Justice.

 

          

       In this unjust, unequal society justice is the at the dictate of the powerful, the ordinary people are in a continuous struggle to try and achieve justice, but so far have failed. So what is universal justice? In all Probability it is anarchism.
         This film on justice is from Submedia and is well worth the time to sit down and watch, and perhaps spread it around.

 From Submedia,       

It's our pleasure to announce a new episode in our A is for Anarchy series, "What

          

          A world without police or prisons doesn’t mean a world where harm isn’t confronted or addressed. Learn more about anarchist conceptions of justice in this episode of A is for Anarchy
         Our conceptions of justice shape who we are and how we believe the world should work. In this episode of A is for Anarchy, we examine historical foundations of justice, the carceral criminal justice systems employed by states today, and anarchist strategies for confronting and addressing harm outside of the punitive logic of the state.
        In a world where states claim a monopoly on justice, we’re left with just us, so what are we going to do about it?

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Personal

                                

              Continuing the theme of poetry and personal thoughts, a couple more personal views.

Image courtesy of Design You Trust.

 

Who Am I. 

Who am I
This son of a waitress
son of a miner
statistic from a Glasgow slum
digit in a National Health Service
walking in a fog
endeavouring to separate heaven from hell
reaching out to hands that aren’t there
sailing in the wrecked hull of hope
seeking a safe harbour
a soft beach to land
trying to forget yesterday
hoping too fashion tomorrow
who am I
I am a camera with ears
seeking a voice
wanting to be heard
in this tower of Babel

Image courtesy of Independent
 

Compassion.

Sometimes our strength breaks
not because of the burdens in our life
but because of our compassion
As year in year out we bear witness
to the savage claws of poverty
rip into the hearts of a legion of children
watch our green Earth stained red
with the blood of innocents in endless wars
standing silently by an see the young and old
die slowly from avoidable disease
and tragedy of human created disasters
compassion a necessary component
of that better world we all crave
but a crushing burden in this world
fashioned by greed power and privilege.

 

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Poetry.

    

           March 21st, International Poetry day, as usual I missed it by a day. Never the less I think I should still celebrate that day, better late than never.

Image courtesy of Lithub.

Tinsel Cities.

In the city of tinsel and bright lights
midst the playthings of the rich
just beyond the champagne bubble
out of earshot of the butterfly people
in the dark shadows where no one looks
there you’ll find poverty and destitution
dance a macabre dance of survival.
In Mammon’s city of grand illusions
where rivers of wealth feed frivolity
in its twisting dark and musty lanes
where the light of hope seldom shines
an army of the living dead sweat and toil
polishing the tinsel, changing light bulbs
refilling the champagne bottles
nothing must stop the flow of frivolity
or the butterfly people will die.

Image courtesy of LSE Blog.

The Invisible.        

We live there— yes— there
A little bit above the dead
But quite a bit below the living
Where poverty is a dream
Deprivation a reality
Our daily bread an illusion
We sigh--we weep—
As ruthless poverty
With its cold claws
Tears the heart from our children
We ask—WHY?
Surrounded by opulence
Invisible to arrogant greed
Anger simmers beneath the surface
We seek equality
We will have justice
If blood is the price
So be it.

 

Visit ann arky's home at https://spiritofrevolt.info  

Why Not?

  Well, why not?

Why Not?

I see hungry children crying beside warehouses of food

I see the elderly cold hungry alone in an ocean of plenty

I feel anger when caskets draped in that coloured rag

carried home with military pomp weeping families

another causality of greed privilege power

Day and daily I see greed praised as success

rich as celebrities poor as failures

I swim in a sea of fabricated illusions where privilege is progress

where truth dies a lonely death somewhere in a corner of our heart

Yet within my heart I have millions of seeds of love

I know I must plant and let grow

So why shouldn’t I be an anarchist?

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Injustice.

Image courtesy of My London

           So the Sunak/Hunt duo in their Autumn statement, have done their duty, they paid homage to the financial Mafia, and the financial mafia liked it. This millionaire duo, yes they are both millionaires, Sunak is in the £700 million bracket while Hunt gets by on approximately £14 million, have a plan. This plan is to raise taxes and cut public spending. How will this hit you and I, well all the economic and financial experts state that it means that we will be approximately 7% poorer by the next two years. So you think times are tough now, well just imagine being 7% poorer, not a pleasant thought. Of course our Sunak/Hunt duo with their plan will not feel the pinch, cushioned as they are by their ill-gotten millions, how else do you gather millions, certainly not by the sweat of your brow.

 

Image courtesy of McLaren and Motorious

 

         Well there you have it, the plan for the UK, increased poverty for the ordinary people of this country, just to please the financial Mafia and their cohorts. So we can just tighten our belts and knuckle down and accept what is being heaped on us. Or we can take to the streets, display our anger and contempt, take mass strike action, organise together to end this plundering of the ordinary people to suit the fat cats of this festering cancerous economic system of insanity and greed. 

 

Image courtesy of Energy Live News.

 

 Visit ann arky's home at https://spiritofrevolt.info  

Why?

 

           I wrote this little piece in October 2003, I think it is more relevant  today than when I penned back then.

A Wider View.  

          If we care to look  beyond the shopping malls and the mainstream media we can see that capitalism is responsible for countless thousands of deaths from poverty, not because there isn’t enough to go round, it is simply that there is no profit in it. In the world today, twenty two children die from starvation every minute of every day, while excess food in the West is stockpiled. Have you ever asked yourself “WHY”? What kind of system would tolerate such blatant cruelty, what kind of people would tolerate such a system? The answer is of course, capitalism is the system, we are that people. How much longer can we allow this to continue? How much longer can we allow the greed of corporate capitalism to rape and plunder this world in its quest for profit? There is an alternative, this so called Western “Democracy” must be stood on it head. An end to the privileged few of the corporate world working hand in hand with State power to use our lives for ever greater profit. This world and its resources belong to the people, to be shared according to our needs. The only way to reclaim our world is to take control of our own lives and organise outside the party political system, at local and community level. We must be the decision makes in the interest of our children, to enrich our own lives, and the preservation of the planet. We don’t need Kings, Presidents or leaders to tell us how to live our lives, their track record is one of wars, greed and exploitation. Let’s sweep them away into the dustbin of history and organise for an era of mutual aid across all cultures, organise at community level in federation with other communities. Let’s see an end to the Nation State and with it, national wars, patriotism and boundaries, a free and colourful world that belongs to free and colourful people.

Most of us go to the grave with our music still inside us!!

                                   Image courtesy of GG-Magazine.

Visit ann arky's home at https://spiritofrevolt.info   

Poems.

           Perhaps it is a time for a wee poem or two, to say the thoughts that clamber and crash their way through the labyrinth of my mind. 

Tinsel Cities.

In the city of tinsel and bright lights
midst the playthings of the rich
just beyond the champagne bubble
out of earshot of the butterfly people
in the dark shadows where no one looks
there you’ll find poverty and destitution
dance a macabre dance of survival.
In Mammon’s city of grand illusions
where rivers of wealth feed frivolity
in its twisting dark and musty lanes
where the light of hope seldom shines
an army of the living dead sweat and toil
polishing the tinsel, changing light bulbs
refilling the champagne bottles
nothing must stop the flow of frivolity
or the butterfly people will die.

 

The Invisible.

We live there— yes— there
A little bit above the dead
But quite a bit below the living
Where poverty is a dream
Deprivation a reality
Our daily bread an illusion
We sigh--we weep—
As ruthless poverty
With its cold claws
Tears the heart from our children
We ask—WHY?
Surrounded by opulence
Invisible to arrogant greed
Anger simmers beneath the surface
We seek equality
We will have justice
If blood is the price
So be it. 

 

 Mirror Mirror On The Wall.

I can’t help but watch him
that old man
as he staggers across the room
with that unusual gait
punctuated by the odd stumble
I hear his groans and feel his pain
sometimes with a few profane words
he drags himself from the couch or chair
pauses for a moment to regain his balance
I sense his reluctance to bend down
and pick things off the floor
I’m fascinated by those hands
light brown withered looking bony structures
with their pronounced veins
running along the back of them
and up his slim arms
I sense his annoyance
that they’re not as strong as they used to be
I feel his regret
that he can’t do the things he once did with ease
I often think
that to have lived that long
he must have a chest full
of memories and experiences
that should be worth something
but what puzzles me most
is when
I look in the mirror
I see him and not me.

 

Visit ann arky's home at https://spiritofrevolt.info    

The Law?

 

        

         Pick any state on this state/corporate infested planet and you will find authoritarian repression, exploitation and brutality. Every state is guilty of theses crimes against ordinary people, should they dare to speak out against that authoritarian repression, exploitation and brutality. Dare to point to the inequality and injustice in society and demand change, and you are likely to be targeted. Of course some states are more openly brutal than others, but the pattern is always the same, subservience or suffer.
          The following example is just one of innumerable cases of crass injustice to protect the privileged, pampered, power hungry, parasite class that hold the reins of power, for the time being, how long they hold those reins is up to us.

The following from Anarchist News:

         We have recently sadly learnt that Turkish state repression has struck our comrade, Mahmut Demir – a member of Karala, an organisation which is part of our international coordination – who has been sentenced to 6 months and 7 days in prison without even having a hearing.

This prison sentence was imposed following the complaint of a fascist informant, for “Public humiliation of the Turkish nation, the Republic of Turkey, the Grand National Assembly of Turkey, the government of the Republic of Turkey and the judicial organs of the state”. Our comrade, who learned of the reasons for the decision via mail delivery, was not even summoned by the police or the prosecutor's office to testify or defend themselves throughout the trial.

This story, which seems unbelievable, highlights the high levels of Turkish state repression that our comrades there are facing.

Fortunately, at the moment of writing Mahmut is free, but the court has decided to subject him to a five-year observation period, during which time he will be subject to arrest if he insults the Republic of Turkey again.

As an international coordination of anarchists, we can only express our greatest solidarity with Comrade Mahmut and our Karala comrades. 

☆ Anarchist Communist Group (ACG) – Great Britain
☆ Coordenação Anarquista Brasileira (CAB) – Brazil
☆ Die Plattform – Germany
☆ Embat, Organització Llibertària de Catalunya – Catalonia, Spain
☆ Federación Anarquista de Rosario (FAR) – Argentina
☆ Federación Anarquista de Santiago (FAS) – Chile
☆ Federación Anarquista Uruguaya (FAU) – Uruguay
☆ Libertäre Aktion (LA) – Switzerland
☆ Melbourne Anarchist Communist Group (MACG) – Australia
☆ Organización Anarquista de Córdoba (OAC) – Argentina

☆ Organización Anarquista de Santa Cruz (OASC) – Argentina

☆ Organización Anarquista de Tucuman (OAT) – Argentina
☆ Organisation Socialiste Libertaire (OSL) – Switzerland
☆ Roja y Negra – Organización Politíca Anarquista – Argentina
☆ Tekoşina Anarşist (TA) – Rojava

☆ Union Communiste Libertaire (UCL) – France, Belgium & Switzerland
Related Link: https://karala.org/akis/yoldasimiz-mahmut-demire-hapis-cezasi/

[Castellano]

Visit ann arky's home at https://spiritofrevolt.info   

Obscene.

                                               Image courtesy of Luxury Launches

           “Ultra high net worth individuals” — the wealth management industry’s term for people worth more than $30 million — hold an astoundingly disproportionate share of global wealth. These wealth owners held 6.2 percent of total global wealth, yet represent only a tiny fraction (0.002%) of the world population, based on Institute for Policy Studies analysis of Capgemini and Credit Suisse wealth data and Census Bureau population estimates.

         Inequality is not a natural flow of events, nor is it an unalterable progression, inequality is the result of political and economic decisions. 1% own and operate the corporate media. They are doing everything they can to defend the status quo, squash dissent and protect the wealthy and the powerful. If these political and economic decisions are left to be made by the rich and powerful, then it is obvious how the world's wealth will be distributed. The results of this power in the hands of the few is poverty for the many.
          Since 1995 that 1% of humanity have grabbed 38% of all new wealth, at the other end the poorest 50% of humanity have gained just 2% of that new wealth. Creating an unbridgeable chasm between the privileged few and the poverty stricken many, if we allow this economic insanity to continue.
          By now it is blatantly obvious that obscene inequality is on a trajectory to continue, unless we take the decision making out of the hands of the rich, powerful and privileged few. We live in a world where there are more billionaires than ever before, with their fortunes growing ever faster than before. While hundreds of millions struggle to survive in extreme poverty. All based on political and economic decisions, we can reverse that inhumanity by taking the necessary political and economic decisions on a community and co-operative basis. We the ordinary people, the real wealth creators, have the right to decide how our wealth will be distributed, with a fair and just system that sees to the needs of all our people.
       Some horrifying facts that should motivate us to bring the existing system down and replace it with justice, and equality.
         According to the latest  World Inequality Report,

        The world’s richest 1% have more than twice as much wealth as 6.9 billion people.
       Almost half of humanity is living on less than $5.50 a day.
       Only 4 cents in every dollar of tax revenue comes from taxes on wealth.
       The super-rich avoid as much as 30 percent of their tax liability.
       Every day 10,000 people die because they lack access to affordable healthcare.
        Each year, 100 million people are forced into extreme poverty due to healthcare costs.
        Most governments fuel this inequality crisis by massively under taxing corporations and wealthy individuals, and at the same time underfunding vital public services like healthcare and education. It is our choice, accept this injustice and inequality or reverse the process by organising, solidarity and direct action to take control of our wealth and our lives.

Image courtesy of Do Something.

 

Visit ann arky's home at https://spiritofrevolt.info  

Rethink.

 

         Last year 2020, apparently, there was a survey done by the marketing and public relations firm Edelman, the result of that survey was that 57% of people worldwide said that "capitalism as it exists today does more harm than good in the world". We the ordinary people of the world didn’t need a survey to tell us the capitalist system is crap, millions live with this “harm” day and daily, we are well aware of and living with, the monstrous ecological damage the system of capitalism spews across the planet. Of course the result of the survey doesn’t mean that the powers that be and their survey merchants have decide to call a halt to their sacred greed driven exploitative system of capitalism. No, what they want to convince us of is that capitalism can move to a new stage, a fair and sustainable system, it just needs a little adjustment here and there. This new adjusted capitalism will of course not see the end to £150 million private yachts, private jets, personal luxurious mansions dotted around paradise islands, tax havens, where billions of £s are salted away for personal use. These plundered “privileges” will still be reserved for the masters of the system and their backside licking cronies. It will mean that the exploitation of the many, to maintain this imbalance, will be painted “green” and in all possibility jobs will be more precarious as the capitalist beast writhes and slithers to survive. 

           So it appears that 57% of the world’s population now accept capitalism is a harm to the people and the planet, will that be the tipping point where we, the ordinary people come together and start to dismantle this cancer that is eating our very existence. A realisation that it can’t be adjusted, reshaped or re-modelled into a fair and just system, it can be nothing but an exploitative system that benefits the few at the expense of the many. The answer is to abandon and destroy capitalism in all its various guises and start with a community based system of free association, mutual aid, fair and just distribution of the fruits of our labour, a system of sustainability that sees to the needs of all our people, free from the cancerous force of profit.

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

New Depths.

        Governments have always been corrupt, they have always favoured the wealthy and powerful, at the expense of the general public. However as the wealth of the super rich grows at an alarming rate, so the corruption in the governments that serve them also grows at an equally alarming rate. This phenomena is world wide, but here in the UK we have seen it reach new depths of greed and favouritism.

  

       The present UK government lead by that bumbling but extremely dangerous buffoon, Boris, has plumbed ever greater depth of corruption, cronyism and gross disregard for the lives of the people. They have presided over more than 102,000 deaths from Covid19, among the highest deaths in the world, not all this was down to ineptitude, though that was their in bucketfuls, a large part was due to, their desire to grease the palms of their friends by throwing billions of pounds of tax payers money at them in the form of non-tendered contracts, and calling it an emergency, and working hard to get you all out their spending, irrespective of the danger to your health and welfare, so that their friends wouldn't lose too much money. This emergency situation also allowed them to carry out another of their heartfelt dreams, slicing off large section of the NHS to large corporate companies, no doubt lots of them and/or their friends, have shares in these same companies. 

 

 

       This is how governments work, those how still believe that you can solve society's emergencies and society's inequality, injustice and all the malaise that comes with these conditions, by voting for this colour or that colour of party, should take a long hard look at our history, and a thorough examination of the goings on of the present regime. Over the centuries it has always been a new smiling face, to lead us to paradise, but we end up as usual with the same shit and still being shafted by the rich and powerful, as we allow them to hold the reins. 

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

The Justice Illusion.

        Prisons, the not too subtle procedure of the state to protect the wealth and privileges of the rich and powerful. Hellholes of brutality, injustice, overcrowding slave labour and inadequate medical facilities. We have them in every country from so called democracies to dictatorships, it makes no difference, the state, no matter what shape or style, will have its array of prisons, backed up by a loaded, in favour of the powerful, judicial system and a brutal police force.

 

         A civilised society can't exist as long as we have the prison system, the two are incompatible. Prison are a barbaric way of keeping the status-quo, they have nothing to do with protecting the public, communities are well able to look after themselves in the interests of the community. In the vast majority of "crimes" the root cause in inequality and injustice, the very things that the prisons are their to perpetuate by keeping society structured the way its and to suit the rich and powerful.

 

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

Obvious.

         I have always maintained that those who believe we can "fix" capitalism, are idiots. They are trying to fix something that isn't broken, capitalism is working just fine, and doing what it was intended to do, make a few people very rich at the expense of the many. Once you grasp this truth, you realise that the only answer for justice and equality for all, is the total destruction of capitalism and all its attendant institutions. We are sold lies and illusions, and dwell in a land of smoke and mirrors. A world woven by the massive corporate advertising beast and its companion, state propaganda. Nowhere in the world of these two servants of capitalism is there a shred of reality, nothing related to the world we the ordinary people inhabit. 

      Nothing is as it is painted, "the economy" dressed as necessary and benevolent to all, reality, a label for the continuation of exploitation of the mass of people. Bearing in mind that the richest 1% have massively increased their wealth while the bottom 50% have become poorer.  "Prison", a place to put dangerous people, reality, a dustbin to dump those who would hinder the exploitation of the people. Bearing in mind that approximately 80% of those in prison suffer learning difficulties, substance addiction and/or mental health issues, and should be somewhere in the social care system and not prison. "Advertising" bringing the latest information to assist you to make choices to enhance your life, reality, devious and duplicitous manipulation of desires and reality to increase consumption and profit. Bearing in mind that the corporate world spends billions of pounds annually on advertising, so it must work. "Democracy", hailed as a way for you to be involved in the running of your country, reality, an illusion created to try to stop you from taking control of your own lives and communities. Bearing in mind that practically all those in government have connections and investments in the corporate world and they decide the shape of your world and how your tax money will be spent.

        So the answer seems to be straight forward, to live our lives in a world we recognise and relate to, we must screw the "economy", abolish "prisons", scrap "advertising", and get rid of their so called "democracy" and take control of our communities and workplaces in co-operation with all other communities scrapping the profit motive. Well, what are we waiting for?

 

 

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

A Just Struggle.

          Anyone with a rational and objective mind who takes a look at the system that we presently live under, will admit that it fails dramatically to produce fairness, justice or equality to any acceptable degree. Our society is riven with injustice, inequality and by any measure lacks fairness. The divide between those with power and wealth and the ordinary individual, is an unbridgeable chasm. Opulence, pomp, privilege, power and wealth sit cheek-by-jowl with homelessness, hunger, poverty and deprivation, creating a vision that makes a mockery of "democracy" and human decency.
         However we are naive in the extreme if we believe that those who exploit and oppress us will, through dialogue and peaceful protest, willing give up their power and privileged position and abandon their obscene wealth in an attempt to make society a fairer and more just society. They will use whatever means available to them, to protect their wealth, power and privileges, be it by passing laws, backed up by force, or blood on the streets.
       We have to accept that those who hold that wealth, and power which endows them with privileges are our oppressors, who work hard at maintaining the unbridgeable chasm. As oppressors we have to treat them as such, we can't ask them to please give up your wealth, power and privileges so that we have a fair society, it won't work. Perhaps we should think hard about the words of Frederick Douglass, escaped slave, abolitionist, writer, and orator.

        “Those who profess to favor freedom and yet depreciate agitation, are men who want crops without plowing the ground; they want rain without thunder and lightning. They want the ocean without the awful roar of its many waters. This struggle may be a moral one, and it may be a physical one, or it may be both moral and physical, but it must be a struggle. Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will. Find out just what any people will submit to and you have found out the exact amount of injustice and wrong which will be imposed upon them, and these will continue until they are resisted with either words or blows, or with both. The limits of tyrants are prescribed by the endurance of whom they oppress.” -Frederick Douglass

         Only a revolution will replace this greed driven economic system that degrades the human spirit and breeds inequality and injustice. However, you can't buy a revolution, you can't make a revolution, you have to be the revolution, and a revolution will not come with a bunch of roses in its hand.

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