Bullshit.

         Capitalism, a system that has always represented only the uppermost echelons of the financially affluent and their parasitical banks. This coterie of self seeking financial fraudsters, though chicanery and bribery convinced the political menagerie, that no matter for what purpose it may have been set up, government is in thrall and dependent on this financial cabal and must follow its bidding. So finance dictates what can and cannot be done. The will of the people must bend to the demands of the financial Mafia, or the threat of societies collapse will ensue. Well that is their mantra that is shouted loud and clear. This preached bullshit is treated by the powers that be, with reverence and respect, with the belief that there is no alternative.
       However, you and I should know that there is an alternative way to structure our society. One based on mutual aid, co-operation, sustainability and community, freed from the greed drive profit motive. The injustices and inequalities of capitalism are not set in tablets of stone. It is a human devised system of selfish greed and can be replaced with a human devised system of fairness. All it requires is the will of the majority of the people to take matters into their own hands and do that restructuring. We can’t wait for the powers that be to do that restructuring, they are very happy in their little bubble of affluence, and to hell with you.

 

 

Image courtesy of The Guardian.

 

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

Bookfair.

 

             It is great to see that anarchist bookfairs are still regular and popular in the UK. Most are very successful and long may that be so. They are also very useful in bringing together those who see anarchism as the road to that better world. So remember remember the 5th of November, for that is the date of the Manchester Salford Bookfair, an excellent date with history in mind. Make this event a must, spread the word far and wide. Bookfairs are a must for those lovers of meet-ups, discussions, chat, meeting new friends and catching up with old comrades and getting a handle on what is happening around the country. 

 https://bookfair.org.uk

https://facebook.com/anarchistbookfair

 

https://twitter.com/abookfair

https://instagram.com/abookfair

 

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

Keelie.

 

           Despite the usual Glasgow dull, cold, dreich, drizzly rain type of weather, the Glasgow Keelie folks were out today on the street doing their thing. They set up at the corner of Sauchiehall Street at the large, now closed BHS building. As usual the free Glasgow Keelie was well received, with a considerable number disappearing with passing Glesca Folks being eager to get their hands on a copy. Did you get one? if so how about letting us know what you think, or better if you would like to help with the distribution, just get in touch through The Glasgow Keelie webpage.

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

Bye-bye.

      As usual, a few simple words of wisdom from Gregg at Not Buying Anything:

 

         During the last 18 months many former consumers have said "Bye-Bye" to Buy, Buy, Buy. Either by choice, or by force, or both, many are joining the ranks of anti-consumer survivors across the globe.
        If the power brokers ever succeed in "restarting the economy", many of those former consumers will never say "Hello" to consumerism again. They are finished.
         Many can see that it may be prudent at this juncture in history to switch from being a consumer to being a survivor. Unless you are very rich, you can't be both.
         When you leave consumption as a way of life behind you, it is possible to see the way forward more clearly.
        Survivors are focused on growing a garden and raising their own food. They are busy investing in social capital and their local community and economy.
        Survivors look for ways of circumventing the negative effects of corporate and government control of our lives. They make changes that allow them to operate outside of the matrix.
         Making a conscious choice to become self-reliant and resilient as a family, group, or community means becoming active survivors rather than continuing on as passive, dependent consumers.
        Eventually we will all need to reject the mindless waste of the Buy, Buy, Buy propaganda we have been subjected to for far too long. Bye-bye.

 

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   

Twins.

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

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

"I"

 

      We live in a critical era, a crossroads, a turning point. A world where we fall under the shadow of the opinion forming, desire creating, mass media, while struggling to find something more personal, more us. There is another world on the horizon, but it is difficult to see it clearly. The danger of course is we become an all important "I", forsaking the other, with equally disastrous results.

     This short poem is by Adrienne Rich, from her book Dark Fields of The Republic. In it she alludes to the folly and dangers of the world of "I", and how simple it would be to enter that world.

In Those Years.

In those years, people will say, we lost track

of the meaning of us, of you

we found ourselves

reduced to I

and the whole thing became

silly, ironic, terrible:

we were trying to live a personal life

and, yes, that was the only life

we could bear witness to

But the great dark birds of history screamed and plunged

into our personal weather

They were headed somewhere else but their beaks and pinions drove

along the shore, through the rags of fog

where we stood saying I

Adrienne Rich. Dark Fields Of The Republic.

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

Slow Death By Avoidable Poverty.

         I know I sometimes repeat myself, but there are somethings that just build up the anger that I feel I will just keep repeating it in the hope that it might just make a little difference. I wrote the following piece about 6 years ago, now instead of just writing it I feel I should be shouting it from the rooftops, as it becomes ever more obvious that the same vicious policies are still being pursued by our greedy rich and powerful masters. However, they don't have to be our masters, we can be masters of our own destination, it's up to us.

    Some things are necessary for survival, like water, shelter and food, without any one of these basics your survival is in jeopardy, yet we tolerate a system where by if you don't have enough of that stuff called money, you can be denied these basic necessities. Probably one reason this cruel unjust system survives is because you don't die suddenly. With poverty you can be denied one or all of these basics, not enough money means cheap crap food, not enough food, and you die, rather slowly. We won't see people fall over and die in the street, they will just simply deteriorate and die young, the shock factor isn't there. Likewise the homeless, a hidden slow death by poverty, murder by shareholders. Across the world day in day out, millions of lives are shortened by not having access to clean drinking water. Why should the flow and distribution of the very basics of life be under the control of the Davos Club, that group of greedy, pampered, parasitical, millionaire shareholders?

      Under our millionaire's scheme of "debt reduction" and "austerity cuts" we are seeing more and more of our public assets being handed over to those shiny suits of the Davos Club. Soon there will be nothing that belongs to the people. In the UK they already own, among other things, our energy resources and we have seen the prices rocket, as they pursue ever greater profits. Social housing has long been under attack and is disappearing, financial institutions own our homes, and they are working hard at getting our water.

      These corporate conditions will produce a world where we will be completely at the mercy of those greedy, pampered, parasitical, millionaire shareholders of the Davos Club, for everything we need, and if you are poor, your only means of survival will be dependent on charity organisations. Of course we can take everything back, creating co-operatives and community controlled enterprises, it is happening in all sorts of places across the globe. People have seen enough of "free market", "neo-liberalism", which translates into ripping-off the people and widespread deprivation. The tide is turning, it has to, it must be our world, or it is a destroyed world of abject poverty.

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

Happiness Doesn't Come In Fancy Boxes.

    As usual, quiet common sense from Not Buying Anything, enjoy.

       Regular readers of this blog will agree that basing a life on materialistic values is a losing proposition. The video I am highlighting in this post will be a reminder of sorts for them.
        If you are new to the NBA blog and the concept of simple living, or find the whole rat race thing to be tiring and futile, then this video may help nudge you toward adopting a way of living that is healthier for you, your family, your neighbours, and the environment.
       The end (of materialistic lifestyles) is near. The time to get started on the alternative, a more resilient and enjoyable simple life, is now. It is a movement that has been thousands of years in the making.

Background:

     "Psychologist Tim Kasser discusses how America's culture of consumerism undermines our well-being.
When people buy into the ever-present marketing messages that "the good life" is "the goods life," they not only use up Earth's limited resources, but they are less happy and less inclined toward helping others.
This animation both lays out the problems of excess materialism and points toward solutions that promise a healthier, more just, and more sustainable life."
Research cited: click here.

       Enjoy, and if it moves you, please share your reaction to the video in the comments section below.

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

Inequality, The Hallmark Of Capitalism.

       Remember the Celtic Tiger, when the Irish economy supposedly raced ahead? In a sane society that should have went everybody is doing well, but in capitalist insanity, it tends to lead to increase homelessness and fatter parasites. Since then homelessness in Ireland, like in the UK, has soared. The boom economy has in no way eradicated poverty and homelessness, nor will it ever. History has proven time and time again, that running to the ballot box produces more of the same, fatter parasites and poorer people. If we desire a society of fairness and justice, then we have to accept that the capitalist system is inherently flawed. It is incapable of delivering that better world for all, it was never intended to do so, it was always meant to delivery riches to the few, and it works perfectly in doing just that. We have to look to an alternative to capitalism if we wish that better world for all. A community based system of co-operation, mutual aid, and sustainability, a system freed from the greed driven profit motive, free from state, corporate bosses and the financial Mafia. That will not be gifted to us, asking your slave-master to be fair to you has never worked, the powerful and wealthy will not willing give up their privileged position in favour of a fairer society. We, the ordinary people will have to dismantle their system, illusion by illusion, injustice by injustice. That better world will not be delivered in bunch of roses, it will take determination, effort, sweat and the will of all our people, it is, and will continue to be, a war, a class war until we eliminate the capitalist system from the face of the earth.

     From Dublin via Act For Freedom Now:

       On a night in May, 2 banks, Bank of Ireland and an AIB were vandalized in South Dublin. Slogans of “HOMES FOR ALL”, “BURN THE BANKS”, and “CLASS WAR” spray painted on windows and walls. Also 4 ATM’s were glued up, how this was done was by using cardboard the same thickness, width, and half the length of an ATM card, inserted into the card slot and then super glue pored in.
This was done in solidarity with all those who are on the receiving end of the so called “housing crisis”. This so called “crisis” for housing has been raging as long as capitalism has existed, although now the struggle for housing is at a particularly brutal period. There are record number of people homeless in Ireland, there is over 10,000 and over 3,000 are children (these numbers don’t include the hidden homeless). Since 2015, families becoming homeless has risen 268%, and many, many people have died frozen to death sleeping on the streets.
        This crisis in housing is completely man made. It’s made from the greed of landlords pushing rents higher and higher, the property developers buying up land and buildings for dirt cheap and then selling the properties for sky high prices, and the Irish state implementing neoliberal reforms and policies. It is no coincidence that while the economy rises and the building construction kicks off again across Dublin so to does the ever growing amount of people becoming homeless.
All the while the politicians of the Left and Right compete and beg for votes with the upcoming elections. The political establishment don’t care, they just want positions of power. Whether radical leftie or far right dickheads, they are all the same and want the same. The lefties and fascists have their populist schemes and “solutions” to end homelessness and the housing problem. But you can be sure regardless of whoever gets voted in things will stay exactly the same. Politicians, parties, and unions ALWAYS compromise. There will be no end to the housing struggle on till capitalism ceases to exist.

Neither, Politicians, leaders, bosses, nor bureaucrat:
for self-organization in struggle against power
FUCK THE LEFT, FUCK THE RIGHT, FUCK POLITICS

LONG LIVE ANARCHY
THE SINISTER FRINGE

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

ACE In May, Edinburgh.

        When in Edinburgh, visit ACE, (autonomous.org.uk ) there is sure to be something of interest going on, that's ACE for you. Here are some events during the merry month of May to get you chatting and acting.

Some Upcoming Events in Edinburgh

Information from the Autonomous Centre of Edinburgh
ACE Public Opening Times:
Every Tuesday 12:00 – 15:00
The last Thursday of each Month 18:00 – 20:00
The first Saturday of each month 13:00 – 16:00

Monday, 20 May 2019
Sisters Uncut Edinburgh - Open Meeting

       Sisters Uncut is holding a open planning meeting where we will be discussing upcoming actions and events and deciding where we want to take the group next. Come along and organise with us!
     Sisters Uncut is an intersectional, feminist group taking direct action to defend domestic and sexual violence services. We're organising information evenings, actions and reaching out to local communities.
       Meetings are open to all women (trans, intersex and cis) and all nonbinary, agender and gender variant people. All skills and experience levels very welcome - help us fight the violence of austerity.
18:30 - 20:30 at Autonomous Centre Edinburgh.
Link to facebook event page:
https://www.facebook.com/events/615424472272172/

Wednesday, 22 May 2019

Common Ground - Homeless-led Action & Advocacy

What rights do you have if you are homeless? Terrible conditions in the B&B – what can I do? Feeling isolated and don't know where to turn for support? Been there and done it, and want to help others who are experiencing homelessness?

speaking about and sharing your experiences
learning about homelessness rights and entitlements
challenging stigma and labelling
supporting each other and information-sharing
taking action together for positive change
Wednesdays from 14:00 – 16:30 at Autonomous Centre Edinburgh.
Sisters Uncut Edinburgh - Lessons from Scotland

     Sisters Uncut have organised a demostration outside the Scottish Parliament to coincide with MSP Joan McAlpine hosting transphobic blogger Meghan Murphy.
Gathering from 5pm with speakers starting from 5:15.
Link to facebook event page:
https://en-gb.facebook.com/events/2379727025638311/

      The event page includes detail of the Parliament protest code of conduct and Sisters Uncut's safer spaces policy.
Friday 24 May 2019

Edinburgh Youth Climate Strike
11am at the Meadows, marching to the Scottish Parliament
https://www.facebook.com/syclimatestrike/
Part of the global youth strike for climate, strikes Britain and world-wide
Advice for adult supporters
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1LZiKSZP1CoYaTcBqPanEADDsZvxD_h7T/view

Weekly Strikes - every Friday
Contact: sandy@sycs.org.uk, dylan@sycs.org.uk or neelu@sycs.org.uk

Time: 11:00 - 13:00 Location: Outside Scottish Parliament, Horse Wynd, Edinburgh EH99 1SP

Sunday, 26 May 2019
Intro to Climate Colonialism

         From displacement to genocide, land clearances to build plantations and extract fossil fuels and other materials (and therefore slavery), from social Darwinism to mass disparity in resources in adapting to climate change. The origins of climate change are rooted in the origins of colonialism, and the impact of climate change plays out in the same way.
Workshop at St. Margaret's House
14:00 - 17:00
Tickets are pay what you can afford.
Link to facebook event page:
https://en-gb.facebook.com/events/2208778575872641/

Wednesday, 29 May 2019 Common Ground - Homeless-led Action & Advocacy

What rights do you have if you are homeless? Terrible conditions in the B&B – what can I do? Feeling isolated and don't know where to turn for support? Been there and done it, and want to help others who are experiencing homelessness?

Speaking about and sharing your experiences.                           Learning about homelessness rights and entitlements.           Challenging stigma and labelling.                                             Supporting each other and information-sharing.                             Taking action together for positive change.

Wednesdays from 14:00 – 16:30 at Autonomous Centre Edinburgh.

Thursday, 30 May 2019

ECAP Advocacy Stall
Solidarity with claimants.

       ECAP organises to combat poverty on the principle of solidarity and self-activity in communities and workplaces, actively rejecting influence by any political parties.
       We work and fight alongside individuals facing poverty related problems and oppressive behaviour from the authorities. We also conduct wider campaigns on specific issues using the same principles of solidarity and self-activity. High Riggs Jobcentre 10:00 - 11:30

Friday, 31 May 2019
      Nae Pasaran: Solidarity Benefit Gig for ACE and Edinburgh Antifa
Benefit for the Autonomous Centre Edinburgh & Edinburgh Antifa at the Argyle and Cellar Bar.
Doors at 7:30pm.
£6 waged, £4 unwaged, donation/ free if skint.

Featuring:
The Irresistible Urges
Loud South Ladies
Moving Statues
Euan Johnson
Link to facebook event page:
https://en-gb.facebook.com/events/498684344000198/

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

Why Anarchism?

 

    

       From the home page of Radical Glasgow's Anarchist Critic:

WHY ANARCHISM?

Freedom and Equality

     Fundamentally, anarchism is the struggle for freedom. Freedom from rulers and corporations who dominate our lives and are destroying our earth. Freedom for workers, women, and all oppressed people in all parts of the world. We believe that this sort of freedom can only be achieved together with equality and a fair distribution of resources.

Individual and Collective

     Anarchists believe in the inherent dignity and humanity of the individual. But this dignity and humanity can only be fully realised in a co-operative, egalitarian society. This is why we are in favour of working together collectively and being organised. It is incorrect to equate anarchism with individualism or chaos.

Revolution

     Anarchists understand that this truly free and equal society can only be achieved through revolution – meaning a complete transformation of society. This society cannot be ‘given’ to the people by politicians or bureaucrats. It must be built by people from below.

Change by Direct Action

     Anarchism opposes the violence which is an integral part of capitalism and the state (this violence comes in many forms: war, patriarchy etc.). We believe that means shape ends – in other words, the way we struggle will shape the outcome of the struggle. This is also why we do not support the seizure of State power by authoritarian political parties. However, anarchists do believe in direct action – action taken by everyday people to address the power imbalance in present day society. This includes strikes, boycott’s, work-to-rule’s and occupations.

The Past

     Both authoritarian communism (as in Russia, China etc.) and ‘labourism’ (ie. The labour parties of the world), have failed to solve our global crisis. We need a different path to a better world. Anarchism offers itself as a guide on that path.

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

May Day, Our Day.

May Day 2003 (Glasgow, Scotland) from Camcorder Guerrillas on Vimeo.

      Just on the horizon there is the glimmer of that special day, May Day, Workers Day, May 1st. A day that this society seems to have tamed into a sedate march that doesn't interrupt the flow of the economy, a little display, a few speeches and then go home or get busy with the consumer addiction. We have to free May Day from the dead hands of the political ballerinas and take it back to do our own thing, in our own way. May Day is not dead, it has just been sedated by the political messiahs. We can bring it back to life.

       It should be a day of fun, of celebration, a family day, a day to throw of the shackles of conformity and be yourself, a day shaped by you and your friends.

      To this end the Glasgow May Day Organising Group have put together a series of events, to try to remind us of what May Day is all about, to help us remember our history, the history of the ordinary people, and bring back that fun and family feeling to our day. 

     This May Day, celebrations will begin on May 1st. short march and rally, with music, singers, poets and stalls. May 2nd. a radical history walk through our city centre, stopping at points of interest and a wee discussion from one or more of our members. Saturday May 4th. a film show, Salt of The Earth. Then on May 5th. the culmination of the May Day celebrations, our now annual Picnic on The Green with stalls, poets, singers, dancers, musicians, food to share, bring the family, bring your street, bring what you expect to find.

Details of all these events can be found on these links:

 https://mayday.link/

https://www.facebook.com/groups/416201145855377/

https://mayday.link/blog/

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

Dismiss The Capitalist Economic Arguments.

       I post the following article in full, though it is filled with what should be accepted and obvious to any anarchist/libertarian-socialist. It should also be obvious to the public at large, but sadly this is far from the case. It highlights the futility of framing your arguments in the capitalist economics frame. We have to see ourselves as other than economic units profitable or otherwise.

The article written by Panos Theodoropoulos appears in INTERREGNUM:

 

The Thief and the Cash Cow: Twins from a union of enemies

       As the Brexit debacle gets more surreal and confusing by the day, people in the UK are continually bombarded with information and propaganda. Whether or not the Brexit result was ‘about migration’ or, alternatively, was the outcome of a combination of various intertwined grievances, the issue of migration has played a dominant role in both right and left-wing arguments. These arguments shape ideas and create the ‘common sense’ which frames people’s thinking. And it is from these arguments that we can understand, and thereby confront, troubling underlying assumptions that are, most of the time, left unscrutinised precisely because they have already established themselves as an aspect of what their proponents consider ‘common sense’.

       One of these perspectives, which the right wing heavily relies on in its propaganda (an idea that is shared from Tommy Robinson all the way to the Conservative Party), is that the presence of migrant workers in the economy lowers wages and impoverishes working conditions. This is what I will call the ‘Thief Argument’. It forms an important pillar of their wider discourse, enabling them to say that they are not racist; they are simply stating the ‘obvious’, since ‘we have to look out for our own people first’. The left, once again in most of its denominations (from communists to the Labour Party), respond in exasperation, and in what they believe is a defence of migrant workers. They say that migrant workers are ‘good for the economy’ because they passionately work, staff the NHS and other vital services, pay taxes, and are disproportionately not recipients of state benefits. I will call this the ‘Cash Cow Argument’.

       Yet, despite their vehement proclamations of mutual enmity, these two sides are much closer than seems at first glance. In a manner not uncommon in UK political discourse (centuries of colonialism tend to leave their mark in a plethora of ways), both the left and the right tend to view migrants purely in terms of their economic costs or benefits to the host society. It is basically the same way that you view your car: if you think it’s doing a good job, you admire it; if it is underperforming, you want the problem ‘dealt with’. Yet, surprisingly for some, we have not come to these islands simply to work in your warehouses or to benefit from your patronising ‘protection’; we are more than machines. Furthermore, far from being confined to the realm of migration, these twin perspectives betray a wider conception of the human condition under capitalism as such. This article will attempt to very briefly dismantle these ideas, in the hope that we may at some point be able to forge more social movements that fight for the dignity of both locals’ and migrants’ lives.

      The ‘Thief Argument’ is probably my favourite, because of how easy it is to dismantle when you have a drunken conversation at the pub with one of its supporters. Yet it still needs to be confronted because it is strongly established in common discourses and propagated by powerful interests. In all its simplistic glory, the argument states that migrants, either in their quest for jobs and conditions better than the ones they left behind or due to the insecurity of their status, are willing to work for smaller wages and in worst conditions than the locals. This, they claim, creates a race to the bottom which impoverishes British workers. Everybody has heard it. It is propagated by the likes of Nigel Farage, UKIP, Leave Means Leave and sections of the Tory party. Recently it was given an air of credibility by the right-wing, anti-migration think tank Migration Watch UK and by a study conducted by the Bank of England which found that migration ‘impacted wages’ in the ‘semi-skilled/unskilled occupational group’. Its strength is in its simplicity; the argument seems straightforward and ‘obvious’, so much so that it has even polluted some of the Labour party’s ideas, with Jeremy Corbyn in 2017 echoing UKIP in placing the blame with international employment agencies which enable employers to ‘import cheap agency labour to undercut existing pay and conditions in the name of free market orthodoxy’.

        The weakness of this argument is that it ignores the wider social and economic conditions that create our common reality in the UK. To begin with what should be obvious, wages and employment conditions are not set by migrants but by the parliament and bosses. It is true that many migrant workers work in jobs that have low wages and worst labour conditions; yet, as I have analysed elsewhere, they are in these jobs because the UK economic system is designed by default to have them there. This is something that has been going on since the British empire; more recently, the government and employers capitalised on the expansion of the European Union in the early 2000s to provide cheap and insecure labour to many industries that were to profit greatly from it. Indeed, the principle of free movement of the EU is designed, and supported by big business in the UK, almost exclusively for that purpose. Weaker economies are artificially kept in a state of underdevelopment, which pushes migrant workers to the more ‘developed’ economies to serve as workers.

        For example, many warehouses and factories rely on agencies to provide them with temporary labour to fill their short-term needs (try to imagine the chaos in one of Amazon’s warehouses during the Christmas period). Employment legislation passed by the UK government allows insecure, short-term contracts which employment agencies use to essentially ‘rent out’ workers to the employers that require their labour. The agency usually pays the worker something around minimum wage (once again established by the UK government) while receiving a lot more from the employer than what goes in the pockets of the worker. The insecurity of the contract enables the employer to dispose of the worker once there is no need for them (while at the same time not needing to concern themselves with nuisances such as sickness or maternity pay), and the sheer volume of industries enable the agencies to consistently shuffle their workers from one location to the next, making profits all year round. On the other end of the equation, many migrant workers share some characteristics that are used by this government-business complex in order to boost profitability. These include de-skilling (the non-recognition of qualifications gained abroad), language difficulties, lack of information regarding trade unions and general labour rights, as well as an initial preference for a quick job to get settled down as fast as possible.

      As time passes and networks are solidified, occupations become linked with the people performing them, creating a cycle which reproduces itself (think of the ‘Polish plumber’ stereotype). If you have a look at ethnic community groups on Facebook, you will routinely find British employers advertising vacancies. Studies in the US have shown that the extent of employers’ preference to migrant labour is so deep that they have even drawn racialised, biological conclusions as to why certain ethnicities are better for certain jobs; for example, some believe that Mexicans are naturally suited to agricultural labour due to the design of their bodies. It is not the migrant workers that ‘take jobs’; the reality is that the whole economic system is designed to employ migrant workers in those specific conditions, purely to maintain profitability. In a study on the issue of migrant work, Anderson shows that the arguments that ‘migrant workers fill jobs that British people don’t want’ and that ‘migrant workers take jobs’ are equally invalid. Migrant workers simply accept the jobs and conditions that have already been established by the government and by employers, with existing migration controls playing a key role in creating precarious workers that are useful for profitability. The real culprits of the impoverishment of the UK’s working classes are the government and the bosses, and in these classes, migrant and British workers have a lot more in common than their differences.

While the ‘Thief Argument’ is pretty easily confronted through a basic understanding of how the UK’s economy works, the ‘Cash Cow Argument’ is harder to dispel because: 1) it usually comes, paradoxically, from an ideological source which claims to support migrant workers and 2) because it is actually true, but in its very proclamation is directly counterproductive to the purpose its proponents pretend to support. Yes, the UK economy has been designed to employ migrant workers at specific jobs, and as such it would be unrecognisable (and unimaginable) without them as it is currently structured. Yet how pitiful, weak, and dangerous is it to propose a group’s economic benefit to this society as the main argument in support of their value and humanity? While the right and the far-right hide their underlying racism behind economic arguments, the most vocal forces of the left betray, through their own proclamations, that they want migrants to stay in the UK only because of the benefits their exploitation brings to British employers. In doing so, they inadvertently support the wishes of capital more faithfully than their far-right opponents. The far-right wrongfully claims that ‘migrants are bad because they harm the economy’ and the left replies, very factually, that ‘this economy needs migrants’; in so doing, they prop up the very system they claim to be against. What is common in both of these perspectives is an infatuation with the health of the UK’s capitalist economy and a simultaneous conception of the migrant as purely an economic vessel, a thing, something with no value other than the profits it can or cannot produce.

       We need to be aiming for more than this. Anti-racism needs to be much stronger than a call to arms for capitalist exploitation of migrant workers. We need to highlight the common sources of the plight of both British and migrant workers, and foreground the objectives of solidarity, community power, and the overthrow of this economic system as such. The dominant ideological characteristic of neoliberalism is that every individual is no more than their productivity and their capacity to survive in an intensely competitive environment. This perspective has underpinned the state policies that impoverish and exploit British workers just as much as they do migrant workers. It is contradictory and damaging to argue against this system while at the same time proclaiming that migrant workers are welcome precisely because of the role they serve within it.

        It is probably true that the ‘Thief Argument’ and its variants played a significant role in galvanising support for Brexit. However, it is equally true that the European Union is a coalition of capitalist nations, warmongers and bankers. Plagued by diminishing power and resources, and not having set the correct foundations beforehand to challenge the twin assaults of both racism and neoliberalism, the wider left finds itself disjointedly and contradictorily arguing without a coherent ideological and political goal. Supporting the European Union in the name of fighting for the rights of migrant workers is incoherent; the policies of the European Union, in conjunction with the those of the UK’s governments, are directly those which keep our countries of origin in a constant state of underdevelopment and force us to seek work elsewhere. These policies stem from the same sources which both throw British workers under the wheels of austerity and which fortify migrants’ exploitation. As a brief side-note, it is equally incoherent and counter-productive to suddenly jump to support EU workers’ rights while ignoring the struggles of non-EU migrants (a fault that the ‘3  Million Campaign‘ is particularly guilty of), who have borne the brunt of the UK’s racist migration regime for far longer and with much more painful results.

       We need to organise to develop community power from the bottom up, free from political parties and outside of the dominant institutions which exist to give an illusion of freedom amid soaring inequality. We need to fight for ‘no borders’, not ‘better borders’. We need to fight for ‘anti-capitalism’, not ‘better capitalism’. We need to show how borders are part of the same structures which create the inequality and social collapse that anti-migration Brexiteers are raging against. History has shown that solidarity is forged in collective action. Through initiatives such as Living Rent, both migrant and Scottish workers fight in unison to improve their living conditions, targeting problems which equally affect them both. Radical trade unions such as the Industrial Workers of the World and the Independent Workers’ Union of Great Britain bring both migrant and local precarious workers together in a variety of labour struggles, showing that solidarity is stronger than division.  In the same spirit of solidarity, locals unite with migrants against detention and immigration controls through initiatives such as the Unity Centre. All of these initiatives combine to prove that we as humans, in all of our diversity, are capable of not only resisting the assaults on our living conditions together, but that we are also able to forge new ways of existing, outside and beyond the scope of capital and profit.

      We are much more, and much stronger, than our economic roles attempt to constrain us into being. An essential step, therefore, towards organising for emancipation is to completely and permanently expel any traces of the ‘Cash Cow Argument’ from our rhetoric, while at the same time consistently dismantling and ridiculing the ‘Thief Argument’. This will set the foundations for the development of a relatively coherent (different parts of the left will always have important theoretical variations) anti-capitalist and anti-racist movement. The issue is not whether migrant workers are good for the economy; the issue is the economy itself and the plethora of oppressive mechanisms that maintain and reproduce it.

Visit ann arky's home at 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