MORE ON NOVEMBER 14TH.

     More comment and ideas regarding November 14th. Pan-European day of protest, this from A-Infos:

         Austerity cuts come over and over again - they are driving down the conditions of life of workers and their aim is to crush or/and weaken the ability to organize and fight The profit is privatized and the rich are getting richer, but the costs, risks and oppression are socialized! ---- The bureaucratic trade union CGTP has called a general strike in Portugal and the CCOO and UGT have called for a general strike in Spain against the austerity measures for November 14. For this same day, general strikes are also being called in Italy, Greece, Malta and Cyprus etc. as part of a Day of Action by the European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC). ---- The position of the IWA and its Sections and Friends is that we are not only against the government of the "troika" and the austerity measures, but against the class society and against an economic and social system based on the exploitation of wage labor and environmental destruction.       

       We are for workers self- organizing and emancipation, and by this our struggle is directed against and outside the class collaborationist structures!

       Our sister organization in Spain the CNT-AIT says in a declaration that the reformist CCOO and UGT after hesitation have called for the General Strike of 14-N which they have been dragged into: “On the one hand, by increasing social unrest and mobilizations in the streets and on the other, by the continued anti-labor measures of a government at the service of financial elites and employers with no intention of conceding even the crumbs that allow institutional unionism to justify their role.”

        And further: “CNT has agreed to call a general strike for November 14 and we will do this in our own way, with our own demands. We say that this strike is necessary but is not sufficient and we call for it to go beyond the sterile and frustrating scenario of the institutional unions that people have become accustomed to”.

      The AIT- Portugal writes in an article in IWA- External Bulletin-3 about the encouraging demonstrations on September 15 that mainly were convened through internet. It has been estimated that 500 000 people demonstrated in Lisbon and 100 000 in Porto, and there were demonstrations in more than 30 cities in Portugal.

Read the full article HERE: 

ann arky's home.

 

PAN-EUROPEAN DAY OF PROTEST.

       In keeping with other cities across the country, there will be a rally at George Square Glasgow at 6:00pm on Wednesday November 14 called by Glasgow Coalition of Resistance

SOLIDARITY.

 

European day of action

Wednesday 14 November

On November 14th there will be general strikes in Spain, Portugal, Greece, Italy, Cyprus and Malta. The ETUC [European Trade Union Confederation] is calling for solidarity action throughout Europe.

Support is growing across the country. Click here to see a list of events and actions.

London Event

Protest:
Assemble: 5pm - 5:30pm
European Commission
32 Smith Square
Westminster, SW1P 3EU
for march past Parliament to rally
Tubes: St. James's Park / Westminster
Click here to see map

Rally:
Starts: 6:30pm
Upper Hall, Emmanuel Centre
9-23 Marsham Street  Greater London SW1P 3DW
Click here for map
With speakers including Tony Benn, the Trade Union's in Britain and live-streamed from Greece, Spain and Portugal.
Plus footage from the strikes and protests across Europe on that day.

Invite your friends and share on Facebook
Organised by Coalition of Resistance
Supported by Unite the Union, Greece Solidarity Campaign, P.I.I.G.S Assembly in London

ann arky's home.

WOBBLIES SCOTISH ASSEMBLY.

Industrial Workers of the World

Scottish Assembly

Saturday 10th November, 2012

     The assembly is not a conference or internal wobbly event it has the goal of strengthening ways for workers to organise, network together and devise ways to sabotage the agenda of the Boss Class.

    It is the 7th Assembly of the IWW in Scotland. Open to fellow workers & activists.

Venue: Unitarian Hall 72, Berkeley St. Glasgow G3 7DS,

    From city centre,train or bus station, 23 First or 7 McGill buses. by foot walk up Bath Street, past King's theatre and past Mitchell Library and cross road. Berkeley Street is also parallel to Sauchiehall St. at Charing Cross. Road Junction 18 on M8

10.45 - 11 Registration for Wobbly members and fellow travellers/attendees.

First Session:
11-12.50 Industrial Union networks for Scotland - education, health, Public service etc.
Part A/ how to go about it & general objectives, way of operating; for 40 minutes;
Part B/ break into sub groups for 40 minutes, 610 Health; 620 education, 650 Office Public/Private and others.
Part C/ convene back for 30 minutes to finalise, network coordinators, goals & communication means.

Lunch [hot & cold] 12.50 - 1.40 at venue, catering - fw J Cooper

Second Session:
1.40 - 3.30 The Precarious world of work & organising
The Issue of Precarity, as capitalism favours casualisation, part-time work and insecurity in the workplace, is to understand what is going on, how to map it and fight back/organise to counter it. Invites to precarious workers and related initiatives

3.30-3.50 Tea and comfort break

Third Session:
3.50-5.40 - From the Bottom Up, strategy to resist cuts in services, and mobilise community and workplace opposition, which goes beyond gesture politics of Trade Union leaders and Parties. A panel of invited contributors [from within IWW, claimants groups and radical Trade Unionists] to  give 5 minute statements before opening out for discussion.
This session was advertised in leaflet distributed 20th October Demo.

5.45-5.50 Closing remarks by Chair and evacuate room, take away stalls etc. [by 6pm at latest, possible retiring to pub for refreshment]

ann arky's home.

THERE SHOULD BE NO LINK BETWEEN CHARITY AND ABUSE.

    This action is called for Thursday November 8th. in spite of the short notice I hope you will all give it your support. Why should a charity that claims to care for children do the state's dirty work?

     The No Borders Network has called for a 'day of action' against the charity Barnardo's, to highlight their involvement in state-sanctioned child abuse.

    The 'UK's leading children's charity' continues to facilitate Cedars, the mock-Tudor version of Yarl's Wood and Dungavel, despite repeated breaches of the charity's own 'red line' basic standards for involvement. These breaches include the use of physical force to remove "a pregnant woman, posing an unacceptable risk to the unborn child", "intimidating behaviour", "offensive language and gestures" and "inappropriate language" on the part of staff, and a parent being "asked questions about torture and self-harm in front of her children" (HM Chief Inspector of Prisons, 2012). Barnardo's staff were intimately involved in incidents of physical coercion being used in forced removals, parting parents and children in a fashion criticised by the prisons inspectorate's report.

     Locally, No Borders Glasgow has asked for a presence at Barnardo's premises at 250 Great Western Road and 116 Dumbarton Road.

No Borders callout: https://network23.org/barnardosout/day-of-action/

    Comment from NCADC on HMPI report: http://us4.campaign-archive.com/?u=9175e7ebdf93b7e5581be2c51&id=1d4ee38f35#detention

Unity Centre website: http://unitycentreglasgow.org/

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FREEDOM TO JOIN A UNION.

This from LabourStart:

The camp after the thugs attacked.

 

  

    On the morning of 24 October, around 180 hired thugs violently evicted workers and peasant landowners from a protest camp at a mine in Mexico. The mine was owned by a Canadian company, Excellon Resources.

     The protest camp had been running peacefully since July at the entrance to the mining complex in order to put pressure on the company to recognise freedom of association and the workers’ right to join a union.

     A joint campaign sponsored by IndustriALL global union, Amnesty International and PRODESC, a Mexican NGO, was today launched on LabourStart:

 

http://www.labourstartcampaigns.net/show_campaign.cgi?c=1620&src=lsmm

 

      It will take you only a couple of minutes to show your support for these workers.  Please sign up, and spread the word.

 

Thank you!

 

Eric Lee

 

ann arky's home.

 

THE TROIKA WANTS MORE GREEK BLOOD.

       No matter the will of the people, no matter the harsh brutality of their legislation, no matter that deprivation runs rampant through the country, the Greek government, the supposed representatives of the people, will put the stamp of legitimacy on the next batch of "austerity" cuts, in order to placate their overlords the Troika, that gang of three, ECB, (European Corrupt Banksters) IMF, (International Mankind Fuckers) and the EC, (Endemic Corruption).

      The Greek people are not taking this lying down, this week there are numerous industrial actions across the country, but the battle needs the support of all the people of Europe. Only solidarity across the continent can bring down this stinking edifice of greed and corruption.

This from Teacher dude's Grill and BBQ:

 Angry taxi drivers outside the offices of Deputy Prime Minister, Thessaloniki.

     As the Greek government sends its harshest austerity bill yet to parliament, taxi drivers in the city of Thessaloniki kick off a week of widespread protests and strikes that promises to bring the nation to a halt Thessaloniki, Greece.

    Shouting "thieves and traitors" hundreds of Greek taxi drivers marched through the centre of the country's second largest city, kicking off a week of strikes and protests aimed at preventing the passage of the government harshest austerity bill to date.

    The three day strike by taxi drivers is just part of a series of industrial actions planned by workers in both the public and private sector. In particular the transport sector is set to be hit particularly hard as air traffic controllers, ferry crews, public transport drivers and train company employees will be participating in the 48 general strike called for Tuesday and Wednesday.

    Mass protests by trade unions and political parties across the spectrum outside the Greek parliament in central Athens have also been announced to coincide with the vote on Wednesday.

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LITTLE WORKERS KNOW YOUR HISTORY - SCHOOL STRIKE 1911.

    A little known strike that lasted no more than three days is worth remembering. It was the school pupils strike of 1911 and started in Llanelli in Wales on the 5th September 1911, when 30 pupils protested against the caning of a pupil by walking out of Bigyn School. It very rapidly spread to 60 towns across the country. According to the Daily Mirror of the day, one boy stated that “our fathers strike – why shouldn't we?”

     Another report from The Times stated; that at one school in Deptford, pupils “organised a demonstration outside the school, and amused the neighbourhood by shouting ‘We are on strike’.” The students chalked demands on the pavement: the abolition of home lessons and the cane, and an extra half-holiday in the week. Many carried “ammunition”: stones and other missiles.

This from The Socialist Review: 

CHILDREN'S STRIKE

Larry Goldstone recounting a revolt of Manchester schoolchildren, September 1911, in a letter to Stephen Humphries

     When I was a lad of ten I used to work after school hours as a lather boy in my elder brother's barber's shop. Now, the barber's shop was a real meeting place for men and sometimes they'd have a big laugh talking about the school strike that they had in their school days.

    My elder brother was a very popular young man, real extrovert, and it was him who was the ringleader of the strike at Southall Street school.

    You see, the teachers at that time, without any doubt, were sadists. They ruled with fear. They firmly believed in the adage that kids were to be seen and not heard. All they needed was the least excuse and they'd cane you without mercy.

    Now when the boys went on strike, they demanded the abolition of the cane, and they also wanted a shilling a week to be paid to the monitors, because they were just used as lackeys. On the big day they met outside the school, over three hundred of them, and they marched to a field opposite the gaol walls of Strangeways. Then they marched along the main road, and threw some stones at the school windows. The strike lasted for three days, but eventually they gave up and returned to school, and all the classes were lined up to witness the punishment of the ringleaders.

    My brother said they were held over a desk by their outstretched hands and caned on their bottoms. Now, one of the brothers put a plate inside his trousers, and the blow of the cane broke the plate into pieces, badly cutting the lad's bottom. But they come unstuck with my brother. When it came to his turn, he took the teacher by surprise, wrenched the cane from his grasp and started hitting him with it, then he ran out of the school and home.

    In the evening, when father came home from work, my brother told him about the canings, and the next morning he went up the school with him. He told the headmaster he didn't approve of the beatings that were carried out at the school, because a lot of the parents were angry when their children told them about the punishments. And he gave the headmaster a strict warning that if anyone dared apply any punishment to his son Jack, then he would go up and mete out far worse to the one responsible. If his lad did anything that required punishment, they were to send a note and he would deal with his son by his own disciplinary methods.

ann arky's home.

$6 BILLION BULLSHIT FESTIVAL.

     Well tomorrow hurricane Sandy will slide from our consciousness, all that mayhem and misery will disappear from the “babbling brook of bullshit”, commonly called the mainstream media, there are more important things to report. Tomorrow is the culmination of the biggest, most expensive ever, Crooks and Liars competition. Yes, $6 billion, I'll repeat that, $6 billion, spent on helping the American people to decide whether they should vote for Coke or Pepsi. Each contestant in this Crooks and Liars competition claiming that if the American people vote for the other, the world will collapse and the Apocalypse will be upon us all. 

      Once the decision is made, and the new mouthpiece of corporate imperialism takes his place on the throne at the White House, no matter who, the same old, same old shit will continue. There will be wars dotted around, which we will be told is our way of bombing democracy into those people fortunate to be picked by our imperial masters. Most of those chosen, will of course have oil and/or gas on their land, but that doesn't influence our decision to bomb them into democracy. Poverty will continue to grow across the world, while the corporate world continues to get richer and richer. The army of parasites will sink deeper and deeper into the froth of opulence, while the vast majority sink further into the mire of poverty and deprivation. Then in four years when the shine has worn off the residing Pope of Plutocracy, the merry-go-round will start up again, the billions of dollars will once again flow, and the spectacle of the Crooks and Liars competition will repeat itself. And so the cycle goes on, our reward for allowing ourselves to be screwed big time is this very expensive illusion of change, every four or five years depending on where you live. Can you think of a better way to shape our society?

ann arky's home.

IS MODERATION THE ANSWER?

     Recently I wrote a small article called "Brutal Assault Should Meet Brutal Response", and I don't know if it encapsulated what I felt, or what I wanted to say. How do you express how you feel about a brutality that comes in polite language and in an infinite number the pieces of legislation that hack away at your quality of life, that slowly pushes more and more people over the edge, like some nicely decorated shiny new bulldozer. What should be your response when that bulldozer is driven by a smiling wealthy team in fine clothes? The advice from all fronts of the party political system is, stick to their rules, be moderate, try to negotiate with the driver of the bulldozer.

     While clicking my way through the various websites I came across this quote on the RADGEEK site, a different subject, a different time, but just as relevant in todays circumstances, it makes sense to me.

 

"I am aware that many object to the severity of my language; but is there not cause for severity? I will be as harsh as truth, and as uncompromising as justice. On this subject, I do not wish to think, or to speak, or write, with moderation. No! no! Tell a man whose house is on fire to give a moderate alarm; tell him to moderately rescue his wife from the hands of the ravisher; tell the mother to gradually extricate her babe from the fire into which it has fallen — but urge me not to use moderation in a cause like the present. I am in earnest — I will not equivocate — I will not excuse — I will not retreat a single inch — and I WILL BE HEARD." —abolitionist William Lloyd Garrison (1805-1879)

ann arky's home.

I am aware that many object to the severity of my language; but is there not cause for severity? I will be as harsh as truth, and as uncompromising as justice. On this subject, I do not wish to think, or to speak, or write, with moderation. No! no! Tell a man whose house is on fire to give a moderate alarm; tell him to moderately rescue his wife from the hands of the ravisher; tell the mother to gradually extricate her babe from the fire into which it has fallen — but urge me not to use moderation in a cause like the present. I am in earnest — I will not equivocate — I will not excuse — I will not retreat a single inch — and I WILL BE HEARD. —abolitionist William Lloyd Garrison (1805-1879)

A MAD MARCH HARE!!

PERSONAL EXPERIENCE.

      Like most boys in the area where I lived, I left school at 15. My first job was as the boay in the time office in Fairfield's Shipyard in Govan, Glasgow. On turning 16 I would start my apprenticeship, It wasn't a case of selecting your chosen profession, it was a matter of being told that yi wur ti go ti' the fittin' shoap. It could just as easily have been the brass foundry or the joinery shop, or any other of the many trades in shipbuilding, and my “career” would have gone on a different direction. However the powers that be set my sails as a marine engineer, a “fitter” was the usual title.

    That's when my education started, I found myself among a myriad of political pundits of all shades. The discussions were many, varied and at times “ferocious” and I loved it. Probably most of the workers were Labour with a very strong communist contingent. There was one Tory among the fitters, he was one of the journeymen that I was attached to, and he was insane, but a great tradesman. When asked why he was a Tory, his answer was, at least when you vote for them you know that they are going to screw you, not like the other bastards who pretend that they won't. It seemed a fair answer. In all the debates and discussions I was always being “courted” by the communists and being told that I should join the YCL (Young Communist League). Somehow or other they never fitted in with the way I felt.

      From entering the yards, I was always eager to get involved in the political and it was in 1952, as a third year apprentice that I got my first real feel of “political” activity. That was the year of the first Clydeside apprentice's strike since the second world war. I loved all the activity and was keen to do my stint of leafleting and what ever else to further “the cause”.

       It was during this strike at one of the several marches through the city that we had a rather interesting event. We were supposed to march from Blythswood Square to Glasgow Green and on passing the City Chambers at George Square, the police had set our route to proceed from there round the corner into Cochrane St. and through some more back streets to the Green. Our little group at the front had some other ideas, and as the police were lined up expecting us to turn left into Cochrane St. we marched merrily on deciding that we wanted a more public route down Glassford St. Argyle St. and Trongate to the Green. More publicity for our “cause”. There was chaos as the rest of the marchers not really thinking just followed on and the police trying to form up to turn us round. It failed miserably. By now it was no longer a march but lots of grinning apprentices running in groups, down Glassford St. with the police trying to re-direct or grab, what was now a wild mob of youth. By the time various groupings reach Argyle St. some were running in the direction of the Green, perhaps hopeful of still holding a rally, while others, myself among them, were running along Argyle St. in the opposite direction.

     At that time Argyle St. was still a two way traffic system and the pavements were mobbed. As I ran furiously along I could see ahead the ludicous site of some of the apprentices still carrying their placards, and these could be seen weaving their way though the crowds. By now there were mounted police and foot slogging coppers in hot pursuit. As I, and many others, ran past what is now Debenham's (then it was Lewis's) and turned into the lane at the side of the building, I knew the the mounted police were gaining fast, and as a simple city lad, I had this stupid idea that if I ran up the stairs of the lane up to what was St Enoch's Station, the horses wouldn't be able to follow. Of course as I got near the top I could hear the unmistakable clippity-clop of horses hoofs behind me. Entering the station I stopped running and tried to merge with the station crowd, others ran straight through and out the front and as I walked casually towards the front entrance I saw about 8 or so of my hapless marcher colleagues run straight into a ring of police, who duely flung them into waiting vans. One of those caught by that ring of police went on to make a name for himself on the Clyde during the Upper Clyde Work-in, he was Jimmy Reid. 

Read the story of the strike HERE:

ann arky's home.

WITH A LITTLE HELP FROM OUR FRIENDS.

          The Spirit of Revolt is a group based in Glasgow who are attempting to collect as much material as possible from grass-roots campaigns in working class struggle, in and around the Glasgow/Clydeside area. We are grateful for any donations of material that people may have accumulated over time from their friends/relatives or their own connections to/in campaigns/direct action experiences, our only stipulation is that it is not in any way linked to party political activity/material. Our aim is to create an archive/collection recording the history of working class struggle in the Glasgow/Clydeside area and make it easily accessible to the general public.

           We will be putting as much as possible on-line with a physical collection housed in the Mitchell Library. We feel that it is important to record this history as most of it will not be recorded in mainstream history and therefore will disappear. It is part and parcel of our history, it is part of working class culture, and if we fail to record it, it never happened and we become a people without a history, a people without a culture.

          In time and with your help, we are sure this will become the best resource of its kind in Scotland. A place where the next generation can keep in touch with the history of their parents and previous generations, and their struggles for a better world. A place where they themselves, can perhaps learn how to continue that struggle for that better world.

        We have had material donated from several sources, with others promised, and are very grateful to those groups and individuals, but are still eager for more material. I'm sure there are bundles of original material lying around in boxes, poly bags, in drawers and under the bed. Have a wee look around and see what you feel you can donate.

You can contact the group through annarky@radicalglasgow.me.uk

ann arky's home.

PRIVILEGE.

     After our millionaire Prime Minister Cameron, spouted his ridiculous statement about "spreading privilege" I thought this article would be a good read.

This from The Anarchist federation:

A Class Struggle Anarchist Analysis of Privilege Theory – from the Women's Caucus.

Aims and definitions

      The purpose of this paper is to outline a class struggle anarchist analysis of Privilege Theory. Many of us feel “privilege” is a useful term for discussing oppressions that go beyond economic class. It can help us to understand how these oppressions affect our social relations and the intersections of our struggles within the economic working class. It is written by members of the women’s caucus of the Anarchist Federation. It does not represent all our views and is part of an ongoing discussion within the federation.
       What do we mean – and what do we not mean – by privilege? Privilege implies that wherever there is a system of oppression (such as capitalism, patriarchy, white supremacy, heteronormativity) there is an oppressed group and also a privileged group, who benefit from the oppressions that this system puts in place1. The privileged group do not have to be active supporters of the system of oppression, or even aware of it, in order to benefit from it. They benefit from being viewed as the norm, and providing for their needs being seen as what is naturally done, while the oppressed group is considered the “other”, and their needs are “special considerations”. Sometimes the privileged group benefits from the system in obvious, material ways, such as when women are expected to do most or all of the housework, and male partners benefit from their unpaid labour. At other times the benefits are more subtle and invisible, and involve certain pressures being taken off a privileged group and focused on others, for example black and Asian youths being 28% more likely to be stopped and searched by the police than white youths2.

      The point here is not that police harassment doesn’t happen to white youths, or that being working class or a white European immigrant doesn’t also mean you’re more likely to face harassment; the point is that a disproportionate number of black and Asian people are targeted in comparison to white people, and the result of this is that, if you are carrying drugs, and you are white, then all other things being equal you are much more likely to get away with it than if you were black. In the UK, white people are also less likely to be arrested or jailed, or to be the victim of a personal crime3. Black people currently face even greater unemployment in the UK than they do in the USA4. 

      The point of quoting this is not to suggest we want a society in which people of all races and ethnicities face equal disadvantage – we want to create a society in which nobody faces these disadvantages. But part of getting there is acknowledging how systems of oppression work, which means recognising that, if black and ethnic minority groups are more likely to face these disadvantages, then by simple maths white people are less likely to face them, and that means they have an advantage, a privilege, including the privilege of not needing to be aware of the extent of the problem.

Read the full article HERE:

ann arky's home.

EVERY EVENING I THROW.

 Another poem by Erich Mulsham

Every evening I throw

Every evening I throw
a future behind me
that will never arise anymore
since it lived in the spirit.
New images will grow;
worlds turn on new axis,
will die, love, create.
The pasts gape. –
Rioting, whirling time pitches
in the grave. – Life screams! 

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DO AS YOU'RE TOLD OR DOWN YOU GO.

      Just another story that adds to the evidence that cops are psychopaths. Recently in this country we had a blind man shot by police taser as the cop thought his white stick was a Samurai sword. How's that for observational skills?

This from SALON:

Cop used Taser gun on 10-year-old boy

     A New Mexico police officer used a Taser gun on a 10-year-old boy to demonstrate what cops do to people who don’t follow orders, according to a complaint heard by a Sante Fe court Tuesday.
       Officer Chris Webb was attending “career day” at Tularosa New Mexico Intermediate School when he sent 50,000 volts of electricity into the child’s chest on the playground. The young boy blacked out and has, according to his legal representative, been suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder ever since; the officer faces a civil suit.
        According to the complaint, Webb shot his Taser at the child (referred to only as “R.D.”) after he said he did not want to join fellow classmates in cleaning the officer’s patrol car. Courthouse News reported: “Defendant Webb responded by pointing his Taser at R.D. and saying, ‘Let me show you what happens to people who do not listen to the police.’”
        Webb then shot “two barbs into R.D.’s chest,” the complaint states. “Both barbs penetrated the boy’s shirt, causing the device to deliver 50,000 volts into the boy’s body. “Defendant Webb pulled the barbs out [of] the boy’s chest, causing scarring where the barbs had entered the boy’s skin that look like cigarette burns on the boy’s chest.
        “The boy, who weighed less than 100 lbs., blacked out.”Instead of calling emergency medical personnel, Officer Webb pulled out the barbs and took the boy to the school principal’s office,” the complaint states.
         Following the May 4 incident, Webb, who claims he accidentally discharged the Taser, was given only a three-day suspension.

 

ann arky's home.

 

RESISTANCE.

And from Teacher Dude's Grill and BBQ:

ann arky's home.

A BETTER WAY OF DOING THINGS.

      An interesting and informative film from ANARKOS it would be nice to see it more widely circulated.

ann arky's home.

ONE BILLION PEOPLE GO HUNGRY.

     Some facts that might interest you and perhaps encourage you to take direct action.

This from Raw info:

Food inequality

Factory farming breaks our food systems, taking grain and other precious resources from those that need it most.

There is a huge gap between the 'haves' and the 'have nots' when it comes to the distribution of food around the world; around 1 billion people do not have enough to eat and this crisis currently kills more people than AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis combined¹. In stark contrast, around 1.5 billion people in the Western world are classified as overweight, around a third of whom are obese². The situation is challenging efforts to achieve the United Nations (UN) Millennium Development Goal of eradicating extreme poverty and hunger³. Although small-scale livestock farming plays a vital role in developing countries, contributing to the wellbeing of more than 800 million poor smallholders⁴, large-scale factory farming is actually compounding the food crisis.

Raising the demand for feed

Around two thirds of farm animals worldwide are currently factory farmed, reared in systems that are dependent on cereal and soya feeds for fast growth and high yields. Although dairy cows are naturally adapted to grazing and eating grasses, they are now being bred to be more dependent on cereal and soya feeds too. This demand for feed essentially means that we are putting humans in competition with farm animals; we're literally taking high-quality, nutrient-rich foods that people could eat and feeding them to our farm animals.

Over 90% of soya meal and 60% of maize (corn) and barley are grown for animal feed.

Read the full article HERE:

ann arky's home.

SHACK DWELLERS MOVEMENT.

Friday 2nd November. 7-9pm Glasgow Social Centre, 
Basement, Garnethill Multicultural Centre,
21 Rose St, Glasgow. G3 6RE
 

This inspiring and extremely democratic and grass-roots controlled movement is at the forefront of resistance to the pro-capitalist policies of the ANC government. This is a rare chance to hear Lindela Figlan, vice president of Abahlali Basemjondolo, the shack dwellers movement. Abahlali baseMjondolo (AbM) began in Durban in 2005. Lindela will speak about his experiences, ways of organising and other community based issues. In terms of people mobilised, it’s the largest militant poor organisation in post-apartheid South Africa. Social movements like AbM, the Landless People’s Movement in Johannesburg and the Anti-eviction Campaign in Cape Town pose serious challenges to the ruling party because of their refusal to vote. AbM’s key demand is ‘Land & Housing in the City’ and has successfully politicised and fought to end forced removals and for access to education and the provision of water, electricity, sanitation, health care and refuse removal as well as bottom up popular democracy. Lindela Figlan will join us as part of a speaking tour around the UK – details other meetings here http://www.anarchistbookfair.org.uk/ http://glasgowanarchists.wordpress.com/2012/11/01/south-african-shack-dwellers-movement-speaker-in-glasgow/

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GOD'S MAN IN THE WHITE HOUSE.

      With a Mormon running for The White House, I thought a little explanation of what they are all about might be helpful. After all if Romney wins this crooks and liars festival, he'll be the most powerful man in the world, excluding God of course.

ann arky's home.

WE HAVE HAD ENOUGH OF CRAP.

Lifted from an old post on my sister blog Annarky1:


Society based on Capitalism,Religion,Authority and Patriotism.

             C.R.A.P.   for short.

        Any alien looking in on our society must come to the conclusion that we earthlings love CRAP. It is all they will see as we scurry about working in CRAP jobs for CRAP wages and in what little “leisure” time we have we rush around buying CRAP. We spend precious time discussing the benefits of this piece of CRAP as opposed to that piece of CRAP. We weigh up the difference between this pair of CRAP trainers and that pair of CRAP trainers, this CRAP label and that CRAP label. We consider we have choices when we select this CRAP newspaper or that CRAP magazine from the avalanche of CRAP paper pulp on offer. One CRAP supermarket after another offers us an array of CRAP food and TV vomits endless CRAP into our homes and we flick from CRAP Big-Brother to CRAP house make-overs, from CRAP lifestyle programs to CRAP celebrity chat shows.

        Move to the realms of the “serious” CRAP and we have on offer CRAP political parties throwing up a display of smiling CRAP politicians, who, come election time, prance about offering CRAP policies in the hope that they can take their place in that CRAP institution at Westminster. What we get from the CRAP government of the day is such things as the CRAP war on drugs, that doesn’t work, CRAP tough on crime, that criminalizes poverty, CRAP war on terrorism, that is counterproductive,

Capitalism,

can produce nothing but an abundance of CRAP as profit is the only motive.

Religion,

produces CRAP freedom destroying dogma, based on the supposed mutterings of some airy-fairy gods.

Authority,

gives us a CRAP life based on surveillance and strict unbending laws.

Patriotism,

the last refuge of the scoundrel gives us CRAP racism and generates canon fodder for the state’s endless CRAP wars.

      Is this the type of society that we want to bequeath to our children and our grandchildren? Should we not be taking control of our own affairs and producing to all our needs based on sustainability? A world of free association, voluntary co-operation and mutual aid is possible, a world that accommodates us all as equals and prepares the world for the next generation rather than rob them of an existence. 

First we have to get rid of  C. R. A. P. Let’s start now.

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