Thursday, 23 March 2023

Personal

                                
              Continuing the theme of poetry and personal thoughts, a couple more personal views.

 
Who Am I. 

Who am I
This son of a waitress
son of a miner
statistic from a Glasgow slum
digit in a National Health Service
walking in a fog
endeavouring to separate heaven from hell
reaching out to hands that aren’t there
sailing in the wrecked hull of hope
seeking a safe harbour
a soft beach to land
trying to forget yesterday
hoping too fashion tomorrow
who am I
I am a camera with ears
seeking a voice
wanting to be heard
in this tower of Babel

Image courtesy of Independent
 
Compassion.

Sometimes our strength breaks
not because of the burdens in our life
but because of our compassion
As year in year out we bear witness
to the savage claws of poverty
rip into the hearts of a legion of children
watch our green Earth stained red
with the blood of innocents in endless wars
standing silently by an see the young and old
die slowly from avoidable disease
and tragedy of human created disasters
compassion a necessary component
of that better world we all crave
but a crushing burden in this world
fashioned by greed power and privilege.
 
Visit ann arky's home at https://spiritofrevolt.info 

Wednesday, 22 March 2023

Poetry.

    


           March 21st, International Poetry day, as usual I missed it by a day. Never the less I think I should still celebrate that day, better late than never.

Tinsel Cities.

In the city of tinsel and bright lights
midst the playthings of the rich
just beyond the champagne bubble
out of earshot of the butterfly people
in the dark shadows where no one looks
there you’ll find poverty and destitution
dance a macabre dance of survival.
In Mammon’s city of grand illusions
where rivers of wealth feed frivolity
in its twisting dark and musty lanes
where the light of hope seldom shines
an army of the living dead sweat and toil
polishing the tinsel, changing light bulbs
refilling the champagne bottles
nothing must stop the flow of frivolity
or the butterfly people will die.

Image courtesy of LSE Blog.

The Invisible.        

We live there— yes— there
A little bit above the dead
But quite a bit below the living
Where poverty is a dream
Deprivation a reality
Our daily bread an illusion
We sigh--we weep—
As ruthless poverty
With its cold claws
Tears the heart from our children
We ask—WHY?
Surrounded by opulence
Invisible to arrogant greed
Anger simmers beneath the surface
We seek equality
We will have justice
If blood is the price
So be it.

 

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

Monday, 20 March 2023

It's a Con.


            Our lords and masters who pontificate in those Westminster Houses of Corruption and Hypocrisy, pump out green messages, to save the planet. They tell us, take a shallower bath, a shorter shower, turn your thermostat down a degree or two, only put enough water for a cup of tea in the kettle, wear a jumper or two, all to save the planet. We are being asked to alter our lifestyle make sacrifices. Meanwhile their buddies in the wealthy parasite class carry on with their lives of luxury, private jets, gas guzzling limousines and luxury homes dotted around the planet.
           Their latest little pleasure trip is a three year cruise, that will visit 135 countries visiting all the continents on the planet. How this thundering hulk of steel carrying 1,074 passengers plus crew, ploughing its way across the world, burning fossil fuel 24 hours a day fits in with saving the planet must be the joke of the year.
            It is obvious that any sacrifice to save the planet is to be done by you and I, the serfs of the system, and doesn't apply to the rich, wealthy, pampered, parasite class. It becomes more obvious by the day, that their are laughing at us, as they merrily carry on with there pampered lives of luxury and we do the sacrificing. When will we ever learn, the system is rigged, can't be reformed, has to be destroyed, if we want that better life for all. A society of fairness, justice and mutual aid, that sees to the needs of all our people.
 

The cruise will take place on the MV Gemini, which can accommodate up to 1,074 passengers. Cabin sizes range from 130 square feet for interior staterooms (which include a double bed, a bathroom, and a desk) to 260 square feet for balcony suites (which have an additional living room area).
          Pricing, which includes all meals, drinks (both alcoholic and nonalcoholic), laundry, Wi-Fi, gratuities, housekeeping, and port fees, starts at $90,000 and go up to $330,000 based on accommodations.

 

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

Thursday, 16 March 2023

Keelie 39.

 

         The Glasgow Keelie 39 is now available, as usual packed with what you would expect from wee Glesca Keelie. Out spoken, exposing the government's deliberate attacks on the poorest in our communities, pointing the way to resist, lots of info on how to resist and get involved in fighting this perpetual cull on the poorest and most vulnerable, helping to get that better world for all our people. The Keelie will be found in the usual places pickets, protests, demos and on the street in general. Watch out for it and grab your free copy of Glasgow's most radical newspaper. 

You can read The Glasgow Keelie on line HERE

         If you want a wee bundle to spread among your mates, or have something to say about today's injustices, corruption, and financial shenanigans of our lords and masters, contact us HERE. 

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

Tuesday, 14 March 2023

WW3


           Capitalism stutters from one crisis to another but people seem to forget, the capitalist system is always in crisis. Over production, inflation, labour shortage, lack of growth, its necessary ingredient, are just some of the inherent flaws in the insane economics of capitalism. The recent flutter of worries over the collapse of two Banks within a week is the least of their worries. Another unexploded bomb in their midst is the sudden mushrooming of "buy now pay later" loans. Even when times are hard, the system still wants you to continue buying all those little luxuries. hence the pie in the sky, there is a cost of living crisis, they still have to move all those luxuries, but there isn't the where-with-all to pay for them. So the magic wand of capitalism, "buy now and pay later" when the "good times" return. Of course the don't and all this millions of loans don't get paid, boom and other capitalist crisis.
        The capitalist system has never recovered from the 2008 banking collapse, they are desperate to re-capitalise the system, and despite enforcing years of austerity on millions and billions of tax payers bailout cash, they have still failed miserably. The Western oligarchs that form the American financial Mafia are desperate to get back to those glory days that America enjoyed after WW2, when the world paid homage to the dollar and the loot kept flowing into the U$A coffers. However emerging economies, like China, Russia, India etc. are making that difficult for the masters of the dollar.
        So our biggest worry should be the fact that these parasitic masters of the dollar will take desperate measures and play their big ace, war. War is also a great way of releasing tax payers money into the military industrial complex, and a way of destroying the opposition and grabbing their resources, in the insane hope of that illusion, "Make America Great Again"
      There is desperation among the big dollar owners and dollar lovers, and desperation leads to drastic consequences. We would do well to remember, WW2 caused the deaths of 100 million+ innocent individuals, with America the only nuclear nation then, and they used that power on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, WW3 would more devastating as several nations now have nuclear weapons. The result would be the complete devastation of the entire planet. The masters of capitalism don't worry too much about that, it is up to us, the ordinary people to take away that power and take control and create the society we want, freed from the insanity of capitalist economics. 
 
          Drone swarms. The Pentagon’s massive budget includes a new project, the Autonomous Multi-domain Adaptive Swarms-of-Swarms (AMASS), to launch automated, coordinated attacks by swarms of thousands of many types of drones that operate in the air, on the ground, and in the water.
    
The White House released its budget request for 2024. For the Pentagon, there is $824 billion. Adding armaments for military operations in Ukraine takes that figure to more than $950 billion.
            Add the $24 billion Department of Energy budget item, as the department maintains nuclear bombs and related armaments. Hidden are the budgets for the CIA and other secret military forces. Biden’s total budget for world war totals well over $1 trillion.
            The Biden administration has started a proxy war in Ukraine against Russia. At the same time, it is building up toward war on China, including a possible U.S. invasion of Taiwan under some wild pretext, such as a threat from weather balloons.
           Don’t laugh. That’s how every U.S. imperialist war started, like the sinking of the battleship USS Maine in Havana harbor — the Maine sank because of a coal-bunker fire next to the ship’s gunpowder storage, not from mines planted by Spain, as was reported at the time. “Remember the Maine” became the battle cry for launching the war with Spain in 1898.
        Like the “Gulf of Tonkin incident” in Vietnam, alleged attacks by the Vietnamese on U.S. ships that never happened but were used to authorize an all-out war on Vietnam. Like the “weapons of mass destruction” that never existed but were used to launch a war on Iraq.
            As history has shown, a country that prepares for war is likely to go to war. Washington is engaged in a military buildup against China, diplomatic hostility including sanctions and trade barriers, and multiple semi-unreported operations such as basing a fleet of U.S.-crewed nuclear-powered attack submarines in Australia.

Read the full article HERE: 

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

Sunday, 12 March 2023

Munroe!

 



          SubMedia, System Fail 20, takes a look at the carnage, corruption and plundering the Munroe Doctrine has heaped on South America, with a look at Greece that authoritarian EU member regime that teeters on the verge of collapse. Again, all material that the mainstream media seem not to notice or care about.




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Saturday, 11 March 2023

Talking???

         In that patch of the planet that goes by the name of Greece, a member of the EU, is a prime example of the direction Western democracy is travelling, further to the right and more authoritarian. What is happening in Greece is happening in all other states, it is just a matter of degree and timing. All states want total control of the population, a subservient populace that can be used to fuel the wheels of the capitalism's exploiting mechanisms. There are two roads open to us the ordinary people, submit and be an obedient subservient digit in their system, or resist by what ever means are available to us, destroy this burden on humanity and build that better world for all, a society that sees to the needs of all our people and stops feeding millionaire/billionaire parasites. Rest assured, we are not going to win that better world for all, at talking shops, nor by waving banners, they have too much to lose and will fight a bitter brutal battle to keep what they have plundered.

The following extract from Act for Freedom Now.

Financial support of the four comrades in pre-trial detention
https://www.firefund.net/4pretrial

          The following text is the political view of the Assembly in Solidarity with the four comrades in pre-trial detention Fotis D., Jason R., Lambros V. and Panagiotis V.

        On November 14th, 2021 an unmarked police vehicle rammed into the comrades Fotis D. and Jason R. as they were in motion and then they were taken to the General Police Department of Attica. There, the uniformed garbage of the Greek Police proceeded to mandatory fingerprinting and DNA sampling, in order to link them to the attack on the Piraeus traffic police on the same night. In a process that took only half a day, they raided their homes, making sure to plant incriminating evidence, thus building a weak case against them. At the same time, the media indulged in their usual vile role, talking about homes being bomb and explosives manufacturing facilities, in an attempt to normalise the new criminal code in the public mind (which upgrades the possession and use of Molotov cocktails to a felony). It is worth noting, that the code came into force the day before their arrest. For the millionth time, the fabrication of guilty people by the media, has socially reinforced the prosecution’s argument and created the appropriate ground for the pre-trial detention of our two comrades, who have been held captive for 15 months in the Korydallos and Avlona hellholes.

       With the trial date not being set and the case file still open, the interrogator had room to implicate more people. Following a prosecution conducted by the interrogator, on Tuesday morning 20/9, state cops accompanied by a prosecutor, stormed into the house of comrades Panagiotis V. and Lambros V. The comrades were arrested and detained in GADA, where for several hours the reasons for their detention were not known and they were not given the right to communicate with their lawyers or their close ones. The next day, they were tried by the Single-Member Plenary Court in Evelpidon for violation of the weapons law and were later released.

Continue reading. 

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

Wednesday, 8 March 2023

IWD.

          The struggle of the ordinary people for that better world for all comes in many shapes and guises. Since most, if not all these struggle, are against the prevailing system, so their history tends to be whitewashed over, modified, buried, or romanticised, to make it acceptable to the status quo. However, all these separate strands of struggle are forged in blood sweat and tears. None more so than women's part in these struggles. March 8th. International Women's Day, rightly so, draws attention to the struggle of women for equality and justice, freeing it from the balloons and pink ribbon that the existing system would have you envisage that struggle. Women's struggle is our struggle, solidarity prevails.

the following extract from Struggle La Lucha.


       
        On many holidays recognizing people’s struggles and their leaders — for example, the civil rights movement and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. — the present-day celebrations are both sweet and sour.
       The only reason for formal recognition is that protests and struggle made it so — and this is a victory. But the other, “give it the side-eye” part is that the actual history of how they originated is covered up in pink ribbons. The blood, sweat and tears that were shed have been washed away.
       International Women’s Day is like that. So much has been done to sterilize it, package it, market it, capitalism-it (my made up word) — foremost in the capitalist West, of which the U.S. is the capital. 

Continue reading     

And More,----Imagine a gender equal world. A world free of bias, stereotypes, and discrimination. A world that's diverse, equitable, and inclusive. A world where difference is valued and celebrated. Together we can forge women's equality. Collectively we can all #EmbraceEquity. Celebrate women's achievement. Raise awareness about discrimination. Take action to drive gender parity. IWD belongs to everyone, everywhere. Inclusion means all IWD action is valid.
Visit ann arky's home at https://spiritofrevolt.info
   

Monday, 6 March 2023

Resist.

   

                                                   Image courtesy of Guardian.

             Make no mistake, the state works hand-in-glove with corporate capitalism. At the moment in the UK the capitalist class is complaining of a "labour" shortage. This simply means that they have capacity to exploit a greater number of citizens than they are exploiting at the moment. So they look around and come up with the label "economically inactive" in their eyes it is unacceptable for an individual not to be in harness to the capitalists class when it needs them, of course in over production they'll dump you without a thought about you being, "economically inactive". So the state will do its bit to make sure that those individuals classed as "economically inactive", become "economically active", to the benefit of the corporate greed merchants. The technique this time round is to do to their own citizens what they inflicted on migrants, create a hostile environment for all those, for whatever reason, are "economically inactive. You are going to be treated like subservient slaves, unless you strongly resist.

       New DWP pilot scheme threatens even more sanctions – resistance needed!
        “From Monday 27th February the DWP starts a pilot to force thousands of Universal Credit claimants to compulsorily attend jobcentres 10 times over a 2-week period, which PCS believes could increase the risk of poverty and make it more difficult for people to claim benefits.”

“If the customers, who have been claimants for 13 weeks, fail to attend they could be sanctioned and risk losing their benefits, plunging often very vulnerable people deeper into poverty.”

A new DWP pilot threatening Universal Credit claimants with even more sanctions has just started in 60 jobcentres round Britain including 11 in Glasgow and area........

https://edinburghagainstpoverty.org.uk/?p=3274


         The Glasgow area jobcentres involved in the pilot are
· Barrhead
· Castlemilk
· Drumchapel
· Glasgow City Central/Renfield Street
· Govan
· Laurieston
· Newlands
· Partick
· Shettleston
· Springburn
· Partick Jobcentre

 

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

Friday, 3 March 2023

War.

 

           My only criticism of this advert is the title, A war that should never have happened. In my nearly 89 years on this planet I have yet to know of a war that should have happened, unless we talk about the Class War. Also Blair and Bush didn't start the war, they didn't wake up one morning and decided to have a war with Iraq, it was the big Western multi-national corporations, who wanted their hands on Iraq's oil and to dollarise Iraq in the process. Blair and Bush were merely the pawns tasked with managing that process to war. Despite these small criticisms, I give my full support to the campaign for peace and attempting to stop all wars, which will require a complete change away from the insane economic system that shackles our lives.

This from Stop the War Coalition.

 Iraq-20 years on: A war that should never have happened.



          The invasion of Iraq launched twenty years ago by George Bush and Tony Blair was a catastrophe for the Iraqi people and had a disastrous impact across the Middle East and beyond. It led to a million deaths, the displacement of millions more, the destabilisation of the region and a deep anger against the Western powers across whole areas of the globe.
It also generated the biggest anti-war movement in history.
           Stop the War is marking the anniversary of the war with an evening of remembrance and analysis from Iraqi activists and other leading anti-war figures including Lowkey, Sami Ramadani, Raghad Al-Tikriti, Tariq Ali and Lindsey German.
 
Visit ann arky's home at https://spiritofrevolt.info
 

Thursday, 2 March 2023

Liberty.

 

          For March “Read of the Month” we at Spirit of Revolt offer you a magazine from March, 1977, Soil of Liberty, Volume 3, No2. It is from our Bratach Dubh Collection T SOR 5-1-4. It is an excellent read like the thousands of other documents letters, booklets, pamphlets, and lots more, held in the Spirit of Revolt Archive. Delve in and learn about our history, the people’s history, history from below.

READ ON LINE.


           Spirit of Revolt is probably the largest anarchist/libertarian Socialist archive in Scotland, and it is free to use. It is run by a small team of unpaid dedicated volunteers, but it does require money to function in this capitalist system. Wifi, website maintenance costs, annual fees for domain, name paper and ink cartridges and other ancillary costs etc. We receive no grants and rely on the generosity of our friends, comrades and supporters. So if you think we are doing a worth while job and would like to see it grow, why not donate the price of a couple of cups of coffee a month, so that we can continue to gather and catalogue and make easy accessible more of the struggle and history of the ordinary people.

                       DONATE.

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

Tuesday, 28 February 2023

It's Ours!

 
      There are many ways to alleviate the cost of living crisis, of course the state's remedy is to get you to grin and bear it until the good times arrive, but they never do arrive. The capitalists tell is it is all due to external factors and market forces, so we just have to be patient and the market will sort it all out. There is another way expropriate what is the fruits of our labour all locked in the labyrinth of the capitalist economic swamp. We create and make everything, we distribute everything, it is all ours but we fall for the capitalist mantra, that it is they who create the wealth and we have to buy the fruits of our labour back, so as to keep CEO and shareholders rich, all bullshit of course.
        An example of self help and mutual aid from that patch of land named Greece.

 
 This from Act For Freedom Now.

via:https://athens.indymedia.org/post/1623804/
Athens: Expropriation of products in My Market in Patisia area

             Precision pricing is one of the most recent manifestations of class violence unleashed by the State and the bosses on those below. The already unaffordable prices of basic goods for some have been inflated through location, resulting in privilege for the haves over the have-nots. With capital striding on the backs of the social base, further impoverishing it, and the State being the institutional guardian of capitalist restructuring and repression, taking our lives into our own hands is the only solution. We will not divide our needs into basic and non-basic, we will not step back on what belongs to us, we will fight side by side until the final elimination of the State and classes.
          In the context of the ongoing mobilizations against precision pricing, revaluations and the overall devaluation of our lives, on Saturday 4/2 an intervention was held by about 25 comrades in My Market in the area of Gravas in Patisia. Various kinds of products were expropriated and after the end of the intervention they were distributed to the people who were in the street market near the supermarket.

Everything is ours because everything is stolen

NTOY in the supermarkets, refusal to pay, war on the war of the State-bosses
 
Visit ann arky's home at https://spiritofrevolt.info  

Monday, 27 February 2023

Sacrifice.


 
                                                  Image courtesy of Glamour.

  
          It is normal practice for the state to keep asking the people to make sacrifices, Put up with low wages so that we can beat inflation and get the economy growing, accept a crumbling health service because there is not enough money until the economy grows. We the ordinary people are the ones who are told to sacrifice ourselves in capitalism's continuous wars while the rich and powerful organisers and perpetrators of the war sit back and reap the benefits in blood soiled gold. Always pie in the sky, for you and I, never a realisation of that imaginary time when the economy is super producing and all our ills are sorted. Our end of this arrangement is that we continue to struggle for a decent life while the rich get richer. If we have to live a life of continuous sacrifice and struggle because of the economy, then screw the economy. To grow the economy translates into helping big corporate business to get bigger and richer at our expense. We are fed crumbs so that we can get on with growing the economy all to their advantage. Why not put up with sacrifices to bring down this economic insanity and build society based on mutual aid, co-operation, freed from the poison of profit and one that sees to the needs of all our people. Struggle for revolution rather than struggle to grow the economy under its present exploitative rules and structure.
      Capitalism is continuous competition for markets and resources and that competition takes on an ugly and brutal form in wars. War is just a continuation of capitalist competition. Another aspect of capitalism when we, the ordinary people are asked to make the ultimate sacrifice. There is a better way to organise our society, we should make that choice, sacrifice for capitalism, or sacrifice for revolution.

                                              Image courtesy of The Telegraph.

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

Tuesday, 21 February 2023

Criminal.


           During this so called cost of living crisis, (really an exploitation crisis) the Western nations have been pouring in a virtual avalanche of weapons and ammunition to this American war with Russia, being fought on Ukrainian soil. So much so that some military experts are claiming that the West has depleted its defence capabilities and will have to make military spending, (they call it defence spending) a top priority. UK's Ben Wallace has stated that the military will get an extra £52 billion, and the pentagon has already sent $18billion on prolonging the Ukrainian blood flow, with the U$A planning to up its military budget once again.
      The European Union, in total aid, financial, humanitarian and military, has spent the most, however the U$A has by far, supplied the most in military hardware. The Kiel Institute calculated that between January 24th and November 20th, 2022 £96.7 billion flowed into Ukraine from Western countries, I have no doubt there is more we don't hear about.
 
        So it is obvious that as far as the so called free democratic West is concerned, there is never a cry of "not enough money" when it comes to war.
         Contrast this with the cry that there isn't the money to fund the NHS properly. The flow of funds for destruction while our people die waiting for an ambulance, die waiting for treatment, die waiting for an appointment. We have reached the level of third world countries where people languish in hospital simply because there is no community social service to look after them and hospital staff are forced to take strike action to try and improve their working conditions and pay.
 
       In this society the government is supposed to have a duty of care for the citizens in their keeping. Failing to do this and allowing people to die because of the lack of proper funding while spending billions on destruction and death of another country's citizens, is surely criminal, and those responsible should be held to task and face criminal charges. It is our money, and we the ordinary public have no desire to see our money being used for the killing and maiming of ordinary people in another country. 
 
Visit ann arky's home at https://spiritofrevolt.info