Sexism In Anarchist Circles!

         Yes, sexism does exists in anarchist circles, and should be constantly challenged, it is encouraging to see it challenged in such an open and powerful manner. This from Mpalothia:

Mexico: 

Communique from the Informal Insurrectionist Anarcha-Feminist Coven.

       Public response to a misdiagnosis that circulates on the internet. To the anarchists of Mexico and the world, to all the witches fighting in the universe.

 «My Mother, go to your room and take care of your work, the loom and the spinning wheel (…) The word must be a thing of men, of all, and above all of me, of whom is the power of this palace». – Telemachus, The Odyssey

---------Thus, the Bolshevik libertarians try and prevent our participation in the anarchic war and ask us to return to the school, to the metate, to the molcajete, to caring for our daughters and darning socks. Like Telemachus to Penelopes, they send us to the knitting room. Once again, the cry of patriarchal power disguises itself as ‘libertarian’ and condemns us to shut us up and keep us from ‘the things of men’.
       Before continuing we want to clarify that we are not Rodriguistas, and not because we don’t share the theory of compañero Rodriguez but because we are not Bakunistas, nor are we Malatestas, we are not Magonistas, nor are we Goldmanistas. We follow ideas not people.
       We are anarchists and we believe that there is only one way to confront power and authority, and that is the anarchic insurrection, that is why we conceive anarchic organization in an informal way through collective affinities and permanent conflict against the patriarchal civilization as a whole. That is why we reject the misogynist authoritarianism of the these Bolshevik libertarians, and why we do it publicly. To fight against sexism and misogyny is to fight against gender, and to fight to destroy gender is to also fight to destroy the whole patriarchal civilization.
        We do not represent all the insurrectionist anarchist comrades, we only represent a collective of affinity based in the central region of Mexico. We recognize the struggle of all the other anarcha-feminist insurrectionist compañeras, from those who individually confront the patriarchal civilization, to the compañeras who do it in anonymous collectives and those who have decided to group themselves under new acronyms and claim their actions.

Our fight is the same.
Neither God, nor State, nor Master!
Against the patriarchal civilization!
For the control of our bodies and our lives!
For the destruction of gender!
For the anarchic insurrectional tension!
For Anarchy!

Informal Insurrectionist Anarcha-Feminist Coven

Read the full article HERE:

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Solidarity Forever.

      Something that a lot of people, especially among the young, seem to take for granted are lunch breaks, paid holidays, etc. they seem to accept them as a given, probably given by that kind employer. Of course the young people in the "gig" economy, they know different, they are being slapped in the face with with raw capitalism. No holiday pay, no lunch break, no health and safety, no guaranteed wage, no fixed working week, just used as needed. What all of us must remember is that whatever conditions we have, we wrestled them from the employers, through solidarity and struggle. Sometimes those involved in that struggle paid with the loss of their employment and/or their freedom, some paid for them with their lives. Not one of the benefits we have, were ever give by the employer, nor legislated for by the government, without that long and bitter struggle by the ordinary people. 

     The employer class at the moment feel they can now, with the aid and protection of the government, claw back lots of those hard won benefits. Once again we must turn to solidarity, across all work places, to protect what little benefits we have, and to struggle to end the exploitation of people by capital.

     The following is a little reminder of our need for solidarity, the weapon that can defeat the greed driven class of capitalist exploiters.

This from The zine formerly known as “The Call” Issue 4, –May Day 2018: 

Read PDF ll Print PDF

Solidarity Forever!

         “What force on earth is weaker than the feeble strength of one?” A revolution is the product of the combined determination of individuals. Capitalism uses isolation as a tool to steal the empowerment of the people, driving a wedge between the individual and their sense of community. The ruling class knows there exists power in unity, and in that power, a threat to their system of hierarchy and inequality. Solidarity is the greatest weapon possessed by the people. Through solidarity and struggle, workers demanded and won their rights, and through solidarity greater obstacles will be conquered. “In our hands is placed the power greater than their hoarded gold. Greater than the might of armies magnified a thousandfold

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Rubble And Death Are The Hallmarks Of Western Victories.

         Once again the the Western imperialists, claiming the high moral ground have been exposed, as the brutal, savage, warmongering power seekers, that we all know them to be. The latest report from Amnesty International on visiting Raqqa, states that the Western allies attack on the city of Raqqa saw the worst artillery and air-strike bombardment of any city since Vietnam. Their evidence is of total destruction of an entire city with the indiscriminate killing of civilians. Of course the picture the Western imperialists pedal to the world is precision targeting with smart bombs and artillery, taking care never to kill civilians. When you pulverise an entire city with modern fire-power and say that no civilians were killed, you are a lying hypocrite. 

Photos from The Independent:

     This is what a glorious Western victory looks like to an Arab.

From The Independent:

        US, Britain and France inflicted worst destruction 'in decades' killing civilians in Isis-held city of Raqqa, report says, 'More artillery shells were launched into Raqqa than anywhere since the end of the Vietnam war' says Amnesty International

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The Natives Are Revolting.

 

        We are a wee bit late with this one, it seems to have got delayed in the merry-go-round of our activities. It was Spirit of Revolt's first "Show and Tell" in conjunction with The Mitchell Library, and was based on material from the John Cooper Collection, we were very grateful for John being present to gives us some live memories from his activities as a life long radical activist. The title of the event was "The Natives Are Revolting". It is now up on our "audio-video" section.

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Palestinian Death Causes No Ripples.

       The misery, death and destruction visited on the people of Gaza by the Israeli Zionists regime continues, while in the UN, America vetoes an action that might investigate this genocide and the UK in it usual colonial mindset abstains. So the Zionists are free to continue with their genocide and land grab. All based on the ludicrous insane belief that an invisible man in the sky gave them this land around 2,000 years ago. A fictitious foundation for a savage reality, insanity rules. 

       June 1st. saw a crime that should have brought all civilised people onto the streets in righteous anger, demanding justice and an end to this Zionist genocide, but it hardly got a mention in that babbling brook of bullshit we call the mainstream media.

      On June 1st., in the besieged Gaza strip, Palestinian nurse Razan al-Najjar was shot in the chest and killed by an Israeli Zionist sniper. At the time she was providing medical aid to injured protesters. One Zionist rifle aimed deliberately at the chest of a young woman providing medical assistance, one deliberate action on an unarmed young woman, and the silence is overwhelming, why?

       In another incident, it takes courage to confront your armed Zionist jailers, who treat you as sum-human.

Thanks Loam for the video link.

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Spirit of Revolt New Additions

 

         As usual, all at Spirit of Revolt have been busy, for our June "Read of the Month" we have selected a small booklet, Collectives in Spain, an anthology published by Black Dog Press, 1971, well worth a wee read. We have also added two new videos to our "Audio-Video" section. One is our recent Show and Tell on the Hetherington Occupation at Glasgow University. The other is of our Glasgow Radical History Walk, part of our May Day Week celebrations.

    Go on, have a wee look, I'm sure you will enjoy our new entries.

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Democracy And Police Violence.

           It appears that in Germany you can't put up posters depicting police violence, without dire consequences.
This from Hyperallergic:

 Kalabal!K Library

           An anarchist library was raided earlier this month in Berlin after police executed search warrants in the hunt for two men wanted in connection to a series of posters depicting police violence during the last year’s G20 protests in Hamburg.
          Kalabal!K, located on Reichenberger Strasse in Kreuzberg, was searched on the morning of May 9 after police suspected two men wanted for libel were located inside. Just after 5:15am, Berlin police reportedly broke open the door of the anarchist library with an angle grinder. They also stormed an apartment in the same building, as well as three other apartments in the Neukölln and Tempelhof districts.
           The State Office of Criminal Investigation (LKA) gave Berlin police permission to search the premises of Kalabal!K, which is located in a left-wing project house known as “Reiche 63a,” part of a collective run by the Self-Governing Comradeship of East Berlin, where police reportedly seized evidence including data carriers, as well as illegal weapons and guns.
         Police arrested two men, aged 24 and 27, on suspicion of spreading slander in connection to the “wanted” signs that were posted around Kreuzberg in December of last year following the violence at the G20 summit in Hamburg. The posters in question depict several members of the Hamburg police and local politicians, who are accused in the renegade poster of forming “a terrorist group for the purpose of attempted manslaughter, serious injury, mistreatment and kidnapping.”
          Politicians depicted in the poster include the Federal Minister of Finance and Vice Chancellor Olaf Scholz; Senator Andy Grote; and Hamburg’s Chief of Police Hartmut Dudde. According to activists, these individuals were responsible for motivating police aggression during the Hamburg G20 protests last July, where for several nights left-wing groups demonstrated against the summit.
           Criticism of police aggression during G20 was widespread, with several journalists reporting a disproportionate use of force to put down demonstrators. According to a report by Constanze Nauhaus in Der Tagesspiegel, “the police deployed such a massive force to surround the demo’s starting point at Hamburg’s Fischmarkt square that it was almost impossible to count the number of water cannon and reinforcement units stationed in the surrounding streets.”

This is the offending poster:

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The Glorification Of War, An Imperialist Trait.

        All I can say about this piece is, read it and share it, for it is not only a true picture of the American establishment, but a mirror of our own war worshipping privileged parasites that pontificate over our lives, with little or no value of those lives.Thanks Keith for the link.

Friends,

As we mark Memorial Day, I share an article I wrote at this time in 2014. Sadly, the US is lashing out more aggressively than four years ago and the world is an even more dangerous place as a result. As we relax and enjoy the long weekend, let's double down on our efforts for peace and justice. Solidarity,

Andy

Memorial Day and Everywhere is War

                                                                                                                                                           by Andy Piascik

            Summer approaches and the stench of war is all around. Or, as the great Bob Marley put it, Everywhere is War. Start with the commemorations over a five-week span of Memorial Day, Flag Day and Independence Day, all presented varyingly as celebrations of our war dead, symbols of our greatness, the freedoms we love so dearly and seek to export to every corner of the world and, perhaps most important, the unquestioned rightness of our cause.

            In reality, the celebrations are of imperialist war, with the talk about the hallowed dead just so much cover for the murderous nature of US foreign policy. Celebrating the dead – note that the dead celebrated are just the American dead, not any of the millions killed by US aggression or client states – is a no-lose proposition designed to render anyone who asks the wrong questions a traitor or a terrorist. The notion that the US regularly commits war crimes and that polished, well-educated men like John Kennedy and Barack Obama are war criminals is unthinkable; war criminals look like Osama bin-Laden and Saddam Hussein and those other nasty people far away, over there. 

World War One Centennial

            It’s also the summer of the centennial of the start of what in its time was known as the Great War, the greatest blood-letting in history except for that of the Second Great War barely two decades later. Of one thing we can be sure and that is that the lessons drawn from mainstream discussions of World War One will be all the wrong ones. Worse, the spectacle of the intelligentsia waxing eloquent about the horrors of war while unflinchingly cheering on the warmakers in Washington will be accepted by one and all of their kind as perfectly reasonable – as beyond discussion, in fact.

            In recent weeks, meanwhile, mainstream commentators have been shocked to discover that things in Iraq are not alright, in fact are worse than at any time since the second US blitzkrieg in 2003. Gee, who knew. Who knew that an invasion predicated on a lie of weapons of mass destruction, designed to secure control of massive oil supplies, would go wrong? The political class and intelligentsia didn’t, or at least they pretended they didn’t, but millions around the world who demonstrated against the invasion in the weeks before it was launched certainly did. And one of the points those demonstrators underscored was that a US invasion would fuel sectarian divisions and violence, precisely as has happened. Al-Qaeda, which did not exist in Iraq prior to the invasion, now flourishes while a new group, the Islamist State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), rampages through the country.

            The response of many elites in the US, naturally, is for more war. Calls from certain factions for a third US invasion are growing louder and, true to his preference for violence over diplomacy, Obama has sent a strike force to Iraq. Whether the people of the United States can come together as we did last summer when we rose up and prevented Obama from attacking Syria remains to be seen. We must at least try.

Disgraceful Treatment of Veterans

            Also on the war front is the Veterans Affairs’ disgraceful neglect of ex-soldiers in need of medical care. For years, political elites have been slashing benefits for veterans while increasing spending on weapons and cutting taxes for the Super Rich. That the problem came to a head with a Democrat in the White House is simply an accident of timing, and it is especially outrageous that the most enthusiastic cheerleaders of the illegal Bush-Cheney invasions, as well as reductions to the VA’s budgets and the tax cuts for 1%, now pretend that they care about soldiers.

            Equally farcical is the commencement of yet another round of hearings on the deaths of four Americans in Benghazi. Such hearings would certainly be valuable if everything related to US actions in Libya since the launch of the 2011 assault were up for review, but there is virtually no chance of that happening. The deaths of tens of thousands of Libyans in yet one more illegal military strike, as well as the resulting chaos and violence in that country, is of no concern to those who long for the good old days of Bush-Cheney and are interested only in scoring political points.  

Bowe Bergdhal

            Then there is the saga of the much-vilified Bowe Bergdhal, a heroic young man who came to see the criminal nature of the US invasion of Afghanistan. The refusal of working class youth to fight for Empire is the ruling class’s biggest nightmare and the attacks on Bergdahl, like the show trial that convicted Chelsea Manning, show how far they will go to punish those in uniform who dare challenge their objectives. A hidden aspect of the movement that ended US carnage in Southeast Asia is that it was the widespread opposition of soldiers, both as embodied by organizations like Vietnam Veterans Against the War as well as active duty resisters, that decisively turned the tide.

            So alarming was this development that two massive disinformation campaigns were immediately launched: the myth of the hostility of the anti-war movement for returning soldiers that sought to drive a wedge between active duty and homefront resistance (see, for example, Jerry Lembcke’s outstanding book The Spitting Image: Myth, Memory and the Legacy of Vietnam); and the completely fraudulent MIA blitz (expertly exposed by Bruce Franklin in MIA, or Mythmaking in America) concocted by the Nixon Administration to shift attention away from the death and destruction wrought by the US to the plight of nonexistent prisoners of war. 

            Because preventing any similar development of resistance among soldiers is central to imperial objectives, discussion has largely avoided what Bergdahl actually said about his service in Afghanistan, including his telling declaration in a 2009 e-mail to his parents, as quoted by Amy Goodman on Democracy Now!: “The future is too good to waste on lies and life is way too short to care for the damnation of others as well as to spend it helping fools with their ideas that are wrong. I've seen their ideas, I'm ashamed to even be American. The horror of the self righteous arrogance that they thrive in.” Rather than joining in the Bowe Bergdhal lynch mob, US soldiers everywhere, not to mention those with loved ones in the military, would do well to heed his words and experience.

The Supreme International Crime

            Lastly, the same standard that applies to the war crimes of others applies to the US. As articulated by Robert H. Jackson, chief US prosecutor at Nuremberg, a war of aggression such as committed by the US against Afghanistan and Iraq “is not only an international crime; it is the supreme international crime, differing only from all other crimes in that it contains within itself the accumulated evil of the whole.” In such a circumstance, what Bergdahl did was proper and, it could be argued, obligatory for anyone party to war crimes. So amidst the flag waving and speechifying that glorifies imperialism, we should support him and prisoners of conscience like Chelsea Manning. We should demand that all services veterans require be provided, that US bases around the world be closed, that soldiers be returned home and that the US cease its campaign of endless aggression. And as enticing as the military may seem in such desperate economic times, we should counsel young people to stay away no matter how bleak the alternatives may be.     

           

       Andy Piascik is an award-winning author whose novel In Motion was recently published by Sunshine Publishing.  He can be reached at andypiascik@yahoo.com.

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

The Legal Right To Armed Resistance.

 

     Do the Palestinian people have the right to defend themselves by armed struggle? Well according to the UN, as an occupied territory, they have that right legally. Israel as the occupier does not have that legal right and as an invader they are the illegal entity in this continuing bloodshed. 

     This from The Palestine Chronicle:

         When Israel says it has a “right to defend itself,” the correct response is to ask from what or whom?
      Not a single Israeli citizen or soldier has been harmed or killed by Palestinians since the protests began. In short, Israel is shooting and killing human beings who pose absolutely zero threat to either the state of Israel or its citizens.
       Moreover, never once have you ever heard an American journalist ask an Israeli war crimes apologist, “Well, don’t Palestinians have a right to defend themselves, too?”
       It’s such a self-evidently obvious and simple question, but no one dare asks it. I mean, why not?
       When Palestinians support non-violent forms of resistance, such as the boycott Israel movement, they’re smeared by Israel as “anti-Semites.” When they protest against their injustices angrily, they’re smeared as violent Arabs, and when they resort to violence, out of sheer desperation, they’re labeled “radical Islamic terrorists.”
         So, I’ll ask again. Do Palestinians have a right to defend themselves?
The answer to that question is a resounding yes.
         In fact, international law is unambiguous in its endorsement of “armed struggle” for peoples who seek self-determination under “colonial and foreign domination.”
          United Nations resolution 37/43, dated 3 December 1982, “reaffirms the legitimacy of the struggle of peoples for independence, territorial integrity, national unity and liberation from colonial and foreign domination and foreign occupation by all available means, including armed struggle.”
         Moreover, the resolution’s preamble makes clear that it refers not to a hypothetical in the abstract, but rather specifically to the rights of Palestinians, stating, “Considering that the denial of the inalienable rights of the Palestinian people to self-determination, sovereignty, independence and return to Palestine and the repeated acts of aggression by Israel against the peoples of the region constitute a serious threat to international peace and security.”
        Lynda Burstein Brayer is an Israeli-trained human rights lawyer, and she affirms the legal and moral right Palestinians have to armed struggle against Israel’s occupation, noting, “This document [UN resolution 37/43] legitimises all national liberation struggles, including, at this time in history, most particularly, the Palestinian people’s struggle for its own freedom. It is this right which legitimizes all Palestinian attempts to lift the yoke of Israeli oppression from Palestine, including all the actions taken by the Palestinians during Operation Cast Lead [Israel’s 2008/09 siege of Gaza].”
        Now we have completely flipped pro-Israel propaganda on its head.
Under international law, Israel’s occupation of the Palestinian territories is illegal, and Palestinians have a right to “armed struggle” against their illegal occupier – Israel – thus ipso facto Palestinians have a right to defend themselves against Israel, but Israel’s right to defend itself against Palestinian resistance is not guaranteed in the same manner.
        This reality should be chanted far and loud for it undercuts every Israeli attempt to couch its violence against the Palestinian people in claims of self-defense.

Read the full article HERE:

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War Kills A Child, We Are Responsible.

          This vile insane system that we live under has spawned endless wars, millions of deaths, devastation, and millions of displaced people, mass poverty and deprivation, with no end in sight. The babbling brook of bullshit, the mainstream media pumps out its biased misinformation about the "conflict" in Syria, but not a lot about the horrifying situation in Yemen. What started as a "civil war" in Yemen has developed  into an international power grab involving Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Egypt, Morocco, Jordan, Sudan and Senegal, all lined up against the Houthi in Yemen. As if that line up was not enough to be involved in another country's affairs, of course the UK would have to stick its nose into any conflict involving a Middle East country that has oil and gas. We are sending weaponry and military advisers, to Saudi Arabia to assist them in their battle in Yemen.

     The situation in Yemen is dire to say the least. In war it seems that the children are of no consequences, their deaths just mount up and become a statistic in a list of statistics. Not our children, so their deaths fade into the fog of lost memories. But every child has a family that is devastated and torn asunder by that death.

          As of March 26, 2018, at least 10,000 Yemenis had been killed by the fighting, with more than 40,000 casualties overall.
Getting accurate information on the death toll is difficult, but Save The Children estimated at least 50,000 children died in 2017, an average of 130 every day.
       The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, has estimated that Saudi-led coalition air attacks caused almost two-thirds of reported civilian deaths, while the Houthis have been accused of causing mass civilian casualties due to their siege of Taiz, Yemen's third-largest city.

       All wars are vile and destructive, and in most cases completely unnecessary, but combatants that target hospitals must surely have reached the bottom of the barrel of humanity's dregs.

     Saudi Arabia has pressured aid groups to leave rebel-controlled areas of Yemen, saying that aid workers are at risk. In January 2016, a hospital operated by Doctors Without Borders was hit by a rocket, killing four people. A bombing carried out by the Saudi-led coalition injured at least six people at a hospital run by Doctors Without Borders in October 2015.

       Remember, Saudi Arabia is the country that we are sending weaponry and military advisers to assist them in the battles in Yemen. Where does that leave our Honourable Gentlemen that sit around that symbol of privilege and power, The Westminster Houses of Hypocrisy and Corruption?

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And Here Is The News---HA-HA-HA!!

        I always refer to the mainstream media as the babbling brook of bullshit, the reason being, in the UK at least, it is no more than an outlet for state and corporate propaganda. However, what amazes me is that so many people still think they are keep up with the "news" when they indulge themselves in its outpourings. The BBC comes in for the most "respected" news broadcaster badge by lots of people. Of course it won that badge by smoke and mirrors reporting and clever self prompting propaganda.

     The following article is well worth reading in full, it pinpoints just a little of the slight of hand "reporting" that favours UK state wars and Western corporate interests that is spewed out as "news"

      The extracts are from Gorilla Radio Blogs:

          On January 22, BBC News at Ten carried a piece by 'defence' correspondent Jonathan Beale reporting a speech by General Sir Nick Carter, the British Army's Chief of General Staff.
Carter gave his speech, pleading for more resources in the face of the Russian 'threat', at the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI), an establishment thinktank with close links to the military and corporate media. Beale began his BBC News piece with a prologue of raw propaganda, delivered in an urgent and impassioned tone:

'Russia's building an increasingly modern and aggressive military. Already tested in battle in Syria, using weapons Britain would struggle to match – like long-range missiles. In Ukraine, they've been using unconventional warfare, electronic cyber and misinformation. And they're even on manoeuvres on Europe's doorstep, with large-scale exercises near Nato's borders. Enough to worry the head of the British army who tonight gave this rare public warning.'

The essence of Carter's 'rare public warning' was that:

'Russia was building an increasingly aggressive expeditionary force and the potential military threats to the UK "are now on Europe's doorstep"... the Kremlin already boasted an "eye-watering quantity of capability" - a level the UK would struggle to match... Britain "must take notice of what is going on around us" or... the ability by the UK to take action will be "massively constrained".'

Carter continued:

'Rather like a chronic contagious disease, it will creep up on us, and our ability to act will be markedly constrained - and we'll be the losers of this competition.'

      The army chief's warning had been approved by the Defence Secretary Gavin Williamson.
On News at Ten, Beale's reporting of the speech amplified the army chief's message – in other words, the Defence Secretary's stance - by deploying such key phrases as:

'Increasingly aggressive', 'tested in battle', 'Britain would struggle to match', 'manoeuvres on Europe's doorstep', 'near Nato's borders'.

     There was, of course, no mention of US/Nato encroachment towards Russia since the fall of the Soviet Union (contravening assurances given to Gorbachev), or the US bases and military exercises close to Russia's borders as well as globally, or the long history of US threats and major crimes around the world. Nor was there any reference to Ukraine which has routinely been reported as an example of Russian 'aggression'. John Pilger observes that the BBC along with others, including CNN, the New York Times and the Guardian:

'played a critical role in conditioning their viewers to accept a new and dangerous cold war.
'All have misrepresented events in Ukraine as a malign act by Russia when, in fact, the coup in Ukraine in 2014 was the work of the United States, aided by Germany and Nato.'

      Beale's credulous reporting of the army chief's speech was an exemplar of 'public broadcast' media whipping up fear to promote state interests.

Read the full article HERE:
      Then go and get your news from local and international social media and independent sources, removed from the chains that link mainstream media to the state and corporate interest.

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

Keep the Focus On Target.

 

          Just a few more photos to help to keep in focus, the Israeli Zionist state's brutal genocide of the Palestinian people. The protest was held to show and gather support for the Palestinian people's fight for justice. It was held in Argyle Street Glasgow Saturday 26th May, outside Marks and Spencer's, store, a known strong supporter of the Israeli Zionist state.

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

Just Living Or Having A Life??

        There are many options offered to bring this system of economic slavery, down. One way of bring it to its knees is simply, stop buying their carp, or stop playing by their rules. Just opting out of the system might not be everybody's idea, but it does have an impact.
         Once again some nice level headed words of wisdom from Not Buying Anything.

          Making a living is not the same as having a life. To build a life worth living, one needs time for leisure.
I don't know about you, but I always thought that working 8 hours a day, 5 days a week 50 weeks a year was too much. Much too much.
Now, with "labour saving" technology, one can be in permanent work mode. But why?
        Soon labour saving will mean more than the appearance of cutting down on work, all the while increasing that work. It will mean cutting labour out entirely with AI and robots. Now there is a threat even worse than low paid workers in foreign countries.
"You don't like being in permanent work mode? You should feel lucky that you still have a job at all."
        No thank you. I have lived simply for most of my life so I could avoid such an outcome. My reasoning was that the less I needed to buy, the less I needed to work. And the less I needed to work, the less dependent I was on the masters and their perpetual work demands.
Unlike AI, to be human is to need leisure time. Messy, inconvenient, but true. Not working for a taskmaster means that I can indulge the amount of leisure time necessary to build a life.
       “The original meaning of the concept of “leisure” has practically been forgotten in today’s leisure-less culture of “total work”: in order to win our way to a real understanding of leisure, we must confront the contradiction that rises from our overemphasis on that world of work. 

        The very fact of this difference, of our inability to recover the original meaning of “leisure,” will strike us all the more when we realize how extensively the opposing idea of “work” has invaded and taken over the whole realm of human action and of human existence as a whole.” - Joseph Pieper

         I got out of debt. I saved as much as I could. Then, at the earliest possible date, I quit the endless work world.
       Now I do what I want to do, which is most certainly not virtually attending a meeting while I am on "holiday" or in the bathroom, or while out with friends, or in bed.
         If you have to work while on vacation, it isn't a vacation. If you have to work all the time, you are not getting the leisure time you need.
         No leisure, no life. Living more simply is one way to get the time you need, and deserve.

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