THEY KNOW WHO THEIR FRIENDS ARE!!!

       

        I’m not suggesting that handing bundles of money to political parties will buy you influence, but since millionaire spiv, Cameron, became leader of the Tory party the city gents have handed the party a little slush pot of £11.4m a year. A mere 10 City gents have very kindly given the Tory party £13.2m over the last five years. David Rowland, ex party treasurer, 40 years a tax exile, gave the party £4m+ over the last 4 years, while Stanley Fink, hedge fund spiv, gave approximately a more modest £2m. Fink, by the way, is now a peer. Mind you, I’m not saying ---

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SCHOOL CLOSURES - AGAIN!!!!

         In this system some things never change, that's why I keep repeating, workers know your history. Today we are facing school closures, among other things, and we are having government blaming councils and councils blaming government. To those who know their history it is as if  we had run the video back. It is a cycle that keeps comimg round, sometimes it is little attacks on the working class and sometimes, like now, it is savage, vicious and brutal attacks that decimate our conditions. Conditions that we, as a class, have fought long and hard to wrestle from this corrupt and unjust system. It seems that we never win them, we get them and the system continually tries to take them back to enhance the wealth of the parasites that run this country, the millionaire's club. We should know by now that we can't modify or reform the system for very long, it soon reverts to its, "grab everything for the corporate world" strategy. We have to destroy the greed system of capitalism, sending it to the dustbin of history and create a society founded on mutual aid. We can create a needs based society based on co-operation and sustainability that will see to the needs of all our people, a system free from the profit motive and free from the grip of the pampered shareholding parasites that at this moment in time is setting about destroying the future of our children and grandchildren,    

                                        

        To make the point about, these attacks being nothing new, the little cartoon is from a Glasgopw free sheet dated May 1996, but it could just as well have been drawn this week about today's events. Workers, know your history. Otherwise we will be able to use this little cartoon in 15 years time.

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THE FREE HEATHERINGTON

Lectures. Discussions. Workshops. Socials. Film showings

“The Alternative University”

Sunday 13th February.

4-7pm Kids Film Showing “Wall-E” Adults love it too! Followed by discussion on issues raised if the kids are up for it.

7-10pm Poetry Open Mic Read your own or your favourite poetry. Valentine's Day Theme. Love! If you've got a special person to dedicate a special poem to, bring along both! If, on the other hand, you're heart broken and 'hate the word as [you] hate hell', then bring along a poem worthy of such afflictions. If you have neither, just read it in a sensuous voice. :)

Monday 14th February.

12:30 – 2pm Lecture “The psychology of will: Experimental perspectives on free will and determinism” Dr Rob Jenkins. Senior lecturer in psychology.

2 – 4pm Workshop Knitting. For learners, improvers or those that want to click needles in company.

4 – 6pm Lecture “Medical Ethics”.

7-10pm Film Showing “V Day – until the violence stops” A movement against domestic violence.

9-11pm Pub Quiz Nuff said! (In downstairs space).

Tuesday 15th February.

11am-1pm Lecture “The nature of the universe” Physics/philosophy/epistemology.

1-2:30pm Film Showing and discussion “A politics of space” Urban planning and architecture.

4-6pm Discussion “The art of university maintenance” (Downstairs space).

5-7pm Panel discussion Ethical non monogamy, polyamory, open relationships.

Wednesday 16th February.

6:30-8:30pm Lecture “The ethics of Direct Action” Dr Ben Franks. Lecturer in Political and Social Philosophy.

6pm onwards Social Vegan pancake dinner.

Thursday 17th February.

12-2pm Lecture “Mad women and boys with Huzzas: Public protest in 18th Century Scotland” Dr Rosi Carr. History lecturer at Sheffield University.

6-7pm Workshop “LGBT drawing class”.

Friday 18th February.

9pm Film showing “The Battle of Algiers”.

Saturday 19th February.

7:30pm Film showing and discussion “Occupation 101” Film about the occupation of Palestine.

Sunday 20th February.

3:30-7pm Discussion and film showing “Anarcho-curiosity shoppe” Noam Chomsky film plus introduction and discussion about Anarchism, libertarianism and anti authoritarianism at large.

The Free Hetherington, 13 University Gardens.

All events upstairs unless stated otherwise.

New events being organised daily. Please see website for up to date details and to join our announcements email list.     http://freehetherington.wordpress.com

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WORKERS KNOW YOUR HISTORY - WILLIE MCDOUGAL, GLASGOW.

Glasgow has many who have dedicated their lives to the working class cause and Willie McDougal stands tall among Glasgow's many working class fighters for justice and a fair society.

WILLIAM C. McDOUGAL 1894-1981.

EARLY YEARS.

        Born on the 22nd. of January 1891 in the district of Partick in Glasgow, William C. McDougal spent nearly seventy years actively promoting Libertarian non-sectarian Socialism. He joined the Glasgow Anarchists around the age of nineteen. Willie served as secretary to the Glasgow Anarchist Group and held Sunday meetings at the foot of Buchanan Street. At this time anarchists groups were growing in number in and around Glasgow.

PRISON.

       Prior to the first world war anarchist groups received relatively little interference from the police. The war changed all that, with meetings being disrupted by police and patriotic groups. At one such meeting in Botanic Gardens, Willie was speaking and referred to the King as a parasite. A crowd rushed the platform and threatened to throw him into the nearby River Kelvin. In 1916 Willie was arrested for refusing the call-up, he was beaten by the local police and handed over to the Military. He refused military orders, was put on trial and sentenced to two years imprisonment. He was sent to Wormwood Scrubs Prison, then on to Denton Camp, eventually ending up in Dartmoor. While at Dartmoor he was involved in prison disputes and tried to organise a strike. He then decided to slip out of the camp by means of the camp bicycle, cycling part of the way he eventually reached Glasgow where he resumed his anti-war and anarchist propaganda. This activity also included holding classes on economics in the rooms of the Herald League and speaking at open-air meetings.

RUSSIAN REVOLUTION.

       After the war the Russian Revolution considerably increased political activity on the streets of Glasgow. Most anarchists were enthusiastic about the Revolution, some of Willie’s meetings indicate this with titles like, “Lenin’s Anarchy”, “Revolution of Necessity”, and “Dictatorship, democracy and Government”. It was not long before Willie and the Anarchists lost faith in “Lenin’s Anarchy”, by 1920 it had turned to hostility.

At this time the Glasgow Anarchist Group became the Glasgow Communist Group, in 1921 it changed to the Ant-parliamentary Communist Federation, this group was kept alive right through the 1930s by Willie McDougal, Guy Aldred, Jenny Patrick and other anarchists. Guy Aldred left in 1933, Willie kept it going until 1941.

GLASGOW GREEN FIGHT.

       Willie was also involved in the fight for freedom of speech and assembly on the Glasgow Green. This struggle came to a head in 1931 by the arrest and imprisonment of the Tramp Preachers. The major players in this struggle to repeal the bye-law forbidding public speaking on the Green were Guy Aldred, Willie McDougal, Harry McShane, and John McGovern. Willie was among those arrested and tried for speaking on the Green without a permit, many other activists played a part in this important Glasgow struggle. The bye-law was repealed in 1932 thanks to the excellent case put by Guy Aldred.

SPANISH CIVIL WAR.

        1936 to 1939, the years of the Spanish Civil War, saw a remarkable rise in the activity of Glasgow Anarchists. During this period Willie’s public speaking activities were to peak, the events in Spain also drove Willie to print, publish and edit a number of papers. The first to appear was “Advance”, 1936, then came “The Fighting Call”, 1936-37, “The Barcelona Bulletin” 1937, followed, next came the “Workers Free Press”, 1937-38, and then, “Solidarity”, 1938-40. Apart from trying to give an anarchist view point on the Spanish Civil War, these papers were trying to provide an open forum for anarchist and other voices of the left.

WORKERS OPEN FORUM.

       During the 2nd. world war Willie McDougal with Dugald Mackay formed the Workers Revolutionary League to follow on from the Anti-parliamentary Communist Federation. Later on with others he formed the Workers Open Forum, this was again an attempt to provide a platform for all the views from the left and try to create unity. The “Form” rented rooms at 50 Renfrew Street and continued until the late 1950s. The end of the Workers Open Forum marked the end of an era, an end to regular working class political meetings in dingy little halls dotted about the city.

PROPAGANDIST TO THE END.

      After this period Willie McDougal continued his struggle to spread anarchist views by publishing papers. In 1970s there was the “Industrial Republic”, and the year up to his death, “Sense”. Along with these he produced many pamphlets, among them, “Marxism Made Easy”, “An Open Letter to Mr Callaghan”, and “Anthology of Revolt”.

        Willie McDougal continued his propagandist activities right up to his death. The last issue of “Sense” being at the printers at the time of his death. He always tried to put his ideas in the simplest form possible. Willie never lost faith in the belief that the struggle to end the insanity of capitalism could and would develop towards Socialism. William C. McDougal together with other Socialist activists kept alive the Anti-parliamentary Libertarian Socialism that demands real change in society not the tinkering reforms of Party Politics within the framework of Capitalism. His life was an advancement of that cause, his death a loss to the fight for human liberty.

MORE OF GLASGOW'S WORKING CLASS HISTORY HERE.

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TOMORROW'S WORLD -- THEIR'S OR OUR'S??

      We live in an ever changing world and though it is filled with hope and dreams, it  can also be a very depressing place at times. It is through this fog of depression that we have to continually plan and build a better world for our children and our grandchildren, we can't leave them the nightmare that we have put on the horizon.

      The following is a short extract from "We Have to Dismantle This" by Derrick Jenson.

       The unprecedented reality of the present is one of enormous sorrow and cynicism, “a great tear in the human heart”, as Richard Rodriguez put it. A time of ever-mounting everyday horrors, of which any newspaper is full, accompanies a spreading environmental apocalypse. Alienation and the more literal contaminants compete for the leading role in the deadly dialectic of life in divided, technology-ridden society. Cancer, unknown before civilization, now seems epidemic in a society increasingly barren and literally malignant.

       Soon, apparently, everyone will be using drugs; prescription and illegal becoming a relatively unimportant distinction. Attention Deficit Disorder is one example of an oppressive effort to medicalize the rampant restlessness and anxiety caused by a lifeworld ever more shrivelled and unfulfilling. The ruling order will evidently go to any lengths to deny social reality; its techno-psychiatry views human suffering as chiefly biological in nature and genetic in origin.

        New strains of disease, impervious to industrial medicine, begin to spread globally while fundamentalism (Christian, Judaic, Islamic) is also on the rise, a sign of deeply-felt misery and frustration. And here at home New Age spirituality (Adorno’s “philosophy for dunces”) and the countless varieties of “healing” therapies wear thin in their delusional pointlessness. To assert that we can be whole/enlightened/healed within the present madness amounts to endorsing the madness.

        The gap between rich and poor is widening markedly in this land of the homeless and the imprisoned. Anger rises and massive denial, cornerstone of the system’s survival, is now at least having a troubled sleep. A false world is beginning to get the amount of support it deserves: distrust of public institutions is almost total. But the social landscape seems frozen and the pain of youth is perhaps the greatest of all. It was recently announced (10/94) that the suicide rate among young men ages 15 to 19 more than doubled between 1985 and 1991. Teen suicide is the response of a growing number who evidently cannot imagine maturity in such a place as this.    

 

TOMORROW’S WORLD!!

See the fat cat’s grinning smile

as Corporate Capitalism runs amok,

Chasing profit as it goes

firing millions of ordinary folk.

Raping and polluting land after land,

starting bloody wars.

Toxic waste, sweat shop wages

and oil covered sea shores.

Where have all the flowers gone

beneath this ozone free sky?

To join the birds, to join the fox

on yonder plutonium field to die.

Mercury fish, strontium lamb

trees that never show a leaf,

radio active beaches, toxic streams

good lean BSE-antibiotic beef.

In a world of epidemic, plague and famine

it’s bottled water and chemical food.

Of course, it’s all tested on rats and mice

so you know its got to be good.

Beneath a sky that’s always black,

hurricane winds and endless drought,

its oxygen masks for the toxic air,

corporate profit’s what its all about.

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PEOPLE IN THE KNOW SORT THE NHS!!!

Received this from a friend who works in the NHS.

Proposed cuts to the National Health Service.

The British Medical Association has weighed in on the new Prime Minister David Cameron's health care proposals.

The Allergists voted to scratch it, but the Dermatologists advised not to make any rash moves.

The Gastroenterologists had a sort of a gut feeling about it,  but the neurologists thought the Administration had a lot of nerve.

The Obstetricians felt they were all labouring under a misconception.

Ophthalmologists considered the idea short-sighted.

Pathologists yelled, "Over my dead body!" while the  Paediatricians said, "Oh, Grow up!"

The Psychiatrists thought the whole idea was madness, while the Radiologists could see right through it.

The Surgeons were fed up with the cuts and decided to wash  their hands of the whole thing.

The ENT specialists didn't swallow it, and just wouldn’t hear of it.

The Pharmacologists thought it was a bitter pill to swallow,  and the Plastic Surgeons said, "This puts a whole new face on the  matter...."

The Podiatrists thought it was a step forward, but the Urologists were pissed off at the whole idea.

The Anaesthetists thought the whole idea was a gas, but the  Cardiologists didn't have the heart to say no.

In the end, the Proctologists won out, leaving the entire decision up to the arseholes in London .

 

Well there you have it, how the powwerful people on the inside have sorted out the NHS for the ordinary people.

 

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THE GREAT ILLUSION.

        It is one of the state's biggest con-tricks, this statement that what they do for “national security” is the state's attempt to make you safer. This massive lie gives licence to total surveillance, high security prisons, torture, rendition, held without trial, and a host of other moves to intimidate and suppress dissent.

      However, making you safer is not what it is all about, it's more to do with large corporations making buckets full of profit from tax payers' money. It also keeps you in line, breeding fear and in so doing, stifling dissent. Those with the power of the state are the ones that need to be under surveillance.

     

       Collectively they are involved in more violence and terror through the means of war than any group of terrorist could ever dream of unleashing. Ask the Iraqis or the Afghans how our anti-terrorist activities have kept them safe.

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TEAPOT COLLECTIVE - INTRODUCTION TO ANARCHY.

This is the second page from that wonderful wee booklet Introduction to Anarchy by the Teapot Collective, the first page having been posted about a week ago.
Page 2.
WHAT IS ANARCHY?
  Like most really good ideas, Anarchy is pretty simple when you get down to it - people are at their best when they are living free of authority, co-operating and deciding things among themselves rather than being ordered around. That's what the word means - 'without government'. Most of us know this anyway. We trust and rely on our friends, neighbours and workmates far more than on the politicians and bosses that we're supposed to need to run our lives.

     In fact most people haven'y got a good word to say about politicians from any party, and how many people like their bosses, or even think they do anyting useful? But why stop at just slagging them off? Why not do away with them and let the people that live in a street, town,or whole area decide what happens there? The people that work somewhere decide together how to do the job, or even if it's worth doing at all? Produce the essentials of life for need instead of profit and distrobute it freely and equally? This isn't some party plarform though. What people could do with their lives would obviouly be up to them, but whatever they decided it would at least be their decision. 

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DISABILITY BENEFIT CUTS.

This article describes how claimants for disability benefits can deal with the examination by professionals, which for many claimants are central in deciding whether or not you are entitled to disability benefits. The examinations are run by Medical Services (MS) which is operated by the private profit making company ATOS on behalf of the Department for Work and Pansions (DWP).

       It is frequently the case that people with a long-term illness gradually minimise in their own minds the effect of their illness on their everyday lives and develop survival strategies to cope on a daily basis in an attempt to lead as normal a life as possible.

      This can cause a problem as this habit when taken into a medical examination does not present a true picture of the illness and could be misleading. The reality of your illness is what must be presented to the MS medical professional and to the DWP.

AT THE EXAMINATION.

You should be aware that the examination begins on entry to the examination centre and does not end until you leave the centre. An evaluation of your medical condition dos not only take place when you are in front of the examining medical professional, but also potentially on your way into the building, in the waiting room, and on your way out. They could note the length of time you can sit without apparent discomfort, how you pick up your bag,etc.

          The information obtained at the examination is used within a legal framework, to decide on your benefit entitlement - it is therefore vital to make sure youir legal rights are protected.

        During the examination you should:

         Time the length of any breaks, the medical professional should becourteous and considerate. The medical professional should spend some time explaining the purpose of the examination and ask if you are willing to be examined. The medical professional should ask you and give you time to explain YOUR OWN VIEW of how you are affected by your condition, including how it affects your ability to do day to day tasks, like shopping, cooking, cleaning and so on.

        The examing medical professional should not attempt to "manipulate" parts of your body. 

        1.  Make sure the medical professional realises the full extent of your illness/disability, including any other conditions/illnesses you may have. The mediacl prefessional does not know your medical history.

        2.  Describe how you feel on a "bad day" rather than a "good day".

        3,  The examination can be halted to allow you to go to the toilet, have a glass of water, take a pill, or if you feel faint or ill.

        4.   The examination should only prceed if you feel happy to continue.

        5.   You should refuse to do anything that hurts or distresses you.

        You have the right to have someone accompany you during the examination.

        The person accompanying you can:

        1.   Take notes, write down the name of the examining medical professional. Any aggresive attitude or manner adopted by the medical professional should benoted. Write down the exact words spoken.

        2.   Intervene and ask for the examination to be halted if the claimant becomes unwell or distressed. the claimant should have a break until they feel well enough to continue.

        3.   Object to and stop any attempt by the medical professional to have the claimant do exercises which could injure or distress them. You should have the examination stopped if the claimant is becoming ill or distressed for any reason. If the claimant is not fit to continue then the examination should be postponed until another day.

        4.   If the claimant's distress is due to the mistreatment by the medical professional, stop the interview, say that you will be making a complaint witha request for an examination at a future date witha different medical professional. 

        At the end of the examination ask the medical professional to read back their notes, to check that they have made an accurate record. If the medical professional refuses, then note that and what reason the give for refusing. If there seem to be any inaccuracies in the medical professional's notes, check with the claimant, then if necessary ask the medical professional to change their notes. If they refuse then make a note of that, writing down exactly what they said.

      AFTER THE EXAMINATION. 

      If the medical professional did anything wrong, then as soon as possible afterwards write a letter of complaint to DWP - don't wait for the deision to come through. The letter should be signed by bothe the claimant and the accompanying person. There is more info on making a complaint in the Disability Rights Handbook, (Disability Alliance).

    HOW YOU CAN BE FOUND INCAPABLE OF WORK EVEN IF YOU DON'T SCORE ENOUGH POINTS.

     Even if you don't score enough points under the personal capability assessment - the medical test to decide if you're incapable of work - you may still have a chance of being found incapable either at claim or appeal stage. This is because of a little know "exceptional circumstances" rules.

      There are a number of these, but probably the most important is regulation 27(b), which states that you will be found incapable of work, "---there would be substantial risk to the mental or physical health of any person if he were found capable of work--".      

    MORE INFO HERE; http://antibenefitcutsglasgow.wordpress.com/   

           OR   EMAIL; antibenefitcutsglasgow@gmail.com

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POOR LIVID BANKERS!!!

        

       The government has put on a wee publicity stunt, it has increased the bank levy from £1.7bln. to £2.5bln. and guess what, the bank bosses are livid. Rightly so, doesn't this government realise that the deficit has nothing to do with the banks, that's the tax payers responsibility. As far as the financial world is concerned it is up to the ordinary people to pay for the deficit and let them get on with ripping-off everybody and anybody, while paying themselves massive bonuses. As far as the amount of the bank levy, it can be put in proportion when it is compared to what the bank bonuses are expected reach. It looks like the poor hard done by bankers will have to get by with a mere £6 billion bonus pot this year. Tax the bankers a fraction of what they should be paying and they squeal and jump up and down doing their livid thing. Slash the standard of living for the vast majority of the population and the financial parasites proclaim that the government is on the right track. Makes you think, doesn't it, well it should.

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ANTI-PEOPLE LEGISLATION!!

        The class war rages in this country and some ordinary people still don't accept that it is happening. We have the millionaire public school thugs decimating the standard of living of the ordinary people by slashing at all the social services in this country and using that as a method of handing all public assets to their millionaire friends in the corporate world. Just in case the workers of this country decide to fight back with some form of industrial action, our lord and master, millionaire Cameron has stated that he would not hesitate to introduce anti-strike legislation. With their millionaire friends in control of the Westminster House of Hypocrisy and Corruption the corporate bosses are baying for blood. Not only do they want anti-strike legislation, the Institute of Directors has called for collective bargaining to be scrapped for all public service workers. They would love to return us to the 18th. century, when it was illegal for workers to come together to attempt to improve their pay and conditions. It was called forming combinations and you could be deported for such a vicious attack on their ill gotten gains.

       They know it is a class war and they will fight it on all fronts, creating a pool of unemployment, demolishing all union rights, savage attacks on living standards and transferring all public assets to the corporate greed machine. When do we accept that it is a class war situation and start to fight back on all fronts. We must join all our campaigns into one battle and realise that it is the system that is at fault, it is the system that must go, and a change of smiling face at the helm will not benefit the ordinary people of this country. Asking for better social services, keep our libraries open, better pensions, is admitting that the millionaires club control the way our society is shaped and we have no real control over our lives. Ask yourself this question, if the government is for the people, why is it that it is attacking their living standards and protecting the corporate world of banking and big business, why are all their plans putting the burden on the ordinary people and all the benefits to the corporate world? I'm sure you could come up with a better way to make this country a better place for all those in society, without sending the next generation into a world of deprivation.

       We can create a collective society based on mutual aid, a society that sees to the needs of all those in that society, a society that is freed from the greedy motive of profit for the few and exploitation for the many. We have the desire, resources, imagination and the power, all we are lacking is the will. Must we wait until the misery and deprivation become unbearable, at what point will we realise that poverty and injustice are not the prerequisites of society and that pampered millionaire parasites are not necessary.

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WE NEED MORE GLASGOW ANARCHISTS.

Glasgow Anarchists, January 1st. 1915.        

       Anarchism has a long history in our city, its ideas taking root in Glasgow in the late 1800’s and since then the popularity of its ideas has risen and fallen in waves depending on the changing conditions in our society, but the ideas behind the name have never left our city. Ever since the late 1800’s anarchists have been at the forefront of all the battles of the ordinary people of our city as they struggle for a better life, They have been involved in these struggles in a positive and selfless manner putting forward ideas and giving physical support, always helping the people to achieve what they were fighting for, never for the benefit of some political party or political career.

         The people of Glasgow can be proud of their history of struggle, it stretches back to the dawn of our city. There have been great victories, for example the 1915 rent strike, the poll tax, etc. and sometimes crushing defeats but the struggle continues. The city has its legion of heroes to be proud of, some who have stood astride the political scene like a colossus, others who have struggled endlessly in the shadows, and there have been those individuals who have been crushed by the system we live under.

        Today more than ever we need to come together as a class to defend our own people against the coming increase in poverty, unemployment, repossessions, cuts in social services, etc. The party political system has shown itself to be part of the problem, not the answer. It is grass roots people based direct action that will change this society into one that sees to the needs of all our people, based on mutual aid, and brings about equality, justice and sustainability.

 
Glasgow's working class history HERE.
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VICIOUS LIES FROM GREEDY, VICIOUS LIARS.

       As the well manicured twins from the millionaires’ club down at the Westminster House of Hypocrisy and Corruption go ahead with the financial world’s plans to decimate the living standards of the working class, they are still, without laughing, muttering that blatant lie “we are all in this together” You and I are looking at a massive rise in unemployment, savage cuts to social spending, cuts in benefits, a shattered education system, reduced pensions, working longer to to get that lousy pension, if you have a job at all, and on top of that they are now about to rip apart the health service and turn it into a market governed grouping of private enterprises, in other words the privatisation of our health service. They are about to create a society where if you want something you buy it, at a profit to some corporate body. Of course if you can’t afford it then you do without and that will apply to health, education and special needs plus a host of other things that a civilised society should provide. While we, the ordinary people, are supposed to take this, the friends of this millionaire cabinet are still laughing all the way to the bank. For example, last year a certain Mr Justin King, chief executive of Sainsbury’s, faced the burden of austerity with an £8 million pay package, his previous year's earnings. Another of the millionaire cabinet’s friends who is in this with us is Marc Bolland of Marks & Spencer’s his contract could net him approximately £15 million for the following year's pay check. As you can see, we are all in this together.

        The most blatant lie about this whole affair is the fact that they keep repeating, “there is no alternative” what shit, and it is ideological shit at that. This is the biggest handover of public assets to the private sector that we have ever seen. You and I and any member of the working class know that we could create a society that would see to the needs of all our people, we know we have the ability, imagination and resources to create a society free from the profit motive, based on mutual aid and sustainability. We know we do not need that army of pampered, well manicured parasites that rip us off day and daily. We, the working class, are facing what is probably one of the biggest challenges that has arisen in capitalism, we now have the ability to organise across the whole of the European continent on an almost instantaneous basis. What is happening in this country is happening across Europe, it is a united attack by the financial institutions of corporate capitalism, it surely makes sense that we should respond with a united attack on those institutions that aim to destroy our already meagre standard of living. Local strikes, marches and demonstrations can be ignored and dealt with without too much trouble to the system. However a national general strike would be a different matter and much more difficult for the system to handle, a pan-European general strike would be impossible for the system to cope with, and would be our opportunity to restructure society to our aims based on that fair and universally desire, of a society free from the fear of deprivation and exploitation.

 

 

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A SLAVE BY ANY OTHER NAME.

      Did the West really abolish slavery, or did it merely re-label and re-package the concept? Are those who have to sell their labour power really just selling their skills or are they selling themselves? Can you separate the skills from the person, therefore, as an employee are you free?

Carole Pateman points out the implications of the employment contract in her book The Sexual Contract:

       Capacities or labour power cannot be used without the worker using his will, his understanding and experience, to put them into effect. The use of labour power requires the presence of its “owner,” and it remains as mere potential until he acts in the manner necessary to put it into use, or agrees or is compelled so to act; that is, the worker must labour. To contract for the use of labour power is a waste of resources unless it can be used in the way in which the new owner requires. The fiction “labour power” cannot be used; what is required is that the worker labours as demanded. The employment contract must, therefore, create a relationship of command and obedience between employer and worker.... In short, the contract in which the worker allegedly sells his labour power is a contract in which, since he cannot be separated from his capacities, he sells command over the use of his body and himself. To obtain the right to the use of another is to be a (civil) master. [1]

[1]Carole Pateman, The Sexual Contract (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1988), pp. 150-151.

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SAVE YOUR LIBRARIES.

        The cuts being bulldozed throughout the country by the Cameron/Clegg public school thugs will, as we all know, devastate the social fabric of our society. One of the services that will be decimated will be the libraries. Up and down the country 400 libraries are earmarked for closure. Of course who will this hit the hardest, why those who don't have fat bank books. Resistance is growing against what these cuts are doing to our communities, and tomorrow, Saturday 5th February, there is a national day of protest across the country. In Edinburgh, Scottish writers and illustrators will lead an organised protest in the city to hand in a petition to the Scottish Parliament at 11am.

      

 The petition reads;

"To: The First Minister and all Members of the Scottish parliament

        We would like to protest at the widespread cuts to the library service taking place throughout Scotland.

In addition to the promotion of knowledge, literacy, and information retrieval skills, a professionally delivered library service embeds the joy of reading in our young people, building self awareness, articulate self expression, confidence, validating their life and culture, and leads to social and emotional literacy.

       In a society experiencing a widening gap in household incomes, our libraries, in the great tradition on which they were first inaugurated and enshrined in the law of the land, provide access for all.

       The cuts to book budgets, library opening hours, mobile services, branches, and the drastic and unnecessary deletion of professional posts strike at those most in need of a library service and those least able to protest against the cuts in that service - the less affluent, the elderly, the frail, people who are challenged mentally and physically and their carers, those who look after babies and toddlers and, crucially, our children - who are our future."

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WORKERS KNOW YOUR HISTORY-- GLASGOW CITY OF REBELLION.

         From the days of Wallace, Scotland has always had a revolutionary movement. At one time fighting for religious liberty, at another for political equality, more recently for economic and industrial freedom and freedom of the individual. In all of this Glasgow has always played an important part and been home to radical reform movements.

Trongate, Glasgow 1919.           

                                           

1706-THE UNION.

       Glasgow gained in wealth because of the Union, when its tobacco trade rapidly expanded and later the sugar and cotton trades. Surplus wealth began flowing into mining, textile, iron and railway industries. By 1885 ten Scots firms produced 20% of Britain’s steel output. After 1870 the Clyde replaced the Thames as the centre of British shipbuilding, and this, in association with the expanding railway and heavy engineering industries in Glasgow, created a new force, the 'Industrial Working Class'. By 1892 two thirds of all Trade Unionists in Scotland worked in Glasgow. Rebels of Glasgow and the West of Scotland shared the problems of the Northern English industrial population and also shared the hopes of the English Radical Reformers.

1706 - AGAINST THE UNION.

       In spite of this the Union was not universally accepted throughout the country. Glasgow saw popular but violent reaction to this arrangement. On one occasion a large crowd lead by Finly and Montgomery took control of the Bishop’s House. The local forces could not remove them and the Dragoons were called from Edinburgh to dislodge them. Finly and Montgomery were duly arrested. The crowd took it upon itself to seize the City’s Magistrates and dispatched a few of them to Edinburgh with the strictest mandate to obtain the release of the prisoners. However the Privy Council in Edinburgh rejected the request and sent the Magistrates back to Glasgow with the instruction to take better control of their city.

JUNE 1725 - THE MALT TAX RIOTS.

      Due to the gross dislike of the 'Malt Tax' there were wide spread riots across the country. The most serious of these was June 1725 in Glasgow. When Revenue Officers arrived to assess the Maltsters, they were met by large angry crowds who barred their way. On June the 24th a large crowd decided to attack the house of Duncan Campbell of Shawfield believing that he had supported the tax in the Houses of Parliament. The angry scenes prompted the Lord Advocate Duncan Forbes to call in troops from Edinburgh. The Provost was not in agreement with this decision and refused to use them against the rioters. However the crowd, unhappy with the presence of the troops attacked them. The troops retaliated, at first with powder and then with shot. This resulted in the death of 8 civilians. The Provost ordered the troops to withdraw. The Magistrates spent most of their time investigating the civilian deaths rather than pursuing the leaders of the attack on Shawfield House. It was obvious that the town council had no more love of the 'malt tax' than the angry crowds. Their thoughts would also be on the fact that they had to live in the city after the massacre by the troops. The Lord Advocate somewhat alarmed at the events in the city went himself to Glasgow and arrested the City Magistrates and took them to Edinburgh. There was a failed prosecution of the Magistrates in Edinburgh and they returned to their City of Glasgow to a boisterous welcome from the crowd.

15th FEBRUARY 1800.

        Unemployment and high taxes during this period caused wide spread demonstrations which culminated on the 15th. of February 1800 when angry and hungry crowds took to the streets. They marched along Argyle Street attacking meatsellers and grocers’ shops. Meanwhile vast crowds in the districts of Townhead and Calton were also smashing into similar types of shops. The authorities felt compelled to call out the troops to disperse the rioters.

1812 WEAVERS STRIKE.

         1812 saw in Scotland until that date. The weavers were on strike in an attempt to protect their living standards. The strike was on the whole a peaceful protest, though the Magistrates and the Government claimed otherwise in an attempt to become heavy handed with the strikers. The strike lasted three months and eventually run out of funds and collapsed. Because of this strike Trade Unionism was declared illegal in Scotland and remained so until 1824. Seven of the strikers were arrested and charged with 'illegal combination' and were each sentenced to 18 months in prison.

6th MARCH 1848

        There was a serious riot in the city of Glasgow on the 6th of March 1848. It came about when the unemployed operatives had expected a distribution of provisions. The provisions never appeared and the starving and angry crowds set off up Irongate and other main streets of the city centre breaking into food and gun shops. Business in the city came to a stand-still and all city centre shops closed. The people continued to march through the streets shouting 'bread or revolution'. Eventually the 'riot act' was read. Other groups marched off in other directions entering food shops and demanding bread. The authorities, alarmed at the events sent to Edinburgh for more troops. The following day crowds again gathered at Bridgeton where 'out-pensioners' were under arms. A young boy threw an object at the troops and was arrested but the crowd stormed the arresting group and rescued the boy. Police Superintendent, Captain Smart gave the order to fire: five of the crowd were shot. The Military continued to patrol the streets and the crowd still lined the streets for some days. All public offices were securely guarded.

1915 RENT STRIKES

         1915 saw Glasgow and Clydeside districts gripped by a massive grass roots movement against large rent increases imposed by landlords. Over 25,000 tenants refused to pay rent increases. The struggle spread to the Clydeside engineering workshops and shipyards, forcing the government to introduce the 1915 Rent Restriction Act.

1919 'FORTY HOUR WEEK’ STRIKE.

        In 1919 the struggle for a shorter working week came to a head with a strike which had the support of practically all the workers in the area. Marches and demonstrations were organised. One massive demonstration in George Square caused the authorities some concern and the police baton charged the crowd creating mayhem. The government fearing revolution sent English troops with tanks into the city.

George Square, Glasgow 1919

More on Glasgow's working class history HERE. 

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DOES WORK REALLY WORK???

            An extract from an interesting article called Does Work Really Work. by, L. Susuan Brown, the full article can be found at THE ANARCHIST LIBRARY.  It would be interesting to know your opinions on this one.

           One of the first questions people often ask when they are introduced to one another in our society is “what do you do?” This is more than just polite small talk — it is an indication of the immense importance work has for us. Work gives us a place in the world, it is our identity, it defines us, and, ultimately, it confines us. Witness the psychic dislocation when we lose our jobs, when we are fired, laid off, forced to retire or when We fail to get the job we applied for in the first place. An unemployed person is defined not in positive but in negative terms: to be unemployed is to lack work. To lack work is to be socialIy and economically marginalized, To answer “nothing” to the question “what do you do?” is emotionally difficult and socially unacceptable. Most unemployed people would rather answer such a question with vague replies like “I’m between contracts” or “I have a few resumes out and the prospects look promising” than admit outright that they do not work. For to not work in our society is to lack social significance — it is to be a nothing, because nothing is what you do.

          Those who do work (and they are becoming less numerous as our economies slowly disintegrate) are something — they are teachers, nurses, doctors, factory workers, machinists, dental assistants, coaches, librarians, secretaries, bus drivers and so on. They have identities defined by what they do. They are considered normal productive members of our society. Legally their work is considered to be subject to an employment contract, which if not explicitly laid out at the beginning of employment is implicitly understood to be part of the relationship between employee and employer. The employment contract is based on the idea that it is possible for a fair exchange to occur between an employee who trades her/his skills and labour for wages supplied by the employer. Such an idea presupposes that a person’s skills and labour are not inseparable from them, but are rather separate attributes that can be treated like property to be bought and sold. The employment contract assumes that a machinist or an exotic dancer, for instance, have the capacity to separate out from themselves the particular elements that are required by the employer and are then able to enter into an agreement with the employer to exchange only those attributes for money. The machinist is able to sell technical skills while the exotic dancer is able to sell sexual appeal, and, according to the employment contract, they both do so without selling themselves as people. Political scientists and economists refer to such attributes as “property in the person,” and speak about a person’s ability to contract out labour power in the form of property in the person.

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SUPPORT THE OCCUPATION.

A statement from those occupying  the Heartherington Research Club at Glasgow University. It is up to the students and supporters to use the space and support their efforts in keeping alive this valuable asset.

SUPPORT THE OCCUPATION

Students have reclaimed the Heatherington Research Club- the post-graduate club which was forced to close last year due to finance problems.

University management refused to bail out the club, nor accept a new finance plan. We have taken the building as a last ditch effort to save it for Glasgow's students. The HRC has been lying empty for a full year now, and we think we can put it to better use.

We want the building to be a space for people across the city to utilise in the struggle against cuts and austerity. And we want it to be a safe non-commercial space for students of Glasgow Uni - for socialising, for education and for engaging with the movement against cuts and fees, both on our campus and across the city.

It's your space --- get involved.

For updates follow;

twitter.com/glasgowoccupied

"glasgow uni occupied" on facebook.

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WATER, WATER EVERYWHERE---.

     

      It seems that our lords and masters, the millionaires at the Westminster House of Hypocrisy and Corruption have decided that we should all have water meters fitted. Hard lines on all those pensioners that like their garden and wander around in the evening lovingly watering their blooms. Also, what about those ,and there are millions of them, families on low incomes with a couple of kids spread across the country in cities like Glasgow, Liverpool and Manchester and all those rural poor, in this green and pleasant land? Economic necessity may mean that you all take a bath together, there's a lot of water in a bath. Of course to our millionaire public school thugs, it won't make one little bit of difference, they'll probably just sign another standing order. However it should make a lot of money for the meter manufacturers, fitters and water companies. Of course it will be you and I that will pay for it all, as usual. Do you want a meter? Did you ask for a meter?Ah, the beauty of our democracy.

        I would suggest that all the local communities should organise to stop this extra burden being heaped on the poorest of our communities at a time of wage cuts/freezes, increase VAT, increase unemployment and benefit cuts. Water is the most basic of all human needs and clean water is essential from a health point of view. Anything that hinders your access to clean water is an attack on your health and well being and should not be tolerated in any society, least of all a very rich and developed country. Don't be conned into thinking this is not a very, very rich country, we can spend billions on arms bills and fight wars on the other side of the planet and carry a bunch of pampered parasites on our back. Think of all those resources being transferred to the community, instead of being used to destroy, kill and maim working class people in Iraq and Afghanistan. It is our country, let's start to shape to our benefit, get the parasites off our back.

 

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