How Stupid Can We Get?

     I once had a lot of chickens, I was a bit worried about what might happen to them, so to protect them I paid for a group of foxes to be responsible for protecting my chickens. I then went about my daily business, working, watching football and taking the kids to the park. Then one day I went to have a look at my chickens and they were all gone. The foxes were still there, strutting around looking rather pleased with themselves, and they all look a good bit fatter. Was I rather stupid?

    Well just think, we have a NHS and we are a bit worried what might happen to it. So we pay a bunch of very rich people, who have a vested interest in selling it off, to be in charge of protecting our NHS!! One day we will take a good look at our NHS and find it has all gone. The very rich people will still be there, looking rather pleased with themselves and a lot richer.

 

Thanks to Mathew Lyall for the photo.

    That place of pomp, privilege and grandeur, The Westminster Houses of Hypocrisy and Corruption, is stuffed full of very rich people, many of them millionaires, lots of whom have interests in companies that would gain immensely from the privatisation of the NHS. These are the people that we pay to protect our NHS, while we go about our normal daily business. Are we rather stupid? Isn't time we got rid of the two-faced greedy parasites, and started looking after our own affairs? Ever heard of community control, people's assemblies, etc.? Is it wise to pay greedy millionaires to protect you from greedy millionaires? Perhaps you think that they are not really interested in wealth and power, and all they think about is your welfare, now that really is stupid.

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

What's The Difference?

       If only we would just think about it, and act accordingly, a lot of our problems would be solved.

Post by Cultures of Resistance.

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

Let's Hear That Mighty Roar.

         One poem, a national poetry day does not make. So let's all drown in poetry, at least for the day.

THE MURMUR OF THE POOR.

Brokers, bankers, Earls and Dukes,

callous, mercenary, pirate crew

gasconading through the land

bloated, pampered, privileged few.

Striding with selfish arrogance

plundering as you go

grasping at the fruits

the common people sow.

Take heed, you swaggering fat-cats,

in our world you don't belong,

that murmur you hear is the poor

rehearsing an angry song.

The day is fast approaching

when our chorus loud you'll hear,

then all your greed and treachery

will surely cost you dear.

A price you'll pay for being blind

to the hungry at your door,

Oh, hasty the day our angry chorus

becomes a mighty roar. 

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

All Men Shall Brothers Be.

      Today, Thursday, 2nd. October, is National Poetry Day. Go read some poetry, read it out loud, read it quietly, by yourself, read it to some friends, to some one special. Or better still go write some poetry, pour your heart out about your favourite flower, you greatest hope, your worst fear, the budgie that died, the birth of your child,. The subject matter is endless, just pour you self into a few lines and feel good. You never know, it could be a very fulfilling hobby, a wonderful way to express yourself.

HEAVEN.

The heaven I seek holds no guarded gate

nor boasts no throne on high

has no host on bended knee

no king to call us nigh.

Death shall not be our road of entry

no trumpet blast to show the way,

has no frontier guards for man nor beast

nor some far off judgement day.

The heaven I seek is here and now,

where symbols of power crumble like sand;

standing upright all men shall brothers be,

no one privileged with high command.

Vibrant life shall be our only passport,

the glorious morning sun our only sign,

with a true love of man and beast,

we can have heaven in our time.

(Not meant to be sexist.)

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

We Are All Creative Beings.

        In this so called modern society, work and poverty stifle creativity. You step from school on to the conveyor belt of work, and you are carried along with sign posts along the way shouting about the importance of "getting on", "getting ahead", gaining possessions, trinkets, beads and baubles. It's all packaged for you, just work hard and pop into the shopping mall and pick up the latest, "thing". No need to think, the ads will tell what is the latest and the best. Watch grand events, spectacular shows, no need to participate, leave that to the experts.

      How much richer would your life be if you got involved, in things, learned to do, started to create and participate? Just be, instead of an applauding bystander.

This from Not Buying Anything:

Author Kurt Vonnegut said,

      "Practice any art, music, singing, dancing, acting, drawing, painting, sculpting, poetry, fiction, essays, reportage, no matter how well or badly, not to get money and fame, but to experience becoming, to find out what's inside you, to make your soul grow."

        If you are like most people you harbour regrets about not following an artistic whim that interested you earlier in life, but was sacrificed for "more important" things. Now is the time to make it happen whether it is photography, knitting, or learning the Lindy Hop.
       When you have the time you can follow your passions. You can have fun. You can grow your soul through expressing your creativity. It will change you, and it will change the world.

Read the full article HERE:

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

What Will We Leave Our Great Grand Children?

        Can we trust the greed driven corporations and the puppet politicians that in their pocket, to honestly assess this problem and come up with answers that will perhaps diminish their wealth and power, but work for the benefit of all? I personally think that will not happen, greed blinds logic, it is up to the people to sort this out before it is too late, if it is already, not too late. What is the legacy that we will leave future generations? What will your great grand children inherit?

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

To Hell With Culture.

     Herbert Edward Read (1893–1968) was a British anarchist, poet and literary critic, among other writings including poetry, he wrote considerably on the role of art in education. Read was co-founder of the Institute of Contemporary Arts. He was one of the earliest British writers to take notice of existentialism. In the eyes of a lot of anarchists he blotted his copy book by accepting those three letters in front of his name, Sir. Of course that doesn't take anything away from what he said and wrote.

An interview with Herbert Read's son on,  "To Hell With Culture"

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

Where Do You Stand?

Where do you stand?

 This from Tahlure Niemy:
I am an Anarchist
I am not what the mass media tells you
I am not for violence, chaos, and disorder
I am not the mad max projections of the state
I am an Anarchist
I support cooperation, direct action, mutual aid, and solidarity
I grow food wherever I can
I protect the land base around me
I help others by lifting them up instead of pushing them down
I am an Anarchist
I do not want others to have power over me
I do not want power over others
I will not be ruled
I reject the power of authority and the state
I am an Anarchist
I am a white male and I realize the privilege this brings
I fight privilege by using my privilege to bring equality for all
I do see color and reject the ideology that liberals project when they say they see no color
I reject this ideology because the statement “I see no color” seeks to rob people of their history, roots, and struggle
I give my support, solidarity, and action to those that have been marginalized and oppressed by the state because of the color of their skin
I am an Anarchist
I am therefore feminist
I reject rape culture, sexism, and patriarchy
I seek equality because I lift others up, not push them down
I am an Anarchist
I do not believe in borders and nationalism
I believe in the free grouping of individuals
I do not believe I am better than anyone else because of where I was born
I am an Anarchist
I fight globalization
I fight this because it has caused the extermination of cultures, the theft of resources, and the destruction it leaves in it’s wake
I am an Anarchist
I believe in autonomy
I support autonomy because people are happier when they do what they are passionate about
I know autonomy is necessary to the creative experience
I am an Anarchist
I weep for the destruction of the cultures and ways of life that the indigenous and un-contacted people have lost due to Capitalism
I show my solidarity and support to the Zapatistas, Palestinians, Africans, and South Americans that have fought to preserve their culture
I am an Anarchist
I am an anti capitalist
I fight capitalism based on it’s destructive nature to the environment
I fight capitalism based on it’s sociopathic nature that some should live better than others
I fight capitalism because systems of hierarchy and competition will always lead to poverty and inequality
I am an Anarchist
I fight the murderous, racist, and homophobic police
I know that the police are rooted in racism because of their history as people who would catch run away slaves and oppress poor minority communities
I fight police because they kill us in the streets and get paid time off instead of murder charges
I fight the police because they support the capitalist system and protect the rich
I fight the police because they fight me
I am an Anarchist
I do not believe in the rule of government
I know that government doesn't help us but actually hurts us
I know that we can cooperate and organize with horizontal consensus decision making
I know that it is the people that make the world operate, not the government
I am an Anarchist
I will remain active in direct action
I will not ask permission to do something
I do not seek the authority of the state
I know that direct action is how we survive
I am an Anarchist
I have no compromise when it comes for the defense of mother Earth
I will block it if they try to ship it
I will shut them down if they try to exploit it
I will destroy their exploitation at the source
I am an Anarchist
I do not fall for liberal ideals in fighting the symptoms of a problem
I fight the cause of the problem
I will not waste my time with such reformist ideals
I am an Anarchist
I know that I am CisGendered
I know others are TransGendered
I identify as he or him
I know this because to be aware of gender issues is solidarity for the trans community
I am an Anarchist
I believe we belong to the Earth, not the other way around
I do not believe in ownership of land or possessions because they have never belonged to anyone
I cannot own something that has been stolen from the people and the planet
I will not take my land or house or possessions with me when I die
I am an Anarchist
I know that the only true freedom is when we have true equality
I know that no one is free while others are oppressed
I will not be ruled over
I am an Anarchist
I will not back down
I will never stop
I will be liberated
Solidarity

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

There Can Be No Peace Without Justice.

     The massive slaughter may have stopped, and that babbling brook of bullshit, the mainstream media may be selling other pieces of sensationalism, but the misery, hardship and repression continues. Gaza is still an open air prison, and Israel is still a brutal aggressive state, with genocide in its plans.

This from BDS:

       A month has now passed since the end of Israel’s massacre of the besieged population of Gaza.

      Gaza may no longer be on our TV screens, but the medieval siege remains in place and Israel appears more determined than ever to press on with the expansion of its illegal Israeli settlements.  

       As civil society organisations in Gaza have said, there is now a battle underway to ensure that Israel is held to account. The outcome of this battle will determine whether Israel’s latest assault will be yet another stage in Israel’s incremental genocide” of Palestinians or the turning point that will bring an end to Israel’s status as an entity above the law. The outcome of this battle depends on you.

       Palestinians everywhere were inspired by the international outpouring of support for Palestine during the Gaza massacre. Hundreds of thousands of people across the world joined the August 9 Day of Rage protests initiated by organisations in Gaza. Israeli ships were prevented from docking at Oakland and other ports in the US. Israeli arms factories were shut down and protests were held at hundreds of retailers across the world that sells Israeli goods.

      And we know that BDS is working: Israeli exporters are complaining that it's becoming impossible to export produce to Israel. Big companies like G4S and Veolia are scaling back their involvement in Israeli crimes. Latin American governments responded to public pressure by withdrawing their ambassadors to Israel.

      What happens next depends on how strong we can build the movement. Get involved with the BDS movement today:

 

 

 -       Read our Make an Impact page that is full of ideas on what products to boycott and how to be effective

-       Check out our Get Involved page for tips on how to start a BDS campaign

-       Contact us to find out how to join a local BDS group

-       Follow us on Twitter and Facebook to get our latest updates

 

       We look forward to working with you to build a BDS movement that can make Israel pay a heavy price for its massacre of Palestinians in Gaza. 

The Palestinian BDS National Committee

 

 

 

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

 

Oil And Religion, A Bad Mix.

      What is really happening in Iraq and Syria, where does Turkey stand in this bloodshed, where does IS get all their hard wear. Turkey has a vested interest in seeing the Kurds defeated, but as usual, it is all sold as good verses evil, when in fact it is all political manoeuvring for power and territory, by the power mongers. The blood of the people will be shed at the dictate of imperial ideology and religious fundamentalism. Under the veil of a battle between good and evil will lie rich oilfields.

     The corporate imperial West is very reluctant to arm the Kurds as they are building a form of federalism and people's assemblies, not the sort of thing the West wants to see in an oil rich area. No where in this can we say that the West is there for the benefit of the people of that area, the West can quite easily turn its back on brutal repression if the benefits are not rich enough for them. Brutal regimes can be our allies, friendly trading partners, as long as they play ball with their resources. It's when those resources are under threat that those same nations become evil empires and have to be destroyed.

This from Roar Mag:

       Moreover, the earlier defeat of IS by the Syrian Kurdish forces both in Kobanê and Sinjar has been interpreted as a slap in the face of the jihadists. Especially the fact that almost a third of the Kurdish militias are made up of women has served to shame the radical Islamists who prefer to see women covered in black robes from head to toe, rather than unveiled, independent and empowered with a AK-47 in their hands.

       The last important fact that has put Kobanê high on the agenda of the Islamic State is that this is the place where the Rojava revolution started on July 19, 2012, when the town was liberated from Assad’s forces and became home to the Democratic People’s Revolution. In this struggle, Syria’s Kurds have declared their autonomy from the state and have since been working to implement democratic confederalism and people’s assemblies as a means to govern themselves.

Read the full article HERE:

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

Being Bitten By The Beast You Fed.

        Analysis of what is going on in the Middle East will not be found in the babbling brook of bullshit that is our mainstream media, we have to look back at history. The West's hatred of anything Soviet, lead to the American imperialists handing a blank cheque to the CIA, with the explicit instructions for it to be pour that cash into support, training and funding any ragbag of nut case fundamentalist groups that would take a pop-shot at the Soviets in Afghanistan. Fast forward, through the bombing of Iraq and we arrive at ISlS, or IS, or ISIL, whatever label they wish, it is still the same fundamentalist religious nutters that the American imperialists deliberately created because of their psychopathic desire to control the world. Strange how things come back to bite you.

This from Wish Rivers Of News:

       (Parenthetic digression: obviously the CIA didn't directly intend to train and arm these aforementioned dangerous assholes: if they'd known where it would all go they'd have been horrified. But in the 1980s they didn't have a clue about Qutbism, so they handed an open chequebook to ISI, who in turn doled out cash and guns to anyone who would inflict grief on the Soviets in Afghanistan, and perhaps if Zbignew Brzezinski's state department had been slightly more forward-looking and clear eyed they might have pondered where all these angry young men with leet bomb-making skillz were going to go once the Soviets were defeated ... but that's all water under the bridge. Or is it? One thing's certainly true: western governments' track record in picking proxies to fight their wars for them are generally so disastrous that it's almost as if they were looking for rabid dogs. Hmm, time to re-read Chomsky.)
        And you know something else? If George W. Bush hadn't had such a raging hard-on for Saddam Hussein, if he hadn't railroaded everyone into invading Iraq, this needn't have happened. Al Qaida have grown into a full-scale scary government-shaped object with a revolutionary ideology because Bush created a power vacuum for them to expand into. (And Obama helped, by not actively propping up the weak Ba'athist regime in Syria — who are bastards, but at least they're not trying to destroy western civilization for a hobby.)
       It is to weep. But we've made our bed and now I suppose we must drop bombs on it.

Read the full article HERE:

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

It's The System That Stinks.

        Workfare schemes are an attack on all the ordinary people of this country. It is a process by which wages are squeezed and corporate profits are increased, they are a further step in creating a sweatshop economy, the corporate dream. Free labour paid a starvation allowance by the state, useing tax payers money, all to help their millionaire buddies. During this period of "austerity", the corporate world has seen their profits go through the roof, while we have seen our wages and benefits go through the floor, not an accident. The world is awash with wealth, the number of billionaires increase almost on a daily basis, yet, across the planet, among the ordinary people, poverty increases on a daily basis. Wealth is being sucked up to the greedy few at an ever increasing rate, workfare is just one of the many methods. Smashing workfare is a necessary step, but only one step, it is the system that is flawed and must be dismantled and a system of fairness, justice and co-operation, that sees to the needs of all our people, built in its place. However, don't expect the political parties or the large organisations like the TUC to help you along that road, it is up to us at grass-roots level to bring this stinking system down.

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

A Casino System Run By Addictive Gamblers.

        The economic system explained. We need to use the Amazon forests to make the paper to print the money to balance the books. The world economy is one large ponzi scheme.

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

I Will Inherit The Earth.

 

A wee message from the inner sanctum of my strange mind.

 Marginalised.

You cannot rob me, I have nothing

You cannot treat me like a dog, you already made me less than a dog

You cannot drive me to the abyss, I am already there

You cannot betray me, more than I have been betrayed

You cannot take my life, I have no life

When I breathe, you will tremble

When I awake, you shall not sleep

When I walk, you will know fear

When I rise, you will fall

I am dangerous, destructible, fearless, I am the marginalised

I will inherit the earth.

And from Percy Bysshe Shelley:

“Rise like Lions after slumber
In unvanquishable number-
Shake your chains to earth like
dew
Which in sleep had fallen on you
Ye are many-they are few.”

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

UK Slavery Is Alive And Well.

      The various workfare schemes slither their way through our society, and the government is hoping that this type of  unpaid labour will become the accepted pattern. You will leave school, try to get a job, find it almost impossible, sign on, and then be sent to some corporate greed monster, and work for six months for no wages, then back to signing on. The circle will be repeated ad infinitum. That way the corporate bosses have a large pool of unpaid labour, and that helps to keep wages down.

    The figure for unpaid slave labour in this country is approaching the 200,000. that's 200,000 people working all day and walking home without a wage. Who do you think gains? Failing to comply with this dictatorial slave labour plan results in your meagre unemployment benefit being stopped. This of course pushes you deeper into the cesspool of deprivation. Punishment for refusing to be a slave to some rich corporate greed machine.

From Boycott Workfare:    

⇓ There is a growing number of workfare schemes
⇓ Workfare is not voluntary
⇓ People on workfare placements are counted as "employed" in government statistics
⇓ Sanctions have dramatically increased
⇓ Workfare replaces jobs and undermines wages
⇓ The government is rolling out workfare on a massive scale
⇓ Workfare does not work
⇓ Workfare affects everyone

         There is a mass protest, 4th. - 12th. October, being organised against this humiliation of those people who can't find work, in a system that doesn't offer them any. It is time that we took this slave labour scheme by the throat and strangled it, before it strangles us.

 Again from Boycott Workfare:

     Forcing people to work for free through the threat of removing people’s benefits (sanctions) is unfair, unjust and wrong. In the week of action, tell the companies and charities who are profiting from this exploitative regime what you think of their involvement! Email, Tweet, use Facebook, phone them, protest, organise a flashmob: for a week of piling the pressure on workfare exploiters.

      We know these tactics work! Just look at how quickly Byteback IT had to pull out when you told them what you thought after George Osborne made the mistake of visiting them. This is just one of the latest in a whole list of businesses and charities that have also pulled out of workfare following our pressure.

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

Continuous Imperialist Intervention.

         The UK imperialist state's  new adventure in Iraq is added to a long catalogue of foreign interventions by both the US and the UK. Both nations talk of peace since the end of the second world war, but in fact it has been 69 years of continuous wars by both imperialist powers. Their military reach has touched a vast number of nations on the planet, killing countless thousands, probably millions. 

 UK imperialist troops in Kenya.

       They both wear the cloak of peace, while brandishing the imperial sword.

 US imperialist troops in the Philippines. 

      The US military has intervened in more than 70 nations, while the UK is not far behind. Together they have certainly invaded and intervened in more countries than any other nation on the planet. Yet they still masquerade as peaceful nations.

The US catalogue is as follows:

China, 1945-49:

Italy, 1947-48:

Greece, 1947-49:

Philippines, 1945-53:

South Korea, 1945-53:

Albania, 1949-53:

Germany, 1950s: .

Iran, 1953:

Guatemala, 1953-1990s:

Middle East, 1956-58:

Indonesia, 1957-58:

British Guiana/Guyana, 1953-64:

Vietnam, 1950-73:

Cambodia, 1955-73:

The Congo/Zaire, 1960-65:

Brazil, 1961-64:

Dominican Republic, 1963-66:

Cuba, 1959 to present:

Indonesia, 1965:

Chile, 1964-73:

Greece, 1964-74:

East Timor, 1975 to present:

Nicaragua, 1978-89:

Grenada, 1979-84:

Libya, 1981-89:

Panama, 1989:

Iraq, 1990s:

Afghanistan, 1979-92:

El Salvador, 1980-92:

Haiti, 1987-94:

Yugoslavia, 1999: 

Gulf war 1991

Afghanistan War 2001

The Iraq war 2003

Libya 2011 

Iraq 2014

Syria 2014

More details of these US conflicts can be found at Third World Traveller.

The UK list:

Greek Civil War (1944-1947)

Palestine, 1945-1948

South East Asia, 1945-1946

Malayan Emergency, 1948-1960

Korean War, 1950-1953

Anglo-Egyptian War of 1951-1952 (1951-1952)

Mau Mau Insurgency, 1952-1956

Cyprus Emergency, 1955-1959

Suez/Sinai War (1956)

Muscat and Oman Intervention (1957-1959)

Jordan Intervention (1958)

Indonesia Conflicts, 1960-1966

Ugandan Army Mutiny (1964)

Aden Conflict, 1964-1967

The Conflict in Northern Ireland

The Falkland Islands War (1982)

Falkland Islands War Images and Pictures

Gulf War( 1991)

Former Yugoslavia Peacekeeping Operations

Afghanistan War (2001-Present)

Iraq War (2003-Present)

Operation Phillis, Cote d'Ivoire, 2004 (MoD)

Libyan War (2011)

        Iraq 2014
Details of these UK conflicts can be found at History Guy.
    With this brutal record of intervening militarily in the internal affairs of so many countries, how can they still hold onto the illusion of being peaceful nations?

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