Take Them On.

         The managers and manipulators of fascism don't wear uniforms and jackboots, nor do they maraud through the streets, they wear fine suits, hold office in the establishment, they leave the streets to their racist baying hounds, who will follow their demagogue with a blind passion.

       Though I disagree with their statement, "Rank-and-file unionists should demand that their leaders form self-defense guards to protect anyone and everyone targeted by the ultra-right." I think the members should be able to do that by themselves without waiting for their "leaders" to do it for them. Never the less the following is   an interesting article in FSP

 

       The goal was to forcibly prevent an elected government from taking power; in other words, it was an attempted coup. It fell short, no thanks to the official guardians of our safety, but the marauders had tested their strength and sent out an unmissable invitation for others to join their cause. More evidence emerges every day about the coordinated planning that went into the assault. This reportedly included a tour of the Capitol for the benefit of the insurrectionists the day before, led by a congressional representative.
      Certainly, not all of the tens of thousands of people who attended the pro-Trump rally early in the day were neo-Nazis. But key to the attack on the building were fascists like the Proud Boys and Oath Keepers, rabidly flaunting their racist, misogynist, anti-Semitic, heterosexist, xenophobic, and anti-Left agenda.
      The day’s horrendous events did not come out of nowhere, and their cause goes much deeper than Trump’s four-year stint as Bigot-in-Chief. What Trump did in office was enable the rise of an already existing fascist current in the United States, which is at times subterranean and at times overt and visible. As we saw clearly on Jan. 6, this current is represented not only in groups of street thugs but in institutions and agents of the state: cops, Congress, the military, local government.
       In 1954, during the McCarthy era, founder of U.S. Trotskyism James P. Cannon wrote this: “A fascist movement does not arise from the bad will of malicious demagogues.” Instead, he continued, it is the product of “the incurable crisis of capitalism,” which renders the ruling class “unable to maintain a stable rule through the old bourgeois democratic forms.” (See “Fascism and the Workers’ Movement.”)
      In other words, capitalism carries the seeds of fascism within it; they sprout when the profit system is in dire trouble and people become desperate and willing to challenge the status quo.

So what can be done? Educate, organize, and fight back.

        As Cannon wrote in his 1954 essay, “The beginnings of a fascist movement aiming to take power in this country, and fascism already in power, are not the same thing. Between the one and the other lies a protracted period of struggle in which the issue will be finally decided. Whoever recognizes that and ‘sounds the alarm,’ and thus helps to prepare the struggle of the workers, is doing what most needs to be done at the present time.”
       Learning about fascism, its nature and its history, is a key first step. And this education is urgently needed in the union movement. Why? Because this is where the working class is most organized and potentially most strong, with the general strike as its most powerful weapon. And because, precisely due to the labor movement’s potential, its destruction is fascism’s ultimate goal.
      Hand in hand with education must come building strong alliances and taking united action. It’s necessary to physically stand up against the neo-Nazis in order to combat the fear they engender while providing a hopeful, rational, humane alternative to their vicious, white-supremacist message. Rank-and-file unionists should demand that their leaders form self-defense guards to protect anyone and everyone targeted by the ultra-right.
       Workers and oppressed people cannot rely for rescue on the powers-that-be, who will back fascism as the last resort to save the profit system. We need to create a multiracial, multi-issue, disciplined, anti-capitalist movement that includes Black Lives Matter activists, immigrants, fighters for reproductive justice, and more — everyone in jeopardy from the fascists and everyone already struggling for their rights. And we cannot afford to delay.

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

Social Control.

      We can be sure that the state will use this pandemic as a platform for experimenting with new social controls that it can tweak and introduce after this pandemic is over. Social distancing, limited numbers at certain events, will continue for quite a while, and will be enhanced and modified to increase control over the population. The longer it goes on, the more they hope the public will become accustomed to some form of these measure. We have to vigilant and determined to ensure that all those restrictions introduced because of the pandemic must be totally scrapped as soon as this pandemic is under control. They will not do this willingly, it will require our determined and organised effort to unsure this happens.

      The following is an extract from an article on the Greek state's actions during this pandemic, from Crimethinc: 

 

 

       Night is especially scary; teams of Delta police can be seen riding around in motorcycle gangs, beating and arresting people at random, chiefly non-white immigrants. On top of this, gatherings of 30 to 50 cops can be seen at various checkpoints, flagrantly violating the social distancing protocol that is the justification for the lockdown in the first place. This sort of opportunism would be comical if it weren’t so oppressive for the most vulnerable residents.
     However, disdain for the police behavior is widespread, even among residents who were annoyed by Exarchia’s squats and riots in the past. We are certain that when the lockdown measures are eased, resistance will return with a vengeance.
      The state has done everything it can to blame the public if social distancing efforts fail. The state and corporate media have spread fabricated videos of people not respecting social distance in order to turn Greek society against itself. The state is using this pandemic to experiment with martial law, even enforcing prohibitions on swimming and fishing. Such measures serve to test what Greek people will put up with in order to refine plans for future authoritarian efforts to change this society, especially considering that the IMF now anticipates an even worse economic downturn than the recession of 2008.
    All across the country, Greek police are ticketing homeless people for violating the lockdown as a consequence of lacking shelter, ticketing immigrants at a higher rate and targeting the most vulnerable on the pretext of enforcing safety measures. The Greek state has also evicted student housing throughout Athens, a step they likely hope will make it easier to privatize the university system in the future. They are also using the text message system via which residents request permission from the state to go outside to collect information about the general population.
     In short, the Greek state that slashed funding for medical facilities and accelerated the privatization of health care is dealing with the pandemic by escalating state control and social manipulation. In early April, when doctors and other workers at the Evangelismos hospital in central Athens tried to stage a demonstration demanding more protective equipment, an army of police swarmed in to shut it down. In addition to ordering direct assaults on medical staff, the authorities have also told Greek medical workers that they are forbidden to speak publicly to the press about issues relating to the pandemic.

Well worth while to read the full article HERE: 

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

Glasgow Events.

         Some interesting events coming up in the next few days, a chance to show solidarity, learn about anti-fascists, and have a right good sing-song, if you are in or around the Glasgow area:

Fuck Off Tory Cunts Court Case
Thursday, 11/1/18
Glasgow Sheriff Court
10am

        David McHarg is on trial for displaying a 'Fuck off you Tory cunts' poster on his window. Class War Scotland has called for a solidarity demonstration outside Glasgow Sheriff Court.

Anarchist Federation Film Showing: The Anti-Fascists
Thursday, 11/1/18
Glasgow Autonomous Space, 53 Kilbirnie Street
6-9pm

        In 2014, left-wing activists and a group of neo-nazis clashed in the immigrant quarter of the Swedish town of Malmö, leaving several wounded and one anti-fascist - Showan Shattack - nearly dead. That same year, a violent gang of Fascists attacked an anti-Racist demonstration in Stockholm. A fight broke out between them and the few members of Anti-Fascist Action, which left one Fascist wounded, and one anti-fascist in jail. In this context, a documentary crew set out examining the history and activities of the Swedish anti-fascist movement, and its connections to the same one in Greece. Its successes and failures have lessons for all of us.
        Join us for tea and biscuits at GAS (we'll heat the upstairs room up ahead of time :-)) and we'll watch the film and chat about it informally afterwards. Free, all welcome, donations accepted.
www.afed.org.uk

Red and Black Song Club
Wednesday, 17/1/18
Glasgow Autonomous Space, 53 Kilbirnie Street
7-9pm No experience necessary, just a desire to join with others in letting you dulcet tones have freedom.

The Antifascists.

           In this capitalist world fascism never dies, from time to time it raises its ugly head  and vomits out its hate and divisive filth. Fascism seems to make its appearance within a state when the state feels under threat, it is fanned by the right-wing parasites that hold tenuously onto their privileged positions, Its rise is not an unavoidable accident of fate, but a strategy of capitalism to protect and or bolster the wealth, power and privileges of the parasite class that hold the reins of power. To allow fascism a voice does not enhance free speech, on the contrary, it stifles free speech and gives rise to hate and opens up irrational and unnecessary divisions within the ranks of the ordinary people.  

        Fascism, like capitalism cannot be reformed, it must be confronted head on, and destroyed. We don't need lessons on what it does when it gains power, we have history that paints a true picture of its methods and aims. If you wish to be able to make you own decisions, and choose your own path, then you are an enemy of fascism, and should join in the fight to drive it from our communities,  off our streets, stamp it out in our work places and eradicate it from any of our groupings and organisations.

       The Antifascists, is an excellent documentary on the rise of fascism across the world and how best to mercilessly crush this cancer in our midst. Thanks Loam for the link.

 

A Day In A Greek Court.

 

         Greece with its supposedly "left-wing" socialist government, displays all the usual signs of fascism. Its institutions lined by riot police, armed to the teeth with batons and body armour, special protective treatment for fascist groups and fascist individuals. However, the people of Greece don't let this pass unchallenged, physical and relentless solidarity against the fascists in the country is the norm. From the streets to the courts, the anti-fascists turn up in numbers to confront and defeat this vile poison that is seeping through the fabric of their country. This fascist poison is also tainting the lives of millions throughout Europe and America, perhaps we could take a few leafs out of the Greek anti-fascists' book.

        Update from the trial of the antifascist centre Distomo in Athens – Greece

           The hearing started with the clashes between antifascists and the Y.M.E.T squad which had the task of private security for the parastate gunman Perrakis inside the court, during his testimony. During his testimony the squad had raised its shield against the defendants and their supporters who showed up in solidarity, creating a protective wall in front of him.
          During his exit he was again escorted while the people threw coffee and spat on him. During the effort of the police to guard Perrakis a riotcop pushed down a comrade and an elderly person who fell down from 1,5 metre height causing him head injuries and a broken arm. In the meantime we managed to achieve that the trial would continue without the presence of Y.M.E.T. and the riot police, the second round of testimonies began.

         That’s when Panayotis Rakovitis and Demetris Tzavellas were humiliated by the antifascists. They were so afraid they kept contradicting themselves. After their testimonies they tried, unsuccessfully, to leave unscathed through the crowd.
Then spoke the owner of the building where the office of the Golden Dawn is housed, who, pressurized by the climate in the court room and the defeats the party has had through the years, said openly that he wishes for the closure of the office. As AntifascistCentre Distomo we openly defended the choice not to leave any space for fascists and the possibility every antifascist has, to be outside the Golden Dawn office at any time.
          We carried this understanding in action inside the courtroom by reversing the role of defendants into accusers.
         Antifascist unity is the only way toward a toward a militant and physical attack against fascism.

 via: Athens Indymedia
Translated by Radio Fragmata.

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

Never Trust The State, Any State.

      A little known fact of British history is its 4 year war fought against the Greek people in 1945/49. The left-wing resistance fighters in Greece fought a bloody and brutal guerrilla war with the occupying Italians and Germans throughout the entire occupation period. However our “revered” wartime leader Winston Churchill, had no intentions of letting the more numerous and powerful left-wing guerrilla movements form a communist government in Greece, when the Nazis withdrew. So as the war neared its end in Greece, British aid was poured in to support the royalist, militarists and other smaller right-wing groups, some who had been Nazi collaborators. With the Nazis out of Greece in 1945, the British turned their guns on their once wartime allies, the Greek resistance fighters. The battle was brutal and thousands of Greek anti-fascists fighters died at the hands of the British forces. Not all resistance fighters were men, thousands were women, though most of the men were put to death, thousands of women and children were simply taken and from 1949 to 1953, imprisoned on the Greek island of Trikeri. The island became home, though a very unpleasant home, to more than 5,000 anti-fascist women and hundreds of children, their crime, fighting the Nazis and being left-wing.

      There is a play based on the stories and diaries of these women and children, “A Thousand Murdered Girls” written by Liverpool based poet and writer Darren Guy in collaboration with Greek writters and poets, Elani Fourtounia and Rita Boumi Pappas.

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