- ALL IN THIS TOGETHER!!!

       Aberdeen has been in the news recently for some very different reasons. Of course most football fans will know that the city's team is having a crap season. Its council workers are not doing so well either. The council has been trying to get them to take a 5% cut in their wages, though I'm delighted to see that the workers through their union have refused to willing throw themselves into dire poverty. Like everybody else they are facing increased costs in energy and food along with the VAT increase, it is more likely that they will need a 5% increase in wages just to stand still. Another occasion where the name Aberdeen has come to my notice is by way of Aberdeen Asset Management. As its name suggests, it is an asset management company. Its CEO is a Mr Martin Gilbert, no he hasn't taken a 5% wage cut, on the contrary, his basic annual salary went up from meagre £400,000 to a more acceptable £500,000, on top of this he had a nice little bonus of £3.3 million. You would think that might be enough to keep him above the deprivation line, even although it is not a full time job, well he appears to have time on his hands as he is also Chairman of First Group and Chaucer Holdings which brings him in some spending money to the tune of £262,000. How many jobs at more than a quarter of a million pounds can one person hold down. Just a few examples of our millionaire cabinet's mantra, “we're all in this together.”

       The sooner we scrap this greed driven parasites paradise and replace it with a society based on the needs of all our people the better. We know there is a desirable alternative of communities based on mutual aid, co-operation and sustainability, where we can all contribute in the knowledge that our needs will be seen to and we will not be carrying a bunch of greedy parasites on our backs. Also just maybe, Aberdeen Football Club might win the SPL, well that's probably a wish too far.

ann arky's home.

NUMBER CRUCHING.

      In times of economic turmoil, with all kinds of predictions from all sorts of pundits, the poor lay person has to turn to the experts for what is the true picture. Sadly economics is no science, in spite of all the economists telling you otherwise. It is a matter of you pays your money and you takes your pick. Turning to the various experts for what is on the cards for our so called “economic future” the figures are as varied as the the old school ties that spout them. Lets take that well informed and nose to the ground profit hungry bunch the Confederation of British Industry, (CBI) they have down graded their previous prediction for growth in the economy from a minuscule 0.3% to and even more miserable 0.2%, after all they should know. However another well informed bunch of experts come up with a different set of numbers, the British Chamber of Commerce lower their prediction, from 2.2% down to a modest 1.9% growth. So the experts say it is all down grading, but if you don't like those figures well just turn to another bunch of experts, the Office of Budget Responsibility. Now, if you're an optimist then these are the boys for you, their star gazing comes up with an increase in growth of 2.3% that's up from their previous prediction of 2.1%. So the future is rosy, or it is miserable, it depends on your chosen expert. What we can be sure of is the fact that what this millionaire cabal of public school thugs are implementing will mean real hardship for millions of ordinary folk and super bonuses for the millionaire club. Ah well, that's capitalism.

ann arky's home.

TOMORROW'S WORLD???

     

     Trying to come to understand the full effects of the public school millionaires' slash and burn tactics is difficult, as we have never before seen such vicious cuts to the welfare of the people of this country. We can turn to those outside the government who have the time and the finances to study these things and see what they have to say. One such group is the Institute of Fiscal Studies, and they have just recently release one of their reports on this matter.

       A recent Institute of Fiscal Studies report, commissioned by the Joseph Rowntree Trust, throws up a very alarming picture of the damage likely to be done by the “austerity cuts” being inflicted on the people of this country by the public school millionaire cabal. According to the report, the slash and burn policies of this bunch of public school thugs, will see the first increase in absolute child poverty for some 15 years. The report states that due to the tax changes alone, introduced by this government there will be a further 200,000 children dropped into penury, plus a further 200,000 working age adults by 2012/13. The governments cuts to housing benefit alone will push a further 100,000 children into poverty.

       According to the Institute of Fiscal Studies report, over the next three years incomes are set to stagnate, this allied to deep welfare cuts, will see an increase in relative poverty of 800,000 children and working age adults plus a rise of 900,000 in absolute poverty for the same group.

      Chris Goulden, poverty policy manager at the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, stated, “It is a reversal of fortune for the poor. The coalition have said that the increases in child tax credits will help but that's sticking plaster,"

        When it comes to cuts to council budgets, we can expect a further set of circumstances that will impact on our lives. We can look across the Atlantic to see how that might affect our way of life. In Detroit, the city is having to make cuts and has planned to cut off city services, including road repairs, police patrols, street lighting and garbage collection in 20% of the city. I wonder how they decide which 20% gets hit.
         In Philadelphia, if you call out the police to the scene of an accident you can be hit with a bill, in some cases $300.

        These are just a few of the little surprises that are waiting for us down the road a bit. Unless we can take control of our own lives and control the society we live, in rather than leave it all to a bunch of public school millionaire thugs. It is your life, why let them control and destroy it, so that their friends in the banking casinos can continue to live the life of unearned luxury.

 

 
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TAX DODGERS OF THE HIGH STREET.

      This is just a few of the big wealthy businesses that are ripping off the British tax payer while the government turns a blind eye and swings the hatchet at public services. We in Britain are being mugged by a gang of public school thugs. As far as I am aware, mugging is a crime against which you are entitled to fight back in self defence, you can legally take what action is necessary to defend yourself. Hit back hard.

BHS:
        BHS is part of the Arcadia group, owned by Sir Philip Green. Well no, not really, because he gave it to his wife, who doesn't actually work there at all, but she lives in Monaco so doesn't have to pay income tax. This costs Britain around £300 million. That's enough to pay the full £9,000 hike in tuition fees for 32,000 students. Or, the salaries of 20,000 NHS nurses.
      To make matters worse, David Cameron sought advice from billionaire Sir Philip Green on government cuts, We are not really “in this together”.

    WHERE DID ALL OUR MONEY GO? 

     HE SENT IT OFF TO MONACO!

VODAFONE:
     Vodafone owes the UK an estimated £6 billion in avoided tax. This money would cover most of the £7 billion per year cuts to the welfare system.
     It's not only Britain where they aren't paying up. Vodafone owes the Indian government £2 billion in tax from buying an India company. This could save millions of people in India dying from starvation.

     THEY SAY TOP UP!      

       WE SAY PAY UP!

LLOYDS TSB:
     The Lloyds banking group was bailed out by the government after taking too many risks with our money. The bail out cost the British public £850 billion, that's 95% of this country's deficit. Yet we are the ones facing cuts – not the bankers.
     In fact these banks are actually promoting tax avoidance by encouraging wealthy customers to channel money through China.
     Pay them a visit and picket their premises, organise demonstrations to let the public know what they are up to. You are being asked to pay the shareholders bonuses by taking a cut in your standard of living, don't swallow the crap, fight back.

ann arky's home.

WORKERS CITY, KNOW YOUR HISTORY.

As the millionaire cabal set about doing a hatchet job on the welfare state we will have to  come up with strategies to resist this free market onslaught. As society has changed over the years so our strategies will have to change. Of course we can still learn from the past, our working class history is a rich well of ideas and strategies that can be used adapted and used again. The main thing is to come together in our communities and link those communities in a federation of resistance. Organised resistance is necessary to win this battle against the millionaire corporate take over of our country.

      The Workers City was an organised movement in opposition to the 1990 European Capital of Culture which was intent on branding Glasgow as a tourist centre with a mono culture that in no way showed the rich diversity of culture that sprang from the ranks of the ordinary people. As far as Glasgow's City Council Mafia were concerned there was no working class in Glasgow, just cheap labour to service the tourist industry.

     This short video gives a hint of what Workers City was about, perhaps there are ideas in there that can be reworked and used to continue that working class resistance.

More of Glasgow's working class history HERE.

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SMOKE AND MIRRORS--IDEOLOGY!!

        Recent figures from the Bank of England show that in the UK there are over 10 million families that are struggling to pay their bills. There are approximately 26.5 million household in the country, so we are approaching the 50% of UK families in some sort of financial trouble. These figures are before the “we're all in this together” austerity cuts come into play. This an increase from 8.9 million in the last report. These figures do not include the hundreds of thousands of people who have already fallen behind with their various payments. The report also states that 1 in 10 people are having difficulty paying their rent or mortgage. It also states that it expects these figures to get worse next year.

This is the type of life that capitalism brings to the ordinary people, struggle to hold on to your standard of living and facing cuts. This situation is nothing new, no matter how far we go back the story is the same. Go back to 1787, the Calton Weavers strike, three weavers shot dead, and why were they on strike, because they were facing a wage cut. It's the same old story, and it is a brutal story.

We are now being told the full extent of the next round of vicious cuts to be unleashed on the ordinary people of this country. Believe me, these will be the worst that any of us have experienced in our life time. The misery that will be heaped the the ordinary people of this country will be brutal and it will be long lasting, this is not a quick fix policy.

You have to ask yourself, does the government really want to devastate the living standards of the people? We know that there are alternative ways of reducing the deficit, why this way? The truth is it has nothing to do with rapid deficit reduction and all to do with ideology. The deficit is the wonderful excuse to allow them to go hell for leather at transferring all public assets into private hands and that is the real game plan. The cuts will make it impossible for government departments to carry out their appointed duties, and where they fall short, galloping in to the rescue will come the knight in shining armour, the private sector. Then you starve the local councils of funds and they can no longer provide the required services, lo and behold, here he comes again, galloping to the rescue the wonderful capitalist knight in shining armour, ever ready to supply what you want or need, at a profit of course. No such thing as a public service, good lord no, that would be silly, you must always provide a profit for the parasites sitting at the top sucking the life out of society.

Prepare yourself for a society with no public assets, no public spaces, no public services, all corporate owned and controlled, a society of ghettos and poverty with an unbridgeable divide between the deprivation of the many and the opulence of the few. We know there is an alternative, we can build a society that is based on the needs of all our people, we know what we want, a society created on the principles of mutual aid free from the fear of deprivation and exploitation. We have it in our power to destroy this abomination of a system and build a future that we would be proud to hand to the next generation.

 

Ah Love, Could Thou and I

with Fate Conspire

To Grasp this Sorry Scheme

of Things entire,

Would we not shatter it

to bits, and then

Remould it nearer to

the Hearts Desire!

Extract from Rubaiyat of Omar Khayam.

 

ann arky's home.

THE FINANCIAL CRISIS IN LAYPERSON'S TERMS.

       It is not often that we get a chance to hear the "financial crisis" as they call it, the grand larceny as I call it, explained in good old fashioned layperson's terms. If only the news readers used the same down-to-earth language, it would make watching TV almost acceptable. There are many words and phrases to describe the bankers, banksters to greed merchants, but I think wanker bankers has a poetic ring to it, and it will take its place in the Oxford English Dictionary.



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THE STREETS BELONG TO US.

       It is wonderful to hear young people with passion stating that they will stand in solidarity with anybody that stands up and fights the "austerity cuts." I hope that the media moguls and their journalist lackeys along with the millionaire twins from the Westminster House of Hypocrisy and Corruption, listen to this young man on the video below, this is the young people that they try to vilify and intimidate, he speaks for thousands of young people all over the country, how the millionaire cabal have misjudged the youth of this country.

ann arky's home. 

LET'S JOIN HANDS.

        I sometimes go on like a loop tape and keep repeating the same thing over and over again. However I will continue to repeat my view that the only answer to the present savage attack on the living standards of the ordinary people in this country and across Europe is to co-ordinate all our actions in a pan-European struggle. We are no longer fighting our specific governments, they are only following the dictates of international finance. The corporate finance world is organised in its attempt to keep wages down, have a large pool of unemployment and transfer all public assets to the private sector. To hope to combat this with one-of actions at different times in different countries is doomed to failure. Spain has had massive general strikes, in France, Greece and Ireland the people have taken to the streets, the flaw in this was the fact that they all took place at different times. We have to communicate, co-operate and organise in a pan-European manner, just like our opponent, international finance. Our actions must be simultaneous, it is surely not beyond our ability to co-ordinate our actions for maximum effect. Governments can cope with one day strikes here and there, they will not be able to cope with a pan European general strike, imagine the effect of even a pan-European students day of action with every capital in Europe at a standstill.

       That excellent website Anarkismo puts this view across much better than I could ever hope, read, think pan-European, communicate pan-European and organise pan-European.

ann arky's home.

THERE IS NO LAW AGAINST SELF DEFENCE.

  

     Interesting to here David Cameron condemn the "violence" of the students the other day, "unacceptable" they should feel the "full force of the law" and all said with a solemn face, no hint of a snigger. Perhaps he should have remembered another quote he made.

We're all in this together!!

    "Things got a bit out of hand. We smashed the place up and Boris set fire to the toilets"

D Cameron,Oxford,1986.

     We should remind David Cameron that his -smashing the place up- was just for fun, a jolly good time, the violence he condemns is self defence.

    When we hear those Oxbridge millionaires condemn violence we have to remind them that self defence is not a crime. What they and the media never mention is the violence that is being perpetrated on the working class by them, at the behest of the corporate greed machine, to safeguard their millions. What greater violence is there than trapping people in poverty, depriving them of the social services that are meant to provide those essentials of civilised life, dignity and opportunity. When one group savage the living standards of another group while they themselves live in the lap of unearned luxury, that is violence. When one group forces hardships on another knowing that they themselves will in no way suffer from those measures, that is violence. We have no intention of allowing that violence to ruin the lives of our children and threaten the dignity of our pensioners. Are we expected to lie down and take what the millionaire club throw at us? Most certainly not, we have the right to self defence, we are fighting for our dignity, the future opportunities for our children, the well being of our elderly. To threaten them is violence of the worst degree, we have duty to fight back, we have a right to self defence. The more savage the violence inflicted on us, the more violent our self defence. I am against violence, but just remember,- you started it, with the violence of your vicious “austerity cuts”.

 

 

ann arky's home.

STUDENTS DEMO DECEMBER 9.

      

      Today, Thursday 9 December, the day that the house of millionaires were to vote on the university tuition fees for England, saw massive demonstration by students and others. London saw the largest demonstration, on-going at the time of writing, with demonstrations in other cities across the UK. In Glasgow, where I live, there was a well attended march and demonstration through the city centre, The students with other supporters gathered at the top of Buchanan St and after some speeches marched off noisily and colourfully down Buchanan St. stopping at the Vodafone £6 billion tax dodging flagship shop, halting business for sometime. All the while making it plain to those passing by just why there was such anger with Vodafone, Most of the people in the vicinity seemed to agree with the demonstrators. Next the march headed off along Gordon St, creating a similar break in business for the Royal Bank of Scotland staff.

      The students seemed to take the police by surprise when they broke into a gallop as the headed for their next target, another branch of the tax dodging Vodafone. This tactic was repeated as the march made its way to George Square, where they resisted the police efforts to be directed away from the City Chambers, breaking through the police line and formed outside the city Chambers for a short period.. They then took off around the Square and back to the front of the Chambers. By this time the police numbers and been increased considerably and at this point they probably out numbered the students by about five to one.

      At this point the usual police tactic of kettling took place with students split in two groups and easily out numbered by police. In spite of this the students did manage another wee surge to change there position. After a considerable period of stand off, most of the students were released to cheers from their supporters. As I left the Square I was informed that all the students been released but later was informed that there had been at least two arrests with one student being injured.

        I think the students should be proud of their display of tactics and solidarity, my only reservation is that they see this as a student battle and all about education. It is not, it is all about the living standards of all the working class. The cuts are savage and widespread and what the students have to do is link up with the unemployed, the pensioners, council workers and local communities who will all feel the brunt of this free market ideology being inflicted on us by the millionaire front men of the corporate world. The call of the students, "United the students will never be defeated" should be modified to " United the working class will never be defeated."the

     One little word to the police, you should not be fooled that you are on the other side. Your kids are going to be hit, their education is going to be shredded, your parents health care is going to be decimated. The society that your kids and grandkids are going to inherit will be the same Victorian deprivation as the rest of us, your kids will face unemployment and cut benefits, you don't belong to that millionaire's club, you are being used by them to protect their power and wealth.

ann arky's home.

WORKERS KNOW YOUR HISTORY-FASCISM.

      You would have to look long and hard ever to find any history of anarchist individuals and anarchist groups continual fight against fascism in the mainstream media, even then you would probaly fail in your search. Yet this is a history that we can be justifiably proud, it is a struggle that goes on overtly when ever possible, trying to stamp out the rise of fascism where ever it raises its ugly head and covertly when working under fascism. The anarchist struggle against fascism is ongoing until the beast that is fascism is finally defeated.

       When ever possible we should make that history widely available and easily accessible both as an inspiration to others and a warning to the ever present threat from fascism that is always just under the surfaces of what we now live under, corporatism.

      Of course we shouldn't make the mistake of thinking that the new fascism will arrive with rows of jackbooted shitheads marching through the streets. No that is just the few dimwits that will be used to crack a few skulls to intimidate. The real new fascists are in expensive suits sitting in boardrooms of corporate bodies across the globe, making dicisions that affect you and I but over which we have no corntrol. They dictate policy to the various governments who obey, as it is to their mutual benefit and they are all in the same millionaires club.

       The following is a short extract from, Remembering the Anarchist Resistance to Fascism on Anarkismo.net

        "---Court records show that one pamphlet went under the title of 'Eat German fruit and stay healthy' and became "so popular among miners that they used to greet each other with: 'Have you eaten German fruit as well?'" The outbreak of the Spanish Revolution in 1936 saw an underground network that raised money for the Spanish anarchists and their fight against fascism and recruited technicians to go to Spain and provide needed expertise.

       In December of 1936 however the Gestapo managed to discover the first of these groups and in raids then and in 1937 arrested 89 male and female members of this anarchist underground. In early 1938 these comrades were charged with "preparing acts of high treason". All but six were convicted.

      Julius Nolden was 'lucky' and spent the next 8 years in Luttringhausen prison until the arrival of the 'allies' in April of 1945. Others were not so 'lucky' and were murdered in prison. Lathe operator, Emil Mahnert was thrown out of a window, bricklayer, Wilhelm Schmitz, died in "unexplained circumstances", Ernst Holtznagel was sent to a military punishment battalion where he died, Michael Delissen was beaten to death by the Gestapo in December 1936 and Anton Rosinke was murdered in February 1937.

         The history of the anarchist resistance to fascism is something we are never told about in mainstream or even left histories. The victors over fascism wrote the 'history' of anti-fascism after W.W.II. They gave prominent place to the aristocratic German officers who failed to kill Hitler late in the war but ignored the ordinary workers who struggled in the 1920's and 1930's when the western governments saw Hitler as an ally. The account here is but a snippet, based on the valuable work done by the 'Kate Sharpley Library' in recovering, translating and publishing this history.---"

Read a little bit of Glasgow's working class history HERE.
ann arky's home.

WIKILEAKS FOREVER.

For the latest on this go HERE.
This has to be kept alive, the outcome of this will play a large part in determining the shape of our future society. Will government be that of an open society or will it be a closed club for the chosen few from the rich and powerful, as I think it is at the moment. We are governed by consent we should withdraw that consent if those that we elect decide to govern in secret and persecute those who try to open that secret club up to public scrutiny. Your own freedom may well depend on the outcome of this affair.

ann arky's home.

ARE YOU PROUD?

     All the mainstream media pour out stuff that is supposed to make you think that the only type of society that the human race is capable of organising is international corporate capitalism. WE are meant to believe that the only game in town is this system of greed and exploitation. We are also expected to swallow the crap that it is the only way to eradicate poverty and bring ever increasing wealth and well being to humanity. They pour this crap over you day in day out, even when the evidence to the contrary is everywhere to be seen.

    Capitalism has been nothing but boom bust boom recession with the world's wealth flowing into ever few hands at every step of the way. According to recent figures released this recession has pushed another 100 million people into poverty, this is on top of the fact that before the recession there were already 1,029,999,199 people classified as under nourished, approximately 9,351,160 people die each year from hunger, 1,454,972,999, (and rising rapidly) have no access to clean drinking water, and 4,684,945 have died from water related diseases this year so far. All this from a system that produces unimaginable wealth for a bunch of pampered parasites and can afford to spend, this year so far to the 5 December 2010 at 21:39, $3,409,887,641 world wide on armaments. The reason that you have to state the time with that last figure is that it is rising so rapidly that you can't give an accurate figure without the time factor.

      Wealth flows into all manner of sophisticated weaponry to destroy life at an immeasurable rate, while millions live in abject poverty and deprivation. This is capitalism's success story, war and weapons make millions for the corporate world, spending to lift people out of deprivation is not on the same scale when it comes to the corporate world making money.

     If we want rid of the poverty and deprivation, in most cases, it is brought about by the corporate system, then we will have to get rid of the corporate capitalist system. No modifications, no green capitalism, it doesn't work, greed is the driving engine of the system. You can't have compassionate capitalism, the shareholders would squeal because they could make much, much more by being greedy and ruthless. Profit is the name of the game.

     Why do we accept that there is no alternative when we know within our hearts that there is. We know that co-operation and mutual aid would produce a fairer system, we know that removing the profit motive and creating a society that sees to the needs of all our people would produce a fairer society. We know that if we got the parasites off our backs and took control of all the means of production and distribution we could create a sustainable fairer society that we would be proud to leave to our children and grandchildren. Look around and ask yourself, would you be proud to leave this type of society to your children and grandchildren?

ann arky's home.

WORKERS KNOW YOUR HISTORY-1911.

      

      The ordinary people of this country, (and all other countries for that matter) have had to struggle for every little improvement in their living standards. We in this the 21st century sometimes forget just how hard and brutal that struggle has been. There have been beatings, prison, blacklisting and death heaped on those involved in those struggles, and the enemy has always been the same. the employers with the back up of the state apparatus. One such long and hard struggle was the 1911 dock strike. Most of the cities in the UK were involved in this bitter dispute but in Liverpool it brought the city to a standstill, had the military on the streets and two strikers were shot.

        The following is a short extract from Mike Royden's Local History Pages.  

        "---With a general strike in the city, the introduction of permits to move goods and services across city, the deteriorating situation was viewed with alarm, both locally and at government level.14 The permit system was really a working class control of the means of distribution, and even authorities in the city accepted that this was the only way to move goods; this was highlighted when the Head Postmaster asked the strike committee for permission to move mail via permit around the city.15

        The City Council saw their authority in the city slipping into the hands of the strike committee and the Lord Mayor cabled the Home Office informing them that ‘a revolution was taking place in the city ….. and that anarchy prevailed’.

        Porcupine recognised ‘the crimson flag of anarchy’, rioting and looting persisted and targeted in areas bordering the sectarian enclave dividing lines to affect shops and property of opponents religion, when shops and property belonging to people’s own religion survived.16

       The government realised that the strike committee had taken the first step of organising the transport of goods for themselves; Hikins even suggests that if allowed to continue, it could have resulted in social revolution, civil war and an end to state authority, a scenario that forced the government to take the only option open to it; that of persuading the employers, and owners to agree to union demands.17 This course of action had been promoted by Dunning in a communication to the Home Office prior to10 August when the initial contingents of police and military units arrived. 18---"

     Though we have moved to the 21st. century we should never lose sight of the fact that the struggle still goes on, what we have gained from struggle can be taken away again, and the protagonists are still the same.

This time it is the government cuts but lets not forget that it is at the behest of the financial/corporate bosses and if we don't want to return to the conditions of the 1911 era then we had better be ready to fight just as hard and long as those of the 1911 dock strike. You can rest assured that the powers that be, the millionaire cabal, are prepared to fight hard and long to get their way and safe guard their billions floating around in the banking casinos of this corporate gambling world.  They will not hesitate to put the troops on the street and the would not hesitate to give the order to fire. They will fight to protect their pampered, privileged positions with every means at the disposal. So we have no alternative but to do likewise. The Victorian era poverty awaits the meek.
a look at some of Glasgow's working class history of struggle.

ann arky's home.

EMPATHY

O wad some Pow'r the giftie gie us
To see oursels as others see us    Robert Burns.

A wonderful line of thought so very well put in this video, well worth the time to sit, look, listen and think.






ann arky's home.

WIKILEAKS = TRUTH = TREASON???

     
      It is a strange world where telling the truth is seen by many as treason. Some would have us believe that we shouldn't know all that goes on behind the closed doors in the corridors of power, well let's not forget, they are put in the corridors of power by the people to serve the people, who also fund their lifestyle. If that doesn't give us the right to know exactly what they say, do and who they do their deals with, then the rules of the game are rigged and should be changed.
       We are governed by consent, if those elected are not up to OUR standards then we should withdraw our consent. Without every detail we can never know the truth, so it is time we honoured our heroes, the whistle blowers, the prober, the investigative journalist, the rebel who pokes his nose in where they don't want him. Without them we are at the mercy of a bunch of deceiving political careerists, who in most cases are in bed with the corporate world to the benefit of themselves and that corporate world. Do we really believe that blind trust in a bunch of millionaires who are cozied up to the corporate/financial world will see them working hard for the benefit of the ordinary people??
      People like Assange are heroes, they know they are putting their liberty and possibly their lives on the line. They know that power corrupts and so should never be left to get on with things in an unscrutinised fashion. He is doing what we all should be doing, calling the political class to task. They are lifting the curtain on the devious world of politics, that you public fund but are not allowed to control or see.
       It is not that this will clean up governments, that's impossible, but putting that on display to the world might set people thinking of alternative ways of running our society, of which there are many.
 

 

 
ann arky's home.

POWER IS NOT A MEANS, IT IS AN END.

     

      History:  Dec. 2, 1823:

       United States announces Monroe Doctrine: essentially, that the US is entitled to do whatever it wants in Western Hemisphere.

       Quote: 

      "No one ever seizes power with the intention of relinquishing it. Power is not a means; it is an end. One does not establish a dictatorship in order to safeguard a revolution; one makes the revolution in order to establish the dictatorship. The object of persecution is persecution. The object of torture is torture. The object of power is power." -- George Orwell - 1984

       With Iraq still burning and Afghanistan still a murder zone it is difficult to visualise a world without war and more difficult to contain your anger when you look at the part played in this world carnage by an American lead West. The shear brutal force unleashed on the innocent Iraqi people and the continuing slaughter of the Afghan people is just a follow on from other brutal American acts of imperialism. We should not forget the Vietnam slaughter, what the Vietnamese went through was the longest war in recent history.

        The following extract from John Pilger's excellent article on this war and its aftermath, found on "informationclearinghousereminds" reminds us of the part played by our own Margaret Thatcher in adding to the misery of the Vietnamese people after the war.

         “ ---- I walked down into the rain and followed the children through a labyrinth to the Young Flower School, an orphanage. A teacher hurriedly assembled a small choir and I was greeted with a burst of singing. "What are the words of the song?" I asked Tran, whose father was a GI. He looked gravely at the floor, as nine year olds do, before reciting words that left my interpreter shaking her head. "Planes come no more," she repeated, "do not weep for those just born … the human being is evergreen."

       The year was 1978. Vietnam was then being punished for seeing off the last American helicopter gunship, the war’s creation, the last B52 with its ladders of bombs silhouetted against the flash of their carnage, the last C-130s that had dumped, the US Senate was told, "a quantity of toxic chemical amounting to six pounds per head of population, destroying much of the ecosystem and causing a fatal catastrophe," the last of a psychosis that made village after village a murder scene.

        And when it was all over on May Day, 1975, Hollywood began its long celebration of the invaders as victims, the standard purgative, while revenge was policy. Vietnam was classified as "Category Z" in Washington, which imposed the draconian Trading with the Enemy Act from the first world war. This ensured that even Oxfam America was barred from sending humanitarian aid. Allies pitched in. One of Margaret Thatcher’s first acts on coming to power in 1979 was to persuade the European Community to halt its regular shipments of food and milk to Vietnamese children. According to the World Health Organization, a third of all infants under five so deteriorated following the milk ban that the majority of them were stunted or likely to be. Almost none of this was news in the west.---”

 

 

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WHY WIKILEAKS??

       The present time is one of total open corruption between the various governments and the corporate world. The discussions, arrangements, and back scratching, all for the benefit of that corporate world and its lackeys, the politicians, is so open and blatant that it is now deemed as normal. Anyone out there who still believes that, so called “representative democracy”, has anything to do with the welfare of the people, is living an illusion. Across the globe we are seeing a massive attack on the living standards of the ordinary people by governments, to save their friends in the banking casinos and the bond markets from losing some of their unearned wealth. We keep hearing about they are “too big to fail” but never that the welfare of the people is more important. Profit first, people anywhere down the scale that you can fit them in.

      The recent flood of Wikileaks is just lifting the curtain on the invisible world of corporatism and governments. The world that you and I are not meant to see or be part of in any shape or form. We live on the other side of the curtain and are meant to watch the authorised pantomime that the powers that be put on for our benefit. We are meant to live the illusion while they get on with the rape and plunder of our resources and all our public assets.

     If we want a better life for all our people then we have to remove the power structure that lurks behind that curtain. We have to bring an end to the political class, the state apparatus and the festering marriage between government and corporatism. We are no longer governed nationally but by international corporate bodies over which we have no control, they call the shots and dictate to the various governments what policies to implement. The people have to take control of society, power must lie at the grass roots level. Communities in control of their own communities, federated to all other communities, workers in control of their work places in federation with other workplaces and communities. Our society must be based on mutual aid that sees to the needs of all our people and not to the selfish, greedy desires of a bunch of parasitical shareholders and power hungry wealth seeking politicians. A society of co-operation based on sustainability freed from the profit motive.

The following is from Julian Assange's “State and Terrorist Conspiracies.”

      "Behind the ostensible government sits enthroned an invisible government owing no allegiance and acknowledging no responsibility to the people. To destroy this invisible government, to befoul this unholy alliance between corrupt business and corrupt politics is the first task of statesmanship." (President Theodore Roosevelt)

      To radically shift regime behavior we must think clearly and boldly for if we have learned anything, it is that regimes do not want to be changed. We must think beyond those who have gone before us, and discover technological changes that embolden us with ways to act in which our forebears could not.

      Firstly we must understand what aspect of government or neocorporatist behavior we wish to change or remove. Secondly we must develop a way of thinking about this behavior that is strong enough carry us through the mire of politically distorted language, and into a position of clarity. Finally must use these insights to inspire within us and others a course of ennobling, and effective action.

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A SIGNIFICANT STRIKE!!

        

       The following post is taken from Landsbury's Lido, and it goes some way to show the extent of anger and disgust that is smoldering among the ordinary people of this country. We have students protesting in most of the cities of this country, we have bank occupations happening with ever increasing regularity across the country, there are universities being occupied. The present millionaires' cabal that is intent on pursuing their ideological slash and burn policies are expecting unrest and no doubt are prepared for these events. What we have to do is raise the bar,  students and  small groups of "Citizens United" will not win this fight on their own. It is up to all of us across the social spectrum, working, unemployed, pensioners, students to get their heads together and work on a united front. Pockets of protest can be contained, mass protests of all those in this society that will be hurt by these policies, cannot be. If we hope to win this fight, and we must, then organised solidarity is the way, not on single issues, the issues are all conected, this is a fight to destroy the corporate/financial take over of all aspects of our lives. We want a society that sees to the needs of those in that society, not one that sees to the desires of a bunch of parasitical millionaire shareholders.

The Post:  

        "When I was working for the MOD my union was the Institute of Professional Civil Servants or IPCS for short. Despite the name it was a proper union, affiliated to the TUC and all that. Hardly a bolshy union though, and in my time I think we had one strike call, which was voted against.

       This union has now developed into the union called Prospect which is now overseeing the first ever walkout from the Atomic Weapons Establishment (AWE) at their Aldermaston, Burghfield and associated sites.

        Of course the running of the AWE is now in the hands of private contractors, as is the fate of virtually all of the UKs defence work. It seems that the employees are a bit peeved at being offered a sub 2% wage increase. And not surprising since there has at the same time been increased payments to the AWE board and also to the level of dividends being paid to its controlling companies. There's more cash for the top management and also for the shareholders, but the workers who generate that wealth? Sod all. Of course this just highlights the hypocrisy of the siren voices claiming that 'wereallinthistogether'.

      The government would do well to heed this latest outbreak of industrial dispute. When strikes are called in these establishments then it doesn't bode well for industrial relations in the wider country."

     

       A moderate voice that can sense the underlying anger, frustration and disgust that will eventually explode in the faces of our millionaire overlords at the Westminster House of Hypocrisy and Corruption.

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