Spaces.

        The following article doesn't just apply to Exarcheia in Athens, what they are facing is happening to every city across the globe. The drive to turn public spaces into profitable entities, not for us all, but for the already very rich and powerful. These decisions are made by bureaucrats and politicians who see only economic growth for profit, although these decisions impact on our quality of life the decisions are made over our heads. It will take  a well organised mass movement to stop this trend of profit before the quality of life of those impacted by these bureaucratic decisions. If we want quality of life over profit, then we will have to take to the streets and force the change, it will not come from the politicians and the bureaucrats who are blinded by the profit motive.

The following from Freedom News.

Exarcheia, the subway station, and public space

 

 

Analysis, Dec 2nd
                First of all it is important to underline that public transport (tram, subway, bus) is immensely important as it allows for ecological and inclusive movement throughout the city. With the usage of all the different types of public transport a vast and comfortable transportation network can be developed to challenge the domination of the private car on our streets – domination that makes urban life worse by air and noise pollution, frequent accidents, and the exclusion of the most marginalised economically.
              For quite some time now, in the historic Exarcheia neighbourhood of Athens, home to countless anti-authoritarian and anarchist collectives, squats, and social centres, there has been a struggle directed against the construction of a metro station on the district’s central square. How does an area with such a libertarian history oppose the expansion of public transport, one might ask; but the truth is that the problem is not the subway as such, but the way the decision to build was made and what will came after it.
             Firstly, many of the inhabitants of the neighbourhood, in coordination with architects and urban planners, have proposed another place of the neighbourhood (Archaeological Museum) as a place more suitable and rational for a subway station. The people of Exarcheia understand the ecological and inclusive dimensions of public transport; what they disagree with is the political way through which this, and other, decisions are being made – decisions, made by a handful of politicians and businessmen, that will shape our common ground for generations to come, without the participation of all of us who inhabit it.
            Secondly, the inhabitants are in opposition to the urban vision promoted by those in power: with most striking example being the Kotzias square right in front of the Mayor’s building in Athens. We speak of a place that does not feel nor look like square any more. There are no trees or benches, so one can pass through it on their way to somewhere, but not spend time in it, as there is no protection from summer’s blazing sun or anywhere to sit. This is in line with the project of “touristisation” that the Greek authorities have been implementing for years all around Athens. In this project the pubic spaces are an obstacle to economic growth: tourist shops, restaurants, cafeterias all generate economic revenues from tourists, while squares, with their benches and trees, serve the communal (often non-economic) needs of the inhabitants. This is what the inhabitants of Exarcheia do not want to happen to their square – but what the restructuring of it, due to the subway station, will most probably bring. The vision that local authorities envision will not solve any of the problems of the area, it will simply lay the foundations of yet another urban desert, where there is barely any vegetation and no place where one can sit for free.
             There is also a third dimension of this project. The Greek state, under different governments, has continuously been in opposition to the autonomous movement in all its expressions. As is well known, Exarcheia is both a point of reference and a symbol of this movement. In this line of thought the decision, taken without any sort of public deliberation and despite strong opposition, to place a metro station in an irrational place, is also seen by the authorities as an excuse to militarise the district with heavy police presence and suffocate any effort of self-organization.
              The case of the construction of a subway station at Exarcheia square comes to show that under the conditions of oligarchy and capitalism even sustainable means of transportation can be used to destroy public spaces and gentrify neighbourhoods, just as renewable energy sources are used to destroy mountainous areas in order to generate profits for investors far away. What is crucial to understand is that this is all a question of politics: of who gets to shape our city – a handful of bureaucrats and capitalist investors, or the vast majority of a district’s inhabitants. It is this political question that frames the content and the outlook of urban space.

Yavor Tarinski

Image: Pithari Stories

 

Visit ann arky's home at https://spiritofrevolt.info   

Our Streets.

        The following article is from The Hague, but if you live in, or visit a city, then this the pattern you will be experiencing or about to experience. The march of capital to turn our cities into nothing more than profit producing entities. Cities are rapidly becoming places where only those with large disposable incomes can congregate. They are no longer places where ordinary people live, meet, hang out and socialise. In these new sanitised city centres, if you enter and are not in that group of "well-to-do", you will treated as suspicious, and probably deemed to be "up to no good". The controllers of the new cities don't want you unless you can spend "big time", or you can work as the minions that serve as attendants to the money spenders. You will have the opportunity to have a crap job with crap wages, and zero hours contracts. Is this the new cities we want? Our cities must be our streets, places we built and places where we wish to live, not simply money making machines for the corporate beast and the financial Mafia.

         The following from Enough is Enough:

 

       The Hague. Netherlands. On Friday and Saturday 31st of July and 1st of August, HOUSING ACTION DAYS will take place in The Hague. The theme for Friday is social housing and precarious modes of housing, and the theme for Saturday is the selling out of the city and gentrification. During these two days we will make a collective fist against precarity and the housing shortage.

Originally published by Woonactiedagen.

      In the past couple of years the city has become the stage of a social struggle. Capital is increasingly controlling housing and public spaces. The city is transformed into a revenue model, a new apparatus for a select group to accumulate wealth. This has drastic consequences for many of us. De waiting lists for social housing are ever lengthening, rents are already way too expensive and the political unwillingness to take up these issues is stifling. In the inner city, one loft gets restored after another and only expensive private sector housing is built. Hip coffeehouses and their terraces are spreading like an oil spill.

     We don’t want a city merely for consumption but a city in which we can live!

Paired with the gentrification, the state’s net to control public spaces tightens. Concurrently to being forced to pay increasingly high rent for increasingly small spaces, we are being dispossessed of the streets: hanging out in the street is perceived as suspicious and will get you castigated for gathering. The only places where you can still gather in public are parks or sports field – but never without the supervision of cameras. Our living spaces are shrinking, we will no longer put up with this shit anymore!

For this reason, let us meet on 31st of July and 1st of August, to take action against the selling out of our cities and our lives. We invite everyone to come to The Hague, the belly of the beast, to struggle for the right to live and to the city!

Mail: woonopstanddenhaag [at] riseup.net

Twitter: @woonopstand070

More information: woonactiedagen.wordpress.com

You will find posters and leaflets here: https://woonactiedagen.wordpress.com/info/promomateriaal/

 

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

Plunder And Pillage Of Our Green Spaces.

        Do we slumber as the corporate juggernaut continues its relentless process of gobbling up all public spaces and local communities and transforming them into profitable entities? Local communities are "gentrified", which translates as turning the area into a money spinning project for those with surplus cash and pushing the local community out to the periphery of society. Our green spaces, parks etc. are seen not as places of leisure and pleasure for old and young, but as possible money earners. More and more corporate enterprises occupy our parks and public spaces, turning them into cash machines for the corporate juggernaut. We are told, "it will help the economy", again a euphemism for, filling the coffers of the rich and wealthy. 

      We have to be alive to this plundering of our communities and public spaces or we will end up living in a world of total private property, suitable only for the wealthy, devoid of any public spaces where our kids can run freely and safely, and our local communities are ushered into ghettos on the periphery of our cities.

 My local Springburn Public Park.

 

       Thankfully some people are alive to this pillage and plunder and are organising to do something about this crime, why not join them?

     Two events concerning the commercialisation of green space and What we can do about it.

Discussion.

       Each summer the volume of paid events occupying our parks is expanding.
The disruption to ordinary park users who see the park as an escape from the chaos and consumerism of daily life. These park users see these disruptions to their enjoyment of the park as disturbing.
        We will be discussing these and other park and green space issues that are also enjoyable and could help to stop the use of our parks for commercial profiteering. Speakers to be confirmed.
Workshop.
      The workshop will be around. How to find out things about parks, greens pace, commons and how to use the “Community Empowerment Act”. The general public need to be heard in this conversation in protecting community assets. We will be looking at the various, forums, assemblies and mechanisms, that could help to enable groups as well as individuals to take part in this important dialogue.

PUBLIC DISCUSSION
Thursday 13 December 7:00
Kinning Park Complex. (For food 6:00)

WORKSHOP
Sunday 16 December 3:00 (Soft Drinks)
Kinning Park Complex.
https://inthecommongood.org/2018/11/15/the-life-of-a-park-part-1/

       Of course this is not a Glasgow or UK phenomenon, it is a world wide strategy of the financial Mafia and the corporate juggernaut in conjunction with the various states.  This from Athens.

       Article from Act For Freedom Now:

          On the 10th of December, the final offers for the construction of the METRO line 4 will be submitted. One of the stops of the metro is scheduled to be built on Exarchia square.

        The plateia is the heart of a neighborhood which is a historic and living site of the anti-state movement. This free space has been fought for for decades and maintained through constant struggle. This social movement in Exarchia, as everywhere, has been under constant repression by police and by the forced assimilation into state and capital’s plans for gentrification and pacification.

        It is obvious what this construction will bring with it: surveillance, policing, constant state scrutiny and of course greater commercialization and gentrification of the entire neighborhood. The total occupation of the square by a construction site for many years means from day one the abolition of a public meeting space. The devouring of this public space, will finally result in its replacement with a transit point, to serve the unhindered flow of consumption and production. It is also clear that this is a strategic plan to extinguish all the struggling projects of social self organization from the neighborhood, but also to push out the marginalized who find refuge here. Besides, the Athens METRO is already a site of class exclusion and control, having finally implemented the electronic ticket and barrier system.

        The expansion of the metro comes together with announcements of fancy plans of urban development for the whole of Athens. The story is the same everywhere: violent displacement of the poor and of the struggling subjects that give free public space its true meaning, to make way for commercial exploitation. A prime example is their designs for Prosfygika Alexandras.

     Where the oppressed build communities against state domination, refusing to be subsumed in its institutions, their homes and streets are treated as abandoned sites, as deserts. Even more so, where there is active resistance against state domination, they systematically target such neighborhoods as degenerated hubs of criminality. Their strategy of repression is the cultural desertification of commerce and capital. The plan to build a metro stop right on the square of such a neighborhood is exactly the spearhead of this capitalist colonization. But, life blossoms only through the struggle for freedom and self-determination.

 We call for a discussion about the resistance.

SATURDAY 8th of DECEMBER, at 18.00

EXARCHIA SQUARE

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

This Land Is Their Land, Unless We Fight.

 

      The following piece was penned by my friend and comrade Bob, I share it here as I think it extremely important that the public at large wake up to the fact that we, the ordinary people, are losing a very important part of our community life, our right to roam our public spaces. Unless we come together to defend these parks and commons and attempt to take back what we have had stolen from us, they will be gone, for ever, leaving future generations with an impoverished environment.

     It also gives me another opportunity to raise the matter of the sell-off of a part of OUR Loch Lomond and Trossachs National Park. Yes, another petition, the more people that get involved, the louder our voice. So please sign and circulate, then when possible, get involved.

 

Some people think this lacks fastfood outlets, amusements arcades and plastic Flamingos.

 

https://you.38degrees.org.uk/petitions/say-no-to-the-proposed-changes-to-our-national-parks

 

      Recreational time particularly in a public park is personal and shouldn’t be defined or dictated by the state or held ransom by profiteering and commercial interests.
      Fences have become topical these days from the mighty versions planned in the head of the president of the united states, to the barriers of asylum, the psychological, as well as physical barriers of class, race, gender and commerce. The first thing we should think about in coming across a wall or barrier of any description is what is its purpose? For whose benefit?
      The Radical Imagination Project tries to encourage folk to become  involved in public life, because we believe it is the only hope we have for stopping the neoliberal project that has infiltrated every aspect of our private and public life. To a point which exposes just how lax our government has been that we now find ourselves subservient to possibly the worst and most dangerous western government administration in history.
     The above may seem to many a bit OTT with what we want to discuss here. But on the contrary, we need to use local threats on our door steps as lessons of understanding the ways of how the world works and the bigger challenges we will inevitably face now and in the future. Particularly for the benefit of our young and also to reinvigorate our jaded spirits for the rest. If we fail to do this we are dooming our children to the consequences of one generational thinking.
     We owe the present generation an opportunity to break with the tyranny and propaganda of an abusive system that processes them through an education ideology in order that they become good servants to that system. And now is attempting to destroy their innovative spirit through debt and even their basic right to the wider commons through commercialisation, particularly of green space. One of the last frontiers of the neoliberal project.
      Our city parkland in our dear green place is also the last bastion of a fading communal spirit that is in need of revitalisation. A parklands benefits are based on the value to the whole community not on the cost to the administration as an excuse to privatise them. We have the right to roam and enjoy the quiet with our kids, our friends, our dogs, or our imagination.
     When the parks are fully commercialised and turned over to the profiteers by our council, we will never get them back out. Because commerce is about expansion not conservation. There can be no “finding a balance” with aggressive commercial enterprises, who if need be, will criminalise, vilify and litigate against communities to protect “their” parkland developments and the profits gained from them.
      Think about it. What has been developing over the last few years in our parks is pretty much intolerable and the parasites (events managers) are only getting started. Bellahouston, Glasgow Green, Kelvingrove, Queens Park and more are now being described by administrators and asset managers as commercial entertainment venues. Ticketed for profits, not for normal use for people. In protecting our parks for future generations we need to make sacrifices. We need to give up some ruckus pleasures for the common good. Even the young will need to start thinking about where their own children will play and how much it will cost in social impact and financial disadvantages if we continue to give in to promoters of entertainment, alcohol and junk food. Remember the young are not young forever and we can not leave this for our children to sort out.
       Example: Since 2011 or so we have had a school built in Kelvingrove park (which is we need to remember is a commercial enterprise) a bandstand that has been commandeered from social use to commercial use, two cafes and recently permission given to events agents by council administrators to invade, colonise and fence great swathes of our parkland throughout the summer. Mostly to sell alcohol and expensive events tickets.
      Commercial creep doesn’t take long to establish itself. For instance in the introduction to Hillhead primary, on the school website, the head teacher finds it “very fortunate to be located next to Kelvingrove Park”. But the school is not located next to Kelvingrove park. The school is “in” Kelvingrove park. Our commons and common good fund assets are continuously eroded by these miss-interpretations of geography and public land use. Maybe a future head teacher, if things go on the way they are, will be explaining to the future parents, i.e. those attending the school at present why there is little free un-commercial space in the park for there kids to play.
      Parks administration are not facilitating the use of these services, (parks) but dictating how they should be used. What they, wish to see in them. That is not their job, that is our job. Their job is to do what the “public” have asked them to do, not what business suggests. We employ public servants for their skills in first accounting to the public will and using their imagination in promoting ideas that are conducive to and may be of some social and cultural sustainable value.
     What is happening in Glasgow’s parks is a microcosm of what is happening all over Scotland. Like the selling off of the shores of Loch Lomond to private investors. (Flamingo Land) According to the academic and land reformer, Jim Hunter, speaking about land sales in Scotland. “this equates to the most concentrated pattern of land ownership in the developed world". What is the government doing about it? Nothing. As is Glasgow City Council in the privatisation of our commons and commercialisation of our parks.
      But as has been said many times from these quarters. It is not the council or parliament or Westminster that is the problem in the inverted colonisation of public space. That’s just what most of these administrators do, make it easier for business to take over, because it makes it easier for them to make us believe that they are doing their job. It is not because we do not have the knowledge of the illegality of the sale of land and the commons, nor the experts who can testify to this, nor enough people complaining. We do. The problem is, for many reasons, is in the frustration of the public to do anything about it. We are still complaining. When we need to be organising. We are still pontificating. When we need to be educating.
     Their is a hard core of dedicated people in the background who have given up their time and energy and still do to to protecting our commons from investors, to keep our parks user friendly, open and autonomous, for the use of all. We can share in that knowledge and these connections to continue to build a sustainable vision for our parks.
        Join us soon for a Parks and the Common Good exposition/workshop. Date, late August to be confirmed.
       If you are interested, have something to say/share, want to help organise in any way, or just need some information. Email Bob at:
info@inthecommongood.org

Useful links Parks/Commons
citystrolls.com Search parks
commongoodwatch.wordpress.com
kelvingrovepark.com
radicalimagination.co.uk/commonweal.html

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

 

Another Corporate Grab For Our Public Spaces.

           I'm not a lover of petitioning our lords and masters, asking them to "please do this or that", or "please don't do this or that". However, to emphasise the point I keep making, that the aim of this corrupt system we are burdened under, is to end all public spaces and public services, I sometimes make exceptions. Bit by bit they slice and gobble up pieces of public spaces and syphon of part of our social services. moving ever towards that day when everything is "private" owned by the greed driven corporations. You pay what they ask, or you are excluded.

Loch Lomond.

 

       Here in Glasgow we have seen slices of public spaces disappear into the grasp of the money Mafia. The latest greedy grab is for a slice of Loch Lomond, part of the The Loch Lomond and Trossachs National Park, to develop a money making "leisure park" named Flamingo Land. As long as you come with your credit card or wallet, you will be able to enjoy parts of the National Park that you once could enjoy for free. The Loch Lomond area is a place to relax, explore the hills and/or cycle its roads, Loch Lomond is a world renowned beauty spot, and a place of wonderful scenery and walks that you can enjoy for free. This greed driven "Flamingo Land" fantasy, gives no thought to what the Loch Lomond and Trossachs National Park is, their idea is to snatch a slice of the National Park and milk the hundreds of thousands of people who come to enjoy, in many forms, its spectacular beauty. Do you wish to see, piece by piece of our national parks become money making enterprises for the corporate greed machine, excluding you, unless you pay their price? Let's make sure the "flamingos" take flight and leave Loch Lomond.

 Luss, on Loch Lomond shore.

       With anger and disgust, I've just signed the following petition "Scottish Government: To The  Scottish Government - Stop The Sale of Loch Lomond" and hope you will join the growing group of angry concerned folks, and turn this into an almighty roar of real anger. However, until we dismantle the capitalist economic system we live under, we will have to continually fight these money grabbing exploits of the corporate greed brigade as they continue their onslaught to disposes the people of all public spaces and public services.

      The goal of the petition is to reach 25,000 signatures and we need more support. You can read more and sign the petition here:

https://chn.ge/2KUfJB8

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

A Battle We Can Win, With Solidarity.

       A reminder call for solidarity from North Kelvin Meadow, a chance to stand up and make our desires a reality. We want a green and health city, we want our kids to have a place for play and have healthy adventures. It might not be your area, but it is your city and your area could be next for the tarmac profit making treatment. It is your city, what do you want, tarmac or trees?

From Bob at citystrolls:

       Big day for the Meadows project. Winning this would send a clear message to gentrifiers as well as struggling growing spaces all over the city. That, land has a social value that's returns are of much more value to the human spirit and well being of the community than the barren profits of estate agents and banks. If this project disappears into red brick, not only will we lose a colourful part of our culture, it will also make it much more difficult for the next wee group who comes along and attempts to plant the seed in the wee bit of green stuff at the end of their street. Opportunity for solidarity here folks. We need to start winning these battles, because we are right and the council are usually wrong in these matters, which has been proven time after time after time. B.

 *North Kelvin Meadow and The Children's Wood*
Save the Meadow and Wood
*Where? *North Kelvin Meadow and The Children's Wood.
*When?* 9:15 am
*After?* George Square
*When? *11 am
Glasgow City Council Planning committee will visit the meadow and wood on the 26th of January, at 9:15am, they will then make a decision on both The Children's Wood application to keep the land 'wild and for the community' and the New City Vision application to' build 90 residences on the land ' It is important that as many people are on the land as possible for this visit.
Please meet on NKM and CW at 9:15am for the committee visit. Bring your banners with you and as many people as possible. Please state which school, group or organisation you are from so that the committee can get a feel for the level of support and use of the land.
After the site visit, we will then travel to the city chamber for 11am by bus - or make your own way as before - to be outside the City Chambers for when the committee make a decision on both applications. Please join us for as much of this day as possible. If you can only come to part of it, please try to make the meadow and wood for 9:15am
This will be our only chance to show the planning committee the land and how valued and loved the space is to this community and that we have a plan for it's future.
*Date:* 26th January 2016
*Time*: 9:15am North Kelvin Meadow
*11am: George Square
Spread the word
Join ourFacebook page
<http://thechildrenswood.us12.list-manage1.com/track/click?u=b189cab12c6f859eea2dee724&id=abb029d35e&e=86bda164ab>
and spread the word about next Tuesday

 Halloween at the North Kelvin Meadow.

Location: Kelbourne Street/Sanda Street/Clouston Street, Glasgow, G20

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

Glorification Of War, Or Peace And Beauty?

          I feel very strongly about what I can only call the desecration of the beautiful public space, Pollok Estate, by the digging of WWI trenches.  So I'm asking friends and followers of this blog to sign the petition and spread it around as many of their friends and followers on Facebook, twitter and any other means possible. Public spaces such as Pollok Estate are places of beauty, owned by the people for the pleasure of the people, and an escape from the city within easy reach of the city. They are not there for the glorification of war, nor to swell the egos of academics and councillors with grandiose ideas.

Please sign the petition.

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

Stop Them Digging Up Pollok Estate

       Once again our public spaces are under attack. Once again Pollok Estate is being targeted. There was the motorway, then "Go Ape" theme park, now it is to be dug up with replicas of WWI trenches. Why a beautiful public space such as Pollok Estate should even be suggested for this lottery funded love affair with war is incomprehensible. Are those involve blind, stupid or just bribed? Look around, if you want such a hideous theme as war trenches stick them in somebody's private land, not our beautiful country space in our city. This has to be stopped as we will see another public space place of beauty an tranquillity disappear to the glorification of war.

This is not the site for war trenches.

     Pollok Estate is not a commercial theme park, it is not a site for developing crazy war linked projects, it is a wonderful country space in the city owned by the people of Glasgow. This has to be stopped before the diggers move in and destroy another slice of our commons. We stopped GO Ape, surely we can stop this destructive, brainchild of the city council and academia.  

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

Tomorrow's World, fashioned By TTIP.

       Are we taking TTIP serious enough? Where is the noise? This is no ordinary piece of crap legislation, this is cementing the foundations of corporatism, this trashes completely any illusion of democracy that any naive individual my have been clinging to, this gives corporations power over elected governments. It will mean that those sitting in boardrooms of powerful profit driven corporations will determine the shape our society will take. Anything that stands in the way of their ability to rape and plunder the planet to maximise their profits and power, will be swept away. Anything in the public sector that could be turned to a profit, will be privatised. The full spectrum, from health, education, to public spaces and what we eat, all will be decided on the basis of profit. It paints a picture of a "Tomorrow's World" that will be unbearable and unsustainable.

 Tomorrow’s World!

See the fat cat’s grinning smile

as Corporate Capitalism runs amok,

Chasing profit as it goes

firing millions of ordinary folk.

Raping and polluting land after land,

starting bloody wars.

Toxic waste, sweat shop wages

and oil covered sea shores.

Where have all the flowers gone

beneath this ozone free sky?

To join the birds, to join the fox

on yonder plutonium field to die.

Mercury fish, strontium lamb

trees that never show a leaf,

radio active beaches, toxic streams

good lean BSE-antibiotic beef.

In a world of epidemic, plague and famine

it’s bottled water and chemical food.

Of course, it’s all tested on rats and mice

so you know its got to be good.

Beneath a sky that’s always black,

hurricane winds and endless drought,

its oxygen masks for the toxic air,

corporate profit’s what its all about.

This is an appeal from 38 Degrees:

Thanks for signing the petition to your local MP candidates.

      The more of us who sign, the more likely we can push all these candidates to realise that they must stand up to TTIP. Can you share the petition with your friends and family too? Just click the links below to share:
Facebook: https://secure.38degrees.org.uk/stop-ttip-scotland-facebook
Twitter: https://secure.38degrees.org.uk/stop-ttip-scotland-twitter
Or you can forward using the email text below.
      38 Degrees members are coming together in town centres across Scotland on Saturday the 28th March to collect signatures on big local petitions, calling on our MP candidates to stop TTIP. Will you join in and set up an street event in your local area? Just click the link below to get started:
http://election.38degrees.org.uk/?tinfo_id=4

Thanks for being involved,
Jen, Bex, Maddy & the 38 Degrees team

Hi,
Have a look at this:
https://secure.38degrees.org.uk/ttip-scotland-petition

    The text of the TTIP trade deal has been leaked, and it’s confirmed one of our biggest fears: our NHS in Scotland is at risk.
     And it’s not just the NHS. All our public services could be in the firing line from this dodgy trade deal - as well as food safety and environmental protections. We can stop TTIP, but we need to persuade our politicians to defend public services against big business.
    It’s now less than 60 days to the election. Hopeful new candidates are desperate to win votes - the perfect opportunity to push TTIP to the top of their agenda. To make that happen, every candidate from every party needs to know:  TTIP is a huge threat, and they must oppose it.
    With huge public petitions in every constituency, they won’t be able to ignore the issue. It just takes a couple of minutes. Will you sign the petition for your local area?
https://secure.38degrees.org.uk/ttip-scotland-petition

Thanks,

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

Glasgow Council Plunders Public Spaces.

From Save The Steps campaign:

Another public space to become a private shopping mall.

To all our amazing supporters,

      You will have probably heard, through social media and local news coverage, that Glasgow City Council voted in favour of demolishing the steps at Glasgow Royal Concert Hall, 11 votes - 4 votes.
      This also means that the Donald Dewar statue will be moved further down Buchanan Street, just outside the Sainsburys on Cathedral Street / Bath Street.
Our team are inevitably gutted with the decision, with a demonstration of more than 100 people, over 2,000 individual objection letters and emails, 15,000 signatures (and rising) showing how unpopular their plans are for this valued public space.
      The appalling attitude of the council is clear in this radio interview, where councillor Liz Cameron dismisses our huge petition as unimportant compared to the Council's long-term plans. You can also hear our fabulous campaigner Aileen McKay expressing the outrage we all feel at the decision the council have taken. Thanks to Clyde 1 for giving us the air-time to get our point across - the BBC didn't even bother to contact us!
      We'd like to thank you for your ongoing support in signing the petition, the letters you sent to your local councillors and those who attended the demonstration on the 15th February. We could not have raised the awareness that we did or got as much media coverage.
      However, this is NOT the end of our campaign as we wish to continue to raise awareness of the Council's plans and the privatisation of public spaces within Glasgow city centre.
      Some folks, out-with of our team, have organised an “Occupy The Buchanan Street Steps” event, this Saturday 28th February at 12pm.
Details can be found on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/events/896701807057841
      Following on from the protest on the 15th February, it'd be good if supporters could turn up with “Hands off our public space” styled banners, placards, flags etc. Be creative!
      Demolition is not due for some time yet, so we still have an opportunity to show our opposition to the plans.
     Please continue to sign and share the online petition where you can and tell your friends and family.

Thank you again and we look forward to seeing you on Saturday afternoon.

Save the Steps Team

https://you.38degrees.org.uk/petitions/save-the-steps

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

Glasgow Needs More Public Spaces.

       The Glasgow City Council are elected on the principle that they work for the people of Glasgow, however, they seem to get the idea that they are the overlords of the people, and keep coming up with ideas that the people don't want. The only way to stop this is for the people to tell they council what they want and what they don't want. The latest grandiose idea from the Council is to take what is a well used public space, and turn it into another private commercial area. We need more public spaces in the city, not less, the Buchanan steps at the top of Buchanan Street is a well used meeting place, chatting place, rallying place, meditating place, sitting people watching place, and whatever. It may not have been intended for any of these purposes when it was built, but it has filled the bill in all of them and more, the people have made it so. Let's keep that space public, open and accessible to all. 

This from 38 Degrees:

      The iconic steps up to the Royal Concert Hall are under threat - a private company wants to demolish them. [1] The steps are well loved, and used by people across the city, from workers on their lunch breaks to political protesters during the referendum.
      Glasgow City Council could make a decision any day now - so we need to act fast. Together, we need to pressure our local councillors. If they hear from thousands of local people who want the steps to stay, they could be forced to leave them well alone.
       Can you email your local councillors now, telling them to save the steps?
https://secure.38degrees.org.uk/steps-speak
       Already over 12,000 of us have signed the petition to save the steps. [2] Many Glaswegians are outraged about the idea to remove such a well-used and well-loved landmark. [3] A huge people-powered petition, as well as hearing directly from thousands of us, could be enough to save them.
       Together 38 Degrees members are protecting our public spaces - just last week a petition signed by over 5,000 of us pushed Glasgow Council to hold off on their plan to sell off Barrowland Park. [4] Let’s keep standing up for our community spaces.
       Can you email your local councillors now, telling them to save the steps?
https://secure.38degrees.org.uk/steps-speak

Thanks for being involved,
Jen, Amy, Elizabeth, Robin & the 38 Degrees team

      PS: Ben and Stephen, 38 Degrees members in Glasgow, are holding a rally on Saturday 6th December, 2pm at the Steps (top of Buchanan Street), with a line-up of musicians and speakers. Will you come along and show your support?
https://secure.38degrees.org.uk/glasgow-steps-event

      PPS: If there’s another issue in Glasgow you care about, you can start your own campaign here:
https://secure.38degrees.org.uk/scotland-cby

NOTES:
[1]Evening Times: Land to be snapped up for expanded Buchanan Galleries:
http://www.eveningtimes.co.uk/news/land-to-be-snapped-up-for-expanded-galleries-175657n.24989503
[2] Campaigns By You: ‘Save the Steps’ Petition:
https://you.38degrees.org.uk/petitions/save-the-steps
[3] STV Glasgow: Glasgwegians hit out over plans to scrap concert hall steps:
http://glasgow.stv.tv/articles/297738-call-to-save-iconic-glasgow-royal-concert-hall-steps/
[4] STV Glasgow: The Barrowland Park and Album Pathway will not move in 2015, say Glasgow City Council:
http://glasgow.stv.tv/articles/301160-glasgows-barrowland-park-and-album-pathway-wont-be-moved-in-2015/

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

A CORPORATE WORLD OR A PEOPLE'S WORLD.

         I never forget the our class enemies are organised globally, they know no borders, they dish out their repression on a world wide scale. They see borders as a means of controlling us, the ordinary people, in their plans and actions, borders don't exist. Our struggle will fail unless we also organise globally, unless we stop recognising borders, unless we act in solidarity world wide. The corporate beast and their minders, the various states, will always encourage us to see divisions in our class, differences between us, as groups and individuals. Most of these divisions and differences are manufactured, or illusionary, there is more that links us than divides us. 

       It is now blatantly obvious to most people, or should be, that national party politics is a charade, a game of musical chairs, where we get an opportunity to put a new suit in some symbolic building, "Downing Street", "The White House" etc. while the corporate fascists carry on as before. From this smoke and mirrors pantomime, we get a new smiling face that spouts empty phrases, they get to continue to rape and pillage the earth and repress all its people, in the quest for personal profit with power and wealth for the few.

     We have to think and act globally, we have to stop playing by the rules they hand us, we must set the agenda, the pace, the direction of our actions. Just as you would call for solidarity in a dispute with a local employer, now we have to call for solidarity with a global employer, the corporate fascist beast, that is running rampant across our world. It is a corporate world, or it is a people's world, the choice is ours.

      This from Contra Info:

      Our comrades are still imprisoned across the world. Many of our self-organized spaces are being raided or evicted, our infrastructure is under siege, and our counter-information media are censored or hindered. Whenever we express our ideas in public, uniformed robocops are lurking everywhere. Surveillance machinery follows every single move we make, while the State counts on the support of an armed fascist mob… But our existential fight is more than defence of solid spaces.

Read the full article HERE:

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