REMEBER REMEMBER - DAY OF ACTION.

       

         Glasgow Trades Councill will be having a March & Rally on the Day of Action, REMEMBER, REMEMBER, the 30th November. Let's make it a Wednesday to remember,  let's put down a marker, we don't like the way this country is run and we intend to change that. The March will start in Shuttle Street (near High St Station) gathering at 12noon and moving off at 12.30pm.
The students’ meeting point will be the Royal Concert Hall steps at the top of Buchanan Street, at 11:30am, to meet the main demo thereafter.

        The main march route will then be, George Street, Cochrane Street, George Square (South), Hanover Street, Ingram Street, Glassford Street, Trongate and then finishing at Glasgow Barrowland.

Speakers will start at 1.15

ann arky's home.

CHOMSKY ON AMAERICAN FOREIGN POLICY.

       The voice of reason from America, another interview with Noam Chomsky. Just settled down, listen, think, then act.

ann arky's home.

TIME TO WITHDRAW THAT CONSENT!!!

        Isn’t about time we woke up to the fact that national governments are no more than the corporate world’s minders. Across the globe in country after country, the policies are the same, cuts in social spending and privatise everything. These policies are implemented no matter the shape or shade of the government, centre-left, centre-right, it makes no difference. As we look at these policies it is obvious that they don't function for the benefit of all in society, they do feed the corporate world with more avenues for profit, all part of the master plan of the IMF (International Mankind Fuckers). We now live in a corporate society where the corporations control everything, corporate fascism, and nothing will be done that might in any way hinder their progress to amass ever greater profits. Excellent conditions for the corporate world are a pool of cheap labour and low wages, they might not do you and I any good, but the corporate bosses are rubbing their hands at the thought, it is a bonus to the corporate world. You can lobby the millionaire cabal in the Westminster House of Hypocrisy and Corruption all you want about more jobs, and all that crap, but basically they don’t need you. The corporate world is not in the least patriotic, the Asian manufacturing is booming and the companies that are falling over themselves to join that bandwagon over there, are all familiar names to the Western workers over here. In the past the booming West sent its affluent workers as tourists to the East, now it is in reverse, the affluent Asians are visiting the poorer West. The corporate world doesn’t much care which way it goes, as I said before, they are not in the least patriotic.

        It is strange that the corporate world and anarchists should have anything in common, however, we both want an end to national borders. We anarchist want to see the end of the state and its borders so that we as people can co-operate and function freely in federation with all other people to our mutual benefit. The corporate world wants an end to national borders but only for capital, so that it can move freely around the globe exploiting any pool of cheap labour it can find, and all for the benefit of that little band of parasites, the shareholders.

        The reality is, we don’t need them, we make and distribute everything in this world, we can do so in a much more efficient, equitable, just and sustainable manner if we eliminated the parasites and got rid of their mantra, profit above all else. They on the other hand do need us, to continue to be exploited, so as they can hold onto their power and maintain their pampered parasitical existence. We are the 99% they are the 1%, we are governed by consent, we can and have the right, to withdraw that consent, isn't about time we exercised that right?

ann arky's home.

HOW DO YOU COME TO OWN A COUNTRY???

          Why do we put up with a society that is so torn with unbelievable inequality? We have elderly dyeing from the cold because they can't afford to heat their home. While just along the road a bit, there are those dripping with jewels and finery clinking champagne glasses in jolly merry making. Take our Royal Family, while they bank millions from off-shore wind farms, our elderly are forced to choose between eating or heating. Why does the Royal family make all that money from off-shore wind farms? Well because the own the seabed and most of the coastline around our country. It is all part of the Crown Estates. How did they come to own all that land and sea? Well a guy who went by the name of William the Conqueror, decided that all of England belong to him, future monarchs thought it such a good idea they claimed the rest of the UK. The Crown Estates is now a multi-billion pound, money making empire and and 15% of all its profits go to the Royal family. There is no fear of them ever loosing out if profits fall, if by some weird and impossible event the Crown Estates didn't make any money the Royals would not need to apply for job seekers allowance, their income would be made up from a reserved fund.

         So, first you steal the land and then one of your off shoots, George 3, runs up huge debts, then offers the land back on condition that he and all his off spring, are kept in unbelievable splendour and extravagance for all eternity. Not a bad trick if you can get away with it, but don't try, they'd put you in the nick. Surely the land in any country belongs to the people of that country, not to a bunch of land grabbing parasites.

ann arky's home.

THE STATE V MUTUAL AID??

         We have to accept that there is an attack on the living standards of the ordinary people, with social spending slashed communities will have their facilities plundered, it will be almost impossible to keep communities together. We have to look to new strategies that by-pass and short circuit the state apparatus and allow communities to offer social amenities to young and old alike. Empty buildings can be utilised and brought into use for the community. People can come together and by means of mutual aid and networking strengthen their community and allow their creativity to blossom. We don't need the state to provide, we have the imagination, resources and the strength to function outside the state apparatus. A brilliant idea, though not new in anarchist history, is the Bank of Ideas, in London. 

The Bank of Ideas is situated on Sun Street, Hackney in an abandoned office block purchased several years ago by the bank UBS. It is an enormous space complete with a 500-seater lecture hall.

It has been opened to the public for the non-monetary trade of ideas to help solve the pressing economic, social and environmental problems of our time.

There is also room for community groups, youth clubs, nurseries and other public services that have lost their space due to Government spending cuts.

Artists, performers and creatives are welcome to come entertain and to help transform the space. We also encourage games, workshops and skillshares on anything from yoga to yahtzee.

READ ON.

 ann arky's home.

POWERFUL LIARS.

This might be a bit out of date, but what the hell, it is still the truth.

ann arky's home.

STATE BRUTALITY.

       Every country sees homeless people as a problem, in most countries they are marginalised and discriminated against However, the Columbian state's method of dealing with the homeless "problem" must rate as the most brutal and inhumane on the planet. This being capitalism, homeless people cost money, so the state can save money and tidy up the cities for tourism by getting rid of the "homeless problem".

       Being without a home is bad enough. But in Colombia, the government has conscripted police and armed forces to murder the homeless in the name of "social cleansing." 

Tell Colombia to stop this horrific violence immediately.

      According to a documentary done by VBS.TV, the homeless are forced to hide in sewers to escape the death squads. These sewers, however, do not provide much protection: militia groups have been known to ignite the sewers with gasoline, trapping and killing those below.

      Many of these homeless people are children and adolescents who have been living on the streets for years. With no support and no other options, these people’s lives are at risk every single day.

Tell Colombia to Stop Murdering the Homeless!

   

Tell the President of Colombia, the Minister of Defense and the National Police Director that the social cleansing occurring in Colombia is unacceptable! »

Thanks for taking action! Kathleen ThePetitionSite

ann arky's home.

CHOMSKY ON ANARCHISM,

Always worth a listen, the words of Noam Chomsky.

ann arky's home.

WHOSE SIDE ARE YOU ON --!!

            The 30th. November will see thousands of public sector workers on the streets because of the attack on their pensions. Now the Scottish police have issued a strong worded condemnation on the fact that they are to suffer the same fate on pensions as the other public sector workers. How long will it take those in the police force to realise that they belong in the 99% and not in the 1% that the take risks protecting. Their kids will face the same decimated education system, privatised health service, cuts in social services and high unemployment as the rest of us. Now that the police have spoken out on this issue perhaps the march and rally on the 30^th will see the police leave the side of the marchers and join them, we might even see a couple holding up a banner or two???? Well we can let our imagination run wild. The fact remains, the police are being fooled into taking risks to protect an elite 1% who will dump them like a piece of shit, when ever it suits them, and the sooner they wake up to that fact the better. They are not members of that elite, they are its stooges.

 ann arky's home.

NOVEMBER 30 TAKE TO THE STREETS.

       The 30 November is approaching, a day when thousands of people will take to the streets of the UK in anger at the attack on their pensions. The cuts are all deemed necessary to reduce the UK deficit. One line of thought that our millionaire political school thugs will not mention in deficit reduction is war.

One third of our budget deficit could be wiped out by ending spending on foreign wars and scrapping trident. Reports today say that even if NATO leaves Afghanistan the West will be picking up the bill for the keeping the Taliban at bay to the tune of $7.2 billion dollars annually. Think of the billions that the millionaire cabal spend on death and destruction in other countries, while the elderly die of the cold and children go hungry, right here in the UK. It is the economics of insanity, unless of course you are in the corporate club. These vampires make billions from war, the arms industry loves war and the big corporate construction companies love destruction, it's all good for business. We need a change of system, not government.

ann arky's home.

BUY-NOTHING-DAY NOV.25/26.

        A powerful tool in our armoury against the big corporate greed machine is one of the simplest to use. It's called "Buy-Nothing". We are approaching that religious festival of corporate gluttony when we are coerced to put ourselves in over our ears in debt, supposedly to make everybody happy. Of course those who end up happiest are the corporate vampires. This year we can really make a success of the annual "Buy-Nothing-Day" November 25/26. Take a leaf from the occupy movement and occupy the pavement outside all the big stores, tents, sleeping bags, fake Santa parties, handing out leaflets on alternative uses for credit cards. Such as spreading marmalade on your toast, scraping bird shit of your windows etc. I'm sure you can come up with some ingenious use for those micro-chipped devil cards. November 25/26 should be a fun, family and money-free-day, give the shops, supermarkets, retail parks and restuarants a day of tranquillity, they'll love you for that.

      

       If we want to have an impact on the corporate world we have to hit them where it hurts them most, in the bank balance. This is the 20th anniversary of "Buy-Nothing-Day" let's try to make it global, shut down the suction pump of consumerism across the world for at least one magic day. Let's give the shop assistants, sales staff etc. a break, let them have a wonderful easy day with full pay. You never know, you might enjoy the feeling and start to make it a habit, now that would be a success. You know consumerism kills.

       For more ideas on how to enjoy your "Buy-Nothing-Day" HERE.

ann arky's home.

DIRECT ACTION - THE ONLY WAY.

         As the savage attack on the living standards of the ordinary people by the financial Mafia, bites deeper and ever deeper, in country after country, perhaps we should look carefully at Greece. The Greek people have seen their living standards decimated, the cuts there have been deeper and far more wide spread than in other European countries. The Greek people have been sacrificed on the alter of financial greed, but that will not be enough to satisfy the financial beast. What is happening in Greece is on the cards for the rest of Europe, so we should be prepared and take some lessons from the Greeks. Recently the Greek government introduced a new property tax, to make it almost impossible to avoid they lumped it in with the people's electricity bill. This has pushed these bills so high that people are now defaulting on their electricity bills and disconnection notices are being issued. However, the unions have acted in true direct action method and occupied the offices that send out the disconnection notices.

On Sunday, trade unionists of GENOP-DEI, the union of the Public Power Corporation, occupied the building issuing the electricity disconnection orders for households that have failed to pay their bills. As of a few weeks ago, the latest bills now include the latest property tax imposed by the government, typically including hundreds of euros per property, making payment for thousands a non-option.

The full statement by GENOP-DEI can be read HERE.

 ann arky's home.

.

A POST FROM PRISON.

          Recently I posted a statement from Omar Ibrahim, who was sent to Wandsworth prison for his part in the March 26th anti-cuts protest in London. Well, Omar hasn't been idle while in prison and has set up a blog which he hopes to update on a weekly basis, or better, if possible.

This week's post includes the prison gossip on the Pakistani Cricketer Celebrity Prisoners!

        You can support Omar and his blog HERE.

ann arky's home.

WORKERS KNOW YOUR HISTORY - FREEDOM OF SPEECH ON GLASGOW GREEN.

       Workers know your history, for without it you are a people with no history and a people with no culture. You history tells you of the struggle that has been waged by the ordinary people against repression and exploitation. It is your link in the chain that is the continuous struggle of the people for a decent standard of living. The battles being fought today against the financial Mafia that controls the world, is not a new fight, it is the same struggle that has been waged for centuries. A struggle that will only end when the system we live under is finally destroyed and replaced by a needs based system of mutual aid, co-operation and sustainability. Read your history, it arms you for the battles yet to come.

FIGHT FOR FREEDOM OF SPEECH ON THE GREEN.

HEART OF THE CITY.

Glasgow Green lies in the centre of the city, it is the oldest of Glasgow's parks. Its origin lies in the common lands of the Burgh. Since the 1100s the area of the Green has been used for all manner of purposes from peat cutting, pasturing, slaughtering cattle, executions, walking, talking and playing.

On April 13th 1916 Glasgow Corporation repealed a bye-law passed in 1896 covering the regulation of city parks and replaced it with bye-law 20, restricting the right of free assembly. The bye-law was not invoked until 1922 when it became responsible for a considerable number of riotous disturbances during the 1920s and 30s.

JOYCELYN SQUARE.

On July 30th 1923, after many protests and demonstrations, bye-law 20 was amended to make an exception to the area outside the gates of the Green at Joycelyn Square. Meetings were still being cleared from outside all other city parks, this was not always concluded quietly. Guy Alfred Aldred challenged the bye-law by holding meetings outside the gates of the Botanic Gardens, because of its historical traditions he considered the Green a special case. On July 6th 1924 Guy Aldred addressed an open letter in "The Commune" to the Lord Provost, Magistrates and the City Council. He referred to the right of unlicensed liberty of free speech on Glasgow Green secured by long tradition and respected by the Common Law of Scotland. In the letter he made it known that he would be one of seventy speakers participating in an orderly quiet meeting at the monument on Glasgow Green. He also mentioned the seventy cases pending and those already in prison being treated like common criminals because of speaking on the Green without a permit. The meeting went ahead as advertised and further meetings for several weeks after this. At each meeting the police took names and charged the speakers. The speakers were drawn from two groups, Guy Aldred’s Anti-parliamentary Communist Federation, and John MacLean’s Scottish Workers’ Republican Party.

EXEMPTION REPEALED.

On November 29th 1926 at a meeting of the Glasgow Parks Sub-Committee a report was read detailing complaints from the Magistrates Committee, referring to the abuse of Joycelyn Square by undesirables such as racing tipsters attracting a rowdy and troublesome element. A motion was put to the Parks Sub-Committee that the exemption of the square from the restrictions covering the Green should be repealed; the motion was carried.

At this point in time Guy Aldred was in London on another campaign when on February 15th 1925 he was arrested from his platform in Hyde Park and charged with blasphemy and sedition. When he got notice that the Sheriff Principal A.O.M MacKenzie, had received an application from Glasgow Corporation for deletion of the clause in the bye-law exempting Joycelyn Square from the restriction that applied to the Green he lodged Notice of Appeal. The hearing was on March 29th 1927, Guy Aldred appeared in person to state his objections.

Aldred quoted Acts and authorities supporting his view that the bye-law was beyond the legal authority of the Corporation and inconsistent with the laws of Scotland and that this bye-law was in fact an act of prohibition. He also stated that the London authorities had laws to prevent tipsters from acting in Hyde Park but allowed public meetings. Sheriff MacKenzie on April 1st 1927 confirmed the bye-law. The Glasgow Herald went further in an article on April 2nd suggesting that the Corporation take steps to regulate all street corner oratory within the city. The Daily Herald carried the headline "Glasgow Green Silent".

TRAMP PREACHERS.

June 1931 saw the issue come very much alive again when the Brotherhood of the Way - known as Tramp Preachers - arrived in Glasgow and started with fervour and passion to preach on the Green. They seldom had anywhere to sleep and had no worldly possessions bar their wooden crosses. They relied on collections to survive, prison to them would mean food and a bed. They were continually arrested and sentenced to thirty days in prison, their only defence in court was to loudly sing "Onward Christian Soldiers".

John McGovern, ILP Member of Parliament for Shettleston, asked the Secretary of State William Adamson if he would release the Tramp Preachers. Not happy with the answer McGovern persisted until the speaker ordered him to leave the Chamber. He refused and as four doorkeepers tried to remove him supporters took hold of him in an attempt to prevent his removal. As this struggling mass of bodies rumbled towards the door the House was treated to a scene more in keeping with a street meeting being broken up by the police. McGovern was eventually ejected from the Chamber and was suspended for the remainder of the session. The event got him widespread publicity and he announced to the press that he would speak on Glasgow Green without a permit.

A Free Speech Council was formed. On Sunday July 5th 1931 McGovern arrived at the Green to speak, a crowd of some six thousand had assembled. The meeting was allowed to proceed with the police taking the names of all the speakers, of which there was no shortage. The speakers were McGovern,Aldred, Pickering, McShane, Rennie, Heenan, McDougal, Reilly, McGlinchy and Lanaghan. All made two Court appearances and were fined £3 each. Guy Aldred gave Notice of Appeal on behalf of all the accused.

COUNCIL OF ACTION.

At a meeting in Central Halls Glasgow on September 19th 1931 the Free Speech Committee became a permanent Council of Action. The Council of Action was held together because of the issue of the Green. In actual fact the members were from many different shades of the left with different motives. They ranged from the right to work, anti-means tests, anti-parliamentarians and others; in many instances there was little love lost between them.

RIOTS.

The differing motives and the fragmented leadership led to the days of rioting that occurred on and after October 1st 1931. On Thursday October 1st a large crowd had assembled on the Green, estimates were put at 100,000 although the police estimate was 40,000. The police had instructed certain members of the Council of Action to lead demonstrators away in organised groups in different directions. Some of the crowd were armed with sticks, hammers and bottles as instructed the previous day by certain members of the Council of Action. There appears to have been a disturbance at the head of a large group preparing to march off the Green. McGovern was assaulted and arrested. The police charged the crowd, McShane ended up behind the police and led a group who were going to "have a go at the police", away from the Green over the Suspension Bridge and into the Gorbals. Rioting broke out all over the city and it went on over the weekend. Shop windows were smashed and shops looted in every street in the city. It was reported that the city "is in a grip of terror". On Monday October 5th Guy Aldred held a meeting on the Green and sternly rebuked McGovern and McShane for stirring up the people with no other purpose than to appear to be their leader and further their own personal agenda.

January 18th 1932 saw McGovern, McShane and ten others appear in court charged with assault, mobbing and rioting. McShane was acquitted, the police stating that he had complied with their instructions. McGovern was also acquitted as he was in custody before the violence erupted. The ten others, all ordinary members of the public, each received three months in prison.

BYE-LAW 20 REPEALED.

The appeal against the conviction of Guy Aldred, John McGovern and others for speaking on Glasgow Green on July 5th 1931 came before the High Court of Justiciary on October 17th 1931. Though the appeal was unsuccessful, observations made by the Lord Justice General were brought to the notice of the Parks Committee. These observations and the events of October 1st to 6th 1931 brought the Parks Committee, on March 3rd 1932 to repeal bye-law 20 and an amended bye-law that gave the right to public meetings, literature sales, and collections on places set aside by Notice for that purpose. The amendment was confirmed on June 8th 1932 by Sheriff Principal MacKenzie. The old bandstand part of the Green was set aside for public speaking. Guy Aldred maintained that the amended bye-law applied to every park in the city and that the corporation was failing in its duty if it did not set aside by notice parts of all the city parks where citizens could meet and freely debate. The right of Freedom of Assembly only returned to Glasgow Green because of the determined and always courageous struggle of those involved. The events of Glasgow Green prove that all rights we sometimes take for granted have to be vigilantly guarded or they disappear and to have them returned can be a hard and bitter struggle.

More on Glasgow's working classs history HERE.

ann arky's home.

ASSISTED DEATHS BY CEO. BONUSES!!

        As a young man I always looked forward to the winter. I loved hill walking in Scottish Highlands in winter, the grandeur, beauty, all breathtaking. Too young to worry about fuel poverty then, but now as a pensioner I look at the winters with a bit of foreboding. I know that I will struggle to keep the house warm as the temperature falls. I will devise strategies such as heading out on the free bus pass and having a read in a library for a few hours and then perhaps stretch to a coffee in some coffee shop that has the daily papers, another hour or more there, and then head home. Sometimes I'll dress up in the house rather than down, that extra pullover, and then as a last resort, turn the heating on. This is not unusual in our society, recent figures from a Yougov poll states that by April 2011 in the UK, there were 6.3 million households in fuel poverty, that's an unbelievable 24% of all UK households. While Confused.com found that 82% of the UK population expressed concern over fuel bills.

       Recent figures suggest that in England and Wales alone, 180 pensioners a day die from the result of fuel poverty, 84% of winter “excess” deaths are of people over the age of 64. This is modern 21^st century Britain, oil and gas off the shore of Scotland, one of the biggest economies in the world and one of the richest countries in the world. These figures of premature death among our elderly is just the tip of the iceberg. It in no way takes into account the illness and misery inflicted on ordinary people, simply because the system insists that the energy companies must make a huge profit to pour into the bank accounts of its shareholders and its CEO. It is death money and that's OK in capitalism. A system of profit first, human welfare away down the list.

ann arky's home.

BREAK THE SILENCE ON AFGHANISTAN.

From STOP THE WAR.       

        There is a conspiracy of silence about the war in Afghanistan, despite the fact that the occupation is in growing trouble. Five British soldiers have died in the last ten days but their deaths have barely been reported. Britain and the US are trying to push an agreement that they can keep thousands of soldiers in the country after the so-called withdrawal date of 2014. Polls show this is deeply unpopular with the Afghans. On Saturday 1,000 students marched against the deal in Jalalabad. But the plans are barely mentioned in the British media.

        Stop the War is supporting an Afghanistan Withdrawal Group meeting tonight in parliament featuring Rodric Braithwaite, author of an important book about the Russian occupation of Afghanistan, 'Afgantsy: The Russians in Afghanistan 1979-89'. Tariq Ali wrote in the London Review of Books that: 'Each page reads like a warning to Afghanistan's current occupiers.'

PUBLIC MEETING:
Afghanistan Withdrawal Group of MPs
The Russians in Afghanistan 1979-89: Lessons for Today
Tuesday 22 November, 6.30-8.30pm
Committee Room 9, House of Commons, SW1A 0AA
(St Stephens entrance, nearest tube Westminster)
See: http://bit.ly/s0KZ48

ann arky's home.

LOVE MUSIC HATE RACISM.

     

       Love Music Hate Racism in conjunction with Unite Against Fascism is proud to announce a weekend of cracking music.
       Saturday 26 November is Ska night with, Red 2 Red, This R 2-Tone and Big Fat Panda. It is sure to sell out so get your tickets now from Coloursound Rehearsal, 42 Haymarket Terrace, Tel 467 7644 or Ticket Scotland at 127 Rose St.
      On Sunday 27 take a chance to discover Edinburgh’s finest Indie bands with Toy Machine, Sea Bass Kid and Morris Major; Tickets on the door.
Both nights are at the Wee Red Bar, at the Edinburgh College of Art, 74 Lauriston Place and the first bands will start on stage at 7pm. Tickets for each night are a steal at £5 waged and £3 concessions.

A copy of the poster can be found at:
https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&pid=explorer&chrome=true&srcid=0B2moep8WjsdkNjIwNmRhYjgtNGZiZS00OTMy

LTliYTQtOWRmYzFlNWJmMjNh&hl=en_US

ann arky's home.