Tomorrow!!

      More and more our world is seen through a screen, now with virtual meetings and virtual reality the natural world is becoming a forgotten and alien world. Even the barbarity of war can be carried out from an office somewhere thousands of miles from the horror, destruction and death. The hands-on world is slowly becoming a distant memory. Is this the direction we wish to go, to a world that suits big business and the controlling state, where you become a studied, profiled predictable entity, devoid of the right to your own social structures and interactions, without being monitored? Where communities are in a monitored virtual world?

The following from Montreal Counter Information:

Anonymous submission to MTL Counter-info

PDF to print (11 x 17)

Poster text:

Fire to the Cybernetic Prison

It’s never too late to resist

Artificial Intelligence
     AI labs, recipients of several $100M in government funding, are working to put “machine learning” algorithms in the service of a long list of industries. Under an “ethical” facade, some applications will simply allow well-placed capitalists to further enrich themselves. Others aim to reinforce repression, whether detecting shoplifters at the supermarket with automated video surveillance, developing facial recognition tools that work even on partly covered faces, or “predicting” crime or the probability of a prisoner re-offending.

5g Wireless Networking
     The unprecedented bandwidth of 5G technology enables the deployment of AI on the scale of a city in real time. Every movement becomes trackable thanks to thousands of cameras integrated into a centralized surveillance apparatus. This vision is already in practice in more than one European “smart city”. Countless sensors dotting public spaces, in businesses, cars and public transit, and worn on our bodies aim to make every action the object of calculation, prediction and control, all under an eco-friendly label. By its pervasiveness, a web of algorithms is made invisible and therefore impossible to resist.

Robotics and Automation
     Self-driving cars. Robotized warehouses. Cashierless stores. Delivery robots that call the cops when they are attacked. An infrastructure is being deployed that will change the world of work and our living environment permanently. We don’t mourn the disappearance of back-breaking and boring jobs. A dehumanizing pace is imposed on the remaining workers, who must keep up with the machines and productivity software or be shown the door. Meanwhile, what measures of social control and what exploitative schemes await the new excluded masses of an age of technological unemployment?

Life in Front of a Screen
     Possibilities for authentic relations between humans and with our surroundings are increasingly erased in service of a virtual hyper- connectivity. Understanding, discovery, and the search for meaning are reduced to production of data. Attention deficit, memory problems, loss of emotional skills and imagination, disrupted sleep, musculo-skeletal pain, anxiety, loneliness, depression: the symptoms of addiction to online technologies are worsening as the proportion of the population that has spent their entire lives immersed in touch screens grows.

For free and full lives, open to the unknown

Be the outage in their network!

And just a thought: 

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.

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

Wrong Path.

 Just a thought.

Our Future

Once upon a time,
in our not so distant past
stood a beautiful, a unique world,
laden with promise,
a world where our future was open,
our potential vast.
Now, seduced by glinting tinsel of the mad
our reason quivers
on the edge of a dark abyss.
We have created a world
where wastelands abound
where we
the many, the marginalised, the ordinary,
struggle to survive in voracity that astounds
are seduced
to create wastelands in our minds,
slowly accepting chaos
in a world of insanity.
Here corporate monsters
of hypocrisy, contradictions,
sever the fragile cord
that unites being with being

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

US Duplicity.

            21st century America and eugenics still alive and well. Any illusion, shred of belief, or fantasy that there is a democracy even breathing slightly, in that land that heralds itself as the defender of world democracy, must surely lie shattered in the swamp of hypocrisy. Watch and rage.

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

Re-set.

      A lot of the talk at this years Davos wealthy get-together of the world's best exploiters, was of the opportunity to hit the capitalist "re-set" button. This was couched in language such as stakeholder society, greater equality and other double speak to get public money to re-finance the ailing capitalist system. Of course emphasising the need for private enterprise to be there "every step of the way".
        Read for your self and see whether you believe that these pampered privileged billionaires are eager to share their ill gotten gains in a more equitable fashion, making sure you get a fair share of the goodies. Pigs can fly and ducks eat elephants. They are fully aware that the capitalist system is in dire straights and approaching a systemic collapse, it needs to be refinanced urgently and public money is all that is left to bolster their wealth, power and privileges. So hit the "re-set" button and structure capitalism so that it gets the lions share of all public assets, if not all. Dress it up in fine words and platitudes, make it sound fair, but paint a cesspool to look like a mansion, it's still a cesspool. Capitalism can't be re-imagined into into a fair and equitable system, it is a system of exploitation, its very existence requires that we, the ordinary people, are units to earn wealth for the owners and mangers of the system. The only real method of turning it into an equitable system is first destroy it completely, and then get our heads together and create a new design based on the welfare of all our people and sustainability. We hold the plan in our hearts, let's start to put it into action.

From World Economic Forum:

 

----Likewise, populations have overwhelmingly shown a willingness to make sacrifices for the sake of health-care and other essential workers and vulnerable populations, such as the elderly. And many companies have stepped up to support their workers, customers, and local communities, in a shift toward the kind of stakeholder capitalism to which they had previously paid lip service.
        Clearly, the will to build a better society does exist. We must use it to secure the Great Reset that we so badly need. That will require stronger and more effective governments, though this does not imply an ideological push for bigger ones. And it will demand private-sector engagement every step of the way.----

Read the full article HERE: 

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

Profit V Lives.

 

 

    Spikes of covid19 cases in Glasgow, Dundee, Aberdeen  and Liverpool universities, as well as in many schools. What a surprise, how could that possibly be, our lords and masters told us that they had got this beast under control and now was the time to start getting out there and get those tills ringing.
             The duplicity of our lords and masters is so disgustingly obvious, it shocks to think they would even go ahead with their greed driven plans to get their buddies tills again ringing loudly. They stand before you with phony sincerity draped across their faces, talking of the welfare of the people, then, encourage people to eat out, get back to the work, open pubs, schools and universities, drawing crowds from across the world into small confined spaces, fully aware that Covid19 is a disease that is transmitted by close contact. Then shock and horror when the infection rate shoots up, as if by magic, or because the naughty and stupid public did not obey their hotch-potch, patchwork quilt, vague, arbitrary instructions.
        Obvious evidence that their first priority is to do what they can to help out their corporate friends to start earning cash again. The brakes only go on again when it becomes too obvious that in doing so they are killing off sections of the population.

   I will repeat my call, it is time we demanded that full control of this Covid19 pandemic be taken out of the hands of our political ballerinas, with their vested interests, and full control be given to those experts in this field, the scientific and medical specialists, whose only priority is the welfare and health of the population, and not tainted by the neo-liberaism, greed driven political shenanigans, of those steeped in their own selfish ideology of, profit and economy are sacred. 

 

     While all this duplicity is going on, the masters of capitalism seem to have forgotten their own rules. You start a business and exploit others to get rich, that's success, if your business can't make money you go bust. However, now that some of the big boys are losing money, then you don't go bust, your raise the sacred image of the economy and wave it in front of every bodies eyes and forecast doom for all. That means it is now time for the taxpayers to pour billions into the corporate coffers to keep them in the style to which they have become accustomed. Again I will repeat, screw the economy, and let them go bust. If what they do is essential to the welfare of the people, than take it into public ownership, and let the shareholders an CEO sign on at the local jobcentre. You know it makes sense, so what are we waiting for?

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

How Long?

       As sates across Europe and elsewhere march in lock-step with each other at trying to crush any and all self organising autonomous structures and individuals, it sometimes appears as if one state is trying to out do the other in the expanse and severity of their actions, with the terrorist label attached to any voice of dissent. Greece appears the worst, then it looks like Germany is trying to lead the pack, and so it goes on, ever lurching to the right and further draconian acts to control the population. How much longer will the people accept this goose-stepping to fascism, how much longer will we let our anger simmer below the surface. No state is immune from this thrust to the right.

This report from Act For Freedom Now, on Germany:

      The most revolutionary thing one can do is to proclaim always loudly what is happening.” Rosa Luxemburg
    On Monday, August 31, cops attacked 27 objects, 24 of them in Hamburg and one each in Lower Saxony, Schleswig-Holstein and North Rhine-Westphalia. The reason for the searches is the investigation against the Roter Aufbau Hamburg for the formation of a criminal organization.
    These investigations are a further escalation of an authoritarian formation in Germany. The aim is to smash emancipatory structures and to ensure that fascistization continues to proceed. In this context, stand also the investigations on 129a here in Frankfurt, which have the sole aim of criminalizing and smashing left structures. With our solidarity, however, we are taking the wind out of the sails of repression – widespread and united against this class justice.
We send solidarity greetings to those affected by the raids and wish you a lot of strength!
     Solidarity with the Roter Aufbau Hamburg! Fire and flames to the repression! United we Stand – United we Fight!
We are all 129a!

       This from another part of this world of neo-liberalism from one who has often felt that brutal lash of state authoritarianism and remained loyal to freedom and justice. 

       San Miguel Prison, Chile: New Drawing by Anarchist Prisoner Mónica Caballero

[Prisiones chilenas] Dibujo de la compañera anarquista Mónica Caballero

        The prison and I are old acquaintances, on more than one occasion I have sat at their table, over the years we have changed and we have both learned from each other…but no matter how much time passes essentially the prison and I remain the same. Prison is still the power-sucking monster that grows and spreads submission and repentance, and I continue to have the same seditious desires as before.

Mónica Caballero, anarchist prisoner

 

 

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

Barcelona.

       I'm a lover of Kate Sharpley Library and eagerly await their latest bulletin, they have just released their September, 2020,  issue, No.102. The poem below is from that edition. Very relevant today 

Barcelona 1936

Woke one bright morning – not so long ago
–heard the sound of shooting from the street below.
Went to the window and saw the barricade
of paving stones the working men had made – not so long ago.

Met a man that morning– not so long ago –
handed me a leaflet, on the street below.
Lean and hard-faced working man with a close-cropped head-
--held me for a moment eye-to-eye, then said:
Read it, read it, read it, and learn
what it is we fight for, why the churches burn.

Down on the Ramblas, she passed me on her way,
weapon cradled in her arm – it was but yesterday.
Not just for wages now, not alone for bread
-- we’re fighting for a whole new world,
A whole new world, she said.

On the barricades all over town – not so long ago
–they knew the time had come to answer with a simple Yes and No.
They too were storming heaven – do you think they fought in vain;
that because they lost a battle they would never rise again;
that the man with the leaflets, the woman with a gun,
did not have a daughter, did not have a son?

Hugo Dewar (1908-1980)

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

You-topia.

 

        I found this film, informative and inspiring, though there is hardship and bitter struggles, it unfolds in poetic beauty, its narrative is woven with hope and determination and a strong reminder, as the film says, "Remember, you are the You-topia." I hope you get as much from it as I did.

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

Be Prepared.

       As the covid19 pandemic creates economic hardship for the many, states across the world are tightening their methods of repression and joining forces across borders, they are well aware that with hardship for the many, comes anger. To keep control of their wealth, privileges and power, they will need to crush that anger. The pandemic is an ideal opportunity for them to put on open display, their authoritarian apparatus, engineering consent by fear. Their actions will be given credence by the mouthpiece of the state, the mainstream media. At the forefront of their attack will be all those freethinking individuals, autonomous spaces, self organising groups, migrant support groups and squatted community help centres, anywhere that the people try to organise their lives outside this festering malaise they call capitalism. Of course the word terrorists will be banded about freely by the powers that be. We must be prepared for ever greater brutality and invasive procedures by nervous states, fearful of the strength of angry people united. 

The following article from Enough is Enough:

       On Wednesday, September 16, 2020, several apartments were raided in Berlin and Athens. The accusation of the German Federal General Prosecutor at the Federal Court of Justice is “formation of a criminal organization” according to §129 StGB. In Athens, at 6 a.m. German time – 7 a.m. Greek cops of the anti-terrorism authority (D.A.E.E.B.) and one cop of the German Federal Criminal Police (BKA) stormed two apartments to execute search warrants against three accused and at least one other person affected.
The accused, as well as the other persons present in the two apartments, were taken to the headquarters of the cops in Athens by the cops and were brought to the rooms of the (anti)terror cops on the 12th floor.
       After 10 hours of waiting, 2 people were released and the remaining three were officially arrested on the basis of pepper spray that was found in the apartment (violation of the Greek weapons law) and two pocket knives, and were also charged for refusing to give fingerprints. After another 6 hours, the persons were transferred to the prison wing on the 7th floor. The next morning, all three were dressed in a film-like manner with bulletproof vests (typical for a presentation by the anti-terrorism authority), tied up and brought to court by a heavily armed squad. At the end of the production, the court decided to postpone the trial and to release the prisoners.
      As part of the Kafkaesque game, both the German and Greek media fulfill their role as henchmen of the system, as expected. The state’s attacks on the movement have always been accompanied by the mainstream media, so that the sovereignty of information and the definition of the relevance of the situation should lie with the cops and the state. In the proceedings here, the little information the cops released was enriched in populist articles with also false statements and assertions in order to give the desired impression to a wide audience.
     The cooperation between German and Greek authorities is certainly nothing new. Not surprisingly, but still worth mentioning, we find the common organization of the different authorities. They use a single procedure to implement the political interests of the security authorities and the state in both countries.

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

Glasgow Green.

        A month or so ago, Spirit of Revolt put up a new film, made by one of our members, on the history on Glasgow Green. Sadly I made a few mistakes in posting it, and it had to be pulled down. It is now back up and is well worth a viewing. A Radical History on Glasgow Green plots a trail of events that tie the Green to the hearts, folklore and history of the people of Glasgow, how it shaped them and they shaped it. A valuable trip through some of Glasgow's history and that of the ordinary people, a heritage of which we should never lose sight and be very proud.

 View the film HERE:

  https://spiritofrevolt.info/radical-history-on-glasgow-green/

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

Khmer Rouge.

 

        The death of Khmer Rouge executioner Comrade Duch, aged 77 in Cambodia (Kampuchea), reminds us of a failed experiment at agrarian communism which sought to eradicate the city-dwellers under western influence. Over 35 years ago Here & Now magazine was launched in Glasgow. the collective, from issue 5 expanded to include heretical thinkers in Leeds, some associated with the Pleasure Tendency. In issue 1 the centre page article by AD, examined Khmer "communism". Well worth a read

     September Spirit of Revolt, “Read of the Month” is an article on the Khmer Rouge, taken from the magazine “Here and Now” held in our Archive.

You can read the article HERE

Read the The full magazine HERE:

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

This Land--.

     In England 92% of the land and 97% of rivers are owned by a small, extremely wealthy,  bunch of pampered privileged parasites, Scotland is much the same. I have always been puzzled by somebody owning a large slice of the planet. Who did they buy it from, who held the original deeds, was it God? or did a bunch of thieving scoundrels just steal it, then gave bits to their friends and buddies. I think the latter. Isn't it about time we reversed that situation and became the land grabbers and take it all back into common ownership for the benefit of all?

 

 

       In the U.K., folks can wander over private property without asking permission.
       This is called “the right to roam” and its legal legacy can be traced back to a grassroots movement started by Benny Rothman in the 1930s.
      Rothman was a member of rebellious group of Manchester factory workers who called themselves “ramblers”. The ramblers sought to get out of sooty Manchester on their time off in order to see the beautiful Peak District that surrounded them. The problem was that almost all of this land was in the hands of private landlords who hired game keepers to keep walkers (and possible poachers) at bay.
       This had not always been the case. Some 300 years earlier, most of the land in the UK has been part of the Commons where people could graze livestock and hunt as they could.
        Beginning in the mid-18th century, however, the Enclosure Movement worked to privatize most common land in England, Scotland, Wales, and Ireland. This has been described as "a revolution of the rich against the poor," and it transformed the countryside 

 

 Thanks loam for the video link:

 

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

Funny Money.

 

        The pillars of our wonderful capitalist system is the financial giants, our honourable banks. They oil the wheels of capitalism, they feed the growth of the parasites' wealth, and now we find that they are up to their necks in wheeling and dealing with criminal and corrupt elements, laundering trillions of their ill gotten gains of this festering mess we call capitalism.  

 

         UK bank shares have taken a hit after some of the world's largest lenders were accused of allowing criminals to launder dirty money.
        Over 2,100 suspicious activity reports (SARs) covering more than $2trn (£1.5trn) in transactions were leaked to BuzzFeed News and shared with the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ).
       These reports, and more than 17,600 other records obtained by the ICIJ, allegedly show how senior banking officials allowed fraudsters to move money between accounts in the knowledge that the funds were being generated or used criminally.
        Five global banks were named in the investigation: JPMorgan Chase, HSBC, Standard Chartered, Deutsche Bank and Bank of New York Mellon.

      Their greed and brass necks allow them to follow the money, no matter where or how it was generated, more funds in the bank means higher share prices, then bigger bonuses for the masters. To expect other than this from these financial vultures, is being rather naive. After all they firmly believe that they control the world.

        The ICIJ reported that some of the banks named continued to work with "mobsters, fraudsters or corrupt regimes" even after they were warned by US officials that they would face criminal prosecutions for doing so.

       The sums involved are no trifling petty cash, but vast fortunes, and they are not one or two isolated incidents, it is hundreds of transactions over a considerable lapse of time. 

The top 10 banks represented in the FinCEN Files include:

Institution	Number of SARs	Amount flagged
Deutsche Bank	982	$1.3 trillion
BNY Mellon	325	$64bn
Standard Chartered	232	$166bn
JP Morgan	107	$514bn
Barclays	104	$21bn
HSBC	73	$4.4bn
Bank of China	35	$1.3bn
Bank of America	35	$384m
Wells Fargo	21	$57m
Citibank	18	$251m

Data compiled by Buzzfeed News

       Looks like Deutsche Bank could be the biggest money laundering machine in the world. So what does all this tells us, well nothing new, we should all be aware that the entire capitalist system is built on exploitation, though some of that exploitation receives the stamp of legitimacy from the state, others are given the badge of criminality. The latter are simply cash making exploitations that the state feels it has not got control of, nothing to do with morality, ethics or any of that stuff. Of course pursuing these types of affairs creates the illusion that the state is the guardian of the purity of our capitalist system. Will they pursue all those who made money from the rising shares and bonuses, as the stinking trillions flowed smoothly through the system?  

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

My Moan.

 

         So the covid19 pandemic again grows, did we really expect it would be other? A pandemic that has political ballerinas at the helm is bound to be a disaster. Especially if those same political ballerinas have a vested interest in the growth of the economy. All the decisions made in this fight against the pandemic will be made by people who have shares in companies, friends and family who own, run and/or are shareholders in businesses. Their decisions will be shaped by these facts, the strategy tainted by these influences, the economy will play an important part in all their decision making. This will move the health and welfare of the people down a notch, where as it should be at the top of the agenda.
        We have seen enough suffering and deaths with this method of trying to control this pandemic, it’s time we took the decision making out of the hands of economic vested interest and put full control in the hands of the medical and scientific minds, those who are experts in the field of disease and human health and welfare.
       Our political ballerinas will always feed you this crap about saving jobs, opening up the economy, which translates as, ”Get out there and get those tills ringing, our friends are losing money” and with scant regard to the results on the people. Only when the results, which were predictable, start to alarm the people, do they start to apply a temporary brake to their profit orientated strategy. 

 

          We have to demand that we take the economy out of the equation, and put the full strength of the medical and scientific establishment to takeover the tackling of this pandemic. Otherwise it will be a continual rivalry between those with power and wealth protecting that wealth and power and the risks to the general population. To date billions of tax payers money has been handed to big business, with the bullshit tag “to save jobs” We are always being told of the wonderful capitalist system, well let’s remind them this is capitalism, if your business isn’t making money then it should go bust. If it has an essential function for society, then take it into public ownership. All those billions should have gone into the health and welfare of the people, in the battle against this pandemic, which will never be won if the political ballerinas continue to hold control. So let's screw the economy and save the people.

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

Survival.

        It is accepted that prisons are places of violence, brutality and arbitrary justice, state institutions of repression and intimidation. However during this pandemic, prisons have become places of death sentences through the covid19 virus. Over crowded, insanitary conditions, poor or non-existent health care, is the perfect mixture for the spread of the virus, with the inmates having no possibility of self isolating. Cold blooded inhumanity, upheld by laws and regulations administered by the state. Like all repression, there comes a time when the only road to survival is rebellion. 

The following from AMW English: 

        219 prisoners escaped from Moroto Prison on Wednesday after prisoners were exposed to coronavirus. One soldier was killed by prison rebels, who stormed an armory and seized over 15 weapons and ammunition.
       Only seven out of 219 prisoners who escaped from the prison in north-eastern Uganda have been recaptured.
        Two prisoners have also been murdered during their escape attempt.
       The prison, which usually imprisons 600 people, is on the foothills of Mount Moroto, on the edge of the town.
       The escape was triggered by the transfer of 60 other prisoners to Jinja Referral Hospital for treatment after they tested positive for COVID-19.
     There was exchange of fire between security and the prison rebels who were scaling up mountain Moroto.
     The prisoners who escaped had been tested, but their results were withheld, leading to their decision to escape.
     As prisons around the world are turned into death traps by guards who infect prisoners with the deadly coronavirus, prison rebels will increasingly be forced to escape and fight back in order to survive.

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