Which Side Are You On?

A quote from Herald Scotland:

       SCOTLAND’S trade union movement is being urged to fight “outside the law” in order to scupper the looming Tory crackdown on union rights.
         The super-union Unite has called for all 630,000 union members north of the border to resist the “malicious” Trade Union Bill now going through in its final stages at Westminster.
        In a newly-published motion to the STUC’s annual congress, Unite urges “mass protests” against the bill once it is passed and “the maximum possible financial and industrial support to trade unionists who find themselves outside the law”. 

        It is naive in the extreme if you believe that you can win any game where the rules are set by your opponent and made to their advantage. The law is there to protect the very people that are producing this anti-working class legislation. This particular piece of legislation is not something in isolation, it is part and parcel of the continuing cull of the working class. It is all part of their ideology, which will lead to a society of trashed conditions for the ordinary people, no public assets or spaces, and everything privatised. To have any hope of having this continuing cull of the poor reversed, you will have to break the rules they make to tie you in chains.

         The trade union movement should not be looking to follow rules that tie their hands, their one and only reason for their existence is to protect their members from the ravages of capitalism. To follow the directive handed down by the employers friends in government, is a betrayal of their members and negates their right to exist. They are either 100% on the side of, and controlled by, their members, or they die. If this legislation was being enacted in some other country, it would be labelled fascist.

        Working within the rules of this capitalist exploitative system has so far got us, benefit cuts, disability allowance cuts, benefit sanctions, workfare, bedroom tax, zero hours contracts, disappearing libraries, day centres, social services, and ever deteriorating wages and working conditions. Playing by the same rules will in no way stop this anti-working class legislation. Where is it written that we the ordinary people have to swallow this pattern of greed driven economics, planned and implemented by a government stuffed full of corporate cronies. We are not represented in that Westminster House of Hypocrisy and Corruption, there are no cloth caps present among the pack of parasite millionaires. All of those millionaires, no doubt, have their millions invested in the very corporate bodies they legislate to protect. They know which side they are on, do we know which side we are on?

Music: Natalie Merchant

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

The First Ones In Line For That Pie In The Sky.

      Not a new one, but it is always good to get wee history lesson put so forceful. Dropkick Murphy's Worker's Song.

Thanks Loam. Enjoy:

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

Raw Capitalism.

         Thursday's general strike in Greece saw the centre of Athens packed with 40,000 workers and 14,000 in Thessaloniki protesting against the government's plans, under the directive of the financial Mafia, to cut pensions. A few days earlier, farmers were out in large numbers blocking the roads with their farm equipment. The people of Greece have been bludgeoned by the cabal of mobsters who used to go by the name of the “Troika” but now wearing a new dress, and going under its new title of the representatives of creditor institutions –(EU, European Commission, ECB, European Central Bank, IMF, International Mankind Fuckers and the EU's bailout fund, the European Stability Mechanism ) This bunch of corporate millionaire mobsters have taken it upon themselves to plunder Greece of all its assets, making sure they are handed over to the corporate greed machine at a knock down price. In the process the people of Greece are sliding ever deeper into deprivation.

In his case, Karachristos says next year he will be paying 88 percent of his salary in taxes and pension contributions.

--and--

 "They have massacred my generation. We can no longer get married or have children," said Dina, 32, who owns a lingerie shop and was marching in Athens, referring to five years of austerity cuts under Greece's successive economic bailouts. 

 

The symbols of European democracy.

       These are the typical comments from across the spectrum of the population, that is those who have any form of employment. Greece is capitalism with the gloves off, raw capitalism, showing its true colours, plundering the fabric of society and to hell with the people. No country is immune, Spain, Italy and here in the UK, the plan is the same, all public assets to be privatised, including education, NHS and all social services, wages and conditions trashed, pensions whittled down. Look across the globe, the pattern is the same, no matter the particular colour of your government. Capitalism knows no other way, it is a system of exploitation. We have to come together across our communities and our borders and fight back to take back all our public assets and take full control of our society and our lives.

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

A Mishmash Of Corruption And Self Gain.

       Let's look at our situation today, we live in the insane, crazy world of capitalism, we have governments that lie, cosy up to big business, and whitewash and protect their own, when they are caught with their hands in the cookie jar. We have a mono-voiced media, that I prefer to call a babbling brook of bullshit, that peddles bubble gum and candy-floss trivia and propaganda as "news", and is the pet poodle of the corporate/government festering marriage. On the political circus, there is a competition of liars, where the right blames the left, and the left blames the right, each championed by its on particular mouthpiece from the the media moguls. They all live in a world where their truth is a mishmash of ulterior motives, subterfuge and self gain.

      Ours is the age of corrupt dysfunctional governments, waltzing with rigged financial markets, corporate bodies controlling and shaping our world to their personal gain. A time when major banks and government agencies are synonymous with deceit, corruption and cover-up. 

    This then is the world of capitalism, where the god is profit, where accountants and economists are the high priest, where truth and the well-being of the people are sacrificed on Mammon's high altar. If we carry on as we are, it will continue until it collapses by destroying the whole fabric of world's societies and the planet we inhabit. If we do not wish to go down that road, we have to do something about it, we have to change the direction in which we are being carried, and that can only be accomplished by destroying the economic system of capitalism before it destroys us. Our so called "leaders", will never deliver justice and freedom to us, they are so ridden with the suppurating cancer of greed. We have to be the deliverers of that new world we all have buried deep in our hearts. A world of mutual aid, justice, co-operation, sustainability, where all human life has dignity, where the driving force is seeing to all our people's needs. We can do it, but time is running out.

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

         

Let's Embrace The Poets.

      Poetry is a wonderful means of communicating, ideas, feelings and events, past and present or painting a picture of a possible future. It is that halfway zone between singing and talking, it also has the power to convey any of these things in a handful of verses, where as a book could take several chapters and hundreds of pages. It is also a carrier of our history. Let's embrace the poets, the dreamers, the Utopians. 
This week Circled A Radio interviews poet Tim Wells.

      Poet Tim Wells is the founding editor of the poetry magazine 'Rising'. He has performed his work widely and has worked as guest poet on Radio London and with 'Tighten Up', the East London reggae sound system. His books include Keep the Faith, Rougher Yet, and Boys' Night Out in the Afternoon, which was shortlisted for the Forward Prize for Best First Collection. We talk about Anti Fascism, the gentrification of London, the art of spoken word, the working class and the influence of ska music on British culture as it emerged. 

Listen HERE:

 

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

Secret Meetings Decide Your Future!!

       Syriza, Podemos, Democracy in Europe Movement, all playing the same game, a losing game, trying to come to a favourable deal with the financial Mafia, that might marginally favour the people. That's not what the game is about, it is about plundering the people to the advantage of the financial Mafia and their cohorts, the corporate world. Governments must be compliant, or they will be minced and flushed down the tubes of history. We have the evidence, it is writ large in our history. 

       This from International Journal of Socialist Renewal, On Greece, Syriza, Podemos and the Democracy in Europe Movement – Yanis Varoufakis interview in El Mundo

 

       Did the European leaders press Tsipras to get rid from you? Jeroen Dijsselbloem, the president of the Eurogroup of finances ministers, has admitted that he did so…

        They knew that I would never sign up to a new non-viable, toxic loan agreement. That was clear from the beginning. I was elected to negotiate a viable agreement. And since it is the finance minister who signs these agreements on behalf of the state, it was essential to the troika that I should be removed.  

     Why do you think you are so uncomfortable (and considered even dangerous) for the EU leaders? 

         Because I was an obstacle to the maintenance of their permanent denial regarding their failed fiscal reform programs. 

        What has been your major mistake during the time you were Greece Finance Minister? 

         To believe that the troika would honour the spirit and the letter of the 20th February Eurogroup agreement. It was on the basis of that false belief that I signed, a few days later, the application for an extension to the previous loan agreement.

        Some people blame you for the painful turn of the Greek situation during the first Syriza Government. Are you guilty?

      If there was a painful turn due to our policies, I would of course be responsible (as the finance minister in charge). However, even Eurostat confirms that, during my 5 months in office, real national income in fact rose. The damage came right at the end of my ministry. And it did not come from some policy that I implemented. It came because the troika ruthlessly closed down Greece’s banks in order to force upon the Prime Minister further reductions in pensions, greater taxes for consumers and companies etc. And afterwards they blamed the damage they caused on… me. (Typical of bullies who blame the victim for her/his victimization.)  

      What was the most disappointed/surprising/unbelieving thing that you learned about politics while you were minister? 

       That Europe’s finance ministers make decisions at the Eurogroup on the basis of precisely no detailed information. And that their deliberations, before these crucial decisions are taken, are conducted under perfect secrecy, without any minutes being taken. Citizens, in other words, will never get to know what their representative said, or how she/he voted, on their behalf. Ever!  (My emphasis)

        Isn’t it true that one of the main reasons Europe treated Greece in a such hard way was to try to prevent the growth of Podemos in Spain? 

        Of course.----------

 Read the full interview HERE: 

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

ACE In Edinburgh This Weekend.

Events this weekend in Edinburgh from the ACE list: 

EVENTS THIS FRIDAY 5TH AND SATURDAY 6TH FEBRUARY

Ditching the Fear - The Logistics Workers' Movement in Italy (and Beyond)
Film Screening and Debate
Friday 5th February, 5.30pm, Hunter Lecture Theatre, Hunter Building,
Edinburgh College of Art, 74 Lauriston Place, Edinburgh, EH3 9DF

     Since the financial crisis in 2008, states, companies, and politicians have increasingly undermined workers’ and union rights all over Europe and beyond. However, unusual events have occurred in the Southern Europe countries most hit by European Austerity policies. We see low-wage workers developing new forms of effective and lively resistance. The documentary "Ditching the fear" follows the struggles and actions taken by precarious migrant workers in Italian warehouses and logistics companies. Over 10 days, the embedded film team discusses, fights, and documents what can be understood as the forefront of a new workers' movement. With the help and experience of the grassroots union SI-COBAS the migrant workers are effectively organising against their isolation and degrading working conditions, displaying solidarity that is changing their work and lives.
       The documentary (80mins) is in Italian with English subtitles. It has been produced by the team at labournet.tv. The film will be followed by a discussion, and a member of the film team will be present. The discussion will include the participation of activists groups and researchers involved with warehouses and retail sector struggles in the UK as well as in Scotland. In particular the collective Angry Workers of the World, from London, will introduce their ongoing worker inquiry and organizing in South London Warehouses including their writings on Amazon workplace conditions. Kendra Briken - University of Strathclyde, will also comment on her ongoing research on Amazon Scotland workers.
Organised by Counterinfo Lab, Plan C and ACE
Event page https://www.facebook.com/events/570909189724513/
Further Readings:
http://effimera.org/the-revolution-in-logistics-di-anna-curcio/
https://angryworkersworld.wordpress.com/2015/12/20/welcome-to-the-jungle-working-and-struggling-in-amazon-warehouses
https://angryworkersworld.wordpress.com/2015/11/11/amazon-in-india-the-e-commerce-jungle-and-workers-reality

 

WHOSE STREETS? OUR STREETS! PROTEST MEET-UP OF SUPPORTERS OF RAPE ADVOCATE ROOSH V

Meet at the Covenanters Memorial, Grassmarket, Edinburgh this Saturday
6th February 8pm
https://www.facebook.com/events/1518740001754085/
Update 4th February – Organisers Edinburgh University Feminist Society have announced that though Roosh V claims to have cancelled his obnoxious events, the protest is still definitely going ahead. For latest news see above link.

The Feminist Society write:
       We were horrified to discover that on Saturday Roosh V has arranged for his supporters in Edinburgh to meet up and spread his misogynistic, hateful and incredibly dangerous 'pick-up tips'. This advocate of rape has said that only straight men are allowed to attend his event and protesters will be filmed (so you may wish to cover your face so you cant be identified)
      But that's not going to stop us. We will not sit by and let this disgusting behaviour scare us off our streets. We're going to stand up and show that sexism, misogyny and most definitely rape are NEVER tolerated.
      They're meeting in the Grassmarket so join us there for a rally because this man's hate has to go! FemSoc committee will be meeting at 7:30 at Teviot and walking down together so feel free to join us if you don't want to walk down alone!
*if you're a man or feminist ally then this is your time to shine. For very understandable reasons some women may not feel comfortable coming so we need all of your support. There's no pressure for anyone to attend if you don't feel comfortable*
You can read more about him here: 

http://www.thenational.scot/news/militant-pro-rape-pick-up-artist-organises-events-in-scotland-where-female-gate-crashers-risk-furious-retribution.13146

NOTE: The article includes the following information: "In an article from last February, Valizadeh (Roosh's real name) advocated making rape legal on private property. His rationale was that a women who consented to go into a man’s house, had consented to sex. "

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

 

A Requiem For Democracy.

     Corporatism just took a very large step forward in its battle to control national governments. TPP secret discussions, locked well away from public scrutiny, have finally been signed on the dotted line. In Auckland New Zealand out-of-touch Trade Ministers and corporate bureaucrats just put their thumbs to their noses and ignored millions of Internet users, plus millions of others, and signed the TPP agreement. At the same time, New Zealand police, the corporate world's government sponsored minders, were intimidatingly knocking on the doors of “known activists” demanding to know about any plans they may have to protest this extreme censorship plan.

        TPP is seen as an integral part of TTIP, and all part of the corporate czars plans to rule the world, over-riding any sham of democracy that we may think we have. These so called "trade agreements" put the corporate world in the driving seat, placing them in a position to challenge any legislation made by governments, that they consider might hinder their drive for profits. Health and safety regulations, minimum wage guarantees, and so on, can be challenged if the corporate greed machine deems them to be a drag on their drive for gold.

     The ratifying of these power-monger agreements can be seen as a requiem for democracy, another step in the march of power away from the people to the upper echelons of the faceless bureaucrats of the corporate world, its natural direction in capitalism. We have always argued that parliamentary party elections were an illusion, a smoke and mirrors trick to make you believe you have democracy, now it has become even less, it is no more than chewing gum and candy-floss TV entertainment. 

       How can we solve the problems in our world, when the control lies in the hands of those who wish to plunder the earth and exploit all its population? We have to shift the power away from the faceless accountants and corporate bureaucrats and into the hands of the people. We can't do this unless we smash the existing system of capitalism. 

More information:

https://www.facebook.com/openmediaorg

https://twitter.com/OpenMediaOrg

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

Capitalism Has Crashed, Install New System.

          Here we are in the 21st. century, and nothing has changed, the poor still have to pay for the mistakes of the rich. How the rich make the poor pay for those greed driven blunders, can be subtle and/or brutal, sleight of hand by legislation put out by their minders, the “government”, or simply brutal pay-offs and redundancy. Most of the methods being used to bludgeon ordinary people into paying for the blunders of the rich parasites, do permanent damage to lives of those affected. They also come in many guises, for example, the bedroom tax, benefit sanctions, leaving individuals with no means of support, attacking the sick as they lose their meagre benefits to the callous, Work Capability Assessment. Working hours are increased while wages decrease, the uncertainty of zero hours contracts and part-time working, and the doubt to whether you will have a pension or not. These are all part and parcel of making the poor pay for the rich life style of the parasite class. Then there is the bonus to their rich corporate friends, through the Workfare schemes, offering their rich buddies free labour, why pay employees, when your friends in government are handing you free labour? 

      Invariably these cuts and schemes come down hardest on the poorest sections of our community, forcing them to make choices between, to eat or heat, increasing homelessness, and mental and physical health problems. Slowly and surreptitiously, public services vanish, day centres, care homes, libraries, become memories. The education budget diminishes, forcing councils to introduce unqualified teaching staff, to the detriment to the pupils potential and development. Any wonder anguish and pain multiply, suicides increase, this is the price the people pay for the crass greed of an army of rich parasites. To add insult to injury, when they create the conditions when our NHS is in greater need, they start to dismantle it, slicing and dicing it up into bite size pieces for their rich corporate henchmen to gobble up, privatisation by sleight of hand. They can now make large profits from the sick and injured as the whole ethos of the NHS is swung towards profits. 

      This is also handed out as the only way possible, there is no other game in town, which we all know is utter rubbish. There is a better way, there is a better world waiting for us, it is up to us to start moving in that direction. We have the ability, the imagination, the resources, the the numbers, all we need now is the will. We know we can create a world based on mutual aid and respect, co-operation across and between communities, a world of no borders where we see to the needs of all our people, a world freed from the profit motive and built on sustainability. We have the plans in our hearts and our heads, we made and distributed everything in this world, we know we could do a much better job if we decide to start again working from the base of decent humanity. 

       I have hope, I see people fighting back, direct action, protests, strikes and taking up arms, we all know, capitalism has failed miserably, we all know reformism has failed miserable, the next stage is to get rid of the whole stinking system. 

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

Troops To Libya, Replace Trident- We Have Lots Of Money!!!

       Why isn't there thousands on the streets of our country? Our psychopathic imperialist lords and masters, scheming in the corridors of power in that edifice to imperialism, The Westminster Houses of Hypocrisy and Corruption, are now deliberating whether to send 1,000 British troops into Libya. Having bulldozed the will of the people and started bombing Syria, they now want more blood. Having failed to get the compliant government they wanted in Libya after they bombed it back to the stone age, they want another crack at it. They want to implant some sort of submissive regime that will do their bidding and allow them trouble free access to Libya's rich oil fields.
       There will be no thought of the blood that will flow, both British young men and women, and innocents in Libya, the action will be whitewashed and delivered with smoke and mirrors, as helping the people of Libya. Their country is already a disaster area, which we helped to bring about, the last thing the people of that country want is a bunch of armed to the hilt, foreign troops blasting their way through their towns and cities, what's left of them.

This from Stop The War:

Get involved with Stop the War where you are
       The establishment's appetite for yet more war hasn't subsided. Despite the catastrophic failure of military interventions in Afghanistan, Iraq and Syria, which are ongoing, the UK elites are now also considering whether they might be able to bomb Libya again.
      The anti-war movement continues to be a vital democratic force and a thorn in the side of the pro-war establishment. There is going to be a series of Stop the War events on the "war on terror" and on Trident across the country. Get involved where you are.

Stop Scapegoating Muslims: Islamophobia, Prevent and the War on Terror

Public meeting
Tuesday 10 March • 6.30 pm
Bloomsbury Baptist Church
235 Shaftesbury Avenue
London, WC2H 8EP

Speakers:
• Salma Yaqoob
• Lindsey German
• Moazzam Begg
• Kevin Courteney
• Sabby Dhalu
• Mohammed Umar Farooq

         We are also supporting the Stand up to Racism demonstration against racism on 19th March and the People's Assembly march for health, homes, jobs and education on 16 April.

Stop Trident demonstration - 27th February, Central London

        Despite what the pro-war media are telling us, polls show that the majority of the population opposes Trident renewal. An organised anti-war response can continue to seriously influence the debate.

You can get involved in the following ways:

• Share the Facebook event on social media and invite all your friends
• Check the transport map to see if a coach has been booked from your area. If not, how about arranging one yourself?
• Arrange a leafletting session
• Contact your local media to promote the event
• Check local meetings
• Attend the Stop Trident rally on 19 February
  

        Replacing and maintaining Trident may cost us £183 billion. It would be far more useful to humanity if these gigantic resources were instead invested in cancer research (for example). Instead of producing weapons of mass destruction, we could use this money to save millions of lives.

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

Our Must Win, Transnational Battle.

 

         Act For Freedom Now has produced it first printout, a catalogue of resistance and insurgency from across the world, against a system that has only one aim, the exploitation of the planet and the majority of its population for the aggrandisement of the few. Actions of resistance have a myriad of variations, but a common aim, the destruction of a system that is destroying our planet and the lives of its population. One thing that comes across is that it is a transnational struggle, by those living in the poorest of conditions in the "developing countries" to those with better conditions in the "developed countries". The desire is always the same, a decent life for all, free from repression and authority, an opportunity to have control over our own lives in co-operation with others, based on mutual aid and respect, developed in a sustainable manner.

This from Act For Freedom Now:

About act for free!
       “In the chaos of our own existence we are a part of the imponderable element which organizes subversion, plans mutinies, that leave even ourselves dazed. The translation of texts, letters, communiqués, etc. so that comrades in other countries around the world can read about the desires and ideas and projectuality of the comrades in Greece, is one more weapon at our disposal. What began as a simple desire and a challenge, has brought us into a new field of experiences, acquaintances and responsibilities. Now that we’re here, they will not get rid of us easily.
        We have become another aspect of the asymmetric threat. The war to the end, has already begun. …”
         This is why, as individuals with our actions and solidarity, we will continue with all means possible as anarchist revolutionary insurrectionalists, to express our thoughts and desires, whether it’s through the letters-texts of our fighting comrades who are hostages in the hell-holes of Greek democracy and all over the world, or through the actions of the comrades everywhere outside in the streets day and night with all means until social liberation for Anarchy.
Act for freedom now!

Download the pdf  : ACT FOR FREEDOM NOW!1 A4

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

 

Farewell To A Working Class Warrior.

 

      Yesterday, Monday, February 1st., the funeral of Les Foster, 1919-2016, took place at Maryhill Crematorium, approximately 50 family, friends and comrades attended, but I have no doubt, there were many many more there in spirit and thought, Les was a giant in the working class struggle.
     These words by James Kelman give us an insight into the life of Les Foster, a working class warrior.

       Leslie was born in Maryhill 1919. His father and grandfather came from Leith, had a blacksmith’s shop at the corner of Bilsland Drive. They held the contract for shoeing soldiers’ horses at Maryhill Barracks, circus horses at the Kelvin Hall Zoo. His grandpa was over 6 feet tall, “a believer in physical force.” He once caught a burglar in his house and dropped him out the window.
     Leslie’s mother’s people were Munros from Brora. This coastal region in Sutherland is where thousands ended up waiting to be shipped to Canada, cleared off the land by the worst of landowner aristocracy. Some stayed and tried scratching a living off the shore and the sea. Grandpa Munro was a stonemason; he moved to Glasgow and found work at Maryhill Barracks.
     Les and brother Archie attended Garrioch Primary then Allan Glen’s. “We saw the light of day inside a two-storey tenement house at 970 Maryhill Road... The Kitchen window looked down on the blacksmith’s shop ...” Archie was seven years older and a bit of hero to the young Leslie. Not only did he go to Glasgow University he was a hustler at snooker, learned at Johnnie May’s billiard saloon which was just along the road, in that one-storey building next to the garage. Les didnt have much time for school, nor its “history books...‘Gung Ho’ propaganda tracts” he called them, “heavily laced with Rule Britannia. Our tiny feet marching to the strains of Onward Christian Soldiers.”
      He went his own way; left school early. “Sometimes I feel like throwing up when I hear pundits talking about the Dignity of Labour. One Monday morning I sold my dignity to a company called the Saracen Foundry, by the time Friday came round I asked for it back...I began to study the moulders’ physique...a complexion of ashen grey, sunken cheeks, backs permanently bent, old before their time...sparks flying all over the place, odd bits of burning ingot dropped onto the floor. I asked the Gaffer for my cards - and got them.” Later he entered the building trade as a plasterer’s labourer, reading voraciously, keeping his eyes and ears open”
      His own family moved to Milngavie but his heart was in Maryhill. He was a fund of local knowledge, from cinemas and backstreet singers to the political agitations. George Millar stabbed to death by a blackleg during the 1833 printers’ strike at Dawsholm, buried at Duart Street. Keir Hardie’s remains? Right here in Maryhill. A Memorial stone to Donald Macrae, the Alness Martyr? Right here, where they buried him. What about the Chartist leader Arthur O’Neil leading off the Maryhill contingent from Gilshochill, led by an Orange flute band, probably from the same Lodge that stares back at ye to this day, when ye look up the hill at Sandbank Street.
      Les laughed at that. At the same he could be touchy on certain subjects and in conversation ye had to tread cautiously. But he was always interested in people themselves. His first questions were on your family and his interest was absolutely genuine.
       He was a passionate man. Completely non-sectarian. In football his position was along the lines of: I’m not biased, I dont care who beats Rangers and Celtic. What a memory! Rhyming off the great players of the past. Never mind Hibs’ Famous Five what about the 1950s Third Lanark team, or the Ansell Babes of Motherwell.
      The professional game nowadays left him cold. But he still loved football. Nothing gave him more pleasure than watching Maryhill Juniors at Lochburn Park. It was getting out to watch the ‘Hill that helped him through the worst period of his life, the dark time following the death of his beloved Gracie, almost 20 years ago. Her family were the James’s and McLeans from Lambhill. Gracie made her home in Milngavie and was well-known there - far better than Les, and he enjoyed that.
      He was 18 when his dad died. Him and his mother flitted to Garnethill. She was politicised, came to political meetings: a friend of Johnny Muir of the Clyde Workers’ Committee. When Les got involved she encouraged him. He became Secretary of the City Branch of the Communist Party in his early twenties, met with Jimmy Mclaren, later Hugh Savage. The three were close pals. Until tragically Jimmy McLaren died of TB at the age of 28.
      Like many young Glasgow Communists Les and Hughie were taught to be wary of Harry McShane. He had a reputation for ‘awkward individualism’. He said what he thought, and acted accordingly, and it didnt go down too well with Party chiefs. But the ability to think for yourself went down well with Les and Hughie; avid readers, avid thinkers; activist to the core. They had the utmost respect for McShane and were close friends to the end.
      “The Grand Hotel at Charing Cross was used as a club by the American Army during the War. Later it stood empty - a must for potential squatters. So Harry McShane, Bill McCulloch, Bob Saunders and myself broke in through a side door taking in tow a fair number of families. Crowds gathered, the Police arrived, sirens blazing. Several Party Leaders stood there without lifting a hand to help. When the Assistant Chief Constable saw Harry McShane come out the front door he said, I might have known...”
      Les was a Shop Steward; a leader of the Merrylee Housing struggle of 1951 along with his comrade Ned Donaldson. The Tory Council wanted to sell off 622 council houses at a time when 100,000 people were on the waiting list in Glasgow. “In those days workers did not get pestered by the absurd rigmarole of postal ballots. Decisions were made at the point of production. After discussion and debate a vote was taken. Those in favour one side...those against the other. The strike lasted ten days.” Guy Aldred’s Strickland Press printed 30,000 leaflets for the strike and when told the committee were skint Guy [said] forget it, it’s a worthwhile cause.” The Tories lost that one but in the aftermath Les was sacked; him and Ned, blacklisted. Les joined British Rail and stayed until retiral.
       In 1953 he, Hugh Savage and Bill McCulloch resigned from the CP alongside Harry McShane and took to spreading the message; chalking pavements, publishing The New Commune, the Socialist Revolt. “Lenin’s Last Will and Testament had been suppressed by the Soviet Communist Party. The British Party made sure it never saw the time of day. In the Will, Lenin, after making a number of serious criticisms said that Stalin was dangerous and unfit to don the mantle of Leader. We procured the text and published.”
      One night Les, Hughie, Harry and Matt McGinn were up in Bill McCulloch’s house planning stuff. A chap at the door. Gerry Healy of the WRP, the Workers Revolutionary Party, up from London on a recruiting mission. He was wasting his time. They had had enough of Vanguards. “Our aim was to go it alone, no pretensions or ambitions...we thought there was a great need for Socialist Propaganda, and nothing more than that.... We took to the Soap Box holding regular open air meetings at the corner of Drury Street. Controversy was encouraged, questions never fudged.” At one such meeting in bleak November two hundred people turned up on the anniversary of John Maclean’s death.
     “Sometime after the Hungarian events the Socialist Workers Federation ran into hard times. We ran out of cash...our paper The Socialist Revolt was put to sleep. Alas only three of us soldiered on, Hugh Savage, Harry McShane and myself - we still remained Revolutionary Socialists.”
       Meantime Les continued in British Rail, always working on his own research and writing projects, contributed to the Glasgow Labour History Project; wrote on the 1911 Clydebank Singer Strike and the crucial role of women there, the SLP and the Wobblies. He did a history of the NUR, did the Introduction for McShane’s 3 Days That Shook Edinburgh. He and Hughie published a life of the forgotten 19th Century Marxist, Willie Nairn who influenced a generation of working class activists, including John Maclean, Arthur McManus, Willie Paul, Neil Maclean and Tom Bell.
       In the 1980s Les, Hughie and Ned came out of ‘political retirement’ and were in at the early stages of Workers City, with Janette McGinn, Freddie and Isobel Anderson, Farquhar McLay and other friends and comrades. Les wrote a couple of pieces for that scurrilous rag of fond memory, The Keelie! Les even found time to write his autobiography and left unpublished articles. At the very end he was talking football, politics, music, and memories. Plus he was reading Kropotkin’s The Conquest of Bread. At 96!
      He had been in hospital since August; in a Maryhill nursing home since early December, a stone's throw from the old Bilsland Drive smiddy. He was making the best of it. But a few days ago that was him transferred to the Royal, back with the breathing mask and still with the tubes. Purgatory. He was fed up with it all. Plus the knowledge once recovered it was back to the nursing home. No, it wasn’t for him.
       His generation spoke about ‘contributions’. The big compliment to pay a comrade? What a contribution! To the Labour movement and to the Socialist movement, a lifetime’s commitment. Leslie Forster - what a contribution!

Like I said before on hearing of his death, a brick has fallen from our wall of resistance, will we find one strong enough to fill the gap, let's work towards that.

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

The Stench From That Thing Called Governemnt.

 

         Big business and government are so intertwined, that it is impossible to separate them. Corporations spend millions, if not billions, on lobbyists, politicians are offered lucrative positions, and little perks here and there, but of course, they'll tell you, that they are not influenced by these matters. They'll deal with each issue on its merits, with the welfare of the country and its people always to the fore, and the corporations will still continue to spend those millions or billions, just as a kindness to politicians, and get nothing in return. Isn't it a wonderful world? It is safe to bet that all politicians are relatively rich, most will have their filthy lucre, stashed away in shares in those very corporations that are pouring money into their little slush fund. We are expected to believe that none of these politicians would ever nudge legislation in the direction of helping their share portfolio, and might at times move to jeopardise their little stash. 

          A world built on corruption, designed to further the wealth of big business and protect the wealth of those in power. It is not with little thought that I refer to our lords and masters place of business as the Westminster Houses of Hypocrisy and Corruption. Those who enter its marble halls by on large are very rich, when they leave, they are invariably, extremely more rich than when they entered. Big business makes sure of that. Out of generosity of course.
        If all this lead to was a group of parasites getting richer under false pretences, then it would be bad enough. However, their wheeling and dealing, their slicing and dicing, plays havoc with the health and well-being of the people they are supposed to represent. Decisions are made that drive people into poverty, ill-health, homelessness and of course heap the brutality of war on millions. History tells us the tales of hypocrisy and corruption are at the heart of governments, of the festering marriage between large companies and governments, but we never seem to learn. 

       The following from the Politics in the Zeros site, is a case in America, but you are an idiot if you think this is unique to America, this is the way the game is played nowadays. Governments are not inanimate objects, nor are they fixed by the power of the holy tablets of stone. They are made up of people, usually very rich, very ambitious and very greed people, they play the game with the big boys, corporations, and in return for their obedience to the cause of profit, they are rewarded. 

       Gosh there’s no conflict of interest here. Nearly a third of members of the federal Interagency Pain Research Coordinating Committee have financial ties to companies selling opoid drugs. In a shocking coincidence the panel has strongly opposed federal plans to recommend doctors scale back on prescribing legal heroin. Because that’s what these opoids are.
        Our government is essentially a drug pusher for highly addictive drugs. The FDA approved OxyContin for children without bothering to convene a panel of experts to make recommendations. Opiate addiction from legally prescribed pills is a major health problem nationwide among adults, to such an extent we have the obscenity of TV ads offering drugs to help with constipation caused by using opiates.
      Any relation between this and a government that actually cares about the health of its citizens is of course strictly coincidental. And if this happened in a Third World country, we’d laugh at how corrupt they are.

The government advisory panel consists of federal scientists, outside academics and patient representatives. Of the 18 committee members at a recent meeting to discuss the government’s handling of pain issues, at least five had drug-industry connections.

One, a pain specialist from Duke University, has received thousands of dollars in payments from drugmakers, including OxyContin-maker Purdue Pharma and Teva Pharmaceuticals, which sells generic painkillers. Another, a patient advocate, holds a nonprofit position created by a $1.5 million donation by Purdue.

        We should always remember, we are governed by consent, we can withdraw our consent at any time of our choosing, and start to take control of our own lives, how about now!

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