Mutual Aid.

         It is encouraging to see that across the planet people are on the street protesting against the brutality of the state apparatus, through its front line of defence, the police. Black Lives Matter, has been the spearhead, but these protests have encompassed many more grievances that have brought global anger at the entire system to the surface. Before this outburst of justified anger there was a lot of action on, and talk of, the many mutual aid projects that had mushroomed across the world since the start of the covid19 pandemic. While the protests might be getting all the attention, we should never forget that it is with the mutual aid groups in our communities that we can change the way we live our lives and help to bring down this festering unjust and brutal system.

       Mutual aid groups take many shapes and forms and we must learn from each other, what is the best way to circumvent and undermine the economic system that has us tied to its yoke. It is a new world for many, many who have never before thought of mutual aid, but now see it as the way forward. Let's discuss it, exchange ideas, and link up from community to community, and encourage more to get involved. The street is where the battles may take place, but we need the back up of those mutual aid groups to cement any progress we make. 

       The following is an interesting article on Mutual aid from Crimethinc:

 

 

Finding the Thread that Binds Us

Three Mutual Aid Networks in New York City
Current Events
        Fundamental social change involves two intertwined processes. On the one hand, it means shutting down the mechanisms that impose disparities in power and access to resources; on the other hand, it involves creating infrastructures that distribute resources and power according to a different logic, weaving a new social fabric. While the movement for police abolition that burst into the public consciousness a month ago in Minneapolis has set new precedents for resistance, the mutual aid networks that have expanded around the world since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic point the way to a new model for social relations. The following report profiles three groups that coordinate mutual aid efforts in New York City—Woodbine, Take Back the Bronx, and Milk Crate Gardens—exploring their motivations and aspirations as well as the resources and forms of care they circulate.

        This is the first installment in a series exploring mutual aid projects across the globe.
       Food distribution at Woodbine, a social center in New York City.
      With politicians such as Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez calling for the people to engage in mutual aid in order to survive the COVID-19 crisis, those not previously familiar with the term might never guess it was coined by an anarchist scientist who advocated against central government. As economies collapse and the institutions of state and capitalism fail to protect people’s health and livelihoods, communities have been left no choice but to rely on each other. This has led to a proliferation of spontaneous mutual aid networks in communities where none previously existed, often cohering around Facebook groups and Google documents.
      Many communities, particularly those of poor and working class people, have long understood that we cannot rely on governments to meet our needs and have been providing for each other through autonomous grassroots collectives since well before anyone heard of the coronavirus. Now, the question is how to use the momentum of mutual aid’s recent popularity to transform the status quo and make these principles the basis for a new way of living together. An important first step will be to establish a clear distinction in the public consciousness between real mutual aid projects, which are founded on the principles of autonomy, horizontality, and solidarity, and initiatives that promote mutual aid in name only—those based more on a charity model, which serve to supplement and stabilize, rather than disrupt, state and capital.

Read the full article HERE: 

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

Choices.

  A new slogan suitable for our capitalist parasites ideology.

Photo courtesy of Erik R. Rishoff /flickr.

    

    By now it should be clear to everybody that crunch time is fast approaching and capitalism doesn't work for the benefit of the ordinary people. Everywhere you turn companies are laying off employees, the list is staggering.

   All the figures point to a massive increase in poverty, homelessness and deprivation, no blue horizon for the ordinary people of this country.

    Figures announced this morning state that the UK economy shrank by 20.4% in April, the largest monthly contraction on record, and it is all just beginning. In the coming months job loses will be on a scale not seen since the twenties and before. Here is a short list of what is known at the moment:

The Telegraph states that 250,00 business will be laying off employees.

Frankie and Benny's is closing 120 restaurants,

Roll Royce laying off 3,000,

UK car industry laying off 2,000

British Gas laying off 5,000

J Mathey laying off 2,500,

Airlines expected to lay off 70,000

BP world wide, laying off 10,000

Mulberry laying off 25% of workforce, 

Bentley cars laying of 25% of its workforce,

Airbus stated it will make job cuts. 

This list is by no means complete and comprehensive, and this as the cheery part of the picture. 

    And so the dark clouds continue to gather, and we haven't even sorted out Brexit and the mayhem that it will cause. Another factor, and I suppose we can blame the Thacher gang for this, most experts agree that UK will be hit hardest of the rich nations as 75% of its economy is in the service industry, and that will be devastated.

      Meanwhile the Chancellor of the Exchequer has been pouring billions of money he doesn't have into the coffers of the corporate world, to "save jobs" which translates into saving the corporate world from losing too much of their loot, and keeping them "afloat", you have to keep the shareholders happy. Money that the money lenders will shortly be knocking on the Chancellor's door to sort out a repayment method. Which will include cutting government spending, which means cutting social spending, much tighter and deeper austerity, a cap or cut to public sector wages, and of course selling off public assets to raise cash to pay for that bailout of the corporate parasites, for example, parts of NHS etc.

     So what should we the ordinary people do? Just grin and bear it, start thinking of charity shops, food banks and hand-outs, tighten our belts and get on with it? Remember, bringing your kids up under such conditions will stunt their potential, blight their general physical and mental health, scar them for life, and in all probability, also scar their children. 

     A lot of people during this pandemic learnt about mutual aid and found it worked and was enjoyable. We need to expand that feeling of community and and continue and expand mutual aid in our lives. Refuse to fall back into the consumer mode that the corporate world desire, buying crap and that endless supply of stuff that is out dated  forcing you to buy another. Start to organise to take control of our workplaces, and distribution centres, to produce what we want and need and distributing them in a fair and just manner.  Our lords and masters are already organising to get you back on the treadmill of ever increasing consumption and growth, all to the detriment of the planet and the the benefit of that pampered, privileged bunch of wealthy parasites. You follow them to your detriment or you resist and follow the path that will benefit us all in an equal and fair manner. The choice is simple, more and bleaker austerity, poverty and deprivation, or a chance to build that better world for all.

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

Anarchy & Covid19.

What Might an Anarchist Society Look Like?

     1 The world’s resources would be held in common and shared with all the diverse life on Earth.
    2 People would manage their own lives, work and communities, and everyone would have a say in decision making through decentralised forms of organisation.
   3 Relationships in all areas of life would be based on mutual respect and equality regardless of gender, skin colour, sexual orientation, disability, age, culture etc.
    4 Work wouldn’t be boring and repetitive, but instead would be a means of voluntary self expression and fulfillment; unpopular or difficult jobs would be shared.
    5 Education would be integrated into daily life to produce free individuals who think for ourselves.
     6 Goods and services would be produced ecologically for human needs based on the principle “from each according to ability, to each according to need”

      Anarchist, by word and deed, strive for that better world for all, anarchism has the books, the leaflets, the history, the road map, and there has been the experience in several places in the world where these became practice. However the world changes and anarchism like that world must also change. We have to convince people that our philosophy would work in drastic situations, pandemic is the most resent event that anarchist must show that it could cope with, and better than, the present centralised autocratic state/capitalism system. That requires honest debate, co-operation and open mindedness.

     The group Anarchist Writers has produced an interesting article that perhaps will open and encourage that debate among anarchists and the general public.

Anarchy and Covid-19

Fri, 06/05/2020 - 20:22 — Anarcho

       A standard reproach against anarchism is that it would not be able to withstand crises as well as hierarchies. This is often the underlying assumption of Marxist diatribes against Anarchism – although these usually invoke euphemisms to avoid admitting that what is really being suggested is that they and their party should be in power. Hence the assertions on the need for a centralised “workers’ State” to organise defence against the counter-revolution (i.e., anyone who disagrees with them), plan the economy, and so on – skilfully avoiding discussing the grim inefficiencies and tyrannies of the Bolshevik regime or the various counter-examples which show the opposite (most obviously, the response of the CNT-FAI to Franco’s coup).

      The coronavirus crisis – like any crisis – sees people “rally to the flag” and be more willing to view those in power in a good light. This happened in the UK with the serial lying, incompetent, self-serving, waffling, racist, sexist, homophobic lazy waste of space known as “Boris” but better called Johnson (and not only because that is his surname). It even happened with Trump – although his bump in the polls was both smaller in size and shorter in duration. Still, Trump does serve a purpose – making even Johnson and his response to the crisis seem better by default.

     Which raises a question – what would an anarchist society, an anarchy, do in the face of a coronavirus crisis?

This is no idle question for addressing a serious issue and the concerns it generates in the general public (i.e., people we want to become anarchists) should be something anarchists do. We must apply our ideas to real events if we take our ideas seriously and seek to see them applied – rather than an excuse to sound ultra-radical.

Now, there may be a tendency for some anarchists – as with “crime” (i.e., anti-social behaviour) – to simply say that a free society would not have any. This, as with crime, is not very convincing and, for example, Kropotkin did not suggest that. He argued, like other anarchist thinkers, that anti-social behaviour would, indeed, be vastly reduced in a decent society, but it would never disappear completely. Therefore any which remained would be dealt with via free arbitration between the parties in conflict, as well as community solidarity and self-defence conducted as humanely as an illness would be.

     The same can be said for Covid-19. Yes, a free society would be one based on workers’ control, so it is unlikely that it would be lacking in safe and hygienic working conditions. It would not have the same pressures from bosses to cut corners to maximise profits (and in non-mutualist anarchies there would be no market pressures to do likewise). It would not experience the hollowing out of society and its various institutions (not least health-care) that neo-liberalism has produced nor would it have people with low-paid, insecure jobs who have to drag themselves into work because they have bills to pay but, by so doing, spread the virus. It would not have obscenities like billionaires having a net worth far in excess of the costs of paying their workers decent sick pay for months.

Continue reading HERE: 

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

Organise Now.

       Now that our lords and masters believe that they have got you all eager to get back to get their tills ringing again, their thoughts are shifting. They and their partners the financial Mafia are now turning their thoughts to how you will pay for all those billions borrowed and given, to their corporate friends to keep them afloat.

     If you all opt for returning to "normal" then you are in for a very nasty shock. If you think that the last 12 years of austerity was brutal in stripping down the NHS and social services, well you ain't seen nothing yet. The amount that the government borrowed in 2008 from the financial Mafia simply disappears into insignificance compared to what they have borrowed this time round. Make no doubt about it, the financial Mafia will demand their money back, and you and I will have to pick up the tab, just like the last time. 

    A little taster of what could be on the cards is what the Egyptian Government is implementing. They are taking 1% off everybody's salary and 1/2% off all pensions, that's just for starters. We can expect similar plans here, plus what they call "cutting Government spending" this will be savage slashing of social services and NHS spending, stopping any pay increases to public sector workers, increased privatisation to rise cash, good by public libraries, hello private library. It is difficult to get inside their money infested minds, but rest assured they will have plans you never thought of to get every penny of your tax payments into their coffers and making sure it is not spent on the general public, despite it being your money.

    This is what to expect if we are foolish enough to go back to their "normal". Surely we have learnt something from this pandemic, the state system and capitalism doesn't work for the benefit of the people. It is a failed system in creating a decent society for all. We turned to mutual aid during this crisis, as it was the only way for many of us to survive and it worked. We have to continue this success by bring it into our mainstream lives. What we mustn't do is run back to the dependency system of perpetual growth and consumerism while grafting to make the tills of the parasite class ring faster.

      Organise within your communities on those foundations of mutual aid and skill sharing, organise to take control of all necessary working spaces, and distribution centres, organise to share between communities. Free ourselves from the corporate greed machine and its profit motive that has shackled us for generations, and is destroying our planet. The decisions have to be made now, next month or next week could be too late. Remember, they are organised, but not for your well being.

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

Failed System.

        I always find SubMedia, informative and interesting, I'm looking forward to their new series which starts in June, below is the trailer to get you interested.

      The crew at subMedia have been hard at work for the past few weeks on our new show concept, which will be dropping early next month.  Until then, check out our first teaser trailer.

System Fail:

      It’s a time of pandemic and universal anxiety. The economy is in free fall. The geopolitical order is in flux. And as the old world burns, a 5G-fuelled cybernetic dystopia waits in the wings.
        Buckle up, comrades… this is going to be a bumpy ride.

Website: https://sub.media/video/system-fail-trailer/
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VKKxVQjeRvo
Vimeo: https://vimeo.com/421093896

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

Open Door!!

      Since this covid19 pandemic I, like lots of others, have been reading articles on how we should tackle it and the problems that it has thrown up in the running of this society. What I find very disappointing is that a tremendous amount of articles, even some from the so called "left", keep advocating what the government should be doing and how it can solve this problem better than it seems to be doing at present. It seems to be impossible for some people to think and act outside the the rule book they have been handed, and they also fail to realise that the government and the large corporations are one and the same thing. To discuss how the government can solve this problem in favour of the ordinary people, is a bit like asking you gaoler to help you escape.

      To me the first step is to throw away the rule book which is based on a growing economy, stop playing the game to their rules. All solutions to our problems must be human based, not corporate balance sheet orientated. The present economic model is there to serve the millionaire/billionaire parasite class, why should we, the ordinary people, do anything to preserve such an unequal exploitative system. Let's not forget, all that money that is being thrown at big multi billion pound corporate businesses is your tax money. One way or another we will be asked to pick up the bill. Our future will be tied that that mountain of "debt" for generations to come with the resulting austerity demanded to reduce the debt and balance the books. You've heard it all before.

I need a taxpayer's bailout to keep this thing going. 

 

     Our answer lies not in getting the economy growing again, but bring it crashing down. What we need we should be the owners of that production and the distributors, and doing it for our selves and our communities, not shoveling the wealth we produce into the coffers of that millionaire/billionaire parasite class that grow fat off your effort and sweat.

      Sustainability, human needs based, mutual aid, co-operation between communities, taking control of our work places and distribution centres, and free from the profit motive, are the only foundation stones of a truly civilised society. Anything else is walking back into your cell when the door was open to leave.

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

Fascism Tomorrow?

       There's a lot of talk and thought about after this pandemic, perhaps not enough by the general public on how we can scrap the old system of inequality, injustice, and destruction of the planet for greed. If we don't come together to sort this out the way we want it, to a system that sees to the needs of all our people, based on mutual aid, equality, justice, respect for all and sustainability, we will end up in a worse state than we were in before this covid19 pandemic struck.

      To help to focus our minds on our future if we don't grab the initiative now, I nicked this poem from Tayside Wobbly's site, I'm sure they won't mind.

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

I Moan.

       I moan, but I feel with justification. Our freedoms are under attack, the attacker wears the cloak of a caring state, but we must be wary, it has ulterior motives. Naturally a lot of our actions have been governed by fear and self preservation along with fear for the lives of our loved ones. A population that lives with fear is easier manipulated and controlled, and that will be the underlying ulterior motive of the state. Society is being reshaped before our eyes, socialising will be very limited, as the restricting legislation introduce now will still be in place as the virus recedes. Keep your social distancing, but go to work, out of work experiences will be curtailed for some considerable time. Theatres and large sporting events postponed for at least a year, pubs disappearing as the go bust from no sales but still got the bills coming in. Get back to work, but keep your distance, no social gatherings as work conditions will now keep you apart, for your own good of course. Isolated living and working, with TV and virtual meetings, and a lingering fear that the virus is still there. Welcome to capitalism's brave new world. 

        This will be our new normality, unless we decide that the time has come for resistance rather than submission. We have seen the shoots of our view of the world we want. Those mutual aid groups springing up spontaneously in communities across the country, a desire to be with one and other, and to help where needed without the thought of profit. That has to be the driving force of the normality that we want, not the isolated profit making for wealthy shareholders. Resisting the call to go back to work under the dystopian construction of our capitalist masters, may be difficult, but complying is abdicating your right to live freely, in communities with your friends and families. This could be the final battle for your freedom, if they win, we continue our subjugation on a journey to an ecological disaster, with no come back. We are the only ones who can save ourselves and future generations from this nightmare dystopian human disaster. I moan, but I feel with justification.   

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

Now Or Never.

          We have now been in lockdown for couple of months, and there is talk of our lords and masters allowing a gradual "opening up" of society, a sort of parole for the public. I believe now is the time to take a very close look at where we have been, what has really happened and where do we go from here.         

       As expected the state has taken full advantage of the situation and with one fell swoop, has moulded us into a submissive population, sitting waiting for our next instructions as to how we should live our lives. They have introduced legislation that makes it easier for them to govern us, and rest assure these will be built into any future they have in mind. They have managed to create that imaginary connection between us, the state, and the economy, we are all one now, we have to go back to get the economy growing again. 

        We will be instructed to go back to work, not because they can guarantee our safety, but because they need us to start again to generate wealth for the shareholders. The "money tree" has already appeared, taxpayers money will be lavished on businesses to "keep them afloat", forgetting that for more than ten years there was no money for the NHS or our social services. Keeping the shareholders happy is more important that the health and well-being of the people, in their plans, that will not change.

         We will be expected to forget that their relentless drive for an ever growing economy was responsible for gross inequality, abject poverty for millions and the destruction of our planet. We will be expected to fall into line as it will save jobs, as if jobs were sacred to their philosophy, when they cast aside countless workers to increase profit. Virgin Atlantic is casting over 3,000 workers aside, Ryanair is dropping over 3,000 workers from its payroll, and those that it keeps are being told they will have to take a pay cut. You are fodder for their greed machine. Is that the road we wish to follow?

       

        We all know we can create a fairer world, we are already laying the foundations in our variety of mutual aid projects, people and communities coming together to help each other without the profit motive. This can be built on and expanded, community swap shops, community skill sharing projects, etc. I suppose we can thank the pandemic legislation for showing us we can live without running out to buy their crap and focus more on what we need,  

         Which world are we going to focus on, their, back to work to grow the economy and feed the parasite shareholder class, or one based on co-operation, communities, the needs of the people, workers' controlled workplaces and distribution services, all freed from the profit motive and built on sustainability. 

          We have to make that decision now, those in power have already chosen their plan for our future, and it will, as it has always done in the past, benefit the wealthy and powerful at the expense of the many. It's our choice, and it may be our last chance.

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

Now What?

    May Day 2020 passed, the celebrations are over, what now? Do we plan for next May Day 2021, and more celebrations, or do move on that spirit of May Day solidarity, and change tomorrow to our desires, to our better world for all. Or do we just knuckle down and get back to the normal of the parasite class that has, is, and will continue to, screw us and destroy the planet, our only life support system? There never has been a greater opportunity for a world wide drive to take control of our lives and change society to one that caters for all our needs excluding nobody. World wide we are all aware of and involved in the pandemic and how it showed up the glaring weaknesses in this corrupt system of inequality, what are we going to do about it. If we let this opportunity pass, what then? It can also be an opportunity for the parasite class to tighten its grip on our lives, to march forward on its plundering and destructive path, it is up to us. As far as the planet is concerned we don't have a lot of time to stop the terminal rot, the destruction of the system that is destroying our planet is the only real answer to our problems.

The following from SubMedia:

       This May Day finds us at an important historic crossroads. Amidst a global pandemic, this year the streets will be eerily silent as people forgo the marches, rallies and riots that are the annual rituals of international workers day. But while the streets may be calm, the class war rages on. Wildcat strikes are popping off among 'essential workers' who two months ago were seen as some of the lowest, most precarious participants of the gig economy. Prison uprisings are breaking out around the world at an unprecedented rate. And millions of tenants are withholding their rent in what could become the first global rent strike in history. These are interesting times. Stay safe. Get organized. Fight hard. Happy May Day.

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

Domestic Violence.

      Domestic violence is no new phenomena it has been part and parcel of our society for many a generation. It is born out of patriarchy and festers away in what is often thought of as a "normal" home. It is another symptom of our unjust, unequal, sick society, so often people will turn away when they see or hear it manifest itself, it is somehow seen as a private affair. We always seek to eradicate aggressive and unprovoked violence in our society, we should remember, the home is a unit of our society. This pandemic lockdown has made the life of those at the receiving end of domestic violence all the more precarious, sometimes escape seems impossible, and that is when friends and neighbours should come in.

      This is an appeal for solidarity with those subject to domestic violence, with some helpful advice from Greece.

The following from Act For Freedom Now:

DOMESTIC VIOLENCE IS A COLLECTIVE ISSUE

       In this time of Covid-19, during the State-imposed lockdown and transport ban, the cases of domestic violence in Greece have increased. It was to be expected -now it’s even harder to escape. The myth of the “holy nuclear family” takes for granted that staying at home is always the safest, but for many of us being with our families or partners is just as threatening as being out there. In the odd silence of the city, the screams we can hear from the neighbouring houses aren’t getting any quieter. Domestic violence is not just a “couple’s problem”, an “issue for the family to resolve” or a “private affair”. All forms of violence against children, partners, family members or housemates are never justified, except when it’s for self-defence against the aggressor.
Every year, patriarchy kills more than any other virus.
     If you are experiencing violence, physical or otherwise, and you are quarantined with your aggressor/s, we tried to put together some suggestions:
• Practice how to get safely out of the house.
• Create a sign to use for emergencies with your neighbours.
• Find people who understand and support you and a safe space, to take refuge in.
•Try to resist! If you can’t do anything, it’s totally ok too, it’s not your fault, you’re not alone.
       If you witness domestic violence which doesn’t target or threaten you and you don’t intervene or speak out, you support the aggressor.
        What you could do:
•Try to create a connection with the person targeted by the violence.
• Offer your space as shelter
• If the person agrees, call out or confront the aggressor.

Anti Covid19 – Network for Mutual Aid and Struggle
FB:@AntiCovidAidNetwork
patriarchyisthevirus.tem.li

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

Whose Script?

     At the moment we are in the midst of a world moving event, opportunity, for who, or disaster, for who. The aftermath of this world moving event could be much worse than the event itself. Fortunately the script has not yet been written. how we fare will depend on who writes the narrative. It is up to us the vast majority of the population to take charge of that pen and write our script the way we wish to shape our story.

     All pulling together should remain as it is during this event, doing it to help each other, it should not be used to help pull the system back to what it was, the opposite must be our aim, to bury the past normal and build our own.

The following is an extract from:

The Road To Hell Is Paved With Good Intentions:

      Resistance; To those who say that now is not the time for “civil unrest,” that division is unhelpful, that we must keep going... we say: now is the time for it all. Mutual aid and solidarity can be no more than acts of charity if they are not combined with resistance in this current context. Carefully, whilst being safe and thinking of others... rebel, resist, and plan. Find the gaps, use the skills and networks you have. Keep yourself sane and your rebellious heart burning, because when the virus eases, the police state will continue, and food parcels and lending books are not going to dismantle it. Stay sharp.COVID-19 is in many ways a global gift to all leaders and politicians seeking to ramp up social control. After the virus eases, we will see unprecedented changes on a global scale as legislation that was rushed through hangs over us like a spectre and people obediently go about their business, terrified of Covid-20. We hope that we will never be too scared to resist. Corona shows us that the system is fucked. Will you kick it while it’s down

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

Organise.

 

        Like the article says, "these are dark days", also very confusing, because none of us have lived through such a situation before in our life time. Also, information can be conflicting, loaded in this direction or that direction. Forces with wealth in mind pushing for "get the economy growing again" and those with concern for people's lives, "human life and wellbeing is paramount". It would be easy to cover your ears and just ride this one out, but for sure that would lead you back to the callous failed and exploitative system that brought us to this situation.  Now more than ever we have to focus on what we had, its poverty, its greed driven market economy, its perpetual struggle for a half decent life for most of us, while the few piled up unimaginable wealth and its accompanying power and privileges. That can't be on our desire for normality, we have a golden opportunity as we come together to help each other, through this nightmare, to make that the foundation of our new normal. We are learning day by day that we can organise to see to our needs, simply by co-operation and mutual aid. We should not let that desire to be part of a caring community that doesn't seek profit, just the well being of each other to disappear, and give in to the forces of the market economy. We have felt the burden of that model for centuries and the weight never lifted off our shoulders, and still the few wallowed in opulence cradled in pomp and power. That can never be our normal again. 

The following from It's Going Down:

 From SubMedia,

         These are dark days. As the COVID-19 crisis turns our world upside-down, the social isolation and atomization of capitalism has given way to full-blown social distancing. At a time when we most need to come together, we’re told that human contact can kill us. Alarm bells are flashing everywhere as the dead pile up, the economy burns, and more and more people’s mental health deteriorates. This is the most severe and far-reaching global crisis that most of us who are alive today have ever experienced. Its a terrifying, alienated, and stressful time. It’s also no time to give up. No time to turn on Netflix, bury our heads in the sand, and wait for things to pass. Certainly not for anarchists, or anyone who calls themselves a revolutionary.
       These are dark days. As the COVID-19 crisis turns our world upside-down, the social isolation and atomization of capitalism has given way to full-blown social distancing. At a time when we most need to come together, we’re told that human contact can kill us. Alarm bells are flashing everywhere as the dead pile up, the economy burns, and more and more people’s mental health deteriorates. This is the most severe and far-reaching global crisis that most of us who are alive today have ever experienced. Its a terrifying, alienated, and stressful time. It’s also no time to give up. No time to turn on Netflix, bury our heads in the sand, and wait for things to pass. Certainly not for anarchists, or anyone who calls themselves a revolutionary.

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

Enemies Of The State.

     The state is all about control, control of the population to make sure that wealth, privileges and power stay where they are. They will do all they can to silence, stifle or intimidate those who would dare to speak out against this unequal and unjust system. They are the strong arm enforcers of the capitalist system. Some states do this in a quiet underhand subtle manner others are more open on their brutal attack on dissident voices, useing, apart from open violence, completely fabricated scenarios and false evidence to put those dissident voices in cages to try to keep their voices from being heard and turn them into subservient citizens. 

     Anarchists are always at the forefront of the attack on this authoritarian  system of privileges and power to the wealthy pampered few, while trying to create a society of mutual aid, where the people control their own lives in communities of co-operation linked to like communities, a world of equality and sustainability, that sees to the needs of all our people. So these are the people that the state fears most, those struggling to change the entire system, so these are the ones on which the state will come down hardest. Lies, fabrication, false evidence and raw brutality will be its tools, whichever it feels will work to preserve the status quo. It would be prudent for those in the areas controlled by the more subtle states to be warned that the other tools are still in the tool box of the so called democratic states.

The following from Anarchists Worldwide:

 

 

       The Continual Anarchist Witch Hunt & the Scenario of State Incompetence
      Only a few weeks ago comrades in Tangerang were arrested for graffiti and the media sensationalized the arrests followed by false information from police declaring that on the 18th of April the Indonesian anarchists had planned mass looting nation wide. This was proven false. Moreover police were trying to make a ridiculous scenario in which a petit criminal they caught was forced to do a live video declaring himself as “The sole leader of the anarchists”, fortunately this video has become a national joke. Even before, many of the activists and journalists criticized police evidence concerning books. Police confiscated books and showed them off to the media and it was mostly non-political books, many of these books were fiction or non-fiction reports that were published legally. Hence, it is concluded that this evidence — books —are not court materials. But the Indonesian police are more than ready to exaggerate their own stupidity. Mass looting, prison riots, and even people dying of hunger has already happened throughout Indonesia.
      The Absurd Arrests and the Isolation of the Defendants
      Most of the defendants concerning the case were mostly doing graffiti. While it is clear that the graffiti was to incite riots, the state and the police seem so myopic or they’re consciously doing it to divert from the real issues as part of their strategy to veil the whole incompetency of the state in dealing with the crisis. Young anarchists were arrested in West Java and more recently in the city of Malang, East Java. This case is different to that of the Tangerang anarchists, the anarchists in Malang were arrested just because they were directly involved in social struggles against land grabbing, state corporations, and other grassroots struggles, one media report went as far as saying that the prosecution of these anarchists is just because, or as the police statement to the media said: “they are anti-capitalist.” These state scenarios smell like rotten eggs coming from idiotic bureaucrats.

      One of the more outrageous arrests that occurred just a few days before was of a journalist who is very critical of government policy. Ravio Patra wrote about the state’s falsification of information about COVID-19 and published a comprehensive article on an independent news portal. Afterwards, his Whatsapp account was hacked — Whatsapp officials stated that it was true, his Whatsapp account was breached — and that all of a sudden he received messages via his account saying that “its already crisis, its time to burn, lets loot on 30th of April”. Before this Ravio already contacted some experts about why he couldn’t seem to control his own account. Not many hours after, he was out of contact. Until most of his friends and advocacy groups confirmed that he had already been arrested.
      We can say that the bureaucrats and police acted recklessly but in this time of pandemic it seems they can do whatever they want to prosecute anyone, especially people connected to the anarchists. In this latest scenario, we can see how the Indonesian state acted in a totalitarian manner. We will not go down in silence. This anarchist witch hunt has got to stop and we cannot beg the state to do it for us. Their absolute incompetency and their rotting infrastructures will go down. Down with surveillance and the society of control, decompose the state right now!
      PS: The funny thing is that most anarchists in Indonesia are and were involved in countless public kitchens in a form of mutual aid and the state are and were always trying to criminalize everything.
      We are the criminals, we don’t fucking value your laws. We’re going to help you die soon.

Circle of Marvelous Individualists

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

Last Chance.

 

     We as a species have accepted a system that has bombed countries into oblivion, resulting in millions of deaths, millions fleeing their homes, and an army of maimed and injured. We have eliminated thousands of other species, probably millions, altered the climate to our own disadvantage, and screwed the entire planet. We have taken ourselves the the edge of a precipice and stand looking over the edge. Will we blindly carry on with our journey of self destruction and eliminate our own species, or will we halt and look at what we have done. This disastrous pandemic has offered us an opportunity to take stock of what we have done, where we are and where we could go. This is probably the last real opportunity that we will have to smash the rule book of the old destructive greed driven system and to write a new set of rules. Rules that unsure that we look after our home, the planet, we see to the needs of all our people and respect all life. We must write our past into the dustbin of history and label it as "Our Darkest Hour", and swear never to repeat these disasters.
       Should we return to that destructive greed driven normal of yesterday, we will have missed what is probably our last opportunity to try to put things right with our planet and the life it supports. Our history makes for dreadful reading, our future doesn't have to follow the same script. We would do well to remember, spaceship Earth has no escape capsule.

Grand Plans

In this world where we serve oblivion
with a blind pride and sure conviction
creating plans to land a man on Mars
grandiose schemes to conquer the stars
eyes on horizons ever further afield
believing, to us the universe will yield.
Yet here on Earth we fail to see
a chaotic world of human debris,
our magnificent results thus far
a planet dying from a human scar,
oblivious that our plans sublime
are mere litter scattered in space and time.

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