Our Cities Need Clean Streets!!

      Recently we have heard a lot about the fascists on the streets of Greece, but that is not the only place that the scum appear. It is right across Europe that they are raising their ugly head. There has been  lurch to the right in Norwegian politics, and recent events in Turkey prove that fascism is alive and growing in that neck of the woods. They appear in their various guises of political parties, as well as their street thugs. However the death of Pavlos Fyssas in Piraeus has marked a turning point in the fight against the festering cancer of fascism. Actions of solidarity are taking place all over Europe and the fascist are on the receiving end of some of their own medicine. They have raised their vile head enough, it is time to push it back down.

From Contra Info:

      On Saturday, September 21st, neo-Nazi Kimonas Potsis—a minion of Christos Pappas, notorious MP of the Golden Dawn party—was spotted alongside two other right-wing fuckers in a café at the centre of Ioannina where many anti-authoritarians hang out. After a short verbal scuffle with antifascists who were on the spot, he got beaten up and kicked out of the store. Shortly afterwards, he and another one of his gang got trashed again on Anexartisias street and had to be transferred to the nearest hospital.

 

Listen up, you fascist scumbags:
we’ll throw you straight into the Lake of Ali Pasha.

And from Germany: 

      In memory of Pavlos Fyssas there is a banner at the autonomous center (AJZ) in Bielefeld, which reads: “Athens: Antifascist Pavlos Fyssas murdered by fascists. Another dead! Another reason to fight!”

Also posters appeared in the streets of Bielefeld. The text on it explains how Pavlos Fyssas (Piraeus) and Clément Méric (Paris) were murdered by fascists, and how Ahmet Atakan (Antakya) was killed by a teargas grenade from cops in Turkey. It reads:

      “What do these dead have in common? They are only three of the many who died; the many who remain nameless, but whom we do not want to forget. Victims of racist and fascist attacks. Victims of state terror, or both at once.

      All three—Pavlos, Clément and Ahmet—were politically active and  were killed for that reason.

     We don’t want to be scared off by their death. But we want to confer dignity on their death by continuing the struggle against oppression.”

 

received from Infoladen Anschlag Bielefeld

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

It's The End Of The World!!!

        It's the end of the world as we know it, and I feel fine!!
This from Submedia.TV:

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The Protests, Then What?

     The peaceful protests that started in Gezi Park and Taksim Square in Istanbul approximately a month ago are winding down in the face of extreme police brutality. At the peak of the demonstrations well over 2.5 million people took to the streets in protest, and 79 of Turkeys 81 provinces were involved in demonstrations. Though the large protest are fading out, there has been a rise in passive resistance similar to the “standing man” protest in which individuals or small groups stand motionless at random locations staring at a portrait of the founder of modern Turkey, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, or the Turkish flag.

      As the protests deminish in volume and number, the state moves in with its usual brutal reprisals against those who had the courage to demand change. Four people have been killed and well over 8,000 injured since May 28. Some of the injuries are severe, 11 have lost eyes and at least 60 are in a serious condition. The number detained by the police is proving difficult to assess as information is not readily released, but estimates put the figure at over 5,000. Also being targetted are journalist who reported on the protest or complained about the Turkey's babbling brook of bullshit, the mainstream media's lack of coverage, along with artists and writters who showed support for the protests.

     The Prime Minister of Turkey, Recep Tayyip Erdgan, stated that what the police had done was heroic, a defence of democracy. How teargassing and bludgeoning more that 2.5 million of your citizens, and then detaining over 5,000, can be classed as a defence of democracy, defies logic. That, of course, is the logic of the state, the state apparatus comes before the people. 

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Circled A Radio And Undercover Police.

The latest from Circled A Radio:

       Mr G discusses the recent undercover police scandal, Mandela, protests in Turkey and a tale of King Arthur.

Listen HERE:

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The Evaporating Illusion Of Democracy.

      What kind of government shuts down the public broadcasting network without warning or parliamentary discussion? Fascist, Military Junta, Absolute Monarchy, Dictator? Well I imagine it must be somewhere in that grouping. So we come to Greece, and that is what the financial Mafia's puppets in Athens just decided to do. Any sham illusion of democracy has surely evaporated in the warm sun of Greece, as it has evaporated in other countries, Brazil and Turkey to mention two.

     Teacher Dude has an interesting article on the subject:

 Photo by Teacher Dude.

 

Protester against the Greek government's closure of the public broadcasting network.

          "----Instead of a few days of protests by the employees of ERT which could easily be ignored by pro-government private media the government was faced with a media insurrection as journalists and technicians defied threats by the authorities to continue broadcasting, using internet live streaming, unused analogue signals, satellite etc. This, along with the social media storm created meant that thousands turned up outside state run studios in Athens, Thessaloniki and other cities to protect   those inside from the riot police units that quickly deployed around such facilities.

      Instead of stifling the voice of those working in ERT these actions encouraged people to find their signal in any way they could and demand via the live streaming channel provided by the EBU grew so rapidly it overwhelmed the site's capacity.----"

Read the full article HERE:

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On Opposite Sides Of The World.

      The protest in Brazil seems to be gathering momentum as the days go by. From 200,000 across the country to well over 1 million people on the streets voicing their disgust at a system that puts profit and spectacle before welfare. Meanwhile the President offers the usual pie-in-the-sky, if they all go home and a few representatives chat with her government, that same utterly corrupt bunch whom the people no longer have any respect, then they can make a better Brazil. I have a better suggestion, the government go home and leave the people to create the Brazil that they want.
Brazil Yesterday:

       In Turkey the state apparatus has come down extremely hard on the protesters, the most vicious attack was on the people in Gezi Park. They were enveloped in tear gas and beaten, and those who ran to a nearby hotel to escape the gas and violence, were followed and the hotel also filled up with tear gas. According to the Turkish Medical Doctors Association, at least 7,000 protesters have been injured since the protests began. Though the people may be leaving the streets, it doesn't mean that they now accept that they have a democratic government. The protest seems to be shifting from Istanbul to Ankara, the capital. The hatred and disgust is still there, and probably hardened by the state's response to their protest. The reason some of them are off the streets is the shear force and brutality of the Turkish state apparatus. 

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Protest And Rally, Turkish Embassy, London.

Another appeal from Labour Start for solidarity with the Turkish protesters, a rally at the Turkish Embassy in London Friday 20, June.

     The world's unions have called for two days of protest against police violence and repression in Turkey.

       In London this Friday at 3 PM we'll be demonstrating at the Turkish Embassy, 43 Belgrave Square, SW1X 8PA.  (Nearest tube: Hyde Park Corner.)

I'll be there.  Can you join us?

If you use Facebook, please sign up there saying you'll come:

https://www.facebook.com/events/673431279340973/

     If you've not yet signed up to support the online campaign, please do so now:

http://www.labourstartcampaigns.net/show_campaign.cgi?c=1840

Please share this email message with other trade unionists in the UK.

Thanks -- and see you on Friday.



Eric Lee

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A World Week-End Of Action.

       Like I said in a previous post, the world is in revolt, the people are waking up to the injustice and inequality that is this world capitalist system. While Greece has seen more than two years of continual protests and the people of Turkey still carry on with their three week protest in the face of ferocious police brutality and dawn raids on their homes, Brazil has now exploded into the largest demonstrations seen in that country in more than twenty years. Brazil, heralded as one of the B.R.I.C's Brazil, Russia, India, and China, the fastest growing economies in the world, as is normal has seen its people get poorer as its corrupt politicians and parasite business bosses get richer and richer. 

       Of course when our lords and masters talk about successful economies they don't include you and I. Brazil's "successful economy" meant that in a population of 191 million, 25% of adults earn £70 a month or less, with inflation running at 6.2%, that's a road to deprivation. However, the Brazilian government could afford to spend £8.5 billion to host the World Cup. Like in Turkey it was a straw that broke the camel's back. The Turkish protests started with the plan to build a shopping mall, in Brazil it was the increase in the price of bus fares. If the conditions are right, it only takes a small spark to start a forest fire. With "austerity" being forced onto millions of ordinary people across the world, the conditions are right.

       As the police brutal crackdown on the Turkish protesters intensifies there has been a call for a world wide week-end of action in solidarity with the people of Turkey, but let's not forget, the people of Greece and Brazil.

     Global unions have called for two days of protest -- on Friday and Saturday -- in response to state violence, and in solidarity with demonstrators in Turkey.

The International Transport Workers Federation (ITF) has a statement here.

The International Union of Food workers (IUF) has its statement here.

If your union is holding an event as part of these days of action, please let us know using our new online form, here:

http://www.labourstart.org/2013/suggestevent.php

      Your event will appear on LabourStart's home page for your country.
For example, you can see details of the Friday demonstration in London on the home page of LabourStart for the United Kingdom, here:
http://www.labourstart.org/2013/country.php?country=UK&langcode=en

(Look on the left side of the page, under Events.)

      Meanwhile, early this morning, our online campaign reached an important milestone: we've now sent over 20,000 messages from trade unionists

 in 150 countries to Prime Minister Erdogan.

       Please spread the word in your union -- let's make this an even larger campaign! Click here to send your message: http://www.labourstartcampaigns.net/show_campaign.cgi?c=1840

Thank you!



Eric Lee

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A World In Revolt.

     It is the universal pattern of this insane economic system called capitalism. Each government can spend billions on all sorts of grand plans, and at the same time cut down on those essentials, like health care, education, social services, pensions, and so forth. The London Olympics cost billions, the war in Afghanistan has cost us billions each of its disastrous 11 years, but we are seeing a rapid deterioration in the living standards of the ordinary people because we can't afford to run a civilised society. The recent events in Turkey were sparked off by the governments plans to build another shopping mall on a green space in a city. 

 

      Yesterday hundreds of thousands, (Reuters put it at 200,000) took to the streets of Brazil in protest at government corruption, with such comments as "They have spent billions of dollars on building stadiums, but nothing on health and education."  More than half a dozen cities saw there centres grind to a standstill, among them Brasilla, Rio de Janeiro, Sao Paulo and Belo Horizone. The world is in revolt against a system of injustice and insanity.

       So it doesn't matter which bunch of politicians you vote for the outcome is the same, big business gets the contracts, be it arms manufacturers or designers of grandiose edifices to the corporate God of greed, and the people get austerity. The world is awash with wealth, and more and more of that wealth is falling into the hands of fewer and fewer people. It's the way the system is designed to work and it's doing just fine. As long as we continue to accept this insane system we will continue to see the poor grow in number and get poorer and that little bunch of bloated parasites get richer and richer.

       Is it beyond our imagination to devise a system where the wealth of the world is distributed around the planet according to the needs of the people. Is it reckless and terrorist orientated to attempt to bring about a system that sees those who create all that wealth, the ordinary people, control how it should be distributed? The present economic system is not set in tablets of stone, it is not given to us by the booming voice of some other-worldly being on high. It is a man made system that works for the benefit of the few at the expense of the many.

         Our tomorrow will begin when we think co-operation, think community, think mutual aid, think no-borders, think sustainability, think of the heritage we want to leave to our children and our grandchildren. This world is our world, we built the cities and the factories, we grow the food, we therefore have the right to shape it to our needs. we have no need for the blood sucking parasites that bleed us dry to feed their own geed and arrogance.

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Hundreds of thousands took to the streets in Brazil tonight protesting corruption, police violence, and a government that funds massive stadiums and ignores public services.
Gosh, conditions in Brazil sound quite a lot like here in the US, don’t they? Maybe it’s time we took to the streets too.
- See more at: http://polizeros.com/#sthash.N9StDfIv.dpuf

Hundreds of thousands took to the streets in Brazil tonight protesting corruption, police violence, and a government that funds massive stadiums and ignores public services.
Gosh, conditions in Brazil sound quite a lot like here in the US, don’t they? Maybe it’s time we took to the streets too.
- See more at: http://polizeros.com/#sthash.N9StDfIv.dpuf

Hundreds of thousands took to the streets in Brazil tonight protesting corruption, police violence, and a government that funds massive stadiums and ignores public services.
Gosh, conditions in Brazil sound quite a lot like here in the US, don’t they? Maybe it’s time we took to the streets too.
- See more at: http://polizeros.com/#sthash.N9StDfIv.dpuf

The Kilt And The Black Flag.

       With Scottish independence on the agenda it is good to hear the various points of view being put forward. I for one have never quite got my head round "what is a nation". Having been born in "Scotland" and lived there for most of my life I have often wrestled with the question, "what is Scottish", after all the border between Scotland and England has moved several times in history. It is a geographical location where at least three languages have struggled for survival, and with languages comes as many cultures. As a citizen of Glasgow, a post industrial city, I feel I have more in common with the people of Liverpool than I have with the people of the highlands and islands. I am also loathed to get involved in a debate between the various party political clans as how best to carve up a capitalist entity, so that, that capitalist entity can best serve a particular section of the population. I would rather debate how do we get rid of that capitalist entity and best serve the interest of the people. To me, nationalism and capitalism belong in the same bed, and it is a bed soaked in the blood of the ordinary people. Would it not be better if the debate was about what is happening in Greece, Spain, Italy, Portugal, Cyprus, Ireland, Turkey, Afghanistan, Libya, Iraq, Syria, Iran, and find the connection to what is happening here?

       To add to the debate here is an extract from an interesting article in The Commune:

 

  "--------In Britain today, the mainstream socialist left, in defiance of history,  still regards internationalism as abstract propaganda and is campaigning for a yes vote for Scottish nationalism and independence for Scotland, which is not an oppressed nation.  In a globally integrated world economy, dominated by transnational corporations and world financial organisations, such as the International Monetary Fund, the entire question of national independence becomes hollowed out as in Greece.  And how can the creation of another capitalist state, based on cutting business rates and corporation tax,  and other measures to attract capitalist investment,  benefit the working class ?  Loyalty to a new Capitalist State would renew nationalism and class collaboration and blunt any class struggle for a post Capitalist alternative.
       Independence lite, the programme of the SNP, sharing the Bank of England, the army, the Monarchy  and a currency will not represent the break up of the British State.   But the left in Scotland is putting its hopes on steering the state left .  The Radical Independence Campaign is  ”a coalition that does not even pretend to be based on the goal of Socialism.  Indeed, this emerging coalition is very much in the tradition of welfare provision in Scotland and England for a century ”  (18)  Nationalism given a Social Democratic gloss to attract the working class.  ”The only way in which the grip of a capitalist world system on individual countries, can be broken, is that if the system itself is destroyed. And no national struggle can achieve this, only the international working class” (19) Working class self emancipation from below  cannot be built on a nation, utilize the nation-state, or be confined to the nation-state.

Read the full article HERE:

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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.

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Turkey, The Angry Face Of Revulsion.

        Where protest movements grow and people take to the streets, it is difficult to get the truth of what is happening. What should be a conduit for information, the mainstream media, becomes a babbling brook of bullshit and state propaganda. What is going on in Turkey is an event that must worry all the other states in Europe, it is an open revulsion at the direction of Western society, it is a disgust for those elected politicians who assist the plundering of the public purse by the corporate greed machine. It is a realisation by the people that this system can't work in their interest. We are the chips at the financial Mafia's casino.

 

         This is an extract from an excellent article from Contra Info, of what is going on in Turkey at present:

    Then Gezi Park, then Gümüşsuyu, then Beşiktaş… And beyond İstanbul came riots in Sakarya, Kocaeli, Ankara, Adana, İzmir… In this revolt, which is still going on, the most important motivation that kept spontaneity alive was sharing and solidarity. Voluntary health workers formed civic medical centres for activists that were affected by police violence. Organizations like law associations, lawyers’ bars, and human rights associations supported protesters in custody or in similar conditions. Trade unions like the Turkish Mechanical Engineers Chambers Association turned their buildings into infirmaries. People opened their homes, workplaces, gave support with food and drinks. People gave information to each other over social networks, and created their own means in face of the silenced media.
     Everywhere and everyone became the revolt against state terrorism, police violence and all forms of exploitation. Social solidarity has worked, and is continuing to work, wherever the State was dismissed from the lives of people.

Read the full article HERE:

ann arky's home.

Police Brutality.

      Turkish police, Greek police, it doesn't matter, they all follow the same pattern.

ann arky's home.

Occupied Taksim.

       For those wishing to keep up to date on what is happening in Turkey can visit the new site, Occupied Taksim.

 

ann arky's home.

The Veneer Has Cracked.

      Across the internet there are lots of reports of what is happening in Turkey, some very graphic, others very emotional. I found this one to be graphic, ringing with both sincerity and feeling. I don't think we can give enough cover to what is happening in Turkey at the moment. It is the perfect example of what is on the face of things, a perfectly functioning capitalist consumer society, but just under the surface lies a plethora of discontent, a rumbling of resentment at inequality and daily injustice, now the veneer has cracked and truth is pouring out. Each country in Europe shines with the same illusion and harbours those same resentments just simmering under the surface. How long will their veneer hold?

 

 Photo taken from Occupy Gezi Facebook page. Also used by Reuters.

This from Insanlik Hali:

To my friends who live outside of Turkey:
      I am writing to let you know what is going on in Istanbul for the last five days. I personally have to write this because at the time of my writing most of the media sources are shut down by the government and the word of mouth and the internet are the only ways left for us to explain ourselves and call for help and support.
     Last week of May 2013 a group of people most of whom did not belong to any specific organization or ideology got together in Istanbul’s Gezi Park. Among them there were many of my friends and yoga students. Their reason was simple: To prevent and protest the upcoming demolishing of the park for the sake of building yet another shopping mall at very center of the city. There are numerous shopping malls in Istanbul, at least one in every neighborhood! The tearing down of the trees was supposed to begin early Thursday morning. People went to the park with their blankets, books and children. They put their tents down and spent the night under the trees. Early in the morning when the bulldozers started to pull the hundred-year-old trees out of the ground, they stood up against them to stop the operation.
    They did nothing other than standing in front of the machines. No newspaper, no television channel was there to report the protest. It was a complete media black out. But the police arrived with water cannon vehicles and pepper spray. They chased the crowds out of the park.

Continue reading HERE:

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Circled "A" Radio On Turkey.

       Over the past week, what started as a protest against plans to turn Gezi Park in Istanbul into a shopping centre has started to look like a popular uprising across the country, with large protests and attacks by the police reported from numerous cities. Donnacha is joined in the studio by three young activists from Turkey to discuss what's happening, why it's happening and where it might go - the show also includes a pre-recorded interview with an activist in Turkey. 

 

The latest Circled "A" Radio broadcast is interviews with Turkish activists. 

 

Listen to Circled "A" Radio HERE:

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A Swamp Of Injustice, Inequality And Repression.

       Seven days of police brutality and the people are still there. It is no longer just Istanbul, it has spread to other towns and cities across Turkey. Of course while the people were resisting the brutal force of authoritarianism on the Turkish streets, their babbling brook of bullshit, their national media, was showing a film about penguins. The usual crap, stay at home and watch nice tele. Turkey is just like the rest of Europe, a capitalist cauldron about to bubble over, a swamp of injustice, inequality and repression. There is not a country in Europe that is not on the edge of exploding. The normal inequality and injustice has been exacerbated by the financial Mafia's  plundering of the public purse via their "austerity" plan. Do they see the threat as big enough to ease up on their plundering, or will they push ahead with their drive for a sweatshop Europe. Either decision should be unacceptable to us the ordinary people, our only hope of draining that swamp of injustice, inequality and repression, is to end the present economic system. A system of profit is incompatible with a system for the people. We have to accept exploitation or get rid of capitalism, there is no middle road in this particular struggle.

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The Righteous Anger Of The People.

     To say that the trouble in Turkey is over the building of another shopping mall is surely missing something. A week of widespread protest in the face of extreme brutal police violence, only comes from an underlying anger by the people, at the authorities who ride roughshod over them. Turkish people know, like the rest of the people in Europe, that there is something rotten at the heart of, so called, "Western democracy". The system tramples the living standards of the ordinary people, shreds their rights and stifles peaceful dissent, while at the same time increasing and protecting corporate wealth and power. It continually transfers public assets and space to the corporate world, with no real benefits to the people. It is only a matter of time before people who are treated like this stand up and fight back. What we are witnessing is the righteous anger of the people, their anger will find the target eventually.

Another excellent photo from Teacher Dude.



Two short videos from Contra Info, read the full article HERE:



TURKISH REBEL IN 90 SECONDS! from Memento Mori on Vimeo.



TURKISH REBEL IN 70 SECONDS / DAY 5 from Memento Mori on Vimeo.

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