Maximarse Marches Into Town.

     Blood drenched ATOS moves out, thanks to the dedicated protesters who kept up a constant direct action and publicity campaign, and a constant presence outside their offices of death. However the same scheme is still in place, the Work Capability Assessment, a process of humiliating and harassing the sick and the vulnerable of our society, in an attempt to deprive them of their benefits. This inhumane scheme will now be administered my Maximus, A company with a “chilling” record of incompetence, discrimination and alleged fraud is in prime position to take over the new “fitness for work” contract from Atos Healthcare, Disability News Service (DNS) can reveal. It is this scheme that is flawed, changing the compassion-less suits at the desks will do nothing for our sick and vulnerable. They will still be humiliated and harassed, the will still be forced to jump through hoops, and in some cases pushed to the limit, that they can't take any more.

        Well, ATOS pulled out of this lucrative tax funded cash machine, because of those dedicated individuals and groups who shouted out the abuse, and put their feet on the ground where it mattered. Maximus, whose website states: "We help governments, businesses and individuals achieve their goals by providing essential services to the communities we serve." the usual bland bullshit rhetoric  that we expect from the looting corporate world, can be stopped by the same methods that got ATOS to pack its bags and leave. Maximus is there to do the same job as ATOS, save the government paying out our tax money to the sick and vulnerable, some of the most needy in our communities, and they intend to make a fortune from this tax funded cash machine.

This from DPAC, (Disabled People Against Cuts):

      Planning for the Day of Action to Welcome Maximarse to their new role as assessors for the cruel and hateful WCA is taking shape, and we now have actions planned or in planning for:
Aberdeen, Balham, Bournemouth, Bradford, Brighton, Cardiff, Croydon, Dundee, Ealing, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Hull, Inverness, Ipswich, Leeds, Leicester,  Lincoln,  Manchester,  Norwich, Portsmouth, Plymouth, Reading, Sheffield, Sunderland, Toronto, Truro, Wrexham and Maximus HQ in central London.
If you can get to one of these protests – great ! You can see details of each event list below. If you would like to contact the organisers of any of the actions beforehand – mail us on mail@dpac.uk.net and we will be able to put you in contact with them.

Get the full details HERE:

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

A Wheelchair Is No Excuse For Protesting.

       Recently I drew attention to the harsh treatment by the Transport Police against a group of elderly protesters trying to defend their free bus pass. Well it seems that the police in London, not to be outdone by the Transport Police in Sheffield, have launched a grossly over the top attack on a group of disabled people protesting at Westminster Abbey. The group, part of the Disabled People Against Cuts, (DPAC) were attempting to highlight  the injustice that will be caused by the government's intention to close the Independent Living Fund, (ILF).

Photo from Ian Bone's blog.   

      Elderly, pensioner, walking with the aid of a stick, disabled and in a wheelchair, you are all fair game for our boys in blue, well its more high vis-jackets and riot gear now. Of course they are called the Police Force, emphasis on the word FORCE.

This from The Void:

       At one point, so desperate were the police to arrest someone for nothing,  they charged into the crowd causing people to fall onto several wheelchair users.  Such was the sudden aggression of police it is a miracle no-one was severely injured although unconfirmed reports suggest one disabled person did have to receive treatment after this assault.  Police also attempted to remove access ramps for wheelchairs users to prevent them from being able to peacefully protest in the Abbey grounds.  Equipment was damaged and police prevented the planned disabled toilet and other infra-structures to be created which would have led to a safe event.  Throughout the afternoon all those inside the grounds remained at risk of violent arrest, and in fact, as you read this, that might be happening.

Read the full article HERE:

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

THE BRUTALITY OF ATOS.

          The brutal stories still come out from the ATOS experience, each story is a case of human suffering. This from ATOS Victims Group News.

Hello

         About two years ago I started suffering from extreme anxiety due to the pressure of my work as a college tutor combined with my caring duties for my mum. This triggered a severe panic attack and also severe alopoecia. My doctor of 20 years and my counsellor both said I was unfit for work. My medication also means that I feel very tired and have poor concentration for large parts of the day. I was placed on ESA and had to attend an ATOS ‘assessment’. I wasn’t able to travel in on my own, on the bus or by foot, due to my fear of having another panic attack; my mum, who I was meant to be caring for, cared for me and brought me in by car, despite being in pain with her own condition and needing to rest several times on the short walk from the car to the assessment centre.

        The first impression I had of an ATOS centre was seeing the TV tuned to ‘The Jeremy Kyle‘ show at full volume in reception, watched by a bored security guard. This increased my levels of anxiety even further as I waited and my mum had to ask for it to be switched off. When I entered the interview room I answered all the questions as truthfully as possible whilst the ‘assessor’ ticked his little boxes on a PC.

My report said that I was able to work and that ‘I underestimated my ability to concentrate on work tasks’. This was despite the report saying that I was very subdued in the assessment and looked extremely anxious, despite me telling the ‘assessor’ that the very reason I was suffering from severe anxiety was because I was trying to combine a job with caring for my mum.

        After some excellent advice from my local CAB, I found I was able to claim Carer‘s Allowance and Income Support to help me look after my mum full-time. Obviously, at no time was I ever told this by anybody at ATOS or at Jobcentreplus; I was just another statistic, boosting ATOS’s performance profits and meeting government targets. I know this; I worked for Jobcentreplus Head Office as an Executive Officer for eight years.

        This experience is one of the many reasons I am now fighting the government’s cuts; their desire to move genuinely disabled and incapacitated people into a workfare style scheme that takes no account of their condition is merely a way for the government to make an easy target, people who did not cause our social and economic crisis, pay for it.

         Don’t let them make the people of this country an easy target. Don’t let them forget the effects of their atrocious policies on real flesh, blood and minds. On real people who refuse to be treated like crap.

Show them that we have the guts to fight back.
Read the story:

ann arky's home.

RESISTANCE IS ESSENTIAL.

Protest on Budget Day
11:30am, Wednesday 21 March
Downing Street, London

        

              Coalition of Resistance is organising a protest with the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, the Public and Commercial Services (PCS) union and Stop the War Coalition. This is planned to coincide with when George Osborne leaves Downing Street to present the budget to the Queen. Our messages will be 'Not one more cut to public spending', 'Welfare not Warfare' and 'Scrap Trident'. If you can, come wearing hospital scrubs, nurses uniforms, academic mortarboard and gown, a firefighter's helmet or any other outfit that represents what this government wants to cut, privatise or scrap! Others will be dressed as bankers and politicians.
        Call for volunteers: If you plan to attend wearing an outfit that represents a service being cut or can help on the day please phone Sam on 07872 481769.
Please invite your friends and spread the word on Facebook. Click here for the event.

SOLIDARITY.

Activist Meeting:- 28 March Strike and demonstrations Protest on Budget Day
6:30pm, Monday 19 March
Room 4418, School of Oriental and African Studies
(SOAS), Thornhaugh Street, Russell Square
London WC1H 0XG
         We are organising an activist meeting to bring together all those that want to help plan and build for the protests, strikes and demonstrations in the coming weeks. Please spread the word. If you want to organise an activist meeting in your area, we can put you in contact with others.

Please email coalitionofresistance@mail.com.

Upcoming Public Meetings

Croydon

7pm, Wednesday 14 March
Ruskin House, 23 Coombe Road, Croydon CR0 1BD
with Jeremy Corbyn MP

Newcastle

7pm, Wednesday 14 March,
Newcastle Arts Centre (Black Swan)
67 Westgate Road NE1 1SG
with Owen Jones, Lindsey German, speaker from Greece

Kings Lynn

7:30pm, Wednesday 14 March
Friends Meeting House
38 Bridge Street, King’s Lynn PE30 5AB
with Andy Bain (Coalition of Resistance, former president of TSSA)

Glasgow

6:30pm, Thursday 15 March
STUC Centre, 333 Woodlands Road, Glasgow G3 6NG with Owen Jones

York

7pm, Monday 26 March
Friend's Meeting House, Friargate, York YO1 9RL
with Mark Serwotka (PCS), Clare Solomon (Coalition of Resistance)

Doncaster

7pm, Tuesday 27 March
Danum Hotel, High St Doncaster DN1 1DN

ann arky's home.

OCCUPY THE STREETS, AND THEN---??

         With the two technocratic unelected governements in Europe, Greece and Italy, trying to push through more draconian "austerity" cuts, only on the working class of course, we are seeing the Western developed countries rising in anger. There is massive resistance in New York and other cities across America, while in Athens  there is running battles with the police and in Italy, likewise, there has been large demonstrations. This is not a few radical leftwingers being troublesome, but a general uprising of ordinary people who are at last beginning to see through the illusion that is woven with the smoke and mirrors of the politicians and the media. The attack on the ordinary people has not peaked yet, there is more to come as the financial mafia do everything in their power to hold onto and increase their wealth and power.
        The ordinary people of Spain, and the UK are facing more cuts to their living standards and the "markets" are starting to put pressure on France to contribute more to the financial parasites coffers. What ever is hapenning in Greece is coming our way, and the only real answer as far as the ordinary people of the world are concerned, is to destroy this exploitive system run by the IMF (International Mankind Fuckers) and the finanicial mafia.

Live from New York:

From Athens:

ann arky's home,

IDEOLOGICAL ATTACK ON WORKERS CONDITIONS.

       Across the country, across the world, for that matter, the corporate greed machine is going into action to reduce wages so as to increase profits. Here in the UK the corporate bosses know that they have the backing of our well manicured millionaire cabinet on their side, as they tear up national agreements on wages and conditions. Skilled workers on construction sites across the country are being told that their contracts are null and void and are presented with a new contract, which cuts their wages by as much as 30%. The message from the corporate fascists is simple, sign the new contract or get off the job. This is their brand of democracy, agreements arrived at by negotiation between the workers unions and employers can just be ripped up and a new one drawn up, with no workers or union input, take it or leave it. Work for less or go look somewhere else for you livelihood. It is happening here, it is happening in America, it is happening all across the developed world.

     This is all in line with the present government's ideology of cuts in all public spending and the bosses are backing it up with cuts in the private sector. Workers are not going to accept this type of corporate fascism and are fighting back. Electricians are walking of sites and demonstrating, public sector workers and planning mass demonstration and possible strike action.  All the unions, public sector and private sector, must come together on this one. It is not just about public sector pensions, it's all about privatising all public services, slashing living standards, decimating education, as well as privatising the National Health Service, and at the same time, creating a low wage economy at the dictate of the IMF,(International Mankind Fuckers).

ann arky's home.

WE ARE ONE.

      Saturday October 1st. was probably the wettest day for some considerable time, the morning started with torrential rain and slowly modified to monsoon type downpour before turning to heavy rain for the rest of the afternoon. In spite of this, thousands felt angry enough to march the couple of miles from the Glasgow Green, through the city to Kelvingrove Park. A long slow colourful snake of people slithered their way through Glasgow's wet, semi-flooded streets in cheerful and noisy fashion. The march, against cuts to public services and the attack on public sector workers, was the first of many planned for the coming months.

     What we have to realise is that what this government is embarking on is the biggest and most savage attack in living memory, on the living standards of the people of this country. Under such circumstances there is no alternative but to defend ourselves and fight back with the same savageness and determination as this cabal of corporate fascists.  There is no law against self defence, when you are attacked you have the right to defend yourself. This millionaire government and its corporate bed-fellows are well organised and will be ruthless in their endeavour to privatise everything and to transfer all public assets to their millionaire friends in the corporate world. We must be better organised and even more ruthless than our attacker, if we wish to defeat this unbridled onslaught.

   

We are not alone in this growing self defence, across Europe there have been mass demonstrations and occupations, from Greece to France, from Spain to Italy, Portugal and Ireland, it has now spread across the Atlantic. Today is the seventh day of continual occupation of Wall St. in New York with 5,000 filling the area on Friday, and for the last three days the central square in Los Angelos has been occupied. We are one.

    We are governed by consent, we can and have the right to withdraw that consent, the system is corrupt, unjust and cannot work for the benefit of the majority of the people, so the majority of the people have the right to destroy it, and in its place create a system that sees to the needs of all our people, a system based on co-operation, mutual aid and sustainability, free from the greed of the profit motive. We have the right and the responsibility to start that creation process now. We owe it to our children and our grandchildren. We start now or we leave a heritage of repression and deprivation to those who follow.

ann arky's home.

DIRECT ACTION AT UNI. GETS RESULTS.

     

       The following is part of an account, taken from The Commune of the Free Hetherington occupation which ended this week after a long and successful campaign. Once again proving that direct action gets results. 

       Liam Turbett reports on a victorious conclusion to Glasgow’s seven-month university occupation

After over 200 days in occupation, the Free Hetherington occupation at Glasgow University finally ended on Wednesday 31^st August. The decision to leave followed direct negotiations with senior management, who allowed the occupiers to declare victory by handing over several major concessions.

Police tried in vain to evict the occupation.

 As previously reported in The Commune, the Free Hetherington was established in early February, when students and anti-cuts activists from across Glasgow took over a disused post-graduate social space at the heart of the Glasgow University campus, transforminglanguage teaching, anthropology and the entire department of adult education entirely.

SOLIDARITY.

        Senior management’s initial approach of ignoring the occupation and hoping it would falter away failed, and now famously, on 22^nd March an attempt was made to end it by force. With dozens of police, alongside the dog unit, the force helicopter and university security charging in to drag out the 15 or so occupants, around 500 students and supporters rapidly gathered outside. Hundreds then marched on the historic administrative centre of the university, and forced their way into the University Senate, which was held for the rest of the day. By midnight, management had handed the Hetherington building back, in exchange for the occupiers leaving the Senate rooms. In doing so, they handed legitimacy to the occupation, strong-arming them into negotiations, and the day’s events reaffirmed the level of support that the anti-cuts movement at the university could draw on.

Continue reading the article in The Commune

ann arky's home.

THERE IS A BETTER WAY!!!

Help Build the STUC Demonstration Against the Cuts

Wednesday 17th August -

7pm - STUC building, 333 Woodlands Rd. Glasgow.

Speakers:

Dave Moxham (Deputy General Secretary Scottish Trade Union Congress)

Graeme Kirkpatrick (Deputy President National Union of Students Scotland)

Mhairi McAlpine (Campaigner and Coalition of Resistance Activist)

Hi,
        The STUC has organised a demonstration against the cuts on the 1st of October under the slogan

PeopleFirst: There is a Better Way.
         

SOLIDARITY.

       This is a chance to mobilize the whole of Scottish society against the austerity agenda. And the demonstration takes place in the context of a new financial crisis, riots breaking out across cities in England, and the prospect of serious coordinated strike action against the government in the Autumn. There could not be a more important time to bring everyone together.

         It is absolutely vital that we all make sure that this is one of the biggest demonstrations in Scotlands history. To that end Coalition of Resistance in Glasgow has organized a mobilizingmeeting to build support for the march this Wednesday 17th August. Please come along and join the discussion. This is an opportunity to bring together people from many different backgrounds to discuss how we can all build this demonstration into the biggest protest Scotland has ever seen.

Yours, Peter Ramand

(secretary, Coalition of Resistance | Glasgow)

ann arky's home.

POLICING THE POLICE!!!

      Next month in London there will be a demonstration by at least 2,000 police officers. They will be demonstrating against cuts to the police service. How ironic??

   
     I believe that all politcal activists, trade unionists and students should come together and organise to police this event, just in case there is any trouble. You have a month to rehearse your kettling tactics and snatch procedures.

       If this is a free and fair democracy, then there is no other way to police this event. If the police insist on policing it themselves, then fair and democratic procedures demand that all other demonstrations should be policed by those, and only those, who organise the demonstration. Or does our democracy not work like that?

ann arky's home.

GLASGOW'S MAY DAY.

      Glasgow's May Day parade took place this afternoon in the city centre, it was a colourful affair with most left political groupings present. This year saw a good turnout, perhaps the weather had something to do with that, but I feel it was because people are looking for ways to display their anger at what is happening in their communities across the country. The chanting and coloured banners symbolised their hope that something can be done to stop the savage cuts to their standard of living.

      However, though they are looking for answers, unless those answers include a dramatic change to the economic system its self, those hopes are going to be dashed. To call for no cuts means keeping the system, which really means postponing the cuts for another day and another generation, as we have struggled against cuts for about as long as we have had the capitalist system.

      May Day, is about the people and their desire for a better world for all, it is not about asking our lords and masters, the parasite class, for some relief from the perpetual struggle, a struggle for which they are responsible. So I to have hope, I hope that all those involved in the May Day celebrations go back to their communities and their work places and begin to organise with their workmates and neighbours, to change society forever and to the benefit of all our people. If not, our children and grandchildren will still be struggling and hoping as they march on future May Days.

ann arky's home.

LOCAL ACTION AGAINST THE CUTS.

  

      The rest of our fair city should be taking a leaf out of the North West Glasgow residents' book. The Maryhill area of the city has started to organise locally to defend their area against that savage attack that is about to be unleashed on them and the rest of the country. By organising locally and the local groups linking up to discuss tactics and strategies to protect their facilities and the future of the kids is the best way to meet this slash and burn policy being pushed by these public school thugs in the Westminster Houses of Hypocrisy and Corruption.

SOLIDARITY.

By fleabite, submitted on IndymediaScotland 

      A group of residents in North West Glasgow have got together to fight the cuts and defend services locally. The first event was an anticuts conference which attracted 30 folks.  There were talks from activists from many diferent spheres, from those locally who'd occupied a primary school a few years back, to NHS campaigners, to a speaker from the ongoing anticuts student occupation at Glasgow University.  Most importantly we had many small table discussions.

      We are now having regular organising meetings and have begun mapping the area to get a clear picture of how the cuts will affect our local area and what we can do both to defend local services, but also fight all the cuts to public services and the welfare state.

WI DON'T NEED TAE TAKE THIS.

Our next event is a mapping workshop :

        Its open to everyone interested in being involved in organising against the cuts in North West Glasgow. At this workshop we will be continuing with the work we’ve already started by mapping the area: services, community groups etc that might be under threat. Key upcoming dates such as when the cuts are announced at a city level, when the national cuts will come into being. What community groups, activists etc we should be working with both locally and outwith the neighbourhood.

IT'S OOR FUTURE.

Wednesday 13th April.  7-9pm.  The Free Hetherington.  13 University Gardens.

http://maryhillanticuts.wordpress.com/

ann arky's home.



BASH THE POOR!!!

  

"Of course the tax payer MUST pay our debt."

      It would seem that the pro cuts, bash the poor brigade are on the march and have organised a march and rally called a RALLY AGAINST DEBT, for May 14th in London. This right wing crop of millionaire supporters will include such groups as the Taxpayers Alliance Group, no doubt with support from the Countryside Alliance, UKIP, and that right wing true blue Tory institution The Oxbridge Battalion and other forms of low life that will come crawling out of the woodwork of their ancient mansions. Damn those prols and peasants for objecting to propping up our millionaire buddies, we'll show them.

      Could the class war becoming onto the streets? Could the “Bash the Poor” brigade be met with a “Bash the Rich” battalion? Does the parasite class feel strong enough to come slithering out of The Westminster House of Hypocrisy and Corruption and take to the streets? Do the pampered parasites feel confident enough to wave their “Bash the Poor” banners in a street near you? Who knows.

WE HAVE THE NUMBERS.

 

        No doubt this display of the well heeled will give the media a golden opportunity to weave another episode of their “we're all in this together” illusion and distort the true anger at the savage cuts that are being inflicted on all the ordinary people of this country. Those who support the cuts obviously belong to that minority group that will not feel the pain of the cuts.

ann arky's home.

WORKERS KNOW YOUR HISTORY - SINGERS STRIKE 1911.

  
      This March marks the hundredth anniversary of one of the West of Scotland's many bitter strikes. It was in 1911 that the management of the Singer Sewing Machine factory in Clydebank, known for its harsh working conditions and its anti-union policies, decided to sack some women workers and then demand that another group of women workers take on the extra work at no extra remuneration. The women refused and on 21 March 1911, there was a walk out and strike. You can read about the Singer 1911 strike HERE.

      In today's climate of cuts, pay freezes and rising unemployment we could do well to remember the women of the Singer factory who said, “enough is enough” and took direct action. The more you accept in cuts and hard conditions the more you will have to accept. You have to draw the line somewhere or continually see your conditions worsen. We have certainly reached the stage of “enough is enough”, so what will be our direct action?

SOLIDARITY.

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