AUSTERITY URBANISM.

    As an old wrinkly who has lived practically all his life in Glasgow I have seen many changes, and it is with hand on heart I can say that very few of the changes were made with the welfare of the ordinary people in mind. Our elected crooks and liars have always been business orientated, always looked to placate the big buck corporate world. Sometimes the ordinary people have benefited, but mostly they have seen their communities devastated or simple wiped out. It could have been so different, but then again, the people are not in control. 

 

 

 

This from Strickland distribution:

 

austerity urbanism: 

A walk through the fictional city 

Saturday 15th September 2012

 

Ah fancy a walk'n a talk.

 

      As part of a series of projects for Transmission Gallery, The Strickland Distribution is hosting a public walk on Saturday 15th September to investigate contemporary forms of cultural (de)generation. Led by writer & researcher Neil Gray, with contributions from housing & community groups; activists & artists, the walk will take a circular route beginning and ending at the Speirs Wharf canalside ‘cultural quarter’, via the post- industrial and brown-field landscapes of North-West Glasgow.The writer, Iain Sinclair once said of regeneration that “any puddle will do”, referring to the frequency of waterside regeneration in the UK – no matter how bitter the climate or inauspicious the view.

       The canalside Masterplan for the cultural quarter is a neoliberal mixture of soft policy options borrowing from Charles Landry’s ‘creative city’, Richard Florida’s ‘creative class’, Andres Duany’s ‘new urbanism’, and so-called ‘smart growth’ principles. The masterplan is specifically framed in the language of austerity, admitting the partial, fragmentary nature of the regeneration approach in a time of economic crisis.

      While apparently less bullish than other large-scale gentrification projects in Glasgow, ultimately ‘smart growth’ is about the extraction of value from land and property, and the increase of a socio-spatial tax base, making the ‘new urbanism’ a strategy for the few at the expense of the many despite its green pretensions and community participation rhetoric. The new urbanism is a separate, privileged spatial project with limited boundaries. This walk will cross those boundaries exploring the wider spatial relations of the area, revealing the planning blight and social contradictions that are a direct result of an underlying ideology of growth which the new urbanism not only leaves unchallenged but actively supports. 

 

 

 

     The walk will critically illuminate the ‘arts-led property strategy’; the rent-gap and blight; the continuing crisis in housing, and the commodification of social spaces. Rather than present gentrification as an inevitable process, the walk will explore the possibility that capitalism is increasingly unable to reproduce the most basic conditions of everyday life for a majority of the population, deferring a crisis of productivity to a crisis of urbanism. This walk in the fictional city will examine urban reality against the urban myths of city boosters.

     The walk is proposed as an investigative history from below: a critical exploration of gentrification in the context of austerity urbanism. City boosters and planners promote top-down solutions to urban crisis, yet radical social change can only ever come from broad-based pressure from below. This walk aims to provide the means for collaborative exchange, instigating & sustaining wider solidarity & activity between anti-gentrification researchers, activists, community groups & artists. We welcome all those with such an interest.

      Saturday 15th September, (1–5pm): Meet outside Cowcaddens subway entrance at 1pm. Please bring appropriate footwear and clothing. The ground will occasionally be rough.

Transmission Gallery 

28 King Street 

Glasgow G1 5QP 

Scotland

Tel.:+44 (0)141 552 7141 

info@transmissiongallery.org 

www.transmissiongallery.org

 

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THE BEAST LIVES ON.

       Officially the Iraq war is over, though the Americans are still in that country, so this video may seem dated, but we are still doing the same in Afghanistan, recently 200 Marines have been sent to Guatamala to fight in the "war against drugs" and we are looking at ways to bring down Iran. The beast lives and continues to devour innocent lives and will do so until the people say no and demolish this corporate/military fascist reign of blood for money.

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DIRTY GOLD.

      The Eldorado Gold Corporation is a large Canadian gold mining company with 7 operating mines, three under construction, three development projects, plus an extensive program of exploration. They operate in China, Brazil, Romania, Greece and Turkey and aim to produce 1.7 million ounces of gold annually by 2016.

       We all know that gold mining is probably one of the worst industries regards pollution. see "A simple band of gold", but it nets vast fortunes for the corporate world, how much of that wealth will find its way down to the people who live near the mining area or the general public at large? It is a safe bet to say, not much at all, if any. The company will savagely decimate the land and walk away with the loot, swelling the coffers of the billionaires in the corporate world.

This from the Greek Streets:

Monday, September 10, 2012

      1,500-2,000 demonstrators gathered in the village of Skouries in Chalkidiki on September 9 to protest again the commencing of the extraction of gold by the Canadian mining company Eldorado Gold. The demonstration soon clashed with police protecting the mining facilities and at least five demonstrators were injured, including a SYRIZA MP. It is reported that the police used tear-gas inside the forest (photo below) causing serious risk for a widespread fire (with demonstrators putting off the fire in many cases), and rubber bullets.

At least 15 people were detained and taken to the local police station (in Ierissos) where demonstrators immediately gathered in solidarity, demanding their release. As a result, the detainees were transferred to nearby police stations in Chalkidiki, while four demonstrators have been transferred to Thessaloniki.

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WHO WILL SEIZE THE OPPORTUNITY?

         As I have often said on this blog, crisis can be an opportunity to re-shape our world to a better place for all. However  we of the left are not the only ones that see this crisis as an opportunity. Capitalism itself, is a beast of renewal and can fashion itself from the rubble of its own creation. Also the far right will seize the moment and pray on the fears and anxieties of the people.

This from AdBusters:

  Venerated investment banks have vanished overnight, titans of industry have permanently shuttered their doors, and rich nations have lurched perilously close to default. The ideology of the free market, once seemingly unassailable, lies in tatters. While the death knell of capitalism may not yet be tolling, the crisis is undoubtedly of a different order of magnitude than anything seen in decades.

Read the full article HERE:

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CIRCLING VULTURES WAITING FOR HUNT TO DELIVER.

        We now have a new Health Secretary, Jeremy Hunt, remember how he squirmed out of a spot of bother not so long ago, it seems now, as usual with the members of the old boys club, all is forgiven. Obviously Andrew Lansley wasn't offering up the Health Service to the corporate world fast enough. The corporate vultures will be perched near by to see just how fast this new guy will get on with the carve up.

This from Lansbury's Lido:

How to make a homoeopathic solution

• Take the original solution and dilute 1 part solution with 9 parts distilled water
• Take this new solution and dilute 1 part solution with 9 parts distilled water
• Repeat until the desired potency is achieved

How to sell off the NHS

• Take a fully public funded national health service and hand over key services to private capital
• Take this 'low fat' NHS and hand over critical assets to private capital
• Take this NHS Lite and dilute with yet more private capital
• Repeat until the vultures are fed and there's no meat left on the carcass.

Read the full article HERE:

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SHITHEADS IN EVERY COUNTRY.

         It is the normal behaviour of fascist scum, during difficult economic times, to come crawling out the sewers where they normally live, to scapegoat different groups and create divisions in the ranks of the ordinary people. The state will always lean lightly on the fascist scum as they make it more difficult for the ordinary people to organise while this rat bag of vermin roam the streets beating and intimidating their target groups, preaching hate and violence to all those whom they deem to be different from from their mythical stereotypes. You can't reason with vermin, it has to be destroyed or it will destroy all that is decent in people's relationships. This video was Greece, but the shitheads are doing their best to spout their putrid ideology here in the UK as well as most countries in Europe. The anxieties and anger of the people, at the economic onslaught being forced on them, is where they try to sow their malignant seeds. Resistance to their muck should be the aim of all those who hope for justice, freedom and a decent society that sees to the needs of all our people.

 

This from OMADEON:

         The Greek Neo-Nazi Party “Golden Dawn” issued official announcements, that they wanted to “apply the law” to illegal immigrant street-sellers “without a license to sell”. This pretext, however, was proved a shameless lie: -The nazis also destroyed the merchandise of immigrants with official licenses. Some black people (see the videos below) showed their papers to the nazis, but their goods were smashed anyway, after being told that “blacks are unwanted in Greece, anyway”. So, these violent attacks were nothing but pure racism; very similar to Adolf Hitler’s S.A. attacks on Jewish shops, just because they were Jewish, long before the Nazis took power in 1933.

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NO COPS AND NO ROBBERS, JUST PEOPLE.

       When anarchy does come, nothing will be the same again, no cops and no robbers.

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IT IS A BRUTAL AND RUTHLESS SYSTEM.

        Some facts and figures that might surprise you, and then again it might not, if you happen to one of the unfortunate individuals that have been repossessed, made unemployed or are struggle to cope with your debt. Perhaps one of the most brutal facts is that 105 properties are repossessed every day. Another feature of our wonderful system of capitalism, is that in this country one person is declared insolvent every 63 seconds, and over the last year, on average, 1602 people have been declared redundant every day.

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ISRAELI APARTHEID.

       A state and religious enforced injustice that has gone on under the eyes of the world, is reinforced by America and ignored by the UN. How much longer can the Zionist state of Israel get away with this crime. A crime that a multitude of labels seem to fit, occupation, apartheid, genocide, all labels that have no place in the 21st. century. How much longer must the Palestinians suffer this barbarity at the hands of those blinded by religious fervour?

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CORPORATE FASCISM IS HERE.

         When you look at how this country and most other Western "democracies" have developed along a continuous shift to the right, with us now at the point where it is safe to say we live in a system of corporate fascism, it becomes obvious that it doesn't it matter which party gains power. From Social Democrats to Conservative, from Liberal to Christian Democrats, form Labour to Socialist, they all end up carrying out the same policies, they all end up following the dictate of that hit squad of the corporate fascists, the financial Mafia. Even the smoke and mirrors of the illusion of democracy has disappeared, your elected government will do the bidding of "the market". Its policies will be shaped by "the market" as if "the market" was some supernatural being beyond the reach of man. Let's get it clear, "the market" is a group of men and women, sitting in flashy offices, shuffling billions of dollars, pounds and yen, to fatten the bank accounts of an unbelievably rich bunch of parasites. They are just a group of very rich, very greedy arrogant people. Yet because of them the governments legislate to keep the people under total surveillance, governments move to the right, states become police states, totalitarian states, states under the hidden rule of the military, as in America. They do this to protect the power and the wealth of those people who run and control "the markets" We are mere chips in their big poker game.

This from Nihilo Zero:

      Finally, while I don't want to argue too much about definitions... the U.S. has more prisoners per capita (and in total numbers) than any other nation on Earth.  Wire-tapping and other broad surveillance measures have been codified by the state.  American citizens can now be arrested by the military, detained, and imprisoned indefinitely without the right to a trial.  All of this amounts to the very definition of a totalitarian police state.

Read the full article HERE:

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PROFIT FROM HUMAN MISERY.

      You have to admit that the corporate world never misses a trick. Think of something bizarre like punishing people for transgressing some legislated ruling and the corporate world will turn it into a profit making enterprise. Prisons are big business in America and here in the UK our corporate fascist masters are driving the idea of corporate prisons to help feed their army of parasitical shareholders, profit from human misery, ah, that's capitalism.

This from Nihilo Zero:

      In addition to the street-level violence, the police forces in the United States then help incarcerate more people at a rate seen no where else on earth. More people are imprisoned in the U.S. than in any other nation (both in total numbers AND per-capita). Millions of people get cycled through the U.S. prison-industrial complex every year. No nation on earth imprisons more people than the "land of the free."

     America, the USA, is THE police state, and the extreme subjugation of millions of individuals is big business -- entire towns now spring up around large prisons (complete with motels for visiting relatives and services and shops for the prison employees), and that's on top of the economics involved with the court systems and police equipment.

Read the full article HERE:

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TAKE WHAT THEY GIVE YOU, OR FIGHT BACK!!

       Spearheaded by the financial Mafia, and with the IMF, (International Mankind Fuckers) leading the charge, the march of corporate fascism continues unabated across Europe. The social fabric of the Greek people has been decimated and a whole country thrown into deprivation, but still the financial Mafia want more from the Greek people, demanding more unemployment, more drastic cuts to social services and the destruction of whatever working conditions the people still have, one such dictate to their partners, the Greek government, is to introduce a six day working week. Also sell off more of the Greek people's assets to their corporate friends.

       The Spanish people are now well down the road the Greek people have been dragged. The figures of how much Spain will need in a bailout has gone from €30 billion to €70 billion and now a figure of €300 billion is being mentioned. This is money that will be plundered from the Spanish public purse and handed to the financial Mafia. It will be raised by more unemployment, drastic cuts to the social services, the decimation of the health service and education, creating rampant poverty and deprivation for the Spanish people, as has already happened in Greece.

       As this corporate cancer spreads, the people are beginning to realise the obvious, that relying on "the government" to solve their problems, is like asking the fox to take care of the chicken shed.

I’M PROUD.

I’m proud of my people, proud to be one of them,

that great mass on society’s bottom rung.

Those who, with coal-dust under their nails

in their eyes, in their lungs

claw at the earth's entrails.

Their brothers,

cement in their hair

in their mouth, in their ears,

oil ingrained in their fingers,

on their face.

Sisters, glistening with sweat

midst the ceaseless noise of machines

that throw out shirts, shoes, toys, carpets

for other people.

Those with soil and sweat stuck to their skin

smelling of the earth, feeding the multitude,

grinding out their lives in a harsh pitiless system

weighted down

with a sack load of half-dead dreams,

sometimes brought to their knees

by a tidal wave of despair,

never defeated,

groping in the dark to find tomorrow,

keeping hope alive;

they amaze me.

Somehow, from somewhere

in this cold, cruel

unforgiving scheme of things

they find love for their children.

Not a teaspoonful, not a cupful,

but buckets full, to bathe them in,

to pour over them.

They seem to know

that one day this world will be ours

and to take care of it

we will need those who have been loved.

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TOMORROW'S WORLD.

      What a lousy summer, but we did have a few good laughs, now winter is on the horizon, it's time to think.

TOMORROW’S WORLD!!

See the fat cat’s grinning smile

as Corporate Capitalism runs amok,

Chasing profit as it goes

firing millions of ordinary folk.

Raping and polluting land after land,

starting bloody wars.

Toxic waste, sweat shop wages

and oil covered sea shores.

Where have all the flowers gone

beneath this ozone free sky?

To join the birds, to join the fox

on yonder plutonium field to die.

Mercury fish, strontium lamb

trees that never show a leaf,

radio active beaches, toxic streams

good lean BSE-antibiotic beef.

In a world of epidemic, plague and famine

it’s bottled water and chemical food.

Of course, it’s all tested on rats and mice

so you know its got to be good.

Beneath a sky that’s always black,

hurricane winds and endless drought,

its oxygen masks for the toxic air,

corporate profit’s what its all about.

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BURN WALL STREET???

      Some people in America think the have found the answer to their problems.

This from Burn Wall Street:

      The Burn Wall Street Project at Burning Man 2012. The names on the buildings are “Bank of Un-America”, “Merrill Lynched”, “Goldman Sucks” and “Chaos Manhattan”.

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RELIGIOUS PERSECUTION.

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MARIKANA MASSACRE.

      Although the Marikana massacre hit the headlines in our babbling brook of bullshit, the media, it was soon dropped for other affairs like cabinet re-shuffle and the disability benefit cutting ATOS sponsored paralympics. In South Africa, as far as the general working population is concerned, not much has changed since the days of apartheid. The full horror has still to unfold and what we should never forget, this is not a one of horror, this sort of thing has happened in every country in the world at some point, to a larger or lesser degree. This is how corporate capitalism protects its profits, fear, intimidation and brute force. 

An excellent article from Anarkismo:

      The sight of policemen brutally gunning down striking mineworkers at Marikana was truly galling. At the very least 300 rounds of live ammunition were fired at workers (and not only those seen on TV) by the police using automatic assault rifles in a military style operation [1]: the infamous consequences being 34 workers killed and perhaps as many as 87 injured [2], with some workers still unaccounted for [3]. Most of the workers were also reportedly shot in the back [4] and some executed [5]. To add insult to injury, and with what was clearly some relish, the police arrested 260 workers in the aftermath [6]. This often even involved policemen literally sticking the boot into injured workers. Allegations have also subsequently emerged that 190 of these arrested workers were tortured, some for up to 3 days, whilst being held in surrounding police stations [7]. One worker also claims that he was taken to a room on Lonmin’s property, who owns the mine at Marikana, and handcuffed to a chair and beaten with a rubber pipe by police in a bid to extract information about the ‘leaders’ of the wildcat strike [8]. Not to be outdone in callousness, Lonmin issued an ultimatum that unless the rest of the striking workers returned to work by 7am on the 21st of August disciplinary actions would be taken against them [9]. The strikers though have ignored Lonmin’s threats, and at the time of writing, most remained out on strike [10].

Read the full article HERE:

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FREEDOM OF SPEECH V RELIGIOUS CENSORSHIP.

       Not my favourite guy, but I do share his view on censorship and religion. As we enter a more authoritarian society and surveillance is everywhere, we have a greater need to speak out and a greater need to defend what little freedom of speech we still have. There are those around who would have all you say vetted, censored and the speaker punished, if the don't like what they hear. They seem to think that violence against words is acceptable, if they don't like those words.

      If you are not allowed to voice an opinion that differs from the accepted then nothing will ever change. That may suit the religious nut-cases, but not a civilised society.

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POVERTY WAGES - GOOD FOR BUSINESS.

      Here we are in the 21 century, living in one of the wealthiest countries in the world and we have charities handing out food parcels. According to the Citizens Advice Scotland, around 3,000 people have been given food parcels from The Trussell Trust since April this year. The Trussell Trust operates 6 food banks in Scotland but is scheduled to open more by the end of the year. Its busiest food bank is Dundee where they have handed out 1,188 food parcels between April and September this year. Approximately 50% of those seeking food parcels claim problems with their benefits. What is even more criminal is that almost 50% of food parcels go to those who are working. With food prices having risen by 30.5% over the last five years and massive increases in energy bills on top of wage freezes/cuts, it is no wonder that more and more working people are turning to charity to survive.

      Another feature of this capitalist system is the number of people in Scotland that live in what is called fuel poverty. Fuel poverty is when you have to spend 10% or more of your income on fuel, and here in Scotland we have 35% of the population living under those conditions. The figure is set to rise as another increase in fuel prices are set to hit the poorest hardest. Just another indictment against a system of greed.

     Because of the deliberate policies of our millionaire lords and masters, who frequent the Westminster Houses of Hypocrisy and Corruption, we are rapidly heading back to the Victorian era of poverty in the midst of opulence. Our Westminster millionaire cabal are happily and arrogantly creating a society that is based on a low wage economy, where the ever increasing poor can beg or rely on charitable institutions. A low wage economy relies on a pool of desperate people eager for any kind of work as long as it gives them an extra crust. As far as our millionaire cabal of parasites are concerned, cheap labour is good for their millionaire business buddies.

      We have to ask ourselves, is this what we want for our children and our grandchildren? Is there an alternative? The parasitical political class will tell you that it is the only game in town, and all this sacrifice will bring you pie in the sky in the future. Lost generation after lost generation, waiting for that piece of pie from the sky, while the bloated parasites get ever richer and richer. This is all that this system has to offer.

       We want a better world for our children and our grandchildren and we know there is an alternative to this greed driven unjust, unequal, exploitative system. We can create a system that is based on sustainability, that brings our communities together in co-operation and mutual aid, we can create a society that sees to the needs of all our people, we know that there are enough resources to meet these desires. All that is lacking is the will of the people, the desire to take control of our own lives and our communities. The longer we delay the deeper we sink into the capitalist pit of deprivation and the harder it will be to dig ourselves out.

 

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AND YOU CALL THIS LIVING?

     Is it the dead living, or the living dead, surely there must be more to living than this??
From Anarchy in Italy:

AND YOU CALL THIS LIVING?

   Rising at dawn. Quickly going off to work, using some fast means of locomotion; in other words, getting locked up in a more or less spacious place, usually lacking air. Seated in front of a computer, typing without rest in order to transcribe letters, half of which wouldn’t even get written if you had to do it by hand. Or operating some mechanical device, manufacturing objects that are always identical. Or never moving more than a few steps away from an engine whose motion needs to be ensured or whose functioning needs to be monitored. Or, finally, standing in front of a loom continuously repeating the same gestures, the same movements, mechanically, automatically. And this for hours and hours without changing, without taking any recreation, without a change of atmosphere. Every day!

AND YOU CALL THIS LIVING?

      Producing! Still producing! Always producing! Like yesterday, like the day before yesterday. Like tomorrow, if disease or death doesn’t strike you own. Producing what? Things that appear useless, but whose superfluity you aren’t allowed to discuss. Complex objects of which you only have one part, perhaps the lowest part, in your hand. So complex that you have no idea of all the phases necessary for its manufacture. Producing? Without knowing the destination of your product. Without being able to refuse to produce for someone you don’t like, without being able to show the least individual initiative. Producing: quickly, rapidly. Being a production tool that is spurred, prodded, overloaded, worn down to the point of total exhaustion, to the point where you can’t take anymore.

AND YOU CALL THIS LIVING?

       Starting the hunt for customers in the morning. Pursuing, ensnaring the “good customer”. Jumping from the subway into a car, from the car onto a bus, from the bus onto the tram. Making fifty visits a day. Taking a great deal of trouble to overestimate your merchandise and shouting yourself hoarse belittling that of others. Heading back home late in the evening, overexcited, fed up, restless, making everyone around you unhappy, lacking any inner life, any impulse toward a better ethical existence.

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JUST ANOTHER IMPERIALIST WAR.

    The recent conference Non-Aligned-Movement, held in Tehran may be seen as a counter movement to that other grouping of national states, the UN. However what it can't be seen as, is a move for democracy.  What we all know is that the UN is the implementer of the world's most powerful nation's corporate and imperialist wishes, and it will use what ever brutal force it needs to achieve those ends. The slaughter of thousands, the displacement of millions and the total destruction of a country's infra-structure, as in Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya, etc. damage that will last at least a generation, is hardly putting the ordinary people first. The UN, like the corporate system that it supports, is mired in corruption, driven by greed and has no other purpose than to defend the hegemony of the world's most powerful corporate bodies, and the expansion of Western imperialism.

      The Non-Aligned-Movement, is no different in its form, its aims are to create an alternative power structure to the UN but not to bring freedom and democracy to the people of those countries, but to protect and increase the power of those institutions that control those countries. It is just another imperialist body gearing up to challenge for total control.

     Just as in the past the British Empire, the German Empire, the Spanish Empire and the French Empire, all squabbled and slaughtered to keep and gain the spoils of empire, so now we have moved on to the world more or less being dominated by one empire, the Western corporate imperialists. The Non-Aligned-Movement is at present, a junior player in another imperialist war. We can expect that war to become more brutal as the dominant sees the other as a threat.

      Is this the best that man can come up with, the slaughter of millions of ordinary people to protect the wealth of the few? That beast that some call the pinnacle of evolution has slaughtered more of its own kind than any other beast on earth. Surely we as thinking beings can come up with an alternative to follow -my-leader and start to destroy that which is destroying us, this corporate system of greed, driven by the few.

      Our imagination, compassion and experience can surely create a system of fairness that sees to the needs of all our people. We can create a better world built on co-operation, mutual aid and sustainability, but the old one has to come crumbling down and end up in the dustbin of history.

 

OUR FUTURE.

Once upon a time,

in our not so distant past

stood a beautiful, a unique world,

laden with promise,

a world where our future was open,

our potential vast.

Now, seduced by glinting tinsel of the mad

our reason quivers

on the edge of a dark abyss.

We have created a world

where wastelands abound

where we

the many, the marginalised, the ordinary,

struggle to survive in voracity that astounds

are seduced

to create wastelands in our minds,

slowly accepting chaos

in a world of insanity.

Here corporate monsters

of hypocrisy, contradictions,

sever the fragile cord

that unites being with being,

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ATOS KILLS.

       Is it a civilised country when disabled people have to take to the streets  and demonstrate in an attempt to hold on to what meagre assistance they get to help make their lives liveable? To see an army of disabled people being manhandled by the police for simply objecting to having their lives made intolerable, shames any society. This is 21 century Britain, one of the wealthiest countries in the world, and the powers that be are stripping away the quality of live from the most vulnerable. What is more, it is for no other reason than to follow the dictate of the financial Mafia's enforced ideology department.

      Scenes like this video tell you that this present economic system is not fit for purpose.

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GOD AT A FAIR PRICE.

At last, for just $35 all your problems solved, Hallelujah.

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