Showing posts with label community organising. Show all posts
Showing posts with label community organising. Show all posts

Monday 24 October 2022

Pot & Kettle.

     
        With the farce, pantomime, call it what you will, that is going on in the Westminster Houses of Hypocrisy and Corruption and people calling for a general election, I thought I would try to make it easier to choose between Tories or Labour. So let's look at how the Tories work, they will follow the dictate of the "markets", They will be business friendly, they will balance the books, which translates as the people will have to pay for this mess. So misery and hardship with poverty for us will be the result. 


       Now Labour, however, will follow the dictates of the "markets", They will be business friendly, they will balance the books, which translates as the people will have to pay for this mess. So misery and hardship with poverty for us will be the result. 

      So there you have it, so why bother supporting any of them, the system is rigged in favour of big business. You will be asked, without an option, to bear the brunt of their gambling casino addiction.
        There is a better way to organise society, based on mutual aid, freed from the cancer of profit and exploitation. A society of community organising and control of production and distribution by the people, and seeing to the needs of all our people. Anarchism shows the way, we just have to have the courage and determination to end the state system and build that better world for all. 

 

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

Thursday 25 August 2022

Why?

 

           I wrote this little piece in October 2003, I think it is more relevant  today than when I penned back then.

A Wider View.  

          If we care to look  beyond the shopping malls and the mainstream media we can see that capitalism is responsible for countless thousands of deaths from poverty, not because there isn’t enough to go round, it is simply that there is no profit in it. In the world today, twenty two children die from starvation every minute of every day, while excess food in the West is stockpiled. Have you ever asked yourself “WHY”? What kind of system would tolerate such blatant cruelty, what kind of people would tolerate such a system? The answer is of course, capitalism is the system, we are that people. How much longer can we allow this to continue? How much longer can we allow the greed of corporate capitalism to rape and plunder this world in its quest for profit? There is an alternative, this so called Western “Democracy” must be stood on it head. An end to the privileged few of the corporate world working hand in hand with State power to use our lives for ever greater profit. This world and its resources belong to the people, to be shared according to our needs. The only way to reclaim our world is to take control of our own lives and organise outside the party political system, at local and community level. We must be the decision makes in the interest of our children, to enrich our own lives, and the preservation of the planet. We don’t need Kings, Presidents or leaders to tell us how to live our lives, their track record is one of wars, greed and exploitation. Let’s sweep them away into the dustbin of history and organise for an era of mutual aid across all cultures, organise at community level in federation with other communities. Let’s see an end to the Nation State and with it, national wars, patriotism and boundaries, a free and colourful world that belongs to free and colourful people.

Most of us go to the grave with our music still inside us!!

                                   Image courtesy of GG-Magazine.

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

Tuesday 26 January 2021

ACE Info.

        This pandemic has called a halt to so many things in our life and has created so many difficulties for communities and individuals, but as always happens the communities rally round and help each other, by various means, mutual aid being the foundation. ACE in Edinburgh, ever active, are in their helping to brighten up the dull covid Edinburgh days. Below is some of their activities, I'm sure there is something there for you to get involved in or to start in your own community if you haven't already done so. 
 

NEWS FROM THE AUTONOMOUS CENTRE OF EDINBURGH
        We are pleased to bring you news of the new food and resources bank open to all at the ACE premises every thursday 10.30am – 2pm : details below.
        Other activities in the premises are suspended in order to keep people safe during the covid pandemic – but the groups based at ACE are still active and welcome your involvement. See below plus go to http://autonomous.org.uk/groups-activities/ and information on each of the groups based at Ace can be found on the ‘Groups & Activities’ drop down menu (Plus we recommend the tenants union LIVING RENT)
        See also the regularly updated ACE facebook https://www.facebook.com/AutEdinburgh
        This newsletter also attached in PDF.
FOOD SOLIDARITY
        Food and Resources Bank at ACE every thursday 10.30am - 2pm. Organised by Oficina Precaria / Precarity Office Scotland / PIE – non-perishable food, toiletries, hygiene products and some children’s clothes are available free.
        The Oficina Precaria Resource Bank is now OPEN as an emergency service on Thursdays from 10:30am – 2pm at ACE, 17 West Montgomery Place EH7 5HA. No referral or prior booking needed. Please note Covid safety measures in place: masks, hand sanitiser, only one person per household inside the premises please, and only one person visiting the foodbank at a time.
        All welcome. You do not need a referral or to provide any paperwork or ‘proof of status’. Oficina Precaria https://www.facebook.com/piescotland https://piescotland.org/en/
        More info on food solidarity initiatives and coronavirus support at http://edinburghagainstpoverty.org.uk/?page_id=2568
        For food solidarity also contact
Mutual Aid Edinburgh https://www.facebook.com/MutualAidEdinburgh
Mutual Aid Trans Edinburgh https://www.facebook.com/matedinburgh

LEITH CHOOSES 2011 - VOTE FOR THE PRECARIAT OFFICE SCOTLAND PROJECT
Precariat Office Scotland write:
         We have launched a campaign to encourage people to vote for us for a project called Emergency One stop shop.
         Emergency ‘One Stop Shop’: COVID-19 is causing unprecedented hardship. We serve migrants (mostly from Western Europe, but we welcome everyone) who often work in hard-hit hospitality and tourism, and don’t have any family/social support network locally. Our weekly ‘shop’ will help prevent people falling below the poverty line. It will include resources bank, soup kitchen, information and legal/welfare advice in the person’s own language. Also access to free online English classes (improve job opportunities) and yoga/self-defence classes (health and wellbeing).
        We are a volunteer run organisation and the grant money would be spent on resources for the bank, equipment and ingredients (for soup), sessional workers (to run classes). Outcomes will be reducing isolation and improving people’s lives during this crisis.
       If you live, work, volunteer, study in Leith (and are over 8 years old) please VOTE!
        From 25 Jan till 31 January, vote for PIE Scotland at bit.ly/LeithChooses2021. Help us support people like you with free meals, English lessons, legal advice and self-defence classes in Leith. #VoteAndGetIt
        Please help us to spread the word to community centres, schools etc.
Thanks!!!
Precariat Office Scotland - PIE
Oficina Precaria de Escocia - PIE
http://piescotland.org
[SCIO] - SC047145
       PLEASE NOTE You are eligible to vote if you are over 8 years old and live, work, study or volunteer in Leith. Voting continues till 31 January.

ECAP SUPPORT AND SOLIDARITY
ECAP write:
         Edinburgh Coalition Against Poverty Tuesday Sessions at ACE are suspended and we are not able to hold Face to Face appointments during the current Coronavirus lockdown. But we are continuing our support for and solidarity with claimants as well as all those up against the authorities – so please do get in touch if you have a benefits, debt, housing or other poverty-related problem. We’re asking people to contact us by Phone, Email or Facebook in order to arrange an appointment via phone – or please email us with your issue.
Contact: Ring 0131 557 6242 and leave a message – please speak slowly and repeat your contact details. E mail ecapmail@gmail.com
        PM Edinburgh Coalition Against Poverty on Facebook
More info: http://edinburghagainstpoverty.org.uk/?page_id=2193
       We welcome your involvement in ECAP – read what we are about here http://edinburghagainstpoverty.org.uk/?page_id=2 and get in touch if interested.
ace news jan 2021 .pdf
DownloadView
43.8 KB
 
Visit ann arky's home at https://radicalglasgow.me.uk   

Wednesday 13 January 2021

Your Thoughts?

         As stated earlier on this blog, the latest issue of the Glasgow Keelie came out on January 6th.. I'm sure a lot of you will have already popped your nose into this great wee paper, (online at the moment). However there may be some who haven't yet had a wee look, so to tempt you to look in that direction, here is an article from that new issue. If you find the subject matter is something you would like to say something about, then drop your thoughts to the Glasgow Keelie or on the comments of this blog. You can state whether you wish it to be published or not. We are always keen to hear your opinions on anything we publish. Go on have a look at the Keeli, then say something.

Keelie 14:
THE KEELIE REPORT

The Urge to Self-Destructis Not a Creative Act

           It is no accident that two-thirds of drug deaths were born in the period 1966 to 1985.De--industrialization and a decline in the typical job opportunities for school-leavers without qualifications drove many to seek escape and construct a new harsh self-destructive culture. 1979 witnessed the Tory Government that brought Thatcher and her cronies to power. The Blair Government acted to accelerate globalisation and market forces. 'Lame Duck' industries were obliterated, some like the Miners through confrontation, but more usually by jobs being exported to countries by Multinationals with lower wage costs and social security. It is also no coincidence that after urban riots in the early to mid-80s, when collective resistance was a possibility that supplies of street heroin increased at affordable prices. Throughout history, people have been drawn to experience substances and out of body experiences. The Late 60s glamourised recreational drugs like LSD and Marijuana as pathways to self-exploration & enhanced consciousness. From a communal experience it has become an individualised or sub-group expression of alienation. Males are brought up to act ‘tough' not share feelings, and drugs and alcohol are escapes from hurt and confusion. It is a challenge that those with radical politics are not meeting. This is especially true in housing schemes where anonymity is more difficult with sectarian or drug dealers attacks more likely. There are exceptions, as with the motorway protests in Pollok in the 90s, the Independence referendum five years back, but it can quickly dissipate. A culture of education, resistance and local agitation is largely absent. Living Rent is a cause of hope, such as in The Wyndford in Maryhill

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

Friday 28 February 2020

Laugh In Their Face.

       Despite the unbridled brutal repression from the Greek state's minders, against autonomous spaces, migrants, squats and self organising communities, the people of Exarcheia, and further afield, are determined to hold on to these features of their lives and are resisting and fighting back. In the face of the authoritarian, repressive state they are showing it the two fingers. Their struggle and determination should be an inspiration to us all to stand up and resist the ever encroaching tentacles of the state. 
 

      On Saturday 29/2 at Exarchia Square we will burn our own “cop-carnival-dummy”. We come with our friends, our children, our nephews, our grandmothers and grandfathers, and take back the square from the occupation forces and all those trying to make repression a permanent reality in our neighborhood. We bring our drinks, our masks, our music instruments and all of our toys for a frantic carnival from two in the noon until late in the afternoon!
         Oust the fear, the streets will win!
     Open assembly of squats, collectives,internationalists, migrants and solidarians
Visit ann arky's home at https://radicalglasgow.me.uk

Friday 13 September 2019

The Great Anarchist Festival 2020.

 
      The Anarchist Festival Collective is again asking anarchists across the country to get involved and organise an event or events all over the country at the same period. I got quite excited about the idea when it was first announced for 2018 event, but sadly nothing much happened in Glasgow to support the idea. This year it is in May and takes in May Day, a wonderful opportunity for groups across the country to organise something. Can you think of a better way to get our ideas out to more of the public than a festival that happens in every city, town, and village across the country at the same time? This year, as I said it falls around May Day, the Glasgow May Days Group will be putting on its now annual May Picnic on The Green, this will be flanked by other events, film, talks, history walks, and who knows what else we can come up with. So to all those anarchist groups, large and small, let's try and get this into a bustling fun and educational event that happens right across the country all at the same time, it is up to us.

Anarchist Festival announces its 2020 dates

 
via Freedom News
Anarchist Festival, a decentralised event happening across Britain and Ireland since 2018, has announced its 2020 dates. Here is what the Afest collective has to say.
         This is a call out to take part in what will be the third Anarchist Festival, happening across Britain and Ireland. The idea is simple: groups or individuals put on their own anarchist events and actions, concentrating on the dates of Friday 1st to Monday 4th May 2020, and the programme is collated and promoted by us on our website and social media( 1 and 2).
        So far the model has been a success, with a good range of well-attended events at multiple venues having occurred. The decentralised model means location shouldn’t be a barrier to putting something on.
        The ideal vision for the festival would be to see events, large and small, all across Britain and Ireland. The more events that take place, the more momentum the festival has, and in turn the more people might get involved and come into contact with anarchist ideas. The whole becomes greater than the sum of its parts.
         In recent years we have seen anarchist bookfairs pop up in cities and towns across the UK and it would be particularly good if those groups might organise something as part of the festival.
         But in practice anyone could put something on, whoever they are and wherever they are. This is a good opportunity to get anarchist thinking and practice happening in the local community, and outside of the usual anarchist circles. Ideas might include: reading an anarchist text in a local book group, organising a discussion in a local pub or meeting space, engaging the local community in a little ‘anarchism in action’, be it a solidarity action collecting for a food bank, a bit of guerrilla gardening, closing a street off for a party – whatever you think is best. There’s an archive of events from the last two years on the Anarchist Festival website, but don’t let what has gone before limit the possibilities. The potential here is endless, and the definition of what counts as anarchism can be at its broadest and most inclusive.
        A little history: the idea to do this came after feeling the absence of the London Anarchist Bookfair in 2018 and 2019. We couldn’t readily replicate the incredible organisational work that goes into putting the bookfair on, but those who wanted to could at least put on our own small events, and keep the spirit of a communal yearly anarchist event going.
        It is cheering to see that there is an attempt to get an anarchist bookfair in London up and running again in October 2020, but with the previous success of our decentralised festival we feel it’s worth keeping this initiative going too. By having our event in May it leaves a space of about half a year between the two events, allowing plenty of time for planning and organising.
        This year Afest will also fall on the weekend of May Day / International Workers Day. In the past this has been a bank holiday, but the government has shifted the holiday to Friday 8th May so as to commemorate the 75th anniversary of VE Day, all of which seems like a fitting moment to go some way to reclaiming May Day’s anarchist roots.
        Do have a look at the website for more info, not least about what to do to submit an event for the programme. www.anarchistfestival.wordpress.com
Really hope you can get involved!

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

Wednesday 5 December 2018

Plunder And Pillage Of Our Green Spaces.

        Do we slumber as the corporate juggernaut continues its relentless process of gobbling up all public spaces and local communities and transforming them into profitable entities? Local communities are "gentrified", which translates as turning the area into a money spinning project for those with surplus cash and pushing the local community out to the periphery of society. Our green spaces, parks etc. are seen not as places of leisure and pleasure for old and young, but as possible money earners. More and more corporate enterprises occupy our parks and public spaces, turning them into cash machines for the corporate juggernaut. We are told, "it will help the economy", again a euphemism for, filling the coffers of the rich and wealthy. 
      We have to be alive to this plundering of our communities and public spaces or we will end up living in a world of total private property, suitable only for the wealthy, devoid of any public spaces where our kids can run freely and safely, and our local communities are ushered into ghettos on the periphery of our cities.
 My local Springburn Public Park.
 
       Thankfully some people are alive to this pillage and plunder and are organising to do something about this crime, why not join them?
     Two events concerning the commercialisation of green space and What we can do about it.
Discussion.
       Each summer the volume of paid events occupying our parks is expanding.
The disruption to ordinary park users who see the park as an escape from the chaos and consumerism of daily life. These park users see these disruptions to their enjoyment of the park as disturbing.
        We will be discussing these and other park and green space issues that are also enjoyable and could help to stop the use of our parks for commercial profiteering. Speakers to be confirmed.
Workshop.
      The workshop will be around. How to find out things about parks, greens pace, commons and how to use the “Community Empowerment Act”. The general public need to be heard in this conversation in protecting community assets. We will be looking at the various, forums, assemblies and mechanisms, that could help to enable groups as well as individuals to take part in this important dialogue.

PUBLIC DISCUSSION
Thursday 13 December 7:00
Kinning Park Complex. (For food 6:00)

WORKSHOP
Sunday 16 December 3:00 (Soft Drinks)
Kinning Park Complex.
https://inthecommongood.org/2018/11/15/the-life-of-a-park-part-1/
       Of course this is not a Glasgow or UK phenomenon, it is a world wide strategy of the financial Mafia and the corporate juggernaut in conjunction with the various states.  This from Athens.

          On the 10th of December, the final offers for the construction of the METRO line 4 will be submitted. One of the stops of the metro is scheduled to be built on Exarchia square.
        The plateia is the heart of a neighborhood which is a historic and living site of the anti-state movement. This free space has been fought for for decades and maintained through constant struggle. This social movement in Exarchia, as everywhere, has been under constant repression by police and by the forced assimilation into state and capital’s plans for gentrification and pacification.
        It is obvious what this construction will bring with it: surveillance, policing, constant state scrutiny and of course greater commercialization and gentrification of the entire neighborhood. The total occupation of the square by a construction site for many years means from day one the abolition of a public meeting space. The devouring of this public space, will finally result in its replacement with a transit point, to serve the unhindered flow of consumption and production. It is also clear that this is a strategic plan to extinguish all the struggling projects of social self organization from the neighborhood, but also to push out the marginalized who find refuge here. Besides, the Athens METRO is already a site of class exclusion and control, having finally implemented the electronic ticket and barrier system.
        The expansion of the metro comes together with announcements of fancy plans of urban development for the whole of Athens. The story is the same everywhere: violent displacement of the poor and of the struggling subjects that give free public space its true meaning, to make way for commercial exploitation. A prime example is their designs for Prosfygika Alexandras.
     Where the oppressed build communities against state domination, refusing to be subsumed in its institutions, their homes and streets are treated as abandoned sites, as deserts. Even more so, where there is active resistance against state domination, they systematically target such neighborhoods as degenerated hubs of criminality. Their strategy of repression is the cultural desertification of commerce and capital. The plan to build a metro stop right on the square of such a neighborhood is exactly the spearhead of this capitalist colonization. But, life blossoms only through the struggle for freedom and self-determination.
 We call for a discussion about the resistance.
SATURDAY 8th of DECEMBER, at 18.00
EXARCHIA SQUARE
Visit ann arky's home at radicalglasgow.me.uk

Saturday 10 December 2016

Your Diary Dates.

      As usual, our friends at ACE in Edinburgh have come up with another very interesting array of events. So mark your diary and if you are in or around Edinburgh on these dates do drop in.
WOMENS HEALTH PROJECTS AND AUTONOMOUS HEALTH CARE IN CHIAPAS, MEXICO
6pm Monday 12th December
At Autonomous Centre of Edinburgh
     Join us for a talk and discussion on Womens Health Projects and Zapatista autonomous health care in Chiapas, Mexico. Lisa Sanderson-Fox, who worked in the Zapatista Autonomous Zones of Chiapas from 2000-2004 and has made numerous trips since, will be speaking about community health worker projects with an emphasis on Women's health. Community Health Workers are an essential part of insuring dignified health care in remote indigenous communities. Come hear stories and participate in a discussion about the role of international solidarity in developing sustainable health care access in revolutionary Mayan commmunities of Chiapas.Lisa has worked with Community Health Workers in Chiapas since 2000, providing trainings for hundreds of people and accompanying multiple clinics in the process of developing autonomous health services appropriate for their communities and culture.
Organised, in conjunction with ACE, by Edinburgh Chiapas Solidarity
Group
Followed by talk and discussion on Detroit:
DETROIT: FUTURE CITY?
8pm Monday 12th December
At Autonomous Centre of Edinburgh.
Join us for a talk and discussion on Detroit: Future City?
       The US city of Detroit had a population in the region of 1.8 million in the 1950s but automation and the flight of big business, particularly in the automotive industry, led to massive redundancies, foreclosures and the displacement of millions. The population now stands at less than 700,000, the lowest it has been for a century. In the midst of this neo-liberal catastrophe and the associated withdrawal of public services, residents have banded together to create their own solutions including food networks, community safety patrols, free schools and neighbourhood housing projects. However, these pioneering Detroiters are faced with an onslaught of further privatisation, dissolution of democratic control of local government, the removal collective bargaining and raids on pension funds. These competing models of the 'future city' will have ramifications not just in the US but worldwide. Sarah Coffey, a longtime Detroit resident, community organiser and a co-founder of the Midnight Special Law Collective has been closely involved with autonomous communities in the city.
Organised by ACE
ACE MONTHLY MEETING
Tuesday 13 December 6pm
All welcome
     We hope all groups involved with ACE will send at least one delegate The monthly meetings are now the second Tuesday each month at 6pm
EDINBURGH COALITION AGAINST POVERTY WORKING SESSION
Thursday 15 December 6pm - 8pm
Updating our website, writing new articles, leaflets etc
All interested very welcome
ECAP www.edinburghagainstpoverty.org.uk
EDINBURGH COALITION AGAINST POVERTY TRAINING
Friday 16 December 11am - 1pm/1.30pm
Informal training for supporting people over benefits problems
At ACE No experience necessary - all interested very welcome
THE BLACK PANTHERS IN LONDON
Talk and discussion at ACE with Carlus Hudson
Saturday 17 December 7pm
        The Black Panthers are one of the most pivotal organisations in the histories of radicalism and anti-racism in the United States, and their ideas have had an enormous impact on activists who have come after them. Far less famous, but by no means less significant, was the Black Panther Movement in Britain. Active in the late 60s and early 70s, its history touches on the fight within the anti-racist movement in Britain between its liberal and radical wings, and the internationalisation of struggles against colonialism, neo-colonialism and the Vietnam War. Focusing on the Black Panthers based in London, this talk will tell their story before delving deeper into the development of the movement’s culture and organisational models. The talk will examine the Black Panthers from the perspective of intersectional anarchism, and show its shortcomings in terms of gender, class, and political hierarchy. Carlus Hudson is a PhD student at the University of Portsmouth researching student anti-racism in the UK in the 1970s'
Autonomous Centre of Edinburgh, 17 West Montgomery Place EH7 5HA
ACE is open Sats 12-4pm, Tues 12-3pm, Thursday 6 - 8pm
     Advice and solidarity on benefits, debt, housing etc on Tuesdays. The Info Shop, Scottish Radical Library and free broadband available all 3 days. Open monthly meetings second Tuesday of the month, 6pm at ACE 0131 557 6242 ace@autonomous.org.uk
www.autonomous.org.uk On Facebook To receive more frequent notifications of ACE events and other news of interest email mike92@riseup.net with header SUBSCRIBE ACE TALK LIST
Ace mailing list
Visit ann arky's home at www.radicalglasgow.me.uk