It's Ours!

 

Image courtesy of Jane Finch

 

      There are many ways to alleviate the cost of living crisis, of course the state's remedy is to get you to grin and bear it until the good times arrive, but they never do arrive. The capitalists tell is it is all due to external factors and market forces, so we just have to be patient and the market will sort it all out. There is another way expropriate what is the fruits of our labour all locked in the labyrinth of the capitalist economic swamp. We create and make everything, we distribute everything, it is all ours but we fall for the capitalist mantra, that it is they who create the wealth and we have to buy the fruits of our labour back, so as to keep CEO and shareholders rich, all bullshit of course.
        An example of self help and mutual aid from that patch of land named Greece.

Image courtesy of Anarchist News.

 

 This from Act For Freedom Now.

via:https://athens.indymedia.org/post/1623804/
Athens: Expropriation of products in My Market in Patisia area

             Precision pricing is one of the most recent manifestations of class violence unleashed by the State and the bosses on those below. The already unaffordable prices of basic goods for some have been inflated through location, resulting in privilege for the haves over the have-nots. With capital striding on the backs of the social base, further impoverishing it, and the State being the institutional guardian of capitalist restructuring and repression, taking our lives into our own hands is the only solution. We will not divide our needs into basic and non-basic, we will not step back on what belongs to us, we will fight side by side until the final elimination of the State and classes.
          In the context of the ongoing mobilizations against precision pricing, revaluations and the overall devaluation of our lives, on Saturday 4/2 an intervention was held by about 25 comrades in My Market in the area of Gravas in Patisia. Various kinds of products were expropriated and after the end of the intervention they were distributed to the people who were in the street market near the supermarket.

Everything is ours because everything is stolen

NTOY in the supermarkets, refusal to pay, war on the war of the State-bosses

 

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

Prepare.

      With a brutal recession most certainly coming, what should we be doing to prepare for this capitalist inevitability? Where you live and your circumstance can and will dictate a great deal of how you manage the situation, but we should always remember, mutual aid, sharing and community co-operation are key to not just surviving, but winning in this battle between survival of capitalism or a better way to live for all.  

      The covid19 pandemic taught a lot of people the benefits of mutual aid, let's not lose that knowledge, we should expand it, learn from it and take those tools with us into this battle for survival, remember, a community can grow a lot of its own food with a wee bit of co-operation and effort. When the scourge of the capitalist recession hits us, the ordinary people, it will be brutal and you can be sure the establishment's main aim will be for the survival of capitalism, no matter the cost to human health and welfare. We owe it to our children and grandchildren to reverse that plan and see to the health and welfare of all our people at the expense of capitalism. They need us, we don't need them.

     A few words of commonsense from Not Buying Anything:

 Our pantry order arrived! Not a bit of plastic. Everything is packaged in heavy paper sacks.

      We have been working on our pantry since we moved to Nova Scotia in 2014, but didn't really maximize on the space, having never had a real pantry before. We needed to get motivated. The pandemic provided us with a good kick in the butt, and this year we finally got down to business.
      When we were researching our new home area, we discovered an agri-business in the Maritimes that specializes in locally grown organic staple foods. We also found a food buying group in our community. But we had not yet connected the two.
          Enter The Virus and we had that extra bit of motivation we needed.
        We tried to order directly from the wholesaler, but were told because of the pandemic they were very busy and had to enforce a minimum order of several hundred dollars or 600 pounds of delivered weight.
         We couldn't do that. We are building a pantry, not a bunker.
      Therefore, we contacted the local food buying group, and found that they deal with the supplier! We could order whatever we wanted, in any quantity.
      They took our order by email, we paid by e-transfer, and when it came in a couple of weeks later, it was delivered right to our front door free of charge.
      As much as possible, the products are from local organic farms. All their flour is stone ground, a process which retains more fibre and nutrients than steel roller milling which causes the loss of anywhere from 20 - 30% of the good stuff.
      This is what was in our order. All of it is organic.
- 2.27 kg sesame seeds
- 2.27 kg soybeans
- 2 X 2.27 kg cornmeal
- 2.27 kg sunflower seeds
- 20 kg oatmeal
- 10 kg whole wheat flour
        I have never seen a 20 kilogram bag of rolled oats before. What a beautiful thing, if you love oats, and we do. We were buying non-organic large oats (for the same price) in 1 kg plastic bags from the store previously.
        That's 20 plastic bags we will not be using!
       Over the next few weeks we will be augmenting our progressing pantry with food from the garden. We have already made strawberry jam, and we are looking forward to drying herbs, making pesto, canning pickled beets and cucumbers, as well as tomatoes and/or salsa.
       We are also freezing things like bush and pole beans, peas, and kale.
       We have also increased some amounts of pantry items. For many things, we try to always keep 2 in stock. Now we are keeping 3 of certain items, like peanut butter. The less we have to shop, the better, and this allows us to take advantage of sales when they come up.
     Our food storage has never been this prepared before, and the timing couldn't be better. It all fits with giving up our vehicle, the pandemic, and an impending Greatest Depression.
       And who knows what else?

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

Our Only Help Will Be Self Help.

      Anybody who lives in the world of the ordinary people is well aware that we are going through very difficult times. Poverty is rife among our communities, and it is no accident, it is the result of ideology, an ideology that sees big business as the most important entity on the planet. All legislation is shaped to help big business, and that is always at the expense of the individual. So appealing to that machinery to help sort your problems will reap little if any gains. The world is now corporate orientated, the people are to be used to feed that entity. In the grand corporate plan of things, the people are on a downward spiral, as the drive for ever increasing profits, which fuels this greed driven juggernaut, is the root of their ideology.

     As the poverty grows and the powers that be, move ever further away from the people, we have to realise that we are on our own, no body is coming to help us. We have to develop self defence systems within our own communities, in co-operation with other communities. we have to devise strategies to empower our communities and the individuals within those communities, we have to grasp solidarity as one of our weapons, the only help we can expect is self-help.

     So it is congratulations to the people of Castlemilk, one of Glasgow's large housing estates where, like the rest of them, poverty is endemic. Community spirit and solidarity within the community is growing, community events are on the increase, thanks to the drive and initiative of individuals within the community. Let's see if this attitude and spirit can become infectious, and spread like an epidemic across our city, and other cities.  

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

Let's Not Live Like Slaves.

      The Greek experiment is still in progress. On the one hand the financial Mafia trying to create a model for a Western sweatshop, on the other hand the people of Greece, trying to create a new world where people don't live like slaves. The result is important to the rest of Europe, if the financial Mafia win and the people are subdued into a subservient cheap workforce, then the experiment will be rolled out across Europe. If on the other hand the people win, then that new world we all dream of could be rolled out further than the borders of Europe. That new world will germinate in the cesspool of greed and exploitation that is capitalism.

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

NEW YORK, NEW YORK.

         Nice to see some self help happening in the wake of Sandy. If those who suffered from the power of Sandy, wait for the "proper" authorities to sort things out, their misery will drag on and on, but if they get together and sort it out themselves, things will start to happen.

Construction Materials Expropriated from Luxury Developments in Manhattan, Delivered to Victims of Sandy

NEW YORK, NY—Over the past two weeks, a group of concerned New Yorkers has been expropriating thousands of dollars worth of tools and materials from luxury residential developments across Manhattan and delivering them to neighborhoods devastated by Superstorm Sandy.

    The confiscated materials, some of them never even used, include: shovels, wheelbarrows, hand trucks, pry bars, tarps, buckets, hard bristle brooms, industrial rope, contractor trash bags, particulate masks, work lights, work gloves, flashlights, heat lamps, and gasoline.

    Liberated from their role in building multimillion-dollar pieds-à-terre for wealthy CEOs and Hollywood celebrities, these tools are now in the collective hands of some of the hardest-hit communities in the city where they are now being allocated and shared among the people who need them most. These expropriations will continue as long as the demand for them exists.

The targeted developments are being financed with over a billion dollars in bank loans plus untold millions in tax breaks from the city. All are slated to become high-end residential towers with apartments starting at upwards of $2 million, all no doubt with unparalleled views of the city—perhaps even all the way to its outer edges, where tens of thousands remain without power, heat, and hot water weeks after the storm. People continue to wait hours in line for blankets and batteries while the tools to improve their lives, the tools to help them literally dig themselves out from under the rubble, sit idle behind chained fences, safely tucked in beneath all-weather tarps or locked inside heated office trailers.

Read the full article HERE:

ann arky's home.

LEEDS ALTERNATIVE HOUSING ADVICE DAY ON 15TH MAY

* * * * * PRESS RELEASE * * * * *

      'Take Control of your Housing' ? that's the message from organisers of  an information day in the centre of Leeds on Saturday 15th May. The aim of the event, being held at St John The Evangelist, next to the St John's Centre, is for people in unsatisfactory housing to discover options outside conventional social and private landlords and home ownership.

     Organiser, Helena Gonzales said, "people are welcome from 11am ? drop by to learn about diverse housing and lifestyles. We'll be showcasing different ideas which allow individuals, families and groups to take control of more aspects of their lives. Our motto is "Do it Yourself and we want to show how people can do just that, even with very little money." The event is free and will be a day of stalls, workshops and discussions exploring issues such as self-build housing, housing co-ops, boating, communal living, low-impact dwelling, squatting, bringing up children in unusual situations and more. The organisers are individuals who themselves have experience of living in these situations and want to share their skills and knowledge.

There will be a refreshments stall and participants are invited to an evening meal afterwards at The Common Place social centre on Wharf Street, LS1 - £3 non-members, £2 members. For more information, see the http://www.diyhousing.wordpress.com/ or call 0113 262 9365.

Notes:

1. The day runs from 11am-6pm, 15th May at St John The Evangelist deconsecrated church, 23 New Briggate, Leeds.
2. Contact Cath Muller for more information on the above number, or at diyhousingleeds@aktivix.org
3. The event is being funded by Cornerstone Housing Co-op and by Groundswell, the charity which helps homeless people to help themselves
4. Other contributors to the day include: Leeds Asylum-Seekers Support Network, LATCH (Leeds Action To Create Homes), SNARL (Squat Network & Resource Library), Radical Routes (UK network of radical co-operatives working for social change), LILAC (Low-Impact Living Affordable Community ? Leeds' Ecovillage project) and many more.

ann arky's home.