Capitalism.

 

 

           Explaining the flaws in capitalism to a believer that accepts that it's the only game in town, can be difficult. They arrive at their decision from the propaganda machine, mainstream media, government policies, the menagerie of parliament, corporate advertising and I suppose we can add Hollywood.  That's why I like reading  Caitlin Johnstone she seems to have this ability to spite out the truth and make it readable and obvious. I love her quote, "Why does China keep aggressively surrounding itself with US military bases"

 

 

Image courtesy of Counter Punch

 

The following is a short extract from a longer article by Caitlin  

            The claim that capitalism is the best system for generating profits is basically correct; it’s hard to beat greed and starvation as a carrot and stick to get the gears of industry whirring. The issue here is that merely generating profits won’t solve most of the world’s problems, and in fact many of our problems come from the fact that capitalism is too effective at turning the gears of industry. Our biosphere is dying largely because capitalism values making lots of things but not un-making things; we’re choking our ecosystem to death because it’s profitable.
           Capitalism has no real answers for problems like ecocide, inequality, exploitation and caring for the needful. Yes “let the markets decide” will generate lots of profits for those set up to harvest them, but profit-seeking cannot address those very serious problems. The “invisible hand of the market” gets treated as an actual deity that actually exists, with all the wisdom necessary to solve the world’s problems, but in reality the pursuit of money lacks any wisdom. It can’t solve our major problems, it can only make more stuff and generate more profit.
              Find me a capitalist business plan for leaving a forest untouched. Find me a capitalist business plan for keeping someone free of illness, for ensuring that someone with nothing gets what they need, for giving resources to a struggling parent. You can’t. Capitalism can’t do this. These are the most important things in the world, and no possible iteration of capitalism has any solutions for any of them whatsoever, apart from “Well hopefully rich people will feel very charitable and fix those problems.” And how is that solution working out? It’s a joke.
            The “Maybe the very rich will feel charitable and fix our problems for us” solution assumes that the very same people who are wired to do whatever it takes to claw their way to the top of the ladder will suddenly start caring deeply about everyone they stepped on to get there. Capitalism elevates sociopaths, because profit-seeking competition-based systems reward those who are willing to do whatever it takes to get ahead. That’s why we are ruled by sociopaths, and it’s why looking to “philanthropy” as a solution to our problems is a ridiculous joke.
          When capitalism proponents tell socialists and communists “You don’t understand economics,” what they really mean is “You don’t understand that capitalism is the best system for generating profits.” But socialists and communists do understand this; it’s just that generating profits, in and of itself, is not sufficient.
            If lack of wealth is your major problem, then capitalism can be a tool to address it; that’s what China is temporarily doing to keep up economically with the western forces who wish to enslave it. But such measures won’t solve ecocide, inequality, exploitation, and caring for the needful. For that other measures are needed.
         If you want to make more of something (money, material goods), then capitalism can be a good way to do that. But if you need to make less of something (pollution, inequality, exploitation, sickness, homelessness, etc) it’s worthless, and other systems must be looked to.

 READ THE FULL ARTICLE HERE:

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Hail The New Messiah.

      The following is an extract from an article written for anarkismo.net 

 

 

  -----To many liberals, progressives, unionists, activists of various just causes, Democrats of all stripes, democratic socialists, and concerned citizens, the problem the U.S. is facing is essentially that Donald J. Trump is president, and is backed by the Republican Party. I disagree with this widespread belief.
      It is likely that Trump will be removed from office in the next two years, whether by impeachment (unlikely due to the Senate Republicans) or by national elections (probably but not certainly). Liberals, progressives, etc., look forward to this as a glorious day. The sun will come out from behind the darkling clouds, little birds will sing again, the miasma of evil and stupidity will lift from the land, and all will be well again. Things will finally go back to “normal.”
      Alas, I do not think that things will be “normal” ever again. I too long to see the vile Trump gone. I am not cynical and have hopes for the future. Yet I do not see the replacement of Trump by a Democrat or other establishment politician as the coming of a glorious new day.-----

      Sadly this train of thought is not peculiar to the US, it is alive and well in most of what is misnamed as, "Western democracies". The thought goes, if only we could get rid of May and get Corbyn on the throne, everything would be back to the good old Halcyon days of ever lasting summers. Every so often, in an attempt to sooth their anger and dissatisfaction, the peasants are allowed to choose a new "leader". The failure of the present one has become unbearable, so to keep the system going, we are allowed to usher in a new Messiah. Blair's New Labour, Tsipras's Syriza, or what ever, but some how the dark clouds return. You would think by now we would have realised that we have changed the Messiah every five years or so for centuries but our problems are still there. By now we should realise it doesn't matter who the hell we stick on the throne, they end up shafting us. Forget the adoration of a new Messiah, forget the need to have some throne from which wisdom, justice, equality and freedom will flow. If we wish to solve our problems we will have to do it by ourselves, by coming together in communities and workplaces and taking control. We can shape our lives all by our selves, we are best placed to see what our needs are and how best to see to them. We have to ignore the "representative democracy" evangelicals who with a sack full of phony promises, are calling for you to put them in a comfortable, well paid job, where they can tell you what to do. Anarchism offers the tool that can solve most of our problems, all we have to do is become aware of the tool and learn to use it with ever increasing confidence.  

   

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

A Moderniser!!

           Sitting in a bookshop café, the other day having a chat with a couple of anarchists comrades, the conversation rambled from football to travel on trains and buses, the horror of airports, and a host of other equally important subjects. Then the matter of Jeremy Corbyn came up, to which I said he was the new Messiah that would lead the people to the promised land, only to find they were back where they started in the desert. Then other UK Messiahs came up, Neil Kinnock and Tony Blair, and the difference between them, though I think the difference is illusionary, to my surprise one of my comrades referred to Tony Blair as a “moderniser”. The reason for my surprise is that I consider this as 100% mainstream media propaganda language. Tony Blair was one of a bunch of careerist who decided, for their own ends , to move the Labour Party even more to the right, and to blatantly admit that they would do business with large corporations and the financial Mafia, this is modernising if you are a rabid neo-con, where the previous Labour Party hid behind the illusion that it opposed such institutions, only when in power to sit down and do business with them to “grow the economy”, which is a euphemism for improving the profitability of big business and the financial Mafia. If and when Our Saviour Jeremy Corbyn, comes to power, there may be a few slices of bread thrown our way, in the shape of improvements to social services and help for the NHS. These will not even make up for the ravages of the last decade of “austerity” and “balancing the books” ideology of the present political ballerinas. I know both my comrades agree, as long as we hold to the party political system, we will live in a system where big business and the financial Mafia will continue their efforts to turn every human action and activity into a profit making endeavour. The Messiahs will come and the Messiahs will go but exploitation will continue. 

        However, I think my comrade should find another label for Holy Tony, perhaps something along the lines of arrogant, right wing, careerist, lost in an illusion of grandeur and his dream of the Phony Tony legacy, a hollow shell of a self-centred fantasising dangerous dreamer. A moderniser, never.

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

 

The Crooks And Liars Competition.

      The election is creeping up on us, whether we like it or not. Can you feel the excitement? Or like me, is it nausea that you feel. I tend to refer to party political elections as the crooks and liars competition. A period when certain types of crooks and liars, get into a heightened state of frenzy. Each determined to out do all other crooks and liars, for the prize of entering The Westminster Houses of Hypocrisy and Corruption. A chance to grab all the fiddles and privileges that go with the trophy of MP.

       They will prance about the country spewing out platitudes, promise and puerile bullshit. Each will try to surpass the others mythical claims of how they can create a paradise on earth, no lie is too big, no subterfuge too vulgar. There will be wheeling and dealing behind closed doors, there will be duplicity, there will be babies being kissed, and hands shaken, all phoney, all for effect. A special band of charlatans, masters of weaving and ducking, abusers of the English language, they will drink from any sewer, indulge in any back-stabbing, for that glittering prize, that badge of hypocrisy, MP, (Master Parasite). It will set them up for life, float them in a world of closed doors, and slush funds, a fat pension for life, all at our expense.

This from The Press Association:

     The Tory candidate in a key general election marginal has been suspended after allegedly hatching a plot with far-right extremists to win votes by stirring up racial hatred.
     Afzal Amin is accused of scheming with the English Defence League (EDL) to announce an inflammatory march against a new 'mega-mosque' in the seat of Dudley North.
     But, according to the Mail on Sunday, the idea was for the protest to be scrapped with Mr Amin taking the credit for defusing the situation.
    In return he allegedly promised that he would be an "unshakeable ally" for the EDL in parliament and help bring their views to the mainstream.

Read the full article HERE:

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It Must Be Time!!

      How many years have we struggled against exploitation, for how many years has the sweat of our labour been plundered by the idle rich, how many years have we been forced to feed a bunch of parasites and keep them in unimaginable luxury, while our lives are a daily struggle? How long have we played the political party game, and sent a bunch of well paid party members to the Westminster Houses of Hypocrisy and Corruption, only to see them feather their own nests, and join the greed driven parasites?

     Anarchist have always been at the forefront of that struggle to free ourselves from the burden of parasites that bleed us into poverty and deprivation. We have always shunned the the institutions of state, seeing them for what they are, guardians of the wealthy and their system of exploitation. 

 

      To emphasise just how long and consistent our stance has been, I thought it would be interesting to take an extract from the oldest publication we at Spirit of Revolt have in our archive. This rare document is titled "An Anarchist MANIFESTO" issued by the London Anarchist Communist Alliance, 1895.

Fellow Workers,

     We come before you as Anarchist Communists to explain our principles. We are aware that the minds of many of you have been poisoned by the lies which all parties have diligently spread about us. But surely the persecutions to which we have been and are subjected by the governing classes of all countries should open the eyes of those who love fair play. Thousands of our comrades are suffering in prison or are driven homeless from one country to the other. Free speech — almost the only part of British liberty that can be of any use to the people — is denied to us in many instances, as the events of the last few years have shown.

      The misery around us is increasing year by year. And yet there was never so much talk about labor as there is now, — labor, for the welfare of which all professional politicians profess to work day and night. A very few sincere and honest but impracticable reformers, in company with a multitude of mere quacks, ambitious placehunters, etc., say they are able to benefit labor, if labor will only follow their useless advice. All this does not lessen the misery in the least : look at the unemployed, the victims of hunger and cold, who die every year in the streets of our rich cities, where wealth of every description is stored up.

      Not only do they suffer who are actually out of work and starving, but every working man who is forced to go through the same dreary routine day by day — the slavery and toil in the factory or workshop — the cheerless home, if the places where they are forced to herd together can be called homes. Is this life worth living? What becomes of the intellectual faculties, the artistic inclinations, nay, the ordinary human feeling and dignity of the greatest part of the workers? All these are warped and wasted, without any chance of development, making the wretched worker nothing but a human tool to be exploited until more profitably replaced by some new invention or machine.

     Is all this misery necessary? It is not if you, the wealth producers, knew that there is enough and to spare of food and of the necessaries of life for all, if all would work. But now, in order to keep the rich in idleness and luxury, all the workers must lead a life of perpetual misery and exploitation. As to these facts we are all agreed; but as to the remedy most of you, unfortunately, have not given up trust in Parliament and the State. We shall explain how the very nature of the State prevents anything good coming from it. What does the State do? It protects the rich and their ill-gotten wealth; it suppresses the attempts of the workers to recover their rights, if these attempts are thought dangerous to the rich. Thus idle electioneering, labor politics etc. are not suppressed, but any effective popular demonstration, vigorous strikes as at Featherstone and Hull, Anarchist propaganda, etc., are suppressed or fought against by the vilest means. Moreover, the State pretending thereby to alleviate the sufferings of the poor, grants Royal Commissions on the Sweating System, the Aged Poor, on Labor in general, or select Committees on the Unemployed — which produce heaps of Blue Books, and give an opportunity to the politicians and labor leaders, “to show themselves off.” And that is about all. If the workers demand more — there is the workhouse; and if not satisfied with that, the truncheons of the police and the bullets and bayonets of the soldiers face them: — not bread, but lead!

        Is it not time we sorted this mess out, and put an end to this greed driven system of exploitation, a system that produces an abundance, but puts the producers in poverty.

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

The Non-Political Party System.

         Since the formation of the European Union, the possibility of democracy through the party political system is now even more remote than ever. The EU functions at a level beyond the legitimacy of the local party system, and imposes legislation on the national governments, creating a power more remote and disconnected from the people than ever before. National governments are now simply bureaucratic organisations that implement policies of that greater bureaucratic institution, the EU. This in turn creates an even greater disconnect between the political class and the people. 

 

     The various parties have lost any real difference, they are merely bureaucratic bodies vying with each for the power to manage the national bureaucratic institution, within the terms laid down by the EU. Our so called democracy. based on the party political system, is not about the party asking the people what they want, but more a matter of telling the people what they will get. Hardly democracy. The party political system is depoliticised at the national level, we might be able to protest against, and influence, the building of a motorway going through a public park, but the fundamental shape of our society is governed by that higher bureaucratic institution, the EU. Which in turn moves in the direction dictated by the “economy” and the needs of the transnational corporations. This disconnect between the people and the political parties creates ever more disillusionment and scepticism among the ordinary people.

          Hopefully this will be fertile ground for the desire to control our own lives and to determine the shape of our society. Perhaps our anger, disenchantment, scepticism, disillusionment and frustration at a system that doesn't engage with us, yet controls our lives to our detriment, will engender the birth of true democracy. Whatever, it will have to be outside the present system of political parties and freed from the strangle hold of the “economy” and its beneficiaries and drivers, the transnational corporations.

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

THE TRILOGY OF TYRANNY.

     Most states come down hard on any opposition, some more than others. Anarchists seem to come in for the worst of that state violence. At the moment in Greece the state is coming down hard on any anarchist groups it can lay its hands on. They face brutal treatment at the hands of the police and a prison sentence on some charge or other. However in Egypt it seems that it is somewhat different, with the The Islamist party of the Jihad Organization and Jama'a al-Islamiya calling for the Black Bloc to be killed. According to the Egyptian Independent it has been stated, “God orders us to kill, crucify or cut off the hands and feet of those who spread mischief on earth,” said Jama'a al-Islamiya Mufti Abdel Akhar Hammad, citing a verse from the Quran. “The president must give that order.”. In the same article it says, Mohamed Samra of the Jihad Organization said that the Black Bloc group is financed from abroad and must be killed, and that the National Salvation Front members must be arrested and charged with incitement to riot. 

     Is this democracy at work in Egypt, is this what the people of Egypt took to the streets for, in their millions? Is this the flower of the Arab Spring? Party politics, religion and the state, is a mix from which freedom and democracy can never grow, it is a poisonous cocktail that, if the people accept it, always ends in tyranny, control and repression. We can call on centuries of history to verify this pattern, we have a world of practical ongoing evidence to back this up, it is there before our eyes on a daily basis.

     The only hope for the people of this world to have what is rightfully ours, freedom and justice, is for the trilogy of tyranny, the state, party politics and religion, to be irrevocably eradicated. A world of communities organised by those who live in those communities, in federation with other communities. A world of self determination, co-operation and mutual aid is possible, and will see an end to the bloodshed and misery that unnecessarily floods our world at present.

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HELP THE DISILLUSIONED SWP TO FIND DEMOCRACY.

       So the SWP is crumbling, the reason being the usual political party problems, manipulation, deception, sex, and corruption, nothing new there then. Perhaps we could tell those who are leaving in disgust and disillusionment, where real democracy lies, here among the anarchist groups,

This from the Commune:

21 01 2013

      Members of Britain’s Socialist Workers Party are resigning from the party in droves, says duvinrouge. The impetus comes from a sexual assault allegation against a senior member of the party, & allegations that it wasn’t investigated properly. But unpinning this is the discontent due to the lack of party democracy.

       The SWP is a Leninist party & therefore internally organises in a way that is termed democratic-centralism. The basic idea being that the majority decision is decided upon & then there is unity of action led by a central committee. It actual fact it’s a fig-leaf ideology to allow a few to justify their life as professional revolutionaries, dreaming of their place in history, whilst the rank & file members sell the paper to fund this lifestyle. It’s much like parliamentary democracy’s claim to represent the wishes of the people & gives us the illusion of having a say.

Read the full article HERE:    disillusioned

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THE SCOTS WHO FOUGHT IN SPAIN.

    

       Another wee bit of Scots history that is well worth remembering, though today don't expect the fascists to come marching down the street with jackboots. This time they have arrived in suits in offices of the corporate world where they dictate their policies to their subservient front line troops, the parliamentary party political system. It was Mussolini who said that it should not be called Fascism but Corporatism, as it is the coming together of the corporate world and the state. I'm sure if he were around now, he would be delighted to see its progress. It has arrived and it is world wide. Our only hope is more of the "Arab Spring" across the globe. More than ever solidarity is not to do with your work-place and community, it is to do with our class across the globe. Corporatism is world wide, our resistance has to be the same.

Photo by Capa.

More of this series  HERE.        

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THE SHOW IS OVER, CRUNCH TIME, DID THEY LIE ENOUGH???

        

        Today is the day, the day when our political masters, masters of illusion, hypocrisy and corruption, sit in anticipation of taking their place in the corridors of power. Will it be their chance to stick their snouts in the trough, to sort out their golden handshakes and lavish pensions. It all depends on you, you have to show you have been duped by their empty promise, their phony smiles, you have to believe that the crooks and liars, are not crooks and liars. Yes, it is the Scottish elections, theatre time. They have all put on their best show, though to those who have been around for a while it is probably the most boring show in town. They have grasped strangers hands, kissed babies and turned up at hundreds of photo opportunities. They have mouthed their party's mantra and spat venom at the others on stage. Soon the new cabal will reap the benefits of their acting career, the others will just have to do with playing second fiddle. However, for you and I, nothing will change, we go through this ritual farce every four or five years, all to the benefit of some politicians and to the detriment of others. We on the other hand will just have to keep on struggling with our daily lives. Struggling against the decisions made by those, the mislead or foolish have voted on to that gravy train. We the non-voters are not apathetic, we just know your are crooks and liars.

    There is a better way to shape our society and it does not involve abdicating our power to a bunch of self-seeking power mongers. It is all about organising our lives round the desires of the community and working in federation with all other communities. It entails basing our society on mutual aid, co-operation, voluntary association and sustainability. It means abandoning the profit motive and keeping the decision making in the hands of the people. We don't need leaders, presidents, or prime ministers, their past record is one of corruption, war, deprivation, greed and self aggrandisement. Let's take control of our own lives and send the party political system and its bed companion capitalism to the dustbin of history.

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THEY KNOW WHO THEIR FRIENDS ARE!!!

       

        I’m not suggesting that handing bundles of money to political parties will buy you influence, but since millionaire spiv, Cameron, became leader of the Tory party the city gents have handed the party a little slush pot of £11.4m a year. A mere 10 City gents have very kindly given the Tory party £13.2m over the last five years. David Rowland, ex party treasurer, 40 years a tax exile, gave the party £4m+ over the last 4 years, while Stanley Fink, hedge fund spiv, gave approximately a more modest £2m. Fink, by the way, is now a peer. Mind you, I’m not saying ---

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