Glasgow's May Day March Photos.

 

       For those who didn't manage to Glasgow May Day march on Sunday May 1st. a wee bunch of photos to make you feel you were there. Thanks Anne.

 

 

 

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

Pulling Up The Drawbridge In Fortress Europe.

 

      The latest from SubMedia TV. As usual, tells it like it is. Statements like refugee camps, migrants stuck at the border, The Balkans Corridor, don't portray the appalling conditions, the abject misery, and state brutality being heaped on desperate individuals and families as the flee the nightmare of a landscape devastated by Western imperialist war ventures, and its violent aftermath. Of course the language used by that babbling brook of bullshit, the mainstream media, has changed, these hundreds of thousands fleeing desperate people are no longer asylum seekers, or refugees, they are now simply "migrants", the first two labels might evoke some sympathy, so they have to be dropped.

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

Tropical Scotland.

       What a beautiful day, Thursday, 5th. of April, 13 degrees, by Scottish standards that is practically tropical. Another run round familiar territory, the Campsie area. The one draw back was the 17/18 MPH wind, great as it got behind you, as you whizz along thinking that your really good on the bike, but hell when you come down to earth and find yourself grinding uphill with the full blast in your face. Never the less, a great afternoon out, feeling good, it has been a wee while since I have managed to grind the pedals along the road. Let's hope this is the start of something good.

 Outside Her Majesty's Lowmoss repression centre

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

"Officially" Stolen Children.

      Wars never really end on the dates marked in the history books, the suffering, misery, deaths and torture, survives many years after the "official" end of any war. The Spanish civil war was no different, 1939 did not see peace and tranquillity reign across Spain, Franco and his obedient ranks of vermin seen to that. After 1939, children of republicans increasingly became victims of the fascist regime, with the blessing of the Catholic Church.

Wikipedia:

The lost children of Francoism were the children abducted from Republican parents, who were either in jail or had been assassinated by Francoist troops, during the Spanish Civil War and Francoist Spain.^[1] The number of abducted children is estimated to be up to 300,000.^[2][3] The kidnapped children were sometimes also victims of child trafficking and illegal adoption.^[4]

       This short film helps to convey the misery which continues to this day, that this practice heaped on children and whole families. Published April 29, 2016.

La Infancia Aniquilada
        Instantáneas fugaces de cuando los franquistas y los poderosos a los que servían robaron entre 1936 y 1978 a los niños republicanos españoles su tesoro más preciado, la Infancia, y por siempre y para siempre sembraron sus vidas de miedo. Y de terror...

Rough translation: 

The Annihilated Childhood.

          Fleeting Snapshots of when the Franco supporters and the powerful ones which they were serving stole between 1936 and 1978 republican Spanish children of their most valued treasure, their childhood, and forever and forever sowed their lives with fear. And of terror…

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

Squats Are The Seeds Of The World We Desire.

         Extract from an article in Athens Indymedia, on the importance of the squats in the anarchist movement, Fuck Nations, Squat The World.

K*Vox occupied social centre Exarcheia, Athens.

         As far as we are concerned, squatting is a point of reference, since it’s where we lay our offensive goals and organize our resistance against every form of authority. Attacks against squats are an intertemporal practice for both the state and various fascists groups. Lately these kinds of attacks have been rather frequent and under various forms. Key role in this holds the state and its institutions which under the pretense of utilizing public property is constantly making threats of evacuations just like it happened in the case of “Squat 111” or “Squat Orphanage” or even making true of the aforementioned threats as in the case of “Centaur Squat” which was literally demolished. We should also keep in mind the cases of “Acta et Verba” in Giannena, as well as “Dougrou” in Larisa (in the first ever squatting attempt) which where both evacuated. However, lately the attacks that have taken place against squats come mostly from fascist groups operating under cover of the state. The planting of an explosive device in “Kouvelou Squat”, the  invasion in “Elaia”, the incendiary attacks in “Agros”, the double incendiary attacks in “Vancouver Squat”, in “Zaimi Squat”, in “Terra Incognita Squat”, the attack in “Analipsi Squat” and in “Strouga Squat” and even the attacks against the occupied social center “K*VOX”. Those attacks may have been complete and utter failure, proving once more the stupidity of such fascist scum, but this failure is not meant to reassure us, but instead to provide us with a chance to attack those that have been attacking us. With the latest examples being the state oppression against squat and self managing solidarity infrastructures alike.

-          In 19/4 early in the morning police invaded the solidarity with immigrants infrastructure in Chios “Soli – Café” arresting immigrants and those expressing their solidarity alike. Moreover 3 days later they set the place on fire as well.
-          In 20/4 in “No border camp” in Mytilini an evacuation of the camp took place. 384 immigrants were arrested and led to the Moria detainment facility while 19 individuals who were expressing their solidarity were detained in the local police station for a couple of hours before finally being released.
-          In 21/4 cops invaded and evacuated squat “Persiadou 8”. Three arrests were made for minor offenses concerning damage, disturbance of domestic peace and illegally reinstating electrical power.
-          In 22/4 in the morning hours, police forces evacuated squat “Turtle Corner” in Thessaloniki.

Read the full article HERE:

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

Stimulation Without Gratification, Creates Insanity.

         Our advertising world portray our society is a sexual society, but a perverse sexual society, everything comes advertised with sexual overtones, from alcohol to coffee, from clothes to cars, all come with a hint of sexual stimulation, but never any form of sexual gratification. To our advertising world, women are sexual tools to sell products, and men are made to look “sexy”, but it is all a hands off sexual world, always stimulation, never gratification. That gratification has to take place in the shadows, where the phoney stimulation's promise can never quite materialise, and often manifests itself in sexual abuse. From a very early age, that babbling brook of bullshit, the mainstream media, encourages young girls to look “pretty”, be attractive to men is the desired aim. Women, more than not, are portrayed as an attractive appendage to some successful male, the road to success for women is then seen as to be “attractive” and find a successful male. Any wonder that women are used and abused, the whole value structure is wrong. Nowhere in this phone world of empty sexual stimulation is there any hint of a real world of people as equals, with desires outside “looking attractive” and falling into the capitalist definition of "being successful". In this capitalist society, the world of advertising creates a world of manufactured desires, a world of  frustration and insanity.

 Guess what we are advertising??

This from Contra Info:

Naked, Drunk, or isolated, We Are Not Prey. 

       The hammers that this time aimed for windows – like they can aim for heads – arm our rage towards all those who reinforce this rape culture. This action is more of a stride in the never-ending path of our freedom from all oppressions. We clearly never repeat it enough; sexual assaults are not the isolated act of a dangerous individual who watches from an alley-way corner – but actually – if not a weapon, its often the threats and the correctional punishment, for all women who have taken part in rebellion in their life, or simply searching to exit the cage that is patriarchy. And its always the reflection of a world that envisages women as objects to submit.

     The media instrumentalises us to distil fear, in creating a need for security which should be urgently met, with ever more control over our lives, cameras, DNA profiling. They don’t seek to protect us, this discourse is to lure us in, to increase their domination.

      We don’t want to delegate our protection, but try to organise to defend ourselves, and attacking is one way to do that.

Read the full article HERE:

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

Welcome To The Hotel Plaza, Athens.

            Greece has been at the receiving end of the mass exodus of people fleeing the war torn, shattered countries of the Middle East, hundreds of thousands of desperate people have entered Greece in the hope settling in Europe and creating a better life for themselves and their families. They have not met with much of an official welcome, herded, corralled, detained, ill-treated, has been the response from officialdom. However, people outside the official state apparatus have taken a much more humane approach. Volunteers have turned out and done what they can to help this legion of desperate people. The latest sign of this in Athens, was at The Plaza Hotel, abandoned 7 years ago,(Not the luxury one in Syntagma Square, pity though!) has now been occupied by 400 refugees, it has had a massive clean up and is now a relatively comfortable, temporary home for tired and desperate people.  The empty hotel was there, the state had the power to utilise it, but didn't move in that direction, to them, much better they sleep rough or a detention camp, forget the human side and try to keep control by fear, uncertainty, and intimidation. Thanks to all those people of Athens who helped create this much need refuge for desperate people. Another example that, left to their own devises, the people can sort out their problems, without the interferences of the oppressive state apparatus. Though, not doubt the state will yet try to step in and sabotage this humane response. 

This from Moving Europe: 

Welcome to “Hotel Plaza” in Athens!
Abandoned hotel squatted for 400 refugees
        Abandoned hotel in the northern center of Athens. The “Hotel Plaza” is supposed to host up to 400 refugees, and hopefully in the upcoming week, they will be able to receive further room requests. Since the occupants have entered the building, the weekend has been a busy one: The rooms have been aired and cleaned, the kitchen cleaned and prepared for cooking, weeds and trash removed from the front entrance, the first meals cooked, assemblies held and plans made.
Safe place
         We could already see how refugees staying at the hotel have started to relax and recover from the past weeks of stress and precarity. A clean room for oneself, a friendly atmosphere, a quiet and safe common space, and the dedication of everyone to treat each other with respect and in solidarity: You could feel the relief of those who have lacked these crucial needs of life for a long time.

Read the full article HERE:

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

Glasgow's May Day With A Wee Difference.

        

          May Day celebrations took place across the world, and so they should, it is our day, the day when we come together to celebrate our working class heroes and our victories. It is a time for solidarity with all those involved in the struggle for equality and freedom, a time to renew old friendships, a time to make new friends. In this, Glasgow is no different, it has its May Day celebration, though this year there was a wee difference. There was the usual sanctioned, sedate, march through the city centre, ending up at The Fruit Market in Candleriggs for the usual speeches by the usual political ballerinas. It was a fair turnout, considering the weather forecast was for heavy rain, but the weather was kind, and though cold it was dry. My own guesstimate was around the 1,500 mark. All the usual banners were there lead, off by a pipe band.

 

 

         Then there was that wee difference. A group of locals decide to try to organise a May Day picnic on Glasgow Green, after the march, where we feel that Glasgow May Day used to be celebrated, and should be celebrated. Again despite the horrible weather forecast, about 30 or so turned up, and the place was soon festoon by banners and flags. We had poets, guitar player/singer and face-painting for the kids, even the rather mature kids. Food appeared from generous volunteers and great time was had by all. Everybody agreed that it was a great success and hope to repeat it next year, with greater numbers. A heart felt glow of gratitude to all those who turned up and made it possible. See you next year, on The Green.

 

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

An Eye For An Eye!!!!

         Not a lot in that babbling brook of bullshit, our mainstream media, about what is happening in France. The protests continue, the police's violent repression continues, and the bullshit bunch look for some royal happening or anti-Semitism in the Labour party, to spew across your TV screens or to fill their sheets of toilet paper. However what is happening in France is real anger on the streets, by real people, and the violence against them is real and brutal, spearheaded by a so called socialist President. Despite the state repression, Nuit Debout is still alive and thriving. Can it grow, can it spread?

This from Contra Info:

 Rennes, France: A demonstrator loses an eye

         On Thursday [April 28th] a student of our university lost an eye, simply for having demonstrated. Whilst retreating with all the demonstrators following a CRS charge [riot cops], he was taken freely as a target and hit in the face by a flashball shot. Given that this government has nothing but police violence to bring to the youth as a response, will it take a death for it to cease?

        It could of been any one of us. So no, we won’t forget, we won’t forgive, and most of all we won’t give in.
Neither fear nor violence will stop us and Sunday we’ll return to the streets.

We’re all thinking of you Jean-François! Strength.

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

Direct Action Delivers.

       TALK, SLIDESHOW AND DISCUSSION TUESDAY 3 MAY CASTLEMILK YOUTH COMPLEX 39 ARDENCRAIG ROAD CASTLEMILK G45 0EQ
         Come Along to this on Tuesday a slideshow and history of Direct Action in Castlemilk and Glasgow over the past 40 years including the miners strike, poll tax and how the people stopped Glenacre from being bulldozed and turned into a carpark as told by John Cooper a community activist for 40 years.

As usual, John busy at a previous conference in Glasgow:

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

Stand, Hand On Heart, "Land Of The Free".

        Got the article below from comrade Loam, thanks friend. It is from Information Clearing House. However, you would be an idiot if you thought that it was only in America, "The Land Of The Free" that the prying eyes of the state followed you everywhere, listened to your ever word, and built a profile on their sneakily stolen snapshots of your life. Modern technology makes it possible and easily accessible to any state and its minders, and they use it massively.

By John W. Whitehead

       April 26, 2016 "Information Clearing House" - "Ron Paul Institute"- In the American police state, the price to be paid for speaking truth to power (also increasingly viewed as an act of treason) is surveillance, censorship, jail and ultimately death.
        However, where many Americans go wrong is in assuming that you have to be doing something illegal or challenging the government’s authority in order to be flagged as a suspicious character, labeled an enemy of the state and locked up like a dangerous criminal.
         In fact, as I point out in my book Battlefield America: The War on the American People, all you really need to do is use certain trigger words, surf the internet, communicate using a cell phone, drive a car, stay at a hotel, purchase materials at a hardware store, take flying or boating lessons, appear suspicious, question government authority, or generally live in the United States.
        With the help of automated eyes and ears, a growing arsenal of high-tech software, hardware and techniques, government propaganda urging Americans to turn into spies and snitches, as well as social media and behavior sensing software, government agents are spinning a sticky spider-web of threat assessments, flagged “words,” and “suspicious” activity reports aimed at snaring potential enemies of the state.
         It’s the American police state’s take on the dystopian terrors foreshadowed by George Orwell, Aldous Huxley and Phillip K. Dick all rolled up into one oppressive pre-crime and pre-thought crime package.
        What’s more, the technocrats who run the surveillance state don’t even have to break a sweat while monitoring what you say, what you read, what you write, where you go, how much you spend, whom you support, and with whom you communicate. Computers now do the tedious work of trolling social media, the internet, text messages and phone calls for potentially anti-government remarks—all of which is carefully recorded, documented, and stored to be used against you someday at a time and place of the government’s choosing.
         While this may sound like a riff on a bad joke, it’s a bad joke with “we the people” as the punchline.
        The following activities are guaranteed to get you censored, surveilled, eventually placed on a government watch list, possibly detained and potentially killed.
Laugh at your own peril.
       Use harmless trigger words like cloud, pork and pirates: The Department of Homeland Security has an expansive list of keywords and phrases it uses to monitor social networking sites and online media for signs of terrorist or other threats such as SWAT, lockdown, police, cloud, food poisoning, pork, flu, Subway, smart, delays, cancelled, la familia, pirates, hurricane, forest fire, storm, flood, help, ice, snow, worm, warning or social media.
Use a cellphone: 

     Simply by using a cell phone, you make yourself an easy target for government agents—working closely with corporations—who can listen in on your phone calls, read your text messages and emails, and track your movements based on the data transferred from, received by, and stored in your cell phone. Mention any of the so-called “trigger” words in a conversation or text message, and you’ll get flagged for sure.
Drive a car: 

       Unless you’ve got an old junkyard heap without any of the gadgets and gizmos that are so attractive to today’s car buyers (GPS, satellite radio, electrical everything, smart systems, etc.), driving a car today is like wearing a homing device: you’ll be tracked from the moment you open that car door thanks to black box recorders and vehicle-to-vehicle communications systems that can monitor your speed, direction, location, the number of miles traveled, and even your seatbelt use. Once you add satellites, GPS devices, license plate readers, and real-time traffic cameras to the mix, there’s nowhere you can go on our nation’s highways and byways that you can’t be followed.
Attend a political rally: 

        Enacted in the wake of 9/11, the Patriot Act redefined terrorism so broadly that many non-terrorist political activities such as protest marches, demonstrations and civil disobedience were considered potential terrorist acts, thereby rendering anyone desiring to engage in protected First Amendment expressive activities as suspects of the surveillance state.
Express yourself on social media: 

        The FBI, CIA, NSA and other government agencies are investing in and relying on corporate surveillance technologies that can mine constitutionally protected speech on social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter and Instagram in order to identify potential extremists and predict who might engage in future acts of anti-government behavior.
Serve in the military: 

          Operation Vigilant Eagle, the brainchild of the Dept. of Homeland Security, calls for surveillance of military veterans returning from Iraq and Afghanistan, characterizing them as extremists and potential domestic terrorist threats because they may be “disgruntled, disillusioned or suffering from the psychological effects of war.”
Disagree with a law enforcement official: 

         A growing number of government programs are aimed at identifying, monitoring and locking up anyone considered potentially “dangerous” or mentally ill (according to government standards, of course). For instance, a homeless man in New York City who reportedly had a history of violence but no signs of mental illness was forcibly detained in a psych ward for a week after arguing with shelter police.
Call in sick to work: 

          In Virginia, a so-called police “welfare check” instigated by a 58-year-old man’s employer after he called in sick resulted in a two-hour, SWAT team-style raid on the man’s truck and a 72-hour mental health hold. All of this was done despite the fact that police acknowledged they had no legal basis nor probable cause for detaining the man, given that he had not threatened to harm anyone and was not mentally ill.
Limp or stutter: 

         As a result of a nationwide push to certify a broad spectrum of government officials in mental health first-aid training (a 12-hour course comprised of PowerPoint presentations, videos, discussions, role playing and other interactive activities), more Americans are going to run the risk of being reported for having mental health issues by non-medical personnel. For instance, one 37-year-old disabled man was arrested, diagnosed by police and an unlicensed mental health screener as having “mental health issues,” apparently because of his slurred speech and unsteady gait.
Appear confused or nervous, fidget, whistle or smell bad: 

           According to the Transportation Security Administration’s 92-point secret behavior watch list for spotting terrorists, these are among some of the telling signs of suspicious behavior: fidgeting, whistling, bad body odor, yawning, clearing your throat, having a pale face from recently shaving your beard, covering your mouth with your hand when speaking and blinking your eyes fast.
Allow yourself to be seen in public waving a toy gun or anything remotely resembling a gun, such as a water nozzle or a remote control or a walking cane, for instance: 

         No longer is it unusual to hear about incidents in which police shoot unarmed individuals first and ask questions later. John Crawford was shot by police in an Ohio Wal-Mart for holding an air rifle sold in the store that he may have intended to buy. Thirteen-year-old Andy Lopez Cruz was shot 7 times in 10 seconds by a California police officer who mistook the boy’s toy gun for an assault rifle. Christopher Roupe, 17, was shot and killed after opening the door to a police officer. The officer, mistaking the Wii remote control in Roupe’s hand for a gun, shot him in the chest. Another police officer repeatedly shot 70-year-old Bobby Canipe during a traffic stop. The cop saw the man reaching for his cane and, believing the cane to be a rifle, opened fire.
Appear to be pro-gun, pro-freedom or anti-government: You might be a domestic terrorist in the eyes of the FBI (and its network of snitches) if you: express libertarian philosophies:

        Exhibit Second Amendment-oriented views; read survivalist literature, including apocalyptic fictional books; show signs of self-sufficiency (stockpiling food, ammo, hand tools, medical supplies); fear an economic collapse; buy gold and barter items; voice fears about Big Brother or big government; or expound about constitutional rights and civil liberties.
Attend a public school: 

         Microcosms of the police state, America’s public schools contain almost every aspect of the militarized, intolerant, senseless, overcriminalized, legalistic, surveillance-riddled, totalitarian landscape that plagues those of us on the “outside.” Additionally, as part of the government’s so-called ongoing war on terror, the FBI—the nation’s de facto secret police force—is now recruiting students and teachers to spy on each other and report anyone who appears to have the potential to be “anti-government” or “extremist” as part of its “Don’t Be a Puppet” campaign.
Speak truth to power: 

          Long before Chelsea Manning and Edward Snowden were being castigated for blowing the whistle on the government’s war crimes and the National Security Agency’s abuse of its surveillance powers, it was activists such as Martin Luther King Jr. and John Lennon who were being singled out for daring to speak truth to power. These men and others like them had their phone calls monitored and data files collected on their activities and associations. For a little while, at least, they became enemy number one in the eyes of the US government.

 There’s always a price to pay for standing up to the powers-that-be. Yet as this list shows, you don’t even have to be a dissident to get flagged by the government for surveillance, censorship and detention. All you really need to be is a citizen of the American police state.

Reprinted with permission from the Rutherford Institute.

Click for Spanish, German, Dutch, Danish, French, translation- Note- Translation may take a moment to load.

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

Nuclear Power And State Repression.

        Across the globe people are demanding an end to nuclear power. When there is talk of a new nuclear power station being built, they can never give and exact price and, like all these large contracts, it always runs over budget. The next problem is they can't give a accurate price on decommissioning, except to say it will be astronomical, then they don't really know what to do with the waste from the site, of course the land on which the power station was built, usually can't be used for years and years. So it is no wonder the people don't want to leave that sort of legacy to their children and grandchildren. However, the people's desire to be rid of the nuclear nightmare has no bearing on the various states, they will come down heavy on any group who stand up against this crazy and dangerous source of power. After all a nuclear power station is a massive contract for the corporate world, and we don't expect "our" governments to get in the way of that feeding trough. We certainly don't expect them to follow the will of the people.

This from Act For Freedom Now: 

– We need help immediately!
       Today 28.4. around 3 pm, riot cops and a police patrol with dogs started to approach the camp. We communicated clearly to the police with a megaphone that they are not welcome, and we don’t want to engage in conflict with them. The police didn’t say anything or answer any questions.
      The police started to shoot people with a projectile / rubber bullet gun and the people at the camp defended themselves by throwing rocks. The police were clearly aiming for the activists heads, backs of heads and upper bodies with the gun. People got hit several times on the area of their upper bodies. As far as we know, not to their heads though… The police got hit several times with the rocks, and there was one police car burning up in flames at the area.
      After a long struggle with delay tactics, the police managed to move ahead to the camp when the people who were defending the camp disappeared to the forest. In the camp the police shot projectiles towards the kitchen-collective people. The police evacuated all the people from the camp, and took some people into custody.
       The police have also threatened to evict another camp location which is still in our use.
        We don’t accept giving into repression and police violence, and the struggle against Fennovoima will continue. Now we’ll need everyone to help build up the camp again, and to continue the fight and actions against Fennovoima. We invite comrades to this fight wherever you are – let’s aim our actions towards the companies which are working with/for Fennovoima, the embassies of Finland, or the local police.

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