Memories.

 

          Away back in 1986 I was part of the small  Amnesty International group that planted a wee tree in the grounds of Glasgow's Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum to mark 25 years of Amnesty's work.. Forgot all about but recently thought I would try to re-visit it, but wasn't sure exactly where it was planted. So today with my partner we sought out the tree and it was, no longer a slim sprig of a tree but a beautiful powerful knuckled tree with its magnificent roots plunging into the earth. Of course when we planted it, I didn't need the extended aluminum arm, it seems age has acted on both of us, but the tree seems to be going from strength to strength. I only hope the fight for freedom and justice grows stronger like our wee tree.

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

A Prophet Or A Deamer?

     Probably in contrast to my previous piece.

PROPHET OR DREAMER?

Am I a dreamer?
Ever dazzled by unrisen dawns,
always hearing the song of liberty
though freedom's flag is torn.

I walk towards a world
no borders, kings or slaves;
history claims the warrior's hand
peace the crown of bays.

I see the hungry feasting
midst the brotherhood of man;
all the children singing
the fear of famine gone.

I find the common man
hold his brother dear
create a world of social justice,
Elysian fields their sphere.

Freedom's flag is torn,
quiet is liberty's song,
unrisen suns still to dawn;
prophet, or dreamer born?

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

They Must Be Abolished.

           Most large cities have at least one, they sit there with little or no activity going on around them, most people pass them without giving them much thought, but these silent buildings belie there reality. They are of course prisons, large hell-holes of anguish, oppression, distress, and brutality. Symbols of state oppression, part and parcel of its control system. Among a considerable amount of the public, there is the glib thought that they are places where the “bad people” are sent. However, the truth is far removed from that glib thought. 

         Since 1900 the prison population in England and Wales has grown by 400%, in Scotland approximately 200%, it is a growing business. The prison population figures for August 2017, for England and Wales is 86,353, Scotland 7,700, and Northern Ireland 1,600, all up on last years figures. The UK takes pride of place in the EU as the country with the highest percentage per 100,000 of its population in prison. England and Wales 148 per 100,000 of the population are in prison, compared with France 98.3 per 100,000, Italy 86.4 per 100,000, and Germany with 77.4 per 100,000. Most UK prisons are overcrowded and thus create inhumane and unbearable conditions, adding to the already existing injustice. 

          As for these being the “bad people” of society, of the UK prison population, 10% of men and 30% of women have had a previous psychiatric admission before ending up in prison. Of those in prison 25% of women and 16% of men have symptoms indicative of a psychosis, among the general public the figure is 4%. Of the UK prison population, 62% male and 57% female, have a personality disorder, 49% of women and 23% of male prisoners in a Ministry of Justice study were assessed as suffering from anxiety and depression, 46% of females and 21% of males in UK prisons have attempted suicide. Another factor that contributes to the prison population is the fact that many of those who foolishly put on a state military uniform to fight for the corporate empire, end up damaged and unable to adjust to civilian life, so find themselves part of the prison population, approximately 8,500, 10% of the UK prison population are ex military.
        So what we have are large buildings, dotted around the country, kitted out with cages, where we dump those with mental health problems. The other section of the prison population is those who dissent, deviate, from the prescribed path laid down by our lords and masters, those who see the injustice of the system and rebel against that injustice, inequality and exploitation.
         Prisons are not for the “bad people” they are there to protect a system of privilege for the few, to maintain the power and wealth in the hands of those who control our lives. We can never live in a democracy as long as one prison still stands. 

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

The Israeli Zionist State's Genocide Of The Palestionian People.

 

         John Pilger gives us a glimpse of the daily humiliation and terrorising of the Palestinian people under the dictate of the Israeli Zionist state. Not a new video, but the picture today is still the same pattern, brutality, humiliation, and terror, washes over the people of Palestine on a daily basis. The Zionist state of Israel is  proceeding with its policy of land grabbing and genocide, on the idiotic premise that God gave them that land a couple of thousand years ago. Thanks Loam for the link.

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

The Eyes, And Voice of Jusrtice.

           I have always believed that those who have any talent such as a poet, musician, artist, actor, writer, have a duty to use that talent to record, display and highlight the truth, to inform and take sides on the side of justice and freedom. To do other, seems to me to be a waste of that talent, a dereliction of our responsibility to others.

We The Poets.

We the poets

must rise to hold the mirror,

not at romantic moon

dressing trees in silver web

but, at sadness in a child's eyes

helpless face festooned with flies,

the listless look of hunger.

We the writers

must rise to hold the mirror,

not at hopes of super stars

pandering to an ego of selfish greed

but, at misery of the world's maimed

duty done by smart bombs, computer aimed;

peoples crushed by pitiless power.

We the artists

must rise to hold the mirror

not at views from penthouse windows

of meadows green and lush

but, at peoples broken by starvation,

at war, its brother deprivation,

capitalism's bastard twins.

If across the planet as a whole

we don't stand up and play our role,

poet; heart of compassion,

writer; voice of conscience,

artist; eyes of justice,

we've cheated tomorrow's generation,

hurried the planet to extinction. 

 

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

 

Enough Is Enough.

        Thinking of those pampered parasites draped in ermine, those corporate bosses with their private jets and yachts, those rich callous MPs, legislating life and death for the poor, those bonuses for the rich and austerity for the many. If it was a story written for TV, I could understand it, but a reality created by the sweat and labour of the many, it beggars belief. 

ENOUGH IS ENOUGH.

MUST WE TOLERATE

the giggling audacity of the rich

midst the pitiful anguish of the poor,

those boated cavaliers

using pillage to secure

their lives of arrogant excess,

a pirate's plundering tour.

WHERE IS IT WRITTEN

that this world must be

a place where the many toil and sweat

grinding out their meagre existence

in poverty, hunger and debt,

while the hubristic greedy few

live the life of a pampered pet.

LET'S TRY AGAIN

no more war, no deprivation

a world of sharing, a world of giving

a chance for all to grow and prosper

in a culture of friendship and forgiving.

With true love and understanding

we can create a new way of living. 

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

The Coming Insurrection.

     Once again we see the extent the state will go to in its attempt to stifle, repress, and tarnish, any idea that challenges the power structure of the wealthy, the worshippers of the profit motive, the power mongers.

      In 2008, nine people were arrested in the village of Tarnac in France, it was a high profile military style arrest, they were charged with various terrorist charges. Now seven years later, 2015, a judge throws out any terrorist connection. Seven years of questioning under the label of terrorist, only to have it revealed as police fabrication. This happened in France, but that state is no different from any of the others, they are the terrorists, they are the enemy of freedom, they are the purveyors of violence.

This from Undercover Info:

 Police raid in Tarnac.

 
     The dead hand of notorious UK spycop Mark Kennedy has reached out once again – this time in France, where a major trial involving a so-called ‘metaphysical anarchist’ cell saw the most serious charge – terrorism – dismissed. In a statement afterwards one of the defendants accused the prosecution of having based its case on false statements made by the police – in other words, fabricated (or exaggerated) evidence. Here is what happened…
     On 11 November 2008, twenty French men and women were arrested simultaneously in Paris, Rouen, and in the small village of Tarnac (located in the district of Corrèze, Massif Central). Those in Tarnac were living in a small farmhouse – and in the village they had reorganised the local grocery store as a cooperative and taken up a number of civic activities, from the running of a film club to the delivery of food to the elderly.
     The police operation was dramatic: it involved helicopters, one hundred and fifty balaclava-clad anti-terrorist police and massive media coverage. The arrests sparked huge protests in Paris and in other French cities and towns, as well as the village of Tarnac, which describes itself as communist and where those arrested were seen as highly-respected members of the community.

Read the full article HERE:

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