We Are Being Conned.

      As all of the competitors in the present Crooks and Liars competition, (the general election), continue to spout the need for “cuts”, which translates into cuts in our standard of living, the claim is the same, these are tough times, and we have to make sacrifices. Tough times for who, and who is doing all the sacrificing?

     Since “the crisis” of 2008, the UK's wealth has rocketed, before that “dreadful” event, to get into the UK's richest 1,000, all you needed was a paltry £15 million. Today, according to the Guardian commenting on the Sunday Times UK Rich List, to get into that club you need a personal wealth of at least £100 million. According to that list, the top 1,000 have accumulated a combined wealth of £547 billion, this is more than double what it was just ten years ago. Poor ordinary struggle millionaires just can't make it any more. The number of billionaires in the UK has risen from 104 last year to 117 this year. Since 2010, bankers salaries have risen by 35%, FTSE 100 directors have had to get by on an increase of 14%, while MPs are struggling with a modest 11% increase.

       Compare these figures with those that refer to us, the ordinary people, the people that actually create all that wealth. We have seen wages cut, frozen, or had trifling increases of 1%, like teachers and nurses. On top of this we have had rising inflation, rocketing energy prices, cuts in social spending with the inevitable destruction of social services and our standard of living. Since that excuse for austerity, “The Crisis”, we have seen our incomes fall by more than 3.5% in real terms. And proof of the pudding, we have seen food banks pass the 1 million mark.

      Now ask yourself, who is seeing the “tough times”? Who is doing the sacrificing? A bigger question is, do we NEED austerity, or is it just a dogma being forced on us, so the the rich can continue to get richer, while the poor get poorer? After all we live in a very rich country, and the figures prove that it is getting richer at an incredible rate. The problem is that it is all going in the one direction, the wrong direction, upwards. 

      Let's take control of all that wealth that we create, and spread it among our own people. We don't need, nor do we gain by increasing the number of billionaires. We don't need FTSE 100 directors, top bankers, and we certainly don't need nor do we gain, by having MPs. MPs are people that the Crooks and Liars competition proves to be the best liars in the country. They need us, we don't need them. It is a massive con perpetrated by a small bunch of exceptionally rich and greedy people, it is not an inevitable, set in tablets of stone, system. Like all man made systems, we can destroy it, we can create a fairer and more just system, one based on co-operation, sustainability and fairness, why are we waiting?

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

Medical Murder Of Mumia Abu Jamal.

Stop the attempted murder of Mumia
through medical neglect! 

Demand that Mumia be released
to a hospital immediately!
Keep the pressure on!
 APRIL 25, 2015 UPDATE:   U R G E NT ►
Mumia's Condition Grave 
Take Action NOW!

On Friday, April 24, Mumia Abu-Jamal was visited by his spouse, Wadiya Jamal, who reported that his condition has worsened.
She saw him again today and he appears even more gravely ill. Everyone is asked to call the prison and the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections immediately.
If they hang up, call again. Please continue to call on Sunday, Monday and throughout the coming week.

Mumia was released from the prison infirmary three days ago even though he was in no condition to be in general population. His request to be seen by independent medical specialists was denied by the PA Department of Corrections. Yet he is in need of 24-hour care and supervision. He is too weak and in this state he may not be able ask for help. He may lose consciousness.  

This is what happened before he was rushed to the hospital on March 30 when another prisoner, Major George Tillery, complained to the guards that Mumia needed immediate medical attention. In retaliation the prison moved Tillery to another unit.

Mumia has severe swelling in his neck, chest and legs. His skin rash is worse than ever with open sores. No longer in a wheelchair, he can only take baby steps. He was nodding off during the visits with his wife and unable to feed himself. These are symptoms that could be associated with hyper glucose levels, diabetic shock, diabetic coma, and with kidney stress and failure.

Please call the numbers below, and any other numbers you have for the Prison and the Governor. Along with Mumia's name his prison number is AM 8335 Call local news sources in your area that would report on this crisis. Share this email with your contact lists. Get out the information via any social media you use especially Facebook and Twitter using the hashtag #MumiaMustLive.

Demand that prison officials call Mumia’s wife and his lawyer Bret Grote to discuss his condition. Demand that Mumia Abu-Jamal see a competent doctor immediately, that he be taken to the hospital for emergency care and not be left to go into a diabetic coma.

It is clear that Pennsylvania prison officials are intent on carrying out their plans to murder Mumia through medical neglect. This situation is urgent.  Every call matters  Every action matters. We need to be in the streets. Call your friends, your neighbors. We must speak out now before it’s too late.

1) John Wetzel Secretary of the Deparment of Corrections ra-crpadocsecretary@pa.gov
717-728-4109 • 717-728-4178 Fax
1920 Technology Pkwy, Mechanicsburg PA 17050

2) John Kerestes, Superintendent SCI Mahanoy: 570-773-2158 x8102
570-783-2008 Fax
301 Morea  Road, Frackville PA 17932

3) Tom Wolf, PA Governor: 717-787-2500 • governor@PA.gov
508 Main Capitol Building, Harrisburg PA 17120

Susan McNaughton, Public Information Office PA DOC
DOC Press secretary: 717-728-4025  PA DOC smcnaughton@pa.gov

sbensinger@pa.gov
Department of Corrections Deputy Press Secretary
717-728-4109 • 717-728-4178 Fax
1920 Technology Pkwy, Mechanicsburg PA 17050

Public Information Officer, SCI Mahanoy,
Jane Hinman  570-773-2158; then dial zero
SCI Mahanoy: 570-773-2158 x8102 • 570-783-2008 Fax
301 Morea  Road, Frackville PA 17932

Central Office by phone:  (717) 728-2573

Michael Klopotoski, Deputy Secretary Eastern Region
(717) 728-4122 or 4123

Theron Perez, Chief Counsel, PA Department of Corrections (717) 728-7763

Shirley Moore Smeal, Executive Deputy Secretary (717) 728-4110

PA Department of Corrections General, News, etc: ra-contactdoc@pa.gov

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

National Security And Child Abuse.

 

       Though most of us find the Crooks and Liars competition, (the general election) similar to an avalanche of bullshit, our babbling brook of bullshit, the mainstream media, are covering us in shovelfuls of the crap. This of course knocks a lot of other stuff off the front page, and keeps the smoke and mirrors functioning well.

       On of the subjects that our lords and master are very keen to keep of the front page is the long running saga of paedophiles in high places. The whole sorry mess of Savile and his closest friends and acquaintances, all shuffling their vile way of life through the corridors of power, is something that they will do anything to keep in the locked cupboard. When anything surfaces connecting our "good and great" to this deep dark secret, it is dismissed as groundless or worse. Then when they die, we find, oh well, there might have been something in his life, that was slightly "askew", Leon Brittan comes to mind, then we find that Lord Jenner, might have "blotted his copy book", but alas, he is too sick to testify, how very convenient. Most sane and rational people will accept that there has been far, far too many instances of leaks and cover-ups in this vile secret of our "betters" for there to have been "no case to answer". Let's raise the roof on this matter, after all it was working class kids that were being brutally abused by those so called "upper class" and wealthy.

This from A World To Win:

      -------The broadcaster then drove the question home, and asked if there had been a “big political cover-up”. Tebbit was vaguely forthcoming: “I think there may well have been. But it was almost unconscious. It was the thing that people did at that time.”

      Concurrent with this informal admission is a video clip that is equally casual in its admittance of cover-ups and impunity for high-up paedophiles. A short extract from the Michael Cockerell documentary Westminster's Secret Service broadcast by the BBC in 1995 is available on YouTube. The clip shows an interview with Tim Fortescue, a Whip under Edward Heath between 1970 and 1973. In it, he revealed that MPs came to him if they were:

 “in trouble … it might be debt or it might be small boys. They would come and ask if we could help. If we could, we did, and we would do everything we can because we would store up brownie points … If we can get a chap out of trouble, he will do as we ask for ever more.”

       Fortescue is referring to the practice known as the little black “dirt book” which contained information about MPs, and which was used as a method of political control. One could almost call the MPs who “got into trouble with small boys” state-sponsored paedophiles.-----

Read the full article HERE:

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

Grand Plans.

What legacy will we leave our grandchildren?

GRAND PLANS.

In this world where we serve oblivion
with a blind pride and sure conviction
creating plans to land a man on Mars
grandiose schemes to conquer the stars
eyes on horizons ever further afield
believing, to us the universe will yield.
Yet here on Earth we fail to see
a chaotic world of human debris,
our magnificent results thus far
a planet dying from a human scar,
oblivious that our plans sublime
are mere litter scattered in space and time.

 

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

 

ACE In Edinburgh.

     Some interesting dates if you are in or around Edinburgh in the next few days. It is always a worth while visit to drop by and say hello to folks at the ACE centre there.

SUNDAY 26 APRIL

ITALIAN ANTIFA SOLIDARITY

7pm - 10pm at ACE

https://www.facebook.com/events/1562740623950878/

    On the 25th of April 1945 Italy was liberated from nazifascism with the crucial support of working class, communists and anarchist partisans. 70 years later we want to celebrate Italian liberation day with a solidarity event with Italian Anfitascists and Autonomous attacked by the repression of the state and neofascists groups supported by the establishment. We believe that anti fascism today means fighting for housing and welfare for all against austerity and neoliberal reforms, against borders and discriminations. The event also is aimed at providing solidarity with specific struggles like the one of Dordoni Autonomous Centre (Cremona), under attack from fascists and the state.

More info below

MON 27 APRIL

ECAP Monthly organising meeting

7pm at ACE

www.edinburghagainstpoverty.org.uk

TUES 28 APRIL

EDINBURGH CHIAPAS SOLIDARITY GROUP

7pm at ACE

Monthly organising meeting

www.edinchiapas.org.uk   edinchiapas@yahoo.co.uk

WED 29 APRIL

No to Sanctions and Workfare

Demonstrate at High Riggs Jobcentre, by Tollcross, Edinburgh

11am - 1pm

 Organised by Edinburgh Coalition Against Poverty as part of the Week of Action co-ordinated through Boycott Workfare http://www.boycottworkfare.org/?p=4239 Supported by Edinburgh Anarchist Federation, Greater Leith Against The Cuts, the Industrial Workers of the World, Edinburgh Anti-Cuts Alliance, Edinburgh Solidarity Federation

No workfare. No sanctions. Whoever wins we will resist!

Facebook event https://www.facebook.com/events/453449884807359/

ECAP www.edinburghagainstpoverty.org.uk  ecap@lists.riseup.net

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

The Lonely Wynd.

       As the national poetry month draws to a close, time for more personal thoughts.

The Lonely Wynd.

At the bed, death's waiting room,

the family muster,

with empty words wrapped in thoughts of death,

gaily chatter.

Outside, hungry birds feed, sing and fly,

their chirpy songs seems to call her death a lie,

but summer's sun

reaching through the window pane

sadly smiles,

knowing they'll never meet again.

I wonder,

in coma wrapped, what were your thoughts.

Pleasure,

looking back at what used to be?

Pride,

at how, to this life happiness you brought?

Perhaps it was a welcome rest from pain

a just pause in your long struggle,

alas too late, this emigma with me remains.

So rest, in your rest, peace be your gain,

for you dear mother, an end to trouble,

as love's boundless force could not break

death's firm grasp upon your heart,

passionless devouring cancer,

unmoved by prayer on our part,

took your hand along that lonely wynd,

death took time

fused the moment on our mind.

In the midst of family

alone dear mother you had to die.

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

Action Against Workfare And Sanctions.

       As the Crooks and Liars competition, (the general election) snarls and grunts its way towards the finishing line, we have been bombarded with economical magic formulae, which are supposed to transform our lives. There has been a myriad of variations on how to reduce the "deficit" allowing us to enter the promised land. Our lives are to be governed by what is good for business, the assumption being that if the CEOs of the corporate world are happy, then they will make our lives better. All bullshit of course.  

       As far as I am aware, not one entrant to the Crooks and Liars competition, has mentioned anything about stopping workfare, and getting rid of sanctions. These two planks of the capitalist "economic recovery" are without doubt responsible for untold misery in our communities. They are responsible for pushing people to food banks, skipping meals, not heating their homes, running up debt, and a host of other diseases of the capitalist system.

      This week sees the start of a week of action against workfare, (slave labour) and sanctions, (vindictive punishment of the vulnerable). Sadly most of what is advertised seems to be in London, hopefully as the week progresses we will see increasing protest events spreading right across the country.. Remember, workfare is an attack on wages and working conditions, and that affects us all.

Information from Boycott Workfare:

No workfare. No sanctions. Whoever wins we will resist!
      As the general election campaign gets underway we are already seeing politicians calling for more of the same policies. More workfare. More sanctions. Yet we know that these policies have been a total disaster. It is shameful that workfare and sanctions are supported by all the main political parties. This is why we are holding a week of action in the week before the election. We need your help to expose and challenge workfare and sanctions policies and the political lies that underpin them.----------

Read the full article and list of events HERE:

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

Reminder, Glasgow, Gallipoli Event.

Just a reminder on the Gallipoli event:  centenary event in Glasgow.

     April 25,Saturday, 1pm in the cinema room at the Centre for Contemporary Art at 350, Sauchiehall Street. This day marks the centenary of the World War I battle of Gallipoli, a disaster that cost the lives of hundreds of thousands. We will be showing part of a movie made by Peter Weir, and featuring a young Mel Gibson. The movie will be introduced by three short talks, one setting the context of the battle and the connection to Scotland, another on the enormous impact Gallipoli had on New Zealand and Australia and finally a talk putting this centenary event in the context of the counter program to the government's glorification of the war and of militarism. The movie will be followed by a discussion. FREE. All welcome. Sponsored by the Scottish Peace Network and the Industrial Workers of the World.

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

 

What If The Angels Don't Come?

Food for thought-----

 What If The Angels Don't Come.

Large appealing eyes framed in a heart shaped head

precariously perched on fleshless body,

sitting in parched desert amidst the dead

viewed with the sound of newsreel melody:

send some food, pray the dought will end

but,    what if the angels don't come?

Demented parent in poverty's claw

torn by desperation and despair,

every nerve exposed and raw

trapped in depressio's iron snare;

we pray her fortunes turn around

but,    what if the angels don't come?

Well trained soldiers stand on hot sand

heads bowed, automatic weapons firm in hand;

now aware of horrors of the battle field

reverent prays the receive God's shield

but,    what if the angels don't come?

Another war over,

to anguish torn families bodies come home,

father, mother, sister, brother,

painfully weeping from the marrow of their bone,

we offer prayers for families of the dead

but,    what if the angels don't come?

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

Churchill's Bloody Disaster, Gallipoli.

 

        Tomorrow April 25th. our imperialist state will bring out all its regalia, pomp and ceremony, in an attempt to turn one of its most brutal blunders into a show of glory, and claim another victory for democracy. The event that  they will "celebrate"  will be the centenary of the battle of Gallipoli, a stupid, needless, blood bath of young men, dreamed up by the racist, fascist, Winston Churchill. At the time it was such a blundering disaster that Churchill lost his position in the government. The pomp and parades will be an attempt to airbrush the disaster aspect of the blunder out of our consciousness, and have it photo-shopped as all glory and honour.

      Our imperialist state will always glorify war, it needs war to protect its power and privileges, and ever opportunity will be taken to show war with pride and glory. There is no glory in war, it is a tactic whereby states protect and enhance their power, at the expense of the ordinary people. 

From No Glory In War:

Anzac Day 25 April 2015: Gallipoli 100 years on
25 April 2015 marks the hundredth anniversary of the start of the British-led military invasion of Gallipoli on Turkey’s Dardanelle Peninsula, which resulted in over 200,000 dead and wounded in an eight-month period.

Gallipoli was a military disaster. Yet, a century on, politicians seeking to glorify the First World War, are calling the huge loss of life at Gallipoli "a price worth paying."

As the Australian government spends $300 million commemorating the WWI centenary, and using it to promote militarism and nationalist myths, veterans' groups have condemned the "nationalist circus" that Anzac Day has become.

The UK government, which is spending £60 million on its own nationalist circus commemorating WW1, has a number of Anzac Day events, including in London and Turkey. There will of course be little mention of Winston Churchill's role as prime mover of the Gallipoli catastrophe, which lead to his dismissal from the British government a hundred years ago.

Rather than celebrating the rewriting of history to promote new wars being waged on this 100th anniversary, it is important to remember what really happened at Gallipoli.

The No Glory website aims to capture the reality of what took place, with a dedicated page, Anzac Day 2015 - the Gallipoli disaster 100 years on, that has links to articles, videos, songs etc.

Among the features are two conflicting views of The Water Diviner, Russell Crowe's film about Gallipoli, which was Australia's highest grossing film in 2014. One reviewer says the film is anti-war, the other says the opposite.

And from that "revered" Western capitalist mouthpiece, The Wall Street Journal:

      The British government gave much consideration to the eventual division of the Ottoman lands once the straits were captured but very little to how the operation might ­actually be executed. The ­amateurish preparation and the resulting fiasco are ­recounted with sharp, taut precision in “Gallipoli: The End of the Myth,” Robin Prior’s near-definitive analysis of the campaign.
      The assumption that Britain would simply sweep to victory over second-rate Turkey was just the first of many errors of judgment. At each stumble, when a logical examination of the campaign would have had only one possible conclusion—withdrawal—Britain’s leaders doubled down, eventually committing a half-million troops to the Gallipoli ­Peninsula in a sequence of bloody landings and operations.

Read the full article HERE:

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

Urgent Call-out, For Net Neutrality.

      Despite the recent victory to keep net-neutrality on the Internet, the big corporations, as usual, don't accept defeat easily, and are trying to get their way, and control the Internet, by other means.

This from FFTF:

     If we don’t stop the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) it will do more damage to the Internet than any other deal in history.

That’s why today we’re working with hundreds of websites to flood Congress with calls demanding they oppose putting this secret deal on a Fast Track to approval.

Take action to stop the TPP right now

For Team Internet,

Fight for the Future

P.S. Looking for more information about the Trans-Pacific Partnership? Check out this overview.

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* 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

Jobs, Economic Growth, Regeneration, And All That Crap.

 

         It was like a breath of fresh air, to see that young woman, jump onto Mario Draghi's desk and scatter his holy scriptures like snow in the wind. The pompous, untouchable, privileged, parasite, ECB president, almost made contact with the real world. His little bubble that protects him from real people almost burst. For a fleeting moment, his power and privilege vanished. There for all to see was the man, the vulnerable flawed being, who has grown to believe the power he has is his own, and not the power of the edifice that is built around him, and is there only by our submissiveness. When will we withdraw that submissive permission?
This from The Acorn:

        When a young anti-capitalist leapt on to the desk in front of European Central Bank president Mario Draghi when he was giving a press conference in Frankfurt on April 15, the look on Draghi’s face was priceless. Where was his security? Where was his certainty? Where was his unchallenged power to pontificate without any interruption from those who should know their submissive place in the social structure and stick to it?
       The impact of this one-woman protest (following on from the thousands-strong protests in Frankfurt a few weeks ago and hopefully continuing with the May 1 protests against the World Fair in Milan) is something that needs to be matched on a theoretical level. We heretics of the capitalist age need to blow a hole in the smug certainties of the neoliberal cult of which Draghi is part.
        Jobs, economic growth, regeneration. These are its holy words, the sanctimonious doublespeak that is uttered every time it carries out some new abomination.
        Like all such dogma, these terms “cannot” be challenged. They are supposed to be self-evidently desirable. From within the capitalists’ world, it is so obvious that “everyone” is in favour of jobs, growth and regeneration that they don’t even feel they have to argue the case.
But the truth is that it is precisely only from within their world that they make any sense. It is only by accepting all the assumptions that lie behind these loaded terms that they appear to be positive concepts.

Read the full article HERE:

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

Let's Roar.

There is no need to stand alone----

Let's Roar.

The problem's too big

the perpetrators unknown

you can't beat the system

all on your own.

So it's easy to withdraw

find your own little cage

turn a blind eye to the suffering

stifle your rage,

but the greed goes on

the poverty's still there,

you can't just leave it

for your children to bear.

Others feel as you do

eager to put things right

but locked in isolation

it's a hopeless fight,

so don't sit in silence

behind a closed door,

your voice can help raise

a whisper to a roar.

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

Election, A Propaganda Vehicle!!

      This Crooks and Liars competition, (the general election) has seen Class War put up candidates, and there has been much criticism from certain anarchist quarters. I personally see nothing wrong in useing every means available to raise the awareness that we are in fact in a class war situation. There is no doubt from Class War's stance, that even if elected, a very big if, they would not be taking part in the charade that takes place in the Westminster Houses of Hypocrisy and Corruption. They make it quite clear that this in no more than a propaganda event to help to bring the words, class war and anarchism to the fore of people's minds. I see it as a wonderful propaganda stunt and poking ridicule at the ridiculous. The same principles still apply, our dreams will never fit in their ballot boxes.

        Ian Bone can probably explain it better himself:

       Heckling at elections is more difficult now. Politicians are kept away from human contact by an army of minders determined to prevent any embarrassment and stick to the soundbite agenda with a slogan that will be pumped throughout the day. Paradoxically though – the harder it is to intrude into the election circus the more seismic is the effect when it does happen. Think Gordon Brown’s ‘that awful woman’ or the rictus look of terror on the politician’s face when confronted by a lone individual in front of the cameras. These lone individuals are modern propagandists by the deed – much feared and liable to blow the election apart with a few dogged words.

       A few of us in Class War have been heckling politicians on St. Stephens Green on important parliamentary days when the media set up camp. There, in front of you, are your enemies. You can be political or puerile: “I thought you were dead” has been said to David Steele, and the very wonderful “You made Peter Andre cry” to Kay Burley when interviewing Alastair Darling. We lamented in the pub afterwards that such occasions weren’t more frequent.

      But they are at election time, and to give it a national focus rather than a series of chance heckles we decided to stand candidates. By any means necessary means by any means necessary – not by any means necessary apart from voting.----------

Read the full article HERE:

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

Deported To Death.

   More on the latest death at Yarl's Wood, from Act For Freedom Now:

       Here in England, yesterday (Monday) a man died in Yarl’s Wood detention centre. According to a corporate media report: One female detainee, who asked not to be named, said the man who died was 33 and his wife was also in her mid-thirties. Both were on a visit to the UK from their home in India when they were arrested and detained in the family unit at Yarl’s Wood. The detainee said she thought the couple had children back home in India. “The man’s wife is in a state of shock. She was taken to the legal corridor but she is not speaking,” said the detainee. “The couple had just had breakfast and the man had been drinking an energy drink. Suddenly he collapsed and died.” She added that the couple had been in Yarl’s Wood for two months. “I think they came here with visitors’ visas. They said they wanted to see London but they were detained at the airport and brought to Yarl’s Wood. As far as I know he was healthy and not on any medication. He was very nice and so is she, they would make us all laugh. They were a lovely couple but now she is quite alone.”

   And what happens to some of them that are deported from detention centres?

  
    On Sunday, the islamic fascist scum of ISIS released a video claiming to show the killing of 28 Ethiopian christians by their soldiers in Libya. Today, three of the people killed were identified by their friends and loved ones as Eritrean refugees who had been deported from migrant detention camps in Israel. Media Report HERE.

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