Chile, The Struggle Continues.

     Chile has dropped off the radar as far as our mainstream media are concerned, they have used it for a sensational splash and then dropped it in favour of a prince's alleged sexual antics, and our political ballerinas prancing around for photo ops to enhance their chances of winning the latest "crooks and liars" competition. However, the people of Chile are still in struggle against the corruption, injustice, inequality and state brutality of the regime in control there.

 

There's no doubt where their loyalties lie. Photo from crimethinc.

 

This from LeftVoice:

 

 

      Chile is now in the midst of a popular rebellion. Sparked by protests against unpopular subway fare hikes, the popular rebellion that began on October 18 is perhaps best described as an uprising. One union playing a leading role in these tumultuous events is the radical Dockworkers Union of Chile (UPC – Unión Portuaria de Chile).
     Academic and contemporary Chile specialist Franck Gaudichaud has pointed to the key role now being played by the Dockworkers Union of Chile. In a recent interview, he points out that in the early days of the rebellion, it was the UPC that first took action with its 24-hour strike on October 21, while the bureaucratized United Workers’ Centre (CUT – Central Única de los Trabajadores) union federation initially refused to act..
     The 6,000 members of the Dockworkers Union have repeatedly paralyzed the majority of the nation’s ports in a series of 24-hour and 48-hour strikes. The first was the 24-hour strike on October 21 that coincided with the largely spontaneous demonstrations of over 1 million people that same day. The UPC then called a 48-hour strike for October 23 and 24, which fed into the October 23 general strike, the first called by the CUT since the rebellion began. The dockers’ union has also had a 24-hour stoppage across October 29-30 that linked up with the general strike of October 30, and a further 24-hour strike on November 12, which coincided with that day’s general strike. The most recent was the 48-hour strike over November 25, 26 and 27, which exceeded the CUT’s call for a November 26 general strike and coincided with the call by the Social Unity Roundtable group of unions and social organizations for a national strike from November 25 to 27.

Continue reading HERE: 

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War And Climate Emergency.

     Yesterday evening, Tuesday, 3rd. December, in Glasgow's dark and cold weather, Scottish CND and Scottish Peace Network held a demonstration at the top of Buchanan Street, against war and all the death, destruction and misery that goes along with this barbaric state action. Among other groups, the Clydeside IWW was there, and some comrades handing out the re-born Glasgow Keelie, now on its third issue.

     At the moment there is a lot of focus on climate emergency, but what should not be forgotten is that the greatest carbon footprint is war and its ancillary support mechanisms. The Pentagon has the world biggest carbon footprint. So when you shout "climate emergency" you must support the anti-war movement. You can't have one without the other. Two aspects of our world that are driving it to extinction are capitalism and war, and states are the guardians of both of these two mechanisms.

     So our lords and masters who are holding "summits" on climate change in Madrid at the moment, are liars, charlatans, weavers of illusions, for they are the very people who instigate, manage and carry out wars, in all parts of the planet. If our aim and desire is to save the planet from unimaginable disaster, we have to take a stand against the various state apparatuses that perpetuate wars. Wars are not accidents or unavoidable circumstances, they are planned and executed by states, and these states are made up of people who have grasped power and use it perpetuate that power.

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Homelssnes Midst Opulence.

  

     So winter is biting, wrap up, keep warm and stay in if it gets worse. However, what do you do if you are homeless and sleeping rough. Doorways, bridges, benches and lanes don't have thermostats to adjust. It is absolutely criminal that a society can let people die on our streets simple because they don't have a roof over their heads. The figures for deaths from sleeping rough in the UK are a national disgrace, an indictment against the unjust, unequal system we tolerate.

       In 2018, 726 homeless people died in England and Wales, that's up 22% on 2017, and up 24% over the last 5 years. Data from the Museum of Homeless, states that a homeless person dies every 19 hours in the UK.

        From Wikipedia: Crisis estimates there are roughly 12,300 rough sleepers in the UK and also 12,000 people sleeping in sheds, bins, cars, tents and night busses. The figure is derived from research by Heriot-Watt University. Rough sleeping has risen by 98% since 2010, sleeping in tents and the like rose 103%. In England rough sleeping rose by 120%, in Wales it rose by 75% and in Scotland it fell by 5%. 

      Homelessness is the stepping stone to sleeping rough. Because of deliberate government policies, the number of homeless people is rising fast, so it follows that the number of rough sleepers will also continue to rise rapidly.

From Wikipedia: 

       The UK homeless charity Shelter put the 2017 figure for the whole of the UK's homeless at 300,000, including people in temporary accommodation.^[1][2] The charity, Crisis attributes rising homelessness to a shortage of social housing, housing benefits not covering private rents and there not being homeless prevention schemes for people leaving care.

        None of these figures are the result of unavoidable events, none are unforeseen accidents, these figures are the direct result of ideology, government decisions based on economics that suits big business, carried out by people who are immune to the devastation of their profit driven greed. We are the 6th richest country on the planet, we can afford the latest and most expensive weaponry, we can fund wars, and our lords and masters tour the world in luxury yachts, private jets, and live in opulent mansions, but we can't house our people. Don't you think that there is something wrong?

THE WARMTH OF A DREAM.

 
He lay in a dark doorway, dreamed of home,
night frost locked his joints
morning rain chilled the marrow of his bone.
In the dream there was a sister,
a pram in a garden, a crowd of youngsters
who called him “mister”, a time of little pain.
Are these youngsters the same young men, who
now laugh at him, throw beer cans,
piss on him as he lies drunk in some dark lane?
When was that first step down this slippery slope,
when was that first step to no forgiveness.
No will to rise to beg for food,
numbness kills the pain.
The dream brings a warmth that feels good,
dark fog shades out consciousness,
an ambulance carries off a body washed in rain.

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Do You Remember?

         Some will remember being there, some will regret missing it, and no doubt others will be glad they did miss it, but it helped shape that world we live in.

EVERYBODY IN THE PLACE

       An Incomplete History of Britain 1984-1992

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Magic In The Frost.

 

       The frost has taken a grip of Glasgow the last couple of days, but with frost can come magic. So I thought I would share a few magic photos taken in our front garden this afternoon by Stasia. Enjoy.

      Despite the magic of the frost, I still long for those warm sunny days that send you out on your bike, however, there is magic everywhere.

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History And Today.

      Back from my daughters wee weekend birthday bash in Auchterarer and had a wonderful time, I did manage to find the farm I was evacuated to during ww2. It brought back some wonderful memories. The place has changed, a lot of the outhouses have been demolished, but some of the outer walls are still standing. The actual farm house where my sisters and I lived is still there, looking all smart and well kept. Couldn't locate the small school that we walked to every morning, it may have been expanded or demolished. The town of Auchterared has massively expanded, and was very busy, it was rather difficult to cross the road. So very different from my time being there during the war, we only stayed in the town for a couple of months, and then back to Glasgow.

  

     During my short absence for my beloved city, there were two march/protests. Friday was the climate change protest held in George Square, from reports from my friends, it was not as well attended as one would have hoped, but a reasonable crowd. Never the less people are becoming more aware of the oncoming disaster unless we sort out our economic system away from capitalism towards a green and sustainable system that sees to the needs of all our people.

Thanks Keith for the photo:

       The other event I missed, was on Saturday, a Glasgow annual march and rally, where the citizens of Glasgow and further afield come together to make it quite clear, Glasgow is not a racists city. The last Saturday of ever November, the people of Glasgow gather with friends/acquaintances/comrades from surrounding areas to march from Glasgow Green to a rallying point where they hold a large meeting. The whole idea behind this event is to raise the fact that the people of Glasgow will not tolerate racism in any shape or form. 

      As always, a great turnout and a multitude of banners and flags proclaiming who they were and what they stand for. Again, well done Glasgow and friends.

Again thanks Keith for photos: 

A pop-up IWW stall at anti-racism march.

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Memories.

     My wee rant will be stilled over the next couple of days. It's my daughter's birthday and she and her family have booked a wee cottage in Auchterader in Perthshire for the weekend and we are invited.

 Auchterarder main street, the longest main street in Scotland.

   It will be interesting to see what memories it will bring back. During the war, WW2, not WW1 as some people might think when looking at me, I like many other school kids from Glasgow were "evacuated" further north away from the risk of bombing in the cities. I and two of my sisters ended up living on a farm just outside Auchterarder. For a wee Glesca lad it was a wonderful and very pleasant experience. The farmer treated me like a son and I have fond memories of those days.

     Will I find the farm I lived in? Will I find the house that was the school? Who knows, what has changed and what has remained, fascinating.

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Expropriation.

 

      Housing has become one of the many crises in our money orientated society. Our system has always pushed the illusion that we all should have a safe home to live and bring up our families. However for the ordinary people it is becoming obvious that it is indeed an illusion. We have always struggle to keep a roof over our heads, rents have always increased and sometimes shot up. Now however houses are financial assets to large financial institutions, things to be packaged and traded among the financial Mafia. There is no thought to what a house actually is, a place to have a decent life, a safe place to lay your head.

     A housing shortage keeps demand ahead of supply and therefore keeps prices rising, all music to the financier's ears. Rents keep out stripping income, homelessness keeps rising and the financial Mafia keep laughing all the way to the bank, to their luxury yacht, and to their opulent mansion. That's capitalism for you.

     It is encouraging to see that in some places people are taking action against this brutal exploitation of what is a human right, a safe place to lay your head. In Germany there is a movement to break this landlord rule over their lives. Others perhaps could take note and follow suit.

 This from Roar Magazine.

       Berlin’s spatial dynamics and organized working class show how to secure liveable spaces and combat the financial nature of housing: socialize them.

         Over the last few decades, housing in cities around the world has undergone unprecedented financialization and artificial speculation. Investors have never been richer. The worldwide value of the current real estate market is $217 trillion, 36 times worth the value of all the gold ever mined.

Profits from the commodification of the housing market have skyrocketed in step with the enclosure of spaces and the fixing of financial value to them. Living spaces are now complex financial products that can be packaged up into investment funds and swapped by companies across the world.

       As Raquel Rolnik, former special rapporteur to the UN on adequate housing, attests, “In the new political economy, centered around housing as a means of access to wealth, the home becomes a fixed capital asset whose value resides in its expectation of generating more value in the future, depending on the oscillations of the (always assumed) rise of real-estate prices.”

       Berlin has been the epicenter of the emerging struggle against capital, giving birth to a rebellious housing movement. A city-wide referendum is underway to expropriate “mega-landlords” with 3,000 apartments or more. If successful, the campaign could tip the scales away from speculation and essentially decommodify 250,000 apartments. In Berlin, tenants and housing activists are building upon shared struggle to break capital’s control over the home and democratize how and where we live.

Read the full article HERE: 

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Why Not A Poem.

     When all else fails, why not read or write a poem?

A Scarred Heart.

I tossed a heart at life

saw it dance in the morning sun

watched it through a field of nettles run

felt it warmed by passion's breath

heard it crack between love's teeth

was proud, as it turned its back on fear

sighed so when it it near' drowned in an anguished tear;

scarred and bleeding it came back, aged like wine,

with a quiet pride I said, "This is mine". 

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A Dehumanised Human, The Migrant.

       Migrants don't get the cover from our media that the used to get, does this mean all is quiet? Have people stopped fleeing poverty, destruction, death, persecution and started to accept their lot midst the storm of deprivation that surrounds them? No, it just means that they are no longer a item to be used to create a sensational article, so the media turns the focus elsewhere.
 

       When ever they do get coverage in the media, it is never the face of ordinary people. We are sometimes shown "camps", "detention centres", filthy living conditions, remember the "jungle". It was "dispersed", that doesn't mean they are all settled and contributing to the community. Most are probably in detention centres or sleeping rough. They are displayed as shadowy figures scurrying about in the dark, trying to get a free ride on a truck, or breaking through fences. No attempt is ever made to show them as ordinary people like you and I. Remember Bulligdon Club Boy Cameron, referring to them as a "swarm"? They are seen as an inconvenience to our business, they cause delays to our travel. Never are they ordinary people fleeing the cauldron of chaos and savagery spawned by the foreign policy of Western imperialism in their home region. Heaven forbid that we should see them as desperate human beings in need of help.
 

        How do people become "migrants". Migrants are never people giving up a decent life to face a long and hazardous journey that often ends in death, just for the hell of it. But as long as we have imperialist power blocks building borders to proclaim "their" territory, and battling to expand their power, we will have people fleeing in desperation. State borders and power blocks are an anathema to freedom and justice, a hindrance to a civilised world, a blight on the face of humanity. States, borders and power blocks have to be destroyed before we can call ourselves a civilised species. 

 

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Ethical Capitalism??

      There is at the moment a lot of talk about turning our economic system into ethical capitalism. Appealing to our governments and corporate bodies  to join the green and ethical revolution. What a naive fantasy, an illusion, a blind alley that will only end in total disillusionment for it followers, and disaster for the rest of us. Capitalism's foundations are exploitation, it is based on making money from somebody else's efforts, how do you make that ethical? Let's hope those pursuing that path wake up in time to see the folly of their ways, go for real change, a real ethical and green society and the total demolition of capitalism. Then perhaps we can start to build that ethical and green society freed from the cancer of profit and exploitation.

      As usual, calm words of common sense from one of my favourite sites, Not Buying Anything. 

         The term Ethical Consumerism is an oxymoron. It is a dream, a fantasy that business as usual types hope will extend current harmful ways of doing things. Don't be fooled by this industrial strength green washing. In order to have ethical consumerism we would have to have an ethical supply chain. First there would have to be ethical resource extraction. Mining companies would no longer be able to hire thugs to murder indigenous activists blocking the mining sites that are destroying their livelihoods. Fomenting violent coups in order to mine resources such as lithium would definitely be out.
      Then there would need to be ethical manufacturing. If made ethical, companies would have to put people and the planet before shareholder interests, and the selfish motives of CEOs. Retail interests would also have to act ethically. No more cooking the books, or fleecing workers to pad the bottom line.
       At every stage corporations would have to do the ethical thing and take responsibility for any damage done while conducting their business. A study done showed that most, if not all, corporations would go bankrupt if they had to pay for the damage they do.
       And what about marketing? Can you imagine ethical advertising? Neither can I. Advertisers wouldn't be able to lie anymore. Or manipulate us with things like "nudging" and neuromarketing manipulation. The entire industry would crumble when they could no longer manufacture desire through the use of nefarious methods of mind control.
      The very greenwashing that brings us something as outlandish as ethical consumerism would become illegal. Greenwashing, and ethical consumerism would disappear into a void of lying blackness, never to be seen again.
       Let us not forget the ethical banking system that would be needed to support all the other ethical endeavours. What would that even look like? No interest to be paid, or charged, because getting something without working for it is unethical. Also, no more money laundering, or other dirty tricks.
      Wouldn't we also need an ethical tax regime? Large corporations and the uber wealthy would actually have to pay their fair share in such a system. And to guide it all, we would need ethical governance at the local, state, and federal levels. How is that going these days? Is propaganda ethical? Is jailing whistleblowers ethical? Is interfering in the business of other countries ethical?
      At best, ethical consumerism would lead to the end of consumerism. And along the way it might take down capitalism and the state, too. There is nothing ethical or logical about the greed, waste, corruption, and selfishness of our current system.
         Let them fail in a creative destruction the likes of which the world has never seen. That would be a welcome outcome. Anything less is a fantastical dream, because current ways can not go on for much longer.

So, what colour would you like your dragon?

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Yes, Yellow Vests Are Still On The Streets.

      No, it hasn't gone away, one year on and the Yellow Vests are still on the streets of France in their thousands. Though you would never know this from our mainstream media. Of all the mass protests going on across the world, France is the nearest to us here in the UK. but we hear very little, if anything, about what is going on across the channel on the streets of France, but lots of what is going on in Hong Kong, Why?

       The Yellow Vest Movement, is planning a massive protest with strikes across France, on the 5th. December, they deserve our support and solidarity. What they are fighting against is the same problems we have here in the UK. deteriorating living standards, destruction of social services, increase in poverty and homelessness, gross inequality, evaporating working conditions and blatant corruption. All this midst unimaginable wealth, splattered around in the shape of luxury yachts, private jets, opulent mansions, limousines and bank accounts stashed away in tax havens. This is our world, it is only right that we should take to the streets to end this control of our lives by the greedy, wealthy and powerful.

      This from Acorn, Winter Oak: (For clarity I have posted the full article)

                  Thousands of protesters stream across the river, November 16th.

       “I am not ashamed to feel afraid from time to time. I keep on coming, but I understand those who don’t come any more because they’re too frightened”. So spoke Antoine, a 75-year-old Gilet Jaune marking the first anniversary of the Yellow Vest movement in the southern French city of Montpellier on Saturday November 16.
    This was just one of many protests and occupations across the country (notably in Paris) marking the birthday weekend and paving the way for a big day of strikes and actions on December 5. Antoine explained: “I’ve been here from day one and I’ve escaped police batons by a whisker on several occasions, even though my only weapons are my whistle and my gilet jaune!”
     The last of these alarming encounters had come just the previous week in Montpellier, he said, when the “forces of order” had attacked the demo right at the start. He had seen a riot policeman from the CRS bearing down on him, baton raised, but fortunately for the pensioner it was another protester who took the blow.
      I had already noticed that the majority of the demonstrators gathering in the Place de la Comédie were not wearing the trademark yellow singlets, in the stark contrast to the last time I reported from Montpellier, and Antoine said this was because of the massive police violence which protesters had been facing over the months. He was sure this was a deliberate strategy on behalf of the French state and felt that the previous week’s brutality was intended to dissuade people from taking part in the anniversary protest we were attending.
      Julian, an observer with the Ligue des Droits de l’Homme, a human rights organisation, confirmed to me that the previous Saturday’s police behaviour had been particularly bad. “There was kettling and teargassing right from the start, for the first time here and without there having been any violence”, he said. “The state really wanted to stop the demo. It was kettled for an hour and a half”. He said there were some police who did their job properly, but others who certainly didn’t, particularly the plain-clothed BAC (Brigade anti-criminalité) units and the CDI (Compagnie départmentale d’intervention) for the Hérault area.
     With this in mind, it was quite a relief when the demo, a couple of thousand strong, was able to form up and leave the elegant main city square without any visible police presence. To the sound of drums, music and singing, we headed away from the narrow medieval city streets where the police would have been expecting us. But as we surged in the bright Mediterranean sunshine across a bridge over the River Lez and into the suburbs, the seagulls circling overhead were accompanied by a police drone tracking our movements. The protest paused for a moment at Place Ernest Granier, blocking cars and trams on this important intersection and then moved off again.
      It was now clear that the target was the south coast motorway which runs through the outskirts of the city and, an hour after the march set off, it was met with a line of riot cops blocking the road ahead. Not content with merely blocking the way, they advanced towards us and soon were raining volleys of tear gas cannisters down on the retreating protesters. Quickly, a Plan B was hatched and hundreds of us streamed across a small park surrounded by housing estates to seek out another route to the motorway. “Joyeux anniversaire!” sang the Gilets Jaunes in celebration of a whole year of joyful rebellion across the whole of this country.
      Again, police vans turned up to block the way and more tear gas filled the air. Despite successful attempts to create traffic jams to halt the police’s progress, they caught up with us again a mile or so later and this time the protest was cut in two, with hundreds caught in a kettle. The front part of the march ploughed on, still with the idea of blocking the motorway in mind, and came across the Village Jaune, a birthday-weekend occupation of the roundabout at Prés d’Arènes. Here there were tents, a large gazebo, trestle tables, banners, yellow balloons and an astonishing level of honking and waving from passing motorists, confirming once again that this movement enjoys high levels of support from the French public, outside the dominant metropolitan elite.
      What to do next? Some wanted to keep going for the motorway, some seemed happy to be on the roundabout and others wanted to head back and help out the part of the march kettled by police. In the end, there was little choice. Police advanced at speed from two directions, the tear gas began coming again and protesters scattered.
      The first year of this revolt has been a story of non-stop police repression, combined with the relentless sneering hostility of the corporate media. Can it succeed in the face of all that? “Yes,” one Gilet Jaune, Ingrid, told me. “I am quite sure of that, otherwise we wouldn’t be here. We have to have hope. We want people to have a life, we want nobody to be sleeping on the streets, we want wealth to be shared. “The government will give way. We just don’t know when!” A fellow protester, Manon, said: “We’re still here because we have to keep on fighting. They are destroying everything.
      “We have to do this despite the police repression. We are fighting for another world and this is what we find ourselves faced with. It’s totalitarian neoliberalism. “We are fighting for people’s dignity. It is the same struggle everywhere, in Chile for example”. Manon said the strength of the Gilets Jaunes movement was the way it brought together people from all sorts of backgrounds. “We have created something completely different, a new generation of protesters. People have come together who would never have done so before”.
      Antoine, who had spoken to me about the way police violence was scaring some people away from protesting, said he didn’t think it would work in the long run. “I consider myself to be here as a representative of ten other people who have told me they are with me. Most people I know support the Gilets Jaunes. “The aspects that motivate me are social justice and human rights, which exist less and less from one Saturday to the next. “The Gilets Jaunes are much more representative of society as a whole than other movements I have been involved in, such as the trade unions”. There were even people involved who considered themselves to be on the political right, he said, although he questioned whether this self-designation was accurate, given the nature of the cause they supported.
     “The real right is that infernal couple of Macron and Le Pen”, he added, noting that Marine Le Pen, the far-right leader, had abandoned her early pretence of supporting the Gilets Jaunes and had since reverted to form by allying herself with a fascistic police trade union which defends the use of violence againt protesters. Asked whether the movement could succeed, he insisted: “It has already succeeded, by bringing together people from very different backgrounds, which is something in itself”. This last point was reinforced by my conversation with Damien, a 74-year-old who explained that he was a retired policeman who had once been part of the notorious BAC units which have been in the forefront of the recent repression. He said former colleagues he had spoken to were now more or less just going through the motions, doing the minimum their job required. Damien said he was involved from the very start of the Gilets Jaunes revolt. “I’ve come back for the anniversary,” he added. “I’m still very unhappy about what I’m seeing”. Macron had managed to hold on to power by dividing people, he said, and by buying their collaboration. “Personally, I have nothing to complain about because I have got a good pension. But I can’t stand seeing people working all their lives and having nothing to show from it. “I am doing this for everyone. This is a movement which came from below. It was a little revolution and it needs to keep going, starting with December 5”.

More photos HERE:

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