Ukraine For The Ukrainians.

       Obama, mouthpiece for Western corporate power, aided and abetted by our own bunch of rabid pups, the Cameron cabal, are ratching up their rhetoric, in an attempt to prepare us for a blood bath in Ukraine, as they want a slice of that unfortunate country. Meanwhile the Russian imperialists are manoeuvring and manipulating to see that they are not outdone in this corporate land grab. Both empires are prepared to sacrifice the blood of the people of Ukraine and the blood of their own citizens to satisfy their power lust. It could be 1914, when the greed of imperialism dragged Europe into the bloodiest era of its existence, all for power and wealth for that psychopathic parasitic scum, that sits on our shoulders like a caked scab, the so called "elite".

      Millions took to the streets to try to stop the illegal invasion of Iraq, we should be prepared to take to the streets again to stop this re-make of that horror story, "The 1914 Land Grab".  

 

This from SACC:

 

Ukraine Crisis - Public Meetings in Scotland

 

       Ukraine is at the brink of war. It is being pulled apart by imperialist forces, from the East Russian forces and from the West NATO, the EU and the USA.

       SACC is one of the co-sponsors of a series of public meetings being held in Scotland with Zakhar Popovych from the Ukrainian Left Opposition. Zakhar Popovych will give an eye witness account of recent developments and offer a left analysis of events so far. Obviously Zakhar Popovych cannot represent the full range of left opinion in Ukraine, but we hope these meetings will contribute to a better understanding of the Ukraine crisis and will stimulate debate.

 

Please invite your friends and help to make these meetings a success

 

Fri 16 May - Eyewitness report from Ukraine (Dundee)

7.30pm, Queen's Hotel, Nethergate, Dundee DD1 4DU

On facebook

 

Sat 17 May - Eyewitness report from Ukraine (Edinburgh)

4-6pm, Augustine United Church, George IV Bridge, Edinburgh, EH1 1EL

On Facebook

 

Sun 18 May - Eyewitness report from Ukraine (Glasgow)

2pm, Jurys Inn, 80 Jamaica Street, Glasgow G1 4QG

On Facebook

 

More about the Ukraine Crisis

 

Manifesto: 10 theses of the Leftist Opposition in Ukraine (14 January 2014)

Zakhar Popovitch speaking in London (video, 12 March 2014) 

No UK troops for Nato's Ukraine war games - Statement from the Stop the War Coalition (23 April 2014) 

Ukraine’s ‘Dr. Strangelove’ Reality by Robert Parry (5 May 2014) 

A view on the Ukraine crisis from Scotland by Paul O'Hanlon (10 May 2014) 

In Ukraine the US is dragging us towards war with Russia by John Pilger (14 May 2014)

 

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

 

May Day.

This from Stop The war Coalition:

        Trades unionists, human rights campaigners and solidarity groups will march to Trafalgar Square next Thursday, May 1st. The 2014 May Day march and rally will be held in honour of the late Bob Crow, former leader of the RMT union, and the late Tony Benn, former president of the Stop the War Coalition. The peace/anti-war bloc will gather at Clerkenwell Green, London at 12 noon. Look out for Stop the War Coalition and CND banners to find us. If you would like more information or you would like to help on the day by stewarding or distributing  leaflets and banners, please email office@stopwar.org.uk or call 020 7561 4830.

Work for Stop the War
        We are very pleased to announce an exciting opportunity to work at the national office of Stop the War. This is a fantastic opportunity to learn about the work of Stop the War and to support our campaigns against new military interventions and wars abroad. Quaker Peace & Social Witness will fund the peaceworker job for one year. If you are successful, and you are selected to work at Stop the War, you would begin work in September 2014. If you would like to discuss this opportunity, please email office@stopwar.org.uk or call the Stop the War office on 020 7561 4830.

2014 Appeal: thank you
         Stop the War would like to thank everyone who has donated to the 2014 Appeal. We are pleased to announce that we have now reached our £15,000 target thanks to the generosity of hundreds of our supporters.
        Over the last few days we have seen Tony Blair banging the war drum yet again, calling for more international action (military intervention) to combat 'Islamism', adding to the witch-hunt of Muslims at home and we continue to witness the disastrous consequences of the eastward expansion of NATO.

       The anti-war movement must continue to put the pressure on. After a packed public meeting on the crisis in Ukraine, Stop the War is now organising a series of meetings across the UK to discuss the crisis and prepare for the Nato summit in September. With your support we can mobilise thousands to say No to Nato when it visits Newport in Wales later in the year. To make sure we can build the best defence against new wars, and because of the success of our appeal, we have decided to raise our appeal target to £20,000.
      If you haven't yet donated, please click through to donate online or telephone 020 7561 4830.

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

Who Calls The Shots?

     Who calls the shots, who pulls the strings, who does the deadly deeds, who takes the prize?

HIDDEN POWERS.

Today, lives are shaped by powers we fail to see,

stealthily fashioning our fears, forming our hates,

binding us to a life on bended knee.

Invoking demons on a distant shore

insidiously fanning the flames of fear

'till hate becomes a roar. Then

ours the hand that holds the gun

theirs the finger that points

their's the prize when the deed is done;

ours to lose our loves to the lonely grave

drowning our hearts in a sea of tears,

draining the world of the young and the brave

who, believing they answer a country's call

desert lovers' arms for death's embrace

victims of another cambist brawl.

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

Good Heavevs----!!

Good heavens---!!

HEAVEN.

The heaven I seek holds no guarded gate

nor boasts no throne on high

has no host on bended knee

no king to call us nigh.

Death shall not be our road of entry

no trumpet blast to show the way,

has no frontier guards for man nor beast

nor some far off judgement day.

The heaven I seek is here and now,

where symbols of power crumble like sand;

standing upright all men shall brothers be,

no one priveleged with high command.

Vibrant life shall be our only passport,

the glorious morning sun our only sign,

with true love of man and beast,

we can have heaven in our time.

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

Don't Call Me Hero.

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

No War In The Ukraine.

        We should have no illusions, what is being played out in the Ukraine is a clash of two empires. Since the break up of the Soviet Union, the Western corporate empire has grabbed more and more of the Russian empire, and they want Ukraine. Just as the First World War, with its unbelievable slaughter of young lives, was a land grab between empires, and the Second World War more of the same, Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, wars fought on lies, we surely aren't foolish enough to swallow the present crap that is being pumped out by that babbling brook of bullshit, the mainstream media. State wars are fought for power and wealth, never for freedom and democracy, and this present conflict is no different. The Western corporate states don't give a shit about the lives of the ordinary Ukrainians, it is all about expansion, and control of resources. If it comes to a war, and we the people, mustn't let it, it is the ordinary people that will shed their blood and it is the corporate war mongers that will fatten their bank accounts with the plunder. 

UKRAINE
Say NO to another U.S. war!

Urgent call for anti-war actions

March 10 to March 17

      The threat is real. Sanctions, war build up, warships with guided missiles to the Black Sea, F-15 fighter jets on Russia's border are dangerous provocations. Washington has recognized and committed more than $10 billion to an illegal right-wing government that seized power from elected officials.

     Actions large and small are urgently needed -- informational picket lines, visits to congressional offices, protests at media centers against war propaganda, vigils, and challenges to government officials. Let's make our voices heard.

   In NEW YORK CITY 

No new U.S. war! Stop media lies about Ukraine
March from CNN to Fox News
Friday, March 14
5 pm to 6 pm -
Rally at CNN, 10 Columbus Circle
(Broadway & 59th St)6 pm
March down Broadway to FOX News,
49th St. & 6th Ave.

Facebook event: facebook.com/events/226160010906938

UKRAINE: What the media isn't telling you
WAR ALERT

      Corporate media have always lied about the reasons for war, from Vietnam and Iraq to Libya and Syria. If you turn on CNN or FOX News, read the New York Times or listen to NPR, you aren't getting the real story. Here are 10 things the U.S. corporate media won't tell you about what's happening in Ukraine.

1. Washington planned the coup in Ukraine.
      U.S. State Department official Victoria Nuland was caught on tape plotting who would be the next head of Ukraine. She bragged that the U.S. had spent $5 billion funding the so-called democracy movement there. Senator John McCain went to Kiev, spoke at rallies and was photographed with the leader of the fascist Svoboda party. Neo-Nazi forces took over buildings and threw out the elected government in a coup d'etat, then passed new laws with no quorum in the parliament.

2. There has been no Russian invasion.
      Washington officials have threatened Russia for "invading" Ukraine. It's a Big Lie meant to cover up U.S. involvement in the coup. Russia has a military base in Crimea, a predominately Russian ethnic area, and is legally allowed to station up to 25,000 troops in the country. Russia has said it may act to protect civilians if they are threatened by the neo-Nazis in Kiev. That is all.

3. The U.S. war buildup.  
      The Navy has deployed the USS Truxton, a warship armed with guided missiles, to the Black Sea. Six F-15 fighter jets and 60 military personnel have been sent to Lithuania, in addition to those already stationed there. The U.S. and EU are imposing sanctions and travel bans on Russian officials. Politicians from Hillary Clinton to John McCain have compared Russian President Vladimir Putin to Hitler. When preparing for war, the U.S. always uses this bogus comparison to demonize leaders of opponent countries.

4. Neo-Nazis dominate the new government.
     The openly racist, anti-Semitic and pro-Hitler Svoboda party is one of three major parties in the government. Svoboda led the street actions that forced elected President Yanukovych to flee. The Right Sector, armed fascists who have beaten opponents and vandalized public property, are now in charge of the military. Immediately after the coup, Ukraine's chief rabbi, Moshe Reuven Azman, urged Jews to flee Kiev. The government's first act was to ban the use of Russian and other minority languages. Opponents of the coup have been beaten, disappeared, or had their offices and homes vandalized and burned.

5. Coup leaders hired snipers to justify their takeover.
     A leaked call between Estonian and European Union officials reveals that people behind the new government hired snipers to kill protesters and police in Kiev. President Yanukovych was blamed for the killings and this was used to justify the coup.

6. Wall Street and Big Oil want to control Ukraine - and Russia.
      Oil and gas pipelines in Ukraine bring fuel from Russia to Europe. Big Oil wants to control the pipelines to cut the flow from Russia and hike their own profits. The U.S. has even offered the new government gas from dangerous fracking drilling here! Russia is the world's largest producer of gas, oil and industrial minerals. They want to break up Russia too. Wall Street would love to get its claws deeper into Ukraine and Russia - to drive up profits and push down wages for workers here and there.

7. NATO's drive to expand.
      As part of the Western drive to dismantle Russia, the Pentagon wants to establish military bases on the Ukraine/Russia border. The U.S. dominated NATO alliance has expanded aggressively into eastern Europe in the past 20 years, adding 12 countries to its roster so far. U.S./ NATO forces continue to occupy Afghanistan to the south.

8. Billions for coup in Ukraine, cuts for food stamps in U.S.
     In early February, Congress and the Obama administration agreed to cut SNAP food assistance benefits for hungry families by $8.7 billion, claiming there's no money. Yet just weeks later, they announced $10 billion in assistance to the neo-Nazis in Kiev. Secretary of State John Kerry personally delivered the first billion on March 4.

9. Power for the 1%, misery for workers.
      The new regime has appointed wealthy oligarchs as governors of rebellious regions of Eastern Ukraine. It's also agreed to an IMF austerity plan drafted by Washington to cut workers' pensions, unemployment insurance and social programs - just like the cutbacks workers from Detroit to Greece face.

10. People across Ukraine are fighting back.
      People in Eastern Ukraine and throughout the country are organizing against the coup. Some have taken over regional and city buildings and refused to hand them over to the new authorities. Others are marching on military bases and demanding that the troops not obey the commands of the neo-Nazis in Kiev. Some are calling on the Russian government to protect and assist them. The people of Ukraine remember well what Nazi rule was like during World War II, and they will not stand for it again.

Get informed!
Find more information on Ukraine and upcoming actions at
IACenter.org

Join us! Educate, organize and protest.
Let's stop the next U.S. war before it starts.

International Action Center 

Variety of downloadable signs helpful for
Ukraine No War demonstrations
www.iactucson.org/signs

 Statements & further reading   

United National Antiwar Coalition (UNAC) demands
'U.S. hands off Ukraine and Venezuela"
http://nepajac.org/UNAC_030614.html

Veterans for Peace - San Diego:
"Preparing for war with Russia"
sdvfp.org/preparing-for-war-with-russia/

Glen Ford:
"Hillary and other assorted barbarians at Russia's gate"
www.blackagendareport.com/content/hillary-and-other-assorted-barbarians-russia%E2%80%99s-gate

Ajamu Baraka:
"Ukraine and the Pathology of the Liberal Worldview:
An African American Perspective"
www.counterpunch.org/2014/03/07/ukraine-and-the-pathology-of-the-liberal-worldview/

Transcript of leaked Victoria Nuland-Geoffrey Pyatt call
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-26079957

Leak : Estonian FM says Maidan snipers were not Yanukovich's
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2014/03/05/1282285/--BREAKING-Leak-Estonian-PM-says-Maidan-snipers-were-not-Yanukovich-s

LIST EVENTS HERE
(We will include in future emails)

iacenter@iacenter.org

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

Terrorism.

Definition:

• Terrorism is the systematic use of violence (terror) as a means of coercion for political purposes.
  
  
  Example: As in Iraq and Afghanistan by UK and American governments. 
  
  Visit ann arky's home at www.radicalglasgow.me.uk
  
  

The Armed Forces Are No Friend Of The People.

      To all those who say “support our troops” I think they should ask themselves, “what are the troops really for?”. They are portrayed as, there to protect the people, but can be, and are, brought onto the streets to suppress the people and protect the state apparatus. The armed forces are the strong arm of state expansionism and the body guard of corporate globalisation. It is ordinary kids from our communities that are hoodwinked by the state propaganda, the deal is you hand in your freedom and you get a uniform, with the promise of learning and travel. In truth, the kids are brutalised and moulded into robots that will always follow orders, no matter what. Then they are sent to the out posts of the corporate imperialist's empire, there they will employed to crush any local resistance to the march of Western corporate greed, corporate globalisation. 

     People of the world don't need protecting from people of the world, we the people, need protection from the various states and their partner, corporate imperialism, who are wedded in a festering marriage of greed and destruction. 

Symbols of state repression.

This from Indymedia:

  ------We see them recruiting in the towns, colleges and jobcentres, luring in the exploited and excluded classes with bloodmoney, moronic patriotism and the promise of adventure to replace their misery, with macho bootcamps or the controlrooms for videogame-style remote killing technology. Despite cuts Britain still has the fourth largest military budget in the world as it clings to an imperial legacy of genocide and enslavement. Today the Western armies are flexible for democratic-expansionist wars, 'peacekeeping' interventions to facilitate the new colonial age of corporate globalisation, counterinsurgery, geopolitical manoeuvrings and resource control, or prepared for internal policing and strikebreaking. Their ends are the same as ever, here as in Afghanistan, Mali or Libya - the rulers lie, the poor die, capitalism profits. 

Read the full article HERE:

Challenging The Arms Trade In Scotland.

Challenging the arms trade in Scotland

A Campaign Day with Campaign Against Arms Trade

10.30am-5pm, Saturday 15^th March, Renfield Centre, 260 Bath Street, Glasgow, G2 4HZ

What's the link between Edinburgh and drones, or Ayrshire and the teargas turned on democracy protesters in the Middle East? What does Dundee have to do with the repression in Bahrain? Find out at an info and skills-sharing day in Glasgow on 15 March.

Bringing together campaigners from across Scotland and Northern England, CAAT's Campaign Day is a great opportunity to pick up information and campaign skills.

We've got an exciting agenda lined up - get in touch if you'd like to offer a talk or workshop too!

• Hear from Edinburgh CAAT about their inspiring campaign to end arms company sponsorship of the Edinburgh Science Festival.
• Discuss how we can use the referendum debate to rethink the arms trade, whether in an independent Scotland or as part of the UK.
  
• Learn about CAAT's research into shifting resources away from the arms trade and creating green jobs.
• Explore useful skills for running campaigns and having an impact.
• Share news and information from the campaigns you care about.

With top-level arms dealers due to meet in Scotland a few weeks later and the opportunity to challenge Edinburgh Science Festival's support for a drones company in April, it's an important time to get involved!

Please let us know you plan to come! events@caat.org.uk

Stay in touch with Glasgow CAAT on Twitter @GlasgowCAAT

www.caat.org.uk

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

Pete Seeger.

      Pete Seeger, May 3, 1919 – January 27, 2014, A voice, a heart, Thanks for the memory.

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

The Blood Of Empires.

      As the Cameron gang of lame-brain fascists attempt to turn the pointless slaughter  that was the WW1 into a pompous spectacle for their power based ideology, we must keep up the flow of truth, to destroy their hypocritical distorted history. We owe it to all those ordinary people who lost their lives in that bloody empire grab for territory, power and wealth.

This from Stop the war Coalition: 

1) Britain's foreign wars a central issue in 2014 - the campaign goes on

     Last year we helped stop a new intervention in Syria, please help us keep the war makers on the run in 2014.

• As we approach the withdrawal date of troops, a debate is raging on the Afghan war. Many troops and bases are proposed to remain, further prolonging a conflict which has lasted longer than the first and second world wars put together, and which has not been about helping the Afghan people but about strategic control of the region. The rivalry with China and Russia makes the need for this western control even greater. We must campaign to ensure all troops and bases leave now.

• We will be protesting against the NATO summit in Wales in September and joining the international day of action against drones on 4 October. Full details about these campaigns will announced shortly.

• The 100th anniversary of the first world war will feature prominently in 2014. The government and its allies want to use the anniversary to highlight and promote the role of the military in society. Various 'revisionist' historians are arguing that this was a war for democratic freedom, despite the evidence that it is was an imperial war between rival powers, highly industrialised, which ended in revolution and major social change because of revulsion at its consequences. The government's plans have already run into high profile opposition, with 10,000 people signing the No Glory petition protesting these plans and there will be events across the country challenging their revisionism.

• The government's attempt to rehabilitate the military is extending to promoting 'military values' in schools. Anti-war campaigners and teachers should oppose such moves, arguing that children should learn the truth about war.

• The Chilcot report on the Iraq war is due to make its belated appearance in the New Year. It is our chance to demand a holding to account of Tony Blair, Jack Straw and the rest who took us to war in Iraq based on lies. There should be full disclosure of all secret documents and an indictment of Blair.

      These priorities are explored amongst others in War and peace in 2014 on the Stop the War web site.

2) Battle of the Somme: the horrific epitome of the first world war

- Lindsey German

      One of my Xmas presents was The Great War by Joe Sacco. It is a wonderful piece of art, a 24 page panorama of July 1 1916, the first day of the Battle of the Somme.
      Originally inspired by a pull out book of the Manhattan skyline, it also draws on the Bayeux Tapestry that depicts the story of the Battle of Hastings in 1066. It is a series of connected tableaux which begin with General Haig walking in the grounds of his chateau behind the lines and progress through ever darkening scenes to the deaths and mayhem of injured and dying on the battle field.
     The Somme is perhaps the epitome of the horror of the First World War, at least from the point of view of Britain. It was a major, planned onslaught against German trenches that was organised with industrial precision. Railways were built, cables laid, trenches dug in order to prepare for an offensive, which was mean to destroy the German defences and allow the British to gain a key advantage which would end the war. A huge week long bombardment of artillery was planned which would knock out most of the enemy, crucially take out their machine gun posts and allowing the British army to take over virtually empty trenches.
       It was a total failure; the bombardment was 'impressive mainly for its noise' in the words of Adam Hochschild, who wrote the booklet accompanying the panorama. Many of the shells were duds, and two thirds were shrapnel, which was fairly useless in destroying barbed wire or machine gun emplacements.
The thousands of men who went over the top that morning therefore faced barrages of machine gun fire from troops from whom they thought they would meet little resistance.
Read the rest of the article here

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The Prince Of Darkness Laughed.

       2014 has hardly taken its first faltering steps and those arrogant  dinosaurs of empire are out with their megaphones spouting that WW1, was a glorious victor for democracy, a noble cause, a just war for freedom. They want to mark the centenary of the start of that event, that soaked Europe's soil in the blood of ordinary people, as a glorious part of our history. History is to be re-written, what was a greed driven squabble between the aristocratic owners of empires, that sucked in and slaughtered the best of Europe's youth, is to be lauded as something of which we the ordinary people should be proud. The massive misery, suffering and deaths of that unnecessary, avoidable carnage, is set to be used as a bandwagon, by the millionaire flag waving parasites. It will be abused and misrepresented, in an attempt to portray that crap slogan “We're all in this together”. It will be used as a pompous platform of grandeur and splendour, to take our eyes of the poverty stricken state of our present society.

       We must continue to shout the truth about that disastrous ego driven aristocratic grab for power and territories, we owe it to all those who died under those pitiful, miserable, avoidable conditions. We cannot allow their unjust slaughter to be used by a bunch of well-heeled hypocrites, to further their own political ideology. At every turn we must counter their lies with truth. There was no aim for democracy in their plans, there was no defence of freedom on their agenda, it was a thrust for power, and land grabbing, on a grand scale, and as usual in their plans, we the ordinary people were to pay the price.

The following is an extract from an excellent article in the Guardian:

       This is all preposterous nonsense. Unlike the second world war, the bloodbath of 1914-18 was not a just war. It was a savage industrial slaughter perpetrated by a gang of predatory imperial powers, locked in a deadly struggle to capture and carve up territories, markets and resources.
      Germany was the rising industrial power and colonial Johnny-come-lately of the time, seeking its place in the sun from the British and French empires. The war erupted directly from the fight for imperial dominance in the Balkans, as Austria-Hungary and Russia scrapped for the pickings from the crumbling Ottoman empire. All the ruling elites of Europe, tied together in a deathly quadrille of unstable alliances, shared the blame for the murderous barbarism they oversaw. The idea that Britain and its allies were defending liberal democracy, let alone international law or the rights of small nations, is simply absurd.

Read the full article HERE:

At the Cenotaph.

I saw the Prince of Darkness, with his Staff,

Standing bare-headed by the Cenotaph:

Unostentatious and respectful, there

He stood, and offered up the following prayer,

'Make them forget, O Lord, what this Memorial

Means; their discredited ideas revive;

Breed new belief that War is purgatorial

Proof of the pride and power of being alive;

Men's biologic urge to readjust

The Map of Europe, Lord of Hosts, increase;

Lift up their hearts in large destructive lust;

And crown their heads with blind vindictive Peace,'

The Prince of Darknes to the Cenotaph

Bowed. As he walked away I heard him laugh.

Siegfried Sassoon.

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

A Thought For Remembrance Day.

A thought for Remembrance Day:

Patriotism

No, I shall not die for the fluttering flag,

if truth be known, ’tis nothing but a multi-coloured rag

held aloft by some foolish hand

inciting worker and peasant to kill

on some green and wooded hill,

peasant and worker from some other land.

Nor shall I shed blood for the fluttering rag

that brings out fools to stand and brag

of brutal deeds painted grand,

deeds where rustic and craftsman lie so still

killed by my brothers' misguided hand.

No allegiance have I for the Nation

this man made autocratic creation

that divides my brothers in a world so small,

binds us to a country's cause, right or wrong,

bids us follow its drum, sing its song,

then sheds our blood in some border brawl.

No, I'll be no slave to flag or nation,

have no ear for power oration,

though its iron heel is on my breast,

my back feels its leather thong,

at patriotism's barracoon, I'll be no guest.

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

Prophet Or Dreamer?

Prophet Or Dreamer?

Am I a dreamer?

Ever dazzled by unseen dawns,

always hearing the song of liberty

though freedom's flag is torn.

I walk towards a world

no borders, kings or slaves;

history claims the warrior's hand

peace the crown of bays.

I see the hungry feasting

midst the brotherhood of man,

all the children singing,

the fear of famine gone.

I find the common man

hold his brother dear

create a world of social justice;

Elysian fields their sphere.

Freedom's flag is torn,

quiet is liberty's song,

unrisen suns still to dawn;

prophet,   or dreamer born?

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