Rioting & Looting.

 

      With conditions for the ordinary people growing more drastic by the day and the powerful movement of Black Lives Matter, it is obvious that we will see more protests on the streets of countries across the globe. Often these protest morph into riots and looting, sometimes the rioting and looting is provoked deliberately by the police. There will always be those moralists who sit in the wings who preach, "why don't you just hold a peaceful protest, sing your chants, wave you banner and placards, then just go home?"

       No matter whether the police provoke the violence or not, there has to be a deep rooted anger and feeling of injustice, underlying these actions of "rioting" and "looting".

       This position is eloquently explained with passion and sincerity by Kimberly Jones. Listen and think about what she is saying. She may be talking about Afro Americans, but the same principles apply to  the ordinary people of this world and the pampered, privileged parasite class, that hold the reins in this economic system of exploitation. Thanks Loam for the link.

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Lives Matter.

       "Black Lives Matter" was a call that was long over due and certainly a worthy cause. The injustice and brutality that this group of people suffered because of the colour of their skin was vicious and blatant inhumanity. Then again, this entire system is based on injustice and inhumanity, I fear however that the cry for justice for one group, no matter how deserving, takes the focus off all the other injustices that riddle this flawed system. We have gross child poverty, extreme over surveillance, out of control policing, persecution of "whistle blowers", a judicial system that favours the wealthy, homelessness, evictions, unemployment, over crowded prisons, detention centres for migrants fleeing death and persecution, crumbling social services, a decaying education system, we have highly mechanised armies of our youth dying while creating havoc and bloodshed in other countries, at the dictate of the pampered and privileged few. We have a class of wealthy, powerful parasites who manage this system, are aware of the savagery, inequality and injustice, but they rely on them to uphold and bolster their over privileged position. We may get "justice" for black lives, to the phony standard of justice within this unjust system, then what? It would be another paracetamol for the people, making them feel better, but doing nothing to cure the ills that plague them.  

    Isn't it time we all cried, "Human Lives Matter", and start to dismantle this entire system of injustice, inequality, inhumanity and brutality, and get rid of that class of pampered, privileged parasites that grow fat from these cogs of their inhumane system.

 Quote from John W. Whitehead:

     The powers-that-be want us to believe that our job as citizens begins and ends on Election Day. They want us to believe that we have no right to complain about the state of the nation unless we’ve cast our vote one way or the other. They want us to remain divided over politics, hostile to those with whom we disagree politically, and intolerant of anyone or anything whose solutions to what ails this country differ from our own.
     What they don’t want us talking about is the fact that the government is corrupt, the system is rigged, the politicians don’t represent us, the electoral college is a joke, most of the candidates are frauds, and, as I point out in my book Battlefield America: The War on the American People, we as a nation are repeating the mistakes of history—namely, allowing a totalitarian state to reign over us.

    Former concentration camp inmate Hannah Arendt warned against this when she wrote, “Never has our future been more unpredictable, never have we depended so much on political forces that cannot be trusted to follow the rules of common sense and self-interest—forces that look like sheer insanity, if judged by the standards of other centuries.”

     As we once again find ourselves faced with the prospect of voting for the lesser of two evils, “we the people” have a decision to make: do we simply participate in the collapse of the American republic as it degenerates toward a totalitarian regime, or do we take a stand and reject the pathetic excuse for government that is being fobbed off on us?
      Never forget that the lesser of two evils is still evil.

       His description of the state system and its operators  fits equally this country or any other country on the planet, not just the US.

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Viva l'anarchie!

       Emile Henry was Guillotined in Paris on 21st. May 1894. His last words were reputed to be "Courage, comarades! Vive l'anarchie!" (wikipedia) His crime, placing a bomb in a cafe in Paris.

       What drove Emily to carry out this act was his hatred and anger at the corruption, injustice and inequality that he saw all around him in society. All this existing behind an illusion and veneer of the opposite values. This hatred of what he saw and his desire for justice, equality and freedom drove him to desperate acts. Here we are 126 years on from his execution, if Emile could come back and view today's society, what would he think and what actions would he take?
       Today the injustice has been magnified a thousand fold across the globe, avoidable inequality has ran rampant and reached unimaginable levels, corruption is so blatant that it seems to be the accepted way of life. I fear dialogue and debate will never remedy this state of affairs.

Two quotes by Emile Henry from his trial:

       “I had been told that our social institutions were founded on justice and equality; I observed all around me nothing but lies and impostures… I brought with me into the struggle a profound hatred which every day was renewed by the spectacle of this society where everything is base, everything is equivocal, everything is ugly, where everything is an impediment to the outflow of human passions, to the generous impulses of the heart, to the free flight of thought”.

And:

      “You have hanged in Chicago, decapitated in Germany, garotted in Jerez, shot in Barcelona, guillotined in Montbrison and Paris, but what you will never destroy is anarchy. Its roots are too deep. It is born in the heart of a society that is rotting and falling apart. It is a violent reaction against the established order. It represents all the egalitarian and libertarian aspirations that strike out against authority. It is everywhere, which makes it impossible to contain. It will end by killing you”.

Drawing by Phil May, 1894.

Class.

 
     Those on the right of the political spectrum will always spout that there is no such thing as class, we are all able to do well in this capitalist system, if we just work hard enough. Sadly there are those on the left of the political spectrum who claim that class is an out modded term and doesn't apply to today's social structure. Nothing could be further from the truth, class is the only way to show clearly the two sides of this exploitative system, and to explain clearly which side you are on in this struggle for justice and equality. 

      One class may have differing variations of wealth but still belong to that class which is has no real power in how the system works and are open to the exploitation of the wealthy and powerful controlling class, and will always have to struggle and fight just to have a half decent quality of life with millions failing to even reach that level. The other class will always have wealth and power, and defend it with what ever means are necessary, no matter the poverty of the many that there actions invariably cause.
      Determined and constant struggle, organisation, solidarity and direct action to bring down this capitalist exploitative system, in other words, a full scale class war, will bring an end to the gross inequality and injustice that plagues the lives of the many,

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Why Police?

       The mass protests that started in America, has mushroomed across the planet. An obvious sign that their is an underlying malaise at the root of this economic system. The anger is not just against the police and their daily brutality, sanctioned and funded by the state, this can be seen by the symbols of the system that are being attacked. What we are seeing is the latent energy of populations that have lived with a murmuring of anger just below the surface. Anger fermented by generations of exploitation, by ever growing inequality, by an ever more blatant plundering of the public wealth, all backed up by state repression and brutality.

       The callous brutality of the police is no aberration within this society, it is a deliberate production of the state, to enforce this continual plundering of the commonwealth for the parasitic few. If by some magic formula we managed to eliminate the police, the state would have to reinvent it to ensure its survival. It would need to recreate an enforcing system to allow its corporate masters to continue their exploitation of populations and destruction of the planet. 

       So let's focus on the real problem with our society, not the activators of the violence, but on the reasons why they are there in the first place, who trains, funds and sanctions them, and why. Answer those questions and you will stand with the protesters and show solidarity in this justified release of generations of pent up anger. The police are being ever more militarised  and are backed up by masses of legislation, devised and brought into law, not by the police, but by the planners of the system, those faces with names that sit in the marble halls of power, for no other reason than to protect the inequality and exploitation, to defend the status-quo. Unless you sit with those who sit in those marble halls, you should be supporting those on the street. Solidarity is the weapon that can bring down the injustice inherent in this savage economic system of violence and inequality.

      Not a new image, but a true reflection of the system under which our righteous anger has grown.

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The Crowd.

        I have always maintained, in this capitalist society, that dissatisfaction and anger is always present, simmering just below the surface. Sometime it displays itself in a small burst, isolated and then quietly fades, sometimes it can be a mass display by a large group of people, finds its way into the media, and then disappears. Then there are those times of course when it is an explosion of released energy fueled by anger and fury, thousands take to the streets and, like in Chile recently, attack the symbols of the system, they burn banks, police stations and loot shops. No matter how small or how large, they are all part of that discontent and subdued anger. Sooner or later it will explode and the existing system will not be able to put its exploitative and repressive parts together again. Well that, in my mind, is the aim of all those bursts of anger, large or small.

I Am The Crowd.

I am the crowd

I swim in the quagmire of poverty

its hooks, its barbs, tear my flesh

rupture my dreams,

I hold my breath for centuries

hoping to break through, gasp pure air.

Through the murky mire

I see bright things, shiny things sparkle

I see women in fine dresses, men in silk shirts

I ask myself,

why do I swim in this cesspool?

I want the light and warmth of rectitude

to caress my labouring body,

seeds of my dreams to bloom

like wild flowers in a meadow.

One day I will use my boundless strength

to haul this torn, battered being

out of the morass

onto the warm grassy bank,

when I do;

woe betide you, women in fine dresses

woe betide you mister in your fine silk shirt

should you ever try to get in my way,

for I am the strength of the world, I am the crowd. 

       The following is a piece on one of those small bursts of anger, a small display of that underlying discontent that one day will explode.

From 325:

Amazon Vans Sabotaged in Solidarity with Striking Workers by Lorenzo Orsetti Anarchist Brigade: North Carolina (USA)

      We are seldom compelled to claim the ways we choose to attack. We are not specialists, nor anarchists isolated from the acts of sabotage and theft that we know occur daily by employees within the Amazon monster. We generally prefer our actions to be just another strike amongst the many, adding to the already existent chorus of rage and discontent. As the crisis deepens and the feelings of isolation and helplessness appear to be sinking in, it is important to remember that one way of regaining agency in our lives is through attack and disruption.

      It is not only the corona virus that is making our lives unbearable, but even more so, it is our continued daily lives under capitalism and state control. Amazon and other tech companies are exploiting the virus, accumulating unheard- of profits and pushing their nightmare tech world. Amazon claims to provide a safe future for society all the while continuing to put its lowest paid employees in danger of infection, biding their time until they can eliminate those positions completely and replace them with automation and robots.

Along with all these reasons, we chose to sneak into one of Amazon’s parking areas and slash the tires of eight delivery vans – for the sheer pleasure of feeling alive and for the continuation of resistance during a confusing time. We know this is just one drop in a vast sea, but to quote a fallen comrade, “Always remember that ‘every storm begins with a single raindrop.’ And try to be that raindrop yourself.”

In solidarity with the striking Amazon workers!

       For ourselves and towards an eternal mayday for all of us!

– Lorenzo Orsetti Anarchist Brigade in North Carolina

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Righteous Anger.

 

        I doubt few can dispute the reasons for their anger, nor their description of the system. What surprises me is that there is not more displays of anger on the streets, after all the injustice and inequality and the brutal suppression of dissent is glaringly obvious.

The following from Act For Freedom Now:

        In the night of 19th May, 2020 some bottles full of paint were smashed against the façade of the Bullenpostens in Oberstrass. Why?
Well, I think the question is why not. After all, the barbaric injustice of the dominant system during the pandemic is coming to light in strident colours. Applause for nursing staff in contrast with the billions given to Swiss/Lufthansa; lack of medicines in contrast with record arms exports; distribution of food supplies in contrast with the blessing of profit shares. Overcrowded refugee camps in contrast with empty luxury hotels. Just to give a few examples.
        Ok, it would be wrong to blame the Zurich police for all the devastation of capitalism. But what is true is that here as everywhere else the police are there to protect the system of exploitation and oppression. They do it every day: when they put on their uniforms in the morning, turn on the blue lights or go slow to terrorize our neighbourhoods with racist controls and other dirty tricks.
On May 1st they recently demonstrated yet again how seriously they take their task of being the armed wing of the State. While various forces took to the streets in diverse and creative ways against the pushing of the crisis towards the base, for solidarity and internationalism, the police – not being very successful – were only concerned to expel, arrest, confiscate and block everything moving.
     These bottles of paint are one of the many responses to the repression of the 1st of May. But even more than a response they are promises for the future: in spite of the rubber bullets and prison, revolutionary resistance will continue! And it will win because the order that the police protect is built on sand.
Solidarity means: together against capital and its lackeys!
Translated from Italian by act for freedom now!
via: frecciaspezzata

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Land Of The Free!!

      This is an extract lifted from arrezafe it's from a book written in 1992, and things have deteriorated since then, poverty has increased significantly. Also this is a translation from English to Spanish and back to English, it is not the original English copy, though full English copy can be read here: http://www.michaelparenti.org/HiddenHolocaust.html thanks Loam for the link. The richest and most developed capitalist nation on the planet, and this is the miserable life it produces for millions of its citizens. What chance have the rest of us got if we follow the same Neo-Liberal policies of the capitalist master.

From the book Dirty Truths , [1992], by Michael Parenti
Translation from English: Arrezafe
       "I have seen strong men tear the floor, begging for a job. With some of them we have to do our best to avoid suicide. Many say they just want to die," says Charlie Tarrance, director of a private social agency. . Their task is to deal with the growing queues of desperate people looking for work, housing and food. The place is Gadsden, Alabama, but it could be anywhere in the United States.
      It could be Washington DC, at a Safeway supermarket just a mile from the White House, where an old man holding a can of dog food is crying. When asked what is wrong, he replies: “I am hungry. I'm hungry."
     It could be New York City, where a woman yells at the landlord to evict her from her home along with her children, whom, to her greatest distress, the Office of Child Welfare takes away. Desperate and sobbing, she is rushed to a New York psychiatric hospital to be treated by all-knowing psychiatrists and diagnosed as "paranoid schizophrenic."
      How much misery and cruelty on earth. As American leaders move decisively toward their Final Free Market Solution, stories of hunger, grief, and despair abound. Such tragedies exist a long time ago. Social pathology is part of this society as much as crime and capitalism. For a multitude of people, life becomes increasingly difficult.
Some grim statistics
      Conservatives like to proclaim how wonderful, happy, and prosperous our nation is. The only thing that coincides with their love for the country is the remarkable indifference they show towards the people who live in it. For them, the anguished cries of the dispossessed are nothing more than annoying whimpers of discontent. Those who criticize the existing living conditions are labeled as "complainers" and that we show some concern for our fellow citizens. But the dirty truth is that there is an alarming amount of inequalities, difficulties, abuses, afflictions, diseases, violence and pathologies in this country. The figures reveal a list that reaches millions of victims. Consider the following estimates for any given year:

27,000 Americans commit suicide.
5,000 suicide attempts. Some estimates are higher.
23,000 are killed.
85,000 are wounded by firearms.
38,000 of these die, including 2,600 children.
13,000,000 are victims of crimes including assault, rape, armed robbery, theft and arson.
135,000 children carry weapons to school.
5,500,000 people are arrested for various crimes (not including traffic offenses).
125,000 die prematurely from alcohol abuse.
6,500,000 use heroin, crack, speed, PCP, cocaine, or some other hard drug on a regular basis.
37,000,000 , one in six Americans, regularly use medical drugs to control their mood. Users are mostly women, medical sponsors, pharmaceutical company providers: astronomical profits.
2,000,000 outpatients receive powerful mind control drugs, sometimes described as "chemical straitjackets."
5,000 die from psychoactive drug treatments.
200,000 are subject to treatments of electrical shock damaging to the brain and nervous system.
From 600 to 1,000 people, mostly women, are lobotomized.
25,000,000, or one in 10 Americans, seek help from psychiatric, psychotherapeutic, or medical sources to address mental and emotional problems, at a cost of more than $ 4 billion annually.
6,800,000 turn to non-medical services, such as clergy, welfare agencies, and social counselors, for help with their emotional problems. In total, some 80,000,000 have sought some form of psychological counseling in their lives.
1,300,000 suffer some form of treatment-related injury in hospitals.
2,000,000 undergo unnecessary surgical operations, 10,000 of which die as a result.
180,000 die from adverse reactions to medical treatments, more than those who die from combined plane and car accidents.
More than 14,000 people die from overdoses of legally prescribed medications.
45,000 die in car accidents. However, the number of cars and highways is increasing while funding for safer forms of public transportation is shrinking.
Of the 1,800,000 victims who suffer non-fatal injuries from car accidents, 150,000 suffer permanent disabilities.
126,000 children are born with significant defects, mainly due to insufficient prenatal care, nutritional deficiency, environmental toxicity, or drug addiction by the mother.
2,900,000 children are subjected to gross neglect or abuse, including physical torture and willful starvation.
5,000 children are killed by their parents or grandparents.
More than 30,000 children are permanently physically disabled due to abuse or neglect. Child abuse in the United States affects more children each year than leukemia, car accidents, and infectious diseases combined. Cases of abuse by unemployed parents are increasing dramatically.
1,000,000 children run away from home, mainly due to abuse, including sexual abuse, of parents and other adults. 83 percent of fugitive children sexually abused come from white families.
150,000 children are reported as missing.
50,000 of these simply disappear. Their ages range from 15 to 15. According to the New York Times, "Some of these children are dead, perhaps half of them, buried annually in this country, are unidentified children."
900,000 children, some as young as seven years old, are engaged in child labor in the United States, serving as underpaid farm workers, dishwashers, laundry, and housework for up to ten hours a day in violation of child labor laws.
From 2,000,000 to 4,000,000 women are battered. Domestic violence is the leading cause of injury and the second leading cause of death for American women.
700,000 women are raped, one every 45 seconds.

And so the list goes on read the full list HERE: 

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Leaving Sweetener.

      Have you ever thought of walking away from your job with immediate effect, then thought of the financial strain you might be under? Well it seems that some firms treat those who do so rather nicely. This morning I read about a guy who did just that, after just two years in the job. He had been working from home and for some reason or other, decided to leave with immediate effect. However, he doesn't need to worry too much about his financial state, his firm has treated him very nicely.  
      He has been put on "garden" leave until the middle of August, during which period he will receive full salary and benefits. At the end of his "garden" leave, he will be given the sum of the equivalent of nine months salary in lieu of working his notice, giving him another tidy little sum of £480,000. His company has also agreed to give him £50,000 towards his legal fees incurred relating to his departure, and a further little sum of £25,000 towards "outplacement support" 

 

      Now that's what I call a nice way to depart your job. However I wouldn't rush for the door just yet, you see he happens to be Rico Back, head of Royal Mail, think of how many stamps you had to buy to pay him that little cushion. They certainly know how to treat their own. Just remember, we are all in this together, and other bullshit platitudes.

 

        I don't suppose they'll receive the same treatment as Rico, but then again, they're not leaving, they are being pushed out the door.

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Doing Well.

       During this pandemic we continually hear that we are all in this together, a wonderful illusion to get a submissive population. Let's not rock the boat, let's all pull together and get back to "normal". However during this pandemic one group has done very well indeed, our parasite class of millionaires and billionaires. The extract below is on American parasite billionaires, but I doubt that research in other developed countries would come up with a different result, different amounts but the same process. It's the system buddie.

The following from Mint Press News:

 Are they clapping frontline workers, are after looking at the bank balance.

       A new report from the Institute for Policy Studies found that, while tens of millions of Americans have lost their jobs during the coronavirus pandemic, America’s ultra-wealthy elite have seen their net worth surge by $282 billion in just 23 days. This is despite the fact that the economy is expected to contract by 40 percent this quarter. The report also noted that between 1980 and 2020 the tax obligations of America’s billionaires, measured as a percentage of their wealth, decreased by 79 percent. In the last 30 years, U.S. billionaire wealth soared by over 1100 percent while median household wealth increased by barely five percent. In 1990, the total wealth held by America’s billionaire class was $240 billion; today that number stands at $2.95 trillion. Thus, America’s billionaires accrued more wealth in just the past three weeks than they made in total prior to 1980. As a result, just three people ­– Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates and Berkshire Hathaway’s Warren Buffet – own as much wealth as the bottom half of all U.S. households combined.
     The Institute for Policy Studies’ report paints a picture of a modern day oligarchy, where the super-rich have captured legislative and executive power, controlling what laws are passed. The report discusses what it labels a new “wealth defense industry” – where “billionaires are paying millions to dodge billions in taxes,” with teams of accountants, lawyers, lobbyists and asset managers helping them conceal their vast fortunes in tax havens and so-called charitable trusts. The result has been crippled social programs and a decrease in living standards and even a sustained drop in life expectancy – something rarely seen in history outside of major wars or famines. Few Americans believe their children will be better off than they were. Statistics suggest they are right.

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Whose Narrative?

      I stated when this pandemic started  that the state would use it to further its control over the population, and to preserve the power structures that ensure wealth and power stay where they are. It would use the situation to try and bolster  an economic system that was crumbling at the seams, and so it has panned out. One of the tools the state always falls back on is "we are all in this together" they will draw references to the "British Spirit" during the blitz, and try to shape you into one homogeneous entity wrapped in the flag of patriotism. What they fail to mention is that during the 2nd WW there were strikes, peace movements, conscientious objectors, and mutinies, among other differing views on the situation. We were not one flag waving nation of "all in this together" mob. 

     In a system where there are such glaring inequalities with some having gross opulence with a risk they might lose some of it, and the majority struggling just to have a half decent life, it is impossible to claim that "we are all in this together". We are not, the two groups, the pampered privileged and the ordinary people have opposing values and opinions on what to protect and how to do it. Why we should allow the pampered privileged group to dictate what we all should preserve and what must be sacrificed, seems bordering on insanity. We the vast majority, must be in control of these decisions, working for the greater good of that majority. Protection of the vulnerable, yes, but protection for the privileged, most certainly no.

The following is an extract from North-Shore Info:

Ask a Different Question: 

Reclaiming autonomy of action during the virus

 

        A big part of the state’s narrative is unity — the idea that we need to come together as a society around a singular good that is for everyone. People like feeling like they’re part of a big group effort and like having the sense of contributing through their own small actions — the same kinds of phenomenons that make rebellious social movements possible also enable these moments of mass obedience. We can begin rejecting it by reminding ourselves that the interests of the rich and powerful are fundamentally at odds with our own. Even in a situation where they could get sicken or die too (unlike the opioid crisis or the AIDS epidemic before it), their response to the crisis is unlikely to meet our needs and may even intensify exploitation.
      The presumed subject of most of the measures like self-isolation and social distancing is middle-class — they imagine a person whose job can easily be worked from home or who has access to paid vacation or sick days (or, in the worst case, savings), a person with a spacious home, a personal vehicle, without very many close, intimate relationships, with money to spend on childcare and leisure activities. Everyone is asked to accept a level of discomfort, but that increases the further away our lives are from looking like that unstated ideal and compounds the unequal risk of the worst consequences of the virus. One response to this inequality has been to call on the state to do forms of redistribution, by expanding employment insurance benefits, or by providing loans or payment deferrals. Many of these measure boil down to producing new forms of debt for people who are in need, which recalls the outcome of the 2008 financial crash, where everyone shared in absorbing the losses of the rich while the poor were left out to dry.
       I have no interest in becoming an advocate for what the state should do and I certainly don’t think this is a tipping point for the adoption of more socialistic measures. The central issue to me is whether or not we want the state to have the abiltiy to shut everything down, regardless of what we think of the justifications it invokes for doing so.
       The #shutdowncanada blockades were considered unacceptable, though they were barely a fraction as disruptive as the measures the state pulled out just a week later, making clear that it’s not the level of disruption that was unacceptable, but rather who is a legitimate actor. Similarly, the government of Ontario repeated constantly the unacceptable burden striking teachers were placing on families with their handful of days of action, just before closing schools for three weeks — again, the problem is that they were workers and not a government or boss. The closure of borders to people but not goods intensifies the nationalist project already underway across the world, and the economic nature of these seemingly moral measures will become more plain once the virus peaks and the calls shift towards ‘go shopping, for the economy’.

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An Ever Widening Gap.

       I penned this little piece ten years ago, and today I can honestly say that the chasm between the ordinary people and the parasite class is wider and ever more unbridgeable than it was then. There is no common ground what so ever between that bunch of pampered and privileged leeches that control our lives and the folks who do their damnedest to scratch out a decent living under their exploitative yoke. Ballot boxes, dialogue and parliamentary activity have all proved that they are unable to do anything to bridge that chasm, it is now up to us.

A backward look at 2010, Nasty Protestors:

         Why do the authorities come down so heavy on protesters? A protest is really no more than a group of people wishing to be involved in the decision making process, and in an authoritarian system, that can't be tolerated. It might catch on! There is of course, always the possibility that a handful of protesters might trash a few precious trinkets of society, a society that deserves no more respect than the garbage it produces. A society that trashes the lives of the protesters' families, neighbours and friends. A society that trashes communities, villages and towns for economic reasons, example, closing factories and re-opening the other side of the world for cheaper labour.

       The heavy handed treatment also depicts a nervous ruling class, a ruling class that is aware of the threat to its power and privileges. No longer are the police mere stewards at protests, the powers that be have dropped all pretence, they know it is a class war, and now shamelessly treat it with a military response. Police supported by others in full riot gear, backed up by mounted police, with other instruments of force in the background waiting their call to action. The sooner we the exploited and controlled, accept that it is a class war the sharper and more successful our strategies will become.

       There can be no social solution to this situation because there is no longer any common ground, language or experiences between the milieus of groups and individuals that make up “society” and that other group, the parasites, the “ruling elite” that wish to continue controlling “society”.

       It can no longer be stated that a fissure exist between the two classes, it is an unbridgeable chasm, The truth of the situation is that they, the “ruling elite” need us to maintain their parasitical lives of opulence, but we have absolutely no need what so ever of them. Our lives become richer when they finally enter the dustbin of history.

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Vultures Don't Feed Lambs.

       The Mirror newspaper published an article recently, and I wonder why, perhaps they thought it was "news". What the Mirror doesn't seem to realise is that every ordinary person in the UK knows that poverty has rise sharply. Every ordinary person in the UK knows that child poverty has rise sharply. Every ordinary person in the UK knows that pensioner poverty has rise sharply. Every ordinary person in the UK knows that people with disabilities are finding it harder to make ends meet. So where is the news? It would have been better had they pointed to the real causes and the only remedy, get rid of the economic system that creates these problems.
       They take their facts from a recent Joseph Rowntree Foundation report. The report states that over the last 5 years poverty has increased for pensioners and children. It also states despite rising employment, in-work poverty has also risen, and it doesn't take an economic expert to see this is down to the fact that inadequate pay, hours and/or both these factors. It has now reached the point where more than 50% of the people living in poverty are in a working family, this is up from 39% 20 years ago, now there's capitalist progress for you.

      Other interesting facts from the every day life of people in the UK, there are more than 4,500 people sleeping rough on the streets of England alone. 14 million people here in the UK are living in poverty, an increase of 400,000, over the last 5 years, there are 4 million children living in poverty, an increase of 300,000 over the same period. The report also states that people are more likely to be living in poverty if they are in a family where there is a disabled person or a carer.
     Now try as you may to equate that with one of the richest countries in the world  and a supposed highly developed and civilised country. We live in a society where deprivation and opulence live cheek-by-jowl and the capitalist system has proved over the centuries that it can't remedy this disparity. This inequality has increased and will continue to increase as long as we tolerate a economic system that has as its foundation the creating of wealth for the few at the expense of the many. the building bricks of capitalism is exploitation of the many by the few, and the above figures are not an unavoidable accident, they are an ideological choice, the inevitable consequences of such an economic system. How much longer will we accept the poverty of our friends and family, the stunting of the potential of our children and the abandonment of our elderly, while the perpetrators live a life of obscene opulence with private jets, luxury yachts and  private estates. The remedy is in our own hands, don't expect the vultures to feed the lambs.

   

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A New World.

       It would appear that the great apolitical apathetic hordes are rising, and with eyes wide open they are enraged at what they see. Across the planet they are exploding onto the streets, attacking the system that favours the rich and corrupt. They are enraged at their poverty midst mountains of wealth, at the wars for profit and domination, at the destruction of their planet. Their humanity demands that we destroy the system before it destroys us. We must be part of them, swelling these numbers of enraged people and join with them on the streets whenever we can, if not now, when, if not us, who? We can see the door of the new world, all we have to do is go forward and open that door, for our kids and grandkids, by whatever means possible.

From Inhabit:

        Historic wildfires ravage an entire continent, scorching the land in a preview of what’s to come. Trigger-happy politicians prove eager to kickstart another war, just in time for election season. Scandals pile up, indifference mounts. The global economy churns on, stupidly and without remorse. With its latest products, Silicon Valley upgrades the emptiness. Meanwhile, each new scientific report draws the scheduled date of collapse closer.
        While the architects of disaster hope to preside over the future, people everywhere have already begun charting their own course. 2019 saw the explosion of a new revolutionary sequence, with massive protests around the world demonstrating our collective ability to decide for ourselves what life could be, beyond the familiar catastrophe. Fiery nights lit by the rebuke of indignities, the refusal of the economy’s hold over our lives, utter contempt for the elites and the police, all suffused by generalized rage at the oblivion to which they consign us.
        But if the present ruptures remind us that the future remains open, so too do they attest to the challenges before us. They are a lesson in what we’re up against, how far we still have to go. Power must be overthrown, and ecological destruction must be halted and healed. Technology must be freed from the grip of governance, and we must learn to live on a forever-altered earth. Old beliefs must be painfully shed, and new myths invented for a damaged epoch.
       What happens in the next decade will be decisive. We are at the end of one world, and the beginning of the next. 

Continue reading HERE:

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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:

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