Imperial History.

The British state, Fighters of fascism???

       I am somewhat shocked to hear voices from the “left” refer to WW2 as our fight to defeat fascism. Surely they have some grasp of the history of this country. We didn’t go to war with Germany to defeat fascism, we went to war with that country to stop it being a rival or a threat to the resources of the British Empire, as was WW1.
     WW1 had nothing to do with the shooting of a pompous Duke, it was all about the German Empire planning to build the Berlin to Baghdad railway. This would have give Germany tremendous influence in Iraq and other countries in that region, allowing it to move resources and troops in and out of that area much quicker than the British Empire, and Iraq was an oil rich country that the British claimed as theirs. So we super-doper imperialist would have to teach the nasty German Empire a lesson. Of course we all know it didn’t turn out quite like that, the conflict turned Europe into a bloody altar where the youth of nations soaked the soil of Europe in blood. The total number of military and civilian casualties in World War1, was around 40 million. There were 20 million deaths and 21 million wounded. The total number of deaths includes 9.7 million military personnel and about 10 million civilians.

 
       This film is on Spirit of Revolt audio/video section.

     The German Empire was decimated and that suited the British Empire, allowing it to lord it over a vast section of the world, pillaging and plunder land after land. Fast forward and along comes a guy whose intention is rebuild the German Empire, this posed a threat to the arrogant imperialist that control the British Empire. So once again our lords and masters decided to teach that nasty Germany Empire a lesson, and as they say, the rest is history, or it should be, not a truth lost in an illusion of imperialists propaganda. World War 2 was the deadliest military conflict in history. An estimated total of 70–85 million people perished, which was about 3% of the 1940 world population (est. 2.3 billion).
     By now we should all know that the British state never goes to war to defeat fascism, it trades with them as long as it is beneficial to them, it goes to war to protect or enlarge its resources, power and wealth, and the people can go to hell in a hand cart.
      It’s the the weekend, have some music.

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

States And The Misuse Of Language.

         Governments adopt names that belie their intentions and ideology, Greece is no different. The newly elected government of Greece is called "New Democracy", yet its first priority is to attack and close down social spaces that work in a democratic fashion. The recent and ongoing military style attacks on social and autonomous spaces in Exarcheia are just typical examples of this misuse of labels. The poster might say "New Democracy" but the actions say "fascist". There is language in normal use, then there is the distorted language of doublespeak as used by states and their institutions. Below is just another account of this phony democracy at work, attacking those who don't obey their dictates or don't fit the model of big capitalism, all carried out under the false banner of citizen security and safety. Bullshit for the naive and subservient loyal followers.

This from Act For Freedom Now:

 

         Today on Wednesday the 25.09 the State has again attacked. This time to little sellers that used to make a flee market in Victoria, Filis after the laiki agoras. An operation of State-Municipality Police, of the private security of the market and Civilians Cops accompanied with different vehicles like a garbage car, Municipality Police vans and an interrogation van (waiting in the beginning of the market) went through the market harassing the street sellers. The cops start checking people appearing with bags of things to sell. They checked their papers, and threw the bags in the trash. In an arrogant way they were even bullying the ones looking either poor or like Migrants to them even though they just carried bags of fruits bought from the ‘legal’ market.
        It was the second time that we observed this action of the State, so this time some sellers were more careful with their goods. They were waiting in the streets to see if they have a chance to sell some things. Meanwhile the cops got compliments by local assholes telling them that they do a great job! They were walking in different groups, security in the beginning followed by cops that were doing the checks together with Civilian cops looking in the bags. We are not sure if they arrested people today but we observed many identity checks and disgusting behaviour of the cops and their friends.
         This is the continuation of the State’s discrimination of the outcast and the irrational separation of legal and illegal. It’s more obvious than ever that racism and fascism are coming from State Institutions.

         We here in UK should not be complacent we are trundling along the road to fascism at an ever increasing pace, our recent parliamentary fiascos should make that obvious to anyone with half a brain cell. Other states across Europe and elsewhere are further along that road or are catching up. You cannot debate with fascism, you have to fight it head on with no quarter given. 

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

State Logic, From Shoplifting To Terrorism.

 

       All states move inextricably towards total control of the population and fascism, it is their only road for survival. The following is just one example of how a simple case of shoplifting can be turned into an attempt to repress and eradicate an entire political philosophy. All political thought must be subservient to the state's proclaimed narrative, free thought and alternatives to the status-quo must be eliminated to guarantee the survival of the state. One move to achieve this is private security firms don the mantle of the state police, with the blessing of the state. This example is from Greece but is not unique to that particular state.

     This from Act For Freedom Now:

         Friday 12.07.19, in the Leroy Merlin store in Piraeus, a simple attempted theft of a few items becomes the pretext awaited by the manager of the store, in cooperation with OVIT SA, the store security company, to bring about the resignation or dismissal of the worker G.A. as a supposed accomplice in the affair. G.A. is a militant known for his political and unionist activity in the store. He is also active in social struggles and the class struggle. The event that unleashes everything, which takes place between the windows and shelves of a large store, is an attempted theft of objects estimated to cost 180 €. A daily practice for a large part of the proletariat in the years of the capitalist crisis. But which in this case becomes an unprecedented persecution leading to the accusation of seven comrades and finally the imprisonment of anarchist comrade X. Kortesi in just 24 hours.
          The two comrades suspected of having committed the crime were apprehended with force by the security guards and locked in a room-cell in the store. After some time, and when it seemed that the incident could be resolved, Konstantinos Drivas, ex-soldier, security agent and owner of OVIT starts threatening the two comrades, by blackmail and appeal to psychological and physical violence, to make them rat on the worker, G.A. as being their “accomplice”. Drivas is accustomed to using information extraction methods and management thanks to his knowledge acquired in military seminars that meet the standards of OTAN! Thus, Ovit voluntarily assumes the role that the Leroy Merlin society confided to him as repressive mechanism and it is here that the story starts to take on disproportionate dimensions.
         At first, it seems that G.A. was targeted for being an active militant in trade union action, being in solidarity with comrades in struggle, because of his participation in strikes and labour struggles, in short the thorn in the side of the store administration. He is also a member of the Association of employees working in the commercial sector of Piraeus. With the two comrades’ refusal to legitimize the scenario that the company is trying to set up, Drivas threatens to involve the police, taking advantage of the fact that one of the comrades, X. Kortesis is out of prison on bail. The two comrades who took the products demand that they be let go. But Drivas and the other security cops hold them back by force. Three hours later, those in solidarity and comrades arrive at the store to pay the amount and denounce the company’s action, Leroy Merlin and his security agents. They manage to release the two comrades. The first attempt collapses when the personal and political relationship between the employee and X. Kortesis is exploited by the store management to get the former to hand in his resignation. Which does not happen. This is also the reason for which G. A. is apprehended by the Piraeus police as a witness. The accusation transmitted by the police to the Prosecutor’s Office in Piraeus mentions three offenses: theft, unlawful use of force, assault.
          The next day, comrade X. Kortesis is arrested by the police in the centre of Athens. Police put a hood on him and take him to an unknown destination, while beating him during his arrest. The comrade is brought to the Prefecture of Piraeus. At the same time, a terrorist-type investigation is conducted at his home by a large number of police.
          A few words on the exaggerated and premeditated accusations and the attempt at the political and physical elimination of comrade X.K.
           The vengeance of the State vis-à-vis Comrade X. Kortesis takes full reign when the theft becomes a serious crime, so as to involve the second comrade. The refusal of the comrade to name the other persons, and his political course, is enough to put him in danger. As Pantelidis the investigator insists, the comrade is suspected of having committed further offences. The State and its repressive mechanisms have accounts with its declared enemies and the fighters who have been struggling for years. X. Kortesis is an anarchist and has never concealed it. He was sentenced for participation in the organization “Revolutionary Struggle” and imprisoned for two years; one of the many people who stood by his side and attended his trial as a witness is anarchist comrade and employee of Leroy Merlin, G.A.. The political and personal relations between the two comrades are enough to initiate new acts for their political and physical elimination. The recipe is simple: criminalize the obstinacy of comrades to be part of social and political struggles and give an example to all those who strongly oppose the State. Certain so that comrade G.A. from witness quickly became suspect and accomplice on the same charge of aggravated theft. The prosecutor Angeloudi investigates another five persons, bringing the number of persecuted to seven. While a usual and well-known practice of the police and judiciary of the “anonymous call” makes sure that anarchist comrade P.X. also finds himself accused. On Thursday, July 18, the employee G.A passed before the investigating judge. There, they try to dismantle the accusation of prosecutor and the role played by the boss, Leroy Merlin and the company’s security OVIT. He is released without restrictive conditions.
        Persecution of the anarchist movement and its multiple aspects, criminalisation of class struggles and social struggles, political and physical elimination of comrades, the repression and intimidation of self-organised movements are at the core of the doctrine “order – development of capitalist-security” that the Greek State and its political staff has served for years.
         Some noise about the anomie and annihilation of Exarchia, squat evictions, more recently that of “Brooklyn” in Ioannina, repression (attack on the protest against AirBnB and tourism development by the CRS in the Koukaki district) up to the criminalisation of the strike, the abolition of the law prohibiting police presence inside the universities, the prosecution of 20 former and current political prisoners based on their political identity and for reasons of expression of solidarity in prisons, against the State and the bosses, all contribute to the construction of the new totalitarian framework that is being set up in order to face every social contestation and struggle.
         We declare and present ourselves on the class war front. We declare that we will not leave any comrade alone in the face of the repression of the State, the bosses and their accomplices who are the real thieves. A permanent and daily theft, sometimes violent, sometimes by methodically extracting the consensus of people who are exploited but who sometimes confront them.
         No challenge will remain unanswered

Let’s crush the terrorism of the State and the bosses

IMMEDIATE FREEING OF COMRADE X. KORTESIS

NO CHARGES FOR THE OTHER COMRADES

AGAINST THE STRATEGY OF THE STATE AND THE BOSSES

RESISTANCE AGAINST THE CRIMINALISATION OF SOCIAL AND CLASS STRUGGLES

GATHERING MONDAY 22/7, 18.30 AT THE OFFICES OF THE OVIT SECURITY COMPANY

TUESDAY 23/7, 18.30, AT THE LEROY MERLIN STORE IN MAROUSI

To write to comrade:
Christoforos Kortesis
Dikastiki Fylaki Korydallou
ST’ PTERYGA
TK 18110,
Korydallos,
Athens

Assembly of anarchist collectives, Comrades and others in solidarity

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

The Corporate Government Merry-go-round.

        From time to time I look back at what I have written, just to see if anything has changed, or did I get it wrong. Quite often my little delve into the past just confirms my beliefs. This little blast from the past, something I wrote about 3 years ago, still rings true, and in my humble opinion is probably more relevant to day than then.

The Stench From That Thing Called Capitalism, Feb. 1st. 2016.

        Big business and government are so intertwined, that it is impossible to separate them. Corporations spend millions, if not billions, on lobbyists, politicians are offered lucrative positions, and little perks here and there, but of course, they'll tell you, that they are not influenced by these matters. They'll deal with each issue on its merits, with the welfare of the country and its people always to the fore, and the corporations will still continue to spend those millions or billions, just as a kindness to politicians, and get nothing in return. Isn't it a wonderful world? It is safe to bet that all politicians are relatively rich, most will have their filthy lucre, stashed away in shares in those very corporations that are pouring money into their little slush fund. We are expected to believe that none of these politicians would ever nudge legislation in the direction of helping their share portfolio, and might at times move to jeopardise their little stash.
         A world built on corruption, designed to further the wealth of big business and protect the wealth of those in power. It is not with little thought that I refer to our lords and masters place of business as the Westminster Houses of Hypocrisy and Corruption. Those who enter its marble halls by on large are very rich, when they leave, they are invariably, extremely more rich than when they entered. Big business makes sure of that. Out of generosity of course.
         If all this lead to was a group of parasites getting richer under false pretences, then it would be bad enough. However, their wheeling and dealing, their slicing and dicing, plays havoc with the health and well-being of the people they are supposed to represent. Decisions are made that drive people into poverty, ill-health, homelessness and of course heap the brutality of war on millions. History tells us the tales of hypocrisy and corruption are at the heart of governments, of the festering marriage between large companies and governments, but we never seem to learn.

       The following from the Politics in the Zeros site, is a case in America, but you are an idiot if you think this is unique to America, this is the way the game is played nowadays. Governments are not inanimate objects, nor are they fixed by the power of the holy tablets of stone. They are made up of people, usually very rich, very ambitious and very greed people, they play the game with the big boys, corporations, and in return for their obedience to the cause of profit, they are rewarded.

        Gosh there’s no conflict of interest here. Nearly a third of members of the federal Interagency Pain Research Coordinating Committee have financial ties to companies selling opoid drugs. In a shocking coincidence the panel has strongly opposed federal plans to recommend doctors scale back on prescribing legal heroin. Because that’s what these opoids are.
       Our government is essentially a drug pusher for highly addictive drugs. The FDA approved OxyContin for children without bothering to convene a panel of experts to make recommendations. Opiate addiction from legally prescribed pills is a major health problem nationwide among adults, to such an extent we have the obscenity of TV ads offering drugs to help with constipation caused by using opiates.
Any relation between this and a government that actually cares about the health of its citizens is of course strictly coincidental. And if this happened in a Third World country, we’d laugh at how corrupt they are.
The government advisory panel consists of federal scientists, outside academics and patient representatives. Of the 18 committee members at a recent meeting to discuss the government’s handling of pain issues, at least five had drug-industry connections.
One, a pain specialist from Duke University, has received thousands of dollars in payments from drugmakers, including OxyContin-maker Purdue Pharma and Teva Pharmaceuticals, which sells generic painkillers. Another, a patient advocate, holds a nonprofit position created by a $1.5 million donation by Purdue.

        We should always remember, we are governed by consent, we can withdraw our consent at any time of our choosing, and start to take control of our own lives, how about now!    

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

The Far Reaching Tentacles Of The Zionist Apartheid Israeli State.

 

          The tentacles of the Zionist apartheid government of Israel reach far and deep, slithering into cracks and fissures of foreign politics. However, America is probably where its tainted wealth finds its greatest success in influencing a states foreign policy. Just another example, if one was needed, of how deep pockets have the power to influence and in some cases, dictate, the affairs of governments. Just another cancerous feature of this corrupt capitalist system that dominates our lives.

         April 10, 2019 "Information Clearing House" - 

       How do you take a typical progressive and turn him or her into a fascist? One possible way is to send the poor bastard off on an all expenses paid trip to Israel where a meticulously crafted and sophisticated brainwashing program will make one believe almost anything regarding the noble and God-chosen Israelis versus the satanic Arab terrorists. Add into that the fact that being pro-Israel is a plus in many career fields and it is easy to understand why a monster like Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu gets favorable press and commentary in the United States even as he is reviled in most of the rest of the world.
        The liberal to fascist metamorphosis is most evident among Democratic Party politicians, who have been successfully targeted by the Israel Lobby and its deep pocketed supporters for many years. It is all part of a massive public relations campaign, which some might instead refer to as disinformation, planned and executed by the Israeli foreign ministry and its diaspora supporters to advance Israeli interests in spite of the fact that the government of Netanyahu has implemented and executed fundamentally anti-democratic programs while at the same time committing war crimes and violating a whole series of United Nations resolutions.
       Israel works hard to influence the United States at all levels. Its tentacles dig deep, now extending to local and state government levels where candidates for office can expect to be grilled by Jewish constituents regarding their views on the Middle East. The constituents often insist that the responses be provided in writing. The candidates being grilled understand perfectly well that their answers will determine what kind of press coverage and level of donations they will receive in return.
        One of the most blatant propaganda programs is the sponsorship of free “educational” trips to Israel for all newly elected congressmen and spouses. The trips are normally led by Israel boosters in Congress like Democratic House Speaker Steny Hoyer, who recently boasted at an AIPAC gathering how he has done 15 trips to Israel and is now preparing to do another with 30 Democratic congressmen, including nearly all of those who are newly elected. The congressional trips are carefully coordinated with the Israeli government and are both organized and paid for by an affiliate of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee called the American Israel Education Foundation (AIEF). Other trips sponsored by AIEF as well as by other Jewish organizations include politicians at state and even local levels as well as journalists who write about foreign policy.

Read the full article HERE: 

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

The Puppeteer And The Populace.

         When political scenes bubble up to large protests and uprisings, it is difficult to grasp the truth of the situation, mainly due to the propaganda and vested interested vomit, the flows from our babbling brook of bullshit, the mainstream media. Of course this is what is happening in Spain at the moment, protests must be smothered or at least controlled, and must never become a threat to the existing power of the established power elite. This is in no way me throwing my voice behind the nationalist ideology, which is just the restructuring of a new state, a shifting of an imaginary border and a re-adjustment between the power elites. Nationalism can never be the road to the desired emancipation of all people.

      So to understand why the Spanish state is now openly displaying its true fascists colours, by dissolving a functioning parliament and forcing direct rule, you have to follow different threads. 

       This thread from Tarcoteca is very informative. I particularly like the metaphor of the puppeteer and his two puppets. This could equally apply to any developed world state. Democrat and Republican, Labour and Tory, etc. keeping the populace all baying for their particular puppet, but leaving the puppeteer to dictate the story line.

          And here is where we find the great metaphor of what the Regime’s reality is. Its authentic nature.

             Before us, the look of the left wing and the right side politically confronted, reflected in two masses TV channels apparently ideologically opposed which belong to the same Elites of the Regime.

         The best way to visualise it is imagining a puppeteer entertaining us with fights and confrontations between two puppets, one in each hand. And underneath the puppet theatre, a group of children shouting (us the population) submitted and stupefied masses standing up for one or another puppet, the ‘blue’ or the ‘red’.

The puppeteer doesn’t mind the children shrieks, neither which of the puppets have to win at ‘today’s function.’ The puppets and the puppet theatre are his belongings and this is the only thing that matters.

        In fact, seen that the children have begun to get bored of the ‘blue’ and the ‘red’ puppets, the puppeteer created two new puppets: the ‘orange’ and the ‘purple’. Within the Spanish reality, those two new puppets are the new political phenomena parties: Ciudadanos and Podemos whose their only task is to keep the function going and continue entertaining the stupefied masses.

        Either Ciudadanos and Podemos were launched at TV channels and media property of the Regime Elites. Do not doubt about both puppets being created to perform a specific role-play.
        Basically, Ciudadanos is in charge of accelerating the repressive timings of the Regime as well as helping to reinforce and support it. While Podemos focused on gathering all the unhappy ‘revolutionaries,’ to make them waste time on an endless blah, blah, blah. Preventing them from tearing down the Regime under the promise if people vote them (during the next polls in few years’ time) when they reach power (so never) they will change everything.

        Therefore, it doesn’t matter which puppet children stand for the red, blue, orange or purple. They all speak through the puppeteer’s mouth and comply with the mandate’s roleplay…

      Here is where the Popular Rebellion we are living in Catalonia comes into context. The independence process changes everything because it doesn’t circumscribe at the fake democratic conflict but it directly attacks the Regime’s existence.

      We will see it clearly if we continue with the puppeteer and the puppet theatre metaphor. It turns out that suddenly, in the middle of the play of this puppet theatre, a rebel child has stood up and said: ‘I am fed up with this puppet show; I want to leave and play with a ball.’

      Damn child!

He is not supporting any puppet… he wants to leave! This is what Catalans did when they said that they liked to vote to decide their future. They have warned that they are keen to stand up and leave the function because they are fed up with the pantomime and the bloody puppets. They are fed up with the Regime.

           What has the answer of the puppeteer been?

         So, we have all seen it: facing the child’s protest both puppets, the red and the blue, gave up the ridiculous role of fighting between them and have started to insult the child, to ridicule him in front of other children trying to get his colleagues to oblige him to sit back and continue watching the play.

          Above everything else the most important is to prevent this rebel and insolent child from standing up and going to play with the ball; as others could go with him and the puppet show would finish. The control among children would be over, therefore, the business too. The Regime would come to grief and it would blow away all the bloodsuckers that live in it.

         In fact, this puppeteer sees his business at risk and has converted his puppets in fists and angered left the puppet theatre going after the impertinent child forcing and obliging him to stay.

        This is EXACTLY what is happening in Spain at the moment. And that is EXACTLY what the media at the Regime service did. All of the sudden, they have stopped being ‘left wing’ or ‘right wing’ and they have started to work in unison saying the same things about what is occurring in Catalonia, spreading the same insults, manipulations and lies.------

Read the full article HERE: 

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

The Coming Winter!!

Winter

Dark malefic clouds crowd the sky

winds carry the stench of carrion to every nostril,

the crazy ape has followed the faculty of hawks.

All around stand crows, magpies, jackdaws, vultures,

edacious eyes anticipating their putrid feast.

A weary Cassandra laments;

doves, hearts weeping for a better yesterday

forsake their olive branches.

    There have been protests in America and elsewhere against the Trump presidency, with the usual calls that the protesters are just sore losers. However, this election was different, this is the gloves off, bare knuckles, raw capitalism at the fascist end of the spectrum. It is a flag waving triumphalism that will embolden the far right across the globe. They are already raising their ugly heads above the gutter in Europe and elsewhere. You can be sure that when fascism snakes its way into our lives it will not be wearing jackboots, it will be lead by men in suits. Now more than ever, is the time for those who want freedom and justice for all, to come together and make their presence felt, from the workplace to the community, and on the streets. If not us, then who? If not now, then when? Just remember, all of the meagre rights we have were not won in the corridors of power, they were won on the streets, the factories and the communities, those in the corridors of power had to be dragged kicking and screaming to accept these rights.

 This from The Agency:

      On January 20, Donald J. Trump will be sworn in as the 45th president of the United States. There to protest the know-nothing real estate mogul’s ascent to office will be many of the people he’s insulted and denigrated over the past year and a half: women, people of color, Muslims, immigrants – representatives of the majority of the population of the U.S.

Many of us protesters are anarchists.

Why anarchists?
       Because this election really was different. It fed off and helped spread a new strain of racism, misogyny, and ultra-nationalism that’s receiving answering salutes from countries all over the world, from France to Hungary to the Philippines. We’re not here to protest just another in a long line of American warlords. We’re here to call a halt to New American Fascism and the hatred at its heart.
       In the 18 months since Donald Trump announced his candidacy for the White House, we’ve seen Muslims and Hispanics terrorized. We’ve seen the legitimate anger of Black Lives Matter countered by a vicious backlash. We’ve seen a concerted and expanding effort to roll back the social acceptance that transgender people have just begun to make. We’ve seen a wealthy white man flaunt his privilege in ways that demean women – with only the mildest and rare peeps of protest from the Washington political establishment.
       Trump didn’t create this ugliness, but he’s become its focal point, its megaphone, and its chief recruiting tool. He’s made racists and xenophobes feel powerful. He’s made sexists and homophobes feel justified. He’s given the corporate agenda to disempower and impoverish working people a smoke screen of phony populism to hide behind.
       We’ve seen it too many times before in too many places to ignore it this time: a right-wing demagogue manoeuvres into power. Sensing the opportunity of a lifetime, a greedy and ruthless economic and political elite falls into line behind the new leader. Minorities and the economically vulnerable are the first to suffer. Eventually, everybody does.
        This election could be just the beginning. France, Germany, and Hungary are just a few of the countries with national elections coming up in 2017 where the racist right is expected to make big gains. Now is the time to send an unmistakable message that fascism is not the answer. But we won’t do that in a voting booth. We’ll do it in our homes, our communities, and in the streets. We’ll do it by promoting the vision of a society without the State, without bought-and-paid-for politicians, without capitalism. The opposite of what we’ve got now.

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

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
 

The Stench From That Thing Called Governemnt.

 

         Big business and government are so intertwined, that it is impossible to separate them. Corporations spend millions, if not billions, on lobbyists, politicians are offered lucrative positions, and little perks here and there, but of course, they'll tell you, that they are not influenced by these matters. They'll deal with each issue on its merits, with the welfare of the country and its people always to the fore, and the corporations will still continue to spend those millions or billions, just as a kindness to politicians, and get nothing in return. Isn't it a wonderful world? It is safe to bet that all politicians are relatively rich, most will have their filthy lucre, stashed away in shares in those very corporations that are pouring money into their little slush fund. We are expected to believe that none of these politicians would ever nudge legislation in the direction of helping their share portfolio, and might at times move to jeopardise their little stash. 

          A world built on corruption, designed to further the wealth of big business and protect the wealth of those in power. It is not with little thought that I refer to our lords and masters place of business as the Westminster Houses of Hypocrisy and Corruption. Those who enter its marble halls by on large are very rich, when they leave, they are invariably, extremely more rich than when they entered. Big business makes sure of that. Out of generosity of course.
        If all this lead to was a group of parasites getting richer under false pretences, then it would be bad enough. However, their wheeling and dealing, their slicing and dicing, plays havoc with the health and well-being of the people they are supposed to represent. Decisions are made that drive people into poverty, ill-health, homelessness and of course heap the brutality of war on millions. History tells us the tales of hypocrisy and corruption are at the heart of governments, of the festering marriage between large companies and governments, but we never seem to learn. 

       The following from the Politics in the Zeros site, is a case in America, but you are an idiot if you think this is unique to America, this is the way the game is played nowadays. Governments are not inanimate objects, nor are they fixed by the power of the holy tablets of stone. They are made up of people, usually very rich, very ambitious and very greed people, they play the game with the big boys, corporations, and in return for their obedience to the cause of profit, they are rewarded. 

       Gosh there’s no conflict of interest here. Nearly a third of members of the federal Interagency Pain Research Coordinating Committee have financial ties to companies selling opoid drugs. In a shocking coincidence the panel has strongly opposed federal plans to recommend doctors scale back on prescribing legal heroin. Because that’s what these opoids are.
        Our government is essentially a drug pusher for highly addictive drugs. The FDA approved OxyContin for children without bothering to convene a panel of experts to make recommendations. Opiate addiction from legally prescribed pills is a major health problem nationwide among adults, to such an extent we have the obscenity of TV ads offering drugs to help with constipation caused by using opiates.
      Any relation between this and a government that actually cares about the health of its citizens is of course strictly coincidental. And if this happened in a Third World country, we’d laugh at how corrupt they are.

The government advisory panel consists of federal scientists, outside academics and patient representatives. Of the 18 committee members at a recent meeting to discuss the government’s handling of pain issues, at least five had drug-industry connections.

One, a pain specialist from Duke University, has received thousands of dollars in payments from drugmakers, including OxyContin-maker Purdue Pharma and Teva Pharmaceuticals, which sells generic painkillers. Another, a patient advocate, holds a nonprofit position created by a $1.5 million donation by Purdue.

        We should always remember, we are governed by consent, we can withdraw our consent at any time of our choosing, and start to take control of our own lives, how about now!

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

 

What The US Really Wants.

        I'm always looking for ways to sum up, simply and briefly, the way this modern world functions and the reasons for the poverty, inequality, barbarism and the perpetual war that we live under. You can try to explain it in economic terms, imperialism, power blocks, and/or corrupt liaisons of rich and powerful people/organisations/states, and you could fill a very large book. This video does a very good job in approximately 8 minutes. Well worth watching.

      Current US military space policy is primarily geared toward two countries, China and Russia.
      In May 2000 the Washington Post published an article called “For Pentagon, Asia Moving to Forefront.” The article stated that, “The Pentagon is looking at Asia as the most likely arena for future military conflict, or at least competition.” The article said the US would double its military presence in the region and essentially attempt to manage China.

By William Blum
March 08, 2014 "Information Clearing House -  When it gets complicated and confusing, when you’re overwhelmed with too much information, changing daily; too many explanations, some contradictory … try putting it into some kind of context by stepping back and looking at the larger, long-term picture.
       The United States strives for world domination, hegemony wherever possible, their main occupation for over a century, it’s what they do for a living. The United States, NATO and the European Union form The Holy Triumvirate. The Holy Triumvirate has subsidiaries, chiefly The International Monetary Fund, World Bank, World Trade Organization, International Criminal Court … all help to keep in line those governments lacking the Holy Triumvirate Seal Of Approval: the IMF, WB, and WTO impose market fundamentalism, while foreign leaders who act too independent are threatened with being handed over to the ICC for heavy punishment, as the United States imposes sanctions on governments and their leaders as only the King of Sanctions can, lacking any sense of hypocrisy or irony.
       And who threatens United States domination? Who can challenge The Holy Triumvirate’s hegemony? Only Russia and China, if they were as imperialistic as the Western powers. (No, the Soviet Union wasn’t imperialistic; that was self-defense; Eastern Europe was a highway twice used by the West to invade; tens of millions of Russians killed or wounded.) 

I received the video link from from Comrade Loam at arrezafe:

Published on July 28, 2015

CN: This video will discuss and contain some images you might find upsetting or disturbing - genocide, racism and extreme poverty...
        This analysis of US foreign policy is essentially a summary of the arguments made in Volume I of Noam Chomsky and Edward S. Herman's Political Economy of Human Rights, 'The Washington Connection and Third World Fascism'. Although it's a harrowing read, it is very informative and provides a devastating account of US-backed atrocities across the globe, and I would highly recommend it.
         With regard to North Vietnam, in case people are wondering, I am not saying that the bloodbath during the land reform programme was acceptable or permissible - rather I included this point to highlight the hypocrisy of the US media which openly condemns bloodbaths such as this one but turns a blind eye to bloodbaths carried out by the United States and its allies.
           My own position is that action against these kinds of atrocities ought to be strategic. It is the responsibility of populations to criticise and take action against their own state rather than other states, as this is arguably the most effective means of preventing atrocities and protecting human rights.

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

Legal Inhumanity.

         The various states talk of humanity, but act like the fascists they are. A whole industry has grown up shipping people across borders and depositing them in countries that they have fled. In the modern state, Law enforcement is a euphemism for, repression, dawn raids, eveictions, detentions and deportations, all done with the stamp of the faceless state legitimacy. Deaths in there thousands doesn't move the state apparatus towards humanity, the Mediterranean could fill up with bodies and they would still be pontificating on how to shove them back to where they came from.

Not a new leaflet, but still very relevant.

Taken from Act For Freedom Now:

      The following is a leaflet distributed in almost 200 copies at the rally entitled “Refugees Welcome” Saturday, September 12, during which far-left parties and orgas brought their ideologies for sale …

      In this world, those fleeing conditions of poverty, war, religious persecution of all kinds engendered by capitalism, nationalism, religion and States are many.

      If the system is currently putting the so-called “reception” reserved for Syrian and Kurdish “refugees” fleeing the assassins of Daesh at the front of the media scene it is to better hide from the public the fate that awaits all those without papers here: raids, deportation, detention in CRA before deportation to their countries of origin.

      Yet the operation of the left concerning the “welcome” of migrants is a huge hoax. Its policy swings between the carrot and the stick: between those who might benefit – at random and according to the quotas in force – from “political asylum” and “refugee” status because they are from a country at war and the others, not having papers, will be delivered to living underground, to the police or to charitable organizations (Red Cross, Emmaus …) that manage their misery, their detention and their forced deportation.

     Already for months in Paris migrants and their supporters have been plagued by police repression, which the left parties are involved in by disseminating pacification and their promises of politicos, evicting every occupation of empty buildings; in Seine-Saint-Denis PCF municipalities expel camps of Roma and of those without papers; in Calais metal barriers recycled from the last NATO summit are used to repel migrants desiring to get to the UK by any means possible, risking their lives (11 have died since June); between Ventimiglia and Menton the police raid and deport undocumented people with the material and logistical cooperation of the (Italian) Red Cross; in Besancon for years the town hall has been sending its municipal cops to evict the Roma trying to survive in the Viotte station park, driving travellers from the ‘Malcombe’ land, etc …

       It takes the photograph of a migrant child found dead on a beach circulated by the media and on social networks for citizens to be moved. Yet more than a thousand migrants have perished in the Mediterranean this summer alone. This has nothing of a humanitarian problem. The death of migrants at the borders of Europe and its States is part of a daily life that cannot be tolerated. Here, the companies and institutions that exploit them (in catering, cleaning, etc ..) are many, that give them to the cops (BNP Paribas, the Post, Pôle Emploi (Job centre) …), that collaborate with having them locked up in detention centres (SODEXO, COFELY GDF SUEZ, DE RICHEBOURG, …), that deport them (Air France, SNCF …), etc …

     The heart of the problem lies in the existence of this world of money, of States and their borders, their cops and their prisons. So let’s stop weeping. Let’s rebel!

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

Smell The Stench Of Raw Capitalism.

      The Bullingdon Club, now in control of the Westminster Houses of Hypocrisy and Corruption, has stated that it will introduce more legislation to restrict the use of strikes. No doubt it was a directive from their millionaire buddies in the corporate world. So it would seem that when you sign on as an employee of a firm, and that firm treats you like shit, refusing to negotiate your grievance, you are supposed to just put up with it. You will not have the right to say, this has gone too far, we are refusing to work under these conditions, and call a strike until the matter is resolved. No doubt the corporate greed  machine will call this democracy. As Howard Zin and Noam Chomsky have said, big business loves fascism. We are almost there, give the Bullingdon Boys an few more months and see what they unleash on the ordinary people of this country.

      You will be expected to work submissively, or stay at home and watch TV. The streets will only be for consumers. As far as the Bullingdon Club advocates of raw capitalism are concerned, the gloves are off, they are drunk on their new unfettered power. Be prepared for a ferocious fight back, or be shown no mercy, as they capitalise on that power.

The era is different, but the lie is the same.

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

Mixed Bag Of Poems.

      April 30th. last day of National Poetry Month, so I thought I might finish it off with a bang. As usual one of my own, but a couple of others I like, and a wee film about Herbert Read, anarchist poet, writer, and art critic.

     First one by Herbert Read on the fascist bombing of Spain during the Spanish civil war.

Bombing Casualties In Spain.

Dolls' faces are rosier but these are children

their eyes not glass but gleaming gristle

dark lenses in whose quicksilver glances

the sunlight quivered. These blenched lips

were warm onceand bright with blood

but blood

held in moist bleb of flesh

not split and spatter'd in tousled hair.

In these shadowy tresses

red petals did not always

thus clot and blacken to scar.

These are dead faces.

wasps' nests are not so wanly waxen

wood embers not so greyly ashen.

They are laid out in ranks

like paper lanterns that have fallen

after a night of riot

extinct in the dry morning air.

Herbert Read.

Familiarity Breeds Contempt.

Now television has allowed the proles

to have a look at the eminent,

we sans-culottes can scan with great intent

their skins for pimples, wens and blackhead-holes,

quite pleased to find they too have scars and moles

just like the more plebian element.

Such epidermal flaws on dame and gent

bring the Mob close to those with Higher Goals.

Now we're all privileged to watch a lord

waggling his eyebrows or large moustache.

You don't get worried till They start to speak

and now that none of them has ssaid a word

worth listening to. What earns them all that cash?

Why didn't The Revolution start last week?

William Neil. 

A New Dawn.

Today we live in a peace

midst a thousand pygmy wars;

a humanity bankrupt by its past

dragged wearily through darkness and despair

yearns for a day that's cast

long, warm and fair,

a dawn that sees humankind dicard

its class, its nation and prepare

to grind outworn creeds to dust,

so mankind naked is revealed,

then moving with common cause,

share

what such a dawn may yield.

John Couzin.

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