War, A Money Making Machine For The Few.

 

 

      To any rational person it is impossible to look at "war" and find it justifiable. To organise a group of people to go out and kill another group of people, belongs to the realms of insanity. Despite this, war is always an important part of any state's agenda, preparations for war demand a very large slice of the state's wealth. A wealth created by the very people who will be sent out to do the killing.

     In modern warfare the idea of war is even more irrational, with its unimaginable destructive power. Forget all this crap about "smart bombs", when one of our "highly sophisticated" weapons of mass carnage hits a building, we are supposed to believe that everybody in that building and in the surrounding area were "bad people" and deserved to be incinerated at the whim of some foreign power.

    Then there is the environmental cost, modern wars are among the largest culprits of CO2 producers. While we murder our environment there is the human cost, the usual destruction of a country's entire infrastructure and the ensuing deprivation, misery, displacement of people and deaths by the thousands and over time millions of innocent people. 

     If you are a capitalist accountant, you must surely have to scratch your head at the sheer cost of war. Taking America as an example, (since they are the greatest purveyors of war on the planet), the cost to the US taxpayer of that county's wars since 2001, the start of the Afghanistan illegal invasion, (figures from information Clearing House), is an eye-watering $4.76 trillion, yes, $4,760,364,004,134. To put it another way, if you had that sum in your account you could spend $1 million every hour, 24 hours a day, and you would not run out of money  for 411 years. That volume of wealth blown up in smoke, in 18 years by one nation in the pursuit of war.  

     Of course in spite of that vast outpouring of taxpayers money in smoke and death, there are those who make billions from that money burning exercise.  That is the real reason for the existence of wars, the wealthy and powerful 1% who control our lives under this capitalist system, continually grow richer on the back of wars.

      On their shoulders lies the blame for the 1,455,590 Iraqis slaughtered since the US occupation of that country. They carry the blame for the 4,801 US military personnel sacrificed to swell their fat bank balances, and the 3,430 International troops slaughtered in that illegal invasion. All in the pursuit of wealth and power for the few. 

 "I think this is a very hard choice, but the price, we think the price is worth it." - Madeleine K. Albright [In response to a question from Leslie Stahl, "We have heard that a half million children have died (as a result of Clinton's sanctions against Iraq). I mean, that is more children than died in Hiroshima. ... is the price worth it?

Ah, the value structure of capitalism.

 

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

Out Of The Mouths Of Babes!!!

       "Out of the mouths of babes", I think the adult population should hang their heads in shame, at the state of the planet we are handing the next generation. The youth of the world are showing us how it should be done, From one concerned young girl in Sweden, we now have a world wide movement of youngsters taking to the streets against the insanity of our economic destructive system. The cause they are fighting for is one that none of us can escape, it is the survival of the human race. 

    We have to give these young people our unflinching support and take to the streets in solidarity with them. This is not a fun thing with a bunch of kids dodging school, these are intelligent concerned young people who are showing us the way. It is not just a local phenomenon, this is a world wide protest against the rule of our lives by the greedy corporate and financial juggernaut. A call for sanity and a stop to the rape and plunder of our planet just to feed a small cabal of rich and powerful people. What are we doing to our next generation when they can make statements like the one by the young Swedish girl who started this protest, Miss Thunberg,   "I want you to panic. I want you to feel the fear I feel every day." We are handing our youngsters a disintegrating planet and a future of fear. We can still do something about this poisoned legacy we are hand our children and grandchildren. We can join them on the streets across the globe, and take control of our and their future. Of course my own personal view is that the planet is not dying, but the planet is being murdered, and we know who by.

     Glasgow was no exception in this concern for the future, the young people of our city took to the streets on Friday and joined that world wide movement for sanity and a future. The banners that festoon the protest were loud proclamations of the truth that needs to be grasped, "Change the politics not the climate" and the truth that our "lords and Masters" view with blinkers on, "Stop denying our earth is dying", and a blatant truth that we should all grasp,  "If the world were a bank, it would have been saved." Who can deny any of these statements, from the mouths of our youth.

Some photos from Glasgow, thanks Keith.

      Two photos from Glasgow, courtesy of The Herald, (Colin Mearns Newsquest)

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UK/Ireland Decentralised Anarchist Festival.

        Last year London anarchists held a decentralised anarchist festival in place of the dropped London anarchist bookfair. It was a great success, and at the time I suggested that this idea should be replicated across the country in as many villages, towns and cities as possible right across the country, all on the same weekend. At the time there was some support for the idea but nothing transpired. I can't think of a better way to let people know, we are here, and to raise the profile of our ideas and beliefs. A  decentralised trans-UK/Ireland anarchist festival I'm sure would draw publicity and perhaps those new converts.

       The organisers of last years London anarchist festival have now come up with the idea that we should attempt to make this idea a reality. It is up to us if we really want a country wide publicity event to bring us all together and bring in new faces. Numbers matter.

 Callout for organising the Anarchist Festival 2019

News,
        Following the success of last year’s decentralised anarchist festival, we’re going to do it again, but this time with events not just in London, but across the UK and Ireland.
      The idea is simple: groups and venues put on their own programme of anarchist events, centred around the long weekend of 31st May to the 2nd June 2019. The programme is collated by us on our website and social media.

www.anarchistfestival.wordpress.com
www.facebook.com/anarchistfestival
www.twitter.com/anarchistfest
      Struggling to think about what would be a good thing to put on? You can look at last years listings to see what kind of stuff happened last year., but don’t let that limit you! We welcome events on anarchism, it’s history, ideas and activity; as well as topics of interest to anarchism such as ecology, workplace organising, mental health, feminism etc. We will reject events that are racist, misogynist, transphobic or are otherwise oppressive.
      If your event is in London and you would like it included in the programme please let us know about it by emailing us at anarchistfestival@riseup.net
      If your event is NOT in London (anywhere else in the UK or Ireland) and you would like it included in the programme please let us know about it by emailing us at nationalevents@riseup.net.
      Please also contact us at those email addresses if you have a venue for use, but no events in mind.
      DEADLINE ALERT! Please be sure to submit your event by 1st May 2019 for inclusion in the programme. Any event submitted later than this date will not be included.
      Hope you can get involved – see you on the streets/ in the social centres!

Check out the leaflet below and feel free to print some out to put up in your local library/ university/ bookshop/ community space. If you’d like the PDF please email us and we’ll send it over.

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

ACE Events In Edinburgh.

       Our friends at ACE, (Autonomous Centre Edinburgh) are always busy, so here are a few more up and coming events that should have you heading in their direction.

SOME UPCOMING EVENTS AT ACE

PLUS MORE EVENTS ORGANISED BY FRIENDS OF ACE

Gilets Jaunes, Meet The Left Activists:
Sunday 17 March 3pm – 6pm
At ACE
Free All welcome

        We will be hosting two French Gilets Jaunes (Yellow Vests) activists; Justine Chaput from the NPA (New Anticapitalist Party) and Maia Pal. Come & learn what the Yellow Vests movement is and what's happening over in France!
      Hosted jointly by ACE and the The Common House (London) our two speakers from France will speak in English via Skype.
      With an introduction by an activist from Common House recetly returned from several weeks in France with the movement.
https://www.facebook.com/events/2296310920400933/ 

Resist the Fascist SDL:
      Meet at the Robert Ferguson Statue on the Royal Mile, Noon on Saturday 23 March. Help resist attempts by the SDL to march through Edinburgh
https://www.facebook.com/events/1994571330850842/

Sisters Uncut
Open Meeting for new sisters
Ace 6.30pm Monday 25 March

Universal Credit: Not Fit For Purpose (Glasgow event)
        Come join the conversation and let's be the change we want to see! This is a free event with limited childcare places available. Saturday 30 March, 11 - 4 pm, Castlemilk Youth Complex.
https://www.facebook.com/events/789446804755132/

       For more events see ACE facebook @AutEdinburgh
and the calendar at www.autonomous.org.uk
      Autonomous Centre of Edinburgh, 17 West Montgomery Place, Edinburgh EH7 5HA
      ACE is open every Tuesday 12-3pm, the last Thursday each month 6pm - 8pm, and the first Saturday each month 1pm - 4pm
      Plus see ACE facebook and the calendar at www.autonomous.org.uk for special events and meetings
        Tel 0131 557 6242 - best to ring during opening hours, sorry we cannot guarantee to be able to respond to voicemail.

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

We The Poets.

        As someone who tries now and again to write poetry, I have always seen the “poet” as somebody with an obligation. To seek out and shine a light on injustice, and where suffering occurs, call out the perpetrators. Of course not everybody sees it that way, it is a simply a personal view.

We The Poets.
We the poets
must rise to hold the mirror,
not at romantic moon
dressing tress in silver web
but, at sadness in a child’s eyes
helpless face festooned with flies,
the listless look of hunger.
We the writers
must rise to hold the mirror,
not at hopes of superstars
pandering to an ego of selfish greed
but, at misery of the world’s maimed
duty done by smart bombs, computer aimed;
peoples crushed by pityless power.
We the artists
must rise to hold the mirror
not at views from penthouse windows
of meadows green and lush
but, at peoples broken by starvation,
at war, its brother deprivation,
capitalism’s bastard twins.
If across the planet as a whole
if we don’t stand up and play our role,
poet; heart of compassion,
writer: voice of conscience,
artist; eyes of justice,
we’ve cheated tomorrow’s generation,
hurried the planet to extinction.

 

       I have always seen words as powerful tools, they can be used to inspire for good or for bad. Our “lords and masters” use them with great skill in an attempt to keep the population submissive to their woven illusion, that we live in a democracy. Those who know different, surely have an obligation to dispel that woven illusion. Words can go a long way in bringing about the destruction of that dangerous and debilitating illusion.

The American poet Lawrence Ferlinghetti wrote:

     “If you would be a poet, create works capable of answering the challenge of apocalyptic times, even if this meaning sounds apocalyptic.

       You are Whitman, you are Poe, you are Mark Twain, you are Emily Dickinson and Edna St. Vincent Millay, you are Neruda and Mayakovsky and Pasolini, you are an American or a non-American, you can conquer the conquerors with words. ... “

From Poetry as Insurgent Art [I am signaling you through the flames].

Pity The Nation.

“Pity the nation whose people are sheep

And whose shepherds mislead them

Pity the nation whose leaders are liars

Whose sages are silenced

And whose bigots haunt the airwaves

Pity the nation that raises not its voice

Except to praise conquerors

And acclaim the bully as hero

And aims to rule the world

By force and by torture…

Pity the nation oh pity the people

who allow their rights to erode

and their freedoms to be washed away…”

Lawrence Ferlinghetti

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A Wee Look At Glasgow's Bookfair 2019.

        For those who missed our recent Glasgow Autonomous Bookfair, thanks to Bob you can now have a wee sniff of what was going on. Hopefully this will make you determined to get to the next one and add your content.

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

International Women's Day.

To mark March 8th. International Women's Day

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Let's Walk With The Poets.

       I often shout my mouth off about the insanity of this economic system that is grinding the planet and humanity to destruction, and struggle to come to terms of why it seems to garner support from so many of those being exploited and driven to extinction. There can be no rational justification for a system that, with no thought of human well-being, creates an unimaginable abundance of wealth as its main product, then siphons it into the pockets of a chosen few. While at the same time the multitude that produce that wealth, struggle to survive and millions fail in that struggle. There can be no way that we can look at this mad rush to extinction and state that there is a grain of sanity in its functioning.
        In my case it is not just a belief, in my heart of hearts, I know, and I'm sure you also know, that there is a better way to manage our lives. With some thought, a little imagination and the breaking of a few rules, we can bring about the demise of this suicide pact with the greedy and insane, and create that better, fairer and more humane world for all.

WALK WITH THE POETS.

My head has had enough of you,
you doomsday sooth-sayers, and
rationalists, that trap us in the world that is.
Go weave your tales of “can't be done”
to the dead, and those of no imagination.
I want to walk with the utopian,
the dreamer and the poet,
laugh with the child and sing with the wind.
Run with the deer, not with “the market trend”
Enough of, “this is the way it has to be”,
a world of poverty, wars and inequality.
Now, I'll create the world I want to see,
A world of sharing, peace and liberty.
I want the children to plan tomorrow,
the adult help them get there,
trees and flowers our treasured possessions,

with birds and animals their keepers.
Who wants a world that chains us to mortgages,
binds us to a labouring day, just to eat bread?
Who wants to spend their life, feeding fat-cats
while their own children go hungry?
No, this is not the world that has to be,
in our foolishness and misplaced trust,
this is a world that has slithered over us,
poisoning our mind, putrefying our spirit.
Let's call on the poet, let's welcome the dreamer,
let's take council with the utopian,
They'll help us create a better world for all.

 The following wise words from Not Buying anything:

       If you think that the world we live in today doesn't make any sense at all, you would be right. That is because our system doesn't have to make sense - it only has to make money.         If this system were a person it would be imprisoned, or committed to an asylum. Void of any moral compass, you would cross the street to avoid having to rub shoulders with such an destructive and unstable character, if it were actually a character. If it were a person, ecocidal capitalism might be manifested as something like The Mad Hatter, from Alice in Wonderland. "I am under no obligation to make sense to you."
- Mad Hatter

       Or perhaps as the hookah smoking Cheshire Cat, since the system is obviously under the influence of some very bad drugs. In fact, it is on one of the most destructive drugs known to humanity – money. “We’re all mad here. I’m mad. You’re mad. You must be, or you wouldn’t have come here.”
- Cheshire Cat

      They want us to believe there is no other way to conduct human affairs other than through fouling our own nest, and allowing the many to die from highly preventable causes, while the few gain obscene amounts of wealth. None of that makes any logical sense what-so-ever. But still, Margaret Thatcher famously told us, "There is no alternative", and many agreed with her. Not sociologist John Bellamy Foster, who is thinking rationally when he says,

“We have to go against the logic of the system even while living within it.”

       I agree, but what exactly is the logic of a system that is already looking for a new planet to exploit when this one is completely destroyed? If there is no possible alternative, then let's ponder impossible alternatives. Now is when we could use a healthy dose of creativity and imagination. Our capacity to dream of a better world can surely yield something better than the total insanity that has brought us to edge of destruction.
     Alice in Wonderland author Lewis Carroll modeled the kind of thinking we need now. He said,

"Sometimes, I've believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast."

       I consider the impossible all the time, before, during, and after breakfast. I have to, because I need to inject a bit of sense in a world where there doesn't seem to be any at all.
      So I ask myself, "How about an impossible world where social relationships are not governed primarily by economics, however participatory, but by solidarity? How about an impossible world where ecocide is not an integral part of what we do?"
     I envision a system where billionaire outlaws are outlawed (not such a crazy idea after all). "Sure we destroyed the Earth", the billionaires will say, "but we destroyed it for profit."
       We have to start thinking of impossible ideas, systems, and methods. Why not dream impossible dreams?
      At one time any human would have told you that flying through the air in thin metal tubes for great distances was impossible. Or visiting the moon. Or polluting limitless oceans and the atmosphere, or cutting down expansive, seemingly endless old growth forests. And yet, all of those fall under the purview of the possible today. Who knows what "impossible" things we will achieve tomorrow?

“When the whole world is running towards a cliff, a person who is running in the opposite direction appears to have lost their mind.” - C.S. Lewis

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

Where Is Our Righteous Anger?

      We should keep the focus on the depravity, savage brutality and vindictiveness of the Israeli apartheid state. On a daily basis it flouts international law, disregards human rights and proceeds with its planned genocide of the Palestinian people. While at the same time brands itself as the only democracy in the Middle East. The only way to get the truth told is to continually shout out loud about its continuing cruelty, viciousness, apartheid and genocide. 

This from Middle East Monitor: 

       Two Palestinian children have been killed in a blaze at their home in occupied Hebron after the Israeli authorities prevented the fire brigade from reaching them in time. The two children – one of whom is believed to have been just 18-months old – were burned to death in a fire at their home in the Al-Salaymeh neighbourhood of Hebron’s Old City in the occupied West Bank. One was reported dead late last night, while the second succumbed to the burns received this morning after receiving emergency treatment at the nearby Hebron government hospital. A third child, thought to be the dead children’s brother, also suffered severe burns in the incident and remains in intensive care, according to hospital Director Dr Walid Zalloum.
      The names of the three children have not been released formally, but Palestinian news site Palestine Today named the two who were killed as four-year-old Wael Al-Rajabi and his 18-month-old sister Malik. The local police spokesman, Colonel Loai Arziqat, confirmed in a press statement that two children had died, but did not offer further information.
      Though the emergency services were called, the fire brigade was prevented from reaching the scene by Israeli soldiers. In a video filmed last night at 21:50 local time (19:50 GMT), the fire engine can be seen trying to drive down a narrow street. The truck comes to a stop at a road block obstructing the way, while local residents implore the Israeli soldiers stationed there to “open the gate quickly, for the children.” The Israeli soldiers, however, did not yield to the onlookers’ pleas, delaying the emergency services’ response and preventing them from reaching the property. The cause of the fire remains unknown.
      Israel is no stranger to restricting emergency services’ access to Palestinians in need. According to Medical Aid for Palestinians (MAP), citing the Palestine Red Crescent Society, since 2015 Israel has prevented ambulances from crossing checkpoints on 123 occasions. In addition, there were 386 attacks against Red Crescent teams across the occupied Palestinian territories (oPt) during the same period, as well as 105 ambulances damaged.
       In December, Israeli soldiers shot a Palestinian child then prevented him from receiving potentially life-saving medical treatment; he died soon thereafter. Seventeen-year-old Mahmoud Nakhle was shot as Israeli forces suppressed protests around Al-Jalazun refugee camp near Ramallah, in the occupied West Bank. A few minutes later, the soldiers chased off a Palestinian ambulance, threatening the driver with their rifles and not giving Nakhle first aid themselves. Only after a quarter of an hour did the soldiers allow an ambulance to be summoned, but Nakhle died en route to hospital.
       Under international law, as the occupying power Israel is forbidden from preventing access to medical care and emergency services to the people living under its occupation. According to the Fourth Geneva Convention, “The occupying power must ensure sufficient hygiene and public health standards, as well as the provision of food and medical care to the population under occupation.” In addition, “Personnel of the International Red Crescent Movement must be allowed to carry out their humanitarian activities.” Israel, however, continues to breach this and other articles of international laws and conventions with impunity.

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Apartheid Israel And Genocide.

     I, like many others, understandably get "rather angry" at that grouping of pro-Israeli, Friends of Israel, who jump up and shout "anti-Semitic" at anyone who should have any inkling of a criticism of the state of Israel. They continually point the finger of contempt, and act as cheerleaders, in an attempt to vilify anyone who casts a critical eye over the affairs of that apartheid state. I for one don't think they are blind to the apartheid structure of the Israeli state, I do believe they see nothing wrong in the inhuman, brutal actions of that state. Their anti-Semitic protestations are an attempt to divert the public eye away from the reality on the the ground, perpetrated by the Zionist cabal that rule over that plot of land called Israel.  

     All the evidence is there, Israel is an apartheid state, the suffering of the non-Jews under it heel is there for all to see, but our millionaire pro-Israeli press look the other way. I would go further and state that the state of Israel is carrying out a planned, deliberate, slow, but brutal genocide on the people of Palestine. All this based on the insane belief that some 2,000 years ago, a man in the sky gave this patch of the planet to the Jews, and they will shed blood to hold onto that ridiculous belief, while the world turns a blind eye, or worse, aids and abets this inhuman, vicious insanity.

This from Information Clearing House:

The many forms of apartheid Israel

        While there is still widespread ignorance among most people in the West, as most readers of Mondoweiss will know by now, apartheid in Israel takes many forms. One more obvious form it takes is in the overt racism enshrined in Israel’s 2018 “Nation-State law” that discontinued Arabic as an official language and that is now being challenged in Court. Another obvious form is Israel’s continued blockade and frequent bombing of the trapped residents of Gaza (since 2005). That treatment is currently the subject of a preliminary examination by the International Criminal Court and has also been investigated by the United Nations, which has called for criminal investigations into the killings of protestors at the Gaza border beginning last March.
       As explained by human rights organisations such as Al-Haq and Palestinian Center for Human Rights, further argued by international law scholars John Dugard and John Reynolds and elaborated in a UN report, apartheid also takes the form of literally hundreds of insidious Israeli military orders. This includes Order 101 that has been specifically condemned by Amnesty International as making it impossible for Palestinians to legally protest. Israeli regulations make it virtually impossible for Palestinians to build a home. This is due to the fact that Israel’s land and zoning regulations are, according to Israel’s Basic Law, oriented around “preserving” the land for Israel’s Jewish inhabitants.
         But the most insidious manifestations of Israeli apartheid are the decades-long, everyday experiences of Palestinians. Farmers have to stand in long lines to reach their sheep in the agricultural village of Qalandia (that is surrounded by a high, concrete wall). Schoolchildren in Hebron cannot walk to school without being stopped daily by soldiers at a military checkpoint to check the contents of their schoolbags. The UN Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women has heard numerous cases of official abuse against Palestinian women, including a seven-month pregnant woman assaulted at a checkpoint.
         So again, why are these widely-reported examples of Israeli apartheid being ignored?

Read the full article HERE: 

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Yellow, The Colour Of The Revolution?

       When ever a public protest in the West starts to disappear from our vomit spewing illusion creating mainstream media, it is wise policy to consider it is being successful. The Yellow Vests protests are hardly ever mentioned in our millionaire owned media, but the protests is still massive and strong after 16 weekends of street protests. Has the revolution changed its colour, has the black bloc been replaced by the yellow bloc?

This from Winter Oak:

        We had just positioned ourselves downwind from the teargas canisters that had been fired towards us from the ranks of riot police protecting the Sous-Préfecture, the French state’s HQ in Alès, southern France. Then suddenly we were coming under attack from the opposite direction. A squadron of cops was lurking, unseen, on the other side of the modern pedestrianised square and had started firing tear gas from behind us. Choking and with streaming eyes, we fled down a little side street which, ironically enough, turned out to be dedicated to the “martyrs of the resistance”.
        Passers-by, women with young children, stood gawping in the direction of the clouds of chemical warfare following us down the road. “Incredible!” said somebody behind me, astonished at the violent reaction to the protest. “They’ve completely lost the plot!” Suddenly there was an almighty noise and on the pavement next to us rolled a hefty rubber bullet, a “flashball”, which had bounced off a nearby wall and almost hit the little group of local onlookers. We scattered, for the moment. Some headed out of the town centre, only to be met with a baton attack by a marauding gang of cops. Others regrouped and carried on the fight, with reports of injuries from yet more rubber bullets.
        The police helicopter circled overhead, frightening the herons on the river Gardon, which flows through the town. This was all a far cry from the last report I filed from Alès for Red Pepper in December, when the Gilets Jaunes were handing out free Christmas presents to local kids. Today was Saturday March 2, Act 16 of the Yellow Vest uprising which has seen a broad cross-section of the French public take to the streets against President Emmanuel Macron’s neoliberal regime, with a ferocious determination that puts the rest of the Europe to shame.
       Alès was the location for a regional protest, uniting Gilets Jaunes from across the Gard department and beyond. There was a carnival atmosphere as the protesters gathered outside the municipal theatre in Alès, with a Batacuda band creating a lively rhythm as we set off on a tour of the town centre. The cops made a sudden and provocative appearance in the midst of the crowd before we moved and we were later told that three Gilets Jaunes had been arrested as they tried to join the protest. Others were stopped by police on the approaches to the town, which might explain why the numbers on the march swelled remarkably in the first ten minutes or so until we had easily reached 3,000.
        As ever, the protest was diverse and politically mixed, but there was a very strong showing from the local libertarian left, who had advertised the event on their networks. The loud refrains of “a-anti-anticapitalista” paid witness to their presence. The festive feeling, with hardly a cop in sight, lasted until we reached a roundabout next to the Sous-Préfecture. Here the police were lined up in full riot gear to stop us going anywhere near their masters’ property. After a short stand-off, we headed off down the road to the rail station, which was also heavily guarded by the cops, presumably because of the Gilets Jaunes’ successful track record in blocking railway lines. A back street led us back to the other side of the Sous-Préfecture and, inevitably, another line of police vans and robocops. It was not clear what sparked things off – someone told me the riot police had fired a rubber bullet at head level. In any case, things quickly escalated. Outraged protesters shouted the familiar chants of “everyone hates the police!” and “police everywhere, justice nowhere!” and the tear gas was answered with a hail of stones and the odd firework.
      Across France, it was the same story, not least in Montpellier, just 40 miles down the road from Alès. Every week the authorities and their tame media tell the public the rebellion is petering out, there is hardly anyone out on the streets, the whole thing is a flop. And every week they deploy thousands and thousands of tooled-up thugs to attack the Yellow Vests with batons, tear gas and grenades. After four months of revolt, those who hold power in France, and elsewhere, have ceded nothing. And those who oppose them are not ready to give up. How will this end? Where will this go next? None of us can say, because history is being written, in bold yellow lettering.

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

My Tribe Is Humanity.

           Most people will openly condemn tribalism, but somehow a considerable number will embrace nationalism, which really is just a bigger tribalism. Nationalism, like tribalism needs to believe that its people are different, and in some way superior to other people outside its proclaimed territory. It also sees others as enemies and a threat to its perceived superior ways and culture. In the face of these “differences” the tribe/nation will always see itself on the higher moral ground. This proclamation of being different denies the existence of the common humanity, that golden thread that should link us all together. The existence of tribalism/nationalism is always a useful tool in the armoury of the wealthy and powerful elite within that given territory, as they can always call on the tribe to defend the elite’s privileges by citing an attack on our, “superior way of life” by “the other”.
         No matter the stupidity and destructiveness of tribalism/nationalism, we all carry some responsibility for its persistence, by our quiet acquiescence. We empower the elite, privileged cabal that fosters and gains from this illusion, by indulging in their voting pantomime, we finance them with our taxes, and many fall in line to fight their territorial wars.
       Embracing tribalism/nationalism is abandoning your individuality, and at the same time your commonality with the rest of humanity, and discarding your right to freedom of choice. At the same time you are endorsing a system of barriers between people, placing people on a scale of divisions according to their territory and culture. Our tribe is humanity, we are all human, we need each other if we are to survive and create that better world for all. We have to bring down the barriers, abandon tribalism/nationalism and make our borders evaporate. This will only happen when we finally destroy capitalism, the economic system that fosters and thrives on these divisions.

 

 Patriotism.

No, I shall not die for the fluttering flag,

if truth be known, ’tis nothing but a multi-coloured rag

held aloft by some foolish hand

inciting worker and peasant to kill

on some green and wooded hill,

peasant and worker from some other land.

Nor shall I shed blood for the fluttering rag

that brings out fools to stand and brag

of brutal deeds painted grand,

deeds where rustic and craftsman lie so still

killed by my brothers' misguided hand.

No allegiance have I for the Nation

this man made autocratic creation

that divides my brothers in a world so small,

binds us to a country's cause, right or wrong,

bids us follow its drum, sing its song,

then sheds our blood in some border brawl.

No, I'll be no slave to flag or nation,

have no ear for power oration,

though its iron heel is on my breast,

my back feels its leather thong,

at patriotism's barracoon, I'll be no guest.

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Glasgow's Very Successful Bookfair.

      Glasgow's Autonomous Bookfair yesterday, Saturday 2nd. March was a resounding success. Literally hundreds poured through the door on a continuous stream, the stalls were plentiful, varied and colourful, the crowds friendly and showed considerable interest in the stalls and workshops. It was like a breath of fresh air to Glasgow's radical scene. As I said before, it has been a while since Glasgow held a bookfair, and the success of this one proves that there is a desire to support such events. Everybody gains, those involved and those who turned up. Leaflets, books and pamphlets etc., circulate to a wider audience, new contacts are made, old ones renewed, ideas cross between individuals and groups, all positive.

     All that remains to be said is a big thank-you to Mark and all those who helped make it possible, and for others to come forward and help organise the next one, and hopefully it will be an even a bigger event, and an annual one. 

Spirit of Revolt stall at Glasgow's Autonomous Bookfair 2019.

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Glasgow's Bookfair March 2019.

 

       Glasgow's first Bookfair in quite a while is shaping up to be a very interesting, exciting, informative and enjoyable affair. It all happens tomorrow, Saturday, March 2nd. So do try to come along, contribute your ideas, learn some new ones, chat and meet old friends and make new friends.

The details are: Glasgow Autonomous Space, 

Unit 11, 53 Kilbirnie Street G5 8JD

 

A ton of stalls, activities food and fun

The Facebook event can be found here:

https://www.facebook.com/events/315574305908436/

​Discussions and Talks 11am-5pm

Fossil Free Glasgow - 11am

Shy Radicals - 12 noon

Go Vegan Scotland - 1pm

Sisters UnCut - 2pm

Ubuntu Women Shelter - 3pm

Herbal Unity - 4pm

Workshops 11am–5pm

Community Badge Making - 11am

Activist Printing - 12 noon

Bicycle - for under 12s - 1pm

Collective Comic Making - 2pm

Radical Singing - 3pm

Trans Poetry - 4pm

Plus

Vegan Food

Kid's Space

Rattle Library

Stalls 11am–5pm

@habeuscoitus

A.K. Press

Anarchist Federation

Aye-Aye Books

Books By Broads

Chav Solidarity

Class War Scotland

Community Badge Making

Couriers Network + IWW

Go Vegan Scotland

Hex Distro

Moral Decay Distro

Not Your Fault

Natasha Lall

O Panda Gordo

Plan C

Shy Radicals

Sisters UnCut

Spirit of Revolt Archive

Stories for Strangers

Unity Centre

Writers 4 Utopia Zines

Zarf Poetry

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The Prostitution Of Language For Political Gain.

 

         It is common place in today's political world to indulge in the prostitution of language for political gain, Orwellian double speak is the language of the politician and requires deconstructing and interpretation before digesting. Now however it has also invade all aspects of "news" reporting, meaning that dialogue in that field is practically impossible.

         Some words from my friend and comrade Stuart Christie, words that I fully embrace and would like the population at large, before switching on the TV or picking up a "newspaper" to repeat out loud at least three times.
   

        Don’t get me wrong, full disclosure: Jeremy Corbyn is, in my highly subjective opinion, a Cromwellian tosspot, albeit well-intentioned and principled — as far as anyone engaged in party politics can be principled. But the relentless, covert/overt, McCarthyist misinformation campaign—carefully orchestrated by a cabal of Likudnik Blairites and Thatcherites led by Tom Watson and Sajid Javid, the Board of Deputies of British Jews, the media-owning political-economic elite (e.g. the Mail on Sunday’s recent blunt hatchet job on Seumas Milne, Corbyn’s strategy and communications adviser, by ex-SIS head (1999-2004) Sir Richard Dearlove), et al, — maliciously fusing anti-Zionism and opposition to the State of Israel with anti-Semitism, and painting Corbyn as a dangerous headbanger and latter-day Julius Streicher, isn’t doing a great deal for my irritability quotient or blood pressure. I know I'm banging my head inside an echo chamber here, but for the sake of my psychic wellbeing, I just had to vent some spleen. Just saying!

        Activist and academic Sai Englert explains why conflating Anti-Zionism with Anti-Semitism is "problematic".

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Recognise The System, Then Destroy It.

     There are those who still think capitalism is a random array of busy entrepreneurs, busying themselves with making money. A mish-mash of large and small businesses creating wealth for themselves from producing things people want. That stage of capitalism has long since gone. This random exploitation has morphed into something much more ruthless, much more cohesive, much more dangerous and something that threatens the very existence of human society. We now have a small cabal, approximately 1% of the planets population, controlling every aspect of our lives, the shape of our society, the goods that are manufactured, the "news" we receive, whether there will be war and where. It is now a massive juggernaut driven deliberately and relentlessly by the ideology of greed, which blindly plunders and rapes the planet in the search for ever more personal wealth, control and power.

    We have to view it in that light, it is beyond reform, it can't be modified to see the world and its population with compassion, fairness and justice are not, and never have been in its DNA. This destructive process has to be destroyed or it will continue down this path to humanity's suicide.

     Put much better than I could, from The Winter Oak, (The Acorn):

      Let’s be clear about this: the system exists.
        You can call it what you like – The Establishment, The Thing, The Matrix or the Industrial-Military-Prison-Propaganda-Complex – but it exists.
     It has become trendy in recent years to pretend that this is not so, that what we are seeing is merely a collection of economic or interpersonal relationships.
     But it is the system that promotes, protects and imposes all the layers of domination and exploitation that mark our everyday lives.
       It is the system that tells us we have to spend our best life energy working for it, just for the right to eat and exist in the world it claims it owns.
       It is the system that pays its hired thugs to beat us up, intimidate us, lock us up for years if we refuse to play by its rules.
       It is the system that maims and murders human beings on an unimagineable scale across the world, all in the interests of its profit and power, and still always claims the moral high ground.
       It is the system that lies through its teeth, with a slick smile on its face, and is always quick to accuse anyone who challenges its lies of being a liar.
      It is the system that devours, poisons and destroys our air, our water, our land and our bodies.
     It is the system that brings death and extinction while claiming to bring growth.
      It is the system that is always looking at new ways to monitor us, to control us, to infiltrate our lives, to direct our thoughts, to crush the tiniest possibilities of our freedom and resistance.
      It is also the system, of course, that insists that the system does not exist, that we should not confuse the many trees of its oppression and control with an overall wood that could be termed an entity.
      It says that anyone who talks of the system is necessarily a simple-minded fool who imagines the world is all controlled in every detail by half a dozen James Bond villains sitting around a conference table in an underground bunker.
       It says that anyone who talks of the system is a conspiracy theorist liable to start spouting all kinds of deranged, maybe anti-semitic, nonsense.
     The system says this because it knows full well that the rest of us – the powerless nobodies it so despises – will never be able to effectively challenge the system if we don’t even know that it exists.
      On this point, and this point alone, we agree with the system. Identifying the existence of the system is the necessary first step to clearing the way for a worthwhile future for humankind and our planetary home.
      The second necessary step is to destroy the system in its entirety.

Continue Reading: 

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The Holy Crap Of Vicious Religions.

 

     With sickening regularity, another child sexual abuse case in the Catholic Church hits the headlines. This time it is the top of the tree that has had the spotlight shine on him, a Cardinal no less. When will people realise that the Catholic Church has been riddled with this sort of thing for centuries, it is not a modern phenomena, it is part and parcel of its history. I have always maintained that it is not just the humble priests that are guilty of this. Priests get promoted and no doubt some of those will continue secret perversion as they move up the ladder. How many guilty higher ranking clergy are now sitting in the judgement seat of of known colleagues with the same perversion. 

     The whole institution stinks from top to bottom for a multitude of reasons, child sexual abuse is just one of that multitude. Others include stifling freedom of expression, control over people's rights to choose, brainwashing children into believing in a man in the sky, who will send them to hell for all eternity if they don't obey their perverted and irrational rules. In all its history it has been an instrument of control with bizarre, cruel and barbaric punishments on those who would dare to disbelieve their hogs-wash. 

     As I have said, it is a scar on the face of humanity, an impediment to freedom of speech and choice, its brutal and violent past has not been abandoned willingly, it has been contained by public outrage and disgust.

        Debates in international forums and in mainstream media on the role, responsibility, liability, and response of ecclesiastical authorities of the Roman Catholic Church (RCC) toward clerical child sexual abuse (cCSA) fail to take into account the historical roots and awareness of the problem. Reports also fail to mention the historic organizational laws RCC developed over centuries. In contrast, RCC documents evidence that the Catholic Church not only carried century's old history of cCSA, but also repeatedly condemned cCSA by successive papal authorities, organizational laws, and institutional management mechanisms. During the first millennium, however, church laws remained confined to the bookshelves and were not converted into appropriate management policies and infrastructural models. This was largely due to the absence of a central administrative organizational structure, which developed later in the 12th century, following the Second Council of Lateran (1139) when the Papacy asserted its authority to establish administrative control over the organizational church. It was only then that management policies started to be framed and institutional structures enacted to deal more appropriately with cCSA from the 14th to 20th centuries. Despite this, RCC developed a culture of secrecy using clandestine organizational management models and institutional laws prescribed in 1568, 1622, 1741, 1866, 1922, and 1962 which aimed to manage cCSA. The current study traces reported cCSA as far back as the first century and critically examines the organizational laws, and institutional policies developed by RCC to address clerical sexual misconduct up to the end of the 19th century.(

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30040587

From Wikipedia:  

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catholic_Church_sexual_abuse_cases

 

Sexual abuse has existed in the Catholic Church since at least as far back as the 11th century, when Peter Damian wrote a scathing treatise, Liber Gomorrhianus, against such abuses and others. In 1531, Martin Luther claimed that Pope Leo X had vetoed a measure that cardinals should restrict the number of boys they kept for their pleasure, "otherwise it would have been spread throughout the world how openly and shamelessly the pope and the cardinals in Rome practice sodomy."[23]

       I don't write these things an an enemy of the Catholic Church, but as a lifelong enemy of all religions. They are all power structures, that aim to control the population within their irrational dogma under the threat of punishment. They all preach peace and love, but will have no hesitation in slaughtering non-believers and those of other religions. All religions have a gory blood stained past, which from time to time bursts forth to the surface even today. How many bloody conflicts across the globe can be laid at the feet of opposing religions and religious factions? Too many to count and too many to allow us to let religions maintain their vicious grasp of people's minds. 

  

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Hope Springs Eternal.

        Well Sunday was a special day for me. After almost 18 months of medical problems from internal examinations to tumour removal, from chemo to fractured foot, from A&E to blood transfusions, from Acute Assessment Units to urine infections, from flu to pneumonia, from being carted off in an ambulance to labyrinthitis, and energy levels that dipped below zero, I was beginning to think that I would never get back on the bike.        

         However, hope springs eternal and Sunday being a nice day, sunny intervals and a light wind, I decided now was the time. So a small outing on the dream machine was called for, and the legs didn't complain too much, though there has been a drop off of power in the wee legs, but I was out pushing the pedals. I'm too embarrassed to say how small a run it was, but I was out there just as a wee test run to see how I got on, and it was fantastic. I am now looking forward with immense delight to a long hot summer that I know Scotland can deliver. Yeeha.

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