Mutual Aid.

         It is encouraging to see that across the planet people are on the street protesting against the brutality of the state apparatus, through its front line of defence, the police. Black Lives Matter, has been the spearhead, but these protests have encompassed many more grievances that have brought global anger at the entire system to the surface. Before this outburst of justified anger there was a lot of action on, and talk of, the many mutual aid projects that had mushroomed across the world since the start of the covid19 pandemic. While the protests might be getting all the attention, we should never forget that it is with the mutual aid groups in our communities that we can change the way we live our lives and help to bring down this festering unjust and brutal system.

       Mutual aid groups take many shapes and forms and we must learn from each other, what is the best way to circumvent and undermine the economic system that has us tied to its yoke. It is a new world for many, many who have never before thought of mutual aid, but now see it as the way forward. Let's discuss it, exchange ideas, and link up from community to community, and encourage more to get involved. The street is where the battles may take place, but we need the back up of those mutual aid groups to cement any progress we make. 

       The following is an interesting article on Mutual aid from Crimethinc:

 

 

Finding the Thread that Binds Us

Three Mutual Aid Networks in New York City
Current Events
        Fundamental social change involves two intertwined processes. On the one hand, it means shutting down the mechanisms that impose disparities in power and access to resources; on the other hand, it involves creating infrastructures that distribute resources and power according to a different logic, weaving a new social fabric. While the movement for police abolition that burst into the public consciousness a month ago in Minneapolis has set new precedents for resistance, the mutual aid networks that have expanded around the world since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic point the way to a new model for social relations. The following report profiles three groups that coordinate mutual aid efforts in New York City—Woodbine, Take Back the Bronx, and Milk Crate Gardens—exploring their motivations and aspirations as well as the resources and forms of care they circulate.

        This is the first installment in a series exploring mutual aid projects across the globe.
       Food distribution at Woodbine, a social center in New York City.
      With politicians such as Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez calling for the people to engage in mutual aid in order to survive the COVID-19 crisis, those not previously familiar with the term might never guess it was coined by an anarchist scientist who advocated against central government. As economies collapse and the institutions of state and capitalism fail to protect people’s health and livelihoods, communities have been left no choice but to rely on each other. This has led to a proliferation of spontaneous mutual aid networks in communities where none previously existed, often cohering around Facebook groups and Google documents.
      Many communities, particularly those of poor and working class people, have long understood that we cannot rely on governments to meet our needs and have been providing for each other through autonomous grassroots collectives since well before anyone heard of the coronavirus. Now, the question is how to use the momentum of mutual aid’s recent popularity to transform the status quo and make these principles the basis for a new way of living together. An important first step will be to establish a clear distinction in the public consciousness between real mutual aid projects, which are founded on the principles of autonomy, horizontality, and solidarity, and initiatives that promote mutual aid in name only—those based more on a charity model, which serve to supplement and stabilize, rather than disrupt, state and capital.

Read the full article HERE: 

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

The Rapist Is You.

      It infects our world, it is an epidemic that needs to be stamped out, no country is immune from it, patriarchy, the virus spawned for the macho state model that at present rules the planet. Patriarchy is cloaked in the false legitimacy of tradition, culture and phony macho values, and where ever women stand up against this silent brutality, civilised men must stand with them. It is a vile problem for all of us who desire and struggle for a free and civilised world.

       It is wonderful and encouraging to see such unified and open opposition to this silent and all too often, accepted violence. Thanks Loam for the link:

Source: @Professorsblogg on Twitter. In front of the Chilean Court of Justice –and even in front of a police station– a most strong message delivered by female protesters on brutal state-repression, disappearance of detainees, police rapes and judges' complicity. Here translation by The Indicter Channel of the original (in Spanish) chant:

The rapist is you.

And our punishment

it's the violence you don't see.

Patriarchy is a judge

that judges us for being born.

And our punishment

it's the violence you see.

It's femicide,

impunity for the murderer.

It is the disappearances [of detainees].

It is the rape.

And the fault was not mine,

neither where I was,

nor the way I dressed.

And the fault was not mine,

neither where I was,

nor the way I dressed.

The rapist was you.

The rapist is you.

They are, the cops.

They are, the judges.

The state.

The President.

The oppressive state

is a macho rapist.

The oppressive state

is a macho rapist.

The rapist is you.

The rapist is you!

[Below, in quotes, a citation of the Carabineros (police force) anthem, shouted by the female demonstrators]:

"Sleep quiet innocent girl

without worrying about the bandit

that for your sweet and sinuous dream

watch the policeman who loves you "

The rapist is you.

The rapist is you!

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

A Persistent Vermin.

           Sometimes it can take a considerable time to eradicate vermin, it can be very persistent, and requires constant monitoring, and at times harsh treatment.

      Fifty odd years ago there was a mass attempt in the UK to rid our streets of this menace.

Fast forward to New York today, and the stench of vermin remains, and is still getting harsh treatment. It is the only way to keep the vermin off our street. You have to keep o0n top of it, or it will spread.

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

We Have To Destroy To Build A New.

 

      New York, what is going on, a picture that you will not get on our babbling book of bullshit, the mainstream media. Well worth the watching through its 31 minutes. No Borders, Sur Negro, First Chapter, New York.

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

Workers Know Your History, 1911 Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire.

       March 25 marks the 103anniversary of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire in New York, in which 146, mainly teenage girls from poor Jewish and Italian immigrant families, lost their lives. It was an era when sweatshops were the norm in the West, as capitalism's rapacious appetite for profit was gearing up to savage the world. Appalling wages, long hours, cramped unhealthy conditions, and fire exits locked, incase workers tried to take a break, or perhaps pinch something. Some of us might say, well that's all in the past, is it? All Western capitalism have done is export their sweatshop conditions to the developing world. Bangladesh is now the sweatshop capital of the capitalist world. The same, or even worse condition that brought about the deaths of those 146 young women in New York, now feeds the Western capitalists. 103 years ago the the outrage at the avoidable tragic murder of those 146 young workers heralded the rallying call, “Who will protect the working girl?  

 

   By the solidarity of the working community, change for the benefit of the worker was grudgingly forced in the working conditions in the West in general. Today we still need that rallying call for all those existing in the living hell of the Eastern sweatshops, where 1911 is being repeated for the same reasons, to feed that rapacious appetite of capitalism. The real and only answer, is not to continually fight to try and extract better conditions from the corporations, but simply for the workers to organise to take over those corporations, and organise them to benefit all humanity. Otherwise we, and all future generations will find themselves in that endless fight for decent living conditions, a continuous battle to stop that race to the bottom. It doesn't have to be that way, we have the resources to see to the wellbeing of all our people, we can produce enough to see to all our needs, we already have the distribution networks. All that remains is our will to take control and shape society for the benefit of all.

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

9-11, Which One?

     We all remember 9/11, but which one? Of course our babbling Brook of bullshit, the mainstream media, will recall the twin towers in New York. However in Chile, 9/11, has a different memory, September 11, 1973, was the beginning of the military coup lead by General Pinochet, fully supported and backed by America. It ushered in an era of vicious savagery that lasted until 1990, though General Pinochet was removed from power in 1988. The era of the military junta saw the blood of the Chilean people flow from the tens of thousands of beatings, torture, killings and disappearances perpetrated by the exesses of the of the psychopathic Pinochet junta, with the full backing of America. So this September 11, let's remember all those who suffered at the hands of fanaticism.

Photo from Arrezafe, original source Hoguera De Ideas

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

A LAND OF OPPORTUNITY - FOR WHO??

       Quite often, from that babbling brook of bullshit, the media, we hear about the economic hardship being faced by people in Greece, Spain and even now and again hints of what is happening here. Seldom are we told of the misery and deprivation in America. After all, it is the world's biggest economy, the pinnacle of corporate capitalism, so things must be better there, right? Well not quite, a recent Reuters report states that due to the “sub-prime mortgage crisis” (corporate greed) and the stratospheric rise in foreclosures of owner occupier houses, there is now a record number of vacant homes in that land of freedom and opportunity. It seems that the number of vacant homes in America now numbers more than 18.6 million, and according to the national Law Center on Homelessness and Poverty, there are 3.5 million homeless people in America. So, that should mean that the homeless problem is solved, each homeless person now has more than 5 homes from which to make a choice of that basic right, a roof over your head!!! Of course it won't happen, so it is obvious that in that land of plenty, the the capital of corporate capitalism, the system is just as screwed up as any other capitalist country. Another little fact from the land of opportunity, there is no other city in the developed world with a greater divide between rich and poor than New York. The bottom 20% of its citizens get by with less than $10,000 a year, you can guess what the top 20% have to struggle by with in glitzy New York, New York??

ann arky's home.

NEW YORK, NEW YORK.

         Nice to see some self help happening in the wake of Sandy. If those who suffered from the power of Sandy, wait for the "proper" authorities to sort things out, their misery will drag on and on, but if they get together and sort it out themselves, things will start to happen.

Construction Materials Expropriated from Luxury Developments in Manhattan, Delivered to Victims of Sandy

NEW YORK, NY—Over the past two weeks, a group of concerned New Yorkers has been expropriating thousands of dollars worth of tools and materials from luxury residential developments across Manhattan and delivering them to neighborhoods devastated by Superstorm Sandy.

    The confiscated materials, some of them never even used, include: shovels, wheelbarrows, hand trucks, pry bars, tarps, buckets, hard bristle brooms, industrial rope, contractor trash bags, particulate masks, work lights, work gloves, flashlights, heat lamps, and gasoline.

    Liberated from their role in building multimillion-dollar pieds-à-terre for wealthy CEOs and Hollywood celebrities, these tools are now in the collective hands of some of the hardest-hit communities in the city where they are now being allocated and shared among the people who need them most. These expropriations will continue as long as the demand for them exists.

The targeted developments are being financed with over a billion dollars in bank loans plus untold millions in tax breaks from the city. All are slated to become high-end residential towers with apartments starting at upwards of $2 million, all no doubt with unparalleled views of the city—perhaps even all the way to its outer edges, where tens of thousands remain without power, heat, and hot water weeks after the storm. People continue to wait hours in line for blankets and batteries while the tools to improve their lives, the tools to help them literally dig themselves out from under the rubble, sit idle behind chained fences, safely tucked in beneath all-weather tarps or locked inside heated office trailers.

Read the full article HERE:

ann arky's home.

FROM ATHENS TO NEW YORK?

         Capitalism lurches from crisis to crisis, capitalism is crisis. During each of these troughs or financial convulsions, the people suffer more than usual, another feature of these inborn faults in the system is the rise of fascism. As the conditions of the people deteriorate fascism raises its ugly head from some dark corner of the sewers of the system. Capitalism's latest convulsions are world wide and so the stink of fascism is spreading across the globe. It will appear in many guises, not just the jackboots on the streets, though they will call on them when they feel the need. They can come disguised as a helping hand of the poor, to gain a foothold in the community. Greece's fascist group "Golden Dawn" works in that fashion and is rampant and openly violent on the streets in that country, and is more or less given a free hand by the authorities to attack and attempt to destroy any organised resistance to the system. Now New York is to be contaminated by the same group as the have set up camp in that city.

 This from Void Mirror:

Golden Dawn, G.D. (in Greek, Chrysi Avgi), the neo-Nazi, ultra-nationalistic party, which was recently elected to the Greek Parliament under the pretext of concern over unemployment, austerity and the economy, and while engaging in virulent anti-immigrant rhetoric and anti-democratic, nationalistic activities, has now established a chapter in New York City. Several groups and organizations have already publicly expressed their outrage and have called for immediate action.

Read the full article HERE:

ann arky's home.

WHAT IS OCCUPY WALL STREET?

       What is Occupy Wall Street about,, who are they, is it just a handful of misfits, if not, why isn't there better media coverage? This video might give you some of the answers.

ann arky's home.

LIBERTY SQUARE LIBERATED!!

        Liberty Square in New York has been re-occupied, the barriers are down and the people are back with their library and their discusions. In spite of the lack of media coveage this protest gathers numbers and steam.

ann arky's home.

OCCUPY WALL STREET.

       The Occupy movement is still growing, it may be stagnant in some towns and cities but that's not the story in most cities, irrespective of what the mainstream media spout. This a report from the Occupy Wall St event by somebody who is there doing his thing. It would be good to give live reports from all over the world a much wider audience, so that the public are aware of what is going on and encourage more to participate.

Listen to internet radio with polizeros on Blog Talk
Radio

ann arky's home.

THE MEDIA - LIES AND ILLUSIONS.

         Several weeks of protests in New York by the Occupy Wall St. movement and still the media give it a very low key approach, the fact that it is spreading to other cities in America makes no difference what so ever. It is not hitting the headlines, there is obviously a form of censorship in the West. You can report protests and up-risings in lots of countries across the world, the further away the better, the nearer to home the less coverage they get. Not much in the European media about the protests in Athens, Madrid and Rome, to mention a few, but lots of cover on the uprisings in the Middle East. As Julian Assange said at the London anti-war protests this weekend, "journalist peddle lies", but what is equally abhorrent is the non reporting of certain events when it might throw a bad light on their lords and masters the corporate world. The mainstream media is a subservient tool of the corporate world, the peddler of illusions, a PR machine for the corporate and political parasites at the top. It is time that we stopped looking to the mainstream media for "news" and stick with the independent alternative media, activists' news-sheets, internet, facebook, twitter, etc. Let the mainstream media peddle their lies to the thin air. Information on Protests and Anti-war info.

By John Hartfield.

ann arky's home.

GLOBAL REVOLUTION???

ann arky's home.

WE ARE ONE.

      Saturday October 1st. was probably the wettest day for some considerable time, the morning started with torrential rain and slowly modified to monsoon type downpour before turning to heavy rain for the rest of the afternoon. In spite of this, thousands felt angry enough to march the couple of miles from the Glasgow Green, through the city to Kelvingrove Park. A long slow colourful snake of people slithered their way through Glasgow's wet, semi-flooded streets in cheerful and noisy fashion. The march, against cuts to public services and the attack on public sector workers, was the first of many planned for the coming months.

     What we have to realise is that what this government is embarking on is the biggest and most savage attack in living memory, on the living standards of the people of this country. Under such circumstances there is no alternative but to defend ourselves and fight back with the same savageness and determination as this cabal of corporate fascists.  There is no law against self defence, when you are attacked you have the right to defend yourself. This millionaire government and its corporate bed-fellows are well organised and will be ruthless in their endeavour to privatise everything and to transfer all public assets to their millionaire friends in the corporate world. We must be better organised and even more ruthless than our attacker, if we wish to defeat this unbridled onslaught.

   

We are not alone in this growing self defence, across Europe there have been mass demonstrations and occupations, from Greece to France, from Spain to Italy, Portugal and Ireland, it has now spread across the Atlantic. Today is the seventh day of continual occupation of Wall St. in New York with 5,000 filling the area on Friday, and for the last three days the central square in Los Angelos has been occupied. We are one.

    We are governed by consent, we can and have the right to withdraw that consent, the system is corrupt, unjust and cannot work for the benefit of the majority of the people, so the majority of the people have the right to destroy it, and in its place create a system that sees to the needs of all our people, a system based on co-operation, mutual aid and sustainability, free from the greed of the profit motive. We have the right and the responsibility to start that creation process now. We owe it to our children and our grandchildren. We start now or we leave a heritage of repression and deprivation to those who follow.

ann arky's home.

COULD THIS BE THE START OF SOMETING BIG??

        

         Occupy LA begins this Saturday Oct 1st! We are Occupying LA in solidarity with Occupy Wall St. (A Peaceful Occupation)

Starting at 10:00am in Pershing Square, marching to City Hall Map Join Us - Bring a sleeping bag, food, supplies, friends!

         The Middle East protests are applauded by the West, protests have been spreading across Europe and now we have them in New York and Los Angelos, could this be the start of something big? I can't wait to hear the Western media ring out the praises of all those brave people facing the wrath of the state machinery. I don't expect anybody to be shot in the West, just pepper sprayed, roughed-up, beaten and arrested, perhaps a few tasered. However, the West is not totally innocent in the field of bring troops on to the streets to handle unrest, Liverpool and Glasgow can testify to that.

ann arky's home.

THE BLIND MEDIA.

              They are still there, though according to the mainstream media, it's a big secret. Pissed off Americans have for the last 5 days been occupying Wall St. New York, but there's not a lot appearing on the TV nor the papers, compare this with any protest in the Middle East, it would get lots of air time and lots of comments and pundit's analysis. Here of course, in the "free democratic" West, we don't do that sort of thing, so if we all just shut our eyes they will all disappear and the rip-off capital can get on with its business.
       Across the West unrest is growing, protests in Greece, Italy, Spain, Portugal, France, UK and America, but to the parasitical elite it is business as usual.



The world over, a cop is a cop, is a cop.

ann arky's home.

THE WORLD'S MOST BRUTAL ORGANISATION - THE STATE.

---

       As far as organisations and institutions go, there is none more brutal nor causes more deaths than the state. With it endless wars killing millions across the globe, all sanctioned as legal by the state apparatus. Then there are the thousands of executions that go on a daily basis, legalised killing by an organisation that attempts to weild supreme power over everybody. Innocent or guilty, no man has the right to take another man's life and it is just men that order and carry out the killing. It may get all dressed up in the trappings of power, ritual and ceremony, but at the end of the day it is just other men killing other men. This mythical thing the state, becomes more powerful than the people it is meant to serve. There is no place for legal murder in any civilised society. 

Act NOW to STOP THE EXECUTION OF TROY DAVIS!

EMERGENCY: EXECUTION SET FOR WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 21. ACT NOW! Take Action on the Global Day of Solidarity for Troy Davis, Friday, Sept. 16.

 LIST YOUR LOCAL ACTIVITY AT iacenter.org/actions/troydavissept16listlocalaction

SIGN ONLINE PETITION AT iacenter.org/troydavis

All anti-death penalty activists in the U.S. and worldwide should prepare NOW to organize coordinated actions on FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 16.

Plan an activity - a rally, demonstration, petitioning drive, teach-in, community leafletting, etc on that day in your city.

Post your event at iacenter.org/actions/troydavissept16listlocalaction and justicefortroy.org

In ATLANTA, at 6pm on September 16th there will be a March assembling at Woodruff Park, Peachtree and Edgewood and concluding at Ebenezer Baptist Church, 407 Auburn Ave with a service featuring national civil rights, community and religious leaders, Martina Correia and other family members of Troy Davis,and exonerated prisoners.

NEW YORK CITY:

ALL OUT FOR EMERGENCY DEMO

FRIDAY SEPT 16 4:30- 6 PM

TIMES SQUARE, 43rd ST AND 7th AVE.

STOP THE EXECUTION OF TROY DAVIS

Other important dates:

Thursday, Sept. 15: delivery of petitions to the Georgia Pardon and Parole Board;

Monday, Sept. 19: hearing on clemency for Troy Davis by Georgia Pardon and Parole Board

For more information on the campaign, go to www.aiusa.org or gfadp.org

---

On March 28, 2011, the US Supreme Court failed to take up the appeal of Troy Davis. AND NOW HIS EXECUTION HAS BEEN SET FOR WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 21.

TELL THE GEORGIA GOV., LEGISLATURE, PARDONS AND PAROLE BOARD, PRESIDENT OBAMA, ATTORNEY GENERAL HOLDER, CONGRESS AND THE MEDIA:
STOP THE EXECUTION OF TROY DAVIS!

Please join the online campaign to STOP THE EXECUTION! FREE TROY DAVIS NOW!
YOUR EMERGENCY ACTION IS NEEDED NOW! Click HERE to Sign the Online Petition

Tell Gov. Deal and the Georgia Pardons and Parole Board:

STOP THE EXECUTION! FREE TROY DAVIS!

On March 28, 2011, the US Supreme Court failed to take up the appeal of Troy Anthony Davis, the Savannah, Ga. man whose scheduled execution has been halted three times in the past because of the growing evidence and public belief in his innocence. AND NOW HIS EXECUTION HAS BEEN SET FOR WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 21.

Troy Davis is an African American on death row in Georgia. Davis was convicted in the 1989 killing of a police officer despite what Amnesty International calls "overwhelming doubts about his guilt." No physical forensic evidence was presented at Davis' trial, and 7 of the 9 non-police witnesses have recanted their testimony, with at least two saying they were pressured by police to finger Davis as the killer.
CLICK HERE TO TAKE ACTION NOW to let the Georgia Parole Board, Governor, Legislature, and congressional delegation as well as President Obama, U.N. Secretary-General Ban, Congressional leaders and members of the media know you demand No Execution of Troy Davis!

Your messages will go to hundreds of public officials, including the Governor of Georgia, the entire Georgia legislature, each member of the Georgia Board of Pardons and Paroles, the full Georgia Congressional delegation, as well as President Obama, Attorney General Holder, Congressional leaders, U.N. Secretary-General Ban, and national and local media representatives.
SIGN ONLINE PETITION AT iacenter.org/troydavis

The text of the message reads as follows (you will have the opportunity to edit it if you wish):

To: Governor Deal, Georgia Pardons and Parole Board, Georgia Legislature, Georgia Congressional Delegation, President Obama, Attorney General Holder, Congressional Leaders, U.N. Secretary General Ban

cc: members of the media

STOP THE EXECUTION OF TROY DAVIS, NOW SET FOR WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 21!

On March 28, 2011, the US Supreme Court failed to take up the appeal of Troy Anthony Davis, the Savannah, Ga. man whose scheduled execution has been halted three times in the past because of the growing evidence and public belief in his innocence. He was convicted solely on eye witness testimony, and 7 of the 9 non-police witnesses have since recanted, several alleging that police coerced them into making false statements.

I join with millions in the US and around the world in demanding that you stop the execution of Troy Davis. Serious doubt remains. I call on all those with authority and influence in this decision to grant clemency to Troy Anthony Davis and overturn the death sentence.

Innocence matters to me. Justice matters to everyone.

I urge you to act now.

Sincerely,

SIGN ONLINE PETITION AT iacenter.org/troydavis

 International Action Center
c/o Solidarity Center
55 W 17th St Suite 5C
New York, NY 10011
212-633-6646 iacenter@iacenter.org www.iacenter.org

ann arky's home.