What To Do?

         I love poetry, it can say so much in so few lines, and among those I enjoy is Walt Whitman, so a wee break from covid19, local elections, bumbling Boris, Brexit and all those other things that have crowded our days for far to long. A wee slice of Whitman philosophy. I agree with his sentiment, take of your cap for no one, I would also add do not kneel before any one or group.

 

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Death By Poverty.

      The world is watching a mass slaughter of the poor, some watch with horror, some with disdain, after all it is away over there in India. This shows up the glaring inequality and inefficiency of the capitalist system, it is the poor in India that are suffering the most, as is usual in this economic system. India is a very rich country, but millions of its citizens live in dire abject poverty. They are the ones who stand confused when told to self isolate, use sanitiser, wash your hands frequently, when their home can be a box in the midst of a refuse dump.

    The pain and anguish of the poor of India shrieks across the globe, but few hear it. Those extremely rich countries that can spend billions on arms, send a few plane loads of supplies, and puff out the chests expecting loud praise and acclaim. If ever there was an example that showed up the abject failure of capitalism to see to the needs of the people, India today is that example. What we are seeing is a crime against humanity, the cause in this case may be a virus, but how it manifests itself is the result of the capitalist economic system. The virus doesn't pick the poor by choice, it is the economic system that makes them vulnerable to its ravishes. The world is awash with wealth, so why are people dying because of poverty, it may be labelled covid19, but it is the poverty created by this insane economic system that feeds this death machine.

 

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Human Creation.

          We live in a society where the rich build their mansions with the bones and coffins of the poor, and fuel their luxury yachts with workers blood. A society that puts the stamp of legitimacy on murder and destruction by calling it war, honours it, and shrouds it with a blanket of glory. The insane have brainwashed us into accepting the slaughter that is war, as a legitimate activity, when sanity tells us that it is murder based on greed and the seeking of power. In our theatre of illusions we accept that those who point the finger at another part of the planet and sign the declaration of war, are not the ones who pick up the gun, that part of the grand illusion is up to the us, the ordinary people, who have no desire to kill ordinary people from another part of our planet, and who will never share in the loot garnered from the bloodshed, but will pay for that bounty with their blood.
        The question is, why do we accept such gross insanity, injustice and subterfuge, why do we send or sons and daughter to fuel this insane illusion, while those who hold the reins of power, with all its attendant wealth and privileges, live in a bubble of secure opulence. The absurd nature of this insane society is blatantly obvious as the few hold the vast majority of the the fruits of the earth, while the many who produce those fruits of the earth, struggle with poverty and destitution on a daily basis. 

        The system we live under is not written on tablets of stone, handed down from some man in the sky. It is a human created economic system that favours the few at the expense of the many. We can destroy it and create a system of equality, based on co-operation, sustainability, free association, free from the greed driven profit motive and sees to the needs of all our people. There is no magic wall or supernatural power standing in our way, just a small bunch of greedy sleaze ridden parasites. We have the imagination, the power and the ability, all we need is the will. After all, we the ordinary people built every road, mansion, cathedral, hospital, ever ship that sailed, every truck that moved, we loaded it and unloaded it, grew ever vegetable, ploughed every field, what have we got to fear? 

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

COP-OUT26.

 

        Come November 1st.-12th. 2021, Glasgow will host COP26, the 26th UN Climate Change Conference of the Parties, the 26th pretend conference on saving the planet. Even though it is glaringly obvious that the destruction of the planet is the direct result of the dominant economic system of capitalism, there will be no voices raised to get rid of capitalism. As they discuss their various half-baked ideas on how to cut emissions, there will be no mention of the world’s largest polluter, no attempt to put the hems on that monumental world polluter, the Pentagon. The world’s largest user, transporter and hoarder of weaponry and all its polluting machinations of war, death and destruction. The gigantic scale of this powerhouse of death and destruction, is by scientific evidence the world’s largest polluter, however, don’t expect COP26 to address this planet killer. Instead we will be told to insulate our homes, drive electric vehicles, which by the way still require all the mining, transportation and pollution from the car production industry as internal combustion cars, plus the extra pollution of massive production of lithium batteries. We will be told to change our life style but still follow the dream of capitalism, continuous growth, continuous consumption. We can expect the planet to spin headlong into oblivion if we sit back and expect the managers and minders of capitalism to supply the answers to environmental destruction. 

 

         The answer lies outside the COP26, it lies in our communities, the saving of the ecological systems of the planet lies in our energies and planning getting behind the destruction of the polluters, capitalism and the attendant Pentagon. Any other direction is an illusion, we have to attack and destroy the root cause of our problems, capitalism.

 

 

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

No Yipee.

       Now that the covid19 beast has been somewhat restrained, our millionaire/billionaire parasite class want you run into the street, credit card held high, cash in the other hand and shouting yipee. The only group that came out of this pandemic better off than they went in, are our sleazy millionaire/billionaire parasites. They cleaned up with government grants and lucrative government contracts, while the rest of us felt the harsh end of this situation. They are now eager that the loot keeps coming their way, so their hope is that you get out there and get those tills ringing like mad.

 

       Let's look at what you and I have been facing, during covid19 while the millionaire/billionaire parasites raked it in, in bucketfuls. Approximately one million people have lost their jobs as a result of Covid19, with that figure likely to double. Fire-and-rehire has meant that almost 1 in 10 workers have been forced to accept the same job with worse conditions and pay or lose their job. Between April 2019 and April 2020, the real value of average earnings fell by almost 1%. Those who were obliged to continue working saw 10s of thousands contract Covid19 and many died.
      All of this and more from a pre-covid19 lousy base line. Pre-Covid19 a staggering 5+ million workers earned less than the Real Living Wage of £9.30 an hour. More than 8 million people in working households were living in poverty. Of course having a job could mean you lived in poverty but also of those in work, approximately 1 million were on zero hours contracts, more than 3 and a half million were in insecure employment.

 Obviously the figures have grown since 2016.

 

     So let's not be so eager to run out there and feed the parasite class, who have shafted us for years. Let's continue with mutual aid, self-help and DIY clubs, etc. and make them grow, Let's take control of our communities and work places and shape society for the benefit of all our people, let's scrap their "economy", after all it is just the rich parasites gambling club, and is not there for the benefit of the population at large.

 

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

Keelie 18.

       How time flies, here we are already with the latest issue of the Glasgow Keelie, Issue No.18. As usual it is pact full with current affairs, criticisms of our sleaze filled system and info. This wee pocket rocket is still on line but there are a few hard copies of issue 18, available, specially printed for May Day, if your local to Glasgow make contact and we will try to get a copy to you. We also hope with the covid19 beast somewhat in retreat, we can get hard copies into the pubs, clubs, cafes and on the street etc. as before.

READ ONLINE HERE:   

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

Last Chance.

        International Workers Memorial Day, April 28th. has passed, but to remember and honour those who died simply by going to work to try to earn a living, the powerful exhibition to emphasise the dangers inherent in working for a living in this society, put on by the Glasgow Keelie, at Glasgow Green, on the Common Drying Green just behind what was Templeton's Carpet factory, will remain until Sunday around 4PM. It will them be removed. So you still have a chance to see this very moving and poignant display on Sunday May 2nd until 4pm. Take that chance, and perhaps be moved to remember the dead and fight like hell for the living.

 

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

 

Attack----

          Back in December 6th 2008 Nikos Romanos was a teenage boy out on that Saturday evening for a coffee with his teenage friend Alexis Grigoropoulos. while having that coffee they had a few words with a police officer, who then drew his gun and in cold blood, shot and murdered young Alexis. Alexis died on the street in the arms of his friend Nikos. From that day on, Nikos Romanos has thrown himself relentlessly in to a constant struggle against the savage state and the violent exploitative system of capitalism that it supports. Even from the dark and brutal dungeons of that savage state he has continued to pursue that struggle for human dignity and freedom.
         The following is a short extract, taken from Nikos's booklet, "I Attack, Therefore I Am". You can find it on Act For Freedom Now,

 

 “Instead of an epilogue…”

        Comrades, the dawn of this new age arriving with the most relentless and revolting visage, while we are in the throes of condensed historical development, in this period of voracious capitalist development that destroys and flattens out all life on this planet, we simply can not speak of revolution and anarchy without promoting a consistent method of struggle that with its antagonism will make wounds on the seemingly invulnerable body of sovereignty. We live in changing times, from which can be born a liberating perspective. In this age in which we live we must make a definitive divorce with hesitation and procrastination; every lost minute,every wasted moment is ground won for the enemy. The war of all against all that capitalism promotes is not a figure from the apparently safe distance of the capitalist periphery, but a living reality experienced by millions of people who literally have had their lives thrown away on the trash heap, reported upon through statistical data extracted by technocrats and military analysts, all of which shows how economic policies and their developments are opening up fronts of a warzone. It is beyond my understanding how anyone who wants to be called an anarchist can remain unconvinced of the urgent necessity for the escalation and increase of revolutionary war, simply by taking a look at what is happening around them. Against the blind violence of wars between states, we propose the violence of insurrection that blows up social conventions. Let’s definitively break with the modern culture of subordination and degradation. The stances of each person are not views of an objective and standoffish neutrality, they demonstrate choices and attitudes related to the logic of societal conditions. Those who postpone for tomorrow in every possible way attacks against representatives of power, only give a breath of life to domination and its organization of mass extermination
       From our side, the proposal submitted did not assert a monopoly over anarchist action, but gave a view of informal organization and the possibilities we can get if we are serious and persistent in our intentions and our actions to cut the Gordian knot of introversion. We want to form an international informal coordination that will be the bridge between public and conspiratorial action, that will be the next developmental step for polymorphic anarchist struggle, attempting to fulfill and qualitatively deepen all the relevant historical experiences of the past. The fact that this text comes to an end does not mean that it dealt in detail with all the issues and thoughts it set out to deal with. Moreover, the aim is not to become one rigidly demarcated proposal, but a bet on a struggle that will be enriched and will move through actions, thus basing its direction on the one thing that can be held to be essential, the endless movement and creative destruction of the anarchist struggle.

        “Hm! And how the fools will scream: stubborn anarchists! Who can understand the storm that roars in our minds? Who could be aware of our hunger for pleasure, for life? Who can understand our defeat stemming from human cowardice? We are alone. We did not find comrades ready to participate in the struggle for the recovery of life. That is why we lost. And one of us vanished. The other remains with his eyes stuck on the horizon. He could not, and did not depart. This is our destiny. Will we find comrades? Otherwise, each of us in his own way will disappear silently or rowdily from the scene of the world. A chapter is closed. A chapter of struggle, hopes, illusions. The end, however, has not yet come. As these strange, unusual lives come to an end, we get to a point where we realize that it would have been better if they had never been born. And that’s all there was to say.” -Bruno Filippi

       Strength and solidarity to all anarchist prisoners! Let’s organize the uncontrollable freedom of human dignity! Anarchy means attack! 

    Nikos Romanos

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

Blood Red Bread.

         It is such a wonderful and powerful display, so here are some more photos of the Glasgow Keelie's International Workers Memorial Day event on Glasgow Green, yesterday April 28th. 2021. The display will remain in place until Sunday, May 2nd.

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

Our Daily Bread!

 

      Still more photos from the Glasgow Keelie's International Workers Memorial Day event on Glasgow Green, April 28th. 2021.

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