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.  

   

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Privatisation Equals Enclosures.

         It is sad that here we are in the 21st. century, still angry at the inequality, still complaining about being ripped off by our "betters" and at best most groups want to tinker with the system to make it a little bit fairer. A brief look at history tells you that all the reformers up to the present day have done nothing to change that inequality and injustice. Today the rich are richer than ever before, while the poor struggle to stave off deprivation. When will we ever learn.

        It's not as if we have been unaware of the injustice we live under, it has been recorded and catalogued in song and poem, and in the history of the struggles of the ordinary people, but still there is this sad belief, that reform, after centuries of failure, somehow will deliver. We have to wake up to the fact that capitalism cannot be reformed, under this system, any pittances won in struggle can and will be taken back at a later date, note the destruction of the hard won welfare state.

        How many more centuries will we allow our kids to be shackled to poverty, how many more centuries will we carry the burden of the parasitic rich on our backs, while we struggle for survival? The answer is in our own hands, we have the power, the ability, the means and the imagination to destroy this capitalist cancer that is devouring our world, all that is lacking is the will.

         This poem, by an unknown author from the 17th. century, highlights the awareness of injustice back then, but it still applies to our world today. The privatisation of the public assets today, is just a modern version of the enclosures of the past.

 

The law locks up the man or woman
Who steals the goose off the common
But leaves the greater villain loose
Who steals the common from the goose.

The law demands that we atone
When we take things we do not own
But leaves the lords and ladies fine
Who takes things that are yours and mine.

The poor and wretched don’t escape
If they conspire the law to break;
This must be so but they endure
Those who conspire to make the law.

The law locks up the man or woman
Who steals the goose from off the common
And geese will still a common lack
Till they go and steal it back.

The book "Celebrating The Commons" can be downloaded free HERE:

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

BUY NOTHING DAY.

     It is coming up again, the non-consumer festival, the buy nothing day. Make it a festival with a difference, take the kids for a walk, fix the kids bike, get on your bike, knock the neighbours door and have a chat. Play games on the street and stop the traffic. Play games at home, the non-electric type, you know the ones, those funny games with boards and pieces, Read that book you bought last summer and never got round to reading, try your hand at drawing, you know you always wanted to. Learn a poem, organise a swap shop in your neighbourhood, sit in a huddle giggling and watch the electric meter stop. Do anything that takes your fancy, just don't buy anything.

     Who knows, you might grow to like the idea and then you can tell the boss to shove his overtime. It is surprising how easy it is with a little enterprise how you can short circuit the consumer juggernaut and have fun at the same time. If you really want to be noble you can get your friends to follow you by telling them that you're saving the planet.

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CROOKS AND LIARS.

       With the Glasgow North East by-election, (my home patch) due to take place next week, and a mountain of paper garbage pouring through my letter box and the unusual vistors at my door, I thought that this little piece that I posted in the Radical Glasgow web site prior to a previous election was still valid. It seems that some things never change.

       In today’s society we have lots of strange and bewildering events, festivals etc.. One of the most bizarre festivals is the “Festival of Crooks and Liars”, this comes round every four or five years and usually goes under the odd name of “elections.” This festival starts with the groups and/or individuals wishing to participate in the “Festival of Crooks and Liars” breaking into outbursts of incoherent verbal diarrhoea. These verbal outbursts tend to get loud, more ridiculous and more persistent as the festival date looms ever closer. The event culminates in a mad frenzy of the contestants running around the country trying to prove that they are indeed the biggest crook and the best liar in the land.

        The aim of the “Festival of Crook and Liars” seems to be for the contenders to make every attempt to out do the other contenders in verbal rubbish, hyperbole and deceit. This part is foolish enough, but the part played by the public is much more of a mystery. It would seem that some members of the public believe that if they take part in this trip of insanity and actually vote for one or other of the contestants in the “Festival of Crooks and Liars” this will in some way end poverty and bring peace and stability to their lives. What is more strange is the fact that those who take part in the voting ritual of this festival have been doing so for many years and have seen the results each time to be that the “Crooks and Liars” do very well, but they themselves remain, relatively poor and insecure and their environment keeps going down hill, yet they persist in participating believing that somehow the next bunch of “Crook and Liars” will not actually be crooks and liars.

       Perhaps those “voters” should start to organise among themselves to take control of their own lives and communities and try to shape them the way that they would like in co-operation with others and leave the ridiculous show of insanity that is the “Festival of Crooks and Liars” for what it is, a dangerous illusion, a disempowerment that allows our wealth to be siphoned upwards.

 

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