Legacy.

          Sunny Florida, still in the grip of covid19 has now been hit with another emergency. It appears that a 77 acre reservoir holding millions of gallons of water containing phosphorous and nitrogen from an old phosphate plant is leaking into the surrounding neighbourhood, mainly agricultural land. A state of emergency has been declared, more than 300 homes have been evacuated and a highway closed.
         The Governor's statement saying that it was mainly salt water, mixed with "legacy process water and storm water run off", was I suppose meant to calm the residents. However, that is only part of the truth, The area where the leak was found is in a stack of phosphate-gypsum, a radioactive waste from the manufacture of fertiliser. That to me is not just salt water. Once again the mass corporate production leaves behind it a legacy of destruction, pollution and poison and little regard to the consequences of their profit seeking process.

The leak was discovered at the reservoir at Piney Point.  Reuters photo.                               
 

         This capitalist system seems to be excellent at coming up with processes that are supposed to enhance our lives but leave a trail of pollution and poisons that will destroy the life of the planet. Our world is awash with chemical dumps, arms dumps, nuclear dumps and other waste dumps, all growing by the day, and all in the name of profit. The corporate bodies reap the rewards, the public reap the whirlwind of ever occurring disasters. To clean up these "waiting in the wings" disasters, we need to clean up our economic system.
          We need to move away from the profit motive for everything, to a mode of production that is controlled by the people and for the needs of all the people in a sustainable manner. We need to remember that capitalism is just a man made economic system, that fails to meet the needs of all our people and can easily be replaced with another man made economic system that puts fairness and the needs of all our people as its aim, but based on the fact the planet is our only home and we must preserve and nurture it for our survival and that of the coming generations. 

 

Tomorrow’s World!

See the fat cat’s grinning smile
as Corporate Capitalism runs amok,
chasing profit as it goes
firing millions of ordinary folk.
Raping and polluting land after land,
starting bloody wars.
Toxic waste, sweat shop wages
and oil covered sea shores.
Where have all the flowers gone
beneath this ozone free sky?
To join the birds, to join the fox
on yonder plutonium field to die.
Mercury fish, strontium lamb
trees that never show a leaf,
radio active beaches, toxic streams
good lean BSE-antibiotic beef.
In a world of epidemic, plague and famine
it’s bottled water and chemical food.
Of course, it’s all tested on rats and mice
so you know its got to be good.
Beneath a sky that’s always black,
hurricane winds and endless drought,
its oxygen masks for the toxic air,
corporate profit’s what its all about.

 

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

THE AMERICAN RECOVERY, POVERTY AND TENT CITIES.

         As the populations of countries across the developed world face a brutal attack on their living standards from the financial Mafia, we keep getting told it is the “economy” and all this suffering is necessary to get the economy going again. We are also told that the American “economy” is recovering, so everything should be OK. Well we can accept that most of the “good news” is bullshit propaganda approaching the Presidential elections, Obama needs some help.

      Let's take the poverty in America, it is estimated that there are more than 47 million Americans living below the poverty level, on top of that there are approximately 5,000 people living in tent cities, with an estimated 55 such tent cities dotted around America. The largest of these ironically, is not that far from Disneyworld in Florida, where approximately 300 people live in tents on a 13 acre site. Most of these sites don't have electricity and the sanitation leaves much to be desired. On top of that most can't even feed themselves, they rely on charity. The BBC covers some aspects of this situation in its Panorama program.

       The following extract is another take on the American “recovery” and it is well worth reading the full article.

The other day I was struck by this wierd feeling of deja vu. Where had I seen this kind of listlessness before? Where had I observed this sort of laggard, slumping despair? Then I remembered. It was back in Russia during the Yeltsin years. It was the exact same atmosphere: Things were shitty and getting worse. Life was shabby and dilapidated. Their rulers were corrupt and didn’t give a damn. Cosmically rich oligarchs were cannibalizing the country, and the system was so badly broken there wasn’t a damn thing anyone could do about it. Drink up. Continue reading;

  This austerity is necessary for the recovery.

         Like I keep on spouting, we have to stop looking to our “own” bunch of political crooks and liars to sort it out for us, and realise that this is an international war. This is the world wide corporate fascists plundering the ordinary people of the world, your “own” little bunch of crooks and liars are not on your side. If they even hint at improving the social fabric of society, the big financial boys will have you down graded, grab their capital and leave, or they might just do as they have done in Greece and Italy, suspend your so called “democratically elected” government and put one of their henchmen in to take charge, to get you back on the right track of austerity and handing them the public purse.

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EARTH FIRST, USA.

     
         A posting from our friends across the pond. It should be shouted from the street corners and from the roof tops, resistance to this system of capitalist exploitation, and the rape and plunder of the planet is growing day by day.

Earth First!: dancing on the tables of bureaucracy and greed for 30 years and counting


By Panagioti, co-editor of Earth First! Journal 

         Earth First! has been a pain in the ass to industrialists for over 30 years now in the US. Despite serious repression from the Green Scare over the past decade (where eco-activists have been labeled 'terorists' and threatened with life sentences for acts of sabotage) the movement of ecological direct action looks to be getting back on its feet again. The stories below gives a glimpse of this summer alone... Last week in Montana, Earth First! activists in the US stormed the Capital of Montana in resistance to new fossil fuel infrastructure  This week tree sitters halted mountaintop removal coal mining in West Virginia  Last month, a direct action campaign of indigenous activist and allies kicked off in the San Francisco Peaks of Arizona And the resistance continues:  Earlier in the summer, Earth First!ers in Maine took their case against industrial wind power clearcutting endangered species habitat to a 'criminal' trial for their road blockades of a year earlier. While some charges were dropped, and some resulted in jail sentences, their fight continues. And in Florida, forest defenders opposing the construction of a new biotech animal testing laboratory by occupying the tree canopy this spring were summonsed to court for their alleged involvement in this 6-week occupation (which has played a major part in delaying the construction thus far)  All across the US eco-resistance is back on the rise, and the trend seems to be present in several other countries as well. With the ecological crisis expanding, the need has never been greater. We intend to rise to the challenge.

P.S. Don't forget to check out the latest Earth First! Journal, for a more in-depth look at news, strategy and analysis around the world

P.P.S Don't forget to start plannin' to celebrate the 200 year anniversary of the Luddite Uprisings starting this November... 

Oh, and the Earth First! Journal may be planning a trip across the Atlantic next spring/summer. We are hoping to make a stop-over in Glasgow... So keep an eye out for us!

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