Stuart.

      The latest rendering from The Kate Sharpley Library, as usual interesting stuff, always fascinating and informative.

       From our comrades at the Stuart Christie Memorial Archive (now open!)
KSL: Bulletin of the Kate Sharpley Library No. 106, September 2022 has just been posted on our site.

Contents:
         Union-Bashing Economics [1975] by Albert Meltzer "It is the language of myth called in to justify power – an economic myth to replace the patriotic myth, but in this case using the same ‘national necessity’ ploy as in war."
         Remembering Stuart, two years on "Copies of A Life for Anarchy: A Stuart Christie Reader arrived in the UK at the very end of June 2022... We’d like to see copies in libraries: have you asked your local library to get one?"
         A ‘good example’: A Life For Anarchy: A Stuart Christie Reader [Book review] by Mark R. "There is undoubtedly, a new world waiting to be built, and from those members of that ‘strange, unknown, unappreciated tribe’ who came before us, and in whose ranks Stuart Christie now stands, we can find the inspiration to fight on; for as another of those fighters once said; ‘we are going to inherit the earth; there is not the slightest doubt about that.’"
         A living book : 'A Life For Anarchy: A Stuart Christie Reader' [book review] by Richard Warren "A life for anarchy is a proper reader – not a dry memorial, not a dusty headstone, but a living book to keep handy, to dip into repeatedly and to relish."
        Immense enthusiasm and optimism : 'A Life For Anarchy: A Stuart Christie Reader' [book review] by Chris Ealham "I was impressed by his literary references, which ranged from obscure Scottish poetry to popular culture; this was always very natural, lightly worn, in no way jarring or artificial. He also displayed immense enthusiasm and optimism. Many of these admirable traits are attested to in the final section, which consists of tributes paid to Stuart by his comrades, friends and loved ones, although the frontiers between these categories were very fluid."
        The use and need for a union by Léa Wullschleger "Certainly, if they cannot fight against the bosses with the same weapons as them, capital, since they don’t own any, they can achieve anything through numbers and organisation; since we are no doubt the more numerous."
         Joe Thomas [obituary] by Albert Meltzer "he was (to the surprise of his many friends in the trade union movement) a good friend to revolutionary anarchism and to the practicalities of anarcho-syndicalism (to the dismay of his Marxist friends)."
         Audrey Beecham [1915-89] by Albert Meltzer "She was a good friend to Miguel Garcia and myself. I took back from Barcelona this October many messages of greetings from Spanish friends both of the ‘thirties and ‘sixties, which will never now be delivered."

Anarchist history roundup Aug. 2022
          Advice to My Anarchist Comrades (1901) by Élisée Reclus (and Stuart Christie) "What then should we do to maintain our intellectual vigor, our moral energy, and our faith in the good fight?"
          You can read the bulletin via https://www.katesharpleylibrary.net/dv43bp The PDF is up at https://www.katesharpleylibrary.net/xpnxzt

 

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

Organise.

            So many strikes called by unions end up as a sell-out by the unions, they seem to see themselves as part of the system, and negotiate from that position, so I doubt they will do anything to bring the system down. The case of the striking metalworkers in Cadiz, Spain, is just another sell-out by unions. This strike not only had the support of the workers but also the support of the local community and wider afield, but the unions settled for what most consider an insulting deal. So the workers with reluctance go back feeling once again the union has sold them out to the bosses.

The following from Angry Workers:

         But the die is cast: the media celebrate the ‘agreement’ in style, and confusion and frustration, if not demoralisation, reigns.
         Nobody is happy with the agreement, but the workers come back to work resigned, treating the unions treason like business as usual. At this point, it can’t even be considered a treason anymore.
         However, the 220 CYMI workers, a Dragados subcontractor with some of the most precarious contracts with not even union representation and left out of the infamous agreement decided to keep striking for almost two weeks in total until they got rises of between 200 and 400 euros.
        There has been some more strikes all over Spain that normally end with similar results but it feels like more workers are starting to get pissed with the whole situation. The question is if the workers will find the way to self-organise in a way that allows them to put up a fight on their own terms. Some union bureaucrats are having a hard time to keep the workers in line, like this CCOO representative telling this group of cleaners that the strike has been called off and them telling him to fuck off. Instant classic.

          Perhaps the road to take for those workers wishing to take control of their conditions would be to follow the example of the Clyde Workers Committee from the Clydeside in 1915.

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Tomorrow!

       Sometimes a few verses can say more than a few volumes. Poetry is a wonderful way of expressing those deeper emotions and thoughts, that halfway house between music and conversation.

                                                   Image courtesy of libcom.

 Not So Long Ago

Woke one bright morning not so long ago;
Heard the sound of shooting out on the street below;
Went to the window and saw the barricade
Of paving stones the working people made not so long ago.

Met a man that morning not so long ago;
Handed me a leaflet on the street below;
Lean and hard-faced working man with a close-cropped head;
Held me for a moment, eye to eye, then said,
“Read it. Read it. Read it and learn
What it is we fight for and why the churches burn.”

Out on the Ramblas, she passed me on her way,
Weapon cradled in her arm; it was but yesterday.
“Not just for wages now and not alone for bread.
We’re fighting for a whole new world, a whole new world,” she said.

On the barricades all over town not so long ago,
The time had come to answer with simple “Yes” or “No.”

They, too, were storming heaven. Do you think they fought in vain?
That because they lost a battle they would never rise again?
That the man with the leaflets, the woman with the gun,
Did not have a daughter? Did not have a son?

Hugo Dewar. 

                                          Image courtesy of Stand Up And Spit:

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

Communicate.

           Today the world is not a fragmented package of unconnected entities, we live in an age of easy cross planet communications. We know, or can know, what is going on in all other parts of the planet. There has never been a better time to come together to sort out the repressive and destructive mess that we find ourselves in today. The various states and large corporation use this ease of communications to hold on to their power to continue to exploit the earths resources and its people. We the people have the same ability to communicate and join up in one last uprising to bring an end to this insanity and exploitation by capitalist economics.
         Across the planet there are a whole series of uprisings against this authoritarian, repressive, destructive existence, we have the ability and the tools to join them all together and create that better world. Communicate, communicate, communicate, the world is ours by right of our sweat and blood, it's there for the taking. 

 

 I AM THE CROWD.

I am the crowd
I swim in the quagmire of poverty
its hooks, its barbs, tear my flesh
rupture my dreams,
I hold my breath for centuries
hoping to break through, gasp pure air.
Through the murky mire
I see bright things, shiny things, sparkle
I see women in fine dresses, men in silk shirts.
I ask myself,
why do I swim in this cesspool?
I want the light and warmth of rectitude
to caress my labouring body,
seeds of my dreams to bloom
like wild flowers in a meadow.
One day, I will use my boundless strength
to haul this torn, battered being
out of the morass
onto the warm grassy bank,
when I do;
woe betide you, women in fine dresses
woe betide you mister in your fine silk shirt
should you ever try to get in my way,
for I am the strength of the world,
I am the crowd.

The following from Act For Freedom Now:
Barcelona:

          These days arise from the need to contribute consciously to the actualisation of anarchism, encouraging debate, criticism and reflection concerning our ideas and practices in the times we are living.
Considering the situation in recent times (revolts in various parts of the planet, repression, increased social control, confinement, etc.) and being aware that just a small spark is necessary for the flame to spread, with this meeting we would like to contribute to continue expanding whatever confrontation with power. Constant reflection of our ideas can help us to find the way to give a response to the conditions of oppression imposed by the present system of domination. We are calling this meeting as one more small contribution. We want to continue generating meeting spaces, from our individuality and collective struggles, in permanent conflictuality against all the established, and continue to generate networks based on the tireless negation of whatever authority.
We await you!
via: anarquia.info

 FRIDAY 18

18H Talk: ‘Our proposal is conflict. An approach to black anarchy’ + ‘Anarchist experiences from an insurrectional perspective’

21h Vegan gazebo
SATURDAY 19

16.00 Presentation of the new edition of ‘Ai Ferri Corti’[At Daggers Drawn] + debate

18.30 Talk: The story of an intergenerational anarchist gathering in Uruguay: from armed struggle in 1970 to queer anarchism in 2021

21h Vegan gazebo
Distros all day
CSO L’ASTILLA
AV.VILAFRANCA, 22
<m> TORRASSA

——–
via: barcelona.indymedia.
Translated by Act for freedom now!

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

Vindictive.

        One characteristic of all states, is that they are vindictive. They set up their theatre of a judicial system and use its many and varied pieces of legislation, backed up by their all seeing, all knowing, all powerful judges, who with their vindictive mind set, interpret those pieces of legislation to suit their own personal views, which is that the state is all powerful and can do as it wishes with the lives of its citizens. In country after country citizens languish in cells and dungeons, waiting the pontification of these self opinionated officials, who see them as lesser beings. All those caught up in the state's fabricated illusion of justice, deserve our full solidarity and support. Our world is awash with crammed full prisons, which are the state's main line of defence of its wealth, power and privileges. Freedom will arise from the ashes of all these prisons.

From Act For Freedom Now:

via: ilrovescio.info
       We receive and spread:
Today, 4th May, a provincial court made public the rejection of a request for the release of the six prisoners being held in custody since 27 of February.
Judges don’t care about our comrades and friends being deprived of freedom for 67 days already, about the inconsistency of the evidence or disproportionate charges. In the face of this response we persist. We continue and will continue to give them solidarity and to demand their freedom.
        The plenary assembly of support meet as usual every Friday at 6: 30 at Ágora in Raval.
       This Saturday a gathering has been called outside the prison of Brians 1. We hope we will be many. We won’t stop until we see our comrades free!
COURAGE, STRENGTH AND SOLIDARITY!!!

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

Our Streets.

Photo courtesy of Al Jazeera.

 The following from Act For Freedom Now:

Barcelona – Update on latest arrests (Spain)

05/03/2021 posted by round robin/it)

       As part of the riots that broke out in Barcelona during the last two weeks, 8 anarchist comrades were arrested on the night of February 27th during a cop charge.
      On Monday morning, the Mossos d’Esquadra (catalan police) searched two squatted warehouses, in Mataró and Canet de Mar, neighbouring towns of Barcelona, where they seized material.
     After a statement on Tuesday at 5 p.m., the judge validated the arrests without bail and sent them all to preventive prison.
      The charges against the 8 anarchists are: attempted murder, organized criminal asociation, conspiracy, unauthorised demonstration, aggression, public disorder, assault and violence against public officials and damages.
     The comrades decided not to answer the prosecutor’s questions, but to answer only to their lawyer.
      The next day, they all received a PCR test and, according to the new anti-covid rules, they were forced to get vaccinated. (?!!)
       They are now in solitary confinement in Brians 1 prison and for the moment they are not allowed to receive any clothes or money.
      A team of three lawyers is taking care of their defence.

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

Protection Gang

       I have often posted my view on the loaded judicial system that protects the wealthy and the privileged against those who would dare to point a finger at the corruption and injustice at the heart of this capitalist system. Of course it is world wide, the rich and power have set up system to protect themselves for any form of real criticism, the decisions of these judicial guardians of the wealthy, are actions that fly in the face of the flag they have the audacity to wave, that of democracy. Their democracy is a theatre of smoke and mirrors, a grand show of illusions, with suffering as its outcome.

       The following extract refers to Spain, but as I keep saying, the pattern is repeated across the globe.

The following is from arrezafe:

Thanks Loam for the translation.

Translation:

"Do you swear to tell the truth?"              "I'm sitting here saying it."

         While the international oligopolistic press sets its sights on the situation of Human Rights in countries such as Venezuela or Cuba, where there are no cases of systemic persecution of their opponents, and much less of artists who manifest critical positions in their art, in Spain there are two firm convictions against rappers who denounce with their lyrics uncomfortable truths, abuses of the system and flagrant privileges that are inadmissible in states that claim to be democratic. The case of rapper ValtónYc, currently convicted but exiled from his own country to evade a Justice without due guarantees, is one more case of political condemned who must escape from a highly degraded Spanish institutionality, with dangerous glimpses of the fascist abyss and against them. humanity. Valtónyc was assumed as a public danger for singing Rap with criticism of a corrupt monarchy, with shady businesses and a firm presumption of money laundering and relationships with financial circuits of drug trafficking, it has become a paradigmatic case of how the judicial system is at the service of the powerful. A Judicial Power always ready to cover up systemic deviations, and ready to violate essential freedoms such as free expression and rebellious or didactic artistic creation for the awareness of the masses. Precisely what the system does not support in order to continue to function with impunity for the privileged. it has become a paradigmatic case of how the judicial system is at the service of the powerful. A Judicial Power always ready to cover up systemic deviations, and ready to violate essential freedoms such as free expression and rebellious or didactic artistic creation for the awareness of the masses. Precisely what the system does not support in order to continue to function with impunity for the privileged. it has become a paradigmatic case of how the judicial system is at the service of the powerful. A Judicial Power always ready to cover up systemic deviations, and ready to violate essential freedoms such as free expression and rebellious or didactic artistic creation for the awareness of the masses. Precisely what the system does not support in order to continue to function with impunity for the privileged.

Read the full article HERE: 

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

By Any Means.

           The current situation in states across the world is that they are moving further to the right. In turn that means that any form of opposition to the existing order will be seen as something that must be stamped out, by any means available. Their specially sculptured judicial system will keep introducing laws that can clamp down on dissent of any form, by financial or custodial means, or both. Our very few freedoms are are risk, unless we show solidarity and organisation across borders. The following report is from Spain, but just as easily could have been from Greece, Itally, Uk, U$A or any of the other variations of  protectors of the status-quo.

         The following report is from Anarchists News, translation is not perfect but good enough to let you know what is going on.

       “They ask the union for almost 600,000 euros and jail sentences for the complainant worker and union members, a total of 8 people,”

Prison sentences for unionism

          It all started with different labor irregularities and an alleged sexual harassment at work, a complaint currently filed. A worker went to the union at the beginning of 2017 to comment on what was happening to her at Pastelerías La Suiza, in Gijón. ” ..The union requested additional information to support the version of the worker, after which, it met with the company to discuss the issue, unsuccessfully which led to the beginning of a union mobilization campaign and several concentrations of complaint were held, “nothing that is not usual in union action,” the unionists declare. 

       However, “the attacked women became aggressors from one day to the next, when denounced by the businessman on numerous occasions,” the CNT denounces. “They ask the union for almost 600,000 euros and jail sentences for the complainant worker and union members, a total of 8 people,” they detail from the anarcho-syndicalist central, “some penalties that are beyond all logic.”
       Behind the claim that asks for years in jail for unionism allegedly could be the Gijón hotel trade union, people with a clear conservative orientation, who “have accused the CNT of extorting, of being ETA, and have tried to outlaw the union for a crime of illicit association ”.
       In fact, they have hired, as a lawyer to exercise the private accusation against the union, the former magistrate of the National Court, Mr. Javier Gómez Bermúdez, “star judge and now Jaime Botín’s lawyer”, highlights the anarcho-syndicalist organization. 

       “This case is another step in the outlawing of trade unionism, either directly or by putting trade unionists in jail and financially condemning them,” denounces the CNT. For this reason, they appeal to class solidarity and the fraternal support of all the trade union centrals, in order to try to stop this aggression and to disseminate as much as possible what is going to be judged as of Monday 18.

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Twins.

       It is sometimes difficult when you see our so called "political representatives", in their fine clothes and polite civilised manner, that they oversee and manage the cruel, vicious and barbaric prison system. A system deeply rooted in violence and inhumanity, a relic from our more barbaric past, but which our well manicured "political representatives" deem necessary to keep them in their privileged position of wealth and power. Prisons are institutions of violence, repression and  intimidation, and are intended to be so, as a deterrent to those who would dare to challenge the status-quo. As long as the state survives, the savagery and barbarity that is the prison system will persist, they are inseparably linked like Siamese-twins.  

The following from Act For Freedom Now: (Translation is not perfect, but you grasp the viciousness) 

 Rotative Hunger strike in spanish prisons

        From last 1st of September on at least 14 prisoners, mostly anarchists, take actually part of a new rotative hunger strike against the precarious health conditions in the spanish prisons. They reinvicate also a 14 point program against isolation custody (FIES/DERT), tortures and physical and psychical violence from the prison guards, dispersion of prisoners far from their home, etc. Every comrade is doing a 10-days-hunger strike, one following other, every month 3 prisoners.
      Violence in spanish prisons is very common, every year 200 prisoners die inside spanish prisons violently or from drugs, no medical attention or diseases. Actually in corona times, the conditions in jail are mostly insupportable (bad food, no activities, no visits…).
        Last month of August our comrade Carmen Badía Lachos was violated from a prison guard inside the ‘hospital’ part of the Zuera-prision (Zaragoza).
      She suffers cancer and use a wheelchair to move, so this psychopath had an ‘easy game’ to act like a coward. Carmen did a public communicate about this machist crime. Last year Carmen did a very long hunger strike (more than 2 month) to denounce her health conditions to get released from prison because of her incurable cancer. The prison-administration denied her petition… The violator got threats to kill from an anonymous prisoner.
       Long term prisoner Claudio Lavazza in August was brought back to Spain after being judged in Paris for a big bank-robbery (in 1978) and he got sentenced 41 years later to ten years of prison in France! Claudio was arrested in 1996 after a bank-robbery in Cordoba where died 2 cops in a battle of gun-fire.
        Also still in prison our anarchist comrade Gabriel Pombo da Silva, actually in the jail of Leon. He got transferred from Aachen/Germany in 2013 to Spain with the special condition that he had to finish just his sentence from Germany in spanish prisons and then he’d be free from all anterior sentences. So in 2016 he became free. But his freedom in Spain didn’t have a long stand… just because one judge from Girona opinion that Gabriel should finish his 30-years-sentence from 1990… that would be 16 years more behind bars! But his friends and comrades try to bring the case to the superior tribunal of justice, so the last word is still not spoken.

Solidarity with the anarchist/revolutionary prisoners all around the world!

Down all prison walls!

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

You-topia.

 

        I found this film, informative and inspiring, though there is hardship and bitter struggles, it unfolds in poetic beauty, its narrative is woven with hope and determination and a strong reminder, as the film says, "Remember, you are the You-topia." I hope you get as much from it as I did.

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

Obituary.

 

     I know a lot has been posted about Stuart Christie since his death the other day, but as an anarchist of such stature and a friend of Spirit of Revolt, we believe that it is only fitting that we should re-post the obituary by John Paton published on the Kate Sharpley Library website. 

Stuart Christie 1946-2020,

Anarchist activist, writer and publisher

John Patten

      Stuart Christie, founder of the Anarchist Black Cross and Cienfuegos Press and co-author of The floodgates of anarchy has died peacefully after a battle with lung cancer.

    Born in Glasgow and brought up in Blantyre, Christie credited his grandmother for shaping his political outlook, giving him a clear moral map and ethical code. His determination to follow his conscience led him to anarchism: “Without freedom there would be no equality and without equality no freedom, and without struggle there would be neither.” It also led him from the campaign against nuclear weapons to joining the struggle against the Spanish fascist dictator Francisco Franco (1892-1975).

     He moved to London and got in touch with the clandestine Spanish anarchist organisation Defensa Interior (Interior Defence). He was arrested in Madrid in 1964 carrying explosives to be used in an assassination attempt on Franco. To cover the fact that there was an informer inside the group, the police proclaimed they had agents operating in Britain – and (falsely) that Christie had drawn attention to himself by wearing a kilt.

       The threat of the garotte and his twenty year sentence drew international attention to the resistance to the Franco regime. In prison Christie formed lasting friendships with anarchist militants of his and earlier generations. He returned from Spain in 1967, older and wiser, but equally determined to continue the struggle and use his notoriety to aid the comrades he left behind.

      In London he met Brenda Earl who would become his political and emotional life partner. He also met Albert Meltzer, and the two would refound the Anarchist Black Cross to promote solidarity with anarchist prisoners in Spain, and the resistance more broadly. Their book, The floodgates of anarchy promoted a revolutionary anarchism at odds with the attitudes of some who had come into anarchism from the sixties peace movement. At the Carrara anarchist conference of 1968 Christie got in touch with a new generation of anarchist militants who shared his ideas and approach to action.

        Christie’s political commitment and international connections made him a target for the British Special Branch. He was acquitted of conspiracy to cause explosions in the “Stoke Newington Eight” trial of 1972, claiming the jury could understand why someone would want to blow up Franco, and why that would make him a target for “conservative-minded policemen”.

     Free but apparently unemployable, Christie launched Cienfuegos Press which would produce a large number of anarchist books and the encyclopedic Cienfuegos Press Anarchist Review. Briefly Orkney became a centre of anarchist publishing before lack of cashflow ended the project. Christie would continue publishing, and investigating new ways of doing so including ebooks and the internet. His christiebooks.com site contains numerous films on anarchism and biographies of anarchists. He used facebook to create an archive of anarchist history not available anywhere else as he recounted memories and events from his own and other people’s lives.

      Christie wrote The investigative researcher’s handbook (1983), sharing skills that he put to use in an exposé of fascist Italian terrorist Stefano delle Chiaie (1984). In 1996 he published the first version of his historical study We the anarchists : a study of the Iberian Anarchist Federation (FAI), 1927-1937.

       Short-run printing enabled him to produced three illustrated volumes of his life story (My granny made me an anarchist, General Franco made me a ‘terrorist’ and Edward Heath made me angry 2002-2004) which were condensed into a single volume as Granny made me an anarchist : General Franco, the angry brigade and me (2004). His final books were the three volumes of ¡Pistoleros! The Chronicles of Farquhar McHarg, his tales of a Glaswegian anarchist who joins the Spanish anarchist defence groups in the years 1918-1924.

      Committed to anarchism and publishing, Christie appeared at many bookfairs and film festivals, but scorned any suggestion he had come to ‘lead’ anyone anywhere.

        Christie’s partner Brenda died in June 2019. He slipped away peacefully, listening to “Pennies From Heaven” (Brenda’s favourite song) in the company of his daughter Branwen.

Stuart Christie, 10 July 1946-15 August 2020

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

My Homeland.

      What better way to start your day than with pleasant music, with an emotional content that you wish to endorse. Translations are never 100% accurate, but you get the meaning.  Lifted this from Arrezafe.

They say the homeland is
a rifle and a flag.
My homeland is my brothers
who are tilling the land.

My homeland is my brothers
they are tilling the land
while here they teach us
how one kills in war.

Oh, I don't shoot, no,
oh, I don't shoot, I don't
Alas, I don't shoot my brothers.
Oh, I was throwing, yes,
oh, I was throwing, yes,
against those who drown the people in their hands.

Prepare us to fight
against the workers
bad lightning strike me
if I attack my companions.

The war they fear so much
it does not come from abroad;
they are proletarian struggles
like brave miners.

Oh, I don't shoot, no,
oh, I don't shoot, I don't
Alas, I don't shoot my brothers.
Oh, I was throwing, yes,
oh, I was throwing, yes,
against those who drown the people in their hands.

When a general dies
they carry it on a harmonic,
the one who kills himself in the mine
the coal itself buries it.

The one who kills himself in the mine
two companions carry it,
stone charcoal pain,
mourning of brave miners.

Oh, I don't shoot, no,
oh, I don't shoot, I don't
Alas, I don't shoot my brothers.
Oh, I was throwing, yes,
oh, I was throwing, yes,
against those who drown the people in their hands.

If my brother gets up
being in the barracks
I take the gun and the blanket
and I go to the mountains with him.

Officers, officers,
you have a lot of courage
we'll see if you are brave
when our day comes.

Oh, I don't shoot, no,
oh, I don't shoot, I don't
Alas, I don't shoot my brothers.
Oh, I was throwing, yes,
oh, I was throwing, yes,
against those who drown the people in their hands.

Oh, I don't shoot, no,
oh, I don't shoot, I don't
Alas, I don't shoot my brothers.
Oh, I was throwing, yes,
oh, I was throwing, yes,
against those who drown Spain in their hands.

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

A Dream.

      Just Imagine a little corner in Glasgow city centre where traditionally all shades of the left gather with stalls on a weekly basis, leaflets, pamphlets, badges T-shirts, etc and lots of banter. There is one simple rule, only left stalls allowed, a dream of some over fertile imagination. Well perhaps in Glasgow it is a dream, however some cities can do this, where did we go wrong Glasgow?

    I'm sure where I lifted this video from won't complain, it's from,

https://www.facebook.com/puestostirsodemolina/ 

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

I Want To Believe.

      Wrote this little piece in 2017, film is informative, and my feelings expressed in the print are still the same.

Deep In Our Hearts:

        I have always maintained that we are all born anarchists, but the society we grow up in bids us bury those feelings and desires somewhere deep in our hearts. However we do carry them with us through out our lives, they are there ready to sprout and grow if we can create the right circumstances. These occasions rise in all parts of the world, sometimes in small groups that grow and then some fade under pressure from without. Other times it is a mass movement that can only be crushed by the military might of an authoritarian regime. No matter what, we should always remember deep in all our hearts there is a desire to live, with each other, in peace, in caring, sharing communities.

I Want to Believe!

I want to believe

All that is good is out there

Sleeping in hearts that live in dark valleys,

About to blossom like some magic woodland,

In spite of war, in spite of greed

The essence that is humanity struggling to be free.

All around death arrives in many guises,

Silent as the frost poverty kills,

The ruthless march of war

With every drum beat seeks God’s blessing,

While the God fearing kill the God fearing,

Slaughter in the name of the greater good.

I want to believe

All that is good is out there

Sleeping in the hearts that live in dark valleys

About to blossom like some magic woodland,

Not just as the dream of poets.

 

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

EU Democracy.

 

         States work very hard with a ceaseless effort and unfailing determination to control the population and create a flock of subservient citizens. From continuous monitoring and profiling and for those more persistent citizens who stubbornly refuse to be part of the subservient flock they have other methods, entangling them in the loaded judicial system and prison.
       From Spain to Greece and across the EU, that so called bastion of peace, freedom and wealth, the pattern is the same.
       Two cases both with the same aim subservience, one from Spain and one from Greece, both members of the EU financial Mafia club.

Spanish democracy.

From Spain:

        Since June 2018, the anarchist prisoner Amadeu Casellas is back in prison, accused of stealing 300,000 euros in Sabadell, Catalonia. As told by Amadeu, at the time of arrest, he was working at his home; they found absolutely nothing and also the victim did not recognize him at first, the judge took no consideration of these details when decreeing detention. He is currently imprisoned in Brians I prison in Catalonia. The following interview comes from the revolutionary website La Haine.
        I first send my solidarity and that of La Haine to you in this new prison in which you’ve been suffering for months. How do you feel?
Very good.
        How was your arrest and this new accusation?
       At about 5 am they blew open the door where I lived. I was sleeping. I heard the noise and at first thought it was a neighbor, did not even think it was for me. Hooded police entered, threw themselves on me. I was hurt in the fifth and sixth vertebrae and I had to be taken to Granollers hospital. I had to wear a collar for about 20 days and was prescribed an anti-inflammatory. I was accused of armed robbery. Some 20 policemen checked, and found nothing.
       After spending years in prison, you came out in 2010 and now, 9 years later, you’ve been taken back to prison. Have you seen any change in the prison reality between these days?
        Yes, the conditions have fallen between 30 and 40 years ago and now, in all aspects. You cannot even maintain a hygienic value; they do not provide prisoners with any free products, so whoever cannot afford to buy it does not have access to them. Those that do not have hygiene are more likely to have scabies (which has already appeared in some prisons), tuberculosis, etc … Also the food has gotten worse, is less in quality, and cold; menus are repetitive and also they cheat with the portions: for example, in the menu it indicates that there are 4 patties per person and they distribute 3, and so on with everything. The commissary prices have doubled; if it was already expensive before, it is now much more; a liter of milk, which in a store costs about 60⁄70 cents, here costs € 1.60. Not only that, the laundry machine is broken and there is no money to fix it. The other day, a light bulb melted and they had no money to change it at that time. Where is that money? Where is that percentage of profit they get from the commissary going?
        You have participated in numerous protests in prison in the different stages that you have been imprisoned. How is the current struggle in prisons?
          I tried to collect signatures on the subject of food, I got very few, about 20 and 30, people are afraid and some came to say that they pulled back from the protest…
         In the years you were out of prison, you witnessed the fascistization (even more, if possible) of the state and the expansion of repression in large parts of society. How have you experienced this process?
        It is also something that is experienced inside, even as some officials carry the flag.
        From the outside, how can we help your situation to denounce injustice and fight for your freedom?
        Go pestering the court of Instruction No. 3 of Sabadell and especially create a lot of publicity, especially with those releases that come out.
         From your perspective as an anarchist, how do you describe the present political situation in the Spanish state?
        Currently, there is no talk of politics, but of parties; people are leaving things as important as the social aspects (health, evictions, maintenance of forests to prevent fires, maintenance of infrastructure to prevent flooding) and are devoted only to discussing and accusing the opposing parties without contributing anything.
       Finally, what message do you want to say to move all people struggling against repression and against prisons?
        Much strength to you all, the struggle continues. Even though we are few, do not be discouraged; it is a matter of desire and not quantity. Often one person or few can move a crowd. It is a struggle for social inequalities, against sexism, racism; if we do not fight, it will finish worse than in the Franco era.

And from Greece:

Greek democracy

SOLIDARITY TO THE COMRADES OF THE KOUKAKI SQUATTING COMMUNITY
      Since the end of August 2019, the state has launched a wide-scale crackdown on self-organized structures, occupations of the anti-authoritarian space and against squats, which also housed refugees and immigrants, mainly families with children. The present ND (Νέα Δημοκρατία / New Democracy) government is attempting to level everything left standing by the previous SYRIZA government, which had made more selective progress, with the goal of evicting squats of either immigrants or self-organized spaces of struggle.
      The Koukaki Squatting Community is one of these self-organized structures of struggle, which was evicted some time ago, but their comrades in arms recaptured it yesterday which led to a second intervention by the police which resulted in the arrests and beatings of the comrades and those acting in solidarity. The dynamic resistance of the Koukaki Squatting Community who fought against the MAT (Riot Police) and the EKAM (Special Anti-Terrorist Unit) twice during eviction operations for the first time in such cases in Greece, is an exemplary stance to defend the options and practices of struggle that we should never abandon.
SOLIDARITY TO THE COMRADES OF THE KOUKAKI SQUATTING COMMUNITY

SOLIDARITY TO EVERYONE WHO DEFENDS THE CHOICE TO STRUGGLE

Pola Roupa – Nikos Maziotis, members of Revolutionary Struggle

12/01/2020, Korydallos Prison

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Remembering Our Own, Albert Meltzer.

       We should always remember our own, those who stood up and fought on the side of the ordinary people against the injustices and inequalities of this repugnant capitalist system.

     January 7th. marks the 100th. anniversary of the birth of staunch anarcho-communist, conscientious objector, Albert Meltzer who died almost five years ago on the 7th. May 1996.

      This extract is from the Kate Sharpley Library and is by his friend and comrade Stuart Christie:

 Albert Meltzer with Stuart Christie

Albert Meltzer, anarchist

Stuart Christie

         Albert Meltzer was one of the most enduring and respected torchbearers of the international anarchist movement in the second half of the twentieth century. His sixty-year commitment to the vision and practice of anarchism survived both the collapse of the Revolution and Civil War in Spain and the Second World War; he helped fuel the libertarian impetus of the 1960s and 1970s and steer it through the reactionary challenges of the Thatcherite 1980s and post-Cold War 1990s.
      Fortunately, before he died, Albert managed to finish his autobiography, I Couldn't Paint Golden Angels, a pungent, no-punches pulled, Schvejkian account of a radical twentieth century enemy of humbug and injustice. A life-long trade union activist, he fought Mosley's Blackshirts in the battle of Cable Street, played an active role in supporting the anarchist communes and militias in the Spanish Revolution and the pre-war German anti-Nazi resistance, was a key player in the Cairo Mutiny [after] the Second World War, helped rebuild the post-war anti-Franco resistance in Spain and the international anarchist movement. His achievements include Cuddon's Cosmopolitan Review, an occasional satirical review first published in 1965 and named after Ambrose Cuddon, possibly the first consciously anarchist publisher in the modern sense, the founding of the Anarchist Black Cross, a prisoners' aid and ginger group and the paper which grew out of it - Black Flag.
        However, perhaps Albert's most enduring legacy is the Kate Sharpley Library, probably the most comprehensive anarchist archive in Britain. 

Read the full article HERE: 

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Rotating Hunger Strike.

 

       Spending money on prisoners conditions is not a vote winner, so our political ballerinas shy away from such activities. Therefore the conditions in almost all prisons are atrocious. Overcrowding is a major problem, leading to psychological and physical health problems, aggravated by the treatment from the cage keepers. Obviously the abolition of the prison system is the only humane direction we should be taking, but in the meantime we have to stand up for the humane treatment of those who find themselves entangled in the loaded judicial system.

This from Act For Freedom Now:

         Madrid, Spain: Rotating hungerstrike info + letter from Toni Chavero, anarchist prisoner

         Hi everywhere, we want to spread this info about the actual rotating hungerstrike in spanish prisons. The horrible situation in spanish prisons, tortures, deads, the basicly nonexistent medical attention,terrible food, bad communication inside/outside, aislation confinement for rebellious prisoners etc. etc. There are thousands of denouncements of this situation in the offices of the European Union Tribunals at least from the last 20 years. No one there cares about this nonexistent human rights in spanish prisons! So the prisoners, with the support of solidarious groups from outside, try to continue the long tradition of struggles against this fascist prisoner system in Spain. So from last September 1st a small group of prisoners started this rotative hungerstrike and Toni Chavero, anarchist comrade actually encaged in the prison of Estremera (Madr.i.p.) wrote this letter:

          [Madrid, Spain] Letter from anarchist prisoner Toni Chavero about the rotating hunger strike in spanish prisons
         Bunker of Estremera (Prison Madrid VII)
5th September, 2019
         Cheers, comrades, I am Toni Chavero. I hope that on the arrival of these letters you will find yourself with strength and courage. We need strength, determination and a firm position. I want to thank you, first of all, for joining these rotating hunger strikes. I have been on strike for five days today, but I didn’t even have to start it, the reprisals came earlier, I have been cut off from communications with three companions, for “reasons of security and good order of the establishment”. Since they lack the arguments or connections that lead to this intervention, they continue to violate our rights and freedoms through the nose, we will see what the court says. Although I know this goes on for a long time, I have set out to recover communications with my colleagues.
The dentist and the oculist don’t even call me. Reprisals or a Hippocratic oath? Or hypocrite?
          The objective of this strike is obvious and necessary: to demand the application of Articles 104.4 and 196 RP to the companions with chronic diseases, their release without the fascist requirement of having to be in terminal phase, I mean, dead, we’re not gonna stand for this. At least they won’t shut us up. That’s clear to us.
        On the other hand, we call for the repeal of the permanent prison that can be reviewed and, of course, for the disappearance of the hidden life sentences. Here I highlight the case of Antoine or Enrique del Valle, because right now I don’t remember any other name; it would be necessary to make a list of all the people subjected to similar situations.Comrade Antoine (Antonio Nieto Galindo), after 40 years, 4 months and 16 days of effective fulfillment, they want to kidnap him to France, these sociopaths, devoid of heart, unaware of the humanitarian spirit. Who are the killers here? All that remains is for them to claim article 100 of the old penal code of 1973: redemption of penalties for works, studies, cultural, artistic, creative activities, etc., etc., etc. We have no choice but to continue sending the writings about it to the incompetent, national and international bodies, you know the addresses by the compañerx out there.
After the end of the first 10 days, I think we should continue to send letters to these individuals, bodies, institutions In solidarity with the comrades who carry out the rotating hunger strikes. After the end of these first 10 days of September, begins the Peque companion (Courage, Angel!) and so, successively, continue, as I know today, ten more people. I know that they will enter, after finishing the comrade Peque, Aroca Lisón, Doblado, Hermenegildo, Tinoco, Marían Tapia… and I do not know who you are the others. Encouragement and many forces! We will reach the end of 2019 and beyond with these rotating demands, because we deserve it and because we can do it. Determination and iron positioning, I have no doubt. And thanks, inside and out.
          I want to thank the colleagues of Tokata and Grupo Pro Presxs of Madrid, for being the ones who have more contact with me, the fact of taking care of us despite the adversities. Thanks is to say little. To all the individual people, to all the Presxs Support Groups that I know you are there, to the Families, to the Solidarity Solidarity Groups all, thank you very much, much strength for the gatherings in the cave of the jailers (SGIP), the concentrations in Navalcarnero, in Albocásser. Thanks to the friends of Alcalá de Xivert (Castellón) for their “Desde dentro” (From inside), the voice of the prisoners and everything they do. Thankfulxs, compañerxs. Come on, add there the informative tables in Anarchist Book Fairs, Tatoo Cirkus, concerts, etc. You are the fucking rod! We feel you strong in here and we are grateful.
       A terrible fraternal and libertarian embrace. May the struggle for a society without cages not cease!
Rebellion and friendship! Also in memory of our compañero Xosé Tarrío and his nai Pastora.
We don’t forget you! Cheers to everyone.
Toni  

      Thanx a lot for the difusión of this letter-document of Toni Chavero. We animate to everyone to support this struggle with solidarity-actions!  You can also write to Toni directly; his address is:

Toni Chavero,
Centro Penitenciario Madrid VII, Estremera
Ctra. M-241, km 5.750,
28595 ESTREMERA (MD)
Spain

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