Unstable.

 

Image courtesy of Refinery 29.

          We live in a very unequal society, a world of inequality that stretches across the planet with its ensuing misery and deprivation for the majority. What our plunderers and pillagers of the corporate parasite class and their state bed companions should do well to remember is that an unequal world is an unstable world. Fractures are already appearing and the anger is simmering just beneath the surface, occasionally bursting forth in riots, insurrection and resistance, built on a shared burden of struggle. As the capitalist system is utterly incapable of creating an equal society as it is based on profit from exploitation, it is also incapable of creating a stable and fair society. It becomes ever more obvious that if we want a fair and just society we will have to dismantle the present economic system of profit which is driven by greed and self interest. There is no magic wand, nor will the change come from above with a bunch of roses. The change we want will have to be wrestled from the hands of the plundering capitalist system we must replace. Banners and polite marches with snap slogans will not force the plunderers to relinquish their opulent lifestyles in favour of equality and fairness. It will take the mass of the population to rise up and in solidarity state that enough is enough, we will be free and live in a fair society that sees to the needs of all our people.

 The Invisible.

We live there— yes— there
A little bit above the dead
But quite a bit below the living
Where poverty is a dream
Deprivation a reality
Our daily bread an illusion
We sigh--we weep—
As ruthless poverty
With its cold claws
Tears the heart from our children
We ask—WHY?
Surrounded by opulence
Invisible to arrogant greed
Anger simmers beneath the surface
We seek equality
We will have justice
If blood is the price
So be it. 

 

Visit ann arky at https://spiritofrevolt.info    

I Awake.

        Woke up this morning, as usual, sat in front of the computer, as usual, and as usual the familiar thoughts started to flood through my mind.
     Anger at the unnecessary injustice, inequality, poverty and deprivation heaped on the many by the greed driven few.
      Hatred at the hypocrisy, indifference and greed of the wealthy plundering parasite class and their engineered wars, where they never lift the gun.
     Anguish at the suffering of the countless innocent millions mutilated, maimed and slaughtered, young and old, who never desire war and gain nothing from those wars.
       Sorrow at those migrants fleeing wars, death and destruction, whose journey is drowning, hatred and concentration camps.
       The longer we accept this engineered pattern of plundering, the deeper the pool of blood we wade through, the heavier the burden of complicity will weigh on our shoulders.

The Seeds We Sow.

Because of my ignorance, I sowed the seeds of anguish,
while my self indulgence planted the vine of pain,
my disregard of the future laid sorrow’s foundation.
Suddenly the future slaps me in the face,
while my children eat the food of that anguish
and chew the leaves of that vine,
as the sea of sorrow washes around their feet.
My yesterday shaped their tomorrow
My ignorance laid their path
and now my self indulgence is their burden.
It would appear that,
these failings of the father are burdened on his heirs.

    We all know that we could distribute the resources of this world in a more humane and fairer manner. Their is enough to see to the needs of all our people, our crime is we leave that distribution to the greedy plundering parasite class. To often those suffering the most, the marginalised, those with the greatest need for our assistance, somehow are hidden from view, unless we take a deeper look around us.

The Invisible.

We live there— yes— there
A little bit above the dead
But quite a bit below the living
Where poverty is a dream
Deprivation a reality
Our daily bread an illusion
We sigh--we weep—
As ruthless poverty
With its cold claws
Tears the heart from our children
We ask—WHY?
Surrounded by opulence
Invisible to arrogant greed
Anger simmers beneath the surface
We seek equality
We will have justice
If blood is the price
So be it. 

      We have the numbers, we have the power to change this weary and blood stained world to one of humanity, co-operation and justice for all. We have that better world drifting around in our hearts and heads, all we need is the will and solidarity to act now. Of course we can accept their tomorrow.

We Have The Power.

Empty streets,with empty shops,
queues forming at the job centre,
doorway beds and hungry children,
watched over by mean eyed cops,
foodbanks growing by the hour.
City razzle-dazzle just rusty remnants,
shopping malls now empty caverns,
home to starlings, pigeons, magpies,
zero hours, part-time workers live in,
homes where ambition fails to flower.
Shiny politicians peddling illusions,
grin and bear it, there’s pie in the sky,
follow the Messiah, he’ll get you there,
quietly swallow their empty promises,
so they can live in their ivory towers.
This world exists by our acceptance,
blindly following their biased rulebook,
failing to realise that we the people,
builders of the world by sweat and pain,
are the ones who really hold the power.

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

The Invisible.

         A few words for those millions that suffer poverty and deprivation in this system of inequality and greed. For the migrants fleeing death and destruction with just the clothes on their back. For the homeless, the marginalised, for those invisible to the arrogant, greedy masters of this economic system of injustice, inequality and exploitation. For those cast aside for plunder and profit, a price will be paid for your pain.

 The Invisible.

We live there— yes— there
A little bit above the dead
But quite a bit below the living
Where poverty is a dream
Deprivation a reality
Our daily bread an illusion
We sigh--we weep—
As ruthless poverty
With its cold claws
Tears the heart from our children
We ask—WHY?
Surrounded by opulence
Invisible to arrogant greed
Anger simmers beneath the surface
We seek justice
We will have equality
If blood is the price
So be it.

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

Failed System.

      We have never had to look far to see glaring evidence that the capitalist economic system has failed the people of this world. There has been those continuing wars all for resources, wealth and power for the few. Poverty is endemic in large swaths of the planet, abject poverty and deprivation are part and parcel of the lives of millions of families and individuals. Now with this pandemic it is obvious that the capitalist system had in no way prepared for such an event, even although the experts in that field had been warning for years that it was an absolute necessity. I suppose they hadn't worked out how quite to turn into a money making exercise since it had a social service aspect.

      Now the predicted pandemic has truck and the abysmal handling of it by forewarned but unprepared states across the globe is obvious. The result being a flood of avoidable deaths and a steep rise in poverty across the world. On top of the pain and stress of losing loved ones, no country will escape the rise in poverty and deprivation. There is no doubt that the disastrous outcome of this pandemic can be laid at the feet of the economic system that puts the economy and profit for the few ahead of the health and well-being of the people. The only reason for continuing this greed driven exploitative economic system can only be insanity, sanity surely must prevail and bring an end to this cancerous economic system that blights large swaths of humanity.

The following extracts are from AP News:

      -----With the virus and its restrictions, up to 100 million more people globally could fall into the bitter existence of living on just $1.90 a day, according to the World Bank. That’s “well below any reasonable conception of a life with dignity,” the United Nations special rapporteur on extreme poverty wrote this year. And it comes on top of the 736 million people already there, half of them in just five countries: Ethiopia, India, Nigeria, Congo and Bangladesh.------
      ----India is struggling with one of the world’s largest virus caseloads and the effects of a lockdown so abrupt and punishing that Prime Minister Narendra Modi asked the poor to forgive him. Nigeria, Africa’s most populous nation, has surpassed India with the most people in extreme poverty — roughly half its citizens. And Congo remains one of the world’s most crisis-ridden countries, with outbreaks of Ebola and measles smoldering.-----

• – The Latest: Confirmed coronavirus cases reach 20 million
• – Schools mull outdoor classes amid virus, ventilation worries
• – Pandemic wrecks global Class of 2020's hopes for first job
  

      Even China, Indonesia and South Africa are expected to have more than 1 million people each fall into extreme poverty, the World Bank says.
     “It’s a huge, huge setback for the entire world,” Gayle Smith, president of the ONE Campaign to end extreme poverty, told The Associated Press. Smith, a former administrator for the U.S. Agency for International Development, called the global response to the crisis “stunningly meager.”------

Read the full article HERE: 

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

Fueling Hatred.

       What makes you hate a system? I suppose we all come at it in our own way. I took to anarchism at the age of 17 as a apprentice in the shipyards, these views were reinforced after I left the yards and became a door to door salesman. Below I will relate very briefly some of the experiences that hardened that hatred of the system and done much to strengthen my love of anarchism. They are not in any chronological order, just as they come to mind. Nor are they limited to Glasgow, these scenes were repeated in other districts where I knocked on doors for a living, Coatbridge, Airdrie, Port Glasgow, Greenock, and so the dreadful scenes kept repeating themselves.

      1. Entering the "single end", I found myself in a square room with no furniture except for a wooden kitchen chair, where the woman sat tearing up waxcloth to throw on the fire to try and heat the place. I then became aware of a bundle of coats lying on the floor in the corner and noticed to little heads sleeping huddled beneath the coats.

     2. As I entered the house a voice said, "watch your feet" and I noticed that there were hardly any floorboards in the hallway, and a young boy was in the kitchen chopping them up to burn to keep warm. In the living room with a couple of chairs, there was a wire coming in the window from the house above. The electricity had been cut off and they paid the woman above a few shillings every week  so that they could have some light and the radio.

   3. A house I entered and stood in the hall while the man, trousers down below his navel, and a t-shirt well above it, displaying a blackened stomach where you could see the cleaner lines where the sweat had created little rivers. As he looked for some documentation, which was never forthcoming, my attention was drawn to a kitchen cabinet in the hall, the type with glass doors and a drop-down front. The glass had long gone, and the front was open, while looking at the bits and pieces of food lying there I also noticed maggots crawling among the scraps. Then a little white face appear looking in a puzzled manner at me, it wore nothing but a very short vest, was filthy and pale white, obviously had never seen the outside.

     My memory is filled with such visions of abject poverty and deprivation I witnessed on a daily basis. This while Glasgow was a bustling industrial city, with wealth pouring into the coffers of our lords and masters. Our politicians preaching about eliminating child poverty, all those years ago, and here we are in the 21st. century with approximately 25% of our child population living below the poverty line. Talk about hypocrisy and empty promises. When will we ever learn.

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

American Dream.

        America, the richest country in the world, though that might not be too accurate when you consider it massive debt. Never the less, in capitalist terms, it is the richest country in the world. The image it portrays to the rest of the world  is America is the land of plenty, opportunity, and of course the "American dream". Unemployment at a record low, stock market ever rising, money, money everywhere. Often we are shown how poverty thrives in "third world" countries, but America, it is the shining example of good living, and prosperity. Of course, it is a capitalist country, and anyone who knows how the system works will be well aware, that is an illusion. 

         40 million plus, Americans live below the poverty line, homelessness is mushrooming, medical care is not for everybody.

A couple of videos and extracts from Peak Prosperity: 

At least, it has been.
        Recently, it’s become impossible not to see the signs that more and more people are falling into poverty. They just can’t afford the rising cost of living, even if they have a job.
       Here where I live, nowhere is this more apparent than the Joe Rodota trail connecting my small town of Sebastopol with the nearby city of Santa Rosa. Over the past year, this previously quiet, clean, bike & pedestrian route has exploded into a sprawling homeless encampment for hundreds of dispossessed people.
        Here’s a 2-minute video I took of the encampment this afternoon (h/t to my daughter Charlotte for manning the camera as I drove):

And:

      If you have the time, I recommend watching this 45-minute documentary on US poverty produced by a German public broadcast service. Currently more than 40 million Americans live beneath the poverty line — that’s twice as many as in 1970.
       Viewing our country through their outsider’s eye is a stark warning that we ignore this metastasizing social epidemic at our peril:       Back to my question at the start of this post: What’s it going to take? How many more millions will fall into poverty? How much more abuse will continue until of those of us paying attention, with growing fear at the social implications and perhaps at our own financial vulnerability, actively revolt against the elite-centric status quo?
       For thousands of years, history has warned us that such social imbalance will not stand:

Read the full article HERE:

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

How Much Deeper, How Much Longer?

           It is strange that the majority of people in the West seem to tolerate a system that increases wealth, but in tandem with the increase in poverty for the majority. The number of millionaires increases, millionaires become billionaires, corporate bodies see their coffers bursting at the seams, and yet more and more ordinary people slip further down the slippery slope of poverty. In recent years poverty has galloped at an ever increasing pace across Europe, which is a large slice of the so called affluent West. We have seen Greece descend to the realms of a third world country, Spain, Italy and Portugal are skidding along a few paces behind. It is not just the southern European countries that are seeing their populations being pushed back to the poverty of Victorian times. Ireland is hot on the heels of our southern neighbours, and here in the UK we have seen an explosion of food banks as people struggle to survive. Countries that somehow are not usually associated with poverty, have seen their people slide into the mire and stress of deprivation. Germany, the richest nation in Europe, and one of the richest in the world, has seen poverty spread its tentacles further afield, dragging more of its people into that state of misery and blighted future. The Netherlands, seen as an affluent part of “affluent” Europe, in 2012 saw its biggest increase in poverty since 2008, figures from the national agency Statistics Netherland, show that with a population of less than 17 million, the Netherlands has approximately 1.2 million of its people considered to be living in poverty. The Netherlands has also seen a particularly sharp increase in the number of children living in poverty, while in parallel to this there has been a rise in those affected by longterm poverty. And so it goes on, wealth spewing from this society, straight into the pockets of the already very rich. We continue to create wealth at an astonishing rate, but we continue to see poverty spread further and deeper among the general population. 

        How much longer will we accept this injustice, this blatant exploitation? How much deeper in the mire of poverty will we let ourselves be pushed? How much longer will we tolerate the future of our kids and grandkids being blighted by unnecessary and avoidable poverty? The answer is in our hands, if we want to stop the plundering of the wealth that we produce, if we want to see it spread with more justice and equality, we have to do the changing. We can't expect those rich parasites who gain immense wealth and power from the existing system, to do anything to change it for our benefit. We surely have the imagination and ability to create a society of fairness, all that seems to be lacking is the desire. 

Photos from Google.

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

Austerity Is State Murder.

       I don't think it can be emphasised enough the murderous effects “austerity” has on the ordinary people. As the millionaire cabal talk of tough decisions and tightening belts around their over fed bellies, to the vast majority that means a deterioration in their health. It means cold homes in winter, and kids being deprived of decent meals, therefore jeopardising their future health. It can, and does, also mean stress and deteriorating mental health, and in many cases suicide, as the task of surviving at a decent level becomes impossible. All this is heaped on a population at the dictate of a wealthy elite who are immune to the ravages of that “austerity”. What is more the reasoning behind this policy of “austerity” is supposed to be for “our” benefit, to bring us prosperity, pie-in-the-sky, in some distant future, when in actual fact all we are doing is suffering poverty and all its vile manifestations, in an attempt to recoup the gambling losses of the financial Mafia.

         Every cut in the social welfare is a step towards deprivation, and to some, a step towards an early grave. “Austerity” is a cull on the working class, every deterioration in living conditions is avoidable. Poverty, mental and physical health problems are not accidents, they are the direct result of deliberate policies carried out by an extremely wealthy bunch of self-interested, greed parasites, they are fully aware of the effects, but care not a jot. As long as they are in power, they will do nothing that might jeopardise their own wealth and power, we will always be used to further their wealth and power. Of course there is an alternative, put the ordinary people in power, and let them shape society to the benefit of all our people.



This from Xpressed:

4 additional observations complement the answer to your question:

a) We have an impressive 36% growth of suicide attempts from 2009 to 2011 and a statistically significant relationship between economic hardship (poverty, unemployment, inability to find financial resources for survival) and suicidality in overall population.

b) In our country, due to religious beliefs and the culture of orthodox Christianity (as well as the ‘indirect’ suicides caused in the context of road accidents), there is a strong bias against families declaring suicide as the cause of a sudden death of one of their members (for reasons of being able to hold a religious ceremony).

c) Requests for psychological help that the telephone help lines receive for depression and suicides have increased in recent years by an average of 27% (UMHRI,2010).

d) Furthermore, according to Stuckler (2009), at European level, 1% increase in unemployment is associated with a 0.79% rise in suicides, at ages less than 65 years and every 3% increase in unemployment is associated with a 4.45% increase of suicides.

Read the full article HERE:

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

East Is East And West Is West!

      As a football pundit once said, "Football is a game of two halves", to me a non-football guy, I thought that was obvious, I always  miss the subtleties of the "beautiful game". However it could also be said that Glasgow is a city of two halves, the West End and the East End, and according to the Mafia in George Square, East is East and West is West, and ne'r the twain shall meet. This divide is obvious to all our senses, visit each End and the difference startles and baffles all those senses. On visiting these "ends" the first impact is visual, the West End, busy shops, cafes, bistros, pubs, restaurants and the smell of affluence, visit the East End, closed shops, derelict buildings, empty spaces, poor housing and the smell of poverty. The difference is not just apparent to our senses, it is embedded in the lives of those who live in each of these two "Ends". The life expectancy in parts of the East End are as low as 53.9 years, while a short (but expensive) bus journey across the city, and in parts of the West End, life expectancy can be as high as 82 years. 

      Now we know that it is not a genetic difference between the species that live in these two ends of our city, the root cause is that first visual appearance, affluence and poverty. Quality of life governs length of life, and in this society that is decided on affluence and poverty. We also know that poverty is not an accident, it is caused and prolonged by policies, and policies are made and carried out by people. It therefore follows that those people are directly responsible for the poverty, deprivation, short life expectancy, and the criminal plunder of the future of all those children who are born into those policy created conditions.

)

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

This Society Of Parasites And Privilege.

      It says a lot about the class divided elitist system we, in this country live under, when three lads from the same year, at the same posh, very expensive school, end up at the same time, with three of the most powerful jobs in the country. All members of the arsehole Bullingdon Club for arrogant parasites. As far as the working class are concerned they are also three of the most dangerous men in the country. Groomed at the establishment's sausage factory, Cambridge, to protect their own and their millionaire friend's wealth, they are slotted in to positions of power. 

 

      I suppose if the working class were to put out a most wanted poster, then No.1 most dangerous man in the country would be George Gideon Oliver Osborne, son of Sir Peter Osborne 17th Baronet, and heir to the title. He lives in his padded bubble of privilege and wealth, oblivious of the troubles and problems of the ordinary people and ruthlessly carries out the dictates of his rich bankster buddies. The establishment has tasked him with the job of removing all wealth from the public sector to the private sector and to prepare the British working class for entry to the sweatshop economy. He does his job with an arrogance and relish. I suppose you could put murderer on that wanted poster, as in his drive to satisfy his billionaire bankster friends, he has introduced policies that increase poverty and deprivation, and in that poisonous cocktail, death lurks and strikes.

WANTED

      I'm not suggesting for one minute that we should replace this dangerous, arrogant, pompous, privileged parasite, with a more caring compassionate individual. That would make little or no difference what so ever, the corporate beast and the banksters would still be pulling the strings. The public assets would still be plundered and the public wealth sent up to their already fat overflowing coffers.

       No, it's the system that stinks, the elitist profit driven system of exploitation and privilege, that needs to be sorted out. Not changed, just simply scrapped. Capitalism can't be made fair, it can't be made caring, it is first and foremost a system of the few getting rich on the backs of the many, and the gap between rich and poor will always grow. I'm sure you can think of a better way to run our society than handing power and control over our lives to a bunch of pampered parasites from a wealthy privileged background. 

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

The Slow Walk To Deprivation.

        In Greece more than one third of the population are living below the poverty line. Unemployment is running at 27.9% with youth unemployment a criminal 62.2%. These figures put Greece ahead in the grand plan of sweatshop Europe, but one country is not enough. The financial/corporate Mafia need more countries to get down to that level in their standard of living, to create the right circumstances to compete with the Eastern sweatshop economies. They need more people desperate enough to work for next to nothing, a more subservient workforce that has seen their working conditions decimated and the trade unions completely neutered. 

      In the UK They are taking a much slower road to deprivation and desperation. We have seen a 10% drop in real terms on our income in the last 4 to 5 years, with the promise from the recent Tory conference, that this "austerity" will continue until 2020. That's 7 more years of wage reductions/freeze, 7 more years of vicious cuts to social services and benefits. Where will your standard of living be by then? We are not there yet, but we are getting there. All other European countries are walking the same road, some faster than others. This is the legacy that we will leave our children and grandchildren, deprivation and desperation, unless we start now to take control of our own lives, our own communities. This struggle has been going on for more than a couple of hundred years and at the moment, they are winning. The final outcome is up to us, servitude, deprivation, or freedom to shape our own society.

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

A Killer With Gloves On Is Still A Killer.

      We should not be fooled by the Greek state taking a stand against Golden Dawn, this is not an ushering in of democracy in Greece. The Greek state is still a killer, but perhaps with gloves on. However, the state likes to keep the monopoly on killing. This is the same bunch of Troika puppets that dragged the people of Greece to the pits of deprivation. The same vicious fiends that sent mental health problems soaring, suicides rapidly escalating, decimated the health service and shattered the education system. They are the ones who introduced a new sight in Athens, families sleeping on the streets. Like I said in a previous post, this is a public relations exercise, an act at pretending that their hands are not stained with blood. Nothing has changed in Greece, the death dealing austerity continues, the brutal state repression goes on, tomorrow the people of Greece will wake-up with the same problems as before, deprivation,and repression.

This From The Greek Streets:

      And so, on the sunny autumn morning of September 28th – a quiet, almost tranquil morning – the state and media, inside and beyond the Greek territory, woke up anti-fascist. Were the days when the exact same culprits fueled Nazism, the days when authorities meticulously wovethe  institutional racism, totalitarianism and impoverishment just a bad dream? Of course not. In the time that has passed since the murder of Pavlos, they have scrambled to present a clean face, but for all their pretensions the anger is still there. Just under five swirling years after Alexis dropped dead on that Exarcheia street corner, we are still faced with the same power zombies that our revolt had attacked but did not manage, it seems, to finish off. During all these years, the number of our sisters and our brothers who died in the hands of the state or its offshoots only keeps growing. Katerina Goulioni, Nikolas Todi, Cheikh Ndiaye, Mohammad Atif Kamran and Shehzad Luqman… Katerina died in the hands of her state captors; Nikolas, Cheikh and Mohammad were assassinated by the police; Shehzad was killed by the knives of Nazis, just like Pavlos did on September 17th. Along with who knows how many others, tortured and pulled off the streets, held in Amygdaleza and all the other concentration camps, sentenced to death and then to oblivion, too – for national homogeneity reserves no space even for the memory of most of its victims. These same people that have now supposedly turned anti-fascists are those who ordered the detention 70,000 migrants in a single year; who vilified HIV-positive women and rounded up drug addicts en masse; who lead women and men to despair and suicide daily… The list only keeps growing.

Read the full article HERE:

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

€200 A Month,--Economic Recovery!!!!

        I know I go on about the planned European sweatshop economy, but it is all falling into place. All the European countries are moving in the same direction but at a  slightly different pace. Greece is just the most advanced in the grand plan. In the UK with wage freezes/cuts, and inflation romping along at around 3%, wage earners here have seen the income reduce by approximately 10% since the "crisis". Where will they be in another 5 years or so? Unless we change the system, we the ordinary people, are on a downward spiral to deprivation. It is not the lack of wealth, it is the system. Like I said, Greece is now well established as on par with some third world countries, In that country, on offer are IT jobs at €200 per month, without insurance. This is a European country, try talking about economic recovery on that salary.

Another report from Teacher Dude: 

Keep Out! - The 78th Thessaloniki International Trade Fair

      Inside the 78th Thessaloniki International Trade Fair the prime minister is giving a speech as prime minister have done for decades on this date. I will not bother to follow the speech, either in person or on TV as Samaras's public addresses are usually leaked well in advance and amount to a little more than  a series of soundbites linked together by the slightest of rhetorical devices, more akin to bloated TV commercials than anything Demosthenes would recognise.
         "The economy is coming round, recovery is on its way, the sacrifices of the people are finally paying off."It's old, old stuff made all the more unconvincing by the fact that every prime minister has sad the same since the financial crisis began in 2009. Yes, the rate of decline in the Greek economy has slowed down to "just" 3.8% but unemployment is still rising, set to reach 30% by the end of the year if the latest Greek trade union research is to be believed.
       On the other hand while Samaras was addressing the nation, safely ensconced behind thousands of riot police the people next to me in the cafe are discussing a mutual acquaintance;
"They're looking for a IT graduate, part time, 5 to 9 and you know what they're offering?   200 euros a month, without insurance, 200!"
       This is is the economic success story that the government and the foreign press are so happy to promote, a country in which salaries do not even begin to cover living costs, even for people with years of experience and advanced qualifications. An economy where millions are unable to start a family or even afford basic health care or a pension. Even if the books balance by the end of the decade the macroeconomic damage being wrought will last for a generation.
         By midday the prime minister will have returned to Athens, his presence having left behind little than a bunch of high sounding promises and a lot of disgruntled commuters. The Trade Fair once again has become the political plaything of the leadership which fails to see that turning a city into war zone every year is not the best way to encourage international trade and especially not Greece's image abroad.

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

     

Zero Hours Contracts - Deprivation Contracts.

      There is a lot of talk just now about “zero hours” contracts, as soon as you debate the matter you give it some legitimacy, as far as the ordinary people are concerned this con deserves no debate and has no legitimacy. You don't have to look back into the distant Dickensian history to find the deprivation caused by this casualisation of labour. Up until the end of the second World War it was a common scene to see people huddled outside factories and docks in the early hours in all weathers, hoping to get picked for a few hours casual work. Those who got picked felt themselves lucky and got a few hours work and would turn up the next day hoping to be lucky again. As for those who didn't get picked, well they could run to the next nearest workplace and hope to be picked there. Or they could just go home and try again next day. It was Attlee's government in 1947 that introduced the National Dock Labour Scheme in an attempt to give some sort of job security. Of course the employers and the usual rightwing millionaire class railed against it, and labelled it as a hindrance to business and a “job for life”. Of course they never forget and in 1989 Thatcher's government abolished the NDLS.

       The figures for those on “zero hours” contracts is put at 1 million+ and growing, it is another step towards the sweatshop Europe. The only difference between the hordes standing outside workplaces in that age of severe deprivation, and those on these contracts, is that they don't have to stand in groups outside, they can sit at home waiting for the phone to ring. When it does ring you could be offered anything from three or four hours work or a few days. You have no idea how much you will earn in any given week, it is impossible to budget for essentials. What is more, you are off the unemploymet records.

       How do you manage your affairs and tend to your familes needs if you are never sure just how many hours you will work and therefore no idea what your weekly wage will be? You could turn up eager, bright and early and after a few hours work things go quiet, so your boss tells you just go home and come back after teatime, or “I'll phone you when I need you”. This is the type of society that the corporate world are doing there damndest to create, you are a unit that can be used, or stored at your own expense, until you are needed again. A workforce of casual workers always on tap to suit the needs of big business. This is the road to insecurity and deprivation, but it is the road that we are being lead down as our corrupt political class do the bidding of the financial Mafia and the corporate cabal. They are nearing their dream, of a sweatshop Europe, is it your dream? If not, why can't we realise our dream, instead of them realising theirs?

ann arky's home.

What Has Been Lost.

      Having  been a regular visitor to Greece for a number of years, what has been inflicted on the people of that country hurts me deeply. It hurts all the more because it wasn't necessary, it was all part of a deliberate policy, all part of the financial Mafia's grand plan to plunder the public purse, and they were fully aware of what the consequences would be for the ordinary people. It is now a country ripe for the corporate world to move in and set up the first of the great European sweatshops. Other European countries are on the same conveyor belt, heading in the same direction. It can only be stopped by the combined action of the people of Europe, only a move to take control of our lives and shape society the way we wish it to be. To wrestle the power from the hands of the corporate greed merchants and their accomplices, the financial Mafia.

         This article from Teacher Dude gives some idea of what has happened to the people of Greece.

What Has Been Lost

      I have been very quiet recently, at least as far as this blog is concerned. While I still tweet quite a lot about what is happening in Greece, over the last month or so I have lost the desire to go out on the streets and cover what has been happening in the city. Perhaps the fact that the end of the academic year is approaching and everyone is feeling worn out is to blame, or maybe the endless stream of bad news I hear from those around me is getting to me.

      More friends are leaving the country to escape the crisis, others are struggling on but the cost is enormous both financially and in terms of dignity. It's hard to be sanguine when so many people you know are fighting to just retain their self respect in the face of grinding poverty which seems to have no end.

    On the other hand the international press, or at least The Economist, FT, CNN and even the Guardian have decided that no matter what your eyes tell you every time you go out the worst of the crisis in Greece is over. Business confidence is up, the government's privatisation plan is finally going ahead, and the banking sector is stabilising. All of which is fine as long as your main interests are in finance and not out there in the "Real Economy"with the rest of us schmucks.

        Despite the euphoria in the mainstream media the economy is still collapsing,unemployment hasn't stopped rising, let alone dropped, the suicide rate is the highest in 50 years, 200% increase in new AIDS cases reported and just to add yet more joy to everyday life a new drug, Sisa or Shisha is doing a roaring trade in Athens.-------

Read the full article HERE:

ann arky's home.

Misery Equals Success.

       So the Troika and the IMF (International Mankind Fuckers) are pleased with their Greek political puppets. So much so the the rating agency Fitch has up-rated Greece by one notch from CCC to B-, which is still junk status, but the Greek corrupt political class are being rewarded for their success. 

     This success has included slashing the living standard of the people of Greece to approaching third world level, creating the ideal conditions for the corporate world to move back and take advantage of slave labour sweatshop conditions. 

   Another success of the neo-fascists political clique sitting in Athens has been to sell off billions of Euros worth of assets belonging to the people of Greece, to the corporate world in a fire sale of the century. Anything belonging to the people of Greece that could make money has to go.

      Most decent human beings look at what has happened in Greece as a tragedy, the financial Mafia see it as a success. A success they are willing to repeat in country after country in Europe. Only when they have sweatshop Europe will they be happy.

      The people have to stop asking for moderation in the cuts, we have to stop asking for "austerity" to be eased. What that is asking for is, pleased keep us a bit above third world conditions. The system is doing what it is intended to do, create conditions for the corporate world to make increase profits at lower costs. You and I are those costs, we have to be cut down in cost. That translates into low wages and no social services.

        For decent conditions for all our people the present economic system has to go, the profit motive has to be killed off. We the people have to take control of all the means of production and distribution and base our society on mutual aid.  

Photos taken from Teacher Dude's Grill and BBQ.

ann arky's home.