The Brutal Bedroom Tax.

-->

        Iain Duncan Smith's arrogant bedroom tax, a plan to push people into the “right” size of house, according to his Orwellian formula of age and sex of children and “spare” bedrooms, is starting to produce the horrors that were predicted. Because of this dictatorial policy, we have already had one suicide, and tens of thousands of the poorest people in the UK are at risk of being forced into homelessness. According to information from 107 local authorities, 86,000 households have been forced to seek one bedroom accommodation, while in the last year only 33,000 were available. Here in Scotland, the district of Inverclyde is looking at a disaster. The council has stated that 1,100 households would be required to move to single bedroom accommodation, while only 96 were available last year.

      These families are having to take a 14% cut in their housing benefit until they find the “right” size one bedroom accommodation. A 14% cut in housing benefit to some of the most vulnerable people in our society, because of a policy that can't be implemented, is surely a brutal vindictive criminal act. The forced moving is brutal enough, but being forced to move when there is no where to move, and being hit by a cut in your housing benefit while waiting for that mythical one bedroom home, has no place in a civilised society. This policy is typical of the attitude of this millionaire cabal who are still living in the era of the landed gentry and “their” peasants, you and I, are their peasants and are not seen as “real” people. A home to them is a matter of their choice, a home to us peasants is a privilege for which we should be forever grateful. This millionaire cabal's answer to the problem is that, they don't have to move, they could take in a lodger, get employment or work extra hours.

      This callous shuffling of people to suit some economic grand plan, requires to be met with the same determination and organisation that won the 1915 rent strike, the same unity and solidarity the beat the 1989/90 poll tax. The bedroom tax is an ill conceived, unfair policy that will no nothing but cause misery and distress to thousands of families. This will affect whole communities as it will force the break up of families and force them out of homes and communities where they have lived for years. It can and must be beaten. Get organised, speak to your local anarchist federation, this is every bodies fight.

ann arky's home.

WE BEAR THE BRUNT.

     An article I was reading today from one of the newspapers that populate that babbling brook of bullshit called the mainstream media, stated that, "it is the ordinary people that are bearing the brunt of the war in Syria." I have no doubt the writer thought he/she was making a profound statement, an illuminating point, highlighting some peculiar aspect of this particular war. However as far as I am concerned it was about the dumbest, most stupid statement, made about this particular war, or any other conflict.

        Anybody that looks at history can see that in war that is always the case, it has never been other than, the ordinary people bear the brunt of the conflict. Look at the First World War, cast your eyes over the list of lives lost, and ask yourself, where are the corporate bosses, the dukes and princes, the prime ministers etc? Move on to WW2, as it ravaged across Europe and Asia, who bore the brunt, was it the CEO, kings, presidents, land owners or the aristocracy? A resounding NO, it was as in all state wars, the ordinary people that bore the brunt. However, it is the landed gentry, corporate bosses, presidents, prime minsters, the rich and powerful that reap what ever benefits ever arise from these state struggles for power, resources or markets. We the ordinary people supply the the lives to be sacrificed at the state's altar of power. We gain nothing from these state organised actions of mass terrorism.

ann arky's home,

RAW CAPITALISM - PEASANTS BEWARE.

    

        Capitalism doesn't change it's spots, it is a system of exploitation of the many for the advantage of the few. At the end of WW2 and the existence of the Soviet Union creating a threat of Communism across Europe, and other places in the world, capitalism modified slightly. In the West it made concessions to the working class and the middle class, grants to higher education, a health service, social housing, a welfare system, to help the poorest etc.. With the collapse of the Soviet Empire and Thatcher's subsequent destruction of the trade unions, the threat of communism had gone. The need to appease the workers no longer existed. Capitalism could get back to its true form, it was time for raw capitalism with the gloves off. What we are living through is the system of capitalism mounting an all out attack on the working class and the middle class. For the majority real austerity will be the order of the day, with education an expensive luxury for the rich, a health service that will cater for those with the most money, charity your only hope of social services. Bankers, CEO and their sidekicks will live in ever increasing luxury. Our billionaire landed gentry and nobility are back in full control, peasants beware.

         Our children will be denied a decent education, without which it will be impossible to understand the complexity of the geopolitical system that is draining their lives, let alone organise to change its structure. Society will be fragmented with petty crime on the increase, communities will become ghettos. A rather frightening picture but the only out come from an unchallenged system driven by one overriding desire for profit, a system where human beings are no more than expendable resources. The gap between the ordinary people and the billionaire ruling class will be unimaginable. The answer for the majority of people on this planet does not lie in capitalism and time is of the essence.

ann arky's home.