Ace Events.

        As usual, our friends at ACE Edinburgh have been busy doing their organising and have come up with some events worth pursuing. Why not pay them a visit and show solidarity and support.

NEWS FROM THE AUTONOMOUS CENTRE OF EDINBURGH
Summary:
ONE: Thurs 1st October – Ex Black Panther Lorenzo Komboa Ervin live from the States in online meeting.
TWO: ECAP and Oficina Precaria re-start support appointments at ACE plus more solidarity news
THREE: Global Climate Strikes restart, in Edinburgh demo at Scottish Parliament
FOUR: ACE groups continue activities  More Info 

 
ONE: 

       Thurs 1st October – Ex Black Panther Lorenzo Komboa Ervin live from the States in online meeting.
Lorenzo Komboa Ervin, in person
     Anarchism, poverty, and black activism. We need to talk about austerity, capitalism, and government repression, and compare notes, and offer international solidarity. (organised through Action against Austerity)
Time: Oct 1, 2020 07:00 PM Dublin/Dundee/Glasgow.
Join Zoom Meeting
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/87508008832?pwd=NzFyUzgzbFltQmd1ZDB0R2hYRjlTdz09

Meeting ID: 875 0800 8832 Passcode: 218912
+44 203 481 5240 United Kingdom
+44 203 901 7895 United Kingdom
+44 131 460 1196 United Kingdom
+44 203 051 2874 United Kingdom
+44 203 481 5237 United Kingdom
Meeting ID: 875 0800 8832
Passcode: 218912
        Find your local number: https://us02web.zoom.us/u/kJXo7jybo
MORE INFO
       Very recent interview with veteran organizer and former Black Panther and political prisoner Lorenzo Kom’boa Ervin on the current political crisis, fascism and rising relevance of Black anarchism.
https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/william-c-anderson-ungovernable-an-interview-with-lorenzo-kom-boa-ervin
      Pamphlet written by Lorenzo
https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/lorenzo-kom-boa-ervin-anarchism-and-the-black-revolution
      Please note, while this meeting is not being advertised in open spaces like public facebook, we encourage people and groups to inform friends and contacts.
 

TWO:
      EDINBURGH COALITION AGAINST POVERTY AND OFICINA PRECARIA RESTART APPOINTMENTS AT ACE plus more solidarity group news
EDINBURGH COALITION AGAINST POVERTY write:
        ECAP Tuesday Sessions are reopening as appointment only for the time being. (Please note the situation could change at short notice) If you need solidarity on a benefits or poverty-related issue we’re asking people to contact us by Phone on 0131 557 6242, Email ecap@lists.riseup.net or Facebook private message to organise an appointment.
        More info including covid safety measures which need to be followed http://edinburghagainstpoverty.org.uk/?p=2806
           OFICINA PRECARIA
          Support, solidarity and mutual aid to combat precarity, OP give a wide range of support focusing on migrants to Scotland, including support with Settled Status applications. To make an appointment with OP the best way is via the web: https://piescotland.org/es/contacto or alternatively contacto@piescotland.org
       Safety measures for OP appointments here https://www.facebook.com/piescotland/posts/3683622891657118 Facebook @piescotland website https://piescotland.org/en/
MUTUAL AID EDINBURGH:
       “Solidarity not Charity” https://www.facebook.com/MutualAidEdinburgh
MUTUAL AID TRANS EDINBURGH:
     “MATE (Mutual Aid Trans Edinburgh) was set up during the COVID-19 pandemic to provide direct support by and for trans and queer people in Edinburgh.” https://www.facebook.com/matedinburgh

THREE:
CLIMATE JUSTICE:
          Global Climate Strikes restarted on 25 September, in Edinburgh there was a demo at Scottish Parliament, look out for future action…..
Scottish Youth Climate Strike
https://www.facebook.com/syclimatestrike
https://climatestrike.scot/
Green Anti Capitalist Front Edinburgh
https://www.facebook.com/EdinburghGAF
Extinction Rebellion Edinburgh
https://www.facebook.com/xrEdinburgh

FOUR:
ACE GROUPS CONTINUE ACTIVITIES
         Although the ACE premises have had to close for public events during the Covid-19 emergency the groups based at ACE are still active – go to http://autonomous.org.uk/groups-activities/ click on the drop-down menu and check out the different groups current activities via the links. Also check for events at https://www.facebook.com/AutEdinburgh and http://autonomous.org.uk/events/ plus there are links to some of the ACE groups at http://autonomous.org.uk/links/
         We also recommend Living Rent tenants union https://www.livingrent.org/ To UNSUBSCRIBE: email acemail@gmx.co.uk with 'unsubscribe acenews'. Thank you.
     ACE premises are currently closed due to the Coronavirus emergency. Autonomous Centre of Edinburgh, 17 West Montgomery Place, Edinburgh EH7 5HA See ACE Facebook @AutEdinburgh and www.autonomous.org.uk for special events and regular meetings online.
       Tel 0131 557 6242 - the phone is being checked and we will try and respond within a couple of days. Email acemail@gmx.co.uk (please note that the acenews email does not accept messages).
      To unsubscribe: <mailto:acenews-unsubscribe@lists.riseup.net>
List help: <https://riseup.net/lists>
[acenews] News from the Autonomous Centre of Edinburgh.

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

In Defence Of Autonomy.

 

       This year's demonstrations marking the anniversary of the murder by a police officer, of young 15 year old Alexis Gigoropoulos on December 6th. 2008, turned into a confrontation with the repressive police responsible for that murder, and a large group of anarchists. The battle of resistance mainly took place around Exarcheia Square.
      There are estimates that there were 800-1,000 activists involved in that struggle for autonomy around Exarcheia Square, though as far as the babbling brook of bullshit, the mainstream media were concerned, it never happened.

This report from Anarchist News:

The Exarcheia Commune Rises and Defends Itself, 
a Review of the Battle

Ons Danse le Lachymo…”
Graffiti, France, July 2016
(transl. “We Dance the Teargas”)

“ Comrade, will you watch these while I throw one?” He is tall, masked from head to toe in black, and is known to me. As he speaks he motions to a milk crate stuffed with Molotovs.
“ Sure…go ahead,” I say as I light a cigarette and settle in to guard the precious weapons stash while he tosses the thing at the Social Enemy. Ten minutes later he returns and in spite of the dark night, his black clothing, and the shadow we stand in, he glows with happiness---like the Molotov he just launched, he is alight.
Strategy
The strategy was simple, and for the anarchists new: defend the beating anarchist heart of Athens, of Greece, perhaps the world. Block, stop, and turn back any and all attempts by the Athens Police to get to Exarcheia Square. And do so in a coordinated fashion between all the various groups, teams and squats. Each entity taking responsibility for one or two streets—ensuring they are effectively blocked. This in contrast to previous years when the rioting was scattered, unfocussed and usually developed into clashes around the Polytechnic, the University complex set off several blocks from the Square. This year, the Polytechnic and its environs played no role whatsoever, but Exarcheia Square sure as hell did. Finally, in crystalline form, the strategy was to take and keep liberated territory, to free a community—if only for a few hours.

And further on:

Order of Battle
Anarchists: 800-1,000. Organized as teams of between 5 and 10 fighters. Those from Exarcheia were assigned to various barricades and maintained themselves within their area. Those from outside Exarcheia roamed, the sound of flash bang grenades drawing them to specific streets, militants would frantically move from barricade to barricade as cop charges changed location and intensity. In a lull most hung out in Exarcheia, drank beer, talked, and scrounged for more stuff to throw. The number dwindled over the night to perhaps two hundred when the militants finally dumped arms and hostilities ceased, about 11:00 pm.
Cops: 200-300 (a guess). Based on my observations of the number per charge (20 cops maximum) and the number of barricades being simultaneously probed and harassed—upwards of five, and the number of police needed to provide logistics, support, command, reserves, and to steer traffic well out of the area.
Snapshots
As I sit and write this on the Isle of Lesvos a short 24 hours after the battle a number of scenes come to mind. Sitting in a room discussing preparations for the night, many of the militants standing, pacing, nervous with energy to get started. As I guarded the Molotovs having some Italian comrades wander by. They asked for a Molotov, which I provided and we all agreed that the Greeks had done something very right. Helping a young woman overcome by gas, who, when the Riopan got into her eyes and nose immediately recovered. Like a stoned person suddenly sober-- she straightened, said, “Thank you Comrade,” turned and headed back to the barricade she was attending to. The sight of burning barricades, great arcs of Molotovs fuses sputtering as they flew and struck home in the ranks of the police. The shouting, chanting, laughing, talking--the feeling of really finally being alive. One’s hair standing on end as the flash bangs explode and teargas projectiles clatter on the ground and cloud the street. Finally on my way back to the apartment I was staying at, I noticed a small store open, with several people playing cards at a table in the back. I knocked on the door--needed smokes and something to drink. They motioned me in, and asked where I was from, a few questions and finally one of the older men asked,” So tonight did you see the riots?”
“Yes,” I answered not wanting to give too much away.
“And who are you with, the young people or the cops?”
Hesitantly I said,” The young people, always.”
He smiled broadly and answered,” So are we.”

Read the full article HERE:

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

Capitalist Success Breeds Mass Unrest.

       I didn't see much of the riots and mass demonstrations that were going on in Frankfurt, appear in our babbling brook of bullshit, the mainstream media. Somehow or other, mass anti-austerity demonstrations on the streets of Europe's most "successful" capitalist nation state, was not considered suitable for mass distribution. Of course we expect that sort of manipulation of events from the corporate owned babbling brook of bullshit, so we seek our information elsewhere. The demonstrations started at the opening ceremony of the new multi-billion Euro headquarters of the ECB, a player in the financial Mafia cabal, known as the Troika, (ECB, European Central Bank, EC, European Commission, IMF, International Mankind Fuckers). It brought thousands onto the streets, who displayed their anger and dissatisfaction with the present system of blatant exploitation.

Obviously on the wrong diet.

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

The Price Of Bread!!!

       Nine months ago a 15 year old boy, Berkin Elvan, goes out to buy some bread, there is a demonstration going on, the young boy is hit on the head by a police fired teargas canister. His life is over, he didn't die then, but spent 9 months in a coma and died on Tuesday. The simple action of going to buy bread brought 9 months of hell and torment for his friends and family and a slow death to a youth. Shades of 6 December 2008 when Greek police in Athens, shot 15-year-old Alexandros Grigoropoulos.

      Berkin Elvan's funeral has sparked massive protest across Turkey, and rightly so, teargas, rubber bullets, baton charges, can all kill. The state is well aware of that fact, and is prepare to accept deaths from their actions, in an attempt to intimidate, and crush dissent among the people.

 

 Mourners follow Berkin Elvan's coffin in Istanbul. Photograph: Osman Orsal/Reuters

       Tens of thousands of people have turned out for the funeral of a Turkish boy who died nine months after being hit by a police teargas canister during anti-government protests.
The death on Tuesday of 15-year-old Berkin Elvan after a long coma sparked violent clashes between protesters and riot police across the country.
     Police were bracing for further clashes as thousands converged in Istanbul calling for the prime minister, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, to resign.
     Berkin was hit on the head by a teargas canister after going out to buy bread during the demonstrations last year.

Read the full article HERE:   English.   Spanish.

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

A YEAR IN GREECE.

      Most countries across the globe 2012, was a year of protest and mass demonstrations, in some cases, extremely violent confrontations with the protectors of the powers that be, have accompanied these events. In Europe, no more so than Greece. No matter how violent and brutal these confrontations become, life goes on in some form or other, people go about trying to get by, trying to get a life.

     In this slide show of a year in Greece, I think Teacher Dude has captured that fact, a year of love and hate, tranquility and anger, spectacular and ordinary.

ann arky's home.

SHOULD ANYONE HAVE A MONOPOLY ON VIOLENCE?

        Is self defence violence? It is a regular feature of the media to keep referring to “violent demonstrations”, what they fail to see is that a demonstration is in essence an act of self defence against a very powerful force, in most cases it is the state or states. The question is always how far do you go in defending yourself? A lot of the violence on demonstrations is one sided and from the the state apparatus and in others the violence is not violence but no more than being provoked into defending yourself against, kettling etc.. Obviously as the superior force of the state apparatus has the upper hand by means of weaponry and training, this means, those defending themselves have to continually seek new strategies and tactics. There is an obvious conflict between the state which protects wealth, property and corporate power, and the people at the other end being exploited by this cabal, in such a conflict, should one side have the monopoly on “violence”? The following is a short extract from an interesting article from Anarchist News Dot Org:

   "The Black Bloc protesters interviewed did not endorse violence, but did take issue with how violence is portrayed when acts of vandalism do occur during demonstrations. When it comes to the state’s monopoly on violence, they said, there is no comparison.     “What is rarely acknowledged in the mainstream discussion, and even among the left, is the disproportionate nature of violence of the state in acts all around the world,” said “O.” “We are engaged in three wars — Iraq, Afghanistan, Somalia — we have covert wars in Iran, we have structural violence here at home through poverty, budget cuts, police brutality, and when one person throws a rock through a window it is treated as an out-of-context violent act.”

Not all Black Bloc protesters are anarchists. However, Black Bloc tactics are easily embraced by those who prefer to resist the state and foster collective action.

For protester Rick Young, the Black Bloc protesters, who he affectionately called “the anarchy guys,” were the heroes on May Day. He joined the protesters as they surrounded the police on Hill Street. Young’s experience on the “front lines” caused him to see the Black Bloc as soldiers in a battle for social and economic change.

“The anarchy guys were the only guys that showed real solidarity today,” he said while resting in Pershing Square, the final destination of the march. “They were really together. They were the ones that allowed the marchers to come down Hill Street.”

Young speaks of his face-off with police as a “band-of-brothers” moment, where differences quickly dissolve in a group action borne out of the necessity of self-preservation.

“I don’t even know their names … but let it be known that the anarchists today broke the police line at Fourth Street and allowed the marchers to come down here,” he said.

Read the full article HERE:

ann arky's home.

DEMOCRACY vs MYTHOLOGY:

THE BATTLE IN SYNTAGMA SQUARE.

        I have continually spouted that the deficit reduction has nothing to do with deficit reduction. It is all to do with saving the banks and the bond markets from losing any of their illgotten assets and rescue them from their gambling excesses. The billionaire playboys gambled massively and lost, so now they want the ordinary people of the world to pay for their greed. Living standards will be slashed, social services will be decimated, unemployment will rise, pensions will be plundered and all public assets will be sold off at bargain prices to those very billionaire gamblers.

      All this is happening not because your government wants to destroy the social fabric of the nation, but because they are being dictated to by foreign billionaires and as they are in the pay of those billionaires they obey for fear of losing their own wealth, power and privileges. It is an army of occupation taking over all the decision making in their target countries.

      It is explained excellently in the following extract from STURDYBLOG. Please take the time to read the article in full and spread the details as widely as possible. This is your battle, it is not just something that is happening over there in some foreign land. It is here, it is our struggle, it is your and your kids future.

     "I have never been more desperate to explain and more hopeful for your understanding of any single fact than this: The protests in Greece concern all of you directly.

        What is going on in Athens at the moment is resistance against an invasion; an invasion as brutal as that against Poland in 1939. The invading army wears suits instead of uniforms and holds laptops instead of guns, but make no mistake – the attack on our sovereignty is as violent and thorough. Private wealth interests are dictating policy to a sovereign nation, which is expressly and directly against its national interest. Ignore it at your peril. Say to yourselves, if you wish, that perhaps it will stop there. That perhaps the bailiffs will not go after the Portugal and Ireland next. And then Spain and the UK. But it is already beginning to happen. This is why you cannot afford to ignore these events.

      The powers that be have suggested that there is plenty to sell. Josef Schlarmann, a senior member of Angela Merkel’s party, recently made the helpful suggestion that we should sell some of our islands to private buyers in order to pay the interest on these loans, which have been forced on us to stabilise financial institutions and a failed currency experiment. (Of course, it is not a coincidence that recent studies have shown immense reserves of natural gas under the Aegean sea).

       China has waded in, because it holds vast currency reserves and more than a third are in Euros. Sites of historical interest like the Acropolis could be made private. If we do not do as we are told, the explicit threat is that foreign and more responsible politicians will do it by force. Let’s make the Parthenon and the ancient Agora a Disney park, where badly paid locals dress like Plato or Socrates and play out the fantasies of the rich.---"

 

       We have to admit that the world at this moment in time is owned by gambling billionaires, they buy governments and plunder the planet. We can continue in this fashion and leave a future of deprivation and corporate fascism to our grandchildren, or we can orgainse in solidarity with all the ordinary people of the world and change the way our world is run. We can create a world based on needs, mutual aid and sustainability, we have the resources, we have the ability, all we are lacking is the will to start that change.

 ann arky's home.

UNREST IN THE MIDDLE WEST???

     

      Massive demonstrations for over a week, municipal buildings occupied, spreading to other areas??? You've read it in the papers, saw it on the telly, sorry, no you haven't. I'm not talking about the Middle East, I'm referring to that land of the free, land opportunity, the good ol' US of A. Though these events don't seem to register on the Western media radar.

UK.

      It is happening in the state of Wisconsin where they are facing draconian cuts and on top of that the Governor is trying to pass legislation that would abolish collective bargaining for all public sector workers. The workers have not taken it lying down, there have been demonstrations of 70,000+ and they have continued for approximately a week, the municipal building has been occupied and the demonstrations are spreading to other states, read more details HERE. However you will have to look hard and long to find it reported on our “open and fair” media. After all, they don't want to convey the idea that there is unrest here in the West, oh dear no, everything is fine here, we are the model for the rest of the world.

GREECE.

      The cuts and the legislation that is causing the anger among the ordinary people over in America, is exactly what is going on here and in most of the developed world. Not only is the very fabric of our society being decimated to safeguard the financial sector, allowing them to seize all public assets, but they are doing their damnedest to introduce legislation to hamstring the workers from fighting back. It is only a few weeks since we had the Institute of Directors over here spouting the same venom, namely that all collective bargaining should be abolished within the public sector.

FRANCE.

      Though the focus is on the Middle East, and I agree, their problems are massive and in most cases, a matter of life and death, that doesn't mean that people in the rest of the world are satisfied with the system. In fact there is growing disgust and anger at the continual siphoning up of all the wealth to a pampered parasitical elite, while at the same time seeing what living standards we have being shredded to protect that pampered elite. Make no mistake, the parasites want even more, and are making a grab for all the public assets that can turn a profit.

USA.

       Most of us are living under a government that is putting in place legislation that nobody mandated them to carry out. We have a right to take to the streets and remove those who usurp the will of the people in favour of their millionaire friends. We have a government of parasites legislating to enhance the wealth and power of the parasites.

IRAN.

      A unified resistance to this corporate fascism is required, not a piecemeal, in our own back yard type of response. The attack is on the working class across the globe, the least we can do is to hit back with a pan-European attack on this system of greed and exploitation, while at the same time supporting in what ever way we can all those in other areas who are rising up against injustice and oppression.