Secret Societies And All That.

       Members of "secret societies"  and other such organisations, passing judgement and creating legislation as independent unbiased individuals, can hardly be called "democracy". In fact it stinks, and our political and judiciary system allows this cultism, cronyism and old boys' network to fester silently in the corridors of power. In any fair society, you declare your interests openly for all to see, democracy can't live in a land of "nods and winks", and "nudge-nudge" and  "say-no-more". However that is where we live at the moment.

Sign the petition HERE:

Petitioner: Tom Minogue

Status:

Open

Closing Date for Online Petition: 29 October 2013

       Calling on the Scottish Parliament to urge the Scottish Government to amend the law or codes of practice to make it compulsory for decision makers such as sheriffs, judges, and juries at their courts, arbiters, and all panel members of tribunals that are convened and held in Scotland and  governed by devolved legislation, custom and practice, to declare if they have ever been members of organisations, such as the Masons, that demand fraternal preference to their brethren over non-brethren, or organisations which have constitutions or aims that are biased against any particular sect, religion or race.
          That a register of such membership is held by the various bodies that supervise such judicial and quasi-judicial tribunals and that access to these registers is given on demand to the defendant, litigant, or plaintiff wishing to exercise their rights to a fair hearing in accordance with Article 6 of the ECHR. 

Sign the petition HERE: 

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

45th. Anniversary Of The Tlatelolco Massacre.

      Not much appearing in the babbling brook of bullshit, our mainstream media, about what is going on in Mexico. However, the struggle against this corporate fascism that grips the world goes on daily and across the globe. There is not a country in the world where the people are not taking to the streets in anger. From East to West, from North to South, the people are now aware that the system stinks and the biggest stink comes from the politicians.

     In Mexico they were marking the 45th anniversary of the Tlatelolco Massacre,(The Tlatelolco massacre, also known as The Night of Tlatelolco, was the killing of student and civilian protesters as well as bystanders by Mexican government employees that took place during the afternoon and night of October 2, 1968, The violence occurred ten days before the 1968 Summer Olympics celebrations in Mexico City.) when the usual state repression came into play.

     Intermittent clashes caused by anarchists against Mexico City Police take place in main avenues of Mexican Capital, Cops also made ​​arbitrary arrests of demonstrators peaceful and aggressive, 51 wounded and 102 arrested is balance of manifestation.

The first clashes between youths with their faces covered and police occurred at the intersection of Hidalgo Avenue and Paseo de la Reforma, one of the main avenues of Mexico City. The riot police used tear gas, shields and batons to disperse demonstrators who responded by throwing objects.

The mobilization, with the participation of college, academics, trade unions and social organizations, started from the Plaza de las Tres Culturas in Tlatelolco led by leaders of the student movement of 1968, during the march also involved young people who reject the reforms proposed by the federal government.

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

10,000 Deaths Is Surely More Than Enough!!

       There is horror and anger at the UK deaths in Afghanistan, 444 young people killed in a pointless state adventure since 2001. Admittedly these young people put on a uniform and trained with the expectation that they would have to face the possibility of death, but the blood is still on the state's hands. However, the state is responsible for a greater number of deaths in a much shorter period of time here at home. The state, in 2010 introduced the Welfare Reform Act and tasked ATOS, at a profit, to reduce the disability payments bill. Those on disability did not volunteer, nor were they trained to face possible death, but their death toll under ATOS in three years is more than twenty times greater than the death toll of twelve years in Afghanistan.

From Demotix:

       Disabled activists and supporters came to Parliament Square for '10,000 Cuts & Counting', a ceremony of remembrance and solidarity for over 10,000 who died shortly after the degrading Work Capability Assessments run for the government by ATOS.

Read the full article HERE:

       No matter how you look at it, in Afghanistan or at the hand of ATOS these shocking deaths are on the governments hands, 10,000 deaths here in the UK in three years and hardly a whisper from that babbling brook of bullshit, the mainstream media, they have other things to report, Wills and Harry are doing “things”. The government is obviously delighted with the work that ATOS does, to the extent that this gang of corporate thugs has over £3 billion worth of UK government contracts. This system is all about making money, they can make money from harassing and bullying, and death is just a by-product, a little collateral damage that can be ignored. Think on these figures, it is not just the 10,000 deaths, though that is horrific enough, it's the humiliation, harassment, stress and anguish from that first interview to the death later on. The destruction of the last period in a disabled person's life. A period when we should be adding care and compassion, instead we heap degradation and misery. This is capitalism, where the god of money rules.

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

The Slow Walk To Deprivation.

        In Greece more than one third of the population are living below the poverty line. Unemployment is running at 27.9% with youth unemployment a criminal 62.2%. These figures put Greece ahead in the grand plan of sweatshop Europe, but one country is not enough. The financial/corporate Mafia need more countries to get down to that level in their standard of living, to create the right circumstances to compete with the Eastern sweatshop economies. They need more people desperate enough to work for next to nothing, a more subservient workforce that has seen their working conditions decimated and the trade unions completely neutered. 

      In the UK They are taking a much slower road to deprivation and desperation. We have seen a 10% drop in real terms on our income in the last 4 to 5 years, with the promise from the recent Tory conference, that this "austerity" will continue until 2020. That's 7 more years of wage reductions/freeze, 7 more years of vicious cuts to social services and benefits. Where will your standard of living be by then? We are not there yet, but we are getting there. All other European countries are walking the same road, some faster than others. This is the legacy that we will leave our children and grandchildren, deprivation and desperation, unless we start now to take control of our own lives, our own communities. This struggle has been going on for more than a couple of hundred years and at the moment, they are winning. The final outcome is up to us, servitude, deprivation, or freedom to shape our own society.

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

The Smothering Of Potential And The Destruction Of People.

      It is difficult to quantify the damage being done to the ordinary people of this country by this millionaire regime sitting in the Westminster Houses of Hypocrisy and Corruption. Is it the damage done by their smashing of the education system, is it facing the choice of eating or heating, is it the brutal attack on the disabled by ATOS, is it the working for nothing slave labour workfare scheme, is it the inhuman zero hours contracts, is it the bedroom tax, is it the lack of support when things don't work out in your life. Probably most of all it is the illusion they peddle, that this is a fair society, and if you work hard you'll do just fine. We tend to think that people could be hit by one of the problems mentioned above. However the brutal truth is that you can be savaged by some or all of these injustices, as you struggle through this greed driven system of exploitation, capitalism has no compassion. The damage is not a one-of blow, it is a cumulative assault on the person, that can and does damage them for the rest of their lives. Bullying, harassing, and degrading people is spouted as criminal, but our millionaire cabal, under the stamp of legitimacy granted to them by "the state", can do it daily and on a widespread basis, with impunity. Only the people can call them to justice, and surely our patience is running thin.

     The following letter was offered to Glasgow Against ATOS. It speaks volumes on what is wrong in this type of society. Bright intelligent, hard working people being destroyed, as their potential is trodden in the mire of an unjust and brutal system. We can surely do better than this for all our people.

Someone has very bravely asked us to share this honest letter to their MP. ***Warning: could trigger; report of suicide attempts.

Dear MP,
      I meet you back in 2007 at ***** school while you where presenting to the sixth form year. I was one the only one in that group to say I was interested in politics. You probably don’t remember me but I do remember you. I found your presentation very interesting and actually a lot better than the Lib Dem local MP presentation. You actually inspired my keen interest in politics.

     Since then I was presented with an Anti-bullying Diana award by Ed Balls, meet Gordon Brown and even had meetings (although short) with Ed Balls. I was also a founding member of the Young Anti-bullying Alliance. Then once I turned 20 I became an advisor to the group passing on my knowledge and skills to the younger members as well as being emotional support and encouragement. In 2011, when Tories and Lib Dem came to power, the Young anti-bullying alliance was disbanded due to decrees in funding for both the princess Diana memorial awards and the anti-bullying alliance. That was a sad day for all our members and it was heart breaking to say goodbye to the young people I had been mentoring, which also included young people from mencap.

       2011 was an eventful year for me as I also finished my psychology degree, and I have to say I was very fond of the psychology of politics and terrorism module. I learnt a lot and I was hooked on every word during the lectures. Despite being severely dyslexic I made it through my three year degree and had a great sense of achievement at the end of it.

        All of us left university with great ideas of what we could do with our lives, ambitions and lustre to work up the ladder in a career we would enjoy and keep us interested. Ah that almost childish enjoyment of being 21 again and gently nudged into the world of work. All of us started applying for work before we left university, looking for the best we could get and keeping our hopes up. After about three months of looking none of my friend group had found any work and we were starting to feel the drain of the “real world”.

      I can’t speak for our entire group from university, but I ended up getting to my 22nd birthday and crying because I had no job, no money and a lot of debt left over from university. I finally got a full time job in February, though it was far from perfect. I worked hard and ended up getting promoted in the summer.

     However I was working 60+ hours to even earn a decent wage. The hours took a drain on me and I ended up being diagnosed with depression in November 2012 the second time in my life. I wanted to hold onto my job but knew that I could not go on without treatment. So I referred myself to CBT. This only help to a certain extent but due to family commitments I had to keep working, I soon received a demotion as I could not keep up with my work load. This caused my first suicide attempt, which luckily my family intervened and my GP became very supportive of me. Helping me to take time off work and even stand up for me when I was given 40+ hours work when I should have been on a phase back to work.

      However my mental health was not improving and there were problems at home. I had no outlet and no ability to deal with distressing emotions or incidents in my life. Finally one day I was in a meeting with my boss, the word safeguarding was mentioned and I cracked like I have never cracked before. I could not stop crying, I was a failure and I couldn’t even do my job, my boss was also saying how I seemed to “space out” at work and I was thinking it was due to alcohol. I wanted to quit back in November and again during the meeting. However I was not going to get JSA if I left my job and I had financial commitments.

      April the 5th 2013. MY LIFE ENDED.
Everything I had known up to that day changed, I was rushed to hospital by my friends as I screamed and cried and tried to wrestle my way out of the car onto the motorway. I had in an automatic and uncontrollable moment bought alcohol after I left work, I had my painkillers with me and the roof of the car park at the back of town just looked as if it was a good place. I had tried to contact someone I felt I could talk to before this although I do not recall what time exactly but no answer. Anyway no longer having the courage to jump I decided to go sit by the abbey. It was a beautiful place and it relaxed me. I was sobbing on the bench as people walked past, downing my vodka and pills. I couldn’t go on living. I was in an unskilled and undervalued job with low pay and my family was a mess. I could not afford to move out from my parents and every part of my soul felt drained. There was nothing happy left. Society had drained me and far too quickly. I still wonder what the point of life is to this day.

       Since then I had spent 48 hours in an acute unit, 8 weeks in an acute day treatment unit and been on sickness benefits. I’ve had different diagnosis from reoccurring depressive disorder to depression and psychosis. I hear voices when I am distressed and upset. I do things which I cannot control and I feel like I am now a drain on society. However I decided that I will take the time I need to recover and plan on in the future becoming a productive member of society.

      Now that you have had my life story I feel I should explain why I am writing to you. Since your party has been in government I feel as if not only myself but everyone like me has been tarred with the same brush. We are called work shy, made to go to numerous assessments and generally harassed by your party for being disabled. I may not have a leg missing or some major physical disability, but that is not the defining point for being classed as disabled or unable to work.

        I ask of you to help stand up for people who do not have a voice. Such as me, I am only able to write to you, I cannot travel to London and protest because I cannot stand in a crowd without having panic attacks or a “psychotic episode.” I am scared to stand up for myself as I fear backlash from the public. I hide the fact I have mental health problems as your party continues to persuade the public of how we are lazy, workshy and undeserving of help.

        I understand that the economy does not permit the government the luxury of just handing out a cushioned lifestyle to people who cannot work and you are even trying to help people who may be able to return to work, one day reach that goal. However I believe that your party is attempting to, if not already, trying to breech the human rights of the disabled.

      Remember that a society is judged on how it treats it poor and vulnerable.

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

Beat The Prying Eyes.

Interesting, typing free from prying eyes? I suppose in time they would embed the new font in the latest OCR systems and then we would be back to where we started. Or is that too simple an answer, I'm no tec-geek.

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

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

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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
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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
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     “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
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     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