Who Is Big Brother Protecting??

      Here in the UK we have more cameras per head of the population than any other country in Europe, if not the world. A recent visitor to Glasgow from Italy, that I spoke to, was shattered at the volume of cameras watching her every move. She said she felt intimidated and found it difficult to relax when out and about in town. She wanted to know was this array of cameras because Glasgow was a more criminal city than anywhere else. Of course the answer to that is most definitely, NO. Glasgow as well as being plastered with CCTV cameras on every street corner, lamp post, and lots at bus stops, (six at the bus stop at my home) we also have them on buses, in pubs, cafés, restaurants, underground stations, bus and train stations. On top of this, until the recent tragic crash at the Clutha pub, we had a police surveillance helicopter, fitted with an array of sophisticated surveillance equipment, flying low over the city. All of this, we are told, is for our own protection. Are we really that untrustworthy, violent, vicious a bunch of people, that we have to be watched at every move, our every trip to the shops, pub, church, train station, monitored? Would the city descend into mayhem and self destruction, if our lords and masters did not watch our every movement? 

     Forget “our protection” and think “control”. With this volume of detailed surveillance, we are living in a large prison, our minders are watching our every move, and ready to control you should you not be where the deem you should be, if they assess that you are not doing what they think you should be doing. Your patterns of behaviour are being analysed, you are being profiled. Who is big brother protecting? You are in prison.

     Though other cities in other countries, don't suffer the same intrusion of privacy that we do, there is still an anger and indignation at the volume of surveillance they do suffer, where is our anger and indignation?

       The following is a translation from Catalan and appeared in Anarchist News: 

"We refuse to live in a prison" (translated from Catalan)

Today, the society in which we are obliged to live appears ever more like a prison. Our movements are registered and our conversations listened to and controlled systematically via our cellphones. Our emails are analysed and maps of our social networks are created using, for example, Facebook and Twitter.

The national press gets indignant about the tracking of [European] politicians by the NSA but what's certain is that for a long time they have been not only complicit, but directly promoting the sharing of data on a large part of the population between European agencies and the NSA. And on the other hand, we have not seen the same indignation for the dozens of cases of spying on activists carried out by CESICAT [an extralegal or private security apparatus formed by the government of Catalunya, as part of its bid for independence].

An element of devastating quotidianity in this web of social control are the surveillance cameras. They seek to train us to accept "for our own safety" being filmed from the moment we leave our houses in the morning until the moment when we come home at night. Some cities are already installing systems of integrated surveillance with all the cameras in a region linked up to facial and other recognition software.

None of this surprises us, since the very nature of the State is to want to exercise absolute power over life. Freedom is not possible under a power that aims to control and surveille our lives in their entirety. Any attempt to transform this world in accordance with our needs or to recover control over our own lives will be surveilled and punished by the State as an act of criminality. For this reason the struggle for freedom must take the path of illegality.

We refuse to live in a prison. We refuse to be listened to and followed. We refuse to have our movements recorded. We refuse to allow anyone to be obliged to grow up in a world in which they will be recorded, filmed, Twittered, and localised 24 hours a day.

Read the full article HERE:

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

Glasgow, Police Helicopters And Accidents.

      Like many, many people across the country I have been deeply moved and saddened by the loss of life and the injuries from the recent tragic accident of the helicopter crash onto the roof of the Clutha in Glasgow. Everybody accepts it was an horrific accident, but like all accidents, we have to carefully analyse the events and attempt to guarantee that this will never happen again. I have no doubt that the experts will point to some mechanical failure, but there are other aspects that must be looked at, for example, why are there low flying helicopters over dense urban areas? This was the second police helicopter crash in Glasgow, that's two too many.

    I received this from an IWW member and I whole heartedly endorse the contents. 

 Ground Surveillance Helicopters – Permanently!

      The Clutha Vaults tragedy on 29^th November touched so many. It killed 6 pub users and injured many others, physically and emotionally. It happened because of the increasing practice, of low-flying helicopters being used in dense urban areas. We are mourning the dead, some like John McGarrigle immortalised in print.

    But “an injury to one is an injury to all “, as the wobbly slogan puts it. From mourning we should take the step to organise to highlight, oppose, and demand the end to the use of helicopters in this way.

Helicopters are used to convey the sick and injured – but that is a different use from that of the Police. How many of us have got up from our sofa to be met by a bright light, like a searchlight, barely clearing our tenements and houses/

    The Clutha had a great reputation as a haven for radical & literary ideas, for poetry and live music. But in addition to commemoration, or rebuilding the Clutha/ we can add our opposition to the use of surveillance helicopters This is not to blame the pilot, but to identify the practice, and the record of accidents and near misses associated with this practice/ As with other aspects of the creeping surveillance State – we ask , what are they useful for, and to who?

Campaign to put an end to their use, this winter of discontent!

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

McGarrigle's Glasgow.

    Since posting The Clutha And John McGarrigle I have been touched by the number and content of the comments and emails I have received, below is the latest.

    I found your blog today as I was looking up John McGarrigle. I heard about his death first thing this morning - was the first thing on my radio. I'm a poet too and was struck by his death, so looked him up, and discovered that he was also working class like me. I was struck even more, and wanted to write few lines to commemorate him and his poetry (I've included some references to his work).

    I don't know whether his family would like to see it, but from your blog I note that you knew him. If you think it would be a good idea to show them this, please do. I've attached it and put it below too.

Take care

Laura Taylor

McGarrigle’s Glasgow

One of the scribes was taken tonight.

One of the seers, one of our own.

One of the prophets will write no more lines

in radical rhymes

nor preach them to people like us.

He struggled against his emptying days,

though yearned for contentment and calm.

Thought he had lost that angry young man,

but McGarrigle – words never die;

they’re beyond a stillness of pulse.

You spoke of a Glasgow unknown to the rich,

of the Cross, of a town built on sweat.

In the Clutha, the Scotia, the folk and the verse -

dance of the underdog, lies of the land –

were given a life in tune to your truth.

Tonight in a town made of working-class gold,

in the midst of McGarrigle’s Glasgow -

the artists and players, singers and sculptors,

poets and prophets and pipers and drummers

remember the heat of your heart;

raise their glass to the fire within.

May your flame spark gently in unsurpassed sunset tonight.

Laura Taylor.

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

Glasgow St Andrew's Day March Cancelled.

Saturday 30 November

STUC cancels St Andrew's Day march as mark of respect

      As a mark of respect to all those affected by the tragedy at the Clutha Vaults last night and in view of the pressure which has been placed on the resources of Scottish emergency services, STUC has decided to cancel its annual St Andrew's Day anti-racism march. The march which had been due to leave from Glasgow Green at 11am will now NOT take place, but participants are invited to attend a short rally at the Glasgow Film Festival at 12 noon as planned

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