PARANOIA??

      Conspiracy theory, Paranoia? Never the less, lots of interesting facts. Just pick your way through them.

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WITH FATE CONSPIRE.

       And now for something completely different. One of Guy Aldred's favourite quotations from Omar Khayyam's Rubaiyat and I must admit, one of mine.

"Ah Love! could thou and I with Fate conspire
To grasp this sorry Scheme of Things entire,
Would not we shatter it to bits -- and then
Re-mould it nearer to the Heart's Desire!"

Of course it could be called the anarchist's dream.

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AS THINGS GET WORSE, - THEY GET BETTER!!!

       Like me, you are probably baffled by the so called official unemployment figures. All we hear is shops complaining or closing, High street suffering, production contracting, public sector and private firms, paying people off, and then out of the blue come those magic figures telling us that unemployment has fallen for the second month in a row. In your daily travels have you noticed this fell-good factor washing over you? Have you started to miss your mates as they all now have jobs and your on your own? Me neither, so where do those magic figures come from, as things get worse, how can they get better? It is of course the usual smoke and mirrors of the state apparatus, giving its crystal ball a wipe or two, selective manipulation of figures. Mind you I wouldn't say that it was government false accounting, after all that sort of thing is more the realm of banks, their friends the corporate world and millionaires.

Here is one explanation from A World to Win, of some of their jiggery-pokery.  

Revealed: the harsh truth behind jobs figures

      Governments on both sides of the Atlantic have good news on jobs. Apparently. The real story is of people giving up the search for work and young people, in particular, facing a life on the dole.
Figures just out on the UK show unemployment falling by 82,000, and the number of people in full-time work increasing by 44,000 between May to July 2012 and August to October 2012.
In the US, Barack Obama and his administration are celebrating the drop in the unemployment rate from October’s 7.9% to 7.7% in November. At its peak, in October 2009, it was 10%.
Good news? Not for the majority of American or British or European workers.
      Look a little closer and you find that the percentage of working-age Americans who are either employed or actively in search of a job was reported as 63.6% for November 2012, two points lower than the previous month and the worst the country has seen since 1978.

Read the full article HERE:

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KILL THE POETS -- THEY MAY INSPIRE.

      As we are all told, the West will not tolerate dictators and repressive regimes, we in the West nurture "democracy" we choose our friends carefully. We sorted out bad bad Saddam in Iraq, we were the power behind the demise of cruel ruthless Qaddafi in Libya, we are 100% behind the overthrow of Assad in Syria, and we are keeping a watchful eye on evil Iran. We befriend such democratic countries like Saudi Arabia, where women are mere chattels, stoning and beheading are part and parcel of daily life. Another of our democratic friends is that beacon of freedom and self expression Qatar, ruled by a "democratic" despot, who recently sentenced a poet to life in prison for reading aloud one of his poems. It seems it appeared to be critical of despot rulers. 

This article from Panther Productions gives a detailed account:

    Life in prison may seem a harsh sentence for reciting a poem out loud, but it’s apparently what state security demands in Doha, Qatar, where a secret court delivered this sentence at the end of a short, secret trial in a state security case tried there in November.

      Muhammed ibn al-Dheeb al-Ajami, 37, a Qatari poet with a wife and child, was studying literature at Cairo University when the Tunisian revolution broke out in December 2010. Inspired by events in Tunisia and Egypt, al-Ajami wrote a short poem, “Tunisian Jasmine” [see below], celebrating the overthrow of repressive elites. He recited the poem to private audiences and the audio of at least one such performance appeared on YouTube, but al-Ajami says he didn’t post it, and doesn’t know who did.
     Qatari authorities took notice of the performance and, some months later, in November 2011, they arrested al-Ajami and held him in solitary confinement for most of a year before bringing him to trial. There is no allegation that he was otherwise tortured. The state charged the poet with “insulting” Qatar’s ruling emir, Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani, as well as “inciting to overthrow the ruling system,” an offense that carries the death penalty.

Read the full article HERE:

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PIRATES OF THE PUBLIC PURSE.

       I have always said that the "austerity" (I love that word, it makes it sound so efficient and harmless), cuts to date are nothing, compared to what is still to come. 2013 will be crunch time, that's when the boot goes in with a vengeance. Homeless set to soar, workfare propping up the corporate profits as people are "obliged" to work for nothing more than their job seekers benefits, disability allowances disappearing, condemning thousand of vulnerable people to isolation and worse, and the only jobs on offer will be low paid part-time. Meanwhile the grand plan of transferring all the public purse to the millionaires' old boys club goes on unabated and all public assets become corporate assets. On top of all the already legislated cuts that have been in the pipeline, we are faced with massive increases in energy prices and increase rail fares. Plus Osborne has stated that all government departments will have to find extra efficiency savings, (cuts), on top of what has already been passed. However, we have to be careful when we talk about "austerity", it is not quite universal. While you and I struggle to pay our way, there are those in this twisted Alice-in-Wonderland system that are doing just fine, mostly, those who do nothing, Company directors, traders in the financial Mafia, and of course, those millionaires who pass all this "austerity" legislation. 

       An interesting article from A World to Win:

Unions should resist rail and fuel price rises with civil disobedience

      Millions of people who commute to work are a just a few weeks away from a massive cut in incomes that will intensify the dramatic fall in living standards that the recession and austerity measures have already created.
       As people struggle back to work after the Christmas holidays, they will be hit by a double whammy of steep rail fare increases and the bills for electricity and gas that in some cases will show rises of nearly 11%. his amounts to a huge transfer of wealth to the train operators and energy companies like E.On which yesterday announced increases averaging 8.7%. These will naturally impact harder on poorer households, adding to five million already in fuel poverty.
     So too will the rail fare rises. Passengers on many routes face fare increases of up to 10% next month. Season tickets and peak fares are regulated and will rise by an average 4.2%. Many commuters pay huge amounts already. For example, an annual season ticket from St Albans to London is around £3,000. That will go up by over £120 in January.
Off-peak and anytime tickets in England and Wales are set to soar, according to the watchdog Passenger Focus because they are not regulated. An anytime return from London to Norwich will now be 9.2% dearer at £107.70. A day return from Holyhead-Llandudno will be 6.5% more expensive.
      The ConDem coalition is pushing ahead with plans to reduce the £3 billion plus subsidy to the rail industry, a process that began under New Labour. That will result in ticket office closures and other “efficiency” savings.
      The rail unions have launched a campaign to bring the railways back into public ownership. Today they were holding protests in Swansea and Cardiff. More actions are planned before Christmas.
They handed out Christmas cards with a "seasonal message" from the train companies, which promised commuters will have a 2013 "packed full of cancelled trains, staff cuts and ticket office closures" while the train companies are "making huge profits".
Rob Jenks, of transport and travel union TSSA, said:

     We want to point out the dramatic rise in rail fares, a 30% increase in rail fares, compared to the average increase in people's wages of 11.9%.  So you can see there's a huge gap between what people can afford to pay and what people are having to pay.
      It's about fares, it's also about all the cuts the industry is facing as the government tries to allegedly balance the books but without taking the opportunity to actually look at what public ownership would bring and all the savings that would make by cutting out profit and various other things.

     The Action for Rail campaign says that since privatisation, more than £11 billion of public funds has been “misspent” on debt write-offs, dividend payments to private investors,  and higher interest payments in order to keep Network Rail’s debts off the government balance sheet.

     At the same time, privatisation has failed to deliver on its promises. Genuine private investment makes an insignificant contribution to the railways, representing about one per cent of the total money that goes into the railway each year.  Our fares are among the highest in Europe, many of our services are overcrowded and rely on obsolete rolling stock.

       Obviously, there is no way the Coalition is going to contemplate public ownership as an option. And nor is Labour. Shadow transport secretary Maria Eagle has only pledged to make sure that the limit on fare rises is applied more strictly. That’s really worth waiting for!
       The savage reduction in living standards that will greet millions on January 1 is unprecedented. Rail unions ought to step up their action. RMT general secretary Bob Crow has in the past talked of a campaign of civil disobedience to fight the government. There couldn’t be a better time to put his words into action than right now.
Paul Feldman
Communications editor
11 December 2012

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BUSINESS IS BUSINESS!!

I just had to post this in full, from the creative mind of Teacher Dude.

     HSBC Systematic Investment Plan - For the drug cartel that is going places, a photo by Teacher Dude's BBQ on Flickr. Alphonse Gabriel Capone, Group Chief Executive, said: "We accept responsibility for our past mistakes. We have said we are profoundly sorry for them, and we do so again. The Mafia of today is a fundamentally different organisation from the one that made those mistakes. Over the last two years, under new senior leadership, we have been taking concrete steps to put right what went wrong and to participate actively with government authorities in bringing to light and addressing matters.

     "While we welcome the clarity that these agreements bring, ensuring the highest standards wherever we do business is an ongoing process. We are committed to protecting the integrity of the global controlled substance system. To this end we will continue to work closely with governments and regulators around the world."
In the past several years, the Board of Cosa Nostra - HSBC Holdings plc has taken decisive action to direct management to fix past shortcomings as they have come to light. Since 2011, with new senior leadership teams in place at both Cosa Nostra - HSBC Group and Cosa Nostra - HSBC North America, Cosa Nostra - HSBC has taken extensive and concerted steps to put in place the highest standards for the future.

     The Department of Justice has recognised these efforts in the DPA: "Management has made significant strides in improving 'tone from the top' and ensuring that a culture of compliance permeates the institution. The efforts of management have dramatically improved Cosa Nostra - HSBC Bank USA's and Cosa Nostra - HSBC Group's Bank Secrecy Act / Anti-Money Laundering and Office of Foreign Assets Control compliance programmes."

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CAPITALISM WILL NOT DIE PEACEFULLY.

       I keep saying we should be looking at Greece to see what is coming our way and to prepare the appropriate action to turn the situation to our advantage. Europe's problem is not the Greek "crisis", Europe's problem is the inevitability of capitalist "crisis". As far as the living standards of the ordinary people are concerned, capitalism is the "crisis". Until we resolve that problem, our lives will always be a struggle for survival while the parasites live in the lap of luxury. There is an alternative, there is a need, to start to create that society based on the needs of all our people. Any attempt at moderating capitalism is simply more of the same, just different degrees.

Taken from International Journal of Socialist Renewal:

        Speech given by Eric Toussaint at the SYRIZA youth festival in Athens on October 6, 2012 More than 3000 people were present to listen to four speakers: Marisa Matias, EU deputy, member of the Left Bloc (Portugal); Lisaro Fernandez, miners’ union leader (Asturias, Spain); Alexis Tsipras, president of SYRIZA (Greece); Eric Toussaint, president of Committee for the Abolition of the Third World Debt (CADTM, Belgium). 

 
       My dear friends, history is not written in advance. Several scenarios remain open to us. We can continue within the current chaotic situation, with more and more authoritarianism on the part of governments who are at the service of the banks. This can continue for years. Another scenario is possible, and is even worse – an authoritarian, neo-fascist scenario. That is a grave danger and a very present threat.
         But there are two other scenarios: under popular pressure, there can be a regulated capitalism, a capitalism of the type that was practiced in the 1950s and 1960s, a capitalism of the Keynesian type. That is a possible solution. But the fact that there are so many of us gathered here this evening shows that we feel that there is no point in limiting our struggle to an attempt to discipline capitalism. We want to go beyond capitalism. We want a democratic, self-managed socialism of the 21st century.
      Long live international socialism. Long live self-managed socialism. Long live SYRIZA. Long live the Greek people. Long live popular resistance. Long live the revolution, comrades!

Read the full speech HERE:

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BOMBING THEM IN TO DEMOCRACY.

      One feature of Western foreign policy is that other countries can't create democracy without the might of the Western military and Western government intervention. The powers that be preach this idiotic message that for democracy to spread anywhere in the world, it needs the fire power of the West, of course ignoring the fact that we don't have democracy here. People across the world can't do that for themselves, the ordinary people of Pakistan and Yemen can't have democracy unless we go in with our drones and special forces. The West's big lie is that by its war on terror, it is spreading democracy, when in fact they are creating chaos in an attempt at permanent domination.

This from Freedom Socialist Party (US):

      Who knows how many die from these attacks, since they are carried out secretly by the CIA. And civilian casualties are falsely minimized by counting every male of military age an enemy combatant. I guess “Kill-them-all” is the policy at hand. Hundreds of non-combatants have died, including a good many little girls and boys.
Obviously, this didn’t just start with Obama. Pakistan, the sixth most populous country in the world and territorially home to several ancient cultures, was artificially created in 1947 by the British Empire. From the beginning, the country has been dominated by a right-wing military, backed first by Great Britain and then the United States.
Since the 1980s war in Afghanistan against the Soviet Union, Pakistan’s state apparatus has been mixed up with the Islamic fundamentalists in both countries. In fact, the Taliban was nurtured and funded by the United States in Afghanistan. So much for the myth that the U.S. brings secular democracy and women’s equality to the Middle East.
      Only the people themselves can do that, and they are trying desperately. Before she was attacked, Malala said, “If the new generation is not given pens, they will be given guns by the terrorists. We must raise our voice.”
      Forty-four years ago (1968) Pakistanis, with women in the forefront, launched a stunning revolution. They forced a dictator to abdicate and ran society for 139 days. Workers occupied factories, peasants seized land, and students took over the schools and colleges. This can happen again and I have no doubt that Malala Yousafzai, and other determined young women and men like her, will be a part of that struggle.

Read the full article HERE:

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CHOICES, WORKFARE OR WORKHOUSE.

      This from The Crutch Collective on Saturday's Glasgow day of action against the governments slave labour scheme which goes under the pseudonym of "workfare".

Anti-Workfare Pickets Glasgow Report

      On Saturday 8th December as part of the Boycott Workfare Week Of Action a couple of dozen people from Clydeside Industrial Workers Of The World, the Crutch Collective, Glasgow Anarchist Federation, Glasgow Solidarity Federation, the Right To Work Campaign and other individuals leafleted a branch of Superdrug in one of the city centre's busiest streets. The one thousand leaflets given out highlighted Superdrug taking on even more people on the Government's 'Work Experience' workfare scheme for the Christmas period. The extra people on workfare means less holiday pay for the regular staff. There was a lot of police about and Superdrug had hired extra security for the day. However the combination of the picket, the leaflet saying, 'Don't Shop At Superdrug' and the added security costs meant we succeeded in our objective of costing Superdrug money for using Workfare. Thanks to everyone who took part. Apparently someone also left placards saying 'Superdrug + Unpaid Work = Superdrudgery' outside their other city centre branch.

    The picket also attracted some media attention from local journalists. The Sunday Mail, with a reported readership of around one million, mentioned the Edinburgh, Dundee and Glasgow protests, and their article, 'Big Businesses Taking On Jobless Young People To Work Unpaid Over Christmas', helped get our general message across to a larger audience. It appears to contains some useful information on the extent of Workfare involvement of a number of companies, but it also includes some of the distortions of the reality of Workfare by these companies and the Department for Work and Pensions. We would have to question if the newspaper verified any of the information in the statements of the the Workfare companies and the D.W.P.

http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/scottish-news/revealed-big-businesses-taking-on-jobless-1480979

     The Superdrug distortions - 'Work Experience' is not voluntary in practice. Job Centre Plus and third party workfare profiteers like A4E bully benefit claimants on to the scheme. Benefit claimants can have their benefits cut if they do not not continue to 'volunteer' to stay on the scheme, after they have been on the scheme for a week. Only a tiny number of people on workfare get jobs afterwards. For example it is 3.5% for the 'Work Programme' and that includes participants getting jobs with other companies and very short-term jobs. Stacking shelves for Superdrug is not learning a skill. Argos state that 'Work Experience' people work alongside paid colleagues, but don't replace them, but the permanent staff lose out on holiday pay. Why aren't all of their temporary staff paid? Of the 25% Poundland say left their 'work experience' early, because they received a job offer elsewhere, how many were going to get offered a job anyhow? Poundland also put a positive spin on 10% going on to get jobs with them, but that means 90% do not, while Poundland continue to make profits from all the unpaid labour.

     We brought forward the time of the picket so that people could take part in he UK UnCut Starbucks demo in Glasgow. UK UnCut have been making the links between tax avoidance, cuts to public services and their impact on women. The Starbucks PR machine has gone into overdrive saying that they will pay a few more peanuts in tax in the next couple of years based on their own estimates while they don't mention all the unpaid tax from the past in their media releases. It has been revealed that the tax payments will be paid for by cuts to the terms and conditions of the Starbucks staff. The IWW Starbucks Workers Union is looking for volunteer organisers to help them organise Starbucks staff to fight these cuts c/o -

PO Box 7593, Glasgow G42 2EX
communications@iww.org.uk
www.iww.org.uk

     One person did manage to get inside the Sauchiehall Street coffee shop with leaflets, but there was too many police for a Refuge from the Cuts to be set up in this branch of Starbucks. The demo moved on to create a noisy presence with cake outside the Starbucks on Buchanan Street, another one of the main shopping streets in Glasgow.

       From there a few people went on to picket the city centre furniture store of the British Heart Foundation. The manager of the store aggressively told us we needed a permit to hand out leaflets. This is another fake claim from BHF. When we told him we didn't need one he told us he was then going to ring the police and he stropped off phone in hand. Of course the police never arrived. A customer said that the manager said we were talking 'shit', but at the same time the manager had confirmed that that they do use Workfare in that store. BHF have had 1500 placements on 'Mandatory Work Activity' and the 'Work Programme'. Despite BHF claims, the schemes are not voluntary. BHF must know the meaning of the word, 'mandatory'. All workfare companies have to sign a contract saying that they will report anyone who does not show up for the schemes, which automatically results in benefit claimants having their benefits cut. BHF have vaguely stated that are 'moving away' from workfare at some unspecified point in the future, but hopefully this picket and others will bring their use of workfare to a halt sooner rather than later. They have been pressurised in to making another public statement, which could be a sign that they are about to cave in.

     We are already making plans for a bigger Anti-Workfare campaign in the new year.

Claimants Resisting Unfair Treatment Cuts and Harassment
A group of benefit claimants and supporters in Glasgow
Hopefully we will have photos of the picket here soon:
www.thecrutchcollective.blogspot.co.uk
www.facebook.com/pages/The-Crutch-Collective/132893236781931?ref=hl
thecrutchcollective@gmail.com

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WESTERN CORPORATE SLAVERY.

       This video shows the extent the corporate world invests in keeping the prison system expanding and why. Though this was an America report, this is also a growing industry in the UK with the government trying hard to get more corporate bodies to use prison labour as a cheap form of slave labour. In a corporate world, if it is profitable to keep people in prison the system will put greater resources behind that goal of getting more people behind bars. The usual right-wing cry of "tough on crime", longer mandatory sentences, all point to more people behind bars, more captive cheap labour. Ah well, that's capitalism for you.

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WE SHOULD ALWAYS REMEMBER ONE OF OUR OWN.

       Once again I am a day late, it must be some sort mental decay.  December 9th marked the 170th anniversary of the birth of anarchist Peter Kropotkin

From Wikipedia:

       Kropotkin died of pneumonia on 8 February 1921, in the city of Dmitrov, and was buried at the Novodevichy Cemetery. Thousands of people marched in his funeral procession, including, with Vladimir Lenin's approval, anarchists carrying banners with anti-Bolshevik slogans. This was the last large gathering by anarchists until 1987, when glasnost saw them hold the first open free protest against Bolshevik state communism for over 60 years in Moscow. In 1957, the Kropotkinskaya station on the Moscow Metro was renamed in his honor.

More from Anarchy Archives.

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FIXED PENALTIES -- ILLEGAL???

An interesting line of thought from MuirMatters?

       The motto of Northern Constabulary is Protect and Serve - Dion is Cuidich. Protect and serve Highland Council, NOT the public.

     The threats of violence mentioned above include for example "fines" and "On the spot" fixed penalty notices, “Fixed Penalty Notices” are null & void and totally UNLAWFUL, by definition …  the Magna Carta 1215 specifically says that “No property shall be removed from anyone - unless based on the Verdict of a Jury”.

     Failure to pay fines can incur arrest, which is violence, by Northern Constabulary. Thus Highland Council impose their will, by force and threat of violence.

Read the full article HERE:

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GIVING VENT TO THE DREAMS.

       It was a few years ago, but it did get to the people's imagination and sowed a few seeds, who knows what grows from that and who knows the spark that starts the fire. Let's keep throwing seeds, the more the merrier.

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PROFIT BEFORE LIVES, THAT'S CAPITALISM.

     A little bit more on that pinnacle of capitalist development, that citadel of Mammon, Walmart. It would appear that fire safety would hit their profits, so they decided that it was more profitable to risk the lives of thousand of workers rather than face a small hike in costs.

This from Huffington  Post:

     Last year, Walmart reportedly decided against aiding factory upgrades that could have stopped fires like last month's blaze at a Bangladesh garment factory.

Bangladeshi suppliers of Walmart clothes wanted to upgrade their facilities to make them more fire-proof, and other retailers approved the plan, according to Bloomberg. The plan only fell through after Walmart and the Gap said they would not pay higher prices to make such upgrades feasible.

Read the full story HERE:

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SHOT DEAD FOR SHOPLIFTING.

       Who are these people, where do they come from. They carry a gun, even when off duty, and don't hesitate to draw it and fire it, even although there is no apparent danger to anybody. It can only be somebody that lacks any empathy, a mind set that sees no value in other people's lives. I think that could come under the heading of psychopath, but then I'm no psychologist. It is a value structure that is straight out of Hollywood, society is divided simplistically into two categories, there are "good guys" and there are "bad guys". Of course you are always one of the "good guys" and the "other" is always one of the "bad guys". 

    After all a fleeing shoplifter, especially from a store like Walmart, could be a dreadful threat to the foundations of capitalist society.

This from The Mail online:

A 27-year-old mother of two has been fatally shot by an off-duty sheriff's deputy after he suspected her of shoplifting at a Houston Walmart. Harris County Sheriff's deputies have said that victim Shelly Frey, Tisa Andrews and Yolanda Craig  were stealing when they were confronted by Louis Campbell a 26-year veteran of the force who works as a security guard at the store. According to Campbell the women ran to their car and when he rushed to open the door, they accelerated away - at which point he fired the deadly shot into the car which hit Frey in the neck.

Read the full story HERE:

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HAPPY BIRTHDAY.

        I'm always a day late, but as they say, "better late than never".  Noam Chomsky, born December 7 1928, He helped to raise the profile of ANARCHY and ANARCHISM.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY.

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THEY ARE SKINNING ALL OF US.

This from ContraInfo:

      On Saturday, December 8th, by 12pm anarchists and antispeciests held a gathering at Syntagma square against the fur industry and the animal exploitation machinery. At 13.30pm they began a protest march downtown. A relatively small demonstrator bloc, with some 150 participants, chanted slogans walking on Mitropoleos street with momentum. They then took to Pandrosou street, in the tourist area of Plaka. The comrades carried out direct actions, spraying graffiti and stencils on the walls, and throwing paints on windows of fur trade shops which are located in the district.

    The demo was fiercely attacked as comrades tried to head back to Monastiraki, amid a consumerist and indifferent crowd. When they approached Aiolou street, the repressive forces blocked access to Ermou street beforehand, which is the main shopping zone downtown. Specifically, cops dispersed the antispeciest bloc by excessive use of tear gases, stun grenades and physical violence.

     The fascists in uniform chased people on the surrounding streets. Several protesters were assaulted savagely by cops. No detention was reported, however some comrades were beaten so heavily that they were evacuated to a hospital, while at least three protesters suffer head injuries.

    The State/Capital shows no mercy, neither on people, nor on non-human animals, and once again its mercenaries protected the interests of exploiters.

They are skinning all of us, every living being, to warm the pockets of our killers. We are at war on all fronts.

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INSIGNIFICANT LITTLE US.

 

       To those among us who think that we are somehow unique and very, very special in this universe, just a little reminder.

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A WASTE OF SPACE.

        As everybody knows parliaments under the present system are a waste of space, a waste of energy and resources, some more than others. Some individuals in these parliaments are a greater waste of those resources and energy than others and it is is always amusing to see one waste of space call another bigger waste of space, just that. All part and parcel of the farce that is the representative system under capitalism.

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STRANGE HAPPENINGS.

       The strange happenings in a police car. A 17 year old student is searched, handcuffed with his hands behind his back and put in the back of a police car, then shoots himself??

US.NEWS:

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