Their Power Is Illusionary.

       A week away indulging myself, coffee, reading, walking, looking and talking, but as they say, a week is a long time in politics. In that week there were riots in Hamburg, in Rio de Janeiro the cops dragged an eighteen year old youth up a dark alleyway and beat him to death, in Barcelona there was a weekend of demonstrations against austerity. Also in Barcelona, October 20 saw an animal rights demonstration in the city centre, and on October 22, in Rome there were protests against evictions. Here in the UK, Chinatown in London shut down in protest at UK Border Agency raids. If you work your way through the various news avenues, you'll find these sort of events occurring across the globe. City after city sees the population in discontent, disgust and anger, at a system the produces an abundance of wealth, but leaves the people who produce that wealth, in various levels of poverty and deprivation, a system that requires violence and repression to keep it in place.


 

 

      It is obvious that this system is not what the people want, it is forced on them by the power of the state and their masters, the financial/corporate Mafia. It can be destroyed, and a system created that sees to the needs of all our people, those who produce and transport everything on this Earth. The planet is being raped and plundered, and we are being shafted, by a small well organised bunch of parasites, but their power is illusionary, they have power if you believe they have power, however, without our obedience, they are nothing.

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

Austerity And Environmental Devastation.

      Spain, like Greece, is at the sharp end of the financial Mafia's rape and plunder campaign. Stratospheric unemployment, slashing of social services and a fast-track to a sweatshop economy. With the "austerity" comes the devastation as the IMF (International Mankind Fuckers) complicit corrupt politicians surrender the environment to the corporate world all in the name of that magical "growth",  but, like the people of Greece, the people of Spain are also fighting back. Protests, strikes and all forms of direct action are an ever increasing part of life.

This from Loam:

      Circumventing security systems, today a Greenpeace activist has jumped on the roof of the super-protected Spanish Parliament and deployed a banner in defense of the battered Spanish coast.

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Snoopers' Charter,

     An Appeal from Liberty to try to stop one of Big Brother's tentacles from reaching further into our private affairs:

E-mail your MP       Read our Blog     The Home Secretary wants to store your online data, turning you from citizen to suspect. The Snoopers’ Charter (Communications Data Bill) has been met with criticism at every turn but the Home Office is battling to get it into the Queen’s Speech. The Government is far from unified around the Bill and today it has been reported that the Liberal Democrats may block the bill because of the impacts it would have to our privacy.      Now is our opportunity to stop this Bill. Will you help us by e-mailing your MP?       The Communications Data Bill will impact everyone’s lives and only together can we stop it. It is vital that you tell your MP you will not stand for this threat to our civil liberties. If thousands of Liberty members and supporters write to their MPs we can stop the Snoopers’ Charter.       We can’t leave this up to chance. Please visit our website now to e-mail your MP.      When the Coalition Government was formed, it promised "to end the storage of internet and email records without good reason". Let’s remind them of this.

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Scrap Trident Rally And March, Glasgow.

Scrap Trident Weekend of Action - Saturday, Sunday, Monday

 

Saturday 13th April  - Scrap Trident Rally and March    

 

Assemble George Square, Glasgow 10.15am
March starts  10.45am, Rally George Square 11.45am to 1.15pm

 

The plan is for people to walk in blocs calling for Scrapping Trident and Funding Education, the NHS, Pensions, Disability Benefits, Sustainable Energy and more. We invite you to get together a bloc or group to join us. How does Trident affect you? Whatever your reason for wanting nuclear weapons to be scrapped, get together with like-minded people and join us.

 

SPEAKERS
Sandra White MSP SNP, Patrick Harvie MSP Greens, Dave Moxham Deputy General Secretary STUC

Youth/Student: Stacey Devine NUS Scotland Womens Officer, Suki Sangha STUC youth committee
Education workers: Susan Quinn President EIS
Pensioners: Cathy McCormack Easterhouse Anti-poverty Community Activist and author
Disability Rights: Susan Archibald Disabilities Rights campaigner
Faith groups: Peter Macdonald Leader Iona Community
Health Workers: Judith McDonald – Medact
Welfare: Cat Boyd Youth Young Trade Unionist and PCS Member

And: Krista van Velzen  Former Member of Netherlands Parliament, Marion Nisbet  Bedroom Tax Federation, Leonna O ‘Neill  Faslane Peace Camp

MCs: Pat Smith/Angela McCormick/ Jonathon Shafi

 

More information: http://scraptrident.org/demonstration/

 

Travel from Edinburgh: Meet up to travel through to Glasgow on the 8.45am or 9am Scotrail trains. If you get to the station 15 or 20 minutes before the departure time it’s possible to team up and make use of the 4 travel for the price of 2 tickets. See you there.If you plan to travel by car and can offer a lift, email edinburghstw@tiscali.co.uk to let us know. Similarly let us know if you need a lift.

 

Travel from Aberdeen: Bus eaving from Spa Street (at the back of His Majesty’s Theatre) 7.30am. Return from Glasgow at 4pm arrive back in Aberdeen around 7.30pm. £12 waged / £8 unwaged. Contact Jonathan on 07582-456 233 or email: jhamiltonrussell@hotmail.co.uk

 

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Sweets That Leave a Bitter Taste in Your Mouth.

       Sweet tasting, but leaves a bitter taste in your mouth. A call for solidarity from Labour Start:

      Chances are you've never heard of Mondelez.  But you know the company. Mondelez is the new name for Kraft, one of the world's largest food companies. They make Oreo cookies, Ritz crackers, Philadelphia cream cheese, Toblerone, Green & Blacks, and Cadbury chocolates -- familiar brands around the world.

      The company says it exists to “create delicious moments of joy for our consumers, employees and communities around the world.” Actually, its record on workers' rights is somewhat less than stellar.

       According to the IUF -- the global union federation representing food workers -- union leaders in Egypt and Tunisia have been unjustly fired in the performance of their duties and a worker was fired after losing his thumb in an accident in the factory in Alexandria. The IUF has asked Mondelez CEO Irene Rosenfeld for a meeting to discuss this.

But she's refusing to even talk about the issues.

       I realize that it's still a holiday weekend for many of you, but please take a moment to join me in sending a clear message to Ms. Rosenfeld demanding that she engage with the IUF, rectify the human rights abuses at her company, and reinstate all unjustly fired workers.

Click here to send off your message.

Thank you -- and have a great Easter and Passover.

Eric Lee

P.S. Want to know more about the Mondelez workers and their fight for justice?  Visit the new Screamdelez website.

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A YEAR IN GREECE.

      Most countries across the globe 2012, was a year of protest and mass demonstrations, in some cases, extremely violent confrontations with the protectors of the powers that be, have accompanied these events. In Europe, no more so than Greece. No matter how violent and brutal these confrontations become, life goes on in some form or other, people go about trying to get by, trying to get a life.

     In this slide show of a year in Greece, I think Teacher Dude has captured that fact, a year of love and hate, tranquility and anger, spectacular and ordinary.

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MOMENTS OF EXCESS.

 

Another radio chat from The CircledA, enjoy MOMENTS OF EXCESS:

         This show is presented by Chickpea of Dissident Island Radio, features portions of an interview with Brian and Keir, two members of the Leeds-based collective writing and discussion group. Free Association about the project, its process and the complexities associated with anti-capitalist protest. The interview is peppered with samples from a copyleft of their recently published book 'Moments of Excess'. Accessible and enlightening in its deconstruction of capitalism, the Free Association's book and the group's continuing engagement in contemporary radical, anti-capitalist politics and political organising is particularly relevant not only to anarchists and anti-capitalists of all flavours but to all dissenters of 'capitalism as usual' in its ability to question and inspire, in entertaining ways, thought in the process, purpose and direction behind the contemporary political protest movements in the UK and beyond.

From The CircledA:

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FIGHT TO WIN.

        Another brilliant piece of artistic, critical comment from Teacher Dude's Grill and BBQ.

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AH, POOR NICK!!

        UK Uncut has moved it targets from high street corporate tax dodgers to those, "We're all in it together" millionaire politicians. It beggers belief that the people of this country put up with being told to tighten their belts and face poverty with humility, from a bunch of pompous, arrogant over privileged parasitical milliomaires. When will we ever learn!!!

This from a BBC report:

       Hundreds of anti-cuts protesters have gathered outside Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg's home in south-west London.

       UK Uncut said disabled activists had chained their wheelchairs at both ends of the street in Putney where he lives. The group, which is staging protest "street parties" in 10 UK cities, said it was targeting Mr Clegg as he was "one of the architects of austerity". A spokesman for Mr Clegg said: "People have a right to peaceful protest."

        A Metropolitan Police spokesman said there were no reported arrests.

        UK Uncut, which has previously targeted high profile people it believes are avoiding paying tax, said it was now targeting politicians. Jean Sandler, 42, a UK Uncut supporter, said: "Nick Clegg is one of the architects of austerity; he's a millionaire and lives in a £1m home. "The cuts are a political choice of this government and the cabinet of out-of-touch millionaires, they are not necessary.

Continue READING:

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WHY ASK FOR WHAT IS YOURS?

          Any protest within the capitalist system should not be about asking for a little more, or a slight improvement in our conditions. We produce and distribute everything, it is ours by right, we should be aiming to take control of all we produce and distribute. Our struggle must be to change the entire structure of the system we live under, and to shape society so that it sees to the needs of all our people. Capitalism is no more than a man made economic system and from our personal experiences we are fully aware that it doesn't work in the interests of the ordinary people. It is a system that enslaves the individual in the service of a small cabal of parasites. Why ask for cheaper bread when you make the bread?

The following is from disaccords.

Manado, Indonesia: translation of anti-authoritarian flyer from fuel price demonstrations

Anti-Authoritarian Flyer

       For us, protesting the increase in fuel prices is merely one partial action that is not essential. For us, being trapped in the logic of the economy and political issues is a shallow analysis of the commodification of life under capitalism and the State. Whether the price of fuel rises or not, it won’t change the fact that each of us remain consumers whose only role is to buy. Each of us remain low-cost workers whose role is to produce the commodities that we will buy. Each of us remain zombies who don’t have anything other than the obligation to continue being ruled, oppressed, tortured, consumed and to accumulate all the things we don’t need.

The deprivation of lives, their dreams and loves, is too simple if merely contained in economic issues such as rising fuel prices. We are too angry to understand that it is far more important for us to define and reclaim our lives, than simply following the glamour party of false opposition: to protest or support raising the price of fuel.

Demand more! This is an attempt for the possible to break out of impossibility, and the hypocrisy and shallowness of life at present.

Continue READING:

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WORKFARE = SLAVE LABOUR.

         Our friends in the corporate world simply love the ConDem's slave labour scheme that goes by the name of "Workfare", however some of them have been dropping out of the chance of some free labour, not because of any moral judgement, but because of the bad publicity from pickets and protests. Bad publicity might damage their stand in the "market place". So they'll make phony excuses, curse under their breath and walk away. All the more reason why we have to keep up the pressure on those still determined to milk the slave labour scheme. Holland & Barrett is one such corporate greed merchant.

          Members of Clydeside Industrial Workers of the World, the Anarchist Federation and Solidarity Federation picketed the Queen Street branch of Holland & Barrett at lunchtime on Saturday 31st March. We managed to turn some people away at the entrance. We had placards proclaiming 'The H&B Workfare Deal, Employ Three, Get One Free' in the style of Holland and Barrett advertising as Holland and Barrett plan to have a quarter of their workers as unpaid labour. Another placard said, 'Say No To Workfare At Holland and Barrett'. We gave out 500 leaflets detailing Holland & Barrett use of unpaid labour. A number of people stopped to ask what the picket was about. A member of the Holland & Barrett staff was one of these people on her way in to start her shift. She said that one girl had been on work experience at the store, but that she had got a permanent job. We pointed out generally Holland and Barrett have not given permanent contracts to 80% of people on work experience, their plans to introduce a 1000 more work experience people in the next year and how that could affect the hours of the permanent staff. The manager tried to tell us to move away from the entrance, but we just ignored her. In a final pathetic attempt to show us who was boss she bluffed that the police were on their way, even though there was nothing remotely illegal about what we were doing.

      There were over 20 actions against workfare over the weekend around Britain that will be part of an ongoing campaign. These actions were part of a national day of action called by the Solidarity Federation. The actions tied in with the international days of action against austerity called by the International Workers Association that included the general strike in Spain on March 29th, and the M31 European Day of Action Against Capitalism.

 

 

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GREECE, ITALY, SPAIN, IT IS ALL ONE FIGHT.

      

     As the austerity cuts bite deeper and they meet ever greater resistance, so the state will come down heavier on those who resist. As I keep spouting, this is everybody's fight. We need solidarity across trades, occupations and borders. What is happening in Greece is happening across the continent, it is all a matter of degree and timing. This from LabourStart.

       More than a dozen Greek trade unionists face prison on Tuesday.   If you're a trade unionist fighting to ensure that workers don't pay the price for the global financial crisis they didn't create, 2012 looks like it will be a challenging year.

      On Thursday 24 November 2011, the Greek police arrested Nikos Photopoulos, President of the power workers' union GENOP/DEI, along with more than a dozen of his fellow trade unionists. They will appear in court on Tuesday 10 January 2012 to face charges that could see them jailed for up to five years.

     They were protesting against part of the Greek austerity measures - the cutting off of power to people unable to pay a new property tax, levied regardless of income or wealth and added to all electricity bills. The new tax is just the most recent 'austerity' action by the Greek government. The abolition of the national minimum wage and the lowering of employer-paid taxes are next.

     Please take a moment to send a message to the Greek Prime Minister in support of the campaign Greek trade union confederation GSEE, which is calling for the charges to be dropped.

Just go HERE to send your message.

    And please don't forget to pass this message along to your contacts, and to use your Twitter, Google+ and Facebook accounts to help us get the word out.

Thanks.

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SPAIN: ANARCHISTS AND MAY 15 MOVEMENT, REFLECTIONS.

HOW DEMOCRACY WORKS IN SPAIN. 

   

     The following is a short extract from a very interesting article posted on that excellent site LibCom It is well worth reading the full article.

        A reflection article written by anarchists in Madrid on the occupation at Puerta del Sol, leading up to the neighbourhood assemblies which took place on May 28.

        This text was written in Madrid, so many of the descriptions and reflections may not match the reality of other locations, especially given the heterogeneity of the 15-M Movement. Even so, we think that it could be useful as a point of departure for reflection for all the comrades involved in the assemblies, regardless of the site. The text was written and corrected hastily so that it would be ready before the convocation of village and neighbourhood assemblies on May 28. Keep this in mind while reading it and excuse any mistakes that it may have.

-Some Anarchists from Madrid.

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   "EXTREMISTS" AND UNIVERSITIES. 

       Recently the Cameron/Clegg millionaire cabal have been shouting there mouths off about universities not doing enough to crack down on extremists. To most people in this country, this is interpreted as meaning violent Muslim extremists, but however that is not how it will unfold. It will encompass all “extremists” as defined by that narrow band of pro-establishment public school thugs. If you advocate radical change to society away from the profit motive and towards a sustainable, needs based society, you no doubt will come under the heading of “extremist”. We should be very vigilant when we hear those in power talking about clamping down on “extremists”. Who draws the line between acceptable view and “extremist”, how narrow should acceptable be defined?

ACCEPTABLE AND UNACCEPTABLE EXTREMISTS???

 

       The other point that is very important, is that if universities are suppose to be at the cutting edge of research in all fields, how do you do that if you exclude those views that don't fit the mainstream acceptable views of the establishment. In forbidding “extremist” views, you neuter any debate and confine it sterile ground and the future is barren. Of course for a number of years universities have been moving away from that position of, the centres of cutting edge debate and research and moving towards being factories that turn out units needed for “the economy” (big business).

       If your accepted ideas can't hold up in open debate, and to defend them you ban all those who disagree with those ideas, then I believe you are an “extremist”. Then we already know that the Cameron/Clegg millionaire cabal and their cohorts are indeed, right wing “extremists”.

 

 

 

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SAVE YOUR LIBRARIES.

        The cuts being bulldozed throughout the country by the Cameron/Clegg public school thugs will, as we all know, devastate the social fabric of our society. One of the services that will be decimated will be the libraries. Up and down the country 400 libraries are earmarked for closure. Of course who will this hit the hardest, why those who don't have fat bank books. Resistance is growing against what these cuts are doing to our communities, and tomorrow, Saturday 5th February, there is a national day of protest across the country. In Edinburgh, Scottish writers and illustrators will lead an organised protest in the city to hand in a petition to the Scottish Parliament at 11am.

      

 The petition reads;

"To: The First Minister and all Members of the Scottish parliament

        We would like to protest at the widespread cuts to the library service taking place throughout Scotland.

In addition to the promotion of knowledge, literacy, and information retrieval skills, a professionally delivered library service embeds the joy of reading in our young people, building self awareness, articulate self expression, confidence, validating their life and culture, and leads to social and emotional literacy.

       In a society experiencing a widening gap in household incomes, our libraries, in the great tradition on which they were first inaugurated and enshrined in the law of the land, provide access for all.

       The cuts to book budgets, library opening hours, mobile services, branches, and the drastic and unnecessary deletion of professional posts strike at those most in need of a library service and those least able to protest against the cuts in that service - the less affluent, the elderly, the frail, people who are challenged mentally and physically and their carers, those who look after babies and toddlers and, crucially, our children - who are our future."

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LIVE ON £10 A WEEK???

       How would you live on a £10 food voucher a week and no cash? Add to that the fact that you don't have a place to stay, and you are not allowed to work, then think, how do you survive. Of course you would say that it doesn't happen in this civilised country, it must be some other poorer country in the third world. Of course you are wrong, it is here, and it is now, in one of the richest countries in the world, the UK, and don't let the crap they pump out about the need for “austerity cuts” fool you into thinking that we are not a rich, very rich country. This is the situation of asylum seekers who are going through the appeals process. They receive no state benefits of any kind and are not allowed to work to support themselves. So they sleep rough, here, there and anywhere they can find, the lucky ones get bedding down on a friend's couch or floor for a night or two.

        Mr Joseph Nibizi, Manager of the Red Cross destitution clinic where the weekly food vouchers are given out, said that he has seen the number of destitute asylum seekers queueing up for emergency help grow from 860 in January to 1,400 in July. This type of treatment of a human being is a slow form of state execution, no body can survive such conditions, especially in the recent winters we have had. Mr Nibizi, stated that, “These are human beings. They should be given their basic needs.” Of course we all know that in a civilised society they would be allowed to work and contribute and their needs would be seen to, that's what you call being civilised. Any society that treats a human being in such a fasion is away off the civilisation radar, and if we stand by and allow this without a protest and a demand for justice and humanity for all, then we also are away off the civilisation radar.

     You can read the story of one such asylum seeker at Guardian UK.

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THUR.18 NOV. - LOBBY SCOTTISH PARLIAMENT.

Thur 18 Nov - Lobby Scottish Parliament against UKBA -
No UKBA Clearances
Assemble 11am, Scottish Parliament, Edinburgh.

       UKBA's unilateral withdrawal from the Asylum Contract negotiations will be raised at First Minister's Questions on Thursday by Anne McLaughlin MSP. Demonstration outside the Parliament and go inside to a meeting with MSPs.
         Some people will be able to go in to witness the Parliament in action.  If you wish to be one of them, please let Glasgow Campaign to Welcome Refugees know as names have to be arranged in advance. Go into Parliament 11.30am, First Minister's Questions 12 noon.
        Please come along to show your support, even if you can only spare a short time from work.

Bus from Glasgow.
      Join the bus leaving the City Chambers, George Sq at 9.00am, leaving Edinburgh at 2.00pm.  Seats free.  Contributions welcome.
        For more information contact Glasgow Campaign to Welcome Refugees:
Margaret–07870286632
Jock – 07896877315
email mailto:glascamref@gmail.com

     Watch the Camcorder Guerillas video of Monday's protest against the removal of asylum seekers from Glasgow City Council housing:   http://vimeo.com/16888229

Descend on Brand Street Re-open the Negotiations

No Evictions Here.

Saturday 20 November - Outside UKBA, Brand Street, Govan, Glasgow (nearest underground is Cessnock)    10.30 for 11.00am.

        Solidarity Rally with our Refugee Friends and Neighbours and Ceremonial Burning of the Letters.
Glasgow’s traumatised and impoverished refugees have been thrown into a state of alarm by the UKBA’s unilateral withdrawal from the Asylum Contract negotiations and their subsequent callous and contemptuous letter threatening removal at 3 days’ notice to private housing either with YMCA or the notorious Angel Group somewhere in Scotland.  Stand shoulder to shoulder with our fellow refugee citizens in their fight to remain in their homes and communities.  Join the rally at Brand St on Saturday morning.  Bring your letters from UKBA for ceremonial burning outside the loathsome UKBA offices.

Called by Glasgow Campaign to Welcome Refugees, the Right to Work Campaign, Positive Action in Housing and Unity.

For all other enquiries about SACC, visit http://www.sacc.org.uk/ /contact or phone 07936432519

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