SOLIDARITY MEANS SUCCESS.

Solidarity and mass action does get results, a word of thanks from the IUF.

       THANKS to all the organizations and individuals who participated in the campaign in support of Yacine's release by sending over 11,000 messages in response to our appeals. Your immediate and unreserved response helped lead to the release of Yacine. We must now be vigilant to ensure that he remains free and secure and that the right to organize is respected all over the world!

See Yacine sentenced but free


Ron Oswald
IUF General Secretary

ann arky's home.

WORKERS KNOW YOUR HISTORY, - PINOCHET.

       In a couple of days it will be the 37th anniversary of the American backed coup in Chile that lead to 17 years of brutality, death and torture across that country. Though Pinochet has gone, nothing much has changed regarding American policy, it still backs dictators and despots as long as it suits the Western corporate machine. The profits and survival of corporatism is more important than the lives of people. 

From Contra Info: 

September 11th was the day that, in 1973, the commander-in-chief of the Chilean army Augusto Pinochet took power over the democratically elected president Allende. Pinochet killed and tortured thousands in his dictatorial rule, until 1990. On the same day, in 1998, anarchist Claudia López was shot dead by cops of the reinstated democracy while she fought at a barricade during a commemoration of the 1973 coup d’etat. Since then, under the slogan of ‘Black September’ demonstrators fight state repression in remembrance of Claudia and all of those who fell in combat

Continue READING:

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ENGINEERING CONSENT.

     There are those who say that advertising has no effect on them, they buy what they want and when they want. Having been a salesman for most of my life I know this to be false. A salesman is probably the most useless job in society. As a salesman selling round the doors, before leaving the depot, I would check what was in stock and what carried the best bonus and that is what my clients would want and get. This would happen even although I got them to look through the entire catalogue if they wished.

      Public opinion, culture and desires are shaped by the avalanche of advertising, (propaganda) that surges over us on a daily basis. The man who put this into top gear was the nephew of Sigmund Freud, one Edward Bernays. With one publicity stunt, he started American women on the road to lung cancer by getting them to smoke. What he did for women is still going on today, to all of us, across the full spectrum of worthless products.

       The extract below is from an interesting article, (Engineering Consent)  on this subject from Iconoclast:

       Bernays was granted an opportunity to experiment on the minds of the public when American Tobacco Corporation president Tom Hill hired him to break the social taboo surrounding women who smoked cigarettes. Bernays consulted with prominent psycho-analyst A.A Brill, who told him that cigarettes were symbols of male sexual power. If Bernays could find a way to connect cigarettes with the idea of challenging male power, then women would smoke. With this in mind, Bernays persuaded a group of rich debutants to hide cigarettes in their clothes during New York’s annual Easter Parade, with the instruction that all at once, they were to light up the cigarettes dramatically. He then informed the press that a group of suffragettes were preparing to protest male domination by igniting what he called “torches of freedom” during the parade. The press was desperate to photograph the event, which linked the idea of liberty to the defiant act of women smoking. The plan was a success; the story broke nation-wide, and the sale of cigarettes to women began to rise overnight. Through this social experiment, Bernays learned that he could infuse powerful meanings onto irrelevant objects. Consumer choices would no longer be based on careful reasoning, but instead would become expressions of individuality; each product would be a personal investment.

Read the full article HERE:

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BARE KNUCKLE CAPITALISM.

         Western governments have now disposed of the thin smoke of the illusion of democracy, as they power through legislation that decimates the living standards of the ordinary people, in order to stuff the banks with money, (liquidity). They proceed with ideological measures that never appeared in any election manifesto, if they had appeared in writing, they would never have been voted into power.

       With one fell swoop, the Greek government has banned ALL public gatherings, in Athens and Athens Airport, on Tuesday, the day of Angela Merkel's visit. At least they realise the anger of the people. They have also made "preemptive" arrests, never mind, "innocent until proved guilty" and all that.

From The Greek Streets:

  

Greek police bans all gatherings and protests during Angela Merkel’s visit to Athens

       In an unprecedented move, greek police has just announced a ban of all gatherings and protests in the wider centre of Athens plus the city’s airport and the main thoroughfares to it. According to the decision, the only areas excluded are Omonoia and Syntagma square. The ban will run from 9am to 10pm on Tuesday, 9th of October.
At the same time, police announced that will carry out preemptive detains today.

18 members of Public Electricity Company’s workers union were arrested for occupying the centre of informatics of the company

     Last night 18 members of the Public Company of Electricity  workers union were arrested. The union members occupied the informatics centre of the company in order to protest to the plans to privatize the company. But they also wanted to gain information about very big businesses with close political tights which were not charged the special property tax that was enforced to the citizens, leading to poor people having their home’s power supply cut off. A couple of hours after the occupation, riot police raided the building and arrested them all.

I call it corporate fascism, dressed up as bare knuckle capitalism.

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SHE'S JUST CHECKING THE BOOKS.

      With the Greek people struggling to survive the financial Mafia's onslaught it would appear to be rubbing salt on the wound when the chief hit-man of that Mafia, Angela Merkel, is to pay a visit to their capital Athens. I have no doubt she will be there to check over the books and see that the subservient Greek government is doing what it is told. Seeing that it is selling off enough of the people's assets to her corporate friends and at the right price. She will also be throwing a bankers eye over the plundering of the public purse to see that all the wee nooks and crannies have been duly emptied into the coffers of her bankster cronies. 

 The people have to tighten their belts to get us out of this mess.

This from Teacher Dude's Grill and BBQ:

    After much consideration I've decided that I'll be going down to Athens to cover the protests planned for the arrival of German chancellor, Angela Merkel to Greece. It's not a decision to be taken lightly as angry protesters are unlikely to be throwing rose petals and messages of good luck tomorrow. Already political organisations from across the entire political spectrum have said they will be calling upon supporters to take part in anti - austerity demonstrations on Tuesday in the centre of the Greek capital.In addition both public and private sector trade unions will be also part of the mix with marches set for 1 pm in Syntagma Square*, opposite parliament and the scene of the many violent confrontations.

     For their part, the Greek police has announced, depending on which media source you use, that 6000, 6500 or 7000 officers will be on duty including the notoriously violent riot units known as the MAT. Also 4 water canons will be on standby, marking an escalation in the arms race between police and protesters in Greece.

     As far as the foreign and local mainstream media is concerned the visit by Merkel is being hailed as a diplomatic triumph for Greek PM, Antonis Samaras and proof that Germany is determined to keep Greece within the Eurozone. On the internet and in the streets and cafes the arrival of the German leader has provoked a reaction of anger and dismay, being viewed as an arrogant act of provocation at a time when the nation's poorest are being hammered by an public service cuts and tax hikes during an economic downturn unprecedented in modern Greek history. 

      Last week's policing fiasco when demonstrating shipyard workers stormed the grounds of the ministry of defence unopposed means the law enforcement authorities and the government will be determined to show that they are in charge of the situation on the streets. In operational terms that means the gloves will be off and a repeat of the violent clashes that marked the mass Indignant rallies last year is a distinct possibility. 

Read the full article HERE:

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VOTING TO HAVE MILLIONAIRES KICK YOU IN THE TEETH.

         As time goes by it becomes more obvious how our coalition of millionaires works. At the Libdem's conference their hapless mealy-mouthed Clegg announced in bold fashion that there will be no £10 billion in cuts. A week or so on, their partners in crime the Tories have their conference and their hatchet man, millionaire Osborne, announces a further £10 billion in cuts to the welfare system on top of the £18 billion cuts scheduled for the coming year. That's co-operation Conservative style. While the Libdems prance around making pleasing sounds, but doing no more than rubber stamping Tory ideology, we the public get hit with more and more cuts to all our vital social services. I shudder to think what will be the harsh reality of £10 billion in cuts to the welfare system on top of £18 billion. We are already seeing disabled people thrown off benefit with drastic effects, nurseries, libraries, and other vital parts of a civilised society being discarded, an education system in tatters and our National Health Service being privatised. Of course with these cuts comes more people being paid off from public sector jobs at an ever increasing rate, adding to that ever growing army of unemployed. All this comes with the promise that Britain will have balanced its books in the distant future. 

    Of course balanced books doesn't mean that you will get back all those conditions and benefits that you lost. They will have gone forever, all those wage cuts and wage freezes will not come hurtling back because Britain has balanced its books. All those libraries and nurseries will not suddenly re-appear, the Health Company PLC. will not suddenly become the NHS. This massive transfer of wealth upwards is for ever, those who bear the brunt of this “deficit reduction” by being pushed deeper into poverty will just have to grind their way through life in the comfort of knowing that Britain has balanced its books. You will of course, from time to time, be asked to vote for this decimation of your standard of living, you will be give the choice of having them administered by your favourite colour of party, or choose by the most pleasing smile. You could of course, screw the lot of them and don't bother voting, there are other ways of structuring society.

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FREEDOM.

"Freedom is a strictly personal cause, not to be begged for but conquered—day by day, thought by thought, gesture by gesture, smile by smile, attack by attack." —Christos Tsakalos.

Sounds like good advice from a very wise person.

ann arky's home.

WHY I'M NOT A CHRISTIAN.

     Rather long, but as always with Bertrand Russell, concise but in simple language.

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THE DYING ILLUSION OF DEMOCRACY.

       Next month sees the culmination of the carnival of rich liars, otherwise known as the American Presidential elections. Millions will turn up and make their mark in favour of tweedle-dee or teedle-dum and things will roll on as usual. The rich will bask in the sun, in a lush cherry orchard surrounded by a fine wine lake, while the rest of the public will grind out a living as best they can as the pampered parsites continue to plunder the public purse. It is a process that has gone on for hundreds of years and rich get richer and the poor get poorer, but still the system is accepted by those same poor. Though I do believe that this latest world wide savage attack on the living standards of the ordinary people, is causing more and more to wake up to the fact that they are being conned. More and more people are looking for an alternative way of structuring our society, away from the parasite millionaire elitism that dominates and bleeds us dry. 

THERE WILL COME A TIME.

There will come a time when the hordes remember,

who bound our grand-parents to the yoke of oppression,

who sentenced our parents to deprivation,

who bid poverty sink its teeth into our heart,

who teach our children, greed is a noble art.

Who sent our sons through the gates of hell

to a litany of cambist brawls,

crammed coffers with blood-stained gold

while laughing in Ares' halls.

"Who does these terrible things to us?" they will ask,

and when they remember,

they'll bring an energy that is endless

to drive a fist that is fearless.

Then this merciless market-driven world will crumble

under an insurrection of integrity,

the poor will emerge from the dark husk of capitalism

to live in the light of social justice.

There will come a time when the hordes remember.

       The following is from America but equally applies to any country, as the stench of putrid capitalism chokes the lungs of freedom across the planet. Let's hope that this time they take their occupation to the next step and occupy everything and taking control of their communities and their lives.

This from Anarchist News: 

WHEN: Starts at 5 PM Saturday, October 13th (the first anniversary of Occupy Chapel Hill) WHERE: Peace and Justice Plaza, Chapel Hill, NC WHO: Anyone who wants to change their world directly, instead of through the narrow choices and occasional elections of democracy Anyone who doesn't trust another batch of politicians to fix the mess that the last batch of politicians started Anyone let down by Obama's false hope Anyone sick of choosing a "lesser" evil Anyone who knows politicians just serve the rich

WHY:
        The November election is coming. It doesn't matter. The amount of issues Obama and Romney differ on is nothing compared to what they agree on: unparalleled military domination; a growing prison system, the largest in the world, whose racist policies maintain the white supremacy this country was founded on; earth destroying resource extraction; a capitalist economy that rewards ruthless competition without concern for human cost. Under Bush, the nascent Obama generation could imagine that a new personality in the White House could change the problems the last politician piloted us into. And a new politician realized the shifting calculus, promising us false hope and false change. But after the failure of that experiment, we can be sure that the problem isn't personal, it is systemic. No matter who comes along, voting will never get us out from under our rulers.
      This country is obsessed with voting to an unhealthy degree. Most people don't even vote, but it seems to be the only way anyone can think of changing their world. But voting is not an expression of our power; it only demonstrates our powerlessness: it is an admission that we can only approach the resources and capabilities of our own society through the mediation of an elite, ruling class. When we let candidates prefabricate options for us, we relinquish control of our world and abdicate our agency in shaping it. Real power can never be delegated, nor lived through anyone else. Real power means individual and collective self-determination--our ability to decide for ourselves how we're going to live every day of our lives--not settling between two unsatisfying and irrelevant choices every four years.
    On the one year anniversary of Occupy Chapel Hill, come demonstrate that people power will always be in conflict with with the interests of the ruling class, be they elected or not.

ann arky's home.

ALL FROM THE SAME SWAMP.

       Just another case of the authorities and the police closing ranks  when accusations of police violence surface. One needs the other, so they will always cozy-up and support each other.

This from Polizeros:

    Hundreds of Vermonters have called for an independent investigation of police violence in Burlington last July, but city officials including the mayor, the police chief, and now the five members of the city police commission have joined in effectively stonewalling any outside review of what led some police officers to shoot rubber pellets and pepper spray at non-violent and fleeing demonstrators.
        The Burlington City Council is divided on the question of how, or even whether to hold police accountable. The issue is expected to come before them at their next meeting October 15, in response the police commission’s unanimous vote against any independent assessment of police behavior.

Read the full article HERE:

ann arky's home.

THE WEAVING OF ILLUSIONS AND MYTHS.

       Something this capitalist society always tries to conceal is that opportunities to "climb the ladder" social mobility, as it is called,, is vastly enhanced the higher up the ladder you are born. Conversely, the lower you are born the more difficult it will be to move off the rung you started from. In this type of society, wealth is not just comfort, it is privileges and opportunities, it is the gateway to more wealth, privileges and opportunities. However the myth that is perpetuated is that the world is filled with self made men/women who reached the dizzy heights of wealth, privilege and power all by their own effort and hard work. The truth being that most people in this world work very hard all their lives just to survive and never end up rich.

An interesting article from the Canberra Times:

   -------Every political system requires a justifying myth. The Soviet Union had Alexey Stakhanov, the miner reputed to have extracted 100 tonnes of coal in six hours. The US had Richard Hunter, the hero of Horatio Alger's rags-to-riches tales.

     Both stories contained a germ of truth. Stakhanov worked hard for a cause in which he believed, but his output was probably faked. When Alger wrote his novels, some poor people had become very rich in the US. But the further from its ideals (productivity in the Soviet Union, opportunity in the US) a system strays, the more fervently its justifying myths are propounded."There is no monopoly on becoming a millionaire" ...

      As the developed nations succumb to extreme inequality and social immobility, the myth of the self-made man becomes ever more potent. It is used to justify its polar opposite: an unassailable rent-seeking class, deploying its inherited money to finance the seizure of other people's wealth.

Read the full article HERE:

 ann arky's home.

GOD GAVE US THIS LAND!!

     Who owns the planet?  This land is my land!!!!!!!
This from Left Hemispheres:

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MISERY NOW FOR PIE IN THE SKY, IN THE BYE AND BYE.

      Unrest and anger spreads and intensifies across Greece as more "austerity cuts" are on the cards. More cuts to people's pensions, workers not having been paid for six months, and so it goes on, and all this is for the benefit of the Greek people, or so the people are being told. They are being asked to meekly accept abject poverty, deprivation and misery, all for their own good!!! They are being told that their country will have to sell off all the assets owned by the people, so that their government can pay the financial Mafia billions of Euros, and things will all come right in the bye and bye. Spain, Italy, Portugal and Ireland are not far behind, and yet there are those that still believe the problem will be contained, that the system will be fixed, and we will all get back to growth and eternal prosperity. What is being plundered from the public purse will never come back. If you believe that all those billions of Euros poured into the coffers of the financial Mafia will somehow find their way back to the public purse and create a decent society for all the people, then you are more stupid than naive.

      The way that the system works now is that it is a downward spiral for the people, and a financial vacuum cleaner for the financial Mafia. Why should they hand it all back to make your life and my life better? If they can have you scrambling about in the gutter, fighting each other for the few jobs around and willing to accept whatever wage they decide to pay you, then they are doing fine. Perhaps you see corporate capitalism as a compassionate beast that at the moment has some problems, but a soon as it sorts them out it will start to reward you for your patience and suffering, Dream on my friend.

 

This from Occupied London:

Workers at the Skaramangas shipyard in Athens storm the ministry of defense; farmers in Heraclion, Crete raid the Heraclion airport, as tension ahead of the voting of new austerity cuts intensifies.

Watch video and read the full article HERE:

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DISABILITY BENEFITS TRANSFERED TO SHAREHOLDERS ACCOUNTS.

      At last the figures for how much ATOS will make from forcing disabled people of benefit has been revealed. This company is taking millions of tax payers money and handing it to its shareholders when in fact it could pay for disabled benefits.

This from "A World to Win"

And so it transpires that if ATOS can push 15% more people than their target through the humiliating and meaningless tests, their profits will soar to £40m on a £207m contract. Even if they fall 15% below target they will still make £28m.
The total value of ATOS UK-wide contracts is £400m. That suggests that they will make a profit of between £55m and £82m on the whole contract.
The ATOS profit of £82m alone would pay disability living allowance for more than 20,000 people a year. If you take the value of the whole contract, it could pay for 22,000 people for five years.

Read the full article HERE:

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A WORLD WIDE EPIDEMIC.

    Police in Milwaukee arrest and beat up a 22 year old man and the world now has a horrific video of a young man dying in the back of a police car. In Tunisia police rape a young woman and when she files a complaint, she is charged with indecency. 28-year-old Raul Rosas was tasered, hogtied and finally drowned with a garden hose in front of his minor children and numerous witnesses. Police use baton charges and rubber bullets against demonstrators in Madrid. From Australia, A 'WIDE culture of police violence' needs to be investigated by the new head of the Crime and Misconduct Commission 'as his major priority'. Then there is, Incredible Police's brutality in France. Police violence in Greece is not limited to "isolated incidents" and officers violating human rights can expect "persistent impunity", the world's leading human rights organisation has said.

      Pick your country and you come up with police brutality, and it is invariably carried out with impunity and against the ordinary people of the country concerned. The police's first duty is to defend those in power, so any organised resistance to that power, will be dealt with in a brutal fashion, and to maintain that element of "toughness", the brutality will be used against individuals to intimidate and subdue resistance and create an element of fear in those who might wish to object to what the state is up to. The illusion that the police are there to protect the general public is perpetuated  by an avalanche of corporate propaganda through movies, TV "cops and robbers" shows, and newspaper articles portraying the police as clean-cut heroes. However there is an endless catalogue of death at the hands of the police and police brutality, which belies this propaganda exercise, and which will always go unchecked as the state needs its bully boys. So, until we get rid of the state, police brutality will be with us.

ann arky's home.

FROM ATHENS TO NEW YORK?

         Capitalism lurches from crisis to crisis, capitalism is crisis. During each of these troughs or financial convulsions, the people suffer more than usual, another feature of these inborn faults in the system is the rise of fascism. As the conditions of the people deteriorate fascism raises its ugly head from some dark corner of the sewers of the system. Capitalism's latest convulsions are world wide and so the stink of fascism is spreading across the globe. It will appear in many guises, not just the jackboots on the streets, though they will call on them when they feel the need. They can come disguised as a helping hand of the poor, to gain a foothold in the community. Greece's fascist group "Golden Dawn" works in that fashion and is rampant and openly violent on the streets in that country, and is more or less given a free hand by the authorities to attack and attempt to destroy any organised resistance to the system. Now New York is to be contaminated by the same group as the have set up camp in that city.

 This from Void Mirror:

Golden Dawn, G.D. (in Greek, Chrysi Avgi), the neo-Nazi, ultra-nationalistic party, which was recently elected to the Greek Parliament under the pretext of concern over unemployment, austerity and the economy, and while engaging in virulent anti-immigrant rhetoric and anti-democratic, nationalistic activities, has now established a chapter in New York City. Several groups and organizations have already publicly expressed their outrage and have called for immediate action.

Read the full article HERE:

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INSULT YOUR POSTMAN, BUT NOT A POLICEMAN!!!

        If you insult a bank manager, a shop assistant, a lawyer, or a bus driver, you wouldn't expect to disappear, why should it be different if  you insult a police officer??
This appeal from IUF:

To those who already sent messages in response to our first appeal we offer a huge “thank you!”. Over 4,000 message in the first few hours cannot have gone unnoticed by Algerian authorities. With your support we were able to locate Yacine.

Yacine is being held in custody. On Monday October 8 after all that he has endured he will face the charge of "insulting a police officer".

We are asking you to respond again, this time to the Algerian President to call for his release from custody and proper medical attention.

Please send a message to the Algerian President and Justice Minister immediately to secure the safe release of Yacine Zaïd.
Thank you in advance.
Ron Oswald,
General Secretary, IUF

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THERE'S MARX, AND THEN THERE'S MARX!!

      Today, 2nd. October is the anniversary of the birth of someone who could probably be called the greatest Marxist of them all. Though now dead, I think one of his sayings could be equally applied to most of us living in today's capitalist system. The quote:
"I've worked myself up from nothing to a state of extreme poverty."
I am of course talking about Groucho Marx.
Well if you don't laugh!!!

ann arky's home.

THE MIGHTY BUS-PASS OF DESTRUCTION!!!

     The other day while mucking about the house, I was half heartedly listening to some crap pouring out of the mouth of a politician, and I thought, Ah, another Tory having a go at he poor and the pensioners. According to this member of the crooks and liars club, it seems that the root of our financial troubles are free bus-passes and winter fuel allowances. Shock, horror, it wasn't a Tory, it was the leader of the Scottish Labour Party, Johann Lamont. This particular member of the crooks and liars club believes that it is free bus-passes, free prescriptions and the freeze on council tax that has brought about all these austerity cuts. To her these universal benefits are responsible for the loss of 30,000 public sector jobs. So the gambling banksters are off the hook, it's those bloody pensioners that are responsible for our “double-dip recession”. I have tried hard to work out how my humble and much appreciated bus-pass has brought Greece, Spain, Italy and Ireland to their knees, and I can't quite get it. All my analysis keeps taking me back to something the financial Mafia were up to, but who am I to understand the complexities of the gambling antics of the financial Mafia.

     So there you have it, come the next election you could vote Tory and have benefit cuts and an end to universal benefits, or you could vote Labour, and instead, just have benefit cuts and an end to universal benefits. There is however, a universal agreement between the main political parties, that all our problems will be solved if we strip the public naked and send all the tax money to the parasites that run the financial Mafia. The astute analysis of our political masters is that all the wealth we create in this country, can only support our corrupt financial institutions and there isn't enough left to be squandered on the social fabric of society.

      As winter approaches and the temperature starts to tumble, all those suffering fuel poverty, (aproximately a third of the population of Scotland) just feel good inside in the knowledge that you are saving the banksters from facing their gambling losses, what nobler cause could you serve.

      Of course we could re-organise our society so that it sees to the needs of all our people, and all that wealth that “WE” create, could go towards a fair and just society. All we have to do is ignore all politicians and get rid of the profit greedy parasites that are sitting on our backs.

ann arky's home.

OUR "OCTOBER SONG".

       So September has gone, and October offers us the future, what will we do with it? Will our dreams fall like autumn leaves and our hearts cry for better spring? Perhaps, just perhaps, this will be our October song?

They who never ruled before
poured from their factory districts
across the bridges of Petrograd
to make October.
The moon was so startled
all global tides
shifted.
The lights went on all over Europe.
Nothing
can ever be the same again.

                                    — Dan Georgakis,
                                      "October Song"

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