Direct Action, Solidarity.

      Solidarity and direct action takes many shapes, in the community, in the workplace, on the street, it can be organised or spontaneous as circumstances demand. They are of course,  our strongest weapons against any form of attack, and it is always pleasing to see them in action against all the odds, and when needed most. 

       Anarchist News has some examples of friends and comrades standing up for each other.

      Whether it takes place on a dark street or in organized civil disobedience, being arrested is isolating and humiliating. The police lash zip ties around our wrists and tear us from our friends to parade us from jail cell to court until someone makes bail or the DA dismisses the charges.
But we don’t always face arrest alone. When we gather at rowdy demonstrations or busy street corners, we’re not just there to make trouble; we show up to break free of the daily alienation forced on us by work or school. There we see people freeing their friends from the cops: they pull them away by sheer force, open cruiser doors to let arrestees go, or simply land a well-timed blow to the head of an arresting officer.
These simple actions show us that the law and the state are not supernatural forces, but relationships enforced at the hands of the police. That’s why we appreciate all the different ways people have figured out how to de-arrest each other. Check out these ten examples:

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Robots.

Robots.

With spin doctors now in full flight

we've entered a new era, a brand new age,

no need to think just follow the plan

experts will guide you through the difficult stage,

soon dear consumer, you'll see the light.

Let fashion gurus dictate you style

the colour the length where to be seen

the music you buy the games you play

who to worship from the silver screen

the latest icon, just for a while.

The media teaches us all we need know

of scandal and sport, crime and sex

who slept with who and where,

who kiss and tell just for the cheques,

depicting society as a smutty peep-show.

Mindless telly invades your home

banal boring bromide, clichéd crap

trifling trite trivia and petty pulp

sport, sex and violence always on tap,

churning your brain to a frothy foam.

Programmers with programmes you must pursue

specialists have advice you must take,

freethinking at all costs must be avoided

spontaneity is obviously a mistake

our Leader's voice the only view.

Each of us, a programmed dual-purpose robot

some to serve, some to produce,

all to function as constant consumers

our first, our last, our only use

in this cabal of cambist's insidious plot.

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

Capitalism The Executioner.

       A thousand times or more, you have walked from A to B, and waved your banner, you have shouted your slogans, you have listened to their speeches. Then you have gone home and waited for the next election, guess what, it has changed nothing. The capitalist beast is still in there exploiting, repressing, enslaving and plundering the earth's resources to the point of destruction, our planet is dyeing from a human greed inflicted wound. The rich and powerful, who don't give a shit about you or the planet, get richer and more powerful, the corporations and the financial Mafia have made puppets of national governments, you are fodder for their greed machine. So is the plan, to continue to march from A to B, continue to wave your banner, continue to shout the latest slogan, continue to listen to their speeches and then wait for the next election? They say that one sign of insanity is to keep doing the same thing but expecting a different result. Surely we are not all insane?

      We have to organise outside the system, we have to circumvent its rules, we have to try to live the alternative to their mantra of greed and perpetual growth. To abide by the rules of your executioner, is to accept certain death. Capitalism is the executioner of the planet. Our existence depends on the death of capitalism.

This Changes Fuck All from subMedia.tv on Vimeo.

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

Workers Now Your History, Louise Michel.

       We should remember our own. On this day in 1883, Lousie Michel,(1830-1905) French anarchist, teacher, medical worker at the Paris barricades, was sentenced to six years in prison and 10 years monitoring, following several bakeries being looted after a large demonstration.

This from Wikipedia:

      During the Paris Commune of 1871, she was active as an ambulance woman treating those injured on the barricades. During the Siege of Paris she untiringly preached resistance against the Prussians. On the establishment of the Commune, she joined the National Guard. She offered to shoot Thiers, and suggested the destruction of Paris by way of vengeance for its surrender.

       She was with the Communards who made their last stand in the cemetery of Montmartre, and was closely allied with Théophile Ferré, who was executed in November 1871. Michel dedicated a moving farewell poem to Ferré, l’œillet rouge (The Red Carnation). Upon learning of this loss, Victor Hugo dedicated his poem Viro Major to Michel. This ardent attachment was perhaps one of the sources of the exaltation which marked her career, and gave many handles to her enemies.

       In December 1871, she was brought before the 6th council of war, charged with offences including trying to overthrow the government, encouraging citizens to arm themselves, and herself using weapons and wearing a military uniform. Defiantly, she vowed never to renounce the Commune, and dared the judges to sentence her to death.^[3] Reportedly, Michel told the court, “Since it seems that every heart that beats for freedom has no right to anything but a little slug of lead, I demand my share. If you let me live, I shall never cease to cry for vengeance.” ^[4]

    She spent twenty months in prison and was sentenced to deportation. At this time the Versailles press gave her the name la Louve rouge, la Bonne Louise (the red she-wolf, the good Louise).

The text of the L’œillet rouge"^[5] is as follows:^[6]

If were to go to the black cemetery

Brothers, throw on your sister,

As a final hope,

Some red 'carnations' in bloom.

In the final days of Empire,

When the people were awakening,

It was your smile red carnation

which told us that all was being reborn.

Today, go blossom in the shadow of the black and sad prisons.

Go, bloom near the somber captive,

And tell him/her truly that we love him/her.

Tell that through fleeting time

Everything belongs to the future

That the livid-browed conqueror

can die more surely than the conquered.

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Let Sleeping Horses Lie.

         First run out on the bike since getting out of hospital. Delighted the legs still worked, well kind of worked. This means that you get another opportunity to see a another wee bit of our beautiful country.

Near Glasgow.

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

No More A to B.

        The usual A to B, what did it achieve? A good promotional exercise for the party political system. Listen, do not be spontaneous, and go home and remember to vote at the next election.

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

The Right To A Roof.

       The Bullingdon Boys sitting comfortably in those Westminster House of Hypocrisy and Corruption, when they are not shootin' and fishin' in their country estates, can spout all they want about how they are on course to “fix” the UK. What they don't make clear is what that “fix” really means. It means continuing to shift all the wealth in the UK upwards. It means getting rid of social spending, taxes can be a drag on profits, it means getting wages down and creating a subservient workforce, it means getting rid of decent working conditions, an attack on health and safety, and the privatisation of “everything” that can make their corporate buddies a buck or two. So you could say, they are doing well at “fixing” the UK. 

          One of the effects of their “fixing” doesn't get much cover in the babbling brook of bullshit, the mainstream media, evictions. So just for the record, during the first three months of 2015, bailiffs in England and Wales, evicted over 11,000 families, this is an increase of 8% on last year, and 51% on the same period of 2010. This equates to roughly to 126 families forced from their homes daily. Rising rents and benefit cuts are making rented accommodation unaffordable and has push evictions to a six year high. 2014 saw almost 42,000 families evicted from rented accommodation, the highest since 2000. 2015 is set to break that record. These eviction are spread across private and social landlords, with social landlords, including housing associations taking the lion's share.

        Stagnant wages and benefit cuts/caps leave many people unable to continue to pay their way. The latest figure for England and Wales is that over the last two years almost 59,000 families have had the benefits capped. 

       These figures are just for England and Wales, I have no doubt the picture will be similar in Scotland and Northern Ireland. This then is the basis on which the Oxbridge parasites claim victory in “fixing” the UK. Their vision of unfettered wealth and power to their class at the expense of the ordinary people, is moving steadily to fruition. Their class conduct a steady class war to stifle any resistance to the growth of their greed. It will continue as long as we continue to plead our case for them to be a little bit more generous to us, to treat us a little more kindly. It will only end when we finally decide to stand up and say, we have had enough, we are now taking control of our own lives and screw you, from now on, we will change the entire economic system. 

     It is long over due, over the last seven years or so we have seen unimaginable wealth generated and syphoned into the coffers of the rich and powerful. At the same time we have had "austerity" (translates as ideologically driven economics) slashing at the heart of the social conditions of the ordinary people, the very ones that create all that wealth in the first place.

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

Profit From Illness.

      Just a glimpse of what privatisation of our hospitals will look like by glancing across at the Good ol' US of A. This from Truthout: For-Profit Hospitals Mark Up Prices Because There Is Nothing To Stop Them.

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

UK Border Problems.

       Summer holidays coming up, off to somewhere sunny , somewhere exciting, visiting friends abroad, what ever the reason for your little excursion abroad, Bristol Defendant Solidarity have some good advice.

      Bristol Defendant Solidarity have published some important advice for activists travelling to/from the UK on our blog.
We have recently supported a number of people stopped and questioned at airports under “Schedule 7”, many of whom did not know their rights. As such we would be grateful if you would share this with your members, and any contacts you have – especially international contacts – so that the information can become more widely known.
      Police in the UK are allowed to question anyone entering/leaving the country about “terrorism” – without the right to silence. We have spoken to a number of anarchists who have been questioned under these powers, known as “Schedule 7”. Because of a lack of information on the law, most of those stopped have given more information than they had to. This includes people from outside of the UK who have not even heard of “Schedule 7” before. For this reason, we strongly recommend any activists travelling to/from the UK read our briefing beforehand.
       If you have been questioned under “Schedule 7”, please contact the Network for Police Monitoring, so they can keep track of how the police are using this power. Email: info@netpol.org

 

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

Control Is All That Matters.

         It is always easy to find examples of how the festering tentacles of the state creep in and poison ordinary people's relationships. In that "left wing" state governed by Syriza, the Greek state, they still lock you up for being related to someone they want punish for resisting their tyranny. Guilty by being related seems to be acceptable in Syriza's Greece.

       This report from Contra Info highlights what is going on in Greece. Though as  you and I know, all states do what they deem necessary to hold on to power.

     According to latest updates (June 2015), Evi Statiri – the life companion of anarchist prisoner Gerasimos Tsakalos – has been denied release from prison three times already by the special appellate judge Eftichis Nikopoulos (the same bastard who has repeatedly rejected applications for educational leave in the case of anarchist prisoner Nikos Romanos).
     Evi Statiri remains in pretrial detention on the basis of being emotionally related to the comrade Gerasimos Tsakalos, member of the anarchist urban guerrilla group Conspiracy of Cells of Fire. In the coming days, another motion for release filed by Evi Statiri will be examined by a judicial council.
       At the same time, a judicial council headed by Isidora Poga has dismissed the motion of Athena Tsakalou, mother of the Tsakalos brothers, for revocation of the restrictive condition that prohibits her from leaving Salamina (Salamis Island). Thus, not only is Athena Tsakalou currently unable to visit her two sons in Koridallos prison, but she is also not allowed to undergo necessary medical examinations (she is facing a serious health problem, and there are no appropriate hospital facilities inside Salamina limits).

      Left, right, centre left, centre right, they all fall back dictatorial authoritarian repression to prevent the people changing society to suit the people. 

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

Solidarity Is Our Weapon.

       I'm a bit late with this one, probably due to my stupidity of getting stuck in hospital. However, late, but still worth a viewing.

     WE should also bear in mind that the parasites that plant there arses on the plush seats at the Westminster Houses of Hypocrisy and Corruption, those architects of austerity, workfare, benefit cuts and this attack on the poor and vulnerable, want to spend a minimum of £5.7 billion on having their private club refurbished. £5.7 billion to modernise that edifice to British establishment corruption. No shortage of money there, no long drawn out arguing about this, just a matter of selecting a timetable. Can you come up with a better way to spend £5.7 billion?

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

The NHS Is Doomed.

    Just out of hospital, and before I start my ranting, I would like to thank all those well-wishers who sent their thoughts and good wishes my way. Thanks to Mick, Ben, Anne, Keith, Roger, Nick, Euan, John, Janice, and others that slip my mind at the moment, thanks a million, see you all soon.
       During my recent misfortune of spending a spell in hospital, during which period I had plenty of empty time to observe and think. My conclusions were that the NHS is “doomed” , no ifs, no buts, no doubts, its is doomed. No matter which particular colour of tie you vote into those Westminster Houses of Hypocrisy and Corruption, that rests on the banks of the Thames, it's doomed. All they do is follow the dictate of their lords and masters, the financial Mafia, which will allow the to modify the pace at which it will hit the buffers. 

      It is not the employees that are at fault, from my experiences I would say they are a dedicated and compassionate bunch. When you see a young person walking calmly and serenely done the ward with a pleasant smile, while carrying a cardboard container of somebody else's shit, and carrying it as if it were a bouquet of wild flowers, you kind of know, they will be there for you. That's not to say that the collapse will not be related in some way to the staff problems. Speaking to some of the nursing staff, it appears that some arsehole, has devised a scheme whereby nursing staff can work four 12 hour shifts in a row, with two days off, and then another two 12 hour shifts. Tell me how you can keep your dedication, compassion, attention to detail and concentration at 100% during those hours of work. Also what happens to you social life? It can't be done. Stressed, pissed off and over worked staff, will leave and be replaced by more to be trained all over again, or they will put up with it and be forced to work at a lower level of concentration.
      However, that is not where the foundations will be eroded, it is the economic system under which the NHS is supposed to live and thrive. Every item that comes into the NHS, from MRI scanner to Aspirin, only comes in if there is a profit for some large corporation. If the profit starts to disappear the goods will not come, or the price will go up. This continual squeezing profit from the NHS will eventually make it unsustainable.

       All those caring and hard working individuals that rally under the banner, “Save Our NHS”, who are you appealing to? Once you have your mass following, who will you be appealing to, to save our NHS? You will be appealing to a cabal of very rich lawyers, CEO, millionaires, and products from the Oxbridge sausage factory. Most of whom will not use the NHS, they'll be with BUPA or some other private health care corporation, and further more, a high percentage of them will have interests in private health care companies. Basically, they don't give a shit about your NHS, in actual fact a lot of them will gain immensely when it is finally sliced and diced among their corporate buddies. Do you think they will listen?
       The economic system under which we live will kill of the NHS. As costs rise and the system creaks more and more, the cry will go up from the greed brigade of the corporate world. that its only hope is to bring in private companies to make it more efficient. That which was once the NHS will be neatly sliced and dished out to the corporate buddies of the scum that comes out of the Oxbridge sausage factory. The only hope of saving the NHS, is to change the economic system under which we bleed. 

      So to all those marching under the “Save Our NHS” banner, why not have a bonfire of those banners and create a new one. A banner under which we can all gather, “Let's Change The Economic System”. Not only will you save our NHS, but you will save our libraries, our schools, our parks and public spaces, you could create an excellent transport infrastructure, end the housing shortage, and shape our villages, towns and cities they we the people want them.
       See you all soon under the banner, “Let's Change The Economic System”.
       For a wee glimpse at those sitting in those Westminster Houses of Hypocrisy and Corruption and their sweaty fingers in the private health care profit machine, CLICK HERE. This list is a year out of date but it is still relevant.

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

The Real Question, Why Do Millions Migrate?

       That babbling brook of bullshit, the mainstream media, at the moment is focusing on the migrants trying to cross the Mediterranean, showing the “compassionate” West, saving thousands from drowning. Of course their “compassion” was more or less forced on to them by the shear numbers of deaths happening in that area, bodies washing up on the beach could be bad for tourism. But no focus on why there are so many trying to get out of Africa, and the part that the “compassionate” West played in that part of the problem. Not much research on why anybody would up-root themselves and risk their life to go to another country. Nor do we get much information of the conditions of those “rescued” migrants herded into camps in Greece and Italy.

      However, the Mediterranean isn't the only area where migrants are penned in and herded like cattle. Australia has a brutal system of dealing with migrants. Some of the figures coming from that, supposedly “good natured” land are just as shocking or more so than those in Greece.

       There have been 1,969+ deaths of asylum seekers associated with Australian border control between 2000 and October 2014. There are 7,784 people in immigration detention facilities as of December 31, 2014, of that number 2,111 are children. 50%+ of detained asylum seekers suffer significant depression, anxiety and stress. Rather than integrate asylum seekers in that vast land, during 2014 the Australian government spent over $1 billion on off shore detention. Crazy economics based on racism.
       States never want free movement of people, that makes things too difficult to control. Nor do they want integration, that may dilute their call to patriotism, when they decide to go and take a junk of some our state's turf. We know the problems, isn't it time we sorted them out?

 

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

 

The Warmth Of A Dream.

The Warmth Of A Dream.

He lay in a dark doorway, dreamed of home,

night frost locked his joints

morning rain chilled the marrow of his bone.

In the dream there was a sister,

a pram in a garden, a crowd of youngsters

who called him "mister", a time of little pain.

Are these youngsters the same young men, who

now laugh at him, throw beer cans,

piss on him as he lies drunk in some dark lane?

When was that first step down this slippery slope,

when was that first step to no forgiveness.

No will to rise to beg for food,

numbness kills the pain.

The dream brings a warmth that feels good,

dark fog shades out consciousness,

an ambulance carries off a body washed in rain.

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

Remembering Our Own.

       Oh dear, I seem to have missed it by a day, becoming quite common for me now-a-days. June 6th was the anniversary of death of Kenneth Rexroth, writer, poet, translator, teacher, and anarchist. He lived a well travelled and varied 76+ years. I like his comment, "the social lie",that societies are governed by tactics of deception in order to maintain a hierarchy of exploitation and servitude. He saw this as pervasive in all elements of culture, including popular literature, education, and social norms.  

Wikipedia:

       As a young man in Chicago, Rexroth was heavily involved with the anarchist movement (and was active in the IWW^[5]), attending and participating in politically charged readings and lectures. He was a regular at meetings of the Washington Park Bug Club, a loose assemblage of various intellectuals and revolutionaries. Such relationships allowed him to recite poems by other writers as well as gain experience with the political climate and revolutionary currents of the day.
      Lawrence Ferlinghetti recalled that Rexroth self-identified as a philosophical anarchist, regularly associated with other anarchists in North Beach, and sold Italian anarchist newspapers at the City Lights Bookstore.^[10]
        His ideas later fermented into a concept of what he termed the "social lie:" that societies are governed by tactics of deception in order to maintain a hierarchy of exploitation and servitude. He saw this as pervasive in all elements of culture, including popular literature, education, and social norms.
Rexroth, a pacifist, was a conscientious objector during World War II^[5] and was actively involved with helping Japanese-American internees.

We should always remember our own.

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