We Don't Want Their Charity, We Can Look After Ourselves.

       Is that sleeping beast, the great British public stirring? I hope so, for it has been on the receiving end of a savage attack in this long running class war. July 10th. in the UK we expect to see 2 million take strike action. Several unions will be involved including the GMB and NUT, on strike will be Transport of London staff, teachers, driving examiners, council and school staff and others. Each may have its specific issue as to why they are striking, but this should not be about a series of single issue. Joining those ranks of strikers should be all those unemployed existing on deprivation level allowances or had their benefits sanctioned, those thousands workfare victims, forced to work for no salary, all those disabled affected by the draconian work assessment, and the attempt to get rid of the Independent Living Fund, all those on zero hours contracts, all those suffering benefit cuts. In fact is there any ordinary person who should not be out on the streets on Thursday July 10th? Over the last four years we have seen our living standards ravaged, the social structure of our society trashed, our NHS being sold off, along with any other public asset that can turn a profit for the financial Mafia friends of the Cameron Oxbridge millionaire cabal.

      We should not be organising to attempt to make our corporate master a little more compassionate, begging them to make our lives a wee bit more tolerable. No, we should be organising to dismantle this whole corporate dominated greed driven ponzi scheme. There is no such thing as compassionate capitalism, it's a greed driven, winner take all, and to hell with the rest of you con-scheme. We don't want their charity, we can look after ourselves.

 This from The people's Assembly:

      This Thursday, on 10 July, up to 2 million people will be out on strike in a co-ordinated strike action across the trade unions. There will be huge demonstrations and protests up and down the country. These actions will be the next step in the summer of resistance, working towards a monster TUC demonstration on 18 October in London.

      Lets do all we can to make sure the strikers are supported in our communities, and help to make the demonstrations huge - join the rallies and demonstrations, join your local picket lines and bring along tea and biscuits - anything you can do to support those on strike will make a huge difference.

     Here are a few videos in support of the strikes. Please share these far and wide! Why not make your own video of why you are supporting the strikes? Tweet using hashtag #J10

Click here to see Owen Jones' video
Click here to see the NUT's video
Click here to see Caroline Lucas MP's video
Click here to see Francesca Martinez's video
Click here to see Kate Smurthwaite's video
In solidarity, 
Sam Fairbairn and Jacqui Howard
The People's Assembly Against Austerity
http://www.thepeoplesassembly.org.uk/

 

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

Grandama Is On The Picket.

       In this country there is a tendency for people of different groups to think of their problems are the problems of that particular group. pensions and raising the pension age, is the problem of the older people, unemployment among the young is a problem for the young, the disabled being crucified by ATOS is a problem for that group, and workfare is a problem for those on jobseekers allowance, and so it goes on. However, in reality all these problems are all our problems, in this society employed can quickly become unemployed, able-bodied can quickly become disabled, and we all grow old. Pensioners should stand in line with young unemployed, employed should support those on the abusive workfare programs, pensioners and unemployed should be on the anti-ATOS pickets. After all, parents struggled hard to give their kids a decent life, workers paid dearly for a system that would take good care of those unable to work, for whatever reason, pensions and the pension age, were fought and paid for by ordinary workers. All of the meager benefits that we get in this society were paid in full, and more, by the ordinary people of this country. Having paid for them with blood, sweat and tears, the financial Mafia have decided to strip them all away. For nothing more than an ideology of greed and exploitation.

     The problem is not ATOS, it is not workfare, it is not unemployment, it is not working until you drop, nor is it carp pensions. The real and only problem is the system itself, capitalism.

      It is encouraging to see in Spain that the pensioners are getting the big picture and realise that the entire benefits of a working life to help secure your kids future, is now going down the tubes, for no other reason than greed. and they are joining the fight with the young.

Another interesting article from Xpressed:

 

        “We are the generation that has fought to achieve a better life for our children. Right now, they are toying with the futures of our children and grandchildren… We stand by them in spirit, at the local assemblies and at all their activities. If they condescendingly call these people “Perroflautas” (hobos) to diminish their audacity, then let them call us “Iaioflautas” (from the spanish yayo, which means grandpa)”.
       The Iaioflautas support the young in their fight for democracy and social justice, “against the bankers and their accomplices the politicians”. They combat the rampant speculation, the cut-backs, the privatisation, and the mutualising of the losses, like saving banks with public money. They also support the PAH and all those who have been thrown out of their homes for mortgage debts. They are to be found in 11 cities, 4 of them in Catalonia, and are active on both facebook and twitter.
      On October 27, 2011, the Iaioflautas occupied their first bank, Banco Santander in Barcelona.
 This particular bank was picked as a starting point for the day of actions against banks because its director, Mr. Botin, denoted that the banks are the doubtless winners of the economical crisis. This man has a personal fortune of about 1,7 Billion Euro. This was just the beginning of a campaign to occupy banks (i.e. La Caixa in Badalona), through which they still protest against the bankers and the financial oligarchy, who “ruin the lives of 99% of people”.

Read the full article HERE:

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

A Cull Of The Working Class.

 This from "brickburner":

The Cull of the working class.

        As we all know by now, the dreaded Bedroom Tax has arrived. This of course is the latest of a long list of attacks on working class people. We must be careful not to view these attacks in isolation – they constitute a coordinated assault on working class people particularly the most vulnerable members of society; the sick and disabled. It has been estimated that eight in ten people affected by the Bedroom Tax are disabled. Many of those have already been through a work capability assessment conducted by the French firm Atos, on behalf of the Department of Works and Pensions, which has resulted in them losing their benefits.

      Michael Meacher M.P. led a commons debate on the 17th. January this year in which he criticised almost every aspect of Atos’s operations including the thousands of people who have died after being declared fit for work. You can see his speech on You Tube. Atos has been widely and repeatedly criticised by the British Medical Association, and is subject to constant lobbying by disabled groups throughout the country. This callous treatment of the sick and disabled goes hand in hand with the emergence of a new and sinister trend of political thought has developed over the term of the present Government, which sees welfare benefit claimants and those at the very bottom of society as lazy, dishonest stupid scroungers who are less than human.

       The Government’s sustained attacks on the weakest in society are reminiscent of the Nazis treatment of some of their own citizens prior to the beginning of the Second World War when they “assessed” the sick and disabled to see if they were physically and mentally fit to live. Those human beings whom they termed Lebensunwertes Leban-“life unworthy of life”, and “useless eaters” were callously exterminated. The German authorities managed to persuade the population at large through written and pictorial propaganda, that this extermination was morally acceptable and that the sick and disabled were a drain on the economy. They managed to do this by “dehumanising” people.

      An article in The Guardian on 11May 2013, reported on research carried out at the University of Louvain by Jacque-Philippe Leyens which suggests that low status groups including the poor, homeless people, drug addicts and welfare claimants are seen by others as less than “fully human”. Leyens has coined the term “infrahumanisation”- the infra for “below”, as in below or less than fully human to describe this development of everyday dehumanisation. As Robert de Vries in the Guardian article puts it, “The Government’s cuts to welfare benefits are causing real harm to a lot of innocent people, nevertheless, remarkable numbers seem to be willing to support them”, and, “People struggling to get by in their own lives will find it hard to sympathise with those they feel are getting a free ride”.

     The Government propaganda about “shirkers” and “strivers not skivers” seems therefore to be working. Unfortunately, on programmes such as “Question Time”, these phrases have been enthusiastically adopted by many members of the audience. This of course is a classic example of the “Divide and Conquer” strategy being employed against the working class.

      Another ruse used by the Government to justify their unremitting attacks on the working class is the mythology that cuts are necessary, and “that we are all in this together”. The idea that those at the top of society will suffer just as much as those at the bottom would be laughable if it were not so insulting and contemptible; the very people who decided to cut the living standards of working class people are in the process of voting themselves a pay rise of between £10 to £20 thousand pounds a year. Most of us would be delighted to live on just the pay rise, but in fact MP’s will now get more than £75,000 a year-some of them want £100,000, - yet they have the nerve to say that we all have to share the pain! And of course the Bankers still get their bonuses and Multi-nationals manage to dodge paying tax.

     The claim that cuts in public services are necessary at all is a complete lie. As Tony Benn once said, “If you can find money to kill people, you can find money to help people”. According to U.K. Government figures Britain spent at least £9.24 billion in Iraq and £11.1 billion in Afghanistan between April 2001 and March 2010, and that’s not taking into account what has been squandered from 2010 till now. The so-called Ministry of Defence lost £74 million pounds of taxpayers’ money recently on a cancelled order for fighter jets. (Richard Johnstone, Public Finance 10 May 2013). So it would seem that there is plenty of money to wage illegal and pointless wars, but not enough money to create a caring peaceful society.

       There is another war going on at the moment; it is the class war. A war waged by those at the top of society against those at the bottom. We are the victims of this war. For generations working class people have had to endure poor wages, bad and often dangerous working conditions, industrial illnesses and long periods of financial hardship. Working class people are still being killed daily in this war. Literally thousands of people die every year after Atos has passed them fit for work. People have been forced to work for benefit money; before long regular workers will be sacked then they too can work for slave wages and will join the millions of others living below the breadline. Warren Buffett an American billionaire business magnate once said, “There’s class warfare all right, but it’s my class - the rich class that’s making war, and we’re winning!”

      Through these measures, the Government has upped the ante in their war against the disabled and unemployed. If you aren’t in work, or are sick or disabled you don’t deserve to live, - you are a useless eater! In this war against the working class the sick, the disabled and the unemployed are being culled. The Government are killing working class people. If this seems far fetched, you only have to remember this, the entire Nazi extermination programme which culminated in the Holocaust, started in 1939 with the T4 euthanasia program which targeted sick and disabled people. If the German people had resisted at this stage the Second World War may never have happened.

      The only way we can prevent history repeating itself, is for ordinary working class people to organise and fight back. We have to combat the Bedroom Tax and all the other cuts that the Government and their friends in big business are trying to impose on us. We have to rely on ourselves and not on politicians; they are part of the problem not the solution! Above all, we have to overcome the State’s attempts to divide and rule us; we need to show our fellow workers that we have nothing in common with the boss class and that we must build our own organisations and strong communities to unite against them.

Only then can we hope to win the class war.

ann arky's home.

THE COUNTRY, LIKE THE STREETS, BELONGS TO US.

 

      Saturday 20th October the STUC, has called for a massive march and rally in Glasgow, to protest against the coalition government's policy of cuts. There will be on in London on the same day. Let's be clear on this, this is not a trade union protest. It is a national protest of trade unionists, unemployed, pensioners, disabled, students, teenagers, unpaid carers and housewives. This is not a battle of trade unionists against the government, it is a people's protest against the cabal of millionaires who are shoving their ideology down the throats of the ordinary people. Nothing in this ideology was ever in their manifesto, they don't have a mandate to impoverish the people of this country for the benefit of the banksters. They don't have a mandate to build corporate fascism in this country at the behest of the financial Mafia, nor do they have a mandate to sell off the people's assets to their millionaire friends in the corporate world. No where in their manifesto did it say we will privatise the National Health Service, we will decimate your education system, we will close libraries and nurseries. The election and their much publicised manifestos were,  no more than a sham, a con-trick, what they say before the election and what they do after, have no relation to each other.

 

 

 

      So let's make this people's protest against this dictatorial elite of pampered millionaire parasites, this cabal of privileged leeches, the biggest and noisiest this country has seen in many a year. We will not accept poverty imposed on us by millionaires who know nothing of our problems, who are products of plundered wealth, tax dodges and privileged upbring.

      While they stand in expensive suits, and preach to the general public that sacrifices have to be made, tough decisions have to be made, knowing full well that such tough decisions and sacrifices, will in no way impinge on their lavish, unearned lifestyle. They can never see the decimation they are deliberately heaping on the ordinary people, as they always have one eye on their shareholdings and another on their bank accounts.

     This protest must shout loud and clear, we the people are the country, we will decide how this country will be run, and it will be run for the benefit of all our people, we will see to the needs of all our people, we will not starve our children nor sacrifice their future to fatten banksters and bond market gurus.

     October 20th. Take to the streets, fill Glasgow to overflow, with noise, and determination. Don't wait for the STUC to contact you or inform you, form your own group, contact other local groups, Clydeside IWW, Glasgow Anarchist Federation, but turn up, be part of this. Let this be the start of complete solidarity between employed, unemployed, pensioners, students, disabled, teenagers, unpaid carers and housewives. It is your world or it is their world, they are not prepared to compromise, under no circumstances should we, we have the the lives of our pensioners and the vulnerable of society and the future of our children and grandchildren, in our hands.

 

ann arky's home.

 

 

 

 

HOUSING BENEFIT.

       

        Read this on Guardian on line and thought it said what we all know and feel but put it rather eloquently.

Why do the young need housing benefit? Let their parents keep them.

DrPorkbeast 25 June 2012 2:20PM

The Big Fat Lie.

          It was not the banks and their casino business practices paid for by borrowing other people’s pensions. It is not the idle undeserving rich who own 90% of the wealth despite only paying a fraction in taxes if any at all. Its not all our politicians who were bought by big business years ago and championed the gambling addiction of the banks.

     No the Big Fat Lie is that it was your fault people. You are lazy, addicted to welfare, demotivated to take up the hundreds of thousands of full-time high paying jobs that employers have to offer. Its often the immigrants fault because they are easy to spot on the whole and even easier to scapegoat as 20th century history warns us. Also you voted for - insert party you hate here – and they have destroyed our economy with their –insert your very own cretinus world view here. Also its is Europe that has beggared us as if the French were personally responsible for Lehman Brothers and Bear Sterns. What about foreign aid, or the disabled’s unreasonable demands to have access to a job like at Remploy. Yes little people it as your fault and now you must pay with your pensions, services and freedoms.

      No we need to funnel even more money from the bottom to pay bankrupt Zombie banks billions in UNSECURED loans. To achieve this we need to stop the poor from going to university or receiving training (EMA). We need to make the disabled compete on “a level playing field” in the job market, scrap funding for libraries and council run crèches. Stop the unemployed from living in social housing, push them into the landlord’s greedy hands. If they need to move to work they can always sleep under a bridge. Whats more our military industrial complex needs your taxes to invade foreigners and bomb them back into the Neolithic past. We have been at war forever it seems. War on communists, war on drugs, war on Argentineans over a rock and some Penguins, war with Iraq, Libya, Afghanistan (again), war on terrorists, war on wedding parties for some reason and more to come. Welfare is expensive but death from above is not cheap either.

     Why do they lie? Because they are a class of rich expensively educated out of touch toffs who hate ordinary people. Don't be old, don't be ill, don't be unemployed under the Conservatives. All they have to offer is lies, lies, self serving lies.

I would amend the last bit to read:
        "Don't be old, don't be ill, don't be unemployed under CAPITALISM. All 
They have to offer is lies, lies, self serving lies."

 ann arky's home.

THE PINNACLE OF CAPITALISM - EAT OR HEAT!!!

         More misery as the millionaire cabal of public school thugs continue their onslaught against the living conditions of the ordinary people of this country with their “austerity cuts”. While we, the people who actually create all the wealth of the country, are facing wage freezes, wage cuts and decimation of all social services etc. the corporate world, in the shape of the energy companies, are putting the boot in. Fuel poverty is of epidemic proportions, thanks to their greed in seeking ever greater profits. During the period from 1996 to 2003, fuel poverty fell from a staggering 6.5 million people to approximately 2 million. However, from 2004 to 2009 the cost of domestic electricity rose by 75% and gas by 122%. So with falling incomes and rising prices we now find that the figures for fuel poverty for 2009 rose by 1 million to an unacceptable 5.5 million. That accounts for approximately 22% of the population.

        We know that since 2009 the price of domestic electricity and gas has risen several times, so who knows where the figures will be by now. On top of this domestic electricity is set to increase by 12% and gas by 18% come August. Another fact that should concern us is that fuel poverty tends to hit the most vulnerable in our society, the elderly, children, disabled and the long term ill, plus, 50% of fuel poor are over the age of 60.

What do you want --mince or a heat?

 

        This is a picture of one of the richest countries in the world. A country at the forefront of developed capitalism. We can rest assured that if we stick with present system things will not get any better.

         In any civilised society we should not be faced with the decision, do we eat, or do we heat. No one in a civilised country should die in their home from hypothermia because they couldn't afford the heat. A civilised society must have social services, not a system whereby the corporate world owns and controls everything, and sells it at a profit to those that can afford to pay and to hell with those who can't.

        Fuel poverty will only be eradicated when we take control of society and shape it to serve the needs of all our people, rather than serving the greed of a pack of parasitical shareholders.

ann arky's home.