The Invisible.

         A few words for those millions that suffer poverty and deprivation in this system of inequality and greed. For the migrants fleeing death and destruction with just the clothes on their back. For the homeless, the marginalised, for those invisible to the arrogant, greedy masters of this economic system of injustice, inequality and exploitation. For those cast aside for plunder and profit, a price will be paid for your pain.

 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 justice
We will have equality
If blood is the price
So be it.

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

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.

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

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,

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

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

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

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.

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

Between Dignity And Poverty.

A small extract from an article by Chris Hedges:

       Immanuel Kant coined the term “radical evil.” It was the privileging of one’s own interest over that of others, effectively reducing those around you to objects to be manipulated and used for your own ends. But Hannah Arendt, who also used the term “radical evil,” saw that it was worse than merely treating others as objects. Radical evil, she wrote, rendered vast numbers of people superfluous. They possessed no value at all. They were, once they could not be utilized by the powerful, discarded as human refuse.
        We live in an age of radical evil. The architects of this evil are despoiling the earth and driving the human species toward extinction. They are stripping us of our most basic civil liberties and freedoms. They are orchestrating the growing social inequity, concentrating wealth and power in the hands of a cabal of global oligarchs. They are destroying our democratic institutions, turning elected office into a system of legalized bribery, stacking our courts with judges who invert constitutional rights so that unlimited corporate money invested in political campaigns is disguised as the right to petition the government or a form of free speech. Their seizure of power has vomited up demagogues and con artists including Donald Trump and Boris Johnson, each the distortion of a failed democracy. They are turning America’s poor communities into internal militarized colonies where police carry out lethal campaigns of terror and use the blunt instrument of mass incarceration as a tool of social control. They are waging endless wars in the Middle East and diverting half of all discretionary spending to a bloated military. They are placing the rights of the corporation above the rights of the citizen.

      Sometimes I read a phrase, a paragraph, a few words, and they sink in through the dark labyrinth of my ageing mind and out trickles a stream of words. the following is my latest such a trickling.

Between Dignity and Poverty

In this metropolis of wealth with its fountains of opulence
We are the excluded army that walks that tightrope
Between dignity and poverty.
The excluded, the marginalised, the forgotten,
Regulated by mercenaries, some with guns, others with pens.
They know not, we are their brothers and sisters.
Nor do they know,
Our strength is forged in the humiliation of the bread line
Our daily question, will there be bread,
Or will the pangs of hunger stay.
We exist in a system of numbers and balance sheets,
Our lives, dehumanised statistics,
Catalogued and filed by a blind accountant.
When asked to count our dead, do we count the living dead?
Will this tightrope be the inheritance to our children
Or shall our tortured journey lead us from anxiety to revolt
Will the anguish of our children feed our righteous anger
Causing us to tear asunder this fabricated web of injustice.

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

The Warmth Of A Dream.

       Sorry, I can't help it, perhaps it's my age, or perhaps it's my personality, perhaps I will be accused of putting a damper on the merry-making, but as the raucous parties die out and the merry chanting of "happy new year" fades into the background and they're filed in that cabinet called memories, my mind is filled with images. Images that confirm in my mind that in capitalism there is no real reason to be jubilant. Its daily savagery is everywhere to be seen. 

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 youngster

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 radicalglasgow.me.uk

I Get Sick, Disgusted, And Angry-

 

       At the age of 84, I wonder how many people can tell me how often I have heard our prancing political ballerinas with their fat salaries, generous pensions and lush perks, openly state that they will end child poverty and end homelessness?  From the age of 17 I have ranted against these preventable injustices, this callous exploitation of the ordinary people. I get sick, disgusted and angry in varying degrees, as year after year this shit is poured over my head, and what is the result. The poverty, the injustice, the misery and deprivation stays with us.

       The Joseph Rowntree Foundation has just released another damning report on the state of poverty in this country. Though I don't need the Foundation to tell me about the poverty that surrounds us, I have been there, seen it, and at times shed a tear because of it. For many years as a young man I earned my living knocking on doors in the poorest districts in Glasgow. I have entered homes where there was no bed, just a pile of coats on the floor under which a couple of kids were sleeping. I have entered houses where the only furniture was a couple of kitchen chairs, I have seen a young woman sitting on a kitchen chair in front of a fire, tearing up slices of "waxcloth" from the floor to keep the fire going. This and worse blighted the lives of many families as I made my way through life. 

       Well after a life time of promises, here we are in 2018 and what is the picture? 22% of the UK population live in poverty, that's one in five, over 14 million people. Of those 56% are in poverty despite being in a family where one or more are working. Our political ballerinas and corporate bosses always yap on about work is the road out of poverty, work hard and you will do well. of course the figures belie that false mantra as in-work poverty is now at its highest in 20 years, we, the ordinary people, are sliding back to the Victorian era. There is a continuous crime being committed as the system blights the lives of our children, more than half a million children in this country and mired in poverty, their lives chances diminished, thwarted, because of this system of exploitation, injustice, greed and profit.

      After a couple of hundred years of representative democracy under the mantle of capitalism, you would think that we the public would have arrived at the decision that the system doesn't work.

    It must by now, be clear that to expect a wealthy bunch of parasites who control the system that continues to feed them wealth and power, at the expense of the many, will somehow change the system to our benefit, is fantasy of the insane. The rise in poverty, the blighting of our kids opportunities, the stress of trying, in poverty, to hold a family together will continue to wash over us wave after wave. The only alternative, if we seek justice and a better life for all, is to bring this cancerous abomination of capitalism crashing down, by any means available, and replace it with a system controlled by the people, one that is free from the profit motive, and has the interests of all our people as its basis. 

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

The Many Shapes Of The Spirit Of Resistance.

        Across the world states are in crises, as the system they attempt to manage, capitalism, is itself, in crisis. Capitalism has mandated the states to manage the civil population, while they rip them off, but more and more people are seeing through the shabby illusion, more and more the people are resisting. As capitalism lurches from one crisis to another, the state’s job of managing the people becomes a task doomed to failure. Resistance to this system of control and exploitation takes many shapes, from the organised groups, to the individuals who fight the system on a daily basis, in their own particular way, but fight they do. Of course in the eyes of the system, any acts of resistance, which in fact are self defence, will never be classified as such, it will be labelled, vandalism, hooliganism, terrorism, and a host of other demonising isms. This will then be followed up with the full violence and brutality of their “judicial system”. The artefacts and symbols of the exploitative, repressive system of the festering marriage of capitalism and state are all around us. The expensive cars, the luxury hotels, the designer label shops, the banks, the sweatshop places of labour, the injustice of poverty, all supported by an army of police and CCTV cameras, all to let you know your pecking order in this hierarchical nightmare. However that is also one of its weaknesses, everything is out their, open to acts of self defence, acts of resistance, acts of righteous anger.

       This article, posted in Contra Info, is from Brazil, a country no stranger to the savage ravishes of capitalism, and no stranger to the people's resistance to this brutal system:

          Every stone thrown is the expression of indignation of all of us, tired of being used, manipulated and dominated by those in government, by the media, by the multinationals… A brick is charged with rage, frustration and more than anything else the freedom of disobedience, of disrespect to property. A brick into a window is the expression of insubmission, of those instincts that were not and never will be domesticated and pacified. It is the capacity to overcome the margins of citizenist protest towards the path of free rebellion. A brick carries all the courage of leaving the house and abandoning the role of the spectator in front of a screen, to run out to the streets and transform them into a field of political action.
       The streets, where we meet, do not belong to anybody but the revolt. The streets open the way to take back our lives, they open the way to insubmission and dignity… They open the doors so that everyone can be responsible for themselves without depending on any institution, they open the way of “fuck the State” and of autonomy… and we are there because our rage is expanding, against the social order, not against the puppet that carries the title of the President, but against the entire state structure… because it’s clear to us that the streets shout much more than “Out With Temer”.
      From the streets, we’re uncontrollable, in the complicity of the hoodie we’re stronger, and we can live intensively in spaces where the banks will never be something to be defended but institutions that profit from inequality, that take over lives with blows of credit cards and financial interests. There where the bourgeois car is not a dream but a symbol of vanity; where a shop is selling privileges and not just clothes… where we’re able to attack materially against domination.
       That the internal repression led by candidates and affiliates of political parties don’t put a halt to our rage, that they don’t put a halt to direct actions…

We had enough of being commanded… 

Read the full article HERE:

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

Solidarity Is Our Weapon.

 

       In this country, we all know that the justice system is served by police, who have given us the Birmingham 6, Hillsborough, and Orgreave, to mention a few. We also know that this is not unique to the UK police, but pans out across the globe as part and parcel of the way the various states do things. In Greece there has been the long running case of anarchist Grigoris Tsironis and comrades. Held in prison on a serious of robbery charges, which  have now been dropped, thanks to the international support and the fact that it was obviously a frame-up. Of course the state doesn't give up easily, the robbery charges dropped, he and his comrades are now roped into the anti-terrorism laws, and under investigation about terrorist organisations. If you're a nuisance to the state, they will keep after you and keep trying to silence you. That is why we must always show our solidarity with those who stand up and face down the system. It is obvious that they don't do it for their own well being, their fight is our fight and demands our support.

This from Act For Freedom Now:

        I call, therefore, the solidarity movement to rally up forces with its strong and mass presence in the judicial battles of all the comrades whose cases are now underway. Solidarity and support by the movement cannot be given partially or selectively.
      Comrades who refuse the charges attributed to them and fight for their collapse, deserve our solidarity. Comrades who claim responsibility for their acts and with dignity and political arguments fight their battle inside the court rooms, deserve our solidarity.
Finally, comrades who discredit civil justice and spit in the faces of judicial employees, do not bargain for their freedom and they themselves create the preconditions in order to regain it, deserve the same solidarity.
       Let us perceive, even if it sounds romantic, that we are different pieces of the same puzzle, that when connected, our vision for the revolution will appear.
        Let’s look ahead and gaze this vision and let’s leave the mistakes and hostilities in the past.
Solidarity is our weapon
Not a step back…

NO COMRADE HOSTAGE IN THE HANDS OF THE STATE
FREEDOM TO POLITICAL PRISONERS
AND IMPRISONED FIGHTERS
STRENGTH TO THE WANTED COMRADES
Grigoris Tsironis
Koridallos Prisons
4/6/2016

Read the full article HERE: 

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

I Am Alive.

 From Not Buying Anything:

       I am alive, and it feels great. When Linda and I chose to live simply it was so we could feel more alive more often. It has paid off. We have no regrets.

Here are a few things that make me feel alive.

• being in nature
• riding my bike
• spending time with Linda, my best friend and companion
• writing
• meditating
• reading a good book
• cooking and eating a good vegetarian meal
• exercising
• listening to birds and frogs and bees and wind and rain and thunder
• making music, singing, listening to tunes
• contemplating death
• spending time with family and friends
  

What makes you feel alive?

        I read this posting from “Not Buying Anything”, I agree with practically everything he says. It could make for a very stress free life. However, I can't turn my back on the millions of refugees across the globe, fleeing death from wars and famine, the millions of individuals being ruthlessly exploited by the greed of the capitalist system, the dire poverty and deprivation heaped on millions because of the exploitative corporate world, the millions of innocent people, young and old, maimed and killed by imperialists wars. Nor can I ignore the gross inequality that blights all the countries on the planet, the stunted lives and destroyed potential of millions, as the system drives for ever greater profit.
       Sadly, I don't really know what to do about all these brutal injustices, except to raise my voice and stand with those who also see these things, and wish to try to eliminate them by bring down the system that is at the root of all these problems, capitalism. Believing that I, in some small way am contributing to the demise of this greed driven system and helping to shape that better world where we see to the needs of all our people, 

that is what makes me feel alive.

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

Trans Prisoner Day Of Action.

       In the type of society we live under injustice wears many masks, and in lots of cases the laws of this unjust system exacerbate that injustice. All prisons are an injustice, but to certain people the injustice of prison is multiplied many times because of the fact that they don't fit the pattern of the societies perceived "normal". Among those who suffer in this way are trans-gender individuals, who already face many problems in this society, but prison can turn what can be a very difficult life, into an unbearable nightmare.

From Contra Info:

       January 22nd 2016 will be the first annual Trans Prisoner Day of Action: an international day of action in solidarity with trans prisoners. This project was first imagined by Marius Mason, a trans anarchist prisoner in Texas, USA. Since then, through his friends and supporters, an international collective of people both inside and outside of prison walls have come together to make this day a reality. A preliminary list of trans prisoners can be found here.

 Click here for pdf version of poster

      “As Queers, we know the terror of scrutiny, disgust and isolation; we have all been denied the ability to live the way we want by society for at least some portion of our lives. For trans and gay people in prison, those problems are doubled by the physical and emotional restraints of a literal cage. For decades, early queer activists showed active solidarity and support for their imprisoned brothers and sisters — they wrote letters, had marches and demanded not just that they be treated with respect and dignity, but their total and unconditional release. Gay and trans prisoners organized with each other and the outside world.” – Call-out from Marius and friends.

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

The High And Mighty.

The High And Mighty.

Politicians, high priests of the holy church

of greed, 

Yours are the crimes from which the many

bleed.

See, vice and corruption make their

stand,

with brutal tyranny, walk hand

in hand;

your arrogant minds, lost in ambition's

cloud,

oblivious to the suffering of the humble

crowd.

When poverty's knife makes our people

bleed,

your cancerous power is all you ever

feed,

holding high some ego-inflating avaricious

plan

that divides, soon pits man against

man. 

Now, anguish and war mark your mad

career,

covering our world in the brume of

fear,

then shedding youth's blood by cruel 

deceit,

with spurious pomp, lay the guilt at

another's feet.

As we fall heir to a plunder

land,

you tyrants walk in manner

grand,

what must we do to make you

yield,

to see our children play in a bloodless

field?

Smash and crush your dark nefarious 

power,

allowing love and peace to freely

flower.  

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