Obama, No Prince Of Peace, No Pope Of Hope.

       It is fascinating, but sad, how our babbling brook of bullshit, the mainstream media shapes perceptions, how by selective reporting and exaggeration, and selective ignoring, they can create an alternative vision to the reality we live under. Now as Trump moves into the White House and Obama moves through the exit, there is a wave of sadness at losing a liberal rational president of peace. However, President Obama was no white dove, no prince of peace, his legacy is one of escalating state assassinations across the globe. Mr Obama was a president who was at war longer than any other American president in history. He authorised approximately ten times more drone strikes than George W. Bush.

       The independent, nonprofit Bureau of Investigative Journalism puts the total number of people killed at roughly the same number, 2,753, but its estimate of how many of them were civilians six times higher than the Obama administration’s estimate. Even more chilling from a constitutional perspective is that the Obama administration has — with little to no complaint from the American people or the other two branches of government — deliberately targeted and killed US citizens in drone strikes, without those individuals ever having been given their constitutional right to due process of law.

        Obama played the populist card when he withdrew vast number of troops from Afghanistan and Iraq, but fanned out the area in which he used the more surreptitious air-strikes. He took is silent assassinating drone strikes and expanded them outside the “war zone”, of Iraq and Afghanistan, to countries America had no war with, such as Pakistan and Yemen. Recent figures show that Obama had dramatically upped the number of bombings for the year 2016 to more than a staggering 26,000. Of course we are told by that babbling brook of bullshit, that these were all in the name of peace, and for the well-being of the people of those countries. It is estimated that the “coalition” who are involved in the Middle East have during 2016, drop almost 31,000 bombs, all in the name of peace and the well-being of the people, of course, of which the Obama contingent were responsible for 79%. The number of bombs is likely to be an under estimate as a strike can be multiple bombs. Apart from the horror, bloodshed, death and destruction from such numbers, look at each bomb as costing approximately, around £500,000, add that up, and think how else could that money have been spent bring peace, and helping the well-being of the people. 

       It is reported that “Incoming US President Donald Trump has said he will wage war on Isis, vowing to "bomb the s*** out of 'em". My heart goes out to those poor unfortunate people who happen to inhabit that area where ISIS is active. You can imagine what such a remark would do for the arms industry, yes, you are right, their shares have rocketed. In this society war is a very lucrative business, it is touted as creating jobs, but more important, creating even more wealth for the obscenely wealthy. So Obama will be applauded by the establishment for doing a great job.

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

Free Showing, I Daniel Blake.

         For those in and around Glasgow, who have not seen Ken Loach's new film I, Daniel Blake, there will be an opportunity to see it for free, on January 31st. It will be screened at the Castlemilk Youth Complex, on January 31st. from 19:00 to 21:30, thanks to the worthy effort of Castlemilk Against Austerity.

 

Castlemilk Youth Complex

January 31st. 19:00-21:30

39 Ardencraig Road, G45 0EL Glasgow, United Kingdom.

       This event is not just a film showing, there will be a discussion in which you can express, your views on the subject matter of benefits and sanctions as portrayed in the film, and what we can do about these matters

    Castlemilk Against Austerity and RISE: Glasgow South Circle Invite you to come along to the FREE screening and discussion of the new Ken Loach film I Daniel Blake. I, Daniel Blake is a 2016 drama film directed by Ken Loach and written by Paul Laverty.
         Daniel Blake has worked as a joiner most of his life in Newcastle. Now, for the first time ever, he needs help from the State. He crosses paths with a single mother Katie and her two young children, Daisy and Dylan. Katie’s only chance to escape a one-roomed homeless hostel in London has been to accept a flat in a city she doesn’t know, some 300 miles away. Daniel and Katie find themselves in no-man’s land, caught on the barbed wire of welfare bureaucracy as played out against the rhetoric of ‘striver and skiver’ in modern day Britain.
        This is a must see film that truthfully records the inhumane attitudes that are being borne out of the economic policies of austerity. The film will make you feel both sad and angry but will also Inspire you to change it

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

 

 

Impossible Takes Just A Little Longer.

        Where in the capitalist world is there peace? In country after country people are in direct action against this system that is foisted on us as the only game in town. Our babbling brook of bullshit, the mainstream media will ridicule, lampoon or totally ignore any suggestion that there is a better way to organise our lives other than capitalism. The system is portrayed as the pinnacle of civilisation, yet all around us is poverty, homelessness and bloody wars, for control of the earth's resources. There is mass hunger in the midst of plenty, deprivation surrounded by wealth, large swaths of our planet are being steeped in flowing warm blood of innocents, and still the babbling brook of bullshit laud this dystopia as the bringer of peace, freedom and prosperity. Yes, there is that small band of parasites that have their hands on the control levers of power, who enjoy all that peace, freedom and prosperity, but it is not the vast majority of humanity.

       However, we are awakening, across the planet the ordinary people have seen through the smoke and mirrors of the capitalist illusion, and are taking steps to challenge "the only game in town" philosophy. In small bands  and large groups, they have taken the road to challenge the hegemony of capital, and its corrosive effect on all of us, and the very planet that we inhabit. With the advent of better communications, we are linking up and joining hands, and increasing our solidarity, our small sporadic struggles are now more than ever becoming one massive battle to challenge and bring down this savage, brutal, insane system of destructive greed, exploitation and unearned privilege.

       From Chile to Australia, from Italy to Greece, from France to America, in all corners of our world, people are taking up the struggle against this capitalist cancer, we can shape the world to see to the needs of all our people, we have the numbers, the power, the skills and the imagination, this world is ours by right of our sweat and blood, we just have to make that final grasp.

Mapuches still resisting in “Chile”

By actforfreedom

       In a march commemorating the ninth anniversary of the murder of indigenous Mapuche activist Matias Catrileo, shot in the back by police, protesters stormed the financial district of Santiago, Chile.
They demanded charges against Mapuche spiritual leader or ‘Machi” Francisca Linconao be dropped. She is charged in an arson attack that killed two wealthy land owners in ancestral Mapuche lands. After a 14 day hunger strike ‘to freedom or death,’ she was released on house arrest the same day as the march and ended her hunger strike. Protesters denounced ongoing police violence against indigenous peoples in Chile.
       Decrying cases like that of Brandon Hernández Huentecol, 17, who was shot in the back by police last month. Huentecol has had 12 operations and remains in critical condition. His family denounced police efforts to buy their silence.

Australia:

       As a minimum response to the capture of our comrades, some anarchists in Sydney painted a solidarity mural.

Solidarity with the prisoners of the social war. For the annihilation of every prison.

Mexico:

       The community of Suc-Tuc in Campeche form a self-government against corruption and repression of their authorities
Demián Revart
“Impossible takes just a little bit longer”

France:

Left-wing activists have clashed with riot police during protests over new labour laws that are bringing havoc to the streets of Paris today.

And so it grows until we win.

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

     However, our future doesn't have to be that way, the choice is ours. 

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

The System Has No Legitimacy.

          For centuries we have been, through struggle and negotiations, teasing minimal improvements in our conditions from the system of capitalism. However we should never forget that, under the system of capitalism, these crumbs of comfort that we have struggled so hard for, are not permanent benefits. The system will always be involved in claw-back operations. Sometimes this is done in a slow kind of piecemeal manner, different types of legislation and rule changes, such as flexible working conditions, zero hours contracts, changing the pension age, workfare and benefit sanctions and so on. Other times it is the system itself that hits one of its inevitable and frequent “crises” that force it, for its own survival, to claw-back in a savage and vicious fashion. Two major claw-backs that spring to mind is what is now know as the 30’s and the 2008 financial crisis. In both these instances the system’s financial centres went bust and to get it back up and running, there had to be a massive claw-back of all or most of the meagre benefits from the public, that we had won through years of struggle. This was done in a similar manner in both cases, a policy of “austerity”, involving a savage and vicious destruction of the social fabric of society, resulting in a tsunami of poverty, deprivation, and mass unemployment, with no regard to the suffering of the ordinary people. The system first and foremost, this ensures that those with the wealth and power remain in control and hold onto their wealth and power. 

        When do we accept that we have been pursuing a failed policy of subservience by continually accepting the false legitimacy of this system, and asking, “Can we have some more please”. Exploitation, injustice and inequality can have no legitimacy, and any system that perpetuates those qualities must be the target of our anger, not to plead for more, but to eliminate the system completely, and replace it with a system based on mutual aid, co-operation, and sustainability, a system that sees to the needs of all our people. For freedom and justice, there is no other way.

       The following is an extract from ATTACK, a Pistols Drawn Publication:

         By permanent conflictuality we mean uninterrupted struggle against class domination and those responsible for bringing it about. By self-management we mean independence from all parties, trades unions or patronage, as well as finding the means necessary for organising and carrying out the struggle on the basis of spontaneous contributions alone. By attack we mean the refusal of any negotiation, mediation, reconciliation or compromise with the enemy.
        Nevertheless, the final aim of these intermediate struggles is always attack. It is however obviously possible for individual comrades or affinity groups to strike at individuals or organisations of Capital and the State independently of any more complex relationship
          Sabotage has become the main weapon of the exploited in their struggle in the scenario we see extending before our very eyes. Capitalism is creating conditions of control and domination at levels never seen before through information technology which could never be used for anything other than maintaining power.
Alfredo M. Bonanno
The Insurrectional Project

You can read the entire ATTACK PDF for free HERE: 

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

Change We Must.

           Who are the terrorists, who are responsible, by far, for the vast majority of the killings on this planet, who forces poverty and deprivation on millions, who plunders the planet, for personal gain and not for the community? We all know, or should know, the answers to these questions, of course it is the state and capital. Yet millions still tolerate this festering cancerous marriage between state and capital, and foolishly millions turn to those very killer organisations in an attempt to improve their lives, it is a bit like being lost in a jungle and asking a crocodile for assistance. We have had centuries of watching the rich get richer, until we now see a small group own, by far, the greatest slice of the world’s unimaginable wealth, while the vast majority struggle from day to day just for survival, and some don’t even make that level. We have had centuries of asking and petitioning for the wealth to be a little bit more evenly spread, the result is the opposite of what we ask, the rich still get richer. They say that one of the signs of insanity is to keep doing the same thing, but expecting a different result. Perhaps we should now be looking at ourselves and realising that we have to try something different, to get that better result that we all desire. You have voted for centuries, and the wealth that you and I create, still flows, at an ever increasing rate, upwards, to that small band of bloated parasites. You know there is a better way, you know that the world has an abundance of resources that could see to the needs of all our people, you know we have the ability to create that better world, but as long as we play the game to the rules of the gangsters and mobsters that at the moment control all that wealth, we are doomed to see the wealth continue flowing up to their overloaded coffers, and we will continue to see our people struggle and suffer. 

        There are many ways we can change the system, end this injustice, and end the plundering and destruction of the planet, but change we must. To continue as we are is to see the suffering increase and by the continuing plundering of the planet, the eventual demise of the ecosystem that we all rely on for survival. We must remember, the Earth has no escape capsule.

This poster has appeared recently in Greece:

Translation from Contra Info:

 The poster reads:

“I am a revolutionary, and I have nothing to apologize for.

         Terrorists, criminals, robbers are those who compose the economic and political life; the institutions and governments that, through the memoranda, are waging the most violent, the most heinous attack on the social base in the name of a “way out of the crisis.” Terrorist, criminal, robber is the State and Capital; those whom I fight committed with all my soul to armed struggle, to Revolutionary Struggle; those whom my organization has targeted all these years of our activity.
       (…) when the economic and political establishment attacks the social majority in the most merciless way, armed struggle for social revolution is a duty and obligation; because that’s where hope lies and nowhere else. The only hope for a definitive way out of the systemic crisis we are living in this historical period, for a definitive way out of every crisis. It is the only hope towards overturning capitalism, the system that gives birth to crises; the only hope towards overturning the State and Capital.
        It is the only hope for an armed counterattack of the social base against a system that crushes them.
        It is the only hope towards overthrowing the State and Capital; for Social Revolution.
         For a society of economic equality and political freedom for all.”
Pola Roupa

       “I am an anarchist, member of the armed revolutionary organization Revolutionary Struggle. The only terrorists are the State and the Capital.”
Konstantina Athanasopoulou

Demonstration in solidarity with Revolutionary Struggle members

Saturday January 21st 2017 at 12:00 in Monastiraki (downtown Athens)

SOLIDARITY WITH THE REVOLUTIONARY STRUGGLE MEMBERS

NO EXEMPTION STATUS OF POLITICAL PRISONERS

STRUGGLE AGAINST THE STATE AND CAPITAL BY ANY MEANS

–Solidarity Assembly (Athens)

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

Kropotkin's Speech.

        We at Spirit of Revolt are always delighted when we can put one of our gems from history up for the general public to enjoy on our "Read of the Month", This month it is Kropotkin's speech at the Memorial Hall London on October 21st., 1909. The speech was given to honour  Francisco Ferrer Guardia an educator and founder of “Modern Schools”, which taught radical social values. In spite of the fact that there was no evidence against him, he was executed by the Spanish state, by firing squad on October 13th. 1909.  Spirit of Revolt is fortunate to have an original copy of that speech, and are delighted to share it with the public at large.

Read the speech on line HERE:

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

Platitudes and Hypocrisy, The State's Contribution.

 

        Doesn’t it strike you as rather hypocritical that the state can move to open up shelters and facilities for all those threatened with possible flooding, but is hell bent on ignoring the thousands that are homeless across the country, even as the temperature plummets, we don’t hear of the state organising local communities to open up shelter and facilities for these vulnerable and suffering people. According to the organisation Shelter, there are approximately 16,000 homeless in the South East of England alone, and this pattern rolls out across the entire country in varying degrees. Of course this is happening on an apocalyptic scale across Europe, as those hundreds of thousands of migrants, fleeing war, death, misery, torture and deprivation, find themselves bedding down in tents covered in snow or huddle together in any closed or semi-closed place they can find. We are talking about men, women, children, and elderly, this is the true face of “civilised”, rich, capitalist Europe.

            This vast army of homeless, traumatised, fleeing individuals, and families are trapped in pockets across the continent, and for months, according to the babbling brook of bullshit, our mainstream media, they have been invisible. However, now for what ever reason, their plight is making the news again, we are seeing them huddle together, and in one journalist’s photo opportunity, saw them burning railway sleepers to try to keep warm. What will come of this sudden thrusting of their misery onto the headlines? Well going on past records, nothing,

           They will be dropped and the new headlines will be of some celebrity’s latest “scandal”, talk of the stock exchange, of how sales are up or down, and the latest on the Queen’s cold. That vast army of weary, wandering, traumatised fleeing people will once again become invisible, and calm will be returned to the “civilised” continent of Europe. Europe is rich in all manner of resources, it has cesspools filled with money, it has an abundance of skills, it is awash with wealth, well capable of resolving the “migrants” situation with humanity and dignity, but this will not happen. The overpowering out pouring from the various states across capitalist Europe is hypocrisy, it is the only answer they have to the problems of the ordinary people. If we keep the same system, we will be cursed with the same answers.

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

Anarchy Is For Lovers.

       Anarchism, the philosophy of love, irrespective of what the babbling brook of bullshit, our mainstream media would have you believe, without love in your heart you can never be an anarchist. Of course that doesn't mean you are not a fighter, it is just that your battles are to spread love, peace and justice throughout the world. Anarchists have expressed their hopes and dreams in many ways, poetry, theatre, novels, paintings, etc., but also in direct action when and where they feel it is needed. Anarchism can claim among its ranks many poets one of them Frederico Arcos, Spanish anarchist and poet.

From The Anarchist Library, Frederico Acros:

       Federico Arcos (July 18, 1920-May 23, 2015), a lifelong anarchist, participated in the Spanish Revolution and Civil War in the 1930s, and later took part in the antifascist underground there. He immigrated to Canada in 1952, where he continued his commitment to anarchist goals. He eventually compiled an extensive archive of anarchist writings and other material.

Fifth Estaters met Federico in the early 1970s. In time he became a beloved elder to people working on the paper, and in the larger Detroit/Windsor anarchist, radical, and labor communities. The 50th anniversary retrospective exhibit of the FE at Detroit's Museum of Contemporary Art is dedicated to Federico. It runs from September 2015 to January 2016.

The following remembrance is presented with the understanding that each generation of rebels confronts the leviathan of oppression and exploitation in its own way, using the ideas and resources passed on to it by those who came before. Today's anarchists and anti-authoritarians fight for a future free from hierarchy and exploitation, developing means and strategies as they go. For some, living memory of the struggle goes back to the Occupy movement, for others, Seattle in 1999. Those of us who became active in the 1960s and '70s were personally acquainted with veterans of the revolts earlier in the century, from whom we drew deep inspiration and courage. Because the fight for freedom is still ongoing, awareness of the lives and legacies of yesterday's fighters and battles remains relevant, in fact essential.

—Robby Barnes

Continue reading:

           Now thanks to The Fifth Estate we are able to read Momentos a book of poetry by Federico Arcos in Spanish and in English on a free download HERE:  

Two of his poems from the collection:

WHITE DOVES

White doves. White doves
that pass by … return…
white doves flying in circles
as if protecting the neighborhood.
White doves. White doves
that perch on the roof of my house.
Peace… Peace and tranquility
the domain of those white doves.
But … what? But … what?
If there is no tranquility that lasts,
but there are vivid memories
of black doves in flight over
Barcelona!… Madrid!…
Guernica!… London!…
Hiroshima!!!… Nagasaki!!!
White doves. White doves
Lasting symbol. Endless beginning.
Oh, white doves; white doves!
—August 1960, Hiroshima 15 years on

And:

       Since 1939, young anarchists in Spain have paid the price for resisting Francoism. Raul Carballeira, a prominent figure in the anarchist underground, was one who paid the ultimate price when surrounded by police on Montjuïc Mountain in Barcelona.

RAUL CARBALLEIRA
(February 28, 1918-June 26, 1948)

Bursts of shrapnel
mowed down your young body.
But you still had a gasp of breath,
a gasp of breath and a bullet;
and your mind, like a rapid steed,
galloping in the air,
on a hot June afternoon,
exploded under your own impact.
I cry out and I cry out with vehemence;
I cry out with vehemence, oh brother;
for never did they succeed
in chaining The Idea
or silencing The Word.
The word that expresses
In ideas, the soul.
We are a hammer of steel.
We shall continue hammering.
Each word, a blow;
each blow, a spark;
each phrase, a flame;
and in fires of words,
torches of The Idea
illuminating the darkness,
we shall proceed on the path
with dawns of truth.

Read the full collection HERE:

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

A World In Revolt.

       It is difficult to grasp the extent of the public protests and anger across the globe, at the policies of neo-liberal corporate capitalism and their henchmen minders, the various states. Our babbling brook of bullshit, the mainstream media, will always look the other way on these matters, and prefer to show you the latest royal baby or give the nitty-gritty details of some celebrity that is having an affair. However, you can move around the map of the world, put your finger on a city, and you can bet the deeds of your plantation, that there will be unrest on the streets in that city. Sometimes it is just a public display of that anger by mass protests, other times it storms into open riots against the system. It is not just on the streets, but in prisons across the world, prisoners are in open revolt against the injustice inflicted on them. It is so widespread today that if they all joined hands and organised together across borders, the system would collapse. The protests' fragmentation is its own real enemy. As long as we are isolated one group from the other, the powers that be, can isolate the protests and keep the lid on the anger. Our weapon has to be solidarity, in any form we can show, by publicity, by joining, by physical and moral support. What is going on in the world of anti-capitalist revolutionary endeavour, is always worth spreading, to inform, to inspire to learn from. Only when we the ordinary people see the world has no borders, and our struggle is global, only then will we be able to create that better world for all, and see to the needs of all our people.

         Recently "Revolutionary Struggle" released a compilation of letters, texts and communiques, you can download it for free HERE: The truth written and circulated is also a revolutionary act. 

An extract:

“If someone today wants to open a profitable business, they should make guillotines”

        With the above phrase an American journalist describes the size of social rage in the USA. It is the first time historically, where the total of the developed capitalist world boils in rage and desperation for the rulers, for those that are to blame for this crisis, which not only are not punished but continue enjoying their privileges and increasing their profits. It stems from the rage at the expanding poverty, at the marginalization of wider and wider parts of society, at the injustice, since the rulers require that the people are sacrificed in order to face the crisis.
       This rage is expressed in the last few months with more and more intensity all over Europe. In one European city after another, millions of people go to the streets with the youth in the front line, in order to express their opposition to the hard neo-liberal attack that the rulers have unleashed against the social and labour vested interests. In France because of the social security changes, in England because of the educational measures, in Greece, Italy, Spain, Ireland, demonstrations are turning into revolts.
        One revolt causes another one and progressively, all over Europe the big social ignition is expected. The phrase “us or them” becomes more and more a common conscience and will become the slogan that will determine the result of the next bigger revolts.------

The full compilation can be downloaded HERE:

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

The Price Of Oil Is Always Blood.

          Remember in 2007, the babbling brook of bullshit, our mainstream media, filling every avenue of communication with their vomit of how we were liberating Libya?  How we were going in to a despot controlled hell to help the Libyan people liberate themselves from that mad man Gaddafi? How our smart bombs and measured military expertise would allow the country to flourish as a free democracy. Well now, almost 10 years later, due to the silence of our babbling brook of bullshit, on all matters Libya, You could be forgiven for thinking that our lords and masters with their imperialist military might had succeeded, and Libya was now a liberated and free democracy. 

         The truth could not be further removed from that thought, Libya is now a living hell, no longer a country, but a series of warlord and religious fundamentalist controlled areas. All brutally vying for power, in a land where the entire infrastructure has been destroyed, Where the life of vast swathes of the ordinary people has been reduced to drinking foul water and eating rats. Where beheading is a daily occurrence and rape endemic, where misery, fear and hunger is the fabric of life. The West is now seeing thousands upon thousands of migrants make that perilous journey across the Mediterranean Sea, thousands of suffering unfortunate people who leave Libya with the one thought, "better to die at sea than return to Libya". This is the Western  type, bomb created democracy we brought to the Libyan people.

          The humanitarian disaster that is now Libya, was totally engineered by the imperialist West, the hell-hole of destroyed cities and towns, was our doing, and you would be an idiot if you thought that our destruction of Libya had nothing to do with the thousands of fleeing migrants, but the babbling brook of bullshit stays silent on that matter, we are now more or less in control of the Libyan oil, no longer any need to report what is going on in that unfortunate part of the world. The suffering of the people is of no concern in matters of control of resources.

         There is an excellent article about Libya with photos on arrezafe, though the English translation is not perfect it is understandable and informative.

 Libya today.

   We do not know how many people have died in Libya today as a result of the brutal intervention by NATO in 2011. Some sources speak of about thirty thousand dead; others, increase that figure. Meanwhile, the Red Cross estimates about one hundred and twenty thousand dead, but there is no doubt that the war which began NATO has destroyed the country and thrown into its six million inhabitants to a sinister nightmare.

Read the full article HERE:

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

There Is a Gap In the Wall- It Has To be Filled.

        Just heard from Loam of arrezafe, of the death of a Spanish comrade, like all those hardy loyal fighters for a free society, they must not be forgotten, their lives and their stories must be recorded, to inspire the next generation of fighters. Their passing always leaves a gap, a hole in our wall, we can only hope that some younger fighter, will step up and fill that hole. Now more than ever, we need those characters of steel and honest resolve.

A Comrade has left us

         We are sorry to hear of the death of long-time anarchist militant and member of the CNT Spain, Jose Luis Garcia Rua. Garcia Rua passed peacefully on Friday morning, January 6 at the age of 93. Rua was born in 1923 in Asturias, Spain. His father had been a member of the CNT who perished on the Oveido front during the Civil War. In 1939, he was forced into exile in France, eventually winding up in a concentration camp of Argelers and Barcarès, however he was able to return later than year.
      Garcia Rua began a career as an academic, but worked in construction, metal and mines. He was involved in anti-Francoist activity and ultimately repressed for his role in a miners' strike. He lost his job in academia for some time but ultimately became a professor of philosophy in the University of Granada in the mid-70s. In 1977, after the death of Franco, he was chosen Secretary of the Andalucian region of the CNT, a position he held twice. Between 1986-1990, he served as the General Secretary of the CNT and from 1997-2000, as the General Secretary of the IWA.
        He is the author of numerous articles and books, both related to anarchosyndicalism as well as his academic interests. On May Day 2015, he made an impassioned speech about the International Workers Assocation, calling on comrades to continue the tradition of militant anarchosyndicalism. This was the last speech that he made in public.

We send our condolences to his family.

IWA Secretariat

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

The Fabrication Of Reality.

        Never, never, trust that babbling brook of bullshit, the mainstream media. It consists of a group of people who will sell, to their corporate bosses, information stolen from you, to enhance their salary, and reputation among the shitpot of other journalists. You are always fair game in their egotistical career of bosses arse-licking. They will use and abuse any information they can sneak, steal or fabricate, they are the monkeys of their corporate media barons, the front line in the defence of this established system of greed, inequality and injustice. Treat them with the contempt they deserve. They have no place in the world of those who struggle to create that better world of mutual aid, co-operation and social justice, that struggle that strives for an end to capitalism, they are well and truly embedded in the world sleaze, corruption and greed. The propaganda mouthpieces of the establishment.

This from Rabble:

         In the past year or so, the bottom feeders of the press managed to write many lurid stories about comrades in the UK and our networks, which have not only invaded people’s privacy but have put them at risk from the state and fash. These journalists infiltrated our protests and social events, took close range pictures, trawled social media and pieced together sensationalist and often wildly inaccurate pieces about individuals, and put footage on the internet that led to people being targeted by the cops.
           While I expect no better of the media, I do expect us to put up more of a fight. The tolerance of the broader London anarchist/anti-authoritarian scene for the presence of journalists on our demos, and sometimes in our spaces (at times even on invitation!), is exceptional and I’ve witnessed it in few other anarchist milieus. Why is this? Is it mere slackness, a fear of rocking the boat, or are people actually buying the liberal bullshit from the likes of the NUJ about “freedom of expression”? A combination of the above seems the likely contender.
        In many cases, the widespread use of “social” media means that information is simply given to hacks on a plate; they need only copy and paste a few Arsebook quotes, and download some photos that the user themselves has put on their profile to come up with a story, such is the quality of the mainstream media. Obviously, people need to wise up to this and close down their social media accounts, or at the very least clean them up.

Read the full article HERE:

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Greek State's Six Year Old Hostage Released To Relatives.

       An update on the Greek state's treatment of Pola Roupa's six year old child, who was being held in a psychiatric hospital under police guard, after the arrest of the child's parents. It seems that the Greek state has been forced to relent and bring a modicum of humanity into its treatment of this child. You can rest assured that this action was not brought about by the state's compassion, but by the strength of protest, and the fact that the eyes of the world were watching. Of course the state hasn't taken its foul teeth out of the child just yet, the state's henchmen will decide the innocent child's future within six months. We cannot let any state's acts of repression to slip past unnoticed, we must always be vigilant and resist.

This from Contra Info:

 Banner hung by the anarchist squat Utopia A.D. in Komotini, northern Greece: “Six-year-old captive; the hatred is growing; cops–judges–media filth, murderers”

         Today, Sunday January 8th 2017, after a new prosecutor’s order, temporary custody of Lambros-Viktoras Maziotis Roupas was given to the grandmother on his mother’s side, so his captivity in the psychiatric unit(!) of the children’s hospital in Athens was finally terminated. The six-year-old child left the hospital escorted by his first-degree relatives.
        Meanwhile, there were protests by inmates at Koridallos men’s and women’s prisons, Elaionas women’s prison in Thebes, and Trikala prison.
       Revolutionary Struggle members Nikos Maziotis, Pola Roupa and Kostantina Athanasopoulou have interrupted their thirst and hunger strike.
            A court will decide on the final custody of the child within six months.

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