Anti-Racism.

 

   
         Day by day it becomes more obvious that our state apparatus is a blatant racist organisation. The legislation being churned out by one Suella Braverman, another Cambridge educate millionaire, yes a millionaire with a net worth of approximately £3.5Million, is unflinching racist. Her legislation treats refugees as less than human. She considers it a legal policy to lock them up in camps, etc. denies them access to normal human decency or health care. She does this in the tradition of the UK state apparatus and is backed up by her political cohorts. The UK welcomed refugees from Ukraine, offering them places in the homes of ordinary people, but locks up those refugees that don't quite fit the European mould. All the more why we must continue to bring racism and its cancerous results into every debate on how we organise our society.       

The following is an extract and images from Unions Against Racism

          Here is a force that can defeat the hostile environment and the government's racist offensive. Well done to the up to 2000 anti-racists who came to Glasgow today to #MarchAgainstRacism and say #AllRefugeesWelcome & #BlackLivesMatter. We are the majority and we will #StandUpToRacism Stand Up To Racism Scottish Trades Union Congress (STUC) #WorldAgainstRacism #Unions4Unity #UnionsAgainstRacism 

 

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Assassination!!!

        Even after the videoed murder of George Floyd and the aftermath of protests, the killing still goes on. This latest killing by the state's minders comes with all the usual conflicting out pouring of statements from police and media, police body cams didn't capture the incident, the fact the killing took place on a car-park with security cameras no video has surfaced, police say the man killed had a gun, witness said there was no gun. The fact that the killed man was an  Afro-American activist raises even more suspicion This is the police doing their duty to the state, spreading intimidation, nurturing submission, eliminating dissent. We can expect nothing else from a force set up to protect the state and the pampered privileged wealthy power mongers who hold the reins of power. 

The following extract from It's Going Down:

         A look at the recent killing of Winston Boogie Smith in so-called Minneapolis by federal law enforcement, how the media rushed to back up false police claims, and how this latest killing fits into a pattern of targeted assassinations against political dissidents.
           Winston Smith, a Black revolutionary, was assassinated by a task force sent by the Department of Homeland Security. The shooting took place on Thursday, June 3rd, 2021, around 2:30pm, in so-called Minneapolis, near W Lake Street and Girard Ave, on the top floor of a five-story parking garage under the beating sun. He was killed hours after the city attempted to dismantle George Floyd Square, an autonomous zone held on the blocks where George Floyd was murdered. People were rebuilding and strategizing at GFS—38th and Chicago—two and a half miles away, when word of the shooting spread. An “officer involved shooting” took place in Uptown, read one tweet. “Law enforcement investigating a fatal shooting,” “No law enforcement were injured, one fatality,” reads another. Dog-whistle headlines for the execution of a person. Scrap the vagueness, the smoke and mirrors, the pacification, the indoctrinated consent that local “journalists” write, and a traumatic image of cold-blooded murder manifests through the lying machine. The following story is trauma inducing; the assassination of another Black man on stolen Dakota land, and the attempts by the federal and state government to cover it up. 

  Continue reading HERE: 

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

Self Defence.

          Though the present has an abundance of those who are taking on the system with dedication and principle, putting their own lives on the line to fight against this corrupt system of exploitation and greed, it is still inspiring and informative to look back at some of those who stood tall in the face of the brutality of this capitalist insanity, inequality and injustice. I have always seen any protest against the present system, no matter how it turns out, to be nothing more than self defence, and that is surely everybody's entitlement. Lucy Parsons was one of the many, who saw the system for what it was and spoke out loud and clear for all to hear.

The following from Wear Your Voice:

Described as “more dangerous than a thousand rioters”, Lucy Parsons’ writings and speeches were reflective of her time and continue to be relevant today.
        The summer of 2020 was ~eventful~ in terms of political focus on anarchists and anarchism. I rolled my eyes every time an American politician blamed anarchists for chaos, showing clearly how willfully ignorant they were about anarchism as a philosophy.
       With all that in mind, I wanted to delve more deeply into the history and words of Lucy Parsons. Her life was also marked with American politicians blaming chaos on anarchists, though this was in the late 1800s. Reading Lucy Parsons: American Revolutionary ended up hitting way too close to home, considering it was about events that happened more than a century ago. I took a lot away from the book, but the biggest takeaway is how applicable Parsons’ ideology remains in today’s political climate.
        I would be wrong not to mention that Parsons was far from perfect. Her views on sex workers and sexual liberation were antiquated—causing strife between her and Emma Goldman. That being said, I personally believe Goldman was afforded privileges Parsons never got because of race. Parson’s treatment of her son, who she had committed to an asylum, was also abhorrent. Still, reading about her life and her ideologies has been illuminating.
      So, here are four Lucy Parsons quotes to turn to for the rest of this cursed year:
      “If the Anarchists had thrown the bomb at the Haymarket they didn’t commit a crime nor violate any law. The Constitution gives the people the right to repel any unlawful invasion in any way they see fit.”
        This just feels so pertinent when we look at the so-called violence and looting during protests this summer. I’ve written about it before, but fighting against oppressors is justified violence—it’s self-defense. Now I personally think the Constitution is relatively shitty considering who was included in drafting it, but I can’t argue with Lucy’s logic here.
“And some did rest their chins upon their clenched hands And swear to help abolish the infamous system that could produce such abject misery… And some did gnash their teeth and howl, swearing dire vengeance against all tyrants.”
      To me, this so perfectly describes the organizers and revolutionaries who are working so hard to dismantle the systems that oppress us. We cannot forget that the uprisings of this summer came after years of organizing and struggling by mostly Black people, who have been working for liberation for centuries (and more recently, since Ferguson). The activation of people during this summer’s actions has hopefully produced a new group of people who “swear to abolish the infamous system,” whether that be capitalism, the carceral state, settler colonialism, or all of them (inshaAllah).
        RECOMMENDED: Anarcha-Feminists of the Past and Present are an Inspiration for Today
        “Will you deny that your jails are filled with the children of the poor, not the children of the rich? Will you deny that men steal because their bellies are empty?”
        Prison and police abolition are undoubtedly having a moment right now. When we talk about abolition, the conversation isn’t only about what would be abolished, but also about what would be created. This quote by Parsons illuminates how so much crime in our country is caused by lack of resources and opportunity, where punishment by the carceral state does nothing but exacerbate the conditions that caused the crime in the first place. It feels as though more people are finally willing to accept that the system we’ve been told is meant to provide justice does no such thing. Rather, it is a symptom of a racialized capitalism, one that criminalizes poverty, especially when those who are poor are Black, brown, disabled, and/or sex-working.
         “The present social system is rotten from top to bottom. You must see this and realize that the time has come to destroy it.”
          This is the one that lights a fire under my ass (and enrages me). People have known that capitalism is untenable and immoral since the 1800s. We must resist the narrative that it’s the natural order of things and embrace the idea that no one person should control wealth in such a way that others are left without enough to live comfortably. It is far past time to destroy the systems that support cisheteropatriarchy, capitalism, carcerality, and colonialism. So, let’s get to it.

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

Lives Matter.

       "Black Lives Matter" was a call that was long over due and certainly a worthy cause. The injustice and brutality that this group of people suffered because of the colour of their skin was vicious and blatant inhumanity. Then again, this entire system is based on injustice and inhumanity, I fear however that the cry for justice for one group, no matter how deserving, takes the focus off all the other injustices that riddle this flawed system. We have gross child poverty, extreme over surveillance, out of control policing, persecution of "whistle blowers", a judicial system that favours the wealthy, homelessness, evictions, unemployment, over crowded prisons, detention centres for migrants fleeing death and persecution, crumbling social services, a decaying education system, we have highly mechanised armies of our youth dying while creating havoc and bloodshed in other countries, at the dictate of the pampered and privileged few. We have a class of wealthy, powerful parasites who manage this system, are aware of the savagery, inequality and injustice, but they rely on them to uphold and bolster their over privileged position. We may get "justice" for black lives, to the phony standard of justice within this unjust system, then what? It would be another paracetamol for the people, making them feel better, but doing nothing to cure the ills that plague them.  

    Isn't it time we all cried, "Human Lives Matter", and start to dismantle this entire system of injustice, inequality, inhumanity and brutality, and get rid of that class of pampered, privileged parasites that grow fat from these cogs of their inhumane system.

 Quote from John W. Whitehead:

     The powers-that-be want us to believe that our job as citizens begins and ends on Election Day. They want us to believe that we have no right to complain about the state of the nation unless we’ve cast our vote one way or the other. They want us to remain divided over politics, hostile to those with whom we disagree politically, and intolerant of anyone or anything whose solutions to what ails this country differ from our own.
     What they don’t want us talking about is the fact that the government is corrupt, the system is rigged, the politicians don’t represent us, the electoral college is a joke, most of the candidates are frauds, and, as I point out in my book Battlefield America: The War on the American People, we as a nation are repeating the mistakes of history—namely, allowing a totalitarian state to reign over us.

    Former concentration camp inmate Hannah Arendt warned against this when she wrote, “Never has our future been more unpredictable, never have we depended so much on political forces that cannot be trusted to follow the rules of common sense and self-interest—forces that look like sheer insanity, if judged by the standards of other centuries.”

     As we once again find ourselves faced with the prospect of voting for the lesser of two evils, “we the people” have a decision to make: do we simply participate in the collapse of the American republic as it degenerates toward a totalitarian regime, or do we take a stand and reject the pathetic excuse for government that is being fobbed off on us?
      Never forget that the lesser of two evils is still evil.

       His description of the state system and its operators  fits equally this country or any other country on the planet, not just the US.

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

Keelie 9.

        The rebellious little rag the Glasgow Keelie has now put out its issue No. 9 for you to peruse. Topical, critical, informative and FREE. Well it used to be freely distributed around Glasgow's pubs, cafes etc, but covid19 means for the time being, it is available to read online.

        Go on, have a read and let us know what you think.

http://glasgowkeelie.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/keelie-9-REVISED.pdf

The Glasgow Keelie Home:

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

Concessions Or!

 

        The "Black lives Matter" movement is not unique to this era, it has been part and parcel by black Afro-Americans for generations, under different names, as they struggled for justice and equality. This time round it is probably the largest of those movements, as it has spread across borders, not just of states, but of countries. Despite the apparent resistance from the establishment, like in the past, there will be concessions granted to take the insurrectionist element out of the movement. On the streets to lots of people white power matters, but to the established corporate body that rules America and else where, what really matters is that power remains with that corporate body and the present economic system survives. Black white halfway in between, makes little difference to the massive corporations, what matters is power, control and the survival of their sacred system of economic exploitation of all humanity.
       The past "Black lives Matter" movements have brought about changes, black Mayors, black officers in the military, and even black millionaires, but the real power still lies with the corporate oligarchs and the economic system that they live by, who see groups of people as a source for exploitation and will gladly play up one against the other.
        This time round, will the "Black lives Matter" settle for more steps towards equality with their exploited whites, or, and it looks more encouraging, will it, linked to all shades of human colour, evolve into a real movement for change by bringing down the corporate monster that lives by this economic system of exploitation.

       The following is an extract from an interesting article from It's Going Down:

       A third reason that Black Awakening is important, and the one I’m most concerned with here, is that it includes an invaluable discussion of ruling-class responses in the face of mass upheaval. In the broadest terms, Allen argued that

“In the United States today a program of domestic neocolonialism is rapidly advancing. It was designed to counter the potentially revolutionary thrust of the recent black rebellions in major cities across the country. This program was formulated by America’s corporate elite—the major owners, managers, and directors of the giant corporations, banks, and foundations which increasingly dominate the economy and society as a whole—because they believe that the urban revolts pose a serious threat to economic and political stability. Led by such organizations as the Ford Foundation, the Urban Coalition, and National Alliance of Businessmen, the corporatists are attempting with considerable success to co-opt the black power movement” (17).

Allen saw this program as emerging in the context of “several interlocked responses” to the rebellions from different sectors of the white power structure:

On the one hand there was the orthodox liberal who prescribed more New Deal welfarism as an antidote to the riots… [Another was] the shrill voices emanating from the embattled metropolises–voices demanding more policemen, more troops, more weapons, heavier armor, and tougher laws…. But between these two camps, there has arisen a third force: the corporate capitalist, the American businessman. He is interested in maintaining law and order, but he knows that there is little or nothing to gain and a great deal to lose in committing genocide against the blacks. His deeper interest is in reorganizing the ghetto ‘infrastructure,’ in creating a ghetto buffer class clearly committed to the dominant American institutions and values on the one hand, and on the other, in rejuvenating the black working class and integrating it into the American economy. Both are necessary if the city is to be salvaged and capitalism preserved” (194).

One of the architects of the neocolonialism program, who receives special attention in Allen’s study, was McGeorge Bundy. Child of an elite Boston family, Bundy spent five years as national security advisor to Presidents Kennedy and Johnson, then left in 1966 to become president of the Ford Foundation. With this job change, Bundy shifted from a leading role in designing U.S. political-military operations in Vietnam to a leading role in designing establishment responses to the Black Liberation Movement.

Bundy quickly set a new tone as Ford Foundation president. In August 1966 he told the National Urban League’s annual banquet, “We believe that full equality for all American Negroes is now the most urgent domestic concern of this country. We believe that the Ford Foundation must play its full part in this field because it is dedicated by its charter to human welfare.” With Bundy as its head, the foundation broadened its grant-giving from relatively tame civil rights organizations such as the NAACP and Urban League to the more militant Congress of Racial Equality (CORE). Allen explains that CORE appealed to the Ford Foundation because it talked about revolution but offered an “ambiguous and reformist definition of black power as simply black control of black communities,” fortified by increases in government and private aid. “From the Foundation’s point of view, old-style moderate leaders no longer exercised any real control [in the ghettos], while genuine black radicals were too dangerous” (146-47). In Cleveland, Ford financed a CORE-led voter registration and voter education campaign, which in November 1967 helped Carl Stokes win election as the first Black mayor of a major U.S. city.

Read the full article HERE:

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

System Fail 1.

        Submedia has just released its first episode of their new format "System Fail"  and it covers the first part of the present uprising against police brutality in America.

The following from Submedia:

System Fail #1: RIOTS ACROSS AMERICA
Website:https://sub.media/video/system-fail-01-riots-across-america/
Vimeo: https://vimeo.com/433088212/
Youtube: https://youtu.be/qj-0asLNRc4/

          (Note: The video has already been blocked in the US on YouTube... we'll work on getting this addressed.)

        The pilot episode of subMedia's brand new show, System Fail, looks at the incendiary riots that have swept across the United States in the wake of the murder of George Floyd, and the state's desperate attempts to bring things back under control.

Featuring an interview with Oluchi Omeoga, co-founder and core organizer of the Black Visions Collective and Reclaim the Block.
          Thanks to everyone who has kicked some cash our way during this economic crisis.  If you're in a position to do so and want to support our work, please consider making a one-time donation or signing up to be a monthly sustainer at https://sub.media/donate.

All for now,
subMedia

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

Mutual Aid.

         It is encouraging to see that across the planet people are on the street protesting against the brutality of the state apparatus, through its front line of defence, the police. Black Lives Matter, has been the spearhead, but these protests have encompassed many more grievances that have brought global anger at the entire system to the surface. Before this outburst of justified anger there was a lot of action on, and talk of, the many mutual aid projects that had mushroomed across the world since the start of the covid19 pandemic. While the protests might be getting all the attention, we should never forget that it is with the mutual aid groups in our communities that we can change the way we live our lives and help to bring down this festering unjust and brutal system.

       Mutual aid groups take many shapes and forms and we must learn from each other, what is the best way to circumvent and undermine the economic system that has us tied to its yoke. It is a new world for many, many who have never before thought of mutual aid, but now see it as the way forward. Let's discuss it, exchange ideas, and link up from community to community, and encourage more to get involved. The street is where the battles may take place, but we need the back up of those mutual aid groups to cement any progress we make. 

       The following is an interesting article on Mutual aid from Crimethinc:

 

 

Finding the Thread that Binds Us

Three Mutual Aid Networks in New York City
Current Events
        Fundamental social change involves two intertwined processes. On the one hand, it means shutting down the mechanisms that impose disparities in power and access to resources; on the other hand, it involves creating infrastructures that distribute resources and power according to a different logic, weaving a new social fabric. While the movement for police abolition that burst into the public consciousness a month ago in Minneapolis has set new precedents for resistance, the mutual aid networks that have expanded around the world since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic point the way to a new model for social relations. The following report profiles three groups that coordinate mutual aid efforts in New York City—Woodbine, Take Back the Bronx, and Milk Crate Gardens—exploring their motivations and aspirations as well as the resources and forms of care they circulate.

        This is the first installment in a series exploring mutual aid projects across the globe.
       Food distribution at Woodbine, a social center in New York City.
      With politicians such as Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez calling for the people to engage in mutual aid in order to survive the COVID-19 crisis, those not previously familiar with the term might never guess it was coined by an anarchist scientist who advocated against central government. As economies collapse and the institutions of state and capitalism fail to protect people’s health and livelihoods, communities have been left no choice but to rely on each other. This has led to a proliferation of spontaneous mutual aid networks in communities where none previously existed, often cohering around Facebook groups and Google documents.
      Many communities, particularly those of poor and working class people, have long understood that we cannot rely on governments to meet our needs and have been providing for each other through autonomous grassroots collectives since well before anyone heard of the coronavirus. Now, the question is how to use the momentum of mutual aid’s recent popularity to transform the status quo and make these principles the basis for a new way of living together. An important first step will be to establish a clear distinction in the public consciousness between real mutual aid projects, which are founded on the principles of autonomy, horizontality, and solidarity, and initiatives that promote mutual aid in name only—those based more on a charity model, which serve to supplement and stabilize, rather than disrupt, state and capital.

Read the full article HERE: 

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

BLM & The Green.

 

       Glasgow's mass BLM protest held on Glasgow Green Sunday 7th June, was a well attended and peaceful affair, and what's more and unusual for Glasgow, the weather was kind. I wasn't there but a report from a friend who managed to attend, said that their estimate put the attendance at between 2,000 and 3,000. My friend also said that on the whole most people kept a reasonable distance apart, as did the police, patrolling in twos around the crowd.

        Let's hope that this coming together of all shades of humanity to protest the injustice and brutality inherent in this economic system we live under, stays together as a cohesive body. Let's hope that they continue their presence on the street and in their communities, not just against the police brutality but recognizing that the police are just a strand of this system and one the establishment hold sacred. The system sees the police as a necessary force to allow the powers that be continue their looting of the public purse and the exploitation of the people. It should be our aim not to change the police, but to change this entire system of privilege based on wealth and power.  

      As with all Glasgow protests, there is a plethora of hand made placards, snappy slogans, short to the point statements, which I always find fascinating, opinions scribbled on cardboard, cheap, easily and quickly made.

      Here are some of the placards from Sunday's protest, thanks to my young friend.

 

  

Mental Illness Or ??

 

           Following on from Killer Cops And Gun Control:

 This from Its Going Down:

        This is a discussion paper written by a member of the Twin Cities General Defense Committee, Local 14. It therefore does not represent the official positions of the Twin Cities GDC, the General Defense Committee in general, or the Industrial Workers of the World.

By Erik D.

          We can’t eliminate exceptional violence without eliminating systemic violence. We must fight for liberation, not smaller boxes guarded by white men with guns.

Introduction – We Must Connect The Struggles for Peace

       On February 18th, 2018, A nineteen year old white man entered Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School with his rifle, and murdered 17 people. He was later arrested peacefully by police. The shooter’s social media profiles indicate a racist obsessed with white nationalism and a hatred of women, and a promoter of fascist messages and imagery. He was reportedly obsessed with guns, and his behavior had been reported to law enforcement repeatedly. Law enforcement never took action, which has itself been widely criticized. The reasons for this inaction are not hard to pin down for those willing to look: Cruz, the shooter – was a white man with a gun, and therefore not a threat. In the aftermath, a Neo Nazi organization calling itself the Republic of Florida claimed Cruz as a member. This was quickly refuted when it became clear that their troll leader was merely seeking attention. Many stopped paying attention to that aspect of Cruz’ history as a result. But a peek at Cruz’ social media history demonstrates his independent hatred of black people and women. Or the swastikas he etched into his firearm ammunition magazines.

          In the aftermath, student survivors have successfully seized the national spotlight for the moment, and are demanding steps that will end the shootings that they have grown up with. This is a quest – to stop the violence in our society – that must be supported, and accomplished. But in order to accomplish it, we must be frank with ourselves about the causes of these shootings. The causes are white supremacism, male supremacism, and the history and present of firearms in the USA.

          Compare the spotlight these high school students have successfully seized with the response of mostly black women and men, including many youth, after the murder of Trayvon Martin, Rekia Boyd, Eric Garner, Aiyana Stanley-Jones, Mike Brown, Jamar Clark, Sylville Smith, and so many others. The “Ferguson moment,” started with the murder of Mike Brown in Ferguson, transformed into a national movement against police murder of black people in the US by law enforcement. In contrast to the brave students of Stoneman Douglas High, the brave youth declaring that Black Lives Matter were demonized, and the militarized weight of the state was brought to bear against them repeatedly.

If our goal is to eliminate or at least massively reduce the epidemic of violence in our country, we must connect these struggles. Without connecting their gun control efforts to the concerns and needs of the Movement for Black Lives, the Stoneman Douglas students will substantially fail. Perhaps more ominous is the probability that they win some of their their demands without connecting them to the systematic violence that underwrites our entire country’s history and culture.

The problem is not mental illness

         A major concern in the post-massacre coverage has been the near-universal discussion of the shooter’s mental state. Many assume that merely because someone engages in an aberrant act, they are mentally ill. This is very far from the case. Breivik, the Norwegian neo-Nazi who in 2011 murdered 77 people – mostly leftist youths – was clearly not mentally ill. Neither was Dylan Roof, when he sat through a prayer meeting at the historic AME church founded by the great Denmark Vesey, and then opened fire, murdered all present except one person, whom he intentionally left alive as a witness. Neither were the Columbine shooters – those who are often held up as the originators and paradigm of modern school shootings in 1999.

         What they all had in common was not mental illness, but a hatred of non-white people and women. This is a through-line so consistent in mass shooters that it is very difficult to find exceptions. Those few apparent exceptions, such as Elliot Rodger, the Isla Vista mass murderer who targeted women, and whose mother is Asian, nevertheless adopt the particular hatreds of the masculinist and white supremacist culture in which they are raised. Rodgers frequently made racist and sexist statements, including specifically against Asian people.

Read the full article HERE: