Squat.

 

          As the farce of choosing a new leader to be our lord and master engulfs the UK parliamentary system once more, we all know that as far as hardship and misery goes, it will not make one iota of difference to us, the ordinary people. We will still be faced with extortionate energy bills, galloping inflation, increasing interest rates, which will clobber thousands of ordinary people, and spending cuts to social services. I envisage a vast increase in homelessness, with people forced to seek shelter in our alleyways. The obvious outcome to this apart from deteriorating health is to demand your human right to shelter, in other words, squatting. The country is awash with empty properties, any rational with humanity, would open these to homeless individuals and families. That wont happen in this capitalist gambling casino, so direct action is the only answer, squat, and the communities must get behind those unfortunate enough to have to resort to this for health and safety and shelter.
        Of course the state apparatus will do everything in its power to protect the landlords and will deal with it through their loaded legal system or brutally by the forces of the state, as is happening across the world, with Athens being among the most brutal of eviction. We must all stand together and support all those in need, until we can bring this festering cancerous system down. We are in for a very tough time, unless we show solidarity we will all suffer unnecessarily. 

The following article from Enough is Enough.

 

 Originally published by Squat Net.

        The eviction happened after only a few days of occupation. According to the court the building was unsafe to reside in. This decision was made in our absence, we were not given the ability to present evidence in our defense and no inspection had taken place.
        Even though the biggest part of the building is safe to live in and the stripped part had been closed off, the court decided to evict without a hearing. We wonder if it has something to do with the extremely expensive lawyers of the owner?
       The police came by on the 14th of October to announce that we would have to leave, our lawyer confirmed they made this decision and going into high appeal would not call off the eviction. They gave us 3 hours to pack our stuff.
        Autonomous Student Struggle (A.S.S.) called for a demonstration in front of the building, to protest against this ridiculous verdict to protect the landlords of the city from homeless students.The police decided not to show themselves until the next morning when they evicted us with their special forces. Resistance ensued in the form of barricades, the occupants could escape before being captured. The owner hired private security to stand in front of the door for the rest of the day.
        As of now we still have not seen a written verdict. The court is giving landlords and speculators a free road while we face repression for using the abandoned to attain a basic necessity; housing. We believe its necessary to use every means to fight these state-actions; on the streets, through legal and illegal means.
       Their desperate means to legitimize their evictions is a confirmation of the threat we are, as we all know we would only need a spark to ignite the fuel of our outrage. Much respect for the people who showed up for the spontaneous demonstration, we are all in this together!

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

The End Is Nigh.

       Everybody is, rightly so, concentrating on getting through this nightmare pandemic, but we should also be focusing on what about after this? The political ballerinas and their experts keep talking about getting back to "normal", well I think you can forget the return to normal, as it will just not be there. There will be massive unemployment as business after business is, and will continue, to go down the plug hole. Not that I for one ever wanted to return to their normal of struggle to survive, while we keep the parasite class in luxury.

    The pandemic is being the seed sower of mutual aid, we have seen it grow in community after community, and should become our plan for a return to our created "normal", freed from the destructive profit motive that has blight humanity for centuries. As far as capitalism is concerned, let's all unite and say "The end is nigh"

   Some recent figures from America can give some insight on what to expect economically, after we get through this pandemic. Remember in this crazy economic system we are tied to the rise and fall of the mighty dollar.

The following from The UNZ Review:

1– Unemployment is off-the-charts

       Thursday’s jobless claims leave no doubt that the country is in the grips of another severe recession. More than 6.6 million Americans filed for unemployment insurance in the last week. That number exceeds the gloomiest prediction of more than 40 economists and pushes the two-week total to an eye-watering 10 million claims.

According to CNBC:

       “Those at the lower end of the wage scale have been especially hard-hit during a crisis that has seen businesses either cut staff outright or at best freeze any new hiring until there’s more visibility about how efforts to contain the coronavirus will work.

      “We’ve lived through the recession and 9/11. What we’re seeing with this decline is actually worse than both of those events,” said Irina Novoselsky, CEO of online jobs marketplace CareerBuilder.” (CNBC)

According to New York Magazine:

      “Economists at the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis projected Monday that job losses from the coronavirus recession would reach 47 million and push America’s unemployment rate to 32.1 percent — more than 7 points higher than its Great Depression–era peak.”

2– Service Sector has been walloped by the virus

      Services account for 70% of the US economy, but presently the sector is in meltdown. According to the analysts at Wolf Street: “Employment contracted sharply and hours were reduced for those still employed. “The employment index plunged from +6.1 to -23.8, also the lowest level on record…

       Retailers got whacked. The Retail Sales Index of the Texas Retail Outlook Survey collapsed from the already beaten-down level of -2.5 in February to an epic all-time low of -82.6 in March… (Also) the general business activity index collapsed from the beaten down level of -5.0 to a historic low of -84.2….

        Comments from retail executives were somber:… “Most of our business has gone to zero except for essential locations such as hospitals, military bases and prisons… We are contemplating at this moment sending most employees home while our owners determine whether they can afford to pay reduced salaries and cover benefits for a short period while we see if things improve or worsen” (Wolf Street)

3– Economic carnage extends across sectors

      Business Insider: “Recession risks are rising as coronavirus spreads around the world…The crisis will clobber airlines, shipping, hotels, and restaurants…

     “Sectors reliant on trade and the free movement of people are most exposed,” said Benjamin Nelson, a Moody’s vice president and co-author of the report.

Carmakers, gaming, and retail will be hit hard by supply chain disruptions, the analysts said…

     “A lengthy outbreak would affect economic activity for longer, leading to heightened recessionary dynamics and a more significant demand shock,” Moody’s said. “A sustained pullback in consumption would hurt corporate earnings, prompt layoffs, and weigh on consumer sentiment.” (Business Insider)

      Car sales have also dropped dramatically in the last two weeks. On Wednesday, Hyundai reported that sales had seen a decline of 43 percent for March compared to the same period in 2019. That’s a drop from 61,177 vehicles in March 2019 to just 35,118 during the same month in 2020. All other car manufacturers are experiencing similar weakness in demand.

Continue reading HERE: 

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

The Anarchists Have Been Right All Along.

        Anarchist have been consistent in their belief that, if you seek freedom and justice for all, you can't modify the state and/or capitalism, you have to destroy them both. However, this hasn't exactly went down wholeheartedly among the general population. One reason could be that it is difficult to go out and take on the state when your fridge is full, you're booked for a nice holiday abroad. and the "far right" hasn't been rampant on the streets. Now the situation has shifted, lots of people have empty fridges, can't afford any holidays, and the far right is openly on the march, trying to kick the shit out of all those who dare to be different. It is obvious that the so called "left parties" have failed miserably in bringing about a fair and just society, they haven't even been able to defend the few perks that have been won through centuries of struggle, they have presided over the social fabric of society being wiped away before our very eyes, while they displayed their complete impotence.

      We have to shout our ideas louder than ever, people are looking for answers, and if our ideas are not on the table, they wont be picked up. Encouragingly though, our ideas are being picked up, more and more people now realise that the "left parties" as an opposition, have been the problem, and allowed the "far right" to flourish, allowed neo-liberalism to run rampant, and allowed our standard of living to be whittled away.  Politics today, must be moved away from the party political system, moved away from the marble halls, party leaders, presidents, prime ministers, must be ignored, politics must move onto the streets and into the communities. 

      Our struggles can no longer be confined to the local or national level, our enemy is a global enemy, and so we must see a world without borders. Wherever the people enter into open rebellion against the state and/or its bed partner, capitalism, we must display bold and virulent open solidarity with them. Their struggle is our struggle. I can hear the whisper that is becoming a roar, "The anarchist have been right all along." 

 And from It's Going Down:

     Electoral politics feeds off of grassroots social movements and struggles, not into them.

       As Scott Jay wrote:

[E]lectoral activism feeds into electoral activism. It relies on itself to further itself. It attracts people who are attracted to electoral politics and generally does not attract people engaging in class struggle. It does not need, nor does it feed class struggle, except to the extent that it might be able to take advantage of the sacrifices of militants in order to declare itself a proper representative of a social movement it did not create.

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

Live Music, Poetry, Fun And Solidarity.

 

        The good people of Castlemilk Against Austerity, have been putting on a series of community events, and they are growing in popularity, helping to bring together the rich strands of the community. They range from talks/discussions, poetry and music as well as philosophy and food sharing. They are now putting out the word of their next get-together, and looks as good and rich as the previous.

       This is our next Event please come along and let people know about it they're brilliant nights 

  Live Music Night Fundraiser By the people, for the people A night showcasing local musical talent, should be fun and once again we need the support of the people to make the night a success.
Tickets are available through the page and are a snip at £2.50.
      This will be our 4th Music Night the previous 3 have been great wee nights with amazing talent we even had the Brilliant Gerry Cinnamon do his stuff at the last one. We want to encourage all of us to share ideas about how we can stick up for each other and campaign to change the unfairness, inequality and poverty we are all facing. We know what the issues are and believe that only the people in the community pulling together can really change things. The Live Music Event brings together all that in the most creative way. Everything is original from all the participants with their own music and words with a few auld favs added. It’s not just raising community spirit and unity but also reminding people it’s us who create things not the millionaires.

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

There's Healthy Fun In Mud.

           The North Kelvin Meadow's struggle is still very much on, in spite of the last two rallies for support being hit by Scotland's unpredictable weather.  There was a call out for support on Saturday 16th. January, as luck would have it, that was the Saturday that we had the worst snowfall of the year. In spite of dreadful weather the rally was well supported, showing the strength of feeling in support for this struggle. The next rallying call went out for Tuesday January 26th., the day the cabal from the Kremlin in George Square were coming to cast their cash register eyes over the meadow, to see if it should become a tarmac property developers cash machine, or remain a wonderful community asset for the local community, and further afield. Again the Scottish weather hit them, that Tuesday it was torrential rain, but still the crowds came. The kids proved once and for all, that there is fun in mud, it was a tremendous turn out, proving that the Kelvin Meadow is not just a summer picnic place, but wonderful magical place where kids and adults alike can come together and enrich our communities. This must remain a slice of wonderful natural countryside in the midst of our city, a rich community asset, where our kids can learn and grow, in a healthy and fun atmosphere. Far from thinking of destroying this gem, our paid servants sitting in the Kremlin in George Square should be looking at ways to increase this sort of environment within our city.

 Thanks Bob for the video:

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

A Battle We Can Win, With Solidarity.

       A reminder call for solidarity from North Kelvin Meadow, a chance to stand up and make our desires a reality. We want a green and health city, we want our kids to have a place for play and have healthy adventures. It might not be your area, but it is your city and your area could be next for the tarmac profit making treatment. It is your city, what do you want, tarmac or trees?

From Bob at citystrolls:

       Big day for the Meadows project. Winning this would send a clear message to gentrifiers as well as struggling growing spaces all over the city. That, land has a social value that's returns are of much more value to the human spirit and well being of the community than the barren profits of estate agents and banks. If this project disappears into red brick, not only will we lose a colourful part of our culture, it will also make it much more difficult for the next wee group who comes along and attempts to plant the seed in the wee bit of green stuff at the end of their street. Opportunity for solidarity here folks. We need to start winning these battles, because we are right and the council are usually wrong in these matters, which has been proven time after time after time. B.

 *North Kelvin Meadow and The Children's Wood*
Save the Meadow and Wood
*Where? *North Kelvin Meadow and The Children's Wood.
*When?* 9:15 am
*After?* George Square
*When? *11 am
Glasgow City Council Planning committee will visit the meadow and wood on the 26th of January, at 9:15am, they will then make a decision on both The Children's Wood application to keep the land 'wild and for the community' and the New City Vision application to' build 90 residences on the land ' It is important that as many people are on the land as possible for this visit.
Please meet on NKM and CW at 9:15am for the committee visit. Bring your banners with you and as many people as possible. Please state which school, group or organisation you are from so that the committee can get a feel for the level of support and use of the land.
After the site visit, we will then travel to the city chamber for 11am by bus - or make your own way as before - to be outside the City Chambers for when the committee make a decision on both applications. Please join us for as much of this day as possible. If you can only come to part of it, please try to make the meadow and wood for 9:15am
This will be our only chance to show the planning committee the land and how valued and loved the space is to this community and that we have a plan for it's future.
*Date:* 26th January 2016
*Time*: 9:15am North Kelvin Meadow
*11am: George Square
Spread the word
Join ourFacebook page
<http://thechildrenswood.us12.list-manage1.com/track/click?u=b189cab12c6f859eea2dee724&id=abb029d35e&e=86bda164ab>
and spread the word about next Tuesday

 Halloween at the North Kelvin Meadow.

Location: Kelbourne Street/Sanda Street/Clouston Street, Glasgow, G20

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

Solidarity In The Community, Solidarity Between Communities.

        The people will make progress when there is solidarity within the community and solidarity between the communities. Here is a opportunity to show that solidarity.

Support the Meadows community space!

Community Gathering + Bonfire @ North Kelvin Meadow & the Children's Wood Saturday, 16 January at 10:00am - 10:00pm
North Kelvin Meadow, Sanda Street / Kelbourne Street / Clouston Street, G20 8PU
        In anticipation of the council's site visit on 26th January to determine the future of the meadow and woods, we're organising a large gathering on Saturday the 16th to bring the community together in support of the space. The Children's Wood will be running the event from 10am until 2pm. Afterwords there will be a bonfire starting around 3pm and continuing into the night. 

      During the day there will be big marquees set up and attractions include home baking from the local community, tea and coffee and various workshops. Knit Wild will be running a knitting workshop making items for yarn bombing the meadow on the day of the council site visit, and there will also be a banner making workshop taking place. The usual outdoor learning group will be running with outdoor play activities open to all children, and there will also be storytelling happening, as well as a capoeira workshop.
      In the evening there will be an open jam session around the fire - please bring along your instruments if you play! There will be several tarpaulins around the fire area for rain cover, and we also hope to provide hot drinks.

       The children's wood will be running a stall during the day providing campaign info and adding people to the mailing list (the list will be around all evening too). There'll be folk around all day from morning until late: come along for half an hour or the whole day - bring your children, parents, dogs, grannies, friends etc.

See you all on Saturday!

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

Sweets Way Resistance Continues.

     The residents of Sweets Way have been resisting eviction and the gentrification of their area for months now, and now the onwers have turn to violent intimidation. They need the support of all of us, solidarity is our winning weapon.

Their appeal for support.

       4 Sep 2015 — On Wednesday night, new security guards, Dorman, were caught on video violently attacking occupiers. CALL THEM NOW AND DEMAND THE GUARDS ARE FIRED! (Details below)
      At about 8pm on Wednesday, private security attacked two occupiers from Sweetstopia, who were wheeling a shopping trolly across the estate.
None of us ever wanted our campaign to protect our homes to come to this, but those with money have clearly decided that the only way to protect their investment, is through violence. Wednesday a new security firm, Dorman, arrived on site, and within hours had sparked the first outbreak of violence in six months of peaceful campaigning.
     After a young man and woman from the Sweetstopia occupation were violently wrestled to the ground by security guards without cause, dozens of occupiers came to their defence. Dorman security began to attack and detain them (without having the legal authority to do so), closing a group in behind the temporary Heras fencing placed around many of the empty houses on the estate.
We called the police, who arrived and moderated between us and Dorman, but not before one of the occupiers was physically beaten by security, leaving him with a bleeding head injury and was eventually sent to hospital.
Even after the police left, Dorman again assaulted more occupiers until we called the police once again.
      During the attacks, Dorman guards covered up, shone lights at, and threw away cameras and phones that were filming their brutality. None of the security had badges on display either, which is illegal.

BUT WE MANAGED TO FILM THEIR ILLEGAL VIOLENCE!

Call Dorman NOW and demand that their staff at Sweets Way are IMMEDIATELY FIRED.
Call them on 0208 951 4909 or 07957 360 185.
       Video by In My Way To Free: http://inmywaytobefree.com/
Thank you for the support! We need all of your voices right now as the property developers try to bully us out!
Sweets Way Resists

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

Workers Know Your History, Castlemilk Housing Struggle.

 

     History, our history, the struggle for justice and making a stand against the authoritarian institutional mentality of the state and its apparatus, is a tool kit that we can use again and again, in future struggles. We record our struggles and our children have a box of ideas to carry on that struggle, without recording our efforts, our children go naked into battle.

    That is the purpose behind the archive Spirit of Revolt, a record of the people's struggles in our own area, a wealth of ideas for future generations to take that struggle forward. Without recording our continuous struggles we become a people without a history.

      One successful struggle from the not too distant past is a rehousing issue in Castlemilk, a large housing scheme in the south of Glasgow. Taken from Strugglepedia:

Community Action – Housing ; Fire bombed close rehousing issue

Injustice/ normal channels closed / bureaucracy /desperation /solidarity with experienced anarchist strategies/ planning direct actions/ increasing the agitation/ to bring the bureaucrats to the site/ impact on people as activists

John Cooper, John Cooper Taped and scribed by A Rice 17.7.12

      May 1983 there was a group of tenants who had been burned out their tenement flats, about 4 or 5 families. There had been an empty flat on the bottom landing and someone had thrown a petrol bomb into it, - in Castlemilk – east end, and the tenants – it was lucky that no one was killed in it. The fire brigade had to be called and people had to be rescued, by the fire brigade, a lot of them suffered from smoke inhalation, there was nobody living in the bottom flat that was empty but it was petrol bombed and it nearly killed everyone else in the building.
     And they people were put in temporary accommodation only as long as it took the council to paint the close and fix up any of the burnt doors etc , and then they were told that was their houses ready and they would have to go back in. And even at that point you could still smell smoke in the whole building . But they were told that they would need to occupy the houses again because that was it and there wasn’t any other accommodation for them. And the people pointed out that not only was the place still smelled of burning but still smelling of smoke that they were terrified to return to that place again in case a similar incident happened. They pointed out that an awful lot of them had almost been killed in it.
      But the Housing Dept. was completely unsympathetic about it. And they said that that would be the only housing that they would be offered and they could take it or leave it sort of thing. So again they had went to their local Tenants Association who went up to the Housing Department with them and basically had had the wool pulled over their eyes by the housing authorities who told them there was nothing that they could do about the whole thing. And as it so happened on their way out of the Housing Dept. one of them met me and another couple of the guys that were involved in the other activities in Castlemilk and they told us about their situation and we immediately said did you go to your tenants group and they said that’s him there that’s the guy there from the Tenants Group and we quizzed him and he told us Oh the housing Association have told us that there’s nothing we can do about it and we will just have to accept it.
     And the people said to us ‘ is that right do we just have to accept that and can they force us to go back in there? ‘ And again I asked the question again ‘ Well how determined are you?’ And they said ‘well we are very determined’. And I said well you can be very determined but you might end up threatened with jail or stuff like that and the people said well, we don’t care that’s how bad we feel about the whole thing.
     So we had a wee meeting with them, a good discussion about the whole thing they were adamant that they weren’t going to return to that tenement building so we said lets try to work out a strategy of how to approach this, obviously the next stage was to go and lobby the housing dept. again and demand to see the housing manager etc. etc. but what other things can we come up with?
     Despite the fact that a lot of the people there were political activists we were honestly stumped about what to come up with – we came up with a few ideas like we will go to see the housing manager , push him etc. do this and do that, but here a wee woman one of the tenants that had been burned out her house who had never been involved in anything before stuck her hand up and timidly asked , ‘See how we are basically homeless it would be a good idea for us to get a tent and put it in the grounds of the housing department and we will just live there we will just live in the grounds of the Housing dept. right outside and we all looked at one another because it was basically one of the best ideas we had ever heard! And we thought Brilliant! Absolutely Brilliant! That’s exactly what we will do.
    And we did that the next day – we went in to see the manager pointed out that the people were not going to be returning to their tenement flats, had he another offer for them and he said that he ‘was not going to use that as another excuse for queue jumping’ and for trying to get into a better part of Castlemilk or whatever, you know.
     And of course the people were really indignant about that, it had nothing to do with that they had nearly lost their lives. So after a lot of arguing with him and him just refusing to help in any way whatsoever, we went outside, we got the tent that we had brought, and we pitched the tent and a couple of these collapsible chairs people sat outside the tent on that and from then on we started making posters and notices. Fortunately the bit of ground I mention about is right outside the door of the housing on a big triangle of ground I think there was a small fence at that point that you could just step over so we had the tent pitched and we started to hand draw notices and put them up on trees explaining to people going by and everybody that was going by we were able to tell them what was going on we were able to speak to them.
      So within a couple of days we had a couple of tents and tons of hand drawn notices up. People by this time that were going up and down to the shops because the housing office is right next to the main shopping area in Castlemilk so a lot of people had to pass it anyway and go up the lane that ran from the side of the housing dept down to the shopping centre . They had become used to what was happening and some people started giving us donations of money and then food and that was growing so we made a point of that we got big buckets and advertised what was going on and so on. And one day a guy passed and said ‘see how they poor people are staying in they tents would it not be better if they had a caravan and we said that would be brilliant. He said ‘I’ve got a caravan that I can give yous’.
     Well that night when the housing department was closed they had all went to their beds we brought the caravan in and lifted it over the wee fence. So the next day when the housing department authorities came in there was a caravan in the grounds. And by this time we had started printing up posters with the housing managers face on them and other posters saying ‘ cmon gies a hoose’ which was a reference to the Boys from the Black Stuff (TV) by Yosser, his phrase was ‘Cmon gies a job’ so we changed that a wee bit and as I say we had pictures of the Housing Manager’s face his name was Mugnaioni, I think so we changed that to Buggsieoni and posing as a housing manager for Wanted Posters and we covered the area with the posters and the trees with the posters and shortly after we got the caravan we thought lets extend this lets go and get another caravan and we did that so there was basically a couple of fairly big caravans and tents and stuff like that in the housing department. And every day that that was going on we basically occupied the housing department about 30 to 40 people occupying the housing dept. petitioning to see the housing manager and ultimately they sent for the police and 3 days in a row all 30 people were arrested by the police. And the police said, ‘now you are all under arrest, now will you all walk from here to the police station which was 50 yards away or whatever and we all said no you will need to send cars and vans. So they got cars and vans from the surrounding areas to come and take us all to the police station to charge us and then let us go so we immediately went back to the housing department and occupied it again. We got great public support, we got tons and tons of money and food handed in by people. Some people that were passing ended up joining the campaign it was absolutely fantastic. We’ve got an article originally written by Jeanette McGinn for Workers City which covers the whole event. I think eventually I think it lasted six months or so. And to cut a very long story short the people that the housing manager had absolutely refused to rehouse would never rehouse they could only take that tenement block or not got rehoused in houses of their choice ultimately after 6 months of struggle and the housing manager explained to us that it could all have been resolved a lot quicker if we had not have interfered in the whole thing. Which by then we were used to hearing all that when we come into conflict with the authorities that the thing would have been dealt with quicker if we had not have been involved but in reality what that would have meant is that they would have had their way . So that was a very successful campaign
    To escalate the whole thing we were going to take one of the caravans and take it down to George Square and ram it in the door down there.

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