A RAIL NETWORK FOR THE WEALTHY.

       The new year for most here in the UK will mean more of the same as last year, “austerity cuts” price increases and rising unemployment. Those who still have a job and have to travel will be hit again on the 2^nd January as rail fares are set to rise by an “average” of 6%, no doubt making some think, “is the job really worth it”. If they take a look at what we in the UK have to pay to travel on the rail network and compare it with what those in the rest of Europe pay, then it might be easier to answer that question.

    The following eye-popping information is taken from an article in the Evening Times 30 December 2011.

TEN times bigger!!!

    SOME UK rail commuters facing 6% average fare rises next week are already paying almost 10 times more for season tickets than their European counterparts.

     Figures released today show the price of a 2011 season ticket from Glasgow to Falkirk, which is around 22 miles, would be £1956. A ticket from Woking in Surrey to London, which is the same distance, including Tube travel in the capital, is £3268.

     Yet a similar 22-mile journey from Velletri to Rome costs Italian season ticket holders just £336.17, say the Campaign for Better Transport (CBT). Similar journeys of around 21-24 miles in other European countries reveal that rail travellers on the continent are paying far less for their trains.

     According to the CBT figures, which include the equivalent of multi-modal travel tickets on each city’s underground systems, an annual season ticket for the 24-mile journey from Ballancourt-sur-Essonne to Paris costs £924.66. The cost of a season ticket on the 21-mile Strausberg to Berlin route is £705.85, while the 22-mile Collado-Villalba to Madrid trip costs Spanish season ticket holders £653.74. 

     From January 2, UK regulated fares, which include season tickets, are rising by an average of 6%. The average for all tickets is 5.9%. And the Government still plans annual rises of RPI inflation plus 3% for January 2013 and January 2014.

      CBT’s public transport campaigner Sophie Allain said: “Even we were shocked by how much more the UK ticket was in comparison to our European counterparts. “If the Government is serious about promoting economic growth it must look at reducing planned fare rises.”

READ THE FULL ARTICLE.

     With these figures it is obvious that rail travel in this country is fast becoming the prerogative of the wealthy, you know the type, friends of the Camerons etc.

 ann arky's home.

MY NEW YEAR'S REVOLUTION.

       A HAPPY NEW YEAR TO ALL THOSE OUT THERE WHO READ THIS BLOG, WITH A SPECIAL BIG THANK YOU TO ALL THOSE WHO CHOOSE TO FOLLOW MY RANTINGS.

     Let's break with tradition and forget the new year's resolutions and make it a time of New Year Revolutions.

Aw'ri best, fae ann anrky.

  ann arky's home.

THE WORLD SPRING???

           Is this the "world spring", could it be the start of something big? Whatever, it is certainly more likey to bring about real change than running to a ballot box  and voting for the personality of the year from the crooks and liars available. With the oxygen of publicity this might just catch on.

This from Infantile Disorder.

Anarchy in China as Officials and Cops Beat Retreat from Village

      "Wukan, a village in the south-eastern corner of China, is currently being controlled and administered by its citizens, after Communist Party government officials and police were forced out of the area this week. This amazing situation followed clashes over privatisation of communal land - which threatened many with destitution - and the apparent state murder of one of the resistance movement's delegates.---"

READ ON.

 ann arky's home.

YOUR NEW YEAR'S REVOLUTION!!!

         So 2011 runs out and 2012 pops its head above the parapet. We can discuss the “what ifs” of the issues of 2011 but the over riding problem will be addressing the real problem that faces us in 2012. We have reached a position in the development of the world where our affairs are no longer controlled at a local level. We can organise at that local level but what influences our lives most will be decide by a small group of extremely wealthy and powerful billionaires/multimillionaires. With their trillions and billions of Dollars/Euros/Pounds they blackmail countries and threaten economies in the process of protecting and increasing their wealth. Never in our history has so much power rested in the hands of so few. Never have so few held sway over the lives of so many millions of the earth's population. Their financial calculations will determine the poverty or otherwise of those millions. Their drive to hold on to, increase and protect that wealth and power will shape the world we live in, will determine what industries will be developed, what parts of the planet will be decimated, what population will be sacrificed on their alter of greed.

       We can survey the array of political parties offering their various magic potions, all promising to bring prosperity and happiness to all. However none of them will be able to run against the power of the multi-millionaire/billionaire cabal, all of them will play the game according to the rules set down by their financial masters the rich cabal. On a world wide scale, social services will be cut, public assets will be sold off to the wealthy and powerful, money will be poured into the coffers of that faceless Mafia. All the political parties will comply but put their own colour of paint on the box but it will be the same kit of tools in the box.

        Our only hope of salvaging our world from the hands of the vampire squid organisation is to ignore their rule book and write our own. Stop trying to implement change through the political system as it is set up, by-pass the party political system, it stinks, is corrupt and in the pockets of the financial Mafia. We must organise at grass roots level and across borders. Capital has no nationality, it is international, to fight it we have to be the same, an international grass roots movement. As long as we enter into debate with the corrupt financial system we hand it legitimacy. It has no legitimacy, no group has the legitimacy to push millions into a world of deprivation in the midst of plenty, merely to further their own wealth and power. We are governed by consent, we can and have the right, to withdraw that consent, and the need to withdraw that consent has never been more pressing. The future of all generations to come and the planet itself depends on how we address the problem of a world controlled by a small corrupt and greed gang who are blind to the disasters of their self-seeking policies.

        Here's wishing you a revolutionary new year.

ann arky's home.

SPREADING THE MESSAGE!!!

  

          From the supposed birth place of Jesus, the holy-holy people send out their message of peace and good will to all men. The holier than thou mob show how to celebrate the birth of their beloved Jesus in true Christian style. http://uk.news.yahoo.com/rival-clerics-brawl-jesus-birthplace-130200368.html   
         Palestinian police stormed the basilica of the Nativity in Bethlehem after rival groups of Orthodox and Armenian clerics clashed in a row over the boundaries of their respective ancient jurisdictions inside the church. Lead by example, that's what I always say.

ann arky's home.

DO A DEAL WITH THE DEVIL, AND WHAT DO YOU GET???

            It becomes sickening, to see the ordinary workers being attacked by right-wing ideology, come out fighting with tremendous solidarity and then be “sold-out” by the well paid union bosses. Time and time again we have seen the workers come out prepared to fight for their conditions and time and time again the union bosses have done a “deal” where the workers get nothing or at most a pittance. This latest “deal” over pensions means that the workers, who came out in their hundreds of thousands on Nov 30 to show their resistance to the government's pension plans, will now be forced to accept what the government wanted in the first place. Pay more into your pension, work longer to get it and end up with less. Unless of course the workers ignore their unions, organise and continue the fight. The grass roots are against this pension “deal” and it will be up to them to continue the fight. They could take a few lessons from The Clyde Workers Committee and keep control of the situation by means of grass roots organisation.

         History tells us that the workers cannot rely on the well paid union bosses when it looks like a real fight, the union bosses have too much to lose, fat salaries and perks, which no doubt will include a decent pension. When ever there is a ground swell from the ordinary people the unions do the governments bidding, they don't want to upset the apple cart. We can go back over the history of the working class struggles and see the pattern. One of the most galling examples of workers eager to continue the fight but being “sold-out” by the union bosses was of course the 1926 General Strike. As far as the union bosses are concerned, it seems that nothing has changed since then.

A PLAGUE ON OUR PLANET.

       The Cameron public school thug will go to any lengths to protect the “City”. He'll avoid any form of legislation that might hurt the financial leeches and prevent them from milking the system for all it is worth. He'll screw Europe and tell them to bugger off. His reasoning, well the “City” accounts for 10% of the total UK income. I wonder what proportion of our national income was produced by our shipyards, heavy and light engineering, steel works, and our coal mines, etc. and what was done to protect them? Well since they have all gone, what ever it was was not enough. Even with that lot gone, the “City” is only 10% of our total national income, what about the other 90%, where is that and what special protection will the Cameron parasite come up with for that. We have to accept that this system is under the total control of the financial parasites that shift their billions and trillions around, black-mailing country after country, making sure that no government has the power to interfere with their money making scams.

      

We're bankster, we don't obey no stinkin' laws.

        I have previously written about the coup taking place in Europe, first in Greece, where the thin veil of illusion of democracy was removed and a “technocrat” put in to replace the elected Prime Minister. This idea seemed to delight the financial parasites as it was quickly followed by the removal of the elected Prime Minister of Italy, who was replaced by a Goldman Sachs suit. Now a Leham Bros financial whiz kid who helped bankrupt that financial giant, has taken the reins in Spain, replacing the Prime Minister. Across the world country after country is told it has a deficit problem, even although it is one caused by the banks and their parasite billionaire/multimillionaire clients, they are told that the only answer is to get rid of the elected government and replace it with one of the banksters responsible for the problem in the first place. This is to ensure that no matter what happens, the parasite financial Mafia will not lose any of the money the greedily gambled. Leeches, parasites, vampire squids, call them what you will, there will never be a society of fairness and justice until we rid the planet of this plague.

ann arky's home.

IRAQ'S LIBERATION LEGACY.

         There is a legacy for the Iraqi people, a legacy left to them by the “Coalition of the Willing”, a legacy that will be handed down from generation to generation. It is a legacy that has stolen their future and shattered the dreams of generations yet to come. Depleted Uranium (DU) type weaponry, was widely used in Iraq with devastating effects. There are over 350 sites in Iraq contaminated with DU, though the explosions have long since gone silent, the after effects of the contamination will linger for generations. Birth deformities have increased more than ten fold in some areas, cancers are in epidemic proportions. The figure for 2007 was 140,000 cases of cancer and 7,000 to 8,000 new cases reported each year. On viewing photographs of some of the deformities in these children it is hard to believe that the perpetrators are still walking free. What was the cause that was worth this sort of hell on earth for so many. Mid-wives in Iraq are purported to have said they no longer look forward to births as.... "We don't know what's going to come out." Is this “liberation” Western style?

         It is not as if the US and its “Coalition of the Willing” didn't know what were the effects of DU, its effects were well documented and discussed. A quote from "- Lt. Col. M.V. Ziehmn, Los Alamos National Laboratory memorandum,March 1st 1991 states, ”There has been and continues to be a concern regarding the impact of DU on the environment. Therefore, if no-one makes a case for the effectiveness of DU on the battlefield, DU rounds may become politically unacceptable and thus be deleted from the arsenal. I believe we should keep this sensitive issue in mind when action reports are written."

        Then there is Fallujha, but then, that's another horror story the Iraqis have to pay for their "Liberation".

         If you are interested in the truth and you wish to highlight the crime against humanity that these events are evidence of, then please visit these sites and spread the links as widely as possible.

http://stgvisie.home.xs4all.nl/extremedeformities.html
http://www.thewe.cc/weplanet/news/depleted_uranium_iraq_afghanistan_balkans.html

The Crucified Boy

Layla Anwar

...I suddenly had a flashback. A dream I had about 6 months prior to the second Gulf War.

I dreamt of a young Iraqi boy, being held by two american GI's and uplifted to be crucified on a cross.

They nailed him to the cross and walked away.

I woke up choking. I said to myself, they tortured the children of Iraq now they will crucify them.

The boy is now resurrected and is guiding my pen.

He is asking me to draw him crucified on a old rotting wooden cross.

He tells me that he wants the background to be filled with a half million skeletons of dead babies with Ms.Albright smiling on top of them.

He is asking me to draw newborns with grosteque deformities due to depleted uranium.

He is urging me not to forget the starving looking babies due to malnutrition.

He is making sure I paint the children who have cancer because of american chemical weapons, queuing up in desolate hospitals.

And he has not forgotten the children who survived in tattered clothes with their tattered textbooks walking barefoot to school.

Oh wait, he is also telling me to draw in the corner, a picture of the orphanage bombed during the war of liberation and he is making sure that I show the kids running in the streets desperate with nowhere to go — some kidnapped, some sold whilst others raped.

I asked him if he wanted me to add anything.

He said the picture is almost complete.

"What shall I call it?" I asked.

He replied:

"The World as I see it". 

ann arky's home.

MISSION ACCOMPLISHED -- AGAIN!!!

       In 2003 George W. Bush stood in all his military regalia and with that daft Hollywood salute proudly stated, “Mission accomplished”, which was his announcement telling the world that the war in Iraq was over and they had won. Here we are in 2011 and Obama has announced that the US troops are leaving Iraq, the war is over and they have won, "Mission accomplished", again. Well it is now true, they have won, they have won the oil and that was what it was all about, the rest is of no consequence to our corporate world. What price have the people of Iraq had to pay for this Western oil adventure? What sort of country is Iraq now, after the West has “liberated” them? Saddam was no angel, but who is that rules over a country? Under his rule there was a considerable movement to get more women to participate in the affairs of society. His government was a secular government and didn't tolerate religious fundamentalists. From 1970 to 1980 the Iraqi economy grow by 11.7%, this after they finally nationalised the oil, which was the real problem with the West, they don't allow nationalised oil. The economic growth all came to an end with the Iraq/Iran war, aided and abetted by the US. The first Gulf war and the 10 years of sanctions imposed by the West, all but destroyed the country. The death toll from the sanctions varies form 500,000 upwards. One comment made about two years ago by a young Iraqi tells us something of what they might be thinking, "When the Americans started this whole war issue, we started to see the light at the end of the tunnel, and we walked toward it. But when the war happened, that light was the American train coming the other way that ran us over."

    What has more than 8 years of occupation cost? In cash terms it has cost the USA over $1 trillion, roughly about $5,000 a second. In coalition deaths, over 5,000, and in injured approaching 40,000. One other figure that doesn't seem to get much headlines is the fact that 30% of US troops suffer some form of mental illness within 3 to 4 months of going home. No matter what it cost those troops of the coalition it fades when compared to what the Iraqi people have suffered and they didn't ask to be “liberated”. Estimates, and that is all we can get as nobody seemed to be interested in recording the true numbers, of Iraqi civilian deaths vary from 600,000 to 1 million. Those Iraqis displaced but remaining in Iraq number approximately 3 million, those displaced to Syria and Jordan approximately 3 million. Those Iraqis injured, the number is just not available and would dwarf any of the figures already given.

      We could say the war is over so everything is fine, but unemployment is running about 60%, child chronic malnutrition approximately 30%. The number of hours that the average Iraqi has electricity to their homes (Ryan Crocker, US Ambassador to Iraq 2007) 1 to 2 hours. The number of Iraqi homes connected to sewer system 37%.

      Another tragedy of this war is that just prior to the war Iraq had 34,000 physicians, today it is less than 12,000, though the need today is far greater than ever. One poll shows that 82% of Iraqis are “strongly opposed to the presence of the coalition troops. Only 1% believe that the coalition forces are responsible for any improvements in security. 67% feel less secure because of the occupation and 72% have no confidence in the coalition forces.

        In your own analysis, do these figures look like a success story, does it look like the “liberation” of a people? Or does it look like the decimation of a country and its people for the sole reason of getting our hands on that nationalised oil? 

ann arky's home.

WORKERS KNOW YOUR HISTORY, - HELEN CRAWFURD.

HELEN CRAWFURD, 1877-1954.

BACKGROUND.

Born Helen Jack on the 9th of November 1877 in the district of Gorbals Glasgow, the 4th child of the family of 4 daughters and 3 sons of William Jack, a respected master baker and Helen Jack (nee Kyle). While still a child the family moved to Ipswich where she was educated. When Helen was 17 the family moved back to Glasgow to the middle-class district of Hyndland. Helen was shocked by the poverty and the conditions of Glasgow's working class and was made aware of politics by her parents. Her father was at one time President of the Operative Bakers Association. A deeply religious family, her father was Church of Scotland Presbyterian, her mother a confirmed Methodist. Discussions on religion and politics were a regular feature of the family home. Helen married the Reverend Alex Montgomerie Crawfurd on the 18th of September 1898. However she soon rebelled against the theological teaching of the Church, believing that it was discriminatory against women. Her interest in the women's movement was furthered by reading the works of Josephine Butler.

WOMEN’S SUFFRAGE.

She joined the suffrage movement around 1900 and in 1910 joined the Women's Social and Political Union, (WSPU). Helen fully endorsed the militant actions of the Pankhursts in attempting to gain the vote for women. In 1912 she was arrested and sentenced to one month in Holloway Prison for breaking the windows of the Liberal Minister of Education's residence in London. 1913 saw her again arrested for trying to protect Mrs. Pankhurst from police brutality at a meeting in the St. Andrew's Halls Glasgow. She was later released and re-arrested the following night for breaking the windows of the Army recruiting offices and sentenced to one month in Duke Street Prison Glasgow. It was in this prison that she went on her first hunger strike and 8 days later was released. Prison life did nothing to dent her passion, she went on to become one of the best know and most popular members of the Scottish Suffragette Movement. Helen was again arrested in 1914 at a meeting in Perth and sent to Perth Prison. After a 5 day hunger strike she was released. Shortly after her return to Glasgow a bomb exploded in Botanic Gardens Glasgow, she was blamed and this resulted in her fourth prison sentence and her third hunger strike in two years.

SOCIALISM.

Shortly after the start of 1914 she left the WSPU because of its pro-war stance. Her shift from the radical suffrage politics to a socialist standpoint was in part due to her association with the Glasgow Repertory Theatre and the plays of Ibsen, Shaw, Galsworthy, Gorky and others. Helen was appalled at the infant mortality rate and sheer depravation in the Glasgow slums. Such conditions caused her to question a system that could tolerate this to continue. Around 1912 onwards Helen's speeches, though still with a Christian content, leaned towards a Socialist message. 1914 saw her proclaim her Socialist beliefs by joining the Independent Labour Party, (ILP). In spite of the loss of both her husband and her mother in 1914, Helen Crawfurd throughout the war was a constant and energetic political activist. Always keen to involve women in the fight against the war, Helen with her friend Agnes Dollan organised large and regular meetings on Glasgow Green. 1915 saw Helen and Agnes found the Glasgow branch of the Women's International League. In an attempt to attract more working-class women and form a strong militant anti-war movement, Helen with Mary Barbour and other women activists in June 1916 organised a peace conference, this gave birth to the Women's Peace Crusade (WPC) in Glasgow. June 1917 in Glasgow saw the launch of the National Women's Peace Crusade with Helen Crawfurd as its Honorary Secretary. Helen's strong anti-war stance brought her into contact with, and worked alongside, John MacLean.

RENT STRIKES & ILP.

While taking a leading role in the anti-war movement Helen was very active in the 1915 rent strikes. She was appointed secretary of the Glasgow Women's Housing Association (GWHA), and was an important figure in rallying housewives to fight the rent increases. Her efforts along with Mary Barbour, Agnes Dollan, Jessie Stephens and other women activists resulted in the "Rent Restriction Act" of 1915. This act benefited tenants all over the country.

By the end of the war Helen Crawfurd was seen as a national political figure. 1918 saw her appointed as Vice-President of the Scottish Divisional Council of the ILP. She was becoming disillusioned with the ILP, eeing it more a reformist group rather than socialist and was becoming more aware of the ideas of Tom Bell and Arthur McManus who in 1920 set up the British Communist Party. At the 1920 Easter conference of the ILP Helen presided at a meeting to form an unofficial group to be known as the "left wing" of the ILP.

COMMUNISM.

While still Vice-President of the Scottish division of the ILP she accepted an invitation to the second congress of the Third Communist International in Moscow. Her journey there proved somewhat arduous. Her passport was confiscated by the Norwegian authorities. Avoiding the police she made her way to a fishing boat which carried her out to sea where she boarded a cargo vessel, it took her to the port of Alexandrovic and from there she made her way to Moscow where she had an interview with Lenin. She joined the newly formed Communist Party of Great Britain (CPGB) in 1921. The same year saw Helen appointed to the Executive Committee a position she held for many years. Helen was always keen to involve women and in 1922 she edited a page of the official communist party newspaper the "Communist" called Page for Women.

FAMINE RELIEF.

1920 saw much of Helen's energy devoted to the Workers International Relief Organisation, (WIR). In 1922 she became its secretary. During her term she raised money for the famine-stricken region of the Volga this allowed them to carry out relief work in Germany and in all the mining districts of Britain during the miners' lock-out which followed the general strike of 1926. She also managed to extend the relief work to the famine-stricken west of Ireland and the Scottish Highlands during the depression. During the German elections of 1924 she addressed a meeting of 10,000 in Berlin on behalf of the German Communist Party (KPD). In the struggle against fascism prior to the 1939 war Helen was Secretary of the anti-fascist organisation in Glasgow. On the eve of the 2nd World War in 1939 she organised a Peace Congress of representatives from countries within the British Empire.

LATTER YEARS.

The small quiet town of Dunoon on the lower reaches of the Clyde became her home during the latter years of her life. Though Dunoon was the sort of town where elderly people go to retire Helen never retired, still working for the cause of women and for the working class community of the town. In 1945, while at the age of 68, she was elected to the Dunoon Town Council. Helen still kept up a considerable correspondence on both local and international affairs in the press. Just days before her death one of her letters appeared in the Daily Worker. At the age of 75 she was Chairperson of a session of the Scottish Congress of the Communist Party.

Helen Crawfurd Anderson died on the 18th of April 1954 at the age of 77.

MORE ON GLASGOW'S WORKING CLASS HISTORY.

ann arky's home.

WRATHFUL, VENGEFUL GOD OF CONSUMERISM!!

       Browsing about this morning looking for something, anything, that didn't pay homage to the Western God of consumerism, Christmas, I came across this little piece and thought as it is that time of year I would like to share it with you all. Enjoy.

      It's the great dark winter of austerity but Michael Gove, the testicular-faced education Caesar south of the border has found enough pennies in his sporan to send a new copy of the King James' Bible to every school in Engerland. Not only that, but this new edition will be prefaced by the Book of Gove.

Let us worship, with Gove.

       Will the hitherto undiscovered Book of Gove be Old or New Testament in its leaning? Will kids be introduced to the vengeful, jealous and totally psychotic tyrant of the OT - the one who sends firestorms to engulf His creation and who has a bee in his bonnet about foreskins? Or will kids be given a hypocritical taste of the nice god - via his son, who is also er... himself... - who wants us to turn the other cheek except when marching into oil-rich nations to free their fossil-fuels for our use? Or will it be a kind of religious 'nice cop, nasty cop'?

READ ON---

 ann arky's home.

A MERRY XMAS TO THE ARMS INDUSTRY!!!

        It is the festive season and the ordinary people of the UK are facing an “austerity” Christmas. The slashing and cutting of social services, benefits, wages, pensions, on top of rising unemployment, being implemented by our millionaire public school thugs, with their mantra, “we can't afford them” sounds rather hollow when we look at what is being squandered on death and destruction. The money poured into Iraq and Afghanistan is well passed the £20 billion mark. To put this figure in perspective we can take Ken Livingstone's statement, "The true cost of our policy of international adventures is now being shown - £20bn is 10 times the amount it would cost to scrap student fees in England, for example.". So would you rather have ten years of free education for your kids or ten years of bombing, killing and destroying some foreign country? When this figure was released, Lindsey German, convener of “Stop the War Coalition” said, "People will be astonished that the government had the cheek to call for public spending cuts when such an obscene amount has been spent in Iraq and Afghanistan." This figure of over £20 billion, believe it or not, does not include the wages of the troops, (10,000 in Afghanistan at the moment) nor the cost of treating those injured in these unacceptable brutalities. Bob Crow's statement also helps to let us grasp the reality of this situation, “The money that's been drained away on illegal war-mongering is only outstripped by the cash ripped off in the bankers bail-out," This figure still does not have Cameron's little ego trip, the Libyan disaster, added, another vast expenditure on death and destruction. We still have to count in such things as the UK's illegal weapon of mass destruction "Trident".

Don't you know,the arms industry creates jobs??

         When governments talk about can't afford, it is a matter of choices. They have in their coffers a vast pot of gold, they decide where to spend that gold. It so happens this mob choose to spend unbelievable sums on bank bailouts, followed by foreign policy adventures of death and destruction and nuclear weapons. They could choose to spend it on improving social services, education, health and welfare of the people and pensions. They choose not to. However they still claim that this is a democracy, it is a strange democracy when the wealth of a country is drained away in destructive and financial policies that not one member of the public voted for, and then we the public, are told we will have to suffer “austerity cuts” to all the fabric of our society. At the same time all those who made those decisions will in no way be implemented in the suffering from the “austerity cuts” nor the death and destruction from their foreign policy. In fact, they belong to the same club that they helped to bail-out, the only group that will benefit from their choices. If you think that is democracy, you are delusional, it's called corporate fascism.

ann arky's home.

THE SPARKS ARE FLYING!!!

        The bullying tactics of the employers goes on, with the full backing of the millionaire cabal in the Westminster Houses of Hypocrisy and Corruption. The construction industry is leading the charge to decimate the wages and conditions of workers, starting with the electricians, they have thrown them a new un-negotiated contract with the message, sign it or leave the site. This contract can mean up to 30% cut in wages and a host of attacks on conditions and entitlements won over many years. However, the electricians are not taking it lying down, the fight is on, and with the solidarity of all those in the private and public sector, plus the support of the ordinary people from all walks of life, they can force the employers back to the negotiating table and tear this blackmail document up and throw it in the bin where it belongs. This is not just an attack on electricians, this is an attack on all workers conditions in the private sector. If Balfour Beattie get away with this the others will quickly implement similar contracts across the board. The government is attacking the conditions of those in the public sector and now the private sector are following their lead, with the blessing of the Cameron/Clegg public school thugs. This is the biggest attack on the working class since the 30's and the results, if they win, could be much worse than the 30's for us. It is not a case of one nasty employer, it is a case of a policy of constructing a cheap labour force to help the corporate world swell their coffers.

ann arky's home.

THE HIGHEST FORM OF FASCISM.

       As the “financial crisis” continues to crush the ordinary people of the developed world, we should not lose sight of the fact that it is all created by smoke and mirrors, an illusion. A small super rich bunch of parasitical clients of the banking world have managed to convince the Western governments of all political persuasions that the trillions of dollars, euros and pounds of the parasitical cabal's bad debt, is somehow public debt and must at all costs, be returned to the parasites' coffers. The compliant governments can only do this by taking tax payers money, money that should be spent on social services etc., and handing it to the parasites, this is done under the guise of “deficit reduction”. This not being enough, they then have to start selling of all public assets to the corporate world and privatise all public services, to raise more money to hand to the parasites. Thus guaranteeing the cabal of parasites can retain their trillions of dollars, euros and pounds at the expense of the well being of the citizens of most of the Western world. This is the 1%, the billionaires and multimillionaires created by the exploitation that is the capitalist system. This small bunch of leeches are in the position of dictators of the world. With the low interest rates they are in a position with their trillions to borrow more trillions to generate ever greater assets bubbles, creating unimaginable profits that make bankers bonuses look like their kids pocket money. What we are witnessing is the dictatorship of capital, fascism in it highest form, world domination by the few. If there is to be any form of decent life for the ordinary people, this dictatorship must be overthrown, and that can only be achieved by the overthrow of capitalism itself.

ann arky's home.

WORKERS KNOW YOUR HISTORY - PEACE CRUSADE 1916.

WOMEN’S PEACE CRUSADE JUNE 1916.

THE LAUNCH.

Because ant-war feelings were running high in Glasgow it was only natural that Glasgow became the militant centre of the anti-war movement, with John MacLean at its core. A giant of the anti-war movement as he was, of course John MacLean did not stand alone in this battle against the war, it is said that pro-war meetings in the city were more than likely to turn into anti-war demonstrations. However, it was the women activists including Helen Crawfurd, Agnes Dollan and Mary Barbour who in June 1916 organised a peace conference in the city which gave birth to The Women’s Peace Crusade which became a dominant force in the anti-war movement. There is some variation on the actual date but June 10th 1916 is generally accepted as the birth of the Women’s Peace Crusade. A year later, June 1917 saw the Women’s Peace Crusade go national with the launch of the National Women’s Peace Crusade with Helen Crawfurd as its Honorary Secretary The Women’s Peace Crusade split the suffragette movement with the majority, in Glasgow at least, turning their activities to the anti-war movement and the rump taking a pro-war stance. Many of the women activists in the Women’s Peace Crusade were not new to this type of struggle as many of them were active in the suffragettes, the Glasgow rent strikes and also the No Conscription Fellowship. However the Women’s Peace Crusade was a concerted attempt to get working-class women organised against the war and made a major contribution to the anti-war movement.

MASS DEMONSTRATION AND SPREAD.

Sunday June 8th. 1917 saw Glasgow Green become a technicolour kaleidoscope as Women’s Peace Crusade processions from all corners of the City converged on the Green, the usual focal point for demonstrations and struggle in the city, turning the Green into a sea of colourful banners and filling the air with lively music. Estimates put the number of men and women assembled on that occasion as 12,000-14,000. All there in defiance of the avalanche of patriotic jingoism from the media and official circles, and with one desire, to stop the war.

Resolutions were put forward congratulating the Russian revolution of that year and called for immediate peace negotiations. After this event the Women’s Peace Crusade rapidly spread to cities of northern England and the Midlands including Birmingham.

GEORGE SQUARE PROTEST.

At the beginning of December 1917 the Women’s Peace Crusade had asked the Corporation of the City of Glasgow to receive a peace deputation, the request was refused. However, the members of the Women’s Peace Crusade were determined that their voice should be heard. So on December 13th 1917 a number of women assembled in George Square opposite the City Chambers to let the Corporation hear their voices raised in opposition to the war. Among those present were Helen Crawfurd, and Agnes Dollan, their banners were held high and peace leaflets were distributed to those passing by and other on-lookers.

THE BROLLY BATTLE.

During this anti-war display in George Square the Patriot League arrived and started harassing the women in the peace demonstration, attempting to destroy their leaflets and tearing their banners. Fights ensued and the women of the Women’s Peace Crusade defended themselves by brandishing their umbrellas. George Square which had been the site of many a political struggle now saw a mini war.

ENTRY TO THE CITY CHAMBERS.

At this point Helen Crawfurd and Agnes Dollan managed, by fair means or foul, to gain entry to the City Chambers and as the meeting of the City Corporation got under way, trying to ignore the demonstration outside, Helen and Agnes showered the councillors with anti-war leaflets.

RELIGION.

Although the Women’s Peace Crusade can be said to have had religious under currents it was still an attempt to build a broad working class anti-war movement and many, if not most, of its leading activists were socialists. It was essentially a housewives movement with men and women marching in different sections. It gained support from housewives who had lost husbands and sons in the war, or whose husbands and sons were on the battle fields.

More on Glasgow's working class history HERE.

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IT IS YOUR OWN FAULT!!!!

       What goes through your head when, after years of working for your living and having a feeling of relative security, you find yourself on the dole? At first you think it is just a temporary blip and soon things will get back to “normal”, but will they?

Another fine article from "The Commune" by Henrik Johansson.

      "When the next crisis comes, and it will, you will lose your job. There is a connection, but you will not see it. The management will say it’s a result of reduced orders and lack of work, with what you perceive as honest intimacy and regret.

     You shall consider not telling anything to your family, but every morning to get up, drink coffee and leave home. You imagine that you will be looking for a new job that you can proudly present to them one fine day. The plan is too absurd and you never try it.

It shall not be the crisis’ fault, nor your managers’ fault, nor their managers’ or shareholders’ fault, nor the society’s, nor the government’s. It shall be your own fault – because you could have done better, because you could have reeducated, worked your way up, been more responsive towards your clients and your managers.---"

Read on and think

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WORKERS' LIVES, SHOULD MEAN WORKERS' CONTROL.

          The recent crowing by Alexander the not so great, that the government had reached an agreement with the unions, should be rephrased as, 'they have reached an agreement with the union leaders.' I have no doubt that as for the rank and file, the so called agreement is nothing much different from what was on the table before the negotiations began, before the November 30 strike action. Throughout the recent history of trade unions the one thing that comes through is that the leaders don't want to upset the apple-cart, that gives them a very comfortable living. They may be among the “99%” but they are quite high up the financial scale of the group. Their relative good living from the union apparatus means that they themselves are immune to most of the attacks on the working class, much the same as those who are implementing this attack. The high paid union official type structure doesn't work in favour of the rank and file. Only the rank and file should be at the negotiations and only the rank and file should make the decisions.

Infantile-disorder has this to say.

This afternoon, Treasury Chief Secretary Danny Alexander announced an outline agreement with unions for huge cuts in public service pensions. His statement followed yesterday's declaration by TUC general secretary Brendan Barber that "we have seen a new atmosphere in the negotiation". But this "new atmosphere" was not the result of the government finally seeing the light and backing away from its attack on the living standards of millions. On the contrary, it was due to union bureaucrats dropping their phoney opposition, and settling down to their task of presenting utter defeat as victory.

All this was made clear by Alexander's confirmation that public workers must still "work a bit longer and pay a little more". In truth, little has changed from the government's original proposals, which were published before two big days of strike action demonstrated the potential strength of a united working class

Read the full article HERE.

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A BUNCH OF COMEDIENNES.

        I like this little extract from Omar Ibrahim's blog. Omar is in Wansworth for protesting in London during the the March 26th. protests. His blog is called "Bang up for Protesting" and is well worth a read, also a show of solidarity and encouragement by comments would help him through is spell at her Majesty's pleasure.

         "--- There was chubby cheeked David in Brussels when it all went wrong for him. The great Sarko, another entertainer from France had a bit of a spat with him it seems. A French diplomat described Cameron as ‘a man who turns up to a wife swapping party without his wife’. David Cameron had legitimate demands for a level of fiscal autonomy, but he was out of the loop. If only David had been at dinner with Angela Merkel and Sarko the night before things may look better for him. The problem is he made a stupid decision a while ago and has no friendships in Europe. No one likes him and is very alone.

          You see David Cameron won Conservative Party support by appeasing a load of right-wing ultra nationalists in his own party. He did that by signing the party to an EU voting bloc that is replete with anti-semites, homophobes and ultra-nationalists from Eastern Europe. The kind of people who have been so alienated during Soviet times that a social democratic state would send them running for the home made weaponry. People raised on stories about the halcyon days of royal rule when pogroms kept the Jewish population low.---"

Read the full article HERE.

ann arky's blog.

TRIAL BY THE PEOPLE.

     The Occupy London movement are due to leave the St. Paul's site, after ignoring the November 16 eviction notice served by The City of London Corporation. However, it is not a surrender, it is a development, they have moved in to occupy the Old Street, Magistrates Court, which has lain empty since 1996. There are now two buildings occupied by them in London. There is the UBS bank building, which was occupied and became the “Bank of Ideas” and now with this occupation they are going to hold trials of those they claim to be responsible for the financial crisis and the subsequent decimation of the social fabric of our society . It could be trial by the people in what has now been re-named “Occupy Justice”

       This latest development should be given as much publicity as possible as I'm sure the general public will identify with the idea behind this move. The idea of the public calling to justice the parasites that are responsible for the plundering of all public assets would be welcomed and supported. It can only strengthen the idea of “Occupy Everywhere”. Only when we the people occupy everything, can there be an real justice.

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