Glasgow's Anti-racism March.

        Saturday 19th. March is United Nations Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, in cities and across the UK, and in countries around the globe, people came together to shout loud and clear, “ Refugees Are Welcome Here”. Glasgow saw a crowd in excess of two thousand gather in George Square, before marching through the city and returning to George Square for a display of solidarity against racism of any kind. There were the usual colourful banners, placards and flags, all with a similar message, “we're all Jock Tamson's bairns.”. People are people across the world, all of us struggling to survive in a brutal and exploitative system. Racism is an artificial barrier constructed by the power mongers to divide the ordinary people of this world, making it so much easier for them to rule over their fiefdoms, by creating an imagined enemy across the seas. Our only enemy are the power mongers, whither they be Presidents, monarchs, dictators, governments, corporations or religions. 

        It is sad that we still have to hold these events, but great that such numbers turn up and publicly display their support for people as people, we are all villagers of the world village. 

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Greek Anarchists Show Of Strength Against Drug dealers.

From Anarchist News:

       Massive show of strength as anarchists, antifascists and anti-authoritarians took to the streets of Exarcheia against drug dealing mafias and police. The demonstration was guarded by comrades armed with openly displayed guns (who can be seen on the video from 01:53), something that has not been seen at demonstrations in recent times but was deemed necessary due to the serious threat posed by the heavily armed drug mafias who work in collusion with the police.
        This show of armed strength and solidarity was in response to ongoing tensions in the area with drug dealing mafias including a recent incident where 3 anarchist comrades were violently attacked by a drug dealer.

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Little Questions About God.

         Got this from comrade Loam, thanks Loam. As the comment states, apparently it is a song that was banned during the Franco era.Those good Christians can't abide anybody questioning their God.

         "During the dictatorship that killed so many people in my country, it was forbidden to play this song in the radio or the TV. The dictators were, of course, defending "christian faith"."

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My Uncle Willie.

My Uncle Willie.

        To those who know me, there will be no doubt in their minds about my hatred of the economic system we bleed under. In my eighties now, I have seen this system destroy individuals, tear families apart, and in its voracious greed for profit and power, it has murdered and maimed countless millions in its endless wars. Each individual destroyed, each family torn apart, each war grave, and each veterans hospital are all indictments against a system where people are sacrificed to keep the system functioning for the benefit of a small cabal of over privileged parasites. You would think that our humanity would demand that the system should be altered, modified and shaped to meet the needs of the people, not the other way round.
       As we look at this society we can see all around us, those unfortunate individuals whose lives are deeply scarred by a system that uses people to perpetuate its greed driven machinations. It is so easy to encapsulate the ruthless viciousness of the system in one person's life, to me my uncle Willie is such a person. To the system, a nobody, a human being of no significance, but to those around him, a friend, a father, a son, a brother, a husband and an uncle.
       My uncle Willie was my mother's younger brother, naturally I didn't know him in his early years, but I heard the stories. Willie, like the rest of my family, lived in Garngad, a Glasgow slum in the north of the city. A young man in the 30's, he was married and had three kids, and like so many of that era, unemployed. It seems that Willie was a family man and loved his kids, he could be seen most days walking with them along the waste ground off Charles Street at the back of Glenconner Park, usually two kids running in front and the youngest on his shoulders. It seems he was an excellent snooker player, and that is where he supplemented his income, by playing round the many snooker halls in Glasgow. However to the system, he was superfluous to requirements, so could scrape a living in the slums of Glasgow as best he could.
      Then, suddenly, he is a valuable asset to the system, 1939, WWII starts, and Willie is scooped up and shipped out to Egypt. We know nothing of his experiences there, but after three years there and later his demob, he returned home with malaria, this is when I got to know him, just a little. His shaking hands, the troubled look in his eyes. His return to civilian life didn't get off to a good start, on returning home to his family, of wife and three kids, he discovered that he now had five kids. This was the end of his marriage, the family broke up, and Willie moved from job to job, and his drinking got worse and he eventually couldn't hold a job, he was now an alcoholic and homeless. Moving from homeless hostel to homeless hostel, occasionally staying with family, but his alcoholism made that an ever decreasing possibility.
       I remember my mother on many an occasion, looking out the window and saying, "Oh, here's Willie coming", then a pause, then, "he doesn't look too drunk". He would sit and chat to his big sister and myself, my mother would make him something to eat and give a cup of tea. Though, it was never a full cup of tea, his hands were shaking so bad, a full cup would have been all over him, she only quarter filled the cup and kept topping it up, it was his troubled eyes that have stuck with me all these years, as he was leaving, my mother would slip a 10 shilling note into his hand.
        Willie spent the rest of his years moving around hostels for the homeless, eventually dying in one down in Ardrossan in his fifties.
       To me, my uncle Willie epitomises this stinking system, you're a worthless entity, left to rot unless the system needs you, either to make its profits, or to fight its imperialist wars, and your reward for either of these activities, is never anything worth having. 

The Homeless.

Tenebrous spectres, they exist,    out there,

on the crumbling edge of chaos,

a father, a son, a brother,

a daughter, a sister, a mother.

Fragments of some shattered family structure;

waste products

from a society being driven to destruction

by a hurricane of greed,

living a life that wears out life,

dying,

the devious death of exhaustion from existence. 

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The Murder Of A Planet.

        It is now obvious that the corporate world, is destroying the planet. Ground water is contaminated, rivers are polluted, oceans and seas are poisoned, glaciers are melting, forests are stripped bare. Natural habitats disappear under a carpet of tarmac and industrial constructions, more and more species become extinct. All this is done for profit to benefit the few. If we continue as we are doing, it is only a matter of time before the species responsible for this insane destruction of our planet will join the ever growing list of extinct species.
       Where does the state stand in all this? Take a glance around and it becomes obvious. Where resistance to this killing of the planet grows and gets in the way of corporate profit, the state apparatus, as the corporate world's hit squad, moves in and attempts to crush that resistance to the corporate greed and insanity.

       This appeal for solidarity from the Hambach Forest, where mining is set to destroy the entire forest.

 Info

            Short facts about the lignite mining in Rhineland (Germany)
           In the Rhineland in Germany, the company RWE is running 3 lignite mines where they extract around 100 Mio. t of lignite each year. Furthermore they run 5 power plants where the coal is being burned in order to produce energy. This industry causes aroung 100 Mio. t CO² per year, sets free a lot of fine dust as well as heavy metals, radioactive elements and other pollutants.
         To preserve the mines from flooding with water the ground water level of the region is being lowered to a depth of around 500m, which brings heavy consequences for the nature.
In addition many villages are being „relocated“ which means that the people there are forced to move and the land is being destroyed and contaminated.
       For the biggest nowadays running mine there – the mine ‚Hambach‘ – the forest ‚Hambacher Forst‘ is being cut since 1978. The plan of the company is to completely clearcut the forest until 2018.

The world's is largest digger at the RWE mine in Hambach Forest.

Second Day of Evictions! Support needed!

        Yesterday morning the meadow occupation was surrounded by police. This turned into a huge police operation: All main paths in the forest were cleared, fixed and broadened,, all barricades and tripods destroyed. Until today three unoccupied occupations were evicted (Crusty Town, Pizza, Molly). Police forces are still present all around, chasing people who try to build new barricades.

       This is an urgent call-out for all kinds of support! What has happened the last two days is a massive attack! Because all the roads are cleared and passable for big machinery it’s important to protect the forest occupations NOW!

         Come to the Hambach forest, we need food, water, blankets and most of all more people with fresh energy!

15.03.2016

19:30 For now the situation is calm again, seems like the cops left the forest.
17:10 Police chases activists who are trying again and again to barricade the roads.
17:00 Cops cut a rope in Oaktown and peppersprayed one other. This is hindering
food/water supply, climbing up or down is impossible now.
14:30 evicted until now: Crusty Town, Molly, Pizza (all platforms were not occupied at that time)
the meadow is surrounded again by cops, some on horses
tunnel near Molly is destroyed
11:00 copcars are patrolling in the forest

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A Right Royal Democracy.

           We are a supposed to live in a democracy, but we have a monarch, a very expensive symbol of British imperialism. You could say that the present monarch landed lucky, as without any effort on her behave, she fell heir to approximately 46,000 acres of land, which generates a considerable income. This is called the Duchy of Lancaster and is held in trust for her personal use. It is referred to as the Privy Purse, a nice name, and at the last reckoning generated around £12.5 million. I suppose she could get by on that, and take care of her brood, but no, there are other incomes to help her get by. There is another Duchy, the Duchy of Cornwall, this is give her son Charles a little income of his own, and last year it is reckoned to have netted him a cool £19.8 million. The royal brood are not afraid to have a wee fling now and again, like Andrew spending £14,692 to see the golf at Muirfield, and Andrew splashing out a wee bundle of £46,198, on a charter flight to a couple of resorts in Europe. Then there was Charles, so overcome with grief at Nelson Mandela's death that he spent almost a quarter of a million on a private jet to be at the funeral.

 Look, pie-in-the-sky, that's what our loyal peasants get.

           Apart from their nice little earners from the Duchies, there is the sovereign grant, tax payers money, to make sure they don't fall short before the end of the month, I suppose you could call this their tax credits. Last year it was a tidy little some of £35.7 million. However, this sum is disputed by the group called Republic, who point out that the massively expensive security bill to look after this privileged bunch, is picked up by the Metropolitan Police, (tax payers) and when they go walk-about and visit their humble subjects, the local councils pick up the tab,(tax payers). Republic state that the actual bill to the tax payer for keeping this family on benefit is about 10 times the stated £35.7 million and comes in at around £334 million annually.
            Another anomaly with this rather large family, although they are all on benefit, none of them have ever been forced to take a workfare placement, nor have any of them been sanctioned. Don't you feel that this is a bit unfair, I think it is because of their connections in high places, but I must be wrong, as we live in a democracy!!!

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Oh What A Beautiful Day.

        Best day of the year so far. What a beautiful day, not a cloud to be seen, though the wind was light 8mph it was an easterly and very cold. It is quite a while since I trundled along the Aberfoyle road, really enjoyed it, still longing for some heat in the air, but it is a beautiful country.

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The Budget, A Carve Up For The Rich.

         Wednesday sees that familiar episode in our political farce, “the budget”. This is when that millionaire product of the Oxbridge sausage factory, Osborne, tells us how he is going to carve up the nation's wealth. Of course being a multi-millionaire and moving in those circles, he is totally divorced from that place we, the ordinary people call “the real world”. His circle of fiends and associates will all hail from that exclusive little club of over privileged parasites, and no doubt he will take good care of them. 

       Do you think that he will be sitting burning the midnight oil over the statistics that tell us that 28% of children in the UK live in poverty? Do you think it will cause him sleepless nights that this translates into 9 children in every class of 30 go hungry, and that means that a staggering 3.7 million children in the UK will have their life potential stunted because of poverty?
       The Institute for Fiscal Studies states that because of tax and benefit adjustments since 2010, the number of children living in relative poverty will have increased from 3.6 million to 4.3 million by 2020.
         This same chancellor is always bumming about how his bunch of cronies are getting more people into work, but fails to mention that in this type of economic system, work is not the solution to poverty. The facts are that 64%, almost two thirds, of children growing up in poverty live in a household where at least one person works. Also, 60% of families in the bottom end of income can't afford to take the children for one weeks holiday a year. 

         Child poverty is life damaging, shortens life's, in blunts their education, and deprives them from joining activities with their school friends. Regarding achieving in education there is a 28% gap in achieving 5 A-C GCSE grades between those of free school meals and their wealthier friends. 

        At the other end of the scale, Oxfam states that since 2000, the richest 1% of Britons, a cabal made up completely of millionaires, took more than a quarter of the £4 trillion increase of the UK's increase in national wealth. Each parasitic member of this 1%, saw their average wealth grow to a staggering £3.7 million in 2015. By contrast, only 7% of that national wealth increase went to around 30 million people. Today the average wealth of those in the bottom 10% is £1.600.
         The hints coming out from the “budget” is that there are more severe cuts coming the way of us at the bottom half of the income range, while there are talk of tax cuts for the better off. 

         They know there is a class war, and they fight accordingly, they know who their friends are. What about us, do we accept we are in a class war, will we fight accordingly, do we know who our friends are?

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

 

The Lie We Live.

Just a thought:

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Anarchist Ladies In Leadershiop Positions!!!

        A recent article on the Anarchist News, How the FBI monitored Crust Punks, gives a insight to the gross waste of tax payers money, as highly paid "agents" scurry about the country keeping tags on such radical threats as organic food growers, punk bands, and growers markets. If the article was not so serious it could be a good script for a comedy movie. Following unknown people driving to a place where anarchists hang out. Such major threats as two cars meeting a bus and driving to a destination and  then seen getting out carrying what looked like placards and then forming up in a protest outside a bank.

        Though you can read this stuff and smile, it is deadly serious, it is all part of the surveillance society, where if you look, act, or speak different from their accepted norm, you are deemed to be a threat. Therefore worthy of constant monitoring. Though the article is about America, I have absolutely no doubt the same thing is going on here. Remember the undercover cops in environmentalist groups etc.

         Since International Women's Day has just passed, I thought this piece of FBI information from the article was worthy of repeating:

        Finally, an October 2002 memo warns agents that Lady Anarchists can be a whole mess of trouble:

   Source advised that the females of the anarchist's movement are in leadership positions in Eugene, Oregon. These females are described as being very feminist and militant.

Anarchist Ladies or Gentlemen, in leadership positions???

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The Fukushima Anniversary.

         It is five years since Fukushima nuclear reactor disaster, and still the horror is there. As the man said, nuclear is forever. What do you do with all that radioactive material you have taken from the disaster area? This is a disaster that we will hand to our children and our grandchildren.

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Summer Creeps Closer.

       Another wee run out on the dream machine on Thursday afternoon, still tooooo cold for me, but lovely afternoon. Though I did misjudge the weather, I left a bit early and it was overcast, and by the time I was heading home, the sun had come out and it looked great, but still cold. The end of the month and the clock gives us an extra hour of light, hopefully an extra few degrees in temperature.

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May Day On Glasgow Green.

 

 

       Just a reminder, to all those interested in May Day on The Green. We are hoping to get loads of those people who think they can contribute in some way, or who are just interested in seeing this event happen  to come to Sunday's meeting. It will happen if we want it to happen.

So this is a re-posting of a previous article:

        Further to our desire to end the monotony of the May Day shuffle through town, culminating in boring speeches by the ballerinas of the political scene, we are holding a second meeting to flesh out our ideas. The May Day on The Green has created quite a widespread interest, so we are asking all you who wish to see this idea become a reality, please come along to the next meeting and throw your ideas into the hat. The shape it takes will depend on what we all want, and how much we want it, it is up to us. Nothing will happen unless we make it happen. 
Details of the next meeting:
PLACE: Electron Club room at the CCA 350, Sauchiehall Street, Glasgow
DATE: Sunday, 13 March 2016
START TIME: 14:00:00

PLANNED DURATION: 3 hours

END TIME: 17:00:00

Please come along and show your support, May Day belongs on The Green.

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

In This Mad World, All Depravity Is Possible.

       Saw this on arrezafe, it is haunting, it transfixed me, and it all seemed so possible, I think it epitomises the value structure of Western imperialism,

      A Comment: This scene includes a message to Swedish mining and smelting company Boliden, which sold thousands of tonnes of smelting residue to Chile in the 1980s, only to face a lawsuit claiming hundreds of people, including children who played on the waste sites, had been poisoned - The guardian.

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The World Is Ours For The Taking.

           The world is one big corporate market place, where deals for profit for the few, shape the lives of the entire population. The quality of our lives depends on the decisions taken in the various boardrooms of the multi-billionaires. Needs of the people are not on their balance sheets. In most of the world's countries, charades are played out, called elections, where, if you fall for the illusion, you are lost in the fog of fantasy promises and pie-in-the-sky. The onslaught of mind-numbing propaganda leads you to believe that your "X" on a piece of paper will sort out your day to day problems.

          However, across the world, the charade is looking shabby, the smoke and mirrors of illusion is fading fast. Pick your country, and there are thousands on the streets, from the affluent West to the ultra-deprived, people are showing their anger at a system that syphons all our wealth up to a small cabal of parasites. As the numbers and the anger grows, the various so called "democratic" states show their raw brutality against their own people by savage repression. The states are punishing the people for the heinous crime of demanding change.

         If you can't see this as class war, you're living with your eyes closed, and your fingers in your ears. This growing anger can and will change this world for the better, but only if we link hands across those imaginary state created borders. A struggle against capitalism in some far flung corner of this planet, is our struggle, a student uprising in the East, is our struggle, a workers protest in the South, is our struggle. We are one people, the world is ours for the taking. The one thing that stops us enjoying all the fruits of our labour, the one thing that is the greatest attack on our conditions and our very survival, comes from this insane economic system called capitalism.

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Bread And Roses Strike,1912.

Still on International Women's Day

From Wikipedia:

         "Bread and Roses" is a political slogan as well as the name of an associated poem and song. It originated from a speech given by Rose Schneiderman; a line in that speech ("The worker must have bread, but she must have roses, too."^[1]:32) inspired the title of the poem Bread and Roses by James Oppenheim. The poem was first published in The American Magazine in December 1911, with the attribution line "'Bread for all, and Roses, too'—a slogan of the women in the West."^[2] The poem has been translated into other languages and has been set to music by at least three composers.
       It is commonly associated with the successful textile strike in Lawrence, Massachusetts during January–March 1912, now often known as the "Bread and Roses strike".
        The slogan pairing bread and roses, appealing for both fair wages and dignified conditions, found resonance as transcending "the sometimes tedious struggles for marginal economic advances" in the "light of labor struggles as based on striving for dignity and respect", as Robert J. S. Ross wrote in 2013.^[3]

As we come marching, marching, in the beauty of the day,
A million darkened kitchens, a thousand mill-lofts gray
Are touched with all the radiance that a sudden sun discloses,
For the people hear us singing, "Bread and Roses, Bread and Roses."

As we come marching, marching, we battle, too, for men--
For they are women's children and we mother them again.
Our lives shall not be sweated from birth until life closes--
Hearts starve as well as bodies: Give us Bread, but give us Roses!

As we come marching, marching, unnumbered women dead
Go crying through our singing their ancient song of Bread;
Small art and love and beauty their drudging spirits knew--
Yes, bread we fight for--but we fight for Roses, too.

As we come marching, marching, we bring the Greater Days--
The rising of the women means the rising of the race--
No more the drudge and idler--ten that toil where one reposes--
But sharing of life's glories: Bread and Roses, Bread and Roses!

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