Innocent?

            State vindictiveness knows no depth, it will sink to the bottom of the sewer to intimate, deter, subdue any of those who dare to act against its attempt at omnipotence and undying desire to hold and protect those with wealth, power and privileges. Democracy is a sham, an illusion to try and lull the population in to believing they are free, but the freedom is, do as you are bid according to the rules made up by that small bunch of parasites with the wealth, power and privileges.
        Two recent examples of state vindictiveness in so called Europe, siting UK as still a European country, and Greece. Both these states blow their own trumpet as democracies, but act as authoritarian states and dictatorships.

UK, Toby Shone.

           Even though the cops couldn’t prove their terrorism case against him after a four year investigation, anarchist prisoner Toby Shone is facing a Serious Crime Prevention Order that will legally sanction the criminalisation and total surveillance of him and everyone around him for years to come after his release.

         In November 2020, a series of co-ordinated raids against one of the alleged administrators of the website 325.nostate.net was executed by counter-terrorism cops in the UK as part of “Operation Adream”. Several properties in the southwest of England were searched and one person, Toby Shone, was arrested at gunpoint in the Forest of Dean and charged under the Terrorism Act. This was the first time the British State attempted to prosecute an anarchist under modern terrorism legislation and the first time that somebody was prosecuted for being suspected of running an anarchist website.
        Toby was originally charged with providing a service enabling others to access terrorist publications, with fundraising for terrorist purposes, and with two counts of possession of information likely to be useful to a terrorist. He pleaded not guilty, the cops weren’t able to produce any evidence, and the prosecution was forced to drop these charges on October 1st 2021. In the end, Toby Shone was sentenced to 3 years 9 months in prison for 8 drug offenses on October 13, 2021. The ‘drugs’ were psychedelics and medicinal plants found at two of the four properties raided in November 2020, all collective spaces. He served 8 months of this sentence on remand at HMP Wandsworth and is currently held in HMP Bristol. He is due for release sometime between August and December 2022.

 Read The full article HERE.

Also, UK see film "Official Secrets". 

Greece, innocent until proved guilty?

          An anti-terror operation conducted in Athens, Greece on March 8-9, 2020 resulted in the arrest of four people. Those individuals are charged with a long laundry list of different crimes related to fifty-six separate attacks against institutions of state and capital. The flimsy premise by which authorities claim all these dozens of actions are connected is that the alleged communiqués claiming the actions all happened to use the (extremely popular, if not generic) term “comrades.”
          After being detained for a week, the four were released under harsh pre-trial conditions. Without having even gone to trial, the four defendants have to pay exorbitant legal fees and report their whereabouts to the police every ten days; they are forbidden to associate with each other or with “political people,” forbidden to leave the country, forbidden to enter the neighborhood of Exarcheia and forbidden to participate in any “political events.” On top of that, their bank accounts are frozen.
         This specific case shows how the state can punish anarchists via pre-trial conditions and bureaucracy without needing to prove them guilty. It sets a precedent for future premeditated repression and punishment without conviction, similar to tactics like bail and grand jury subpoenas in the United States.
          The following is an interview with one of the defendants about their case and the broader situation of repression in Greece.

 

Read the full article HERE. 

 

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

Opinion.

My Humble Opinion From What I’ve Seen.
        Why I think protests against closures are bound to fail. Councils are by law prevented from running a deficit, they are compelled to balance the books, and the financial structure is engineered so that each year, because of inflation, rising wages (meagrely) maintenance and repairs etc. they have to make savings, “efficiency saving” which translates into closures and/or lay-offs of staff. Barmulloch community centre is closing, let’s suppose that the whole district mobiles to such an extent that the council concedes and keeps it open, it still has to look elsewhere to swing its axe to balance that inefficient budget. Should the council decide, to hell we will run a deficit for a few years and try and sort this out, then the government sends in its “managers” to run the city over the heads of the people. Remember Derek Hatton and Liverpool in the 80’s. 

  

 

     On a national government front, the game is rigged in favour of the large financial institutions who have the power to bring a country to economic disaster. Some 30 years ago approximately, these same financial institutions decided that privatisation was the best way to re-capitalise the system and more or less dictated to states that they had to follow this policy or find themselves outside the financial markets, economic doom. Of course they can force the issue in other ways, remember Greece 2010, Greece according to the EU financial mafia, was carrying too much debt, so sent in a team of their financial managers to sort it out, over the heads of the elected government, how it should be tackled, ordering the privatisation of lots of Greece’s profitable assets, altering labour laws etc. while loading them up with more debt, “the bailout”, so the privatisation policy continues merrily on its way. This debt of course has to be paid by the people. Some ten years on by 2017, unemployment in Greece was still at 22% and one third of the population still living below the poverty line, conditions haven’t changed much since then, this is how states repay their debt to the financial Mafia. You’re appealing to the minions who are forced to follow the rules set my the financial Mafia. They may now and again get some bubble gum and popcorn, but those who dictate the direction of the governments are sitting in their grand mansion counting their pieces of gold, and they like what they have and are not in any shape or form going to change the system that has given them such wealth, power and privileges. They will gladly bring down a country, should they not play be their rules. The UK is not immune, remember 16th September 1992, Black Wednesday? UK joined the European Exchange Rate against the wishes of the financial Mafia, who then engineered a fall of the pound to such an extent that the Chancellor raised interest rates three times in one day in an attempt to save the pound from becoming worthless, eventually gave up and withdrew from the European Exchange Rate. Privatisation is the direction set out and being implemented, and it is not going to stop because you shout at a councillor. Public assets will be disposed of one way or another, either by phoney community takeover or straight privatisation and placards are not going to stop the relentless march of the corporate world to gain all public assets of any worth.
        So what should we do? I suppose be anarchists and have one aim and one aim only, not to appeal to the system to be fairer, not to encourage people to follow a doomed path of asking to be treated fairly, but work hell for leather on destroying the system completely. The system will not change in any dramatic manner by dialogue, appeals and petitions, the system can cope very well with these methods of protest, and if the powers that be think these are getting too nasty for their liking, they have the armoury to stifle it, police, judiciary, prison system. 

           I tend to think that people of Peru and Colombia are getting close to the direction by burning police stations, banks, corporate buildings and looting supermarkets, but first you have to flood the streets with your anarchist ideas, literature, meetings, stalls etc. until there is enough of the population who have finally realised, the system has to be destroyed, not petitioned, if we want a free, fair, just, sustainable world, that sees to the needs of all our people. 

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

Guns & Laws.

        The Americans right to bear arms is a very one sided right according to the state. U$A does pass gun control laws, but they are usually in response to "non-whites" following that 2nd amendment, the right to bear arms.

The following from It's Going Down:

           On this episode of the It’s Going Down podcast, we speak with two members of the Socialist Rifle Association (SRA), about the organization and more broadly, about what it means to create an anti-racist current both within (and against) the current mainstream gun culture which largely has been occupied by the far-Right. The SRA currently has about 10,000 members and is a pan-Left organization, made up of anarchists, Marxists, and socialists. For a history of the group and a look at where they are coming from, we encourage people to read this interview several members conducted with the Anti-Fascist Network in the so-called UK.

From the interview:

         It is important to understand that gun rights were enshrined in the US 2^nd Amendment partly because of a need for armed violence at the frontier to continue the genocide of Native peoples, as well as Southern fears of slave uprisings. Gun rights were largely reserved for white people for most of US history, and during the Reconstruction period following the Civil War, Black people who armed themselves for community defense were often massacred and disarmed by white mobs and police. Attempts by Black people and other marginalized groups to arm themselves have often led to increased gun control; the National Firearms Act of 1934 was partly justified by crime committed by Italian and Irish immigrants; the Gun Control Act of 1968 was partly put in place due to Civil Rights riots; the Mulford Act was passed in California and signed into law by Ronald Reagan in 1967 in response to the Black Panthers; ‘Saturday Night Special’ laws banning inexpensive small caliber handguns were passed in the ‘70s in response to Black people in cities preferring those firearms. The history of gun control in America is the history of white people owning guns to oppress marginalized people; Black people and other marginalized folks acquiring guns to defend themselves; and white people then passing laws to disarm the marginalized.

Read the full article HERE: 

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

Criminal Neglect.

      As this pandemic spreads it tentacles across the globe, we should always think of the most vulnerable and do our utmost to protect them. Yet one section of the most vulnerable are being ignored, the prison population. It's not as if they were an extremely tiny section of our community, there are approximately 9 million individuals locked up in prison across the world. Half of that mass of individuals are held in three countries, with the "good ol' US of A" leading the pack. The prison rate in USA per head of population is 724 per 100,000, in Russia it is 581 per 100,000, in China, that leader of the evil empire it is 118 per 100,000. England and Wales, on their own sit about the midway mark of the world's incarceraters with 118 per 100,000. US is also among one of the highest of women prisoners per head of population at 8.7%.
      Strange that the so called leader of the free world and defender of freedom should be the country that locks up more of its own population in prison cells than any other country on the planet.
      Another very disturbing figure on prison populations, especially during this Coronavirus pandemic, is the fact the practically all the world's prison are over crowded, with Kenya being the worst offender with it prison population being 284.3% of its occupancy. Even that most capitalist developed country in the world is guilty of this sardine policy with its prison population being 107.6% of its occupancy. Prisons are not on the whole, places of the best conditions nor descent medical care and hygiene, add over crowding to this toxic mix, and you have the perfect conditions for spreading this pandemic. To ignore these facts is extreme criminal cruelty and gross criminal neglect.
      A world with approximately 9 million individuals lock up in over crowded prison cells is not a free and democratic world, let's grasp this fact and do our utmost to bring down the prison system and the authoritarian regimes that foster these conditions.

Country	Prison population	Population per 100,000	Jail occupancy level %	Un-sentenced prisoners %	Women prisoners %
US	2,193,798	737	107.6	21.2	8.9
CHINA	1,548,498	118	N/A	N/A	4.6
RUSSIA	874,161	615	79.5	16.9	6.8
BRAZIL	371,482	193	150.9	33.1	5.4
INDIA	332,112	30	139	70.1	3.7
MEXICO	214,450	196	133.9	43.2	5
UKRAINE	162,602	350	101.3	19.5	6.1
SOUTH AFRICA	158,501	334	138.6	27.5	2.1
POLAND	89,546	235	124.4	16.8	3
ENG/WALES	80,002	148	112.7	16.4	5.5
JAPAN	79,052	62	105.9	14.7	5.9
KENYA	47,036	130	284.3	45.6	42
TURKEY	65,458	91	77.4	47.7	3.3
NIGERIA	40,444	30	101.5	64.3	1.9
AUSTRALIA	25,790	125	105.9	21.6	7.1
SCOTLAND	6,872	134	107.5	21	4.4
N IRELAND	1,375	79	91.5	37.4	2.2

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

Civilised Society That Treats People Like Cattle.

        Just to hammer home the point that here we are in the 21st. century, and in the so called developed civilised world, the state system that we live by still herds human beings like cattle, strips them of their rights, and in other barbaric ways persecutes them. The crime these unfortunate people have committed is to have crossed those imaginary lines called borders.

 From Turin Italy:

Turin, Italy : In the detention centre for migrants in Corso Brunelleschi: a fire every day…

        The atmosphere remains tense and edgy in the detention centre of Corso Brunelleschi: during a storm on Friday, a young man took advantage of guards and forces of order’s diverted attention to climb bars and walls and conquer freedom.
        Even if the official media present protests and fires with an aura of exceptionality, burning mattresses and the few pieces of furniture left is now a recurring practice to draw attention to the many problems inside, the least being the lack of a barber. Recently prisoners also told us that there was not enough shampoo for them to wash their hair or any fresh water to drink.

Continue Reading →

From Tenerife Spain:

Spain : Revolt and escape at the detention centre for migrants in Tenerife 

      In the detention centre of Hoya Fria, in Santa Cruz, on the island of Tenerife, prisoners set off a revolt while in the yard of the concentration camp on Saturday 2nd August. About twenty people managed to climb the fences and escape from the concentration camp.
The entire police force of the island has been on a man hunt in these hours: seven people have been captured but the others are still on the run.

From America:

            The third week in June began with a broad political discussion on whether Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s designation of migrant detention centers as “concentration camps” was the correct nomenclature for holding rooms in which 41 detainees live in a cell built for eight. It ended with heinous reports of the conditions at said camps, where undocumented migrant children are being held away from their families in conditions “worse than jail,” according to physician Dolly Lucio Sevier, who wrote up a medical declaration obtained by ABC News after visiting Border Patrol holding facilities along the border in Texas. Here’s everything we’ve learned about conditions in the detention camps in recent weeks.

Continue reading: 

From UK:

       In some senses they look, sound, smell and taste just like prisons: bland food, bleak corridors, standard-issue tracksuits and blue flip-flops, and the mechanical clunk at 9pm when everyone is locked in for the night.
       But Britain’s network of immigration removal centres are a case apart for the 25,000-plus people who pass through one each year: there is no rehabilitation, no criminal sentence, very often no time limit on the loss of liberty. Many of those incarcerated say the conditions are far worse than actual prison.
     The Guardian has spoken to dozens of current and former detainees who have provided grim testimony about what life behind bars in these 10 facilities is like. They describe depression, limbo, occasional hysteria and an all-pervading angst on the part of those detained.
       The internal architecture is bleak. To reach the visiting room at Harmondsworth IRC near Heathrow airport visitors must provide their passports, a biometric thumbprint, surrender themselves to detailed pat-down searches from surgical-gloved security guards and pass through several sets of locked doors.

Continue reading:

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

States, Green Liars.

        Most states are spouting the lie that they are following a "green" agenda, it makes them look good in the eyes of certain sections of the public. Here in the UK the present Tory government has stated it plans to be the "greenest" government in UK history, then in the same breath, gives planning permission for fracking to take place. Germany is similar, waffling on about its "green" credentials but granting permission for further opencast mining to the detriment of the local communities, the ecology of the area and continues to feed the atmosphere with CO2 gasses. Open cast mining is probably one of the worst culprits for devastating the landscape, they simply tear the surface of the earth apart over a vast area, making it look like a moonscape, not to mention the damage done by the burning of the result of this ecological disaster.  

      There is strong resistance by communities to these acts of duplicity, but states can and have bulldozed the opposition of local communities with sicking regularity. We need to link up all our opposition to these deeds of ecological acts of terrorism with a concerted resistance to the root cause, capitalism. The state and capitalism are hand in glove by far the greatest threat to our existence. They will continue to rape and plunder the planet for their gain of power, wealth and privilege. The welfare of the planet and its inhabitants are of very little concern to the state/capitalist machine, the managers of this destructive duo seem to be oblivious to the fact that if they continue as they are going, they will be part of the that species that went extinct. Only the combined power of the ordinary people can stop this greed driven human suicide, and anarchism is the only tool that is capable of turning round this human blunder and creating a sustainable system that sees to the welfare of the planet and all its inhabitants. However, time is running out, we are at the stage of now or never, which will we choose.  

German citizens resistance to open cast mining, from Enough is Enough:

        The action group “Kohle erSetzen!”(replace coal) and the alliance “Alle Dörfer bleiben” (all villages stay) call for a sit-in blockade against the construction of the L354n road between Wanlo and Kuckum, which began yesterday. The road will only be needed if more villages are destroyed for the brown coal underneath. Under the motto “Not a single meter for coal”, residents and activists of the climate justice movement want to block construction work on Monday 27 May.
       “With this road construction, RWE is revealing its ignorance of the forthcoming coal withdrawal,” says Mira Jäger, press spokeswoman for Kohle erSetzen! “It is clear that all villages will remain. Even with the completely inadequate result of the coal commission, the opencast mines can hardly be continued. Thus both the dredging of the villages and the new road construction are absolutely unnecessary.” Nevertheless, a piece of forest has already been cleared for the construction work and several hectares of fertile arable land are to be sacrificed.
       “In order to create more facts and to put people in the villages under pressure, RWE is building a new ‘mine edge road’ far behind the villages. This is a mockery for all those who are determined to stay in their villages,” says David Dresen from the threatened village Kuckum. If open-cast mining continues as RWE intended, the new roadside mine road will not be needed until 2027, when Kuckum will be destroyed. RWE has already had approval for the new construction for four years. According to RWE’s current plans, it would be sufficient if road construction were not to begin until 2025. The local residents therefore assume that RWE is already building to put them under pressure and deprive them of the quality of life in their villages. “At RWE, there is a system in place to make life hell for the people here. The construction of the road raises the provocations to a new level,” says David Dresen. “In order to give weight to our demand for an immediate halt to all preparatory mining measures, we are therefore forced to go one step further and call for the construction work to be blocked.”
      RWE is currently digging a path through fields and forest across the full width of the future road. Once this work has been completed, the aisle will be examined for possible old explosive devices and archaeological finds, after which road construction will begin immediately.
       In the last 100 years almost 300 settlements for lignite mining have been destroyed in Germany alone. In the meantime, however, broad support has emerged for a quick exit from coal, as is demanded by tens of thousands of people every week during the “Fridays for Future” climate strike. Nevertheless, RWE is pushing ahead with the resettlement of around 1,500 people in the Rhineland region. Six villages and additional farms are still under threat from the Garzweiler II open-cast mine. On 22 June, Alle Dörfer bleiben therefore invites you to a major day of action in the Rheine region (Rheinisches Revier), together with Fridays for Future, BUND, Greenpeace, Campact and nature lovers. On this day, activists from Ende Gelände will also disobey the coal mining industry elsewhere (but near… Enough 14).
        RWE’s business not only destroys village communities in Germany. As corporation with the highest carbon dioxide emissions in Europe, it poses a particular threat to the existence of people worldwide who are losing their basic livelihoods as a result of the climate crisis. These people are already suffering from increasingly severe droughts and extreme weather events, even though they have contributed very little to the climate crisis.

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

Where Prisons Survive, Democracy Dies.

 

         Prisons are an antithesis of democracy, they are no more and no less, than brutal institutions of repression, a bulwark in the defence of the establishments wealth and power. Of course a large percentage of the population believe that if you don't do anything to break their rules of control, you are safe from being lock-up in the state's cages. However, history tells us different, over the years there has been a litany of "miscarriages" of justice. Which is not surprising, since we live a society built on corruption and injustice.

      This is just one individual's long running fight against a "miscarriage" of justice, but there are many, many more that end up in destroying the individual and in most cases the lives of their families.

       A suggested motto for the UK justice system.

‘The most ardent defenders of justice here consider that it is better for an innocent man to be condemned than for the Inquisition to suffer disgrace.’

– Papal envoy, Spain 1565

This from 325:

        Kevan Thakrar is an IWW member and miscarriage of justice who has served over a decade in prison. He was moved to the Close Supervision Centre at HMP Whitemoor in Cambridgeshire in July and is now being subjected to an even more repressive regime, as well as targeted harassment from prison officers.

     Kevan repeatedly challenges his conditions and captivity with complaints and legal challenges, many often against prisoner officers and members of the Prison Officers Association. In retaliation, the Prison Officers Association have been actively encouraging officers to try to get Kevan moved to a different prison. Staff have been trying provoke an incident after Kevan’s requests for them to wear body-worn cameras (for his own protection, following incidents of physical violence inflicted against Kevan in the past).

     On Thursday 16th August, Kevan was put on an even more brutal regime. He is now locked up 23 hours a day. He has 30mins outside and 30mins to shower, make phone calls or do anything else he needs to do. When he is unlocked, everyone else in the CSC is locked in. This is creating animosity between the prisoners (a desired effect for the officers).

      Kevan has requested to see the Governor and has so far been refused. His planned meeting with the prison’s Diversity Officer was also refused by the Governor.

     Close Supervision Centres are designed to break human beings. Most people leave and enter psychiatric custody following what they are subjected to. Kirsty White, head of the CSC unit has told Kevan the reason for his restricted regime is that Kevan’s PTSD is being triggered and that he is clearly “distressed” because he is asking for body-worn cameras. Kevan developed PTSD after experiencing extreme racial, physical and sexual abuse at HMP Frankland in 2010.

Kevan has been fighting for his life as a miscarriage of justice for the past 11 years. Learn about his case. He has been kept in solitary confinement for over 8 years. You can read more about his experience in prison here.

Kevan after a beating by prison officers at HMP Frankland.

What you can do

       Follow the facebook* for updates on upcoming demonstrations

1. Please contact the Head Governor Will Styles at HMP Whitemoor:

Address: HMP Whitemoor, Longhill Road, March, Cambridgeshire, PE15 0PR
Tel: 01354 602 350
Fax: 01354 602 351
Email – Will.Styles@hmps.gsi.gov.uk

2. Write to the Justice Secretary, David Gauke MP:

Email: david@davidgauke.com

Or contact him via the Ministry of Justice: https://contact-moj.dsd.io/correspondence/topic

3. Write to the MP of the area, Steve Barclay: http://stevebarclay.net/contact/

4. Complain to the Prison Officers Association: general@poauk.org.uk

5. Write to Kevan:

Write to Kevan! He needs your support and solidarity. Send letters to:

Kevan Thakrar A4907AE
HMP Whitemoor
Longhill Road
March
Cambridgeshire
PE15 0PR

You can also use emailaprisoner.com

*https://www.facebook.com/IWOCWISERA/

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

    

A Game Of Chicken, With Civilisation At Stake.

       I'm no lover of the Russian state, or any state for that matter, but I do get concerned by this onslaught of vitriol that is being flung at the Russian state, with no evidence produced by the accusers. Would the UK state lie? Remember Iraq? Of course our babbling brook of bullshit, the mainstream media, throws its full propaganda expertise behind the campaign, instead of investigating and trying to reveal evidence to support or otherwise, of their claims. In this insane world of competing power blocks, all armed to the teeth with nuclear weapons, we the public, should be concerned, when one nuclear power group tries to push another nuclear power nation into a corner. Surrounds it with nuclear weapons and tries to destroy its influence in the world. A game of "chicken" between nuclear powers is insanity in the extreme, with civilisation the likely victim.  Does the cornered nuclear state back down or retaliate, continuing the escalation, in which case we the public across the globe are the losers, not the lords and masters of the nuclear war machines.

      In the following video John Pilger tries to blow away the fog and dispose of the smoke and mirrors of this worrying, if not terrifying, war mongering rhetoric. Thanks Loam for the link.

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

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.

 

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

No One Is Coming To Help Us!!

 

         I have not said much about the Trump affair, as it is difficult to grasp what has happened and why. One thing we can be sure of, there is a emboldened and growing far right, not just in America, but here in the UK and across Europe. We can debate the reasons why and come to different conclusions, but what we can't do is ignore this rise. To me it seems obvious that the people would be come disenchanted with the system, as it was never intended to see to their needs in the first place. The problem seems to be that in looking for answers, people have not picked up our ideas, we have to ask ourselves, why not? Resolving that question would be a good place to start. 

       We will have to find answers in our communities  and to a degree do what the far right is doing, tap into that anger and disenchantment. The following extracts are from an interesting article by First of May Anarchist Alliance

       The surprise victory of Donald Trump this past Tuesday has quickly presented people in this country (and around the world) with a vastly different political landscape than we had expected. We are seeing a rise in right-wing attacks as the far right is emboldened by the victory, much like what happened earlier this year after the success of the Brexit referendum in the UK. The incompetence and capitulation of the Democratic Party has forced many of its former supporters to recognize that the fight against the far right cannot be won by liberal electoral politics. This new reality forces anti-authoritarians of all stripes to rise to the challenge of building strong movements for working class self-defense in this new atmosphere.

Why the turn form neo-liberalism to xenophobic nationalism?

      Another narrative states that in the rust belt as in Europe, the devastating effects of decades of austerity, neoliberal trade agreements, and an orientation towards multinational corporations have been challenged. That challenge in the U.S. and elsewhere has come in the form of xenophobic nationalism. There is a significant amount of truth to this as well, but it can’t explain much of Trump’s success without acknowledging the serious appeal that open white nationalism and misogyny has gained in this election.Perhaps the most revealing aspect of this moment is that after spending months describing Trump as a grave threat to the lives of women, people of color, queer and trans people and the disabled, the entire Democratic Party has immediately capitulated to him. They have made clear that they always held preserving their broken system to be far more important than our lives. Many among their base are for the first time seeing the party’s true colors, and are reaching out to radical organizations in the interest of carrying on the fight that the Democrats so quickly abandoned. Already we are seeing attacks on muslims, immigrants, people of every color besides white, queer and trans people. This is not abstract, it is already happening. We should expect more of this and must make organizing to oppose it a top priority.

So, what do we do?

 We are encouraged that so many have taken to the streets across the country. We hope more will do the same. Trump’s attacks in the form of policy and his supporters physical attacks and intimidation, must be opposed from day one.

Our organizations must be effective. The sense of despair many are feeling is grounded in the reality of an ascendant far right. Right now, they face little resistance. The sense of urgency many of us have felt is a recognition of the need to build that resistance. It is time for us to take up that task, to find new comrades ready to fight, and to fight. No one is coming to save us–we cannot use the electoral system to fight the far right effectively. It’s time to stop waiting and defend each other in the streets!

What Needs to Be Done: 1. No to National “healing”, working with, or a grace period for the Trump Regime 2. Take to the streets – build a militant resistance 3. Build working-class defense organizations that resist racist attacks, sexual assault, immigration and homeland security raids and deportations, police brutality and state repression 4. Agitate and organize for workers actions – including a general strike against Trump 5. No to containment of the struggle back into the Democratic Party, electoralism and the Non-Profit Industrial Complex

A PDF of the full article can be read HERE:

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

Slave Labour And Xenophobia, Diseases Of Capitalism.

        Weekdays are workdays at the Perry Correctional Institution in Pelzer, South Carolina, where Dee, a forty-two-year-old native of Georgia, has spent a decade serving time for a robbery. On typical mornings, he “commutes” from his cell to an on-site furniture factory, where he and other inmates assemble wooden tables and chairs for a private company. But when Dee’s cell door opened on September 9th, the forty-fifth anniversary of the Attica prison uprising, he did not respond as usual to the call to attention. Dee was on strike. “I quit,” he told me a few days ago, speaking via a contraband cell phone. “That was my last day of work.” Dee grew up poor and began committing crimes as a young man, but he had educated himself in prison and joined a group of “jailhouse lawyers” who assist other inmates with legal issues. More recently, Dee had begun to think of himself not just as a prison activist but as a worker. “We’re not compensated for our labor,” he told me. At Perry, inmates earn less than a dollar per hour in the furniture shop. “Slavery is inhumane, no matter its disguise.”

This from IWW member:

           As you might have come across, the IWW's Incarcerated Workers Organising Committee has been involved in an an ongoing prisoners' strike since the 9th of September in the United States (https://www.facebook.com/ incarceratedworkers/) . Companies profiting from the forced labor of prisoner include household names such as McDonald's and Victoria's Secret. I think that there is room for some solidarity actions that are not very time consuming or difficult to organise (such as picketing a central McDonalds and handing out leaflets) but which will nevertheless be effective in raising awareness of the strike and thereby actively aiding the struggle of IWOC and the prisoners. Even a small action, even if it has next to no impact, will be important for the morale of the persons involved in the strike and in the general picture of solidarity actions (that being said, obviously we should hope to have as big an impact as possible). A branch of IWOC exists for England and Wales which will I am sure give us lots of support -http://incarceratedworkers. noflag.org.uk/category/news/( leaflets, newsletters etc.).
            Additionally, a migrant strike is being organised under the title 'one day without us'- more information here https://www.theguardian. com/uk-news/2016/oct/10/ migrant-workers-plan-labour- boycott-to-protest-racism- highlight-contribution-to- britain
           Not much is known about this, but it is scheduled for the 20th of February, which gives lots of time for organising.

   Migrant workers picking daffodils in Linconshire. many people are alarmed by xenophobic attitudes to foreigners. Photograph: Alamy 

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

The Stae And Repression, Two Sides Of The Same Coin.

 

        Across the world state repression goes on and on, those who struggle for change to a just, open and free society, are the ones who get hit hardest, so anarchists will always be at the sharp end of that state repression. Trumped up charges, fabricated laws to suit the state's grip on the population, and brutal treatment of those caught up in their net of repression, that's the pattern across the globe. Our weapon to fight this savagery against justice and freedom, is solidarity, solidarity across borders. Borders are imaginary lines drawn across our planet by power mongers, to protect their power and privileges. To us, the ordinary people, they don't exist, the world is our village.
Some calls for solidarity:

UK:

SOLIDARITY WITH THE EAST STREET DEFENDANTS

       On Sunday the 21st of June, 2015, an immigration raid on East Street sparked an explosion of rebellion and Solidarity. When Immigration Enforcement officers forced a local man into the back of their van, a crowd of people who live and work in the area, including kids, gathered to prevent his removal. Because of this, riot police were called to the scene.
     Without warning, the riot police violently charged the crowd, knocking people to the ground and attacking them with dogs. Instead of running away, the people in the crowd, now numbering well over a hundred, stood firm and defended themselves. Unable to disperse the crowd, the cops left the area.
      Since then, the man originally detained has been deported and three people have been forced to stand trial at the beginning of October this year. They face massively inflated charges including “violent disorder.” If found guilty they could receive a serious prison sentence.
      At a time when whole estates are being demolished to make way for luxury flats and many are being forced out of their area, when migrants are treated like criminals, held in indefinite detention away from their friends and families, when immigration raids and police harassment are part of daily life, it’s clear that the violence of the order is the real problem. And it is this violence that people on East Street were rebelling against.
       The charge of “violent disorder” is a cynical tactic used to stop such rebellion. By singling out individuals for punishment, the authorities hope to spread fear among us so that we feel unable to defend ourselves. But instead of giving in to fear, the best form of self-defence is to stand in solidarity with each other, just as people did on East Street when their neighbour was detained by Immigration Enforcement in June last year.
      In October this year, solidarity with the East Street Defendants can only mean one thing: continued rebellion against the violent order.

Italy:

          Updates on anarchist comrades Anna Beniamino and Alfredo Cospito
      These updates have been made known to us directly by the imprisoned comrades Anna Beniamino and Alfredo Cospito:
        Concerning Anna, she tells us that she is in isolation (no tv), is prohibited from meeting with other prisoners and saw censorship of her mail, which she says reaches her fairly quickly.
         Alfredo, instead, is still in isolation, and not only for his solidarity action with the CCF, which the prison court has not yet ruled on yet, but also for the new investigation “Scripta Manent”. He also informed us that being in isolation he has nothing in the cell such as addresses, even the comrades arrested for Scripta Manent.
       I urge comrades to send them the most news, newspapers, and stamps to break the isolation that the nation’s prisons are imposing physically at this time.

Poland:

 We announce that all three of Warsaw are freed.
       After nearly 4 months of absolute isolation we managed to pull them out of jail. This release proves how weak is the police evidence and how “necessary steps” of the prosecution were just playing time, using detention as form of torture to force confessions.
This also proves that solidarity campaigns make sense – not only in moral dimension, but also practically.
What can one do now?
      The solidarity campaign continues – as actual criminal trial is yet to come. Defendants still need our support, mostly in the field of information and finance. The money will be needed for the lawyers and for the return of the deposit. Spreading objective, non-police knowledge of this case and repression also really improves their chances on trial and protects the movement from further repression. Organize collection, meetings, events, circulate posters, leaflets, brochures and this website.
What one shouldn’t do now?
       The moment of release of the arrested is a moment of intense police attention – in recent days more and more often undercovers and other cops are seen observing places important for the movement and trying to infiltrate. This is the worst time to gossip, speculate, fabricate facts, assign to yourselves or others fault, merit, knowledge of the case, and for any other actions based on incomplete / false information.
        If you would like to contact the defendants, think twice whether you’re someone from their loved ones. If not – let them catch their breath and rest – there will be time for our paths to cross, not once.

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

Capitalism, Born Of Greed, Survives By Greed.

       Looking at this insane world of capitalism, you become accustomed to its many contradictions. For example, if you live in a rich country you would imagine that you would be better treated financially than if you lived in a poorer country. Well not so if you happen to be a pensioner.

      If we take the 10 largest economies in the world, US, China, Japan, Germany, UK, France, India, Brazil, Italy, Canada, and look at how they treat their pensioners we get some strange results. If we take pensions as a percentage of the average wage, we find that all the richest economies with the exception of Canada, are at the bottom end of that table, with the poorer countries paying their pensioners a higher percentage of average wages. The two largest economies find themselves at the very bottom of the league, with the US paying its pensioners a miserable 17.3% of the average wage, while its main competitor China, paying a paltry 2.0%. The UK, fifth in the league of large economies, finds itself in the bottom half of the pension league, with a derisory 21.6% of average wage, almost half that of the poorer New Zealand, whose pensioners receive 40.1%. of the average wage. 

       Of course it is not just in pensions that we find this inequality and injustice, the system of capitalist economics is built on such inequality, it's how the system functions. Wealth is created by the vast majority of the people, but the wealth then flows up towards a small cabal of parasites, who surround themselves with opulence beyond our imagination. To maintain that life in the cocoon of unearned wealth, the parasites have to continually plunder the wealth produced by us the ordinary people. Hence the cuts in our standard of living, education, health care, and all social services. The differences in our conditions at the bottom of this insane system is brought about by the majority having to fight individual battles to gain some of the inadequate crumbs left by the parasites, creating different strata of poor and poorer. The system is not based on logic, rationalism or compassion, but on the control of all the means of production and distribution, and that, for the moment, is firmly in the hands of the parasites. So it will continue until we decide that we have had enough of this plundering of the produce of our labour, and we take control of those means of production and distribution. 

Pensions as % of average wage.

New Zealand 40.1%
Denmark 36.3%
Ireland 33.0%
Canada 32.2%
Netherlands 27.1%
Australia 27.1%
France 25.6%
Sweden 23.2%
UK 21.6%
Japan 20.1%
Spain 19.6%
Italy 19.1%
Germany 19.0%
US 17.3%
Turkey 6.0%
China 2.0%

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