"I Wont Pay".

 

       No doubt Greece will once again gain a little space in the babbling brook of bullshit, our mainstream media. The reason, well Greece has enough money to last until July, then it runs out. So another shuffling of billions through the various banks is necessary to keep the illusion of progress going, but for the people of Greece there is no progress. That band of robber barons that make up the "Troika", (IMF, International Mankind Fuckers, EC, European Conmen, ECB, European Criminal Bastards) are having their own problems. They can't agree on how to handle the mountain of gambling debt they have allowed to amass in Greece.  Each one of the three gambling organisations that make up that band of robbers is aware that their money, to a degree is lost, their squabble is about who has to take the biggest hit. The IMF is trying to look compassionate in saying that Greece can't make the conditions placed on it, and the debt has to be re-structured or written down. While the European wing of this criminal gambling organisation is adamant the Greece stick to the punitive policy already in place, as any change would mean that they, The European mob, would have to take the biggest hit.   

Protesters preventing a lawyer from presenting a case for repossession.

        Meanwhile, the people of Greece are experiencing ever falling living standards. The education system is in tatters, the health service has all but collapsed, unemployment is still running at around 24%, with youth unemployment at around 50%. Poverty is endemic, suicide is on a rapid increase, homelessness is at a level that no civilised country can accept, evictions are a daily occurrence. Of course the people of Greece are not sitting down and wringing their hands, they are fighting back in lots of ways. Squats, community feeding schemes, voluntary health centres and more. On the matter of Greek evictions, the group "I Wont Pay" is growing in strength and confidence. Much like the Glasgow 1915 rent strike, where the people in great masses, prevented Sheriff Officers from serving eviction notices, the "I Wont Pay" movement are cramming into the courts where landlords are attempting to get eviction orders, and making the court unworkable. They have had several successes, this we hope will give them greater numbers and greater confidence.

      While the billionaire robber barons of the financial Mafia, gamble and shuffle their ill gotten gains, we the people suffer, so that their gambling losses are recouped. How long will we put up with this blatant system of robbing the people to enrich the few. The choice is ours, do we sit and wring our hands, or do we organise to bring this festering cesspool of greed to and end?  

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

Time To Tighten The Screw On Pensioners.

 

      Anyone who lives in the world of ordinary people is well aware that the vast majority of pensioners are not rich, a considerable number of them live in poverty, some in dire poverty. However, that does not stop the well heeled parasitic politicians with their grand salaries and lush pensions from putting pensioners in the line of attack in their pseudo science of economics. They have devised a method of stripping the unemployed of their benefits through workfare and sanctions, they have implemented a system to deprive the sick of their benefits by means of assessments and sanctions, so now it is time to attack the pensioners. They started by raising the age at which you can receive your pension, now, their latest manoeuvre to comply with the ideology of their pseudo economics, it is time to destroy the "triple lock" system, by which pensioners are guaranteed an increase in their meagre pensions each year. All this at a time when inflation is predicted to shoot up.

     Piece by piece our communities are attacked, section by section they are dealt an economic blow, all done under the financial Mafia's, "austerity" banner, wafted by the breeze of illusion called "balancing the books". If by some weird twist of the mind, our lords and masters were trying to "balance the books", there is no problem, our country is awash with money. We have billions for nuclear weapons, billions for bombing Libya, billions for war in Syria, billions to subsidise the corporate greed machine, but by their reckoning, not enough to see the the welfare of the needy in this country. 

       This "triple lock" attached to pensions has, since its inception, stuck in the throat of many of those well-heeled politicians, their twisted minds were mulling over the point, "why should pensioners get some sort of guaranteed increase each year, while we are screwing the rest of the population". So it is time to start turning the screw tighter on the pensioners. 

       By any measure, this system is insane, but worse, it is vicious, savage and brutal, to those who create all the wealth there is in this land. Are we to believe the blurb put out by the billionaire owned media, that this is the only way we can function as a society? It is simply a man made system of exploitation that creates wars, spreads poverty and spawns misery, for the benefit the few, at the expense of the many. I know we have the imagination, the ability and the resources to create a better world that cares for all, that takes care of the needs of all our people. All it lacks is the will of the people to take that step and demolish this insane creator of wars, misery and poverty. As long as we tolerate capitalism we will suffer poverty and deprivation, we will endure wars, and destroy the environment. Why?  

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

Reality Or A TV Farce???

       So for a moment, let’s think of the world we live in, and by our daily grinding labour, support and maintain, the world that the babbling brook of bullshit, the mainstream media tells us, is the best way to live our lives. A world that if we decided we no longer wish to tolerate, we could bring crashing down.
        It is a world of pampered parasites draped in ermine, with their snouts deeply stuck in the trough of public money. A world of corporate bosses with their private jets and super yachts, plundering the wealth that we create. A cabal of callous self seeking, careerist politicians, who with empire in mind, legislate life and death of the poor, while protecting bonuses for the rich, and ensuring austerity for the many. A world where an abundance of wealth slushes around, but never finds its way to those, the ordinary people, who create that wealth.
         If we wrote this as a story for TV, we could understand it as a far fetched tale of greed, corruption, of exploitation, and injustice, but as a reality, created by our own sweat and blood, well it beggars belief.

Home to the many.

 

  ENOUGH IS ENOUGH.

MUST WE TOLERATE
the giggling audacity of the rich
midst the pitiful anguish of the poor,
those boated cavaliers
using pillage to secure
their lives of arrogant excess,
a pirate's plundering tour.

WHERE IS IT WRITTEN
that this world must be
a place where the many toil and sweat
grinding out their meagre existence
in poverty, hunger and debt,
while the hubristic greedy few
live the life of a pampered pet.

LET'S TRY AGAIN
no more war, no deprivation
a world of sharing, a world of giving
a chance for all to grow and prosper
in a culture of friendship and forgiving.
With true love and understanding
we can create a new way of living.

 

Sir Philip Green's £100 million yacht.

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

The Surface Glitter Of Athens.

         Just back from a visit to Athens, on the surface, central Athens looks much like the Athens I used to know, the cafés, restaurants, tavernas, all looked busy with pretty pretty butterfly people. One change you do notice is the traffic, it is mainly yellow taxis and motorbikes. They say if you want to know anything about a city, ask a taxi driver, so we did. One driver told us that there are more than 1,700 taxis in Athens, and most are people who have been made redundant. The taxi allows them to work as long as they want, to try to get by, one drive said he worked 16 hours a day, every day and at the end of the month after taxes etc, he was left with €600 to get through the month. Work that out as an hourly rate and you are talking sweatshop money. Another said before the crash he wasn't rich but had €1,800 in the bank and lived reasonably well, now he has nothing and works as many hours a day as he can, every day, just to survive. Two gave conflicting answers to how many had left Greece since the “crash”, one stating almost 1 million, and the other probably 300,00 to 400,000, either amount is a drain on any country. One other we spoke to was leaving in a few weeks to live in Australia to give his kids a chance at a better life. All summed it up as Greece today is dreadful, a disaster. 

       We also went to Exarcheia and visited an occupied cinema, K-Vox, it is run by between 30-40 people, who label themselves as anarchist, communist and libertarian socialist, though the communists emphasising that they had nothing to do with the communist party. It has a café and a library, and they hold various events. All the money raised is used to support political prisoners, it also houses a free medical centre. A wonderful asset, and great to see all the strands of anarchism working together, strength in numbers, and a display of what can be done. If you want to support what they are doing you can contact them at katalipsivox@yahoo.gr

Enjoying the sun outside K-Vox.

        Athens, like all Western city centres, has poverty well hidden, so as not to chase spending tourists away. Though we did see the signs, up side-streets, the bundles of rolled up blankets in doorways and on two occasions, a man lying on the pavement, as if asleep with a crumpled plastic cup in their hand, both were still there hours later when we passed. The temperature was 25 degrees.
       Other facts about Greece, with a population of just over 11 million, it has a prison population of 12,693, 111 per 100,000 of the population, 2014 figures, but there is an anomaly, the prison population is 54.7% foreigners. Unemployment is running at just over 24%, with youth unemployment running at a staggering 51.9%. 

       All the misery, unemployment, families breaking up, poverty, deprivation and long working hours, suffered by the majority of ordinary people in Greece is simply the result of the financial Mafia's gambling spree, and it isn't going to get better any-time soon. The financial moguls of the Troika,( EC, European Commission, ECB, European Central Bank, IMF, International Mankind Fuckers) are starting to squabble among themselves regarding the next bailout to Greece. The IMF saying Greece's debt is unsustainable, so don't want to pour their filthy lucre into the leaking bucket and say the will not participate in the bailout unless the debt is “restructured” The European part of the Troika will not accept that, but say they could not go ahead with the bailout if the IMF doesn't participate. Meanwhile, while the financial gambling sharks shuffle their chips, the people of Greece bleed. That's capitalism.

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

Wealth And Poverty, Two Sides Of Capitalism.

       This winter may have been mild, but it is Scotland, and it is winter, cold and damp, not the sort of conditions anyone should find themselves homeless. While our parasitical politicians tell how well everything is doing, spouting, everything is on the up and up, some facts contradict that propaganda. The number of homeless people is rising, rising homelessness can never equate with an improving society. Glasgow City Mission, a charity that helps provide temporary shelter for homeless people, claims to have had a 60%+ increase in the number of rough-sleepers seeking a bed for the night. The charity claimed that, December 2015, saw 711 individuals came to them seeking a bed, compared with 437 December 2014. The quietest night this December saw 14 individuals seek a bed for the night, last December that figure was 4. While the busiest December night this year the figure was 31, compared with last December when there were 21. 

      Not a very flattering picture of Glasgow, Scotland's largest city, and an indictment of the system we live under. Glasgow has an abundance of glossy, glitzy, shopping malls, lots of fancy expensive restaurants, car parks littered with luxury cars, yet hunger and homelessness stalks its streets. Under the neon lights a doorway can be a shelter from the cold and damp, a dark lane, a bed for the night. There is an invisible army of enforced hungry, lurking in the shadows of abundance. It is totally unacceptable that hunger's vicious claws tear at an individual a hands throw away from a warehouse of food. It is totally unacceptable that someone should lay their head on cold wet stone for a bed, when the city abounds in empty accommodation. 

      This cruel injustice is the law of capitalism, no matter your needs, you will have to do without, if you can't pay. You can't be provided for if there is no profit in it for somebody. In this insane system, you can die from hypothermia and/or hunger, while shelter lies empty, and food rots next door. Why do we tolerate this?

The Homeless

Tenebrous spectres, they exist,   out there,

on the crumbling edge of chaos.

A father, a son, a brother,

a daughter, a sister, a mother.

Fragments of some shattered family structure;

waste products

from a society being driven to destruction

by a hurricane of greed,

living a life that wears out life,

dying,

the devious death of exhaustion from existence.

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

The Magic Of Poverty.

The Magic Of Poverty

Despondency,  our morning cloak

worn through the lonely day,

walking poverty's empty corridors

remembering promise that broke

in castles made of clay.

Indignation trapped in a heart

desire lost in a fog

poverty's special magic where,

a lover becomes a tart

 a spouse a snarling dog.

Voices raised in anger

hands wrung in despair

faces with no love

self-pride a stranger

confidence a rare affair.

Tired wishes, empty hopes, tears

and broken dreams,

short lived loves, brittle vows,

tomorrow filled with fears;

poverty's melody themes.

Our daughters and our sons

innocent and intent

born in the labyrinth of poverty;

a dark place bright hope shuns,

dreams are never sent,

by the force of poverty drawn

to become the labouring crowd,

filling the world with plenty, yet

missing out on the golden dawn,

their passions by poverty cowed. 

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

 

Solidarity Is Our Weapon.

       I'm a bit late with this one, probably due to my stupidity of getting stuck in hospital. However, late, but still worth a viewing.

     WE should also bear in mind that the parasites that plant there arses on the plush seats at the Westminster Houses of Hypocrisy and Corruption, those architects of austerity, workfare, benefit cuts and this attack on the poor and vulnerable, want to spend a minimum of £5.7 billion on having their private club refurbished. £5.7 billion to modernise that edifice to British establishment corruption. No shortage of money there, no long drawn out arguing about this, just a matter of selecting a timetable. Can you come up with a better way to spend £5.7 billion?

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

The Warmth Of A Dream.

The Warmth Of A Dream.

He lay in a dark doorway, dreamed of home,

night frost locked his joints

morning rain chilled the marrow of his bone.

In the dream there was a sister,

a pram in a garden, a crowd of youngsters

who called him "mister", a time of little pain.

Are these youngsters the same young men, who

now laugh at him, throw beer cans,

piss on him as he lies drunk in some dark lane?

When was that first step down this slippery slope,

when was that first step to no forgiveness.

No will to rise to beg for food,

numbness kills the pain.

The dream brings a warmth that feels good,

dark fog shades out consciousness,

an ambulance carries off a body washed in rain.

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

Syriza, Then What?

 Queue at unemployment centre Athens.

     Today, January 25th, is election day in Greece, and there is an array of theories of what will happen. Leading the polls is Syriza, a gathering of left leaning groups, who have stated that if elected they will scrap the austerity ideology of the financial Mafia. In reply, other states in the EU are saying, Greece must "pay its way". as puppets of the financial Mafia, that's what you would expect them to say. What, "pay its way"  translates as, is more misery and deprivation to be heaped on the people of Greece. A people who in the last few years have seen their social structures decimated. In a country of just over 11 million people, austerity measures in Greece have resulted in approximately a million people with no access to healthcare, leading to soaring infant mortality, HIV infection, mental and physical health problems, and suicide. Between 2009 and 2011, the hospital budget has been slashed by 25%. In a 2000 report by the World Health Organization, the Greek healthcare system was ranked 14th worldwide in the overall assessment, above other countries such as Germany (25) and the United Kingdom (18), Ours in the UK, could go the same way if the financial Mafia say so.
       The education system in Greece, is in tatters, pensions have been cut, taxes increased, and new taxes implemented. Unemployment at present is running at 25.8, with youth unemployment at 50.6, health insurance is linked to working, disappearing after one year unemployed. There is an epidemic of homelessness, and it is not unusual to see, not individuals, but families sleeping rough. This is what the financial Mafia and their minders, EU governments, want to continue, as Greece is forced to pay to help prevent the moguls of the financial Mafia from loosing any money.

Scenes from Athens.

      I have never taken part in any government elections in my entire life, I usually refer to them as the "Crooks and Liars Competition", which leaves us under the control of the best crooks and liars of that particular season.

        However, the situation in Greece is so dire, that anything that can help alleviate the suffering and misery of so many innocent, ordinary people, must be worth a try. I have no doubt what so ever, that the financial Mafia, will have plans to kick the shit out of any left leaning group that gets power in Europe. So if Syriza wins, we can expect all sorts of dirty tricks to try to discredit them. Make no mistake, the lives of the people of Greece are of no concern to the ruthless financial Mafia. To them, more suicides, unemployment, homelessness, poverty, and deprivation, is a price worth paying, to protect their wealth and power.

        An interesting article from Lenin's Tomb:

      We can have all sorts of hypotheses about how things will work out with Syriza in office, trying to implement an anti-austerity agenda.  There are semi-plausible arguments that Berlin will ultimately be inclined to throw Syriza a bone, the better to avoid generating a new, unnecessary crisis.  I think this overestimates how rational the EU elites are, and underestimates their vindictiveness.  I think if the situations favours it, they will want to continue to make an example of Greece one way or another, and demonstrate that this left populism stuff isn't going to fly.  I think they will be brutal in the negotiations, and that whatever concessions they offer will be deliberately insulting.  My guess is that only if Syriza has the strongest mandate possible, an outright parliamentary majority, coupled with a renewed mobilisation of social and workers' movements to try to fulfil the party's promises, will the EU be inclined to cut them a half-away decent deal.  Yet even the more pessimistic scenario wouldn't preclude real gains that shift the balance of power in favour of workers, democratise the state, humanise the immigration system, and so on.

However the point, now as before, is to test these hypotheses by getting Syriza elected.

Read the full article HERE:

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

The Omnipotent Market.

      The power of “the market” is something we are told we have to accept, as if it were some omnipotent super being, beyond our control, somewhere in the outer universe, when in fact “the market” is no more than greedy people with lots of money manipulating resources in an attempt to increase or safeguard their unearned wealth and power.
      The latest crisis in “the market“ is oil, once selling at $100 a barrel, now heading for $30 a barrel. Same product, doing the same things, but now looking like it is near worthless, according to “the market”. This transformation is simply brought about by a bunch of greedy oil producers, in this case the Saudis, who see the growth of fracking in places such as America, as a threat to their market share. So they flood the world with their oil and suddenly it's a very cheap product, making the more expensive fracking process look uneconomical. The Saudis aren't to worried about the falling price as they are sitting on a multi-trillion dollar oil fund, and their oil is relatively cheap to get out of the ground.
       However, as these greedy billionaires fight it out to retain their slush money, the effect their squabbles have on the ordinary people can be devastating. If you are an oil producing country and your economy is dependent on oil, and it is more expensive to get your oil out of the ground, then this little squabble means bankruptcy for you, with all the attendant misery that this heaps on the people of that country.

       This is what is happening to Venezuela at the moment. The country is now running out of money, inflation is soaring and stands at 65%, supermarkets are empty, queues stretch round buildings for everything and anything, as desperate people try to survive. Some area authorities are banning buying groceries on certain days, and banning queueing at night, while protests are on the rise. According to UBS, Venezuela has an 82% possibility of collapse this year. The financial Mafia will descend on Venezuela like a flock of vultures and devour all the assets in the country. The people will suffer poverty and deprivation, and of course it will all be put down to that omnipotent outer space being, “the market”, nobody will be to blame.

     “The market” is capitalism at work, the devastation caused by these workings, are man made, and all the decisions are made by people sitting in boardrooms, protecting their plunder, without a thought for the misery they inflict on the ordinary people. As long as we have capitalism, we will have “the market” destroying people's lives, we will have poverty and deprivation, and we will have wars, as the greedy invisible suits behind the illusion of “the market”, take what measures they deem fit to hold onto their ill-gotten wealth and power.
     The world has enough resources to see to the needs of all its people, it is the insane method of gathering and distributing those resources that is the real problem. Capitalism is a man made system, we can dismantle it, replace it with sanity, create a system based on needs, and bury forever, the illusion of that omnipotent spectre “the market”.

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

 

A Time Of Celebration And Good Cheer!!!

      While the babbling brook of bullshit, the mainstream media, spews out images of throngs of people fighting their way into shops to spend hundreds of pounds in an attempt to buy happiness in a colourful box, let's not forget the reality of modern day Britain. The Britain where millions of us live, the Britain of the daily struggle, of trying to keep our heads above water. A world where we are surrounded by unimaginable wealth, but are witness to beggars, rough sleepers, homeless, food-banks, child poverty and fuel poverty. the question is why?

      Behind the veneer of designer names and brightly coloured shopping malls, there is another world. A world where hopes and dream die, and opportunity never knocks.

      Zero hours contracts and the minimum wage are the establishments method of guaranteeing poverty. Don't expect them to try to alleviate the problem, it suits them the way it is. It creates a pool of cheap labour.

      Poverty kills both the young and old, and those it doesn't kill, it scars for life. So who is responsible for those scars and those deaths?

      Poverty, a preventable phenomenon,  turns good people into bad parents, but not by their own desire.

      Fuel poverty in one of the richest countries in the world, is a crime, who is responsible?

     Don't expect the top layer of parasites to do anything about poverty, they need it to keep getting fat bank accounts. If we want to be rid of poverty, we will have to do the fixing ourselves.

      No matter how they do the numbers, no matter the illusion they try to weave, the truth is that the UK has millions living in poverty, Why?

     Food banks, a necessity in modern capitalist Britain, while the Oxbridge millionaires talk of a growing economy, Why?

      Employers will gladly pay you the minimum wage or less, if they could get away with it, and some do.

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