The Loch Again.

At Tarbet, with wee balaclava.

         What a day Sunday was, a beautiful run up the Loch, (Loch Lomond) and back down. It was my perfect cycling day, bright sun, virtually no wind, 4/5 mph. and not too cold or too warm around 14/15 degrees. Though there was a bit of a chill factor, hence the wee black balaclava, though maybe it is just my age. Surprising, considering the day, I didn't, encounter many cyclists on the road, but loads of fast cars and extremely fast motorbikes. The little tearoom at Tarbet was the refuelling station, they always do a good thick soup shared this time with my partner, Stasia. She cycled a short run from Inverbeg to Tarbet and back. Nice to have a bit of company, I usually do it all on my own. 

Entering Tarbet from Arrachar.

And of course the Ben, sticking its head up.

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

More On US Prison Strike.

State police after raiding Attica Prison 1971.

       More on the nation wide US prisoners strike. Brutal repression is taking place within the dark walls of these slave institutions. We should remember Attica prison uprising, September 9th, 1971, which was savagely crushed after the state drowned the public in lies and false information. No doubt they will attempt the same process of either media blackout, or an avalanche of misinformation and down right lies. We owe it to those standing up for justice within those cages of slave labour and repression, to get out as much information as we can and to stand in solidarity with them.

This from Paste:

          Less than two days ago … at Kinross unit in Michigan … The warden had come out and was speaking to the inmates, over 400 of them, which had peacefully marched in the yard. But after the warden left, basically, a riot repression team came in and dragged prisoners out of their showers and out of their cells, zip-tied their arms behind their back and threw them out in the yard and left them out there for five to six hours in the rain without any access to bathroom facilities. So the repression that prisoners are facing around the country for having participated in the strike is real, and it’s very severe. So right now we’re really focused on responding in order to help get the word out and get people to call into those units, so that we can help to support those who are being repressed, as well as to continue supporting strike workers, whether that’s people who are continuing to be on work stoppages and rolling work stoppages or continuing to hunger strike.

Read the full article HERE: 

From Democracy Now:

        The largest prison work strike in U.S. history has entered its third week. Organizers report that as of last week at least 20 prisons in 11 states continued to protest, including in Alabama, California, Florida, Indiana, Louisiana, Michigan, New York, Ohio, South Carolina and Washington. The Incarcerated Workers Organizing Committee says at one point about 20,000 prisoners were on strike. With protest has come punishment. Several facilities have been put on lockdown, with prisoners kept in their cells and denied phone access both before and during the strike. Organizers have also been put in solitary confinement.

From Support Prisoners Resistance:

       September 9 was historic. The direct action of prisoners and their supporters successfully poked holes in the thick veil that protects prison from public scrutiny, but we need to tear that veil down to succeed.
       There are still actions occurring in need of immediate support, and news of retaliation leaking out of prisons all across the country. Those of us at the center of prisoner strike support have been working non-stop and we need your help. Rapid response is needed to restrain backlash and protecting strikers, at the same time, maintaining constant pressure and awareness-raising prevents the return to normal.
       Where to get up-to-date information and action suggestions: https://itsgoingdown.org/defend-the-strike/

How to volunteer:
                  – contact IWOC at IWOC@riseup.net to plug in with others in your area, track and research the strike, contribute to anti-repression and legal assistance efforts, transcribe letters from prisoners, coordinate with media, and otherwise build the prisoner’s union in support of direct action behind bars anywhere in the US.
        – contact FAM at http://freealabamamovement.com/contactus.html to support the organization at ground zero of the prison strike. Since September 9, conflict at Holman prison outside of Atmore Alabama has gotten so intense that even correctional officers spoke out in support of FAM and refused to report to work.

Continue reading HERE:

More HERE

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

Three Weeks Of US Prisoners Strike.

       Not a whisper, not a sound, from our babbling brook of bullshit, the mainstream media, about the US prison strike, now in its third week. In one prison even the guards failed to turn up for work. The US prison system, like others around the world, is creaking at the seams, brutality, corruption, over crowding, and the blatant injustice of the whole festering cancer, is becoming more and more evident day by brutal day. Those incarcerated in the state's cages are fighting a very unequal fight, they face the state at its most brutal stage, confined within walls and cages, under constant surveillance, their rights stripped away and at the mercy of the state's armed minders, but still they resist. There actions demand our solidarity, we built those prisons, we can pull them down.  

This from It's Going Down: 

       It is being reported that last week while at the prison after attending the funeral of the pig who was stabbed here on September 1st and died from his injuries, the REGIONAL COORDINATOR Grantt Culliver, stated to several prisoners that he was going to bring the CERT, the department of corrections’ special response squad to Holman prison in Atmore, Alabama on the 1st of Octobeter and that they will be here for the next ninety days to search the prison for every knife and cellphone, and that are going to take the prison apart piece by piece until they have found every weapon and phone.
       This is an attempt at intimidation and move to reestablish authority and total control. Control over human beings who have been resisting and saying fuck your authority! Humans who no longer accept the narrative that they are worthless and that the state has a right to punish and use violence without it being returned. No longer will we allow the gross injustices to go unchecked.
         We want you all out there in the open air prison called the free world to keep an eye on what happens here. We know that the pigs are angry about the death of their colleague at the hands of a prisoner and all the resistance that has sprung up here within the last year and have / are planning to crush the resistance. Keep an eye on Holman and continue to show solidarity through direct action.
No gods, no masters!
Death to the state!
Long live anarchy!

       Prisons can be, and often are, grotesque exaggerations of the patriarchal system that exists in society at large, magnifying problems with gender issues.
This from Anarchy Live:

      The web has been abuzz with information about the recent riots here in Alabama at Holman prison – the stabbing of a warden and correctional officer, the fires that were set, the overcrowding, etc. – but what has been left out of this narrative is that the catalyst for the riots was a fight between two queer prisoners about queer relations. After quelling their beef, a pig and the warden attempted to intervene and was stabbed.
      No one wants to mention that out of the six prisoners who were charged with the stabbings of the warden and correctional officer, four are queer. Historically, attempts have been made to write queer resistance out of history. But, despite all the attempts, queer folk have refused to allow these stories to go unknown.
      What I think most people refuse to acknowledge is that prisons are extensions of patriarchal control. Male prisons are hyper-macho environments with very hierarchical structures and class divisions. In the prisons, queer prisoners have taken on a submissive and passive persona, because they themselves are not immune to all the psychological bullshit that society teaches about gender, sex, and class, and how that gender should be lived – you know, ‘females are weak and only to use, and control.’ The queer prisoner is on the bottom of the social ladder, just above snitches. The life of the queer prisoner is one of gross disrespect, violence, and oppression, from prisoners and pigs alike. Most prisoners look at being queer as an abomination, as something nasty and weak.
      But on March 11, 2016, that narrative was shattered after queer prisoners went on the offensive against the pigs.
      One queer prisoner went from dorm to dorm inviting, exhorting, and encouraging prisoners to come out of their cells and join in tearing the prison down. One dorm refused and placed a lock and chain on their dorm’s cell door, successfully locking themselves in and everyone else out. The queer prisoner started calling these guys on this and called them pigs, Uncle Tom, etc. all while brandishing a knife.
      And this is not the only instance of queer resistance against the pigs:
      – In 2012, a stabbing of a guard in the segregation unit at Holman was taking place while showers were being done, and Fredricka, a queer prisoner’s, cell door hadn’t closed and she ran out the cell, down the stairs and into the control unit. She kicked the pig down who was in the control unit, handcuffed him and opened some of the segregation cell doors, allowing other prisoners to come out their cell and attack the police.
       – Also in 2012 at Holman prison, queer prisoners formed the “Gay Militia” as a prison gang for the protection of themselves against homophobes.
       – At Donaldson prison in Alabama, queer prisoners form F.A.G. as a self-defense organization.
        – In 2015 at Holman prison, a queer prisoner set fire to a guard in the segregation unit.
        The history of queer resistance is long and beautiful. It didn’t start with Stonewall.
In Solidarity,
Queer Resistance

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

The Stae And Repression, Two Sides Of The Same Coin.

 

        Across the world state repression goes on and on, those who struggle for change to a just, open and free society, are the ones who get hit hardest, so anarchists will always be at the sharp end of that state repression. Trumped up charges, fabricated laws to suit the state's grip on the population, and brutal treatment of those caught up in their net of repression, that's the pattern across the globe. Our weapon to fight this savagery against justice and freedom, is solidarity, solidarity across borders. Borders are imaginary lines drawn across our planet by power mongers, to protect their power and privileges. To us, the ordinary people, they don't exist, the world is our village.
Some calls for solidarity:

UK:

SOLIDARITY WITH THE EAST STREET DEFENDANTS

       On Sunday the 21st of June, 2015, an immigration raid on East Street sparked an explosion of rebellion and Solidarity. When Immigration Enforcement officers forced a local man into the back of their van, a crowd of people who live and work in the area, including kids, gathered to prevent his removal. Because of this, riot police were called to the scene.
     Without warning, the riot police violently charged the crowd, knocking people to the ground and attacking them with dogs. Instead of running away, the people in the crowd, now numbering well over a hundred, stood firm and defended themselves. Unable to disperse the crowd, the cops left the area.
      Since then, the man originally detained has been deported and three people have been forced to stand trial at the beginning of October this year. They face massively inflated charges including “violent disorder.” If found guilty they could receive a serious prison sentence.
      At a time when whole estates are being demolished to make way for luxury flats and many are being forced out of their area, when migrants are treated like criminals, held in indefinite detention away from their friends and families, when immigration raids and police harassment are part of daily life, it’s clear that the violence of the order is the real problem. And it is this violence that people on East Street were rebelling against.
       The charge of “violent disorder” is a cynical tactic used to stop such rebellion. By singling out individuals for punishment, the authorities hope to spread fear among us so that we feel unable to defend ourselves. But instead of giving in to fear, the best form of self-defence is to stand in solidarity with each other, just as people did on East Street when their neighbour was detained by Immigration Enforcement in June last year.
      In October this year, solidarity with the East Street Defendants can only mean one thing: continued rebellion against the violent order.

Italy:

          Updates on anarchist comrades Anna Beniamino and Alfredo Cospito
      These updates have been made known to us directly by the imprisoned comrades Anna Beniamino and Alfredo Cospito:
        Concerning Anna, she tells us that she is in isolation (no tv), is prohibited from meeting with other prisoners and saw censorship of her mail, which she says reaches her fairly quickly.
         Alfredo, instead, is still in isolation, and not only for his solidarity action with the CCF, which the prison court has not yet ruled on yet, but also for the new investigation “Scripta Manent”. He also informed us that being in isolation he has nothing in the cell such as addresses, even the comrades arrested for Scripta Manent.
       I urge comrades to send them the most news, newspapers, and stamps to break the isolation that the nation’s prisons are imposing physically at this time.

Poland:

 We announce that all three of Warsaw are freed.
       After nearly 4 months of absolute isolation we managed to pull them out of jail. This release proves how weak is the police evidence and how “necessary steps” of the prosecution were just playing time, using detention as form of torture to force confessions.
This also proves that solidarity campaigns make sense – not only in moral dimension, but also practically.
What can one do now?
      The solidarity campaign continues – as actual criminal trial is yet to come. Defendants still need our support, mostly in the field of information and finance. The money will be needed for the lawyers and for the return of the deposit. Spreading objective, non-police knowledge of this case and repression also really improves their chances on trial and protects the movement from further repression. Organize collection, meetings, events, circulate posters, leaflets, brochures and this website.
What one shouldn’t do now?
       The moment of release of the arrested is a moment of intense police attention – in recent days more and more often undercovers and other cops are seen observing places important for the movement and trying to infiltrate. This is the worst time to gossip, speculate, fabricate facts, assign to yourselves or others fault, merit, knowledge of the case, and for any other actions based on incomplete / false information.
        If you would like to contact the defendants, think twice whether you’re someone from their loved ones. If not – let them catch their breath and rest – there will be time for our paths to cross, not once.

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

I Am The Owner Of Everything.

 

Labourers after dinner, artist JM Johnstone, 1895.

        Poetry is a wonderful way to speak the truth, to express emotion, to paint a picture, to say so much without filling pages and pages, it is that halfway place between conversation and music. On the same theme as a previous post, for those who don't read the comments, I believe this is worthy of repeating, thanks Loam.

I am the owner of everything

I am the owner of everything,
but I never got anything.
I make light and I make fire,
I push the wind and the water.

My hands to the wood
They make it do wonders.
I'm the one who tempers the steel
and who casts the seed.

I make the chair and the table
and I have no where to sit.
Finally, I dont even have
the right to get tired.

I do palaces, and my children
sleep in tin shacks.
I am hammer, ax and tong,
clip, spoon and hoe.

I am the owner of everything
but I never got anything.
The day I say enough!,
flares will burn!

                                                               - Horacio Guarany
____________________________

Original version:
Yo soy el dueño de todo

Yo soy el dueño de todo,
pero nunca tengo nada.
Yo hago la luz, hago el fuego,
hago el viento y hago el agua.

Mis manos a la madera
le hacen hacer maravillas.
Yo soy quien tiempla el acero
y quien echa la semilla.

Yo hago la silla y la mesa
y no tengo ’onde sentarme.
Total, si ya no me queda
ni el derecho de cansarme.

Yo hago el palacio, y mis hijos
duermen en ranchos de lata.
Soy martillo, hacha, tenaza,
pinza, cuchara y azada.

Yo soy el dueño de todo
pero nunca tengo nada.
¡El día que yo me canse,
van a arder las llamaradas!

                                                   - Horacio Guarany

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

World Wide State Repression.

       Today with the every increasing crises in the capitalist system, raising anger and discontent among the ordinary people, anarchist ideas are coming more to the fore in people's minds and discussions. However this also means that the various states, that are mandated by the financial Mafia, to control the civil populations, are coming down harder on anarchist individuals and groups. Arrests of anarchists in France, Czech Republic, Italy, Spain, Greece, Azerbaijan, and many other countries across the globe, is on the increase. Obviously, anarchist ideas are seen by the wealthy and powerful as the greatest threat to their exploitative ponzi scheme. These arrests in countries across the world demands our solidarity, solidarity knows no borders, nor should our world.

This from Radio Berlin, in English:

      In the context of the International Week of Solidarity with Anarchist Prisoners (23.-30th of August 2016), we had the opportunity of talking to a comrade from Anarchist Black Cross (ABC) in Czech Republic. The interview gives a short summary of the repression that started in 2015 and explains the singular cases and their current development, but deals also with the problems the movement had in the beginning to show solidarity. Last but not least, you get very good advice on the topic of solidarity and what to do yourselves.
Since the interview, another comrade is in prison. Lukáš Borl, who had been living underground, has been arrested by the police on September 4.

Please send feedback and comments at: aradio-berlin/at/riseup(.)net

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

It's Our World, We Made It.

      We the people made everything in this world from the shoe to the supersonic plane, from the walking stick to the MRI scanner, our skill, our imagination, our labour. Isn't it time we took control and shaped it the way WE want?

WE THE LABOURING MASSES.

We the people have, every brick laid,

have fed the world with sweat and spade,

every instrument played in every band

created by the skill of the craftsman's hand.

We made every truck and every load,

our toil our effort every winding road,

every ship that ever sailed the sea,

our power our imagination made it be.

Cities and towns large and small,

our labouring hands fashioned them all,

every home, every spire,

luxury mansion or humble byre.

No matter what dreams the mind might spawn

without labour's hand, never see the light of dawn,

without labour's strength and labour's skill,

we would be foraging beasts in a jungle still.

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

A Beast Of A Wind.

         Managed out three times on the bike in the last week, Wednesday it was the Campsie area, not a bad day, Thursday it was the Aberfoyle direction, a bit on the windy side, but good to be out. Yesterday, Tuesday, it was  a zigzag through the Auchenreoch, Milton of Campsie, Low Moss area, always depressing passing the prison. As you may have noted, Tuesday was a beast of a wind, 18/20 mph and gusting higher in places, it made we work hard, but loved every minute. The photos are from Thursday's run, one from Glengoyne, known for its single malt whisky, looking north towards the might Ben Lomond. The other is from a spot near where Killearn Hospital used to stand, looking at Dumgoyne. A favourite for hill walkers, not very high, but a steep ascent all the way. The Killearn Hospital, long since gone, was built well into the countryside far away from the city pollution, as they specialised in brain surgery.

From Glengoyne looking towards Ben Lomond

From the Killearn area looking at Dumgoyne. 

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

 

Workers Know Your History, State Murders.

        The dark days of Spain's fascist dictator Franco, should not be forgotten. His regime brutally put down any any left-wing opposition in the country by, prison, torture and execution. The last executions carried out under his regime was on September 27, 1975, when 5 individuals were executed by firing squad. Franco died two months later, and some dark clouds lifted from the country of Spain.

Graphic from arrezafe:

From Wikipedia:

            The last use of capital punishment in Spain took place on 27 September 1975 when two members of the armed Basque nationalist and separatist group ETA political-military and three members of the Revolutionary Antifascist Patriotic Front (FRAP) were shot dead by firing squads after having been convicted and sentenced to death by military tribunals for the murder of policemen and civil guards. Spain was Western Europe's last dictatorship at this time and had been unpopular and internationally isolated in the post-war period due to its relations with Nazi Germany in the 1930s and the fact that the authoritarian Spanish leader, Francisco Franco, had come to power by overthrowing a democratically elected government. As a result, the executions resulted in substantial criticism of the Spanish government, both domestically and abroad. Reactions included street protests, attacks on Spanish embassies, international criticism of the Spanish government and diplomatic measures, such as the withdrawal of the ambassadors of fifteen European countries.

        This was the last use of the death penalty in Spain; following the death of Francisco Franco, two months later, no further executions took place. The 1978 Spanish Constitution largely abolished the death penalty, with the exception of limited cases in times of war, and these exceptions were abolished in 1995. In 2012, a Basque Government commission found that the processes used to convict two of those executed had violated their rights and awarded compensation to their families.

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

Trying To See Through The Fog Of Propaganda.

        If you ever pock your nose into that babbling brook of bullshit, our mainstream media, either on TV or in the newspapers, you get the impression that there are only two factions involved in the bombing of that unfortunate and shattered country, Syria. All the reports are of the dreadful damage caused by Russian and Syrian bombers, over that broken disaster that is Aleppo. The fact that US, UK, Saudi, Australian, French, Turkey and others that I probably have missed, are all in there bombing Syria, seems to be overlooked, we never seem to here of the damage and carnage that they may be causing. Are we to believe that there is no suffering caused by these other imperialist nations' releasing their devastating weaponry, no injured and maimed children, no smashed homes, no suffering and traumatised people, worthy of reporting?
      Once again we are trying to assess a situation while locked in a fog of propaganda. What is clear, is that the people of Syria are of no concern to the tribe of imperialists squabbling in Syria over control of its rich oil and gas resources.

         This from IN GAZA:

        Aleppo and nearby villages ravaged by the West’s “moderate” terrorists (photo essay)

      I support Syria against a “civil” war that is funded, armed and planned by Western powers and their regional allies with a view to wiping out all resistance to imperialism in the Middle East.

 

      The northern city of Aleppo has been one of the most grossly misreported-on cities in the Syrian Arab Republic, with Western and Gulf media and NGOs continuously ignoring the realities of life in this city of over 1.5 million civilians, instead launching coordinated propaganda campaigns against the Syrian government and army (SAA), and in favour of terrorists labeled as “rebels”, and ignoring their firing of an array of missiles, rockets, Hell Cannon-fired gas canister bombs, explosive bullets, and more onto the civilians of greater Aleppo.
     Terrorist factions occupying areas of Aleppo include Jabhat al-Nusra, Ahrar al-Sham, the so-called “Free Syrian Army”, and child-beheading Nour el din Zinki mercenaries.
       In July and in August, 2016, I travelled by car to Aleppo, to meet with doctors and ordinary civilians, and to hear their testimonies of life in a city which has many times been under terrorists’ siege and is always under terrorists’ bombings and snipings.

Full article and photos HERE:

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

The Fog Of Propaganda.

        I posted this earlier, but thought it was worth mentioning again as the film is showing shortly at the Kinning Park Centre Glasgow.

The Media Monopoly Series
The Occupation of the American Mind

 

 

       ”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."
 John Carey

The education of persuasion
         Maybe we need to ask why our education system trains us in the merits of Public Relations (propaganda), in, being first, winning a place, getting to the top, fighting the competition. While there is little or nothing in teaching students how to protect themselves from the adverse effects of corporate propaganda?
        The scope of this film is much wider than this particular subject matter, it has lessons that can be applied to a wide variety of propagandised social and political issues.
          Are we being educated by media propaganda? Watch!
         "Harrowing and incendiary! A vital and unmissable film" Dave Zirin The Nation
          Israel's Public Relations War in the United States Narrated by Pink Floyd's Roger Waters
       “Once you know how something is put in place you can start to take it apart”

The Occupation of the American Mind 

Kinning Park Complex Glasgow

Sunday 2nd Oct
2 till 4:00

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

The Many Shapes Of The Spirit Of Resistance.

        Across the world states are in crises, as the system they attempt to manage, capitalism, is itself, in crisis. Capitalism has mandated the states to manage the civil population, while they rip them off, but more and more people are seeing through the shabby illusion, more and more the people are resisting. As capitalism lurches from one crisis to another, the state’s job of managing the people becomes a task doomed to failure. Resistance to this system of control and exploitation takes many shapes, from the organised groups, to the individuals who fight the system on a daily basis, in their own particular way, but fight they do. Of course in the eyes of the system, any acts of resistance, which in fact are self defence, will never be classified as such, it will be labelled, vandalism, hooliganism, terrorism, and a host of other demonising isms. This will then be followed up with the full violence and brutality of their “judicial system”. The artefacts and symbols of the exploitative, repressive system of the festering marriage of capitalism and state are all around us. The expensive cars, the luxury hotels, the designer label shops, the banks, the sweatshop places of labour, the injustice of poverty, all supported by an army of police and CCTV cameras, all to let you know your pecking order in this hierarchical nightmare. However that is also one of its weaknesses, everything is out their, open to acts of self defence, acts of resistance, acts of righteous anger.

       This article, posted in Contra Info, is from Brazil, a country no stranger to the savage ravishes of capitalism, and no stranger to the people's resistance to this brutal system:

          Every stone thrown is the expression of indignation of all of us, tired of being used, manipulated and dominated by those in government, by the media, by the multinationals… A brick is charged with rage, frustration and more than anything else the freedom of disobedience, of disrespect to property. A brick into a window is the expression of insubmission, of those instincts that were not and never will be domesticated and pacified. It is the capacity to overcome the margins of citizenist protest towards the path of free rebellion. A brick carries all the courage of leaving the house and abandoning the role of the spectator in front of a screen, to run out to the streets and transform them into a field of political action.
       The streets, where we meet, do not belong to anybody but the revolt. The streets open the way to take back our lives, they open the way to insubmission and dignity… They open the doors so that everyone can be responsible for themselves without depending on any institution, they open the way of “fuck the State” and of autonomy… and we are there because our rage is expanding, against the social order, not against the puppet that carries the title of the President, but against the entire state structure… because it’s clear to us that the streets shout much more than “Out With Temer”.
      From the streets, we’re uncontrollable, in the complicity of the hoodie we’re stronger, and we can live intensively in spaces where the banks will never be something to be defended but institutions that profit from inequality, that take over lives with blows of credit cards and financial interests. There where the bourgeois car is not a dream but a symbol of vanity; where a shop is selling privileges and not just clothes… where we’re able to attack materially against domination.
       That the internal repression led by candidates and affiliates of political parties don’t put a halt to our rage, that they don’t put a halt to direct actions…

We had enough of being commanded… 

Read the full article HERE:

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

Direct Action Versus Legislation.

        Thanks to a member of the Spirit of Revolt, we have become the proud possessors of four more very rare pamphlets, thanks John. We have put one of them up on our "Read of the Month", it is by The Free Action Anarchist Group in Glasgow around 1899, published in Bridgeton Glasgow, hopefully the rest will follow in time. It is titled "Direct Action Versus Legislation" written by J. Blair Smith, a very active Scottish anarchist of that era. The subject matter is just as relevant today as it was when it was written. If anyone has any information on J. Blair Smith I would be delighted if they could pass it on to me, his life should be better known. Visit our site and have a read. http://spiritofrevolt.info/direct-action-versus-legislation/ 

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

Slavery And The Prison Struggle.

       A fact that is little broadcast by our babbling brook of bullshit, the mainstream media, is that it was the “abolition” of slavery, (we all know that it didn't really get abolished, just transformed), that gave a tremendous boost to the industrial revolution. As the slave owners were obliged to release their slaves, they were richly compensated by tax payers money for their loss. As they found themselves with buckets full of cash, they looked around to see how they could make it grow. So the the new industrial era got under way. This little map gives you some idea of the money that flowed into the pockets of the genteel folks of Edinburgh, who had their hands well dipped in slave ownership. This avalanche of tax payers money to slave owners, was repeated across the UK and elsewhere. 

 

      In support of the ongoing US prison strike, 325 has an interesting article that explains how today’s US prison system is more or less a continuation of the slave system that built empires. During the European imperialists expansion, slavery and indentured servitude were the backbone, the fertiliser, of capitalist growth and imperialist expansion. Little has changed, capitalism still thrives on slave labour, allied to cheap labour.

 

From 325:

 Prisons in the USA – The dark side of slavery in American society

        In order to be in the position to understand the importance and necessity of the us prisoners’ struggle, we first need to analyze the role of slavery in the foundation and evolution of the american state and its historical and integral ,until today, link with the capital.
      Slavery in its many forms was actually the foundation on which the omnipotence of american overlordship was gradually built. The root of this phenomenon can be traced back in the era when the christian empires of europe started a race to conquest unknown lands, founding colonialism regimes, in the era of brutal genocides of the indigenous populations and the slave trade of the non-white african population. Since then and until today, the social and political circumstances have rapidly changed, mainly because of a heavy blood tax that has been paid from beneath, towards the direction of the total shaking off of slavery as an institution. However, it continues up until today, more or less covered.
      Today’s prisoners’ class and racial composition, the spreading of private prisons, the institutionalization of enforced labor as a form of criminal sanction, the exploitation of prisoners by big companies highlight the fundamental connection between state-capitalism-slavery and prison.

Slavery in the first colonial systems

      During the first years of the “new world’s” colonization and until the early 18th century, most of the settlers were not free but were under a status of an idiotype slavery, known as “indentured servitude”, which aimed in equipping the colonies with cheap workforce. The “indentured servant” signed a contract according to which she/he was mortgaging her/his freedom and provide her/his work to a master for a period between 5 to 7 years and, in exchange, the latter covered her/his transportation expenses to the colony. In practice, it was happening by the signature of the contract between the “indentured servant” and the ship owner and the subsequent transferring of the contract to the new master, as soon as the ship arrived to the “new world”. The institution was initially introduced in 1619 through Virginia Company. It has been calculated that 80% of the refugees in the american colonies before american revolution were under this status, while only 40% managed to survive. “Interventured servants” consisted of three categories : -----------

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Solidarity Is Our Winning Weapon.

       Landlords who keep shitty property and threaten tenants with eviction if the complain about the state of the place they rent, should not be tolerated. However it is difficult to stand alone against a bullying landlord, but with solidarity, it is a different matter, we can make a difference if we stands together. It is encouraging to see a community come together to protect a threatened family. 

This from the Evening Times:

Neighbours form human chain to prevent bailiffs evicting mum-of-five

        This is the moment kindhearted neighbours formed a human chain around a mum's house - to stop her being kicked out in a 'revenge eviction'. Nimo Abdullahi, 39, was told she and her family would be thrown out of their home of 12 years after she complained to her landlord about damp. But in a bid to protect the mum-of-five from a 'revenge eviction', residents and campaigners turned out to stop it happening. Around 30 people stood side by side, arms linked, to build a wall of bodies in front of the privately-rented property in Easton, Bristol.
      All morning, more neighbours joined the blockade - with a newlywed couple living opposite the family cutting up their wedding cake to keep the protesters sustained. When bailiffs turned up at 11am on Tuesday, they weren't able to get inside. Nimo said she was threatened with evictions numerous times - whenever she complained - but this time, the landlord actually went through with it.
       She said: "It has a big problem with damp. This is bad for us, because my children have asthma and it is not a good place. "Until recently, the carpets everywhere were very old and dirty and we would ask the landlord to improve things, but he was difficult. "Many times I asked him, and a lot of times he would threaten us. "He would say that we were going to be evicted, and once he came round with his wife and she said that if we didn't move out they would call the police to get us out.
       "But this is our home." Nimo who is being helped by Acorn, a local grass roots movement which fights for renters' rights, said she was stunned by the support from her neighbours. The mum, whose three sons and two daughters go to the local school, said: "I was shocked. I went out and came running back in because I was so stunned. "I've had great support from Acorn and now to see my neighbours outside supporting me is amazing."
        Jenny Ross came out to protest the treatment of the Abdullahi family, who have lived in the property since they moved to England from Holland. She said: "We don't want people in our community treated like this. It's a revenge eviction and people deserve decent rented accommodations. "This landlord, and all landlords, need to know there are people in this community who won't ignore it. "We live in this street and it's a close community. It's amazing how many people have turned out."

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We Are Being Screwed.

         Wow, a politician speaks the truth, poor sod, his career is in jeopardy. But it is all so obvious to all those who take a wee look at how governments and central wanker bankers function. Of course the system that lives by this scam is not likely to send their mates to prison. So it will continue until we change the system, take control of our own lives, and shape society to see to the needs of all our people. We have to pull the plug on this cancerous greed driven system that favours the rich and wealthy at the expense of the ordinary people.