Fail 19.

           System Fail 19, the latest from SubMedia now available. As usual it covers a range of topics. This episode looks at the pandemic, riots in China and Elon Musk's take-over of twitter. System Fail is a window on our world, always worth a viewing.

Visit ann arky's home at https://spiritofrevolt.info  

Thoughts?

     

      I, and many others, have always claimed that this pandemic, irrespective of cause or seriousness of the illness, has been a wonderful opportunity for the state to increase its authoritarian legislation, and tighten its control over our lives. An opportunity that they certainly were not going to let pass. Gathering the population like sheep, training them to wait for their every move to be indicated to them by the shepherd and his dogs. All for our own good of course, but the deed is done, people wait for the next directive, people are split among themselves, vaxxers and non-vaxxers, when we should be focusing on our freedoms and how they have been striped away, how that the state has more data on you and your daily life than it ever had, and of course will use it for its aim of a total submissive population. It is harder to win back that which you have lost than to fight to keep what you have. freedom is ours by right, not a demand we request from others. 

The following "food for thought" from Act For Freedom now:

           In order to “convince” people to be vaccinated, but above all to loyally follow the imposed rules and be obedient, the State through its Governments with the support of its technicians and the media, has terrorized and blackmailed, taken away rights and freedom, threatened, humiliated, denigrated and ridiculed, censored, suspended work, prevented work, divided society in two, nourished the epidemic, pointed the finger, condemned, criminalized, lied, misled, confused, created anxiety and fear. Still before and even worse, it murdered 14 prisoners in March 2020, prisoners who were demanding not to die like mice in a cage by rebelling along with many others.
          The State chose to eradicate the problem by murdering some so that it would be clear to everyone that the so-called emergency phase that was opening up would take on precise connotations. Restrictions on freedom and abundantly spread terror, but with the leitmotif of “everything will be all right”.

Read the full article HERE: 

 

Visit ann arky's home at https://spiritofrevolt.info    

Rip-off.

         I'm always surprised that most people don't see the daily rip-off of public funds to capitalist businesses. The pandemic has been the largest rip-off in recent times, though there have been many. Billions have been thrown at big businesses during the pandemic, clothed in the illusion of saving jobs, but in actual fact, saving bosses lifestyle. Where was the saving people's jobs when they closed steel works, coal-mines, shipyards, etc? The other big rip-off was the selling off of public assets, Royal Mail, BT, Gas, Electricity, Railways, public transport, all revenue raisers for the public purse to help pay for social services etc. They were all sold to make money for the corporate world, denying the public that income. Now we are told that we can't afford social services, our health service is at breaking point and our education system is crumbling, and they see private capitalists as the answer to those problems, rip us off when we get sick.

Image courtesy of AlterNet:

 

        Greene King manages 1,700 pubs and rents out 1,000, now complaining that times are difficult and the government will need to come up quickly with financial help, ie, tax payers money, to protect the lucrative business. Having milked the public for years and now finds it difficult to do so, asks the government to do it for them, in the form of shovelling tax payers money into their business. Don't these people realise that it is a capitalist system, you open a business, milk the public make a lot of money at their expense, to create a lucrative lifestyle, then you can't make any more killings, you go bust, that's how this insane system is supposed to work. Not milk the public for your own greedy benefit and then when times are hard get the government to keep you in the style to which you have become accustomed. That's called greedy exploitation. It's insanity if we continue to accept this greedy rip-off, by the rich, with the help of the government. We are an extremely rich country, the problem is we obligingly give all our wealth to a small cabal of parasites.

 

Visit ann arky's home at https://spiritofrevolt.info    

Reflection.

       I wrote the following words four years ago, December 2017, before the pandemic and before the state vastly accelerated its authoritarianism. I think the words resonate more now, than they did then, so I'll spew them out again.  

 

         As the old year starts to fade and the new year beckons, it is a time for anarchists to reflect on the struggles of the past, our successes and how to improve on them, our failures and how to reverse them. It is also time to analyse the weakness and the strengths of our adversary, the economic system under which we live. Weakness there are plenty, its only strength is our apathy. We are all aware that the state is ramping up repression, as more and more people become not just disenchanted with the government, but disgusted by its callous support for the corporate world at the expense of the people. Deteriorating conditions among our people is encouraging more and more individuals to get involved in this battle for justice and equality. Our vision of justice and equality must see through all borders, we can never recognise those arbitrary lines drawn on the planet's surface by power mongers. Also we must not forget those comrades who have paid dearly in this struggle for a better world, some paid by being imprisoned, others paid with their life.
      These are very dangerous times, capitalist power blocks are vying to increase their dominance in certain areas, and are defending their bases in others, with the extremely high risk of existing wars escalating in to a globe catastrophe. A reshuffling of the power mongers territory is usually done by shedding the blood of millions of our people. 

      So let’s come together in the knowledge that the capitalist system is in turmoil, with chaos the main ingredient, and the various states are struggling as the illusion of their legitimacy evaporates like fog in the sun. It is an ideal time to increase our actions, but only after, with a critical eye, we reflect on where we are, and where we want to go, and how to get our communities more involved.
       Dangerous times, but times loaded with opportunities, their chaos and turmoil is our garden of opportunity, we have nothing to lose, and a world to gain, but that takes critical analysis, organisation, solidarity, community involvement and determination. It is their world, or it is our world, there can be no compromise.

Visit ann arky's home at https://spiritofrevolt.info   

Obey!

 

        I find it odd that on the main, the anarchist groupings have fallen in line with the state's dictate of isolation, separation, wait for further orders from the state before you decide how to live your life. Yes I am aware that we are still in a pandemic and have been for approximately two years, but was there really no alternative? No possibility of communities organising to protect themselves and in co-operation with other communities in a manner deemed best for them? Did it have to a state decision which in lots of instances was based on political ideology rather than medical expertise. The state will always have priorities that don't put the well-being of the people first, but somehow it convinced us to obey and to show solidarity with the state and its agenda. The state will always seek ways to control the population, our acceptance of its dictates in this case of the pandemic and our submissiveness gave the state an open door and straight road for population control, and they have seized it with both hands and vigour. Despite what we might be fed, this was and is a medical emergency, so why did we allow the politicians to be the main controllers of the decisions?

The following is an extract from an article in Act For Freedom Now:

         While “we” stay #home, the state offers the only alternative out of the lock-down, managing the situation and organizing the “solidarity”, with “our” tacit consent. Since when has delegating – especially to the state – been part of the anarchist toolbox? The gap left by the “radical left” in not criticizing and opposing the state measures is now mostly filled by fascist and other reactionary bullshit propaganda.
         In this context, the question arises for us whether people in the circles of the “radical left” are aware of the real consequences of the often used slogans? “Against capitalism” “Against the authorities” “for a self-organized and self-determined life” (for some also “destruction of state, borders, prisons”). Are these things that people want to fight for and stand by, whatever happens? Or are they empty words that look cool on stickers or t-shirts and are just a required part of a subculture?
         Because dear people, the struggle for another world, a revolution or revolutionary moments, in real life, will probably be so beautiful and full of emotions, but also full of suffering, difficult moments, losses, and will force us out of our comfort zones. Making the proposal to #Stayathome or to isolate ourselves and rely on the measures prescribed by the state, in our opinion, is not a good start if we want to learn how to struggle, live a self-determined and self-organized life and how to support each other in “times of crisis”.

Read the full article HERE: 

 

Visit ann arky's home at https://spiritofrevolt.info     

Careful!!

       In this society, be careful who you speak to, be careful what you say, be careful what your read, be careful what you write. Hardly the hallmarks of a democratic society, but the shape of the one we now live under. Ever more security forces, with ever greater powers, fewer and fewer public facilities for the ordinary people. The state now has at its disposal a raft of legislation to dictate to you when and where you can go about your business, and covid19 was the ramrod that broke the damn and let loose a flood of this type of legislation, though the states were never short of this type of legislation before the pandemic, the just added volumes more of restrictive laws and rules, for their own protection.

The following from Act For Freedom Now:

via: roundrobin.info
       At 4am in the morning of 11/11/2021, the ROS [Carabinieri Special Operations] raided the homes of dozens of comrades all over Italy on orders of the PM Comodi in an investigation set off by the usual Nobili and Basilone.
        Alfredo, in prison for having shot at Adinolfi, CEO of Ansaldo Nucleare, and for ”operation Scripta Manent”, was notified of yet another pre-trial detention; another comrade is under house arrest, four more were subjected to an obligation to remain in their own area with regular signing.
       The main accusation is of having constituted and promoted an association with aims of terrorism, an accusation in particular revolving around the paper “Vetriolo” and some articles published in it.
        Linked to this operation, the editors of Roundrobin were notified the same evening that they are under investigation: the accusations (threats, incitement to commit crimes, association with terrorist aims) are linked to the publication of some writings which in the cops’ opinion are signed by some of the comrades under investigation.
         As Roundrobin we have always wanted to give space to all anarchist ideas and debate and are proud to have published the writings of the comrades under indictment.
         Despite the difficulties due to which the site has been on hold for almost a month, we will now recommence giving space to the contributions that reach us, no matter what the shit servants of power think.
Solidarity to the comrades raided and under investigation.
Always with head held high.
Long live anarchy!
Translated by Act for freedom now!

 

 Visit ann arky's home at https://spiritofrevolt. 

Homicide!!.

            You will all probably remember the cross-party MP's report stating that the government's handling at the beginning of the pandemic was the greatest public health failure in UK history, and was responsible for thousands of unnecessary deaths. It was obvious then that as business people they would do anything to keep those businesses profitable and would rather see the bodies pile high, than slow down the economy and hurt their profits. Well it seems that the cabal of privileged business/political ballerinas that inhabit that edifice to power and wealth, The Westminster Houses of Hypocrisy and Corruption are at it again. While infections and hospitalisations are rising daily and all the medical experts, hospital specialists, doctors and nursing staff are crying out for some restrictions to stem this rising disaster, our "Right Honourable Gentlemen" are determined not to slow down their profits. to them the economy is sacred and the public's health and welfare, somewhere down the list.

 

            How much longer will we tolerate the lives of our friends and family being put at risk to protect the shareholders bonuses? We should ignore the ramblings of those corporate lovers and follow the advice of the medical experts, don't go to work if it is unsafe, masks may be uncomfortable, but not as uncomfortable as Covid19, avoid shops, cafes, restaurants, and crowded places, for our own good and the welfare of our friends and families. put ourselves before the profit margins of the rich and powerful. They need us more than we need them, so screw them, they have been screwing us for generations.

Visit ann arky's home at https://spiritofrevolt.info  

Drivers.

         I post this article in full as I think it points out the truth about our lorry driver shortage. The powers that be put forward all sort of excuses as to why we are in this situation, from pandemic to Brexit, but the one they fail to mention is that heavy lorry driving is a stressful job with unsociable hours and shit conditions.

The following was lifted from Enough is Enough:

      Panic buying in the UK: The chicken’s come home to roost (but will the Turkeys get a reprieve at Christmas?)

           UK. The present crisis which has seen panic buying, particularly of petrol but also of the usual ‘panic’ commodities such as toilet roll and pasta, shows how vulnerable capitalism actually is. It exposes how the system is dependent upon a logistics workforce that potentially holds a great deal of power, should it choose to use it. And, in part, this crisis is a product of workers’ rejection of an increasingly stressful and badly paid occupation. 

Originally published by Anarchist Communist Group.

         The present lack of HGV drivers cannot simply be blamed on Brexit, although it has played its part. Prior to Brexit, the UK was short of 76,000 HGV drivers, with around 300,000 employed. European drivers constituted about 45,000 of that workforce in 2017. Logistics UK estimates that the deficit of drivers is roughly 90,000 drivers short for the requirements of distribution in the UK. With the changes to rights of residency that Brexit brought, many European drivers left the country, mostly to the European mainland.
         The Covid crisis also led many drivers to return home, alongside many others. According to the Office of National Statistics about 12,500 EU HGV drivers have left the workforce since the start of 2020. But this is dwarfed by the loss of approximately 55,000 non-EU drivers in the same time period. This has been put down to retirement, the lack of driving tests during Covid and tax changes, but also increased workloads, diminished working conditions and wages, and unsociable hours mean that lorry driving in the UK has become an increasingly unattractive occupation. So much so that there is thought to be 230,000 HGV licence holders under the age of 45 not working in the industry. The average age of a UK HGV driver is now 55. Workers have turned to driving for Amazon, Yodel and other courier and delivery services, which speaks to how stressful modern HGV driving has become.
         So, the 5,000 three-month visas being offered to EU HGV drivers is both a ridiculous drop in the ocean but may also not be taken up very quickly given that there exists a smaller, but significant lack of drivers in Germany, France, Italy and elsewhere, and frankly, three months’ work in the UK with all of the new bureaucracy to work around is unlikely to sound particularly attractive to many.
        The present situation does, however, give lorry drivers and their logistic support some potential leverage. The Professional Drivers Protest Group, an unofficial rank and file body, independent of Unite or the United Road Transport Union, emerged on Facebook earlier this year calling for a £15 per hour minimum wage, a 45-hour working week, time-and-a-half for overtime and double-time for Sunday work as well as other changes to working conditions and the group seems to have some support amongst drivers.
         In July this year, the government relaxed maximum working hours, which went from 9 to 10 hours a day, whilst allowing twice weekly 11-hour shifts. Increased exploitation has increased the anger. Strikes by workers at DHL (distributers for Sainsburys) and GXO Logistics Drinks Ltd (who supply boozers and other alcohol outlets) against pitiful pay offers were only just headed off by employers and unions last month. The present crisis can be turned to the advantage of HGV drivers and all those involved in logistics and distribution, but it will take rank and file leadership from the grassroots and innovative action.

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 http://strugglepedia.co.uk/index.php?title=Main_Page 

They Laugh.

They are laughing at us.

           So the pandemic seems to be in retreat here in the UK, during this pandemic the government poured billions of pounds into the coffers of big business, to keep their corporate friends form loosing too much of their ill-gotten gains. The debt just piled up, now it’s pay back time, that’s where you and I come in to foot the bill. Austerity the word that dare not speak its name, but is there in the guise of efficiency savings. To you and I that means closure of libraries, community centres, swimming pools, workers paid off, social services slashed and of course for many there will be a wage freeze (cuts in reality) as prices steadily move in an upward direction. Just announced is a £139 rise in energy prices for 11 million of us consumers as the price cap has been raised. The mountain of debt will have to be paid back as the financial Mafia set out their terms of repayment and demand their pound of flesh and it is you and I that will bleed, not the billionaire class who gained so much during this pandemic.
        During the pandemic while you and I struggled as best we could, the one class that saw their wealth balloon was the billionaire class. Just a couple of headlines make this very clear: Billionaires' wealth rises to $10.2 trillion amid Covid crisis and The billionaire boom: how the super-rich soaked up Covid cash and COVID-19 has made the super-rich richer. It’s time for a billionaire wealth tax and Billionaires got 54% richer during pandemic, sparking calls for "wealth tax" of course you and I know, there will be no wealth tax, and if there is it will be some small change they have in their pocket. That suggestion is just a paracetamol for the public, it makes them feel better but does nothing for their problem.
         If nothing else, this pandemic showed up the glaring inequalities inherent in this economic system. While you and I struggled to survive this pandemic the billionaire class and their government cronies, were laughing at us. It is long past the time when we should stand up and wipe that smile of their smug faces. The efficiency savings and our struggle for a decent life will continue and that struggle will become more difficult, unless we take on this billionaire driven system of greed, inequality and exploitation. It is a man made economic system, not the words from above written in tablets of stone. Let’s organise to bring it crashing down once and for all, we can create that better world for all.

Visit ann arky's home at https://spiritofrevolt.info   

Vacs.

 

        Most people will admit that the last year and a half or so during the covid19 pandemic, we have more or less followed the rules and dictate of the state. We have accepted restrictions that under different circumstances would have been resisted and labelled fascism and rightly so. Of course it is generally accepted that it was all for our own good. However, the pandemic was not handled properly, different decisions would have lead to different circumstances. How much different would it have been if it was the scientists and professional medical experts that made the decisions on how to handle the pandemic and based in the community with co-operation between those communities, with the political element taken out of the equation. After all it was a medical emergency, not a political problem, politics muddy the water considerably and opened up opportunities for the raft of abuses we have witnessed in handling contracts and the rich and powerful scratching each others backs while the state racked up a mountain of debt pouring billions into the coffers of very rich and powerful corporations, a debt that you and I will be forced to repay by means of "austerity" that translates into slashing public services, lay-offs, increase in taxes, and slashing working conditions. Now we have to be vigilant in seeing that all those restrictions, legislation and public manipulation by the state and its mouthpiece, the mainstream media are swept completely away. Let's neuter the state and its repressive apparatus that only supports an exploitative system of greed. Screw the economy, it is just the gambling den of the rich, pampered, privileged parasites.

The following from Greece Via Act For Freedom Now: 

 

        So what about vaccinations?
        While the Greek state – like many other European states – is ramping up the pressure on its population to get the Covid19 vaccination, many seem to have ceded to this imposition of “making the responsible choice”. Let it be clear that we think individuals can have legitimate reasons to get the vaccination. We do not hold a moralistic judgment on getting vaccinated or not. But we keep on being reluctant. We think that the whole discourse about taking responsibility actually aims to give greater powers to the state by creating a dual society with privileges for those who comply and sanctions for those who don’t want to or cannot comply. This means a reinforcement of control and inequalities.
Believe the leaders
        We don’t think we have to dwell on this very long. We have been forced to wear masks while walking alone in a park. We have been fined for being on the street at night while the metros were overcrowded during the day. We have been insulted for sitting on the squares while the indoors work places were running at full capacity. And we have seen them cynically calculating the costs of providing extra hospital beds against shutting down parts of the economy. We have seen them opting to hire more cops while the health of people was at stake. We have seen them trying to smother any form of protest while ramming through more exploitative and oppressive policies. They have lost all credibility and they know it, the only thing they can still do is twisting our arms and blackmailing us.

 

Read the full article HERE: 

 

Visit ann arky's home at https://spiritofrevolt.info    

To Touch---

        It is obvious to most that the pandemic has allowed to state to create a submissive population, a population that sits and waits for the next set of instructions. Scanning news broadcasts to see where we can go, who we can meet, what parts of society are open to us and what parts are closed. With remarkable ease the state has created what it always strives for, total control over the citizens. Yes we are living through a pandemic, could it have been handle better with a more community inclusiveness? Of course it could, but this is capitalism and decisions are made on the best way to handle the economy, how to save the economy, how to get the economy "back on track", which we all agree is a track to environmental destruction. The needs of the people will follow after these priorities have been seen to be handled in the best method to suit the system.
       Now there are remarks about the damage to the mental health of many of our people because of isolation and lose of human contact, those with other illnesses are now suffering long delays and possible death. Was this all unknown, of course not, medical and scientific experts were well aware of the effects of isolation and the denying of social contact, but our decision makers, who claim to be following the scientific advice, cherry pick that advice according to their mindset that the economy is paramount.
        The result being a society of submissive citizens, with anger simmering under the surface, an increase in poverty and its attendant illnesses, an incredible strain on the health and care services, which have been denied proper funding for years. Despite this our lords and master will puff out their chest and try to convince you of how well they have done. Of course in their eyes they have done exceedingly well, they have transferred billions to large rich corporations, the parasite billionaire class has seen it obscene wealth grow at an incredible rate. Where does that leave you and me?

The following extract from Salish Sea Black Autonomists: 

 

 

          Quarantine isn’t coming to the US, it’s already here. Like everywhere else It does not arrive as a social peace treaty but comes crawling from the decaying corpse of the welfare state as a monstrous racial policing apparatus. Prison has never been a singular place but a particular collection of techniques of social control and that is most apparent under the logic of quarantine where every good citizen is both, and happily we may add, captive and warden. What this says for physical prisons is even more grim as they are transformed into the most pure expression of capital: workhouses where prison slaves manufacture our hand sanitizer[1] and PPE[2] so that we may live, and on the flip side mass graves, human warehouses packed to the brim under hostile conditions, a fertile field for both the virus and their captors to run wild[3].
         Crisis is here, as it always is, and it doesn’t put a hold on all the other crises unfolding, it just both obscures and amplifies the intensity of them. Still the police are executing black people in the streets, still riots are breaking out[4], still black people are enduring and dying from medical neglect[5]. Still, still still! We are struggling and suffering and dying – and now the old ways of holding together the social peace reveal themselves for what they are – absolutely nothing. Reforms, inclusion in institutions, ‘community policing’, and paltry hand outs mean fuck all, just as they ever did but even more so now. Even what they offer us now is more insulting than anything: a paltry, one-time, 1200$ that will maybe cover one or two months of rent, and only for some of us at that[6][7][8]! All the promises of our masters turn to dust in our hands.
        The state recognizes what’s going on and whats falling apart and in order to ensure it’s continued existence is using the logic of quarantine to wage all out war against the entirety of the social body to ensure social cohesion. The life giving and death giving institutions of the state – the police, the medical industry, the carceral institutions, the military – are working overtime now. But where other technique of capital and governance have failed and are now failing to absorb the social body into it’s logics, health and pandemic have mutated into one sinister, paternalistic technique of governance that has managed to absorb the social body into the nation and the economy. What’s healthy for the nation, whats healthy for the economy, is healthy for us because we are them. With this one trick the social body has become a weapon wielded against itself. From discourses willing to sacrifice more vulnerable people for “our” collective health [9][10] (that of the nation and the economy), to neighborhood snitches calling the police on those violating the imposed rules of ‘social distancing’.[11] How long before those neighborhood snitches become neighborhood shooters enforcing a hardened border of social distance? Everyone knows behind the walls of our healthy neighborhood are the hoards of sick others…

Continue reading HERE:

 

Visit ann arky's home at https://spiritofrevolt.info   

Be Prepared!

        Democracy European style, well Greece is part of the European Union, and I haven't heard any objections from any of the other members of what is happening in Greece. What is happening in Greece is being watch by other EU states, they are looking and learning, should they need to introduce more severe population controls in their own patch. No condemnation, just observation.

 

 

       Rest assured, the states are aware that the debt mountain that has been paid to their corporate masters needs to be paid back to the financial mafia, and the only method acceptable to their corporate masters is austerity for the people. This time round it will be austerity big-time accompanied with massive unemployment. They will be expecting and preparing for unrest and anger to spill over onto the streets, so population control will be a priority on their minds.

 

 

        As I have said before, their plans are well advanced, to defend their wealth, power and privileges, where are our plans to to regain our freedoms and protect our living conditions?

         A recent Oxfam study found that since the start of the coronavirus pandemic, the world’s richest 10 billionaires have seen a wealth increase of half a trillion dollars – enough to pay for every person on the planet to get a vaccine. In this UpFront special, Marc Lamont Hill discusses with economist and former Greek Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis what is driving the staggering wealth inequalities and how governments are offering socialism for the rich, and austerity for the rest.

 

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

Austerity Normal.

             That coterie of platitude producers known as MPs, who meet in their private club, The Westminster Houses of Hypocrisy and Corruption, have had 8 pay rises in 10 years, while NHS staff have seen their pay frozen. Now that same bunch of self interested careerists decide to give the NHS staff a 1% pay rise, at the same time the body that regulates the MP's salaries as stated that MPs will not receive a pay increase of more than £3,000. Compare that £3.000 increase with what 1% would amount to for NHS staff, some where around about £170 per year. At the moment The basic annual salary for an MP from 1 April 2020 is £81,932, plus expenses, whopping subsidised meals, and fancy foreign travel junkets. Those expenses are very generous, and come with a comfy pension scheme. Who do you think serves the country best, the NHS or the MPs. Parliament can close down for generous holidays, and the country merrily functions. Close down the NHS for generous holidays and see in what sort of mess society becomes. It is unthinkable.

 

          However this is the type of society we tolerate, we pay pompous privileged careerists generous salaries, we allow them to pile up obscene wealth through the contacts of their privileged position, and let them administer austerity to the rest of us. When do we get the will to tear down this edifice to inequality and corruption, we have the power? When do we decide that we want the fruits of our labour to come to us, the real wealth creators. There is a tidal wave of austerity coming our way, we accept it and stunt the futures of our kids and grand kids for generations, stand by and watch homelessness grow, food banks proliferate and poverty spread like a new pandemic. 

 

        At the moment the state has in place, due to pandemic legislation, population controls sufficient to stop wide spread protests, which it will try to cement into some sort of permanent legislation, while its propaganda wing preaches that we will soon be back to "normal". There is no "normal", there is only deeper austerity, and unless we take back control of the streets, austerity will be our continuing "normal". We must have the right to vent our anger at gross injustice, inequality and blatant corruption, and the only places we can do that are on the streets, in our workplaces, and in our communities. Their plan is already set, where is ours, in defence of our freedoms and conditions?

 

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

Showdown.

       We are now being told that there is light at the end of the tunnel, and we will soon emerge from this pandemic. That of course means different things to different people, to the financial mafia, the corporate bosses and their minders, the state, it means get back out there, put on your harness and start grafting to make their tills ring, start sweating to fill their coffers. It will also be their dream that you will go back under worse conditions than before, new contracts stripping away at your rights and conditions, slices off your income, and more unemployed chasing your job, to make you too nervous to demand justice, for fear of joining the unemployed.
      However, we could see the light at the end of the tunnel as an opportunity to restructure the way we live, how we shape society for the benefit of all our people, instead of scratching a survival while we feed the ravenous insatiable appetite of a corrupt parasite class, that has plundered and pillaged the fruits of our labour for generations.
      There will be choices, there will a need for decisions, and we have to be the ones that make these decisions, we have to be the ones who make those choices and they must be for the benefit of all in society. There is no compulsion to go back to the society of gross inequality, injustice and corruption. I'm sure we all have the imagination to visualise a fairer society, to organise resources in a fairer manner. All it takes is the collective power of the people, solidarity among the people, and community organisation. I doubt that there will be a better opportunity than now, for us to come together take control of our lives, and build that better world for all, free from the profit motive and the slavish dictate of "the economy".

        The following is an article by David Graeber published posthumously in the Jacobin. Thanks Tommy for the link. 

 

David Graeber: After the Pandemic, We Can’t Go Back to Sleep

        At some point in the next few months, the crisis will be declared over, and we will be able to return to our “nonessential” jobs. For many, this will be like waking from a dream.
      The media and political classes will definitely encourage us to think of it this way. This is what happened after the 2008 financial crash. There was a brief moment of questioning. (What is “finance,” anyway? Isn’t it just other people’s debts? What is money? Is it just debt, too? What’s debt? Isn’t it just a promise? If money and debt are just a collection of promises we make to each other, then couldn’t we just as easily make different ones?) The window was almost instantly shut by those insisting we shut up, stop thinking, and get back to work, or at least start looking for it.
      Last time, most of us fell for it. This time, it is critical that we do not.
      Because, in reality, the crisis we just experienced was waking from a dream, a confrontation with the actual reality of human life, which is that we are a collection of fragile beings taking care of one another, and that those who do the lion’s share of this care work that keeps us alive are overtaxed, underpaid, and daily humiliated, and that a very large proportion of the population don’t do anything at all but spin fantasies, extract rents, and generally get in the way of those who are making, fixing, moving, and transporting things, or tending to the needs of other living beings. It is imperative that we not slip back into a reality where all this makes some sort of inexplicable sense, the way senseless things so often do in dreams.
       How about this: Why don’t we stop treating it as entirely normal that the more obviously one’s work benefits others, the less one is likely to be paid for it; or insisting that financial markets are the best way to direct long-term investment even as they are propelling us to destroy most life on Earth?
     Why not instead, once the current emergency is declared over, actually remember what we’ve learned: that if “the economy” means anything, it is the way we provide each other with what we need to be alive (in every sense of the term), that what we call “the market” is largely just a way of tabulating the aggregate desires of rich people, most of whom are at least slightly pathological, and the most powerful of whom were already completing the designs for the bunkers they plan to escape to if we continue to be foolish enough to believe their minions’ lectures that we were all, collectively, too lacking in basic common sense do anything about oncoming catastrophes.
      This time around, can we please just ignore them?
      Most of the work we’re currently doing is dream-work. It exists only for its own sake, or to make rich people feel good about themselves, or to make poor people feel bad about themselves. And if we simply stopped, it might be possible to make ourselves a much more reasonable set of promises: for instance, to create an “economy” that lets us actually take care of the people who are taking care of us.

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

Cesspool.

        So health secretary Hancock acted unlawfully while dishing out government contracts, and a government contract given to his neighbour is being investigated, while Boris's chum Cummings, say that the fact that two of his mates got a government contract had nothing to do with him. Sort of makes you hold your nose, doesn't it? These are just the ones that come to light at the moment, but we all know that the handing out of government contracts during this pandemic has been a wonderful opportunity to throw taxpayers money at the rich and powerful friends of Her Majesty's Government. Let's not be to harsh in singling out Hancock, he is just one of an army of greed driven parasites that hold the reigns of power.
       Hancock, of course says that what he and his cronies did was the right thing in the circumstances. So in his eyes it's alright to act unlawfully if you think it is the right thing to do in the circumstances. Boy does that open the door for lots of our actions at protests and direct actions etc. If you find your self in court after protesting against injustice, you can claim the "Hancock" defence, it was necessary under the circumstances. He gets off with that defence, why not you.
        Of course we all know that's not how it works, there is one law for you and another for that wee bunch of powerful parasites. Let's face it, this society with its power and privileges for the wealthy is nothing more than a suppurating cesspool, which is poisoning all walks of life. It is pointless to call for Hancock or those of his ilk, to be replaced, as they will just be replaced with another one of the "Old Boys" network.

 

        The ordinary people have to be ruthless and completely drain and demolish that cesspool, forget trying to clean it up, that has never worked in the past and it will never work in the future. It may be difficult, but we have the road map, it's called "Anarchism" 

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