Poverty surrounded By Obscene Wealth.

      America is the shining example of how capitalism works, the rich get richer and the poor get poorer, because of the tremendous wealth of that country, the difference is so very glaring. Over the past six years of the “recession”, America's wealth grew by a staggering 60%, more than $30 trillion. Capitalism, being what it is, over roughly the same period, the number of homeless children grew by 60%, and there are 16 million children on food stamps. While the pampered parasites of American capitalism have been stuffing their carpet bags with loot, the standard of living for children has plummeted.

       According to a UNICEF report, the four countries with the lowest child well-being are Latvia, Lithuania, Romania, and America, America being 26 out of 29, scoring badly on all counts. The UK of course doesn't score much better being 16 in the 29 developed countries of the world. In that land of plenty, the good ol' US of A, more than half of all public school pupils are poor enough to qualify for lunch subsidies. Of course race also comes into the equation, almost 50% of all black children under the age of six, live in poverty. To see a country with so much wealth and so much glaring poverty, surely tells you that the system is rigged against the ordinary people. Common sense, humanity and simple decency tells you that there is more than enough to go round to give everybody a decent standard of living. However, capitalism, doesn't have common sense, humanity and simple decency, it only has greed perpetuated through exploitation. America is only unique in its quantity of wealth, not in its unfair distribution, that's part and parcel of capitalism in all countries across this capitalist world. Don't you think we could do better if we, the people, managed our own affairs and handled the distribution of the wealth, and let's not forget, we create all that welath, it is by right, ours in the first place. 

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

Gallipoli Centenary, Glasgow Event.

Just a reminder on the Gallipoli event:  centenary event in Glasgow.

     April 25,Saturday, 1pm in the cinema room at the Centre for Contemporary Art on Sauchiehall Street. This day marks the centenary of the World War I battle of Gallipoli, a disaster that cost the lives of hundreds of thousands. We will be showing part of a movie made by Peter Weir, and featuring a young Mel Gibson. The movie will be introduced by three short talks, one setting the context of the battle and the connection to Scotland, another on the enormous impact Gallipoli had on New Zealand and Australia and finally a talk putting this centenary event in the context of the counter program to the government's glorification of the war and of militarism. The movie will be followed by a discussion. FREE. All welcome. Sponsored by the Scottish Peace Network and the Industrial Workers of the World.

 

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

 

The Undesirables.

        As technology increases the efficiency of capitalist production, more and more of us are becoming surplus to requirements. We are actually a drain on the profits of the corporations, as taxes have to be raised to maintain control of us. We are moving from "surplus to requirements" to "undesirables". It is an indication of how corrupt and unjust a system is when it produces more "undesirables" than "desirables". 

This from Act For Freedom Now:

TO THE UNDESIRABLES

Undesirables in this world of cash and power

      There are more and more undesirables in this world. Whether it’s the millions of refugees who roam the planet, or the millions herded into slums and poor neighbourhoods around the world. Whether it’s those sacrificed by wars and industrial devastation or the poor in European countries thrown overboard in the name of the economy. Whether it is the brave insurgents who have risen up with cries of freedom and dignity in many countries in recent years or those daring to fight here in the heart of the metropoli, against a world that suffocates them. More and more of us are considered superfluous, unnecessary, dangerous, unproductive and harmful by the masters of this world, who will stop at nothing to protect their system and save their power. They have turned the Mediterranean into a huge mass grave. They have set up hundreds of concentration camps for undocumented migrants. They have developed advanced technologies to better identify, monitor and control us. They brandish the threat of expulsion, imprisonment or the most abject poverty to make us accept the role of slaves that they have reserved for us. They stir up racial hatred and sectarian strife to divide us. In short, they are making war on the undesirables here and elsewhere.

Nowhere to run except …

Read the full article HERE: 

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

Walk With The Poets.

Never a believer in "what must be must be".

 

WALK WITH THE POETS.

My head has had enough of you,

you doomsday sooth-sayers, and

rationalists, that trap us in the world that is.

Go weave your tales of “can't be done”

to the dead, and those of no imagination.

I want to walk with the utopian,

the dreamer and the poet,

laugh with the child and sing with the wind.

Run with the deer, not with “the market trend”

Enough of, “this is the way it has to be”,

a world of poverty, wars and inequality.

Now, I'll create the world I want to see,

A world of sharing, peace and liberty.

I want the children to plan tomorrow,

the adult help them get there,

trees and flowers our treasured possessions,

with birds and animals their keepers.

Who wants a world that chains us to mortgage,

binds us to a labouring day, just to eat bread?

Who wants to spend their life, feeding fat-cats

while their own children go hungry?

No, this is not the world that has to be,

in our foolishness and misplaced trust,

this is a world that has slithered over us,

poisoning our mind, putrefying our spirit.

Let's call on the poet, let's welcome the dreamer,

let's take council with the utopian,

They'll help us create a better world for all.

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

Food, Cancer And Profit???

     Pump our food full of chemicals, to increase profit, but don't label what you pump into the food, then call yourself an ethical saver of the world!!! Monsanto's list of lethal concoctions that have been released on the world's population are legendary. With the blessing of the US government, the people of Vietnam were given the kiss of death by means of Monsanto's agent orange, the result, death and generations of deformed kids, but what the hell, they were commie kids, and it was great for Monsanto profits.

An appeal from Avaaz:

 Dear friends across the EU,      Top scientists warn the most commonly used herbicide in the world probably causes cancer! Monsanto is demanding the World Health Organisation retract their ground-breaking report. And experts say the only way to ensure the science is not silenced is if the public demands action, now.
         The regulatory system is renowned for being secretive and captured by the
agro-chemical industry. But we have a unique moment right now -- the EU is officially reassessing glyphosate, with similar processes underway in the US, Canada, and Brazil. And the Netherlands, Sri Lanka, and El Salvador are all looking at a ban. The threat is clear -- this poison is used on our food, our fields, our playgrounds, and our streets. Let's get it suspended. Join the urgent call and tell everyone:

https://secure.avaaz.org/en/monsanto_dont_silence_science_loc_eu/?bSlBIib&v=57274
      Monsanto is up in arms. Glyphosate brings in $6 billion per year. It is the basis of RoundUp, the chemical cornerstone of Monsanto’s Genetically Modified empire. The company says the WHO report ignored studies showing glyphosate is safe. But these scientists are 17 of the world's top oncology experts, not a bunch of crazies! They comprehensively reviewed independent studies, excluding those done by companies seeking product approval.
      Regulators rely mainly on tests done by the companies trying to sell the poisons! Key results are kept from the public because they contain 'commercially confidential information', and 58% of the scientific panels in the EU Food and Safety Agency are linked to the sector. It's nuts, but that is the system we have. And that’s why it's going to take all of us to make sure this crucial independent report isn't ignored.
Some countries have already put bans on glyphosate. Now with the EU, the US, Canada, and Brazil all reviewing it, we have an incredible chance to turn the tide
worldwide. 

        Fifty years ago Monsanto's pesticide DDT was everywhere until the seminal book Silent Spring showed it could cause cancer -- a decade later it was banned. If this could cause cancer, let's not let it be sold for ten more years. Let's demand
emergency precautionary action now. Join now and spread the word: 

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

A Dark Fog.

    A poem, light and gay, frivolous and fun, or deep and dark.

A Dark Fog.

I lived a winter's world

blind to spring and summer

a cold heart that shuddered to a halt

as times quarters fused to mist,

I knew not night nor day

fog dissolved my mind

I drifted in that fog

cold as the tomb,

heard no bell toll.

Neither ghost nor man

neither alive nor dead,

drowning in emptiness of anguish.

Shapeless as the fog and dumb

I drifted an eternity of nothing,

moving as if wrapped in a blanket of ice;

which is real, which is sleep,

a wandering spectre

to whom the tomb was closed.

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

Glasgow's Anti-TTIP Event.

     Saturday's event in Glasgow against TTIP was not very well attended, but the few did have an impact. A considerable amount of literature was hand out and well received, and there were a vast number of willing signatures gathered. When informed, about the secret TTIP negotiations and their ramifications, the people were both angry, and willing to add there name to the petitions. So it can rightly be called a success, it raised the profile of the dangers of TTIP and spread the awareness of the aims of the corrupt corporations and their puppets our "representatives". For those who didn't get to sign the petition at the event, you can still sign it HERE. Well done to those who took part.

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

I Want A World For The Soft And The Gentle.

       A poem can come from a thought, a word, something you saw, an inner feeling, a desire deep inside. This poem came from a deep sadness after hearing of the death by suicide of a dear friend's young son.

TO LOSE A SON.

It seems, in this harsh and callous world

There is no room

For the sweet, the soft, the gentle

Too many compromises to the inner self

Too many cruel realities pierce the heart.

How do you love

When survival bids you

Case your heart in an iron cask

Seal your skin in a titanium sheet

Fulfil the code and not yourself.

With pleasures locked in an inner chamber

Love hidden beneath a smile

Desires crammed in secret corners

All protected from the discordant demands

Of a rapid moving, confusing, pitiless world.

Where do the sweet, the soft, the gentle, find solace

Where can the heart float free

Where can the inner self blossom

Open for all the world to see

Accepted and un-threatened? 

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

 

The Re-birth Of Fascism.

Principles supported by the West:

Biletsky proudly explains his ideology as follows:

Social Nationalism is based on a number of fundamental principles that clearly distinguish it from other right-wing movements. This triad is: socialism, racism, imperialism. … On the principle of socialism [in the sense that Hitler used it] follows our complete negation of democracy and liberalism. … Instead there is natural selection of the best representatives of the Nation — born-leaders as Ukraine’s leaders. … Racism: All our nationalism is nothing — just a castle in the sand — without reliance on the foundationstone of blood Races. …
The historic mission of our Nation, a watershed in this century, is thus to lead the White peoples of the world in the final crusade for their survival. It is to lead the war against Semites and the sub-humans they use. … Social Nationalism raises to shield all old Ukrainian Aryan values, forgotten in modern society.

     Who is Biletsky? Andrei Biletsky is the founder of the Azov Battalion in Ukraine, a truly Nazi army, its members hand picked by the Nazi Andrei Biletsky. And surprise surprise, as of April 20th, 2015, this bastion of racism and fascism will be trained by the US.

This from John Pilger:

       Biletsky founded the Azov Battalion soon after Obama’s February 2014 coup in Kiev, which was led by Andriy Parubiy, who had co-founded the Social Nationalist Party of Ukraine. Parubiy’s masked men in the coup dressed as if they were Ukrainian security forces, and fired onto demonstrators during the Maidan demonstrations against Ukraine’s President Viktor Yanukovych. They were paid by the CIA at the U.S. Embassy, and they included both foreign mercenaries and troops who had been trained by Dmitriy Yarosh, who had founded another of Ukraine’s nazi parties, this one called Right Sector. Most of the coup’s perpetrators were members of Right Sector, which, in addition to being a party, has an estimated 7,000 troops of its own, who were trained under Yarosh’s command.

     Ask yourself, if the West supports this sort of activity abroad, what does it support at home? Do you think running to a ballot box to re-shuffle this mob of fascist supporters, will in any way bring democracy to us? The powers that be in the West have their own agenda and it has nothing to do with democracy. The West is one vast imperialist power, with the US sitting on the throne. Domination of the world's resources and markets, is the name of the game.

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

A Smuggler To The Last.

A poem a day for a month, it's a nice thought.

Youthful Traveller.

Now,

firm in winter's bosom clasped

gazing back along a path

a path I never can retrace

wondering,  when summer's blaze

cooled to autumn's seductive charm,

when autumn ran to winter's chill?

I saw no signpost mark the borders

no checkpoint with the list

bidding me declare.

So the sea of life I duly sailed

a smuggler to the last,

contraband I carry in my heart,

the joy of spring

mid winter's icy blast.

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

We Can Surely Fix This!!!

It is just around 3 weeks to the Great Big Crooks and Liars competition, the “general election” and the crazed competitors are running around the country kissing dogs' arses and shaking the back legs of frogs, all in an attempt to impress the general public. No deed is too bizarre, lofty millionaires will even touch the bairns of ordinary folk, and smile. I always feel that it is aptly named, “general election” , after all we are really electing generals to lead the slaves. What is it all about, what really happens after the “big event”? We should know, we have had lots of them in the past which we can examine. In each Crooks and Liars competition in the past we have had the various groupings, called parties, as they have lots of fun, produce their magic formula, called “a manifesto”. As you read each magic formula you come across lots of words all arranged differently from the other's magic formula, but all basically saying the same thing. For example, each one will say that they will end poverty, give everybody a decent home, create a good standard of living for everybody, and see that the population is taken care of, from the cradle to the grave. They will dress it up in various recognisable sound-bites, but it is still the same old crap.        In my 80+ years I have experienced a lot of these Crooks and Liars competitions, I have read lots of these magic formulae, and to this day I have not seen one fulfilled. I was born in poverty, son of a miner and a waitress/cleaner/shop-assistant/factory-worker, in one of Glasgow's many slums, Garngad. So the single-ends have gone, but the poverty remains, homelessness is on the increase, and the health service is deteriorating, and people are having to rely on food-banks to survive. So why do we keep repeating the same old failed process? We know what happens when the winners of the Crooks and Liars competition, don the robes of power, and take up residence in that edifice to imperialism and privilege, the Westminster Houses of Hypocrisy and Corruption. They sit down and do the bidding of the financial Mafia, they work out the best way to implement the financial Mafia's grand plan of total privatisation. All public assets are to be sold off to the corporate world. Everything that can assist the corporate world will be done, depressing wages, restricting trade union activity, end social spending, reduce corporate taxation. The winners of the Crooks and Liars competition are the puppets of the financial/corporate Mafia.      If we the general public are hoping to create a better world for all our people, our children and grandchildren, Then we have to stop expecting a bunch of pampered privileged careerist to do it for us, they are part of the problem, in no way are they the answer. We have to take control of our lives, that means control of our communities, our work places, the means of production and distribution. We can run all these affairs without the aid of an overpaid fat-cat CEO, and a bunch of doing-nothing, greedy shareholders. We have toiled long and hard, we built every house, factory, ship, and lorry, we delivered every product, we grow every morsel of food. However, sadly we do it to the dictate of a bunch of greedy self interested pampered parasites, whose interest are contrary to ours. We can surely fix that.   Visit ann arky's home at www.radicalglasgow.me.uk

Corporate Capitalism.

  

      Poetry of love, of fear, poetry of hope, of despair, poetry has many tongues, but should always speak the truth.

Corporate Capitalism.

I am the God of this century

I create the master and the slave,

labour for many, bounty for the few;

pledge poverty for countless millions.

I am the God of the plutocrat

I engender that which must deprave,

hypocrisy, greed, envy; unity I subdue,

incite bloody wars between nations.

I am the God of mammon

rapaciously I the world's resources plunder,

appalling famines spawn, hunger multiply;

consign starving hordes to slow extermination.

I am the God of power

I design technology to pull the world asunder ,

multi-mega bombs, missiles that terrify;

enough to guarantee total obliteration.

I am the blind God

without mercy I crush all resistance,

he who will not bend, I shall break;

with reckless speed drive man to destruction.

I am the only true God

of the twenty first century.

Where are the God killers, we need them now more than ever.

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

Anti-TTIP Global Day Of Action, Glasgow.

         Right now, our MP candidates are making all kinds of claims about how they’ll protect our NHS. But there’s a key issue our politicians are keeping quiet on - TTIP. It’s the US-EU trade agreement being drawn up in secret - it threatens many of the things we hold dear, from our democracy and environment, to the NHS. [1]

      So this Saturday 18th April, 38 Degrees members from across Glasgow will be gathering at the Buchanan Street steps to join a global day of action to stop TTIP. [2] It'll be a chance to hear from campaigners across the country and take part in exciting public stunts to shine a light on this dodgy deal.
      The more of us that join in, the bigger our impact will be - so can you come along on Saturday?
WHEN: Saturday 18th April, 11am
WHERE: Buchanan Street Steps, Glasgow

YES, I’LL JOIN IN
          The TTIP trade deal could open the doors to US medical companies buying NHS services, with one motive in mind - profit. And our NHS isn’t the only thing under threat: schools, social care and our treasured public services could also go under the knife. [3]
         Recently 38 Degrees members have been taking action in huge numbers to tell our candidates standing for election that they must take a firm stand against TTIP - collecting signatures, emailing and tweeting candidates, and holding street events. [4]

        On Saturday, let’s make sure MP candidates from every party see us out on the street mobilising people across Glasgow against TTIP. Together, we’ll spark hundreds more important conversations as the election draws near.
Saturday's event is being organised by a host of local groups across Glasgow and national groups who have been campaigning to stop TTIP. [5] Can you spare an hour or two on Saturday to join in? Everyone is welcome and it will be a great way to meet other 38 Degrees members who live near you.
Please click the link to let other 38 Degrees members know you’ll be there:
https://secure.38degrees.org.uk/TTIP-Day-Glasgow-18th

Hope to see you on the streets!
Jen, Bex and the 38 Degrees team
PS: If you can’t make it on the day, can you take two minutes to support the fight against the dodgy TTIP trade deal by emailing your MP candidates? Just click the link here to get started:
https://secure.38degrees.org.uk/ttip-scotland-petition
 

NOTES:
[1] The Independent: What is TTIP and six reasons why it should scare you:
http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/comment/what-is-ttip-and-six-reasons-why-the-answer-should-scare-you-9779688.html
[2] Global Justice Now: Global day of action against TTIP:
http://www.globaljustice.org.uk/events/ttip-day-action
[3] 38 Degrees blog: John Hilary, Executive Director at War on Want's analysis on TTIP:
http://blog.38degrees.org.uk/2015/02/27/ttip-leaked-text-analysis-by-john-hilary-war-on-want/
[4] 38 Degrees blog: Day of Action against TTIP in Scotland - come rain or shine!:
https://secure.38degrees.org.uk/ttip-scot-DOA-update/
[5] Saturday's event is being supported by Global Justice Now, War on Want, and the local 38 Degrees group in Glasgow

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