GLASGOW ANTI-RACISM MARCH.

       Today Saturday 27 November saw Glasgow's annual anti-racism march and rally. In spite of the snow and very cold weather, there was a good turnout and it was the usual colourful affair with an array of different banners. The banners varied from union banners to anti-cuts banners and Scotland Against Criminalising Communities, SACC.  The march started at St Andrew's in the Square and snaked its way through the city ending up at the GFT cinema where there were speeches from some well know names and faces.

      I'm sure that those on the march will be well aware that anti-racism cannot be separated  from the quality of life within our society and hopefully they will continue to demonstrate and protest at the onslaught being perpetrated on the living standards of the ordinary people of this country. It cannot be two separate campaigns, racism is woven into the fabric of this government's ideology, as it carries out a slash and burn policy with all our public assets.
      This coalition of millionaires has a very open campaign against immigrants, they will continue to throw up the usual scapegoats and the media will always swing the usual red herring, all to keep the focus from being on the real criminals in this society, the free market millionaire fundamentalists, the corporate cabal of the corrupt. Unity between all the groups, solidarity across all sections of the ordinary people of this society is the only way we can defeat this plunder of our assets and the privatisation of our welfare state.

ann arky's home.

WE ARE ALL IN THIS TOGETHER!!!!

       

      The following is a letter written to Indymedia Scotland and the reason I have posted it here is that I fully agree with the writer's sentiments. The student movement should not fight in isolation hoping to sort out something on education cuts. To quote the millionaire twins, "we are all in this together", the fight is a matter of self defence for the whole of society, excluding the millionaire parasites who at this moment in time are calling the shots. The ideology that is being forced onto the ordinary people of this country affects everybody, workers, students, unemployed, claimants, pensioners, the sick, those with mental health problems, housewives, single parents, couples and children. These groups should not be left alone to fight their own battles, like the letter says, the state is powerful, has limitless resources at its disposal and will pick the groups off one at a time. It is only through linking up and working in co-operation across the full spectrum of society with true solidarity can we win this fight. It is a defining battle, if the ordinary people lose there will be a totally corporate society, a society with no social welfare, everything provided by the private sector, at a price, and if you can't afford the price then it will be an appeal to a charity. We will have become a society of profit providers for the corporate world with no say in the shape our society takes. On the other hand, if we win, we can start to create a society that will see to the needs of all our people, a society built on the simple principles of mutual aid, voluntary co-operation and free association based on sustainability. We can create a society that frees all its members from the fear of deprivation. However, it will take courage, co-operation and organised solidarity. We can draw on lessons from some of our victorious battles of the past, to mention two, the 1915 Clydeside rent strike and the 1980's poll tax struggle. Solidarity and direct action was the key in both these victories. 

More on Glasgow working class history, HERE.

Dear Student Anti-Cuts Protesters,

       Thank you. You are an inspiration. You have lit the blue touch paper. But now is not the time to stand back. I was proud to be part of the tremendously successful Edinburgh University-led protest and occupation yesterday. There was a huge turn-out for an Edinburgh protest, and the sudden occupation of the university took everyone by surprise. I am not a student: I'm currently a benefits claimant, and was marching with the Edinburgh Campaign Against Poverty. One of the reasons I am most proud of the Edinburgh protest is that it made an active effort to work in solidarity with workers, benefits claimants, and all others affected by the cuts. As in London, we were all also delighted and impressed by the number of school students who came too. This is an aspect a number of the University anti-cuts campaigns are missing, and that's what I'm writing to you about now.

         Your struggle is not isolated. You are not alone. All those affected by the cuts – workers, claimants, families, everyone – should be proud of you and impressed by you, because you have with rage and love and energy led the charge against these repressive and unnecessary cuts. Workers are being betrayed by the TUC just as students are being betrayed by the NUS: currently so many in Britain are waiting and hoping for organisations to work for cross-class struggle against the cuts. You can contribute to that.

        This government, for all its flimsy rhetoric, is incredibly powerful. States are powerful. You do not win a fight against a state, with all its apparatus of power – from police who beat us up to teachers who punish schoolchildren for their brave protest “truancy” – unless you work across social groups, across classes, in solidarity with the huge diversity of people who are struggling with this government.

       University student protesters, you are privileged. Many, if not most you, have far more financial freedom and time than many affected by the cuts (though certainly you will suffer terribly from them); many of you are white, or male, or have other markers of privilege. It is easier for you to protest and occupy than it is for many, because you will face less repression and have more freedom, and so you have a responsibility to use that power for others.

       So do not let your struggle against fees be compartmentalised. Do not let the anti-cuts fight be divided. Go out and meet with trade unions, with workers and their councils, with disability and LGBTQ rights groups, with women's groups, with those fighting for their benefits, with everyone who is affected by the cuts. None of us will win alone. Together, we can. Do not be parochial. Do not let your struggle be the only reported struggle, and do not waste the power you have.

       This is not to say that you must come and rescue the struggling poor or oppressed minorities. That would perpetuate structures of privilege and oppression. What I am saying is that you are organised, and that you are starting to be heard, and that all the other organised groups who have to struggle harder to be heard need you to work for them.

      Be strong. Use your privilege. Extend your fight. Make it stronger. Show solidarity – but also be active in your solidarity. I say this without pretension or apology for sincerity: your country needs you.

     This letter has been written quickly and not gracefully. It is propaganda. It is flawed. I am currently too busy working and fighting to spend much time writing the philosophical arguments and journalistic analyses. But you can find those elsewhere and I will link to as many as I can find as soon as I can; there are people struggling and writing on all fronts. I am not the only voice telling you this. I am not the only voice asking for your help.

We are already together. We are already strong. Onwards!

ann arky's home.

GLASGOW STUDENTS DIRECT ACTION.

Students George Street Glasgow November 24

        Across the UK students are voting with their feet and walking out of their universities or occupying them. 100 or so students have walked out of Dundee Uni, 600 at Leeds Uni, and students have occupied Birmingham Uni. and thousands joined the student demonstration in London. Here in Glasgow hundreds of students walked out of Strathclyde and Glasgow Uni's and The Glasgow School of Art and a demonstration took place later in the day at George St. in the city centre. Up and down the country unrest is growing in keeping with the anger. What we are experiencing is not “austerity cuts” but a slash and burn policy of free market fundamentalists, plans and policies carried out by extremists in expensive suits.

George St Glasgow 24 November.

      Their slash and burn assault on the conditions of the working class will continue unabated until there is no welfare system, no public assets, no public space, no public say in how our society will be shaped. It is raw unadulterated corporate fascism and the only way to stop this privatising of our lives is by direct action. Waiting for the next round of the ballot box farce, where we replace one set of millionaires with a fresh crop of millionaire reactionaries. You might as well change the suit on a tailors dummy and expect it to act differently.

George Street Glasgow 24 November.

     They know it is class war, they are organised to take on the working class and hand everything to their friends in the financial/corporate world. Our only answer is to accept that it is class war and to organise to take everything for all our people and screw the financial/corporate world and its minders the millionaire cabal at the Westminster House of Hypocrisy and Corruption.

George Street Glasgow 24 November.

ann arky's home.

WE CAN SHUT THEM DOWN.

    
      With all the bank and vodafone occupations going on at the moment I thought that this David Rovics song from 2005 would be a good rallying call. There is nothing like a bit of music for keeping the spirit going, revolution best be a happy occasion, certainly something to sing about.
http://www.soundclick.com/player/single_player.cfm?songid=759278&q=hi&newref=1

ann arky's home.

END ASYLUM DESTITUTION.

       

     I suppose the measure of a civilised society is the way it treats strangers and how it helps those in need.  By these measures it would seem that we fall very short of the measure. Below is a page taken from a very infomative booklet called "TAKE ACTION, TO END ASYLUM DESTITUTION." produced by  Training Campaigns Advice and Positive Action in Housing, January 2008. It is certainly worth a read to see just how we treat strangers and those in need.

Could you survive on £6 per day?

This is how much a single adult asylum seeker has to live on. It is £6 more than someone who is destitute has.

How many destitute asylum seekers are there?

Nobody knows the precise number. Scottish charities are seeing ever increasing numbers, including many who are pregnant, disabled or in poor mental health. Refugee Survival Trust give out around 100 destitution grants per month to people in crisis in Scotland. The National Audit Office estimates that there are 283,500 refused asylum seekers living in the UK, who have not been removed – so the scale of the problem is huge.

Why are refused asylum seekers not removed?

In many cases it is simply not possible to remove people back to their home countries – for example there may be no safe route, no functioning airport or it is impossible to get travel documents from their country of origin. This raises the question, if it is not safe or possible to remove someone, why was their claim for protection refused?

Mary from Uganda was destitute for three months with twins aged 3, after fleeing a dawn raid. Eventually she won leave to remain – just one of the many refugees who faced injustice.

Why can’t destitute asylum seekers just go back to their home country?

Many refused asylum seekers are too afraid to go home voluntarily, not least as they are from countries - such as Iraq, Zimbabwe or Somalia - torn apart by conflict or where human rights abuses are rife. They consider starving and sleeping on the streets in Britain to be a safer option.

How long are people destitute for?

Refugee Action recently interviewed 125 destitute asylum seekers in England. They found that just under half had been destitute for up to a year, and of the rest, most had been destitute for between one and two years. On average people had spent 21 months being destitute.

Where do most destitute asylum seekers sleep?

We’ve met asylum seekers who have slept in parks, phone boxes, behind bins, in doorways or just travel on night buses. Others are taken in by friends who are mainly fellow asylum seekers; moving from floor to floor so that they don’t become too big a burden. What makes things even more difficult is that asylum seekers aren’t allowed to have people staying over in their NASS flats so by helping they are running the risk of having all their own support stopped as well.

ann arky's home.

A PARCEL OF ROGUES!!!!

   First saw this video HERE It would be nice to get it to number one for Christmas.
     Sing the song, spread the word, let them know that we know, and we are going to do something about it. 

Expesive suits and smooth talk doesn't hide the their false words and brutal actions.

ann arky's home.

ROB THE POOR TO HELP THE RICH???

      

    Referring to the UK's £7 billion loan to Ireland, George Osborne said, Britain is just helping its closest neighbour in Dublin's hour of need. What a load of crap, this is just another example of the millionaires club helping out their friends in the banking casinos with another bucketful of tax payers money. British banks are heavily involved with the Irish banks, after all you don't think the British mobsters would miss out on a property bubble so close to home. There was a greed feast going on in Irish property so the British banks wanted a slice of the action. Now the bubble has burst and if the Irish banks collapse the British banks get hammered, running to the rescue, well being dragged to the rescue, is the British tax payer. We as tax payers seem to have bottomless pockets when it comes to helping banksters in distress but are broke when it comes to helping our own people with social services. Ever since the millionaire twins took over the Westminster House of Hypocrisy and Corruption they have been drowning us in a chorus of we can't afford anything, it is austerity cuts here, there and everywhere. We point at this need and that need and are told that our debt is far too high we have to tighten our belts. Their bankster friends get nervous about losing some of their ill gotten gains and in comes the suitcases filled with cash, all £7 billion worth without the blink of an eye.

       What a system they have, tax the people, let the bank casinos gamble like crazy making pots of cash for them and their friends. Then when the odds swing against the gamblers, gather up all that tax money and hand it to their friends the gamblers. Is there anybody out there that doesn't see this as all out class war, or worse, still believes that this system has anything to do with the benefit the ordinary? When do we get wise and set about organising society to benefit the ordinary people, creating a society that sees to the needs of all our people rather than supporting a system that is screwing the ordinary people to the deck to help out very rich millionaire parasites. They need us to maintain their life of pampered privileges, we don't need them for anything at all. Let's stuff them and their gambling system in the dustbin of history.

ann arky's home.

ENJOY THE ECSTASY OF YOUR RIGHTEOUS ANGER.

Thanks to the efforts of angry citizens this was Gordon Street branch of Bank of Scotland on the busiest day of the week. Hit them where it hurts, their profits.

       People across the country are pissed-off and the anger is beginning to show. That great slumbering beast, the British working class is starting to rise, the recent set of “austerity cuts” (attack on living standards) has stirred it back to life. Across the country ordinary people have been showing their anger by occupying branches of some of the biggest players in the banking casino. Here in Glasgow we have seen a large city centre branch of Lloyds TSB occupied and closed, Gordon Street, Bank of Scotland occupied and closed, twice. The people are aware that it is not just the rip-off banking casinos that are responsible for all the misery about to be thrown at the public. The other players in this fiddle of public assets are the big corporate companies with their tax fiddling. So the public have seen fit to occupy and close the Vodafone flagship shop in Buchanan Street on the busiest day of the week. Why Vodafone? Well it is just one of the many companies that have fiddled the British tax payer by not paying their fair share of tax. In the case of Vodafone, it is a little matter of £6.1 billion. How many affordable houses would that build, how many teachers would that pay for, how many schools could that build?

        We have to keep the momentum going and increase the number and frequency of the occupying, picketing and closing down of these banking casinos and corporate highway robbers. Spread the word, speak to those involved, organise in your own area, local branches, city centre branches, banking casinos and corporate rip-off merchants offices. Let's let them know that we are going to fight back and fight hard, we will change society for the benefit of all our people, we will put people before profit, we will take control of and shape our society.

More info at; http://www.ukuncut.org.uk/    and; http://www.indymediascotland.org/

 

TIME TO RAGE.

Time to rage, like a river running wild.

Time to rise, to save the child.

Time to rage, like a mountain flood.

Time to rise, to stop the blood.

Time to rage, with righteous anger.

Time to rise, to point the finger.

Famine, misery, sickness, death,

stretch across these pleasant lands;

war, greed, hunger, blood,

sour the lovely desert sands,

charity, chat, quiet dismay

is not enough,

prayers, thoughts, what M.P.s say

is useless stuff.

Time to rage, like a river running wild.

Time to rise, to save the child.

Time to rage, like a mountain flood.

Time to rise, to stop the blood.

Time to rage, with righteous anger.

Time to rise, to point the finger.

ann arky's home.

MILLIONAIRE'S STANDARD OF FAIRNESS!!!

     

      The millionaire cabal at the Westminster House of Hypocrisy and Corruption are always spouting about how everything they do is fair. Their austerity cuts that will throw another million on the dole, is in their way of thinking, fair. A freeze on public sector pay, while the top banksters and other financial over lords reap massive bonuses, is fair. So with these standards of fairness it is no surprise to see that the fair plans for the House of Corruption is to reduce the elected Commons from 650 members to 600 while at the same time they have just announced an extra 54 new members to the Lords bring them up to approximately 750. A little closer look at those 54 new unelected Lords and we find that 43 of them are supports of the millionaires coalition, loading the dice would you say? Of course as we would expect from the millionaire's fairness team most of that 54 unelected over privileged mob, are wealthy donors to the three main parties. Fund us and we will see you fixed up with a wee peerage and all the privileges that go along with the grand title.

       A system of privilege and complete unfairness is the only way to sum of this system of rule by parasites. Millionaires discussing with their millionaire friends in the corporate world about how to carve up the assets of this country to their advantage. Every change that they are implementing will bring lasting hardship to the poorest and most vulnerable in our society and profit the the corporate world. The ordinary people will have to take the pain as the millionaires set about changing society away from any semblance of a welfare system to a free market corporate society. They plan to change society into nothing more than a profit making organisation with the people having no control over any aspect of that society.

      Don't be fooled by the budget blurb and the deficit crap, these are only the excuse to push their ideological agenda. We are told that the UK debt is out of control while the clever Germans are getting it right, but the UK debt in percentage of GDP is approximately 76% while in Germany it is approximately 75% but ours requires a total destruction of the welfare system. The only philosophical answer to that analysis is “bullshit”.

ann arky's home.

FREE ROSALBA TORO.

      Across the goble ordinary people are imprisoned, tortured and sometinmes killed and their crime, -trying to improve the living conditions of their people while living and working under a repressive regime. We must always stand in solidarity with our brothers and sisters who find themselves in this type of situation. The following is an appeal from Labour Start on just one such case. Please show your support HERE.

Colombia: Free jailed trade unionist Rosalba Gaviria Toro

       On 9th March 2009 Rosalba Gaviria Toro, a member of FENSUAGRO, the Colombian Agricultural Workers' Trade Union was detained and accused of 'rebellion'. She has been imprisoned since then in Villa Cristina jail in the city of Armenia, without being convicted of any crime. Rosalba has been an active trade unionist and human rights activist for many years, however, the Colombian authorities have described her as a 'terrorist' - jeopardizing her right to a fair judicial process. There is no legitimate evidence against Rosalba and it would seem that, like so many other political prisoners in Colombia, she has been jailed to silence her and prevent her from carrying out her legitimate work in defense of trade union and human rights.

ann arky's home.

SYRUP CAN BLIND YOU!!

    

   

      Well I suppose we have to start thinking how do we stop ourselves from drowning in the syrup that is going to flow from the media over the next few months or perhaps years. I am of course referring to the Willie and Kate extravaganza, it can push world poverty, the Afghan war, the Haiti cholera disaster and Mrs. Wilson's lost kitten off the front page and off the airwaves. We shouldn't be too hard on the girl, after all she is just an ordinary Marlborough-educated, St Andrew's graduated middle class millionaire's daughter, we can only hope for the girl's sake, Willie is not too much like his father.

      Over the coming months we will be swamped under this deluge of “When will it be”, “What title will they be given” then of course it will be, “Where will they honeymoon, where will they live”, and of course, “Is she pregnant”, all totally irrelevant to a mutitude of people. It will come at you from all sides and there will be a totalitarian attitude from the media as the crowds cheer, weep and applaud with the usual aaahhh's at their every action. Those who don't follow suit will be derided and chastised by the media as if the entire world was, not just interested, but spell bound by the nuptial arrangements of a couple of over privileged young people. What the media, the mouth piece of the establishment, fail to grasp, or try to hide, is that this country has a large contingent of republicans, socialists, communists and others of a variety of political persuasions but with an anti-monarchy stance. Then there is the army of people who are just not that interested what the Royals get up to nor when. We are not a monolith, we are the people, a wonderful variation of views.

      Going by the comments coming from our millionaire twins in charge, the Cameron/Clegg music-hall hatchet act, and the brainless braying from the back benches, it certainly looks as if we are all to be co-opted into this Hollywood style soap. I'm not the least bit interested in what this means for modern marriage and what it tells us about the changes in the Royals' attitude, nor how they have changed since the Diane affair. It could become like living in the “Woman's Own” Magazine.

     However as long as it holds the headlines then the things that really matter to the ordinary people of this country will be pushed aside, off the radar, not up for discussion. For example the dismantling of the welfare society, the thousands of job losses, the looming poverty ahead of thousands, and the £billions of tax payers money heading to the corporate world. Yes, much better to discuss some young woman's wedding dress than discuss and organise to protect our children and our elderly from this vicious onslaught heading their way at the behest of the financial/corporate world, and let's not forget, the Royals are part of that high finance, privileged world.

ann arky's home.

THUR.18 NOV. - LOBBY SCOTTISH PARLIAMENT.

Thur 18 Nov - Lobby Scottish Parliament against UKBA -
No UKBA Clearances
Assemble 11am, Scottish Parliament, Edinburgh.

       UKBA's unilateral withdrawal from the Asylum Contract negotiations will be raised at First Minister's Questions on Thursday by Anne McLaughlin MSP. Demonstration outside the Parliament and go inside to a meeting with MSPs.
         Some people will be able to go in to witness the Parliament in action.  If you wish to be one of them, please let Glasgow Campaign to Welcome Refugees know as names have to be arranged in advance. Go into Parliament 11.30am, First Minister's Questions 12 noon.
        Please come along to show your support, even if you can only spare a short time from work.

Bus from Glasgow.
      Join the bus leaving the City Chambers, George Sq at 9.00am, leaving Edinburgh at 2.00pm.  Seats free.  Contributions welcome.
        For more information contact Glasgow Campaign to Welcome Refugees:
Margaret–07870286632
Jock – 07896877315
email mailto:glascamref@gmail.com

     Watch the Camcorder Guerillas video of Monday's protest against the removal of asylum seekers from Glasgow City Council housing:   http://vimeo.com/16888229

Descend on Brand Street Re-open the Negotiations

No Evictions Here.

Saturday 20 November - Outside UKBA, Brand Street, Govan, Glasgow (nearest underground is Cessnock)    10.30 for 11.00am.

        Solidarity Rally with our Refugee Friends and Neighbours and Ceremonial Burning of the Letters.
Glasgow’s traumatised and impoverished refugees have been thrown into a state of alarm by the UKBA’s unilateral withdrawal from the Asylum Contract negotiations and their subsequent callous and contemptuous letter threatening removal at 3 days’ notice to private housing either with YMCA or the notorious Angel Group somewhere in Scotland.  Stand shoulder to shoulder with our fellow refugee citizens in their fight to remain in their homes and communities.  Join the rally at Brand St on Saturday morning.  Bring your letters from UKBA for ceremonial burning outside the loathsome UKBA offices.

Called by Glasgow Campaign to Welcome Refugees, the Right to Work Campaign, Positive Action in Housing and Unity.

For all other enquiries about SACC, visit http://www.sacc.org.uk/ /contact or phone 07936432519

ann arky's home.

MORE ON NEWS CORPORATION.

                                                          Image by John Hartfeild.

    

      A few days ago I posted a wee article on Mr. Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation and how its wonderful creative accounting and other shufflings managed to pay only 6% tax on billions of $ profit over a period of three years. His empire stretches far and wide and he is as far to the right as you can get without falling of the planet. Well Mr. Murdoch is a very anbitious man and is hell bent on taking over the entire UK media. The following is part of a campaign by avaaz to try and prevent that from happening.

      The conservative media mogul Rupert Murdoch is trying to take over British media with his bid for full ownership of BSkyB. We only have 3 days to tell the regulator why this deal is bad news! Rupert Murdoch is on a fast track to control over half of this country’s newspapers and television. This week is our only chance to tell regulators to stand up for a wide choice of news, and defend our democracy.

       Britain loses if Murdoch wins. With all of the BSkyB TV network his massive dominance of our media would become further entrenched, extending his power and political influence. Here and elsewhere Murdoch has used his reach to promote conservative political candidates, the persecution of minorities, climate change denial and the dangerous lies that led to the invasion of Iraq.

       We have until Friday to stop this! Let’s flood the regulator with thousands of submissions saying why we feel this deal is against the public interest. We’ll deliver tens of thousands of comments in boxloads to Ofcom’s offices on Friday, making a media splash. Send yours now via the link below, and encourage everyone you know to do the same today.

http://www.avaaz.org/en/ofcom_no_bskyb_takeover/?vl

         Murdoch’s News Corporation already owns 39% of the BSkyB television company and four of our best-selling newspapers. His new expansion bid rides roughshod over the ‘media plurality’, which the government has a legal duty to uphold. Regulator Ofcom is accepting public comments on Murdoch’s plans for just a few days.

        This deal would allow Murdoch to cross-promote his different outputs and increase his political roles. For 30 years no British political party has won an election without Murdoch's blessing. This ability to get voters’ attention gives him frequent access to the prime minister - hence his nickname the ‘24th member of the cabinet’.

        This is a fight for the soul of British democracy. We cannot afford to have one company dominate half of our TV, newspaper and online news. From illegal spying at the News of the World here to his hate-filled Fox News empire in the U.S., Murdoch’s media erodes the values we hold dear and shows few scruples when attacking political or commercial rivals - now including the BBC.

        The Avaaz movement in Canada recently proved that determined campaigning can block conservative media takeovers. Let’s do it again here. Ofcom has given until this Friday for anyone to submit comments on whether this deal is in the public interest. Let’s send a message today and tell everyone we know.

http://draft.blogger.com/goog_1736774496

       In the world we are striving to create, citizens will be empowered by a media telling truth for the public good. Countering this deal is vital if we are to leave space for such a media in our country, and the world.

With hope,

Alex, Ricken, Brianna, Mia, Ben and the whole Avaaz team

PS Avaaz has a new website! Your feedback will be very valuable to help us improve it. You use the pink buttons on the left hand side of any page to report any problems you find.

ann arky's home.



REPRESSION.

     The recent students' protest in London and the expected comments from most of the media and the millionaire controllers of society, for the full weight of the law to be brought down on those nasty protesters who didn't play be their rules, should remind us that the desire for repression is alive and well in this “mother of democracy”.

     Most people have an opinion of what repression is and it is normally seen as something to do with an outrageous violation of rights and it usually happens somewhere foreign and under a dreadful dictator but not here in our “mother of democracy” This illusion is based on the failure to grasp that repression is part and parcel of any class society. In our society, as in any class society, there are those who rule and those who are ruled. It is the state’s function to maintain this structure protecting the privileges of those who rule against the desires of those who are ruled, to do this a combination of coercion and accommodation will be applied. In its drive to maintain the status quo the state will have to continually repress any social movements that attempt to break the rule-ruled, empowered-dis-empowered nature of our society, repression is a necessary and permanent part of the state apparatus.

       The military and the police are two of the main bulwarks of the state and recent years have seen a change in the way that the state deals with dissent. Crime is no longer seen as something done by individuals, it is now a “war-on-crime” this in turn has brought a militarization of the police, armed police on the streets is now seen as commonplace and it is not just small arms, the police can call on ever more powerful fire power. The introduction of the community police has been an attempt to turn the ordinary people into the eyes and ears of the state allowing the state to be more pre-emptive in its approach to dissent.

      The state also infiltrates all organisations of protest and dissent, monitoring and provoking where it feels it would be beneficial to the survival of the state. Infiltration and provocation are not new, we can go back to what is known as the 1820 insurrection, when government agents provoked an uprising in order to deal more severely with its dissenters. The same principles are applied today. The state’s ever changing forms of repression also attempts to link protest to its “war-on-terror” creating a fear among the people and allowing it greater scope to deal with any form of protest or dissent. This is repression of the desires of the ordinary people for change

       In today’s class society repression comes in many varied and subtle ways and to change society for the benefit of all we must confront that repression where ever it is present. We must see protest as our way of taking control of our lives and changing society for the good of all future generations.

 

 

ann arky's home.

WHY BOOTS ARE WALKING RIGHT OVER ALL OF US!

      Recently we have seen angry groups of ordinary people across the country occupy banks and Vodafone. These people have been disgusted by greedy bonuses and massive tax theft while they are being hit with all sorts of "austerity cuts" and are calling for real change in the way our society functions. It is not just the odd bank and Vodafone, they are all at it, the list reads like a "who's who" of the business world. There is Mr Green, government advisor and owner of BHS, which is conveniently registered in his wife's name and she happens to live in a tax haven, so that saves him a few million quid a year that should go to the tax man. Then we have Mr. Murdoch's News Corporation, he knows a few wee tricks on how to avoid, (fiddle) tax. Then there is Google, dodging tax the way a LibDem dodges manifesto promises. All across the globe big business is ripping off the public, and millionaire governments are giving a nod and a wink, as they belong to the same club.

     The following is a leaflet drawn up to highlight another "friend" of the high street who has indulged in a nifty piece of accounting to avoid paying its fair share of tax. 

      DID you know that Boots The Chemist, that High Street shop with which we are all so familiar, is stealing £86 million a year from the British public thanks to a tax dodge?

      That's right! As exposed recently on BBC radio's File on 4, it sneakily changed its HQ to a post office office box in Switzerland to avoid paying proper UK taxes and is now handing over only £14m a year instead of more than £100m.

     Meanwhile, Boots boss Andy Hornby - the former chief of failed bank HBOS, walked away with more than £2m in his own pocket for his first nine months' work. It's the same picture everywhere - Big Business is being allowed to get away without paying its fair share of taxes that the rest of us have to cough up. And the Fat Cat bosses are laughing in our faces with their massive pay cheques and luxury lifestyles.

     This comes at a time when the Tory/Lib Dem government is telling us the country is broke and weve all got to make sacrifices. Thousands of people will be losing their jobs. Vital public services will be cut. Those who cannot find work are to be punished with what amounts to slave labour or the threat of starvation.

     Only the rich are to be allowed a proper education with the massive hike in student fees. The NHS is coming under attack from privatisation. We are all going to have to work until we drop dead because the state doesn't want to pay us the pension we've earned.

       This is not a coincidence! What we are seeing is a deliberate attack on the majority of the population by greedy global Big Business and its friends in the deeply unpleasant Conservative and Lib Dem parties. We say we have to fight back! The students in London have shown us the way - we have to make it quite clear to the ruling elite that we will not put up with DAYLIGHT ROBBERY from Boots or any other Fat Cat criminals!

JOIN THE RESISTANCE!!

ann arky's home.

 

A PROUD HISTORY. NOVEMBER.

       We the working class have a history steeped in presecution, exploitation and struggle, a history of which we can be rightly proud. Every little freedom and little bit of luxury we have we owe to those who fought and in some cases died to force it from the capitalist class, who gave it grudgingly, and now that same capitalist class is in the process of trying to take it all back. We owe it to our grandchildren and to those forefathers who showed such selflessness, to bravely carry on that struggle and create a society that will bring and end to the exploitation of our class.

COTTON SPINNERS STRIKE, 1837


DEPRESSION AND STRIKE.

     1830 saw a sharp depression grip the West of Scotland. By 1837 the weaving industry was attempting to push through wage cuts. The cotton spinners of Glasgow took strike action in an attempt to defend their wages. The strike lasted from July through to the end of August 1837. During the strike a blackleg (knobstick), was shot and the authorities arrested the leadership of the union. Those held in prison were indicted on midnight on the 24th of October, the last possible moment they could be legally held. The trial was to take place on the 10th of November in Edinburgh.

TRIAL.

      The Public Prosecutor had taken three months to put their case together. The defence had fifteen days to prepare an answer to the charges. Three days before the trial and without knowledge of their agents, the prisoners were moved, heavily ironed, from Bridewell Jail in Glasgow to Edinburgh Jail. Just before the trial the Crown stated " ...not convenient for them to proceed with the trial...", and postponed the trial until the 27th of November. The delay increased the expenses for the prisoners' council and the witnesses.
      Andrew Gemmel, the law agent for the prisoners put all other business aside, immediately employed 15 extra clerks and worked day and night to copy down Crown witnesses' evidence. This amounted to 2 large volumes containing evidence from over 150 witnesses from different parts of the country and was completed in fifteen days. The verdict from the trial was;
On charges,

1.Conspiracy to keep wages up.
2.Disturbances at Oakbank Factory.
3.Molestation at Mile End Factory.
Proven by a majority of one vote.

On other charges;

Appointment of “secret committee” to do unlawful acts.
Attempting to set fire to houses and factories.
Invading dwelling houses of, and assaulting “knobs”.
Not proven by unanimous verdict.

       The sentence of the court was that the prisoners should be transported for a period of 7 years. However they spent 3 years in prison hulks at Woolwich on the Thames and then were pardoned. After the trial the Cotton Spinners' Union collapsed due to the lack of funds.

WAGE TRENDS.

Below is a short table showing the trend in wages during the period referred to above.

Wage trends (wkly)                           1836-37    1841-42    1846-47

Cotton spinners (machine)                    35/-           25/-            26/-
Cotton spinners (power)                       11/-            7/-              8/-
Coalminers                                           25/-           15/-            20/-
Bricklayers                                           21/-           21/-            24/-
Joiners                                                 20/-            ?                22/-
Stone masons                                       22/-           18/-            22/6
Handloom weavers                                6/-             6/-              7/-
Railway labourers                                 14/-            ?                15/-
Railway masons                                    21/-           21/-            31/-
 
More on Glasgow's working class history HERE.
 

 
ann arky's home.

SELF DEFENCE IS NOT A CRIME- IS IT??

Unity statement -
Defend the right to protest - Defend Education

Now is the time for unity, more so now than at any point in our movement for a better world. The move to privatatise all areas of our lives and work will need maximum unity against their efforts to divide us.

SIGN THE STATEMENT ONLINE NOW AND FORWARD TO YOUR NETWORKS
http://www.petitiononline.com/st53231/petition.html

We need unity to defend education and break the Con Dems’ attacks. Stand with protesters against victimisation.
• Stand with the protestors against victimisation
• Hands off our students, our colleges and our universities
• Broken windows cannot compare to the broken hearts and dreams of a generation denied education and jobs
       Wednesday’s 10th November national NUS/UCU 50,000 strong national demonstration was a magnificent show of strength against the Con Dems’ savage attacks on education. The Tories want to make swingeing cuts, introduce £9,000 tuition fees and cut EMA. These attacks will close the doors to higher education and further education for a generation of young people. During the demonstration over 5,000 students showed their determination to defend the future of education by occupying the Tory party HQ and its courtyards for several hours. At least 32 people have now been arrested, and the police and media appear to be launching a witch-hunt condemning peaceful protesters as “criminals” and violent. A great deal is being made of a few windows smashed during the protest, but the real vandals are those waging a war on our education system.
        We reject any attempt to characterise the Millbank protest as small, “extremist” or unrepresentative of our movement. We celebrate the fact that thousands of students were willing to send a message to the Tories that we will fight to win. Occupations are a long established tradition in the student movement that should be defended. It is this kind of action in France and Greece that has been an inspiration many workers and students in Britain faced with such a huge assault on jobs, housing and the public sector.

We stand with the protesters, and anyone who is victimised as a result of the protest.
Initial signatories include:

Mark Bergfeld, NUS NEC
Sean Rillo Raczka, Birkbeck SU Chair and NUS NEC (Mature Students’ Rep)
Vicki Baars, NUS LGBT Officer (Women’s Place)
Alan Bailey, NUS LGBT Officer (Open Place)
Kanjay Sesay, NUS Black Students’ Officer
Matt Bond, NUS Disabled Ctte (Open Place rep)
Michael Chessum, Education and Campaigns Officer UCL SU
Jade Baker, Education Officer Westminster Uni SU
Cameron Tait, University of Sussex Students' Union President
Nathan Bolton, Campaigns Officer Essex University Students’ Union
Clare Solomon, ULU President
Jim Wolfreys, UCU NEC
Dr Marion Hersh, UCU NEC and Scottish Executive
Alex Gordon, President, National Union of Rail, Maritime & Transport Workers (RMT)
Lee Hall, playwright ‘Billy Elliot’
Hilary Wainwright, Transnational Institute
Alex Callinicos, Professor of European Studies King’s College London
Billy Bragg Songwriter
Noami Klein Author and Activist.
All in a personal capacity

SOLIDARITY.

ann arky's home.

NO WAY TO PUT AN END TO WAR.

Something to think about as rmemberance Sunday  approaches. Listen to Buffy HERE.

Universal Soldier

He's five feet two and he's six feet four
He fights with missiles and with spears
He's all of 31 and he's only 17
He's been a soldier for a thousand years

He's a Catholic, a Hindu, an atheist, a Jain,
a Buddhist and a Baptist and a Jew
and he knows he shouldn't kill
and he knows he always will
kill you for me my friend and me for you

And he's fighting for Canada,
he's fighting for France,
he's fighting for the USA,
and he's fighting for the Russians
and he's fighting for Japan,
and he thinks we'll put an end to war this way

And he's fighting for Democracy
and fighting for the Reds
He says it's for the peace of all
He's the one who must decide
who's to live and who's to die
and he never sees the writing on the walls

But without him how would Hitler have
condemned him at Dachau
Without him Caesar would have stood alone
He's the one who gives his body
as a weapon to a war
and without him all this killing can't go on

He's the universal soldier and he
really is to blame
His orders come from far away no more
They come from him, and you, and me
and brothers can't you see
this is not the way we put an end to war.

Buffy Sainte-Marie 1964.

ann arky's home.

SELF DEFENCE IS NOT A CRIME.

You either take what you get or you fight back, self defence is not a crime.

Manchester University Students Occupy against the cuts


Statement from students in occupation at Manchester University:

       “Students at Manchester Univeristy have peacefully occupied the John Owens Building and are lobbying the finance board over the Coalition’s attacks on higher education.

       “We are demanding that the University opens its books so that we know where the cuts will fall, how many voluntary redundancies have already been made and to highlight the fact that the vice Chancellor is paid 20 times the average salary. The financial director has denied any cuts are planned, despite the fact that voluntary redundancies have been announced and the combined studies department has already been cut.

        “We are here to support lecturers and administrative staff who will be losing their jobs. To oppose the rise in tuition fees that will price out most working class students. And to oppose the privatisation of our Universities.”

Rush messages of support to    manunioccupation2010@gmail.com
http://manunioccupation.blogspot.com/2010/11/manchester-university-students-occupy.html
 

ann arky's home.

THREE STRIKES AND YOU'RE OUT.

      Ian Duncan Smith's new super plan to penalise the unemployed is now about to be rolled out. It's modelled on that righteous authoritarian dictate, “three strikes and you're out”. Your crimes could one or all of the following dreadful crimes, refusing to take a job offered by your “Job Seeker Advisor”, failing to apply for a job when told to do so, failing to turn up for a placement interview.

      For the first offence you could lose three months Job Seekers Allowance, a second offence and it is six months lose of JSA, and wait for it, a third offence and you lose your JSA for three YEARS. Another little bit of their authoritarian mind set is that you have no right of appeal, your Job Seeker Advisor's word is final.

      This type of planing chooses to ignore the fact that there are 500,000 listed vacancies in this country while there are over 2.5 million unemployed. It also chooses to ignore that with their policies of cuts, we are going to see another 500.000 public sector workers dumped on the unemployment queue, plus the knock-on effect in the private sector.

      A Job Seeker Advisor will be able to strip “errant” unemployed of their JSA with no right of appeal, and no doubt the Advisor will be under pressure to meet targets. Cameron's millionaire poodle, Clegg says that the plans will bring 300,000 households back into work. Even assuming his figures are anyway near accurate, what he fails to mention is that figure will be more than replaced by the public sector pay-offs.

     There are thousands of reasons why people become unemployed, the biggest one is lack of decent jobs, nothing in the millionaire's plans go any way to solving that problem. Forcing people to go about picking up litter 30 hours a week for no pay does not create jobs. It could of course reduce paid employment as councils struggling to cut cost now find that they can have the streets cleaned for free, will start to pay off those who are paid to do this work.

     All of these plans are driven by an ideology, there is nothing wrong with the capitalist model, your poor because of you own lack of effort, the unemployed are lazy shirkers and if you are not working you deserve nothing. This is the type of society they are intent on forcing on the people of this country, there is no room for sharing, helping those less fortunate than ourselves, services based on needs. Everything must create a profit for the millionaire class and that profit as usual will come from the working class, who will have no say in how our society is run. Our lords and masters will be the corporate world, it is not a pretty picture if you are a member of the working class. Only by realising this is a class war, and at the moment we are loosing, can we hope to reverse this trend and push society in the direction of an all inclusive sharing society where needs over ride profit and mutual aid is the basic principle.

ann arky's home.

DON'T BREAK OUR COMMUNITIES APART!

        
       The free-marketeers ideology gathers pace. Shifting asylum seekers from council housing to private sector housing puts more tax payers money in the pockets of the private sector landlords, apart from the misery and pressure it puts on the individuals and families of those involved.
         The following was taken from; http://www.indymediascotland.org/node/22207
Keep the Contract with Glasgow City Council!
Join the Protest:

Monday 15 November
10.30am
Outside Glasgow City Chambers,
George Square.

Today at a meeting in Cranhill it was confirmed that the first asylum seeker families are to be moved out of Glasgow City Council accommodation starting as early as Monday next week. One family has been told they will be moving on Monday. At least two other families have been told they'll also be leaving accommodation provided by the council next week. On Saturday last week, the 900 plus asylum seeker families who are currently accommodated in housing organised by Glasgow City Council received letters stating that the housing contract from the UK Border Agency to house them had been terminated.

        Staff at the Glasgow Asylum Seeker Support Project were told at 3pm on Friday afternoon after their acting head had received the news in an email. The move has taken everyone involved in supporting asylum seekers in Glasgow completely by surprise and came as a shock to many.

       It is still not known where families are going to be moved to and the confusion is spreading anxiety and alarm through the asylum seeker community in Glasgow. Earlier today the UKBA press office was suggesting that, in the short term at least, the other current accommodation providers in Glasgow, the YMCA charity and the notorious Angel Group, would take on the contract. The letters sent out to the tenants however suggest that they could be relocated to anywhere in Scotland.

        Now facing significant disruption to their housing - and potentially facing being moved away from established friends and supporters as well as from services such as GPs and social workers - asylum seekers in Glasgow are extremely alarmed and concerned about this sudden news. Many are concerned about how their children could be affected if they are moved out of established schools. Many are also worried that they may have to move away from friends and supportive neighbours and community groups, breaking the strong ties that have developed over months and years in communities across the city. Other concerns have also been raised about the ability of the YMCA and the Angel Group to provide adequate accommodation at such short notice.

      Since taking over part of the housing contract in 2006, both the Angel Group and the YMCA, have received criticism over how they have provided accommodation to asylum seekers. The Angel Group, in particular, have had many accusations of providing inadequate housing and its staff giving poor service, made against it.

        UNITY is calling for a protest outside of Glasgow City Chambers of everyone concerned about the sudden ending of the housing contract and against the disruption to our communities and its impact on the lives of our friends and neighbours.

      Come to Glasgow City Chambers at 10.30 Monday 15th November to show your opposition to these developments and to call on the UKBA and Glasgow City Council to resolve any difficulties.

ann arky's home.