Spaces.

 

         We live in a society where control is the main pillar of its existence. The society whose yoke we live under can't function without control of the population, by what ever means they deem necessary. We are surrounded by surveillance equipment, we have undercover police, embedded in our personal lives, we have technology gathering and sifting through our personal details, creating profiles to be used against us if need be. Hence the reason that social centres, autonomous spaces, squats are necessary boltholes where we can meet, act and communicate in a free and safe environment. Spaces outwith the control of the state, that function on libertarian socialist principles are a wrecking ball to this type of society, so should be built and supported by all free thinking individuals. However these spaces at present, function in the midst of the capitalist system and do require funding, we should support them in the best way we can and whenever we can. 

The following extract from Enough is Enough.

 

         In 2016, after the self-dissolution of the “Self-managed social centre” collectivity, which had the political responsibility for 18 years of the space that had the same name with the collectivity, people and groups who had developed political and social relations within the “Self-managed social centre” during its years of operation decided to establish a new public space of the leftish movement with the name “Self-managed Social Center Perasma“. In this social center political/social collectivities with references to social anarchy and libertarian communism, collectivities around gender, patriarchy and anti-sexism, self-education groups, group for art from below and structures, meet together (radio, lending library, bookstore, space for the distribution of cooperative products and basic goods without mediators, in direct contact and communication with producers who do not work in the opposite direction to our basic principles).

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Revolt.

 

            The latest from SubMedia in their System Fail series is now available, System Fail 20, Picking Sides. This episode covers South America and the U$A involvement in the various coups  as well as mass public uprisings. It also takes a look at Greece and Italy. Most of this will never be seen on mainstream media, thank you SubMedia.

Visit ann arky's home at https://spiritofrevolt.info  

Callous.

Image courtesy of Church Times.

        As more and more workers are continuing to repeat their call of enough is enough, the various government mouthpieces pour out any statement that they think might sound good to their followers. Each statement proving they don't give a shit about you and I. Take their response to the ambulance strike. The recent inane statement was that hospitals will have to free up beds to cope with the ambulance strike. Hospitals have been screaming for years that they need to free up beds but can't due to the total inadequateness of the social care system. This has not been fixed, but government mouthpieces are suddenly calling for hospital beds to be freed up, as if the hospitals have not been trying to do this for years. Will they sort the social care system to sort this, not a chance. Another inane statement from the government propaganda machine that proves once again,don't give a shit about you and I. To cope with the ambulance strike they are drafting 1,200 military personnel. When it comes to driving an ambulance, a bus driver could do it, it's not the ambulance moving that matters, it's the paramedics that go with the ambulance. Imagine you are in desperate need of an ambulance to get you to hospital for something serious, would you prefer a paramedic to arrive assess your problem and what you need immediately, before getting you to the ambulance and on to the hospital, or would you prefer a squaddie, well trained in how to use an automatic rifle, to do that assessment? 

Image courtesy of The Guardian.

 

            The posh brigade in the Westminster Houses of Hypocrisy and Corruption, with their callous approach to you and I, are obviously quite prepared to see the NHS collapse, poverty and destitution to mushroom spouting their mantra that there's no money. However we continue to pour millions into Ukraine to prolong a brutal war. They have plans to increase defence spending (war spending) in the near future. The UK sits on a mountain of wealth, but not for the needs of you and I, it's for squireling away in off shore bank accounts of the millionaire/billionaire parasite class.
         We are mugs if we accept this plundering of the ordinary people, to keep the financial Mafia and CEO happy. Get behind the strikers, join them on the picket line, given them all the support and solidarity we can. They are fighting our battle for a decent life for all.

 

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Strikes.

 

Image courtesy of The Tribune.

  

           Strikes are in the news, as workers feel the effects of rampant inflation and astronomic energy prices, they rightly want a decent life as they produce a mountain of wealth that never reaches them. Of course the strike is not a new thing, it has been part and parcel of the workers methods of protecting and improving their living conditions. As far as I am aware the first recorded strike was away before trade unions and was workers response to abominable conditions. It occurred away back in 1152 BC and was in ancient Egypt. Workers at the Royal Necropolis were sick of the poor rations and miserable working conditions, so they stopped working and took their complaint to Ramesses III negotiations took place and the workers were successful and went back to work. 

         The first strike in UK, as far as I know, was the Calton Weavers strike, 1787, in which 5 weavers were shot by the militia.
           During the the period between 1911 and 1914, UK experienced over 3,000 strikes, some being very violent as the state tried to break the strikes. Industrial workers, miners, dock workers, transport workers all with genuine grievances took strike action. Some are etched into working class history, among those are the The miners strike 1910-11, Liverpool transport strike 1911, during this strike two workers were shot and killed by the military. Then there was the first national strike by miners the National Coal strike, 1912.

Image courtesy of BBC.

 

          Then in my own wee patch we had the 1919 battle of George Square. At the end of the first imperialist world war, 1918, troops were being demobilised and unemployment was soaring. Workers and trade unions wanted to increase the number of jobs by cutting the hours worked in the week. Strike action was called by shipbuilding workers and engineering workers. At a mass gathering in George Square, the police baton charged the crowd and all hell broke loose. Rioting took place with workers and police across the city. The state responded by sending in troops to man the streets and docks, and tanks were stationed in the city. This is now know as Glasgow's Bloody Friday.

 

Image courtesy of The Conversation.

 
         Strikes are a legitimate method of protecting your living standards and improving your conditions. So let's get behind the strikers of today, they are carrying on the struggle for a decent life for all workers and their families, as wealth accumulates in vast quantities in ever fewer hands, while we, the ordinary people, unnecessarily, slide rapidly into poverty and destitution. 

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Madness!

 

           Centuries ago,when capitalism first got a grip on humanity, the people have petitioned, protested and marched, and all that has happened is that capitalism has grown in strength and tightened its grip on humanity. If we continue quietly petitioning, marching and protesting, we can expect the same pattern to be repeated. They say the first sign of madness is to keep doing the same thing but expecting a different result, are we mad, will we continue the same old routine?
           If we expect capitalism to desist from plundering the planet, exploiting the population and grasping ever great slices of the Earth's resources, and at the same time creating ever great wealth for that handful of privileged parasites, then we will have to think of a different way of destroying the voracious beast that is capitalism.
           It may seem that capitalism is so strong and powerful that it is impossible to be removed, but there were those who thought that the divine right of kings was impossible to remove, but it has gone, into the dustbin of history. Capitalism may seem invincible, but it has many weakness, many points that are vulnerable, many ways that it can be brought to its knees, we have the numbers, we have the desire, and I'm sure we have the intelligence and imagination to bring this festering cancerous economic system of insanity to a few footnotes in a dusty old history book.

The following article from Anarchist News 

 From La Nemesi Via Dark Nights

          Capitalism is voracious, our rage ferocious. Claim of the incendiary attack against four CAT machines, by the Informal Anarchist Conspiracy (Fivizzano, November 2022)
          The Informal Anarchist Conspiracy is anarchist and informal, therefore without organisational programmes or leaders, the result of the free union of individuals moved by their own will and reciprocal felt need to strike at those responsible for the misery.
          In November, one year after the burning of two vehicles at the Boccanaglia Alta quarry, the Informal Anarchist Conspiracy celebrated its birthday by doubling down on the avenging fire. Four CATs from the Walton quarry in Castelbaita (Fivizzano – MS) were completely burnt.
          Unfortunately, apart from the birthday, there is little to celebrate. Tons of mountain pieces are taken away every year, with terrible consequences for nature in all its complexity. Also paying the price are the inhabitants who find themselves without drinking water or with floods that will continue to hit the area.
          Marble mining is part of the capitalist system of exploitation, to the point of depletion of every cm of soil, water, subsoil and so-called resources. The extractive economy is directly linked to the wars that from Yemen to Ukraine fatten the bosses. Every single industrialist is responsible for climate change, as well as for the existence of borders and the thousands of people slaughtered in the Mediterranean and in lagers defending borders.
            It is known that the bosses are hypocrites and fill their mouths with deceitful words. Big speeches about energy transition, emission reduction and other green masks are on the lips of politicians, bosses and phoney environmentalists. They propose and promise reconversion. They practice the destruction of this planet, the moon, the universe and everything. They talk a lot about alternative energies but never about alternatives to capitalism. Because according to them, this is the best of all possible worlds. We remind ourselves that exploitation and devastation is done on the skin of the many for the profit of a cowardly few.
          Last year environmentalists cried scandal over the violence against the bosses. This year they are crying for the right to work. These jackals only want to keep the world as it is. Any compromise with the ravagers of the earth is complicity. Every river, every forest and every mountain in the world shouts this.
          By letting the bosses make their profits, we all lose out (animals and humans). We lose slices of mountains crumbled and chewed up for construction, cosmetics for the toilets and yachts of the rich. We lose slices of the possibility of a better and beautiful world to live in. It is the worst one can live in. And so we regret to admit that the violence we deploy is still too weak a response. We conspire and will continue to conspire in the knowledge that if a violent fight against society does not open up the present, then the future will be rotten and poisonous.
         Immediate closure of every quarry and every industry. Against labour and society no reconversion or wait-and-see. Direct action and social war.
         To bosses and lackeys: this time we hit the means you use for your dirty deeds but we are clear that it is your hands that move them.
        With this action we say greetings to all our prisoner comrades. In particular Alfredo, Anna, Juan and Ivan.
         Immediate declassification of Alfredo from 41 bis.
         We greet with joy the Anna Maria Mantini autonomous cell in Germany – the Negra Venganza in Chile – the Augusto Masetti FAI/FRI Brigade in Italy.

Forward Comrades!

LONG LIVE THE FAI/FRI.
LONG LIVE THE BLACK INTERNATIONAL!

Informal Anarchist Conspiracy

[Taken from “Bezmotivny“, internationalist anarchist fortnightly, year II, number 23, 5 December 2022]

 

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Buying.

 

          Some words of wisdom or food for thought, from my friend at Not Buying Anything, call it what you will, but we have choices, and the choices we make will determine the future living standards of our grandchildren, and all the other grandchildren on the planet. Our actions have reactions further down the date line. We are responsible for tomorrow. Of course the ultimate aim is to create a society without buying, but built on mutual aid, co-operation, sustainability and seeing to the needs of all our people, freed from the corrosive and exploitative system of profit.
 

             Gandhi said that the Earth can support our need, but not our greed. More truthful words can not be spoken, but how often do you hear about that today?
             The choice before us today is the same it has always been:
            1. Provide for a small population of high consuming humans satisfying their greed.
          Or
            2. Provide for a large population of humans simply meeting their needs.
            Unfortunately, the psychopaths in charge of consumer nations seem to        have chosen the first option.
            You can call it "The West", "The Golden Billion", or whatever else. It doesn't matter because the result is the same.
            Consumerism is a club, most of the world is not in it, and the plan is to never let them in because there are not enough resources for everyone to consume like we do.
           While those in charge have their own choice made, what will we, the people, choose? Because it is us after all, and how we choose to live, that really matters.

Visit ann arky's home at https://spiritofrevolt.info    

Bugs.

            We live in the surveillance society, we see it all around us, in pubs, shops, bus and rail stations, along the street where we walk, where we drive, they are there those ever watching eyes of the surveillance cameras. However what about the ones we don't see the hidden bugs, that most people think only appear in James Bond movies, how wrong they are. People who stand and speak out against the injustices and inequalities in this society can and do come in for some extra surveillance by means of the hidden bug. It can be in your car, in your home unseen quietly monitoring your every word. The following example is from Italy, but  you'll find it happens in every country.

The following from Act for Freedom Now.

       Same old story, same place, same shack. Discovery of a bug in a flat in Rome

    

             Probably in the days leading up to the event of November 12th in Rome in solidarity with Alfredo and the other prisoner comrades on hunger strike, someone sneaked into the house where we live and planted a bug.
             Perhaps with a sense of irony, or perhaps with investigative “acumen,” that in the continuous misinterpretation of “solidarity and complicity” that develops among anarchists will have made them expect a collective fast, the intruders thought the most suitable place to accommodate their bug was the back of the kitchen oven Powered by the cord of the same household appliance, it also came with a battery. The incident is aggravated by recurrence, as another bug had already been found in the same place, powered by the same power cable, several months ago. Time passes but control remains.
            We will not be intimidated by the attention paid to us by some of those responsible for the detention of the revolutionary prisoners.
            Our thoughts are fixed on the comrades who even from inside jail are continuing to fight.

To them all the esteem, anger and love they deserve.

Marco and Sandro

via: fuoridallariserva Translated by Act for freedom now!

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Dedicated.

 

            There are individual anarchists that work away quietly trying to build that better world for all, then there are anarchist groups that do the same. Then there are anarchist groups that create real problems for the status quo as they work tirelessly to create that better world for all. Then there those individual anarchists that dedicate their life to doing the utmost damage to the system, by what ever means available to them, selflessly and daringly trying to create that better world for all by attempting to bring the capitalist system to a state of confusion hoping it will eventually collapse.
           One such anarchists was Lucio Urtubia master forger, bank robber, splitting the proceeds to anarchist groups, friends in prison and their families, the rest to those who carried out the operation. With his forged City Bank travellers cheques, he created real problems for the big City Bank. There is a film based on his actions, A Man of Action, which is now streaming on Netflix.

 

Visit ann arky's home at https://spiritofrevolt.info  

Disrupt.

 

 

Image courtesy of Youtube.

  

          This so called democratic system we live under is stinking rotten to the core. Our lives are shaped by corruption, self seeking power mongers, authoritarianism, and that deadly virus patriotism, all this officiated over by funny people in funny clothes. This seemingly invincible edifice to power, privilege and wealth, is vulnerable in so many ways. We can attack the system in so many ways from disturbing the placid followers of the system as they blissfully ignore the real world around them. Its lines of communication are vulnerable, strikes can disrupt its flow of money to the parasites, Go slow working to rule rule can play havoc with their production of crap for sale to the gullible public. If we wish to rid ourselves of this cancerous exploitative, greed drive system, we have to use every means at our disposal, just as the system uses ever means at its disposal to control and intimidate the population into a homogeneous placid obedient mass.

 

 

Image courtesy of The Guardian.

 

The following from Anarchist News.

Via Inferno Urbano Translated by Act for freedom now!

         Interruption of a performance at Teatro Argentina in solidarity with the imprisoned anarchists on hunger strike against 41bis (Rome 26th November 2022)
         Today, 26th November 2022, the play ‘Hamlet’ was interrupted at Teatro Argentina in Rome. In spite of the fact that the theatre workers turned into a real security line-up to protect the bosses’ interests, we determinedly managed to get on stage and unfurl a banner that read “Something is rotten in Italy: NO to 41 bis”, throw leaflets and read part of the communique which we are reproducing in full here below:
         We are here because Alfredo Cospito is under 41 bis. 41 bis is a prison regime specifically designed to annihilate the individual. We are here because Alfredo has been on hunger strike for over a month. We are not here to cry over an injustice suffered by our anarchist comrade, because it is not such. Just as it is not a legal aberration. It is the logical reaction of the democratic State to the attacks launched by Alfredo. First physical, with the wounding of the bureaucrat Adinolfi, at the time CEO of Ansaldo Nucleare, for which he has finished serving the time he was sentenced to.
           Then in the words through which he contributed to the debates of the anarchist movement while in high security detention. 41 bis to Alfredo is not just revenge, is also the will to take away the word. Because the word, when it does not remain a mere rhetorical exercise, is a weapon.
           Alfredo has been on hunger strike for over a month to obtain his reclassification and against life imprisonment without parole.
           He has been joined by the anarchist prisoners Juan Sorroche, Ivan Alocco and Anna Beniamino. They are using the hunger strike because in the condition of isolation in which they find themselves it is perhaps the only form of struggle available to them. With strength and courage they are risking their safety, their lives… while you are sitting here watching a sham and do not realise that everything is such. Every day something is taken from you, for the time being, it does not affect you and so you look the other way. Blinded by your privileges you think that democracy is the best possible system and you look indignantly at exotic nations where people are being trampled on. You want truth and justice for Giulio Regeni and don’t give a damn about the 14 deaths in prison on the 8th of March 2020 by Italian democracy. You don’t give a damn about the 80 prison suicides from January to today. You don’t give a damn about the migrant concentration camps scattered around the Bel paese.
           We have not come to sensitise you. If you are sleeping soundly… we will spoil your entertainment.

Let’s break the social peace in which you are basking.

Death to the State!
Long live Anarchy!

 

 Visit ann arky's home at https://spiritofrevolt.info 

Terrorists.

          The most dangerous terrorist groups on the planet, the most heavily armed, and the ones that have caused more destruction across the world, that no other terrorist group could hope to match. Of course it is the various states. Iranian state has started executing protesters, Italian state condemns prisoners to total sensory deprivation, Greek state shoots teenagers, Israeli state kills and maims Palestinians on a daily basis. Various state bomb countries into the stone age, killing thousands of innocent people and displacing millions. All this is done with the stamp of legitimacy that the various states bestow on their every action, no matter how brutal, callous or inhumane. Yet we tolerate this most savage of terrorist groups to shape our society, to control our every movement, because we seem to accept its claim to a total monopoly on violence that it backs it up with a loaded judicial system. Accepting such a structure in our society is denying our freedoms, our rights to self determination, denying justice and equality for all. We are complicit in this violence from the state's terrorist actions, as long as we pay lip service to this insanity, to be civilised we have to destroy this terrorist structure and build a society on mutual aid, co-operation, between our communities and workplaces, base our society on justice and equality and seeing to the need of all our people, humanity and sustainability.

The following extract is from Enough is Enough.

Poster and flyer distributed and posted up in Lecce

The State is the slaughterer!

          December 12 marks the anniversary of what is known as the “mother of all massacres”, the one in Piazza Fontana, at the Banca dell’Agricoltura in Milan, in 1969. Planned and carried out by fascists in collusion with State apparatuses, many more followed and over the following decade much blood was shed. These were scientifically planned massacres that attempted to impart an even more authoritarian turn to the young Italian Republic.
         On December 5 in Turin, the courts began deliberating the sentencing of two anarchist comrades – Alfredo and Anna – accused of “political massacre” for having placed two explosive devices outside the carabinieri school near Cuneo in 2006, without causing any fatalities or injuries. They both risk life imprisonment without the possibility of parole. Alfredo is being held under the 41 bis regime since May.
         It seems logically absurd to hold a trial for a massacre without a single death, but not when the defendants are anarchists. The State wants to imprison them for life, not for what they have allegedly committed, but for the ideas they carry in their hearts and the actions that are an expression of those ideas.

 Continue reading.

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Gamblers!!

 

 Image courtesy of Daily Mail.

            It is par for the course for greed to prevail in the capitalist system. Cast your mind back to 2007-2009 financial crash. The banking system went bust, they had been dealing in dodgy packages, selling them on and hoping nobody looked inside the packages, as they were worth nothing, but generated cash for the big banks. However some people did look inside the packages and found the had been sold a pig in poke. And the system collapsed under the weight greed driven gambling. In steps you and I with our tax money and bailed the banks out to the tune of approximately £140 billion. This lead to ten years of austerity as we paid the price of the greed driven gambling frenzy of the financial institutions. So the banking system was looked at and lo and behold, it was found to be lacking in any regulations to stop this crazy greedy driven gambling with our money. So regulations were brought in to tighten how the financial Mafia used our money and prevent this happening again, and it seemed to work. 

Image courtesy of The Mirror.

         However our political masters have decided that the banking industry is far too regulated, so are setting about removing all those regulations to prevent insane financial gambling by the financial Mafia. Now they can let rip all the greed driven insanity in making a quick buck at any expense. Hold on to your braces, another crash is now very much a possibility, and once again you and I will be expected to bail them out. If we do this time, then we deserve all we get. We should never have our lives dictated to us by the millionaire/billionaire parasites. They gamble to get rich quick, smiling as they go, as they believe, they are to big to fail. Surely enough is enough, it's time to bring this whole madhouse of greedy driven economic insanity crashing down around the heads of the parasitic few. We don't need them to tell us how to live our lives, we can make a much better job on our own. We know the society we want, mutual aid, sustainability, co-operation, equality and justice and seeing to the needs of all our people. We will never get it under the corporate capitalist/financial Mafia yoke

Image courtesy of Daily Mail.

 

Visit ann arky's home at https://spiritofrevolt.info    

Murder.

 

Alexis Grigoropoulos

 

          I was in Athens on December 6th 2008 when 15 year old kid Alexis Grigoropoulos was out for a Saturday night coffee with his friend, Nikos Romanos, in the district of Exarchiea, when laughter turned to tragedy, when a police officer shot young Alexis dead, he died on the street in the arms of his friend Nikos. This brutal state murder brought the people of that country onto the streets in a display of united anger and disgust. I joined some of the protests in Athens during that December, and you could feel the anger. It was awe inspiring to see so many people demonstrating their fury at this callous murder of a youth. Greece was seized by riots for weeks on end.
        Jump forward almost 15 years to the day of that callous brutal act and it seems history repeats itself. In Thessoloniki, on the 5th. of December, this year 2022, a police officer shot a 15 year old youth twice in the head, shot for 20 Euros of petrol. Is there any wonder that the people of that country are angry, furious, disgusted at this repeat of the callous act of 2008. We too should be angry, for it is now common for the police armed like the military parading through our streets, we too have individuals shot and killed on our streets. The state says the police are there to protect us, when in fact they intimidate and terrorise the general public. 

 

Niko Romanos

  The following from Enough is Enough.

           It was during the early hours of Monday 5 December 2022, when a 16 year old kid was shot in the head by a greek police officer of the DIAS motorcycle unit during a car chase in Thessaloniki. He was accused that he filled his pick-up truck with 20 euros worth of petrol and left the petrol station without paying.
           Following the news and his dire physical condition, riots erupted in the city of Thessaloniki, located in the north of Greece, later on the same day. At the same time, in Athens, several different protests were held in the evening of December the 5th. The protest in Exarcheia, held in front of the memorial of Alexis Grigoropoulos, (a 15 year old kid that was shot dead by a cop on 6 December 2008, sparking the events that would lead to massive riots all over Greece, known as the December Revolt) soon turned into a march that led to a riot, as seen in the video.
        It has to be noted, that today 6 December, protests have been planned in dozens of cities and towns all over Greece, in remembrance of the December Revolt and the murder of Alexandros Grigoropoulos by the police in Exarcheia 15 years ago to this day.

 

Visit ann arky's home at https://spiritofrevolt.info 

masses.

                                           Image courtesy of We Are In The Crowd.

      Listening to the venom spewing from the mouths of our lords and masters that frequent The Westminster Houses of Hypocrisy and Corruption, at those on strike for a decent life, such as holding the country to ransom, playing into Putin's hands. We should perhaps remind them of the irrefutable truth. Those on strike and all other workers built this world by sweat and blood, theirs and the forbearers. It's time we took it back.

image courtesy of The Manchester Evening News.

 

 WE THE LABOURING MASSES.

We the people have, every brick laid,
have fed the world with sweat and spade,
every instrument played in every band
created by the skill of the craftsman's hand.
We made every truck and every load,
our toil our effort every winding road,
every ship that ever sailed the sea,
our power our imagination made it be.
Cities and towns large and small,
our labouring hands fashioned them all,
every home, every spire,
luxury mansion or humble byre.
No matter what dreams the mind might spawn
without labour's hand, never see the light of dawn,
without labour's strength and labour's skill,
we would be foraging beasts in a jungle still. 

Image courtesy of The Guardian. 

 

Visit ann arky's home at https://spiritofrevolt.info