Ouroboros, The New Israel.

      What happens to a nation that dehumanises another nation, how does that society come to terms with its brutal treatment of other human beings. how does it justify its savagery? What is happening to the people of Israel as they get behind their government's inhumane treatment of the Palestinian people?

 

“Tomorrow there’s no teaching in Gaza, they don’t have any children left,” chanted supporters of the attacks on Gaza, waving Israeli flags. 

This from Roar Magazine:

Of course, none of this is unique to Israel. War and occupation have always brought out humanity’s inner bestiality — from Auschwitz to Abu Ghraib, from Hiroshima to Vietnam. (And no, observing that simple historical fact is not the same as equating Israel’s actions in Gaza to the Nazi Holocaust.) The same fundamental human bestiality has been an undeniable feature of all massacres and all colonial regimes. Not too long ago, great thinkers like Paulo Freire, Aimé Césaire and Frantz Fanon observed with great lucidity how the European colonizer, by brutalizing the colonized, ended up brutalizing himself. Running a colonial regime, they noted, requires not just the dehumanization of the oppressed, but — much more importantly — the thorough dehumanization of the oppressor. Human affects like empathy must be actively repressed to keep the colonial order intact; not only to justify the brutality ideologically, but simply to cope with one’s own atrocities emotionally.

Read the full article HERE:

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

Once Upon A Time.

        Looking around the world plagued with war, violence, greed, corruption and natural disasters, can sometimes put one in a depressing frame of mind.

Our Future.

Once upon a time,

in our not so distant past

stood a beautiful, a unique world,

laden with promise,

a world where our future was open,

our potential vast.

Now, seduced by glinting tinsel of the mad

our reason quivers

on the edge of a dark abyss.

We have created a world

where wastelands abound,

where we

the many, the marginalised, the ordinary,

struggle to survive in voracity that astounds,

are seduced

to create wastelands in our minds,

slowly accepting chaos

in a world of insanity.

Here corporate monsters

of hypocrisy, contradictions,

sever the fragile cord

that unites being with being.

But hope and friendship usually disperse the fog.

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

Who Pays For The UK's Growth?

       So the EU recover has stalled, while the UK's growth and GDP outstrips the rest of Europe. Feeling good? Me neither, as members of the financial Mafia rub their grubby, sweaty hands in glee at the UK "growth", you and I see incomes shrink as increases, if any, are away below inflation rate. We are facing eternally growing fuel bills, increased food bills, cuts in social services and benefits. This is the fruits of their "growth", corporations making millions as their labour cost drop at our expense. All this waffle about growth is intended to mask what is really happening, all the wealth is being syphoned upwards from the public to the systems wealth hoarders.

       One feature of the UK growth was revealed in a recent report. Every day nearly 600 household in England are at risk of losing their home. Figures from the Ministry of Justice reveal that last year, 210,000 homes in England were at risk of repossession or eviction. Figures from Shelter state that in Scotland, every hour, a family losses their home.  Figures are similar else where in the UK.    

 

 

       This is just one of the many stresses that are heaped on the ordinary people of this country because of the economic system that we tolerate. This is the true face of "austerity", their plan to create a low wage, sweatshop economy.

      No individual or family should have to face the threat of eviction, a policy that is there, with no other purpose, than to safeguard the members of the financial Mafia, and to protect their plunder and looted gains.

      You know we can do better than this, all we have to do is get all those greedy wealth laden parasites off our backs, and take control of our own lives. We don't need them, they are superfluous to requirements. 

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

Global Action Against Zionist Genocide.

    A call for global action against the Zionist genocide taking place in Gaza.

      ACTION ALERT UPDATE from USPCN: Our organizing is working! Ship delayed. Come out to West Oakland BART station at 3 PM Saturday, NOT 5 AM. Bring your friends and family to this historic action! "With community backing, the International Longshoremen Workers Union refused to handle cargo from South African ships in the 1980s, spurring an international boycott that helped end the apartheid regime in South Africa,” says Monadel Herzallah of the US Palestinian Community Network. “We hope that this action and many others like it will encourage organized labor to join the global BDS movement to end Israel’s ethnic cleansing of Palestinians.”

      USPCN strongly encourages the broadest possible mobilization and support for this critically important action in Oakland! For those who cannot make it, please see below for events in other cities:

Stop Israel at the Port

Zionism isn't welcome on our Coast!

West Coast Blockade of the Israeli Zim Ship

Port of Oakland

Saturday, August 16th

3 PM (TIME CHANGE)

Meet at West Oakland Bart and march to Berth 57

     Participants:Those planning to participate: subscribe to text-alerts and receive live updates about the 8/16 Block the Boat, text "join" to (510) 346-5951.

Livestream:

KFPA will be livestreaming the action at www.kpfa.org/kpfa-live-stream-channel.

Also follow @BlocktheBoat for live tweets.

Volunteers and Support: Fill out form to volunteer with transportation assistance. Email info @ araborganizing.org to support with food donations. Contact AROC to pick up posters and postcards for outreach.

Donations: Donate here to help with event costs.

STOP THE SIEGE ON GAZA!

END THE COLONIAL OCCUPATION OF PALESTINE!

RIGHT OF RETURN FOR ALL PALESTINIAN REFUGEES!

FREE ALL POLITICAL PRISONERS!

BOYCOTT, DIVEST, SANCTION!

Global Statements

-  Palestinian General Federation of Trade Unions - Gaza Strip
-  Palestinian and South African Trade Unions
-  Labor for Palestine
-  Congress of South African Trade Unions
-  National Union of Metal Workers of South Africa
-  Transport Workers Solidarity Committee
-  UNITE, British Trade Union

Other cities' actions:

New York, NY, US

Saturday, August 16

1:00 PM

Israeli Consulate (Block the Boat Solidarity)

More info: https://www.facebook.com/events/429725363832321/

Miami, FL, US

Saturday, August 16

5:00 PM

Torch of Friendship (Block the Boat Solidarity)

More info: https://www.facebook.com/events/316267675214918/

Chicago, IL, US

Saturday, August 16

11:00 AM

North Avenue Beach Bridge

More info: https://www.facebook.com/events/937841456231113/

Los Angeles, CA, US

Saturday, August 16

1:00 PM

Hollywood and Vine

More info: https://www.facebook.com/events/1482387852007381

Seattle, WA, US

Saturday, August 16

12:00 PM

Westlake Center

More info: https://www.facebook.com/events/665212870225672/

Hamtramck, MI, US

Saturday, August 16

12:00 PM

Caniff St and Joseph Campau

More info: https://www.facebook.com/events/457504094391468/

Tacoma, WA, US (Block the Boat)

Wednesday, August 20

More info: https://www.facebook.com/events/678819478876975/

Seattle, WA, US (Block the Boat)

Friday, August 22

More info: https://www.facebook.com/events/678819478876975/

What's happening?

     The world has watched in horror as Israel has continued to bombard and devastate Gaza. Millions around the globe have come out in support of the Palestinian people and against the Zionist regime, holding massive marches, demonstrations, and actions. Here in the Bay, San Francisco witnessed some of the biggest mobilizations in recent years, with a series of marches, each bringing out thousands of people. It's time to step it up.

Call to Action

      Palestine is calling us to action! Palestinians laborers, Palestinian General Federation Trade Union (PGFTU), have called on workers around the world to refuse to handle Israel goods. Palestinians throughout Gaza, the West Bank and 1948 Palestine have demonstrated their unity in the struggle against Apartheid Israel and have taken to the streets in the tens of thousands, bravely facing Israeli military armed with US made weapons to call on the international community to stand with them as they resist Zionism throughout all of historic Palestine. We will be answering this call by organizing community pickets at the Port of Oakland, asking the longshoreman to honor this request and to stand with the people of Palestine as they have done in the past.

Historical Background

      During apartheid in South Africa, ILWU workers made history when they refused to unload South African cargo in San Francisco in 1984. This action was a major catalyst for international anti-apartheid solidarity and struggle worldwide. In 2010, after a Turkish flotilla, the Mavi Marmara, was attacked by Israel for attempting to bring humanitarian aid to Gaza, we built on ILWU's history and successfully blocked the Israeli Zim ship from being unloaded at the Port of Oakland - the first time in US history an Israeli ship was blocked. We will be continuing this legacy by organizing to block the Israeli ship once again. And just as apartheid fell in South Africa, so too it will fall in Israel!

Sustained BDS in the Bay

      If there is one thing that the latest Israeli attacks show, it's the power of Palestinian resilience. The resistance in Gaza is still alive and thriving, despite Israel's ongoing attempts to destroy it. But we should always remember that the Palestinian resistance did not begin with Israel's latest bombardment, nor did it begin during the last bombardment. It has been going on since 1948, since Israel came into existence. And it will not cease until Israeli apartheid falls.

We refuse to allow Israel to conduct its business as usual, here in the Bay and everywhere!

      Every Saturday, the Israeli owned Zim shipping line docks and unloads its cargo at the Port of Oakland. Let this action be the beginning of a sustained campaign to stop the Israeli ship from ever unloading in our town.

From Seattle to Oakland to Los Angeles - turn the Israeli ship around!

Not in Palestine

Not in the Bay

Not Anywhere

Stand Against Zionism Everywhere

Endorsed by:

AF3IRM

Al-Awda New York

All African People’s Revolutionary Party (AAPRP)

American Friends Service Committee

American Muslims for Palestine

ANSWER Coalition

Arab Youth Organizing (AYO)

AROC: Arab Resource & Organizing Center

ASATA: Alliance of South Asians Taking Action

Bay Area Women in Black

BAYAN-USA

Bay Area CodePink

Bay Area Latin America Solidarity Coalition

Berkeley Fellowship of Unitarian Universalists Social Justice Committee

Black Organizing Project (BOP)

Black Organizing Leadership and Dignity (BOLD)

Black Workers For Justice

B.U.W (BLOOK UNITY WORKERS ): PALISTINIAN INDEPANDENCE TRADEUNION ORGENIZATION IN WESTBANK AND GAZZA AND JEROZALIM

Catalyst Project

CodePink Washington

Committee for Open Discussion of Zionism (CODZ)

Communist Party of San Francisco

Critical Resistance – LA

Critical Resistance – Oakland

Critical Resistance – Portland

Descoloniza a Oakland/Decolonize Oakland

Free Palestine Movement

Freedom Archives

Friends of Deir Ibzi’a

Fuerza Mundial/Pueblos en Movimiento

General Union of Palestine Students – SFSU

Global Women’s Strike

Gray Panthers of San Francisco

Green Party of Alameda County

Haiti Action Committee

International Action Center

International Jewish Anti Zionist Network

International Solidarity Movement – West Bank/Gaza

International Socialist Organization

International Tribunal of Conscience for Camilo

ISM-Nor Cal

IWW Bay Area Branch

Jewish Against Genocide

Jews for Palestinian Right of Return

Justice for Palestinians

La Voz de l@s trabajadores/Worker’s Voice

Labor for Palestine

Lake Merritt Neighbors Organized for Peace

Malcolm X Grassroots Movement

Marcha Patriotica (Colombia) – California chapter

Middle East Children’s Alliance (MECA)

Movement Generation

National Lawyers Guild SFBA Chapter

Noam Chomsky

NorCal Friends of Sabeel

Occupy SF Action Council

ONYX Organizing Committee

The Palestine-Israel Action Committee

Palestine General Federation of Trade Unions

Palestinian Youth Movement

Queers Undermining Israeli Terror

Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network

San Francisco Green Party

School of the Americas Watch East Bay

Socialist Alternative – Bay Area Branch

Socialist Organizer

SOUL: School of Unity and Liberation

Southern Anti-Racism Network

Stanford Students for Justice

Students for Justice in Palestine – Cal

Totally Radical Muslims

UAW Local 2865 (Academic Student Workers at the University of California)

US Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation

US Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott

US Palestinian Community Network

Veterans For Peace Chapter 69

World Can’t Wait Bay Area

Workers World Party

Xicana Moratorium

For more info: info@araborganizing.org | 415-861-7444

[ Event on Facebook]

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

Nobody Gives You Freedom.

      Israelis dancing in the streets chanting "Gaza is a graveyard", "There's no school tomorrow, because there are no children left in Gaza", tells you something of the prevailing attitude in Israel. 

         I read a lot, and view a lot, not necessarily agreeing with all I come across, but there is always information to be picked up here and there. One thing I have learnt through reading the proper history, the history of our struggle for justice, is that whatever improvements we have gained, were never given to us by benevolent powers that be, but were wrestled from them by struggle, resistance and confrontation. Without that determination, we would still be steeped in poverty and deprivation worse than the Victorian era, with little or no rights.

Riot4Gaza from the stimulator on Vimeo.

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

Gun Tottin' Cops.

      I have been silent for a few days, (you hadn't noticed), my internet connection went down for almost a week, so I had to do with the real world for a while, but I'm now back connected to the cyberworld.

.

 Inverness.

     Slowly, slowly, the guns come on to our streets. First special occasions, then routinely at airports, now walking our streets. The establishment is always fearful that the people will one day wake up and realise, we don't need our lords and masters, and then do something about it. Inverness, one of the areas with the lowest crime rate in the country, and there are cops strutting around the streets with guns strapped to their sides, Wyatt Earp's of the north. 

     The powers that be are now going to look at this. A bit late, should the issue of putting guns routinely on the streets not have been discussed before it happened, or is this sort of decision to be left to the whims of some over zealous authoritarian police chief? Sooner or later we will have an armed police force patrolling our streets. The establishment is well aware of the economic future the people of this country are facing, and the fear of civil unrest will always shape their thinking. Let's not forget, the police are not there to protect you, but to protect them, our lords and masters. 

Luton.

This from Anarchist News:

1. What happened to Mike Brown is a tragedy that can’t be put into words. A less spoken tragedy is that it’s the day to day reality for so many of us–especially those of us who are young, who are people of color, who don’t fit the cops’ idea of an acceptable, law abiding citizen. How often do the police kill someone? In St. Louis, it seems like almost every month. We often don’t do anything about it, or feel like we can. The last few days have been different.
2. People in Ferguson have shown–through gathering, talking and debating with each other, protesting and rioting– that this tragedy won’t be yet another one placed on our already over-burdened backs.
3. Day to day, we don’t have a voice. Working people, people of color, poor people, the disenfranchised – we don’t have an official media that will argue our interests like the rich and middle class. We don’t have a police force we can call like the middle class or an army like the rich. We only have each other. Large protests and rioting gives us a voice, gives us power. These actions let us take back some of our dignity.
4. The 1960s saw many urban uprisings: riots and looting where fed-up, voiceless people were able to have a voice and, for once, the nice things that are constantly kept out of our reach. One of the police and government’s biggest fears is that people will realize we don’t need them and their mentality.
5. In response to the urban uprisings of the ‘60s, police developed a two-fold strategy. First, that police from then on would have counter-insurgency training, gear and weaponry, and would use it as their day to day way of patrolling neighborhoods where poor people and people of color live. We see the effects of this constantly: getting pulled over not by one cop but 3-5 cars worth, having ourselves groped, our shoes taken off, having the doors of our homes kicked in.

Read the full article HERE:

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

The Tunnels.

       I have always maintained that Israel wants the whole of the Palestinian territory for a "Greater Israel" and what goes on in Gaza and elsewhere in the Palestinian territories is nothing short of genocide. This latest inhumane slaughter being administered by Israel on the people of Gaza, is claimed as destroying "the tunnels", which they claim are used to attack Israel and smuggle in arms. If your borders are sealed and nothing can go in or out, how do you survive? I'm a great believer in the ingenuity of the ordinary people in the face of arduous and life threatening conditions. If the means of survival can't come in by road, sea or air, then the only alternative is to die or find another way of getting those necessities of life. Perhaps the tunnels do bring in weapons, but the proof seems to be that they are mainly used to keep the people of Gaza alive. Everything from livestock to sugar, parts to fix what they already have, to cement. These tunnels are a leak in the Israeli blockade of Gaza and is allowing Gaza to survive, so they must be destroyed. The genocide goes on under a cloak of many guises, the biggest is self defence. One of the most powerful military nations on the planet, continually blasts, bombs and strangles a small territory which has no army as such, no military defence, and Israel calls it self defence, while the world looks on. Genocide, no other word fits the situation.

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

War Is The Crime.

     Yesterday, August 6th. marked the 69th anniversary of the atomic bomb being dropped on Hiroshima, killing at least 80,000 people instantly, with tens of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands, dying of various forms of radiation illnesses the following years, 90% of the city was obliterated. A few days later, August 9th. the US dropped a second bomb, a plutonium bomb, on Nagasaki, instantly killing more than 40,000, and again leaving a legacy of radiation diseases for generations. We should add that the estimates of the immediate deaths vary as it is impossible to state accurately, these figures are at the bottom end of the estimates. 

        Targeting civilians is recognised internationally as a war crime, can anyone claim that obliteration an entire city in one fell swoop, is not targeting civilians? After WW2 we hung quite a few for war crimes, unsurprisingly, they were all on the other side.

      The victors write the history, and our history always tells us that what ever we do in war is honourable, and what ever our enemies do is barbaric. The fact that Nagasaki was a mainly civilian city, and ironically, a city with the highest Christian population in Japan, doesn't change that. Just like Israel today, we claimed that we were justified, no matter the cost, it was the honourable road to go.

      The entire history of capitalism, is one of deadly conflicts, with civilian casualties, seen merely as collateral damage. More and more it is the civilian population that suffers in war. Gone are the days when two vast armies faced each other across some waste land, and slaughtered each other until one could claim victory. In modern warfare the casualty rate is normally higher among the civilian population than in the military. Remember "Shock and Awe" visited on the Iraqi people, drones in Pakistan, and Somalia, and now Gaza. 

       This being the case, and targeting civilians being a war crime then it should follow that war itself, by its modern nature is one large war crime, and any state that enters into war is automatically guilty of a war crime.

Photo from Dresden after the Allies bombed the city, creating a fire storm, 1945.

         Wars are states way of cementing their power and wealth, what happens to the people is of little concern, and it will remain so, until we take control of our own lives. Until we decide that we the people should shape the world we want to live in, and base our societies on communities grounded in the fundamentals of mutual aid, co-operation, and seeing to the needs of all our people, we will be at the mercy of the power hungry, war mongering, profit seeking, greed driven capitalist system.  

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