The Ex-Worker Podcast Episode #34:
Monday, 16 February 2015
Solidarity Is Our Winning Weapon.
A call for solidarity from Edinburgh Coalition Against Poverty, (ECAP). This case epitomises the callous, brutal and heartless attack on the poor and vulnerable in our society by a system with no compassion. Remember, the Cameron/Osborne financial Mafia henchmen, have promised £30 billion more cuts over the next few years. Believe me, yi ain't seen nothin' yet.
Please contact ecap@lists.riseup.net if you would like to help at any Edinburgh or Lothians jobcentre.Read the full article HERE:
As we face unprecedented sanctions and benefits cuts, its more important than ever that we support each other and stand up to the DWP bullies. The Scottish Unemployed Workers Network, Dundee Against Welfare Sanctions and other groups have established a strong presence at the Jobcentres in Dundee and in nearby towns and cities like Arbroath, Perth and Blairgowrie, supporting claimants in opposing sanctions and harassment.
WHAT HAPPENED AT ARBROATH JOB CENTRE
On 29 January Tony was accompanying a vulnerable woman claimant, who suffers from severe dyslexia and literacy problems. The claimant, D, had been signed up to the Universal Job Match (UJM), the computerised job search system, and was being forced to complete five job searches per day, the pressure of which had led to her having several panic attacks. Tony proposed that D's UJM account be closed, and that her number of job searches be significantly reduced. The adviser refused to consider this, and so Tony and D met with the Jobcentre manager.
The manager likewise refused to even look at the issue, falsely claiming that all jobseekers had to be registered with UJM. She even suggested to D that she should arrange another meeting without Tony or any other witness or rep present. Despite the pressure D was being put under by the manager, she replied that she would not attend another meeting without Tony. At this point the manager demanded that Tony leave the building or the police would be called. Tony refused to leave, but the meeting ended when it was agreed that a further meeting be arranged to discuss the issue further. Tony was arrested after he left the Jobcentre.
Shatter It To Bits And Then---!!
You know it, I know it, and we would be idiots if we didn't
realise that “they” know it. The “they” I'm referring, to is
our Oxbridge millionaire lords and masters, the Cameron/Osborne
Cabal. What is it we all know? It is the fact that we the public are
being screwed, and getting poorer. According to recent figures, the
average Scots worker's annual salary is £1,900 lower in real terms
now, than when the financial Mafia's henchmen, the Oxbridge mob, took
control in 2010. While our wages go down, fat cat chief executives of the large
companies, earn as much as the average annual salary, every two days,
and they know it. As chief executives stuff their loot into off shore
accounts, Citizens Advice Scotland, reports that it has seen a
significant rise in the number of working Scots who are struggling to
put food on the table. I'll repeat, you must be an idiot if you think
“they” don't know that, the point is “they” don't give a
shit.
Of course “they” know it, but what is their
considerate, compassionate reply, well the Osborne part of the
thieving Cavaliers, has promised another £30 billion of cuts, or as
they call it, "fiscal consolidation", over the next few years. That
translates into higher salaries and bonuses for the top bunch of
parasites, and more cuts to the standard of living of you and me.
We don't need to keep demonstrating, telling them about the
damage cuts are having on people's lives, “they” know. We have to
organise to bring the whole stinking system of greed, inequality and
injustice, down on their heads. We can do better than this, we built
this sordid edifice and everything else in it, we can sweep the ruins
aside and start that better world, built of fairness, co-operation
and mutual aid, creating a society that sees to the needs of all our people.
Ah Love! Could Thou and I
with Fate Cospire
To Grasp this Sorry Scheme
of Things entire,
Would we not shatter it
too bits, and then
Remould it nearer to
the Hearts Desire!
Extract from Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam.
Sunday, 15 February 2015
We Are Drowning In Shit.
When I started scribbling little pieces for this
blog, a number of years ago, I had to search around for something,
that might catch the eye. Some little bit of fiddling in high places,
some corporate bullying, or whatever. Now however, the difficulty is
working through the avalanche of shit that keeps pour over us.
Everywhere you look, corruption at every turn, duplicitous
statements, proxy wars, paedophilia in high places, corporate
shredding of working conditions, slave labour workfare, millionaires
slashing the standard of living of the poor, Millionaires of business
and state, stashing their ill-gotten gains in secret bank accounts to
avoid tax, politicians with business interests in health companies,
voting on how to sell of parts of the NHS. And so it goes on, as
arrogant parasite Lord Fink says, everybody does it. To the average
citizen the stench emanating from this pile of shit we call
capitalist society, is now overpowering. The wealthy are so wealthy,
that their arrogance overpowers their caution, and they openly and
blatantly stitch us up at ever turn, knowing they are immune, as the
powers that be, our lords and masters, legislators in that temple of
decadence, The Westminster House of Hypocrisy and Corruption, are in
their club.
Anybody that thinks the HSBC affair is something
out of the ordinary, is naive in the extreme. It just happens to be
the biggest one yet to be made public. Banks fiddle, it's what the financial Mafia does, that's business,
remember Leham Brothers, among others, then the libor fixing, that
involved all the big boys, in a nudge-nudge, nodding and winking, as they
ripped of millions at the touch of a button. As I said, banksters are
fiddling gamblers, who help the richest parasites to steal by tax
avoidance, and stash their plunder in secret little boxes, away from
the prying eyes of you and me. What is more, they know they are safe
from prosecution, as those who make the laws, are among the parasites
they help with their filthy loot. Ah, the wonders of capitalism.
Read the full story HERE:This week it was revealed that HSBC — Europe’s biggest bank — has been actively running and propagating a massive tax evasion scheme through its Swiss subsidiary, allowing some of its wealthiest international clients to hide over $120bn in undeclared assets in 30.000 secret Swiss bank accounts. Leading British regulators, MPs and government officials were aware of the malpractices and the names of potential tax evaders (including movie stars, drug lords and heads of state), but never pressed criminal charges.Instead, the UK — like the rest of Europe — ushered in an age of austerity. Where the billions of the rich escaped to Switzerland and the Caymans, the benefits of the poor were cut “to balance the budget.” Last year, David Cameron pledged to slash “wasteful” public spending for another decade, as it “comes out of the pockets of the same taxpayers whose living standards we want to see improve.” The irony of the Prime Minister speaking from a golden throne was hardly lost on anyone. Welcome to the topsy-turvy reality of austerity politics.
Saturday, 14 February 2015
May Day Of Yester Year.
May Day 1962.
With May Day on the horizon, I was flicking through some old papers and cuttings, and came across this one. I can't pinpoint the date, but the speakers should give us the era.
A sea of bunnits, May Day Glasgow 1913.
Who were these comrades, and how do we tell and record their story, after all, it's our history?GLASGOW:On Sunday, April 27, the Glasgow Anarchist Communist Group held a meeting at the bottom of Buchanan street; comrades Angus McKay and Porter spoke to a large audience. On May 4, we joined the Labour Day demonstration. It was one of the worst of days from the weather standpoint. The procession started amidst a heavy downpour of rain, with thunder and lightening. Ten thousand marched to Glasgow Green, drenched; there would have been thirty thousand had it been a fine day. Glasgow has taken its May Day seriously; it was a day out for the Reds. No less than 135 Labour and Socialist organisations were represented. It was inspiring, and showed the people are awakening. We had nearly a thousand round our platform; our comrades Angus McKay, Leckie, Porter, Howie, and others were speakers. There was a good sale of literature. This summer we intend to have a vigorous campaign in and around Glasgow.A. B. Howie, Secretary.
Something a wee bit more modern.
Human Robots.
After reading about Glasgow City Council's new experimental, super, secret, Israeli created, surveillance system, with "emotional recognition" software, it should come as no surprise, when learning of this latest mad scientist idea.
According to the corporate world, when you work for a company, they own you. A new move down that slave ownership road is being pioneered by a Swedish company who have decided that it is much more efficient to put a chip in your workers body, in this case the hand. This would allow the worker to enter the building, and access it facilities, computers, scanners etc., no ID card no password, just you company inserted chip. The “benefits” are limitless, the chips can be traced and monitored, when you are at your desk and when your are not, how long you spent in the toilet, and so on. They are hoping to be able to let you pay for your meals at the works canteen by flashing your hand. This of course would mean much more of your personal information being implanted in the chip.
Of course when you leave the building, the chip goes with you. Once inserted, the technology is there, you could be monitored as you go about your normal everyday affairs. and do you think the state will miss that opportunity. This takes Orwellian society to a much higher level, big brother in your home. Roll this out widespread and we become an army of controlled robots. However, our corporate bosses and our political lords and masters, see this as highly efficient, and having unimaginable “benefits”, for who?
Just another example of how this corporate world, controlled by the financial Mafia, and administered by their puppets, the state apparatus, is devoid of any human empathy, and seeks only total control, to aid profit and power.
Just another example of how this corporate world, controlled by the financial Mafia, and administered by their puppets, the state apparatus, is devoid of any human empathy, and seeks only total control, to aid profit and power.
This from The Independent:
and:The small radio-frequency identification (RFID) chips are pushed under the skin in the hand, and can then be used to open doors or use the photocopier.
The chips have been offered to the 400 people that have signed up to the Epicenter hi-tech office block in Sweden. That now includes the BBC’s technology reporter Rory Cellan-Jones, who said that when a tattooist put it in there “was a moment of pain - not much worse than any injection - and then he stuck a plaster over my hand”.
Those behind the chips hope that they will eventually become common enough to be used to pay for sandwiches in the canteen, or even replace passwords and PINs to get into computers. They can also be programmed to hold contact information and communicate with smartphone apps.---------
Read the full article HERE:-------Hannes Sjoblad, who is chief disruption officer at the office development, told the BBC: “We want to be able to understand this technology before big corporates and big government come to us and say everyone should get chipped — the tax authority chip, the Google or Facebook chip."Sjoblad has his electronic business card built into the chip, which others can then access using their smartphones.The whole office will be internet-enabled — its building management will be run through Microsoft’s “internet of things” technology. That will tell facilities management when a plant needs watering or a meeting room needs emptying, all through connected appliances and sensors.Epicenter is a “members-only workplace collective and innovation hub”, which promises to pioneer new ways of working. It has been built by Swedish property company AMF Fastigheter, and has members including Microsoft.
Friday, 13 February 2015
Plundering The Till!!!
A brief description of our political system, greed, corruption, cronyism, secret deals to line pockets of friends and associates, operated by a bunch of rich two-faced duplicitous callous Oxbridge parasites. I think that is a reasonable and fairly accurate summary of this festering cancer we call capitalist "representative democracy".
We could all get on with our daily lives if this bunch of suited mobsters were wheeling and dealing and divvying up their own loot, but unfortunately it is our tax money, they are shuffling into their mates pockets. It's our NHS that is being sliced into money making packages for the greed merchants in the corporate club. It's our social services that are being slashed, to allow their business buddies to step in and provide them, at a profit of course.
Is there anyone out there who still believes this cabal of thieving Oxbridge parasites, have anything but the interests of their own class in mind, as they wheel and deal in those corrupt corridors of power, in that decadent encampment on the banks of the Thames, The Westminster Houses of Hypocrisy and Corruption?
The following is from The Sum Of Us:
A Tory MP's mates are about to get an £80 million payout from the NHS. At stake is a 10-year contract to provide high-tech medical imaging to cancer patients in five counties. The "winning" bid comes from a private company called Alliance Medical -- whose board of directors includes Sir Malcom Rifkind, Conservative MP for Kensington.It's suspicious enough to see a government contract going to a company led by a sitting politician. But it gets worse. There's a rejected bid from a consortium of NHS hospitals -- and that bid would cost the government £7 million less than Sir Rifkind's! For his services to Alliance Medical, Sir Rifkind receives about £60k per annum, so it seems that the company makes quite a profit off his friendship.What's happening is clear. This is another attempt to steal our NHS and hand it off piece by piece to private corporations that will charge us more and serve us less. The government happily announced that this contract was going to a private company -- but hid the fact that Alliance was underbid by a state-run group!Healthcare advocates say it's almost impossible to get a glimpse into this kind of procurement deal. That has to change. Privatising the NHS affects us all, yet we're being shut out from the decision and denied public oversight of contracts that take public funds. Whether it's a favour for Sir Rifkind's cronies or simply a willful waste of money, the result is to blind our eyes and yank the NHS from our hands.Thanks for all that you do,
Angus, Deanna, and the team at SumOfUs
More information:NHS Contract Awarded To Private Firm Despite Rival Bid Being “£7 Million Cheaper” Buzzfeed, 27 January 2015'Selling off NHS for profit': Full list of MPs with links to private healthcare firms, The Mirror, 27 November 2014
Privatisation of the NHS means that
a job the state could do for £73 million is going
to a corporation that wants £80 million.
We don't know how many other handouts
are going to corporations and politicians' mates
-- but we want to find out.
Sign the petition to make NHS contracting processes transparent
and show us where the money's gone!
a job the state could do for £73 million is going
to a corporation that wants £80 million.
We don't know how many other handouts
are going to corporations and politicians' mates
-- but we want to find out.
Sign the petition to make NHS contracting processes transparent
and show us where the money's gone!
Thursday, 12 February 2015
Awards For Scum-bags.
What type of society honours those who evict people from their homes, hands out awards to people who pressurise individuals shackled by debt, and to poor to pay? What type of scum-bag would want to turn up to be honoured in such a way, at the same time paying £4,000 for a seat at a table surrounded by this form of low life?
In this system of festering economic corruption, we have the perverse Oxbridge millionaire henchmen of the financial Mafia, extolling family values and fairness, while pushing through legislation that drives ordinary people deep into the mire of poverty and deprivation, creating homelessness. low wages and unemployment, and then turning their enforcers into heroes, hence the “Credit Awards” for putrid scum-bags.
Those lauded in this type of society are the greed infested banksters, corporate bosses, who abuse people with zero hours contracts, and slave labour workfare, the blood drenched military, with their tales of conquest, which translates into the killing of ordinary innocent people in foreign lands. Those exploited, abused and vilified, are the ordinary people, the ones who create everything around us, from the spoon at the £4,000 dinner table, the railway, carrying goods and people, to the boiler that heats the house, and the shoes on our feet. Without us the ordinary people, these parasite squids would be naked, why do we tolerate this situation?
Visit ann arky's home at www.radicalglasgow.me.uk
Visit ann arky's home at www.radicalglasgow.me.uk
Wednesday, 11 February 2015
Follow My Leader.
Do you need a leader to get on with your daily life and sort things out? You'll probably answer a definite NO, why then do the people need a leader? Single we can do fine, but collectively we must have somebody to tell us what to do!! The people know when they hurt, and the people will have to sort out what to do about it, and I'm sure they can, and will do admirably. Your voice is the one that counts.
One day it suits them for the workers to keep quiet and think only of voting them into parliament and local councils and they preach against violence, against the insurrectionist illusion in favour of slow, gradual, safe, evolution, for the legal conquest of public authorities.Read the full article HERE:
Then come the beatings, the arsons, the fascist murders to show even the blind that you get nowhere with legality, because even if it has been beneficial to the oppressed in some cases, the oppressors have no qualms about violating it and substituting it with the most atrocious violence. But our good socialists are rushing to prevent workers from responding to provocation, extolling ” heroic patience.”
One World, One Struggle.
Take a tour of town after town, city after city, country after country, and you'll find unrest, people in struggle, brutal state repression. Keeping the lid on the anger of the people is getting more difficult, as naked capitalism morphs into a corporate world government. In your tour you'll find, no matter the shade of government in power, the policies are the same, and the result is always the same, the rich get richer and the poor get poorer.
From US to UK, from Brazil to South Africa, from Tunisia to Malawi, from Greece to Haiti, the state is fighting to keep control and suppress dissent. Compare this to what we get on our babbling brook of bullshit, the mainstream media. We are fed a diet of celebrities, friendly chat shows, quiz games, and of course sport, all to create the illusion that everything is fine, except for a handful of silly foreigners in some far away land, so just keep doing what you're told.
How long will it be until we join up the dots, and realise that it is an international struggle and we are all involved. Pussy-footing around, electing a new suit to sit on the national throne, just allows the cancer to fester and grow. Cameron, Obama, Merkle, are they really struggling hard to better the lives of the ordinary people? Or are they all dancing to the financial Mafia's tune?
A wee list from Anarchist News:
Weekly World News of Opposition, February 2-8, 2015
Tuesday, 10 February 2015
State Repression Is World Wide.
Operation Pandora targets anarchists in Spain, and Dorset police target anarchists in UK, there are similar actions by various states across the globe. In the US the case of anarchist Sean Swain has been going on since 1991, and now Sean is putting his life on the line. He needs support and a show of strength and solidarity.
From 325:Sean Swain is a hostage held by a lawless rogue-state calling itself “The State of Ohio.”1 He has been held without legal conviction or sentence since 1991 for the self-defense killing of a court official’s relative who broke into Sean’s home and threatened his life. In fall of 2012, prisoners calling themselves the Army of the 12 Monkeys (A12M) got rowdy at Mansfield Correctional, and the prison authorities assumed “that anarchist” Sean Swain must have been behind it and threw him in supermax isolation. Sean denies any involvement or affiliation with the A12M and is in the process of suing the ODRC for targetting him based exclusively on his ideology and political speech.Sean is the only son of a retired auto worker and stay-home mom. He has renounced his high school diploma, his college degree, and his honorable discharge from the U.S. military. Before being taken hostage, Sean worked as a newspaper columnist and as a union organizer.
How to help Sean, and read the full article HEREVia ABC Hurricane:
With fascist fuckweasels ignoring his hungerstrike, anarchist prisoner Sean Swain has vowed to refuse his blood pressure medication, beginning February 9. This medication keeps his blood pressure regulated. To stop taking this medication “cold turkey” is extremely dangerous, as it could cause a spike in blood pressure which can lead to heart attack, stroke or aneurysm.
“Freedom or death,” Sean said. “I’m not fucking around.”
Fuckweasels have engaged in a concerted, provable pattern of harassing every element of Sean’s communication, waging a war against anarchist expression.
Within 48 hours of suspending his medication, Sean will be in serious danger of medical problems and anticipates he will soon be held incommunicado in a torture cell, in a fuckweasel effort to break his will and cut him off from the outside world. But, as he pointed out, that will not stop his blood pressure from spiking.
Are We Loking At WW3?
The American war party is on the march, their aim, war with Russia, as usual, Europe will be the battlefield, not America. How do you stop the hawks from devouring the doves, it is the eternal struggle and requires the mobilisation of all the people in all the countries. War is never to the advantage of, nor does it benefit, the people, it is always a battle of power mongers for control of resources, territory and markets, it is always for the defence of those warmongering power moguls. In wars, the people gain nothing, the rich and powerful cement their position, and we the people pay for that in blood.
WINTER.
Dark malefic clouds crowd the sky
winds carry the stench of carrion to every nostril,
the crazy ape has followed the faculty of hawks.
All around stand crows, magpies, jackdaws, vultures,
edacious eyes anticipating their putrid feast.
A weary Cassandra laments;
doves, hearts weeping for a better yesterday
forsake their olive branches.
Watch the video and read the full article HERE:February 6, 2015 -- Links International Journal of Socialist Renewal -- The Kyiv and NATO-driven civil war in Ukraine is taking new and dangerous turns. The United States is threatening to significantly increase its military support to Kyiv's army and the extreme-right militias allied with it, notably in the form of advanced heavy weapons, including artillery systems and anti-tank weaponry. The NATO countries as a whole are increasing their military presence in eastern Europe, including creating rapid-deployment infantry bases.Increased sanctions against Russia are also on the agenda, although Russia's capacity to withstand sanctions as well as the harmful consequences of sanctions on European countries are cooling the enthusiasm for more sanctions and propelling parallel, military options.
To Slaughter The Image Of God.
As a life long atheist, I'm always troubled by those who believe in a God, creator of all things, and then go out wearing a uniform and kill their God's creation. To me it seems a total contradiction of all they believe in. However, I also believe that people who base their lives on a foundation of irrationality, will go on to do irrational things.
I came across this poem while reading an old copy of Guy Aldred's The Word, Volume iv, No.7 February 1943, on The Sparrow's Nest site, and decided to put it on the blog, aimed at those who somehow, can tie together, their love of God, and the need to kill his creation.
I slaughtered a man, a brother,In the wild, wild fight at Mons.I see yet his eyes of horror,I hear yet his cries and groans.We met on the edge of the trenches,Where murder, in crimson, rode.When swish went my blade to his stomach.I'd slaughtered the Image of God.
We'd never in anger quarrelled.We never had met before.But someone had dreamt of conquest,and we had to buy it with gore.Perhaps he'd a wife and children,Through whose hopes and dreams he strode,With the pride of a king in his empire,An heroic Image of God.
And I asked myself the question,As I saw in his glazing eyes:“Am I my brothers keeper?”Till the sod I trod on cries:“You made his wife a widow,Made desolate her abode,Your thrust made his children orphans,You slaughtered the Image of God.”
The cold, cold stars keep blinking,And the winds make moaning sighs.Men worship me as hero, and laud me to the skies.But I keep on thinking dully, till my heart gets like a clod,Of the thrust I made in the trenchesThat slaughtered the Image of God.
James C. Welsh.
Monday, 9 February 2015
Little Soldiers.
Assemble, in neat rows, march forward in straight lines, and so you start a life of obedience at school. The state has always seen schools as a way of controlling people, rather than enlightening them. Militarism in our schools is not a new phenomenon, however, it is on the increase. While condemning "boy soldiers" in foreign lands, we train them here in this country. This government has seized upon the brutal imperialist squabble of 1914/18 as another chance to glorify war and increase militarism in our schools. That product of the Oxbridge sausage making machine, ex-Education Secretary, Michael Gove, was all for military drilling in schools. He had that mix that is common among the upper class parasites, military and religion. while advocating more military style training in schools, he also wanted every school in England to be presented with a King James Bible. After all they want God's blessing before they slaughter our fellow humans.
Read the full article HERE:
The UK Education Secretary's announcement of a £2 million programme to place former service personnel in British schools has been roundly criticised by faith and civic groups and individuals.Michael Gove declared: “Every child can benefit from a military ethos. Self-discipline and teamwork are at the heart of what makes our armed forces the best in the world - and are exactly what all young people need to succeed. ”
Of course we should not tolerate any form of militarism in the education of our children, the opposite is surely the way to help to build a society free from the horrors of war. However, sadly it has been the aim of governments across the globe to indoctrinate our children in preparation for the defence of our lords and masters.
Read the full article HERE:This is what German pacifist Kurt Tucholsky wrote in an article titled “On effective pacifism”, published in 1927. More than 80 years later, the militarists are still sowing. The presence of the military in schools is only the most outrageous example of the sowing and planting of militarist values into the minds of children and soon-to-be soldiers, or supporters of militarism and war. It is the most outrageous, because on the one hand schools should be about learning positive values and knowledge, and not about propaganda, and on the other hand children are most vulnerable to propaganda and indoctrination.
This insidious linking of the education of our children with militarism is solely for the protection of the state and the powers that control that state. it will only be stopped when we get rid of the state. In the meantime, we should be exposing this link, and campaigning to have it removed. That indoctrination of our children has always been there, it wanes and rises, to day it is on the rise again.
Read the full article HERE:
Militarism surfaced again in 1930 when [the writer and journalist] John Langdon-Davies commented with disapproval: "In parliament, to which belongs the ultimate authority over education, there has been a significant movement in favour of a definite military training as part of the curriculum." He added: "We must guard against militarism in education because it aims not at the child's good but at the state's good - and that in a very short-sighted way - and because it atrophies individuality by every means in its power."The same criticism can be levied against governments today...
Spot the difference?
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