We Are Many.

An appeal from Stop The War Coalition:

Major anti-war conference/ We Are Many, launches on Thursday

Book now for June 6th anti-war conference
"Confronting a World at War"
Saturday 6 June • 10am - 5pm
TUC • Great Russell Street
London WC1B 3LS

      Hundreds of people will attend the 6th June Confronting a World at War conference to discuss how to resist the Anglo-American war machine and the ensuing militarist brutalisation of life. Leading anti-war writers and campaigners are coming from around the world. These include:
     Medea Benjamin is a leading US peace activist. She is the co-founder of Code Pink and one of the best-known progressive figures in the United States. Barack Obama stated once (after being interrupted by Medea Benjamin during a major speech on the "war on terror") that "the voice of this woman is worth paying attention to".
     Mustafa Barghouti is a globally known campaigner for Palestinian rights. He is the General Secretary of the Palestine National Initiative. He has been a member of the Palestinian Legislative Council and was Minister of Information in the Palestinian unity government.
    Explo Nani-Kofi is a noted Ghanaian-born social researcher and a campaigner for social justice. her coordinates the Campaign against Proxy Wars in Africa and is the Director of the Kilombo Centre for Civil Society and African Self-Determination.
     Mark Weisbrot is a writer for peace and social justice. He is the co-director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research in Washington, D.C. He has written for publications such as New York Times, The Washington Post, The Guardian, etc. He is the co-writer of the screenplay for Oliver Stone's film South of the Border.
        They will be joined by Tariq Ali • Lindsey German • Seumas Milne • Bruce Kent • Jeremy Corbyn MP • Victoria Brittain • George Galloway • Ozzie Ardiles • Richard Sakwa • Kate Hudson • Jonathan Steele • Andrew Murray • Joe Lombardo • David Edgar • Anas Al-Tikriti • Sabby Dhalu • Sami Ramadani • Chris Nineham • Jenny Clegg • Hamja Ahsan • Judith Orr • Carol Turner • Steve Bell • Malia Bouattia • Matt Willgress • Daniel Jakopovich

       We are offering discounted tickets at £8 until the end of this week. Book now to be sure of your place.
Share the event with your Facebook contacts
Book your ticket online with Eventbrite

Box office: 020 7561 4830
Don't miss the launch of We Are Many this Thursday

      The acclaimed film We Are Many will be in cinemas across the UK on 21 May, with a Q&A panel, and then in selected cinemas on 22 May.
      We Are Many tells the story of 15 February 2003, when millions of people in cities and towns across the world marched to say not in my name to the Iraq war. It is a brilliant argument about why protest matters. Tomorrow it will be promoted on Channel 4 News, Front Row and BBC Breakfast TV. The film has broken the world record on Thunderclap on Twitter with a reach of more than 37 million people.
      It is vital that the film is seen by as many people as possible. Local Stop the War groups are promoting the film in their areas. You can help promote the film in your area by inviting your Facebook contacts to your local cinema. Facebook events have been created for each town.
Click to see a short clip from the film
See the nationwide venues, book tickets and invite your Facebook contacts

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

 

Waiting For Tomorrow.

Another poem, and why not?

Yesterday Waiting For Tomorrow

Observe the crazy ape's despair,

trapped in a consumer's world.

Where dream's have gaping wounds,

happiness floats ahead like a mirage.

A strange world

where nostalgia flows like wine

drowning the present;

trivia traps mesmerised minds

They live yesterday, waiting for tomorrow,

an existence

where "NOW" has been eliminated.

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

The Culling Of The Poor.

        It is normal practice in this society that when a dreadful cruelty happens, our babbling brook of bullshit, the mainstream media, spew out a few articles about it, and then it is dropped, no longer “news”. The dreadful cruelty, in all probability continues, but is now no longer worth reporting, it's yesterday's news. One of the things that fall into that category is benefit sanctions. It was “news”, a new chattering issue, but as the viciousness of this legislation grinds on, it becomes normal and boring to the chattering classes. Not only is the cruelty of this vindictive legislation still there, its effects are multiplying.
 

      Over 1 million people on JSA have been sanctioned. These are people living on the barest of income, people who are scraping an existence, in all probability not eating properly, not heating their home, unable to feed their kids properly, and then that meagre income is stopped for a minimum of one month, it could be up to three years. Those punished in this way could be sick, disabled, single parents with kids over 5 years old.
 

     Without a shadow of doubt, this vindictive punishing of the poor and vulnerable has caused widespread deprivation and misery, has ripped families apart, left pregnant women without food. Has seen those with mental health problems deteriorate and has created an increase in suicides. Has pushed families to food-banks and in cases forced them into begging. We can get a measure of the type of society we tolerate when we consciously reduce people to begging, sleeping in the streets or attempting suicide as a cruel and degrading punishment for being poor.
 

      This vile and cruel punishing of the poor and vulnerable is implemented on the flimsiest and most irrational pretext. Misery and deprivation are handed out on a whim, devoid of any humanity. We cannot tolerate this vicious, vindictive punishing of our own people. Over one third of the homeless on JSA have been sanctioned, among the young homeless, it jumps to over 50%. To be homeless in this society is a cruel bare existence, to deprive them of any income, is nothing less than condemning them to ill health and an early death.
 

    Our millionaire Bullingdon Boys, the Cameron cabal, idling away their evenings checking their shares and off-shore accounts, have no conception of what it is in this society, to face life with nothing. Nobody, least of all that bunch of pampered parasites, has the right to inflict that destitution and misery on anyone. Even that sanitised old boys club, the Parliament’s Work and Pensions Select Committee said, there was evidence that the sanctions caused more problems than they solved, and that the Government had not yet provided evidence that the system was not "purely punitive". The committee said the Government needed to provide more evidence to support its hard-line approach, as the committee’s chair warned that financial hardship caused by the sanctions could lead families being unable to eat. 

 

From the Guardian: The following anonymised list is typical of sanctions reported by food bank clients to the Trussell trust charity:

1. Man who missed appointment due to being at hospital with his partner, who had just had a stillborn child.
   
2. Man sanctioned for missing an appointment at the jobcentre on the day of his brother’s unexpected death. He had tried to phone Jobcentre Plus to explain, but could not get through and left a message which was consequently not relayed to the appropriate person.
   
3. Man who carried out 60 job searches but missed one which matched his profile.
   
4. Man had an appointment at the jobcentre on the Tuesday, was taken to hospital with a suspected heart attack that day, missed the appointment and was sanctioned for nine weeks.
   
5. Man who secured employment and was due to start in three weeks. He was sanctioned in the interim period because JCP told him he was still duty bound to send his CV to other companies.
   
6. 
   
7. Young couple who had not received any letters regarding an appointment that was thus subsequently missed. Their address at the Department for Work and Pensions was wrongly recorded. They were left with no money for over a month.
   
8. One case where the claimant’s wife went into premature labour and had to go to hospital. This caused the claimant to miss an appointment. No leeway given.
   
9. One man sanctioned for attending a job interview instead of Jobcentre Plus – he got the job so did not pursue grievance against the JCP.
   
10. Man who requested permission to attend the funeral of his best friend; permission declined; sanctioned when he went anyway.
    
11. A diabetic sanctioned and unable to buy food was sent to hospital by GP as a consequence.

More inhumane, vindictive, irrational, whimsical reasons used to sink people into destitution, HERE:

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

A Genocide, Through The 20th. Century To The 21st. Century.

 The disappearing country.

       And so the genocide goes on, is there anybody who actually believes that the Zionist government of Israel wants a settlement with the Palestinian people? All the evidence and all the rational observations of what goes on in that part of the world, points to the Israeli government working towards its "Greater Israel". All the well stage managed conferences, peace plans, negotiations are but a charade, an exercise in powerful propaganda in an attempt to conceal the real aims of the Zionist religious nutters that control that part of the Middle East. To the Zionist government of Israel, Gaza and the West Bank, are areas that have to be cleansed, to make way for God's chosen people. The shear brutality of this process is played out in front of the eyes of the world as some sort of defence activity. It is nothing short of cold callous, brutal genocide. Within Israel itself, Arabs are being cleansed from areas the have inhabited for generations, to make way for Jewish fundamentalist nutters.

Anther example of this genocide and religious cleansing is reported by Jonathan Cook:

Middle East Eye – 15 May 2015

      Israel’s Palestinian minority is preparing to hold a “day of rage” to protest against a court ruling last week that cleared the way to destroy an entire Bedouin village so that it can be replaced by a Jewish town.
     The Israeli Supreme Court’s decision marks the end of a 13-year legal battle by the 800 villagers of Umm al-Hiran in the Negev (Naqab) to prevent the establishment of the town on the site of their current homes.
     The new town – also to be called Hiran – is expected to include 2,500 homes designated for ultra-nationalist religious groups closely identified with the settler movement.
       Bedouin leaders and human rights groups criticised the judges for upholding what they termed “racist” government policies that gave weight solely to the housing needs of Israel’s Jewish population.

Read the full article HERE:

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

Middle East Eye – 15 May 2015
Israel’s Palestinian minority is preparing to hold a “day of rage” to protest against a court ruling last week that cleared the way to destroy an entire Bedouin village so that it can be replaced by a Jewish town.
The Israeli Supreme Court’s decision marks the end of a 13-year legal battle by the 800 villagers of Umm al-Hiran in the Negev (Naqab) to prevent the establishment of the town on the site of their current homes.
The new town – also to be called Hiran – is expected to include 2,500 homes designated for ultra-nationalist religious groups closely identified with the settler movement.
Bedouin leaders and human rights groups criticised the judges for upholding what they termed “racist” government policies that gave weight solely to the housing needs of Israel’s Jewish population.
- See more at: http://www.jonathan-cook.net/2015-05-15/israeli-court-says-arab-village-must-make-way-for-jewish-town/#sthash.Q58HqZYq.dpuf

Middle East Eye – 15 May 2015
Israel’s Palestinian minority is preparing to hold a “day of rage” to protest against a court ruling last week that cleared the way to destroy an entire Bedouin village so that it can be replaced by a Jewish town.
The Israeli Supreme Court’s decision marks the end of a 13-year legal battle by the 800 villagers of Umm al-Hiran in the Negev (Naqab) to prevent the establishment of the town on the site of their current homes.
The new town – also to be called Hiran – is expected to include 2,500 homes designated for ultra-nationalist religious groups closely identified with the settler movement.
Bedouin leaders and human rights groups criticised the judges for upholding what they termed “racist” government policies that gave weight solely to the housing needs of Israel’s Jewish population.
- See more at: http://www.jonathan-cook.net/2015-05-15/israeli-court-says-arab-village-must-make-way-for-jewish-town/#sthash.Q58HqZYq.dpuf

Celebration Of A Mass Killing.

      It always amazes me how each state will turn what other states could classify as a war crime, into a great victory celebration, and honour it with pomp and ceremony. Today, May 17, is the anniversary of the "Dam-busters" raid by Britain in the Ruhr Valley. I have no doubt that it was an ingenious piece of engineering, but then most war instruments of mass slaughter are, when it comes to killing our fellow man, our ingenuity knows no bounds.

      On this particular occasion, there was no doubt that the Ruhr valley would be filled with ordinary people going about their daily affairs. Never the less, 19 Lancaster bombers were dispatched to destroy three dams in that area. They succeeded, but only 11 bombers return and 53 airmen were killed. However, their "success" meant that a 30 foot wave of water went rushing down the Valley, killing, at a conservative estimate, 1,600 people. It also left in its wake an area of totally destroyed infrastructure, schools, shops, homes, railways, all collateral damage to the aim of destroying the factories. Of course our celebrations doesn't mention these facts, it is all about the bravery of the air crews, which nobody doubts, and the ingenuity of our engineers, again, nobody doubts.

      There is also no doubt that those who calculated and planned this event, called "operation chastise", were well aware of the effect of sending a 30 foot wave of water through a densely populated area, to them, the deaths of so many men, women and children, and the destruction of civilian infrastructure, was a price worth paying, and would be ignored. The German state responded with heavy bombing raids on London, and so the spiral continued.

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

Are We Civilised?

How civilised Europe treats immigrants.

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

Time To rage.

A little more on Rage.

Time To Rage.

Time to rage,  like a river running wild,

Time to rise,  to save the child,

Time to rage,  like a mountain flood,

Time to rise,  to stop the blood,

Time to rage,  with righteous anger,

Time to rise,  to point the finger.

Famine, misery, sickness, death

stretch across these pleasant lands;

war, greed, hunger, blood,

sour the lovely desert sands,

charity, chat, quiet dismay,

is not enough,

prayers, thoughts, what MPs say,

is useless stuff.

Time to rage,  like a river running wild,

Time to rise,  to save the child,

Time to rage,  like a mountain flood,

Time to rise,  to stop the blood,

Time to rage,  with righteous anger,

Time to rise,  to point the finger.

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

Rage, Rage Against------.

        Dearie me, I missed it by two days, May 14th. Dylan Thomas Day, sorry Dylan. This is probably his best known and one of my favourites.

Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night.

Do not go gentle into that good night,
Old age should burn and rave at close of day;
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Though wise men at their end know dark is right,
Because their words had forked no lightning they
Do not go gentle into that good night.

Good men, the last wave by, crying how bright
Their frail deeds might have danced in a green bay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Wild men who caught and sang the sun in flight,
And learn, too late, they grieved it on its way,
Do not go gentle into that good night.

Grave men, near death, who see with blinding sight
Blind eyes could blaze like meteors and be gay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

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

The Brink Of something Special!!

      It is not often, if at all, that I can thank the Tories for something. What I think the new Bullingdon Boys cabal In the Westminster House of Hypocrisy and Corruption have done, is unite the ordinary people across this country. Their arrogance as the feel the glow of their new found power will encourage them to go into full throttle attack. The start will be their £12 billion of cuts that are aimed at the the poorest and most vulnerable in our society, but will impact on all our communities. What £12 billion amounts to is roughly taking £545 from every household in the country. Some people are going to get really clobbered.

      Approximately 70,000 will be affected by the benefit cap, more than 21,000 will suffer when they scrap the housing benefit for under 21 year olds, then there will be roughly 150,000 18 to 21 year olds hit when the scrap the job-seekers allowance and replace it with a six month payment. Between now and 2020, a million more families will have to pay the bedroom tax, the average payment over the five years under this bunch of millionaire parasites will be approximately £3,800. Iain Duncan Smith has already cut the financial help ­available to Bedroom Tax victims by 24%. Discretionary Housing Payments to local authorities which provide a lifeline to hardship cases were slashed from £165million to £125million last month. There is also talk of increasing the bedroom tax to an average of £25. In those dark corridors of power, there has even been discussions of abolishing statutory maternity pay. Then there is their intention to bring more anti-union legislation.

       Of course it is not all screwing the people, there are those higher up the financial ladder that are in the buddies club of the Bullingdon Boys, who will be handed some sweeties. The threshold at which the higher 40% tax rate is paid, will be raised, the top rate of 45% tax will be scrapped, and the level at which inheritance tax is paid will be raised. A little thank-you to those managers of the system.
     Recently in Downing Street, Mr Cameron's FREE home, paid for by you and I, he stated that “We are on the brink of something special.” Well I think we are, I think the people of this country will not sit about and be shafted by a bunch Oxbridge parasites who hold power by only receiving 36.8% of the voters support, 63.2% didn't want them. It is now time to do something about that total lack of democracy.

      Marching from A to B waving banners and chanting, though worth doing to raise the profile of the dissent, but it will not be enough on its own. We have to use our imagination and come up with a variety of tactics, in our communities and workplaces, in town and city centres. In words of the Tory parasites, “ we are all in this together”. We have suffered under the yoke of this system for generations, and it is not getting any easier. As a class we can sort this out, we have the power, the ability and the imagination. Let's come together and fight like our lives depend on it, because they do!!

      There are a series of events and protests coming up, broadcast them, take part in them, organise your own event, but do your damnedest to be part of it.

Here are some of the events coming up:

Glasgow, Peterborough, Manchester, Sheffield, Cardiff, Winchester, Newcastle, Leeds and many more to come – please feel free to leave details of upcoming events, protests or actions in the comments.

Class War and the National Coalition Against Fees and Cuts (NCAFC) have both called a protest in Central London on the day of the state opening of Parliament, May 27th – keep it free.

UK Uncut have called a day of action on Saturday May 30th, which coincides with a protest against scrapping the Human Right’s Act.

A massive demonstration wil be taking place in the City of London on the 20th June.

Please help spread the word about all events and let’s make them huge.

Remember, "We are on the brink of something special."

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

 

Two Baltimores.

         The babbling brook of bullshit, the mainstream media, has been pouring a lot of biased gibberish and photos of violence in Baltimore. We know there are “black” areas, and that is where most of the violence occurs. As for the rest of Baltimore, I for one, know nothing. However it seems that it is a city of unbelievable contrasts, a city displaying the capitalist obligatory wealth differences on a major scale.

         A very interesting article from Anarchist News gives a clearer insight to this area, which could be described as two cities.

Rites of Passage:

       Recent riots in Baltimore over the death of Freddie Gray have been the largest there since those following the assassination of Martin Luther King in 1968. They began on April 25, 2015, when a group of protestors split off from a peaceful rally and began hurling bottles at cops and smashing patrol cars.[iv] This happened not far from Camden Yards[v] where white Orioles and Red Sox fans remained untouched behind stadium gates. Others, drunk and racist, brawled with protestors outside nearby sports bars. But Baltimore’s true elites were far from downtown. That Saturday was the 119th running of the Maryland Hunt Cup, a steeplechase horse race in Reisterstown, Baltimore County. A steeplechase, for those less schooled in equestrian pastimes, is where the horses jump over a bunch of fences and ditches and try not to fall over. In Maryland, this particular race provides rich people with an excuse to break out their finest, brightest spring clothes. Bowties, salmon-colored shorts, Lilly Pulitzer dresses in red and green. Flowery sunhats. Mint juleps and Natty Boh beer. White Baltimore ascends toward its ideal form. Down in the fields a horse trips and falls, snapping its leg and pitching the jockey off into the mud. It will be soon be dragged out of view of the garishly-clad onlookers to be shot.

Read the full article HERE:

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

UK Democracy, Power To The Few, Misery To The Many.

       Our totally unrepresentative government, it rules over us with only 36.8% of the vote, has some nasty pieces of legislation it aims to push down our throats, like it or not. On Privacy, Teresa May wants more powers for the government to snoop on us. The snoopers charter is being dusted up for re-issue. The right to strike is high on their agenda, to appease their financial masters and corporate buddies, they want that right to be considerably curtailed. However, the legislation they are introducing would make their own election illegal, as they didn't have sufficient mandate to carry out their legislation!! The right to independent thought and speech. Fuehrer Cameron has stated, “For too long, we have been a passively tolerant society,---” so they plan to target people who believe in certain values and they will make it impossible for “extremists” to succeed. I wonder whose definition of “extremist” they will use? There will be a renewed attack on the young and poor, as it plans a £12 billion cut in welfare, one of the proposals is to scrap job seekers allowance for 18-21 year olds, replacing it with a six month allowance. There is also a proposal to scrap the right of those under 21 to claim housing benefit. To show their human credentials, Teresa may has suggested that those who risk their lives crossing the Mediterranean, should be sent back. As always, true to form, the last thing they want you to know is what they get up to behind closed doors. So the Freedom of Information Act, will be amended to make it easier for the government to block information from being made public. Open and transparent government?? Of course one of the things that has long riled them, and their corporate robber buddies, is the protection the ordinary citizen gets from the Human Rights Act, so that is to be scrapped. And just to show their compassion, a gift to be given to their “huntin' an' shootin' fraternity, is that the will scrap the fox hunting ban, allowing their millionaire friends to tally-ho across the countryside with their dogs, ripping foxes to pieces. This is the power you get with 36.8% of the vote, there is something rotten at the heart of Britain. 

      Of course it doesn't have to be like this, we have the power, the ability and the imagination, to transform our society in to a just and fair federation of communities, based on mutual aid, co-operation, and the needs of all our people.

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

 

The Escape Machine.

       I got a bit pissed off with all the double speak coming out of that cesspool, the Westminster House of Hypocrisy and Corruption, and the thought of the oncoming assault on our people. So today I thought I would take a wee break and go for a spin on my carbon-fibre dream machine, see the photo below. It was wonderful, came back renewed, and ready to start my ranting once more. No prizes for guessing where the photo was taken, but I wonder when they will privatise it, there's lots of money to made there!!!.  

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

Smell The Stench Of Raw Capitalism.

      The Bullingdon Club, now in control of the Westminster Houses of Hypocrisy and Corruption, has stated that it will introduce more legislation to restrict the use of strikes. No doubt it was a directive from their millionaire buddies in the corporate world. So it would seem that when you sign on as an employee of a firm, and that firm treats you like shit, refusing to negotiate your grievance, you are supposed to just put up with it. You will not have the right to say, this has gone too far, we are refusing to work under these conditions, and call a strike until the matter is resolved. No doubt the corporate greed  machine will call this democracy. As Howard Zin and Noam Chomsky have said, big business loves fascism. We are almost there, give the Bullingdon Boys an few more months and see what they unleash on the ordinary people of this country.

      You will be expected to work submissively, or stay at home and watch TV. The streets will only be for consumers. As far as the Bullingdon Club advocates of raw capitalism are concerned, the gloves are off, they are drunk on their new unfettered power. Be prepared for a ferocious fight back, or be shown no mercy, as they capitalise on that power.

The era is different, but the lie is the same.

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