Fail 18.

 

           Again SubMedia brings you the news that the mainstream media seem not to notice. Our mainstream media tend to show how well capitalism is working, somehow or other overlooking the mass unrest and anger among the population across the planet. This episode, System Fail 18 takes a look at the elections in Brazil and protests across the world. Thanks SubMedia for shining a light on the reality of capitalism and its corrupt so called democracy.

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

We Are Many.

      Ever since the police public execution of George Floyd, the world has seen mass uprisings and protests. Everything from peaceful protests to violent confrontation with the state's enforcers, looting and the destruction of the symbols of this system of oppression. What has also been obvious that there are those on the supposed "left" who stand against all that is happening, except orderly, controlled peaceful protest. They have failed miserably to grasp the lessons of our history. In most cases peaceful protests procure little or no change to our freedoms or conditions. Only when the state feels that the protests are getting out of hand will it concede some ground and legislate to try and appease the anger of the people. If you want a better world for all, don't approach your adversary with a bunch of roses, for you will be met with batons and teargas. That's the nature of the beast, you're dealing with a system that relies on violence for its survival.

      The following from Acorn:

      Another political fault line has been opened up by the rapidly spiralling events of 2020.
        As we wrote yesterday, the Covid scare has found us sharing the anti-authoritarian analysis of people beyond the usual anarchic spheres, while many supposed comrades are bizarrely supportive of the official state narrative. However, the current street uprisings across the USA, sparked by the murder of George Floyd, have revealed a peculiar limit to some people’s opposition to the nascent global police state.
      Unlike us, they have not found hope in the sight of thousands upon thousands of people of all races reclaiming the streets of dozens of cities, overturning police cars, setting on fire the buildings used to oppress them. They apparently don’t think that it is reasonable, or helpful, to come together and physically resist the state and its hired thugs! In taking this stance, they reveal that they have understood nothing about the system which has controlled and exploited us for so long, and which is now dropping its liberal mask to reveal its true totalitarian nature. They have not grasped that its so-called “democracy” is fake, that the “reforms” it sometimes offers us are illusory, that the avenues it provides for us to try and change things are all time-wasting dead-ends. Most of all, they have failed to see that the whole of the system’s control of us is built on violence.

       As this article explains: “The capitalist state was created by violence, is maintained by violence and is always prepared to resort to all the forms of violence at its disposal to resist challenges to its power. “The ‘law’ itself, that foundation of its control over the population, is the flag of convenience under which this violence is carried out.
       “Physically attacking someone is violence, even if you happen to be dressed up in some fancy clothes provided by the state. “Physically confining someone in a locked space, with the constant use and threat of force, is also violence, even if you put on a stupid wig to announce what you are going to do to them. “Bombing someone is violence, as is shooting them, torturing them, spraying them with chemicals. “Wearing down someone’s resistance, forcing them to follow your rules, to live the way you tell them to, by means of a permanent, lifelong threat of violence if they step out of line is also, needless to say, violence”.
       We cannot hope to win our freedom by obediently playing by the rules the system has written to protect itself from us. We have to break through the barriers it has built to keep us in our place, not least the psychological ones. One of these barriers is the idea that it is “wrong” to resist state oppression, that “the law” must be respected. This deeply conditioned response even leads some to assume that breaking the law to fight the system must necessarily be some kind of cunning trap into which we must diligently refuse to fall!
      The biggest barrier of all is the notion, implanted in our minds virtually from birth, that we can never defeat the system. Resistance is futile, they tell us. There is no alternative, another world is completely impossible. There is nothing you can do about this. Stay home, shut up, submit.

        But this is a complete lie! If it was true, why would they invest so much effort into policing us, surveilling us, imprisoning us, constantly devising new laws and techniques to chain us?
       It is because the tiny ultra-rich elite, who run the system for their own selfish benefit, are very aware that they are hopelessly unnumbered. They are scared of us! They know full well that if ever we broke through the barriers of fear and disempowerment with which they surround us, if ever we overcame the divisions with which they separate us, we would be able to bring their capitalist prison-world crashing down.

We are many, they are few. We will be victorious!

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

The Murmur.

      As I have always said, nobody knows the spark that will ignite the fire. Police brutality goes on day and daily, in country after country, and there is an angry murmuring. George Floyd's public murder by the police, thanks to modern technology, circulated the world, that was the spark that ignited this fire. This was not a sudden and unexpected explosion, this is the release of decades of pent up discontent and anger, decades of having injustice heaped on you on a daily bases. George Floyd threw open a door through which our anger could run free and express itself and attack the causes of those decades of brutality and injustice. 

     Of course you'll get the so called voices of "reason" condemning the destruction and looting, but where were they when for centuries the wealth created by the many was continually being looted by the few, where were their voices when the few, through the state and corporate bodies heaped destruction on our home, the planet? In a society where the majority are continually being looted of the wealth they create, what the apologists for the state, the media, call "looting" is merely taking back some of what you created. The trillions paid to the corporate world as a "bailout", is nothing more than looting the public purse by the state to comfort the wealthy few. 

      Yes, this anger may subside, and authority take back control, if that happens, then the brutality, the plundering of public wealth, the gross inequality and injustice will return, and you will have to accept it, or ignite another fire. The state authority and its accompanying brutality will not melt away because you desire it to do so, it will require the full force of your anger to rid ourselves of that scourge. 

      This could be the birth pangs of a new world as it struggles to be born, trying to push its way from the darkness to a bright new future. The choice is ours.

The Murmer Of The Poor

Brokers, bankers, Earls, Dukes,
callous, mercenary, pirate crew
gasconading through the land
Bloated, pampered, privileged few.

Striding with selfish arrogance
plundering as you go
grasping at the fruits
the common people sow.

Take heed, you swaggering fat cats
in our world you don't belong,
that murmur you hear is the poor
rehearsing an angry song.

The day is fat approaching
when our chorus loud you'll hear,
then all your greed and treachery
will surely cost you dear.

A price you'll pay for being blind
to the hungry at your door,
oh, haste the day our angry chorus
becomes a mighty roar. 

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

Sadly We Have Still Not Joined The Dots.

       Over the years I spout something and think it is relatively obvious, and somehow I expect others also see it and change will come. Sadly if there is any change it is microscopic and unbelievably slow. Because of the many many years I have lived, to me, it seem the change is actually non-existent. The blood still flows, the mass shootings continue, the wars recur or are continuous, poverty increases, deprivation runs rampant and still the system continues to amass unimaginable wealth in the hands of the few, the few responsible for all the ills that plague this planet.

      To make my point I will repeat an article I wrote back in 1914, called "Can We Join The Dots", however I accept that so far we have failed to Join The Dots.

          We all know capitalism produces wars between countries, and has done so more or less, since the system crawled out of the slime to infest the globe. What most people don't seem to recognise, is, it also causes wars within countries, wars between the ruling elite and the ordinary people. As capitalism is global it is difficult to find a country where the people are not in open conflict with the powers that be. The Ferguson riots in America, though classed as racial, racism is an aspect of capitalism. Mexico, the recent disappearance of 43 students and teachers and the ongoing violent protests, is the capitalist state attempting to crush any resistance to its exploitation. Recently we have seen over 100 protests across Ireland against watercharges, as capitalism tries to squeeze more profit from the ordinary people. In Brussels, there have been violent clashes as more than 100,000 protesters took to the streets against that common aspect of capitalism, “austerity”. In London we have just had more than a thousand masked anti-capitalist protesters take to the city centre. Protests took place in towns and cities across the Republic, including Letterkenny in County Donegal
       It would be extremely difficult to find a country where the people are not at odds with the system, across the globe unrest, anger and disgust are the feelings of the people, all have a growing hatred of a system that ties them to poverty, while they produce an abundance of wealth, that invariably ends up in the hands of a small greed driven bunch of parasites. With so much anger and unrest, it seems strange that the system is still managing to bleed us dry, perhaps we just have to join the dots between these world wide protests and we will see the system collapse.

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

In Defence Of Autonomy.

 

       This year's demonstrations marking the anniversary of the murder by a police officer, of young 15 year old Alexis Gigoropoulos on December 6th. 2008, turned into a confrontation with the repressive police responsible for that murder, and a large group of anarchists. The battle of resistance mainly took place around Exarcheia Square.
      There are estimates that there were 800-1,000 activists involved in that struggle for autonomy around Exarcheia Square, though as far as the babbling brook of bullshit, the mainstream media were concerned, it never happened.

This report from Anarchist News:

The Exarcheia Commune Rises and Defends Itself, 
a Review of the Battle

Ons Danse le Lachymo…”
Graffiti, France, July 2016
(transl. “We Dance the Teargas”)

“ Comrade, will you watch these while I throw one?” He is tall, masked from head to toe in black, and is known to me. As he speaks he motions to a milk crate stuffed with Molotovs.
“ Sure…go ahead,” I say as I light a cigarette and settle in to guard the precious weapons stash while he tosses the thing at the Social Enemy. Ten minutes later he returns and in spite of the dark night, his black clothing, and the shadow we stand in, he glows with happiness---like the Molotov he just launched, he is alight.
Strategy
The strategy was simple, and for the anarchists new: defend the beating anarchist heart of Athens, of Greece, perhaps the world. Block, stop, and turn back any and all attempts by the Athens Police to get to Exarcheia Square. And do so in a coordinated fashion between all the various groups, teams and squats. Each entity taking responsibility for one or two streets—ensuring they are effectively blocked. This in contrast to previous years when the rioting was scattered, unfocussed and usually developed into clashes around the Polytechnic, the University complex set off several blocks from the Square. This year, the Polytechnic and its environs played no role whatsoever, but Exarcheia Square sure as hell did. Finally, in crystalline form, the strategy was to take and keep liberated territory, to free a community—if only for a few hours.

And further on:

Order of Battle
Anarchists: 800-1,000. Organized as teams of between 5 and 10 fighters. Those from Exarcheia were assigned to various barricades and maintained themselves within their area. Those from outside Exarcheia roamed, the sound of flash bang grenades drawing them to specific streets, militants would frantically move from barricade to barricade as cop charges changed location and intensity. In a lull most hung out in Exarcheia, drank beer, talked, and scrounged for more stuff to throw. The number dwindled over the night to perhaps two hundred when the militants finally dumped arms and hostilities ceased, about 11:00 pm.
Cops: 200-300 (a guess). Based on my observations of the number per charge (20 cops maximum) and the number of barricades being simultaneously probed and harassed—upwards of five, and the number of police needed to provide logistics, support, command, reserves, and to steer traffic well out of the area.
Snapshots
As I sit and write this on the Isle of Lesvos a short 24 hours after the battle a number of scenes come to mind. Sitting in a room discussing preparations for the night, many of the militants standing, pacing, nervous with energy to get started. As I guarded the Molotovs having some Italian comrades wander by. They asked for a Molotov, which I provided and we all agreed that the Greeks had done something very right. Helping a young woman overcome by gas, who, when the Riopan got into her eyes and nose immediately recovered. Like a stoned person suddenly sober-- she straightened, said, “Thank you Comrade,” turned and headed back to the barricade she was attending to. The sight of burning barricades, great arcs of Molotovs fuses sputtering as they flew and struck home in the ranks of the police. The shouting, chanting, laughing, talking--the feeling of really finally being alive. One’s hair standing on end as the flash bangs explode and teargas projectiles clatter on the ground and cloud the street. Finally on my way back to the apartment I was staying at, I noticed a small store open, with several people playing cards at a table in the back. I knocked on the door--needed smokes and something to drink. They motioned me in, and asked where I was from, a few questions and finally one of the older men asked,” So tonight did you see the riots?”
“Yes,” I answered not wanting to give too much away.
“And who are you with, the young people or the cops?”
Hesitantly I said,” The young people, always.”
He smiled broadly and answered,” So are we.”

Read the full article HERE:

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

Requiem For A Journey Of No Return.

       In Athens on December 6th. 2008, young 15 year old Alexandros Grigoropoulos was shot dead in the street by a cop, dying in the arms of his young friend of the same age, Nikos Romanos, who is now in a Greek prison.

    This event sparked some of the largest and most widespread riots seen in Greece, 

     Nikos has never spoken publicly about that night and the death of his friend, until now. 

      His public article, "Requiem for a Journey of No Return" can be read on Contra Info.
This is a small extract from that public letter written from prison:

  ------The most ridiculous part of it all is the fact that the propaganda mechanisms of domination attempt to portray murders committed by cops as isolated incidents caused by deranged personalities, as accidents that always occur due to negligence.
     Police murders are neither isolated incidents, nor a Greek phenomenon. They are an extreme manifestation of the democratic imposition upon social margins, poor-devils, delinquents, insubordinates, migrants. Furthermore, police murders confirm that the liberatory war exists, whenever they target insurgents who arm themselves and fight domination with the flame of freedom burning in their hearts.
     These killings are a logical consequence of cops’ perceptions of their role, perceptions with which these individuals are indoctrinated to staff the repressive machines that shield the social machine’s orderly functioning.
     Police firearms do not go off with murderous intentions only in Greece; they murder 15-year-olds in Turkey because they participated in anti-government demonstrations, they murder 16-year-olds in Italy because they didn’t pull over at a police traffic stop, they murder mothers and children in Palestine, they murder dozens of African Americans in the US on purely racist motives, they murder migrants in Sweden’s suburbs, they murder youth in England’s poorest hoods; they murder repeatedly and serially in all corners of the planet to impose social peace.
      And if the examples I’ve brought are known to many, because they have been linked with small-scale and large-scale uprisings in response to statist murders, they do not cease to be a mere drop in the ocean compared to the storm of murderous crackdowns launched by security corps in defence of capitalist domination.
     If we close our eyes and ears to the ceaseless flow of dominant propaganda, we’ll be able to listen to the thousands of anonymous deaths in police stations, terrestrial and maritime border areas, concentration camps, psychiatric institutions and prisons, war zones across the Middle East, and sweatshops that exterminate contemporary slaves. Anyone can hear the cries of people who are being tortured in police cells, who commit suicide in a confinement facility out of desperation, who are sunk by coast guard cops and drowned in the cold waters of the Mediterranean Sea, who are crippling their bodies over multinationals’ production machines in third world countries, who are buried under rubble after blind aerial bombardments conducted by capitalist empires.--------

Read his full account HERE:

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

Lest We Forget, Alexandros Grigoropoulos December 6th. 2008.

       Today, December 6th. this evening to be precise, is the seventh anniversary of the murder of a 15 year old youth in Athens Greece. That Saturday night, just after 9pm, some youths are chatting in a café in Exarcheia, just as they do most Saturday evenings, two police arrive, there are some words, the police leave, then return shortly afterwards, two shots ring out and 15 year old Alexandros Grigoropoulos falls to the ground and dies in the arms of his young companion. This cold blooded murder by the police, sparked some of the worst riots in Greece. For weeks the righteous anger of the people of Greece spilled onto the streets. This callous murder lit the touch paper of the powder keg of anger that had been rippling just below the surface, an anger that to this day is still there, fuelled by the continued plundering of the people of Greece, by the financial Mafia and their cohorts in government.

      This is a very fitting video to the memory of young Alexandros, showing that the people do not forget their own. It is also a display of the desire for freedom that is locked in all our hearts. An awakening in the people's consciousness to the fact that, there is a better way, we do not need to be tied to the debilitating yoke of capitalism.

This from Anarchist News: 

      Outside Greece, solidarity demonstrations, riots and clashes with local police also take place in more than 70 cities around the world, including London, Paris, Brussels, Rome, Dublin, Berlin, Frankfurt, Madrid, Barcelona, Amsterdam, the Hague, Copenhagen, Bordeaux, Cologne, Seville, Sao Paulo, as well as Nicosia in Cyprus, and Paphos proving for the first time before the “Arab Spring” that people could spread the news and react through protests for the same matter around the globe, from San Francisco to Wellington and Buenos Aires to Siberia.

      While the unrest was triggered by the Alexis Grigoropoulos murder by police, the reactions lasted for so long simply because they were rooted in deeper causes, like the coming economic crisis a year later, which was already being felt by poorer classes and younger generations through rising unemployment rate and a feeling of general inefficiency and corruption of the authorities, institutions and right wing politicians of the Greek state (mainly New Democracy and PASOK political parties).

Read the full article HERE:

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

Two Baltimores.

         The babbling brook of bullshit, the mainstream media, has been pouring a lot of biased gibberish and photos of violence in Baltimore. We know there are “black” areas, and that is where most of the violence occurs. As for the rest of Baltimore, I for one, know nothing. However it seems that it is a city of unbelievable contrasts, a city displaying the capitalist obligatory wealth differences on a major scale.

         A very interesting article from Anarchist News gives a clearer insight to this area, which could be described as two cities.

Rites of Passage:

       Recent riots in Baltimore over the death of Freddie Gray have been the largest there since those following the assassination of Martin Luther King in 1968. They began on April 25, 2015, when a group of protestors split off from a peaceful rally and began hurling bottles at cops and smashing patrol cars.[iv] This happened not far from Camden Yards[v] where white Orioles and Red Sox fans remained untouched behind stadium gates. Others, drunk and racist, brawled with protestors outside nearby sports bars. But Baltimore’s true elites were far from downtown. That Saturday was the 119th running of the Maryland Hunt Cup, a steeplechase horse race in Reisterstown, Baltimore County. A steeplechase, for those less schooled in equestrian pastimes, is where the horses jump over a bunch of fences and ditches and try not to fall over. In Maryland, this particular race provides rich people with an excuse to break out their finest, brightest spring clothes. Bowties, salmon-colored shorts, Lilly Pulitzer dresses in red and green. Flowery sunhats. Mint juleps and Natty Boh beer. White Baltimore ascends toward its ideal form. Down in the fields a horse trips and falls, snapping its leg and pitching the jockey off into the mud. It will be soon be dragged out of view of the garishly-clad onlookers to be shot.

Read the full article HERE:

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

On The Streets Of Bosnia Herzegovina.

      In country after country people have been taking to the streets to show their contempt for the existing capitalist system. From Brazil to Spain, Greece to Italy, Turkey to Egypt, Bahrain to Australia, Canada to France, and so it goes on. It is always difficult to get a true picture of what is actually happing as these uprisings occur, as our babbling brook of bullshit, the mainstream media, with its short attention span, and distorted vision, spews out its loaded propaganda. Now the babbling brook of bullshit has shifted its hall of mirrors to the Ukraine, and as the mouthpiece of the Western corporate empire, it vomits its bile against the Russian empire. Where does that leave the people?

      Recently we had the people of Bosnia Herzegovina on the streets demanding change, but the babbling brook of bullshit, as usual, dropped that and jumped to the next "hot news", Ukraine, to paint its surrealist picture of the facts. So it is good to get some honest information from what was actually happening on the streets of Bosnia Herzegovina.

This from Circled A Radio:  Enjoy.

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

Change, Though Messy, Is Inevitable

      Our Oxbridge cabal of millionaires are singing in tune to the chorus of that fantasy song, “Growth, Growth, Growth”. We all know it is a fantasy tune, but for some reason or other, the singing crooks and liars, seem to believe their own words. Massaging dodgy figures to fit their illusions, and muttering, “You've never had it so good” from the confines of their pampered fantasy bubble, in a vain attempt to fool the public, this millionaire cabal live in luxury and denigrate those who suffer poverty at the hands of this system of corruption and greed. 

      The truth is that the world economy is still in crisis, the financial Mafia are worried. They see developing markets shrink and sovereign debt rising, and they start to sweat at the thought that they might lose their billions of ill-gotten gains. This would mean another attack on the living conditions of the already impoverished public, and even they realise that it would be a dangerous road to walk. In country after country, people are taking to the streets and doing their damndest to bring about real change. Riots, protests, occupations are the only road left open to the general public, as their lords and master, the financial Mafia, make brutal attempt after brutal attempt to get back their gambling losses. The next round of “austerity” could be a squeeze to far. How it turns out is up to us, it is also an opportunity for real change in the way we structure our society.

     This originally from Roar Magazine, and re-posted in Popular Resistance:

     This, in turn, raises another question: how will impoverished populations respond to the growing pressures on their livelihoods? Last summer Turkey, Brazil and Indonesia already experienced widespread social unrest. Thailand and Ukraine are currently witnessing massive anti-government protests. Just last month, Argentina descended into a bout of deadly rioting as policemen briefly went on strike. The International Labor Organization recently warned that a new global recession, by feeding already high rates of poverty and unemployment, will further contribute to the fraying of the social fabric.

      As Larry Elliot of The Guardian, just put it: “all the ingredients are there for social unrest.” It looks like the world will be in for a rough ride in 2014. Better fasten your seatbelts — the next phase of the global financial crisis may be about to get started. Cities will burn and there will be blood. It won’t be pretty.

Read the full article HERE:

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

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

We Never Know The Spark That Ignites The Fire.

      The mechanisms of capitalism are always confrontational, the capitalists always want more from the workers, the workers always want more of what they produce, and rightly so, it is all ours. As well as exploitation, struggle is the fault line that runs through the capitalist system, it is devoid of the basic elements of human justice and liberty, namely mutual aid, free association and voluntary co-operation. It is a system of imbalance, the capitalists growing ever richer, and the workers growing ever poorer. Is it any wonder that from time to time the fault line flashes from passive resistance to violent confrontation. Just as it is a myth that anarchism is chaos and violence, likewise it is a myth that capitalism is order. Our past is littered with those flashes of bitter violent struggle, which, by the powers that be, are written into history as criminal disruptions, anomalies, blips in a perfect system, when in fact they are inherent within the system. They are however, flashes that illuminate our dream of a fair and just system. Whether it be large strikes that turn violent as the state tries to suppress the organised workers, or a "spontaneous" riot, that explodes in some city, town or country, it is the same expression of dissatisfaction with a system that doesn't and can't, deliver what we want. The reason I use "spontaneous" is that there is no such thing as a spontaneous riot. Spontaneous would imply that everything was fine and then suddenly out of nowhere came the riot. Every riot has underlying causes, and with the glaring imbalance of wealth and lifestyles and of daily struggles to survive in the midst of unbelievable wealth, that this system breeds, the tinder for an explosion is all around us, all it needs is a spark.

Another interesting article from The Commune:

     Violent riots have been an aspect of capitalism and class struggle against it throughout history. Eric Hobsbawn described the Luddites or machine breakers’ actions as collective bargaining by riot. (11) In contemporary history there are many examples. In Los Angeles’ Watts district in 1965 and in Detroit in 1967 there was mass looting on an industrial scale : Buildings were burnt to the ground. In the student riots in Paris in 1968, which sparked one of the greatest general strikes in history, many cars were torched for barricades. In Bristol in 1980 and Toxteth and Brixton in 1981, bricks and bottles were thrown at police, sometimes inadvertently injuring bystanders. There was also the famous Poll Tax riot which helped to bring down Thatcher and her tax. Now that was a positive result.
      Militant trade unionism has seen violence on the picket line and rioting during strikes. In the great unrest in Britain 1910-14 there was violence, looting and burning. (12) In Llanelli in 1911, rank and file miners trying to make their strike effective, in the face of scabbing organised by the pit owners, police and government, stoned scabs from railway embankments and placed obstacles on the railway line to stop the transport of black legs. Troops were dispatched to Llanelli,and two young men were shot dead. In the riot that followed, 96 Railway wagons were torched, and three tons of bacon and other things disappeared, as goods wagons were looted. A building was blown up, and four people were left dead. (13) In Tonypandy in 1910, striking miners driven away from a pit by the police and army, attacked shops in the village. One man Samuel Rays was shot dead by troops. Trade union officials and government ministers denounced the strikers as mindless hooligans. (14)

Read the full article HERE:

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

PHOTOGRAPHING CONFRONTATION.

Some excellent advice from Teacher Dude's Grill and BBQ.

        With clashes in Spain and especially in Madrid growing in intensity I thought I'd post a few pointers to those photographers who want to cover riots and other such turbulent events. Since 2005 I have recorded, dozens of violent confrontations here in Greece and I hope that these pointers will help keep you safe.

Continue READING: 

 ann arky's home.

PAN-EUROPEAN CLASS WAR.

       Since the Sunday night's demonstrations of anger in Greece there has been calls for solidarity from cities across Europe. Perhaps the people of Europe are beginning to realise that what is happening in Greece is their struggle, the Greek people are not responsible for this corporate plunder of the public purse and what is happening in Greece will in all possibility be happen in countries across Europe, it will all be a matter of degree, how much the corporate fascists think they can get away with.

This from Germany

     Let’s organize gatherings from 13-2/2012, by 20.00 MEZ, at central railway station forecourts and show our solidarity with the social rebellion —today, not tomorrow.

   The nationalist and racist resentments against Greece are unbearable. Politics, mass media and large misinformed parts of the German population fail and lie deliberately in their ‘analysis’ of the current state of the capitalist system. The effects of the Troika’s strangleholds are being trivialized, thus devaluing the justified protest.

   In Athens and in many other cities, the resistance has now reached a new peak. We cannot leave the victims of the very capitalist system alone, nor allow that people are ripped off their human dignity. We must not fall into the trap of those in Power who want us to turn against each other in order to succeed in their plans.

We are left only with solidarity; otherwise the case of Greece will become a paradigm for us all.

Denmark

ann arky's home.

IT IS VESTED INTERESTS THAT ARE KILLING PEOPLE.

      We should never lose sight of the fact that all this talk of "austerity cuts" has a human face. While those, the faceless ones, in expensive suits, sit in marble halls discussing how, where and how deep  to cut at the social fabric of our society, the results among those without the expensive suits, you and I, the ordinary people, can be ill health, poverty, deprivation, mental health problems and even death. It is discussed politely on TV and radio and long winded economic articles appear in the mainstream media, all with a cold rationalism the belies the horror and hurt of the situation to most ordinary people. As the results of the polite decision makers policies grind on, our society changes, suicides rise dramatically, family relationships start to break down, hopelessness descends on youth, who see their future as a bleak unknown devoid of opportunity. It is not the "economy" that is killing people, it is a small group of human beings making decisions to protect their vested interests.

      The powers that be would like to keep that veneer of politeness and cold discussion, but it can't last. The people are getting more anger by the day, across the developed world we are taking to the streets to vent that anger, and there is more to come, we will not be destroyed to save the wealth of the financial Mafia.

     This from OCCUPIED LONDON.

Tuesday, January 10, 2012

      At approximately 7pm on Monday evening, 78-year old S.K. set himself alight with petrol at a parking lot in the town of Lefkada, in Western Greece. The man died on the spot.

This follows from a tremendous increase in suicides across Greece, and Crete in particular – where also, two days ago (on Saturday night) a homeless man died of the cold in the streets of the city of Chania.

Exploring Revolt in Greece from Ross Domoney on Vimeo.

      On December 6th 2008 a police shooting of a 16 year old innocent boy in Athens started a two week revolt in cities around Greece. Three years on people march in remembrance of Alexis Grigoropoulos. Greece now is very much in social and economic turmoil. This films looks at the events surrounding December as well as an inside look to the often cases of revolt in a country that is sinking deeply in recession. This film also explores the role that anti authoritarian movements play in Greece.

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UK ARMED POLICE??

            I am alarmed at the number of people who, recently, have died when confronted by the police. The shooting of Mr Duggan by an armed police unit that sparked the recent disturbances across England, has been followed by another spate of deaths. In the short period since the shooting two men have died after being hit by police tasers and another died after being pepper sprayed. We are supposed to pride ourselves in the fact that we have an unarmed police force on our streets, but with this evidence, it doesn't look that way. I'm sure that this recent spate of killings will do nothing to raise people's confidence in the police. As far as I am concerned these recent events indicate that we have an armed police force in this country, tasers are known to be lethal in a number of circumstances.

ann arky's home.