ATOS KILLS SLOWLY.

     We all know that ATOS kills, but the most brutal and criminal aspect of their policies, is the fact that they kill slowly. We see protests, and we hear stories, but few of us see inside the lives of those affected. It is a harrowing experience and should bring everybody onto the streets in anger and with demand for real change.

This from a comrade on the front line:

     I work with parents and carers in deprived areas trying to help them ensure that they have the skills and knowledge to encourage their children grow into well-rounded and well-adjusted adults. Given the circumstances that some families find themselves in, this has always been a challenging job. More and more I find my time taken up supporting parents and carers as they battle enormous odds simply to be able to carry on caring for their children. What they are fighting is not the normal ups and downs of parenthood but the constant attacks on them being made by the very institutions that are meant to help them.

    The “judgements” made by ATOS in the name of their government have had a particularly worrying impact on the lives of many of the families I work with. Much has been written, in these pages and others, about the injustices being carried out by ATOS in the name of our government. When injustice becomes so rife, it is easy to lose sight of the human suffering caused by each and every one of these rulings. For this reason I would like to share some of my experiences with families claiming benefit due to ill-health. The details of the families have been changed but the circumstances are all completely true. All these examples come from one small group of parents who meet to make resources for the children in the local nursery.

     One mother who has been coming to the group for over a year has recently stopped attending. When I asked her why she said that her husband was “pretty bad” and she didn’t want to leave him in the house too much by himself. By “pretty bad” she meant that he had stopped taking his anti-depressant medication and had become suicidal (he has since been admitted to hospital). The report he had got from ATOS after his medical gave him NO points for any part of the examination. In his already low state of mind, he thought that his inability to work or even meet other people was not through a mental illness which could happen to anyone (after all the ATOS professionals had said there was nothing wrong with him). Instead he took the view that he was weak and useless, medicine wouldn’t help as he was the problem not an illness and that his wife and child would be better off if he was no longer around to drag them down.

      Another carer is in the process of discussing with Social Work the possibility of the grand-daughter she has cared for since birth going in to foster care. ATOS have declared the 58 year-old grandmother fit for work despite crippling arthritis. This despite the fact that her friends in the group regularly help her with shopping and housework so that she can be fit to look after her 4 year-old grand-daughter. Putting the child into foster care will break both their hearts but as the grand-mother says “What choice do I have. If I have to go to work I am going to be too sore and tired to make her dinners, do help her with her homework, take her places or even play with her. I know I get crabbit with her even now if I am particularly sore. If I have had to work all day and come back home in bad pain, I’m going to be shouting at her for everything. What kind of life is that for a wee girl?” The irony is that it will cost the state over £26,000 a year to keep the child in foster care. Everyone who cares for this little family are just hoping and praying that her appeal will be upheld and she can keep caring for the child who has never known any other home.

   One mother’s experience with ATOS left her so stressed that she has decided against appealing their decision. Having had radical surgery for cancer, she has a number of physical disabilities but the hardest part for her is the worry that the cancer may return and she will not be able to look after her 7 year old son who has Asperger’s Syndrome. Before her initial medical she suffered from severe anxiety with palpitations, headaches and nausea. As anyone who has had cancer will know, any unexplained symptom can cause real fear that the illness has returned. Because of her son’s condition and her own disability, this woman does get some benefits already. She has decided to try to live off these (with some financial help form her family for emergencies) rather than go through any more of what she found was a very traumatic process. However, as part of her economising, she has given up her car. As travelling by public transport is difficult for her, she stopped attending the group which she had previously found of great benefit to her socially and emotionally. I’m pleased to say that the few car-owners within the group now have a rota to make sure she can attend at least once a fortnight so however tight her money is she at least has some company. However, as she says, “it’s probably only a matter of time until they decide to cut the rest of my allowances and I don’t see how we can manage on even less than we have now.”

     When parents and carers are dealing with this kind of pressure, their children will suffer. They suffer through lack of money, the inevitable arguments that poverty brings and the fact that their parents are spending so much effort just trying to survive. These are all decent, caring parents and carers who simply want the same as everyone else - to give their children a decent home and a happy, secure childhood. These people are not work-shy scroungers - many have worked for years until circumstances made it impossible. Yet even in their poverty and stress they do what they can to help other people. In this group, they don’t sell things on eBay or Gum-tree, at least not until they have checked that someone in need can’t use it. They rally round and help each other as much as they can. They spend their time trying to make the nursery better for ALL the children who attend. In fact, had they lived in Victorian times they would have been given help as part of the class of the “deserving poor”.

      But it seems that under the present government one of the worst crimes you can commit is to be ill. The only contribution to society this government is able to comprehend is an economic one through paid employment. The political party of “family values” is systematically destroying family after family. And for what? As one member of the group asked “Where are all these jobs that they think we are all fit to do?”

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THE TRILOGY OF TYRANNY.

     Most states come down hard on any opposition, some more than others. Anarchists seem to come in for the worst of that state violence. At the moment in Greece the state is coming down hard on any anarchist groups it can lay its hands on. They face brutal treatment at the hands of the police and a prison sentence on some charge or other. However in Egypt it seems that it is somewhat different, with the The Islamist party of the Jihad Organization and Jama'a al-Islamiya calling for the Black Bloc to be killed. According to the Egyptian Independent it has been stated, “God orders us to kill, crucify or cut off the hands and feet of those who spread mischief on earth,” said Jama'a al-Islamiya Mufti Abdel Akhar Hammad, citing a verse from the Quran. “The president must give that order.”. In the same article it says, Mohamed Samra of the Jihad Organization said that the Black Bloc group is financed from abroad and must be killed, and that the National Salvation Front members must be arrested and charged with incitement to riot. 

     Is this democracy at work in Egypt, is this what the people of Egypt took to the streets for, in their millions? Is this the flower of the Arab Spring? Party politics, religion and the state, is a mix from which freedom and democracy can never grow, it is a poisonous cocktail that, if the people accept it, always ends in tyranny, control and repression. We can call on centuries of history to verify this pattern, we have a world of practical ongoing evidence to back this up, it is there before our eyes on a daily basis.

     The only hope for the people of this world to have what is rightfully ours, freedom and justice, is for the trilogy of tyranny, the state, party politics and religion, to be irrevocably eradicated. A world of communities organised by those who live in those communities, in federation with other communities. A world of self determination, co-operation and mutual aid is possible, and will see an end to the bloodshed and misery that unnecessarily floods our world at present.

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THEY GATHER IN THE GLOBAL SQUARE.

       In a global square, in a global village, people are gathering, they want to sort out their village for once and for all. They have had enough of wild beasts stealing their chickens, of watching their crops being trampled by war lords. This time they will do it right.

     A verse from The Global Square: an ode to world revolution.

Why do you come back
Why do you exist like never before
Like why did you never before exist
Are we witness to a unique idea
Are we witness to an idea that will never take form
Are we those visionary witnesses that
Nostradamus never mentioned in his
Nine hundred and forty-two verses
Are we being overshadowed by the big money
Of the devouring wolves and the peckish pigs
No we are not
Because we are the global square

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THE VOICE OF DEMOCRACY!!!

        America is probably the state that shouts loudest about freedom and democracy, it is also the most militarily aggressive state in the world. As far as the latter part of the 20^th and 21^s century goes, it heads the leader-board for shear destructive bombardment, the list of countries bombed by America since the end of the second world war, can only be seen as a charge sheet of some sort of psychopath.

Here is a the list

Afghanistan 1998, 2001- Bosnia 1994, 1995 Cambodia 1969-70 China 1945-46, 1950-53 Congo 1964 Cuba 1959-1961 El Salvador 1980s Korea 1950-53 Guatemala 1954, 1960, 1967-69

Indonesia 1958 Laos 1964-73 Grenada 1983 Iraq 1991-2000s Iran 1987 Kuwait 1991 Lebanon 1983, 1984 Libya 1986, 2011 Nicaragua 1980s

Pakistan 2003, 2006- Palestine 2010 Panama 1989 Peru 1965 Somalia 1993, 2007-08, 2010- Sudan 1998 Vietnam 1961-73 Yemen 2002, 2009- Yugoslavia 1999

    Note that these countries represent roughly one-third of the people on earth. This list does not included the recent drone attacks on Pakistan and other areas.

       On top of the dubious accolade of having bombed approximately one third of the earth's population, beyond its own borders, it wears what can only be seen as the badge of a tyrant and a brutal dictatorship, Guantanamo Bay Camp. No matter how you dress the language, no matter how you shape the description, no matter the legal terminology you dress it in, Guantanamo Bay breaks every moral, ethical and legal code, it breaks all laws of decency and justice, it stands as a citadel to tyranny. Despite the Pope of Hope, the Prince of Peace, Obama's promise in 2008, to close this symbol of lawlessness, today it still stands and functions in the name tyranny. 

Photo from Wikipedia.

A poem written by one of the many unfortunate human beings to be destroyed at Guantanamo Bay.

Death Poem

by Jumah al Dossari (mp3)
Take my blood.
Take my death shroud and
The remnants of my body.
Take photographs of my corpse at the grave, lonely.
Send them to the world,
To the judges and
To the people of conscience,
Send them to the principled men and the fair-minded.
And let them bear the guilty burden before the world,
Of this innocent soul.
Let them bear the burden before their children and before history,
Of this wasted, sinless soul,
Of this soul which has suffered at the hands of the “protectors of peace.”
Jumah al Dossari is a thirty-three-year-old Bahraini who has been in solitary confinement at Guantanamo Bay since the end of 2003 and, according to the U.S. military, has tried to kill himself twelve times while in custody.

ann arky's home.

WORK IS THE ANTITHESIS OF FREEDOM.

      In Britain at the end of the first world war, in 1919, there were strikes and mass protests/demonstrations calling for an eight hour day, some of them very bloody. If we believe that we live in a society that is meant to be progressing, one would imagine that almost 100 years after those strikes/protests/demonstrations, we would have made progress to the three hour day, or there abouts, at least. But no, here we are still stuck with the eight and eight plus hour day. Work can never be freedom, freedom can only take place outside of work, so it is safe to say that in this society, freedom of the individual has not progressed in almost 100 years. That is surely an indictment of the type of society we have created.

An interesting article from Anarchy in Italy:

      Work less to live more. What a beautiful slogan! I wonder if the one who coined it understood the unintended truth it contains, that work is the negation of life. “Eight hours of obligation is enough to exhaust a person’s energy. What he gives at work is his life, the better part of her strength. Even if the work has not degraded her, even if she has not felt himself overcome by boredom and fatigue, he leaves exhausted, diminished, with the imagination withered.” So a worker wrote several decades ago. Anyone who has worked even for just one day understands the meaning of these words. This is why the reduction of work hours has always been one of the primary demands of those who don’t commission the work, but who carry it out, and so bear its entire burden.

      It is taken for granted that less time spent at work means more time dedicated to oneself, and thus that every minute, every hour snatched from the factory or office could only represent a step forward toward a better quality of life. Most likely no one would venture to deny it once someone says it. But we shouldn’t ignore the contradictions to be found in such a conviction. If one wants to work less, it is clearly because one does not love work. But why? If work gave satisfaction, joy, contentment, why would one every renounce it? If work was really the dimension through which the human being creates the world and himself, why does she feel it as a burden? If it is true that work is human nobility, why hope that a stroke of fortune will free us from it forever? Clearly because work does not exalt the human being at all, but rather degrades her. Life is the consumption of vital human energy, but through work this squandering of energy occurs at times, in places, in ways and for aims that are not those of the person working. When one works, it is always for someone else. So by detesting imposition, one ends up detesting work.

Read the full article HERE:

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THE CORPORATE DREAM.

      We are in an era where the ruthless and relentless flood of corporate capitalism, aided and abetted by our fascist governments, attempts to put an end to any, all and every, type of public space. The general plan is for all our cities and towns to be corporate entities, all our services to be corporate provided. They envisage a world of corporate shopping malls, corporate leisure centres, corporate theme parks, corporate media, corporate education and corporate health care etc.. For this reason the state views squats, occupations and self organisation as resistance to their grand plan, hence their heavy handed assault and brutal eviction of these places. Some of these squats/occupations have been in existence and serving their community for decades. However, for their plan to work, it is crucial that they crush any saplings of alternative ways of living, destroy any resistance to the corporate dream. For them to succeed they have to break the will of the people, intimidate them into accepting their vision of the super corporate world. This is not a national plan, it is an international plan. The only way they can succeed is if the people stop resisting, lie back and let the corporate juggernaut roll over them. It is our choice.

      This from Act for Freedom Now: 

THE GREEK SQUATTERS AND FREEDOM FIGHTERS ARE OUR BROTHERS AND SISTERS

      The Greek squatters movement has been under continuous attack for the last days by the Hellenic terrorist state and capital. On December the 20th, one of the most emblematic Athenian squats, “Villa Amalias” got evicted after more than 27 years of self-organization and resistance.

     This eviction was followed by a failed attempt to re-squat the house on the 9th of January 2013 and the new eviction of the squatted social center; “Skaramaga”. The day came to an end with more than 100 people arrested. Finally, on 15th of January 2013, Athen’s oldest squat “Lela Karagounis” also came under a eviction attack which was successfully repelled and ended up with the subsequent re-squatting of the building.

     Last week, especially the Sunday 13th of January a number of demonstrations and rallies took place in most Greek cities. The situation is one of tension and total war against the squatters, mainly waged (as usual) by the state and capitalism with the inestimable help of the patriotic and racist extreme right party “Golden Down” and its gangs of murderous henchmen.

    Generally speaking the Occupied spaces in Greece do not just function as mere concert halls, bars and leisure centers. About any sort of activity has been organized in them; from workshops, political debates and meetings to kindergartens and primary healthcare surgeries. During entire decades they have always been by the side of the people most exploited and beaten down by state and capitalism alike such as the immigrants, working people and members of the so-called “ethnic minorities”. Their daily activity has come to be much more appreciated within the context of the present so-called “crisis”, which is wreaking havoc among the most vulnerable portions of the population… Many squatters and their supporters can be found in the front-line of all the struggles taking place in Greece at the moment be these violent or peaceful… has the smiling clown of the TV news told you anything about this ladies and gentlemen?…. we already knew the answer/ don’t worry, we know your answer already.So we see how these brave people has the determination to choose the ONLY REAL WAY, the truly realistic solution… that of totally grassroots and therefore revolutionary self-organization, with no hierarchies, bosses, parties, trade unions or parasites of any kind.All this appears to be in stark contrast with the cowardice and simplicity still observed in most struggles and demo slogans within the chunk of land known as “Spain”. To everybody’s dismal, the latter are mainly characterised by a seemingly indisputable dogmatism around the topic of “non-violent” tactics, a very unlikely reformism, continuous attempts of co-optation by right as well as left wing political parties and unions and a naïve nostalgia of “nanny” state and its consumerist, stupefying, environmentally destructive and alienating “welfare”.

   SO WHAT ABOUT YOU?… ARE YOU GOING TO KEEP DENYING REALITY AND LOOKING AWAY SO THAT YOU DO NOT HAVE TO ACCEPT WHAT IS REALLY GOING ON?

NON-VIOLENT INGENUITY AND WELFARE STATE NOSTALGIA ARE NOT GOING TO SAVE YOU

STATE AND CAPITALISM ARE THE ONLY TERRORISTS

IF YOU NEED A HOUSE SEIZE ONE AND DEFEND IT!

IF WE NEED COMMON SPACES LET US TAKE THEM AND DEFEND THEM BY ALL MEANS.

ann arky's home.

YOU HAVE A RIGHT TO SELF DEFENCE.

       We are aware of the rising unemployment across Europe, but what doesn't get a lot of mention in our babbling brook of bullshit, the media, is that it is not just in Europe that capitalism has miserably failed. The world's unemployment figures are on the rise, another bit of proof, it it was needed, that capitalism doesn't work. At the end of year 2012, the world's unemployment figure stood at 197 million, a rise on the previous year of 4 million, and according to the “economic experts” it is set to rise by 5.1 million in 2013 and by a further 3 million in 2014. Again it is the young that are getting hit hardest, with 13% of the world's under 24's unemployed. According to the report, Global Unemployment Trends 2013, Long term unemployment is also growing with more than a third of Europe's jobless having been out of work for more than a year. It also stated that many, 39 million, had given up in looking for a job and had withdrawing from the labour market. This is the advanced capitalism, not a new fledgling system that is finding its feet. This is as good as it gets, capitalism is unable to see to the needs of the ordinary people across the globe. It is a system of privilege for the few and struggle for the many, a system driven by profit and fuelled by greed. It is a system that pampers parasites and tramples the poor. It is a failed and flawed system, It is only self defence to battle to destroy such an unjust system, we cannot be expected to sit by and tolerate a savage and brutal regime of exploitation and hand our grandchildren a heritage of deprivation. We have a right to be part of the shaping of our world, the world belongs to the people of the world, not to the blood sucking leeches and pampered parasites that at present hold the levers of power. Self defence is not a crime, and it is long past the time for the people to stand up and protect themselves.

ann arky's home.

ANARCHISTS IN THE "ARAB SPRING".

     There seems to be a refreshing change taking place across the Middle East. More and more we are seeing larger organised anarchist groups coming to the fore in demonstrations. It makes a pleasant move away from the predominantly religious factions that seem to have dominated the Western media's much loved "Arab Spring". Who knows the spark that starts the fire, once the genie of protest is out, it is almost impossible to get it back into the bottle.

       This from Vast Minority:

       AN EGYPTIAN anarchist movement has emerged on the streets with a wave of firebombings and street fights. The new wave of revolt is also sweeping through other Arab countries, with anarchist groups in Tunisia, Morocco, Syria and elsewhere.
       Anarchists have been present in Egypt before, during, and after the revolution, but until today, they have yet to organize a mass grouping under the banner of anarchism, explains blogger Ryan Harvey.

      The Ultras of Egypt’s football clubs have for years been associated with anarchist ideas and actions, and they are widely credited with having initiated the level militancy that brought down the Mubarak government in February of 2011.

Read the full article HERE:

ann arky's home.
 

TODAY GREECE ----TOMORROW ---???

     The powers that be are obviously giving a free hand and support to the fascist gangs of street thugs in an attempt to disrupt any organising by the ordinary people against the savage attack on their living standards by the financial Mafia.

    It is no accident or co-incidence that the police work hand in hand with such gangs as Golden Dawn, it is part of their plan of intimidation and repression.

    Today Greece --- tomorrow --??

ann arky's home.

THAT BABBLING BROOK OF BULLSHIT.

      We have 24 hour news coverage and are assaulted with an avalanche of bullshit and trivia. We have a long winded out pouring from a sick parasite from the parasitic family of Windsors informing us he killed Taliban, all in a matter of fact, all in a day's work attitude. Then we have massive coverage of celebrities sexual exploits, people making snowmen, while other tell us how dreadful it is when it snows and upsets their routine. However you will have to search hard to find anything about the people in Europe in struggle and direct action to protect themselves against this ongoing vicious attack by the financial Mafia. You get statistics about the soaring unemployment among the young and pie-in-the-sky plans to end hunger forever. But where is the coverage of struggles taking place on a daily basis?

      We were informed that the unemployment rate among the young in Spain had passed the 55% mark, but it appears that all is quiet in that country, the people are just going quietly about their business, waiting for the promised growth. It would be a surer bet to wait for the promise land.

     In Greece the overall unemployment rate is now above 26%, homeless is stratospheric, suicides are rocketing, health problems, physical and mental, are going of the radar, while the Greek government becomes more openly fascist by the day, where is the coverage? Our media is indeed, a babbling brook of bullshit.

This from the Greek Streets.

Thursday, January 24, 2013

      In the afternoon of January 24, the Greek government via the ministry of transport ordered the civil conscription (i.e. the forced return to work) of the workers at the Athens Metro, who had been on strike for the past eight days. In response, the workers in all other mass transportation mediums in the city (buses, metro green line and tram) have also joined or extended their strikes. The workers at the Athens metro are calling all those in solidarity to gather at the main metro depot in Sepolia (by Kifissos Ave).

ann arky's home.

CAGES OF REPRESSION.

 

    I think we can all agree the state prisons are not displays of justice and democracy. They tend to be state run, or or now more than ever, corporate run cages of suppression. In that league, I think American prisons must rate among the most repressive and certainly the most lucrative for the corporate world. Even in that country now and again we hear of a case that contradicts all moral, ethical and common decency codes and degrades humanity. To deny a cancer sufferer treatment because they are in prison seems to be sinking below the borrom of the barrel.

This appeal from Freedom Socialist Party:

 

January 24, 2013

Dear Friend,
 

     Civil rights attorney and political prisoner Lynne Stewart needs help. She fought breast cancer two years ago, apparently successfully, but now the cancer is spreading. Her condition is treatable. But authorities have denied her request for transfer from her Texas prison to the New York City hospital where she received expert medical attention before.
      Please flood the mail with cards and letters to Lynne. This will boost her spirits, and it will also serve another purpose. The authorities track and read all her mail, and they take notice when they see that the world is watching.
       Stewart, a longtime anti-war and social-justice activist and respected criminal defense attorney, was unjustly convicted in 2005 of providing “support for terrorism” by delivering a handwritten press release to Reuters from Sheik Omar Abdel Rahman, a client that the court had appointed her to represent. An articulate critic of the U.S. justice system, Stewart is known as the “People’s Lawyer” for representing controversial clients, political dissidents, and the poor.

Send messages and cards to:
Lynne Stewart 53504-054
Federal Medical Center Carswell
P.O. Box 27137
Fort Worth, TX 76127

    You can get more information about Stewart’s case by listening to an interview with her husband, Ralph Poynter  (128 kbps version hi fi  or  32 kbps version lo fi), visiting the Justice for Lynne Stewart Web page http://lynnestewart.org, or reading about her at www.socialism.com.
 

      On the legal front, Lynne’s team from the Center for Constitutional Rights and the National Lawyers Guild are fighting the original charges and asking the U.S. Supreme Court to review her case.

      Please take a moment to send Lynne a card. Our actions can pressure the prison system to authorize the healthcare she needs and keep her alive while we continue to fight for her freedom. 

 

ann arky's home.

 

A CORPORATE WORLD OR A PEOPLE'S WORLD.

         I never forget the our class enemies are organised globally, they know no borders, they dish out their repression on a world wide scale. They see borders as a means of controlling us, the ordinary people, in their plans and actions, borders don't exist. Our struggle will fail unless we also organise globally, unless we stop recognising borders, unless we act in solidarity world wide. The corporate beast and their minders, the various states, will always encourage us to see divisions in our class, differences between us, as groups and individuals. Most of these divisions and differences are manufactured, or illusionary, there is more that links us than divides us. 

       It is now blatantly obvious to most people, or should be, that national party politics is a charade, a game of musical chairs, where we get an opportunity to put a new suit in some symbolic building, "Downing Street", "The White House" etc. while the corporate fascists carry on as before. From this smoke and mirrors pantomime, we get a new smiling face that spouts empty phrases, they get to continue to rape and pillage the earth and repress all its people, in the quest for personal profit with power and wealth for the few.

     We have to think and act globally, we have to stop playing by the rules they hand us, we must set the agenda, the pace, the direction of our actions. Just as you would call for solidarity in a dispute with a local employer, now we have to call for solidarity with a global employer, the corporate fascist beast, that is running rampant across our world. It is a corporate world, or it is a people's world, the choice is ours.

      This from Contra Info:

      Our comrades are still imprisoned across the world. Many of our self-organized spaces are being raided or evicted, our infrastructure is under siege, and our counter-information media are censored or hindered. Whenever we express our ideas in public, uniformed robocops are lurking everywhere. Surveillance machinery follows every single move we make, while the State counts on the support of an armed fascist mob… But our existential fight is more than defence of solid spaces.

Read the full article HERE:

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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:

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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. 

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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

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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.

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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

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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.

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