The Planet's Black Death.

      "Black Friday" is the continuing "Black Death" for the planet. mass frenzied consumerism, a desire for more tinsel, trinkets, candy-floss and bubble gum. A mountain of which will eventually end up in a landfill somewhere. We live in a system where the world's finite resources are wasted in over production of all manner of pointless playthings, then we use a tsunami of energy to get rid of it at a later date. Parallel to this, millions live in deprivation, sleep rough, die from hypothermia, children starve to death, and preventable diseases run rampant. The system can't survive without this gross injustice and unnecessary inequality, this disparity is what feeds the corporate world, cheap labour producing toys for the pretty pretty butterfly people. Social justice will only be born after the death of capitalism.

Image from Not Buying Anything.

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

One Nation,Under Surveillance.

     We all know that the state will use whatever it can manufacture, or whatever comes its way, to tighten security. The recent attack in Paris, though tragic in every aspect, has been seized upon by the French state, and other European states, including the UK, to compromise civil liberties. Engendering a climate of fear, the state apparatus is able to clamp down more firmly on an voice of dissent. “For your own safety” protest marches will be banned, you will be encouraged to snoop on your neighbour, and report all you paranoias to the “proper authorities”, remember Nazi Germany. 

       The noose is ever tightening round the people, new anti-union laws, greater scope for surveillance, ever growing epidemic of CCTV cameras, now monitoring your every move and profiling you as you make your way about you daily business. Now the UK has found money in this austerity age, to fund more secret service units and decided not to cut funding to the police, while still slicing £12 billion from welfare. It knows where its priorities lie, certainly not with the welfare of the people.

     Are we to sit idly by while our civil liberties are shredded on the pretext of protecting us. We need protection from the state more than any other protection.

An excellent article from Crimethinc:

    WE received the following report from the group that produced the French version of To Change Everything, Pour Tout Changer. They describe the situation in Paris before and after the attacks of November 13: the intensification of xenophobic discourse, the repression of homeless refugees, the declaration of a “state of emergency” as a way to clamp down on dissent, the preparations for the COP 21 summit at which demonstrations are now banned, and what people are doing to counter all this. It offers an eyewitness account from the front lines of the struggle against the opportunists who hope to use the tragedy of November 13 to advance their agenda of racism and autocracy. With demonstrations forbidden and the COP 21 summit around the corner, what happens in Paris will set an important precedent for whether governments can use the specter of terrorism to suppress efforts to change the disastrous course on which they are steering us.

Escalating Xenophobia

       The attacks that took place in Paris several days ago, tragic as they are, are unfortunately not an isolated event. The capital city of France was simply another target in a string of bombings in Suruç, Ankara, and Beirut; it represents the continuation and expansion of the strategy ISIS initiated in the Middle East.
In France, these attacks exacerbate a political context that was already fraught. Following the attacks of September 11, 2001 and the participation of the far-right party Front National in the second round of the 2002 presidential election, the political discourse has taken an increasingly conservative tone. For example, Nicolas Sarkozy, as Ministre de l’Intérieur from 2002 to 2007 and President from 2007 to 2012, openly adopted some arguments, topics, and symbols that were previously only used by the Front National. These discourses of “identity” and “security” have especially stigmatized Arabic and Muslim communities. In 2010, for example, a law was passed stipulating that it was forbidden to cover your face in public places in France. While not explicitly directed at those wearing a niqab or hijab, it resulted in more controls targeting Muslim women.
During this same time period, law enforcement groups were given new equipment such as Flash-balls (supposedly non-lethal anti-riot weapons) and Taser guns. The national DNA file, used since 1998 to collect the DNA of sexual offenders and abusers, has been extended to every person convicted of an offense. The “Plan Vigipirate,” a governmental anti-terrorism security plan established in 1995 after several bombing attacks in France, was also updated three times between 2002 and 2006, and more recently in 2014 under current President François Hollande.

Before the Attacks

      For years, refugees have been fleeing their countries to escape death, military conflicts, and constant political instability. Until last summer, the French government and its European counterparts didn’t care about the refugee issue—witness the countless tragic deaths of people trying to cross the Mediterranean sea. In Paris, several groups of refugees have been living on the streets in precarious conditions for months.
      Nevertheless, due to accelerating waves of immigration, the French government started to change its policy, taking part in the European political initiative “Welcome Refugees.” This was more of a political move than an expression of solidarity. During this period, refugees and migrants, left alone by authorities, began to create their own camps in several locations in Paris. They received some assistance from NGOs, collectives, activists, and others concerned about their difficult situation.
      However, refugees faced aggressive state repression, as they still do. They are regularly harassed by police who intimidate, beat, evict, and arrest them or destroy their camps. In June 2015, the fascist group Génération Identitaire (Identity Generation) attacked a refugee camp in Austerlitz with stones and bottles. The Austerlitz camps were removed by the authorities in September.
      At the end of July, another group of refugees and migrants decided to squat an old and abandoned high school in the 19th district of Paris: the Lycée Jean Quarré. Collectives and activists came to offer help; together, they began organizing demonstrations to defend refugees’ rights. On the morning of October 23, police evicted the squat. Some of the migrants who occupied it have been relocated to centers or shelters in the suburbs or even further outside Paris. Others remained without a place to sleep, so they camped in front of the Hotel de Ville, the City Hall of Paris.

Well worth reading the full article HERE:

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

Glasgow's Joe Hill Song Night.

       The fabulous music night, The Man Who Never Died: Joe Hill Song Night., is just a few days away, Wednesday December 2nd. 7:30-11:00, at The Old Hairdressers, 20-28 Renfield Lane, Glasgow G2 6PH. You can get your advanced tickets, (£7, £4 un-waged) at Monorail (music store), Mono, 12 King’s Court, King Street, Glasgow G51 5RB
      This night of music is being run jointly by Clydeside IWW, Spirit of Revolt and The Only Way Is Ethics.
      Please Get in Touch - The Only Way Is Ethics www.ethics.scot The Only Way is Ethics is an ethical festival which takes place across Glasgow from 29 November to 6 December. 

e-Mail info@ethics.scot
Telephone
07743 454 134 http://www.ethics.scot plus onlywayisethics on facebook

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

 

Who Owns Planet Earth??

    Our world is a mess, awash with greed for possessions. This is mine is a mantra repeated by those who have too much. his fact has been known for centuries, yet it still persists. Jean Jacques Rousseau, 1712-1778, proclaimed this truth all those centuries ago, when he said:

         "the first man who, having enclosed a piece of ground, bethought himself of saying, This is mine, and found people simple enough to believe him, was the real founder of civil society, From how many crimes, wars and murders, from how many horrors and misfortunes might not any one have saved mankind, by pulling up the stakes, or filling up the ditch, and crying to his fellows, "Beware of listening to this imposter; you are undone if you once forget that the fruits of the earth belong to us all, and the earth itself to nobody." 

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

War, Racism, Two Sides Of The Same Coin.

     Our Western imperialist warlords are frothing at the mouth and spinning around in a frenzy attempting to convince us that the slaughter of civilians is an honourable cause. In their desire to unleash unbelievably powerful modern weaponry,  they try to conceal the fact that it is cities, towns, villages and their inhabitants, that are being pulverised, not an ideology. The Paris massacre is grasped by them as a reason for the intensification of their usual racist agenda of divide and rule. There propaganda machine, the babbling brook of bullshit, the mainstream media, spews out vile racist vomit, trying to convince us that a working class family in the Middle East is inferior to a working class family in the West, their lives of less value, and should be feared. However we should all be aware, that a bus driver with a family in Syria, is doing the same as a bus driver with a family in the West, trying to provide for that family. The people of this planet are not the problem, it is the economic system of power, greed and wealth, sponsored by multi-national corporations and endorsed by imperialist governments. Until we sort that problem out, we will continue struggling against racist propaganda and continuous wars, with all the misery and suffering that entails. In this climate of engineered fear and racism, we must stand together. It is the ordinary people of the world who will have to sort this destructive and exploitative mess out. We can't rely on a Messiah coming with the grand plan and leading us to that promised land, they have all failed in the past and consumed with greed for power, lead us into a desert of deprivation and carnage.

      This Saturday November 28th is a chance to come together and show that solidarity with all the ordinary people of this planet. The world is our village, its people our family. War and racism are two sides of the same coin.

Sat 28 Nov - 
St Andrew's Day March and Rally

Assemble 10:30am Glasgow Green, march off 11am, rally 12 noon Glasgow Film Theatre
No Racism: Refugees Welcome Here

The STUC's annual march against racism, more important this year than ever.
Organised by the STUC

More info: http://www.stuc.org.uk/campaigns-and-external-events/st-andrews-day-2015

https://www.facebook.com/events/1710872952462801/

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

Rent Strikes And Joe Hill.

        Last chance, last few days to see the Spirit of Revolt exhibition, "The Rent Strikes, 100 Years On", being held in the foyer of the Mitchell Library. The exhibition will close on Saturday 28 November, so pop in and see it, and have a chat with the group members, before you have to say, GEE, I missed it.

       Following on from that exhibition, Spirit of Revolt, along with Clydeside IWW and The Only Way is Ethics are holding a Joe Hill song night, to mark the centenary of his execution by the American state. This is a "must go". It will be held on December 2nd. and will take place in:

The Old Hairdressers,

20-28 Renfield Lane,

Glasgow, G2 6PH.

7:30-11:00

£7, £5 un-waged. 

         This is the REAL Glasgow, be part of it. 

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

Poet, Benjamin Zephaniah, Anarchist.

       Slowly, slowly, one by one, they turn to anarchism, hopefully, soon, the trickle will become a flood. Then the people will crawl out of the dark decaying husk of capitalism, and bathe in the warmth and light of justice and freedom.

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

The Baying Hounds Of War.

 

      In our imperialist world, the hounds of war are always growling, ever eager to exert their viciousness. On occasions they are kept in check by the public's distaste for war and violence. The Paris massacre has been a gift to the war mongers, the hounds of war are now straining at the leash and howling loud and fierce. Our so called democratic leaders are now declaring, "we are at war", not that we have ever been at peace. The image of war that they try to portray is one where we, the "righteous" go out and defeat the bad guys, and things go back to that illusionary idyllic past where everything was "nice". Of course war is not quite like that, as one side attacks the cities and homes of the other, the other intensifies its effort in doing likewise.  That's what war is.

      The Cameron, Hollande, Obama, warlord trio, have for years now been trying to engineer the downfall of the Syrian regime, but it hasn't been going too well, and with Russia in there supporting Assad, Paris has been the golden opportunity for them to raise there game. One thing we can be certain of, is that no matter who bombs Syria, the civilian population will bear the brunt of that violence. and when the last bomb has fallen, Syria, once a developed country,  will be reduced to a stone age territory, steeped in the blood of innocent civilians. Its people will be scattered to the four corners of the planet and the imperialist corporations will have their hands on the oil and gas in that area. That's what it is all really about, without the oil and gas in the area, you wouldn't see a a Western imperialist military unit even looking in that direction.

       States and capitalism, the perfect formula for greed driven destruction, and as long as we live by such criteria, we will spiral deeper and deeper into that void of destruction. However, it doesn't have to be that way, we have the power, the ability and the resources to end this destructive, exploitative system and replace it with a system based on sustainability, mutual aid and co-operation, a system of justice that sees to the needs of all our people and banishes the cancer of capitalism to the dustbin of history as man's darkest hour.

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

Joe Hill Night Of Music.

The Man Who Never Died.

      A date for your calendar, if you're in or around Glasgow on December 2nd, there will be a great night of music. Marking the centenary of the American state's execution of union organiser Joe Hill, The Only Way is Ethics is putting on a night of his songs with a variety of musicians. The Spirit of Revolt and the Clydeside IWW will be involved in this great night of music.

       One hundred years on from Joe Hill’s execution, this night will be a celebration of his songs and legacy, featuring a selection of Glaswegian musical talent, to be announced soon.
      The Songs of ‘Joe Hill’ are celebrated worldwide. He wrote them in the period, 1910-15, the last 20 months being held in prison in Utah on a trumped-up charge of double-murder. The Songs were inspired by the ‘Wobbly’ song tradition, which satirised religious and popular song.

        This event which is part of The Only Way Is Ethics, Glasgow 8 Day Festival, and will take place at:

The Old Hairdressers, 

20-28 Renfield Lane,

Glasgow G2 6PH. 

Time-7:30-11:00

Price: £7, £5 unwaged.

No7 of Joe Hill or Wobbly song lyrics
One of his last songs, from 1915, written in gaol

DON'T TAKE MY PAPA AWAY FROM ME (JOE HILL) (1915)
A little girl with her father stayed, in a cabin across the sea,
Her mother dear in the cold grave lay; with her father she'd always be --
But then one day the great war broke out and the father was told to go;
The little girl pleaded -- her father she needed.
She begged, cried and pleaded so:
CHORUS:
Don't take my papa away from me, don't leave me there all alone.
He has cared for me so tenderly, ever since mother was gone.
Nobody ever like him can be, no one can so with me play.
Don't take my papa away from me; please don't take papa away.

Her tender pleadings were all in vain, and her father went to the war.
He'll never kiss her good night again, for he fell 'mid the cannon's roar.
Greater a soldier was never born, but his brave heart was pierced one day;
And as he was dying, he heard some one crying,
A girl's voice from far away: 

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

The Madness Of Frenzied Consumerism.

        You can already hear the rumble of the consumerism sewer pipe, as the garbage flood that is Black Friday starts to attempt to poison the minds of all living under the deluge of pointless corporate consumerism. They must raise the panic level, they must infest your mind, don't be left behind, get out there and grab your happiness from the avalanche of super bundles of trinkets. Get in there with flaying arms and blind determination, the bigger the box the greater your happiness, don't let yourself be beaten in the frenzy of insanity, walk over the elderly, crawl under your neighbour. The rush, the shove, the push, the trampling, must mean there is something of value there for ME. A day of insanity, all to help feed the already overflowing coffers of the greedy corporate world. It is the festival of candy-floss and bubble gum, the main produce of the capitalist consumer world.

       Of course this insanity should be resisted at all costs, let them fill their selves with their trinkets, candy-floss and bubble gum, and watch their panic as it continues to sit on the shelves. Who knows, if we resist their intended greed fest, we may see a few CEO jump from their penthouse balconies.

On this subject, I re-post this from Not Buying Anything:

It's coming again - Black Friday.

      Yes, yet another apocalypse of extreme shopping that transforms regular people into consumer zombies. Why bother getting trampled or having an arm taken off by a falling television when you could avoid the shops entirely and do something infinitely more constructive?
Naturally, I have a few suggestions:
         Plan a White Friday, white being the colour of peace. Reach out to someone you are experiencing conflict with and extend an olive branch. Donate money to a non-profit that promotes peace around the world. Practice forgiveness for the whole day.
         Make it a Blue Friday. Know someone that is feeling down? Do something to make them feel better. When you are done you will feel better, too.
        Have a Green Friday and do something for the environment. Ride a bike instead of driving, start a recycling program, tell someone about something green that you are doing. Go for a walk, hike or roll.
         Make it a real Black Friday and have a lie in while in a darkened room. Get up when you are rested, and not a moment before.
          After you get up, sit quietly and explore the black space between your ears for a while. Repeat throughout the day. Nothing pays off as much as discovering more about the workings of the black box of your mind. Tracing your thoughts and pin-pointing your motivations means that you can better understand and choose your behaviour. You will make yourself more impervious to advertisement and propaganda, like the kind that leads to bizarre behaviours such as the consumer madness represented by Black Friday.
       That is black as in emptiness, the void, and the dark side of destruction. Why would one consciously choose that when there are so many alternatives?

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

 

Trying To Make Sense Of Insanity.

       As always we get a one sided self righteous monologue from our millionaire owned babbling brook of bullshit, the mainstream Western media, that it so refreshing to hear an alternative view. Most people would agree that what is going on in the Middle East is some kind of insane nightmare, and for the ordinary person on the street it is extremely difficult to get your head round it all and make some sense out of what is actually going on. Of course being fed a diet of downright lies and distortion, and being unaware of the hidden agenda and the hidden power influences at work, it is almost impossible for us to to grasp the whole picture.

      Perhaps the following video might help to shape that picture a little bit more accurately.

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

The State's Assumption Of The Monopoly On Violence.

      Since that babbling brook of bullshit, the mainstream media, continues its coverage of the Paris massacre, with its one sided hypocritical, self righteous view of the world, I feel it is only right that other views must also be heard.

       Again I repeat, without losing or diminishing the sympathy for all those who suffered in that brutal massacre in Paris, and certainly in no way condoning the savage viciousness of the religious nutters who perpetrated this insanity, we should not forget, the French Republic is built on bodies of the innocent and cemented with their blood. An imperialist state where the red of its flag is the blood of innocents. Like all imperialist powers, it is a power structure held together with repression and brutal violence for the benefit of the wealthy and powerful. Like all states, it will not hesitate to use its power against it own people, as they have all done in the past, and then lie about the deaths of innocents, or classify their deaths as "unavoidable collateral damage". The imperialist powers of the world assume a monopoly on violence and stir up hatred by their savage plunder of others' lands in their never ending greed for more wealth, power, resources and markets. The imperialist world of competition for power and and wealth is insanity in the extreme, and we should not be surprised that it spawns violence in all the corners of the planet. This being so, why not here on our own doorstep? The system is our problem, not the people on the planet. 

Photos from the the October 1961 Paris massacre of anti war demonstrators.  

The following from Contra Info:

https://socialistworker.co.uk/art/25877/17+October+1961%3A+Massacre+in+Paris

Neither their War, nor their Peace!

“We must annihilate the enemies of the Republic… and strip those who besmirch the French spirit of their nationality.”
Manuels Valls, Prime Minister, 14th of November 2015

         If one has to recognize a certain continuity of the French Republic, its for sure the continuity of mass murder. From the State Terror of 1793-1794 which gave birth to the word terrorism to the slaughter of the insurgents of 1848 and those of the Commune of 1871; from the colonisation or the deportation of Jews made possible by prior screening and filing to the massacres of Algerian demonstrators in 1961 in the heart of Paris, all French Republics have massacred without counting so that the powerful might continue to dominate and exploit everyone. The French Republic is a mountain of corpses of which the filth that composes the summit has only be able to stay in place by crushing its true enemies, the rebels and revolutionaries who fought for a world of justice and freedom. The “French spirit”, if this enormous stupidity would ever exist, would be a closet filled up until the point of bursting with voices crying for vengeance against the bourgeois, the politicians, the cops, the soldiers and the priests who have trampled them to establish their power.
       Ah, but that’s all rubbish from the past, isn’t it? Do the decades of civil participation, commodity integration and generalised dispossessing really made forget those who still preserved a slightest touch of sensibility that firing randomly into the crowd is not an exclusivity of remote terrorists? That since several years the French State is making its great return on the international scene of state terrorism by multiplying its military attacks in the four corners of the globe (Libya, Mali, Afghanistan, Ivory Coast, Somalia, Central Africa, Iraq, Syria)? The pretext changes each time, but the reasons stay the same: to maintain control of strategic resources, to win new markets and influence zones, to preserve its interests against competitors, to avoid that insurrections are transformed into experiments of freedom. And if it was still needed, warnings have been given also to avert the indolent that this war logic will not know any territorial limit: the death of a demonstrator last year in Sivens or the bodies riddled with shrapnel in Notre-Dame-des-Landes and in Montabot recall that the offensive grenades in khaki do not hesitate, also not here, to be launched against crowds as to sow terror.

Read the full article HERE:

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

A Wet And Windy Walk Of Pride.

       Glasgow's Walk of Pride, yesterday, November 17th. was not as well attended as we would have liked, nor did as many people turn up that said they would. Perhaps the weather had something to do with that, as it was dreadful, cold, windy and wet. Never the less, all in all about 20 people braved the Scottish crap weather, and Walked with Pride, carrying their banners and making the symbolic noise of an odd racquet and whistle, down to the City Chambers in George Square. So marking that wonderful working class victory won in 1915, 

         A big thank you to all those who left the comfort of their home and braved the lousy Scottish November, and a thank you to all those who helped organise the event. 

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