Something Rotten And Malignant At The Heart Of Our Society.

 

       A happy new year to all my family, friends and comrades, so forward into 2017, filled with hope and determination, that we can change the world. This time of year all across the world people gather, filled with goodwill towards each other, a feeling of camaraderie sweeps across the globe, and then it dissipates and fragments. This year let's hold on to that feeling and join hands in the realisation that we are one people, and we can shape this world to our liking and our needs.

       Of course we should not forget that there are those who can't join in any gathering of their choice, for a multitude of reasons, among them, abject poverty, illness, and living in a war decimated area and then those who find themselves locked in the penal cages of the state. Prisons are symbols telling us that freedom has not yet been born, they are living monuments to power, authority and repression. Prisons are edifices reminding those lovers of freedom that their work is far from over. 

       No matter the nation state, it will have its prisons, a tool in its defence of its monopoly on power. Here in the UK that so called "bastion of freedom", the powers that be, boast of crime figures falling, but fail to see the contradiction in the rising numbers of its citizens it locks up in its cages of repression. In that other "land of the free" the good ol' US of A, they lock up more of their own citizens than any other despot, dictator or monarchy on the planet.

      No matter the "prison reforms", prisons are an intolerable abomination of human dignity, they are factories for the destruction of the individual, the state's tool for control. In present day capitalism, prisons are more and more becoming production units for making money for large corporations. In other words prisons are large factories housing slaves. There are no workers rights, no minimum wage, no paid holidays, no days off, no sickness benefits and no health and safety cover, but there are punishments for not working hard enough.

      Naturally, human beings, being what they are, lovers of freedom and dignity,  if you treat them in this manner you build up pressure, and sooner or later the pressure blows. In America on the 29th of September, the largest strike in American prison history began, and ran for months. Some of the individuals involved in that stand for dignity are still being brutally punished by the state's henchmen, know as screws.

     Here in the UK over the last few months, we have seen a series of prison riots,  all brutally suppressed by the heavy hand of the state. Recently in Brussels, in civilised Europe prison riots broke out at several prisons, Tournai, Arlon, Huy, Landtin, and Andenne.  the prisoners burned their cells, flooded the units, trashed the hallways, etc. Saturday May 7, a devastating mutiny rocked the Merkplas prison in Anvers. Whole wings were destroyed and burnt by the insurgent prisoners. Walls were levelled, fences torn down, whole units ransacked.

        Prisoners strikes, and prison riots are symptoms of something rotten and malignant at the heart of our society. People will make a stand about animals being held in cages, but seem to tolerate human beings being held in cages, Why? Of course our babbling brook of bullshit, the main stream media, pedals the lie that our prison are full of nasty, evil, brutal psychopaths. When the truth is far removed from that pungent vomit that the media spews out. Facts show that a very high proportion of those in prison are suffering from some form of substance addiction, a high proportion suffer from mental health problems, a high proportion are illiterate, all of these problems make it difficult to integrate into society. These are people that need our help and support, not to be locked up in cages at the whim of a biased judicial system, that is there to protect the rich and wealthy.

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

September 9th. Prison Strike.

 

        It is well documented, but little publicised, that the American prison system is nothing more than continuation of the slave labour system that existed prior to the 13th. amendment, that supposedly abolished slavery. American prisons are profit making corporations, where human rights are non-existent, a vast slave empire hidden from public scrutiny. It is also a model that is being replicated here in the UK and else where. A society that cages its people is a society that must be abolished, and remade in the interest of all its people. Modifying prison regulations and prison reform, still leave you with the barbarity of humans in cages, an unacceptable situation.
       The coming September 9th. American prison strike demands support across all borders, solidarity knows no borders.

 This from Contr Info:

Call for International Anarchist Action
in Solidarity with US Prison Strike

 

        On September 9th [the 45th anniversary of the Attica prison rebellion], prisoners across the United States will begin a strike that will be a general work stoppage against prison slavery. In short, prisoners will refuse to work; they will refuse to keep the prisons running by their own labors. Prisoners are striking not just for better conditions or changes in parole rules, but against prison slavery. Prisoners state that under the 13th Amendment which abolished racial slavery, at the same time it allowed human beings to be worked for free or next to nothing as long as they were prisoners. Prisoners see the current system of prison slavery to thus be a continuation of racial slavery, which is a system that generates billions of dollars in profits each year for major corporations in key industries such as fossil fuels, fast food, banking, and the US military.
      Soon after the passing of the 13th Amendment, many former slaves were soon locked up in prisons on petty offenses, quickly returned to their former roles as slaves. Over a century later, the Drug War sought to deal with the growing unemployment rate brought on by changes in the economy (outsourcing, financialization, deregulation, etc.), as well as the threat of black insurrection which grew in the 1960s and 70s, by throwing more and more people in prison. At the same time, the state and corporations continued to look towards prison labor as a source to generate massive profits.
       Due to all of these factors, at the present time round 1 in 100 American adults is locked behind bars, and many more are on probation, parole, house arrest, or in immigrant detention facilities. While African-Americans, Native, Latino, and poor whites make up the bulk of the prison population, black, brown, and red convicts make up much a higher percentage of inmates than their white counter-parts. For instance, there are currently more African-American people locked within the prison industrial complex than were held in racialized slavery prior to the American civil war in the 1860s. It is in this climate that prison rebels have organized themselves to carry out the strike.

Read the full article HERE:

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

THE WORLD WE HAVE CREATED.

        Perhaps a little on the long side, but informative, if at times both depressing and inspiring.

https://docs.google.com/file/d/0BzNQixqun79Db2lyR2VWa3JOUWs/edit?pli=1

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