Workers Know Your History, Hamburg, 1923.

         An email from a comrade in Germany marking October 23rd 1923, uprising in Hamburg 

1923 - 2019  

    

       We commemorate the Hamburg uprising 96 years ago. In the early hours of October 23, 1923, our comrades stormed Hamburg police stations and disarmed the police. The signal for the revolution was to come from Saxony, but there was no revolutionary uprising.

       In Hamburg it was believed that there was fighting everywhere. But only in   Hamburg was fighting. For 3 days the workers fought against a heavily armed superiority.
       If there had been our German October 1923, how much suffering would have been spared mankind. No fascism, no support for Franco by the Nazis, no World War II and no Auschwitz...

     In the district of Barmbeck, which Ernst Thälmann called "immortal" in his 1925 speech on the Hamburg Uprising, the fiercest battles raged. Today, when I walk through the streets of this, my district, I feel sadness and pride, but no resignation. Our struggle is just, whether here or elsewhere in the world.

Larissa Reissner wrote about the Hamburg uprising.

Red greetings from Hamburg ! Reinhardt

Read Larissa Reissner's rendering of these heroic fighters HERE:

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

The Need For More Leaderless Action.

      What is happening in France should be of tremendous interest to all those who wish to change society away from this corporate/state plutocracy to a system controlled by the people. This not a protest organised by some trade union or political party, this is a spontaneous uprising by people across a wide spectrum and not following the dictates of some ideology. Here we see people who didn't wait for the "leaders" to tell them to take to the streets, it grew among the people and spread across the country. Union leaders, bureaucrats, academics, party leaders, and academics stand confused, and I would think a little afraid as they can't get control of this phenomenon.  

     I have often said that nobody knows the spark that will start the fire. This particular fire that is raging across France started with a few disgruntled truck drivers who voiced their views on social media. That was the spark that ignited the underlying anger and discontent that rumbles under the surface in every corporate/state plutocracy that controls and exploits the lives of millions. All I can say is keep creating those sparks, the tinder is there, one spark is all it takes.
Two opinions of democracy:

 Photos by Abdulmonam Eassa

      There is an excellent article on the events in France by Jerome Roos, in Roar magazine. Here are a couple of extracts:

        What began four weeks ago as a nationwide response to a widely-disseminated Facebook call by two angry truck drivers to block local roads and highway toll stations in protest against a new “ecological” fuel tax introduced by Macron’s government has now spiraled out into a full-blown popular revolt against the banker president and the wealthy corporate elite he so openly represents.

And how various groups can gel:

       In recent days, the political crisis has been aggravated by what appears to be a veritable convergence of social struggles. On December 1, ambulance drivers joined the fray, demonstrating in front of the presidential palace with screaming sirens. On Monday, December 3, French students radicalized their ongoing struggle by blocking access to over 200 high schools; the following Thursday an estimated 100,000 of them participated in a nationwide walkout against Macron’s changes to university admission procedures and a rise in administrative fees. Shocking footage of several dozen students being placed in stress positions by riot police for an extended period of time soon went viral and served to further inflame the tensions and anti-police sentiment among the gilets jaunes. Then, last Saturday, thousands of environmentalists at a pre-scheduled climate demonstration in Paris donned yellow vests in solidarity. Meanwhile, the main unions for French farmers, truck drivers and public transport workers have all announced their intention to go on strike.

The need to ignore the old avenues of dialogue and compromise:

      Four weeks in, the uprising also continues to confound mainstream journalists and experts. “The gilets jaunes have blown up the old political categories,” one French media activist told ROAR on Saturday night, after a long day of riots in the capital. “They reject all political leaders, all political parties and any form of political mediation. No one really knows how to confront or deal with this movement — not the media, not the government, nor anyone else. What we are witnessing is unprecedented in French history.” While the outcome of these dramatic developments remains uncertain, it is clear that France is currently living through a rupture of historic proportions, taking the country onto uncharted terrain. For the left, the emerging scenario presents both exciting opportunities, but also a number of significant political risks. How are radical and autonomous social forces to insert themselves into this unfamiliar and uncertain situation without losing sight of the dangers that lie ahead?

Read the full article HERE: 

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

WHERE TO PLACE YOUR BETS???

      

        For more than a month there have been large protests in a Middle Eastern country and there has been some brutal repression of those protesters taking place. The figures we are give is 16 killed and 130 wounded. The protesters are calling for greater democracy, an end to corruption and better services. The powers that be, are labelling the protesters as having links to Al-Qaeda, just as Gaddafi is saying about the Libyan protesters, The protesters claim no such link, and state that they are ordinary people wanting an end to their poverty, an end to mass unemployment, government corruption and are seeking better services in their communities.

     

        However, our two knights in shining armour for democracy, Obama and Cameron are not in this case, backing the protesters and calling for the leader to step down and accept the will of the people. They remain silent about the protests and offer no criticism of the leader and his coterie. The reason being that the protests are taking place in Iraq. This is the country that is meant to be the shining example of the West building democracy in the Arab world. We bombed the country back to the stone age and killed hundreds of thousands of its people, so that we could bring them democracy and Mr. Nuri al-Maliki is our man in the driving seat.

       

         It must be extremely difficult for this bunch of hypocrites to try to keep up with when to support their favourite dictator and when to dump him in favour of their favourite people's uprising. Dictators are embraced when it is good for business and we have access to their resources, but are dumped when it looks like being their friend will damage our business interests. In this corporate value structure, dictators and the people are expendable, the main criteria is profit for the corporate world. We in the West should be following our Arab friends and en masse be calling a halt to the corruption that festers throughout this type of society. Change may be sweeping through the Middle East but it will continue to be a corrupt system if it continues to do business with the corrupt and hypocritical West.

ann arky's home.