Bloody Friday.

          Bloody Friday is a date that is branded on the psyche of Glasgow's working class, January, 31st. 1919, (or should be) when people from Glasgow and all around gathered in George Square holding a mass peaceful demonstration in support of the 40 hour week. When some individual among the higher echelons of power, for reasons known to them, ordered the police to attack the crowd. They went in with batons swing and all hell broke loose. Fighting spread across the city and well into the night as the people vented their anger on the police and the authorities. The powers that be got extremely nervous, fearing a revolution being sparked in the Red Clyde and spreading. Their answer was troops, armed with fixed bayonets on the streets of Glasgow, tanks stationed in a warehouse in the east end of the city, and armed soldiers at the gates of docks and other places that the powers that be, deemed strategic.
       I know it's not January, an anniversary or anything like that, but it is an event that we should always try to bring to the attention of the young taking up the struggle for a decent life for all. Though it has been written about by many people I thought it would be nice to hear a voice of one who was there at the time, A Glasgow working class fighter and writer/poet, someone I have admired since I first came across his name while researching the subject at the Caledonian University many years ago, Tom Anderson.

 Bloody Friday.

The Judas Iscariots, disciples of Christ,
Sent out the “Blue Legions”, bought at a price,
To maim and to kill at pleasure of will
The people unarmed who before them stood still.
The “Arm of the Law” read words from a “writ”
Empowering their legion to kill and to whip.
To cover their deeds, the press cried aloud,
“Save, save our good City from Bolshevik shroud!”

The knaves in chorus joined in with the throng:
“Machine them, baton them, drive them along;
Strike down the damned strikers, vermin at that,
The army’s behind you, make good your part.”
“The soldiers of freedom” - - - Christ! What an affair - - -
Stood waiting for orders, to “charge over there.
And sad was the sight, at the dead of night,
Slaves dressed in khaki, without human right.

They marched Khaki slaves through our streets day and night,
To show us the strength of their power and might;
And the poor slaves, bowed down with bayonet and gun,
Felt now they were the plundering Hun.
Christ Almighty! Was there ever a plot so foul,
They played with our men as a fox with a fowl.
Then down came their swoop with an avalanche tread;
And Kirkwood went down, and they cracked Willie’s head.
We fear not their law, nor yet their great men;
We fear not their prisons or blood-gallows pen;
We fear not their priests, or parsons or spies;
We fear not their land away up in the skies.
We laugh at their army, and navy, and king;
We laugh at the god to whom these thieves sing
We laugh,and in earnest we strive for the day
To wipe out the tyrants who do our class slay.

                                                                                Tom Anderson.

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Take Sides.

       You don't like violence, then few people do, so when looking at the violence in our world, where should you direct your anger? At the unimaginable brutal, savage violence of states that bomb cities and countries killing hundreds of thousands of innocent people for power and wealth, that put police armed like robo-cop on the streets of our communities, or those same states that promote and protect corporate organisations that plunder the planet to the extinction of our ecosystem? Or those who would pick up a stone and throw it at the openly violent face of that state apparatus, or who attack the symbols of that violent state machine in hope of bring an end to the whole violent structure of the modern corporate/state system of capitalism? The state is violence, it can only survive by the violent repression of dissent, the state and capitalism are two fangs of the same vicious economic system that spawns mass poverty, deprivation, homelessness, wars, divisions between people across the planet, gross inequality and injustice, these are all degrees of violence. So why shouldn't those at the receiving end of this brutal system take to self defence and fight to destroy it, in an attempt to bring peace and equality to to all our people. When you stand and condemn violence in our society, be thoughtful and careful with which side you stand.

The following from Anarchists News:

Death to the State! Solidarity with Mónica and Francisco.
        Throughout history, anarchists have always suffered persecution by the State. This is because the simple idea of a world, free and in solidarity, where the coercive power of the State is not only unnecessary, but undesirable, is in itself a threat for those who hold power. And those people who put these ideas into practice and confront State violence can take for granted that they will catch the attention of the State's repressive apparatus.
        Mónica Caballero and Francisco Solar are going through that. They were kidnapped by the State on July 24th, 2020. Now they risk spending various years in some Chilean prison.

Freedom for Mónica and Francisco!

         All the support to the struggle of the mapuche people which also suffers the repression of the Chilean State!
         This video was made as part of the Day of Agitation and Propaganda for Anarchist prisoners, August 14, 2020.

[Video transcript and translation below by Anarchist News:]

       Quote on screen: "It's not cruelty, nor thirst for blood, nor any other criminal tendency, what induce a man to attack organized power. On the contrary, it's above all due to a strong social instinct, due to a strong abundance of love and an overflowing of sympathy with the pain and sorrow that surrounds us" - Emma Goldman
Narrator voice-over in Portuguese and subtitles in Spanish:
        "In the morning of July 24th, 2020, the Chilean State arrested Mónica Caballero and Francisco Solar in another attempt to criminalize anarchists. The State tries to disguise all the brutality and violence inherent in its existence by accusing anarchists of violence. But there's no way to compare the violence of colonialism, the military, the police and neo-liberalism, with rocks, Molotov cocktails and other tools used by peoples that resist genocide and oppression, and the destruction of all the ecosystems that maintain all the life on Earth. And it's those same States who are responsible for the greater part of the violence in the world, who feel they have the right to judge us and call that "justice".
        Freedom for Mónica Caballero and Francisco Solar and for all the people that were kidnapped by States!"
       Mónica Caballero addressing the court: "Death to the State and long live anarchy!"
        Francisco Solar addressing the court: "Long live anarchy!"

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Ye're Heroes.

          While my thoughts were wandering through events during this pandemic, I kept remembering all the lauding of the health and care workers. Clap for the NHS, every one a hero, all get together and praise their gallant work. Not for one minute am I suggesting that they didn't deserve all that praise for their unstinting efforts day in day out, to try and protect the communities. However, a decent life with security and income with full safety on the job, would have done them more good than hurray and clapping.
       It's something our lords and masters are good at, their hypocrisy knows no depth to which it will sink, when they need you most expect praise a plenty and clapping a loud, but not much more. This lead me to remember a poem written by James Mitchell, during the time when coal was the fuel that fed the economy and the state war machine, then, miners were heroes.

 

                                                 The Miners.

Ye’re heroes, aye, Ye’re heroes,
When workin’ doon the mine.
They slap yer back an’ praise ye,
Ye’re gallant lads an’ fine,
Toilin’ there among the damp
Where nane o’ them wid daur,
Ye’re heroes, aye, ye’re heroes,
When getting’ coals for war.

They humour ye, praise ye,
as ye keep the bunkers fu’,
An’ the convoys bring the foodstuffs
that they ration out to you;
Or the troopships tak’ yer brithers
To the battlefields afaur,
Ye’re heroes, aye, ye’re heroes
When getting’ coals for war.

They’ll promise ye high heaven,
As the furnace flames ye feed,
In a world that’s mad wi’ murder,
Truth is sacrificed to greed;
As factories belch their smoke-clouds,
An’ their profits daily soar,
Ye’re heroes, aye, ye’re heroes,
When getting’ coals for war.

                                                                                 James Mitchell.

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

Decisions.

          In this world of wars, poverty, deprivation, homelessness, injustice and inequality, for the many, and wealth, opulence, power, pomp and privilege for the few, people across the world take different actions to try to remedy this gross distortion of humanity, which is based on an economic system of insanity. There is dialogue, meetings, debates, protests, pamphlets, direct action, rebellion and insurrection, somewhere in that mix lies the answer to all our problems. We have to decide which road will lead to freedom, justice and equality for all, perhaps it is a mix of all these coming together in solidarity that is the answer. But the debate has to take place and be acted upon in unity, if we want that better world for all, and time is not on our side. 

        As part of that debate Rumoer Issue 2, is worth a read.

 

       The second edition of the anarchist publication Rumoer is out! A publication which will hopefully provoke discussion, irritation, inspiration, agitation, and attack. Because we do not want a raise in wages, but the destruction of work. Because we do not want to shout ‘boo!’ but want to hear BOOM! We want a confrontation without compromise with the system that is destroying our lives and the planet.
      In this issue some extra attention for the rampaging Covid-19 virus. But also just the ongoing anarchist interventions and other topics: an interview with a graffiti maker in Lebanon, the fight against Shell, post-gentrification and the use of the Signal app.
       If you want to receive the new Rumoer, send an email to: rumoer (((A))) riseup /// net. Since most social centres are currently closed, we ask you to help spread the latest edition. Order some extra copies and bring it to your neighbours, isolated family, friends and comrades.
       You can also download the new Rumoer or print it yourself. The link to the downloads can be found at rumoer.noblogs.org
        Remember, the streets are empty, the possibilities are open. Keep 1.5 meters away, but always at least ten times as much from the police!
Download:

Cover
Print PDF
Read PDF

  Radio on
Smartphones on
Films on
Tablets on
Travels bought
Cars bought
Houses bought
Furniture bought
For what?
Trains going
Dollars flowing
Machines going
People toiling
Motors made
Canons made
For whom?
Destroy what destroys you
Bombers flying
Tanks rolling
Cops hitting
Soldiers falling
Stocks protected
Managers protected
The state protected
Against us?
Destroy what destroys you

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Dialogues.

 

       A publication that might prick your thoughts on how do we turn this exploitative economic system that benefits a privileged few, spawns poverty, division, inequality, repression and wars, into a society that sees to the needs of all our people, in a co-operative, fair, just and equitable manner. The dialogue has been going on for centuries, but sooner or later we will have to make up our minds on how to free ourselves from this profit gorging nightmare. Time for us and the ecological system that supports us, and all life on this planet, is fast running out. 

The following from 325:

         PDF: ‘Incendiary Dialogues: For the Propagation of Anarchic Sedition’ (Black International Editions)
Printed copies coming soon…
         We present a new book by Black International Editions, an internationalist project of anarchic diffusion that, from an informal and seditious anarcho-insurrectional intent, resurfaces in Spanish, Portuguese, Italian and English, with a new title: “Incendiary Dialogues: For the Propagation of Anarchic Sedition”. The title is based on a dialogue on the course of the anarchic war between comrades Alfredo Cóspito, Gustavo Rodríguez and Gabriel Pombo da Silva.
        We consciously decided to launch this booklet on May 22, in timely celebration of Chaos Day, remembering anarchist comrade Mauricio Morales, who, on a day like today in 2009 left this life fighting against Power when the bomb he was carrying in his backpack exploded prematurely, detonating a few meters away from the Gendarmerie School in Chile.
        We dedicate this book to all our comrades in prison around the world, with a special dedication to our comrade Alfredo Cóspito, imprisoned in Italy, and to our beloved Gabriel Pombo Da Silva, who was arrested in Portugal and extradited to Spain at the time this book was published. We send all our strength to comrade Gabriel in the face of this new revenge by the authorities for his eternal irreducible struggle.
       This book will have printed versions that will circulate in affinity spaces, among comrades and diverse anarchic projects around the world. We invite you to actively support its diffusion by sharing its digital version, printing copies and/or making presentations and launches wherever there is a willingness to do the impossible in order to spread chaos and extend anarchic warfare.

Editorial collaborators of Black International Editions. 

EN | Incendiary Dialogues: For the Propagation of Anarchic Sedition
ES | Diálogos Incendiarios
PT | Diálogos Incendiarios
IT | Dialoghi incendiari

 

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

State Crimes.

 

 

        The case of Julian Assange receives little or no cover in the mainstream media, why? It is a glaring example of state persecution to stifle and deter anyone from exposing the brutality and lies that form the foundations of their foreign policy for domination of the world's resources. Julian Assange exposed war crimes, savage brutality, the murder of thousands of innocent civilians, all acted out on a fabrication of deliberate lies by the very states that swan around the world pretending to be the defenders of peace and democracy. Where are the army of journalists that spout that they are seekers of the truth, the defenders of free speech, why the silence.

 

     The following is an extract from an article regarding the case of Julian Assange, though in this case I must emphasise that I'm no lover of the messenger in this case, but I whole heartedly agree with the message.

       - - -George Bush and Tony Blair Should be Behind Bars Not Julian Assange The absence of bitterness from John’s conversation with me is remarkable and testimony to his compassion and understanding of world affairs. His admiration for his son’s courage and strength is huge. Julian Assange committed no crimes. He is in a prison cell while real war criminals like George Bush and Tony Blair escape justice. They are the ones who lied and bullied and bribed and blackmailed the UN to try and get a second resolution justifying invading Iraq. They failed.
          The invasion and subsequent occupation were illegal and they should be held responsible for the one million civilian deaths which resulted. The fact Chelsea Manning spent seven years behind bars before her thirty-five-year sentence was commuted by Barack Obama is a disgrace. She was sentenced again last March because she refused to testify against Julian Assange. She spent a year in jail between March 2019 – March 2020. She is the epitome of courage and integrity. Refusing to turn on Assange revealed her inner strength and dignity.
Julian Assange is a Victim of Psychological Torture in UK Custody
        Julian Assange’s father drew attention to the numerous investigations of his son’s incarceration by the United Nations rapporteur on torture and arbitrary detention. Through visits and detailed assessments Professor Nils Melzer compiled damning evidence which showed Julian was indeed a victim of systematic psychological torture for which the UK bears a heavy responsibility:

“The case falls into my mandate in three different ways: First, Assange published proof of systematic torture. But instead of those responsible for the torture, it is Assange who is being persecuted. Second, he himself has been ill-treated to the point that he is now exhibiting symptoms of psychological torture. And third, he is to be extradited to a country that holds people like him in prison conditions that Amnesty International has described as torture. In summary: Julian Assange uncovered torture, has been tortured himself and could be tortured to death in the United States. And a case like that isn’t supposed to be part of my area of responsibility? Beyond that, the case is of symbolic importance and affects every citizen of a democratic country”

        Please read these words from Professor Nils Melzer over and over again and acquaint yourself with his various reports. Exactly ten years to the day after exposing heinous US war crimes, systematic torture and flagrant breaches of international law it is the man who exposed the crimes who is behind bars when it should be the organisers, facilitators and perpetrators of those crimes.
Plague of Malice
         During our interview, I reminded John Shipton of an incredibly apt phrase he used recently when interviewed during Julian’s trial in London. He said his son was subject to a “plague of malice”. I suggested it should be the title of a book detailing how Julian has not been criminally prosecuted - he has been politically persecuted. Persecuted by powerful nations in a vengeful act of revenge for being exposed by Julian as the practiced criminals, liars, and murderers they are. Should Julian Assange be handed over by a British Court to face a life sentence in America for publishing evidence of US government war crimes it is the death knell of investigative journalism and the most serious undermining of free speech and freedom of expression in hundreds of years. The world will be propelled back to the dark ages of medieval dynasties and the denial of democratic rights and freedoms should America be allowed to demand the release of a journalist into their custody for harsh punishment for doing no more than revealing war crimes. It was the celebrated author and forensic social commentator George Orwell who said that journalism is printing what someone else does not want printed; everything else is public relations. But he also advised us that:

In a time of deceit telling the truth is a revolutionary act.

       Please get involved in the various campaigns and online petitions and support groups demanding the release of Julian Assange. His state-sponsored political persecution has no association with justice and everything to do with spite, revenge, and stark warnings to the rest of us. Don’t you dare speak the truth or speak out or stand up against injustices and wicked crimes committed by your governments lest you face the same personal mauling and destruction of character meted out to Julian Assange.- - -

Read the full article HERE: 

 

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

Local Kids.

          The latest issue of The Local Kids, Autumn 2020, No. 6, is just released well worth downloading the PDF and having a wee read.

 

        The last months we saw different shades of curfew being imposed throughout the world. Apparently in this highly developed society (in the sense of the multiplication of institutions and technologies that penetrate every aspect of life) a pandemic can only be dealt with through the most blunt weapon of repression. To come together, to see eye-to-eye, is branded irresponsible and forcibly disbanded, with a glaring exception for profit-making, exploitative relations.
          Physical intimacy and tenderness suddenly become something threatening with deadly consequences. Meetings and physical contact are declared to be something abnormal and forbidden. Don’t kiss, don’t hug, don’t touch. Yes but touch the screens. The physical is banned from our real world and replaced by the virtual. The situation serves as an ideal opportunity to push ahead the total digitalization of all aspects of life. This is the definition of this society of a human life; work and consume, preferably without leaving the confinements of the home and permanently accompanied by a fear of potential infection which puts one in a constant state of anxiety.
          Levels of fear went through the roof not only because of the unknown risks of a potentially deadly virus, but also because of the violence unleashed against perceived potential transmitters. Everyone who doesn’t display the good behaviour of the responsible citizen, is deemed suspect. The understanding of solidarity and responsibility was deformed and equated with obedience and trust in the state. Though not everyone went along with this narrative, the streets and squares did empty. Interaction moved to the internet, a space inherently linked to
surveillance (data gathering) and shaped by unknown or misunderstood parameters (algorithms). Some might accept this (self-)imposed separation and isolation, others are starting to doubt if they want to live a life devoid of encounters that are not ruled by capitalist logic.
          The flow of goods will continue, the economy will be kept alive, the transfer of all aspects of life to the digital will be guaranteed. Thus creating an unstable construct of infrastructure where mobile phone antennas, fibre optic cables and the supply by trucks, trains etc. are more and more important. Could this mean possibilities to sabotage their apparent security at their sensitive points? By experimenting with these possibilities, can we perhaps feel, sense and touch life a little more?

PDFs on thelocalkids.noblogs.org

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

Insanity.

        At the moment the favourite popcorn and bubble gum of the mainstream media is the pandemic and the Trump election. All else in the world is calm and not worth reporting, or so it would seem. However the horror of Iraq still spills blood in buckets full, all those years after we installed "Western democracy", Afghanistan still keeps adding to its dead and maimed, on a daily basis, after 19 years of Western attempts at bring the people "freedom" and to punish them for a event they had no part in, 9/11. Then there is Libya, where the West freed the people by getting rid of an evil man and turned the country into a blood letting tribal battle ground, and now it is about to once again explode as the Western powers have not got the compliant structure that would delivery what they wanted. Then let's not forget Syria, a country where millions have fled their homes, hundreds of thousands have been killed and the slaughter still goes on. A country where a world war is being fought with the people of Syria being the collateral damage. In that country at the moment, Israel, Turkey, Russia, and America, aided and abetted by the EU are shelling, bombing maiming and killing, while the media would have us all focus on the election between a lying, egotistical, psychological deranged, delusional idiot and an authoritarian, money grabbing, duplicitous manipulator, from which the outcome will not alter anything.

Libya

     Add to this mayhem and insanity, the gross ineptitude in handling this pandemic, with the powers that be keeping their emphasis on the economy as that is where their wealth and power lies, without their control of the economy they have nothing, and they will never allow that to happen. So expect this pandemic to continue with its stop-start, spike and leveling off, restrictions on-off and on again. In between all that saving the economy, people will die unnecessarily. And there are those who say that the human is a rational animal.

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WEF Fascism.

       By now it should be obvious to all, that this pandemic has been grasped by the billionaire/millionaire pampered, privileged parasite class, as a wonderful opportunity. They are well organised and with slick sleight of hand have managed to get public to accept that the various states across the globe should pour trillions of dollars/pounds into their coffers, under the guise of keeping jobs and saving the economy, money that you and I the tax payer will have to pay back to the financial mafia when they come a calling for their repayment.. While at the same time ordinary people, losing their jobs through the pandemic, are facing dire poverty and deprivation and are failing to get that same level of support. During this pandemic it is only the extremely wealthy, banks and the international financial institutions who have seen their wealth grow, and grow immensely.

      Those who still see the World Economic Forum as some sort of business/state benign get-together, to try to make the world a better place for all, should take a closer look. It is a well organised, well funded, slick and exclusive club of the very rich, coming together to enhance their power and wealth and dispose of any semblance of democracy in favour of corporate control.

        The following, rather long, but well worth reading, extract is from Winter Oak:

     Born in Ravensburg in 1938, Klaus Schwab is a child of Adolf Hitler’s Germany, a police-state regime built on fear and violence, on brainwashing and control, on propaganda and lies, on industrialism and eugenics, on dehumanisation and “disinfection”, on a chilling and grandiose vision of a “new order” that would last a thousand years.
       Schwab seems to have dedicated his life to reinventing that nightmare and to trying to turn it into a reality not just for Germany but for the whole world. Worse still, as his own words confirm time and time again, his technocratic fascist vision is also a twisted transhumanist one, which will merge humans with machines in “curious mixes of digital-and-analog life”, which will infect our bodies with “Smart Dust” and in which the police will apparently be able to read our brains.
        And, as we will see, he and his accomplices are using the Covid-19 crisis to bypass democratic accountability, to override opposition, to accelerate their agenda and to impose it on the rest of humankind against our will in what he terms a “Great Reset“. Schwab is not, of course, a Nazi in the classic sense, being neither a nationalist nor an anti-semite, as testified by the $1 million Dan David Prize he was awarded by Israel in 2004.
        But 21st century fascism has found different political forms through which to continue its core project of reshaping humanity to suit capitalism through blatantly authoritarian means. This new fascism is today being advanced in the guise of global governance, biosecurity, the “New Normal”, the “New Deal for Nature” and the “Fourth Industrial Revolution”.

    Schwab, the octogenarian founder and executive chairman of the World Economic Forum, sits at the centre of this matrix like a spider on a giant web. The original fascist project, in Italy and Germany, was all about a merger of state and business. While communism envisages the take-over of business and industry by the government, which – theoretically! – acts in the interests of the people, fascism was all about using the state to protect and advance the interests of the wealthy elite.
       Schwab was continuing this approach in a denazified post-WW2 context, when in 1971 he founded the European Management Forum, which held annual meetings at Davos in Switzerland. Here he promoted his ideology of “stakeholder” capitalism in which businesses were brought into closer co-operation with government. Stakeholder capitalism” is described by Forbes business magazine as “the notion that a firm focuses on meeting the needs of all its stakeholders: customers, employees, partners, the community, and society as a whole”.
        Even in the context of a particular business, it is invariably an empty label. As the Forbes article notes, it actually only means that “firms can go on privately shoveling money to their shareholders and executives, while maintaining a public front of exquisite social sensitivity and exemplary altruism”.  But in a general social context, the stakeholder concept is even more nefarious, discarding any idea of democracy, rule by the people, in favour of rule by corporate interests. Society is no longer regarded as a living community but as a business, whose profitability is the sole valid aim of human activity.
    Schwab set out this agenda back in 1971, in his book Moderne Unternehmensführung im Maschinenbau (Modern Enterprise Management in Mechanical Engineering), where his use of the term “stakeholders” (die Interessenten) effectively redefined human beings not as citizens, free individuals or members of communities, but as secondary participants in a massive commercial enterprise. The aim of each and every person’s life was “to achieve long-term growth and prosperity” for this enterprise – in other words, to protect and increase the wealth of the capitalist elite.
       This all became even clearer in 1987, when Schwab renamed his European Management Forum the World Economic Forum. The WEF describes itself on its own website as “the global platform for public-private cooperation”, with admirers describing how it creates “partnerships between businessmen, politicians, intellectuals and other leaders of society to ‘define, discuss and advance key issues on the global agenda’.”
      The “partnerships” which the WEF creates are aimed at replacing democracy with a global leadership of hand-picked and unelected individuals whose duty is not to serve the public, but to impose the rule of the 1% on that public with as little interference from the rest of us as possible.
      In the books Schwab writes for public consumption, he expresses himself in the two-faced clichés of corporate spin and greenwashing. The same empty terms are dished up time and time again. In Shaping the Future of the Fourth Industrial Revolution: A Guide to Building a Better World Schwab talks of “the inclusion of stakeholders and the distribution of benefits” and of “sustainable and inclusive partnerships” which will lead us all to an “inclusive, sustainable and prosperous future”! (1) Behind this bluster, the real motivation driving his “stakeholder capitalism”, which he was still relentlessly promoting at the WEF’s 2020 Davos conference, is profit and exploitation. - - -

Read the full article HERE: 

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Aberfan.

       In the morning of October 21st. 1966, darkness fell on a small village in Wales, on that day, half the children in Aberfan ended their short lives under a mountain of coal slurry. This was no unavoidable accident, nor some "weird act of god", this was death by industrial quest for profit, and gross neglect of its duty of care. Something that should never been allowed to happen and was avoidable.

 The following extract from Wikipedia:

         The Aberfan disaster was the catastrophic collapse of a collieryspoil tip in Wales on 21 October 1966. The tip had been created on a mountain slope above the village of Aberfan, near Merthyr Tydfil, and overlaid a natural spring. A period of heavy rain led to a build-up of water within the tip which caused it to suddenly slide downhill as a slurry, killing 116 children and 28 adults as it engulfed Pantglas Junior School and other buildings. The tip was the responsibility of the National Coal Board (NCB), and the subsequent inquiry placed the blame for the disaster on the organisation and nine named employees.
        There were seven spoil tips on the slopes above Aberfan; Tip 7—the one that slipped onto the village—was begun in 1958 and, at the time of the disaster, was 111 feet (34 m) high. In contravention of the NCB's official procedures, the tip was partly based on ground from which water springs emerged. After three weeks of heavy rain the tip was saturated and approximately 140,000 cubic yards (110,000 m3) of spoil slipped down the side of the hill and onto the Pantglas area of the village. The main building hit was the local junior school, where lessons had just begun; five teachers and 109 children were killed in the school.
        An official inquiry was chaired by Lord JusticeEdmund Davies. The report placed the blame squarely on the NCB. The organisation's chairman, Lord Robens, was criticised for making misleading statements and for not providing clarity as to the NCB's knowledge of the presence of water springs on the hillside. Neither the NCB nor any of its employees were prosecuted and the organisation was not fined. 

         

 

          This of course was not the first or the last mass deaths from industrial drive for profit, nor will it ever be the last as long as profit is the driving force for industry.

        Sometimes these avoidable disasters hit suddenly and with mass deaths, Aberfan, Bhopal, but other times that same drive for profit kills much slower and over many many years, the asbestos disaster that is still with us today as people still die from the results of working with this slow killer. These deaths are nothing short of industrial murder.

         Avoidable industrial deaths will continue to blight the lives of millions of ordinary working people as long as industry is driven by the capitalist model of profit, with profit comes avoidable deaths. Not until we the ordinary workers take over the production of all goods will the health and welfare of the people be at the forefront of all working conditions.    

         Until that day we will have to live with more Abefans, Bhopals and Mesothelioma.

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

His Word.

          Looking for a break from reading and writing about all the insanity of the state/capitalist cesspool with all its poverty, homelessness, gross inequality, exploitation, wars, corruption, deprivation, repression and the greed driven pampered privileged parasites that run this citadel of plunder. After all it has all been said before in a myriad of fashions, all that remains to be done is action, there has been enough words and dialogue is hopeless.
        So I thought I would turn my mind to that other disaster of humanity, religion, especially the Christian religion. Their holy of holy books the bible, raises a lot of questions. So god made Adam from mud and dust and then, I suppose just to do something different he created Eve, but not from the same mud an dust, no, he took a rib from Adam to do the job. Having created his two toys he equipped them both with fully function sexual organs, then forbids them to use them. That's a rather nasty and twisted attitude.
        God having created his two toys in his little garden of Eden, his toys got naughty and started to beget. There naughty behaviour begot two sons. There rises another question, the two sons Cain and Able went and done what lots of young men do they went and got married, to who? Was there another Adam and Eve somewhere else in the garden doing a bit of begetting and had two daughters? Or perhaps god had found out all about mass production and was turning out Adams and Eves all over the place, and they all turned naughty.
         Of course this god is a loving god, or so they say, but asking a family to leave a town that he was going to destroy, he told them not to look back. However one young woman done the very natural thing, looked back at the home she was leaving, and the loving god immediately turned her into a pillar of salt, rather a psychopathic action I think.
         Then there is this geezer Elijah, who girded up his loins and managed to out run a horse drawn chariot for twenty miles. Now there's an athlete for you.
        Of course there was not always one bible, away back there were several bibles, some with more books of god's words than others. So how did they resolve that problem, did they ask god, who is invisible and lives some where up in the sky to come down and sort out what was his words and what was balderdash. No, a group of men sat down and decided what was god's words and what was not, and so they ended up with one holy holy christian book of god's words. However, we only have their word for that of course. This holy holy book is supposed to be the word of god, then again some say you have to interpret what is written. So at the end of the day we only have some old men's word that these are the words of god, and interpretations by other men, or your own interpretation of a bunch of stories of various nomadic tribes tales.

 

 

         Apart from the garbage that this "faith", (substitute insanity) they believe in, it is the raging horror of wars, savagery and brutality, between all those with different shades of this religious insanity, their desire for power over people's lives, their drive to get everybody to accept the nonsense in which they believe and the authoritarian structure that are they life's blood. As a book of facts it is patently obviously ridiculous rubbish, as a work of fiction it is so much garbled rubbish it should hold the accolade of the most inane puerile nonsense ever written. There I feel better already. 

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Racism.

         Everywhere the "white" man (no sexism intended, we also have "white" women racists.) has taken to settling in another's land they have seen the indigenous people as inferior, and steadily went about taking over their lands, destroying their way of life and culture, and so it goes on today.
        Canada, despite its portrayal of a friendly, peaceful land, is steeped in brutal racism, managed and legislated by a racist state, always has been from the first settler to the present day. The indigenous peoples have been pushed aside, marginalised and treated with savagery and brutality and are still seen in that category of inferior. Never have we stepped onto another people's territory and seen them as having a long traditionally developed sustainable culture, something we could learn from, nor have we asked to co-operate with them. We enter on the belief of our superiority and our right to do as we wish, where ever we land. That is our history, and that is what we have to eradicate.

The following from Act For Freedom Now:

       Right now in Mi’kma’ki, commercial fishermen are physically threatening, intimidating and harassing Indigenous people over their livelihood catch of lobster. The violence has escalated in the past few days, and seems likely to continue to escalate. The RCMP have been filmed allowing commercial fishermen to steal and poison lobster, burn vehicles, smash windows, throw rocks at Mi’kmaq people and attack chiefs and women.
       What’s happening in Mi’kma’ki is a prime example of how race operates in so-called Canada, with the state protecting the side of big business and using white working-class people to project their force onto the non-white population. Examples of this can be found all over the country.
        In August, 27km camp on Wet’suwet’en yintah was burned to the ground by arsonists, and somehow the state has no leads or interest in pursuing the case, even though there were public facebook posts calling for that specific action to be carried out.
      In Secwepmeculecw the Tiny House Warriors have faced near constant harrassment from white supremacists who even set up a camp and barbeque within a stone’s throw from Indigenous women, girls and two-spirit folks in order to harass and intimidate them.
       In Algonquin territory non-Indigenous hunters continue to disrespect and threaten Indigenous people on their own territory, who are protecting the moose population from being over-hunted.
         In Six Nations territory the police continue to harass and arrest Indigenous people, unchecked by us the greater community at large.
        When is enough enough? Why aren’t we shutting the country down? The white supremacist settler state cannot continue unchecked. There must be action. This is a callout to all settlers and supporters to take actions where you stand, how you see fit. Transportation routes are vulnerable, we proved this in the spring. It doesn’t take many people carrying out subversive actions to cause the state immense damage.

Take action now. What are we waiting for?
Anonymous submission to MTL Counter-info

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

It's Time.

 

         The pandemic has produced a greater burden on the shoulders of the ordinary people of this country and abroad. To a life of struggle has been added loneliness, greater uncertainty, closer surveillance and an increase in poverty. For how long will we take this injustice in a world of unimaginable wealth, surely the time has run out for the pampered, privileged parasite class, who plunder the spoils of our labour. It is not just their plundering of the spoils of our labour, but their unbridled greed driven destruction of the planet that must force our hands in defence of the future of our grandchildren and all life on the planet. The hourglass of their time in power must now be running out  fast.

 IT'S TIME TO STORM HEAVEN.

Under the yoke of servitude we dragged our existence forward
For generations have fertilised the earth with our blood
Oiled the machinery of wealth with our sweat
We have produce bountiful harvests
A mountain of luxury
Yet
All we know is
Penury pain and poverty
Struggle laced with bitter anguish
Our hands have fashioned a pleasure palace
Feasts abundance frivolity and a sea of fetishes
For a merciless army that feeds on selfishness and greed
And though we dwell under the shadow of hell
We will shall never relinquish our dreams
In our hearts we nurture a better future
A softer world for all our children
Where poverty's claws
And war's ire
die
One day
Our righteous anger
Will smoulder and rumble
And cause the old world to tremble
Before exploding in a blast of social justice
We the people will storm the gates of an earthly heaven.

  If not under these dark times,----then when? 

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

UK Torture.

       The state peddles the illusion that prisons are "correction centres", places where your "bad habits" will be corrected, and you will come out a model citizen. Of course to them your "bad habits" are words and deeds that could harm the powerful and privileged, and that "model citizen" they strive to create has to be a subservient citizen who accepts their place in the dung-heap of capitalism. However we all know or should know that prisons are state institutions of repression, hellholes of violence, overcrowding and arbitrary justice delivered on a whim of the staff.
      Our media does from time to time mention prisons where torture and inhumane brutality is prevalent, but it is usually in those far way places run by nasty foreigners, it would never happen here in free democratic UK, ha-ha-ha. So it is with a little surprise that I actually read of treatment tantamount to torture happening in Scottish prisons, though we already know it is happening across the country, it is encouraging to see it get the oxygen of publicity from our mainstream media.  

 

The following extract is from The Daily Record:

         An anti-torture watchdog has revealed fears about the use of segregation and excessive force in Scottish jails.
       A new report included allegations from a women with borderline personality disorder, who was left with a black eye after one incident and a suspected broken elbow in another.
      The Council of Europe’s Committee for the Prevention of Torture (CPT)’s report was based on visits to Shotts and Cornton Vale prisons.
      It highlighted 27 cases where force was used on women – aimed at keeping them safe – following incidents of self-harm or suicide attempts.
       It also describes the segregation of some women in HMP Cornton Vale as “akin to solitary confinement” and “verging on institutional neglect”, according to The Ferret website.
      The report said: “As neither woman wanted to exercise alone in the stark yards, the women were locked alone in their cells for 23.5 to 24 hours each day.
     “The women also ate alone in their cells, where their food was given to them through the door. The only regular inter-prisoner communication…was to shout through the walls to each other.”

       Considering that Cornton Vale Prison has the design capacity to hold a maximum of 119 inmates and the details from the following extract, that in itself is an indictment against the place and those responsible for its management.

This from Wikipedia:

         It has been criticised for overcrowding, with 340 inmates being held there in August 2004.[6] A high number of suicides have taken place there. Eleven women killed themselves while serving sentences at Cornton Vale between 1995 and 2002.[5] In 2010, Brigadier Hugh Munro (the Chief Inspector of Prisons for Scotland) declared the prison in a "state of crisis", citing overcrowding, two-hour waits for the toilet, cold meals, lack of activities and a deep problem of prisoner boredom which was impeding rehabilitation.[7]
       In 2006, 98% of the inmates had addiction issues; 80% had problems with mental health and 75% were survivors of abuse. It also holds children, in particular the babies of inmates who are imprisoned alongside their mothers and teenagers where there is no suitable accommodation available in young offenders institutions.
       In 2006 it was announced that the practice of "double cuffing" all inmates who are in labour to a custody officer until second stage labour and immediately re-handcuffed after giving birth, had ended.[8]
       A 2012 review into women's prisons in Scotland, conducted by former Lord Advocate Elish Angiolini described Cornton Vale as "a miserable place" and that conditions for prisoners were "antediluvian and appalling".[9][10]
        In 2019 women were found “who clearly were in need of urgent care and treatment in a psychiatric facility, and [who] should not have been in a prison environment”. Among them was one woman who bit through the skin and muscle of her arm down to the bone and another who set her hair on fire.[11]

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