Let's Discuss Tomorrow, Today.

      Your local community is the basis for a better society, get together, talk, organise and shape your community the way you want it to be for you and your kids. It can only be done if we meet up and discuss our ideas, free from the influence and pressure of authority. How do you build a better society if we don't come together and talk about the how, why, and where, the nuts and bolts of what we really want. Let's discuss tomorrow, today.

      Make a date for Tuesday June 30th. 978 Govan Road, bring along the community you want.

 

      Come along to the Portal, Plantation Productions, on Tuesday night, help us to start thinking about building new models of community participation, value systems, and a knowledge base of things folk need to know, learn and share to counter austerity and win things.
      As many other communities have shown us, the rewards of community-run assets & spaces are huge (i.e. reigniting community spirit, ensuring sustainable management of resources & ensuring much needed spaces and services continue to exist). However, as many other communities have
learned (and shared), the process of collectively governing a community asset is a complex and challenging one with many obstacles – practical, relational and political.
      In order to navigate these challenges as effectively as possible we believe that a process of structured knowledge-sharing, learning and research needs to take place in the community by the community to figure out the what, how and why, of building and rebuilding community structure, resources and representative institutions. We can build, through Participatory Action Research, (PAR) the knowledge, strength and vision needed to really take these kinds of projects forward.
      It has taken many hours months and years to put this project together. It is time to put it to into action. It is wide enough in scope and adaptability. What we offer is a framework. What you hang on it will go towards reclaiming the commons and the hope of a decent future – If we are willing to fight for it.

PAR Volunteer information session:
Tuesday 30th June 5:30-6:30 pm

Film Night - Conversation
 – The Secret History of our Streets
30 June 7 -9:00

Plantation Productions
The Portal
978 Govan Road
Glasgow
G51 3AJ

All info on Website:
https://commgood.wordpress.com/
https://commgood.wordpress.com/participatory-action-research/

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





  

Who Killed Freedom?

      Away back in 1951, or there about, I started reading the newspaper, Freedom, and more or less from then on continued to read the paper. I also wrote a couple of pieces for my favourite paper. Of course it was never perfect, but since 1886 it was a voice of reasoned anarchism, it was always there when others faltered and failed. I was utterly gutted when it folded and just couldn't understand why. The final statement in the piece "Transforming Freedom" by Andy Meinke still rings in my head, as the sort of statement one would have expected from some fascist group that closed down the paper Freedom, "---Kropotkin might have started it but we fucking finished it".

An article from a couple of months ago, by Christopher Draper in Northern Voices, throws some light on the demise  of that long standing flickering light of Freedom:

Who Killed Freedom?: an unauthorised history 1.

Christopher Draper

FREEDOM the world’s oldest anarchist newspaper is no more. Founded in London in October 1886, for over a century FREEDOM was universally recognised as the most thoughtful, open-minded, newspaper of the British anarchist movement.  In October 2014 this unique institution, having survived police raids, violent attacks and two world wars, was declared dead by its editorial collective.  FREEDOM blamed its demise on the combined effects of declining interest in print media and insufficient support from the anarchist movement.  The truth is rather different.  FREEDOM was destroyed by three young men deficient in knowledge and authoritarian in practice and one old man who knew better yet encouraged these miscreants to do their worst. T he consequence, though tragic, was utterly avoidable. 

Democratic Clique

   

FREEDOM was never officially the newspaper of the anarchist movement. It was started in London in 1886 by a small band of anarchists with no formal ties to any other political organisation.  As David Goodway observed:  'It was published monthly as a sober and thoughtful journal surviving while other publications appeared and soon folded in the tempestuous and often violent world of contemporary anarchist activism.'  Despite initially promoting debate between individualist anarchists and those of a more socialist persuasion FREEDOM soon adopted an explicitly anarchist-communist outlook. Other interpretations of anarchism continued to be expressed and debated within the paper and throughout its long, varied and sometimes interrupted history FREEDOM continued to provide open-minded, unsectarian coverage of anarchist affairs.  Although nominally controlled by a self-elected libertarian collective FREEDOM not infrequently relied on key individuals within the group to safeguard the newspaper’s anarchist integrity.  When Tom Keell in 1915 acted precipitously to keep the paper out of the hands of Kropotkin’s pro-war faction he was denounced as a dictator by fellow editor George Cores but backed by the wider anarchist movement. Once again in 1928 FREEDOM was kept alive as an irregular bulletin through the dedication of Keell who published it from his home at Whiteway Colony.  From 1930 until his death in 1934, John Turner carried the editorial baton and then after a two year gap the paper was revived in a new guise by Vernon (Vero) Richards. 

Read the full article HERE:

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

Bombs Or Butter?

       Everybody knows that America is a very wealthy nation, a super imperialist power that dominates the world. According to the IMF, (International Mankind Fuckers), 2015 figures, by GDP America is the second richest country in the world, slightly behind China, UK is ninth.

      However that leader of the capitalist world, USA, up to its armpits in wealth, and like all capitalist countries doesn't spread that wealth around its people. In the citadel of capitalist wealth, 46.2 million of its citizens live in poverty, slightly more than 14%. The figures for 2013 state that 1.5 million children lived in shelter or emergency accommodation. The number of households, in 2014, living with "food insecurity" was a staggering 1 in 7. The numbers living in poverty are multiplied when you add those just managing to keep themselves above that magic line of poverty. Where does all that wealth go? Well according to recent figures, approximately 50% of the federal budget goes on killing and the necessary equipment for that activity.

     This recent article from Freedom Socialist, Voice of Revolutionary Feminism, throws up some interesting facts.

One F-35A fighter jet — $157 million*
Ten new elementary schools — $148 million.
*This does not include research and development; the total cost of the F-35 program so far is $1.5 trillion.
Sources: Defense Industry Daily; Reed Construction Data

        Though hardly front-page news, the proposed federal budget for 2016 boosts funding for the Department of Defense. Obama earmarked $534 billion to these U.S. warlords. Their base budget in 2000 was around $300 billion. His proposal keeps baseline “defense” spending at its typical 20 to 30 percent of the total budget.

       This $534 billion does not include the Department of Energy allocation to build nuclear bombs. Nor does it cover an additional $51 billion for operations in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Syria, etc. This money comes under the Overseas Contingency Operations (OCO) — authorized, unaccountable hush money which exempts the Pentagon from the spending restrictions of the 2011 Budget Control Act. Social services programs are barred from such exemptions.

         When the war-related share of the federal debt is added in, nearly 50 percent of the total federal budget goes to militarism!

            With social programs legally defenseless and the Pentagon now well-protected, the GOP announced its proposal to cut food stamps by 34 percent over the next decade. Obama’s budget would cut Medicare by $400 billion over the same period.

         This Republicrat frenzy for more guns and less butter is an assault on working people everywhere. An effective fightback requires that we understand where it’s coming from.

Read the full article HERE:

       The insanity of this system is there for all to see, a system where unbelievable wealth is created and vast amounts of it are spent on destruction, with the bulk of the rest of that wealth ending up in the off-shore accounts of a small greedy bunch of parasites. Do you have any ideas how better to distribute that wealth we create?

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

One Day Soon??

Yea, I'm the eternal optimist, one day, one day------

FROM GEORGE SQUARE TO TAHRIR SQUARE.

In a global square, in a global village the people are gathering,

They want to sort out their village once and for all.

They have had enough of wild beasts stealing their chickens,

Of war lords pillaging and plundering their crops.

Though they labour hard, they live poor

While the wild beasts and war lords grow fat.

This time they will take the time and do it right,

This time they will finally and forever banish,

Wild beasts and war lords from their village.

This time all our chickens will feed all the children of the village

This time our crops will see all our people through the winter,

This time, all the fruits of our labour will be ours.

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

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:

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

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.

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

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