Free Science And Fun.

 

 

Blue Planet Day Science Fair

at the Platform Sat Oct 12^th 2013  
FAMILY SPACE FAIR at the Platform (the Bridge), Easterhouse
Saturday October 12th 2013 12midday-4pm, free

     The return of the science fair for World Space Week will fill the Platform with make-it activities and mysterious demonstrations. Climb inside an inflatable planetarium, see freezing liquid nitrogen, build your own rocket and test fire it. Meet astronomer Professor Martin Hendry and "Explore the Dark Side of the Universe", use telescopes - loads of free drop-in events where you’ll find a warm Platform welcome and some seriously cool science.

Email Rebecca.Crawford@glasgow.ac.uk

All is revealed at www.glasgowsciencefestival.org.uk

Visit ann arky's home at www.radicalglasgow.me.uk

We Are Blowing Pretty Bubbles---.

     

     What a shame this is not on mainstream media on a daily basis, however, that babbling brook of bullshit we call mainstream media is not meant to inform, it is the system's propaganda machine.

Visit ann arky's home at www.radicalglasgow.me.uk

Workers Know Your History, Hungary, 1956.

      It is true that the dominant culture writes the history, but it is never a complete history, and it most certainly isn't accurate. The 1956 Hungarian revolution is no different, the capitalist stooges perpetrate the myth that Stalinism was socialism, and capitalism freed the people of Hungary.

An interesting article on this matter  from The Commune:

      More than fifty years since the Hungarian revolution of 1956, the events have faded and their meaning and importance to socialists perhaps lost in time. The struggles, the barricades, the workers councils and resistance to Russian imperialism are a vague memory even for those involved in the movement at the time. The real struggles and aspirations of the Hungarian revolution will be reduced even further to the strong box of history by the official commemorations attended by the great and the good of the bourgeoisie who will claim the mantle of the freedom fighters of 1956. In so doing they will continue such myth as the decisive role in the fall of Stalinism in Eastern Europe was played by the prayers of Pope John Paul II and the foreign policy of the American President Ronald Reagan and his ally Thatcher.

Read the full article HERE:

Visit ann arky's home at www.radicalglasgow.me.uk

The Wrong Type Of Shutdown!!

     In our babbling brook of bullshit, the mainstream media, there is a lot of talk about the American government "shut-down", of course not much on an anarchist take on that particular situation. The following extract is from an interesting article in WagingNonViolence:

 

       Many may be surprised, for example, that actual anarchists aren’t necessarily rejoicing over the U.S. government’s latest form of self-annihilation. What they see taking place is a transfer of power from one kind of oppression, by a government that at least pretends to be democratic, to another that has no such pretensions. They point out that the shutdown won’t stop the NSA from spying on us, or police from enforcing laws in discriminatory ways, or migrant workers and nonviolent drug users from being imprisoned at staggering rates. The parts of government that the shutdown strips away are among those that bring us closer to being a truly free, egalitarian society: food assistance to ensure that everyone can eat, health care that more people can afford, and even public parks, where some of our greatest natural treasures are held in common. Meanwhile, ever more power is being handed over to corporations that are responsible only to their wealthiest shareholders.

Read the full article HERE:

Visit ann arky's home at www.radicalglasgow.me.uk

Secret Societies And All That.

       Members of "secret societies"  and other such organisations, passing judgement and creating legislation as independent unbiased individuals, can hardly be called "democracy". In fact it stinks, and our political and judiciary system allows this cultism, cronyism and old boys' network to fester silently in the corridors of power. In any fair society, you declare your interests openly for all to see, democracy can't live in a land of "nods and winks", and "nudge-nudge" and  "say-no-more". However that is where we live at the moment.

Sign the petition HERE:

Petitioner: Tom Minogue

Status:

Open

Closing Date for Online Petition: 29 October 2013

       Calling on the Scottish Parliament to urge the Scottish Government to amend the law or codes of practice to make it compulsory for decision makers such as sheriffs, judges, and juries at their courts, arbiters, and all panel members of tribunals that are convened and held in Scotland and  governed by devolved legislation, custom and practice, to declare if they have ever been members of organisations, such as the Masons, that demand fraternal preference to their brethren over non-brethren, or organisations which have constitutions or aims that are biased against any particular sect, religion or race.
          That a register of such membership is held by the various bodies that supervise such judicial and quasi-judicial tribunals and that access to these registers is given on demand to the defendant, litigant, or plaintiff wishing to exercise their rights to a fair hearing in accordance with Article 6 of the ECHR. 

Sign the petition HERE: 

Visit ann arky's home at www.radicalglasgow.me.uk

45th. Anniversary Of The Tlatelolco Massacre.

      Not much appearing in the babbling brook of bullshit, our mainstream media, about what is going on in Mexico. However, the struggle against this corporate fascism that grips the world goes on daily and across the globe. There is not a country in the world where the people are not taking to the streets in anger. From East to West, from North to South, the people are now aware that the system stinks and the biggest stink comes from the politicians.

     In Mexico they were marking the 45th anniversary of the Tlatelolco Massacre,(The Tlatelolco massacre, also known as The Night of Tlatelolco, was the killing of student and civilian protesters as well as bystanders by Mexican government employees that took place during the afternoon and night of October 2, 1968, The violence occurred ten days before the 1968 Summer Olympics celebrations in Mexico City.) when the usual state repression came into play.

     Intermittent clashes caused by anarchists against Mexico City Police take place in main avenues of Mexican Capital, Cops also made ​​arbitrary arrests of demonstrators peaceful and aggressive, 51 wounded and 102 arrested is balance of manifestation.

The first clashes between youths with their faces covered and police occurred at the intersection of Hidalgo Avenue and Paseo de la Reforma, one of the main avenues of Mexico City. The riot police used tear gas, shields and batons to disperse demonstrators who responded by throwing objects.

The mobilization, with the participation of college, academics, trade unions and social organizations, started from the Plaza de las Tres Culturas in Tlatelolco led by leaders of the student movement of 1968, during the march also involved young people who reject the reforms proposed by the federal government.

Visit ann arky's home at www.radicalglasgow.me.uk

10,000 Deaths Is Surely More Than Enough!!

       There is horror and anger at the UK deaths in Afghanistan, 444 young people killed in a pointless state adventure since 2001. Admittedly these young people put on a uniform and trained with the expectation that they would have to face the possibility of death, but the blood is still on the state's hands. However, the state is responsible for a greater number of deaths in a much shorter period of time here at home. The state, in 2010 introduced the Welfare Reform Act and tasked ATOS, at a profit, to reduce the disability payments bill. Those on disability did not volunteer, nor were they trained to face possible death, but their death toll under ATOS in three years is more than twenty times greater than the death toll of twelve years in Afghanistan.

From Demotix:

       Disabled activists and supporters came to Parliament Square for '10,000 Cuts & Counting', a ceremony of remembrance and solidarity for over 10,000 who died shortly after the degrading Work Capability Assessments run for the government by ATOS.

Read the full article HERE:

       No matter how you look at it, in Afghanistan or at the hand of ATOS these shocking deaths are on the governments hands, 10,000 deaths here in the UK in three years and hardly a whisper from that babbling brook of bullshit, the mainstream media, they have other things to report, Wills and Harry are doing “things”. The government is obviously delighted with the work that ATOS does, to the extent that this gang of corporate thugs has over £3 billion worth of UK government contracts. This system is all about making money, they can make money from harassing and bullying, and death is just a by-product, a little collateral damage that can be ignored. Think on these figures, it is not just the 10,000 deaths, though that is horrific enough, it's the humiliation, harassment, stress and anguish from that first interview to the death later on. The destruction of the last period in a disabled person's life. A period when we should be adding care and compassion, instead we heap degradation and misery. This is capitalism, where the god of money rules.

Visit ann arky's home at www.radicalglasgow.me.uk

The Slow Walk To Deprivation.

        In Greece more than one third of the population are living below the poverty line. Unemployment is running at 27.9% with youth unemployment a criminal 62.2%. These figures put Greece ahead in the grand plan of sweatshop Europe, but one country is not enough. The financial/corporate Mafia need more countries to get down to that level in their standard of living, to create the right circumstances to compete with the Eastern sweatshop economies. They need more people desperate enough to work for next to nothing, a more subservient workforce that has seen their working conditions decimated and the trade unions completely neutered. 

      In the UK They are taking a much slower road to deprivation and desperation. We have seen a 10% drop in real terms on our income in the last 4 to 5 years, with the promise from the recent Tory conference, that this "austerity" will continue until 2020. That's 7 more years of wage reductions/freeze, 7 more years of vicious cuts to social services and benefits. Where will your standard of living be by then? We are not there yet, but we are getting there. All other European countries are walking the same road, some faster than others. This is the legacy that we will leave our children and grandchildren, deprivation and desperation, unless we start now to take control of our own lives, our own communities. This struggle has been going on for more than a couple of hundred years and at the moment, they are winning. The final outcome is up to us, servitude, deprivation, or freedom to shape our own society.

Visit ann arky's home at www.radicalglasgow.me.uk

The Smothering Of Potential And The Destruction Of People.

      It is difficult to quantify the damage being done to the ordinary people of this country by this millionaire regime sitting in the Westminster Houses of Hypocrisy and Corruption. Is it the damage done by their smashing of the education system, is it facing the choice of eating or heating, is it the brutal attack on the disabled by ATOS, is it the working for nothing slave labour workfare scheme, is it the inhuman zero hours contracts, is it the bedroom tax, is it the lack of support when things don't work out in your life. Probably most of all it is the illusion they peddle, that this is a fair society, and if you work hard you'll do just fine. We tend to think that people could be hit by one of the problems mentioned above. However the brutal truth is that you can be savaged by some or all of these injustices, as you struggle through this greed driven system of exploitation, capitalism has no compassion. The damage is not a one-of blow, it is a cumulative assault on the person, that can and does damage them for the rest of their lives. Bullying, harassing, and degrading people is spouted as criminal, but our millionaire cabal, under the stamp of legitimacy granted to them by "the state", can do it daily and on a widespread basis, with impunity. Only the people can call them to justice, and surely our patience is running thin.

     The following letter was offered to Glasgow Against ATOS. It speaks volumes on what is wrong in this type of society. Bright intelligent, hard working people being destroyed, as their potential is trodden in the mire of an unjust and brutal system. We can surely do better than this for all our people.

Someone has very bravely asked us to share this honest letter to their MP. ***Warning: could trigger; report of suicide attempts.

Dear MP,
      I meet you back in 2007 at ***** school while you where presenting to the sixth form year. I was one the only one in that group to say I was interested in politics. You probably don’t remember me but I do remember you. I found your presentation very interesting and actually a lot better than the Lib Dem local MP presentation. You actually inspired my keen interest in politics.

     Since then I was presented with an Anti-bullying Diana award by Ed Balls, meet Gordon Brown and even had meetings (although short) with Ed Balls. I was also a founding member of the Young Anti-bullying Alliance. Then once I turned 20 I became an advisor to the group passing on my knowledge and skills to the younger members as well as being emotional support and encouragement. In 2011, when Tories and Lib Dem came to power, the Young anti-bullying alliance was disbanded due to decrees in funding for both the princess Diana memorial awards and the anti-bullying alliance. That was a sad day for all our members and it was heart breaking to say goodbye to the young people I had been mentoring, which also included young people from mencap.

       2011 was an eventful year for me as I also finished my psychology degree, and I have to say I was very fond of the psychology of politics and terrorism module. I learnt a lot and I was hooked on every word during the lectures. Despite being severely dyslexic I made it through my three year degree and had a great sense of achievement at the end of it.

        All of us left university with great ideas of what we could do with our lives, ambitions and lustre to work up the ladder in a career we would enjoy and keep us interested. Ah that almost childish enjoyment of being 21 again and gently nudged into the world of work. All of us started applying for work before we left university, looking for the best we could get and keeping our hopes up. After about three months of looking none of my friend group had found any work and we were starting to feel the drain of the “real world”.

      I can’t speak for our entire group from university, but I ended up getting to my 22nd birthday and crying because I had no job, no money and a lot of debt left over from university. I finally got a full time job in February, though it was far from perfect. I worked hard and ended up getting promoted in the summer.

     However I was working 60+ hours to even earn a decent wage. The hours took a drain on me and I ended up being diagnosed with depression in November 2012 the second time in my life. I wanted to hold onto my job but knew that I could not go on without treatment. So I referred myself to CBT. This only help to a certain extent but due to family commitments I had to keep working, I soon received a demotion as I could not keep up with my work load. This caused my first suicide attempt, which luckily my family intervened and my GP became very supportive of me. Helping me to take time off work and even stand up for me when I was given 40+ hours work when I should have been on a phase back to work.

      However my mental health was not improving and there were problems at home. I had no outlet and no ability to deal with distressing emotions or incidents in my life. Finally one day I was in a meeting with my boss, the word safeguarding was mentioned and I cracked like I have never cracked before. I could not stop crying, I was a failure and I couldn’t even do my job, my boss was also saying how I seemed to “space out” at work and I was thinking it was due to alcohol. I wanted to quit back in November and again during the meeting. However I was not going to get JSA if I left my job and I had financial commitments.

      April the 5th 2013. MY LIFE ENDED.
Everything I had known up to that day changed, I was rushed to hospital by my friends as I screamed and cried and tried to wrestle my way out of the car onto the motorway. I had in an automatic and uncontrollable moment bought alcohol after I left work, I had my painkillers with me and the roof of the car park at the back of town just looked as if it was a good place. I had tried to contact someone I felt I could talk to before this although I do not recall what time exactly but no answer. Anyway no longer having the courage to jump I decided to go sit by the abbey. It was a beautiful place and it relaxed me. I was sobbing on the bench as people walked past, downing my vodka and pills. I couldn’t go on living. I was in an unskilled and undervalued job with low pay and my family was a mess. I could not afford to move out from my parents and every part of my soul felt drained. There was nothing happy left. Society had drained me and far too quickly. I still wonder what the point of life is to this day.

       Since then I had spent 48 hours in an acute unit, 8 weeks in an acute day treatment unit and been on sickness benefits. I’ve had different diagnosis from reoccurring depressive disorder to depression and psychosis. I hear voices when I am distressed and upset. I do things which I cannot control and I feel like I am now a drain on society. However I decided that I will take the time I need to recover and plan on in the future becoming a productive member of society.

      Now that you have had my life story I feel I should explain why I am writing to you. Since your party has been in government I feel as if not only myself but everyone like me has been tarred with the same brush. We are called work shy, made to go to numerous assessments and generally harassed by your party for being disabled. I may not have a leg missing or some major physical disability, but that is not the defining point for being classed as disabled or unable to work.

        I ask of you to help stand up for people who do not have a voice. Such as me, I am only able to write to you, I cannot travel to London and protest because I cannot stand in a crowd without having panic attacks or a “psychotic episode.” I am scared to stand up for myself as I fear backlash from the public. I hide the fact I have mental health problems as your party continues to persuade the public of how we are lazy, workshy and undeserving of help.

        I understand that the economy does not permit the government the luxury of just handing out a cushioned lifestyle to people who cannot work and you are even trying to help people who may be able to return to work, one day reach that goal. However I believe that your party is attempting to, if not already, trying to breech the human rights of the disabled.

      Remember that a society is judged on how it treats it poor and vulnerable.

Visit ann arky's home at www.radicalglasgow.me.uk

Beat The Prying Eyes.

Interesting, typing free from prying eyes? I suppose in time they would embed the new font in the latest OCR systems and then we would be back to where we started. Or is that too simple an answer, I'm no tec-geek.

Visit ann arky's home at www.radicalglasgow.me.uk

Workers Know Your History, Communist And "Communist".

      To some people looking at the political split in the left here in UK, communist and "communist", it may seem as if it was always so, but in our not so distant past, anarchist, socialist and communist all stood under the anti-parliamentarian banner.  It was the formation of the Communist Party of Great Britain around 1921 that caused the damaging split that we are still suffering from today. It was because of this that the Anti-parliamentary Communist Federation, APCF was formed in 1921. For those who are not familiar with the history of that era there is a very good article in The Free Communist:

      It was hoped to create a Communist federation out of these remaining groups. The principle of federation — a federation of Communist groups developed voluntarily from below rather than an imposed centralisation from above — was always an important and consistent part of the anti-parliamentary movement’s proposals for unity. Aldred summarised the position in The Spur:
       I have no objections to an efficient and centralised party so long as the authority rests in the hands of the rank and file and all officials can be sacked at a moment’s notice. But I want the centralism to be wished for and evolved by the local groups and not imposed on them from a centre. . . . The Communist party, the real party, must be evolved through a federation of local groups, a slow merging of them into one party, from the bottom upwards, as distinct from this imposition from the top downwards. (August 1920)
     The idea of federation was coupled with a demand for self-determination — the British revolutionaries should determine their own policy in relation to British conditions, irrespective of what Lenin and the Bolsheviks might say. Lenin was faced with different circumstances, Aldred argued, and might be forced to compromise to save the Russian Revolution, but in Britain there was no such excuse for compromise:
       Lenin’s task compels him to compromise with all the elect of bourgeois society whereas ours demands no compromise. And so we take different paths and are only on the most distant speaking terms.
Or, more directly, we should stop ‘chasing the shadows of the great man [Lenin]. . . . It is not he who is running the British Revolution, but “ourselves alone”. The policy of looking to him to mind our business is hindering and not helping the revolution.’ But increasingly such advice from Aldred and a few others was ignored, as the move to join the CPGB gathered pace.

Read the full article HERE:

Visit ann arky's home at www.radicalglasgow.me.uk