A Just Struggle.

          Anyone with a rational and objective mind who takes a look at the system that we presently live under, will admit that it fails dramatically to produce fairness, justice or equality to any acceptable degree. Our society is riven with injustice, inequality and by any measure lacks fairness. The divide between those with power and wealth and the ordinary individual, is an unbridgeable chasm. Opulence, pomp, privilege, power and wealth sit cheek-by-jowl with homelessness, hunger, poverty and deprivation, creating a vision that makes a mockery of "democracy" and human decency.
         However we are naive in the extreme if we believe that those who exploit and oppress us will, through dialogue and peaceful protest, willing give up their power and privileged position and abandon their obscene wealth in an attempt to make society a fairer and more just society. They will use whatever means available to them, to protect their wealth, power and privileges, be it by passing laws, backed up by force, or blood on the streets.
       We have to accept that those who hold that wealth, and power which endows them with privileges are our oppressors, who work hard at maintaining the unbridgeable chasm. As oppressors we have to treat them as such, we can't ask them to please give up your wealth, power and privileges so that we have a fair society, it won't work. Perhaps we should think hard about the words of Frederick Douglass, escaped slave, abolitionist, writer, and orator.

        “Those who profess to favor freedom and yet depreciate agitation, are men who want crops without plowing the ground; they want rain without thunder and lightning. They want the ocean without the awful roar of its many waters. This struggle may be a moral one, and it may be a physical one, or it may be both moral and physical, but it must be a struggle. Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will. Find out just what any people will submit to and you have found out the exact amount of injustice and wrong which will be imposed upon them, and these will continue until they are resisted with either words or blows, or with both. The limits of tyrants are prescribed by the endurance of whom they oppress.” -Frederick Douglass

         Only a revolution will replace this greed driven economic system that degrades the human spirit and breeds inequality and injustice. However, you can't buy a revolution, you can't make a revolution, you have to be the revolution, and a revolution will not come with a bunch of roses in its hand.

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

Democracy And Water Cannons Don't Walk Hand In Hand.

 

       Do the hounds of Oxbridge sniff dissent in the air? While Theresa May, possible future queen of the Tory party, and Cameron, with his crown slipping, mull over the possible use of water cannons on our streets, dangerous, ambitious buffoon Johnson, has jumped the gun and order three. Meanwhile the police are salivating at the mouth at the thought of getting new, great big toys. Do they see a rising tide of dissent, have their expert advisers advised them that their continuing plans for swing the austerity axe, will bring in its wake mass unrest? Whatever the reason, water cannons will usher in the end of peaceful protest on our streets. When protesting against some injustice, how do react when faced with rows of shield covered, baton wielding riot police and behind them this monstrosity of brute force, the water cannon? Do you feel confident that everything will be OK as we live in a democracy? Water cannons and democracy do not walk hand in hand. Their only purpose is to intimidate and get you off the street.

This from 38 Degrees:

       Theresa May, the Home Secretary, is deciding on whether to allow the police in England & Wales to use water cannons on our streets. The police say they need them to control protests “from ongoing and potential future austerity measures”. [1]
       Yesterday, London Mayor Boris Johnson jumped the gun and ordered three water cannons for the capital before Theresa’s decision has been made. He’s now been backed by David Cameron, but Theresa May says she’s refusing to be rushed on the important decision. [2]
       38 Degrees member Neal has started a petition demanding that Theresa refuses to lift the ban on water cannons. If we can show there’s enough public opposition to the plans, it could be enough to encourage Theresa to defy David and Boris and keep the machines out of the police’s hands.
     What do you think? You can sign Neal’s petition to keep the ban on the cannons here:
https://secure.38degrees.org.uk/water-cannons

       He says: “The use of water cannon would be a violent and excessive use of force to combat protests on the streets of the UK. The right to protest is one of the most important aspects of our free and open democracy and I believe that the threat of this weapon will be an inhibitor to people of all ages from exercising that right.“

       We have seen all too frequently instances of police abusing their power, and using unnecessary force to break up protests. Be it the death of Ian Tomlinson, or the assault on anti-fracking campaigner Sean O'Donnell, elements of the police force would prefer to use violence and aggression to silence peaceful protest.” [3]

     Can you sign Neal’s petition and demand that Theresa keeps the cannons off our streets?
https://secure.38degrees.org.uk/water-cannons

      Neal started his petition on Campaigns by You, part of the 38 Degrees website where anyone can start a petition to try and make the UK a fairer, more democratic and peaceful place to live. If there’s an issue close to your heart, it takes just a few minutes to get your campaign off the ground. [4]

Thanks for everything you do,
Robin, Bryony, Maddy & the 38 Degrees team.

NOTES:
[1] The Guardian: Police to ask home secretary to approve use of water cannon across country http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2014/jan/22/police-home-secretary-approve-use-water-cannon-austerity-protest
[2] The Guardian: Cameron and May at odds over Boris Johnson's water cannon http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2014/jun/11/cameron-may-boris-johnson-water-cannons
[3] The Guardian: Police accused of brutality as fracking protester is left 'battered and bruised' http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2014/jan/21/police-accused-brutality-anti-fracking-protester
[3] Wikipedia: The Death of Ian Tomlinson http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_of_Ian_Tomlinson
[4] Campaigns by You: http://www.CampaignsByYou.com 

  

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

How European Democracy Looks.

      The powers that be say that peace and democracy have reigned in Europe since the end of the second world war, well this is how it looks.

Shared from arrezafe

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

Occupied Taksim.

       For those wishing to keep up to date on what is happening in Turkey can visit the new site, Occupied Taksim.

 

ann arky's home.

The Righteous Anger Of The People.

     To say that the trouble in Turkey is over the building of another shopping mall is surely missing something. A week of widespread protest in the face of extreme brutal police violence, only comes from an underlying anger by the people, at the authorities who ride roughshod over them. Turkish people know, like the rest of the people in Europe, that there is something rotten at the heart of, so called, "Western democracy". The system tramples the living standards of the ordinary people, shreds their rights and stifles peaceful dissent, while at the same time increasing and protecting corporate wealth and power. It continually transfers public assets and space to the corporate world, with no real benefits to the people. It is only a matter of time before people who are treated like this stand up and fight back. What we are witnessing is the righteous anger of the people, their anger will find the target eventually.

Another excellent photo from Teacher Dude.



Two short videos from Contra Info, read the full article HERE:



TURKISH REBEL IN 90 SECONDS! from Memento Mori on Vimeo.



TURKISH REBEL IN 70 SECONDS / DAY 5 from Memento Mori on Vimeo.

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30 YEARS OF CONTINUOUS PROTEST.

        You may not like camp anymore, or agree with camp but you have to respect 30 years, lets make this the biggest yet people!!

Faslane Peace Camp           30 Days of Action at Faslane Faslane Peace Camp are announcing 30 days of non-violent direct action against the Faslane Naval Base to mark the 30th birthday of the Peace Camp. Over the last year, a small group of us  have been endeavouring to make Peace Camp a healthy and happy place to facilitate direct action against Trident. We are ready for action! The birthday celebrations will commence on Saturday 9th of June 2012 and continue until the 9th of July. This week the First Minister of Scotland Alex Salmond announced that an independent Scotland would be a nuclear free Scotland. Whilst these are welcome words, the response is that the MOD are reportedly looking into new venues south of the border in the fear that Scotland will win independence. We need to give a clear and unmitigated message that simply moving them is not enough. We are in a unique position to make this potential removal from Scotland mean an ipso facto end to nuclear weapons in the UK but our message needs to be full volume. We are inviting local, national and international groups to  take responsibility for a day of anti-nuclear activities, this can be a  march to the base, a demo at the gates, a blockade, a mass trespass, a die-in... get creative! If you are a small group or an individual and want to team up with others, we can help choreograph partnerships. We can also facilitate workshops on peaceful direct action at Faslane so no activist experience is necessary. There will be lots to be done day to day and plenty of roles to fulfil during the 30 Days campaign and the time leading up to it so enthusiastic helpers (and donations) will be welcomed with open arms! Communal meals will be provided and there will be plenty of sleeping and camping spaces. For more information, legal stuff and for details of our safer spaces, residency and alcohol agreements please contact Faslane30@riseup.net or write to us at:
30Days, Faslane Peace Camp, Shandon, Helensburgh, G84 8NN.

"TOTAL POLICING".

  

       With the millionaire ConDem's rapid dismantling of the very social fabric of our society crashing along unabated, it is obvious that there will be anger among the ordinary people. People who have been subservient, compliant and hard working as they tried to have a decent life will soon find, that is no longer possible. Anger will turn to action with circumstances forcing people to come together and organise for their mutual survival, the state however, to protect its authority, will do its damnedest to prevent that coming together. The policing will change, dissent will be stifled and protest will be criminalised. On that theme, the following article is lifted in full from that old war horse of the anarchist movement, FREEDOM, the longest running anarchist newspaper in the UK.

Taken from FREEDOM, vol. 72 December 2011.

The graphics are not FREEDOM's.

     When Oxbridge graduate Bernard Hogan-Howe began his new job as Metropolitan police commissioner in September, he brought with him a quaint PR phrase 'total policing' (that he himself coined when chief of Merseyside police) as a way of introducing himself into the new role as top cop. As a sound-bite it ticked all the right boxes for an insouciant media – enticing, unspecific, and unavoidably non-committal. But what in reality does a change at the top of the police pile mean for anarchists and activists especially during this period of economic disintegration and increasingly fractious social unrest, what can we expect in this new era of total policing?

     Already this year we have seen several examples of pro-active policing taking on a more sinister role – the kind of policing that goes beyond public order and preservation of the peace but designed to undermine political expression.

      When education activists did a banner drop at the Lib Dem party conference in September they were remanded for three days by West Midlands police as their “membership of an organisation showed that they could not be trusted not to cause danger to the public”. In Bristol there was a raid on The Automonist radical magazine where police seized phones, computers and paperwork looking for a connection to the August riots, and it was during the August riots that several people received long jail sentences for simply posting messages on Facebook encouraging participation in the unrest. There were also the pre-emptive arrests and raids on squats in the run up to the Royal wedding and of course the arrest of145 people for the Fortnum & Mason peaceful occupation on 26^th March.

       But perhaps the most pronounced indication that we are enterig a new era of political policing was the excessive and overt role of plain-clothes police during the November student demonstration in Central London.

      Despite the tightly regulated route of the march – each side street blocked by a small army of well defended barriers – gangs of plain-clothes police, acting independently of uniformed police, embedded themselves in the demonstration and sought to impose themselves upon the crowd, only revealing their identities when people grew hostile towards them. Whether this was to provoke a reaction or simply target individuals they wanted to arrest, the gang strategy highlighted a new and potentially dangerous example of things to come.

     This new approach to the management of political dissent and public protest will impose itself more and more as the crisis deepens, where the legitimacy of government is constantly questioned and the role of the state relentlessly challenged, where ordinary people, angry and disillusioned with the current state of things, become active political subjects.

      For the state to maintain its authority and control over an increasingly embittered population they must ensure not only a compliant protest culture but the continued separation between political activists and the rest of society. Policing now has taken on a form of dissuading us from expressing a common purpose. This is is the political policing of the future.

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PEACEFUL PROTEST IS OK, -- ISN'T IT??

     
      Media clamp down, co-ordinated nation wide move against peaceful protest, police brutality? Surely not in the West? It must be some foreign banana republic with a despot dictator!! This is the free democratic West where we value freedom of speech and expression, after all we export such values to repressed people across the globe, don't we??

      You can take it that there is more of this to come, as the so called "crisis" takes a tighter grip of our lives. The corporate financial mafia are determined to cover any losses by taking all public spending and transferring it to their coffers. The might call it deficit reduction, but it still amounts to taking tax payers money and putting into the bank accounts of the big boys who control the financial mafia.

     You can debate how the "crisis" came about, who was responsible, until you're blue in the face, when the simple answer is that the system is inherently flawed as far as the ordinary people are concerned, but works well if you happen to be one of the billionaire parasites with their hands on the roulette wheel. It is a gambling club, but you and I are not in the club, we just provide the wealth that they gamble over.

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SURRENDER YOUR RIGHTS AT YOUR PERIL.

      As more and more people take to the streets in lawful and peaceful protest at the savage cuts to their standard of living, the authorities try to quell the unrest with intimidation. Their tactics include, provocative police actions, arrests on the street at peaceful protests, house visits by plain clothes police after the protests and criminalising our youth. It is at times like this that we can take inspiration from  those who took up the struggle before us, today we would do well to remember the words of   John MacLean , one of Glasgow's many great working class fighters, in court at the start of the first world war.

       "No human being on the face of this earth, no government is going to take away my right to speak, my right to protest against wrong, my right to do everything that is for the benefit of mankind. I am not here, then, as the accused; I am here as the accuser of Capitalism dripping with blood from head to foot."

The people are the country or it is fascism.

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