GET IN TOUCH - GET INVOLVED.

Dear All -

     We have organised a Glasgow/ West Coast Grow your own hustings event at the Castlemilk Stables Orchard on the 27th April. See the attached invite. I am working to finalise an Edinburgh / East Coast Hustings - and will circulate info on that later.

     If people can send out to their networks please, and especially to pass on to Holyrood candidates that may be interested.

      I am hoping that folk involved in community food growing, grow your own and my interest, orchards, will be able to meet up with Holyrood parliament candidates and have a discussion about how to do more to get Glasgow, and West Scotland growing.

Th' apples ur gynormous.

    

      The Children's Orchard at the Stables is just coming into blossom, and we hold that this will be a constructive and enjoyable evening (There is an indoor wet weather option) There is public transport very close to the stables - and I am getting details of that, which I'll be able to supply.

Otherwise lift sharing may be an option.

     I'd be pleased if representatives of different Glasgow Growing projects would be able to say a bit about their growing projects, and also be able to brief candidates about what Holyrood can usefully do to help. I'd like to keep the proceedings friendly and informal and focused on how to make progress. We'll have a marketplace table for leaflets and information.

    I'd be very happy to have help in organising this - and I'd be grateful if you could circulate to your networks

How di a get in touch?

John Hancox;   Tel 0778 606 3918 
Invite.

       An invitation to candidates to the Scottish Parliament and to people interested in community food projects, orchards and grow your own food to discuss how to get Glasgow Growing.

Where - Castlemilk Stables, 59 Machrie Rd, Glasgow, G45 0AZ

When 6pm - 7.30pm, 27th April 2011

RSVP to John Hancox:

John.d.hancox@btinternet.com

The aim of the event is to bring together MSP candidates and those with an interest in different aspects of local and community food initiatives to explore how these deliver valuable health, community, and social benefits as well as producing great and affordable food. Please bring

information and materials to display.

Helping Scotland Grow!  

The Fruitful Hustings

Booking essential by end 25th April (limited places)

If you’d be able to help organise the event - please offer.

John Hancox Chair Scottish Orchards

tel 0778 606 3918

john.d.hancox@btinternet.com

http://www.scottishorchards.com/
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IT'S ALL FOR YOUR OWN GOOD!!!!

STOP THE BOMBING OF LIBYA NOW: PROTEST 19 APRIL

        Britain France and the US have now come clean. The article signed by Cameron, Sarkozy and Obama, and published today in Washington, Paris and London, makes clear the war on Libya is not about protecting civilians but about regime change. Having ignored peace moves from the African Union, NATO is now set on escalating the bombing.

The humanitarian spin they are putting on the operation is exposed by the fact that the Western governments continue to support brutal regimes in Yemen, Bahrain and Saudi Arabia, where severe repression against democracy activists continues virtually uncriticised.

        Meanwhile as predicted the bombing is claiming many civilian casualties and helping to deepen the division in the country. In response to the continued bombing and this open and illegal statement of intent, Stop the War has called a protest at Downing Street next Tuesday 19 April at 5pm.

IT'S FOR YOUR OWN GOOD.

Please attend if you can and spread the word as widely as possible. http://stopwar.org.uk/



PROTEST: STOP THE BOMBING OF LIBYA NOW
TUESDAY 19 APRIL, 5PM
DOWNING STREET, LONDON

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BENT COPPERS!!!

        Most people that go on demonstrations, protests, rallies etc. know that the police provoke and can lie and when it comes to court, in most cases the police version is accepted. There are times of course when their lying is exposed, but nothing ever seems to happen to them. We all remember Jean Charles de Menezes, shot dead on a London tube. The first stories to emerge from the police were that he was wearing a bulky jacket, refused to stop when asked, and ran away, vaulting over the barrier. The truth being he was lightly dressed, had never been asked to stop, and could be seen on CCTV walking to the tube, stopping to pick up a paper and then continuing. The most recent case of Ian Tomlinson killed at the G20. The first accounts coming from the police were that he was involved in violent and dangerous confrontation, lost his balance, fell and hit his head. Then as the police tried to help him they were bombarded with missiles being thrown by the protesters. We now know the truth was that he was attacked by a police officer while walking slowly with his hands in his pockets, hit with a baton and then pushed to the ground. The first aid he received was from the protesters while the police stood by for a spell and did nothing. There is a catalogue of police lying that never sees the perpetrators brought to justice, so why should be trust the police?

There is an excellent article by George Monbiot in the Guardian which deals in more detail on this subject, it is certainly worth a read.

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“ALL I CAN DO IS REALLY BEG YOU NOT TO GO THIS ROUTE”

Filmaker Michael Moore has given his backing to UNISON’s campaign against the Tory Health and Social Care Bill, warning that the changes are ‘absolutely the last thing you would want to do.”

      In a passionate six minute tribute, the award-winning film-maker sounds warning bells over allowing private companies to dominate healthcare, as they are legally bound to generate the biggest possible profit for their shareholders. They only way then can do this is to provide less care, and what care they do provide, to do it as cheaply as possible.

 

 
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WORKERS KNOW YOUR HISTORY, 12 APRIL 1848.

     

    Then as now, it seems that the state's minders always try to out number the peaceful protester, An interesting point to as I read this, could we collect 5,106,847 signatures today? Also this was 1848 when the population of the country was much smaller than at present, and no Internet.

Originally published in the Manchester Guardian on 12 April 1848

      Kennington Common was the appointed place of meeting and was the great centre of attraction to all who felt an interest in the proceedings. At an early hour on Monday morning, a few straggling groups had assembled there; but, until ten o'clock, the numbers present did not amount to more than a few hundreds. The arrivals during the hour or two that followed were far more numerous, and before the approach of the delegates, the crowd consisted of several thousands. They all belonged, almost without exception, to the poorer classes, although few of them wore the distinctive dresses of labourers or mechanics. There were not among them 100 women. At half past eleven, the great procession, which included the delegates to the national convention, came in sight, and a general rush to meet it took place. This was the great spectacle of the day. First came the Chartists of Whitechapel, headed by a small banner. Then came those of the Brick Lane district; and then those of Finsbury. One of the most numerous was the "Emmet brigade," which consisted of members of the Irish confederation. They were headed by a green banner with orange edges, the Irish harp being in the centre.

      The procession was wound up by two large ornamental vans, each drawn by four horses. In the first of these vans were seated Mr F O'Connor, Mr McGrath, and other members of the national convention. The appearance of these gentlemen was hailed with loud and continued cheers. The second van contained the national petition, to which the writing on a piece of parchment indicated that 5,106,847 signatures had been affixed. Above those figures were placed the words "The people's will." In this van was a large coloured banner, having inscribed on it each of the six points of the charter, as well as six smaller ones.

SOLIDARITY.

       The police force was stationed as follows:- An advanced post of 500 men was placed at Ball's Livery Stables, Kennington, concealed from view, but ready to act at a moment's notice, if required. The main strength of the force was concentrated at the bridges. The number of police of all ranks in position was 3,970.

       To support the police, the Chelsea Pensioners, the military and artillery forces, and the special constabulary were arranged:- There were 400 of the pensioners at Battersea Bridge, 500 at Vauxhall, 200 or 300 at the Pantechnicon, and a detachment at Blackfriars. All the public buildings were barricaded and occupied by soldiery, and the officials and clerks were armed, not only with staves, as special constables, but with fire-arms.

 

FREEDOM.

Some of Glasgow's working class history HERE. 

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INTRODUCTION TO ANARCHY, PAGE 6.

  Here is the next page in the wee Teapot Collective's Introduction to Anarchy, page 6. Page 5 can be found HERE. It's a wee book, so it only has wee pages, but a great wee book.

      The Mexican revolution at the turn of the 19/20th century was the result of traditional communally worked land around the villages being seized by large landowners in a military dictatorship. With Emiliano Zapata as its most prominent figure a revolutionary peasants' army was formed under the rally, "Land and liberty!" reclaiming the land. Zapata was offered the presidency but declined, preferring to live and fight with the people.

      In the Russian revolution of 1917, there was hope in the often spontaneous formation of soviets (workers councils), many of which practised direct democracy until the Bolsheviks installed their centralised state apparatus and crushed any free federation.

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DO YOU LIVE IN AN ELECTRONIC POLICE STATE?

  

  Is your state a leader in surveillance, is it an Electronic Police State? Don't you think you should find out before it's too late. The following short extract was taken from http://secure.cryptohippie.com/pubs/EPS-2010.pdf  where you can read the full report. I strongly suggest you do!!!

DEFINITIONS

      For those who are new to the Electronic Police State Report, we will re-state our definitions:

An electronic police state is characterized by this:

      State use of electronic technologies to record, organize, search and distribute forensic evidence against its citizens.

     The two crucial facts about the information gathered under an electronic police state are these:

1. It is criminal evidence, ready for use in a trial.

2. It is gathered universally (“preventively”) and only later organized for use in prosecutions.

     In an Electronic Police State, every surveillance camera recording, every email sent, every Internet site surfed, every post made, every check written, every credit card swipe, every cell phone ping… are all criminal evidence, and all are held in searchable databases. The individual can be prosecuted whenever the government wishes.

      Long-term, the Electronic Police State destroys free speech, the right to petition the government for redress of grievances, and other liberties. Worse, it does so in a way that is difficult to identify.

METHODOLOGY

      We moved to a more elaborate ranking system this year. The categories remained the same, but we have now weighted each one according to its importance. (The weighting factors are shown in parenthesis for each category itemized below.) Within each category we used a comparative method of assigning value.

      We have not taken into account how many people, or what percentage of people, are affected by each characteristic. So, even though very few people in North Korea have Internet access, those who do are subjected to very serious surveillance. The low number of users has no effect on the national ranking.

      In addition, it is significant to note that we are not measuring government censorship of Internet traffic or police abuses, as legitimate as these issues may be. Nor are we including government corruption.

      Note also that none of our categories apply to evidence-gathering by traditional, honest police work. (Searches only with warrants issued by an independent judge, after sufficient examination of evidence.)

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LOCAL ACTION AGAINST THE CUTS.

  

      The rest of our fair city should be taking a leaf out of the North West Glasgow residents' book. The Maryhill area of the city has started to organise locally to defend their area against that savage attack that is about to be unleashed on them and the rest of the country. By organising locally and the local groups linking up to discuss tactics and strategies to protect their facilities and the future of the kids is the best way to meet this slash and burn policy being pushed by these public school thugs in the Westminster Houses of Hypocrisy and Corruption.

SOLIDARITY.

By fleabite, submitted on IndymediaScotland 

      A group of residents in North West Glasgow have got together to fight the cuts and defend services locally. The first event was an anticuts conference which attracted 30 folks.  There were talks from activists from many diferent spheres, from those locally who'd occupied a primary school a few years back, to NHS campaigners, to a speaker from the ongoing anticuts student occupation at Glasgow University.  Most importantly we had many small table discussions.

      We are now having regular organising meetings and have begun mapping the area to get a clear picture of how the cuts will affect our local area and what we can do both to defend local services, but also fight all the cuts to public services and the welfare state.

WI DON'T NEED TAE TAKE THIS.

Our next event is a mapping workshop :

        Its open to everyone interested in being involved in organising against the cuts in North West Glasgow. At this workshop we will be continuing with the work we’ve already started by mapping the area: services, community groups etc that might be under threat. Key upcoming dates such as when the cuts are announced at a city level, when the national cuts will come into being. What community groups, activists etc we should be working with both locally and outwith the neighbourhood.

IT'S OOR FUTURE.

Wednesday 13th April.  7-9pm.  The Free Hetherington.  13 University Gardens.

http://maryhillanticuts.wordpress.com/

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WHICH STATE STINKS MORE THAN OTHERS?

    Here's a wee quiz for you, read carefully and think hard before answering. You can find the answer HERE.

    

      If you were asked which regime is described by the following actions and characteristics, what would you answer?

1. A regime that produces a death list of citizens abroad to be executed by its secret intelligence service, without arrest, without trial by a jury.

2. A regime that conducts surveillance at home and then uses that information to have an allied state abroad, one that flouts human rights, torture one of its citizens.

3. A regime that continues to operate secret detention centres where inmates are routinely denied the most basic rights to challenge the reasons why they have been imprisoned, without charge, and without representation.

4. A regime that is bent on maintaining war against other nations, including against peoples who never attacked it, thereby representing an obstacle to world peace.

5. A regime that routinely denies the legitimate claims and demands of its population, in order to favour a small cabal of elite bankers and industrialists, and thus also a regime that effectively renders elections little more than an expensive shadow play owned and operated by the billionaires who can engineer a win for their candidates.

6. A regime that persecutes those who believe that it is wrong to conceal the human rights abuses of their regime, that believe the world needs to know how that regime uses its troops to slaughter innocent civilians abroad, with neither reason nor remorse.

7. A regime that exercises pressure to round up the private details of Internet users, if they in any way conspired to reveal these facts.

8. A regime that harasses its citizens at airports, seizing their personal property, extracting information about a person’s activities and associations, and then targeting the person’s friends and colleagues, on the suspicion that the person may have peacefully opposed the state’s public lies.

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CLOSE THE S.O.A.

      For more than half a century the School of Americas SOA has been a cancer that has spread its death inducing tentacles across the whole of South America. Its products have been the dictators and oppressors of the poeple of that part of the world. Where ever freedom and independence dares to raise its head the graduates of the SOA have trampled and attempted to crush them before they can gain a foot hold. The only product that has ever come out of the SOA has been death, repression and brutality. The campaign to close the SOA still goes on, driven by people who have been tortured and friends and family of those who have died at the hands of the graduates of the SOA and all decent human beings.  

 Washington, DC

March and Direct Action to Close the SOA and Resist Militarization
Sunday, April 10, 2011  kick-off at Dupont Circle at 2:45pm

      Sunday's march will include Son Jarocho music by Cosita Seria, a puppetista pagent speeches by SOA Watch founder Father Roy Bourgeois, Haitian activist Eugenia Charles, Gerardo Torres; a representative of the Popular National Resistance Front of Honduras, the artist/activists Hector Aristizábal, Catalina Nieto and Olmeca, Simón Sedillo, Perla de la Rosa; an anti-militarization activist from Ciudad Juarez. Join the march at 2:45pm at Dupont Circle following the Anti-Militarization conference at American University.

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INTRODUCTION TO ANARCHY PAGE 5.

     More of the excellent small book by The Anarchist Teapot Collective,  "Your Anarchist Teapot Souvenir- Introduction to Anarchy."  Page 4 left you hanging, read it HERE, and now here is page 5. learn and enjoy.

     --small collectives roaming around eating berries and having a good time without any conception of needing states or government. Their lives were nothing like the constant struggle for survival against hostile nature and other tribes you might imagine. In fact some primitive anarchic cultures have flourished to modern times, but now are facing extinction at the hands of corporations and armies, and the destruction of their ways of life at the hands of aid workers forcing “development” on them.

      Anarchist ideas reflect a basic human desire which can be found throughout history, from Taoism and the Enlightenment to the first consciously anarchist movements in the 19th century. Anarchist demands have influenced most revolutions from the Peasants revolt in England in 1381 to the global uprisings in 1968. However the wish of the people to be genuinely free was always subverted by forces of Control, whether liberal, reformist, Marxist-Leninist or whatever. Just a few examples.

      In the French Revolution of 1789, the anarchist enrages struggled from the beginning with authoritarians and centrists. They created a federalist direct democracy in Paris with self-administrated districs until beheaded by the counter-revolution.

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BASH THE POOR!!!

  

"Of course the tax payer MUST pay our debt."

      It would seem that the pro cuts, bash the poor brigade are on the march and have organised a march and rally called a RALLY AGAINST DEBT, for May 14th in London. This right wing crop of millionaire supporters will include such groups as the Taxpayers Alliance Group, no doubt with support from the Countryside Alliance, UKIP, and that right wing true blue Tory institution The Oxbridge Battalion and other forms of low life that will come crawling out of the woodwork of their ancient mansions. Damn those prols and peasants for objecting to propping up our millionaire buddies, we'll show them.

      Could the class war becoming onto the streets? Could the “Bash the Poor” brigade be met with a “Bash the Rich” battalion? Does the parasite class feel strong enough to come slithering out of The Westminster House of Hypocrisy and Corruption and take to the streets? Do the pampered parasites feel confident enough to wave their “Bash the Poor” banners in a street near you? Who knows.

WE HAVE THE NUMBERS.

 

        No doubt this display of the well heeled will give the media a golden opportunity to weave another episode of their “we're all in this together” illusion and distort the true anger at the savage cuts that are being inflicted on all the ordinary people of this country. Those who support the cuts obviously belong to that minority group that will not feel the pain of the cuts.

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SET-UP TO BE SANCTIONED.

    

         The Guardian has just released this video of a whistle blower explaining how claimants are set up to be "sanctioned", temporally removed from benefit. This is all part of the government's culture of targets, manpower cuts and spending cuts, part and parcel of a sustained attack on the most vulnerable in society. Of course anybody can see that this will push lots of vulnerable people over the edge. It will also go a long way to increase poverty in families and create stress related illnesses. This is Cameron's "Big Society", dump people and let them sink or swim, depending on their ability to access a suitable charity.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/video/2011/apr/01/jobcentre-whistleblower-target-culture-welfare

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THE CLYDE WORKERS' COMMITTEE.

The following is a short extract from a recent article in "The Commune", you can read the full article HERE. 

SOLIDARITY.

"A week on, the feedback from the TUC demonstration seems broadly positive. To seasoned marchers, it might have seemed like just another trudge along Embankment – but for many it was their first demonstration, and the sheer weight of numbers carried some exhilaration with it.

And yet, we remember: eight years ago, on those same streets, there were twice the numbers, or more.  And what difference did it make? Labour ignored us, the war went ahead. And, if they can, the present government will ignore us in their turn. We know, if we are honest, that orderly demonstrations in central London will not stop the cuts. Such demonstrations pose no threat to the profit or power of the ruling class: and this, we know, is what makes the difference.

Our task now is to sharpen exhilaration with analysis, and ask: what will it really take to stop the cuts?"

 

      Glasgow, like most cities with an industrial history, has experience of workers taking control of industrial disputes by means of workers on the shop floor as opposed to allowing the union officials dictate the line of action. This principle was what gave The Clyde Workers' Committee, CWC, such strength and success. What started as The Labour Withholding Committee, LWC on Clydeside at the beginning of the first world war soon developed in to CWC as the workers realised that the only way that they could guarantee any sort of success was for the workers to dictate the direction and timing and all other aspects of any industrial action. Relying on the established unions with their top officials who are no more than another aspect of  industrial management was doomed to fail as compromise is the only game the know.

   

      In saying that, any battle to stop the cuts can only meet with temporary success as the system will inevitable claw any gains back again, at a later date. To end the cuts we have to end the system under which the cuts are deemed necessary. In other words, as long as we have capitalism, the workers will have to struggle to even maintain their standard of living. Under the present system, stopping the cuts this year, just means that there will be another "crisis" and the issue will have to be resolved again.

     

       The workers aims for a decent life free from the fear of deprivation, and the aims of the corporate world for ever increasing profits, are totally and utterly incompatible.

 

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NO MONEY FOR HEALTH - MONEY FOR DEATH.

       Since NATO took full command of the Libyan bloodshed, and that is approximately one week, it has carried out over 500 “sorties” (nice word that for “killing exercises”). Each missile fired costs between £700,000 and £850,000, while the running costs of the “sorties” varies from £30,000 to £70,000 depending on the planes involved. During all this devastating bombardment all we hear of is the casualties on the “rebels” side. If the Gaddafi forces can inflict this sort of carnage with small arms fire, tanks and field artillery, what sort of slaughter is the NATO deluge of weapons of mass destruction, doing to the Libyan people on the other side?

        At a time when the ordinary people of every country in the NATO alliance are suffering cuts to every fibre of the fabric of their society, because of the proclaimed lack of money, how can we still afford this massive outpouring of money for the purpose of killing Libyan people. Make no bones about it, all the talk of no-fly zones and protecting the rebel forces, is just double speak for war, slaughter and the destruction of a country's infrastructure. No matter the euphemisms trotted out in the media, this is death and mutilated bodies in large numbers and the largest number will be the result of the UN/NATO operation. Looking around the world at all the brutal dictators and their vicious oppression of their people, and our approach to them, prove to me that in this case, there was no other way!!!

 

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BETWEEN PEOPLE, BRING THE WALLS DOWN.

No need to write anything, David says it all with much more feeling than I could.



Although the wall is now a reality, a huge scar across the land, it doesn't mean we should ignore it. Walls keep people out, but they also keep people in, walls crumble, they can also be brought down.

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THE ANDREW LANSLEY RAP.

The NHS will last as long as there are enough people prepared to fight for it.



Our question is when do we really start to fight for the survival of the NHS? Tomorrow could be too late.

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DIRECT ACTION GETS THE GOODS!!!

     I always mention that we should know our history. We can learn a lot from the struggles of the past and what it teaches us, as far as the working class is concerned, is that it is the same struggle today as it was then. We struggle to get a decent standard of living against a class that wants it all for itself, without doing any of the work. We struggle against increasing prices, profiteering, and unemployment. Where we have won victories it is usually be direct action.

     One such victory was 200 years ago today, when a riot broke out because the price of butter had reach 2s.6p a pound. A group of workers including coal miners seized all the butter in their area and sold it at a price they considered fair and then returned all the money to the owners of the butter. Six of those involved were arrested and taken to Bridewell Prison.

SOLIDARITY.

     Perhaps there is a lesson there somewhere, direct action usually gets results. However the struggle for that decent standard of living will continue until we get rid of the system that allows profiteers and those with the wealth to continually exploit us for their selfish personal gain.

 

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