Cherish The Bootlickers And The Entrepreneurs.

       Yes, with reverence and wall to wall coverage, that babbling brook of bullshit, our mainstream media, reported the Pope's visit to Ireland. However, despite the massive turnout, paid little heed to those who see through the illusion of the God men and their grovelling groupies of fools and exploiters. Thanks Loam for the link.

       Sarah Clancy performs her poem 'Cherishing for Beginners' at the Stand for Truth rally on the day of the Papal rally in the Phoenix park Ireland.

Cherish the meek
cherish the ranchers
cherish the guards
cherish the bankers
cherish the virgins
then ride them and cherish their sisters,
cherish tax exiles and entrepreneurs
cherish the rewards of intergenerational privilege
or if that's too hard for beginners
sure cherish the Rose of Tralee for starters,
cherish the goal and the point and the foul
cherish the priest's dirty sheets
but not the women who wash them,
don't mention her
or what she might need,
go on though and cherish the IFSC
and its type of laundries-
those ones are fine,
they are grand sure.
Cherish Them.
Cherish the pope and his
band of transglobal bootlickers
cherish the bishops
who moved paedophile priests
around like chess pieces
and were afflicted with severe mental reservations
every time child rape was mentioned
cherish the bureaucrats
who know that the institution always comes first
cherish the shame they implanted
on the whole population
then cherish the suicides
as collateral damage
in an otherwise virtuous struggle
cherish the high moral ground
they reached by tramping on
the graves of dead babies,
cherish the ring kissers
who made it all possible
sure give them a big round of applause
don't the y deserve it
Cherish the men
because they couldn’t help it
if the women and girls went and fell pregnant,
cherish the foetus, the heartbeat,
but not the person it's in
then cherish the small graves
in their undisclosed wastelands
cherish the shovels
and boot soles that dug them-
let there be no doubt about it-
Yes We Can!
cherish the children
if they're from the right class
aren’t travelling people
and are not for god’s sake
seeking asylum,
don't forget too that we must
cherish the mute
and cherish the sheepish
but hate those in need,
worship Fr Peter McVerry himself,
go ahead make him an icon
but don’t listen to what he’s saying
about anything.
Cherish the poor
for how you can use them
to frighten those
who are just one rung above
cherish the people
who learned early and often
what happens to those
with big mouths,
cherish your local TDs,
and the crowd in Listowel
who didn't care that he raped her
sure wasn't he one of their own?
Yea cherish the rapist,
why don't you?
Cherish the golf course
and its sprinklers
sure Irish Water will save us
cherish piece work and internships,
and zero hour contracts
aren't you lucky you have a job at all?
Do you not remember the coffin ships
and are you not grateful?
Yea cherish your own exploitation
cherish the school board,
for our lack of gay teachers,
cherish women's place in the home
then cut their allowances,
sure they don’t deserve them
having all of those children
repeat after me- Cherish Privatisation;
and if you don't then you better learn
to cherish the knock on your door
in Jobstown in the morning.
Consider this a warning.
Cherish Dev and Pearse
and blood sacrifice
but don't mention James Connolly
who said until Ireland's women are free
none of us will be, most of all though
cherish outsourcing and remember
your call is important,
you too will be cherished equally
if you can afford it
as soon as an operator
becomes available
which may well take
another hundred years.

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Auschwitz-Disneyland.

      I post this article in full  because I think, with clarity, it puts into words what so many of us think and feel, but can't quite put it together. Also as the writer says, the audacity of linking those two words, Auschwitz and Disneyland will create a shock among those conditioned minds.

     It is an anonymous article taken from The Anarchist Library, a wonderful Aladdin's Cave of anarchist texts.

Auschwitz-Disneyland

I live in Auschwitz-Disneyland. I make sure that all my papers are in order,
I document my existence on social networks,
        I apply for grants and loans. I wear clothes that express who I am, I am a walking billboard, a name tag, I pick a style. I take a train, a subway, my car, un Bixi[1], it's so convenient. I take a shower, I smell good, according to the ads this foaming gel makes me irresistible. Auschwitz-Disneyland is the countryside in the city, the city in the suburb, and the suburb in the countryside. Auschwitz-Disneyland is naked life in one's Sunday best, the hegemony giving itself the answer. In Auschwitz-Disneyland, “holidays make you free.” In Auschwitz-Disneyland, we order at the drive-through, we studying by distance learning, and we shop online.
      In Auschwitz-Disneyland, “water comes from the tap and food comes from the supermarket”, food found in the skip also comes from the supermarket. Spectacular capital of Biopower and the bio-political Spectacle: Auschwitz-Disneyland is the name of the metropolis and that of the empire. Auschwitz-Disneyland is not synonymous with the Spectacle, but rather, that which the Spectacle prevents us from keeping our distance from. Auschwitz-Disneyland is not civil war, but the denial of civil war to such a degree that it becomes a weapon. Auschwitz-Disneyland does not call itself Auschwitz-Disneyland, it is called: Montréal, Burlington, Club Med, the Univerisity of Québec in Montréal, Athens, Amiens, Dix-Trente, Bagram, Oakland, Bois-des-Fillions, and I'm skipping some. The inhabitants of Auschwitz-Disneyland are citizens. In the aftermath of a riot, the citizens come out of their condominiums armed with brooms. Living in Auschwitz-Disneyland is an anaesthetic experience, which deprives us of the beauty and possibility of sensory experience.
     I wouldn't know how to say exactly how this all started, if it was domestication, patriarchy, agriculture, the State, cities, symbolic culture. There is also this god from the desert, jealous and terrible liar whose promise is no stranger to the hegemony of Auschwitz-Disneyland. This god, who could not have been so hideously jealous and a horrible liar if he had really been alone, managed to convince his disciples that he was the only god and that nothing that links us to the here-and-now is of importance, that what mattered was elsewhere and he held the key for it. Although we are no longer as loyal to this tyrannical buffoon, we continue to diligently follow his terrible promise. Auschwitz-Disneyland is the objective incarnation of this promise, the absolute negation of the possibility of being here, now. Here-and-now, is no longer here-and-now, it is just next door, out of reach, fenced off, it is a no-man's land that crosses the empire, it is subject to police surveillance at all times. When I try to escape Auschwitz-Disneyland is not to go elsewhere, it is to rediscover the here-and-now. I do not dig a tunnel, but a hiding place, a shelter.
     Auschwitz-Disneyland subjects the world to its empire through use of powerful tools such as reason, technique and grammar. In a world whose ins and outs are contained in symbolic mediations, do not underestimate the power of grammar. Grammar shapes minds and stories, it also brings many prohibitions, of course it is not permissible to join the words “Auschwitz” and “Disneyland” with a hyphen, to try to give them one and the same meaning. In Auschwitz-Disneyland, resistance, like all counter-cultures, has developed a vocabulary of its own, but fails to overcome the enemy grammar; the word “ecocide” will never hold weight against the concept of “economic growth”. The combination of a counter-cultural vocabulary with the authoritarian grammar of mass society can only lead to ridicule, we must see how easily the “New World Order”, “Bilderberg” and “chemtrails” conspirators put an end to any political conversation. Facing the risk of being confined to jargon, it is beneficial to talk through the force of rocks, paving stones, poles...
        Auschwitz-Disneyland is less the Apocalypse in motion, than the negation of this Apocalypse in the service of its expansion. The task falls on the best agents of the Apocalypse of denying the slightest trace of the latter, and to wipe out the unfortunates who had the audacity and recklessness to pronounce its name. It is perhaps no coincidence that Saint Peter became the head of the church by denying Christ three times. If this negation of the Apocalypse returns in the sphere of the spectacular, to specialists, in the private sphere we become all subcontractors. We prefer, most of the time, to deny our desire to end the domination, in favour of a trans-historical oppositional perspective and of 'counter-power'. In doing so, we deny the possibility of abolishing Auschwitz-Disneyland, by contenting ourselves with a space for demonstrations, a zone for free expression, a protest pen. We let go of the gun to better cling to the barricade.
      This mutilated negativity first results in our inability to sustain ourselves without precarity, which also feeds our servitude. This constant management of subsistence denies the possibility of note-worthy experience, of bearing a relationship to the world which is not that of domination.
        A century of industrialisation, continental genocide and four years of trench warfare eradicated everything up until the “possibility of experience.” Then after that, it was relayed by the most horrible images, rats shown alternating with a hated minority; and during that time on other screens, a mouse wearing trousers, going to the restaurant with his girlfriend, driving a car. Since scrapping experience, progress, basing itself on images, has free reign, hiding the cost of what little is given to us, cultivating our dependence, promising us anything. In Auschwitz-Disneyland, progress maintains itself by combining its best gadgets, which form so many layers which capture us like cellophane. Auschwitz-Disneyland merges telecommunications, cybernetics and pornography, and gives us the internet.
     Auschwitz-Disneyland is also the triumph of sustainable development, humanitarian intervention and green capitalism. Divided thought has multiplied to the point of constituting an inseparable heap. New animal torturers are the “finest minds” of cognitive science, and wise European scholars, well-intentioned, try to prove the innocuousness of new molecules that surround us. Where does the baby start and the bathwater finish? The “banality of evil” is also the evil of banality. The dreams of citizens reproduce sadness and the banality of their existence, their interaction is limited to an interface. Another world is possible, you want to laugh. This world is impossible, its end is desirable, that will suffice. Jokers put forward superficial slogans: ecosocialism or barbarism. If it's a matter of choice the answer is too easy, we are not fooled, the 250 known species which have become extinct today are not fooled. If it's a threat, we will respond with a roar, a fierce and wild roar, we will roar with all our strength, we will roar for the 250 known species which became extinct today.
     Auschwitz-Disneyland can provide free education, cover itself with windfarms, eat organic and drive electric cars, the “Princesses' Castle” and her thousands of hideous copies could be made of recycled cardboard, the horror would remain whole. To maintain itself, this world must keep us out of the here, far from the now, outside nature and alien to each other.
       Auschwitz-Disneyland only maintains itself by cultivating this estrangement within us towards others. We share a subway car, without letting it show; we don't look at anyone, we are voluntarily absorbed by some gadgets, some books, some music. When empty-handed, we pretend to be alone, to be somewhere else; we are in the habit. We are mobilised against the presence of the body and against the possibility that it carries. Sometimes this mobilisation fails and the decorations get torn. There are all these cities and suburbs ablaze when the cops execute the “baddies”. There is Sobibor[2] where a dozen prisoners got the camp to revolt: killing the guards, destroying the cells, fleeing into the woods. There's also Woodstock '99[3], Seattle[4] and there is Oka[5].
        A drone flies over a piece of desert, preparing to launch a missile at a truck; we will say that it was carrying some “militants”. A landlord's association decides to analyse the DNA of dog shit that stains their lawns to find and punish those “guilty”. A counterfeit Mickey Mouse gets on stage with a neophyte dictator for the greatest “joy” of children. An Italian atomic energy official gets kneecapped[6]. The war is already here, we know which side to choose. All that's left is to “desert with arms”, to desert with a friend, with at least one friend, a friend, a stranger, a stranger who became a friend, with two friends, five friends. Deserting doesn't necessarily imply going elsewhere, “arms” are not just useful for fighting; deserting implies creating a new relationship to the world, exploring “here” and experimenting “now”, noting the location of enemy devices, making a plan, plans, finding yourself, finding a friend, two friends, five friends. Together we will survive, heal, and of course fight, we will also experiment with this new grammar, better yet this language without grammar, which will put an end once and for all to “Auschwitz-Disneyland.”

[1] ed. – Similar to the 'Boris Bikes' cycle hire scheme.
[2] ed. – Sobibór was a Nazi German extermination camp in Poland.
[3] ed. – The 1999 Woodstock festival near New York ended with rioting.
[4] ed. – Seattle hosted the 1999 World Trade Organisation summit, with big protests and much property damage.
[5] ed. – The 1990 'Oka Crisis' was a 78-day armed stand-off between the Canadian military and Kanesatake indigenous protectors of traditional habitat to be turned into a golf course. Other tribes set up blockades and downed power-lines in solidarity.

[6] ed. – See Rebels Behind Bars; 'We Refuse to Reduce Our Desires...'

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Venezuela Punished For Social Spending.

        In our babbling brook of bullshit, the mainstream media, we hear a lot about the plight of the people of Venezuela, mass migration out of the country to escape dire poverty and deprivation, they spout the usual drivel about the collapse of the economy, hyper inflation, and put it down to the failure of socialism/communism. Though most socialists will agree that Venezuela was not a socialist country.

     Never once will they mention the true cause of the plight of the Venezuelan people to the deliberate policy of the US, in conjunction with Saudi Arabia. The US can't hear the word socialism without jumping in with the boot, as such a system would ruin the ability of the grossly over rich parasites from continuing to exploit the world, its people and its resources. 

      The root cause of the collapse of the Venezuelan economy was the deliberate strategy of the US and Saudi Arabia to flood the market with cheap oil forcing the price from $110 a barrel, down to $28 a barrel, pulling the plug from the pool of rich oil resources with which Venezuela was developing the country. The US hypocrites will of course pretend to be the benefactor by organising a totally inadequate supply of food aid to the migrating millions.

      The unbelievable misery foisted on the people of Venezuela is of no consequence to the power mongers of the "free market", any price will be paid to safeguard their privileged position, their wealth and their power. The problems of the people of Venezuela are not internal problems, it is punishment for their failure to pay homage the corporate moguls of the free market. Hoist the flag of socialism and you will feel the wrath of the corporate moguls aided and abetted by their minders, the US state, its allies and puppets.

This from Mint Press News:

        The political and economic crisis facing Venezuela is being endlessly pointed to as proof of the superiority of the free market.

Images and portrayals of Venezuelans rioting in the streets over high food costs, empty grocery stores, medicine shortages, and overflowing garbage bins are the headlines, and the reporting points to socialism as the cause.  

        The Chicago Tribune published a Commentary piece titled: “A socialist revolution can ruin almost any country.” A headline on Reason’s Hit and Run blog proclaims: “Venezuelan socialism still a complete disaster.” The Week’s U.S. edition says: “Authoritarian socialism caused Venezuela’s collapse.”

         Indeed, corporate-owned, mainstream media advises Americans to look at the inflation and food lines in Venezuela, and then repeat to themselves clichés they heard in elementary school about how “Communism just doesn’t work.”

In reality, millions of Venezuelans have seen their living conditions vastly improved through the Bolivarian process. The problems plaguing the Venezuelan economy are not due to some inherent fault in socialism, but to artificially low oil prices and sabotage by forces hostile to the revolution.

        Starting in 2014, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia flooded the market with cheap oil. This is not a mere business decision, but a calculated move coordinated with U.S. and Israeli foreign policy goals. Despite not just losing money, but even falling deep into debt, the Saudi monarchy continues to expand its oil production apparatus. The result has been driving the price of oil down from $110 per barrel, to $28 in the early months of this year. The goal is to weaken these opponents of Wall Street, London, and Tel Aviv, whose economies are centered around oil and natural gas exports. And Venezuela is one of those countries. Saudi efforts to drive down oil prices have drastically reduced Venezuela’s state budget and led to enormous consequences for the Venezuelan economy.

         At the same time, private food processing and importing corporations have launched a coordinated campaign of sabotage. This, coupled with the weakening of a vitally important state sector of the economy, has resulted in inflation and food shortages. The artificially low oil prices have left the Venezuelan state cash-starved, prompting a crisis in the funding of the social programs that were key to strengthening the United Socialist Party.-----

Read the full article HERE: 

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My Thoughts On Not The Anarchist Bookfair.

         My thoughts on the “Not The Anarchist Bookfair”, is that it is a wonderful idea and a great strategy to draw more people to the anarchist way of thinking. However, I believe that London probably has enough people to make this venture a great success, so instead of people travelling to London, to me it would make more sense for all the cities in this enclave known as the UK, to hold similar events at the same time, a British Anarchist Festival. It would have a greater impact on our own local area. I’m sure that within the large cities there are enough anarchists to organise such an event. These numbers could be supplemented by the peripheral areas where they don’t have the numbers to put on such an event. It would give us a more local profile but at the same time, all over the whole of the country.
       It is probably too late for this year, October is not that far away, but next year?? We have more than a year to talk and think it through, and see if it is a feasible project, and if so, put it together.

 

 

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Week Of Solidarity With Anarchist Prisoners.

        Prisons are places of repression, intimidation and isolation, as the state would have them be. However, the isolation can be broken with contact from the outside, that feeling of being cut off and forgotten can destroy your mind. To feel that you are part of something bigger than the prison that tries to subdue you, can help you through your ordeal. Below is a call for solidarity with anarchist prisoners, here and abroad, from Anarchist Black Cross: 

         Why bother writing to politicians when all they deserve is our hatred? They will never listen to appeals from social reformers or the unwashed, nevermind the misguided anarchists. Why don’t you write to locked-up anarchists instead, cheer them up and strike up a conversation? One of the most important and simple ways we have available to break the isolation imposed on our imprisoned comrades is to write to them and let them know that they are not forgotten but are present. Nothing stops when you enter prison and we can meet them there with our international solidarity which is taking place on many fronts.
        Here is a good PDF guide to prisoner correspondence written by ABC Leeds some years ago but still relevant today, plus a list of anarchist prisoners compiled by the international groups of the Anarchist Black Cross for the week of solidarity taking place at the moment:
Writing to prisoners – Guide by ABC Leeds
Anarchist prisoners addresses list – August 2018

From 325:

 
       If the “innocent” ones deserve our solidarity once, then the “guilty” ones deserve it a thousand times… — Conspiracy of Cells of Fire, FAI-IRF / Imprisoned Members Cell

       Solidarity will always be practiced as an indispensable feature of an anarchist way of life and action. The war continues, never give up, never give in. Long live FAI-FRI. Long live CCF. Long live the black international — Alfredo Cospito

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Their Fabrication Falls Down.

 

       Even their judicial bosses couldn't accept the lies and fabrication of the prosecution. Despite several attempts to get the courts to accept their frame-up of anarchist Tasos Theofilou, he is now free. Tasos has faced the wrath and savage intimidation of the Greek judicial system since 2012. They sank their rancid teeth into him and they refused to let go. However determination and solidarity have eventually won through. No doubt the lying puppets of the state will be smarting from this, and will be looking at ways and means of "getting their man", they are the brutal and devious masters of illusion and fabrication. Watch your back Tasos.

This from Act For Freedom Now:

 Greece – Anarchist Tasos Theofilou is free from all charges
Prosecutor’s claim was rejected.
Following the 1333/2018 order of the Supreme Court charges against
Tasos Theofilou were rejected.
We remind that Tasos Theofilou had been acquitted of all charges at
the second grade trial, but the vice prosecutor of the Supreme Court
had made appeal.
anarhija.info

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Not The Anarchist Bookfair.

       As the London Anarchist Bookfair slips below the horizon, some may ask, is there any alternatives? As anarchists you should know--- of course there are.       

       This year Housmans and Freedom have come together to give us one alternative, an Anarchist Festival, that must be worthy of support. So let's spread the word far and wide.

This from Freedom News:

        As some of you may know by now, Freedom and Housmans joined forces to organise Anarchist Festival in October. Other groups and venues are more than welcome to join. Here is a text with details from the Anarchist Festival crew. (zb)

         In light of the absence of the London Anarchist Bookfair this year Freedom and Housmans have got together to organise a decentralised anarchist festival on the 20th – 21st of October, and we’d like you to get involved!

The idea is to have events running in radical venues across London organised by groups, all happening under the banner of Not the Anarchist Bookfair. If you already have something planned for the weekend and you think it would be suitable then email us here or at our riseup (anarchistfestival(at)riseup.net) and we’ll add you into our programme. If you want to organise something, book a venue and email us when everything is confirmed.

       We want to take a broad approach to anarchism, as long as it’s anti-authoritarian and anti-capitalist it’s in. We will not accept any events that are racist, sexist, ableist, transphobic etc and the policies of each venue must be followed as usual. We want to have an emphasis on getting new people involved in anarchist politics so introductory/ easily accessible events are especially wanted.

Examples of events we think would be cool:

-introductary talks
-reading groups
-book launches
-coffee mornings
-open days
-walking tours
-anything else you can think of!

Accessibility
Please be aware of any access restrictions for any venue that you organise an event at as we will include it in the programme.

Hope to hear more from you!

#nottheanarchistbookfair crew

Anarchist Festival
anarchistfestival(at)riseup.net

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On The Road Again.

       Well Tuesday was a mild day, a bit overcast, but no rain and little in the way of wind. So who wouldn't want to get out on the bike? First time in quite a long while since I had been on the road, recent outings have been along the Forth and Clyde canal, it's relatively flat, (its been a rotten year with one thing and another), so nice and easy.

      Today it was cycling round and round the Lowmoss area, back on familiar roads round my patch, and it was great to escape the canal. I suppose, as far as cycling goes, I have covered too many road miles, over too many years, to be anything but a bike "roadie". When I started cycling cars were an oddity, one would roll past every now and again, today, it is an endless convoy of tin boxes of all shapes and sizes, flashing past you, sometimes at frightening speed and dangerous close, they call it progress. 

      Glasgow recently hosted the European cycling championships, and I suppose you could say of the council, "Didn't they do well", whole swaths of road were repaired, potholes were sorted, sunken drain covers were fixed. Sadly it was only the roads to be used by the professional cycle racers. All that repair work for a couple of hundred cyclists, when the city has thousands of cyclists that  use the roads on a daily basis and nothing is done to fix the multitude of potholes, crack and broken tarmac, sunken drain covers, on the roads all over the city. I think they got their priorities dreadfully wrong. Surely the citizens of Glasgow deserve as good a treatment as cycling visitors. Then again, the big spectacle is all about big money, and our city council will always pay homage to the big bucks. Ah, that's capitalism.

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Where Prisons Survive, Democracy Dies.

 

         Prisons are an antithesis of democracy, they are no more and no less, than brutal institutions of repression, a bulwark in the defence of the establishments wealth and power. Of course a large percentage of the population believe that if you don't do anything to break their rules of control, you are safe from being lock-up in the state's cages. However, history tells us different, over the years there has been a litany of "miscarriages" of justice. Which is not surprising, since we live a society built on corruption and injustice.

      This is just one individual's long running fight against a "miscarriage" of justice, but there are many, many more that end up in destroying the individual and in most cases the lives of their families.

       A suggested motto for the UK justice system.

‘The most ardent defenders of justice here consider that it is better for an innocent man to be condemned than for the Inquisition to suffer disgrace.’

– Papal envoy, Spain 1565

This from 325:

        Kevan Thakrar is an IWW member and miscarriage of justice who has served over a decade in prison. He was moved to the Close Supervision Centre at HMP Whitemoor in Cambridgeshire in July and is now being subjected to an even more repressive regime, as well as targeted harassment from prison officers.

     Kevan repeatedly challenges his conditions and captivity with complaints and legal challenges, many often against prisoner officers and members of the Prison Officers Association. In retaliation, the Prison Officers Association have been actively encouraging officers to try to get Kevan moved to a different prison. Staff have been trying provoke an incident after Kevan’s requests for them to wear body-worn cameras (for his own protection, following incidents of physical violence inflicted against Kevan in the past).

     On Thursday 16th August, Kevan was put on an even more brutal regime. He is now locked up 23 hours a day. He has 30mins outside and 30mins to shower, make phone calls or do anything else he needs to do. When he is unlocked, everyone else in the CSC is locked in. This is creating animosity between the prisoners (a desired effect for the officers).

      Kevan has requested to see the Governor and has so far been refused. His planned meeting with the prison’s Diversity Officer was also refused by the Governor.

     Close Supervision Centres are designed to break human beings. Most people leave and enter psychiatric custody following what they are subjected to. Kirsty White, head of the CSC unit has told Kevan the reason for his restricted regime is that Kevan’s PTSD is being triggered and that he is clearly “distressed” because he is asking for body-worn cameras. Kevan developed PTSD after experiencing extreme racial, physical and sexual abuse at HMP Frankland in 2010.

Kevan has been fighting for his life as a miscarriage of justice for the past 11 years. Learn about his case. He has been kept in solitary confinement for over 8 years. You can read more about his experience in prison here.

Kevan after a beating by prison officers at HMP Frankland.

What you can do

       Follow the facebook* for updates on upcoming demonstrations

1. Please contact the Head Governor Will Styles at HMP Whitemoor:

Address: HMP Whitemoor, Longhill Road, March, Cambridgeshire, PE15 0PR
Tel: 01354 602 350
Fax: 01354 602 351
Email – Will.Styles@hmps.gsi.gov.uk

2. Write to the Justice Secretary, David Gauke MP:

Email: david@davidgauke.com

Or contact him via the Ministry of Justice: https://contact-moj.dsd.io/correspondence/topic

3. Write to the MP of the area, Steve Barclay: http://stevebarclay.net/contact/

4. Complain to the Prison Officers Association: general@poauk.org.uk

5. Write to Kevan:

Write to Kevan! He needs your support and solidarity. Send letters to:

Kevan Thakrar A4907AE
HMP Whitemoor
Longhill Road
March
Cambridgeshire
PE15 0PR

You can also use emailaprisoner.com

*https://www.facebook.com/IWOCWISERA/

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Women And Struggle In Iran.

       To help show the extent of the material held in Spirit of Revolt Archive we have chosen, for this month's “Read of the month” a subject that we in the West don’t hear much about, women and struggle in Iran. However, like everywhere else on the planet, in Iran that spark of freedom ever seeks to burst into flames.  

       It is from our KM Collection T SOR-4-1-106 and is called Women And Struggle In Iran, enjoy:

 Women And Struggle In Iran. 

       This issue contains some poems by Forugh Farrokhzad. I particularly like this one, “I was born a girl”,

       Forugh Farrokhzad, bom in Tehran, Iran (1935) is considered the outstanding contemporary feminist poet in Iran. She was also a filmmaker and critic. At the height of her creative career and her philosophical and ideological evolution, while approaching a revolutionary and socialist path, she was killed in an automobile accident (1967)

I was born a girl

So that I’d be given a doll and a broom

To sew the hem of men’s shirts with gold lace

And to sweep the dust from the house.

My brother is playing in the street.

He takes off with his bicycle.

And I remain in the comer of our house.

A Girl

My brother, in the winding streets,

By playing with the dirt and the pebbles,

Is experiencing life.

My experience does not pass beyond these walls.

I do not know the streets.

I was born a girl.

In the chapter of questions and search

My questions are left unanswered and

My search is futile.

I was born a girl

So that in the dawn of puberty

My frightful eyes.

Like the eyes of a restless deer,

Would give away my secret.

Was born a girl.

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Unbridled Wealth And Abject Deprivation, Two Sides Of The Capitalist Coin.

      Approximately 300 years or so of capitalism and its success story is that it has produced unimaginable wealth. Of course with the base line of capitalism being unbridled exploitation and selfish gain, that wealth has become extremely concentrated in a very few hands. With that gross wealth concentrated in so few hands, comes power concentrated in so few hands.

      Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos recently reached a net worth of $105 billion, making him the richest person in the world — and ever in history.
        A recent study released by Oxfam found that the top 1% has owned more wealth than the rest of the world's population since 2015. And the eight richest have the same amount of wealth as the poorest half of the world — nearly 4 billion people. If these top billionaires continue to see returns on their wealth, we could see the world's first trillionaire in as little as 25 years.

       It is, of course obvious that if the world's population produces all this wealth and it ends up in so few hands, the majority are the losers. Leaving the parasite world of millionaires/billionaires and entering the real world of ordinary people we see a very different story. While that few can purchase a £150 million yacht to pass their time with, the majority struggle to keep a half decent standard of living.
      In my previous post "In Despair, I repeat Myself."  I highlighted the billions that struggle to survive in the most abject deprivation. A high percentage of those ignored human beings, live in the so called "third world" or developing countries. However, capitalism carries its poverty everywhere, even in the so called "developed world". Some facts from very rich developed Europe.
SCOTLAND: 

 

       Almost one in four (230,000) of Scotland’s children are officially recognised as living in poverty[i]. This is higher than in many other European countries[ii]. In the absence of significant policy change, this figure is likely to rise in the coming years with independent modelling by the Institute for Fiscal studies (IFS) forecasting that more than a third of children in the UK will be living in poverty by 2021/22. [iii] This would reverse the fall in child poverty observed in the UK since the late 1990s. [iv]
      There is hope that action will be taken to reverse this trend in Scotland where the Child Poverty (Scotland) Act 2017 places a duty on the Scottish Government to eradicate child poverty by 2030.
        It comes after stark figures last week showed about a million Scots are now living in relative poverty – including one in four children.

SPAIN: 

        After the economic crisis and years of austerity, child poverty is on the rise in wealthy countries, according to Unicef. In Spain, the proportion of children living below the poverty line increased by nine percentage points between 2008 and 2014, to reach almost 40%.
       While child poverty in general rose significantly, the sharpest increase (56%) was among households of four people (two adults and two children) living on less than €700 per month, or €8,400 per year.

ITALY:

      Those living in “absolute poverty” rose to 5.1 million last year, or 8.4 percent of the population, despite a fourth consecutive year of modest economic growth. That was up from 7.9 percent in 2016 and the highest since current records began in 2005, national statistics bureau ISTAT reported.
     ISTAT defines absolute poverty as the condition of those who cannot buy goods and services “essential to avoid grave forms of social exclusion”.
     Italy emerged from a steep double-dip recession in 2014, but the report shows that the slow growth posted since then has done little to help its poorest.

 GREECE:

       Greece shows the second highest rate of severe material deprivation (21.1 percent) in the EU, meaning that more than one in five Greeks can not afford to pay their bills, Eurostat says.
        According to a report called “Can you afford to pay all your bills?” released on Wednesday, the European statistical authority finds that more than one five Greeks can not afford at least four of the following:

• pay their bills on time
• keep their home adequately warm
• face unexpected expenses
• eat meat (or fish or the vegetarian equivalent) regularly
• take a one week holiday away from home
• a TV
• a washing machine
• a car
• a telephone
  

AND:

Figures show that between 2010 and 2016, the percentage of children in Greece that were at risk of poverty or social exclusion, jumped from 28.7% to 37.5%; i.e. up by 8.8%.

       So no matter where capitalism slithers its cancerous tentacles, the result is the same, unbridled wealth for the few, and unimaginable deprivation for the many. It is a man made economic system, not some immutable set of laws set in stone, we can throw its set of unjust rules in the dust bin and start again, building a system based on the needs of all our people, sustainability and justice.

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

In Despair, I Repeat Myself.

 

      Maybe I'm a depressing sort of guy, and I see the world different from lots of others, but I can't help looking at the world we have created, and getting a sickening feeling in my stomach. We have taken a planet that had the potential for a paradise for all, and turned it into a savage nightmare of grotesque brutality.

    No matter how convenient your mobile phone, no matter the amount of movies you can stream, no  matter how comfortable your home, we are living an illusion. That real world, that place where the vast majority live, is a cruel vicious and very often deadly place.

      I wrote the following article about nine years ago and have posted it once since then, and I post it again, for the simple reason that I think it is still a picture of the unjust savage reality in which billions of people have to survive. If anything, in the passing nine years or so since first posting this, I believe things have got worse. How and when do we change things?

    It is difficult to grasp the state of the world that we have created. A world where there is an abundance of almost everything conceivable and yet to the vast majority of the world’s population it is all out of reach. A world where a small elite live a life of obscene and wasteful wealth while millions die of starvation and millions of children die from the lack of clean drinking water. In this capitalist made world there are small enclaves where the rich, in safety, play games with their expensive toys, private jets, luxury cars, yachts and several holiday homes in “exotic” locations. While just over that financial apartheid wall there is the stench of squalor and death for countless millions living in total deprivation and endless wars,
        In this capitalist created world, 8 million people die every year from poverty, One billion children live in abject poverty, 640 million do not have access to appropriate shelter, 140 million have never attended school, 400 million do not have access to clean uncontaminated water, 500 million do not have basic sanitation, 270 million have no access to health care, and 90 million are severely food deprived. Approximately 12.3 million people worldwide live in conditions of “modern slavery,” while over one billion people live on less than one dollar of income per day and over three billion live on less than two dollars per day. Then there is the strata in between, that manage to scrape a reasonable existence that seems to keep them from revolt.
        All this misery in spite of the fact that the world economy actually produces one and a half times the amount of food necessary to provide the entire human population with adequate and nutritious meals. The fact that the capitalist system will not allow this to be shared out to those in need tells us that it is not a natural problem but a political problem. Perhaps the words of Derrick Jensen come close to capturing something of that world.
       “We are members of the most destructive culture ever to exist. Our assault on the natural world, on indigenous and other cultures, on women, on children, on all of us through the possibility of nuclear suicide and other means—all these are unprecedented in their magnitude and ferocity ... What this means is that corporations and those who run them cannot stop exploiting resources and amassing wealth until they have...I cannot finish this sentence, because the truth is that they can never stop; like cancer, they can only continue to expand until they kill the host ... For us to maintain our way of living, we must tell lies to each other and especially to ourselves. The lies are necessary because, without them, many deplorable acts would become impossibilities.”

Eighteen Hungry Children

Eighteen hungry children die

every minute of every day

eighteen of tomorrow’s people

cruelly thrown away.

When pandering to a fashion

gratifying our greed,

think, theirs is no desire

but a basic need.

Envisage a familiar face

a child that calls your name,

try to be the parent

try to place the blame.

Eighteen hungry children die

every minute of every day,

eighteen little faces

that never learnt to play.

Walk past your local school

listen to the shrill,

stand and count to sixty

imagine hunger start to kill.

Fingers must be pointed

at decisions made on high,

questions must be asked

loudly asked by you and I.

Eighteen hungry children die

every minute of every day,

eighteen precious lives

the claws of hunger slay.

WHY?

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