IT'S ALL FOR YOUR OWN GOOD???

      

      We in the West tend to think that other regimes are much more repressive than our "free", "democratic" Western societies. However, all the research that comes out seems to paint a different picture. Perhaps our noses are too close to the picture to grasp the reality of the scene. The information is out there. The following very interesting extract is taken from: secure.cryptohippie.com/pubs/EPS-2010…  where the full article can be read.

The United States, with the UK and France close behind, have now caught up with Russia and are gaining on China, North Korea and Belarus. The key developments driving this are the following:

● The USA has negated their Constitution’s fourth amendment in the name of protection and in the name of “wars” against terror, drugs and cyber attacks.

● The UK is aggressively building the world of 1984 in the name of stopping “anti-social” activities. Their populace seems unable or unwilling to restrain the government.

● France and the EU have given themselves over to central bureaucratic control.

ann arky's home.

+ Soviet Union No ID no entry policy +

 

   There is no end to the creeping surveillance that is penetrating every fibre of our society. This wee piece from NO2ID,  is what to expect to become the norm for visits to the cinema, supermarket and libraries etc. Unless of course we resisit and refuse. They need us more than we need them. 

   News that the Soviet Union is planning to introduce authoritarian ID checks for drinkers in Consett, County Durham may sound like the plot of a dodgy spy novel - but it's true. A 'No ID No Entry' scheme is being proposed in Consett which would mean visitors to the Soviet Union bar would have to have their passport or driving licence scanned into a computer system before they can enter. The system called 'Clubscan' is increasingly being rolled out across the UK as civil liberties are traded for booze. Of course if enough customers refuse to submit to these arbitrary ID checks then the clubs and pubs will have to remove the systems.

See:
http://www.thenorthernecho.co.uk/news/local/consett/5033467.ID_proposal_for_drinkers_welcomed_by_bar_owner/        
also:        http://www.idscan.co.uk/uk_products_clubscan.php

ann arky's home.

A CITY IS NOT A COMPANY.

 Workers Initiative, Poland.

Sent: Tue, 9 March, 2010 11:05:20

Subject:  Poland: City is not a company! - 37 anarchists arrested in Poznan

      City is not a company!” - 37 anarchists arrested in Poznan after clashes with cops. On Monday, 8th March, about 50 people from Rozbrat squat Collective made a demonstration in front of the gate of Poznan International Fair Center, where a congress of local councils from all over Poland was taking place. Shouting slogans “City is not a company. Rozbrat stays!”, the anarchists blockaded the gate. Many cars with the officials were forced to turn back. After a while, the protesters decided to walk inside the premises of the Fair, they were not stopped by anyone. Then, they tried to go inside the building where the congress was taking places. They were attacked by the police. Some of the anarchists were heavily beaten up, 37 were arrested and driven to three different police stations. Most of them are already released with minor charges. From the information we were able to gather, 3 people will be charged with an attack on a functionary, those three are still in jail.

      The demonstration's aim was to show that the city council in Poznan is not interested in developing the social-cultural side of the city but they only care about the profits coming from the wealthy investors. Activists from

Rozbrat have been coming to the meetings of the city council for over a year now and the officials have never been interested in doing anything about our situation. They have been debating over a local development plan for the district of Solacz, where Rozbrat is situated and this debate has been taking them so long only because so many ordinary people have come and have been opposed against it. According to the plan, there will be a villa neighborhood on the premises of Rozbrat. Meanwhile, another culture center, the Inner Spaces gallery, which was renting a bulding from the city, has just been removed and the city decided to rent that space to a restaurant. Two independent and long-running cinemas Malta and Amarant also have to close down because they have been dominated by the big multiplex cinemas and they also haven't received any support from the city council. Still, the authorities are standing for the title of the Cultural Capital for Poznan in 2016. Monday's action was a call for the demonstration on the 20th March. We won't give up without fight!

Pictures here: http://www.rozbrat.org/galeria/category/218-

Video here: http://www.szumtv.blip.tv/

anna arky's home.

ASYLUM SEEKERS DEATHS.

     Three people fell to their death on Sunday morning from one of the tower blocks in Red Road. We understand they were asylum-seekers who had received a negative decision from the UK Borders Agency (UKBA). They are thought to have lived in Red Road for two months. Questions must be answered not the usual waffle and whitewash. This is a family wiped out in one tragic moment, why? What pressure were these people under? What support were they getting?  UKBA must be forced to reveal all the circumstances in this tragic case, what was their full involvement with this family, the details must be made public.

*** 11am Tuesday 9 March - Protest outside the Home Office, Brand Street, Glasgow - called by the Unity Centre, Glasgow (0141 427 7992, info@unitycentreglasgow.org )

*** 6pm Tuesday 9 March - come to Petershill Drive, Glasgow with banners demanding freedom and safety for all asylum seekers. - requested by a residents of Red Road Flats.

ann arky's home. 

KICK BACK, IT'S SELF DEFENCE.

   

    The media is now full of all those well heeled “experts” calling for deep cuts in government spending. We are bombarded with headlines reading; “Business leaders have demanded that the government start making public spending cuts this year to reduce the UK's £178bn deficit.” Not only are they calling for deep cuts but they want them now, or even yesterday. At least two employers’ groups, the CBI and the Institute of Directors have spouted that faster cuts in government borrowing are needed to restore credibility in public finances.

      It sounds all very scientific and fair, except that there is no science behind these statements, just greed. Savage cuts in government spending means more out-sourcing to the private sector, (the CBI mob) and of course eventually less tax for them to pay as government spending drops. As for the “fair” part, well, not one of those mouthing off about cuts in government spending will be in the least hurt by those cuts. No that honour falls on you and I, we are the ones that will suffer under any government spending cuts, health, education, pensions, social benefits, the young, the elderly, the unemployed, (and that army is set to grow) the low paid, even those who may think they are reasonably comfortable, they also will feel the pain. Yet not one of those who will be harshly treated by these cuts is in any way responsible for the government’s debt. The debt is there because a bunch of greedy sleaze groomed parasites blew billions in their blind quest for pots of cash for nothing, sometimes called fancy accounting. They blew it, they screwed up big time, and it looked like some of them would go out of business. So their minders, the equally sleazy parliamentarians, over burdened with their expenses, came running to the rescue and handed them billions of our money. Our generosity is now to be repaid with a kick in the balls, to which we are supposed to say,”thank you kind sirs, for saving the financial spivs, of course this should be said with a slight curtsey.

     Well why don’t we kick back and refuse to accept any cuts in our living standard, refuse to accept working longer to get our reduced pensions, refuse to see our kids education going done the tubes, refuse to see our national health system decimated and privatised, refuse to accept wage freezes or wage cuts that would return this generation and the next back to the Victorian era. What would function in this world if it was not for the working class, we built this world, it is our world, it’s time to take it back.

ann arky's home. 

THE BIRTH OF THE FUTURE??

    

     8,000 marched through Glasgow on the EIS demonstration on Saturday 6th. On Monday 8th March a two day strike by public service workers. The cuts are coming fast and furious as well as deep and vicious, so let's keep the fight against them coming just as fast and furious. These cuts are across all sections of the working class and demand a class wide response. Working or unemployed, retired or in education, these cuts are aimed at you. It is important that we organise across union borders and into the community. It is being demanded that we pay for the bankers greed and the sleazy politicians incompetence. They will not in any way shape or form suffer from these cuts, they just implement them, while enjoying massive salaries, unbelievable bonuses, expenses and mind blowing pensions. This bunch of spivs and parasites must be faced down, we can't afford to let them send the next generation back to Victorian times.

       Why do we have to appeal to them for a decent standard of living? We make everything, we distribute everything, then we beg them to give us a decent life. I’m sure we could come up with a more just and sustainable system without using too much imagination Why put up with a system that sees a bunch of incompetent greedy parasites cream off a life of unearned opulence while we struggle for a decent life. We have the power, the skills, the resources, and now the opportunity, all we are lacking is the will, the will to transform this wage-slave system into a society built on mutual aid, voluntary co-operation and free association and based on sustainability. A society that sees to the needs of all our people, a society of justice before greed and profit.

ann arky's home. 

INTERNATIONAL WOMEN'S DAY. MARCH 8TH.

                                                                     Ethel MacDonald
INFO HERE,
Date & time: 24 February 2010 13.00      End date: 30 March 2010 15.00

Event: FIREBRAND WOMEN

About:

           Women have fought for their rights and others throughout the decades and are still doing so. Glasgow Women’s Library is teaming up with the Workers Educational Association to offer 6 sessions showcasing some real Firebrand Women and the campaigns that they worked on which have allowed us the rights that we have today. Come along to hear the inspirational stories of the role women played in these campaigns.

Venue:
            Various venues across the city, Glasgow, G1 5RH

Organisation:
              Glasgow Women's Library: Glasgow Women’s Library is a vibrant information hub housing a lending library, archive collections and contemporary and historical artefacts relating to women’s lives, histories and achievements. We deliver an innovative Lifelong Learning Programme, an Adult Literacy and Numeracy Project and a dedicated Black and Minority Ethnic Women’s Project.
MORE INFO ON THE EVENT.

ann arky's home. 

SHALL WE SWIM OR DROWN?

A NEEDLESS SEA OF TEARS.

Though we live in a world of callous commerce

and know justice

is an altar where the caring are sacrificed,

see freedom as a river that runs parched

in the fierce desert of poverty,

our thoughts cannot be chained

our dreams will not be caged.

We will think beyond the profit race

dream beyond the market place

in friendship clasp each human hand

with compassion try to understand

our differences, our hopes, our fears,

dragging this world from its needless sea of tears

 

ann anrky's home. 

INTERNATIONAL WOMEN'S DAY.

   "Merely external emancipation has made of the modern woman an artificial being. Now, woman is confronted with the necessity of emancipating herself from emancipation, if she really desires to be free."          Emma Goldman  

   

       March 8, is celebrated as (IWD)'International Women's Day'. We can trace it back to March 8 1908, when 15,000 women marched through the streets of New York City demanding shorter hours, better pay and voting rights. In 1910 the first international women's conference was held in Copenhagen, Denmark, under the aegis of the Second Socialist International. The originator of the proposal was German socialist Clara Zetkin. The conference called for the establishment of an international women's day, though no fixed date was set at this event.. Prior to this the Socialist Party of America in 1909 had called for such an event to be held on the last Sunday of February. March 8 gradually became an accepted date because it commemorated an 1857 protest in New York by garment workers who two years later went on to establish the first labour union in the USA. March 8 was also the day when women in Europe held peace rallies in 1913 as the dogs of war were howling for the blood of WW1, Then there was the Commemoration of the Triangle Shirtwaist factory fire on March 25, 1911 when 140 garment workers were killed in a factory fire because the owners had locked the doors, to prevent anybody leaving.

     

GLASGOW WOMEN.

       Glasgow can boast of a strong tradition of women who have taken the front line when it comes to fighting for better conditions and facing up to oppression. We should continually strive to remember their names and keep their tradition alive we should always be prepared to tell their story, their story is our history. Some were newspaper headlines, others were quietly struggling in the shadows, but fight they did. We could easily fill this blog with their names, however here are just a few, can you add to the list?

Mary Barbour,
Helen Crawfurd,
Ethel MacDonald,
Jenny Patrick,
Agnes Dollan.
 
ann arky's home. 

PEASANTS WITH PITCHFORKS.

      

       Why should somebody who has worked all their life and paid tax and national insurance, now be told they will have to work longer before getting their pension? Why should parents be told that the education for their kids will be cut? Why should someone on benefit be told that their benefits will be cut? Why should the elderly be told that their care will be reduced? Why should someone working away diligently to earn their bread be told that they are now unemployed? What have these people done wrong? The simple answer is that they paid billions to the bankers. So now they have to suffer. In a situation like this, peasants with pitchforks comes to mind

        I believe that the people of this country should be watching and learning from the Greek resistance, perhaps it might also stimulate and inspire parallel movements in this country and other countries whose people are likewise pissed-off because they have to bear the costs of a crisis they did not cause and a “recovery” that is in fact a recovery for the elite financial parasites and nothing to do with them, except that they are expected to take the full force of all the cuts. Who can criticise the people for trying to safeguard their standard of living. However the Greek resistance would need allies elsewhere to succeed and vice versa. This capitalism global crisis is just one of recurring crisis in a catalogue of various grades of crisis and as usual is a burden for the working classes of the world. However every crisis in the capitalist system should be seen as an opportunity not just to reform but to destroy the system and replace it with a fairer and more just, non-exploitative system that sees to the needs of all our people. To suffer the brutal onslaught of this crisis while missing a chance to grasp the opportunities that it offers would only make this crisis a greater tragedy for the working class.

        Perhaps it is time the peasants remembered where they put their pitchforks.

ann arky's home. 

CORPORATE ART.

Michelango's David has always been the envy of the American Galleries and recently corporate sponsors

ran a promotion for American artists to create their own David to be displayed in New York. You can preview the exhibition here.

ann arky's home. 

VIOLENCE-RIGHT OR WRONG??

  

       Anarchism attempts to create a society of free association, voluntary co-operation and mutual aid, and free from the greed devouring drive for profit. Most people would agree that it is a desirable aim, the difference of opinion is usually in how do we get there. Do we get there with or without violence? Can violence ever be justified in an attempt to create a better world? I don’t believe there is an absolute law on the matter, circumstances and those involved must be the final arbitrator. My own personal opinion seems best expressed by Martin Luther King in the following quotation. ---”As I have walked among the desperate, rejected and angry young men I have told them that Molotov cocktails and rifles would not solve their problems. I have tried to offer them my deepest compassion while maintaining my conviction that social change comes most meaningfully through nonviolent action. But they asked - and rightly so - what about Vietnam? They asked if our own nation wasn’t using massive doses of violence to solve its problems, to bring about the changes it wanted. Their questions hit home, and I knew that I could never again raise my voice against the violence of the oppressed in the ghettos without having first spoken clearly to the greatest purveyor of violence in the world today - my own government.”

      Today, as at the time of Martin Luther King, we see the corrupt governments of America and Britain and a rat bag of others throwing indescribable massive violence at innocent peoples of other lands in an attempt to solve their own problems while condemning all other violence that may arise as a result of their actions. Where should the ordinary people of the world stand on this? Since it is always the ordinary people that suffer in such action, it is obvious if we wish to be free from this violence we must unite and put an end to the power of the state, talking to the state apparatus has never stopped the state’s violence, we must create a society where it is the people that are involved, that make the decisions, not the war-lords nor the corporate greed machine.

     I believe that anarchism is the ultimate social system for humanity. It is based on the individual’s rights, it is free from coercion, it aims for sustainability, and is based on those basic but fundamental principles of , free association, voluntary co-operation and mutual aid. To some it is an impossible dream but in reality it is possible if the will of the people so desire. We are governed by consent, we can withdraw that consent and create our own new world free from war, poverty and exploitation.

 

ann arky's home. 

2, DEATH BY A THOUSAND CUTS!!

   

     Councils and government bodies are now pushing for draconian cuts in our standard of living in an attempt to reduce the mountain of debt that has been piled on the backs of the ordinary people. Debt that appeared because the greed merchants in their voracious and reckless greed feast were about to go bust. So the tax payer, through the government, hands them billions of pounds of our money. Only to be told by the same financial institutions that the mountain of debt has to be reduced. It is not to be reduced by the financial institutions who got the money of course, no we paid them the money so we have to carry the can. 

     We are expected to quietly sit and watch TV, football and chat merrily at the pub. Meanwhile, they hack away at our kids education, our health care, our social benefits our other services, freeze wages and in some cases reduce wages, as well as thrrowing thousands on the unemployed scrap heap. All because the financial world can't function with this mountain of debt..  It is as insane as if a small business was going bust and the bank loaned it some money, the the small business then says that it can no longere do business with the bank as the bank has this debt on its head, so I would like the bank manager and his staff to take a cut in their standard of living. Alice in Wonderland stuff, only they are trying to make it a reality.

    We have an obligation to take to the streets and support all those who are fighting these cuts, the authorities will try to pick you off one at a time, but united in solidarity we can resist this savage attack on all of our living standards. This is not an attack on any one group, this is a brutal full frontal assault on the entire working class of this country. Organise, resist, take control, or see your future and your kids future go down the tubes. We can build a society based on mutual aid, voluntary co-operation and free association, that will see to the needs of all our people, not a bunch of parasitical shareholders and their minders the sleazy politicians. Now seems the right moment to put that to the test.

ann arky's home. 

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY.

I believe it is essential to grasp that an anarchist society would involve a different way of thinking and a different way of living, not the self-management of the present world.

ann arky's home. 

CONSENT???

     Has the state any legitimacy? Apathy, acquiescence, consent, ah, that is the question and how do we differenciate.

"… consent is always compromised by force; the mere existence of effective force dedicated to some end constitutes coercion toward that end, whatever you may think or want. If I consent to abide by the law when that law is enforced by a huge body of men with guns and clubs, it is never clear, to say the least, whether my consent is genuine or not. … It will always be prudent for me, under such circumstances, to simulate consent, and there are no clear signs by which a simulation could be distinguished from a genuine consent in such a case. That I am enthusiastic in my acquiescence to your overwhelming capacity for violence—that I pledge my allegiance according to formula, sing patriotic songs and so on—does not entail that I am not merely acquiescing. … [T]he mere existence of an overwhelming force by which the laws will be enforced compromises conceptually the possibility of voluntarily acceding to them. Or put it this way: the power of government, constituted by hypothesis under contract, by which it preserves the liberties and properties of its citizens, is itself conceptually incompatible with the very possibility of their consent." (Pages 50-51)

Crispin Sartwell. Against the State, Page 50/51.
 
ann arky's home.  

THE FREEDOM TO INDOCTRINATE.

       

       Recently the UK government passed legislation setting out compulsory sex education in all schools. Of course there was the usual belly-rumbling and garbled noises from the Christian fundamentalists claiming that it was an attack on their freedom to indoctrinate the minds of young kids. As usual the government caved in and an amendment was added allowing faith schools to teach sex education in a manner that reflected their religious views. What a cop-out, how do you teach sex education reflecting the view that you shouldn’t be taught it in the first place?

       I can visualise a sex education lesson in a faith school where the teacher holds up a condom between their finger and thumb stating, this is a condom, some people say it can prevent pregnancy, but if you ever use one you will burn in hell for all eternity. That should be very helpful to the kids. Now kids, you know that artist fellow down the road who does a lot of charity work, well he is gay and therfore evil, so don't look at or buy any of his art work.

        Why sex education? Why not allow the faith schools to teach all subjects to reflect their religious views, history, biology, etc. A history lesson could go something like, Henry viii founded the church of England because he was possessed by the devil and filled with evil spirits. The world today is mainly free from witches, because we burnt most of them in years gone by. Biology, the main elements that play a part in the human condition are genetics, environment and the snake from the garden of Eden. There is no end to this crap if you allow the faith schools to teach subjects to reflect their religious views.

        Why doesn’t religion get out of education and confine itself to funny places where men wear long dresses and speak to some imaginary guy in the sky. Where mumbo-jumbo and the adoration of symbolism, crosses, blood of Christ and other weirdo things is seen as OK. Let it be an adult choice if they wish do these things, stop indoctrinating our kids in this divisive, destructive, illusionary world built on the ramblings of some big noises in an ancient, nomadic Middle Eastern tribe.

 

ann arky's home. 

CAPITALISM AND POVERTY.

This isnae' wit a voted fur!!

     

       Scotland, part of the UK, one of the most developed capitalist countries in the world and land where immigrants come in the hope of a better life. However, it is not a country of milk and honey, it is the usual capitalist inequality, exploitation, injustice and poverty. 

In households with less than 60% median income in Scotland today are:

980,000, 20% or one fifth of all individuals,

250,000, 24% of children,

150,000, 16% of pensioners,

590,000, 19% of working age adults

• Inequality:

The share of the income of the richest ten per cent is the same as that of the bottom fifty per cent.

• Poor Health:

Differences in life expectancy between the poorest and richest areas of Glasgow can be up 25 years for men and 15 years for women.

• Debt and financial exclusion:

Only 1 in six people whose household income is less than £10,000 has a bank account. More than half do not have any savings.

• Bad Housing:

360,000 homes in Scotland are affected by dampness, more than 70% of Scottish social housing is below the Scottish Quality Housing Standard and over 125,000 children live in overcrowded houses.

• Fuel Poverty:

An estimated 650,000 ‘fuel poor’ households in Scotland and more than 2,000 (rising to 5,000 in severe winters) people aged over 65 die as a result of cold related illnesses during winter months.

• Disadvantaged young people:

Nearly 1 in 5 young people leave school without SVQ2 level (Higher education entry level) qualifications, increasing their risk of poverty in later life.

      This is what we can expect from the capitalist system, a system based on greed and profit, a system where wealth is created by the many and continually sucked up to the parasitical handful who control the means of production and distribution. Only when we have workers control of these means of production and distribution will we see an end to poverty and deprivation.

ann arky's home. 

ARE YOU WHERE YOU SHOULD BE??

   

    There has often been the statement made that we are "sleepwalking into a police state". For some time now I have said  that is not true, I believe we are already there, right in the heart of a very well developed police state. Where the state is always trying to increase its power of control and surveillance. Making sure you are where you are supposed to be, have you got permission to be where youy are have you permission to move to another spot, can you be observed as you move about your business? Is this the world you want? Is this the world you voted for?

This newsletter can be read online shortly at http://newsletters.mu.no2id.net/ 

+ DANGERS OF DATA RETENTION +

Anti-filesharing measures in the Digital Economy Bill currently before Parliament open a back door into your and your family's personal lives that *will* be exploited by the database state.Last year's public outcry against a Communications Data Database - intended to store details of your phone calls, e-mails and internet

browsing - forced the last Home Secretary to disavow plans for a giant surveillance database and to drop the proposed legislation. But things didn't end there.

     The Data Retention (EC Directive) Regulations 2009 were still passed, requiring internet service providers (ISPs) and telecoms providers to retain communications data on all fixed and mobile phone, e-mail and internet usage for 12 months. Because this is linked to the details of the person subscribed to the service, the retained data, wherever it is held, forms a digital dossier on YOU... and your family.

     Even national security is no excuse for blanket surveillance of everyone's communications, but the Digital Economy Bill would now make allegations of copyright infringement sufficient grounds for 'fishing expeditions' (speculative searches) in the data retained by ISPs - thereby ensuring the technology must be in place to enable mass surveillance by other agencies and organisations. With a new unit set up at the Home Office just last month to push forward the £2 billion 'Interception Modernisation Programme' (IMP), it isn't hard to imagine who else'll be snooping too.

     Open Rights Group (http://www.openrightsgroup.org/) and others continue to campaign against measures in the Digital Economy Bill. They have various objections - but as NO2ID we have to be concerned about any pretext for mass surveillance without any form of warrant or oversight.

     Interception of communications was historically so sensitive that it was made into a power exercised only on the approval of the Home Secretary that cannot be even mentioned in court. We fail to see why recording all your communications (and providing technical means for them to be arbitrarily investigated) is any different to opening your letters or secretly breaking into your home.

Please do write to your MP (http://www.writetothem.com/) in your own words, expressing your concerns.

ann arky's home.

WAR WITHOUT END!!

      Well, there’ve always been people going around saying someday the war will end. I say, you can’t be sure the war will ever end. Of course, it may have to pause occasionally–for breath, as it were–it can even meet with an accident–nothing on this earth is perfect–a war of which we could say it left nothing to be desired will probably never exist. A war can come to a sudden halt–from unforeseen causes–you can’t think of everything–a little oversight, and the war’s in the hole, and someone’s got to pull it out again! The someone is the Emperor or the King or the Pope. They’re such friends in need, the war has really nothing to worry about, it can look forward to a prosperous future.

~ Bertolt Brecht, Mother Courage (1938)
 
ann arky's home. 

SAVE OTAGO LANE GLASGOW.

Save Otago Lane from the greed of gentrification. Smile:)

Dear all,

As you all may or may not know we are planning a 'gathering' on saturday (27th) in order to get a photo with as many people as possible crammed into the lane, hopefully at least 244...We would love for you to join us, this is an opportunity to hopefully talk to many of the interested people out there about how they can help show their objection to the proposed development and we would be very happy for anyone to hand out information of a similar nature and/or join in a small amount of speech making.

We aim to meet from 12 o'clock for around an hour/hour and a half and anyone who wishes to help out with ushering people around would also be very welcome - get in touch with Martin at Tchai ovna.

Hope you can make it, feel free to get in touch for further info,    Shuna

As gentrifiction moves in, history, character and people power move out, public space becomes private space.

ann arky's home.