Poster Campaign.

      A couple of photos from timeline photos that I'd love to see appear at every bus stop, railway station, and shopping mall. Nice big A3 size plastered all over the place.

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

F The Tories Freestyle.

     There is so much wrong with this system that we live under, that we can never run out of ways to describe the injustice, inequality, cheating, lying and the blatant privileges to the rich. No matter how many ways there are, we should never tire of shouting, singing, writing, protesting and organising, until we bring this pile of shit down. Though it is not as in the title of this video, just a matter of F the Tories, they are just the team at the wheel at the moment, changing the suit and the smile at the wheel, still delivers the same crap.

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

Some Charities Are Not What They Seem.

       Continuing the week of action against workfare, we shouldn't forget that in this capitalist society so many charities are just another business where bosses get fat salaries and bonuses at the expense of the public. So today as well as the other previously mentioned let's concentrate on these vultures.

This from The Void:

 

 Groundwork boss Sir Tony Hawkhead who recently gave a speech at the annual workfare conference.

      As part of the week of action against workfare and sanctions it’s time to say enough is enough and hold these shameless bastards to account for their grotesque profiteering.  And don’t let them try claim that they aren’t doing it for the money.  Workfare and workfare contracts are two of the reasons they can afford to pay their bosses so much after all.   These so-called charities are the real benefit scroungers and the suffering they are causing is obscene.
Groundwork are on twitter @groundworkuk and facebook at: https://www.facebook.com/groundworkuk
TCV are on twitter @TCVtweets and facebook at: https://www.facebook.com/TheConservationVolunteers
YMCA are on twitter @YMCA_England and facebook at: https://www.facebook.com/YMCA.England
The Salvation Army are on twitter @salvationarmyuk and facebook at: https://www.facebook.com/salvationarmyuk
And don’t forget another so-called charity involved in mass workfare, The Shaw Trust, on twitter @Shaw_Trust and facebook at: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Shaw-Trust/221553131217597
Don’t forget to sign the petition calling for an end to all benefit sanctions without exceptions.
Follow me on twitter @johnnyvoid

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

UK, A Hungry Nation.

      While our Oxbridge millionaires, sitting in The Westminster Houses of Hypocrisy and Corruption, mouth off about “growth” and “making the right decisions” and the blue corner waffles with the red corner with meaningless phrases and lots of “here, here's”, you and I see hunger and desperation. This is one of the richest nations on the planet, yet its people go hungry. The Trussell Trust, which has 400 food banks across the UK, states that it handed out food parcels to more than 350,000 people, between April and September this year. What makes this even more criminal is the fact that a third of these were children. The number of people relying on food banks for survival has tripled over the last year.

        Here in the UK it is not just a handful of families that are somehow in need of help. This is a national crisis caused by the deliberate actions of the bankster friendly government. This is a nation slowly being driven to deprivation by forced “austerity”. Some leading experts state that in the UK hunger has now reached the level of a “public health emergency” A recent letter to the British Medical Journal signed by a group of senior academics from two leading universities, the Medical Research Council and a group of doctors, said that the effect of Government policies on vulnerable people’s ability to afford food needed to be “urgently” monitored.

        There letter states that there has been a rapid rise in the number of people requiring emergency food aid, plus the doubling of the number of cases of malnutrition seen in hospitals, and a rapid fall in the number of calories being consumed by the public at large. They state that these are, “all the signs of a public health emergency that could go unrecognised until it is too late to take preventative action,” Research into this problem, commissioned by the Government itself, has had its publication delayed, we can only speculate that the reason is that the government may find its result embarrassing.

        This is the meaning of “austerity”, this is the ConDem's “steady growth”, this is Osborne's “right decisions”, this is the financial mafia's plans falling into place. Sweatshop Britain leading the way to sweatshop Europe. We have been told that these policies will continue until 2020, how many food banks will we need by then, how many cases of malnutrition will the hospitals handle by then? This is the promise of another 7 years of falling wages, slashing benefits and social services, and rising prices. Where will your standard of living be by then? Do you honestly believe that at that magical 2020, everything will suddenly be great, and hunger and poverty will disappear? Accept it, if you accept this present system, you accept an endless downward spiral to poverty and deprivation. Surely you want more than this.

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

Action Against Workfare.

       December 4th,  day of action against workfare. The protests are growing the actions do hurt their profits, so keep up the pressure. More information at The Void and Boycott workfare.

 

Marks & Spencer

    Marks & Spencer’s use of workfare hit public awareness when they announced 1400 new placements in their stores and a benchmark of 2% of the workforce to be unpaid. But this isn’t the brand’s first encounter with workfare. Despite their CEO earning over £2 million a year, they are also profiting from unpaid work through another workfare scheme in Scotland, which targets single parents. It’s likely their involvement is much more widespread – we also heard from someone sent on a 4 week placement at one of their outlet stores.

Last time we took action, M&S was forced to disable comments on their Facebook Page. Several pickets and walks of shame will pay a visit to their stores this week. Please feel free to contact them with your thoughts as well:

By email: Using their online form
By phone: See this useful list of numbers
Facebook: Marks and Spencer
Twitter: @marksandspencer

B&M Stores

        In May, B&M won an award from the workfare industry for its involvement. But the reality of this involvement is harsh. One person has reported: “B&M stores have started using workfare Jan 2013. Receiving free labour and stopping overtime for employees with contracts. The people forced to do this free labour are not happy and neither are the employees!” Boycott Workfare has had reports of workfare at B&M stores in Bangor, Glasgow, Manchester, Southend and Northern Ireland. Show them they can’t keep cutting their wages bill with unpaid work!

By email: enquiries@bmstores.co.uk or customerservices@bmstores.co.uk
By phone: 0151 728 5400 or more numbers here.
Facebook: B&M Stores
Twitter: @bmstores

Asda

       Asda has been at the heart of workfare in the UK, helping the government relaunch its “Work Experience” scheme last year. We have had reports that one of their stores in Manchester uses disabled people on workfare on the night shift. They are frank about their involvement here.

Asda contact form: Click here
Facebook: Asda
Twitter: @asda

Don’t forget to sign the petition calling for an end to all benefit sanctions without exceptions.

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

McGarrigle's Glasgow.

    Since posting The Clutha And John McGarrigle I have been touched by the number and content of the comments and emails I have received, below is the latest.

    I found your blog today as I was looking up John McGarrigle. I heard about his death first thing this morning - was the first thing on my radio. I'm a poet too and was struck by his death, so looked him up, and discovered that he was also working class like me. I was struck even more, and wanted to write few lines to commemorate him and his poetry (I've included some references to his work).

    I don't know whether his family would like to see it, but from your blog I note that you knew him. If you think it would be a good idea to show them this, please do. I've attached it and put it below too.

Take care

Laura Taylor

McGarrigle’s Glasgow

One of the scribes was taken tonight.

One of the seers, one of our own.

One of the prophets will write no more lines

in radical rhymes

nor preach them to people like us.

He struggled against his emptying days,

though yearned for contentment and calm.

Thought he had lost that angry young man,

but McGarrigle – words never die;

they’re beyond a stillness of pulse.

You spoke of a Glasgow unknown to the rich,

of the Cross, of a town built on sweat.

In the Clutha, the Scotia, the folk and the verse -

dance of the underdog, lies of the land –

were given a life in tune to your truth.

Tonight in a town made of working-class gold,

in the midst of McGarrigle’s Glasgow -

the artists and players, singers and sculptors,

poets and prophets and pipers and drummers

remember the heat of your heart;

raise their glass to the fire within.

May your flame spark gently in unsurpassed sunset tonight.

Laura Taylor.

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

This Society Of Parasites And Privilege.

      It says a lot about the class divided elitist system we, in this country live under, when three lads from the same year, at the same posh, very expensive school, end up at the same time, with three of the most powerful jobs in the country. All members of the arsehole Bullingdon Club for arrogant parasites. As far as the working class are concerned they are also three of the most dangerous men in the country. Groomed at the establishment's sausage factory, Cambridge, to protect their own and their millionaire friend's wealth, they are slotted in to positions of power. 

 

      I suppose if the working class were to put out a most wanted poster, then No.1 most dangerous man in the country would be George Gideon Oliver Osborne, son of Sir Peter Osborne 17th Baronet, and heir to the title. He lives in his padded bubble of privilege and wealth, oblivious of the troubles and problems of the ordinary people and ruthlessly carries out the dictates of his rich bankster buddies. The establishment has tasked him with the job of removing all wealth from the public sector to the private sector and to prepare the British working class for entry to the sweatshop economy. He does his job with an arrogance and relish. I suppose you could put murderer on that wanted poster, as in his drive to satisfy his billionaire bankster friends, he has introduced policies that increase poverty and deprivation, and in that poisonous cocktail, death lurks and strikes.

WANTED

      I'm not suggesting for one minute that we should replace this dangerous, arrogant, pompous, privileged parasite, with a more caring compassionate individual. That would make little or no difference what so ever, the corporate beast and the banksters would still be pulling the strings. The public assets would still be plundered and the public wealth sent up to their already fat overflowing coffers.

       No, it's the system that stinks, the elitist profit driven system of exploitation and privilege, that needs to be sorted out. Not changed, just simply scrapped. Capitalism can't be made fair, it can't be made caring, it is first and foremost a system of the few getting rich on the backs of the many, and the gap between rich and poor will always grow. I'm sure you can think of a better way to run our society than handing power and control over our lives to a bunch of pampered parasites from a wealthy privileged background. 

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

Justice For All Hunger Strikers.

Wednesday, 4th. December, 3pm.

Justice for all the Hunger Strikers! (Unity)
Festival Court, 200 Brand Street, Glasgow G51 1DH

    Isa Muazu has been returned to the UK after a failed attempt at deportation by Theresa May and the Home Office. Isa is critically ill, and it’s essential that he is released from detention immediately. It will be great if everyone could unite once again and show their support for every person who is on hunger strike while waiting for a decision from UKBA.
      We all need to remember, people are seeking asylum for HOPE and better FUTURE. We cannot destroy dreams. We need to show our support for ISA and for many others on hunger strike.

      Please join us WEDNESDAY 4TH DECEMBER at 3PM outside the HOME OFFICE in BRAND STREET.

For Further Info -http://unitycentreglasgow.org/?page_id=895

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

Week Of Action Against Workfare.

Tuesday 3rd December
Week of Action Against Workfare and Sanctions:

Day Two, Online: Everywhere
 

Organised by Boycott Workfare - Day Two:

     Online targeting of the companies that are profiting from making young people work without pay on Traineeships.
      Traineeships are about providing cheap labour, driving down wages, massaging unemployment figures and conditioning our young people for a life of poverty and jumping through endless hoops in search of a job.
     They're a fairly new scheme that targets 16-24 year olds with more unpaid work. Traineeships involve a work placement of up to six months for which the employer is not even required to pay travel expenses. The promise at the end of six months' unpaid work? You may then be eligible to work for £2.67 an hour as an apprentice.
     Used together, traineeships and apprenticeships have the potential to massively undercut the minimum wage on the high street and elsewhere. The government is of course rolling out compulsory education for 17-18 year-olds and unpaid work looks set to make up an increasingly large component of that education. Benefits cuts for 18-25 year-olds are also threatened. There are many companies happy to take advantage of young people and profit from their lack of opportunity, so today let's take action against them. Contact them by phone, email or on social media.

     Here are some of the companies eager to abuse our youngsters to fatten their shareholders bank accounts.   

Kwikfit
(http://feweek.co.uk/2013/09/19/kwik-fits-unpaid-traineeship-branded-unacceptable/)

 https://www.facebook.com/KwikFit

http://www.youtube.com/kwikfitltd

https://twitter.com/Kwik_Fit

tweet them at @Kwik_fit

Subway

https://www.facebook.com/SUBWAY.UK.Ireland

Tweet to @SUBWAYUKIreland

Toywatch

Let them know your opinion at 

onshop@toy-watch.com,

Tweet to @ToyWatchWorld

Novotel

Difficult to contact without joining their "club" their phone number earns them money and costs you about 10P a minute.

For further information and actions in the coming week contact.

:http://www.boycottworkfare.org/?p=3123

     There are lots of other firms involved in this legalised degrading abuse of our young people, if you know of them, talk to them, email them, tweet them, telling them what you think of their actions. 

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

The Next Generation Will Be Slaves.

       In the West, as else where in the world, hundreds of years of workers' struggle produced improvements to our living conditions, it has been a slow brutal road to get to where we were 5 years ago. Since then, the employers through the medium of their puppets in government, have slashed at those conditions in a vicious attempt to claw back whatever benefits we gained. Unless we stop this assault on our class, the next generation will not be wage slaves, but simply slaves. The foundations are being cemented in place, decimated benefits and workfare are not meant to be temporary affairs, they are the template for the future. It is not stopping at workfare, this corporate dream system is being expanded to “traineeships”. You get placed in a job for up to six months, but not necessarily with pay, at the end of which you could be offered a job at £2.67 an hour. As this sort of slavery and abuse continues and expands, the next generation will have known nothing else, and it will be deemed “normal”. Normal to leave school/college or what ever, and then go into unpaid employment in the hope that at the end of that, you might get a job with a lousy wage. 

      The corporate world is awash with money, but it still wants lower wages and sweatshop conditions to compete with the Eastern sweatshops. This is not some fiction writer's manuscript, this is the future for our kids and grand kids, unless!!! Unless what, unless we in this generation stop it in its tracks. I'm sure you can think of a better way to shape our society, let's do it.

This week is a week of action against workfare, get involved. Also see The Void

This from Boycott Workfare:

 

     Day One of the week of action against workfare and sanctions was great – with a LOUD noise demo at the workfare industry’s annual conference, hijacking its hashtag and actions in Cardiff and Germany! On Day Two, target the companies profiting from making young people work without pay on Traineeships.

     Traineeships are about providing cheap labour, driving down wages, massaging unemployment figures and conditioning our young people for a life of poverty and jumping through endless hoops in search of a job.

     They’re a fairly new scheme that targets 16-24 year olds with more unpaid work. Traineeships involve a work placement of up to six months for which the employer is not even required to pay travel expenses. The promise at the end of six months’ unpaid work? You may then be eligible to work for £2.67 an hour as an apprentice.

Read the full article HERE:

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

Inch By Inch, You Lose Control.

      Like a tape-loop message, I keep repeating, that we are marching quietly towards full blown fascism. It won't be recognised by the jackboots on the streets, nor just by people being locked up for not doing as they are bid. No, it will be much more subtle than that. Just slowly bit by bit, the state introducing ever stronger legislating to control every bit of your life. The establishment making more and more arbitrary decision over our heads. They have already neutered the spontaneity the trade unions by legislation, and tied protesters in legal loops. There other things that pass almost unnoticed, but show state power acting out what can only be called dictatorial acts, unchallenged. For example, the case of the young man how decided to show his disgust at the elitism in the Oxford and Cambridge boat race, by swimming across the Thames as the race was in progress. What it boils down to is that he disrupted a sporting event. It now turns out that he is to be deported, having lived here for 12 years and has a wife and child here, he is to be torn apart from his family, and the child will lose its father. Ask yourself, if he had disrupted a darts match, or a snooker match, would he have suffered the same brutal punishment? I think not, this was Oxford and Cambridge having their annual rowing get together, and these bloody commoners must be taught a lesson. In another case the powers that be, forced a woman by court order to have a caesarian operation and her child immediately taken into care. What makes this even more bizarre is the fact that the woman was an Italian, visiting this country. Her lawyer described the case as unprecedented, and John Hemmimg, Liberal Democrat MP, went further and stated “This has a fair chance of being the worst case of human rights abuse I've ever seen.

    Surreptitiously, the all knowing, all powerful, all for your own good, state, reaches in and controls every aspect of your life, and it can do it at will, through its various agents. Who do you believe has the right, the benevolent character, and the humanity to take control of your life? No doubt your answer will be nobody, then why do we tolerate the faceless ones in nice suits, to control all avenues of our life? 

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

Just Follow Instructions.

        Day and daily the propaganda hits you, some silently from billboards, ads. at bus stops, and newspapers, some surreptitiously through the education system, some screaming at you from cinema and TV ads. and then the official outpourings from our lords and masters. However it all says the same, it is the same message repeated and repeated in various guises Don't get involved, be a good citizen and just follow instructions, leave the decisions to us who know better. Of course we all know that freedom is the opposite.

 
Love the State
Respect your boss
Watch Television
Produce more
Obey authority
Don't be late
Abhor protest
Hate change
Fear difference
Stay at home
Know your place
Believe the news
Denounce colleagues
Love the State
Respect your boss
Watch Television
Produce more
Obey authority

This video from Teacher Dude's Grill and BBQ:

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

A Poem In Memory-----

     After posting the article "The Clutha And John McGarrigle" I have received several comments and email, I particularly liked this email and have re-posted it with the sender's permission, she wishes to remain anonymous.

In Memory of John McGarrigle

On his barstool throne he sat content, the southside poet of the Vaults

And on that homely spot he supped his last, amongst the wit and Glesga patter

Amidst familiar words, wae well kent characters an' aw their thoughts

And there was no Waltzing Matilda, just the grit and grime of aw life’s matter

In our first, in our in-between, and our very last beating moments of the heart

Some things can only be measured in spirit and soul

Human warmth, kinship, music, love…………a last dance before we part

Kind words, a helping hand, a prayer, a smile, a story told..........

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

Military Dictatorship In Egypt.

         It is difficult to get an accurate picture of what is happening in Egypt, our babbling brook of bullshit, the mainstream media, certainly doesn't enlighten us with facts. It usually gives its blessing to the military junta that has seized power in Egypt, a military coup that got the nod and wink from the Western powers, but not the support of the Egyptian people. Here in the West our governments of "representative democracy" are slowing giving way to fascist control by, among other things, tightening laws governing protests, but they haven't yet descended to the low life level of the military despots in Egypt.

This from Anarchist News:

       To you at whose side we struggle: November 26 2013, we saw the first implementation of a new Egyptian law effectively banning any and all protest not approved and regulated by the Ministry of Interior. This is the same Interior Ministry whose soldiers have killed thousands of protesters, maimed tens of thousands and tortured unknown others in recent years. This security apparatus is acting with renewed arrogance since the July coup that returned the Egyptian Army to a position of direct authority. Around noon on November 26, riot police attacked a protest commemorating the murder of Gaber "Gika" Salah one year ago. Announcing that the protest was illegal, police fired water cannons and then baton-charged demonstrators, arresting several. Hours later, the ¨No Military Trials for Civilians¨ campaign organized a protest against the new anti-protest law as well as the inclusion of military trials for civilians in the constitution currently being drafted. This time, the police beat and arrested dozens, among them some of Egypt's most renowned activists, the same people who fought the injustice and oppression of Mubarak, the SCAF, the Muslim Brotherhood, and now Abdel Fattah al Sisi and the puppet civilian government in place since the coup.
     The public outrage that followed the release of footage of the police beating and sexually assaulting some protesters compelled authorities to release all female protesters as well as lawyers, journalists and a handful of prominent male detainees, while keeping 24 male protesters in detention. Protesters demonstrating against the same illegitimate law elsewhere across the country likewise remain in custody. The events of the past week make it clear that the so-called justice system in Egypt, and the anti-protest law in particular seek little more than the suppression of any form of political activity or protest. The demonization of the Muslim Brotherhood as terrorists provides the cover to crack down on dissent of any kind, including the continued calls for the revolution's demands.

Read the full article HERE:

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

Day To End Violence Against Sex Workers.

This is both an invitation and an appeal:

       I’m writing to invite you to Scotland’s event to mark International Day to End Violence Against Sex Workers. This day is marked annually around the world on December 17th. The event this year is being held jointly by Scotland’s two sex worker-led organisations: longstanding Scottish charity SCOT-PEP, and Glasgow-based workers’ collective, the Sex Worker Open University (SWOU). We are inviting allies from various communities, including LGBTQ representatives, migrants' rights groups, and women’s groups.
   It’s happening from 7.30pm onwards in the African Caribbean Centre, 66 Osborne Street, Glasgow. I know that’s a wee way away if you aren’t in Glasgow, but we’re letting you know out of hopefulness, because we’d really like to you attend. Entrance to the event is free, and the venue is wheelchair accessible. We’ll be showing some short films; some sex workers will give brief talks about what the day means for them, and some allies – NUS Scotland women’s officer, Stacey Devine, and a representative from Gay Men’s Health, among others - will also say a few words. And then we’ll do some socialising.
    December 17th was first marked in 2003, to commemorate the victims of the ‘Green River Killer’, who commented in court that he knew he could kill “prostitutes” and get away with it, because nobody would care. And to an extent he was right: he killed hundreds of sex working women before anyone important enough to do anything, noticed. That case is from the USA, but of course we have plenty of similar examples here. Dec 17th was started by sex workers and allies to affirm that the Green River Killer - and all those who think like him, and target sex workers - was wrong; some people do care about the violence that sex workers experience. Our own community cares. We’d like it so much if you would join us.
     Please feel free to circulate this invitation on any mailing lists you think appropriate. The facebook details for the event are here: https://www.facebook.com/events/531885706907876/. Just in case this reaches anyone for whom this information is relevant: we’re paying the travel expenses and childcare costs of any current and former sex workers who want to attend; just email SWOU back at glasgow.swou@gmail.com for more on that.

And if you have any questions, do get in touch, either at

glasgow.swou@gmail.com, or by ringing SCOT-PEP on (+44) 0131 622 7550.
Hoping to see you on the 17th,
Luca, on behalf of SWOU and SCOT-PEP.
P.S If you’re not familiar with the event’s co-hosts, you can read more about SCOT-PEP here: http://www.scot-pep.org.uk/, and SWOU here:
http://www.sexworkeropenuniversity.com/.

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

Week Of Action Against Workfare.

      ATOS continues its march of murder across the vulnerable in our society. I recently posted about the the tragic affair of Jacqueline Harris, who took her own life after being deemed fit to work by ATOS and having her disability allowance removed. Well their brutal actions are still bringing misery and death to our people. It was recently reported that Victor Cuff, aged59, who suffered from depression, took his own life, after having his benefits cut when those box ticking bureaucrats at ATOS, assessed him fit for work. How long will we sit back and allow this brutality against the sick and vulnerable people in our community?

       Because that babbling brook of bullshit, the mainstream media, doesn't report the full extent of the onslaught against the ordinary people in our communities, lots people are unaware of the full horror of this “austerity” plan. We have workfare, forcing thousands to work for free, for corporate greed merchants, we have people facing the threat of eviction and /or reduced benefits, because of certain circumstances, they find they now have a “spare room” . We have ATOS declaring the sick and vulnerable, fit for work, then there are stagnant wages, while food and energy bills go through the roof. Then let's not forget those thousands, 70,000, at the last estimate, who face hunger and deprivation because of “sanctions”. When one of the growth areas is food banks, you know that society has failed its people. These are all a deliberate attack on the living standards of our people, an attempt to get the UK on course to be part of the new sweatshop Europe. The low wage, low welfare economy, is the corporate world's plan to boost their competitiveness with the Eastern sweatshop empire.

       With a concerted well organised effort we can stop this juggernaut of corporatism and start to build a society we want, one that sees to the needs of all our people. After all we the people make everything on this planet, we distribute everything on this planet, but the system dictates what we make and where we distribute it, and it is all for the benefit of the leeches on our backs, our unnecessary burden of parasites. There are the resources, we have the ability, and we know there is a need, all that is missing is our will to take control and create that better world for all.

      This coming week there is planned week of action against workfare, get involved, employed, unemployed, retired, disabled, homeless, it affects us all, by lowering the standard of living across the board. If we shout loud enough, others will hear and realise that they are not alone. We can change this society.

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

The Clutha And John McGarrigle.

       By now everybody will have heard the tragic news of the police helicopter crashing onto the roof of the Clutha pub in Glasgow. All our thoughts, for some considerable time, will stay with all those friends and relatives of the injured and the dead. The Clutha along with the Scotia, just across the road, were much more than places for a drink, together they formed an institution, an oasis of poetry, music, debate, banter and laughter. Those who visited either of them once, usually became life members of both, you could slip seamlessly from one to the other, perhaps even several times in a night. I was a great fan of the Scotia poetry nights, and it was there that I met John McGarrigle. John didn't have an easy life, but he lived it with energy. I always thought that in his poetry, he could capture the full spectrum of human emotions, he could come up with the witty, ridiculously funny, stupidly funny and the profoundly moving. Sadly he will write no more, as John was one of those who died in that dreadful event. 

Old Young Man.

Unemployment. Rising prices

Never bothered me before

Now, struggling for subsistance

I slowly realised my wasted years

steeped in ignorance

The brashness of youth has gone

Leaving behind an emptiness

not easy to define

Old before my time

I yearn for contentment

Where has the young lad gone

That angry young man

That shook his fist in careless anger

At any unfair society?

Shall we ever see him again

Write Nice Things.

last night

as I sat by my typewriter

a junkie 

climbed in my window,

I was writing a poem

a very interesting little poem

about a flower that I'd seen

that day,

the junkie battered my wife

stole all of our money

and when he left

took with him

my television set

and my hi fi unit,

this unfortunate little incident

rather disturbed me

it really put me off writing

my little poem

about the birds and bees

and the flower that I'd seen

so, I wrote about the wind and the trees

instead

Two of John's poems from his little book, Glasgow's McGarrigle. Fat Cat Publications, ISBN 187 1009 014

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

Boycott Workfare.

     We all know that the real reason for "workfare" is to drive up corporate profits and drive down wages. All the crap about helping the unemployed, and training them for a job, is just an attempt to put a badge of respectability on what is  plain and simple, slave labour. The corporate greed merchants have nothing but praise for their millionaire friends in the Westminster Houses of Hypocrisy and Corruption, for coming up with such a lucrative scheme. They probably thought that they would never again get free workers legally in this country, but here we are, in the 21st century UK and the government is handing them thousands of free slaves to fatten their shareholders bank accounts.

     We can stop this abuse of our people with solidarity, if together we boycott and picket all those whose greedy hands grasp at this inhumanity. They don't want anything that might hurt their pockets. We must realise it is not just a problem for the unemployed, it is also a problem for the employed. This slave labour scheme depresses incomes of those in employment and also hinders those looking for work. Why give a job to a person looking for a wage, when you can get one to work for free?

This from Boycott Workfare: 

 

12.30-1.30pm, Monday 2nd December, outside the ERSA workfare industry conference, Senate House, Malet Street, London (nearest tubes: Russell Square, Warren Street, Euston), 

facebook event here

     (Can’t make it to London? Take part in the week of action where you are.)

     On 2nd December, those driving forced labour for unemployed people on the government’s workfares schemes are getting together in one place for their annual conference. Be there too to show them that their days of vast profits for abusing the poorest people in the UK are numbered.

     The workfare industry is already on the backfoot. The government’s flagship ‘Work Programme’ which promised to hand £5 billion to this sector – whose profits are wholly subsidised by public funds – has failed. The industry failed to meet even the minimum targets and tens of thousands have returned to the Jobcentre as the two year stint comes to an end.

Read the full article HERE:

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

Glasgow St Andrew's Day March Cancelled.

Saturday 30 November

STUC cancels St Andrew's Day march as mark of respect

      As a mark of respect to all those affected by the tragedy at the Clutha Vaults last night and in view of the pressure which has been placed on the resources of Scottish emergency services, STUC has decided to cancel its annual St Andrew's Day anti-racism march. The march which had been due to leave from Glasgow Green at 11am will now NOT take place, but participants are invited to attend a short rally at the Glasgow Film Festival at 12 noon as planned

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

Glasgow Games Monitor Film Show.

GLASGOW (1982) FILM SCREENING

THURSDAY 12 DECEMBER, 6.30 FOR 7PM START

Kinning Park Complex (next to Kinning Park subway) 

 

      A rare screening of episodes from a series of films about Glasgow originally aired on the BBC in 1982. The series constitutes an amazing document of Glasgow, and the East End in particular, and provides a crucial historical context for understanding present-day social and environmental problems in the city.

     Episodes focus on the blight left behind from the mass demolitions of the 1960s and 1970s – the era of Comprehensive Development Areas; the closure of Beardmore’s Forge at Parkhead and with it the end of large industry in the East End; and a portrayal of the infamous Barrowfield Scheme next to Parkhead.

     For those interested in current ‘regeneration’ plans associated with the Commonwealth Games 2014 and Clyde Gateway, it is unmissable. Margaret Jaconelli, who was evicted by CPO on the site of the Commonwealth Games Village, and Neil Gray from Glasgow Games Monitor 2014, will talk about the films in relation to the present era. Followed by open discussion. Donations on door welcome.

     Organised by Glasgow Games Monitor 2014 and Fight Racism! Fight Imperialism!

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