Action.

 

           The struggle of the ordinary people for a society of fairness, justice and that sees to the needs of all our people is continuous. At times it simmers just below the surface, other times it explodes into action, When the anger and discontent surface it can be a short brutal battle, other times it can be a long drawn out affair, with many paying a high price for their desire for justice. One of the recent longer strike actions has been the Indian farmers strike, against government legislation that would have allowed the international aggro-businesses to dominate and decimate the lives of thousands of small farmers. The strike lasted approximately one year and has just ended with the Indian government withdrawing the hated legislation, a victory for the striking farmers. However many paid for the victory with their lives.
         Another recent and ongoing strike on this continuous struggle of the people for fairness and justice is happening at the moment in Spain with the metal workers in Cadiz. The battle is continuous and at times brutal but the end will only come with victory and the formation of a fair and just society that sees to the needs of all our people, free from the greed motive of the corporate parasite class.

Thanks Loam for the links.

 

The following from the World Socialist Web Site:

 

            The struggle has rapidly developed into a rebellion against the union bureaucracies and a clash with Spain’s government coalition, made up of the Spanish Socialist Party (PSOE) and the pseudo-left Podemos party.
           Workers occupied the Puerto Real industrial area and built barricades with industrial equipment, burning cars and rail tracks to block police from the area. Bonfires have been lit at the entrances to the factories, manned by pickets, halting production. Military shipbuilder Navantia, European multinational aerospace firm Airbus, construction multinational Dragados, aerospace supplier Alestis and stainless steel manufacturer Acerinox, and their subcontractors are all affected.
           Workers at petrochemical plants in La Linea, Algeciras, and Los Barrios have also stopped work, and picketers there blocked major highways.
          The strike is widely supported in the region, which has the highest unemployment rate in Spain, with 23 percent unemployment and over 40 percent among youth. The trade unions report that 98 percent of workers are striking as anger surges across the region.

Read the full article HERE:

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

Wet Sma' Shot.

           Well Paisley's Sma' Shot Day passed without its bands, drums banner, flags, march and burning of the "Cork", as I stated in a previous post, the town fathers had decided to cancel it, well, they didn't say that in words, but did in deeds. The said it would be an online affair, which just means that it was cancelled. How do crowds march through the streets with banners, music and noise, end up in a flat bit of town and carry out the annual ceremony of burning the "Cork", while sitting at home looking at a screen?
        However this working class struggle and victory was marked on the street in Paisley by a small group of die-hard working class warriors. The "Cork" turned up, with his ill gotten money sticking out of his hat, pockets and sleeves, but wasn't burnt on this occasion, literature was handed out, but the weather decided not to be on their side and it poured buckets. Undeterred the event went ahead, the stall, the "Cork" and leaflets, explaining about the Sma' Shot Day and the Radical Paisley got distributed. If you missed the event, enjoy the photos.

 

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

Pretty Boxes.

         We in the West receive our shiny hi-tec products in nice boxes and it all looks very pretty, but at the manufacturing end it is never quite so pretty. These products so often start their lives in sweatshops under arduous conditions, where workers lives are worth nothing and human dignity is something they dream about. Many endure this as a necessity to survive and see to their family's needs, some decide that they'll take no more of this inhumanity and slavery and give free reign to their righteous anger. This is what has happened at a factory that manufactures products for such big shining lights in the hi-tec world as Apple, Levono and Microsoft to mention a few. These and other extremely wealth corporate beasts, paint their products as beautiful necessities to enhance your life, but every box is sealed with blood and sweat of ordinary people struggling to survive in this cesspool of greed.
This from Gadgets 360:

 

 A screengrab of the purported video of the violence, not verified by Gadgets 360 independently

        An iPhone manufacturing facility in Kolar district in Karnataka, operated by Taiwan-headquartered Wistron Corporation, has reportedly been vandalised. A video clip of the violence, allegedly by workers, has also appeared online. However, this clip has not been independently verified. Press Trust of India has quoted a police official saying that the workers attacked the facility — damaging windows, vehicles, furniture, and computers — over salary-related issues. A trade union leader also reportedly said that most employees were not being paid on time and they were unhappy about many deductions in their salaries.
        The workers allegedly claim that many of them were made to work for 12 hours but only paid Rs. 200 to Rs. 300 per day calculated for 7-8 hours, according to a report by News 18. The vandalism took place after the management failed to address their grievances, as per the report.
       Hundreds of workers are said to have ransacked the manufacturing facility, located in Narasapura Industrial Area in Kolar district, 51 kilometres from Bengaluru, after their night shift ended at 4 am today, December 12.
       Wistron Corporation manufactures iPhone 7 for Apple, and IT products for Lenovo, Microsoft among other companies. The company has not made any official statement so far.

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

My Homeland.

      What better way to start your day than with pleasant music, with an emotional content that you wish to endorse. Translations are never 100% accurate, but you get the meaning.  Lifted this from Arrezafe.

They say the homeland is
a rifle and a flag.
My homeland is my brothers
who are tilling the land.

My homeland is my brothers
they are tilling the land
while here they teach us
how one kills in war.

Oh, I don't shoot, no,
oh, I don't shoot, I don't
Alas, I don't shoot my brothers.
Oh, I was throwing, yes,
oh, I was throwing, yes,
against those who drown the people in their hands.

Prepare us to fight
against the workers
bad lightning strike me
if I attack my companions.

The war they fear so much
it does not come from abroad;
they are proletarian struggles
like brave miners.

Oh, I don't shoot, no,
oh, I don't shoot, I don't
Alas, I don't shoot my brothers.
Oh, I was throwing, yes,
oh, I was throwing, yes,
against those who drown the people in their hands.

When a general dies
they carry it on a harmonic,
the one who kills himself in the mine
the coal itself buries it.

The one who kills himself in the mine
two companions carry it,
stone charcoal pain,
mourning of brave miners.

Oh, I don't shoot, no,
oh, I don't shoot, I don't
Alas, I don't shoot my brothers.
Oh, I was throwing, yes,
oh, I was throwing, yes,
against those who drown the people in their hands.

If my brother gets up
being in the barracks
I take the gun and the blanket
and I go to the mountains with him.

Officers, officers,
you have a lot of courage
we'll see if you are brave
when our day comes.

Oh, I don't shoot, no,
oh, I don't shoot, I don't
Alas, I don't shoot my brothers.
Oh, I was throwing, yes,
oh, I was throwing, yes,
against those who drown the people in their hands.

Oh, I don't shoot, no,
oh, I don't shoot, I don't
Alas, I don't shoot my brothers.
Oh, I was throwing, yes,
oh, I was throwing, yes,
against those who drown Spain in their hands.

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

True Caspitalism.

        Across the world in developing countries we hear of brutal and draconian actions against workers who organise and act in solidarity to try to better their conditions. However here in civilised Europe we do it differently, (oops I forgot, according to our lords and masters, we are no longer Europeans) We do have dialogue and in most cases if the workers are organised enough, we get a compromise, occasionally a victory. In Germany, that so called democratic country, in one particular dispute with workers who are being treated unfairly, the gloves are off. Instead of trying to reach a compromise the bosses have decided to sack a group of workers and threatened 800 more with lay-off, if the struggle continues. Obviously the bosses feel strong enough to take on the union and confident enough to know that they will get the backing of the state if this struggle escalates. At times like this it is incumbent on all workers to stand up and show their support and solidarity with the workers at the receiving end of this brutal profit before people policy, of this capitalism with the gloves off. We surely can also stand up and take our gloves off in defence of our living conditions. When bargaining ends, real struggle begins.

This from Labour Start:

      Workers at Ameos in Germany, a private for-profit hospital corporation, are demanding fair wages, secured by a collective bargaining agreement. In the federal country of Sachsen-Anhalt in the east of Germany, for example nurses receive up to 500 EUR less than comparable employees in other hospitals. But Ameos refuses to sign a collective bargaining agreement with the union, ver.di. After massive short-term strike action in November Ameos has fired 14 workers without previous notice and has threatened 800 lay-offs should industrial action continue. The workers have now started an open-ended strike. They are fighting for better wages. Adequate payment will also help to find more people for the health professions. Adequate health care services for the region must be the priority, not ever higher profits. The workers need your support in their struggle. Please join us in sending protest emails to the regional CEO Frank-Ulrich Wiener and the Chairman of the Ameos board, Dr. Axel Paeger.

Click HERE to send email: 

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

We Are On A Downward Spiral.

      Remember when Gideon, Mr Osborne to you and I, predicted in 2010 that he would balance the budget in four years. Then our tough spell of austerity would be over and we would be awash in the lush green shoots of growth and the entire population would sing hallelujah Gideon. Then there was a slight re-think about those magical green shoots of growth, and it seemed that we would have to suffer a little more austerity, through to 2017/18. So from a four year fix to an eight year fix, that's quite a miscalculation. Now, Gideon's fix seems to be getting pushed a little bit more into the future, Two economic “think tanks”, (I love that phrase, it seems to imply that we have found some people in economics who can actually think), have come up with another wee disappointment for Gideon. The Institute for Fiscal Studies and the Institute for Government have warned that the austerity measures in the UK could still be trying to work their magic when the 2020 election comes around, with austerity being the plans for that election, and Gideon's mythical balancing act still out of reach. Beyond that requires a very special crystal ball.

       What does all this missing targets and austerity continuing mean to us the ordinary people? Well there has already been agreements by a number of government departments to make cuts of between 8% and 10% for year 2015/16. This is on top of the massive cuts we have had to Government spending, since Gideon and his gang first mugged us in 2010. So all those who think that the worst is over should think again. Ten years or more of cuts in benefits and social spending, wages frozen or cut, inflation running at almost 3%, and you can see deprivation staring you in the face for a generation or more.

      What these two “think tanks” are actually saying is, that there is no hope of any improvement in the living conditions of the British people for the foreseeable future, on the contrary, it is a future of more cuts and the risk of higher taxes. Even if in the 2020's those mythical green shoots of growth do start to appear and that magical balanced budget materialises, how long will it be before we the ordinary people even get back to where we were in 2008? The answer is never, it is a downward spiral and our battles and struggles over the last couple of hundred years to improve our standard of living will have to be re-fought. Improvements in wages and working conditions will have to be wrestled miserly bit by miserly bit from the capitalist greed merchants, as they were in the past. We could of course organise to bring an end to the capitalist economic system that is the root problem of our economic woes, and start to restructure society on the basis of the needs of all our people. We can create a society free from bankers and corporate control, based on communities, built on mutual aid.

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Dangerous to be in a Union.

      We should never take for granted that which our forefathers suffered and struggled to gain. So many things in today's society that we take as part of a civilised society, weren't there a generation or so ago. Most of what the ordinary people fought and struggled to achieve has to be guarded or it will be taken away from us. In this type of society it is an endless fight to move forward and to hold onto what we have achieved. Here in the UK being a member of a trade union is accepted as your choice, and once a member you don't expect to be punished. However in some parts of the world, being a union member can mean beatings, torture, prison and in some cases even death. The state will go to great lengths to crush any attempt by the people to organise to control their own lives, such ploys as labelling them terrorists, or shouting "national security", allows them to repress such movements. We don't have to go to the darkest corners of the world to find an example of how the state will try to destroy attempts by ordinary people who organise to improve their conditions. Most people see Turkey as a modern civilised country, but being a union member there is fraught with danger.

This from LabourStart:

       In the early morning of Tuesday, 19 February, Turkish police targeted members and leaders of the public sector union KESK, arresting at least 100 of them, including members of the teachers union.  

      Overall, 167 arrest warrants were issued for trade unionists.  The police have accused the trade unionists of links with terrorist organizations.

      This is not the first time that the Turkish authorities have used anti-terrorism laws to crack down on trade unionists. On 10 April, the a trial will begin against 72 additional KESK members and leaders who were arrested in June 2012.

       The International Trade Union Confederation, the Education International, Public Services International and the European Federation of Public Service Unions, representing tens of millions of organized workers around the world have launched a major new campaign demanding the immediate and unconditional release of all the arrested union members.  They also demand that the Turkish state stop harassing and labeling trade unionists as terrorists. 

 

Please take a minute and add your name to the online campaign - click here.

 

        And please make sure that your union shares this message with thousands of its members -- this is the only way to grow this campaign into something so massive that we cannot be ignored. If thousands of us send off messages, and soon, we may be able to get the Turkish government to back down and to release our brothers and sisters from jail.

 

Thank you.  And - solidarity forever!

 

Eric Lee

---

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FROM THE HEART.

    Perhaps instead of theorising we should start to follow our emotions and when we discuss, we should speak from the heart, not from the book. The following short piece might sound soppy to some, but would it be bad if lots more spoke and felt like this?

From united99:

      I typed this just now in an argument with others who feel workers make what they deserve. There are typos, there are things that are not worded right, but it is from the heart...Right now I am in a state in the USA which is sooo anti-workers that it makes my heart weep! I feel that this is the sortof place where this sortof speech needs to be given. The workers who are making 7.00 working at factories which make millions are incredibly dangerous, this men need to know that they are worth more than minimum wage. Workers who are forced to be without their families on holidays and for the vast majority of the day and night deserve to know that they are worth more than money, they are priceless. Workers have lost their pride, their heart, their motive, their souls so to say. It would be easy to give a speech and wage a war in an area which already has a strong labor movement, but in a right to work state, which is really a right to fire state, these men need their muscle back. I will die for my fellow workers, I will gladly spend time in prison for my fellow worker, I will be poverty stricken if it means that I am doing it on my terms and not those of some shitty business, some call center, some factory, some fast food place, some warehouse. Tonight I decided that my years of travel and activism, that it would all mean nothing if I did not finally put MORE action to my words, and those actions and words are following in the footsteps of Eugene V Debs or Bill Haywood. Tonight I begin my steps toward real freedom.

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FIGHTING FOR OURSELVES.

     For those interested, the Solidarity Federation's new book, "Fighting for Ourselves" gets a detailed review in The Commune.

"---- Yet it is not quite. Despite a few caveats about SolFed not being the be all and end all, this is a SolFed-centric vision. This is maybe most evident in the passage about the SolFed Local:

“At the heart of the anarcho-syndicalist union is the Local, which aims to be at the centre of community and workplace struggle in the surrounding area. But the role of the Local goes beyond that. It provides the physical space where a diverse range of groups, such as oppressed, cultural, and education groups can organise. The Local acts as the social, political, and economic centre for working class struggle in a given area. It is the physical embodiment of our beliefs and methods, the means by which workers become anarcho-syndicalist not just on the basis of ideas but activity.”

     Such bodies will need to exist. But if there is a particular reason why they should be part of – or mainly facilitated by – SolFed, it is not described within these pages. Thinking of Liverpool radical politics right now, I would love to be in such a group with the SolFed comrades, but I’d want AFed comrades there too, as well as the many unaligned comrades who make up the overwhelming majority of radical class struggle activists.----"

Read the full review HERE: 

      You can buy hard copies of Fighting for ourselves for £6 (including p&p) from Freedom Press (UK – £5 in the shop), and for $10+p&p from Thoughtcrime Ink Books (North America). It can also be viewed or downloaded for free from the ‘Selfed’ website.

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GLASGOW'S EASTEND RIP-OFF.

        The people of Glasgow are being conned, millions of pounds of taxpayers money is being poured into an elaborate party for athletes and VIP's, it goes by the name of the 2014 Commonwealth Games, of course there is the promise that there will be a legacy for the citizens of Glasgow. That legacy will most likely be a mountain of debt with a handful of land speculators making millions. The East End of Glasgow, as far as I am concerned, is one of the many rich areas in our city. Not rich in material wealth, but rich in the resilience, diversity and ingenuity of its ordinary people, priceless wealth. Materially it is one of the most deprived areas in the country and has been for many years. Having been ignored by the city council for years, the East End now finds itself surrounded by multi-million pound developments. Vast amounts of money are changing hands but the ordinary people of the area are not involved. Instead they are being removed and on occasion forcibly, by eviction order. Apart from the money being poured in to the massive construction in the area there has been the money shuffling between the old boys network. Former CEO of Glasgow East Regeneration Agency, (Labour MSP Ronnie Saez and friend of Frank McAveety) was made redundant from his post with a pay-off of £500,000, approved by Glasgow councillors Catherine McMasters, James Coleman and George Redmond. Councillor Redmond was the arrogant guy who told Margaret Jaconelli and her family when they were forcibly evicted from their home, to “take it on the chin”. Other councillors have made a wee killing from this conman's bonanza, One Graham Duffy of Grantly Developments (Parkhead) since 1988 he has been holding on to a piece of derelict land in Millerfield Street, Dalmarnock. The site was named as the site for the Athlete's Village and Duffy done a deal with the council and sold them the land for a tidy little sum of £5.5 million, a stratospheric rise in its value of 12,000%. Former Glasgow Rangers boss David Murray's company a few years ago bought a piece of land for £375,000 and out of the goodness of his heart, to help the development of the Commonwealth Games sold it on for £5.1 million. And so it goes on, millions changing hands among the sharks, public money ending up in developers pockets, while the residents of the East End and evicted and scattered to the winds, in most cases taking their deprivation with them as it is all they have ever received from the council.

This film tells the story of one East End family and what the “games” means to them.

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LIVE SPARKS.

        The electricians are holding firm in their resolve not to be treated like serfs, with a "take it or leave it" attitude from the employers. If Balfour Beattie get away with cutting the electrician's wage by up to 35%, then you can rest assured that you will probably be next in line for the same treatment. That is taking it that you have a job at all. These guys are at the forefront of the attack on your living conditions. the bosses will not pick a fight with all the workers at the one time. First one group, then the next, once you have slashed the wages of the first couple of groups the rest is easier. This is your fight, whether you are in the public sector or the private sector or unemployed, you never know, you or your kids, might want to a spark in the future. Show solidarity with your class, that's what the millionaire class do to defeat you. 

From Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/home.php#!/groups/264935423529258/

Sparks Against de-skilling and 35% Pay Cuts

Public Event for Sparks Against de-skilling and 35% Pay Cuts
Friday 10:00 until 13:00 Baflour Beatty Office, Lumina Building,

40 Ainslie Road, Hillington Park, Glasgow G52 4RU
FRIDAY 6TH JANUARY - 10AM

SCOTTISH BASED BALFOUR BEATTY M&E WORKERS ARE RETURNING THEIR BESNA CONTRACTS UNSIGNED STRAIGHT TO THE OFFICE

       Pass this on and let's give them as much support as possible! ALL M&E workers in the area should attend to show their support and to pass on the message to BBES that we will not stand for this attack

          The same firms who are de-skilling our industry and cutting our wages are also blacklisting innocent people. If you have heard sparks complaining about the blacklist on demo's and didn't know what they were talking about - watch this youtube video and all will be revealed - if you've never seen it before, it is truly shocking. As it stands I am not blacklisted but I do personally know a couple of people who are. It is a shocking practise and needs to be eradicated.

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PUBLIC SECTOR + PRIVATE SECTOR = VICTORY.

     While the Cameron millionaire cabal in The Westminster Houses of Hypocrisy and Corruption slash at the social sector destroying social fabric of lives of the ordinary people of this country, he is giving the nod to his millionaire corporate Mafia friends to attack the wages and conditions in the private sector. The electricians in the construction industry are being forced, without negotiations, to accept a 30% wage cut and a change in conditions. Of course the electricians are not taking this lying down.

       Of course we have to realise that this is not a public sector struggle and a private sector struggle, this is one struggle against a system that sees workers as an insignificant mass that can be treated as best suits the corporate/financial world, and can be discarded and impoverished if it suits big business. It is time that the private sector and the public sector joined hands and worked as one, only then will we win and then we can change the system to one of justice and fairness, free from the greed of the profit motive.

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WORKERS KNOW YOUR HISTORY.

The beginnings of CNT in Spain, a time of extreme poverty and brutal repression. Don't ever believe that the present system can't return you to those conditions. Cheap labour is the dream and life blood of the corporate system and the present austerity cuts is a step in that direction. Workers, know your history and learn from that history. The answer is there, we don't need to re-invent the wheel.
        Read some of Glasgow's working class history HERE.

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WORKERS KNOW YOUR HISTORY -

- EMMA GOLDMAN'S BIRTHDAY.

      As the struggle of the ordinary people is set to become more harsh, we should always remember those who in their life gave so much to that struggle. We can learn from their deeds, their words and take inspiration from the way they lived their life.
     Today June 27 is the birthday Emma Goldman, born, 27 June 1869, died 14 May 1940, one of the many working class giants that took the full force of the state but never wavered in their believe, never lost their desire for a better world for all.

      On June 27, 1919 Emma Goldman spent her 50th birthday behind prison walls, where she was serving a two year prison term in Jefferson City, Missouri, for her conviction, along with Alexander Berkman, for conspiracy against the Selective Service Act of 1917 (for publicly speaking out against conscription). Today, June 27, 2011 we should take strength from the countless Emma Goldman's across the world and refocus our vision and re-double our efforts to carry on the struggle for that better world for all.
     
       Emma Goldman's writings and speeches touched on the full spectrum of human activity, she had clear thoughts on everything from love to death and all that comes between. Here are a couple of quotes from those two perspectives.
 

Cover of 70th Birthday Commemorative Edition pamphlet (Los Angeles: Libertarian Committee, 1939)

[Kate Sharpley Library]    

  

  Love:          

              Free love? As if love is anything but free! Man has bought brains, but all the millions in the world have failed to buy love. Man has subdued bodies, but all the power on earth has been unable to subdue love. Man has conquered whole nations, but all his armies could not conquer love. Man has chained and fettered the spirit, but he has been utterly helpless before love. High on a throne, with all the splendor and pomp his gold can command, man is yet poor and desolate, if love passes him by. And if it stays, the poorest hovel is radiant with warmth, with life and color. Thus love has the magic power to make of a beggar a king. Yes, love is free; it can dwell in no other atmosphere.

     Death:

               As to killing rulers, it depends entirely on the position of the ruler. If it is the Russian Czar, I most certainly believe in dispatching him to where he belongs. If the ruler is as ineffectual as an American President, it is hardly worth the effort. There are, however, some potentates I would kill by any and all means at my disposal. They are Ignorance, Superstition, and Bigotry — the most sinister and tyrannical rulers on earth. As for the gentleman who asked if free love would not build more houses of prostitution, my answer is: They will all be empty if the men of the future look like him.

        Responding to audience questions during a speech in Detroit (1898); as recounted in Living My Life (1931), p. 207; quoted by Annie Laurie Gaylor in Women Without Superstition, p. 382

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TEAPOT COLLECTIVE INTRODUCTION TO ANARCHY, PAGE 13. 

         Time for the next exciting page from the Teapot Collective Introduction to Anarchy, we continue with page 13. Page 12 can be read HERE.

         "--Find examples of what life could be, put our ideas into practise in everyday life.

          Creating anarchy is helping your neighbours, stealing from your workplace, growing your own food, throwing a brick at a riot cop, organising a stamp-collectors club, babysitting for your friend, talking back, phoning in sick, not being what is expected of you. Anarchy is mutual aid, co-operation and not leaving your life to others to organise it.

      We don't see the mythical revolution as something that will just happen suddenly one day after we've polished some ideology. Revolution is a

process of individuals and collectives gradually reclaiming what's been taken from us.

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