones of the people.

      Syria at the moment is being bombed into oblivion, the Syrian people are bleeding from every pore, Britain's contribution will add a few more villages, towns and cities, splattered with the blood of ordinary people. The reason for our lords and masters desire to contribute to this humanitarian disaster, is simply, the desire for the British imperialists to play on the big imperialist stage, they don't want to miss out on the spoils. This action is certainly not born out of compassion for the people of Syria.

     If we the ordinary people can't stop this, we are complicit in the deaths of men, women and children who have done us no harm, we will be planting the seeds of hatred and perhaps a desire for revenge.

 From SACC:

MONDAY - Don't Bomb Syria - Emergency Protests
From 5pm Buchanan Street steps Glasgow
5-7pm east end of Princes St, Edinburgh
SACC Statement on UK Military intervention in Syria (30 Sept, but still valid)
SACC Statement on responses to the Paris attacks

From Stop The War:
Day X approaches,
MPs prepare to vote for war on Syria

1) Reports, images and vide on nationwide protests against bombing Syria
      Thanks to everyone who came out and demonstrated this weekend. We had a great turnout at very short notice. The message was very clear: Don't Bomb Syria.
      As reports, pictures and videos were posted online from around the country, the hashtag #DontBombSyria trended at number one on Twitter for much of the day.
       Thousands turned out in London where Whitehall was brought to a halt by the protestors, including many young people. See excellent video here...
      Around Britain thousands more held protests despite gales and rain in some places. Cambridge got a message from their local MP while protesting that he opposed airstrikes. There was a protest in North Staffs despite appalling weather. In Manchester, Leeds, Oxford, Norwich and Birmingham there were protests.
     Among those signing the petition on the Stop the War street stall in the tiny village of Lymm in Cheshire was Ian Brown, lead singer of the legendary UK band The Stone Roses.
See reports, images, video from around the UK on the national day of action...

 

 

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

A Nation In An Eternal War.

      On this day, September 3rd. 1939, Britain declared war on Germany, and the Macabre scene of blood and death washed across the world until 1945, then we were told peace reigned. Sadly Britain has been at war more or less continuously before that date, and ever since that horrendous event 1939-1945.

Imperialism at work.

     You may disagree with the names of some of these conflicts, but they were incidents where British imperialism shed the blood of its own citizens and the blood of those from other countries.

From the Malayan Emergency.

This list from Wikipedia:

Indonesian National Revolution 1945-49
Greek Civil War 1944-48
Operation Masterdom 1945-46
Malayan Emergency 1948-60
Korean War 1950-53
Angola-Egyptian War 1951-52
Mau-Mau Uprising 1952-60
Jebel Akhdar War 1954-59
Cypriot Intercommunal Violence 1955-60
Suez Crisis 1956-57
Irish Border Campaign 1956-62
Indonesia-Malayasia Confrontation 1962-66
Dhofar Rebellion 1962-75
Aden Emergency 1963-67
Nigerian Civil War 1967-70
Irish “Troubles” 1968-98
Falklands War 1982
Multinational Forces In Lebanon 1982-84
Gulf War 1991
Bosnian War 1992-96
Operation Desert Fox 1998
Kosovo War 1998-99
Sierra Leone Civil War 2000-02
Afghanistan War 2001-14
Iraq War 2033-09
Libyan Civil War 2011

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

Canada's Dirty Past.

      Scotland has a lot to answer for, over the years we have exported men who have played a leading roll in the expansion of British imperialism. One such, is a Glasgow man, born in Brunswick Street, where the Mitre pub stands. John Alexander MacDonald, born 11th. January 1815, died 6th. June 1891, vicious racist, is considered as the father of Canada. Like all servants of imperialism, he is celebrated, with pomp and ceremony by the ruling elite, though there is a growing group in Canada who are openly contesting the adulation of such a despicable character.

This from Community Soapbox:

    Here in Kingston, Ontario, where “every day is Canada day”, John A. MacDonald is at the centre of all of the misplaced celebration of this great era. This makes sense, because MacDonald is a perfect example of the kind of person who founded Canada. He pushed for and enacted many of the most disgusting and brutal colonial policies of the era. In an act that he would later refer to as his “greatest political accomplishment,” he pushed to disenfranchise and ultimately push out the Chinese population on the West Coast, saying that their presence would tarnish the “Aryan land” that he envisioned for the new country. He invented and implemented residential schools. He used starvation policies followed by military intervention to crush Metis rebellions and cement Canada’s expansion West.-------

Read the full article HERE:

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

Here in Kingston, Ontario, where “every day is Canada day”, John A. MacDonald is at the centre of all of the misplaced celebration of this great era. This makes sense, because MacDonald is a perfect example of the kind of person who founded Canada. He pushed for and enacted many of the most disgusting and brutal colonial policies of the era. In an act that he would later refer to as his “greatest political accomplishment,” he pushed to disenfranchise and ultimately push out the Chinese population on the West Coast, saying that their presence would tarnish the “Aryan land” that he envisioned for the new country. He invented and implemented residential schools. He used starvation policies followed by military intervention to crush Metis rebellions and cement Canada’s expansion West. - See more at: http://www.kingstonist.com/2015/01/20/sir-john-a-macdonald-bicentennial-celebration-33249#sthash.0YgJZ6kJ.dpuf

The White Knight Of British Imperialism.

      Our British imperial state is gearing up for another military outing. This time on the myth of our high morality and ridding the Middle East of its bad men. There is no doubt what so ever that ISIS is a very brutal, fundamentalist religious group, but they are not alone, nor are they unique. The myth that helps to put the British imperial state, on the high moral ground is the one that, as the biggest empire the world has known, we willing helped put our colonies on a democratic footing when they were ready to look after themselves. 

      The truth of course is that we could show the ISIS mob a thing or two about brutality. As the people of our colonies fought to rid themselves of the exploiting, brutal British empire, we turned really nasty. The colonies emerging into the world, free from the British empire, paid dearly for their desire to be free. 

 Something to smile about.

         Aden, in what is now Yemen, an important port to the British empire, in 1960 it became known as the Aden emergency, as the locals were determined to rid them selves of their brutal imperial overlords, the British, they organised strikes demonstrations and protests and resulting riots. To sort this out the British set up torture centres. In these centres prisoners were held in refrigerated cells, bring about frostbite, and pneumonia, among other problems. It was not uncommon for prisoners to have their genitals crushed by guards hands, cigarette buts to be stubbed out on their naked flesh, to mention just some of the brutality inflicted on people seeking independence from the British state. Amnesty International in 1966, issued a report on this barbaric treatment, creating international outrage. The British imperial state had been rumbled. In the face of international condemnation, it apologised, but continued useing the torture centres for another year. 

        Amritsar, India, 1919. The people of that area, men, women and children, on April 13, 1919, pissed off by the brutish rule of the British imperialists, decided to march in a peaceful protest to the walled Jallianwala Gardens, there they hoped to make their voices heard. Late afternoon the troops blocked the exits of the gardens, and then opened fire on the protesters, they kept firing until they ran out of ammunition. The total deaths from ten minutes of relentless rifle fire varies from 379, to 1,000, with more than 1,000 injured. More than 100 women and children sought safety in a well, and drowned. Back here in Britain, the man responsible, Brigadier Reginald Dyer, was labelled, "the man who saved India". 

 

       The catalogue of British brutal imperialism is endless. We could go on and on. In the 1920's, the crushing of Iraq. The Boer war, where 10% of the entire Boer population died in British imperialist concentration camps, among them 22,000 children.

A Reminder.

       And now we are supposed to swallow the British state, painting its armour white and riding out on its white charger, with its white knight companion America, as the saviours of the Arab world. You and I know, the British state doesn't give a shit about the people of the Arab world, they have other motives.

     For more on the British imperialists morality, you could visit, 10 Evil Crimes Of The British Empire.

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