Martyrs' Stone.

       Managed out four times this week on the bike, though getting a bit cold. I hope I didn't give the impression that the last run I done up the Loch, was from Arrochar to Tarbet, 4+ miles? I come from the other direction, from beyond Balloch to Tarbet and then round to Arrochar, before turning back to Tarbet for that plate of sustenance.

      Last Wednesday it was a wee dash round my home territory, a non stop 30 mile circuit circling round Lenzie, Kirkintilloch, Milton of Campsie, Torrance zigzagging this way and that until I got my 30 miles. No stops, so no photos. Thursday it was the same territory, but cut it short to 25 miles, again no stops, no photos. 

       Monday I decided to go up the Aberfoyle road, on  reaching the Aberfoyle/Killearn/Drymen round-about, I was met with cones across the road stating road closed, and a notice saying diversion via Drymen. No intentions of going to Drymen, I decided that I would go through the cones, and if it was road works, I could just cycle/walk through and then carry on to Aberfoyle. 

     What a wonderful experience, mile after mile with no traffic. I started to imagine that this is what it will be like when the real "oil crisis" hits us, no noise of roaring cars, no thundering lorries, roads for bikes. I began to wonder what the cones were there for, when about 400 yards from Ballott Toll, it became obvious. There is an aqueduct that crosses the road at that point, carrying the lovely clear waters of Loch Katrine to the people of Glasgow and surrounding districts to flow into their homes for drinking, among other purposes. It was propped up with about twelve steel columns across the road, tall steel fencing across the road with heavy chains and a notice, DANGER, no entry. It looks as if the vital water supply to Glasgow is about to fall down, disaster for Glasgow should that ever happen. I admitted defeat, turned the bike and headed back along the wonderful stretch of traffic-less road.

        Today, Wednesday, it was a repeat of last Thursday's run, though I did stop at one point for a couple of photos. It was the Martyrs' Stone on the Kirkintilloch/Kilsyth road, a monument to mark two Covenanters who were put to death for their faith. I just feel that I would have respected them more if their passion had been for humanity, rather than for their faith. I have photographed this stone before, but I thought it was worth another shot. It must be the least visited monument in this part of Scotland, as it is situated at the side of a rather narrow road with no footpath or parking and a steady stream of fast traffic.

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

Where Do We Live When We Finally Screw The Planet?

 

       A call for all you environmentalists, Earth Firsters, etc., to share you ideas, actions, hopes and fears. Magazines like Earth First can only survive because of people like you, if you like and want the magazine, then put pen to paper, of course today it might be finger to keyboard, but you know what I mean.

From Tarcoteca, a Call from Earth First:

We want your writing!
For a semi-regular zine of activist reflections and actions.

       This is an invitation for articles offering a critical analysis and reflections on Earth First! and related environmental and social justice direct action movements, how we organise and the actions we take. Contributions can be about actions in the UK or international. We also welcome book reviews, activist resources, short rants, illustrations, cartoons, poems and photographs. We suggest 500 – 2000 words for articles, but contact us if you want to do something longer.
        We aim to have a zine in print and online by the Earth First! winter moot 2017. All articles will be copyleft and you can choose whether to write anonymously. Deadline November 30 2016.
      Also contact us if you want to join our editorial collective or offer us funding. zine@earthfirst.org.uk or contact us if you want to send an article by snail mail.

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

Slave Labour And Xenophobia, Diseases Of Capitalism.

        Weekdays are workdays at the Perry Correctional Institution in Pelzer, South Carolina, where Dee, a forty-two-year-old native of Georgia, has spent a decade serving time for a robbery. On typical mornings, he “commutes” from his cell to an on-site furniture factory, where he and other inmates assemble wooden tables and chairs for a private company. But when Dee’s cell door opened on September 9th, the forty-fifth anniversary of the Attica prison uprising, he did not respond as usual to the call to attention. Dee was on strike. “I quit,” he told me a few days ago, speaking via a contraband cell phone. “That was my last day of work.” Dee grew up poor and began committing crimes as a young man, but he had educated himself in prison and joined a group of “jailhouse lawyers” who assist other inmates with legal issues. More recently, Dee had begun to think of himself not just as a prison activist but as a worker. “We’re not compensated for our labor,” he told me. At Perry, inmates earn less than a dollar per hour in the furniture shop. “Slavery is inhumane, no matter its disguise.”

This from IWW member:

           As you might have come across, the IWW's Incarcerated Workers Organising Committee has been involved in an an ongoing prisoners' strike since the 9th of September in the United States (https://www.facebook.com/ incarceratedworkers/) . Companies profiting from the forced labor of prisoner include household names such as McDonald's and Victoria's Secret. I think that there is room for some solidarity actions that are not very time consuming or difficult to organise (such as picketing a central McDonalds and handing out leaflets) but which will nevertheless be effective in raising awareness of the strike and thereby actively aiding the struggle of IWOC and the prisoners. Even a small action, even if it has next to no impact, will be important for the morale of the persons involved in the strike and in the general picture of solidarity actions (that being said, obviously we should hope to have as big an impact as possible). A branch of IWOC exists for England and Wales which will I am sure give us lots of support -http://incarceratedworkers. noflag.org.uk/category/news/( leaflets, newsletters etc.).
            Additionally, a migrant strike is being organised under the title 'one day without us'- more information here https://www.theguardian. com/uk-news/2016/oct/10/ migrant-workers-plan-labour- boycott-to-protest-racism- highlight-contribution-to- britain
           Not much is known about this, but it is scheduled for the 20th of February, which gives lots of time for organising.

   Migrant workers picking daffodils in Linconshire. many people are alarmed by xenophobic attitudes to foreigners. Photograph: Alamy 

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

Anti-fascism In Greece.

      The recent history of the people of Greece has been one of violent struggle. During the second World war, they were occupied by the Nazis, at the end of that war the patriots, that had fought to help drive the Nazis out, found themselves engaged in a war with the British imperial military, who under Churchill's dictate, wanted to eliminate any left-wing resistance to his plan to restore the Greek monarchy, which would be compliant to the will of the British imperialists. However, even the wealthy class in Greece didn't want that bunch back again. Greece was then racked by a civil war as the various factions struggled for control. An authoritarian government gave way to a military take over, ushering the Regime of The Colonels, which despite strong resistance, lasted until 1974. This is a very short, abbreviated, truncated, history of the people of Greece, but it does give you some idea of why there is such strong hatred of the fascists, in that tortured and decimated country.

 Cretan Guerillas attacking Germany soldiers on the island of Crete.

This from Act For Freedom Now:

WE CAME AND WE WILL COME AGAIN

       On Sunday 2/10 we attacked the building that houses the offices of the Golden Dawn. We threw paint in all spaces of the building and torched the entrance to the offices of the local organization. Our priority was to not threat any human lives so we limited the expansion of the fire. So the “well-wishers” should drop the nonsense about a new Marfin bank incident.
      Our choice to target the residents and owners had clear motives. We want to clarify to them that we consider them jointly responsible for the existence of the fascists’ offices in the city. The historical period we are going through is crucial, and social polarization is inevitable. Thus, we think veryone must be a vital cell in the developments, if we wanna hope for a world without fascists and other such scum. Those who, consciously or not, choose to maintain a neutral stance are complicit to the existence of the fascist leprosy. Those who are responsible for the fact that the war with fascism is so long-term are those who every now and then offered them peace.
      Recently a discussion has opened about the arrival of 2000 refugees and their allocation to the sland of Crete. Simultaneously, all sorts of nationalists-patriots found an opportunity to take to the streets and propagate a sewer of hate and xenophobia. Culminating to the recent incidents in Rethimno, when on Wednesday 28/9 they attacked the antifascist gathering together with the riot cops and in the following days they harassed and beat anyone they did not like. Therefore, this act is a warning message. A small reminder, that our grandparents hung the fascists, they didn’t vote for them, nor did they rent apartments to them. As an active part of the antifascist movement, we are not willing to accept any racist delirium, whether it comes from the murderers of the Golden Dawn, or the scum of Artemis Sorras or anyone else. We will respond accordingly with any means at our disposal. Because you either tolerate fascism or you fight it.

P.S. As for the lads of the G.D., we will meet again and in person…

Next door extremists.

Source

Translated by Act for freedom now!

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It's Easy, Just Cut and Paste

       For those who still like their zines done the "old" way, away from photoshop and gimp, this will be a breath of fresh air.

From 325:

              ‘Pub Quiz #5 – We are all on a no-fly list, are you?’ – Anarcho-nihilist flyposter zine by anti-social hooligans in Bristol (Dark Matter Publications)

(79mb) PDF: ‘Pub Quiz #5 – We are all on a no-fly list, are you?’ – Anarcho-nihilist flyposter zine by anti-social hooligans
          As part of Dark Matter Publications and in line with the nihilist ethos of the project we present this latest zine by some anti-social hooligans in Bristol. It’s made up of cut-n-paste flyposters that have been spread around the city and the originals are collected here for the first time. These are not professional posters of the official movement, but dirty DIY amateur efforts about topics as diverse as police repression, eco-action, surveillance and consumerism. This is what happens when fevered twisted minds get hold of stationary and scissors. Being mainly flyposters, the zine contains pretty much no prolonged verbal diarrhea, long-winded sectarian tripe or boring pontifications posing as critical theory or whatever.
Anti-social hooligans

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The Beauty And Magic Of Paper.

       It is a problem that hasn't gone away, how do anarchists get their ideas out to the general public? today there seems to be a tremendous emphasis on "social media", but to me that seems so distant and lacks that human contact. To gain your information you have to sit in front of a computer or pick up you mobile phone/tablet, and deliberately go to a particular spot on the internet dial, an isolated way of communicating, though a useful tool. I still believe that the paper in your hand, handed to another human being, is a much rich path to walk. It is a contact in real space, in real time, a possible kindred spirit. Who knows where that paper will end up, in whose hands. You give it to one, they take it home, a member of the family reads it, takes it and gives it to their mate, and so on.
      In Paris it seems that the plastering the walls with paper is back in fashion. The wall, the lamp-post, can be you 24 hours a day, quiet mouthpiece, shouting to those who care to look.

 This from Anarchist News:

Blasphegme: An anarchist broadsheet on the walls of Paris

[From the first issue of Blasphegme: An anarchist broadsheet on the walls of Paris. It’s been getting pasted up around the city in the past month. The biggest difficulty faced by anarchist counter-info projects is often distribution -- how to get texts into the hands of people who will be interested in them? Using posters as a way of distributing long-format texts has definitely been tried before, either by connecting to a website or by keeping things short enough to fit, but it's an interesting idea that's worth experimenting with more.]

Introduction:

“I spit on your idols, I spit on your gods, I spit on the homeland […] I spit on your flags, I spit on capital and the golden calf, I spit on all religions: they’re jokes, I don’t give a shit about them, I don’t give a damn. They only exist because of you, leave them and they’ll fall apart.
You’re resigned, but you’re a force — you don’t even know it, but you’re a force nonetheless, and I cannot spit on you, I can only hate you… or love you. Beyond all my other desires, I want to see you shaken from your resignation in a terrible awakening into life. There is no future paradise, there is no future, there is only the present.”
Albert Libertad, To the Resigned, 1905

An excerpt:

The party’s already over?

(excerpt from a poster seen in the streets of Paris these past months)

       We’ve had a good time running through the streets these past months, trying to subvert our existing lives and these modern, sanitized cities, these showpieces of capitalism and the society of control.
       We didn’t give a shit about this law, just like the results of a presidential election or of a football match, because we don’t want to work, period. We don’t accept our exploitation, whether or not its facilitated by this law.
      So why wait for the next “movement” to have fun, when all we have to do is to continue what we started these past months? Why should we each return to our own isolation, submerged in the various alienations that distract us from our self-destructive boredom and loneliness, when we’ve seen that so many of us want to attack the existing world? This society tries to break us down a little more each day, and to frighten away those who have decided they can no longer accept this comedy, no longer blindly follow the union march and the marching orders of good citizens, no longer accept states of emergency, or, for that matter, any states at all.
       We have discovered, or rediscovered, what it means to run across the pavement, to play in spaces where policing controls our every movement. We knew that this society of misery depended on our servitude, and our fear of cops, but we’ve learned that we are strong enough to overturn it, that they can’t prevent us from playing like wild children who destroy everything they pass.
       We’re off to such a good start, let’s not trade any piece of the present for a fictional tomorrow, and let’s not surrender anything of this moment for the winds of the future!

Solidarity with all those arrested these past months!

Read the full article HERE:

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

Capitalism Is Exploitation And Destruction.

 

       Every now and then our babbling brook of bullshit, the mainstream media, spout an amazing disclosure, of a large company exploiting its workers. Of course this dreadful revelation implies that all the other companies and corporations are behaving impeccably, regards their treatment of their employees. The latest one for the UK is ASOS, facts are revealed about how shockingly the workers are treated. The nice little scheme devised by the firm who runs their warehouse, called "flexing", means being asked, at times at very short notice, to work overtime, and the extra hours will be paid to you away in the future. Of course refusing to "flex up", can see your job in jeopardy. Not so long ago it was Sports Direct and its policies of zero hours contracts, penalties and intimidation.

        Of course we all know, or should know, the entire capitalist system is based on exploitation. As far as these two greedy arsehole companies are concerned, they are small fry. It is their immediate employees that they try to screw. However, the big boys in the capitalist game, well, they go for anybody and everybody. The general public, employees, the environment, all fair game to be polluted, exploited, plundered and left to stew the mess the corporate greed machine leave behind. Remember Bhopal?

       The entire list of large corporations can all be stood in the court of decent human behaviour and be found guilt. The ravishes inflicted on our planet, the destruction of the entire world environment, causing unpredictable climate change, the pollution being spread across the earth, causing illnesses and suffering, and the extinction of thousands of the planet's species. All this is not a natural phenomenon, it can all be laid at the feet of the greed driven corporate world and the system of capitalism on which it is based.

This from Labour Rights:

Coca-Cola

       Coca-Cola Company is perhaps the most widely recognized corporate symbol on the planet. The company also leads in the abuse of workers' rights, assassinations, water privatization, and worker discrimination. Between 1989 and 2002, eight union leaders from Coca-Cola bottling plants in Colombia were killed after protesting the company's labor practices. Hundreds of other Coca-Cola workers who have joined or considered joining the Colombian union SINALTRAINAL have been kidnapped, tortured, and detained by paramilitaries who are hired to intimidate workers to prevent them from unionizing.
        In India, Coca-Cola destroys local agriculture by privatizing the country's water resources. In Plachimada, Kerala, Coca-Cola extracted 1.5 million liters of deep well water, which they bottled and sold under the names Dasani and BonAqua. The groundwater was severely depleted, affecting thousands of communities with water shortages and destroying agricultural activity. As a result, the remaining water became contaminated with high chloride and bacteria levels, leading to scabs, eye problems, and stomach aches in the local population.
         Coca-Cola is also one of the most discriminatory employers in the world. In the year 2000, 2,000 African-American employees in the U.S. sued the company for race-based disparities in pay and promotions.

       For more on the companies that make up the world's 14 worst corporate, people and planet destroyers, well known names such as, Nestles USA, Monsanto, Dow Chemical, Pfizer, Kellogs group, and see the true face of the capitalist cancer that is killing the population and destroying the planet, 

Read HERE:

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

A Crime Called Freedom.

 

        The biggest strike of prisoners in America's history is still going on, but still no big deal in the babbling brook of bullshit, the mainstream media. But prisons exist in all countries, not just the USA, and all serve the same purpose, to maintain control over the population and maintain the existing power structure that keeps the wealth and power in the hands of the same cabal of parasites in country after country.

        America is currently in the midst of the biggest prison strike in the nation’s history. Inmates in approximately 12 states in approximately 12 states and 29 facilities have taken part in the strike to protest free prison labor. Organizers have estimated that about 24,000 inmates have taken part. The strike, which began Sept. 9 on the 45th anniversary of the Attica uprising, was organized in large part by the Incarcerated Workers Organizing Committee (IWOC).

        More on prisons and the prison society that we live in, and seem to tolerate with silent acquiescence. An audio section from Os Cangaceiros, (The gravediggers) A Crime Called Freedom,

       "If we sack the banks, it's because we have recognized money as the central cause of all our unhappiness. If we smash the windows it's not because life is dear, but because commodities prevent us from living at all costs. If we break the machines it is not because of a wish to protect work, but to attack the slavery of salary. If we attack police it's not to get them out of out neighborhoods, but to get them out of our lives. The Spectacle wished to make us appear dreadful. We intend to be much worse."

The Gravediggers, Paris, May 1980

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National Poetry Day.

      Today, Thursday 6th. October, is National Poetry Day, so let's enjoy.

        This one is by Claude McKay, Black American poet, 1890-1948. It grasps a brutal scene form a not too distant America, and an aspect of society which here and elsewhere is once again on the rise, "racism"

The Lynching.

His spirit in smoke ascended to heave,
His father, by the cruellest way of pain,
Had bidden him to his bosom once again,
The awful sin remained still unforgiven.
All night a bright and solitary star
(perchance the one that ever guided him,
Yet gave him up at last to Fate's wild whim),
Hung pitifully o'er the swinging chair,
Day dawned, and soon the mixed crowd came to view
The ghostly body swaying in the sun:
The women thronged to look, but never a one
Showed sorrow in her eyes of steely blue;
And little lads, lynchers that were to be,
Danced round the dreadful thing in fiendish glee.

 

       This one, from much further back, speaks a truth that has been known by some for centuries. It is by Tommaso Campanella, Italian Philosopher, 1568-1639, translated by John Addington Symonds.

The People.
 

The people is a beast of muddy brian
That knows not its own strength, and therefore stands
Loaded with wood and stone: the powerless hands
Of a mere child guide it with bit and rein;
One kick would be enough to break the chain,
But the beast fears, and what the child demands
It does; nor its own terror understands,
Confused and stupefied by bugbears vain.
Most wonderful! With its own hand is ties
And gags itself- gives itself death and war
For pence doled out by kings from its own store.
Its own are all things between earth and heaven;
But this it knows not; and if one arise
To tell this truth, it kills him unforgiven. 

One from the first world war, by an American poet, Sara Teasdale, 1884-1933.

"There Will Come Soft Rains"

There will come soft rains and the smell of the ground,
And swallows calling with their shimmering sound;

And frogs in pools signing at night,
And wild-plum trees in tremulous white;

Robins will wear their feathery fire
Whistling their whims on a low fence-wire;

And not one will know of the war, not one
Will care at last when it is done,

Not one would mind, neither bird nor tree,
If mankind perished utterly;

And Spring herself, when she awoke at dawn,
Would scarcely know that we were gone.

This one with a little hope, perhaps, this time, we will get it right.

FROM GEORGE SQUARE TO TAHRIR SQUARE. 

In a global square, in a global village the people are gathering,
They want to sort out their village once and for all.
They have had enough of wild beasts stealing their chickens,
Of war lords pillaging and plundering their crops.
Though they labour hard, they live poor
While the wild beasts and war lords grow fat.
This time they will take the time and do it right,
This time they will finally and forever banish,
Wild beasts and war lords from their village.
This time all our chickens will feed all the children of the village
This time our crops will see all our people through the winter,
This time, all the fruits of our labour will be ours.

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

Tomorrow's World, For People Or For Profit.

 

        (ANTIMEDIA) Technology powerhouses Microsoft, IBM, Facebook, Google, and Amazon announced yesterday they have joined forces to create the Partnershipon Artificial Intelligence (AI) to Benefit People and Society.

       So the big Western technology giants have teamed together to develop artificial intelligence for the benefit of people and society!!! Well let’s not forget, those big boys, Microsoft, IBM, Facebook, Google and Amazon, are part and parcel of the big corporate cabal that is in constant overdrive to control everything in this world, benefiting people and society is not high on their agenda, profit is. It is obvious that in a capitalist society, as robots and hi-tec appliances grow in number and sophistication, employing people will go down, but profits will go up.

      All this hi-tec growth, reducing labour, would be a wonderful thing, if society was organised to benefit all the people and see to their needs, on an equal and fair basis. However that’s not the way our society is organised, as production improves, more labour will be flung on the scrap heap, after all, capitalism is about profit for the corporations, not about people’s needs. So we should be extremely worried by this coming together of some of the biggest corporations on the planet, to plan for a world where people are superfluous. Added to that there is a great deal of anxiety among lots of scientists and other experts on this drive for artificial intelligence, with a belief that we are opening an uncontrollable can of worms.

This from Tarcoteca 

--------- It should come as no surprise that software programmed by humans, who are flawed, will reflect and even amplify those human flaws. The White House released a report in May highlighting the major potential for discrimination in “Big Data.” A quick look at the table of contents shows that mitigating discrimination is a challenge in every area. A report published byProPublica showed risk assessment programs used by courtrooms across the nation turned up significant racial disparities, falsely labeling black defendants as future criminals at twice the rate of whites.
        Though the public is skeptical of AI, most people are unaware of these shortcomings.
        Even so, a poll conducted by the British Science Association shows “60 per cent think that the use of robots or programmes equipped with artificial intelligence (AI) will lead to fewer jobs within ten years, and 36 per cent of the public believe that the development of AI poses a threat to the long term survival of humanity.”

Read the full article HERE:

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

Workers Know Your History, Battle Of Cable Street.

         Today marks the 80th anniversary of The Battle of Cable Street. October 4th. 1936. It was an event that started as so many of these confrontations with fascism do, with all the major Caesars of the political parties calling for a peaceful low key demonstration, they don't want to upset the political order of  things in which the want to control. Sometimes the people have other ideas and decide to go and do it their way. At which point, if it looks like a winner or the leaders being left behind, then they will jump on the bandwagon. The people of the East End of London was a mixed group of cultures, mainly Irish and Jewish, different likes, different desires, different histories, but came together with one real hate, fascism.

       Mosley's fascist "army", they did wear uniforms as the paraded their venom through the streets, with the backing of the British state, failed to break down the resistance of the local working class, and the black-shirt army, had to do their marching away from the East End, rather than through the area.

From East End Women's Museum:

       On 4 October 1936, Oswald Mosley’s fascist Blackshirts attempted to march from Tower Hill, through Aldgate and Shadwell, a predominantly Jewish neighbourhood at that time.
       When they arrived at Gardiner’s Corner, a huge crowd (estimates vary from 20,000 to 200,000) gathered to block their path, roaring “They Shall Not Pass!” After 6,000 police failed to clear the area, the march was diverted via Cable Street.
      However, three sets of barricades, including an overturned lorry, had already been set up there. Broken glass and marbles had been strewn across the street, and thousands of local people massed behind each barricade, chanting anti-fascist slogans and fighting back fiercely against the police.
       Eventually the Police Commissioner instructed Mosley to march his troops west and out of the area, in a humiliating defeat. Thousands of the anti-fascist protestors gathered in Victoria Park to celebrate their victory.

Continue reading:
From Libcom:

         I was put in a cell and lay on my back waiting for the possible entry of the heavy mob. I heard a woman screaming in another cell. There was a clanking sound as her cell door was opened. Followed by complete silence, after which I heard the cell door being closed. I don't remember any more about my stay in the cell as I fell fast asleep. I had not been interfered with in any way. It was about 11.30pm when I felt someone shaking me. He said. 'Come on, your friends have come to take you home'. He added, 'You haven't half got a lot of friends'. I entered the reception area and there was Phil Piratin complete with rent book. He had come to bail me out. Outside the station hundreds of people were assembled, all shouting 'They shall not pass'. A little cheer went up as I appeared. 

Continue reading: 

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Dump The Bosses.

 

       Let's sing and dance our way to that new world. I always prefer a song and dance, rather than bombs and bullets, but the road will determine the tools needed.

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

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.

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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