We should always honour our heroes, we have many, but if we don't record them they will disappear from history, and we will be the poorer for that.
Showing posts with label workers history. Show all posts
Showing posts with label workers history. Show all posts
Tuesday 14 October 2014
Wednesday 6 August 2014
Workers Know Your History.
The struggles that brought the imperialist bloodshed to an end, are not over, the workers may have lost the first real battle, but we will win the final one, and eventually over throw this system of capitalism, which is a blot on the history of humanity.
As I keep repeating, "Workers Know Your history."
Saturday 11 January 2014
Workers Know Your History, Bread And Roses,1912.
We can pick a year, a month, a week, a day, and there will be a workers struggle to remember. Some short snap revolts, other long planned and organised battles for decency in our lives, and for justice. Some explode into the public consciousness, others, just a whisper in somebody's heart.
This year the 11th. January marks the 102nd. anniversary of one well organised struggle on the other side of the world, in the textile mills of Massachusetts, USA. The Bread and Roses strike 1912.
This from Huffington Post education:
Read the full article HERE:The trust and solidarity required to mount a successful strike was not magically born on January 11 and 12, 1912, when workers walked off the job due to a reduction in their pay. Some 20 active foreign-language chapters of the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) were present in the city for at least five years. IWW organizer James P. Thompson stated in the October 1912 issue of Solidarity: "It is absolutely foolish to say the strike 'happened without any apparent cause'; 'that it was lightning out of a clear sky,' etc. As a matter of fact, it was a harvest, it was a result of seeds sown before. . . "
Workers Know Your History, 1984/5 Miners strike.
It is important that we, the ordinary people, remember our history, our struggles to improve our communities and conditions. It is important for several reasons, one is that if we don't remember, record and celebrate our struggles of the past, they will be airbrushed out of history, and our kids will have a distorted view of history. Another reason is to bring home to each and all of us, that the struggles of today are not a blip in the capitalist system, but are part and parcel of a continuing struggle, over generations, by the ordinary people to wrestle a decent standard of living from a repressive and exploitative capitalists system. We should never forget the sacrifices of those who took up that struggle in past, we most understand that those struggles are inextricably linked to our struggles today. It is one long battle that hasn't been resolved yet, but victory will be ours eventually, but only if we hold onto that wonderful spirit of revolt, born from our past struggles.
This year sees the anniversary of the start of one of our many bitter struggles that we should celebrate with pride, the 30th anniversary of the 1984/5 miners strike. A strike where the people felt the full force of the state, where the state apparatus pulled out all the brutal, duplicitous tactics in its armoury to crush the fighting spirit of the workers. The history of this strike is also a catalogue of the brilliant tactics, ingenuity, resilience, determination, solidarity and courage, of the ordinary people.
Here in full is one such effort of support, solidarity and direct action, that you may not find in the official recoding of the the 1984/5 miners strike.
The Day we took the White Tower.
An account of the occupation of Accountants Price Waterhouse offices
in Glasgow in support of the South Wales Miners.
At 7:30 am on Tuesday, 4th September, 1984, 12 anarchists stormed a
multi-story office block in Glasgow city centre. They went in to
occupy the headquarters of Accountants Price Waterhouse, the
millionaire outfit which sequestrated the South Wales Miners' Funds.
As the newspapers reported, the operation was executed with military
precision. It took the team 10 minutes from entering the building to
securing themselves behind metal-sheeted doors on the 13th floor.
About 600lbs of equipment, including hammers, drills, saws and
timber, were carried past the startled staff. Lifts were occupied and
protests ignored. All the keys were lifted from the security guards
desk. Everyone knew his task and skillfully completed it.
Not that everything was perfect. The security guard managed to regain
entry to the foyer before all the equipment had been moved in. The
elevators were too small to easily accommodate the 8' x 4' metal
sheeting. An officer had to be ejected from Price Waterhouse as the
occupation got under-way. It proved impossible to commandeer all
three lifts for the 13th floor and so that area came under police
control sooner than planned. An early casualty was the driver who was
arrested at the Hire Depot as he was returning the van which the team
arrived in.
In spite of these reverses the operation was a complete success. Fire
doors leading to the common stairway were nailed-up. The twelve had
captured the offices of Price Waterhouse and were securely
barricaded-in. The police who arrived at 7.50 am could only rage,
threaten and kick impotently at the steel doors out in the corridor
as those inside calmly outlined their reasons for their peaceful
occupation.
For this was no exercise in bravado but a serious social act. The
anarchists were convinced of the need for direct action against Price
Waterhouse. Contrary to popular report, this company did not simply
carry out a mundane legal job of sequestration against miners; they
entered the fight with all the commitment of partisans. Price
Slaughterhouse went much further than their law demanded. Not content
with seizing the £350,000 administrative funds belonging to the
South Wales miners, the proceeded to grab an additional £400,000 in
the Provident fund and money collected for hardship cases, food and
clothing for families. To permit these gangsters to commit legalized
robbery seemed to all Clydeside Anarchists an invitation to ,ore
adventurous tactics by the boss class.
By 8.30 am, a senior officer was knocking at the door seeking to
parley. He was told: 1) That his minions has threatened violence
(true); 2) that all anarchists had been medically examined and
photographed the previous day (not quite true); 3) that they had
nothing more to say to him and that he should fetch a representative
of Price Shithouse to consider some important questions.
At 9 am, a Mr. Campbell arrived. He said he was a Partner and senior
executive of the company in Scotland and that he and the staff (30)
were seriously put out by the occupation and were anxious to come in
and start work. He was informed that the Welsh miners and their
families were being even more seriously inconvenienced by the actions
of PW. Two conditions were put to Campbell for the evacuation of the
building: 1) That the funds of the South Wales Miners be restored to
them; 2) that PW undertake no further sequestrations. Campbell said
it would take a little time to get a response from the Head Office in
Birmingham. The occupants promised to be patient.
An hour later (10 am) Campbell slipped a typed letter over the steel
door. In it he acknowledged the anarchist action but replied
negatively to both points. However, the note went on to say that if
the South Wales Miners would identify those funds which were
ear-marked for clothing and food-relief, PW would release them.
Campbell was told to wait half-an-hour while a meeting was held to
consider the letter. He was reminded by one of the group that there
was a lot of valuable equipment in the offices and that any violent
action could inadvertently result in an awful lot of damage. (The
suite of offices contained about 18 rooms – the entire floor –
and was ultra-modern. There were no manual typewriters, only a few
IBM golf ball typewriters. But the place was stuffed with terminals,
VDUs, word processors, telex machines, photocopiers, etc. - certainly
£100,000 worth of equipment. The really valuable stuff, however, was
the Diskettes; mini discs containing all the files plus work in
progress. About 900 of these were lying around all capable of storing
10,000 words. However, the threat was an empty one as the group had
decided not to cause any malicious damage. Nevertheless, it seemed to
give Campbell some cause to stay the hand of the gendarmes.)
By this time the building was surrounded by the guardians of law and
order. Two 60-foot banners were stretched round the 13th floor
reading: GLASGOW BACKS THE MINERS and UNEMPLOYED SOLIDARITY.
Electricity had been cut-off, several phones were out and large
numbers of police occupied the corridors.
At 10.45 am Campbell was informed that the meeting had considered his
letter and would investigate the authenticity of this claim about
their willingness to release identified funds.
The next several hours were spent in talks with the South Wales
Miners' headquarters and to PW's Man outside the Door. This period
was afforded many opportunities to go through extensive filing
system. It was a real eye-opener. This multi-million pound outfit has
accountancy as only a small part of its business. It concentrates on
handling take-over bids, forecasting money market trends, overseas
investments, etc. It was clear that a big percentage of the bog
monopolies are clients of PW.
Dinner was served at around 12 but almost all resisted the temptation
of PW's extensive cellar (Barsac '79, not a great year, but …)
Leaflets were scattered at 5 minute intervals. Supporters were
gathering in the streets below and press and news agencies contacted
about the occupation and the reasons for it. The South Wales NUM said
it was being reported locally and were delighted by the action.
Meanwhile, the cops were bored and were boring! Stealthily, they were
trying to gain access through the fire door; but it hadn't simply
been nailed up – it was the subject of a superb piece of civil
engineering by Castlemilk Constructors (unemployed). The boys in blue
were disappointed.
The discussions with the South Wales NUM revealed that they were not
prepared to identify those funds which were for the relief of
hardship. They claimed that to do so would be to recognise the Courts
which was contrary to union policy and in conflict with the Wembley
Conference decisions which had been reinforced by the Brighton TUC
the previous day. One of the team, Enrico (Malatesta?) in speaking to
Emlyn Jenkins (SWNUM) observed that they would prefer not to
recognise any court. However, the anarchists did not see the task of
making demands of the miners but of exposing the scab outfit of Price
Waterhouse.
Certainly some publicity was being gained: radio, TV and newspapers
were carrying reports of the action and giving garbled accounts of
the reasons for it. Leaflets were being distributed at job centres
and DSS offices but sympathisers were being warned-off by cops from
giving out material near the occupation.
As the afternoon progressed several things became clear: 1) It was
not possible to force PW into restoring the miners' funds; 2) the
cops were becoming increasingly restive and seemed likely to indulge
in heroics; 3) one of the doors was less secure than the others and
seemed vulnerable to a determined assault. Considering these factors
it was decided to dismantle the barricades. Campbell of PW conceded
that if no malicious damage had been done then charges would not be
brought against the occupying anarchist force. There were serious
doubts about this.
At 4.15 pm, having removed most barricades, the police were allowed
to enter by one door. The 12 militants were invited to collect their
tools and belongings and proceed to the exit where large quantities
of police awaited them. The steam coming from the Inspector's ears
warned the anarchists what was to come. “I'm In Charge Now” he
cried, and went on to announce that the group would be hand-cuffed in
pairs, taken to the local station and charged with breach of the
peace and criminal damage.
Thereafter, the 12 were subjected to the usual indignities:
photographed, finger-printed, given a body-search and locked in
single cells for the night. No violence was used but it was
particularly hard for those 9 members of the group who were vegans
and had nothing but bread and water for 24 hours.
Next day, they were packed sic to a cell (5' x 10') and later
appeared at the Sheriff Court. There they pled not guilty to all
charges and were released on bail. Trial was fixed for 10th December.
In retrospect, the group felt that the action was relatively
successful - not from the narrow view of publicity for the Clydeside
Anarchists – but because it was a positive action on behalf of the
miners to the ruling class offensive. The negative aspect lies in the
anarchists having to to do the job at all. The impotent and ossified
Trade Union seems incapable of anything but a negative reaction to
the the boss class.
Social democracy and the bureaucratised TU movement have disarmed the
working class. Lullabies of class peace, parliamentary and legal
paths to social harmony have virtually paralysed the proletariat's
instinct for self-defence.
The group hopes that the action has helped to forge closer links
between Clydeside Anarchists and the miners for whom they have
campaigned and collected more than £2,000. Perhaps it will galvanise
more workers into direct action and show them that defence against
the boss is not confined within the narrow limits of branch
resolutions and letters to MPs and councillors. At the very least,
Clydeside Anarchists have given the lie to those who charge that we
couldn't organise a booze-up in a brewery. Price Waterhouse can
testify to that.
This and more of Glasgow/Clydeside people's struggles can be found at:
Tuesday 10 December 2013
Workers Know Your History, Angel Pestana.
A life dedicated to the cause of the ordinary people, one of our own, Angel Pestana Nunez, born in poverty in Ponferrada, Spain, on Feb 14, 1886,
he was politically active throughout his life. At the age of 15 he
was imprisoned for his part in a political rally. After travelling to
North Africa and France, he settled in Catalonia and became involved
in the local anarchist group. In 1918 he became editor in chief of
the newspaper Solidaridad Obrera. During his editorship the paper ran
a powerful campaign against the local police force. In April 1919
after Catalonia was subject to massive protests, he was detained and
the paper banned. On returning from a visit to Russia he was again
detained. Pestana was also victim to an assassination attempt by the
Spanish authorities, while giving a speech in Manresa. In October
1936, with the start of the Spanish Civil War, he was appointed
general sub-commissioner for war, but resigned shortly after this due
to ill health, he died December 11, 1936.
Sunday 3 November 2013
Workers, Remember Your History,--Kurt Gustav Wilckens.
An anniversary we should celebrate, November 3 1886, saw the birth of Kurt Gustav Wilckens, warrior of the working class who dedicated his life to the struggle for freedom and justice for all people. Our history is written in the blood of such people, ordinary people who become giants. Our's is not the history of kings and empires, of greed for power, but a struggle for justice for all.
This from FlagBlackened:
This from FlagBlackened:
Read the full article HERE:KURT GUSTAV WILCKENS was born 3 November 1886 at Bad Bramstedt in Schleswig-Holstein, close to the Danish border in Germany, one of the five sons of August Wilckens and Johanna Harms. Of average height with red hair and light blue eyes, he loved nature and hated cities. Starting work as a miner in Silesia, he emigrated at the age of 24 to the United States where he got work in the Arizona mines.
In Arizona he became involved in the agitation of the revolutionary workers’ organisation, the Industrial Workers of the World (popularly known as the Wobblies). Wilckens took part in strikes and became an orator in the miners’ mass meetings, The IWW organised successfully among Mexicans and South Europeans, the lowest paid of the miners. As a result of the growing might of the miners in the Bisbee area, the local businessmen and scab miners organised into Loyalty Leagues. Early on 12 July 1916, 2000 Loyalty Leaguers commenced a round-up of miners. One miner shot dead a Loyalty leaguer in self-defence and was gunned down. There were robberies, vandalism, and beatings and abuse of women carried out by the Leaguers during the round-up. 1,186 men, including 104 Wobblies, among them Wilckens, were herded into cattle trucks and dumped across the border in the New Mexico desert. Wilckens, by now an anarchist as well as an IWW member, was interned in a camp for German prisoners. He escaped from there, was recaptured and deported to Germany in 1920 from where he departed to Argentina, arriving there in late September.---
Sunday 6 October 2013
Workers Know Your History, Hungary, 1956.
It is true that the dominant culture writes the history, but it is never a complete history, and it most certainly isn't accurate. The 1956 Hungarian revolution is no different, the capitalist stooges perpetrate the myth that Stalinism was socialism, and capitalism freed the people of Hungary.
An interesting article on this matter from The Commune:
More than fifty years since the Hungarian revolution of 1956, the events have faded and their meaning and importance to socialists perhaps lost in time. The struggles, the barricades, the workers councils and resistance to Russian imperialism are a vague memory even for those involved in the movement at the time. The real struggles and aspirations of the Hungarian revolution will be reduced even further to the strong box of history by the official commemorations attended by the great and the good of the bourgeoisie who will claim the mantle of the freedom fighters of 1956. In so doing they will continue such myth as the decisive role in the fall of Stalinism in Eastern Europe was played by the prayers of Pope John Paul II and the foreign policy of the American President Ronald Reagan and his ally Thatcher.Read the full article HERE:
Saturday 28 September 2013
Workers Know Your History, Syndicalist Congress, 1913.
From Wikipedia:
The First International Syndicalist Congress was a meeting of European and Latin American syndicalist organizations at Holborn Town Hall in London from September 27 to October 2, 1913. Upon a proposal by the Dutch National Labor Secretariat (NAS) and the British Industrial Syndicalist Education League (ISEL), most European syndicalist groups, both trade unions and advocacy groups, agreed to congregate at a meeting in London. The only exception was the biggest syndicalist organization worldwide, the French General Confederation of Labor (CGT). Nevertheless, the congress was held with organizations from twelve countries participating. It was marked by heated debate and constant disagreements over both tactics and principles. Yet, it succeeded in creating the International Syndicalist Information Bureau as a vehicle of exchange and solidarity between the various organizations and the Bulletin international du mouvement syndicaliste as a means of communication. It would be viewed as a success by almost all who participated.For some of Glasgow's working class history visit Strugglepedia.
Tuesday 20 August 2013
Workers Know Your History - 1912.
Think of it, 1912, women and children had their working hours cut from 56 to 54, but with a pay cut?? It's not that long ago, and the powers that be in the corporate financial Mafia are doing their best to turn the clock back. The system stinks it always has and always will.
This from Anarchist News:29th Annual Bread and Roses Festival!
Mon, 08/19/2013 - 17:42 -- Anonymous (not verified)
In 1912, a new state law went into effect reducing the work week
of women and children from 56 to 54 hours. But because so many women
and children worked in the mills, men’s hours were also reduced.
When the first paychecks of the year revealed a cut in pay, thousands
of workers, already barely surviving on an average pay of $8.76 a
week, walked out of the mills, and the Great Strike had begun.
The strike united workers from 51 different nationalities. Carried
on throughout a brutally cold winter, the strike lasted more than two
months, defying the assumptions of conservative trade unions within
the American Federation of Labor that immigrant, largely female and
ethnically divided workers could not be organized. In late January,
when a bystander was killed during a protest, I.W.W. organizers
Joseph Ettor and Arturo Giovannitti were arrested on charges of being
accessories to the murder. I.W.W. leaders Bill Haywood and Elizabeth
Gurley Flynn came to Lawrence to run the strike. Together they
masterminded its signature move, sending hundreds of the strikers’
hungry children to sympathetic families in New York, New Jersey, and
Vermont. The move drew widespread sympathy, especially after police
stopped a further exodus, leading to violence at the Lawrence train
station.The IWW raised funds on a nation-wide basis to provide weekly
benefits for strikers and dramatized the strikers’ needs by
arranging for several hundred children to go to supporters’ homes
in New York City for the duration of the strike. The union
established an efficient system of relief committees, soup kitchens,
and food distribution stations, while volunteer doctors provided
medical care.
Congressional hearings followed, resulting in exposure of shocking
conditions in the Lawrence mills and calls for investigation of the
“wool trust.” Mill owners soon decided to settle the strike,
giving workers in Lawrence and throughout New England raises of up to
20 percent.
The Boston Industrial Workers of the world see this event as a
critical part of our history and fully support The Bread & Roses
Heritage Committee. we call to all workers to come out on labor day
SEPTEMBER 2, 2013 to recognize, commemorate, inform, and share the
labor history and social justice legacy of Lawrence’s 1912 Bread &
Roses strike.
an injury to one is an injury to all!
Saturday 3 August 2013
Workers Know Your History, Dic Penderyn.
Each improvement in the conditions of the ordinary people is paid for in the blood of one or more from our communities. Every increment of decent conditions we gain is at the heavy cost of blood, sweat and tears from our brothers and sisters. Despite this we can never relax in the belief that we have won those gains for all time. Those from whom we wrestled them will always try to take them back by stealth, duplicity, corruption, force and their brand of the "stamp of legitimacy". Today the attack to claw back the conditions we won over decades is in full swing, wages are cut/frozen, contracts are ripped up and replaced by "zero hours" contracts, working conditions are shredded, social benefits/services are decimated. If we accept this onslaught without an all out fight, we do an injustice to those from our communities who paid with their life to win them in the first place. Our history is littered with the blood of an army of our heroes, we can pick one from any era, they are there, calling on us to fight for justice.
August 1831, Dic Penderyn was hanged on a trumped up charge, his real crime, he was a a union man, a fighter for better conditions, the type detested by this system of repression, exploitation and corruption. When our present lords and master come at us with their scythe of austerity and deregulation of working practices, let's remember we paid for these conditions by the blood of our own, we insult our heroes if we hand them back without a bloody fight.
Friday 2 August 2013
Workers Know Your History, Frank H. Little.
A day late with this one, but it should not be forgotten. Our history is written in the blood of heroes, brutally shed by the defenders of capitalism.
Forming a union where there was no union has always been a very dangerous activity. Through the years many have paid dearly for such a humanitarian desire. Some severely beaten, some brutally killed, all in the name of capital.
August 1st. marks one such brutal killing in America, the vicious beating and lynching of IWW organiser Frank H. Little in 1917.
In early July 1917, Little arrived in Butte, Montana, to help organize a copper miners' union and lead a miners' strike against the Anaconda Copper Company. In the early hours of August 1, six masked men broke into Little's hotel room.[1] He was beaten and taken to the edge of town where he was lynched from a railroad trestle.[1] A note with the words "First and last warning" was pinned to his chest, along with the initials of other union leaders, and the numbers 3-7-77 (a vigilante code famously used by the vigilance committee of Virginia City, Montana).[1]
It was widely believed that Pinkerton agents were involved, but no serious attempt was made by the police to apprehend Little's murderers. His funeral procession was followed by thousands as he was laid to rest in Butte's Mountain View Cemetery.
Wednesday 19 June 2013
Workers, Know Your History, Voltairine de Cleyre.
June 20, a day to commemorate the the life of one of anarchism's great writers, speaker, educator, Voltairine de Cleyre, who died 101 years ago on June 20, 1912, but still a voice for today.
Voltairine de Cleyre (November 17, 1866 – June 20, 1912) was an American anarchist writer and feminist. She was a prolific writer and speaker, opposing the state, marriage, and the domination of religion in sexuality and women's lives. She began her activist career in the freethought movement. De Cleyre was initially drawn to individualist anarchism but evolved through mutualism to an "anarchism without adjectives."
She believed that any system was acceptable as long as it did not
involve force. However, according to anarchist author Iain McKay, she
embraced the ideals of stateless communism.[1] She was a colleague of Emma Goldman, with whom she maintained a relationship of respectful disagreement on many issues. Many of her essays were in the Collected Works of Voltairine de Cleyre, published posthumously by Mother Earth in 1914.
Sunday 12 May 2013
Workers Know Your History, Sacco and Vanzetti.
Workers know your history, it is a mirror of the brutality of the state, an institution that will attempt to crush any resistance to its authority.
It was on May 12th. 1926, that the Massachusetts Supreme Court, against world opinion, upheld the the guilty verdict on two anarchists, Sacco and Vanzetti, they were both executed on August 23rd. 1927.
Saturday 17 November 2012
SAME OLD SAME OLD.
I find it amazing that as our lords and masters inflict more and more "austerity" on us a vast majority of the general public think this is something new. Somehow there are those out there under the impression that somehow the system has hit a glitch and our millionaire friends in the cabinet have had to take very unusual action. They seem to see what is happening as something temporary and want things to get back to "normal". Well history tells us, this is "normal" nothing has changed, it is all a matter of degree, wealth has always flowed upwards to the leeches and parasites that sit on our backs. It is just that at the present time it has accelerated considerably. If we look at history, even this acceleration is not new.
After the first world war we the ordinary people were, as usual, in shitsville, with high unemployment, poverty and deprivation, industrial relations were in turmoil. In 1922, our then lords and masters, in order to resolve the problem, decided to commission a report, which when produced was known as the Geddes report. Its recommendations were in line with the usual answers from the Leeches Legion. It recommended heavy cuts in education, public health and workers' benefits, sound familiar? We all know that four years later, 1926, Britain workers were involved in the general strike. Must we wait another four years?
Monday 5 November 2012
LITTLE WORKERS KNOW YOUR HISTORY - SCHOOL STRIKE 1911.
A little known strike that lasted no more than three days is worth remembering. It was the school pupils strike of 1911 and started in Llanelli in Wales on the 5th September 1911, when 30 pupils protested against the caning of a pupil by walking out of Bigyn School. It very rapidly spread to 60 towns across the country. According to the Daily Mirror of the day, one boy stated that “our fathers strike – why shouldn't we?”
Another report from The Times stated; that at one school in Deptford, pupils “organised a demonstration outside the school, and amused the neighbourhood by shouting ‘We are on strike’.” The students chalked demands on the pavement: the abolition of home lessons and the cane, and an extra half-holiday in the week. Many carried “ammunition”: stones and other missiles.
Another report from The Times stated; that at one school in Deptford, pupils “organised a demonstration outside the school, and amused the neighbourhood by shouting ‘We are on strike’.” The students chalked demands on the pavement: the abolition of home lessons and the cane, and an extra half-holiday in the week. Many carried “ammunition”: stones and other missiles.
CHILDREN'S STRIKE
Larry Goldstone recounting a revolt of Manchester
schoolchildren, September 1911, in a letter to Stephen Humphries
When I was a lad of ten I used to work after school
hours as a lather boy in my elder brother's barber's shop. Now, the
barber's shop was a real meeting place for men and sometimes they'd
have a big laugh talking about the school strike that they had in
their school days.
My elder brother was a very popular young man, real
extrovert, and it was him who was the ringleader of the strike at
Southall Street school.
You see, the teachers at that time, without any
doubt, were sadists. They ruled with fear. They firmly believed in
the adage that kids were to be seen and not heard. All they needed
was the least excuse and they'd cane you without mercy.
Now when the boys went on strike, they demanded the
abolition of the cane, and they also wanted a shilling a week to be
paid to the monitors, because they were just used as lackeys. On the
big day they met outside the school, over three hundred of them, and
they marched to a field opposite the gaol walls of Strangeways. Then
they marched along the main road, and threw some stones at the school
windows. The strike lasted for three days, but eventually they gave
up and returned to school, and all the classes were lined up to
witness the punishment of the ringleaders.
My brother said they were held over a desk by their
outstretched hands and caned on their bottoms. Now, one of the
brothers put a plate inside his trousers, and the blow of the cane
broke the plate into pieces, badly cutting the lad's bottom. But they
come unstuck with my brother. When it came to his turn, he took the
teacher by surprise, wrenched the cane from his grasp and started
hitting him with it, then he ran out of the school and home.
In the evening, when father came home from work, my
brother told him about the canings, and the next morning he went up
the school with him. He told the headmaster he didn't approve of the
beatings that were carried out at the school, because a lot of the
parents were angry when their children told them about the
punishments. And he gave the headmaster a strict warning that if
anyone dared apply any punishment to his son Jack, then he would go
up and mete out far worse to the one responsible. If his lad did
anything that required punishment, they were to send a note and he
would deal with his son by his own disciplinary methods.
Tuesday 9 October 2012
WORKERS KNOW YOUR HISTORY, - PINOCHET.
In a couple of days it will be the 37th anniversary of the American backed coup in Chile that lead to 17 years of brutality, death and torture across that country. Though Pinochet has gone, nothing much has changed regarding American policy, it still backs dictators and despots as long as it suits the Western corporate machine. The profits and survival of corporatism is more important than the lives of people.
September 11th was the day that, in 1973, the commander-in-chief of the Chilean army Augusto Pinochet took power over the democratically elected president Allende. Pinochet killed and tortured thousands in his dictatorial rule, until 1990. On the same day, in 1998, anarchist Claudia López was shot dead by cops of the reinstated democracy while she fought at a barricade during a commemoration of the 1973 coup d’etat. Since then, under the slogan of ‘Black September’ demonstrators fight state repression in remembrance of Claudia and all of those who fell in combat
Sunday 23 September 2012
WORKERS KNOW YOUR HISTORY,- THE LUDLOW MASSACRE.
Another September anniversary, the 1913/14 Colorado miners strike. What is known as the Ludlow Massacre, was the coming together of the federal state, the banks, the press, and the American corporate world, in a brutal attempt to crush any unionization of the coal mining industry. That was 1913/14, to day they are still doing their damnedest to crush any form of organising among the ordinary people, perhaps the guns aren't out yet, but we should never forget that they have done it in the past and still have the loaded guns on stand-by, should they feel the need.
"----The miners voted to strike. Evicted from their huts by the coal companies, they packed their belongings onto carts and onto their backs and walked through a mountain blizzard to tent colonies set up by the United Mine Workers. It was September 1913. There they lived for the next seven months, enduring hunger and sickness, picketing the mines to prevent strikebreakers from entering, and defending themselves against armed assaults. The Baldwin-Felts Detective Agency, hired by the Rockefellers to break the morale of the strikers, used rifles, shotguns, and a machine gun mounted on an armored car, which roved the countryside and fired into the tents where the miners lived.Read the full article HERE:
They would not give up the strike, however, and the National Guard was called in by the governor. A letter from the vice president of Colorado Fuel & Iron to John D. Rockefeller, Jr., in New York explained:
You will be interested to know that we have been able to secure the cooperation of all the bankers in the city, who have had three or four interviews with our little cowboy governor, agreeing to back the State and lend it all funds necessary to maintain the militia and afford ample protection so our miners could return to work.... Another mighty power has been rounded up on behalf of the operators by the getting together of fourteen of the editors of the most important newspapers in the state-----"
Saturday 12 May 2012
WORKERS KNOW YOUR HISTORY - THE LONG WAR.
Across the globe battles erupt between the state/corporate world and the people, to those who don't know their history it always seems like a new war, a blip in the system, something that will soon be sorted out and then we can all get back to "normality". However to those who do know their history, the battles are the "normality" it is just another battle in the same long war for the freedom to control our own life. A struggle that will continue until there is no state/corporate system exploiting the ordinary people. The battles come in many a guise, it can be strikes as the corporate world tries to extort extra profit from the workers. It can be protests against government policy as it tries to placate its corporate masters. It can be wars as the various power blocks seek to defend their segment or try to expand. No matter what, it is the ordinary people who are at the receiving end of the pain.
We should always remember our history it is the voice of those who have struggled before you in the same cause, telling you of the dangers, the pitfalls, the victories. it is a cry for freedom.
An extract from On History, Repression and the infinite:
The Mexican Guerrilla and Forgetfulness
History tells us that the Nazis cleansed Berlin of Jews in the days leading up to 1936 Summer Olympics. Before everyone arrived from abroad, the Jews had been pushed out of sight, the brutality and pogroms hidden away. The city was brightened, the roads were cleaned, and the shops were open. Three years earlier, Hitler had presided over May Day celebrations, having successfully hijacked the ideas of socialism and revolution from the Marxists, many of whom also happened to be Jews. In 1945, Hitler killed himself and had his body burnt. The war he started before his death consigned the world to its current fate of authoritarian domination. Long after he died, the SS patrolled the streets and Nazi rockets filled the sky.
Monday 30 April 2012
AUSTERITY AND REPRESSION, PARTNERS!!
As the
austerity plans of the financial Mafia bite ever deeper, so the
repression comes on harder. The state will always see the population
as something that has to be controlled and in the “good times” it
is relatively easy as people would rather get on with their lives
than than take to the streets to change things. However as living
conditions begin to deteriorate and more and more people are
beginning to hurt, so the control becomes more difficult, complaint
turns to anger, anger turns to protest and if the controllers can't
get the lid on it, protest turns to insurrection. We should have no
illusions about the extent the state will go to keep the established
order in place. No matter how much democracy they preach, if the
people look like they are gaining in their desire to change things,
then the kid gloves come off and the full force of the state's
armoury comes into play. In this country we don't need to go too far
back in our history to see the extent of force the state will use.
1911 the dockers strike, troops on the streets, and two protesters
shot by the military in Liverpool, 1919, 40 hour strike, Glasgow,
machine guns on the roofs around George Square, soldiers with fixed
bayonets on the streets and at the docks, tanks stationed in
warehouses in the East End of the city. In this so called democracy,
the will of the people is the last thing the establishment will
tolerate.
Today in Europe, Greece is at the forefront of the financial Mafia's
plunder of public assets and as the anger of the people takes to the
streets so the Greek police are given a free hand to brutally
intimidate, repress and attempt to break the spirit of the Greek
people. Our mainstream media seldom covers what is happening on the
streets in Europe, we seldom see a mention of the police brutality in
Greece, but it is there in force on a daily basis. The population of
Greece is less than 11 million, approximately a sixth of the UK, yet
in that country on average one person a week dies in Greek prisons or
in a Greek police cell. The cold bloody shooting by a police officer
of 15 year old Alexis Grigoropoulos to the weekly deaths in custody,
is testimony to the brutality of the Greek state apparatus, we should
never swallow the media crap that our police are somehow different,
given the order the brutality level will rise.
ann arky's home.
Sunday 29 April 2012
WORKERS KNOW YOUR HISTORY.
We are always hearing politicians talk of eradicating poverty with this scheme and that scheme, or appealing to the general public to support various charities. The thing about charities is that we are told of all those hungry people and are asked to contribute money to help feed them. From this we can deduce that the food is there, but the greedy bastards who have all that food will not send it to the hungry until we the general public pay them some money. They obviously don't think that charity has anything to do with them, except perhaps an opportunity to make some more money. Filling cans with money and buying food will never get rid of poverty, it is built into the system of economics that we live under. Destroy the system and there is every possibility we will eradicate poverty.
Some interesting facts and figures from Anarchist Without Content:
In our modern world, poverty is not natural, but the result of institutions that are set up to benefit a few at the expense of the many. Relief efforts are currently failing because they do not address the root causes of poverty. These causes are not mystical or hard to identify, as the most important ones are global property law, international debt, unfair trade, top-down privatization programs, corporate tax shelters, the those problems are social and political. Furthermore, there is a history to these problems, and poverty will not be addressed until this history is reversed.The colonial conquest of the New World, Africa, the Middle East, and Asia, by European powers set up the structure of our current economic system.History books have done a good job depicting the brutality of this period. In many places, Europeans wiped out 99% of the native populations. In places where the natives did survive, many of them were captured and made to do hard labor. In Potosi, Bolivia, for instance, native Bolivians were forced to work silver mines that snaked deep into the earth. So many miners died, that a popular saying goes “enough silver was taken from the mine in Potosi to build a bridge to Madrid, Spain, and if the bones of the dead miners were pulled from the bowels of the mine, one could build a bridge all the way back.”
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