From The Ashes Of Disaster---!!

Kobani after the city was liberated from ISIS.

     Is this what freedom looks like? If so it should not deter us, we should remember we surfaced every road, laid every railway line, built every house, and we done it for others, we can do it for ourselves.

As Buenaventura Durruti said:

     "We have always lived in slums and holes in the wall. We will know how to accommodate ourselves for a time. For, you must not forget, we can also build. It is we the workers who built these palaces and cities here in Spain and in America and everywhere. We, the workers, can build others to take their place. And better ones! We are not in the least afraid of ruins. We are going to inherit the earth; there is not the slightest doubt about that. The bourgeoisie might blast and ruin its own world before it leaves the stage of history. We carry a new world here, in our hearts. That world is growing this minute."

       Kobani, the city, may be in ruins, but the people of Kobani are anything but, they are vibrant, and optimistic, like Durruti said, "they carry a new world in their hearts".
This from Anarchist News:

      While the liberation of Kobani came as a long-awaited relief and was proudly celebrated by the citizens of Kobani, it was a bittersweet victory. More than 80 percent of the city has been destroyed entirely, reduced to little but a heap of rubble. Throughout the battle, YPG based its operations from the west where there was little fighting, except for ISIS’s mortar shells and the real danger of sniper fire.
      As a result, the urban center has shifted west — the only part of the city where life still exists. Guerrillas, taking a break from the front-line in the villages surrounding Kobani, stroll through the streets calmly with Kalashnikovs in hand, soaking up freedom. Men and women linger at street corners, chatting about the latest YPG victory in the villages.
     A school now functions, with eager children hoping to forget the pains of the conflict. In itself, the school amounts to little more than a concrete foundation of a house on the western outskirts of the city. However, when you descend into the basement — chosen for its obvious protection from ISIS shells — there is a bustling environment of alternative education.

Read the full article HERE:

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

Despicable Racism On Behalf Of Israel.

       Why is this tolerated by the so called civilised countries on this planet? This is Israel spouting anti-Semitism, while insulting and humiliating ordinary people whose land they occupy and are stealing. Inhuman treatment for no other reason than they are Palestinians. This is the daily life of those in the occupied territories. Unacceptable, despicable, racism, tolerated and and condoned by the West as they turn a blind eye to this de-humanising of a people.

Post by Issam Bayan.

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A Very Authoritarian Democracy.

      America struts around the world proclaiming itself to be "the land of the free", it bombs the world into democracy, and walks away leaving death, destruction, mayhem and misery in its wake. At home it has the highest number of its citizens locked up in prisons, than any other country on the planet, and it passes some of the most restrictive and authoritarian legislation in the Western world.

       I received this appeal this morning:

     In West Virginia, teaching about "social problems" could become a crime.
    A bill introduced in the West Virgina House of Delegates would charge teachers with a misdemeanor if they teach “social problems, economics, foreign affairs, the United Nations, world government, socialism or communism until basic courses in American state and local geography and history are completed.”
     Teachers would be charged a $10 fine for every week that they taught prohibited subjects, and repeated offenses would get them fired and blacklisted from teaching for one year.

Tell West Virginia lawmakers that teaching is not a crime!

PETITION TO WEST VIRGINIA DELEGATES: TEACHERS ARE NOT CRIMINALS. VOTE NO ON HB 2107!

Click here to sign -- it just takes a second.

Thanks,
-- The folks at Watchdog.net

P.S. If the other links aren't working for you, please go here to sign: http://act.watchdog.net/petitions/4999?n=92043092.riFgxS

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

At Strife,---Still!

    David Edelstadt, 1866 - 1892, Russian born anarchist, immigrated to America aged 15, he was deeply involved in developing the anarchist movement in New York. An activist and excellent poet, he died at the age of 26 from tuberculosis. The sentiments in his poetry still apply today, the same struggle that he immersed himself in, is still exploiting, killing and repressing people today. When will we ever learn.

      These are the last three verses from his poem

 AT STRIFE.

To liberate the poor and the enslaved
Who suffer now from cold and hunger's blight,
And to create for all humanity
A world that shall be free, that shall be bright;

A world where tears no longer shall be shed,
A world where guiltless blood no more shall flow,
And men and women, like clear-shining stars,
With courage and with love shall be aglow.

You may destroy us, tyrants! 'Twill be vain.
Time will bring on new fighters strong as we;
For we shall battle ever, on and on,
Nor cease to strive till all the world is free!
David Edelstadt

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Lambeth Town Hall Occupation.

      Housing Action Southwark & Lambeth, (HASL) are a group who believe in direct action. Pissed off by their treatment from the local council, doing the dirty work of the, Cameron/Osborne Oxbridge millionaire cabal, the decided to pay a visit to Lambeth Council Town Hall. What a colourful addition they made to its drab interior. More steam to their elbow.

From HASL:
       This afternoon, Monday 16th February, around 30 HASL members visited Lambeth council’s town hall demanding ‘social housing not social cleansing’. The local housing group, made up of homeless and precariously housed people, visited the town hall in the half-term holiday with their children to give the council a sense of what temporary housing feels like: cramped, noisy, and disruptive!
      We were joined in our occupation of the town hall’s lobby by Lambeth Pensioners’ Action Group taking our numbers to 50+!
Lambeth council refused to meet with our group to speak with us about our concerns and shamefully called the cops to try and evict us. About 10 police came and harrassed our members. We have still not received a response to our letter to Lib Peck about our concerns about recent changes to the social housing register and new powers to force homeless people into the private sector – both of which make everyone’s access to social housing even more difficult. We will continue our campaign on these issues and continue informing people of their rights if they are being pressured into the private sector. See our new leaflet here.
      The action is one of many happening across London as part of the Radical Housing Network’s week of action.

     Pictures from the action on Flickr can be found here.

Massive thanks to everyone who joined us today!

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

Who Rules, People Or Markets?

         What happens in Greece will impact on us, here in the UK, and the rest of Europe, if not the world. Today, the economic system is a world wide ponzi scheme, if one part crumbles, the rest shudders.

      Our struggle is from job centres, to housing schemes, from local issues, to international issues. The Troika, (EU, European Union, ECB, European Central Bank, IMF, International Mankind Fuckers) control Europe and the financial Mafia is tightening its grip on our world, we have to fight it on that international battlefield.

From Labour Start:

      Leading figures in the German trade union movement have issued an appeal for solidarity with Greece following the resounding election victory of the leftist Syriza party.
      It's an extraordinary statement and trade unionists around the world are being asked to add their names to those of the German trade union leaders.  Thousands have already done so.
       Please read the appeal and add your name here:

http://www.labourstart.org/go/greece

     Please share this message with your friends, family and fellow union members.

Thank you!
Eric Lee

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

Ex-Worker Podcast Episode #34.

From Anarchist News:

The Ex-Worker Podcast Episode #34: 

Staying Safe To Be Dangerous Together.

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

Solidarity Is Our Winning Weapon.

       A call for solidarity from Edinburgh Coalition Against Poverty, (ECAP). This case epitomises the callous, brutal and heartless attack on the poor and vulnerable in our society by a system with no compassion. Remember, the Cameron/Osborne financial Mafia henchmen, have promised £30 billion more cuts over the next few years. Believe me, yi ain't seen nothin' yet.

This from ECAP:

      Please contact ecap@lists.riseup.net if you would like to help at any Edinburgh or Lothians jobcentre.
      As we face unprecedented sanctions and benefits cuts, its more important than ever that we support each other and stand up to the DWP bullies.  The Scottish Unemployed Workers Network, Dundee Against Welfare Sanctions and other groups have established a strong presence at the Jobcentres in Dundee and in nearby towns and cities like Arbroath, Perth and Blairgowrie, supporting claimants in opposing sanctions and harassment.
WHAT HAPPENED AT ARBROATH JOB CENTRE
    On 29 January Tony was accompanying a vulnerable woman claimant, who suffers from severe dyslexia and literacy problems. The claimant, D, had been signed up to the Universal Job Match (UJM), the computerised job search system, and was being forced to complete five job searches per day, the pressure of which had led to her having several panic attacks.  Tony proposed that D's UJM account be closed, and that her number of job searches be significantly reduced.  The adviser refused to consider this, and so Tony and D met with the Jobcentre manager.
    The manager likewise refused to even look at the issue, falsely claiming that all jobseekers had to be registered with UJM.  She even suggested to D that she should arrange another meeting without Tony or any other witness or rep present. Despite the pressure D was being put under by the manager, she replied that she would not attend another meeting without Tony. At this point the manager demanded that Tony leave the building or the police would be called. Tony refused to leave, but the meeting ended when it was agreed that a further meeting be arranged to discuss the issue further.  Tony was arrested after he left the Jobcentre.

Read the full article HERE:

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

  

Shatter It To Bits And Then---!!

 

      You know it, I know it, and we would be idiots if we didn't realise that “they” know it. The “they” I'm referring, to is our Oxbridge millionaire lords and masters, the Cameron/Osborne Cabal. What is it we all know? It is the fact that we the public are being screwed, and getting poorer. According to recent figures, the average Scots worker's annual salary is £1,900 lower in real terms now, than when the financial Mafia's henchmen, the Oxbridge mob, took control in 2010. While our wages go down, fat cat chief executives of the large companies, earn as much as the average annual salary, every two days, and they know it. As chief executives stuff their loot into off shore accounts, Citizens Advice Scotland, reports that it has seen a significant rise in the number of working Scots who are struggling to put food on the table. I'll repeat, you must be an idiot if you think “they” don't know that, the point is “they” don't give a shit.

       Of course “they” know it, but what is their considerate, compassionate reply, well the Osborne part of the thieving Cavaliers, has promised another £30 billion of cuts, or as they call it, "fiscal consolidation", over the next few years. That translates into higher salaries and bonuses for the top bunch of parasites, and more cuts to the standard of living of you and me.

          We don't need to keep demonstrating, telling them about the damage cuts are having on people's lives, “they” know. We have to organise to bring the whole stinking system of greed, inequality and injustice, down on their heads. We can do better than this, we built this sordid edifice and everything else in it, we can sweep the ruins aside and start that better world, built of fairness, co-operation and mutual aid, creating a society that sees to the needs of all our people.

Ah Love! Could Thou and I

with Fate Cospire

To Grasp this Sorry Scheme

of Things entire,

Would we not shatter it

too bits, and then

Remould it nearer to

the Hearts Desire!

Extract from Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam.

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

We Are Drowning In Shit.

       When I started scribbling little pieces for this blog, a number of years ago, I had to search around for something, that might catch the eye. Some little bit of fiddling in high places, some corporate bullying, or whatever. Now however, the difficulty is working through the avalanche of shit that keeps pour over us. Everywhere you look, corruption at every turn, duplicitous statements, proxy wars, paedophilia in high places, corporate shredding of working conditions, slave labour workfare, millionaires slashing the standard of living of the poor, Millionaires of business and state, stashing their ill-gotten gains in secret bank accounts to avoid tax, politicians with business interests in health companies, voting on how to sell of parts of the NHS. And so it goes on, as arrogant parasite Lord Fink says, everybody does it. To the average citizen the stench emanating from this pile of shit we call capitalist society, is now overpowering. The wealthy are so wealthy, that their arrogance overpowers their caution, and they openly and blatantly stitch us up at ever turn, knowing they are immune, as the powers that be, our lords and masters, legislators in that temple of decadence, The Westminster House of Hypocrisy and Corruption, are in their club. 

        Anybody that thinks the HSBC affair is something out of the ordinary, is naive in the extreme. It just happens to be the biggest one yet to be made public. Banks fiddle, it's what the financial Mafia does, that's business, remember Leham Brothers, among others, then the libor fixing, that involved all the big boys, in a nudge-nudge, nodding and winking, as they ripped of millions at the touch of a button. As I said, banksters are fiddling gamblers, who help the richest parasites to steal by tax avoidance, and stash their plunder in secret little boxes, away from the prying eyes of you and me. What is more, they know they are safe from prosecution, as those who make the laws, are among the parasites they help with their filthy loot. Ah, the wonders of capitalism.

This from Roar Mag:

 

       This week it was revealed that HSBC — Europe’s biggest bank — has been actively running and propagating a massive tax evasion scheme through its Swiss subsidiary, allowing some of its wealthiest international clients to hide over $120bn in undeclared assets in 30.000 secret Swiss bank accounts. Leading British regulators, MPs and government officials were aware of the malpractices and the names of potential tax evaders (including movie stars, drug lords and heads of state), but never pressed criminal charges.

       Instead, the UK — like the rest of Europe — ushered in an age of austerity. Where the billions of the rich escaped to Switzerland and the Caymans, the benefits of the poor were cut “to balance the budget.” Last year, David Cameron pledged to slash “wasteful” public spending for another decade, as it “comes out of the pockets of the same taxpayers whose living standards we want to see improve.” The irony of the Prime Minister speaking from a golden throne was hardly lost on anyone. Welcome to the topsy-turvy reality of austerity politics.

Read the full story HERE:

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

May Day Of Yester Year.

 

May Day 1962.

        With May Day on the horizon, I was flicking through some old papers and cuttings, and came across this one. I can't pinpoint the date, but the speakers should give us the era.

 A sea of bunnits, May Day Glasgow 1913.

GLASGOW:

                    On Sunday, April 27, the Glasgow Anarchist Communist Group held a meeting at the bottom of Buchanan street; comrades Angus McKay and Porter spoke to a large audience. On May 4, we joined the Labour Day demonstration. It was one of the worst of days from the weather standpoint. The procession started amidst a heavy downpour of rain, with thunder and lightening. Ten thousand marched to Glasgow Green, drenched; there would have been thirty thousand had it been a fine day. Glasgow has taken its May Day seriously; it was a day out for the Reds. No less than 135 Labour and Socialist organisations were represented. It was inspiring, and showed the people are awakening. We had nearly a thousand round our platform; our comrades Angus McKay, Leckie, Porter, Howie, and others were speakers. There was a good sale of literature. This summer we intend to have a vigorous campaign in and around Glasgow.

A. B. Howie, Secretary.

Who were these comrades, and how do we tell and record their story, after all, it's our history?

Something a wee bit more modern.

  

Human Robots.

     After reading about Glasgow City Council's new experimental,  super, secret, Israeli created, surveillance system, with "emotional recognition" software, it should come as no surprise, when learning of this latest mad scientist idea.  

       According to the corporate world, when you work for a company, they own you. A new move down that slave ownership road is being pioneered by a Swedish company who have decided that it is much more efficient to put a chip in your workers body, in this case the hand. This would allow the worker to enter the building, and access it facilities, computers, scanners etc., no ID card no password, just you company inserted chip. The “benefits” are limitless, the chips can be traced and monitored, when you are at your desk and when your are not, how long you spent in the toilet, and so on. They are hoping to be able to let you pay for your meals at the works canteen by flashing your hand. This of course would mean much more of your personal information being implanted in the chip.

      Of course when you leave the building, the chip goes with you. Once inserted, the technology is there, you could be monitored as you go about your normal everyday affairs. and do you think the state will miss that opportunity. This takes Orwellian society to a much higher level, big brother in your home. Roll this out widespread and we become an army of controlled robots. However, our corporate bosses and our political lords and masters, see this as highly efficient, and having unimaginable “benefits”, for who?
      Just another example of how this corporate world, controlled by the financial Mafia, and administered by their puppets, the state apparatus, is devoid of any human empathy, and seeks only total control, to aid profit and power.

 This from The Independent:

       A new Swedish office block is implanting the workers inside of it with computer chips under their skin, rather than issuing them with ID cards.

      The small radio-frequency identification (RFID) chips are pushed under the skin in the hand, and can then be used to open doors or use the photocopier.
       The chips have been offered to the 400 people that have signed up to the Epicenter hi-tech office block in Sweden. That now includes the BBC’s technology reporter Rory Cellan-Jones, who said that when a tattooist put it in there “was a moment of pain - not much worse than any injection - and then he stuck a plaster over my hand”.
     Those behind the chips hope that they will eventually become common enough to be used to pay for sandwiches in the canteen, or even replace passwords and PINs to get into computers. They can also be programmed to hold contact information and communicate with smartphone apps.---------

and:

     -------Hannes Sjoblad, who is chief disruption officer at the office development, told the BBC: “We want to be able to understand this technology before big corporates and big government come to us and say everyone should get chipped — the tax authority chip, the Google or Facebook chip."

      Sjoblad has his electronic business card built into the chip, which others can then access using their smartphones.

    The whole office will be internet-enabled — its building management will be run through Microsoft’s “internet of things” technology. That will tell facilities management when a plant needs watering or a meeting room needs emptying, all through connected appliances and sensors.

     Epicenter is a “members-only workplace collective and innovation hub”, which promises to pioneer new ways of working. It has been built by Swedish property company AMF Fastigheter, and has members including Microsoft.

Read the full article HERE:

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

 

Plundering The Till!!!

     A brief description of our political system, greed, corruption, cronyism, secret deals to line pockets of friends and associates, operated by a bunch of rich two-faced duplicitous callous Oxbridge parasites. I think that is a reasonable and fairly accurate summary of this festering cancer we call capitalist "representative democracy". 

       We could all get on with our daily lives if this bunch of suited mobsters were wheeling and dealing and divvying up their own loot, but unfortunately it is our tax money, they are shuffling into their mates pockets. It's our NHS that is being sliced into money making packages for the greed merchants in the corporate club. It's our social services that are being slashed, to allow their business buddies to step in and provide them, at a profit of course. 

     Is there anyone out there who still believes this cabal of thieving Oxbridge parasites, have anything but the interests of their own class in mind, as they wheel and deal in those corrupt corridors of power, in that decadent encampment on the banks of the Thames, The Westminster Houses of Hypocrisy and Corruption?

     The following is from The Sum Of Us:

     A Tory MP's mates are about to get an £80 million payout from the NHS. At stake is a 10-year contract to provide high-tech medical imaging to cancer patients in five counties. The "winning" bid comes from a private company called Alliance Medical -- whose board of directors includes Sir Malcom Rifkind, Conservative MP for Kensington.

     It's suspicious enough to see a government contract going to a company led by a sitting politician. But it gets worse. There's a rejected bid from a consortium of NHS hospitals -- and that bid would cost the government £7 million less than Sir Rifkind's! For his services to Alliance Medical, Sir Rifkind receives about £60k per annum, so it seems that the company makes quite a profit off his friendship.

     Let's ask the NHS head office: does having a Tory on board make for better medicine? Make your contracting policies transparent so that we can tell!

What's happening is clear. This is another attempt to steal our NHS and hand it off piece by piece to private corporations that will charge us more and serve us less. The government happily announced that this contract was going to a private company -- but hid the fact that Alliance was underbid by a state-run group!

     Healthcare advocates say it's almost impossible to get a glimpse into this kind of procurement deal. That has to change. Privatising the NHS affects us all, yet we're being shut out from the decision and denied public oversight of contracts that take public funds. Whether it's a favour for Sir Rifkind's cronies or simply a willful waste of money, the result is to blind our eyes and yank the NHS from our hands.

     Tell NHS England to put its procurement process where we can see it, and stop sneaking in handouts for corporations and politicians!

Thanks for all that you do,
Angus, Deanna, and the team at SumOfUs 

More information:

NHS Contract Awarded To Private Firm Despite Rival Bid Being “£7 Million Cheaper” Buzzfeed, 27 January 2015

'Selling off NHS for profit': Full list of MPs with links to private healthcare firms, The Mirror, 27 November 2014

Privatisation of the NHS means that
a job the state could do for £73 million is going
to a corporation that wants £80 million.
We don't know how many other handouts
are going to corporations and politicians' mates
-- but we want to find out.
Sign the petition to make NHS contracting processes transparent
and show us where the money's gone!

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

Awards For Scum-bags.

      What type of society honours those who evict people from their homes, hands out awards to people who pressurise individuals shackled by debt, and to poor to pay? What type of scum-bag would want to turn up to be honoured in such a way, at the same time paying £4,000 for a seat at a table surrounded by this form of low life?
     In this system of festering economic corruption, we have the perverse Oxbridge millionaire henchmen of the financial Mafia, extolling family values and fairness, while pushing through legislation that drives ordinary people deep into the mire of poverty and deprivation, creating homelessness. low wages and unemployment, and then turning their enforcers into heroes, hence the “Credit Awards” for putrid scum-bags.

    Those lauded in this type of society are the greed infested banksters, corporate bosses, who abuse people with zero hours contracts, and slave labour workfare, the blood drenched military, with their tales of conquest, which translates into the killing of ordinary innocent people in foreign lands. Those exploited, abused and vilified, are the ordinary people, the ones who create everything around us, from the spoon at the £4,000 dinner table, the railway, carrying goods and people, to the boiler that heats the house, and the shoes on our feet. Without us the ordinary people, these parasite squids would be naked, why do we tolerate this situation?

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

Follow My Leader.

      Do you need a leader to get on with your daily life and sort things out? You'll probably answer a definite NO, why then do the people need a leader? Single we can do fine, but collectively we must have somebody to tell us what to do!! The people know when they hurt, and the people will have to sort out what to do about it, and I'm sure they can, and will do admirably. Your voice is the one that counts.

This from Act For Freedom Now:

      One day it suits them for the workers to keep quiet and think only of voting them into parliament and local councils and they preach against violence, against the insurrectionist illusion in favour of slow, gradual, safe, evolution, for the legal conquest of public authorities.
     Then come the beatings, the arsons, the fascist murders to show even the blind that you get nowhere with legality, because even if it has been beneficial to the oppressed in some cases, the oppressors have no qualms about violating it and substituting it with the most atrocious violence. But our good socialists are rushing to prevent workers from responding to provocation, extolling ” heroic patience.”

Read the full article HERE:

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