Showing posts with label corporate power. Show all posts
Showing posts with label corporate power. Show all posts

Monday 29 June 2020

Concessions Or!

 
        The "Black lives Matter" movement is not unique to this era, it has been part and parcel by black Afro-Americans for generations, under different names, as they struggled for justice and equality. This time round it is probably the largest of those movements, as it has spread across borders, not just of states, but of countries. Despite the apparent resistance from the establishment, like in the past, there will be concessions granted to take the insurrectionist element out of the movement. On the streets to lots of people white power matters, but to the established corporate body that rules America and else where, what really matters is that power remains with that corporate body and the present economic system survives. Black white halfway in between, makes little difference to the massive corporations, what matters is power, control and the survival of their sacred system of economic exploitation of all humanity.
       The past "Black lives Matter" movements have brought about changes, black Mayors, black officers in the military, and even black millionaires, but the real power still lies with the corporate oligarchs and the economic system that they live by, who see groups of people as a source for exploitation and will gladly play up one against the other.
        This time round, will the "Black lives Matter" settle for more steps towards equality with their exploited whites, or, and it looks more encouraging, will it, linked to all shades of human colour, evolve into a real movement for change by bringing down the corporate monster that lives by this economic system of exploitation.
       The following is an extract from an interesting article from It's Going Down:

       A third reason that Black Awakening is important, and the one I’m most concerned with here, is that it includes an invaluable discussion of ruling-class responses in the face of mass upheaval. In the broadest terms, Allen argued that
“In the United States today a program of domestic neocolonialism is rapidly advancing. It was designed to counter the potentially revolutionary thrust of the recent black rebellions in major cities across the country. This program was formulated by America’s corporate elite—the major owners, managers, and directors of the giant corporations, banks, and foundations which increasingly dominate the economy and society as a whole—because they believe that the urban revolts pose a serious threat to economic and political stability. Led by such organizations as the Ford Foundation, the Urban Coalition, and National Alliance of Businessmen, the corporatists are attempting with considerable success to co-opt the black power movement” (17).
Allen saw this program as emerging in the context of “several interlocked responses” to the rebellions from different sectors of the white power structure:
On the one hand there was the orthodox liberal who prescribed more New Deal welfarism as an antidote to the riots… [Another was] the shrill voices emanating from the embattled metropolises–voices demanding more policemen, more troops, more weapons, heavier armor, and tougher laws…. But between these two camps, there has arisen a third force: the corporate capitalist, the American businessman. He is interested in maintaining law and order, but he knows that there is little or nothing to gain and a great deal to lose in committing genocide against the blacks. His deeper interest is in reorganizing the ghetto ‘infrastructure,’ in creating a ghetto buffer class clearly committed to the dominant American institutions and values on the one hand, and on the other, in rejuvenating the black working class and integrating it into the American economy. Both are necessary if the city is to be salvaged and capitalism preserved” (194).
One of the architects of the neocolonialism program, who receives special attention in Allen’s study, was McGeorge Bundy. Child of an elite Boston family, Bundy spent five years as national security advisor to Presidents Kennedy and Johnson, then left in 1966 to become president of the Ford Foundation. With this job change, Bundy shifted from a leading role in designing U.S. political-military operations in Vietnam to a leading role in designing establishment responses to the Black Liberation Movement.
Bundy quickly set a new tone as Ford Foundation president. In August 1966 he told the National Urban League’s annual banquet, “We believe that full equality for all American Negroes is now the most urgent domestic concern of this country. We believe that the Ford Foundation must play its full part in this field because it is dedicated by its charter to human welfare.” With Bundy as its head, the foundation broadened its grant-giving from relatively tame civil rights organizations such as the NAACP and Urban League to the more militant Congress of Racial Equality (CORE). Allen explains that CORE appealed to the Ford Foundation because it talked about revolution but offered an “ambiguous and reformist definition of black power as simply black control of black communities,” fortified by increases in government and private aid. “From the Foundation’s point of view, old-style moderate leaders no longer exercised any real control [in the ghettos], while genuine black radicals were too dangerous” (146-47). In Cleveland, Ford financed a CORE-led voter registration and voter education campaign, which in November 1967 helped Carl Stokes win election as the first Black mayor of a major U.S. city.
Read the full article HERE:
Visit ann arky's home at https://radicalglasgow.me.uk

Thursday 21 February 2019

The Clock Is Ticking, Let's Not Miss The Moment.

      To those with their eyes open it is obvious that the present economic system is not intended, nor will it ever, function in the interests of the ordinary people. Across the world we see poverty and deprivation grow, we see man made ecological disasters burst like fireworks across the planet, we are witness to bloody savage wars that only serve the wealthy and the powerful, and heap misery, anguish and death on millions of innocent people, yet this economic system of insanity and greed persists, why?
     It will not, of its own accord, desist from this path of brutal lunacy, as it functions as it was intended, to enrich the few at the expense of the many. Those in control of this plundering machine are doing very well, and will continue their road to ever greater grandiose life styles and opulent trinkets such as private jets and multi-million pound yachts. It will take what ever means are available to it, to crush any form of resistance to is hegemony. A Change or modification to the system is a futile pipe dream and will come to nothing, the only answer lies in its total destruction. That destruction will only come from us, the ordinary people who have the humanity and the courage to take it on in a full frontal, determined effort to smash this system of greed, and designate it to the history museum of human folly and tragedy and remember it as humanity's darkest hour. There are two classes in this world, those who control the wealth, power and resources of this planet, and those who are excluded from that cabal, you have to decide which class you belong to and act accordingly, it is a class war. There is a choice, a tomorrow with equality, justice and freedom, or a tomorrow as a slave to poverty and deprivation, at the beck and call of the corporate juggernaut, however, the time to choose is fast running out.


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

Saturday 31 December 2016

Who Writes The Future?

       Well it is almost time, The curtain is about to go up on the greatest horror show on earth, Trump is about to crowned King and be lead by the hand to take his place on the throne of the largest military empire on the planet. All the loyal courtiers are sitting in-waiting, ready to play out his every command. We the passive audience are sitting expecting our emotions to be pummelled by the most frightening horror show on earth. Sadly this is not a theatre show, this nightmare is for real, but thankfully, we don't have to be that passive audience. We don't have to follow their script, we the people can write our own script, we don't have to play their vile game to their rules, we can create our own game and write our own rules. The future has not yet been written, we the people should its authors, not a megalomaniac, sabre rattling, warmongering, xenophobic, power hungry, cabal of billionaires. Trump is not an anomaly, he is the natural progression in the march of corporate power, the wealth that shapes the state, and the state is their vehicle to exercise that power. The future is open, how will we shape it? By passive acceptance, or pro-active determination to walk our own road, and forge that better world for all our people. Now, decisions must be made.  
Our work has begun: the future is coming.
        We’ve had almost two months for it to sink in: Donald Trump is the president-elect of the most powerful military power on Earth. As anarchists, we know the cliche that whomever we vote for, the government always wins. But still, for most of us, this election has felt different. Wren Awry has collected this short anthology of anarchist responses to the election that we hope will help us consider what to do in the near future. Some of it is strategic musing, some of it is emotional. Some of it has been published by us or elsewhere already, some of it appears herein for the first time. Feel free to print out a copy of the included PDF.
Zine includes:
“the good comrade check-in call, 11.11.16” by odessa aït jerrar
“They Didn’t Know We Were Seeds” by Wren Awry
“Actions Speak Louder Than Votes” by Margaret Killjoy
“Only a Bold and Popular Left Radicalism Can Stop Trumpism and the Rise of Fascism” by Laurence Davis
“Trump’s First Hundred Days and the Fascist Agenda” by Alexander Reid Ross
“The Days After the Election and the Days Before the Revolution” by Anarchist Resistance NYC
“Everything I Need to Know About Trump I Learned From Playing Skyrim” by Gutter Punk Josh
and art by Someone Else and Theo Thirdaye
Visit ann arky's home at www.radicalglasgow.me.uk

Thursday 9 June 2016

The Grand Illusion.

      What a hullabaloo about the possibility of a woman president in America. All those women shouting about feeling empowered, remember Thatcher? As one woman put it, "I fell as empowered by a woman president as I do about women cops". Then of course we had that other earth shattering empowering moment in America, when the first black man was was voted in as president. Suddenly all the people of colour in America were empowered, my arse. Things will go on as before, the financial Mafia will rule, the new figurehead might indicate a slight difference in emphasis, but not direction.
      How much money was thrown at Hilary to get her where she is? Well it was a cool $296.4 million, that's what you need to be empowered in the capitalist world of America. All those big backers that threw their money at her will be waiting in the wings to get their pay-back if she gets to the Whitehouse. and that's where the empowerment goes, never to "the women", "the people of colour" or any other group of ordinary people. 
       Every four years we are subjected to this grand illusion, this spectacle of mass insanity, where millions think that by all voting for one person, the system will change. Out goes one figurehead, in pops another, but the power moguls still sit with their hands on the power levers. Of course there might be a few titbits thrown here and there, some crumbs for the peasants, a sort of window dressing, but not necessarily so.
       Think of the number of presidents and prime ministers that have been ushered in on a wave of misplaced belief that this would bring change, here we are, in the twenty first century, and the result is a planet facing destruction, a world at war, poverty rampant, and the gap between rich and poor ever widening. Can't we wake up to the fact that this system doesn't work. There is an alternative, first we have to get rid of corporate power, dispel the illusion of capitalist representative democracy and take power into our own hands. We don't need presidents, prime ministers, CEO, and other hoarders of wealth and power, we can have a fairer system of distribution and see to the needs of all our people, if we really want it to be that way. 

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

Friday 9 October 2015

Silly, But Dangerous America.


         I found this article full of honest to goodness truth, not that I favour the Russian imperialism over the Western imperialism, they both stink and are responsible for brutality on a massive scale. I have always said that the Americans were not interested in destroying ISIS, at least not until it had bled the Assad regime to death, then they might step in and blow it to pieces. A cold calculating brutal policy, as the whole of Syria and the surround area would be utterly destroyed and hundreds of thousands of innocent people would be dead. But in American eyes, well worth it to see a regime they don't like being brought down. Of course as stated in Club Orlov, the arms corporations make lots of money from such callous, brutal endeavours, They are the real force behind Western policies.
       But it was Putin's speech that laid out the Empire's silliness for all to see when he scolded the US for making a bloody mess of the Middle East with its ham-handed interventions. The oft-repeated quote is “Do you understand what you have done?” but that's not quite right. The Russian «Вы хоть понимаете теперь, чего вы натворили?» can be more accurately translated as “How can you even now fail to understand what a mess you have made?” Words matter: this is not how one talks to a superpower before an assembly of the world's leaders; this is how one scolds a stupid and wayward child. In the eyes of the whole world, this made the Empire look rather silly.      What happened next is that Russia announced the start of its bombing campaign against all manner of terrorists in Syria (and perhaps Iraq too; the Iraqi request is in Putin's in-box). What's notable about this bombing campaign is that it is entirely legal. The legitimate, elected government of Syria asked Russia for help; the campaign was approved by the Russian legislature. On the other hand, the bombing campaign that the US has been conducting in Syria is entirely illegal. There are exactly two ways to legally bomb the territory of another country: 1. an invitation from that country's government and 2. a UN Security Council resolution. The US has not obtained either of them.
Well worth reading the full article HERE:
Visit ann arky's home at www.radicalglasgow.me.uk

Friday 9 January 2015

A Monster FromThe Dark Corridors Of Power.




      The corporate monster TTIP is not yet killed off, but killed off it must be if we want any form of control over our lives. This is the total domination of all aspects of our lives controlled from the boardrooms of the greed driven corporate world. The power shifting arrangements are being secretly discussed in the dark corridors of corporate power, away from the prying eyes of the public, who will be the victims of this coup. Any sliver of the illusion of democracy will vanish if we don't stop this takeover bid by the profit driven greed merchants.


      Are you free on Saturday 31st January? 38 Degrees members in Glasgow are getting together to campaign on TTIP. That’s the dodgy EU-US trade deal that could further privatise our NHS and allow corporations to sue our government. [1]
     On the day, 38 Degrees members will be handing out leaflets and chatting to local people in Glasgow about TTIP. They’ll also be collecting signatures for the EU-wide petition. The group will be able to provide leaflets and petition sheets, so don’t worry about bringing anything!
    If you’d like to find out more about TTIP, so you can feel comfortable talking about it, there’s lots of information here:
http://38degrees.org.uk/ttip
     The idea on the day is to spread the word about TTIP and make sure it’s an issue local politicians can’t ignore. So the more of us that turn up, the more people we’ll be able to speak to, and the further we can spread this really important message.
Here are the details:
     What: Leafleting and talking to local people about TTIP and collecting signatures for the EU-wide petition
When: Saturday 31st January, 11am-2pm,
Where: Meet outside Hillhead library, 348 Byres Road, Glasgow, G12 8AP
      Please RSVP here so that local 38 Degrees members can get an idea of how many to expect:
https://secure.38degrees.org.uk/glasgow-ttip

Thanks for being involved,
Jen, Blanche & the 38 Degrees team

NOTES:
[1] Independent Voices: What is TTIP and six reasons why the answer should scare you:
http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/comment/what-is-ttip-and-six-reasons-why-the-answer-should-scare-you-9779688.html
The Guardian: The TTIP deal hands British sovereignty to multinationals:
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/sep/14/ttip-deal-british-sovereignty-cameron-ukip-treaty
Visit ann arky's home at www.radicalglasgow.me.uk

Friday 2 January 2015

What Is On Your Bookshelf???


      Spain's "Operation Pandora" is no more than the fascist state defending its corporate foundations. It was on December 16th. that the state moved in and kidnapped 11 comrades, in a wave of dawn raids in towns and cities across Spain (earlier articles here and here). Seven of those comrades are still held in captivity, you can find a list of their names and prison addresses here on actforfree, letters and cards of solidarity would show them that they are not alone.
   According to the prosecutor, the evidence against them includes finding numerous copies of the book, "Against Democracy", which is a theoretical critique of contemporary democracy rather than a “terror manual”. Be careful what you have on your bookshelf in this age of corporate power, we could be re-entering the era of book burning.


    Rabble has released an English translation of the preface of the book, the following is an extract from that translation: 
    ----------In democracy we give up our interests, the satisfaction of our needs and the organisation of human relations and of life, into the hands of others. By means of the vote we supposedly choose those who can better represent our interests, but here we collide with reality: the political parties defend their own interests in accordance with the rules they themselves have established, they seek to accumulate levels of economic and political power in order to maintain their domination and influence on the rest of society-----
     -------In this historical moment the various political leaders have no opposed interests, apart from gestures. All should promote the structure of the state in which capital develops, and apply policies according to the needs of the market not of people. Indeed, in many cases the politicians are direct beneficiaries as they themselves belong to the business class. We have all been silent witnesses of how the government has injected millions of euros to the banks while most people do not have work or are suffering from evictions. We are also accustomed to hearing how the webs of corruption directly tie together economics and politics. Without mincing words and with little concern to hide the reality from the population, Emilio Botín [chairman of Santander bank, died of a heart attack in September 2014] says: “above certain levels the relation between business and politics is direct, much more than people suspect, a direct phone call from mobile to mobile without any secretaries in between”. When it comes time to legislate, democracy is based not on common interest but on company interests.
       For these reasons we conclude that democracy is not the government of the people but the masquerade behind which hides the dictatorship of capital.
IF WE BELIEVE THAT DEMOCRACY IS FREEDOM WE WILL NEVER STOP BEING SLAVES.
LET’S UNMASK THIS GREAT LIE!
LET’S BUILD ANARCHY!
Read the full preface HERE: 

 The entire book (92 pages) is available in Spanish here.

     Here are links to some articles on the case, translated by contrainfo:
“Operation Pandora: Democracy imprisons 7 more anarchists” by Iberian Federation of Libertarian Youth 22 December
Letter from anarchist prisoner Monica Caballero to the imprisoned comrades “Pandora’s box and the hotchpotch of Spanish anti-terrorism” 18 December
Visit ann arky's home at www.radicalglasgow.me.uk



Wednesday 10 September 2014

Corporations, Rulers Of The World!!!


      More and more, large corporations dictate what happens in countries across the globe, governments bend to the pressure of big money, and the people suffer. At present there are two pieces of legislation being fashioned that will immensely boost the control the large corporations have over our lives, TPP and the big telecom companies attempt to control the internet. However,  these are not the only two battles for control, it goes on daily as the corporate world rides roughshod over the people and their rights. 
        Drinking water is a necessity, but to corporations profit is more important, as the people of El Salvador are finding out. 
This from the Sum Of Us:


     A major mining company is suing El Salvador for millions -- just for saying no to a dirty mine that would have destroyed its remaining water supply. A mining corporation shouldn't get to decide what laws a country can and can't pass. With just one week remaining before the hearing begins, we need to get OceanaGold to back down now.
        90% of EL Salvador’s water is already polluted, putting families and communities in danger of waterborne illness, food shortages and the added expense of buying bottled water. If OceanaGold gets its way, it could destroy the last remaining river with drinkable water in this Central American country.
       Already, the mining industry has devastated El Salvador. The community of San Sebastian is being forced to buy bottled water after a mining company contaminated its water supply. Community activists have risked their lives opposing mining companies, including Dora Alicia Recinos Soto, who was shot dead in front of her house while 8 months pregnant and carrying her 2-year-old baby.
        The hearing for the case is in less than a week away, so we have to act now to make sure OceanaGold drops this frivolous lawsuit.
      The government of El Salvador has already denied OceanaGold a mining license for its El Dorado mine, because it failed to comply with national regulations protecting human rights and the environment. But instead of conceding to this democratic decision, OceanaGold is now relying on dangerous “Investor State Arbitration" -- rules created under international trade treaties that allow foreign corporations to sue national governments for billions just to get their way. OceanaGold has repeatedly proven it cares only about profits -- not the people of El Salvador. Now, it's time the company listened.
       We know we can win this fight, because public pressure has worked before. After thousands of us spoke out about Rio Tinto's involvement in a destructive Alaska mine and helped get Indigenous activists to their annual shareholder meeting, Rio Tinto pulled out. And when we focused public pressure on Infinito Gold over a $1 billion lawsuit against Costa Rica, the company dropped its claim to $94 million -- not enough, but some reprieve for the community fighting this mining giant. This is another fight for people over profits, and together we can force OceanaGold to back down before it’s too late.
Thank you for all that you do,
Paul, Ledys, Emma and the rest of us
     For more information: Gold Mining Company Wages $301 Million Lawsuit Against El Salvador, Global Research, March 17 2014.
El Salvador groups accuse Pacific Rim of 'assault on democratic governance', The Guardian, April 10th 2014. 

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

Monday 4 February 2013

Capitalism V Democracy.


       The extent to to which capitalism has distorted the distribution of the earth's resources is difficult to grasp, it has placed so much in the hands of so few. When we talk of economies and we tend to think of nation states, but the facts on the ground are different. Of the top 100 economies on the planet, 40 are corporations, the wealth of certain corporations dwarf the economies of some nations. Another little known fact is that less than 1% of corporations, mainly banks, control the shares of more than 40% of all global businesses. When it comes to who is big in this corporate world it is oil and gas, 7 out of the top 10 companies in the world are oil and gas. This distortion of wealth also distorts the direction of technology and development, the big money will control where that development will go, they will drive it to increase and consolidate their wealth and position of power. They will shape our world to their own advantage.
     So that brings us to the statement made by a certain Louis D. Brandeis, a member of US Supreme Court, 1916 – 1934, “We may have democracy, or we may have wealth concentrated in the hands of a few, but we cannot have both.”  
     It is long past the time to wake up to that realisation, any talk of democracy while continuing with the present system of capitalism is empty rhetoric, thoughts of fancy, or at worst, just plain manipulation, hypocrisy and duplicity. The question of how do we get more democracy, is the same question as how do we get rid of capitalism. Any dancing round the edges about improving democracy within capitalism is fantasising, it is impossible, there is no room in capitalism for democracy, one is the antithesis of the other.

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Saturday 22 October 2011

GADAFFI'S DEATH ANOTHER TURNING POINT???

       
       Every death from the Western war on teror is another "turning point", there has been so many that it is obvious that the West is running round in circles.
       This from STOP THE WAR COALITION.


       The killing of Muammar Gadaffi in Sirte has been marked by a round of celebration by western governments over their intervention in Libya. As with the capture of Saddam Hussein in Iraq and the killing of Osama bin Laden in Pakistan, it will be described as a turning point and a further victory in the seemingly endless 'war on
terror'.

      There is little reason for the triumphalism. Nato's war on Libya was not a 'humanitarian intervention' but a war for regime change -- illegal under international law. It was about the western powers attempting to regain control of the region in the face of the Arab uprisings across the Middle East. Yet despite its overthrow of the regime in Libya imperialism faces many problems in the region.

       In Libya itself it is already clear that there are many divisions between the different elements in the new government, and not at all clear that a stable regime will emerge. Even if it does, the ordinary people of Libya will see their interests subjugated to the oil companies and other western business, backed up by Nato, which has no intention of vacating the scene.



       The consequences of the war on terror elsewhere are not outbreaks of peace and democracy but rather a spreading of the war. Afghanistan, ten years on, has just experienced its bloodiest two years of war. Iraq remains a society destroyed by war and occupation. Somalia remains war torn with Kenyan troops recently crossing the border. Pakistan suffers drone attacks which have killed thousands. The Israeli oppression of the Palestinians continues. There are threats of intervention over Syria.

        The recent alleged plot against the Saudi ambassador to Washington was blamed on sections of the Iranian government and Saudi and Israel are both urging attacks on Iran. Far from the west conquering all, it is deep in the mire of war. The gloating over Gadaffi should not become an excuse for further interventions that will only spread the carnage further.



SEE ALSO: JOHN PILGER -
With Libya, secured an American invasion of Africa is under way.

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NOAM CHOMSKY ON AFGHANISTAN.


          A voice I always feel is worth listening to, Noam Chomsky, here he is with some more words to ponder. It never does any harm to have a look in the mirror.


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