When Criticism Is A Crime.

       The state’s survival is dependent on submissiveness and control, hence it will always try to find ways and means of stifling any form of dissent. Anarchist philosophy is based on the creating a state free society, so naturally it goes without saying, anarchist will always be at the sharp end of that state repression. In countries across the globe, anarchist autonomous centres are evicted and trashed, their papers closed down, and in many cases, the supporters imprisoned on trumped up charges. I have always seen Turkey as an extremely repressive state, more so than some of the others in the West. Many years ago I was involved in a campaign in support of a Kurdish lawyer in Turkey, who had been imprisoned for ten years, his crime, editing a Kurdish language magazine in Turkey, the Kurdish language, at that time, being banned in Turkey. Today in Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s Turkey things have deteriorated much further down the repression route. Journalists are detained at the slightest hint of criticism of the Turkish state, radio stations are closed if they don’t shower the state and its psychopathic leader with praise. Now they have gone one step further, you don’t have to criticise the Turkish state, you can find yourself in prison if you dare to write an article in support of people in another country struggling to build democracy. This is the nature of the beast, “the state”, they are all dependent on your acceptance of their monopoly on power. Our babbling brook of bullshit, the mainstream media, will point to regimes in other lands and label them “repressive”, despotic” and “undemocratic” but they are all just different flavours of the same poison. The state is an authoritarian edifice that will die if the people grasp their freedom, and freedom will die of we allow the state to flourish.
This from Freedom Press:

Meydan issue 30.

       The editor of Meydan Gazette in Istanbul was jailed for a year and three months on December 22nd for “propagandising the methods of a terror organisation” in a free-speech case which dragged on for nearly a year.

        Hüseyin Civan and the Gazette were taken to court after an investigation by the Istanbul Chief Public Prosecutor over a December 2015 issue of the paper, which has supported Kurdish revolutionaries fighting in Rojava. The three offending articles were titled “Both Arrival and Departure of State is From Fear” “Banned Until Further Notice” and “Recreating Life.”

       Representing the Gazette and Civan, lawyer Davut Erkan stated that the decision was illegal and would be appealed, if necessary, all the way to the Constitutional Court and the European Court of Human Rights.
      In a statement Meydan, which is based just a few streets away from Gezi Park, said:

Our managing editor was charged with “propagandising for the methods of a terrorist organisation employing coercion, violence or threats, through legitimising, praising or encouraging the use of these methods.”
As we emphasised in articles leading up to the investigation, the “State will never be able to lock away the passion and conviction for freedom of the peoples.”
As an anarchist newspaper we know that the free life we believe in can only be created through struggle. We will never give up writing about what we stand for and distributing what we write. We will continue to resist, act and write against oppression, and against these investigations, custodies and arrests.

Journalists have been heavily targeted in the Erdogan government’s post-coup crackdown, which has been heavily skewed against pro-Kurdish media. In October the left-wing Hayatin Sesi TV station was closed along with 24 other TV and radio stations, and hundreds of reporters have been detained, inspiring even some MPs to attempt civil disobedience in protest.
       The draconian measures have even stretched beyond Turkey’s borders, with the issuing of a red alert to Interpol for well-known Turkish-French journalist Maxime Azadi, who was picked up by Belgian authorities for alleged “co-operation” with terrorists on a year-old warrant on December 23rd.

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From The Mouths Of Babes----.

        What more can you say than, from the mouths of babes comes wisdom, and in this case, courage, determination, intelligence and solidarity. Perhaps we adults could learn something from them. Let's hope those kids are still thinking along the lines they were back then. Thanks Loam.

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The Deafening Silence From The Media On Rojava.

 

    As far as our babbling brook of bullshit, the mainstream media is concerned, the only thing that is happening in the Syrian bloodshed is the killing of innocent people in Aleppo by the Assad regime, aided and abetted by the Russians. All else can be ignored, the Turkish regime carrying out genocide on the Kurdish people, can be overlooked, the struggling flower that is Rojava, is a name that they must not mention. It would be a crime in the eyes of the West, if the idea of a society based on equality should receive any positive publicity. They must be left to struggle in silence and face the savage wrath of the psychopathic leader of the Turkish nation. Turkey's brutal President, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, will be given a free hand to destroy the fight for democracy in Rojava, as the West looks the other way, and fills our minds with the suffering in Aleppo, in the hope that we will swallow the message, the West good guys, Russia and Assad, bad guys. However, you and I know that the war in Syria and surrounding area is a world imperialist war for the resources of the area. We owe it to the people of Rojava to offer up what ever solidarity, support and publicity we can, their struggle is our struggle for that better world.

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We Beat Storm Conner.

       Just back after a couple of days away to escape the consumer madness and the volume of crap flowing through the babbling brook of bullshit, the mainstream media. We didn't go too far, Luss on the shore of the beautiful Loch Lomond. Despite storm Conner, on Sunday night my daughter and family joined my partner, Stasia and I, and for about two and a half hours, there was a break in the rain. Long enough for us to find a bit on the Loch shore sheltered from the wind by a line of trees, where we lit a fire and indulged in munching goodies, enjoying a drink, and chat, not a drop of alcohol in sight. Then storm Conner opened the flood gates and we hastily doused the fire and headed for shelter. A great time was had by all. I'm not in the photos, somebody has to take them.

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Cop Or Soldier??

    Your friendly beat cop!!

         Militarism used to be a phrase that related to the state apparatus and how it enacted its foreign policy and how it waged war in some foreign land. However, today, militarism is a pervasive ideology that has crept into all aspects of our society, we are a military society. The militarising of the police force, the military style of dealing with civilian protests, with armed police patrolling our streets, check points and stop and search, the thin line between the military and the police has all but vanished. Now if you are anti-militarism, you must include the police in your critique.

Cop or soldier?

This from Bordered By Silence:

       “In recent years, ethnic, tribal, social, and political problematics have re-emerged and contributed to tensions and conflicts in many regions of the world. […]
“The logic of insurgency and counter-insurgency have become essentially urban questions […]
“Guerillas, insurgents, and other non-state actors have taken advantage of the benefits of operating in this environment and will doubtless continue to do so.”
NATO – Operations in urban areas 2020
2.3.2 The Nature of the Enemy – April 2003 [1]
the NATO Research and Technology organization in Neuilly-sur-seine [2]
         “The militarization of the state progresses at a hectic pace. More and more often and for many different reasons, military-style solutions are chosen that disturb or threaten to disturb the fragile social equilibrium”
Anarchist Prisoners of Korydallos
Letter on the assassination of Marian Kola – August 2013 [3]        In times of war. If it weren’t for the avalanche of alienation dispensed by the fourth estate, the media, and its commentaries that fade into declarations by decision-makers — ministers, presidents, religious leaders, and kings — we wouldn’t need to spell this all out. But the change in how uprisings happen and how they are repressed is clear, which means a debate about them is obviously necessary.
          Going forward, for the powerful, there are no clear front lines to hold: all conflicts have become asymmetrical. There are no longer regular armies to force into submission by diplomacy or strategy, treaty or ceasefire. Now, their enemies are everywhere and all wars will be total. The only victory is unconditional: by annihilating the adversary (by murder, enslavement, or imprisonment) or by full control over their subsistence and environment. This is done by means of magnetic cards (credit or ID), NGOs, military and police checkpoints [4], and by generalizing technological advances (like biometrics, surveillance, and virtual social networks).
        Here, we want to highlight that this avalanche of disinformation — the TV news steeped in a warrior tone, where even the reporting is set to imposing music — strategically misleads us, like the propaganda during the Second World War that tried to conceal terrible events in order to morally defeat the enemy civilian population.
Here, we want to highlight that the ongoing militarization of repression is aimed at Us: Those who are in conflict with the existent, its structures, its defenders, and its false critics.
       Of course, scenes of cops in action, armed to the teeth, and the moving declarations by military commanders and soldiers, as well as police and gendarmes, are demonstrations of the means used by the state to defend itself. Immediately, the testimony of terrified citizens and the families of victims ring out from the machines of the fourth estate, justifying the “emergency” measures “put in place”.
      But again, we need to clearly distinguish the propagandistic practices from the real ones and the fictional reasons from the true motivations. We need to distinguish the Logic of the State from Insurrectionary Motivation. Not that of some priest, imam, or ideologue, but those of the exploited, the deserters and the rebels. .
       We need to see the reality of the current conflict clearly:

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A Festivus For The Rest Of Us.

        For all those sane and rational people out there, it would be nice if could celebrate, a Festivus For The Rest Of Us. Air your grievances with each other, shout your mouth off about all that is wrong with the world today, and forget all that decoration nonesense and consumer crap. 

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We Must Administer The Medicine.

 

       We are coming to the end of the annual epidemic of the disease of consumerism, a time of the year when millions sacrifice themselves on the altar of debt. The epidemic passes, but the disease of consumerism lives on, as does the burden of debt. At this time of the year, the babbling brook of bullshit, the mainstream media, splurges out vast amounts of sewage in the form of "adverts" extolling the wonders of all manner of crap, the nearer we get to the cut off date of this consumer extravaganza, December 25th., the more neurotic the corporations become, and we see the magic of falling prices as they shout 10% off, 15% off, 20% off, 50% off and more, starting to display just how much they were ripping you off by, in the first place. No matter the occasion our capitalist society must turn it into one of mass consumerism. No event is complete without the sale of its paraphernalia, Christmas is just one of the major peaks in the disease of consumerism, which is slowly destroying the planet. We have the cure for this disease, but seem reluctant to administer the medicine, which is organising our communities on the basis of seeing to the needs of all our people through mutual aid and co-operation, free from the poisoning influence of profit, in a word, anarchism.

Here are some wonderful art works by Angel Boligan, for more visit arrezafe. 

 

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A Worker Is A Worker, Is A Worker, Is A Worker!!

       You have got to hand it to our corporate lords and masters, they never give up on their policy of trying to eliminate all workers organisations. The last thing they want is for the workers to be organised to defend their wages and conditions. Of course they get the backing of the babbling brook of bullshit, the mainstream media, who crap on about the evil unions destroying everybody’s day by calling a strike, and the government responding with legislation to “limit the power of the unions”. One other the trend, is to get the workers “self-employed”, you do our work, but you are not one of our workers, you’re on you own buddy. Uber is probably the best known, but there are others. At the moment the people who “work” for Deliveroo are classified by the company as individual contractors, so the company refuses to recognise the union. With ”self-employed”, zero hours contracts, and part time work, the workforce is fragmented, apart from losing out on all the normally accept conditions, that were won by unionised struggle, and go with a “job”, such as holiday pay etc., it makes it more difficult to be organised to protect you pay and conditions, let alone fight for improvements. The bosses are well organised, they know the need to be organised, as they see the true position, bosses and workers are on opposite sides. The workers have to take a leaf out of that book, and realise the need for all “workers”, no matter the label that the bosses put on them, to be organised. The bosses know and accept that it is a struggle of opposites and they will pull out every dirty trick to get the advantage for their side of the battle. We have to do the same, come together, organise to support each other, and see the boss class as the enemy of our desire for that better life for all.

This appeal from Labour Start:

        Since November, the Independent Workers Union of Great Britain (IWGB) has been attempting to gain recognition (a collective bargaining agreement) from Deliveroo in London.
        If the IWGB is successful, it will be the first collective bargaining agreement in the UK's so called "gig economy" and will force Deliveroo to recognise their riders as workers.
        This will give them the right to the minimum wage, paid holidays, legal protection against discrimination and more.
        Deliveroo has rejected the initial request, but the union remains determined to succeed and a tribunal case is currently pending. But it shouldn't take a tribunal case to compel Deliveroo to do the right thing. They should recognise their drivers as "workers" and should recognise the union for the purposes of collective bargaining now.

Please click here to send a message to Deliveroo telling them to recognise the union now.

       And please share this message with your friends, family and fellow trade union members.

Thank you!



Eric Lee

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Have A Paracetamol.

         Well here we are, once again in the midst of the period when the illusion goes even crazier. Having struggled all year with such problems as heating your home, feeding your kids, and due to the cuts in social services, you are running ragged caring for your ageing parents. Now all your anxieties, fits of depression, loneliness and loss of confidence, can be sorted. It is just a matter of the right perfume, shower gel, super razor, or getting rid of your dandruff. How foolish of you, you didn’t realise that happiness comes in coloured boxes, the more boxes, the more happiness. Your job prospects are enhanced, if you would just pick the right four-wheel drive car. Your self esteem will grow, your sex life will be more exciting, and your standing among your peers will know no bounds, if you just run out and buy that new outfit. Yes, it is the season of the grand illusion, our society has found the secret of happiness and fulfilment it is to be found in coloured boxes. 

        Gone are the thoughts of those 58,000 homeless in England, up by a third since 2010/11, a large proportion of them working, the 3,400 families with children living in B&B’s, steadily increasing since 2011, and those 3,600 people sleeping rough in England, (a low estimate) up 30% since 2014. All lost in a mist of tinsel and coloured boxes, and illusions woven by that babbling brook of bullshit. I guess their problem was that they didn’t buy enough coloured boxes to enhance their lives. I have no doubt there will be a splurge of consumerism in search of happiness, and come January, the old anxieties, depressions, insecurities, loss of confidence and loneliness will return. They’ll be fuelled by the usual realities of this capitalist system, zero hours contracts, low wages, increasing prices, benefit sanctions, job insecurity, and wars and turmoil across the planet. The answer to our problems doesn’t lie in coloured boxes, these are the paracetamol of the system, an attempt to temporally relieve the pain. The answer lies in changing the system, away from the a greed driven capitalist system, to one of mutual aid communities. 

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God Gave It To Me.

 

 The shrinking country of Palestine.

        The Israeli Palestine situation, is one where the babbling brook of bullshit, our mainstream media, has drowned the truth in a sea of biased propaganda unprecedented in modern history.  The picture of a country with one of the most powerful armies in the world being continually under threat from a fragmented dissipated country whose people are enslaved, is surely the pinnacle of illusion creating. A lie so gigantic, propagated for years by false and distorted "information". The web of lies, selective reporting and exaggeration is so vast and widespread, that those who try to disentangle it in an attempt to produce the truth, are deemed insane. 

        This short little video goes some way to explain, in very simple terms, the the Israeli position and the media response.

 Not Aleppo, Gaza.

Not Aleppo, Gaza.

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The Hand Of Hypocrisy.

 

        I wrote this post, The Hand of Hypocrisy, away back in March, 2011, since then we now know that our policy in Libya has borne the fruit of chaos, the disintegration of civil society, continuous bloodshed, misery and death, but it has now disappeared off the scene from our babbling brook of bullshit, the mainstream media. We set off to do the same in Syria, but those nasty Russians jumped in to upset the equation. So now the Syrian people will just have to tolerate a longer, darker hell, and greater bloodshed. From 2011  to 2016, can anybody tell me what has changed in this imperialist world?

 The Hand of Hypocrisy:

         As Western Cruise missiles blast holes in Libya's infrastructure, killing Libyans to save Libyans, and possibly laying the ground work for a civil war, nobody is saying where they go from here. How long will the no-fly zone last, don't know. What do we do if the Libyans killing Libyans drags on in a long stalemate, do we send in the Western cavalry to take sides and give one side a wee push, more or less guaranteeing a prolonged civil war and possible occupation. Just to keep the peace mind you. As in Iraq and Afghanistan, the moral policemen are up to the necks in shit. The idea that this will be a nice clean surgical operation with all of Libya being ever thankful to the West is an illusion. We have been “policing” Iraq since 1991 and Afghanistan since 2001. When does our involvement in Libya end and at what cost? Not counting the Libyan deaths and injured, there is already one American plane down with one pilot missing, and we have just started.

        Setting aside the human horror of what is happening in Libya and casting a glance at the financial side, there must be questions. Each time a Tornado jet runs a sortie it takes approximately £30,000 of fuel. How many have we run so far? If a Tornado is brought down there is the £50 million cost of a replacement. Each cruise missile that is fired cost £500,000. There have been more than 110 cruise missiles fired so far. A quick calculation comes up with £55 million already up in smoke and misery from cruise missiles alone, with the arms industry rubbing its hands at the thought of all those being replaced. I don't know what proportion of those cruise missiles were fire by the UK but I reckon that we would fire our fair share. Then of course we have our submarines out there in the Med. and I have no doubt our boys wanted a shot at firing their gear off, I wonder what it cost to send a sub to the Med. and then fire off a few £500,000 missiles? While this little pygmy war is being played out in Libya, let's not forget our long running and on going £4 billion a year affair in Afghanistan.
        I know you can't put a price on human life but at a time when we in the UK are being faced with draconian cuts to every fibre of the social structure of our society, wage cuts and mass unemployment, is this the right policy. Can we in the UK really afford to strut around the world bombing democracy into other countries? When we look at the figures of death and misery resulting from our efforts in Iraq and Afghanistan can Libya be justified?
      Meanwhile in nearby Yemen and Bahrain protesters are being brutally crushed but no call for a no-fly zone. Well Bahrain is really a US naval base, which is very handy to have so near all that oil, and Bahrain is also on best buddy terms with that other autocratic despot regime, Saudi Arabia. So we don't want to upset that little power structure do we? Then of course no call for a no-fly zone over Israel while it carried out its policy of genocide in Gaza 2008/09
      It's all hypocrisy and is really about oil, resources and power, the Western powers have proved often enough that when it comes to the people of the Middle East and Africa, they don't give a shit.

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The Liars And Cheats Competition.

 

          The Western electoral system of "representative democracy" is sold as a system where the people are in control and decide who should run the country, However it is a system that the rich and powerful bunch of parasites, love and endorse, why? Simple because it creates that illusion of people controlling their destiny, and in no way changes who is actually in control. Elections are merely a platform for the various factions within the power mongers club, on what little variations they wish to make in their carving up the wealth of the country. A slight shift in power from one bunch of over privileged parasites to another, without the need for blood. What is more, the wealth they are slicing and dicing to their own particular advantage, is a wealth that is totally created by the individuals that vote and support the illusion, and have no real say on how that wealth should be divided. Elections are nothing more than a liars and cheats competition, the group that can convincingly spout the greatest lie, is usually the group that gets the bosses seat, until the next election charade. 

         An extract from an interesting article on the American election from Anarkismo.net:

       In demonstrations across the United States, protesters have raised signs saying, “Not My President!” Obviously they are not denying that state machinery has given Donald J. Trump the position of head of state and commander-in-chief of the armed forces, ruler of the mightiest and wealthiest state in the world. What they are denying is Trump’s legitimacy for the position, his moral right to claim the presidency.
     Under the capitalist system, electoral democracy serves several purposes. One is that it permits factions of the ruling capitalist elite to struggle over their different programs (based on differing interests) and to make final decisions—without civil wars or establishing a dictatorship (both of which can be costly).
      Another major purpose of capitalist democracy is that it fools the people into thinking that they run the country. It lets them think that they are free people, not subjects of a very rich minority. It distracts them from the fact that the day after an election, most adults go to work (those who have jobs) and take orders from unelected bosses. This goal requires that they see the government as legitimately representing the voters.
      That became an issue even before the end of the campaign. Expecting to lose, Trump insisted that the election was “rigged.” He refused to say whether he would accept the results if he lost. Politicians and pundits, Democrats and Republicans, were aghast! They cried that it was contrary to the whole system to not accept the election results. It was essential to peacefully hand over power. They reminded us how George W. Bush had lost the popular vote to Al Gore, but that the Supreme Court majority had given the election to Bush—and that Gore, as a loyal supporter of the system, had not fought it. Even earlier, Richard Nixon believed that he had lost to John F. Kennedy only because (Nixon told close friends) the Daley machine in Chicago had fraudulently over counted votes for Kennedy. But Nixon did not make a fuss. That was supposedly the American way!

The Rigging of the 2016 U.S. Election

       The most obvious aspect of the unfairness of the 2016 election results is that Hillary Clinton won the popular vote. She won almost 3 million more votes than Trump. Due to the distribution of the votes, however, she lost in the archaic Electoral College. In the 18th century, this was originally created to be a buffer between the voters and the election of the president, to be a compromise between large and small states, and to strengthen the power of the slave-holders. The distorting influence of the Electoral College is increased by the “winner take all” rules of almost every state, so that Democrats in Texas and Republicans in New York might as well stay home. No other capitalist democracy has such an indirect system; in all others, the “popular vote” is just the “vote.” Despite its obvious injustices, the establishment has never made an effort to alter or abolish the Electoral College.

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