Kobane Liberated, One Year Ago Today.

        On this day, January, 26th., 2015, the Syrian Kurdish town of Kobane was liberated by its defence forces, after having been under attack from ISIS for 134 days.

This by ROAR Collective

       During its four and a half months of resistance against the jihadist juggernaut of the so-called Islamic State, the small town of Kobane on the Syrian-Turkish border gained international fame as a bulwark of freedom, equality and democracy. The seemingly hopeless fight of the poorly equipped defenders of the city made up primarily of the local Peoples’ and Women’s Defense Forces (YPG and YPJ) became a contemporary saga of the universal struggle of good versus evil.
      What made the battle for Kobane unique was not only the refusal of its people to hand over their home town to the jihadists and their determination to continue the resistance against all odds. What truly triggered the collective imagination of observers of this heroic battle were the revolutionary ideas the town’s defenders were fighting for. As protectors of the birthplace of the Rojava revolution, what motivated the resistance fighters to continue their struggle were the revolution’s core values based upon the ideals of gender equality, direct democracy and ecological sustainability.
        The successful liberation of Kobane one year ago not only proved to the world that the Islamic State could be beaten, it also confirmed that a different world is possible, free of hierarchy and oppression, capitalist exploitation and imperialist aspirations. The battle for Kobane and the Rojava revolution have triggered hopes that the same region that was home to the birth of civilization thousands of years ago, could now once again provide the fertile soil for the creation of a new society.

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What Price a Child's Life?

      It is difficult to grasp the vicious brutality of the Turkish state and its savage repression of the Kurds who live within its authoritarian domain. Our babbling brook of bullshit, the mainstream media, seldom mentions what is happening on the streets of Recep Tayyip Erdoğan's fiefdom. For generations these Kurds have had this crazy idea that they would like to control their own lives and speak their own language, for this heinous crime, they have suffered continuous brutal repression from the Turkish state. Recently their treatment has got even more savage and brutal, deaths mount, children killed by the state ever increases, and the Western "democracies" look the other way.

       These links tell part of the story, but can't convey the true personal suffering and misery of the families and friends involved. The video helps to bring home the inhumane callous savagery of the Turkish state and it apparatus of repression. 

KJA – ‘Nekuje’, Children killed by Turkish security forces

KJA – Destruction of our People’s Graveyards

KJA – Lists of civilian deaths, arrests, curfews, and security zones

     This video tells a heart breaking story of child murders perpetrated by the Turkish state. In Athens, December 15, 2008, 15 year old Alexis  Grigoropoulos was shot dead in the street by a police officer. His death sparked some of the worst and longest running riots in Greece's history, covering the whole country. Why no such anger for this list of young lives struck down by the state? So many young deaths should multiply the anger.

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A Cruise For The Very Rich!!!

         A cruise for the very rich, what a wonderful idea.

The latest from SubMediaTV;

     This week we examine the contradictory notion of “Anarcho-Capitalism” and dismantle this illogical concept by illustrating current examples of why free markets have nothing to do with freedom. On the music break, San Diego based MC Odessa Kane with “GPT”
      We wrap things up with the bleak economic outlook for the coming year and our very clever solution to fix this capitalist clusterfuck.

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

Workers Self-management.

        In late October 2014, Greece was and still is, being severely plundered by the Troika, (ECB, European Central Bank, EC, European Commission, IMF, International Mankind Fuckers.) workers were being paid off in droves, but as always, there are those who fight back against the financial Mafia's grand plan. The workers at the Vio.me factory in Thessaloniki, were part of that struggle. Their factory was declared bankrupt and closed, but the workers had other ideas, they occupied the factory and started production again. In spite of several attempts by the financial Mafia to have them evicted and the premises auction off, they are still there. They are an example to others in workplaces across the globe. Who needs the bosses, but they do need support and solidarity.

This interview from Anarchist Radio Berlin:

      As Anarchist Radio Berlin (aradio.blogsport.de) we had the opportunity of talking to the workers of the self-managed soap factory Vio.me in Thessaloniki, Greece.
      In our interview they tell us about the origins of this factory take-over by the workers, what this had to do with experiences in Argentina and they managed to overcome financial problems. Listen to this audio also to know how to show solidarity, as Vio.me is threatened by eviction due to a planned compulsory auction of the premises. 

A soap factory inGreece, abandoned by its owners, has been reclaimed by its workers - and provides a vital example of how things can be done differently.

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

Israel's Cull Of The Palestinian People.

         Is there anybody out there with two or more brain cells who can't see the Israel state's brutal genocide of the Palestinian people and savage illegal land grab of the Palestinian lands? For generations Palestinians have been viciously culled by the Zionist military machine, funded by their friends the American imperialists. For generations the Palestinian people have seen their land stolen, their country diminish in size, and their homes and farms destroyed, turned to rubble or occupied. Yet the world's states ignore this brutal genocide of a people, Why? If we want this situation to change, and I'm sure every caring human on the planet does, then it will be up to the solidarity of the people of the world, change will not come from the power brokers of the imperialist states. Like all terrible injustices, it is the people that forces the change, the plight of the Palestinian people is no different, it is up to us, the states have played their game, and the horror continues.

From Roar Mag:

       Over three months have passed since the killing of his son Bahaa, but Muhammad Alayan has not been able to experience any of them. The 60-year-old lawyer has been too immersed in the struggle to recover the body of his slain son to actually contemplate his loss.
      “More than a hundred days have gone and I couldn’t sit with my wife and three (remaining) children at one table together and realize that there is an empty chair no longer occupied by Bahaa,” Muhammad Alayan told me. “We have had no time to discuss his absence because our entire lives have revolved around getting him back.”
     Parents whose children’s bodies or remains are detained by Israel, either in morgues or in the infamous “cemeteries of numbers” (where the remains of at least 268 Palestinian combatants have been buried for decades in closed military zones) wait to receive their bodies as if they were waiting to welcome living people after their release from their prisons.------

Read the full article HERE: 

The plight of the Palestinian people explained in six minute video:

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A Battle We Can Win, With Solidarity.

       A reminder call for solidarity from North Kelvin Meadow, a chance to stand up and make our desires a reality. We want a green and health city, we want our kids to have a place for play and have healthy adventures. It might not be your area, but it is your city and your area could be next for the tarmac profit making treatment. It is your city, what do you want, tarmac or trees?

From Bob at citystrolls:

       Big day for the Meadows project. Winning this would send a clear message to gentrifiers as well as struggling growing spaces all over the city. That, land has a social value that's returns are of much more value to the human spirit and well being of the community than the barren profits of estate agents and banks. If this project disappears into red brick, not only will we lose a colourful part of our culture, it will also make it much more difficult for the next wee group who comes along and attempts to plant the seed in the wee bit of green stuff at the end of their street. Opportunity for solidarity here folks. We need to start winning these battles, because we are right and the council are usually wrong in these matters, which has been proven time after time after time. B.

 *North Kelvin Meadow and The Children's Wood*
Save the Meadow and Wood
*Where? *North Kelvin Meadow and The Children's Wood.
*When?* 9:15 am
*After?* George Square
*When? *11 am
Glasgow City Council Planning committee will visit the meadow and wood on the 26th of January, at 9:15am, they will then make a decision on both The Children's Wood application to keep the land 'wild and for the community' and the New City Vision application to' build 90 residences on the land ' It is important that as many people are on the land as possible for this visit.
Please meet on NKM and CW at 9:15am for the committee visit. Bring your banners with you and as many people as possible. Please state which school, group or organisation you are from so that the committee can get a feel for the level of support and use of the land.
After the site visit, we will then travel to the city chamber for 11am by bus - or make your own way as before - to be outside the City Chambers for when the committee make a decision on both applications. Please join us for as much of this day as possible. If you can only come to part of it, please try to make the meadow and wood for 9:15am
This will be our only chance to show the planning committee the land and how valued and loved the space is to this community and that we have a plan for it's future.
*Date:* 26th January 2016
*Time*: 9:15am North Kelvin Meadow
*11am: George Square
Spread the word
Join ourFacebook page
<http://thechildrenswood.us12.list-manage1.com/track/click?u=b189cab12c6f859eea2dee724&id=abb029d35e&e=86bda164ab>
and spread the word about next Tuesday

 Halloween at the North Kelvin Meadow.

Location: Kelbourne Street/Sanda Street/Clouston Street, Glasgow, G20

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Kick The Military Out Of Our Schools.

Does the kid know that if he joins, he'll be facing the other end of the gun?

According to the Herald: 

MSPs are being urged to hold an inquiry into the presence of the armed forces in Scotland’s schools after an outcry over plans to set up cadet units aimed at the poorest pupils.

 

        Why the outcry for an inquiry? It is really quite simply, there should be an outright ban on the military having any presence in our schools. Whither they call it team building or physical training, or whatever, there can be no connection between the military and education. We all know that children are impressionable, it takes years to come to informed opinions about the world in which we live. Let education, families and communities help our children do so, without the interference of the pompous parasitical imperialist masters. To a child, the military might look all very grand as they parade up and down in their fancy regalia, but they are the state's killing machine. Its only purpose is to defend the wealth and power of our imperialist establishment.

         It is up to all of us in our communities to get the military kicked out of our education system, we have to make it quite clear by determined action, that we will not have our children brainwashed into being canon fodder, to be sacrificed on the bloody altar of imperialism. The military is an anathema to education, education is about helping people act of their own free will after an informed look at the evidence, the military is about doing exactly what your are told, no matter what you think. One, education, should take you down the road to free will, the other, the military, turns you into a robot, waiting for instructions from above, a slave to authority, a unit whose live can be sacrificed at the command of a “higher authority”.

        This is a campaign that epitomises the class structure of our society, these “cadet units” are to be placed in the schools in the most deprived areas. Areas where our callous authoritarian imperial masters, know that the kids have less opportunities, and the military will be sold to them as a wonderful life of travel and training, there will be no mention of the death, trauma, injury, suicide, bullying, brutality and abandoning your own will, to the will of the state's killing machine, in the defence of other's wealth and power, wealth and power that they themselves will never share.

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

Being And Being Bought.

Latest episode from Circled A Radio, certainly worth a listen.

        On this show is Swedish journalist, writer and activist, Kajsa Ekis Ekman. She is the author of several works about the financial crisis, women's rights and Marxism including 'Being and Being Bought - Prostitution, Surrogacy and the Split Self'. She writes for the major newspaper in Sweden called "Today's News" and is a columnist at the leftwing daily ETC and is a member of the editing collective of the anarchist magazine 'Brand' in English translates as 'Fire' (published since 1898). 

       She is public speaker and was one of the key note speakers at the 2014 'Festival of dangerous ideas' and has delivered a Ted talk on capitalism. She has founded the networks, Feminists Against Surrogacy and the climate action group, Klimax.

Listen Now;

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

 

Same Old, Same Old, Capitalism.

          It is claimed that Puerto Rico is a poor country, a small country mired in debt, stated to be $90 billion, but how can you be poor if, in the last 20 years, you produced $600 billion tax free profit for corporations? How does that work? Well, Puerto Rico is a colony of imperialist America, like all colonies, it is plundered to enrich their imperialist masters. Puerto Rico is basically owned by big corporations. A mere 10% of that plunder would clear all Puerto Rico's debt. The people of Puerto Rico like all subjugated people of colonies across the world, can't solve their problems, as long as control over their daily lives and their assets lies in the hands of their imperialist masters and the big corporations. This slave master relationship comes, as always, at great cost to the people. Recently, because of the ever recurring crisis in capitalism, the people of Puerto Rico have had to bear the usual “austerity” plan. This is devastating when the standard of living is among the poorest in that area, estimates show 44%+ of the people living in poverty. They have been attacked by increase sales taxes, a reduction in the working day, with the subsequent drop in income, a considerable drop in health and education services, the dismantling of labour rights, the destruction of their pension system, and a host of other life destroying measures. Although lots of Puerto Ricans live in homes that would not be classified as homes in the "developed" world, there has been a recent surge in homelessness. A population trying to exist in dire poverty and deprivation, while the wealth of their country is sucked straight into the corporate world's bank accounts.

        Puerto Rico is just another example of a capitalist system riding roughshod over people to maximise profits, aided and abetted by the military power of imperialism. Until we sort out in our minds that such a system has to go, one way or another, before the people of this world can see justice, and reap the benefits of their own labour. A better world is possible, it is up to us, the ordinary people of this planet, to come together in solidarity, and create that better world, that sees to the needs of all our people.

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

Charlie Baird Sn.

 

      Spirit of Revolt has for the latest "Read of the Month", posted, Charlie Baird Sn.: An Interview. Charlie was a Glasgow anarchist from the WW2 period through to the 60s, a very colourful period in Glasgow anarchist history. It should be of interest to younger activist in the city and wider afield. If anybody has a photo of Charlie, I'd love to have a copy.

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

 

It's Going Down.

         There is no doubt that capitalism is destroying the earth, turning into a planet that can't support civilised human life. A depressing statement, but is there anybody out there that can see the future blossoming into a world fit for all, under the present economic system? Save humanity, kill capitalism, save the planet, kill capitalism, I don't see any alternative. The time may never be better to bring an end to capitalism, as at present it is facing major crisis after major crisis, it lurches from disaster to an emergency situation, the world's debt keeps spiralling into the stratosphere, though poverty runs ragged over the world, production keeps producing more than people can buy. If it were a beast, it would be humane to put it out of its misery. Only then will the ordinary people of this world be able to bathe in the warmth and light of justice and freedom.

This from Kickstarter:

A magazine of anarchist news & practice across so-called North America, compiling the best texts published to itsgoingdown.org

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

World Banking Explained.

     Modern world commerce explained in a very brief video. The only criticism I would have with this, is the statement that capitalism isn't the real problem, it's just a nasty form of capitalism that is the problem. The truth is that there is only one form of capitalism, and that is very nasty indeed.

World banking explained in less than 2 minutes...
World banking explained in less than 2 minutes...An animated interview of IMF whistleblower John Perkins, author of 'HoodWinked' and 'Confessions Of An Economic Hitman'Feel free to share, to educate others... For more info like this, please visit: Wesley Hall: The Voice Of Treason
Posted by Wesley P P Hall on Sunday, 27 September 2015

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Tomorrow, January 22nd. Trans Prisoner Day Of Solidarity.

       Society is not civilised as long as it locks people up in cages. All those unfortunate enough to find themselves locked up under some state legislation, suffer humiliation, trauma and violence, both mental and physical. For some the experience can be even more brutal, those who society considers not to fit the "norm", can find prison an unbearable experience, and in many cases, their experience ends in suicide. This type of treatment is intolerable in a modern civilised society. We have a duty to stand up for those put through this repressive state treatment, and show our unstinting solidarity.

Download and distribute this pdf zine in low-res (6mb) or high-res (24mb)
This zine will be distributed to folks both inside and outside prison walls.

       January 22nd 2016 will be the first annual Trans Prisoner Day of Action: an international day of action in solidarity with trans prisoners. This project was first imagined by Marius Mason, a trans anarchist prisoner in Texas, USA. Since then, through his friends and supporters, an international collective of people both inside and outside of prison walls have come together to make this day a reality. A preliminary list of trans prisoners can be found here.

 

US prisons: 
Statement from Marius Mason for the Trans Prisoner Day of Action and Solidarity January 22nd 2016

        Happy New Year, Family and Friends! Many, many thanks for so much support and care over this year from both long-standing friends and new pen pals. I feel very grateful and am always humbled by the encouragement and resources sent my way by folks who are doing so much already to increase our collective chances for survival. The news has been full of stories about someone winning the big money pool that has accumulated for the US Lotto – but the most important “win” has nothing to do with money. I am betting on the movement to win big this year: in getting more control over their communities and defending against police brutality and racial inequality, in winning more victories for animal and in the defense of wild spaces, in creating social relations based on respect, dignity and compassion for all people… irregardless of their race, orientation, creed or gender presentation.       Thank you for coming together today, to hold up those members of our community who struggle so hard behind walls to keep their sense of self intact. Sovereignty over our selves, our bodies is essential for any other kind of liberty to be possible. By reaching out to trans prisoners, you affirm their right to define themselves for themselves – and defend them against the overwhelming voices who claim that they do not exist, that they must allow others to define them. In the isolating environment of prison, this is toxic and intimidating, and amounts to the cruelest form of psychological torture. By offering your help and solidarity, you may just save a life. I know that for the last year and a half, as I have struggled to assert myself as a transman, as I have advocated for the relief of appropriate medical care for my gender dysphoria – it has been the gentle and loving reminders of my extended family of supporters who have given me strength and courage to continue. Please join me in offering this help to so many others who need it to keep going. Never underestimate the healing power of a letter, those letters have kept me going…and I want to pass that gift on, if you will help me.
       Thank you again for coming together on this day, for connecting to those on the inside who truly need you, who need you to see them as they really are and striving to be. Until the prisons are gone, we need to work hard to support those of us inside – especially those of us who are not always as visible to the rest of the world. We are always stronger together.
Marius Mason
January 2016

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London Anarchist Black cross.

From London Anarchist Black Cross:

       Two anti-fascist prisoners currently serving a custodial sentence in relation to a fight with the South East Alliance in London during the summer of 2014. If you would like to write to either K or D, address envelopes to one of them and send to Freedom Bookshop. They will then be forwarded on to them. Remember to include a name and address on the card/letter for the prison to accept it. 

ADDRESS:
K or D,
c/o Freedom Bookshop,
Angel Alley,
84b Whitechapel High Street,
London, E1 7QX.        We at London Anti-Fascists believe history has taught us that anti-fascist action is ALWAYS self-defense. It’s in that radical tradition of confronting fascist’s and their ideas that we organise to create a space for working class organisation in order to realise a world without hunger or fear.
Solidarity!

About londonabc

       London Anarchist Black Cross, is a collective set up with the aim of supporting prisoners: political prisoners, people in detention centres or just people fucked over by the capitalist system.

View all posts by londonabc →

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