The Prying Eyes Of The State.

       We all know that the state has its prying eyes everywhere, we are well aware of all the CCTV cameras and networks that can be used to track you where ever you go, but are we always aware of the abstruse, covert, hidden prying eyes that target specific individuals and/or groups? Surveillance is one of the state's weapons of control, it needs to know where you are, why you are there, what are you doing there, and if you have permission to be there. The following is an interesting article from Act For Freedom Now, warning us to be ever vigilant and aware that big brother is here and alive and well. 

      Late September we put an end to our doubts concerning the presence of a monitoring device pointed at the Anarchist Library La Discordia in North-East Paris. A device (shaped like a “cardboard folder”) was found in the Montessori school “Plaisir d’enfance” right opposite the library in a storage room on the first floor, overlooking the window. On Tuesday, October 6, we decided to go to the school and contact the management. On insisting, we ended up getting an appointment with the school administrative and financial director. She denied it at first, but when cornered, she finally acknowledged (hinted at) the existence of the device in her school (and consequently the authorization / collaboration of the management).
      After lengthy “negotiations” with her and her superior, and great delaying tactics on their part (to be able to “call her contact”), after classes we ended up gaining access to the storage room. Taking our responsibilities, we quickly decided to forcibly remove the device. We soon realized that everyone in the school was aware of its presence. We managed to get away quickly despite some “resistance”. The school show-off came out to see where we went to facilitate (yet again), the work of the cops. We also learned that the device had been in place since at least the second week of July 2015.

Some Technical Considerations
       The device was in a rectangular casing, loud (fans) about 40x25x25 cm in hard plastic, plugged in (without batteries). The casing had a hole of about 4 cm in diameter for the camera, with three cables coming out at the end, two of which were tipped antennae (probably sound sensors) and a third a small square sensor. Upon opening the box we discovered advanced technological equipment.       A wireless router with two SIM cards (Bouygues), GPS, three cell inputs, one stereo input.       A processor.      A telephone device with an Orange SIM card (which means that the data was not stored but transmitted live).      A camera with two zoom levels, remote controlled.      And other types of materials that we are not able to identify (but that you will find on the downloadable photos below). We are providing some pictures, inviting those capable to share their expertise on subject: 1 and 2.
To conclude
      These devices are designed to monitor, but have the secondary objective of scaring us and teaching us to limit ourselves. But it doesn’t work. Our practices are not motivated by fear or repression, but by our ideas. Anyway, it is logical to suspect that this kind of “attention” (banal enough in the end) will still affect La Discordia like all the other places considered subversive by the State.
      For example we know that other monitoring devices have been discovered in various parts of France (Montreuil, Cévennes, Lille, etc.) in recent years. But we only know that “among comrades” while we consider it important to make this information public so that it can benefit everyone, rather than retreat into stupid counter-productive panic reactions.
      To the ISB and friends: if you want your stuff, you will find it in pieces at the bottom of the Ourcq canal at the level of rue de Nantes. Happy fishing ! (we’ve always dreamed of seeing floating pigs).
Books, not cops!

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Capitalism Kills.

      Where are the hordes from the hills that will tear down the city walls, where are the peasants with their pitchforks, where is the angry crowd come to enjoy the ecstasy of their righteous anger?

Saw this on arrezafe:

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The Exploited And The Exploiter.

      Another fine day, what a country, what a climate, I know, I know, but we really don't have to take into consideration, March, April, May, June, July or August. After all if that babbling brook of bullshit, the mainstream media, can leave out great big junks of necessary information, why can't I?

       The photo below, raised the question in my head, "why did I grow up with six of us, in a room and kitchen in Garngad, one of Glasgow's many stinking slums, with no hot water, and a shared outside toilet, while others lived in houses like the one in the photo, surrounded with trees?" Was it because my father didn't work hard enough? Well it certainly wasn't that. My father was a coal miner all his life, with all the obligatory injuries that go with the job. The only time he wasn't at work was during the miners strike after the first world war. During those lean years he would turn up at the boxing booths on Glasgow Green to go three rounds with their man, to earn bit extra cash to feed his family. He eventually retired with a strained heart and pneumoniconiosis. So what was it that made our houses so different? The answer is simple, I was born into a capitalist system of exploitation as one of the exploited and not one of the exploiters.

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The Illusion Of Democracy Is Washed Away.

       TPP, secretive, negotiations in the back rooms of the marble halls of power, do you think it will be for your benefit? Corporatism finally puts the last nails in the coffin of the illusion of democracy, the world is their oyster, if we let them get away with it. No longer will they sit in the background pulling the political strings, they will now take centre stage and openly shape ever aspect of our lives for the greater good of corporate profit. This is domination of the world by corporate boardrooms, where we will have no redress, except the overthrow of the entire system.

What does the TPP (TRANS PACIFIC PARTNERSHIP DEAL) mean for you..
Why you should care about the #TPP (TRANS PACIFIC PARTNERSHIP DEAL) and what do it mean for your #sovereignty...TPP Wiki:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trans-Pacific_PartnershipWHAT IS THE TPP: How the TPP will impact youhttp://www.exposethetpp.org/TPPImpactsYou.htmlTPP pros and cons:http://useconomy.about.com/od/Trade-Agreements/fl/What-Is-the-Trans-Pacific-Partnership.htmTPP explained reddit:https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3nl4sz/eli5_the_transpacific_partnership_deal/Find and contact your congressman:http://www.congressmerge.com/onlinedb/TRUMP SLAMS OBAMATRADE, STANDS UP FOR AMERICAN JOBShttp://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2015/06/19/exclusive-trump-slams-obamatrade-stands-up-for-american-jobs/Australians says no to TPP:http://aftinet.org.au/cms/fair-deal-or-no-deal-rally-sydney-tpp-2911New Zealanders says no to TPP:https://www.rt.com/news/312543-new-zealand-tpp-protests/Canadians says no to TPP:http://www.cbc.ca/m/news/canada/windsor/unifor-autoworkers-want-tory-candidates-to-state-views-on-trans-pacific-partnership-1.3240789
Posted by Joshua Jordan on Monday, 28 September 2015

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Capitalism = Crisis.

         Capitalism in crisis, capitalism is crisis, to get rid of the crisis in capitalism, we have to get rid of capitalism. Any attempt to tinker with, modify, transform capitalism, will still leave you with capitalism, which is an exploitative system, based on profit for the few and struggle for the many. Dress it up in tinsel, paint it pink, spray it with deodorant, it is still a stinking system whereby the many work for the enrichment of the few. We can never be free if we, the many, depend on working all our lives for the enrichment of the few. Why do we continually struggle through life creating unimaginable wealth for the few? Why do we perpetuate a system of exploitation for the next generation, our children and grandchildren, to inherit? 

           There is a world beyond "market forces", by no stretch of the imagination can the present system be called democracy. It is plutocracy, corporatism, mass exploitation, plundering of public assets, raping of the world's resources, take your pick, but it is not democracy, nor can capitalism ever by democracy.

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Candy And Bubblegum.

        From "Destroy Everything", not new, but still relevant, I particularly like the lines:

Sidewalk chalk writers leave notes for our leaders
who cover our eyes with candy and bubblegum.

      How true, so of course that means you have to work hard at seeing the truth. 

Sidewalk chalk writers leave notes for our leaders
who cover our eyes with candy and bubblegum

They hear what we’re saying, but they
choose not to listen at all

So we choose a different voice
we chew on our choices
and swallow the knowledge and the experience
that we make for ourselves

And we savor
the flavor of knowing
of trying and doing
of coming and going

From this here cold harbor
where we ship in the labor
to export our culture
in favor of giving ourselves

Welcome to the state
here is your flag
and your minimum wage
just be grateful for what you’re given

Our teachers are telling us
your prayers will be answered
as soon as the cancer has
eaten away at your soul

So we’re waiting
and our savior is hiding
but there have been sightings
on billboards and in federal laws

And business is fruitful
its engineered for the mouthful
the chemicals might be harmful
but you will not notice the taste

If you need more
there’s plenty left over
enough to feed everyone
and plenty to be thrown away

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Corporate Health Service, PLC.

      If you pop your head into that cesspool, the babbling brook of bullshit, the mainstream media, you will be aware of the dread and doom headlines regarding the NHS. in recent years. Here are just a few:

    The NHS in England faces a funding gap of up to £2bn, about 2% of its budget, for the next financial year, the BBC understands.

      The NHS could slip £2.5bn into the red later this year and its financial position could spiral “out of control”, with many hospitals and vast chunks of the service running out of money, one of its most senior figures has warned.

     NHS finances in crisis due to rising demand and budget cuts

     Exclusive: NHS faces financial disaster in 2015 as politicians urged to find radical solution

      Two finance directors in three fear their hospital will go into deficit next year as next government must choose between cuts and extra spending, say experts.

       All this in one of the richest countries on the planet, why? It is not incompetence by staff, it is not abuse by patients, it is ideology. The powers that be, that sit in The Westminster Houses of Hypocrisy and Corruption, are following the dictate of the financial Mafia and their corporate masters. They will continue to run the NHS into the ground by means of changes, targets and lack of funding, and then state that something drastic has to be done to save the health service. That drastic action will be the calling on the cavalry of private finance, to come riding to the rescue and invest. In other words take over the running of the NHS. The NHS will become the Corporate Health Service, PLC. The NHS is well on the way to being privatised, and if you can't see that, you're not looking at the evidence. The UK is the world's 6th. largest economy and the 3rd. largest in Europe. We can afford to spend 2.2% of our GDP on weaponry making billions in profits for the arms industry, no country in Europe spends a greater percentag, but we can't afford to look after the health of the people??? It is ideology, it is financial Mafia policy, that is grinding the NHS down, so that it can be carved up in bite size pieces for the corporate greed machine to devour and create a massive money making machine out of the ill-health and suffering of the sick and elderly.   

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The Rent Strike, 100 Years On.

       Spirit of Revolt is putting on another exhibition in the foyer of the  Mitchell Library, Glasgow from November 2^nd. to November 29^th. The main theme will be The Rent Strike, 100 years on. We are sure there is a lot of interest in this subject, and we hope that this exhibition will help feed and maintain that interest. The history of the struggles of the ordinary people is seldom fully recorded, but we should never let it be lost, to this end the Spirit of Revolt collects, catalogues and publishes on line, as much of the struggles of the ordinary people of Glasgow and Clydeside, as we can get our hands on. It is our history, our culture of struggle for a better life, if we don't record it it will be lost, and we become a people without a history, a people without a culture. If this exhibition is as successful as the last one we put on at the same venue, the group will be extremely pleased. Our history is important to us all, as well as future generations, so do spread the word, come along, bring some friends, make your comments, we welcome your feed-back.

 Photos courtesy of The Mitchell Library, from "Rent Strike Information Pack".

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To Call For Peace, Is To Risk Death.

         It is a tragic reflection of our society and our times when we have a situation where, those who struggle for peace run the greatest risk of death.

       Statement from Revolutionary Anarchist Action on today’s bombing in Ankara, (10th. October 2015.) Originally posted in Rabble.
 

      Today, bombs placed at a rally in the Turkish town of Ankara killed at least 86 people. This comes in the context of the bomb attacks in Amed in June, against an election rally; the attack on Kobanê from Turkey’s borders in June and the attack in in July in Suruç against a delegation bringing aid to Kobanê. Many comrades in Turkey and Kurdistan blame these attacks on the Turkish state.
      This statement has been released by Revolutionary Anarchist Action (DAF):

“CAN’T BE FORGOTTEN, CAN’T BE FORGIVEN

       Today, on the 10th of October, the “Labor, Democracy and Peace Meeting” that was organized by various unions, associations and organizations has been attacked. Like in Amed on June and in Suruc in July, the bombs exploding in Ankara today has killed tens of people.
      Thousands of people came together from many different cities of the geography against the politics of war, against war profiteering of different power groups.
      Today, the bombs that exploded, murdered the people who wanted peace, life and freedom against war.
      This explosion, in which more than 30 people have lost their lives until now, is a reflection of the blood thirsty greed of the powers. The ones who murdered in Amed, in Pirsus, in Cizir, are now trying to intimidate the peoples, frustrate with war politics and discourage from the struggle for freedom, by murdering tens of people in Ankara.
      The powers should know that by any means, be it arrests or murder with bombs, we will not be afraid of the powers or submit to their war politics.
       For a new world, a life of freedom, the murderers in Amed, in Pirsus, Cizir and Ankara, murdered ones CAN’T BE FORGOTTEN, the murderers CAN’T BE FORGIVEN.
Revolutionary Anarchist Action (DAF)”

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When Autumn Leaves Start To Fall.

 

     September and October have been very kind to us, long may it last. Another wee run out on the bike, round Militon of Campsie area. A beautiful day, and the benefit of virtually no wind, glory be, I love it when that Scottish cauld blast disappears for a while. Though in the photos I think the leaves were actually last year's, they looked rather dirty and wrinkled, anything for effect.

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A Wee Bit Late.

      Jeeesus, I've missed National Poetry Day, how did I manage that? October 8th. National Poetry Day, three days late. So I'll make up for it with three instead of one.

     First, one from an old friend from the Scotia poetry nights, Hughie Healy, sadly died of throat cancer some time ago, at the time I was going through cancer treatment of my own.

UMMEE

She brought her culture and mystique

To my city street

This Asian mother and child

The exotic colours of her shalmar-kameez

Highlighted brown skin and dark eyes

Her lips moved

In prayer perhaps

To a different god than mine

The little one spoke words

I failed to comprhend

She answered

In the universal language of mothers

I'm oot withoot any money

So shut your face

You're getting nae crisps!

And one from away back in my early years. 

Knowledge.

In learned books what do we gain,

argue Heidegger with Russell, Sartre, Berlin, 

quote Descartes, Kant, Wittgenstein,

know all the answers

to a world w never live in.

So,   richer by far a labourer be

perhaps, never to read nor write

but with a glance, a smiling eye

name each tree, each bird in flight.

Who'll stand in awe at a burning sunrise,

enjoy the cool moisture of a summer shower,

wonder at life in a woodland paradise,

marvel at the changing colour in ever hour.

Glow at the warmth in a lover's embrace,

willingly give that gentle kiss,

lovingly touch a smiling face,

relish holding hands in silent bliss.

Experience magic through a child's sight,

know how to dry its tear,

when to lift it, hold it tight,

bringing comfort, chasing fear.

Desipient book worms may shake their head,

mock his untutored state, only see a fool,

his knowledge will stand him in greater stead,

he took his learning at amore erudite school.

Now one from a man I have admired for many a year, William McIlvanney.

Everyman: A Morality Play.

"Aye, zur," Everyman said, as the Lord of the Manor

raped his wife, sons and his daughters and threw him a tenner.

"Aye, zur," Everyman said, " that be bully for 'ee."

And he pulled up his smock as he bowed from the knee

With a delicate click of obedient clogs

And a tail-wagging movement he borrowed from the dogs.

"Aye, zur," Everyman said, that be bully for 'ee. 

"Appen Maister be wantin ma bollocks for tea?"

With a father from the north and a mother from the south

He let every cliché find a home in his mouth

Being taught as a man he would never be fit,

He was skilled in the role of an identikit. 

He learned his lines well until one fateful day,

Though his mouth still remembered the things he should say,

A slight twinge in one leg made him suddenly see;

"Get a grip, Human beings can't bow from the knee."

"Ach, fuck this for a play,"every man said,

Took the lord of the manner and stove in his head.

There I hope I have made amends for missing National Poetry  Day.

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

 

Sing The Truth

David Cameron Rap
this is the best thing ive ever seen tbh
Posted by Hugo Jackson on Wednesday, 1 October 2014

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A'Kin Feel Th'Cauld Blast.

      A bit late with this one. I was out on the bike on Thursday, but computer problems held up this wee post. It is most certainly getting to the end of my cycling season, a'kin feel th'cauld blast goan doon ma tubes, but still enjoying it when I can grab a day. Everywhere you look, the colours are now changing to that mosaic of reds, rusts, golds and yellows, but it is still a very green and pleasant land.

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See The Other As Self.

 

       In this society, there are so many campaigns on so many issues, from freedom of movement, freedom of speech, feminism, human rights, freedom from religious extremism, animal rights, the right to privacy, and so it goes on. All of this highlights the fact the we are living in a flawed system, a system where each individual has to fight for the right just to exist without coercion, intimidation or fear. At the heart of this flawed society is the failure to see the other as a unique human being with the same rights as ourselves. If we put that part right, the rest should follow.

      This latest broadcast from Circled A Radio, is an interview with Maryam Namazie. Maryam Namazie has spoken and written numerous articles on Women’s Rights issues, free expression, Islamism, and Secularism. Maryam is an inveterate commentator and broadcaster on Rights, Cultural Relativism, Religion, Political Islam and many other related topics. She’s a speaker at the Feminism in London Conference on the subject ‘Religious Fundamentalism and the British State’

Listen to the interview HERE:

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From A Small Prison, To A Bigger Prison.

        Evi Statiri, is now out of a prison, but when will she be free? Like she says in her letter, her prison has just been increased in size to 1km.

This from Contra Info:

Received on October 7th 2015:

       Once you are released from prison, the first thing you realise is that your glance doesn’t stumble into walls, bars or dividers. It can wander and face the sky, without staring through barbed wire. Then, your footsteps are no longer numbered—twenty walking towards the wall of the prison yard, and twenty going back to your cell. Certainly, in my case, the prison yard walls have expanded by one kilometer distance from my home, without even being able to have contact with my companion…
      But be that as it may, for me my release from prison feels like a first victory against fear and injustice they want to impose on us as a restrictive condition of living…
    Nothing of this would have happened if it weren’t for a dynamic polymorphous movement of solidarity, who conveyed to me from every corner of Greece the strength and optimism that history is not only written by the authoritarians but also the insurgents…
      A big thank you goes out to all of the known and unknown comrades who broke the terror of the Power’s omnipotence.
      A big thank you also goes to the doctors at the General State Hospital of Nikaia, and even more to the physicians Spyros Sakkas and Olga Kosmopoulou, who supported me with warmth and self-abnegation from the very first moment.
       Of course, I do not forget those left behind, in prisons and frigid cells… I’ll always stand beside them and hold on to all the moments we shared, until we meet again…
       Because as long as there are prisons, no one will be free…

Freedom for political prisoners
Freedom for those who are in prison cells

Evi Statiri

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Silly, But Dangerous America.

         I found this article full of honest to goodness truth, not that I favour the Russian imperialism over the Western imperialism, they both stink and are responsible for brutality on a massive scale. I have always said that the Americans were not interested in destroying ISIS, at least not until it had bled the Assad regime to death, then they might step in and blow it to pieces. A cold calculating brutal policy, as the whole of Syria and the surround area would be utterly destroyed and hundreds of thousands of innocent people would be dead. But in American eyes, well worth it to see a regime they don't like being brought down. Of course as stated in Club Orlov, the arms corporations make lots of money from such callous, brutal endeavours, They are the real force behind Western policies.

From Club Orlov:

       But it was Putin's speech that laid out the Empire's silliness for all to see when he scolded the US for making a bloody mess of the Middle East with its ham-handed interventions. The oft-repeated quote is “Do you understand what you have done?” but that's not quite right. The Russian «Вы хоть понимаете теперь, чего вы натворили?» can be more accurately translated as “How can you even now fail to understand what a mess you have made?” Words matter: this is not how one talks to a superpower before an assembly of the world's leaders; this is how one scolds a stupid and wayward child. In the eyes of the whole world, this made the Empire look rather silly.      What happened next is that Russia announced the start of its bombing campaign against all manner of terrorists in Syria (and perhaps Iraq too; the Iraqi request is in Putin's in-box). What's notable about this bombing campaign is that it is entirely legal. The legitimate, elected government of Syria asked Russia for help; the campaign was approved by the Russian legislature. On the other hand, the bombing campaign that the US has been conducting in Syria is entirely illegal. There are exactly two ways to legally bomb the territory of another country: 1. an invitation from that country's government and 2. a UN Security Council resolution. The US has not obtained either of them.

Well worth reading the full article HERE:

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Freedom At The End Of A Leash.

 

      A state decrees that a wife cannot communicate or meet up with her husband, not because of any grievance between the couple, but because the state sees such a meeting as some sort of threat. Or is it vindictive repression by the state against anybody who seeks to challenge its authority over the individual's freedom?

     Evi Statiri continues her struggle, having won her release from the state's inhumane cages, by means of a long and dangerous hunger strike, she now faces a struggle against the repressive conditions placed on her, so called "freedom", by that vindictive state. That "freedom" consists of being treated like some monitored animal on a leash, permanently under the piercing eye of the state.  

This from Contra Info: 

      According to our latest information, Evi Statiri suspended hunger strike on October 2nd 2015, when the competent judicial council decided to grant her a conditional release from preventive detention. In the coming period she is expected to file a motion for the lifting of restrictive conditions imposed on her, which include the following: ban on exiting the country; obligation to report to her nearest police station 3 times a month; prohibition on communicating or meeting with her husband (CCF imprisoned member Gerasimos Tsakalos) and any other of her co-accused; obligation to reside only in the home she has declared as permanent residence; and ban on moving outside a perimeter of 1 kilometer around her home.

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