Money.

   

  

        As usual, some words of wisdom from friend and comrade Gregg at Not Buying Anything. As they say, "money makes the world go round", but we don't like the way that it is going round, so we could help stop it going round in this insane crazy way by doing what we can to stop feeding it the money to make it go round.

The following from Not Buying Anything:

"If we don't end war, war will end us." - H.G. Wells

        Money has power, so the withholding of money has power too. So the practice of simple living (earning and spending just enough for a life that meets basic needs) withholds money not only from exploitive corrupt corporate entities destroying the environment, but also from corrupt violent governments perpetuating endless wars.
       Chances are your government is one of those using your tax dollars to wage war. I know mine certainly is. That is one reason I live simply, and have made do on a small income when I could have made more.
      Living this way I do not pay income taxes, and therefore don't pay for war. It is a way to resist not only the war machine, but also the corporate war on our planet.

       "Simple living choices can be part of a lifestyle of nonviolent resistance. The more you examine your economic behavior, the more you learn of your entanglement with the military-industrial complex and of your power to untangle yourself.
       You can help build parallel economic systems based on cooperation and sustainable choices rather than on consumerism, resource depletion, and exploitation.
      By participating in such alternatives, you live the revolution in values that is necessary for peace with justice. Each economic choice you make can be a witness to your values."

From the pamphlet: Low Income/Simple Living as War Tax Resistance

        War resistance through not paying income tax is not the main reason I live simply, but it is a wonderful fringe benefit. It is hard enough to pay for the essentials in life these days, why pay for war on top of that?
       When we make do with enough and no more, we join a revolution in values that has the power to end war and exploitation wherever it exists

 

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

Weekend in Wonderful, Wild Scotland.

 The cottage.

       It was Stasia's birthday on Sunday, not allowed to mention age, so we booked a wee cottage a few miles before Stronachlachar, for the weekend. I had cycled that route many years ago, but had forgotten just how rubbish the road is once you pass Kinlochard, As you head for Stronachlachar the road (a rather misinterpretation of the word) you find yourself on a winding up and down single track with potholes and passing place which are not much more that some rubble at the side of the road. We arrived at the cottage on Friday afternoon and just did some wandering around and settling in before lighting the log fire and settling done for the evening. Not much else to do in such an isolated part of the country. 

Loch Katrine at Stronachlachar.

Stasia thought this one funny because of the notice

Stronachlachar.

      Saturday morning, breakfast and then head for Stronlachachar, just about four miles or so, but what a lousy twisting hilly single track road, but the weather was lovely, lots of sun and not much in the way of wind. Stronlachachar is a pretty isolated spot at the head of Loch Katrine, Just a lodge a pier and a cafe. There are sailings from Trossachs end of Loch Katrine to Stronlachachar, great walking country, but road rather lousy for cyclists and cars. 

 Inversnaid.

Inversnaid waterfall.

Inversnaid Hotel.

Inversnaid Harbour.

 

     We then decide to carry on to Inversnaid, where you eventually run out of road. The stretch to Inversnaid is even worse than the previous stretch of road, the last bit is a sharp decline and full of turns and twists, and as far as I could see this stretch had no passing places, not for the feint of heart.

    Inversnaid is a beautiful spot at the head of Loch Lomond on the opposite side of the Loch from Duck Bay, Luss, Inverbeg and Tarbet. There are small passenger ferries connecting you to the other side of the Loch.

     It was a wonderfully relaxing break and as always the views are stunningly beautiful, a mixture of long lochs, rugged mountains and forests, though I cursed the rotten roads, long may it remain so isolated and retain that escape potential.

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

To Struggle For Justice, Means You Will Be Attacked.

        The state, is the state, is the state, no matter where it's ugly head appears. The format is much the same across the world, the rich and powerful control society, and the state apparatus defends them against any change to that set-up. Methods may differ from state to state, some more brutal than others, but all will go to what ever lengths it feels are required, to make sure nothing alters that format. So if you are among those who see this arrangement as unjust and based on corruption and exploitation, and you decide to challenge that position, beware. They have ways and means of trying to silence you, from demonising you through their propaganda arm, the babbling brook of bullshit, that goes under the banner of the mainstream media, and where that fails they have their strong armed minders the police and secret services, who are backed up by that loaded dice, the judiciary. The judiciary, of course, work from a set of rules made up by the rich and powerful to protect their privileged position. The state and freedom are divided by an unbridgeable chasm, just as, justice and capitalism are likewise incompatible. 

This from Contra Info:

Rome, Italy: Communique from Daniele from Regina Coeli prison
“Between these four increasingly narrow walls, I cultivate my hatred of the system. “
       If you are an anarchist get it into your head, if you have not done so already, that it could be your turn to end up in prison sooner or later, and that the paths that could lead you there are many.
       If you are an anarchist, first, you have to be careful about what you keep at home: simple things, trivial or almost, become components of devices or explosives in the cops’ reports, a story we have also seen recently in Bologna with a comrade ending up in AS2 in Ferrara. Even books, pamphlets and leaflets, so-called “paperwork”, become proof of affiliation with terrorist organizations.
     And then there are the classic conspiracy charges, usually 270a, that allow the guards to throw you inside without even bothering to provide “concrete evidence”.
     In short, the roads are many, but the reason is one: being irreducibly aligned against power.
       If I say this it is certainly not to complain about the iniquity of democratic justice, but to point out how easy it is for an anarchist to end up in prison, no matter how careful one is. Awareness of this risk should not scare us, just keep us ready.
       So “Scripta Manent” was not at all unexpected but is a repressive attack whose only uncertainty was “when”, not “if.” An attack by the democratic regime against those who, within it, still refuse to submit to the values and morals of dominion by getting into in a conciliatory perspective of dialogue and compromise, but remain in open confrontation with power.
     “The State is not thinkable without lordship and servitude … For the State it is indispensable that nobody have an own will; if one had, the State would have to exclude this one; if all had, they would do away with the State.”
      After all, whether you end up there or not, prison is still in the path of an anarchist. Because it is a spectre that hangs over you, because it has taken friends or loved ones, or just because it is the foundation of this society that we hate (“repression is civilization”).
      But the constant threat of imprisonment is not enough to stifle the rage we feel in front of the hundreds of thousands of animals killed and tortured every day, in front of entire ecosystems wiped out by the greed of technological society, in front of the millions of individuals forced into alienation at the workplace, held in vile prisons or concentration camps for migrants, and all the people killed by hunger and wars. And how can you bow your head resigned in the face of the continuous interference of the State in our lives?
       This society where everything has its price like in a shopping mall, where anything can be bought and sold as long as you have the money, this society based on profit no matter what the cost will always have an extreme enemy in who is not willing to trade their life and their dignity. Money is the only driving force of this system of death and misery. The State legitimates it, the police defend it, the newspapers give voice to its lies. Anarchists reject it and attack it.
      Solidarity with those arrested, those under investigation and those raided in operation “Scripta Manent”.
       Solidarity with those who are paying the price for opposing this system of domination in this world.
      With those who under a leaden sky choose to bring about the storm. For a world built on the ruins of this one. “Charges upon charges, sentences upon sentences, what counts is the hour of capitulation.”

Daniele Eccheccazzo
[Whatthefuck]

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