No Government, The State Still Kills Freedom.

      At the moment Greece has no government, as the Prime Minister resigned and called for another election. So, on the 20th. September, Greece will hold another general election, in an attempt to cobble together a bunch of careerist politicians who will willing back the financial Mafia's austerity plundering of the people of Greece, and selling off of the people's assets. While this farce goes through it usual theatre of tomfoolery, the state apparatus continues its repression and its continuing battle to wipe out any resistance to its power. Government or no government, the state apparatus proceeds with its anti freedom agenda.

This from Insurrection News World Wide:

      Evi Statiri, held hostage by the Greek state at Korydallos Prison for no other reason than being the life companion of imprisoned Conspiracy of Cells of Fire (CCF) member Gerasimos Tsakalos, has announced that she will commence a hunger strike on September 14th.      The announcement came not long after Evi's latest appeal to be released was rejected by the judicial council.       Here are some roughly translated excerpts from a text by Evi announcing her hunger strike that was posted on Athens Indymedia website...       "The latest refusal from the judicial council in consideration of my release has only confirmed what I already knew from the first day that I found myself in the cells of counter-terrorism. My imprisonment is not just a personal matter. My imprisonment is the reflection of an overall repressive strategy aiming to dominate via fear and to satisfy the vengeful fury of law enforcement against political prisoners and all those whose values are not consistent with the culture of power."       "I still find myself in prison for the unique 'incriminating' element that I am the wife of political prisoner and member of the CCF, Gerasimos Tsakalos. I am still in prison because I refused to sign their 'certificate of social conscience' and refuse to disown my partner and our relationship."       "Anybody standing beside political prisoners may find themselves in the adjacent cell...Anybody who refuses to bow their head, silence their voice or lower their gaze towards the idols of power can be dragged in handcuffs and detained by the courts and their investigation offices. But the solidarity actions carried out last week showed that fear can rule, but it cannot reign in the hearts and minds of free men and women. I send a big thank you to all those who by their actions expose the dictatorship of lies and hypocrisy of justice that keeps me locked in it's cells. Now a new battle begins...The dismissive ultimatum of the judges leaves me only one answer - the last resort of the captive human - a hunger strike for my release."
"Monday September 14 I begin a HUNGER STRIKE against fear and injustice."
SOLIDARITY AND STRENGTH TO COMRADE EVI STATIRI!

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

The Bleeding City Behind The Mirage.

     Some of the older readers of this blog may remember Glasgow's Culture City.

Culture City.

In this gaudy painted bomb site

where passions crawl in chains,

dreams in tatters lie,

truth, a curfew, as victim claims;

justice fallen, in the rubble lies.

Still they play, those butterfly people

megalomaniacs, weavers of mirage.

The hungry to themselves cry out,

poverty in the shadows weeps,

garnished with pride, greed grows stout;

everywhere,selfishness like ivy creeps.

Still they play, those butterfly people

avaricious weavers of mirage.

Let men of words crash uselessly

against your mutual wall of rage,

don't let gifts of tinsel tame your anger,

let justice set the stage.

Bring down those butterfly people,

expose the bleeding city behind the mirage.

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

And Then The Rain Came.

        As an old wrinkly fair weather cyclist, I dread the winter, but try to grasp each day that shows a glimmer of sun and take to the road with my dream machine. Today was such a day, early on it looked promising, but by the time I got myself organised and out the door, the dark ominous clouds were gathering. Had to stop at Auchenreoch and don the faithful old nylon waterproof. That was it for the rest of the run and back home with it turning dry again as I head home through Kirkintilloch. Still a great run and an added pleasure to my day.

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

Beware, The Dogs Of War Are Howling.

 

           The “Migrant crisis” in Europe, translate as millions of people fleeing the chaos and carnage initiated by Western imperialists foreign policy in the Middle East, has started the dogs of war howling in earnest. The baying for blood by the political pundits and pseudo academics is reaching a maniac shrill, and it is all shaded in the illusion of helping the people of Syria. Somehow we are to believe that you can compassionately bomb civilian populations into liberty. Those hundreds, perhaps thousands, of children, elderly, men and women, that will die under the rubble of their towns and cities as collateral damage, will somehow be grateful. Syria is practically a destroyed country, the last thing the people of that country need is the destructive might of Western imperialism sending in its weapons of mass destruction. What ever the answer to the problems of that area are, it is not marching in an all conquering imperialist army behind an avalanche of cruise missiles and so called “smart bombs” creating Armageddon across the country, and calling it “freedom” for the people. 

 This is how we brought freedom to Iraq and Libya, we can do the same for Syria.

         What ever action the Western imperialists take in this area, you can rest assured that it is not out the love of the Syrian people, it will not be the result of their love of humanity. It will always be for power and wealth. States that are cutting social spending in their own countries, claiming, we can't afford them, will quite happily spend countless millions on weaponry on the people of Syria, killing and maiming thousands, out of pure love and compassion. The dogs of war know that there is oil and gas in Syria, and they want their blood dripping claws on it, Their cheer leaders are of course the powerful arms industry, with their ferret lobbyists scurrying around the marble halls of The Westminster Houses of Hypocrisy and Corruption, handing out favours and charms to the inmates. 

 People being liberated by the bomb.

This from ROAR Mac:

       The predicate of the arguments is that the West, despite calling for Assad to step down since 2011, has done nothing to get rid of him and as such has “abandoned” the Syrian people. We must now step up and bear this burden, so the pundits say.

    The Guardian’s editorial last week berated Europe for its “paralysis,” “inertia,” and “years of failure to confront Syria’s bloody collapse.” New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof largely agrees, while his colleague Ross Douthat sees Syria as “an ugly crack” in the otherwise admirable and “very consciously accepted stewardship of global stability” that is Pax Americana.

      The Washington Post’s Anne Applebaum agrees too, and calls the refugees a “security crisis,” the “consequences” of Europe’s inaction. Edward Luce, in the Financial Times, repeats the claim that the US bears responsibility for this crisis as well, since it abandoned its role as “beacon”, abstaining rather than intervening, having done “almost nothing” to oust Assad.

Never mind reality.

     Reality is, as Adam Johnson of media watchdog FAIR reminds us, that the predicate that Western states did nothing in Syria is pure fantasy: “The US has been ‘intervening’ in the Syrian civil war, in measurable and significant ways, since at least 2012—most notably by arming, funding and training anti-Assad forces.” Johnson cites a Washington Post report from just a couple of months ago:

Read the full article HERE:

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

Turkey Is Smouldering.

A delegation being prevented from entering Cizre.

          We are all aware of the bloodshed and savagery that is taking place in Syria and Iraq, it is a tragedy that has been going on for some years now. But what is not being reported in our babbling brook of bullshit, the mainstream media, is the savage military violence that is taking place against the civilian population, of a city in a country that aligns itself with Europe and has been trying to join the EU for some years. The country is Turkey, and the city Cizre, the Turkish state has decided that, for some reason or other, the citizens of Cizre have to be punished. It has released the full fury of a military war machine against its own citizens, and the situation is deteriorating daily, if not hourly. Once again we see the savagery of the state, and it its total disregard for the citizens of its own country. 

The road to Cizre, September 9th. 2015.

This from ROAR Mag:

     Tanks shelling the city center. No-one allowed in or out. Electricity and water have been cut, as well as phone lines and internet access. The people have dug trenches to stop armored vehicles from entering their neighborhoods and have hung sheets in the streets to prevent being seen and shot by snipers.

     While the above reads as a report from Kobane, from when the Syrian town was still under attack from the so-called Islamic State (IS), it is in fact a description of the current situation in Cizre, a predominantly Kurdish town in southern Turkey.

Cizre under attack

      Since the Turkish government imposed a curfew in Cizre last week, its citizens have been forced to remain indoors, risking being shot by snipers as soon as they step out. The city is under total lock down, which means that for at least a week people have had no access to fresh food or water, medical services, or anything else for that matter. Even the wounded are not allowed to be transported to the hospitals, as a result of which a number of civilians have died from non-lethal injuries due to blood loss and infections, among them a baby of less than two months old.

     Due to limited phone and internet access in Cizre news from the besieged town reaches the outside world only piecemeal, meaning that reports of what is going on inside the town are difficult to confirm – a very worrying sign in and of itself.

Read the full article HERE:

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

An Anarchist Welcome.

        Probably everybody has seen what is happening in Lesbos, with an array of small craft landing desperate people on its shore, and the chaos in the authorities handling of the situation, well I thought this might put a more pleasant slant on what is going on in tiny Lebos.

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

The Cruel Lottery Of Asylum.

         Our babbling brook of bullshit, the mainstream media is pouring out stories and images of the suffering of "migrants", in Europe's "migrant crisis". This does two of several things, one, creates the vision of Europe being hit by a problem from somewhere else, and two, it's because of "migrants", these are groups of people different from us. What they never focus on is the fact that the "migrant crisis" is the result of Western, (Europe and America) foreign policy in the region where the vast majority of those people are coming from, and two, they are not different from us. They are ordinary everyday people fleeing from a region that has been brutally and savagely, over a considerable time, bombed back into the stone age, been turned into a fertile breeding ground for religious fundamentalist factions, fighting for power and territory, and to add insult to injury, most of these fighting factions, are armed by Western arms companies. Europe's "migrant crisis" is a problem of Europe's making, driven by Western imperialism's lust for wealth and power. 

      The latest issue of the French anarchist bulletin, Lucioles, has an interesting article on the "migrant crisis".

       However, the most twisted card played by the State was that of division and recuperation: the card of asylum. It seemed that some of those living in the slum of La Chapelle were entitled to be granted asylum, having come from war-torn countries. Obviously, that ‘right’ is not guaranteed to all and resembles more of a lottery, paid for by the obedience of those that request it. But this trap served more than anything to separate the good refugees with the right of asylum from the bad sans-papiers that needed confining to detention centres and loading onto planes. It is understandable that people who are blackmailed for survival every day, faced with the threat of deportation back to the horrors they fled, would hang on to the hope of asylum. But we need to be clear that even if this is a partial solution for individuals, it merely reinforces the state’s anti-immigration policies. Sadly, it works. Already the fact that those supporting the sans-papiers refer to them as ‘refugees’ and demand their ‘rights’ is the sign that everything is geared towards the recognition of these famous ‘rights’ by the State. Rights that will be paid for by responsibilities and the exclusion of all those – the vast majority – who cannot access them. Power gives us crumbs to calm the passions and to distract us, while it continues to imprison and deport at all costs.

Read the full article HERE:

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

Kill Or Be Killed.

      An entrenched power, with unimaginable wealth, creates and holds that wealth by brutal exploitation, its wealth grows, as that which finds its way down to the ordinary people ever diminishes. This power's only aim is to increase that wealth and power, it will attempt by subtle or brutal methods, to crush any resistance to its dream of the perpetual growth of its wealth and power. Will we be able to persuade that power to abandon its selfish plundering and forego its power, simply by petitioning it, or by peacefully marching from A to B, chanting slogans and waving banners? Do we believe that we can change this gluttonous monstrosity that is capitalism, into a sharing, caring compassionate system? I think history tells us that we are dreaming if we accept that stand point.   

        Capitalism will not fall all by itself, it will not slowly or suddenly collapse, it can continue to morph into unlimited variations on the same greed driven theme, exploitation. It will only disappear when the people decide it is time to pull it down, and destroy every vestige of its stinking carcass. There will have to be a revolution of consciousness, a new way of seeing the world, a world that is based on respect for each other, a world with the desire to share and guard against authority and exploitation, built on mutual aid and co-operation. As the powers that be continue their quest for ever greater wealth and power they will destroy the planet, our only chance of survival is to tear up the existing rule book, be bold enough to have that revolution of consciousness and creating that better world now.

From SubMedia.TV:
 

         This week we re-think our critique of the People’s Climate March, then we go to Germany where trouble makers have been regularly shutting down Europe’s largest source of CO2. Then on to Greece, to look at a growing resistance against a gold mine and finally to the longest running blockade of oil and gas pipelines in Turtle Island. On the music break, we have Alas and Savage Fam with “Go Away.” We conclude with a special report from Ecuador, where indigenous peeps opposed to extractive industries, blockaded roads last month, paralyzing the country.

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

Left Government, A Contradiction.

         What will the September 20th. elections in Greece bring for the people of Greece? They have had governments of varying shades, from the "right", up to the latest "left" Syriza, and all that has happened is deterioration in the living standards of the people of Greece. The so called radical left of Syriza proved to be a short lived animal, once it stepped into the position of government playing the game according to the rules of the Troika, (EC, European Commission, ECB, European Central Bank, IMF, International Mankind Fuckers). It was certain death as the power mongers make the rules, so there is no way they can lose. Reformist governments following the rules of the financial Mafia can never bring equality and justice to the people. To create that better world for all, we have to step outside the rules created by those who wish to control and exploit us, we have to write our own rules according to OUR needs. The idea of a "left" government is a contradiction of terms.

With the help of the financial Mafia, I'll lead you to the promised land.

This from The Barbarian Times:

Concerning the New Memorandum and the Elections of 20 September

         The 3rd Memorandum signed by the SYRIZA government marks the complete political bankruptcy of the left regime and the chimerical aspirations for a more “humane” capitalism. After taking office last January, this marks the collapse of the attempted Syriza management of the defeat of the popular social movements from the period 2010-2012. For those who had no illusions, this whole period until the adoption of the 3rd Memorandum represents simply a waiting period for the predicted backtracking, where the campaign promises to repeal or renegotiate the Memorandum and partial cancelling of the debt along with a parallel policy for the relief of the poor was first followed by the agreement of February 20 which extended the second memorandum, and then came (despite the disapproval of 62% of the voters in the referendum of July 5 rejecting the proposals of lenders) the third memorandum which is much worse than the measures rejected in the referendum.

     Within a few months, Syriza crossed over its “red lines” in complete retreat and acceptance of the creditors’ demands, towards the acceptance of a Memorandum far more brutal than that which was voted by the previous Samaras government.

      “First time left” [note: πρώτε φορά αριστερά- a popular Syriza slogan claiming that they were for the first time a left government in Greece’s history, as if they were somehow different from PASOK] and the total humiliation of the will of the social majority to get rid of Memorandum policies that make them serfs of the markets is unprecedented.

    “First time left” and there was a quicker and more resounding denial and betrayal of expectations than all prior governments in political memory.

Read the full article HERE:

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

Capitalism, The Juggernaut Of A Corrupt Gambling Casino.

      We all know, or should know, that capitalism is corruption personified, a juggernaut of a gambling casino, a sewer from which the rich and greedy feed off the backs of ordinary people. Our babbling brook of bullshit, the mainstream media, spews out figures about the "markets", trying to cloak them in some form of science and legitimacy. When in fact, the "markets" are just a horde of very rich individuals and institutions, shifting their unearned wealth around the tables of the large gambling casino, in an endeavour to get more unearned plunder, or to re-coup their losses. Of course under the rules of capitalism, while this bunch of parasitic leeches, play their gambling games, millions of ordinary people suffer from these adjustments and shifting of capital.

      Should the "markets" collapse, the plundering pirates of the corporate and financial world lose lots of their unearned booty. However the factories, mines, oilfields, farms and orchards, and all the means of production and distribution would still be there. All we would have to do is take them over, and organise them to cater for the needs of all our people, and create the type of society WE want. We are lead to believe that the "markets" are important to us, so we follow their narrative and share the greedy leeches concerns, this in turn perpetuates the whole stinking system of greed and corruption.

In saying that, here is an interesting article from Anarkismo:

       It was long ago stated that capitalism came into the world dripping in blood and dirt, from every pore, from head to toe. While it has demonstrated that it won’t simply collapse under its own weight, the recent goings-on around the current capitalist crisis have shown that with age it has become even more hideous. Capitalism is now rank with massive state intervention required to simply keep its rotting body moving: through states propping up the financial sector and deepening the colossal attack on the working class.

Fallout from Chinese stock markets

     The goings-on that have once again highlighted capitalism’s depravity, are the turmoil – starting in China – that has occurred over the last few weeks on stock markets; including the underlying causes that led to it, and the actions that the ruling classes have taken since then to try and end it, or at least alleviate it.

Read the full article HERE:

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

Britain's Costliest Benefit Family.

        That babbling brook of bullshit, the mainstream media is wetting itself with excitement, they are all of a dither, why, because the queen is Britain's longest reigning monarch. Switch on the radio, and there it is spewing out at you, how wonderful it is to have sat on a throne, at public expense, for 63 years, the TV is awash with the vomit of pomp and ceremony, with commentators slobbering at the mouth in adulation, at the fact that one woman has managed to survive on public benefit for 63 years. All I can say to the British public is, "shame on you", you should have remedied this anomaly years ago.

 

 On benefit, as far as I know, none have signed on, none have been sanctioned.

       The Royal family are showered with privilege and wealth, beyond the average persons wildest imagination, its affairs are shrouded in secrecy, and they cost you and I the tax payers, millions ever year. This for a family that is really a collection of non-entities, none, as far as I am aware have ever excelled at anything in the arts, music, or the sciences. Though some are pretty good at horse riding, shootin' and fishin'.

This from Common Space:

There exists an ongoing controversey over the costs and benefits of the royal family to the British economy.

Campaign group Republic estimates the average cost of the monarchy to be £300m, around nine times the figure published by the royal household and 100 times the cost of the Irish head of state.

For their part, the royal household (a corporate term for the large royal staff since the family themselves seldom give interviews or communicate with the press) claims that the family’s upkeep is £35.7m a year, or 56p per tax payer, and it’s this figure that is frequently reported by the media.

        Politically, they certainly can't stand up and say they believe in democracy, so where do their political sympathies lie? Well we all know about some of their members being on good terms with Hitler. The affairs of some members of "The Royal Household" and some of their privileged cronies, during that period just before the 2nd world war, is swept under the carpet. An apt phrase to remember, should you ever be allowed inside their palatial homes, would be that John Cleese one, "Don't mention the war".
From Common Space:

The recent appearance of a photograph of the royal family in 1933, including a young Elizabeth II making fascist salutes, caused enormous controversy. But they point to a much darker truth about the monarchy’s past and about aristocratic European society in the pre-war years.

King Edward VIII, who features in the photograph teaching the salute to his neices, was forced to abdicate in part because of the political scandal he had created through his friendship with German dictator Adolf Hitler.

Hitler’s favourite court intellectual, Albert Speer, later said in his book, ‘Inside the Third Reich’, that Hitler viewed Edward VIII as instrumental in attempts to maintain peace with Britain before World War II.

Speer quoted Hitler as saying: “I am certain through him permanent friendly relations could have been achieved. If he had stayed, everything would have been different. His abdication was a severe loss for us.”

Read the full article HERE: 

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

Yes, It Is Class War, And We Are Losing.

       Is there anybody out there who still isn't convinced that we are in the midst of a class war?  For years now we have seen wages frozen/cut, any wage increases have been below inflation, benefits are being cut, attacking the poorest in our communities, those on benefits are be sanctioned, (benefits stopped) on the most trivial and inane excuses, over a million workers are on the uncertainty of zero hours contracts. Then there is the slave labour of workfare, workers forced to work for no salary. All this while the rich get richer.

      These conditions would automatically trigger resentment among the workforce, and should push them to take action to protect their standard of living. However our corporate loving Bullingdon Club boys, who rule the roost at the Westminster Houses of Hypocrisy and Corruption are taking action to make sure that anger can't transfer into action. Their new anti-trade union laws will not only tie the hands of the employee by making it almost impossible to take "legal" strike action, it will hand the employer the tool to break any strike action by the workers to defend themselves. Employers will be allowed by law to employ agency workers during a strike action, effectively neutralising the effect of the strike action. Do you consider these action to be the actions of a neutral government, or the actions of a bunch of very rich people with interests in the corporate world, creating a subservient cheap labour force for their corporate buddies, in other words, open and brutal class war.

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

Let's Walk With The Poets.

 

        I believe that today is National Literacy Day, that's as good an excuse as any for a poem.

WALK WITH THE POETS.

My head has had enough of you,

you doomsday sooth-sayers, and

rationalists, that trap us in the world that is.

Go weave your tales of “can't be done”

to the dead, and those of no imagination.

I want to walk with the utopian,

the dreamer and the poet,

laugh with the child and sing with the wind.

Run with the deer, not with “the market trend”

Enough of, “this is the way it has to be”,

a world of poverty, wars and inequality.

Now, I'll create the world I want to see,

A world of sharing, peace and liberty.

I want the children to plan tomorrow,

the adult help them get there,

trees and flowers our treasured possessions,

with birds and animals their keepers.

Who wants a world that chains us to mortgage,

binds us to a labouring day, just to eat bread?

Who wants to spend their life, feeding fat-cats

while their own children go hungry?

No, this is not the world that has to be,

in our foolishness and misplaced trust,

this is a world that has slithered over us,

poisoning our mind, putrefying our spirit.

Let's call on the poet, let's welcome the dreamer,

let's take council with the utopian,

They'll help us create a better world for all.

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

A Land Of Perpetual Sunshine!!!

       Yep, another beautiful day, just one after another, I know, I know, it's Scotland, it can't possibly last, but we can dream. Today I took the bike again on familiar territory, around the Campsie area, lovely. What more can you say about the place?

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

Western Imperialism, Plain And Simple.

      The working class should take a few lessons from the UK state apparatus, they never give up. They spout about listening to the will of the people, but when the people say something they don't like, they just wait a bit and then after an avalanche of propaganda, ask again. So the people have spoken, Britain will not bomb Syria, well let's beef up the propaganda of fear, and then ask again. 

A modern graveyard of ordinary people.

      They will destroy Syria, well it is practically destroyed already, but they still want rid of Assad and his cronies, and the rat bag of fundamentalists aren't doing it quick enough. So they need to up the stakes, to complete their original plan, get rid of Assad and claim the oil and gas fields for Western corporatism. Compare this approach with that taken by the UK state on the Scottish independence vote, the people have spoken, it should not be raised again at least for a generation, no matter if circumstances change. They are obviously keener on bombing other sovereign states than they are at allowing a people their independence.

The shape of Western freedom in the Middle East.

       We must stop this insanity being piloted by Cameron and his cronies, we the people of the UK have nothing to gain from blasting the civilian population of any other country. Make no mistake, if UK imperialists start bombing Syria, it will be civilians that will feel the brunt of that savage brutality. Like Iraq, towns and cities will be crushed beneath the power of modern day weapons. It will be ordinary men, women and children that will lie beneath the rumble. The officer and political class will be well protected from the Armageddon spawned by the destructive power of modern weaponry.

No politicians here.

     The gainers will be the Western arms industry and the oil and gas corporations, none of whom will ever be at the forefront of the brutality and savagery of modern warfare. 

Iraq, 17 August 2015.

         The UK state has been at war continuously for centuries, this is just another imperialist venture on top of the hundreds of others. A continuous sacrifice of the lives of ordinary people to further the wealth and power of corporations, floated on the illusion of fighting for democracy, and bring freedom to other people. It will continue as long as we touch our forelock and bend our knee in submission to the state and its brutal, imperialistic apparatus.

        To end this insanity, greed and brutal scramble for power and wealth, we have to sweep away the state, all its control, power and surveillance apparatus, its borders, and that divisive man made creation, the nation state. One world, one people, living in communities linked by co-operation, mutual aid, free association and seeing to the needs of all our people. 

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