A Choice?

 

        Do you ever imagine living in a style of life that allows you to come and go as you please, to go where you wish to go, to live your life as you desire, as long as you don't abuse and exploit others? A life of freedom in a world of mutual aid, co-operation and respect for each other, a life based on humanity, compassion and empathy. Of course it is all impossible as long as we live under the ever watchful eye of the state and its need for control, as long as we tolerate our lives to be dominated by the corporate world and its never ending drive for profit and perpetual growth. The two styles face opposite directions and are incompatible, which direction we take is our choice. The state/corporate road requires our obedience and the surrender of our personal desires, it may seem the easiest road to take but leaves you an impoverished human, devoid of who you really are, the other requires a struggle to free our humanity with the prize of that better world for all.

The following from Act For Freedom Now:

STATE CAPITAL MEDIA AND SPECIALISTS 

THEY HAVE FUCKED UP OUR LIVES

STOPPING: house arrest, written petition to get a pre-trial hearing, curfew and assembly, certificates of sanitary legality.
“FREEDOM BUSINESS”: third dose, forced vaccination, and for non-compliant, fines, mandatory rapid tests, work suspensions, firings.
DIVIDE AND CONQUER: imposing a new social division between vaccinated and unvaccinated, between compliant citizens and unruly plebes.
ECONOMIC DIVIDE: telecommuting, working around the clock, wage cuts, unemployment, poverty, price increases in everything that concerns our living (rent, food, electricity, etc.).
WE WILL TAKE IT BACK TO THE BARRICADES
We will take them back to the streets.

 – Rabid for life
Source: Athens Indymedia
via: darknights

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

Tomorrow.

          I, like many others have always stated that this pandemic, obviously a painful and devastating disaster to millions, is also the greatest opportunity we have had in generations to change the way we structure our society. As in all disasters, the human reaches out to help each other, and this one was no different. Mutual aid groups sprang up across the planet, people rallied to help each other without the thought of personal gain or profit, it worked and it felt good. As the pandemic seems to be receding across the planet, we mustn't let that feeling of community fade, we should foster it and struggle to make mutual aid the fabric of our communities. Grow the structure of coming together, see and feel the benefits of mutual aid, and use that structure to change the shape and fabric of our unequal, exploitative, profit driven and destructive society, to one that is sustainable and sees to the needs of all our people, mutual aid is the foundation of that better world we all seek. Mutual aid is humanity, humanity is mutual aid.

The following extract from It's Going Down:

           Report from Mutual Aid Disaster Relief about the massive and deadly impact on the coronavirus epidemic and the importance of continued mutual aid organizing.

        Starting in 2019/2020 and now continuing into the summer of 2021, global civil society is witnessing the biggest neoliberal disaster capitalist shock yet: COVID-19. Millions of people have been and continue to be killed by this unprecedented disaster. Like most catastrophes, those historically oppressed and least responsible for this pandemic are nevertheless those most impacted. The death toll is comparable in magnitude of lives lost to another World War.
         Every age has it’s kairos, those moments of possibility where the fate of humanity and all life on the planet hangs on the smallest of threads. What we choose to do or not do in these moments of twilight has the greatest of consequences. The ancient Greeks had two words for time: chronos and kairos. Chronos was/is chronological or sequential time, while kairos signifies a moment of truth – the time for action – pregnant time. Similarly, crisis, in its etymology, is a turning point, a moment where there are multiple paths in front of us, and we must make choices on which path to walk. The Zapatistas, likewise, taught us about the crack in the wall:

        Most of the time the wall is a big marquee where “P-R-O-G-R-E-S-S” repeats over and over. But the Zapatista knows it’s a lie, that the wall was not always there. They know how it was erected, what its function is. They know its deception. And they also know how to destroy it.
        They are not fazed by the wall’s supposed omnipotence and eternity. They know that both are false. But right now, the important thing is the crack, that it not close, that it expand.

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

My Tribe Is Humanity.

           Most people will openly condemn tribalism, but somehow a considerable number will embrace nationalism, which really is just a bigger tribalism. Nationalism, like tribalism needs to believe that its people are different, and in some way superior to other people outside its proclaimed territory. It also sees others as enemies and a threat to its perceived superior ways and culture. In the face of these “differences” the tribe/nation will always see itself on the higher moral ground. This proclamation of being different denies the existence of the common humanity, that golden thread that should link us all together. The existence of tribalism/nationalism is always a useful tool in the armoury of the wealthy and powerful elite within that given territory, as they can always call on the tribe to defend the elite’s privileges by citing an attack on our, “superior way of life” by “the other”.
         No matter the stupidity and destructiveness of tribalism/nationalism, we all carry some responsibility for its persistence, by our quiet acquiescence. We empower the elite, privileged cabal that fosters and gains from this illusion, by indulging in their voting pantomime, we finance them with our taxes, and many fall in line to fight their territorial wars.
       Embracing tribalism/nationalism is abandoning your individuality, and at the same time your commonality with the rest of humanity, and discarding your right to freedom of choice. At the same time you are endorsing a system of barriers between people, placing people on a scale of divisions according to their territory and culture. Our tribe is humanity, we are all human, we need each other if we are to survive and create that better world for all. We have to bring down the barriers, abandon tribalism/nationalism and make our borders evaporate. This will only happen when we finally destroy capitalism, the economic system that fosters and thrives on these divisions.

 

 Patriotism.

No, I shall not die for the fluttering flag,

if truth be known, ’tis nothing but a multi-coloured rag

held aloft by some foolish hand

inciting worker and peasant to kill

on some green and wooded hill,

peasant and worker from some other land.

Nor shall I shed blood for the fluttering rag

that brings out fools to stand and brag

of brutal deeds painted grand,

deeds where rustic and craftsman lie so still

killed by my brothers' misguided hand.

No allegiance have I for the Nation

this man made autocratic creation

that divides my brothers in a world so small,

binds us to a country's cause, right or wrong,

bids us follow its drum, sing its song,

then sheds our blood in some border brawl.

No, I'll be no slave to flag or nation,

have no ear for power oration,

though its iron heel is on my breast,

my back feels its leather thong,

at patriotism's barracoon, I'll be no guest.

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

Mass Production, Or Self Sufficiency?

       Is our way of life acceptable, or is it a means of our own demise? How do we sort out the mess we have created? We should remember that spaceship Earth has no escape capsule. Mass production, or co-operation and self sufficiency?

Industrial Civilization, Meat Production and Consumption from αδάμαστο on Vimeo.

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

Charlie Is The Man.

      I have posted this before, but it is always worth another airing, it brings a wee glow to the heart.

Post by CRYPTIK.

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

The Resources Are Already There.

    We all know that the world's wealth is very unfairly distributed, and that's putting it mildly. However although most of us are aware of this “unfair” distribution, it is difficult to grasp the extent. The world's population is approximately 7 billion and at the bottom end of this catastrophic unjust distribution of resources, vast swathes of this population live in unimaginable deprivation. While at the top end there is a small group of individuals with wealth that outstrips that of some nations.

    Let's look at the mass that struggle daily for survival and on numerous occasions don't make it beyond childhood. Approximately 1,000 people die from hunger over hour, mostly children or young people. Every 5 seconds a child dies from hunger related diseases, more than 11 million children die each year from preventable health issues such as, pneumonia, malaria, diarrhoea. In this rich and varied world approximately 1.4 billion people in the developing countries have to live on $1.25 a day or less, and it is estimated that 22,000 children die every single day due to poverty.

     At the top end of this unjust greed driven system we have individuals awash in wealth, wealth of unimaginable proportions. The world's GDP is approximately $70 trillion, while 0.1% of the world's population control $42 trillion and 0.001% control $14.6 trillion. There are 100,000 individuals with assets of $30 million or more and we have 11 million individuals with assets of $1 million or more. The top 20% of the world's population control 82.8% of the world's wealth, while the bottom 20% have less that 1%.

     Not by any stretch of the imagination could this be called an endorsement for capitalism, on the contrary it is an indictment against the system. What could you do with that $42 trillion controlled by that 1%? Well for starters it could pay off the entire debt of Greece, Italy, Ireland, Spain and Portugal ten times over. It could fund 187 years of universal primary and secondary education. Or an even greater achievement, it could fund the UN millennium goal for clean water 1,400 times over. It could also fund 250 years of climate change adaptation.

    So what does this tell us? It tells us that we have sufficient wealth and resources to see to the needs of all the people of this world. It is already there, we don't have to dream up where it will come from. The real problem is just that it is in the hands of a very few extremely greedy individuals, and it is the system of capitalism that has brought this about and will perpetuate this unnecessary unjust divide. To solve the problem of deprivation and early death from preventable disease, capitalism has to go and a society based on mutual aid, co-operation created in its place. It is not rocket science, it is common humanity taking place of greed driven profit. 

Most of these figures were gleaned from TNI.org.

ann arky's home.

ANARCHISM - NATURALLY GOOD.

        By anarchist spirit I mean that deeply human sentiment, which aims at the good of all, freedom and justice for all, solidarity and love among the people; which is not an exclusive characteristic only of self-declared anarchists, but inspires all people who have a generous heart and an open mind.

 Errico Malatesta.

ann arky's home.

THOUGHT FOR TODAY.

     

      There are many ways of saying that to get the best from humanity we must treat each other with affection, tenderness, love and respect. These principles are at the root of anarchism and are encapsulated in the terms mutual aid, free association and voluntary co-operation. However to get people to listen to or read long winded statements on political theory can be a daunting task. It would be nice if we could find a phrase or paragraph that said it beautifully, simply and sincerely that perhaps could lead to that change of consciousness and opened people's eyes to the possibilities within anarchism. The following, though far from perfect, does come close and is worth reading over a few times. 

       Most men, even in this comparatively free country, through mere ignorance and mistake, are so occupied with the factitious cares and superfluously coarse labors of life that its finer fruits cannot be plucked by them. Their fingers, from excessive toil, are too clumsy and tremble too much for that. Actually, the laboring man has not leisure for a true integrity day by day; he cannot afford to sustain the manliest relations to men; his labor would be depreciated in the market. He has no time to be anything but a machine. How can he remember well his ignorance--which his growth requires--who has so often to use his knowledge? We should feed and clothe him gratuitously sometimes, and recruit him with our cordials, before we judge of him. The finest qualities of our nature, like the bloom on fruits, can be preserved only by the most delicate handling. Yet we do not treat ourselves nor one another thus tenderly."     Walden-H.D.Thoreau

ann arky's home.

LIVE ON £10 A WEEK???

       How would you live on a £10 food voucher a week and no cash? Add to that the fact that you don't have a place to stay, and you are not allowed to work, then think, how do you survive. Of course you would say that it doesn't happen in this civilised country, it must be some other poorer country in the third world. Of course you are wrong, it is here, and it is now, in one of the richest countries in the world, the UK, and don't let the crap they pump out about the need for “austerity cuts” fool you into thinking that we are not a rich, very rich country. This is the situation of asylum seekers who are going through the appeals process. They receive no state benefits of any kind and are not allowed to work to support themselves. So they sleep rough, here, there and anywhere they can find, the lucky ones get bedding down on a friend's couch or floor for a night or two.

        Mr Joseph Nibizi, Manager of the Red Cross destitution clinic where the weekly food vouchers are given out, said that he has seen the number of destitute asylum seekers queueing up for emergency help grow from 860 in January to 1,400 in July. This type of treatment of a human being is a slow form of state execution, no body can survive such conditions, especially in the recent winters we have had. Mr Nibizi, stated that, “These are human beings. They should be given their basic needs.” Of course we all know that in a civilised society they would be allowed to work and contribute and their needs would be seen to, that's what you call being civilised. Any society that treats a human being in such a fasion is away off the civilisation radar, and if we stand by and allow this without a protest and a demand for justice and humanity for all, then we also are away off the civilisation radar.

     You can read the story of one such asylum seeker at Guardian UK.

ann arky's home.