These Dangerous Women.

       Because of the male dominated political parties and the male dominated babbling brook of bullshit, the mainstream media, women have often been airbrushed out of history. However if you ever poke your nose into the history of working class struggle, you'll find that, not only were women there, but often they were major players at the forefront of that struggle. Women played a major role in the WWI peace movement and continue to be a force in the peace movement of today. In the struggle to improve working class conditions women have stood tall. We in Glasgow have a legion of women working class warriors that of which we can be very proud. Names such as Mary Barbour, Helen Crawfurd, Ethel MacDonald, Rita Milton, Jane Hamilton Patrick and too many to mention here. So any exhibition that highlights these women warriors and helps to redress the position, is worth supporting.  

Subject: Audacious Women festival:

Scottish WILPF Exhibition at Ocean Terminal

Dear All,
       If you haven't seen the Exhibition yet it will be at 'The Little Shop of Memories' Ocean Terminal 1st February to 3rd March.
      Please share the attached flyer with your friends and encourage people to go and see the exhibition.
       If you are not in Edinburgh and would like the Exhibition for a local venue please contact Scottish WILPF.

In peace
Anne Scott, Secretary Scottish WILPF

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

Kate Sharpley Library.

     Kate Sharpley: During the war she left her job with a baker and worked in a Woolwich munitions factory. She was among the first people active in the shop stewards movement. Her father and brother were killed in action and her boyfriend (active in the anarcho-syndicalistic Horse Transport Union) was listed as missing believed killed. She suspected, though she had no proof, that he had been shot for mutiny. At the age of 22, when called to receive her family's medals from Queen Mary (wife of George V) she threw the medals back at her, saying "if you like them so much you can have them". The Queen's face was scratched, Kate Sharpley was beaten by police, and imprisoned for a few days, though no charges were brought against her. She was fired from her job at the factory.

      The Kate Sharpley Library is a wonderful asset to anarchists and libertarian socialists across the world, it is an Aladdin’s cave of our history, to learn from and enjoy. A wealth of information that we can dip into, indulge in, or wallow in.

      Their latest bulletin, October No.88, is now on line for all to enjoy. We should always support such rich veins of our history, we can't expect the establishment to record our history for us.

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

A Date For Edinburgh.

Field punishment. 

        In memory of those heroes that the establishment would like you to forget, those who stood up against the first world war, voices for peace, punished, and suffered, as attempts to silence them increased, with the final humiliation, being erased from history. We can never let that happen.

The World Is My Country Exhibition
Thurs 25 Feb - Sat 12 March
Free Exhibition Launch
6pm Thursday 25 February
With graphic artist Emily Johns, Gabriel Carlyle, and Protest in Harmony.
Scottish Storytelling Centre
43-45 High St, Edinburgh EH1 1SR
The Exhibition celebrates, in stories and pictures, the people and movements that opposed the First World War. Featuring disobedient soldiers, feminist peace initiatives, a Maori princess, a famous Cambridge philosopher, and the striking graphic art of Emily Johns. Plus designs for the Conscientious Objectors Memorial in Edinburgh by pupils from St Thomas Aquins Secondary School. Launch with an interactive presentation by Emily Johns and Gabriel Carlyle. Wine & Food. Free. Donation requested.
Join & Share Event on Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/events/1575076856117731/

Songs of the Unsung Heroes

Jane Lewis and Penny Stone from Protest in Harmony lead a fun and inspirational afternoon of songs celebrating the movements and people who opposed the First World War. Learn songs about the men and women who refused to fight and those involved in the broader movements for equality and social justice that move us closer to a world without war. In conjunction with The World Is My Country exhibition.

All welcome, no previous experience necessary.

Scottish Storytelling Centre

Full Price – £12.00
£10 Network Members
http://www.tracscotland.org/scottish-storytelling-centre/centre-events/4588/songs-of-the-unsung-heroes

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

Glorification Of War, Or Peace And Beauty?

          I feel very strongly about what I can only call the desecration of the beautiful public space, Pollok Estate, by the digging of WWI trenches.  So I'm asking friends and followers of this blog to sign the petition and spread it around as many of their friends and followers on Facebook, twitter and any other means possible. Public spaces such as Pollok Estate are places of beauty, owned by the people for the pleasure of the people, and an escape from the city within easy reach of the city. They are not there for the glorification of war, nor to swell the egos of academics and councillors with grandiose ideas.

Please sign the petition.

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

Stop Them Digging Up Pollok Estate

       Once again our public spaces are under attack. Once again Pollok Estate is being targeted. There was the motorway, then "Go Ape" theme park, now it is to be dug up with replicas of WWI trenches. Why a beautiful public space such as Pollok Estate should even be suggested for this lottery funded love affair with war is incomprehensible. Are those involve blind, stupid or just bribed? Look around, if you want such a hideous theme as war trenches stick them in somebody's private land, not our beautiful country space in our city. This has to be stopped as we will see another public space place of beauty an tranquillity disappear to the glorification of war.

This is not the site for war trenches.

     Pollok Estate is not a commercial theme park, it is not a site for developing crazy war linked projects, it is a wonderful country space in the city owned by the people of Glasgow. This has to be stopped before the diggers move in and destroy another slice of our commons. We stopped GO Ape, surely we can stop this destructive, brainchild of the city council and academia.  

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

Blood For Wealth.

     I have always held that wars are an economic tool of capitalist governments. They can start them and prolong them, to suit their own economic ends. There is lots of money to be made in destruction and re-building, plus creating chaos in your rival's camp. Think of all the public money that flows into the arms industry during conflict. Every bullet, rocket, shell, missile, fired has to be replaced, every damaged piece of equipment has to be replaced, and it is all tax payers money pouring into the corporate bank accounts. Think how much easier it is to control the assets in a region if that region doesn't have a strong local government. Chaos allows the powerful to walk in and dictate what happens to that region's assets.
 

      WWI was a brutal imperialist scramble for power and resources, a blood bath for markets and territory. WWII was a clash of empires as the British empire felt threatened by the resurgence of the German empire. All the blood that has flowed in the Middle East since then, has been for the control of its oil, none of it has been for the welfare and benefit of the people of that area.
      In all these brutal capitalist tactics for power and wealth, other forces hedge their bets until they think they can see a winner, or feel their power and assets are threatened, then they throw in their hand with this side or that side. In this insane blood letting for power, your ally in this conflict could be your enemy in the next, loyalty depends on wealth and power.

      Having said all that, I have always been puzzled how a band of vicious religious nutters, in this case, ISIL, can march through country after country, taking on the state armies of Syria, Iraq and the Kurds and win massive swaths of land. Even now, with the “coalition” forces bombing the shit out of them they still manage to hold and take territory. Remember our "air-strikes" managed to bring down the well armed Libyan state. Of course our babbling brook of bullshit, the mainstream media, will not shed any light on that, as all they do is pour out misinformation, illusions and propaganda, for their lords and masters.
      However, if the following report has and validity, which I see no reason why it shouldn't, it does help explain the long life and continued success of that rat-bag of religious nutters that go by the name of ISIL.

     This from Global Research:

Iraqi Army Downs Two British Planes Carrying Weapons for ISIL Terrorists
GR editor’s Note
      There are no reports in the Western mainstream media pertaining to this issue.
      This report is based on statements emanating from the Iraq parliament, with photographic evidence. We have not been in a position to corroborate this report by FARS News.
       Iraq’s army has shot down two British planes as they were carrying weapons for the ISIL terrorists in Al-Anbar province, a senior lawmaker disclosed on Monday.
       “The Iraqi Parliament’s National Security and Defense Committee has access to the photos of both planes that are British and have crashed while they were carrying weapons for the ISIL,” Head of the committee Hakem al-Zameli said, according to a Monday report of the Arabic-language information center of the Islamic Supreme Council of Iraq.

Read the full article HERE:

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