The Right to Peaceful Protest.

     Here on the streets of Glasgow, the same streets that John MacLean, Guy Aldred, Willie McDougal and many others, held meetings and protests attended by hundreds, we are seeing the authorities  trying to stamp out that tradition of peaceful public protest. If they succeed, where is your freedom to voice your concerns and anger at injustice?

    A peaceful protest held in Gordon Street Glasgow, on February 22, saw two young men arrested for no more than using a megaphone to get the attention of the passing public. How often have you walked through our city streets and some preacher has been belting out his "message" through a sound system and no large police formation and no arrests? The authorities only send in their minders, the police, if it is a political protest, they can't have the people voicing their concerns publicly, others might listen.

     There is  campaign to right this wrong, to hold onto our right to peaceful public protest. It is our city, our streets, our right to freedom of expression.

More details HERE:

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Austerity = Sweatshop Economy.

       I've said it, you've said it, it's about time everybody said it and acted on it. Austerity is about creating sweatshop conditions, it's about robbing the public purse and handing that wealth to the financial Mafia. All the chatter on that babbling brook of bullshit, the media, by "economic experts", is smoke and mirrors, it's gobbly-gook and should be classified as economic bullshit, it's a charade for your benefit, to keep you ignorant and subdued, while the financial parasites suck you dry. We are being bled to death by deliberate policies, adhering to a strict ideology. Austerity kills, but only the ordinary people, millionaires don't notice austerity, they're doing just fine.

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Bare-Knuckle Capitalism.

      Across Europe the state and its apparatus are tightening their grip on peaceful protest, as they continue their plunder of the public purse. As the public anger grows, so the state increases its violence against those who stand up for the rights of ordinary people. From the brutal police action in Greece to the recent action by EDF to bring a £5 million lawsuit against those who participated in a peaceful protest at their West Burton power station, it is all part of their policy of intimidation. The state and its partner, corporate capitalism, will not tolerate those who get in the way of their drive to turn the UK into a profit generating sweatshop economy. Here nearer home in Glasgow we witnessed this aggressive stance being taken by the state's minders at a peaceful "Glasgow Against ATOS" protest . The more we stand up for our rights the more likely the state will enter the scene with the gloves off, we are well into the era of bare-knuckle capitalism. It is all an attempt to intimidate, to get the people to meekly sit around and accept whatever the corporate greed machine throws at them. The following is from The Glasgow Defence Campaign and is asking for a massive show of support for those arrest while protesting against injustice.

***Any witnesses to the arrests, or the events leading up to them,

contact: glasgowdefence@yahoo.co.uk***

 

GLASGOW DEFENCE CAMPAIGN – FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

TWO ARRESTS ON PEACEFUL GLASGOW AGAINST ATOS PROTEST.

 

 

     22 Feb, Glasgow – Two supporters of Fight Racism! Fight Imperialism! (Glasgow) were today violently arrested, Friday 22 February, shortly after 2pm outside the Royal Bank of Scotland on Gordon Street, Glasgow city centre. They were taking part in a peaceful rolling picket organised by Glasgow Against ATOS, a campaign committed to opposing the French multinational ATOS and the government’s attack on welfare.

     Both those arrested were taken to Stewart Street police station and were released at approximately 18:30. They are facing charges of liberating a prisoner from custody, resisting arrest and using a megaphone. Court date is set for Friday 22 March, for which solidarity protests are being organised. In an outrageous attack on democratic rights, their bail conditions include a ban on attending demonstrations in Glasgow city centre. This is the real reason behind these arrests: to disrupt and destroy political activity.

Continue reading HERE:

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Who are the Oppressors?

Thought for the day.

    Who are the oppressors? The few: the King, the capitalist, and a handful of other overseers and superintendents.

    Who are the oppressed? The many: the nations of the earth; the valuable personages; the workers; they that make the bread that the soft-handed and idle eat.

Mark Twain.

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Wobblies Commercial??

A wee push for the wobblies.

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India, an Economic Giant!!!!

      Our babbling brook of bullshit, the media, continually spews out a vision of India as one of the world's economic giants, which in corporate greed, it is. As they follow Cameron around that country, what we see is an army of well fed, well manicured, wealthy parasites, living off the cream of a country where deprivation is endemic. Campaign after celebrity campaign goes on about the poverty in Africa, and believe me that is real poverty, but what we don't hear is that India has around 450 million people living in “dire” poverty. This is equivalent to all the poor of all the countries in Africa combined. A country lauded for its economic growth and it has more than 450 million people living on 12 rupees or less a day, (this is the measure of “dire” poverty). This army of deprivation has seen practically no reduction in the past 30 years. A recent document by the Planning Commission states that the poor of rural India were better fed 30 years ago than they are now. The Indian government's own figures reveal that of its 856 million rural population, 50% live in poverty trying to survive on less than 20 rupees a day.

       This wonderful economic growth that the Western corporate world looks at with envy, creates the same pattern as corporate growth the world over, glaring brutal inequalities. India is fourth in the billionaire league with 61 billionaires, who have a combined wealth of $250 billion, The 100 richest people in that country have assets equivalent to a quarter of the country's GDP, with its richest man having a personal wealth of $20 billion. Compare that with the fact that every second child born in India is stunted and under weight due to poverty and malnutrition.

      This is the pattern of corporate capitalist growth in country after country. Billionaires grow bloated on wealth stolen from the ones who actually create that wealth. Private jets, holiday islands purchased for friends and family, sumptuous homes dotted around the globe, personal assistants, personal trainers. All this wealth belongs to those who produce it, yet they are the ones that live in deprivation, our wealth is plundered daily by that small army of parasites, who, like all parasites, will continue to feed of our sweat and toil as long as we allow them. We need to wash our society and get rid of those parasites. 

     I'll repeat the verse from the last post:

We are the ones who knead and yet we have no bread,
we are the ones who dig for coal and yet we are cold.

We are the ones who have nothing,
and we are coming to take the world.

~ Tassos Livaditis (Greek poet, 1922-1988)

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---We are Coming to Take the World---.

Inspiring verse by Tassos Livaditis lifted from ROARMAG:

We are the ones who knead and yet we have no bread,
we are the ones who dig for coal and yet we are cold.

We are the ones who have nothing,
and we are coming to take the world.

~ Tassos Livaditis (Greek poet, 1922-1988)

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Greek General Strike.

Wednesday February 20, general strike in Greece, below is live stream;

Watch live streaming video from stopcarteltvgr at livestream.com

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A Creeping Killer Epidemic.

      We are witnessing a creeping killer epidemic, it is moving steadily across Europe and where it takes hold people suffer, people die, futures are blighted. Until recently Europe was relatively free from this killer, but know it is virulent and covering ever wider regions of Europe. It is not an unknown disease, and for years it has been growing in many regions of the world, mainly the Third World and the sad fact is, it is a preventable disease. This killer can be managed and eradicated simply by better management of resources. I am of course talking about poverty and deprivation. We should be alarmed as Greece is now entering that "Third World" category, simply on the back deliberate and predictable policies, policies that are being enacted across the rest of Europe. They will of course have the same results elsewhere as they do in Greece.

This from a recent meeting of ICAN held in Thessaloniki 

    A trip to the doctor or hospital now costs €25 – and climbing. Having a baby sets you back €800 – double that if you need a caesarian. Without the money, you’re told to ‘go home and do the best you can’. Free access to contraception and abortion have been removed. Vaccinations for children have virtually stopped. The big pharmaceutical companies now refuse to sell medicines to the hospitals.
   We spoke to a pharmacist who said every day she came across people who couldn’t afford their medication, and many who take a vastly reduced dosage to make it last longer. She told us: “In this corner of Europe, the situation is very bad – it’s tragic. People die through lack of access to basic health services.”Read the full article HERE:

    Why do we tolerate this ideology of emptying the public purse into the vaults of the financial Mafia? Why do we watch our brothers and sisters slowly die to gratify the egos of bullshit economists? This is not some God given system that is eternal, it is a man made system of greed, created by parasites. It can be destroyed and a system of justice and mutual aid built in its place. If not now, when? If not us, who?

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Postponed Postponement!

      How many times can the judiciary postpone a case on the grounds of "lack of court time" before you can call a halt, due to unfair treatment?

Census trial adjourned again

 

      Barbara Dowling's trial for allegedly refusing to fully complete her census form has today (19 February )  been adjourned due to lack of court time until 23rd April

 

     Today's decision continues a long history of delays. Barbara first appeared before Glasgow Sheriff Court in connection with these charges in September 2011, when she entered a not guilty plea.

 

      A US-based defence contractor involved in human rights abuses at Abu Ghraib Prison helped to run the Scotland's 2011 census. The contractor - CACI International - has tried for years to claim immunity from lawsuits relating to its involvement in torture and abuse. But people in Scotland who refused, as a matter of conscience, to participate fully in the census are being pursued as criminals through the Scottish courts

 

See http://www.ethicalcensus.org.uk/

 

More info: contact@ethicalcensus.org.uk  or phone  07936432519 or 07786630764

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Bedroom-tax - Poll-tax!!

      We in the UK are heading for some real battles and should be preparing now. Come April there will be the implementation of the "bedroom tax"  on top of increasing food poverty and fuel poverty. This "bedroom tax" will put three options before all those in social housing, if they are deemed to have an extra bedroom. As an "under-occupier" you can pay extra, take in a lodger or get out, non-compliance will trigger eviction notices. This is probably the most vicious attack in decades on the ordinary people of this country. The legislation comes into force and they are well aware that there isn't enough right sized accommodation to fulfil that legislation, but that won't stop them going for evictions. Even if there were enough right-sized apartments for everybody, but there isn't, the monumental upheaval to people's lives, sick, disabled, elderly, young families, as they are shunted around to the satisfaction of some millionaire cabal's bullshit economics, is inhumane, unjust and downright vindictive. This is "poll-tax model two.
       While our millionaire parasites that lord it in those Westminster Houses of Hypocrisy and Corruption are spewing out crap about it all being necessary and "for our own good" a UN official, Mr De Schutter, the UN's Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food, has stated that the explosion of people in the UK, depending on food handouts could represent a human rights abuse. He points to the dramatic rise in the number of food banks as evidence that governments had "failed in their responsibility not to leave the poorest behind". Here in the UK the number of food banks as exploded tenfold  since the start of the recession.
       This is the UK today, massive fuel poverty with energy prices still rising. Food poverty with food banks the only growth industry in town. A third of children living in poverty. Unacceptable unemployment among our young people. Being forced through "workfare", to work for free in some tax dodging corporate greed machine. Now the threat of evictions being heaped on the shoulders of the already struggling public.
        These are drastic times and drastic action by the organised public is the only answer. We may not yet be where the people of Greece are as far as deprivation is concerned, but we are moving inexorably in that direction, it is only a matter of time. It is inevitable, unless we the public, by mass organised resistance, come together and drive our society in a different direction. Another world is possible. 

POWER CUTS, a daily reality in Greece by docupraxi

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Bullshit Economics.

       Being a simple minded type of guy, I always get confused about national debt and GDP. However when it comes to world debt and world GDP, I get even more confused. According to those clever people who know what is going on, the world's GDP has been rising year on year and for the year 2011 it was standing at over $69 trillion. That's a lot of wealth to share between just 7 billion people, yet we have millions of people dying in total deprivation. Obviously we are not doing things right. As for the world's debt, well for the year 2012 it was sitting at approximately $51+ trillion. it is impossible to give an accurate figure as it is rising at approximately more $200,000 per second. That's an awful lot of debt and an unbelievable rate of increase. My confusion comes when I think of the world producing all that "stuff" at an ever increasing rate, and the world's debt rising at warp2, how come? How does the world owe all that debt and to who. Is there an office somewhere, just outside the world where we can make our monthly payments, and remember to get a receipt? 

       It is bullshit economics, it is insane, we the ordinary people of this world produce and distribute everything in this world to the extent of $69+ trillion and yet, millions of us ordinary people live in poverty and deprivation, and at the end of the day we owe somebody or group, a staggering $51+ trillion and rising. Don't you think that somewhere along the line, we the ordinary people are being ripped-off?

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Torture and the Scotish Census.

Support Barbara Dowling - on trial over the census on 19 February

Glasgow Sheriff Court.

Assemble outside the court from 9.30pm

Trial from 10am.

     Barbara Dowling's long delayed trial for allegedly refusing to fully complete her census form will be held on 19 February, in Glasgow Sheriff Court. Even if you can't come along for the whole of the trial, please show your support by joining us outside the court from 9.30am.

       A US-based defence contractor involved in human rights abuses at Abu Ghraib Prison helped to run the census. The contractor - CACI International - has tried for years to claim immunity from lawsuits relating to its involvement in torture and abuse. But people in Scotland who refused, as a matter of conscience, to participate fully in the census are being pursued as criminals through the Scottish courts.

See:             http://www.ethicalcensus.org.uk/

More info:     contact@ethicalcensus.org.uk

or phone:       07936432519 or 07786630764

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Imperialist Office Warriors.

      President Obama's inaugural speech last month was the voice of hypocrisy, The Prince of Peace stated, and stated without a hint of embarrassment, that “A decade of war is now ending,” --”We, the people, still believe that enduring and lasting peace do not require perpetual war.” What that translates into is, “We will not be sending so many of you overseas to kill and maim, you will be able to do this from a comfortable office in Nevada and Saudi Arabia.

     We are now seeing foreign invading troops preparing to leave Afghanistan without having achieved their object, since nobody seems to be able to say what was the object. That doesn't mean the end of the military campaign, the war will continue from computer screens in the form of drones. According to a report from the area of North Waziristan, from 2008 to 1012, there have been around 147 drone strikes, killing 894 people with 211 injured. This year has seen an escalation in the number of drone attacks in Pakistan and Yemen.

      The face of imperialist wars is changing, weapon laden armour plated boots will still be called on to do some of the dirty work, but this will be their cleaning up operations. The real slaughter will be done by young smooth faced office workers, sitting at their desks marking up scores on hits, just like any other computer game. Only this time it is for real, real bodies being blown to bits, real children dying, real homes being demolished. No need to be a battle hardened trained killer, you can make you way up the military ladder by having the highest score of hits in the office.

       Just to encourage those 9 to 5 office work killers and make them feel part of the “hero” brigade, they are considering creating a medal for the cyber-killers. Defence Secretary Leon Panetta recently announced that the Pentagon is creating a medal that can be awarded to troops who have a direct impact on combat operations, but do it well away from any combat zone.

     To those on the receiving end of drone warfare, the result is just as bloody, destructive and terrifying as any other type of warfare. There is no such thing as clean humane warfare. Drones of course sanitise it for the perpetrators of that destructive violence. You can kill from 9 to 5 and then go home to your family and have a night out. This is the new imperialist warfare. In an interview Secretary of Defence Leon Panetta. Asked by journalist Martha Raddatz whether the 2014 pullout of U.S. troops from Afghanistan would mean an increased reliance on drones, Panetta said: “ I think that's reality. We've done that in Pakistan. We're doing it in Yemen and elsewhere. And I think the reality is it's going to be a continuing tool of national defense in the future.”

     There is a ready trained army of computer literate kids, experts at computer games all well able to spend a few hours a day playing their game and getting paid and walking away as if it were “just a game”. It is a frightening thought, but it is our future, unless we do something to change the system.

 

 

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Spirit of Revolt.

      Spirit of Revolt is a group of enthusiasts who are passionate about collecting, saving and cataloguing material from grass-roots campaigns and struggles, in the belief that it is an essential part of the history of the ordinary people, and is free of party political politics. It is the part of our history that seldom finds a home and is lost to future generations. Each generation can learn from the actions of the past, but only if that past is available. That is why the group is intent on making all this material easily accessible through the medium of their website and the catalogue system of the Mitchell Library. We are also keen to put on exhibitions in various locations similar to our recent successful exhibition on Radical Presses Clydeside, held in the Mitchell Library foyer.

     This is the history of the ordinary people of the Clydeside area, part of our culture, and if we let it disappear, we become a people without a history, a people without a culture. There is also the point that without this section of history, recorded history becomes a distorted image.

     The cataloguing is well under way, images are being scanned on a regular basis and will eventually find their way onto our website. The website is slowly taking shape but still has a long way to go, images being the next big part of the project.

      Why not visit our website, have a look, make a comment, 

www.spiritofrevolt.info

      Though all those involved are unpaid volunteers, sadly all this work can't survive on passion alone and funding is always a problem. So we welcome any donation no matter how small, it will always be gratefully received.

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More on Freedom Fire Bombing.

        A recent talk on Circled A Radio about the recent fire bombing of the Freedom Book shop. Also a short video on how every man and his dog turned up to help put things right.

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From Wage Slave to Bond Slave.

  

     From our babbling brook of bullshit, the mainstream media, you get the impression that there has been a bit of a financial crisis, but everything is trundling along as usual. That magic panacea, "growth" is just on the horizon, so if you put up with "these difficult times" a bit longer, we will all be living on strawberries and cream and sipping champagne. Of course the pampered millionaire parasites who spout this crap live somewhere in a parallel universe and know nothing of our world and care even less.

      Take it from me, if we don't change the system, "these difficult times" are here to stay and get worse. I know I go on about Greece, but it isn't often that we get the opportunity to see our future before it arrives. In year 2012 there were 3.1 million people in Greece living below the poverty line, it is now 3.9 million, and rising, that is out of a population of 10 million. We are different of course!!! Well just as two unemployed people in this country won their case against our government's slave labour legislation, (workfare) the millionaire cabal have rapidly pushed through legislation to make it all right to be forced to work for the corporate big boys for free. Working for nothing is here to stay, as you are made unemployed you will immediately re-directed to some corporate body and told to work for free. That way we will have zero unemployment.

      We have over 2 million unemployed here in the UK, just think how that number of individuals working for free would boost the economy, profits would go through the roof. Slave labour, the corporate world's Utopia. Once it is introduced and accepted it will be part and parcel of the work scene and it will grow. One firm will fire you and take on a freebie, you will now become a freebie for some other form. This is the future of corporate capitalism. Poverty and deprivation awaits you, unless!!

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For Real Change, Occupy Everything.

       Most people when they think of the Occupy Movement think of streets and public squares, but that should just be the spring board. The only way to really change the type of society we have, in favour of a people's needs type of society, is to occupy everything. We can run everything we need without the breath of a CEO on the back of our necks. We already make everything, we distribute everything, the only real problem is that we make what we are order to make and distribute it to who we are told, and only for the profit of the few. Why don't we make what we want to make and distribute it to who we feel needs the produce. The parasites sitting on our shoulders are a hindrance to that better world we want for all. The people of Greece have been hit hard by the corporate world and the financial Mafia, but there are signs that they are on the road to real change. Factory workers, having been unpaid for months, decided to take over the factor and today they start production under workers assembly principles. just a spark, but who knows what spark will start a fire!!

Monday, February 11, 2013

Occupied Greek Factory Begins Production Under Workers Control

Occupy, Resist, Produce!

“We see this as the only future for worker’s struggles.”
Makis Anagnostou, Vio.Me workers’ union spokesman

      Tuesday, February 12, 2013 is the official first day of production under workers control in the factory of Viomichaniki Metalleutiki (Vio.Me) in Thessaloniki, Greece. This means production organized without bosses and hierarchy, and instead planned with directly democratic assemblies of the workers. The workers assemblies have declared an end to unequal division of resources, and will have equal and fair remuneration, decided collectively. The factory produces building materials, and they have declared that they plan to move towards a production of these goods that is not harmful for the environment, and in a way that is not toxic or damaging. “With unemployment climbing to 30% – sick and tired of big words, promises and more taxes – not having been paid since May 2011, the workers of Vio.Me, by decision of the general assembly of the union declare their determination not to fall prey to a condition of perpetual unemployment, but instead to take the factory in their own hands to operate themselves. It is now time for worker’s control of Vio.Me.!” (Statement of the Open Solidarity Initiative, written together with the workers of Vio.Me – full statement:Viome.org)

Continue READING:

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The Resources Are Already There.

    We all know that the world's wealth is very unfairly distributed, and that's putting it mildly. However although most of us are aware of this “unfair” distribution, it is difficult to grasp the extent. The world's population is approximately 7 billion and at the bottom end of this catastrophic unjust distribution of resources, vast swathes of this population live in unimaginable deprivation. While at the top end there is a small group of individuals with wealth that outstrips that of some nations.

    Let's look at the mass that struggle daily for survival and on numerous occasions don't make it beyond childhood. Approximately 1,000 people die from hunger over hour, mostly children or young people. Every 5 seconds a child dies from hunger related diseases, more than 11 million children die each year from preventable health issues such as, pneumonia, malaria, diarrhoea. In this rich and varied world approximately 1.4 billion people in the developing countries have to live on $1.25 a day or less, and it is estimated that 22,000 children die every single day due to poverty.

     At the top end of this unjust greed driven system we have individuals awash in wealth, wealth of unimaginable proportions. The world's GDP is approximately $70 trillion, while 0.1% of the world's population control $42 trillion and 0.001% control $14.6 trillion. There are 100,000 individuals with assets of $30 million or more and we have 11 million individuals with assets of $1 million or more. The top 20% of the world's population control 82.8% of the world's wealth, while the bottom 20% have less that 1%.

     Not by any stretch of the imagination could this be called an endorsement for capitalism, on the contrary it is an indictment against the system. What could you do with that $42 trillion controlled by that 1%? Well for starters it could pay off the entire debt of Greece, Italy, Ireland, Spain and Portugal ten times over. It could fund 187 years of universal primary and secondary education. Or an even greater achievement, it could fund the UN millennium goal for clean water 1,400 times over. It could also fund 250 years of climate change adaptation.

    So what does this tell us? It tells us that we have sufficient wealth and resources to see to the needs of all the people of this world. It is already there, we don't have to dream up where it will come from. The real problem is just that it is in the hands of a very few extremely greedy individuals, and it is the system of capitalism that has brought this about and will perpetuate this unnecessary unjust divide. To solve the problem of deprivation and early death from preventable disease, capitalism has to go and a society based on mutual aid, co-operation created in its place. It is not rocket science, it is common humanity taking place of greed driven profit. 

Most of these figures were gleaned from TNI.org.

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Reflect,Discuss and Act.

    From a flier distributed in Belgium and published in the periodical Machete and translated into English on Anarchy in Italy:

Memory is short. Day after day, we are bombarded with information. Screens tell us the topic of the day, and tomorrow it is necessary to talk about the next topic. There is no more time for discussing and reflecting. And when there is no time, the possibility that our ideas might transform into action is destroyed. In fact, we must seize the time forcefully, taking hold of it with all the violence that our will to think for ourselves breathes. Let's take the necessary time to think and act, outside of the deadlines those in power and their media dictate. Not in the presence of the institutions, not before the media centers. Because we are speaking directly, without mediation. And we can only address ourselves to the institutions, to all institutions, through the language of attack.-- 

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