You're Ill, Go To Prison.

        This exploitative authoritarian system can't function without repression and intimidation, that's where the prison system comes into its own. Be submissive or risk being caged. In any civilised society we would see people with mental health problems having compassionate care, support and the assistance that they need. However in this insane society such people are more likely to end up in prison. Figures from Psychiatric Morbidity Among Prisoners In England And Wales, 1998, state that more than 70% of the prison population has two or more mental health disorders. It is likely to be a two edged sword, mental heath problems lead you to prison, and prison creates mental health problems for those incarcerated in these inhumane hell-holes. Suicides in prisons are approximately 15 times higher than the general public at large. That to any sane person tells you that there is something drastically wrong with the way that these people are treated. But then again, it is all about control, intimidation and repression, so I suppose to the eyes of the state's minders, the system is working. 

This from Act For Freedom Now: 

      After this year’s London Anarchist Bookfair South Wales Anarchist’s bus went to HMP Send on Saturday night for a Noise Demonstration outside this women’s prison. People chanted calling for prison abolition and shouted cheers of solidarity. Prisoners waved back, it was great to communicate through the prison bars.
       On leaving the demonstration local screws not in uniform (one claiming to be the Governor) assaulted two women that attended the Demo. The three of them were spoiling for a fight. They blocked the road in an attempt to prevent the bus from leaving but it seems that after they discovered that the Police had no intention of coming, after around half an hour they had to let us leave.
      During the course of their interaction with us, they said to us “”Haven’t you heard them all kicking off on J wing?”” and scolded us with ““Don’t you know how hard it is to control them in there?””. Needless to say hearing them say that almost made their irritating attempt at a citizen’s arrest worth it.
       In addition as being a demonstration in solidarity with Anarchist Comrades behind bars it was a also for class struggle prisoners. As prison abolitionists this quote by Angela Davis illustrates why we think it is so important for us all to show solidarity in this way;
      “”Prisons do not disappear social problems, they disappear human beings. Homelessness, unemployment, drug addiction, mental illness and illiteracy are only a few of the problems that disappear from public view when the human beings contending with them are relegated to cages”.”

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Elections- A Paracetamol For The People.

      The babbling brook of bullshit, the mainstream media, has turned its attention from Greece to migrants, that doesn't mean that there is nothing happening in Greece. Greece is still in turmoil, apart from prisoners relatives being imprisoned for being related to prisoners, prisoners on hunger strike, and austerity still savagely slashing at the living standards of the people, there is still anger on the streets. 

      There are a series of strikes on an ongoing bases, and the unions are organising for a general strike on the 12th November. As far as the people of Greece are concerned, the recent election solved nothing. But then again, we know that elections never solve anything for the people. An election is nothing more than the system attempting to give the people a paracetamol to calm things down. 

From Barbarian Times:

      The pharmacists have started rolling 24 hour strikes in protest at the new austerity measures, and farmers are planning protest actions soon. There is a general strike called by the unions for November 12.
Syriza and Anel had their offices vandalized in the Byronas neighborhood. https://athens.indymedia.org/post/1550551/
Also a minister of Syriza, Skourletis, recently was attacked and forced to leave a cafe in Exarcheia. https://athens.indymedia.org/post/1550434/
The person in charge of the committee advising on the pension reform received a threatening letter and a bullet in the mail.

     ANEL offices in Athens were occupied by the anarchist group Roubikonas, who sent out an anti-austerity communique, and then shortly police arrived and are pressing some charges for those involved in the occupation. More as it comes…

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Joe Hill, One Of The Many State Murders.

 

        A small tribute to a big man, Joe Hill, murdered by the state, November 19th. 1915. There will be a tribute to Joe Hill at the Spirit of Revolt exhibition, Rent Strikes 100 Years On, starting 2nd. November in the Mitchell Library foyer, the exhibition will run until November 28th.

My will is easy to decide,
For there is nothing to divide.
My kin don't need to fuss and moan,
"Moss does not cling to a rolling stone."

My body? Oh, if I could choose
I would to ashes it reduce,
And let the merry breezes blow,
My dust to where some flowers grow.

Perhaps some fading flower then
Would come to life and bloom again.
This is my Last and final Will.
Good Luck to All of you,
Joe Hill

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Sacked For Speaking Out.

         States across the globe keep moving to the right, it is their natural direction and the only way they can keep control of the people. It takes many shapes from intrusive surveillance, to an avalanche of propaganda. They will always come down hard on any group that organises to protect and/or further the interests of the ordinary people. Here in the UK we are seeing some of the most draconian anti-union laws being forced down our throats, after being given the fake stamp of legitimacy by the corrupt cabal sitting in the Westminster Houses of Hypocrisy and Corruption. Of course employers will always take advantage of the states anti-people structure, as in the case of, (often repeated across the globe) the sacked union rep, Sergey Mastepan.

An appeal from Labour Start:

   Union reps are there to speak out in defense of union members. That seems obvious to us.  But not to every employer.
        For example, a company called Transiidikeskus AS has decided to sack Sergey Mastepan, a shop steward for the Estonian Seamen's Independent Union (ESIU), because he spoke out on a picket line and to media about conditions in the company.
        Sergey needs our help today to get his job back.  And to establish the principle that unions are there to defend working people. Please take a moment to sign up to support the International Transport Workers Federation appeal here on LabourStart:
http://www.labourstart.org/go/sergey
       And please share this message with your family, friends and fellow union members.
       And one more thing: the International Union of Foodworkers campaign focussing on PepsiCo's squeezing of human rights in India, needs our support.  They're just 380 messages short of 10,000 -- can you help?  Please go here:
http://www.iuf.org/cgi-bin/campaigns/show_campaign.cgi?c=952
Solidarity forever!

Eric Lee

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Rent Strike Exhibition, Glasgow.

        Small correction regarding the coming Spirit of Revolt exhibition on The Rent Strike, 100 years on, being held in the Mitchell Library main foyer. The exhibition will start on November 2nd. as stated, but will close Saturday 28th. November, not the 29th. as previously stated, as the Mitchell Library is closed on Sundays. Sorry for the misinformation. Hope to see you all there with your comments and chat.

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

Free Hetherington Club Occupation.

 

       For those who were involved in or remember the Free Hetherington Club occupation, at Glasgow University, which started on February 1st 2011. Spirit of Revolt have now put all the posters from the occupation on line. You can find them at http://spiritofrevolt.info/free-hetherington-collection/

and then scroll down to the bottom of the page, 9. Placards and banners.

 

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It Also Got Dark Inside---

        A call for solidarity on behalf of anarchist prisoner Tasos Theofilou asking for funds for his legal fees through the purchase of sound track. Enjoy the track and if you you can, download for what you want to pay. 

From Contra Info:

       Tasos is currently in prison, after being sentenced on the basis of forged and nonexistent evidence. He was convicted just because he’s an anarchist. He was convicted because he didn’t lose his smile even when the court of first instance announced his sentence.

        “I have committed the offence that encompasses all offences. In the class war, I chose to side with those who have been treated unjustly.” (Tasos Theofilou, February 2014)

        “I am an anarchist communist. I cherish life as much as I love freedom. Let’s fight to tear down the prisons that bury thousands of living persons inside them. Let’s fight for the vision of social liberation. Let’s fight for the liberation of our class from the power of the Capital.” (Tasos Theofilou, September 2012)

       Electric Litany covered the Apostolos Kaldaras song “Night has fallen with no moon (Nychtose choris feggari)” with its original lyrics (before the 1947 censorship) as a gesture of solidarity with anarchist communist Tasos Theofilou, imprisoned in Greece.

         This release (recorded in London during September 2015) has the sole purpose of raising funds to support the case of Tasos Theofilou. You can purchase the track by donating an amount of your choosing through PayPal. Contact email: londanfund15 (at) gmail.com

       All proceeds will go to cover the legal costs of the case, which will be tried at the appellate level. 

via ASF LDN – Anarchists in Solidarity (original description in Greek):

“Night has fallen with no moon, it also got dark inside Yedi,*
and yet, one palikari is unable to fall asleep.
      Who knows what he’s waiting for from evening till morning
at the narrow window that illuminates the cell…
     The door opens, the door closes, but it’s double-locked with key.
What has he done, why was the fellow thrown into prison?”
      * in reference to the notorious Yedi Kule prison in Thessaloniki, Greece (The banner viewed at minute 2:46 reads: “We are all guilty”)
        With those who put up strong resistance for all of us;
with those we will always stand in solidarity.

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Scott Crow On Circled A Radio.

       The latest broadcast from Circled A Radio, an interview with anarchist Scott Crow. who will be a speaker at the London Anarchist Bookfair starting this weekend.

       Scott Crow is an international speaker, author and story teller who is proudly from a working class background. He has engaged his varied life as a coop business co-owner, political organizer, educator and strategist, activist, film maker, dad and musician. For over two decades he has focused on diverse socio-political issues and the explorations of creating and exercising counter-power to capitalism, Power and unsustainable civilization.

Listen HERE:

 

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1% - Superfluous To Requirements.

       The world has reached a very bizarre situation. Through human effort and ingenuity we have built up an enormous mountain of wealth, however, we have allowed 1% of the world's population to purloin 50% of that wealth. At the same time we have allowed the conditions of the other 99% to become ever more bleak. Surely any sane person must see this as unjust, unacceptable and unsustainable. Living within this mountain of wealth the world has 2.2 billion children, of which approximately 1 billion live in poverty, almost 50%. Here in the UK we have roughly 3.7 million children living in poverty, 28% of all children. To put it into context, imagine a school class room with 30 pupils, 9 of those children will be living in poverty. There is another anomaly in this capitalist system, London, one of the richest cities in the world, has the highest rates of child poverty in the UK. Opulence and deprivation live cheek by jowl in this crazy insane system of capitalist exploitation and greed. 

       Looking at the trend of greater wealth moving into ever few hands, we have to ask ourselves, will the 1% stop at owning 50% of the world's wealth, will they as a group, say, "Well we have enough now, let's reverse the trend", or will they continue their journey of grasping at ever more of that wealth, where does it stop? When do we say enough is enough, how many more children will have to sink into deprivation and poverty, before we call a halt to this plundering of the world's wealth by the greedy few?
 

      We can't rely on that 1% to reverse this trend, to abandon their desire for ever larger yachts, ever more lavish personal jets, that just will not happen. We have to decide that this system of injustice, inequality, exploitation and greed, has to be destroyed, by us. We have to start with co-operation across our communities and workplaces, at taking control of our lives and shaping things to our needs. We the ordinary people, produce everything in this world, we distribute everything in this world, the change has to be that we decide what we produce, and how it should be distributed. We don't need some over paid CEO, nor a bunch of greedy shareholders, nor the leeches of the financial Mafia, to tell us how to shape our society, to tell us who gets and who goes without. We know, that the 1% is superfluous to requirements.

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

 

Industrial Diseases.

       I wrote this some time ago, but think it is still relevant today, especially when we have short term working, zero hours contracts and part-time, where employees don't get the opportunity to fully get to know the environment in which they will be forced to earn their bread. The dangers are not always just to the individual employee, but also to the community where that industry is based, fracking, for example. The employees and the communities are those impacted most by these industrial hazards, and therefore, logically, should be the group that controls there development or otherwise.

       We have come through the start of the industrial age and moved on to the hi-tec age, but every move into every industry comes with its on particular problems. Practically every industry is linked to an industrial disease. We have silicosis, lung disease prevalent among stone masons, potters grinders etc.. Then there is pneumoconiosis, mainly among coal miners, caused by breathing in fine coal dust and carbon dust. Arc-welders are at risk of manganism, manganese poisoning brought on by exposure to the toxic effects of the fumes from welding rods melting as the are used. Painters are at risk from neurological deficits from solvent‐exposure, which include impaired colour vision, cognitive defects, tremor and loss of vibration sensation. There are many more links with occupation and disease, but we are seldom told of these dangers when you apply for the job. Health and safety regulations go some way to protect workers from these dangers but usually these measures are re-active and only come after years of suffering and campaigning.
        As a young man starting my trade in the Clydeside shipyards in the 1950’s, I was ignorant of the dangers of asbestos, and as it was widely used, all of us were exposed to the horror of death from mesothelioma, an asbestos induced incurable cancer. It was not that the dangers of this substance wasn’t known, medical papers had been written about the danger from asbestos exposure as far back as the 30’s, but it continued to be used up to and including the 60’s. The employers didn’t abandon asbestos willingly, it took campaigning and legislation to finally attempt to get rid of this killer substance. That is the pattern in most of industries, its dangers are only restricted by campaigning and legislation. The profit motive drives industry, not the well being of the employee. Most industries can be made safe, but it usually requires investment in safety equipment and training and that costs money which in turn cuts into the profit. So safety in industries will always come lower down the ladder, and as times get harder, corners are cut in safety to prevent cuts in profit. The economic system we have at present does not lend itself to the welfare and well being of the workers, only when the workers control all the industries will their well being be at the fore front of production.

When the Time-Bomb Goes Off

The bike just sits there,

dust covering its lovely sheen,

puffing up the Fintry Hills

well, it’s no longer my scene.

Y’see, as a Clydeside apprentice

I proudly learnt the tradesman’s skill,

little did I know then

the price, asbestos lungs that kill.

Now I just sit here through the painful day

gasping each mouthful of air, wondering

how can I make the bastards pay.

They new it was a killer

a time-bomb in our lungs

but, because it was so quick and cheap

they firmly held their tongues.

So what, if it cost the workman’s life,

there’s always a couple of new workers

in the care of the worker’s wife.

Please try to understand my anger

as I and others bear their cost,

a slow death from asbestos lungs,

a vibrant life lost.

Anguish for family and friends,

all in the name of profit;

now that really does offend.

Our anger without direction

is a blind archer behind the bow,

we have to use our anger

to smash the status-quo.

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

The House Of The Dead.

       No matter what label they stick on it, prison is torture, call it reforming, rehabilitation, restraining, it matters not, it is still torture of the human spirit. In such unnatural conditions, the human spirit becomes deformed, relationships often descend to a lower level, a more brutal level, and survival takes on a different shape under the ever present shadow of violence. 

Tasos Theofilou is an anarchist, imprisoned by the Greek state in 2013 and who subsequently went on hunger strike.

Extract from the recent publication of Tasos Theofilou book:
32 Steps or reports from the house of the dead:

Introduction note:

Prison is not only incarceration, pan optic surveillance, sensory
deprivation and the always present violence from above or from bellow.
Prison is not only the constant addiction to the sound of a heavy door
locking and unlocking. It is not only the endless rock of the yard. It
not only the use of smack to oppress any intention of revolting against
the brutality. It is not only the extreme poverty of the lumpen
proletariat, as well as the ostentatious wealth of illegal capitalism,
which exist to remind that class stratification is not absent even from
the basements of society.

Prison is also an entire civilization which emerges from the depths of
the soul of the damned. It is the dark matter of crime that is
transmuted into life: “And among the dead walls life develops and wild
weeds grow drenched in sorrow and intensity and injustice and waiting.
But they emerge, they grow out of cement. People try to remain alive,
and some succeed. An entire civilization is developed, a brutal
reflection and condensation of society, brutal without pretexts.
However, an entire civilization in the fringes of society and under the
most sharp corner of the heel of authority”.

Tasos Theofilou describes sides of this small universe, the underground
culture of the prisoners, which might begin from the improvised
practical art and reaches the humorous, self-sarcasm and imaginative
word moulding. He himself experiences not only the brutality of
incarceration, but also the arbitrariness of an entire
journalist-police-judicial complex which used even his pulp short
stories as “unshakeable” proof of guilt for bank expropriation. He found
himself in the surreal position of being an anarchist-communist and
being accused as a member of a nihilist organization, the conspiracy
cells of fire. His own political identity was considered an unshakeable
presumption of guilt…

The literary and political stylus of Tasos Theofilou does not only
observe the life in prison, it does not only describe the Kafkaesque
universe of oppression, but dissects the contemporary dystopia of the
state of emergency. The literary and political stylus of Tasos Theofilou
fulfills a higher political duty, beyond the analysis and interpretation
of modern brutality. The resistance of human dignity until the
definitive end of this brutality.

Tasos Theofilou texts can also found on the blog Postscripts of a
Fabrication (astop.espivblogs.net). The books Paranoir and Goodbye
Batman are also published (in greek), by Asymmetric Threat publications.

From:halastor.blogspot.gr

Translated by BoubourAs /Act for freedom now!

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

The Scottish Winter Doesn't Kill, Poverty Does.

        In Scotland this year, September and October have been great months, with mild dry weather. This has been a blessing to all those on low incomes and/or, hard to heat and badly insulated homes. However, the coming Scottish winter is still capable of inflicting suffering, misery and death on a large slice of our population. The National Records of Scotland's latest figures state that between December 2014 and March 2015, there were 22,011 deaths, up from 18,675 for the same period the previous year, a 15 year high. Apart from the misery and deaths, these figures display, this poverty induced epidemic puts a tremendous strain on the NHS, adding what is a preventable influx of serious conditions. We pay through our taxes for the avoidable poverty and misery, brought about by this failing system of capitalism.  

        What we should be quite clear about is that it is not the Scottish winter that kills, it is poverty and poor housing, this spike in deaths can be laid squarely at the feet of cold homes. Across the northern hemisphere there are winter climates much more severe than ours here in Scotland, but they don't all have this spike in deaths. Low energy costs, better insulated homes and decent incomes, would see an end to this cull of our poor, elderly and vulnerable people. In a very rich country, in the twenty first century, we are well capable of supplying those remedies. We don't, simply because we live in a system called capitalism, where the “markets”, controlled by the financial Mafia, shape society for profit. Any civilised society would have at its base compassion, and would automatically see to the needs of all our people. When do we make that shift to compassion, and bury the the cancer of profit in some deep pit, ending the winter cull on our most vulnerable and disadvantaged people?

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

 

Cops - What Are They Good For?

      An excellent question, “What are the police for”, “what good do the really do?” get to know the facts and you'll get a better idea of their real purpose. The police are the street minders of the state, any “crimes” solved by them are peripheral to their main purpose, a by product, or a means of information gathering. We are sold the illusion that they are there to protect us the people, from “bad” people in our midst. However, when ever the people come together in numbers to protest against an injustice in our society, where do we find the police? They are always there ready to provoke, intimidate, and often beat up those protesting against that injustice, Remember the miners strike, the poll tax, that's when you see the real face of the police.

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

The Right To Peacefully Protest.

      It would appear that the UK state is doing its damnedest to match Spain's gagging laws. Two recent cases show how the powers that be can take the law and twist and mould it to suit their own particular slant on things. One is the case of Daniel Gardonyi, law abiding activist, who faces deportation.

     He was arrested during the recent Sweets Way protest but not charged with any offence. He then received a letter from the Home Office threatening to remove him from the UK as part of Operation Nexus, a joint police and Home Office operation designed to arrest and deport criminals from other parts of the EU living in the UK.
    Lawyers say they believe it is the first time Operation Nexus has been used to target a law-abiding political protester rather than a foreign national offender.
   Gardonyi’s solicitor, Daniel Furner, said parts of the letter to Gardonyi threatening to deport him appeared to be unlawful. “It appears that our client has been specifically and systematically targeted as a result of his peaceful, political activities in the UK.”

The other is the case of Lisa McKenzie:

       Perhaps we have now reached the stage where we should take the opportunity to use the coming visit of the Chinese President Xi Jinping and approach him, asking if he will raise the matter of human rights with Mr Cameron when they meet.

          These two matters should not be taken lightly, precedents in law seldom, if ever, work in our favour, they soon become the norm. The right to protest peacefully is one we should never give up, however it is one the state would love to remove. Both of these cases should have all of us protesting loudly and in mass in solidarity with these two victims of state repression. 

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

 

A Kernal Of Greed.

     It could be our future, if we don't act now.

The Last Supper.

The crazy ape strode across this planet

slaughtering with every stride,

covering its surface with rotting flesh

until maggots multiplied in countless millions

devouring everything, living, dead, dying,

the last leaf, the lamb, the lion.

The spirit of man

wept in  dark caverns on the highest mountains.

Nothing left to consume, maggots rotted.

Their stench reached the nostrils of the Gods

who gazed with loathing

at what the crazy ape had created

from a kernel of greed in his guts.

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