Workers Know Your History, Communist And "Communist".

      To some people looking at the political split in the left here in UK, communist and "communist", it may seem as if it was always so, but in our not so distant past, anarchist, socialist and communist all stood under the anti-parliamentarian banner.  It was the formation of the Communist Party of Great Britain around 1921 that caused the damaging split that we are still suffering from today. It was because of this that the Anti-parliamentary Communist Federation, APCF was formed in 1921. For those who are not familiar with the history of that era there is a very good article in The Free Communist:

      It was hoped to create a Communist federation out of these remaining groups. The principle of federation — a federation of Communist groups developed voluntarily from below rather than an imposed centralisation from above — was always an important and consistent part of the anti-parliamentary movement’s proposals for unity. Aldred summarised the position in The Spur:
       I have no objections to an efficient and centralised party so long as the authority rests in the hands of the rank and file and all officials can be sacked at a moment’s notice. But I want the centralism to be wished for and evolved by the local groups and not imposed on them from a centre. . . . The Communist party, the real party, must be evolved through a federation of local groups, a slow merging of them into one party, from the bottom upwards, as distinct from this imposition from the top downwards. (August 1920)
     The idea of federation was coupled with a demand for self-determination — the British revolutionaries should determine their own policy in relation to British conditions, irrespective of what Lenin and the Bolsheviks might say. Lenin was faced with different circumstances, Aldred argued, and might be forced to compromise to save the Russian Revolution, but in Britain there was no such excuse for compromise:
       Lenin’s task compels him to compromise with all the elect of bourgeois society whereas ours demands no compromise. And so we take different paths and are only on the most distant speaking terms.
Or, more directly, we should stop ‘chasing the shadows of the great man [Lenin]. . . . It is not he who is running the British Revolution, but “ourselves alone”. The policy of looking to him to mind our business is hindering and not helping the revolution.’ But increasingly such advice from Aldred and a few others was ignored, as the move to join the CPGB gathered pace.

Read the full article HERE:

Visit ann arky's home at www.radicalglasgow.me.uk

An Appeal from LabourStart.

     Solidarity is how we can change the world and create that better world for all. An appeal from LabourStart:

 

      Crown Holdings is a company you probably never heard of. But it's huge -- producing metal containers in 149 countries. And it's highly profitable -- doubling its profits in 2012.
      But Crown is also attacking its own workers in Toronto, Canada, eliminating their cost of living allowance, creating a two-tier wage system, and continuing a nine-year freeze on pensions.
     Crown workers, members of the United Steelworkers, have had enough, and are walking the picket line, forced to strike by an employer that refuses to negotiate seriously.

Their slogan is "Take-Backs No More" and they've gotten the support of unions around the world including Unite (UK), the International Association of Machinists, and IndustriALL Global Union.
     Now they have a LabourStart campaign and they're asking all of us to send off messages to the company CEO with a simple message: "get back to the table to negotiate a fair agreement now".

Please support them by sending off your message today.  And please spread the word.

Thank you.

Eric Lee

Visit ann arky's home at www.radicalglasgow.me.uk

A Killer With Gloves On Is Still A Killer.

      We should not be fooled by the Greek state taking a stand against Golden Dawn, this is not an ushering in of democracy in Greece. The Greek state is still a killer, but perhaps with gloves on. However, the state likes to keep the monopoly on killing. This is the same bunch of Troika puppets that dragged the people of Greece to the pits of deprivation. The same vicious fiends that sent mental health problems soaring, suicides rapidly escalating, decimated the health service and shattered the education system. They are the ones who introduced a new sight in Athens, families sleeping on the streets. Like I said in a previous post, this is a public relations exercise, an act at pretending that their hands are not stained with blood. Nothing has changed in Greece, the death dealing austerity continues, the brutal state repression goes on, tomorrow the people of Greece will wake-up with the same problems as before, deprivation,and repression.

This From The Greek Streets:

      And so, on the sunny autumn morning of September 28th – a quiet, almost tranquil morning – the state and media, inside and beyond the Greek territory, woke up anti-fascist. Were the days when the exact same culprits fueled Nazism, the days when authorities meticulously wovethe  institutional racism, totalitarianism and impoverishment just a bad dream? Of course not. In the time that has passed since the murder of Pavlos, they have scrambled to present a clean face, but for all their pretensions the anger is still there. Just under five swirling years after Alexis dropped dead on that Exarcheia street corner, we are still faced with the same power zombies that our revolt had attacked but did not manage, it seems, to finish off. During all these years, the number of our sisters and our brothers who died in the hands of the state or its offshoots only keeps growing. Katerina Goulioni, Nikolas Todi, Cheikh Ndiaye, Mohammad Atif Kamran and Shehzad Luqman… Katerina died in the hands of her state captors; Nikolas, Cheikh and Mohammad were assassinated by the police; Shehzad was killed by the knives of Nazis, just like Pavlos did on September 17th. Along with who knows how many others, tortured and pulled off the streets, held in Amygdaleza and all the other concentration camps, sentenced to death and then to oblivion, too – for national homogeneity reserves no space even for the memory of most of its victims. These same people that have now supposedly turned anti-fascists are those who ordered the detention 70,000 migrants in a single year; who vilified HIV-positive women and rounded up drug addicts en masse; who lead women and men to despair and suicide daily… The list only keeps growing.

Read the full article HERE:

Visit ann arky's home at www.radicalglasgow.me.uk

Edinburgh And Dundee Events.

From uafEdinburgh:

        The recent murder of a prominent Greek rapper by a member of the fascist Golden Dawn shows why we need to keep on top of the racists here.
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/sep/25/golden-dawn-pavlos-fyssas-murder

       On Saturday 5 October there are two very different events but both working for the anti-racist cause. A family friendly fun day in Edinburgh and in Dundee there will be a counter protest to the racist Scottish Defence League.

EDINBURGH
      Last year’s Love Multiculturalism-Hate Racism event was great fun and dead popular, this year’s line-up is even better and will showcase entertainment and activities from around the world including music from Rise Katonga (ex-Bhundu boys), the Avuda Choir, the Belle Stars with Scottish & Klezmer music, Henna-hand painting, , children’s entertainer, world cuisine and stalls. Entry costs just £1 and all proceeds will go toward Unite Against Fascism in Edinburgh.

Facebook:  https://www.facebook.com/events/157174167816868/
Avuda Choir:  https://www.facebook.com/pages/Avuda/281654335268831

DUNDEE
       The Scottish Defence League have been trying to build branches across the country so the demonstration against them in Dundee is important to keep them isolated and hopefully demoralised. The protest assembles at 12 noon in City Square. We will be sending cars of people through. Can you come? Email us: uafedinburgh@riseup.net

Video footage from last year: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M2QNaIV3bVg (Preview)

STUDENTS
      We really hope to organise some Unite Against Fascism meeting for students across Edinburgh, please get in touch if you would like to help out.  Email: uafedinburgh@riseup.net

ANTI-FASCIST FUNDRAISER
       At the recent protest in London against the English Defence League the police went over the top and ended up arresting 100's of anti-fascists and they then put draconian bail conditions on them.
http://www.morningstaronline.co.uk/a-66b8-police%20arrest%20hundreds%20of%20anti-fascists%20at%20tower%20hamlets%20edl%20demo#.UknMl4amiSo

       On Monday October 14 there is an Edinburgh fundraiser at the Bongo club to raise funds for the legal costs of those arrested and has a stellar line-up of Scottish DJs and Live Acts
https://www.facebook.com/events/1406937919534709/?ref_dashboard_filter=upcoming

Visit ann arky's home at www.radicalglasgow.me.uk

2013/14, The Winter Of Discontent!!

       The present "austerity" measures that are being used to savagely claw resources away from the living standards of the ordinary people, are probably the most brutal for many a decade. In 1978/79 we had the "Winter of Discontent", back then by 1978, the ordinary people had suffered 4 years of voluntary and legislated wage restraint, as this economy driven system, even under Labour, tried to sort out the problems simply by milking the working class into poverty. Here we are again, the system requires "adjustments", and the powers that be, the same financial/corporate Mafia, have only one method, milk the working class into poverty.

       Where is our "Winter of Discontent", where is the solidarity between the various working groups that are seeing their conditions decimated, where is the solidarity between the communities that are seeing the very fabric of those communities being shredded? This attack on our living conditions is not directed at any one group, it is aimed at all of us, it is just that they are picking off the weakest in our society first, the unemployed, the disabled, those who receive social benefits, they will however work their way through the complete range of ordinary people as an entire class. As a class we have to build our resistance across that class, we have to organise across the workers/unemployed segment of society, in conjunction with our communities, that are being assaulted. View it as you will, it is a class war, they recognise that fact, the "austerity" never falls on their class, they always protect their own. It is time that we done likewise and as a class start to defend our own. I see nothing wrong in the present day conditions of having our own 2013/14 present day "Winter of Discontent".

      For those who are not too familiar with the 1978/79 "Winter of Discontent"

The Commune has an excellent article reviewing the event.

      The Winter of Discontent was the longest and most comprehensive strike wave since 1926, with nearly 30 million working days lost embracing more than 4,500 industrial disputes. However, as suggested above, its analysis has always been riddled by mystifications and misconceptions. One such, very common, is that the WoD was a public sector strike – an assumption bolstered by the various urban near-myths of the dead being left unburied, rubbish piling up in the streets, etc. While these are not untrue, they are exaggerated – and in any case ignore the class basis for such supposedly “selfish” acts.

Read the full article HERE:

Visit ann arky's home at www.radicalglasgow.me.uk

Full Circle, Victorian Poverty To Osborne Poverty.

      How far will this government of millionaires go in creating its section of the European sweatshop economy? Well as far as we will let them. Though they failed to get voted in, they managed to cobble together a cabal of privileged parasitical millionaires to push through their agenda of low wage anti-union policies at the behest of the financial/corporate mafia. However they are by no means finished, there are some very vicious plans still to be implemented. Having attacked the unemployed with slave labour "workfare", brutally assaulted  the disabled by means of ATOS, bludgeoned individuals and families with the "bedroom tax" and coerced those working into accepting zero hours contracts, Old Etonian millionaire Osborne, has a super plan to bring back the Victorian workhouse conditions. Come April, all unemployed will be forced to do 30 hours a week of unpaid of charity work, or lose their benefits. If you can't find a job, you can be expected to be out picking up litter etc. saving the council money, and allowing them to pay off some more workers, to be forced to the same work. How you are supposed to find work while doing 30 hours a week slave labour is not mentioned. The reason being that they are well aware that there are no jobs.

      All this bodes well for their corporate  friends, forced labour, and shrinking wages and the promise of more "anti-union legislation". The phrase, "anti-union legislation" translates as an attack on all our working conditions, including health and safety. As far as the corporate greed machine is concerned, health and safety is costly, and that money could be used for shareholders bonuses. After all people are cheap, much cheaper than health and safety. Since taking the reigns of power, this millionaire cabal have managed to cut the average family income, in real terms, by £1,300 annually, and remember, they are talking about the "austerity" conditions lasting until 2018. How much will your average income have shrivelled to by then?

      It is all going to plan, sweatshop Europe is well under way, wages have fallen by approximately 10% since 2010, the unemployed will work for nothing, unions are being decimated, so firing at will isn't a problem, and zero hours contracts take a load off the employers responsibilities. In the marble halls of the corporate world, the champagne glasses are clinking in honour of the Osborne/Cameron attack on the working class.

Following extract from Mirror News:

     He said taking more money off the wealthy to pay for schools, hospitals and defence was “not sensible for a country if it wants to support wealth creation”. On the opening day of the conference he also announced policies that included pulling out of the European Convention on Human Rights. And his shift to the right was reinforced by party chairman Grant Shapps who set out plans for new anti-union laws – as his boss appeared to doze off in the audience.

Read the full article HERE:

     This is the best we can expect from this type of economic system, it's called capitalism. That means make lots of money for corporations at the expense of the people employed. However, it is not the only game in town, as we are continually told. There are other ways to shape our society, there is co-operation, mutual aid, producing to see to the needs of all our people and sustainability. We can create structures that serve us the people, rather than a market, controlled by billionaires. The parasites need us, we don't need them.

Visit ann arky's home at www.radicalglasgow.me.uk

Massive Protests Against Golden Dawn.

 

       It's encouraging to see such a massive protest against Golden Dawn in Greece. The brutal murder of Pavlos Fyssas has been the catalyst in an explosion of anti-fascist sentiment. Even the Troika's, (E.C. European Commission, E.C.B. European Central Bank, I.M.F. International Mankind Fuckers.) puppets, sitting in the marble halls of power in Athens, who just a few weeks ago, were talking of a possible coalition with Golden Dawn have now started to distance themselves from the party of street thugs. It is not a change heart or policy, it is more self preservation, as they don't want any of the blood stains to be seen on their hands. So it's time for the two faced parasites to wear the suit of pseudo respectability.

 

This from InfoShop:

       A week after antifascist hip-hop singer Pavlos Fyssas was murdered in cold blood by a gang of Golden Dawn thugs, tens of thousands of antifascist protesters staged an impressive rally and marched on the Golden Dawn headquarters in Athens to confront the rising threat of fascism head on. Clashes briefly broke out after riot police prevented the march from reaching the party’s offices and began firing tear gas at protesters to disperse the crowd. Some molotov cocktails were thrown, some trash bins burnt and some bank windows thrown in, but overall the march remained mostly peaceful.

Read the full article HERE:

Visit ann arky's home at www.radicalglasgow.me.uk

Anarchism.

Quote for the day:

       While the popular understanding of anarchism is of a violent, anti-State movement, anarchism is a much more subtle and nuanced tradition then a simple opposition to government power. Anarchists oppose the idea that power and domination are necessary for society, and instead advocate more co-operative, anti-hierarchical forms of social, political and economic organisation.

— L. Susan Brown

The Politics of Individualism

Visit ann arky's home at www.radicalglasgow.me.uk

Glasgow's Own R.I.B.

RiB on FACEBOOK

...supporting small press publishers and independent producers...circulating radical reading materials and information...
RADICAL INDEPENDENT BOOK FAIR Project

-----------------------------------
Fri 18th / Sat 19th / Sun 20th OCT
CCA
350 Sauchiehall Street
Glasgow
G2 3JD
Back at Document film festival... a range of new titles and another new set up. Hope to see ya there .... times below. This year we are on the first floor gallery corridor (above the bar), not out of sight or mind!
Friday 18th - 16.00 - 22.00
Saturday19th - 10.00 - 22.00
Sunday 20th - 12.00 - 22.00

RiB midi stall
free entry to stall
-----------------------------------
Sat 26th OCT
The Glad Cafe
1006a Pollokshaws Road
Glasgow
G41 2HG
Performance along with book and CD launch marking the publication of Songs of Freedom - the James Connolly Songbook by Mat Callahan.

entry £8 / £5 concession
No tickets so come early to avoid missing out.
RiB mini stall
-----------------------------------
     “These are our lives and we need to grab them. Independence of thought, deed and expression. Roll on, RIB, roll on.”
James Kelman, writer

       “Through these long dark years of reaction and retrenchment, RIB has been a stalwart wee island of inspiration, providing a unique and invaluable facility to the movement with imagination, generosity and resolve.”
Tam Dean Burn, actor

     "As hip authors everywhere adjust to the idea that the majority of their output will be read on electronic devices, books, magazines and pamphlets take on a new significance. And, as the world falls further into the thrall of neoliberal ideology, books, magazines and pamphlets that offer other ways of thinking and organising assume a particular urgency. It is just such publications that can be found at the occasional and compelling Radical Independent Book Fair. Catch it while you can, consume its content voraciously and do what you can to act upon the information you find there..."
Rebecca Gordon-Nesbitt, reader / writer
---------------------- ----------------------  ----------------------
     For details on every event - small or large check out the facebook page - it gets updated more regularly than the website (which is still to be revamped!)
RiB on FACEBOOK

Visit ann arky's home at www.radicalglasgow.me.uk

 

Greek Health Service.

      The Greek health service has collapsed, all the more reason to support this call for help for  a victim of police repression.

This from Contra Info:

        Inside the squatted social centre VOX, which is situated on the corner of Arachovis and Themistocleous streets at Exarchia Square, there is now a fund raising kit for the comrade who was shot by a cop with tear gas canister straight in his eye, during the evening march in response to the murder of Pavlos Fyssas in the district of Keratsini.
      The comrade needs to undergo another surgery, and the total amount to be raised is 5,000 euros.
Solidarity is our weapon. No one alone.
Squatted social centre VOX

Visit ann arky's home at www.radicalglasgow.me.uk

Workers Know Your History, Syndicalist Congress, 1913.

     As usual, I'm a day late with this anniversary, September 27.

From Wikipedia:

       The First International Syndicalist Congress was a meeting of European and Latin American syndicalist organizations at Holborn Town Hall in London from September 27 to October 2, 1913. Upon a proposal by the Dutch National Labor Secretariat (NAS) and the British Industrial Syndicalist Education League (ISEL), most European syndicalist groups, both trade unions and advocacy groups, agreed to congregate at a meeting in London. The only exception was the biggest syndicalist organization worldwide, the French General Confederation of Labor (CGT). Nevertheless, the congress was held with organizations from twelve countries participating. It was marked by heated debate and constant disagreements over both tactics and principles. Yet, it succeeded in creating the International Syndicalist Information Bureau as a vehicle of exchange and solidarity between the various organizations and the Bulletin international du mouvement syndicaliste as a means of communication. It would be viewed as a success by almost all who participated.

For some of Glasgow's working class history visit Strugglepedia.

Visit ann arky's home at www.radicalglasgow.me.uk

Our Cities Need Clean Streets!!

      Recently we have heard a lot about the fascists on the streets of Greece, but that is not the only place that the scum appear. It is right across Europe that they are raising their ugly head. There has been  lurch to the right in Norwegian politics, and recent events in Turkey prove that fascism is alive and growing in that neck of the woods. They appear in their various guises of political parties, as well as their street thugs. However the death of Pavlos Fyssas in Piraeus has marked a turning point in the fight against the festering cancer of fascism. Actions of solidarity are taking place all over Europe and the fascist are on the receiving end of some of their own medicine. They have raised their vile head enough, it is time to push it back down.

From Contra Info:

      On Saturday, September 21st, neo-Nazi Kimonas Potsis—a minion of Christos Pappas, notorious MP of the Golden Dawn party—was spotted alongside two other right-wing fuckers in a café at the centre of Ioannina where many anti-authoritarians hang out. After a short verbal scuffle with antifascists who were on the spot, he got beaten up and kicked out of the store. Shortly afterwards, he and another one of his gang got trashed again on Anexartisias street and had to be transferred to the nearest hospital.

 

Listen up, you fascist scumbags:
we’ll throw you straight into the Lake of Ali Pasha.

And from Germany: 

      In memory of Pavlos Fyssas there is a banner at the autonomous center (AJZ) in Bielefeld, which reads: “Athens: Antifascist Pavlos Fyssas murdered by fascists. Another dead! Another reason to fight!”

Also posters appeared in the streets of Bielefeld. The text on it explains how Pavlos Fyssas (Piraeus) and Clément Méric (Paris) were murdered by fascists, and how Ahmet Atakan (Antakya) was killed by a teargas grenade from cops in Turkey. It reads:

      “What do these dead have in common? They are only three of the many who died; the many who remain nameless, but whom we do not want to forget. Victims of racist and fascist attacks. Victims of state terror, or both at once.

      All three—Pavlos, Clément and Ahmet—were politically active and  were killed for that reason.

     We don’t want to be scared off by their death. But we want to confer dignity on their death by continuing the struggle against oppression.”

 

received from Infoladen Anschlag Bielefeld

Visit ann arky's home at www.radicalglasgow.me.uk

Austerity My Arse.

 

       Austerity is the cry from governments across the world, but that only applies to the social side of society. Every budget gets trimmed, benefits get cut, wages get frozen, social services get decimated and their costs go up. However this all looks ridiculous when it comes the that side of the state apparatus called “military”. The case of the super-duper, F-35 “do-everything” fighter, makes you scratch your head and wonder, why do we tolerate such idiots running our affairs. This power monger's toy is estimated to cost the US almost $400 billion and rising. It was to be operational in 2012 but is now thought to be 2015/18, what a wonderful money spinner for the arms industry, no austerity there. It will be available to their NATO buddies and some other “friendly” nations, who will chip-in to the development fund, some of their taxpayers money for the privilege of being able to buy a few of these toys. Once you buy this money eater, you are lumbered with astronomical costs just to keep the thing running. Norwegian Rear Admiral Arne Roksund estimated the his country's 52, F-35's, will cost $769 million EACH, over their operational lifetime. When the state apparatus talks to us about “austerity”, they are really just laughing at us, and taking us for a bunch of idiots. And we are if we tolerate this unbelievable waste of time, energy and resources to be spent on the toys of empire, while millions live in poverty, millions starve and others die from preventable diseases. What will the people of the world gain from this multi-billion dollar state status symbol?

Visit ann arky's home at www.radicalglasgow.me.uk

Glasgow Games Monitor.

This from Glasgow Games Monitor

Unmasking the myths of the Glasgow Commonwealth Games

East End Eye

     The ‘East End Eye’ is the paper voice of Glasgow Games Monitor 2014. On top of our online presence, we distribute 5,000 copies per issue in the East End and across Glasgow.

     If you know of anything which you think should be reported, or if you would like to contribute yourself, then please contact: gamesmonitor2014@googlemail.com

Issue One: eastendeye_issue 1
Issue Two: eastendeye_issue 2
Issue Three: eastendeye_issue 3
Issue Four: eastendeye_edition4
Issue Five: eastendeye_issue5
Issue Six: eastendeye_edition6

A new post, and issue 6 of the East End Eye now online!
http://gamesmonitor2014.org/2013/09/20/councillors-fury-at-controversial-games-sponsor/

http://gamesmonitor2014.org/east-end-eye-paper/

    Anyone who would like to help distribute and support the Save the Accord campaign for a new day care centre, please let us know!

     We also have a meeting at Kinning Park Complex at 7.00 on Tuesday 1st October. All welcome:

 http://www.kinningparkcomplex.org/how-to-find-us/
http://gamesmonitor2014.org/
gamesmonitor2014@googlemail.com

Visit ann arky's home at www.radicalglasgow.me.uk

Who Needs Nuclear?

Who needs nuclear?

Visit ann arky's home at www.radicalglasgow.me.uk

Eating Or Heating.

      As you ruminate on your problem of eating or heating, your mate in workfare, your disabled neighbour facing ATOS, and your friend on zero hours contract, perhaps you could spare a thought for Bruce Rockowitz and Coco Lee. This couple got married recently and their wedding is reported to have cost $20 million, yes, $20 million. Bruce, is one of those products of the capitalist system, creating personal wealth from sweatshop exploitation, his 2012 income is reported as almost $7 million, while his bride Coco, a Hong Kong pop star, not short of a bob or two herself, likewise is a product of this system.

 

      This typifies the glaring injustice in the economic system we tolerate, two relatively young people have amassed an unbelievable fortune. One from exploiting desperate vulnerable people, the other by being the subject of media hype. While the most of us put in a full days work all our lives, creating the wealth that they enjoy, and we just about get by. We live amidst an abundance of wealth that we created, yet most live in poverty, is that the best we can do?

 Visit ann arky's home at www.radicalglasgow.me.uk

Are We Getting Angry?

        Are we getting angry? Workfare, where thousands of people are forced to work for multinationals and receive no pay. Are we getting angry? ATOS, in its quest to make money from ticking boxes has seen almost two thousand disabled people it claimed were fit for work, die within moths of their decision. Are we getting angry? The governments “bedroom tax” is threatening to break up families, force homes into debt, and have the threat of eviction hanging over the heads vulnerable people. Are we getting angry? The six big energy companies are making billions of pounds and are increasing their prices this winter, while there are almost 4 million people in the UK living in fuel poverty. Are we getting angry? 4 million children in the UK, one in every three, are living in poverty, this is the highest of any developed industrial nation in the world. Some districts in this country have a much higher rate, with Springburn in the north of Glasgow topping the league with a criminal rate of 52% of children living in poverty. Are we getting angry? Zero hours contracts are growing like weeds in an unkempt garden. Meaning you are employed but have no guarantee of hours, so no idea how much you will earn. You sit with your phone handy, hoping your boss will phone and offer you a few hours work, but you are off the unemployed figures. Are we getting angry? Here in the UK, average wages have, in real terms, fallen by approximately 10% since 2008, while the gap between rich and poor gets wider by the month. Are we getting angry? While ordinary families are squeezed by “austerity measures” meaning lower incomes and rising prices, the number of millionaire households in the UK grew by 98,000 in 2012. Whose recession? Are we getting angry? We are being driven to the deprivation of the Victorian era, by our lords and masters, as they plunder our public assets, Royal Mail etc., as gifts to their friends in the financial/corporate Mafia.

 

     Are we getting angry? If not why not? There is an old Korean saying that I think we should ponder during these times. Enjoy the ecstasy of your righteous anger. Our anger in the present circumstances, would most certainly be righteous.

Visit ann arky's home at www.radicalglasgow.me.uk

"Support Our Troops".

      I find it a strange cry, "support our troops". Most people are vehement in their condemnation of those power mongers who don the robes of the rabid dogs of war. They will heap vocal abuse on those sabre rattling Presidents and Prime Ministers, etc. who call for military intervention, invasion, aerial bombardment, or whatever their military plan may be. But somehow fall in behind those who say, “support our troops”, I find this a contradiction. Those rabid dogs of war would be impotent ,if it were not for those people willing to put on the uniform, pick up the gun, pilot the fighter bomber, put in the co-ordinates for the missile launch, and do their master's killing. There can be no wars without an army, no matter how loud the power mongers shout for blood.

    “Colorful demonstrations and weekend marches are vital but alone are not powerful enough to stop wars. Wars will be stopped only when soldiers refuse to fight, when workers refuse to load weapons onto ships and aircraft, when people boycott the economic outposts of Empire that are strung across the globe.”
 Arundhati Roy, Public Power in the Age of Empire 

  

    Look closely at the modern army, is it designed strictly for the defence of your plot of land on this earth? Wars are fought for economic reasons and composed of two main parts, the advocate for war and the army prepared to do the actual klling. Sabre rattling dogs of war would be no more than ranting idiots in the market square, if there was no army. To advocate the removal of the war mongers but leave the tools of war in place, is like asking a surgeon to remove half of a tumour. The whole tumour must be removed. The best way to “support our troops” is for the people to refuse to support the state's military machine in any way. Those who make the bullets, transport the bombs, build the tanks, are in the state's military machine and just as responsible for the killing of the Afghan child, the Iraqi bus driver, as the uniform with the weapon in their hand. To “support our troops” means supporting the killing of ordinary people across the globe. There is a tremendous difference between self defence, and a mighty state military machine that is used to wreak havoc in other people's homeland. 

Patriotism.

No, I shall not die for the fluttering flag,

if truth be known, ’tis nothing but a multi-coloured rag

held aloft by some foolish hand

inciting worker and peasant to kill

on some green and wooded hill,

peasant and worker from some other land.

Nor shall I shed blood for the fluttering rag

that brings out fools to stand and brag

of brutal deeds painted grand,

deeds where rustic and craftsman lie so still

killed by my brothers' misguided hand.

No allegiance have I for the Nation

this man made autocratic creation

that divides my brothers in a world so small,

binds us to a country's cause, right or wrong,

bids us follow its drum, sing its song,

then sheds our blood in some border brawl.

No, I'll be no slave to flag or nation,

have no ear for power oration,

though its iron heel is on my breast,

my back feels its leather thong,

at patriotism's barracoon, I'll be no guest.

Visit ann arky's home at www.radicalglasgow.me.uk