Glasgow's May Day Photos.

        Sunday, May 4th, saw Glasgow's  (sanctioned) May Day parade march off from George Square, though there was a constant drizzle, the spirits were high. It was as usual, colourful and good humoured, with lots of great banners. Though it could be said it was a good turnout, it was a sad reflection of past May Day parades, not so long ago, that ended up in Glasgow Green with tents, stalls, things for the kids, a really family affair. It now seems that the powers that be want it over as quickly as possible, with a quick march through the centre of town, into a hall, get them off the streets and out of sight, have some bigwigs make a few speeches, then go home and forget about it all. That's not what it is really all about, perhaps next year we will get back to it being a celebration for all the family, re-newing old friendships, a remembering our struggles of the past, honouring our working class heroes, and furthering our cause of a better world for all. It should also be a mark of our resistance to this continued exploitation of the ordinary people. Well that's my personal May Day rant. Enjoy: 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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

May 4th. Glasgow's (Sanctioned) May Day.

 Glasgow May 1st. 2012.

First posted on Glasgow Anarchist Federation:

Radical Workers Bloc of Mayday March
Sunday, May 4 at 11:30am
South West corner of George Square (opposite Greggs) Clydeside IWW will be assembling to take part in the STUC post-mayday march, and welcome any radical workers to join them on the march itself, and then for an informal social after the march in Mono (10-12 King’s Court, King Street, G1 5RB).

Information on the origins of Mayday: http://www.iww.org/history/library/misc/origins_of_mayday

 ***ALSO***

Queer-Trans-Feminist-Sex Worker- LGB and more… Bloc
Sunday, May 4 at 11:30am
George Square

Lets walk with our colleagues, co-workers, community members in solidarity for ALL workers’ rights and against austerity. Against transphobia, sexism, homophobia and all discriminations; for sex workers’ rights! – join us!

**********

Mono Baby Disco
Sunday, May 4 at 12:30pm – 2:30pm
Mono Cafe Bar 10-12 King’s Court, King Street, G1 5RB

This Sunday MONO BABY DISCO!

A fun-time wiggle for babies, toddlers and early schoolers with resident DJ Sci-fi Steven (Bis). Come along!

Recommended donation £1 if you can.

MONO BABY DISCO is on the first Sunday of every month.

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

Through The Fog In Ukraine.

         Through the fog that surrounds Ukraine, a fog that is created by that Western babbling brook of bullshit, the mainstream media, it is difficult to grasp what is really going on on the ground. We are fed a foul broth of Western imperialist belligerent rhetoric, of tales of a handful of armed thugs controlling the eastern part of Ukraine, and how this threatens the happy smiling, but nervous democratic loving groups, in the rest of Ukraine. No mention of neo-nazi groups, fascist gangs and beatings being handed out by those happy smiling, but nervous democratic loving people in and around Kiev. 

       It is obvious that the people of Ukraine are caught up in an imperialist land grab and the conditions on the ground are being influenced and manipulated by the two empires squabbling over territory. What is being played out on the babbling brook of bullshit, the media, has nothing to do with the welfare of the people of Ukraine, justice, democracy, or peace, it is a propaganda exercise on behalf of the Western empire, preparing the ground for whatever action it might deem fit, for its purpose of expansion. Listening to the war of words between the two empires conjures up pictures of kettles and pots and the word black. 

An extract from an article, though with a bias, does through some light on what is going on  in that tortured country:

For many months the Western media has attempted to portray the so-called Maidan movement in rosy colours as a movement for “democracy”. The Western media has shamelessly concealed the leading role played by open fascist and Nazis organisations in the overthrow of Yanukovich. Fascist elements are present in the Kiev government and dictate many of its policies, including the attempt to ban the Russian language. They have begun to rewrite history presenting the Banderaists, who collaborated with the Nazis and perpetrated atrocities against Russians, Poles and Jews during the Second World War, as nationalist heroes. The reactionaries in Kiev brand anyone who does not agree with them as “slaves” or Russian lackeys. The deputy from Lviv in Western Ukraine, Iryna Farion, likes to refer to Russian speakers as “creatures”.
No Western politician could get away with such language. Yet people in the West, who rely on news reports in the media, can have no idea of how far reaction has gone in the Ukraine. Therefore, when they see reports of armed men seizing government buildings in the South East of the country, the only explanation given to them is that it is all the work of sinister forces sent from Moscow.
Kiev, Lviv and other Western Ukrainian cities are in the grip of a White Terror. Communists are beaten up and their officers ransacked and burnt down by fascist gangs. For instance, the Kiev offices of the Communist Party (KPU) were ransacked by extreme right wing thugs from the neo-nazi Right Sector and the Maidan “Self Defence” on April 9 and later that night suffered an arson attack. Offices of the KPU were also attacked in Lviv and other cities. Members of Parliament for the extreme right wing party Svoboda (part of the new government) beat up the state TV station director and forced him to resign. The same Svoboda Members of Parliament beat up Communist Party leader Symonenko as he was addressing the Rada criticising Ukranian right wing nationalists. Oleg Tsarev, a presidential candidate who claims to represent the South and Eastern regions, was beaten up by extreme right wing thugs after a TV appearance and then again as he visited Mikolayiv.-------

Read the full article HERE:

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

  

Murder With Intent.

        You walk through the air conditioned shopping mall and are surrounded by an array of colourful shiny shops, all displaying a kaleidescope of goods. They are all there, H&M, Gap, Adidas, and others, it all looks so innocent. However, a lot of the merchandise of these companies is manufacture in Indonesia, along the banks of the once beautiful River Citarum. A river that for centuries was the survival line for millions of people. They fished the river, they drank the water, it slaked the thirst of their animals, and it watered their fields of crops.

        Now thanks to the manufacturers of cheap goods for Western corporate names like the three mentioned above, the River Citarum is now a running sewer, as factories along its banks pour in a cocktail of toxic chemicals such as Mercury and other noxious poisons and waste. In spite of this the River Citarum, now among the dirtiest rivers in the world, is still drinking water to approximately 35 million people. Now the local trade has changed, instead of fishing, the local villages along its banks try to salvage rubbish from the river to sell, it's a living.

 

      Why should these people have to endure a range of horrific illness and the destruction of their way of life and livelihood, because corporations want to maximise their profits in the West? This is a form of slow mass murder, people will die from avoidable illnesses, others will live a life of poor and deteriorating health, all in the name of corporate profit. You kill somebody and steal their belongings, that's murder. You slowly kill thousands of people and steal their way of life, that's mass murder. It is not done through ignorance, these corporations are fully aware of the damage they are doing, fully aware of the consequences on the lives of those caught up in their greed driven quest for ever more profit. Not an impassioned murder, but cold blooded murder with intent.

 Sign the petition HERE.

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

1st. May, Glasgow, May Day, 2014.

 

    

      Glasgow's May 1st. May Day event in the city centre, held by a variety of groups, including Clydeside IWW, Glasgow Anarchist Federation, Glasgow Anarchist Collective, Faslane Peace Camp, all armed with a plentiful supply of books, leaflets, pamphlets, badges, t-shirts, etc. was well received by the general public, comments made, questions asked, and leaflets, pamphlets and booklets, t-shirts and badges, all going to interested individuals as they lingered in their passing. As usual, friends and comrades not seen for a while met up and exchanged chat. All in all, very cold for the 1st. of May, but a great day.

 

 

 

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

The Struggle Goes On.

        May day is celebration  day, but it is also a day to remind us that the struggle still goes on. Nothing has been resolved, we are still in struggle to protect our living conditions and to change the world for the benefit of all peoples. The corporate world is relentless as it works with the various governments to privatise everything in  the attempt to remove any social fabric from our society. The effects of privatisation has been more devasting and more brutal in some of those countries  where natinalisation was the norm. Below is an extract of a recent and inspiring struggle from  Bosnia Herzegovina, in particular, Tuzla.

       The multi-ethnic, industrial town of Tuzla in Bosnia and Herzegovina counts on a long tradition of workers’ struggle: at the entrance of the city a huge monument representing a miner holding a gun in place of a pick celebrates the miners’ armed rebellion of 1920 against industrial slavery, known as Husinska buna.
        After the nationalization of its factories under the socialist system of Tito’s Yugoslavia, in the last decades the industrial apparatus underwent a process of privatization which resulted in their bankruptcy and consequent job loss for most of the workers. The detergent factory DITA represents an emblematic case: while before the war it guaranteed 1,400 working places, after its privatization in 2007 its major owner — heavily indebted with bank loans — stopped paying pension funds and health insurance to the workers. Following the closure of their firm, in December 2012 the workers of DITA started pickets night and day outside the factory, unfortunately without succeeding to prosecute the owner

Read the full article HERE:

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

Finances Inhumanity To Man.

        How far has the social structure of Greece been crushed since the "help" from the financial Mafia and the Troika, (EC, European Commission, ECB, European Central Bank, IMF, International Mankind Fuckers) was first given to that unfortunate country? Apart from the 27% unemployment, approximately 60% among the young,  the doubling of suicides since 2010, the rocketing figures of homeless, the epidemic of substance abuse, and the massive increase in hunger and deprivation, there has been an increase in the prison population to the situation of gross overcrowding and inhumanity, as well as an unprecedented increase in immigrants being held in filthy overcrowded detention centres, (concentration camps).

         As the following extract shows, even in the prison hospitals, this inhumanity has reach new levels of inhumanity. It is difficult to believe that this is a 21st. century country in "modern" Europe. It is however, a level quite acceptable to the powers that be, as they continue their plundering of the public purse in an endeavour to regain some of their gambling losses. 

 

       Besides, prisoners’ fight is a struggle for survival and a one-way road, considering that complaints sketch out an obscure Medieval-inspired stage set. Two hundred and nine (209) patients at the prison hospital ward are cramped to suffocation in filthy “warehouses” fit for 60 people. All are suffering from severe, particularly contagious and painful diseases and 131 are HIV-positive. The number of cases of scabies, TB etc remains to be determined.
      Medical care provided consists in just two (!) permanent physicians, while the relevant appeal for the obligatory public prosecutor’s supervision as required by law has crushed into the indifference of the people responsible, who in fact claim that they “have a family” and are thus unable to enter the premises.

Read the full article HERE:

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

There Will Come A Time.

        April 30th. last day of April, last poem, of poem a day month, love, anger, cry for justice, memories, call for peace, and much more, a poem can say it all. However I thought I would end the month with a prediction, a promise.

THERE WILL COME A TIME.

There will come a time when the hordes remember,

who bound our grand-parents to the yoke of oppression,

who sentenced our parents to deprivation,

who bid poverty sink its teeth into our heart,

who teach our children,   greed is a noble art.

who sent our sons through the gates of hell

to a litany of cambist brawls,

crammed coffers with blood-stained gold

while laughing in Ares hall's.

"Who does these terrible things to us?" they will ask,

and when they remember,

they'll bring an energy that is endless

to drive a fist that is fearless.

Then this merciless market-driven world will crumble

under an insurrection of integrity,

the poor will emerge from the dark husk of capitalism

to live in the light of social justice.

There will come a time when the hordes remember.

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

Glasgow May Day.

       May Day, May 1st. there will be a gathering of like minded people on Thursday 1st May, from 12:30, in Buchanan Street opposite Gordon Street. People who believe that May Day should be celebrated on May Day, not some convenient day that wont upset commerce. 

        So if you also believe that the ordinary people should gather and indulge in fun, banter, catch up with friends and celebrate workers day, labour day, May day, on the proper day, then come on down and join them. 

      There you will meet Clydeside IWW supporters, members of Glasgow Anarchist  Federation, Glasgow Solnet Network, among others. buy papers, get leaflets, chat, ask questions, add your comments and thoughts on what is happening to your world, make contacts, join a group. It's your day, come and join us.

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

A Matter Of Spin.

        Two more days, two more poems. An old one, but as nothing changes in this system, I think it is still relevant.

A MATTER OF SPIN.

At last the poverty's more affable

now it's administered with a smile

we've entered the age of new waffle

old greed with a brand new style.

hard choices to curb the wealth makers

new policies to make the rich grin

plans to protect the wealth takers

it's all just a matter of spin.

New Britain's the envy of Europe

low pay's the call of the day

fat cats have plenty of scope

on off-shore tax-havens to play.

Welfare to work's the cry

that's when the illusions begin

to sell you some pie-in-the-sky

it's all just a matter of spin.

Ethical foreign policy's the new game

as the free market still prevails

watch East Timor burst into flame

with new conscience directed sales.

You know single parents cost us dear

our patience with disabled's growing thin

tough decisions are how we'll steer

it's all just a matter of spin.

Your health service is bankrupt

education is in decline

still,   we mustn't disrupt

the holy free market shrine.

23 billion for trident

900 million to a millenium bin

no need to seek your consent

really,

it's all just a matter of spin.

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

On The Road To A Sweatshop Economy.

     Yesterday saw the launch of Iain Duncan Smith's, ( I. D. S. Idiot Dickhead Smith.) Help To Work scheme. The idea is to help 2.3 million unemployed into approximately 500,000 vacancies, that works out at approximately 5 people chasing every job, of course it varies from area to area. In high unemployment areas the figure is much worse. How is IDS going to shove those 2.3 million into those 500,000 vacancies? Well by forcing people to work for six months doing community work, for no wages, if they refuse, stop their jobseekers allowance for 4 weeks, and if the refuse again, then stop their allowance for 13 weeks, so it's deprivation, or work for nothing. Another of I D S's ideas is to get longterm unemployed to sign on every day, can you imagine the queues at job centres, or will he employ extra staff at the centres, that might help bring done unemployment.

     If you are sentenced by a court for an offence, say assault, the maximum community service you would do, would be 300 hours, but those unemployed will be forced to do more than twice this, 780 hours. Obviously in this society, to be unemployed is worse than assaulting somebody.

        Whichever measure is used, there are nowhere near enough vacancies to enable everyone currently looking for a job to find one. Of course that doesn't matter, the idea is to get people used to working for nothing, then they might be extremely grateful when they are offered a crap job with crap wages. It is all part of the plan to create a sweatshop UK. The UK corporate bosses love Idiot Dickhead Smith.

        The fact that they have launched their “Flagship” policy, doesn't mean that it will work, as usual it will be ill thought out, ill prepared, under funded, under manned, and result in chaos, as well as heaping stress on enormous numbers of people. From ATOS, to Workfare, to the bedroom tax, to Help To Work, it is all about co-ercing people to accept the unacceptable, a low wage economy, and big bucks for employers.

        It seems that the lauch has, as predicted, has seen chaos on its first day. This from The Void: 

       Despite wildly optimistic claims from the DWP, today’s launch of mass workfare seems to be in chaos behind the scenes.  With barely any information yet available on the scheme it appears that the flagship Help To Work programme has no-one actually running it, no guidance for companies involved and no real plan to deal with the huge influx of claimants to Jobcentres from daily signing.

Read the full article HERE:

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

We The Poets.

April, poem a day month, draws to a close with just a few more poems to come.

WE THE POETS.

We the poets

must rise to hold the mirror,

not at romantic moon

dressing trees in silver web

but,   at sadness in a child's eyes

helpless face festooned with flies,

the listless look of hunger.

We the writers

must rise to hold the mirror,

not at hopes of superstars

pandering to an ego of selfish greed

but,   at misery of the world's maimed

duty done by smart bombs, computer aimed;

peoples crushed by pitiless power.

We the artists

must rise to hold the mirror

not at views from penthouse windows

of meadows green and lush

but,   at peoples broken by starvation,

at war, its brother deprivation,

capitalism's bastard twins.

If across the planet as a whole

we don't stand up and play our role,

poet;   heart of compassion,

writer;   voice of conscience,

artist;   eyes of justice,

we've cheated tomorrow's generation,

hurried the planet to extinction.

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

The History Of The Black Bloc

Nothing much on? why not watch a movie?


A history of the Black Bloc from the stimulator on Vimeo.

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