Socialist Faces In High Places.

     Elections come and go, new saviours of the people arise and fall, somehow the people never learn. Next time round a new face, a new personality takes centre stage, suddenly the promised land is is sight, only once again to fade in the mist of state bureaucracy, wheeling and dealing with the corporate world and the financial Mafia. White-knight saviours of the people fall from grace like leaves in autumn and their fabricated party of the people crumbles into the dust of antiquity.

      No matter the "principles" of the party, no matter the vision of the leader, the state can never be a vehicle for freedom, equality and justice. Surely by now we have seen it all, from Ramsay MacDonald to Obama, from Blair to Tsipras, they arrive on their white horse with a sack full of promises, and deliver the same pitiful rubbish, nothing for the people. 

     We have to stop letting the state and its smoke and mirror illusions of elections, set the agenda. To keep doing the same thing expecting a different outcome, is one sign of madness. Freedom and justice lie outside the state, outside authority, we can only create these qualities in our own communities, by ourselves. Let's leave the leaders, messiahs, and saviours to the deluded. We can create a world of mutual aid and co-operation, a world that sees to the needs of all our people, without the need to follow the "great leader" nor do we need to weigh ourselves down with all the useless baggage of the one true party.

       We have the power and the imagination, we have the resources and the skills, we have the numbers, all we require is the will, the will of the ordinary people to bring crashing down, this unjust, unequal, brutal system of exploitation.

This from Libcom:

        As various segments of the US radical left begin planting their flags in the electoral arena, Syriza’s recent fall from grace should serve as a stark reminder of the unfulfilled promise of the electoral road to socialism.
         Syriza’s rise to power elicited widespread praise from the left internationally, inspiring renewed enthusiasm for the possibilities and promise of “mass left” party building in and outside the United States. At a rally celebrating Syriza’s electoral victory in Spain, Pablo Iglesias, secretary general of the Spanish anti-austerity party Podemos, declared that“the sun of hope rose over Greece.”
      Yet “the sun of hope” began to set on Greece almost as quickly as it rose. Shortly after taking office, Syriza, the “Coalition of the Radical Left,” formed a coalition government with the right-wing, anti-immigrant Independent Greeks (ANEL) party, followed only months later by the predictable surrender of the government to a new round of harsh austerity imposed by Greece’s creditors.

Read the full article HERE:

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

You Can't Be Governed And Be Free.

 

       Still in prison for being the partner of a prisoner, that's the justice from the Greek "left" wing Syriza government. They continue to lock up people in a prison system that is in a state of collapse, and condemned by the EU, while ignoring a prison hospital system that is inhumane, dangerous. The ugly face of state power cannot be hidden by sticking a new label on the front door. It is still an apparatus for power and control, not a vehicle for liberation. Liberation comes when the state, the nation, and all borders, are destroyed, and replaced by communities based on mutual aid, co-operation, free association, sustainability and the needs of the people.

Greek prison hospital where disease and death are bred

This from Anarchist News:

     Note: Evi Statiri is the partner of Conspiracy of Cells of Fire member Gerasimos Tsakalos. She was arrested on March 2, 2015 under accusation of participating in a 'terrorist' group, for allegedly being involved in an escape plan by the imprisoned CCF members. After her arrest, CCF members went on hunger strike to the death, demanding the release of their family members. After 31 days of hunger strike, with some strikers approaching death, the left wing management agreed to their demands. However, after months of waiting, Evi remains in prison.

Inter Arma received and translated:

      On September 3, the Judicial Council is going to decide on the extension of the pre-trial detention of Evi Statiri.

       In the context of the nationwide call for action and solidarity which has been organized by comrades for the 2nd of September, we invite all anarchist individualities, direct action cells and comrades to sabotage normality and to destroy the clock of power. To brake the silence with counter-info actions (posters, flyers, banners, slogans) and to end the immobility of passivity with actions and sabotage.

      On September 2, let us challenge the world of organized apathy with hostile gestures of insubordination.

NO REGRET

NO DEFEAT

IMMEDIATE RELEASE OF EVI STATIRI

2 SEPTEMBER NATIONWIDE DAY OF ACTION

individualities tending towards chaos

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

Enough Is Enough.

        Thinking of those pampered parasites draped in ermine, those corporate bosses with their private jets and yachts, those rich callous MPs, legislating life and death for the poor, those bonuses for the rich and austerity for the many. If it was a story written for TV, I could understand it, but a reality created by the sweat and labour of the many, it beggars belief. 

ENOUGH IS ENOUGH.

MUST WE TOLERATE

the giggling audacity of the rich

midst the pitiful anguish of the poor,

those boated cavaliers

using pillage to secure

their lives of arrogant excess,

a pirate's plundering tour.

WHERE IS IT WRITTEN

that this world must be

a place where the many toil and sweat

grinding out their meagre existence

in poverty, hunger and debt,

while the hubristic greedy few

live the life of a pampered pet.

LET'S TRY AGAIN

no more war, no deprivation

a world of sharing, a world of giving

a chance for all to grow and prosper

in a culture of friendship and forgiving.

With true love and understanding

we can create a new way of living. 

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

Scotland's Changeable Weather.

       Another Sunday on the bike, thought I would visit, one of my favourite areas for the bike, Loch Lomond. Weather started nice, but deteriorated the further north I went. The rain started just past Luss, wished I had doubted the forecast and put on a long sleeve top and stuck my wee nylon waterproof in my back pocket. Never the less, still a time of great joy.

All set fair and looking good.

This is when I wished I had put on a Long-sleeved top.

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

 

Corporate Murder, Political Murder, What's The Differnce?

      Ian Duncan Smith, master of the grand plan, creator of the final solution, the culling of the sick, the vulnerable, those with disabilities, those deemed by the corporate world to be none productive units. We can't afford you if you don't sell yourself to the corporate greed machine, embrace the minimum wage, beg for zero hour contracts, profit is what it is all about.

      The recently released figures showing the number of people who have died after having their benefits cut, or been deemed fit for work, is nothing less than a crime, a crime against the most vulnerable in our society. Those who bring these pressures to bear on the sick and vulnerable are responsible for their deaths, and must be held to account. If it was a factory, there would be a charge of corporate murder, these deaths didn't happen in a factory, but the responsibility still lies with those pushing and enacting this legislation.

      However it is no more than we should expect from a system of exploitation based on profit for the few, at the expense of the many. We can protest, complain, demonstrate, all we want, but we can't turn capitalism into a caring compassionate system. It is not a system of social sharing, mutual aid, and caring for the needy in society, if you are unfortunate enough to be in need of any of these terms, you will be dumped by the wayside. Your only recourse to survival will be charity.

 Figures from Vox Political:

      A statistical release published today (August 27) in response to my Freedom of Information request dating back to May 28, 2014, states that the total number of deaths involving claimants of Incapacity Benefit, Employment and Support Allowance and Severe Disablement Allowance – between the start of December 2011 and the end of February 2014 is 81,140, including 50,580 (ESA claimants) and 30,560 (IB/SDA claimants). All figures are rounded up to the nearest 10.

      Add this to the 10,600 deaths that were already known between January and November 2011 and you have 91,740.

Information for ESA claimants shows:

• 7,540 deaths while claims were being assessed, bringing the known total to 9,740.
• 7,200 deaths in the work-related activity group, bringing the known total to 8,500.
• 32,530 deaths in the support group, bringing the known total to 39,630.
• And 3,320 deaths in which the claimant was not in receipt of any benefit payment and is therefore marked as “unknown”.
  

The total number of claimants who flowed off ESA, IB or SDA whose date of death was at the same time and of those the number with a WCA decision of “fit for work”, between December 2011 to February 2014 was 2,650 (2,380 ESA, 270 IB/SDA).

Read the full article HERE:

        The above figures show quite plainly the way this system treats its vulnerable and needy. This is not done with a heavy heart, it is worked out by expensive suits sitting round a table in the marble halls of power, in a cold and calculated way, checking balance sheets to see how much they can save by abandoning the weak, needy and vulnerable, based on their poisonous ideology of, if you can't provide for yourself, then you can be abandoned to the fate of poverty, deprivation and death.  

            Capitalism can't be reformed, it must be destroyed, or it will destroy any semblance of society that we might have at the moment.

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

Dystopia From The Belly Of Western Imperialism.

      The authors of yesteryear or today, could not replicate the horrors of our present reality. While the Caesars of the imperial world pontificate in palatial halls, bloated bodies of men, women and children float on the beautiful Mediterranean Sea, small boats bob about, their holds filled with cargoes of dead families, decomposing bodies lie in lorries, sitting by the roadside, and still they come. An army of ordinary people fleeing death and destruction, but they have lost their label "people", they have a new label, "migrant", this is meant to dehumanise them, to somehow magically turn them in to, "the other", not one of us.

         The horror, death, mutilation, destruction and trauma from which they flee, is beyond our imagination. They flee a reality that is a modern dystopia spawned from the belly of Western imperialism. Before the Western imperialists' with their insatiable greed for the black liquid gold, unleashed their military might on those lands with that black liquid gold, the "migrants" were, school teachers, shop assistants, bus drivers, plumbers, students, school children, retired office workers, parents, lovers, children. Now thrown together in an inhumane and desperate bid for survival, their brothers and sisters across that beautiful Mediterranean turn their backs on them. They are to herded like cattle, labelled and bar-coded like merchandise, or worse still, to be sent back from whence they came. 

        The present economic system gave birth to this inhumane nightmare, and as the wealth from this dystopia flows ever upwards to the coffers of the corporate world of oil giants and the arms industry, its progress is oiled by the blood of the ordinary people.

        There is no such thing as "migrants", a term of derision and division, there are only people, travelling to seek safety, shelter and a better life, people just like you and I, they are indeed, one of us, they are not the problem, the problem is the corporate worlds insatiable greed, backed up by its military might. When we finally end that power that is wielded over us, and the people take control of their own lives, put an end to nation states, and wipe away borders, seeking shelter and safety will be met with open arms. We should start now.

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

In Thee We Trust!!!

       So you think voting for a new "leader" will solve the problem, a change in government will be the answer? How many new "leaders" have we seen voted in? How many governments have we changed? Are we any nearer solving our problems?

        Saw this video on arrezafe, pity about the ad for t-shirts at the end.

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

Which Side Are You On?

 

From Contra Info:

Back to Heidenau, where the nazis are established…

       As long as the racists, motivated by a campaign of fear in the mass media and supported by hypocrite policies, gather and run riot in front of the refugees under the eyes of police, we have the obligation to stand in their path – by all means necessary.
      Not only in Heidenau, but everywhere and every time that resistance is needed – as a daily routine…
      Show your solidarity. Support the refugees. For a practical anti-fascism.
       Stop pogroms! Racism arises in the mainstream of the society. Fight this conditions.
Germany kick the bucket!

       As capitalism's flaws and failings become more obvious and the system throws up ever more “crisis” we are seeing the rise of fascism. In the 30's capitalism “crisis”, there was a growth of left wing groups but also a massive counter growth in fascism. Today we are seeing the same pattern, as capitalism stumbles from one “crisis” to another, people are more disillusioned and disenchanted with the system and seek answers, usually in two directions. The one direction is for dramatic change of direction and value structures, while the other is back towards an illusionary era of authority, control and perfection. There is no guarantee which side will win, the backward looking group will get surreptitious help and support from the state sector and the corporate world, the forward looking groups will have to rely on the will and power of the people. We have to choose sides, to the ordinary person it should be obvious which side to choose, but is it?

From ANU Education:

       Fascist organisations have been increasing their influence in the developed world during the 1990s. Such a widespread growth has not occurred since the 1930s. During the post World War II period right-wing extremist organisations had sporadic successes in a series of western European countries including the United Kingdom (the National Front), Germany (Sozialistische Reichspartei, SRP; Nationaldemokratische Partei Deutschlands, NPD) and France (the Poujadist movement, Organisation Armee Secrete). There were the authoritarian but increasingly moribund regimes in Spain and Portugal, but only in Italy was there a significant, though small right-wing extremist party, the MSI which consistently attracted votes and held parliamentary seats in a western European democracy.

       The 1980s saw such organisations grow in strength in Germany (Deutsche Volksunion, DVU and Republicans) and France (Front National) in particular. The economic and social chaos which followed the anti-stalinist revolutions in 1989 have also provided fertile ground for fascism in Eastern Europe. The extreme right made progress during the 1980s and 1990s across western Europe, including in Italy (Northern Leagues), Norway and Denmark (Progress Parties), Sweden (New Democracy), Austria (FPÖ), Belgium (Vlaams Blok) and the Netherlands (Centre Party and Centre Democrats). Nor has North America been immune from this trend, as the level of support for David Duke, with his Klu Klux Klan associations, in US Senate, the Louisiana House of Representatives and gubernatorial elections indicated. In Canada the Reform Party represents a similar phenomenon.1

      The resurgence of fascism in Germany since unification is therefore not an isolated phenomenon. Any discussion of German events must draw attention to this international trend in order to avoid attributing the growing significance of fascism there simply to local factors, peculiarities of German institutions and history or, most misleadingly, to the German psyche. A discussion of developments in Germany can, however, throw light on the international trend and help in assessing the adequacy of different approaches to understanding and combating fascism. It should also be noted that while fascist movements have undergone rapid growth recently, their impact on social and political life has increased and propitious circumstances for continued expansion of their influence remain, they are as yet a long way from taking power in Germany or elsewhere in the economically developed world.

Read the full article HERE:

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

Tricks Of The Memory.

 Just think, all that rain, made all this green.

       Isn't this a fantastic summer? Day after day of sunshine, what a country, what a climate. I told you this would happen, the memory playing tricks. Another wee run on the bike, blows the cobwebs out of the brain.

 The road home.

Modern Slavery.

An appeal from Walk Free:

“The situation of migrant rights in Thailand continues to be deplorable... The case is unjust and unfair and I’m fighting it for myself and also for Thai campaigners who face the same sort of legal harassment.” (Andy Hall, following his court hearing)1

On Monday, British activist Andy Hall was indicted for criminal defamation and computer crime in a case brought about by Thai pineapple company Natural Fruit. This follows two years of persecution, after Natural Fruit took the decision to target Andy for researching alleged labour abuses at one of their factories rather than investigate the claims.

We’re horrified by this decision, which not only violates Andy’s right to free expression but also undermines wider research into labour rights abuses in Thailand and the work of other activists.

We’re doing everything in our power to try to help him: last week, the Walk Free community sent over 300,000 emails to the Thai government, urging the authorities to do everything they can to get these charges dropped. We also delivered over 180,000 signatures calling for Andy’s release to Thai officials in Thailand and the UK.

In just a few weeks Andy will have to return to court where he will be charged and possibly detained pending bail. Will you join the international outcry in support of Andy and send a message to challenge this injustice?

Call on the Thai government to drop the charges against Andy Hall now.

In solidarity,

Zoe, Jamison, Jayde, Leena and the whole Walk Free team

P.S. If found guilty, Andy faces 7 years in jail and charges of $11 million. Sonja Vartiala, executive director of Finnwatch, the organisation that released the report Andy provided the research for, has warned that, “At this point, the prospects for Andy Hall to receive a fair trial are looking grim.”2 Take action to demand that these charges are dropped NOW.

1 http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/thailand/11819811/British-campaigner-indicted-in-Thailand-over-report-which-alleged-abuses-at-fruit-juice-business.html

2 http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/thailand/11819811/British-campaigner-indicted-in-Thailand-over-report-which-alleged-abuses-at-fruit-juice-business.html

movement of people everywhere, fighting to end one of the world's greatest evils: Modern slavery.

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

Are We, The Folly Of The Ages?

Folly Of The Ages.

Those crazy apes

fashio a society unable to love people,

seek happiness in the love of things,

Build personal wealth like giant steeples,

arrogant self-praise loodly sing.

Strut through life's bountiful land

clasping blindly ambition's hand,

forming a pitiful squabbling band

wallowing in illusion's quicksand.

Unable of the other to think

from Narcissus's cup they drink,

deeper and deeper still the sink

pushing voracity beyond the brink.

When the chronicles are writ complete

and the GODS scan the pages,

when the jury finally meet,

they will agree; here was the folly of the ages. 

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

Turkey's Insurrection.

        Syria, Turkey, Rojava, Iraq, ISIS, plus the American imperialist meat-grinder, all seems like a broth-pot of confusion, we can't rely on our babbling brook of bullshit, the mainstream media to help us out of the fog of confusion, they only spew out illusion, division and sedatives. However I am sure of one thing, it is indeed the end of the world as we know it, but not so sure I feel fine, at least not on the climate front. The corporate greed machine seems intent on planet destruction for a fast buck.

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

Glorification Of War, Or Peace And Beauty?

          I feel very strongly about what I can only call the desecration of the beautiful public space, Pollok Estate, by the digging of WWI trenches.  So I'm asking friends and followers of this blog to sign the petition and spread it around as many of their friends and followers on Facebook, twitter and any other means possible. Public spaces such as Pollok Estate are places of beauty, owned by the people for the pleasure of the people, and an escape from the city within easy reach of the city. They are not there for the glorification of war, nor to swell the egos of academics and councillors with grandiose ideas.

Please sign the petition.

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