An Odd Way To Recycle Nappies.

         Isn't it amazing what some people will do to an individual just because they are a filth rich, dangerous, hypocritical arsehole? Don't they realise that Jacob will have to take time off from making more money, just to organise the clean up of his garden. Not that I imagine, he himself will ever touch the nappies.

This from 325: 

 Photo from Anarchist News.

      Far-right politician Jacob Rees-Mogg gets a home-visit by crazed anarchist vandals (UK)

        How many people would love to tell Jacob Rees-Mogg to go and fuck himself? Well, last night we did so in joyful fashion. We paid a little visit to the countryside just outside of Bristol, to his mansion called Gourney Court in the quiet village of West Harptree.
          For those of you who are reading this and do not know who this man is, he is one of the most detestable members of parliament ever, and fuck me they’re a bad bunch. Other politicians claim he is the one truly ruling this country from behind the scenes. Here are some of his charming characteristics…
        He is extremely wealthy, staunchly Roman Catholic, a clear friend to fascist groups and has his eyes fixed on being the actual political leader of this fucking prison island (after May decomposes fully).
         He was raised by his nanny. After prep school he attended Eton college and then Oxford university (for the poshest people in the country). Him and his wife have a 100 million quid together, they just bought a new house in London for 5 million, he makes 168,000 pounds a year from his partnership in a hedgefund business called Somerset Capital Management that is worth 7.5 billion pounds (apparently it invests in tobacco, mining and oil and is based in offshore tax havens, for those who care about such details). He proudly claims he has never changed a nappy in his life despite having 6 kids.
         He uses his religion as an excuse for his xenophobic views. He is opposed to same sex marriage and contraception, he is against feminism, LGBTQI people and specifically gender re-assignment. He is opposed to abortion in all circumstances including cases of rape. He has argued for the abolition of environmental protections and for fracking, he is pro fox hunting and has also argued for the Conservative party to be almost entirely white skinned. He is opposed to immigration, he supports zero hours contracts and loves the equally charming DUP (Northern Irelands right-wing Democratic Unionist Party) and the Conservative governments billion pound deal with them.
         He fucking idolizes Margaret Thatcher and we’re not even done yet…
        In May 2013, he addressed the annual dinner held by the Traditional Britain Group, a group of fascists that calls for non-white Britons to be deported. Apparently he had been informed about these things by anti-fascist group Searchlight prior to his attendance.
      After Rees-Mogg was confronted by anti-fascists in Bristol a year ago, Britain First (another fascist organisation) pledged to protect him at future events.
      Rees-Mogg is backed by Nigel Farage, the disgusting former leader of nationalist UKIP party, who has probably the second most punchable face in politics after Rees-Mogg himself. He’s also met with Steve Bannon of Breitbart News in the US.
       He constantly spouts-off about these high morals of Catholicism from his position of other-worldly privilege with no comprehension of the realities of people at the other end of the financial spectrum.
       Phew, that is an impressively exhausting list to sum up a contender for the worlds biggest arsehole.
       For all of these reasons and more he was chosen as a perfect symbol of many things we struggle against as anarchists. And so… last night we left him over 60 soiled nappies spread across his grounds as he’s no idea what they look like (don’t ask where they came from! haha). We spread around condoms to see if the idea would grow on him, even decorating a crucifix in his garden with them. We left lots of lovely messages sprayed around many of the buildings on his property letting him know exactly how we felt about him and causing a considerable clean up job. The pièce de résistance: his wife’s car (license plate Y7 HRM) sprayed with “SCUM” across the side in massive letters with a big sucker dildo planted on the bonnet! Beautiful.
       Our action is not revenge or punishment (how could it be, there is no balance between our prank and this list of his accomplishments), but one (slightly sillier) glimpse into one of the multitude ways we exercise our critical analysis.
        The conditions of our existence are under the control of people like this, but make no mistake, unlike one member of Bristol antifa who confronted Rees-Mogg, we are not supporters of the left or defenders of Jeremy Corbyn, we are not interested in a different leadership, in another form of representation, in a regime change, or in anything that merely shuffles around the makeup of power. We are opposed to all political forms including democracy. Democracy is shit, it breaks the link between thought and action. It does nothing but maintain the existence of alienated power since it requires that our desires be separate from our power to act, and any attempts to engage in that system will only serve to reproduce it. Voting does not give you a voice, it takes it away.
     We continue to struggle for our ourselves, in solidarity with our comrades (inside and outside of the prison walls, across national boundaries and to those continuing to struggle who have been forced underground)… and in honor of a comrade who fell in the midst of fighting and who spent her life struggling against many of the issues mentioned above. Like the graffiti says around Bristol, “keep fighting!”.
       The Cornerstone group(1) can shove their faith and their flag up their arse and Momentum(2) can go fuck themselves as well!

Down with politics and politicians, religion and the State!

The Home-visit Cell
          PS. Sorry for the long communique, blame Jacob Rees-Mogg for being such a massive prick.

(1) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cornerstone_Group
(2) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Momentum_(organisation)

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The Storm Troops Of Imperialism.

       When ever members of the military come out and openly voice the truth about what the military is all about. When they lay bare the fact that the military, in any state, are the storm troops of imperialism, an antithesis of freedom and democracy. We should spread their words far and wide. Thanks Loam for the link.

       Follow Eyes Left Podcast and others on SoundCloud.

In this debut episode of Eyes Left, hosts Spenser Rapone and Mike Prysner discuss the vision and goal of the podcast, how their experiences in Iraq and Afghanistan led them to become socialists, and why US troops should resist U.S. foreign policy.
Support this project at Patreon.com/EyesLeft
Follow us on Twitter twitter.com/EyesLeftPod
and Instagram instagram.com/EyesLeftPod

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While Poverty Exists … There Will Be Rebellion!

           While in prison your treatment becomes, at best, that of a second class citizen, or that of a non-person, something to be controlled, intimidated, subdued. Our solidarity with those incarcerated in the state's cages of repression should be unquestionable and unstinting.

This from Contra Info:

Juan Aliste Vega’s message from the Prison Hospital

 

      Our negotiations and tenacity inside and outside prison over the past four months have achieved a first result: on Thursday 19th July I was transferred from the High Security Prison to the Prison Hospital to have an ECG and other tests I needed. The following morning, Friday 20th July, I was transferred again – amidst a huge deployment of police and prison guards – to the INCA (Institute of Neurosurgery) to finally have an angiography, a test in order to get a more detailed image of the area where the cerebral damage I sustained from blows inflicted in the past is to be found.
        It is worth mentioning that this test is crucial and necessary for the operation that I will need to have very soon. In the end the test was carried out without any problem and the medical team involved treated me in a dignified and correct way.
           After the test I was transferred to the Prison Hospital by ambulance; from there I will be discharged soon to be taken back to the High Security Prison.
Medical language and its technical details can only partially describe my current situation. There are still many obstacles to be overcome, just as difficult or even more difficult than this test, before I can undergo the brain operation, which had already been defined ‘urgent’ last March: obstacles and barriers erected because for the State I am an outcast, closely watched by the local police who act according to the hard logic of revenge and fury, and moreover I’m submerged in a disgusting bureaucratic quagmire.
       These words are far from victimization and lament, but are full of revolutionary, untameable and subversive vitality. In the constant practice of reciprocal revolutionary solidarity, which we subversive political prisoners have been carrying out for years, it becomes necessary to relate any step taken in this battle. It wasn’t the first nor will it be the last battle we have to face as outcasts of the State.
           I’d like to take the chance to rejoice in the various initiatives carried out in Santiago, Concepciòn, Valdivia, Temuco and other places, as well as the internationalist initiatives that were able to cross the borders of Argentina, Uruguay, Brazil and Spain … Initiatives and gestures with which we put solidarity into practice, solidarity that builds and strengthens the network of subversion; initiatives and gestures that are vital to us like oxygen and support us in the path towards the ultimate liberation from prison.
         We remain here, not one step back, without bowing our head, proud of the wonderful rebel complicity that goes everywhere, spreads, multiplies and allows us to face everything that will come.

While poverty exists … there will be rebellion!

Juan Aliste Vega, Subversive Prisoner
Prison Hospital, Santiago of Chile
July 2018

    

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

 

Shelter Is A Huma Right.

           Once again solidarity has proved itself to be a powerful weapon in the struggles of the ordinary people. The growing support by the people of Glasgow to stand up to injustice, and take on the corporate juggernaut of SERCO and its partner in crime, the home office, has met with success, albeit, temporary success. Only the continued growth of that solidarity can turn this into a permanent victory. Shelter is a human right, not a privilege in the hands of corporate bodies or the home office to be handed out on ideological whim and/or profit motive. Well done to all those involved, and continue to grow our solidarity.

      Living Rent Scotland's tenants union has welcomed today's announcement by SERCO to immediately halt their proposed evictions of up to 300 people in Glasgow, it comes as the Tenants union was preparing to mobilise hundreds of volunteers to defend the doors of those facing eviction by SERCO
       Over 500 people have now signed up to a call out by Living Rent and were preparing to mobilise on Monday morning to defend the doors of their neighbours who are threatened with eviction by SERCO, it comes as part of the ongoing campaign by campaigners across the city to put a stop to SERCO's plans to evict up to 300 people across Glasgow
       "We welcome this decision by SERCO to put a temporary halt to any lock changes, but let's be clear it's temporary. This concession from a multi-billion-pound multinational has only come about through the combined mobilisation of ordinary people and dedicated organisers; this belongs to the people and its only through our continuing mobilisation that we can ensure this victory is seen through.
         The best way to ensure a victory in the courts is to show that the ordinary citizens of Glasgow are ready to take to the streets in defence of their neighbours no matter what. We have been planning and building up our capacity for neighbourhood defence all week in preparation for SERCO's attempt to evict people, we have seen a massive response from the people of Glasgow who are rightfully horrified and angry at these plans by SERCO. In less than a week we have already shifted the balance of power - over the next 21 days we need to gather our forces to finally show Serco and the home office that we mean business"
         We will continue our plans to mobilise our members and all those who pledged to volunteer this week, everyone who has got in touch and pledged their support should keep Monday morning free if possible and we will be in touch as soon as possible.

Onwards!

Living Rent Glasgow
http://www.livingrent.org/

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

Rent Strike, A Well Tested And Tried Working Class Weapon.

          Mention "rent strike" in Glasgow and you will get a response of 1915. However the rent strike is not just a part of history of working class struggles from the past, it is still a valid weapon in the armoury of the ordinary people. It is encouraging to see it is still alive and functioning well. This report is from Canada, but I'm sure across the globe, the rent strike is a powerful weapon being used against the greed of landlords and their policy of gentrification.

      This from It's Going Down:

         What follows is a call to support the Flemingdon Park rent strike, yet another rent strike popping off in so-called Ontario in Canada.
BACKGROUND
        On August 1st more than 200 tenants at 31-35 St. Dennis Drive will withhold their rent. Rent strikers demand Minto Properties withdraws its application to raise rent above the guideline. Despite serious and persistent disrepair in the building, Minto wants to raise tenants’ rent by $180 over three years. This would mean that every month Minto would take $70,000 more in rents from the pockets of tenants in the building.
           Minto bought the building 31-35 St. Dennis Drive last year. The company anticipates rising rents in the area with the arrival of the Eglinton Crosstown LRT. The landlord is now beginning to price out working class and immigrant tenants, renovate units, and raise rents even higher. The building is owned by Roger Greenberg, one of Canada’s richest 100 people in 2018.
           31-35 St. Dennis is home to many immigrant families. More than half the residents are Roma people from Slovakia and the Czech Republic. Roma people who are new to the country after having fled persecution at home are once more being threatened with displacement.
For more information please contact: stdennistenants@gmail.com
CALL AND WRITE TO MINTO

Phone Script:

            I’m calling to demand that Minto immediately withdraw its application to raise rent above the guideline at 31-35 St. Dennis. Should you choose to ignore tenants’ demands, you will face further action from tenants and community members who support them.

Email Example:

Rob Pike,
            I am writing in support of rent strikers at 31-35 St. Dennis Drive. I demand Minto immediately withdraw its application to raise rent above the guideline at 31-35 St. Dennis.
           Minto’s bid to price working class and immigrant tenants out of their homes will not go unopposed. Should you ignore your tenants’ demands you will face further action against your company by tenants and we community members who support them.

Sincerely,
XXXXXXX

Contacts:

Rob Pike
President of Minto Properties
rpike@minto.com

George Van Noten
VP Property Operations (Ottawa)
613.230.7051
GVanNoten@minto.com

Amanda Mitchell
VP Marketing and Communications
416-301-0017
amitchell@minto.com

Michael Kidd
Regional Manager
647-255-3466
mkidd@minto.com

           *Minto is a member of the Federation of Rental Housing Providers (FRPO), the Ontario landlords’ association. Rob Pike of Minto sits on FRPO’s Board of Directors. Please cc Daryl Chong of FRPO on your emails *

Daryl Chong
Interim President & CEO
416-385-1100 ext.20
president@frpo.org

RENT STRIKE DEFENSE FUND

            The Flemingdon Park rent strikers are not only up against their predatory landlord, Minto Properties; they will also have to contend with Landlord and Tenant Board. Far from a fair and even arbiter of landlord-tenant disputes, the Board is a veritable eviction factory – 90% of the Orders it makes each year are for vacant possession of tenants’ homes.
              If Minto drags hundreds of rent strikers to the Board, they will need a defense fund. The Board may require each rent striker to pay Minto’s eviction application filing fee of $190. It is the Board’s practice to apply these fees as a punitive measure against tenants.
      For information on how you can donate please contact stdennistenants@gmail.com. A donation of $190 sponsors one rent striker, ensuring they have their eviction fee covered going forward. If you’re a union member or a member of another organization interested in making a larger donation.

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

Police Brutality.

       Europe, a supposed leader in democracy, yet in every country in Europe we have police brutality on the streets and in those dark rooms of the "security services". Sometimes it against demonstrators, and other times it is against individuals. Here in the UK, probably the worst in recent times was the savage treatment inflicted on the miners during the 1984 miners' strike. It is still a bleeding wound in the history of working class struggles.

      This case from Act For Freedom Now,  is of a particular vicious attack on an individual, an immigrant, in Athens, by those obedient dogs of the state, the police. Despite all this going on, there are some misguided individuals who seem to be deluded into thinking that "we need more police on the streets". They seem to be under the delusion that the police are there for the benefit of the ordinary people, when they should wake up to that fact the the police are there to keep control of the ordinary people, and protect the power, wealth and privileges of our lords and masters.

 State terrorism: Torture on the back streets of Athens.

         On Thursday 27th of July around 2 in the morning in Athens, on Bouboulinas st. in Exachia neighbourhood, a squadron of greek cops kidnapped and tortured an anarchist immigrant. Straight away they began to torture me with a barrage of kicks, using racist and fascist insults. Meanwhile, the police stated that my offence is that I am an anarchist and belong to a known political group of Exarchia. Then the squadron of riot cops forced me into a dark alley. They laid me on the ground and they tried to break my ribs by kicking; I placed my hand on my ribs to protect them. They took away my hand from my ribs and tried to break my fingers with their shields. In order to protect my fingers, I pulled my hand under my belly. At that moment, they hit my ribs again to break them. This action lasted a long time, until one of the cops proposed to break my wrists. So they placed my hands on the curb stone to break them with batons, but I managed to pull my hands away. This escalated their anger, and by saying fascist and racist insults, they all started to beat me.
          They beat me for more than one and a half hours. All the while they were taking several photos of me getting beaten up, as well as when I was lying semi conscious on the street. When cops realized that my body had been seriously damaged and I was not able to move, they started to play a game with me, telling me “you have ten seconds to leave from here, if we catch you again, we will kill you”, and two cops moved a little bit ahead of me to catch me again. They hit my knee several times with batons to make sure that I can not escape. When one of them turned to look behind him, with all of the pain that I had, I started running. One of the cops tried to catch me again but I could escape by running up Tositsa and seek help at a nearby house of comrades.
          Solidarity paramedics came immediately and after examination, told me I should go to hospital. There they found that aside from severe bruising all over my body and head wounds, I aslo had a fructured spinal joint.
       Exarchia, as an area with self-organized projects and revolutionary struggle, is under constant attack from the state because it is part of international social struggle against capitalism, mafia, terrorism and generally the system. Exarchia is a zone of defence where different groups exist together to fight for freedom and equality against the oppression of the system. By mutual cooperation we can meet the needs of each other without any authority. For this struggle the state beats us.
          The state by placing permanent police forces in the perimeter of Exarchia has made a kind of border between us and the rest of Athens, so it is as if they put us in a kind of prison. At the moment we have no other way to resist this prison except riots against the military check points. One of the reasons that the cops wanted to break my wrists is because as they said, I am one of those who participate in the riots. Many persons usually participate in these clashes with the police forces, because they do not want to be in prison, because they do not want control from any authority.
         As an immigrant anarchist I understand that the struggle for freedom is common between locals and migrants. For this reason I work towards unity and making collective body between locals and migrants. We will not fight only for immigrants but for everyone, because we understand that our pain, our problems are the same.
         Immigrants are under constant attack from the state and facists and it does not matter what kind of government is in power, whether it is ultra-right or leftist government. SYRIZA present themselves as supporters of immigrants but the reality is they imprison migrants on mass scale, every day they deport and kill people at the borders. We know that all authority is our enemy.
         In Exarchia today immigrants are under increasing threat of repression. Recently they began to make police sweep operations on the square arresting any migrant that is there. At the same time there are groups in Exarchia who act like police, using the same tactics, like pogroms on the square against migrants. Such as a group known as security team, military part of the political group “Anti-authoritarian Movement” (AK), who have relation with the government and present themselves as supporters of immigrants, but instead they use immigrants as a cover for their mafia business. As an immigrant I have to say to such groups: stop using our name for your dirty business.
          It is clear that cops and mafia work together for the same purpose: control and the crushing of resistance.
          The message of this violent attack by the pigs was: to terrorize immigrants, anarchists and those who actively resist and fight the police. We shall not kneel down. The state’s violence make it more clear that our struggle is just.

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

Help Stop This Criminal Act, Glasgow Is Better Than This.

         For those who missed the protest against the forced eviction in Glasgow of 300 refugees, which was held in Buchanan Street Glasgow yesterday evening, Tuesday 31st. July, here is a wee sample of the event. I hope it will encourage you to join the campaign to stop this savage, inhumane, unjust and criminal action. Thanks Bob for the video.

Some useful links to help you get involved:

Refugee Survival Trust - http://www.rst.org.uk/

Glasgow Night Shelter - https://glasgownightshelter.org/

Glasgow Asylum Destitute Action Network -

https://destitutionaction.wordpress.com/

Positive Action in Housing - http://www.paih.org/

Scottish Refugee Council - http://www.scottishrefugeecouncil.org.uk/

Govan Community Project - http://www.govancommunityproject.org.uk/

Unity Centre - https://unitycentreglasgow.org/

Ubuntu Women's Shelter - http://ubuntu-glasgow.org.uk/

Scottish Detainee Visitors - http://sdv.org.uk/

Maryhill Integration Network - http://www.maryhillintegration.org.uk/

Refuweegee - https://refuweegee.co.uk/

Maslow's Community Shop Govan -

https://www.facebook.com/maslowsgovan/?hc_location=ufi

Scottish Afghan Society - http://www.scottishafghansociety.org.uk/Home.aspx

Right To Remain Toolkit - https://righttoremain.org.uk/toolkit/

Report on Asylum Destitution in Scotland:

https://digitalpublications.parliament.scot/Committees/Report/EHRiC/2017/5/22/Hidden-Lives---New-Beginnings--Destitution--asylum-and-insecure-immigration-status-in-Scotland

 

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

Glasgow Welcome Refugees.

       Wednesday's protest in Glasgow against the planned eviction of around 300 immigrants was very well supported. Several hundred people turned up with an array of banners and home-made placards, showing their anger at the government's policy being carried out by the money grabbing Serco. Glasgow already has a problem with homelessness, to callously throw another 300 individuals on to the street, is not just inhumane, it is criminal.

      The protest continues, today, Wednesday August 1st. the protest shifts to:

WestGap, 

365 Paisley Road West
G51 1LX Glasgow, United Kingdom
12:00-13:30. 
   I'm sure the people of Glasgow can provide more support today and improve on the grand figure of hundreds that turned up yesterday evening.
Useful links: 

Refugee Survival Trust - http://www.rst.org.uk/

Glasgow Night Shelter - https://glasgownightshelter.org/

Glasgow Asylum Destitute Action Network -

https://destitutionaction.wordpress.com/

Positive Action in Housing - http://www.paih.org/

Scottish Refugee Council - http://www.scottishrefugeecouncil.org.uk/

Govan Community Project - http://www.govancommunityproject.org.uk/

Unity Centre - https://unitycentreglasgow.org/

Ubuntu Women's Shelter - http://ubuntu-glasgow.org.uk/

Scottish Detainee Visitors - http://sdv.org.uk/

Maryhill Integration Network - http://www.maryhillintegration.org.uk/

Refuweegee - https://refuweegee.co.uk/

Maslow's Community Shop Govan -

https://www.facebook.com/maslowsgovan/?hc_location=ufi

Scottish Afghan Society - http://www.scottishafghansociety.org.uk/Home.aspx

Right To Remain Toolkit - https://righttoremain.org.uk/toolkit/

Report on Asylum Destitution in Scotland:

https://digitalpublications.parliament.scot/Committees/Report/EHRiC/2017/5/22/Hidden-Lives---New-Beginnings--Destitution--asylum-and-insecure-immigration-status-in-Scotland

Here are some photos from yesterdays protest.

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

Today's Scapegoats, The Migrant.

           More on the state's brutal savagery in seeking total control, pick a country, and there will be state repression either on its own citizens or as is common place now, the modern scapegoat, migrants. This example is from Athens, but, today, it could be any city in Europe.

This from Act For Fredom Now:

   Freedom For All Migrants.

          Hicham, is a North African-born migrant, living in Athens for the past 10 months. He is a member of our squat community of Exarchia, and an active participant in the free public bath initiative. Hischam was arrested in June this year on Kallidromiou st. in a police control check.
He has been held in the dungeon cells of Kallidromiou police station ever since. Hicham, who is a Europe-wide organizer of unions and activists of unregistered refugees, was held completely incognito for the first ten days, and denied any contact with the outside world, including his Belgian wife and child. Like so many migrants he gets no regular access to visitors, no legal advice, no translation, no information about his case and future. Instead he gets constant humiliation, violence and psychological torture from the repressive, racist organs of the state. Conditions in these police cells are inhuman, more like lightless, airless underground pits, conditions that are designed to crush the prisoner, leading to severe depression and mental illness.
        Combined with denying them any information about the length of detention, this amounts to torture. Though Hicham has legal papers in Belgium, he is caught in the trap of the state judicial system. Indefinite detention means what it says – indefinite.
         The state’s fascist politics unfolds in its full magnitude in its treatment of migrants. They are the scapegoats, stripped of all dignity. The scope is international, the borders of Europe now an untold war. Daily killings, torture, mass imprisonment and abducted deportations have all become commonplace. New concentration camps are planned outside of Europe, without regard for the humanity of their inmates.
        Hicham’s case is only one example of thousands of migrants and refugees imprisoned in administrative detention around the country. The only reason, not having the right papers! This is the fascist nature of the system which categorizes and criminalizes people in order to exploit them. Only solidarity can make these people visible, and their cases known. This occurs in Exarchia at a time when the state is implementing a plan for total control and subjugation of this neighborhood, because it is a neighborhood of resistance!
         Renewed police sweep operations have become a weekly routine, and many refugees and members from our squat communities have been controlled, beaten and detained. Exarchia is and should remain a place of direct political action, of self organization of the oppressed, a site of diversity and freedom. Militants, migrants and prisoners alike, we can only defend our community through unified action against the state. Solidarity is our weapon, and our key.

And much nearer home, Glasgow.
        Sorry a bit late with this for the protest, but you can still take action and join one of the support groups, links below.

Protest - Stop The Mass Eviction of Refugees Tonight 6:00 Buchanan Street.

      PROTEST: Glasgow stands with 300 refugees facing mass eviction from
their homes over the next week.

        The mass eviction of 300 refugees is set to take place across Glasgow
city over the next week. Serco who are the private housing firm who deal with accommodation for refugees have deployed beyond disgusting tactics to displace people from their homes. Serco will issue "lock change" notices on Monday giving residents a week to get out with nowhere else to go.
       With the night shelter and housing schemes already massively stretched, hundreds of people in Glasgow will be facing street homelessness and will be extremely vulnerable.

        "This is, ultimately, a brutal consequence of Home Office using deliberate destitution and homelessness as a key immigration enforcement policy. Alongside the use of private asylum accommodation providers" - Stuart McDonald, MP for Cumbernauld, Kilsyth & Kirkintilloch East

This display of a brutality is not the values of the citizens of Glasgow and we are urging people to join our protest against this mass eviction. Speakers on the day to be announced. We also recommend writing to your elected representatives urging them to take action and sharing this with friends and family. If you want to learn more about organisations working on these issues or find out more about what it's like to go through the asylum process - here are some useful links:

Refugee Survival Trust - http://www.rst.org.uk/

Glasgow Night Shelter - https://glasgownightshelter.org/

Glasgow Asylum Destitute Action Network -

https://destitutionaction.wordpress.com/

Positive Action in Housing - http://www.paih.org/

Scottish Refugee Council - http://www.scottishrefugeecouncil.org.uk/

Govan Community Project - http://www.govancommunityproject.org.uk/

Unity Centre - https://unitycentreglasgow.org/

Ubuntu Women's Shelter - http://ubuntu-glasgow.org.uk/

Scottish Detainee Visitors - http://sdv.org.uk/

Maryhill Integration Network - http://www.maryhillintegration.org.uk/

Refuweegee - https://refuweegee.co.uk/

Maslow's Community Shop Govan -

https://www.facebook.com/maslowsgovan/?hc_location=ufi

Scottish Afghan Society - http://www.scottishafghansociety.org.uk/Home.aspx

Right To Remain Toolkit - https://righttoremain.org.uk/toolkit/

Report on Asylum Destitution in Scotland:

https://digitalpublications.parliament.scot/Committees/Report/EHRiC/2017/5/22/Hidden-Lives---New-Beginnings--Destitution--asylum-and-insecure-immigration-status-in-Scotland

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

Those Dark Rooms, Behind The Smiling Face Of The State.

 

 

        I post this article not because I believe Russia  is a particularly brutal regime, but because I believe that all states will, and do, resort to this type of treatment against those it feels are a threat to its power. After all the American state didn't think that water-boarding was torture, are we to believe the pumped out excuses, that Abu Ghraib prison was some sort unknown form of treatment dreamed up by a couple of low ranking bad apples? Let's not forget Azerbaijan. Every state has its clandestine chambers, where its misguided minions do its dirty work, to root out any resistance to its power over the people. No state could exist without its punitive judicial system and its clandestine back-room enforcers.

 

 

This from Network Underground:

Testimony
          The main evidence are the testimony of the detainees. Unfortunately, among of 9 people, only Vasily Kuksov and Julian Boyishin refused to speak. All the others gave testimony about themselves and comrades.
“A masked man came in, he had a handkerchief in his hand covered in blood, that’s when I heard the name of Kuksov. It was then that I realized whose moans came from the next room”(Shakursky)
        Operatives of the FSB immediately, along with classical beatings, began to use torture by electric shock. Usually, operatives used electric shockers, but in some cases they used electrodes.
        “They blindfolded me and stuffed my mouth with a sock. But then to my thumbs on my feet some sort of wiring was attached I felt the first charge of the current, from which I could not restrain moaning and trembling. They repeated this procedure until I promised to say what they would tell me. Since then, I forgot the word “no” and said everything that the operatives told me. ” (Shakursky)
       Electric shocks were applied dozens of times, throughout the body, including genital area.
     “He alternated impacts in the leg with electric shocks in handcuffs. Sometimes beat in the back or neck … I gave up almost immediately, in the first ten minutes. I shouted: “Tell me what to say, I’ll tell you everything!” – but the violence did not stop. “(Filinkov)
      It is important to note that the operatives used torture even after the arrested were visited by Public Supervisory Commission (PMC). During the visit to Filinkov, human rights watchers found fresh traces of beatings, bruises, traces of burns from electrocution. But it didn’t stop tortures.
       The operatives forced them to learn “the testimony” they wanted, the wrong answers led to new impacts. They distributed the roles themselves and selected the facts arbitrarily, rewriting them many times.
      “I was asked questions, if I did not know the answer – I was hit, if the answer did not coincide with their [expectations] – I was hit, if I thought about or formulated [for a long time] – I was hit, if I forgot what they said – I was hit. “(Filinkov)
        “The investigator few more times took sheets with my “testimony” out from the room. It became clear that this whole story, sponsored by FSB officers, has editors-in-chief who are watching that nothing comes out of the general canvas."
       Not only the accused but also the witnesses were tortured. The operatives seized Ilya Kapustin a work mate of Shishkin.
      “I want to bring the deepest apologies to the people whom my problem touched, sorry, guys!” (Shishkin)
        “When I didn’t know the answers to some questions, for example, when I did not understand who or what I was talking about, they beat me with an electric shock to the groin area or to the side of my stomach. I was hit with an electric current to make me say that this or that friend of mine is going to arrange something dangerous.” (Kapustin)
       Pchelintsev Dmitry was hung upside down with a dynamo attached to his fingers. He was brought to such an extent that “they touched my neck and checked that I did not die from …”. Later Dmitry announced the torture with a lawyer. Then he was tortured again, and got warning that if he again “turns back”, then repressors will imitate his suicide and show a video recording to relatives.
       Andrei Chernov, in addition to torture, was also threatened with the fact that his brother would be imprisoned too.
        Boyarshin was beaten after being detained for refusing to speak. Later, he was transferred to the detention center “Gorelovo”, where he was beaten straight in the cell by prison activists of the administration. This prison is notorious for its outrage, at the behest of the authorities, prisoners are beaten, raped, tortured. The torture process is controlled by FSB operatives. They come and demand that Julian testify, but for now he keeps strong.

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DIY Medication!!

       Something anarchists should always remember, "great oak trees from little acorns grow". Your little project, could catch on and become a mighty oak tree. One such little acorn that I dearly hope will grow into a mighty oak tree is the project being built by a group called Four Thieves Vinegar Collective. This valiant little group are taking on the giant pharmaceutical companies, the large beast that prompts itself as the saviour of lives and curer of disease, but at a price. Big Pharma makes billions from your ill health, and other mental and physical problems, but first and foremost, makes sure that it keeps its shareholders fat at your expense. When a giant like our NHS can state that some drugs are too expensive, then you know that you are being ripped-off.

        Making medication cheap and easily accessible must be applauded and pursued, anything that can short circuit the pharmaceutical giants and their greed driven overriding desire for profits must be encouraged.   

       Please read the full article and share as widely as possible, let this little acorn grow into a mighty oak tree

This from Motherboard:

 

 Michael Laufer with the $30 DIY “epipencil”. Image: Four Thieves Vinegar Collective

     I met Laufer at a bar across the street from HOPE after he finished his talk on DIY medicine. He was meeting with his Four Thieves collaborators who had flown in from all over the country to attend the conference and unveil the new medical technologies under development by the collective. Laufer kicked off the celebration with a toast.

       “A toast to the dead, for children with cancer and AIDS,” Laufer said, raising a glass of bourbon and quoting the hip hop artist Felipe Andres Coronel, better known as Immortal Technique. “A cure exists, and you probably could have been saved.”
       In the last decade, Four Thieves has run afoul of the Food and Drug Administration, billionaire pharma executives, doctors, and chemists at some of the United States’ most prestigious universities. Indeed, Laufer and his collaborators can’t stop pissing off powerful people because Four Thieves is living proof that effective medicines can be developed on a budget outside of institutional channels.
          At the pharmacy, a pair of single use Mylan epipens can cost over $600 and the company’s generic version costs $300 per pair, but an ongoing shortage means you probably can’t find them, even if you can afford them. In response, Four Thieves published the instructions for a DIY epipen online that can be made for $30 in off-the-shelf parts and reloaded for $3. Shkreli drove the price of the lifesaving HIV medicine Daraprim sells up to $750 per pill. So Four Thieves developed an open source portable chemistry lab that allows anyone to manufacture their own Daraprim for just 25 cents apiece.
         The pharmaceutical industry is valued at $446 billion in the US and its walls are tightly policed by regulatory agencies like the FDA and Drug Enforcement Administration. By freely distributing plans for medical devices and pharmaceuticals, a loose collective of anarchists and hackers is threatening to pull the rug out from under one of the most regulated and profitable industries in the world. And they’re just getting started. 

  FREE DRUGS
           Four Thieves claims to have successfully synthesized five different kinds of pharmaceuticals, all of which were made using MicroLab. The device attempts to mimic an expensive machine usually only found in chemistry laboratories for a fraction of the price using readily available off-the-shelf parts. In the case of the MicroLab, the reaction chambers consist of a small mason jar mounted inside a larger mason jar with a 3D-printed lid whose printing instructions are available online. A few small plastic hoses and a thermistor to measure temperature are then attached through the lid to circulate fluids through the contraption to induce the chemical reactions necessary to manufacture various medicines. The whole process is automated using a small computer that costs about $30.
          To date, Four Thieves has used the device to produce homemade Naloxone, a drug used to prevent opiate overdoses better known as Narcan; Daraprim, a drug that treats infections in people with HIV; Cabotegravir, a preventative HIV medicine that may only need to be taken four times per year; and mifepristone and misoprostol, two chemicals needed for pharmaceutical abortions.

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The Power Of Humour.

       Humour can often explain reality in a simple and explicit manner. Like argument, debate, example, solidarity and direct action, it should be a well used tool in our armoury against the savage brutality and injustice of the present insane economic system. This is from Existential Comics.

        The term "anarchy" is often used to mean general lawlessness and chaos, invoked positively by people like the Sex Pistols, and as a sort of boogeyman for wealthy property owners who apply it to anyone who is disruptive to society and the status quo. In philosophy, however, the concept of "anarchism", as laid out by people such as William Godwin, Peter Kropotkin, and Mikhail Bakunin, is a society without classes, or any other hierarchical structures where people on the bottom are expected to obey those at the top. Instead, property (such as factories, farms, and infrastructure) is communally owned, and work is done in a cooperative fashion to meet everyone's needs.
          Despite calling for peace, cooperation, and equality, Anarchism is treated as a violent ideology by the wealthy property owners of "civilized" society (not entirely without reason, of course, as there have been many anarchists who have called for bombings and assassinations as a tactic). If history tells us much, it is that the wealthy elites in any society are typically rather disinclined to give up their property and power, and generally hold unfavorable views of those calling to change the system. Anarchists have been brutally suppressed throughout history by both capitalists, and state socialists such as the Soviet Union. In fact, in an ironic sort of way, they are far more stigmatized and suppressed than "anarchists" like the Sex Pistols who call for aimless violence and disobedience, for obvious reasons.

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