Opportunity.

         I keep saying the same thing, because I believe it should be the main focus of our struggle to create that new normal in our favour. This pandemic is an opportunity, and is being used as such, to further the state and capitalism's aims, with a vicious attack on our living standards, an increase in privatisation, shedding of labour, crushing of autonomous spaces, curtailing the voices of the independent thought, crushing dissent, and the creation of a subservient population, that they hope will subdue any mass protests as anger grows over our deteriorating conditions, and ensure their success.
       We have to see the pandemic as our opportunity. We will never beat them by legislation and/or appealing to the various political parties, this whole edifice to finance, that shackles populations to an economy that favours the few, will only be beaten in our communities with mutual aid, in our workplaces by workers control, and on the streets by mass protests that lead to that dramatic revolutionary change in the structure of society in favour of our class, all the people. We abandon the streets at our peril.

The following is an extract from APO Squat-Host:

        Neither with prisons, nor with laws, fascism can be smashed only in the streets.

     -------Seven years after Fyssas death, we are facing the outbreak of the covid-19 pandemic and the intensification of State’s and Capital’s attack to the society. The beginning of a new round of pillage of the social base, with main points: labor’s devaluation, the abolition of social insurance, the continuation of privatisations, as also the restructuring of educational system and the criminalisation of syndicalist action. From the normalization of the state emergency through the repression of social and class movements and especially the anarchists/antiauthoritarians, the evictions of squats, the police occupations of entire areas, to the banning of demonstrations and the generalized upgrading of the legislative arsenal against the people of the struggle. From the expansion of war against refugees and migrants and their attempts that aim to their demonization and their extinction from the public space, their incarceration into concentration camps, to the looting of nature, through the activation of capitalist engines of development that destroy local communities, mountains, rivers, lakes, seas and forests, in the name of profit and of their total imposition over humans and nature.

       State’s repression constitutes today the dominant component of State’s policy. This declaration of war against all of those who are struggling, is a part of the systematical attempt of the Greek State to subdue social and class resistances and impose a complete submission for society that goes on for decades. An attempt that was blocked by the massive mobilisations, revolts and struggles over the last years.
        With solidarity as our weapon, let’s continue the counter-attack against state and capitalist brutality. Let’s revitalize social and class resistance. The only real answer against war, nationalism and fascism born and raised by the state and capital, is the organisation of the social and class counter-attack. Without any illusions that the exploitation and repression system can improve, without any illusions that any government can raise a real barrier against fascism, let’s fight together from below, with internationalist and class solidarity as our weapon. Let’s struggle together, locals and migrants, workers and students, for the construction of a society of equality, justice, solidarity and freedom.
       We do not forget Pavlos Fyssas assassination on September 18, 2013 at Keratsini. We do not forget the assassinations of S. Luqman, Al. Grigoropoulos, Zak Kostopoulos and P. Zifle

 The current text was written before the Golden Dawn’s trial on 8th of October 2020.

Read the full article HERE:

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Eviction.

   

         The continuous drive by the state marches on relentlessly, it drives on its desire to crush any form of dissent, independent living or thought. State after state proceeds with its heavy handed evictions and closure of autonomous spaces, it will take the relentless drive by all independent thinkers and groups to return this savagery back on the perpetrators. If you desire a fair society with freedom of expression, thought and action, then you must get behind those fighting this brutal drive for a subservient population. Perhaps you think that the eviction of a squat doesn't affect you, but it does, it means that in the society that you live, the right to an alternative thought and way of life has been curtailed by brute force, savage action against people who are trying to create that better life for themselves and others, is that the type of society that you can live with?

 The following from 325:

Berlin: Liebig34 is evicted (Germany)
October 12th, 2020
9 October 2020
          It feels incredible to type these words into the keys: The Liebig34 is cleared.
          At 7:00 a.m. Robocops started sawing and flexing fences, doors, windows and barricades and at 11:00 a.m. the last inhabitants* of the Liebig34 were dragged out of the rooms.
          We are sad. We are crying. We are exhausted. WE ARE ANGRY.
          They can‘t imagine the determination they have awakened in us. This act of violence will explode in an act of counter-violence and self-defense. Already so much solidarity has happened in the last nights, months, years and has shown what we are capable of doing. This eviction is a moment of radicalization. We can use it and together we can express our hatred for this shit.
          Even if the press, politicians, cops and Nazis are now taking pleasure in our loss, we are turning powerlessness into anger. So many borders have been crossed. We shout NO in your spiteful eats. You can have our house, you will never get our passion. We are so much more than this house – we are anarchists, feminists, queers and antifascists who will now channel their anger and attack capitalist patriarchy to the last.
         We call for the demo from 21:00 in Monbijoupark. We call for decentralized actions. Let us experience a wild and chaotic October together!
34 million property damage – we are already well on the way.
Liebig34 lives. Liebig34 fights.

Liebig34

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Toblerone.

         Switzerland, most people view it as a rather idyllic small country, a picturesque land of mountains, loved by climbers, artists and photographers, famous for chocolate, cheese with holes in it, and the cuckoo clock. However it has another side, it is famous among the rich and powerful for its dark and secret dens where they hide their money. Millionaires, billionaires aristocracy, and others of that ilk, can, in this small state, stash their ill gotten gains far away from the prying eyes of the tax man and many, many do. This is not a box beneath somebodies bed in a mountain village, this is a very lucrative money making racket for the powers that be in picturesque Switzerland, a big slice of its economy. Like all other nation states, perhaps a little different in its structure, it has all the trimmings of the state and its repressive apparatus, also like any other capitalist country, it has inequality, injustice, and repression, and like any other capitalist state, the people there are taking to the streets to voice their desire for a fair and just system that benefits all our people.
         The following from Act For Freedom Now:

 

         On 1st August about 300 people took to the streets in Bern against the myth of Switzerland. Our criticisms were addressed to the main four subjects of the Swiss history. Colonialism, reification, antisemitism and patriarchy. But these are only few of the many reasons why Switzerland shouldn’t be celebrated as such. In the end police fired rubber bullets at demonstrators because of a little paint against Amtshaus [district office] thereby deliberately putting people’s lives at risk. Police also lined up outside symbolic buildings during today’s demonstration, thus showing that they defend the history of oppression and are behind it.
      Unfortunately, due to the heat and the short duration of the mobilization we couldn’t reach all the people we mentioned in today’s appeal. Many questions posed by the demo couldn’t be transmitted as we would have liked, for example with creative slogans or speaking. However, today’s demonstration was necessary, and through the solidarity of those there it was able to give a necessary signal in the times of the Coronavirus crisis.

 

       In spite of Corona we were not few today and gave an example against the history of Switzerland with a militant demonstration. With this demonstration we wanted to show why States must not be celebrated. They promote and support forms of oppression in order to use them in order to exist. Society is formed by capitalism and the State in such a way that it cannot function according to solidarity but can only serve profit. Those who don’t serve exploitation fall into the trap of the system. This inhumanity occurs every day all over the world. For this reason we don’t support the system of States, we fight it. Covid19 shows us that the system is fragile and is not there to support us. The health of millions of people could not and cannot be guaranteed and many companies have proceeded with massive layoffs – many more will follow in order to save the system. The countries where the health system is in an even more disastrous condition due to the exploitation of the West are faring even worse.
         All over the world it is clear how the concept of State is only being kept alive through the suffering of the many. Protests against State authority have been increasing all over the world in recent months, but instead of taking these protests seriously governments are violently trying to silence the demonstrators. We are in solidarity with all these protests and today, also in Switzerland, we gave a signal against the politics of oppression and exploitation carried out through capitalism, racism, sexism and many more isms.
Source: Barrikade.info
Translated by act for freedom now!

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EU Camp.

          In this complex matrix of finance, resources, nationalism, borders, corporate powers, trade deals, arms industry and wars, it is easy to get lost in the political debate of cause and effect. However if we step outside the standard narrative of the powers that be, it is really quite simple. 99% of all the ills that plague the people of this planet can simply be laid at the door of the economic system that prevails and corrupts all our lives. A system of exploitation and greed, with power and privilege for the few. A system that through its power-blocks, borders and wars, spawns migrants, poverty, misery, deprivation, homelessness, and paints a distorted picture of those fleeing the systems inevitable painful and brutal results. All backed up by a propaganda machine that bellows the poisonous illusion that migrants are a danger to our way of life, our culture and are just risking death across thousands of dangerous miles, to get on our benefits system and take advantage of our wonderful social services. Though those locals who live on those benefits and rely on those social service, could tell them that it is not worth crossing the road for them, let alone half the world.

The Following from Enough is Enough:

Lesvos. Greece. A statement by some of the Enough collective, who are on Lesvos at the moment.
Published by Enough 14.
         Once again some of the Enough 14 collective are on the Balkan route, where Europe’s true face comes to the surface. This time we are on Lesvos, the island that showed Fortress Europe’s ugly face through the inhuman Moria camp. Apart from the lost of the very few belongings of its inhabitants, the fear and the suffering in the new camp, its actually not a bad thing when an inhuman camp like Moria burned down.
        Many things have been said about the outer borders of the European Union, it should be clear by now that the dying in the Mediterranean Sea, the repression, pushbacks, imprisonment and suffering on the Balkan route are designed and therefore deliberate policies.
       After the fire in Moria the conditions for refugees on Lesvos, became even worse. People were forced to go into the new camp, where there is no running water, only one meal per day, insufficient sanitary facilities, a lack of about anything. On top of that authorities banned the distribution of food and water outside of the camp. The repression against refugees and people who support them is growing fast. Greek authorities claim they are investigating 33 people from four different NGO’s for the formation of a criminal association and Espionage. In reality they are inverstigated because they support refugees.
      On Lesvos the cops are everywhere. Harassing refugees and people who support them. To get an idea what happens when people try to distribute food or water to refugees, it can happen that you get chased by Delta cops on motor bikes. A wild pursue through Mytilene for distributing food or water to people in need. Welcome to Europe 2020.
     Were not wondering about the systematic repression, it’s the logical consequence of a system against life. What is wondering us, is the starry-eyed understanding of the system were living in. The European Union and its member states were never about solidarity. Its a capitalist economic union and therefore its always about money and its competative position in the capitalist order. Human rights are sometimes useful to use as a PR measure, but normally they don’t play a role in everyday politics in the European Union. The capitalist order is the reason that people are forced to leave their homes. Trade treaties at the expense of the global South, arms exports, the growing climate catastrophe, and the wars that the EU and its member states support with their “peace” missions. In other words, the capitalist way of life and its colonialized structures are systematicly producing refugees.
        Colonialism was never away, it has only changed its face. Our rulers know that their colonial policies will produce more and more refugees. That’s why they designed Fortress Europe, its a cruel attempt to scare-off people from coming to Europe. The result of this deliberate policies are tens of thousands of deaths in the Mediterranean Sea. As a consequence our rulers did not open safe routes for refugees, but instead started a wave of repression against sea rescue operations. And yet people are appealing to the people that are responsible for this structural mess, to make it a bit more human. Although its obvious that the European borders policies are designed to keep a Europe for the Europeans.
       As long as there is an starry-eyed understanding of the colonizisation policies of the European Union and its member states, which have always meant death and oppression, as long as we don’t fight the capitalist order with all consequences, we will not be able to put an end to Europe’s border policies. We have to unite our struggles and instead of asking for reforms, we must put an end to authoritarian capitalist rule.

Connecting struggles!
Smash the capitalist death machine!
Solidarity with the defendants of the Brennero trial!
Solidarity with the comrades struggling against the Nea Demokratia Mafia!
Solidarity with Liebig 34, Terra Incognita, Notara 26 and Danny stays!

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The Nobodies----

        A poem by one of us, Eduardo Galeano, who stood tall and faced the system with determined defiance, poetry and wit. 

The Nobodies--

Fleas dream of buying themselves a dog, and nobodies dream
of escaping poverty: that one magical day good luck will
suddenly rain down on them- will rain down in buckets. But
good luck doesn't even fall in a fine drizzle, no matter
how hard the nobodies summon it, even if their left hand is
tickling, or if they begin the new day with their right foot, or
start the new year with a change of brooms.

The nobodies: nobody's children, owners of nothing. The
nobodies: the no ones, the nobodied, running like rabbits,
dying through life, screwed every which way.

Who don't speak languages, but dialects.
Who don't have religions, but superstitions.
Who don't create art, but handicrafts.
Who don't have culture, but folklore.
Who are not human beings, but human resources.
Who do not have names, but numbers.
Who do not appear in the history of the world, but in the
police blotter of the local paper.
The nobodies, who are not worth the bullet that kills them 

Eduardo Galeano

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Self Defence.

          Though the present has an abundance of those who are taking on the system with dedication and principle, putting their own lives on the line to fight against this corrupt system of exploitation and greed, it is still inspiring and informative to look back at some of those who stood tall in the face of the brutality of this capitalist insanity, inequality and injustice. I have always seen any protest against the present system, no matter how it turns out, to be nothing more than self defence, and that is surely everybody's entitlement. Lucy Parsons was one of the many, who saw the system for what it was and spoke out loud and clear for all to hear.

The following from Wear Your Voice:

Described as “more dangerous than a thousand rioters”, Lucy Parsons’ writings and speeches were reflective of her time and continue to be relevant today.
        The summer of 2020 was ~eventful~ in terms of political focus on anarchists and anarchism. I rolled my eyes every time an American politician blamed anarchists for chaos, showing clearly how willfully ignorant they were about anarchism as a philosophy.
       With all that in mind, I wanted to delve more deeply into the history and words of Lucy Parsons. Her life was also marked with American politicians blaming chaos on anarchists, though this was in the late 1800s. Reading Lucy Parsons: American Revolutionary ended up hitting way too close to home, considering it was about events that happened more than a century ago. I took a lot away from the book, but the biggest takeaway is how applicable Parsons’ ideology remains in today’s political climate.
        I would be wrong not to mention that Parsons was far from perfect. Her views on sex workers and sexual liberation were antiquated—causing strife between her and Emma Goldman. That being said, I personally believe Goldman was afforded privileges Parsons never got because of race. Parson’s treatment of her son, who she had committed to an asylum, was also abhorrent. Still, reading about her life and her ideologies has been illuminating.
      So, here are four Lucy Parsons quotes to turn to for the rest of this cursed year:
      “If the Anarchists had thrown the bomb at the Haymarket they didn’t commit a crime nor violate any law. The Constitution gives the people the right to repel any unlawful invasion in any way they see fit.”
        This just feels so pertinent when we look at the so-called violence and looting during protests this summer. I’ve written about it before, but fighting against oppressors is justified violence—it’s self-defense. Now I personally think the Constitution is relatively shitty considering who was included in drafting it, but I can’t argue with Lucy’s logic here.
“And some did rest their chins upon their clenched hands And swear to help abolish the infamous system that could produce such abject misery… And some did gnash their teeth and howl, swearing dire vengeance against all tyrants.”
      To me, this so perfectly describes the organizers and revolutionaries who are working so hard to dismantle the systems that oppress us. We cannot forget that the uprisings of this summer came after years of organizing and struggling by mostly Black people, who have been working for liberation for centuries (and more recently, since Ferguson). The activation of people during this summer’s actions has hopefully produced a new group of people who “swear to abolish the infamous system,” whether that be capitalism, the carceral state, settler colonialism, or all of them (inshaAllah).
        RECOMMENDED: Anarcha-Feminists of the Past and Present are an Inspiration for Today
        “Will you deny that your jails are filled with the children of the poor, not the children of the rich? Will you deny that men steal because their bellies are empty?”
        Prison and police abolition are undoubtedly having a moment right now. When we talk about abolition, the conversation isn’t only about what would be abolished, but also about what would be created. This quote by Parsons illuminates how so much crime in our country is caused by lack of resources and opportunity, where punishment by the carceral state does nothing but exacerbate the conditions that caused the crime in the first place. It feels as though more people are finally willing to accept that the system we’ve been told is meant to provide justice does no such thing. Rather, it is a symptom of a racialized capitalism, one that criminalizes poverty, especially when those who are poor are Black, brown, disabled, and/or sex-working.
         “The present social system is rotten from top to bottom. You must see this and realize that the time has come to destroy it.”
          This is the one that lights a fire under my ass (and enrages me). People have known that capitalism is untenable and immoral since the 1800s. We must resist the narrative that it’s the natural order of things and embrace the idea that no one person should control wealth in such a way that others are left without enough to live comfortably. It is far past time to destroy the systems that support cisheteropatriarchy, capitalism, carcerality, and colonialism. So, let’s get to it.

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

Inequality.

         This world is awash with wealth in all shapes and forms, but it is very thinly spread on the majority of the world's population. By far the largest heap of that wealth, though created by the many, is heaped on the few. It is poured over and accumulated by the few, those who own and manage this brutal system of exploitation. Ever since the inception of capitalism, this has been so, but the efficiency of the system of production and exploitation has raced ahead at an unbelievable speed, creating wealth at an ever growing rate, but the distribution has always gone in favour of those owners and mangers of the system. The discrepancy between those few and the many has reach utterly gross and unacceptable inhumane proportions. Poverty and deprivation sprawls over our cities and towns, doorways become beds, food banks the accepted way of life for millions, and death by starvation for many, many more. Yet, within reach and plain view, we see luxury cars, private jets, grand mansions, lavish yachts and a swaggering coterie who weave the illusion that they are entitled to this life style.
        The chasm between these two groups, the many who create all that wealth, and the few who plunder it, is creating an ever growing anger and the many are starting to openly seek redress and justice. However justice will only come when this entire system of exploitation is torn asunder and replaced by a system of equality and fairness, a sustainable system freed from the cancer that is profit, a system moulded round the needs of all our people, and an end to power and privilege for the few. Though the following article is about U$A, it applies equally across the planet.

The following from Struggle-la-lucha:
 

     Almost 13 million people in the U.S. are “officially” jobless. The real number is far higher. Many haven’t received an unemployment check in weeks. Then there’s Jeff Bezos, who runs Amazon and owns the Washington Post. His stash ballooned by another $72 billion in the last six months.
       Over a million people have died of the coronavirus around the world. More than 210,000 expired in the United States of Trump. But it’s been party time for the super rich. Millions line up at food pantries and worry about being evicted or losing their home. Meanwhile, U.S. billionaires gained another $845 billion in wealth according to the Institute for Policy Studies. 
        This nearly trillion-dollar gain during the pandemic is merely dessert for these parasites. They’ve been having a feast for nearly 50 years. If workers were receiving the same share of the economy as they had in 1975, their wages would have approximately doubled by 2018. The bottom quarter of wage earners would be taking home an average of $61,000 per year instead of $33,000. Those in the middle would be making $92,000 instead of $50,000.
      These figures represent another $2.5 trillion dollars stolen every year from poor and working people by the wealthy and powerful. The study showing this “Grand Theft Payday” was commissioned by Seattle’s Fair Work Center and carried out by the RAND Corporation, a Pentagon think tank. Inequality has become so massive and repulsive that it’s obvious to RAND analysts who usually work for the military-industrial complex.
Big Capital’s counterattack
        This massive transfer of income isn’t the result of sunspots or UFOs. It’s the product of a worldwide class struggle between the rich and the rest of us. The class struggle doesn’t just include workers on strike or future union organizing drives at Amazon or Walmart. Every fightback against oppression is a class struggle.
     The Black Lives Matter movement is a class struggle. So is the struggle of the Filipino people against the U.S.-backed dictatorship of Rodrigo Duterte. Transgender people trying to survive is a class struggle.
       The height of the Black liberation struggle was in the 1960s and early 1970s. The master class was pushed back.
       The Vietnamese people defeated the Pentagon war machine. Africans in Angola, Guinea-Bissau and Mozambique won independence. French workers carried out a general strike in 1968.
       Big Capital staged a counteroffensive. Dozens of Black Panther Party members were murdered by police. New York Gov. Nelson Rockefeller massacred the Attica prisoners. Decades before Iraq was invaded, war criminals Donald Rumsfeld and Dick Cheney were destroying anti-poverty programs for President Richard Nixon.

Read the full article HERE:

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Solidarity.

       That blood soaked part of the planet that goes by the name of South Africa, where millions of lives were brutally blighted, for generations, by the colonialist regime of Apartheid, may have, through a bloody and savage battle broken the chains of that particular shackle, but like the rest of us, in this capitalist system, is still struggle for justice and freedom. At present the workers there are in the midst of a general strike, fighting the usual capitalist malaise, greed, corruption, violence, state repression and corporate bosses slashing at conditions and wages. They deserve all the solidarity and support that we can muster, their struggle is our struggle. In the battle for justice and freedom from exploitation we see no borders.

The following from IndustriALL Global Union: 

       8 October, 2020Thousands of workers took to the streets of South Africa’s main cities and towns to protest corruption, gender-based violence, and to protect jobs and collective bargaining agreements from arrogant employers.
     The national strike, on 7 October, which coincided with World Day for Decent Work, was called by the Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) with support from the other main federations: the Federation of Unions of South Africa (FEDUSA), the South African Federation of Trade Unions (SAFTU), and the National Council of Trade Unions (NACTU).
      IndustriALL Global Union’s five affiliates in South Africa belong to three of the federations. The combined membership of the federations represents millions of workers. The unions say the law should be used to deal with corruption through prosecution, and anti-corruption strategies should be put in place.
       The unions wanted an end to gender-based violence and for the government to ratify Convention 190 on curbing violence and harassment at work, and to develop an implementation plan. The gender pay gap must also be closed.
       On health and safety, unions want employers to comply with labour laws and not leave the burden on workers and their families.

 André Kriel, SACTWU general secretary said: 

“The COSATU strike is significant because it is unifying. It confirms concretely that all South African workers, irrespective of union federation affiliation, are crystal clear about common core issues which they must fight in the current conjuncture: corruption in the public and private sector, job losses, attacks on collective bargaining and gender-based violence”.

IndustriALL general secretary Valter Sanches said:

“We are in solidarity with the millions of South African workers who are fighting for jobs, against gender-based violence, and for the protection of collective bargaining. These are issues at the core of union activities, and employers should not be allowed to destroy what the union has gained through years of struggle.”

Read the full article HERE:

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

Dreamers.

       The news feeds us with tales of woe, fashions us visions of doom and dread, paints an illusion that only the concerted action of our caring government can get us out of this mess, but deep down you know there is another way, far removed form saving the economy and herd immunity. 

  WALK WITH THE POETS.

My head has had enough of you,
you doomsday sooth-sayers, and
rationalists, that trap us in the world that is.
Go weave your tales of “can't be done”
to the dead, and those of no imagination.
I want to walk with the utopian,
the dreamer and the poet,
laugh with the child and sing with the wind.
Run with the deer, not with “the market trend”
Enough of, “this is the way it has to be”,
a world of poverty, wars and inequality.
Now, I'll create the world I want to see,
A world of sharing, peace and liberty.
I want the children to plan tomorrow,
the adult help them get there,
trees and flowers our treasured possessions,
with birds and animals their keepers.
Who wants a world that chains us to mortgage,
binds us to a labouring day, just to eat bread?
Who wants to spend their life, feeding fat-cats
while their own children go hungry?
No, this is not the world that has to be,
in our foolishness and misplaced trust,
this is a world that has slithered over us,
poisoning our mind, putrefying our spirit.
Let's call on the poet, let's welcome the dreamer,
let's take council with the utopian,
They'll help us create a better world for all.

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Choices.

(Image: Daily Record/Tom Ross)

        Stefan King, reputed to be worth a cool £54 million, owner of Glasgow's Corinthian, Delmonica's and The Social, has suggested that his staff take three months unpaid leave to save their jobs, not to save his company of course. He has also put it in such a fashion that he is doing them a favour. This is the same Stefan King who was back in 2015 reputed to be paying staff below the minimum wage, and in 2019 had questions raised by the Gambling Commission about suspected money laundering at his Corinthian gambling club.
        No doubt as the catastrophe that is Covid19, and the ticking time bomb that is the Brexit fiasco, burst upon us, we will see more of these type of offers coming from those extremely wealthy corporate beasts as they try to milk the situation for all it is worth.
        As unemployment soars and social services diminish, there is very hard times in store for us the ordinary people. What are we going to do about this sledgehammer of poverty and deprivation that is about to strike us? Shall we appeal to our lords and masters the political ballerinas, to please take our taxpayers money and give it to the corporate world so that they will employ us again? Or will we look inwards towards our communities and organise mutual aid, self help, co-operatives and take what we need for the welfare of all our people. Commandeer those workplaces that we deem to be necessary for the health and well-being of our communities. Take control of our own lives and decide how we want to live without the exploitation of the profit driven capitalist system, owned and controlled by muti-billionaires, who by the way, while you and I have seen our struggles stiffen,  have seen their wealth grow immensely during this pandemic. The choice is ours to make, accept more of the same, or take control of the change we want to see.

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

Bonfire.

         Obvious where I lifted the image from, but thought it suited a wee verse I wrote some years ago.

The Propagandist.

When the hordes run with their flaming torches
When they light the torch of freedom
Burning all injustices
Scorching all hypocrisies
Making a bonfire of poverty
Throwing dogma, patriotism, and religion on the flames
I'll be there, among them with my box of matches. 

 

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

Farce.

         It seems that despite the covid19 lockdown, there is a long running farce continuing in Belgium. Though I have no doubt, even with the pandemic, such theatricals are being performed in cities across the world. If it was not so pathetic, vindictive and cruel, we could laugh.

The following from Act For Freedom Now:

 

The one spectacle that continues despite viruses and lockdowns (Belgium)

         While the cultural sector is still debating social distancing restrictions with whatever politician appears to be in charge, one venue keeps on hosting its spectacles in spite of everyone. So we are disgusted to announce to you the upcoming theatrical performance taking place on the 8th and 9th of October 2020 in the Palais de Justice in Brussels (that Moloch built on top of the proletarian Marolles and adored by many authoritarians for its oppressive bombast).
        Since it concerns an appeal case there will be no original content, alas! But be prepared for the rerun of unbelievable acts by the magician and prosecutor Malagnini. Watch as he just needs to add one person to another to create the illusion of an organization, while putting one accusation he just came up with on the table to suddenly find yourself faced with a criminal organization. (His previous act where he would demonstrate the existence of a terrorist organization got cancelled after even the managers of the venue thought of it as too far fetched.) Stand in amazement how fireworks in solidarity with locked-up immigrants gets twisted to fit the incredible story of an arson attack against those same people. Be blown of your feet by how the simple fact that there is no proof is, in fact, … the proof. (“Of course, since the modus operandi of the accused is that they remain unidentifiable. A proven hypothesis because we could not identify them. Aha!”) Wait with anguish for the appearance on stage of the magician’s assistant and investigative magistrate Panou. See how she is able (is she though?) to explain that an investigation going out on a fishing expedition to find accusations against persons is not at all proactive (gathering intelligence in view of deeds that didn’t happen yet or are unknown) but indeed reactive (starting from specific acts to identify their authors). (“Yes, your honour, a proactive investigation would have been illegal under the circumstances. But! Somewhere, at some moment, something happened. So! It is a reactive investigation, in hindsight …”)
        This is only a small and bitter taste of the infamous show that is already going on in Belgium since 2009 in the police departments and since 2016 in the juridical corridors. A show that distorts years of struggles and combative bounds against deportations, prisons, borders and other institutions of this oppressive society. We know that our individual lives and collective experiences will never fit their narrative, even if the collaborators in the rewriting of this clueless plot are eager to unveil their culprits to the audience.
         So we invite you to do as you please on the 8th and 9th of October (the accused will do the same).
We’ll speak,
       Anarchists concerned (more or less) by current events in Brussels, but not exclusively.

P.S. A verdict will be expected in the month following the pitiful event.
P.S.2 More information on the trial: https://actforfree.nostate.net/?p=33414 & https://actforfree.nostate.net/?p=33891

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

Thoughts.

 

     Thoughts and words, melodies and rhymes, rhythms and beats, weave patterns, paint pictures, tell stories, portray hopes and fears. 

THE HIGH AND MIGHTY.

Politicians, high priests of the holy church
of greed,
yours are the crimes from which the many
bleed.
See, vice and corruption make their
stand,
with brutal tyranny, walk hand
in hand;
your arrogant minds, lost in ambition’s
cloud,
oblivious to the suffering of the humble
crowd.
When poverty’s knife makes our people
bleed,
your cancerous power is all you ever
feed,
holding high some ego-inflating avaricious
plan
that divides, soon pits man against
man.
Now anguish and war mark your mad
career,
covering our world in the brume of
fear,
then shedding youth’s blood by cruel
deceit,
with spurious pomp, lay the guilt at
another’s feet.
As we fall heir to a plundered
land 

  you tyrants walk in manner
grand,
what must we do to make you
yield
to see our children play in a bloodless
field?
Smash and crush your dark nefarious
power
allowing love and peace to freely
flower.

THE MURMUR OF THE POOR.

Brokers, bankers, Earls and Dukes,
callous, mercenary, pirate crew
gasconading through the land
bloated, pampered, privileged few.
Striding with selfish arrogance
plundering as you go
grasping at the fruits
the common people sow.

Take heed, you swaggering fat-cats,
in our world you don’t belong,
that murmur you hear is the poor
rehearsing an angry song.

The day is fast approaching
when our chorus loud you’ll hear,
then all your greed and treachery
will surely cost you dear.

A price you’ll pay for being blind
to the hungry at your door,
oh, haste the day our angry chorus
becomes a mighty roar.

THERE WILL COME A TIME.

There will come a time when the hordes remember,
who bound our grand-parents to the yoke of oppression,
who sentenced our parents to deprivation,
who bid poverty sink its teeth into our heart,
who teach our children, greed is a noble art.
Who sent our sons through the gates of hell
to a litany of cambist brawls,
crammed coffers with blood-stained gold
while laughing in Ares’ halls.
“Who does these terrible things to us?” they will ask,
and when they remember,
they’ll bring an energy that is endless
to drive a fist that is fearless.
Then this merciless market-driven world will crumble
under an insurrection of integrity,
the poor will emerge from the dark husk of capitalism
to live in the light of social justice.
There will come a time when the hordes remember. 

 
I WANT TO BELIEVE!

I want to believe
All that is good is out there
Sleeping in hearts that live in dark valleys,
About to blossom like some magic woodland,
In spite of war, in spite of greed
The essence that is humanity struggling to be free.
All around death arrives in many guises,
Silent as the frost poverty kills,
The ruthless march of war
With every drum beat seeks God’s blessing,
While the God fearing kill the God fearing,
Slaughter in the name of the greater good.

I want to believe
All that is good is out there
Sleeping in the hearts that live in dark valleys
About to blossom like some magic woodland,
Not just as the dream of poets.

 

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

Nobodies.

          When poetry steers the mind, what else can you do but follow.

Fascism: I sometimes fear---

I sometimes fear that
people think that fascism arrives in fancy dress
worn by grotesques and monsters
as played out in endless re-runs of the Nazis.

Fascism arrives as your friend.
It will restore your honour,
make you feel proud,
protect your house,
give you a job,
clean up the neighbourhood,
remind you of how great you once were,
clear out the venal and the corrupt,
remove anything you feel is unlike you---

It doesn’t walk in saying,
“Our programme means militias, mass imprisonments,
transportations, war, and persecution.

Michael Rosen, 2014.

 The Nobodies--

Fleas dream of buying themselves a dog, and nobodies dream
of escaping poverty: that one magical day good luck will
suddenly rain down on them- will rain down in buckets. But
good luck doesn't even fall in a fine drizzle, no matter
how hard the nobodies summon it, even if their left hand is
tickling, or if they begin the new day with their right foot, or
start the new year with a change of brooms.
The nobodies: nobody's children, owners of nothing. The
nobodies: the no ones, the nobodied, running like rabbits,
dying through life, screwed every which way.
Who don't speak languages, but dialects.
Who don't have religions, but superstitions.
Who don't create art, but handicrafts.
Who don't have culture, but folklore.
Who are not human beings, but human resources.
Who do not have names, but numbers.
Who do not appear in the history of the world, but in the
police blotter of the local paper.
The nobodies, who are not worth the bullet that kills them

Eduardo Galeano 

In Those Years.

In those years, people will say, we lost track
of the meaning of us, of you
we found ourselves
reduced to I
and the whole thing became
silly, ironic, terrible:
we were trying to live a personal life
and, yes, that was the only life
we could bear witness to

But the great dark birds of history screamed and plunged
into our personal weather
They were headed somewhere else but their beaks and pinions drove
along the shore, through the rags of fog
where we stood saying I

Adrienne Rich. Dark Fields Of The Republic.

The Individualist Hymn

Before dying in the mud on the streets
we would imitate Bresci and Ravachol;
anyone who extends a hand to you, bourgeoisie,
is a person unworthy of looking at the sun.

Grinding machines tear the beggars to pieces
and their wives are forever pale and weeping,
The fields remain fallow, the miners buried
and the workers crushed forever by murder.

And to those who don’t give in, open the tombs,
prepare the bombs, sharpen the knife,
action is the ideal!

France, on the watch with the guillotine,
chops off the head of anyone who wants to punish her.
Cowardly Spain strangles with a garrote and murderous
Italy guns down those who aren’t accustomed to trembling.

Hanged in America, throats cut in Africa,
forever tortured at Montjuich in Spain,
but the individualist still knows how to strike
the sorry breed of gentleman thugs.

And to those who don’t give in, open the tombs,
prepare the bombs, sharpen the knife,
action is the ideal!

As long as we are a herd it’s appropriate that there’s
a social gang passing laws;
as long as the sun of anarchy doesn’t shine,
we will always see the slaughtering of the populace.

Be very afraid, coppers, when you hear
the dynamite exploding against the oppressors.
We are enemies of all cops and scoundrels,
And one against all, we will scatter them.

And to those who don’t give in, open the tombs,
prepare the bombs, sharpen the knife,
action is the ideal!

No Copyright. 100% DIY. Feel free to reproduce.

 

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

AI Society.

        Covid19, call it what you will, from conspiracy to accident, from inevitable to act of God, from human destruction of nature to error at biological weapons factory, whatever is your poison, you have to admit, it has been a wonderful opportunity for the big corporate beasts and the state. The big boys are all in overdrive to make the most of this pandemic, thousands of small business will go under, the big beasts will survive, grasping at billions in taxpayers money, slashing wages and conditions paying off millions across the globe. At the same time allowing them to monopolise the field if or whenever the economy picks up. At the same time organising to get more automation, more part-time working, working from home and more precarious livelihoods for those who still have a job.
      What we are witnessing is the largest, fastest transformation of society since capitalism was born. The state is pushing ahead with total control, setting ridged limits in the way you live your life, and doing it all "for your benefit". While the corporate world tears to shreds any semblance of a welfare state or public assets, the state apparatus is doing its damnedest to create that submissive population necessary to keep the lid on the anger and frustration that will surely start to boil up. At the moment the evil twins, capitalism and the state, are in control and we, the ordinary people at the receiving end of all this, seem to be unable use the pandemic as an opportunity to shape the evolving future to our needs and desires, while they organise and get on with their agenda. 

 Job: Factory work, would suit A.I. robot, humans need not apply.

The following from The Wrong Kind of Green:

COVID-19 as a Weapon. The Crushing of the Disposable Working Class – by Design

Wrong Kind of Green Apr 13, 2020 Pacifism as Pathology, Social Engineering
By Cory Morningstar
        [Due to the urgent need for the dissemination of this information, the following research is being presented in a simple concise format, similar to a timeline.]
        “The largest economic transformation in the history of mankind” The arrogance and brutality of the ruling class – is nothing less than breathtaking.

Let’s begin.
       April 9 2020, Business Insider: “Many Americans will not have jobs to return to after the coronavirus pandemic ends, according to former US presidential candidate Andrew Yang”: “Many Americans will not have jobs to return to after the coronavirus pandemic ends…” “We’re going to see something like 10 years of change in 10 weeks…”
       “The fact is right now this virus is the perfect environment for companies to get rid of people, bring in robots and machines, and figure out how they can operate more efficiently.”
       “Universal basic income is going to become the topic, not just here in the United States, but Spain’s adopting a version of a minimum income. Legislatures around Europe are all very, very much focused on this.”
     “We’re going to see the progressive Amazonification of our economy as Amazon’s one of the only businesses out there that’s hiring more and more. You’re seeing more robots are in grocery store aisles cleaning after we all supposedly go home…”
       “One thing I’ve been saying is that we’re going to see something like 10 years of change in 10 weeks, because businesses are being put in a position where it makes sense to speed up a lot of the automation that they were considering investing in.”
      “The fact is right now this virus is the perfect environment for companies to get rid of people, bring in robots and machines, and figure out how they can operate more efficiently.”
      “My kids are at home just like everyone else’s kids and they’re getting taught online…they’re going to be many, many families that actually make a different determination where they actually say, “Hey, this online thing is working well.”
       “If you can find a way to, frankly, make yourself useful from afar, that’s going to be something that unfortunately we all have to think about more and more.”
       “I think at this point it’s actually going to need to be a bit higher than that, because the $1,000 a month is enough for baseline needs for at least most of us, but the economy is going to become even more inhuman and punishing, both during this crisis and afterwards.”
      “… I’d be looking at something higher than $1,000 a month that would be more robust & helping people not just be able to meet their needs, but also have a real path forward.”
        “we’re going to be dealing with the consequences of this crisis for years to come, and we need a Marshal Plan style initiative to rebuild the country… helping create that vision for what America in 2022, 2023, is going to look like after we have a vaccine in place.”
         March 31 2020, Business Insider: “RESTAURANT APOCALYPSE: More than 110,000 restaurants expect to close up forever in the coming weeks, with millions out of work and the industry’s future uncertain.”
        And while the Amazonification of our economy ploughs full steam ahead, independent shops and services are pounded into dust, while public services are shut down, opening the door for further privatization. While prepping the citizenry for coming and required “certifications”, the deliberate and violent contraction of the economy continues. The decimation of small enterprise with monetary wealth directed, again, upward. McDonald’s, Starbucks and Walmart (“essential services”) remain open while small business is forced to remain closed. On April 13 2020, Amazon announced they would hire Amazon will hire an additional 75,000 workers to keep up with its soaring volume of online sales.

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