THE BENEFITS OF FISCAL READJUSTMENT.

     It is incredible how quickly a country that was pleasant and friendly to live in, can deteriorate to an unbelievable state of deprivation and misery. In the years that I visited Greece, I don't ever recall seeing a beggar or anyone sleeping on the streets. Not that everybody was rich, of course not, it was still a capitalist country. Now however, doorways are a welcome shelter from the cold Greek winter nights. 

          I found this Teacher Dude photo particularly haunting. It probably wasn't that long ago that this child had a home and slept in a warm bed, her dad had a job, they probably laughed and joked. What effect will her new lifestyle have on her health, physical and mental? What will the future hold for her, what will now be her life expectancy? How will her dad feel parading his daughter around the streets looking for food and a doorway in which to sleep? This is the manifestation of the financial Mafia's fiscal readjustment.

 Teacher Dude's comment on his photo is very apt:

Remember, Greece is not the victim of an insane policy of austerity but a shining example of the benefits of fiscal readjustment.

 This rapid destruction of living standards that the people of Greece are having forced on to them, manifests itself in many ways. Even if you still manage to hold onto your home, and still have a job, the chances of you eating properly and heating yourself will have gone. Trees are disappearing as people cut them down to burn for cooking and heating, furniture is going the same way. Athenians are now living in a fog of wood smoke.

This from NPR:

     "Someone must have been burning a door with the windows still set in," she says. "When the girls and I were walking home, it was hard to breathe. We used our coats as masks."

     Greeks may actually be burning old furniture to stay warm, says Stephanos Sambatakakis of the Hellenic Center for Disease Control and Prevention.

     Scientists are studying the particles in the noxious fumes, which could soon leave people suffering from inflamed eyes, respiratory problems, headaches and nausea, he says. Long-term effects could include lung inflammation and, "in extreme cases, lung cancer," he says.

Read the full article HERE:

ann arky's home.

THE DAVOS DUNGHILL.

      It is that time again, Davos, The World Economic Forum, a gathering of the main corporate Mafia members and their minders. This is where and when the corporate Mafia sit down and tell their minders, the national governments, how they want things to be done, how they want things to be structured to enhance their wealth and power and to protect these from any poisonous ideas about benefiting the people.

      It is no small party, there are some 2655 individuals on the official list, among them there will be billionaires and royalty, though I don't think there will be anybody from your street. Since this is all about the corporate mafia structuring the world to suit big business, they will form the largest group, 65% from the corporate world, while 25% of the total attendees will be made up of CEO. Others will be public officials just over 18% and those learned men from academia accounting for almost 7%. Sorry, nobody from your community centre. It may be the World Economic Forum, but according to them, you ain't in it.

     With people like our millionaire Osborne and his Bullingdon Club chum Boris Johnson in attendance, don't expect anything in your favour to come out of this lavish nosh-up. There is another name in attendance, that makes your blood creep, though he will be at home in that company, our very own home grown messianic Tony Blair. He certainly carved a very lucrative patch for himself. I suppose it's his reward for faithfully serving the corporate Mafia, through other people's blood, sweat and tears.

      This gathering is where government policies are sorted out, this is where the direction governments take will be laid down. Forget all this nonsense about elections and party manifestos, they are just the smoke and mirrors of the system. Decisions on your life are taken on high, in the rarefied atmosphere of the marble halls of power. The "representative democracy" is the charade that is there to keep the public feeling they are involved. The corporate world lays down its agenda, governments comply, that's corporate capitalism.

ann arky's home.

COLONIALISTS ALWAYS WELCOME.

   I came across this quote on the Angry Arab News Service.

Colonial Irony: the case of Mali

      Western media always ALWAYS claim that the natives warmly welcome the Western invaders but the invaders always leave humiliatingly after being chased out by armed natives.  Here is the NYT on the French invaders in Mali:  "“I want to thank the French people,” said Mamadou Traoré, a Diabaly resident. He said French airstrikes had chased away the militants without harming any civilians, a claim echoed by other residents."  And do you notice that Western media talk about being invited by the "Mali government" (just as the Soviets invaded Afghanistan after being invited by Babrak Karmal) as if the coup leaders were democratically elected. 

ann arky's home.

MALI, A THREAT TO THE CIVILISED WORLD!!!

       It is difficult to get a true picture of what is happening in Mali, a country that few in the West could find on the map and fewer could tell you anything about the place. Now it is headline news, a country which suddenly, according to our millionaire lords and masters, is a threat to the entire civilised world. As Cameron has stated, it will require a world response, You and I might not have known what was going on in Mali, but our corporate pariahs have been in their milking the country assets at least since since 1988 as Mali followed the dictate of the World Bank and the IMF, (International Mankind Fuckers) and privatised most of its major public enterprises. (From Wikipedia) The Malian government participates in foreign involvement, concerning commerce and privatization. Mali underwent economic reform, beginning in 1988 by signing agreements with the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund During 1988 to 1996, Mali's government largely reformed public enterprises. Since the agreement, sixteen enterprises were privatized, twelve partially privatized, and twenty liquidated. In 2005, the Malian government conceded a railroad company to the Savage Corporation. Two major companies, Societé de Telecommunications du Mali (SOTELMA) and the Cotton Ginning Company (CMDT), were expected to be privatized in 2008.[

      Now that the West holds most of their public enterprises, they want to get in and secure their natural resources. Mali is one of the biggest gold producers in Africa, the French with their massive nuclear energy facilities will be eager to get its hands on the Uranium, then of course their is gas and oil. Yes, Mali is a risk to our civilised world, so the lie goes.

This from International Journal of Socialist renewal:

‘Islamist terrorists’ etc., etc.
      The public relations version of the French et al invasion is a familiar refrain. “Islamic terrorists” and “jihadists” have taken control of northern Mali and are a threat to international security and to the wellbeing of the local population. Terrible atrocities against the local populace are alleged and given wide publicity by corporate media. Similar myths were peddled by the war makers when they invaded Afghanistan in 2001 and Iraq in 2003.
      It is true that Islamic fundamentalists have ruled northern Mali with an iron hand since taking over in 2012. But the reasons for this latest intervention lie in the determination of the world’s imperial powers to keep the human and natural resources of poor regions of the world as preserves for capitalist profits. West Africa is a region of great resource wealth, including gold, oil and uranium.
      The uranium mines in neighbouring Niger and the uranium deposits in Mali are of particular interest to France, which generates 78 per cent of its electricity from nuclear energy. Niger’s uranium mines are highly polluting and deeply resented by the population, including among the semi-nomadic Touareg people who reside in the mining regions. The French company Areva is presently constructing in Imouraren, Niger, what will become the second-largest uranium mine in the world.

Read the full article HERE:

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THE BOTTLED WASP.

        The Bottled Wasp Pocket Diary is a new not-for-profit prisoner support fundraising project launched by Brighton Anarchist Black Cross and associates at the 2012 London Anarchist Bookfair. Our plan is to create a long-term stable income for prisoner support activities, delivering a publishing template that can be used by a hopefully independent self-sustaining collective that will go on to produce the diary in future years.

        Each new edition of the Bottled Wasp is based around an individual theme, which for the 2013 edition of The Wasp is prisoner support and resistance. It features articles on Writing to Prisoners, Why You Should Sue the Police, No Comment plus all the usual diary features: monthly and yearly organisers, a menstrual calendar and extensive prisoner support links pages. With contributions from the Anarchist Black Cross, Legal Defence & Monitoring Group, Bent Bars Project, Green & Black Cross, Haven Books to Prisoners, Kate Sharpley Library and many more. The planned theme for the 2014 edition is 'Anarchism and the Arts', with 2015 slated for an anti-fascist themed one.

         The cover of the Bottled Wasp has been designed by Clifford Harper and the diary itself includes extensive listings of dates and illustrations of historical prison resistance and other non-prison related anarchist and class struggle events, large-scale demos and significant resistance activities, long-term prisoners' birthdays (as part of the role of this issue of the diary is to increase the numbers of people actively supporting prisoners in addition to passively supporting them via purchase of the diary itself) along with monthly feature articles on subjects ranging from Attica 1971 and Strangeways 1990 the Bombing of MOVE to Giuseppi Pinelli and Deaths in Custody.

         The Wasp was launched at the London Anarchist Bookfair on October 27th at Queen Mary, University of London, E1 4NS and is currently available for the staggeringly reasonable price of £5 from a good bookshop near you.

       Please help spread the news and you can also publicise the Bottled Wasp by linking to our Facebook page: www.facebook.com/bottledwasp

      If you wish to make a donation to the Bottled Wasp project and to the work that the Anarchist Black Cross network and other prisoner support groups do, then here are our bank account details:

The Bottled Wasp
Co-operative Bank
Sort code: 08-92-99
Acc. No.: 65601648
You can also contact us at: thebottledwasp@riseup.net

ann arky's home,
 

THE MARCH OF THE CORPORATE EMPIRE.

       It would be difficult for anybody to pick a year since the end of the second world war, when the UK, that peaceful nation, has not been somewhere fighting on foreign soil? We have the headline affairs, like Suez, Korea, Falklands, the Balkans, Afghanistan, Iraq and Libya. Then we have had UK military overseas, “peace keeping”, “training” and “supporting”. Now that we are preparing to pull out of Afghanistan, it would appear that our millionaire war lord, Cameron, has a vision of a long military adventure in North Africa, his corporate friends demand it, “Thar's gold/oil in them thar lands”. His statement, “This is a global threat and it will require a global response. It will require a response that is about years, even decades, rather than months…,” I'm sure would be most heart warming to those blood merchants in the arms industry, Once again the camouflage is the war-on-terror, protecting us at home, making our streets safer. The message they put out is that if we go into foreign lands and bomb the shit out of the locals and steal their natural resources, they will love us and leave us in peace. Though they always omit to mention the part about the rich resources. No, there is never any mention that the countries that we bomb into democracy happen to be sitting on resources that the corporate West need and from which our fat cat corporate over lords can make billions. At one time we had the British Empire that butchered its way across the world looting and pillaging, fattening its privileged parasites, now it is the Western Corporate Empire, backed up by a cabal of state funded military. The Empire is dead, long live the Empire.

ann arky's home.

LET'S RETURN TO ANARCHISM!

      The arrogance of most modern economist that the capitalist state system that we have devised is an advancement from the more “primitive” societies and also a natural progression in development, is more and more being challenged. As we start to understand the structures of those earlier societies we realise that anarchism is not just a template for the future, but also a welcome echo from the past. Far from our capitalist state system being the "pinnacle" of evolution, it is proving to be a massive retrograde step. Lots of those earlier societies functioned on none hierarchical structures and lasted, in some cases, for thousands of years. I found the following article very interesting, perhaps you will also. 

This is from Wild Culture: 

       -------As early as 1925, the founder of French anthropology, Marcel Mauss was famously advocating the alternative morality of stateless societies in his “Essay on the Gift”. His study of gift exchange in kinship societies – like the potlatch of the American Indians of the Pacific Southwest and the elaborate Kula rings of the Trobriand Islanders – challenged the universal assumption that economies without markets or money must operate by means of barter. Far from seeking to engage in market behaviour, in which each party strives to get the best goods possible at the least cost to themselves, Mauss postulated that gift economies were not based on calculation at all, but on a refusal to calculate. It was not that they had failed to develop a system sophisticated enough to yield profit in an efficient way, but rather that these exchange systems were rooted in an ethical system which consciously rejected the basic notions on which we generally believe economics to be based.

      Mauss, a revolutionary socialist, aligned himself with many classic anarchist positions, but he never actually described himself as one. Significantly, another Frenchman, Pierre Clastres – who was a self-proclaimed anarchist – became well known for making a similar argument to Mauss on a political level. Whilst Mauss used anthropology to illuminate ways in which it was possible to build an anti-capitalist economy (as a response to the crisis of Lenin’s socialism), Clastres used anthropology to demonstrate how it was possible for power to operate in an egalitarian, non-coercive manner. By considering the power structures of stateless societies on their own terms Clastres found a way to politicise primitive societies. In doing so, he radically challenged the notion, outlined most prominently by Thomas Hobbes, that state power is a necessary illusion.

Read the full article HERE:

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HELP THE DISILLUSIONED SWP TO FIND DEMOCRACY.

       So the SWP is crumbling, the reason being the usual political party problems, manipulation, deception, sex, and corruption, nothing new there then. Perhaps we could tell those who are leaving in disgust and disillusionment, where real democracy lies, here among the anarchist groups,

This from the Commune:

21 01 2013

      Members of Britain’s Socialist Workers Party are resigning from the party in droves, says duvinrouge. The impetus comes from a sexual assault allegation against a senior member of the party, & allegations that it wasn’t investigated properly. But unpinning this is the discontent due to the lack of party democracy.

       The SWP is a Leninist party & therefore internally organises in a way that is termed democratic-centralism. The basic idea being that the majority decision is decided upon & then there is unity of action led by a central committee. It actual fact it’s a fig-leaf ideology to allow a few to justify their life as professional revolutionaries, dreaming of their place in history, whilst the rank & file members sell the paper to fund this lifestyle. It’s much like parliamentary democracy’s claim to represent the wishes of the people & gives us the illusion of having a say.

Read the full article HERE:    disillusioned

ann arky's home.

IT'S OUR HOME!

 

Published on Jan 19, 2013

       This video was made in response to the recent wave of evictions of squats and of repression of the anarchist movement by the greek State.

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COMMENTS ON THE SPIRIT OF REVOLT.

     So the Spirit of Revolt's first exhibition came to an end on Saturday afternoon, and to all those involved it proved to be a demanding and exiting event. I think we can all say with confidence it also proved to be a very successful and rewarding experience. The flow of visitors interested in asking questions and offering praise was extremely pleasing to all those involved. I think it proves that the people of Glasgow recognised this as their own history and wanted to know more, as well as seeing it recorded and made accessible. A special thanks to the Mitchell Library staff for their support throughout the event.

     Here are just some of the comments, (there are more on the same vein, none on a negative note or critical.) left by visitors:

"This is the best exhibition I've seen in this space. More please! Well done to all involved."
"Loads of informative, inspiring and funny stuff - It's good seeing the creative output of Glasgow's radicals."
"Great stuff. Thanks for putting this together and getting it displayed."
"Very interesting exhibition, cleverly presented. Would love to see more from you."
"Excellent, thanks for holding it."
"Great work, need a bigger exhibition!!!"
"Enjoyed it, more on John MacLean."
"Fantastic! Good to know that a people's history gets a voice in Glasgow!"
"Very interesting - fantastic to see this stuff in public view!"
"Brilliant, we need more exhibitions like this showing Glasgow's REAL history."
     There are many more comments all in the same vein, but two that more than pleased me were the two from visitors from the other side of the world, Columbia, 
"Thanks for this exhibition and also for keeping the archive. This is crucial work and it is exciting to see that the materials are being preserved, made accessible and disseminated in the same spirit that produced them."
"Amazing view of a hundred years of resistance! It is great to see clarity, cleverness and sense of humour that keeps rising amongst the radicals."

    There you have it, a few of the reactions from the general public to a display of their own history -- interest, appreciation and a thirst for more.

ann arky's home.

RUTHLESS ATOS AND MANSLAUGHTER.

       Sometimes we can be grateful to the Westminster Houses of Hypocrisy and Corruption, as some useful information can be gleaned from the discourses of the "Honourable Gentlemen". During a recent debate on the government's Work Capability Assessment scheme, some interesting figures came out. Some MP's condemned ATOS for, ruthlessly pressurising sick and disabled people into returning to their jobs. Michael Meacher, former Labour minister, stated that 1,300 people had died after ATOS had placed them on a work related activity group, these are people who ATOS deemed too ill to return to work at present but are expected to start preparing for a return to work. There has been 2,200 ill people who have died before ATOS had completed their assessment. There has been several cases of people on disability benefit, who after being passed fit for work by ATOS, and stripped of their benefit, have committed suicide. 

       It would appear that this forcing sick and disabled people through brutal humiliation and stress, can sink to depths no decent person could imagine. The debate in the Westminster Houses of Hypocrisy and Corruption, were told of the case of a woman who suffered from incontinence and was told she could return to work if she wore a nappy, how low will they sink? Attempting to get those registered as sick and disabled back into work, come what may, at a time when there are approximately 2.5 million people unemployed in this country, is just another charade, concealing their money saving mania. What are the chances of them getting employed when there are more than eight people chasing every vacancy?

           The entire stressful and humiliating process ruthlessly enforced by ATOS at the government's bidding is a criminal act and deaths resulting from such a process should be registered as manslaughter. If you bully somebody to the extent that they commit suicide, you are culpable. If you pressurise somebody to the extent that it could hasten their death, you are guilty of a crime. Why not ATOS?

         It is perhaps too much to expect justice under this present system, but we can fight for a change to society, so that justice will not have to be struggled for, it will be the norm.

ann arky's home.

GUNS AND STATE VIOLENCE.

        There is a lot of sound and fury going on in America at the moment about guns, should they be banned, should certain types of guns be banned. Of course the gun lobby keeps up the cry that guns don't kill, it is people. Others say that it is rage that is at the root of all those shootings and massacres. Of course there is rage in America, perhaps it is because, even subconsciously, the American people now realise that "the American dream" was an illusion, it was a con, perpetrated by the corporate world.  It never did reach all Americans and it is doubtful if it ever reached anywhere near the majority of the American people. It was a propaganda weapon that kept everybody beavering away with the selfish desire that they were going to make it big time. They were going to get up the ladder higher than others and accrue more than others. A little bit of rationalism would have told them, that can't happen to everybody, so the dream was flawed from its inception. On the matter of guns, my only question is, what are guns for? Their only purpose is to kill, that is what they were designed to do, they are not fashion adornments, they surely aren't status symbols. Somewhere in the psyche of gun lovers there must be some link with the guns only purpose. Of course simply banning guns will not stop murders and massacres, but turning away from the love of guns might change that psyche.

      However, I see American society as a microcosm of the American state. Across the globe we see America indulging in mass killings by the biggest guns on earth, they make it quite obvious that they take it as right that they should solve what they deem to be problems, with firepower, but throw their hands in the air in anguish when individuals do like wise. Throughout our history, guns have always meant power, as we rampaged across the planet raping and plundering its resources, but this violent response to what the state sees as problems, is labeled morally right and stamped legal, but that violence is meant to be its prerogative. When individuals and groups do likewise to solve their problems, it is labeled morally wrong and stamped illegal. It is obviously a flawed system. 

ann arky's home.

WHY WORK?

       It is practically universal, almost all of those who have to do it, hate it, if not at first, in time they begin to hate it, as it eventually grinds them down. Usually those who don't have to do it, the rich and privileged of this society, will praise it, and denigrate those among the poor who don't do it, whether it is by their own desire or otherwise. I am of course talking about work.

      It was Paul Lafargue, Marx's son-in-law, and author of  "The right to be lazy" who wrote:

        ...not to demand the Right to Work which is but the right to misery, but to forge a brazen law forbidding any man to work more than three hours a day, the earth, the old earth, trembling with joy would feel a new universe leaping within her.

         Why do we do it? An interesting article from Void Mirror:

     All must work! Declares the cabinet of millionaires. 'Workers not shirkers!, they implore. 'Strivers not skivers!' The divide and rule rhetoric trying to pit those in work against those without is as relentless as it is transparent. But what's so good about work anyway?  

      Junge Linke's short piece skewers how attempts to mobilise resentment of claimants and the unemployed undermine even those in work who aren't claiming benefits. What I'd like to focus on is two perspectives on what an explicitly anti-work politics might look like.

Read the full article HERE:

ann arky's home.

           

   

GEORGE SQUARE IS OUR SQUARE.

        The Kremlin in  George Square are at it again, touching their forelock to the corporate world. Not content with having taken the city's historic George Square and turned half of it into rentable red tarmac to raise money, and allow the corporate world to tout their wares in what should be a pleasant place for the citizens and tourist to sit, chat, have lunch or meander and mingle. They now are intent on spending £15 million on changing the whole square into a suitable venue for more corporate events in the hope of raising more money. The Square belongs to the people, it is a spot in the heart of the city where we can, (should be able to) relax and meet-up with friends and family. It should never be a another corporate space, another money spinner for the corporate world. As far as I am aware, the Square is actually registered as a public park and as such should remain a place for the people of Glasgow and visitors to enjoy. Only the people of Glasgow can stop this rape of our city, only we can take back what is rightfully ours before it becomes another one of those things that we look back at with that nostalgic look in our eye.

This from A World to Win:

         Citizens in Glasgow are up in arms over a council proposal to transform historic George Square, into a corporate “retail-led” space with crass “public art”. Many rightly see it is an attempt to drive the political and social life of the city out of this important square.
George Square has been the centre of struggle in the city from the 1919 uprising to demonstrations against the poll tax and Trident. Most recently, it was the site for the Occupy movement’s actions in Glasgow.
Without any consultation, the Labour-controlled council has unveiled six options, each more corporate than the one before, in a £15 million project, most of which will be borrowed against future business rates income.

Read the full article HERE:

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WHOSE STREETS ARE THEY?

       With the Golden Dawn fascists, backed up by the police, making daily attacks on immigrants, or even those who "don't look Greek", the continual physical confrontation between anti-fascists and the Golden Dawn fascists, the latter usually rescued or protected by the police, recent mass arrests of anarchists, and the eviction of long standing squats makes it clear that in Greece, the political struggle has moved from a battle to control the ballot boxes to a battle to control the streets. As the state loses the propaganda battle of keeping the public quiet and subservient, it will move to the more forceful method of control, brute force and repression. This can be a tipping point, who controls the streets, controls the country, the state is well aware of this fact and will pull out all the stops to gain and keep control of those streets. It is what we all face as we increase our resistance to the onslaught of brutal austerity measures. Here in the UK as well as the rest of Europe we are entering the era of bare-knuckle capitalism, as they will not give up on their plans to siphon all public assets into the private corporate world. The will fight their corner hard and viciously, we have no alternative but to fight back with more force than they hit us or capitulate, the choice is ours.

This from Contra Info:

        In the evening of January 15th, 2013 antifascists confronted a Nazi group of the Chrissi Avgi/Golden Dawn party in the city of Heraklion, on Crete.
     Approximately 30 fascists were passing out their texts for the second time on one of the city’s avenues. A group of nearly 60 antifascists attacked the Nazis, who wore helmets and carried sticks with the national flag. The Nazis ran away in fear, after a five minute’s clash. Only when fascists retreated did two anti-riot squadrons intervene and try to chase off the counter-protesters (as usual, cops and fascists had coordinated themselves well beforehand). After the crackdown of the police that used tear gas and stun grenades, the dastardly Nazis began to throw stones at the comrades from a distance and urged cops to pursue the antifascists.
      More than five Nazis were wounded and needed stitches, while they received concussions and had broken limbs, too. At the same time, three antifascists got injured from the stones and needed stitches. Both Nazis and counter-protesters ended up in the same hospital which was on duty, where two anti-riot squadrons made their presence again, in order to safeguard the Golden Dawn members. While solidarians waited for the injured antifascists to leave the hospital, they slashed the tires of four cars belonging to Nazis outside.

Read the full article HERE:

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OUR PRIVATISED HEALTH SERVICE.

        I suppose you still remember those ConDem millionaires spouting how they would protect the NHS? Well they are working hard at making sure it becomes International Health Services, PLC. The big corporate greed merchants are all lined up waiting for that little extra perk from their millionaire friends in the Westminster Houses of Hypocrisy and Corruption, they want tax relief for companies buying up the NHS. They believe that we the public should pay for the privilege of letting the blood sucking corporate beast make millions from our sick and elderly. Recently Paul Polman, chief executive Officer of Unilever, the world's third-largest consumer goods company, stated,“The structural changes that need to be made for society still haven’t been made," he says. "There has been a growing realisation that our present model of growth, while it has served us well for a long time, certainly has enormous shortcomings which are increasingly transparent." “Individuals need to get used to lower pensions and welfare payments.(my emphases added) Government needs to get used to lower spending levels, businesses need to get used to the costs that come with it and bear their part. Everybody has to chip in. People are realising in the West that our model is not a sustainable model.”

      I love that bit, "Everybody has to chip in", we, the public, take a massive cut in our living standards, see our pensions evaporate like early morning mist in the sun, stand idly by as our social services become a commodity to be purchased from Fatcat Incorporated, buy our health care from FastBuck Ltd. then send our elderly to LastChanceSaloon, PLC. This is their idea of how to encourage growth, growth for who? Well it is obvious that the only growth to come from such a blood sucking idea will be in the bank accounts of the parasite shareholders, bank accounts that will no doubt be shuffled off to some sunny little tax haven. 

     This is the millionaire ConDem way of protecting our NHS, making sure it becomes the biggest money spinner their millionaire corporate friends have seen in their lifetime. The biggest rip-off they have managed to engineer in generations. All the health care you could possibly wish for at a price and if you can't manage the price, well see some back street shady practitioner who'll do it on the cheap for you. It's market forces in health, just as you can by cheap shoes or expensive shoes, so you will be able to buy cheap health care or if you're lucky the better article, expensive health care.  

        The following from A World to Win: 

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THAT BABBLING BROOK OF BULLSHIT.

       Time and time again I refer to the Media as that babbling brook of bullshit, if only that was all they were. They are in fact a necessary arm of the powers that be and produce part-information and mis-information shaping and shading the picture of the world that we are handed. They are not innocents, their distortions can bolster a war by painting it justifiable and honourable, when in fact it is no more than a corporate resource grab, Iraq springs to mind. Their selective amnesia and blind-eye vision is nothing less than complicity in some of the most brutal episodes of modern Western imperialism. Without the loyal subservience of the mainstream media the state could not possibly get away with these brutal murders of innocent men, woman and children across the world. If the states of the world are blood stained up to their armpits, the mainstream media is wallowing in that same blood.

         There was a report half way through the war of an Italian refugee charity arriving at the border of Kosovo with a camera crew and ambulance, and spiriting away an old woman refugee who’d collapsed – all of it faithfully filmed for Italian TV. It was the first time during the war the charity had done anything. It turned out that the woman had merely fainted – and, as a result of this dramatic intervention she became extremely upset, hardly surprising, since she’d been separated from her family who, in the meantime, had been shoved off to some other refugee camp, and no-one knew where they were. Once you enter this world of TV, of image, of the appearance of goodness, “care”, “charity” & “humanitarianism” are but masks for indifference: everything’s just a photo-opportunity. The more all-pervasive these role-bound relations are the more such functionalising of people appears as ‘natural’. The media is simply an arm of the State, making modern alienated spectacular relations seem reasonable and in­evitable. 

         An article from a former soldier in Bosnia said that when an American TV crew turned up at his base they asked to see a burnt-out village previously inhabited by Bosnian Muslims – which they were duly shown. When the UN soldiers asked if they wanted to take photos of a burnt-out village previously inhabited by Bosnian Serbs the journalists refused, saying it would confuse the issue: their viewers wanted clear ideas about what was going on. The soldier then went on to say that this was a typical American desire for black and white opinions. In fact, this American TV crew were merely being loyal servants of their masters, the US ruling class, loyal servants of dominant ideology, which is not simplisticly a lie, but a half-truth that omits any facts that contradict the official “truth”.

 Image by John Hartfield.

Read the full article HERE:

 

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WORKERS PLEDGE.

       The Spirit of Revolt group are in the midst of their first exhibition, which is being held in the foyer of the Mitchell Library Glasgow and runs until Saturday 19th. January. The exhibition is called Radical Presses Clydeside, and tries to show the extent of anarchist/libertarian socialist literature that has been and is still being produce from independent radical presses across the area. The selection of literature on display covers the full spectrum from industrial struggle to feminism, from anti-war to  syndicalist theory and more. There are pamphlets, books, leaflets and newspapers, going back more than 100 years. The aim of the group is to make this material more readily available to the general public in the hope that they can identify this past with the struggles we face today and hopefully learn from that past. The feedback so far has been nothing but positive. One of the books on display is Guy Aldred's "At Grips With War" and below is a quote from the book that one visitor asked if we could print out a copy for him. Which we willingly did.

Workers Pledge in Time of War.

I refuse to kill any child's father.

I refuse to slay any mother's son.

I refuse to plunge the bayonet into the breast of any

                woman's brother, lover, or mate.

I refuse to murder and deem the slaughter glory.

I refuse to butcher with the hands that were intended to

                serve and to caress.

I refuse to soak the earth with blood and blind my reason

                with obedience.

I refuse to assassinate another man and then hide my

                 stained fists in the folds of a bloodstained flag.

I refuse to be flattered, cajoled, or driven into hell's

                nightmare by a class of well-fed snobs, crooks

                and cowards who despise my class socially, rob

                my class economically, and betray and oppress it

                politically. Let militarism do its worst, I refuse

                to serve, I decline to kill.

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-- BUT THE SPECTATOR IS NECROPHILIAC---.

         Sometimes a comment says more than you could write in an article ten times its length. Just a few lines a handful of words and there it is, just what you were trying to say in that essay/article/letter. I found one such comment in an article called "Shakespeare was a fake"

On the other side of this leaflet was the following:
CULTURE – YECCHH! – THE ULTIMATE COMMODITY – THE ONE THAT SELLS ALL THE OTHERS…………….
Sit down! Keep quiet! Face the front!
Laugh/cry/clap at the right places only, please!
Refrain from discussing the performances or the set until the interval!Be good! And – above all – APPRECIATE!
WHILST YOU WATCH A TRAGI-COMEDY THE TRAGI-COMEDY OF YOUR LIFE PASSES YOU BY…
“Oh, he’s such a brilliant actor…”
“No, I disagree – I find him somewhat derivative, actually.”
ALL THESE DISTRACTIONS/COMPENSATIONS JUST REINFORCE YOUR PASSIVITY IN THE FACE OF THE LIVING DEATH OF MARKET RELATIONS, RELATIONS OF EXCHANGE, OF DOMINATION & SUBMISSION……………..
HIGH CULTURE/LOW CULTURE – JUST ANOTHER HIERARCHY TO KEEP YOUR OWN CREATIVE NEGATIVITY LOCKED UP IN YOUR HEAD, REDUCED TO DAY-DREAMING & NIGHTMARES……….
ART IS DEAD – BUT THE SPECTATOR IS NECROPHILIAC………

Actually the whole article is worth a read:

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THE STENCH OF AMERICAN EMPIRE.

      This film is an excellent display of just how that "land of the free", America tramples democracy. John Pilger's film, though made in 2007, is still due as wide a viewing as possible as it helps to lay bare the depth of brutal corruption that lies at the heart of this corporate system. 

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ATOS KILLS - TIME TO KILL ATOS.

Tom Gordon
Scottish Political Editor Herald

        DEPUTY First Minister Nicola Sturgeon is being targeted by protesters who want the controversial "fit-for-work" benefits test company Atos dropped as a sponsor of the Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth Games. Around 15 demonstrators carrying "Atos Kills" posters invaded a constituency surgery in Sturgeon's Glasgow Southside seat on Friday to demand an end to the deal.
       The peaceful protest ended after police were called to the Larkfield Centre in Govanhill but there were no arrests. Sturgeon personally welcomed Atos as an official sponsor of Glasgow 2014 last year, calling the French IT giant's involvement "a significant step forward for the Games".
       The company will supply the software to accredit up to 70,000 athletes, volunteers and officials, and run the Glasgow 2014 website. Sturgeon is also the Scottish Government's leading voice on welfare issues – last week she announced an expert group to help devise a welfare system reflecting "Scottish values" and fairness under independence instead of the cuts being imposed by Westminster.
        Protesters say Atos could not be further from those Scottish values, given its central role in the UK government's welfare reforms. Atos Healthcare has a £110 million annual contract with the Department of Work and Pensions to run work capability assessments of the sick and disabled, and a £400m deal to assess mobility benefits. Critics say the tests are flawed, degrading and inefficient, with one in six passed as fit to work winning an appeal against the decision.
        The Atos sponsorship of the London 2012 Olympics and Paralympics led to protests, and similar actions are now planned in Glasgow. The 2014 HQ was occupied last month, and protesters have threatened to disrupt the Scottish equivalent of the Olympic torch relay if Atos is still a sponsor.
        The SNP Government is funding about 80% of the £550m price tag for the Games. However, a video of Friday's protest shows Sturgeon denying any say over the sponsorship: "Obviously the benefits side of this is not a matter for the Scottish Government, it's a UK Government issue ... I will take on board what you said to the Commonwealth Games. Obviously, it's not my decision in terms of sponsors."

        Protester David Churchley, co-founder of the Black Triangle disability rights group, said Atos sponsorship was "absolutely scandalous and beyond belief" and that Sturgeon had tried to give protesters the brush off. He said: "They have learned nothing from the Olympics. They're just riding roughshod over disabled people and those who support us. But Friday will be just one of many stunts we will be mounting up to the Games."
      Sean Clerkin of Citizens United said: "The SNP Government is being hypocritical. They criticise the Tory-led Coalition for what they're doing to welfare, while welcoming Atos as sponsors of the Commonwealth Games. "Nicola Sturgeon is the person talking about a welfare system with
Scottish values. If she's going to live up to those values, she should ensure Atos is dropped as a sponsor."
         An Atos spokesman said: "While we fully respect people's right to peaceful protest and understand this is a highly emotive issue, Atos is proud to be an official supporter of the Glasgow 2014 organising committee." An SNP spokeswoman added: "We are opposed to the criteria and tests set by the UK Government that Atos deliver, and have made clear that they should reconsider this approach. "We are looking forward to a positive Commonwealth Games that will be a great opportunity to showcase Scotland to the world."

Info first obtained from CityStrolls:

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