Busy Edinburgh.

A busy schedule at the ACE centre in Edinburgh, something for everybody.

SOME UPCOMING EVENTS AT ACE AND BEYOND

* Sun 29th May - 2pm @ ace - All the world needs a jolt - chapter 1 from Silvia Federici Caliban and the Witch - Edinburgh Revolutionary Feminism Reading Group https://www.facebook.com/events/1399937203647363/

*Sunday 29th May- Migrant Pride by Spanish Workers in Edinburgh. 6pm @ the Mound

*Sunday 29th May- 3rd Nuit Debout Edinburgh - Poterrow tunnel (between the Old College of the University of edinburgh and Bristo Square)

* Mon 30th May- Edinburgh Coalition Against Poverty meeting @ACE 7pm. (ECAP meetings last monday each month)

* Thursday 2nd June – Demo at Scottish Parliament, Holyrood EH99 1SP against new Immigration Act - 11.30am Organised by Migrants Solidarity Network https://www.facebook.com/events/1748745975360690/

* Thursday 2nd June- ACE Working Group Meeting 7:30pm. Everyone welcome! (ACE meetings now the first thursday each month)

* Friday 3rd June 7pm at Quaker meeting house, Victoria Terrace (off George IV Bridge). Housing is a Human Right: the dignified fight for homes and autonomy in Mexico City and beyond - public meeting with Enrique Reynoso, of the Popular Organisation of the Independent Left “Francisco Villa”. Organised by Edinburgh Chiapas Solidarity

https://www.facebook.com/events/1027607207293907/

* Saturday 4th June - Capitalism and Mental Health. Edinburgh Anarchist Federation. 2pm @ ACE.https://www.facebook.com/events/596112043881821/

* Sat 4th and Sun 5th June – ACE + friends stalls at Meadows Festival – volunteers welcome to help staff stalls

* Mon 6th June- Rent Rebels Film screening 18.00 University of Edinburgh - Elliot Room, Minto House 20-22 Chambers Street, Edinburgh, EH1 1JZ

* Wed 8th June – Edinburgh Chiapas Solidarity organising meeting 6.30pm @ACE

* Thursday 9th June - Tony Cox Solidarity: Advocacy is not a crime –10am onwards. Dundee Sheriff Court, 6 West Bell Street, DD1 9AD Called by Scottish Unemployed Workers' Network, with Action Against Austerity, ECAP and others https://www.facebook.com/events/1018949701522891/

Transport from Edinburgh, contact ecap@lists.riseup.net

* Friday 10th June- Migrant Solidarity Network monthly meeting 6pm @ACE

* Sat 11th June - ACE + friends stalls at Leith Festival Gala, Leith Links – volunteers welcome to help staff stalls

* Monday 13th June- Edinburgh IWW Meeting 7pm @ACE

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

Making Communities Safer.

      Day and daily the babbling brook of bullshit, our mainstream media, report violence from all around the Middle East, and elsewhere, but there is one country that doesn't get much publicity about its corrupt, brutal police force, a country where there is practically a shooting of an unarmed man by the over re-acting police every day of the week. I find it sickening that day in day out we find that some unfortunate, usually young person, has died at the hands of what can only be described as, a police force completely out of control, a law unto themselves.

      That country I'm referring to is the so called, "land of the free", "defender of the world's democracy", and other such double speak titles, The Good Ol' US of A. Where like police across the globe, they carry such phoney logos as "keeping you safe", or "making communities safer", and other such meaningless and empty phrases.

     A country where on average, every 28 hours, a young black man dies at the hands  of cops. This latest episode, captured on this video, is of a homeless man being dragged from a tent and killed outside a homeless mission in Los Angeles.

This report from Free Thought Project:

       Los Angeles, Calif. – In a brutal display, Los Angeles police shot and killed a homeless man in front of Union Rescue Mission today, after he scuffled with officers.

       A video of the event, posted on Facebook, shows numerous officers fighting with the man and eventually wrestling him to the ground where he continues to struggle against the officers.

The footage shows officers violently attacking the man with blows and then throwing him to the ground as four officers attempt to subdue him as he continues to resist the officers’ aggression.

At this point in the video, an officer can be heard yelling, “Get off my gun. Get off my gun.”

      While possible that the victim went for the officer’s weapon, it must be noted that one of the tactics utilized by police, as a means of conditioning witnesses, is to yell out phrases such as “stop resisting” even if the person is doing no such thing.

Similarly, saying that someone went for the officers weapon is an accepted justification to use deadly force, and has become the default justification in many encounters where officers have killed unarmed citizens.

     Suddenly a barrage of 5-6 gunshots ring out. Witnesses can be heard yelling, “Ain’t nobody got no guns!,” after the gunfire subsides.

No gun was reportedly found at the scene by police.

According to witnesses on the scene named Dennis Horne, 29, the victim was a man that went by the name “Africa.”

    Horne said that Africa had been arguing with someone in a tent when police arrived, reported the LA Times.

    After refusing to come out of the tent after being commanded to do so by officers, cops tasered him and dragged him out, according to Horne.

“It’s sad,” Horne said. “There’s no justification to take somebody’s life.”

    Ina Murphy, who lives in an apartment nearby, told the Times that Africa had arrived in the area about four or five months ago. He reportedly told her he had recently been released after spending 10 years in a mental facility.

Read the full article HERE: 

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

Mental Health Prisons!!!

   This system throws up many anomalies, for example, we produce an abundance of wealth, but the majority struggle for a decent life. Is that beyond our imagination to put right? I'm sure we can all come up with a fairer way of producing and distributing the wealth we create, but it would have to be outside capitalism to have any pretence at fairness. Another anomaly in this quagmire of greed we call the capitalist system, is “law and order”. The figures for England and Wales, for the year ending March 2013, state that there were 8.6 million crimes. This is a decrease of 9% on the previous year, it is also the lowest figure since 1981 and is less than half the peak figure of 1995.

     So there we have it, falling crime rates across the country, and that's where the anomaly comes in. The prison population in this country has been rising steadily over the years. In England and Wales since 1993 to the present time the prison population has grown from 40,000, to today's figure of 97,000, in Scotland it rose from approximately 6,000 in 1997 to today's figure of around 7,000. Only in Northern Ireland has the figure fallen I,600 in 1996 to approximately 1,400 today, but Northern Ireland is a special case because of the “troubles” and the state's brutal repression, in the 80's and 90's.

        This land of falling crime has more than 150 prisons and we incarcerate more of our people than any other European country. In England and Wales it is 149 per 100,000 of the population, with Scotland following close behind with 139 per 100,000. How do you square that circle, falling crime, increase prison population? One way to look at it, is that across the country as a whole, we have approximately 1% of the population with mental health problems, our prison population has 10% with mental health problems. So that would be one answer, we lock people up who have mental health problems, instead of offering them care and treatment. Just another brutal statistic from a brutal, uncaring, exploitative system.

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