Glasgow, May 1st. May Day

         May 1st. May Day in Glasgow this year, was as usual, a friendly and good humoured affair, with a bonus this year, the weather wasn't bad at all. It is always good to meet up with friends, comrades and acquaintances that we have all been too busy to meet up with on a regular basis. The usual groups were there, IWW, Glasgow A. Fed, Glasgow Anarchist Collective, Solfed, Faslane Peace Camp, and others, with a good scattering of black  and red and black flags waving it the chill breeze. Lots of literature was handed out and sold, and lots of chats with the passing public. All these activities were well received by that public looking for a change to this brutal system that hits them with nothing but austerity and promises of more austerity, while the rich get richer.  

       Sunday, May 3rd. will see the Glasgow "official" May Day march and rally, gather at George Square 11.00am, setting off at 11:30am, marching through the city to the O2 centre on the Southside of the city. Hope to see you all there for another show of working class pride.

Some photos from Glasgow's Friday May 1st. May Day:

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Imperialism And The Resultant Refugees.

 

        The outpouring by the babbling brook of bullshit, the mainstream media, on the refugee situation in the Mediterranean, does the usual thing, poor refugees, we do our best, but these people smugglers are evil and we must deal with them harshly. We seldom hear of the main cause of this mass movement of people. Are we to believe that these evil people smugglers go around kidnapping people and shipping them out to Europe against their will? Or is there another reason for this humanitarian crisis? Why are there masses of people looking for any means available to escape the tragedy that is most of Africa today. A look at what has become of North Africa, the whole of the Middle East, and Afghanistan, and try to deny that Western foreign policy has not a very large part to play in the making of this crisis.

     We have destroyed the infrastructure of these countries for nothing more than wealth and power, we have walked away and left the people in dire poverty and ruins, and unleashed a landscape of warlords, and faction fighting. We then spend billions of Euros doing our damnedest to keep those same people out of our slice of the cake, a cake made with the help of their resources. Imperialism is alive and well today, power blocks take what resources they want from other countries. Just as the British Empire raped and pillaged its way across the planet under the Union flag, today the process of imperialism continues, under the banner of “Western democracy”.

This from 325:

 ------Refugees are pushed out of their home countries by pillaging neocolonial economy, conflicts fuelled by the seller of weapons, environmental disasters included in the cost of the European wealth, and finally imperialist invasions, and often have no choice but to flee in the direction of ‘European paradise’. The increasing stratification, hunger, poverty and fear motivate them to walk through deserts, passing oceans, and clinging to aircraft wheels, often submitting themselves under organized smugglers mafias. Frontex’ activities only add more kilometers and obstacles; without breaking Europe’s hegemony and its neo-colonial policies the determination, which families and sometimes entire villages rely on, of those people will never be reduced.
Usually tragedies are happening far away from the eyes of Europeans, but their scale, with an increase in the number of refugees (eg related to the events of the Arab Spring, the massacre of Afghanistan, the Syrian and Ukrainian war), had grown so much that it is impossible to keep ignoring them. Mass drowning off the coast of Italy and assaults on the borders of Ceuta and Melilla, death on the Evros minefields and barbed wire of the Bulgarian border are just a few examples of the tragedied, which become increasingly larger and more frequent as the social crisis in neighboring countries deepens. The crisis, which often is the result of European foreign policy, economic colonization or direct military intervention.--------

Read the full article HERE: 

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Mixed Bag Of Poems.

      April 30th. last day of National Poetry Month, so I thought I might finish it off with a bang. As usual one of my own, but a couple of others I like, and a wee film about Herbert Read, anarchist poet, writer, and art critic.

     First one by Herbert Read on the fascist bombing of Spain during the Spanish civil war.

Bombing Casualties In Spain.

Dolls' faces are rosier but these are children

their eyes not glass but gleaming gristle

dark lenses in whose quicksilver glances

the sunlight quivered. These blenched lips

were warm onceand bright with blood

but blood

held in moist bleb of flesh

not split and spatter'd in tousled hair.

In these shadowy tresses

red petals did not always

thus clot and blacken to scar.

These are dead faces.

wasps' nests are not so wanly waxen

wood embers not so greyly ashen.

They are laid out in ranks

like paper lanterns that have fallen

after a night of riot

extinct in the dry morning air.

Herbert Read.

Familiarity Breeds Contempt.

Now television has allowed the proles

to have a look at the eminent,

we sans-culottes can scan with great intent

their skins for pimples, wens and blackhead-holes,

quite pleased to find they too have scars and moles

just like the more plebian element.

Such epidermal flaws on dame and gent

bring the Mob close to those with Higher Goals.

Now we're all privileged to watch a lord

waggling his eyebrows or large moustache.

You don't get worried till They start to speak

and now that none of them has ssaid a word

worth listening to. What earns them all that cash?

Why didn't The Revolution start last week?

William Neil. 

A New Dawn.

Today we live in a peace

midst a thousand pygmy wars;

a humanity bankrupt by its past

dragged wearily through darkness and despair

yearns for a day that's cast

long, warm and fair,

a dawn that sees humankind dicard

its class, its nation and prepare

to grind outworn creeds to dust,

so mankind naked is revealed,

then moving with common cause,

share

what such a dawn may yield.

John Couzin.

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Homeless Children.

       Homelessness is part and parcel of capitalism, and the idea that somehow capitalism will sort the problem out, to me is naive. In this society, shortages mean higher prices, more profit, solve the shortage and you see an end to increasing prices, not good for capitalism. There always has to be demand to feed their insanity of perpetual growth. Everything they make has to become obsolete quickly, so that there is a demand for the next, “better”, “improved” “thing”. Think who gains from ever increasing house prices and ever increasing rents? Think of the money that pours through that “industry”. What would happen to that golden goose if everybody had a decent home?

      Tomorrow morning around 93,000 children will wake up as homeless, they will be scattered around in B&Bs and hostels, and often find themselves moving from place to place, an invisible army of damaged children, victims of capitalism and its insane policies of profit before people.

     Appealing for solutions to this problem from a bunch of very rich, pampered politicians, who are managers of this insane system, is asking the wolves to guard the sheep. The rules of the game are not set up to see that everybody gets their needs attended to, it is to amass as much wealth as possible in the hands of those who control the system. What pittance comes our way is grudgingly given after a struggle, and the corporate world, with the aid of the financial Mafia, is always trying to take it all back again. What quality of life we have, is not the fruits of capitalism, it is what we have managed to wrestle from the controllers of the system. We may create all the wealth in this world, but we allow it to be syphoned up to the parasite class that has its hands on the levers of power.

      So if your running to the ballot box to try to solve the problem of those 93,000 homeless children, then take it from me, you'll be running to the ballot box next time round to try to solve the same problem. Meanwhile, those 93,000 damaged children will be growing up to be 93,000 damaged people, with another invisible army of homeless children marching behind them.

 

HOMELESS.

Tenebrous spectres, they exist,   out there,

on the crumbling edge of chaos.

A father, a son, a brother,

a daughter, a sister, a mother.

Fragments of some shattered family structure;

waste products

from a society being driven to destruction

by a hurricane of greed

living a life that wears out life,

dying,

the devious death of exhaustion from existence.

 

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Metropolis, The State.

     An extract from the film Metropolis this segment deals with "The State".

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And More On Greece.

      What is happening in Greece is both a struggle for the people of Greece and an opportunity, an opportunity to change the structure of their society to something much better.

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The Concept Of The Other!

       Today and then tomorrow, then it is the end of National Poetry Month. What will you do with all that extra spare time!!!!

Fashion Conscious.

Pretty pretty butterfly people

fluttering in the midst of

Armani, Gucci, Versace,

aimlessly ambling arrogance.

Each,   a born again narcissus

who venerate

their own frivolous existence.

Hearts saturated in self-adulation

oblivious to a brother's cry of anguish,

wrapped in a mind that failed to grasp

the concept of the other.

Pretty pretty butterfly people

fluttering in the midst of

Armani, Gucci, Versace,

how I long to see you live

for more than one brief moment

in reality's rigorous narrative:

perhaps to see Serbia's plight,

hear the Kurds cry,

feel enough of Iraq's pain

to make you question why.

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People Versus The Financial Mafia.

        Greece is fast running out of money, during the month of May the Syriza government has to find the staggering sums of €750 million to pay the IMF, (international Mankind Fuckers) plus another €400 million in interest payments. May is considered an easy month, but June will prove to be more difficult as the sums are €1.5 billion to be paid to the IMF, €700 million to European institutions, and a further €500 million in interest payments. This is a monthly pouring of money out of Greece into the coffers of the financial Mafia. This from a country where the economy has crashed, where unemployment is sitting at over 27%, and youth unemployment is above 50%. social services have disintegrated, poverty, substance abuse, suicides, homelessness and sleeping rough have all rocketed. Physical and mental health problems have reached staggering proportions, in a collapsed health service. 

      To try to alleviate some of the suffering of the people of Greece, and to try to keep some of its promises to the people, the government has suggested that it lower some taxes to help the poorest, and raise the minimum wage and pensions for those on lowest pensions. Of course the Financial Mafia in charge of Europe, has condemned this action, stating that it is a backward step. Saying that this action would put their negotiations at risk. The financial Mafia in the shape of The Troika, (EC, European Commission, ECB, European Central Bank, IMF, International Mankind Fuckers) are refusing to pay Greece its entitlement of €1.9 billion profits made on Greek debt bonds, until it complies with its demands of “reforms”, which in reality means just get on and do as your told or go bust.

       The Financial Mafia are not in the least interested in the condition of life in Greece, or any other country for that matter, all that matters is that governments keep pouring public money into the bottomless pit that is the financial world. Even if it means that populations of entire countries slide into the morass of deprivation, so be it, all that matters is that the financial Mafia don't lose a Euro of their ill-gotten gains. This is capitalism at work, greed, inhumane treatment of entire populations, a total disregard for humanity in any shape or form, a financial war on people.   

 

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Baltimore And Police Brutality.

An Appeal from Color Of Change:

      It has been more than two weeks since Baltimore police killed Freddie Gray and no officer has been fired, arrested, or prosecuted. Local officials don't even have answers to the most basic questions: Why did police violently arrest Gray? Why was this healthy 25-year-old's voice box crushed, his spleen ruptured and 80% of his spine severed after 45 minutes with Baltimore law enforcement? 1

       The lack of accountability for Gray's killing is unacceptable and the solution to Baltimore's policing crisis is not martial law or more militarized policing. Right now, we need widespread public pressure to ensure the necessary leadership and independent oversight to bring Gray's killers to justice and overhaul the Baltimore Police Department. Without independent oversight it's unlikely that Gray's killers will be held accountable. Local prosecutors work too closely with police on a day to day basis to hold them accountable — and they almost never do.2

Demand that Governor Hogan appoint Maryland's Attorney General to assist in the case.

      To be Black in Baltimore means every day is a risk. In a city overcome with racism, police violence, and a police union blocking reform,3 even the most simple activities — a walk down the street or the drive to work — could mean an unlawful arrest or deadly attack at the hands of law enforcement. According to an investigation by the Baltimore Sun, in just 5 years, 100 Baltimore residents have won $5.7 million worth of settlements relating to police brutality and civil rights. The stories are shocking, yet almost none of the officers were held accountable:4

• Jerriel Lyles, who was attacked by police on his way out of a convenience store: "The blow was so heavy. My eyes swelled up. Blood was dripping down my nose and out my eye.”
• Starr Brown, a pregnant woman slammed to the ground and kneed in the back by police after calling them for help: "They slammed me down on my face...The skin was gone on my face"
• An 87-year-old grandmother, who was attacked after calling an ambulance for her wounded son, was told: "B****, you ain’t no better than any of the other old black b**** I have locked up.”

       Following Freddie Gray's killing, a community tired of living under siege and facing decades of employment discrimination and decimated public housing is rising up to demand change.5 Last night, as the National Guard moved into Baltimore, images of militarized police tear gassing and beating protestors, fires, and outrage once again flashed across our TV screens. The best way to restore peace to Baltimore is for Governor Hogan and local leadership to undo the structural racism targeting its people. But right now, police are preparing to announce even harsher measures to crack down on the protests — like a curfew for youth6 — that will likely continue to escalate an already unacceptable level of confrontation and violence between police and citizens.

       Protestors in Baltimore are showing the same courageous resistance and vision for a better country that we see coming out of Ferguson, Madison, New York, Cleveland, Milwaukee, and other cities across the country. And just as in Ferguson, justice for the brutal police killing of Freddie Gray depends on Governor Hogan's leadership to do more than ramp up law enforcement.

Tell Governor Hogan and Baltimore State's Attorney Marilyn Mosby to bring in Attorney General Brian Frosh to help secure justice for Freddie Gray.

Thanks and peace,

References

1. "Nonviolence as Compliance," The Atlantic 04-27-2015 http://act.colorofchange.org/go/4768?t=6&akid=4316.2196388.TAFzlj

2. "Why I Don’t Trust Baltimore Prosecutors with Freddie Gray Case," Legal Speaks 04-22-2015 http://act.colorofchange.org/go/4769?t=8&akid=4316.2196388.TAFzlj

3. "Maryland Cop Lobbyists Helped Block Reforms Just Last Month," Intercept 04-28-2015 http://act.colorofchange.org/go/4770?t=10&akid=4316.2196388.TAFzlj

4. "Undue Force," The Baltimore Sun 09-04-2014 http://act.colorofchange.org/go/4771?t=12&akid=4316.2196388.TAFzlj

5. "Baltimore’s shame is America’s shame: How job flight and police brutality spelled doom for Freddie Gray’s neighborhood," Salon 04-28-2015 http://act.colorofchange.org/go/4772?t=14&akid=4316.2196388.TAFzlj

6. "Gov. Larry Hogan promises more than 1,000 additional troops, vows to prevent rioting," The Baltimore Sun 04-28-2015 http://act.colorofchange.org/go/4773?t=16&akid=4316.2196388.TAFzlj

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Lest We Forget.

      We must keep hammering home the real reasons behind the First World War, the blood that was shed for empire, markets and resources, and oil was one of those resources that the British empire wanted, and was prepared to let hundreds of thousands die in unbelievable horror, to attain that wealth. To the imperialists, people were expendable, and to the modern imperialist, they still are.

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Poison Romace.

Saw this on arrezafe, Jack Vettriano with a difference?

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To Say, "This Is Mine".

   Just a couple of days left in this National Poetry Month.

A Scarred Heart.

I tossed a heart at life

saw it dance in the morning sun

watched it through a field of nettles run

felt it warmed by passion's breath

heard it crack between love's teeth

was proud, as it turned its back on fear

sighed so when it near' drowned in an anguished tear,

scarred and bleeding it came back, aged like wine,

with a quiet pride I said, "This is mine".

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May Day, May Day, May Day.

       May Day, Workers Day, Labour Day, call it what you will, but it is Our Day. A day of celebration, of all our struggles, victories, and a chance to renew old friendships. Take to the streets, pick up a leaflet, a book, chat, celebrate with friends and comrades.

Here are some of the events celebrating this May Day in Glasgow.

Today (Glasgow TUC) event, Tuesday, 28 April, 12 noon People's Palace/Winter Gardens G40 1AT.

Friday, May 1st. May Day, there will be stalls in Buchanan Street at Gordon Street, come along, bring the kids, bring noise, bring what you would expect to find, meet and chat, discuss what matters to you. there will be people, books leaflets and other bits and pieces.

Later on May 1st.

Friday 1st May 2015, 6.30 - 9.00pm
Gilmorehill Centre, University of Glasgow
      Document Human Rights Film Festival in association with Screen Seminars at Glasgow University and Glasgow Human Rights Network present a May Day screening of Miners Shot Down, a documentary about the 2012 Marikana mine massacre in South Africa, which is currently winning prizes at film festivals around the world. Thirty four workers were killed by police during a strike at the mine. The British lawyer representing the families of those killed, James Nichol, will be in attendance for a Q&A after the screening, chaired by Dr David Archibald.

Sunday 3rd May, organised by Glasgow Trades Union Council, march and rally. Assemble 11.00 for 11.30 at George's Square,
Rally at 02 Academy, Eglinton Street 12.30.

GLASGOW Friends of May Day
Download the Glasgow Friends of MayDay Celebration Programme here

A wee blast from the past, Glasgow May Day 1962.

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TTIP Must Be Stopped.

       The corporate/financial Mafia hope to have TTIP all wrapped up and functioning by October. That's not a lot of time, we can't wait until then, and then start to complain when TTIP moves in and kicks us in the teeth. We have to continually keep pushing to get this take over by corporatism flushed down the tubes.  Sign the petition HERE:

This appeal from 38 Degrees:

       Big corporations are staging their biggest power grab yet - with TTIP, the dodgy EU-US trade deal. But this week, we have a chance to deal a blow to those trying to get the deal passed without a fuss.
      On Wednesday, MSPs will vote on whether to reject the worst parts of TTIP. They’ll be voting on the part of the deal that lets private companies like McDonald’s sue our government if they raise the minimum wage. [1] The vote won’t stop TTIP. But it’ll send a very clear message - that together we’ll stand against corporate power.
      We need our MSPs to be there, and to vote the right way. The vote’s on Wednesday so we don’t have much time. Can you email your MSP today? Click here:
https://secure.38degrees.org.uk/msps-stop-TTIP
       It would be a nightmare scenario for corporations is every MSP turned up on Wednesday. They don’t want to have to defend their flagship trade deal. So together, let’s make sure every MSP is there. And let’s get as many as possible to listen to their constituents and vote the right way.
      It’s no surprise that public pressure against TTIP is growing across Scotland. This dodgy deal could make more NHS privatisation inevitable. And it could hand American corporations the power to sue our Scottish government if Holyrood passed laws they didn’t like. Plans to de-privatise our services would be scuppered. [2]
        The vote this Wednesday is a huge opportunity for us to raise the political stakes on this dodgy trade deal before next year's Holyrood election. The more of us who email our MSPs, the clearer the message: we won’t sit back while our democracy disappears into corporate hands.
      Please click here to tell your MSP to turn up on Wednesday and vote to on principle against TTIP:
https://secure.38degrees.org.uk/msps-stop-TTIP

Thanks for being involved,
Jen, Nat, David and the 38 Degrees team
NOTES
[1] The report being discussed on Wednesday is the result of months of work by the parliament to find out whether TTIP really threatens our democracy - and the conclusions are stark.
     The report recommends that ISDS, the part of the deal that lets companies sue our government for ‘lost profits’, should be scrapped. It says that TTIP could harm our environment and food safety, and could allow runaway privatisation of our services. MSPs will be voting on whether they agree with this report.
You can read the full report here:
http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/S4_EuropeanandExternalRelationsCommittee/Reports/eur-15-02w.pdf
Or find a handy summary by Global Justice Now here:
http://www.globaljustice.org.uk/news/2015/mar/17/our-response-holyroods-ttip-report
[2] Liz Murray: It’s more than just the NHS that’s at risk in Scotland from TTIP:
https://www.opendemocracy.net/ourkingdom/liz-murray/it%E2%80%99s-more-than-just-nhs-that%E2%80%99s-at-risk-in-scotland-from-ttip

 

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Ending This Infernal Night.

      Four more days left of National Poetry Month, four more poems, so here is today's.

An Unjudging Eye.

All that happens under this unminding sky

appears to be seen by an unjudging eye,

pitiless famine spread by unbridled greed

as the powerful pillage with unprincipled speed.

See war and hunger sour this lovely land

with crippled justice making a fragile stand,

pompous power sail in manner grand

selfish duplicity the helmsman's hand.

What now to the common man is due

is grasped by a wealthy swaggering few,

still compassion turns a blind eye

to let the many, in poverty die.

Observe greed and tyranny strutting bold

until perfidious men all power hold

who seal the power with stolen gold

their tale of treachery seldom told.

Blind to honety's wasted light

the rich can't see poverty's plight

nor hear youth's anguished tear;

greed has dulled their listless ear.

When will justice spread her light

putting selfish greed to flight

crushing tyranny with righteous might,

ending this infernal night.

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