Those Pesky Migrants!!

         How many EU citizens live in the UK? How many UK citizens live in the EU? January 2017 figures for the population of EU were 511,522,671, population of UK 65,808,573. If we subtract the population of the UK from the EU figure, giving us a figure of EU population of 445,714,098. Of that vast number of EU citizens, approximately 2.9 million have come to live in the UK. Of our much smaller population of around 65 million, 1.3 million have chosen to live in the EU. 

      The largest portion of UK citizens living in EU have settled in Spain, population wise, a much smaller country than UK, but it has 391,194 UK citizens settled in there.

     The following LINK https://epa.com.es/padron/britanicos-en-espana/ gives a breakdown of where that UK population have settled in Spain, and you can see that in the chart just how high in certain places the UK migrant population is in relation to the local population. Thanks Loam for the link: https://arrezafe.blogspot.com/

       Populations have always moved around and across borders, some by choice, others by necessity. Borders are imaginary lines drawn by power mongers who wish to hold onto what they see as their territory and their power base. The UK is a broth-pot of Roman, Viking, Norman, Saxon, Irish and a large mix of African, Eastern and Middle Eastern populations. However the racist duped element in this patch of the planet called the UK, see any new migrant as a threat, blind to the fact that their own ancestry is made of of a hotch-potch of migrants over the ages. We are all human and belong to the same family tree, if we really open our eyes we would see that the only real division between us is the one created by those same power mongers that create those imaginary lines/borders, and it is one of class. 

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Colourful Police In Brutal Attack.

 

       Protestors always come up with imaginative ways in getting their point across, in a wonderful array of colourful variations. Of course the police can only respond in one predictable manner, brutal violence. No matter where the police meet protestors, from Nepal to New York, Kazakhstan to Catalonia, the pattern is the same brute force, the shape of modern democrcy.

This from Roar Magazine, thanks Loam for the link:

     Pro-independence protestors and antifa activists clashed with Catalan police at a rally to oppose a manifestation organized by JUSTAPOL (Spanish National Police and Guardia Civil Union) in support of the operation against last year’s referendum on Catalonian independence.

And more on how democracy works in Europe:

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The Undemocratic Bombing The World Into Democracy!!!

        America along with its other members of that bully-boys club, NATO, stomp around the world bombing nations to destruction, maiming, displacing and killing, countless millions of innocent civilians. This the club spouts as, "bring democracy" to these people. Of course if you swagger around the world bombing them into "democracy", the assumption is that your own countries are "democratic". However, you don't have to look for long to see that "democracy" is very thin on the ground of the member states of the bully-boys club, NATO. 

      The previous post "The Viciousness Of Austerity" points to the injustice and inequality, and therefore, total lack of "democracy" in the UK. The following video displays how the "democratic" member state of Spain, deals with the legitimate protests of its people. Thanks Loam for the video link.

 

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A Death Of An Ordinary Person Is Of No Consquence To The State.

       The state is an institution of control that lacks compassion and human empathy, it follows that those employed to guard its power and privileges are endowed with those same deficiencies. To expect the police to protect the public when their actual function is to protect the state, is naive in the extreme. The state, to safe guard its existence, grants itself the monopoly on power and violence, it can kill at will, and dress it up in their legal jargon, giving it their stamp of legitimacy. You kneel at the alter of state power or you are the enemy. There is a litany of evidence to this effect, all of it written in the blood of the ordinary people.

This from Enough is Enough:

        On March 15th, around 5 o’clock in the afternoon, our brother, friend, and colleague, Mame Mbaye Ndiaye, passed away. The incident took place on Calle Oso, Lavapiés, after a racist raid that was followed by a pursuit.

       Together with all the organizations that support us including the 12N Sin Racismo, SOS Racismo, The Association of Manteros and Lateros, and Kwanzaa, we will no longer continue to accept the daily persecution of black people, nor the constant assassination attempts made by the Spanish State.

       In accordance with our fellow colleagues who had also been the victims of the pursuit from Sol to Lavapiés, there were reports that the Police had been continually kicking them so that they would fall to be able to arrest them.

       Mame Mbaye and a colleague had managed to reach Lavapiés where he then collapsed. His colleague tried to help him when he fell, but the police impeded him from doing so, with the excuse that they should wait for paramedics. Aid was possible, but yet the forces of the State decided to wait, facilitating his death. This incident is clearly a crime supported by the Ley de Extranjería (Spanish Law of Immigration), a law that kills, tortures and humiliates us both on the street and in the CIEs (Detention Centre for Illegal Migrants). A law that excludes us from society in such a way that prevents us from being able to exercise basic rights such as the right to work, health care, and fair legal representation. We find ourselves before the crime of a system of borders — a crime of state-sanctioned violence.

         Moreover, we want to emphasize the fact that what happened to our brother Mame is not an isolated incident, but one that forms part of a bigger dynamic between the Spanish government that sustains itself through racism and the torture of black bodies and migrants.

The Collective of Manteros and Lateros is currently one of the social groups that suffers from the most police violence. Our colleagues are constantly attacked, discriminated against, and beaten for merely trying to survive. This is in addition to several thefts and arrests by state forces.

        We demand the immediate conviction of the assassin of our brother, Mame Mbaye Ndiaye. We want to also commemorate each person that has been assassinated by these very same racist laws and borders including Samba Martínez, Aramis Manuka, Idrissa Diallo, Mohamed Abagui, and all those who cross continents and all our mantero brothers that suffer as well as all our ancestors.

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Capitalism A Failed System.

 

       There are lots of methods by which you can asses that capitalism is a failed system. Probably the greatest indictment against the system is its continuous wars, wars are just an ongoing aspect of capitalism. It is always there in some form or other in some part of the world, with all its attendant features of misery, trauma, death, destruction, and massive profits to the corporate world. 

       Another measure of its failure is its gross inequality, from state to state, you have opulence and deprivation living side by side. In this insane system, since money is the main ingredient in the quality of your life, you have to prostitute yourself as a productive unit to some corporate body, or live in poverty. However even here they system fails, by being unable to to allow everybody the necessity of being a productive unit, it functions by leaving a pool of individuals with no means of survival except charity or some form of miserable state hand out.

      The EU is one of the worlds most developed capitalist power blocks, but even here, unemployment is rife, which in turn means poverty and deprivation are endemic. The EU is a rich capitalist enclave of 511.8 million people, with the vast majority of its members states having unemployment above 13%, the EU average is 7.3%, that is approximately 40 million people excluded from the possibility of a decent standard of living in the midst of a very rich enclave.

       More than 117 million people across EU member countries (or 23.4% of the population) were living at risk of poverty in 2016, according to the Eurostat statistics agency.

     Of course the unemployment average doesn't tell the true story. Looking at figures in individual member states, you start to see the real horror of being dumped as "surplus to requirements".

        Greece leads the field in having the largest percentage of unemployed with a staggering 20.7% of its population dumped as "surplus to requirements", Spain following close behind with 16.4%, Cyprus 11.3%, and Italy 10.8%, and so it goes on.

       If you happen to be among the youth of this very rich bastion of capitalism, the EU, then you are in an even more precarious state than the population at large. The EU average for youth unemployment is 16.1%. If we look at individual states within the EU, then we see the real plight of the youth of this vast rich corporate body. Once again, leading the charge at destroying the next generation by killing off their potential, Greece is at the front with 40.8% of its youth dumped in that "surplus to requirements" category. Spain next with 36.8%, Italy with 32.2%, Cyprus 25%, Croatia 24.5%, France 22.3%, Portugal 22.1%, Finland 19.9%, and on it goes. That is 8 countries in the very rich EU, with approximately a quarter or more of the youth population unemployed, a quarter of its youth population facing daily poverty and deprivation and a monumental struggle to survive. Unless otherwise stated, all the above figures are for 2017.

     Surely that is cause enough to state unequivocally that capitalism has failed and failed miserable to see to the needs of the people. It is a destructive, unfair, unjust, corrupt, exploitative system that grossly over benefits a small army of parasites to the great disadvantage of the many. Its total destruction is the only way to resolve the problems it has created.

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The Unbalanced Scales Of Justice.

 

 

        The idea that justice is blind, and all are treated the same before the scales of justice, is one of those enduring illusions and fantasies of the modern society. Justice has never been equal to all in society, wealth, privilege, and position in the ranks of society, all play their part on how that so called blind justice will deal with you. More and more, the modern state sees anarchists as needing a different type of justice from others, the state fears most, those who see another world beyond the authoritarian system of state/capitalism, and are prepare to struggle for that better world. A world that would destroy the privileges, wealth and power of the parasitic leeches that hold the reins of power in present day society.

Greece: 

            Letter from anarchist prisoner Kostantinos Giagtzoglou, on hunger strike since 21/2/18, and updates. 

         This moment I am in the prison of Larissa after the operation that the Special Anti-Terrorist Police Unit carried out early this morning in the isle “A” of Korydallos prison where I had been transferred for court reasons. The cops invaded the isle and the cell I was in, while I was bed-ridden as I was in hunger strike, after a faint episode I had last night, they pulled me out of prison, they hit me and they threw me into the transport vehicle. I tried to resist as much as I could and at the same time I was demanding to take my personal items (shoes, clothes, medicines, etc.) which never happened. They did not allow me to even take a bottle of water I had in my cell although they were aware of my hunger strike and my burdened health condition. As far as I am concerned, I declare that the regime’s attempt to bend my morals will not work.
        “At the moment of dedication, the whole universe conspires to help you”- Johann Wolfgang Goethe
       “Those who oppress their desires, they do so, because their desires are so weak, that can be oppressed” – William Blake
        First of all my captivity does not in any way mean that I am defeated morally or politically. As long as I stand on my feet and my lungs are able to breath, my values and my principles are not negotiable, because my decision to revolt against authority will not be stopped by dungeons and “exiles”. And this is a promise to all comrades.
          It seems though, that my imprisonment alone, as well as my long standing conviction, which has been announced by the police investigation authorities (in the indictment prepared, it is stated that the acts for which I am accused of, seek life sentence) are not enough for the regime. The statists desire to impose on me an unofficial “exile”, apart from the deprivation of my physical freedom. Therefore prosecutor Raikou, instead of ordering my preventive detention in Korydallos Jail, where people arrested in Athens and are awaiting trial shall be detained in custody, she decided to exile me in Larissa jail. An “exile” that aims to:

1. Keep me apart from my familiar faces, making visits practically impossible by forcing my relatives to travel enormous distances crossing half the country with the expected financial and physical burden, to be able to see me just for a few minutes behind a window glass.
2. Alienate me from the complex and massive file of the case that keeps me imprisoned, as my lawyers are not able to travel to Larissa so as to have frequent and uninterrupted communication with me. Also the very nature of the case file (thousands of pages in electronic form, video, etc.) makes it impossible for me to access it, even after so many months, from Larissa’s prison as there is no proper equipment.
   
3. Facilitate the supervision, control and severe restriction of my contact with comrades who stand in solidarity and other imprisoned anarchists, by trying to isolate me.

        Ultimately they are aiming to convict me before the court decision does, in a forgetfulness regime, “forgotten in a depository of defective and human leftovers” …
      This practice of authority is not something new. However, its strong imposition by the Greek state was evident during 2010-2011, when dozens of anarchist comrades were arrested and then dispersed in several greek prisons (Grevena, Malandrino, Corfu, Trikala, Komotini, Domokos etc.) while they were facing common accusations for the same cases. A role model to this practice was the anti-rebellion repressive method applied by other states abroad, for example in Spain, with the isolation of the separatist ETA fighters at distances of 700 kilometers from the Basque country so that they cannot have any visits and any form of communication between them.
       In my case, the unofficial “exile” (which is not the only one that has taken place recently) seems like and experiment on the authority’s behalf , in view of the adoption of the new correctional Code, since in some way this is a condition for some of its provisions. In particular, authority reopens the exception regime for anarchist prisoners. It has not been many months since the anti-criminal policy secretary, Eftihis Fytrakis of the ministry of justice, declared that “Anarchist prisoners will not be accepted in Korydallos prison”. Today I face my “exile” in Larissa, in the future we’ll see specialized isles for all political and disobedient prisoners. Of course, the experimentation previously mentioned is based on the calculation of our reactions, and especially of the anarchists’ reflexes outside the walls and the solidarity movements to the struggles of the prisoners.
       Also, my transfer to Korydallos prison for another court case of mine (arrest in clashes with the police after an anti-memorandum demonstration on 11 May 2011) took place just one day before, and this did not happen accidentally. It is indicative of the fast track procedures they want to apply in my case, as it seems that there are political pressures from high levels of the regime and their “justice” works on demand …
      “The moral determination of who attacks and gives up on the structures of power is a perception, a moment in which he perceives the beauty of his comrades and the misery of obedience and submission.” I rebel, therefore i exist ” is a phrase of Camus that never ceases to fascinate me, in a way that only a reason to stay alive could. In a world that presents ethics as an area of power and law, I think there is no other moral dimension than rebellion, risk, and dream. The survival in which we are imprisoned is unfair because it is abusive and disfiguring”
Massimo Passamani

        For all these reasons, I REFUSE to passively accept the regime of “exile” and the transfers – abductions in one night. Against these practices I become a 90 degree barrier with my words and actions. As my deep belief is that our actions and attitude should not be orientated in the repression-antirepression dipole, but penetrate every aspect of our being, I wish my struggle will be seen as one more base to attack and open cracks of freedom in the multiple and multiform cells within society – prison. An attack, a result of the rebellion, which, if it doesn’t take place now, it will never be a future option…
       The fact that I am a prisoner of war of the greek democracy does not mean that I left my dignity at the prison’s entrance and backed away. On the contrary, in prison, in the yard, in the cell, in the transport van, I carry with me the pure lust for freedom, every gesture of solidarity, every act of revolutionary complicity that lowers the walls of the prison and the decision to fight for anarchy UNTIL THE END.
      This is the reason why, I started a hunger strike from 21/02/2018, with a request that my transfer to Korydallos prison will be official and the regime of “exile” in which I am in, will be terminated. The transfer request I had applied since my first week in jail of Larissa was rejected, confirming the decision of the authority to put me in a “political quarantine” in Larissa’s prisons and to “be forgotten” there. But the power and the will for a constant anarchist rebellion is capable of reversing every decision made by those who think they can have power over our lives without consequences. Not a single enemy of freedom stays on the safe side and not a single imprisoned comrade is alone…
       I also announce that from tomorrow, Sunday 25/2, I will begin a thirst strike as an escalation to the hunger strike I’m already undergoing. I thank from the heart the thousands of Korydallos prisoners who reminded all of us, today, with their mobilization, that when they hit and treat unfairly one of us it is like hitting all of us. United we will win. Their strength gives me the power to reach to the end in order to win my struggle.

MIND, BODY AND SOUL FOR EVER IN THE STRUGGLE

SOLIDARITY TO ALL POLITICAL PRISONERS IN GREECE

STRENGTH TO MY BROTHERS AND SISTERS TO CHILE AND ITALY

STRENGTH TO ANARCHISTS WHO FACE THE REPRESSIVE OBSESSION OF THE RUSSIAN STATE

THE RIGHT IS ON THE SIDE OF THOSE WHO REBEL

VICTORY TO PRISONERS’ STRUGGLE

AGAINST THE NEW CORRECTIONAL CODE

Konstantinos Giagtzoglou. 24/02/2018

All political prisoners deserve our unfailing support and solidarity.

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Solidarity.

     We have a problem, what's the answer,--solidarity. State repression is increasing, what's the answer,--solidarity. The corporate world is destroying the planet, what's the answer,--solidarity. Our people are being brutally exploited, what's the answer,--solidarity. The powerful and wealthy are screwing us, what's the answer, --solidarity. 

     I don't think we can ever over estimate the importance of solidarity in our fight to rid this world of the festering cancer of capitalism, it is our most powerful weapon, it doesn't recognise borders, like the poem says, "You are many, they are few", in solidarity we can reshape this world and create that better world for us all.

     So with that thought in mind, I thought I would go into over-kill, with some videos that bring a bit of a glow to the heart. Thanks Loam for the links.

Transformation From A State To A State!!

 

         What we are witnessing in Spain is the state bludgeoning of any area, territory, that wishes to remove itself from its authority. The state's survival depends on complete control over its fiefdom, it will not accept lightly any eroding of that fiefdom. What we are not seeing is a different entity being born, but just another state under the same yolk of capitalism and exploitation, a shifting of power between elites, not the emancipation of the people. In the new "Republic of Catalonia" workers exploitation will continue, power and wealth will still call the shots and cream of more and more from the efforts of the workers. The King is dead, long live the King, well the state is dead, long live the state, and so the sorry mess continues.

This from arrezafe: (not the best translation, but you get the meaning)

 Joint Statement CGT, CNT and Solidaridad Obrera on the situation in Catalonia

        The undersigned organizations, unions at state level, we share our concern about the situation in Catalonia, by the repression the state unleashed by the loss of rights and freedoms that this entails and will assume and the rise of a rancid nationalism It is appearing again in much of the state.
       We defend the emancipation of all working people of Catalonia and the rest of the world. Perhaps, in this context, it is necessary to remember that we do not understand the right to self-determination in statist key, as proclaimed nationalist parties and organizations, but as the right to self-management of our class in a given territory. Thus understood, self-determination spends more for control of production and consumption by workers and direct democracy from the bottom up, organized according to the federalist principles, the establishment of a new frontier or creating a new state. As internationalists, we understand that solidarity among working people should not be confined to state boundaries,
      What does seem very disturbing is the reaction that is being experienced in many parts of the rest of the state, with the exaltation of a rancid españolismo, more reminiscent of the past, cheered from the media and in tune with the authoritarian drift government, patent following the imprisonment of people for convening acts of disobedience or Article 155 of the Constitution. We are aware that this nationalist outbreak lays the foundation for further cuts of rights and freedoms, against which we must prevent. Sultry unit called "democratic forces" in justifying repression, portends a bleak picture for all future disagreements. It seems that the post-Franco regime that governs us for 40 years, close ranks to ensure its continuity.
        Such a regime that has existed and exists in both Catalonia and the rest of the Spanish State feels that their own survival is at stake. Widely questioned and plunged into a deep crisis of legitimacy, it is alarmed by how you build up the fronts. The threat to the territorial integrity of the state adds to corruption scandals, the discrediting of the monarchy, the question of bailouts and cuts that have been applied to the population, discontent with slavery in the workplace derived latest labor reforms, by lengthening the retirement age and economic Deduction of pensions, etc ... the constant calls to defend the Constitution should be understood as touches the tocsin to tackle this real existential crisis besetting. The danger is that in the process and sanction repressive rule as those seen recently in many Catalan cities behaviors become. Or worse ...
        Obviously, we do not know in which direction the events will choose. We remain attentive to what happens, willing to defend the interests of working people throughout the state. We will oppose with all our strength to repression and normalization of far-right attitudes, already perceived. Of course, let us not use the strategies of political parties whose objectives are foreign to us. At the same time, we will not stop encouraging the mobilization of the working class when it decides, by fi that it's time to shake off the dictation of a political and economic elites that take too much time managing control of the territory to serve, exclusively, their own interests.
          As combative class unions, libertarian and we will be at street level, in the mobilizations, as we have demonstrated on many occasions, against repression, cuts rights and freedoms and corruption.
        Perhaps the crisis Catalunya is the lace of a dying state model. Decant this change in one way or another depend on our ability, as a class, to take the process in the opposite direction to the repression and the rise of nationalisms. Trust make the end result more freedoms and rights, and not vice versa. We played a lot.


By RIGHTS AND FREEDOMS!
AGAINST REPRESSION the working classes!
CGT - CNT - Workers Solidarity

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From The Streets Of Catalonia.

          The stories are many and varied on what went on in Catalonia when the state's bully-boys, the police, started their crack-down on the voting in the Catalonia referendum. To get a full span of the police violence, here are a collection of videos from the streets of Catalonia. Again, I'm not putting my voice behind the nationalism in this case, but highlighting how the state behaves when its people do something it doesn't like. Thanks Loam for the link.

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The Puppeteer And The Populace.

         When political scenes bubble up to large protests and uprisings, it is difficult to grasp the truth of the situation, mainly due to the propaganda and vested interested vomit, the flows from our babbling brook of bullshit, the mainstream media. Of course this is what is happening in Spain at the moment, protests must be smothered or at least controlled, and must never become a threat to the existing power of the established power elite. This is in no way me throwing my voice behind the nationalist ideology, which is just the restructuring of a new state, a shifting of an imaginary border and a re-adjustment between the power elites. Nationalism can never be the road to the desired emancipation of all people.

      So to understand why the Spanish state is now openly displaying its true fascists colours, by dissolving a functioning parliament and forcing direct rule, you have to follow different threads. 

       This thread from Tarcoteca is very informative. I particularly like the metaphor of the puppeteer and his two puppets. This could equally apply to any developed world state. Democrat and Republican, Labour and Tory, etc. keeping the populace all baying for their particular puppet, but leaving the puppeteer to dictate the story line.

          And here is where we find the great metaphor of what the Regime’s reality is. Its authentic nature.

             Before us, the look of the left wing and the right side politically confronted, reflected in two masses TV channels apparently ideologically opposed which belong to the same Elites of the Regime.

         The best way to visualise it is imagining a puppeteer entertaining us with fights and confrontations between two puppets, one in each hand. And underneath the puppet theatre, a group of children shouting (us the population) submitted and stupefied masses standing up for one or another puppet, the ‘blue’ or the ‘red’.

The puppeteer doesn’t mind the children shrieks, neither which of the puppets have to win at ‘today’s function.’ The puppets and the puppet theatre are his belongings and this is the only thing that matters.

        In fact, seen that the children have begun to get bored of the ‘blue’ and the ‘red’ puppets, the puppeteer created two new puppets: the ‘orange’ and the ‘purple’. Within the Spanish reality, those two new puppets are the new political phenomena parties: Ciudadanos and Podemos whose their only task is to keep the function going and continue entertaining the stupefied masses.

        Either Ciudadanos and Podemos were launched at TV channels and media property of the Regime Elites. Do not doubt about both puppets being created to perform a specific role-play.
        Basically, Ciudadanos is in charge of accelerating the repressive timings of the Regime as well as helping to reinforce and support it. While Podemos focused on gathering all the unhappy ‘revolutionaries,’ to make them waste time on an endless blah, blah, blah. Preventing them from tearing down the Regime under the promise if people vote them (during the next polls in few years’ time) when they reach power (so never) they will change everything.

        Therefore, it doesn’t matter which puppet children stand for the red, blue, orange or purple. They all speak through the puppeteer’s mouth and comply with the mandate’s roleplay…

      Here is where the Popular Rebellion we are living in Catalonia comes into context. The independence process changes everything because it doesn’t circumscribe at the fake democratic conflict but it directly attacks the Regime’s existence.

      We will see it clearly if we continue with the puppeteer and the puppet theatre metaphor. It turns out that suddenly, in the middle of the play of this puppet theatre, a rebel child has stood up and said: ‘I am fed up with this puppet show; I want to leave and play with a ball.’

      Damn child!

He is not supporting any puppet… he wants to leave! This is what Catalans did when they said that they liked to vote to decide their future. They have warned that they are keen to stand up and leave the function because they are fed up with the pantomime and the bloody puppets. They are fed up with the Regime.

           What has the answer of the puppeteer been?

         So, we have all seen it: facing the child’s protest both puppets, the red and the blue, gave up the ridiculous role of fighting between them and have started to insult the child, to ridicule him in front of other children trying to get his colleagues to oblige him to sit back and continue watching the play.

          Above everything else the most important is to prevent this rebel and insolent child from standing up and going to play with the ball; as others could go with him and the puppet show would finish. The control among children would be over, therefore, the business too. The Regime would come to grief and it would blow away all the bloodsuckers that live in it.

         In fact, this puppeteer sees his business at risk and has converted his puppets in fists and angered left the puppet theatre going after the impertinent child forcing and obliging him to stay.

        This is EXACTLY what is happening in Spain at the moment. And that is EXACTLY what the media at the Regime service did. All of the sudden, they have stopped being ‘left wing’ or ‘right wing’ and they have started to work in unison saying the same things about what is occurring in Catalonia, spreading the same insults, manipulations and lies.------

Read the full article HERE: 

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Nationalism, Divider Of People, Cementer Of Submission.

 

       Why is is it that there are people how still think nationalism is a way of bring people together across the globe? Or is it that they don't give a shit about other people, but somehow believe that their own national parasites will take better care of them than parasites from further afield? This illusion that nationalism is somehow a flag worth waving, has been responsible for countless years of bloodshed, savagery, and the needless killing of our brothers and sisters, who happen to be born on a different spot on the planet. All for the protection of the wealthy and powerful, who hold the reins that control the various repressive societies, we at present, live under. Those with this divisive "National Pride" delusion, should accept that it is only by pure chance that they were born in a particular patch of soil on this rather small planet, and it is only by co-operation, solidarity and mutual aid, in a border free world, that we can hope to improve the lives of all our people.

 

Patriotism.

No, I shall not die for the fluttering flag,

if truth be known, ’tis nothing but a multi-coloured rag

held aloft by some foolish hand

inciting worker and peasant to kill

on some green and wooded hill,

peasant and worker from some other land.

Nor shall I shed blood for the fluttering rag

that brings out fools to stand and brag

of brutal deeds painted grand,

deeds where rustic and craftsman lie so still

killed by my brothers' misguided hand.

No allegiance have I for the Nation

this man made autocratic creation

that divides my brothers in a world so small,

binds us to a country's cause, right or wrong,

bids us follow its drum, sing its song,

then sheds our blood in some border brawl.

No, I'll be no slave to flag or nation,

have no ear for power oration,

though its iron heel is on my breast,

my back feels its leather thong,

at patriotism's barracoon, I'll be no guest.

           Note from Insurrection News: The following text is a translation of a leaflet that is being distributed by the comrades at Contra Madriz along with a series of posters, pamphlets and stickers that denounce all expressions of nationalism. The material will be distributed throughout the territories currently ruled by the Spanish State. You can read the original text in Spanish and download PDFs of the material HERE.

NO STATE WILL MAKE US FREE

      No State, Spanish or Catalan, will give us any kind of freedom. Because the reason of being for every State is to subject the exploited and to guarantee the privileges of the ruling classes. The state regulates exploitation via the law and is responsible for ensuring that the oppressed never rise up against an order that exploits, humiliates, evicts, steals, murders and creates misery throughout the length and breadth of the planet.

      No police, Mossos (Catalan police), Civil or National Guard protects us. They are the shock force of the state that protects private property and are responsible for repressing and persecuting those who do not kneel and decide to fight against their rotten world. There are no good police or bad police, all repressive bodies obey a very specific logic: maintain order. Let’s not forget the actions of all police forces in general strikes, demonstrations, neighborhood raids, racist controls, surveillance of prisons, evictions and even as a force of foreign occupation (remember the number of police officers deployed for international missions). They obey and serve their masters.

       Democracy, parliamentary institutions and politicians do not look after our interests, but their own interests. No one but ourselves should look after our interests. Electing our masters, voting, submitting to majorities and / or minorities, acting within democratic frameworks…makes us complicit in our own domination and establishes in us the spirit of delegation in officials. We put our lives in their hands. Relying on politicians who only seek (as they all do) to profit from our struggles and our feelings, while submitting us or aspiring to submit us, makes us become a servile mass ready to mobilize or demobilize according to their electoral interests and their struggles for power.

       No nationalism or flag should represent us. As the oppressed and exploited we should understand that we have more in common with the other oppressed and exploited than with an entrepreneur or politician who was born in the same place as us. Nationalism and patriotism are tools of power which infect and manipulate the oppressed and make them dance to the tune of the oppressors and bond with our class enemies and their constantly changing projects and needs. The affection for the land in which we live or our language are taken away to justify the creation of new states. Obviously, culture should be something living, in constant evolution and free development between individuals and communities. The state is the death of all free development, building borders and sowing the seeds of racism and xenophobia.

        Under capitalism, the state and any form of authority, we will never be free. Let us build a new world on the ruins of authoritarian and state society. Let us build and fight for anarchy, as a constant struggle against all forms of oppression and exploitation, in solidarity and mutual support with our equals, no matter where they come from.

NO NATIONS! NO BORDERS!

(via Contra Madriz, translated by PDF)

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Glasgow Stands With Catalunya Against Police Brutality.

     A couple of days late with this post, but still worth displaying. Glasgow shows its solidarity with the people of Catalonia who sufferer some of the worst police brutality seen in Europe for a considerable time.

       Solidarity banner drop today in Glasgow, in support of the October 3rd General Strike called by the CGT, CNT and many other anarcho-syndicalist unions in Catalonia protesting police violence and repression. The text reads: "GLASGOW STANDS WITH CATALUNYA AGAINST POLICE VIOLENCE. SUPPORT THE OCTOBER 3RD GENERAL STRIKE." ¡Vamos!

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Choose Only From The List.

        A vision of how representative democracy works in modern civilised Europe, where people are free to choose. As long as you choose from the offered box of sweeties. Don't try to choose from anything outside the state's offered box. To draw up a choice list of your own is considered a crime, and your chosen list will be brutally erased. To expect anything different is to be blind to history, the story is all there, written in the blood of ordinary people who have decided they want a different choice. The state is an antithesis of freedom, you choose one or the other, you can't have both. 

This video was lifted from arrezafe. 

A wonderful response from the people to the state's brutality.

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It Is How The Beast Behaves.

 

      Why the anger at the Spanish state? It is behaving just as states usually behave, name a state that doesn't have its gangs of black clad bully-boys with their padded shin guards, elbow pads, protective helmets and long batons, backed up by another gang who have rubber bullets and live ammunition? Name a state that hasn't used these thugs against its own unarmed citizens? The Spanish state is just showing its true colours, after all the sanctity of the state was being attacked by young and elderly, armed with pencils and paper.

      How often have we seen from a multiplicity of media outlets and personal experience, this sort of state behaviour across the globe, but somehow there is always shock and horror when it happens. We should expect it, that's what the state's armed thugs are there for, to make sure that the people know their place, the citizens must behave as subservient sheep. Start to act collectively to shape your society and you will always feel the wrath of the state.

        Instead of criticising the Spanish state we should be looking at how to free our minds from the concept of a state, how to organise our society by means of the people taking control and shaping their communities, and society in general, to meet their needs and desires. As long as we participate in the charade of representative democracy, with its political parties, abdicating our own power to a handful of over paid political ballerinas, with their vested interests, we will see these scenes recur time and time again. Every time the people say the have had enough, the state will come down with the full compliment of its brute force apparatus. That's what it is there for, to keep you accepting your servitude.

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Careful Who You Call Comrade!!

 

Mark Kennedy, outed undercover state scumbag.

          We all know, or should know, the depth of depravity, the repugnant subterfuge that any state will accept as right and proper, in its attempt to intimidate and silence any opposition to its control of the people. Undercover paid scum, who live by lying and the deception of those who offer them trust. Other times the state apparatus will, by threat and inducement, use desperate and vulnerable people as their tool for fabricating phony evidence. Sadly, we know that under the present system of corporate capitalism, you will find this type of state behavioured in any country on the planet you care to name. In this instance, it happens to be Spain, but we in this country have recently, had this stench of state deception poison our nostrils. This is what you vote for, the continuation of this corrupt, greed driven system of exploitation, held together by coercion, threat, illusion and brute force. 

This from Act For Freedom Now.  

 Careful who you call comrade!
          Tuesday, 24 January, on the outskirts of Vigo (Mos), a deployment of about 60 armed men between the Guardia Civil and secret agents, searched (and almost destroyed) the house where Gabriel Pombo da Silva had lived for a few months with his partner Elisa Bernardo. At dawn the two were violently awakened, handcuffed and separated … aim: to find firearms and explosives! The search lasted about eight hours and in spite of the means employed (dogs and high technology radar tools), gave no results … among the things seized there is the usual “interesting” anarchist material, cameras, maps of various cities, some cable and old malfunctioning cell phones.
While Elisa, despite the repeated threat of being placed under arrest unless she revealed the much desired hiding place, remained free, Gabriel was arrested on charges of “illegal possession and trafficking of weapons and explosives and armed group”. During the 24 hours’ detention (the release of the comrade happened, in fact, the next day) the facts were bitterly reconstructed.
          About three months ago the couple got to know a self-proclaimed anarchist comrade who, during the few opportunities to meet, “confesses” her problems with drugs and a conditional sentence she is doing because of an arrest suffered in 2013 on charges of being the author of an attack with Molotov cocktails on an institution in Vigo. Heart in hand, Gabriel and Elisa, respond to the request for help from the “comrade”, accepting her for a week (at the beginning of the year) in the aforementioned house to accompany her in the worst phase of a path of detoxification. After this brief period, the girl returns to her own home … reappearing as informer (of false information) the day prior to the present named “Operación Buyo”.
If we had not received certain news that during her previous arrest she had defamed other people, we would have limited ourselves to considering her a “victim of the system”, but that is not so. Maria, this is her name, is currently in jail on the same charges as Gabriel, probably hoping that being the daughter of a military leader can help her to avoid the worst since an arsenal of firearms was found at her home. In 2013, in fact, despite the charges of terrorism, one saw the sentence being reduced significantly (from 11 to 2 years !!!), then converted to parole, with her remaining imprisoned not more than a few months. With all the hatred toward the repressive system, prison and the judicial system, it is inevitable to wonder since when do those who claim themselves as anarchists receive such treatment. Each to their own conclusions.
               Gabriel, for now on bail and under investigation … comments on this latest repressive operation thus:

Read the full article HERE:

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There Is a Gap In the Wall- It Has To be Filled.

        Just heard from Loam of arrezafe, of the death of a Spanish comrade, like all those hardy loyal fighters for a free society, they must not be forgotten, their lives and their stories must be recorded, to inspire the next generation of fighters. Their passing always leaves a gap, a hole in our wall, we can only hope that some younger fighter, will step up and fill that hole. Now more than ever, we need those characters of steel and honest resolve.

A Comrade has left us

         We are sorry to hear of the death of long-time anarchist militant and member of the CNT Spain, Jose Luis Garcia Rua. Garcia Rua passed peacefully on Friday morning, January 6 at the age of 93. Rua was born in 1923 in Asturias, Spain. His father had been a member of the CNT who perished on the Oveido front during the Civil War. In 1939, he was forced into exile in France, eventually winding up in a concentration camp of Argelers and Barcarès, however he was able to return later than year.
      Garcia Rua began a career as an academic, but worked in construction, metal and mines. He was involved in anti-Francoist activity and ultimately repressed for his role in a miners' strike. He lost his job in academia for some time but ultimately became a professor of philosophy in the University of Granada in the mid-70s. In 1977, after the death of Franco, he was chosen Secretary of the Andalucian region of the CNT, a position he held twice. Between 1986-1990, he served as the General Secretary of the CNT and from 1997-2000, as the General Secretary of the IWA.
        He is the author of numerous articles and books, both related to anarchosyndicalism as well as his academic interests. On May Day 2015, he made an impassioned speech about the International Workers Assocation, calling on comrades to continue the tradition of militant anarchosyndicalism. This was the last speech that he made in public.

We send our condolences to his family.

IWA Secretariat

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