The State Can Never Be A Vehicle For Freedom.

         Anarchists are, at least consistent in one thing, the state can never be a vehicle to freedom. Be it a "socialist" state, Communist" state, a "representative democracy" state, they all walk the same road, control of the people in the hands of the few. For this consistency, many anarchists have paid with their lives, "revolutionary" state after "revolutionary" state, has hounded, exiled, imprisoned and murder anarchist, whose crime has been the belief that the people should control their own lives.

    Crimethinc has produced a excellent article highlighting some of those anarchists from the past, who paid dearly for their continuing struggle for freedom in the face of "revolutionary" states.

Restless Specters of the Anarchist Dead

A few words from the undead of 1917.

          This year is the centennial of two revolutions in Russia: one in which the people toppled the Tsar and another in which the Bolsheviks seized state power. Within twenty years, the Bolsheviks had executed or imprisoned most of those who carried out the revolution. Today, as the hashtag #1917live trends on twitter, we should remember the #1917undead, the anarchists who strove to warn humanity that statist paths towards social change will never bring us to freedom. Some of them, like Fanya and Aron Baron, were murdered in cold blood by authoritarian communists in the Soviet Union. Others managed to survive, betrayed by their supposed comrades, to witness the totalitarian results of the Bolshevik coup. Their voices cry out to us today from the grave. Let’s listen.

Read the full article HERE:

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

A Divided London Anarchist Bookfair?

        I wasn't at the London Anarchist Bookfair this year, but from reports I have heard, I don't think I would have enjoyed it. Reports that I hear are all about confrontation between elements within the anarchist movement, hardly advertises solidarity and co-operation. However, like I said, I wasn't there and am going on second hand version of events. What follows is a first hand account, from somebody who was there, that I found interesting, especially the bit about reaching out to the local community. I post it in full, not to knock the London Anarchist Bookfair, but in the hope that others may come forward with their stories and help to address the problems, that seem to have arisen, find answers and build on what has gone before, making the London Anarchist Bookfair the magnet for activists and a platform to further our ideas out to the public at large.

 From On Uncertain Ground:

          This piece has been prompted by our experience on the joint South Essex Radical Media / Basildon & Southend Housing Action (BASHA) stall at the London Anarchist Bookfair – http://anarchistbookfair.org.uk/ – on Saturday 28th October. We went along to this event to talk to people about our grassroots approach to promoting our politics. This year, we produced a special edition of the Stirrer paper to explain our approach and deal briefly with our frustrations with what passes for the anarchist ‘movement’: Here it is… https://southessexstirrer.wordpress.com/2017/10/29/here-it-is/
        The London Anarchist Bookfair has grown from humble beginnings to a large, packed event. The question that should be getting asked every year is this – what should the bookfair be trying to achieve? From our experiences of being on a stall, talking to punters and just generally people watching, our impression is that the bookfair seems to be an event put on by anarchists and radicals for the benefit of other anarchists and radicals. On the one hand, it does provide an opportunity for activists to meet, catch up with each other, swap ideas, debate issues and on occasions, start scrapping with each other (more on this later). On the other hand, if you were a non-political person curious enough to attend the event to find out what anarchism is and whether it’s something you’d want to pursue, would you leave any the wiser?
       From what we’ve seen of the bookfair over the last few years, the answer to that question is that someone wanting to find out about anarchism would more likely than not be leaving not much the wiser. Granted, with the range of groups and individuals attending and speaking at the bookfair, getting a coherent vision of what anarchism is across to a newcomer is a tough call. That’s partly down to the range of interpretations of what actually constitutes anarchism. We don’t have a problem with that – anarchism is something that should be constantly evolving and trying out different strategies and tactics to see what does and doesn’t work. However, we all could be better at communicating the fluidity of anarchism and how it evolves and develops to newcomers.
       For the last two years, the London Anarchist Bookfair has been held in an area of Harringay that so far has escaped the ravages of gentrification and still feels like a community. For the last two years that we’ve been to the bookfair in Harringay, it feels as if it’s an alien presence that has landed in the middle of a neighbourhood but has yet to develop any real connection with it. Given what’s been going on in the area with the Harringay Development Vehicle which is the local (Labour controlled) council offloading housing estates and other assets to Lendlease, a development company, the bookfair should be an ideal opportunity to get local community activists talking to anarchists and vice-versa.
      Granted, some activists we know in the area were pulling out the stops to do that and their work deserves to be applauded. Also with some of the talks and film showings, there was a decent effort to put class politics back on the agenda which has to be welcomed. There were some positive signs at this year’s bookfair of a recognition of the need to engage with working class people if we’re ever going to build a movement that will bring about real change. However, walking back down West Green Road to Seven Sisters station on the way home, the disconnect between the attendees at the bookfair and the people out and about on the surrounding streets was only too clear. If the bookfair is going to continue to be located in Harringay, there has to be a concerted effort from the organisers to engage the local community.
     You don’t need us to tell you that we’re living in uncertain, unpredictable and increasingly dangerous times. The kind of times when the need for a viable, progressive political alternative is greater than ever before. The kind of times when the varying strands of anarchism that make up the movement need to have a sense of urgency and be pulling out the stops to reach a wider audience. The kind of times when some of the navel gazing that characterises certain strands of anarchism and radicalism needs to be put to one side. The kind of times when an anarchist bookfair should be throwing its doors open to the working class community that surrounds the venue by involving them in organising the event so their voices are heard.
       We judge events like the London Anarchist Bookfair on the basis of whether we’d bring along a new, relatively apolitical contact from one of the estates we operate on with BASHA to give them a flavour of what anarchism is about. If we’d brought someone along in the morning and they’d departed by the early afternoon, given what the event was like up until that point, they could well have left with a fairly positive impression. If they’d been around after the early afternoon, they would most likely have been lost to the cause of anarchism for good.
     From what we can gather, there was an ongoing confrontation resulting from a number of radical feminists targeting transgender people. From mid-afternoon onwards we kept hearing shouting and heard anecdotal reports of people being verbally abused, shoved and mobbed, and stalls disrupted. Fortunately, our stall was located a fair way from the main locus of the confrontations and we were able to carry on operating but the deterioration in the atmosphere was noticeable. As we’re mainly class struggle and housing activists, albeit with some green tinges, we’re not well versed as to why some radical feminists have such a problem with transgender people and target them in the way they do. We’re doing some reading up on the matter and the more we read, the more baffled we are as to why, given how charged the whole issue is, material that any neutral observer would have seen as provoking confrontations was allowed to be circulated.
       If I was a curious newcomer to the bookfair, one not well versed in gender politics, and was a witness to what went on with the confrontations, my reaction would have been ‘what the ***k is going on here?’ and my response would have been to walk out and dismiss the idea of anarchism as a viable political option. Seriously, is this the face the London Anarchist Bookfair collective wants to show to newcomers, particularly new contacts we may want to bring along in the future and especially to anyone from the estates surrounding the bookfair venue? What happened from mid afternoon onwards hasn’t done the movement any favours at a time where we have to be focused on drawing in as many people as possible…

Dave (the editor)

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

Singing Rebels.

 

      It's November, just a wee reminder, to all you hairy rebels that have not been knighted, but want to wobble your dulcet vocal chords. This month sees the relaunch of the Red and Black Song Club.

     It is a libertarian left choir indulging themselves in songs of struggle, anti-fascism, and solidarity. No need to brush up your skills, just turn with skills or without experience in the the world of warbling.

     Tonight November is the first meet up, then it will be 1st and 3rd Wednesday of the month, the venue will be the Glasgow Autonomous Space, (GAS).

    More info on Facebook @redandblacksongclub

 For directions to Glasgow Autonomous Space better to visit their site.

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

There Is Something Rotten At The Heart Of The Sytem.

        Well here we are, the clocks have gone back an hour, the kids come home from school in semi-darkness, and Scotland's cold, raw, damp winter starts to inextricably envelop us. All very well if you can don decent winter clothing, and turn the heating up in your home. However, this is 2017 Britain, where thousands can't afford that nice warm winter jacket, where thousands of households are wrestling with eating or heating, an inhumane cruel choice. It is an indictment on this country that to be in a home without adequate heating or food can be considered fortunate, for let's not forget, there is an army of homeless and rough sleepers who will face this winter seeking out shelter of some sort, perhaps a doorway, a quiet lane, or under a bridge. This in 2017 in the sixth richest country in the world.

     In our cities we have an abundance of empty properties, from shops, warehouses, workshops, offices and houses, but still we tolerate people sleeping rough and dying on our streets and lanes. Our political ballerinas have evolved a system whereby property is worth more than human life, and they have put in place a legal code that guarantees that relationship will be enforced. It is midnight, mid December, the temperature is plummeting, you are walking the streets seeking somewhere to lay your head for the night, you probably know that a night on the pavement might kill you. You come across an small empty, disused locked workshop, you enter find a corner and try to get some rest and survive. You are now a criminal, you could be forcibly removed, charged with criminal damage, and/or breaking and entering, the sanctity of that property is worth more than your life.

 Image by Robert Perry.

      Having lived a long life can be seen as a curse or a benefit, as it comes with memories. I think of all those children in poverty, the hungry families struggling as best they can in a cruel unforgiving system, the wandering homeless, that have plagued our country throughout my life, and I still hear, echoing from the that distant past, that looped tape, from the mouths of our parasitic political ballerinas, "we will end child poverty", "we will fix the housing problem", "we will eradicate poverty". They never seem to tire of mouthing their vacuous mantras, yet the must know within their hearts, that they are spouting, unmitigated, unadulterated, vicious bullshit.    

       The system will not allow for those unnecessary cruelties to be resolved, profit is the guiding factor, and history tells us that the gap between the rich and the poor is an ever widening chasm. A system that creates those who can purchase multi-million pound yachts, and fly in private jets to their private islands, needs the many to be exploited. We the many, produce an abundance of wealth in this world, the more the parasite class cream off for themselves, the less there is for us, the many. Until we crush and obliterate this system of profit first and foremost, we will continue to hear the false cruel mantras of our political ballerinas, "we will end child poverty", "we will fix the housing problem", "we will eradicate poverty" and we will continue to have some of our people die on the streets of our cities.

Image by Robert Perry.

      It is estimated that approximately 5,000 individuals rough sleep in Scotland each year. This year Winter Night Shelter, which is run by Glasgow City Mission stated that last year was their busiest year ever, with 605 people using their service on 4060 occasions. This is a staggering increase of 94% on the previous year. This is our country, the sixth richest country in the world, in 2017, there is something rotten at the heart of the system. 

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

Our Violence Good, Their Violence Bad.

       Bahrain has been in open insurrection since 2011, with protests and molotov attacks on cops a daily occurrence. Many have been killed and hundreds of others have been injured, and thousands of people die in prison in the state where they are tortured, all supported and supplied by Western countries, while the state security forces are being trained by British cops, and backed by Saudi Arabian military.
       However, we don’t hear much about the bloody rebellion within the lands of our Saudi friends. Our babbling brook of bullshit, the mainstream media doesn’t dwell too much on the savagery of the British manufactured royalty, that governs the rich oil fields of what has become known as Saudi Arabia. After all they are very good customers of our arms industry, and they allow our financial Mafia access to that lucrative oil. So what is there not to love about this public beheading, public flogging, religious extremist regime. Of course what the Saudis are doing to the Shia in their oil rich kingdom, is what states do to any group they see as a threat to the control of their privileges, wealth and power, crush them, or do their damnedest to achieve that end.

 City of Awamiya, in Eastern Saudi Arabia.

       What is going on in Awamiya in eastern Saudi Arabia is as brutal as what is going on in Syria, perhaps on a smaller area, but the savagery is just as fierce. The might of the Western armed Saudi regime is being unleashed on its own citizens, who respond with resilience and small arms fire. However, our babbling brook of bullshit will gloss over this, but give brutal details of the violence where they portray us as the good guys, putting our lives on the line to help the peoples of that area build “democracy”, a “democracy” where we keep control of the oil rich resources, allowing our financial Mafia to milk the region, to fatten Western parasites and their puppets. 

       Our babbling brook of bullshit, are experts at highlighting the violence of those our masters call the "bad guys", while turning a blind eye to the savagery and brutality of those they deem as our "allies". It is all part of their sworn duty of spewing out the usual brainwashing propaganda, in favour of this insanity we call capitalism.  

        Since May, 2017 an ongoing insurgency has been raging in the Shia heartland town of Awamiya in eastern Saudi Arabia and it’s only thanks to the BBC being allowed to enter the area and film the destruction that the world can see how the House of Saud’s war against the Shia population of Yemen has now expanded to include the Shia population of eastern Saudi Arabia.
       The BBC World report shown on Wednesday, August 16, seemed to have come from Syria, with al-Zara, the ancient Shia capital of the Persian province of Bahrain and the rest of the town of Awamiya showing a level of devastation resembling that in Syria or to the Kurdish cities destroyed recently by Erdogan Ottoman’s Janissarris.
       Block by block destruction of the Old City with no visible signs of the Shia people who once lived here for millenia with almost 500 buildings destroyed and over 20,000 driven from their homes by Saudi airstrikes, artillery and mortar fire. 

Read the full article HERE:

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

Paper Chained.

        We all know, or should know, that prisons are not there to protect us the general public, but are there to protect the wealth and privileges of those who govern us in this unequal and unjust society. When an individual is locked up in one of the state's many cages of repression, it is not just one person suffering, it is a chain of individuals and families that suffer stress, trauma, and in many cases increased poverty and deprivation. despite the fact that the state's cages of repression are full to bursting with human suffering, we seldom hear the voices of those at the receiving end of this inhumanity.
        The Running Wild Collective of Australia, has put together a journal  called "Paper Chained" comprised entirely of works by those who are, or have been, victims of the state's incarceration policy. It is available free.

       The first issue of “Paper Chained: a journal of writings and artistic expressions from beyond the bars” has been published with contributions from individuals who have been affected by incarceration in Australia and overseas. You can access this journal for free online, download a PDF, and print your own copy. If none of these options are accessible for you, you can request a printed journal.

All this information is available on our website, please feel free to share the link! https://runningwild.noblogs.org/

NOTE ON PRISONS
        Suspended over our everyday lives are the shackles and cages that could be
forced on us if we offend the rule of law. Law which exists to control the intricate details of our lives, from what we consume, to how we can live and love with others.
       These are laws we never consented to being governed by, laws that were written before we even had voices to raise, which we cannot easily (or, arguably,
meaningfully) change and which do not protect us. If we offend the rule of law by “breaking” one of these codes of conduct, we then face the brutality of the justice system. A system that again was formulated without our contributions or consent; that hurts and punishes those who offend and those who love them and leaves the greatest criminals of all, the politicians, bankers and CEOs, untouched and unexamined.
       We firmly believe that with the destruction of systems of oppression such as
state and capital, “crime” as we know it would largely cease to exist. We believe
that if people were empowered and free to live under principles of self-determination and mutual aid, they would naturally work together to address conflict and threats against their own and others’ safety and wellbeing.
     We call for the abolition of all prisons and detention centers. None are free until all are free.
      I hope this journal gives you understanding, hope and a glimpse of freedom.

“Editor”
Running Wild Collective

HOW TO ACCESS
View online here.
Download PDF

Print Your Own:
       If you would like to print your own copy please follow the instructions below:
1. Download Covers
2. Print with the following settings: Booklet print, 2 sided – flip on short edge, colour, A3 paper size
3. Download Inner Pages
4. Print with following settings: Booklet print, 2 sided – flip on short edge, black and white, A3 paper size
5. Put your inner pages inside the cover, staple or tie together with string and enjoy!
Request a Printed Copy
       If you would like to request a printed copy of the journal, you can email us at runningwild@riseup.net or send a letter to PO Box 1989, Armidale, NSW 2350. Please note – if you can print your own or read online, please consider these options. We have limited funds and would like to prioritise printing for those who cannot access the journal through other means.

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

Transformation From A State To A State!!

 

         What we are witnessing in Spain is the state bludgeoning of any area, territory, that wishes to remove itself from its authority. The state's survival depends on complete control over its fiefdom, it will not accept lightly any eroding of that fiefdom. What we are not seeing is a different entity being born, but just another state under the same yolk of capitalism and exploitation, a shifting of power between elites, not the emancipation of the people. In the new "Republic of Catalonia" workers exploitation will continue, power and wealth will still call the shots and cream of more and more from the efforts of the workers. The King is dead, long live the King, well the state is dead, long live the state, and so the sorry mess continues.

This from arrezafe: (not the best translation, but you get the meaning)

 Joint Statement CGT, CNT and Solidaridad Obrera on the situation in Catalonia

        The undersigned organizations, unions at state level, we share our concern about the situation in Catalonia, by the repression the state unleashed by the loss of rights and freedoms that this entails and will assume and the rise of a rancid nationalism It is appearing again in much of the state.
       We defend the emancipation of all working people of Catalonia and the rest of the world. Perhaps, in this context, it is necessary to remember that we do not understand the right to self-determination in statist key, as proclaimed nationalist parties and organizations, but as the right to self-management of our class in a given territory. Thus understood, self-determination spends more for control of production and consumption by workers and direct democracy from the bottom up, organized according to the federalist principles, the establishment of a new frontier or creating a new state. As internationalists, we understand that solidarity among working people should not be confined to state boundaries,
      What does seem very disturbing is the reaction that is being experienced in many parts of the rest of the state, with the exaltation of a rancid españolismo, more reminiscent of the past, cheered from the media and in tune with the authoritarian drift government, patent following the imprisonment of people for convening acts of disobedience or Article 155 of the Constitution. We are aware that this nationalist outbreak lays the foundation for further cuts of rights and freedoms, against which we must prevent. Sultry unit called "democratic forces" in justifying repression, portends a bleak picture for all future disagreements. It seems that the post-Franco regime that governs us for 40 years, close ranks to ensure its continuity.
        Such a regime that has existed and exists in both Catalonia and the rest of the Spanish State feels that their own survival is at stake. Widely questioned and plunged into a deep crisis of legitimacy, it is alarmed by how you build up the fronts. The threat to the territorial integrity of the state adds to corruption scandals, the discrediting of the monarchy, the question of bailouts and cuts that have been applied to the population, discontent with slavery in the workplace derived latest labor reforms, by lengthening the retirement age and economic Deduction of pensions, etc ... the constant calls to defend the Constitution should be understood as touches the tocsin to tackle this real existential crisis besetting. The danger is that in the process and sanction repressive rule as those seen recently in many Catalan cities behaviors become. Or worse ...
        Obviously, we do not know in which direction the events will choose. We remain attentive to what happens, willing to defend the interests of working people throughout the state. We will oppose with all our strength to repression and normalization of far-right attitudes, already perceived. Of course, let us not use the strategies of political parties whose objectives are foreign to us. At the same time, we will not stop encouraging the mobilization of the working class when it decides, by fi that it's time to shake off the dictation of a political and economic elites that take too much time managing control of the territory to serve, exclusively, their own interests.
          As combative class unions, libertarian and we will be at street level, in the mobilizations, as we have demonstrated on many occasions, against repression, cuts rights and freedoms and corruption.
        Perhaps the crisis Catalunya is the lace of a dying state model. Decant this change in one way or another depend on our ability, as a class, to take the process in the opposite direction to the repression and the rise of nationalisms. Trust make the end result more freedoms and rights, and not vice versa. We played a lot.


By RIGHTS AND FREEDOMS!
AGAINST REPRESSION the working classes!
CGT - CNT - Workers Solidarity

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

London Anarchist Bookfair, 2017.

        This year’s London Anarchist Bookfair will be on Saturday 28th October from 10am to 7pm.

Venue: Park View School
West Green Road, London, N15 3QR

         The Bookfair is open to the public and free to attend. There are no tickets and no need to book, just come along. Progammes will be available at the door, suggested donation £1.
       Unfortunately, all the stalls and meeting spaces have been booked. If you look at the Meetings page you can see all the meetings on the day, so you can start planning early what you want to go to. The Film room is slightly different this year in that it will be both films and live entertainment in room P5. The Other Events page has other activities going on during the day and also gigs we know of after the Bookfair is over. The gigs are not organised by the bookfair collective but they are raising money to support the day’s activities.
          If you have any access requirements, please check out the Access page. Free child care is provided from 10am to 6pm for kids from 2 to 12.
         The Bookfair is an event for those that think they know everything about Anarchism to those that know they know very little. It would be great if you can help us publicise the Bookfair on all forms of social media. But we also need you to talk to friends, family, workmates, people you see when you are signing on or in the school playgrounds, at Uni, college or school or anywhere else you happen to socialise about the day. We still have leaflets so leave them around anywhere people mingle. We are a small group who organise the Bookfair and rely on others to help us publicise the event. In good old anarchist tradition we hope people will self organise with publicity. We organise it, but it’s your Bookfair. 

What is anarchism?
          Like all really good ideas, anarchy is pretty simple when you get down to it. Human beings are at their very best when they are living free of authority, deciding things among themselves, rather than being ordered about. That's what the word means: without government. Read on...

See a map of the venue and surrounding area.
Directions to venue
From Seven Sisters
         Come out of tube and walk down West Green Road. Either get 41 bus down the road to Philip Lane stop (3 stops) or walk along West Green Road (15 minutes).
From Turnpike Lane
       Come out of tube and get 41 or 230 bus from stop outside the florists towards West Green Road (4 stops) and get off after KK McCools pub. Or 67 bus from same stop but get off before mini roundabout (again 4 stops) and walk along West Green Road a couple of hundred yards. Or walk from tube along West Green Road (15 minutes)
From Manor House
       341 bus (towards Turnpike Lane). It’s about 9 or 10 stops. Or overground to Seven Sister and then get bus or walk. Look for the Anarchist Bookfair banners on the blue metal fence outside the venue.
        It is a 20 minute walk from the nearest tube to the venue. There are buses that go from the tube station to the venue, but if you have mobility problems and have difficulties making this journey please email us at access@anarchistbookfair.org.uk and we will see if we can help with transport. 

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

All Guilty In The Eyes Of The State.

         Guilty, guilty, guilty, yes, you are all guilty. We no longer live in a society where, if you have done nothing wrong, you can go about your business free from surveillance. It is no longer a matter of the state watching the “bad guys”, you are all suspects. The minute you walk down the street, wait for a bus, buy a train ticket, walk into a pub, you are monitored. Stay at home, surf the net, follow social media, they know what your looking at, use your mobile and they know where you are, who you are contacting and when. The state and its institutions are working at total control, control over your every movement, why you are there, who are you with, should you be there, you are all suspects, to be watched and profiled. Let's not forget "stingray", a mobile or fixed apparatus that can suck up information from up to 10,000 mobile phones at one fell swoop, without you being aware. Your crime, moving about and interacting with people.  

       The state is always expanding the breadth and depth of its intelligence agencies, they are able to expand their information collection beyond actual suspects, to mass surveillance. Yes, no matter your life style, you are a suspect. DNA and other information can be shared between agencies, foreign and domestic, without you being aware, without you having done anything wrong. We live under a regime of stop-and-search, camera surveillance, face recognition, and profiling, at every turn. National security is used to put an ever more heavily armed presence on our streets, once there, they don’t ever go back in the box. Here in the UK, we now accept heavily armed police parading parts of our cities. Of course all the information collected by this stop and search, monitoring, profiling and camera surveillance and other spying techniques, will be used against those people who resist this growing strangle hold of the state over the population. The growing repressive state, spawned from the "national emergency" does not guarantee less terror attacks, quite the contrary. What it does guarantee is innocent sections of society excluded, and the protection of those with large financial interests, big business and government institutions. 

          Who can blame an entire population that is classed as suspect, to turn from passive bystander to perpetrator. I carry the blame, therefore, why not the spoils of the crime?

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

 

"Capitalism".

        “Capitalism”, a word that means many things to many people, but what is the actual manifestation of the word in our world? It means the expanding transnational corporations concentrating the largest slice of all the social wealth in fewer and fewer hands. This in turn, results in ever expanding impoverishment among the many. Its incessant drive for profit creates endemic job insecurity, and the persistent threat of unemployment, with the resultant deprivation. Another of its features is the inherent corruption that perpetuates the privileges of the ruling elite, wealth buys privileges. The bedrock of "Capitalism" is a banking system that accumulates vast mountains of capital that in turn, fosters the growth of financial predators slashing their way through societies, creating human misery in an endless endeavour to increase that mountain of capital. A banking system that has the power to create homelessness by means of evictions, and by its ruthlessness fosters misery and suicides. 

       “Capitalism” in its drive for perpetual growth creates a world of endless wars, wars for resources, wars for markets, resulting in destruction across vast swathes of our planet, bringing death, misery and deprivation to countless millions of innocent people. These wars give birth to racism, and the vile poison of xenophobia, and the persecuting of minorities of all shades. In “Capitalism”, money is the governing factor in the quality of your life, which opens the door to organised crime, this in turn allows the state, in the name of “law and order”, to move towards ever increasing authoritarianism, eventually criminalising political dissent. 

        Because “Capitalism” is a system based on cost and profit, we are witness to thousands of displaced individuals and families, fleeing death and deprivation, being abandon on the shores of Europe to survive or die in appalling conditions, the system can’t find a way of profiting from their presence, so there they will rot. The worst form of hedonistic individualism is fostered as success, inequality is accepted as inevitable. These are all manifestations of “Capitalism”, I’m sure you can come up with more of its inhumane and unjust qualities, but with a track record like that, why do we tolerate this man made economic system? It is after, just a product of man’s mind, not a system set in tablets of stone by some higher being. Do we lack the imagination to see a better fairer system. I’m sure all of us ordinary people can visualise a system of fairness and justice that would see to the needs of all our people. The resources are there, our ability is there, the vision is in our hearts, it is just the will to start to tear down this stinking edifice to greed that is lacking, and time is running out. 

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

The Non-Story Of Desperate People.

          We all know the flights of fancy taken by our babbling brook of bullshit, the mainstream media. They flit from shock, horror, spectacular, amusing, to sex, fashion and celebrity parasites, with complete lack of empathy, and little thought for the whole story or the real truth.
       For a while they flooded our minds with images of drowning refugees fleeing death, deprivation and violence, of large trails of men women and children being herded like cattle, in appalling condition, a vision of a monumental humanitarian crisis. Now, to them that storey is boring, so no need to bother with that particular tragedy.
        However, has the flow of desperate people ceased, are thousand no longer risking death to cross the Mediterranean, are they no longer being herded like cattle in appalling conditions, has that particular humanitarian crisis been solved? Of course not, it is out of sight, out of mind, and left to fester, bring misery, deprivation and death to countless innocent people.
        Desperate people are are still, after a death risking journey, landing on Europe's shores, adding to the thousands already denied dignity, humanity and freedom.
        Since Europe's deal with Turkey, the flow of desperate people fleeing the results of the West's foreign policy in the Middle East and North Africa, get no further than Greece, so just keep piling up on the Greek islands. Picturesque Greek islands are now a dystopian world for thousands of unfortunate and desperate people, who according to their treatment by European governments, are "non-persons" on the shores of Europe.
        This report from Medium, helps to tell the true story of Europe's treatment of desperate refugees, the story that our babbling brook of bullshit, the mainstream media has deemed "not worth reporting", after all they have royal babies and celebrity sex scandals to cover.

         The Aegean islands are at breaking point. Spread across five islands — Lesvos, Samos, Chios, Kos and Leros — over 11,000 asylum-seekers wait to be transferred to mainland Greece. They wait in detention centres, ‘hotspots’ and make-shift camps, afforded only restricted access to transport, sanitation, food, medical support and their dignity.
         On returning to Chios after 3 months away, the changes are stark. My own return coincides with the final eviction of Souda Camp, a non-governmental camp situated in the centre of the port town of Chios. At times, over 1000 asylum-seekers lived beneath the shadow of the town’s castle walls. With the final eviction of its last 60 residents early in the morning of 21st October, this port town might now claim itself ‘free’ from the perceived nuisances of such embarrassingly close proximity to the continuing humanitarian crisis.
         But out of sight is not out of mind. These residents, along with the 435 refugees that have arrived in the last 72 hours now find themselves crammed into Vial Camp, the governmental, army-run facility 10 kilometres away. Hidden in the mountains, access is controlled and most NGOs are not permitted to enter. With an intended capacity of 1100, Vial Camp currently contains close to 2000 asylum-seekers. Recently, video footage shared by Chios Solidarity exposed the horrendous conditions of the camp. You can watch it here.
       Earlier this week, one young woman gave birth. With no ambulance available, she delivered her baby on the floor of her tent, without any medical aid or attention.
         But in Moria Camp, Lesvos, and in Vathy, Samos, the situations are even worse. On these islands, such were the abominable conditions that the Greek government this week announced plans to transport 2000 of the most vulnerable asylum-seekers on Lesvos and Samos to the mainland. This mass movement of people is a much-needed step in the right direction.
       Since the EU-Turkey deal of March 2016, the Aegean islands have been prisons for the thousands trying to reach Europe. These prisons witness suicides, riots, mental health crises and a fundamental retraction of basic human rights. Last winter, efforts to ‘winterise’ the camps failed systematically, with young and old dying from hypothermia in the camps. As winter approaches once again, last Sunday, the body of a 5-year-old girl was found in Moria Camp, Lesvos. She died from underlying medical conditions aggravated by the cold, the damp, and the denial of access to the medical attention that was the very reason her family came to Europe.
        As the weather turns, over 100 solidarity groups and NGOs on the Aegean islands have signed an open letter calling upon the Greek government of Alexis Tsipras to take steps, transparently and immediately, to avoid a repeat of last year’s horrific winter conditions. The campaign #opentheislands is signed by a powerful force of actors across Europe who have worked to fill the gaps left by governments and the EU.
       As I walk around the town of Chios, streets, sidewalks and cafes that have been the haunts of asylum-seekers for many months are rediscovered by Greek locals. Today, old men shuffled back into the plastic chairs outside the bus station on the port, opening backgammon boards hidden away whilst refugees spent the day in the cafe’s inexpensive shade.
       But the new lease of life this town might feel at having Souda Camp finally closed comes at a great cost to those suffering in the mountains a short drive away.
       Meanwhile, vast swathes of UNHCR canvas have appeared in Vial Camp as its newest residents fight for room. Around me, shocked volunteers cry, ‘How can this be happening in Europe?’ We have sold ourselves a lie. This is the reality. It is this frayed border of Europe that reveals the truth. #ThisIsEurope.

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

A Day In A Greek Court.

 

         Greece with its supposedly "left-wing" socialist government, displays all the usual signs of fascism. Its institutions lined by riot police, armed to the teeth with batons and body armour, special protective treatment for fascist groups and fascist individuals. However, the people of Greece don't let this pass unchallenged, physical and relentless solidarity against the fascists in the country is the norm. From the streets to the courts, the anti-fascists turn up in numbers to confront and defeat this vile poison that is seeping through the fabric of their country. This fascist poison is also tainting the lives of millions throughout Europe and America, perhaps we could take a few leafs out of the Greek anti-fascists' book.

        Update from the trial of the antifascist centre Distomo in Athens – Greece

           The hearing started with the clashes between antifascists and the Y.M.E.T squad which had the task of private security for the parastate gunman Perrakis inside the court, during his testimony. During his testimony the squad had raised its shield against the defendants and their supporters who showed up in solidarity, creating a protective wall in front of him.
          During his exit he was again escorted while the people threw coffee and spat on him. During the effort of the police to guard Perrakis a riotcop pushed down a comrade and an elderly person who fell down from 1,5 metre height causing him head injuries and a broken arm. In the meantime we managed to achieve that the trial would continue without the presence of Y.M.E.T. and the riot police, the second round of testimonies began.

         That’s when Panayotis Rakovitis and Demetris Tzavellas were humiliated by the antifascists. They were so afraid they kept contradicting themselves. After their testimonies they tried, unsuccessfully, to leave unscathed through the crowd.
Then spoke the owner of the building where the office of the Golden Dawn is housed, who, pressurized by the climate in the court room and the defeats the party has had through the years, said openly that he wishes for the closure of the office. As AntifascistCentre Distomo we openly defended the choice not to leave any space for fascists and the possibility every antifascist has, to be outside the Golden Dawn office at any time.
          We carried this understanding in action inside the courtroom by reversing the role of defendants into accusers.
         Antifascist unity is the only way toward a toward a militant and physical attack against fascism.

 via: Athens Indymedia
Translated by Radio Fragmata.

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

From The Streets Of Catalonia.

          The stories are many and varied on what went on in Catalonia when the state's bully-boys, the police, started their crack-down on the voting in the Catalonia referendum. To get a full span of the police violence, here are a collection of videos from the streets of Catalonia. Again, I'm not putting my voice behind the nationalism in this case, but highlighting how the state behaves when its people do something it doesn't like. Thanks Loam for the link.

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