Worth a visit if you are in the area. Educate, communicate, organise.
Sheffield anarchist book fair.
9 05 2013
Thursday, 9 May 2013
Austerity And Environmental Devastation.
Spain, like Greece, is at the sharp end of the financial Mafia's rape and plunder campaign. Stratospheric unemployment, slashing of social services and a fast-track to a sweatshop economy. With the "austerity" comes the devastation as the IMF (International Mankind Fuckers) complicit corrupt politicians surrender the environment to the corporate world all in the name of that magical "growth", but, like the people of Greece, the people of Spain are also fighting back. Protests, strikes and all forms of direct action are an ever increasing part of life.
Circumventing security systems, today a Greenpeace activist has jumped on
the roof of the super-protected Spanish Parliament and deployed a banner
in defense of the battered Spanish coast.
Fascist Army Unleashed.
Is this film proof that the police in Greece are among the most brutal, racist and out of control police force in Europe. Police violence is a widespread daily occurrence, and during this financial plunder and rape of Greek society, their brutality goes unchecked. When the Greek Junta was ousted in 1974, the one part of their filth that was not cleaned up was the Greek police force. It is the same vicious, fascists element that it was from 1967 to 1974. It is a fascist army and it has been let of the leash to instill fear among the local population.
On 2nd February 2013 Cheick Ndiaye's body was
found on the rail tracks of Thissio metro station in central Athens. A
friend, who was a witness states he saw Cheick being pushed to his death
by two municipality police officers who were chasing him. Cheick was a
migrant from Senegal.
This film is part of an ongoing research project in Athens.
crisis-scape.net/"It was racism that killed him" from Ross Domoney on Vimeo.
Tuesday, 7 May 2013
Waiting For The Barbarians.
No it's not another poem-a-day month, it's just that I like poetry. I find this poem by Constantine Cavafy 1864-1933 fascinating, so relevant of today with the various states, "enemy without", its manufactured fear of the other, who are never as refined as us!! This translation is by Edmund Keeley.
Waiting For The Barbarians.
What are we waiting for, assembled in the forum?
The barbarians are due here today.Why isn't anything happening in the senate?
Why do the senators sit there without legislating?
Because the barbarians are coming today.Why did our emperor get up so early,
What laws can the senators make now?
Once the barbarians are here, they'll do the legislating.
and why is he sitting at the city's main gate
on his throne, in state, wearing the crown?
Because the barbarians are coming todayWhy have our two consuls and praetors come out today
and the emperor is waiting to receive their leader.
He has even prepared a scroll to give him,
replete with titles, with imposing names.
wearing their embroidered, their scarlet togas?
Why have they put on bracelets with so many amethysts,
and rings sparkling with magnificent emeralds?
Why are they carrying elegant canes
beautifully worked in silver and gold?
Because the barbarians are coming todayWhy don't our distinguished orators come forward as usual
and things like that dazzle the barbarians.
to make their speeches, say what they have to say?
Because the barbarians are coming todayWhy this sudden restlessness, this confusion?
and they're bored by rhetoric and public speaking.
(How serious people's faces have become.)
Why are the streets and squares emptying so rapidly,
everyone going home so lost in thought?
Because night has fallen and the barbarians have not come.And now, what's going to happen to us without barbarians?
And some who have just returned from the border say
there are no barbarians any longer.
They were, those people, a kind of solution.
Open Media, Or Censorship.
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“The Biggest Global Threat to the Internet”: That’s how legal experts describe the controversial international agreement known as the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP).1
The TPP agreement threatens to
criminalize use of your favorite websites—including YouTube, Instagram,
Facebook, and your favourite blog—and even your online comments.2 But you can stop it if you act now >>>
A man named Michael Froman
has just been appointed as the new TPP chief negotiator. Froman now has
a unique ability either to put this secretive, global Internet
criminalization plan to an end – or to cement it into place for
generations.
Legal experts are now warning that under the TPP, normal
online activities “could lead you to be cut off from the Internet, have
your computer seized, be fined up to $150,000, or even land you in
prison.”3
We can do this,
Steve and Josh, on behalf of your OpenMedia team
P.S. After you participate in this time-sensitive action, please help us continue to push this campaign by chipping in whatever you can now—every bit really does help our small team succeed. Thank you for supporting this community in its time of need.
Footnotes
[1]
Recent analysis by lawyers at the Electronic Frontier Foundation called
the TPP the biggest global threat to the Internet. Source: Electronic Frontier Foundation.
[2] Provisions in leaked drafts of the TPP could prohibit use of “temporary copies”, which according to policy experts at InternetNZ, are crucial: “The Internet—and computing—fundamentally depends on making temporary copies.”
The EFF writes that if this proceeds, “anyone who ever views content on their device could potentially be found liable of infringement”.
About OpenMedia
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OpenMedia fights for the open Internet, through OpenMedia.ca and OpenMedia International. We
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engaging citzens' campaigns. Together with the pro-Internet community,
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Monday, 6 May 2013
The Ministry Of Love Needs You.
This appealed to me as it seems very relevant to today's corporate capitalism. They have all the money they could ever desire, but still they want to grow. Control, domination, is what it is all about. Lifted direct from Teacher Dude's Grill and BBQ:
Ministry of Love Needs You, a photo by Teacher Dude's BBQ on Flickr.
The Party seeks power entirely for its
own sake. We are not interested in the good of others; we are
interested solely in power. Not wealth or luxury or long life or
happiness: only power, pure power. What pure power means you will
understand presently. We are different from all the oligarchies of
the past, in that we know what we are doing.
All the others, even those who resembled ourselves, were cowards and hypocrites. The German Nazis and the Russian Communists came very close to us in their methods, but they never had the courage to recognize their own motives. They pretended, perhaps they even believed, that they had seized power unwillingly and for a limited time, and that just round the corner there lay a paradise where human beings would be free and equal.
We are not like that. We know that no one ever seizes power with the intention of relinquishing it. Power is not a means, it is an end. One does not establish a dictatorship in order to safeguard a revolution; one makes the revolution in order to establish the dictatorship. The object of persecution is persecution. The object of torture is torture. The object of power is power. Now do you begin to understand me?’
All the others, even those who resembled ourselves, were cowards and hypocrites. The German Nazis and the Russian Communists came very close to us in their methods, but they never had the courage to recognize their own motives. They pretended, perhaps they even believed, that they had seized power unwillingly and for a limited time, and that just round the corner there lay a paradise where human beings would be free and equal.
We are not like that. We know that no one ever seizes power with the intention of relinquishing it. Power is not a means, it is an end. One does not establish a dictatorship in order to safeguard a revolution; one makes the revolution in order to establish the dictatorship. The object of persecution is persecution. The object of torture is torture. The object of power is power. Now do you begin to understand me?’
1984 George Orwell
European Sweatshops!!
That babbling brook of bullshit, the media, has give a lot of coverage to the recent deaths of garment workers slaving away in the sweatshops housed in the building that collapsed in Bangladesh. Of course there is rightful outcry and anger, though any tears shed by the corporate world, will be of the crocodile type, cheap labour equals bigger profits. However that same babbling brook of bullshit doesn't report on the sweatshops here in Europe, they exist here, as else where in the world, and they are on the increase in European countries being raped and plundered by the financial Mafia's austerity plans. This report is from Greece, but where else in this so called group of European developed nations are the same conditions being experienced day and daily?
We will either raise our voices, or be forced to work ourselves to deathRead the full article HERE:
Radka Nikolova, 38, was a kitchen worker in the pizza fan store in Patras. On Monday, January 14th, 2013 she was found dead at work, locked inside the store. Early estimates said the woman died due to heart failure. The story was covered up.
It is relatively known that a heart condition alone is not enough to cause someone’s death. But yes… with a job at pizza fan, our heart does not seem to last long enough.------
Sunday, 5 May 2013
Glasgow May Day 2013 And Photos.
Glasgow's May Day parade set off from George Square today Sunday 5th. May, and marched through the centre of the city and across the river. It was a well attended affair with a myriad of groups displaying their colourful banners.
Though well attended, not well enough, this is our day, traditionally a workers celebration day, as well as celebrating our victories, it is an opportunity to show our strength and solidarity. Now more than ever that solidarity is going to be a necessary weapon in the coming struggle. We need to come together as one body of all the people, we are not fighting a multitude of individual struggles, it is one big battle, corporate capitalism against the people. At the moment their attack is relentless, while our response seems, at times, somewhat haphazard. That is a recipe for our defeat and a continual worsening of our living conditions.
The marchers got a reasonably dry day, if a bit windy. Some had difficulty in managing the banners as they marched into a strong wind. One group had to do some repairs at the side of the road as their banner suffered some minor damage from the strong wind.
All in all, a reasonable show, if not noisy enough, not boisterous enough, and certainly not large enough.
Saturday, 4 May 2013
Anarchism, Marxism,
In spite of my pocking a little fun, a night worth marking in your diary, I'm sure it will be both informative and interesting, as well as lively.
Friday 10th
May, with Ben Franks: 'Between Anarchism and Marxism: The beginnings
and ends of the schism?'Discussion 6.30-8.30pm. Social 8.30pm
onwards at Kinning Park Complex, 40 Cornwall St, Glasgow G41 1AQ
Benjamin Franks will introduce his recent work, 'Between Anarchism
and Marxism: The beginnings and ends of the schism? (2012), which
will be followed by group discussion of the questions posed.
"The standard approach, endorsed by orthodox Marxists and many anarchists, is to see an irreconcilable difference between anarchism and Marxism. However, the historical record shows that whilst Marx opposed – and was opposed by - leading anarchists prior to 1917 there was considerable positive interaction between diverse Marxist and anarchist groups. The division between the two, viewed as fundamental, I argue, is in fact the product of a particular form of political structure that dominated the revolutionary-left in the last century. Now that these hierarchical forms of organisation have been discredited, rediscovered and revised forms of Marxism have arisen that, once again, actively engage with anarchism."
"The standard approach, endorsed by orthodox Marxists and many anarchists, is to see an irreconcilable difference between anarchism and Marxism. However, the historical record shows that whilst Marx opposed – and was opposed by - leading anarchists prior to 1917 there was considerable positive interaction between diverse Marxist and anarchist groups. The division between the two, viewed as fundamental, I argue, is in fact the product of a particular form of political structure that dominated the revolutionary-left in the last century. Now that these hierarchical forms of organisation have been discredited, rediscovered and revised forms of Marxism have arisen that, once again, actively engage with anarchism."
Hosted by The Strickland Distribution, with the support of Glasgow
Anarchist Federation, Radical Independent Bookfair, Clydeside IWW.
All welcome!
(Refreshments available. BYOB.)
Kinning Park Complex, 40 Cornwall St., Glasgow G41 1AQ
http://www.kinningparkcomplex.org
All welcome!
(Refreshments available. BYOB.)
Kinning Park Complex, 40 Cornwall St., Glasgow G41 1AQ
http://www.kinningparkcomplex.org
Austerity, A Beast With Blood On Its Teeth.
Austerity is an ugly beast, it tears at the fabric of society, bloodying the present and devouring the future. It is not just a matter of cutting down on the cappuccinos, skipping a night at the movies, it's the spread of fear, the creation of bitterness, the struggle for survival. With austerity comes anger and to contain that anger, and preserve their own privileged position, the establishment unleashes its fascist dogs, intimidation and repression are necessary for the survival of their ideological beast austerity. Austerity never arrives by accident, it is called in to do its masters bidding. What is happening in Greece is neither an accident nor necessary, it is an ideological plan. What we should not forget is that the austerity beast is already prowling the streets of other countries about to start its ravenous feast and devour the lives of those ordinary people.
This film is not the Greece I visited for many years, it has been changed, brutalised and its people impoverished, austerity has ravished them. All this because a bunch of corrupt rich politicians follow the grand plan laid down by another bunch of even more rich financial parasites who never live in the world they create, by their enforced austerity.
Friday, 3 May 2013
Iain Duncan Smith, Rat-bag!!
It is always pleasant when some ordinary person gets a chance to speak their mind to one of those charlatans from the parasitic political class. It is even more pleasant when you hear the audience applaud that opinion.
Thursday, 2 May 2013
Asset Stripping On a Grand Scale.
The fascist Troika, that governs Europe
has dealt another blow to the income of the Greek people. Opap, the
Greek government owned gambling giant, which last year made €505
million for the Greek public purse, I presume, welcome money to a
state groveling for money, has been sold, on the instructions of
that fascist Troika. A 33% slice of it was sold for something over
€622 million, the exact figure is still “secret”, a price not
much more than one year's profits. The fascist Troika has instructed
the Greek government to sell of €9.5 billion of Greek assets, the
Greek people's assets, by 2016. Anything that could make money for
the Greek people has to be sold to the corporate world so that they
can make that money. A country being punished for its debt, and the
remedy is to cut of its sources of income. It is obvious that the
fascist Troika's grand plan has nothing to do with debt reduction and
more to do with asset stripping. Country after country is being
forced to sell of the people's assets and hand the money to the
banksters. All this brings the people's standard of living crashing
down. What do we the people get in return for all this “austerity”, plundering?
Why we get lots of pie-in-the-sky, after ten or more years of wage
cuts/freeze. There will be a promised land waiting for you, if you
will only accept a decade or two of groveling in the gutter you'll be just fine. Of
course the parasites will not be joining you there in the gutter, no
they will be laughing at you will the stuff their faces at some fancy banquet. Ah well, that's capitalism for you.
Debt Reduction Leads To Debt Increase!!
It's amazing how the fascist Troika stepped in, in 2011 with a
cure to sort out Italy's debt and economic woes. It swept aside the
elected government, installed a technocrat, “economic expert”
Mario Monti, to rule according to their dictates. Severe debt
reduction “austerity measures“, large lay-offs, wage freeze/cuts,
the usual savage attack on the living conditions of the ordinary
people, pushing Italy towards that corporate dream of a sweatshop
economy. Now here we are in 2013 and according that other bunch of
“economic experts”, the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and
Development, Italy is now in a worse state than when the fascist
Troika stepped in, in 2011. When Magic Monti stepped in Italy's debt
was 120.8% of GDP, with the expertise of the Troika at the helm, it
is expected to reach 131.5 for 2013 and up again to 134.2 for 2014.
So many “experts” getting it so wrong, all that has happened is
that the public purse has been plundered, slashing living conditions,
and the coffers of the financial mafia have been enhanced. This
rising debt is another excuse to introduce even more severe
“austerity measures”, slash public spending and raise taxes. Of
course to you and I, that looks like a failure, but to the corporate
world, everything is going fine. Another country in Europe is going
the road of Greece, heading for deprivation, fertile ground for a
sweatshop economy, to rival those similar conditions else where in
the world. To corporate Europe, the only way to compete with Eastern
sweatshops is to slash wages and conditions here in Europe, and they
are well on the way, with Greece, Spain, Portugal. Ireland, Cyprus
and Italy all on the rapid conveyor belt to deprivation, with other
countries gaining momentum in the same direction.
How far they will get with their profit crazed dream, will depend
on you and I. Do we struggle to get them to slightly modify their desire for our deprivation, asking for a little bit better deal for us?
Or do we realise that it is impossible to have “compassionate
capitalism” and start to dismantle this exploitative greed driven
system and create an economic system based on the needs of all our
people? We have the resources, we have the numbers, we have the
ability and imagination, I know we have the desire, all we are
lacking is the will to start.
Wednesday, 1 May 2013
Glasgow May Day.
May Day, Glasgow Buchanan Street, 2013.
Today, May 1st., May Day, has been celebrated across the planet, and rightly so. It is probably the most important day in the calendar of the ordinary people. In some cities it was a massive display of workers solidarity, in others it was a more quiet affair, but there would be few cities that didn't have some sort of show. Though it should be held on May 1st. and is in lots of cities and towns, in others, Glasgow for example, it will be on the first weekend after May 1st.. That said, Glasgow had a small but colourful stall in Buchanan Street, put on by the Clydeside IWW and the Glasgow Anarchist Federation. The stalls attracted considerable interest from passers-by, and a lot of literature was handed out. There was of course, lots of old faces reappeared, just to be there and show solidarity, even if it was just for a few minutes and a few words with old comrades.
May Day, Glasgow Buchanan Street, 2013.
This report from Labour Start:
As I write these words, it's still morning in London -- and already LabourStart's front page is full of coverage of May Day 2013, the international workers' holiday.
Torture, A Brutal Tool Of Their Trade.
We
know every state does it, some more subtle, some more brutal, but
they all have their methods. I'm talking about torture, it is a tool
of the state and it will do everything in its power to hold onto it
in one form or another. The more we expose it the more difficult it
becomes for them, they have to work harder at justifying it, or
concealing it, or devising new methods. Torture will continue until we
rid ourselves of that shackle on our freedom, the state. That doesn't
mean we should ignore torture until that day arrives, we have to expose it
and campaign against it, when ever we get any information regarding
torture. Never forget, it is a human being that is being tortured, no matter the name the state puts on that being, it may be an autocratic institution that sanctions the act, but it is also human beings that implement those actions.
This
interesting article from Human Rights First:
The
argument about whether torture works is still raging. Four years
after President Obama ended the torture program, torture proponents
continue to claim that torture saved American lives and was necessary
to find criminals like Osama bin Laden. Just last week, Condoleezza
Rice said that because of torture, “we have not had a successful
attack on our territory.”
I
served the CIA for 23 years, and I was directly involved in the
“enhanced interrogation” program. I know from experience that
torture not only undermined our values and Constitution, it made us
less safe.
The
Senate Intelligence Committee has produced the most comprehensive
report on the post-9/11 CIA torture program, based on a review of
more than 6 million pages of official records. Those who have read
the report say that it shows the CIA torture program was much more
widespread and cruel than we thought, and much less effective at
gathering actionable intelligence than torture proponents claim.
However, the Obama
Administration is sitting on this report and has delayed its release.
On Friday, Vice President Biden supported the report's release. Ask
President Obama to work with Congress to declassify the torture
report.
Senator
Dianne Feinstein, Chair of the Senate Select Committee on
Intelligence, and national security experts (me included) have said
publicly that torture did not lead to bin Laden or save American
lives. But until this report is released, torture proponents will
continue to argue that we should return to torture.
Let’s be clear: torture is
un-American, illegal, and immoral. Let’s end this debate once and
for all. Urge
President Obama to work with Congress to declassify the torture
report.
Glenn Carle
Former Deputy National Intelligence Officer for Transnational Threats, National Intelligence Council
Author, The Interrogator
Former Deputy National Intelligence Officer for Transnational Threats, National Intelligence Council
Author, The Interrogator
Tuesday, 30 April 2013
May Day, Our Day.
Wednesday May 1st. MayDay, Labour Day, Workers Day, call it what you will, but it is all
about the ordinary people coming together to celebrate their
struggles and their victories. A day to remember all those working class heroes, who
struggled and fought for the betterment of all, fought for a society
that sees to the needs of all our people. Organise your own
celebration, make for the streets, make new friends, meet up with old
friends. Make it an opportunity to re-new that vision of a fair and
just society that is buried in all out hearts, show the strength of
solidarity that will get us there. May Day, a time to re-new that Spirit of Revolt.
Now more than ever we
have to show solidarity, we have to come together to defend our
standard of living. May Day this year is an ideal opportunity to show
that solidarity with all the ordinary people of this country and
across the world, to lay down a marker, as the pampered parasite
political class make a ruthless and savage grasp to capitalise
everything in sight to save their gambling spiv bankster friends and
bond merchants, from carrying their own gambling debts. We are
expected to quietly pay off the gamblers losses and stand by while
they privatise everything they can lay their sweaty palms on, that can
make them money. It is their world -- or it is our world, you can
decide.
May Day is a day to realise
our strength and see that road to the better world we all desire.
The Mask Of Anarchy.
30th. April, last day of the month, last poem of the month, the day before May Day. I'm a great admirer of the poetry of William McIlvanney, I think I have read all he has written and some several times. So, with Labour Day in mind, I thought of this one from his book In Through The Head ISBN 1851581703 published by Mainstream Publishing Edinburgh.
Everyman: A Morality Play.
"Aye zur," Everyman said, as the Lord of the Manor
Raped his wife, sons and his daughters, and threw him a tanner.
"Aye zur," Everyman said, "that be bully for ee."
And he pulled up his smock as he bowed from the knee
with a delicate click of obedient clogs
And a tail-wagging movement he borrowed from dogs.
"Aye zur," Everyman said, "that be bully for ee"
"Appen Maister be wantin ma bollocks for tea?"
With a father from north and a mother from south
He let every cliché find a home in his mouth,
Being taught as a man he would never fit,
He was skilled in the role of an identkit.
He learned his lines well until one fateful day,
Though his mouth still remembered the things he should say,
A slight twinge in one leg made him suddenly see;
"Get A grip. Human beings can't bow from the knee."
"Ach, fuck this fur a play," every man said,
Took the lord of the manner and stove in his head.
Since it is the last day of the wee poetry thingy, and tomorrow IS May Day, I thought, just for good measure, I might as well through in a few verses from Shelley's Mask of Anarchy.
The Mask of Anarchy.(extract)
'Rise like Lions after slumber
In unvanquishable number,
Shake your chains to earth like dew
Which in sleep had fallen on you -
Ye are many - they are few.
'What is Freedom? - ye can tell
That which slavery is, too well -
For its very name has grown
To an echo of your own.
'Tis to work and have such pay
As just keeps life from day to day
In your limbs, as in a cell
For the tyrants' use to dwell,
'So that ye for them are made
Loom, and plough, and sword, and spade,
With or without your own will bent
To their defence and nourishment.
'Tis to see your children weak
With their mothers pine and peak,
When the winter winds are bleak, -
They are dying whilst I speak.
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