Not Stupid.

 

Image courtesy of Youtube.

 

           The war in Ukraine, call it what you will, U$A proxy war, Russian invasion of another country, but one thing is clear, we in the West do not get the full facts of the situation. We are never informed of where the rumblings of the conflict started, what factors were at play that erupted onto the bloody conflict we are witnessing now. We are treated as stupid by our lords and masters, and their mouthpiece the mainstream media. To them it is preached as good and evil, we of course are the good, Russia is the evil, we are supposed to swallow this simplistic explanation of a complex situation of power and resources, of world domination and the supremacy of the West 

 

Image courtesy of The Communist.

 

         Two interesting comments from Anarchist News shows the disparity of explanations of this bloody conflict in which, as usual, the ordinary people pay the price in blood and suffering, while the power mongers gather the blood soaked benefits.

Submitted by Wayne Price (not verified) on Tue, 08/01/2023 - 14:44

            This Anon reduces the issue to that of the inter-imperialist conflict, "the geopolitical interests of their local ruling class." It doesn't seem to occur to them that the Ukrainian people (mostly workers and farmers, not just their "local ruling class") are fighting for their lives, their existence as a people, their language, and their freedoms (limited as these are in a capitalist democracy), against an invading enemy which is smashing their villages and cities, blowing up their infrastructure, massacring their people, raping their women, and kidnapping their children. To them it is not simply a matter of the Ukrainian rulers not of the imperialist states from which they have gotten arms. Most of the anarchists of Ukraine, Russia, and Belarusia can see this, even if you can't. reply

 Their lives? their existence
Submitted by anon (not verified) on Tue, 08/01/2023 - 19:56

Their lives? their existence as a people?
          The Russians are not a horde of Orcs out to rampage and murder indiscriminately Wayne, it's a political war for the control of territory and resources, and in a large sense it's a civil war, as a bulk of the so-called "Russian" forces are actually so-called Ukrainians, scared kids who were forcefully conscripted from the donbass region to fight other scared conscripted kids. The ethnic/genetic differences between "white" russians and ukrainians is absolutely negligible, almost everybody has close relatives from both countries.

Their language?
           The bulk of the devastation is unfolding in territories where the populations are majority russian speaking and culturally russian. These were regions that voted against leaving the USSR and later became footholds of the "pro-russian" federalist Party of Regions. All the major industrial infrastructure in these regions date back to the soviet times. Since the Maidan coup in 2014 the Ukrainain state has been openly belligerent against its "own" civilian populations in these regions, intermittantly bombing residential areas and carrying out terror campaigns led by Banderist, Right Sektor and Azov neo-nazis. Some western-ukrainian nationalist politicians and TV commentators have openly called for making an ethnic purge and population replacement the whole region, citing that they are unambitious an not productive enough. Almost 300 children were killed by ukrainian bombs, bombs launched by their "own" nation before the outbreak of the russian intervention.

Their freedoms? democracy?
        There is no political freedom. Since the outbreak of the war the Ukrainian state has outlawed all left-wing parties and indefinitely suspended elections. Because of general conscription males are forced to hide or flee if they do not want to become cannon fodder for the defense of the current regime. Soliders and police patrol the streets hunting for evaders. It's cool the Zelenskyy wants to legalize weed though I guess.

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Madness!

 

           Centuries ago,when capitalism first got a grip on humanity, the people have petitioned, protested and marched, and all that has happened is that capitalism has grown in strength and tightened its grip on humanity. If we continue quietly petitioning, marching and protesting, we can expect the same pattern to be repeated. They say the first sign of madness is to keep doing the same thing but expecting a different result, are we mad, will we continue the same old routine?
           If we expect capitalism to desist from plundering the planet, exploiting the population and grasping ever great slices of the Earth's resources, and at the same time creating ever great wealth for that handful of privileged parasites, then we will have to think of a different way of destroying the voracious beast that is capitalism.
           It may seem that capitalism is so strong and powerful that it is impossible to be removed, but there were those who thought that the divine right of kings was impossible to remove, but it has gone, into the dustbin of history. Capitalism may seem invincible, but it has many weakness, many points that are vulnerable, many ways that it can be brought to its knees, we have the numbers, we have the desire, and I'm sure we have the intelligence and imagination to bring this festering cancerous economic system of insanity to a few footnotes in a dusty old history book.

The following article from Anarchist News 

 From La Nemesi Via Dark Nights

          Capitalism is voracious, our rage ferocious. Claim of the incendiary attack against four CAT machines, by the Informal Anarchist Conspiracy (Fivizzano, November 2022)
          The Informal Anarchist Conspiracy is anarchist and informal, therefore without organisational programmes or leaders, the result of the free union of individuals moved by their own will and reciprocal felt need to strike at those responsible for the misery.
          In November, one year after the burning of two vehicles at the Boccanaglia Alta quarry, the Informal Anarchist Conspiracy celebrated its birthday by doubling down on the avenging fire. Four CATs from the Walton quarry in Castelbaita (Fivizzano – MS) were completely burnt.
          Unfortunately, apart from the birthday, there is little to celebrate. Tons of mountain pieces are taken away every year, with terrible consequences for nature in all its complexity. Also paying the price are the inhabitants who find themselves without drinking water or with floods that will continue to hit the area.
          Marble mining is part of the capitalist system of exploitation, to the point of depletion of every cm of soil, water, subsoil and so-called resources. The extractive economy is directly linked to the wars that from Yemen to Ukraine fatten the bosses. Every single industrialist is responsible for climate change, as well as for the existence of borders and the thousands of people slaughtered in the Mediterranean and in lagers defending borders.
            It is known that the bosses are hypocrites and fill their mouths with deceitful words. Big speeches about energy transition, emission reduction and other green masks are on the lips of politicians, bosses and phoney environmentalists. They propose and promise reconversion. They practice the destruction of this planet, the moon, the universe and everything. They talk a lot about alternative energies but never about alternatives to capitalism. Because according to them, this is the best of all possible worlds. We remind ourselves that exploitation and devastation is done on the skin of the many for the profit of a cowardly few.
          Last year environmentalists cried scandal over the violence against the bosses. This year they are crying for the right to work. These jackals only want to keep the world as it is. Any compromise with the ravagers of the earth is complicity. Every river, every forest and every mountain in the world shouts this.
          By letting the bosses make their profits, we all lose out (animals and humans). We lose slices of mountains crumbled and chewed up for construction, cosmetics for the toilets and yachts of the rich. We lose slices of the possibility of a better and beautiful world to live in. It is the worst one can live in. And so we regret to admit that the violence we deploy is still too weak a response. We conspire and will continue to conspire in the knowledge that if a violent fight against society does not open up the present, then the future will be rotten and poisonous.
         Immediate closure of every quarry and every industry. Against labour and society no reconversion or wait-and-see. Direct action and social war.
         To bosses and lackeys: this time we hit the means you use for your dirty deeds but we are clear that it is your hands that move them.
        With this action we say greetings to all our prisoner comrades. In particular Alfredo, Anna, Juan and Ivan.
         Immediate declassification of Alfredo from 41 bis.
         We greet with joy the Anna Maria Mantini autonomous cell in Germany – the Negra Venganza in Chile – the Augusto Masetti FAI/FRI Brigade in Italy.

Forward Comrades!

LONG LIVE THE FAI/FRI.
LONG LIVE THE BLACK INTERNATIONAL!

Informal Anarchist Conspiracy

[Taken from “Bezmotivny“, internationalist anarchist fortnightly, year II, number 23, 5 December 2022]

 

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Disrupt.

 

 

Image courtesy of Youtube.

  

          This so called democratic system we live under is stinking rotten to the core. Our lives are shaped by corruption, self seeking power mongers, authoritarianism, and that deadly virus patriotism, all this officiated over by funny people in funny clothes. This seemingly invincible edifice to power, privilege and wealth, is vulnerable in so many ways. We can attack the system in so many ways from disturbing the placid followers of the system as they blissfully ignore the real world around them. Its lines of communication are vulnerable, strikes can disrupt its flow of money to the parasites, Go slow working to rule rule can play havoc with their production of crap for sale to the gullible public. If we wish to rid ourselves of this cancerous exploitative, greed drive system, we have to use every means at our disposal, just as the system uses ever means at its disposal to control and intimidate the population into a homogeneous placid obedient mass.

 

 

Image courtesy of The Guardian.

 

The following from Anarchist News.

Via Inferno Urbano Translated by Act for freedom now!

         Interruption of a performance at Teatro Argentina in solidarity with the imprisoned anarchists on hunger strike against 41bis (Rome 26th November 2022)
         Today, 26th November 2022, the play ‘Hamlet’ was interrupted at Teatro Argentina in Rome. In spite of the fact that the theatre workers turned into a real security line-up to protect the bosses’ interests, we determinedly managed to get on stage and unfurl a banner that read “Something is rotten in Italy: NO to 41 bis”, throw leaflets and read part of the communique which we are reproducing in full here below:
         We are here because Alfredo Cospito is under 41 bis. 41 bis is a prison regime specifically designed to annihilate the individual. We are here because Alfredo has been on hunger strike for over a month. We are not here to cry over an injustice suffered by our anarchist comrade, because it is not such. Just as it is not a legal aberration. It is the logical reaction of the democratic State to the attacks launched by Alfredo. First physical, with the wounding of the bureaucrat Adinolfi, at the time CEO of Ansaldo Nucleare, for which he has finished serving the time he was sentenced to.
           Then in the words through which he contributed to the debates of the anarchist movement while in high security detention. 41 bis to Alfredo is not just revenge, is also the will to take away the word. Because the word, when it does not remain a mere rhetorical exercise, is a weapon.
           Alfredo has been on hunger strike for over a month to obtain his reclassification and against life imprisonment without parole.
           He has been joined by the anarchist prisoners Juan Sorroche, Ivan Alocco and Anna Beniamino. They are using the hunger strike because in the condition of isolation in which they find themselves it is perhaps the only form of struggle available to them. With strength and courage they are risking their safety, their lives… while you are sitting here watching a sham and do not realise that everything is such. Every day something is taken from you, for the time being, it does not affect you and so you look the other way. Blinded by your privileges you think that democracy is the best possible system and you look indignantly at exotic nations where people are being trampled on. You want truth and justice for Giulio Regeni and don’t give a damn about the 14 deaths in prison on the 8th of March 2020 by Italian democracy. You don’t give a damn about the 80 prison suicides from January to today. You don’t give a damn about the migrant concentration camps scattered around the Bel paese.
           We have not come to sensitise you. If you are sleeping soundly… we will spoil your entertainment.

Let’s break the social peace in which you are basking.

Death to the State!
Long live Anarchy!

 

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

War.

        The over riding aim of the ordinary people of this planet should be on bringing down the state/military industrial complex.  Wars are a necessary part of the state in its desire for power and enhancing that power. War eats the world's resources as it reaps havoc on the civilian population and it is the biggest polluter on earth by far. We the ordinary people never gain from wars, it is that small class of powerful and wealthy parasites that hold the reins of power over our lives who gain. They are the ones who call for war, shout about patriotism and democracy to get the ordinary people onboard to do the killing and be killed, these worthless lying parasites are the ones who gain from the bloodshed.

Image courtesy of Modern War.

The following from Anarchist News.

Two days against war and repression 26-27.06.2022 

 

 Sunday, June 26, 2022

      5 p.m.: The ongoing war and the reasons for our internationalism. Against the wars of masters and rulers. Against all states, starting with our own. For the defeat of NATO. Discussion with some comrade editors of the anarchist internationalist fortnightly “Bezmotivny.”

8 p.m.: Buffet dinner.

Monday, June 27, 2022

      5 p.m.: Discussion: Anti-anarchist repression in recent years: from the Scripta Manent trial to 41 bis against Alfredo Cospito. After months of censorship on correspondence and following the repressive Sibilla operation in November, comrade Alfredo Cospito was transferred to a 41 bis regime on May 5, while the cassation ruling of the Scripta Manent trial, in which some 20 anarchists are defendants and for which, in addition to Alfredo, another comrade, Anna Beniamino, is currently imprisoned, is scheduled for June 27.

      In continuity with the struggle against the state and capital, we solidarize with the imprisoned anarchists, support revolutionary practices, and persevere in anarchist propaganda.

8 p.m.: Buffet dinner.

Circolaccio Anarchico

viale della repubblica 1/A – Spoleto

e-mail: circolaccioanarchico[at]inventati[dot]org

telegram: t.me/circolaccioanarchicospoleto

[Attached is the manifesto for the initiative].

Visit ann arky's home at http://strugglepedia.com  

By Any Means.

           The current situation in states across the world is that they are moving further to the right. In turn that means that any form of opposition to the existing order will be seen as something that must be stamped out, by any means available. Their specially sculptured judicial system will keep introducing laws that can clamp down on dissent of any form, by financial or custodial means, or both. Our very few freedoms are are risk, unless we show solidarity and organisation across borders. The following report is from Spain, but just as easily could have been from Greece, Itally, Uk, U$A or any of the other variations of  protectors of the status-quo.

         The following report is from Anarchists News, translation is not perfect but good enough to let you know what is going on.

       “They ask the union for almost 600,000 euros and jail sentences for the complainant worker and union members, a total of 8 people,”

Prison sentences for unionism

          It all started with different labor irregularities and an alleged sexual harassment at work, a complaint currently filed. A worker went to the union at the beginning of 2017 to comment on what was happening to her at Pastelerías La Suiza, in Gijón. ” ..The union requested additional information to support the version of the worker, after which, it met with the company to discuss the issue, unsuccessfully which led to the beginning of a union mobilization campaign and several concentrations of complaint were held, “nothing that is not usual in union action,” the unionists declare. 

       However, “the attacked women became aggressors from one day to the next, when denounced by the businessman on numerous occasions,” the CNT denounces. “They ask the union for almost 600,000 euros and jail sentences for the complainant worker and union members, a total of 8 people,” they detail from the anarcho-syndicalist central, “some penalties that are beyond all logic.”
       Behind the claim that asks for years in jail for unionism allegedly could be the Gijón hotel trade union, people with a clear conservative orientation, who “have accused the CNT of extorting, of being ETA, and have tried to outlaw the union for a crime of illicit association ”.
       In fact, they have hired, as a lawyer to exercise the private accusation against the union, the former magistrate of the National Court, Mr. Javier Gómez Bermúdez, “star judge and now Jaime Botín’s lawyer”, highlights the anarcho-syndicalist organization. 

       “This case is another step in the outlawing of trade unionism, either directly or by putting trade unionists in jail and financially condemning them,” denounces the CNT. For this reason, they appeal to class solidarity and the fraternal support of all the trade union centrals, in order to try to stop this aggression and to disseminate as much as possible what is going to be judged as of Monday 18.

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Insurrection??

          There has been a lot of coverage of the "insurrection" in Washington DC on January 6th.. So it is good to hear an analysis of the events from anarchists and those of that ilk from that side of the pond, They'll be much more in touch with what goes on in that patch of the planet.

This from It's Going Down:

 

      

        A critical anarchist analysis and critique of the recent events in Washington DC and the response from the political Center and mass media. 

 

       So much could be said about the spectacle recently witnessed at Washington, DC’s federal capitol building, however we will write a quick statement, hoping to further understand the situation as well as to assert a need on behalf of comrades in the States who face both imminent and ongoing grassroots violence and parallel state repression. Essentially, what we saw was not an insurrection or revolt; what the world witnessed was a permitted fascist temper tantrum.
      On January 6th, 2021, the American government gathered for its ritual of certifying the Electoral College results, signifying the transfer of power to a new president. It is an archaic ritual that—because it began prior to modern travel, and faraway states needed the months after the election to travel across the country by horse and carriage to participate—is held in January rather than immediately following the election’s outcome in November. This event was seen by both Trump and his followers as the last ‘hoorah’ to disrupt the transfer of power from the far-right Republican Party to the moderate right-wing Democratic Party.

       The US security state’s very different approach to the MAGA mob versus an antifascist, anarchist, or abolitionist demonstration was made quite overt on the 6th. It was so obvious, in fact, that mainstream media outlets have seized upon it, in their embarrassing public displays of trying to grasp just why the police put on their kid-gloves with these self-indulgent cowards seeking to reinforce the very worst of what already exists in the US, storming a building that has its very own police force (with an annual budget of more than $500 million).
     The police tolerance exhibited for Trump’s supporters was purposefully obvious. It has been public information that the extreme Right in the US have chosen to infiltrate law enforcement and political positions of power (even cited in a report by the FBI) ever since the fall of the guerrilla neo-Nazi group The Order in the mid-1980s and white supremacist Timothy McVeigh’s bombing of an Oklahoma City federal building in 1995 that killed 168 people. Both were inspired by the white supremacist bible at the time, the fictional novel The Turner Diaries (1978), which featured a similar assembling of fascists identifying as ‘Patriots.’ Apart from formally rampant white supremacy throughout the American police force, every single police union had endorsed Trump in the US in the run-up to the 2020 election. While police tend to be more diverse in the US compared to many countries around the world, the original purpose of the police in the US was to catch slaves and crush unions, so it is inevitable that regardless of race, there is an element of fascism in such a uniform.
       If Black Lives Matter, anarchist, or anti-fascist banners were raised on this day, there would have been mass arrests, far more intense brutality, and a likely massacre. While five people have died due to the events of the 6th, one being a police officer who died due to being beaten to death with a fire extinguisher*, and only one demonstrator due to police violence; the other three literally died due to their own stupidity and maintained their white privilege even in their humiliating deaths. If this was not a white supremacist event—or an ostensibly fascist event—dozens would have been killed by the police.
       Apart from the daily mass murder of people of color and poor people in the US by police, the fates of Kyle Rittenhouse and Michael Reinoehl, for some very recent examples, help to explain the behavior of the police on that day, how they acted in parallel to their grassroots fascist counterparts.
      Kyle Rittenhouse murdered two people during a demonstration against the shooting of Jacob Blake—a Black man shot seven times in the back in front of his children by a white police officer in Kenosha, Wisconsin. The event left Blake paralyzed, but the officer who shot him will face no charges despite video evidence. Rittenhouse is currently on trial for his murders, and was allowed to move freely past the police line just shortly after killing people. Michael Reinoehl, on the other hand, was a self-proclaimed antifascist from Oregon, who in self-defense shot a fascist during a Trump protest. Reinoehl went on Vice News shortly after the event to proclaim the action was in self-defense, and one day later, he was shot over 50 times by federal police. Trump openly bragged about Reinhoel’s assassination. With few exceptions, his fate was rarely discussed in the media, but shows the obstacles and struggle revolutionaries face versus the permitted ‘rebellious’ behavior of fascists and other fanatics for the misery of the world today. The courts are no different. The sentencing and investigations that inevitably follow the actions of the right are managed in a way resembling obligation, rather then the passionate and brutal judicial attacks by the state on revolutionary movements seeking liberation.

Read the full article HERE: 

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

Game Plan.

          The pandemic has probably brought more people to board games to escape bored evenings, in lockdown, but how many of these board games come to suit anarchist ways of thinking? Well, C4SS, Centre for Stateless Society, have put forward the suggestion, Bloc by Bloc. See what you think. 

 

Image from Anarchist News

 

       For better or worse, board games tend to be a popular form of entertainment in radical spaces, and yet there are precious few games that explicitly deal with anarchist ideas. For those exhausted by games glorifying nationalistic conquest, monopoly capitalism, and settler colonialism, Bloc by Bloc: The Insurrection Game may offer a breath of refreshing (if tear-gas-scented) air. According to the introduction in the manual, Bloc by Bloc is “a semi-cooperative game simulating protest movements, riots and popular uprisings in urban areas of the world during the first decades of the 21st century.” The name refers to the black bloc, a tactic used to anonymize and thereby protect participants in these uprisings, and in the game refers to the literal wooden blocks that represent such participants.
      Released by Out of Order Games in 2018, the latest edition of Bloc by Bloc features randomized map generation, area control strategy, and hidden agendas, where each player is a faction of revolutionaries fighting against the police in an attempt to liberate their city. Each of the various factions (workers, neighbors, prisoners, and students) has a special ability giving them an advantage in their struggle against the state. For example, the students can more easily and freely move about the city, whereas the neighbors are better at building barricades to slow down the movement of the police.
        Bloc by Bloc is a game for 2 to 4 players and it typically takes 2 to 3 hours to play. Players new to strategy board games might find the learning curve a little steep, but the instruction manual is clearly worded and includes reference cards that remind players of their available actions. Experienced board gamers will probably find many of the mechanics familiar. Board game comparison site boardvsgame.com gives it a complexity rating of 2.7 out of 5; compare this to the 2.3 / 5 of the classic competitive mainstay Settlers of Catan or the 2.4 / 5 of the popular cooperative game Pandemic.
      While it can be played in fully cooperative mode, the game’s unique semi-cooperative mode is the recommended way to play, and in this Final Straw Radio interview, the game’s designer TL explains why. In contrast to fully cooperative games, where all players are on the same team and playing against the game’s “cardboard AI,” the players in Bloc by Bloc might all be on the same team — but they also might not. In fully co-op games, there is a tendency for everyone to follow the lead of the most experienced player, at its worst becoming a de-facto game of solitaire with less experienced players acting as mere extensions of the most experienced. This dynamic (while perhaps a rational strategy, the players want to win after all), isn’t necessarily encouraging of the critical thinking and anti-hierarchical mindset that anarchists seek to cultivate. But by introducing uncertainty about other players’ agendas, Bloc by Bloc instead forces each player to autonomously evaluate any particular move on its own strategic merit. 

 Read the full article HERE:

 

 Comment from Anarchist News: 

    It was fun but the gameplay is horrible . It wouldn’t be too hard to tweak it to Make it playable. The fix would to have way less dice rolling , which there is more of in this game than risk, which is the reason risk doesn’t hold up. Also the game is way too long. I appreciate the effort though, it’s hard work creating a game

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Take Sides.

       You don't like violence, then few people do, so when looking at the violence in our world, where should you direct your anger? At the unimaginable brutal, savage violence of states that bomb cities and countries killing hundreds of thousands of innocent people for power and wealth, that put police armed like robo-cop on the streets of our communities, or those same states that promote and protect corporate organisations that plunder the planet to the extinction of our ecosystem? Or those who would pick up a stone and throw it at the openly violent face of that state apparatus, or who attack the symbols of that violent state machine in hope of bring an end to the whole violent structure of the modern corporate/state system of capitalism? The state is violence, it can only survive by the violent repression of dissent, the state and capitalism are two fangs of the same vicious economic system that spawns mass poverty, deprivation, homelessness, wars, divisions between people across the planet, gross inequality and injustice, these are all degrees of violence. So why shouldn't those at the receiving end of this brutal system take to self defence and fight to destroy it, in an attempt to bring peace and equality to to all our people. When you stand and condemn violence in our society, be thoughtful and careful with which side you stand.

The following from Anarchists News:

Death to the State! Solidarity with Mónica and Francisco.
        Throughout history, anarchists have always suffered persecution by the State. This is because the simple idea of a world, free and in solidarity, where the coercive power of the State is not only unnecessary, but undesirable, is in itself a threat for those who hold power. And those people who put these ideas into practice and confront State violence can take for granted that they will catch the attention of the State's repressive apparatus.
        Mónica Caballero and Francisco Solar are going through that. They were kidnapped by the State on July 24th, 2020. Now they risk spending various years in some Chilean prison.

Freedom for Mónica and Francisco!

         All the support to the struggle of the mapuche people which also suffers the repression of the Chilean State!
         This video was made as part of the Day of Agitation and Propaganda for Anarchist prisoners, August 14, 2020.

[Video transcript and translation below by Anarchist News:]

       Quote on screen: "It's not cruelty, nor thirst for blood, nor any other criminal tendency, what induce a man to attack organized power. On the contrary, it's above all due to a strong social instinct, due to a strong abundance of love and an overflowing of sympathy with the pain and sorrow that surrounds us" - Emma Goldman
Narrator voice-over in Portuguese and subtitles in Spanish:
        "In the morning of July 24th, 2020, the Chilean State arrested Mónica Caballero and Francisco Solar in another attempt to criminalize anarchists. The State tries to disguise all the brutality and violence inherent in its existence by accusing anarchists of violence. But there's no way to compare the violence of colonialism, the military, the police and neo-liberalism, with rocks, Molotov cocktails and other tools used by peoples that resist genocide and oppression, and the destruction of all the ecosystems that maintain all the life on Earth. And it's those same States who are responsible for the greater part of the violence in the world, who feel they have the right to judge us and call that "justice".
        Freedom for Mónica Caballero and Francisco Solar and for all the people that were kidnapped by States!"
       Mónica Caballero addressing the court: "Death to the State and long live anarchy!"
        Francisco Solar addressing the court: "Long live anarchy!"

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

Proactive.

      With the big social media platforms, all run by billionaires, who, to put it mildly, have no love of anarchists, ever tightening controls on who gets in and who doesn't, should we now be organising to walk away before the kick us all out? Proactive rather than reactive. We know that it is coming, it's just a matter of time.

The following food for thought from Anarchist News:

      Last week, after Crimethinc, IGD, Enough is Enough and others were banned from Fedbook, our friend Ziq gave us food for thought with this post on raddle:

      We can't keep expecting platforms owned by far-right billionaires to stay honest. Anarchists are the biggest threat to any capitalist, so of course they're going to shut us down at every opportunity.
      [There are many important anarchist projects, each serving a different purpose], but they can't continue to exist in a vacuum while the social media behemoths are busy closing ranks to ensure all our efforts are stifled...
      [raddle has] always encouraged anarchists to use our platform to grow their own platforms. But it's not a one-way street. There needs to be a concerted effort between all the aforementioned anarchist venues to amplify each other's voices. Cross promotion is the only thing that will keep us all alive and kicking...

        If you were to promote other anarchist sites/venues/projects/whatever, how would you do it? Would it look like Facebook and Twitter, Cabal and Plemora, banner drop and billboard, or something completely different? What are the pros and cons of each?
       Who would you promote? Who would you not? Let's not just have a list of names; let's hear why you chose this one over that one, why anews was on top of your list, and why you'd never in a thousand years amplify [you name it].
        Does amplifying voices mean banding together, like Ziq suggests, or does it mean going it alone, but louder?
      Who already does promotion the way you'd like it to be done? Who does it in a way that you can't stand?
       Is it as important as Ziq says to cross promote each other's voices? If you think it is, how would you like to see it play out in the days ahead? If not, what are otherways of keeping us all alive and kicking?

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

Why Vote.

          Anarchists have always made it clear that to vote in this society is to perpetuate the injustices, inequalities and exploitation of capitalist economic system. You may modify slightly a piece of legislation here and a working condition there, but the same basic structure of exploitation, inequality and injustice will remain firmly in place. Voting in a capitalist state system guarantees the status-quo.

          Spirit of Revolt  has a wealth of pamphlets, booklets and leaflets, etc.  explaining this basic principle of anarchism. One of our previous "Read of the Month" posts, helps explain this position, a pamphlet by Glasgow anarchists Bobby Lynn, Vote: What For.

Read on line HERE

         Again explaining in more detail our position of not voting, the following is an extract from Anarchist News

   --------As anarchists we simply think that our policy should be the destruction of the State rather than looking to work with it. We believe this stance is essential if we are to be able to promote anarchism, and if we are going to mark a divide between others and ourselves, and place ourselves firmly outside the activity and the political games of all the other parties. We believe this is essential so as not to be seen as another bunch of leftists after votes, and to avoid being tainted by the inevitable failure of any government to meet our needs. We believe in revolution and have a revolutionary ideology and we want to win people over to anarchism. If people started associating Anarchism with the political parties, then it would be difficult for people to understand what  Anarchism actually is.
        By arguing for our anti-electoral position we can get our ideas across about the nature of the current system, how elected politicians are controlled and shaped by the state, and how the state acts to protect capitalism. In addition, it allows us to present our ideas of direct action and encourage those disillusioned with political parties and the current system to become anarchists by presenting a viable alternative to the sham of party politics. For, after all, a sizeable percentage of not just non-voters but voters too are disillusioned with the current set-up. Many who do not vote do so for essentially political reasons, such as being fed up with the political system, failing to see any major differences between the parties, or recognition that the candidates do not represent their interests. Many who do vote do so simply against the other candidate, seeing them as the least-worst option. This is an opportunity when people are talking a little more about politics to challenge the notion that important decisions can only be made by a few, and put across our anarchist ideas.
        We started with a quote from Vernon Richards, and we will finish with one:
“If the anarchist movement has a role to play in practical politics it is surely that of suggesting to, and persuading, as many people as possible that their freedom from the Hitlers, Francos and the rest, depends not on the right to vote or securing a majority of votes ‘for the candidate of one’s choice,’ but on
evolving new forms of political and social organisation which aim at the direct participation of the people, with the consequent weakening of the power, as well of the social role, of government in the life of the community.”
[“Anarchists and Voting”, pp. 176-87, The Raven, no. 14, pp. 177-8]

       So… Don’t vote, or spoil your vote if you want, and let’s start making a real difference.

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Food For Thought.

 

     We can look at this pandemic as something that is happening to us, or we can see it as something that is showing up the glaring inadequacies in the present structure of society, forcing us to think again about how we function as a society. It is obvious that the existing structure of the way we live is incapable of dealing with this sort of event, due in some great measure to the value given to profit rather than worth to humanity. Wealth accumulation for the individual is seen as success, rather than improving the quality of life for all, thus producing a society of inequality and insecurity. In the aftermath of this pandemic, is that what we want to rebuild? I recently heard a comment that made perfect sense to me, "If you live in a shanty town and a hurricane comes along and completely destroys your shanty town, when it has past and you realise that you will have to rebuild, do you rebuild another shanty town, or do you try to build something better?"

Some food for thought from Anarchist News:

 1. A pandemic isn’t a collection of viruses, but is a social relation among people, mediated by viruses.

Nothing is inevitable, inescapable, or immutable about the coronavirus pandemic unfolding everywhere around us, simply because the pandemic is social. The endless posts and announcements marshalling us to help “flatten the curve” are at least enough to make clear that the historical consequences and human costs of the pandemic entirely depend on the ways we collectively choose to live in relation to it. Because the pandemic doesn’t simply happen to us but is instead something we partake in, a first step forward in these times is to refuse to curtail our thinking to how each of our individual lives may be particularly impacted by the virus and to begin to contemplate the potential we collectively share to change the course of the pandemic as well as to shape the new society that emerges from it.

2. At the very least, the expanding suspension of social, economic, and political norms and laws provides each of us with a unique opportunity to question the pre-pandemic world we had all grown accustomed to living within.

What is the value of work? How might we allocate resources differently if we didn’t have to consider price? Is privatized healthcare defensible? Are prisons truly necessary? As we witness the cancellation of utility, mortgage, and rent payments, the public takeover of private healthcare systems, the cessation of arrests for low-level offenses, and the calls for the cancellation of all debt, what else might we call into question and, perhaps more importantly, imagine taking hold in their place? If those in power are so willing to upend social, economic, and political norms and laws in the interest of defending the world they upheld, then we must be equally willing to upend them and spread the imagination of something otherwise. In this short time, we can already see that the only truly certain thing in the pandemic is that nothing will ever be the same again.

3. As nation states prove unwilling and/or incapable of supporting life, our immediate and urgent priority must be to organize mutual aid, solidarity, and care using whatever means necessary.

It truly didn’t take long for the specters of pandemic darwinism and viral malthusianism to surface, finding support in politicians around the world who tell their citizens that they are on their own. If the state and the market economy prove to be unable to provide the diverse forms of care upon which all life depends, we must find ways of providing that care without concern for who owns what or whether it is legal. In this sense, the struggle to defend life in the pandemic will at times necessarily take shape as a direct struggle against the logic of capital, the violence of law, and the abstraction of price. We must learn about our own needs and the needs of those we are capable of caring for, find ways of producing, expropriating, and distributing goods that satisfy the needs of interconnected and interdependent communities, and be willing to simply take what is needed whenever it is denied to us.

Continue reading: 

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State Of Emergency?

 

       At the risk of information overload, here are some more thoughts on the coronavirus, the state's response and the state of emergency. I still maintain that it is up to the communities to organise and protect themselves in a rational and humane manner, rather than wait for the state's instructions and to quietly follow. Yi pays yir money an yi takes yir pick.

 This from Anarchist News:

Anarchists in Italy Report on the Spread of the Virus and the Quarantine        From one side, our lives are threatened by a new virus; from the other side, our freedom is menaced by nationalists and authoritarians intent on using this opportunity to set new precedents for state intervention and control. If we accept this dichotomy—between life and freedom—we will continue paying the price long after this particular pandemic has passed. In fact, each is bound up in the other, dependent upon the other. In the following report, our comrades in Italy describe the conditions prevailing there, the causes of the escalating crisis, and the ways that the Italian government has taken advantage of the situation to consolidate power in ways that will only exacerbate future crises.
       At this point, the strategy of the authorities is not aimed at protecting people from the virus so much as controlling the pace at which it spreads so that it doesn’t overwhelm their infrastructure. Crisis management is the order of the day, as in so many other aspects of our lives. Our rulers don’t intend to preserve the lives of everyone—they already wrote off concern for the destitute long before this crisis began. Rather, they are determined to preserve the current structure of society and their perceived legitimacy.

Continue reading:

This from Act For Freedom Now:

     INTERRUPTIONS …         There is nothing new about social life taking place at a distance. For a long time now people have been persuaded that the best way to communicate and relate is through the use of a device. Prostheses of the human being, the smartphone and its like, have transformed the way of being together, of being informed, learning, communicating, writing and reading.
      The next step is the robotization of living, technique pervading every place, every aspect of daily life. An overcoming of nature and the natural in favour of artificial beings and places. Such a scenario needs no social life, it does not need relationships, feelings, thoughts, it only needs order, discipline, regulation, machines. Maybe Dominion is trying to take a step forward and use a health problem, the spread of a virus, to reach generalized regimentation at least, the rest will then take care of itself. Science fiction comes to mind, but States have centuries old instruments to draw on without having to resort to the unknown.
       The social distancing imposed by laws prohibiting kisses and hugs and the suppression of most social activities, recalls states of emergency in which the rules of social life are imposed and must be obeyed so as not to run up against getting charged or being arrested. And indeed the establishment of red zones and checkpoints, limitation of freedom of circulation, obligation of home isolation for those coming from areas considered infected controlled by police, but above all the ban on gatherings, i.e. public meetings, is the police management of a health problem. Not surprisingly it is foreseen in the ten rules recommended by the Italian State to avoid the spread of the virus that in case of fever the carabinieri must the first to be contacted. But states of emergency are also the measures provided for in situations of conflict or insurrection, as happened recently in Chile.

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This from 325:

Coronavirus, Agribusiness and the State of Emergency’ by Silvia Ribeiro
       Much is said about the Covid-19 coronavirus, and yet very little. There are fundamental aspects that remain in the shadows. I want to name some of these, different but complementary.
      The first refers to the perverse mechanisms of capitalism to hide the true causes of the problem so as not to do anything about them, because it affects their interests, but it does deal with the apparent cure for the symptoms. Meanwhile, the State spends enormous public resources on prevention, containment and treatment measures, which do not act on the causes either, so this way of facing problems becomes a captive business for transnational companies, for example, with vaccines and medicines.
      The dominant reference to viruses and bacteria is as if they were exclusively harmful organisms that must be eliminated. A war-like approach prevails, as in so many other aspects of capitalism’s relationship with nature. However, due to the ability of viruses to jump between species, viruses and bacteria are a fundamental part of the coevolution and adaptation of living beings, as well as their balance with the environment and their health, including humans.

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Mask Up.

 

      Most people now agree that we are facing unprecedented problems on this planet, and most can be traced back to human activity. Despite the obvious impending disaster, the controllers of the economic system responsible for this situation, still persist in their false and flawed mantra, "It's the only game in town".

     They will adjust and rearrange things as long as it doesn't alter their power, wealth and privileges, no matter the outcome for the rest of us. We are secondary, expendable, to their blind vision for our planet, blind to the fact that they die with us if this system continues.

     While states attempt to stop people wearing masks at protests, they continue to create situations where we will have to wear masks to walk our streets, as pollution poisons the air we breathe. We tolerate this crazy path at our peril, and to the detriment of our children's future.

     It is no longer  a matter of whither we should take what action we can to bring down this suicide mission of the corporate/financial out of control juggernaut, it is an obligation, so that we can give our grandchildren a future. It is also obvious that dialogue and running to a ballot box hasn't done any good  over numerous years. The beast has to be faced head on and destroyed root and branch by the mass of people taking direct action, the time for talking has long since past. Take your righteous anger onto the streets, create the change you wish to see, we change or we die. 

This from Anarchist News:

 One Way or Another, One Day We’ll All Wear Masks

       Wherever we are situated in this society, our future boils down to two options: accepting our fate and trying to reduce the harm to our bodies and the environment on a piecemeal basis—or actively resisting in order to interrupt the disaster and implement our own solutions. If there is anything that scientists, sociologists, military strategists, and day laborers all agree on, it is that we are headed for global collapse.
      Those who hold power seek to take advantage of hurricanes, forest fires, and pandemics to impose more and more invasive forms of control on us. Their responses to crises always prioritize protecting their own privileges and profits while they treat the rest of us as expendable. We can’t trust our survival to their expertise.
      If we resign ourselves to the future implied by catastrophic climate change, widespread pollution, and ecological collapse, sooner or later, the disaster will come for us. In some parts of the world, people are already forced to wear masks when they leave the house just to protect themselves from poisoned air, toxic waste, or infectious conditions.
      If we do not accept the destruction of our lives, our land, our food, and everything that connects us with each other and the biosphere as a whole, we have to fight to regain control over the conditions of our lives and the decisions that determine our survival. In a world of police, prisons, surveillance cameras, we will have to wear masks that conceal who we are so we can fight for what we really want.

Read the full article and poster HERE:

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