THE CORPORATE WORLD FOSTERS CHILD SLAVERY.

        An appeal from AVAAZ regarding child slave labour in India. Slavery is abhorrent in any form, but child slavery must rank at the bottom of the barrel. No child should be denied an education, no child should have its potential destroy, no child should be denied its childhood.

  
Dear friends,

India is stalling the toughest child labour law in its history... because politicians say it’s not a ‘priority’! But the majority of MPs support it and all they need is a massive public push to bring it to a vote. Let´s raise our voices for India´s children. Sign now:

     The Indian Parliament is closing without passing the toughest child labour law in its history. Worse, the bill is supported by the majority of MPs, but it was ignored for weeks, because they felt it was not a ‘priority’!

     India is the world’s child labour capital -- kids as young as five are sold to traffickers and forced to work as modern-day slaves, abused and beaten. The historic new bill would ban outright any child labour under 14 and provide stipends for poor families to keep their children in school. But MPs have let it fall off their agenda, and Indian child rights groups say they badly need our help, now, to ramp up the public pressure.

     If the Avaaz community comes together, we can create a wave of attention to the bill, and push MPs to vote. Sign this urgent petition and forward it widely -- when we reach 1 million we’ll deliver our message to the Parliament with former child workers:

http://www.avaaz.org/en/india_child_labour_g1/?bwqhjab&v=20550

    A staggering 215 million children work in mines, quarries, and factories around the world. All nations have signed an agreement to put the eradication of child labour at the heart of their national education plans. But, India is home to the largest child labour force in the world. If the new law passes, it would ban all child labour for under 14-year-olds and all harmful work for under 18s. The law even has provisions to ensure it doesn’t hurt the poorest families -- enshrining the right to free education and proposing stipends to compensate any losses.

     Critics say the real problem isn’t the law, it’s bad enforcement. And it’s true that in the last three years in India less than 10% of the 450,000 reports of child labour were prosecuted under the existing, weak, law. But the new law packs some serious punch. The police will no longer have to wait for a court order to act. All forms of commercial child labour under 14 will be criminalised, and instead of meaningless fines or short prison sentences, the criminals will face tough penalties.

    While the majority of MPs say they'll support the bill, there's no political urgency to bring it to a vote. But each day they delay, more children are forced into a life of sweatshop misery. It’s up to us to push them over the edge. Sign the petition to India's MPs now, and share widely:

http://www.avaaz.org/en/india_child_labour_g1/?bwqhjab&v=20550

     The Avaaz community has campaigned to protect the children and the most vulnerable, time and time again. Just weeks ago, 1.2 million of us got together to help pass the most comprehensive education plan in Pakistan. How we treat our children is a reflection on our moral compass -- and it´s time to take firm steps against their abuse. Let’s join together to speak out for the future of India’s suffering children.

With hope and determination,

Jamie, Alice, Alex, Alaphia, Lisa, Jeremy, Ricken, Dalia, Rewan, Michelle and the whole Avaaz team

MORE INFORMATION:

India proposes ban on child labor (Washington Post)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/india-proposes-ban-on-child-labor/2012/08/29/ef9d802a-f1f2-11e1-a612-3cfc842a6d89_story.html

Getting ready for the new law against child labour (The Hindu)
http://www.thehindu.com/opinion/op-ed/article3878212.ece

Over 60 million child laborers in India (India Tribune)
http://www.indiatribune.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=2884:over-60-million-child-laborers-in-india

35 child workers rescued from Delhi factories (Business Line)
http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/industry-and-economy/economy/35-child-workers-rescued-from-delhi-factories/article1694550.ece

End Child Labour and Educational Disadvantage - report and film
http://educationenvoy.org/

Support the Avaaz Community!
We're entirely funded by donations and receive no money from governments or corporations. Our dedicated team ensures even the smallest contributions go a long way.

ann arky's home.

A CORPORATE WORLD CONTROLLED FROM THE BOARDROOM.

       The financial Mafia's grand plan is world wide, it is in fact a world wide epidemic. It is not something that is limited to Europe, no country is immune from this destructive infection. The only real antidote to this vile infection is social justice through anarchism. 

     America, that land of freedom, democracy and opportunity!! Well just like the rest of the corporate dominated world, ordinary Americans are getting poorer and the rich Americans are getting richer. Forbes has just released the latest figures on the richest Americans, and it states that the wealthiest 400 Americans posses 13% of the total wealth of all of America. This year alone their wealth increased by 7%, making the average wealth between this 400 work out at $4.2 billion each. This puts people like the most recent Presidential contender, Mitt Romney, in the poor league, as he has to get by on a personal fortune of a mere $250 million.

       Compare this to the ordinary American, this year millions of workers have been forced into poverty, saw the pensions disappear, along with their health care. Their wages are now in lower than what they were 40 years ago, if you take into consideration the rate of inflation over that period, the average wage is 22% lower now than the average in 1972. Unemployment is high, house foreclosures almost common place, homelessness rampant, jobs almost impossible to find.

       The onslaught against the ordinary people is world wide, no country is immune from the financial Mafia's plans to drive down wages, Greece, at the moment, may be at the sharp end, but others are perilously close, Spain, Italy, Portugal, Ireland, to mention a few in Europe. There is nothing in the rule book that says that the American people can't follow the Greek people into total misery and deprivation. By the slashing social spending the corporate world will achieve two things, one, it will reduce the tax they are asked to pay, so increasing profits, and two, it will open up greater opportunities for the corporate bodies to privately supply, at a profit to themselves, those services that have been trashed by national governments. No social services, only privately provide services at a cost, and if you can't pay, then you have to go without.

       Everything must turn a profit for the corporate body, no public assets, no public spaces, no social services, just big business. A bleak, harsh and desperate world for the ordinary people, a world where if you fall on hard times, it will be up to charities to help you out, or friends and relatives, who might themselves be facing the same poverty and deprivation. This is the great austerity plan, the pinnacle of capitalism, the corporate planet controlled from the boardrooms of fat-cats, with one aim in mind, increase profit, to fatten your shareholders. We either face this world and live with it, or face it and destroy the present greed driven system and replace it with a better world driven by co-operation and mutual aid, based on sustainability with the aim of seeing to the needs of all our people.The only real

ann arky's home.

 

A LETTER FROM THE PAST.

From the Anarchist Library, an anonymous letter from a worker 1883:

Capital and the Capitalists

What is capital? The harvest of the rich by the sweat of the people.

       Yes, we workers created capital. By our work we increase it every day. And far from profiting from what we have created, we become slaves to it and by making the capitalists richer to our own detriment, we become insufferable. Many workers look to suicide to end this order of things. I think there is a better way.

      What, the capitalist wallows in pleasure and the worker cannot live off the product of his labor. While the former is dancing and feasting, the latter is starving.

        O worker, my brother, you are suffering and the capitalist is laughing at your pains. You die and he insults your corpse. Faced with these blatant facts, you find nothing better than to end your life without caring that on the day of action your brothers in slavery will be missing your support.

        No, you have not thought of that and that is your excuse, but from now on chase these thoughts from your head and feel something different.

        Yes, there is a better way than dying. You have to live in order to prepare the great era of the future. You have to live to see your efforts crowned with success. You have to live to be present at the resurrection of the worker and the death of the capitalist.

        To get there what do we need: Audacity — we have it. Finances — we’ll find it. Sacrifices — we are all ready to give what is dearest to us for the triumph of our ideals.

        Therefore, let’s get to work. Let’s group together — there is strength in union. No half-measures. Think of those who are suffering, whose children demand vengeance. Encourage the weak. Finally, let’s get ready because the hour approaches when we will have to call upon different arguments than those of our corrupt representatives.

        And on that day, no mercy to the masters, like they have shown none to us. Let our battle cry be:

Down with capital.
Crush the capitalists.
Death to traitors and scoundrels.
Long live the Revolution!

— Letter from a worker exploited by capital.

ann arky's home.

AUSTERITY TO SERFDOM!!

      So 2012's candle is starting to flicker, soon to be extinguished. What does a look at the year tell us? It saw the world's ordinary people assaulted and ravished by the power of capital, aided and abetted by their administrators, the state governments. It also saw some of the fiercest fight backs against the full might of the state's repressive power. From London to Washington, from Athens to Moscow, from Madrid to Delhi, the ordinary people of this planet organised and protested against the battering ram of the financial Mafia's austerity plan. Sometimes it was bloody, with South African miners being gunned down by the state's bully boys the police. Tear gas and and baton charges were almost daily events in Athens. Death and injury were seen among protesters time and time again.

       This was not just an aggressive attack on the living standards of the people, it was a case of what little freedom we had being eroded. The state's clandestine agencies stepped up surveillance on dissenting voices, with more covert operations being mounted against legitimate protest groups, they introduced new legislation criminalising acts of protest, many civil liberties were torn up and binned.

       What was also visible over the last year was the disintegrating support for the usual mainline parties. The usual flunky parties in the pocket of the corporate world saw the people turn away in droves, with a mixture of disgust and hatred. That support in some cases turned to apathy, but mostly moved to the more radical wings of the political spectrum, the radical right as well as the radical left.

       Just as the financial Mafia's drive for more austerity will not fade away in the coming year, it is more likely to intensify, so the resistance will grow and the struggle become more bitter, more fierce. However it also means that there will be another front being fought, that for the hearts and minds of the people, against that rising tide of extreme right wing groupings. In every country where austerity has been biting, and the people resisting, the extreme right has gained ground. No doubt financed by many of those powerful people and institutions that financed and backed the usual mainstream puppets that are now discredited.

      What little gains the ordinary people have made by decades of bitter struggle, resistance, and perseverance have been wiped away, what crumbs came our way have been greedily stolen back. To stand still we will have to re-double our efforts, as the financial Mafia's plan is to push us further back, to something resembling the poverty of the Victorian era.

      2012 also saw a continuation of the US corporate funded government acting as guardian of the the world's corporate profit seekers. Bombing the shit out of people across the globe, all in the name of peace and democracy of course. Any country that wouldn't let the dollar and Western capital control their assets, became the axis of evil, and felt the full fury of Western “shock and awe” democracy. We all know the list, and it is still growing with more on the agenda.

       2013 will prove to be a critical year, as the rate of the financial Mafia's drive for “austerity” increases, so will our descent into serfdom. Unless we can counter that with increased resistance, an abandoning of the tradition politics, and a massive move towards politics from below, with increased resistance, direct action, occupation and a desire not to fix the system so that we can reclaim some of the crumbs we lost, but dismantle it and replace it with a sustainable system of seeing to the needs of all our people. A system of co-operation, mutual aid and free from the profit motive.

ann arky's home.

EARN MORE PAY LESS TAX - ONLY IF YOUR BIG!!

        Recent figures show that the corporate world are continuing their greed driven trend of shuffling profits to “tax havens” (fiddling bases). While lifting those profits from the people of UK, they refuse to pay the UK citizens there fair dues through the medium of tax. As company profits continue to rise, their tax returns continue to fall. This is a situation that can only be found in large corporate businesses, it just doesn't happen in smaller concerns or with employees income. It is all the result of our millionaire cabal residing in the Westminster Houses of Hypocrisy and Corruption creating a corporate friendly environment for their millionaire corporate buddies at the expense of you and I.

       A recent Reuters analysis of official figures shows that large companies in the UK now pay less tax than they did 12 years ago. The corporation tax figures for the year 2011/12 show that large companies paid just £21 billion, this a 21% decrease since 2000.01. The Office of National Statistics states that during the same period the gross operating surplus for all companies in the UK rose by 65% to £329 billion. They also verify that tax receipts from small companies and personal income tax rose over the same period.

      As the UK GDP grew over the period 2000/12 by 55% and company surplus earnings grew by 65% and their tax payments fell by 21%, it is obvious that they “are at it” as one might say. All that discrepancy in what they should pay and what they actually pay is hived off to shareholders bonuses, to fat cats bank accounts. In the meantime, you and I, who pay our full whack of taxes are being hit by cuts in our standard of living, cuts in education, health and all essential social services. The poor and vulnerable are being penalised with cuts in benefits, and the mantra from our millionaire Oxbridge Honourable Gentlemen is, “We can't afford it”. Which translates into, “We have to give our banker millionaire friends all your money.” 

 "We can't afford to pay any more tax, it would be bad for business."

        So as you count your pennies to try and manage to eat and feed your family, those tax dodging, sorry, tax avoidance, fat cats are glancing through the latest yacht catalogue, or perhaps considering another villa in Bermuda. That is the system that we carry on our backs, we work, we pay our taxes, we scrimp and scrap, they avoid paying tax, and live in the lap of luxury. It's called capitalism, like it?

ann arky's home.

ANARCHISM - NATURALLY GOOD.

        By anarchist spirit I mean that deeply human sentiment, which aims at the good of all, freedom and justice for all, solidarity and love among the people; which is not an exclusive characteristic only of self-declared anarchists, but inspires all people who have a generous heart and an open mind.

 Errico Malatesta.

ann arky's home.

THE PRICE OF CAPITALIST ADJUSTMENT, DEPRIVATION.

      Every economist comes up with their own personal idea of the "problem" with Greece and the Greek people and all of their answers usually are around some capitalist economic formula that is hinged to the "people" paying more to put things "right" by taking a greater hit to their already impoverished living standard, or by the state borrowing more and creating "growth". The former solution will be an even greater disaster for the Greek people, the latter, beneficial for the corporate world, but more of the same for the Greek people. All capitalist "adjustments" require deprivation, malnutrition, homelessness and mass unemployment to be heaped on the ordinary people. The Greek people's solution, like all those ordinary people across the globe who are at present suffering "austerity", does not lie in any form of capitalist economics, capitalist economic solutions are the problem, the only answer for the ordinary people, lies outside capitalism. 

      An interesting article by Nikos Libero, on the Greek situation taken from The Commune:

 

      Greece is living through its biggest crisis since the downfall of the military junta in the summer of 1974 – a consequence of the world economic crisis and the historical decadence of the Greek bourgeois elite. The same internal tendencies – with more or less the same characteristics as in the USA in 2008, at the beginning of the world economic crisis – are manifested in Greece today in an explosive form.

All the social conquests of the working class since 1974 have been lost in the last three years. Since the end of the second world war, there has never been, in a period of peace, such a dramatic decline in the standard of living of the majority of the population of any country in Europe, or such a violent redistribution of wealth in such a limited time.

         The crisis has given rise to an assault not only on the working class, but also on the middle class, which is being destroyed today. And here it should be noted that in 2009 the petty bourgeoisie is two or three times larger, as part of a proportion of the total population, than in the so-called developed capitalist countries.

       In November 2012, unemployment reached 30% – and 80% of the unemployed received no benefits. Since 2009, the real income of ordinary people has been reduced by 40%. And the downfall will continue in the next year.

      The minimum daily wage for people below the age of 25 is 22 euros, and for those above 25, 26 euros. Three million people, in a population of less than 11 million, are living below the poverty line. There are 40,000 homeless. The suicide rate is rising dramatically especially among the destroyed middle class. In tens of thousands of homes, the electricity has been cut off. Crime is rife.

Read the full article HERE:

ann arky's home.

IT'S THE THOUGHT THAT COUNTS!!

       It is possibly not the most stylistic or easy flowing Christmas poem ever written, but it is a nice thought.

I'm Dreaming of a Red and Black Christmas

'Twas the night before Christmas, And all through the land,

Factory workers were slaving to meet high demand,

For video games, DVDs, and cheaply built toys,

To be given the next morning to spoiled American girls and boys.

The workers had had it, They were at their wits end,

Worked day and night with no time off, The bosses would not bend.

Then over the loudspeaker on one factory floor,

Boomed a fat boss's voice, "WORK FASTER! PRODUCE MORE!”

“Our profits are way up, but not quite enough,

Our shareholders aren't happy – you've got to make more stuff!”

That was the last straw. The workers would take no more abuse,

So they stopped working and jammed up the machines 'till they were of no more good use.

And with a collective burst of rage, the workers cried,

“That's enough! We've had it with this shit!” They marched up to the boss's office and demanded, “If you don't give us some time off, we're all going to quit!”

“Quit?!”, laughed the boss, “Go ahead, not a problem!”

I'll have your replacements here by 4 AM tomorrow!”

“Plenty of poor schmucks need a job so badly,

I can pay them peanuts, and they'll take this shitty job – GLADLY!”

“In fact,” smirked the boss, “I'll save you AND me the trouble...

“YOU'RE ALL FIRED! Now get your asses out of here, ON THE DOUBLE!”

Well, what happened next can't really be told,

Because no worker who was there that day will tell,

Of the action taken that was so bold. All we know for sure is that after that day,

A whole new meaning was given to the phrase “Christmas sleigh”...

On that cold snowy Christmas Eve night the news spread like wildfire,

And suddenly, the workers' situation didn't seem so dire. Throughout the land in every factory around,

Workers rose up with this new boldness they had found.

They eliminated their bosses and formed democratic workers councils instead,

And from that day ever after, it was called “Red and Black Christmas”,

because hierarchy in the workplace... ...was finally dead.

by adamgkrause

ann arky's home.

WAR IS BUSINESS.

        In times of "austerity" our "democratic" governments still spend a whopping slice of your money and my money in killing people across the globe. We in the UK are the world's fourth largest spender on military budget, following behind America, China and Russia, all very large countries. We in this small island account for over 3.6% of the world's military expenditure, coming in this year at £57.5 billion, slightly down on last year because of our partial withdrawal form Afghanistan. Our defence budget accounts for just over 7% of our national budget, but when you add 5% for "state protection" not sure what that means, you can slice a total of more than 12%  off our national budget. Though we as a small island spend a disproportionate amount proportionally of our wealth on war and killing, I know some call it "defence", this is dwarfed by that land of peace, that pinnacle of capitalism, the good ol' U. S. of A.. This large country of peace insanely spends an unbelievable 60% of its national budget on war, sorry "defence". Its figures are mind boggling, 41% of the world's military expenditure is by the peace loving nation of America, it comes in at approximately $711 billion.  

        In times of "austerity", think of all that wealth and resource put to the benefit of the people, how would that alleviate the suffering of the many?  However, that is not what this system is about, it is about bring lots of wealth and its attendant power, to the few, and military spending and war does and will continue to, make those few parasites that control the arms industry extremely wealthy and powerful. The hope of changing things by asking those who gain from all this insanity, to give up on their wealth and power and see to the needs of the people, is insanity itself. We, have to change the system by ourselves, by organising against the system, creating small pockets of alternative systems, co-operating with each other and continually point out the insanity and injustice of the present system while emphasising that there are alternatives.

ann arky's home.

A POVERTY CHRISTMAS TO MANY.

    Well it's Christmas, that time of year when the retail wing of the corporate Mafia start to rub their sweaty hands in greedy anticipation. The babbling brook of bullshit, the media, has been singing songs of woe, on how the poor retail outlets have been having a hard time. This they blame on anything from the weather being too wet, too cold, or whatever, they always fail to mention that it is in fact caused by us being too poor.

       Scotland's population is approximately 5.2 million, a relatively small country and a relatively small population. It is also a very rich little country with lots of assets including, whisky exports, oil, wind/wave and hydro-power to export. It has however, one big snag, its economic system, lots of wealth but in the hands of very few. The result of this insane economic system is that we have some of the worst poverty levels in Europe. From our small population we have over 220,000 children living in poverty, that accounts for more than 1 in 4 of our kids. We have numerous districts where the level of children living in poverty is over 30%. Aberdeen, recently listed in some poll or other, as the best place to live in Scotland, has a child poverty level of 35%. This is by no means the worst, We have Scotstoun coming in at 36%, Anderson at 37%, Govan at 38%, Drumchapel at 40% and it doesn't stop there. Coming in at the top of this indictable list of greed created poverty is Springburn, with a staggering 52% of the children in that area living in poverty. Trying having a Merry Xmas with these figures.

      These are the figures behind all the shit about austerity, growth and retail problems. All the facts and figures banded about by the economic experts never manage to put the real misery lived by the people, onto their balance sheets. It's all numbers about debit and credit  disguising malnutrition, health problems from lack of heating, stunted potential, and poisoned dreams. For it to be other, we have to get rid of this insane, unjust, system of exploitation that is sanitised by balance sheets and passed of as fair and the only game in town. Capitalism is not set in tablets of stone, it is a man made system  that works for the benefit of the few. We can, if we have the real desire, create another system that is based on the needs of all our people, built on sustainability, co-operation and mutual aid. The first step has to be bring down this present system that depends on the  rape of the planet and its people.

ann arky's home.

A SAD SOLSTICE EVENT.

      The winter solstice brings about many strange and some memorable events, some joyous, some sad. It was during the 2005 winter solstice that on of the Earth Liberation Front, anarchist, environmentalist movement, took his own life while in Prison. We should always remember those who believed so passionately that they couldn't be bound by the state. Remember Bill Rodgers, a.k.a. Avalon, committed suicide in prison on the 21st. December 2005.

This from Wikipedia:

       Bill Rodgers a.k.a. Avalon (died December 21, 2005), co-proprietor of the Catalyst Infoshop in Prescott, Arizona, USA, was one of six environmental activists arrested December 7, 2005 as part of the FBI's Operation Backfire. He was charged with one count of arson for a June, 1998 fire set by the Earth Liberation Front (ELF) at the National Wildlife Research Center in Olympia, Washington. He was found dead in his jail cell on December 21, 2005. According to police, Rodgers committed suicide using a plastic bag.[1]

Government claims

      The FBI has claimed that Rodgers was a criminal "mastermind" and the anonymous author of Setting Fire with Electrical Timers, an Earth Liberation Front Guide,[2] which explained in detail how to create an incendiary device known as a "cat's cradle". Authorities said that once the guide was published they no longer were able to tell with certainty when the ELF cell connected to Rodgers was responsible for an arson.

Death

       Rodgers wrote a suicide note[3] which he mailed to a number of his friends:

To my friends and supporters to help them make sense of all these events that have happened so quickly: Certain human cultures have been waging war against the Earth for millennia. I chose to fight on the side of bears, mountain lions, skunks, bats, saguaros, cliff rose and all things wild. I am just the most recent casualty in that war. But tonight I have made a jail break—I am returning home, to the Earth, to the place of my origins. Bill, 12/21/05 (the winter solstice.)

Many activists blamed two co-operating witnesses for Rodgers' arrest, both of whom are alleged to have been very close friends and members of the same ELF cell as Rodgers and agreed to become informants for the FBI.[4]

Continuing influence

      Rodgers has had a continuing impact on various anarchist and radical environmentalist movements. A number of acts of civil disobedience have been dedicated to his memory. Among these have been the removal of 28 beagle puppies from the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine at the Independent University of Madrid [5] and the burning of a partially constructed development in Guelph, Ontario, Canada.

ann arky's home.

ARE WE JUST A BAD LOT??

        Looking at the figures of the prison population in Scotland, and comparing them with the prison population in other European countries you begin to ask yourself some questions. Take Northern Europe and look at the figures for other countries with a similar population. Denmark, population approximately 5.5m, prison population, just over 4,000. Finland, population approximately 5.3m, prison population, 3,100. Norway, population just under 5m, prison population, 3,600. Ireland, population approximately 4.5m, prison population just over 4,400. Not a lot of difference there, but let's look at Scotland, population approximately 5.2m, prison population 8,178, for the year 2011/12. This was an increase of 4% over the last decade. You are looking at approximately double the prison population in Scotland compared to other European countries of similar population size. What makes the situation worse is that this 8,178 prison population is housed in a prison system with a design capacity of 7,840.

      Could it be that we Scots are just a bad lot, just a wee land of terrible people? Or could it be that we have more problems in our society, poverty etc.  get locked up for problems related to mental health and addiction, or is it simply that we have a more authoritarian government in this country. Probably a combination of all of the last three.

        Prisons are never about justice, they are about control, they are about protecting the establishment, the status-quo, about protecting the wealth and power of those who rule over us. The more they feel threatened, the more the prison population will grow.

ann arky's home,

WORKERS KNOW YOUR HISTORY.

       As I keep saying, workers, know your history. We are all aware, or should be, that those that sit in the Westminster Houses of Hypocrisy and Corruption, are not the state, but merely its public managers. The real power of the state sits else where, hidden in marble halls, long corridors and stately homes. That power is the same the world over, and by quiet meetings behind closed doors, that power can decide to change the managers from the keepers of the ballot box, to the men with guns. We have seen it happen in numerous countries across the globe, while we in Britain, because of the propaganda of the babbling brook of bullshit, the media, believe that it couldn't happen here. That my friends is an illusion, the same powers that sit behind the various governments across the world sit quietly behind our Oxbridge millionaire parasites. If it is deemed that they are not doing a good job for that hidden power, then they will be removed, one way or another.

An interesting from A World to Win:

      A plot by the state against a weak government of the day, unable to govern on its own, amidst a grave economic crisis. Sounds familiar? Well, this is not actually about “plebgate” and the Tories – though it could just as well be – but Harold Wilson and Labour.

     Wilson was prime minister from 1964-70 and again from 1974 to his sudden and dramatic resignation in 1976. Later he would claim that the spy agency MI5 had wanted him out. And that army officers had been plotting a takeover.

     Wilson was right on both counts.

In 1968, a period of mass upheavals in Britain and worldwide, senior army officers, together with press baron Lord Cecil King, Lord Mountbatten and intelligence agency figures, discussed staging a coup to overthrow a Labour government thought to be in the pockets of the trade unions.

     A global economic crisis followed America’s decision in 1971 to end the system of fixed currencies established at Bretton Woods after the Second World War. Inflation spiralled out of control. Oil prices tripled and miners took industrial action. Much of Britain was on a three-day week in 1973-4 as power supplies dwindled.
      The plans for a coup were dusted down when Labour was returned to office in 1974 after miners’ industrial action had brought down the Tory government of Edward Heath. Heath asked voters to say “who rules Britain?”. A minority Labour government took office.

      Out of the blue, a series of joint police/army exercises were held at Heathrow Airport. The first of these was held in January 1974, while Heath was still in power but the remaining three were held in June, July and September. They were labelled “anti-terror” operations.

Read the full article HERE: As I keep saying, workers, know your history.

ann arky's home.

GLASGOW'S STONE CIRCLES.

      Having been born and bred in the North of Glasgow I have seen it disintegrate from a bustling industrial area to an area of high unemployment and deprivation. I believe that the latest figures state that 52% of children in the Springburn area live in poverty, the highest in the country. The Springburn Park which has seen years of neglect, and Sighthill Park are about all the kids have of decent open spaces. So our Kremlin in George Square have decided that to take one of these away would be a great idea for the people of the area!!!

Thanks Bob for this info:

From a Friend.

    "we were informed that it would shortly be demolished, in order to test the ground for chemical contamination, in order to show that Glasgow is serious about bidding for the 2018 Youth Olympics." Eh!

     A friend of mine's father was one of those who designed and erected the Astronomically Aligned Sighthill Stone Circle, which is in danger of the being taken down in the near future with area re-development

     There is information on the circle
www.sighthillstonecircle.net<http://www.sighthillstonecircle.net>
And there is a petition as well
http://www.change.org/en-GB/petitions/glasgow-city-council-scrap-their-plans-to-demolish-sighthill-park-and-its-stone-circle

       In 1978-79 the Glasgow Parks Astronomy Project designed and built the first astronomically aligned stone circle for at least 3,500 years, in Sighthill Park in Glasgow. The circle was intended to be an educational tool and visitor attraction, but has been neglected by the City Council hitherto. Land & Environmental Services (successors to the Parks Dept) have wanted to renovate and complete it since 2001, but for various reasons it hasn’t happened yet. On November 26th (the day before a book about the circle was published worldwide!) we were informed that it would shortly be demolished, in order to test the ground for chemical contamination, in order to show that Glasgow is serious about bidding for the 2018 Youth Olympics. Sighthill Park was a chemical factory at one time, but in order for the Project to get planning approval to build the stone circle, the parks contractors had to test the site thoroughly for chemical contamination in 1978 and there was none. The circle is now attracting worldwide interest and should be a major attraction for the Olympic Village and subsequent development, rather than ‘an unfinished piece of 1970s public art’ as the Council employee concerned insists on describing it. The Herald, Sunday Express and BBC Scotland have all given support to the campaign, and there are several petitions in circulation. The main one has over 500 signatures to date. Any additions to this petiton would be great for the campaign. Thank you

Friends of Sighthill Stone Circle
www.sighthillstonecircle.net<http://www.sighthillstonecircle.net>

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EPICENTRE OF LAWLESSNESS.

       More on the raid by riot police on the Villa Amalias Squat in Athens.

This from the Greek Streets:

        Under the pretext of the search, then, they materialise a long-standing wet dream of theirs: their raid into a space that is one of the spatial symbols of all those who stand in hostility against anything that represents sovereignty, imposition, sterilization, indifference, surrender, subjection. In this they are right. That’s who we are. Us and the thousands of demonstrators, the people in struggle, squatters, strikers, people fighting in the streets. We are the homeless, the punks and the rebels, the vegetarians and the feminists, the nocturnal ones and the workers, poor and the aggrieved, the victims of racism and the avengers of injustice. The minister called us an epicentre of lawlessness…

Read the full article HERE:

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A CRIME AGAINST HUMANITY.

       Like the man said, "Prison is a crime against humanity." In America there are more people locked up in prisons than any other country in the world, while we in the UK also come very high on that list. I believe that in the UK approximately 80% of those in prison are in for non-violent crimes and a high proportion have mental health problems, and addiction problems. More hospital cases than prison cases, but this is capitalism. However under the present system we will not be able to abolish prisons, but there are those who do try to do something about those unfortunate enough to get caught up in this destructive system. Everybody knows Amnesty International, there is SACRO (Scottish Association for the Care and Resettlement of Offenders) there is also Anarchist Black Cross and Jail Guitar Doors. Until that day when the prison walls come down by the force of justice, those on the inside still need support.

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STATE REPRESSION.

      As poverty bites ever deeper in Greece so does state repressions. This morning the riot police raid and tried to evict a squat that has been in existence for 22 years. There has been several attempts to evict but it has always been re-occupied.

This from Contra Info:

Hands off Villa Amalias! Solidarity with squats.

      

       Today, December 20th, 2012 at 7am police forces raided Villa Amalias squat. Pretext for this oppressive exhibition of power has been an ‘anonymous complaint’ to the police. Eight comrades (six Greek-born and two from abroad) who were inside the squat have been arrested and taken to the GADA police headquarters on Alexandras avenue, where they are still being held.

        Comrades who came to the area in solidarity with the squatters were also detained by repression motorcycle units, while the same happened to other comrades who were caught inside the Athens City Hall, on Liosion street, where they had gone to make an intervention against the repression mayor Giorgos Kaminis. (The latter were reportedly released after a while.)

       From the beginning of the raid, dozens of comrades gathered outside the squat; we remain on Acharnon street till this moment calling out for solidarity.

Mayors and ministers just get it through your head: not even in your wildest dreams could you take Villa Amalias from us.

Read the full article HERE:

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PRISON WITHOUT TRIAL.

       Of course we in the democratic West know that it is only in those foreign countries with nasty dictators that you can be held in prison for months without being arrested or charged. Well that's the picture our babbling brook of bullshit spew out on an daily basis. After all that's what democracy is all about due process done fairly and openly with as little delay as possible. If we are not getting that, then it can be said it is a totalitarian regime. In that case we in the West fall well short of the "democracy" mark.

       This is an extract from just one such case of nasty dictator regime in some foreign land called America.

From The Stranger: 

  The visiting room of the SeaTac Federal Detention Center is bleak. Prison is supposed to be bleak, but it's difficult to appreciate how bleak it is until you've walked inside—past the grim security checkpoint, the sallow-faced chaplain with the giant keys hanging from his pants, the many heavy doors that slam shut behind you like a metal thunderclap, the off-white walls and institutional lighting that seem to suck the color out of everyone's hair and clothes, the frosted-over windows to block any view of the outside world, and into the visiting room with its plastic chairs arranged in sets of four with a guard sitting in a high booth, presiding over the room like a bored judge.

And the waiting. Lots and lots of waiting.

Read the full article HERE:

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THE FOURTH WORLD WAR.

 

       Not a short film, not all in English, but worth watching, listen for the facts, get the big picture.

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AMERICA, LAND OF EXTREME POVERTY.

       I often go on about the poverty being inflicted on the people of Greece by the financial Mafia, and believe me it is extreme. However when people think of poverty they never look in the direction of that pinnacle of capitalism, that land of freedom and opportunity, the good ol' US of A. It is to the wonder of propaganda that the myth, that America is a land of plenty was created and still persists. The illusion that is pumped out to the world that we should all follow the American corporate example and we will live well in a prosperous country. The truth of course is that millions in America live in extreme poverty and recent figures are quite startling. In America in 1996, approximately 600,000 children were living in what is classed as extreme poverty, $2 or less a day. That figure has shot up to approximately 1,400,000 in 2011. That is the advance that capitalism has made in that land of opportunity.

      The following is short extract from a rather long, but well worth reading article from Mother Jones:

This story was produced with support from the Economic Hardship Reporting Project.
      Two years ago, Harvard professor Kathryn Edin was in Baltimore interviewing public housing residents about how they got by. As a sociologist who had spent a quarter century studying poverty, she was no stranger to the trappings of life on the edge: families doubling or tripling up in apartments, relying on handouts from friends and relatives, selling blood plasma for cash. But as her fieldwork progressed, Edin began to notice a disturbing pattern. "Nobody was working and nobody was getting welfare," she says. Her research subjects were always pretty strapped, but "this was different. These people had nothing coming in."
     Edin shared her observations with H. Luke Shaefer, a colleague from the University of Michigan. While the income numbers weren't literally nothing, they were pretty darn close. Families were subsisting on just a few thousand bucks a year. "We pretty much assumed that incomes this low are really, really rare," Shaefer told me. "It hadn't occurred to us to even look."
      Curious, they began pulling together detailed household Census data for the past 15 years. There was reason for pessimism. Welfare reform had placed strict time limits on general assistance and America's ongoing economic woes were demonstrating just how far the jobless could fall in the absence of a strong safety net. The researchers were already aware of a rise in "deep poverty," a term used to describe households living at less than half of the federal poverty threshold, or $11,000 a year for a family of four. Since 2000, the number of people in that category has grown to more than 20 million—a whopping 60 percent increase. And the rate has grown from 4.5 percent of the population to 6.6 percent in 2011, the highest in recent memory save 2010, which was just a tad worse (6.7 percent).
But Edin and Shaefer wanted to see just how deep that poverty went. In doing so, they relied on a World Bank marker used to study the poor in developing nations: This designation, which they dubbed "extreme" poverty, makes deep poverty look like a cakewalk. It means scraping by on less than $2 per person per day, or $2,920 per year for a family of four.
     In a report (PDF) published earlier this year by the University of Michigan's National Poverty Center, Edin and Shaefer estimated that nearly 1 in 5 low-income American households were living in extreme povery; since 1996, the number of households in that category had increased by about 130 percent (118 percent if you use the latest numbers available). Among the truly destitute were 2.8 million children. Even if you counted food stamps as cash, half of those kids were still being raised in homes whose weekly take wasn't enough to cover a trip to Applebee's.

Read the full article HERE:

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A SOCIETY THAT SPAWNS KILLINGS.

    I seldom comment on such horrors as the most recent mass shooting in America. It is always difficult to find the right words, and in this particular event, as a parent, I am numbed and can't even imagine what those parents are going through. The matter is extremely complex and requires an analysis of the type of society that exists, and a look at alternatives. Of course that babbling brook of bullshit, the media, will have a field day of pouring over the heart rendering misery of the people involved, displaying it like a tapestry of emotion for public consumption, but never a deeper analysis as to the why. Below are two paragraphs from an article that I think puts it better than I ever could.

This from SoleOne:

 

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     Before the tears that fell from the presidents face hit the podium and the Us troops deployed to Turkish borders could learn to pronounce "Ahmadinejad " everyone had an opinion on the Connecticut shooting.   Celebrities and politicians all lined up, either to propose stricter gun laws or to say, "now is not the time to politicize."  Even as the details from the Aurora shooting continue to fill news pages and blogs after almost 3 months,  Once again we are trapped in a 9600+ hour news cycle where we will be bludgeoned with every  detail to emerge from the shooting as  hack journalists pontificating back and forth on "how" but never look deeper then family/personal issues as to the "why."--------

       There are a million factors that contributed to this, but I'd be remised if i didn't point out the hypocrisy and jingoistic nature of most of these responses.  This is the shit we fund in Gaza, this is what our drones do daily throughout Islamic World.  Tens of thousands of thousands of people have been killed by the American Empire in the past 10 years, and you'd be hard pressed to find as many American  tears for our victims overseas.  That is not to take anything away from this tragedy or equivocate, this was an utterly horrific act.  If we really want to put an end to end to the mass shootings, we must begin to heal the society and culture that spawns them.

Read the full article HERE:

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LIVING OUTSIDE THE SYSTEM.

      The only news we get about Greece from that babbling brook of bullshit, our mainstream media, is about the bailout, will they get it, won't they get it, have they done enough to get it. Have they sorted out their lazy workers and cut their wages and pensions enough to merit the European financial Mafia giving the Greek banks more cash, with which to pay back the European financial Mafia?? Very little or nothing appears about how this game of shuffling imaginary money around affects the ordinary people of Greece. Poverty, deprivation, massive unemployment, especially among the young, increase alcoholism, drug addiction, suicides, mental health problems, homelessness and broken families.      

     However, as always the ingenuity and imagination of the ordinary people in the face of adversity, comes up with solutions. Let's hope that they will continue this imaginative alternative and organise it to its rightful conclusion and bring about the collapse of the stinking system responsible for all their ills.

This from Red Pepper:

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    Greeks queue to buy cheap sacks of potatoes sold directly by farmers at cost price in the northern town of Thessaloniki. Farmers in northern Greece have joined forces with local residents to provide cheap produce for the people. Photo: Alexandros Michailidis

    The first problem is that in Greece now we have 25 per cent unemployment, with youth unemployment reaching 58 per cent and unemployment in areas that used to be highly industrialised sometimes reaching 70-80 per cent. Many industries either close because we have very low consumption or, as in the case of the big multinationals like Coca-Cola, they are leaving.
     Around 170,000 small companies have closed in the past three years. It is almost impossible to set up a new company today in Greece because you can’t get the finance. The banks are taking 80 per cent of the money that Greece is getting from the EU and IMF. But they are not lending a euro to the people.
     Unemployment benefit only lasts for one year, and then you get nothing to survive on – only help from friends and family, from social networks and working for very little in the black economy. The problem up to now hasn’t been as severe as it could have been because of very strong family and friendship networks – if someone had difficulty in paying bills, for example, others would support them. But it isn’t possible to sustain this kind of support indefinitely.

Read the full article HERE:

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