"That Better World".

          Within all the hearts of the ordinary people lies a blueprint of “that better world”, however, to most, the system under which we live is so entrenched, change seems impossible, and will always be met with strong repression, so the struggle for that “better world” is not for the faint-hearted. The state system has a long proven history of domination, repression, exploitation, manipulation and a ruthless ability to enforce its pattern on all aspects of our lives. Its pillars of dominance are cemented with the blood of ordinary people, its institutions are backed up by force via its militarised police, its biased judicial system and its chain of prisons. These departments of enforcement are always on hand to stifle the rise of any dissenting voices. The more successful your collective action for change, the more the institutions of state will be brought to bear on your venture. 

       Today we see the far-right movements raising their vicious heads above the parapet, emboldened by that babbling brook of bullshit, the corporate media, and nationalist, fear-mongering state propaganda. To a degree we can take some encouragement from this, as this can at times be taken as a sign that institution of the state is feeling threatened. Why should the state feel threatened? Simply because across the globe people are challenging its structures, people are organising against the continuous exploitation and endless wars, people are building solidarity across borders, developing strategies to counter the power of the state, coming together to control their own lives. However, there is a long and fierce battle ahead for that better world, there will be set-backs, there will be tears, but solidarity and perseverance will bring victory. We have to accept that the state and its master, corporate capitalism, will not “go quietly into that dark night”. History tells us, that the state will sacrifice the lives of millions to protect the privileges of the few. That is the battle we face.

 

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Police Violence, The Bedrock Of A Fascist State.

          The May Day riots in France have a more sinister undertone than just police beating up "hoodies" and intimidating people so as to prevent further protests. The police in France like those in Greece, and probably elsewhere, practically vote en-mass for the far right. This is the foundation of a police state, the bedrock for a fascist establishment, irrespective of how you vote.

       Those who fear the election of Marine Le Pen must understand that the French police are already carrying out an effectively fascist program. Not only do the majority of policemen admit to voting for the extreme right, but the state is already employing them to implement totalitarian conditions. Migrants and refugees can tell a lot about this.
       In this two-week interval between the two rounds of the election, it is becoming clear that the real seizure of power is not taking place through the election, but at its borders, more or less concealed, in the increasing autonomy of the police force. In our last report, we explored the ways that extending the state of emergency has both paved the way for the police state and rendered it invisible. Since the arrival of Le Pen in the second round of the elections, we see the police behaving as if she had already won the election.

      Here in the UK we are having a slowly-slowly approach to arming the police, a policy that will accelerate as protests and unrest increases. After all, do you need armed police to tackle 99% of the crime in this country? They are there to control civil unrest, which the establishment see on the horizon, as their policies start to inflict ever more misery on the population.
     The swing to the far right is not just in those countries "over there", it is here, and across Europe and elsewhere. Prepare to sentence future generations to the harshness and divisiveness of an ever increasing right-wing establishment, or organise to resist this cancer that is eating our society. At the heart of this march of authoritarianism is capitalism, a capitalism that has the state apparatus in its pocket, and uses it to implement its desired policies, of increased profit at the expense of the people. This will not end when their coffers are over flowing, as they are at the moment, their greed is insatiable. They will continue to plunder the planet and decimate its population to the point of total destruction. They need an authoritarian state to protect them as they drag us to that destruction. Only we the ordinary people, can stop this death march, those in power are blinded by their avarice.  

        The evening of the first vote was the occasion of an anarchist-organized call to gather at the Place de la Bastille for a “Night of Barricades.” Dozens of people were wounded by police that evening, humiliated, undressed in the street. Journalists were beaten up with their own cameras.
      Two days later, statutory refugees (who are officially supposed to benefit from “state protection”) were expelled from their homes and thrown into the streets by police, for no reason, out of pure racism. The next day, a friend’s squat was attacked by the police. Our comrades were tackled to the ground with a Flash-ball on the temple. One of our friends was subjected to sexual assault in the car that took her to the police station. Coincidence or not, a few days prior, that squat had hosted a projection of videos we have made in Paris over the past few months documenting police violence against migrants.
       All this is further evidence, should more evidence be necessary, that fighting against the extreme right means fighting against the State. It is something we must make a daily practice.

        The police violence was some of the worst seen in Paris recently. and is a policy that is being refined to intimidate people from any form of protest. After all all those armed to the teeth police didn't just materialise out of nowhere, they are recruited, armed and trained in establishments all over the country and are paid for by the public. They same is going on here.

        In response, some people throw stones. Fireworks too. Some Molotov cocktails. The police pushed us relentlessly towards the Place de la Bastille, shooting at us without pause. Once there, they formed a trap at the foot of the steps of the Opera Bastille with perhaps two hundred people inside it. For those people, it turned into a scene of tragedy worthy of The Battleship Potemkin. The police pushed people on the steps while soaking them in tear gas. We could see nothing, there was no place to escape, people crashed against the steps, jostling and falling on top of each other like in the Odessa Steps Sequence.
         Fortunately, we were not in this group. The police pushed us onto Avenue Daumesnil, then Boulevard Diderot.
Picture yourself in this scene. Tear gas grenades are exploding incessantly. Sometimes you think you can escape by a street, so you run there—in any case, you have no choice, because you need to breathe—but the police are waiting for you on every street. As soon as you pass the street corner, they kettle you in, shooting concussion grenades into the middle of the crowd, knowing perfectly well that there is no space to avoid them.

Read the full article HERE:

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Return of the 20/30's????

 

         It is difficult, viewing today’s political scene, not to draw parallels between the 20/30’s and today. It was the populist vote that brought Mussolini to power in 1922, and a decade later, it was the populist vote that brought Hitler to power in 1933. Today the populist vote is encouraging the rise of far right factions across Europe and America. Fascists now openly displaying their symbols of hate, and openly hold meetings where they spread their rhetoric of division and hate. Of course the fascist are not going unchallenged, nor should they, as the present political era seems to give them a new confidence to spew their vomit, so it should give those who desire freedom and justice for all, an ever greater determination to meet this head on. Where and when the fascist come out of their sewers, we have to be there to meet them, you can never give vermin a free run, or they will destroy everything you hold dear.
        Of course there are forces at work funding and giving the oxygen of publicity and propaganda to these far right factions, and they have an agenda. When times are hard and people start to come together in struggle to improve their conditions, as in the 20/30’s, they are a threat to the established power cabal. The answer to that threat is divide and conquer, through fear and false assumptions, creating conditions for greater control over the population. Fascism is never an accident of nature, it is a man made force, it allows for greater control by the powers that be, over the ordinary people and the shape of the society we live in.

This from New Scientist

        This may help to explain a lot of what is happening in the world right now. The Global Risks Report 2016 details a worldwide rise in catastrophic events, ranging from involuntary migration to natural disasters. When such crises occur, people look for someone to blame, and often immigration and minorities become an easy scapegoat for a problem that is far less visible in origin – as is the case with financial crises.
      Immigration itself has been shown to have an effect on right-wing views – but not in the direction you might expect. The two show a negative correlation: in the places where immigration is the highest, support for right-wing parties is lowest. For example, it has been shown that it is the perception of immigration levels in a local area, rather than the actual change in numbers, that is linked to votes for UKIP.

This from Insurrection News:

 People who hate differences displaying the number of brain cells they have.

         On December 10th, 2016 the ‘German Turkish Federation’ (ATF) organized a cultural day with the slogan ‘Feast of the Flags’ in the Neumünster town hall. The ‘ATF’ is the umbrella organization of the ‘Gray Wolves’ and represents the fascist nationalist MHP party in Germany. It is a scandal that the city of Neumünster allows its premises to be used by fascist organizations who openly display their fascist-nationalist ideology. The flags with the three crescents were openly on display, the ‘Gray Wolves’ hand signal was openly used and fascist literature was sold.
         The ‘Turkish Federation’ is responsible not only for propaganda work in the FRG to spread its fascist agitation but is also closely linked to the MHP party in Turkey. The fascists played a decisive role in the massacres in Cizre, Sur and many other regions while the fascist forces within the Turkish army are currently participating in the invasion of Bakur and Rojava. The MHP is working with the AKP on the reintroduction of the death penalty in Turkey. Their objective is the murder of Serok APO (Abdullah Öcalan) by the Turkish state.
      In protest against the fascist event we simultaneously attacked the ATF building on Joachim street with graffiti and sabotaged several cars of the participants.
We will attack you wherever you are.
Revenge Team Sehid Lecwan Munzur of the Apoist Youth Initiative.
(via Linksunten Indymedia, translated by Insurrection News)

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No One Is Coming To Help Us!!

 

         I have not said much about the Trump affair, as it is difficult to grasp what has happened and why. One thing we can be sure of, there is a emboldened and growing far right, not just in America, but here in the UK and across Europe. We can debate the reasons why and come to different conclusions, but what we can't do is ignore this rise. To me it seems obvious that the people would be come disenchanted with the system, as it was never intended to see to their needs in the first place. The problem seems to be that in looking for answers, people have not picked up our ideas, we have to ask ourselves, why not? Resolving that question would be a good place to start. 

       We will have to find answers in our communities  and to a degree do what the far right is doing, tap into that anger and disenchantment. The following extracts are from an interesting article by First of May Anarchist Alliance

       The surprise victory of Donald Trump this past Tuesday has quickly presented people in this country (and around the world) with a vastly different political landscape than we had expected. We are seeing a rise in right-wing attacks as the far right is emboldened by the victory, much like what happened earlier this year after the success of the Brexit referendum in the UK. The incompetence and capitulation of the Democratic Party has forced many of its former supporters to recognize that the fight against the far right cannot be won by liberal electoral politics. This new reality forces anti-authoritarians of all stripes to rise to the challenge of building strong movements for working class self-defense in this new atmosphere.

Why the turn form neo-liberalism to xenophobic nationalism?

      Another narrative states that in the rust belt as in Europe, the devastating effects of decades of austerity, neoliberal trade agreements, and an orientation towards multinational corporations have been challenged. That challenge in the U.S. and elsewhere has come in the form of xenophobic nationalism. There is a significant amount of truth to this as well, but it can’t explain much of Trump’s success without acknowledging the serious appeal that open white nationalism and misogyny has gained in this election.Perhaps the most revealing aspect of this moment is that after spending months describing Trump as a grave threat to the lives of women, people of color, queer and trans people and the disabled, the entire Democratic Party has immediately capitulated to him. They have made clear that they always held preserving their broken system to be far more important than our lives. Many among their base are for the first time seeing the party’s true colors, and are reaching out to radical organizations in the interest of carrying on the fight that the Democrats so quickly abandoned. Already we are seeing attacks on muslims, immigrants, people of every color besides white, queer and trans people. This is not abstract, it is already happening. We should expect more of this and must make organizing to oppose it a top priority.

So, what do we do?

 We are encouraged that so many have taken to the streets across the country. We hope more will do the same. Trump’s attacks in the form of policy and his supporters physical attacks and intimidation, must be opposed from day one.

Our organizations must be effective. The sense of despair many are feeling is grounded in the reality of an ascendant far right. Right now, they face little resistance. The sense of urgency many of us have felt is a recognition of the need to build that resistance. It is time for us to take up that task, to find new comrades ready to fight, and to fight. No one is coming to save us–we cannot use the electoral system to fight the far right effectively. It’s time to stop waiting and defend each other in the streets!

What Needs to Be Done: 1. No to National “healing”, working with, or a grace period for the Trump Regime 2. Take to the streets – build a militant resistance 3. Build working-class defense organizations that resist racist attacks, sexual assault, immigration and homeland security raids and deportations, police brutality and state repression 4. Agitate and organize for workers actions – including a general strike against Trump 5. No to containment of the struggle back into the Democratic Party, electoralism and the Non-Profit Industrial Complex

A PDF of the full article can be read HERE:

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