Hamburg Summer 2017: I Am There, I Stay There!

 

        Like I have said before, it is difficult for me to keep my mouth shut within this kaleidoscope of injustice and inequality, repression and poverty.  I have often spouted off about prisons and their purpose, their part in the control chain of this repressive and exploitative system. This letter taken from Act For Freedom Now, from a victim locked up inside one of Germany's many prisons, for protesting that injustice, puts it much better than I could.

Letter from Hamburg from Billwerder Prison, by a French prisoner
        It’s been almost a month and a half since I was imprisoned during the twelfth G20 summit in Hamburg, in a city that was besieged and taken in hostage by the security forces, but which also saw an important local and popular protest.
       Tens of thousands, if not more, flocking from all over Europe, and even beyond, converged, met, organised, debated and demonstrated together for several days in a great surge of solidarity. At all times aware of the possibility of suffering the violence and the repression of the police. A huge prefab police court had been built for the occasion, to punish any dissent against this international summit as quickly as possible.
      My arrest, like that of many comrades, is based only on the sacred word of the police, of a brigade sent to infiltrate, observe and follow their “prey” (during forty-five minutes in my case, for a supposed throwing of a projectile…). Once isolated, they sent colleagues to arrest them, intervening quickly and violently, and leaving no loop-holes.
        So, here I am, locked up in these places primordial to the proper functioning of a global social order, these places that serve as a tool for the control and management of poverty, essential to the maintenance of their “social peace”. Prison acts like a sword of Damocles hanging above each and every individual so that they are petrified by the idea of deviating from the codes and dictates of an established order: “working, consuming, sleeping”, from which no dominated individual may escape, so they alienate themselves through work and the life that goes with it, to be on time, without ever flinching, and not only during the second round of the presidential elections, where we have been required to be “En Marche” [“in operation”, Macron’s slogan and name of the party in power right now] or to die, preferably slowly and silently.
        Since the law has no vocation to guarantee the general interest, nor to be neutral, it is the expression of an increasingly institutional domination by the most powerful in order to guarantee their property and security and thus paralyse, sanction and marginalize anyone who does not see things the same way or who will not submit.
        Beyond the cases of the well-known and supported activists who are locked up, there are also, and above all, those men and women who are exposed to the brutality and the cruelty of imprisonment. Here the work is paid one euro per hour, of which half is accessible only on release from jail. In my wing, detainees in pre-trial detention or for short sentences (six months to four years) are mainly detained only for one reason: their social condition and origin. Apart from the staff, very few are from the host country, all are foreigners, refugees and/or precarious, poor, weakened by life. Their crime: they did not submit to the rules of the game, for the majority by engaging in drugdealing or by committing thefts, scams, alone or in organised gangs at various scales.
         Imprisonment is a fundamental pillar of this system but one can not criticise it without attacking the society that produces it. The prison, not operating in self-sufficiency, is the perfect link in a society based on exploitation, domination and separation in its varied forms.
“Work and prison are two essential pillars for social control, work being the better police and rehabilitation a permanent blackmail.”
        My thoughts go to the Italian comrades facing an umpteenth wave of repression, especially those charged in the investigation into the “explosive device” left in front of a bookstore linked to Casapound. The extreme right must face an organised, popular and offensive counterattack. It is so useful and complementary to those states that feed on its security aspirations and delusions and its incessant stigmatization of “foreigners.”
        Thoughts also for the comrades who will face trial next September for the police car burned on the eighteenth of May last year, in Paris, during the movement “loi travail” (labour law) movement. Many people have gone through prison and two are still incarcerated. Strength to them!
        Acknowledgments to the local activists organising rallies in front of our prison, an initiative appreciated here as it breaks the routine and the state of ambient lethargy in which we are alienated. Acknowledgments to all those who support us here and everywhere.
To the Bro’, 161, MFC, OVBT, wild youngsters, those who BLF and other friends …
Comrades, strength!
        Let’s free the G20 prisoners and all the others! We’re not alone!
One imprisoned among others
Billwerder Prison,
Hamburg
14 August 2017

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A Wee Hidden Gem.

         Haven't been able to get out on the bike much recently. A combination of lousy weather, (I'm now a fair weather cyclist) and difficult circumstances. However, today was forecast to be dry, with light winds, so dusted it down, checked the tyres and set off for a spin round my old familiar patch, the Campsie Hills area. Wrong shirt, it was a bit cooler than I thought, but still a very enjoyable run, not as many cyclist out on the road as usual. Although I have covered that area on the bike countless times, it never fails to surprise me, a view I hadn't taken in before, something through the trees I hadn't noticed before, some trees that have been removed, a burn in spate, and so on. Today, as I took to the cycle path just before you enter Lennoxtown, second time ever, I was obliged to stop because of a group of people with about six dogs spread out all over the pathway. While stopped I noticed through the trees a small lochan I never knew existed. It is pleasantly tucked behind shrubs and trees. So I stood looking at it for a while, watching the mallard peacefully swimming about. I had to take a wee photo. 

 On the cycle path just before you enter Lennoxtown. 

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Call Out For Solidarity.

        In this so called democracy, sanitised, and authority choreographed, marches, demos and protests are tolerated, but even in these sanctioned affairs, the eyes of the minders of the state, are ever eager to mark things with their branding iron of fear, just in case anybody should try to think for themselves and act accordingly. Glasgow Pride March, a rather merry and pleasurable affair, saw 5 arrests.
         This is a call out from various groups, to show support and solidarity with those arrested.

Solidarity with 5 arrested at Glasgow Pride MarchHi, 

     There’s a write-up on this blog, including pictures and video: https://athousandflowers.net/2017/08/19/no-pride-in-police-arrests-in-glasgow-as-protesters-resist-police-led-pride-march/amp/
       The first three arrests were a planned protest by Free Pride and they were bailed on Saturday. The other two arrests were from our bloc: a young person nicked for having an offensive banner (with no chance to surrender or destroy it) and someone who tried to intervene / observe. As far as I know these two are being held for court on Monday.
        I’ll go to the court tomorrow in support; is anyone else coming, and do we know the full names of the arrestees? I expect both to be not called, or bailed or ordained to return for trial. Does anyone know where prisoners are released from Glasgow Sheriff Court custody, if they don’t get out through the main doors?
        Thanks for any help, best wishes,

Solidarity with 5 arrested at Glasgow Pride March
        Latest news is that two people are still in custody, the other three have been released. There is going to be a solidarity demo at the Glasgow Sheriff Court tomorrow Monday 9am onwards
       For updates see ACE facebook and especially Free the Pride Five events page https://www.facebook.com/events/294177851048722/
       Excerpt: On 19th August three trans activist and two antifa were arrested for protesting capitalist pride. Join us in solidarity on their court date.
UPDATE: three have been released but we will still be there for the other two.
https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=1445513385484082&id=216550781713688&ref=bookmarks

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Happy Birthday.

 

        This month marks the 6th anniversary of the birth of Spirit of Revolt Archive. August 2011 a small group of dedicated activists sat down in a café in Glasgow and put in place their ideas to preserve the history of the struggles of the ordinary people in their city and Clydeside area. From that small band with their ideas, has grown what I believe to be a unique archive of considerable scope and breadth. It was not just a desire to record and preserve this valuable history, but to make it all easily accessible to the public at large. This requires a small army of dedicated volunteers to sit and scan thousands of documents to make them available on our website, so you don't have to make your way to a library in Glasgow to read them, but can do it from the comfort of your home. Have a look at our collection, read rare documents from the past and not so distant past, learn about the struggles of your parents, grand parents and actions you may have been involved in yourself. It is a living history, still being created by you, your friends and neighbours.

       Browse our catalogue, transport your self in to the struggles of ordinary people as they strive for that better life for all. I believe it was George Orwell who said, and I paraphrase, "the best way to destroy a people is to destroy their history". Without a record of our history we become a people without a history or a culture. We must never let that happen, we have a very rich history, of which we can be very proud, our history is our culture, it's who we are. Our archive strives to make sure our history is preserved, recorded and made readily available for all. 

       All this requires time and volunteers, but sadly it also requires money, and it is always a struggle to keep ahead of the financial demands the capitalist system makes on us. We believe what we do is not only valuable, but necessary, if you also feel this way, perhaps you can see you way to helping with a small donation, one of or, a monthly direct debit, no amount is too small. You can donate by going to our DONATE page and follow the instructions there. In anticipation of you thoughtful generosity, a big thank you. 

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A Disturbing Observation.

         We live in dangerous times, the capitalist corporate juggernaut is now backed up by weapons of unimaginable destructive power, and the emperors are mad. Each mad emperor boasting of melting each others country, unleashing a nuclear holocaust, which in all probability would see the end of human life as we know it. This is the natural path of capitalism, from its endless wars with ever increasing more powerful weaponry, always trying to be the biggest toughest guy in town, a sure path to destruction. Mad emperors with large armies was one thing, mad emperors with their finger on the nuclear button, is quite something else. Our call should not be to ban the bomb, but to abolish the capitalist system and it endless wars, orchestrated by mad emperors. As long as we tolerate the capitalist system with its attendant mad emperors, we will walk ever closer to that world of destruction beyond belief, that permanent dark winter.

  Winter.

Dark malefic clouds crowd the sky

winds carry the stench of carrion to every nostril,

the crazy ape has followed the faculty of hawks.

All around stand crows, magpies, jackdaws, vultures,

edacious eyes anticipating their putrid feast.

A weary Cassandra laments;

doves, hearts weeping for a better yesterday

forsake their olive branches.

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They Must Be Abolished.

           Most large cities have at least one, they sit there with little or no activity going on around them, most people pass them without giving them much thought, but these silent buildings belie there reality. They are of course prisons, large hell-holes of anguish, oppression, distress, and brutality. Symbols of state oppression, part and parcel of its control system. Among a considerable amount of the public, there is the glib thought that they are places where the “bad people” are sent. However, the truth is far removed from that glib thought. 

         Since 1900 the prison population in England and Wales has grown by 400%, in Scotland approximately 200%, it is a growing business. The prison population figures for August 2017, for England and Wales is 86,353, Scotland 7,700, and Northern Ireland 1,600, all up on last years figures. The UK takes pride of place in the EU as the country with the highest percentage per 100,000 of its population in prison. England and Wales 148 per 100,000 of the population are in prison, compared with France 98.3 per 100,000, Italy 86.4 per 100,000, and Germany with 77.4 per 100,000. Most UK prisons are overcrowded and thus create inhumane and unbearable conditions, adding to the already existing injustice. 

          As for these being the “bad people” of society, of the UK prison population, 10% of men and 30% of women have had a previous psychiatric admission before ending up in prison. Of those in prison 25% of women and 16% of men have symptoms indicative of a psychosis, among the general public the figure is 4%. Of the UK prison population, 62% male and 57% female, have a personality disorder, 49% of women and 23% of male prisoners in a Ministry of Justice study were assessed as suffering from anxiety and depression, 46% of females and 21% of males in UK prisons have attempted suicide. Another factor that contributes to the prison population is the fact that many of those who foolishly put on a state military uniform to fight for the corporate empire, end up damaged and unable to adjust to civilian life, so find themselves part of the prison population, approximately 8,500, 10% of the UK prison population are ex military.
        So what we have are large buildings, dotted around the country, kitted out with cages, where we dump those with mental health problems. The other section of the prison population is those who dissent, deviate, from the prescribed path laid down by our lords and masters, those who see the injustice of the system and rebel against that injustice, inequality and exploitation.
         Prisons are not for the “bad people” they are there to protect a system of privilege for the few, to maintain the power and wealth in the hands of those who control our lives. We can never live in a democracy as long as one prison still stands. 

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Has The Time For Words Passed?

          In the face of so much oppression, unnecessary suffering, injustice and raw exploitation, and a heart that is bursting with passion for justice and freedom, I’m finding it difficulty to keep my mouth shut. How can you shut out all the unnecessary misery in this world, how can you turn a blind eye to the cause, especially as the cause of all this suffering in wars and deprivation is simple to see, capitalism. Capitalism is the root cause of practically all our problems, to remedy that situation you have to kill the root, not try to prune some of its malignant twigs. 

           I always find it puzzling that a system that produces so much poverty, misery and exploitation, while fabricating endless wars, all for the wealth and power of the few, continues functioning. Where is the righteous anger of the crowd, the ordinary people, who exist in the exploitation, misery and poverty, and whose family and friends have their blood shed to feed these endless wars? They could bring the system down tomorrow if they so desired. It is a system where our pleasures are enjoyed under the shadow of dark deeds done thousands of miles away. These deserts of poverty and deprivation, these lands of blood soaked soil, this world of oppression, are not brought about by some mechanical device or natural occurrence, but by humans, sitting in plush offices, making decisions based on personal gain, decisions devoid of humanity. Deprivation, poverty, oppression and exploitation are not diseases, they are the result of human decisions. These people, along with our political ballerinas who pander to their every desire, must be named shamed and brought to task, for the savage brutality they have heaped on the ordinary people of this world, merely to satisfy their own greed, wealth and power. 

         I sincerely believe that the time for talking and reasoning with the irrational greed driven cabal that is driving this world to destruction, has passed. That which is held by faith or belief, cannot be dislodged by reason, the powerful warmongering cabal that control this vicious system are helpless and blind to reason’s bright light. Over the centuries, we the ordinary people have pleaded, argued, and reasoned for a fairer society, our request and pleadings have often been met with the brutal might of the state, with savage force attempting to silence our reasoning. As we are, after those centuries of seeking justice, still mired in exploitation, poverty, deprivation and the savagery of endless wars, surely the time has come to admit, that our pleadings, requests and reasoning have failed miserably. 

        Will we continue to reason with the irrational? Will we still appeal with dialogue against the brutality of the state? Will we harbour the thought that the rich and powerful will turn rational and compassionate, and decide to share that wealth and power with us lower mortals? History has your answer.

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Old Age Never Comes Alone.

 

       At the age of 83, I have to admit that it is a true saying, old age never comes alone, one thing it does come with is a set of automatic brakes. It slows you down, it stops you from time to time, and it sets the pace. Over the years I have always been a very active person, never seeming to tire, always juggling several things at the one time. Now it is very difficult to keep doing the things I want to do. In recent years I have researched and compiled a list of working class people and events that have helped to shape the conditions in our city and further afield, strugglepedia, from that was born  the book Radical Glasgow, now in its third edition. For a number of years I produced and distributed on the streets of Glasgow, a small free paper, The Anarchists Critic, which was monthly, then bi-monthly and latterly quarterly, the last issue, No.113  was a special 2017 General Election/May Day issue. Some are listed HERE, though no longer up to date. However one of the things that I am exceedingly proud, is the fact that I was one of the founder members of Spirit of Revolt, an archive of the struggles of the ordinary people of Clydeside and Glasgow. I consider it a extremely valuable resource for younger people, and others not so young, to learn of, and from, the on-going struggles of others. It also records a history that would otherwise be lost, helping to complete a more accurate picture of the mosaic of OUR history. The history of those grass-roots movements and individuals, non-aligned with the party political machines and unions, people struggling for that better world for all. 

      Then there is this blog, in which, over the years, I have spouted my mouth off on matters that hit my passion spot. However, because I can no longer get out and about, no demos, protests, marches, meetings, talks, discussions, pickets, etc. I am starting to feel out of touch. Therefore feel less able to speak as someone involved, and have no desire to become "an armchair anarchist". So the blog will fall silent, there might be the odd sporadic outburst when something slams into my passion spot, and that passion prevents me from keeping my mouth shut. Other than that, I will concentrate my time to Spirit of Revolt, attempting to get out on the bike, playing chess against the computer, and read more poetry, and perhaps, attempt to add to those I have already written.

      So I would like to say a big thank you to all those who took the trouble to read my outpourings, made a comment, or followed the blog. I have enjoyed doing it, and I hope it added something positive to your thinking. 

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

You Are Many, They Are Few.

       Sometimes a phrase or paragraph says so much you feel you don't have to read the rest of the article, though I don't recommend that as a general rule. I sometimes go to the site Gods and Radicals, there I can find interesting reading and and at times, words of wisdom.

       Reading an excerpt from Dr. Bones’ new book, Curse Your Boss, Hex The State, Take Back The World. on the Gods and Radical site, the article was headed by this paragraph:

       “So the patient advocates of ‘free states,’ ‘free speech,’ ‘free assemblage,’ what are they but deluded children in the vicinity of forces they do not comprehend? If they want to assemble and speak without let or hindrance, let them increase their own power, their strength of arm until they can speak and meet as they will. But to ask for free speech and free meeting, what is it but an acknowledgement of tutelage, inferiority…There is only one thing the down-trodden with retained dignity can do, and that is to Get Up.

Dora Marsden, The Freewoman, Volume 1 Number 1, June 15th 1913

       It doesn't take much brain power to see the truth in this statement, but how many will act upon its wisdom?
      Dr Bones' book Curse Your Boss--- is available, in print or digital form HERE:
        Staying with Gods and Radicals, another extract form an article, Margaret Killjoy’s Fantastic Aesthetic Anarcho-Fun Heresy, contained another kernel of wisdom. 

          What she saw about an aesthetic built on fantasy and an alternative vision born of the industrial age is what every really good fantasist, but also every good theorist and mystic, sees: the world not only could have been different, it still can be. And not only can it be, but the certain sorts of people who give way too much time thinking about how it still can be different are the ones who have the potential to make it different.

       Again, it is by not believing you can change the world, or giving up on trying to change the world, that we perpetuate the present system of capitalist greed and destruction.
      So let's join hands with the poets, the dreamers, the lovers and the visionaries, and  shape this world to our imagination. Just remember what the poet said, "you are many, they are few".
     Video of Ursula K. Le Guin and Margaret Killjoy - Mythmakers & Lawbreakers: Anarchist Writers On Fiction

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In Defence Of Hambach Forest.

        The corporate bodies that rape and plunder our planet are, if nothing else, persistent, they are unrelenting in their drive for ever greater profit. They set their plans in motion to desecrate an ancient forest to further their profits, the public protest and set up resistance, five years on the corporate juggernaut is creeping ever closer to those fighting to save the forest. All this is done with the backing of the state, an institution whose prime purpose is to keep the lid on the civil population, should they attempt to protect their country's forests, mountains, rivers and ecosystems from the devouring corporate monster. The state is the corporate plunders minders, stemming the flow of resistance, to allow the unbridled greed of their corporate masters to go unhindered in its rape and plunder of the planet. The state and capitalism will never allow rationalism, freedom and sustainability to enter the debate, perpetual growth is the only game in town, to the detriment of all that is natural and necessary for our survival. Just as the corporate juggernaut is relentless and persistent, so is the resistance of the people, and those who put their time, energy and lives on the line to protect our natural environment, deserve all the support and solidarity we can muster.

This from Squatting Will Stay:

 Call for defending the occupation of the Hambach Forest

       The Hambach Forest has been occupied for five years. For five years people have been building and defending tree houses in order to protect the trees they are living on. For five years diggers, cops, and secus have kept coming closer. Officially, the forest is owned by RWE, a multinational energy company that does not only want to kill the thousands-of-years-old forest, destroy habitats, dispossess and displace residents from the surrounding villages to generate power. With it’s production of lignite in the Rhineland along it is responsible for 30% of Germany’s CO2 emissions. A company that does not shy away from exploiting the entire world in order to maximise its profits. It is a company that significantly contributes to generating situations forcing people to leave their countries of origin. Because the people who first have to deal with the consequences of global warming are not those profiting from coal, but people from the global South. This makes our struggle part of the struggle against imperialism, against oppression and racism. What happens here does not happen by accident. It is a symbol of the capitalist system. And we are working on means of attacking it.       For five years we have not only been attacking RWE, but a system of hierarchy and exploitation that facilitates the company’s mania for profit. It is very clear for us that the fight for climate justice is intimately linked with the struggle for a world without hierarchies, a world far away from capitalistic coercion where major companies do not yield any power over human beings and nature! It is intimately linked to a world where everyone has the right and courage to defend their opinions and principles without being silenced by repressions from the state and system! The fact that the occupation is still alive after five years is proof for the fact that it is possible to resist, that it is possible to dedicate your life to your own maxims and that we will succeed in turning theory into praxis. Only by organising collectively and through courage were we able to fight for this freedom and free space and to maintain it. Despite repressions, despite many of us having been beat up, abused and imprisoned, we are here and will stay here!

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How Dare They Nationalise Their Oil!!

       According to Western propaganda spewing from the babbling brook of bullshit, our mainstream media, Iran has been, and still is, the king of the world's evil empire. According to that organ of the state and the corporate juggernaut, the babbling brook of bullshit, all things nasty, all terrorism, all human rights failures, stem from that country. The West's vision of Iran is shaped by nothing more than power and wealth for that elite bunch of parasites, oil is the driving force of that hatred. Some years ago, the people of Iran had the audacity to nationalise their countries oil, and to the West, that is an unforgivable crime. All the wars of the West are for the same reason, wealth and power to that small cabal of obscenely rich moguls who control the world in which we live.

This from The Canary: 

        The US just fired at Iran. But there’s something vital that the media won’t be telling you about ongoing tensions.
On 25 July, the US Navy fired ‘warning shots’ at an Iranian patrol boat in the Persian Gulf. This isn’t the start of World War Three as some media outlets may suggest; but it is a sign of continuing US-Iranian tensions. And it comes just weeks after the release of declassified documents which highlight the issues at the very heart of these tensions. We probably won’t be hearing such historical context in the mainstream media any time soon, though.

Newly released documents show tensions exist for a reason

As Noam Chomsky pointed out in 2013:

-----for the past 60 years, not a day has passed in which the U.S. has not been torturing Iranians… [It] began with a military coup, which overthrew the parliamentary regime in 1953, installed the Shah, a brutal dictator… When he was overthrown in 1979, the U.S. almost immediately turned to supporting Saddam Hussein in an assault against Iran, which killed hundreds of thousands of Iranians, used extensive use of chemical weapons… Right after that, Iran was subjected to harsh sanctions. And it continues right until the moment.

      And in June 2017, newly released documents showed exactly what was at the heart of CIA involvement in the 1953 coup. As Foreign Policy reported:

------the CIA plot was ultimately about oil. Western firms had for decades controlled the region’s oil wealth… [Then, Iranian Prime Minister Muhammad] Mossadegh nationalized Iran’s oil industry. A fuming United Kingdom began conspiring with U.S. intelligence services to overthrow Mossadegh and restore the monarchy under the shah… [Eventually,] Iran’s nationalist hero was jailed, [and] the monarchy [was] restored under the Western-friendly shah…

        The US long denied its involvement in the coup. And Washington only drip-fed documents to the public over the years. But even the 2017 release was incomplete; with a number of original CIA telegrams having either ‘disappeared’ or been destroyed long before. And retired history professor Ervand Abrahamian believes the US was so reluctant to publish this information partly because it “shows how involved the U.S. Embassy was… in internal Iranian affairs”.
As Noam Chomsky highlights, Amnesty International regularly described the shah as “one of the worst, most extreme torturers in the world”. And Foreign Policy stresses that the 1953 coup fueled “a surge of nationalism which culminated in the 1979 Iranian Revolution and [poisoned] U.S.-Iran relations into the 21st century”. In 1979, Chomsky says, Iranians “overthrew a tyrant that the United States had imposed and supported, and moved on an independent path”; and as a result, the US has punished them ever since.

      US hypocrisy and self-interest still at play in Iran

      In 2017, current US President Donald Trump is ramping up tensions with Iran. But not because of democracy or human rights. Instead, his hostility is largely because Iran’s regional enemies, Saudi Arabia and Israel, are US allies; because there’s a barely reported conflict occurring over oil pipelines in the Middle East; and because Iran does not bend easily to America’s will.
Indeed, Trump’s speech in Saudi Arabia back in May contained no talk of freedom, democracy, or human rights. But it was full of talk about terrorism; full of talk about deals with America’s “magnificent” Saudi “friends”; and full of verbal attacks on Iran. Trump said:

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The Solution, Class Struggle Against The Ultra-Wealthy.

       I always believe that bare brutal blunt facts can hit home in people's minds more than theoretical explanations. There is lots of discussion about climate change, from both deniers and accepters, but usually in argumentative point scoring debates. Fancy schemes are banded about on how to fix the problem, but the root cause is usually removed from the debating platform. The arguments are usually couched in terms of us all being responsible for this nasty mess. However, the truth is that it is the capitalist system that is carrying out the genocide of entire species, with our species, the humans, being somewhere along that trajectory. It is capitalism that is rapidly clearing forests and killing of the ecosystems that go with the forests. It is capitalism that is polluting our rivers killing off large and small species alike. It is capitalism the is poisoning our seas and oceans putting an end to the rich and varied life that lives in them. It is capitalism and its obscenely wealthy moguls that is driving this suicidal policy by its insane greed driven belief in perpetual growth or die.

 Some brutal blunt facts in an article by Dan Fischer, from It's Going Down:

 “The solution, then, must involve class struggle against the ultra-wealthy.”

         Half of all wild animals on Earth have been wiped out. You may have missed the news. It came from a scientific study mentioned on page 5 of last Wednesday’s New York Times. You had to flip past the usual stories of Trump regime scandals, four jewelry advertisements, and an ode to a slain officer from the New York Police Department.
        “’Biological Annihilation’ Said to Be Underway.” The article took up only as much space as a Sootheby’s ad on the same page announcing jewelry sales in New York City.
         While “biological annihilation” sounds like an evil plot thought up by a Bond villain, the term actually comes from a peer-reviewed study in the prestigious Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS). The authors Gerardo Ceballos, Paul Ehrlich, and Rodolfo Dirzo use it to describe the ongoing destruction of local populations within different species.
         Due to the pressures of habitat destruction, pollution, and climate change, species are going extinct at 100 times the rate they normally would. The PNAS study shows that populations within species are disappearing much, much faster.

Billions of Genocides
        The authors take data on 27,600 land-dwelling species and map it onto a grid with 22,000 boxes, each representing 10,000 square-kilometer area. They define a “population” as the number of individuals of a given species living in one of those areas.
         They discover that wildlife numbers have declined by “as much as 50%” since 1900. The direct killers are “habitat conversion, climate disruption, overexploitation, toxification, species invasions, [and] disease.”
         “[B]illions of populations” are “already gone,” they report. In other words, there have been billions of genocides, in an endless mass murder of wild animal communities over the last century. In most of the world, the researchers find, mammal populations have decreased by 70 percent.
          Graveyards and graveyards could be filled with all the packs of wolves, colonies of bats, sloths of bears, and herds of giraffes slaughtered by the death machine of capitalism. Lion populations have declined by more than 40 percent since the 1990s. The number of cheetahs in the world has gone down to just 7,000. These dramatic results reinforce the findings of the 2016 Living Planet Index report, which said 60 percent of wildlife has been destroyed since 1970.
         It is not just nonhumans facing extinctions. The authors write, “Humanity will eventually pay a very high price for the decimation of the only assemblage of life that we know of in the universe.” On this topic, it is worth turning to a New York article everyone seems to be sharing.

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Fear Is A Weapon.

       This society is held together by fear, fear of punishment if you break the rules. Those with the wealth and power, create those rules and they have an array of institutions to enforce those rules. For us to break their rules could endanger their powerful and privileged position, this will not be allowed at any cost. From fear of losing your job, or your home, to court orders and fines, on to imprisonment, are just some of the accept methods of keeping you subservient. It is obedience or a precarious life of repression, and we call it democracy. The farce of a free society where inequality is protected and dissent is met with repression. Fear is a weapon used against our class, until we can act freely, we are slaves.

This from Act For Freedom Now:

       The “Faetzig-Camp” is a mixture of a Summer camp with political focus and a festival.
Why oppose prisons?
        We live in a society of punishment. All of us have experienced the principle of punishment, whether in our families, at school, at work, at the job centre or other agencies, in hospital or in psychiatric institutions.
        Punishment is part of a top-down system of power and powerlessness. It lets the strongest win, because they write and are able to enforce the rules. Punishment directs how we act and think. Punishment creates fear and makes us adapt. Fear of punishment is what creates the cop in our heads who forces us to help carry the violence known as normality. Fear of punishment stops us from taking action against injustices and wrongs.
         Growing up in a world filled with punishment leads to a system of punishment living inside of us. It leads to us accepting and using punishment as a means of solving problems ourselves.
Prisons are the heart of punishment. Prisons isolate, humiliate, debase, wound, abase, traumatise, rape. Forced labour, control from the outside, arbitrariness and ruthlessness reign in prisons. Prisons mean to lock away anything that is disruptive instead of dealing with it. Prisons are the opposite of respect, the opposite of peace, the opposite of taking action with consideration for the needs of others. Prisons are the opposite of a free society.
           We are looking for a way out of these confines. We are convinced that people can encounter each other equitably and organise without institutions of the state. Also when solving conflicts.
We, people from various politically active contexts, from environmental movements, anti-prison groups, Antifa groups, have repeatedly made the experience that being politically active leads to repression. Around us we can see that those who have few privileges as it is, are sorted out and given fewer opportunities still.
During the camp we want to meet people who are open for the problems addressed here.
           In and after presentations, during workshops and rounds of discussions we want to join you in thinking about how to improve our networks, how political strategies might look like to en- and counter intensifying repression. What we need to change in our everyday lives, in our everyday environments, step by step. How a society of prisons can be overcome in the long-term.
           Let“s not let ourselves be separated from prisoners through walls! Keep and get in touch with them! Let us make the issues of prisons and the omnipresence of punishment present in more heads again!
          Let us fight for a world on a level playing field, in freedom and equality. For a society without oppression, without punishment, without prisons.
Prisons are not a solution, they are part of the problem!

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

War Is Big Business.

      

        More and more people are coming to realise that the system of capitalism is a system of continuous wars. These continuous wars are dressed up in various disguises, bring democracy to a country, fighting terrorism, removing a nasty dictator for the benefit of the people. All of which, any thinking person knows, is pure unadulterated bullshit. Wars are big profit generators, wars are for resources, for profit, wars are for markets, for profit, wars are for power and wealth for the parasites who control the system. The only price that is paid for this slaughter for profit, is the death, maiming and traumatising of millions of ordinary people. We are supposed to swallow the crap that bombing a country, destroying it cities and towns, killing it citizens, shredding its entire infrastructure and displacing millions of the population, will benefit the people of that country. This is truly the vision of the insane.

        As we struggle to bring down this brutal and ruthless system of greed and destruction, one of our main thrusts must be against its mighty military machine. It has become the hub of the system, generating unbelievable profits as it slaughters to defend and increase the wealth and power of its master, the corporate juggernaut. The blood of ordinary people feed the greed of the capitalist system

This from Contra Info:

          From the 31th of july to the 6th of August the War-Starts-Here camp will set up in Potzehne (close to Magdeburg, Saxony-Anhalt,Germany). For several years now the War-Starts-Here camp has brought together lots of different people close to the modern and important military training site in Germany, the “Gefechtsübungszentrum Heer”, abbreviated as GÜZ. Antimilitarist discussions as well as practical resistance left a persistent mark on both the participants of the camp and the surrounding region. We gather to gain and share knowledge about wars and their preparation, to figure out the situation we are living in and to analyse its internal relationships. Perspectives in emancipatory movements are highly diverse – and so are the views on military and war. This in mind, we want to further develop common ideas of resistance, strengthen the local antiwar-initiatives grown over long years and also discuss our differences respectfully. It seems highly important to us, that we make a step towards the locals and talk with them about their experiences…and maybe more…
        For this year’s camp we build on last year’s main issues. The motto “Krieg.Macht.Flucht.” is still up-to-date, saying “war causes flight” while making use of the ambiguous German word “Macht” (translating both as “makes”/”causes” and “power”). This time our focus will be the development of common anti-militarist and anti-racist perspectives of resistance. Let’s overpower our powerlessness – the camp in Potzehne wants to provide a space for that. We want to have discussions at a horizontal level with everyone sharing our radical refusal of the global destructive circumstances.
        Training, exercise, preparation and export – war starts here! We want to make this deadly site publicly visible, since it is of crucial importance to war preparation. Through various antimilitarist actions we want to disturb the “normal” operation on the GÜZ, let’s mark, block, and sabotage this full-speed-running machinery of war!
       The camp is self-organized and thus, in its existence, shape and impact depending on active participation. Do not miss anything you haven’t helped to organize! Together we create a social counter project: From a society deeply infiltrated by authoritarian structures, let’s set sails towards Utopia.

Read the full article HERE:

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

Global Solidarity For Anarchist prisoners.

        From country to country there are people and groups who tirelessly fight the oppression of the state, some pay with their lives, others, their freedom, all merit our support and solidarity. Solidarity is a many faceted weapon, limited only by our imagination.

      There is a call for global solidarity for all anarchist prisoners during the week 23-30 August, a significant date for anarchists as it was when in 1927, anarchists Sacco and Vanzetti were executed by the American state.

This from Enough is Enough:

         Some political prisoners are already supported, but far from all of them. Also, the supported are usually involved in authoritarian politics and not grassroots activities. Anarchist prisoners are not often well-known people, even though they might be long term activists. Their ways to fight back oppressors and wrongdoings are not necessary following the current laws of their location, which is judged by some authoritarian organizations. The vast amount and diversity of cases of anarchist prisoners is surprising to many.
       We wanted to choose a week, so that it would be easy as possible to organize different kinds of expressions of solidarity, which would be supported by one another. The beginning of the week was chosen to be the execution date of Sacco and Vanzetti, two Italian-American anarchists, in 1927. They were convicted with very little amount of evidence, and many still consider that they were punished from their anarchist views.
      Welcome to join!
Solidarity can express itself in many forms.
Please report us your done actions to the address tillallarefree@riseup.net. You can also announce your event in advance in the same address, we list them on our page http://solidarity.international/. From the pages you can also find examples and tips of actions and support mail to anarchists, links to prisoner lists and more.

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

The Israeli Zionist State's Genocide Of The Palestionian People.

 

         John Pilger gives us a glimpse of the daily humiliation and terrorising of the Palestinian people under the dictate of the Israeli Zionist state. Not a new video, but the picture today is still the same pattern, brutality, humiliation, and terror, washes over the people of Palestine on a daily basis. The Zionist state of Israel is  proceeding with its policy of land grabbing and genocide, on the idiotic premise that God gave them that land a couple of thousand years ago. Thanks Loam for the link.

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