WOODY GUTHRIE, TODAY'S VOICE.

      Sorry, a day late. It was on 13 July a hundred years ago that Woody Guthrie was born, and though his songs, among other things, chronicle the 30's depression, he could have been writing about today. 

This from Care2:

 

At 100, Woody Guthrie More Relevant Than Ever

        Today marks the 100th anniversary of the birth of American icon Woody Guthrie. I grew up on Guthrie’s music, though at the time I had no idea that “This Land Is Your Land” was written as a protest song. Nor could I have any sense that the centennial of his birth would be marked by the same urgent need for reform and the same defiant protest that made Guthrie a legend.

Continue READING:

ann arky's home.

PHOTOGRAPHING CONFRONTATION.

Some excellent advice from Teacher Dude's Grill and BBQ.

        With clashes in Spain and especially in Madrid growing in intensity I thought I'd post a few pointers to those photographers who want to cover riots and other such turbulent events. Since 2005 I have recorded, dozens of violent confrontations here in Greece and I hope that these pointers will help keep you safe.

Continue READING: 

 ann arky's home.

RACIST CRAP.

       This comment is in no way intended for the vast majority of those who read this blog, but just for those few who vomit bile and crap whenever they open their mouths or sit in front of a computer screen.

Emotional Reasoning “... you can't reason someone out of a position they didn't reason themselves into.”

        I have always liked a good reasoned argument, however sometimes you receive a comment that is so irrational, the only thing to do is ignore it for the reason stated above. There are those who believe that because you write on a blog you must print every thing that is flung at you, sorry, not so. Sometimes I receive a lot of irrational racist crap and I don't feel in the least that I am compelled to repeat that kind of shit on the blog. I know that the poor miserable souls that send this sort of stuff get off on seeing it in print, and they probably think they are in some way upsetting me. Well, again, sorry, I just feel sorry for you, you are probably rather dim and live in a lonely distorted world, a world with very narrow horizons. I have a little piece of advice for you, if you really want to see your crap in print, then write it out and stick it on your computer screen, then you will be able to see it every time you look at the computer.

 ann arky's home.

SMART PUDDLE.

Some amusing accuracies from Douglas Adams.  Left Hemispheres:

ann arky's home.

NOT ONE STEP BACK.

         Like I keep saying, capitalist "crisis" is always fertile breeding ground for fascists and we have to be ever vigilant that their tainted seeds don't take root in communities.

This from Contra Info:

        The historicity of crisis indicates how it leads to an intensification of exploitation, to impoverishment and social fascistization. The exit from the crisis will not come from either the State, or the para-State, or criminal gangs. Our defense against crisis is the relations of mutual aid and mutual support, self-organization, social structures, comradeship and solidarity. Only then can we stand on our feet and preserve our dignity.

       The ‘troubling incidents’ (as mentioned derogatory by the local bourgeois Press), which began with the attempts of the Golden Dawn to set foot in Agrinio, are not a ‘vendetta’ between some extremes. They arise from the very history of Agrinio… The society of a town with a profound fighting background, with bloodshed memories of labour struggles, of mass executions and public hangings, cannot let the descendants of informers, collaborates and German-Tsoliades go about pretending to be rescuers in its streets, alleys and farm fields.

Our answer is political and derives straight from the movement!
Not one step back!

Neither in Agrinio, nor anywhere
Crush the fascists in towns and villages

Read the full article HERE:

 ann arky's home.

CHOICE.

 

CHOICE.

I have seen the wretched and the poor.

walked with them through gutter and sewer

as they drag their torn rags and begging cup,

hoping somewhere to rest, something to sup.

I have spoken to ears that hear no cheer

and looked into eyes that only know fear

listened with guilt to their lingering pain

their quest for dignity, comfort, all in vain.

Now ask yourself my friend, if they had a voice

would this dark world be their road of choice?

Would they willing seek a doorway for a bed

or choose the eiderdown with belly well fed?

Are they some alien race preordained to doom

who must live their torpid life in poverty's tomb?

Perhaps my friends, our selfish thoughtless way

Has brought them to where they are today.

 ann arky's home.

THE MAN SAID, FUCK THE JUDGE.

Ah, the dignity of the court, and by the power invested in me bla bla bla.

ann arky's home.

SPAIN, GREECE, -- ITALY NEXT??

        The last piece I posted stated that Spain is on the road to join Greece, well is Italy far behind with $2.6 trillion debt which is 118% of GDP? At the moment Italy's unemployment is running at 10.1% with unemployment among the young, at a shocking 36.2%. The unemployment figure is taken as those actively looking for work as a percentage of the working population. Adding to this the fact that the technocrat government has stated that it will shed 10% of public sector jobs. How many have given up trying to look for work when they know that there aren't any jobs and unemployment is rising. Like Spain and Greece, Italy is trying hard to appease the financial Mafia, It is cutting $67 billion from its budget and now there is to be a further €4.5 billion cut from public spending to try to avoid a further increase in VAT. There is an on going plan to cut public spending, in 2013 there is to be a further €10.5 billion, and in 2014 a further €11 billion. All that translates into cuts in services to the ordinary people, from schools, libraries,health care, etc.. To add to the people's woes, come September the VAT rises from 21% to 23%. How will this affect the ordinary people of Italy? Like Spain and Greece, they will see poverty and deprivation rise alarmingly, health problems associated with poverty will rocket. One of the ways the Italian unelected government is dealing with this, is closing 150 hospitals, while axing 80,000 hospital beds is under discussion. Another way that the technocratic unelected cabal in Italy are bowing to the financial Mafia is to sell of national assets, these will be sold to the friends of the financial Mafia at knock-down prices, they always are.

       So with unemployment set to shoot up fast, VAT and prices on the increase, wage cuts/freezes the accepted norm, public services slashed, what you are looking at is the decimation of the social structure of a country, for no other reason than to appease our lords and masters, the financial Mafia. This is capitalism in turbo charge. Who is next to be raped by the financial Mafia?

ann arky's home.

SPAIN JOINING GREECE.

         As the managers of the European Financial Mafia shuffle around their marble halls devising ever more brutal ways to try to protect and increase their bosses coffers, it is becoming increasingly obvious that Spain is fast closing in on Greece as the front line of that financial Mafia's assault on the European working /middle class.

        The Spanish banks are getting a handout of €30 billion, for this the financial Mafia are insisting on more draconian slashing of public spending and Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy is eager to placate his masters. Four months ago he announced cuts of €27 billion, stating that it was the most austere budget in Spain's history. Now to appease his lords and masters he is pushing through further cuts amounting to €65 billion. The European financial Mafia are insisting on a further 2.7% cut in this year's budget.

          At the moment Spain's unemployment is running at 24%, the highest in Europe, with unemployment among the young at a staggering 50%. Once the financial Mafia's new wave of “austerity” starts to kick in we can expect to see those rates go stratospheric. While unemployment is rising, some of the cuts that are going to hit savagely at the Spanish people will be a cut of 30% off unemployment benefit, plus a 3% rise in VAT to 21%. On top of that there will be a €3.5 billion cut in local government spending and a further €600 million cut in central government spending.

           There is no doubt that what is happening in Greece and Spain will soon be travelling to a city near you. If anybody is foolish enough to think that what the financial Mafia have done to Greece and what they are in the process of doing to Spain will solve the “crisis”, they are living in cloud cuckoo land. Looking at the recent estimate of the unemployment trend, from The International Labour Organisation, I think they are looking at the situation with rose tinted glasses They have stated that they expect Europe's unemployment to rise from 17.5 million to around 22 million, though staggering and brutal, I see this a a grossly under estimated figure. Meanwhile America is teetering on the precipice of financial disaster.

         As the latest manuevers of the financial Mafia unfold, it is blindingly obvious that capitalism as a system for the prosperity of all the people is an illusion. It lurches from crisis to crisis and its only answer is to screw the people, and save the parsites. 

 ann arky's home.

USA SWAT FASHION POLICE.

          Further to the Seattle armed SWAT night time raid with flash-bang grenades and door battering rams, see previous post. It now appears that the police after leaving without making any arrests did leave with some very dangerous stuff, or should that be “anarchist materials”. What was taken by the police was, a pair of black goggles, a black sweatshirt, a black bandanna, a black stocking hat, papers with note book, and a pink scarf. Perhaps they were fashion police, well they have them some countries, why not the USA? Though it does seem a bit heavy handed for wearing the wrong sweatshirt and scarf.

 ann arky's home.

THEY'RE LOOKING FOR ANARCHIST MATERIALS??

         As the people's anger gets organised, so does that state in its attempt to stifle that anger and destroy any organising by the people. It is happening in Italy, Greece, UK, Spain, US, Canada and in most countries across the globe. As the people's anger grows expect the state repression to grow.

Room after police visit.

This from Kasama:

         Early morning, July 10, SWAT police forced their way into the Seattle apartment of organizers from the Occupy movement. The sleeping residents scrambled to put on clothes as they were confronted with automatic weapons.

The neighbor Natalio Perez heard the attack from downstairs: “Suddenly we heard the bang of their grenade, and the crashing as police entered the apartment. The crashing and stomping continued for a long time as they tore the place apart.”

        After the raid, the residents pored over the papers handed them by a detective. One explained: “This warrant says that they were specifically looking for ‘anarchist materials’ — which lays out the political police state nature of this right there. In addition they were looking for specific pieces of clothing supposedly connected with a May First incident.

When the police finally left, they did not arrest anyone. This action targets well known activists from Occupy Seattle and the Red Spark Collective (part of the national Kasama network).
         This apartment has been a hub for organizing the Everything 4 Everyone festival in August – to bring together West Coast forces for a cultural and political event building on the year of Occupy.

       The raid is a heavy-handed threat delivered by armed police aimed at intimidating specific people – but also suppressing the work to continue the Occupy movement in Seattle, and create E4E as a space for radical gathering.

The E4E site will update this with more as we receive it, including hopefully statement from those involved. http://www.everythingforeveryone.org/

Contact: Liam Wright, Red Spark Collective, redsparkcollective@gmail.com

 ann arky's home.

LIVING UTOPIA.

        A rather long film but well worth sitting through. It is the same struggle to day, ours is not a new and short struggle or a blip in the capitalists system. It is still the same struggle of trying to have control over our own lives, trying to remove a vile system of repression and exploitation that has been with us for centuries. Trying to get rid of a system that stifles the creativity of the ordinary people, that siphons the wealth of our productivity up to a small group of parasites that control the system. We should never lose sight of the fact that we are part and comrades of those who have gone before, we owe it to them to continue that struggle with as much spirit and imagination as we can muster. The struggle ends with the arrival of freedom and justice for all.

ann arky's home.

IT'S A RIGGED SYSTEM.

        Police brutality and repression is present across the world. It is like a sea with waves that rise and fall, rising here, falling there and then changing again in an ever changing pattern. However the state is never afraid to raise the level of brutality, as it knows that it has set up a judicial system that will never point the finger at the state. Those perpetrating the brutality in the name of the state, also know that they will be protected by that same judicial system. But the full brutality of that judicial system will be felt by those who dare to question that state authority and its monopoly on violence. Brutal state repression does not always happen on the streets, it is also handed out by those placed in the privileged position within that judicial system. Those people who dress in fancy clothes and demand that those who question the state be incarcerated for years on end. The state its self is a brutal system that demands obedience and shows no mercy on those who dare to question and/or resist. In Genoa 2001 the Italian state showed how brutal it could be in suppressing dissent. At the G8 summit that year the state's mercenaries, the police, in the hours of darkness, raided the Diaz School, where activists who had come to protest the G8 summit agenda, were sleeping. The police ran through the school, beating and arresting sleeping activists. Now it seems that after all this time all the police charged with various offences related to that brutal assault, will now have those charges dropped, as we would expect. 

 

This from Italy Calling:

       After a 9-hour debate, the Italian Supreme Court has issued its final sentence against the 25 defendants – policemen and heads of security forces – responsible for the violence against the activists sleeping in the Diaz school during the G8 summit in Genoa in 2001. Result: most of the charges have been declared time-barred, leading to impunity for all the people involved. In the meantime, 10 activists are facing a total of 100 years of jail between themselves for crimes of “devastation and looting”.

Continue READING:

ann arky's home.

FIGHT TO WIN.

        Another brilliant piece of artistic, critical comment from Teacher Dude's Grill and BBQ.

ann arky's home.

WORKERS BUY-OUT.

An Appeal from SumOfUs:

When the workers at a window and door factory in Chicago were told their factory was closing and they would lose their jobs, they decided that instead of letting the company's global investors determine their fate, they would raise the money to buy the factory and save their jobs.

But they can’t do it, even though they’ve put in a competitive bid on the factory. Why? Because the owner, Serious Energy, and its global investors Mesirow Financial, are in a rush to sell the factory to people who will sell it off for scrap instead.

We can help the workers save their jobs. Serious and Mesirow know pressure is mounting, which is why they are rushing to sell the factory off. If we weigh in today, the workers believe Serious and Mesirow will have to give them a fair shot at buying the factory and saving their jobs.

Stand with the factory workers in calling for Serious and Mesirow to discuss a fair deal that saves the factory and the workers’ jobs.

At the end of the day, this is about much more than saving one factory. This is a chance to showcase an innovative model of American manufacturing -- worker-owned cooperatives -- and deal another blow to the financial sector that relies on the failure of these companies to line their pockets. By saving this factory, we are helping to build a more just economy for all of us.

Thanks for joining us in fighting for good jobs,
Claiborne, Kaytee and the rest of us 

 Background story:

In February, workers at an energy efficient-window and door factory in Chicago were told that their plant -- owned by Serious Energy -- was about to be shut down, sliced up and sold off for parts.

The workers staged a factory occupation and got an agreement from Serious to delay the factory’s liquidation and give workers the opportunity to buy the plant themselves, with their newly-formed cooperative, New Era Windows. With no overhead for executive salaries, and the potential for contracts with the city of Chicago, which is gearing up for a big energy-efficiency campaign, New Era Windows was looking at a bright future as a worker-run factory.

But then, after months of stalling by Serious, the company suddenly announced on Sunday that all factory bids were due immediately, and that it wouldn’t accept New Era’s offer of $1.2 million -- instead, it asked for more money than it bought the factory for in 2009, and rigged the process to ensure that New Era didn’t have a chance.

These workers want a solution. They have been scraping money together to afford the factory and save their jobs. And they’ve fought like hell before -- back in 2008 they occupied their factory for six days and stood down their previous owner who attempted to fire 250 workers without severance pay.

Part of the pressure to sell is coming from Serious Energy’s owners, including Chicago-based Mesirow Financial. For Mesirow, selling the factory off to vultures means padding its profit by a couple percentage points. For the workers at New Era, the factory’s sale represents their livelihoods.

Stand with the workers at New Era Windows: Tell Serious Energy and Mesirow Financial to work with New Era Windows to find a reasonable solution.

Further Reading:

Workers seek arbitration to save Goose Island window factory, The Chicago Tribune, 3 July 2012
Workers vs. Investors: Chicago Window Factory in Danger of Liquidation, The Nation, 5 July 2012

SumOfUs is a world-wide movement of people like you, working together to hold corporations accountable for their actions and forge a new, sustainable path for our global economy. You can follow us on Twitter, and like us on Facebook.

 ann arky's home.

DANCE JESUS DANCE.

If Jesus was around today would this be him?

Graphic from Atheist Meme Base:




Video from Left Hemispheres:

ann arky's home,

CROOKS AND LIARS AND SECRET MEETINGS.

          The millionaire crook and liar is dreaming of being the comeback kid, but needs to hold secret meetings, says a lot. A wee bit late but you never know.

This from Stop the War:

TONY BLAIR RUNNING SHY:
APPEAL FOR INFORMATION:

        As part of his political 'comeback' Tony Blair is due to speak at a Labour party fundraiser in Lambeth tonight. As ever though, Blair's public appearance takes place under the cover of secrecy - the same secrecy he used to mislead Parliament and take Britain to war on a lie.
        Clearly even Blair's supporters know the man inspires public outrage and have made the decision to keep this an exclusive affair, for dedicated Blair fans only. The flyer for the event shows the smiling faces of Blair and Tessa Jowell MP blossoming from a bright pink bloom of flowers - image here
http://on.fb.me/Mce71j

      At least one Stop the War member has been officially 'disinvited' from the event and several other known antiwar activists in the Labour party have found their invites mysteriously lost in the post. 

      Stop the War is therefore appealing to anyone who might have information on where the event is taking place. Please contact office@stopwar.org.uk or call 0207 561 9311. Please also pass this on to your contacts. (If you do know but wish to remain anonymous please be assured that we will treat any information in the strictest confidence).

*************

BLAIR DUE TO SPEAK WITH ED MILLIBAND:
THIS WEDNESDAY, 11TH JULY

The Lambeth event is only one in a series that Blair is speaking at this month.

     On Wednesday 11th July he will join a dinner with Ed Milliband to promote British sport in the run up to the Olympics. Stop the War is again appealing for information about where this is taking place. 

    Check our website www.stopwar.org.uk for announcements of protests to Stop the Bliar Comeback.

Related stories: see http://bit.ly/LiKZ8y for how Blair made £80 million in
the past 5 years.

ann arky's home.

RESISTANCE IS THE ANSWER.

        Although the real aim is to get rid of the corporate greed beast and its band of leeches and parasites, in all their entirety, we should still fight to hold onto what ever meagre rights we still have. This "crisis" thing they keep belching about is in their eyes, a wonderful excuse to hack more viciously at our working and living conditions. Worse conditions for you, is increase profit for them, hire and fire at a whim suits their dictatorial attitude and also is meant to engender an atmosphere of fear in the work place, helping to create a subservient workforce that will meekly accept what is thrown at them without resistance. Standing up and fighting back scares them as it might affect their profit margin, profit is the only thing that runs through their veins.

ann arky's home.

THIS LAND IS OUR LAND.

       The Douglas Valley in South Lanarkshire is a place of significant beauty, a place that all communities should be able to enjoy. However, the corporate greed beast sees it as a profit making entity, and have every intention of turning into a large black hole in the ground. They have plans to turn it into one large open air factory, to the corporate world, coal means profit and profit always takes precedent over people and communities. This destruction of the environment and the local communities, receives no publicity or condemnation from the mainstream media, as we should expect, as they are part and parcel of the corporate world and no friend of the people. A better name for the mainstream media is one I heard some time ago, "A Babbling Brook of Bullshit." It is up to the people to publicise the rape and plunder of our heritage and defend that which by right is ours.

 An appeal from Take Back The land,

         There’s just days to go until a week of action against opencast coal in the Douglas Valley – a place where the ruling class is crushing communities for their own financial gain, where ecological destruction is taking place on a massive scale for the profits of big energy companies and where absentee fat-cat land-lords make millions off land that shouldn’t be theirs

        *Join us 12-18 July in the Douglas Valley, South Lanarkshire, to build on 20 years of community struggle and four years of direct action against the UK’s biggest opencast mining company.*

         *Help us spread the word:

        *Please pass on our call-out to your friends.

You’ll find publicity here  

<http://takebacktheland.org.uk/?page_id=40>,

Website here  

<http://takebacktheland.org.uk/>

Social networking here

<http://www.facebook.com/events/393162964061503/>

More info here.

http://coalactionscotland.org.uk/?cat=10

ann arky's home.

WE ARE GODLESS.

 Taken from LeftHemispheres:

We Are Godless

        We reject supernaturalism. We reject theism. We reject religion.We reject the false and unnecessary premise of a supreme being that created the universe, Earth, and humanity. To think that we are the center of it all is simply hubris. We reject the logical possibility of an omnipotent, omnipresent, omniscient, and omnibenevolent deity. These characteristics are inherently incompatible and illogical in unison. We reject the idea that morality is divine law and only possible through a deity. This concept breeds antagonism, intolerance, and bigotry. Additionally, coerced morality is no morality at all. We reject that belief in the supernatural and deities, is the default belief system. Individuals are no more intrinsically Jewish, Christian, Muslim, Hindu, Shinto, etc. than they are a fan of a particular sports team. The majority of an individual’s religious beliefs are the direct result of what religion they were born into and purposely instilled with.  Familial and peer pressure, indoctrination and immoral threats of eternal punishment play an integral role in the inability of some to think otherwise and accept objective reality.  We reject faith as a means to form a comprehensive understanding of the universe. Faith is belief without proof of, or in spite of, evidence. Faith is ignorance. Blind faith is dangerous.

     We assert that while not everything can be known there are natural explanations for phenomena and a lack of answers is not a reason to assign a more improbable answer for which there is no evidence. We assert that humanity can be moral and just, independent of and with greater equality than outdated, ancient, superstitious morals and laws that are barbaric, hateful, harmful, and destructive. We assert that the modern morality that we all enjoy owes more to secular Enlightenment than Biblical or any other religious teachings. We assert that secular government, education, and scientific research are essential to peace, prosperity and progress. We assert that freedom of religion includes the freedom from religion. These secular ideals must be upheld to protect all people, religious and irreligious alike, from fundamentalism and extremism.

We are godless. We are good. We are everywhere.

-StevenBarry on behalf of Left Hemispheres

ann arky's home.

THE WORLD'S BIGGEST SCAM.

       A rather long winded, but detailed and honest, explanation of the Goldman Sachs financial fiddle that is still going on and and is responsible for the misery being inflicted on the developed world through the means of "austerity".

ann arky's home.