The Miners' Strike And International Women's Day.

       International Women's Day, in 1910, in Copenhagen, a second International Conference of Working Women was held. At that conference Clara Zetkin (Leader of the 'Women's Office' for the Social Democratic Party in Germany) put forward the idea of an International Women's Day. She proposed that every year in every country there should be a celebration on the same day - a Women's Day - to press for their demands. The conference of over 100 women from 17 countries, representing unions, socialist parties, working women's clubs, and including the first three women elected to the Finnish parliament, greeted Zetkin's suggestion with unanimous approval and thus International Women's Day was the result. 

 

 

       It is fitting that we celebrate the start the 30th anniversary of the miners strike, as we celebrate International Women's Day, for during that year long savage and bitter strike, the courage and solidarity of women is writ large. Throughout the miners strike, March 1984 to March 1985, women were an integral part of the struggle. They took their place in lines against the police brutality, they organised fundraisers, organised and ran soup kitchens, they battled on the streets, they were the cement that helped hold the mining communities together. Without the strength and backing of the women and the communities, the strike would have been quickly crushed.

 

       International Women's Day is a day when we can pay homage to all those women who selflessly fought to improve the conditions of not just women, but all humankind. Women who struggled to improve working conditions, for justice, for peace, for unity of all ordinary people. The miners strike was not just about miners and pit closures, it was about communities and an attempt to stop the devastation of those communities, and women were an inseparable part and parcel of that struggle. That is why the women of the miners strike can take their place on that roll of honour, not only of women, but of working class heroes.

 

  

   Every country, every city, every town, has its roll of honour of such women, perhaps not publicly displayed but it will be there, in folklore, in song, in theatre and poem. Glasgow can be proud of its list of women who fought injustice where they saw it, some struggled away in obscurity, some in the limelight of publicity, all paid their part in improving our lives. Today more than ever we need our women heroes, we need the unity of all men and women to combat the savage onslaught against our living standards. Today more than ever people have to stand up and join hands in solidarity with all people's across the globe.
      Here are just a few of Glasgow's women from our recent past that are worthy of being honoured today.

Mary Barbour, Ethel MacDonald, Helen Crawfurd, Agnes Dollan, Jenny Patrick, Rita Milton, who would you add to this list, there are hundreds if not thousands, from which to choose. Where are our modern Mary Barbour's, where is today's Ethel MacDonald? Can you name them?

       "It is not by changing ministers - such guilty men! - or issuing declarations that fascism will be conquered. The problem is more complex than that. We do not intend to add our voice to those who delude the workers that their 'leaders' will get them out of the mess. The problems need a complete transformation in the present attitude of the working class." Marie Louise Berneri From; War Commentary, December 1940.

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

The Last Time Ukraine Was Free.

         Ukraine's history is a bit of a mystery to most people in the West. Like other states, it has morphed from one thing to another according to the powers surrounding it, but there was a short period when it was truly free.

This from Roads And Kingdoms:

       Like its present, Ukraine’s past is often seen in terms of split identity, torn between Europe and Russia, sitting along the fracture of different civilizations. For hundreds of years and for much of the 20th century, the country saw its fortunes determined by powerful outsiders. Russia claimed its birthplace in Kyiv. Those in the western portions, including the great nationalist hero Stepan Bandera—incidentally also a World War II-era Nazi collaborator—kept Ukraine pulled toward Europe. 

     But a less well-remembered historical figure offered a different vision, one opposed to both sides. Nestor Makhno wanted a radically independent, anarchist future in Ukraine, free from the pull of both east and west. For three years in the wake of World War I, he succeeded in constructing a free state along the banks of the Dnieper River, bridging the divide between Russian-speaking and Ukrainian-speaking peoples. It was an audacious, improbable republic, and though it crested a century ago, Makhno’s country is worth remembering because it was perhaps the last time Ukraine was truly free.

Read the full article HERE:

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

The Pompous Parasites' Plaything.

       You think the country is divided by class, you think inequality is rife, you think the dice is loaded in favour of a privileged few, you think injustice is all around you, and you decide to make a protest. It is a simple one man protest you decide to disrupt that 160 year old symbol of elitism, the Oxford and Cambridge boat race. So you jump in the Thames and have a swim during the boat race. However, the simple protest has the privileged parasites baying for blood, how dare a commoner disrupt their pompous playtime. It goes all the way to the top of the stinking pile, not only are you sentenced to six months in prison but the Home Secretary wants to break up your marriage and have you deported. However Trenton Oldfield won his case against deportation. Here Trenton Oldfield tells his story on Circled A Radio. 

Whose Town Is It Anyway?

Published on May 30, 2013

     Presents a portrait of a working class community after 25 years on the receiving end of traditional local government. Includes interviews with local community activists, a meeting in a pub, the editorial office of "The Voice" community newspaper and a discussion with unemployed young people. Conveys their sense of powerlessness and anger at the failure of the authorities to get to grips with the massive housing and employment needs of their area.

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

Accident - Corporate Murder??

    Every day across the planet people die trying to earn their keep, mining disasters, fishing at sea disasters, factory disasters, etc.. A lot of these tragic events cannot be termed "accidents", proper adherence by employers to health and safety affairs, would eliminate the vast majority, the lack of such adherence places the blame for those deaths and injuries, squarely in the hands of those employers. 

     Almost a year ago, one of the worst industrial "accidents" in history happened, when a building collapsed in Bangladesh, killing more than 1,100 people. The reason I say "accidents" is because it can't really be claimed to have been an "accident". Surely in 20/21 centuries we have mastered the ability to build factories that don't fall down? Somewhere along the line somebody was pushing aside proper health and safety practice in favour of making money. Was it a shoddy building not fit for the purpose it was being used for? Was it overloaded with machinery and people? Somebody some where put money before people, which is the norm in this world of corporate greed.

      Across the globe the vast majority of us who work, do so in crap jobs, with crap wages, the possibility of death should not be added to that humiliation and exploitation. Murder by the corporate world is rife, but seldom is the crime punished, the word "accident" is used to try to wash the blood from their hands.

This from Labour Start:

      In another seven weeks, we mark the first anniversary of the building collapse at Rana Plaza, in Bangladesh.  Over 1,100 people were killed in one of the worst industrial accidents in history.
    As you may know, this was followed up by a ground-breaking agreement signed by global unions, local unions in Bangladesh, employers, major clothing brands, the International Labor Organization, the Bangladeshi government and others.
     In addition to trying to ensure that the tragedy doesn't repeat itself, the employers also agreed to help compensate the injured and the families of those killed.
     As the Clean Clothes Campaign put it, "The survivors and victims families have suffered enough and should not have to relive that horrible day without being secure that their financial losses at least are covered. They suffered terrible injuries, lost husbands and wives, children and parents, brothers and sisters; and will bear the physical and emotional scars for life. This can never be compensated for, but they can and should be compensated for loss of income and medical costs before the anniversary."
     But among those companies which have not made public donations to the fund are these:

Adler Modemrkte, Auchan, Ascena Retail, Benetton, C&A, Carrefour, Cato Fashions, Children's Place, Grabalok, Gueldenpfennig, Kids for Fashion, KiK, LPP, Manifattura Corona, Matalan, NKD, Premier Clothing, Primark, PWT, Walmart and Yes Zee.

    IndustriALL, UNI Global Union and the Clean Clothes Campaign have launched an online campaign hosted by LabourStart to pressure those companies to pay compensation now.
Please sign up and send your message.  And please spread the word about this very important campaign.
      Meanwhile, halfway around the world in Peru, the government is attempting to privatize the country's water supply -- over the objections of citizens and the country's trade union movement.  Those unions and their global union federation PSI have launched an online campaign demanding that Peru stop this privatization now.  Please support the campaign and spread the word.

Thank you very much!

Eric Lee

Forced Labour Is Fascism.

       What is happening in this country is no longer about party politics, it's about fascist forced labour, it's about ordinary people being forced to fatten the bank accounts of greedy shareholders, being forced to swell the profits of rich corporate giants, all for no wages. Thousands of people are, at this moment in time, working for prosperous corporations and so called charities and receiving no wages while failing to turn up can see your benefits sanctioned. There has already been one case where a homeless man failed to turn up on his workfare scheme, on two separate days and was fined in court, the sum of £250. Is prison the next step to force you to work for nothing? Where does this stop, it wont, until we stop it, by mass protests, by boycotting those greed merchants that are exploiting this situation, by changing the system to one that sees to the needs of all our people, and gets the millionaire parasites off our backs. What do you call a country that forces people to work for rich companies, for nothing, a democracy???? 

This from The Void:

Exploit us and we will shut you down.

      In April George Osborne’s mass workfare scheme will begin.  Unemployed people will be sentenced to 780 hours community work simply for being unable to find a job. Not even lone parents with young children are to be exempt from the scheme which will see so-called charities like Groundwork UK and the Salvation Army paid by the tax payer to force people to work for free.  Part time workers and those currently genuinely volunteering will also face being sent on unpaid work.

      Collective action can halt this forced labour scheme in its tracks.  A week of action against workfare has been called beginning on the 29th March.  An escalation in the campaign against unpaid work is vital and there is no better chance than this.  It only takes a few people to get the ball rolling, and protests against organisations using workfare have proved to be effective.  Boycott Workfare can offer support with publicity, leaflets and advice. Please help spread the word about the week of action and let’s make this the strongest stand against people being forced to work for free that has been seen so far.

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

Screw The Planet And Its People, For Money.

       The tar-sands project in Alberta is an environmental disaster, destroying vast swathes of forest lands obliteration of a massive ecosystem. The volume of toxins used to turn this sludge into usable oil is an environmental disaster on its own. Then there is the insanity of pumping this black death across America through towns villages and farmland. Already there has been spillages that have devastated towns and agriculture. Once again it is corporate greed riding roughshod over the people, all to fatten shareholders bank accounts. It is the world's largest environmental degradation, all for money.

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

Let's Sing In Perfect Harmony!!

      They once had an advert that had crowds singing, “I want to teach the world to sing in perfect harmony”, well let the world now sing in perfect harmony, one song, in perfect solidarity with the Spanish workers facing redundancy in Coca-Cola bottling plants, in that country that already has 26% unemployment and almost 60% unemployment among the young. This is not a company in financial trouble, its profits are in the sphere of monopoly money. Its policies, like all the corporate world, are driven by greed, more production from the workers at less cost, higher profits at worse working conditions, and lower wages. Solidarity is our most powerful weapon.

This from IUF

 

     If you have not had time to respond to this earlier, please do so now. Coca-Cola workers in Spain need your support today!
     Coca-Cola Iberian Partners (CCIP), a company created from the integration of seven Coca-Cola bottling companies in Spain, announced the shutdown of four of its 11 plants on December 10, 2013 affecting nearly 1,200 workers.
    Workers at four bottling plants have called an indefinite strike starting on January 21, 2014. The IUF affiliated unions FEAGRA-CC.OO and FITAG-UGT are preparing to bring legal action if the company pushes on with the plan.
    Last year the turnover of the CCIP was €3,000 million and recorded profits were €900 million. The response to record profits has been to close plants and dismiss workers.
ACT NOW! SEND A MESSAGE TO COCA-COLA and CCIP and insist that they reconsider their initial plan to close four of its 11 factories and significantly reduce its workforce.

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

Solidarity With All Strkers.

        We all know that the corporate world, like the government, pick off groups one at a time. One moment it is the teachers, then the  disabled, then the train drivers, then the nurses, then the unemployed, but we should realise that it is all part of the same attack on the conditions of all the ordinary people. It is all part of their grand plan for a low wage economy, one that can allow the Western corporate giants to compete with the Eastern sweatshops. So when one group of our people are attacked, it is an attack on us all. Solidarity is our most powerful weapon.

This from The People's Assembly Against Austerity.

 

Strike support
      This week in Doncaster, 150 nurses who look after adults with learning difficulties started a 7 day strike after being handed devastating pay cuts of up to 50%. Care UK was given the contract by Doncaster Council last September. Care UK’s immediate decision to attack the wages and conditions of the workforce tells us all we need to know about why the government are out to privatise the NHS.
     On the 26 March, the National Union of Teachers have called a national strike in England and Wales. Already, Gove has backed down on working time and conditions. Now, the strike action has a real chance to win against an increasingly weak government. We are asking every People's Assembly supporter to help make sure these strikes are supported in our communities, and that solidarity is shown from the whole movement.
      The NUT is organising a series of street stalls across the country in the run up to the strike to mobilise public support. If you can, please get down to one and help out. Contact your local NUT or People's Assembly group for details.

People's Assembly National Conference.

Saturday 15 March 2014, 10am - 5pm
Emmanuel Centre, Marsham Street,London SW1P 3DW
Register for the conference here: https://padelegateconf.eventbrite.co.uk
Click here for full details: http://www.thepeoplesassembly.org.uk/recall_conference

       NUT secretary Christine Blower, and Kirstine Carbutt, one of the Doncaster workers on strike, will be speaking at the People's Assembly national conference on 15 March 2014. People from across the country, and from across the anti-austerity and trade union movements will come together to debate and discuss the way forward.
    This is an event you can't miss: We need to unite all our experience of campaigning and organising to develop a national action plan that can start to turn the tide on austerity in a serious way. Make sure you have registered your place: https://padelegateconf.eventbrite.co.uk
You can come as a delegate from any supporting organisation, community group or trade union branch and individuals can come as observers.
Conference details:
Saturday 15 March 2014, 10am - 5pm
Emmanuel Centre, Marsham Street, London SW1P 3DW
Full details can be found here: http://www.thepeoplesassembly.org.uk/recall_conference
Send Osborne a message on Budget Day

      We are putting together a short film with a messages from the people to George Osborne. Send us a short message of yourself, your friends, family, colleagues, and get onto the streets and ask the public what their message to Osborne is this Budget day. Send your video to: info@rovingeyefilm.co.uk, and feel free to contact with any questions. People's Assembly groups across the country are organising protests and actions on 19 March which will be publicised on our website soon.
     In London, we are organising a protest and rally at at Downing Street. Click here for details: http://www.thepeoplesassembly.org.uk/budget_day.
Speakers include: Owen Jones, Kate Smurthwaite (comedian), Katy Clark MP. Music from Sean Taylor. More tba. Please invite your friends on facebook and share widely.

In solidarity,
Sam Fairbairn
The People's Assembly Against Austerity
http://www.thepeoplesassembly.org.uk/

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

Glasgow Diary Date.

From Glasgow Games Monitor:

       Neil Gray is doing a talk at the centre for human ecology 6.30, tomorrow night (wednesday), Pearce Institute, Govan: http://www.che.ac.uk/2014/02/beyond-post-politics/
      The talk will include discussion on the games and the wider gentrification of Glasgow so may be of interest to people on this list. come along add to the discussion (RSVP essential - see below).
cheers, neil http://gamesmonitor2014.org/

      Beyond Post-Politics and ‘Soft’ Urban Fixes: Developing A Politics of Space- with Neil Gray Wednesday 5th March 6.30pm The Pearce Institute, 840-860 Govan Rd, Glasgow G51 3UU (near Govan underground station)
    Join us for our latest ‘library chat’, an informal roundtable conversation in the convivial surroundings of our library in the Pearce Institute.There will be space and time for general discussion and input from all participants. Light refreshments provided.Please email info@che.ac.uk to confirm attendance. RSVP essential

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

The State, The Corporate World, And Union Crushing.

     As the military dictatorship in Egypt tightens its grip on the people, so does the Corporate world. Never ones to miss an opportunity to screw the workers, Cargill, the transnational agro-food corporation is attempting to smash the union at its plant, knowing full well that it will have the backing of the military junta.

An Appeal for solidarity from IUF

      Transnational agro-food giant Cargill is seeking to destroy a democratic union of workers at their factory in Egypt.
     Faced with arbitrary punishments and a deteriorating work environment, workers at the Cargill vegetable oil plant in Egypt held a sit-in in December 2013. Cargill sent in thugs with attack dogs to remove them from the factory and, in defiance of the law, has begun issuing dismissal letters. While management prevents them from returning to work, the workers maintain their picket in the factory parking lot. Read more here.
      Send a message now, calling on Cargill to withdraw the dismissals and put an end to anti-worker practices!

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

Six Months Free Labour For The Bosses!!

       I can just hear the Cameron/Osborne/ Oxbridge millionaire duet, chucklng over their champagne, "you ain't seen nothin' yet." as they come up with more ways to give their millionaire business friends  more cheap and free labour. The "labour market" is now riddled with part-time low paid jobs, zero hours contracts, workfare slave labour schemes, sanctions and below inflation wage increases, if you get one at all. It doesn't end there, longer slave labour periods, more sanctions, smart cards to monitor your spending and being punished if you don't earn enough, are all part of the package they have in mind for you and your kids. Is there anybody looking at this can still see any illusion of democracy?

An appeal from Boycott Workfare:

      Tens of organisations have already quit workfare. The government will not reveal which organisations are still using it for fear the schemes will collapse. Its contractors complain that they have lost hundreds of placements due to public pressure.

Workfare: If you exploit us we will shut you down!

       But they’re trying it again with a new scheme – “Community Work Placements” – launching on 1 April 2014 which will force claimants to work for six months without pay. Six months – 780 hours – is more than twice the maximum community service sentence. Workfare does not help people find jobs and being unemployed is not a crime.

      This new workfare scheme is part of a raft of draconian measures, misleadingly called “Help to Work”, which are designed to increase sanctions (benefit stoppages) and undermine wages still further.

         For the workfare schemes to happen, they need places to send people, but tens of large charities have already quit. Oxfam stated that the schemes were incompatible with its goal of reducing poverty in the UK. Liverpool CVS has condemned the scheme in the strongest possible terms.

       Our action can stop companies, charities and councils from exploiting forced unpaid work and make make sure this new scheme falls flat on its face. Wherever you are, however you can contribute, take action on 29 March-6 April.

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

No Blood For The Nation.

      If the present struggle in Ukraine spirals deeper into bloodshed, the blood that flows will be that of the ordinary people, but the present struggle is not a people's uprising, it is a battle between various power mongers and they will gladly drag the people into that power struggle to protect and further their own interests. This present struggle is not about freedom and democracy, it is about domination, and the various factions will gladly turn the Ukraine into a bloody 21st. century killing field, To the powers that be, control is all that matters.

This from Anarchist News:

WAR ON WAR!

NOT A SINGLE DROP A BLOOD FOR THE “NATION”!

      The power struggle between oligarchic clans in Ukraine threatens to escalate into an international armed conflict. Russian capitalism intends to use redistribution of Ukrainian state power in order to implement their long-standing imperial and expansionist aspirations in the Crimea and eastern Ukraine where it has strong economic, financial and political interests. On the background of the next round of the impending economic crisis in Russia, the regime is trying to stoking Russian nationalism to divert attention from the growing workers' socioeconomic problems: poverty wages and pensions, dismantling of available health care, education and other social services. In the thunder of the nationalist and militant rhetoric it is easier to complete the formation of a corporate, authoritarian state based on reactionary conservative values and repressive policies.

     In Ukraine, the acute economic and political crisis has led to increased confrontation between "old" and "new" oligarchic clans, and the first used including ultra-rightist and ultra-nationalist formations for making a state coup in Kiev. The political elite of Crimea and eastern Ukraine does not intend to share their power and property with the next in turn Kiev rulers and trying to rely on help from the Russian government. Both sides resorted to rampant nationalist hysteria: respectively, Ukrainian and Russian. There are armed clashes, bloodshed. The Western powers have their own interests and aspirations, and their intervention in the conflict could lead to World War III.

      Warring cliques of bosses force, as usual, force to fight for their interests us, ordinary people: wage workers, unemployed, students, pensioners... Making us drunkards of nationalist drug, they set us against each other, causing us forget about our real needs and interests: we don`t and can`t care about their "nations" where we are now concerned more vital and pressing problems –- how to make ends meet in the system which they found to enslave and oppress us.

We will not succumb to nationalist intoxication. To hell with their state and “nations”, their flags and offices! This is not our war, and we should not go on it, paying with our blood their palaces, bank accounts and the pleasure to sit in soft chairs of authorities. And if the bosses in Moscow, Kiev, Lviv, Kharkiv, Donetsk and Simferopol start this war, our duty is to resist it by all available means!

NO WAR BETWEEN “NATIONS” – NO PEACE BETWEEN CLASSES!

KRAS, Russian section of the International Workers Association

Internationalists of Ukraine, Russia, Moldova, Israel, Lithuania

Anarchist Federation of Moldova

Fraction of the Revolutionary Socialists (Ukraine)

The statement is open for signature

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

1984, The Miners Strike And George Orwell.

      Face recognition, car number plate reading, TV's that recognise your face and can remember your favourite programs, it's all there, and don't think it is not being used extensible. 

This from Teacher Dude:

      George Orwell's 1984 is sponsored by LG: "The telescreen received and transmitted simultaneously. Any sound that Winston made, above the level of a very low whisper, would be picked up by it,", a photo by Teacher Dude's BBQ Yahoo webcam images from millions of users intercepted by GCHQ.

     "Britain's surveillance agency GCHQ, with aid from the US National Security Agency, intercepted and stored the webcam images of millions of internet users not suspected of wrongdoing, secret documents reveal."

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/feb/27/gchq-nsa-webcam-images-internet-yahoo

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