Two Rats From The Same Sewer.

       Two rats from the same sewer, finance and arms dealers, both are central to the festering abscess that is capitalism. They both feed each other, with death and misery being the result. The corporate financial Mafia are the driving force behind the "austerity" ideology that is responsible for the rapid declining living standards of the ordinary people everywhere. The arm industry, with the help of the financial mafia, the banks, feed the thugs, such as NATO, that create mayhem, death and destruction across the planet, in an attempt to protect the interests of their lords and masters, the corporate world.

       The ordinary people gain nothing from neither, but pay in blood and sweat to fatten the coffers of these, surplus to requirements parasites. Anything that can be done to highlight the true nature of their business and turn the public against them can't be bad.

 This from Act For freedom Now:

 

--------A local anarchist and member of the Stop NATO Cymru campaign group said: “We took part in the May Day march to draw attention to the struggles of workers all over the world against exploitation and violent oppression which is exacerbated by arms producers here in the UK.

       We targeted Barclays because it’s a major investor in Exelis Inc. the parent company of the EDO Corporation which is guilty of mass-producing arms to sell to oppressive regimes, exacerbating violent conflict and suppressing legitimate protest. Barclays Global Investors UK Holdings Ltd has 5,059,591 shares in Exelis and Barclays PLC has 63,071 shares.

       We entered the branch after leaving the May Day march and refused to leave until we had made an impact. Within half-an-hour the management decided to close, depriving the company of a busy Saturday afternoon’s profit through direct action. We sent our message to the public by plastering the front of the building with stickers which gave details of Barclays’ guilt and sent a clear message to the company that we won’t tolerate money from our communities being used to fund war.”-------

Read the full article HERE:

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Living In 1930's, Today.

The 21st. century with 1930 families!!

Published on May 8, 2014

        Food bank providers told MSPs it was "clear" that UK government welfare reform had been one of the drivers of the "terrifying" increase in the number of people using food banks in Scotland.
        Denis Curran from Loaves & Fishes said the use of food banks was "not just growing but exploding" saying people were being penalised for being poor and the "heart of the matter is people are starving".

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Whose Streets?

         What can we learn from past protests? One of the largest and probably longest in the West, in recent years was probably Montreal 2012. For approximately six months the streets belonged to the protesters, though the true extent of this occupation never really got that much coverage from that babbling brook of bullshit, the mainstream media. Here is the story of those six months.

https://ia601709.us.archive.org/16/items/STREETPOLITICS/STREET_POLITICS.mp4

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When Will We Ever Learn?

        Our life is a constant struggle, we produce an abundance of wealth, and struggle to survive. For generations the public have listened to politicians and walked round to the ballot box to make their mark on that bit of paper, that guarantees a decent job for somebody else, and the same old shit for themselves. In Glasgow we remember the rent strike of 1915, it was a victory on that issue, but the system stayed the same, and that's why in  Kirby, 1972/73, the local people were once more in an organised rent strike, nothing had changed.

         Here we are today with the bedroom tax, among other repressive legislation, still struggling to keep our heads above water, still producing an abundance of wealth, and there are still people who listen to politicians, who still walk round to the ballot box, make that same mark, and get the same results. They say that one of the signs of insanity is to keep doing the same thing, but expecting a different result, makes you think??

         In this video the voice of Ethel Singleton in 1972, could be from the 1915 rent strike, or it could be from any housing scheme in 2014 Britain. When will we ever learn?

'Behind the rent strike' was Nick Broomfield's graduation project. It followed the progress of the 1972/73 Kirkby rent strike. This video features Broomfield's interviews with Ethel Singleton, one of the forces behind the strike who gives an insightful, intelligent and articulate analysis of the plight of the working class in 70's Britain.

    

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Leftovers.

 A wee poem from Contra Info:

Leftovers.

Ten bread rolls
four red apples
a green apple
a banana
dozens of sandwiches
rolled in aluminum foil

We try to save
what can be saved
from this crooked world
scavenging your garbage cans
scavenging your tourist life

Do you need any towels?
Do you need any toilet paper?
we ask while diving
deep into consumers’ leftovers

My feet are killing me
but I cannot stop questioning
When the fuck will we stand up?
against you-know-who
against you-know-what

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Freedom Of Expression.

        Keep the web free and open. Freedom of expression is not something to be overseen by corporations, nor state apparatus.

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

Failed System.

      The fight against injustice has never gone away, it is part and parcel of the exploitative system of capitalism. Throughout the years people have struggled, organised and fought bitter battles, demanding a fair and just society for all. In Glasgow, we can go back to 1787, the Calton Weavers strike where the weavers of that area  organised to fight the continuing erosion of their living standards, and in the usual attempt at repression, the powers that be were responsible for the deaths of at least six strikers. 1915, the Glasgow Rent strike, a fight to stop the landlords from squeezing the last drop of sustenance from their tenants.  Since then nothing has really changed, we are still fighting the continuing erosion of our living standards, the bedroom tax, zero hour contracts, workfare slave labour and sanctions, the removal of disability allowance from the most vulnerable in our society, and a continuing erosion of wages and working conditions.

         Centuries of bitter struggles just to keep some semblance of decency, while the employing class get richer and richer. Surely by now we should have realised that the system doesn't work in our favour, it can't be modified to work for the benefit of all our people, it has to be scrapped, shoved in the dustbin of history, relegated to the category of man's greatest folly. It has to be replaced by a system that sees to the needs of all our people, a system based on co-operation, mutual aid and sustainability, free from the corrosive motive of profit. We have to do it ourselves, by organising within our communities  mechanisms that circumvent the existing capitalist structures. The help wont come from those already in power, they are doing just fine and are loathed to change anything. The system will only crumble and die when we decide we have had enough, of this endless exploitation and bitter struggle.

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UK, --Mended!!

          The Cameron millionaire cabal, are crowing about the UK recovery, they repeat their little ditty, “unemployment down”, “growth figures up”, and proceed to clink their champagne glasses. One factor that has helped the government's unemployment figures has been the massive increase in “self-employed”. According to a study done by the Resolution Foundation, over the last five years of recession self-employment has risen by approximately 650,000, and now accounts for 15% of the total workforce, a staggering 4.5 million. Self-employment, though lauded by the millionaire cabal, is not the guaranteed road to the good life, with more than a quarter of self employed living on poor incomes. Nor is self-employment the desired option, in lots of cases it was the only option to survival. The growth of self-employed is greatest in the areas of high unemployment, in London where there are well paid jobs, it is at its lowest. The study also shows that the average weekly income of someone self employed, is 20% lower than it was in 2008, and that a typical self-employed worker now earns 40% that of a typical employee. Self-employment is a precarious road to walk, for a very large proportion, the grim economic truth of self-employment is one of an uncertain future, with difficulties in getting mortgages and personal credit and no growing pension pot. 

 

Photo from A World To Win.

         Another factor that blows a hole in the Cameron Millionaire cabal's glowing picture of a mended Britain is the fact that according to official Eurostat figures, some areas of the UK are poorer than some poor countries from former communist Eastern Europe. According to their findings people in the Welsh Valleys and in Cornwall are worse off that those from Lithuania and Estonia. It also states that people from Durham and the Tees valley are poorer that those from the wealthiest regions of two of Europe's poorest countries Bulgaria and Romania. It also shows that London is the richest place in Europe.

 

"We must continue austerity, it's the only way to fix things."

 

       So the new fixed Britain is one of vast swaths of low incomes and an uncertain future, massive discrepancies in wealth between different areas, some of the poorest regions in Europe, and their policy is more of the same. Austerity is the new way of life for the ordinary people, while the millionaire parasites continue to increase their wealth. Britain is certainly fixed for the corporate class, and it is you and I that are paying for that fix. 

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The State Always Tries To Crush Resistance.

Solidarity doesn't recognise borders, resistance knows no frontiers.

An Appeal from US Palestinian Community Network:

ALL OUT FOR DETROIT
To Defend Rasmea Odeh

         Rasmea Odeh, Palestinian community leader and icon, begins her trial on June 10th. Despite months of Rasmea Defense Committee organizing in Chicago and across the nation, the U.S. government refuses to drop its case against Rasmea, who they are alleging lied on an immigration application she filled out 20 years ago.

       If found guilty, she could face up to ten years in federal prison, an immediate revocation of her citizenship, and then deportation from the United States.

NOT UNDER OUR WATCH!

        The charge against Rasmea is nothing but another political attack by the U.S. government, meant to defame and criminalize another Palestinian, Arab and Muslim leader who has dedicated her life to the empowerment of her people, as well as to intimidate and repress entire communities that are organizing for justice and liberation.

         We know Rasmea never lied about any part of her life. She was brutally tortured into a confession by the Israelis 45 years ago, and now the U.S. is trying to brutalize her once again. After giving so much of her life to others, Rasmea now needs our support. We have already received statements of support from over 100 organizations and more than 3,000 people have signed the online petition for Rasmea. Now, we have to show our presence in the court rom.

That is why we are putting out the call: All Out for Detroit!

        Join us on June 10th in Detroit, Michigan, for the beginning of Rasmea's trial. We will pack the courtroom and rally outside every day of the trial to show the broad support Rasmea has across all communities.

Locations and times are still to be announced, but regularly updated information will be found at:

www.stopfbi.net
www.uspcn.org

You can also reach the Rasmea Defense Committee directly at cppr@aaan.org.

I SUPPORT RASMEA ACTION PLAN:

1) Sign the petition to drop the charges:
http://www.iacenter.org/rasmeaodehpetition/

2) Send statements of support and solidarity to cppr@aaan.org

3) Like Drop the Charges Against Rasmea on Facebook and Tweet using #justice4rasmea.

4) Send us your pictures holding up the following message: "I am _____ and I SUPPORT RASMEA." (Fill in the blank with a self-identifier - your name, occupation , or any other description. Examples: "I am a youth organizer and I support Rasmea!" or "I am a supporter of Palestinian Human Rights and I support Rasmea!" Hold the sign up, snap a selfie, and send it to cppr@aaan.org. Then make it your Facebook/Twitter/Google profile picture! Remember, we may use your image in publications or informational pamphlets either online or in distributed hard copies.)

DONATE: To help support Rasmea's defense fund, go to http://stopfbi.net/donate. You must also send an email to cppr@aaan.org, noting the amount and its designation to Rasmea in order for the funds to be allocated correctly.

If you want your donation to be tax deductible, the donation must be in the amount of $100 or more and you must pay by check to "NLG Foundation" with "Rasmea defense fund" on the memo line.

Please mail these checks to:
Arab American Action Network
ATTN: Rasmea Defense Fund
3148 W. 63rd Street, 2nd Floor
Chicago, IL 60629

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Army And Police Against Strikers.

An appeal from Labour Start:

 

Striking workers at one of the world's largest paper mills need our support.

      In March, Indonesian paper workers went on strike to demand that management return to negotiations, and to discuss the minimum wage rate established in the district Governor.
     Four rounds of negotiations failed and the company called in the army and police against the strikers and declared the strike illegal.

       These workers are asking for each of us to take less than a minute of our time and send off messages calling on management to reopen negotiations, to stop criminalizing the strike and to end repression. 
Please click here to do so:

http://www.labourstart.org/go/app

     After you've supported the campaign, please share it with your friends, family and fellow union members.

Thank you!

Eric Lee

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Athens, A Failed Consumer City.

       I keep going on about Greece and how we should not take our eye of that battlefront of "capitalist correction", and we should realise that it is not a unique situation. "Capitalist correction" is taking place all over the planet, it is just that Greece was the first and most severe in Europe. It is all a matter of degree, and that "correction" is still going on throughout Europe. We are all walking the same road as Greece, under the banner of "austerity" but like people, countries walk at different paces, however, we will all get there in the end. 

          By looking at Greece, (with Spain, Italy, Portugal, all close behind) we can learn and organise to be be prepared to turn the "capitalist correction" process to our advantage by creating alternative structures, free from the deadening shackles of consumerism and  the illusion of eternal growth.

       The following extracts are from an article I found extremely interesting, it is well worth reading it in full:

-------The years of the Athenian spectacle ended violently and abruptly in December 2008, uncovering various underlying tensions and contradictions, not least in the consumption-led model of urban development (see Vradis and Dalakoglou, 2012). Capitalist “cracks” (Holloway, 2010) and “societies within societies” (Papi, 2003) began to appear in various parts of Athens and beyond. One of the most striking examples, for instance, was what is now known as “Navarinou park” or “the park”, a former parking lot that was turned into an open squat by Exarcheia-based residents (and other enthusiastic supporters) who, in the aftermath of the 2008 riots: “….united to squat on the space and demand the obvious, that the parking turns into a park! They broke the asphalt with drills and cutters, they brought trucks carrying soil, planted flowers and trees and in the end they celebrated it”ⁱⁱⁱ. Operating on the basis of self-management, anti-hierarchical structuring and anti-commercialisation, the park aspired to be:

… a space for creativity, emancipation and resistance, open to various initiatives, such as political, cultural and anti-consumerist ones. At the same time, it aspires to be a neighbourhood garden which accommodates part of the social life of its residents, is beyond any profit or ownership-driven logics and functions as a place for playing and walking, meeting and communicating, sports, creativity and critical thinking. The park defies constraints relating to different ages, origins, educational level, social and economic positioning^iv.----------

 

-----Indeed, Athens is now by and large inhabited by people who can no longer fully express themselves on the basis of what they consume and where. Their city is no longer a “world-class” city for consumption (Miles, 2010) and cannot pretend to be so either. After all, it is the capital and by far most populous city of the first developed country to be downgraded to “emerging” market status^v. By 2014, the average Greek salary was reduced by 40%^vi. In many ways, the consequences are far more pronounced in Athens than anywhere else. The once well-to-do Athenian middle-classes now parallel the world’s so-called “emerging middle-classes” in reverse, experiencing everyday precariousness and the fears of “falling from the middle” (Kravets and Sandikci, 2014)―and straight onto the poverty zone―in an unprecedented magnitude and scale. Increasingly, Athenians approximate Europe’s “defective” and “disqualified” consumers (Bauman, 2011, 2007), unable to fully define themselves neither in terms of what they consume nor what they produce: with unemployment rates hitting a record 27% across the entire population and over 50% among the youth^vii.
Present-day Athens is the world’s “failed” consumer city par excellence: comprising “zombie” retailscapes for increasingly disempowered consumers who still mourn the dramatic decline of their spending power and unfulfilled consumer desires that seem all the more unreachable. I have seen, for instance, various individuals visiting gifting bazaars and desperately trying to revive consumer fantasies and a “customer ethos” remnant of a not-so-distant past where much of their leisure time was spent around department stores. I have heard of others that walk into stores and pay a small deposit to reserve items, pretending they don’t know that they know it is no longer possible to return to buy them. In a (European) society of consumers, “a world that evaluates anyone and anything by their commodity value” (Bauman, 2007, p. 124), both Athens and its residents have comparatively little, if any, status.

Read the full article HERE:

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

Games Monitor Meeting.

Note from Glasgow Games Monitor:

Hi all,

     Apologies for short notice... Meeting Tonight: 7.15-9.00, Monday 5th May, Please Note!!!!! Normally we meet at John Smith House (address below), but because of the May Day holiday, we'll be meeting instead at the 'Pot Still' pub, 154 Hope Street, very nearby: http://www.thepotstill.co.uk/ We will be waiting at John Smith House until about 7.10 in case anyone comes by who hasn't seen this mail, then heading to the 'Pot Still' to start at 7.15. Meet us at either point. All welcome! John Smith House, 145/165 West Regent street, Glasgow, G2 4RZ Cheers,http://gamesmonitor2014.org/meetings/

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Circled A Radio, Violence In The Left.

       Violence is a many coloured, many faceted beast, it taints many avenues of this society. Subtle under ground, quietly in the back ground and sometimes in your face at home, at work, and various organisations, some that wear the badge of equality, and of course, the top of the tree, the state.

      This week Circled A Radio discusses two cases of violence in "left" organisations, the RTM and SWP.

Listen to the discussion HERE: 

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Glasgow's May Day Photos.

        Sunday, May 4th, saw Glasgow's  (sanctioned) May Day parade march off from George Square, though there was a constant drizzle, the spirits were high. It was as usual, colourful and good humoured, with lots of great banners. Though it could be said it was a good turnout, it was a sad reflection of past May Day parades, not so long ago, that ended up in Glasgow Green with tents, stalls, things for the kids, a really family affair. It now seems that the powers that be want it over as quickly as possible, with a quick march through the centre of town, into a hall, get them off the streets and out of sight, have some bigwigs make a few speeches, then go home and forget about it all. That's not what it is really all about, perhaps next year we will get back to it being a celebration for all the family, re-newing old friendships, a remembering our struggles of the past, honouring our working class heroes, and furthering our cause of a better world for all. It should also be a mark of our resistance to this continued exploitation of the ordinary people. Well that's my personal May Day rant. Enjoy: 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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