Propaganda And The Absence Of Truth.

John Carey:

”It is arguable that the success of business propaganda in persuading us, for so long that we are free from propaganda is one of the most significant propaganda achievements of the twentieth century."

      Propaganda, the tool of those who wish to control us. Corporations use it continuously to coerce us into accepting their products. States use it to breed patriotism and alienate us from those “others” over there, and take us down the road of war and destruction, to further their wealth and power. Sadly propaganda has replaced discussion in the machinations of our politicians. Propaganda is so profuse it has permeated every fibre of this capitalist society, it has replaced truth. So called outlets of information, TV, newspapers and journalists etc. have become welded into what is now a babbling brook of bullshit, with one aim, to mould the mind of the individual and the public at large, to the establishments ideology.

The Big Lie:  "the principle & which is quite true in itself & that in the big lie there is always a certain force of credibility; because the broad masses of a nation are always more easily corrupted in the deeper strata of their emotional nature than consciously or voluntarily,"

Adolf Hitler's Mein Kampf

        A film well worth seeing on this subject of propaganda, "The Occupation of the American Mind" Israel’s Public Relations War in the United State. is coming to The Kinning Park Complex, on Sunday October 2nd.

      Justifying the indefensible is about. Keep saying the same thing over and over again till people believe it. While the carnage continues behind a vale of propaganda. An important film everyone should see.

Screening:  Kinning Park Complex
When:        Sunday 2nd October 2:00 4:00

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

 

Warm And Windy Scotland.

      It has been a good week on the bike, Wednesday, reported as the warmest day of the month so far, saw me round what is more or less my home stomping ground, the Campsie area. Warm but cloudy, still great cycling weather. 

View from Clachan of Campsie tearoom. Ooops, forgot to place the bike.

         Saturday it was up the Aberfoyle road and pulling into Ward Toll tearoom, they always do a nice plate of soup. From the windows you can look in one direction towards Aberfoyle, in the other direction you see the hills behind which nestles the town of Callander. 

View from Ward Toll tearoom, Callander sits behind the hills in the distance.

        Not so many years ago Callander was my favourite Sunday run. Going out via Lennoxtown, the Crow Road, Fintry, Kippin, Thornhill and on to Pipps Tearoom in Callander. Heading home by a different route, over the Braes of Greenock, past the Lake of Monteith, south down the Aberfoyle road past Ballott Toll, up the Blane Valley, turn at the Kirkhouse Inn and head for Lennoxtown and home to Springburn. Some of the most beautiful countryside in the land.
       Sunday it was up the Loch, (Loch Lomond). In a previous post I stated that when up the Loch I always seem to stop at Tarbet and take a photo, but promised I would perhaps stop at Inverbeg or Luss, for that wee photo. Well I did, it was Inverbeg. The photo doesn't do the view justice. It was very windy on Sunday, around 20mph. This was great on the way up the Loch, but I had to work hard on the way back. Still a magic weekend.

 Looking across the Loch from Inverbeg Hotel.

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

 

Prisoners Strike.

         Three days since the start of the American prisoners work-stoppage, and there has been actions across the American prison/slave system. Some starting days before the assigned date, such is the anger and disgust at the corruption, within the prison system, and the treatment and conditions of those incarcerated in these slave labour camps in the so called "Land of the Free".

 This from Anarchist News:

National Prisoner Work Stoppage

Background and Inside Resistance
      As many of you are probably aware, Friday September 9th kicked off the largest and most coordinated prisoner work stoppage in the US in all history, on the 45th anniversary of the Attica Prison uprising. Organized in conjunction with incarcerated members of the Free Alabama Movement (FAM) and the Incarcerated Workers Organizing Committee (IWOC), this work stoppage is turning a bright spotlight on the continuing condition of slavery in the United States, a slavery upon which this country's economy is cripplingly dependant. Prisoners are also forced to be responsible for running the actual prisons themselves, working in the laundry, cafeteria, and so on, pretty much in any non-administrative capacity you can think of. I don't think it should go without saying that much of this labor goes unwaged, though the on average 13 cents an hour that inmates get paid is nothing compared to the exorbitant costs of goods in prison stores.

      Friday kicked off the actual strike, but resistance from within prison got started well before then with fires being set at Lincoln Correctional Center in Lincoln, Nebraska on September 6th, a 4 dormitory wide riot at Holmes prison in Bonifay, Florida on the 7th which hopped from dorm to dorm in the facility keeping just ahead of the CO's attemts to quell the rebellion, creating a Whak-A-Mole type situation that I'm sure the prison officials just loved. Also on the 7th inmates at the infamous military detention center Guantanamo Bay remain on hunger strike to protest their indefinite detentions, many of whom were captured as part of the xenophobic and racist governmental response to September 11th, 2001, 15 years ago today.

       September 9th at noon saw a complete work stoppage at Holman Correctional in Atmore, Alabama where our comrade Michael Kimble is held captive. There is no incidents yet from prison officials, and guards and COs were forced to perform all tasks. Sit down strikes and work stoppages were also held in Bonifay, FL in the aforementioned Holmes Prison, amid the ashes of the fires set only two days prior. In Troy VA, there was a work stoppage at a women's facility, and all across this state of North Carolina prisoners refused to report to their jobs. At a women's facility in California 10 or so brave souls refused to work and effectively shut the whole prison down because of fear of a riot. Disturbances were reported at Gulf and Mayo prisons in Florida, and three guards were injured in scuffles at Tecumseh Prison in Nebraska.

    Yesterday saw a continuation of resistance in Nebraska at a women's facility, from all over South Carolina, and continuing resistance in Atmore. Solidarity from overseas has been flying in fast and furious, with statements from prisoners in Greece, Australia, Lithuania, and Sweden among many others.

     Repression of those who are striking has mostly consisted of prison lockdowns and targeting of people who have been designated the "ringleaders". It will be very important for people to recieve solidarity from those on the outside in order for this resistance to continue. Keep your eyes on itsgoingdown.org and the live updates at maskmagazine.com for current info and calls for backup. You can visit the IWOC at iwoc.org for a list of concrete anti-repression tactics to share with those who are incarcerated and otherwise.

Read the full article HERE:

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

Freedom Will Blossom In The Ashes Of The Prisons.

       Tomorrow, September 9th. is the start of the American prison strike, those inside and out side prisons across the world should show solidarity with this brave attempt at highlighting the brutal exploitation taking place in prisons across the globe. In America, prisons are more than an attempt to crush resistance, prisons are massive slave labour camps run by powerful corporations, recruiting, solely for profit, from the poorest and most vulnerable sections of society.  

 

        Another example of the state's vindictiveness, this time from Greece. You are in prison, you try to escape and fail, what do you think would be the response of a supposed civilised European state? Perhaps a spell of solitary confinement, higher security? Well the Greek judicial system thinks 110 years extra each, is merited. Is there any way this can be labelled as "justice". Just another example of how the state uses prisons in its attempt to crush any resistance to its monopoly on power. At least one person showed their contempt for this savage attempt by the state at crushing dissent.

This from Contra Info: 

       On the 30th of August Alfredo damaged the glass partition windows of the interview room in the high surveillance section of Ferrara prison in solidarity with the prisoners of the CCF who were recently sentenced to more than a hundred years in prison for an attempted escape.

       Today August 30 almost 4 years since my arrest I wanted to celebrate the anniversary with the destruction of the interview room window panels. This action is my contribution of revolutionary solidarity with my brothers and sister of the CCF-FAI-FRI who were condemned by yet another judicial process and sentenced to 110 years each for a failed escape attempt. The anarchist prisoner is not a flag, nor must we build a monument around them, sometimes they are a piece of our heart, sometimes not… nevertheless they continue to struggle, to live… not to be remembered, but wanting revenge, freedom, but ultimately they may also be alone because by nature they do not belong to any flock…

Long live FAI-FRI

Long live CCF

via Croce Nera Anarchica, translated by Insurrection News

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

Why The UK State Loves War.

       Why is the British state so in love with war? Well it is all to do with money flowing into shareholders bank accounts. The UK is now the worlds second biggest arm exporter, the arms industry in the UK is massive, and the state will always promote, support and assist, big business. The arms industry is nothing if there are no wars. We in the UK now sell more weaponry than China, Russia, or France, without brutal conflicts across the globe our exports would fall. Like all big corporations, the arms industry is not at all fussy to whom they sell their death products. Two thirds of British arms exports go to the Middle East, an area that is awash with death and destruction. An area where sanity and compassion would do its damnedest to reduce the amount of destructive weaponry sloshing around. With a cavalier attitude the arms industry, with the British state’s blessing, sells weaponry to most of the countries listed as “not free” on the report “Freedom in the World” by Freedom House. The UK state also gives its blessing to the arms industry’s sales to 22 of the 30 countries on its own human rights watch list. 

    With our booming arms industry we are pouring fuel onto the explosive conditions in the Middle East, aiding and abetting despot regimes, but what the hell, its is simply a matter of equating lives with profits, and to the state and its corporate buddies its a no-brainer, people are expendable, profits mean power and wealth. Can anybody find any rational argument for continuing this festering cancerous system of capitalism. The world is being brutalised, poverty is endemic and unimaginable wealth flows continuously into the hands of a small army of greedy, cold blooded, pampered parasites. All this with the states blessing and protection. When will we ever learn?

 

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

 

The Casualties Of World War III.

        Tucked away in corners of so called “civilised European society”, are places that the various states hope you’ll not notice. Hell holes of desperation, deprivation and intimidation, where people are herded like cattle, where they are processed like cans of beans receiving their bar codes. Such places get sanitised names like detention centres, holding areas, etc. The people held there receive this vile treatment because of a label that has been attached to them, “illegal migrants”. When in fact they are human beings fleeing the shock and awe of Western weaponry, that is pulverising their villages, towns and cities. They are people, old and young, trying to flee a world of daily death and destruction, victims of World War III. It is World War III, all the world’s major powers in their various cabals and power groupings, are in the Middle East, blasting their way to territorial gains that they hope will give them control over rich oil and gas fields. The people of that area can go to hell in a hand cart, as far as the powerful states involved are concerned. To the big corporations and the states that serve them, oil is wealth and power, people are disposable, at times superfluous to requirements. That is the basis of this festering cancer we live under, it is the guiding principle of capitalism. When it comes to wealth and power, in their world, war is a price worth paying. A world of shifting borders, displacing people and re-arranging geography, to suit the powers that be, people are just collateral damage, to be killed, displaced, or labelled, migrant, refugee or what ever, then abandoned. Only the people can bring an end to this savage insanity, those with the power and wealth will not abandon their their pampered privileged position, we will have to wrestle it from them, and the sooner the better.  

This from Act For Freedom Now:

 Lampedusa Sicily, detention centre.

       [Note: Hotspots are structures set up by the EU in certain States to swiftly identify, register and fingerprint incoming migrants]
       From the media we learn that yesterday, 24th August, at 8:30pm a group of people locked up in the Hotspot of Lampedusa set mattresses alight causing damage to a cell on the first floor, an area where underage migrants are detained.
       It seems that the fire brigade intervened promptly thus limiting the damage to one cell only. According to the local press a migrant boy was asphyxiated by the smoke.
     Yesterday’s was not the first protest to break out since the Lampedusa detention centre became a Hotspot. In fact on 18th May this year a revolt seriously damaged part of the structure and one of the three units in the Centre had to be closed down. The protest began when the authorities were preparing a mass deportation to Tunisia, following days of unrest among the people imprisoned in the Hotspot in protest at forced identification.
      Solidarity with the migrants in struggle against identification, detention and deportation
100s of such fires!

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

Pinochet-Thatcher, Two Of A kind.

        Following on from my recent post on 9/11, it would be impossible to overlook the Pinochet-Thatcher relationship. Two beasts that that trampled the people in the name of neo-liberal polices of the multi-millionaires. While one slaughtered, tortured and butchered his way across the people, the other throw generations on the scrapheap of society, turned communities into garbage bins, crushed hopes, destroyed the potential of millions of individuals, and played her brutal imperialist card in the Falklands, However, we should never forget, they were not alone, they had the full backing and participation of presidents, Prime Minsters and dictators across the globe. who were following in their festering footsteps. That is the shape of the beast we live with, it's called capitalism.

Got this video from Loam at arrezafe:

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

Save Our Dear Green Place.

          It is an ongoing tactic of our City Fathers, sitting in the Kremlin in George Square, Glasgow. They act as a snatch squad, making frequent grasps at parts of our city's green spaces, and handing them over to the developers. This has been going on for years and is still going on. The latest attempt at a snatch has been the North Kelvin Meadow and Children's Wood. An open public space cared for and used, by the locals, and others further afield. A tremendous asset to our city, its kids and adults alike, wanted and managed by the locals, it adds immensely to the quality of life of those who live within its reach. So why destroy it or any part of it? The answer to that question is profit.

       Come out and support this campaign, Glasgow's green and public spaces are disappearing at an alarming rate, we are fast becoming a hard tarmac place, it has to stop somewhere, if not here, then where?

 From Bob at citystrolls:

         "It is staggering the amount of energy and commitment locals have dedicated to the North Kelvin Meadow to protect and promote their local green space." "So throw down your knitting and rustle up the courage and open the gate" Deffo. Come and join us on the land. There will be a Public Hearing this Tuesday 6th and 7th of September to determine the future of North Kelvin Meadow and Children's Wood. There will be a site visit at some point on either 6th or 7th so please come to land on those days. Angela Constance will make the final decision after receiving the report from the hearing. Please email Angela to say:
What the land means to you.
Why it's different from football pitches and other parks and gardens.
Add in any photographs, pictures or videos of the space.
Angela.Constance.msp@parliament.scot
Please ask 5 friends to do the same
         The future of the meadow and wood is about to be decided, there will be a Public Hearing this Tuesday and Wednesday. If the plans for housing are rejected then this could be a test case for other areas.
Quote from Marguerite Hunter Blair CEO Play Scotland
          “This fight to retain the Children’s Wood North Kelvin Meadow represents a significant test case for much recent community engagement and the people and parent power policies, introduced by the Scottish Government. It is staggering the amount of energy and commitment locals have dedicated to the North Kelvin Meadow to protect and promote their local green space. If this campaign can’t succeed in such a deprived area and with such obvious community benefits, there is little hope for other groups trying to take responsibility for their own lives.”
Gruffalo this Sunday
Book Tickets
<http://thechildrenswood.us12.list-manage.com/track/click?u=b189cab12c6f859eea2dee724&id=dd0a7f51fe&e=1daadfc724>
*RSPB Wildfest in the Wood*
Find Out More
<http://thechildrenswood.us12.list-manage.com/track/click?u=b189cab12c6f859eea2dee724&id=97d683648e&e=1daadfc724>

<http://thechildrenswood.us12.list-manage.com/track/click?u=b189cab12c6f859eea2dee724&id=2c2eacb714&e=1daadfc724>

<http://thechildrenswood.us12.list-manage.com/track/click?u=b189cab12c6f859eea2dee724&id=51ee7a80ea&e=1daadfc724>

<http://thechildrenswood.us12.list-manage1.com/track/click?u=b189cab12c6f859eea2dee724&id=ef1ed2f269&e=1daadfc724>
*Our mailing address is:*
The Children's Wood
Kelbourne Street
Glasgow, Scotland G20
United Kingdom

Add us to your address book
<http://thechildrenswood.us12.list-manage.com/vcard?u=b189cab12c6f859eea2dee724&id=8123560704>

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

Remember 9/11??

       In a few days the anniversary of 9/11 is coming up, and no doubt the babbling brook of bullshit, our mainstream media, will spew out its usual avalanche of phoney patriotism, aiming to get all and sundry beating their patriotic chests. This comment in no way detracts from the suffering of those involved in that tragic event. The Western imperialist states’ response to this tragedy was, the “war on terror”, which spawned a continuous series of brutal wars, that are still to this day, shedding the blood of thousands of innocent people. All the wars that arose from the “war on terror”, are still ongoing, with the devastating consequences to people, villages, towns, cities and countries across the whole of the Middle East and North Africa. The “war on terror” was the West’s attempt to reassert its power and control over that region, for no other reason than its oil under the soil.
       However, the 9/11 that the babbling brook of bullshit will not give much, if any cover to, will be the tragedy of September 11th. 1973. This was the brutal overthrow of the elected Chilean government of Salvador Allende, by the butcher of the Chilean people, General Augusto Pinochet, let's not forget, he was a deeply religious man, who acted with the backing of US president Nixon. 

       The presidential palace was bombed, Allende committed “suicide” and there followed the usual fascist public burning of books, brutal torture, savage repression and disappearings. More than 200,000 Chileans went into exile, their lives destroyed by the savagery of the regime. Thousands of Pinochet’s political opponents were murdered, thousands of others ended up being tortured while held indefinitely in detention centres. Such was the savagery of the Pinochet regime that more and more states across the world started to distance themselves from his brutality. Even the US government of President Carter started to distance itself from this butcher, of course we all know that Margaret Thatcher loved him. Over his 16 years of savage power hugging, Pinochet shed the blood of countless thousands of the citizens of Chile. That is the 9/11 that will be to the fore of my thoughts when that date comes round once again. Though the New York 9/11 was a tragic event, it is dwarfed by the 9/11 of Chile, more deaths, more brutality, 16 years of ongoing torture and repression, backed by the so called democratic free West.

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

We Need To Empty The Cages.

      Most people are aware of the horrendous conditions in prisons in other countries around the world, as our babbling brook of bullshit, the mainstream media, will always highlight the horrors in foreign countries’ prison systems, creating the impression that we here in the UK are much, much more civilised, and we do things in a more humane way.
       Of course that is bullshit, yes there are prisons around the world that are far more brutal and have more disgusting conditions, but here in the UK our prisons are at bursting point. That in turn causes a rapid deterioration in already difficult conditions. Violence in prisons is rising, but then what do you expect if you throw people with substance addictions, mental health problems, learning difficulties, and a host of other problems, into under staffed over crowded and often brutal conditions.
        Prisons are not an answer to any of society’s problems, they are garbage cans where the nuisance, inconvenient, people are dumped by the state, a place to intimidate those who would dare to oppose and challenge the injustices of the present exploitative capitalist system we live under. Prisons and a civilised society are on opposite sides of a wide chasm. 

This from Anarchist News:

       The Empty Cages Collective are excited to announce a Tour of Northern England this September.
       Where: Hull, Leeds, Sheffield, Durham, Manchester and Lancaster. Full details of locations and times to be announced. Please note if you live in a northern city or town and have capacity to organise a date – please get in touch.

When: 25th – 30th September 2016

        British prisons are currently recognised as undergoing one of the most serious deteriorations of conditions in living memory, recently exposed as being the most violent ever recorded.
       In November 2015 the British government announced plans to build 9 new mega-prisons across England and Wales. These massive, minimally staffed facilities, far from resolving any of the prison estate’s serious underlying structural issues, are only going to subject greater numbers of people to their abusive conditions.
       This September, the Empty Cages Collective and Incarcerated Workers Organising Committee are going to be speaking throughout the North on the impacts of these developments, and the emerging network to resist them.

For more info: info@prisonabolition.org 

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

Cages To Protect The Rich And Powerful.

          Contrary to the vomit that the babbling brook of bullshit spews out, prisons are not places where bad, bad people are sent. Prisons are cages where the state locks up those it sees as a threat to its power and control of the system. They always have been, and always will be, there for that purpose. The vast majority of people take umbrage at scraping a living while a band of greedy power mongers wallows in opulence, produced from the sweat of the ordinary people. No doubt they would take action to sort out that injustice. Hence the conditioning, by means of propaganda and a skewed education system, to a set of rules and regulations that will perpetuate the status quo, backed up with a phoney judicial system that will punish those who dare to undermine the glaring injustice on which the system is based. Prisons are one of the state’s tools in its armoury to protect the rich and powerful. They are also now part of the vast corporate slave labour industrial complex. If you call for justice, if you respect freedom, if you believe in humanity, then you must stand against the prison system and stand with the prisoners. 

 Support for US prison strike September 9th. 2016. 

 

This from Radio Fragmata:

          It’s been years now that the various state agencies of repression order the conduct of investigation under the sole criterion the suspects’ political status. This is the status of the anarchist, mainly of the one who turns his/her ideas into actions, of the one that arms his/her desires and attacks state authority. So each investigation has to do with the possible prosecution of comrades according to the laws of their “democracy.” Police prosecution that starts off with texts and extends to all possible actions is not new amongst the anarchist circles. On the contrary, there is a past record on relative prosecutions in countries such as Italy, Chile etc. where there is a strong comrade presence promoting direct action and intervention. The common goal of contemporary international police is the prevention of anarchist propaganda, anarchist action and the spreading of our ideas. For this reason, in many cases they don’t even hesitate to put aside the refined mask of “democracy” that supposedly allows “freedom of speech and ideas.” And thus, any illusion that anyone may still hold is withdrawn. Things are now clear: “anarchist action or speech is either illegal or nothing at all!”

Read the full article HERE:

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

The Voice of An Imerialist Soldier.

      We all know, or should know that the invasion of Iraq was based on a false picture, an illusion created by the Western imperial states and propagated by that vile babbling brook of bullshit, the mainstream media. However it is still good to keep hearing it, and driving home the truth, that wars are about resources, power and wealth for that secret cabal sitting in the marble halls of power. 

     I saw this personal account of the vile nature that inevitably creeps into the individuals that find themselves caught up in these imperialist brutal wars, on the arrezafe site.

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

A Bike, Sunny Weather, And Short Sleeves.

         Well the weather is being kind to us, another lovely day. Again familiar territory, the Campsie Hills area. I honestly believe that because of the number of times, over many years, that I have cycled round the Campsie area, that my bike could probably do it without me. Never the less, I like to tag along for the pleasure. Today was warm and sunny, with a 15/16 mph wind. Purring along wearing short sleeves, at the end of August, while drinking in an ever changing vista, is a pleasure to behold.

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

Reality Or A TV Farce???

       So for a moment, let’s think of the world we live in, and by our daily grinding labour, support and maintain, the world that the babbling brook of bullshit, the mainstream media tells us, is the best way to live our lives. A world that if we decided we no longer wish to tolerate, we could bring crashing down.
        It is a world of pampered parasites draped in ermine, with their snouts deeply stuck in the trough of public money. A world of corporate bosses with their private jets and super yachts, plundering the wealth that we create. A cabal of callous self seeking, careerist politicians, who with empire in mind, legislate life and death of the poor, while protecting bonuses for the rich, and ensuring austerity for the many. A world where an abundance of wealth slushes around, but never finds its way to those, the ordinary people, who create that wealth.
         If we wrote this as a story for TV, we could understand it as a far fetched tale of greed, corruption, of exploitation, and injustice, but as a reality, created by our own sweat and blood, well it beggars belief.

Home to the many.

 

  ENOUGH IS ENOUGH.

MUST WE TOLERATE
the giggling audacity of the rich
midst the pitiful anguish of the poor,
those boated cavaliers
using pillage to secure
their lives of arrogant excess,
a pirate's plundering tour.

WHERE IS IT WRITTEN
that this world must be
a place where the many toil and sweat
grinding out their meagre existence
in poverty, hunger and debt,
while the hubristic greedy few
live the life of a pampered pet.

LET'S TRY AGAIN
no more war, no deprivation
a world of sharing, a world of giving
a chance for all to grow and prosper
in a culture of friendship and forgiving.
With true love and understanding
we can create a new way of living.

 

Sir Philip Green's £100 million yacht.

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