1787.

           Spirit of Revolt Archive has organised a series of free events all taking place at the CCA 350 Sauchiehall Street Glasgow. The next one up is 6:00pm December 7th. It is a talk/discussion: STRIKES - 1787 The Strike of the Glasgow Weavers talk by Elspeth King plus IWW Union organiser current events, followed by an open discussion. All welcome.

Visit ann arky at https://spiritofrevolt.info  

Free Speech.

            I have just started reading "Free Speech and the Suppression of Dissent during World War1, by Eric T, Chester. This is a meticulously detailed book backed up by extensive research. It highlights the extent the state will use its apparatus, police, judiciary and military to stifle dissent, and how it will raise its level of suppression in times of war. Among other events, t he book draws attention the savage brutality used against IWW and peace campaigners during WW1. One interesting fact that I was unaware of was how the American state looked to the UK for methods of suppression, as they considered the UK to be a master at the devious art of suppression of dissent. This book is well worth reading, though it refers mainly to WW1, similar methods are still being used today with the added benefit to the state of modern surveillance technology. To understand their methods is a step to being able to counter them and defend what freedom of speech we have and perhaps one day bring about complete freedom of speech unfettered by state legislation.
        It is available from the usual online outlets and W. H. Smiths, prices vary according to where you make you purchase, so it pays to shop around.

Book Details:
Free Speech and the Suppression of Dissent during World War 1
Publisher: Monthly Review Press.
ISBN paper: 978-1-58367-868-8
ISBN cloth: 978-1-58367-869-5 

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

An Exit Strategy.

       At this stage in the pandemic, all the talk is edging towards an "exit strategy", of course an "exit strategy" depends on where you want to go. Our so dedicated lords and masters will no doubt, be eager to get you all back, in a subservient manner, to your usual grind of struggling to pay your bills and hoping there is enough to feed the kids, while making millions for your very rich bosses.  

       If we have a grain of sense we will not accept that road for our "exit strategy". After this experience we surely have other plans other than grinding out a life to keep our bosses in opulence. IWW has some interesting methods of making our "exit strategy" work, and it doesn't include subservience and trying to pick up a decent wage packet. It means we set the agenda, point the direction we will go and doing what is necessary to get there, free from the profit motive. We, the ordinary people,  must take control if we wish to shape the society to the benefit of all our people.

From IWW on twitter:

       “You don’t need a vote to raise hell. You need convictions and a voice.” - Mother Jones.

    We have been told year after year, that the entrepreneurs are the wealth creators  of society, during this pandemic I haven't seen any running around creating that wealth, perhaps it has dawn on them that they need the workers to do that bit. This time round, let's create it for our own people.

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

Slave Labour In The UK.

        How many products do you buy or services you use, here in the UK that are produced by slave labour? Workers here in the UK that are paid as little as 30p to 50p an hour, and it is all perfectly legal and encouraged by the government. In fact it couldn't happen without the government organising and delivering this bonus to the corporate world.

       A host of well known and little known companies benefit from this government produced bonanza, right here under our eyes. I am of course referring to prisoners being used as cheap labour for the business world. This in turn allows companies to pay off workers who have to be paid the minimum wage, who get sick pay, who get paid holidays and can take action against an unjust action by their employer. None of these conditions are allowed while being employed in prison. You are a captive slave labour force with no workers rights and you are being more or less forced to feed the rich and powerful, at the expense of your fellow workers on the outside.

This from Another Angry Voice:

        In August 2016 the US department of Justice announced that they are going to set about phasing out their use of private prisons, which triggered a spate of moral high-horsing from British people who tried to claim that our private prison riddled system is still superior to the US system because at least here in the UK we don't use prisoners as a cheap source of labour.
       The map in the article header proves how wrongheaded this attitude is. Just because they haven't heard of Britain's prison labour management company One3One, doesn't mean that it doesn't exist, or that it isn't farming out prison labour to ever increasing numbers of private companies that are queuing up to take advantage of prison labour for as little as 30p an hour.
        Prisoners in England and Wales are being used as a cheap source of labour in all kinds of industries including printing, textiles, engineering, woodwork, laundry and even assembling plastic poppies for the Royal British Legion.
        The idea of training prisoners up with skills so that they are less likely to reoffend when they get out of jail is a vary good idea in principle, but the problem with farming prison labour out to the private sector is absolutely obvious. If scores of companies all over the UK are taking advantage of prison labour for as little as 30p an hour, then this availability of extremely cheap labour has an obvious downwards effect on wages and employment rates in whichever business sectors they become involved in.
      Since the Lib-Dems enabled the Tories back into power in 2010, British workers have suffered the longest sustained period of long-term wage deflation in recorded history. The real terms value of British wages has slumped 10.4% since the economic crisis, a wage decline only matched in severity by Greece out of all of the most developed economies in the world.
        The Tories have been doing everything they can to reduce wages and the disposable incomes of ordinary people: They've reduced public sector wages in real terms by imposing below inflation 1% pay rises (whilst accepting an 11% pay raise for themselves), they've overseen an exponential rise in people employed on exploitative Zero Hours Contracts, they've repeatedly slashed in-work benefits like Tax Credits and Housing Benefit, they've massively increased the amounts charged for university education and the interest rates charged on this appalling form of Aspiration Tax, they've unlawfully used unemployed people as a massive pool of free labour to distribute to their corporate mates and they've massively expanded the number of prisoners working for private companies too.
       The economic effect of prison labour driving down the wages of ordinary workers is bad enough in itself, but there is evidence that the availability of prison labour is actually resulting in real job losses as unscrupulous companies lay off their paid workforces and replace them with prison labour.

Here are some specific examples:

DHL According to the One3One website the global distribution company employs over 800 UK based prisoners to receive orders, pick, pack and ship. Meanwhile they have been shutting distribution centres, laying off hundreds of paid staff across the country (including 330 jobs in Droitwich, 200 job losses in Swindon and further job losses in Scunthorpe and Corby), and slashing wages across their distribution network prompting strike action. This is how Chris Taylor, DHL General Account Manager described the scheme on the One3One Solutions website: "Once you are through the prison door we like to create an environment identical to any DHL workplace". 

Going Green
A Cardiff based loft insulation and solar panel instillation company that laid off 17 workers at their call centre and replaced them with prisoners from Prescoed prison at an hourly rate of just 40p an hour. 

Speedy Hire A tool hire company that sacked 800 workers and shut down 75 depots in 2010. Since then they have massively increased the size of their prison contract to service and repair the tools they hire out, paying Erlestoke, Garth and Pentonville prisons £114,012 for the services of around 100 prisoners during the 2010-11 financial year. 

Timson Ltd
The boss James Timson is happy to act as a propaganda mouthpiece for the government's prison labour scheme, but what he fails to mention in his praise for the programme is that his company's increased use of prison labour coincided with a wave of redundancies that wiped out some 30% of the paid workforce at the company.

Cisco Cisco is mentioned by the Tory MP Andrew Selous as being a big player in the government's prison labour scheme. In August 2016 the company announced that it plans to lay off 5,500 workers worldwide. Perhaps they could prevent a few job losses in the UK by bringing the services they've outsourced to prison labour schemes back in-house?

Read the full article HERE: 

         An extract from an excellent article on prison slave labour by IWW Incarcerated Workers Organising Committee.

Workplaces of the future?

Prison Labour

Overview

        During every moment of a prison sentence, someone somewhere is profiting from that person being caged. The UK has the most privatised prison system in Europe, and since the early 1990s, when the first private prisons were built, prisons are increasingly being used to line the pockets of companies and individuals. Prisons have always benefited those in power; a longstanding tool of social control and repression used against working class communities.
            Prisoner that work in prisons have no rights to organise, no contracts, no pensions, no right to to choose what they do – they have no use of the gains that workers have fought and died for over centuries. If prisoners refuse to work they are punished via the IEP (Incentives and Earned Privileges Scheme), and can have visits, association (time outside in a courtyard or out of cell) and other ‘privileges’ take away from them. They are the ultimate captive workforce for capitalist industries and have been used to break strikes, while simultaneously taking jobs out of communities and into prisons. Prison labour has been used as a tool for conquest and domination for centuries, from using convict labour to colonise countries, to putting prisoners to work in making goods for armies and war.
        IWOC are working on a report about Prison Labour and Prisoner Exploitation in England, Wales and Scotland that will hopefully be available by Summer 2016. These key facts and statistics paint a brief overview of prison labour here:
           One3One Solutions is the trading arm of the Ministry of Justice founded in 2012. Over 9,700 prisoners were employed in their profit-making partnerships with private companies, with a total of 13.1 million prisoner working hours being recorded (1).

Read the full article HERE: 

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

Joe Hill Remembered.

      I'm a day late with this, but then again our working class heroes should be remembered and honoured every day of the year.

      Joe Hill, also known as Joe Hillstrom, his original name was Joel Emmanuel Hägglund, (born October 7, 1879, Gävle, Sweden)
       Joe Hill was a song writer and organiser for the IWW, Industrial Workers of the World, He immigrated to America from Sweden in 1902, and spent years drifting across the country seeking work where he could. In 1910 he joined the San Pedro, California local of the Industrial Workers of the World, becoming its secretary. In 1903, his most famous song, “The Preacher and the Slave” appeared in the IWW’s Little Red Song Book. This is sung to the tune of “In the Sweet Bye and Bye” and contains the words:

You will eat, bye and bye
In that glorious land above the sky;
Work and pray, live on hay,
You’ll get pie in the sky when you die. 

 

Photo from Britannica.com

       Joe hill was executed by firing squad on November 19th. 1915. His conviction was based on purely circumstantial evidence, and despite mass protests and appeals, and suggestions that his conviction was because of his radical views, his execution went ahead. The night before his execution he stated to IWW member Big Bill Haywood “Goodbye Bill. I die like a true rebel. Don’t waste time in mourning. Organize.”

Also on the eve of his death he wrote:

 My Will is easy to decide
For there is nothing to divide.
My kin don't need to fuss and moan.
"Moss does not cling to rolling stone."
My body?—Oh!—If I could choose
I would to ashes it reduce
And let the merry breezes blow
My dust to where some flowers grow.
Perhaps some fading flower then
Would come to life and bloom again.
This is my Last and Final Will—
Good Luck to All of you,
 Joe Hill

More on Joe Hill HERE:

And HERE:

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

Precarious Workers Organise.

 

     Capitalism continually morphs trying to rescue itself from crisis after crisis. However all the changes never enhance the working conditions of the ordinary people. The previous crisis ushered in austerity, another name for stripping the funding from social service to repay the financial mafia's gambling losses. During this period the most wealthy managed to double their wealth, while the ordinary people went from "just about managing" to an ever precarious struggle to survive.

      The latest crisis  coming in on the back of austerity, has seen the expansion of zero hours contracts, part-time working and the gig economy. All of these are another step in protecting their ability to cream ever greater profit from the workers. It is a planned development to erode workers conditions stripping them of paid holidays, guaranteed income, sick pay, and saving the employers from paying national insurance. It also frees them from any responsibility for accidents at work and working conditions.

     This form of work, is likely to grow as more and more employers see the benefits to them of making workers "self-employed", freeing employers from any responsibility and lowering their costs. If there is anyone out there that thinks that the government, who work hand in glove with the employers, is likely to do anything to reverse this trend, they are living in the fog of naive illusion. Employers are working towards the ordinary people being units on the self, for the employer to pick up when they need them, and to be dumped back on the self to survive as best they can, until some other employer sees the need to pick up a couple more to be used in the same temporary manner.

     The only way that these workers will see any improvement in their conditions or improvement in their life style and security, is to organise in conjunction with other workers and the unemployed.

     It is encouraging to see that is what they are starting to do. Recently we had the couriers strike, and two protests and rallies of "precarious workers", which covers all those mentioned above and more. One in London and one in Glasgow, but they need the solidarity of all workers, unemployed and pensioners. As their conditions are stripped away it impinges on all our communities. Without organising we face a society of impoverished workers and social services stripped to the bone.    

Some photos from today's demonstration in Glasgow's George Square:

Some from the London demonstration:

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

Couriers Unite

          Our corporate masters never miss a trick when it comes to cutting workers conditions and unloading their responsibilities. So along comes the "gig" economy, sold to the workers as freeing them up, allowing maximum flexible working conditions. Of course what they don't mention is that there is no sick pay, no paid holidays, no guaranteed income, and no protection if anything happens while you are working.  The bosses get a workforce that they have no responsibility for, no national insurance, no responsibility for accidents happening while on the job. It is a win win case for the boss. 

         The conditions that gig economy couriers work under can be dangerous, exhausting, and leave them struggling to pay their way. Most of them come out well below the living wage. However, Glasgow couriers that are tied into the UBER yoke are getting organised, fighting back, and demanding a fair deal. Though that desire in capitalism, is as rare as a two headed hippopotamus flying over Glasgow. That doesn't mean of course, that we should not get organised and take on the bosses for the right to decent working conditions.  

         Let's all get behind the couriers, and give them maximum support, and stand with them in solidarity, their struggle is our struggle.

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

Edinburgh Is ACE!!

        As usual, our friends in Edinburgh are busy, the hub of that activity being ACE. Here is the latest list from that hive of activity.

 ACE OPEN SATURDAY 1ST SEPTEMBER
        ACE is open tomorrow Saturday 1st September 1pm – 4pm. You will be able to access and borrow books from the Scottish Radical Library and also look at the Autonomous Archive of pamphlets, magazines, news-sheets and leaflets. Other ACE facilities will also be available including the Info Shop with books and pamphlets for sale and free leaflets, info on the grass-roots and revolutionary groups which meet in ACE and are active in Edinburgh, Chiapas Solidarity merchandise and info, free use of broadband computers etc..
       We hope to open regularly on the first Saturday of each month. This is dependent on having enough volunteers and this is where you can help – no experience needed as you would be on the shift with someone who was a regular at ACE. If interested in volunteering then please leave a message on ACE facebook, ring ACE on 0131 557 6242 during opening times, or email ecap@lists.riseup.net (ACE email not working).
ACE OPENING TIMES
        Every Tuesday 12-3pm. The last Thursday each month 6pm – 8pm. We are no longer open on the second Thursday of each month. Watch out for news on further Saturday opening.
UPCOMING EVENTS
Sat 1 September:
     Ace Saturday Opening Everyone welcome to pop in & check us out 1 - 4 pm
IWW in the Park BBQ
     The Meadows, hosted by Edinburgh IWW 2 - 6 pm
Mon 3 September: 
     ECAP monthly meet At ACE 7 - 9 pm (meetings first Monday each month)
edinburghagainstpoverty.org.uk
Thurs 6 Sept: 
      Living Rent Housing Protest, Muirhouse high rise council tenants demanding the Council end dampness and carry out much-needed repairs
Fidra Court, Pennywell Medway, Muirhouse EH4 4SE
1pm - 2.30/ 3 pm all welcome
Buses 37, 16, 27.
Wed 12 September: 
ATH Meeting ACE 7 - 8:30 pm
Sat/Sun 22/23 September: 
      Social Centre Conference At GAS, Glasgow --
Check out ACE on facebook @AutEdinburgh for news of the many regular events held at ACE including public discussions and film screenings.
         We also recommend you checking out the sites and facebooks of the several great groups based at and associated with ACE which include Action for Trans Health, Sisters Uncut, the International Womens Strike , Edinburgh Antifa, the Industrial Workers of the World, Oficina Precaria, the Anarchist Federation, Edinburgh Chiapas Solidarity Group, Migrant Pride, Edinburgh in Protest, Decolonising Discussion Group, Anarchist Feminist bookfair, the Spit collective and ECAP.

Visit ann arky's home at radicalglashow.me.uk

Where Prisons Survive, Democracy Dies.

 

         Prisons are an antithesis of democracy, they are no more and no less, than brutal institutions of repression, a bulwark in the defence of the establishments wealth and power. Of course a large percentage of the population believe that if you don't do anything to break their rules of control, you are safe from being lock-up in the state's cages. However, history tells us different, over the years there has been a litany of "miscarriages" of justice. Which is not surprising, since we live a society built on corruption and injustice.

      This is just one individual's long running fight against a "miscarriage" of justice, but there are many, many more that end up in destroying the individual and in most cases the lives of their families.

       A suggested motto for the UK justice system.

‘The most ardent defenders of justice here consider that it is better for an innocent man to be condemned than for the Inquisition to suffer disgrace.’

– Papal envoy, Spain 1565

This from 325:

        Kevan Thakrar is an IWW member and miscarriage of justice who has served over a decade in prison. He was moved to the Close Supervision Centre at HMP Whitemoor in Cambridgeshire in July and is now being subjected to an even more repressive regime, as well as targeted harassment from prison officers.

     Kevan repeatedly challenges his conditions and captivity with complaints and legal challenges, many often against prisoner officers and members of the Prison Officers Association. In retaliation, the Prison Officers Association have been actively encouraging officers to try to get Kevan moved to a different prison. Staff have been trying provoke an incident after Kevan’s requests for them to wear body-worn cameras (for his own protection, following incidents of physical violence inflicted against Kevan in the past).

     On Thursday 16th August, Kevan was put on an even more brutal regime. He is now locked up 23 hours a day. He has 30mins outside and 30mins to shower, make phone calls or do anything else he needs to do. When he is unlocked, everyone else in the CSC is locked in. This is creating animosity between the prisoners (a desired effect for the officers).

      Kevan has requested to see the Governor and has so far been refused. His planned meeting with the prison’s Diversity Officer was also refused by the Governor.

     Close Supervision Centres are designed to break human beings. Most people leave and enter psychiatric custody following what they are subjected to. Kirsty White, head of the CSC unit has told Kevan the reason for his restricted regime is that Kevan’s PTSD is being triggered and that he is clearly “distressed” because he is asking for body-worn cameras. Kevan developed PTSD after experiencing extreme racial, physical and sexual abuse at HMP Frankland in 2010.

Kevan has been fighting for his life as a miscarriage of justice for the past 11 years. Learn about his case. He has been kept in solitary confinement for over 8 years. You can read more about his experience in prison here.

Kevan after a beating by prison officers at HMP Frankland.

What you can do

       Follow the facebook* for updates on upcoming demonstrations

1. Please contact the Head Governor Will Styles at HMP Whitemoor:

Address: HMP Whitemoor, Longhill Road, March, Cambridgeshire, PE15 0PR
Tel: 01354 602 350
Fax: 01354 602 351
Email – Will.Styles@hmps.gsi.gov.uk

2. Write to the Justice Secretary, David Gauke MP:

Email: david@davidgauke.com

Or contact him via the Ministry of Justice: https://contact-moj.dsd.io/correspondence/topic

3. Write to the MP of the area, Steve Barclay: http://stevebarclay.net/contact/

4. Complain to the Prison Officers Association: general@poauk.org.uk

5. Write to Kevan:

Write to Kevan! He needs your support and solidarity. Send letters to:

Kevan Thakrar A4907AE
HMP Whitemoor
Longhill Road
March
Cambridgeshire
PE15 0PR

You can also use emailaprisoner.com

*https://www.facebook.com/IWOCWISERA/

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

    

Reminder, International Women's Day, Glasgow Event.

        International Women's Day is just three days away, March 8th. and Glasgow is marking this day with an event in the city centre. So come along celebrate this international event, come and meet like minded people, come along and have a chat, make new friends, meet old friends, stand up for equality, and you don't have to be a women to come and support this event. Let's make it a big happy event.

         An International Women's Day event, initiated by the Equality Officers of the Clydeside Branch of the Industrial Workers of the World, will be held on Thursday, the 8th of March.
            The rally and Walk of Pride will assemble at 4.30 pm at the La Pasionaria statue located on the north bank of the River Clyde next to Glasgow Bridge, opposite the Custom House on Clyde Street.
          This site was chosen because of the prominent role Dolores Ibarruri, called La Pasionaria ('The Passionate Flower') played in the Spanish Civil War of 1936-1939, in defense of the Spanish Republic; and because the statue of her by sculptor Arthur Dooley so beautifully represents the revolutionary woman of courage that she was-- and that many of us strive to be.
            The rally will also honour the Scottish revolutionary, Ethel MacDonald, who was a key figure in the Scottish anarchist movement and in the Spanish Civil War. In 1936 she was sent by the United Socialist Movement to Barcelona where she became world-renowned as the English-speaking reporter for an anarchist radio station. She also remained an activist, daringly organising hunger strikes among the political prisoners, smuggling in letters, and helping some escape .

          The rally will feature a banner that says Celebrate International Women's Day For a World Free from Capitalism and Patriarchy, singing, and an open mic.
         At 5.30 pm we will start our Walk of Pride, with banner and placards, to George Square where we will join up with the Scottish Irish Abortion Rights campaigners for a #Solidarity4Repeal demo at 6 pm-- thus linking it to one of the most critical issues of the day: access to abortion as a woman's right. Throughout the afternoon, we will be proudly expressing our belief that Sisterhood, and Comradeship, are Powerful!

          All are welcome to attend. Please spread the word.
More information is available from
doraziosusan92@gmail.com

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