Faslane Update.

ACTION AT FASLANE TODAY:
Peace Activists target UK’s Nuclear Hypocrisy
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Monday 3rd February  

      In the early hours of this morning (Monday 3rd February) two peace activists, Sylvia Boyes and Mary Millington were arrested attempting to enter Faslane home to the UK’s nuclear submarines. Their actions come a week after David Cameron pledged to increase defence spending including investment in nuclear weapons. The Ministry of Defence also admitted that chancellor George Osborne is already signing off millions of pounds worth of investment on nuclear submarines before a parliamentary decision on the issue is to be taken[i].
Sylvia Boyes, a long term term Peace Activist and member of Trident Ploughshares[ii] said:
      “When the government of my country fails in its democratic duty to disseminate the necessary information to initiate real debate on nuclear weapons how can I continue not to act? The building work and development for the Trident replacement at Aldermaston Atomic Weapons Establishment continues unabated despite the government saying no decision is to be made until the next Parliament in 2015. We here in the UK must face up to our role in the silent acceptance of the proliferation of weapons of mass murder and mass destruction.
      I remain convinced that all nuclear weapons are weapons of mass murder and mass destruction and are therefore illegal under international laws of war. This is not a one off action but one of many to create a climate of opinion to enable the government to take part in real disarmament negotiations. My banner ‘Nuclear Disarmament if not now, when?” is asking that question for us all to answer” Large protests are expected in April this year at both Aldermaston and Faslane as campaigners continue to press for a real debate on nuclear weapons and to scrap plans for over £100bn to be spent on a Trident Replacement system.
       On learning of their arrest Dave Webb, Chair of CND[iii], commented:
“At a time when people are suffering the consequences of such brutal cuts to welfare and social services – the government needs to take action on its choices for spending. Why is the government so intent on wasting billions of pounds on useless nuclear weapons while citizens suffer severe economic hardship? It is hardly surprising that citizens like Sylvia and Mary become so frustrated with the lack of progress that they feel they have to personally challenge the tragic waste of money and morally indefensible Trident system.”
For further details contact Dominic Linley at Dominic@yorkshirecn.org.uk or on 01274 730 795 / 07939 143 698  

[i]http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2013/jan/31/trident-uk-military-shopping-list
[ii] Trident Ploughshares is a campaign to disarm the UK Trident nuclear weapons system in a non-violent, open, peaceful and fully accountable manner http://www.tridentploughshares.org/
[iii] Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND) is one of Europe's biggest single-issue peace campaigns, with over 32,000 members in the UK. CND campaigns for the abolition of nuclear weapons everywhere. www.cnduk.org

 

Trident subs, aircraft carriers and drones on MoD's £160bn shopping list www.guardian.co.uk Margaret Hodge raises doubts on whether massive weapons spending has been approved by National Audit... ann arky's home

 

Capitalism V Democracy.

       The extent to to which capitalism has distorted the distribution of the earth's resources is difficult to grasp, it has placed so much in the hands of so few. When we talk of economies and we tend to think of nation states, but the facts on the ground are different. Of the top 100 economies on the planet, 40 are corporations, the wealth of certain corporations dwarf the economies of some nations. Another little known fact is that less than 1% of corporations, mainly banks, control the shares of more than 40% of all global businesses. When it comes to who is big in this corporate world it is oil and gas, 7 out of the top 10 companies in the world are oil and gas. This distortion of wealth also distorts the direction of technology and development, the big money will control where that development will go, they will drive it to increase and consolidate their wealth and position of power. They will shape our world to their own advantage.

     So that brings us to the statement made by a certain Louis D. Brandeis, a member of US Supreme Court, 1916 – 1934, “We may have democracy, or we may have wealth concentrated in the hands of a few, but we cannot have both.”  

     It is long past the time to wake up to that realisation, any talk of democracy while continuing with the present system of capitalism is empty rhetoric, thoughts of fancy, or at worst, just plain manipulation, hypocrisy and duplicity. The question of how do we get more democracy, is the same question as how do we get rid of capitalism. Any dancing round the edges about improving democracy within capitalism is fantasising, it is impossible, there is no room in capitalism for democracy, one is the antithesis of the other.

ann arky's home.

EUROPEAN SMUGGLERS.

     An interesting article from Reports from the Edge of Borderline Democracy, on alleged threats from  big business hurtled at a reporter who published an article on oil smuggling:

   On January 31^st, the latest -14^th- issue of UNFOLLOW magazine hit the news stands all over Greece. Among other reports, we published one on oil smuggling in Greece – specifically the practice of oil carrier companies to buy oil at reduced-tax rates and channel it back into the market at the normal price.

Read the full article HERE:

ann arky's home.

FUTURE SLAVERY.

    Part of the bailout deal forced onto the people of Greece by the Troika, is that Greece privatises its public assets. These are assets that bring money into the public purse of Greece and could be spent on social services. One of the companies, soon to be privatised, in which the Greek state is the principle shareholder is ELPE (Hellenic Petroleum), while anther big money spinner that is set to be privatised on instructions from the troika is OPAP the state owned gambling monopoly. Two enterprises from which, it is virtually impossible not to make pots of money, to be handed over to the friends of the troika, the corporate world. While the troika are stating that Greece is bankrupt, they are forcing it to sell off that from which it could earn income.

      Of course it is all going to plan, the blatant and barefaced plundering of all that is public and transferring it to the private corporate world, the impoverishing of the people to replenish the gambling losses of the financial Mafia. What is more it is not just Greece that is being plundered in this fashion, it is world wide. Take a look closer to home, we here in the UK have already lost a host of rich assets to the corporate greed merchants, coal, gas, electricity, telephone, railway, now instead of being money earners for the public purse are part of the rip-off machine that grinds us ever nearer deprivation. However it doesn't end there, bit by bit education is being privatised, the National Health Service is halfway down the road to privatisation, social housing has all but disappeared, and there is much more to come. The corporate world will attempt to make money from anything, we are already seeing the development of a lucrative prison system. Which will of course mean that policies will turn to making sure that it has a steady and ever increasing flow of people to keep it profitable, it's called growth. The corporate world are not investing in large prisons as a short stopgap to help us out, their eyes are on future profits. Capitalism, no matter its shape or form, that is the direction it keeps moving.

      Do we really want to live in the faceless world of corporatism, a world over which you have no control what-so-ever? A world where you have no say in the shape and direction of your community, a world where everything is available to the rich and nothing available to the poor? Look carefully at what is happening, that is the road we are sleepwalking down, if we don't wake up soon, it will be too late and we will leave a heritage of slavery to the corporate world for our kids and grand-kids.

ann arky's home.

CLASS WAR.

      Class war is something that is usually associated with politically active ordinary people and dismissed as unnecessary by the rich parasite class, who preach, it is a democracy and we are all in it together. However their can be exceptions, the statement, "There has been class warfare going on for the last 20 years, and my class won." was made by Warren Buffett, a man with an estimated personal fortune of $47 billion, and chairman and CEO of Berkshire Hathaway.   

      To amass a fortune of that magnitude he must have been involved in some real brutal class war enterprises. You don't make that kind of money by your own efforts and the sweat off your brow. You have to be nicking the produce of somebody else's efforts and sweat off their brow. How many hours a week and at what hourly rate would you have to perform to end up with  $47 billion during your working life? How many jobs can you do in a working week? As chairman and CEO of Berkshire Hathaway, Mr Buffett has his plate full. This is a conglomerate that owns a long list of companies in a wide variety of fields including, confectionery, retail, rail-road, home furnishings, encyclopedias, manufacturers of vacuum cleaners, jewellery sales; newspaper publishing; manufacture and distribution of uniforms; as well as several regional electric and gas utilities. 

     Think of all those people beavering away and taking home a wage that can just about keep their head above water, with perhaps a wee nest egg for your pension, if they are lucky, while their boss, who may or may not do as many hours as them, sorts his pension out to the tune of $47 billion.

      So it is obvious that class warfare has been going on, though Mr Buffett is wrong on two counts. One, it has been going on for more than 20 years, and two, his class hasn't won. It may have been winning, but the war is far from over and the tide is turning. More and more people are beginning to accept that it is a class war, and they know which side they are on by the conditions of their lives. 

ann arky's home.

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REVOLUTION CAN AND MUST DO!

     An excerpt from Black Flags by Renzo Novatore, pen name of Italian anarchist Abele Rizieri Ferrari 1890 - 1922.

Black flags in the wind

stained with blood and sun

Black flags in the sun

howling of glory in the wind

    What the war didn’t and couldn’t do, revolution can and must do!

Oh, black flags carried

in a man’s rebellious fist

as he focuses his gaze intensely

beyond the ruling lie

—fluttering in the sun and wind

fluttering in the wind and sun

Victory smiles in the distance!

In the distance—in the distance—in the distance!

In the glory of the sun and wind!

ann arky's home.

DANGEROUS MARRIAGE.

    How many times have we seen the church, of whatever religion embrace dictators and tyranny? Today in Greece we saw it again as the Greek Orthodox church gave its blessing to a purveyor of repression and convicted murder. In Athens today the funeral took place of the last of the Greek junta that ruled Greece with an iron fist and unbelievable brutality from 1967 to 1974. He was General Nikos Dertilis who died in prison aged 92. A callous psychopath, apart from playing his part in the savage repression of any resistance to the rule of the generals, in 1973 outside the Polytecnic in Athens he casually drew his revolver and shot dead a youth who was running away from the police after having been beaten by them. He commented with pride to one of his staff on the fact that it was an old revolver, and it only took one shot.

      Yet at his funeral today, attended by members of the Golden Dawn fascist group, the Greek Orthodox Bishop Amvrosios, compared the cold blooded murdering general, to the independence war hero Kolokotronis and even to the philosopher Socrates. Of course as well as the church praising the psychopath, several of the mainstream media showered him with praise. The daily newspaper Kathimerini, referred to him as a good officer and gave him an obituary flowing with praise and honour.

     The church and state bolster each other as they are both authoritarian institutions of control. Neither of them will tolerate any form of free thinking, obedience and subservience are necessary for their survival. They are the enemies of freedom, the weaver of chains around the free thinking mind.

A to Z of RELIGIONS.

Acclaim Arrogant Absolutes.

Bellow Bygone Beliefs.

Casuist Cackling Cabal.

Deadly Divine Dogma.

Embellish Earlier Errors.

Form Fearful Fundamentalists.

Gaily Gabble Gehenna.

Hype Holy Hate.

Ignorantly Idolise Illusion.

Justify Judgmental Jargon.

Knowingly Kindle Kulturkampf.

Lambaste Liberal Learning.

Machiavellian Mind Moulding.

Narrate Nescient Nostrum.

Obligatory Obnoxious Obfuscation.

Peremptory Pestiferous Panjandrum.

Quickly Quell Querists.

Redundant Reactionary Rants.

Suppress Scholastic Scepticism.

Totally Trammel Tolerance.

Ululate Useless Utterances.

Vaticinate Vicious Vengeance.

Wailing Wearisome Waffle.

Extol Excessive Exaltation.

Y?          Y?         Y?

Zany Zealous Zealots.

ann arky's home.

FREEDOM BOOKSHOP FIREBOMBED.

FREEDOM BOOKSHOP AND AUTONOMY CLUB has been firebombed.
This from International Times:

     The attack on the Whitechapel bookshop took place on Friday morning at 5.30am.

      The downstairs section of the shop is badly damaged. Electrics are damaged. Many books are burnt or charred. Upstairs is untouched. No one was hurt. The fire-bomb was projected through a downstairs shop-window. An emergency meeting is taking place on Friday afternoon at The White Hart pub close to Angel Alley.

    No one has claimed responsibility and the general response can be summed up in three letters: WTF? A police forensic squad have examined the premises. It is also thought that the perpetrator may have been caught on CCTV.

    The Left has a whodunnit to solve. A book-burning is bad enough; a bookshop-burning is a very serious crime. Also, there is a mess to clean up and a campaign to raise funds. Publishers, record shops, and magazines have already pledged to donate stock and sales proceeds to help FREEDOM rebuild.

     A spokeswoman for FREEDOM said: ‘Could you please help spread the word about donating to rebuild the shop? We are setting up a donation page. In the meanwhile, anyone who wants to donate can do so by ordering a book/s through the www.freedompress.org.uk website, and emailing us at shop@freedompress.org.uk to let us know that your purchase was a donation. Thanks!’

     People will gather at the shop from 1pm on Saturday Feb 2 to start the work. All welcome.

More info and photos HERE:

ann arky's home.

SPREAD THE DEBT ACROSS THE PEOPLE!!

        Reading an article on the corporate world's planning session, the Davos luxury get-together, there was one paragraph that to me, said it all. My emphasis added.

      The sage view is Europe has only two options, neither good: a huge destruction of wealth, the like of which has not been seen for 70 years; or spreading the burden of the debt workout across the people of Europe, flattening growth for a decade, at least. Everybody knows Europe needs growth to get out of its financial pickle. Yet EU action to date shows the priority is to improve the bureaucratic structure that got it into this mess - an unworkable monetary system - not action to restore growth.

      As we see the pattern of brutal austerity unfold across European countries it becomes obvious which policy is being followed. The financial Mafia have no intention of solving their debt crisis by paying for it by "a huge destruction of wealth", they will compel their puppets, the state governments, to recoup their losses from the public, by massive slashing of social spending, lowering wages and destroying pensions. 
    When they talk of a financial crisis they are being honest, it is a crisis for them, of their own making, and they are damned sure that you and I are going to pay for it, not them.
     Their is nothing inevitable about about what is happening in Europe, it is a political decision taken by the rich and greed to protect their own personal wealth at the expense of you and I. We produce all the wealth in the world, the corporate world and financial Mafia plunder it, they indulge in an irrational wild greed driven gambling frenzy, and when it appears they have lost, they come back to plunder us some more. I'm sure you have the imagination to think of a fairer and more sane way to look after the wealth that you and I produce!!

ann arky's home.

SCRAP TRIDENT.

       As you all know, those millionaires in the Westminster Houses of Hypocrisy and Corruption keep mouthing off about austerity, (for you and me, not them), this message from Faslane Peace Camp once again highlights there blatant bloody warmongering and two-faced hypocrisy. As quick as a wink, or a nod and a nudge-nudge and they can pour £160 billion to the pockets of their mates in the arms industry. Ah, that's capitalism for you.

Faslane Peace Camp

31 January 15:14

      The MoD (Ministry of Disregard-for-the-basic-principles-of-democracy) strikes again... they really are a law onto their own.
            "The Ministry of Defence has revealed how it intends to spend £160bn over the next decade on new weapons systems, including a fleet of Trident nuclear missile submarines, two large aircraft carriers, helicopters, armoured vehicles, and unmanned drones.
          The MoD says the money has been signed off by the chancellor, George Osborne, even though parliament will not vote until after the general election on whether to give the go-ahead to a new Trident fleet which, it is estimated, would consume at least a third of the MoD's equipment budget after 2020."

FULL ARTICLE: http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2013/jan/31/trident-uk-military-shopping-list

ann arky's home.

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?”

ann arky's home.

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.

ann arky's home.

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

ann arky's home.

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.

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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.

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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:

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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 --??

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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).

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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. 

 

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