ELECTIONS, DEMOS, PETITIONS, TWITTER, --- WHAT NEXT??

    

The following short extract is from  ADBUSTERS.  The full article makes good reasding.

   

' ----Everywhere we look there are signs of moral decay, political corruption and fascistic tendencies. However, activists have not been passive. For decades, since the end of democracy in America first became undeniable, we have tried every tactic to avert catastrophe. We have voted, written letters, donated money, held signs, protested in marches, clicked links, signed petitions, tweeted websites, written books, taught classes, knitted sweaters, learned how to farm, turned off the television, programmed apps, engaged in direct action, committed petty vandalism … All this has been for naught. Popular revolution remains the only reasonably viable tactic remaining.'

         This was written concerning America, but it could equally well apply to any Western country. We, here in the UK, could say exactly the same. The more we tweet/facebook, march, petition the further that democracy slips away. Millions marched to try to stop the illegal Iraq invasion but the UK spent 5 years destroying the infrastructure of that country and the US is still there. Since 2001 there has been innumerable demonstrations/marches and petitions to pull the troops out of Afghanistan, we are still there killing and being killed.

        Now we face savage cuts to our standard of living, the decimation of our NHS, the privatisation of the Universities, the rapid erosion of our education system and the slashing of any social benefits. All this is being done against the wishes of the people of this country, simply to save the bankers and bond merchants form losing some of their unearned wealth. Our millionaire public school thugs, sometimes know as the cabinet, know who there friends are, and it certainly isn't you and I.

       So do we continue tweeting/facebooking, marching, petitioning, demonstrating, writing letters, waving placards and every 4 or 5 years running out to vote in, another bunch of duplicitous smiling crooks and liars. Or do we finally take up the only road left open to us, if we want to change this stinking system of inequality and exploitation, a popular uprising of the ordinary people, not asking for change, but making those changes we want to see?

ann arky's home.

GLASGOW'S MAY DAY.

      Glasgow's May Day parade took place this afternoon in the city centre, it was a colourful affair with most left political groupings present. This year saw a good turnout, perhaps the weather had something to do with that, but I feel it was because people are looking for ways to display their anger at what is happening in their communities across the country. The chanting and coloured banners symbolised their hope that something can be done to stop the savage cuts to their standard of living.

      However, though they are looking for answers, unless those answers include a dramatic change to the economic system its self, those hopes are going to be dashed. To call for no cuts means keeping the system, which really means postponing the cuts for another day and another generation, as we have struggled against cuts for about as long as we have had the capitalist system.

      May Day, is about the people and their desire for a better world for all, it is not about asking our lords and masters, the parasite class, for some relief from the perpetual struggle, a struggle for which they are responsible. So I to have hope, I hope that all those involved in the May Day celebrations go back to their communities and their work places and begin to organise with their workmates and neighbours, to change society forever and to the benefit of all our people. If not, our children and grandchildren will still be struggling and hoping as they march on future May Days.

ann arky's home.

A MOVING MOVIE!!!

           In a journey from the mountains of southeastern Mexico to the northern border with the United States, Subcommander Marcos, Zapatista spokesperson, and the people of Mexico trace the forgotten face of a country. A celebration of the struggle for land and dignity.

Glasgow Screening

Sunday 8th May

5.15pm

Glasgow Film Theatre

12 Rose St

Glasgow, G3 6RB

Followed by Q&A with the director Nicolas Défossé

          A merchandise stall will be at this event selling Zapatista t-shirts, coffee and crafts. The money raised goes to health clinics and schools run by the Zapatistas in the Highlands of Chiapas, Mexico.

           City of Los Angeles, USA. In the heart of the city, undocumented Mexican immigrants are hunted by the police and struggle to earn a living without losing their identity. On the other side of the border, in the mountains of southeastern Mexico, dawn arrives, hidden in mist. It is January 1st, 2006; thousands of indigenous Zapatistas prepare to say farewell to their spokesman Subcomandante Marcos. His mission: to travel across the country for the next six months to learn from the resistance of Mexican men and women who fight for a better Mexico. So begins a journey that plans to reach the border with the United States, at the other end of the country...

            From Chiapas to Quintana Roo, from Yucatan to Oaxaca, from Nayarit to Colima, from Michoacan to Guerrero, from the State of Mexico to the heart of the country and the enormous metropolis known as Mexico City, we follow the steps of this journey that traces the face of the "other" Mexico, made up of the humble and simple people, a face much different from the one TV shows us every day. It is a journey that dares to “start building the image of the people we really are.” as expressed by Subcomandante Marcos.

           This challenge is not without risks… by uncovering Mexico’s dignified and rebellious face, irrigating the seeds of rebellion and solidarity of an entire country, this journey is a provocation against those who control the country's economy and it's image. What starts as an isolated murmur will become a clamour of hundreds of thousands of voices, "Viva Mexico" How will those in power respond?

Glasgow Chiapas Solidarity Group:
glasgowchiapassolidarity@googlemail.com
http://glasgowchiapassolidaritygroup.wordpress.com/
http://www.vivamexicofilm.com/eng.html

ann arky's home.

A REMINDER.

Just a wee reminder that tomorrow ios MAY DAY, family fun day, workers day, our day.See HERE.

This from The Freedom Socialists.

May Day 2011:

A tribute to modern-day Haymarket heroes and heroines.

    On this day, amid spiraling resistance around the world, we pay respects to struggles that gave birth to May Day as an international workingclass holiday 125 years ago in Chicago, Illinois. The fight for the eight-hour day, led by anarchists and socialists, was gaining steam. In an attempt to destroy the movement, police provocateurs threw a bomb at a peaceful labor rally in Haymarket Square. Eight radical leaders were charged with murder, and four were hung. A defiant August Spies exclaimed before his execution:

    If you think that by hanging us you can stamp out the labor movement...the movement from which the downtrodden millions, the millions who toil in want and misery expect salvation--if that is your opinion, then hang us! Here you will tread upon a spark, but there and there, behind you, and in front of you, and everywhere, flames blaze up. It is a subterranean fire. You cannot put it out.

The Freedom Socialist Party offers its gratitude to the Haymarket Martyrs and those who tried to save them, such as Lucy Gonzalez Parsons, the widow of Albert Parsons. She spent the rest of her life building
international recognition for her fallen comrades, while also speaking out as an ardent Chicana feminist and antiracist agitator. These early radicals were principled internationalists. Albert Parsons dismissed bigots who derided his Haymarket brothers for being "foreigners":

     My patriotism covers more than the boundary lines of a single state; the world is my country, all mankind my countrymen. That is what the emblem of the red flag signifies; it is the symbol of the free, of emancipated labor.

       Today, the Haymarket rebels' vision of international class solidarity is alive and growing. This was dramatically clear when democracy protesters in Egypt and labor activists in Wisconsin carried signs supporting each other's struggles. Both movements have wakened ever-widening revolts. Rebels across North Africa and the Mideast, from Tunisia to Yemen, are exchanging strategies and tactics to foment change. Many workers and students are realizing they need to move beyond replacing corrupt officials at the top. Protests globally are opposing imperialist intervention in Libya. Solidarity with Palestine is rising. Iraqis are demanding that the U.S. get out of their country. The U.S. and its allies are doing everything possible to contain these insurgencies and prevent them from concluding that socialism is the solution. But is this possible in a world where rebellion is reaching the boiling point?

      In the Ukraine this March, female electronics workers who had not been paid for 14 months stormed the bosses' offices and overwhelmed top officials and the police who tried to save them. Throughout March, teachers in Honduras held massive demonstrations against privatization of schools that sparked a general strike against austerity measures. For several weeks in April, thousands of Bolivian workers, farmers and students protested neoliberal economic policies. Miners expressed their discontent by throwing dynamite and battling police in the capitol of La Paz.

In the U.S., outrage is mounting over the criminal slashing of needed social services and jobs by both Democrats and Republicans. Radical voices are calling for a new political party, one that will represent workers' interests and make the bosses pay for their crisis.

The Freedom Socialist Party offers solidarity to modern-day Haymarket heroes and heroines across the globe. This is a crucial time for those on the left to work together in united front efforts to challenge capitalist rulers and create revolutionary change. Together, we will prevail!      May 1, 2011

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GLASGOW WEDDING DAY PARTY.

       A royal wedding day party in Glasgow's Kelvingrove Park. Are the Glasgow police anti-royalists? Seems odd to break up a party when Cameron was asking everybody to get involved in street parties. Perhaps the police are SNP supporters, who knows, it is difficult to follow the logic.



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THE MAN WHO WOULD BE PRESIDENT!!

      

       There is a lot of talk of billionaire Donald Trump running for the Republican nomination for president. One thing about America, it can turn up some real weirdos for the presidency. We should be concerned, to give somebody the biggest arsenal in the world we should at least consider their suitability. It's our lives they're messing up. However, you don't have to say anything about Trump to criticise him, he does that very well every time he opens his mouth. Here are just a few of his remarks on the world situation.

On Libya: “I would go in and take the oil --- I would take the oil and stop all this baby stuff.”

On Iraq: “We stay there, and we take the oil --- In the old days, when you have a war and you win, that nation is yours.”

What America must do: “Stop what's going on in the world. The world is just destroying our country. These other countries are sapping our strength.”

On the rising price of oil and OPEC: “I'm going to look them in the eye and say 'Look fellows you've had your fun. Your fun is over' ”

What he thinks about the ordinary people: Well apparently he will not shake hands with ordinary Americans when out canvassing, saying, “You catch all sorts of things.”

Having claimed that he was responsible for making Obama produce his birth certificate, I think it is only fair that he should come clean on his hair. Is it really his? Or is it an unnatural immigrant and has no right to be there?

      Is this the best that the American political class can come up with, is this the pinnacle of their elite?

ann arky's home.

THAT RIGHT ROYAL THINGY!!!

    ONE OF THEM

       I thought I might get through the week without mentioning IT, but I just couldn't keep my mouth shut. Here we are, putting on one of the most spectacular displays of privilege, a display of parasitical living, all paid for by tax payers, and beaming it all over the globe. What we are saying to the world is, this is Britain in the 21st century. However it is a lie, it is not Britain, it is a glimpse of a slice of the upper crust, the pampered elite, the parasites. Britain today is a country with mass unemployment, children living in poverty, pensioners dying of hypothermia during our cold winters. Britain is a country that can put on a extravaganza that takes your breath away by its sheer opulence, but can't put together a system whereby most young couples can afford their first home as they try to start up on their own. A country where couples struggle to try and give their kids a decent up-bring, let alone a lavish wedding.

    ONE OF US.   

       It was probably the biggest, most lavish display of privilege and unearned wealth seen on the planet, from a country that is fighting a war in Afghanistan, supporting a war in Libya, while cutting education, health care, disability benefits, and the social fabric of society, well that part of society where the real people live. This is a display that says Britain is a very rich country, but we don't want to spend it on the ordinary people. It says, Britain is a country of centuries of kings and queens with super wealth at the pinnacle of society, and has still failed miserably to create any semblance of equal opportunity or hint of fairness.

ann arky's home.

TEAPOT INTRODUCTION TO ANARCHY - PAGE 9.

     And so to page 9 of the wonderful wee book, The Teapot Collective Introduction to Anarchy. It is something worthwhile to read on this holiday Friday. Page 8 can be found HERE.

      Propaganda by the deed experienced a revival in the 1970s with an equally notorious urban guerrilla movement in Europe and the US (many groups of which were more Marxist-orientated than anarchist) A strong pacifist anarchist movement has also always existed alongside this, from Tolstoy and christian Utopian anarchists to parts of the peace movement of this century.

     On the question of violence, it's probably fair to say that most anarchists believe in the importance of self-defence and militantly defending whatever autonomy we achieve, at least where it's tactically sensible. The idea and history of the insurrection, of pissed-off people reclaiming their power by showing their strength in attacks on symbols of the state and capitalism, is also quite inspiring to many anarchists.

     More recently, women's liberation has emerged a force attacking our systemic oppression as women in a society based on power over each other. A society which needs to oppress some people so the elite can prosper. 

ann arky's home.

UNITY BETWEEN PALESTINIANS---NO WAY!!!

     

      The recently announced agreement of a government of unity between the two Palestinian groups, Hamas and Fatah would be seen by most sane and rational people as the right step for the benefit of the Palestinian people. After all, faction fighting within any group of people can only be self destructive, co-operation must surely bring benefits to the whole. However to the fundamentalist Zionist nutter Avigdor Lieberman it is a “red line” crossed. He stated, "We have at our disposal a vast arsenal of measures including the lifting of VIP status for Abu Mazen and Salam Fayyad, which will not allow them to move freely," also, "We could also freeze the transfer of taxes collected by Israel for the Palestinian Authority," Meanwhile the Israeli Defence Minister Ehud Barak said "the latest events do nothing but reinforce the necessity of relying only on ourselves.--- "The army and the security services will use an iron fist to deal with any threat and challenge,"

     It is obvious that the last thing the Zionists nutters in Israel want is peace and co-operation among the Palestinian people. It is the same old divide and rule, as long as the Palestinian people are fighting among themselves there is precious little chance of a Palestinian state. This blatant threat against a people who decide to “bury the hatchet” and try to improve their conditions by means of unity and co-operation lays bare the real agenda of the fundamentalist Zionist nutters in charge of the mighty military state of Israel. The total destruction of any plans for a Palestinian state, the land grab of all the Palestinian lands and what amounts to genocide of the Palestinian people is their real aim. This obvious agenda goes on under the noses of, and with the blessing of, the Western nations, but the real crime is the continuous military, financial and political support from America.

ann arky's home.

MAY DAY -- WHAT'S IT ALL ABOUT?

Glasgow's Glorious May Day celebrations, this Sunday.

Now more than ever we have to show solidarity, we have to come together to defend our standard of living. May Day this year is an ideal opportunity to show your solidarity with  all the ordinary people of this country and across the world, to lay down a marker, as the pampered parasite class make a savage grasp to capitalise everything in sight to save their spiv friends, the bond merchants, from carrying their own gambling debts. We are expected to pay the gamblers for their greed and stand by while they privatise everything they can lay their sweaty palms on that can make them money. It is their world -- or it is our world, you can decide.

        MAY DAY, WHAT'S IT ALL ABOUT?

       May Day, Labour Day, Workers Day, our day, a day when we the ordinary people of the world can celebrate the heroes from our ranks. Paying homage to the men and women who dedicated their lives to the cause of working class emancipation. People who sought nothing for themselves, many dying for their beliefs, individuals that sometimes stood like a colossus astride the political scene, others that worked tirelessly in the shadows, all for the greater good of all peoples, not more for themselves. Their statues, their plaques are no where to be seen, the establishment has them airbrushed out of history. Instead, the powers that be litter our public squares and parks with grandiose statues of arrogant warmongers, empire builders, kings of industry, rich merchants, all who made a fortune on the back of slave and/or cheap labour or the bloodshed of ordinary people. The establishment wants us to forget our heroes, no statues, no plaques, we mustn’t be allowed to think that fighting for the betterment of ordinary people is a worth while cause, much better to try to convince us that it is more honourable to be a self-centred arrogant pursuer of power and wealth at the expense of others. We mustn’t let this happen, we have to keep alive the names and deeds of that legion of men and women who dedicated their lives to our future well being and that of our kids.

The Haymarket Martyrs

        MAY 1st. Must always be a festive day, a day of celebration and pride, a day when we can all come together and wave our banners, party, and remember those names and deeds. A day to revive that spirit of co-operation in struggle and hopefully push our cause to a higher plain. Always on May 1st. not some conveniently arranged employer/union date, the nearest Monday, so as not to upset their production. It is our day, always claim it as a day of family fun, festivities and remembrance, a day of hope for the future of all the ordinary peoples of the world. Glasgow, like most cities, is fortunate in having its own legion of working class fighters, a legion that stretches back through the industrial age and beyond. To pick a few at random, names like George Barrett, Tom Anderson, John MacLean, Helen Crawfurd, Guy Aldred, Ethel MacDonald, Jenny Patrick, William McDougal --- and the names go on and on and on, events such as, The Cotton Spinners strike, the rent strikes, the first world war peace movement, the 1919, 40 hour week strike, etc, etc, etc. All names and events to be justly proud of but difficult to find recorded, all the more need to celebrate MAY DAY and keep alive that part of our history, our culture.

          Take to the streets this MAY DAY, bring the family, bring colour, bring music, bring what you expect to find, bring the spirit of the working class, have fun, remember why we are there, be proud and strengthen your resolve to do more to push the cause of co-operation in struggle with all our people. Keep alive the names and deeds of our past, not those of a corrupt, brutal, exploitative system. Keep alive the dream of a society of free association, voluntary co-operation, and mutual aid, a system of seeing to needs and not to the greed of the few bloated pampered parasites.

 

               ann arky's home.

THIS WORLD WE HAVE CREATED.

    

      The following is something I posted about a year ago on another BLOG.  I repeat it here as I feel it is just as relevant, or even more so, today than ever. Looking at the true picture of our world and realising that not one of the governments of the world has any intentions of attacking the true cause of the situation, corporate capitalism and the state system, it becomes obvious it is up to the poor of this world, the ordinary people, to put things to right. Don't expect the bloated parasites who are in control at the moment, to do anything that might in any way deprive them of their unearned, unsustainable opulence.   

     I should add that some of the figures in the article will now be much worse as a year in corporate capitalism has done nothing but add to the misery of the world's poor. The actual number without access to clean drinking water rises by the hour. 

      It is difficult to grasp the state of the world that we have created. A world where there is an abundance of almost everything conceivable and yet to the vast majority of the world’s population it is all out of reach. A world where a small elite live a life of obscene and wasteful wealth while millions die of starvation and millions of children die from the lack of clean drinking water. In this capitalist made world there are small enclaves where the rich, in safety, play games with their expensive toys, private jets, luxury cars, yachts and several holiday homes in “exotic” locations. While just over that financial apartheid wall there is the stench of squalor and death for countless millions living in total deprivation and endless wars,

      In this capitalist created world, 8 million people die every year from poverty, One billion children live in abject poverty, 640 million do not have access to appropriate shelter, 140 million have never attended school, 400 million do not have access to clean uncontaminated water, 500 million do not have basic sanitation, 270 million have no access to health care, and 90 million are severely food deprived. Approximately 12.3 million people worldwide live in conditions of “modern slavery,”while over one billion people live on less than one dollar of income per day and over three billion live on less than two dollars per day. Then there is the strata in between that manage to scrape a reasonable existence that seems to keep them from revolt.

        All this misery in spite of the fact that the world economy actually produces one and a half times the amount of food necessary to provide the entire human population with adequate and nutritious meals. The fact that the capitalist system will not allow this to be shared out to those in need tells us that it is not a natural problem but a political problem. Perhaps the words of Derrick Jensen come close to capturing something of that world.

       “We are members of the most destructive culture ever to exist. Our assault on the natural world, on indigenous and other cultures, on women, on children, on all of us through the possibility of nuclear suicide and other means—all these are unprecedented in their magnitude and ferocity … What this means is that corporations and those who run them cannot stop exploiting resources and amassing wealth until they have…I cannot finish this sentence, because the truth is that they can never stop; like cancer, they can only continue to expand until they kill the host … For us to maintain our way of living, we must tell lies to each other and especially to ourselves. The lies are necessary because, without them, many deplorable acts would become impossibilities.”

     Do you honestly believe that voting in a bunch of privileged parasites will rid this world of the poverty, misery and deprivation, not to mention wars and destruction being perpetrated by corporate capitalism? Most people in government are millionaires, they get fat on the corruption of  the corporate world, we live in a time when state and corporate capitalism or one unified body, it is known as corporate fascism. 

ann arky's home.

INTRODUCTION TO ANARCHY - PAGE 8.

Here we go with page 8 of the Teapot Collective Introduction to Anarchy. Page 7 can be found HERE.

     This proved highly successful until the movement was crushed bt both the fascist insurgents and the democratic government.

      Anarchosyndicalism (from the French word for unions) has been a movement of worker's self-organisation in federations, which has especially flourished in Latin American countries where there is little altenative for a labour movement other than revolutionary struggle. In the early 1900's for example, anarcho-syndicalists in Argintina launched a series of spectacular strikes with the government declaring a state of emergency five times.

    Anarchist became notorious in the 19th century for 'propaganda by the deed' - sabatage, bombings and assassinations of prominent economic and political figures, for example the US president McKinley.

     A short history of Glasgow's anarchists and the Glasgow anarchist movement can be found HERE.    
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THEATRE, FARCE, ELECTION,---IT'S ALL THE SAME.

     

      It is that time again, yes, your wish is my command. Well not my command, those strange creatures we see every four or five years, they normally go under the heading of politicians. Though we don't see much of them between times, we do hear a lot about them, there is their phony expenses, their dodgy business dealing and their suspect relations with people in high places. Then there is their waffling and babble and those endless photo opportunities. Now it is the theatrical season, the phony actors are taking to the stage. Yes, it's election time.

VOTE!! WHIT HIV THEY EVER DONE FUR US?

      As the election nears I feel I'm in the promised land, well the promises are there, but that's about as near as I'll get. Each of the parties offer what they think you'll want to hear. More jobs, safeguarding essential services, a curb on excessive bonuses, more control of the banks, improvements in the NHS, better education opportunities for our kids, you name it, they'll offer it. Each one through that chiselled in smile or a face of gravitas go through their little spiel, their prepared pathetic little act, doing their damnedest to look honest and sincere. Sadly these are features that are completely unfamiliar to them, so they fail miserably.

     After the election there is the game of musical chairs, a wee reshuffle in the Westminster House of Hypocrisy and Corruption, then the new actors (the politicians) settle in to the gravy train, keeping their snouts very close to the pig trough and become invisible in there constituencies. You and I, on the other hand, go back to our daily grin of struggling against cuts in our standard of living, unemployment, cuts in pensions, attacks on the National Health Service and a decimated education system, while trying to bring up our kids and taking care of our elderly parents.

 

     The only change in our lives after the election is the crop of new smiling faces plastered across the papers and TV screen. Vote? Why? On election day throw a party for your friends and family, take the kids away for the day, visit old friends, paint the house, read a book, just don't vote. Leave election day for the parasites to vote for themselves, after all that's what the election is all about, them.

 

 

ann arky's home.

ESCALATION!!!

    

    Since posting the previous article "A DAY'S KILLING AT THE OFFICE" I have learnt that the US has made Predator armed drones available in support of NATO for use in Libya. The precedent has now been set, armed drones will now become the preferred weapon of choice. We all know that the UK police, and other police forces no doubt, have been using smaller drones  for surveillance purposes, which no doubt could be armed with smaller weapons. The state now has the perfect Orwellian tools, CCTV cameras everywhere, small drones patrolling the skies above our cities, perhaps armed, and the armed Predator drone to sort out any trouble. All this from one central control room in an inconspicuous building sitting somewhere in a leafy suburb. Welcome to 1984.

ann arky's home.

A DAY'S KILLING AT THE OFFICE!!

     

      The day is fast approaching when states will be able to wage war against other states without their military having to leave their own country. War with two distinct portions, the perpetrators sitting comfortably in what could pass for an electronic games room with keyboards, hand sets and monitors and those on the receiving end being blasted into oblivion by guided missiles, drones and other new hi-tec weaponry. You don't even need to be fit, you just sit comfortably in your seat at an office not far from your home, handset suitably placed, gaze at your monitor and at the right moment move your finger and BOOM, mission accomplished. After your 8 hour shift you can go home to your family. Warriors of the future. It is not as if this is far fetched, at the moment the US is creating havoc in the region of the Afghanistan/Pakistan border with a just such a scenario. The drones that are killing thousands in the Afghanistan/Pakistan border region are controlled from somewhere in America.

        The drone attacks were relatively few back in 2004 as a matter of fact the total number of drone attacks for 2004/2007 was just 9 strikes with estimated deaths ranging from 89 to 112. In 2008 the numbers increased quite dramatically with 34 drone strikes that year alone and deaths between 273 and 313. When the man of peace, Obama took office in 2009, the number of drone strikes increased again with the estimated deaths rising to between 368 and 724. 2010 saw the deaths from drone strikes almost double to somewhere between 607 and 993.

       The New America Foundation states that since 2004 the total killed in drone strikes in that region number somewhere between 1,435 and 2,283, that's is a lot of death and misery without leaving your office. Of course their will be those who say they were all Taliban or Al Qaeda but again The New America Foundation state that about 32% of those deaths were civilian. Killed dispassionately from the comfort of an office chair, it is really quite frightening.

       As long as we continue with the state system and its bed companion, corporate capitalism, we will have wars and those wars will become more and more hi-tec with the military being more and more like office staff who never get their hands dirty and never see the blood they shed, making it easier and easier for the state to recruit killers for their cause of power and profit above all.

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