NATO.

              So the bureaucrats of that patch of the planet called Sweden have jumped from being a so called neutral nation to a member of the American imperialist war machine, NATO. Though with confidence we can say that not all who live there are in favour of their being dragged into this NATO war machine. There are those who see it for what it is, a tool for American dominance of the planet, an institution for the furtherance of Western corporate capitalism, and they will make their voices heard.

The following from Act For Freedom Now:

“FUCK NATO

        Some anarchists invaded the hometown of the Swedish Minister of Defence, the Social Democrat Peter Hultqvist. We vandalized several of the Social Democrats’ premises. Locks were glued and messages were painted: FUCK NATO!
        Neither the U.S. Club for Imperialism, nor the petty politicians, own us. You are trying to force decisions on us. Instead, we force ourselves on you. No defense alliance can protect you.

A new time prevails. Anarchy reigns.

Against your wars, your nationalism… FUCK OFF”

via: unoffensiveanimal

Visit ann arjy's home at http://strugglepedia.co.uk   

The Cyborg Society.

       Have the Swedes gone mad, not only in having more trust in their government than most citizens of other countries, but by jumping on the "chipping" bandwagon with greater enthusiasm? The Swedes don't seem to carry all the fears that once chipped it can open doors for you, but perhaps it can also close doors, shutting you out of certain benefits etc. I suppose with a few tweaks it could also be used to track you. Of course when it comes to tracking in our society, we should not be too complacent. Forgetting the almost total CCTV surveillance here in the UK, as we walk around with our smart phones in our pockets/purses we are being tracked, your phone is an excellent tracking device. However, I feel a chip in your body to be able to get in touch with technical gadgets is a gateway for the authorities to continue their desire to control your every action. Is the chip the gateway to the cyborg society? Perhaps in the near future we will see lots of Swedes with small holes in their hands where they pulled the chip out.

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

Don't Ask For The Right To Strike, Take It.

       It is a strange thought that in a so called democracy, you can be employed but if a difference between you and your employer arises, you can't stop working to try and get the situation resolved. The law, as in slave society, forbids you to stop working, you first have to jump through hoops organised by the state and your employer.

     The right to strike has continually been attacked by employers and this mindset has always had the backing of the state as it continually tightens the legislation governing our right to strike. The aim of course is to destroy one of the main tools in the armory of the workers as they struggle to hold onto, or improve their conditions. Their idea is that during disputes you just keep working while the employers indulge in so called talks, that can drag on indeterminately while you still keep producing their profit, and your grievance becomes a pantomime of talking shops.

     Most Europeans consider Sweden to be one of the more socially conscious states on the continent, but even there, the right to strike is under fierce attack, sadly backed by the big unions.

This from Gatorna:

        This is a video in English about the Right to Strike rally in Sweden and the demonstration that was held on Saturday August 25 in Stockholm by anarchist and autonomous organizations, unions and individuals. 2000 people joined the demo. STRIKE BACK was a mass action with the purpose of defending worker's rights in Sweden. Recently the heads of the swedish trade union confederacy made a deal with the employer's confederacy severely limiting the right to strike. While it hasn't been turned into law yet, any plausible government alternative after the election this September are likely to pass it.We see this development as part of a larger pattern of impeding working class struggle across Europe, as seen in the development in countries such as France or Poland in the last years. See the call for the action bellow.

        We publish the call for a nationwide social strike on the 25th August in Stockholm, launched by the “Strike Back” movement against the project of a law that drastically limits the right to strike. The law was proposed as a response to the mobilizations of the dock workers in Gothenburg, to close down the already limited possibilities for workers to call for a legal strike. This proposal is but one episode of a longer series of attacks to the right to strike in several European countries in the last years. As the call implies, if they attack us in the workplaces, we will bring the strike into the streets, taking up the determination to reinvent the strike expressed recently in Sweden by the young Afghans striking against deportations and globally by the women’s strike. How the limitations to the right to strike are part of an overall transformation that tries to turn workers into a just in time asset, how to join forces and confront the attacks to the strike on a transnational level, these are for us the open questions we are looking forward to discuss in Stockholm in autumn.

Read the full article HERE: 

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

We Need To Organise Pan-European.

       Does anybody still think that the UK austerity plan and the privatisation of everything, including the health service, is purely a UK government plan? It is happening across the planet, in the new era of capitalism, public is evil, private is good. Populations will be impoverished as all wealth is syphoned up to the privileged parasite class, at an ever increasing rate.

         Greece, a country I visited regularly over a number of years, and in my earlier visits in and around Athens, I never saw a begger. Now it is not uncommon to see people sleeping in doorways, including children. You will see people rummaging through waste bins in search of something to eat or sell. Suicides and substance abuse have rocketed in the last few years. 

         Spain, remember that country that you went to on holiday, bustling streets and shops and a friendly atmosphere? Well, regarding child poverty, Spain has now dropped to the second worst in Europe, just above Romania.

        Of course both of these countries always had poverty, under capitalism every country has poverty. The difference now is that it is widespread, endemic and getting worse, not because of the lack of wealth, but because of the ever increasing rate at which that wealth is being sucked upwards.

        Even those countries that are considered the leaders in social welfare, Sweden for example, are now seeing their public services being gobbled up by the corporate greed machine, to the detriment of the general population.

Two short quotes from The International Journal of Socialist Renewal: 

       Tonight’s public meeting is standing room only. The mood is cheerful, earnest, disciplined and, dare I say it, rather churchly. Fittingly, we begin with songs: first a hymn tune with the refrain "Everything is for sale", then a jazzier number that goes "Got any money? (Then you can buy a place in the queue)". Next there’s a short dystopian pantomime set in a hospital waiting room: the man with the private plan goes straight upstairs while the lady on the public option has to wait in line. The sheepish uninsured fellow with the broken leg is shown a price list, then the door. 

       Sweden’s welfare system is famously extensive: long parental leave, free childcare, free tertiary education, generous social security. After the economic crisis of the early 1990s successive governments have reduced entitlements and cut public spending, but what has changed the most is the incorporation of the private sector at every level of the welfare state. All public contracts are subject to competitive tendering and most new clinics and hospitals are built with private funds. Communal clinics, nursing homes and schools compete with private firms for pupils and patients. Last year the state paid almost 100 billion kronor (£11 billion) to private welfare operators, overwhelmingly to 10 large corporations all owned by private equity funds.

Read the full article HERE:

           Bearing in  mind the above facts, do you honestly believe that changing the smiling face of the Etonian millionaire, sitting on the throne at the Westminster Houses of Hypocrisy and Corruption, for another smiling Oxford educated suit, will make one bleeding bit of difference in the direction this country and every other country in Europe, is being driven? Will running and putting a X in a box in favour of party machine that is in the thrall of the financial mafia and the corporate world, stop the UK slide into a sweatshop economy, reverse the child poverty in Spain, reduce the deprivation and suicides in Greece, and bring back Sweden's social welfare system? Don't hold your breath. 

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