Solidarity Wins The Day.

     It is always a good feeling when we can mark up a success in our struggles against the corporate greed machine. It is obvious that it was solidarity across borders that help bring this particular struggle to a win situation for those workers involved.

This from IUF:

 

     Worker occupation at food flavours TNC ends with strong union agreement

      Members of Australia's National Union of Workers occupying the International Flavours and Fragrances (IFF) factory in Dandenong ended their 5-day occupation by signing a new agreement which meets their bargaining demands and more.

      Faced with a united workforce backed by strong local community and national and international union support for their action, regional management flew to Australia to meet with the union. Workers ended the occupation and marched out of the factory on Friday night, January 30. On Saturday, negotiations began at the Fair Work Commission, and on Sunday workers voted to accept an agreement which brings a solid wage-increase over three years and retains all conditions which management had sought to erase.

     The union has warmly thanked the more than 6,000 supporters who quickly responded to the IUF call for messages to the company.

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

Internet Neutrality.

     The internet is an important part of our day to day life, making net neutrality a very critical issue for us all.

Here is the latest update on this issue from, Fight for the Future:

 Dear Fight for the Future member,

     To put it bluntly, it’s time to get serious. If you care about the Internet, click here to join the Internet Countdown.

     The FCC’s proposed net neutrality rules are expected to drop this week. What matters most right now is that we keep up a constant and sustained barrage of online protest between now and the vote calling for the best possible protections for a free and open web.

     The Internet is awesome at defending itself. As always, we’ve built the tools to make it easy for *EVERYONE* to maximize their potential as an Internet defending hero.

      Your voice matters. Click here to join the Internet Countdown for net neutrality.

      Participating is easy. If you have a website, blog, or Tumblr, you can grab a snippet of code to display this awesome countdown timer on your site, and help drive phone calls and emails to lawmakers in DC. If not, you can join with Twitter, and sign up to tweet the countdown, like this, either once a day, once a week, or just once before the vote on Feb 26th, it’s your choice.

     Thousands have already signed up, helping us reach more than 3.4 million people every day already. If even just half the people on our list did this, we’ll be louder than anything Comcast can dish out.

      Will you help us win a historic victory for free speech? Click here and let’s do this.

    The atmosphere here at Fight for the Future is electric right now. We’re on the cusp of a victory that no one thought was possible, and we owe it all to supporters like you.

With gratitude and hope,

-Evan at FFTF
    P.S. Exciting news! CREDO selected us to receive donations from their customers this month! The more votes we get, the more funds we’ll receive to fight for Internet freedom. To be clear: this is a way you can fund our work, even if you have no money to give. Tens of thousands of dollars are at stake.  Please click here and vote for Fight for the Future! It could make a huge difference. Thanks!
     P.P.S There’s an excellent article in The Guardian today that tells the saga of how a scrappy band of Internet freedom activists managed to beat Big Cable on net neutrality against all odds. We’re quoted in it. Check it out and share..

Want more awesome more often?

* Like us on Facebook
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* Keep us fighting, chip in what you can.

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

The Kurdish Question, Rojava's Communes And Councils.

    It is safe to say that most of North Africa and the Middle East is in turmoil, in a state of flux, with the babbling brook of bullshit, our mainstream media, spewing out a myriad of false and confusing stories, all of which are painting the West as the only saviour of those people in conflict. Totally ignoring our role in creating the bloodshed and misery in the area, in the first place.

    It is difficult to get at the truth of what is happening in that area and get at what the people on the street are thinking and doing, all our babbling brook of bullshit's misinformation, tends to be about institutions, religious, state and otherwise, and confusion reigns.

     I found the following article on Rojava, both interesting and informative, and also encouraging.

Quote from from Kurdish Question: 

 

     The system that we're living in has been going on for five thousand years. Different stages of history have given it different names, but at its core it has remained the same, and its main pillar is the state. This has to be well understood. In the last hundred years people have struggled against the state, and they have achieved independence historically, but they haven't achieved freedom, because they didn't emancipate themselves from the state. Their concept of freedom remains within the limits of the state.
   The current nation-sate system has opened the gates to the huge crisis that we are seeing. The Kurds have also played a role in this region—as our archaeologist friends have found out, they have left a mark on history and culture. We understand as Kurds that our problems will not be solved by creating a new nation-state. How can we overcome this chaos with as little bloodshed as possible? How to find a solution in spite of the existing state borders?

Read the full article HERE:

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

Illness As A Money Making Machine.

      The NHS as a corporate experiment, a chance to see how best to turn it into a money making corporate giant. That's what this government is doing, of course it is under the dictate of the financial Mafia. Though it is driven by the international Financial Mafia, we can still put a spoke in their wheel by making it impossible for the government to go ahead with this money from suffering experiment.

This from Sum Of Us:

    We knew privatising the NHS wouldn’t work -- and lots of other people said so too. But the government and the big health corporations wouldn’t listen. Now we’re the ones paying the consequences.
    Circle Holdings, the first private healthcare operator to take over an NHS hospital trust, has announced it’s pulling out of its ten-year contract. It says its franchise is ‘no longer viable under current terms’. We know what that means: it’s no longer making money.     It’s bad enough that a dearly needed hospital’s future is in jeopardy because of a misguided privatisation gamble. But the truth is much more grisly: the bosses installed by the private operator bullied staff and created a ‘blame culture.’ Circle pitted doctors against doctors and was allegedly willing to ensure local GPs incurred financial losses as long as it meant the corporation continued to make a profit. It’s time to stand up for our hospitals.

Tell our government to stop breaking up our health service and protect the NHS.
    This is a glimpse into our future: private corporations managing hospitals based on what will be most profitable, rather than what will deliver the best care to patients. And, when the arrangement inevitably collapses, it’s the British people that will be left to pick up the pieces -- and pay the bill.      The only way to save the NHS is to fund it properly -- that’s what doctors want, it’s what patients want, and it’s what everyone wants. The only ones who don’t want it are free-market ideologues who think that privatisation is a magic bullet that can save hospitals that are underfunded and understaffed.

Well, now we know that’s simply not true.
Defend the our health service and tell David Cameron to stop privatising the NHS.
Thanks for all that you do,
Martin, Katherine, and the rest of the SumOfUs team

More information:

Hinchingbrooke Hospital: Circle to withdraw from contract, BBC, January 9, 2015 
Battle with GPs led to Circle’s retreat from Hinchingbrooke hospital, The Guardian, January 9, 2015
Hinchingbrooke staff in CQC 'abuse' concerns 'fear bosses', BBC, September 29, 2014 

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

Operation Pandora, Bail Money Required.

     An update and appeal on behalf of the Spanish anarchists held under the draconian Operation Pandora. 

From Contra Info:

Urgent! Money needed for bail!
The seven imprisoned comrades from Operation Pandora are expected to be released on bail this Friday evening, January 30th, 2015. The judge has ordered that they each pay a bail of 3,000 euros to be released on provisional liberty. Donations are urgently needed in order to pay their bail (a total of 21,000 euros). Please spread the news.
Below is the bank account information for sending money:
ES68 3025 0001 19 1433523907 (Caixa d’Enginyers)

A few more details here: efecto pandora

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

Henry Kissinger, Citizens Arrest.

     There are some brave people in this world, and among them we should include those women in America who go by the name of Code Pink. They are persistent and well organised in there anti-militarism campaign, among other injustices they see.

     On the 29th January, in the American Senate, during an Armed Services Committee hearing, they attempted a citizens arrest of that arch organiser of state bloodshed, Henry Kissinger. Of course the Chairman of the hearing, Senator John McCain, berated them, calling they low life scum, if there is anyone who could recognise that life form it would be him, as he is part of that genre.

From Code Pink:

Alli and Anna Kaminski read the arrest warrant! 

     Did you hear? CODEPINK took the Senate by storm yesterday by attempting a citizens' arrest of Henry Kissinger while he was testifying in the Senate Armed Services Committee hearing! Chairman of the hearing, Senator John McCain, responded by referring to us as “despicable," "disgraceful," and "low life scum” –– and we couldn’t be prouder.

 

Alli McCracken dangles plastic handcuffs at Kissinger  

     For over a decade, CODEPINK has been holding war criminals accountable for their actions. We’ve exposed the lies in the halls of power in Washington DC and across the country, starting with the Bush administration and continuing into the Obama years, but never forgetting the grave offenses committed by people before them, like Henry Kissinger. Check out more pictures from the arrest on our Facebook page!    But our work isn’t possible without you. Please consider supporting our work by making a donation today.

For justice and accountability,
Alli, Anna, Janet, Jodie, Katie, Kristin, Medea, Nalini, Nancy, Nathan, Sergei, Sophia and Tighe

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

  

And In France, Also Infected By Paranoia.

    Another little snippet on the paranoid state getting us to spy and snitch on each other, and how children are a threat. It is not just the UK, it is universal.
This from Lenin's Tomb:

Eight year old boy arrested for glorification of terrorism posted by Richard Seymour

      That 'free speech' again.  French press brings us news of a little boy named Ahmed who 'glorified terrorism', and was duly shopped to the police by the teacher and head of school.

     Apparently, when asked in class, on 8th January, if he was 'Charlie', he replied that he was not.  He didn't like Charlie Hebdo's cartoons, and that his feelings were with the terrorists.  "I am the terrorists, because I am against the cartoonists of the Prophet."

     The head of the school later apprehended Ahmed while he played in a sandpit, saying "stop digging in the sand, you will not find a machine gun there to kill us all with".  Subsequently, the boy's father accompanied him to school on a couple of occasions, Ahmed being rather distressed and out of sorts by the treatment he was subjected to.

    Then on 21st January, the head of the school decided to press charges against the little boy and his father.  The boy was reported to police for 'glorification of terrorism', and the father for 'trespassing' when he accompanied the boy to the school.   Both father and son were forced to report to the police station in Nice St Augustine, to answer these charges.

    This follows a series of arrests and the recent suspension of a teacher who was also referred for judicial investigation for resisting the 'moment's silence' for Charlie Hebdo.  The school rector launched a rally for "republican" values after noting the "unacceptable" failure of some teachers to comply with the moment's silence, and having launched an immediate investigation.

    Ahmed now has a lawyer, who said: "We are facing a collective hysteria. My client is 8 years old! He does not realize the scope of his words. It's insane."

     Yes, it's insane.  Thankfully, the pup-eyed Charlies who were recently beseeching hashtagged international solidarity, and rallying to the defence of free speech, will not have abandoned the fight so soon.  They, surely - and there are so many of them - will not let the Ahmeds down.  They will spring into action with the swift, passionate alacrity that we have already seen they are capable of.  Won't they?

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

"Radicalism".

      The state, to survive becomes ever more paranoid, and sees an enemy in every nook and cranny. It will continually introduce legislation to spy, pry and monitor, every aspect of our lives, from early age, to old age, you are a suspect. New spectres are raised in an attempt to legitimise their ever increasing control over our lives. The latest spectre is "radicalism". We are being warned to watch for any signs of "radicalism" and report it to the authorities. It would perhaps be more useful if we had a debate on what is "radicalism". After all, in this society it is radical to suggest that the fruits of our labour should be to see to the needs of all, not for the benefit of the few.

      However the latest flow of bilge water from the mouth of fascist, two-faced, Home Secretary, Teresa May, seeks to find "radicalism" in our pre-school kids. Those who care for children are being asked to watch for signs of "radicalism", and report it to the authorities. Will we soon find three year old Jean, and four year old John, being dragged into by MI6 for interrogation, because of their "radicalism", and perhaps subjected to some mind altering psychology, to put them on the road to submission and servility.

      The state needs war to justify its existence, if not a foreign blood letting war, such as Iraq or Afghanistan, then an array of pygmy wars, such as "war on terrorism", and now an internal war, a "war on Radicalism". When will we rid ourselves of this octopus of interference the state, this cancer that destroys our freedom of expression, speech and thought? This unnecessary chain and shackle on our liberty, that wants us all to spy and snitch on each other? We can organise our communities my mutual aid, co-operation and free association, without this crippling, prying monster whose only aim is self perpetuation and control.

This from today's Herald:

    Under the Home Office proposals, staff at pre-school nurseries would be required to monitor children for signs of radicalism. Speakers at universities would be vetted for any signs of extremist views that would support or encourage terrorism.
   Colleges and universities would have to provide details to the authorities of who is due to speak at least two weeks before they are due to appear. It would enable background checks to be carried out to find out if they have promoted extremism.
      They must also provide advance notice of the content, including an outline of the topics to be covered. It also suggests, where appropriate, universities should have protocols to pool information about speakers.
   The plans are outlined in a consultative document which accompanies Home Secretary Theresa May's Counter Terrorism and Security Bill.
   However, the proposals face a growing backlash. Scotland's children's commissioner Tam Baillie warned, if passed, they could split communities.
    In a letter in today's Herald, Mr Baillie, Jackie Brock, chief executive of Children in Scotland, Maggie Simpson, who heads the Scottish Childminding Association, Jean Carwood-Edwards of the Scottish Pre-School Play Association said it could impact on how staff work with children.
    They said: "Among many staff caring for and working with children, these duties would fall on, for example, the childminder of a three-year-old and the nursery teacher of a two-year-old.

Read the full article HERE:

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

Let's Kill TTIP.

     TTIP is grinding on, its draconian undemocratic legislation is being fine-tuned in the dark corridors of corrupt secret power. Away from the eyes and ears of the public, politicians and moguls of corporate power are sorting out the world to suit big business, and to hell with any form of. or any hint of, democracy. You are not privy to how big business will use you to benefit profits. Your elected officials will have no control of, nor power over, the corporate world, Corporate power rules with a free hand, and will have the power to alter any legislation brought forward by elected politicians. If big business doesn't like it, it wont happen. If big business likes it, and we don't, they win, so tough luck for us.

     Don't just sit around until it happens, organise against TTIP, protest loudly and often, it is corporatism write large.

      The following is a video on regulatory cooperation in the TTIP negotiations, a joint project of SumOfUs, Corporate Europe Observatory (CEO), LobbyControl, Seattle to Brussels Network and Campact.

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

We The Labouring Masses.

     What insanity we tolerate, we who create everything, live with poverty continually knocking at our door, and those who create nothing wallow in unimaginable wealth, and splendour. We sweat and toil to feed an army of parasites. From the fishing boat, to the super luxury yacht, from the football stadium to the lakeside mansion, we created them. Then because of some totally irrational line of thought, we hand them to the do nothing brigade, who grow fatter and fatter on our sweat.

 

WE THE LABOURING MASSES.

We the people have, every brick laid,

have fed the world with sweat and spade,

every instrument played in every band

created by the skill of the craftsman's hand.

We made every truck and every load,

our toil our effort every winding road,

every ship that ever sailed the sea,

our power our imagination made it be.

Cities and towns large and small,

our labouring hands fashioned them all,

every home, every spire,

luxury mansion or humble byre.

No matter what dreams the mind might spawn

without labour's hand they'll never see the light of dawn,

without labour's strength and labour's skill,

we would be foraging beasts in a jungle still.

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

Why Pay Workers When You Can Get Them For Free?

 

      You never see that much about workfare in our babbling brook of bullshit, the mainstream media. It is one of those many things in this society, that gurgle away in the background like a stinking sewer, and people somehow start not to notice. Basically if you are unemployed you are given a job-seekers allowance while you look for PAID employment. However, in workfare, the state takes this out of your hands, and forces you into employment without pay, and you have no choice, if you refuse, you will be sanctioned, your benefits stopped. There is a continual waffle, from the powers that be, about how this helps you into full time employment. There is of course, no evidence what so ever to support this bullshit. 

      It is nothing more or less that a scheme to help businesses cut their cost, and increase profit, by having a pool of unpaid labour they can draw on. It is a scheme that the corporate world would love to see permanently enshrined in labour laws, as a way of introducing all those entering the "labour market" to the corporate way of life. A spell of unpaid labour with the unfounded hope of a paid job in return for you subservience. If you are one of the lucky ones you may get a lousy, low paid, crap job, for your humble loyalty.

      The scheme undermines the wages and conditions of those who are in paid employment, another bonus for the boss. There should be  a roaring outcry, with mass protests shutting down any business that even considers participating in such a scheme of free forced labour. We are being screwed by the millionaire cabal, and they know it, and will continue to do so, as long as we meekly accept what shit the throw at us.

 Some anti-workfare groups:

Boycott workfare

Anti-workfare

Edinburgh Coalition Against Poverty 

Facebook boycott workfare

Haringey Solidarity Group

       I'm sure you will be able to find a local group battling this forced labour scheme, if not why not start one?

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

Who Was Peter McKellar?

    I believe that we should never forget those comrades who stood against authority when it was at its harshest and most repressive. Reading through an old copy of The Word, on the Sparrow's Nest site, I came upon the case of Peter McKellar. The article starts with:-- 

     Our comrade Peter McKellar of 38 South Annadale Street, Glasgow, will have been court-martialled for the second time before these lines are printed.
     Then aged 22, a glazier by trade, he registered as a conscientious objector on December, 26, 1939. His case was heard on April 23, 1940, by the Glasgow Tribunal, consisting of Sir A. C. Black, K.C., Sir Robert Bruce, J.P.. L.L.D., and Mr. (now Sir) R. Bryce Walker, C.B.E., etc.
    McKellar told the Tribunal that his father was killed in the great war. He would not butcher nor yet be butchered. It was enough that this had happened to his father. The Tribunal sympathised with him. He replied that he wanted justice as an anti-militarist, not sympathy. --------

      Who was Peter McKellar, is there anybody out there who can throw some light on this comrade and man of principle. We should remember our own, record their life, they are part of our history, the history of the ordinary man and woman of our communities.  So if you have any wee bit of info, no matter how little a detail, please share it with ann arky, so that we can try to put his page in its rightful place in our history.

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

The World Is Our Village.

       In Greece, the fat cats are running with their carpet bags full of money and exiting the country. It is estimated that €16 billion has left the country since Christmas. That's a helluva hole in the finances of a small country up to its neck in debt. These are the individuals and institutions that want to milk Greece, but believe that it is no longer a safe bet. This will be part of the plan of the financial Mafia, bleed it in to submission, as it is every time a left leaning government gets power. All that matters to the moguls in charge of the financial Mafia is that their finances are protected, and the people can go to hell in a hand cart, as far as they are concerned. The only game in town is to play their game or get the shit kicked out of you. Hence, socialism in one country gets strangled at birth. Borders have to fall, and people have to think globally.

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

Workers Lockin!!

A call for solidarity from IUF:

Occupy Dandenong! 

Workers fight lockout with lockin

     National Union of Workers (NUW) members at the International Flavours and Fragrances (IFF) facility in Dandenong (Victoria) have responded to a management lockout by occupying the lunchroom.

      After months of fruitless bargaining for a new wage agreement which saw management demanding big concessions, union members voted to ban overtime and paperwork. Workers arriving for the early morning shift on January 27 were informed of the lockout and several dozen union members rushed inside as the gates were closing. They've installed themselves in the lunchroom while members and supporters demonstrate outside.

     You can support them - CLICK HERE TO SEND A MESSAGE TO IFF urging the company to lift the lockout and bargain in good faith!

 

     US-based International Flavours and Fragrances is one of the largest transnational makers of food ingredients and a supplier to many leading food and snack companies.

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

Christmas Bonus.

      Looks like somebody is trying to pay off their Christmas debt. Though it would seem to go without saying, that if you do 31 ATM machines across the country, you are a travelling group.

From Act For Freedom Now:

     A raid on two cash machines where thieves made off with £10,000 could be linked to a gang of travelling criminals.
     Police Scotland are seeking the help of forces across the UK to track down those involved in the smash and grab at a Morrisions supermarket in Banchory, Aberdeenshire in the early hours around 3am yesterday morning.
It’s thought a Land Rover was used to haul the machines from the wall in the heist which could also be linked to a similar raid on a bank in Kirriemuir in    Angus before Christmas when £100,000 was taken.
     One line of inquiry links them to fugitive…who is wanted for raids on 31 ATMs across the UK. from local snitch media

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

 

Canada's Dirty Past.

      Scotland has a lot to answer for, over the years we have exported men who have played a leading roll in the expansion of British imperialism. One such, is a Glasgow man, born in Brunswick Street, where the Mitre pub stands. John Alexander MacDonald, born 11th. January 1815, died 6th. June 1891, vicious racist, is considered as the father of Canada. Like all servants of imperialism, he is celebrated, with pomp and ceremony by the ruling elite, though there is a growing group in Canada who are openly contesting the adulation of such a despicable character.

This from Community Soapbox:

    Here in Kingston, Ontario, where “every day is Canada day”, John A. MacDonald is at the centre of all of the misplaced celebration of this great era. This makes sense, because MacDonald is a perfect example of the kind of person who founded Canada. He pushed for and enacted many of the most disgusting and brutal colonial policies of the era. In an act that he would later refer to as his “greatest political accomplishment,” he pushed to disenfranchise and ultimately push out the Chinese population on the West Coast, saying that their presence would tarnish the “Aryan land” that he envisioned for the new country. He invented and implemented residential schools. He used starvation policies followed by military intervention to crush Metis rebellions and cement Canada’s expansion West.-------

Read the full article HERE:

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

Here in Kingston, Ontario, where “every day is Canada day”, John A. MacDonald is at the centre of all of the misplaced celebration of this great era. This makes sense, because MacDonald is a perfect example of the kind of person who founded Canada. He pushed for and enacted many of the most disgusting and brutal colonial policies of the era. In an act that he would later refer to as his “greatest political accomplishment,” he pushed to disenfranchise and ultimately push out the Chinese population on the West Coast, saying that their presence would tarnish the “Aryan land” that he envisioned for the new country. He invented and implemented residential schools. He used starvation policies followed by military intervention to crush Metis rebellions and cement Canada’s expansion West. - See more at: http://www.kingstonist.com/2015/01/20/sir-john-a-macdonald-bicentennial-celebration-33249#sthash.0YgJZ6kJ.dpuf