Showing posts with label justice. Show all posts
Showing posts with label justice. Show all posts

Wednesday 1 April 2015

The Vindictive Brutality Of The State.

       I think it is important to highlight that the main demand of the prison hunger strikers in Greece, is the release of their relatives. To be charged and imprisoned by the state is something that we might expect, but to have your close relatives imprisoned, because of their relationship with you, shows the true vindictive brutality of the state, a state that is supposed to be managed by a left wing government, Syriza.
     This is a letter, first published in Inter Arma, from Haris Hatzimihelakis, one of the hunger strikers:
On Tuesday 24/3 I was transferred to the general hospital of G. Genimatas in Athens because of my deteriorated health after 22 days of hunger strike. Today, Friday, while writing this I am now in the 25th day of strike and I have lost 15.5 kg of my initial body weight of 84.5 kg. In a similar situation and are also the other hunger strikers, members of the Conspiracy of Cells of Fire, most of whom are hospitalized in various hospitals at the moment. Our demand for the release from the clearly retaliatory custody of the mother of the comrades Christos and Gerasimos Tsakalos and the wife of the latter has become a “ball” in judicial circles hands, which move the date of reviewing it from week to week, motivated either by an unprecedented disregard for our life or an active effort to cause irreversible damage to our health which deteriorates rapidly. More specifically, although the prosecutor handling the case has made a positive proposal on Tuesday 17/3 neither of the councils handling the cases of the relatives of the comrades has reviewed the request for replacement of custody with a release on bail. Meanwhile, the political leadership stands defiantly indifferent to the judicial practices, likes of which we have not seen throughout the post-junta history of Greece. Apparently the “left” SYRIZA government is not interested in the fact that family is oficially being criminalized for the first time and relatives of political prisoners are being detained clearly in an vindictive way with ridiculous and loose accusations.
I, from my side, declare that for every effect that the hunger strike may have on my health (which from this point on is tragically possible) the Political and Judicial authority which arranges the physical and moral annihilation of the hunger strikers, is solely responsible.
NOT A STEP BACK
IMMEDIATE RELEASE OF THE RELATIVES OF THE CONSPIRACY OF CELLS OF FIRE
VICTORY TO ALL POLITICAL PRISONERS ON HUNGER STRIKE
Haris Hatzimihelakis
Member of the Conspiracy of Cell of Fire FAI/IRF
Friday 27/03/2015
P.S. I salute all solidarity gestures both in Greece and abroad. Comrades your actions give us strength.
Solidarity and complicity with Alfredo Cospito and Nicola Gai. Brothers your words burn like fire in my heart.
Visit ann arky's home at www.radicalglasgow.me.uk



Sunday 29 March 2015

Let's Sort This Mess Out.



       We should always be alive to the fact that everything we take as decent conditions in our lives, was never given to us by the system and the powers that be. Everything from half-decent housing to medical care, from the length of the working day to holidays with pay, from lunch breaks to forming a union, all of these things were extracted from an unwilling system and its managers, by the long, bitter and determined struggles, of our forefathers. No matter how confident you may feel about your standard of life, the powers that be are always working hard to take back what we have won by our struggles. As far as the system is concerned, our conditions are a drain on profit and this drain must be limited to as little as possible. Today we are seeing a dramatic and determined attempt by the system, to take back everything we have won over the last hundred years or so. Increases in unsociable working hours, zero hours contracts, dramatic drop in living conditions, slashing of social benefits, and services, and a massive wages depression. These are just some of the fronts where their attack is gaining ground.
     It is sad to think that, what conditions we won by hardship, imprisonment and in some case death, are now being taken back by stealth and propaganda. It is also futile to expect that the political system in place at the moment, will do anything about this plundering of our living standards. The only debate among the political classes is by how much will we be plundered, at what rate will we be plundered, and how far can they go down this road. None of them come up with an alternative, it is austerity rapid, or austerity slow, austerity permanent, or austerity temporarily, only to be administered to our class of course. 
      Meanwhile the country gets richer and richer, the parasite class and their political puppets move into ever more splendour and grandeur, they wallow in luxury that you and I can only imagine. You would need to be an idiot to expect them to start to reverses this pattern of their own accord. If we continue trying to wrest more crumbs from from our masters table, the pattern will just keep repeating itself, we will grab a crust here, perhaps a wee cake there, and then they'll get round to sweeping it all up again. We create all the wealth of this country, by right, it is ours to distribute as we see fit. Isn't time we got round to doing just that? 

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

Thursday 29 January 2015

We The Labouring Masses.

     What insanity we tolerate, we who create everything, live with poverty continually knocking at our door, and those who create nothing wallow in unimaginable wealth, and splendour. We sweat and toil to feed an army of parasites. From the fishing boat, to the super luxury yacht, from the football stadium to the lakeside mansion, we created them. Then because of some totally irrational line of thought, we hand them to the do nothing brigade, who grow fatter and fatter on our sweat.
 
WE THE LABOURING MASSES.

We the people have, every brick laid,
have fed the world with sweat and spade,
every instrument played in every band
created by the skill of the craftsman's hand.
We made every truck and every load,
our toil our effort every winding road,
every ship that ever sailed the sea,
our power our imagination made it be.
Cities and towns large and small,
our labouring hands fashioned them all,
every home, every spire,
luxury mansion or humble byre.
No matter what dreams the mind might spawn
without labour's hand they'll never see the light of dawn,
without labour's strength and labour's skill,
we would be foraging beasts in a jungle still.
Visit ann arky's home at www.radicalglasgow.me.uk

Friday 7 November 2014

When Will We Ever Learn?


  

     Written almost 500 years ago, and sounds like an anarchist analysis, certainly still makes excellent sense today.

The Politics of Obedience:Discourse of Voluntary Servitude

         “What is so remarkable is that La Boétie did this in 1552 or 1553 - four-hundred-and-forty years ago! It is also interesting that modern tyrants use the same formula today to subjugate and dominate their victims. Here are the main elements of the La Boétie analysis as I see it:” (FrederickMann)
The only power tyrants have is the power relinquished to them by their victims.
  • The tyrant is often a weak little man. He has no special qualities that set him apart from anyone else - yet the gullible idolize him.
  • The victims bring about their own subjection - they "win their enslavement."
  • If without violence the tyrant is simply not obeyed, he becomes "naked and undone and as nothing."
  • Once you resolve to serve no more, you are free.
  • We are all born free and naturally free.
  • Grown-up adults should adopt reason as their guide and never become slaves of anybody.
  • People can be enslaved through either force or deception.
  • When people lose their freedom through deceit, it is because they mislead themselves.
  • People born into slavery regard it as a natural condition.
  • In general, people are shaped more by their environment than by their natural capacities - if they allow it.
  • Habit and custom are powerful forces that keep people enslaved.
  • There are always some people who cannot be tamed, subjected, or enslaved. Even if freedom were to be entirely extinguished, these people would re-invent it.
  • Lovers of freedom tend to be ineffective because they are not known to one another.
  • People who lose their freedom also lose their valor (strength of mind, bravery).
  • Among free people there is competition to do good for humanity.
  • People seem to be most gullible towards those who deliberately set out to fool them. It is as if people have a need to be deceived.
  • Tyrants stupefy their victims with "pastimes and vain pleasures flashed before their eyes."
  • Tyrants parade like "workers of magic."
  • Tyrants can only give back part of what they first took from their victims.
  • Tyrants attain their positions through: (a) Force; (b) Birth; or (c) Election.
  • Tyrants create a power structure, consisting of a multi-layered hierarchy, staffed by a conspiracy of accomplices. Accomplices receive their positions as a favor from the tyrant.
  • The worst dregs of society gather around the tyrant - they are people of weak character who trade servility for unearned wealth.
  • Accomplices can profit greatly from their positions in the hierarchy.
  • If people withdraw their support, the tyrant topples over from his own corrupted weight.
From
LeDiscourse of Voluntary Servitude by Éttiene de la Boétie.(abridged and edited from the Harry Kurz translation)
    "Let us therefore learn while there is yet time, let us learn to claim our liberty. Let us open our eyes to our natural freedom for the sake of our honor, for the very love of virtue. As for me, I truly believe I am right, since there is nothing so contrary to reason as self-imposed tyranny. I believe the time will come when support will be withdrawn from tyrants and their accomplices. Then let us watch them all fall from their own corrupted weight."

 When will we ever learn, when will we ever learn?
Visit ann arky's home at www.radicalglasgow.me.uk
 

Saturday 30 August 2014

Perpetrator As Victim.


     As the anger against Israeli actions in Gaza reaches a crescendo, we should never forget that it is a state and its apparatus that perpetrates these brutal crimes. Within Israel there are those, little heard Jews, who call for a just peace. Even although it receives strong support, our anger must always be against the State of Israel, not the entire Israeli population. Just as we in this country at times can't stop our government from such adventures as Iraq and elsewhere, so it is in other states. All who call for peace, freedom and justice, must raise their voice as a unified chorus.




 Smoke and fire from the explosion of an Israeli strike rise over Gaza City, Tuesday, July 22.

     As a Jewish youngster growing up in Budapest, an infant survivor of the Nazi genocide, I was for years haunted by a question resounding in my brain with such force that sometimes my head would spin: “How was it possible? How could the world have let such horrors happen?”
It was a naïve question, that of a child. I know better now: such is reality. Whether in Vietnam or Rwanda or Syria, humanity stands by either complicitly or unconsciously or helplessly, as it always does. In Gaza today we find ways of justifying the bombing of hospitals, the annihilation of families at dinner, the killing of pre-adolescents playing soccer on a beach.
     In Israel-Palestine the powerful party has succeeded in painting itself as the victim, while the ones being killed and maimed become the perpetrators. “They don’t care about life,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says, abetted by the Obamas and Harpers of this world, “we do.” Netanyahu, you who with surgical precision slaughter innocents, the young and the old, you who have cruelly blockaded Gaza for years, starving it of necessities, you who deprive Palestinians of more and more of their land, their water, their crops, their trees — you care about life?
Read the full article HERE:

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

Friday 27 June 2014

The Hell Holes Of Greece.

       The latest on the nation wide prison hunger strike in Greece, this from Contra Info:


Counter-info gathering in Larissa, Greece (June 25th, 2014); the top banner reads: “Maximum security prisons, concentration camps…
Crush the new totalitarianism. Fire to the hellholes”;
the other banner reads: “Invisible and visible prison bars…
The prison society smiles at you. -Anarchists’ Assembly of Larissa”
      Draft bill on new Type-C maximum security prisons will be put to a vote within a week. The Greek parliament is in summer recess; the recess section (consisting of one third of the total number of MPs) is scheduled to vote the bill on Thursday the 3rd of July 2014.
Below are the hunger strikers (per prison) who continue to participate in the nationwide mobilization against the operation of a Greek Guantanamo in Domokos prison:
Koridallos (Athens): 1,480 prisoners
Patras: 550 prisoners
Grevena: 400 prisoners
Larissa: 330 prisoners
Domokos: 300 prisoners
Chania (Crete): 280 prisoners
Nigrita (Serres): 200 prisoners
Amfissa: 200 prisoners
Corfu: 120 prisoners
Trikala: 120 prisoners
Malandrino: 120 prisoners
Avlonas: 100 juvenile prisoners
Kos: 60
Corinth: 50
Nafplion: 50 prisoners
In Alikarnassos (Crete), all inmates abstain from prison food.
     Also, on June 26th, another court session at Koridallos was interrupted, because all of the CCF imprisoned members on trial are currently on hunger strike against the fascist bill of the ministry of Justice.
Visit ann arky's home at www.radicalglasgow.me.uk

Wednesday 30 April 2014

There Will Come A Time.


        April 30th. last day of April, last poem, of poem a day month, love, anger, cry for justice, memories, call for peace, and much more, a poem can say it all. However I thought I would end the month with a prediction, a promise.

THERE WILL COME A TIME.

There will come a time when the hordes remember,
who bound our grand-parents to the yoke of oppression,
who sentenced our parents to deprivation,
who bid poverty sink its teeth into our heart,
who teach our children,   greed is a noble art.
who sent our sons through the gates of hell
to a litany of cambist brawls,
crammed coffers with blood-stained gold
while laughing in Ares hall's.
"Who does these terrible things to us?" they will ask,
and when they remember,
they'll bring an energy that is endless
to drive a fist that is fearless.
Then this merciless market-driven world will crumble
under an insurrection of integrity,
the poor will emerge from the dark husk of capitalism
to live in the light of social justice.
There will come a time when the hordes remember.

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

Monday 28 April 2014

We The Poets.

April, poem a day month, draws to a close with just a few more poems to come.

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 superstars
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

Monday 7 April 2014

Good Heavevs----!!


Good heavens---!!

HEAVEN.

The heaven I seek holds no guarded gate
nor boasts no throne on high
has no host on bended knee
no king to call us nigh.

Death shall not be our road of entry
no trumpet blast to show the way,
has no frontier guards for man nor beast
nor some far off judgement day.

The heaven I seek is here and now,
where symbols of power crumble like sand;
standing upright all men shall brothers be,
no one priveleged with high command.

Vibrant life shall be our only passport,
the glorious morning sun our only sign,
with true love of man and beast,
we can have heaven in our time.

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



Sunday 6 April 2014

How Much Deeper, How Much Longer?






           It is strange that the majority of people in the West seem to tolerate a system that increases wealth, but in tandem with the increase in poverty for the majority. The number of millionaires increases, millionaires become billionaires, corporate bodies see their coffers bursting at the seams, and yet more and more ordinary people slip further down the slippery slope of poverty. In recent years poverty has galloped at an ever increasing pace across Europe, which is a large slice of the so called affluent West. We have seen Greece descend to the realms of a third world country, Spain, Italy and Portugal are skidding along a few paces behind. It is not just the southern European countries that are seeing their populations being pushed back to the poverty of Victorian times. Ireland is hot on the heels of our southern neighbours, and here in the UK we have seen an explosion of food banks as people struggle to survive. Countries that somehow are not usually associated with poverty, have seen their people slide into the mire and stress of deprivation. Germany, the richest nation in Europe, and one of the richest in the world, has seen poverty spread its tentacles further afield, dragging more of its people into that state of misery and blighted future. The Netherlands, seen as an affluent part of “affluent” Europe, in 2012 saw its biggest increase in poverty since 2008, figures from the national agency Statistics Netherland, show that with a population of less than 17 million, the Netherlands has approximately 1.2 million of its people considered to be living in poverty. The Netherlands has also seen a particularly sharp increase in the number of children living in poverty, while in parallel to this there has been a rise in those affected by longterm poverty. And so it goes on, wealth spewing from this society, straight into the pockets of the already very rich. We continue to create wealth at an astonishing rate, but we continue to see poverty spread further and deeper among the general population. 
        How much longer will we accept this injustice, this blatant exploitation? How much deeper in the mire of poverty will we let ourselves be pushed? How much longer will we tolerate the future of our kids and grandkids being blighted by unnecessary and avoidable poverty? The answer is in our hands, if we want to stop the plundering of the wealth that we produce, if we want to see it spread with more justice and equality, we have to do the changing. We can't expect those rich parasites who gain immense wealth and power from the existing system, to do anything to change it for our benefit. We surely have the imagination and ability to create a society of fairness, all that seems to be lacking is the desire. 
Visit ann arky's home at www.radicalglasgow.me.uk

Saturday 5 April 2014

I Am The Crowd.


Another day, another poem.

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, grasp 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.

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

 

Thursday 3 April 2014

Prophet Or Dreamer?


Continuing poem a day month, today's rendering.

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 www.radicalglasgow.me.uk

Friday 28 March 2014

The State And Its Tool,-- Death.

       There seems to be disbelief at the Egypt court passing the mass death sentences on 528 protesters, with another mass trial of 682 due to start. To put that in perspective, that is more people sentenced to death in one fell swoop, than the total number of UK troops killed in Afghanistan in 13 years of war since 2001. We can accept that it is horrific, barbarous, outrageous, and makes a mockery of justice. However we should not be surprised, for that's what the states do best.
 They kill with impunity, they do it in several ways, they do it by sending ordinary people to foreign countries to kill other ordinary people, to enhance the state's wealth and power. They kill their own citizens by legislation, (ATOS), for example. Slow death by deliberate polices that increase poverty and deprivation, During WW1 the British state executed, (murdered), at dawn by firing squad, 306 young British soldiers, labeling them cowards. It's a state thing, killing citizens is just collateral damage in their role of power monger. The state always holds the death card to use in the event of any threat to its power, and when the state kills, it is supposed to put the stamp of legitimacy on that barbaric action. 528 death sentences, what state has not killed far more than that to hold onto and cement its power over the people?
 
This from AVAAZ:
    A kangaroo court in Egypt just sentenced 528 people to death. This is likely the biggest mass execution ruling this century, but one man can stop the killings.
      Egypt’s most important religious figure, Grand Mufti Allam has 10 days to reject the decision. Religious leaders are already condemning the ruling, and as the first Mufti to be elected by his peers, he has a legitimate mandate to be the nation’s moral leader. Let’s create a global plea from people of all religions to provide clemency and block this barbarous ruling.
      This was a political show trial -- the military regime is using the firing squad to wipe out the opposition. If the world does not speak up, the consequences for Egypt and the world are beyond dangerous. Sign now to save these lives and stop a spiral of violence -- when one million of us have joined, religious leaders in Egypt will deliver our call for compassion directly to the Mufti:
http://www.avaaz.org/en/stop_mass_execution_loc/?bwqhjab&v=37959
      After the hope of Tahrir Square, where hundreds of thousands took to the streets to overthrow decades of dictatorship, the Egyptian people democratically elected a Muslim Brotherhood government. But last summer the military staged a populist coup, Brotherhood supporters rioted, and then the military declared the party a terrorist organisation and violently cracked down -- 16,000 democracy activists, journalists, and even teenage school girls have been arrested!
     The trial was a joke -- on top of charges of rioting and destruction of property, the 528 are all accused of killing one police officer, and defense lawyers were barred from the sentencing session, which lasted less than an hour! But this is not a one off -- the judiciary is repeatedly being used to crackdown on political dissent, while security forces accused of killing hundreds of protesters are rarely held to account. There are real security threats, but as the military authorities' iron fist and intimidation grows, extremism is fuelled.
      This is the harshest mass conviction in modern Egyptian history, but what happens next in this case could have repercussions way beyond Egypt. Sign the urgent petition now asking the Grand Mufti not to rubber stamp state-sponsored murder and to provide the ethical leadership Egypt desperately needs:
http://www.avaaz.org/en/stop_mass_execution_loc/?bwqhjab&v=37959
      The world has kept silent as this regime has launched an all out attack against an imperfect but elected government and brought democracy in Egypt to its knees. Global leaders trumpet democracy at every opportunity and strongly condemn anti-democratic plots from Crimea to Caracas. But not in Egypt. Now if the world looks away and allows this cruel mass execution to happen, a dangerous message will resonate across the globe that the world will stand by democracy, except for political Islam. That wil l empower one small but very dangerous group that can hurt us all: the extremists.
     Time and again the Avaaz community has forcefully advocated against brutal injustice and for peaceful, meaningful reconciliation between embittered communities. Right now Egypt’s future hangs in the balance, and a wildly unjust and provocative ruling like the one handed down in Minya could push it over the edge. Let’s bring the people’s voice to this precarious situation and ensure that these 528 lives are saved

With hope,

Alice, Nick, Oli, Wissam, Bissan, Mais, Emily, Ari, Ricken and the whole Avaaz team

MORE INFORMATION
Hundreds of Egyptians Sentenced to Death in Killing of a Police Officer (New York Times)
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/25/world/middleeast/529-egyptians-sentenced-to-death-in-killing-of-a-police-officer.html
Egypt Opens Another Mass Trial of Islamists (AP)
http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/eg ypt-sentences-529-death-police-attack-23036881

‘Fast’ death penalty for 529 Brotherhood supporters will be appealed: Defence (Ahram)
http://english.ahram.org.eg/NewsContent/1/64/97456/Egypt/Politics-/Fast-and-bizarre-death-penalty-for--Brotherhood-su.aspx
Egyptian court sentences 529 people to death (Washington Post)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/egypt-sentences-529-to-death/2014/03/24/a4f95692-6992-461e-aaf1-9bc84908a429_story.html< /span>
Visit ann arky's home at www.radicalglasgow.me.uk







Friday 21 February 2014

Rape And The Death Penalty.


Where rape merits the death penalty--- for the victim!!
In August, a pregnant Ethiopian immigrant was lured into an empty flat by seven men, who held her there against her will and subjected her to a brutal gang-rape. They recorded the assault, and the video went viral online, drawing the attention of the authorities. How did the police react to this footage? By arresting the victim and throwing her in jail for "indecent behavior."
Now, things have gone from bad to worse. The Attorney General of Sudan has refused to prosecute the rapists, and has announced that he will pursue the death penalty for the victim in the case. Even if the victim isn't found guilty, Sudan's laws won't allow a new trial based on the evidence being used against her -- meaning that she will never be able to get justice.
Care2 member Lisabeth has started a petition to bring public pressure on Sudan's government. Let's show Sudan that the world is watching, and we won't stand by while a woman already traumatized by a brutal crime is punished for seeking justice.


Thank you for your support,
Julie R. Care2 and The Petition Site Team
Visit ann arky's home at www.radicalglasgow.me.uk

Monday 18 November 2013

To Shine a Light On Another's Suffering.


       To feel the pain and anguish of the other, to see the injustice around us, is one part of being human, but to put those feelings into words and shine a light on another's suffering, is a special human gift.

The City of Beggar Children,

Where do the beggar children come from,
what forces multiply their rags?
Whose heart has never felt those fingers
pecked
by birds with copper beaks?
Who hasn’t stopped to see their bones
and hear their voices
pleading like humiliated bells?
Let there be no beggar children dwarfed in doorways,
chilled by cemetery mist,
pale wall of the city.
Let there be children with toys,
bread
and stars beneath their shoes.
Let them play in the school yard
and catch insects in the grass.
Let them live in their own worlds
among the beings and the things they love.

Roberto Sosa

    From The Return of the River: the Selected Poems of Roberto Sosa (Willimantic CT: Curbstone Press, 2002)
translated by Jo Anne Engelbert

      Every effort has been made to trace the copyright holder. If you can advise us of the appropriate acknowledgement to be made please contact reception@spl.org.uk 

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

Thursday 19 September 2013

Do The Plebs Really Need An Education!!


        The Greek education system, (what's left of it) is a preview of the European education system of tomorrow. In Greece the education system has been savaged beyond all recognition, budget cuts and teacher lay-offs have seen to that. In cities across Greece teachers and students supported by parents and other workers have been taking to the streets and the latest round of sackings and transfers to other areas, have again brought them back onto the streets. 
This from Teacher Dude:

Greek educators extend strike action in protest against further spending cuts by Teacher Dude's BBQ
Greek educators extend strike action in protest against further spending cuts, a photo by Teacher Dude's BBQ on Flickr.
      More than 15,000 Greek teachers, students and supporters took to the streets of the northern port city of Thessaloniki today in protest against further cuts in jobs and funding for the country's beleagured educational system.
      With thousands facing lay off or enforced transfer to other districts, teachers and other public sector employees are now striking for a second days running.
      Tensions ran high when riot police units blocked roads so preventing marchers from approaching the local offices of the neo-nazi Golden Dawn party.
    After last night's fatal stabbing of left wing singer and activist Pavlos Fyssas by Golden Dawn member political passions are running high and tonight's nationwide series of anti-fascist demonstrations are likely to see clashes between protesters and the police.
    Apart from Greece's crushed education system, their health system has also been decimated and is in a state of collapse. Chemists are frequently running out of medical supplies and people can no longer afford their medication. This is in Europe, in one of the richest parts of the world, and to imagine that we and other parts of Europe are some how protected from the ravages of the ideology of the financial mafia is delusional. Finance has no loyalty to people or country, economics sees no culture but accountancy.
      What kind of system is it that in a supposed civilised society, we can't afford health care or education, while carrying on our backs parasitic billionaires, millionaires and bloated greed driven politicians, who live in the lap of luxury? This system fails on all counts, on moral, on justice, and on sanity.

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

Sunday 18 August 2013

Prophet Or Dreamer?


Prophet Or Dreamer?

Am I a dreamer?
Ever dazzled by unseen 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.