UNREST IN THE MIDDLE WEST???

     

      Massive demonstrations for over a week, municipal buildings occupied, spreading to other areas??? You've read it in the papers, saw it on the telly, sorry, no you haven't. I'm not talking about the Middle East, I'm referring to that land of the free, land opportunity, the good ol' US of A. Though these events don't seem to register on the Western media radar.

UK.

      It is happening in the state of Wisconsin where they are facing draconian cuts and on top of that the Governor is trying to pass legislation that would abolish collective bargaining for all public sector workers. The workers have not taken it lying down, there have been demonstrations of 70,000+ and they have continued for approximately a week, the municipal building has been occupied and the demonstrations are spreading to other states, read more details HERE. However you will have to look hard and long to find it reported on our “open and fair” media. After all, they don't want to convey the idea that there is unrest here in the West, oh dear no, everything is fine here, we are the model for the rest of the world.

GREECE.

      The cuts and the legislation that is causing the anger among the ordinary people over in America, is exactly what is going on here and in most of the developed world. Not only is the very fabric of our society being decimated to safeguard the financial sector, allowing them to seize all public assets, but they are doing their damnedest to introduce legislation to hamstring the workers from fighting back. It is only a few weeks since we had the Institute of Directors over here spouting the same venom, namely that all collective bargaining should be abolished within the public sector.

FRANCE.

      Though the focus is on the Middle East, and I agree, their problems are massive and in most cases, a matter of life and death, that doesn't mean that people in the rest of the world are satisfied with the system. In fact there is growing disgust and anger at the continual siphoning up of all the wealth to a pampered parasitical elite, while at the same time seeing what living standards we have being shredded to protect that pampered elite. Make no mistake, the parasites want even more, and are making a grab for all the public assets that can turn a profit.

USA.

       Most of us are living under a government that is putting in place legislation that nobody mandated them to carry out. We have a right to take to the streets and remove those who usurp the will of the people in favour of their millionaire friends. We have a government of parasites legislating to enhance the wealth and power of the parasites.

IRAN.

      A unified resistance to this corporate fascism is required, not a piecemeal, in our own back yard type of response. The attack is on the working class across the globe, the least we can do is to hit back with a pan-European attack on this system of greed and exploitation, while at the same time supporting in what ever way we can all those in other areas who are rising up against injustice and oppression.

CORPORATE MANSLAUGHTER???

AN INJUSTICE TO ONE IS AN INJUSTICE TO ALL.

       Two disability claimants, both from West Dunbartonshire, who were deemed fit for work during a work capability assessment, have both died of their disability while waiting for their appeal to be heard. Both had their incapacity benefit withdrawn while waiting for their appeal. It is obvious that their assessment was wrong and it is difficult to imagine the stress added to their lives by having to face this type of work assessment, but to have your benefit cut while waiting for your appeal to be heard is a totally unnecessary and further injustice heaped on vulnerable people. The organisation and the people that carry out these work assessments have a duty of care for those they are calling to be assessed. In the corporate world there is such a thing as corporate manslaughter, the Corporate Manslaughter and Corporate Homicide Act 2007 is a landmark in law. For the first time, companies and organisations can be found guilty of corporate manslaughter as a result of serious management failures resulting in a gross breach of a duty of care. Surely this can be applied to a company that is acting on behave of the government. It would be fair to assume that the wrong assessment of these two poor individuals and the further difficulties they faced through lose of benefit could be a contributory factor to their deaths. Where was the duty of care for these two cases, it would seem that the company failed in its duty of care in both these incidents. Could it be a case of corporate manslaughter? Perhaps the duty of care was to the shareholders of the company responsible for the assessments and the government that pays them handsomely. How many more people deemed fit for work, will die of their disability while waiting in dire poverty for the appeal to be heard?

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GROWING ANTI-PEOPLE LEGISLATION.

     

        In one of my recent posts, “Anti-people legislation”, I stated that the Institute of Directors has called for collective bargaining to be scrapped for all public sector workers. Some may think that this is too far fetched to come about. However, just cast your eyes across the pond to that land of freedom, the good ol' US of A, and you will find that the Governor of Wisconsin has included in his budget proposals, legislation that would more or less remove collective bargaining from all public sector workers. Fortunately the people are having none of it, as they have taken to the streets in their tens of thousands and are being joined by workers in other states and across the border in Canada. You can read a full report HERE. Of course our media is not big on reporting mass demonstrations in the western developed countries, they prefer when it is happening in other countries. The only way we will ever turn around this greed driven corporate world to a federation of sustainable needs based societies, will be for the workers across all borders to link hands and fight in unison. It is a common enemy, the state and its companion the corporate world, no matter the country. An injury to one is an injury to all.

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VOTE FOR ANARCHY?

      Is this the answer that anarchists have been looking for? It certainly is a novel approach towards that anarchist society. Which party in Britain should we anarchists vote for to bring about that new society we have been struggling for over the last couple of centuries. The Con/Dem coalition of millionaires is certainly bring about the destruction of society, what will rise from the ashes of British society?

AT LAST

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ATOS & DWP: THE GREEDY MUGGING THE SICK

       ATOS Healthcare are a part of a private, profit-driven corporation. On behalf of the government (DWP), they carry out the medical assessments now called the 'Work Capability Assessment' (WCA) for Employment and Support Allowance (ESA: formerly Incapacity Benefit) claimants, and the Disability Living Allowance (DLA).

       They are currently recruiting more staff to help meet government targets to force more people off benefits. They plan to cut £2.5 billion from ESA and to limit ESA benefit to just one year will- presumably those who are deemed unable to work will have made a miraculous recovery. 

       These measures are pure cost cutting and not based on any medical opinion, nor have they got anything to do with the tiny level of fraud within the ESA/DLA budget. The government are doing this to reduce the massive national debt caused by the banks gambling on the financial markets. It is clearly the most vulnerable in society being made to pay for the greedy failures of the rich.

CONFUSED?

THEIR STORY DOESN'T ADD UP!

       Already some 75% of ESA claims are failing. People with severe disability and life-threatening conditions are being declared fit for work. It's seems obvious that the government are deliberately refusing many thousands of claimants the support they need and condemning the most vulnerable to even worse levels of poverty.

      ATOS examinations are also now being carried out by non-doctors. Most doctors are already woefully under-qualified to deal with mental health cases, but ATOS now employ physiotherapists and nurses who have less training than even a GP to examine people and give the opinions that will decide their fate. “The Jobcentre Plus Decision Makers do not in practice make decisions, but instead they typically ‘rubber stamp’ the advice provided through the ATOS assessment. They often do not have or do not appropriately consider additional evidence submitted to support a claim for [ESA]. This results in the ATOS assessment driving the whole process, rather than being seen in its proper context as part of the process.”, Professor Harrington.

        Is this an indication that they are having difficulty finding enough doctors that will compromise their ethics or just that they want to squeeze even more profit out the sick by hiring under-qualified people to tick boxes on a computer and contradict the diagnoses of specialists and practitioners that have a better knowledge of the cases?

       Studies have shown the medical test to be largely unreliable and of the 29% of refused claimants that appeal the decision 49% win. What about those who feel they can't face the appeal process? Which clearly indicates that a substantial number of claimants are being failed wrongly. ATOS Healthcare doctors are paid a fee of over £100 for each DLA medical they carry out. Many people report that the doctor seemed in a rush, stayed only a very short time and wasn’t interested in what they had to say. Some found the doctor positively rude.

       These distressing and anxiety inducing tests are being extended to those relying on Disability Living Allowance (now: Personal Independence Payments) in order to deny more of the genuinely needy essential assistance and cut the budget for DLA/PIP by 20%.

       The tests have already been strongly criticised by Citizens Advice Bureau, Child Poverty Action Group and others. "Doctors produce inaccurate reports... reporting incorrectly what the claimant has said about their own conditions and taking their answers out of context... Doctors pay more attention to the computer than the client."

       An independent review of the WCA tests by Professor Harrington concluded “There is strong evidence that the system can be impersonal and mechanistic, that the process lacks transparency and that a lack of communication between the various parties involved contributes to poor decision making and a high rate of appeals.” and that “evidence has consistently and regularly highlighted problems with each stage of the WCA process, which limit both the assessment’s fairness and effectiveness.”

        Citizens Advice Scotland is extremely concerned that many clients are being found fit for work in their WCA despite often having severe illnesses and/or disabilities.

Their evidence has highlighted the cases of many clients with serious health conditions who have been found fit for work, including those with Parkinson’s disease, multiple sclerosis, terminal cancer, bipolar disorder, heart failure, strokes, severe depression, and agoraphobia.

       In a recent government report, ATOS’ own staff say the assessments are too harsh. Prospect, the trade union who represents 135 ATOS doctors, has stated that the target of seeing ten or more people a day is unrealistic and will lead to wrong assessments, especially in complex cases.

       Despite this obvious injustice, the government has recently announced it believes that 68% of ESA claimants can be sent back to work either immediately or with assistance. This is quite obviously a blatant lie designed to merely reduce the amount spent on society's most vulnerable.

       ATOS aren't content to be stitching up the needy at a tidy profit, but they are also undermining the NHS by paying way over the NHS rates for doctors & nurses.

      ATOS claim that they do not make the decision as to whether someone can work and have their benefits reduced, but that the decision is made by the DWP from their report and that performance targets are based simply on the number of claimants seen in a day. However, they admit that if a medical professional passes all claimants for disability benefits it will not go unnoticed.

WHO ARE THE REAL BENEFIT FRAUDSTERS ?

       Despite a fraud rate of just 1%, plus £16 billion in unclaimed benefits, they are determined to toss 500,000 people who currently rely on sickness benefits into the bleakest labour market in a generation; to cut already meagre disability benefits to starvation levels; to confiscate mobility scooters and community groups from the most needy; to remove key services that make life bearable for thousands of families with vulnerable relatives. With the recent changes in Housing Benefit and possible changes to Council Tax benefit, these cuts will leave hundreds of thousands of people with severe health problems without enough money to feed themselves and heat their homes.

PIMPING THE DISABLED

        ATOS also has a contract to carry out compulsory work programmes, meaning they will get paid for getting disabled people back into work. This is an incentive for them to fail people's claims: a clear conflict of interest. The most damning fact about the system is that ATOS will get £500m over 7 years for running the Work Capability Assessments, while fraud in ESA over this period would amount to around £250m: the tests intended to stop fraud cost twice as much as the fraud. Thus the only way ATOS can offer value for money is if they cut £250m off the ESA case load – which has to be their target.

        IF YOUR CLAIM FOR ESA OR DLA HAS BEEN FAILED YOU HAVE TO APPEAL WITHIN 30 DAYS. THERE IS A GOOD CHANCE YOU WILL WIN. SEEK ADVICE FROM WESTGAP or CAB IN LODGING YOUR APPEAL! CONTACT DETAILS... WEBSITE DOCUMENTS MORE INFO...

http://www.rethink.org/living_with_mental_illness/money_debt_benefits/index.html

SOLIDARITY.

 
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REWARD THE THIEVES!!!

       As we struggle through our daily grind most seem not to be fully aware of the impact of the cuts being implemented by the public school millionaire thugs. Aware or unaware we can be sure the results will be somewhere between horrendous and apocalyptic, with the public sector employees taking the brunt of this assault, though all the ordinary people will feel the pain.

       All the debate on the media is about how to cut, where to cut and by how much to cut. Nobody is talking about cause, blame, pay-back. The so called “financial collapse”, was predictable and was caused by the greed of the financial centre as they blew a great big housing bubble and aided and abetted by government and bankers gorged on it until it burst. The rewarded themselves, by grabbing massive slices of the mortgage revenue in the form of absurdly large salaries, loan shark commissions and those stratospheric “performance bonuses”. When the pot went dry and their scam collapsed they simple held out the begging bowl and the government, with tax payers money, duly obliged. Groups of individuals were culpable and gained immensely from their greed, but who is being held to account? Nobody, it is expected that the ordinary individual will take the hit, so as to protect the lavish lifestyles of the perpetrators of this giant scam. The very fabric of our society will be shredded, unemployment will soar, what savings the ordinary person thought they had in the value of their home will drop dramatically. Meanwhile the financial Mafia will continue to laugh all the way to the bank. The ordinary people of this country did not cause the “collapse” (mess) they are the victims, but then again, this is capitalism, and that is the way that the system is meant to work. You work all your life, they live off your back. Get used to it, or change it forever.

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FIT FOR WHAT???

Fit for What ?

       Under the previous Labour Government FIT Notes replaced Sick Notes in April 2010. The Coalition has continued to target “the sick”, leading to a huge backload of Appeals.

       The Medical Questionnaire for new ESA* claimants has been fine tweaked from the old one for longer term Incapacity cases, but the methods of conducting the interviews are the same. Dozens of claimants end up at Corunna House, in Cadogan St., near the old Anderston Bus Garage, and few are awarded enough points to be classed as either unfit for work or could be fit in future with help, altered hours etc..

     

       While filling out the Medical Questionnaire well, may help, the fact is that ATOS the agency contracted to conduct the interviews are paid on results. Like “bounty hunters” they aim to get people off benefits & often people are awarded Nil or few points despite their GP instigating hospital tests, often not even started when the ATOS “expert” makes their decision. ESA Claimants are reduced to basic benefit on Appeal, which for those on their own NI contributions, is ironically better than they were under Incapacity when Appeals led to only means-tested claimants being eligible, and at less than the basic rate.

The Old Divide & Rule.

       Now Ian Duncan-Smith, one of many Millionaires in the Cabinet, has new more draconian measures than even 'New Labour' brought in. At worst case a punter could face a 3 year ban from benefits. Although some will fall “foul” of this, most will be forced, as at present to comply and go through the motions of seeking work, placements, re-skilling, much of the time by dubious bodies like the Wise Group.

     

       21C Capitalism needs a “reserve army of labour” to keep wages in check , undermine terms & conditions, casualise contracts & drive expectations down. Above all these Rulers in Lab/Con/Lib, and in Scotland & Wales add , want this 'reserve army' - whether on the sick or signing on, or in limbo before retirement, caring for disabled or elderly, or in households where their partner is the only earner - to think individually, to internalise their anger, and not think of common cause.

      A small group of claimants, including former benefit advisors made redundant, have followed their counterparts in Edinburgh [2], and started to leaflet Corunna House. People coming in & out, often in poor health, a state of anxiety, angry or bewildered, are understandably pre-occupied with their own situation. It becomes every “man (or women) for themselves”, not quite “dog eats dog”, that is more akin to jobseekers at interviews, where hundreds chase every post.

     The point of such leafleting, and the more in depth approach by Edinburgh claimants[2], is to highlight to those who discuss what ATOS are doing, and their individual problems with benefits, that they are not alone. It takes a positive appreciation to grasp that you do what your Rulers least want: to self-organise, to adopt the wobbly[3] slogan, “an injury to one, is an injury to ALL”.

     The crap we, and our mates endure, in and out of work, will carry on until a real shake up changes our mindset to say: we are fit for a better future, we produce the wealth, plundered all over the world by corporations & Governments. Those occupying banks & showrooms of Vodafone etc., have shown the way. We will feel better, no matter what burden we are carrying, if we help create an alternative to this system, from the ground up [4], a big society to overturn all elites!

     Key:    [1] Employment & Support Allowance;

                [2] Edinburgh Coalition v Poverty: 0131 557 6242 on Tuesdays 12-3pm , Email ecap@lists.riseup.net     http://www.edinburghagainstpoverty.org.uk/ ;

                [3] Wobbles are rebel workers, opposed to wage slavery, influenced by the Industrial Workers of the World, which has a Clydeside branch*;

                [4] Byword of Westgap, a community resource and advice centre in Partick, not tied to Council plans or tied to the “expert” advisor mentality, contact 342-4343, Mon to Thursday 10-4.

                * Contact via my email hereandnowscot@email.com

                by Jim McFarlane -



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TEAPOT COLLECTIVE - INTRODUCTION TO ANARCHY, PAGE 3.

     

      Today we continue with the wonderful wee booklet, "Introduction to Anarchy" from the Teapot Collective. The recently posted pages 1 and 2 went down well, so read on.

        Page 3.

        At the moment we are all forced to surrender our independence, with no opt-out clause or exception to the “authorities”, And what kind of society has been created through this? One built on oppression based on gender, race, sexuality, species, nationality. Oppression based on class, with a whole section of society made dependent on dull, exploitive work. We're left with the false choice of voting in one bunch of lying scum or another, while the people with money and power remain untouched – landowners, directors of industry and finance, high ranking police and army chiefs, and the rich elite in general.

       According to our “democratic” system the problem is just with the policies of the political parties – every time one of them “fails” in government we're supposed to hope the next lot do better. Of course they rarely do. Even when a revolutionary party takes over, the names may change but power still stays with a small elite and everybody else get shat on. After all, we all know what great places the communist dictatorships of Eastern Europe were.

      So what hope is there for change? We can't just vote for it, and trying to act for ourselves can be difficult, ---

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MORE ON DISABILITY BENEFITS.

Confused?

      

      With the millionaire cabal riding roughshod over the benefits system and with their grand plans to get practically all those on disability benefit, off benefit and back to work, it is important that those who will be affected should have as much information and support as possible. This shredding of the benefits system will be particularly worrying to those with physical/mental health problems, apart from the worry there is the problem of trying to find your way through the complicated and legal jargon in which the various forms are written. It is also important the those facing these examinations, never go alone, know what to do, how the points system works and what are their rights.

      It is with this in mind that this site is posting the following information. It is hoped that anyone reading this will circulate it as widely as possible. If you know of somebody who may be facing an examination or other benefit's problems, please direct them to this information or print out and give them a hard copy of relevant information.

      The following site has lots of information that will prove to be invaluable to those involved in this distressing situation.

http://www.rethink.org/living_with_mental_illness/money_debt_benefits/index.html

Also information that was posted recently on this site;
http://radicalglasgowblog.blogspot.com/2011/02/disability-benefit-cuts.html
 
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THE BIG SOCIETY???

         Before millionaire spiv Cameron's mystic vision of the “Big Society” (Oh Lord, not another Blair visionary ), we had libraries, we had swimming pools, we had nurseries, we had support groups for the vulnerable, we had the National Health Service and much more. It wasn't perfect by a long chalk but we had them and there was the possibility of improving matters, not any more. Now we have a “Big Society” bank, with assets of £200m to replace cuts of £5 billion and the “Big Society” bank will be lending out money at commercial rates. Wow, just think of the wonderful “Big Society” all that will produce. What the “Big Society” really means is a society based on everything being owned by big business and for those who can't afford the necessities of life there will be charities. These charities will be dependent on the good nature of our corporate capitalists “philanthropists”, who no doubt from time to time, to look good or to get a tax break or a contract, will donate some of their ill gotten, unearned wealth to those, so deserving poor. Is this the “Big Society” that you voted for? Is this how you see yourself, depending on some pompous parasite to drop you a few crumbs to see you through your hard times, which no doubt they will proclaim is really your own fault? Run to the ballot box and this is what you get, messianic Blair hell bent on a crusade of the brutal extermination of a people, or a mystic visionary millionaire Cameron, fawning to his millionaire friends.

     Where is our imagination, surely we can come up with a better plan than this devious smoke and mirrors of the “Big Society”. Do we need a bunch of millionaire parasites bleeding us dry as they suck up most of the wealth that we produce? Is deprivation and exploitation the only way we can think? We can create a society based on the needs of all those in that society, but we have to get rid of this gang of blood sucking parasites that sit with their grubby hands on the power levers manipulating everything to their personal benefit and to hell with the rest of you.

GLASGOW ANARCHISTS 1915???

      The photo below is of the Glasgow Anarchist Group from 1915. The photo is known to lots of anarchists but we are all stumped as to who they all are. We have some info but haven't had it properly verified and would dearly love to know who these people were. Though it is dated the 1st January there is not a glass on the table, all cups, saucers and cakes, love and cakes, the essential of any anarchist society. Does that tell us something about the group?

       

     The info we have at the moment is;

1. Molly Loyd, she married the guy to her left No 2.

2. Charles McPherson, lived in Harmony Row, Govan, worked in Fairfield Shipyard.

3.

4.

5.

6.

7. Willie MacDougal, we know a good bit about him, see; HERE. 

      As for the rest we would love to receive any info on any of them, no matter how small the detail it could help to lead us to further info. Any further info on Molly and/or Charles would also be very gratefully received.

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ANARCHY IS FOR LOVERS.

In keeping with the spirit of Valentine's day and just to let the world know, we anarchists are nice guys, romantics at heart and that an anarchist society would be a great place to live and love.

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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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