Vote: What For?

        It becomes more and more glaringly obvious that voting for any one of a bunch of self opinionated politicians is a pointless exercise. History throws this in our face generation after generation, but still there are those who persist. It's not that there haven't been people pointing his out throughout those generations, and anarchists have always been there at the forefront, raising the banner of self determination  among communities, in co-operation with other communities, rather than this self enslaving capitalist orientated party political system that has dominated and enslaved our lives for generations.

        An excellent little booklet, by a well know Glasgow anarchists, Bobby Lynn, "Vote: What For? explains clearly the futility of this voting system. Bobby was a Glasgow anarchist, 1924-1990, born and lived in Calton Glasgow, one of Glasgow’s many slums. Started work as an engineering apprentice in Yarrow’s shipyard, became involved in working class struggle and remained committed to that struggle all his life. A copy of his booklet is held in the Spirit of Revolt Archive and can be read on line HERE,

      The futility of voting was also a point powerfully made made by that great American comedian George Carlin:

       Perhaps by intellect and humour we will finally all see the futility and the damage done by this dangerous and destructive process of handing our power to a few wealthy careerists, who will use us and abuse us, to their own ends and that of their wealthy cronies.

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

Glasgow, Home Of Big Brother.

      Glasgow has paid £1.2 million for a big brother facial recognition surveillance system, it is installed in and around our city centre. The council had no prior conversation with the people of Glasgow about the installation of this big brother installation. In the not too distant past the surveillance society was creeping into all our lives, now it is firmly established to watch your every move monitor and profile your characteristics and log them for future reference. A small team of individuals will decide on that information whether to log you as a person of interest and you could be further monitored, in a more invasive fashion by other methods, all without your knowledge. You were simply going about your business, perhaps you were harassed, flustered, in a hurry, that could mark you out for further surveillance. Any connection between this type of society and democracy is an illusion.

 Some links:

https://medium.com/asecuritysite-when-bob-met-alice/glasgow-and-the-onset-of-big-brother-ca66db96df29

https://theferret.scot/suspect-search-glasgow-surveillance/

https://www.commonspace.scot/articles/14262/mick-napier-after-whatsapp-hack-its-time-real-debate-glasgows-use-israeli-facial

      Join the demonstration in George Square against facial recognition on August 3rd.

Demonstrate against Facial Recognition Scanning in Glasgow

· Hosted by SPSC Glasgow and Scottish Palestine Solidarity Campaign

Details:

     

George Square at Glasgow City Chambers

Saturday, 3 August 2019 from 13:00-15:00 Next Week Thanks Loam for the video link: Visit ann arky's home at https://radicalglasgow.me.uk

Mozart, Mahler And Palestine.

         A wee treat for lovers of freedom, lovers of music and friends of Palestine.

         Scottish Friends are supporting 3 concerts by Palmusic UK Ensemble who play Mozart and Mahler piano quartets and a range of Arabic folk music .
        The concerts are on the following dates -
       Friday July 5 at 1pm in Stevenson Hall , Royal Conservatoire of Scotland -100 Renfrew Street Glasgow G52 3 DB

      Saturday July 6 at 3pm - St Andrew’s Church and St George’s West Church -13 George Street Edinburgh EH2 2 PA

       Sunday July 7 at 7:30 pm - St Paul’s Episcopal Cathedral - 1 High Street Dundee DD1 1TD

         Please pass the word round and help get a good turnout . Be really good if you could circulate information in your networks .
        Entry to concerts is free and people can just come along on the night .
        A voluntary donation will be taken at the concerts for the charitable work of Palmusic UK and the Edward Said National Conservatory of Music in Palestine .

Regards Arthur West
On behalf of Scottish Friends of Palestine

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

"Gentrification And Ghettoisation"

       It is a world wide phenomena, changing cities. Cities used to be where ordinary people lived, worked and had their leisure activities, those days have gone. To day cities are being turned in to, "business centres" or "pleasuredromes" for the wealthy, centres for tourists to come and spend their wealth. Expensive luxury apartments, glossy, glitzy restaurants, expensive coffee bars and "high fashion shops. In some areas, the ordinary people of the district are being pushed out to make way for what can only be called university towns, one or more universities surrounded by student accommodation. All this is to make money for the chosen few, the small group of parasites that control our lives by duplicitous financial manipulation. We accept that we should be excluded form our cities and herded on the periphery, or we decide that the cities belong to the people and not the financial Mafia. If we believe we should live in our cities we will have to fight to take them back, they are not going to gifted to us by the invading corporate juggernaut.

     The following article is from Athens, but could be from any city in the developed world. The ordinary people are being herded out to the periphery to be housed in  cheap, shoddy schemes, lacking in amenities. A systematic policy of "gentrification and ghettoisation". Out of sight of the prancing privileged as they enjoy their existence in the consumer illusion of happiness made of bubble and fizz.

This translated version from 325: 
Original source: https://athens.indymedia.org/post/1597841/

         Tourism grows like flowers in the spring, security cameras appear like leaves to protect the peaceful citizens. Everything must be clear, beautiful and in developmental path. The appearance of the city should fit into the list of Aegean Airlines. Tourists do not need a lot, some chain stores and hipster coffeeshops, a good guide to explaining which places to avoid, and something that fits into the “authentic Greek experience”. We look forward to the next group of tourists who will take a selfie around the Acropolis.At the same time, our neighborhood degrades slowly. People who can not respond to the increase of rent price are either forced to find another home to stay or are forced to comply with the new rules. At the same time, investors are exacerbating the situation as they buy old houses, which are being demolished and, in their place, they are building luxurious housing estates. Apartments renovated for short-term rent (AIRBNB) as well as public spaces and parks are privatized reducing free and open spaces. The game is as old as the same city is listening to the name of private property . The rule is also simple: whoever does not own, will pay, whoever does not pay will be expelled. People who are not part of the capitalist machine, little illegal sellers and homeless people, illegal graffiti and political posters, life in general, and things that can not be sold will disappear. We know very well that nothing will be given to us because we do not belong to the owners’ side. We know that we do not even fit into this suffocating capitalist context, nor do we want to keep up with the logic of bosses and investors. That is why we are fighting against their expansionist and developmental plans.On Tuesday 9/04, we visited a boutique (as they call it) of luxury apartments, which is in its final stage of implementation, on Kolokotroni street between Koukaki and Petralona. Kolokotroni Street is a street with several old or abandoned houses, and it seems that the crows of the construction company from Glyfada have put it in the goal. During our visit, we put a banner that read: “RICH PEOPLE GET BACK TO YOUR SUBURBS, HOUSING IS NOR A LIFESTYLE NEITHER A PRODUCT, IT’S A NEED (A)”, we throw paint on the freshly painted walls and advertisements of the company, write slogans and open holes or even completely tear apart interior walls. Nevertheless, investors insist on forcing us to a second visit and today they have put cameras thinking that we will stop.

OUTSIDE THE INVESTORS FROM OUR NEIGHBORHOOD AGAINST AIRBNB AND LUXURY APARTMENTS NO ATTACK TOWARDS OUR LIFE WILL STAY WITHOUT ANSWER IF WE DON’T GET ORGANIZED IN ALL NEIGHBOURHOODS, OUR CITIES WILL BECOME MODERN PRISONS

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

Anarchy Is For lovers.

      We at Spirit of Revolt are always busy getting as many documents, serials, pamphlets, leaflets, articles, photos etc. up on our website to make our history easily accessible for all. Though there are lots of fascinating material already available on the website, now and again something comes up for uploading and it seems relevant to draw attention to that particular item. 

       Because anarchism, anarchists, due to the bad-mouthed misinformation from the mainstream media, these two words are probably the most misunderstood in the English language. As a result of this distortion of the truth, anarchists are deemed to be destructive and violent, while anarchism is portrayed as chaos, against organisation and devoid of co-operation. Nothing could be further from the truth, anarchism is based on the love of humanity, the desire for justice and freedom of choice for all, all bound up with responsibility for your actions. Anarchists are against hierarchical power, injustice, exploitation, and will always stand up against these distortions of humanity.

        So we thought we would draw attention to this months “Read of the Month” it is taken from our John Cooper Collection, T SOR 3-52-145, Everything You Ever Wanted To Know About Anarchism But Were Afraid To Ask. First published by The Anarchist Media Group. This edition published jointly by Black Sheep, Dark Star & Rebel Press.

      

Being informed is to be nearer the truth, enjoy and learn. 
Courtesy of Spunk Press:  Read on line:

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

May Day, Our Day.

May Day 2003 (Glasgow, Scotland) from Camcorder Guerrillas on Vimeo.

      Just on the horizon there is the glimmer of that special day, May Day, Workers Day, May 1st. A day that this society seems to have tamed into a sedate march that doesn't interrupt the flow of the economy, a little display, a few speeches and then go home or get busy with the consumer addiction. We have to free May Day from the dead hands of the political ballerinas and take it back to do our own thing, in our own way. May Day is not dead, it has just been sedated by the political messiahs. We can bring it back to life.

       It should be a day of fun, of celebration, a family day, a day to throw of the shackles of conformity and be yourself, a day shaped by you and your friends.

      To this end the Glasgow May Day Organising Group have put together a series of events, to try to remind us of what May Day is all about, to help us remember our history, the history of the ordinary people, and bring back that fun and family feeling to our day. 

     This May Day, celebrations will begin on May 1st. short march and rally, with music, singers, poets and stalls. May 2nd. a radical history walk through our city centre, stopping at points of interest and a wee discussion from one or more of our members. Saturday May 4th. a film show, Salt of The Earth. Then on May 5th. the culmination of the May Day celebrations, our now annual Picnic on The Green with stalls, poets, singers, dancers, musicians, food to share, bring the family, bring your street, bring what you expect to find.

Details of all these events can be found on these links:

 https://mayday.link/

https://www.facebook.com/groups/416201145855377/

https://mayday.link/blog/

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

Voltairine de Cleyre.

          I have always enjoyed the poems of Voltairine de Cleyre, (November 17, 1866–June 20, 1912) and admired the woman. What some Glaswegians may not know is that she visited Glasgow and thanks to Glasgow anarchist comrades she got to see some parts of Scotland outside Glasgow, and stated she loved the highlands. Though I think it was mainly around the Loch Lomond area that she visited.
           I particularly like this poem by Voltairine;

 

The Road Builders

(“Who built the beautiful roads?” queried a friend of the present order, as we walked one day along the macadamized driveway of Fairmount Park.)

I saw them toiling in the blistering sun,
Their dull, dark faces leaning toward the stone,
Their knotted fingers grasping the rude tools,
Their rounded shoulders narrowing in their chest,
The sweat dro’s dripping in great painful beads.
I saw one fall, his forehead on the rock,
The helpless hand still cluthcing at the spade,
The slack mouth full of earth.
And he was dead.
His comrades getnly turned his face, until
The fierce sun glittered hard upon his eyes,
Wide open, staring at the cruel sky.
The blood yet ran upon the jagged stone;
But it was ended. He was quite, quite dead:
Driven to death beneath the burning sun,
Driven to death upon the road he built.
He was no “hero”, he; a poor, black man,
Taking “the will of God” and asking naught;
Think of him thus, when next your horse’s feet
Strike out the flint spark from the gleaming road;
Think that for this, this common thing, The Road,
A human creature died; ‘tis a blood gift,
To an o’erreaching world that does not thank.
Ignorant, mean and soulless was he? Well —
Still human; and you drive upon his corpse.

Philadelphia, 24 July 1900

This from Anarchist News: 

Voltairine de Cleyre:

American Radical

        Born in Michigan in 1866, Voltairine de Cleyre was named after Voltaire. By the time she died forty-five years later, she had lived up to the free-thinking and trouble-making reputation of her namesake. The famous activist Emma Goldman called de Cleyre “the most gifted and brilliant anarchist woman America ever produced.”

De Cleyre wrote:

        The first act of our life was to kick against an unjust decree of our parents, and we have unflinchingly stood for the kicking principle ever since. Now, if the word kicking is in bad repute with you, substitute non-submission, insubordination, rebellion, revolt, revolution, whatever name you please which expresses non-acquiescence to injustice.

       Her own father was a working-class French immigrant who earned his American citizenship fighting in the Civil War. Her mother was the child of abolitionists. Her parents sent young Voltairine to a convent school, where she learned how to be a debater and an atheist. She was writing poetry at six. At nineteen, she was writing and lecturing on Free Thought, the philosophical idea that truth should be based on reason and empiricism rather than authority and dogma.

De Cleyre’s radicalism was above all “a rhetoric of self-decolonization aimed at disrupting the ideological configuration of her readers’ interior lives, freeing them to rearticulate those lives.”

        In her short life, she would publish “hundreds of works—poems, sketches, essays, lectures, pamphlets, translations, and short stories,” writes scholar Eugenia DeLamotte. And yet de Cleyre would be largely excluded from history for the next century because of her radical stance. DeLamotte describes de Cleyre’s radicalism as above all “a rhetoric of self-decolonization aimed at disrupting the ideological configuration of her readers’ interior lives, freeing them to rearticulate those lives” and imagine change.

         De Cleyre made a precarious living in Philadelphia teaching English to the Jewish immigrant community. She also tirelessly wrote, edited, lecture, and organized. The events of the Haymarket Affair in Chicago in 1886—which led to four anarchists being executed after a dubious trial, as part of the struggle for the eight-hour work day—turned her into an anarchist.

        In her essay on de Cleyre, communications scholar Catherine Helen Palczewski explores de Cleyre’s radical critique of the “sex question” in such writings as “The Gates of Freedom,” “Sex Slavery,” “They Who Marry Do Ill,” and “Why I Am an Anarchist.”

According to Palczewski, contemporary reformers like Emma Goldman, Margaret Sanger, Crystal Eastman, Helen Gurley Flynn, and Louise Bryant likened marriage to prostitution. “De Cleyre, by contrast, developed a general critique of social roles and institutions by rejecting the institution of marriage, arguing that women are raped in marriage, not prostituted by it.” In de Cleyre’s own words, “And that is rape, where a man forces himself sexually upon a woman whether he is licensed by the marriage law to do it or not. And that is the vilest of all tyranny where a man compels the woman he says he loves, to endure the agony of bearing children that she does not want.”

De Cleyre also rejected the social purity movement of the day and the suppression of obscenity that went along with it. Birth control information, for example, was then considered obscene.

       Palczewski calls de Cleyre “an important rhetorical and feminist figure because her anarchist feminism is an early precursor to many of the radical critiques of women’s sexual status that came out of the ‘second wave’ of feminism.”

        Intellectually fierce, de Cleyre had a short and difficult life. She wrote her own epitaph: “I die, as I have lived, a free spirit, an Anarchist, owing no allegiance to rulers, heavenly or earthly.”

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

Plunder And Pillage Of Our Green Spaces.

        Do we slumber as the corporate juggernaut continues its relentless process of gobbling up all public spaces and local communities and transforming them into profitable entities? Local communities are "gentrified", which translates as turning the area into a money spinning project for those with surplus cash and pushing the local community out to the periphery of society. Our green spaces, parks etc. are seen not as places of leisure and pleasure for old and young, but as possible money earners. More and more corporate enterprises occupy our parks and public spaces, turning them into cash machines for the corporate juggernaut. We are told, "it will help the economy", again a euphemism for, filling the coffers of the rich and wealthy. 

      We have to be alive to this plundering of our communities and public spaces or we will end up living in a world of total private property, suitable only for the wealthy, devoid of any public spaces where our kids can run freely and safely, and our local communities are ushered into ghettos on the periphery of our cities.

 My local Springburn Public Park.

 

       Thankfully some people are alive to this pillage and plunder and are organising to do something about this crime, why not join them?

     Two events concerning the commercialisation of green space and What we can do about it.

Discussion.

       Each summer the volume of paid events occupying our parks is expanding.
The disruption to ordinary park users who see the park as an escape from the chaos and consumerism of daily life. These park users see these disruptions to their enjoyment of the park as disturbing.
        We will be discussing these and other park and green space issues that are also enjoyable and could help to stop the use of our parks for commercial profiteering. Speakers to be confirmed.
Workshop.
      The workshop will be around. How to find out things about parks, greens pace, commons and how to use the “Community Empowerment Act”. The general public need to be heard in this conversation in protecting community assets. We will be looking at the various, forums, assemblies and mechanisms, that could help to enable groups as well as individuals to take part in this important dialogue.

PUBLIC DISCUSSION
Thursday 13 December 7:00
Kinning Park Complex. (For food 6:00)

WORKSHOP
Sunday 16 December 3:00 (Soft Drinks)
Kinning Park Complex.
https://inthecommongood.org/2018/11/15/the-life-of-a-park-part-1/

       Of course this is not a Glasgow or UK phenomenon, it is a world wide strategy of the financial Mafia and the corporate juggernaut in conjunction with the various states.  This from Athens.

       Article from Act For Freedom Now:

          On the 10th of December, the final offers for the construction of the METRO line 4 will be submitted. One of the stops of the metro is scheduled to be built on Exarchia square.

        The plateia is the heart of a neighborhood which is a historic and living site of the anti-state movement. This free space has been fought for for decades and maintained through constant struggle. This social movement in Exarchia, as everywhere, has been under constant repression by police and by the forced assimilation into state and capital’s plans for gentrification and pacification.

        It is obvious what this construction will bring with it: surveillance, policing, constant state scrutiny and of course greater commercialization and gentrification of the entire neighborhood. The total occupation of the square by a construction site for many years means from day one the abolition of a public meeting space. The devouring of this public space, will finally result in its replacement with a transit point, to serve the unhindered flow of consumption and production. It is also clear that this is a strategic plan to extinguish all the struggling projects of social self organization from the neighborhood, but also to push out the marginalized who find refuge here. Besides, the Athens METRO is already a site of class exclusion and control, having finally implemented the electronic ticket and barrier system.

        The expansion of the metro comes together with announcements of fancy plans of urban development for the whole of Athens. The story is the same everywhere: violent displacement of the poor and of the struggling subjects that give free public space its true meaning, to make way for commercial exploitation. A prime example is their designs for Prosfygika Alexandras.

     Where the oppressed build communities against state domination, refusing to be subsumed in its institutions, their homes and streets are treated as abandoned sites, as deserts. Even more so, where there is active resistance against state domination, they systematically target such neighborhoods as degenerated hubs of criminality. Their strategy of repression is the cultural desertification of commerce and capital. The plan to build a metro stop right on the square of such a neighborhood is exactly the spearhead of this capitalist colonization. But, life blossoms only through the struggle for freedom and self-determination.

 We call for a discussion about the resistance.

SATURDAY 8th of DECEMBER, at 18.00

EXARCHIA SQUARE

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

Music, Poetry, And Politics In Glasgow.

 

        Well this is Monday 26th. of November, you have just two days to get your diary sorted so that you can attend what will be a wonderful and unique evening of music, singing, poetry and politics, what more could you ask for? This night will bring together some of the best known names in Scotland, paying tribute to Artists in Solidarity, who in 1984 put on a superb event, "Writers for Miners" in support of the striking miners. Lots of those who performed on that evening will be performing on Wednesday 28th. November at Mono's, Glasgow. (the time is 7:00pm, not 7:30 as stated on Mono's page.)

       This event will be the launch of a CD of the original performance in support of the striking miners, for a sneek preview of what to expect, take a look at this list.

After the introductions:

Nancy Nicolson
Aonghas Macneacail
Gerda Stevenson
Liz Lochhead
Rab Noakes

30 minutes interval

Allan Tall
Alan McMunigal of thi wurd will introduce young writers who will read works of those poets who who were at the original event but can't be with us on the night.

Freddy Anderson: (In the Vale of Aberfan) 

Hamish Henderson: Glascune & Drumlochy OR Three poems from 1939
Eddie Boyd: (“The niddeny nottum cherbo”) 

Tom McGrath: (I know a man from Denver called Mr Mac)

Donald Saunders
AnneThomson: (Dream-Songs for Winters/TheAdam'sRib)

Peter Nardini 

Tom Leonard

Ewan McVicar

      The proceeds of the event will go to support Spirit of Revolt, have a wee look at their website. 

Details:

7pm. to 10pm.

Wednesday, 28th. November, 2018.

Mono, 12, Kings Court,

Glasgow, G1 5RB.

Tickets at the door.

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

Our Dear Green Place.

 

        The ever decreasing green places in our city is a frightening prospect. A city with little or no green parks is a concrete desert. Even those places that are still green and pleasant within our city are under attack, because of the continual renting them out to commercial interests. This is not what these green and pleasant spaces were created for, they were not created to make profits for commercial concerns, they were spaces for our citizens to escape the hustle and bustle of the city. Places within our city for kids to run free and safe, for people to walk in peace, to relax, for safe open air leisure, for an escape form the concrete and traffic. Without them our lives are diminished, impoverished, and our kids are deprived of that essential in growing up, the ability to run, play and relax in pleasant and safe surroundings.

 

My local Springburn Public Park

        These paces must be protected and preserved for our leisure and pleasure, not as opportunities for the commercial world to cream off ever greater profits.

     An appeal from my Friend Bob, but also from my heart.

    Two events concerning the commercialisation of green space and what we can do about it

A discussion (Thursday 13th Dec)

       Each summer the volume of paid events occupying our parks is expanding. The disruption to ordinary park users who see the park as an escape from the chaos and consumerism of daily life is worsening. Many park users see these disruptions to their enjoyment of using and living round the park as out of sync with what the park is there for.
      We will be discussing these and other park and green space issues and some that that are also enjoyable and more conducive to park use – and that could help to stop the use of our parks for commercial profiteering.

Speakers to be confirmed.

A workshop (Sunday 16th Dec)

The workshop will be around. How to find out things about parks, greens pace, commons and how to use the “Community Empowerment Act”. The general public need to be heard in this conversation in protecting community assets. We will be looking at the various, forums, assemblies and mechanisms, that could help to enable groups as well as individuals to take part in this important dialogue.

PUBLIC DISCUSSION

Thursday 13 December 7:00
Kinning Park Complex. (For food 6:00)

WORKSHOP

Sunday 16 December 3:00 (Soft & hot drinks)
Kinning Park Complex.

Please forward to interested.

More info: inthecommongood.org

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

Spirit of Revolt's Conscientious Objectors.

       To all those who were unfortunate enough to miss Spirit of Revolt's Show and Tell event on Conscientious Objectors, held in the Mitchell Library, here is your chance to catch up. The event is now up on film on Spirit of Revolt's NEWS section. Thanks Bob for the film.

      From Spirit of Revolt, enjoy:

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

Precarious Workers Organise.

 

     Capitalism continually morphs trying to rescue itself from crisis after crisis. However all the changes never enhance the working conditions of the ordinary people. The previous crisis ushered in austerity, another name for stripping the funding from social service to repay the financial mafia's gambling losses. During this period the most wealthy managed to double their wealth, while the ordinary people went from "just about managing" to an ever precarious struggle to survive.

      The latest crisis  coming in on the back of austerity, has seen the expansion of zero hours contracts, part-time working and the gig economy. All of these are another step in protecting their ability to cream ever greater profit from the workers. It is a planned development to erode workers conditions stripping them of paid holidays, guaranteed income, sick pay, and saving the employers from paying national insurance. It also frees them from any responsibility for accidents at work and working conditions.

     This form of work, is likely to grow as more and more employers see the benefits to them of making workers "self-employed", freeing employers from any responsibility and lowering their costs. If there is anyone out there that thinks that the government, who work hand in glove with the employers, is likely to do anything to reverse this trend, they are living in the fog of naive illusion. Employers are working towards the ordinary people being units on the self, for the employer to pick up when they need them, and to be dumped back on the self to survive as best they can, until some other employer sees the need to pick up a couple more to be used in the same temporary manner.

     The only way that these workers will see any improvement in their conditions or improvement in their life style and security, is to organise in conjunction with other workers and the unemployed.

     It is encouraging to see that is what they are starting to do. Recently we had the couriers strike, and two protests and rallies of "precarious workers", which covers all those mentioned above and more. One in London and one in Glasgow, but they need the solidarity of all workers, unemployed and pensioners. As their conditions are stripped away it impinges on all our communities. Without organising we face a society of impoverished workers and social services stripped to the bone.    

Some photos from today's demonstration in Glasgow's George Square:

Some from the London demonstration:

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

Spirit of Revolt's Conscientious Objectors Event and More.

        As always, Spirit of Revolt have been a bunch of busy beavers, in the coming month they have two events coming up. The first is their now popular and regular, Show and Tell, in conjunction with The Mitchell Library. This on is on conscientious objectors from WW1 and WW2. So far the interest has been exceptional, so if interested do come early. the details are:

The Mitchell Library, 5th. floor. in the Blythswood Room.

Monday 5th. November, 12:00-2:00pm. FREE EVENT.

       It will take the form of an open discussion which will be opened by SoR member Eric Chester.  On display will be some material on conscientious objectors, select from the SoR archive by Paula, our archivist. As the world still faces continuous wars and the threat of more flaring up in other parts of the world, the thoughts behind conscientious objectors is well worth bring to the forefront of our minds. This one is a must.

     Though we at SoR believe we do a valuable job in creating a wonderful resource of the history of the ordinary people of Glasgow/Clydeside area, and making it easily accessible to the general pubic, we are an independent volunteer group with no affiliation to political parties nor trade unions. That means we need to raise that filthy stuff, money, for all manner of day to day cost of what we do.

        So the other event is a fund raiser where our friends, Thi Wurd will have a slot.The event is built round an event that took place during the miners strike, put together by a group, Artists in Solidarity and was called Writers for Miners. It was held in The Third Eye Centre, now the CCA, in Sauchiehall Street. a group of well know writers, musicians and poets came together  to raise funds for the striking miners. The audio files of the event turned up and with the consent of those performers, we have produced a CD. The event will be the launch of this CD and some of those original performers will performing at this event, with an input from Thi Wurd.

      The CD, which has 21 tracks, comes with a booklet with a description of what Artists in Solidarity was all about, and other interesting information, written by James Kelman, who will also be at this event.

The details of this event are:

Mono, Kings Court, (off King Street, near Trongate.)

Wednesday, 28th November, from 6:00pm

     This will I'm sure, be a wonderful night of great entertainment, an opportunity to hear some great and well known performers do what they do best. More info on this event will be issued from time to time as we approach nearer the time.
       For more info on either of these events you can get in touch via our Contact Page, or  info@spiritofrevolt.info 

On top of these events, the group have managed to put up on their "Read on line" facility an other interesting list of pamphlets/serials/booklets. You can read you way through this interesting and informative list of works from the links below.  

The Charlie Baird Collection

T SOR-6-7-49 The Commune. Vol. II, no. 13. 1929.

T SOR-6-7-55 Poll Tax Handbook.1989.

T SOR-6-7-56  Trades Councils. Joe McDonald. 1930.

T SOR-6-7-57 The Rights of Labour according to John Ruskin. 

T SOR-6-7-58  A Public Nuisance: Tales of adventure & a spirit of revolt, Glasgow Anarchists 1974 to 1986. Jim McFarlane. 

T SOR-6-7-59 The Working Class Against Fascism. G. Dimitrov 1935.

T SOR-6-7-62  Two Pages from Roman History. Daniel De Leon. Socialist Labour Party

T SOR-6-7-66 As We Don’t See It. Solidarity London.  

T SOR-6-7-67  Rent Strike! The Clydebank Rent Struggles of the 1920s. Sean Damer 1982.

T SOR-6-7-77  Feminism As Anarchism. Lynne Farrow. Black Bear Pamphlet No. 2.  

The KM Collection.

T SOR-4-1-18 Echanges: Bulletin of the Network ‘Echanges et Mouvement’. Nos.48&52 1986/1996

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

Couriers United.

       The gig economy, due to its individual workers situation, is very difficult to organise, so they suffer at the hands of their bosses, with lousy conditions and poor pay. However, as usual workers can show imagination and solidarity in overcoming these difficulties by coming together. The couriers have come together and organised themselves via the IWW and are now in a position to challenge some of the injustices that plague their employment conditions. Though they are organised and taking a stand, they still need the support and solidarity of everybody that suffers under the yoke of this unjust capitalist system. Show your support by getting involved.

 

 

From an IWW Couriers Network member:

        As you’ve probably heard, this Thursday, 4th October, gig economy food couriers in the IWW Couriers Network will be striking across the UK (in over 7 different cities) for £5.00 an hour per delivery. We’ve chosen to strike on the 4th because it’s the same day that workers in the food industry are striking across the UK, in McDonalds, Wetherspoons and TGIFridays. Couriers in the Glasgow network have officially voted to join the strike.  

       I’m reliably informed by a fellow IWW member that this is the first nationwide strike action called by the UK IWW, ever, so this action is BIG.

         As this is so historic, and we’re a fighting union, we’re pleading with branch members to get involved with this strike as much as they possibly can. If you’ve never come to an IWW event before, this strike is going to be the perfect time to make your debut. We need a turnout at pre-strike organising sessions and on the strike itself like we’ve never seen before to make this a success! Here’s how you can get involved: 

        1. Come to the pre-strike leafleting session on Wednesday 3rd October,  meeting outside McDonalds Argyle Street/Jamaica Street crossroads, 5:15pm.

          We’ll be leafleting key restaurants and telling workers about the strike. No experience, skill or materials needed at all! See the ‘Talking Points’ section at the bottom of this email for advice about what we’ll be saying and some info about working for UberEats/ the context of the strike.

        2. Come to the strike itself! There will be two demos, 12pm and 6pm in George Square

         This is the most important one. We need as many members at these two demos as possible. After assembling in the square, we’ll be picketing key restaurants. Bring your bikes if you want to be involved in a flying picket!

        3. Share the word on social media

         On the run up to, and on the day itself, we need you to be posting on all your social media channels about the strike, using the hashtag #FFS410 [FFS410 stands for Fast Food Strike 4th October, if you were wondering!]

       Thanks for your support, FWs! If you have any questions, feel free to email me! See you on Wednesday/on the picket line!

Solidarity,

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