TERRORISTS IN THE COMMUNITY.

     It is pleasing to see the finger pointed at the real terrorists, we all know them but they tend to be invisible as they are dressed in the livery of the establishment's flags of respectability.
From Contra Info:

      Terrorism is the lack of basic means of survival, having your wage or pension taken away, your house confiscated by the bank, living among the pollution that kills. Terrorism is living daily with fear of survival. To most of society, the terrorists and criminals are those who govern: the regime’s politicians, the rich, and the privileged castes, which exploit the workers and prosper by simply participating in the economic and political establishment. The enemies of society are those who—after years of stealing, getting rich, and taking advantage of a barbaric and grossly unjust system—are asking us to donate our blood in order to save the life of the regime’s putrid corpse now that the system is going through the biggest crisis in its history.
—Political letter to society
Pola Roupa, Nikos Maziotis, Kostas Gournas
Greece, April 2010

ann arky's home.

THE GREED AND MADNESS OF THE CORPORATE BEAST.

      I previously posted about the Canadian tar sands project and referred to it as the biggest shit pan on earth, I personally believe that description doesn't go far enough. This project is corporate greed and destructive madness going completely unrestrained.

The video was taken from an excellent article on the Polizeros site.

Read the Polizeros article HERE:

ann arky's home.

A DAY TO REMEMBER.

      November 11 a day for remembering those who gave so much, a day to recall November 11 1887 the day the American state murdered five comrades now known world wide as the Haymarket Martyrs. Let's keep their names alive and the ideas that brought the state to kill them.

ann arky's home.

MUTINY, POLICE STRIKES AND REVOLUTION!!

     As the financial Mafia continue their plunder of the public purse in countries across Europe, and austerity bites ever deeper into the daily life of the ordinary people, there are calls for strike action. Professionals, private and public sector workers, disabled, pensioners and unemployed are all calling for action against this policy of enforced deprivation. However, there are sections of society that we don't associate with direct/strike action against the state, the military and the police. Though these groups are somehow seen by most as outside that sort of action and that they are the bulwarks of the state, history tells us a different story. Britain around the 1900's was a very rebellious country and in 1919 20,000 British soldiers went on strike and occupied Southampton Docks. 

From Libcom 1919: The Southampton mutiny:

     Following the massacre of World War I, a reminder of the strength of ordinary soldiers came from Southampton, in the middle of January 1919, when 20,000 soldiers went on strike and took over the docks. Robertson, Commander in Chief of the Home Forces, sent General Trenchard to restore military authority. Trenchard had witnessed several mutinies in the French Army and was quite prepared to employ the most ruthless measures. Nevertheless he underestimated the men as he approached the dockgate and attempted to address a reluctant audience. A chorus of boos and catcalls accompanied his remarks. The meeting came to an undignified end when a group of men took hold of him and gave him a going over before ejecting him. Said Trenchard:

"It was most unpleasant.. . It was the only time in my life I'd been really hustled. They said they did not want to listen to me. They told me to get out and stay out."

Continue READING:

        Then we have the police strike of 1919 which took place in Liverpool.

Again from that wealth of information Libcom.

The 1919 Liverpool Police strike. By Pat O'Mara:

   Shortly after the Lusitania riots came the Liverpool Police strike.* Perhaps the bobbies had just cause for bitterness, for theirs were the only wages that hadn’t skyrocketed with the war. I thought they were getting ample pay at the time but, like everyone else – excluding the manufacturer, who was the first to raise the cry of traitor to a striker – they wanted much more. It required a piece of legislation to raise the salaries of the bobbies and, as none was forthcoming, they became very restless and finally, in direct opposition to the advice of their superiors who pointed out the severity with which such an unpatriotic act would be dealt, they struck.

Continue READING:

      Conditions have changed since then, but we are heading into uncharted waters as far as corporate capitalism is concerned. Greece is in turmoil as the fabric of society breaks down. There are mass protests in Spain, Portugal and Italy and anger is rising in other countries across Europe. There has been struggles and unrest a plenty since 1919 but will/can the situation turn the people into a revolutionary force that once and for all destroys this stinking system of greed, repression and exploitation?
Another quote from Libcom:

      How near was Britain to a full scale revolution during these weeks? This must remain a matter for speculation. The Army was in disarray: soldiers and sailors councils and demobilisation clubs were being formed. Delegates from various camps were beginning to combine their efforts and resources. The number of strikes in Liverpool and Glasgow were increasing. There were riots in Glasgow and troops sent to occupy the streets were beginning to fraternise with the strikers and demonstrators. There were riots in Belfast and a national railway strike was imminent. From August 1918 until mid-1919 even the police force was affected by militant strike action.

ann arky's home.

WHAT COMMUNITY?

        There is a lot of talk about “communities” and how we should look after our “communities”. What is more this talk can come from left and right of the political spectrum. We can have Cameron and his Eton millionaires talking about the need to strengthen “communities” and we have trade unionists and activists talking about defending our “communities”. But what do they mean, they can't all be talking about the same thing, can they? Most people mean their neighbourhood when they talk about their “community”, but a neighbourhood, like a community, is not a commune, it is a very mixed bag of all manner of people, form shop owners, other small capitalist enterprises, professionals, government officials, workers and unemployed estate kids. All of these have different interests and in most cases, conflicting interests. To call for the strengthening of our “communities” is to call for the status-quo, the community or neighbourhood is a microcosm of the capitalist society that we live in. In this society that we live under, to call for a community loyalty, is just the same as the state calling for patriotism, there is no real common interest. The conflicts and exploitation that take place in society at large, take place in our “communities” on a daily basis. Why should ordinary people call for the strengthening of the subordination and restrictions that hinder their freedom of expression, and opportunity? It can never really be a community unless all its members have equal freedom of expression and equal opportunities. Once we have that, we can then talk of strengthening our “communities”, until then we should talk of taking control of our “communities” and shaping them to suit the needs of all those in that community, working from a position of equality. That of course requires getting out of the capitalist system.

I’M  PROUD.

I’m proud of my people, proud to be one of them,

that great mass on society’s bottom rung.

Those who, with coal-dust under their nails

in their eyes, in their lungs

claw at the earths entrails.

Their brothers,

cement in their hair

in their mouth, in their ears,

oil ingrained in their fingers,

on their face.

Sisters, glistening with sweat

midst the ceaseless noise of machines

that throw out shirts, shoes, toys, carpets

for other people.

Those with soil and sweat stuck to their skin

smelling of the earth, feeding the multitude,

grinding out their lives in a harsh pitiless system

weighted down

with a sack load of half-dead dreams,

sometimes brought to their knees

by a tidal wave of despair,

never defeated,

groping in the dark to find tomorrow,

keeping hope alive;

they amaze me.

Somehow, from somewhere

in this cold, cruel

unforgiving scheme of things

they find love for their children.

Not a teaspoonful, not a cupful,

but buckets full, to bathe them in,

to pour over them.

They seem to know

that one day this world will be ours

and to take care of it

we will need those who have been loved.

ann arky's home.

SCURRYING BETWEEN TIME SEALED VAULTS.

Taken from tenth issue of 325 Zine:

TATTOO

(to the sound of Greek bagpipes)

Today, the Greek Government

executed by firing squad

1000 pensioners, along

with 2000 workers, as part

of a package of financial

reforms, to reassure

the markets and permit

the Troika to release one

more tranch of the bail-out.

How one feels for the victims

In all this, the bankers

criminalised, shorn

of bonuses, the markets

bearish, nervous as

kittens, the green back,

the pound, the tsunami-

floating yen, scurrying

between time-sealed

vaults and safe-havens,

exposed to the sniping

of credit default swaps

as Molotov cocktails

rain down relentlessly

from Fitch’s, Moody’s,

and S.& P.’s. Will

the friendly Troika

contrive fresh reforms?

Will our young friend,

the euro, be vaporised?

Growth is a must, come

what may, be it 3000

health workers hung,

drawn and quartered,

4000 firemen burned

at the stake, even

the odd politician garrotted.

Landeg White

ann arky's home.

DO YOU GIVE A SHIT?

      I know for sure that most, if not all, my friends and comrades - "Do give a shit" -. Do you?

     I thought the facts and figures would be of interest to you as you sit in the luxury of your own private comfort zone.

ann arky's home.

COMING TO A CITY NEAR YOU.

    What is happening in Greece is a crime against a people deliberately perpetrated by the financial Mafia for no other reason than greed. The Greek people are being sacrificed on the altar of corporate fascism. What is more it will not stop at Greece, it is coming to a city near you--- soon.

From Teacher Dude's Grill and BBQ:

Park bench converted into a temporary home for Greece's homeless

Park bench converted into a temporary home for Greece's homeless, a photo by Teacher Dude's BBQ on Flickr.

      With poverty pushing more and more Greeks onto the streets, parks in the northern port city of Thessaloniki are rapidly being taken over by the homeless. However, with temperatures dropping and heavy rains predicted its not sure how they'll be able to last out the winter in such conditions.

     I asked the permission of those staying here before I took this picture. I had a hard time getting that permission but once I explained that my aim wasn't to show them but the conditions in which they were forced to live, they agreed.

 

ann arky's home.

 

STRANGLE THE BEAST.

      Why is the Greek government pushing for more austerity measures when the people of Greece have already seen their living standard devastated and poverty, and deprivation swamps the country? Will the bailout that it gets after inflicting even more misery and hardship on the people of Greece, go to the Greek people to help them? The answer is of course a resounding NO. The money will go back to the financial Mafia, to the bond markets and to the banksters. So to my simple logic, the only reason for the bailout is that if the Greek government doesn't get a bailout, the banksters will suffer as well as the people, with the bailout only the people suffer. It seems however that the people of Crete have decided to strangle the beast that devours their living standards.

This from The Greek Streets:

Heraklion, Crete: as the Parliament in Athens votes in further austerity cuts, a city shows the way forward for the struggle

Wednesday, November 7, 2012

At the same time that in Athens the new measures were voted in parliament and the protest outside was hit by repression and rain, some remarkable events in Heraklion, Crete show how the struggle against the memorandums can be intensified. At tonight’s demo in the city, more than 10,000 people took part – including an anarchist block of approximately 800.

The even more astonishing events took place after the demo though, where a mass Popular Assembly decided the following:

• To block off the city’s economic activity (not on a symbolic level) by blocking off tax offices and the bank of greece at 7 AM on Thursday.
• Meanwhile, the Labor Union of Heraklion called for another 24h strike tomorrow, to facilitate workers’ participation in the blockade. The strike was called following the pressure of anarchists and leftists present at the Popular Assembly.
• The occupation of the administrative building of the Periphery of Crete (the administrative HQ for the entire island) continues.
• Finally, the Assembly will produce a call-out for workers and unemployed across the country to take similar action.

ann arky's home.

WORKERS KNOW YOUR HISTORY.

Thanks Bob for the link.

Lifted from LandMatters:

     I have an original copy of Tom Johnston‘s Our Scots Noble Families from 1909. It is a treasure. It was reprinted by Argyll Publishing in 1999. Here, reprinted, is the opening chapter entitled A General Indictment. Read it and remember that politics and political writing once had revolutionary potential.

A General Indictment
     Before proceeding to analyse the methods by which each of our Scots noble families rose to fortune, and before I examine in detail the origin of their various divinities, dignities and privileges, it is advisable to take our canvas and lay on in primary colours a general and comprehensive indictment of Scots landlords as a class. The histories of our land have been mostly written to serve the political purposes, and flatter the conceits of our aristocracy. When the historian knew of happenings calculated to cast odium on our landed gentry, he carefully excised the records, and where he did not know, he was careful to assume, and lead others to assume, that the period of which he was ignorant were periods of intense social happiness, wherein a glad and thankful populace spent their days and their nights in devising Hallelujahs in honour of the neighbouring nobleman. And that is why the history of Scots mining is wrapped in darkness: that is why we never hear of the hundred and fifty years slavery, and why the collier of to-day does not know that his ancestor of a century ago was a two legged chattel, bought, sold, and lashed as were the cotton plantation negroes in pre-Civil War times. There are no popular histories of the thefts of the Klaan and Abbey lands. Even the sparse records of neyfship are never dragged out to the popular gaze.
     A democracy ignorant of the past is not qualified either to analyse the present or to shape the future;

Continue reading HERE:

ann arky's home.

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/

ann arky's home.

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.

ann arky's home.

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:

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