Uncle Willie.

My Uncle Willie.

         To those who know me there will be no doubt in their minds about my hatred of the economic system we bleed under. In my eighties now, I have seen this system destroy individuals, tear families apart, and in its voracious greed for profit and power, it has murdered and maimed countless millions in its endless wars. Each individual destroyed, each family torn apart, each war grave, and each veterans hospital are all indictments against a system where people are sacrificed to keep the system functioning for the benefit of a small cabal of over privileged parasites. You would think that our humanity would demand that the system should be altered, modified and shaped to meet the needs of the the people, not the other way round.
        As we look at this society we can see all around us, those unfortunate individuals whose lives are deeply scarred by a system that uses people to perpetuate its greed driven machinations. It is so easy to encapsulate the ruthless viciousness of the system in one person's life, to me my uncle Willie is such a person. To the system, a nobody, a human being of no significance, but to those around him, a father, a son, a brother, a husband and an uncle.
        My uncle Willie was my mother's younger brother, naturally I didn't know him in his early years, but I heard the stories. Willie, like the rest of my family, lived in Garngad, a Glasgow slum in the north of the city. A young man in his 20’s, he was married and had three kids, and like so many of that era, unemployed. It seems that Willie was a family man and loved his kids, he could be seen most days walking with them along the waste ground off Charles Street at the back of Glenconner Park, usually two kids running in front and the youngest on his shoulders. It seems he was an excellent snooker/billiards player, and that is where he supplemented his income, by playing round the many snooker halls in Glasgow. However to the system, he was superfluous to requirements, so could scrape a living in the slums of Glasgow as best he could. 

 

       Then, suddenly, he is a valuable asset to the system, 1939, WWII starts, and Willie is scooped up and shipped out to Egypt. We no nothing of his experiences there, but after three years there and later his demob, he returned home with malaria, this is when I got to know him, just a little. His shaking hands, the troubled look in his eyes. His return to civilian life didn't get off to a good start, on returning home to his family, of wife and three kids, he discovered that he now had five kids. This was the end of his marriage, the family broke up, and Willie moved from job to job, and his drinking got worse and he eventually couldn't hold a job, he was now an alcoholic and homeless. Moving from homeless hostel to homeless hostel, occasionally staying with family, but his alcoholism made that an ever decreasing possibility.
       I remember my mother, a church goer and anti-drink woman, on many an occasion, looking out the window and saying, “Oh here's Willie coming”, then a pause, then, “he doesn't look too drunk”. He would sit and chat to his big sister and myself, my mother would make him something to eat and give a cup of tea. Though it was never a full cup of tea, his hands were shaking so bad it would have been all over him, she only quarter filled the cup and kept topping it up, it was his troubled eyes that have stuck with me all these years, as he was leaving, my mother would slip a 10 shilling note into his hand. 

 

       Willie spent the rest of his years moving around hostels for the homeless, eventually dying in one down in Ardrossan in his fifties. To me, my uncle Willie epitomises this stinking system, you're a worthless entity, left to rot unless the system needs you, either to make its profits, or to fight its imperialist wars, and your reward for either of these activities, if anything at all, is never anything grand, usually nothing or suffering.

 

The Warmth of a Dream.

 

He lay in a dark doorway, dreamed of home,

night frost locked his joints

morning rain chilled the marrow of his bones.

In the dream there was a sister, 

a pram in a garden, a crowd of youngsters

who called him "mister", a time of little pain.

Are these youngsters the same young men, who

now laugh at him, throw beer cans, 

piss on him as he lies drunk in some dark lane?

When was that first step to no forgiveness.

No will to rise to beg for food,

numbness kills the pain.

The dream brings a warmth that feels good,

dark fog shades out consciousness,

an ambulance carries off a body washed in rain.

 

 

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

Two Faced Society.

        Wrote this little piece five years ago, I like to drag these past rants out just to see what has changed. However over my 86 years I have heard all these promises of pie in the sky spewing from the mouths of our political ballerinas, over and over again, "We will eradicate the scourge of child poverty", "We will end homelessness in X number of years", but nothing much changes. These two-faced careerists either have very short memories or are just barefaced liars. They know it has all been promised before and they know that these inhumane injustices are still with us today, and if we continue with the present system they will be with us tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow.

My rant form 10 January 2016. 

        This winter may have been mild, but it is Scotland, and it is winter, cold and damp, not the sort of conditions anyone should find themselves homeless. While our parasitical politicians tell how well everything is doing, spouting, everything is on the up and up, some facts contradict that propaganda. The number of homeless people is rising, rising homelessness can never equate with an improving society. Glasgow City Mission, a charity that helps provide temporary shelter for homeless people, claims to have had a 60%+ increase in the number of rough-sleepers seeking a bed for the night. The charity claimed that, December 2015, saw 711 individuals came to them seeking a bed, compared with 437 December 2014. The quietest night this December saw 14 individuals seek a bed for the night, last December that figure was 4. While the busiest December night this year the figure was 31, compared with last December when there were 21.

 

        Not a very flattering picture of Glasgow, Scotland's largest city, and an indictment of the system we live under. Glasgow has an abundance of glossy, glitzy, shopping malls, lots of fancy expensive restaurants, car parks littered with luxury cars, yet hunger and homelessness stalks its streets. Under the neon lights a doorway can be a shelter from the cold and damp, a dark lane, a bed for the night. There is an invisible army of enforced hungry, lurking in the shadows of abundance. It is totally unacceptable that hunger's vicious claws tear at an individual a hands throw away from a warehouse of food. It is totally unacceptable that someone should lay their head on cold wet stone for a bed, when the city abounds in empty accommodation.

        This cruel injustice is the law of capitalism, no matter your needs, you will have to do without, if you can't pay. You can't be provided for if there is no profit in it for somebody. In this insane system, you can die from hypothermia and/or hunger, while shelter lies empty, and food rots next door. Why do we tolerate this?

         The figures may be different today but the injustice and inhumane callous cruelty persists, ah, that's capitalism for you. With the present pandemic creating a whirlwind of unemployment and austerity, we can expect the usual result from capitalism, more child poverty, and more homelessness to help to "balance the books".

The Homeless

 
Tenebrous spectres, they exist, out there,
on the crumbling edge of chaos.
A father, a son, a brother,
a daughter, a sister, a mother.
Fragments of some shattered family structure;
waste products
from a society being driven to destruction
by a hurricane of greed,
living a life that wears out life,
dying,
the devious death of exhaustion from existence.

http://radicalglasgowblog.blogspot.co.uk/.../wealth-and...

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

UK Poverty.

 

        The following is a comment left on one of my posts by Loam, thanks comrade. It refers to a documentary made by John Pilger, a number of years ago, read it, and think what has changed in the years since, basically the poverty and deprivation is still there, it looms large like a huge scar on the face of our unequal and unjust society. Then try to contemplate what things will be like in the coming years, after listening to our Chancellor of the Exchequer, with his wage freeze for millions of ordinary people and his talk of "hard times" ahead. How can we let that happen when millions are living in "hard times" now and in the past, with 25% of our kids living below the poverty level, and any deepening of the "hard times" would certainly lead to more homelessness, destitution and death, stunted development for millions of our kids. Perhaps we should be asking those who predict and manage these "hard times", how it will affect them and their privileged families. Ask how many of their kids will go to school hungry, how many of their wives will consider taking to prostitution to feed their kids. Of course we should also ask, what gives them the right to plunge millions into poverty, to stunt the health and development of millions of kids while they maintain their pampered, privileged position of power and wealth. Do you know the answer to that question?

 

The Warmth of a Dream 

 

He lay in a dark doorway, dreamed of home,

night frost locked his joints

morning rain chilled the marrow of his bones.

In the dream there was a sister,

a pram in a garden, a crowd of youngsters

who called him "mister", a time of little pain.

Are these youngsters the same young men, who

now laugh at him, throw beer cans,

piss on him as he lies drunk in some dark lane?

When was that first step down this slippery slope,

when was that first step to no forgiveness.

No will to rise to beg for food,

numbness kills the pain.

The dream brings a warmth that feels good,

dark fog shades out consciousness,

an ambulance carries off a body washed in rain.

       “Tonight, more than two million parents will go to bed hungry in order to give their children something to eat… for the first time since the Great Depression, Britain – the so-called Welfare State – is deliberately cutting back the means of survival of its poorest, and their children.” Children growing up in poverty is the subject of Smashing Kids, 1975. John Pilger meets the Hopwoods, of Liverpool, where hunger has become a way of life during father Harry’s unemployment as his family of five survive on £1 a day. The wallpaper in their council house is torn and there are no clothes in the couple’s wardrobe and no sheets on their bed. The family have never had a holiday and Harry tells Pilger: “It would be easier to serve time than to put up with this.” Frank Field, director of the Child Poverty Action Group and later a Labour MP, says benefits from the unemployed are falling in real terms and many families struggle to feed their children. The Brunsdens, of Hackney, east London, are one of these and have just been served with notice to quit their council house for not paying rent. Mother Irene shockingly tells Pilger that she would have to resort to prostitution “if my baby really, really needed something to eat and I didn’t have a penny”. Another mother says she does not mark her younger children’s birthdays because “they’re too young to know anyway”. Pilger points out that the current Labour government’s planned increases in social benefits will be wiped out by inflation, “imposing a direct threat to the survival of the growing number of the poor”. Smashing Kids, 1975 (Pilger, ATV), ITV, 14 August 1975 Producer-director: John Ingram (26 mins)

Smashing Kids from John Pilger on Vimeo.

https://vimeo.com/17187548 

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

Tomorrow!

      Artists paint pictures, so do poets and writers, but figures can also paint a picture. So let's take some figures and try to paint a picture of what lies ahead of us in the UK after covid19 .
         Bank of England unemployment predictions, 2019 3.8%, 2020 8.6% 2021 11.0%
Another prediction:
Unemployment could hit 15 per cent in UK hit by second coronaviruswave

Dark picture even before covid19:

       March 2020 An extra 1.5 million children will have been pitched into poverty by 2021 as a consequence of the government’s austerity programme, according to a study of the impact of tax and benefit policy by the Equality and Human Rights Commission.

      The EHRC study forecasts dramatic increases in poverty rates among children in lone parent and minority ethnic households, families with disabled children and households with three or more children. There are clear winners and losers from austerity tax and benefits changes since 2010, the study says. The regressive nature of the policies means that low-income families have been hit hardest: the poorest fifth will lose 10% of income by 2021, while the wealthiest fifth will see little or no change.

After covid19: 

COVID-19 Impact: 50 per cent of UK households believe they will struggle to meet their financial commitments over the next three months.
       In the first three weeks after the UK government introduced the ‘lockdown’, an estimated 7 million households (a quarter of all households in the UK) had lost either a substantial part or all of their earned income as a consequence of the COVID-19 crisis. The immediate consequences of the crisis for UK households are seen in the large numbers (28 per cent) who were experiencing financial difficulties. An estimated 3.1 million households were in serious financial difficulty and a further 4.8 million households were clearly struggling to make ends meet. Anxiety about money was widespread, with half of all householders saying that thinking about their financial situation made them anxious.
Key findings:

• 3.1 million households are in serious financial difficulty
• 4.8 million households are struggling to make ends meet
• 7 million have lost a significant part of their earnings
• 7.7 million households anticipate some fall in income in the next 3 months
• 10.4 million households are potentially exposed financially
  

On housing: 

• Of those in serious financial difficulty, 64% are renting
• 31% are home owners
  

      These are some of the findings from a national COVID-19 financial impact tracker published by Standard Life Foundation, which were analysed by the University of Bristol’s Emeritus Professor Elaine Kempson, and Christian Poppe at Oslo Metropolitan university.  
      Professor Kempson will be leading the series of monthly surveys, designed to track the ongoing impact of the COVID-19 crisis on household economies. The analysis and reporting is being undertaken by Bristol in collaboration with other researchers, including academics at Oslo Metropolitan University.You can download the full report here.

      Theeconomic fallout of the pandemic could leave 1.1 million more people below the pre-Covid poverty line at year end, including a further 200,000 children, according to analysis released today (Thursday) by the IPPR think tank.

      Well there's a picture of tomorrow, do you feel that it is as it should be, or do you accept that the capitalist system has failed, as usual, to see to the needs of the ordinary people? If so, what are we going to do about its failure? Reformed is impossible, remove is the only answer.

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

Homeless.

        The Covid19 pandemic has many dark strands that will shade many lives for years to come. The shadow that it casts over America stretches across the oceans with the UK in its perimeter.  When money is the basis of your society you can expect the managers of the system to be completely ruthless in the safeguarding of that particular commodity. Wealth and power are paramount health and well-being are secondary. That's the essence of capitalism.

The following from The Conversation:

        The United States is on the verge of a potentially devastating eviction crisis right in the middle of a deadly pandemic. Federal, state and local eviction moratoriums had put most of the pending cases on hold. But as the moratoriums expire and eviction hearings resume, millions of people are at risk of losing their homes.
      That’s because the court process is heavily skewed towards the needs of landlords and offers few protections for tenants – a problem that has been going on for decades, as my ongoing research on the process of evictions shows.
       Early in the pandemic, as states shut down their economies, tens of millions of people lost all or part of their incomes, with poorer Americans suffering the greatest losses.
        Worried about a wave of evictions, the federal government and many cities and states imposed moratoriums in an effort to prevent a crisis. Some states went further and provided financial assistance directly to renters, while Congress provided aid in the form of economic impact checks and enhanced unemployment benefits.
      Financial assistance to tenants is important because landlords have also been hurt by the economic effects of the pandemic. Part of preventing an eviction crisis and maintaining affordable housing means helping tenants pay their rent in order to ensure that landlords can pay their mortgages and other costs.

       All this aid has helped ensure greater financial and housing stability for people affected by COVID-19. But the federal benefits have now expired, and many eviction moratoriums have lapsed or will do so soon. As a result, as many as 26 million people are believed to be at risk of losing their homes in the coming months.
      This comes on top of the many other economic and health effects of the pandemic that have hit low-income Americans – especially women of color who have children – the hardest.
      Unfortunately, not even an extension of the moratoriums or financial assistance alone can solve this problem. Eventually, tenants will have to pay back their landlords and, if they can’t, will have to go to court to avoid losing their homes. In most cases, they’ll lose.

Read the full article HERE:

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

The Perennial Question.

The Warmth Of A Dream.

He lay in a dark doorway, dreamed of home,

night frost locked his joints

morning rain chilled the marrow of his bone.

In the dream there was a sister,

a pram in a garden, a crowd of youngsters

who called him "mister", a time of little pain.

Are these youngsters the same young men, who

now laugh at him, throw beer cans,

piss on him as he lies dunk in some dark lane?

When was that first step down this slippery slope,

when was that first step to no forgiveness.

No will to rise to beg for food,

numbness kills the pain.

The dream brings a warmth that feels good,

dark fog shades out consciousness,

an ambulance carries off a body washed in rain.

       Homelessness is back in the news again, with our new bunch of pampered, privileged parasitical government ministers in control spouting how they are going to resolve this problem and the money they will throw at it. At the tender young age of 85, 86 next month, I wish I could remember how many governments I have heard spew out this mantra, but the problem still remains. It is the same with child poverty, each new bunch of political ballerinas pledges how they will end the scourge of child poverty, alas-alack, it is still with us. 

      It is now being stated that the official figures for homeless are inaccurate and a gross under estimate, as if we didn't know. The truth being that the true number of homeless in this country as away far beyond "shocking", it is a criminal indictment against the system. Homelessness is a rather tame word, it belies the underlying world contained in that simple word. The true meaning of homelessness is, a miserable existence, a life of anxiety, a blighted life, a damaged health, a stunted potential, and in many cases an early death.

      As long as wealth governs quality of life, there will be those with no quality of life, such a system breeds and fosters homelessness. Glasgow is no stranger to this avoidable punishment inflicted on some unfortunate individuals and families.  

      This from Glasgow Live:

 

       New figures have revealed an increase in the number of homeless deaths in Glasgow.
     Statistics published today by the National Records of Scotland show there were 100.5 estimated deaths per million population in Glasgow in 2018, considerably more than any other city in Scotland. This compares to 63.5 estimated deaths per million in Glasgow in 2017.
     Aberdeen was second behind our city in terms of the 2018 stats, with 67.8 estimated deaths per million. The Scottish average was found to be 35.9. East Renfrewshire was the only council area with no homeless deaths in either year.
    Meanwhile, there were an estimated 195 deaths of people experiencing homelessness across the country in 2018, an increase from the 2017 figure of 164. Scotland had the highest rate of homeless deaths of all GB countries in 2018, with a rate of 35.9 per million population compared to 16.8 in England and 14.5 in Wales.

   Should I see another 85 years and we are still persisting with the same economic system, then I will still be hearing how our lords and master are going to get rid of child poverty and end homelessness. Surely by now anyone with a shred of intelligence and a slight grasp of our history would come to the conclusion that this present economic capitalist system can't solve our problems and has to be demolished once and for all.

The Homeless. 

Tenebrous spectres, they exist,   out there,

on the crumbling edge of chaos.

A father, a son, a brother,

a daughter, a sister, a mother.

Fragments of some shattered family structure;

waste products

from a society being driven to destruction

by a hurricane of greed

living a life that wears out life,

dying,

the devious death of exhaustion from existence.  

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

American Dream.

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

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

A couple of videos and extracts from Peak Prosperity: 

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

And:

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

Read the full article HERE:

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

Homelssnes Midst Opulence.

  

     So winter is biting, wrap up, keep warm and stay in if it gets worse. However, what do you do if you are homeless and sleeping rough. Doorways, bridges, benches and lanes don't have thermostats to adjust. It is absolutely criminal that a society can let people die on our streets simple because they don't have a roof over their heads. The figures for deaths from sleeping rough in the UK are a national disgrace, an indictment against the unjust, unequal system we tolerate.

       In 2018, 726 homeless people died in England and Wales, that's up 22% on 2017, and up 24% over the last 5 years. Data from the Museum of Homeless, states that a homeless person dies every 19 hours in the UK.

        From Wikipedia: Crisis estimates there are roughly 12,300 rough sleepers in the UK and also 12,000 people sleeping in sheds, bins, cars, tents and night busses. The figure is derived from research by Heriot-Watt University. Rough sleeping has risen by 98% since 2010, sleeping in tents and the like rose 103%. In England rough sleeping rose by 120%, in Wales it rose by 75% and in Scotland it fell by 5%. 

      Homelessness is the stepping stone to sleeping rough. Because of deliberate government policies, the number of homeless people is rising fast, so it follows that the number of rough sleepers will also continue to rise rapidly.

From Wikipedia: 

       The UK homeless charity Shelter put the 2017 figure for the whole of the UK's homeless at 300,000, including people in temporary accommodation.^[1][2] The charity, Crisis attributes rising homelessness to a shortage of social housing, housing benefits not covering private rents and there not being homeless prevention schemes for people leaving care.

        None of these figures are the result of unavoidable events, none are unforeseen accidents, these figures are the direct result of ideology, government decisions based on economics that suits big business, carried out by people who are immune to the devastation of their profit driven greed. We are the 6th richest country on the planet, we can afford the latest and most expensive weaponry, we can fund wars, and our lords and masters tour the world in luxury yachts, private jets, and live in opulent mansions, but we can't house our people. Don't you think that there is something wrong?

THE WARMTH OF A DREAM.

 
He lay in a dark doorway, dreamed of home,
night frost locked his joints
morning rain chilled the marrow of his bone.
In the dream there was a sister,
a pram in a garden, a crowd of youngsters
who called him “mister”, a time of little pain.
Are these youngsters the same young men, who
now laugh at him, throw beer cans,
piss on him as he lies drunk in some dark lane?
When was that first step down this slippery slope,
when was that first step to no forgiveness.
No will to rise to beg for food,
numbness kills the pain.
The dream brings a warmth that feels good,
dark fog shades out consciousness,
an ambulance carries off a body washed in rain.

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

Expropriation.

 

      Housing has become one of the many crises in our money orientated society. Our system has always pushed the illusion that we all should have a safe home to live and bring up our families. However for the ordinary people it is becoming obvious that it is indeed an illusion. We have always struggle to keep a roof over our heads, rents have always increased and sometimes shot up. Now however houses are financial assets to large financial institutions, things to be packaged and traded among the financial Mafia. There is no thought to what a house actually is, a place to have a decent life, a safe place to lay your head.

     A housing shortage keeps demand ahead of supply and therefore keeps prices rising, all music to the financier's ears. Rents keep out stripping income, homelessness keeps rising and the financial Mafia keep laughing all the way to the bank, to their luxury yacht, and to their opulent mansion. That's capitalism for you.

     It is encouraging to see that in some places people are taking action against this brutal exploitation of what is a human right, a safe place to lay your head. In Germany there is a movement to break this landlord rule over their lives. Others perhaps could take note and follow suit.

 This from Roar Magazine.

       Berlin’s spatial dynamics and organized working class show how to secure liveable spaces and combat the financial nature of housing: socialize them.

         Over the last few decades, housing in cities around the world has undergone unprecedented financialization and artificial speculation. Investors have never been richer. The worldwide value of the current real estate market is $217 trillion, 36 times worth the value of all the gold ever mined.

Profits from the commodification of the housing market have skyrocketed in step with the enclosure of spaces and the fixing of financial value to them. Living spaces are now complex financial products that can be packaged up into investment funds and swapped by companies across the world.

       As Raquel Rolnik, former special rapporteur to the UN on adequate housing, attests, “In the new political economy, centered around housing as a means of access to wealth, the home becomes a fixed capital asset whose value resides in its expectation of generating more value in the future, depending on the oscillations of the (always assumed) rise of real-estate prices.”

       Berlin has been the epicenter of the emerging struggle against capital, giving birth to a rebellious housing movement. A city-wide referendum is underway to expropriate “mega-landlords” with 3,000 apartments or more. If successful, the campaign could tip the scales away from speculation and essentially decommodify 250,000 apartments. In Berlin, tenants and housing activists are building upon shared struggle to break capital’s control over the home and democratize how and where we live.

Read the full article HERE: 

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

To Weather Seasons Such As These.

      Two very recent reported incidents from within our very rich country that should make us all rise up and  crush this pitiless economic system of greed and inequality.

    One is the recent case of a man dying in a carpark in Glasgow in sub-zero temperatures, the other a man dies in the job centre after being told he is fit for work. What kind of society can tolerate this inhumanity? these are not isolated cases. Deaths from the cruelty of the universal credit system runs into thousands, deaths among the homeless runs into hundreds. These are not accidents, these are the result of deliberate policies legislated by people with lots of money and in most cases at least two homes, our political ballerinas. all of them well shielded from the ravages of their ideological policies.

     William Shakespeare's words from "Seasons Such As These" are probably very apt for our times as they were in his:

Poor naked wretches, wherese're you are
that hide the pelting of this pityless storm,
how shall your houseless heads and unfed sides,
your looped and windowed raggedness, defend you
from seasons such as these.

 

       Homelessness is not a failing of the individual, it is the abject failure of the system we tolerate, but for how much longer, for how many more avoidable deaths?

The Warmth Of A dream. 

He lay in a dark doorway, dreamed of home,
night frost locked his joints
morning rain chilled the marrow of his bone.
In the dream there was a sister,
a pram in a garden, a crowd of youngsters
who called him “mister”, a time of little pain.
Are these youngsters the same young men, who
now laugh at him, throw beer cans,
piss on him as he lies drunk in some dark lane?
When was that first step down this slippery slope,
when was that first step to no forgiveness.
No will to rise to beg for food,
numbness kills the pain.
The dream brings a warmth that feels good,
dark fog shades out consciousness,
an ambulance carries off a body washed in rain.

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

Depressed, Probably Suffering From Capitalism.

The real shape of the UK:

At least '320,000 people homeless in Britain'
Fifth of people in working UK household trapped in relative poverty.
There were 4.1 million children living in poverty in the UK in 2017-18.
There are expected to be 5.2 million children living in poverty in the UK by 2022
47% of children living in lone-parent families are in poverty.
Children from Black and minority ethnic groups are more likely to be in poverty: 45 per cent are now in poverty, compared with 26 per cent of children in White British families.
London the richest city in UK has the highest rate of child poverty in the UK.
70 per cent of children growing up in poverty live in a household where at least one person works.

Figures show a homeless person dying every 19 hours in UK.

       This is the true picture of capitalist Britain, poverty, rough sleeping and homelessness are part and parcel of a very large slice of the population of this country. There isn't much good you can say about capitalism, unless of course you are one of the millionaire/billionaire exploiters that control the system. However, you can of course list a catalogue of its negative aspects. These vary from the brutal deprivation of millions of humans, the abject poverty of millions more, and of course its endless lists of wars for resources, markets and power. These all happen on a vast scale affecting us all across the planet, but there is also the individual problems less associated with this unjust economical system.

     Across the developed world, that part that is considered the lucky part of the world, there is an ever increase in mental health problems, rises in self-harm, suicides and substance abuse. More and more people feel anxious, depressed and isolated these can all be traced back to the type of society we live in, a capitalist economy where injustice, inequality and the constant fear of poverty have created a state of anxiety that can become normal, the accepted way of life. Capitalism doesn't just affect your purse and standard of living, it can also decimate your physical and mental health, without you realising the root cause. 

      A society freed from the greed drive profit motive that sees to the needs of all our people, would go a long way to eliminate these personal problems of physical and mental health.

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

Inequality, The Hallmark Of Capitalism.

       Remember the Celtic Tiger, when the Irish economy supposedly raced ahead? In a sane society that should have went everybody is doing well, but in capitalist insanity, it tends to lead to increase homelessness and fatter parasites. Since then homelessness in Ireland, like in the UK, has soared. The boom economy has in no way eradicated poverty and homelessness, nor will it ever. History has proven time and time again, that running to the ballot box produces more of the same, fatter parasites and poorer people. If we desire a society of fairness and justice, then we have to accept that the capitalist system is inherently flawed. It is incapable of delivering that better world for all, it was never intended to do so, it was always meant to delivery riches to the few, and it works perfectly in doing just that. We have to look to an alternative to capitalism if we wish that better world for all. A community based system of co-operation, mutual aid, and sustainability, a system freed from the greed driven profit motive, free from state, corporate bosses and the financial Mafia. That will not be gifted to us, asking your slave-master to be fair to you has never worked, the powerful and wealthy will not willing give up their privileged position in favour of a fairer society. We, the ordinary people will have to dismantle their system, illusion by illusion, injustice by injustice. That better world will not be delivered in bunch of roses, it will take determination, effort, sweat and the will of all our people, it is, and will continue to be, a war, a class war until we eliminate the capitalist system from the face of the earth.

     From Dublin via Act For Freedom Now:

       On a night in May, 2 banks, Bank of Ireland and an AIB were vandalized in South Dublin. Slogans of “HOMES FOR ALL”, “BURN THE BANKS”, and “CLASS WAR” spray painted on windows and walls. Also 4 ATM’s were glued up, how this was done was by using cardboard the same thickness, width, and half the length of an ATM card, inserted into the card slot and then super glue pored in.
This was done in solidarity with all those who are on the receiving end of the so called “housing crisis”. This so called “crisis” for housing has been raging as long as capitalism has existed, although now the struggle for housing is at a particularly brutal period. There are record number of people homeless in Ireland, there is over 10,000 and over 3,000 are children (these numbers don’t include the hidden homeless). Since 2015, families becoming homeless has risen 268%, and many, many people have died frozen to death sleeping on the streets.
        This crisis in housing is completely man made. It’s made from the greed of landlords pushing rents higher and higher, the property developers buying up land and buildings for dirt cheap and then selling the properties for sky high prices, and the Irish state implementing neoliberal reforms and policies. It is no coincidence that while the economy rises and the building construction kicks off again across Dublin so to does the ever growing amount of people becoming homeless.
All the while the politicians of the Left and Right compete and beg for votes with the upcoming elections. The political establishment don’t care, they just want positions of power. Whether radical leftie or far right dickheads, they are all the same and want the same. The lefties and fascists have their populist schemes and “solutions” to end homelessness and the housing problem. But you can be sure regardless of whoever gets voted in things will stay exactly the same. Politicians, parties, and unions ALWAYS compromise. There will be no end to the housing struggle on till capitalism ceases to exist.

Neither, Politicians, leaders, bosses, nor bureaucrat:
for self-organization in struggle against power
FUCK THE LEFT, FUCK THE RIGHT, FUCK POLITICS

LONG LIVE ANARCHY
THE SINISTER FRINGE

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

Callous, Cruel, Capitalism,

       An all too common aspect of capitalism is its continuing gentrification of our town and city centres, and the commercialisation of all open spaces within the towns and cities. This is not peculiar to any one country, it is the global design being forced on the ordinary people. The result being the eviction of those who can't afford to stay in the new up-market, tourist orientated commercial centres. They are horded out to the periphery, usually in large depressing housing estates, where they are left to see their surroundings deteriorate because of austerity and endemic poverty.

       Within the glossy town and city centres there is homelessness and rough sleeping, while property lies empty waiting for the lucrative offer that fits into their glitzy commercial plan, and makes its owners much richer. Any humane attempt to bring the homeless and empty property together, will be met with the full force of the state's minders, the police. People are away down the ladder of concern when compared with profit. This is the only way capitalism can functioning, amassing wealth for the few at the expense of the many, and it will defend this aspect of its purpose with lies, propaganda and brute force.

     However, across the globe people are resisting this frontal attack orchestrated by the commercial/financial Mafia aided and abetted by the state. 

This from Enough is Enough:

     Berlin, German territory: Today (April 6, Enough 14), after the #Mietenwahnsinn (rent madness) -demonstration, the empty Bizim Bakkal shop was squatted, which had been empty for 4 years. Berlin police evacuated without a valid eviction title, without contact to the owner and using massive force against activists, journalists and parliamentary observers.
Originally published by Besetzen. Edited machine translation by Enough 14. Imahe above byZecko Twitter account.
       Last year, we occupied several houses, apartments and shops, all of which were evicted by the Senate and the Berlin police except one apartment in Großbeerenstraße. We see ourselves as part of a movement that is defending itself against Berlin increasingly developing into a city for the rich. A city in which social participation and place of residence depend on income and in which every square centimetre is used. The city is losing its open spaces, and Berlin’s neighborhoods are increasingly shaped by tourism, consumption and property speculation. Despite many promises regarding housing policy, the Senate is only watching or even actively helping in this process of displacement.

pic.twitter.com/CpyWgnuwKW— andi.waffen (@lamda14) 6. April 2019

      Today, 40,000 people took to the streets in a demonstration against rent madness and displacement. How have the demands, which were also supported by parts of the Berlin Senate, been put into practice and how have we begun to get our neighbourhood back? Many demonstrators joined this project on the spot in Wrangelstraße.
      This made it all the more dramatic how the Senate dealt with such practical forms of action. After the police were first prevented from entering by demonstrators present, the police violently cleared blockades in front of the shop and smashed the door of Wrangelstr. 77. The people in the shop, as well as the demonstrators in front, were arrested and many activists and solidary neighbours present were injured by batons and pepper spray. Members of the House of Representatives as well as members of the Bundestag and journalists were also violently prevented from exercising their right of observation by the police. Senator of the Interior Andreas Geisel was informed about the police operation and is politically responsible for it.

pic.twitter.com/MRZf8GPNP8— andi.waffen (@lamda14) 6. April 2019
        Press spokeswoman Alisia Ney: “Today’s eviction without an eviction title is a new stage of escalation and shows that the state is not even abiding by its own rules. Yet every eviction, whether with an eviction title or without injustice, remains in a city where people live on the street while houses are empty.”
      Press spokeswoman Jona Sommer: “Since taking office, the red-red-green Senate has been claiming “The city belongs to you!” Obviously, it belongs to investors and the Berlin police. Either Senator Geisel does not have his riot squads under control or the SPD is now solving its internal government crisis by police. In Wrangelstraße 77 it became clear that a majority of the population supports our concern to set up a non-commercial neighbourhood centre in the shop which has been empty for years. ”
        Both conclude: “We will not let an arbitrary and insane police force, like fickle politicians, stop us from occupying more empty spaces and taking back the city actively and directly. We will continue to occupy until we no longer have to.”  

Besetzen, Berlin, April 6, 2019.

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

     

The UK, Abject Poverty In The Midst Of Obscene Wealth.

      A recent report states that the UK government is presiding over “significant and growing” hunger, the report warns that one in five children in the UK live in homes that are severely food insecure, this is the worst level of child hunger in the EU. The same report states that 2.2 million people in the UK are classed as severely food insecure, this translates into the fact that the UK is responsible for one fifth of all severely food insecure people in the EU.

        So the rich UK has an army of adults and children who are classed as severely food insecure. It has another army luring in the shadows of this corrupt exploitative system, the army of homeless. According to Shelter at least 320,000 people in the UK are homeless. The report also states that this is a year-on-year increase of 13,000, up 4%. It puts the national figure at around 1 in 200 people in the UK as homeless. It also states that these figures are probably an under estimate as it doesn't take into account, the sofa-surfers, those sleeping in sheds and cars etc. 

       Another hallmark of this rich UK society is poverty. The Joseph Rowntree Foundation's recent 2018 report states:

 This research reveals that, in our society: 

• Child poverty has been rising since 2011/12; 
• 4.1 million children are living in poverty, a rise of 500,000 in the last five years; 
• Four million workers are living in poverty –a rise of more than half a million over five years; and 
• In-work poverty has been rising even faster than employment, driven almost entirely by increasing poverty among working parents.

        Then there is that other army of those on benefit being driven to destitution by never ending cuts in social services, a rapidly crumbling health service, and an education system that has vacancies that can't be filled, and a vast number of teachers off with stress.
     All the signs of a poor country, debilitating social conditions that blight the lives of millions, but in this case it is a very rich country and the conditions in the country are created by deliberate choices made by those in power. There is more than sufficient wealth and resources in this country to see to the needs of all our people, the choices are ideologically chosen.
     In the midst of this swamp of poverty and deprivation, our "lords and masters" are spending billions on weaponry. We have had the usual chest thumping and flag waving at the UK's recent acquisition of two monster aircraft carriers, HMS Queen Elizabeth and HMS Prince of Wales. The cost of building these monstrous imperialist weapons of mass destruction is in excess of £6 billion. Of course this is a drop in the bucket to the final cost when completed and fitted out with its fancy super expensive F-35B stealth fighter jets. Each jet comes with an eye-watering price tag of £78 million. The UK with its army of hungry and homeless, is buying 48 of these imperialist testosterone pills to kit out its two mammoth carriers, but is planning to buy a total of 138 to complete its battle group. That would come in somewhere around the £14+ billion, then add a cool  £6+ billion building costs. Thanks Loam for the link. Details of this mad imperialist chest thumping extravaganza here: 
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/50903.htm
         Of course the billions spent on these two brutes of indiscriminate killing machines is just a small fraction the UK spends on weaponry just to be the side-kick of the imperialist USA.
          This shows where the privileged parasites that control this country put their priorities, certainly not in the well being of the people, but in the defence of their power and wealth at the expense of the people.
           In the words of the song, "When will we ever learn---"

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