Tomorrow's World!!

      I penned this little depressing piece a good few years ago, but now feel it is more relevant today than it was when I first scribbled it down on paper. Of course we know the answer to our problems, get rid of the root cause, capitalism. You know it makes sense, your kids lives depend on it.  

Tomorrow’s World!

See the fat cat’s grinning smile

as Corporate Capitalism runs amok,

Chasing profit as it goes

firing millions of ordinary folk.

Raping and polluting land after land,

starting bloody wars.

Toxic waste, sweat shop wages

and oil covered sea shores.

Where have all the flowers gone

beneath this ozone free sky?

To join the birds, to join the fox

on yonder plutonium field to die.

Mercury fish, strontium lamb

trees that never show a leaf,

radio active beaches, toxic streams

good lean BSE-antibiotic beef.

In a world of epidemic, plague and famine

it’s bottled water and chemical food.

Of course, it’s all tested on rats and mice

so you know its got to be good.

Beneath a sky that’s always black,

hurricane winds and endless drought,

its oxygen masks for the toxic air,

corporate profit’s what its all about.

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The Crowd Is Silent.

      Most of us will remember 2008, the "crash" when the state rushed to bail out the banks with billions, across the world it was trillions. Afterwords there was anger from the public that the state could come up with those wagon loads of cash to help the banks get over their gambling debts and push us into years of austerity.

    Since then all has not been going well for the capitalist system. over the last 4/5 years or so the growth has been creaking to a halt, the bond market has almost died, and relations between the various power blocks has strained to breaking point, and most wise pundits agree, another, much bigger crash looms large. Across the planet people are on the streets in anger at the injustice, inequality, corruption and abject poverty produced by this economic system.  Barely a country doesn't have mass protests flaring up on their patch. 

     Could the states bail out the system with public money again, in such a climate of anger and open protest and rebellion? It would be quite a risk for the powers that be. Quite a problem to be faced.

     I have no idea how covid19 started, or where it came from, and I am no conspiracy theorist, but for our lords and masters it couldn't have come at a better time, and I have no doubt they will exploit it to their advantage to the utmost. With one fell swoop they have shut down the streets, Hong Kong streets are quiet, where are the Yellow Vests, the heat of the Chilean rebellion seems to have gone cool, Prague has lost its mass protests, Extinction Rebellion is extinct. What is more, the public, instead of being angry at another bailout, are demanding that the state pours in billions of pounds into businesses to help save jobs. Yes, companies will go bust, but that 1% in the billionaires club, will gobble up any surplus demand that appears after the dust has settled.

     However you and I will face the same call from the financial Mafia, the country's debt is too high and governments will need to take urgent action to reduce that debt. That means once again, you and I will face the raw teeth of mega austerity, all to save the economy. Which no doubt will plunder its way on until the next crash, or until we finally dismantle this whole plunder charade of the parasite class, and replace it with a society based on mutual aid, co-operation, sustainability and free from the profit motive. A society that sees to the needs of all our people, not just to the pampered privileged 1%.

Champs-Élysées Paris, March 19, 2020. Where are the Yellow Vests?

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Janetta McGinn

      It is with deep sadness that we learn of the death of Glasgow stalwart and comrade, Janetta McGinn.

A Farewll

Another comrade leaves the field of battle
Another comrade who always stood tall
Another of our warriors has left the field
Another brick has fallen from our wall

Who will step forward to take her place
Who among us will rise to her just call
Who will step forward to fill the gap
Who has the courage to replace her fall

The following from her family on Facebook post:

       Our much loved mum, Janetta McGinn died peacefully this morning in our home in Spain. She was 89 years old and she kicked ass for every day of her life. She was born with a fighting spirit that saw her lead campaigns and fight for socialism and justice all her life. She was never ever sentimental and wouldn’t like me posting this sweet love song that my dad wrote for her when they were young. I sang it to her in her last moments. With my mum you can kiss goodbye to a generation of good people that stood up for others. She never lost her hope for a better society, and she will be missed by many people that she helped throughout her life. We hope to have a funeral today in Spain and say farewell to her in another time in Scotland, with Arthur Johnstone singing and the Internationale playing, as she had wished.

Matt McGinn

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Our Rights.

       No doubt we all have our opinions on what is happening to our society and why, what should be done and what shouldn't be done, also when does our rights need to be sacrificed and why. Also we need to ensure that whatever rights we lose, must be restored as their suspension is no longer required. The state has a nasty habit of stating it is necessary to curtail our  rights because of this and that, but failing to return those rights when the "emergency" is over. The present situation gives the state complete control over all aspects of our lives, even to when we can leave our home, where we can go and what we can do. Surely an unacceptable situation to be tolerated for any length of time in any society. Who will be the ones to say when we have our rights restored, obviously it must be us, the people, we can't trust the state as its aims are always control of the population. Be prudent, but be vigilant. 

 This from Act For Freedom Now:

France: “The Worst Virus Ever… Authority…”

About COVID-19, authoritarian delusions and the shitty world we live in…        The macabre death toll increases day by day, and in the imagination of each person takes place the sensation, at first vague then always a little stronger, of being more and more threatened by the Great Grim Reaper. For hundreds of millions of human beings, this imagining is certainly not new, that of death that can strike anyone, at any time. Just think of the damned of the earth sacrificed daily on the altar of power and profit: those who survive under State bombs, in the midst of endless wars over oil or mineral resources, those who coexist with invisible radioactivity caused by accidents or nuclear waste, those who cross the Sahel or the Mediterranean and are locked up in concentration camps for migrants, those who are reduced to pieces of flesh and bone by the misery and devastation caused by agro-industry and the extraction of raw materials…And even in the lands that we inhabit, in times not very long ago, we have known the terror of butcheries on an industrial scale, bombings, extermination camps… always created by the thirst for power and wealth of States and bosses, always faithfully set up by armies and police.
     But no, today we are not talking about those desperate faces that we constantly try to keep away from our eyes and minds, nor about a history that is now past. Terror is beginning to spread in the cradle of the kingdom of commodities and social peace, and it is caused by a virus that can attack anyone – although of course, not everyone will have the same opportunities to cure themselves. And in a world where people are used to lying, where the use of figures and statistics are one of the main means of media manipulation, in a world where truth is constantly hidden, mutilated and transformed by the media, we can only try to put the pieces together, to formulate hypotheses, try to resist this mobilization of minds and ask the question: where are we going?
      In China, and then in Italy, new repressive measures were imposed daily, until they reached the limit that no State had dared to cross yet: the ban on leaving one’s home and on moving around the country except for work reasons or absolute necessity. Not even during war would there have been consent to the acceptance of such far-reaching measures by the population. But this new totalitarianism has the face of Science and Medicine, of neutrality and common interest. Pharmaceutical, telecommunications and new technology will find the solution. In China, the use of geo-locating to report any movement and any case of infection, facial recognition and e-commerce are helping the State to ensure that every citizen is locked up in their own home. Today, the same states that have based their existence on confinement, war and massacre, including of their own population, impose their “protection” through prohibitions, borders and armed men. How long will this situation last? Two weeks, a month, a year? We know that the state of emergency declared after the attacks [translation note: originally imposed in 2015 following the Islamic State terrorist attacks in Paris] has been extended several times, until the emergency measures were definitively incorporated into French law. What will this new emergency lead us to?
       A virus is a biological phenomenon, but the context in which it originates, its spread and its management are social issues. In the Amazon, Africa or Oceania, entire populations have been exterminated by viruses brought by settlers, while the settlers imposed their domination and way of life. In the rain forests, armies, merchants and missionaries pushed the people – who previously occupied the territory in a scattered way – to concentrate around schools, in villages or towns. This greatly facilitated the spread of devastating epidemics. Today, half the world’s population lives in cities, around the temples of Capital, and feeds on the products of agro-industry and intensive livestock farming. Any possibility of self-sufficiency has been eradicated by States and the market economy. And as long as the mega-machine of domination continues to function, human existence will be increasingly subjected to disasters that are not very “natural”, and to a management of them that will deprive us of any possibility of determining our lives.
        Unless… in an increasingly dark and disturbing scenario, human beings decide to live as free beings, even if it is just for a few hours, days or years before the end – rather than shutting themselves up in a “natural” world, of fear and submission. As did the prisoners in 30 Italian prisons, faced with the ban on visiting rooms imposed because of Covid-19, by revolting against their jailers, demolishing and burning their cages and, in some cases, managing to escape.

NOW AND ALWAYS FIGHTING FOR FREEDOM!
[Originally published on Nantes Indymedia on 13.03.2020]

via Sans Attendre Demain, translated into English by Anarchists Worldwide

Read the original French script HERE:   

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Economy Before People.

 

      Ever since I could read newspapers or listen to the radio, yes in my youth that was where you look for what as happening, I have listened and read stories of child poverty and homelessness. There was never enough money to sort these problems out, though each consecutive government promised to eradicate both, but only threw a pittance of the nation budget at these problems, both problems still exist to this day.

    Then  2008 comes along, and we have billions to throw at the banks, by simply making phony money and plundering the public purse. Today we are faced with Covid19, and the immanent collapse of large and small companies, and once again the phony money appears and the public purse gets plundered. We must save the economy no matter the cost but have to be prudent with the health and well-being of the public.

       The Chancellor has given a £12 billion package to help businesses, and is talking of more, but friends of the corporate pirates say, that's not enough and are saying that the government, (you and I) should under-write bank loans to businesses. So let them borrow to keep their fat salaries and luxury yachts and if they can't pay the loan back, well that's OK, we the Joe public will see that the banks get their money. Money for homelessness and child poverty, well we can't afford that, we have to be prudent and live within our means!!

     That's basically how the system works, the state works as a guarantor for big business, but can never have enough money to eradicate  the problems of the ordinary people, problems caused by the processes that keep capitalism alive, exploitation of the people. Don't worry about the debt when bailing out big business, we the tax payers will handle that.

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Phony Money.

 

       There are some nasty words being mentioned in the USA, and it is not just because of covid 19, but the economic crash that will follow, which incidentally, has been brewing for a few years now. Those nasty words are "nationalisation" and "socialism", and what is more, they are not being mentioned in a derogatory manner, but as solutions to the problems the American people are facing and will face in the coming future. Truth being that we will all be facing the same problems in the coming years. We should be preparing in our communities now, not waiting until it hits us.

 This from Dr. Paul Craig Roberts:

        Economist Michael Hudson has for many decades studied the use of debt-forgiveness to restart economies killed by debt burdens. Debt forgiveness for corporations has a different implication than debt forgiveness for individuals. For corporations, forgiving debts lets those who financialized and indebted the economy and the population off the hook. To avoid rewarding them for the catastrophe they produced and to prevent widespread public outcry and distrust, nationalization is implied for insolvent companies and banks.
     Nationalization would be limited to insolvent companies and financial institutions and doesn’t mean that there would be no private companies or businesses. Additional nationalization could be used to prevent strategic companies from substituting their interests for national interests, which they do when they move American jobs and factories offshore. Pharmaceuticals could be nationalized along with health care. Energy which often sacrifices the environment to its profits could be considered for nationalization. A successful society has to have more driving it than private profit.
       For most Americans nationalization is a dirty word, but it has many benefits. For example, a national health care system reduces costs tremendously by taking profits out of the system. Additionally, nationalized pharmaceutical companies could be made more focused on research and cures than on profit avenues. Everyone knows how Big Pharma influences medical schools and medical practice in line with Big Pharma’s approach. A more open-minded approach to medicine would be beneficial.
        Socialist is another American dirty word, one that is being used against Bernie Sanders. I have not turned into a socialist overnight. I am simply thinking outloud. How can the economy recover when the population and corporations are smothered by debt? Debt forgiveness is the only way out of this debt suffocation. Can debts be forgiven without nationalization? Not without a huge giveaway to financial mangers and Wall Street. It is the members of the “one percent” who have received 95% of the increase in us income and wealth since 2008. Do we want to reward them for smothering the economy with debt by bailing them out without nationalizing them?
      The combination of an economy covered in debt and an unprotected population is clearly revolutionary. Do we have leadership capable of breaking out of interest group politics and ruling ideologies in order to save our society and put it on a more sustainable basis?
        Or will the economic hardships be blamed on the virus, the catalyst that ignited the debt timebomb? 

And a wee look at how the system works:



"When will we ever learn----"

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Concrete Desert.

      Despite the system trying hard to set up a society where everything is controlled, the city offers up many possibilities of claiming free spaces, where we can function freely with our own desires, mutual aid and respect. All it requires is a little bit of organisation, imagination and ingenuity, and I'm sure we the general public have these in abundance, if we care to use them. The publication, "A Sea of Possibilities in the Concrete Desert" is along these lines and worth a read. 

The following from Act For Freedom Now:

 

Brochure from squatters and resisting spots in Madrid, Athens and Berlin
      ‘A sea of possibilities in the concrete desert: Territory, city and insurrection’ – Madrid & Berlin
       This publication is a compilation of texts that emerges from the discussions and the work we started in the wake of the event “A sea of possibilities in the concrete desert. Territory, city and insurrection” that happened in Madrid during June 2019 in Local Emboscada and Local Anarquista Motin. Is the product of a joint work of some comrades from Berlin and Madrid, that does not finish with the publication of this pages and pretends to extend the discussion that we have shared.
      What does it mean to take territory against the State and Capitalism? How can we take it through our struggles? How does it work domination in the territories that we inhabit? Does it mean our way of living in a territory a conflict with the system?

https://laemboscada.noblogs.or

Concrete-desert.cleaned

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Important Information.

       Just when we need it most, at last, some decent information from a caring government.


     There isn't anything I can add to this info, except endorse it fully.

 Trump's strategy to combat the coronavirus,   pray.

+

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State Of Emergency?

 

       At the risk of information overload, here are some more thoughts on the coronavirus, the state's response and the state of emergency. I still maintain that it is up to the communities to organise and protect themselves in a rational and humane manner, rather than wait for the state's instructions and to quietly follow. Yi pays yir money an yi takes yir pick.

 This from Anarchist News:

Anarchists in Italy Report on the Spread of the Virus and the Quarantine        From one side, our lives are threatened by a new virus; from the other side, our freedom is menaced by nationalists and authoritarians intent on using this opportunity to set new precedents for state intervention and control. If we accept this dichotomy—between life and freedom—we will continue paying the price long after this particular pandemic has passed. In fact, each is bound up in the other, dependent upon the other. In the following report, our comrades in Italy describe the conditions prevailing there, the causes of the escalating crisis, and the ways that the Italian government has taken advantage of the situation to consolidate power in ways that will only exacerbate future crises.
       At this point, the strategy of the authorities is not aimed at protecting people from the virus so much as controlling the pace at which it spreads so that it doesn’t overwhelm their infrastructure. Crisis management is the order of the day, as in so many other aspects of our lives. Our rulers don’t intend to preserve the lives of everyone—they already wrote off concern for the destitute long before this crisis began. Rather, they are determined to preserve the current structure of society and their perceived legitimacy.

Continue reading:

This from Act For Freedom Now:

     INTERRUPTIONS …         There is nothing new about social life taking place at a distance. For a long time now people have been persuaded that the best way to communicate and relate is through the use of a device. Prostheses of the human being, the smartphone and its like, have transformed the way of being together, of being informed, learning, communicating, writing and reading.
      The next step is the robotization of living, technique pervading every place, every aspect of daily life. An overcoming of nature and the natural in favour of artificial beings and places. Such a scenario needs no social life, it does not need relationships, feelings, thoughts, it only needs order, discipline, regulation, machines. Maybe Dominion is trying to take a step forward and use a health problem, the spread of a virus, to reach generalized regimentation at least, the rest will then take care of itself. Science fiction comes to mind, but States have centuries old instruments to draw on without having to resort to the unknown.
       The social distancing imposed by laws prohibiting kisses and hugs and the suppression of most social activities, recalls states of emergency in which the rules of social life are imposed and must be obeyed so as not to run up against getting charged or being arrested. And indeed the establishment of red zones and checkpoints, limitation of freedom of circulation, obligation of home isolation for those coming from areas considered infected controlled by police, but above all the ban on gatherings, i.e. public meetings, is the police management of a health problem. Not surprisingly it is foreseen in the ten rules recommended by the Italian State to avoid the spread of the virus that in case of fever the carabinieri must the first to be contacted. But states of emergency are also the measures provided for in situations of conflict or insurrection, as happened recently in Chile.

Continue reading:

This from 325:

Coronavirus, Agribusiness and the State of Emergency’ by Silvia Ribeiro
       Much is said about the Covid-19 coronavirus, and yet very little. There are fundamental aspects that remain in the shadows. I want to name some of these, different but complementary.
      The first refers to the perverse mechanisms of capitalism to hide the true causes of the problem so as not to do anything about them, because it affects their interests, but it does deal with the apparent cure for the symptoms. Meanwhile, the State spends enormous public resources on prevention, containment and treatment measures, which do not act on the causes either, so this way of facing problems becomes a captive business for transnational companies, for example, with vaccines and medicines.
      The dominant reference to viruses and bacteria is as if they were exclusively harmful organisms that must be eliminated. A war-like approach prevails, as in so many other aspects of capitalism’s relationship with nature. However, due to the ability of viruses to jump between species, viruses and bacteria are a fundamental part of the coevolution and adaptation of living beings, as well as their balance with the environment and their health, including humans.

Continue reading: 

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Coronavirus And Prisons.

        While all of us try to take what precautions we can in protecting ourselves, friends, family and neighbours from this Coronavirus attack, perhaps we should also be thinking of those who can do nothing to protect themselves from this pandemic.
      I am of course talking about those individuals locked up in the state's cages of repression, the prisons. Most prisons are overcrowded, conditions are far from perfect hygiene, due to lack of facilities, ideal conditions for the spread of infections, with the individual having no control over their conditions. Prison guards live in the outside society and make constant contact with the prisoners. They could be carriers of the infection into an environment that has no way of protecting itself.
      What is being done to protect these individuals? Absolutely nothing, and the prisoners and their families are well aware of this lack of assistance for this section of society in our community.
      In certain cases the prisoners themselves are trying to draw attention to their precarious, and yet avoidable situation, and are rebelling against this gross injustice. We owe them our full support and solidarity, they are being treated worse than animals. They are being contained in unacceptable conditions no matter the dangers to their health and well-being. Prisons in normal times are an abomination, in times such as this, they are a callous, vindictive gross injustice and totally inhuman and unacceptable institutions.

This from Anarchists Worldwide:

For the spread of the revolt!
     About the mutinies in Italian prisons against the state’s measures against Coronavirus       For several weeks now the Italian government has been testing increasingly radical measures to restrict freedom in order to manage the Coronavirus pandemic.
       While isolation and control are becoming increasingly harsh on the outside, the situation is becoming unbearable on the inside. For two weeks now, the visits, work and recreational activities have been restricted. In recent days, people who were on day-release are no longer allowed to go out and special permissions are no longer allowed. This also means the deprivation of access to basic necessities and goods (food, clean clothing, money…).
      Following these decisions, the first mutinies broke out on Saturday the 7th of March, spreading to around thirty prisons in the space of two days throughout Italy.
       The methods of revolt are simple and effective. From the north to the south of Italy, fire spread from one prison to another, prisoners climbed to the rooftops shouting “freedom and amnesty!”, prison guards were taken hostage, bars were twisted, official documents were reduced to ashes. There are no more traces of law enforcement officers in some wings of the buildings. In Modena, the entire prison closed down because the revolts made it unusable.
The figures that are beginning to circulate speak of more than a hundred escaped prisoners. We wish them good luck!      As the smoke rises high in the sky, relatives and people in solidarity gather at the bottom of the prisons, either to shout their support or to organize street blockades, thus blocking the arrival of the police, the GOM (prison police) and the military.
     The revolt is intense, the repression is ferocious: water and electricity cuts, helicopters flying over the prison walls, police violence…There are at least 12 dead in several prisons. The bourgeois press and the prison administration speak of overdoses following the looting of infirmaries, however relatives of the prisoners [gathered in solidarity outside the prisons] have heard gunshots. And several prisoners are hospitalized in intensive care.
     At the same time, politicians of all kinds are trying to pacify by offering access to telephones or Skype, while asking families to calm their loved ones…but it hasn’t been enough to break their determination.
We send them all our solidarity!
     We don’t need to make analyses of the current revolts, they speak for themselves of the attack on a system that locks up and controls through fear and threats.
       By relying on an urgency and a generalized fear that they have helped to create, the different states place themselves as saviours in the face of the catastrophe and impose their logic and their measures on us. They compete in inventiveness to deepen control and surveillance and experiment with different tools for population management.
       Moreover, France is talking about setting up a specific system for prisons in the coming days.
       Apart from these situations, the reality of prisons is always disgusting.
Faced with imprisonment, there are always good reasons to revolt!

Coronavirus or not, in Italy or elsewhere, fire to all prisons!

March 11th, 2020.
[Originally published on Nantes Indymedia on 12.03.2020]

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Coronavirus V The Economy!!

 

        Do you have confidence in the UK Governments approach to the coronavirus and the protection of the people? Or do you believe that the government has other factors that it puts before the health and welfare of the people? Could it be, that thing that is treated as an entity above human value, "the economy" is being protected at the risk to human well-being? Big money must be protected as much as possible to unsure they hold onto their power and privileges. Is there a policy of doing what they can for the people with the minimal damage to the "economy"? After all it is a capitalist economy and that must be protected at all costs.

 I like the quote from Moon of Alabama

Our dear leaders are following the four stage strategy (vid):

In stage one: we say "Nothing is going to happen".

Stage two: we say something may be going to happen but we should do nothing about it.

Stage three: We say maybe we should do something about it but there is nothing we can do.

Stage four: We say maybe there was something that could have been done but it is too late now.

      It is not as if they didn't have fore knowledge of this virus, after all it was in early January that Chine and the world became aware of what was happening. Again a quote from Moon of Alabama

       Yascha Mounk follows my argument and gives a reasonable advice on what we can do to make this as pandemic as survivable as possible. Shut everything down that can be shut down. Increase social distance as much as possible. Avoid all live social contacts wherever possible. Do it NOW!
      One Tomas Pueyo explains in detail why we must do this immediately. (I checked his numbers and find no faults with them.)
       Wuhan city in China was shut down on January 23. Twelve days later, on February 4, the newly confirmed cases in Wuhan reached their peak and declined from there. This gives us the time delay from an infection to become a diagnosed and counted case as the shutdown increased the social distance and lowered the number of new infections.
      Each newly infected person itself infected two or three other persons. The growth rate was thereby exponential until they shut the city down. Had the city not been shut down on January 23 the numbers beyond February 4 would have gone higher and higher. That will happen in our cities and countries as our authorities are unwilling or unable to act as early and as decisively as the Chinese authorities did.
      Two days later, authorities shut down Wuhan. At that point, the number of diagnosed daily new cases was ~400. Note that number: they made a decision to close the city with just 400 new cases in a day. In reality, there were 2,500 new cases that day, but they didn’t know that.
      This means that we must all act now because today the numbers in Washington state and elsewhere are already exploding even though we do not know yet how high they really are. Those people who do get infected today will only become official cases twelve or more days from now when they will (hopefully) be diagnosed and counted.
       The key thing to do now is 'social distancing'. As our governments do not act decisively to achieve that it is our personal responsibility to do that ourselves. Everyone must do this to the best of their abilities.
       These numbers are not fantasies but today's reality:

       So there you have it, one set of opinions, our question should be, were our governments thinking first and foremost of the health and well-being of the people or did they have other concerns in mind, the economy, for example, when they embarked on their "plan" or did our capitalist masters abandon their capitalist beliefs and throw everything they could at the protection the people at all costs, or was there just a lack of any kind of plan?

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Coronavirus.

         I haven't posted anything about the coronavirus, reason being I don't know enough about the situation to make any real input. However I think this quote from 325 is worth repeating.

From 325:

      From my perspective, the responses of both the American and Chinese governments have been pretty much the same: pretend that the problem isn’t so bad and that there are systems in place to deal with it, use the epidemic to stomp on basic human rights such as being detained without trial and freedom of movement and accuse anyone trying to highlight the seriousness of the epidemic of being part of a conspiracy or plotting to bring down the government. The difference between the Americans and the Chinese is that the Chinese don’t pretend to be a democracy that pays lip service to the notion of being a government “of the people, for the people and by the people”.
     What people need is accurate, openly available and reliable information about what is going on so that we, as individuals and local communities, can take the necessary steps to protect each other. That means paying attention to the people who have expert knowledge about flu epidemics. It means not listening to some ignorant pissant sitting behind their computer peddling the latest piece of crap from the 8chan website, an anti-vaccination website or from a President who thinks the answer to dealing with an epidemic that has killed over 33,000 people worldwide is to hold a prayer meeting and to blame his opponents. It means using science and sense, not stupidity and authoritarianism.

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Fascists And Migrants.

      The situation at the European border in Greece has become a war zone. Turkey, to push for support from NATO and the EU has started to use migrants as bargaining chips to further its land grab into Syria. Migrants in the eyes of the state are not people in desperate need but a thing they see as a problem or a group that can be used to build on their poisonous patriotism.

     Meanwhile as the various states procrastinate on this flow of humanity, vigilante fascist groups do their dirty work for them. Along the Greek/Turkish border these right wing thugs roam the area hunting migrants, terrorising them and subjecting them to brutal beatings, while the authorities turn a blind eye. On the Greek island of Lesbos, these fascists have gather from other countries to to roam freely attacking anybody that's doesn't speak Greek. 

     all this goes on uninterrupted  under the surveillance system of the state. This freedom granted to the fascist groups to use migrants as prey for their demented hunting forays, tells you the true nature of the states that try to control ever aspect of our lives. As long as states exist, freedom will struggle for survival.

This from Act For Freedom Now:

 

      Athens, Greece: On Saturday, March 7, 2020, anarchists and antifascists, anti-authoritarians marched through the downtown of Athens in solidarity with the migrants struggle, against all detention centers, against fences and borders. Against war, nationalism and fascism.

Greek vigilante groups in Evros are roaming freely the borders, terrorising and arresting groups of migrants that manage to find a hole through the fence, while in the greek island of Lesbos vigilante groups act like a mob that has set check points at the edges and the centre of Mytilene town (the capital of Lesbos island), verbally abuse any migrants in dinghies that reach the greek shores, attack and terrorize volunteers or NGO workers aiding migrants, smash their cars or violently beat them. Fascists from several european countries have flown to Lesbos island to take part in the mob that attacks anyone not speaking greek, migrants, NGO workers or tourists.

A school for refugee children has also been burnt to the ground by this right wing racist mob. Tourists, volunteers and NGO workers are fleeing Lesbos island because it’s not safe for anyone not speaking greek, except of foreign fascists and nationalists aiding the vigilante mobs.
        And while you would think that these despicable acts would be condoned by the majority at least of the people, the contrary happens. Racists, nationalists, conservative, neoliberals, right wingers, social democrats, even some self-proclaimed lefties, have united in a front, backing these acts or turning a blind eye on them.
      And when you hear their narrative, that the migrants are invaders and not people and that this is a war on Europe, you can’t help but remember another time when people were treating others like they were inferior, like the enemy and were applauding the attacks on people based on different characteristics and were applauding the burning of the enemy’s schools, shops and books, and they were laughing with the gassing of the “enemy” and were applauding the deaths of the “other” and then you remember this:
“First they came for the Communists, and I did not speak out, because I was not a Communist.
Then they came for the Socialists, and I did not speak out, because I was not a Socialist.
Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out, because I was not a trade unionist.
Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out, because I was not a Jew.
Then they came for me, and there was no one left to speak out for me”.
     On Saturday, March 7, 2020, thousands of anarchists, anti-authoritarians, antifascists and people in solidarity in Athens, Greece, did exactly that. They chose to speak out, in defence of humanity against fascism, in defence of a world without borders, in defence of those who don’t have a voice because it has been choked by the teargas, the guns and the barbed wire fences at the edge of “Fortress Europe”.
athens.indymedia

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The Desire To Be Free.

      We all know prisons are meant to intimidate, subdue and repress individuals, to turn them into subservient subjects of the state, and also as a warning to us all, obey or else. However, the human spirit being what it is, the opposite frequently happens, instead of being subdued and subservient, a fire of anger builds up and often displays itself in open rebellion. The states response to this is always savage and brutal and the incarcerated must be brought under the control of the system, no matter the human cost. Despite this brutal state response, prison riots have been part and parcel of the inhumane prison system since the birth of these cages of repression.

        The most recent display of this righteous anger and rebellion in prisons and the state's brutal response, is still to a degree on going in Italy, in St Anna prison in Modena.

      This report from Act For Freedom Now:

      A revolt broke out today, March 8 2020 in the early afternoon, in St Anna prison in Modena.
        The fact was clearly seen from outside as three columns of smoke rose from the wings of the structure, as well as the significant coming and going of guards, and the presence of a police helicopter guarding the area.
Various relatives of the prisoners gathered, those in solidarity and other spectators from the surrounding area, seeing the GOM arriving in antiriot gear and distinctly hearing some shots.
       After some attempt at removal by the police, people still gathered in front of the prison, where vans, ambulances and prison minibuses were seen parading back and forth.
       At some point, after several requests for news by relatives, the Major of the Prison and an emissary from the prison director came out and told them that during negotiations with the rebels barricaded in the wing they had given them back their mobile phones in order to let them call the their loved ones. So they asked family members to answer the phone and convince them to come out.
      Towards the evening, in front of a large antiriot contingent, cops emerged escorting some of the prisoners, striking them while handcuffed; some were on stretchers.
       Already around that time some had escorted a bag containing a dead body.
It was possible to talk to some of the prisoners in the wing next to the field during the events, they gave news of transfers and that they would be the last to be transferred from the section, saying that they were being heavily beaten.
80 people have been transferred, apparently to Bologna, Reggio Emilia, Parma, Piacenza and Ascoli by at least four prison buses and other vans.
       The media of the regime reconstructed the affair as having started off from the workers’ section then spread throughout the whole prison where the prisoners would have burned mattresses and barricaded themselves in at least one of the structures, and apparently from some video seen taking possession of the armoury.
      Three people died during the revolt. Their identity and the exact cause of death has not been released. Another two are in intensive care.
     There is talk of serious damage to the structure and the destruction of documents. Important causes of the outbreak of the revolt would be the shutdown of visits and lack of mediators due to THE virus, as well as health safety inside the structure.
       Late in the evening there seemed to be rebels barricaded; THE SITUATION IS EVOLVING CONTINUALLY.

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Anarchists First!!

 

       Prisons, by themselves, are barbaric institutions of state repression, no matter the treatment the inmates receive. However it is within these institutions that the state sinks to the lowest level of depravity, callous cruelty and inhumanity. Those incarcerated in these swamps of inhumanity, see their very basic human rights abandoned at the whim of the state's mercenaries. Inside these state repression units, the normal rules of humanity no longer apply, you are there to be made an example of, you are used to deter you and others from any form of resistance to the state's control. Anyone who finds themselves enmeshed in this vicious inhuman system deserves all the solidarity and support that we can muster. At the moment it seems that, in many countries, anarchists are at the sharp end of this savage state treatment. "First they came for the anarchists---". Freedom can only rise when prisons crumble.

This from 325: 

Urgent news about comrade Ilya Romanov (Russia)

March 8th, 2020

IT/FR

       On February 18 and 19, there were rallies in Moscow in solidarity with Ilya Romanov, who, at the moment, is locked up in a penal colony in Mordovia [Eastern European Russia, near Nizhny Novgorod; NdAtt.]. In October 2019, Ilya had a stroke. Since then, he has been locked up in the penal colony hospital, a facility which is not suitable for treating his condition, which is still very critical. Indeed, the comrade is partially paralyzed (apparently half of his body is paralyzed). Ilya still has difficulty speaking, eating and being independent, even in the smallest gestures of everyday life. Ilya’s family and his lawyers were made aware of the stroke days after it happened, and the neurologist’s visit took place only two and a half weeks afterwards. He is not in any rehabilitation process and all the lawyers’ requests to have him transferred to a suitable hospital have been rejected; for weeks neither his family nor his lawyers were able to meet him or understand the gravity of his situation. It was not until November 28 that one of his lawyers was able to meet Ilya; The lawyer said that Ilya is paralyzed down one half of his body and cannot speak. He urgently needs the help of a speech therapist, as well as other doctors, but he is not allowed any specialist. Ilya is left to himself in a bed on a ward where he is locked up and he has been fed porridge for months. His neighbors on his ward in adjacent beds said that even the nurses in the ward never take care of him, but the inmates working there do it. On December 4, the medical commission of the penal colony again gave a negative opinion regarding Ilya’s transfer to a suitable hospital, because his condition did not seem serious enough to be incompatible with detention (!!!). The lawyers continue to use the legal channels and apparently his family has called to the European Commission of Human Rights.

     For those who do not know Ilya, some words on his journey: Ilya has participated in anarchist actions and demonstrations since the end of the 1980s. In 2002, he was arrested in Ukraine, accused of arms trafficking and of terrorism, as well as the preparation of an explosive device which was to be placed in front of a building of the Ukrainian secret services, to protest against the violent expulsion of a rally, Place Maidan, carried out by the police in October 2002. For this, Ilya was sentenced to 10 years in jail. On his release in 2013, he returned to Russia and had an accident during the manufacture of a firecracker [according to other sources, the device exploded while he placed it in front of a recruitment office of the army, in Nizhny Novgorod, October 26, 2013 ; NdAtt.]. Because of this accident, he had his left hand amputated and was condemned to another 10 years in prison, for terrorism, the sentence of which was transformed into nine years in a penal colony. He still has six years to serve. The way Ilya was treated is just one more sign of the brutality the Russian state has been using lately against anarchists. Ilya is a comrade who has never compromised with power, and that’s why they want to silence him.

Those who would like to help him and his relatives will find below the account number of his ex-wife and companion Larisa Romanova, as well as the Paypal account open for Ilya. Letters, postcards, expressions of affection are appreciated (when Ilya cannot read, there are bed neighbors in his ward who can help him. For obvious reasons, however, he will not be able to answer letters).

       For economic support: account n. 5368 2900 5608 4546 (holder Larisa Valerievna Romanova, bank: VTB)
Paypal account address: abc-msk @ riseup.net

To write to him:

FKU LPU num 21 UFSIN Rossii po Respublike Mordovija,
431200, Respublika Mordovija, Ten’gushevskij rajon, p. Barashevo,
Ul. Shtabnaja, d. 1,
Romanovu Il’e Eduardovicu (Bol’nica N. 2)
Russia

The address in Cyrillic letters:

ФКУ ЛПУ № 21 УФСИН России по Республике Мордовия,
431200, Республика Мордовия, Теньгушевский район, п. Барашево,
ул. Штабная, д. 1,
Романову Илье Эдуардовичу (Больница № 2)
Российская федерация.

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