Solidarity, Our Winning Weapon.

            The treatment of Konstantinos Giagtozglou and his hunger strike which sparked acts of solidarity across Greece and elsewhere, show once again that solidarity is a winning weapon. His demand to be moved to Korydallos Prison, to be nearer his family, comrades and friends, would have failed had he been an anonymous individual trapped in the states clutches of repression. Rebellion inside the prison and acts of direct action outside the prison stated loud and clear, he was not alone. 

        Received and translated by Insurrection News on 03.03.18:
    According to information from Athens Indymedia, comrade Konstantinos Giagtozglou will end his hunger and thirst strike after the Prison Transfer Committee met today on Friday, March 2nd and accepted his demand for transfer to Korydallos Prison, which will be made effective on April 10th.
       The comrade who is accused of belonging to the Conspiracy of Cells of Fire and sending explosive packages to European institutions and to the former Greek Prime Minister was on hunger strike from February 21st and on thirst strike since February 25th demanding his permanent transfer to Korydallos Prison so he could be near his family and friends.
       There is no doubt that the offensive actions of solidarity carried out by comrades in Greece both inside and outside the prisons was an element of important pressure for the decision that was finally made in Dinos’ favour.
        We will share more information as new updates are disseminated about the case.
         We send greetings to the comrade and to all those who showed forms of solidarity and did not remain indifferent to the comrade’s hunger strike.
Sin Banderas Ni Fronteras, cell of anti-authoritarian agitation.

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

New Nega-zine.

          I have always spouted that in spite of the internet and social media, anarchists should be flooding the streets and our communities with paper. There is something special about being on the street and handing a complete strange a paper with your ideas. Social media tends to be a closed circle, the same people pushing around the same ideas, it has its place, but should always be complimented by that paper on the street, in the workplace. I have left my paper on public transport, stood outside bus and train stations, walk through the city centre handing it out. Every one that accepts it is a complete stranger I would probably never have contacted on social media, and who knows how many hands it will pass through after that.

           So it is with delight that I read of a new anarchist magazine, Nega-zine, though it is not the sort of thing you might hand out on the streets, it is something that you can circulate among comrades, friends and associates, adding to the sum total of our ideas that are circulating on a permanent basis, it is available from Elephant Editions.

         When reading the following pages it would be well to put everything that we already know about technology aside. Indeed, what knowledge or hypothesis passed off as certainty makes up the scientific aspect of technology? Not much.
        Negazine is not an easy read. On the contrary, reading it requires a certain level of effort and the will to put oneself on the line. And it couldn’t be otherwise, given the subjects it goes into. Negazine offers neither certain answers nor slogans to write on the next wall.
The main theme (but not the only one) of this first issue is technology. The central point of the discussion is the difference between the various techniques (the single capitals and the techniques that they develop, often in conflict with each other) and technology as such, which is an anonymous process devoid of a centre, a process that is continually eroding reality and replacing it with virtual pre-confectioned surrogates.
       Technology’s action goes deep. It is not simply the way that it supplies power with the means for more control. In fact, this is perhaps its least important aspect. The main point is the way in which technology is modelling and rendering inoffensive individuals, acting on their tastes, their desires and reducing their critical and cognitive capacities, uniforming them and flattening them through quite visible processes. All said and done, the technological utopia will be nothing other than a world of idiots where repression will simply be superfluous.
        Other arguments are faced as well as technology: culture (and its significance for the individual and power), the role of drugs in anarchist circles, the future migratory surge – where will the anarchists be?, as well as aspects of anarchist ‘information’.
It should be clear that these questions are not being taken up for the love of discussion but to give one more weapon to individuals who want to attack. It is a question of acutening one’s vision in order to identify an enemy which often passes off as invisible, in fact which has in its invisibility its main point of strength.
        Even if faced only in passing, the ‘when’ to attack is clearly now. ‘How’, although not gone into explicitly, remains affinity and informal organisation, small attacks spread throughout the territory in an insurrectionalist projectuality that has been experimented by many anarchist comrades in recent years. What has been lacking, leading to a generalised stagnation, has not been the methods of attack but what to attack: where and in what form does the enemy manifest itself today.  These are the convictions that Negazine starts off from and which should be borne in mind to understand the sense of what is written.
          The journal is coming out in both Italian and English, now the world lingua franca, with the explicit desire to address oneself to all comrades interested, in spite of the fact that the context in which they find themselves living and acting are very different.
Contents
 Editorial
Technology
Two languages
Technological control
Sleeping
Drugs
Litanies
Seeing
How, when, why and if it still makes any sense
And now?

Negazine n.1 / 2017
68 pages  19-28cm
4.50 (5.00 including UK postage)
For distribution:
5 copies – 12.00       (15.00 including UK postage)
 Contact: Elephant Editions
 elephanteditions@riseup.net

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

Tomorrow Is Cancelled.

          Why no hordes on the streets, why no peasants with pitchforks, why no revolution? It is not as if the death and destruction is invisible, or the exploitation unfelt and unseen, or the gross inequality in living standards hidden, it is all there glaringly obvious for all to see. We are awash with information, we see through the lies and illusions, we accept that the propaganda portrayed world and the real world we, the ordinary people live in, are universes apart. Still the vast majority conform to the biased rules, turn up at work, pay their taxes, and run to the ballot box to make their X in the appropriate spot, believing that somehow, this time it will be different. It is a puzzling phenomenon.
       The Invisible Committee have already produced two excellent thought provoking pamphlets/booklets, the first, The Coming Insurrection, the second one, To Our Friends, they have recently come up with a third, Now. Again, interesting, insightful, and thought provoking. The following is an extract from the chapter called Tomorrow Is Cancelled.

 

 

TOMORROW IS CANCELLED

         All the reasons for making a revolution are there. Not one is lacking. The shipwreck of politics, the arrogance of the powerful, the reign of falsehood, the vulgarity of the wealthy, the cataclysms of industry, galloping misery, naked exploitation, ecological apocalypse—we are spared nothing, not even being informed about it all. “Climate: 2016 breaks a heat record,” Le Monde announces, the same as almost every year now. All the reasons are there together, but it’not reasons that make revolutions, it’s bodies. And the bodies are in front of screens. One can watch a presidential election sink like a stone. The transformation of “the most important moment in French political life” into a big trashing fest only makes the soap opera more captivating. One couldn’t imagine Koh-Lanta with such characters, such dizzying plot twists, such cruel tests, or so general a humiliation. The spectacle of politics lives on as the spectacle of its decomposition. Disbelief goes nicely with the filthy landscape. The National Front, that political negation of politics, now that negation of politics on the terrain of politics, logically occupies the “center” of this chessboard of smoking ruins. The human passengers, spellbound, are watching their shipwreck like a first-rate show. They are so enthralled that they don’t feel the water that’s already bathing their legs. In the end, they’ll transform everything into a buoy. The drowning are known for that, for trying to turn everything they touch into a life preserver. This world no longer needs explaining, critiquing, denouncing. We live enveloped in a fog of commentaries and commentaries on commentaries, of critiques and critiques of critiques of critiques, of revelations that don’t trigger anything, other than revelations about the revelations. And this fog is taking away any purchase we might have on the world. There’s nothing to criticize in Donald Trump. As to the worst that can be said about him, he’s already absorbed, incorporated it. He embodies it. He displays on a gold chain all the complaints that people have ever lodged against him. He is his own caricature, and he’s proud of it. Even the creators of South Park are throwing in the towel: “Its very complicated now that satire has become reality. We really tried to laugh about what is going on but it wasn’t possible to maintain the rhythm. What was happening was much funnier that what could be imagined. So we decided to let it go, to let them do their comedy, and we’ll do ours.” We live in a world that has established itself beyond any justification. Here, criticism doesn’t work, any more than satire does. Neither one has any impact. To limit oneself to denouncing discriminations, oppressions, and injustices, and expect to harvest the fruits of that is to get one’s epochs wrong. Leftists who think they can make something happen by lifting the lever of bad conscience are sadly mistaken. They can go and scratch their scabs in public and air their grievances hoping to arouse sympathy as much as they like; they’ll only give rise to contempt and the desire to destroy them. “Victim” has become an insult in every part of the world.

Read the complete chapter HERE:

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

A Red Sunset Of Blood.

 

        Today our senses are numbed by the suffering of the people of Syria, Libya, Iraq, Afghanistan, Yemen, Palestine, the 6.5 million displaced persons, the sea of the fleeing who end under the banner of migrants/refugees/asylum seekers, and so it goes on, a litany of misery, death and destruction. Even in the midst of the rich developed countries, supposedly to be at peace, we find poverty, misery and deprivation. It seems there is no spring, no summer, no autumn, only cruel winter. How do you absorb such suffering how do you comprehend such a large section of humanity living on the edge of chaos, misery and death? All the actions that are responsible for this tsunami of unimaginable suffering, are no accident of nature, no inevitable sequence of events, but are the results of deliberate actions by people with power, they have names, they have faces, but they hide in the marble corridors of corrupt power. With no regard for humanity, but a constant eye on the balance sheet, they calculate the profit and loss, and see all this human suffering as acceptable collateral damage. That is the nature of the capitalist beast, power and wealth to be protected and increased at all costs. The beast will devour us all, unless we slay the beast before it is too late.

       It is difficult to love when you realise that the bright red sunset is the blood of the innocent.

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.

 

 

The Barbarity Of The State.

          Prison is a form of state torture, from its barbaric past, to which it has held on to as a strategy for repression, solitary confinement is an added savagery to that torture, to which no human should be subjected in a civilised society, but evidence tells us, we obviously do not live in a civilised society. All those subjected to these inhumane state devices of torture and repression, demand our total and unconditional solidarity. Solidarity is one of our best winning weapons, and we should remember it takes many varied forms and is limited only by your imagination.

 Received on 01.03.18, from Insurrection News:

        Comrade Konstantinos Giagtzoglou was transferred to the hospital today after a serious fainting incident he had while resting in his cell. The officials of the Justice Department informed the comrade’s lawyers that the council which is going to decide whether Dinos will be transferred permanently to Korydallos prison or not, will meet on Friday, 4 days after the promised day (Monday). Dinos will be on hunger strike for 9 days and on thirst strike for 5 days on Friday.

The struggle committee of Korydallos prison issued a statement informing the Justice Department that if the council doesn’t meet on Friday, there will be prison rebelions all across the country.

The central building of the National University of Athens remains occupied and another series of actions and attacks have taken place:

• About 250 anarchists marched through the central streets of Athens yesterday in solidarity with Dinos
• A group of anarchists smashed several shop windows on Ermou street (it’s the central comercial street of Athens)
• Α group of anarchists raised barricades in Egnatia avenue in the center of Thessaloniki
• A group of anarchists blocked a central street in Patras
• A group called “Workers of the Night” torched a private security car and a diplomatic vehicle on 21/02 and 25/02 in Thessaloniki
• A group called “Anarchist Fraction for Political Self-defence” smashed the windows of two banks on 27/02 and on 28/02 in Athens.
• A group called “Informal Anarchist Network – Commando Haris Temperekindis” torched a private security car and attacked the central offices of the same private security firm (G4S) with Molotov cocktails on 27/02 in Athens.
• A group called “Anarchist Cells in Solidarity and Conspiracy” torched an ATM, threw 10 Molotov cocktails at a branch of the Agriculture Department, smashed the windows of a super market and torched the personal vehicle of a cop on 28/02 in Patras.
• A group of 40 anarchists occupied the offices of “Avgri (Dawn)” newspaper which is the official newspaper of Syriza, for a couple of hours in Athens.
• A group of anarchists canceled the speech of N.Voutsis, current president of the Greek parliament and one of the most well-known members of Syriza, by blocking the entrance of the hotel where the speech was scheduled to take place.

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

The Unbalanced Scales Of Justice.

 

 

        The idea that justice is blind, and all are treated the same before the scales of justice, is one of those enduring illusions and fantasies of the modern society. Justice has never been equal to all in society, wealth, privilege, and position in the ranks of society, all play their part on how that so called blind justice will deal with you. More and more, the modern state sees anarchists as needing a different type of justice from others, the state fears most, those who see another world beyond the authoritarian system of state/capitalism, and are prepare to struggle for that better world. A world that would destroy the privileges, wealth and power of the parasitic leeches that hold the reins of power in present day society.

Greece: 

            Letter from anarchist prisoner Kostantinos Giagtzoglou, on hunger strike since 21/2/18, and updates. 

         This moment I am in the prison of Larissa after the operation that the Special Anti-Terrorist Police Unit carried out early this morning in the isle “A” of Korydallos prison where I had been transferred for court reasons. The cops invaded the isle and the cell I was in, while I was bed-ridden as I was in hunger strike, after a faint episode I had last night, they pulled me out of prison, they hit me and they threw me into the transport vehicle. I tried to resist as much as I could and at the same time I was demanding to take my personal items (shoes, clothes, medicines, etc.) which never happened. They did not allow me to even take a bottle of water I had in my cell although they were aware of my hunger strike and my burdened health condition. As far as I am concerned, I declare that the regime’s attempt to bend my morals will not work.
        “At the moment of dedication, the whole universe conspires to help you”- Johann Wolfgang Goethe
       “Those who oppress their desires, they do so, because their desires are so weak, that can be oppressed” – William Blake
        First of all my captivity does not in any way mean that I am defeated morally or politically. As long as I stand on my feet and my lungs are able to breath, my values and my principles are not negotiable, because my decision to revolt against authority will not be stopped by dungeons and “exiles”. And this is a promise to all comrades.
          It seems though, that my imprisonment alone, as well as my long standing conviction, which has been announced by the police investigation authorities (in the indictment prepared, it is stated that the acts for which I am accused of, seek life sentence) are not enough for the regime. The statists desire to impose on me an unofficial “exile”, apart from the deprivation of my physical freedom. Therefore prosecutor Raikou, instead of ordering my preventive detention in Korydallos Jail, where people arrested in Athens and are awaiting trial shall be detained in custody, she decided to exile me in Larissa jail. An “exile” that aims to:

1. Keep me apart from my familiar faces, making visits practically impossible by forcing my relatives to travel enormous distances crossing half the country with the expected financial and physical burden, to be able to see me just for a few minutes behind a window glass.
2. Alienate me from the complex and massive file of the case that keeps me imprisoned, as my lawyers are not able to travel to Larissa so as to have frequent and uninterrupted communication with me. Also the very nature of the case file (thousands of pages in electronic form, video, etc.) makes it impossible for me to access it, even after so many months, from Larissa’s prison as there is no proper equipment.
   
3. Facilitate the supervision, control and severe restriction of my contact with comrades who stand in solidarity and other imprisoned anarchists, by trying to isolate me.

        Ultimately they are aiming to convict me before the court decision does, in a forgetfulness regime, “forgotten in a depository of defective and human leftovers” …
      This practice of authority is not something new. However, its strong imposition by the Greek state was evident during 2010-2011, when dozens of anarchist comrades were arrested and then dispersed in several greek prisons (Grevena, Malandrino, Corfu, Trikala, Komotini, Domokos etc.) while they were facing common accusations for the same cases. A role model to this practice was the anti-rebellion repressive method applied by other states abroad, for example in Spain, with the isolation of the separatist ETA fighters at distances of 700 kilometers from the Basque country so that they cannot have any visits and any form of communication between them.
       In my case, the unofficial “exile” (which is not the only one that has taken place recently) seems like and experiment on the authority’s behalf , in view of the adoption of the new correctional Code, since in some way this is a condition for some of its provisions. In particular, authority reopens the exception regime for anarchist prisoners. It has not been many months since the anti-criminal policy secretary, Eftihis Fytrakis of the ministry of justice, declared that “Anarchist prisoners will not be accepted in Korydallos prison”. Today I face my “exile” in Larissa, in the future we’ll see specialized isles for all political and disobedient prisoners. Of course, the experimentation previously mentioned is based on the calculation of our reactions, and especially of the anarchists’ reflexes outside the walls and the solidarity movements to the struggles of the prisoners.
       Also, my transfer to Korydallos prison for another court case of mine (arrest in clashes with the police after an anti-memorandum demonstration on 11 May 2011) took place just one day before, and this did not happen accidentally. It is indicative of the fast track procedures they want to apply in my case, as it seems that there are political pressures from high levels of the regime and their “justice” works on demand …
      “The moral determination of who attacks and gives up on the structures of power is a perception, a moment in which he perceives the beauty of his comrades and the misery of obedience and submission.” I rebel, therefore i exist ” is a phrase of Camus that never ceases to fascinate me, in a way that only a reason to stay alive could. In a world that presents ethics as an area of power and law, I think there is no other moral dimension than rebellion, risk, and dream. The survival in which we are imprisoned is unfair because it is abusive and disfiguring”
Massimo Passamani

        For all these reasons, I REFUSE to passively accept the regime of “exile” and the transfers – abductions in one night. Against these practices I become a 90 degree barrier with my words and actions. As my deep belief is that our actions and attitude should not be orientated in the repression-antirepression dipole, but penetrate every aspect of our being, I wish my struggle will be seen as one more base to attack and open cracks of freedom in the multiple and multiform cells within society – prison. An attack, a result of the rebellion, which, if it doesn’t take place now, it will never be a future option…
       The fact that I am a prisoner of war of the greek democracy does not mean that I left my dignity at the prison’s entrance and backed away. On the contrary, in prison, in the yard, in the cell, in the transport van, I carry with me the pure lust for freedom, every gesture of solidarity, every act of revolutionary complicity that lowers the walls of the prison and the decision to fight for anarchy UNTIL THE END.
      This is the reason why, I started a hunger strike from 21/02/2018, with a request that my transfer to Korydallos prison will be official and the regime of “exile” in which I am in, will be terminated. The transfer request I had applied since my first week in jail of Larissa was rejected, confirming the decision of the authority to put me in a “political quarantine” in Larissa’s prisons and to “be forgotten” there. But the power and the will for a constant anarchist rebellion is capable of reversing every decision made by those who think they can have power over our lives without consequences. Not a single enemy of freedom stays on the safe side and not a single imprisoned comrade is alone…
       I also announce that from tomorrow, Sunday 25/2, I will begin a thirst strike as an escalation to the hunger strike I’m already undergoing. I thank from the heart the thousands of Korydallos prisoners who reminded all of us, today, with their mobilization, that when they hit and treat unfairly one of us it is like hitting all of us. United we will win. Their strength gives me the power to reach to the end in order to win my struggle.

MIND, BODY AND SOUL FOR EVER IN THE STRUGGLE

SOLIDARITY TO ALL POLITICAL PRISONERS IN GREECE

STRENGTH TO MY BROTHERS AND SISTERS TO CHILE AND ITALY

STRENGTH TO ANARCHISTS WHO FACE THE REPRESSIVE OBSESSION OF THE RUSSIAN STATE

THE RIGHT IS ON THE SIDE OF THOSE WHO REBEL

VICTORY TO PRISONERS’ STRUGGLE

AGAINST THE NEW CORRECTIONAL CODE

Konstantinos Giagtzoglou. 24/02/2018

All political prisoners deserve our unfailing support and solidarity.

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

We Are All In This Together!!!

 

       As I have often said, words mean different things to different people. Take the word "austerity", if you are one of the ordinary people of this country you will be well aware of what that word means. It will probably conjure up such words as hardship, anxiety, poverty, stress, deprivation, and misery, or worse. However, if you are in that bracket of the upper echelons of society's parasites, "austerity" will be difficult to understand, if you are one of the political ballerinas, then the word will be translated in your head to a strategy for "balancing the books" or for those of a slightly different political persuasion, dispossessing the poor. 

     How do you comprehend "austerity" if you are one of the UK's top business bosses? Obviously it is impossible when you enter that greed driven world, and your salary for 2015 increased by 10% raising your average salary to £5.5 million.

      Another group that will probably have all sorts of academic explanations for the word "austerity", but unable to really know what it is, is our academic guardians. The figures for the salary increases to the already well paid principals of Scottish universities is really staggering, as the table below shows.

        Hands up all those in lousy jobs on crap wages, those on zero hours contracts, the gig-economy, part-time work etc., have seen their wages rise by 76% in the last ten years? I thought so, no hands. 

       Our political ballerinas are not shy of granting themselves a whopping pay increase, while insisting on a 1% pay cap on public sector workers. In 2015, MP's enjoyed a nice little increase in their salaries of 10%, and again in April 2017, granted themselves another increase of £1,049 bring the MP's salary up to £76,011, plus very generous expenses. Of course most of them have second and third jobs to push that meager income up considerably.  

       So there you have it, we are all in this together, my arse. It is just a matter of how long will we tolerate this man made unjust, unequal, exploitative system that produces so much wealth, but leaves those who produce all that wealth in a life of constant struggle, poverty and deprivation, while the parasites who hold the reins of power, wallow in opulence with complete disregard for the misery that surrounds them, and for which they are responsible.

      To tolerate this system of capitalism is to be complicit in our own exploitation. We owe it to our children and grandchildren to become involved in the dismantling and total destruction of this cancer that breeds deprivation, wars and the destruction of our planet. Capitalism can not be reformed, it has to be destroyed.

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

Call For Solidarity, Glasgow IWW.

         Panos Theodoropoulos of the IWW was arrested while attempting to prevent the harassment and unjust arrest of a 16 year old during the Glasgow Pride march. The 16 year old had been targeted for holding a sign with the slogan ‘This Faggot Fights Fascists’. The police used extensive physical force on Panos, tackled him to the ground, and subsequently held him in custody for over 30 hours. Thankfully, the police dropped all charges on the 16-year-old, though they still see the need to drag Panos through the courts, for attempting to prevent what they basically admitted was a wrongful arrest!
         The arrested comrades were participating in the ‘Red and Black Bloc’, organised by queer members of the IWW as an anti-capitalist, anti-fascist presence in an increasingly commercialised and depoliticized Pride.
        In the same Pride march the police arrested 3 trans activists protesting Pride’s decision to have police lead. These arrestees have not been issued court dates as the police continue to ‘search for evidence’. We know from experience that the police don’t like attempts to undermine them or their attempts at ‘community outreach’. We are committed to ongoing solidarity with these arrestees, along with all those in the trans community who face harassment from the police.
       At the same time, the fact that Panos’s court date is set for International Women’s Day gives us the opportunity to highlight how seemingly different struggles are intimately connected. Patriarchy, racism and heteronormativity are crucial elements of the system of repression we are living in. As imprisonment and social control increasingly penetrate our precarious lives, we extend our solidarity to the increasing number of women prisoners in the UK and to the members of the trans community who are not only imprisoned but also suffer from being misgendered by the authorities and disproportionately experience violence and harassment. We therefore encourage everyone to participate in the various events organised around Glasgow for IWD (provided below).
        When activists are targeted simply for protesting, court solidarity becomes a crucial part of the fight to defend our fundamental rights to protest. Let it be shown that the movement refuses to accept the criminalisation of protesters, whether now or in the future. Let us lay the foundations, in our budding movements, for lasting, practical political solidarity.

       As the IWW slogan goes, ‘an injury to one is an injury to us all’.

DROP ALL CHARGES!

JOIN US AT THE SOLIDARITY DEMONSTRATION OUTSIDE GLASGOW SHERRIF COURT ON THE 8TH OF MARCH AT 09.00!

More information:
Original statement released by Clydeside IWW following the arrests:https://www.facebook.com/clydesideiww/posts/1446956275339793

Original Statement by Anti-Capitalist Queers following the arrests: https://acqueescotland.wordpress.com/2017/10/26/anti-capitalist-queers-mission-statement/

Anti-Capitalist Queers/ Pride 5 Solidarity page: https://www.facebook.com/ACQueeScotland/

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

 

Bonnie Scotland.

          It is still too cold for me to get out on the bike, for certain reasons, I'm now a fair weather cyclist, but the bike time is just on the horizon.

           This wee video will keep me going until then.

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

International Women's Day Glasgow Event.

          An International Women's Day event, initiated by the Equality Officers of the Clydeside Branch of the Industrial Workers of the World, will be held on Thursday, the 8th of March.
            The rally and Walk of Pride will assemble at 4.30 pm at the La Pasionaria statue located on the north bank of the River Clyde next to Glasgow Bridge, opposite the Custom House on Clyde Street.
          This site was chosen because of the prominent role Dolores Ibarruri, called La Pasionaria ('The Passionate Flower') played in the Spanish Civil War of 1936-1939, in defense of the Spanish Republic; and because the statue of her by sculptor Arthur Dooley so beautifully represents the revolutionary woman of courage that she was-- and that many of us strive to be.
            The rally will also honour the Scottish revolutionary, Ethel MacDonald, who was a key figure in the Scottish anarchist movement and in the Spanish Civil War. In 1936 she was sent by the United Socialist Movement to Barcelona where she became world-renowned as the English-speaking reporter for an anarchist radio station. She also remained an activist, daringly organising hunger strikes among the political prisoners, smuggling in letters, and helping some escape .

          The rally will feature a banner that says Celebrate International Women's Day For a World Free from Capitalism and Patriarchy, singing, and an open mic.
         At 5.30 pm we will start our Walk of Pride, with banner and placards, to George Square where we will join up with the Scottish Irish Abortion Rights campaigners for a #Solidarity4Repeal demo at 6 pm-- thus linking it to one of the most critical issues of the day: access to abortion as a woman's right. Throughout the afternoon, we will be proudly expressing our belief that Sisterhood, and Comradeship, are Powerful!

          All are welcome to attend. Please spread the word.
More information is available from
doraziosusan92@gmail.com
 

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

Humans, Surplus To Requirements.

 

       The labels vary, refugees, asylum seekers, migrants, but these labels are usually badges of misery. People, human beings, uprooted forcibly, or fleeing hurriedly, in fear and desperation. According to the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, in 2017, 65.6 million people were forcibly displaced worldwide because of persecution, conflict, violence, or human rights violations alone. Think of that figure, approximately the population of the UK hurriedly uprooted and moved on, usually in fear and desperation.

       A river of misery flows from Africa and washes over the graveyard that is the Mediterranean Sea, the inscription “We are not all there – The drowned are missing” is a bitter one. Those who survive that passage find themselves locked in groups at various borders, living in deprivation or in detention centres. Held at the vagaries of the autocratic states, who see them, not as suffering human beings, but as a problem of control. 

      The lot of the refugee, asylum seeker, migrant, is one of being stalked, and if found to be lacking the necessary piece of paper, locked up in some inhumane detention centre, with the constant threat of being thrown back into the hell that they tried to escape. A hell, in most cases, caused by the foreign policy of the host nations, who treat them like cattle. They will be stalked by uniformed gangs of thugs, paid members of the state's protection squad, whose duties are to protect the rich and powerful. These paid minions of the state with complete lack of morality will always obey orders, they are part and parcel of this corrupt and dying system.

       The so called "refugee/asylum seeker/migrant" crisis will only disappear when we end this system of capitalism, that sees humans as productive units or surplus to requirements. This system that spawns wars as a means of profit, that destroys vast swaths of the planet for control of resources, creating that 65.6 million "displaced persons". History tells us a bitter story written in letters of blood, of the dismal failure of this man made system. The future is yet unwritten, we can write that future, a future of humanity, mutual aid, co-operation and sustainability. A future where no one is a refugee, or an asylum seeker, where those power drawn lines known as borders, melt and fade into the dust of history. Only the ordinary people of this world can write that future, but only when they discard the man made cancer that is capitalism and abandon any belief in "leaders" and party "messiahs" who offer to guide them to that "pie-in the-sky" illusion of the promised land. 

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

Call For Solidarity.

          As you may know there is industrial action planned across the University sector. There will be a picket outside some of the main buildings operated by the University of Glasgow on the Crichton campus on Thursday 22, Friday 23rd, Monday 26th, Tuesday 27th and Wednesday 28th February, from approximately 8.30am-11.30am (though on some days it may well go on longer and start earlier).
         We have also organised a TEACH OUT at the Theatre Royal, Shakespeare Street, Dumfries on the afternoons of Thursday (22nd), Friday (23rd), Tuesday (27th) and Wednesday (28th). The aim, is to show students that we care about education and we are not simply putting our feet up. It is a chance for more informal, experimental, less stressful and collaborative education. It is free for anyone to take part and we are open to more spontaneous events taking place in the space .
         We would love you to show support, if you can, by taking part in visiting the picket or taking part in the TEACH OUT or just dropping by for a tea and a chat and/or publicising the events by passing on the attached flier.

 

Visit ann arky's home at radicalglasggow.me.uk

Privatisation Equals Enclosures.

         It is sad that here we are in the 21st. century, still angry at the inequality, still complaining about being ripped off by our "betters" and at best most groups want to tinker with the system to make it a little bit fairer. A brief look at history tells you that all the reformers up to the present day have done nothing to change that inequality and injustice. Today the rich are richer than ever before, while the poor struggle to stave off deprivation. When will we ever learn.

        It's not as if we have been unaware of the injustice we live under, it has been recorded and catalogued in song and poem, and in the history of the struggles of the ordinary people, but still there is this sad belief, that reform, after centuries of failure, somehow will deliver. We have to wake up to the fact that capitalism cannot be reformed, under this system, any pittances won in struggle can and will be taken back at a later date, note the destruction of the hard won welfare state.

        How many more centuries will we allow our kids to be shackled to poverty, how many more centuries will we carry the burden of the parasitic rich on our backs, while we struggle for survival? The answer is in our own hands, we have the power, the ability, the means and the imagination to destroy this capitalist cancer that is devouring our world, all that is lacking is the will.

         This poem, by an unknown author from the 17th. century, highlights the awareness of injustice back then, but it still applies to our world today. The privatisation of the public assets today, is just a modern version of the enclosures of the past.

 

The law locks up the man or woman
Who steals the goose off the common
But leaves the greater villain loose
Who steals the common from the goose.

The law demands that we atone
When we take things we do not own
But leaves the lords and ladies fine
Who takes things that are yours and mine.

The poor and wretched don’t escape
If they conspire the law to break;
This must be so but they endure
Those who conspire to make the law.

The law locks up the man or woman
Who steals the goose from off the common
And geese will still a common lack
Till they go and steal it back.

The book "Celebrating The Commons" can be downloaded free HERE:

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

Spirit of Revolt, Archives of Dissent.

       A wee bit of info about Spirit of Revolt Archive and how you might get involved and support  the growth of this unique archive of dissent.

         If you wish to donate to Spirit of Revolt, no matter how little, it will be very much appreciated. You can do so by  visiting our DONATE page. Thank You. 

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

What A Wonderful Soundbite, "This Should Not Happen"!!

     Our political ballerinas are all upset, and creating a fuss. The reason, a homeless man died from the cold, on the street, a few yards from the entrance to their privilege club, The Westminster Houses of Hypocrisy and Corruption. How inconsiderate of that homeless person to die there, why didn't he take himself off to one of the poorer districts, then the political ballerinas would not be so upset. 

     The fact that homeless people are dying on our streets, almost on a daily basis, but no song and dance from The "Right Honourable Members" shows their utter contempt for the homeless, only when it is on the doorstep of their privileged palace do they get upset.

      Where have their crocodile tears been for the last three years over which period, the number homeless rough sleepers has increased by 73% in England only. It has been calculated that on any given night during autumn last year, 2017, 4,751 people were sleeping rough on the streets of England alone, this is more than double the figures for 2010. No agitated responses and calls of this is a disgrace, etc.. The sad, pointless and avoidable death of this young man, is replicated across our country, while our privileged political ballerinas, spout sound bites and platitudes, grasp photo opportunities, anything that might further their careers, but nothing changes. They all go home to their very comfortable mansions, and plan their next career move.

        Jon Glackin, a former rough sleeper who is the founder of Street Kitchen, which provides meals for homeless people, urged that the latest death is one of many.
“It’s getting far too common. This one is poignant because it was outside the Houses of Parliament. But I’ve already been to three funerals of homeless people this year. There is no need for this,” he said.
      “It’s beyond breaking point. All services are over-subscribed, services are closing down left right and centre. Everybody seems to think the problem was solved over Christmas. It’s gone out of the public spotlight but it’s becoming worse than ever.”

Read the full article HERE:

       Of course nothing will happen, the process of dispossessing the poor is in full swing. In Greece it is being done savagely, mercilessly, brutally and quickly, elsewhere in the capitalist world it is happening at different rates, some slower than others, but the aim and direction remains the same, the dispossession of the poor. Everything must end up in the the hands of the corporate greed machine and the financial Mafia. Public assets will go for a song to the cabal of CEO and the financial Mafia. Libraries, public swimming baths, health care, social service, will all be run for profit by private companies. The NHS will continue to be squeezed encouraging the public outcry of "something must be done", and then the "think-tank" of "financial experts", business entrepreneurs, CEO, and members of the financial Mafia, will come up with the magic solution, "private capital" is the only way forward. Then the size of your premium will determine the type of care you will get, not the nature of your illness.
      The so called government will then be tasked with its only purpose, keeping civil unrest of the streets. We haven't reach the stage yet where armed Coca Cola militia patrol our streets, so the government will be the keeper of peace to allow the corporate juggernaut to run roughshod over society, shaping it to meet its ever growing appetite for profit. 
      Those who are naive enough to believe that somehow capitalism can be reformed, should take a closer look at Greece. Within a few years, they have destroyed the health service, the education system, trash all incomes for those who can still find work, reigned over rising suicides, sky rocketing substance abuse, crime, poverty and deprivation. And they are not finished yet, they want more from the people of Greece. With that in mind, do you think they are bothered by a few people dying on on streets every other day. The only answer to our problems, the only way to end people dying from cold and hunger on our streets is to get rid of the cause, capitalism.

        Westminster City Council has described the incident as a “very sad incident” and pledged they would work with police to establish the cause of death.
      A Metropolitan Police spokesperson said the death was being treated as “unexplained but not suspicious”. A file will now be prepared for the coroner.

        Are they stupid, we know the cause of death, it was death by capitalist induce homelessness and hunger, or you could say, murder by capitalism, we also know the remedy, get rid of capitalism.

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