SHY POLITICIANS!!!

         I suppose the one good thing that has come out of the IMF (International Mankind Fuckers) impoverishment of the Greek people is the fact that the mainstream Greek politicians can't show their faces in public. At the approach of an election this makes it difficult for them. 

This from Teacher Dude's Grill and BBQ.

As an MP I served the people well and still they don't like me!

Or Far From the Madding Crowd as perhaps the elections should be named, considering the fact that few, if any of the members of the coalition government are able to campaign in public. Instead of the mass rallies that usually mark elections in Greece, both PASOK and New Democracy politicians have been careful to hold meetings behind closed doors with just the party faithful present.

With just two weeks to go the national election campaign has been so low key as to be considered to be virtually non-existent,. No election centres have been set up and campaign billboards and handouts are nowhere to be seen. This is partly a financial matter as the two main parties owe 240 million euros and only last week did they manage to pass legislation to reschedule their debts (a privilege they ruled out for lesser mortals, or voters as they are know locally).Instead of a country plastered in posters and drowning in flyers PASOK and New Democracy have reserved their efforts for TV talk shows and the internet. Both choices are problematic; TV has been shedding viewers for years, especially among the young and more educated and social media is not a comfortable environment for politicians unused to debating with voters except on their own terms. Indeed their ham fisted attempts to replicate traditional electoral methods online have been met with derision and biting humour by Greek language bloggers and Twitter users.

Continue READING:

 ann arky's home.

STOP THE WAR.

An appeal from Stop the War Coalition.

1) HOW YOU CAN HELP MAKE THE WORLD A SAFER PLACE
        The astonishing comments by two UK army majors serving in Afghanistan, that the war is lost and politicians are "trading soldiers' lives for votes", only reflects the views of most people in this country (SEE: http://bit.ly/Ifl4L1).
        The government is continuing to wage the war knowing that the overwhelming majority of people in Britain want the troops brought home now. In addition, the government is pressing for increased Western intervention in Syria -- almost certainly as a stepping stone to a military attack on Iran.
       David Cameron is clearly no different from Tony Blair in his slavish support for America's wars without end. These war policies are making the world ever more insecure and unstable. It is more necessary than ever for the anti-war movement to mobilise the widest possible active opposition to the warmongering of our political leaders.
       We have much work to do,

ann arky's home. 

BREIVIK, BUSH AND BLAIR!!!

         There has been a lot of coverage in the mainstream media on the cold blooded murders by the Norwegian Anders Behring Breivik, and all have put their particular spin on the events and the personality of the perpetrator. On report stated the “he was a man who was aware of what it was to be civilised, but chose not to be” this is probably true. He was a man with a set of beliefs and felt it right that he should kill for those beliefs. The killing of innocent individuals was acceptable to support his beliefs. How does that separate him from our leaders, Prime Ministers, and Presidents?

          The main difference is that he decided that it was acceptable for innocent people to die to further his cause, took his weapons and in person, carried out the act. In the case of Bush and Blair, they had their beliefs on Iraq and accepted that it was acceptable for innocent people to die to further those beliefs. However they didn't carry out the act, they took public funds and paid others to carry out the brutal killing of thousands innocent people.

        The other difference is in scale, Breivik carried his hand guns and killed 77 young people, Bush and Blair's paid killers rained down unimaginable and sustained terror on thousands of innocent civilians with some of the most destructive weapons in their armoury with the boastful “Shock-and-Awe” tactic. It can be said that Bush and Blair were individuals who were aware of what it was to be civilised, but chose not to be. We pay, and the media applaud and honour those who committed the greater crime with by far the most sustained and brutal killings over a much longer period, and and put the other on trail. To the innocent victims of Breivik and those of Bush and Blair, it was still a brutal death and to their relatives it was still a brutal unforgivable crime. It seems that in our distorted society, individual murder is condemned, state mass murder is acceptable.

ann arky's home.

YOU'VE GOT THE AUSTERITY, NOW THE REPRESSION.

           Greece has the austerity part of the formula and now it is getting the repression part. The financial Mafia having plundered the Greek people's public assets, it requires it's managers, the Greek state, to step up the repression in an attempt to terrorise the people and try to prevent more protests and rebellion. The powers that be are well aware that what they are doing to the people will result in anger and people taking to the streets, their next stage will be to terrorise those that do and demonise them through the mainstream media. Just as they had no qualms in dishing out poverty and deprivation on the people, they will have no qualms on dishing out violent repression. As far as they are concerned the people must be controlled as the financial Mafia do their utmost to strengthen and expand the corporate fascism that already exists.

This from FROM THE GREEK STREETS:

            Major police operation in Exarcheia, Athens sees two anarchist social centres evicted; the entire neighbourhood is currently under curfew and cut off by heavy police forces.

         At approximately 06.50 GMT+2 on Friday morning, heavy police forces conducted simultaneous raids at two newly occupied anarchist spaces in the neighbourhood of Exarcheia: the building at 60, Valtetsiou str and the building of the abandoned VOX cinema by Exarcheia square. The latter had been occupied for a few weeks and its opening event was planned for this Saturday.

         It is speculated that the raids took place following the order of I. Tentes, a prosecutor of the High Court in Athens, who launched his career after being appointed in the judiciary by the Junta regime in the early seventies. History, in case it should be noted, does seem to have a peculiar sense of irony.

         At the time of writing (12:33 GMT+2) the entire Exarcheia square is cordoned off by heavy police forces while the K-VOX social centre has been sealed off.

ann arky's home.

ANOTHER EGO WINS.

           Presedential elections in France, council elections in Scotland and bye-elections in the UK, they all have something in commom, they don't represent the people. They represent overblown egos or political parties that want to keep the existing system of corporate fascism. Under the present system elections have nothing to do with democracy and all to do with power and wealth.

Another excellent comment from The Commune:

      George Galloway’s victory in the Bradford West by-election has caused a stir, says duvinrouge.

        The people massively voted for a candidate to the left of Labour even with a Tory-FibDem coalition. This has got Labour nervous and inspired the Left. However, as much as Galloway appears to be on the side of ordinary people as opposed to the rich, he is another political ego on another stage of his trip. The whole parliamentary system is full of them, all dreaming about one day being Prime Minister. Today more and more people are fed up with the egos. Not just the political variety but the corporate whores as well. Increasingly people are realizing that they don’t need to put up with them. That society can be run without structures promoting power and control. That society is one of direct democracy. That is, communism. All over the world people have got a taste of direct democracy through the Occupy movement & their General Assemblies. Tahir Square has spawned workers’ councils. We can organize society to meet our needs rather than just being used to generate profit for an elite.

Out with the professional political egos ruling; in with delegates & assemblies!

ann arky's home.

WHEN WILL IT END??

         A little tune to stamp your feet to over the weekend as you make your way to your favourite protest. The question is, when will it end, it'll end when capitalism ends.

ann arky's home.

STOP THE EVICTIONS, GLASGOW.

Glasgow anti-evictions campaign:

Protest at UKBA, Sat. 21 April
RALLY & PROTEST
at Brand Street UKBA Reporting Centre
Saturday 21 April
11am

Stop the Evictions
End Destitution
Housing is a Human Right

       At a meeting on Tuesday night, attended by numerous organisations, it was agreed unanimously to continue the campaign against the eviction and enforced homelessness of refused refugees by calling the above rally and protest at the UKBA offices in Brand St, Govan.

YPeople housing protest

Supported by:
FBU Scotland
Glasgow City Unison
Glasgow Campaign to Welcome Refugees
National Coalition of Anti-Deportation Campaigns
Unity Centre
Defend Glasgow Services
Stop the War
Right to Work Campaign
Coalition of Resistance
Black Activists Rising Against the Cuts

     The statement below was agreed at the rally at the Red Road on Thursday 12 April.

       Up to 140 Glasgow asylum seekers are to be evicted by their landlord, Ypeople, in the next few weeks, and left without home, and without access to work or any benefits or state support whatsoever. These people have had their claim for asylum refused even though most are unable to return to their countries because they are too dangerous. They include Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan, Somalia, Zimbabwe and others.

      Ypeople, a charity funded to provide accommodation to vulnerable people, claims they have to do this before handing over the housing of asylum seekers to Serco, a giant multinational making money for its shareholders out of running prisons and detention centres. The hand over period runs to November yet Ypeople have decided to evict everyone right now. Community groups say they will not be able to cope.

       We call on Ypeople to act with humanity towards these extremely vulnerable people and on Glasgow City Council and the Scottish Government to step in and stop this disaster before it happens. What kind of city and what kind of Scotland are they governing that allows this kind of humanitarian outrage to occur?

          Finally we call on the British government to honour its international obligations in the spirit as well as the letter by granting protection and the right to work for all people seeking sanctuary.

         Come and support the demonstration on Saturday. Bring friends, family, workmates, trade union branches, churches and other organisations, banners, placards etc.

Please circulate this message round your networks.

ann arky's home.

EARTH DAY -- ANTI-CAPITALISM DAY!!

Sunday April 22^nd

the 42^nd celebration of Earth Day.

Wikipedia,

         Earth Day is a day early each year on which events are held worldwide to increase awareness and appreciation of the Earth's natural environment. Earth Day is now coordinated globally by the Earth Day Network,[1] and is celebrated in more than 175 countries every year.[2] In 2009, the United Nations designated April 22 International Mother Earth Day.[3] Earth Day is planned for April 22 in all years at least through 2015.[4]

         The name and concept of Earth Day was allegedly pioneered by John McConnell in 1969 at a UNESCO Conference in San Francisco. The first Proclamation of Earth Day was by San Francisco, the City of Saint Francis, patron saint of ecology. Earth Day was first observed in San Francisco and other cities on March 21, 1970, the first day of spring in the northern hemisphere. This day of nature's equipoise was later sanctioned in a Proclamation signed by Secretary General U Thant at the United Nations where it is observed each year. About the same time a separate Earth Day was founded by United States Senator Gaylord Nelson as an environmental teach-in first held on April 22, 1970. While this April 22 Earth Day was focused on the United States, an organization launched by Denis Hayes, who was the original national coordinator in 1970, took it international in 1990 and organized events in 141 nations.[5][6] Numerous communities celebrate Earth Week, an entire week of activities focused on environmental issues.

        Well we all know that if we want to do something to preserve the earth on which we all live and depend, then we have to think of getting rid of corporate capitalism. We can celebrate Earth Day by doing something simple, like forget the car and/or public transport when possible and walk or take the bike. Plant a tree, don't buy anything, decide where possible to grow your own veggies. There are a million small ways we can all do something to protect the environment, but the damage will still go on as long as we don't change the system under which must of the damage occurs, capitalism. It is the continual drive to control world markets by large multi-national corporations that is ripping the heart out of the planet. Everything must be done on a massive scale, whole swaths of land are turned into a colossal chemical driven agricultural factory, mountains are ripped apart and polluted for their minerals, the sea is vacuum cleaned of its fish. Everything has to be on a gigantic scale to feed the greed of the corporate world. Until we address that problem all the little efforts of turning the heating down one degree, taking less time in the shower, only boiling enough water for the amount of tea you require, etc. will be of no avail. The planet can support the human race and all its other diverse species, but it can't support the greed of corporate capitalism.

ann arky's home.

THE ROSE OF FIRE.

         As the "deficit reduction" and the "austerity cuts" bit ever deeper into the living standards of the ordinary people, what shape will the protests take? I always say, workers know your history, there are lessons to be learnt there.

This from Crimethinc.com

The History

“La rosa de foc ha tornat!” This was the expression of excitement on many people’s lips during the general strike throughout Spain on March 29, 2012. While the unions estimated an impressive 77% turnout, it was the fires blackening the skies over Barcelona that everyone talked about.

At the end of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th centuries, when more anarchist attentats and bombings were carried out in Barcelona than in any other two countries combined and dozens of churches and police stations were burned to the ground, the city was affectionately known as la rosa de foc, “the rose of fire.” The period of“revolutionary gymnastics” in the ’20s and ’30s foregrounded the city as a laboratory of subversion for anarchist struggles worldwide, a role that was taken further with the revolution of July 1936. The struggle of Catalan maquis—guerrillas—during the Franco years was the precursor to the guerrilla struggles that blossomed in Europe and Latin America in the ’60s and ’70s; in some cases, it was the vector along which experience and materials were directly passed on. But this history has largely been lost, thanks to the rupture imposed by fascism and democracy, and Barcelona lost its significance on the revolutionary stage.

With the backing of the democratic powers, forty years of dictatorship and repression effectively suppressed the anarchist movement in Catalunya and the rest of the Spanish state. A great deal of pro-anarchist sentiment remained, but this was dissipated when the rebounding social revolution was sidetracked by the transition to democracy in the 1970s. Hundreds of thousands of people were taking the street, hoping to pick up the torch that had been dropped in ’36, but the government played its cards well, the returning CNT played its cards poorly, and democracy carried the day. Since then, the city has been tamed, if not outright pacified, and the rose of fire forgotten.

Read the full article.

 ann arky's home.

FIRST THE AUSTERITY, THEN THE REPRESSION.

          Although the mainstream media fail to report the continuous and mass protests across Europe, doesn't mean that it is not happening. In cities across the continent people are on the streets showing their anger at the plunder of all public assets and the resultant poverty being heaped on ordinary families. The millionaire managers of the financial Mafia system, (the elected governments), are looking at ways of forcefully repressing any attempt by the people to change the system. There line of attack will be, first by trying to conceal the fact that ordinary people are taking to the streets and secondly by passing ever more draconian legislation, on the pretext that it is only hooligans and trouble makers trying to disrupt our “smooth running and fair society”. Also to try to put fear into the minds of those angry groups, hoping they'll all sit at home and watch the Olympics or some other money making con-trick. As things get worse, as they inevitably will, the powers that be will never be able to contain the anger of the people, they have more to lose than we have.

        This from Vast Minority:

         NEOLIBERALS are beginning to panic in the face of growing global resistance to their brutal and corrupt system. The illusion of democracy and 'government by consent' is evaporating in a heated spiral of popular defiance and increased repression. Opposition is thus becoming deeper and more radical, as the obvious impossibility of reform opens a new generation's eyes to the necessity of revolution.

          One example of this process is Spain, where the state has announced a package of draconian new laws to criminalise dissent. Jorge Fernandez Diaz, the interior minister, said "serious disturbances of public order and intent to organise violent demonstrations through means such as social networking" would carry the same penalty as involvement in a criminal organisation under the new reform. He also said that the measures would extend authorities' powers to deal with passive resistance as contempt of court.

         The measures would make it "an offence to breach authority using mass active or passive resistance against security forces and to include as a crime of assault any threatening or intimidating behaviour," he said in Congress. In addition attempts to disrupt public services such as transportation would also be made a crime. During the recent general strike picketers blockaded bus and train stations in an attempt to bring transportation to a halt. "New measures are needed to combat the spiral of violence practised by 'anti-system' groups using urban guerrilla warfare," the Interior Ministry clarified in a later statement. Catalonian interior minister Felip Puig has said he wants the new laws to "make people more frightened of the system" - a clear admission of the direction the neoliberal establishment is now heading.

Read the whole article:

 ann arky's home.

BIG BROTHER - HE NEVER GOES AWAY.

        You have to hand it to them, their Big Brother desires never go away. It is a relentless drive to control ever aspect of your life, to pry into ever avenue of your activities, what you are up to at work and play, what your most intimate actions and desire are, who are you talking to, why and where. They will try to scare the hell out of you with their everybody is a fraudster, terrorist paedophile or worse, and they are only tying to protect you. The truth is, more than 99.9% of us are just ordinary people trying to get on with our life, and we don't want nosey, twisted minded control freaks poking around in our personal information.

This from AVAAZ:

Dear friends,

Right now, corporations like Microsoft and Facebook are supporting a powerful new law that would allow the US to spy on almost everything we do online. But if enough of us speak out, we can demand that the corporations withdraw their support and stop the cyber-spying. Join the call:

       Right now, the US is poised to pass a new law that would permit US agents to spy on almost everything we do online. But we can stop them before the final vote.
        Companies that we trust with our personal information, like Microsoft and Facebook, are key supporters of this bill that lets corporations share all user activity and content with US government agents without needing a warrant in the name of cyber-security -- nullifying privacy guarantees for almost everyone around the world, no matter where we live and surf online.
        If enough of us speak out, we can stop companies that profit from our business from supporting cyber-spying. Sign the petition to these key net corporations now:

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

        The Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act (CISPA) would allow companies doing business in the US to collect exact records of all of our online activities and hand them over to the US government, without ever notifying us that we are being watched. No warrant, no legal cause and no due process required. To make matters worse, the bill provides the government and corporations with blanket immunity to protect them from being sued for violation of privacy and other illegal actions.
         The bill’s supporters claim that consumer information will be protected, but the reality is that huge loopholes would make everything we do online fair game -- and nowadays, from banking to shopping, our private information is all stored on the Internet.
        CISPA is being moved forward in Congress and will be voted upon in days. Let’s raise a massive outcry to stop corporations from giving the US a blank check to monitor our every move. Click below to take action:

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

         This year, we helped stop SOPA, PIPA and ACTA -- all dire threats to the Internet. Now, let’s block CISPA and end the US government attack on our Internet.

WIth hope and determination,

Dalia, Allison, Emma, Ricken, Rewan, Andrew, Wen-Hua, and the rest of the Avaaz team

More information:

CISPA: The internet finds a new enemy (Global Post)
http://www.globalpost.com/dispatches/globalpost-blogs/the-grid/cispa-the-internet-finds-new-enemy-sopa

CISPA protests begin amid key changes to legislation (Los Angeles Times)
http://www.latimes.com/news/politics/la-pn-cispa-protests-begin-amid-key-changes-to-legislation-20120416,0,5314596.story

Cybersecurity Bill FAQ: The Disturbing Privacy Dangers in CISPA and How To Stop It (Electronic Frontier Foundation)
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2012/04/cybersecurity-bill-faq-disturbing-privacy-dangers-cispa-and-how-you-stop-it

New CISPA Draft Narrows Cybersecurity Language as Protests Loom (Mashable)
http://news.yahoo.com/cispa-draft-narrows-cybersecurity-language-protests-loom-134202431.html

ann arky's home.

MORE THOUGHT FOR THE DAY.

Taken from "The Anarchist Library":  The Indefinite Strike.

           One never locates oneself simply within a movement, but always in relation to it, facing it, perhaps even in opposition to it. Opposing all of that which is incoherent or flimsy, the reflux of despair, where it flows back into emptiness. It's a question of attacking the material and affective conditions that bind us to this world. The return to normality must be rendered not only impossible, but undesirable. To establish a cartography of everything which holds us: flows, forces, affective states, logistics, and supplies. To acquire, across the conspiring weave of our friendships, the insurrectional know-how to rout this world. We've learned the opening letters of the alphabet of sedition: blockading the refineries, the oil depots, the ports. Allowing the streets to fill with garbage and transforming the latter into barricades. Smashing the shop-windows that reflect our absence. The question put to us might just as easily be: how to shut off, definitively, the nuclear reactors? How to turn the strike into desertion? How to care for, nourish, and love one another without leaving this world in peace?

Read the whole piece.

ann arky's home.

BBC SCOTLAND OCCUPATION.

Today Tue 17 April, ongoing -

Occupation of BBC Scotland

       Over 40 protesters have occupied the Headquarters of BBC Scotland in Glasgow, demanding mainstream media coverage for the 2,400 Palestinian prisoners who began hunger strikes today. These actions mark a development from the ongoing hunger strikes which have been taking place since December. Currently, the individuals who have been on hunger strike longest are Thae'r Halahi and Bilal Diab, both of whom are currently on their 50th day without food. This protest is organised to challenge the BBC's continued silence around this recent escalation of Palestinian resistance - it's refusal to report any of the actions that have lead to this decision by 2,400 Palestinians calls into question it's impartiality. The demonstrators entered the building before midday

ann arky's home.

14.5% ANNUAL PAY INCREASE, NICE ONE LLOYD.

        While the financial Mafia, lead by the likes of Goldman Sachs etc. continue with their slash and burn of the living standards of all the ordinary people across Europe, they have no qualms whatsoever in gorging themselves on the fruits of their plunder. It is not done surreptitiously, no it is done quite blatantly, their arrogance makes them feel they are entitled to such stratospheric payments.

It's hard being a banker, I have to make some tough decisions.

      Take Mr Lloyd Blankfein, head of Goldman Sachs, while you and I are suffering from a wage freeze or wage cut, this hard working gentleman received, for his 2011 annual pay, an increase of 14.5% taking his reward for a hard years work to the princely sum of $16.2million. This is approximately £10.3million a payment that makes up his salary, bonuses, long term share rewards and perks. You can rest assured that every penny/cent of that was gleaned from the “austerity cuts” and “deficit reduction” being imposed on the rest of us. Well, that's capitalism for you.

ann arky's home.

PEDAL ON PARLIAMENT

     As a keen cyclist I am obviously eager to stay alive on the roads and so welcome any attempt at trying to impliment a more sane and humane system on our roads. It seems crazy that enjoying cycling should come with a high risk of death at the hands of a vehicle driver.

EDINBURG <<<<<<<<<<< GLASGOW

PEDAL ON PARLIAMENT

is a mass ride on Holyrood, the Scottish Parliament in Edinburgh, which will be happening on the 28th of April. It is aimed to make Scotland a safer place for cyclists, and to demand better facilities for cyclists, and cycling to be taken seriously by the Scottish Government. It's a grassroots campaign, and is not allied with any political group or party. Our aim is to make cycling a real political priority and give a push to make Scotland a more Cycling-friendly nation. We want a really good showing from Glasgow and we know there are lots of keen cyclists in Glasgow as well as across the country. Feel free to adorn your bikes with buntings, banners and any electronic or circuit-bent wonderfulness!

You can get more information at
http://pedalonparliament.org/

PLEASE - download and print a poster and put it up at your University or workplace!
http://pedalonparliament.org/resources/
Any Cafes, bike shops, lunch places, universities, workplaces - please get posters up there!

Feeder rides from Glasgow on the 28th - at a nice easy pace:
https://www.facebook.com/events/346583735388533/

Facebook group:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/pedal.on.parliament/

ann arky's home.

WHAT CAPITALIST DEMOCRACY?

      Western mainstream media is always on about the nasty North Korean regime and how it's people are not as happy as those lucky South Korean people who live in a wonderful "capitalist democracy". If only the North Korean's could see how wonderful things are in the South they would want the same.!!

     This is a video of the happy South Korean people celebrating their democracy during a strike called by one of its trade unions. It seems that we have to search far and wide to find a "capitalist democracy" where the people are not on the streets in confrontation with the system. Europe in turmoil, America Occupy Movement, the Middle East, the Far East and Asia, they all know the system stinks, is immoral, unjust and is corruption personified.

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