"Britain Of The Year"???

        Millionaire, George Gideon Osborne has done more for his corporate millionaire friends than any chancellor in generations. This heir to a Baronetcy, has fought tirelessly at decimating the living standards of the ordinary people, in an attempt to grow and protect the wealth and power of his class. This is one man who can give us all a lesson in class solidarity. He cares not for the misery, poverty and humiliation that he heaps on those who stand in the way of his class's domination. He has no doubt what so ever, which class he belongs to, and will do anything and everything to secure that class's position of dominance. He knows it is class war, it is the only way he can maintain that dominance.

 

       Across the country thousands are facing the threat of eviction because of the “bedroom tax”, thousands of vulnerable disabled people have died after being assessed by ATOS as fit for work, and having their benefits cut. Homelessness is on the increase across the country, and has rocket in London by 62% over the last two years, thousands of people are forced to work for no wages in workfare schemes, swelling the coffers of the corporate greed machine. Rough sleeping, was falling for a while, but thanks to George Gideon Osborne's class policies, it is once again growing. According to the latest figures, 6,437 people slept rough in London during 1012/13, up from 5,678 the previous year.

 

Osborne Photos from Google.

     Naturally his class want to show their appreciation and delight at his efforts to improve and protect their wealth and power. So that organ of the landed and business class, that voice of the upper crust right, the Class War newspaper of the rich, “The Times”, has named, George Gideon Osborne as “Britain Of The Year”. They know who their friends are.

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

Living With The Fear Of Homelessness.

       Across the UK people are being penalised because of a government hell-bent on pursuing the policies of the financial mafia. You can pick any village, town or city and there will be people being pushed into poverty, or worse, facing homelessness. If its not low wages, it's zero hours contracts, if it's not disability benefit cuts, it's being sanctioned and having your jobseekers allowance stopped, then there's the bedroom tax.
       With the bedroom tax there are approximately 50,000 people living with the threat of homelessness because of this vicious attack on ordinary people. Homelessness has rocketed in the last year, up 62% in London alone, and other massive rises across the country as a whole. Why should anybody have to fight for a home? We are in a society where the fear of homelessness is becoming part and parcel of life.
       This is the picture of capitalist progress, this is us "on the mend", this is the vision of the mythical growth, that the millionaire cabal of pompous parasites keep mouthing off about.
       You could pick one of thousands of cases that bring home the viciousness and callousness of these policies, each one a display of the injustice and inequality that riddles this capitalist system, each one genuine and unacceptable.Though we should campaign to have the bedroom tax scrapped, the real answer is to destroy this system that has these policies inherent within its very fabric, a system built on power and exploitation.

 This is just one case put forward by Care2:

 

 

      For fourteen years Danielle Heard has fought cancer -- a disease that has left her disabled.
    Despite everything she's been through, she's now got another fight on her hands: avoiding homelessness because of the bedroom tax.
The cruel, unfair "Bedroom Tax" means that Danielle's parents must now pay an extra £80 a month in rent; they're now worried that they could lose their home if they can't stretch the budget to make ends meet.
      Right now, a staggering 50,000 people across Britain like Danielle and her family face losing their home because of the bedroom tax.

That's not right, and it's not fair.

Take action today: Join us in calling on David Cameron to repeal the bedroom tax and stop penalising hard working families like Danielle's.

 

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

Who Voted For Slavery?

       How much longer will the people of this country vote in this system of greed and corruption, that works against their interests, how long will it be until they all realise that this is not a democracy, never has been, and under the present system, never can be. We cannot tolerate any longer, a system where by the poor are forced to work for nothing to enrich the profits of large wealthy companies. This, Workfare/Traineeship/Work Experience con, is not a little temporary fix, this is the template for the future, this is the pattern they want to be the accepted route for the next generation. The kids will leave school and be conned into thinking that this is the norm, a crap eduction, then work for nothing, swelling the bank accounts of rich shareholders, with the carrot held out in front of you, that if you humiliate yourself sufficiently for long enough, you might be one of the privileged that get a paid job at the end of it all. How wonderfully gracious of your employer to actually pay you.

       We as a class cannot accept that our kids are here to be forced into slave labour at the dictate of a bunch of millionaires, whose only interest is in the profitability of their shares. We are responsible for the dignity and well being of our kids and grand kids. Standing by and watching them being humiliated and abused by corporations is not acceptable under any circumstances. Nobody in this country voted to bring back slavery, but it has already got its foot well and truly in the door.

       There are so many avenues being used by this government of boardroom directors to attack our living conditions, all of them help big business. The slashing of social services and benefits is necessary to allow them to reduce the taxes that their corporate friends pay, if and when they pay at all. The bedroom tax, ATOS attack on disability allowance, and Workfare/Work Experience/Traineeships are all part of this business friendly agenda. Do we want a society that has only one aim, to enrich the corporate world at the expense of the people? As long as we keep putting rich millionaire business people in charge of our lives we will get screwed. Their businesses come well before your kids, you would be an idiot if you expected them to do otherwise. Can you not hear Osborne's speech to the Employers Federation, "I have a dream, one day all the workers will come to your businesses for nothing, and we will realise that paradise of sweatshop Europe"

      If we want a decent life for all we have to get rid of this festering cancer of capitalism. We shouldn't be organising to ask for some more crumbs from the cake, which we made, or please don't squeeze us so hard. We should be organising to take over the entire running of all aspects of our society, all manufacturing and distribution at the dictate of the people's needs, not driven by the greed of a handful of overtly rich useless parasitic leeches.

This from The Void:

      Osborne will force all those out of work for six months and between the ages of 18 and 21 into Traineeships or Work Experience.  Those who refuse will be sent on a Community Work Placement  – 780 hours unpaid work – or face losing benefits completely.  This is a huge turn around for a Government that in early 2012 were falling over themselves trying to persuade people that unpaid Work Experience – for major employers such as ASDA and Poundland – was voluntary.

     Osborne’s speech yesterday made a laughing stock of companies like Tesco and charities like Barnardo’s who have insisted that Work Experience schemes are not workfare.  Even if you bought that, they are now, or will be as soon as Osborne gets his way.

Read the full article HERE:

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

Week Of Action Against Workfare.

      ATOS continues its march of murder across the vulnerable in our society. I recently posted about the the tragic affair of Jacqueline Harris, who took her own life after being deemed fit to work by ATOS and having her disability allowance removed. Well their brutal actions are still bringing misery and death to our people. It was recently reported that Victor Cuff, aged59, who suffered from depression, took his own life, after having his benefits cut when those box ticking bureaucrats at ATOS, assessed him fit for work. How long will we sit back and allow this brutality against the sick and vulnerable people in our community?

       Because that babbling brook of bullshit, the mainstream media, doesn't report the full extent of the onslaught against the ordinary people in our communities, lots people are unaware of the full horror of this “austerity” plan. We have workfare, forcing thousands to work for free, for corporate greed merchants, we have people facing the threat of eviction and /or reduced benefits, because of certain circumstances, they find they now have a “spare room” . We have ATOS declaring the sick and vulnerable, fit for work, then there are stagnant wages, while food and energy bills go through the roof. Then let's not forget those thousands, 70,000, at the last estimate, who face hunger and deprivation because of “sanctions”. When one of the growth areas is food banks, you know that society has failed its people. These are all a deliberate attack on the living standards of our people, an attempt to get the UK on course to be part of the new sweatshop Europe. The low wage, low welfare economy, is the corporate world's plan to boost their competitiveness with the Eastern sweatshop empire.

       With a concerted well organised effort we can stop this juggernaut of corporatism and start to build a society we want, one that sees to the needs of all our people. After all we the people make everything on this planet, we distribute everything on this planet, but the system dictates what we make and where we distribute it, and it is all for the benefit of the leeches on our backs, our unnecessary burden of parasites. There are the resources, we have the ability, and we know there is a need, all that is missing is our will to take control and create that better world for all.

      This coming week there is planned week of action against workfare, get involved, employed, unemployed, retired, disabled, homeless, it affects us all, by lowering the standard of living across the board. If we shout loud enough, others will hear and realise that they are not alone. We can change this society.

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

Government Paid Mercenaries!

      When a state carries out policies that kill people in another state, they usually call it war. However, what do you call it when a state carries out policies that kill its own people? Well here in the UK the policies pushed through by the state are killing people. One of them is called “Work Capability Assessment” and the weapon is in the hands of ATOS. I suppose that ATOS being a French company, we should call them mercenaries.

      The number of people who have died after being assessed by ATOS, as fit to work, is well over 100,000. In any war situation these figures would be a national disaster, why does our babbling brook of bullshit, the mainstream media, not splash them across banner headlines? Simply because they are on the other side, the side of the murdering state. The latest tragedy in this brutal assault on the disabled and vulnerable, was 53 year old, partially sighted Jacqueline Harris, as well as her problem with her sight she had restricted mobility and was on constant pain relief. However the compassionless bureaucrats, sitting comfortable in their cocooned world of “ticky-boxes” considered her fit to look for work and stripped her of her benefits. It was a pain to far, and sadly Jaqueline Harris took her own life.

    This war against its own people continues on many fronts, the freezing/cutting of wages in the midst of rising energy and food prices, the bedroom tax, putting extra strain on already stretched finances, are just two attacks which are pushing more people into fuel poverty, food banks, deprivation and in turn malnutrition, with the resultant health problems. In truth, these actions are a slow death sentence and are directly responsible for health problems and an early death in thousands of cases. The state by its deliberate policies is killing its own people, all in the name of the economics of the banksters, it is sacrificing the lives of its citizens to bolster and increases the wealth of the already obscenely wealthy. We live in a sacrificial society, where the people are offered up to the god Mammon. 

This from The Void:

     A woman stripped of benefits after being found ‘fit for work’ by Atos has taken her own life the Bristol Post have reported today.

According to the newspaper: 

     “PARTIALLY-sighted and only able to walk with the aid of a stick, Jacqueline Harris suffered crippling pain due to slipped discs in her back and neck. Her mobility was reduced further when a dog savaged one of her wrists. “Despite being in agony which strong pain relief could not ease, the 53-year-old was deemed to be fit for work following a government health assessment and told to find a job.

      “Her sister claims the verdict that she was ineligible for disability benefits drove her to take her own life earlier this month.”

Read the full article HERE:

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

Accelerating To Deprivation.

     This government's eager complicity in the financial Mafia's drive for sweatshop Europe is seen in the number of ways in which they offer their business friends helpings of free labour. They give interviews proclaiming unemployment is falling and the recovery is gaining ground. However, unemployment is falling because thousands of people are on workfare, a government gift of free labour to the corporate greed machine, and as for recovery, well among the ordinary people the recovery is a fairytale. The millionaire's Old Boys network, our government, has now started another way of forcing young people to work for nothing, their “traineeships” scheme. Of course their millionaire buddies in businesses like Boots, Poundland and Kwik-fit, to mention just a few, are more than eager to take on board as much free labour as they can get their hands on. Why employ people for a wage when your friends in government hand you free labour.

       Another smiling comment from the millionaire cabal in charge of our drive to deprivation, is that inflation has fallen from 2.7% to 2.2% and this should ease the pressure on the general public. What a load of bullshit, in that “fall” there is hidden the fact that food has risen by 4.6% and energy bills are set to rise in the region of 10%, how this will ease the pressure on the ordinary household budget has yet to be explained.

     With workfare, traineeships, zero hours contracts, part-time employment, bedroom tax, rocketing food and energy prices, and ATOS killing off the disabled, this government has pressed the accelerator as we spiral down the deprivation road. Sweatshop Europe here we come. 

 

An excerpt from an interesting and informative article by The Void:

Unpaid workers on these schemes are counted as employed, a handy distortion of the figures for a Government that claims they are bringing down unemployment.  With the numbers in part-time work, precarious self-employment or workfare all at record levels, and wages falling far behind inflation, the true picture of the labour market is far from good news. Recent Housing Benefit statistics* show that the number claiming help with housing costs remains at record levels.  Over 5 million people are on this benefit and for the first time, in July 2013, the number of working Housing Benefit claimants topped one million.

 Read the full article HERE:

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

Evictions To Help The Economy!!

      According to Sweet & Maxwell,(legal information providers), tenant evictions by landlords have risen to 36,177 for the year June 2012 to June 2013. This is the highest in 5 years, an increase of 9% on the previous year. We all accept that the governments “bedroom tax” has pushed already struggling tenants over the edge and must be blamed for most of this increase. Of course we should not forget the last few years of enforced austerity measures had already taken thousands to the brink of financial collapse and ever closer to that eviction. As Daniel Dover, co-author of Residential Possession Proceedings, has been quoted as saying, “Rising rents on residential property and falling real wages are trends that have been in place for a number of years, and have stretched the finances of an increasing number of tenants to breaking point.”

      Campaign group False Economy, through a Freedom of Information request, received figures from 114 local authorities, indicating that because of the “bedroom tax”, a minimum of 50,000 are adversely affect and facing rent arrears problems. You can add to that number by approximately 30,000 tenants in housing association property.

      Recently a much smaller survey, found that one household in four, 25%, affected by the “bedroom tax” have found themselves facing rent arrears for the first time. According to the National Housing Federation, just over 50% of 63,578 tenants from 51 housing associations were unable to meet their rent payments in the first few months of the introduction of this tax. The worst affected area being Barrow in Cumbria, where more that 75% of all council tenants have fallen into rent arrears since the introduction of this brutal tax. Other areas are showing figures of around 50%. That is a lot of anxiety, stress and misery.

     We are not alone in seeing this tax on the poor as unfair, brutal and unacceptable, the United Nations’ special rapporteur on housing Raquel Rolnik has called for a rethink on the policy after finding the reform was causing “great stress and anxiety” to “very vulnerable” people.

      Will rent arrears, the ensuing poverty, and the actual and threatening evictions, be the spark that will light the fire? The fire is inevitable, as sparks are flying everywhere, ATOS, workfare, zero hours contracts, decimated social services, continuing austerity in the midst of arrogant wealth, and a government that is no more than a thin mask for blatant corporate greed.

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

The Smothering Of Potential And The Destruction Of People.

      It is difficult to quantify the damage being done to the ordinary people of this country by this millionaire regime sitting in the Westminster Houses of Hypocrisy and Corruption. Is it the damage done by their smashing of the education system, is it facing the choice of eating or heating, is it the brutal attack on the disabled by ATOS, is it the working for nothing slave labour workfare scheme, is it the inhuman zero hours contracts, is it the bedroom tax, is it the lack of support when things don't work out in your life. Probably most of all it is the illusion they peddle, that this is a fair society, and if you work hard you'll do just fine. We tend to think that people could be hit by one of the problems mentioned above. However the brutal truth is that you can be savaged by some or all of these injustices, as you struggle through this greed driven system of exploitation, capitalism has no compassion. The damage is not a one-of blow, it is a cumulative assault on the person, that can and does damage them for the rest of their lives. Bullying, harassing, and degrading people is spouted as criminal, but our millionaire cabal, under the stamp of legitimacy granted to them by "the state", can do it daily and on a widespread basis, with impunity. Only the people can call them to justice, and surely our patience is running thin.

     The following letter was offered to Glasgow Against ATOS. It speaks volumes on what is wrong in this type of society. Bright intelligent, hard working people being destroyed, as their potential is trodden in the mire of an unjust and brutal system. We can surely do better than this for all our people.

Someone has very bravely asked us to share this honest letter to their MP. ***Warning: could trigger; report of suicide attempts.

Dear MP,
      I meet you back in 2007 at ***** school while you where presenting to the sixth form year. I was one the only one in that group to say I was interested in politics. You probably don’t remember me but I do remember you. I found your presentation very interesting and actually a lot better than the Lib Dem local MP presentation. You actually inspired my keen interest in politics.

     Since then I was presented with an Anti-bullying Diana award by Ed Balls, meet Gordon Brown and even had meetings (although short) with Ed Balls. I was also a founding member of the Young Anti-bullying Alliance. Then once I turned 20 I became an advisor to the group passing on my knowledge and skills to the younger members as well as being emotional support and encouragement. In 2011, when Tories and Lib Dem came to power, the Young anti-bullying alliance was disbanded due to decrees in funding for both the princess Diana memorial awards and the anti-bullying alliance. That was a sad day for all our members and it was heart breaking to say goodbye to the young people I had been mentoring, which also included young people from mencap.

       2011 was an eventful year for me as I also finished my psychology degree, and I have to say I was very fond of the psychology of politics and terrorism module. I learnt a lot and I was hooked on every word during the lectures. Despite being severely dyslexic I made it through my three year degree and had a great sense of achievement at the end of it.

        All of us left university with great ideas of what we could do with our lives, ambitions and lustre to work up the ladder in a career we would enjoy and keep us interested. Ah that almost childish enjoyment of being 21 again and gently nudged into the world of work. All of us started applying for work before we left university, looking for the best we could get and keeping our hopes up. After about three months of looking none of my friend group had found any work and we were starting to feel the drain of the “real world”.

      I can’t speak for our entire group from university, but I ended up getting to my 22nd birthday and crying because I had no job, no money and a lot of debt left over from university. I finally got a full time job in February, though it was far from perfect. I worked hard and ended up getting promoted in the summer.

     However I was working 60+ hours to even earn a decent wage. The hours took a drain on me and I ended up being diagnosed with depression in November 2012 the second time in my life. I wanted to hold onto my job but knew that I could not go on without treatment. So I referred myself to CBT. This only help to a certain extent but due to family commitments I had to keep working, I soon received a demotion as I could not keep up with my work load. This caused my first suicide attempt, which luckily my family intervened and my GP became very supportive of me. Helping me to take time off work and even stand up for me when I was given 40+ hours work when I should have been on a phase back to work.

      However my mental health was not improving and there were problems at home. I had no outlet and no ability to deal with distressing emotions or incidents in my life. Finally one day I was in a meeting with my boss, the word safeguarding was mentioned and I cracked like I have never cracked before. I could not stop crying, I was a failure and I couldn’t even do my job, my boss was also saying how I seemed to “space out” at work and I was thinking it was due to alcohol. I wanted to quit back in November and again during the meeting. However I was not going to get JSA if I left my job and I had financial commitments.

      April the 5th 2013. MY LIFE ENDED.
Everything I had known up to that day changed, I was rushed to hospital by my friends as I screamed and cried and tried to wrestle my way out of the car onto the motorway. I had in an automatic and uncontrollable moment bought alcohol after I left work, I had my painkillers with me and the roof of the car park at the back of town just looked as if it was a good place. I had tried to contact someone I felt I could talk to before this although I do not recall what time exactly but no answer. Anyway no longer having the courage to jump I decided to go sit by the abbey. It was a beautiful place and it relaxed me. I was sobbing on the bench as people walked past, downing my vodka and pills. I couldn’t go on living. I was in an unskilled and undervalued job with low pay and my family was a mess. I could not afford to move out from my parents and every part of my soul felt drained. There was nothing happy left. Society had drained me and far too quickly. I still wonder what the point of life is to this day.

       Since then I had spent 48 hours in an acute unit, 8 weeks in an acute day treatment unit and been on sickness benefits. I’ve had different diagnosis from reoccurring depressive disorder to depression and psychosis. I hear voices when I am distressed and upset. I do things which I cannot control and I feel like I am now a drain on society. However I decided that I will take the time I need to recover and plan on in the future becoming a productive member of society.

      Now that you have had my life story I feel I should explain why I am writing to you. Since your party has been in government I feel as if not only myself but everyone like me has been tarred with the same brush. We are called work shy, made to go to numerous assessments and generally harassed by your party for being disabled. I may not have a leg missing or some major physical disability, but that is not the defining point for being classed as disabled or unable to work.

        I ask of you to help stand up for people who do not have a voice. Such as me, I am only able to write to you, I cannot travel to London and protest because I cannot stand in a crowd without having panic attacks or a “psychotic episode.” I am scared to stand up for myself as I fear backlash from the public. I hide the fact I have mental health problems as your party continues to persuade the public of how we are lazy, workshy and undeserving of help.

        I understand that the economy does not permit the government the luxury of just handing out a cushioned lifestyle to people who cannot work and you are even trying to help people who may be able to return to work, one day reach that goal. However I believe that your party is attempting to, if not already, trying to breech the human rights of the disabled.

      Remember that a society is judged on how it treats it poor and vulnerable.

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

Are We Getting Angry?

        Are we getting angry? Workfare, where thousands of people are forced to work for multinationals and receive no pay. Are we getting angry? ATOS, in its quest to make money from ticking boxes has seen almost two thousand disabled people it claimed were fit for work, die within moths of their decision. Are we getting angry? The governments “bedroom tax” is threatening to break up families, force homes into debt, and have the threat of eviction hanging over the heads vulnerable people. Are we getting angry? The six big energy companies are making billions of pounds and are increasing their prices this winter, while there are almost 4 million people in the UK living in fuel poverty. Are we getting angry? 4 million children in the UK, one in every three, are living in poverty, this is the highest of any developed industrial nation in the world. Some districts in this country have a much higher rate, with Springburn in the north of Glasgow topping the league with a criminal rate of 52% of children living in poverty. Are we getting angry? Zero hours contracts are growing like weeds in an unkempt garden. Meaning you are employed but have no guarantee of hours, so no idea how much you will earn. You sit with your phone handy, hoping your boss will phone and offer you a few hours work, but you are off the unemployed figures. Are we getting angry? Here in the UK, average wages have, in real terms, fallen by approximately 10% since 2008, while the gap between rich and poor gets wider by the month. Are we getting angry? While ordinary families are squeezed by “austerity measures” meaning lower incomes and rising prices, the number of millionaire households in the UK grew by 98,000 in 2012. Whose recession? Are we getting angry? We are being driven to the deprivation of the Victorian era, by our lords and masters, as they plunder our public assets, Royal Mail etc., as gifts to their friends in the financial/corporate Mafia.

 

     Are we getting angry? If not why not? There is an old Korean saying that I think we should ponder during these times. Enjoy the ecstasy of your righteous anger. Our anger in the present circumstances, would most certainly be righteous.

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

A Few Dates For Your Calendar.

        A few dates for your calendar, come together, discuss our problems and then we can find our answers, and start to create that society freed from the grip of profit, greed and corruption. If we don't discuss the problems from our perspective we will never get answers that are to our benefit.

Mon 24th June - Turning Words into Action (Dundee)

 

7.30pm Dundee Voluntary Action, 10 Constitution Road, Dundee DD1 1LL

 

      Speakers include Susan Archibald, Disability Campaigner.

Forum organised by Unite the Resistance in Scotland.

      The forum will bring together people from different campaigns resisting Austerity. By standing together we gain strength and learn from each other’s experiences.

 

      Supported by Black Triangle, UNITE R&F M&E Construction Branch and UNITE Scottish Housing Association Branch

 

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Tues 25th June - Turning Words into Action (Edinburgh) 

 

7.30pm Augustine Church, 41 George IV Bridge, Edinburgh, EH1 1EL

 

     Francis Wylie (UNITE United Left) will be speaking on blacklisting and fighting back, John McArdle (Black Triangle) on the attacks on disabled people, Penny Gower (EIS-FELA President) on Tory changes to our employment rights & PCS speaker (to be confirmed)

 

Forum organised by Unite the Resistance in Scotland

 

       The forum will bring together people from different campaigns resisting Austerity. By standing together we gain strength and learn from each other’s experiences.

 

      Supported by Black Triangle, UNITE R&F M&E Construction Branch and UNITE Scottish Housing Association Branch

 

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Tues 25th June - Turning Words into Action (Glasgow) 

 

7.30pm Jurys Inn, Jamaica Street, Glasgow, G1 4QE

 

     Jim Harte (UNITE R&F M&E Construction branch) on the Blacklist and Joyce Drummond (ATOS campaigner) on ATOS and the assault on welfare. Other speakers to be announced

 

Forum organised by Unite the Resistance in Scotland

 

     The forum will bring together people from different campaigns resisting Austerity. By standing together we gain strength and learn from each other’s experiences.

 

Supported by Black Triangle, UNITE R&F M&E Construction Branch and UNITE Scottish Housing Association Branch

 

 

Sat 29 June - Armed Forces Day

 

       Events to mark Armed Forces Day are being held around the UK on or around 29 June.

 

      "In both Iraq and Afghanistan, once the reasons for going to war were found to be false, or unattainable or just forgotten, those with a vested interest in continuing the wars resorted to one of the oldest tricks in the book.

They cultivated the myth of the soldier as hero.

They told you that you might not understand why the war continued but that you should support the soldiers.

Never again will I be complicit in the killing and torture of my Brothers and Sisters.

Never again will accept the vile religion of Patriotism.

I refuse to pull on that rancid uniform.

I refuse to fight for Queen and Country."

 

Ben Griffin, former SAS soldier

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Sat 29 June - Scotland United Against the Bedroom Tax

 

10.30am - 4pm Meadowbank Stadium 139-141 London Road, EH7 6AE Edinburgh

 

      Local campaign groups, trade union branches, equality campaign organisations and housing and legal specialists and politicians are invited to come along to explore the options available to mitigate and eliminate the bedroom tax and its impacts.

 

Organised by the STUC

 

http://no2bedroomtax.co.uk/event/scotland-united-against-the-bedroom-tax-conference/

 

https://www.facebook.com/events/149017925283500/  

PATRIOTISM.

No, I shall not die for the fluttering flag,

if truth be known, ‘tis nothing but a multi-coloured rag

held aloft by some foolish hand

inciting worker and peasant to kill

on some green and wooded hill,

peasant and worker from some other land.

Nor shall I shed blood for the fluttering rag

that brings out fools to stand and brag

of brutal deeds painted grand,

deeds where rustic and craftsman lie so still

killed by my brothers' misguided hand.

No allegiance have I for the Nation

this man made autocratic creation

that divides my brothers in a world so small,

binds us to a country's cause, right or wrong,

bids us follow its drum, sing its song,

then sheds our blood in some border brawl.

No, I'll be no slave to flag or nation,

have no ear for power oration,

though its iron heel is on my breast,

my back feels its leather thong,

at patriotism's barracoon, I'll be no guest.

ann arky's home.

A Cull Of The Working Class.

 This from "brickburner":

The Cull of the working class.

        As we all know by now, the dreaded Bedroom Tax has arrived. This of course is the latest of a long list of attacks on working class people. We must be careful not to view these attacks in isolation – they constitute a coordinated assault on working class people particularly the most vulnerable members of society; the sick and disabled. It has been estimated that eight in ten people affected by the Bedroom Tax are disabled. Many of those have already been through a work capability assessment conducted by the French firm Atos, on behalf of the Department of Works and Pensions, which has resulted in them losing their benefits.

      Michael Meacher M.P. led a commons debate on the 17th. January this year in which he criticised almost every aspect of Atos’s operations including the thousands of people who have died after being declared fit for work. You can see his speech on You Tube. Atos has been widely and repeatedly criticised by the British Medical Association, and is subject to constant lobbying by disabled groups throughout the country. This callous treatment of the sick and disabled goes hand in hand with the emergence of a new and sinister trend of political thought has developed over the term of the present Government, which sees welfare benefit claimants and those at the very bottom of society as lazy, dishonest stupid scroungers who are less than human.

       The Government’s sustained attacks on the weakest in society are reminiscent of the Nazis treatment of some of their own citizens prior to the beginning of the Second World War when they “assessed” the sick and disabled to see if they were physically and mentally fit to live. Those human beings whom they termed Lebensunwertes Leban-“life unworthy of life”, and “useless eaters” were callously exterminated. The German authorities managed to persuade the population at large through written and pictorial propaganda, that this extermination was morally acceptable and that the sick and disabled were a drain on the economy. They managed to do this by “dehumanising” people.

      An article in The Guardian on 11May 2013, reported on research carried out at the University of Louvain by Jacque-Philippe Leyens which suggests that low status groups including the poor, homeless people, drug addicts and welfare claimants are seen by others as less than “fully human”. Leyens has coined the term “infrahumanisation”- the infra for “below”, as in below or less than fully human to describe this development of everyday dehumanisation. As Robert de Vries in the Guardian article puts it, “The Government’s cuts to welfare benefits are causing real harm to a lot of innocent people, nevertheless, remarkable numbers seem to be willing to support them”, and, “People struggling to get by in their own lives will find it hard to sympathise with those they feel are getting a free ride”.

     The Government propaganda about “shirkers” and “strivers not skivers” seems therefore to be working. Unfortunately, on programmes such as “Question Time”, these phrases have been enthusiastically adopted by many members of the audience. This of course is a classic example of the “Divide and Conquer” strategy being employed against the working class.

      Another ruse used by the Government to justify their unremitting attacks on the working class is the mythology that cuts are necessary, and “that we are all in this together”. The idea that those at the top of society will suffer just as much as those at the bottom would be laughable if it were not so insulting and contemptible; the very people who decided to cut the living standards of working class people are in the process of voting themselves a pay rise of between £10 to £20 thousand pounds a year. Most of us would be delighted to live on just the pay rise, but in fact MP’s will now get more than £75,000 a year-some of them want £100,000, - yet they have the nerve to say that we all have to share the pain! And of course the Bankers still get their bonuses and Multi-nationals manage to dodge paying tax.

     The claim that cuts in public services are necessary at all is a complete lie. As Tony Benn once said, “If you can find money to kill people, you can find money to help people”. According to U.K. Government figures Britain spent at least £9.24 billion in Iraq and £11.1 billion in Afghanistan between April 2001 and March 2010, and that’s not taking into account what has been squandered from 2010 till now. The so-called Ministry of Defence lost £74 million pounds of taxpayers’ money recently on a cancelled order for fighter jets. (Richard Johnstone, Public Finance 10 May 2013). So it would seem that there is plenty of money to wage illegal and pointless wars, but not enough money to create a caring peaceful society.

       There is another war going on at the moment; it is the class war. A war waged by those at the top of society against those at the bottom. We are the victims of this war. For generations working class people have had to endure poor wages, bad and often dangerous working conditions, industrial illnesses and long periods of financial hardship. Working class people are still being killed daily in this war. Literally thousands of people die every year after Atos has passed them fit for work. People have been forced to work for benefit money; before long regular workers will be sacked then they too can work for slave wages and will join the millions of others living below the breadline. Warren Buffett an American billionaire business magnate once said, “There’s class warfare all right, but it’s my class - the rich class that’s making war, and we’re winning!”

      Through these measures, the Government has upped the ante in their war against the disabled and unemployed. If you aren’t in work, or are sick or disabled you don’t deserve to live, - you are a useless eater! In this war against the working class the sick, the disabled and the unemployed are being culled. The Government are killing working class people. If this seems far fetched, you only have to remember this, the entire Nazi extermination programme which culminated in the Holocaust, started in 1939 with the T4 euthanasia program which targeted sick and disabled people. If the German people had resisted at this stage the Second World War may never have happened.

      The only way we can prevent history repeating itself, is for ordinary working class people to organise and fight back. We have to combat the Bedroom Tax and all the other cuts that the Government and their friends in big business are trying to impose on us. We have to rely on ourselves and not on politicians; they are part of the problem not the solution! Above all, we have to overcome the State’s attempts to divide and rule us; we need to show our fellow workers that we have nothing in common with the boss class and that we must build our own organisations and strong communities to unite against them.

Only then can we hope to win the class war.

ann arky's home.

The Brutal Bedroom Tax.

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        Iain Duncan Smith's arrogant bedroom tax, a plan to push people into the “right” size of house, according to his Orwellian formula of age and sex of children and “spare” bedrooms, is starting to produce the horrors that were predicted. Because of this dictatorial policy, we have already had one suicide, and tens of thousands of the poorest people in the UK are at risk of being forced into homelessness. According to information from 107 local authorities, 86,000 households have been forced to seek one bedroom accommodation, while in the last year only 33,000 were available. Here in Scotland, the district of Inverclyde is looking at a disaster. The council has stated that 1,100 households would be required to move to single bedroom accommodation, while only 96 were available last year.

      These families are having to take a 14% cut in their housing benefit until they find the “right” size one bedroom accommodation. A 14% cut in housing benefit to some of the most vulnerable people in our society, because of a policy that can't be implemented, is surely a brutal vindictive criminal act. The forced moving is brutal enough, but being forced to move when there is no where to move, and being hit by a cut in your housing benefit while waiting for that mythical one bedroom home, has no place in a civilised society. This policy is typical of the attitude of this millionaire cabal who are still living in the era of the landed gentry and “their” peasants, you and I, are their peasants and are not seen as “real” people. A home to them is a matter of their choice, a home to us peasants is a privilege for which we should be forever grateful. This millionaire cabal's answer to the problem is that, they don't have to move, they could take in a lodger, get employment or work extra hours.

      This callous shuffling of people to suit some economic grand plan, requires to be met with the same determination and organisation that won the 1915 rent strike, the same unity and solidarity the beat the 1989/90 poll tax. The bedroom tax is an ill conceived, unfair policy that will no nothing but cause misery and distress to thousands of families. This will affect whole communities as it will force the break up of families and force them out of homes and communities where they have lived for years. It can and must be beaten. Get organised, speak to your local anarchist federation, this is every bodies fight.

ann arky's home.

Murder By Legislation.

      The present government in pandering to the dictates of the financial Mafia have introduced numerous savage attacks on the living conditions of the ordinary people. Among some of the most brutal are, the ATOS attack on the disabled, the closing of Remploy factories, workfare slave labour legislation and the bedroom tax. This latter piece of legislation from the warped mind of rich well housed, Iain Duncan Smith, has just claimed its first death. Stephanie Bottrill forced to pay extra council tax because of spare rooms, in a house she had lived in for 18 years, couldn't take any more and threw herself in front of a lorry, she left a letter saying she could no longer afford to live and blamed the government for her death. I can't formulate my thoughts into words that would be adequate for this outrageous crime perpetrated on a 53 year old woman living alone. However, some people can:

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