The Toxins In Our Society.

 

       I suppose I'm like lots of other people in believing we have left the age of rationalism, and are now deep into the age of impulse, emotion and irrational actions. Forget evidence, that takes thinking, and thinking and debate can be slow, much better to jump in on some idiotic unfounded belief. Now more than ever, as our society seems to fragment, we the ordinary people have to calmly sit down and rationally examine the evidence of what is the best road for all our people. We, have to do it, for believe me, those in power don't give a shit about you and your society. They're all fine in their security surround mansions, their, multi-million dollar yachts and private jets. It suits their privileged position if we the "plebs" squabble and kill each other, that let's them get on with their life of pillage and plunder. 

        At the base of irrationality is religion, the belief in myths and invisible men, of super men, who live in the sky and watch over you personally, who demand obedience to their weird and irrational dogma, come what may, and fierce retribution on those who don't accept these fairy tales.

        Our society is poisoned by some deadly toxins, religion, capitalism and the state, all of these prevent our drive for equality, justice and co-operation. Religion, a dangerous hotchpotch of beliefs in magic and miracles, has to be replaced with evidence based rational thought, capitalism, a greed driven system of destructive competition, replaced with co-operation and mutual aid, the state, a power based hierarchical structure of domination and control, demolished, and in its place a system of a community based society, founded on sustainability, free association, and the needs of all our people.

     Of course we could continue to allow our lives to be dominated by brutal squabbles over whose powerful god is the purest and most powerful. We could continue to have our lives shaped by a greed driven system that allows the rich and powerful to become more rich and powerful, at the expense of the many. We could continue to walk that narrow road of total surveillance, control and a divided powerless existence. That choice is ours to make, but time is running out, the options may disappear from the menu.

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

The Answer Is In Our Hands.

 

       An odd place to go to find a somewhat favourable article on what some anarchists are up to in Greece, The New York Times!! Though some typical establishment phrases slip in, it in no way condemns the anarchists in the usual way that the babbling brook of bullshit, our mainstream media, do as a matter of form. A lot is going on in Greece and the anarchists involved are a varied and multifaceted array of people, their actions are diverse, but with the same aim, the destruction of the state and its bed partner capitalism, and the creation of a society that offers individual freedom with co-operation, free association, mutual aid, and which sees to the needs of all our people, in a sustainable environment. If that is the sort of society you want, why not join the anarchists in that struggle. 

From The New York Times:

ATHENS — It may seem paradoxical, but Greece’s anarchists are organizing like never before.

Seven years of austerity policies and a more recent refugee crisis have left the government with fewer and fewer resources, offering citizens less and less. Many have lost faith. Some who never had faith in the first place are taking matters into their own hands, to the chagrin of the authorities.

Tasos Sagris, a 45-year-old member of the Greek anarchist group Void Network and of the “self-organized” Embros theater group, has been at the forefront of a resurgence of social activism that is effectively filling a void in governance.

“People trust us because we don’t use the people as customers or voters,” Mr. Sagris said. “Every failure of the system proves the idea of the anarchists to be true.”

      These days that idea is not only about chaos and tearing down the institutions of the state and society — the country’s long, grinding economic crisis has taken care of much of that — but also about unfiltered self-help and citizen action.

      Yet the movement remains disparate, with some parts emphasizing the need for social activism and others prioritizing a struggle against authority with acts of vandalism and street battles with the police. Some are seeking to combine both.

      Whatever the means, since 2008 scores of “self-managing social centers” have mushroomed across Greece, financed by private donations and the proceeds from regularly scheduled concerts, exhibitions and on-site bars, most of which are open to the public. There are now around 250 nationwide.

Some activists have focused on food and medicine handouts as poverty has deepened and public services have collapsed.

      In recent months, anarchists and leftist groups have trained special energy on housing refugees who flooded into Greece in 2015 and who have been bottled up in the country since the European Union and Balkan nations tightened their borders. Some 3,000 of these refugees now live in 15 abandoned buildings that have been taken over by anarchists in the capital.

      The burst of citizen action is just the latest chapter in a long history for the anarchist movement in Greece.

       Anarchists played an active role in the student uprisings that helped bring down Greece’s dictatorship in the mid-1970s, including a rebellion at the Athens Polytechnic in November 1973, which authorities crushed with police officers and tanks, resulting in several deaths.

       Since the late 1970s and early 1980s, anarchists have joined leftist groups in occupying portions of Greek universities to promote their thinking and lifestyle; many of those occupied spaces exist today, and some are used as bases by anarchists to fashion the crude firebombs hurled at the police during street protests.

       Over the years, anarchists have also backed a spectrum of causes, such as opposing “neoliberal” education reform or campaigning against the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens.

Continue reading:

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

An Inborn Desire To Be Free.

         The desire to be free is something that smoulders in every heart, but under conditions of repression and exploitation, it is all too often, a frustrated personal secret. At times in some individuals it bursts forth in acts of rebellion, this is an irritant on the harsh skin of this repressive society, it may be tolerated or, as in most cases, authority will attempt to extinguish that free spirit. However, when the desire to be free explodes in an area, as it did in Spain 1936, and  now in Rojava, the treatment to extinguish that explosion is far more savage and brutal. The possibility of people living together in co-operation and harmony, controlling their own lives, can not been seen to succeed, so will not be tolerated, it will be a fight to the death, as authority does it worst to extinguish that inborn desire. Come what may, the desire to be free will not die, each explosion of that desire feeds another, and another, until one day the entire planet will glow brightly from those explosions and authority, repression and exploitation will be its ashes.

      More on Rojava:

Thanks Loam for this link:

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

A New Year's Thought.

IT'S TIME TO STORM HEAVEN.

Under the yoke of servitude we dragged our existence forward

For generations have fertilised the earth with our blood

Oiled the machinery of wealth with our sweat

We have produce bountiful harvests

A mountain of luxury

Yet

All we know is

persecution pain and poverty

Struggle laced with bitter anguish

Our hands have fashioned a pleasure palace

Feasts abundance frivolity and a sea of fetishes

For a merciless army that feeds on selfishness and greed

And although we dwell under the shadow of hell

We shall never relinquish our precious dreams

In our hearts we nurture a better future

A softer world for all our children

Where poverty's claws

And war's ire

die

One day

Our righteous anger

Will smoulder and rumble

And cause the old world to tremble

Before exploding in a blast of social justice

We the people will storm the gates of an earthly heaven,

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

Our Only Help Will Be Self Help.

      Anybody who lives in the world of the ordinary people is well aware that we are going through very difficult times. Poverty is rife among our communities, and it is no accident, it is the result of ideology, an ideology that sees big business as the most important entity on the planet. All legislation is shaped to help big business, and that is always at the expense of the individual. So appealing to that machinery to help sort your problems will reap little if any gains. The world is now corporate orientated, the people are to be used to feed that entity. In the grand corporate plan of things, the people are on a downward spiral, as the drive for ever increasing profits, which fuels this greed driven juggernaut, is the root of their ideology.

     As the poverty grows and the powers that be, move ever further away from the people, we have to realise that we are on our own, no body is coming to help us. We have to develop self defence systems within our own communities, in co-operation with other communities. we have to devise strategies to empower our communities and the individuals within those communities, we have to grasp solidarity as one of our weapons, the only help we can expect is self-help.

     So it is congratulations to the people of Castlemilk, one of Glasgow's large housing estates where, like the rest of them, poverty is endemic. Community spirit and solidarity within the community is growing, community events are on the increase, thanks to the drive and initiative of individuals within the community. Let's see if this attitude and spirit can become infectious, and spread like an epidemic across our city, and other cities.  

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

No Borders!!!

          No Borders! People tend to see borders as those imaginary lines drawn on the surface of the planet by various power-mongers. However within those “borders” that surround “your” country, there are borders. There are areas of “no-go” territory, places of confinement, prisons are borders, those in can’t get out, those out can’t get in. Schools are borders, again once in, your not supposed to get out until the authorities tell you, you can go. They are all around us, detention centres, military property, places of employment, you can’t just walk in, and once in you can’t just walk out, you need somebody’s authority, or you pay a price. Even the glitzy shopping mall, you may go wandering in and leave, in fact you will be encouraged to come in, and you can just walk out, but the owner controls the right of entry, you can be banned from entering and you can be removed, if you don’t function as “expected”, it is not a public space. 

         Then there are the other type of borders, things you can't have, places that you can't go, barred for financial reasons, these borders are probably the most insidious, they slither through our society, separating the "haves" and the "have-nots", herding the poor into areas of deprivation, and making sure they stay there.

        Borders have become so entrenched in our psyche that there are borders we don’t even recognise, they become part and parcel of our life, an accepted fact of this society. This makes it all the more difficult for people to see the dropping of those imaginary lines that the power-mongers drew on the surface of the planet with our blood, but fall they must. 

 

         We can never claim to be free when we live in the midst of so many lines we cannot cross without a “higher” authority. We have to recognise all the borders within borders, a place of work should not be a place of confinement, but a place of willing creativity, schools should be an integrated part of our society, not a camp for shaping people to suit the needs of a capitalist “economy”. Prisons should be seen as what they are, an abomination and a scar on humanity, a system of repression. 

       Freedom means just that, freedom of movement, but must be linked to freedom to stay, with or without “documentation”. Borders are an anathema to freedom, our love of freedom means they will always need to be enforced, by a "higher" and "powerful" authority.

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

 

Capitalism Has Crashed, Install New System.

          Here we are in the 21st. century, and nothing has changed, the poor still have to pay for the mistakes of the rich. How the rich make the poor pay for those greed driven blunders, can be subtle and/or brutal, sleight of hand by legislation put out by their minders, the “government”, or simply brutal pay-offs and redundancy. Most of the methods being used to bludgeon ordinary people into paying for the blunders of the rich parasites, do permanent damage to lives of those affected. They also come in many guises, for example, the bedroom tax, benefit sanctions, leaving individuals with no means of support, attacking the sick as they lose their meagre benefits to the callous, Work Capability Assessment. Working hours are increased while wages decrease, the uncertainty of zero hours contracts and part-time working, and the doubt to whether you will have a pension or not. These are all part and parcel of making the poor pay for the rich life style of the parasite class. Then there is the bonus to their rich corporate friends, through the Workfare schemes, offering their rich buddies free labour, why pay employees, when your friends in government are handing you free labour? 

      Invariably these cuts and schemes come down hardest on the poorest sections of our community, forcing them to make choices between, to eat or heat, increasing homelessness, and mental and physical health problems. Slowly and surreptitiously, public services vanish, day centres, care homes, libraries, become memories. The education budget diminishes, forcing councils to introduce unqualified teaching staff, to the detriment to the pupils potential and development. Any wonder anguish and pain multiply, suicides increase, this is the price the people pay for the crass greed of an army of rich parasites. To add insult to injury, when they create the conditions when our NHS is in greater need, they start to dismantle it, slicing and dicing it up into bite size pieces for their rich corporate henchmen to gobble up, privatisation by sleight of hand. They can now make large profits from the sick and injured as the whole ethos of the NHS is swung towards profits. 

      This is also handed out as the only way possible, there is no other game in town, which we all know is utter rubbish. There is a better way, there is a better world waiting for us, it is up to us to start moving in that direction. We have the ability, the imagination, the resources, the the numbers, all we need now is the will. We know we can create a world based on mutual aid and respect, co-operation across and between communities, a world of no borders where we see to the needs of all our people, a world freed from the profit motive and built on sustainability. We have the plans in our hearts and our heads, we made and distributed everything in this world, we know we could do a much better job if we decide to start again working from the base of decent humanity. 

       I have hope, I see people fighting back, direct action, protests, strikes and taking up arms, we all know, capitalism has failed miserably, we all know reformism has failed miserable, the next stage is to get rid of the whole stinking system. 

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

Is It Too Late?

        I'm getting on a bit, and when I look at young kids, I sometimes find it very depressing when I consider the world that we will leave them, Our legacy to future generations could be a very inhospitable and dangerous place. A planet that we plundered, pillaged and polluted, all to pamper a small army of pampered parasites. It could be too late, we just don't know, but there is a chance, a possibility, that we could just about turn things around, to dismiss that possible opportunity would indeed be a crime against our grand kids and all future generations.

     It is obvious that if we do grasp this chance it will require the active and positive destruction of the present system. A total rethink of how we interact with each other, it will demand a society based on mutual aid, co-operation, and sustainability, at its heart must be that the guaranteed duty to see to the needs of all our people. Capitalism and the greed for profit, must rot into oblivion in the mists of the distant past, only to be remembered as man's darkest hour.

Tomorrow’s World!

See the fat cat’s grinning smile

as Corporate Capitalism runs amok,

Chasing profit as it goes

firing millions of ordinary folk.

Raping and polluting land after land,

starting bloody wars.

Toxic waste, sweat shop wages

and oil covered sea shores.

Where have all the flowers gone

beneath this ozone free sky?

To join the birds, to join the fox

on yonder plutonium field to die.

Mercury fish, strontium lamb

trees that never show a leaf,

radio active beaches, toxic streams

good lean BSE-antibiotic beef.

In a world of epidemic, plague and famine

it’s bottled water and chemical food.

Of course, it’s all tested on rats and mice

so you know its got to be good.

Beneath a sky that’s always black,

hurricane winds and endless drought,

its oxygen masks for the toxic air,

corporate profit’s what its all about.

Can we turn it round?

       Evolution of global warming of the planet in 30 seconds. It is paramount to implement measures such as the national plan of energy transition, to improve the energy efficiency and opt for an economy based on the use of renewable energy.

Translated from Spanish

Video from Podemos:   Is it too late!!

NASA muestra cambio climático
Evolución del calentamiento global del planeta en 30 segundos. Es primordial aplicar medidas como el Plan Nacional de Transición Energética, para mejorar la eficiencia energética y apostar por una economía basada en el uso de energías renovables.
Posted by Podemos on Monday, 25 January 2016

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

1% - Superfluous To Requirements.

       The world has reached a very bizarre situation. Through human effort and ingenuity we have built up an enormous mountain of wealth, however, we have allowed 1% of the world's population to purloin 50% of that wealth. At the same time we have allowed the conditions of the other 99% to become ever more bleak. Surely any sane person must see this as unjust, unacceptable and unsustainable. Living within this mountain of wealth the world has 2.2 billion children, of which approximately 1 billion live in poverty, almost 50%. Here in the UK we have roughly 3.7 million children living in poverty, 28% of all children. To put it into context, imagine a school class room with 30 pupils, 9 of those children will be living in poverty. There is another anomaly in this capitalist system, London, one of the richest cities in the world, has the highest rates of child poverty in the UK. Opulence and deprivation live cheek by jowl in this crazy insane system of capitalist exploitation and greed. 

       Looking at the trend of greater wealth moving into ever few hands, we have to ask ourselves, will the 1% stop at owning 50% of the world's wealth, will they as a group, say, "Well we have enough now, let's reverse the trend", or will they continue their journey of grasping at ever more of that wealth, where does it stop? When do we say enough is enough, how many more children will have to sink into deprivation and poverty, before we call a halt to this plundering of the world's wealth by the greedy few?
 

      We can't rely on that 1% to reverse this trend, to abandon their desire for ever larger yachts, ever more lavish personal jets, that just will not happen. We have to decide that this system of injustice, inequality, exploitation and greed, has to be destroyed, by us. We have to start with co-operation across our communities and workplaces, at taking control of our lives and shaping things to our needs. We the ordinary people, produce everything in this world, we distribute everything in this world, the change has to be that we decide what we produce, and how it should be distributed. We don't need some over paid CEO, nor a bunch of greedy shareholders, nor the leeches of the financial Mafia, to tell us how to shape our society, to tell us who gets and who goes without. We know, that the 1% is superfluous to requirements.

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

 

The Magic Of Anarchism.

 

      The story of what happens when an old man leaves his home to go and live with his family and gives his house to a bunch of anarchists.

      Three years ago, health problems forced Krist to move in with family, abandoning the house.
       Squatters came and went, leaving behind a maze of extension cords and a mountain of waste. Inside, garbage, debris and junk piled high. The Lincoln sat idle in the driveway, coated with years of dust.
     Eventually, neighbors nailed boards across the windows and doors to keep the scavengers out. Weeds grew unchecked where once gardens had flourished, attracting a citation from city inspectors.
     Around that time, Krazy Bill connected with an anarchist collective that was loosely based in Tempe, which called itself Carpe Locus. The group was looking for a home. Bill invited them to use his house, if they could clean the weeds and clean the garbage out.

Read the full article HERE:

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

Let's Discuss Tomorrow, Today.

      Your local community is the basis for a better society, get together, talk, organise and shape your community the way you want it to be for you and your kids. It can only be done if we meet up and discuss our ideas, free from the influence and pressure of authority. How do you build a better society if we don't come together and talk about the how, why, and where, the nuts and bolts of what we really want. Let's discuss tomorrow, today.

      Make a date for Tuesday June 30th. 978 Govan Road, bring along the community you want.

 

      Come along to the Portal, Plantation Productions, on Tuesday night, help us to start thinking about building new models of community participation, value systems, and a knowledge base of things folk need to know, learn and share to counter austerity and win things.
      As many other communities have shown us, the rewards of community-run assets & spaces are huge (i.e. reigniting community spirit, ensuring sustainable management of resources & ensuring much needed spaces and services continue to exist). However, as many other communities have
learned (and shared), the process of collectively governing a community asset is a complex and challenging one with many obstacles – practical, relational and political.
      In order to navigate these challenges as effectively as possible we believe that a process of structured knowledge-sharing, learning and research needs to take place in the community by the community to figure out the what, how and why, of building and rebuilding community structure, resources and representative institutions. We can build, through Participatory Action Research, (PAR) the knowledge, strength and vision needed to really take these kinds of projects forward.
      It has taken many hours months and years to put this project together. It is time to put it to into action. It is wide enough in scope and adaptability. What we offer is a framework. What you hang on it will go towards reclaiming the commons and the hope of a decent future – If we are willing to fight for it.

PAR Volunteer information session:
Tuesday 30th June 5:30-6:30 pm

Film Night - Conversation
 – The Secret History of our Streets
30 June 7 -9:00

Plantation Productions
The Portal
978 Govan Road
Glasgow
G51 3AJ

All info on Website:
https://commgood.wordpress.com/
https://commgood.wordpress.com/participatory-action-research/

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





  

Destruction Of Authority.

     Sometimes you come across something and you wish you had thought of the idea, and carried it out in your own city. From Act For Freedom Now: Swiss poster in German and French found on Ausdemherzenderfestung, 2015/05/24.

 In this world of …

… borders and States, we are forced to follow rules that we have not
written ourselves.
These rules, mostly, do nothing for us. On the contrary, they benefit
the system.

Our decisions are confiscated at every level of our lives. And rights
are only granted when they are useful to the powerful. If we want to
break free from this oppression, it is this system that must be broken
by the struggle against those who profit by it and keep it going.

It is in destroying the structures of power that we can draw the idea of
a world that would be free of them, and so begin to live in it. We want
to freely decide our lives. Far from the norms of society, borders,
laws, and their representatives.

For the self-determination of our lives – down with papers, and the
authorities.

Perhaps I could still get round to doing it?? 

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

Time To rage.

A little more on Rage.

Time To Rage.

Time to rage,  like a river running wild,

Time to rise,  to save the child,

Time to rage,  like a mountain flood,

Time to rise,  to stop the blood,

Time to rage,  with righteous anger,

Time to rise,  to point the finger.

Famine, misery, sickness, death

stretch across these pleasant lands;

war, greed, hunger, blood,

sour the lovely desert sands,

charity, chat, quiet dismay,

is not enough,

prayers, thoughts, what MPs say,

is useless stuff.

Time to rage,  like a river running wild,

Time to rise,  to save the child,

Time to rage,  like a mountain flood,

Time to rise,  to stop the blood,

Time to rage,  with righteous anger,

Time to rise,  to point the finger.

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

Electing The Lying, The Greedy, The Power Seekers.

      Well the grand five yearly Crooks and Liars competition is drawing to a close, and all the competitors have all followed the rules impeccably. They have used every variety of lie and deceit, in every variation, they have hurtled vitriol at each other, they have all promised Utopia, they have refused to answer questions, and on the odd occasion they have come out of their little bubble of unreality, and touched mere mortals in the street. During this Crooks and Liars competition, each candidate names the other as a lying, misleading and dangerous anti-democratic menace. 

 

      However, those who win this extremely expensive charade of smoke and mirrors, will, with a smiling arrogant pomposity, take their seat in the Westminster Houses of Hypocrisy and Corruption, referring to each other as "Honourable Members". They will then proceed with the usual activities of handing out little titbits to their friends and buddies. A little slice of the NHS here, a little subsidy there, a little tax relief to needy millionaire friends. Of course they will not forget themselves in this divvying up process, there are lavish expenses to be fiddled, there are foreign junkets to be enjoyed, wining and dining with the great and good,(the greedy), and attending to their lavish pensions. 

       All of this will of course, be paid for by pillaging the public purse, taking from the poor and the needy, and that's what makes this, not just a stupid lying game, but an attack on the welfare of us, the ordinary people. The Crooks and Liars competition is just another way of perpetuating this greed driven system of exploitation of the people. It's not funny, it is a deadly serious procedure to create the illusion that you, the people, are in control. To a degree you are, you can take part in this charade and hand them power, or you can ignore them and take control and organise your communities the way you want them, working in co-operation with other communities, by communities I mean of course, all that is in them, workplaces, shops and offices, etc. We don't need an cabal of Crooks and Liars divvying up our wealth to their advantage, but they do need us for their unearned lavish lifestyle. We can surely sort this out.

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