Police State.

         In towns and cities across the country people are organising "Kill the Bill" protests. This is not about a few lefties protesting, this is about climate change, working conditions, wages, peace movements, equal rights, injustices, corruption, about your right to display your anger or dissatisfaction with the way our country is being run. This is the 2021 poll-tax, it affects everybody and it must be resisted with the same anger and determination that brought down the poll-tax. You and everybody else has the right to protest, it is protest that brought about wage increases, better working conditions, end to slavery, end to child labour in mines and other industries, all real change for the benefit of the ordinary people was brought about by protests, they were never given to the people in a benevolent manner by the system. This bill will kill the right to protests as and when we feel the need, in this society, without protests we are at the mercy of the state and its corporate buddies who will milk the situation for their benefit, all to the detriment of our freedoms and conditions.
      The importance of killing this bill can't be emphasised enough, it puts the public in a straight-jacket and gives free rein to the state, it is the rock solid foundation of the police state. Total control of where you can meet up, how many and what sort of noise you can make, if any, and for how long. Our freedoms in this society are limited enough without taking away the one that has in the past allowed us to make progress in our desire for a free and fair society. Lose that right at your peril. "Kill the Bill", think poll-tax.

 

Leeds: 

 

Manchester:

 

Newcastle:

 

Bristol:

        Let's grow this list, make it cover every city, town and village in the UK. This will be the most important protest in defence of your freedom and your right to public assembly and protest. Kill the Bill, kill the police state.

 

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You Bet!

       I sympathise with all those addicted to gambling and those who find themselves in debt because of it. Even those who do their wee bet on this and that they should perhaps look at how there money funds unbridled greed. Taking one example, Bet365, part owned by Denise Coates, she worked so hard at getting her hands on your money that she "earned" an salary of £421 million to year ending March 29th.. Of course there are other little benefits in being CEO and a shareholder as a shareholder she also earned a nice little dividend of £48 million, bring her total income for the year from her wee bookies business to a nice tidy sum of £469 million. Of course the establishment love her, hence the title Denise Coates CBE, honours for greed and plundering. How hard would you have to work to earn that sort of pay packet?

         This shows up the inherent greed built into this capitalist system when this sort of thing is applauded by the the greed driven corporate gurus. Even if you say that there is nothing wrong with a wee bet, perhaps the betting business should be owned by the community and that £469 million could be ploughed back into the community, and likewise with all the other betting businesses being run on the same basis. Of course in a truly just and fair moneyless society the urge and imagined need to bet would appear ridiculous. In the mean time, the pundits of this society start salivating at the mouth at the mere thought of plundering the poor and getting their hands on that sort of money, no matter the cost to others. In capitalism greed reigns supreme.

 

 

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Told You.

         For many many years anarchists have been saying "We told you so". The party political system is on a circle as the one group of parties keep moving right and the other group of parties keep moving left, they eventually meet and surprise, surprise, as far as the lives of the ordinary people are concerned, their is no real difference between the two, authoritarian communism or Fascism. Bumbling Boris, the dangerous buffoon, proves this by surrounding himself and his right-wing cronies with members of the revolutionary communist network. The supposedly revolutionaries are now part and parcel of the Gove/Redwood/Rees-Mogg brigade. Of course it isn't difficult for them to mix, they are both a bunch of authoritarians, and we anarchists will say it again, "We told you so"
       The following article, though not knew, gives a good insight to the shenanigans of the dance macabre of the right-wing political parties and the left-wing political parties. Thanks Stevie for the link.

 http://brockley.blogspot.com/2019/07/the-rcps-long-march-from-anti.html

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Unacceptable.

 

         I doubt I have agreed with one word Bumbling Boris ever spoke, until now. I whole heartedly agree with his statement that the scenes of violence witnessed at the "Kill the Bill" protests, in Bristol and Manchester are unacceptable. The sooner that we get those thugs with their helmets, shields and flaying batons, off our streets the better. We then can get on with allowing the people to protest what is obvious a very undemocratic draconian piece of legislation, which is taking us deeper into the controlled police state.

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People Woke.

        "Kill the Bill", "Black lives matter", "Myanmar riots", "Indian Farmers protests", "Save the planet", "Refugees Welcome Here","police brutality",protest, riots, erupting across the planet anger on the streets, in country after country, I think this verse from a Miguel Hernandez poem "Upon The Dead I'm Sitting" is a fitting thought.

Yesterday the people woke
Naked with nothing to wear,
Hungry with nothing to eat,
And today they have awakened
Justly angry, bleeding justly.
The rifles clutched in their hands
Would be transformed into lions
To finish off all the beasts
That have been beasts for so long.

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No Art!!

          In Greece it is now illegal apparently, to be standing still while socially distancing in a public square. Art students decided to act as a display of various paintings and artworks, standing in Syntagma Square hoping to interact with passers by, however their only contact was with riot police shields.

 

      See about: Police violence again in silent protest of artists in the Constitution [Video] Attack on artists in Syntagma: What really happened and Chrysochoidis' cameras did not show

        

March 24, 2021, Athens, Syntagma Square.

        While "the new National Gallery is brilliantly performed", students of the drama schools of Athens gathered at Syntagma and built our own National Gallery of the Square. Disguised as well-known paintings and sculptures, we asked the Ministry of Education and Science "If the theater could fit in the gallery, would you give it more importance?"
        By creating a living gallery, we exposed ourselves to passers-by trying to communicate what we have been experiencing absurdly for almost 5 months. Eventually, for its part, the state only sent the police to "contact" us, resulting in our violent repulsion with their shields and tear gas, as the Deputy Minister of Culture, Mr. Giatromanolakis, was busy with the inauguration.
      We answered, we answer and we will answer with Art, with our Art. If we want Greece to be more than a theme park of past cultures and greatness, if we want it to be a fertile ground that creates and continues to produce culture, the State owes the practical and direct support of the artistic community. We demand the state care that is owed to us. We demand immediate and clear answers to the questions we have repeatedly asked the leadership of the Ministry.
         Culture is not inherited, culture is conquered by each generation again. The students of Drama Schools ”

From: alerta.gr **********

Poor translation from the Greek, but the best I could get. 

Original Greek text HERE:

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Univited.

      And now for something different, turning my eyes away from the mayhem, injustice, inequality, poverty and bloody power struggles of this insane capitalist system and looking inward, a wee poem.

Uninvited Guest.

Recently I have a new companion
well not really a companion
more an associate I didn’t invite him
I don’t even like him
but he’s always with me
He gets in my way, slows me down
hinders me when I try to do things
sometimes stops me
from doing things I want to do
no matter how much I curse
no matter how much I swear
he’s always there
I don’t even know his name
I just call him a bloody nuisance
A close friend just told me
his real name is Old Age.

 

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Please Sir!!

          Looking at the Bristol action against the new police powers bill, to me it looked somewhat different from the normal run of protests, violent or otherwise. I don't recall ever seeing crowds battering a police van with police inside and the other police standing back and letting it happen, normally there would have been a charge with batons swinging. The protestors seemed to have a free hand to get things rolling in a particular direction, with lines of police officers standing in well disciplined rows. Of course I wasn't there, so rely on photos and videos and the written word. 

        Could this be the new form of policing in these events, with excellent surveillance and police having a camera on every uniform, plus special police with excellent cameras taking photos continuously and CCTV footage, they can let the damage go on for a while and make few arrests. The bulk of arrests will come from the surveillance information, with a knock on the door in the early hours of the morning, just like a normal police state. Less bad publicity of the police brutality while wrestling people to the ground. The following avalanche of media coverage of the damage will give the media a field day in calling for the need of more police powers to prevent such scenes happening again. The state will hold onto the powers they gave themselves during covid19, they will not relinquish these powers and the new police powers bill is there to increase and cement those powers. The state never willing relinquish power.

Please sir, will you share your millions equally with us all?

 

       I'm not advocating a be nice policy, as I doubt that that would have any effect what so ever. It is obvious that the controllers of the system with their billions in the bank and off-shore, are not going to willing dismantle this corrupt system of inequality and injustice. They will fight tooth and nail to hold on to their wealth, power and privileges. As they adapt their methodology to meet their desires and hold onto power, so we must adapt our methodology in attacking the system which enslaves us. Confrontation with the police is only one aspect of the armoury, the system is so vulnerable in so many ways. However we should have no doubt that to bring down a system so corrupt and ingrained in the minds of so many will take a wider range of tactics other than Bristol.

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Contradictions.

         How would you describe this present day society? You could write a book, a very long poem, or even make a movie. There are so many contradictions in this society, it would be difficult to capture them all. The glaring opulence side by side with destitution, the avalanche of information and the absence of knowledge, and so it goes on.
        I lifted the following quote from arrezafe and think it does an excellent job in highlighting the contradictions in this society that show it to be a flawed, unacceptable idiotic and cruel human structure. 

 

 

The following is a comment on arrezafe:

       How are we fed? Through hope and progress? (so the machine keeps moving)
Como nos alimentamos? Con esperanza y progreso (para que la máquina siga moviéndose)

Let me quote something:
Voy a mencionar algo:

“We have bigger houses but smaller families; - Tenemos casas más grandes pero familias más pequeñas,
more conveniences, but less time; - más comodidades, pero menos tiempo
We have more degrees, but less sense; - más títulos academicos pero menos sentido comun
more knowledge, but less judgment; - mas conocimiento, pero menos juicio,
more experts, but more problems; - mas expertos, pero mas problemas,
more medicines, but less healthiness; - mas medicionas, pero menos salud
We’ve been all the way to the moon and back, - hemos ido y regresado de la Luna
but have trouble crossing the street to meet - pero tenemos problemas cruzando la calle para
the new neighbor - conocer al nuevo vecino,
We’ve built more computers to hold more - hemos construido mas computadoras para
information to produce more copies than ever, - almacenar informacion para producir mas copias que nunca
but have less communications; - pero tenemos menos comunicacion
We have become long on quantity, - hemos ampliado la cantidad
but short on quality. - y reducido la calidad
These times are times of fast foods; - son tiempo de comida basura
but slow digestion; - de digestion lenta
Tall man but short character; - hombres alto de baja moral
Steep profits but shallow relationships. - enormes benificios pero pequenyas relaciones
It is time when there is much in the window, - Es la epoca donde hay mucho en la ventana
but nothing in the room. - pero nada dentro de la habitacion

--authorship unknown
from Sacred Economics”
― Charles Eisenstein, Sacred Economics: Money, Gift, and Society in the Age of Transition

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The Illusion.

           When it comes to this Covid19 pandemic, each country points to other countries as doing much worse than they themselves are, it all helps to keep the people on the side of the government's ineptitude in the handling of the pandemic. At the moment Brazil is coming in for some heavy criticism as the pandemic runs wild, mainly over the poorest regions of that country. Yes, the pandemic is decimating large swaths of the population, yes, its health service is being crippled, and yes, it is run by a macho idiot who tells the people to stop whining, says about his family that his daughter was a mistake, and also says that if your son show signs of wanting to be gay, slap him and you'll see his attitude change. So Brazil has not got a lot going for it at the moment.
        However if we look at the most recent figures regarding covid19, they make interesting reading. They should be making us ask some very serious questions of our lords and masters, the political ballerinas that hold sway over our lives.

Brazil:
population 211 million, approximately,
covid19 cases, 11,483,370
covid19 deaths 278,229
deaths per million of the population, 1,318 approximately.

United Kingdom:
population 66.8 million, approximately,
covid19 cases, 4, 245,166
Covid deaths, 125,279
deaths per million of population, 1,874, approximately. 

       So we are doing much worse than Brazil in deaths per million of our population, and our political ballerinas are strutting about spouting our success. Are they unaware of these figures, or as usual they just ignore the facts they don't like. We have to ask questions and we have to demand answers.

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

Hypocrisy.

         The government's £4.8 billion "level up" and "regeneration" scheme is not what it seems, far from taking the most deprived areas and trying to make them more affluent, It appears that it is more a matter of taking affluent areas and making them more prosperous. Some areas likely to gain from the fund happen to be well-to-do Tory areas, for example, surprise, Chancellor Sunak's rather posh area of Richmond, fits their criteria for aid, as well as local government secretary, Robt. Jenrick' constituency of Newark, they fit into the loaded criteria for funding, where as some of the most deprived areas fail to meet that criteria, for example Salford and Barnsly, among the most deprived areas in the country.
         No more than we would expect from the bunch of well heeled hypocrites and parasites that form what is called Her Majesty's Government. At least we can say that is a statement of truth, I think the title sort of hints at which side they stand and who they represent. 

          If we wish to "level up" our country, we will have to do it ourselves, do it by organising in the communities, work places and on the streets, through forming co-operatives, mutual aid and taking control of the means of production and distribution, We know how to manufacture and build things, we know how to distribute them, and we know how to do that in a democratic and just manner, seeing to the needs of all our people. We do not need "the economy", that is just a means for transferring wealthy to the powerful and privileged. The capitalist system is not "God" given, written on tablets of stone, it is simply a man made system of exploitation that will always widen the gap between rich and poor, under its so called laws, the rich will always get richer, the poor will always get poorer. 

        Or we could continue as we are doing and be pillaged and plundered by the wealthy and privileged, handing our kids and grand kids a heritage of more poverty and deprivation.

ENOUGH IS ENOUGH.

 
MUST WE TOLERATE.
The giggling audacity of the rich
midst the pitiful anguish of the poor,
those bloated laughing cavaliers
using pillage to secure
their lives of arrogant excess,
a pirate’s plundering tour.

WHERE IS IT WRITTEN.
That this world must be
a place where the many toil and sweat
grinding out their meagre existence
in poverty, hunger and debt,
while the hubristic greedy few
live the life of a pampered pet.

LET’S TRY AGAIN.
No more war, no deprivation
a world of sharing, a world of giving
a chance for all to grow and prosper
in a culture of friendship and forgiving.
With true love and understanding
we can create a new way of living.

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I'm Free!

       

        The following comment was left on my previous post by Loam, thanks Loam. 

      I was twice in prison during the dictatorship of General Franco and I understood that I had two alternatives: resign myself or try to get out of there as soon as possible. For the first option I did not need anyone, for the second, yes.
        I say this because we tend to forget that we live in a prison, very decorated, but a prison that resignation and individualism reinforces. If we want to get out of it we need each other, we need all our energies to be directed towards that goal. Otherwise, we will be forging our own slavery and the slavery of future generations.

          It is a point that so many people fail to see, we live in a society where we have no real say on the shape or direction of the society in which we live. All those decisions are made by the people with the wealth, power and privileges, and that shape and direction will always be to their benefit. Our purpose or "duty" as far as the power mongers are concern is to keep the wheels of production turning and then consume the crap we make, ever increasing their wealth and power. We can be surplus to their requirements and be abandon, we can be used as cannon fodder in their power struggles, but never receive the any of the blood gained fruits of that struggle. We are wandering a manufactured world of tinsel and froth, of shiny bobbles and illusions, all scattered to appease us, a form of paracetamol, while the wealthy and powerful live lavishly on our sweat, poverty and submissiveness. As Loam says, we need each other to come together with the aim of ending this imprisonment and freeing tomorrow's generations from this insidious prison.

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

Plundering.

 

          Look at the numbers under this system and you see the glaring inequality, you realise the magnitude of the plundering by the few of the riches produced by the multitude. Numbers paint a picture, in this case a picture of blatant robbery of the fruits of the labour of the many, the inhumane exploitation of the many. Under no stretch of the imagination can any of this take place in a democracy. This world has yet to experience democracy, and if we persist with the present system of capitalism and its unavoidable greed driven excesses, we never will see democracy, just ever growing inequality and endless wars to increase and defend the power and privileges of the plunderers.  

 

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End Of Normal.

     Some words of wisdom from Not Buying Anything, There is nothing I would wish to add to this piece, suffice to say, read, think and act.

The following from Not Buying Anything:

 

Image by Pawel Kuczynski

        You don't need a crystal ball to see what lies in the near future for humanity. It is increasingly obvious.
        Here is what I see just from a little looking around - there are, and will continue to be, great changes occurring with increasing rapidity.
Why?
Cascading crises. Pick any one.
Economic crisis.
COVID crisis.
Variant crisis.
Climate crisis.
Environmental crisis.
Extinction crisis.
Biodiversity crisis.
The list goes on and on, but it does not matter.
         We already have enough going on to let us know that business as usual is over, and it is not coming back.
         There will be no "going back to normal" because it was that normal that got us into each and every one of our current crises.
          To go back to normal would mean to go back to a continued path to extinction of not only humans, but all life on Earth.
          There will also be no Great Reset.
          There is nothing left for capitalism to reset. Decades of unchecked greed have sucked the life out of everyone, and everything.
         There is nothing left.
          There will, however, be a Great Remembering, and it might just save us.
          This will be where the tired and worn out workers of overdeveloped nations begin to yearn more for slower, quieter lifestyles than they do for more money, more work, and more stuff.
         People are deciding, appropriately, to quit consumerism all together. They can see it is a dead end.
         The more principled ones will also quit jobs that support the creaking machine of consumerism, and shift toward endeavours that support the health of our communities and ecosystem.
         Regardless of what happens moving forward, one will be better served by having a simple, more self-reliant and local lifestyle.
          If there is any "reset" it will be this - community and cooperation are becoming more important than cash and competition.
         The only things that will make the massive and rapid changes of the near future easier to deal with as our multiple crises continue to cascade and coalesce into collapse are:
Simplicity.
Community.
Cooperation.

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