Mutual Aid.

 

           Our Health Service and care facilities are a shambles, creaking at the seams underfunded, over worked. The reason is that they are tied to the state and capital, imagine a health service free from the constraints of state and capital. Imagine a health service run by health professionals and their patients. In a society based on mutual aid and co-operation it would all be possible. As long as we run our society on a system of profit, it will remain impossible. The choice is ours, continue being the slaves to the financial Mafia, live with broken health care, poverty and an eternal struggle for a decent life, or through solidarity and mutual aid break free from this insane, unjust system that caters for the rich and powerful. The choice seems a no brainer.

An interesting article from Anarchist News. 

         From https://www.healthautonomyconvergence.com/ Durham, North Carolina • Coming May 2023 •

        A convergence about healthcare and beyond❋
        Anti-authoritarian, abolitionist, and anarchist healthcare workers Re-imagining and undermining the medical-industrial complex together✹

Conspire with us…

        An invitation to deepen connections for health autonomy together. We invite healthcare workers, caregivers and all who are aligned with our principles to converge in Durham, North Carolina in May of 2023 to find and support one another while creating exits from exploitative medical mazes.
        Are you are a healthcare worker or caregiver who wants to share skills and knowledge, plug into an educational track, propose a discussion, screen a film or discuss something we haven’t even mentioned? Submit a proposal!
        Interested in tabling for the event? Click submit proposals. Interested in volunteering during the weekend? Register and shoot us an email.

About the convergence, What to expect…

         Three days and nights of discussion, workshops, speakers, hands on learning, films, food and fellowship!
         We seek experts in their respective experiences, fields, and communities to share skills and knowledge that may be difficult or impossible to access outside of the space we create together.
         For those looking to orient around specific fields for the weekend, we will experiment with tracks to (optionally) follow in order to foster self-organizing and reinforce long-lasting networks.
        We will create space to vent and grieve all we have lost in the last few years and will provide ample time to nourish ourselves together.
       Coming to Durham in May 2023 ❋ The Hospitals belong to the people
 

       Who we are
        We are anti-authoritarian, abolitionist, and anarchist healthcare workers re-imagining and undermining the medical-industrial complex.
        We look towards a future that prioritizes collective care over individualized exploitation. We honor expertise and undermine professionalism.
        We believe that all humans should have access to knowledge of their bodies, unmediated by the hands of state and capital.
         We work towards a future wherein all human and planetary life has intrinsic and non-exchangeable value, where we are able to live and die on our own terms.
         We look to deconstruct the lines separating patient and provider and hope to collaborate on truly shifting the way power flows in these systems.
         We are pro-autonomy, anti-individual, pro-intimacy, anti-commodification, and so joyful to be coming together to do this work.
         We are an evolving network. If these values resonate with you, we invite you to conspire with us.

Visit ann arky's home at https://spiritofrevolt.info    

Together.

 

            The world needs to change if we are to survive as a species, of course to change the world on your own is an impossible task. However, together in co-operation there is no limit to the change we can bring about, by coming together in a common cause we can work miracles and bring about unimaginable change that as individuals we could only have held as dreams. Solidarity, co-operation and common cause can change the world to that better world of which we all dream.

The following video is taken from Not Buying Anything:

```````````````````````````````````````

Let's Roar.

The problems too big
the perpetrators unknown
you can't beat the system
all on your own.
So it's easy to withdraw
find your own little cage
turn a blind eye to the suffering
stifle your rage,
but the greed goes on
the poverty's still there,
you can't just leave it
for your children to bear.
Others feel as you do
eager to put things right
but locked in isolation
it's a hopeless fight,
so don't sit in silence
behind a closed door,
your voice can help raise
a whisper to a roar. 

 

Visit ann arky's home at https://spiritofrevolt.info   

End Of Normal.

     Some words of wisdom from Not Buying Anything, There is nothing I would wish to add to this piece, suffice to say, read, think and act.

The following from Not Buying Anything:

 

Image by Pawel Kuczynski

        You don't need a crystal ball to see what lies in the near future for humanity. It is increasingly obvious.
        Here is what I see just from a little looking around - there are, and will continue to be, great changes occurring with increasing rapidity.
Why?
Cascading crises. Pick any one.
Economic crisis.
COVID crisis.
Variant crisis.
Climate crisis.
Environmental crisis.
Extinction crisis.
Biodiversity crisis.
The list goes on and on, but it does not matter.
         We already have enough going on to let us know that business as usual is over, and it is not coming back.
         There will be no "going back to normal" because it was that normal that got us into each and every one of our current crises.
          To go back to normal would mean to go back to a continued path to extinction of not only humans, but all life on Earth.
          There will also be no Great Reset.
          There is nothing left for capitalism to reset. Decades of unchecked greed have sucked the life out of everyone, and everything.
         There is nothing left.
          There will, however, be a Great Remembering, and it might just save us.
          This will be where the tired and worn out workers of overdeveloped nations begin to yearn more for slower, quieter lifestyles than they do for more money, more work, and more stuff.
         People are deciding, appropriately, to quit consumerism all together. They can see it is a dead end.
         The more principled ones will also quit jobs that support the creaking machine of consumerism, and shift toward endeavours that support the health of our communities and ecosystem.
         Regardless of what happens moving forward, one will be better served by having a simple, more self-reliant and local lifestyle.
          If there is any "reset" it will be this - community and cooperation are becoming more important than cash and competition.
         The only things that will make the massive and rapid changes of the near future easier to deal with as our multiple crises continue to cascade and coalesce into collapse are:
Simplicity.
Community.
Cooperation.

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

Dialogues.

 

       A publication that might prick your thoughts on how do we turn this exploitative economic system that benefits a privileged few, spawns poverty, division, inequality, repression and wars, into a society that sees to the needs of all our people, in a co-operative, fair, just and equitable manner. The dialogue has been going on for centuries, but sooner or later we will have to make up our minds on how to free ourselves from this profit gorging nightmare. Time for us and the ecological system that supports us, and all life on this planet, is fast running out. 

The following from 325:

         PDF: ‘Incendiary Dialogues: For the Propagation of Anarchic Sedition’ (Black International Editions)
Printed copies coming soon…
         We present a new book by Black International Editions, an internationalist project of anarchic diffusion that, from an informal and seditious anarcho-insurrectional intent, resurfaces in Spanish, Portuguese, Italian and English, with a new title: “Incendiary Dialogues: For the Propagation of Anarchic Sedition”. The title is based on a dialogue on the course of the anarchic war between comrades Alfredo Cóspito, Gustavo Rodríguez and Gabriel Pombo da Silva.
        We consciously decided to launch this booklet on May 22, in timely celebration of Chaos Day, remembering anarchist comrade Mauricio Morales, who, on a day like today in 2009 left this life fighting against Power when the bomb he was carrying in his backpack exploded prematurely, detonating a few meters away from the Gendarmerie School in Chile.
        We dedicate this book to all our comrades in prison around the world, with a special dedication to our comrade Alfredo Cóspito, imprisoned in Italy, and to our beloved Gabriel Pombo Da Silva, who was arrested in Portugal and extradited to Spain at the time this book was published. We send all our strength to comrade Gabriel in the face of this new revenge by the authorities for his eternal irreducible struggle.
       This book will have printed versions that will circulate in affinity spaces, among comrades and diverse anarchic projects around the world. We invite you to actively support its diffusion by sharing its digital version, printing copies and/or making presentations and launches wherever there is a willingness to do the impossible in order to spread chaos and extend anarchic warfare.

Editorial collaborators of Black International Editions. 

EN | Incendiary Dialogues: For the Propagation of Anarchic Sedition
ES | Diálogos Incendiarios
PT | Diálogos Incendiarios
IT | Dialoghi incendiari

 

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

Left Unity.

 

      Left politics and right politics, where does the right stop and the left begin, how far left is still right, is left unity just another branch of the right, seems an odd way of classifying your political thoughts. Do you stand for no authority over others or just a little, do you think people need to be lead, or do you think that they can handle things by themselves. Do you think the people need some sort of leader to point the way and make sure they don't get it wrong, or do you think that people should be left to shape their own future, based on respect, equality, free association and responsibility, mistakes and all. I stand firmly in with latter.

The following is from Raddle:
Submitted by ziq in Anarchism (edited ) 

          The disturbing trend of anarcho-tankies we've been seeing can be traced back with a straight line to the proliferation of "left-unity" spaces
The biggest one is r/chapotraphouse and its spinoffs, along with r/dankleft, r/breadtube, r/genzanarchist, and probably leftbook and several youtube channels.
         Red fascists infiltrate the mod teams of these spaces and initiate left unity policies that successfully ban all criticism of their backwards conservative views. The more vocal opponents of the new policy are quickly purged for breaking left-unity, leaving a more passive audience who are ripe for indoctrination.
       Then the propaganda starts. Endless authoritarian memes to normalize gulags, guillotines, firing squads, violent struggle sessions and genocide. Tomes of nonsensical ideological "theory" that serves to brainwash young people who are starved for identity and belonging. Almost immediately, any ideas that conflict with the writings of Marx, Engels, Lenin, Stalin, Mao and Xi create desperate cognitive dissonance in their minds and the kids angrily lash out at the unindoctrinated for being "libs" and "imperialists" rather than risk parting with their new-found identity.
        Once the majority in the space are comfortable joking about murdering "kulaks", and quoting Chinese state media to counter "western propaganda", the shaming campaign begins.
        Anyone in the space who breaks with the tankie party line is lambasted and ridiculed into submission. The remaining anarchists in the space now find themselves hopelessly outnumbered by smug middle class white genocide fetishists telling them they're imperialist CIA stooges for thinking the Uighurs maybe shouldn't be put in concentration camps.
        In order to not be shunned by their peers, the anarchists adopt an obscene anarcho-tankie ideology that allows them to favor libertarian writers like Chomsky and Kropotkin, while embracing the authoritarian third positionist dogma enforced from the top down by their chosen community.
       Uncritical support for every nation (and empire) that opposes the "West", the insistance that anarchism and communism are one and the same because "they have the same end goal", the claim that anarchist communes and an ML state can co-exist in harmony, the attempt to whitewash authoritarian concepts like the dictatorship of the proletariat and the vanguard, the nonsensical belief that they can be an anarchist and also a Marxist. Suddenly they're able to take completely contradicting ideas and fuse them together in order to be accepted by the red fash echo chamber they so desperately want the approval of.
       The conflicting ideas grow increasingly out of whack the further down the rabbit hole the left unity space takes them, and the ridicule they get for their remaining libertarian attachments begins to eat at their ego, until finally they post "How I went from an anarkiddie to a principled Marxist-Leninist" and the transition is complete.
       Tldr: Left-unity is a deliberate ploy by disturbing groomers to indoctrinate impressionable young minds into their authoritarian third positionist fascist ideology and force them to abandon any libertarian beliefs they once had in order to be accepted within the collective's rigid hierarchy and not be branded a liberal or an anarkiddie for forming their own thoughts or questioning their leaders narratives in any way.
      "Left unity" is nothing more than tankie doublespeak for "obey us or be purged".

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

Misconceptions.

Anarchy is for lovers.

    It's common practice for the media and political pundits to "blame" anarchists for any violence that happens at demonstrations. Seldom a reference to why there is such underlying anger and rage in this society and a total ignorance of what anarchism is and stands for, its ideology, its aims and dreams.

     Although the extracts below are references about America, they equally apply in all states. The open sustained brutality and repression by the state apparatus against anarchists in Greece, Italy, Germany, Russia and Italy, to name a few, is testament to this violence against and hatred of anarchists by the establishment. The establishment in no way will allow the freedom and justice that anarchism has to offer.

The following extracts are from an article by Kim Kelly:

       Stop blaming everything bad on anarchists

       A demonstrator wearing black and holding a black flag stands facing a police cordon at an anarchist protest in front of the Polish Parliament during a demonstration demanding that the poorest be included in the government's assistance program during the coronavirus pandemic. (Janek Skarzynski/AFP/Getty Images)

       As protests continue to sweep the nation, a narrative has emerged blaming alleged “anarchists” for stirring the pot. They are, the story goes, materializing out of nowhere to sow chaos, put marginalized people at risk and generally make more peaceful protesters look bad. On June 1, President Trump retweeted a video implying that a man who later explained that he was helping other protesters buy medical supplies was instead paying them to incite violence. In his tweet, Trump added, “Anarchists, we see you!” After surveying damage to city property, Dallas County Commissioner John Wiley Price declared, “It’s not protest, it’s anarchy.” The next day, Post opinions contributor Helaine Olen wrote that Trump is “the real anarchist.” Her only basis for making this claim appeared to be the common use of “anarchy” as a flawed synonym for “chaos.”
        This reflexive tic to associate anarchism with thoughtless discord betrays a profound ignorance of leftist ideology. The problem is that no one seems to understand what anarchism is or what its adherents are seeking to accomplish — and that lack of understanding is going to end up endangering a lot of people. We’re rapidly approaching a point in which dissent is further criminalized, the justified rage and pain fueling these protests is further delegitimized, and anyone who engages in any form of protest outside the preapproved liberal template becomes a target for surveillance, or worse. On June 3, with zero evidence backing its claim, the White House Twitter account trumpeted: “Antifa and professional anarchists are invading our communities, staging bricks and weapons to instigate violence. These are acts of domestic terror.” At least one of the supposed weapons caches appears to have been part of a security barricade in front of a Jewish community center.-------

And ------

     -----So what is anarchism? As I’ve explained before, it is a radical, revolutionary leftist political ideology that advocates for the abolition of government and all other unequal systems of power in favor of a society organized around direct democracy and voluntary association. Though it encompasses many schools of thought, most anarchists are committed to a basic set of beliefs. Key anarchist principles include mutual aid (a reciprocal approach to community care in which people share resources), direct action (the use of political protest to achieve a goal) and horizontalism (a non-hierarchical organizational system in which decisions are made by consensus). Anarchists advocate for abolishing institutions such as prisons, police and the military, which they hold to be inherently oppressive. Anarchists are by definition anti-capitalist, anti-racist, and directly opposed to all other forms of bigotry and oppression. They are anti-fascist (though not all anti-fascists are anarchists!), which opens up another potential avenue for repression now that the president has fixated on antifascists, or “antifa,” and law enforcement has continued to surveil and target leftist activists.
        In practice, to be an anarchist is to dream of a kinder, more equitable society, and to do one’s best to get us closer to making that dream a reality. For every minute of protest footage showing anarchists out in the streets, there are untold hours spent attending endless meetings (anarchists love meetings), cooking and delivering food and supplies to those who need it, researching far-right groups, planning demonstrations, providing child care and other support to comrades, and taking part in other communally minded projects. It may sound hokey, but anarchism is about love as much as it is rage; there is a certain utopian romance to it.-----

And:----

     -------All of this obfuscation and misinformation is a shame, because anarchism has many lessons to offer about caring for our communities and all of those in need. The concepts that make up its core have become increasingly popular, even as anarchism itself has been dismissed as a mere thirst for destruction. As long-running anarchist collective Crimethinc wrote in their anthology “Expect Resistance: A Field Manual,” “No one is more qualified than you are to decide how you live; no one should be able to vote on what you do with your time and your potential unless you invite them to.”
      As others survey the smoldering ruins of the American Dream and beg politicians to take mercy on the most vulnerable, it’s worth reminding people that life doesn’t have to be this way. The government has shown that it won’t save us. We know that the rich won’t save us. But if we embrace the true spirit of anarchy, maybe, just maybe, we can save ourselves.

Read the full article HERE:

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

Twins.

       The misunderstood and misrepresented, the inseparable twins, anarchism, and autonomy.

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

Anarchy & Covid19.

What Might an Anarchist Society Look Like?

     1 The world’s resources would be held in common and shared with all the diverse life on Earth.
    2 People would manage their own lives, work and communities, and everyone would have a say in decision making through decentralised forms of organisation.
   3 Relationships in all areas of life would be based on mutual respect and equality regardless of gender, skin colour, sexual orientation, disability, age, culture etc.
    4 Work wouldn’t be boring and repetitive, but instead would be a means of voluntary self expression and fulfillment; unpopular or difficult jobs would be shared.
    5 Education would be integrated into daily life to produce free individuals who think for ourselves.
     6 Goods and services would be produced ecologically for human needs based on the principle “from each according to ability, to each according to need”

      Anarchist, by word and deed, strive for that better world for all, anarchism has the books, the leaflets, the history, the road map, and there has been the experience in several places in the world where these became practice. However the world changes and anarchism like that world must also change. We have to convince people that our philosophy would work in drastic situations, pandemic is the most resent event that anarchist must show that it could cope with, and better than, the present centralised autocratic state/capitalism system. That requires honest debate, co-operation and open mindedness.

     The group Anarchist Writers has produced an interesting article that perhaps will open and encourage that debate among anarchists and the general public.

Anarchy and Covid-19

Fri, 06/05/2020 - 20:22 — Anarcho

       A standard reproach against anarchism is that it would not be able to withstand crises as well as hierarchies. This is often the underlying assumption of Marxist diatribes against Anarchism – although these usually invoke euphemisms to avoid admitting that what is really being suggested is that they and their party should be in power. Hence the assertions on the need for a centralised “workers’ State” to organise defence against the counter-revolution (i.e., anyone who disagrees with them), plan the economy, and so on – skilfully avoiding discussing the grim inefficiencies and tyrannies of the Bolshevik regime or the various counter-examples which show the opposite (most obviously, the response of the CNT-FAI to Franco’s coup).

      The coronavirus crisis – like any crisis – sees people “rally to the flag” and be more willing to view those in power in a good light. This happened in the UK with the serial lying, incompetent, self-serving, waffling, racist, sexist, homophobic lazy waste of space known as “Boris” but better called Johnson (and not only because that is his surname). It even happened with Trump – although his bump in the polls was both smaller in size and shorter in duration. Still, Trump does serve a purpose – making even Johnson and his response to the crisis seem better by default.

     Which raises a question – what would an anarchist society, an anarchy, do in the face of a coronavirus crisis?

This is no idle question for addressing a serious issue and the concerns it generates in the general public (i.e., people we want to become anarchists) should be something anarchists do. We must apply our ideas to real events if we take our ideas seriously and seek to see them applied – rather than an excuse to sound ultra-radical.

Now, there may be a tendency for some anarchists – as with “crime” (i.e., anti-social behaviour) – to simply say that a free society would not have any. This, as with crime, is not very convincing and, for example, Kropotkin did not suggest that. He argued, like other anarchist thinkers, that anti-social behaviour would, indeed, be vastly reduced in a decent society, but it would never disappear completely. Therefore any which remained would be dealt with via free arbitration between the parties in conflict, as well as community solidarity and self-defence conducted as humanely as an illness would be.

     The same can be said for Covid-19. Yes, a free society would be one based on workers’ control, so it is unlikely that it would be lacking in safe and hygienic working conditions. It would not have the same pressures from bosses to cut corners to maximise profits (and in non-mutualist anarchies there would be no market pressures to do likewise). It would not experience the hollowing out of society and its various institutions (not least health-care) that neo-liberalism has produced nor would it have people with low-paid, insecure jobs who have to drag themselves into work because they have bills to pay but, by so doing, spread the virus. It would not have obscenities like billionaires having a net worth far in excess of the costs of paying their workers decent sick pay for months.

Continue reading HERE: 

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

Organise.

 

        Like the article says, "these are dark days", also very confusing, because none of us have lived through such a situation before in our life time. Also, information can be conflicting, loaded in this direction or that direction. Forces with wealth in mind pushing for "get the economy growing again" and those with concern for people's lives, "human life and wellbeing is paramount". It would be easy to cover your ears and just ride this one out, but for sure that would lead you back to the callous failed and exploitative system that brought us to this situation.  Now more than ever we have to focus on what we had, its poverty, its greed driven market economy, its perpetual struggle for a half decent life for most of us, while the few piled up unimaginable wealth and its accompanying power and privileges. That can't be on our desire for normality, we have a golden opportunity as we come together to help each other, through this nightmare, to make that the foundation of our new normal. We are learning day by day that we can organise to see to our needs, simply by co-operation and mutual aid. We should not let that desire to be part of a caring community that doesn't seek profit, just the well being of each other to disappear, and give in to the forces of the market economy. We have felt the burden of that model for centuries and the weight never lifted off our shoulders, and still the few wallowed in opulence cradled in pomp and power. That can never be our normal again. 

The following from It's Going Down:

 From SubMedia,

         These are dark days. As the COVID-19 crisis turns our world upside-down, the social isolation and atomization of capitalism has given way to full-blown social distancing. At a time when we most need to come together, we’re told that human contact can kill us. Alarm bells are flashing everywhere as the dead pile up, the economy burns, and more and more people’s mental health deteriorates. This is the most severe and far-reaching global crisis that most of us who are alive today have ever experienced. Its a terrifying, alienated, and stressful time. It’s also no time to give up. No time to turn on Netflix, bury our heads in the sand, and wait for things to pass. Certainly not for anarchists, or anyone who calls themselves a revolutionary.
       These are dark days. As the COVID-19 crisis turns our world upside-down, the social isolation and atomization of capitalism has given way to full-blown social distancing. At a time when we most need to come together, we’re told that human contact can kill us. Alarm bells are flashing everywhere as the dead pile up, the economy burns, and more and more people’s mental health deteriorates. This is the most severe and far-reaching global crisis that most of us who are alive today have ever experienced. Its a terrifying, alienated, and stressful time. It’s also no time to give up. No time to turn on Netflix, bury our heads in the sand, and wait for things to pass. Certainly not for anarchists, or anyone who calls themselves a revolutionary.

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

This Crazy World.

   Just a little sad reflecting, with a sprinkling of hope.

This Crazy World. 

           In this crazy world, 

half dead from dereliction

half brutalised from deprivation

half drowned in a sea of greed

half devoured by perpetual need.

           Where

war shrieks from East to West

famine seldom seems to rest

hunger stalks the layman's life

poverty kills with a silent knife.

           We find

a pompous pampered arrogant cliche

live a life that's smooth and sleek

far removed from want and fear,

bought with another's sweat and tear.

          Yet

not a word do they speak

to aid the fallen or the weak

preferring to kneel at luxury's shrine

repeating their mantra, "This is mine".

          Now watch them

peddle lies of tongue and pen

slyly hoard their plunder then

with spurious sanctimonious phrase

shed crocodile tears at man's malaise.

           Where

is it written that the masses must sweat

deprivation and misery a constant threat

covering the world in measureless wealth

so the few can plunder with avid stealth?

           In friendship

let's clasp each human hand

with compassion try to understand

our differences, our hopes, our fears

dragging mankind from this sea of tears.

           Creating

a world where justice flowers

the many reap the fruits of toiling hours

a world of sharing, tending the others need

an end to privilege, plunder and greed.

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

UK/Ireland Decentralised Anarchist Festival.

        Last year London anarchists held a decentralised anarchist festival in place of the dropped London anarchist bookfair. It was a great success, and at the time I suggested that this idea should be replicated across the country in as many villages, towns and cities as possible right across the country, all on the same weekend. At the time there was some support for the idea but nothing transpired. I can't think of a better way to let people know, we are here, and to raise the profile of our ideas and beliefs. A  decentralised trans-UK/Ireland anarchist festival I'm sure would draw publicity and perhaps those new converts.

       The organisers of last years London anarchist festival have now come up with the idea that we should attempt to make this idea a reality. It is up to us if we really want a country wide publicity event to bring us all together and bring in new faces. Numbers matter.

 Callout for organising the Anarchist Festival 2019

News,
        Following the success of last year’s decentralised anarchist festival, we’re going to do it again, but this time with events not just in London, but across the UK and Ireland.
      The idea is simple: groups and venues put on their own programme of anarchist events, centred around the long weekend of 31st May to the 2nd June 2019. The programme is collated by us on our website and social media.

www.anarchistfestival.wordpress.com
www.facebook.com/anarchistfestival
www.twitter.com/anarchistfest
      Struggling to think about what would be a good thing to put on? You can look at last years listings to see what kind of stuff happened last year., but don’t let that limit you! We welcome events on anarchism, it’s history, ideas and activity; as well as topics of interest to anarchism such as ecology, workplace organising, mental health, feminism etc. We will reject events that are racist, misogynist, transphobic or are otherwise oppressive.
      If your event is in London and you would like it included in the programme please let us know about it by emailing us at anarchistfestival@riseup.net
      If your event is NOT in London (anywhere else in the UK or Ireland) and you would like it included in the programme please let us know about it by emailing us at nationalevents@riseup.net.
      Please also contact us at those email addresses if you have a venue for use, but no events in mind.
      DEADLINE ALERT! Please be sure to submit your event by 1st May 2019 for inclusion in the programme. Any event submitted later than this date will not be included.
      Hope you can get involved – see you on the streets/ in the social centres!

Check out the leaflet below and feel free to print some out to put up in your local library/ university/ bookshop/ community space. If you’d like the PDF please email us and we’ll send it over.

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

A Wee Look At Glasgow's Bookfair 2019.

        For those who missed our recent Glasgow Autonomous Bookfair, thanks to Bob you can now have a wee sniff of what was going on. Hopefully this will make you determined to get to the next one and add your content.

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

I Want To Walk With The Poets And The Dreamers.

 

        Sometimes I look around at the shear scale of the misery, poverty, deprivation and savage deaths that haunt this world, and I'm filled with a feeling of dread and hopelessness, but then again, I think, "no this world has an abundance of wonderful people who are pushing towards that better world for all."  Some may be dreamers, some poets, but all are fashioning a better, a fairer world that we can create.

WALK WITH THE POETS.

My head has had enough of you,

you doomsday sooth-sayers, and

rationalists, that trap us in the world that is.

Go weave your tales of “can't be done”

to the dead, and those of no imagination.

I want to walk with the utopian,

the dreamer and the poet,

laugh with the child and sing with the wind.

Run with the deer, not with “the market trend”

Enough of, “this is the way it has to be”,

a world of poverty, wars and inequality.

Now, I'll create the world I want to see,

A world of sharing, peace and liberty.

I want the children to plan tomorrow,

the adult help them get there,

trees and flowers our treasured possessions,

with birds and animals their keepers.

Who wants a world that chains us to mortgage,

binds us to a labouring day, just to eat bread?

Who wants to spend their life, feeding fat-cats

while their own children go hungry?

No, this is not the world that has to be,

in our foolishness and misplaced trust,

this is a world that has slithered over us,

poisoning our mind, putrefying our spirit.

Let's call on the poet, let's welcome the dreamer,

let's take council with the utopian,

They'll help us create a better world for all.

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Turn The Anarchist Within You Free.

 

        I always maintain that we are all anarchists at heart, but some are afraid to admit that fact. Nobody likes to continually be told what to do, we all want to choose our own way of life, we don't like to see people suffer without wanting to help, we all want to be treated equally and fairly, we don't want to see people being exploited for the benefit of the few. However, the vast majority forego these desires and comply with a system that day and daily curtails all these inner desires. It might be fear of losing what little they have, it might be that they are conditioned by the babbling brook of bullshit, our mainstream media, into believing that there is no other way than the greed driven system of capitalism. There is, it is to join with others in seeking the fulfilment of these inner desires, community based mutual aid, solidarity between those communities, thinking for ourselves and refusing to be constrained and fitted into little boxes that suit this system of authority and exploitation. Believing in your inner desires to be free, co-operative and fair, giving in to the anarchist that lives within yourself, and wishes to be free.

Today City Plaza Hotel Is One And a Half Years Old.

 

         Having spent a considerable time in Greece over the years, some of that time on some of the islands, but mainly in Athens, I have great admiration for the activists there. They seem to be able to mobilise in numbers, and to hold onto what they have won, of course it is the numbers and the solidarity they show to each other, that brings them victories.
        One such action which I consider a remarkable achievement is the City Plaza Hotel. Back in 2008, when the financial Mafia went with demand notices to the various states, insisting in getting back their gambling losses, the following "austerity" ideology decimated lots of countries, in Europe, Greece was the worst hit. unemployment rocketed, hotels, shops and workplaces closed their doors, evictions mushroomed, plus Greece was facing a vast influx of refugees. That's when the local activists stepped in, occupied a large empty hotel in the centre of Athens, and housed lots of refugees. That was in April 2016, they are still there today.
      The logistics to keep such an enterprise going over this period of time is a considerable achievement, but they have done it, and are still doing it. The City Plaza Hotel is home to hundreds of refugees, in the centre of Athens, thanks to the local activists, refugees and their supporters.

This from Squatnet:

        On April 22, 2016, 250 activists and refugees took over the hotel City Plaza in the center of Athens. A hotel which like many other businesses stood closed for 6 years after the economic collapse and the government’s policies of austerity. This abandoned hotel was transformed into a Refugee Accommodation and Solidarity Space. Since then the solidarity initiative has, for more than 500 days, provided free and decent housing to over 1700 people in the center of Athens, irrespective of their nationality and residence status. These people are housed in the hotel’s 120 rooms, 350-400 persons at a time, a third of whom are children.
       There are other ways you can measure what’s been happening here over the past 18 months; with the 385,000 warm meals served by the kitchen group or with the 35,000 working hours spent at security posts by the hotel’s entrance and on the balconies of the building. With the 13,560 hours of shifts at the reception desk or with the more than 32,700 rolls of toilet paper distributed by the warehouse team. It can also be counted in 156 full van-loads of fresh vegetables and meat; or in the countless hours spent cleaning the building, or in the medical center, in the hours spent teaching in the two classrooms, or in the women space and in the playground or with the 18 tons of heating oil used in the boilers and radiators.

Read the full story of this wonderful achievement:

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Ring The Bells That Still Can Ring.

        No need to get depressed because you can't move mountains, but you can still shift a pile of rocks by yourself, think how many rocks you could move with the help of some friends, it could be a whole mountain. A few words of wisdom from that excellent site Not buying Anything.

       Things appear grim these days, globally speaking. But that should not overshadow all the good that can be enjoyed in the time we have remaining, however long that may be. Lots is broken, but lots is still working.
       Yesterday Linda and I were viewing Leonard Cohen performing his song "Anthem". As we listened, I thought of how gracefully Cohen aged, and how his experience allowed him to view the world in a more Zen-like manner. He wasn't fighting life (or death), but going with the flow.
      When he said,

“Ring the bells that still can ring
Forget your perfect offering
There is a crack in everything
That's how the light gets in.”,

he reminded us not to fall into despair. Just because we can't do everything, doesn't mean we shouldn't do something. We can't wait for perfect solutions before we act.
       Cursing the darkness is not the answer. When we choose Earth-friendly lifestyles we are lighting candles, and every photon helps.We can do what we can do, and use what works.
      Simple living is a set of bells that still can ring, loud and clear. Their peal cuts through the void. No change, no peal.

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

A Divided London Anarchist Bookfair?

        I wasn't at the London Anarchist Bookfair this year, but from reports I have heard, I don't think I would have enjoyed it. Reports that I hear are all about confrontation between elements within the anarchist movement, hardly advertises solidarity and co-operation. However, like I said, I wasn't there and am going on second hand version of events. What follows is a first hand account, from somebody who was there, that I found interesting, especially the bit about reaching out to the local community. I post it in full, not to knock the London Anarchist Bookfair, but in the hope that others may come forward with their stories and help to address the problems, that seem to have arisen, find answers and build on what has gone before, making the London Anarchist Bookfair the magnet for activists and a platform to further our ideas out to the public at large.

 From On Uncertain Ground:

          This piece has been prompted by our experience on the joint South Essex Radical Media / Basildon & Southend Housing Action (BASHA) stall at the London Anarchist Bookfair – http://anarchistbookfair.org.uk/ – on Saturday 28th October. We went along to this event to talk to people about our grassroots approach to promoting our politics. This year, we produced a special edition of the Stirrer paper to explain our approach and deal briefly with our frustrations with what passes for the anarchist ‘movement’: Here it is… https://southessexstirrer.wordpress.com/2017/10/29/here-it-is/
        The London Anarchist Bookfair has grown from humble beginnings to a large, packed event. The question that should be getting asked every year is this – what should the bookfair be trying to achieve? From our experiences of being on a stall, talking to punters and just generally people watching, our impression is that the bookfair seems to be an event put on by anarchists and radicals for the benefit of other anarchists and radicals. On the one hand, it does provide an opportunity for activists to meet, catch up with each other, swap ideas, debate issues and on occasions, start scrapping with each other (more on this later). On the other hand, if you were a non-political person curious enough to attend the event to find out what anarchism is and whether it’s something you’d want to pursue, would you leave any the wiser?
       From what we’ve seen of the bookfair over the last few years, the answer to that question is that someone wanting to find out about anarchism would more likely than not be leaving not much the wiser. Granted, with the range of groups and individuals attending and speaking at the bookfair, getting a coherent vision of what anarchism is across to a newcomer is a tough call. That’s partly down to the range of interpretations of what actually constitutes anarchism. We don’t have a problem with that – anarchism is something that should be constantly evolving and trying out different strategies and tactics to see what does and doesn’t work. However, we all could be better at communicating the fluidity of anarchism and how it evolves and develops to newcomers.
       For the last two years, the London Anarchist Bookfair has been held in an area of Harringay that so far has escaped the ravages of gentrification and still feels like a community. For the last two years that we’ve been to the bookfair in Harringay, it feels as if it’s an alien presence that has landed in the middle of a neighbourhood but has yet to develop any real connection with it. Given what’s been going on in the area with the Harringay Development Vehicle which is the local (Labour controlled) council offloading housing estates and other assets to Lendlease, a development company, the bookfair should be an ideal opportunity to get local community activists talking to anarchists and vice-versa.
      Granted, some activists we know in the area were pulling out the stops to do that and their work deserves to be applauded. Also with some of the talks and film showings, there was a decent effort to put class politics back on the agenda which has to be welcomed. There were some positive signs at this year’s bookfair of a recognition of the need to engage with working class people if we’re ever going to build a movement that will bring about real change. However, walking back down West Green Road to Seven Sisters station on the way home, the disconnect between the attendees at the bookfair and the people out and about on the surrounding streets was only too clear. If the bookfair is going to continue to be located in Harringay, there has to be a concerted effort from the organisers to engage the local community.
     You don’t need us to tell you that we’re living in uncertain, unpredictable and increasingly dangerous times. The kind of times when the need for a viable, progressive political alternative is greater than ever before. The kind of times when the varying strands of anarchism that make up the movement need to have a sense of urgency and be pulling out the stops to reach a wider audience. The kind of times when some of the navel gazing that characterises certain strands of anarchism and radicalism needs to be put to one side. The kind of times when an anarchist bookfair should be throwing its doors open to the working class community that surrounds the venue by involving them in organising the event so their voices are heard.
       We judge events like the London Anarchist Bookfair on the basis of whether we’d bring along a new, relatively apolitical contact from one of the estates we operate on with BASHA to give them a flavour of what anarchism is about. If we’d brought someone along in the morning and they’d departed by the early afternoon, given what the event was like up until that point, they could well have left with a fairly positive impression. If they’d been around after the early afternoon, they would most likely have been lost to the cause of anarchism for good.
     From what we can gather, there was an ongoing confrontation resulting from a number of radical feminists targeting transgender people. From mid-afternoon onwards we kept hearing shouting and heard anecdotal reports of people being verbally abused, shoved and mobbed, and stalls disrupted. Fortunately, our stall was located a fair way from the main locus of the confrontations and we were able to carry on operating but the deterioration in the atmosphere was noticeable. As we’re mainly class struggle and housing activists, albeit with some green tinges, we’re not well versed as to why some radical feminists have such a problem with transgender people and target them in the way they do. We’re doing some reading up on the matter and the more we read, the more baffled we are as to why, given how charged the whole issue is, material that any neutral observer would have seen as provoking confrontations was allowed to be circulated.
       If I was a curious newcomer to the bookfair, one not well versed in gender politics, and was a witness to what went on with the confrontations, my reaction would have been ‘what the ***k is going on here?’ and my response would have been to walk out and dismiss the idea of anarchism as a viable political option. Seriously, is this the face the London Anarchist Bookfair collective wants to show to newcomers, particularly new contacts we may want to bring along in the future and especially to anyone from the estates surrounding the bookfair venue? What happened from mid afternoon onwards hasn’t done the movement any favours at a time where we have to be focused on drawing in as many people as possible…

Dave (the editor)

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