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

One Million, So Far, Say No To TTIP.

      The clandestine negotiations going on behind closed doors in the marble halls of power, between governments and the corporate world are being slowly pushed,  little by little into the open. I am of course, referring to the anti-democracy agreement TTIP. This planned take over by the powerful corporations, which will leave us totally at the mercy of CEO profit junkies and boardroom parasites. They and they alone will decide what is to be privately owned and what unprofitable scarps can be left in public hands. They see the NHS as a wonderful opportunity of an assets that can be plundered and sections spread among their corporate buddies. Education should be privatised to allow our kids to be profit producers for greedy shareholders. This is what TTIP is all about, and it has to be stopped. We are pushing them but not enough, the effort to get this out in the open and seen for what it is, has to be more than doubled.

This from World Development Movement:   

     One million voices are now raised against TTIP throughout Europe!

     Having been refused permission to start a European Citizen's Initiative in September, campaigning organisations the length and breadth of the continent started their own self-organised petition and have reached a million signatures today. That's in less than three months.

       It is apparent the supporters of TTIP are rattled. David Cameron repeats the claims that TTIP will add £10 billion to the UK’s economy and says it is time “we start taking on some of the opponents of this deal and exposing some of the arguments against.”

      Cameron is right to be wary. After supporting a secretive and shadowy process, the campaign is forcing the negotiations, partially at least, into the cold light of day. Awareness is rising and opposition is appearing everywhere, geographically and across political viewpoints.

      The very fact the negotiation process is in secret has rung alarm bells. Experience of other trade and investment deals, including their impact on job losses and benefits for corporations, has rung further bells. The lack of evidence for the economic promises has fed the distrust, discontent and ultimately the opposition to the trade deal.

      The petition will continue. It is a brilliant indication of the strength of opposition across Europe. Alongside lobbying and protests, it is one of the many tools we will deploy to ensure TTIP does not become a reality.

    If you haven't already, please take action at www.wdm.org.uk/ttip and share the link with your friends. Let's make the petition even stronger.

Best wishes,

Guy Taylor
Trade campaigner

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Lest WE Forget.

     November 11, Remembrance Day, lest we forget, I can say no more than I have already said, so will just repeat something I posted back in July 2014.

       That babbling brook of bullshit,the mainstream media, always gets it wrong. At the moment it is pouring out lots of hate rhetoric against Russia, but precious little against the murderous onslaught by the Israeli state against the people of Gaza.

     Also on the WW1 "celebrations", they throw their weight behind the establishment view, of it being a heroic and glorious battle for democracy, which we, being the democratic half of the contest, won of course. I wonder what the German people think about that?

      What we should never forget is that the blood letting that goes by the name of WW1 wasn't won, it was an armistice. It was stopped because the imperialist psychopaths were faced with mutinies, rebellion and spontaneous out breaks of truces between the ordinary soldiers on the front line, some of these young men paid with their lives in front of a firing squad for the act of humanity. At home, the imperialists were faced with another battle, strikes and civil unrest across the continent of Europe. Another factor that brought the war warmongering nut-cases to call a halt, to the greed driven slaughter, was the fact that the death toll continued to soar and the maimed continued to be carried home, they were simply running out of canon-fodder. WW1 was an unimaginable spilling of mainly young blood, to further the aims of greed driven imperialist ambitions, in other words, greed and nothing more.

   Up to the start of that unnecessary blood letting of WW1, Europe had no democracy to defend. After the bloody event, Europe had no democracy anywhere. 100 years after that imperialist blood letting, we the ordinary people are still fighting for democracy in Europe.

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The Monster TTIP, Still Lives.

    It is still there lurking in the murky shadows of the marble halls of power, the monster that is TTIP, but the voices of anger are rising. Let's raise our whisper to a roar.

This from World Development Movement:

       People power is working! After months of protests across Europe the EU is wavering on the EU-US trade deal (TTIP). Leading representatives including the newly appointed EU president Jean-Claude Juncker have hinted that ISDS could be removed from TTIP.
This is a crucial moment to keep up the pressure on decision makers
    More than 750,000 people have already signed the European petition to stop TTIP. Our pressure on policy makers is working, but we need your support to make sure we defeat this undemocratic trade deal.
Help us reach 1 million voices against TTIP
      TTIP threatens to transfer power from elected governments to unaccountable corporations by giving big business a much bigger say in law-making. And if that wasn’t bad enough TTIP could also undermine some of our most precious rights and regulation to protect our environment, workers and food safety.
Add your voice to the protest against undemocratic trade deals like TTIP
      Together we can defeat TTIP and fight for a fair trade system.

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

There's Lots Of Money In Wars.

 Exported Democracy Western Style.

       Here we go, here we go, here we go, once again the American lead Western war machine is cranking up for another blood bath. This time it is under the guise of stopping ISIS. We have lived through continuous wars, here there and everywhere, we leave shattered, broken countries in our wake. Just as we leave the rubble of one country, we head for another.  We brought "democracy" to Afghanistan, and left Iraq a "democratic" model for the rest of the Middle East, excuse the irony in such a tragic affair. We returned Libya to warring tribalism, support a military take over in Egypt, that is more brutal than the Hosni Mubarak regime, whose overthrow we helped engineer. We support the Syrian Free Army, a ragtag of tribal fundamentalists, who kidnapped the American journalist, Sotloff, sold him to ISIS, who later beheaded him. The difference between ISIS and the Syrian Free Army, is not one of ideology, it is more of territory. People pressure stopped the war monster from bombing Syrian back to the stone age, so now we have found a way to do it through the back door. If our aim really is to destroy ISIS, then all we have to do is stop supporting the ragtag mob of fundamentalists called the Syrian Free Army, and the Syrian regime with the help of Iran, could very rapidly destroy ISIS, while we get on with trying to sort out our own economic problems here at home.

 Enter Freedom.

      Who gains from all this march of destruction by the West? Well looking at the evidence it is certainly not those countries that we have "helped" with our military might. Disaster reigns across North Africa and the whole of the Middle East, to Afghanistan. No, those who gain are the war hogs, the arms industry, the banks, the financial Mafia, the big corporations, these are the power behind the wars, these are the only people who gain. We the people across the globe shed our blood, and country after country crumbles back to a barbaric stone age, all with the moral stamp of bring "democracy" and "fighting terrorism", all pure unadulterated bullshit. It is money and power, and to hell with the people, no matter the country.

A New Way Of Life.

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It's Insane To Call It Democracy.

       I find it fascinating how the wrong meaning of a word can come into normal use. Take the word "democracy", ask anybody in the street what "democracy" means and they'll probably give a fairly accurate definition, then ask them if we live in a "democracy" and you'll be surprised how many say "yes". Of course our babbling brook of bullshit, the mainstream media, continually  reinforce this misuse by their constantly referring to the "Western Democracies". The UK version of "democracy" is one where there are seats of power, and practically all those seats of power are filled from a small pool of rich pampered parasites, and most of them come through that elitist sausage factory known as "Oxbridge". Once the rich pampered parasites are processed through the Oxbridge sausage factory, they then spend a few years playing with their pals, and are then slotted into a position of power, over a section of the country that they nothing about. That my friends is UK "democracy".

       Only around 7% of the UK population attend private fee paying schools, yet many of the UK's judges, journalists, public officials, armed forces chiefs, media executives, are all privately educated before heading to the finishing process at the Oxbridge sausage factory. A report by Social Mobility and Child Poverty Group, concluded that Britain's elite is still  "formed on the playing fields of independent schools" and "finished in Oxbridge's dreaming spires". 

 

      Other figures from the report state that 71% of senior judges, 62% of senior armed forces officers, 55% of government permanent secretaries, 53% of senior diplomats, 45% of public body chairpersons, 44% of The Sunday Times Rich List, 43%  of newspaper columnists, as well as 26% of BBC executives were all privately educated. All that power lying in the hands of a group drawn from a very small 7% privileged bunch, and they call that "democracy".

      Another statement from the report says:  "Our research shows it is entirely possible for politicians to rely on advisors to advise, civil servants to devise policy solutions, and journalists to report on their actions having all studied the same courses at the same universities, having read the same books, heard the same lectures and even being taught by the same tutors."

     Where do we the ordinary people come in on this, when those making the decisions that shape our lives, have no experience of the world in which we the ordinary people live. 

      This ties in with another finding, that as all the countries in the world develop towards being more equal, the divide between rich and poor within each country is getting wider. This model of "democracy" means that the elitists in each country look after their own class, strengthen their power and grow their wealth at the expense of the vast majority of the world's population. How long can this privileged bunch of parasites continue to suck the wealth from the majority into their private coffers, before that majority steeped in ever deepening deprivation, rebel, and change things to a proper "democracy"? 

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Armed Police, Stop And Search, Democracy??

      Another matter that is raising the hairs on the back of my neck is the recent case of a driver being stopped for speeding in Aberdeen and it turns out that both police officers had holster guns strapped to their sides. These were later joined by another two police officers, who it appears also had holstered guns. Four armed police for a speeding offence. Some time earlier it appears that three police officers were seen walking through the streets of Inverness to a disturbance in a restaurant, all three were armed with holstered side arms. Is this Scotland, land of the supposed, unarmed police force, or the US of A? Slowly, slowly, little by little, the police in Scotland are being armed, not by parliamentary legislation, but the designs of the chief constable of Scotland. He has apparently stated that this is not a political matter, it is a policing decision, and he will make the decisions. Well so much for "democracy".

       Still going on about the policing in Scotland, it seems that we are a nation of very dodgy characters. The latest figures show that we in Scotland suffer stop and search intrusions, nine times more than the citizens of New York. Obviously the police in Scotland view the people of Scotland as nine times more criminal than the NYPD view their citizens. Either we are a nation of dodgy criminals, or we are cursed with a more authoritarian police force. I know where my opinion lies.

      Armed police started appearing in our cities, airports etc. under the guise of anti-terrorism, now it seems that they are needed to stop speeding offenders, and to stop disturbances in restaurants. Lets go the whole-hog and arm traffic wardens, job centre employees, security attendants in shopping malls, you know how crazy some people get during the sales. The poison seeps through every fibre of society, authoritarianism, control, intimidation and repression.

     Let's get together and insist that the guns get off our streets. You can't trust a person who could get angry and has a gun, whether they have a fancy uniform or not.

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Charlie Is The Man.

      I have posted this before, but it is always worth another airing, it brings a wee glow to the heart.

Post by CRYPTIK.

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Mutiny And Strikes Stopped WW1.

          When we discuss that imperialist lead blood letting for power, known as WW1, we should make it quite clear that it wasn't started by ordinary people, but by a bunch of power hungry generals, politicians and royalty. However we should also make it quite clear that it didn't end in any type of victory, but an armistice. Neither side of the pompous blundering generals, politicians nor aristocratic idiots, could claim outright victory. That unnecessary bloody conflict which cost millions of lives of ordinary people, was stopped by those ordinary people. It was striking workers and mutinying soldiers, plus the running out of bodies to sacrifice, that brought the imperial greed fest to an end. By 1918, strikes and unrest were widespread across the whole of Europe, German forces were refusing to fight, earlier there had been similar mutinies among French and Russian troops and mutinies were also occurring among the British troops, including the Australian Imperial Force, Under these circumstances, it was obvious, even to the bunch of blundering idiots in charge at that time, that the blood letting power grab couldn't continue.

The arseholes who glory in war.

        Despite this, the Oxbridge millionaire cabal, running our country on behalf of the financial Mafia, have set aside £55 million to mark the blood letting as a wonderful victory and a defence of democracy. 1914 Europe had no democracy to defend, and when the troops came home, it wasn't to a democratic land fit for heroes, it was to unemployment, poverty and deprivation. Here we are, 100 years on in 2014, and we, the ordinary people, are still struggling to create that “democracy” here in the UK and across Europe. 

 The democracy they were defending.

         It was the ordinary people who suffered during that imperialist land grab, it was the ordinary people that brought it to a close, it is the ordinary people that should make sure that the present day power mongers don't turn it in to some sort of extravaganza to display their power and wealth, a circus of flag waving imperial symbolism. The ordinary people across Europe and further afield, suffered horribly during that unnecessary monumental blood letting, we can't let the perpetrators, by smoke and mirrors, take centre stage and wallow in undeserved glory.

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Democracy And Water Cannons Don't Walk Hand In Hand.

 

       Do the hounds of Oxbridge sniff dissent in the air? While Theresa May, possible future queen of the Tory party, and Cameron, with his crown slipping, mull over the possible use of water cannons on our streets, dangerous, ambitious buffoon Johnson, has jumped the gun and order three. Meanwhile the police are salivating at the mouth at the thought of getting new, great big toys. Do they see a rising tide of dissent, have their expert advisers advised them that their continuing plans for swing the austerity axe, will bring in its wake mass unrest? Whatever the reason, water cannons will usher in the end of peaceful protest on our streets. When protesting against some injustice, how do react when faced with rows of shield covered, baton wielding riot police and behind them this monstrosity of brute force, the water cannon? Do you feel confident that everything will be OK as we live in a democracy? Water cannons and democracy do not walk hand in hand. Their only purpose is to intimidate and get you off the street.

This from 38 Degrees:

       Theresa May, the Home Secretary, is deciding on whether to allow the police in England & Wales to use water cannons on our streets. The police say they need them to control protests “from ongoing and potential future austerity measures”. [1]
       Yesterday, London Mayor Boris Johnson jumped the gun and ordered three water cannons for the capital before Theresa’s decision has been made. He’s now been backed by David Cameron, but Theresa May says she’s refusing to be rushed on the important decision. [2]
       38 Degrees member Neal has started a petition demanding that Theresa refuses to lift the ban on water cannons. If we can show there’s enough public opposition to the plans, it could be enough to encourage Theresa to defy David and Boris and keep the machines out of the police’s hands.
     What do you think? You can sign Neal’s petition to keep the ban on the cannons here:
https://secure.38degrees.org.uk/water-cannons

       He says: “The use of water cannon would be a violent and excessive use of force to combat protests on the streets of the UK. The right to protest is one of the most important aspects of our free and open democracy and I believe that the threat of this weapon will be an inhibitor to people of all ages from exercising that right.“

       We have seen all too frequently instances of police abusing their power, and using unnecessary force to break up protests. Be it the death of Ian Tomlinson, or the assault on anti-fracking campaigner Sean O'Donnell, elements of the police force would prefer to use violence and aggression to silence peaceful protest.” [3]

     Can you sign Neal’s petition and demand that Theresa keeps the cannons off our streets?
https://secure.38degrees.org.uk/water-cannons

      Neal started his petition on Campaigns by You, part of the 38 Degrees website where anyone can start a petition to try and make the UK a fairer, more democratic and peaceful place to live. If there’s an issue close to your heart, it takes just a few minutes to get your campaign off the ground. [4]

Thanks for everything you do,
Robin, Bryony, Maddy & the 38 Degrees team.

NOTES:
[1] The Guardian: Police to ask home secretary to approve use of water cannon across country http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2014/jan/22/police-home-secretary-approve-use-water-cannon-austerity-protest
[2] The Guardian: Cameron and May at odds over Boris Johnson's water cannon http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2014/jun/11/cameron-may-boris-johnson-water-cannons
[3] The Guardian: Police accused of brutality as fracking protester is left 'battered and bruised' http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2014/jan/21/police-accused-brutality-anti-fracking-protester
[3] Wikipedia: The Death of Ian Tomlinson http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_of_Ian_Tomlinson
[4] Campaigns by You: http://www.CampaignsByYou.com 

  

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

A Grotesque Display Of Pomp And Power.

 

 UK democracy at work.

      Those who, for some reason or other, don't see this society as a class structured, class ridden entity, surely changed their minds after seeing the grotesque display of privilege and power, they call "The Queen's Speech". We saw the parade of monarchical power being escorted through the streets of London, flanked by military symbolism. Then we had this so called democratic government, sitting in awe, listening to an old woman steeped in heredity power and wealth, telling them what "Her" government will do. Her continued reference to "My government", was not a slip of the tongue, but a deliberate statement to reinforce where the power really lies in this country. The very way the The Westminster Houses of Hypocrisy and Corruption are set up follows this pattern. You have "the Commons" and the "Lords", while sitting at the head of that lot of pompous privilege, we have "The Monarch". She signs off their bills, and gives their legislation the stamp of approval. You'll look long and hard to find a dictionary that puts such a structure under the heading of "Democracy".

 An honest display of the UK power structure.

       All that pomp and ceremony is paid for by you and me, the gold encrusted coach, the fancy jewel festooned crown, extremely large gold covered throne, all the military trimmings, do you honestly believe that it is all to show that we live in a democracy, or is it more a display to let you know your place in this medieval class structure? I think it does the latter very well, we are on the outside looking in at the power that rules our lives. We could of course change all this and create a real democracy, but that would mean you and I taking control, and making all the decisions that matter in our lives, rather than abdicating our power to a bunch of privileged parasites.

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Through The Fog In Ukraine.

         Through the fog that surrounds Ukraine, a fog that is created by that Western babbling brook of bullshit, the mainstream media, it is difficult to grasp what is really going on on the ground. We are fed a foul broth of Western imperialist belligerent rhetoric, of tales of a handful of armed thugs controlling the eastern part of Ukraine, and how this threatens the happy smiling, but nervous democratic loving groups, in the rest of Ukraine. No mention of neo-nazi groups, fascist gangs and beatings being handed out by those happy smiling, but nervous democratic loving people in and around Kiev. 

       It is obvious that the people of Ukraine are caught up in an imperialist land grab and the conditions on the ground are being influenced and manipulated by the two empires squabbling over territory. What is being played out on the babbling brook of bullshit, the media, has nothing to do with the welfare of the people of Ukraine, justice, democracy, or peace, it is a propaganda exercise on behalf of the Western empire, preparing the ground for whatever action it might deem fit, for its purpose of expansion. Listening to the war of words between the two empires conjures up pictures of kettles and pots and the word black. 

An extract from an article, though with a bias, does through some light on what is going on  in that tortured country:

For many months the Western media has attempted to portray the so-called Maidan movement in rosy colours as a movement for “democracy”. The Western media has shamelessly concealed the leading role played by open fascist and Nazis organisations in the overthrow of Yanukovich. Fascist elements are present in the Kiev government and dictate many of its policies, including the attempt to ban the Russian language. They have begun to rewrite history presenting the Banderaists, who collaborated with the Nazis and perpetrated atrocities against Russians, Poles and Jews during the Second World War, as nationalist heroes. The reactionaries in Kiev brand anyone who does not agree with them as “slaves” or Russian lackeys. The deputy from Lviv in Western Ukraine, Iryna Farion, likes to refer to Russian speakers as “creatures”.
No Western politician could get away with such language. Yet people in the West, who rely on news reports in the media, can have no idea of how far reaction has gone in the Ukraine. Therefore, when they see reports of armed men seizing government buildings in the South East of the country, the only explanation given to them is that it is all the work of sinister forces sent from Moscow.
Kiev, Lviv and other Western Ukrainian cities are in the grip of a White Terror. Communists are beaten up and their officers ransacked and burnt down by fascist gangs. For instance, the Kiev offices of the Communist Party (KPU) were ransacked by extreme right wing thugs from the neo-nazi Right Sector and the Maidan “Self Defence” on April 9 and later that night suffered an arson attack. Offices of the KPU were also attacked in Lviv and other cities. Members of Parliament for the extreme right wing party Svoboda (part of the new government) beat up the state TV station director and forced him to resign. The same Svoboda Members of Parliament beat up Communist Party leader Symonenko as he was addressing the Rada criticising Ukranian right wing nationalists. Oleg Tsarev, a presidential candidate who claims to represent the South and Eastern regions, was beaten up by extreme right wing thugs after a TV appearance and then again as he visited Mikolayiv.-------

Read the full article HERE:

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