When Is Enough, Enough?

         As I said before, the people of Greece have been put through the capitalist shredder by its bully boys, the financial Mafia. Now the vampires are back for more. Their puppet government in Greece are now humbly accepting the latest crippling demands from the Troika, (IMF, International Mankind Fuckers, ECB, European Criminal Bastards, EC, Exceptional Criminals,)
        With its health service in ruins, its education system disintegrating rapidly, wages slashed, pensions decimated, the Greek government is set to unleash more savage "austerity" on the unfortunate people of Greece. Here are some of the measures to be foisted on the ordinary people. There will be 14.32bn euros ($20.50bn; £12.82bn) cuts in public spending, tax rises of 14.09bn euros, over the next five years. There will be 2.32bn euros of tax increases this year, this follows on from 3.38bn euros increase in 2012, 152m in 2013, and 699m in 2014. There will be a levy to be raised twice next year from households of 1% to 5% of income. A vast swath of the poorest of families who were below the tax threshold will now find themselves paying tax. as the tax free threshold will be lowered from 12,000 euros to 5,000 euros, and property tax will be raised. Then there is that tax that hits the poorest most, VAT, 19% will go to 23%, the 11% rate will rise to 13% and the 5.5% goes up to 6.5%, restaurants will see their vat rate go from 13% to 23%.
        There is no end in sight for the people of Greece as long as this economic strangulation system of capitalism persists, the financial Mafia is not going to come over all compassionate and devise a plan to help the ordinary people of Greece, it is not in their DNA. However the people of Greece, as I said before, are not sitting down weeping and hoping for a return of the "good old days".

This from Act For Freedom Now:

       “We won’t live like slaves – The only lost battles are the one that they have not been given”. On Wednesday 17 May 2017 thousands of people joined the general strike protests all over Greece, against the new harsh financial measures of 4.9 billion euros incorporated in the 4th Memorandum signed by a Greek government, aimed once again against the lower income classes rather, than the banks and the wealthy.
       The self proclaimed left government of SYRIZA in co-operation with the right wing party of ANEL have unleashed a new class war, this time specifically aimed against people with disability and pensioners that have worked all their lives and paid their share under the false notion -as it seems- that during the time when they will be most vulnerable, they would have free public health services and subsidies that would help them get by. On the contrary after 23(!) severe cuts in pensions and allowances during the 8 years of the financial crisis in Greece (amounting to more than 50 billion euros in pension and allowances cuts during the last 7 years), that has forced people to live like beggars, a further 18% cut will be imposed on pensions under the 4th Memorandum being voted in the Greek parliament these days and a “freezing” of even the slightest raise in pensions until 2022.
      And as if a life with no future wasn’t enough, the streets of Athens have been filled with thousands of riot policemen to impose fear on people daring to protest during the general strike of 17 May 2017. Thus, during the protest in Athens anarchists attacked the riot police brigades in Syntagma Square around the Greek parliament, whilst inside politicians were discussing the new harsh financial measures to be imposed on the people, without the people. More protest will take place tomorrow 18 May during the voting of the measures in the Greek parliament.

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The Wee Blether.

       With our changeable weather you have to grab the sunshine when you can, so yesterday I decide to visit another area that as a young man I spent a lot of time hill walking, and later cycling, Loch Ard. In those hillwalking days we would take the bus to Aberfoyle and walk to the Loch Ard youth hostel, if the weather was kind we would skip the hostel and head up the Ledard Burn, ("burn" Scots word for stream) and pitch the tent there. This was a good starting point for making your way to the summit of Ben Venue. On those visits Friday and Saturday nights would be spent at the Altskeith Hotel, which would be the meeting place for hill walkers, climbers and cyclists. The nights would be filled with   guitars strumming, singing, laughter and loud chatter, until the  proprietor threw us out. The hotel has since moved a bit up market and is now The Altskeith Country House, no doubt catering more for tourist with money, rather than walkers and pauper cyclists.

Loch Ard, just before Kinlochard.

        The Loch area in general hasn't changed much, delighted to note that the road surface is much better than my last cycle up that way. I stopped at Kinlochard and enjoyed a bite at the beautifully situated tearoom, The Wee Blether ("blether" Scots word for friendly chat). Many, many years ago I would come up here with an inflatable dinghy, and take my kids out to the little island in the loch, Eilean Gorm, there they could run wild, and live out their fantasies among its rocks and trees.  On the island there is also a fisherman's bothy, (Scots for a small hut or cottage, especially one for housing farm labourers or for use as a mountain refuge).

Beautifully situated tearoom on the shore at Kinlochard.

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Our Struggle Must Be Multi-Pronged.

        Greece is a country that seems to have dropped out of fashion as far as that babbling brook of bullshit, our mainstream media is concerned. That doesn't mean that nothing is happening there, the people of Greece have been put through the shredder of the capitalist system by its bully-boys, the financial Mafia. You will get the odd report about the 50% youth unemployment, 25% unemployment nationally, other facts like massive rise in suicides, families sleeping rough, disintegrating health service, collapsing eduction system, and unprecedented rise in home repossessions, will slip through as not that relevant.

       However, the people of Greece are not sitting back weeping and waiting for the "good times" to return. Across the country there are bitter struggles taking place, occupations, self-help, autonomous spaces, strikes, and constant attacks on the institutions of the corporate world and the festering edifice that is the Greek state. Anarchists in Greece are many, and varied in their approach to bring about the demise of the economic system that has, plundered their land and brutally assaulted its people, and continues to do so. 

       One group in Greece that has constantly been at the forefront of the struggle to break the yoke of the cancerous system of capitalism, is "Revolutionary Struggle", they have just produced  a paper giving some extracts from letters, texts and communiques, from the last three years. Well worth a read.

Download it free HERE:

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Home In An Alleyway, Death In A Doorway.

         Last March a young man sleeping rough, died in the doorway of a department store in Argyle Street Glasgow. At the time it raised a lot of anger and dismay, and there was shock that such a thing could happen in Glasgow in this day and age. Of course anger, dismay and shock don’t resolve anything. Since the shock and horror at such a tragic event, figures now released show that far from being a one of tragic incident, it is a rather common occurrence. In fact, Glasgow’s city streets are the death bed of approximately one rough sleeper a week. Think of Glasgow, its fancy shopping malls, its jewellery arcades, its trendy coffee shops, cafés and bars, its expensive off-roaders and large luxury cars parked around the city centre, its tourists strutting along fashionable Buchanan Street. Then compare this with the life of the homeless who seek shelter from Scotland’s cruel elements, in shop doorways, alleys and back streets.

         Figures obtained by the Sunday Herald from Glasgow City Council via freedom of information request reveal that at least 39 homeless people have died in Glasgow in the space of just 10 months. The deaths occurred between May 2016 and March 2017 with the city council admitting that the numbers likely underestimate the full scale of the scandal. Details of the number of deaths in other major Scottish cities are currently unavailable.

Continue reading HERE:

        We can rule out old age killing these unfortunate and largely ignored individuals, of the 39 deaths in the released figures only 5 were over 60 years of age, the others were somewhere between 25 and 59. What really killed these ill-fated and forgotten individuals was a society that values property above human life and dignity. Our city is awash with empty property, all valued and protected, while the life of a homeless individual is unprotected and valueless.
       As a city we can plan to cover part of the Charing Cross motorway with a gardened roof, it will of course raise the value of the property in the area, empty and otherwise, and make it more pleasant to stroll around and sit and sip your cappuccino, but we can’t offer shelter to homeless individuals who face sleeping in dismal doorways. We are not a civilised society as long as people sleep on our streets, we are complicit in a society that values property higher than human life. Nobody with compassion should tolerate such a society, we have the resources, there is the need, to ignore that need is an indictment of our society.
       This picture is of course replicated across our small country, it is estimated by the charity Shelter, that approximately 5,000 people sleep rough in Scotland every year, the same can be said about all the other countries on the planet. It is the malignant economic system that breeds this sort of situation, quality of life is dependent on wealth, wealth flows into ever few hands, and so the problem far from being remedied, will ever by exacerbated. As long as we continue with this capitalist economic cancer, misery, homelessness and death in doorways will continue.

I'll repeat the two poems from the previous post on this subject.

The Homeless.

Tenebrous spectres, they exist,   out there,

on the crumbling edge of chaos.

A father, a son, a brother,

a daughter, a sister, a mother.

Fragments of some shattered family structure;

waste products

from a society being driven to destruction

by a hurricane of greed

living a life that wears out life,

dying,

the devious death of exhaustion from existence.

The Warmth Of A Dream.

He lay in a dark doorway, dreamed of home,

night frost locked his joints

morning rain chilled the marrow of his bone.

In the dream there was a sister,

a pram in the garden, a crowd of youngsters

who called him "mister", a time of little pain.

Are these youngster the same young men, who

now laugh at him, throw beer cans,

piss on him as he lies drunk in some dark lane?

When was that first step down this slippery slope,

when was that first step to no forgiveness.

No will to rise to beg for food,

numbness kills the pain.

The dream brings a warmth that feels good,

dark fog shades out consciousness,

an ambulance carries off a body washed in rain. 

 

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The Death Of A Failed System.

        I recently posted about 2008 being a missed opportunity, and the fact that the disintegrating system will of course throw up other opportunities, and we should be organising for that next, system convulsion. However there is a line of thought that maintains that to wait for that opportunity is foolish, or worse, it is being complicit in prolonging the death-rattle of an already dangerous disintegrating civilisation. We are in the midst of the last convulsions of a crumbling system, its demise will not be a peaceful affair, it will be violently brutal, and savage as it devours itself and humanity, in a vain attempt to survive. For the survival of the planet and humanity, sanity demands the we bring about its death as quickly as possible. However, I believe, sadly, this can only happen when, what I often refer to as, “that great apolitical apathetic horde” open their eyes to the reality of their situation and see the full blown disaster of which they are an integral part. It is all there, the struggling midst poverty and deprivation, brutal wars for power and wealth, the arrogant flaunting of wealth by the few, midst the misery of the many, the vulgar spectacle of opulence trampling the poor, the many dressed in misery and humiliation, justice and compassion battered and blooded. This failed economic system has turned our planet into a theatre where the darkest and most brutal of dystopian plays is being enacted, we are the willing players, who can carry the story to it cataclysmic end, or we can change the script, to one of hope and sustainable survival, but time is running out. 

Tomorrow is cancelled

        It’s useless to wait-for a breakthrough, for the revolution, the nuclear apocalypse or a social movement. To go on waiting is madness. The catastrophe is not coming, it is here. We are already situated within the collapse of a civilization. It is within this reality that we must choose sides.
       The Invisible Committee, The Coming Insurrection

       The Invisible Committee, is one group who advocate the second line of thought, they have already produce two insightful essays, The Coming Insurrection, and, To Our Friends, their third Maintenant(Now) is being translated, one chapter at a time, into English, by Autonomies.

Tomorrow is cancelled         All the reasons for carrying out a revolution are present. None is missing. The sinking of politics, the arrogance of the powerful, the reign of the false, the vulgarity of the wealthy, the cataclysms of industry, rampant poverty, naked exploitation, ecological apocalypse – we are spared nothing, not even that of being informed. “Climate: 2016 breaks the record of heat”, tells us Le Monde on its first page, as almost every year nowadays. All the reasons are united, but it is not reasons that make revolutions, it is bodies. And the bodies are all in front of screens.

Continue reading HERE:

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Surveillance Society.

 

        We all know the state spies on its citizens, we all know that the state passes legislation that it doesn't want it citizens to know about, we all know, or should know, it does all this with one aim , control over our lives. To hold onto its power it needs to know where you are, what you're up to, and be able to intervene and stifle any form of dissent. "Big Brother" is not a story of fiction, in today's society, it is a reality. We are surrounded by profiling, face recognition, CCTV, spied on, monitored, infiltrated by undercover agents, and there is a constant drive by the babbling brook of bullshit, the mainstream media, to manufacture our opinions, to mould our perception of reality to their liking.     

       All of these things are not exceptions, they are the norm of our modern way of life, who are they protecting?

       As far as the state is concerned, nothing is personal in this surveillance society, the state claims the right to be privy to ever aspect of your personal life. Your right to privacy is something the state doesn't recognise and will continually attempt to find ways to circumvent that right. All of this is to protect the established power, and protect its wealth and privileges. No matter where we are in this "Big Brother" society, the state will always try to take us further along that route. We must fight to put a stop to this whole malignant, repressive state apparatus, it is in the interest of us all to do so.

This from Open Media:

       Leaked docs reveal the UK Home Office’s secret plan to gain real-time access to our text messages and online communications AND force companies like WhatsApp to break the security on its own software. This reckless government plan will make all of us more vulnerable to attacks like yesterday's ransomware assault against the NHS.

Act now

        A shocking leak scooped by our friends at Open Rights Group has made this information public.¹ Home Secretary Amber Rudd has made it very clear that she thinks no one should get to use safe and secure messaging apps.² Now she has set on the path to make her wish come true.

       Yesterday a massive ransomware attack hit the NHS, blocking off access to patient data and endangering lives. This horrific story tells us why companies need to be able to develop security software without any backdoors that can be exploited this way.³

     Can you speak up right now and send Amber Rudd a powerful message to defend our privacy and online security?

      The Government’s proposals will force tech companies and Internet providers to allow “near real time” access to all your private online communications.⁴ Clearly, the only information Amber Rudd believes should stay hidden is the Government’s own powers! We need to make it clear that secretive laws that break our tech and strip away our privacy have no place in a democracy.

       What's even more worrying is that the Home Office is not expecting to hear from the public. They planned to keep this entire process secret — including a “consultation” they didn’t publicly announce, even to tech businesses!⁵

           Because of this secrecy, we now have fewer than 10 days to get our voices on the record — we don’t have a moment to lose!

Tell Home Secretary Amber Rudd: Encryption keeps us safe. Do not weaken everyone’s security by creating backdoors that hackers and malicious actors can exploit.

       The UK Home Office already has some of the most aggressive surveillance powers in the world. This is nothing more than a power grab for even more invasive powers — but if enough of us speak up we can stop this. They won’t be expecting a big reaction in so little time — can you speak up now?

Thank you for helping us fight back!

Ruth

       P.S. Strong encryption saves lives⁶ — Vulnerable groups will have their safety compromised if services like WhatsApp and Signal are forced to build backdoors. Lawyers will lose client confidentiality, victims of police misconduct will be spied on, journalists will be unable to protect sources, and domestic abusers could be gifted further ways to exploit tech vulnerabilities to spy on their partners.⁷ Can you add your voice to save the tools and technologies that keep us safe?

Footnotes

[1] LEAKED Draft Statutory Powers, Source: Open Rights Group

[2] Investigatory Powers: 'Real-time surveillance' in draft update, Source: BBC

[3] NHS cyber-attack: GPs and hospitals hit by ransomware. Source: BBC

[4] Winning the debate on encryption — a 101 guide for politicians. Source: Privacy International

[5] Plans for extensive Government spying powers revealed in leaked report. Source: Telegraph

[6] Encryption saves lives. Source: Jon Camfield

[7] This Software Company May Be Helping People Illegally Spy On Their Spouses. Source: Forbes

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Create A Storm.

Dear reader,   Can you click? Do you care about the health of the Internet?   If you answered yes, then we want to recruit you for a special mission. We're dropping airborne leaflets — millions of them — onto various governmental buildings across Europe, and we're inviting you to join in.   Why the special mission? Because outdated copyright law in the EU is threatening the health of the Internet.

The EU's current copyright framework — developed for a time before the Internet — can stymie innovation, preventing entrepreneurs from doing new and interesting things with data and code. It can stifle creativity, making it technically illegal to create, share and remix memes and other online culture and content. And it can limit the materials that educators and nonprofits like Wikipedia depend on for teaching and learning.

Of course, Mozilla doesn't own a fleet of zeppelins. And we like to conserve paper.

So we've teamed up with our friends at Moniker to bring you Paperstorm.it. Paperstorm is a digital advocacy tool that urges EU policy makers to update copyright laws for the Internet age.

Why now? Copyright reform is at a critical juncture. Presently, lawmakers are considering a proposed revision of that copyright law. The amendments they are considering have the potential to make copyright law more Internet-friendly — or, conversely, more restrictive and rooted in the 20th century.

Alone, you might drop a handful of fliers, or perhaps a few hundred. But together, we can drop millions — and send a clear (and fun) message to EU policymakers.

GET STARTED

The good news? We know lawmakers are listening. Some members of the European Parliament have been working diligently to improve the Commission's proposal, and have taken into account some of the changes we've called for, such as removing dangerous provisions like mandatory upload filters, and pushing back against extending copyright to links and snippets.

But many others need to be convinced to support a modern copyright reform that empowers creators, innovators and Internet users.

If you support common-sense copyright law in the EU — and a healthier Internet — join the #paperstorm today.

Thanks for all you do to support sensible copyright reform!

Sincerely, Will Easton Mozilla

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

Building A Revolutionary Anarchism.

      In 2008 capitalism staggered, convulsed and retched, mass movements sprang up, and there seemed an opportunity to bring about its demise. However, here we are in 2017 and the beast is still alive, still decimating the lives of millions by means of exploitation, poverty and wars, and still plundering the planet to destruction. 2008 now looks like a missed opportunity, perhaps it was, but no doubt, the nature of capitalism being what it is, it will produce more opportunities as it goes through regular staggering, convulsions and retching. Anarchists should learn from the failure of 2008 and be prepared for when the beast again lurches into its next inbuilt, inevitable convulsion. 

 

         On the matter of the missed opportunities of 2008, and learning from them you could do worse than reading Colin O’Malley’s book, Building a Revolutionary Anarchism from Zabalaza Books. You can download it for free as a PDF HERE: 

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

 

Plundering The Common Goods.

         Once again our local councils play fast and loose with our property. East Dunbartonshire council has decided to sell another part of our heritage, Thomas Muir’s Huntershill House, Thomas Muir was Scottish radical, world known, from the 1700’s. Apart from its historical value, this is a large house, B listed, it is in a poor state of repair, probably deliberately by the council’s neglect. It stands in a considerable piece of land, and what is more, the house and land is Common Goods Property. As far as I am aware it has been sold for £147,000, house and grounds. This in an area where houses sitting in land less than half the size of this plot sell for more than £250,000. No doubt the developer will be rubbing their hands with glee, as they make their way to the bank with the proceeds of their windfall, courtesy of the East Dunbartonshire Council.

 Thomas Muir's House at Huntershill.

            At a meeting of the council’s Development and Regeneration Committee in January, it was agreed to sell Huntershill House and its immediate surrounding land to Brian Thomas Gray (trading as “E & R Properties”) for redevelopment as a care home and relative offices.
          In a letter to Thomas Dibble, secretary of Bishopbriggs Community Council, EDC’s legal department wrote: “As the council considers this property to form part of the Bishopbriggs Common Good, a petition has been raised at Glasgow Sheriff Court to seek the court’s permission to proceed with the sale - as is required in terms of Section 75(2) of the Local Government (Scotland) Act 1973.”
           Members of the public have 21 days to raise an objection to the plan and the court hearing has been set for 
Friday, March 13. Thomas Glen, East Dunbartonshire Council’s director of development and regeneration, said: “East Dunbartonshire Council’s Development and Regeneration Committee agreed at a meeting on January 28 to progress with the sale of Huntershill House and associated land.
        Read more at: http://www.kirkintilloch-herald.co.uk/news/muir-s-house-to-be-care-home-1-3687573

Applicant
Mr Brian Gray
E&R Property Company Ltd
4 Eaglesham Road
Clarkston
Glasgow
Scotland
G76 7BT

Agent
Deborah Lauder
Oakshaw Architectural Design Ltd
Flat 9 Oakshaw Court
62 Oakshaw Street West
Paisley
United Kingdom
PA1 2DE

Case Officer East Dunbartonshire Council
Max Wilson
0141 578 8637
Historic Scotland Louisa Humm

Planning report:
http://planning.eastdunbarton.gov.uk/online-applications/files/4E158103E93855AB1660346EBD956EAB/pdf/TP_ED_16_0444-REPORT_OF_HANDLING-253773.pdf

     Heritage appraisal did not take into account the radical history element. Stasia comment.

http://planning.eastdunbarton.gov.uk/online-applications/files/1E9BBA74C09ED801EE74E9103546D67E/pdf/TP_ED_16_0444-PL15_-_HERITAGE_APPRAISAL-243661.pdf
 

http://planning.eastdunbarton.gov.uk/online-applications/files/265ED369CEFD68C78A885B2CAF376E39/pdf/TP_ED_16_0444-PL14_DESIGN_STATEMENT-243542.pdf
The link to these documents now state, "documents not available".

Here is a live link:

https://www.eastdunbarton.gov.uk/residents/planning-and-building-standards

Then the following pathways:

Planning applications

Planning Applications Search

Planning Applications Search in red text

Enter Keyword - Huntershill

Planning Application TP/ED/16/0444- Application Summary

17 Documents with this application

PL15 Preliminary Heritage Appraisal

and check out Design Statement.

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Visiting An Old Acquaintance.

 

        Yesterday, Tuesday, I decided to take the bike round, what used to be a favourite area of mine for the bike and hill walking, Callander. It was another beautiful day, what a pleasure cycling in a short sleeved shirt, a rare occurrence in Scotland. One summer, back in the days when I called myself a cyclist, I done the same run every Sunday for the entire season. It was a beautiful run, starting at my front door in the north of Glasgow, I would head for Lennoxtown, then up the Crow Road over the Campsies to Fintry. From there you climb past what cyclist used to call "th' tap o'th wurld" (The top of the world), though it wasn't, for you are still climbing up to Kippen. From there you get a magnificent run downhill, then a few miles of flat road over what I believe is part of Flanders Moss. This flat leads to another climb up to Thornhill, from there you start another set of undulating hills, but it is ever upwards. Eventually you reach the top and then its flying down all the way to a lovely flat stretch as you head into Callander. Usually it was something to eat in Pipps Tearoom in Ancaster Square, before heading home via a different route.

         Homeward bound would be from Callander over the Breas of Greenock, nowhere near Greenock, it is quite a climb, and then a run down past the Lake of Menteith, to the Aberfoyle road (one year when I was a young man the Lake froze over for months, and at the weekends we would skate on it, skating out to the island). From there it would be Ward Toll, Ballat Toll, Glengoyne, famed for its whisky as much as its beauty, and then the climb out of the Blane Valley to Strathblane. It was now the home stretch via Lennoxtown and a shower and a bite to eat at home. 

 Ancaster Square Callander.

Main Street Callander.

 

       On yesterday's shorter run I visited Callander, and then followed the road towards Strathyre, before retracing my route and then turning off to go along the shore of Loch Venachar, stopping at the tearoom beautifully situated on the shore of the loch. Sitting and sipping tea looking out over the loch feeling at peace with the world, (not a frequent experience) before heading back to Callander.

 Looking across Loch Venachar from lochside tearoom.

  

 Looking up Loch Venachar towards Ben Lomond.

    Sadly they are now talking about the weather changing, I suppose we should expect that, after all, this is Scotland, ever changing weather is what we have. 

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

What If World Capitalism Collapsed Tomorrow??

         Any rational observer of the world today is aware that capitalism is the dominant force, and it is a destructive force. Its only aim is growth, growth in the power of the corporate world. There is no future for humanity if the capitalist system is allowed to continue its relentless drive for ever more wealth and power to the lords and masters of the system. Capitalism has no compassion, no country, its policy of wars for power and resources creates a sea of deprivation, and in that sea swims all manner of misery and debauchery where the deluded and the desperate feed of each other in a desperate struggle for survival, compassion and humanity are constantly stained with the blood of the poor. Today we are witnessing raw, brutal capitalism in all its savagery. If we agree that the present economic system of capitalism must be destroyed, how do we save humanity, in its collapse, how do we shape the new world and guarantee its healthy birth, how do we stop the old malignant malaise from being re-born?

This from Ill Will Editions:

 FIRST REVOLUTIONARY MEASURES - Eric Hazan & Kamo (2013)

        We have witnessed a beginning, the birth of a new age of revolt and upheaval. In North Africa and the Middle East it took the people a matter of days to topple what were supposedly entrenched regimes. Now, to the west, multiple crises are etching away at a ‘democratic consensus’ that has, since the 1970s, plagued and suppressed any sparks of revolutionary potential.
         But what is to be done in the aftermath of a regime’s demise? How do we prevent any power from restoring itself? How do we create the irreversible? How do we reorganize society without a central authority? How do we survive? Neither a leadership reshuffle, in the guise of constitutional process, nor a transition period between a capitalist social order and a communist horizon will do.
        Full book in zine form, with revisions by IWE. We think it’s a good moment to return to this text with fresh eyes. It offers a helpful frame for re-launching strategic discussions in a time of widespread political disaffection.

Read the book HERE:

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Food For Thought!!

      Most rational people agree that we humans have had a tremendous impact on our home, the planet on which we live. Most would also agree, that impact has done tremendous damage, and the damage is on going. At what point is the damage non-repairable? 

From Not Buying Anything:

      What if scientists are right and the planet's systems really are under threat of collapse, or are already in a state of collapse? What if humans were the major cause of that?

      Based on an evaluation of more than 1,000 previous studies, a new meta-review by an international group of 18 scientists suggests the Earth is perilously close to a tipping point where resource consumption, ecosystem degradation, climate change, biodiversity loss and population growth will trigger massive changes in the biosphere. 

- From: Scientists Tip 2025 for Possible Planetary Collapse

How would one live if this were true?

     Would we continue with the economic system that is the root cause of all this damage, and continue to devour ourselves into extinction, or would we start to dismantle this system and structure our communities and society in a sustainable fashion, creating a system of co-operation rather than competition, seeing to our needs, and not the self-centred desires of the greedy? At what point will we make that decision? Now, or when it is already too late?

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Two In A Row.

        What a glorious weekend, difficult to believe, several days with glorious sunshine, and this is Scotland. We have to grab it when it happens. So Saturday saw my first run up the Loch this season, (Loch Lomond), the sad thing about a beautiful sunny weekend in Scotland, everybody else also grabs it. So everybody and their grandmother, jumped into their cars and also headed up the Loch. Massive tailbacks and slow moving monster queues, then endless convoys of speeding vehicles doing 60-70mph and in some case, more. Never the less, it was a great run, up through Tarbet, round to Arrochar and stopped at the head of Loch Long. Loch Long is an sea loch, the other end opens out to the Firth of Clyde, so it is tidal and you get the salt air smell as you pass. The sad bit about it that taints its beautiful vista, it was for years a torpedo testing range. These photos were taken at low tide, so you see the long flat beach covered in different colours of seaweed.

       In this other photo you can just see the craggy Cobbler showing is jagged top. A favourite for climbers and walkers alike. In my younger days I spent many an afternoon admiring the magnificent view from the top. Most people start the ascent from the side of Loch Long but you can start at the other side from a small car park at the start of the "Rest-and-be-thankful". having done it both ways, I can vouch for it being equally beautiful from either point.

       Being an old wrinkly, I no longer do two runs on two consecutive days, I usually like a wee break in between.  However, Sunday being as beautiful a day as Saturday, I decided to head up my familiar territory, the Campsie area. Fate was not kind to me, arriving at the Clachan of Campsie tearoom, I was greeted with a notice which read, "Closed until May 15th." so no soup. My partner Stasia arrived at the tearoom by a different route, both eager for that plate of soup we decide to go back the way to Lennoxtown, to the café Barga, only to be greeted by the words, "we're shut". Only in Scotland would a café close its doors in early afternoon on a sunny weekend. So it was home without the obligatory plate of soup. Never the less, a couple of great days.

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Police Violence, The Bedrock Of A Fascist State.

          The May Day riots in France have a more sinister undertone than just police beating up "hoodies" and intimidating people so as to prevent further protests. The police in France like those in Greece, and probably elsewhere, practically vote en-mass for the far right. This is the foundation of a police state, the bedrock for a fascist establishment, irrespective of how you vote.

       Those who fear the election of Marine Le Pen must understand that the French police are already carrying out an effectively fascist program. Not only do the majority of policemen admit to voting for the extreme right, but the state is already employing them to implement totalitarian conditions. Migrants and refugees can tell a lot about this.
       In this two-week interval between the two rounds of the election, it is becoming clear that the real seizure of power is not taking place through the election, but at its borders, more or less concealed, in the increasing autonomy of the police force. In our last report, we explored the ways that extending the state of emergency has both paved the way for the police state and rendered it invisible. Since the arrival of Le Pen in the second round of the elections, we see the police behaving as if she had already won the election.

      Here in the UK we are having a slowly-slowly approach to arming the police, a policy that will accelerate as protests and unrest increases. After all, do you need armed police to tackle 99% of the crime in this country? They are there to control civil unrest, which the establishment see on the horizon, as their policies start to inflict ever more misery on the population.
     The swing to the far right is not just in those countries "over there", it is here, and across Europe and elsewhere. Prepare to sentence future generations to the harshness and divisiveness of an ever increasing right-wing establishment, or organise to resist this cancer that is eating our society. At the heart of this march of authoritarianism is capitalism, a capitalism that has the state apparatus in its pocket, and uses it to implement its desired policies, of increased profit at the expense of the people. This will not end when their coffers are over flowing, as they are at the moment, their greed is insatiable. They will continue to plunder the planet and decimate its population to the point of total destruction. They need an authoritarian state to protect them as they drag us to that destruction. Only we the ordinary people, can stop this death march, those in power are blinded by their avarice.  

        The evening of the first vote was the occasion of an anarchist-organized call to gather at the Place de la Bastille for a “Night of Barricades.” Dozens of people were wounded by police that evening, humiliated, undressed in the street. Journalists were beaten up with their own cameras.
      Two days later, statutory refugees (who are officially supposed to benefit from “state protection”) were expelled from their homes and thrown into the streets by police, for no reason, out of pure racism. The next day, a friend’s squat was attacked by the police. Our comrades were tackled to the ground with a Flash-ball on the temple. One of our friends was subjected to sexual assault in the car that took her to the police station. Coincidence or not, a few days prior, that squat had hosted a projection of videos we have made in Paris over the past few months documenting police violence against migrants.
       All this is further evidence, should more evidence be necessary, that fighting against the extreme right means fighting against the State. It is something we must make a daily practice.

        The police violence was some of the worst seen in Paris recently. and is a policy that is being refined to intimidate people from any form of protest. After all all those armed to the teeth police didn't just materialise out of nowhere, they are recruited, armed and trained in establishments all over the country and are paid for by the public. They same is going on here.

        In response, some people throw stones. Fireworks too. Some Molotov cocktails. The police pushed us relentlessly towards the Place de la Bastille, shooting at us without pause. Once there, they formed a trap at the foot of the steps of the Opera Bastille with perhaps two hundred people inside it. For those people, it turned into a scene of tragedy worthy of The Battleship Potemkin. The police pushed people on the steps while soaking them in tear gas. We could see nothing, there was no place to escape, people crashed against the steps, jostling and falling on top of each other like in the Odessa Steps Sequence.
         Fortunately, we were not in this group. The police pushed us onto Avenue Daumesnil, then Boulevard Diderot.
Picture yourself in this scene. Tear gas grenades are exploding incessantly. Sometimes you think you can escape by a street, so you run there—in any case, you have no choice, because you need to breathe—but the police are waiting for you on every street. As soon as you pass the street corner, they kettle you in, shooting concussion grenades into the middle of the crowd, knowing perfectly well that there is no space to avoid them.

Read the full article HERE:

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