Another Squat Under Threat.

      The system never rests, it continues with its defence day and daily, it has tremendous resources at its disposal. It has its so called "justice system" (protection of corporate property) backed up by its propaganda machine, that babbling brook of bullshit, the media, and it has its military style police force to back up the dictates of its "justice system". It is with these forces that another squat is under threat, this time in Barcelona. The occupants have asked for support and solidarity from across the world. The system may have powerful resources, but we have all the power in the world, if we come together in solidarity when attacked. Despite the system's well organised power, this world can be ours.

This from Contra Info:

 

 

      The only criteria we have for support is that it be marked by the very same political content we have had in the Expropriated Bank the whole time. We have always gone for self-organization, autonomy and horizontality in our struggle against capitalism. Therefore, even though it is Catalunya Caixa that is bringing up the case, our struggle is still against the whole of the system in which this bank takes part, in which we also include political parties, mass media and all of the State’s institutions. Any display of solidarity is very welcome as long as it respects this: we don’t want the judge to like us, we don’t want to appear on TV and we don’t want any kind of support from a political party.

Read the fulll article HERE:

ann arky's home.

The Return Of The Hungry 30's!!

     We all know the extent to which the Troika has heaped deprivation on the people of Greece, but not everybody is aware of the extent of the poverty in which our millionaire cabal have mired the people of the UK. While the past five years have seen the costs of basic foodstuffs rocket by 35% and heating costs leap by a massive 63%, incomes over the same period have hardly moved at all. A recent statement by Mark Goldring, Chief executive of Oxfam puts it quite clearly: "The shocking reality is that hundreds of thousands of of people in the UK are turning to food aid. Cuts to social safety-nets have gone too far, leading to destitution, hardship and hunger on a large scale. It is unacceptable this is happening in the seventh wealthiest nation on the planet."

     When people start turning up at food banks you know there is hunger, and for a country which is among the top ten wealthiest nations on Earth to have over 500,000 people relying of food handouts, you know there is injustice.

     The Trussell Trust is the UK's largest organisers of food banks and has stated that last year they handed out at least three days' emergency food to almost 350,000 people, up from 130,000 the previous year. They added that due to the number of organisations handing out food aid the true figure of people receiving that aid is well over half a million.

      Though according to the Cameron/Osborne Oxbridge mentality, these people are not the nation's strivers, they are the nations skivers. When in fact they are the nations ordinary people pushed to the point of desperation and deprivation by this Old Boys network of pampered millionaire parasites, carrying out the dictate of the financial mafia.

     This food aid is going to single parents, retired workers, paid off workers, families on low income, people like you and I, your neighbours and your friends. At what figure do we stand up and say enough is enough? There is no food shortage in the UK, but there are hungry children and pensioners, there are malnurished adults trying to bring up families, why? Simply because of the deliberate ideology of a handful of well fed exceedingly rich parasites. Why watch your neighbours go hungry in the midst of plenty?

ann archy's home.

From Little Acorns, Great Oak Trees Grow.

     From rolling anger to joined-up protests across Europe. Stockholm, Berne, Istanbul, Frankfurt, while all that was going on there were demonstrations in Athens, Madrid and Lisbon. That number of angry people prepare to take to the streets tells you the system is rotten.

Thousands blockade European Central Bank in Frankfurt

  The Daily Sheeple

    Anti-capitalist protestors have taken to the streets the financial heart of Frankfurt a day ahead of Europe-wide gatherings planned for June 1 to protest leaders handling of the three-year euro debt crisis.

ann arky's home.

Photos, Rally And Protest, Glasgow George Square.,

Saturday June 1st. saw a considerable crowd gather in George Square, Glasgow to protest against the bedroom tax. 

There were the usual colourful banners, placards, t-shirts and an abundance of literature. 

However, the anger was not just at the bedroom tax but also at the callous and vindictive treatment by ATOS of people receiving disability allowance. 

The general feeling among the crowd was one of anger and determination, more so than more recent protests.

 Three strands of anger seem to be coming together, the just anger against the bedroom tax, the righteous anger against the ATOS brutality, and the moral anger against workfare, forcing people to work for multinational corporations and receive no wages. 

This three pronged attack is being seen for what it is, an attack on the living standards of the ordinary people, right across the board.

Perhaps I'm being optimistic in feeling that what we are hearing is the murmur of the poor becoming a might roar, We can but hope.

The Murmur Of The Poor.

Brokers, Earls and Dukes,

callous, mercenary, pirate crew

gasconading through the land

bloated, pampered, privileged few.

Striding with selfish arrogance

plundering as you go

grasping at the fruits

the common people sow.

Take heed, you swaggering fat cats

in our world you don't belong,

that murmur you hear is the poor

rehearsing an angry song.

The day is fast approaching

when our chorus loud you'll hear

then all your greed and treachery

will surely cost you dear.

A price you'll pay for being blind

to the hungry at your door,

Oh, haste the day our angry chorus

becomes a mighty roar.

ann arky's home.

"Resistance Is Everywhere".

     The other week Stockholm was rocked by riots, and before the smoke and tear gas had dispersed, Berne took to the streets to show their anger at a system that tramples people in all countries. Now Istanbul takes up the cry against police brutality and authoritarian government. Whether that babbling brook of bullshit, the media reports it or not, the people of Europe are rising, as the chant in Istanbul proclaims, “Resistance is everywhere”. We are in an era of tremendous potential change, people everywhere are waking up to the fact the the present system is not interested in the well being of the ordinary people. In fact they are beginning to realise that it is set up to screw them and they now have knowledge, imagination and ability to do something about it. There is another way to structure society, a fairer more just way, a society based on mutual aid and freed from the cancer of the profit motive. The murmur of the poor is becoming a roar.

Some of the slogans and info from the streets of Istanbul, from Contra Info: 

 

 A banner hung in Heraklion, Crete, Greece, in support of the Turkish people.

faşizme karşı omuz omuza / stand shoulder-to-shoulder against fascism

hükümet istifa / government, resign

katil Erdoğan / murderer Erdoğan

Taksim bizim, İstanbul bizim / Taksim is ours, Istanbul is ours

direne direne kazanacağız / we will win by resisting

her yer Taksim, her yer direniş / everywhere is Taksim, resistance is everywhere

sık bakalım, sık bakalım, biber gazı sık bakalım, copunu bırak, kaskını çıkar, delikanlı kim bakalım / shoot it, shoot it, fire the tear gas, drop your baton, take your helmet off, then we see who’s the tough guy

fettullahın piçleri hepiniz orospu çocuğusunuz / you’re all son of bitches [to the police]

orospu çocuğu Tayyip Erdoğan / son of a bitch Tayyip Erdoğan
_

There is no official confirmation of the deaths as of yet.

In Istanbul, on 1/6, the cops left the Taksim Gezi Park for a while. Then people gathered to occupy the park again. Soon thereafter, the police stormed the area to remove the protesters.

Recent updates in Turkish : 1, 2, 3

Comrades’ message from the streets of Istanbul at 17:15 (local time): “We did it. Taksim square and Gezi Park occupied. Police pulls back; they’re leaving. People celebrate inside Gezi Park. One police car, with ‘sikik (fucked)’ written on it, was overturned and set on fire…”

ann arky's home.

We Can Do It Ourselves.

This From globaluprisings:

      The workers at the Vio.Me. Factory in Thessaloniki, Greece have quickly grown into a symbol of self-management internationally. After going on strike and occupying their factory, on February 12, 2013 they re-opened the factory and started production under worker’s control. For many, the factory represents a new potential way forward for unemployed workers in Greece – seizing the means of production, running factories without bosses, producing only goods that are needed, and distributing them through solidarity networks.

     “Every extra profit we make will be given out to people who need it. Our plan is to offer help to unemployed people or others who are in great need,” says  Dimitrios Koumasiouras, a worker from Vio.Me.

      This film tells the story of how the worker’s re-opened the factory under self-management and looks to where the factory is headed now.

ann arky's home

Who Will See To Our Needs?

       While our millionaire political playboys keep re-assuring us that they are on the right track to economic recovery, the figures just don't stack up. In the 17 nation Euro Zone, unemployment has reached a new record high, in fact the highest since the EU statistics office started collecting data in 1995. Unemployment in the Euro Zone is sitting at 12.2% with several countries well over that average. Unemployment of young people in Greece is now over 60%, while Italy is facing the highest unemployment in 36 years, with the young of that country having to live with more than 40% unemployment. France, the second largest economy in the Euro Zone is also facing a new record in unemployment. At the same time the Euro Zone is faced with the longest recession since 1999. Green shoots of growth??? 

       Of course all those committees of economic experts have grand plans, they will oscillate between deeper austerity and printing more money. To discuss this as an economic problem will keep the answers in the economic bracket and so will go round and round on how to cut the debt, how fast to cut the debt, to forget the debt for a moment and print more money to spend. All of which means more of the same for you and I, a life of struggle. 

      Also to keep the discussion in the economic field masks the real problem, it is a human problem. In Greece what does 62.7% unemployment mean to the young people of that country? What does the future hold for that 40% of unemployed young Italians? Are they suffering because we in Europe do not have the material resources to see to their needs? Are we saying that as a continent we don't know how to use the potential energy and skill of all those young people? Or is it that the system is geared to making sure that the wealthy continue to stay wealthy at the cost of the future of our children and our grand children.  

 

     Europe is an extremely wealth continent, well capable of supporting all its people, there is food in abundance, there are things that need doing, there are people willing to do them, but unless there is a profit in it for that over fed, pampered bunch of parasites that sit in the ivory towers of control, then those young lives can go and rot in some dingy back street. 

       The real problem is the system, capitalism cannot see to the needs of all our people, it wasn't set up to see to the welfare of the people, it wasn't started to see that everybody got a job, it wasn't set up to improve the well being of the ordinary people. It is doing what it was set up to do, create wealth for the business class and at the moment it is doing that very well indeed, so don't look for any real changes from that bunch. To see to the needs of all our people the present economic system has to go, and the change will have to come from the people, only we ourselves can and will set up a system that sees fairly to the needs of all our people.

ann arky's home.

Lee Rigby And 1381 Peasants Revolt.

     The latest from Circled "A" Radio passes an opinion on the murder in Woolwich of the soldier Lee Rigby, and a recounting of the events of 1381, the Peasants Revolt, plus some really good music. Well worth a listen

Circled "A" Radio:

ann arky's home.

One Of Our Anniversaries.

     May 30 1814 saw the birth of Michail Alexandrovich Bakunin, one of  anarchism's giant thinkers. Among his writings are such works as Stateless Socialism: Anarchism,  The Immorality of The State,  What is Authority? and many others. After meeting Marx he is quoted as saying: 

     "As far as learning was concerned, Marx was, and still is, incomparably more advanced than I. I knew nothing at that time of political economy, I had not yet rid myself of my metaphysical observations... He called me a sentimental idealist and he was right; I called him a vain man, perfidious and crafty, and I also was right"

Quote from Brian Morris's: Bakunin, The Philosophy of Freedom, 1993, p14.

ann arky's home.

The Commons Belong To The People.

Protect the commons wherever it is. 

From our friends on the east coast.

      For seven years local people have worked to keep Portobello Park free from development by the City of Edinburgh Council. In September 2012, the Court of Session confirmed that the Park is inalienable common good land and that it cannot be used as the site of the new Portobello High School.

     Despite the Council having identified alternative suitable brownfield sites for the new school, they are now trying to use the Scottish Parliament to give them permission to build on the Park through a Private Bill. If successful, this Bill could set a precedent for other councils to use this route to obtain permission to circumvent common good protection, putting common good land and open spaces across Scotland at risk.
      If you agree that building on green space should not be allowed when a brownfield alternative exists, and you are concerned about the implications of this Private Bill, please sign

http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/protect-green-space-across-scotland/?utm_medium=email&utm_source=system&utm_campaign=Send%2Bto%2BFriend

     Folk could also consider objecting to the private bill as we need as many folk across Scotland to do so.  It does cost £20 though! Representation is not cheap.  Here is a link to guidance for objectors:
http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/parliamentarybusiness/Bills/62502.aspx

      There is mention of adverse impact to people's interests and it seems to mention a list of points that look as though they are financial impacts but I think that even if people don't live in Portobello or Edinburgh it is acceptable to say that because of the fear of a precedent being set for other councils to follow that could affect other common good land and open spaces across Scotland, you have an interest in the bill as it could affect your local open spaces, adversely affecting your health and wellbeing, or something along those lines. If you do decide to object, can you let me know please as we would like to keep a tally of objections as far as we can.

Diana@dccairns.demon.co.uk

ann arky's home.

Beware, Big Brother Has Arrived.

     You walk, you pause, you look, you take a photograph, your are being watched, you are now a suspect. Your behaviour is slightly out of the normal, the cameras have picked up on this, you may be questioned, your house could be searched. This is not Orwell's 1984, this is the UK today. To stay out of "their" radar, walk at a steady pace, just look straight ahead, don't linger, stay in the centre of the pavement, be a clone of the others. Individuality, eccentricity, must be shunned if you want to retain what is left of your privacy.

     Every city in the country is littered with hi-tec cameras, backed up by extremely sophisticate software, you are possible suspects, possible criminals, you all must be watched at all times and in all circumstances. Knowing your every move makes you so much easier to be controlled.

       It can't be a free society when my every move is monitored by people I don't know, for purposes I have no knowledge of, and I have no say in that monitoring. We are indeed in the Orwellian society and most of the public are completely unaware. The cameras just sit there, morning and night, day in day out, watching analysing, trying to fit you into a pattern, marking you out if you don't fit. This Western "democracy" today.

ann arky's home.

Plain Speaking.

      Something I always admire and try to do, but never hear from our political lords and masters, is simple plain speaking. It is always refreshing when somebody indulges in that wonderful ordinary plain speaking about things that matter to all of us.

Enjoy:

ann arky's home.

Govan Fair Bike Fun.

Thanks Bob for the info.

Common Good Project - Glasgow

Hey there
Friday June 7th is the Govan fair

-->

     I don't know if you have been to a Govan Fair but basically the whole of Govan and beyond is on the street - a sight to behold. A few of us came up with the idea of having a bike procession at the fair and we want you there. The procession starts of at Fairly street Ibrox (The street Galgael is on near Ibrox Tube) at 7:30 and ends up at Elder park.
    We will be helping folk to bling (decorate) their bikes before the procession starts and get some banners flying. We don't have any funds etc for this so we are just relying on folks initiative and ingenuity:) Its a case of turning up on the day in biking solidarity. We will be doing bike stuff in the garden on the Fair Saturday Fun Day to. (12 - 5)
    We will be building bee hotels and other stuff with the Glasgow Science Festival and various groups from around the community will be around helping out. Come and see your garden, help out or just enjoy the activities.
    Will have more details near time. Be good to see you there in some form. Please spread the word, if you want to do something in particular or need any info let me know. CH in the common good. Bob

Hit the links for fliers

* the-commons-reshuffle.pdf (3.2 MB) hosted on Ubuntu One:
http://ubuntuone.com/0jIKDofCndAuPyQ1jCy7c7
* banner-flag.pdf (1.7 MB) hosted on Ubuntu One:
http://ubuntuone.com/3jRqjGoMzMWK7eD81GJFlm

ann arky's home.

What Has Been Lost.

      Having  been a regular visitor to Greece for a number of years, what has been inflicted on the people of that country hurts me deeply. It hurts all the more because it wasn't necessary, it was all part of a deliberate policy, all part of the financial Mafia's grand plan to plunder the public purse, and they were fully aware of what the consequences would be for the ordinary people. It is now a country ripe for the corporate world to move in and set up the first of the great European sweatshops. Other European countries are on the same conveyor belt, heading in the same direction. It can only be stopped by the combined action of the people of Europe, only a move to take control of our lives and shape society the way we wish it to be. To wrestle the power from the hands of the corporate greed merchants and their accomplices, the financial Mafia.

         This article from Teacher Dude gives some idea of what has happened to the people of Greece.

What Has Been Lost

      I have been very quiet recently, at least as far as this blog is concerned. While I still tweet quite a lot about what is happening in Greece, over the last month or so I have lost the desire to go out on the streets and cover what has been happening in the city. Perhaps the fact that the end of the academic year is approaching and everyone is feeling worn out is to blame, or maybe the endless stream of bad news I hear from those around me is getting to me.

      More friends are leaving the country to escape the crisis, others are struggling on but the cost is enormous both financially and in terms of dignity. It's hard to be sanguine when so many people you know are fighting to just retain their self respect in the face of grinding poverty which seems to have no end.

    On the other hand the international press, or at least The Economist, FT, CNN and even the Guardian have decided that no matter what your eyes tell you every time you go out the worst of the crisis in Greece is over. Business confidence is up, the government's privatisation plan is finally going ahead, and the banking sector is stabilising. All of which is fine as long as your main interests are in finance and not out there in the "Real Economy"with the rest of us schmucks.

        Despite the euphoria in the mainstream media the economy is still collapsing,unemployment hasn't stopped rising, let alone dropped, the suicide rate is the highest in 50 years, 200% increase in new AIDS cases reported and just to add yet more joy to everyday life a new drug, Sisa or Shisha is doing a roaring trade in Athens.-------

Read the full article HERE:

ann arky's home.

A Cull Of The Working Class.

 This from "brickburner":

The Cull of the working class.

        As we all know by now, the dreaded Bedroom Tax has arrived. This of course is the latest of a long list of attacks on working class people. We must be careful not to view these attacks in isolation – they constitute a coordinated assault on working class people particularly the most vulnerable members of society; the sick and disabled. It has been estimated that eight in ten people affected by the Bedroom Tax are disabled. Many of those have already been through a work capability assessment conducted by the French firm Atos, on behalf of the Department of Works and Pensions, which has resulted in them losing their benefits.

      Michael Meacher M.P. led a commons debate on the 17th. January this year in which he criticised almost every aspect of Atos’s operations including the thousands of people who have died after being declared fit for work. You can see his speech on You Tube. Atos has been widely and repeatedly criticised by the British Medical Association, and is subject to constant lobbying by disabled groups throughout the country. This callous treatment of the sick and disabled goes hand in hand with the emergence of a new and sinister trend of political thought has developed over the term of the present Government, which sees welfare benefit claimants and those at the very bottom of society as lazy, dishonest stupid scroungers who are less than human.

       The Government’s sustained attacks on the weakest in society are reminiscent of the Nazis treatment of some of their own citizens prior to the beginning of the Second World War when they “assessed” the sick and disabled to see if they were physically and mentally fit to live. Those human beings whom they termed Lebensunwertes Leban-“life unworthy of life”, and “useless eaters” were callously exterminated. The German authorities managed to persuade the population at large through written and pictorial propaganda, that this extermination was morally acceptable and that the sick and disabled were a drain on the economy. They managed to do this by “dehumanising” people.

      An article in The Guardian on 11May 2013, reported on research carried out at the University of Louvain by Jacque-Philippe Leyens which suggests that low status groups including the poor, homeless people, drug addicts and welfare claimants are seen by others as less than “fully human”. Leyens has coined the term “infrahumanisation”- the infra for “below”, as in below or less than fully human to describe this development of everyday dehumanisation. As Robert de Vries in the Guardian article puts it, “The Government’s cuts to welfare benefits are causing real harm to a lot of innocent people, nevertheless, remarkable numbers seem to be willing to support them”, and, “People struggling to get by in their own lives will find it hard to sympathise with those they feel are getting a free ride”.

     The Government propaganda about “shirkers” and “strivers not skivers” seems therefore to be working. Unfortunately, on programmes such as “Question Time”, these phrases have been enthusiastically adopted by many members of the audience. This of course is a classic example of the “Divide and Conquer” strategy being employed against the working class.

      Another ruse used by the Government to justify their unremitting attacks on the working class is the mythology that cuts are necessary, and “that we are all in this together”. The idea that those at the top of society will suffer just as much as those at the bottom would be laughable if it were not so insulting and contemptible; the very people who decided to cut the living standards of working class people are in the process of voting themselves a pay rise of between £10 to £20 thousand pounds a year. Most of us would be delighted to live on just the pay rise, but in fact MP’s will now get more than £75,000 a year-some of them want £100,000, - yet they have the nerve to say that we all have to share the pain! And of course the Bankers still get their bonuses and Multi-nationals manage to dodge paying tax.

     The claim that cuts in public services are necessary at all is a complete lie. As Tony Benn once said, “If you can find money to kill people, you can find money to help people”. According to U.K. Government figures Britain spent at least £9.24 billion in Iraq and £11.1 billion in Afghanistan between April 2001 and March 2010, and that’s not taking into account what has been squandered from 2010 till now. The so-called Ministry of Defence lost £74 million pounds of taxpayers’ money recently on a cancelled order for fighter jets. (Richard Johnstone, Public Finance 10 May 2013). So it would seem that there is plenty of money to wage illegal and pointless wars, but not enough money to create a caring peaceful society.

       There is another war going on at the moment; it is the class war. A war waged by those at the top of society against those at the bottom. We are the victims of this war. For generations working class people have had to endure poor wages, bad and often dangerous working conditions, industrial illnesses and long periods of financial hardship. Working class people are still being killed daily in this war. Literally thousands of people die every year after Atos has passed them fit for work. People have been forced to work for benefit money; before long regular workers will be sacked then they too can work for slave wages and will join the millions of others living below the breadline. Warren Buffett an American billionaire business magnate once said, “There’s class warfare all right, but it’s my class - the rich class that’s making war, and we’re winning!”

      Through these measures, the Government has upped the ante in their war against the disabled and unemployed. If you aren’t in work, or are sick or disabled you don’t deserve to live, - you are a useless eater! In this war against the working class the sick, the disabled and the unemployed are being culled. The Government are killing working class people. If this seems far fetched, you only have to remember this, the entire Nazi extermination programme which culminated in the Holocaust, started in 1939 with the T4 euthanasia program which targeted sick and disabled people. If the German people had resisted at this stage the Second World War may never have happened.

      The only way we can prevent history repeating itself, is for ordinary working class people to organise and fight back. We have to combat the Bedroom Tax and all the other cuts that the Government and their friends in big business are trying to impose on us. We have to rely on ourselves and not on politicians; they are part of the problem not the solution! Above all, we have to overcome the State’s attempts to divide and rule us; we need to show our fellow workers that we have nothing in common with the boss class and that we must build our own organisations and strong communities to unite against them.

Only then can we hope to win the class war.

ann arky's home.

What Is The Biggest Terrorist Organisation?

     This is more than an hour long but is full of very interesting information, and well worth the time spent watching.

ann arky's home.

Resistance Is Dignity.

       I have mentioned before that as austerity bites and anger and resistance grows, the state starts to shut down any people organised, occupied space. Intimidation and fragmentation are necessary for control. First the heavy hand of the state was hitting hard at various longstanding squats in Greece and then Spain and now the latest in the Netherlands. The Ubica squat of 21 years ended in a battle of well organised resistance. Knowing they would eventually be evicted they decided to go out with as much well organised resistance as they could muster, no cowed humiliating exit for them.

Utrecht, Holland: 24 May 2013, night time…

       Suddenly they came storming out. They were ten or fifteen. Black clothes, hooded. They had a fire extinguisher, a ladder, paint and some tires with them. And gasoline. The great final act of the sad drama of the Fall of Ubica had started.

     The tensions were high up to eleven o’clock. Nobody knew what was going to happen. It seemed such an ordinary Friday night for beer drinkers on the square, Ganzenmarkt. Another week working, another night consuming. Nothing to worry about; tomorrow is another day like any other. But three visitors knew better. They heard that the squatters would not just give up their home after 21 years. “Not without a fight”, was announced on Indymedia. But, of course, no time was indicated, so it was nail biting and waiting. One thing was certain: the city hall will soon not look the same.

Read the full article HERE:

ann arky's home.