The Birth Of A Town.

      The rising numbers at Standing Rock, taking part in the protests against the Dakota Access Pipeline, is amazing, what started as a small group of dedicated people out to protect the water supply in their area, is fast becoming a small town in its own right. People from all over, who understand the damage that the corporate world is doing to the planet, are massing there to make a stand against this juggernaut of greed, that is riding roughshod over the people and there natural resources.

     These photos give some idea of the extent of the support for this stand to protect the water against the onslaught of corporate greed. Thanks for the link Loam.

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

A Requiem For Democracy.

     Corporatism just took a very large step forward in its battle to control national governments. TPP secret discussions, locked well away from public scrutiny, have finally been signed on the dotted line. In Auckland New Zealand out-of-touch Trade Ministers and corporate bureaucrats just put their thumbs to their noses and ignored millions of Internet users, plus millions of others, and signed the TPP agreement. At the same time, New Zealand police, the corporate world's government sponsored minders, were intimidatingly knocking on the doors of “known activists” demanding to know about any plans they may have to protest this extreme censorship plan.

        TPP is seen as an integral part of TTIP, and all part of the corporate czars plans to rule the world, over-riding any sham of democracy that we may think we have. These so called "trade agreements" put the corporate world in the driving seat, placing them in a position to challenge any legislation made by governments, that they consider might hinder their drive for profits. Health and safety regulations, minimum wage guarantees, and so on, can be challenged if the corporate greed machine deems them to be a drag on their drive for gold.

     The ratifying of these power-monger agreements can be seen as a requiem for democracy, another step in the march of power away from the people to the upper echelons of the faceless bureaucrats of the corporate world, its natural direction in capitalism. We have always argued that parliamentary party elections were an illusion, a smoke and mirrors trick to make you believe you have democracy, now it has become even less, it is no more than chewing gum and candy-floss TV entertainment. 

       How can we solve the problems in our world, when the control lies in the hands of those who wish to plunder the earth and exploit all its population? We have to shift the power away from the faceless accountants and corporate bureaucrats and into the hands of the people. We can't do this unless we smash the existing system of capitalism. 

More information:

https://www.facebook.com/openmediaorg

https://twitter.com/OpenMediaOrg

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

The Ceaseless March Of Corporatism.

        An appeal from Global Justice Now, or should we take this as a warning, if we don't stop the march of corporatism in its tracks. 

       Next week, the Scottish Parliament will be discussing TTIP’s little brother CETA, the Canada-EU trade deal that includes all the same worrying things that TTIP does.
       If CETA is passed it could threaten public services in Scotland, the moratorium on fracking, and some of Scotland’s most iconic produce, such as Stornoway Black Pudding and the Arbroath Smokie.
       So, we’ve teamed up with 38 Degrees to run a petition calling on the Scottish Government to oppose CETA.  Click here to sign the petition.  And if you’re in or near Edinburgh on Thursday morning, please join us at 11.15am outside the Scottish Parliament to hand in the petition.
         CETA, like TTIP, will hand power from democratically elected governments to big business.  And CETA is due to be passed this year, ahead of TTIP.  Help us stop CETA.
Many thanks,
Liz
P.S. You can read more about CETA and its impacts on Scotland here Join Global Justice Now:
Become part of the movement for a more just and equal
world by joining as a member today. Join now.

Connect with us: Twitter | Facebook

Our mailing address is:
Global Justice Now Scotland
Thorn House, 5 Rose Street, Edinburgh, EH2 2PR
Phone: 0131 243 2730

We used to be the World Development Movement. Find out more.

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

Corporate Fascism Or True Democracy?

       The financial Mafia and multi-national corporations, work relentlessly to ever increase their power over the various states, attempting to standardise legislation so that it works in their favour, allowing them to run roughshod over anything that may hinder their ever more brutal plunder for profit. No country will be able to pass legislation that may hinder the corporate world's projected profits. If they do so, they can face costly legal battles in special courts that favour the corporate world. Health and safety measures could be challenged, environmental protection can be deemed to jeopardise their future profits, and the people can go to hell in a hand cart.

      For far too long the financial Mafia and the corporate fascists have fattened their bank accounts by sucking the blood from the people, spreading misery and deprivation in their wake. They have hi-jacked the world's resources and used its people as mere commodities.The time has surely come when we put a stop to this system that survives by the plundering of the many by the few. This is a man made system of corporate greed, it can be destroyed and replaced by a system of justice, sustainability and co-operation, a system that sees to the needs of all our people. However, this can only be done by the people, when the people have that desire for justice for all. Have we reached that time?  

A sample of what is in store for us, from SumOfUs:

Huge news: The final TPP text has just been released to the public. And just as we thought, it's full of give-aways for big business.
     To go into effect, the deal must be ratified by legislatures in countries that include Canada, the U.S., Australia, and New Zealand. If we can convince even one of those countries not to ratify, the deal could be dead -- but we're really running out of time. 

      SumOfUs is one of the only organizations in the world with enough global reach to launch and support grassroots campaigns everywhere where widespread opposition to the TPP exists. We need your help to make opposition to this deal as strong as we possibly can. Will you chip in £1 to help stop the TPP?
Yes, I'll donate £1 to help stop the Trans-Pacific Partnership.

     It's absolutely astonishing that a deal this huge would be negotiated entirely in secret. 792 million people live in countries that are party to this deal, yet this is the first any of us have officially been able to see the full text. And in keeping with the secrecy of the deal, the text was released at midnight in New Zealand when they thought most of the world wouldn't notice. 

     We don't think you should need a law degree to make sense of the deal that will affect every single one of us. So we need to make sure the public knows that this deal will drive up drug costs, weaken workers' rights, and put corporations on the same level as sovereign nations, able to sue in special TPP courts to overturn protections for consumers and the environment.
Will you donate £1 to help stop the Trans-Pacific Partnership?
       If you chip in today, here’s just some of what we’ll be able to do together:
Create easy-to-understand, sharable explanations of what's wrong with the TPP to share on social media. Work across party lines to get conservatives and progressives who oppose the deal working together. For instance, in the U.S., top candidates in both parties have come out against the TPP, putting enormous pressure on Congress to say no.
      Target MPs who are up for re-election in Australia and New Zealand and Canada's new government.
       The TPP has never been so close to becoming a reality, but we can still stop it if we all pitch in. Will you donate £1 today?
Yes, I'll chip in £1 to help stop the Trans-Pacific Partnership.

Thanks for all that you do,

Jon and the rest of the SumOfUs team

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


    

Mutual Aid, Not Charity.

         All of us with some political awareness, understand that large charities are not the answer, in this economic system, they are part of the problem. I have no doubt that some do great work, but collecting money from the people, to go and buy goods from the corporate world, is hardly anything approaching mutual aid. They help feed the banks, and big business, as well as paying fat salaries to CEO. They help oil the wheels of commerce with public money. Charities are in fact a symbol of system failure.

        When they do good work, that's a bonus, but mostly the fail miserable through a mixture of red tape, ineptitude, corruption and simply because economics is not the right tool in an emergency. 

         If the following report is true, and I have no reason to doubt it, then this must be the biggest example of that red tape, ineptitude, corruption and economic greed and madness, and further proof, that it is the entire system that has to be scrapped, and a system of true mutual aid built in its place.

This from Truth Out:

      The neighborhood of Campeche sprawls up a steep hillside in Haiti’s capital city, Port-au-Prince. Goats rustle in trash that goes forever uncollected. Children kick a deflated volleyball in a dusty lot below a wall with a hand-painted logo of the American Red Cross.
       In late 2011, the Red Cross launched a multimillion-dollar project to transform the desperately poor area, which was hit hard by the earthquake that struck Haiti the year before. The main focus of the project — called LAMIKA, an acronym in Creole for “A Better Life in My Neighborhood” — was building hundreds of permanent homes.
     Today, not one home has been built in Campeche. Many residents live in shacks made of rusty sheet metal, without access to drinkable water, electricity or basic sanitation. When it rains, their homes flood and residents bail out mud and water.
      The Red Cross received an outpouring of donations after the quake, nearly half a billion dollars.
       The group has publicly celebrated its work. But in fact, the Red Cross has repeatedly failed on the ground in Haiti. Confidential memos, emails from worried top officers, and accounts of a dozen frustrated and disappointed insiders show the charity has broken promises, squandered donations, and made dubious claims of success.
      The Red Cross says it has provided homes to more than 130,000 people. But the actual number of permanent homes the group has built in all of Haiti: six.

Read the full article HERE:

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

 

Stop TTIP.

       Let's not take our eyes of the dodgy double dealing devious TTIP stitch-up, that is taking place secretly, deep in the dark corridors of power. They are working hard at getting their corporate control put into binding legislation.

This from 38 Degrees:

     Caught red-handed: shady corporate lobbyists are spreading lies about TTIP. They’ve been emailing our MEPs, making false claims about widespread support for the dodgy trade deal. [1] Before MEPs start taking it seriously, let’s drown the lobbyists out.
       It’s urgent - next week, all MEPs will take part in a series of votes about TTIP. They could have the chance to vote to scrap some of the most dangerous parts of the deal, like the bit that lets big businesses sue our government if they don’t like our laws. [2] Corporate lobbyists have been telling MEPs that their colleagues support this part of the deal - but in fact, many of them don’t.
        Together, we need to make sure that in the final few days before the vote, MEPs inboxes are full of emails slamming TTIP. If thousands of us email our MEPs now, the lying lobbyist emails will soon be at the bottom of their email inbox, forgotten about.
So can you get in touch with your MEPs now to ask them to vote against TTIP next week?

Email your MEPs

       It’s clear that corporate lobbyists are worried. They’ve run out of ‘credible’ arguments and now they’re just making things up to try and get MEPs to support TTIP.
        But we’re the voters, and MEPs represent us. So we can focus on creating as much noise as possible about why TTIP is bad. When MEPs walk into the vote next week, they will know we’re backing them to vote against the worst parts of the deal.
        The other side may have money, but we’ve got people-power. Will you email your MEP now, to ask them to vote against TTIP next week?

Email your MEPs

Thanks for being involved,

Bex, Amy, Blanche and the 38 Degrees team

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

Internet Neutrality.

     The internet is an important part of our day to day life, making net neutrality a very critical issue for us all.

Here is the latest update on this issue from, Fight for the Future:

 Dear Fight for the Future member,

     To put it bluntly, it’s time to get serious. If you care about the Internet, click here to join the Internet Countdown.

     The FCC’s proposed net neutrality rules are expected to drop this week. What matters most right now is that we keep up a constant and sustained barrage of online protest between now and the vote calling for the best possible protections for a free and open web.

     The Internet is awesome at defending itself. As always, we’ve built the tools to make it easy for *EVERYONE* to maximize their potential as an Internet defending hero.

      Your voice matters. Click here to join the Internet Countdown for net neutrality.

      Participating is easy. If you have a website, blog, or Tumblr, you can grab a snippet of code to display this awesome countdown timer on your site, and help drive phone calls and emails to lawmakers in DC. If not, you can join with Twitter, and sign up to tweet the countdown, like this, either once a day, once a week, or just once before the vote on Feb 26th, it’s your choice.

     Thousands have already signed up, helping us reach more than 3.4 million people every day already. If even just half the people on our list did this, we’ll be louder than anything Comcast can dish out.

      Will you help us win a historic victory for free speech? Click here and let’s do this.

    The atmosphere here at Fight for the Future is electric right now. We’re on the cusp of a victory that no one thought was possible, and we owe it all to supporters like you.

With gratitude and hope,

-Evan at FFTF
    P.S. Exciting news! CREDO selected us to receive donations from their customers this month! The more votes we get, the more funds we’ll receive to fight for Internet freedom. To be clear: this is a way you can fund our work, even if you have no money to give. Tens of thousands of dollars are at stake.  Please click here and vote for Fight for the Future! It could make a huge difference. Thanks!
     P.P.S There’s an excellent article in The Guardian today that tells the saga of how a scrappy band of Internet freedom activists managed to beat Big Cable on net neutrality against all odds. We’re quoted in it. Check it out and share..

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* Keep us fighting, chip in what you can.

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

On The Matter Of Overthrowing The System.

 

     On this matter of overthrowing the present system, put recently by Russell Grant, (and millions of ordinary people), a couple of quotes from Chris Hedges points in the same direction:

     If we do not immediately engage in this battle we are finished, as climate scientists have made clear. I will defy corporate power in small and large ways. I will invest my energy now solely in acts of resistance, in civil disobedience and in defiance.

     Class struggle defines most of human history. Marx got this right. The sooner we realise that we are locked in deadly warfare with our ruling, corporate elite, the sooner we will realise that these elites must be overthrown.

     An increasing number of Americans are getting it. They know that we have been stripped of political power. They recognise that we have been shorn of our most basic and cherished civil liberties, and live under the gaze of the most intrusive security and surveillance apparatus in human history. Half the country lives in poverty. Many of the rest of us, if the corporate state is not overthrown, will join them. These truths are no longer hidden.

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

OCCUPY GLASGOW.

       

  

      Occupy Glasgow had its first assembly and almost 500 people came together to discuss their gripes and grievances, hopes and dreams, It soon became apparent that the way society is run today got all the gripes and grievances but none of the hopes nor dreams. It is now so blatantly obvious that the system works for the corporate world, and their growth depends on the exploitation of the ordinary people. Though still not the largest occupation, but growing all the time, and it has a cross section of all the citizens of Glasgow and beyond. All enthusiastic and informed and willing to take what Glasgow's winter can throw at them to make their voices heard.

      They still need support in numbers and materials, pay them a visit, you'll be surprised at the number of ways you can assist in this occupation without actually camping down, though the more of them the better. Visit their web site www.occupyglasgow.org, visit the groups involved, discuss what you see as the way this society should be shaped, your voice counts, this is a place to let it be heard. This is a golden opportunity to contribute to creating a better world for all our children and our grandchildren.

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WALL ST, - 20 DAYS AND STILL THERE.

        

  In spite of  the almost complete blackout by the mainstream media the occupation of Wall St. continues and is growing in numbers, it is now spreading across the whole of America in cities from the east coast to the west, from the south to the north. So far it seems to be keeping itself clean, by that I mean no leaders and no parties. What they have to remember is that we are governed by consent, we have the right to withdraw that consent, and when we do, we cannot be governed. Only then will we be able to create the type of society that we really want.

        OCCUPYWALLSTREET is a people powered movement for democracy that began in America on September 17 with an encampment in the financial district of New York City. Inspired by the Egyptian Tahrir Square uprising and the Spanish acampadas, we vow to end the monied corruption of our democracy … join us! We're now in DAY 20.

MORE PHOTOS HERE:

Get Involved

OCCUPYWALLST.ORG for news and logistics

NYCGA.net for General Assembly Updates

OccupyTogether.org join occupations across America

Reddit Page organizing tool

Facebook Event Page for facebookers

Tumblr for clippings and links

Livestream from the global revolution

Antibanks for international actions

ann arky's home.

DEBT, DEBT, DEBT!!!

         A little explanation of how the system works, it is over an hour long but well worth staying with it, it is very informative and well made. Settle down with a cup of coffee and enjoy,

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TEAPOT COLLECTIVE INTRODUCTION TO ANARCHY, PAGE 13. 

         Time for the next exciting page from the Teapot Collective Introduction to Anarchy, we continue with page 13. Page 12 can be read HERE.

         "--Find examples of what life could be, put our ideas into practise in everyday life.

          Creating anarchy is helping your neighbours, stealing from your workplace, growing your own food, throwing a brick at a riot cop, organising a stamp-collectors club, babysitting for your friend, talking back, phoning in sick, not being what is expected of you. Anarchy is mutual aid, co-operation and not leaving your life to others to organise it.

      We don't see the mythical revolution as something that will just happen suddenly one day after we've polished some ideology. Revolution is a

process of individuals and collectives gradually reclaiming what's been taken from us.

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IUF Uniting food, farm and hotel workers world-wide

      Four years after punishing lockout, one year after OECD agreement, Unilever Assam workers still waiting for their union to be recognized.

      Business is doing well at Unilever’s personal products factory at Doom Dooma in the Indian state of Assam. But nearly 4 years after management tried to destroy the union with a punishing 6-week lockout, and almost one year since the IUF and Unilever formally concluded an agreement to settle the dispute under the auspices of the UK government, the workers are still waiting for their union to be recognized as their collective bargaining agent. The workers’ mood is one of deepening frustration. How has this happened?

Read the full story here

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   "EXTREMISTS" AND UNIVERSITIES. 

       Recently the Cameron/Clegg millionaire cabal have been shouting there mouths off about universities not doing enough to crack down on extremists. To most people in this country, this is interpreted as meaning violent Muslim extremists, but however that is not how it will unfold. It will encompass all “extremists” as defined by that narrow band of pro-establishment public school thugs. If you advocate radical change to society away from the profit motive and towards a sustainable, needs based society, you no doubt will come under the heading of “extremist”. We should be very vigilant when we hear those in power talking about clamping down on “extremists”. Who draws the line between acceptable view and “extremist”, how narrow should acceptable be defined?

ACCEPTABLE AND UNACCEPTABLE EXTREMISTS???

 

       The other point that is very important, is that if universities are suppose to be at the cutting edge of research in all fields, how do you do that if you exclude those views that don't fit the mainstream acceptable views of the establishment. In forbidding “extremist” views, you neuter any debate and confine it sterile ground and the future is barren. Of course for a number of years universities have been moving away from that position of, the centres of cutting edge debate and research and moving towards being factories that turn out units needed for “the economy” (big business).

       If your accepted ideas can't hold up in open debate, and to defend them you ban all those who disagree with those ideas, then I believe you are an “extremist”. Then we already know that the Cameron/Clegg millionaire cabal and their cohorts are indeed, right wing “extremists”.

 

 

 

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