SAME OLD SAME OLD.

     I find it amazing that as our lords and masters inflict more and more "austerity" on us a vast majority of the general public think this is something new. Somehow there are those out there under the impression that somehow the system has hit a glitch and our millionaire friends in the cabinet have had to take very unusual action. They seem to see what is happening as something temporary and want things to get back to "normal". Well history tells us, this is "normal" nothing has changed, it is all a matter of degree, wealth has always flowed upwards to the leeches and parasites that sit on our backs. It is just that at the present time it has accelerated considerably. If we look at history, even this acceleration is not new. 

      After the first world war we the ordinary people were, as usual, in shitsville, with high unemployment, poverty and deprivation, industrial relations were in turmoil. In 1922, our then lords and masters, in order to resolve the problem,  decided to commission a report, which when produced was known as the Geddes report. Its recommendations were in line with the usual answers from the Leeches Legion. It recommended heavy cuts in education, public health and workers' benefits, sound familiar? We all know that four years later, 1926, Britain workers were involved in the general strike. Must we wait another four years?

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HISTORY FROM BELOW.

All Knees and Elbows of Susceptibility and Refusal: 

Reading History From Below

Saturday 24th November 2012 | Transmission Gallery | 4.00pm onwards

      The book All Knees and Elbows of Susceptibility and Refusal: Reading History From Below began as a discussion between two friends, Anthony Iles and Tom Roberts, about the politics of writing history. Neither are trained historians. They have assembled a critical and necessarily partial picture of the practice of ‘history from below’: historiographical tendencies which sought to uncover the agency of ‘ordinary people’ in challenging capitalism and developing different forms of social organisation. All Knees and Elbows surveys the work of a number of British and international left historians and groups, including Silvia Federici, History Workshop, Eric Hobsbawm, C.L.R James, Peter Linebaugh, Sheila Rowbotham, Jacques Rancière and E.P. Thompson.

   “The completed study is not intended to be comprehensive. We’ve veered towards the subjects, areas and materials which interest us. These include questions of sources and their uses, working class education and self-education, welfare and the wage, language, historical authenticity and literary inventiveness, and contemporary political instrumentalisations of radical history. The book attests to the importance of reading history critically against the present.”

Authors: Anthony Iles & Tom Roberts
Illustrations: Artwork by Rachel Baker
Publishers: Transmission Gallery, The Strickland Distribution, Mute Books
Format: Paperback, H 182mm x W 118mm
ISBN: 978-0-9565201-3-5 (paperback) / 978-0- 9565201-4-2 (ebook)
Book price: £8.99

Film Screening & Introduction - 4.00pm

     The Luddites (53 mins) is a film directed by Richard Broad for Thames TV in 1988 as if it were a contemporary documentary. The Luddites were a social movement of textile artisans from around Northern England and the Midlands, who banded together in 1812 in secret societies and destroyed the machines which were putting them out of work.

Discussion - 5.30pm-6.30pm

     A discussion of The Luddites led by authors Anthony Iles and Tom Roberts informed by some of the All Knees and Elbows themes, including: The definition and redefinition of the working class in History from Below • Critical re-examination of ruptures in the social relation • Techniques developed within struggles to control and convey their own history • Struggles over the marketisation of research • Critical struggles over authenticity • The market for working class memoirs and hardship porn • Determinism and/ or the potential for action.

Book launch - 7.00pm

      Authors Anthony Iles and Tom Roberts will give a short introduction to their new book All Knees and Elbows of Susceptibility and Refusal: Reading History From Below critically appraising tendencies and debates in history from below. A sample chapter is available here: http://strickdistro.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/Members_Unlimited_blog-sample-version.pdf  

The book will be available for purchase at the launch.

For further info see:

http://strickdistro.org/2012/10/31/all-knees-and-elbows-of-susceptibility-and-refusal-reading-history-from-below/

.................

All Knees and Elbows of Susceptibility and Refusal: Reading History From  Below is organised by The Strickland Distribution as part of its knowledge is never neutral programme with Transmission Gallery.

    The Strickland Distribution, September 2012 – June 2013 with/at Transmission Gallery

knowledge is never neutral is a series of projects organised by The Strickland Distribution taking place from September 2012 to June 2013 within and outside the gallery space. Taken together, these projects set out to explore the circumstances that surround cultural and knowledge production. We look to situate this production within a wider set of social and historical relations, and to reflect on our practices across these relations. We invite you to join us in these processes.

     Creating spaces for participatory dialogue – for listening and being listened to – the projects include a public walk, co-research inquiry, facilitated workshops, film screenings, reading and discussion groups, publication launches and the ongoing documentation and reconsideration of outcomes deriving from these projects.

     The Strickland Distribution is an artist-run group supporting the development of independent research in art-related and non-institutional practices. Art-related includes research forms that directly implement artistic practice as a means of research method. Non-institutional includes forms of grass-roots histories, social inquiries and projects developed outside of academic frameworks and by groups and individuals normally excluded from such environments. The Strickland Distribution operates in the public sphere, seeking to stimulate and contribute to public education, discourse and debate around the topics and themes addressed through its projects.

Transmission Gallery 28 King Street Glasgow G1 5QP Scotland

Tel.:+44 (0)141 552 7141 info@transmissiongallery.org www.transmissiongallery.org

The Strickland Distribution contact@strickdistro.org http://strickdistro.org

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FEAR.

Taken from Frank Herbert's Dune:

“I must not fear.
Fear is the mind killer.
Fear is the little death that brings total obliteration.
I will face my fear.
I will permit it to pass over me and through me.
And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path.
Where the fear has gone there will be nothing.
Only I will remain.”

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CIRCLED "A" RADIO.

For those interested in Circled A radio show, here is a link.

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VIOLENCE ON A MASSIVE SCALE.

       November 14 Pan-European day of action brought people onto the streets across the continent. Some cities saw massive demonstrations against the enforced poverty being heaped on them by the financial Mafia. Of course in some cases the police brutality, as usual, came to the fore. What is never stated as violence by that babbling brook of bullshit, the mainstream media, is this real and far worse violence being handed out by the supposed people's representatives, the government, the violence of the forced killing of opportunity, killing of a future, the brutal destruction of the very fabric of society. The increase in homelessness, poverty and the accompanying of health problems that flow from these conditions. This is violence on a massive scale against generations of ordinary people. Yesterday was what I hope, a start to that real Pan-European co-operation and solidarity, the final step to the destruction of the most brutal and exploitive system on the planet today. It is not a law of nature, it is just a man made system, we can bring it to an end and create a new man made system of co-operation, mutual aid and sustainability, a system that sees to the needs of all our people.

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ALWAYS FILTH.

      One of the factors in this onslaught on the people of Europe is the fact that in this country and others, no more so in Greece, there has been signs of rapid growth in at least one sector of the economy, pawnshops. As people become more and more desperate in their struggle to survive they start to dispose of all their precious possessions. Everything from jewelry to sentimental family heirlooms. In their desperation they will accept a pittance for them from the leeches that run these establishments, who will in turn go on to live a life of luxury on the backs of the poor. Normal practice for this system. 

From The Greek Streets:

      The poster below comes from the “Network of tangible solidarity and resistance” of the city of Chalkida, as a response to the pawnshops (gold-haggling shops) that have mushroomed all across the country recently.

 It reads:

I Buy gold. 
Jewelry, teeth, wedding rings,
badges, baptism crosses, relics,
memories, belongings and dignity.
IN DEROGATORILY LOW PRICES.
Because I know you are desperate.
I know you can’t afford your housing tax,
your kid’s tuition, your medicine, your food.
I know that you are in despair and that you don’t know
how to resist, that you’re scared.
I know, therefore, that you’ll take whatever I give you
and that you’ll even thank me on top.
Yesterday a black-marketeer, 
Today a pawnbroker,
Always filth. 
– Chalkida Network of tangible solidarity and resistance 

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INFORMED OR MANIPULATED.

     The debate rages, but are we all properly informed or are we emotionally taking sides like in a faith thing, is climate change a religion where you follow one church or the other. Are we informed or manipulated, where does the truth lie? An interesting article from The Libertarian Alliance:

Dear Roger Harrabin,

   Re-reading your memo below reminds me that there is now a considerable debate as to whether the BBC have been even handed, or not, regarding the all important issue of Climate Change, or more accurately the extent that CO2 emissions have on any such change.

    In the interests of the impartiality that the BBC desperately wish to show, so as to be conforming with the Royal Charter that guarantees your independence, would you please give publicity to the following:-

    I have no commercial or vested interest whatever in these issues but, as a scientist trained by ICI in the 1950s I merely seek for a true presentation.

    We are being told to sacrifice our standard of living to reduce the quantity of CO2 in our atmosphere. How big a factor is CO2 in our atmosphere?

     It surprises everyone I ask when they learn that this beneficial trace gas is 0.037% of our atmosphere. The line would be so thin on a pie chart as to be near invisible. Not only is CO2 a benign gas it is essential for all pant life and we need 7% of it in our lungs to live. Furthermore it is at an historically low level. So how can this minuscule quantity of trace gas affect our climate? As common sense and real science tells us it cannot and does not!

Read the full article HERE:

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CARBON CAPTURE, WHO PAYS?

      We all know that the corporate world will make a killing wherever possible and they will dress it up as if they were some sort of compassionate caring body looking out for the well being of the planet. Carbon capture is one of those brilliant ideas where the developed world goes about its business of destroying the environment, while pointing to how it is all be sorted by raping and plundering of the undeveloped world.
This from WideOpenExposure:

     Hundreds of hydroelectric dams in Panama. Incinerators burning garbage in India. Biogas extracted from palm oil in Honduras. Eucalyptus forests harvested for charcoal in Brazil. What do these projects have in common? They are all receiving carbon credits for offsetting pollution created somewhere else. But what impact are these offsets having? Are they actually reducing emissions? And what about the people and the communities where these projects have been set up?
    THE CARBON RUSH takes us around the world to meet the people most impacted. They are the least heard in the cacophony surrounding in this emerging "green-gold" multi-billion dollar carbon industry.
     From indigenous rain forest dwellers having their way of life completely threatened, to dozens of Campesinos assassinated, to the livelihood of waste pickers at landfills taken away, THE CARBON RUSH travels across four continents and brings us up close to projects working through the United Nations, Kyoto Protocol designed Clean Development Mechanism. This groundbreaking documentary feature asks the fundamental questions "What happens when we manipulate markets to solve the climate crisis? Who stands to gain and who stands to suffer?"

ann arky's home.

NOBODY IS ILLEGAL, WE'RE ALL PEOPLE.

Not new, but I still like it.

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JUST DOING MY DUTY.

     Don't you just love cops!! If they are not beating the shit out of somebody, harassing peaceful protesters, or blasting a tasar at a blind man with a white stick, they are intimidating and provoking at peaceful demonstrations. This recent case in Florida shows the extent of their empathy with the ordinary people.

This from The Miami Herald:

SARASOTA, Fla. -- A homeless man spent the night in a Southwest Florida jail after a police officer accused him of stealing by charging his cellphone at a public park.
   An arrest report says that a Sarasota police sergeant spotted 28-year-old Darren Kersey charging his phone Sunday evening in a public picnic shelter at Gillespie Park. The sergeant told Kersey that the "theft of city utilities will not be tolerated during this bad economy" and then arrested him on a misdemeanor charge of theft of utilities.
    Unable to pay the $500 bond, Kersey spent the night in jail. But the Sarasota Herald-Tribune ( http://bit.ly/W4frm0) reports that Kersey was released Monday morning after a judge threw the case out, saying the sergeant lacked the legal justification to make the arrest.

ann arky's home.

Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/11/12/3094232/homeless-man-jailed-after-charging.html#storylink=cpy

NOVEMBER 14 PAN-EUROPEAN DAY OF ACTION.

There will be demonstrations in all major cities in the UK and across Europe on Wednesday 14. Glasgow will have two demonstrations in the city centre on that day as part of the pan-European day of action. It is encouraging to see that the people of Europe are beginning to mobilise on continental basis rather than a city or country wide manner as in the past. It will take a united European working class to change this money and market drive system to one of justice and equality. We have had enough of being told the markets this and the markets that, and the markets are unhappy or the markets are happy, who the fuck are the markets? They are no more than a bunch of extremely rich and very greedy individuals who want more of the public purse. The first event will be:  Glasgow George Square, 12:30 to 1:30.      On Wednesday 14th November trade unionists in Greece, Cyprus, Italy, Malta, Portugal and Spain are joining a southern European General Strike against Austerity. Workers in other countries are organising protests too. It is important that we here in Britain show solidarity as we face the same attacks Glasgow City UNISON, UNITE Scottish Housing Association, UNITE Scottish Rank and File M & E Construction Workers and UNITE 7/600 branches are calling upon all trade unionists and campaigners to join lunchtime leafleting and petitioning in George Square, opposite the City Chambers, to show support for the European strikes and to demonstrate our own opposition to welfare and public spending cuts here. So come along, bring your sandwiches and say no to Austerity!       Supported by BARAC, Black Triangle, Coalition of Resistance, Defend Glasgow Services, Glasgow Campaign to Welcome Refugees, Right to Work Campaign, Save the Accord, Stop the War (Glasgow), Youth Fight for Jobs. Bring your banners. Trade union and campaign speakers. 12.30 to 1.30pm       For more info/ to add your organisation's name to the list of supporters/ sponsors contact Glasgow City UNISON, 84 Bell Street, Candleriggs, Glasgow, G1 1LQ Tel: 0141 5527069 or enquiries@glasgowcityunison.co.uk The second event will be: *CHANGE OF EVENT DETAILS* EMERGENCY ACTION:  George Square under threat of privatisation! On November 14th there will be general strikes in Spain, Portugal, Greece, Italy, Cyprus and Malta. The ETUC [European Trade Union Confederation] is calling for solidarity action throughout Europe. At the same time, a panel will be selecting the winner of a design competition for the effective privatisation of George Square on Monday, with a rapid schedule of ‘redevelopment’ in place thereafter. The council itself has admitted that such development will potentially shut off the square to the public for two years.     Across Europe people are taking action in squares against austerity - we need to keep George Square as a place for protest. George Square has been a historic sight of protest going back to 'Red Clydeside' in 1919 George Square 1919.         We have changed the rally to a march from Donald Dewar Statue to George Square. The Glasgow Defence Campaign has been holding meetings about the 'redevelopment' of George Square. For more information check out their website at: http://glasgowdefencecampaign.blogspot.co.uk/      This includes the council's sham 'consultation' document which clearly outlines their aim to prevent public assembly in the square.

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WHERE HAVE ALL THE FLOWERS GONE?

Graphic from Void Network:

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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TERRORISTS IN THE COMMUNITY.

     It is pleasing to see the finger pointed at the real terrorists, we all know them but they tend to be invisible as they are dressed in the livery of the establishment's flags of respectability.
From Contra Info:

      Terrorism is the lack of basic means of survival, having your wage or pension taken away, your house confiscated by the bank, living among the pollution that kills. Terrorism is living daily with fear of survival. To most of society, the terrorists and criminals are those who govern: the regime’s politicians, the rich, and the privileged castes, which exploit the workers and prosper by simply participating in the economic and political establishment. The enemies of society are those who—after years of stealing, getting rich, and taking advantage of a barbaric and grossly unjust system—are asking us to donate our blood in order to save the life of the regime’s putrid corpse now that the system is going through the biggest crisis in its history.
—Political letter to society
Pola Roupa, Nikos Maziotis, Kostas Gournas
Greece, April 2010

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THE GREED AND MADNESS OF THE CORPORATE BEAST.

      I previously posted about the Canadian tar sands project and referred to it as the biggest shit pan on earth, I personally believe that description doesn't go far enough. This project is corporate greed and destructive madness going completely unrestrained.

The video was taken from an excellent article on the Polizeros site.

Read the Polizeros article HERE:

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A DAY TO REMEMBER.

      November 11 a day for remembering those who gave so much, a day to recall November 11 1887 the day the American state murdered five comrades now known world wide as the Haymarket Martyrs. Let's keep their names alive and the ideas that brought the state to kill them.

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MUTINY, POLICE STRIKES AND REVOLUTION!!

     As the financial Mafia continue their plunder of the public purse in countries across Europe, and austerity bites ever deeper into the daily life of the ordinary people, there are calls for strike action. Professionals, private and public sector workers, disabled, pensioners and unemployed are all calling for action against this policy of enforced deprivation. However, there are sections of society that we don't associate with direct/strike action against the state, the military and the police. Though these groups are somehow seen by most as outside that sort of action and that they are the bulwarks of the state, history tells us a different story. Britain around the 1900's was a very rebellious country and in 1919 20,000 British soldiers went on strike and occupied Southampton Docks. 

From Libcom 1919: The Southampton mutiny:

     Following the massacre of World War I, a reminder of the strength of ordinary soldiers came from Southampton, in the middle of January 1919, when 20,000 soldiers went on strike and took over the docks. Robertson, Commander in Chief of the Home Forces, sent General Trenchard to restore military authority. Trenchard had witnessed several mutinies in the French Army and was quite prepared to employ the most ruthless measures. Nevertheless he underestimated the men as he approached the dockgate and attempted to address a reluctant audience. A chorus of boos and catcalls accompanied his remarks. The meeting came to an undignified end when a group of men took hold of him and gave him a going over before ejecting him. Said Trenchard:

"It was most unpleasant.. . It was the only time in my life I'd been really hustled. They said they did not want to listen to me. They told me to get out and stay out."

Continue READING:

        Then we have the police strike of 1919 which took place in Liverpool.

Again from that wealth of information Libcom.

The 1919 Liverpool Police strike. By Pat O'Mara:

   Shortly after the Lusitania riots came the Liverpool Police strike.* Perhaps the bobbies had just cause for bitterness, for theirs were the only wages that hadn’t skyrocketed with the war. I thought they were getting ample pay at the time but, like everyone else – excluding the manufacturer, who was the first to raise the cry of traitor to a striker – they wanted much more. It required a piece of legislation to raise the salaries of the bobbies and, as none was forthcoming, they became very restless and finally, in direct opposition to the advice of their superiors who pointed out the severity with which such an unpatriotic act would be dealt, they struck.

Continue READING:

      Conditions have changed since then, but we are heading into uncharted waters as far as corporate capitalism is concerned. Greece is in turmoil as the fabric of society breaks down. There are mass protests in Spain, Portugal and Italy and anger is rising in other countries across Europe. There has been struggles and unrest a plenty since 1919 but will/can the situation turn the people into a revolutionary force that once and for all destroys this stinking system of greed, repression and exploitation?
Another quote from Libcom:

      How near was Britain to a full scale revolution during these weeks? This must remain a matter for speculation. The Army was in disarray: soldiers and sailors councils and demobilisation clubs were being formed. Delegates from various camps were beginning to combine their efforts and resources. The number of strikes in Liverpool and Glasgow were increasing. There were riots in Glasgow and troops sent to occupy the streets were beginning to fraternise with the strikers and demonstrators. There were riots in Belfast and a national railway strike was imminent. From August 1918 until mid-1919 even the police force was affected by militant strike action.

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WHAT COMMUNITY?

        There is a lot of talk about “communities” and how we should look after our “communities”. What is more this talk can come from left and right of the political spectrum. We can have Cameron and his Eton millionaires talking about the need to strengthen “communities” and we have trade unionists and activists talking about defending our “communities”. But what do they mean, they can't all be talking about the same thing, can they? Most people mean their neighbourhood when they talk about their “community”, but a neighbourhood, like a community, is not a commune, it is a very mixed bag of all manner of people, form shop owners, other small capitalist enterprises, professionals, government officials, workers and unemployed estate kids. All of these have different interests and in most cases, conflicting interests. To call for the strengthening of our “communities” is to call for the status-quo, the community or neighbourhood is a microcosm of the capitalist society that we live in. In this society that we live under, to call for a community loyalty, is just the same as the state calling for patriotism, there is no real common interest. The conflicts and exploitation that take place in society at large, take place in our “communities” on a daily basis. Why should ordinary people call for the strengthening of the subordination and restrictions that hinder their freedom of expression, and opportunity? It can never really be a community unless all its members have equal freedom of expression and equal opportunities. Once we have that, we can then talk of strengthening our “communities”, until then we should talk of taking control of our “communities” and shaping them to suit the needs of all those in that community, working from a position of equality. That of course requires getting out of the capitalist system.

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 earths 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.

ann arky's home.

SCURRYING BETWEEN TIME SEALED VAULTS.

Taken from tenth issue of 325 Zine:

TATTOO

(to the sound of Greek bagpipes)

Today, the Greek Government

executed by firing squad

1000 pensioners, along

with 2000 workers, as part

of a package of financial

reforms, to reassure

the markets and permit

the Troika to release one

more tranch of the bail-out.

How one feels for the victims

In all this, the bankers

criminalised, shorn

of bonuses, the markets

bearish, nervous as

kittens, the green back,

the pound, the tsunami-

floating yen, scurrying

between time-sealed

vaults and safe-havens,

exposed to the sniping

of credit default swaps

as Molotov cocktails

rain down relentlessly

from Fitch’s, Moody’s,

and S.& P.’s. Will

the friendly Troika

contrive fresh reforms?

Will our young friend,

the euro, be vaporised?

Growth is a must, come

what may, be it 3000

health workers hung,

drawn and quartered,

4000 firemen burned

at the stake, even

the odd politician garrotted.

Landeg White

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DO YOU GIVE A SHIT?

      I know for sure that most, if not all, my friends and comrades - "Do give a shit" -. Do you?

     I thought the facts and figures would be of interest to you as you sit in the luxury of your own private comfort zone.

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COMING TO A CITY NEAR YOU.

    What is happening in Greece is a crime against a people deliberately perpetrated by the financial Mafia for no other reason than greed. The Greek people are being sacrificed on the altar of corporate fascism. What is more it will not stop at Greece, it is coming to a city near you--- soon.

From Teacher Dude's Grill and BBQ:

Park bench converted into a temporary home for Greece's homeless

Park bench converted into a temporary home for Greece's homeless, a photo by Teacher Dude's BBQ on Flickr.

      With poverty pushing more and more Greeks onto the streets, parks in the northern port city of Thessaloniki are rapidly being taken over by the homeless. However, with temperatures dropping and heavy rains predicted its not sure how they'll be able to last out the winter in such conditions.

     I asked the permission of those staying here before I took this picture. I had a hard time getting that permission but once I explained that my aim wasn't to show them but the conditions in which they were forced to live, they agreed.

 

ann arky's home.

 

STRANGLE THE BEAST.

      Why is the Greek government pushing for more austerity measures when the people of Greece have already seen their living standard devastated and poverty, and deprivation swamps the country? Will the bailout that it gets after inflicting even more misery and hardship on the people of Greece, go to the Greek people to help them? The answer is of course a resounding NO. The money will go back to the financial Mafia, to the bond markets and to the banksters. So to my simple logic, the only reason for the bailout is that if the Greek government doesn't get a bailout, the banksters will suffer as well as the people, with the bailout only the people suffer. It seems however that the people of Crete have decided to strangle the beast that devours their living standards.

This from The Greek Streets:

Heraklion, Crete: as the Parliament in Athens votes in further austerity cuts, a city shows the way forward for the struggle

Wednesday, November 7, 2012

At the same time that in Athens the new measures were voted in parliament and the protest outside was hit by repression and rain, some remarkable events in Heraklion, Crete show how the struggle against the memorandums can be intensified. At tonight’s demo in the city, more than 10,000 people took part – including an anarchist block of approximately 800.

The even more astonishing events took place after the demo though, where a mass Popular Assembly decided the following:

• To block off the city’s economic activity (not on a symbolic level) by blocking off tax offices and the bank of greece at 7 AM on Thursday.
• Meanwhile, the Labor Union of Heraklion called for another 24h strike tomorrow, to facilitate workers’ participation in the blockade. The strike was called following the pressure of anarchists and leftists present at the Popular Assembly.
• The occupation of the administrative building of the Periphery of Crete (the administrative HQ for the entire island) continues.
• Finally, the Assembly will produce a call-out for workers and unemployed across the country to take similar action.

ann arky's home.

WORKERS KNOW YOUR HISTORY.

Thanks Bob for the link.

Lifted from LandMatters:

     I have an original copy of Tom Johnston‘s Our Scots Noble Families from 1909. It is a treasure. It was reprinted by Argyll Publishing in 1999. Here, reprinted, is the opening chapter entitled A General Indictment. Read it and remember that politics and political writing once had revolutionary potential.

A General Indictment
     Before proceeding to analyse the methods by which each of our Scots noble families rose to fortune, and before I examine in detail the origin of their various divinities, dignities and privileges, it is advisable to take our canvas and lay on in primary colours a general and comprehensive indictment of Scots landlords as a class. The histories of our land have been mostly written to serve the political purposes, and flatter the conceits of our aristocracy. When the historian knew of happenings calculated to cast odium on our landed gentry, he carefully excised the records, and where he did not know, he was careful to assume, and lead others to assume, that the period of which he was ignorant were periods of intense social happiness, wherein a glad and thankful populace spent their days and their nights in devising Hallelujahs in honour of the neighbouring nobleman. And that is why the history of Scots mining is wrapped in darkness: that is why we never hear of the hundred and fifty years slavery, and why the collier of to-day does not know that his ancestor of a century ago was a two legged chattel, bought, sold, and lashed as were the cotton plantation negroes in pre-Civil War times. There are no popular histories of the thefts of the Klaan and Abbey lands. Even the sparse records of neyfship are never dragged out to the popular gaze.
     A democracy ignorant of the past is not qualified either to analyse the present or to shape the future;

Continue reading HERE:

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MORE ON NOVEMBER 14TH.

     More comment and ideas regarding November 14th. Pan-European day of protest, this from A-Infos:

         Austerity cuts come over and over again - they are driving down the conditions of life of workers and their aim is to crush or/and weaken the ability to organize and fight The profit is privatized and the rich are getting richer, but the costs, risks and oppression are socialized! ---- The bureaucratic trade union CGTP has called a general strike in Portugal and the CCOO and UGT have called for a general strike in Spain against the austerity measures for November 14. For this same day, general strikes are also being called in Italy, Greece, Malta and Cyprus etc. as part of a Day of Action by the European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC). ---- The position of the IWA and its Sections and Friends is that we are not only against the government of the "troika" and the austerity measures, but against the class society and against an economic and social system based on the exploitation of wage labor and environmental destruction.       

       We are for workers self- organizing and emancipation, and by this our struggle is directed against and outside the class collaborationist structures!

       Our sister organization in Spain the CNT-AIT says in a declaration that the reformist CCOO and UGT after hesitation have called for the General Strike of 14-N which they have been dragged into: “On the one hand, by increasing social unrest and mobilizations in the streets and on the other, by the continued anti-labor measures of a government at the service of financial elites and employers with no intention of conceding even the crumbs that allow institutional unionism to justify their role.”

        And further: “CNT has agreed to call a general strike for November 14 and we will do this in our own way, with our own demands. We say that this strike is necessary but is not sufficient and we call for it to go beyond the sterile and frustrating scenario of the institutional unions that people have become accustomed to”.

      The AIT- Portugal writes in an article in IWA- External Bulletin-3 about the encouraging demonstrations on September 15 that mainly were convened through internet. It has been estimated that 500 000 people demonstrated in Lisbon and 100 000 in Porto, and there were demonstrations in more than 30 cities in Portugal.

Read the full article HERE: 

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