Niger.

 

     
      
They keep French electricity supply flowing.

Image courtesy of Dunia.

          Western media is pumping out the usual imperialist crap about the coup in Niger. All about restoring stability, and talking up military intervention to return democracy to the people. What was in place before the coup, was a stooge of the West who allowed the French state to continue plundering Niger of its natural resources. Niger is a very rich country with a poverty induced population. Among Niger's natural resources are Gold, Silicon, oil an estimated two billion barrels, then let's not forget Uranium.
         Niger supplies the EU with 24% of its uranium requirements, necessary for its electricity and nuclear weapons. It supplies 5% of the world's uranium production, this is something that Western imperialism has no desire to lose. So you can understand why the West is in such a tizzy about what is portrayed as a poor country. The country is rich but its population is poor. Despite the fact that Niger is possibly responsible for a large slice of French electricity supplies, in Niger itself, out of a population of 27 million only a fraction of those have access to electricity, approximately 18.6% according to World Bank data. The country is and has been plundered and pillaged by Western imperialism, mainly French. for centuries France has got very rich on the backs of the people of Niger. French imperialism, backed up by other Western imperialists and their puppet governments in Niger's neighbourhood will fight tooth and nail to keep that privileged position at the expense of the people of Niger. No matter if it has to spill the blood of the people it is proclaiming to protect.

They are helping make Western nuclear weapons.

                                              Image courtesy of African Volunteer.

         Western imperialism and other world domination groupings have to be destroyed, they live and grow rich and powerful on the poverty of millions of innocent people. Their final demise and the end of the capitalist insane economics is the only road to freedom and justice for all, and that better world that sees to the needs of all our people. How do we do it, I.m sure we have the imagination, the numbers and the power, all we need is the will of the people. To get their all I can offer is the words of Guy Debord.

       

"First of all, we think the world must be changed. We want the most liberating change of the society and life in which we find ourselves confined. We know that such a change is possible through appropriate actions. Our specific concern is the use of certain means of action and the discovery of new ones." (Guy Debord, 1957)

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Sleaze

Image courtesy of Labour Heartlands.

         Can you smell it? The stench of sewage emanating from that edifice to power, privilege and wealth, The Westminster Houses of Hypocrisy and Corruption. While they make noises about water companies discharging sewage into our rivers and beaches, their corridors of power have sewage swilling around as the accepted normal. Recently we had a Chancellor of the Exchequer being fined by inland revenue for omitting to pay tax on a wee bundle of a few million he stashed away in a tax haven. Then we had a member of The House of Lords, the upper part of the sewage factory, Michelle Mone, offering to source PPE via her company in Hong Kong. First making the suggestions to two of her buddies in government, before such company was set up. Her buddies in high places swung her over £200 million of tax payers money. The company produced equipment that couldn't be used and then went belly-up. In the precess more than £20 million from the company found its way into her family foundation fund.

Image courtesy of Youtube.

 

        The recently our Prime Minister one Rishi £800 million Sunak who generously opened up hundreds of new licences for oil and gas extraction in the North Sea. Omitting to mention that just a few months earlier The firm founded by his father-law, and which it is stated that his wife has a £400 million stake, had just signed a $1.5 billion deal with BP. What also has the stench of sewage is that just a few weeks ago the CEO of Shell became a member of Rishi £800 million Sunak's new Business Council.
       The whole bunch of them are up to their armpits in double dealing and shady deals for self advancement. Nothing that comes out of that establishment is ever designed for our benefit, it is all to do with building the economy, launched by the illusion that in turn is for our good. However the real gainers or the wealthy privileged barons of business and their minders, MPs and members of the government. That is what the state is set up to protect.

 

Image courtesy of BBC.

 

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Failing.

 

         For how long will humanity accept the pimps and gods of war to dominate our lives. Slaughter in the name of power, wealth and domination over others has plagued humanity for centuries and we seem to have learned nothing. The following poem could have been written yesterday but sadly it was written circa 2285-2250 BCE by the first ever named woman poet Enheduanna and still the Gods of war are "raging like thunderstorms" when will we turn in our millions against the rising wings of war, once and for all.

Image courtesy of Canadian Dimension.

Lament to the Spirit of War

by Enheduanna

loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch

You hack down everything you see, War God!

Rising on fearsome wings
you rush to destroy our land:
raging like thunderstorms,
howling like hurricanes,
screaming like tempests,
thundering, raging, ranting, drumming,
whiplashing whirlwinds!

Men falter at your approaching footsteps.

Tortured dirges scream on your lyre of despair.

Like a fiery Salamander you poison the land:
growling over the earth like thunder,
vegetation collapsing before you,
blood gushing down mountainsides.

Spirit of hatred, greed and vengeance!

Dominatrix of heaven and earth!

Your ferocious fire consumes our land.
Whipping your stallion
with furious commands,
you impose our fates.
You triumph over all human rites and prayers.

Who can explain your tirade,

why you carry on so?

                                          Image courtesy of Peace & Planet News.

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Not Stupid.

 

Image courtesy of Youtube.

 

           The war in Ukraine, call it what you will, U$A proxy war, Russian invasion of another country, but one thing is clear, we in the West do not get the full facts of the situation. We are never informed of where the rumblings of the conflict started, what factors were at play that erupted onto the bloody conflict we are witnessing now. We are treated as stupid by our lords and masters, and their mouthpiece the mainstream media. To them it is preached as good and evil, we of course are the good, Russia is the evil, we are supposed to swallow this simplistic explanation of a complex situation of power and resources, of world domination and the supremacy of the West 

 

Image courtesy of The Communist.

 

         Two interesting comments from Anarchist News shows the disparity of explanations of this bloody conflict in which, as usual, the ordinary people pay the price in blood and suffering, while the power mongers gather the blood soaked benefits.

Submitted by Wayne Price (not verified) on Tue, 08/01/2023 - 14:44

            This Anon reduces the issue to that of the inter-imperialist conflict, "the geopolitical interests of their local ruling class." It doesn't seem to occur to them that the Ukrainian people (mostly workers and farmers, not just their "local ruling class") are fighting for their lives, their existence as a people, their language, and their freedoms (limited as these are in a capitalist democracy), against an invading enemy which is smashing their villages and cities, blowing up their infrastructure, massacring their people, raping their women, and kidnapping their children. To them it is not simply a matter of the Ukrainian rulers not of the imperialist states from which they have gotten arms. Most of the anarchists of Ukraine, Russia, and Belarusia can see this, even if you can't. reply

 Their lives? their existence
Submitted by anon (not verified) on Tue, 08/01/2023 - 19:56

Their lives? their existence as a people?
          The Russians are not a horde of Orcs out to rampage and murder indiscriminately Wayne, it's a political war for the control of territory and resources, and in a large sense it's a civil war, as a bulk of the so-called "Russian" forces are actually so-called Ukrainians, scared kids who were forcefully conscripted from the donbass region to fight other scared conscripted kids. The ethnic/genetic differences between "white" russians and ukrainians is absolutely negligible, almost everybody has close relatives from both countries.

Their language?
           The bulk of the devastation is unfolding in territories where the populations are majority russian speaking and culturally russian. These were regions that voted against leaving the USSR and later became footholds of the "pro-russian" federalist Party of Regions. All the major industrial infrastructure in these regions date back to the soviet times. Since the Maidan coup in 2014 the Ukrainain state has been openly belligerent against its "own" civilian populations in these regions, intermittantly bombing residential areas and carrying out terror campaigns led by Banderist, Right Sektor and Azov neo-nazis. Some western-ukrainian nationalist politicians and TV commentators have openly called for making an ethnic purge and population replacement the whole region, citing that they are unambitious an not productive enough. Almost 300 children were killed by ukrainian bombs, bombs launched by their "own" nation before the outbreak of the russian intervention.

Their freedoms? democracy?
        There is no political freedom. Since the outbreak of the war the Ukrainian state has outlawed all left-wing parties and indefinitely suspended elections. Because of general conscription males are forced to hide or flee if they do not want to become cannon fodder for the defense of the current regime. Soliders and police patrol the streets hunting for evaders. It's cool the Zelenskyy wants to legalize weed though I guess.

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Fail 25.

 

                                                  Image courtesy of Le Monde

          Just released, System Fail 25, again a wide spectrum view of our world that mainstream media seem to overlook. This issue covers the riots in France, climate catastrophe, and Bolivia. Well worth viewing and spreading around.

Image courtesy of Anarchist Federation.

 

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Subterfuge.

        By stealth, subterfuge, and smoke and mirrors, that is how most states function. They pump out a phoney statement with innocent sounding misnomers, but the intention is slithering into place, and the powers that be hope it will not be noticed until it becomes an accepted fact and is too late to reverse. It has been the opus operandi for states across time and the planet. Sadly the result is usually horrendous bloodshed, death and destruction for the innocent. However, this fate is not heaped on the perpetrators of this callous, brutal deceit. When will we ever learn, the state is the enemy of the people, equality, peace, justice and freedom. Its demise is our only hope of a better world for all. 

From Struggle La Lucha.

July 31, 2023 Gary Wilson 

 

          

           U.S. troops in Poland, near the Ukraine border. In July, President Biden authorized an addition 3,000 reservists to join more than 12,000 troops in NATO countries surrounding Ukraine. Is this troop build up in preparation for “boots on the ground” in Ukraine? Newsweek reported that in July NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg announced a support package for Ukraine that would “result in the U.S. eventually sending soldiers to fight in the war against Russia.”
            U.S. troops in Poland, near the Ukraine border. In July, President Biden authorized an addition 3,000 reservists to join more than 12,000 troops in NATO countries surrounding Ukraine. Is this troop buildup in preparation for “boots on the ground” in Ukraine? Newsweek reported that in July NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg announced a support package for Ukraine that would “result in the U.S. eventually sending soldiers to fight in the war against Russia.”
        The Pentagon has approved hazard pay for U.S. troops serving in Ukraine, paving the way for a possible expanded presence. Military Times reported July 27 on the new hazard pay policy.
         Troops who qualify will get back pay as far back as April 24, 2022.
         “Grier Martin, who is temporarily serving as the Pentagon’s top personnel official, approved the change in a July 13 memo, which was posted to the unofficial ‘Air Force amn/nco/snco’ Facebook page,” Military Times says.
         The approval of hazard pay is seen as a sign that the Pentagon is preparing for a possible expansion of the U.S. military presence in Ukraine. The Biden administration has steadily increased the number of special forces “advisers” and trainers in the country. While calling them advisers and trainers, they actively participate in the war.
        Washington has a long history of entering wars this way, from Vietnam to Central America to Afghanistan. The U.S. initially claimed it was not sending “boots on the ground” to Vietnam, but eventually, there were over 500,000 U.S. troops in Vietnam. The U.S. also claimed that it was not sending troops to El Salvador, but eventually, over 500 U.S. special forces were operating in El Salvador, commanding the Salvadoran military dictatorship.
        Washington won’t say that it is directly involved in combat in Ukraine. It can be expected to stick to euphemisms (advisers or security details) to describe its activities. The euphemisms are its way of expanding involvement, hoping no one will notice the increasing numbers of troops on the ground.

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Compensation.

    

          A nice little twist, though I don't think it got much coverage in our mainstream media. It would be nice if it resulted in success for our comrades. I wonder what social centre or squat etc. would get a wee boost of capitalist cash.

This from Anarchist News.   

        

         A large-scale meeting of international anarchists in Switzerland has disrupted the smooth running of the rail schedule by forcing the cancellation of several trains.

From swissinfo.ch
July 22, 2023

          The sprawling five-day event involving thousands of anarchists has centered on the Swiss town of St Imier, but some participants have decided to camp too close for comfort to the railway tracks.
          At first, trains were ordered to cut their speed on Saturday morning. But the service between La-Chaux-de-Fonds and St Imier was later completely cut.
          A replacement bus service has been laid on, but the Watson news portal reports calls from some anarchists for up to CHF60,000 ($70,000) in compensation for the inconvenience.
          The Swiss authorities told Watson that a decision on the matter would have to wait until the anarchist event ends after the weekend.
          The anarchists’ gathering marks the 150th anniversary of the Congress of St-Imier which, in 1872, saw the foundation of the Anti-Authoritarian International movement.
          The event includes 268 lectures and workshops, 48 concerts, 42 screenings, 11 theatrical performances, seven exhibitions and a book fair, according to the association “150 Years Saint-Imier Congress”.

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Homeless.

Image courtesy of BBC

            I have lived a long life, heading for 90, and throughout the adult period of that life I have heard repeated bullshit spewed out by the crooks and liars that hold the reins of power. As each election approaches, (I call them crooks and liars competitions) I've listened to those phoney pledges, "We will end child poverty" "we'll end homelessness". So here we are and the figures for homelessness are staggering to say the least. The figures here are for England alone, I have no doubt that the other three parts of this part of the planet called The United Kingdom will swell the numbers considerably.

Image courtesy of Edinburgh Live.

 

         No doubt when the elected crooks and liars hear of these figures they may 

spout, "pandemic", "Ukraine", but the figures are the worst for 25 years. In England, according to a recent report by Shelter, almost 250,000 are in temporary accommodation, this is up 74% over the last 10 years, the present bunch of crooks and liars have been in control for 13 years, so we know where the blame lies. In this human disaster there are123,000 children living, (if you can call it living) in temporary accommodation. In England 1 in 208 are homeless,15,000 are living in hostels and there are 2,400 sleeping rough.

Image courtesy of The Mirror.

 

         This is an indictment of failure of the present economic system, it is not that 

we live in a poor country, we are among the richest countries in the world. Yet all my long life I have heard these callous phoney promises, but the poverty and deprivation continues. It is not an immutable fact of nature, it is the result of an economic system that pillages and plunders the riches created by the people and channels it into the coffers of the wealthy, powerful, pampered, parasite class. We are the causalities of a class war, a war we can win if we come together in organised solidarity, throughout our workplaces and communities. We have the numbers, the imagination and the knowledge to end this cruel insanity and create that better and fairer world for all our people.

 

Visit ann arky at https://spiritofrevolt.info    

Paper.

       

     

    One of these libraries described below, in every city, town and village would go a long way to introducing our ideas and aims to the wider public. The nearest we have in Glasgow is probably Spirit of Revolt Archives of Dissent https://spiritofrevolt.info contact info@spiritofrevolt.info we have a very extensive range of serials, magazines leaflets and other documents relating to anarchist and libertarian socialist history of struggle. A lot of them available to read on line for free. Documents not yet on line can be accessed by appointment. 

 

Library

LIBRARY:  For reading! And discussing! Maybe even borrowing! (For most books and zines which we only have one copy there is the possiblity to give us an email or phone number and a small deposit to borrow )

DISTRO: a range of texts available for contribution – take a copy away with you or request more copies to be brought for you.

ARCHIVE: Forthcoming! Publications from the exhuberent heritage of the anarchist tension across the world, which will be catalogued on this site in the future, as well as for reading live and direct in the library.

Contact  touchpaper@riseup.net

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Caged.

 

          Those who voice their desire for a fair and free world without borders, and are prepared to take action to further their desires, very often will suffer the full ravages and vengeance of the state apparatus. Brutality, intimidation, and being caged like an animal are some of the state's methods of attempting to create a submissive population. Submission is necessary for control, freedom of expression, justice and fairness can never fit in a governed population. Rules and regulations formulated by those who wish to control the shape of the society we live in, are considered more important than the freedom of the individual. Woe betide those who transgress those rules and regulations in their desire for a free and equal world, they will require and deserve all the support and solidarity we can muster. To the abolition of the state and its prisons.

Words From Comrade Gabriel Pombo da Silva
July 16, 2023 

  

           Dear comrades: as incredible as it may seem to you, I have as yet had neither the desire, nor the ability, nor the will to sit down in front of a machine to (re)-announce my (re)-return to this frenetic world… in any case I have the will to share these brief words.
         Be that as it may, finally the truth prevails, and their gray state officials should have recognized that they have kept me KIDNAPPED for many more years than what their “democratic” laws and rights commonly and ordinarily announce.
        As life and death is a bureaucratic procedure for those who “conquer more than they convince”, when the release order reached its final rung, just like that, they put me suddenly before the doors of one of their prisons. They did not even take the trouble to warn the lawyers, comrades or family of this fact, forcing me to endure 40 interminable minutes standing there like an imbecile until a prisoner let me talk on the phone….
        Anyway, I did not expect the bride and groom of death to apologize, but neither did I expect them to be so vile… the fact is that in the last few months I have lost more than 15 kilos of muscle mass, I will spare you the lurid details of this last attack that has taken more than 3 and a half years to be resolved.
         My daughter and my partner have undoubtedly borne the brunt of this vile revenge, and now these weeks of reunion and healing are for them. To all of you, brother and sister, internationalist and solidarity comrades, goes my revolutionary love.
         Soon we will begin to build and (re)-build our projects and organizational bases to continue our struggle and commitment for all freedoms. Those who have died in action and those who continue to rot in prison for their militant and revolutionary ideas and commitments are always in my heart and mind.
         We will continue the struggle against the state, capital and its mercenaries on all fronts, again and again.
For anarchy and the end of domination!
Gabriel.”

https://informativoanarquista.noblogs.org/post/2023/07/16/espana-unas-palabras-por-parte-del-companero-gabriel-pombo-da-silva/
Translated by Act for freedom now!

Visit ann arky at https://spiritofrevolt.info     

Haunted.

           The drowning recently of 500 or more migrants off the coast of Greece fades from the system's media, but the sorrow and anguish of the families and friends of those unnecessarily drowned will linger forever. The sad tragedy is that they were not the only ones to drown in this inhumane manner, it is practically a daily occurrence, murder by legislation, but the insane system that at present shackles us, will persist in this policy of borders and controls, while they create mayhem across the world. No borders, one race, the human race one world, our world.

Poster for the state murder of migrants in Pylos, which was posted up in the centre of Athens:

BASTARDS

(cops, judges, politicians, journalists, fascists)

sleep soundly!

The executioners are innocent.

The dead are guilty.

~

They will haunt you

forever,

THE EYES OF THE DROWNED

ANARCHISTS

———————————–

via: athens.indymedia
Translated by Act for freedom now!

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Act of War.

           In this crazy capitalist world of drive for domination, war is the main tool. In today's hi-tech world there are more than one way of waging war. Today we have U$A and NATO's proxy war in Ukraine, fought with Western weaponry but uses Ukrainian blood. However, the U$A's war against China takes a different shape, it is a sanctions war being fought to try to strangle China's further advances in the hi-tech world and so destroy its economy.

 

 

An interesting article from Struggle-La-Lucha.

         

  The July 12 New York Times Magazine headlined: “‘An Act of War’: Inside America’s Silicon Blockade Against China.”
          The report is about the October 2022 “export controls” against China:
           “Last October, the United States Bureau of Industry and Security issued a document that — underneath its 139 pages of dense bureaucratic jargon and minute technical detail — amounted to a declaration of economic war on China. …
           “The Oct. 7 controls essentially seek to eradicate, root and branch, China’s entire ecosystem of advanced technology. ‘The new policy embodied in Oct. 7 is: Not only are we not going to allow China to progress any further technologically, we are going to actively reverse their current state of the art,’ [Gregory] Allen [of the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington] says. C.J. Muse, a senior semiconductor analyst at Evercore ISI, put it this way: ‘If you’d told me about these rules five years ago, I would’ve told you that’s an act of war — we’d have to be at war.’”
          The U.S. export controls (the act of war) on computer chips aim to cripple China’s ability to produce or purchase high-end chips, which are crucial for the development of advanced technologies such as supercomputers and artificial intelligence (AI). Some call this a Silicon Curtain in the New Cold War against China. The U.S. controls (again, an act of war) are not narrowly targeted at curbing Chinese military development, as claimed by the Biden administration. On her recent visit to China, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen seemed openly insincere when she tried to say the controls were not aimed at the broader economy. China’s Premier Li Qiang, who met Yellen, told her that she was “overstretching.”
       The export controls are broad. As the New York Times reports, they seek to undermine China’s entire ecosystem of advanced technology, including its AI industry. The semiconductor industry is seen as a means to achieve this goal.
       The semiconductor industry is a global industry that the U.S. has dominated and controlled, as U.S. Big Oil has dominated the global energy industry.
The Pentagon’s semiconductor project
       The semiconductor industry began as a project of the Pentagon’s Semiconductor Technology Advanced Research Network (STARnet), part of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). The industry in the U.S. was and is, to this day, heavily financed by the Pentagon and the U.S. government.
         The CHIPS Act, passed by Congress and signed by President Biden in August 2022, pumped an additional $280 billion in new funding for the research and manufacture of semiconductors in the U.S. That was followed by a DARPA announcement in January 2023 that it was putting almost half a billion dollars into a project to help advance the semiconductor industry in the U.S. None of this, by the way, was created or developed by any capitalist entrepreneur. Capitalism does not create anything on its own; it just finds a way to exploit new technology to make a profit. And many of the biggest, highest profit-making capitalist industries were created and funded by the government in various ways, including most of the technology industry, the internet, the pharmaceutical industry, the automobile industry, and even Big Oil.
          The semiconductor industry is a knowledge-intensive industry. It is built on shared knowledge and resources. Initially, semiconductor companies were built on open innovation. Because of its complexity, development, and production required the collaboration of research centers, universities, scientists, engineers, and many others to develop the techniques and methodologies required. The pace of innovation in the semiconductor industry has been incredibly rapid. New chip designs are constantly being developed, and the capabilities of chips are constantly increasing. This is due to a number of factors, including:

Continue READING.

Visit ann arky at https://spiritofrevolt.info       

Unstable.

 

Image courtesy of Refinery 29.

          We live in a very unequal society, a world of inequality that stretches across the planet with its ensuing misery and deprivation for the majority. What our plunderers and pillagers of the corporate parasite class and their state bed companions should do well to remember is that an unequal world is an unstable world. Fractures are already appearing and the anger is simmering just beneath the surface, occasionally bursting forth in riots, insurrection and resistance, built on a shared burden of struggle. As the capitalist system is utterly incapable of creating an equal society as it is based on profit from exploitation, it is also incapable of creating a stable and fair society. It becomes ever more obvious that if we want a fair and just society we will have to dismantle the present economic system of profit which is driven by greed and self interest. There is no magic wand, nor will the change come from above with a bunch of roses. The change we want will have to be wrestled from the hands of the plundering capitalist system we must replace. Banners and polite marches with snap slogans will not force the plunderers to relinquish their opulent lifestyles in favour of equality and fairness. It will take the mass of the population to rise up and in solidarity state that enough is enough, we will be free and live in a fair society that sees to the needs of all our people.

 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. 

 

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