Beware the Friendly Pat On The Shoulder.

       When you look across the planet and see the injustice, inequality, poverty, deprivation, death and destruction, all exacerbated by deliberately engineered brutal wars, and you see the ecological disaster foisted on us all by unbridled corporate planet plundering, it is difficult to sum it all up. You feel to detail the mess that we find ourselves in would take a massive volume of unreadable proportions.
       Yet on analysis it is relatively simple, our economic system of capitalism is the root cause of practically all our problems. It spawns inequality, it breeds poverty, it engineers those avoidable wars, it legitimises the destruction of our planet, yet the vast majority of the population still run to the ballot box to vote for more of the same. We listen to the managers of the system telling us blatant lies, that by now we should recognise as propaganda to safeguard their wealth, power and privileges.
       As long as we tolerate a system that is designed to allow the few to amass vast fortunes at the expense of the many, we will stay mired in the mess that we find ourselves in at present, or worse, our extinction.
        I'm sure it is not beyond our imagination to devise a sustainable system of fairness, a system based on co-operation, mutual aid and respect for each other, a system that would see to the needs of all our people. I am also sure that such a system is a desire deep in the hearts of all peoples across the planet. What's stopping us? All it requires is for us all, in solidarity with each other, to act on those desires, the tool to get us there is of course anarchism.

    A paragraph that I think sums up what our attitude to this society should be is one stated by Jean Paul Marat:

       "Don't be deceived when they tell you things are better now. Even if there's no poverty to be seen because the poverty's been hidden. Even if you ever got more wages and could afford to buy more of these new and useless goods which industries foist on you and even if it seems to you that you never had so much, that is only the slogan of those who still have much more than you. Don't be taken in when they paternally pat you on the shoulder and say that there's no inequality worth speaking of and no more reason to fight because if you believe them they will be completely in charge in their marble homes and granite banks from which they rob the people of the world under the pretence of bringing them culture. Watch out, for as soon as it pleases them they'll send you out to protect their gold in wars whose weapons, rapidly developed by servile scientists, will become more and more deadly until they can with a flick of the finger tear a million of you to pieces":

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

 

Workers Know your History, William Morris.

      Despite his wealthy upbringing and his Oxbridge background, William Morris, March 1834-October 1896, played an important part in the early development of socialism in the UK. 

From Wikipedia:

    In January 1881 Morris was involved in the establishment of the Radical Union, an amalgam of radical working-class groups which hoped to rival the Liberals, and became a member of its executive committee.^[154] However, he soon rejected liberal radicalism completely and moved toward socialism.^[155] In this period, British socialism was a small, fledgling and vaguely defined movement, with only a few hundred adherents. Britain's first socialist party, the Democratic Federation (DF), had been founded by Henry Hyndman, an adherent of the socio-political ideology of Marxism, with Morris joining the DF in January 1893.^[156] Morris began to read voraciously on the subject of socialism, including Henry George's Progress and Poverty, Alfred Russel Wallace's Land Nationalisation, and Karl Marx's Das Kapital, although admitted that Marx's economic analysis of capitalism gave him "agonies of confusion on the brain". Instead he preferred the writings of William Cobbett and Sergius Stepniak, although also read the critique of socialism produced by John Stuart Mill.^[157]

     Spirit of Revolt have just added the Second Series Vol.II No.2 of The Commune, The William Morris Issue, published by Guy Aldred in February 1927, to their read of the month, collection. It is well worth a read.

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

Workers Know Your History, Hungary, 1956.

      It is true that the dominant culture writes the history, but it is never a complete history, and it most certainly isn't accurate. The 1956 Hungarian revolution is no different, the capitalist stooges perpetrate the myth that Stalinism was socialism, and capitalism freed the people of Hungary.

An interesting article on this matter  from The Commune:

      More than fifty years since the Hungarian revolution of 1956, the events have faded and their meaning and importance to socialists perhaps lost in time. The struggles, the barricades, the workers councils and resistance to Russian imperialism are a vague memory even for those involved in the movement at the time. The real struggles and aspirations of the Hungarian revolution will be reduced even further to the strong box of history by the official commemorations attended by the great and the good of the bourgeoisie who will claim the mantle of the freedom fighters of 1956. In so doing they will continue such myth as the decisive role in the fall of Stalinism in Eastern Europe was played by the prayers of Pope John Paul II and the foreign policy of the American President Ronald Reagan and his ally Thatcher.

Read the full article HERE:

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

2013/14, The Winter Of Discontent!!

       The present "austerity" measures that are being used to savagely claw resources away from the living standards of the ordinary people, are probably the most brutal for many a decade. In 1978/79 we had the "Winter of Discontent", back then by 1978, the ordinary people had suffered 4 years of voluntary and legislated wage restraint, as this economy driven system, even under Labour, tried to sort out the problems simply by milking the working class into poverty. Here we are again, the system requires "adjustments", and the powers that be, the same financial/corporate Mafia, have only one method, milk the working class into poverty.

       Where is our "Winter of Discontent", where is the solidarity between the various working groups that are seeing their conditions decimated, where is the solidarity between the communities that are seeing the very fabric of those communities being shredded? This attack on our living conditions is not directed at any one group, it is aimed at all of us, it is just that they are picking off the weakest in our society first, the unemployed, the disabled, those who receive social benefits, they will however work their way through the complete range of ordinary people as an entire class. As a class we have to build our resistance across that class, we have to organise across the workers/unemployed segment of society, in conjunction with our communities, that are being assaulted. View it as you will, it is a class war, they recognise that fact, the "austerity" never falls on their class, they always protect their own. It is time that we done likewise and as a class start to defend our own. I see nothing wrong in the present day conditions of having our own 2013/14 present day "Winter of Discontent".

      For those who are not too familiar with the 1978/79 "Winter of Discontent"

The Commune has an excellent article reviewing the event.

      The Winter of Discontent was the longest and most comprehensive strike wave since 1926, with nearly 30 million working days lost embracing more than 4,500 industrial disputes. However, as suggested above, its analysis has always been riddled by mystifications and misconceptions. One such, very common, is that the WoD was a public sector strike – an assumption bolstered by the various urban near-myths of the dead being left unburied, rubbish piling up in the streets, etc. While these are not untrue, they are exaggerated – and in any case ignore the class basis for such supposedly “selfish” acts.

Read the full article HERE:

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

We Never Know The Spark That Ignites The Fire.

      The mechanisms of capitalism are always confrontational, the capitalists always want more from the workers, the workers always want more of what they produce, and rightly so, it is all ours. As well as exploitation, struggle is the fault line that runs through the capitalist system, it is devoid of the basic elements of human justice and liberty, namely mutual aid, free association and voluntary co-operation. It is a system of imbalance, the capitalists growing ever richer, and the workers growing ever poorer. Is it any wonder that from time to time the fault line flashes from passive resistance to violent confrontation. Just as it is a myth that anarchism is chaos and violence, likewise it is a myth that capitalism is order. Our past is littered with those flashes of bitter violent struggle, which, by the powers that be, are written into history as criminal disruptions, anomalies, blips in a perfect system, when in fact they are inherent within the system. They are however, flashes that illuminate our dream of a fair and just system. Whether it be large strikes that turn violent as the state tries to suppress the organised workers, or a "spontaneous" riot, that explodes in some city, town or country, it is the same expression of dissatisfaction with a system that doesn't and can't, deliver what we want. The reason I use "spontaneous" is that there is no such thing as a spontaneous riot. Spontaneous would imply that everything was fine and then suddenly out of nowhere came the riot. Every riot has underlying causes, and with the glaring imbalance of wealth and lifestyles and of daily struggles to survive in the midst of unbelievable wealth, that this system breeds, the tinder for an explosion is all around us, all it needs is a spark.

Another interesting article from The Commune:

     Violent riots have been an aspect of capitalism and class struggle against it throughout history. Eric Hobsbawn described the Luddites or machine breakers’ actions as collective bargaining by riot. (11) In contemporary history there are many examples. In Los Angeles’ Watts district in 1965 and in Detroit in 1967 there was mass looting on an industrial scale : Buildings were burnt to the ground. In the student riots in Paris in 1968, which sparked one of the greatest general strikes in history, many cars were torched for barricades. In Bristol in 1980 and Toxteth and Brixton in 1981, bricks and bottles were thrown at police, sometimes inadvertently injuring bystanders. There was also the famous Poll Tax riot which helped to bring down Thatcher and her tax. Now that was a positive result.
      Militant trade unionism has seen violence on the picket line and rioting during strikes. In the great unrest in Britain 1910-14 there was violence, looting and burning. (12) In Llanelli in 1911, rank and file miners trying to make their strike effective, in the face of scabbing organised by the pit owners, police and government, stoned scabs from railway embankments and placed obstacles on the railway line to stop the transport of black legs. Troops were dispatched to Llanelli,and two young men were shot dead. In the riot that followed, 96 Railway wagons were torched, and three tons of bacon and other things disappeared, as goods wagons were looted. A building was blown up, and four people were left dead. (13) In Tonypandy in 1910, striking miners driven away from a pit by the police and army, attacked shops in the village. One man Samuel Rays was shot dead by troops. Trade union officials and government ministers denounced the strikers as mindless hooligans. (14)

Read the full article HERE:

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

Reviving The Alternative To Capitalism.

       It seems a shame that there is a tremendous amount of effort and resources expended by left-leaning individuals and groups in the attempt to reform our present system of capitalist exploitation, when in fact it can't be reformed. At least it can't be reformed so as to work for the benefit of the majority. Capitalism is capitalism and can only function the way that it does, it is based on exploitation, plain and simple. Expecting somehow to create a fair and compassionate capitalism through the process of putting pressure on the state is the stuff of myths.  The modern state and capitalism are welded into an economic system that functions from the top down, and all calculations and legislation are based on the economic benefits or otherwise to the system, not the people. Tinkering around with this, and trying to shift a little of that economic benefit towards the people, is playing the beggars game, and will keep the people perpetually walking forward with their begging bowl in hand.

       If we want a fair and just society then we have to admit that the present system isn't fit for purpose, it has to go. The next revolution must be a revolution of consciousness, we have to turn things on their head. Top down thinking has to be killed off. It is direct action at grassroots level that all our efforts should be directed, action and power must be based on horizontalism, we have to stop playing by the systems rules. Only when we circumvent, short circuit and ignore the rules of the present system can we hope to create that better world for all.

       It would be a much more rapid move towards a fair and just society if all the effort and resources of those left leaning individuals and groups went directly into the community, helping to develop the alternative society we all want, and accepted that the present system has to be destroyed and consigned to the fog of history.

      Our comrade Eric Chester puts it well in his article for The Commune:

Reviving the Alternative to Capitalism.

      In spite of an economic crisis that has lasted more than five years, and the constantly escalating attack on the public sector, the Left in England and Scotland remains in the doldrums. There is a pervasive sense of despair, a widespread belief that there is nothing that can be done other than to continuously readjust downward our expectations for the future.
     Projects such as the People’s Assembly can not provide the organizational framework for a revitalized resistance. This is yet another top-down initiative controlled by the union bureaucracy, in particular UNITE. Furthermore, the social democratic perspective that underlies such projects have totally failed. These projects start with the belief that capitalism can be reformed, and that all that is required to reverse the corporate onslaught is the creation of a broad Left coalition to effectively exert pressure on the state. This broad Left coalition, it is claimed, will be able to exert its influence primarily through the electoral arena, either through the Labour Party or by forming a new progressive party, such as Left Unity.
      There is an alternative model, one that starts with the belief that capitalism can not be reformed, but must be changed through a revolutionary transformation of society. From this perspective, fundamental social change does not occur through legislation, but rather as a result of militant, grass-roots movements engaging in non-violent direct action.

Read the full article HERE:

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

HELP THE DISILLUSIONED SWP TO FIND DEMOCRACY.

       So the SWP is crumbling, the reason being the usual political party problems, manipulation, deception, sex, and corruption, nothing new there then. Perhaps we could tell those who are leaving in disgust and disillusionment, where real democracy lies, here among the anarchist groups,

This from the Commune:

21 01 2013

      Members of Britain’s Socialist Workers Party are resigning from the party in droves, says duvinrouge. The impetus comes from a sexual assault allegation against a senior member of the party, & allegations that it wasn’t investigated properly. But unpinning this is the discontent due to the lack of party democracy.

       The SWP is a Leninist party & therefore internally organises in a way that is termed democratic-centralism. The basic idea being that the majority decision is decided upon & then there is unity of action led by a central committee. It actual fact it’s a fig-leaf ideology to allow a few to justify their life as professional revolutionaries, dreaming of their place in history, whilst the rank & file members sell the paper to fund this lifestyle. It’s much like parliamentary democracy’s claim to represent the wishes of the people & gives us the illusion of having a say.

Read the full article HERE:    disillusioned

ann arky's home.

FIGHTING FOR OURSELVES.

     For those interested, the Solidarity Federation's new book, "Fighting for Ourselves" gets a detailed review in The Commune.

"---- Yet it is not quite. Despite a few caveats about SolFed not being the be all and end all, this is a SolFed-centric vision. This is maybe most evident in the passage about the SolFed Local:

“At the heart of the anarcho-syndicalist union is the Local, which aims to be at the centre of community and workplace struggle in the surrounding area. But the role of the Local goes beyond that. It provides the physical space where a diverse range of groups, such as oppressed, cultural, and education groups can organise. The Local acts as the social, political, and economic centre for working class struggle in a given area. It is the physical embodiment of our beliefs and methods, the means by which workers become anarcho-syndicalist not just on the basis of ideas but activity.”

     Such bodies will need to exist. But if there is a particular reason why they should be part of – or mainly facilitated by – SolFed, it is not described within these pages. Thinking of Liverpool radical politics right now, I would love to be in such a group with the SolFed comrades, but I’d want AFed comrades there too, as well as the many unaligned comrades who make up the overwhelming majority of radical class struggle activists.----"

Read the full review HERE: 

      You can buy hard copies of Fighting for ourselves for £6 (including p&p) from Freedom Press (UK – £5 in the shop), and for $10+p&p from Thoughtcrime Ink Books (North America). It can also be viewed or downloaded for free from the ‘Selfed’ website.

ann arky's home.

THE PRICE OF CAPITALIST ADJUSTMENT, DEPRIVATION.

      Every economist comes up with their own personal idea of the "problem" with Greece and the Greek people and all of their answers usually are around some capitalist economic formula that is hinged to the "people" paying more to put things "right" by taking a greater hit to their already impoverished living standard, or by the state borrowing more and creating "growth". The former solution will be an even greater disaster for the Greek people, the latter, beneficial for the corporate world, but more of the same for the Greek people. All capitalist "adjustments" require deprivation, malnutrition, homelessness and mass unemployment to be heaped on the ordinary people. The Greek people's solution, like all those ordinary people across the globe who are at present suffering "austerity", does not lie in any form of capitalist economics, capitalist economic solutions are the problem, the only answer for the ordinary people, lies outside capitalism. 

      An interesting article by Nikos Libero, on the Greek situation taken from The Commune:

 

      Greece is living through its biggest crisis since the downfall of the military junta in the summer of 1974 – a consequence of the world economic crisis and the historical decadence of the Greek bourgeois elite. The same internal tendencies – with more or less the same characteristics as in the USA in 2008, at the beginning of the world economic crisis – are manifested in Greece today in an explosive form.

All the social conquests of the working class since 1974 have been lost in the last three years. Since the end of the second world war, there has never been, in a period of peace, such a dramatic decline in the standard of living of the majority of the population of any country in Europe, or such a violent redistribution of wealth in such a limited time.

         The crisis has given rise to an assault not only on the working class, but also on the middle class, which is being destroyed today. And here it should be noted that in 2009 the petty bourgeoisie is two or three times larger, as part of a proportion of the total population, than in the so-called developed capitalist countries.

       In November 2012, unemployment reached 30% – and 80% of the unemployed received no benefits. Since 2009, the real income of ordinary people has been reduced by 40%. And the downfall will continue in the next year.

      The minimum daily wage for people below the age of 25 is 22 euros, and for those above 25, 26 euros. Three million people, in a population of less than 11 million, are living below the poverty line. There are 40,000 homeless. The suicide rate is rising dramatically especially among the destroyed middle class. In tens of thousands of homes, the electricity has been cut off. Crime is rife.

Read the full article HERE:

ann arky's home.

LEFT CAREERISTS!!

     Recently I posted an article advertising a conference to be held in London on December 1st, called "Up-the-Anti". Looking at the sponsors, it looked like it might be a  great springboard for greater things. I didn't manage to the conference but this report on the conference from The Commune dispelled my illusions. It would be interesting to hear other reports from other sources.

‘up the anti’ –

when will the left learn?

2 12 2012

     The Anti-Capitalist Initiative’s (ACI) gathering of elements of the British Left on the 1^st December 2012 in London was yet more proof of their inability to adapt to today’s world, says duvinrouge.

     Despite a promising start will an inspirational speech from Joana Ramiro, followed by Preeti Paul from IOPS setting out a vision of what we are fighting for, the day then descended into tedious waffle from pseudo-intellectuals lacking any ability to inspire. This wasn’t entirely the fault of the speakers; it was the old, out of date approach of having a top table of ‘experts’ preaching to an audience in that typical hierarchical fashion socialist organisations are so well known for. These high-priests of theory are often employed by universities, write books, & mainly come from middle-class families. Participation is limited to an handful of ‘questions’ which sound more like mini-speeches from windbags who aspire to be on the top table next time around.

     When will these people learn that this format will never appeal to the working class?

Read the full report HERE:  

ann arky's home.

GREECE, - A CRIME AGAINST HUMANITY.

         Having been a regular visitor to Greece over many years and having wonderful memories of meeting many friendly families, I find it heart breaking what is now happening to all those friendly families. The economic chaos brought about  by the greedy gambling of the financial Mafia has plunged the ordinary Greek family into a hell-hole of deprivation. Everything that makes a society civilised has gone, health care has disintegrated, medicines are in short supply, the education system has collapsed, unemployment has gone stratospheric. With all this comes the rising drug and alcohol abuse, increase in mental health problems, rising crime, a staggering increase in suicides, and with the cuts, needle exchange centres are closing and HIV is increasing faster in Greece than any other country. The tragedy is that we are not talking about a family, we are talking about an entire country. What was once a modern 20 century country has in a couple of years been plunged back to worse than UK Victorian poverty. What sane and humane system that has an abundance of wealth floating around would tolerate such a crime against humanity. A crime that is well within our resources to resolve. However, it seems to be beyond the ability or desire of this capitalist system to even attempt to alleviate the dire circumstances of the Greek people. Only a society of people controlled communities working on mutual aid and co-operation, structured to see to the needs of all our people will find an answer to the Greek tragedy that is playing out before our eyes.

This from THE COMMUNE:

a report on the situation in greece

1 08 2012

During a recent visit to Greece, Eric Chester was able to get some sense of the enormous problems confronting that country.

Greeks are very proud of their past, not only the legendary era 2500 years ago, the time of the Parthenon, but more recently when Greeks fought the Nazi invaders. Nevertheless, along with the national pride is a bitter sense of despair, a feeling that there is no way out of the current catastrophe. The number of suicides has been increasing rapidly, as young Greeks try to cope with massive unemployment and the disintegration of the educational system, along with clear indications that the crisis will only grow worse

Read the full article HERE:

ann arky's home.

SHITHEADS HUMILIATED AGAIN.

         Once again the BNP "big guns", "big pricks" more like it, came to Scotland to show their strength and were out numbered, humiliated and sent home with their tails between the legs. After having to cancel their Glasgow "rally" they made for Dalkeith where Herr Fuhrer Nick Griffin and his band of shithead minders were seen to be the minuscule deranged minority that they have always been in Scotland. This little ragtag bunch of shit never gets to wave its flags in Scotland, let's keep it that way.

 This from The Commune:

“Rape is simply sex. Women
enjoy sex, so rape cannot be
such a terrible physical
ordeal….(it) is like suggesting
force-feeding a woman
chocolate cake is a heinous
offence.”
BNP London organiser Nick Ericksen.

BNP humiliated in Dalkeith

30 07 2012

     Our comrade in the Republican Communist Network saw the BNP fail to infiltrate an anti-rapist demonstration in Midlothian

     Nick Griffin and 5 others i.e. his driver and minders turned up outside Dalkeith Country Park after cancelling their planned rally in Glasgow earlier that day. Their stated aim was to support an intended rally against the presence of, convicted rapist, Robert Greens in our community. It was good that there was little spontaneous support for the BNP despite a lot of media coverage e.g. in The Sun newspaper. There was little visible presence from BNP supporters, one demonstrator counted 17, I thought there were less, but it was hard to tell, all were driven in by car. The BNP website promised 50 Nationalists would turn up and they urged other British nationalists to join them.

      The BNP presence was opposed by the majority of the anti-rapist protesters plus about 30-40 local anti-fascists who had been alerted via Midlothian Trades Council. There were groups from Palestinian Solidarity, Unite Against Fascism, current and ex SSP members, trade unionists representing, Unison, EIS, UCATT, and UCU, the local FE college, independent socialists, two members of Socialist Appeal and at least one other Labour Party member. There was no identifiable SNP presence but, we did receive a message from local SNP MSP Colin Beattie supporting Midlothian Trades Council stance, saying there was no place for BNP in Midlothian and that he would have liked to have been there to show his support but had a previous appointment. In the event no councillors, MSPs or our MP were present.

Continue READING:

ann arky's home.

REMPLOY PICKET.

      Most of us are aware of the devastating effect the government's cuts can have, but probably none wore than those employed by Remploy.

This from The Commune:

       There used to be over 50 workers at the Remploy factory in Preston, now reduced to only 18, each of them was out on the picket line for the second day of their national strike, 100% turn outs were also reported at Heywood and Wigan. Support came from BAE and Rolls-Royce workers as well as teachers, passing council refuse workers and ex-Remploy workers who had taken advantage of previous redundancy packages.

The government has been Orwellian in claiming they are helping disabled people into work whilst sacking them from their jobs. In Preston the workers were shown 6 job opportunities to apply for, each of these positions turned out to already have been filled. One ex-Remploy worker had found work on the railways and promised 20 hours a week of work, only to be told upon arriving for his induction that he was only going to be offered a zero hours contract.

The site at Preston carries out socially useful work, recycling computer equipment that ends up being re-used by the Department for Works and Pensions amongst others. Bidders from the private sector have actually offered to take over the factory but their cases have not even been entertained.

As they have proved themselves ‘fit for work’, the Remploy workers could face a bleak future without Employment Support Allowance and be forced into Workfare schemes. “We have been thrown on the scrap heap”, one worker said.

For more info see  Remlpoy Workers

ann arky's home.

PICKET WORKFARE.

 rovingpicket against workfare in london this saturday

     As part of the National Week of Action Against Workfare from July 7th to 14th, some members of The Commune are helping to organise direct action against workfare’s main offenders.

Meet this Saturday July 7, mid day near Goodge St station.

       Workfare isn’t just unpaid labour for the unemployed and a major attack on benefits. It is an attack on all working people – on their jobs, pay & conditions, and their ability to organise. We need to fight workfare together, whether or not we are in work, and whether or not we are on benefits.

     Invite your friends, family, campaigning group, union branch. Also, if you can, bring things to liven it up: banners, placards, musical instruments and noise makers.

      The leaflets we’ll be using are found below (print some and bring them along if you can) 

LEAFLETS:

ann arky's home.

CO-OPS, AN UNTAPPED RESOURCE.

       Another interesting article from The Commune. Though the honour of the first co-op can be disputed, as recently details were found that gave this honour to Ayrshire in Scotland. I have no doubt that other places will stake their claim to be the first Co-op, as I'm sure the idea is a natural tendency among us social creatures called humans. Whoever was first, co-ops, large and small are an important form of community organisation that can help take us away from the capitalist model. 

Extract:

          The late development of theory around worker, producer and community co-operatives could be one explanation for the widespread indifference of communists to this part of the working class movement.(1) In the UK, ignorance about its reach, nature and significance contrasts with an apparently inexhaustible, tailending-the-left fascination with party or group politics and rank-and-file trade unionism. Yet people are often ready with an ideological view of co-ops; they are self-exploitation, or bourgeois, or prefigure communism, or impossible, and so on.

        The International Co-operative Alliance (ICA) defines a co-op as an “autonomous association of persons united voluntarily to meet their common economic, social, and cultural needs and aspirations through jointly-owned and democratically-controlled enterprises”. Co-operatives are a type of collective organisation for the satisfaction of needs unmet by private enterprise and the state – for work, shelter, access to markets, land, leisure activity, credit, clean water, food, health, education. 

Continue READING:

 ann arky's home.

DIRECT ACTION, - THE ONLY ROUTE.

        It should be obvious by now that if the workers play by the bosses rules, we will always lose. Two recent disputes highlight this, showing once again that direct action by the workers gets results. This from The Commune

          The wildly different trajectories of two recent industrial disputes provides us with an almost perfect lesson in both how they can be won and how they are generally lost. In both cases, the workers were members of the Unite union, as are around three million others in the UK, and in both cases the industry concerned was what might be called a ‘blue collar’ one. But one won, and is winning, while another lost badly.

         The ‘threat’ of a one day stoppage by oil haulage drivers gripped the ruling class just over two months ago, when Unite announced that 69% of respondents had voted for strike action over worsening working conditions and pensions raids. The media went into a frenzy of contrived scaremongering, and the government – sensing what a Tory memo called a “Thatcher moment” – went on the attack. Infamously, Cabinet Office Minister Francis Maude told motorists to store “a little bit in the garage as well in a jerrycan”, even though Unite had not named a strike date, and they had to give seven days of notice under the anti-union laws.
Continue READING: 

ann arky's home

ANOTHER EGO WINS.

           Presedential elections in France, council elections in Scotland and bye-elections in the UK, they all have something in commom, they don't represent the people. They represent overblown egos or political parties that want to keep the existing system of corporate fascism. Under the present system elections have nothing to do with democracy and all to do with power and wealth.

Another excellent comment from The Commune:

      George Galloway’s victory in the Bradford West by-election has caused a stir, says duvinrouge.

        The people massively voted for a candidate to the left of Labour even with a Tory-FibDem coalition. This has got Labour nervous and inspired the Left. However, as much as Galloway appears to be on the side of ordinary people as opposed to the rich, he is another political ego on another stage of his trip. The whole parliamentary system is full of them, all dreaming about one day being Prime Minister. Today more and more people are fed up with the egos. Not just the political variety but the corporate whores as well. Increasingly people are realizing that they don’t need to put up with them. That society can be run without structures promoting power and control. That society is one of direct democracy. That is, communism. All over the world people have got a taste of direct democracy through the Occupy movement & their General Assemblies. Tahir Square has spawned workers’ councils. We can organize society to meet our needs rather than just being used to generate profit for an elite.

Out with the professional political egos ruling; in with delegates & assemblies!

ann arky's home.

TAKE A 45% WAGE CUT OR GET OUT.

        I keep spouting about this "crisis" is being used by all the corporate world as an excuse to slash at wages and conditions. Obviously as the government attacks the wages and conditions of the public sector, they are not going to complain as the private sector does likewise. Balfour Beatty the big construction company is leading the attack by tearing up electricians contracts and forcing them to sign new contracts or get off the site. The new contracts of course have not been negotiated and in some cases mean a cut of up to 45% in wages and deskilling of the trade. No doubt all the other big boys in the corporate world will be waiting and watching to see how far they can go and how quickly. A sample of what the electricians  in the construction industry are up against can be seen in this extract from an article in The Commune.

Under BESNA, the current across the board hourly rate of £16.25 would be scrapped, and electricians would be graded for a rate of between £14 and £10.50. This follows a pay freeze last year, so some electricians would be 45% worse off than they were two years ago, assuming they are able to find work at all in a declining construction industry. Inevitably, deskilling would follow, along with an increase in workplace ‘accidents’.

READ THE FULL ARTICLE HERE.

These type of greedy tactics are part and parcel of the corporate world, world wide, the only real answer is to get rid of the corporatism that devastates our lives and our planet, capitalism cannot be reformed, repaired or made ethical, it is a beast built on, and dependent on, exploitation. Its removal from the face of the Earth will require the some world wide solidarity and organisation by the people, as is shown by the cancer that is the corporate world.

ann arky's home.