ACE Events And More.

        Another very interesting list of events from ACE in Edinburgh. I'm sure if you read through the list you will find at least one, probably more than one, event to capture your enthusiasm. One of the events, not strictly an ACE event, is in Glasgow this Saturday, that's a must, The Anti-Racist March from Glasgow Green.

UPCOMING EVENTS. From Autonomous Centre of Edinburgh 

             * FRIDAY 25 NOVEMBER- Informal training session for all interested in accompanying people to benefits appointments and sickness/ disability benefits assessments. 11.30am – 1.30/2pm at ACE *Friday 25th Nov- Art as Solidarity. Talk by Euan Sutherland. 7pm- 9pm at ACE. https://www.facebook.com/events/997341147060638/

           *Saturday 26th Nov- I Daniel Blake Film Screening. Free showing of film I Daniel Blake at Cineworld, Fountainbridge with panel discussion, including screenwriter Paul Laverty and spokesperson from ECAP. 10.00 am – 1pm.Book via eventbrite, see https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/i-daniel-blake-qa-tickets-29… If any problems with link please go to Edinburgh Coalition Against Poverty Facebook and scroll down to link on 12 November 

           *Saturday 26th Nov- Red and Black Bloc at St Andrew's Day Anti-Racism March. 10:30- 12pm at Glasgow Green. Hosted by Clydeside IWW and the Anarchist Federation. https://www.facebook.com/events/963411810429884/ * Saturday 26th Nov- International Women's Strike Discussion and talks. 3pm- 5pm at ACE. https://www.facebook.com/events/110075199474744/ 

        * Saturday 26th Nov- Fight for the Night. 6-8pm on the Royal Mile. Join us on the streets of Edinburgh on Saturday 26th November for a march to take back the streets and fight for the night! The Edinburgh University Students’ Association Women’s Liberation Group are organising events to mark the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women (November 25th). Folk of all and no genders are welcome to attend and the event is open to both students and non-students. https://www.facebook.com/events/1768262986762981/ 

         *MONDAY 28 NOVEMBER- Monthly ECAP meeting 7pm at ACE All welcome (meetings last Monday each month – but no meeting in December) * Saturday 3rd December- Disaster Communism, Mutual Aid and Solidarity. Talk and Discussion hosted by The Anarchist Federation. 2-4pm at ACE. https://www.facebook.com/events/1386277974738025/ 

          *MONDAY 5 DECEMBER- North Edinburgh Housing Action Group monthly meeting 5.45pm at Pilton Central Association, 28-30 Ferry Rd Drive EH4 4BR. All welcome. * Wednesday 7th December- Edinburgh IWW Branch AGM with presentation on Syndicalism. 7-8pm at ACE. All welcome but only IWW members can vote. https://www.facebook.com/events/536409926548582/ *Thursday 8th December- Scottish Radical library and archives work session.6pm - 8pm (2nd Thursday each month) at ACE. 

           *TUESDAY 13 DECEMBER- ACE monthly meeting 6pm at ACE All welcome (meetings second Tuesday each month at 6pm) *Saturday 17th Dec- Black Panthers in Britain. Talk by Carlus Hudson 7pm at Ace *Friday 20th Jan- Stand up to Trump. 6-7pm, US consulate. https://www.facebook.com/events/1336732683037959/

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

   

I Daniel Blake.

       Last night Stasia and I went to see the Ken Loach film, "I Daniel Blake", we both found it the most powerful and moving film we had seen. We left the cinema traumatised, not because we didn't know the facts and all the statistics of the system before hand. In my case I felt that I wasn't watching a film, I was looking through a window at the real life of real people. Real, honest decent people, being slowly destroyed through an inhuman bureaucratic system designed to attempt to fit people, through a confusing and humiliating process, into non-existent jobs, fit for work or not. A system of slowly breaking down the self respect of the individual. A system callously set up by faceless bureaucrats, devoid of human empathy, knowing that it would fail in its stated aims. If anybody sees this film, and leaves the cinema without a gut wrenching desire to pull down and destroy this vicious inhumane system, they have lost their empathy with humanity.

       Some of the figures to back up the film. In this extremely rich country of approximately 65 million, 13.5 million live in poverty. This breaks down as 7.9 million working age adults, 3.9 million children, and 1.6 million pensioners. There are over 1 million individuals in work in the low paid industries who live in poverty. This breaks down as, residential care workers, 130,00, accommodation and catering workers, 360,000, and in that back bone of the consumer society, the retail trade, 460,000 of these workers live in poverty.

     There were 2,380 individuals who died shortly after their Employment Support Allowance was stopped. Between December 2011 and February 2014, a staggering 50,850 individuals claiming ESA died, of those 7,200 had been judged, by this bureaucratic killing machine, as fit and able to return to work.

      This is the traumatic reality that crushes so many honest decent people, who through no fault of their own, find themselves, entangled in the vicious claws of this inhuman, callous and  destructive bureaucracy, operated by robotic rule obeying, automatons. A system designed to silence them through frustration, humiliation and the destruction of their self worth, and at the same time save money by getting rid of social spending.

     As one commentator said, "I Daniel Blake" is a rallying call for the dispossessed, I wouldn't be surprised if you wake up one morning and find your local job Centre with large graffiti saying, "I Daniel Blake".  "I'm Spartacus", solidarity is the weapon to defeat this festering nightmare of injustice and inequality called capitalism.

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

Fit The Box, Or Be Abused.

        The smooth talking, unbending, rule following, rule enforcing, stooges of this authoritarian system, are its pillars and its lubrication. Without them the system crumbles, they deserve our venom and our anger. They follow a rule book devoid of humanity, intended to humiliate and repress those who may not fit into the little box that the system has prescribed them. It is a case of fit in, or be abused.

        This is well portrayed in this short extract from Ken Loach's film, "I, Daniel Blake"

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