Anarchy.

     Without much effort I can see hunger, poverty, deprivation, midst warehouses filled with food and necessities of life. At a glance I can see police brutality, state repression and I can smell the decaying flesh of wars.
      What words can we use to end the inequality, injustice and pointless misery of wars.

  Words.

Perhaps words are just forgotten trinkets
locked in some old box
lying in a dark attic
waiting for the poets to find the key.

      Behind every glossy facade this society of illusions throws up, they walk, unseen, the forgotten, the disenfranchised, the hungry, the homeless and the lonely, lost and unwanted somewhere under a sea of opulence.

Between Dignity and Poverty

In this metropolis of wealth with its fountains of opulence
We are the excluded army that walks that tightrope
Between dignity and poverty.
The excluded, the marginalised, the forgotten,
Regulated by mercenaries, some with guns, others with pens.
They know not, we are their brothers and sisters.
Nor do they know,
Our strength is forged in the humiliation of the bread line
Our daily question, will there be food,
Or will the pangs of hunger stay.
We exist in a system of numbers and balance sheets,
Our lives, dehumanised statistics,
Catalogued and filed by a blind accountant.
When asked to count our dead, do we count the living dead?
Will this tightrope be the inheritance to our children
Or shall our tortured journey lead us from anxiety to revolt
Will the anguish of our children feed our righteous anger
Causing us to tear asunder this fabricated web of injustice 

 

      A depressing view of our world, but one that is there for all to see, should they care to look. Our question should be, how do we right these wrongs, how do we wipe the injustice and inequality from the face of the earth. how do we create that world of respect for all human life, and end power pomp and privilege that is based on wealth.

Why Not?

I see hungry children crying beside warehouses of food
I see the elderly cold hungry alone in an ocean of plenty
I feel anger when caskets draped in that coloured rag
carried home with military pomp weeping families
another causality of greed privilege power
Day and daily I see greed praised as success
rich as celebrities, poor as failures
I swim in a sea of fabricated illusions where privilege is progress
where truth dies a lonely death somewhere in a corner of our heart
Yet within my heart I have millions of seeds of love
I know I must plant and let grow
So why shouldn’t I be an anarchists?

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Inch By Inch.

     This little video should have gone with the previous article. It is a little demonstration how the slowly, slowly, principle works, and why we should always pay attention to those little changes in the way the state tries to govern us. Vigilance, critical thought and resistance, are the safeguards of freedoms, the few that we have, also the way to advance those freedoms. Thanks Loam for the link.

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Slowly, Slowly.

 

       If you observe the way our society is drifting it is difficult not to mention the word fascism. We would do well to remember Hitler and fascism in Germany didn't arrive with two guns blazing. It was little increments at a time, slowly, slowly, that people didn't pay too much attention to all those little changes. Only with hindsight can we see the monumental change that took place over time in Germany.

     In Haffner’s telling, the collapse of freedom and the rule of law occurred in increments, some of which seemed to be relatively small and insignificant. In 1933, when Nazi officers stood menacingly outside Jewish shops, Jews were merely “offended. Not worried or anxious. Just offended.” But Haffner insists that Hitler’s brutality and the ongoing politicization of everyday life were clear from the outset. In the early days of the regime, a self-styled republican advised him to avoid skeptical comments, which would be of no use: “I think I know the fascists better than you. We republicans must howl with the wolves.”

       Whatever the reason, lately we have seen some dramatic changes in the way we are legislated to live. As time goes by, lots of these changes will be absorbed into the "new" way of living, and there will be controls in place to see that you adhere to these "new" rules. Your freedoms and choices will become more limited than they are at present. The direction is always the same, more legislation, more rules to be obeyed, less freedom of choice. How far down that road will we go willingly, and how far before we rebel and reverse that ever tightening control. Shall we wait until that fascism is so blatantly obvious and its vicious grip too tight? 

        Under such circumstances as we are living with its ever increasing lurch towards more control over our lives, the only real answer is to turn our direction the other way, to be a rebel, to be aware of the link by link that is being created to tie you down and refuse to accept the drift to an ever tighter state controlled environment.  

The Rebel

Rebel rebel break the rule,

What does it matter that a “wise” man sees a fool.

Not for you the herd’s dull beat

Making tomorrow, yesterday’s repeat,

Living out the life of a clone

Marching with the crowd but always alone.

Shaping your life from some dusty tome

Playing it safe, staying at home.

Rebel rebel break the rule

Swim in the sea, never the pool.

Live your emotions, feel the surge

Follow your dreams, chase the urge.

Make life though short, an exciting game

Not a mad march for fortune or fame.

Capture the moment, live it now

Being alive your only vow.

Rebel rebel break the rule

In the end, you’re humanity’s jewel.

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"Legitimate" Violence.

       It is difficult to get your head round the amount of inhumanity, brutality and vindictive savagery that is perpetrated by so called "legitimate States". Every country that you care to mention, there you'll find  a callous, dictatorial authoritarian, establishment, that shows complete disregard for the human rights of those who choose to criticise the state. At the moment, across the globe anarchists are being particularly hard hit by these so called "legitimate states". This hard war against the critics of the system tells us that they are worried, they see the rising discontent among the ordinary people, and are trying to defuse that discontent and anger, they are aware of the crumbling of their system and their power, and will brutality try to hold on to their power, wealth and privileges. Apart from the police brutality on the streets, there is the callous vindictive brutality of their incarceration system, the institutions of repression that fly under the flag of the "judicial system" are an abomination on the face of any society that wants to wear the label of "civilised". 

     Surely the time is fast approaching when we collectively put an end to this inhumanity by the privileged pampered few, the opportunity is here now to change the direction of our society and create that better way to live. A society where humanity reigns, and sits on the foundation stones of justice, equality, and attention to everybody's needs. Free from the cancerous profit motive fed by greed and upheld by wealth, power and privilege.

      The article below is from Belarus, but name your territory and you can repeat the article over and over again, brutal power, intimidation and repression are the necessary survival tools of this exploitative system. 

The following from AMW: 

 

 Anarchist Prisoners Ivan Komar and Nikita Emelyanov on Hunger Strike in Belarus

Information came to our mail that anarchist prisoners Nikolai Emelyanova and Ivan Komar went on a hunger strike on June 16 in solidarity with the detained and arrested activists. The girlfriend of political prisoner Yana Chulitskaya also joined the hunger strike:

“Due to the fact that political prisoners anarchists Ivan Komar and Nikita Emelyanov go on hunger strike in protest against an unjust sentence, against violation of their rights, obstruction of correspondence, and also due to the fact that recently the state has declared a hunt for dissidents (everyone who is against the dictatorial regime of Lukashenko) and they are kept in inhumane conditions, I inform you that I, Yana Chulitskaya, born in 2001, giving full report to my actions, being in my right mind, deliberately went on a hunger strike from June 16, 2020.

I demand:

1. Adequate review of the cases of Emelyanov and Komar in their presence, and the replacement of their punishment, not related to imprisonment.
2. Stop the detention of people for expressing their opinions. Ensure respect for the rights of detainees for peaceful assemblies.

I beg:

Respond to the application, send a written or oral response. Notify doctors in my area about monitoring my health.”

From: https://abc-belarus.org/?p=12874

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Symbols.

     There has been a lot in the media recently about "statue protectors", and yes, these shithead thugs deserve to be met head on to stop the spread of the "virus". However, these street thugs are not the real statue protectors, they are just doing the dirty work for the establishment. If you want to take on the real statue protectors then perhaps a wee look that the photo might give you a hint from where they run their protection racket. In those marble halls of power, pomp and wealth, the illusions of grandeur and honour are fabricated, legislation is created to protect those illusions and the phony  symbols that they erect. 

      These offending statues did not appear over night all by themselves, they are part of the fabric of that illusion that is created  in an attempt to make you honour greed, brutality, royalty, military might, and the plunderers that created an empire on the blood and sweat of occupied indigenous peoples.

     You may get some of the statues removed, but what about the creed that they represent, who will still be there legislating to protect these phony symbols and still perpetrating the acts that these symbols represent, greed, wealth, power, injustice and gross inhumanity. 

      Getting rid of the statues might be the easiest part, but the creed that they represent will still be there, how do we get rid of them?

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A Dying Beast.

      At the present time we are living with a corpse, well at least with a dying beast. The economic system that has dominated our lives for generations is sounding its death rattle. However we should always remember, a dying beast can be very dangerous.The system is creaking at the seams, as the life ebbs out of it, it will lash out in desperation to cling on to life. The pandemic has given it a golden opportunity at a last gasp for survival. The largest bailout in the history of the entire life of the capitalist system is being delivered to the billionaire parasite class, under the cloak of saving jobs during this pandemic. Fear and public caution is being used to introduce draconian measures of control, creating a submissive population. Controls that will be needed to keep civil unrest off the streets when the shit hits the fan. As it will, when the money lenders come round with their repayment deal. You may believe that we have suffered drastic austerity, and the social damage and injustice that it has delivered, but that deliberate ideological assault on the public will fade into insignificance as the dying system dives in ever deeper to plunder the public purse to pay its money lenders and try to survive. The beast will not "go quietly into that dark night" (A wee pitch at Dylan Thomas). There will be savage  lunges at survival, brutal assaults to stay alive, it will unleash its hounds of fascist beasts on to the streets. We have it in our power to put the beast to death and remove its rotting corpse from the shoulders of humanity. It may be a struggle at times on the streets and in the workplaces, but with the strength, solidarity and unity of our communities we can create that better world for all and rid the world of the vicious beast of dying capitalism.  

The following from Act For Freedom Now:

 

 

      A Funeral for this Rotting Order, Call to Saturday and Onward in Athens
     The world is moving into economic crisis unlike anything experienced since the early 1900s. States with already unstable foundations are now without money or support. In Greece, just this week the new nazi party polls in the top 3 political forces in the country. A counter to the right wing administrations response to pandemic, 6 percent of the country stating simply, economy is preferred to death.
      The end of austerity economics was always destined for war. War against it’s detractors, not abroad but at home. So these weeks we have experienced;
– Detentions for hanging posters
– Detentions for existing outside a police station
– Detentions for hanging a banner
– Mass arrest of a motorcade
– Victoria mass sweep of migrants to camps
– Victora mass detention of those in solidarity
– Monastiraki demonstration met with small army of police
      The employment of the states direct offensive toward active detractors is no surprise. Lets not forget the political war these weeks have brought;
    The education system further turned into efficient factories to churn out workers
     Workers rights continuing to be obliterated on all fronts
    Passing of anti refugee laws designed to force migration toward central europe
     Health workers continue to be ignored while thousands of security forces are hired
       The worldwide preparation against civil society began before the pandemic with faith in an economy that would never falter. Foolish for them yes, but it’s no matter as the way forward requires a break from the past. Much of this break is already written. We believe that through the coming chaos ways of living will emerge which allow existence to flourish beyond the current limitations of state sanctioned life. In the face of Goliath positivity may seem questionable. We suggest two points of contention;
      Unwavering support for subversive culture in contentious neighborhoods and antagonism against all servants of order in these spaces
     Activity designed to display the economic fragility of the state, with understood instead of unnecessary risk
As anger builds which it is, and the anarchists fight with many, which we will, let us lead by example, a clear break from the past.
       Saturday 6/20 we call to support the multiple events throughout the day in Athens and at night in Exarcheia. No ends just beginnings.
     Onward toward a culture of antagonistic individuals against society, its freedom and faith in order. The attack against it,shines a revolutionary path forward for the lost and dispossessed.
Obsidian
source

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Imperial History.

The British state, Fighters of fascism???

       I am somewhat shocked to hear voices from the “left” refer to WW2 as our fight to defeat fascism. Surely they have some grasp of the history of this country. We didn’t go to war with Germany to defeat fascism, we went to war with that country to stop it being a rival or a threat to the resources of the British Empire, as was WW1.
     WW1 had nothing to do with the shooting of a pompous Duke, it was all about the German Empire planning to build the Berlin to Baghdad railway. This would have give Germany tremendous influence in Iraq and other countries in that region, allowing it to move resources and troops in and out of that area much quicker than the British Empire, and Iraq was an oil rich country that the British claimed as theirs. So we super-doper imperialist would have to teach the nasty German Empire a lesson. Of course we all know it didn’t turn out quite like that, the conflict turned Europe into a bloody altar where the youth of nations soaked the soil of Europe in blood. The total number of military and civilian casualties in World War1, was around 40 million. There were 20 million deaths and 21 million wounded. The total number of deaths includes 9.7 million military personnel and about 10 million civilians.

 
       This film is on Spirit of Revolt audio/video section.

     The German Empire was decimated and that suited the British Empire, allowing it to lord it over a vast section of the world, pillaging and plunder land after land. Fast forward and along comes a guy whose intention is rebuild the German Empire, this posed a threat to the arrogant imperialist that control the British Empire. So once again our lords and masters decided to teach that nasty Germany Empire a lesson, and as they say, the rest is history, or it should be, not a truth lost in an illusion of imperialists propaganda. World War 2 was the deadliest military conflict in history. An estimated total of 70–85 million people perished, which was about 3% of the 1940 world population (est. 2.3 billion).
     By now we should all know that the British state never goes to war to defeat fascism, it trades with them as long as it is beneficial to them, it goes to war to protect or enlarge its resources, power and wealth, and the people can go to hell in a hand cart.
      It’s the the weekend, have some music.

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Direct Action.

     Over your lifetime how many peaceful marches and peaceful demonstrations have you attended, and how many have abysmally failed to bear fruit? How many school closures etc. have gone ahead despite strong local peaceful demonstrations against this happening? At the age of 86 I've lost count. The establishment has no fear of peaceful marches and demonstrations, even when you march to their citadels of power and stand there peacefully holding your banners and flags. One of the recent most obvious proof of this, was before the start of the illegal invasion of Iraq. Millions across the planet marched, probably the largest world protest up to that time, and peacefully let it be known that they did not want this illegal invasion and resulting carnage to take place, but all that was ignored and to this day we still see the bleeding wound that is Iraq. The establishment may from time to time rough up those peaceful marches/demonstrations, more as a deterrent to others in an attempt to stop them from gaining public support, not from fear of the peaceful demonstrators. I often think that the establishment is quite happy for the odd mass peaceful march/demonstration to take place. I believe they may see it as a public paracetamol, it makes you feel better but does nothing to sort out the real problem.

     A not too distant event that shows that to really bring about effective change, your peaceful march/demonstration has to move to a different level. The poll-tax was being forced down the throats of the people in this country. Peaceful marches and demonstrations, burning of poll tax demands etc., all went for nothing. Only when the people moved to the level of open rebellion and took to the streets to forcefully demonstrate that they were not going to accept this injustice, did anything change, the poll-tax quickly died. Direct action is the weapon the establishment fear most.

The following is an extract from an article on Crimethinc:

 

Together, we are unstoppable: Minneapolis, Minnesota.

The Effectiveness of Insurrection
      Where one reformist campaign after another has failed, the courage of those who burned down the Third Precinct in Minneapolis has catalyzed an unprecedented movement for social change. The victories of the first week of the movement alone surpass what other approaches had accomplished in years. We should not underestimate the contributions of abolitionists who have labored for decades to make it possible for people to imagine doing without police and prisons, but many of those who set this movement in motion do not think of themselves as activists at all.
      The past three weeks have offered the most persuasive demonstration of the effectiveness of direct action in decades. Liberals will try to represent the strength of the movement as a mere question of numbers, but these numbers only came together because daring rebels showed that they could defeat the Minneapolis police in open combat. The idea of abolishing the police was deemed inadmissible until it became conceivable that rioters could overthrow the police by main force. Then, and only then, police abolition became a widespread discussion item.
      So direct action gets the goods—and everyone knows it now. It will be very difficult to put this genie back in the bottle. From the centrists who are suddenly struggling to reduce police abolition to a matter of “defunding” to Donald Trump himself, who was forced to make a show of calling for police reforms yesterday, there is no denying that the riots have changed everyone’s priorities. Rather than alienating people, as critics always alleged it would, confrontational direct action has won millions over to ideas and values they might never have considered otherwise.
     This will have long-term effects on a global scale as movements all around the world internalize these lessons. International solidarity actions have already taken place in over 50 other countries, some of them including massive riots.

Read the full article HERE: 

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Shielding.

        Getting away for a few moments from the savage brutality of the state, the inherent injustices in the system, the millions in dire poverty, and the callous bloodshed, all pouring from a system that is perpetrated by the greedy, wealthy, powerful few, who control the levers of power, my mind floats to the garden.

      Because of my age and my many underlying medical problems, I have been "shielding" for roughly three months. So this meant that I spend a lot of time in the house, in the garden, short walks in pubic parks and of course escapes on the bike, (very short runs). The garden has been a tremendous pleasure to me. I love roses, and have grown them for years. My memory tells me that my roses always come into bloom round about the middle of July, a month or so behind the south of England, though I wouldn't be surprised if I got that wrong, my ageing memory. However, this year I'm amazed that here we are in the middle of June and we have roses in full bloom. Just in case you might think that is all we have in the garden, those frivolous roses, in the back garden Stasia has an array of vegetables and some fruits.

     While sitting in the garden, more often than usual, I also notice small things, like the bees, they seem to be programed  to go for certain colours. For example, I have watched a couple flirting from purple flower to purple flower, ignoring other colours, while others go from yellow flower to yellow flower, and another that only seems to prefer white. If so, is this a evolved process of efficiency rather than them randomly chasing the same ground as others. Or does the hive have a regimental sergeant major, who barks out their orders as they leave the hive. I hope it is the former, as I believe that bees are much more intelligent than us.

   Another thing I discovered while sitting still in the garden, we have a bubble-bee hive. We watched the bees hover over a tiny hole in the grass and then disappear down, and others to come up from the hole and fly off. That wonderful discovery is thanks to my "shielding", so I suppose I should be grateful for that.

      In keeping with the old age and pottering about in the garden, a wee poem.

 

Mirror Mirror On The Wall.

I can’t help but watch him
that old man
as he staggers across the room
with that unusual gait
punctuated by the odd stumble
I hear his groans and feel his pain
sometimes with a few profane words
he drags himself from the couch or chair
pauses for a moment to regain his balance
I sense his reluctance to bend down
and pick things off the floor
I’m fascinated by those hands
light brown withered looking bony structures
with their pronounced veins
running along the back of them
and up his slim arms
I sense his annoyance
that they’re not as strong as they used to be
I feel his regret
that he can’t do the things he once did with ease
I often think
that to have lived that long
he must have a chest full
of memories and experiences
that should be worth something
but what puzzles me most
is when
I look in the mirror
I see him and not me.

 

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Man's Inhumanity.

       Pick your country, and you'll find that it has its prisons, and those incarcerated in those institutions of state repression, will be treated as if they had ceased to be human. What shocks me most is that the inhumane treatment heaped on the prison inmates is carried out by others who profess to be human. I know that their training, funding and implementation is by the state, but who picks a job that helps to lock other humans in cages and subjects them to arbitrary violence and degrading circumstances. No doubt they go home to their families, laugh and go to the pub, and somehow blend in with those who still hold onto those special characteristics that make us human. You'll stand beside them in the super market, sit beside them on the bus, and in our ignorance accept them as normal human beings, but are they? They belong to the far too large a group that put on uniforms, obey instructions and show little or no human feelings to those they ill treat and beat up. I feel it is glaringly obvious that there is something far wrong with a society that tolerates those humans who can show no compassion to another human being and also gives them positions of authority. The police, the prison guards, the military, the politicians who support and organise these groups and the corporate institutions that need these facilities most be removed if we want a decent, fair and just society.

The following, not unique but typical, is from It's Going Down:

       Statement from Indigenous prisoners in struggle in CERSS No. 5 in Chiapas denouncing prison authorities as COVID-19 continues to take its toll at the prison.

To the Public
To the Networks of Resistance and Rebellion
To the National Indigenous Congress
To the Zapatista Army of National Liberation
To the National and International Sixth
To the Network Against Repression and for Solidarity
To the Media
To the Human Rights Defenders and Non-Governmental Organizations
To the Independent Organizations
To the Indigenous People of Mexico and the World
To the Civil Society of Mexico and the World
       We are Indigenous prisoners, Adrián Gómez Jiménez, of the organization, La Voz de Indígenas en Resistencia and Germán López Montejo and Abraham López Montejo, of the organization, La Voz Verdadera del Amate. Both organizations are adherents to the Sixth Declaration of the Lacandon Jungle of the Zapatista Army of National Liberation, EZLN. We are currently imprisoned in CERSS No. 5 in San Cristóbal de las Casas, Chiapas.
      Compañerxs, brothers and sisters. We want to bring to light the situation we face as prisoners due to the health emergency brought by COVID-19, which has caused many people to lose their lives across the globe.
     The coronavirus outbreak was first known here on May 21, 2020. After the death of a prison official, Artemio Jiménez Estrada, two other workers from this prison have already died. José, who was in charge of the tortillas in this prison, died of COVID-19. Also, Manuel Cordero, who worked in the labor area has also died of COVID-19. We used to order our materials from him.
      Here in CERSS No. 5, there is an outbreak of COVID-19. Today, June 13, the inmate Mario A. has died. He was abandoned by the authorities who didn’t even realize he had died.
     Mario A. should have been released from prison because he had diabetes and other illnesses. He fought for house arrest but the unjust authorities denied him that. He should have been released. These are the injustices we face in this prison, injustices caused by government officials. We will never know if the cause of Mario’s death was COVID-19 because we know that he was never tested. What we do know is that he died in prison, from abandonment and negligence, on part of the prison authorities, who treat us like disposable objects who can die in total impunity.
     Previously, prison authorities denied the outbreak of COVID-19 here in CERSS No. 5. According to them, they had it under control with the safety measures they had in place. Let’s see what excuses and lies they come up with now regarding the death of this inmate.
      We want to mention that they did not even inform us of the death of Manuel Cordero or José. They never appeared on the radio news. They want to maintain the image that everything is under control.
     We will not remain quiet about what is happening in this prison where there is an outbreak of COVID-19. We don’t know who will be the next inmate to die victim of the coronavirus, but meanwhile we remain in danger. We continue denouncing that prison authorities have denied us our COVID-19 test results. We should be well-informed about this mortal pandemic, but it is quite the opposite.
       If they continue denying us our test results, we will carry out an action to demand that we receive our documents, because we have the right to know the results.
      Lastly, we invite the state, national and international independent organizations, the state, national and international human rights defenders, to continue demanding true justice and freedom for the political prisoners, prisoners of conscious and prisoners in struggle.
      Uniting the voices of the Mexican people, true justice will triumph.
Respectfully.

Adrián Gómez Jiménez
Germán López Montejo
Abraham López Montejo

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Kate Sharpley.

      I regularly receive emails from the Kate Sharpley Library, with their latest publications, all very interesting and informative. I consider the Kate Sharpley Library to be one of all too few archives of the anarchist movement, that are a necessary part of our history, and a wonderful resource to aid us in our struggles. In there you will find inspiration, knowledge and often hidden historical events. We at Spirit of Revolt do what we can to add to that rich history and resource.

    Who was Kate Sharpley? The following extract will give you a little insight to this remarkable woman:

Albert Meltzer
       One of our frequently asked questions is 'who was Kate Sharpley?' Many of our readers will know of her as 'One of the countless "unknown" members of our movement ignored by the official historians of anarchism.' We hope this tribute, written by Albert Meltzer in 1978 will help to fill that statement out a little. There are more details in Albert's autobiography I Couldn't Paint Golden Angels.
     Kate's Tinwear
    Sixty-five years ago Queen Mary was handing out medals in Greenwich, most of them for fallen heroes being presented to their womenfolk. One 22-year old girl, said by the local press to be under the influence of anarchist propaganda, having collected medals for her dead father, brother and boyfriend, then threw them in the Queen's face, saying, 'If you think so much of them, you can keep them.' The Queen's face was scratched and so was that of one of her attendant ladies. The police, not a little under the influence of patriotic propaganda, then grabbed the girl and beat her up. When she was released from the police station a few days later, no charges being brought, she was scarcely recognisable.
     The girl was Kate Sharpley, who had been active in the Woolwich anarchist group and helped keep it going through the difficult years of World War 1. After her clash with the police she was sacked from her job 'on suspicion of dishonesty' (there was nothing missing but a policeman had called checking up on her…) and, selling libertarian pamphlets in the street, she was recognised by the police and warned that if she appeared there again she would be charged with 'soliciting as a prostitute' (which in those days would have been a calamity, and even today a disaster, if once convicted). Isolated from her family, and with the group broken up, she moved out of activity, away from the neighbourhood, and married.
    I met her, by chance, last year in Lewisham. Twice widowed, she remembered the anarchist movement with nostalgia, and gave me a fascinating account of the local group in the years before World War 1. Unfortunately, she was already very ill, and a few weeks ago, she died, I was told by one of her neighbours.
     I had, though, asked her for a message to the Anarchist movement today. Her answer: 'Tell the kids they're doing all right, they don't need any advice from me.' Especially she praised the young women of today: 'I wouldn't have had to take cover like I did if women of my day had any guts' she said. But she did have guts. A few only in 1917 dared take any action in bereaved England.

       The following is the latest I received from The Kate Sharpley Library:

Welcome!

Here's a link to NOT the bulletin of the Kate Sharpley Library, No.2 June 2020
Contents:
New pieces on the Kate Sharpley Library website
Three articles by Albert Meltzer
Elsewhere (AK Press; Audio; Naples 1884; Bristol 2020)
Still going (Research on The 1945 split in British anarchism)
You can read the PDF at https://www.katesharpleylibrary.net/8933bb
  Image at the top of the page comes from Crimethinc’s ‘The Anarchists versus the Plague: Malatesta and the Cholera Epidemic of 1884’

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Anti-consumerism.

     Once again an interesting article for Not Buying Anything, an observation that I hope is true, my only fear is that when this over and some people find they have more money than usual, they may go out on a spending binge. I hope not, I hope they keep their sanity and take stock of the things they enjoyed without spending money. Time for reflection.

     This from Not Buying Anything:

       Recreational shopping has been a pastime for decades. Similarly, leisure, or non-essential, travel has also been popular. That just changed. We will not be going back to the way it was before the year 2020.
     Shopping and traveling were fun and entertaining for many in pre-pandemic times. When it was easy. We will not have the same zeal for spending when it is hard.
       If shoppers have to wear masks, get their temperature checked at the door, sanitize their hands, and social distance once they get in to the business, consumption won't be what it was in the spend freely days of pre-pandemic times.
      And if they continue to get infected, in-person shopping will remain a shadow of the peak consumerism days of the recent past, and likely will never come back in the same way.
       Evidence for this is the largest increase in the American savings rate ever, that happened recently. When spending money becomes less attractive, savings rates increase.
     What is good for your bank account, though, is bad for the overflowing vaults of the 1%ers.
      This is the capitalist nightmare - people deciding to do other more enjoyable things instead of spending their meagre funds to buy goods and services they don't need. But that is what is happening.
      All over the world humans are waking up every day and finding healthier, less expensive, and more meaningful, ways to occupy their time. Things that aren't shopping or traveling. Or traveling to go shopping.
      This could be the end of many familiar things and arrangements. Will it be the end of consumerism, and would that take down capitalism, too? That would be welcome, because either we take it down, or it will take us down. That decision will be ours to make.
      We have the power, that much is perfectly clear. If we won't work for them, and won't shop for their junk, what can they do? They need us more than we need them and their wasteful ways.
       Our predatory psychopathic-lead system is getting morphed into who knows exactly what as the people rediscover their power to make change. Some of those changes are that we will become savers rather than spenders, and will choose the familiar home range over frivolous foreign sojourns.
       After more than a decade of watching consumer behaviour closely, I am getting the feeling that many newly re-minted community participants are tiring of spending money on non-essential things, and going in debt to do so.
We are moving on to more important, more beautiful, more balanced concerns, and say to our former rulers and their soulless system, "Thank you for your service - we will take it from here".

 

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Opportunity.

      At the very start of this pandemic I stated that this was a golden opportunity for us to reshape society, I also said that it was a golden opportunity for the various states to push the boundaries of their control over the civilian population. It would give them a wonderful avenue to create that submissive population. I still believe that  and I know I am not alone in that line of thought. What we have to come to terms with is that the state has seized upon that opportunity with a determined single mindedness, but we seem to have fragmented our aims and therefore are failing to to make the most of our opportunity. This could be a disaster for  us all, as the few freedoms that we have will be drastically diminished, to regain them, let alone increase them, will be a monumental and brutal task. 

The following from 325:
By Gianfranco Sanguinetti

        We are sharing, with many thanks to the author, this English translation of an important article written in April 2020.
      The conversion of the Western representative democracies to a completely new form of despotism has, on account of the virus, assumed the juridical features of a force majeure (in jurisprudence, as is well known, force majeure is a case of exonerated responsibility). And so the new virus is at the same time both a catalyst for the event and a distraction for the masses through fear. (1)
      For all the hypotheses I have put forth, since my book On Terrorism and the State (1979), regarding the manner in which this conversion (ineluctable, in my eyes) from formal democracy to despotism would be made, I must confess that I never imagined it would happen on the pretense of a virus. But the ways of the Lord are truly infinite. As are those of Hegel’s cunning of reason.
     The sole reference, it can truly be said, as prophetic as it is disturbing, is one I found in an article by Jacques Attali, former boss of EBRD [European Bank for Reconstruction and Development], written for L’Express during the epidemic of 2009: (2)
     If the epidemic becomes a little more serious, which is possible, since it is transmittable by humans, it will have truly planetary consequences, both economic (the models suggest a loss of three trillion dollars, that is a 5% drop in global GDP) and political (due to risks of contagion). It would therefore be necessary to establish a global police force, a global stockpile, and therefore a global fiscal policy. We would then—much sooner than economic reasons alone would have allowed—come to establish the basis for an actual global government.

     The pandemic was thus already envisioned: how many simulations were run by the major insurance companies! And by the protective services of the states. Just few days ago former British Prime Minister Gordon Brown again returned to the need for global government: “Gordon Brown has urged world leaders to create a temporary form of global government to tackle the twin medical and economic crises caused by the Covid-19 pandemic.” (3)

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Statues.

      We can take it that around 90% of the statues that punctuate our squares and city streets, will be of slave traders, merchants that made a fortune from the slave trade, corporate big wigs that got fat on exploiting workers, military men who created rivers of blood from indigenous peoples in their ruthless pursuit of wealth for their imperial masters, then there will be a swath of pompous parasitic royals and some political ballerinas who advocated policies that were to the disadvantage of the people in favour of the rich and wealthy.

    So where do we start? My personal view is that this prancing around destroying, defacing and protecting, these lifeless chunks of marble, bronze and stone is diverting energy down an avenue that leaves the system to carry on with its plunder and exploitation. Let's devote our energies  to the living, the power mongers that sit in their marble halls of power, dividing up the planet to the advantage of the few.

     While we feed the statues into the grinding and pulping machines, children are still going to bed hungry, or imperial masters are still slaughtering the innocent in countries across the globe. Disease and famine still ravishes the poor, while the wealthy and powerful billionaire class grow fatter by the minute. I suppose when we have rid all our cities of statues that offend our particular sensitivity we can pat ourselves on the back, and think how life has changed and the world is a better place.

    I suppose it suits the establishment to have the police running around beating the shit out of people, that are making a mess of symbols, it gives the media something to shout about and takes the spotlight of what our "betters" are devising on their trip to the extinction of our planet.

    If you wish to attack the symbols of this system then I think you should look at the real symbols, banks, corporate offices, political parties, police stations, military bass, etc. Once the statues have all gone, these symbols will still be there.

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