THE STRUGGLE IS GLOBAL.

        An appeal and a thank-you from Labour Start:

        Members of the Mexican electrical workers union have been engaged in a heroic struggle that began more than two years ago -- and today they need our help. Despite being evicted from their workplaces by police and military in 2009, they continued their resistance and today are negotiating with the government on a just solution.

But they need our help -- the support of trade union members from around the world.

      Sending your message to the Mexican government and the union will take you less than a minute -- please do so now - click here.

        Please spread the word inside your union, to your workmates, friends and family -- and share the campaign via these social media sites:        

       Meanwhile, thanks to the more than 7,600 of you who responded to last week's appeal in support of jailed trade union leaders in Greece. The trial began on Tuesday and the union leaders have thanked all of you for your support. But we need more messages before it resumes next week, so if you've not yet sent off a message, please do so now - click here.

        Finally, it's a new year and we're relaunching our partnership with UCS - the unionised bookshop - to promote books by and for trade unionists. This month, I'd like to urge all of you to have a look at Mother Jones: The Most Dangerous Woman in America. If you've never heard of Mother Jones, you're in for a real treat. And remember that every book you purchase using this link helps to support LabourStart.
Have a great weekend.

Eric Lee

ann arky's home.

WHAT IS OCCUPY WALL STREET?

       What is Occupy Wall Street about,, who are they, is it just a handful of misfits, if not, why isn't there better media coverage? This video might give you some of the answers.

ann arky's home.

LIBERTY SQUARE LIBERATED!!

        Liberty Square in New York has been re-occupied, the barriers are down and the people are back with their library and their discusions. In spite of the lack of media coveage this protest gathers numbers and steam.

ann arky's home.

VINDICTIVE STATE APPARATUS.

Please circulate widely

News from ethicalcensus.org.uk

Support Barbara in Court - victimised over Scottish census

       Barbara Dowling is being charged under the Census Act, accused of not filling in her census form properly. Her intermediate diet was held on Tue 10 January and her case is going ahead to trial. Barbara will be defending herself. The trial will be at 10am in Court 16, Glasgow Sheriff Court Thursday 26 January (not 16 January, as stated in an earlier email).

      Countless Scots have either failed to fill in their census forms or returned them partially completed or improved by critical comments, but have not been prosecuted. Barbara's victimisation is inexplicable. Please make a date in your diary to come along and support her. And please tell your friends.

      Barbara will also be in court on 25 Jan over non-payment of a fine incurred for blockading Faslane nuclear submarine base. Barbara is refusing to pay the fine and risks a jail sentence:

10am 25th January, Dumbarton Sheriff Court - support in court welcome

ann arky's home.

I'VE BEEN ROBBED!!!

        Well I like the guy and his songs speak volumes, homage where homage is due. Some times a song or a poem can say more in a couple of verses than you could say in a ten minute speech or a couple of chapters in a book. Enjoy and learn.

ann arky's home.

CRUISE TO CRAP!!!

        Have you ever watched those large cruise ships sailing in to port and thought, what beautiful constructions. I have always seen large passenger ships as things beauty. However over the years they have got larger and larger, and now they look more like very large floating hotels. Now I tend to see them as massive filthy contraptions for transporting pretty-pretty butterfly people around the world to flutter about on exotic islands. Then there is the other dimension to them, all that filth and sewage they dump in our oceans and sometimes not that far from shore.

           The average cruise ship dumps approximately  21,000 pounds of untreated sewage every day, sometimes less than three miles from shore?  Of course it is not just the sewage dumping that should concern us. Every single day, a single cruise ship can dump approximately one ton of garbage, 6,400 gallons of oily bilge water, and 25 pounds of batteries, fluorescent lights, medical wastes, and expired chemicals into our oceans. That's just one ship.

     The pretty-pretty butterfly people that create all this sewage and waste don't in any way pay for the clean up, and don't seem to be too concerned about the problem, nor do the cruise companies pay anything towards the clean up, the oceans are to them, just a waste basin from which they make millions, floating the pretty-pretty butterfly people around.

          The Nature and Biodiversity Conservation Union (NABU) recently singled out AIDA and TUI, two German cruise lines, for being especially environmentally filthy. It's time for them to update their filtration systems to stop thoughtlessly spewing waste into our oceans. Poisoned oceans means poisoned fish and that affects you and I.

TAKE ACTION NOW.

ann arky's home.

CAPITALISM = CHILD POVERTY.

       Recently released figures show the shocking level of child poverty in Scotland, these figures show that 13 Scottish councils have wards where more than 30% of children live in severe poverty. The worst areas are Glasgow, West of Scotland, Edinburgh, Dundee, Fife, Aberdeen and Stirling. A quick look at the map of Scotland tells you that those areas just about take in practically all of Scotland's high population areas. The over all child poverty level for the whole of Scotland is more than 20%. Bearing in mind that every child living in poverty is in a home with at least one adult living in poverty, it is a damning picture.

        Labour social justice spokesman Drew Smith said work was the best route out of poverty. Adding, "That is why as well as investment in the vital early years and improving childcare, we need a renewed focus on creating jobs and implementing a Living Wage for Scotland." What a load of crap, when has capitalism ever paid a living wage to all its workers? Dear Mr Smith, that's not how the system works. Why are people in poverty, because they can't access their needs. Why can't they access their needs, because we have created a system whereby the people's needs are priced so as to allow an army of parasites to live in luxury. Our system doesn't produce for the needs of the people, it produces for the wealth of the shareholders. The two tend to be incompatible. Also this angle of work being the answer shifts the blame onto those who are unable to find work. It's their own fault, if only they were working they would be poverty free. History tells us different.

       On hearing the figures Scottish Liberal Democrat education spokesman Liam McArthur said: "In light of this report, and the effect that unemployment has on levels of poverty, it is more clear than ever that effective collaboration at all levels of government is required to help ensure the right conditions for creating jobs and reducing unemployment in our communities." More crap, when has capitalism in any country in the world every produced a society where all were employed and all had a living wage? More of blame the unemployed for the poverty in the country.

         Take two of the worst areas of severe poverty in Scotland, Govan, where I once worked in the shipyards, as part of the Clyde, it was once the shipbuilding capital of the world and Springburn, where I still live, once the steam locomotive manufacturing centre of the British Empire. In those days, lots of employment, but also lots of poverty. In this society the two are not incompatible. However, it was with “effective collaboration at all levels of government” that seen to the demise of both these industries. See Upper Clyde Work-in. Now Govan has a child poverty level of 38% and Springburn has the worst in Scotland with a criminal level 52% of children living in severe poverty. Think of that, more than half the children in an area in the UK living in severe poverty, that's 21^st century capitalism in the developed world, not a third world country.

        Of course anybody who is interested in what our society is like will know that poverty has always been part of capitalism. The system is not in any way shape or form fashioned to see to people's needs, it is not a needs based system, profit is the only game in town. All this crap about getting people into employment, being the answer to poverty, is just sound bites for public consumption, in the hope of getting the mouth-piece elected to a cushy job. They don't believe it themselves, if they do, then they are more stupid than I have always stated.

      Child poverty of these levels is an indictment against any system, it is condemning future generations to a stunted development, a waste of the future potential of a people. All this just because we are told that capitalism is the only route available, when common sense tells us otherwise. Mutual aid, co-operation, sustainability and developing a needs based society is there waiting for the people to take it up. The evidence has never been more glaring, the need has never been greater.

ann arky's home.

ETHICAL CENSUS?

News from ethicalcensus.org.uk

Support Census Objector in Court.Intermediate Diet: 10am Tuesday 10 January, Glasgow Sheriff Court

Trial Diet: Monday 16 January, Glasgow Sheriff Court

Map:
http://www.scotcourts.gov.uk/locations/index.asp?crt=glw&val=map

Train Stations: Central, Queen Street and Argyle Street (Low Level).

Underground Station: Bridge Street.

SOLIDARITY.

      Barbara Dowling will be appearing before Glasgow Sheriff Court on Tuesday 10 January, accused of failing to fully complete her census form. Please come along to the court to support Barbara. Justice is more likely to be done it is being watched.

       Tuesday's hearing is an Intermediate Diet, so it will mainly be concerned with technical matters. Although it will be particularly important to have strong support for Barbara at the Trial Diet scheduled for the following week, support at the Intermediate Diet is also important and could help to make sure that the court takes Barbara's case seriously.

Please come along if you can
More information: 07936432519 or 07786630764
More information about the campaign for an ethical census:

www.ethicalcensus.org.uk

Do You Know of anyone else being prosecuted in Scotland over the census?Ask them to contact us:
contact@ethicalcensus.org.uk

Or phone 07936432519 or 07786630764

ann arky's home.

EDUCATION FREE FROM THE MILITARY.

        Another upper-crust brain-dead parasite spouts his mouth off and thinks he is a genius. Education Secretary, Michael Gove, had a chat with a 17 year old cadet from The Royal Military Academy, Sandhurst, and left thinking, why don't we get all the working class kids into cadets, then the little bastards would stop thinking for themselves and become nice obedient workers for our corporate buddies. After his visionary conversation with the 17 year old cadet, Gove has come up with the idea of introducing military style cadet forces into all secondary schools. Note, all secondary schools, no mention of grammar schools. So enthused is he with his vision that he has told Children's Minister Sarah Teather to get her head together with Defence Minister Nick Harvey, and get the ball rolling. The one thing our right-wing millionaire class don't want is a disobedient working class. Get them into uniform and let them know who is boss, teach them to take orders, be subservient. It has always been the fear of the rich parasite class that the ordinary people would eventually see through their smoke and mirrors and decide to take control of society for the benefit of all. With unrest looming on the horizon all the more reason to get those possible protesters into uniform and have them sitting around looking to their leaders and waiting for orders.

         This latest piece of right-wing militaristic ideology must be resisted, we don't want our kids going to school to be prepared as cannon fodder for some corporate resource grab or some foreign policy caprice by some egocentric parasite millionaire Prime Minister. With unemployment rising and kids being groomed for the military while at school, it is obvious more will end up in the military and fighting to protect the share value of some oil giant. There should be no room in any of our schools for the military, education is about thinking for yourself, not about taking orders from your supposed superiors. Kick the military out of school and keep them out.

ann arky's home.

THERE ARE MEN TOO GENTLE ---.

       

         As the new year gets up and running and all the talk is of struggle and fighting, we should never forget why we are fighting. It is not for the love of struggle and fight, it is not for power and wealth, it is because of love and a desire to create a world where such beautiful flowers as justice, peace and love, bloom in the fertile soil of co-operation, so we can live in a world free from the fear of deprivation. We wish to create a world where the gentle can live and grow.

THERE ARE MEN TOO GENTLE TO LIVE

AMONG WOLVES

Poem by James Kavanaugh

There are men too gentle to live among wolves

Who prey upon them with IBM eyes

And sell their hearts and guts for martinis at noon.

There are men too gentle for a savage world

Who dream instead of snow and children and Halloween

And wonder if the leaves will change their color soon.

There are men too gentle to live among wolves

Who anoint them for burial with greedy claws

And murder then for a merchant's profit and gain.

There are men too gentle for a corporate world

Who dream instead of candied apples and ferris wheels

And pause to hear the distant whistle of a train.

There are men too gentle to live among wolves.

Who devour them with eager appetite and search

For other men to prey upon and suck their childhood dry.

There are men too gentle for an accountant's world

Who dream instead of Easter eggs and fragrant grass

And search for beauty in the mystery of the sky.

There are men too gentle to live among wolves

Who toss them like a lost and wounded dove.

Such gentle men are lonely in a merchant's world.

Unless they have a gentle one to love.

ann arky's home.

YEA -- TH'GOOD OL' DAYS!!! MY ARSE.

         

            It is difficult to keep your cool when you hear some of the crap that pours from the mouths of our politicians. One such bout of verbal diarrhoea came recently from the Shadow Business Secretary, Chuka Umunna. Among this splurge of meaningless words was the statement, “What we need is a more responsible and better capitalism,” This man believes that somehow good capitalism has lost its way over the last 30 years or so. You know the kind of capitalism he is talking about, the sort that always pays its workers a good living wage, always gives them the best of working conditions and always adheres to the best possible health and safety regulations. Like the coal mine owners of the past for example. This so called politician, obviously is oblivious of working class struggle over the years of the good old capitalism days. Lock-outs, mass dismissals, wage cuts and atrocious working conditions, risking life and limb, all for the benefit of the good capitalist. For the benefit of this ignorant individual, there never has been an era of the good capitalism. Capitalism is a system of exploitation, a system of getting the many to work as hard as possible for a little as possible to enrich the few. Those, who like the Mr. Chuka Umunna, who somehow hold this totally irrational belief that, capitalism is a benevolent system that through a few greedy individuals has been tainted, should read their history. Not the history of this half-wit prince marrying this other equally half-witted princess by arrangement of their power hungry parents in the hope of safeguarding the lands they had stolen. Rather he should have a look at the miners strike and general strike of 1926, the 40 hour strike of 1919, and the brutal repression of both, or perhaps the dock strike of 1911 in which two Liverpool strikers were shot dead by the troops on the streets of Liverpool. This is the capitalism of old, the “good old days”, that Mr Chuka Umunna hungers after, the good capitalism of poverty wages, long hours and working conditions that caused early death. Each time one of these idiots opens their big mouth to vent an empty brain, it reinforces my belief in anarchism as the only hope for humanity.

ann arky's home.

GREECE, ITALY, SPAIN, IT IS ALL ONE FIGHT.

      

     As the austerity cuts bite deeper and they meet ever greater resistance, so the state will come down heavier on those who resist. As I keep spouting, this is everybody's fight. We need solidarity across trades, occupations and borders. What is happening in Greece is happening across the continent, it is all a matter of degree and timing. This from LabourStart.

       More than a dozen Greek trade unionists face prison on Tuesday.   If you're a trade unionist fighting to ensure that workers don't pay the price for the global financial crisis they didn't create, 2012 looks like it will be a challenging year.

      On Thursday 24 November 2011, the Greek police arrested Nikos Photopoulos, President of the power workers' union GENOP/DEI, along with more than a dozen of his fellow trade unionists. They will appear in court on Tuesday 10 January 2012 to face charges that could see them jailed for up to five years.

     They were protesting against part of the Greek austerity measures - the cutting off of power to people unable to pay a new property tax, levied regardless of income or wealth and added to all electricity bills. The new tax is just the most recent 'austerity' action by the Greek government. The abolition of the national minimum wage and the lowering of employer-paid taxes are next.

     Please take a moment to send a message to the Greek Prime Minister in support of the campaign Greek trade union confederation GSEE, which is calling for the charges to be dropped.

Just go HERE to send your message.

    And please don't forget to pass this message along to your contacts, and to use your Twitter, Google+ and Facebook accounts to help us get the word out.

Thanks.

ann arky's home.

WHAT ARE YOU FIGHTING FOR???

         The question that we should never stop asking everyone who puts on a uniform, and like the man says, if we win the fight at home there'll be no more wars.

 

ann arky's home.

FREEDOM'S VOICE WILL CREATE THE CRACKS IN ANY REPRESSION.

         Omar Ibrahim was given an eighteen months prison sentence for throwing a joke-shop smoke bomb at a protest, but although banged up, he is still trying to do what we all should be able to do, let our voice be heard. His blog, banged up for protesting, written from Wandsworth Prison is always worth a read.

 

        This article was submitted to national prison magazine Not Shut Up. The editor approved it for print but the Head of Education at HMP Wandsworth blocked its final publication.

      The winter is closing in but still the Arab Spring bursts through the concrete like some unstoppable rose, spreading seeds across the globe. Over there, across the Mediterranean, Syrian and Egyptian resistance reintensifies in the face of relentless oppression and tyranny. These are obvious police states that slaughter their citizenry with the contempt and brutality that only a state can wield. Russia has not had bloodshed from its police state but there are mass arrests and a sincere mistrust of the questionably elected Putin regime. I wonder how our system compares.

Continue Reading.

 ann arky's home.

WHO HAS THE POWER???

       
          In these times of a full frontal attack by the corporate world on the conditions of the working classs perhaps we would do well to remember some of the words of that old IWW warhorse Utah Phillips.

ann arky's home.

IN A POLITICALLY CORRECT WORLD.

and now for something completely different---.

Friends,

       I wanted to send some sort of holiday greeting to my friends and colleagues, but it is difficult in today's world to know exactly what to say without offending someone.

      So I met with my lawyer yesterday, and on advice, I wish to say the following:

    Please accept with no obligation, implied or implicit, my best wishes for an environmentally conscious, socially responsible, low stress, non addictive, gender neutral celebration of the winter solstice holiday practiced with the most enjoyable traditions of religious persuasion or secular practices of your choice with respect for the religious, secular persuasions and or traditions of others, or their choice not to practice religious or secular traditions at all.

     I also wish you a fiscally successful, personally fulfilling and medically uncomplicated recognition of the onset of the generally accepted calendar year 2012, but not without due respect for the calendar of choice of other cultures whose contributions to society have helped make our country great (not to imply that it is necessarily greater than any other country) and without regard to the race, creed, colour, age, physical ability, religious faith or sexual preference of the wishee.

    By accepting this greeting, you are accepting these terms:

     This greeting is subject to clarification or withdrawal. It is freely transferable with no alteration to the original greeting. It implies no promise by the wisher to actually implement any of the wishes for her, him or others and is void where prohibited by law, and is revocable at the sole discretion of the wisher. The wish is warranted to perform as expected within the usual application of good tidings for a period of one year or until the issuance of a new wish at the sole discretion of the wisher.

Best Regards (without prejudice)

Name withheld (Privacy Act).

ann arky's home.

LIVE SPARKS.

        The electricians are holding firm in their resolve not to be treated like serfs, with a "take it or leave it" attitude from the employers. If Balfour Beattie get away with cutting the electrician's wage by up to 35%, then you can rest assured that you will probably be next in line for the same treatment. That is taking it that you have a job at all. These guys are at the forefront of the attack on your living conditions. the bosses will not pick a fight with all the workers at the one time. First one group, then the next, once you have slashed the wages of the first couple of groups the rest is easier. This is your fight, whether you are in the public sector or the private sector or unemployed, you never know, you or your kids, might want to a spark in the future. Show solidarity with your class, that's what the millionaire class do to defeat you. 

From Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/home.php#!/groups/264935423529258/

Sparks Against de-skilling and 35% Pay Cuts

Public Event for Sparks Against de-skilling and 35% Pay Cuts
Friday 10:00 until 13:00 Baflour Beatty Office, Lumina Building,

40 Ainslie Road, Hillington Park, Glasgow G52 4RU
FRIDAY 6TH JANUARY - 10AM

SCOTTISH BASED BALFOUR BEATTY M&E WORKERS ARE RETURNING THEIR BESNA CONTRACTS UNSIGNED STRAIGHT TO THE OFFICE

       Pass this on and let's give them as much support as possible! ALL M&E workers in the area should attend to show their support and to pass on the message to BBES that we will not stand for this attack

          The same firms who are de-skilling our industry and cutting our wages are also blacklisting innocent people. If you have heard sparks complaining about the blacklist on demo's and didn't know what they were talking about - watch this youtube video and all will be revealed - if you've never seen it before, it is truly shocking. As it stands I am not blacklisted but I do personally know a couple of people who are. It is a shocking practise and needs to be eradicated.

ann arky's home.

DON'T BELIEVE THE LABEL - CHECK THE CONTENTS.

         While our millionaire class protect their wealth by hacking at the social fabric of our society, their puppets keep taking centre stage to tell us how difficult it is going to be. Of course they don't mean difficult for them, they mean difficult for us, the ordinary people. As far as they are concerned there will be no change in their lifestyle, no worries about holidays, mortgages, heating the house or the kids food. That sort of triviality is for us the peasants. We have Tom and Jerry, sorry, Merkel and Sarkozy telling us that 2012 will be worse than 2011, while their Italian fellow conspirator Giorgio Napolitano, saying that there will have to be sacrifices. This Italian puppet of the bond market, stated, “Sacrifices are necessary to ensure the future of our young people ---”. What he fails to mention is that the future of a generation of our young people has already been sacrificed because of the policies of his financial Mafia. The financial conditions in our society are not something that just happened and therefore we just have to get on with it. They are the result of deliberate policies of the powerful financial Mafia that controls the political apparatus of the developed world. The political class of this capitalist system are the puppets and implementers of that Mafia's policies. If there is anybody out there who still believes that we have democracy in the developed world they should take a look at what the various political parties offer, it is all a cruel illusion. They all offer the same package, they may vary in colour, pace and degree, but it is a package that favours the multimillionaires/billionaires of the financial world. All the parties advocate policies that will guarantee that the bond markets don't lose out. The well being of the population is secondary to the financial well being of that cabal of multimillionaires/billionaires. What we have is a system whereby a small privileged group of extremely wealthy individuals, by means of that wealth, control the political and business structures of the developed world. No matter how you dress it up and what trimmings you hang on it, such as periodic elections for the masses, it doesn't alter the structure nor its power base. The power and policies are the prerogative of that small cabal. The so called, elected governments, merely give those policies the stamp of legitimacy and implement them on behave of the financial cabal.

The label says “democracy” but the jar contains “fascism”.

ann arky's home.

WORKERS KNOW YOUR HISTORY - FLINT OCCUPATION.

       Working class history is a history of struggle, and along the way there have been some defeats, but there has also been lots of tremenndous victories.  75 years ago in America, workers took on the mighty auto industry and won. Just one of the many battles that should give us inspirtion as we continue the struggle today. It is not a new struggle, it is the same struggle, a struggle for a decent life and the right to shape our society.

        THE FLINT OCCUPATION.

       "On this day, December 30th, in 1936 -- 75 years ago today -- hundreds of workers at the General Motors (GM) factories in Flint, Michigan, took over the facilities and occupied them for 44 days. My uncle was one of them. The workers couldn't take the abuse from the corporation any longer. Their working conditions, the slave wages, no vacation, no health care, no overtime -- it was do as you're told or get tossed onto the curb.

       "So on the day before New Year's Eve, emboldened by the recent re-election of Franklin Roosevelt, they sat down on the job and refused to leave. They began their occupation in the dead of winter. GM cut off the heat and water to the buildings. The police tried to raid the factories several times, to no avail. Even the National Guard was called in. But the workers held their ground, and after 44 days, the corporation gave in and recognized the UAW as the representative of the workers. It was a monumental historical moment as no other major company had ever been brought to its knees by their employees. Workers were given a raise to a dollar an hour -- and successful strikes and occupations spread like wildfire across the country."

Read some of Glasgow's class struggle HERE.

 ann arky's home.

ANARCHY - ANARCHISM - WHAT'S YOUR IDEA?

        I suppose at the start of the year and claiming to be an "anarchist" and advocater of "anarchy" I should make it a wee bit clearer what I personally mean when I use these two words. I know there are a multitude of meanings out there and I don't state these as the difinitive word on either, just what I personally mean when I use them.

Anarchy - 

      Without (an-) ruler (archos). To my way of thinking this doesn't mean, a free-for-all. My interpretation is, I am responsible for ALL my actions and accept ALL the consequences of those actions. It is a freedom that comes with one basic human responsibility, you govern yourself, instead of abdicating to some external authoritarian coercive group or individual, be it dictator, president, monarch, religion or government, In essence, no Gods, no Masters.

Anarchism -

       A political theory advocating the elimination of governments, also the elimination of authority over any individual, be it religious, gender or race. Society based on mutual aid, free association and voluntary co-operation.

        I think, together, these two definitions are not a bad way to live. Certainly an excellent place to start.

       It would be nice to know what is your personal interpretation of these two words.

ann arky's home.

PROBLEMS WITH GDP.

        It always fascinated me when I learnt the the UK GDP climbed during to years of the housing boom, simply because the value of the house were rising, not that there were more house built. It seemd odd that the country had "X" number of houses and the country's GDP was "Y" some time later with the same amount of bricks and mortar, windows and doors the country's GDP had risen to "W", all because the value put on those bricks and mortar went up. So by producing nothing and sitting doing nothing you just got richer and purchased on the strength of this illusionary wealth. And our learned university economists thought this was great and would last for ever. Ah, the wonders of capitalism.

ann arky's home.